Victoria Lundy has a talent that would probably make Paris Hilton blush. When a gun went off inside the Ohio woman's holding cell, jail officials were puzzled. An officer had given her a pat-down before transferring her into detention and had found no weapon. So where did the mystery gun come from? According to Chillicothe Police Captain Thomas Hewitt, Lundy hid the weapon, a 5-inch .25-caliber semiautomatic, in her vagina.
Makes you wonder what the hell else she had in there, dunnit?
Officers responding to calls of shots being fired on Jan. 30 stopped Lundy, 41, as she attempted to leave the scene in her car. She was arrested for driving without a license and processed at the Ross County Jail. At the time of her arrest, Lundy denied any involvement in the shooting.
"Wudn't me."
Hewitt said Lundy extracted the gun when she went to use the bathroom in her cell. She attempted to conceal the weapon by lodging it in a space in the wall designed to hold toilet paper. When she returned to her seat, the gun fell out of its hiding place and discharged.
"Hoo, boy! I feel better after getting rid of [KERBLAMMO!] that..."
Puzzled officers questioned Lundy's cellmate, who said she had observed the woman squirming in the partially partitioned toilet area.
"She said she had gas! Really bad gas!"
Lundy later confessed to hiding the weapon before police intercepted her.
"Yeah. Dat's right. I hid it away in my happy place."
She also admitted to firing the shots that prompted the initial police inquiry, Hewitt said.
"Yeah. It wuz me. Can I have my diaphragm back now?"
Lundy is charged with four felonies, which include conveyance of a firearm into a detention facility and carrying a concealed weapon, and a misdemeanor charge for driving without a license. She is still in the Ross County Jail. I am speechless. This happened two months ago, and I only heard about it now?
Look on the bright side: her cellmate heard about it right away.
American superstar Gene Pitney has been found dead aged 65 in his bed in a Cardiff hotel. Pitney - who found fame with "Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa" - was pronounced dead at the Hilton hotel at 1000 BST. He was on a UK tour and had shown no signs of illness. The cause of death is not yet known but is not suspicious. His biggest success was in the 1960s and he enjoyed a 1989 revival with his chart-topping duet, "Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart", with Marc Almond.
Mark Howes of his management company In Touch Music said the singer was found in his bed. Mr Howes told BBC Wales that everyone had been shocked by the death and there had been no signs that he was ill. "He did a good show last night at St David's Hall and it was wonderful," he said. "I've seen him quite a few times on this tour and he was fit and well. He said it was the best tour he had done for quite a few years." Pitney has continually toured over the last 40 years.
Every time one of the guys I grew up listening to passes away, I feel a little older
Posted by: Steve ||
04/05/2006 09:16 ||
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OMG i dont drink but thats surly alot of moneys worth of free drink up there - hold on is this a joke - this is too sureal to be true, what next dope plants on Mars?
#8
wow yeah what'd happen if you did light it - it wouldnt burn would it cos of no air but im no scientist as you've gathered. Make a nuke look like a lit match though im guessing.
#11
When I die, I want my body loaded into a rocket and shot into the center of that cloud. And maybe if I'm lucky I'll get rejuvenated like Spock on planet Genesis and come back to life.
#16
"Tired of looking at your spouse that long time ago converted to an amorphous blob? Try our White Cane, bottled from our repository in the farthest reaches of the universe!"
#17
And if there are such clouds of gas, can there also be clouds of water vapor ? Also, if Earth ever ventures into such a cloud, would our skies become heavy with alcohol rain ? Shortage of water, shortage of oxygen, and doom.
A teacher who kept a 40 mm shell on his desk as a paperweight blew off part of his hand when he apparently used the object to try to squash a bug, authorities say. The 5-inch-long shell exploded Monday while Robert Colla was teaching 20 to 25 students at an adult education class. Now, class, there's a right way and a wrong way to do anything. For example, to squash this bug...
BOOM!
... wrong way.
Part of Colla's right hand was severed and he suffered severe burns and minor shrapnel wounds to his forearms and torso, fire Capt. Tom Weinell said. No one else was injured. He was reported in stable condition at a hospital.
The teacher slammed the shell down in an attempt to kill something that was buzzing or crawling across the desk, said Fire Marshal Glen Albright. Colla found the 40 mm round while hunting years ago and "obviously he didn't think the round was live," said Dennis Huston, who teaches computer design alongside Colla.
"Who's your teacher this year, Little Timmy?"
"Stumpy."
#13
I've got to wonder WHAT THE HECK is a teacher doing with a shell in his classroom ON HIS DESK. Show off? Can't think of any reason that is acceptable. This would be worse if the teacher was teaching kids, but it's just as ridiculous in an adult education class. Guess everyone in that class learned not to play around with firearms, so not a total loss.
Freetown, Sierra Leone: Former Liberian leader Charles Taylor is hunting for lawyers to defend him after pleading not guilty to war crimes at a UN-backed court in Sierra Leone, his advisors say.
Africa's most feared warlord pleaded innocent on Monday to 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role backing rebels who raped and mutilated civilians and recruited child soldiers during Sierra Leone's 1991-2002 civil war.
From his heavily-guarded cell in the Special Court compound, nestled among the shanty-covered hills of the capital Freetown, Taylor has been receiving legal advisors from around the region but has yet to decide who should defend him, lawyers said.
"We were able to see him and give him our advice. He will consider it and act on it but he has not yet chosen his own defence team," said Azanne Kofi Akainyah, a lawyer from Ghana who came to Freetown at Taylor's request and met him on Monday.
"He was resolute, not downhearted, fully aware of the political machinations behind everything," Akainyah said late on Monday.
Taylor's aides have said he would like Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz to lead his defence.
Taylor was defended at Monday's hearing by a staff lawyer from the tribunal, Vincent Nmehielle, who told the court the former Liberian leader did not currently have sufficient funds to employ his own defence team.
"Mr Taylor has made it clear that he has no money," Nmehielle said after the hearing. "But he has not hidden the fact that if he is able to raise the necessary money, he would love to defend himself with a legal team of his choice."
The former warlord was flown, handcuffed and surrounded by UN peacekeepers, to the Freetown tribunal last Wednesday, after nearly three years in exile in Nigeria.
He was arrested trying to leave Nigeria in a car with a trunk full of banknotes.
The UN-backed court has asked The Netherlands to hold his trial in The Hague, citing fears keeping him in Sierra Leone could provoke unrest there and in neighbouring Liberia, where some of his supporters have threatened violence if he is judged.
Taylor told the court he did not recognise its right to try him, an appeal based on his status as a head of state at the time the indictment was served, which has already been dismissed once by the tribunal in 2004.
"This is just a sort of pathetic attempt to reassert this head of state immunity that has already been rejected," the tribunal's chief prosecutor, Desmond de Silva, said after the hearing.
"He does not have head of state immunity any more than Milosevic did," he said.
The prosecution now has 30 days to present the defence with the evidence on which it relies before Taylor's legal team prepares its case, a process expected to take several months.
"..Oopsie."
Apparently when Lincolnshire County Council were widening the road past RAF Scampton's main gate in about 1958, the 'gate guards' there had to be moved to make way for the new carriageway. Scampton was the WWII home of 617 Sqn, and said "gate guards" were a Lancaster...and a Grand Slam bomb.
