[Jakarta Post] A British man who fatally stabbed his partner after an argument about her heavy use of a Playstation has been sentenced to at least 14 years in prison. Malcolm Palmer admitted killing Carol Cannom in front of the couple's 10-year-old son in November.
Judge Michael Heath in Lincoln Crown Court on Wednesday gave Palmer a life sentence, with a minimum term of 14 years.
Cannom suffered at least 30 knife wounds, and the son was also injured. The judge noted that Cannom would stay awake as late as 5 a.m. playing games, while Palmer was exiled to an unheated conservatory.
Palmer's daughter, Claire Scott, said outside court that the couple had too much time on their hands and that the Playstation was just a bit of escapism.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/02/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Obviously the fault of the welfare system for not providing them with rooms + playstations for each.
Barksdale Air Force Base, La., has been picked as the new home of the Air Forces Global Strike Command, which will oversee most of the militarys nuclear bomber fleet and strategic ballistic missile operations, the Air Force announced today.
Global Strike Command will include both the 8th and 20th Air Force, according to an Air Force news release. Eighth Air Forces headquarters is at Barksdale, and 20th Air Forces headquarters is at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyo.
The new command will manage B-2 Spirit and B-52 Stratofortress bomber operations. That capability was formerly managed by Air Combat Command at Langley Air Force Base, Va.
The command also will maintain and operate the Air Forces intercontinental missile operations that previously were under the purview of Air Force Space Command at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo.
Management of B-1 Lancer bomber operations will still be conducted by Air Combat Command at Langley Air Force Base. The cyber and intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance missions will be removed from 8th Air Forces portfolio.
Other bases that were under consideration to be the commands headquarters included Minot Air Force Base, N.D.; F.E. Warren Air Force Base; Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont.; Offutt Air Force Base, Neb.; and Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo. Site surveys of all bases under consideration were completed March 6.
All six candidate locations received a thorough evaluation in accordance with our basing process, said Kathleen Ferguson, the Air Forces deputy assistant secretary for installations.
An environmental impact evaluation at Barksdale is pending, according to the release.
An as-yet unnamed three-star general will command Global Strike Command.
The stand up of GSC came about from a reorganization of the Air Forces nuclear-mission organization ordered by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, following some highly publicized operational miscues committed by Air Force nuclear force managers.
The Air Force announced in October 2008 that a new major command would be formed to oversee the services nuclear-deterrence mission. Bolling Air Force Base here has served as Global Strike Commands provisional headquarters since Jan. 12.
Air Force Secretary Michael B. Donley said last fall that the reorganization would address some long-standing, systematic problems in the Air Forces handling of nuclear assets. Donley said inspection of Air Force nuclear assets would now be conducted by the services Inspector General Office.
The establishment of Global Strike Command, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norman A. Schwartz noted last fall, would put his service onto a back-to-basics path for nuclear-weapons-realm accountability, compliance, precision and reliability.
[ADN Kronos] Libyan authorities said on Wednesday they have recovered the bodies of more than 100 migrants who drowned after their boat sank off the coast of Libya after it set sail for Italy. Seventy seven bodies washed ashore near the Libyan port city of Sebrata, located west of the capital Tripoli on Tuesday, and at least 23 more were found between Sunday and Tuesday.
However, hundreds more are thought to be missing. The boat was designed to hold 75 people, but officials believe up to 365 boarded the ship.
Reports quoted by Libyan authorities say there were four people-smuggling boats which had sailed from Libya over the weekend. One was rescued after its engine failed on Sunday near a Libyan offshore oilfield.
One of the boats is said to have reached Italy and another one was spotted close to the island of Malta.
The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR expressed shock and sorrow at the reports of the missing migrants.
"This tragic incident illustrates, once again, the dangers faced by people caught in mixed irregular movements of migrants and refugees in the Mediterranean and elsewhere which every year cost thousands of lives," said UNHCR chief spokesman, Ron Redmond.
UNHCR's office in the Italian capital Rome reported two boats have arrived in Italy this week - one carrying 244 people reached Sicily and another with 219 aboard made it to the southernmost island of Lampedusa. It is not clear if either of the boats came from Libya.
Last year, more than 36,000 people arrived in Italy by sea from North Africa. Some 75 percent of them applied for asylum and about 50 percent of those received some form of international protection from the Italian authorities.
Authorities said those aboard included Moroccans and Tunisians as well as migrants from Nigeria, Somalia, Algeri and the Kurdish and Palestinian territories
Italy's interior minister Roberto Maroni claimed on Monday the problem of illegal immigrants from Libya landing on the Italian coast will end in mid-May, when a bilateral agreement to combat illegal immigration enters into force.
Under the bilateral treaty Italy will give Libya millions of dollars in aid while Libya will allow the Italian military conduct joint patrols with its navy in patrolling the country's coasts to intercept people traffickers' boats.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/02/2009 00:00 ||
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"This tragic incident illustrates, once again, the dangers faced by people caught in mixed irregular movements of migrants and refugees in the Mediterranean and elsewhere which every year cost thousands of lives,"
[Maghrebia] The Moroccan government stressed its commitment to freedom of religion despite the expulsion on Sunday (March 29th) of five Christian missionaries. Officials rejected accusations in the media to the contrary.
According to the judicial police in Casablanca, the five expelled missionaries were arrested on Saturday (March 28th) during a proselytising meeting involving Moroccan nationals. Police officers also seized religious materials including books and videos in Arabic.
