"Together, Brenner and Beale implemented a plan, which this report refers to as 'EPA's Playbook,'" the senators continued. "The Playbook includes several tools first employed in the 1997 process, including sue-and-settle arrangements with a friendly outside group, manipulation of science, incomplete cost-benefit analysis reviews, heavy-handed management of interagency review processes, and capitalizing on information asymmetry, reinforced by resistance to transparency. Ultimately, the guiding principal behind the Playbook is the Machiavellian principal that the ends will justify the means."
Fred Phelps Sr., a fierce opponent of homosexuality whose protests at military funerals prompted two federal laws, died shortly after midnight Thursday, his daughter Margie Phelps says. She didn't give the cause of death or the condition that recently put him in hospice care. He was 84.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/20/2014 20:34 Comments ||
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Good Riddance to bad rubbish.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/20/2014 20:54 Comments ||
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An interesting, brief piece about the gentleman. His obnoxious behaviour was only a public exhibition of the abuse he'd been raining in his family for decades.
[CBS] HOWARD SCHULTZ: I think one thing that is necessary is a comprehensive mechanism for job training. But another is the fact that, depending on who you're talking to, 20, 30, 40 percent of the two million people who have served are coming back with some kind of brain trauma or PTS [Post-Traumatic Stress]. So we're going to fund the opportunity for significant research and for medical practitioners and science to understand the disease and, ultimately, hopefully, come up with some -- a level of remedy.
Good for him. This is research that will benefit society in general as well as returning veterans. Thank you, sir.
Fine thing to do indeed and I thank him. Devil is in the details. I'd want to see how the research funds are allocated and administered. If he does it the way the Gates Foundation handles research dollars I'll be quite pleased.
[FOXNEWS] Last November, the Arizona Game and Fish Department implemented the first phase of a three-year plan to transplant the creatures from the Yuma area into the Catalinas, where they once lived. Wildlife officials in the state said they spent $150,000 -- none of which was taxpayer money -- to catch 31 bighorns by helicopter, place satellite transmitter collars on them and transport the herd to the Santa Catalina Mountains just north of Tucson.
Four months later, 15 of the bighorns had been killed by mountain lions that thrive in the area -- leaving some animal welfare advocates to question whether such a plan was prudent on the part of an independent panel formed by state wildlife officials.
The Catalina Bighorn Advisory Committee -- comprised of groups such as the Arizona Desert Bighorn Sheep Society, the Wilderness Society and the Center for Biological Diversity -- had recommended that officials not kill any mountain lions prior to the transplant of bighorns.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
If only Obambi had signed an Executive Order.
Posted by: Steven ||
03/20/2014 4:16 Comments ||
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The answer is simple - transplant 310,000 bighorns, The mountain lions get fat and stop eating the sheep. The First Lady can feed tofu to the fat mountain lions. Winnahs all around.
#4
Mental image: Two puma's with fat bellies, laying in the shade. One of them's smoking a cigarette. The other one says "Jeebus, who threw this party, anyway?"
Just as a side note, when you're running around in a jetranger catching sheep, $150K wouldn't take you that far. I suspect unorthodox cash flow.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/20/2014 12:24 Comments ||
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Ice muss go nouw! We have special visitor and barge trip coming. Plenty hot Yak-Ka-mien soup for granny, kiddies, everyone. Hurry, ice mo bombs nouw dimmit !
[Forbes] After Tan Nguyen was pulled over for driving three miles above the speed limit, he had $50,000 confiscated by a Nevada deputy. According to Nguyen, that money was casino winnings. As reported last week at Forbes, Nguyen "was not locked away Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! or charged with a crime--not even a traffic citation."
He filed a lawsuit in federal court, arguing his civil rights were violated by an "unconstitutional search and seizure." In that lawsuit, Nguyen claimed Deputy Lee Dove, who had pulled him over for speeding, threatened to seize and tow his car unless he "got in his car and drove off and forgot this ever happened."
But in a settlement reached last week with Humboldt County, Nevada, Nguyen was fully reimbursed for all of the cash that was taken from him. He also received $10,000 to cover attorney's fees. In addition, the settlement fully reimbursed $2,400 to Matt Lee, who, like Nguyen, was pulled over and had his cash confiscated by Dove on I-80. Lee slammed that seizure as "highway robbery."
