No comment....
When selecting the best raccoon carcass for the special holiday roast, both the connoisseur and the curious should remember this simple guideline: Look for the paw.
"The paw is old school," says Glemie Dean Beasley, a Detroit raccoon hunter and meat salesman. "It lets the customers know it's not a cat or dog."
Beasley, a 69-year-old retired truck driver who modestly refers to himself as the Coon Man, supplements his Social Security check with the sale of raccoon carcasses that go for as much $12 and can serve up to four. The pelts, too, are good for coats and hats and fetch up to $10 a hide.
While economic times are tough across Michigan as its people slog through a difficult and protracted deindustrialization, Beasley remains upbeat.
Where one man sees a vacant lot, Beasley sees a buffet. "Starvation is cheap," he says as he prepares an afternoon lunch of barbecue coon and red pop at his west side home. Well, maybe one comment: I remember our poor relations (which meant they were really poor) from out in the country occasionally bringing Nannie a mess of squirrels or 'coons for our supper. Don't remember particularly what 'coon tasted like, but squirrel was good (if somewhat scrawny in the meat department). And no, it didn't taste like chicken; it tasted like squirrel.
Rest at the link. Apparently Detroit is reverting to the wild. (Yeah, yeah, I know - how can they tell?)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/03/2009
20:07 ||
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Detroit has miles of "urban prarie" - people are starting to buy up cheap lots just to organic farm. 40 yrs of libtard policies, Dem ran city councils and mass corruption will do that to a city.
#4
perhaps if we offered a bounty on parasites like said fat-ass Council-tard(s) including Mrs. Conyers-tard?
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/03/2009 22:11
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type in "detroit city council" on youtube and prepare to LYAO. It's so bad you're almost embarrassed for the idiots on the council..."almost" being the operative word.
South Africa may be the grim model of the future Western world, for events in America reveals trends chillingly similar to those that destroyed our country.
America's structures are Western. Your Congress, your lobbying groups, your free speech, and the way ordinary Americans either get involved or ignore politics are peculiarly Western, not the way most of the world operates. But the fact that only about a third of Americans deem it important to vote is horrifying in light of how close you are to losing your Western character.
Writing letters to the press, manning stands at county fairs, hosting fund-raising dinners, attending rallies, setting up conferences, writing your Congressman -- that is what you know, and what you are comfortable with. Those are the political methods you've created for yourselves to keep your country on track and to ensure political accountability.
But woe to you if -- or more likely, when -- the rules change. White Americans Not just White Americans, but ALL Americans holding the values called 'white', which at this point still includes a majority of non-white Americans too. The US no longer has the level of moral baggage South Africa was carrying during the era to which Robbie refers - despite what the race warlords claim, so it is not a direct comparison, but I think his points still have relevence.
may soon find themselves unable or unwilling to stand up to challenge the new political methods that will be the inevitable result of the ethnic metamorphosis now taking place in America. Unable to cope with the new rules of the game -- violence, mob riots, intimidation through accusations of racism, demands for proportionality based on racial numbers, and all the other social and political weapons used by the have-nots to bludgeon treasure and power from the haves -- Americans, like others before them, will no doubt cave in. They will compromise away their independence and ultimately their way of life.
That is exactly what happened in South Africa. I know, because I was there and I saw it happen.
Faced with revolution in the streets, strikes, civil unrest and the sheer terror and murder practiced by Nelson Mandela's African National Congress (ANC), the white government simply capitulated in order to achieve "peace." Westerners need peace. They need order and stability. They are builders and planners. But what we got was peace of the grave for our society.
From what I have seen and read thus far, I fear Americans will capitulate just as we did. Americans are, generally, a soft lot. That's what it looks like to me too.
They don't want to quarrel or obstruct the claims of those who believe they were wronged. They like peace and quiet, and they want to compromise and be nice.
In another generation, America may well face what Africa is now experiencing -- invasions of private land by the "have-nots;" the decline in health care quality; roads and buildings in disrepair; the banishment of your history from the education of the young; the revolutionization of your justice system.
Your tax dollars will go to those who don't earn and don't pay. In South Africa, organizations that used to have access to state funds such as old age homes, the arts, and veterans' services, are simply abandoned.
What will happen is that Western structures in America will be either destroyed from without, or transformed from within, used to suit the goals of the new rulers.
Once you lose social, cultural, and political dominance, there is no getting it back again.
Unfortunately, your habits and values work against you. You cannot fight terror and street mobs with letters to your Congressmen. You cannot fight accusations of racism with prayer meetings. You cannot appeal to the goodness of your fellow man when the fellow man despises you for your weakness and hacks off the arms and legs of his political opponents. To survive, Americans must never lose the power they now enjoy to people from alien cultures. Above all, don't put yourselves to the test of fighting only when your backs are against the wall. You will probably fail.
Millions around the world want your good life. But make no mistake: They care not for the high-minded ideals of Jefferson and Washington, and your Constitution. What they want are your possessions, your power, and your status.
And they already know that their allies among you, the "human rights activists," the skillful lawyers and the left-wing politicians will fight for them, and not for you. They will exploit your compassion and your Christian charity, and your good will.
They have studied you, Mr. and Mrs. America, and they know your weaknesses well.
Goodness in heavy hearts coddles the child that becomes a full grown government into the greatest tyranny. It always gets it's way and growes at the expence of it's citizens and Soldiers alike.
#3
Unlike South Africa, the civilized are the vast majority in this country, even yet, not a minority holding onto power by force. In addition to being the majority, a great many of the civilized are well-armed, not a situation they will give up willingly. Finally, if the Koreans in Los Angeles are any example, riots that leave their urban ghetto homes are highly likely to be met by an organized and armed force of residents willing to shoot to kill if necessary. The French experience shows nothing kills the impulse to riot, rapine, and pillaging like a wiff of grapeshot with more to come. I recall OldSpook once advising that the first round to come out of a shotgun ought to be something like rock salt, which is attention-getting but generally not fatal, followed by a second round that is distinctly fatal... although it's quite possible I misunderstood him, as shotguns are distinctly outside my area of expertise.
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. (AP) - A gunman opened fire at an immigration services center in downtown Binghamton on Friday, killing as many as 13 people before authorities found him dead, officials said.
A law enforcement official said the body of the man believed to be the gunman was found in an office of the American Civic Association building. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about the details of an ongoing hostage situation and was talking on condition of anonymity. The gunman barricaded the rear door of the building with his car before entering through the front door, firing his weapon, the official said.
It wasn't clear whether the gunman was included in the number of dead provided by the governor.
The Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin reported that citizenship classes had been scheduled Friday at the center.
The Binghamton SWAT team responded, and the FBI was sending hostage negotiators and an evidence response team to the scene. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was also sending agents to Binghamton.
Indications were that the shooter was a young male, the law enforcement official said.
The American Civic Association is an organization that helps immigrants in the Binghamton area with naturalization applications, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The association describes itself as helping immigrants and refugees with counseling, resettlement, citizenship, family reunification and translators.
The association's president, Angela Leach, "is very upset right now," said Mike Chanecka, a friend who answered a call at her home as Leach wept in the background. "She doesn't know anything; she's as shocked as anyone," Chanecka said. "For some reason, she had the day off today. And she's very worried about her secretary."
Five people with gunshot wounds were being treated at Wilson Medical Center in Johnson City, according to hospital spokeswoman Christina Boyd. The wounded ranged in age from 20 to their mid-50s, and their conditions ranged from stable to critical, she said. Linda Miller, a spokeswoman at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Binghamton, said a student from Binghamton University was being treated there.
The shooting occurred in a mixed neighborhood of homes and small businesses in the center of Binghamton, a city of about 47,000 located 140 miles northwest of New York City.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/03/2009
16:14 ||
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facts trickle in, but another Media "shining hour":
first it was a "high-powered rifle" (presumably from an illegal gun show transaction and diverted from the rest of the shipment to Mexico) - in fact, it appears now to be several handguns.
second it was speculated another angry white guy on the local radio, appears now to be a 42 yr old Vietnamese-heritage, possibly recently fired from IBM....
let's see what else they can get wrong?
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/03/2009 17:43
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Just watched the news conference -- receptionist is some kind of hero! Killer shot her, then continued room to room. She was shot in the stomach, played dead, when killer walked away, she called 911 --- gave description of the killer on the way to the hospital!
Police chief was there within 3 minutes (must have been close) county and state just showed up to help.
Some person got about 50 scared souls into the basement, and SWAT kept them there as they cleared room to room.
#2
The DF-21 has a range of 1800 kilometers and normally hauls a 300 kiloton nuclear warhead. It's a two stage, 15 ton, solid fuel rocket that could carry a half ton penetrating, high-explosive warhead, along with the special guidance system (a radar and image recognition system).
right. remember that it had a "low radar signature"? sooper-dooper maneuverabilty? Ability to hover and disappear for minutes at a time?
OK, maybe I made that last one up
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/03/2009 17:53
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carry a half ton penetrating, high-explosive warhead
That's pretty much a requirement for any anti-carrier missile, carriers being protected by 3 meters of reinforced concrete as they are.
#5
OTOH, CHINESE MIL FORUM POSTER > argued that IT HAS TO YET TO BE PROVEN BY WORLD POWERS THAT LR BALLISTIC MISSLES [converted warheads] CAN SUCCESS HIT A MOVING = RAPID-MANEUVER NAVAL TARGET???
The bankers struggled to make themselves clear to the president of the United States.
Arrayed around a long mahogany table in the White House state dining room last week, the CEOs of the most powerful financial institutions in the world offered several explanations for paying high salaries to their employees -- and, by extension, to themselves. "These are complicated companies," one CEO said. Offered another: "We're competing for talent on an international market."
But President Barack Obama wasn't in a mood to hear them out. He stopped the conversation, and offered a blunt reminder of the public's reaction to such explanations. "Be careful how you make those statements, gentlemen. The public isn't buying that."
"My administration," the president added, "is the only thing between you and the pitchforks."
The fresh details of the meeting -- some never before revealed -- come from an account provided to POLITICO by one of the participants. A second source inside the meeting confirmed the details, and two other sources familiar with the meeting offered additional information.
The accounts demonstrate that despite the public comments on both sides that the meeting was cordial, the tone in the room was in fact one of mutual wariness. The titans of finance -- men used to being the most powerful man in almost any room -- sized up a new president who made clear in ways big and small that he expected them to change their ways.
There were signs from the outset that this was a business event, not a social gathering. At each place around the table sat a single glass of water. No ice. For those who finished their glass, no refills were offered. There was no group photograph taken of the CEOs with the president, which typically happens at ceremonial White House gatherings, but not at serious strategy sessions.
"The only way they could have sent a more Spartan message is if they had served bread along with the water," says a person who attended the meeting. "The signal from Obama's body language and demeanor was, 'I'm the president, and you're not.'"
According to the accounts of sources inside the room, President Obama told the CEOs exactly what he expects from them, and pushed back forcefully when they attempted to defend Wall Street's legendarily high paying ways.
#2
The only way they could have sent a more Spartan message is if they had served bread along with the water, says a person who attended the meeting. The signal from Obamas body language and demeanor was, Im the president, and youre not.
Typical Obama. He is the messiah, you're not. Asshat.
Soon, the only thing between him and pitchforks will be American's respect of law. And that won't hold out long when Congress and Obama are pissing on the laws daily.
#3
If I were a banker and I had been at that meeting, and my bank currently had its head above water (many still do despite the bad news), I'd turn him down flat.
I'd say no to TARP money. If I had taken any TARP money, I'd pay it back, today. I'd tell him in no uncertain terms that my bank will NOT participate in any scheme to buy assets, toxic or not. And that my bank will NOT participate in any new government plans for bailouts.
Then I'd walk out.
Then I'd find a TV news crew and vent.
Then I'd fly back to New York or wherever my bank HQ was, call my principal directors in, and say, "folks, we need to get to work, because if we ever get into trouble the Feds won't help us. So let's make sure we never get into trouble."
My bank wouldn't need the president. And he'd regret threatening me.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/03/2009 16:07
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Steve, you also need to go find some pols that stay bought.
As in dictator president for life? Mr. O, you're not the only one keeping score. Unless you plan to be President for Life(tm), these people can provide the same source of funding for your opponents as they did for you this past election. You can find out how little power the president does have when he's alienated just about every important special interest group and the general public. Ask Nixon.
The nation's unemployment rate jumped to 8.5 percent in March, the highest since late 1983, as a wide swath of employers eliminated 663,000 jobs. It's fresh evidence of the toll the recession has inflicted on America's workers, and economists say there's no relief in sight.
If part-time and discouraged workers are factored in, the unemployment rate would have been 15.6 percent in March, the highest on records dating to 1994, according to Labor Department data released Friday.
The average work week in March dropped to 33.2 hours, a new record low. Since the recession began in December 2007, the economy has lost a net total of 5.1 million jobs, with almost two-thirds of the losses occurring in the last five months.
"It's an ugly report and April is going to be equally as bad," predicted Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. Wish Barry would have told beforehand Hope and Change stood for "I hope I can make rent this month." and "Brother can you spare change for Ramen."
And be sure to thank Barry's sponsors for triggering the financial collapse by withdrawing 1/2 trillion $ from US money markets when he was losing in the Pres polls. The tab: $2.8 trillion and going to $23 trillion by 2019.
Posted by: ed ||
04/03/2009
13:24 ||
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But ed, for them its about power not some line on a bookkeeping sheet.
As much as I'd like to help the average, ordinary people of Afghanistan, I have my limits, and Karzai is seriously testing them. Perhaps it's time for the north and west of that country to secede and let the Pashtuns sink on their own.
President Karzai of Afghanistan provoked international outrage yesterday with draconian Taleban-era restrictions on women and laws that explicitly sanction marital rape.
A leaked copy of the laws obtained by The Times details new strictures for Afghanistan's Shia minority. Women are banned from leaving the home without permission. A wife has the absolute duty to provide sexual services to her husband, and child marriage is legalised.
Details of the legislation emerged as President Obama and other world leaders wrapped up the G20 summit to fly to a Nato summit marking 60 years of the alliance. Mr Obama is pushing for an increase in Nato troop numbers in Afghanistan, but many allies have already rebuffed his calls. The new laws may provide an excuse for remaining waverers to join them.
Canada, which is the third largest contributor of forces to the Nato mission in Afghanistan, has already warned that it may rethink its troop contribution if the law was not repealed.
Opponents of the Afghan President accused him of selling out basic human rights for women in return for the votes of hardline Shia conservatives for the presidential election in August. Although the Shia minority, which comprises 20 per cent of the population, is considered religiously moderate, their political leaders are conservative. Community leaders are relied on to deliver their people's votes and women are presumed to vote in accordance with their husband.
International reaction has been slowed by secrecy surrounding the law, which was passed without a formal debate and signed off by President Karzai this week, but is yet to be made law.
Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, became aware of it only when it was raised by her Finnish counterpart at the Afghanistan conference in The Hague on Wednesday. She is said to have raised the issue with him but without the full text President Karzai was spared her opprobrium.
Stephen Harper, the Canadian Prime Minister, said he was troubled by the law and would lobby other leaders to support him in seeking to have it repealed. "This is antithetical to our mission in Afghanistan," he said. Stockwell Day, the Canadian Trade Minister, who is chairman of the Cabinet committee on Afghanistan, warned that if Kabul did not back down Canadian support for the Government could be imperilled. "If there is any wavering on this point, this will create serious difficulties, serious problems for the Government of Canada," he told reporters in Ottawa.
Canada has 2,800 troops fighting in southern Afghanistan and has suffered the highest relative number of casualties of any contingent with 116 of its soldiers dead. Britain, with 8,000 troops, has lost 152 in Afghanistan.
Mike Gapes, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, called the law deplorable. "We did not go into Afghanistan to remove the Taleban only to have Taleban-style policies reimplemented by the Government," he said. "But this raises big question marks about the nature of the Afghan Government."
The Afghan Government refused to comment until Saturday, which is after the Nato summit. Speaking yesterday both Mrs Clinton and General James Jones, Mr Obama's national security adviser, denied that they had given up on getting more Nato soldiers for the fight against a Taleban insurgency in Afghanistan.
The legislation is based on the Shia family code first brought before Parliament two years ago, to the horror of women legislators who make up more than a quarter of the assembly. Under the same constitution, each religious group is to have its own family law. Opponents said that it contravenes the founding charter in many ways -- not least Article 22, which enshrines equality of the sexes before the law.
One of the most controversial articles stipulates that the wife "is bound to preen for her husband as and when he desires".
Later it explicitly sanctions marital rape. "As long as the husband is not travelling, he has the right to have sexual intercourse with his wife every fourth night,"
Article 132 says. "Unless the wife is ill or has any kind of illness that intercourse could aggravate, the wife is bound to give a positive response to the sexual desires of her husband."
How old were the 'men' who wrote this?
Article 133 reintroduces the Taleban restrictions on women's movements outside their homes, stating: "A wife cannot leave the house without the permission of the husband" unless in a medical or other emergency.
Article 27 endorses child marriage with girls legally able to marry once they begin to menstruate.
Sayed Hossain Alemi Balkhi, a Shia lawmaker involved in drafting the law, defended the legislation, saying that it gives more rights to women than even Britain or the US does.
#4
When the Pashtuns Taliban were in control of the country they applied islamic law in such a way as to virtually enslave the non-Pashtun less than compliant northern parts of the country and enrich themselves.
After 9/11, we came in, kicked butt, and kicked the Taliban out into the Pashtun parts of Pakistan.
Then we went and built a new government in Afghanistan, out of whatever Pashtuns we could round up.
#5
Important rule for future endeavors of this kind. Every native institution should be abolished and replaced with a working western equivalent. This doesn't mean just American, but western.
Every damn part of their damned country was utterly dysfunctional, archaic, stupid and vicious.
They needed a rebuild, and we gave them bubble gum and duct tape to try and salvage their unsafe wreck.
Why? They might say "out of respect of their culture". But that is just stupid. Their culture has failed. Utterly.
Malmö has been banned from hosting Davis Cup tennis matches for five years following the city's controversial decision to stage Sweden's clash with Israel in an empty arena.
The International Tennis Federation (ITF) said on Thursday they condemned the decision by the city government of Malmo to refuse to allow spectators to attend the March 6-9 tie which was won by Israel. Malmo only allowed teams, officials, guests and media to watch the tie, fearful of demonstrations taking place over Israel's bloody December offensive in Gaza.
As well as a five-year ban, Sweden was warned it would suffer an automatic loss of choice of ground for the next tie were a similar situation to occur in the future. Furthermore, all host city contracts entered into by the Swedish Tennis Association must guarantee that the tie will be open to the public.
The Davis Cup Committee also denied the request of the Swedish Tennis Association to waive its obligation to provide a minimum of $15,000 against gate receipts and levied an additional fine of $25,000. That's a start. At the link: nice pic taken during one of the matches.
BAGHDAD -- A U.S. aircraft fired on suspected government-allied Sunni paramilitaries planting a bomb, killing one and wounding two, the U.S. said Friday _ the latest sign of trouble in a program that has been a pillar of the U.S. strategy to stabilize Iraq.
A U.S. statement said the airstrike was launched Thursday night after four gunmen, allegedly members of the Sons of Iraq, were seen planting a roadside bomb near Taji, site of a large U.S. air base about 12 miles (20 kilometers) north of Baghdad.
Sons of Iraq, also known as Awakening Councils, are Sunnis who broke with the insurgents and now work with the army and police to provide security in their areas.
U.S. commanders credit the more than 90,000 Sons of Iraq with playing a major role in turning the tide against al-Qaida and other Sunni insurgents following the U.S. troop surge of 2007.
But the Shiite-led government is suspicious of the groups because they include many ex-insurgents. Shiite leaders also believe some of the members are infiltrators who are still working for the insurgents.
Last weekend, U.S.-backed Iraqi forces put down an uprising in central Baghdad by members of the local Awakening Council angry over the arrest of their commander on terrorism and criminal charges.
The U.S. statement said one of the gunmen was found dead at the scene of Thursday's attack and the two wounded were captured in a nearby house, the U.S. said. They were handed over to Iraqi police.
"While we value our Sons of Iraq brothers, these men had broken faith with their fellow Sons of Iraq, the Iraqi people and us," said Maj. Gen. Daniel Bolger, commander of U.S. forces in the Baghdad area.
The attack occurred in a rural area where several bombings had occurred in recent months, the U.S. statement said.
Taji residents reached by telephone said the Thursday incident followed a growing rift between the local Sunni paramilitaries and the mostly Shiite security forces.
The residents, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of fears of reprisals, said the security forces consider the Sunni council members disobedient, although they are supposed to take orders from Iraqi police and soldiers.
Council members, on the other hand, believe they never got full credit for pushing al-Qaida from the area and feel betrayed by the Americans, who raised the force but transferred it to Iraqi control last October.
NEW York Times Execu tive Editor Bill Keller equated the Gray Lady to a PBS pledge drive, claiming readers have offered to donate money to keep the Times alive.
Keller was speaking at Stanford University to dedicate a new building for the campus newspaper -- an event he likened to a "ribbon-cutting" for "a new Pontiac dealership."
The bombastic broadsheet editor went on to equate the keep-the-Times-alive movement to the cause of starving African refugees, saying, "Saving the New York Times now ranks with saving Darfur as a high-minded cause."
Keller said he had little use for Web sites like Google and Drudge Report: "If you're inclined to trust Google as your source for news -- Google yourself."
Keller's comments come as the Times sat down with the Newspaper Guild Wednesday in their first serious bargaining session to figure out how to extract $4.5 million in savings from the newspaper company's unionized workforce. There are believed to be around 1,200 to 1,300 members of the Newspaper Guild working at The New York Times, and they are apparently not ready to accept the same pay cuts that their bosses did on April 1.
"Most of the [union] council believed that the company has not gone far enough in eliminating superfluous managers and exempts who hold few responsibilities, and that most of the burdens for corporate missteps have fallen on Guild members," said a Guild newsletter fired off yesterday.
The company agreed to look at alternatives to a wage cut, but is standing firm on its need to shave $4.5 million in costs. The company's proposal also includes a stipulation that will make members take an additional 10 paid days off before the end of the year.
"The Times threatens to lay off 60 to 80 workers, mainly in the newsroom, if the request is not met," warned the Guild, which is trying to come up with a solution that prevents layoffs.
#2
In this case, let's form the Janjaweed. I got dibs on the new Xerox and the cute receptionist.
Posted by: ed ||
04/03/2009 13:48
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It's not his fault you peasants can't regognize his rapier like wit...
"I think it's pretty obviously a reflection of my mild astonishment at the earnest fervor with which some people have suddenly embraced the cause of saving newspapers," Keller wrote. "That's matched only by my mild astonishment at the silly literal-mindedness with which some people read my occasional public comments."
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. At least four people were shot and as many as 41 people taken hostage Friday morning at an immigration services center in Binghamton, according to media reports.
Mayor Matthew Ryan told the Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin that there was a hostage situation involving a gunman with a high-powered rifle. The newspaper reported 41 hostages in the building of the American Civic Association and said apartments were being evacuated. Emergency dispatchers were in contact with some people inside by phone, WBNG-TV reported. The gunman might still be in the building, the newspaper reported.
Four people were removed from the building on stretchers and taken to hospitals, and 10 more ambulances were called, the newspaper reported. The condition of the victims wasn't immediately clear.
A spokeswoman at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Binghamton confirmed that a student from Binghamton University was being treated at the emergency room. Spokeswoman Linda Miller said she didn't know the nature of the injuries. "We're on full alert anticipating we're going to get additional casualties," Miller said.
The American Civic Association describes itself as helping immigrants and refugees with counseling, resettlement, citizenship, family reunification and translators. It also intervenes with emergencies, including fighting, hunger and homelessness, according to information from the association's Web site.
#1
http://www.pressconnects.com/article/
20090403/COMMUN05/90403027/1104/COMMUN05
Twelve people have been confirmed dead in this morning's shooting at the American Civic Association in Binghamton, according to Gov. David Paterson.
Two people were taken from the American Civic Association with their hands cuffed behind their back. Dozens of others were being held hostage by a gunman in the Binghamton building.
The suspect was described as an Asian male in his 20s, between 5-feet 8-inches and 6 feet tall, wearing a bright green nylon jacket and dark-rimmed glasses.
Broome Community College Assistant Professor Tuong Hung Nguyen was asked to work with police to communicate with the shooter. Nguyen is fluent in Vietnamese.
A law enforcement official said the body of the man believed to be the gunman was found in an office of the American Civic Association building. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about the details of an ongoing hostage situation and was talking on condition of anonymity.
#3
What's the difference? The US has been kissing Saudi butt ever since I was a kid. I recall a newpaper article in the '50's castigating Ike for kissing up to the Sauds "even though they still practiced slavery".
#5
What's the difference? or "so what" seems to be all that the left can muster for Obama's continued embarassments.
Blame is not a leadership strategy. It is a distraction. If you find yourself thinking that everything that your beloved leader does is OK because of [insert your blame quote here] then you are not any smarter than the Arab masses who have let their leaders blame the jews for their failure to provide solutions - for centuries.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/03/2009 18:45
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#8
I seem to recall that President Obama's tertiary education was financed by one of the Saudi princelings. Perhaps that is the one he is bowing to. Or perhaps he just tripped...
Q ship?
Drink!
MOGADISHU (AFP) At least one Somali pirate was killed and two others wounded after a naval vessel patrolling the Indian Ocean fired on their boat and destroyed their mother ship, witnesses said Thursday. Local fishermen in the pirate den of Harardhere in northern Somalia said the incident occurred on Wednesday afternoon, but the naval vessel was unknown. Keep it that way. A pirate killing ghost ship. That'll spook em...
"One pirate died and three others were injured after they approached a navy ship. They were given warning signals but they ignored and kept approaching and their mother boat was destroyed," local fisherman Abdullahi Isa Mohamed told AFP. Other residents who confirmed the incident said the men were on board small boats hunting for ships to attack. Should we stop, Mahmoud?
Nah. What can they... But the US Navy Fifth Fleet command and the European naval mission off the pirate-infested Somali coast said they had no information regarding the sinking of a pirate mother ship. Ummmmmmm...nope. Must've been that Pirate Killing Ghost Ship we've been hearing about...
Life in Tijuana goes on. The buses run, people go to work, kids go to school, traffic still jams the city's arteries. But something has changed in the last year or so: the city's residents go about their day-to-day business with a gnawing apprehension, haunted by an unpleasant feeling that something horrible may happen at any moment. The sensation is similar to what you feel when you narrowly avoid a car crash or catch a child just in time to avoid disaster -- relief that it did not happen, distress that it almost did, dread that next time you may not be so lucky.
The Tijuana state of mind has become popularly known as "the psychosis." Anyone who lives in Tijuana knows what you're talking about when you use the term... More at link. It's a long article. It does repeat the oft heard claim that 90 percent of guns in Mexico come from the U.S. Fox New among others point out that it's only 90 percent of confiscated guns that are traceable because they have serial numbers that come from the U.S. while the vast majority of the guns in Mexico are smuggled through Guatamaula and originate in places like China, Israel and South Africa. I don't own a gun. I never thought I'd need one. But this little war is within walking distance of my home. OK, it'd be a long walk but you could do it in a day. In a car it'd take half an hour. I have to wonder if the narco-terrorists would be so brazen if ordinary Mexican citizens were allowed to bear arms and shoot back. Guys like John Kerry and Phillipe Calderone want us to trust our defense to them. I don't trust them and, as we can see, it isn't working very well for the Mexicans.
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has been indicted for corruption while in office, including trying to sell the U.S. Senate seat that was held by President Barack Obama, prosecutors said on Thursday.
A federal grand jury indicted the 52-year-old Democrat on 16 felony counts, including racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud, extortion conspiracy, attempted extortion and making false statements to federal agents.
Blagojevich, who claims he did nothing wrong and is a victim of a political witch-hunt, has promised to fight the charges in court and has a book contract to tell his side. And, as we all know, book contracts are admissible in court...
He faces more than 300 years in prison if convicted and at least $4 million in fines, plus restitution, according to the indictment. Make the deal, Blago. Anybody the feds want. Not necessarily. Depends on how much protection Fitz gives him -- new identity, new location, etc.
Blagojevich was in his second term when the state legislature kicked him out of office nine weeks ago, after his arrest in December.
He was accused of seeking cash, campaign contributions and jobs for himself and others in exchange for state appointments, state business, legislation and pension fund investments. Among those actions were attempts to leverage his authority to appoint a U.S. senator to take over Obama's seat after his election as president in November, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said.
The governor was caught on court-approved wiretaps describing the Senate seat as something so valuable "you just don't give it away for nothing." Blagojevich added he might appoint himself if he could not get anything for the seat.
The charges on the indictment date back to 2002, before he was elected governor. Prosecutors accuse Blagojevich of trying to profit with a circle of friends, who would then divide the spoils after he left office.
The 19-count indictment also charged his older brother Robert, two former top aides and two businessmen. Robert Blagojevich, 53, a Nashville businessman, was former chairman of his brother's campaign fund. Blagojevich and his former chief of staff, John Harris, have been free on bond since a brief court appearance on December 9 -- the day they were arrested. Harris, 47, was charged with a single count of fraud and has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.
The former governor's wife, Patricia, was named in the indictment but not charged.
The couple and their two daughters were on vacation in Florida on Thursday, according to media reports. CNN said they were staying at the Walt Disney World theme park and resort. Slap the braclets on him, Pluto!
