A burglar who broke into a house and threatened a pensioner with a knife got more than he bargained for when the victim turned out to be a retired boxer who left him bruised and bleeding.
Posted by: john frum ||
06/30/2009
17:23 ||
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#1
Presumably the old man will be charged with assault and battery.
#2
Personally, I'd give him a medal. The burglar should be forced to work at minimum wage to pay for his hospitalization. Maybe they can sentence him to community service taking care of the gardens of retired boxers.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/30/2009 18:27
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#3
Nope McCalium, a barman, was given a four-and-a-half year prison sentence at Oxford Crown Court on Monday for aggravated burglary and was told by the judge he had "got what he deserved".
Posted by: john frum ||
06/30/2009 18:27
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#4
John, that just talks about what happened to the robber. That brute of a pensioner who attacked the poor lad may be facing separate charges.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
06/30/2009 18:30
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The man behind the world's biggest online Michael Jackson fan club has said heartbroken followers of the star have committed suicide because of his death.
Gary Taylor, president and owner of MJJcommunity.com, said he understood the tragedies had mostly taken place outside of the UK but he believed one may have been British.
"I know there has been an increase, I now believe the figure is 12. I believe there may have been one Briton who has taken their life," he said. "It is a serious situation that these people are going through but Michael Jackson would never want this. He would want them to live."
Jesse Jackson, a friend of the singer, --yes, that Jesse Jackson--
has recorded a YouTube film on the site urging fans not to "self destruct". I am not making this up.
Posted by: Mike ||
06/30/2009
17:15 ||
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Aw, go ahead and self-destruct. Please.
These idiots need to get a life.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/30/2009 22:41
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NEW DELHI: It's indeed rocket science. And Tessy Thomas is going great guns at unravelling all its complexities. Though women and nuclear-capable ballistic missiles usually don't go together, Thomas is systematically breaking all glass ceilings in the avowedly male bastion of `strategic weapons'.
Thomas has now been appointed the project director (mission) of India's most ambitious missile, Agni-V, with a strike range of 5,000-km, which is slated to be tested for the first time next year.
Thomas, 46, was made the project director of the new advanced version of the 2,500-km Agni-II missile last year after she played a crucial role in the successful firing of the 3,500-km range Agni-III missile as an associate project director, as reported by TOI earlier.
Now, she has added another feather to her cap by being assigned to Agni-V, the test-firing of which will propel India towards having potent ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) capabilities, largely the preserve of the Big-5 countries till now.
Thomas, contacted by TOI on Tuesday, was reluctant to talk till she `had clearance from the top'. Overall Agni programme director, Avinash Chander, however, was full of praise for her. "She is one of the key members of the entire Agni programme,'' he said.
"The designer for the missile guidance systems, among other things, she is one of the most dedicated scientists in our team. She finds solutions to problems,'' he added.
A B.Tech from Thrissur Engineering College, Calicut, and M.Tech from Pune-based Defence Institute of Advanced Technologies, Thomas is an expert on `solid system propellants' which fuel the Agni missiles.
Based at the Advanced Systems Laboratory in Hyderabad, Thomas has been associated with the Agni programme for around two decades now. Her fascination for `rockets' began with the Apollo moon missions when she was in school at Alappuzha in Kerala.
The dream turned to reality when this `missile woman' was assigned to the Agni programme soon after joining DRDO in 1988 by the original `missile man', former President APJ Abdul Kalam. There are around 20 other women scientists working on the Agni programme but Thomas is the first to become a project director of an Agni system.
The work on the solid-fuelled Agni-V basically revolves around incorporating a third composite stage in the two-stage Agni-III, along with some advanced technologies like ring laser gyroscope and accelerator for navigation and guidance.
The endeavour is to ensure that Agni-V, for which the government has sanctioned around Rs 2,500 crore, is also a canister-launch missile system to ensure it has the requisite operational flexibility to be fired from any part of the country. It will be slightly short of true ICBMs, which have ranges in excess of 5,500 km, but enough to take care of existing `threat perceptions'.