In a statement released last Friday, the Humboldt County District Attorney's Office noted the two cases raised "procedural issues." The stops were "legally made" and the cash "lawfully seized."
Nguyen's attorney disagrees. "If they had a defense, they wouldn't have paid us," said John Ohlson, a Reno lawyer who represented Nguyen. These cash seizures are a "hot-button topic in Humboldt County," Ohlson added. "A lot of people don't like it."
The settlement is certainly great news for Nguyen and Lee. As the Institute for Justice noted previously, victories in civil forfeiture cases are rather rare, partially because "many victims of civil forfeiture simply don't have the resources to defend themselves in court. Since litigation can cost more than the property that was taken, many seizures aren't even contested." When wins do happen, they can make national headlines, as did IJ's successful defense of property owners in Massachusetts, Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, and Michigan.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2014 00:00 ||
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What kind of a cop pulls someone over for three freakin' MPH above the limit?
For example, there's a little strip of HWY 47 just south of Albuquerque beyond the Isleta Reservation with two little villages that are the essence of 'speed trap' revenue (the Res doesn't count as it's Indian land, but almost as active).
All in Spanish and from a Twitter interview of a man claiming to be the son of jailed leader of the Sinaloa Cartel Joaquin Guzman Loera AKA El Chapo (or Shorty). Every reason exists to doubt the veracity of the source, but when we're talking about needling an Argentinian and a Mexican socialist, let's just say more speech is more speech.
Ovidio Guzman Lopez, son of jailed Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquin Guzman Loera told journalists over a twitter feed that Argentinian president Cristina Fernandez and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto both took money for their respective political campaigns.
[An Nahar] Russia will build a rail and road bridge from Crimea to southern Russia, President Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... said Wednesday, confirming the long-planned project would go ahead after Russia seized the peninsula.
"Here we need a bridge to take both cars and trains," Putin said at a meeting with his ministers, cited on the Kremlin website.
The bridge would allow Russia to deliver people and cargoes directly to Crimea without going through mainland Ukraine. Currently there is only a basic car and pedestrian ferry service across the 4.5 kilometer (2.8 mile) wide Kerch strait.
Transport minister Maxim Sokolov earlier this week estimated the project would cost a minimum 50 billion rubles ($1.4 billion) and take at least three-and-a-half years.
Ukrainian officials previously put the cost at $1-3 billion.
Sokolov told Putin that Russia was also studying the option of building a rail tunnel under the seabed, where he said there were "complex geological and hydrological conditions."
"We will carry out all these parallel processes as quickly as possible in order to start the construction of the bridge as soon as possible," the transport minister said.
A front man for state monopoly Russian Railways, cited by RIA Novosti news agency, said the company was "ready to take part in developing the project."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2014 00:00 ||
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'Shovel Ready' projects, yea, I get it. Now what about my NCAA picks photo-op ?
Ukrainian crisis has its consequences for Kazakhstan, according to the Kazakh oppositional politician, Amirzhan Kosanov.
"On one hand, Kazakhstan has already supported the preservation of Ukraine's territorial integrity. And this is a fundamental thing. On the other hand, President Nazarbayev said 'he understands the position of Russia, which defends the rights of national minorities in Ukraine, as well as its security interests'," Kosanov told Trend in an interview.
He said this is critically perceived not only domestically, but also by other partners and neighbours. At the same time, he reminded that Kazakhstan has 7,000 kilometres long common border with the Russian Federation and a great level of economic ties.
And they prefer that Estonia, not them, be next...
Kosanov believes that the Ukrainian crisis in the context of annexing a part of its territories to Russia, of course, has consequences for Kazakhstan. He said the impact of events around Ukraine to the Central Asia, as a whole, and to Kazakhstan, in particular, should be viewed through the prism of two important foreign policy aspects: relations of the countries with Russia, also with the European Union and the United States.
"The more country is dependant on Russia, the more it will be loyal to Russia's policy regarding Ukraine," Kosanov said.