Okay, Mickey.
#1
In other surprise developments, the sun was observed to rise slowly from the eastern horizon this morning...water is reported flowing downhill in several places....
Posted by: Mike ||
04/03/2009 12:15
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The Hamas regime acquired U.S.-origin air defense systems but was unable to use them in combat. Hamas sources said the Islamic military has acquired the Stinger man-portable air defense system. The sources said the Stingers were acquired from smugglers in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula in 2008 and deployed in the 22-day war against Israel in January 2009.
"We were disappointed by them, and they were found to have been useless," a Hamas source said. Hope you paid top dollar for them ...
The source said Hamas smuggled four Stinger systems in 2008. The source said the Hamas military deployed the Stingers against Israel Air Force AH-64 Apache attack helicopters during strike missions in the northern Gaza Strip.
"Our gunners couldn't fire the weapon," the source recalled. "A notice came up on the display saying 'friendly aircraft.'" Real friendly, in fact. Say hello ...
Industry sources said Raytheon, producer of Stinger, installed identification friend/foe capabilities more than a decade ago. The sources said this would prevent Stinger from being fired against any aircraft used by the U.S. military.
Another Hamas source said gunners deployed Stinger along with heavy machine guns in attacks on Israeli helicopters during the war in the Gaza Strip. The source said one Stinger surface-to-air missile was launched, but the projectile veered off course and struck a Hamas gunner squad. Bwha-ha-ha!
"The Stinger was drawn by the heat of our guns rather than the engines of the Israeli helicopters," the source said. "At that point, we stopped using this weapon." So someone learns from experience ...
The sources said Hamas has abandoned plans to acquire additional Stingers. Instead, the Islamic army has been ordering the Russian-origin SA-16, or Igla-1, surface-to-air missile system, with a range of five kilometers.
#8
Outsmarted by 3 cents worth of silicon. Way to go Lions of Ignorance.
Posted by: ed ||
04/03/2009 13:53
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#9
"one Stinger surface-to-air missile was launched, but the projectile veered off course and struck a Hamas gunner squad"
Allen is displeased with you clowns. He keeps giving you signs, but you're too blinded by Jew-hate stupid to see them....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/03/2009 15:13
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As long as they don't figure out that they can defeat the IFF system by hammering on the tip of the warhead or heating it up with a blowtorch, that's fine.
A lawyer in Spain -- who did his legal studies while serving over seven years in prison for kidnapping and terrorism -- has engineered a complaint accusing the U.S. government of systematically torturing war-on-terrorism detainees. He filed this complaint with Baltasar Garzon, an activist magistrate famous for championing the "universal jurisdiction" of Spanish courts. That magistrate is now asking a Spanish prosecutor to bring criminal charges on this matter against former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, four other former Bush administration lawyers, and me.
The allegation is not that any of us tortured anyone. And it is not that any of us even directed anyone to commit torture. The allegation is that, when we advised President George W. Bush on the Geneva Conventions and detainee interrogations, our interpretations were wrong -- in the view of the disapproving Spaniards. According to the complaint, these wrong interpretations encouraged the president to make decisions that led to torture. The Spanish magistrate apparently believes that it can be a crime for American officials to offer the wrong kind of advice to a president of the United States and, furthermore, it can be a crime punishable by a Spanish court. This is a national insult with harmful implications.
The general sloppiness of the complaint's factual assertions is clear from its discussion of my work. The entire case against me hinges on my alleged role in arguing that the detainees in Guantanamo Bay should not receive protection under Geneva Article 3 relating to humane treatment. I never made any such argument. On the contrary, the most significant role I played in the debates about Geneva was in early 2002 when I -- together with Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard Myers -- helped persuade Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to take a strongly pro-Geneva position in the first National Security Council meeting on the subject on Feb. 4.
Noting in writing that Geneva is part of U.S. law, I argued it is a good treaty and it is "important that the President appreciate DOD's interest in the Convention." I wrote that "U.S. armed forces are trained to treat captured enemy forces according to the Convention," that Geneva is "morally important, crucial to U.S. morale," and that it is also "practically important, for it makes U.S. forces the gold standard in the world, facilitating our winning cooperation from other countries." In conclusion, I urged "[h]umane treatment for all detainees" and recommended that the president explain that Geneva "does not squarely address circumstances that we are confronting in this new global war against terrorism, but while we work through the legal questions, we are upholding the principle of universal applicability of the Convention." I briefed these arguments directly to the president at that Feb. 4 NSC meeting, and his decision on Geneva's applicability to the war against the Taliban was consistent with them.
The allegation that I argued against Article 3 protection was invented by a British lawyer named Philippe Sands and published in an angry, wildly inaccurate book called "Torture Team." Mr. Sands asserts that, in our interview, I admitted making the case against Article 3. He was eventually compelled to publish the interview transcript, however, and it shows that nothing I said supports his allegation, that he grossly misquoted me on a number of points, and that he never asked me a single question about Article 3. Mr. Sands has to this day never accounted for how he could charge me with opposing Article 3 based on an interview in which the term "Article 3" was never even mentioned by me or him. I dissected Mr. Sands's misrepresentations in detail in testimony I gave to the House Judiciary Committee last summer.
As bad as the Spanish complaint is for relying expressly on Mr. Sands's discredited book for facts, it is far worse for the principle it is trying to establish -- that a foreign court should punish former U.S. officials criminally if the judge thinks their official advice to the U.S. president violated international law. Whatever advice any of us offered the president on these debatable issues, it would be an unprecedented outrage to make our participation in government policy making a subject for second-guessing in a foreign criminal court.
From the Nuremburg trials of the Nazi leadership forward, none of the cases in which former government officials have been tried for international crimes are actually precedents for what the Spanish officials are now considering. In countries run by officials who rule by force, commit aggression, perpetrate humanitarian outrages and stand above and out of reach of any domestic law, leaders are sometimes tried by international tribunals. Such countries' sovereignty is not respected because their own domestic laws -- let alone their international legal obligations -- do not bind their leaders. But ours is a country of laws, and no reasonable person doubts that the American legal system has integrity. If President Barack Obama and the prosecutors see a crime to be prosecuted, they can act. It would be hostile for a foreign official to decide that U.S. sovereignty on this matter should not be respected because the U.S. is like Nazi Germany or Serbia under Slobodan Milosevic.
What if a Spanish magistrate doesn't like the legal analyses prepared by U.S. officials on other subjects, such as nuclear weapons, or the death penalty, or atmospheric pollution, or border security with Mexico? Any of these matters could be the basis for a claim by a creative European jurist that a U.S. official is taking a position contrary to international law as interpreted by right-thinking Europeans. It seems clear that the goal of this judicial exercise is to carry a political disagreement into criminal courts and thereby to intimidate U.S. officials. If Spanish officials decide to carry the prosecution forward, then Americans who know that their views run contrary to those of various Spanish or other European activists would have to think twice about voicing those views -- or stay out of U.S. government service altogether -- if they want to avoid being threatened with arrest in Europe.
The American people can tolerate this only if they are willing to forfeit the right to make their own laws and policies. This is not a left-versus-right political issue. It is a question of preserving the American constitutional system of government in which U.S. officials are answerable for their opinions and advice to the American people -- but not to foreign criminal courts.
By PEGGY NOONAN Peggy is in relapse mode i.e. trying to be as nice as possible so she can still receive dinner party invitations.
Barack Obama was elected in part because of his singularity. There was no one like him. He was a break with the past, not only because of his youth and race but also his cerebral bent, his cool demeanor. He seemed free of the partisan muck. He was hard to categorize because we didn't have categories for him. This was part of his power. It denied his foes purchase; they didn't know how to get at him. It allowed others to project on his canvas. After the thickly drawn George W. Bush, he seemed something refreshing: a mystery.
He has been criticized in the past for not being philosophically clear, but Mr. Obama possesses the canny knowledge that in modern politics, clarity can sometimes get in your way. Shouldn't this read, be as dishonest and as opaque as you like, just wait until you get elected and then let the wolf emerge from the sheep's clothing? You don't always want to shoot arrows that pierce; sometimes it's better to be a great enveloping fog, something your enemies get lost in.
The big thing that has happened the past few weeks is that he's become more sharply defined. Actions and decisions clarify, and he's been quite the decider.
In foreign affairs he has shown the impulses of a moderate: watching (Iran), waiting (Iraq), beefing up (Afghanistan), standing down (the nomination of Charles Freeman as National Intelligence Council chairman, which brought more drama than he wanted). Again doesn't this really speak of his total lack of experience rather than moderation. Sending youtube messages to Iran, taking a wait a see view with the Taliban in the Swat [do you want to sit a watch a rattlesnake in case it has changed its nature]. Peggy is too generous.
His attitude at this week's summit was one of welcome modesty, which might or might not have tipped into a mea culpa (he agreed that America bears great responsibility for the world economic meltdown, and that some previous U.S. foreign policy attitudes have been poor). Or perhaps that's a you-a culpa.
In any case, his freshness and persona probably contributed to the fact that the predictable riots, while anticapitalist and antiglobalist, were not in their focus anti-American. This was a welcome relief. It won't last forever, and let's enjoy it while we can. Michelle Obama enjoyed a well-deserved triumph, representing her country with grace and elegance. She continued to signal a secret conservatism by demonstrating support for the right to bare arms. I very much wish that were my joke and not that of the editor Jason Epstein.
In domestic affairs, however, in the economy, Mr. Obama's actions since February have left him not so much more deeply defined as tagged. They can arguably be understood not as a conglomeration of moderate impulses but an expression of a kind of grandiosity. He thinks big! His plans are all-encompassing! There is so much busyness, and so much spending, that journalists have been in an unofficial race to keep track of the flurry of numbers. From Bloomberg News this week: "The U.S. government and the Federal Reserve have spent or lent or committed $12.8 trillion" in new pledges. This they note is almost the value of everything the United States produced last year. The price tag comes to $42,105 for every man, woman and child in the U.S.
I happened to be rereading the economics section of Mr. Obama's second book, "The Audacity of Hope," when I read the Bloomberg story. Mr. Obama scores President Bush for contributing to a national debt that amounted to a $30,000 bill for each American. Those were the days! What more needs to be said. It is not an aside. It is a headline.
The tagging was done, definitively, by an increasingly impressive (because unusually serious and sincere) member of the U.S. Senate, who happens also to be Mr. Obama's friend. Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican, has been close with the Illinois Democrat since their Senate orientation in 2004; he's the man the president hugged after his big joint sessions speech last month. Thursday, in a column on RealClearPolitics.com, Mr. Coburn wrote, "I believe President Obama has proposed the most significant shift toward collectivism and away from capitalism in the history of our republic. I believe his budget aspires to not merely promote economic recovery but to lay the groundwork for sweeping expansions of government authority in areas like health care, energy and even daily commerce. If handled poorly, I'm concerned this budget could turn our government into the world's largest health care provider, mortgage bank or car dealership, among other things."
To be defined in this way is not just a negative for Mr. Obama in terms of its criticism, it amounts to being robbed, by a friend, of the vagueness that was part of his power. Damn - someone figures me out before I could rob all the silver.
Mr. Coburn was all the more deadly for being fair-minded: he was tough on both parties as operating in a crisis from "scripts," with Democrats saying everything is Bush's fault and Republicans decrying high spending and taxing while failing to abjure earmarks and admit what must be cut.
The great long-term question about Mr. Obama's economic program, the great political question, is: Is this what the people want? There are economists who believe, and who make a reasonable case, that more money is needed to get the credit system, now frozen like icebergs, flowing in warm streams again. But in terms of leaps in the size of government, including a new health-care system, and higher deficits, and increased borrowing, and debt--in terms of the sheer scope and size of what is being planned--one simply wonders: Is this what the people want?
Different pollsters offer different data. The Washington Post this week put the president's approval ratings at 60% or higher; the Washington Times had a Zogby poll saying Mr. Obama's popularity has dipped below 50%; in this paper, the pollsters Douglas Schoen and Scott Rasmussen said the American people "are coming to expressing increasingly significant doubts about his initiatives," and placed the president's approval rating at 56%, "with substantial polarization."
That last qualification certainly sounds true. So does the assertion that there's a gulf between the president's popularity and the popularity of his programs. Messrs. Schoen and Rasmussen had 83% of respondents saying his programs will not work, 82% saying they're worried about the deficit, 78% worried about inflation, and 69% worried about the increasing role of the government in the economy. Someone may have a better set of facts, but was there ever a poll where 83% said that Iraq wouldn't work?
This is a hard time to be president. The questions and issues that arise, their depth, complexity and implications, amount to an almost daily parade of horribles. There is considerable goodwill for the president, and all the polls show considerable support--half the nation in a time of sustained crisis is not a small thing--but one wonders for the first time if Mr. Obama's support isn't becoming, in the old phrase, a mile wide and an inch deep. Something has been lost in terms of fervor when one talks to Obama supporters. There is little of the spirit that led FDR's supporters, for instance, in another great economic crisis, to put signs in their front windows supporting the National Recovery Act. We were a younger country then, and the two crises are not completely comparable, but there's a lot of wait-and-see out there. There's also a growing divide observable between the American establishment--of both parties--and the rank and file of Americans living normal, non-politically-obsessed lives. The latter seem more patient, more forgiving toward the president. The former, the establishment--again, in both parties--now commonly voice grave doubts as to his domestic ambitions.
Mr. Obama had a strong closing news conference in Europe, and it looks to have been a successful trip, marked at the end by an air of relative and surprising G-20 unity. The president will get some bounce from it, as they say, and it may be considerable. But then the Europe trip speaks of the part of his administration, foreign affairs, that is marked by an air of moderation, not the part involving ambitions that are grand to the point of grandiosity. There is some interesting stuff in here, by Peggy has surely tried to gloss over it and put lipstick on a pig.
Posted by: Omoter Speaking for Boskone7794 ||
04/03/2009
09:58 ||
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comment at AOSHQ:
3 Peggy Noonan wakes up sticky, broke, and confused.
HT:Sam Kinison
Posted by: A Balrog of Morgoth
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/03/2009 13:20
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#2
I'd like to comment, but couldn't make it past the first paragraph. Instead I'm feeling ill.
Posted by: ed ||
04/03/2009 13:51
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#3
the pollsters Douglas Schoen and Scott Rasmussen said the American people "are coming to expressing increasingly significant doubts about his initiatives," and placed the president's approval rating at 56%, "with substantial polarization."
Isn't that simply common sense considering 46% to 48% of us voted for somebody else? I mean, the guy got - what? - 52% of the popular vote? Not exactly a Reganesque landslide.