When they went to lift the Grand Slam, thought for years to just be an empty casing, with an RAF 8 Ton Coles Crane, it wouldn't budge. "Oh, it must be filled with concrete" they said. Then somebody had a horrible thought .... No!..... Couldn't be? ... Not after all these years out here open to the public to climb over and be photographed sitting astride! .... Could it? .... Then everyone raced off to get the Station ARMO. He carefully scraped off many layers of paint and gingerly unscrewed the base plate.
Yes, you guessed it, live 1944 explosive filling! The beast was very gently lifted onto an RAF 'Queen Mary' low loader, using a much larger civvy crane (I often wonder what, if anything, they told the crane driver), then driven slowly under massive police escort to the coastal experimental range at Shoeburyness. There it was rigged for demolition, and when it 'high ordered', it proved in no uncertain terms to anyone within a ten mile radius that the filling was still very much alive!
Exhaustive investigations then took place, but nobody could find the long-gone 1944, 1945 or 1946 records which might have shown how a live 22,000 lb bomb became a gate guard for nearly the next decade and a half. Some safety distance calculations were done, however, about the effect of a Grand Slam detonating at ground level in the open. Apart from the entire RAF Station, most of the northern part of the City of Lincoln, including Lincoln Cathedral, which dates back to 1250, would have been flattened.
#3
When I was at Wheeler AFB they evacuated base housing when they found two WWII bombs while digging fence posts in base housing. As it turned out the bombs were display models at the front gate on December 7, 1941.
#4
History channel had a show this weekend about the German battleship Tirpitz. Very heavy armor plate on the decks and sides. The Germans kept it in a fjord in Norway to threaten Russia bound convoys. After attacking it on and off for five years, the Brits finally took it out with 'Tall Boy' bombs (bigger than Grand Slams) dropped from a height of three miles!
LONDON: Britain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was rapped for ungentlemanly conduct Tuesday after reportedly commandeering US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's private quarters on her official jet. Rice was reported in a number of British newspapers to have graciously offered her British counterpart the use of her bed and cabin on the Boeing 757 plane and Straw ungallantly accepted, leaving her to sleep on the floor. What one newspaper called "Bedgate" is said to have happened as the political bedfellows flew to Kuwait at the weekend before transferring to a military flight bound for Baghdad.
Ummm... If she offered it, he didn't "commandeer" it. Accepting was certainly ungallant ย the sound of razzberries is emanating from Sir Walter Raleigh's grave even as we speak blog.
I have got to get one of those outfits...
Emily made you a hat, hmmm, perhaps ...
Posted by: Fred ||
04/05/2006 00:10 ||
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Condi knows who the wuss is
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/05/2006 0:49 Comments ||
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somehow i get the feeling this is gonna be a media story that will be spun up beyond all proportians, just like most tottally insignificant events that happen.
#12
Seeing as he is from the UK and she is from North America there is a good chance their sleep patterns were not aligned and he might have been very sleepy while she was well rested. Somehow I think this is much ado about nothing.
#14
Good God! I'm surprised the press did not leave out her sleeping on the floor and just report him sleeping in her bed, eluding they were together. Condi did the right thing here. Good on her!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
04/05/2006 15:46 Comments ||
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Venezuela has taken delivery of three Russian-built military helicopters - the first of a total of 15 it has so far ordered from Moscow. President Hugo Chavez said they would help to protect Venezuela if the US ever mounted an invasion.
If you say so, Commandante.
Mr Chavez also repeated that he was ready to buy Russian fighter jets.
"And ponies, Vlad. My people are crazy for fine Soviet Russian ponies."
A crowd of Russian and Venezuelan generals and diplomats was treated to an air show, displaying the strengths of the Russian-built helicopters. A group of around 20 parachutists jumped in formation out of the olive green MI-17 helicopters during Monday's ceremony.
In formation, ya say? That's it then. We're done for.
President Chavez said Venezuela's latest purchases could be used to transport parachute troops quickly into Bolivia combat.
Or presidentes away from the pitchforks and torches...
This would be ideal for a war of resistance, Mr Chavez said, a reference to his often repeated concerns that the US may want to invade Venezuela to seize its oil reserves. Army Commander Gen Raul Baduel said Venezuela planned to buy a total of 33 helicopters from Russia. Venezuela has also agreed to buy a total of 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles from Russia. Mr Chavez also repeated his accusation that the US had blocked a deal to buy training aircraft from the Brazilian manufacturer, Embraer, because the Brazilian planes contained protected American technology. "Nothing and nobody will stop us from making our country's armed forces stronger," he said, while stressing that Venezuela was not preparing to invade anybody.
"Yet," he forgot to add.
The BBC's Greg Morsbach in Caracas says Mr Chavez's words may do little to dispel fears in Washington that Venezuela is stepping up its arms expenditure and is upsetting the balance of power in Latin America.
We're watching the hands, not the lips wriggling around on the floor.
#3
Russia must have too many generals if they can afford to send some to Hugo's circus.
Hmmm, 33 helicopters -- that should delay any U.S. invasion by about twenty seconds if our fighter pilots succumb to a lot of rubber-necking after launching their missiles.
#4
I know that Hugo would explode our weakness for slow moving lightly armored helicopters. I donยt know about you but I am going to start my Spanglish lesson in earnest.
#10
All that nice Russian hardware may not last long against the Great Satan, but I suspect it is more and better than what his neighbors have. Call me paranoid, but I can't help but wonder if Hugo has something other than defense of the homeland in mind. Coveting his neighors ass? Or worried about The People becoming tired of his bloviating, socialist ways, perhaps?
El Jefe: The Thomas Edison of Cuba...
HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba is racing to install thousands of container-sized diesel generators across the island to avoid another situation like the one last summer when widespread blackouts fanned popular unrest.
President Fidel Castro has taken personal responsibility for what he calls an "energy revolution" prompted by widespread complaints about the failings of Cuba's obsolete power plants. That's if it works. If it doesn't, I'm sure Fidel has a list.
His supporters say the first-of-its-kind energy plan is a stroke of audacious genius. His critics see it as a desperate blunder.The generators are being grouped in clusters and connected to the electrical grid so they can feed the national system or operate independently in all 14 provinces. "The unit consists of 32 generators in eight groups ... capable of generating 60.4 megawatts," state-run news agency AIN said of one cluster in eastern Holguin province.
The one- to two-megawatt generators, each capable of powering a whole neighborhood, are also being installed at key facilities around the Caribbean island, such as hospitals and factories. Around $800 million has been spent so far to import generators, mainly from Spain, Germany and South Korea.
Castro has promised to put an end to the frequent outages that Cubans have had to live with since the collapse of Soviet communism plunged their country into economic crisis. He has also vowed to provide every Cuban home with new electrical appliances from China that use less power, from stoves and fans to refrigerators, in many cases replacing inefficient U.S.-made products dating back to the 1950s. Cuba's communist-run state is also replacing millions of incandescent light bulbs with energy-saving fluorescent ones.
Castro says his "energy revolution" will pay for itself by saving Cuba at least $1 billion a year in generating costs.
Part of the cost will be borne by Cubans who for decades have enjoyed heavily subsidized electricity. Rates were jacked up last year, rising steeply for homes that use more power.