Secondly, he said Kazakhstan and Russia have been closely interrelated in the framework of the Customs Union and the Eurasian Union, which is being formed. Also Kazakhstan's energy resources are being exported through Russia and the economic legislation is being unified.
"For this reason, the sanctions that the leading Western countries intend to implement against Russia, will, of course, have 'a boomerang' effect on our economy too. In the current post-crisis period, it can lead to serious consequences," Kosanov added.
He believes that the military aspect also has much significance. As is known, Kazakhstan and Russia are Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) members. CSTO members are linked by alliance obligations during military conflicts.
"But all these should not in any way harm the foundations of sovereignty and preservation of Kazakhstan's territorial integrity, and while protecting these inalienable values and principles any country should be consistent, including in publicly voicing its position!," the politician stressed.
He also reminded about Kazakhstan's earlier stated foreign policy priority. This priority is reflected in the "Path to Europe" program signed earlier by Kazakh president.
"Most of Kazakhstan supports such a development vector. And this can not be ignored in the current very difficult situation in the post-Soviet area," Amirzhan Kosanov said.
Unless Russia objects, of course...
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/20/2014 00:00 ||
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I expect Kazakhstan to lose Baikonur Cosmodrome and surrounding area to same logic as Crimea.
Kazakhstan reiterates its commitment to the fundamental principles of the international law in accordance with the UN Charter in connection with the holding of a referendum in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea on March 16, 2014, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry said on March 18.
Somebody in Kazakhstan got the message...
"Kazakhstan considers Crimea's referendum as a free expression of the Autonomous Republic population's will and understands the decision of the Russian Federation in these circumstances," according to the statement.
Kazakhstan stands for Ukraine's peaceful ways out of the crisis and its overcoming through the negotiation process under the auspices of the UN and other international organizations, according to the foreign ministry's statement.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/20/2014 00:00 ||
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Charles Lane picks apart Vlad Putin's latest stemwinder in a series of tweets at Twitchy. But no, you shouldn't compare Putin to Hitler, that would be, well, wrong...
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/20/2014 09:19 ||
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Crimea should never have been part of Ukraine in the first place. It was just Khruschev doling out new opportunities (certainties) for corruption to his Ukraine supporters.
All this Western posturing is at best ridiculous and at worst very dangerous.
#3
IMO Russia main agenda per the Ukraine-Crimea Crisis is preempting or containing the Soon-to-be-Nuclear Global Jihad + any Muslim great powers derived from same.
Its other agenda is keeping Germany from returning to Militarism + acquiring NucWeaps - ditto for China in East Asia vee Japan.
IIUC Ukraine repor desires EU help to convert the now-Russian controlled Crimea into a "demilitarized zone" - IT SHOULD BE THE OPPOSITE, I.E. ALLOW RUSSIA TO FORTIFY THE CRIMEA WHILE THE UKRAINE PER SE IS SEMI-DEMILITARIZED.
I believe Putin will accept a moderate level of NATO-EU conventional forces based in the Ukraine but NOT US-led GMD-TMD unless under "joint" US-Russian control.
In Russia's view, US-LED "SPACE DEFENSE" E.G. GLOBAL PROMPT STRIKE = INCLUSIVE OF ITS ANTI-THESIS US-LED "SPACE OFFENSE" I.E. SPACE-BASED PREEMPTIVE, FIRST-STRIKE + FOLLOW-ON WHICH RUSSIA FEARS BECAUSE IT PRESENTLY HAS NOTHING TO MATCH THE US SYSTEMS.
Despite the rhetoric, a Russo-Ukraine War or US-Russia war + related can still be avoided iff the cards are played right.
#4
* VOICE OF RUSSIA > RUSSIA + US MANAGED TO NEGOTIATE THEIR NUCLEAR ARSEBALS, WHY NOT COOPERATE ON UKRAINE?
Yeah, D *** NG IT, why not???
* SAME > CRIMEA REUNIFICATION NOT SUBJECT TO REVISION, LAVROV TELLS KERRY.
Ditto CHINA = TAIWAN, OKINAWA-SENKAKUS, SOUTH CHINA SEA???