From PJ Media, via Glenn:
President Obama has called for a determined effort to free America from the hold of the international oil cartel. As his prime measure to achieve this, he has advanced a proposal to create a "cap-and -trade" system to limit carbon emissions. While the president's stated objective is indeed worthy and in fact critical to the future of the nation, unfortunately, as a means to achieve it, a carbon cap-and-trade system is a complete non sequitur. The cap-and-trade mechanism is primarily a method of constricting electricity production. The United States only gets 3% of its electricity from oil. Thus taxing electricity will do nothing to free us from dependence on foreign petroleum. Quite the contrary. To the extent that electrified transport offers an alternative to oil, such as subways, trolleys, and trains actually do today and electric cars might hypothetically do tomorrow, taxing their motive power can only make the situation worse.
The defenders of the cap-and-trade proposal, however, have advanced the proposition that strictly speaking, cap-and-trade is not just a tax, as its mechanism contains features not included in a conventional taxation system. In this they are correct. Cap-and-trade is not just a tax. It is worse than a tax. It is a modern version of tax farming. (Emphasis added.) Read the whole thing, particularly about the Wall Street types buying initial credits and then selling them later for a huge profit (from your pockets, of course).
Then, if you deem it worthy (as I do), print and mail copies to your Congresscritters. (Consider applying yellow highlight to a few important points.) Maybe they'll learn something.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/03/2009
09:30 ||
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Good article. Cap and Trade is Obama's baby, so it will be shoved down our throats, too:
Barack Obama helped fund a carbon trading exchange while on the board of a Chicago-based charity that is now, years later, likely to figure big in a cap-and-trade scheme he is trying to push through Congress.
In 2000 and 2001, while Barack Obama served as a board member for a Chicago-based charitable foundation, he helped to fund a pioneering carbon trading exchange that is likely to fill a critical role in the controversial cap-and-trade carbon reduction scheme that President Obama is now trying to push rapidly through Congress.
During those two years, the Joyce Foundation gave nearly $1.1 million in two separate grants that were instrumental in developing and launching the privately-owned Chicago Climate Exchange, which now calls itself "North America's only cap and trade system for all six greenhouse gases, with global affiliates and projects worldwide."
Arctic sea ice is melting so fast most of it could be gone in 30 years. A new analysis of changing conditions in the region, using complex computer models of weather and climate, says conditions that had been forecast by the end of the century could occur much sooner.
A change in the amount of ice is important because the white surface reflects sunlight back into space. When ice is replaced by dark ocean water that sunlight can be absorbed, warming the water and increasing the warming of the planet.
The finding adds to concern about climate change caused by human activities such as burning fossil fuels, a problem that has begun receiving more attention in the Obama administration and is part of the G20 discussions under way in London.
"Due to the recent loss of sea ice, the 2005-2008 autumn central Arctic surface air temperatures were greater than 5 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit) above" what would be expected, the new study reports.
That amount of temperature increase had been expected by the year 2070.
The new report by Muyin Wang of the Joint Institute for the Study of Atmosphere and Ocean and James E. Overland of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, appears in Friday's edition of the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
They expect the area covered by summer sea ice to decline from about 2.8 million square miles normally to 620,000 square miles within 30 years.
Last year's summer minimum was 1.8 million square miles in September, second lowest only to 2007 which had a minimum of 1.65 million square miles, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
The Center said Arctic sea ice reached its winter maximum for this year at 5.8 million square miles on Feb. 28. That was 278,000 square miles below the 1979-2000 average making it the fifth lowest on record. The six lowest maximums since 1979 have all occurred in the last six years.
Overland and Wang combined sea-ice observations with six complex computer models used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to reach their conclusions. Combining several computer models helps avoid uncertainties caused by natural variability.
Much of the remaining ice would be north of Canada and Greenland, with much less between Alaska and Russia in the Pacific Arctic.
"The Arctic is often called the Earth's refrigerator because the sea ice helps cool the planet by reflecting the sun's radiation back into space," Wang said in a statement. "With less ice, the sun's warmth is instead absorbed by the open water, contributing to warmer temperatures in the water and the air."
The study was supported by the NOAA Climate Change Program Office, the Institute for the Study of the Ocean and Atmosphere and the U.S. Department of Energy. Never let reality get in the way of a perfect model projection. If the model says the ice isn't there, then the ice isn't there.
#1
"Last year's summer minimum was 1.8 million square miles in September, second lowest only to 2007 which had a minimum of 1.65 million square miles, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center"
I believe that indicates Ice Coverage Grew by 15 million square miles from 2007 to 2008....
#6
Won't need to enlarge or replace the Panama Canal then, will we? And we'd be able to tanker north slope hydrocarbons instead of building more pipelines. That ice is floating so melting it won't raise sea level either. Could make a difference in North Atlantic sea currents though - no idea if for the better or worse.
#8
I hate to be snarky (not really, I love being snarky), but when I saw the title of the article, I was thinking it was another announcement by people living in a fantasy world doing unrealistic work making pronouncements because their handlers keep telling them how smart they are. Ya' know, Hollywood types. Hmm! Maybe I'm not too far off the mark.
#11
I'm putting together an email, a letter, and a small check to send to Mountain States Legal Foundation, with a copy to a couple of other groups (Judicial Watch, etc.) asking them to prepare to sue the President, the Congress, the EPA, Al Gore, and a dozen other groups (including the Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change) for fraud in "pursuing legislation to reduce the impact of anthropogenic climate change". A computer model is NOT a fact. There is no computer model sufficiently complex enough to accurately depict current weather, much less what it will be 20, 30, 50, or 100 years from now. There has been sufficient new information made available that ties past and current trends to solar influence (sunspots, geomagnetic changes, solar wind, irradiance, and several other factors), ocean currents (La Nina/El Nino, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, the Atlantic Multiyear Oscillation), galactic cosmic rays/cloud cover, and other data, with a much stronger correlation than the rise in the level of non-H2O greenhouse gasses.
There is no way in He$$ that roughly 2% (the percentage of atmospheric CO2 attributed to human activity) of 4% (the percentage of CO2 in greenhouse gasses) can control 99% of the changes in climate (2% of 4% is 0.0008 - eight ten-thousandths). The variation in water vapor (between 93% and 96% of all greenhouse gasses) is greater than the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. A drop of 0.1% in solar irradiation (which can happen due to a single coronal mass ejection) can result in a drop in world temperatures of up to 0.5degrees centigrade.
Our government is filled with people who have forgotten too much of how the world works, and who think the rest of us are that stupid, also. We need to prove them different. Suing the socks off of them for a FELONY (fraud) would do the trick. That fraud is going to cost all of us tens of thousands of dollars a year if it isn't challenged.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/03/2009 22:39
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A video showing a teenage girl being flogged by Taliban fighters has emerged from the Swat Valley in Pakistan, offering a shocking glimpse of militant brutality in the once-peaceful district, and a sign of Taliban influence spreading deeper into the country.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/03/2009
08:19 ||
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"She came out of her house with another guy who was not her husband, so we must punish her."
Her brother was one holding her down, thus redeeming his family 'honor'.
One suspects these men' need to wear loose clothing to conceal how excited these floggings get them.
"This video is being widely circulated because the Taliban want people to see it. They want to give the message that this is taking place after the peace deal because this is something they ideologically believe in,"
#5
Nothing new here. This isn't because of more or less radicalism, sunspots or the price of tea. This is what Muslims do, and have been doing for 1300 years. Welcome to the religion of submission. Hope you like it.
Depends on what tourists and how you market. Ya got your kiddie pr(0)n tourist markets some places, your same sox pr(0)n tourist markets. Swat could solicit the swatting - er, beating - pr(0)n tourists.
Journalists seeking to talk a little foreign policy with high-profile Obama administration officials live from the G20 meetings in London this week were solicited for phone sex instead after ringing up the toll-free number given by the White House.
In a press release, the White House accidentally listed a sex line number for journalists seeking an "on-the-record briefing call with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and National Security Advisor Jim Jones to discuss the NATO summit." But after dialing, a soft-voiced female recording that was clearly not Clinton asked for a credit card number if you "feel like getting nasty." YCMTSU
Posted by: Mike ||
04/03/2009
08:17 ||
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Well, if they're too lazy to make 'news' up as they did in the Bush years then this is what they deserve. Consider it a Obama Administration regulatory fee for journalist to get 'access'.
A video posted on a jihadist Web site could help the FBI determine how a group of Somali-Americans was recruited to join an Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group in Somalia.
For several months the FBI has been investigating at least 20 Somali-American men from the Minneapolis area and elsewhere in the United States who traveled to war-torn Somalia to join an Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group known as al-Shabaab, which has been warring with the moderate Somali government since 2006. At a Senate hearing on the issue last month, one top-ranking official said it's "clear" the Internet played a role in radizalizing and recruiting the young men.
The 30-minute video posted this week is a highly polished production, featuring anti-American hip-hop and sporadic images of Usama bin Laden. In much of the video, a man dubbed "The American" purportedly leads a group of al-Shabaab militants in an ambush of Ethiopian forces, which oppose an Islamic state and have backed the new Somali government.
"The only reason we are staying here, away from our families, away from the cities, away from candy bars [and] all these other things is because we are waiting to meet with the enemy," he tells them in the video, first provided to FOX News by the Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). "They're supposed to be coming anytime. We're going to set up the ambush, and by the will of [God] we're going to kill all of them." FBI spokesman Rich Kolko said the FBI is "reviewing" the video.
MEMRI identified "The American" as Abu Mansur al-Amriki, and a law enforcement official said he is originally from the United States, but has been in Somalia "for some time." The official said al-Amriki is in his late 20s or early 30s. The official wouldn't offer any other identifying features, including whether he had converted to Islam.
MEMRI described the video as a "clear appeal to foreign youth, especially in English-speaking countries, to join the jihad in Somalia." In the video, "The American" praises a man killed in the fight, saying, "We want to inform his family that he was one of the best brothers here. ... We need more like him, so if you can encourage more of your children and more of your neighbors, anyone around, to send people like him to this jihad it would be a great asset for us." Another man, with an accent and a wrap covering his face, says at the end of the video, "We're calling all the brothers overseas, all the Shabaab, wherever they are, to come and live the life of a [fighter], and they will ... love it."
The FBI investigation into how young American men were recruited to join al-Shabaab in Somalia is active in Columbus, Ohio; Cincinnati, Ohio; Boston; Seattle; and San Diego, according to testimony from counterterrorism officials and others at the Senate hearing last month. But reports from around the world suggest young Muslims from other Western countries, namely Canada, Australia and England, are also being recruited to join the fight in Somalia.
U.S. officials declined to comment specifically on whether officials from those countries have been working with the FBI. But at a State Department briefing today, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said, "Somalia would be one of those areas that we're concerned about with regard to Al Qaeda recruitment. This requires broad cooperation, the United States with other countries not only in the Horn of Africa but outside of that region to try to do what we can to prevent Al Qaeda from being successful in recruiting young people to their cause."
#1
This is the video referred to in the story I posted on page 2 today. However, that story did not have the actual video (which I could not find in a publically available version), and this one does.
A former Navy sailor faces sentencing in Connecticut for leaking details about ship movements. Prosecutors want Hassan Abu-Jihaad of Phoenix to get the maximum 10 years in prison when he is sentenced Friday in federal court in New Haven. Prosecutors label him a traitor who was trying to help foreign terrorists replicate the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 American sailors. Abu-Jihaads attorneys had not filed sentencing papers as of Thursday.
U.S. District Judge Mark Kravitz last month overturned last years conviction of Abu-Jihaad on a charge of providing material support to terrorists, citing the language of the law. He upheld his conviction for disclosing classified national defense information.
Cambodian and Thai troops fought heavy gunbattles on their disputed borderas months of tensions boiled over, leaving two soldiers dead just days before a key regional summit.
Soldiers traded rocket, machinegun and mortar fire near an 11th-century Khmer temple on the frontier, following a brief exchange of shots earlier in the day, officials from both sides said. The same area was the scene of several clashes last year after the Preah Vihear temple was granted United Nations world heritage status, with four soldiers killed in a battle in October.
"We are fighting with each other, it is serious gunfire. Two of our soldiers have been killed," Cambodian government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said. "The gunfire is continuing in at least two areas," he added.
Cambodian and Thai authorities confirmed heavy gunfire had broken out at 2:00 pm (0700 GMT) in a number of spots near the border, which has never been fully demarcated due to landmines left after decades of war in Cambodia. "We have occupied many areas now. The gunfire ended after about 35 minutes of fighting. We have won the fight now," Cambodian commander Bun Thean told AFP.
A Cambodian soldier posted at the border, Yeim Kheang, told AFP by telephone that a Cambodian market at the gateway to the temple had been badly burned during the fighting. "We used heavy weapons including rockets, machine guns and mortars. In general, we used every weapon given to us. Many Thai soldiers ran away, leaving their weapons behind during the fight," Yeim Kheang said. Thai foreign ministry spokesman Tharit Charungvat also confirmed the clash had taken place but said it ended with no Thai casualties.
Tensions had been high since an exchange of shots early in the morning after Cambodian soldiers went to investigate the area where a Thai soldier stepped on a landmine a day earlier and lost his leg. "The brief clash happened at 7:10am when Cambodian troops came to investigate the spot where that Thai soldier stepped on a landmine yesterday," Seni Chittakasem, governor of Si Sa Ket province in Thailand said. He said there was no report of loss of life on the Thai side in the earlier fighting, adding that the trouble flared one kilometre (around half a mile) into disputed territory.
Thailand's Tharit blamed the other side for the earlier clash. "We had to retaliate because Cambodians opened fire at Thai soldiers first. We want to reiterate that this area is our territory," Tharit told AFP.
The landmine incident a day earlier had already put Cambodian troops on "high alert" they said, two days after their premier Hun Sen warned Thailand that it would face fighting if its troops crossed their disputed frontier. Thailand denies claims that about 100 of its troops went over the frontier a week ago.
Tensions first flared along the border in July last year over the granting of UN heritage to the temple on the border. Subsequent talks between Cambodia and Thailand have not resolved the dispute and Thailand's foreign minister was forced to apologise Thursday, after being accused by Cambodian premier Hun Sen of calling him a gangster. Officials said the "misunderstanding" came after comments that Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya made about Hun Sen in a parliamentary debate had been incorrectly translated.
Usha Pandita, 45, feels tired even after the smallest of chores. But that's not unusual for her. She suffers from Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID).. For her, it all began with abdominal pain, which she initially disregarded as routine until it steadily increased. Usha then started to notice a heavy discharge and the feeling of being perpetually run down. That was when she visited the doctor. Tests confirmed she was suffering from PID - the inflammation of the organs in the pelvic region because of infection. It is during menstruation particularly that the uterus becomes more susceptible to this condition caused by unhygienic conditions.