POWER GRID A MESS
Blackouts have wreaked havoc on the daily life of Cubans and the economy since the demise of the Soviet Union deprived their country of generous oil shipments. Now Cuba is receiving ample oil with preferential financing from Venezuela, but the electrical grid itself is a shambles.
The island's seven aging oil-fired power plants can generate about 2,700 megawatts, but operate at only 60 percent of capacity due to breakdowns and maintenance halts. For over a decade, the plants have run on locally produced high-sulfur oil that clogs and damages the equipment. Helluva polluter too as I remember...
The entire system nears collapse when a hurricane strikes transmission lines or two or more plants go out of service at the same time. It can barely cover national consumption in peak periods when Cubans turn on fans and air conditioners. With outages of 12 hours and longer last summer, Cubans were having trouble keeping cool in the tropical heat, while food rotted in their refrigerators. In crowded Central Havana, public discontent emerged as small street protests. The government scrambled to find a quick solution.
By May, according to Castro, hundreds of generators will have added the equivalent of three 350-megawatt power plants that would cost $1.7 billion and take six years to build. More will be added until Cuba can phase out its oil-burning power plants, while keeping two newer gas-fired ones.
LOGISTICS NIGHTMARE
Cuba is spending a further $250 million to replace old transmission lines, transformers and breakers so the grid can handle increased demand as Cubans still cooking with kerosene and wood fires go electric.
Since the generators began to arrive, blackouts have all but disappeared. But the real test will come with the hot summer months when demand peaks.
Cubans give the energy plan mixed reviews.
"Those of us who support the revolution support the plan; those who do not, as always, think it is crazy," a Communist Party militant said.
"There is no doubt it is an ingenious, though expensive, way for them to quickly solve their immediate problems," a Western diplomat said. "The question we all have is what will happen in a few years. Generators have never been used as the basis of a power system before, anywhere," he said.
Cuban officials brush off such concerns and insist the strategy has been well thought out. El Jefe knows best...
But foreign electrical engineers say it is a recipe for a logistics nightmare as thousands of generators will have to be constantly supplied with diesel and their engines serviced. Logistics issues in a Communist country? I believe we've seen how that usually works out.
Cuba would have been better off in the long run building generating plants, an Italian engineer said.
Still, Castro insists the plan will help Cuba cope with the impact of hurricanes by making each part of the country independent of the national grid. It will also strengthen Cuba's defenses, he said, recalling the U.S. invasion of Iraq. "Our entire power grid could have been knocked out with just seven bombs." There's a "fun fact" to remember...
#1
1) A bad time to switch to fluorescent. LEDs are just around the corner and would really make a dent in power usage.
2) These generators will pollute the air in the local neighborhoods.
3) If connected to the grid... when the grid goes down - surges might just take the generators down too.
4) If he wanted to do local in the neighborhood stuff - solar, and wind would make more sense and not require fuel and little service. 1,2 and 5 MW wind generators are common sizes. That is the same as these units. You would just need to secure them in hurricanes.
2MW GE Wind Generator installed on a site in the US is about $5mil so..
$800mil/$5mil = 160 2MW WindGenerators
160 * 2MW = 320MW
That is 320 peak MW compared to the 60MW he just bought.
A real bad deal. 320MW/60MW = a factor of 5.3
So if 1/5th of the wind generators had wind and were working that would equal 100% power from his 32 generators. That's a bad deal!
5) Some of the 50's era stuff was quite energy efficent. Look at a 50s coke or pepsi machine. They just sipped power.
Lots of the cheap stuff from China is NOT very energy efficent. Look at the ratings some time.
#7
High-sulfur oil and hundreds of maintenance-intensive engines. If Castro is lucky, he will die before those generators make his "energy revolution" a fiasco, but I'm betting that he will last longer then they do, even with his advanced Parkinson's and age.
The Kremlin has found a way to include mayors in the vertical of power without formally violating the constitutional requirement of the independence of local self-governance from organs of state authority. Today the State Duma council will examine amendments to the federal laws ยOn the General Principles of Organization of the Legislative and Executive Organs of State Authority in the Russian Federationย and ยOn the General Principles of Organization of Local Self-Governance in the Russian Federation.ย The amendments, written by United Russia Party members Vladimir Mokry, Vladimir Zhidkikh and Alexey Ogonkov, will allow governors to deprive inconvenient mayors of the majority of their authority and practically take the management of regional capitals on themselves. The document will be distributed to the subjects of the federation for examination this week.
The draft amendments allow regions ยtemporarily to exercise individual authorities of organs of local self-governance of settlements and city districts that are the administrative centers of subjects of the Russian Federation for the purpose to guaranteeing unity in life support, communications and other infrastructure systems.ย Mayors can be deprived of up to ten authorities, including organization of heating, gas, electric and water services, management of domestic waste, building and maintaining roads and bridges, transportation services, establishing rights to land use and control over land use. The meaning of ยtemporaryย is to be determined legislatively by the regions.
Mokry, head of the Duma Committee on Issue of Local Self-Governance, explained that ยWe're not saying that it's mandatory. But, in the case of deterioration of the quality of the services provided to the population, organs of state authorities should have the same responsibility as local self-governance. It is a question of competence and the correct spending of funds. Local self-governance should confirm its work though efficiency.ย Kommersant has obtained information indicating that a number of Kremlin officials stand behind the initiative, including presidential chief of staff and former governor of Tyumen Region Sergey Sobyanin. The Kremlin also freely admits that the amendments will make it possible to control uncooperative mayors of wealthy donor cities who come into conflict with regional governors.
Governors have been attempting to gain control over the mayors of their capital cities since the institution of popular mayoral elections. That effort has gain momentum n regions where governors have been appointed by the president and not elected themselves. Incorporating municipalities in the vertical of power would require constitutional changes, however, which Russian President Vladimir Putin has said is impermissible. The appointment of mayors is also a violation of the European Convention on Local Self-Governance, which would cause Russian problems with the Council of Europe. A ยtemporaryย transfer of power is not a de facto violation of the Constitution, even though the term of that transfer is left to the discretion of the head of the federation subject. The law already allows such transfer in cases of natural disaster, or when a municipality has overdue debts that exceed 30 percent of its income or state subventions are misspent. Representatives of the opposition characterized the law as a way for governors to punish politically disloyal mayors.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/05/2006 01:12 ||
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#2
The amendments,.... will allow governors to deprive inconvenient mayors of the majority of their authority and practically take the management of regional capitals on themselves.
"But that's impossible. How will the Emperor maintain control without the bureaucracy?"
"The regional governors now have direct control over their territories. Fear will keep the local systems in line. Fear of this battle station."
Posted by: Steve ||
04/05/2006 15:57 Comments ||
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The State Duma Council on Thursday will discuss United Russia-drafted legislation that would allow governors to confiscate powers from mayors who manage their cities poorly.
The amendments promise to provoke consternation among liberal politicians and Western leaders, both of whom have expressed concern that the Kremlin is rolling back democracy by eliminating gubernatorial elections and scrapping individual races for the State Duma, among other things.
The latest measure, political analysts said, is a sign that the Kremlin wants to make sure that leaders from the municipal level on up will guarantee a good showing for United Russia in the Duma elections next year and a smooth handover of power to the person whom President Vladimir Putin picks as his successor in 2008.