* SAME > CRIMEA REUNIFICATION WID RUSSIA A TURNING POINT IN TWO NATIONS' DESTINIES - LAVROV.
Yuuup.
Also safe to say ditto for OWG America = Amerika vee Pro-US-vs-Anti-US Globalism, to include as agz China + Iran, etc.
Iff Putin ignores Obama + Kerry + Biden ala the Ukraine-Crimea Crisis, + sends in Russian forces anyway, WHY WOULD ONE BELIEVE CHINA + IRAN, ESPEC CHINA, WON'T DO THE SAME.
Lest we fergit, USSR LEADER JOSEf STALIN = "HOW MANY TANK DIVISIONS DOES THE POPE HAVE"!?
[An Nahar] Ukraine's security chief said on Wednesday he had instructed the foreign ministry to introduce visas for Russians in response to the Kremlin's claim on its flashpoint Crimea peninsula.
"The foreign ministry has been instructed to introduce a visa regime with the Russian Federation," Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council chief Andriy Parubiy told a televised presser.
Parubiy also said that Kiev had decided to withdraw from the Moscow-led Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) alliance that replaced the Soviet Union.
"A decision was taken... to begin the process of withdrawing from the CIS," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2014 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Pro-Russian forces captured Ukraine's naval commander after seizing his headquarters in Crimea on Wednesday as Moscow's grip tightened on the peninsula despite Western warnings its "annexation" would not go unpunished, as Kiev said it would start pulling its troops out of the disputed region.
Later on Wednesday, Russian forces seized control of a second Ukrainian navy base in western Crimea, Agence La Belle France Presse news hounds saw, hours after capturing the main navy headquarters in Sevastopol.
Some 50 Ukrainian servicemen were seen filing out of the base at Novoozerne as Russian soldiers stood by, while pro-Moscow turbans raised the Russian flag over the base.
Later on Wednesday, Ukraine's acting president said Crimea's separatist leaders had three hours to release the detained head of the ex-Soviet state's navy or face "an adequate response."
"Unless Admiral (Sergiy) Gayduk and all the other hostages -- both military and civilian ones -- are released, the authorities will carry out an adequate response... of a technical and technological nature," he said in a statement.
Ukraine's government also said it was drawing up plans to withdraw its troops from Crimea, noting that it will seek U.N. support to turn Crimea into a demilitarized zone.
"We are developing a plan that would enable us not only to withdraw servicemen, but also members of their families in Crimea, so that they could be quickly and efficiently moved to mainland Ukraine," Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council chief Andriy Parubiy told a televised presser.
Also on Wednesday, Kiev said it was dispatching its defense minister but Crimea's regional leader said he would be barred from entry amid mounting tensions in a region at the epicenter of the worst East-West standoff since the Cold War.
Dozens of despondent Ukrainian soldiers -- one of them in tears -- filed out of the Ukraine's main navy base in the Black Sea port city of Sevastopol after its storming by hundreds of pro-Kremlin protesters and Russian troops.
"We have been temporarily disbanded," a Ukrainian lieutenant who identified himself only as Vlad told Agence La Belle France Presse.
"I was born here and I grew up here and I have been serving for 20 years," he said as a Russian flag went up over the base without a single shot being fired in its defense. "Where am I going to go?"
A Russian forces' representative said that Ukraine's navy commander Sergiy Gayduk -- appointed after his predecessor switched allegiance in favor of Crimea's pro-Kremlin authorities at the start of the month -- were tossed into the calaboose.
"He was blocked and he had nowhere to go. He was forced out and he has been taken away," Igor Yeskin told news hounds.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2014 00:00 ||
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Russia signaled concern on Wednesday at Estonia's treatment of its large ethnic Russian minority, comparing language policy in the Baltic state with what it said was a call in Ukraine to prevent the use of Russian.
Russia has defended its annexation of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula by arguing it has the right to protect Russian-speakers outside its borders, so the reference to linguistic tensions in another former Soviet republic comes at a highly sensitive moment.
Sort of like the way the Germans thought they had the right to defend the Sudetenland...
Russia fully supported the protection of the rights of linguistic minorities, a Moscow diplomat told the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, according to a summary of the session issued by the U.N.'s information department.