Usha is one of the 10,000 residents of the Purkhoo migrant camp, one of the several camps set up on the outskirts of Jammu for the Kashmiri Pandit community forced to flee the Kashmir Valley when militancy gained ground in the 1990s. From Kupwara, Usha and her family made their way to Purkhoo, which they have called home since 1990. Years have gone by and even militancy is on the wane, yet time seems to have stood still for the inhabitants of the camps. Living in a one-room pigeon hole with a family of four can be trying in itself but the lack of sanitation has only added to the woes. For women, in particular, it is horrifying.
The Purkhoo camp has four phases and each phase has around 300 to 500 rooms. There are 10 toilets each for men and women. So there is one toilet per 150 men/women. The water supply lasts only an hour each day. Every time Usha, who lives in Phase I, goes to the toilet, she walks about 150 metres. What's more, she has to carry her wash water along. But there is only that much water she can carry. On numerous occasions the water is found insufficient to keep both herself and her surroundings clean. It is because of these abysmal facilities that she ended up with PID.
Veena Pandita, 40, also lives in the same deplorable environs of Purkhoo. She too has acute PID. Dr Indu Kaul, a well-known Jammu-based gynecologist treating these women, explains that the symptoms for PID include abdominal pain accompanied by heavy discharge and backache. She finds that in the case of women like Usha and Veena, PID continues for years. Usha, for instance, has been suffering from it for the last four years. The medicines don't really help, as the toilet she visits roughly four times a day continues to be poorly equipped.
Unfortunately, even the medication includes heavy doses of antibiotics, the intake of which has major side effects. When PID is deep rooted then surgery is usually the final recourse. Usha has been recommended surgery but her financial condition doesn't permit the procedure. "We still have four 'kanals' (one kanal equals 605 sq. yards) left in Kupwara. We had our own 'chashm' (well) there," she recalls wistfully. She adds, "I did not have to go to a toilet that was used by hundreds of others there."
Purkhoo's water supply, too, is contaminated. Residents complain that they have to replace their utensils every few months as they get coated with a white sediment. The pipes leak at multiple locations and so germs and dirt merge with the water. Near the toilets at Phase I, there is a water hole from which people draw out water to flush. But not only is the water filthy, it is even difficult to draw it out, especially when there is a long line of people waiting for their turn to use the toilet. Although help has been hired to clean the facilities once every two days, because of insufficient water and the sheer number of users, it is impossible to maintain a basic level of hygiene. Moreover, there is no electricity in the toilets, so going after dark is another hazard, especially for the women.
That's why the maximum number of cases of PID in the city come from these camps. In fact, according to Dr Kaul, while the national average of PID is six to eight per cent, the cases reported from the camps can be 15 to 20 per cent, which is extremely high. The most affected age groups are the adolescents and those above 35 years. In adolescents, chronic PID can lead to a loss of fertility, so the increasing trend is cause for alarm.
Sarla Kaul, 28, who lives in the Mishriwalla camp, a kilometer from Purkhoo, suffers from Urinary Tract Infection (UTI). The sanitation situation at Mishriwalla is worse than at Purkhoo as toilets for both men and women are common here and no one comes to clean them. Many toilets are simply holes in the ground. Sarla has UTI, caused by poor hygiene and unsanitary conditions that make her vulnerable to other infections too. Lately, she has been suffering from menstrual dysfunction, with heavy blood loss and pain around her abdominal area.
Expectant women are particularly vulnerable to UTI, as pregnancy causes hormonal changes that lead to the relaxation of the urethra, which if exposed to poor sanitary conditions is quick to contract infection. UTI leads to anemia, itching and swelling, which could eventually endanger the life of the child. It also often retards the growth of the fetus and results in stunted babies or those with low birth weight. That was the case of the baby Rajni Raina, who is in her mid-twenties and lives in Purkhoo Camp's Phase II, gave birth too.. Not surprisingly, Rajni had chronic UTI during her pregnancy. Once again, Dr Kaul points out that while the national average of UTI is about 10 to 15 per cent, it is about 20 to 30 per cent in these camps.
Besides this there are other water-borne diseases prevalent here. Shetu Pandita, 17, of Purkhoo, has been ailing from a recurring hepatitis for the last five years. As has Puneet Bhatt, 16, of Mishriwalla - since he was 10, in fact. According to the World Health Organization, 80 per cent of such cases are caused by lack of safe water and sanitation. Five of the 10 top diseases of children are also related to water and sanitation. According to Dr K.L. Chowdhury, of Jammu, Hepatitis A and E are common in the camps. Again, in pregnant women, Hepatitis is particularly dangerous as it can put the lives of both the mother and child at risk.
The Third South Asian Conference on Sanitation held in New Delhi recently called for according priority to sanitation and reiterated that sanitation and safe drinking water are basic rights. Such declarations need to be translated into a reality if life is to improve for women like Usha and Veena, who are rendered without proper homes because of the politics of division and hate.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/03/2009
06:39 ||
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A rare report on the plight of Kashmir's Hindus, ethnically cleaned from the valley.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/03/2009 6:43
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Even an April Fool joke is not always as it should be in Kashmir. A prank played by a journalist on the security forces on Wednesday could not only have proved fatal for others, but could also boomerang on him.
A journalist with a New Delhi-based TV channel sent an SMS to a senior army official in Srinagar, saying the fidayeen (suicide squad) had taken control of the Srinagar International Airport.
To send the alarm bells ringing louder, he wrote that former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and People's Democratic Party chief Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was among people holed up at the airport. "Five fidayeen have entered ...the airport and former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed is among the persons holed up there," read the SMS.
The army immediately cordoned off the airport along with the local police. By then, panic had gripped the airport complex with passengers unable to figure out what was happening. The security forces also zeroed in some "suspects" and kept them under vigil.
Suddenly, the officer gets another SMS from the same journalist, saying, "April Fool".
A senior army official told HT over the phone from Srinagar, "It's ridiculous and absolute foolishness on his part. How could he play such a prank on the security forces in Kashmir? We sounded an alert within minutes, as one can't take chances in Kashmir."
In Kashmir, security forces treat any information from journalists as 'credible'. Enraged, the army official informed the Inspector General of Police and the journalist was arrested. He was released only on the intervention of some senior government officials.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/03/2009
06:24 ||
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#1
This was idiotic.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
04/03/2009 7:56
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#2
It says a lot about the Indian media that a reporter would think this funny
Posted by: john frum ||
04/03/2009 8:17
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#3
This comes under the heading of "Asian humor".
A good example was during WWII, when Chinese soldiers were being transported in open door aircraft by the US. When one of them would stand in the door for the view, another would goose him, and he would jump out, to his demise. The others thought this was hilarious.
Then, soon, another would stand in the door to get a view. This phenomenon was so common that a plane would take off with many Chinese soldiers, and land with just two or three.
#4
According to my uncle who "flew over the hump", the Chinese soldiers would gamble and the loser would have to jump out. The C47 pilots reported this, and the Air Corps secured the doors after that.
A Rare Triumph of Substance at the Summit So says the author
International economic summits deserve to be regarded with skepticism: The most important decision to come out of them is usually the call for yet another meeting.
But yesterday's G-20 meeting in London was an exception. While President Obama may have overstated things a bit when he declared it a "turning point" for the now-shrinking global economy, the meeting did manage to boost the confidence of financial markets, inject another trillion dollars into the financial system and provide needed political cover for world leaders to take unpopular actions back home.
Ever since this round of G-20 consultations was launched last year by an insistent President Nicolas Sarkozy, there's been a distinctly French accent to the process. Implicit in the agenda has been a critique of the Anglo-American economic model that, in the European imagination, was the root cause of the current economic crisis. Sarkozy's aim was nothing less than a rewrite of the rules for global capitalism to conform to the more civilized norms of the continental European model.
At the same time, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was keen on creating a new global financial architecture to replace the creaky Bretton Woods financial institutions that failed to prevent a series of international financial crises and now seem oddly out of sync with the global economy.
To the American ear, much of this sounded overdone and overly ambitious. How about just Ewwu-ropean?
While the financial crisis revealed an urgent need to better coordinate regulation of global institutions and capital flows, nobody seriously thought that any country - not the United States, and certainly not France - would cede its sovereign powers to an international bureaucracy.
After all, the most recent attempt at international regulatory coordination - the Basel II standards on bank capital - wound up leaving European banks woefully undercapitalized when the current crisis hit, requiring bank bailouts that in many cases were much larger, in relation to the size of the countries' economies, than in the United States. U.S. banks, by comparison, had relatively more capital, thanks to those worrywarts at the FDIC, who had fought the looser Basel II standards despite their strong support from the banks and their always-accommodating regulators at the Federal Reserve.
The push for broader, tighter cross-border financial regulation, in fact, came largely in response to the light-touch approach of the Bush administration. But whatever transatlantic tension once existed over that issue pretty much melted away last week when Tim Geithner outlined the new administration's regulatory reform proposal, which could just as easily have been written at the French Finance Ministry as at the U.S. Treasury. Obamanomincs has arrived!
In the end, yesterday's communique, with its promise of a global regulatory crackdown, was an easy win for all concerned. Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel could declare victory over unfettered Anglo-American capitalism, while Obama now has added political ammunition for taking on the banks, hedge funds, rating agencies and private-equity firms that will try to water down his proposals. While that may constitute a turning point for Anglo-American capitalism, it is hardly the death knell. Some think there's still room for debate on that issue.
Gordon Brown, meanwhile, emerged from yesterday's talks to declare an end to "the old Washington consensus," the now-derogatory description for the policy prescription of open borders, floating exchange rates and fiscal prudence long favored by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
What emerged yesterday from the G-20, however, amounts more to reform than to revolution. Member countries committed themselves to adding $850 billion to the resources available to the IMF and regional development banks to mount rescues of countries in financial distress, with instructions that the money be used not only for traditional purposes such as debt rollover, bank recapitalization and balance-of-payments support, but also for more "flexible" goals such as stimulus spending, infrastructure investment, trade finance and social support.
And just as the old G-7 has given way to the enlarged G-20, the governance structure of the fund and the bank will be revised to give the bigger developing countries the authority they now deserve. Ahh, yessss. China and India deserve authority...
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/03/2009
06:03 ||
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Could it be the stock market surged when Wall Street saw Obama meeting with real leaders on issues, not one of his daily meetings with the know nothings within his administration?
A spate of burglaries in a Buckinghamshire village had already put residents on the alert for any suspicious vehicles. So when the Google Street View car trundled towards Broughton with a 360-degree camera on its roof, villagers sprang into action. Forming a human chain to stop it, they harangued the driver about the invasion of privacy, adding that the images that Google planned to put online could be used by burglars.
As police made their way to the stand-off, the Google car yielded to the villagers. For now, Broughton remains off the internet search engines mapping service.
It was Paul Jacobs who provided the first line of resistance. I was upstairs when I spotted the camera car driving down the lane, he said. My immediate reaction was anger; how dare anyone take a photograph of my home without my consent? I ran outside to flag the car down and told the driver he was not only invading our privacy but also facilitating crime.
He then ran round the village knocking on doors to rouse fellow residents. While the police were called, the villagers stood in the road, not allowing the car to pass. The driver eventually did a U-turn and left.
Mr Jacobs said: This is an affluent area. Weve already had three burglaries locally in the past six weeks. If our houses are plastered all over Google its an invitation for more criminals to strike. I was determined to make a stand, so I called the police.
Google Street View, which was introduced in Britain last month, gives 360-degree views of the biggest cities, allowing people to take virtual tours from their computers or mobile phones. The companys camera-equipped cars, which take the photographs for Street View, aim to cover as much of Britain as possible.
Readers of Times Online were asked recently where they had spotted the Street View car, and in the past couple of weeks people have seen them in Winchester, Preston, Chelmsford and Ipswich.
It is thought that the Google car that tried to enter Broughton had come from photographing roads in near by Milton Keynes. Google said that its car had been using public roads and was not breaking the law. A spokesman said: We provide an easy way to request removal of imagery. Most requests are processed within hours. Pictures removed include that of a man leaving a sex shop.
Privacy International, a pressure group, has begun legal action against the company in an effort to bring down the mapping service.
#2
It makes a lot of sense in a historical context.
Until the industrial revolution with the rise of capitalism and large cities, people had very little privacy. Consider that there is no right to privacy in the Bill of Rights. It was a judicial creation of the early 20th century.
The revolutions of the 19th century brought the anonymity of the large crowd. Bergson condemned this anomie. But people liked it. It finally gave them freedom in their daily lives from the ruling elites, whether spinster busybodies or self-righteous ministers.
The networking of the world on the internet threatens the privacy people have gained. They don't want to give it up. The Google Street View vehicle is one of the few physical manifestations of the network they can attack.
#3
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. - Fourth Amendment
That implies privacy in one's home unless the agent of the state can produce a warrant. That's not a 20th Century creation. What is a 20th Century creation is the various tangential extensions of that beyond that original intent.
What brought anonymity [vice privacy] was the development of true cities feed by both rural and international immigration creating a social environments that meant that there weren't enough official or unofficial regulators of social norm to impose their standards on everyone. If you look at the very issue of 'how can something that is obviously in public be private' it comes down to anonymity, not privacy. There's a lawyer cult dedicated to making sure you don't understand the difference between the two.
#5
There is a difference between the government having to have a warrant to enter your home and a right to privacy. Otherwise the right of privacy wouldn't have needed to be created from the emanations and penumbras of the Constitution. Nor would the fourth amendment have been sufficient to make abortion a constitutional right.
#6
There is a difference between the government having to have a warrant to enter your home and a right to privacy.
The government can't know what's really happening in your home without entry, thus privacy. It may guess, it may believe, but it can not know without direct examination which violates privacy. Thus the need for warrant, and in theory, probable cause. You're playing linguist games.
[Geo News] World leaders are looking to raise up to 1.1 trillion dollars in new financing for the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, diplomats said Thursday. Group of 20 leaders want the extra cash to boost liquidity and help embattled countries -- particularly in crisis-hit eastern Europe -- through the global recession.
The British governmentŽs Secretary to the Treasury Stephen Timms said the G20 would ramp up IMF funds to about 750 billion dollars. Questioned by reporters about whether resources would be trebled from the current 250 billion dollars, he replied that he would ŽŽcertainly expect it to be in that area. The crucial thing... is to help the emerging economies get the benefit of growth because they have been responsible for such a large share of growth in the world economy over the last decade.ŽŽ
By late Wednesday, around 260 billion dollars had been pledged by G20 countries for the IMF to help countries stricken by the economic crisis, according to the source. Canada (10 billion dollars), the European Union (100 billion dollars), Japan (100 billion dollars) and Norway have signalled that they would pledge extra cash through bilateral agreements that could boost the IMFŽs current lending capacity of 250 billion dollars, the official said. The G20 also aims to boost World Bank funding, partly by asking members to fund a total 100 billion dollars a year over three years. Earlier this month, the United States suggested that IMF lending should be trebled to 750 billion dollars. BritainŽs International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander said the global financial crisis was forcing more cash-strapped countries to ask for emergency IMF funds.