Under the amendments, mayors would lose most of their powers during a natural disaster, if their city's debt exceeds 30 percent of its income or if the city mismanages government subsidies, Vladimir Mokry, a co-author of the amendments, said by telephone Tuesday.
The governor would gain the right to oversee key sectors of the city, including heating, gas, electricity, water and public transport, as well as the right to manage the building of highways and bridges and to determine the rules for using public land and building on it, said Mokry, who chairs the Duma's Local Administration Committee.
"Regional powers should not only have the responsibility but also the right to intervene to solve the problems that trouble a city," Mokry said.
He noted, as an example, that electricity had been cut to cities and towns that have overdue bills. "In this situation you have mayors saying that they don't have money and governors saying they don't have the power to intervene. We need to find a solution to this problem," he said. Mayors would still be elected by popular vote.
Mokry insisted that the amendments were not a "political order" to guarantee the Kremlin's control of the country.
"We are not building the power vertical or fulfilling someone's political will, we just want to force everyone to work in the interests of the people. We don't want to destroy democracy or the self-rule system in the country," he said.
The amendments are officially an initiative of United Russia, but the party usually only acts under the Kremlin's orders.
Duma deputies are currently discussing how long a governor should be allowed to keep a mayor's powers and the details about the circumstances under which the powers can be taken away, Mokry said.
The amendments were submitted to the Duma on Friday and will be discussed by the agenda-setting Duma Council on Thursday. Regional legislatures will then have 30 days to examine the legislation and add further amendments.
The Duma is expected to consider the legislation in a first reading in mid-May.
Even though the amendments would not give governors the right to hire and fire mayors, political analysts said that they would pave the way for the de facto control of every leader in the country.
"The Kremlin wants a situation even more maneuverable and predictable for the elections in 2007 and 2008. They want to be sure that they don't have any scandals before and during the elections," said Sergei Mikheyev, a senior analyst at the Center for Political Technologies.
Under the Constitution, mayors can be dismissed by courts. But with the new amendments, analysts said, the Kremlin would be able to control the mayors through the governors, without any change to the Constitution.
Governors are now effectively appointed by the president, a change Putin ushered in as a way to strengthen the state after the 2004 Beslan school attack.
Russia faced international criticism for that change, and the Kremlin appears keen to avoid a similar confrontation ahead of the 2007 and 2008 votes.
Yury Korgunyuk, an analyst with Indem, a think tank, called the latest amendments a step back to the Soviet Union, when everybody was somebody else's subordinate.
"Everyone has to have a boss breathing down his neck, starting from the governors, who are under the Kremlin control, to the mayors, who will be subordinated to the governors, and ending with the street cleaners," Korgunyuk said.
"The Kremlin is so paranoid about losing its power that wants to have control of every single person, just in case," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/05/2006 00:49 ||
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Customs officials at Hong Kongยs container terminal Tuesday reportedly foiled an attempt to smuggle a MiG-29 fighter jet through the territory, the DPA news agency reports. The Cold War-era fighter jet, with engines removed, is said to have been found inside a container being shipped through the Hong Kong port, the worldยs busiest in terms of throughput. The government-run RTHK radio station said the fighter jet was intercepted as it was being shipped through Hong Kong to a third country.
Guess I'll have to pull that eBay add
It was not known where the plane began its journey. Customs officials confirmed they had intercepted a military plane but declined to say what type it was or to give any further details of the incident.
Smuggling through Hong Kongยs massive Kwai Chung container terminal is widespread but usually involves drugs, counterfeit designer clothes or parts of endangered animals for use in Chinese medicine. The MiG-29, hailed as a highly effective fighter jet in its day, went into production in the former Soviet Union from the late 1960s onwards and was mostly exported to allied states around the world.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/05/2006 09:30 ||
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#1
WTF? this is odd at the least, bet it was on its way to the Norks, anyone else notice in the last few days just what fckers the russkies are selling all this stuff to sht hole nations. Still odd though - kinda reminds me of when Sammy supergun got nabbed.
#3
My guess is a private collector, actually. The MiG-29 is decades out of date. It wouldnยt last five minutes in a dogfight with, say, the Dutch Air Force and would have minimal value putting down an insurgency.
#5
I stand utterly corrected. Design work began in 1974, with first 11 prototypes flying in 1977. Opts evaluation in 1983 with an eye to going up against the F-16. This is an effective, modern combat aircraft still in use by the Russians (or at least the Mig-29 Fulcrum is). Itยs also very expensive. It could be going anywhere, but Hugo is a good guess. He could afford one.
The Western Australia Government has gone on the front foot over its opposition to uranium mining in the state, attacking a senior Liberal for advocating exports to developing countries such as Ethiopia.
Opposition Leader Colin Barnett says the state Government's attitude to uranium mining is straight out of the 1970s.
He told Parliament last night that Labor has turned its back on the mining industry and poorer countries.
"Why should we in the developed world deny developing nations for example Africa, Ethiopia, as nations, access to nuclear energy?" he said.
Environment Minister Mark McGowan says he is frightened by the prospect of uranium being exported to strife-torn countries like Ethiopia.
"It is dangerous, irresponsible and in years to come would be very much regretted by the rest of the world," he said.
Prime Minister John Howard yesterday labelled Labor's anti-uranium policy short-sighted.
Mr McGowan says the Government does not need to be lectured to by anybody.
ALMOST 200 suspected illegal fishermen are being detained in Australia, after a major sea and air operation off the Northern Territory coast. Customs Minister Chris Ellison said Operation Breakwater had led to the arrest of 23 fishing vessels and 197 fishermen, including eight youths. There were some resistance in relation to this operation ... in some cases shots were fired," Senator Ellison said today.
As I understand it, shooting at Aussies is a bad idea.
"But we now have 197 crewmen that have been apprehended and, as I say, 125 of them are at Baxter in South Australia, the remaining being processed in Darwin." It is understood most of the fishermen detained are Indonesian, but there may be some Chinese among the group.
Senator Ellison revealed the operation in a joint statement with Defence Minister Brendan Nelson and conservation minister Eric Abetz today. "This operation has not only resulted in 23 boats being seized, it will also have an impact on those fishers who wrongly think heading into Australian waters might be worthwhile," Senator Abetz said. "This country values its fish stocks and our right to ensure that they are sustainably managed for the benefit of future generations".
The air force worked with customs officers, who for the first time hired commercial tugs to bring suspected illegal vehicles into port. Operation Breakwater was a two-week mission that involved four Navy ships - the HMAS Armidale, HMAS Fremantle, HMAS Ipswich, and the heavy landing craft HMAS Balikpapan.
More to come...
NEW Zealand's police union wants to ban Muslim women wearing burqas from driving for safety reasons and also because criminals may start using burqas to hide their identity, local media reported today.
Borrowed that idea from the Saooodis.
"We deal with criminals who will very quickly cotton on to the fact that it's to their advantage to be driving around wearing burqas," Police Association president Greg O'Connor said to domestic newsagency New Zealand Press Association (NZPA).
The call for a ban follows a new police policy on burqas which stipulates that women police officers should be responsible for confirming the identity of Muslim women wearing burqas, as they can not reveal their faces to men under Islamic culture.