Communications Minister and government spokesman Khaled Naciri said that the country upholds freedom of religion, provided proselytising and evangelism are not involved. He explained that churches in Morocco are fully aware of the situation.
The expulsion of the five missionaries -- four from Spain and one from Germany --prompted a response on Monday from Rabat Archbishop Monsignor Vincent Landel and Jean Luc Blanc, pastor of the Evangelical Church of Morocco, denouncing any "proselytising" activity in Morocco.
They were keen to stress the key role played by the "official churches" in supporting Christians living in Morocco.
Landel denied having any links with the missionaries and spoke out against the way that some of the media were grouping them all together.
"Missionaries who come here to convert Muslims have no link with the Catholic Church or with the Protestant Church. It is not in our name that they have obtained their residency permits in Morocco."
The archbishop explained that the mission of the Church in Morocco is to help Christians live out their faith in the recognition that they are in a Muslim country. "We help them enter into an Muslim-Christian dialogue, to respect their Muslim brothers and to trust them," he said.
Such a dialogue rules out any kind of proselytising at the intellectual and theological level, the statement continues. Christians are involved in various activities alongside Muslims who share the same values and objectives, despite their differences.
The issue has raised a fresh debate in Moroccan society.
"Just as Western countries protect secularism and the Christian faith from the spread of Islam, Morocco has the right to protect its religion," said Khalid Cherkaoui Semouni, president of the Moroccan Centre for Human Rights. "This is what Morocco's legislation states, forbidding trying to change individuals' faith. The state has the right to apply the law."
"We cannot speak of freedom of religion in this case, because proselytising relies on changing the other person's faith," explained Lahcen Daoudi of the Islamist Justice and Development Party. "We call on the Moroccan authorities to support those Moroccan associations which work in spreading Islam, as well as imams, and Qur'an study groups. The state cannot face such proselytising efforts alone, and needs the support of civil society to monitor those activities and educational programmes."
Related ArticlesWhen asked about the issue, Moroccans on the street had different opinions about the matter.
"I believe the authorities and the media are blowing the issue out of proportion," said Aya Idrissi, a teacher. "There have been missionaries in Morocco for years, and yet they have had little influence on Moroccans, who stick to their Islam. Besides which, we are a tolerant nation, and we accept all monotheistic religions."
Said Arifat, a law student, disagreed. He noted that many young people are easily influenced by the West and need to be protected. "Missionaries could easily convert them, when this is contrary to the Moroccan constitution."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/02/2009 00:00 ||
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[Mail and Globe] MadagascarŽs ousted president Marc Ravalomanana told regional leaders he signed his resignation last month at gunpoint. I think we guessed that. Or was that just me?
Posted by: Fred ||
04/02/2009 00:00 ||
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I guess the alternative was resigning posthumously.
[Mail and Globe] A former Guinea-Bissau prime minister, Jose Fadul, said on Wednesday he was beaten up by men in uniform at his home in the latest violence blamed on the military in the troubled West African country.
Amnesty International said the assault overnight follows the arrest, beating and torture of a well-known lawyer, who like Fadul, was being treated in the country's main Simao Mendez hospital. "Men in uniform forced their way into my house around 1am. They hurled abuse at me and beat me repeatedly and dragged me across the floor," Fadul told AFP by phone.
Fadul was prime minister for several months in 1999 and is currently head of the national audit office. He also leads a small opposition party which is not represented in Parliament.
Hospital director Agostinho Semedo said Fadul's life was not in danger but that he had bruises on his head and upper body.
In a statement, Amnesty said the beating "follows an assault by the military of well-known lawyer Pedro Infanda, who was arrested, severely beaten and tortured for four days by military officials before being transferred to police custody".
The country is reeling from the March 2 assassination by soldiers of President Joao Bernardo Vieira, apparently in reprisal for a bomb blast which killed the army chief of staff the day before.
The government announced on Wednesday it was delaying a presidential election to June 28, two months later than anticipated.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/02/2009 00:00 ||
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[Mail and Globe] Political parties in Guinea-Bissau agreed on Tuesday to hold elections on June 28 to replace the countryŽs assassinated president. Loser takes it, eh?
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] G20 protesters clashed with riot police in downtown London yesterday, breaking into the heavily guarded Royal Bank of Scotland and smashing its windows. Earlier, they tried to storm the Bank of England and pelted police with eggs and fruit.
At least 4,000 nimrods anarchists, fools anti-capitalists, rubes environmentalists and rustics others jammed into London's financial district for what they called "Financial Fool's Day." The protests were called ahead of Thursday's summit of world leaders, who hope to take concrete steps to resolve the global financial crisis that has lashed nations and workers worldwide.
Some protesters spray-painted the side of the RBS building with the phrases "class war" and "thieves." Others pushed against columns of riot police who swatted them away with batons. Demonstrators shouted "Abolish Money!" and clogged streets in the area known as "The City" even as Prime Minister Gordon Brown and President Barack Obama held a news conference elsewhere in the British capital.
At least eight people were arrested but there were no serious injuries reported.
Royal Bank of Scotland is at the center of protesters' anger because it had to be bailed out by the British government after a series of disastrous deals brought it to the brink of bankruptcy. The bank is now majority-owned by the British taxpayer.
Helicopters hovered above the protests and some buildings were boarded up. Many banks had extra security and hundreds of police officers lined the streets.