ŽŽTraditionally, IMF resources have often been required in circumstances where national economies have got into classic balance of payments difficulties,ŽŽ Alexander said at a press briefing. ŽŽWhat we are now experiencing are countries who are obliged to consider approaching the IMF not because of decisions that have been reached domestically, but because of the impact of the global crisis.ŽŽ Alexander added that G20 leaders would consider reform of the IMF in terms of conditions attached to getting funds, as well as the level of cash available.
Romania, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Serbia and Ukraine in Europe and Pakistan, Mexico and others elsewhere have sought emergency IMF cash in recent weeks. ŽŽWith the expected calls on IMF resources in eastern Europe, the present level of resourcing for the IMF -- about 250 billion dollars -- is broadly judged not to be adequate,ŽŽ British minister Timms said. That was why G20 finance ministers had last month anticipated that IMF funding would double to some 500 billion dollars, Alexander added.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2009
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BAGHDAD - The US army on Thursday handed over to Iraq control of the last former anti-Qaeda fighters credited with bringing calm to many strife-ridden areas of the country at the height of the insurgency.
Some of the Sahwa or Awakening militia, made up mostly of Sunnis, and who were financed and trained by the US military in 2007 to battle Al-Qaeda, will be integrated into the security forces. Others among them have been promised government jobs.
Everyone in the government understands the importance of the Sons of Iraq and their sacrifices for the good of the nation, said official Zuhair al-Chalibi, referring to the former fighters by their other name. He said the government, which has promised that 20 percent of the 92,000 strong Sahwa will join the army or police, would continue to support the vital project and give it the attention it deserves.
The US army said a ceremony was held on Thursday morning to mark the transfer of 10,000 Sahwa to the Iraqi Armythe final group to be handed back to Iraqi controlfrom Salaheddin province north of Baghdad.
The handover, in the provincial capital Tikrit, comes days after the government paid 30 million dollars to Sahwa members who had not received their salaries, even though the 2009 budget has not yet been approved.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/03/2009
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I'm sure this step will make USA a lot of friends in Iraq.
[Jerusalem Post Front Page] The army has "a lead" in the search for the perpetrator of the deadly terror attack in Bat Ayin in which 13-year-old Shlomo Nativ was murdered and another boy, 7, was wounded, an IDF officer said Thursday.
"We will do the utmost in order to find him and put him where he belongs," Lt.-Col. Guy Oshrey, the deputy commander of the Etzion Brigade, told Army Radio. "We have a lead and according to our assessment he will be apprehended soon."
Extensive searches were being conducted in order to locate the axe-wielding terrorist who infiltrated the West Bank settlement of Bat Ayin Thursday afternoon, killing Nativ and wounding 7-year-old Yair Gamliel.
Roadblocks were set up throughout the area and security forces immediately launched an investigation to determine how he entered the community. The initial assumption, that the terrorist was an Arab laborer and had therefore not aroused suspicion, was refuted when it became clear that the settlement only employed Jewish laborers. According to reports, the attacker was dressed as a settler.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] A Dhaka court adjourned the hearing of the August 21 grenade attack case till April 7, as 14 Harkatul Jihad Al Islami (Huji) men including its chief Mufti Abdul Hannan were not produced before it yesterday.
Judge Mohammad Masdar Hossain of the Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 passed the order after prosecution lawyers told the court about non-production of the accused. Nevertheless, the lawyers did not mention any reason behind it.
The grenade attack was carried out on an Awami League (AL) rally on Bangabandhu Avenue on August 21, 2004. In the attack, 23 people including Ivy Rahman, wife of President Zillur Rahman, were killed and a large number of people were injured.
Meanwhile, 23 prosecution witnesses had given their statements before the court and they were cross-examined by defence lawyers.
The prime accused of this case, former deputy minister and BNP leader Abdus Salam Pintu, Mufti Hannan and 12 others, are now in jail custody. Eight others, including Pintu's younger brother Maulana Tajuddin have been absconding since the cases were filed.
On June 11 last year, Criminal Investigation Department (CID) pressed charges against Pintu, Hannan and 20 others for carrying out the grenade attacks on the rally.
This article starring:
Abdus Salam Pintu
Mufti Hannan
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2009
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[Geo News] Fifteen inmates were injured when two groups clashed in Hyderabad central jail on Thursday while prisoners also held hostage 6 policemen. According to jail administration, the two groups of prisoners engaged in a brawl on a dispute relating to cooking food. They attacked each other with whatever they could lay their hands on including scissors, eggs and iron rods. Fifteen people were injured. Six critically injured were shifted to jail infirmary. Later, Deputy Superintendent Jail, Salim Shaikh talking to Geo News said situation has been brought under control while case has been registered against nine prisoners in Baldia Police Station.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Maghrebia] Algerian security forces clashed with 40 terrorists near the town of Ouargla (800km south of Algiers) last Monday, AP quoted local security officials as saying on Wednesday (April 1st). Sources said one militant was killed in the fight. Algerian soldiers reportedly stopped the group from completing a large weapons delivery.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2009
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#1
well the algerians seem too have their shit together fighting terror, seems these other countries just don't want too besides Israel, and Canada
[Bangla Daily Star] Picking up from where BNPŽs student wing Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal had left off, leaders of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) are now allegedly indulging in extortion and manipulation of tenders.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2009
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SHANGLA: More than 70 Taliban attacked the famous Gojaro Kalay emerald mine in Shangla on Wednesday and took control of the mining operations. The mine had been leased to American firm Luxury International, which had been paying Pakistan Rs 40 million a year. The company had left recently because of the security situation.
The Taliban took positions around the mine on Wednesday after the security guards fled. They announced to take control of mining operations and offered the locals to work with them and share the profits. They bought mining equipment from the nearby Kotkay Bazaar.
Sher Bacha, the nazim of the area, and the locals confirmed the report and said more than 1,000 people worked on the mine on Wednesday. Only 100 people worked at the mine before the Taliban takeover.
The district coordination officer and the district police officer declined to comment, but the policemen deployed at the nearby checkpost confirmed Taliban had taken control of the mine. Minerals Licensing Director Shakirullah said he had information on the takeover.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/03/2009
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[Kyodo: Korea] U.S. President Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung Bak agreed Thursday to seek a tough global response to a planned rocket launch by North Korea and to coordinate closely in dealing with the matter, South Korean officials said. During bilateral talks in London, the two presidents ŽŽconcurred that the international community would need to adopt a stern and united response if the North launches a long-range rocket,ŽŽ SeoulŽs presidential office said in a statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
agreed Thursday to seek a tough global response
#8
"Unified world response ....international community" > hard to argue with NORTH KOREA's = KIMMIE'S GEO-STRATEGIC LOGIC, i.e. iff the US-World didn't stop IRAN why should they stop North Korea???
[Bangla Daily Star] A would-be suicide bomber shot himself dead Thursday when mourners confronted him at the funeral of a Pakistani police officer recently killed by militants, police said. "When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains"
The bomber panicked and ran when people at the funeral in the northwestern Batkhela area grew suspicious of him, said Aziz Khan, a local police official. It was unclear if the man had tried to detonate the explosives-filled vest found on his corpse. He was also carrying a hand grenade, Khan said.
The funeral was for a senior police officer killed along with four colleagues when militants fired rockets at their vehicles in the nearby Dir region on Wednesday.
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[ADN Kronos] Mary Jean Lacaba, one of three Red Cross workers kidnapped over two ten weeks ago in the southern Philippines has been released, the International Committee of the Red Cross announced in a statement. It urged the kidnappers to release the remaining two hostages, Italian Eugenio Vagni and Swiss national Andreas Notter "without delay and unconditionally".
The Red Cross said it was relieved at Lacaba's release but remained "very concerned" about the safety of Vagni and Notter.
Lacaba was freed by her captors at 9pm Manila time, according to the Red Cross.
"She appears to be in good health, although very tired and extremely worried for her two colleagues, Eugenio Vagni and Andreas Notter, who are still being held hostage," said the Red Cross.
"For Eugenio Vagni and Andreas Notter, their loved ones and the whole of the ICRC, the nightmare of this abduction is not over," said Alain Aeschlimann, the ICRC's head of operations for East Asia, South-East Asia and the Pacific.
"Once again, we ask that they remain unharmed. While we welcome this first positive move, especially after a very tense and difficult week, we reiterate our appeal to the kidnappers to let Eugenio Vagni and Andreas Notter go without delay and unconditionally."
Aeschlimann thanked "various high-ranking government officials" for their "unwavering support during this difficult time" and their behind-the-scenes negotiations with the kidnappers, who are allegedly members of militant Islamist separatist group Abu Sayyaf.
Lacaba, Vagni and Notter were abducted on the southern island of Jolo on 15 January during a visit to a water project at a local prison. They are believed to have been held in dense jungle on Jolo.
Concerns for the hostages' safety mounted after a Tuesday deadline expired after which the kidnappers had threatened to behead one of the hostages unless security forces surrounding their jungle stronghold pulled back.
The governor of Jolo's surrounding Sulo province, Abdusakur Tan Sulu's governor Tan imposed a state of emergency on Jolo shortly after the Abu Sayyaf deadline expired. The declaration puts all security forces on alert on Jolo island and curtails the movement of people.
In a reported phone conversation with Philippines Red Cross president Richard Gordon an hour before the deadline expired, Abu Sayyaf leader Albader Parad refused to free the hostages and said the group remained serious about its beheading threat, despite the ongoing negotiations.
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[Straits Times] SUPPORTERS of fugitive former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra extended their protest to the finance ministry on Thursday, as mass rallies against the government entered a second week.
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[ADN Kronos] Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has launched a warning to Israel, saying the disputed Golan Heights will be liberated by "peace or through war". Not much gets by old Pencilneck, does it?
"There is no escaping the fact that the day will come when we will free the Golan, through peace or through war, said Assad in an interview with Qatari daily al-Sharq, in light of the swearing in of Israel's new right-leaning government led by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Unless ou don't, of course. To date you haven't.
"From the war of Palestine (in 1948) to the occupation of the Golan (in the Six Day War in 1967) people are becoming more hostile towards Israel. There may come a generation that is unwilling to talk peace." Every one since 1948...
Assad also said that Israel does not want peace, and instead said 'resistance' was the alternative. "This enemy does not want peace. What is the alternative? The parallel route to the peace process is resistance. The Israeli will not come by his own will, so there is no alternative but for him to come from fear." And hasn't that worked well, lo, these 61 years?
He also accused all Israeli governments, both from the liberal left and the conservative right of carrying out violent policies against the Palestinians. "All Israeli governments are the same: Ariel Sharon carried out a massacre in Palestine, and [Ehud] Barak aided the war in Gaza in that there is no difference between the right and the left in Israel."
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#1
On the other hand, maybe Israeli Gov. won't let our dear friends stop IDF midway through the job this time.
#3
ISRAELI MIL FORUM > JANES DEFENCE WEEKLY = [Report]IRAN LAYS GROUNDWORK FOR CW [ChemWar] TRANSFER TO HIZBULLAH [via Syria]. Artic alleges that only select = certain Bigwigs in IRAN + SYRIA + Hizzies Leadership are privy???
[Kyodo: Korea] Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso suggested Thursday that a rocket which North Korea is planning to launch will ŽŽfly over JapanŽŽ on Saturday. Aso made the remark to reporters in London concerning the rocket, which Pyongyang claims is to put a satellite into orbit. Japan and some other countries see it as a cover for a ballistic missile test.
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#1
I wonder what the satellite's function will be.
[Maghrebia] Four repentant leaders of Algeria's Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) issued a fresh appeal to Islamist militants to surrender under the Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation. The statement joins a series of appeals coming to light in the run up to the April 9th presidential elections.
The call, appearing in Algerian newspapers on Wednesday (April 1st), is signed by four former leaders of the GSPC/al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb who have already sought amnesty: Abu Omar Abdelbari, a former communications cell official, Abu Zakaria, former leader of the medical division, Moussaab Abu Daoud, former leader of Region 9 (Sahara), and Abu Amar Hadhifa El Maréchal, former leader of Region 5 (east).
Inspired by recent calls from religious leaders and former GSPC commander Hassan Hattab, the four leaders came forward to ask their former comrades in arms to renounce armed struggle and benefit from the reconciliation programme.
"Days, months and years have gone by, and each of us is waiting for the day when this tragedy can come to an end," their statement reads. "The era of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) is over."
"We were your comrades-in-arms in the past, and your leaders... We ask you to rejoin us and return to your lives among your families, who are waiting for you. You will also have the support of the faithful. They will be the first to greet you on your return."
"How can you stay in the mountains, trying to change what you cannot change?" The four say in the statement. "How can you contradict the ulemas, who are the heirs of the prophets?"
A number of terrorists have already surrendered as a result of the building pressure.
On March 31st, three armed Islamists surrendered to security forces in Benchoud, 90km east of Algiers. They were working within the Al Ansar military wing, whose former leader Ali Ben Touati (aka Abou Tamim) surrendered in Tizi Ouzou in January.
Madani Mezrag, the former leader of the Islamic Salvation Army (AIS), the armed wing of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), said on Wednesday in the Echourouk forum that the GSPC and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb are in fact two manifestations of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), which adopted the doctrine of takfir [declaring Muslims unbelievers].
Mezrag also criticised al-Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri for calling on terrorists to "liberate" Algeria just as the country returned to stability.
Armed activity is not the best means to achieve political objectives, he continued. "We shall never agree to the State being broken and we are not working to that end."
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CAIRO - Rival Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah on Thursday adjourned Egyptian-mediated reconciliation talks until later this month without reaching agreement, Palestinian officials said. A Palestinian official said the round of talks had ended inconclusively and would be resumed on April 26.
"There were new ideas addressed that will need more consultations within the institutions of each party," Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar told Reuters by phone. "The talks were adjourned for two weeks."
Posted by: Steve White ||
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[ADN Kronos] A civilian was killed and three others were wounded on Thursday in a car bombing in the volatile northern city of Mosul, a security source said, quoted by the Voices of Iraq news agency. Two other roadside bombs wounded four Iraqi soldiers and four civilians in Mosul the same day.
The attacks came two days after a truck bomb killed seven people and injured 25 at police headquarters in Mosul on Tuesday. Seventeen people were wounded in the explosion.
Mosul is a flashpoint for ethnic and sectarian conflict. is viewed by the US military as one of the last major combat theatres in Iraq as US troops prepare to withdraw over the next eighteen months.