"Language should not be used to segregate and isolate groups," the diplomat was reported as saying. Russia was "concerned by steps taken in this regard in Estonia as well as in Ukraine," the Moscow envoy was said to have added.
The text of the Russian remarks, echoing long-standing complaints over Estonia's insistence that the large Russian minority in the east of the country should be able to speak Estonian, was not immediately available.
But amid the growing Crimea crisis, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - which like Ukraine were all parts of the old Soviet Union - have expressed growing apprehension over Moscow's intentions. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden is currently in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius as part of a trip to reassure the three countries, all European Union and NATO members, of Washington's support.
And we all know what a promise from Joe Biden is worth...
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/20/2014 00:00 ||
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Mean while the WH crisis center has assemble their best minds to counter any Russian advancement on the territorial sovereignty of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Belarus and (have they missed any ?)
Ukraine is drawing up plans to withdraw its soldiers and their families from Crimea, Kiev's security chief says. Andriy Parubiy said they wanted to move them "quickly and efficiently" to mainland Ukraine.
They're just advancing in another direction...
Mr Parubiy, in a news conference, set out more details on Kiev's position in light of the events in Crimea. He said arrangements were now being set up to introduce visas for Russian nationals travelling to Ukraine.
That'll show those Russians. You'll need a visa to invade...
And he said Kiev was seeking UN support to "proclaim Crimea a demilitarised zone", which would involve the withdrawal of Russian troops and the "relocation of Ukrainian troops to continental Ukraine as well as facilitate evacuation of all the civilian population who are unwilling to remain on the occupied territory".
Does he not know that Russia has veto power in the Security Council?
Ukraine is also leaving the Moscow-led Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) alliance, and is preparing for military exercises with the US and the UK, Mr Parubiy added.
Obama will schedule the first exercises sometime for 2023...
With reference to plans to withdraw troops and their families, Ukraine's interim Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsya told the BBC that they would not be forced to leave if they did not want to. But he said: "The situation is unpredictable and uncontrolled sometimes, so that's why there is a danger also for the civilians".
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/20/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
ION see also MOSCOW TIMES, RIA NOVOSTI > CRIMEA TATARS ASKED TO VACATE LAND [exchange?] LANDS, REGIME OFFICIAL SAYS.
* Also from the MOSCOW TIMES > RUSSIA MUST STOP US EXPANSIONISM IN UKRAINE.
Reminds me that iff Rising China ever takes over GUAM-WESTPAC + other Pacific islands from the US, Guam's + Oceania's Citizens-Residents may be told to abandon their islands for the US mainland or other in diaspora.
Those whom stay behind risk sinking wid the island(s) into the underwater depths of the Pacific due to US "Earthquake/Tectonic Bombs" as part of the latter's unilateral "A2/AREA-DENIAL" of key islands agz China + PLA = Nuclear Islam? as the US falls back across the Pacific towards CONUS-NORAM.
To paraph 1970's "BARETTA" > D *** NG IT, "KEEP YOUR EYE-E-E-E ON THE SPARROW [Hugo Chavez's]"!
[NY Times] The secretary general of NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... , Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said on Wednesday that the alliance was considering providing assistance to Ukraine to help deter Russia from another military intervention there.
"We have intensive consultations with the Ukrainians right now," Mr. Rasmussen said during an appearance at the Brookings Institution. "I agree that we should step up our assistance to Ukraine, and I am sure it will happen."
He noted that Ukraine had requested the aid, and that decisions on what to provide would be made at a meeting of the alliance's foreign ministers on April 1-2.
Mr. Rasmussen did not say what help might be provided now that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has sent troops to Crimea and positioned other forces near eastern Ukraine. But other Western officials said that Ukraine was seeking communications gear, mine-clearing equipment, vehicles, ammunition, fuel and medical gear, and the sharing of intelligence.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2014 00:00 ||
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Again, IMO the US-West + Ukraine can survive agz an independent sovereign Crimea or one re-incorporated back into the Russian Federation.