Demonstrators hoisted effigies of the "four horsemen of the apocalypse," representing war, climate chaos, financial crimes and homelessness.
"The greed that is driving people is tearing us apart," said Steve Lamont, 45, flanked by his family and protesters who were banging on bells, playing drums and blowing whistles.
One police officer lost his helmet and demonstrators tossed it around like a trophy and chanted slogans.
Fearing they would be targeted by protesters, some bankers swapped their pinstripe suits for casual wear and others stayed home. Bolder financial workers leaned out their office windows yesterday, taunting demonstrators and waving 10 pound notes at them.
Especially in Britain, bankers have been lambasted as being greedy and blamed for the recession that is making jobless ranks soar. Protesters waved banners reading "Banks are evil," "Eat the bankers," and "0% interest in others."
One protester dressed as the Easter bunny managed to hop through the police cordon but was stopped before he could reach the Bank of England. Another black-clad demonstrator waved a fake light saber at officers.
Musician and political activist Billy Bragg said the time was now to make a difference. "It's better than sitting down shouting at the television at these bankers," he said. "We cannot go back to the way things were before to the million-dollar bonus culture."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/02/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Just to show you how corrupt and inane the MSM are - more attention is paid to these spoiled idiots than to what is really going on at the meetings - which is more important. Also, the number of protesters in London is equal to the number of protestors at the Cincinnati Tea Party but never a word or TV coverage of that by the MSM. They are becoming more irrelevant each day. I expect to see ads for Publix pretty soon on Rantburg with coupons you can print for fresh Mayport shrimp and Zephyrhills water.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
04/02/2009 8:17 Comments ||
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#2
These idiots need to be forced to live in a society that "abolishes money". See how long they'd last before starving to death.
FWIW, the four horsemen of the apocalypse were pestilence, war, famine, and death not "war, climate chaos, financial crimes and homelessness" or other tranzi foolishness.
#3
One protester dressed as the Easter bunny managed to hop through the police cordon but was stopped before he could reach the Bank of England. Another black-clad demonstrator waved a fake light saber at officers.
Well, obviously, these people should be taken seriously...
#4
Oh, for the days when you could line up a section of twelve-pounders loaded with cannister in the street & have a leather-lunged bailiff read the Act.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
04/02/2009 9:40 Comments ||
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#5
And just to get everyone's undivided attention, through the smoke of the batteries first volley a very aggressive 200m bayonet charge! Bring the guns forward and.... BEGIN ANEW!
#7
The Queen got bailed out by US taxpayers and she doesn't even pay taxes in the UK? I don't know why US capitalists aren't up in arms on Capitol Hill!
#8
At the circus during the high wire act if you blink out the act and look around you'd see in the other rings lots of stuff going on. This protest makes me wonder what is going on that the carnavel is getting the attention.
If you watched Venezuelan state-run television in early 2009, you probably saw a sweetly smiling young Italian woman wearing a neon-green chef's hat and brandishing a pizza while extolling the virtues of indefinite re-election of Hugo Chavez
... The ad also featured an Englishwoman daintily sipping tea, a German dressed something like a yodeler, and a beret-clad Frenchman holding a baguette across his chest.
I had come to Venezuela to cover the Feb. 15 referendum, but I became obsessed by these people. by Alexander Cuadros is a freelance writer based in Bogota, Colombia published by Slate
#2
But he acknowledged that these expat chavistas would never have as much at stake as the Venezuelans involved in the process, because if things turned sour, they could always leave. "You've always got the ticket out," he said; Schmidt, for one, was staying just another week.
That about sums up their dedication to "the cause"...
Mayor Adrian M. Fenty wants to help balance the District's recession-squeezed budget by allowing as many as 80 percent of the city's inmates to qualify for early release, borrowing a tactic that has stirred controversy elsewhere in the nation.
The city hopes to save $4.4 million in fiscal 2010 under the plan, which would reduce the prison population by 2 percent from its current daily average of 3,000 inmates.
Current law permits sentenced inmates to earn up to five days off their sentences each month by completing specified academic and vocational programs. The new proposal would extend the program to pretrial inmates and allow them to earn time off simply by participating in the programs.
Officials said about 2,400 inmates would be eligible to receive good-time credits under the proposal. If each eligible inmate earned an average of five days of good time, it would reduce the average inmate population by about 65 people.
The plan has drawn at least initial concern from a key D.C. Council member, who stressed the importance of ensuring it would not be detrimental to public safety if enacted.
"This is pretty fundamental to public safety, that if we're going to release people early, we need to know that we're doing it right and for a good cause," said Phil Mendelson, at-large Democrat and chairman of the council's Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary.
#1
It's economic stimulus! Does wonders for the alarm and burglar bar industry. Police and courts will have full employment for as far as the eye can see.
Posted by: ed ||
04/02/2009 15:10 Comments ||
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The plan has drawn at least initial concern from a key D.C. Council member, who stressed the importance of ensuring it would not be detrimental to public safety if enacted.
Nahhhhh. C'mahn, why would you think that, Mr. Genius D.C. politician?
#3
I thought all the law breakers, tax cheats, and illegal alien supporters, and anyone else who does not believe in "US Laws" were already appointed to important posts. You mean Washington missed these people?
Posted by: Oscar Snomorong1173 ||
04/02/2009 15:40 Comments ||
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#4
I think the inmates have already been released from the asylum prison and are running Congress and the administration.