Al-Qaeda and other insurgent groups are making a stand in Mosul as violence across the rest of Iraq begins to recede six years after the US invasion.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2009
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#1
Since Obama never mentions Iraq, which has greatly improved resulting from the surge, which Obama was totally opposed, Islamic terrorists will regroup in Iraq (with Iran's assistance) as long of Obama Inc only focus on one nation under jihadist siege, Afghanistan. Radical Islam continues their international terrorist war.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
04/03/2009 6:10
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#2
I think we need to institute a carbomb tax. We should be able to trade carbomb credits too.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
04/03/2009 7:54
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[Jerusalem Post Front Page] Lobbying from advocacy groups could undermine next month's world racism conference, the UN's top human right official said Thursday.
Jewish and Muslim groups have taken offense at draft statements being prepared for the meeting, pushing governments to demand changes before the April 20-24 conference in Geneva. A fresh draft circulated last month drew cautious welcome from most sides, though key countries including the United States have yet to say whether they will attend the meeting.
"I have a healthy fear for the way states sometimes operate," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay told reporters in Geneva. "I am quite wary of the fact that someone or other may attempt to revisit the issues that were dropped in this last document."
Dozens of Arab rights groups called Wednesday for specific references to Israel's treatment of Palestinians to be reinserted. The Arab Lawyer Union, the Arab Commission for Human Rights and others accuse Israel of "daily war crimes" against Palestinians.
Meanwhile, the World Jewish Congress said it was lobbying European nations to prevent a repeat of a 2001 global racism meeting in Durban, South Africa. The United States and Israel walked out of that meeting because of a campaign by some delegations to single out Israel for criticism.
Pillay defended the conference, saying it ended with a balanced statement that was welcomed by then-foreign minister Shimon Peres.
Emotions at next month's meeting are likely to run high if activists are permitted to take the floor, Pillay acknowledged. "We do expect tensions, and victims should be allowed to speak loudly," she said. "I would not regard any of that as disrupting the conference."
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#1
A pity. And I'm serious. The more Tranzis allowed to run free---the sooner true humans turn on them.
The man who forgets nationality instantly becomes less human and less European. He seems somehow to have turned into a walking abstraction, a resolution of some committee, a programme of some political movement, and to be by some unmistakable transformation, striking chill like the touch of a fish, less of a living man. The European man is a man through his patriotism and the particular civilization of his people. The cosmopolitan is not a European, still less a good European. He is a traveller in Europe, as if he were a tourist from the moon. In other words, what has happened is this; that for good or evil, European history has produced European nations by a European process; they are the organs of the organic life of our race, at least in recent times; and unless we receive our natural European inheritance through those natural organs, we do not really receive it at all. We receive something else; a priggish and provincial abstraction, invented by a few modern and more or less ignorant men.
[Bangla Daily Star] The government will bring the country's registered, non-registered NGOs and other volunteer organisations under one authority to monitor them and prevent their illegal operations, including patronisation of militancy. Sounds like one-stop shopping in a country where bribery is a part of the culture.
A single high-powered authority comprised of representatives from the social welfare ministry, foreign ministry, home ministry, Bangladesh Bank, Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms and the NGO Bureau will be formed for this purpose. I'd suggest -- though nobody listens to me because I'm an old crank -- that they hire two Canucks, a couple Hungarians, and three guys from Tonga, pay them a decent salary, and give them a non-renewable contract for five years. Have each of them submit a statement of net worth at the start of the contract, each of them submit a statement of net worth at the end of the contract, and shoot any of them whose net worth or that of their wives and/or children has grown by more than the amount of their salaries and allowances plus an agreed upon up-front percentage. Don't hire any natives, don't hire anyone from a society with a tradition of official brigandage, and don't hire anyone with connections within the country.
A proposal will be soon prepared and placed before the cabinet for its consideration, sources in the social welfare ministry said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2009
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#1
I too have a plan for streamlining NGO---shoot the 10 people on the top of each.
[Geo News] A beheaded body of an abducted Police official, Sub-Inspector Tariq Khan, was recovered here on Thursday from Matani area, on the outskirts of Peshawar. Inspector Tariq Khan, who was also In-charge Officer of Police Check Post Saifan, was abducted by some unknown persons a few days earlier. On Thursday morning, the official continued, dead body of the Inspector Tariq Khan was recovered from roadside in the area. The slain Police official was later buried in his ancestral graveyard.
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[Bangla Daily Star] Around 822 mutineers of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) and outsiders were produced before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Dhaka in connection with the Philkhana mutiny case, disrupting trial proceedings of most the courts throughout the day yesterday. Sounds like a feeding frenzy for mout'pieces.
This is for the first time such a large number of accused were produced before a Dhaka court in a case and it has broken the record in Bangladesh.
Meantime, the CMM Court asked the officer (IO) of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to submit probe report of the case by May 12.
The accused were produced before eight magistrates at different times since 9:30am and it continued until about 4:15pm. They, including the prime accused DAD Syed Tauhidul Islam, were brought to the court from the Dhaka Central Jail and Kashimpur Jail in Gazipur.
The situation caused sufferings to the lawyers, litigants and others who appeared before the courts yesterday for different purposes.
Court sources said a total of 386 mutineers were brought from the Dhaka Central Jail while the rest from Kashimpur Jail under tight security.
Additional police forces were deployed inside and outside of the CMM Court to avoid any untoward incident on the court premises since morning. All the gates used by lawyers, litigants and others to enter the new building of the CMM Court were cordoned off.
No one, including lawyers and journalists, were permitted to enter the court considering the security matter. As a result, most of the lawyers could not collect information about the cases, scheduled for hearing yesterday, and failed to inform their clients of the court proceedings.
Meantime, trial proceedings of some cases at several other courts situated at the old building were held. But the accused on bail could not appear before the courts in due time while the accused in jail custody could not be produced before the courts due to tight security.
Sources said the CMM by his executive power at 9:00am directed the authorities concerned to hang notices on the walls of the courts asking all lawyers and litigants that trial proceedings of all the cases of nine metropolitan courts at the new court building would not be held.
The notice says the trial proceedings of all of those cases would be held at the old buildings. But lawyers could not enter the courts to collect the information about the cases.
Mohammad Jaidul Islam, an accused in a criminal case, of city's Badda area told The Daily Star that he and eight others appeared before the court at 10:00am but they could not give their hazira (appearance) before the trial court.
A large number of lawyers expressed their resentment for not being permitted to enter the courts.
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[Iran Press TV Latest] President Hugo Chavez has expressed Venezuela's readiness to accept prisoners held at the Guantanamo bay detention center in Cuba.
The Venezuelan leader said on Wednesday that Caracas "would have no problems in receiving" the detainees -- whom the US calls terror suspects -- from the notorious US prison.
"We would have no problems in taking human beings," Chavez told Al-Jazeera at a summit of Latin American and Arab countries in the Qatari capital of Doha.
US President Barack Obama has ordered the closure of the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison camp within one year.
Hundreds of prisoners are still in US custody, most of them without a charge.
Chavez expressed hope that Obama would release all Guantanamo prisoners and "return Guantanamo Bay to Cuba and do away with that miserable prison".
The Venezuelan leader, meanwhile, said he was hopeful that Obama would yield to the requests of his people and strive to become the first "democratic" US president but added, "I don't have much hope."
Presidents Chavez and Obama are to attend a summit of the Americas set to be held in Trinidad and Tobago later this month.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2009
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#5
I'm thinking Gitmo should be the first destination for Somali "refugees". Then Mexicans caught by ICE. Won't they be surprised to learn they are being resettled/deported to Hugoland.
Posted by: ed ||
04/03/2009 13:46
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[Mail and Globe] New released images that provide a rare look inside a Zimbabwean prison show emaciated inmates too weak to stand and eating as if they can barely bring food to their mouths.
Human rights activists and former prisoners have spoken of horrifying conditions in the country's jails and prisons but there has been little firsthand evidence available.
Producer Godknows Nare spent four months on the behind-the-walls documentary, training insiders to capture the footage. His work, Hell Hole, aired on Tuesday on the South African Broadcasting Corporation, and was being syndicated internationally by Associated Press Television News on Wednesday. Nare said he hoped the footage would persuade Zimbabwe's new coalition government and the international community to step in to help.
"Just hearsay, without visual proof, is not enough to change people's minds," he said.
Attempts to reach the Zimbabwe Cabinet minister in charge of prisons on Wednesday were not immediately successful.
In one scene from Hell Hole, a man stands shirtless in a prison yard, his ribs and pelvic bone shockingly prominent until he pulls on a ragged T-shirt.
In other scenes, emaciated prisoners, wasting away because of vitamin deficiencies, according to SABC, are shown on mats in cells furnished with only blankets and the thin mattresses. Nare said prison menus have been reduced to daily bowls of corn porridge, which the inmates are shown eating slowly, as if they barely have the energy to bring the food to their mouths.
The Associated Press could not independently determine if the prisoners' ailments were caused by the jail conditions or by an illness or malnutrition they were suffering before being incarcerated.
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#1
Shocking I tell you! Absorootry Shocking!
Amazing how little of this is mentioned by the African genocide crowd or appears in the MSM. Swart on swart crime and inhumanity are off limits there as well as here it would appear.
No mention of it by African Union (AU) Chairperson Leader Muammar Gaddafi in the AU website or African Union Commission (AUC) newsletter either. There was a however, an inspiring story about Pan African Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis Eradication Campaign (PATTEC) and their meeting with Mama Sarah (Barry's grandmother) at her residence in K'ogelo Village. The AUC newletter also contained a congratulatory note to Barry from AUC Chairperson Ping. Lots and lots of other happy-talk and photos as well.
Grab your vuvuzela and stay tuned for the football rundown.
#2
Swart on swart crime and inhumanity are off limits there as well as here it would appear.
They're not off limits. It's just that nobody cares just as nobody cared about Rwanda. One of the benefits of throwing the colonials out.
Sub-saharan Africa is being allowed to regress to its precolonial culture, just as has much of South Asia. There's really little to be done unless someone wants to pick up the white man's burden. The Chinese are interested in the area's resources. But I doubt they'll shoulder the burden.
#3
Expect the Western world's elites, journalists, academics, etc to express outrage on the level of the Gitmo protests in 9...8...7, oh, wait, never mind.
[Straits Times] A man believed to be from Singapore is said to be acting on behalf of Islamic militants in the Philippines' 76-day Red Cross hostage crisis.
Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno told local television that the 'Singapore' militant served as an interpreter for the Abu Sayyaf group in its negotiations with the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Manila government. He said 'the Singaporean', whom he did not identify, could also have made contact with the relatives of a Swiss and an Italian hostage, two of three Red Cross workers abducted on the southern island of Jolo on Jan 15.
The Philippines' Red Cross head, Senator Richard Gordon, told The Straits Times last night that he first spoke to the man by mobile phone eight days after the kidnapping. From his accent, it was not immediately clear whether he was Singaporean or Malaysian, said Mr Gordon, who spoke to the man 'three or four times'.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2009
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[ADN Kronos] Religious extremists operating along the Pakistan-Afghan border pose a direct threat to Pakistan's existence, the commander of US forces in the region, David Petraeus, has warned Good call, Dave.
During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on US president Barack Obama's new strategy to defeat Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, Petraeus on Wednesday also vowed to take the fight to insurgents in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Good idea. First break the problem into manageable parts: north and south, with north getting lotsa development aid, south getting lotsa heavy ordnance. Then get some pretty murderous proxies going within Pakistain, the while piously denying any involvement.
He did not explain how he planned to do so. He may still be figuring it, or he may have it all figured already and not want to tell the enemy what he's gonna do, or he may have part of it figured and he's still filling in the remaining blanks but still doesn't want to discuss it with the enemy.
However, Obama said last week that the United States would pursue 'high-value' terrorist targets inside Pakistan but would consult Islamabad before doing so. What if they're in Islamabad? Can we discuss it after we kill them?
Also last week, Obama's national security adviser James Jones indicated that the US would continue drone attacks inside Pakistan as they had proven 'effective' against the militants. Despite the bitching, moaning, and claims of ineffectiveness of the Paks.
Taliban and Al-Qaeda groups based in the border area were "an ever more serious threat to Pakistan's very existence," Petraeus told the Senate panel. And a horse has four feet.
The Pakistani military, he said, had stepped up operations against the militants but more action was needed. The Pak military has revealed itself pretty much inept when it comes to anything more complicated that running a bakery or providing covering fire for jihadis.
Petraeus noted that the situation in Pakistan was closely linked to that of Afghanistan. Its a dog with two tails that take turns wagging the dog.
He praised Obama's new plan for developing a regional approach to resolve the issue of militancy, describing it as a step in the right direction. Petraeus acknowledged that militants in Afghanistan were growing in strength and audacity but vowed to fight them "relentlessly and aggressively." He's toast. He'll be replaced by the ghost of William Westmoreland any time now.
But Petraeus and top US defence department official Michele Flournoy were greeted with sceptical questions from senators about how willing the Pakistani government is to fight extremists hiding in the country's lawless tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. Not all skepticism is honest, is it?
Committee chairman Carl Levin warned that he did not agree with the administration's claim that progress in Afghanistan depended on success on the Pakistan side of the border. He knows of another way to get supplies into Afghanistan?
Afghanistan's future should not be tied totally to the Pakistan government's decisions, he said, adding that he remained doubtful about Pakistan's ability to secure its border. "I remain sceptical that Pakistan has either the will or the capability to secure their border," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
We cannot have it all,but we do have Patraeus, and that may make the difference.
[ADN Kronos] A new law in Afghanistan seriously curtailing women's rights, even explicitly permitting marital rape, is a "huge step in the wrong direction," the United Nations human rights chief said on Thursday, calling for its repeal.
Not yet published, the law, which was passed by the two houses of Afghanistan's parliament before being reportedly signed by president Hamid Karzai earlier this month, regulates the personal status of the country's minority Shia community members, including relations between men and women, divorce and property rights.
It denies Afghan Shia women the right to leave their homes except for 'legitimate' purposes; forbids them from working or receiving education without their husbands' express permission; weakens mothers' rights in the event of a divorce; and makes it impossible for wives to inherit houses and land from their husbands, even if husbands can inherit property from their wives.
"This is another clear indication that the human rights situation in Afghanistan is getting worse, not better," said Navi Pillay, High Commissioner for Human Rights.
"Respect for women's rights -- and human rights in general -- is of paramount importance to Afghanistan's future security and development."
That such a law has been passed in 2009 targeting women in this manner is "extraordinary, reprehensible and reminiscent of the decrees made by the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in the 1990s," she stressed.
Afghanistan's Shia community, composed mainly of the Hazara minority, comprises some 10 per cent of the country's total population, and the new law has the strong support of the Hazaras' male leadership, even though it has been vigorously opposed by others in the group as well as Afghan human rights campaigners.
There are concerns that the law will set precedents adversely affecting all Afghan women.
In addition to women's rights, there have been other setbacks to the country that have been undermining efforts to consolidate the rule of law in Afghanistan, such as both freedom of expression by the media and civil society activists being increasingly threatened, Pillay said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
So the UN human rights dept has finally had their morning coffee. Of course, they'll go right back to sleep after making their pronouncements.