O'Connor said all motorists should be treated equally and drivers should not hide their identity. "I think the issue is if women are that strongly in their beliefs around the burqa, then perhaps they shouldn't drive," he said on Radio New Zealand.
Ouch, that'll leave a mark.
President of the Federation of Islamic Associations said police were within their rights to ask a Muslim woman driver to reveal her identity, but to impose a ban on burqa-wearing drivers was excessive. "If the police have strong suspicions about a person who is a driver and (they are) wearing a burqa, then they are well within their rights to stop the car and do their investigation in line with the police policy," Javed Khan said ot NZPA. "But saying that a person who is wearing a burqa cannot drive a car ย I think that is going a bit far."
#1
"But saying that a person who is wearing a burqa cannot drive a car ย I think that is going a bit far."
Oh, I dunno, Khan - why don't you drive around in one and report back on how much you can see?
If you think that, as a woman, you're property that needs to be covered with a sack, perhaps you shouldn't be driving. That might lead to your thinking you have some freedom, and we can't have that, now can we?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/05/2006 0:11 Comments ||
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#2
Javed Khan should tell the Saudis that. Pathetic.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
04/05/2006 0:13 Comments ||
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#3
How bout this?
If you want to wear a burka, or if you want to treat your wife like a farm animal, simply move to the middle east. Nobody will give you any greif about it there. You can live your squalid little life in as bizarre a fashion as you please and they will love you for it.
THOUSANDS of West Papuan refugees could seek asylum in Australia, an expert has warned. Indonesian expert Scott Burchill said the temporary protection visas could open the door for more boats and potentially thousands of asylum-seekers to follow. "It will certainly encourage further attempts by Papuans to reach Australia and make similar claims," said Dr Burchill, senior lecturer in international affairs at Deakin University. "It would be very hard for (Australian) authorities to deny the claims."
He said the only thing holding back the flood was a lack of boats. "You can bet your life Indonesian authorities have increased surveillance of local ports and where people might leave from," he said.
They haven't met the Marielitos; a lack of boats didn't stop them. I think a few of them converted a 1959 Dodge pick-up truck into a boat and set out for the Florida Keys.
Dr Burchill said West Papua would remain a flashpoint if Indonesia failed to control its military in the province as it failed in East Timor.
Lawyer David Manne, acting for the 42 refugees in Melbourne, said several spoke by phone yesterday to relatives, who said they had been harassed. He congratulated the Immigration Department for a non-political decision and "playing a straight bat" in accepting the 42, who had a well-founded fear of persecution if returned to West Papua.
Human rights groups estimate up to 300,000 people have been killed since Indonesia assumed sovereignty in 1969.
#1
Dugout canoes from PNG wash up on Cape York beaches from time to time. There is no lack of seagoing craft. I think up till now people who have had enough in Irian Jaya have crossed over into PNG. This may be changing.
The Federal Government has confirmed there are reports that another boat of six people from the Indonesian province of Papua has landed on an Australian island. Two months ago 43 separatists from Papua landed in Australia and the decision to grant all but one of them protection visas has sparked a diplomatic crisis with Indonesia.
A spokesman for Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone has confirmed there have been reports of another boatload arriving but says it is an operational matter and there will be no further comment. The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald newspapers reported that it is a family of six, with four children, including a two-month-old baby.
The Australian Customs Service is trying to confirm reports that a family of six landed on Bamboo Island in the Torres Strait on Sunday after a voyage from the Papuan coastal town of Merauke. Customs says it can not confirm the reports and it is liaising with other authorities in the area. A Customs spokesman says it is a huge area with hundreds of islands and he is not aware of an island called Bamboo.
Last night Queensland police investigated a tip off that the family had landed at Bamaga on the tip of Cape York Peninsula and sought refuge with a local pastor. Door knocks were conducted but no one was located.
"There's no one here, and the people who aren't here didn't come from Papua!"
"Hmmm, hokay, thanks."
The Federal Opposition is calling on the Government to ensure that if there are more asylum seekers from Papua that they be treated fairly. Labor's Tony Burke says should be transported to mainland Australia for processing. "What have we have to make sure of is that there is independent and fair processing with no political interference at all," he said. "That processing if it can be done on the mainland that's where it should be done.
"Last time we went through the most expensive and awkward option of flying people to Christmas Island."
Federal Treasurer, Peter Costello, has emphasised that Australia needs good relations with Indonesia. While not commenting on reports of the latest arrivals, Mr Costello described Indonesia as a valuable friend to Australia. "Let's make this point, we have very common interests, we rely on Indonesia to help us with boat people, we rely on Indonesia to help us with the terrorist threat, we rely on Indonesia to help us with illegal fishing, we need Indonesia," he said.
Dang, he said that without his lips falling off. Must be a politican.
Why the fall and spring riot seasons in France are signs of the coming apocalypse
MARK STEYN
I've had a recurring experience in the last few months. I'll be reading some geopolitical tract like Sands Of Empire: Missionary Zeal, American Foreign Policy, and the Hazards Of Global Ambition by Robert W. Merry, and two-thirds of the way in I'll stumble across:
"With the onset of the Iraq War and European opposition, many Americans embraced a severe anti-European attitude. 'To the list of polities destined to slip down the Eurinal of history,' wrote Mark Steyn in the Jewish World Review, 'we must add the European Union and France's Fifth Republic.' "
Or I'll be slogging through Beyond Paradise and Power: Europe, America and the Future of a Troubled Partnership, edited by Tod Lindberg, and find that Timothy Garton Ash's essay on "The New Anti-Europeanism In America" begins thus:
"In the year the United States went to war against Iraq, readers saw numerous articles in the American press on anti-Americanism in Europe. But what about anti-Europeanism in the United States? Consider the following:
"'To the list of polities destined to slip down the Eurinal of history, we must add the European Union and France's Fifth Republic. The only question is how messy their disintegration will be.' (Mark Steyn, Jewish World Review, May 1, 2002)"
If the best evidence of the pandemic of "anti-Europeanism in the United States" is a Canadian columnist writing for a Canadian newspaper (Jewish World Review is a plucky New York website that happened to reprint a piece of mine from the National Post), that would seem to be self-refuting. A European who wanders along to his local bookstore to sate his anti-Americanism will find a groaning smorgasbord of tracts catering to every taste, including the French bestseller that claims the plane that hit the Pentagon on 9/11 never existed. An American who strolls into Barnes and Noble to sate his anti-Europeanism will have to make do with a two-sentence quote by an obscure Canadian on page 243 of some book sternly warning of the rampant anti-Europeanism all around.
Until now. Two books have just hit the shelves -- While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within by Bruce Bawer, and Menace In Europe: Why The Continent's Crisis is America's, Too by Claire Berlinski. In media-speak, two of anything makes a trend, and Clive Davis doesn't care for this one. Davis is a perceptive commentator for the Times of London and, in reviewing Bawer and Berlinski for the Washington Times, he sniffed: "What worries me about books like this is that they risk reducing Europe to a caricature in much the same way as Stupid White Men turns America into one big Wal-Mart with drive-by shootings."