#5
If they really wanted to save money, they could completely eliminate the police, the courts and the jails. True, life in the District would be even more hellish than it is now (except around Congress men and women's (places). But they would save money.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
04/02/2009 17:25 Comments ||
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#6
Virginia and Maryland must surely enjoy having New Zimbabwe wedged between them.
#7
Just imagine. When these people are let out, America will have to have its own Green Zone. Finally like the rest of the world, hope they will like us now.
Posted by: Oscar Snomorong1173 ||
04/02/2009 18:21 Comments ||
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#8
D *** NG IT, WHY NOT - IIUC MSM-NET, As per the DHS-FBI WATCH LIST these Agencies have a formal Appeals-Waiver Process for people it can't even publicly or formally admit are on the list to begin with, are have andor ever had been.
E.g. STARS-N-STRIPES/TOPIX > US DOES NOT HAVE ENOUGH AGENTS TO WATCH BORDERS [Mexico].
THE HELL YOU SAY... ... MILYUHNS AND ZILYUHNS AND TILYUHNS....Not unlike OJ SIMPSON, whom was held responsible for murder while not being found directly or indirectly guilty of murder, accessory nor conspiracy for same.
MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. Boat owners are abandoning ship.
They often sandpaper over the names and file off the registry numbers, doing their best to render the boats, and themselves, untraceable. Then they casually ditch the vessels in the middle of busy harbors, beach them at low tide on the banks of creeks or occasionally scuttle them outright.
The bad economy is creating a flotilla of forsaken boats. While there is no national census of abandoned boats, officials in coastal states are worried the problem will only grow worse as unemployment and financial stress continue to rise. Several states are even drafting laws against derelicts and say they are aggressively starting to pursue delinquent owners.
Our waters have become dumping grounds, said Maj. Paul R. Ouellette of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Its got to the point where something has to be done.
Derelict boats are environmental and navigational hazards, leaking toxins and posing obstacles for other craft, especially at night. Thieves plunder them for scrap metal. In a storm, these runabouts and sailboats, cruisers and houseboats can break free or break up, causing havoc.
Some of those disposing of their boats are in the same bind as overstretched homeowners: they face steep payments on an asset that is diminishing in value and decide not to continue. They either default on the debt or take bolder measures.
Marina and maritime officials around the country say they believe, however, that most of the abandoned vessels cluttering their waters are fully paid for. They are expensive-to-maintain toys that have lost their appeal.
The owners cannot sell them, because the secondhand market is overwhelmed. They cannot afford to spend hundreds of dollars a month mooring and maintaining them. And they do not have the thousands of dollars required to properly dispose of them.
When Brian A. Lewis of Seattle tried to sell his boat, Jubilee, no one would pay his asking price of $28,500. Mr. Lewis told the police that maintaining the boat caused extreme anxiety, which led him to him drill a two-inch hole in Jubilees hull last March.
The boat sank in Puget Sound, and Mr. Lewis told his insurance company it was an accident. His scheme came undone when the state, seeking to prevent environmental damage, raised Jubilee. Mr. Lewis pleaded guilty last week to insurance fraud.
While there are no reliable national statistics on boating fraud, Todd Schwede, an insurance investigator in San Diego, said the number of suspicious cases he was handling had roughly tripled in the last year, to around 70.
In many cases, he said, the boater is following this logic: I am overinsured on this boat. If I make it go away so no one will find it, the insurance company will give me enough to cover the debt and Ill make something on the deal as well.
Lt. David Dipre, who coordinates Floridas derelict vessel program, said the handful of owners he had managed to track down were guilty more of negligence than fraud. They say, I had a dream of sailing around the world, I just never got around to it. Then they have some bad times and they leave it to someone else to clean up the mess, Lieutenant Dipre said.
Florida officials say they are moving more aggressively to track down owners and are also starting to unclog the local inlets, harbors, swamps and rivers. The state appropriated funds to remove 118 derelicts this summer, up from only a handful last year.
In South Carolina, four government investigators started canvassing the states waterways in January. They quickly identified 150 likely derelicts.
There are a lot more than we thought there would be, said Lt. Robert McCullough of the state Department of Natural Resources. There were a few boats that have always been there, and now all of a sudden theyve added up and added up.
In January, it became illegal in South Carolina to abandon a boat on a public waterway. Violators can be fined $5,000 and jailed for 30 days.
We never needed a law before, said Gary Santos, a Mount Pleasant councilman. Continued....
DETROIT, April 1 (Reuters) - U.S. auto sales fell 37 percent in March, a smaller-than-expected drop that encouraged hope the world's largest car market is nearing a bottom after a freefall that has pulled the industry into a deepening crisis.
General Motors Corp, which has until June to complete a new restructuring under federal oversight that could push it into bankruptcy, said its sales fell 45 percent, the largest decline of any of the major automakers.
Industry-wide sales dropped for the 17th consecutive month but were up from February with the help of record discounts and higher sales to fleet operators such as government agencies. Auto sales typically account for as much as a fifth of overall U.S. retail sales and industry executives held out hope that the market would hit bottom over the next quarter or so.
"I think we're seeing maybe the first signs of a brightening in the outlook for the auto industry in March," GM chief sales analyst Mike DiGiovanni said on a conference call.