They've been sleeping through the attacks on girls schools for years.
[ADN Kronos] Twenty-six foreigners suspected of links to international terrorism as well as aiding and abetting illegal immigration are being investigated by Italian police, after raids carried out on Thursday in various Italian cities.
The raids were carried out in properties around the northern cities of Vicenza, Venice, Padova, Brescia, Como, Cuneo and Trento, the central city of Florence and the southern city of Caserta.
The anti-terrorism and organised crime investigators in March 2007 began probing alleged Islamic fundamentalists attending the Via Dei Mille mosque in Vicenza in the northern Veneto region. The mosque was led by a Yemeni imam, who is also being investigated for terror links. However, most of the 26 foreigners arrested are Algerian. Three of them, who lived in Naples, are thought to be Islamist radicals sympathetic to the radical 'Takfiri' ideology.
The three radicals had already been involved in falsifying documents to aid jihadist groups.
Takfiris believe contemporary Muslim society has reverted to a state of unbelief ('kufr') and thus considers legitimate both rebellions against the state and acts of violence against Muslim citizens.
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#1
A big well done!
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
04/03/2009 6:01
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Takfiris believe contemporary Muslim society has reverted to a state of unbelief ('kufr') and thus considers legitimate both rebellions against the state and acts of violence against Muslim citizens.
Humm... sounds like the Takfiris need to work on their PR a bit. That doesn't sound like a good way to make friends and influence people.
On this day in history: April 3rd
1860 - The first successful United States Pony Express run from Saint Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California begins.
1882 - Outlaw Jesse James is killed by Robert Ford.
1895 - Trial of the libel case instigated by Oscar Wilde begins, eventually resulting in his imprisonment on charges of homosexuality.
1942 - Japanese forces begin an assault on the Bataan Peninsula.
1946 - Japanese Lt. General Masaharu Homma is executed in the Philippines for leading the Bataan Death March.
1948 - President Harry S. Truman signs the Marshall Plan, authorizing $5 billion in aid for 16 countries.
1969 - U.S. Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird announces that the United States will start to "Vietnamize" the war effort.
1973 - The first portable cell phone call is made in New York City.
1986 - IBM unveils their first laptop computer.
#8
Re: Jan Sterling... "High & Mighty", indeed..... uuf da!
Posted by: Jack Slusogum8158 ||
04/03/2009 12:48
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#9
Having first been introduced to Joan Blondel as an aging character actress in '50's and '60s TV, I am always amazed at how cute she was in the ealier days..
#10
Joan is indeed one of the 'Burg's loveliest. Wholesome All-American looking but she allegedly knew how to have a good time (and her reputation didn't suffer for it).
[ADN Kronos] Police have arrested a total of 31 suspected terrorists in an operation that began on Sunday in the southern coastal Abyan governorate of Yemen, against local Al-Qaeda cells, a senior police official told the Arabic-language daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi. Many of the suspects were detained in the Jiaar district. "This is an important result, because we captured 31 out of 40 suspects we believe are operating in the area," said the local head of police, Ahmad al-Maisari, quoted by the daily. "We will continue with our efforts to capture the suspects who are still at large," he said.
The police operation targeted two jihadist groups believed to be operating in the area: Jamaat al-Jihad and The Army of Aden. Last I heard, the Islamic Army of Aden had been subsumed into AQY. I'm guessing Jamaat al-Jihad is another branch of the same organization.
Eight policemen were injured in gunfights with militants during the operation, according to the Yemeni authorities. Some independent analysts claim nine policemen were killed during clashes in which heavy weapons and helicopters were deployed to flush the suspected militants out of their hideouts.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2009
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[Mail and Globe] Hundreds of supporters of MadagascarŽs ousted president Marc Ravalomanana staged a fresh protest on Wednesday. This is presumably not the same hundreds who were protesting his presidency.
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[Iran Press TV Latest] A US-led air strike has killed at least 20 suspected Taliban militants in the troubled southern Afghan province of Helmand, the US says.
Dozens of militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades allegedly ambushed foreign and Afghan troops in the Kajaki district of Helmand on Wednesday.
A precision strike was called to neutralize the militants following the pitched battles and ground clashes.
"The information we have says that all 20 of the militants were killed in the precision strike," a US military spokesman said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] North KoreaŽs military threatened yesterday to attack ŽŽmajor targetsŽŽ in Japan if Tokyo tries to shoot down a satellite it intends to launch as soon as this weekend.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#8
No. But we know they take days to setup, though he pulled off some hidden launches of smaller missiles a couple years back.
Worst case sequence of events could be:
1. NK shoots Dong towards Japan and it actually flies straight.
2. Japan shoots it down.
3. NK seethes and preps for more shots.
4. Japan destroys rockets on launch pad by air.
5. All hell breaks loose.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/03/2009 14:24
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#10
Works for me, JAB.
I'll order more popcorn. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/03/2009 15:03
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#11
suspect the US military pretty much killed off that gene line 64 years ago. Not there to wake up anymore.
Oh it is still there, just dormant. They focus it into business and other pursuits.
Their films have been becoming more and violent and more... um... western. Less defense and "woe is us for doing this" to more attack and kill 'em all and ask questions later. I suspect we will see Japan drop the pacifist angle in a decade or two.
#12
...so we wish. However, that nasty little part about while the Germans admit their 'error' of behavior and have had generations handed the record, the Japanese have been very evasive about the 'truth' of WWII activities. From the moment the Japanese accept surrender, their now declassified diplomatic communications show a full blown effort to obscure their actions and [a very early example] play the victim card with the atomic bombs. They are still a very closed and racist society with the veneer of high tech cuteness to mask it all. It wouldn't take that much to return to the 'old ways', though I hope that its towards the ideal rather than the reality of what it really was.
#13
To be clear, I am not hoping for a war to occur as long as we have people there. We should have been able to work with SK and China to bring this awful regime down as softly as possible, but they seem unconcerned about the mass starvation, torture and nuclear saber rattling as long as they are getting rich. Our current president now shares their views and seems to believe that NK is acting out because of how we treat them, not because they are evil and crazy.
But I think the scenario I outlined is plausible and agree with other commentors that Japan will become less pacifist in the near future. It is not completely a bad thing. Their government has a duty to prepare for the defense of their nation and that needs to involve some sort of offensive capability as well as ABM, ASW, etc.
#14
WORLD MILITARY FORUM > USA COVERTLY SUPPORTS SOVEREIGNTY IN THE CHINA SEAS FOR JAPAN, PHILIPPINES, VIETNAM, MALAYSIA, AND TWO KOREAS AGZ CHINA. US DESIRES TO BREAK CHINA'S PAN/EAST-ASIA CONTAINMENT AND DOMINATION STRATEGY TO PREVENT THE RISE OF A POWERFUL CHINA???
Also on WMF > [OTOH] CHINESE GENERAL: THE STATUS OF THE KOREAN PENINSULA MUST NEVER CHANGE. THE KOREAS ARE A VITAL "FACE OF CHINA" IN ASIA-PACIFIC. CHINA, RUSSIA DO NOT WISH TO SEE A US-CONTROLLED UNIFIED KOREAN PENINSULA; + CHINA ONLY HAS A POWERFUL LAND ARMY, AND NOT YET A STRONG NAVY OR AIR FORCES. THE CHINESE AIRCRAFT CARRIER, IMPROVED LONG-RANGE BALLISTIC AND SUBMARINE MISSLES, AND SPACE BOMBERS ARE A STRATEGIC PRIORITY FOR CHINA.
#15
"The status of the Korean Peninsulas must never change" > As per the above, METHINKS IT SHOWS ONCE AGAIN WHY TH DPRK = NORTH KOREA WOULD WANT NUCLEAR WEAPONS. The KOREAN PEOPLES INCLUD NORTH KOREA recognize that iff "GREAT POWER" WARFARE DOESN'T WIPE OUT NORTH KOREA + TWO KOREAS IN GENERAL, LOCAL STARVATION = PERMANENT ECON MORASS + NORTH KOREA'S LACK OF CONTROL OER ITS OWN STATE DESTINY VEE CHINA + WORLD POWERS WILL.
E.G.for NOKORS, WAFF/TOPIX > MULLEN: US MUST PREVENT IMPLOSION OF NUCLEAR-ARMED PAKISTAN, as potentially controled by Radical Islamists-MilTerrs.
[Geo News] The Chief Minister of Balochistan, Nawab Muhammad Aslam Raisani said on Thursday that the provincial government was committed to engaging nationalists so as to address their problems through a dialogue process. Talking to journalists in his chamber after Balochistan Assembly session, the chief minister said the reinstatement of Shahbaz Sharif government in Punjab helped resolve the political imbroglio and remove atmosphere of uncertainty. He directed the concerned officials of all law enforcement agencies to put the security on high alert and ensure protection to life and property of the people across the province. Raisani said that a delegation of the United Nations met him today and discussed steps the provincial government had taken for safe recovery of abducted UNHCR official, John Solecki. Balochistan CM said that Pakistan Steel Mills has not been procuring Balochistan's raw iron and coal since long and he intends to talk to President Asif Ali Zardari in this regard soon. Raisani said relief package worth Rs. 2.3 billion has so far been distributed among Balochistan earthquake affectees.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/03/2009
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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.
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. (AP) - A gunman opened fire at an immigration services center in downtown Binghamton on Friday, killing as many as 13 people before authorities found him dead, officials said.
The Hamas regime acquired U.S.-origin air defense systems but was unable to use them in combat. Hamas sources said the Islamic military has acquired the Stinger man-portable air defense system. The sources said the Stingers were acquired from smugglers in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula in 2008 and deployed in the 22-day war against Israel in January 2009.
By Douglas Feith
[Geo News] World leaders are looking to raise up to 1.1 trillion dollars in new financing for the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, diplomats said Thursday. Group of 20 leaders want the extra cash to boost liquidity and help embattled countries -- particularly in crisis-hit eastern Europe -- through the global recession. 
[Jerusalem Post Front Page] The army has "a lead" in the search for the perpetrator of the deadly terror attack in Bat Ayin in which 13-year-old Shlomo Nativ was murdered and another boy, 7, was wounded, an IDF officer said Thursday. 
[Geo News] Fifteen inmates were injured when two groups clashed in Hyderabad central jail on Thursday while prisoners also held hostage 6 policemen. According to jail administration, the two groups of prisoners engaged in a brawl on a dispute relating to cooking food. They attacked each other with whatever they could lay their hands on including scissors, eggs and iron rods. Fifteen people were injured. Six critically injured were shifted to jail infirmary. Later, Deputy Superintendent Jail, Salim Shaikh talking to Geo News said situation has been brought under control while case has been registered against nine prisoners in Baldia Police Station.
[Bangla Daily Star] Picking up from where BNPŽs student wing Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal had left off, leaders of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) are now allegedly indulging in extortion and manipulation of tenders.
[Bangla Daily Star] A would-be suicide bomber shot himself dead Thursday when mourners confronted him at the funeral of a Pakistani police officer recently killed by militants, police said.
[ADN Kronos] Mary Jean Lacaba, one of three Red Cross workers kidnapped over two ten weeks ago in the southern Philippines has been released, the International Committee of the Red Cross announced in a statement. It urged the kidnappers to release the remaining two hostages, Italian Eugenio Vagni and Swiss national Andreas Notter "without delay and unconditionally".
[ADN Kronos] Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has launched a warning to Israel, saying the disputed Golan Heights will be liberated by "peace or through war". 
[ADN Kronos] A civilian was killed and three others were wounded on Thursday in a car bombing in the volatile northern city of Mosul, a security source said, quoted by the Voices of Iraq news agency. Two other roadside bombs wounded four Iraqi soldiers and four civilians in Mosul the same day.
[Geo News] A beheaded body of an abducted Police official, Sub-Inspector Tariq Khan, was recovered here on Thursday from Matani area, on the outskirts of Peshawar. Inspector Tariq Khan, who was also In-charge Officer of Police Check Post Saifan, was abducted by some unknown persons a few days earlier. On Thursday morning, the official continued, dead body of the Inspector Tariq Khan was recovered from roadside in the area. The slain Police official was later buried in his ancestral graveyard.
[Bangla Daily Star] Around 822 mutineers of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) and outsiders were produced before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Dhaka in connection with the Philkhana mutiny case, disrupting trial proceedings of most the courts throughout the day yesterday.
[Iran Press TV Latest] President Hugo Chavez has expressed Venezuela's readiness to accept prisoners held at the Guantanamo bay detention center in Cuba. 
[ADN Kronos] Religious extremists operating along the Pakistan-Afghan border pose a direct threat to Pakistan's existence, the commander of US forces in the region, David Petraeus, has warned 
[ADN Kronos] A new law in Afghanistan seriously curtailing women's rights, even explicitly permitting marital rape, is a "huge step in the wrong direction," the United Nations human rights chief said on Thursday, calling for its repeal. 
[ADN Kronos] Twenty-six foreigners suspected of links to international terrorism as well as aiding and abetting illegal immigration are being investigated by Italian police, after raids carried out on Thursday in various Italian cities. 
[ADN Kronos] Police have arrested a total of 31 suspected terrorists in an operation that began on Sunday in the southern coastal Abyan governorate of Yemen, against local Al-Qaeda cells, a senior police official told the Arabic-language daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi. Many of the suspects were detained in the Jiaar district. "This is an important result, because we captured 31 out of 40 suspects we believe are operating in the area," said the local head of police, Ahmad al-Maisari, quoted by the daily. "We will continue with our efforts to capture the suspects who are still at large," he said.
[Iran Press TV Latest] A US-led air strike has killed at least 20 suspected Taliban militants in the troubled southern Afghan province of Helmand, the US says. 
[Bangla Daily Star] North KoreaŽs military threatened yesterday to attack ŽŽmajor targetsŽŽ in Japan if Tokyo tries to shoot down a satellite it intends to launch as soon as this weekend.
[Geo News] The Chief Minister of Balochistan, Nawab Muhammad Aslam Raisani said on Thursday that the provincial government was committed to engaging nationalists so as to address their problems through a dialogue process. Talking to journalists in his chamber after Balochistan Assembly session, the chief minister said the reinstatement of Shahbaz Sharif government in Punjab helped resolve the political imbroglio and remove atmosphere of uncertainty. He directed the concerned officials of all law enforcement agencies to put the security on high alert and ensure protection to life and property of the people across the province. Raisani said that a delegation of the United Nations met him today and discussed steps the provincial government had taken for safe recovery of abducted UNHCR official, John Solecki. Balochistan CM said that Pakistan Steel Mills has not been procuring Balochistan's raw iron and coal since long and he intends to talk to President Asif Ali Zardari in this regard soon. Raisani said relief package worth Rs. 2.3 billion has so far been distributed among Balochistan earthquake affectees.