That's unfair, and does a disservice to both authors. For many Europeans -- and Canadians -- the Stupid White Men school of anti-Americanism is a form of consolation: the Great Moron may be economically, militarily and culturally dominant but we can still jeer at what a bozo he is. Bawer and Berlinski, both genuine American Europhiles, have a serious purpose: in his titular evocation of the young JFK's book on pre-war European appeasement, While England Slept, Bruce Bawer makes plain that he wants to wake Europe up -- and, if it's too late for that, then at least to wake up America. Neither is a xenophobic yahoo: Berlinski "divides her time" -- as the book jackets say -- between Paris and Istanbul; she has a doctorate in international relations from Oxford. Bawer is a homosexual who moved to the Continent because he was weary of the theocratic oppressiveness of redneck America and wanted to live his life in the gay utopia of the Netherlands. Alas, when he got there he found the gay scene had gone belly up and, theocratic oppressor-wise, Pat Robertson has nothing on some of the livelier Amsterdam madrasas. Both books are somewhat overwrought -- Berlinski dwells on her own relationship with some Muslim lad who later figured in Zadie Smith's hit novel White Teeth, and Bruce Bawer is reluctant to give up on the idea that a bisexual pothead hedonist utopia is a viable concept rather than, as it's proving in the Netherlands, a mere novelty interlude; his book might have been better called While Europe Slept Around.
Nonetheless, if Clive Davis thinks this is anti-Euro rotten fruit-pelting, that's more of a reflection on the complacency of the Continent's own commentariat. The difference between "anti-Americanism" and "anti-Europeanism" is obvious. In, say, 2025, America will be much as it is today -- big, powerful, albeit (to sophisticated Continentals) absurdly vulgar and provincial. But in 20 years' time Europe will be an economically moribund demographic basket case: 17 Continental nations have what's known as "lowest-low" fertility -- below 1.3 live births per woman -- from which no population has ever recovered.
All those heavyweight scholars who immortalized between hard covers my cheap Eurinal-of-history aside did so because it was so self-evidently risible. Well, it looks a lot less so in 2006 than it did in 2002. The trap the French political class are caught in is summed up by the twin pincers of the fall and spring riot seasons. The fall 2005 rioters were "youths" (i.e. Muslims from the suburbs), supposedly alienated by lack of economic opportunity. The spring 2006 rioters are "youths" (i.e. pampered Sorbonne deadbeats), protesting a new law that would enable employers to terminate the contracts of employees under the age of 26 in their first jobs, after two years.
To which the response of most North Americans is: you mean, you can't right now? No, you can't. If you hire a 20-year-old and take a dislike to his work three months in, tough: chances are you're stuck with him till mid-century. In France's immobilized economy, it's all but impossible to get fired. Which is why it's all but impossible to get hired. Especially if you belong to that first category of "youths" from the Muslim ghettos, where unemployment is around 40 to 50 per cent. The second group of "youths" -- the Sorbonne set -- protesting the proposed new, more flexible labour law ought to be able to understand that it's both necessary to the nation and, indeed, in their own self-interest: they are after all their nation's elite. Yet they're like lemmings striking over the right to a steeper cliff.
When most of us on this side of the Atlantic think of "welfare queens," our mind's eye conjures some teenage crack whore with three kids by different men in a housing project. But France illustrates how absolute welfare corrupts absolutely. These Sorbonne welfare queens are Marie Antoinettes: unemployment rates for immigrants? Let 'em eat cake, as long as our pampered existence is undisturbed.
The only question about Europe is whether it's going to be (a) catastrophically bad or (b) apocalyptically bad, as in head for the hills, here come the Four Horsemen: Death (the self-extinction of European races too self-absorbed to breed), Famine (the withering of unaffordable social programs), War (civil strife as the disaffected decide to move beyond mere Citroรซn-torching), and Conquest (the inevitable victory of the Muslim successor population already in place). I'd say option (b) looks the better bet, for a few if not all Continental nations: united they'll fall, but divided, a handful might stand a chance.
However, if, like Clive Davis, you find Bawer and Berlinski too shrill, try Charles Murray's new book, In Our Hands. This is a fairly technical economic plan to replace the U.S. welfare system, but, in the course of it, he observes that in the rush to the waterfall the European canoe is well ahead of America's. Murray stops crunching the numbers and makes the point that, even if it were affordable, the European social democratic state would still be fatal. "Give people plenty and security, and they will fall into spiritual torpor," he writes. "When life becomes an extended picnic, with nothing of importance to do, ideas of greatness become an irritant." If Bawer's book is a wake-up call, Murray reminds us that western Europe long ago threw away the alarm clock and decided to sleep in.
And, if even Murray's too much, go back to the granddaddy of them all -- Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Recounting the Muslim march on France 1,300 years ago, Gibbon writes:
"The decline of the French monarchy invited the attack of these insatiate fanatics. The descendants of Clovis had lost the inheritance of his martial and ferocious spirit; and their misfortune or demerit has affixed the epithet of lazy to the last kings of the Merovingian race. They ascended the throne without power, and sunk into the grave without a name. . . . The vineyards of Gascony and the city of Bordeaux were possessed by the sovereign of Damascus and Samarcand; and the south of France, from the mouth of the Garonne to that of the Rhone, assumed the manners and religion of Arabia."
#1
Nonetheless, if Clive Davis thinks this is anti-Euro rotten fruit-pelting, that's more of a reflection on the complacency of the Continent's own commentariat. The difference between "anti-Americanism" and "anti-Europeanism" is obvious. In, say, 2025, America will be much as it is today -- big, powerful, albeit (to sophisticated Continentals) absurdly vulgar and provincial. But in 20 years' time Europe will be an economically moribund demographic basket case: 17 Continental nations have what's known as "lowest-low" fertility -- below 1.3 live births per woman -- from which no population has ever recovered.
When most of us on this side of the Atlantic think of "welfare queens," our mind's eye conjures some teenage crack whore with three kids by different men in a housing project. But France illustrates how absolute welfare corrupts absolutely. These Sorbonne welfare queens are Marie Antoinettes: unemployment rates for immigrants? Let 'em eat cake, as long as our pampered existence is undisturbed.
The only question about Europe is whether it's going to be (a) catastrophically bad or (b) apocalyptically bad, as in head for the hills, here come the Four Horsemen: Death (the self-extinction of European races too self-absorbed to breed), Famine (the withering of unaffordable social programs), War (civil strife as the disaffected decide to move beyond mere Citroรซn-torching), and Conquest (the inevitable victory of the Muslim successor population already in place). I'd say option (b) looks the better bet, for a few if not all Continental nations: united they'll fall, but divided, a handful might stand a chance.
Hundreds of thousands of students have marched through French cities in protests aimed at killing off a new youth employment law. Rail workers and teachers staged one-day sympathy strikes on Tuesday across the country. Early counts around the country suggested turnout could reach that of a week ago, when anything between one and three million took part.
France's ruling conservatives stopped short of agreeing to scrap the law but, faced with sliding poll ratings, signalled possible concessions to trade unions. Dominique de Villepin, the prime minister, struck a defiant tone telling a rowdy parliament session the government would not "throw in the towel". "The priority is to come out of the current crisis. It is not in the interest of anyone, especially not of the youth who are looking for jobs and awaiting solutions to their difficulties."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/05/2006 00:00 ||
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Revolt for Dommies?