As the various "Muslim/Arab/Islamic Springs" go on, + both IRAN + IRAN'S SUNNI RIVALS GO NUKULAAR [Militants = Hard Boyz?], it may be in the US-West's interests to allow Russia + Russian Orthodox Church to control the Crimea per se.
#3
* See also TOPIX > US CONSIDERS SENDING TROOPS TO BALTIC STATES TO REASSURE ALLIES: BIDEN.
RELATED DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS = WARNING RUSSIA, BIDEN SAYS US WILL DEFEND ALLIES - TIMES OF INDIA.
* SAME > POLAND, HUNGARY, THE CZECH REPUBLIC, + SLOVAKIA SIGN A MILITARY PACT, under NATO-EU auspices | FORMER SOVIET SATELLITES SIGN JOINT MILITARY PACT - DEFENSE NEWS.
versus
* CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > [SCMP] NOTHING AWKWARD ABOUT CHINA'S POISTION WID REGARDS TO UKRAINE. ERIC LI SAYS FAR FROM BEING LEFT BEHIND BY THE UKRAINE CRISIS, CHINA HAS BEEN DEFTLY EXPLOITING THE SITUATION, IN LINE WID ITS GRASP OF MAJOR-POWER RELATIONS ["Great Power" Diplomacy]
AS IT SEEKS TO PROMOTE A MULTI-POLAR NEW WORLD ORDER.
* SAME > [NYT] OPINION: [Obama = US]SHARING POWER WID CHINA, in Asia-Pacific.
#5
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said on Wednesday that the alliance was considering providing assistance to Ukraine to help deter Russia from another military intervention there.
[BBC] Pro-Russian politicians and activists in Moldova's breakaway Trans-Dniester region have asked the Russian parliament to draft a law that would allow their territory to join Russia.
The Trans-Dniestrian appeal comes as Moscow moves towards absorbing Crimea into the Russian Federation. Ukraine, the EU and US say that move is illegal. Russian loyalists dominate Trans-Dniester, with support from Moscow.
The region split from Moldova in a war in 1991-92, as the USSR was collapsing. Moldova's President Nicolae Timofti said in a news briefing on Tuesday that any decision by Moscow to accept Trans-Dniester "would be a step in the wrong direction". I doubt the Romanians will be too keen on this.
Again, IMO the only reason for Putin to go beyond the Crimea is to humiliate the Bammer = USA, by-n-for the sheer sake of humiliation.
NO PCORRECTNESS-DENIABILITY, JUST TO PUT THE BAMMER = USA DOWN BECAUSE HE CAN.
The good news for the Bammer is that, as per the "Great Game", Putin = anti-US OWG Globalists may risk "going too far" such that the outcome or consequences [dominoes] will come to existentially threaten him = Russia, etal. as well???
[An Nahar] Turkey's parliament reconvened on Wednesday for an emergency session to hear corruption allegations against four former government ministers.
The corruption scandal, which brought down the four ministers and prompted a cabinet reshuffle in December, has evolved into the most serious challenge yet to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi only they haven't dumped him yet... 's 11-year-rule.
The Turkish premier himself has also been implicated in the controversy with leaked audio tapes in which he can allegedly be heard talking to his son about hiding large sums of money.
Erdogan has accused followers of ally-turned-foe Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based Moslem preacher, of concocting the graft probe to undermine his government ahead of crucial local polls on March 30.
The parliament returned from recess for the special session after the main opposition party requested it.
Erdogan is on the campaign trail and did not attend Wednesday's session.
His Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has won three elections in a row since 2002, plans to establish a parliamentary commission to investigate allegations involving the former ministers, media reported.
The ministers of interior, environment, and economy stepped down after the scandal erupted with police rounding up their sons on charges of bribery for construction projects and illicit money transfers to neighboring Iran. Their sons were later released pending on trial.
Turkey's former EU Affairs Minister Egemen Bagis was replaced by Erdogan in a major cabinet reshuffle in the wake of the probe, after he was accused of being involved in the corruption scandal.
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03/20/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Supreme Court Chief Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani took suo motu ...a legal term, from the Latin. Roughly translated it means I saw what you did, you bastard... notice on Wednesday of a reported jirga and ordered the Inspector General of Sindh Police to appear before the court on Thursday in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... .