Sales for Ford Motor Co, the only U.S. automaker operating without government aid, dropped 41 percent. Major Japanese automakers and Chrysler LLC posted sales declines in a narrow range between 36 percent and 39 percent.
Overall sales came in at a rate of almost 9.9 million vehicles on the annualized rate tracked by analysts, down sharply from the average near 16 million over the past decade.
"We believe we may be at or near the trough of the industry's year-to-year comparisons but do not see an uptick in industry demand before (the fourth quarter) at the earliest," said Efraim Levy, an equity analyst with Standard & Poor's.
Discounts hit a record in March, averaging $3,169 per vehicle based on the value of offers including rebates and zero-percent financing, auto website Edmunds.com said. Both GM and Ford began rolling out new sales programs intended to win over car shoppers worried about losing their jobs by promising to cover loan payments if that happens.
#1
In its a feature not a bug dept, as real competition made cars more reliable and sustainable through regular maintenance, the market reaches a point where for practical reasons people can choose to put off buying a new car and still have transportation. Expensive fashion statements are among the first to be dropped when the crimp hits the household budget.
#2
This week the "administration" began to show the first indications of an admission that a structured bankruptsy might be the preferred method of dealing with GM. Of course the news could not have been presented by veteran CEO Rick Wagoner. A cleansing "CHANGE" had to take place first and a new talking dog brought on stage. Kegs of Budweiser must be popping at Black Lake. Details of the structured bankruptsy may be quite interesting.
#3
If GM is going to declare bankruptcy, why did we have to give them billions in the past couple of months? Seems to me they should have declared last fall (autumn to you non-Yanks) and saved us a lot of money and gotten on the right track sooner. WTF.
#5
@procopius, it's my take that the emission regs made engines more durable because they had to pass tests after 50K(?) miles. Also, better ring and valve guide technology helped.
In any case, in the '60s we were happy to get 60K from a Chevy valve job. Now, I've got 300K on my Subaru, with no engine problems. It gets about 500 miles per quart, and half of that is leaks. But it's $1000 to fix the leaks, so the payback is maybe 10 years, not including cost of money. I'll just keep feeding it oil.
I'm having problems wearing it out - but the New England rust is starting to get to it. It will never make another 10 years.
I saw a Honda Civic with over 400K miles on it, and it looked like the engine had never been touched. The trick is to change the oil every 3000 miles.
#6
My 1999 Chevrolet Cavalier has 158,000 miles on it. I still get 30 mpg. I don't, however do much city driving.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/02/2009 11:56 Comments ||
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#7
I currently own an 1988 Isuzu pickup 5 speed stick,(Sorta a chevy, chevy owns isuzu, twin to an S 10) it's rusting, but the drivetrain's sound, needs occasional U joints, and just put in a replacement Radiator, considering it's got around 250 K I'm very happy with it.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/02/2009 12:05 Comments ||
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#8
I just got a much better paying job and a promotion, but it is farther away so we will have to buy a new car.
Make me a deal, auto-boy! I know you are desperate as a drunk-ugly woman at last call!
#10
I had a 85 BMW for 750,000 miles. After initial break-in I used Mobil 1 oil for it's entire life. Although the compression was nothing like new it still did't turn into a hybrid, burning oil and gas. I used a quart every 2,000 to 2,500 miles.
I was having expensive non powertrain problems. In 06 the heater core went. It seems the Huns hold up the heater core and build the car around it. Lot's of labor cost to replace so I sold the car to the State of California for $650 and sent it to the big parking lot in the sky.
#12
I bought my new 1983 F250 HD with a 6.9L diesel in May 1983. It's so old it has been grandfathered out of my state's emissions testing program. It has 160,000 miles on it. Starts & runs well, Gets 22-24 mpg around town, empty. In 2001 I hit a deer while going 70 mph, the front mounted spare saved me a lot of trouble & the damage was repaired cheap. The clutch hydraulics went out last week. What to do, what to do...
[Al Arabiya Latest] World leaders wrangled Wednesday about how to fix the global economy, as anti-capitalist protestors attacked a bank in central London on the eve of a G20 economic summit.
As demonstrators laid siege to the Bank of England and smashed the windows of a nearby bank that has become a symbol of the financial crisis in Britain, leaders including U.S. President Barack Obama struggled to overcome U.S.-Europe tensions over how to ease the global slowdown.
Leaders wrangle
" I will not associate myself with a false summit, that concludes with a statement of hollow compromises, that does not address the problems that we face "
French President Sarkozy
France and Germany demanded tough action by the summit and Obama warned the United States could no longer be counted on to be the "voracious consumer" which would lead worldwide growth.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said France and Germany rejected the current summit proposals on reforming the financial system and cracking down on tax havens and corporate bonuses.
Reports suggest Sarkozy may stage a walk out
But other leaders played down his threat to walk out of the summit which even the German government said was "not the best idea."
"I'm confident that President Sarkozy will be at the first course of the dinner and that he will complete the dinner," said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the threat, referring to a pre-summit leaders' meal at Downing Street Wednesday night.
Sarkozy and Brown agreed on the need for tougher world finance rules, the French presidency said, but Sarkozy said before leaving Paris there had been no agreement on a summit communiqué.
"Neither France nor Germany are satisfied with the proposals as they currently stand," said the French leader. "I will not associate myself with a false summit, that concludes with a statement of hollow compromises, that does not address the problems that we face," Sarkozy said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/02/2009 00:00 ||
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Obama warned the United States could no longer be counted on to be the "voracious consumer" which would lead worldwide growth.