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/05/2006 0:52 Comments ||
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Patricia Russo, who eliminated 30,000 jobs at Lucent Technologies Inc., says she will move quickly to reduce the work force when she takes over as head of Alcatel SA after the French companyยs $13.4 billion purchase of the biggest U.S. phone-equipment maker.
ยWe clearly intend to have speed as our bias,ย Russo said on a conference call after Sundayยs announcement of the sale to Paris-based Alcatel, where she will become CEO. Russo aims to save $1.7 billion after three years at the enlarged phone equipment company.
Russo plans to eliminate 10 percent of the combined staff, or 8,800 jobs. Sheยs already reduced the work force by 50 percent at Murray Hill, N.J.-based Lucent. The turnaround experience may help her boost earnings at the new company, whose products range from phone gear to networking and broadband devices, executives said.
ยShe had great learning from a difficult and complex challenge when she took over Lucent,ย said Fred Hassan, chairman and CEO of Schering-Plough Corp. Russo sits on the Kenilworth, N.J.-based drugmakerยs board. ยSome of those turnaround experiences are greatly helpful when you do a merger.ย
Russo closed factories and offices at Lucent. Pacific Crest Securities analyst Tim Daubenspeck said she may follow the same recipe this time and close plants in the U.S. first. The combined company will be based in Paris, and Russo may have a tougher time shuttering locations there quickly due to stringent labor laws, he said.
#6
What did Lucent used to be before it got a name with no meaning?
Merely one of the most illustrious telecom R&D labs in all history. You know, that place where the transistor was invented.
In February 1996, the soon-to-be-spun-off systems and technology unit of AT&T renamed itself Lucent Technologies and launched its separation with an initial public offering of stock issued in April 1996. The spin-off was completed in September 1996 when AT&T distributed its shares of Lucent to AT&T shareholders.
#8
You mean Bell Labs? The guys who discovered the universe is actually expanding? And it gets sold to the frogs and there's no national outcry? No wonder they give those companies such oxymoronic names.
#9
You mean Bell Labs of the transistor, Apollo program, lasers, etc. That Bell Labs is long gone. Most of the sites have been closed and the work moved off-shore. Thank Russo and her predecessor McGinn for that.
#11
Rather, thank an arrogance bred of a long monopoly position. The AT&T leadership - and that includes research leadership - never came to grips with having to compete in an open market.
NEW YORK - On her 15th anniversary on "Today," Katie Couric told viewers Wednesday she's leaving NBC to join CBS, where she will become the first woman to anchor a network weekday evening newscast alone. To replace Dan Rather - another 'fake-but-accurate' anchor.
"I wanted to tell all of you out there who have watched the show for the past 15 years that after listening to my heart and my gut ย two things that have served me pretty well in the past ย I've decided I'll be leaving 'Today' at the end of May," she said. "I really feel as if we've become friends through the years." Obviously not intended for Rantburgers....
Hours later, CBS confirmed that she will be anchor and managing editor of the evening news. Couric, 49, will also do prime-time specials and contribute to "60 Minutes" as part of the five-year deal.
Next to the "60 Minutes" crew, she'll look like a teenager
Couric, longest-serving anchorAnd moonbat extra-ordinaire in the 54-year history of "Today," agreed to a salary near her current range of $13 million to $15 million for five years, according to a non-network person close to Couric, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"I'm personally so excited that Katie Couric is coming to the CBS News family," said Leslie Moonves, CBS Corp. president. "With this move, our news division takes yet another giant leap forward. Katie is simply one of the best in the business and represents a tremendous addition to CBS News." Damn... what the hell is that I just stepped in?
Following a months-long guessing game that has consumed the TV industry, Couric chose the 15th anniversary of her first day as "Today" co-host in 1991 to say it's time for a change. "Today" ran a clip of her first day with then co-host Bryant Gumbel, which Couric joked was "172 hairstyles" ago. "Sometimes I think change is a good thing," Couric said. "Although it may be terrifying to get out of your comfort zone, it's also very exciting to start a new chapter in your life." So Couric... when will you leave your comfort zone and become a real journalist?
"It's hard to imagine being here and not having you sitting next to us," co-host Matt Lauer told her.
The bold move simultaneously forces NBC to find a new team for "Today," television's most profitable news program, and gives CBS News President Sean McManus a major success in his effort to lure more stars to his beleaguered news organization. And of course replacing one lying, egotistical, asshole with another lying egotistical asshole always works......
Couric, Lauer, newsreader Ann Curry and weathercaster Al Roker have formed TV news' most successful morning team in history since 1997, with "Today" riding an unprecedented 10-year streak at the top of the ratings. During that time, morning news programs have simultaneously grown in influence sunk in ratings....
and have become important entertainment vehicles. The job required Couric to both interview presidents and don goofy costumes on Halloween, not to mention having to wake up well before dawn. "Today" is currently seen by about 6 million viewers a day, while the "CBS Evening News" has been averaging upwards of 7.5 million. But it's a significant change in status from top dog to underdog: Thats ok, I hear Couric likes it doggie (ah... nevermind....)
CBS' evening newscast has been at the rear in the ratings for many years. The lure of trying something new and making history in the evening proved enticing to Couric. Journalist are supposed to RECORD and REPORT history - not make it (or make-it-up as Rather did....)
She spurned a more lucrative offer ย about $20 million a year ย to remain at NBC and accept the CBS Corp. offer, the person close to Couric said.
#4
Does anyone have a link to Couric stating "I hope Saddam got out in time" when she was speaking to someone on camera about the early stages of the invasion?
The local morning show was talking about this, and my instinctive response was the same as yours (except I used the "S" word instead of the "F" word ;-p).
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/05/2006 15:58 Comments ||
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#11
Don't fret so much, Katie. The folks at CBS are almost dhimmies now so it'll get much better when you start wearing a burqa....no more hairstyles to be concerned over.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
04/05/2006 16:54 Comments ||
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#12
This ain't news. The real news is that David Letterman didn't get the job once Howard Stern jumped ship.
#15
The only way that the ratings will go up for CBS if she doesn the news naked. They would have the 13yo male (and 42yo men still living in mom's basement) wrapped up!
#18
I still remember the colonoscopy she underwent on live TV, where they actually found her Cortex
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/05/2006 19:42 Comments ||
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#19
Good one Frank.
We get the show here in Oz and I have watched it a couple of times. My reaction watching her was she is a control freak and probably a borderline psycho/sociopath.
I watch morning news shows, even though I don't like their blurring of news into entertainment. What works is the formula. The actual people are pretty much immaterial. Take her out of that formula and I'll predict she will stumble, perhaps badly.
#20
Lemmie see, should I calibrate the meter in give-a-sh*ts, or in rat's a$$es (fat or normal)in reaction to this bit of news? The MSM is on its steady decline. I cannot stomach seeing the Today show any more. If I want weather I go to the Weather Channel, or get on the net. If I want news, I go to Rantburg News Service. I don't care about a bunch of sign waving flakes getting themselves on national TV. It's fluff, finger-in-throat puking fluff. /rant
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/05/2006 22:01 Comments ||
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When he wasn't sending pornographic movies to and asking for explicit photos from a teenage girl in Polk County, a Maryland man was bragging about his job as a spokesman at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, law enforcement officers said. The revelation - actually made to a detective posing as a 14-year-old girl - resulted in the arrest of 55-year-old Brian J. Doyle at his Silver Spring, Md., home Tuesday night, officials said.