The notice was taken after an editorial appearing in a newspaper said a jirga was held in Wazirabad town of Sindh's Shikarpur district and a decision was taken in an alleged karo-kari ...the Pak practice of murdering women on suspicion of having had 'illicit relations' with other than a close relative... case.
The editorial deplored that two women of the Mahar tribe were allegedly killed by their parents for having 'illicit relations' with men of the Jagirani tribe. The Jagiranis were fined Rs 2.4 million for 'kidnapping' the women and 'having illicit relations' with them.
The jirga was held apparently to settle a potentially explosive tribal dispute, but while both parties accepted its decisions no one was penalised for murdering the women. Even more shockingly, an MNA, the PML-F's Ghous Bakhsh Mahar, presided over the jirga.
The chief justice held that if true the newspaper item had prima facie revealed violation of the fundamental provisions of the Constitution, particularly Article 9 and Protection of Women (Criminal Law Amendment) Act, 2006.
The court asked the inspector-general of Sindh police to personally appear before the Supreme Court bench in Karachi on Thursday and explain the incident.
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03/20/2014 00:01 ||
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[SCPR.ORG] Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, public health officials say 19 of the 32 cases of measles they have confirmed so far this year are in people who had not been vaccinated, and of that group, 14 were intentionally not vaccinated.
As the number of measles cases continues to grow across the state -- there were only three by this time last year -- officials at the Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, Department of Public Health (CDPH) have urged parents against opting out of vaccinating their children. They say an increase in the number of people choosing not to vaccinate could drive a resurgence of the respiratory disease, since the unvaccinated are more susceptible to contracting it.
Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, allows parents to skip vaccinating their children if they fill out a personal belief exemption form and speak with a doctor about the benefits and risks of vaccines.
CDPH officials say 99 percent of the people who receive two doses of the measles vaccine develop immunity to the disease.
It was last month that public health officials first identified seven measles patients as having been intentionally not vaccinated. They were between the ages of 7 and 32, said CDPH spokeswoman Kathleen Harriman.
"They were all minors other than two young adults," said Harriman "And the young adults, it was their parents' decision, obviously, not to have them vaccinated when they were children."
CDPH officials could not immediately provide KPCC with the ages of the seven additional people it has determined were intentionally not vaccinated.
The 32 measles cases have been reported in Alameda (1), Contra Costa (4), Los Angeles (10), Orange (6), Riverside (5), San Mateo (1), San Diego (4) and Santa Clara (1) counties. The CDPH has not said where the 14 intentionally unvaccinated people live.
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03/20/2014 00:00 ||
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California to twin with taliban controlled lands?
A little comedy relief from reading about Zombie Stalin, AKA Vlad Putin.
The Atlantic, that bastion of conservatism lands them some hard core conservative in the persona of David Frum: pro gun control, pro gay marriage and big government advocate.
The Atlantic says: "David is a gutsy, heterodox thinker and a lovely writer--the very definition of the sort of contributor who has distinguished The Atlantic all these years..."
You'll notice they didn't use the small c word, you know, the one longer than four letters.
From TFA:
After an extended absence from full-time journalism, conservative columnist David Frum is joining The Atlantic as a senior editor, according to a release Wednesday. In his new role, Frum will write for both The Atlantic's website and print magazine.
Previously, Frum wrote for his own blog FrumForum.com, which was hosted by Newsweek/The Daily Beast from January 2012 to May 2013. Before that, he spent five years writing for the National Review. He is also a frequent contributor to CNN. Before his career in media he served as a special assistant to President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2002.
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.
Fred Phelps Sr., a fierce opponent of homosexuality whose protests at military funerals prompted two federal laws, died shortly after midnight Thursday, his daughter Margie Phelps says. She didn't give the cause of death or the condition that recently put him in hospice care. He was 84.
...Second and fourth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
'Shovel Ready' projects, yea, I get it. Now what about my NCAA picks photo-op ? 
[An Nahar] Turkey's parliament reconvened on Wednesday for an emergency session to hear corruption allegations against four former government ministers.
[SCPR.ORG] 