Planning to turn it into a country of peasants who eat what they grow?
[Jakarta Post] Japan began offering money Wednesday for unemployed foreigners of Japanese ancestry to go home, mostly to Brazil and Peru, to stave off what officials said posed a serius unemployment problem.
Thousands of foreigners of Japanese ancestry, who had been hired on temporary or referral contracts, have lost their jobs recently, mostly at manufacturers such as Toyota Motor Corp. and its affiliates, which are struggling to cope with a global downturn.
The number of foreignrs seeking government help to find jobs has climbed in recent months to 11 times the previous year at more than 9,000 people, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
"The program is to respond to a growing social problem," said ministry official Hiroshi Yamashita.
Japan has tight immgration laws, and generally allows only skilled foreign workers to enter the country. The new program applies only to Brazilians and Peruvians of Japanese ancestry who have gotten special visas to do assembly line and other manufacturing labor. It does not apply to other foreigners in Japan, Yamashita said.
The government will give 300,000 yen ($3,000) to an unemployed foreigner of Japanese ancestry who wishes to leave the country, and 200,000 ($2,000) each to family members, the ministry said. But they must forgo returning to Japan to live and work under the special enry granted those of Japanese ancestry. They can come as tourists or other work visas.
The budget for the aid is still undecided, it said.
The visa program for South Americans of Japanese ancestry was introduced partly in response to a labor shortage in Japan, where the population is shrinking and aging. But the need for such workers has dwindled in recent months after the global financial crisis hit last year. The jobless rate has risen to 4.4 percent, a three-year high.
Tokyo has already allocated 1.08 billion yen ($10.9 million) for training, including Japanese language lessons, for 5,000 foreign workers of Japanese ancestry.
Major companies traditionally offer lifetime employment to their rank and file, and so workers hired on temporary contracts have been the first to lose their jobs in this recession.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/02/2009 00:00 ||
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[Beirut Daily Star: Region] President Nicolas Sarkozy insisted Wednesday that G20 leaders must use their London summit to crack down on tax havens, warning Paris and Berlin are not happy with current drafts for an accord.
France has thrown down the gauntlet ahead of Thursday's summit of leading world economies, threatening to walk out unless there is a deal on tough new regulation of global finance and curbing offshore tax havens.
Sarkozy said he spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel late Tuesday and that they had agreed that, while "no firm agreement has been reached" between G20 negotiators, the latest draft deal "didn't add up."
"Neither France nor Germany are satisfied with the proposals as they currently stand," Sarkozy told Europe 1 radio just hours before taking the presidential jet to London.
"We are on exactly the same wavelength," said the French leader, stressing that Paris and Berlin "will carry a European vision, based on European values" to the two-day summit.
For her part, Merkel said she was going to London with a mixture of confidence and concern.
Sarkozy said some G20 powers had shown "less enthusiasm" for tough new rules, citing the "relative tolerance" shown in the past by so-called "Anglo-Saxon" states toward tax havens, and also singling out China.
The G-20 meeting has exposed painful divisions over how best to tackle the crisis, which the World Bank forecast would see the global economy contract by 1.7 percent this year.
While the United States, the United Kingdom and others put the emphasis on massive stimulus spending, many European countries led by France and Germany insist tighter global financial regulation is the priority to preventing new crises.
Japanese Premier Taro Aso launched a new salvo Wednesday with a Financial Times interview hitting out at EU leaders' reluctance to pump more stimulus funds into their economies.
But the White House has played down suggestions of a rift, and Obama has said any talk of regulation versus stimulus was a "phony debate."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/02/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
and the worst thing is that neither of them is right!
[ADN Kronos] The United States' decision to run for election next month to the United Nations Human Rights Council is a step toward more engaged and effective US leadership on human rights worldwide, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday.
"Active involvement by the US will bring new energy and focus to the Human Rights Council's deliberations and actions, helping it become a more credible force for human rights promotion," said Kenneth Roth, executive director at Human Rights Watch.
"We hope this marks the start of a new era of US engagement and leadership on behalf of human rights."
The Human Rights Council, established in 2006 and based in Geneva, Switzerland, is the leading multilateral body tasked with protecting and enforcing human rights. It also carries out routine, periodic reviews of human rights conditions in every UN member nation.
The administration of president Barack Obama's announcement on Tuesday that it would run for a seat in May's elections to the council represents a significant policy shift.
The administration of previous US president George W. Bush declined to run for a seat on the council and, in 2008, suspended its participation as an observer at the council.
The Human Rights Council has been criticised in the past for failing to address effectively the wide range of serious human rights problems around the world and has been accused of bias in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Nevertheless, the council has an array of pressing issues on its agenda, including torture, women's rights, and the need to ensure that human rights violators are brought to justice, the group said.
It is also monitoring crisis situations in Sri Lanka, Somalia and elsewhere in the world.
"By running for a seat, and exercising principled leadership as a member of the council, the United States can now help this important institution fulfil its potential," HRW concluded.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/02/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Is this just Barry wanting to get in on the UNHRC's monthly condemnations of Israel or is he attempting to find work for Carter, Andrew Young, or Bernadette Dohrn....or both?
#2
"By running for a seat, and exercising principled leadership as a member of the council, the United States can now help this important institution fulfil its potential," HRW concluded.