During his Internet chats, Doyle quickly revealed his name and job, and he sent his office and government-issued cell phone numbers. The information allowed detectives to quickly verify Doyle's identity, the Polk County Sheriff's Office announced Tuesday night. Doyle moved quickly in other regards, officials said, sending enough sexually explicit messages and movie clips that they were able to secure a warrant for his arrest on 23 felony counts roughly two weeks after he responded to the detective's profile.
The charges stem from Doyle repeatedly requesting the girl he was pursuing to purchase a Web camera so that she could send explicit images to Doyle, sheriff's spokeswoman Carrie Rodgers said. Doyle promised to reciprocate, she said. He also sent numerous pornographic movie clips to the girl and used America Online's Instant Messenger program to carry on sexually laced conversations, a news release stated.
Maryland officials arrested Doyle at his home and seized his computer. It was unclear Tuesday whether Doyle used his office computer to carry out any of the conversations. He remains jailed awaiting extradition to Florida, Rodgers said. "We take these allegations very seriously and will cooperate fully with the ongoing investigation," Department of Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/05/2006 00:22 ||
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Wipe and flush
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/05/2006 0:53 Comments ||
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#2
Directions: Homeland Security Agent Doyle's nuts nailed to a large stump, thence pushed over backwards while holding his Dell and monitor on his lap, thence promptly shot between the eyes immediately after hitting the ground. Woodland cremation follows.
#3
"Doyle, meet Tiny, your cellmate. Tiny's a very lonely man, just like you, even though he outweighs you y a hundred fifty pounds. He also works out in the prison weight room a lot. Have fun; see you in 5 to 15!"
Posted by: Mike ||
04/05/2006 11:23 Comments ||
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Syed Suleman, a 50-year-old computer expert, was found dead in his sister's house in Garden Town's Ahmed Block, where he lived. The body has been sent for autopsy. Police said a case would be registered after the arrival of his wife, an Indian national who had been living in India for the last five years.
Probably a virus... I suspect W32.Nimda.A...
Posted by: Fred ||
04/05/2006 00:00 ||
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Nay, arteries clogged with spam
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/05/2006 0:53 Comments ||
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#9
Anyone remember that old freeware program ParaScan? Tbe Momma Cass virus is one that it puported to find - signature - leaves a large ham sandwich lodged in your HD. Another was the RoseMary Woods virus - erased 19 KBs of all your WordPerfect files.
LAHORE: A 'black magician' raped a 22-year-old girl and stabbed her in Shahdara police precincts on Tuesday. Police said Qamar, who was running a 'black magic business' in Shahdara, and his wife Saba invited their neighbour Abida to their house, where Qamar raped and stabbed her. Neighbours arrived after hearing Abida's screams and caught Qamar. Abida was rushed to Mayo Hospital where she is in critical condition. Qamar has been handed over the police, a case has been registered and investigations have begun.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/05/2006 00:00 ||
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Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (AHN) - Malaysian couples showing public displays of affection for one another by kissing and hugging can be sentenced to jail or fined if caught, courtesy of a court ruling that labels such acts as indecent behavior.
Malaysia's federal court made the ruling in a hard-fought case involving Ooi Kean Thong, 24, and Siow Ai Wei, 22. City hall officials allegedly caught the couple embracing and kissing in August 2003 in a park at the city's Twin Towers - a main tourist attraction in the mostly Muslim nation. The couple claims they have received a summons after they refused to bribe two city hall officials, who have denied the claim. Ooi and Siow will now face indecency charges at Kuala Lumpur city hall's court, and can be either fined or jailed for the incident.
#2
Malaysian couples showing public displays of affection for one another by kissing and hugging can be sentenced to jail or fined if caught, courtesy of a court ruling that labels such acts as indecent behavior.
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.
Victoria Lundy has a talent that would probably make 
American superstar Gene Pitney has been found dead aged 65 in his bed in a Cardiff hotel. Pitney - who found fame with "Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa" - was pronounced dead at the Hilton hotel at 1000 BST. He was on a UK tour and had shown no signs of illness. The cause of death is not yet known but is not suspicious. His biggest success was in the 1960s and he enjoyed a 1989 revival with his chart-topping duet, "Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart", with Marc Almond. 
A teacher who kept a 40 mm shell on his desk as a paperweight blew off part of his hand when he apparently used the object to try to squash a bug, authorities say. The 5-inch-long shell exploded Monday while Robert Colla was teaching 20 to 25 students at an adult education class.
LONDON: Britain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was rapped for ungentlemanly conduct Tuesday after reportedly commandeering US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's private quarters on her official jet. Rice was reported in a number of British newspapers to have graciously offered her British counterpart the use of her bed and cabin on the Boeing 757 plane and Straw ungallantly accepted, leaving her to sleep on the floor. What one newspaper called "Bedgate" is said to have happened as the political bedfellows flew to Kuwait at the weekend before transferring to a military flight bound for Baghdad.
NEW Zealand's police union wants to ban Muslim women wearing burqas from driving for safety reasons and also because criminals may start using burqas to hide their identity, local media reported today.
THOUSANDS of West Papuan refugees could seek asylum in Australia, an expert has warned. Indonesian expert Scott Burchill said the temporary protection visas could open the door for more boats and potentially thousands of asylum-seekers to follow. "It will certainly encourage further attempts by Papuans to reach Australia and make similar claims," said Dr Burchill, senior lecturer in international affairs at Deakin University. "It would be very hard for (Australian) authorities to deny the claims." 
The Federal Government has confirmed there are reports that another boat of six people from the Indonesian province of Papua has landed on an Australian island. Two months ago 43 separatists from Papua landed in Australia and the decision to grant all but one of them protection visas has sparked a diplomatic crisis with Indonesia.
Hundreds of thousands of students have marched through French cities in protests aimed at killing off a new youth employment law. Rail workers and teachers staged one-day sympathy strikes on Tuesday across the country. Early counts around the country suggested turnout could reach that of a week ago, when anything between one and three million took part.
When he wasn't sending pornographic movies to and asking for explicit photos from a teenage girl in Polk County, a Maryland man was bragging about his job as a spokesman at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, law enforcement officers said. The revelation - actually made to a detective posing as a 14-year-old girl - resulted in the arrest of 55-year-old Brian J. Doyle at his Silver Spring, Md., home Tuesday night, officials said.
LAHORE: A 'black magician' raped a 22-year-old girl and stabbed her in Shahdara police precincts on Tuesday. Police said Qamar, who was running a 'black magic business' in Shahdara, and his wife Saba invited their neighbour Abida to their house, where Qamar raped and stabbed her. Neighbours arrived after hearing Abida's screams and caught Qamar. Abida was rushed to Mayo Hospital where she is in critical condition. Qamar has been handed over the police, a case has been registered and investigations have begun.
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (AHN) - Malaysian couples showing public displays of affection for one another by kissing and hugging can be sentenced to jail or fined if caught, courtesy of a court ruling that labels such acts as indecent behavior.