#4
Well it's currently a cesspool. If you don't try to fix something you have no right to bitch about it... of course, my idea of "fix" and BO's may be a tad different....
April 1, 2009: The sunspot cycle is behaving a little like the stock market. Just when you think it has hit bottom, it goes even lower.
2008 was a bear. There were no sunspots observed on 266 of the year's 366 days (73%). To find a year with more blank suns, you have to go all the way back to 1913, which had 311 spotless days: plot. Prompted by these numbers, some observers suggested that the solar cycle had hit bottom in 2008.
Maybe not. Sunspot counts for 2009 have dropped even lower. As of March 31st, there were no sunspots on 78 of the year's 90 days (87%).
It adds up to one inescapable conclusion: "We're experiencing a very deep solar minimum," says solar physicist Dean Pesnell of the Goddard Space Flight Center.
"This is the quietest sun we've seen in almost a century," agrees sunspot expert David Hathaway of the Marshall Space Flight Center.
Above: The sunspot cycle from 1995 to the present. The jagged curve traces actual sunspot counts. Smooth curves are fits to the data and one forecaster's predictions of future activity. Credit: David Hathaway, NASA/MSFC.
#1
The changes so far are not enough to reverse the course of global warming
They had to put that in somewhere even though the main point of the article is that we don't understand the sun very well. I wonder how many climate change models have solar input as a constant?
#2
While they're at it, perhaps they can explain just how CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere could possibly affect the fusion reations in the sun's interior.
Posted by: Mike ||
04/02/2009 10:54 Comments ||
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#3
I wonder how many climate change models have solar input as a constant?
All of them. As a constant constant.
But none consider this chain of effects: less solar activity, less solar wind, more incident cosmic rays (particles, actually), more cloud seeding, higher albedo, less energy reaching the troposphere and below.
#8
While they're at it, perhaps they can explain just how CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere could possibly affect the fusion reations in the sun's interior.
Why the same way the CO2 levels in Earth atnosphere cause Global Warming on Mars and Venus silly!
#9
While they're at it, perhaps they can explain just how CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere could possibly affect the fusion reations in the sun's interior.
It just does when you wish for it hard enough. Now click your heels three times.
Posted by: ed ||
04/02/2009 14:53 Comments ||
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#10
Send somebody up there to check it out. Better send them at night though...
#12
I don't think they are quite saying C02 has caused this solar minimum. But they sure are missing the point KBK makes. It is perhaps the biggest of the many problems with these politicized climate models.
My favorite sign of ignorance was when the tsunami was blamed on our climate policies. That one did happen.
The thinking that KBK applies, which includes 2nd and 3rd order effects, acknowledges uncertainty and involves complex interactions is beyond the mental ability of the typical environmental leftist. Their motivations range from raw emotion so a sort of retro-pagan religion in which the Hansens of the world are high priests. They lack historical knowledge, logic and basic understanding of the 'scientific method.'
The only good side to the current economic downturn I see is that there might be a lot less support for their marxist policy solutions to poorly understood climatic phenomena.
#13
"The only good side to the current economic downturn I see is that there might be a lot less support for their marxist policy solutions to poorly understood climatic phenomena."
'Fraid not, JAB.
The high priests and acolytes around the globe have already said that global recession/depression is no excuse to abandon their policies to put the rest of us in the poorhouse while they live high on the hog "save" earth. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/02/2009 21:11 Comments ||
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#14
Yeah, Republicans driving SUV's are causing the Red Spot on Jupiter to shrink, too.
[Straits Times] THAILANDŽS government said on Wednesday that it was open to talks with ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to end a fresh surge in political unrest that threatens to undo efforts to revive a slumping economy.
Thousands of Thaksin protesters have surrounded the seat of government in Bangkok for the past week in a bid to force out Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, the latest escalation in ThailandŽs three-year-old political crisis.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/02/2009 00:00 ||
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[Straits Times] A NINE-year-old Malaysian pupil who was caned in the hands by a woman teacher at the school on Tuesday, died on Wednesday. According to Negri Sembilan police chief Osman Salleh, the boy had complained about feeling dizzy after the caning session. On seeing that his condition had taken a turn for the worse, the school authorities contacted his parents before sending him to the Segamat Hospital for treatment.
'The parents, however, had him transferred to the Sultanah Aminah Hospital in Johor Baru but later brought him back home the same day after being told by hospital authorities that chances of their son recovering were slim,' he told reporters after attending a blood donation campaign at the Negri Sembilan police headquarters here on Wednesday.
He said it was understood the boy had 'central nervous system problems' and dismissed allegations that the caning had caused his death.
He added that the boy died at home at 3.30am on Wednesday.
Mr Osman said that on a personal note, in future, he advised parents to inform school authorities if their children were suffering any ailment. 'This way the schools will have proper records on the health condition of their charges ... teachers will be extra cautious when taking any disciplinary action against them,' he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/02/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Ah, they didn't advise the school! The whole thing was the parents' fault. Glad we cleared that one up.
[Straits Times] DEFENCE lawyers on Wednesday demanded that CambodiaŽs war crimes court release the prison chief of the Khmer Rouge regime, a day after he issued a dramatic apology for his brutal past.
Duch on Tuesday accepted responsibility for supervising the extermination of around 15,000 people between 1975 and 1979 at the notorious Tuol Sleng prison under the hardline communist movement. "I said I was rilly, rilly sorry for slaughtering 15,000 people. Can I go home now?"
Posted by: Fred ||
04/02/2009 00:00 ||
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[Jakarta Post] The Attorney General's Office has on Wednesday slapped a ban on three Century Bank embezzlement suspects: Robert Tantular, Hermanus Hasan Muslim and Laurence Kusuma.
Robert, who also owns ailing securities firm PT Antaboga Delta Sekuritas, is suspected of having embezzled a total of Rp 233 billion (US$19.4 million) worth of customers' funds to 62 bank accounts.
According to AGO spokesman Jasman Pandjaitan, the ban is effective as the three suspects had been detained by the AGO since last Wednesday. "We've issued the ban so as to avoid any possibility of them fleeing the country," he argued, as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.
Pandjaitan added that the AGO was closely cooperating with the Immigration Department. "The travel ban is still being finalized," he said, adding that state prosecutors were in their final stage of formulating their prosecution for Tantular and colleagues. "Once it is completed, we will hand over the case to the court," Tantular said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/02/2009 00:00 ||
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Nice...
AUSTIN, Texas Just nine people accounted for nearly 2,700 of the emergency room visits in the Austin area during the past six years at a cost of $3 million to taxpayers and others, according to a report. The patients went to hospital emergency rooms 2,678 times from 2003 through 2008, said the report from the nonprofit Integrated Care Collaboration, a group of health care providers who care for low-income and uninsured patients.
"What we're really trying to do is find out who's using our emergency rooms ... and find solutions," said Ann Kitchen, executive director of the group, which presented the report last week to the Travis County Healthcare District board.
The average emergency room visit costs $1,000. Hospitals and taxpayers paid the bill through government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, Kitchen said. But of course...
Eight of the nine patients have drug abuse problems, seven were diagnosed with mental health issues and three were homeless. Five are women whose average age is 40, and four are men whose average age is 50, the report said, the Austin American-Statesman reported Wednesday.
"It's a pretty significant issue," said Dr. Christopher Ziebell, chief of the emergency department at University Medical Center at Brackenridge, which has the busiest ERs in the area. Ya think, doc?
Solutions include referring some frequent users to mental health programs or primary care doctors for future care, Ziebell said. I got some solutions. But I don't think they'd like them...
"They have a variety of complaints," he said. With mental illness, "a lot of anxiety manifests as chest pain."
#1
I've worked in my share of ERs. None of this is news.
Potential solutions:
1) rebuild inpatient mental health facilities. That has its own problems.
2) better drug rehab. That has its own problems and doesn't work well anyway.
3) shunt patients who aren't sick to primary care centers. Been tried, doesn't work well.
4) shelter the homeless. Bush administration did that; it worked; he got no credit.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/02/2009 13:05 Comments ||
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#2
Solution.... END the federal mandate regarding hospital walk-in care and make these bastids get an appointment with a doc and PAY for services rendered like the rest of us.
#3
How about this for those without insurance who aren't bleeding, choking, or in the process of a heart attack or some other obvious emergency: admit them to a free clinic next door to the emergency room where they can wait in line and be seen by a health care provider. It would be much cheaper than an emergency room and the long waits would would deter all but those who really feel they need to be seen.
#5
Adopt the Chinese model: cash up front, and stand in line at the registration desk, before treatment. Doesn't matter if you're bleeding, delirious, unconscious, or whatever.
NEW YORK -- Veteran radio host Ed Schultz will have his own hourlong program on MSNBC, starting Monday. Oooh! Oooh! I remember him! The lefties were gonna put him up against Limbaugh and blow him out of the water. How'd that go, by the way? Has Limbaugh decided to steal a senate seat someplace, since he has no audience left?
Schultz has spent 30 years in talk radio and has a syndicated show that airs from noon to 3 p.m. each day.
MSNBC announced Wednesday that he'll replace a politically oriented show currently anchored by David Shuster at 6 p.m. on weekdays.
He's another liberal voice for an MSNBC evening audience that's already used to a leftward tilt with Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow. MSNBC calls him an "avid voice for the middle class"
Shuster will work with Tamron Hall as a breaking news anchor from 3 to 5 p.m.
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.
Mayor Adrian M. Fenty wants to help balance the District's recession-squeezed budget by allowing as many as 80 percent of the city's inmates to qualify for early release, borrowing a tactic that has stirred controversy elsewhere in the nation. 
They often sandpaper over the names and file off the registry numbers, doing their best to render the boats, and themselves, untraceable. Then they casually ditch the vessels in the middle of busy harbors, beach them at low tide on the banks of creeks or occasionally scuttle them outright. 
DETROIT, April 1 (Reuters) - U.S. auto sales fell 37 percent in March, a smaller-than-expected drop that encouraged hope the world's largest car market is nearing a bottom after a freefall that has pulled the industry into a deepening crisis.
[ADN Kronos]
[Jakarta Post] Japan began offering money Wednesday for unemployed foreigners of Japanese ancestry to go home, mostly to Brazil and Peru, to stave off what officials said posed a serius unemployment problem. 
[Beirut Daily Star: Region] President Nicolas Sarkozy insisted Wednesday that G20 leaders must use their London summit to crack down on tax havens, warning Paris and Berlin are not happy with current drafts for an accord.
NEW YORK -- Veteran radio host Ed Schultz will have his own hourlong program on MSNBC, starting Monday.