Posted by: john frum ||
06/30/2009
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I wonder what would be her career if born in Pakistan?
Posted by: john frum ||
06/30/2009 16:43
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Acid burn patient?
Posted by: ed ||
06/30/2009 17:46
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Posted by: john frum ||
06/30/2009 18:32
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#4
Error in query: select id from tbl_captchas where _description='Now, that's a sandwitch!'. ERROR: syntax error at or near "s" LINE 1: ...d from tbl_captchas where _description='Now, that's a sandwi...
The Nebraska man who abandoned his nine children under the state's Safe Haven law last year is expecting to become the father of twins, FOXNews.com has learned.
Gary Staton, 37, became a single father in February 2007 when his wife, RebelJane, died of a cerebral aneurysm shortly after giving birth to the couple's ninth child. Unable to handle the burden alone, Staton made national news more than a year later on Sept. 24 when he dropped off his children -- ages 1 to 17 -- at a hospital in Omaha. According to the law at the time, parents could hand children up to age 18 over to state custody without prosecution. Legislators would later amend the law to limit its reach to infants up to 30 days old.
Joanne Manzer -- the wife of RebelJane's father, Jack Manzer -- told FOXNews.com that Staton informed his children last week that he's expecting to become a father again with his new girlfriend, a woman named Gail.
Continued on Page 49
Iranian Regime-Affiliated Organization: Europe and America Are Turning Muslim An Opportunity to Spread Shi'a Islam
On May 8, 2009, an article titled "France is Turning into an Islamic Republic" was posted on www.abna.ir, the official website of the Iran-based International Ahl Al-Bayt Foundation. [1] The secretary-general of this foundation, Mohammad Ahmad Akhtari, is deputy of international affairs in the office of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and former Iranian ambassador to Syria. [2] He was appointed by Khamenei to head the foundation in March 2004. [3]
The article surveyed the growth of the Muslim population in Europe, the U.S., and Canada, which, it claimed, is due to a higher birth rate among Muslims as compared to Christians, as well as to immigration. The article called on the Shi'ite institutions and clerics to take advantage of the situation, namely, that the Muslims will soon become a majority in most of the European countries and the U.S., and to introduce the local Christian population to the Shi'ite school of thought - since, according to the writer - it is more appealing than Sunni Islam.
Following are the main claims of the article. [4] It should be stressed that the data brought in the article is unsubstantiated and should be perceived as reflecting the positions of the Iranian foundation.
#1
See also PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM> THE GROWTH OF ISLAM IN EUROPE. France, Belgium, Netherlands, + Great Britain may be majority Muslim by 2030 = another 20 years.
A couple we know got a rude interruption on Saturday night. The two had settled into their seats at the AMC Cupertino Square 16 theater and were enjoying The Taking of Pelham 123, a thriller remake starring John Travolta and Denzel Washington. But Pelham 123 never finished; the theater lost its electrical power. The cause was a rolling brownout, due to a California heat wave and excessive use of air conditioning.
Electricity is a good thing. It powers your computer, drives economic growth, transmits images from Tehran streets, keeps preemies alive in hospitals, prevents meat from rotting and enchants and cools you in movie theaters.
Yes, electricity is a good thing. Where does it come from?
In the U.S., electricity is produced from these sources. If you are reading this on a handheld and can't read Wikipedia's wonderful pie chart, here is the breakdown:
Got that? A tick over 88% of U.S. electricity comes from three sources: coal, gas and nuclear. Petroleum brings the contribution of so-called "evil" energy--that is, energy that is carbon- or uranium-based--to almost 90%.
The remaining sources of U.S. electricity, the renewables, are, by comparison, tiny players:
7.1% -- Hydroelectric
2.4% -- Other Renewables
0.7% -- Other
Hydroelectric accounts for 70% of renewable energy in America. But, of course, hydro is mostly tapped out. Almost every dam that could be built has been built. Ironically enough, political opposition to building more dams comes from the same crowd of tree huggers who oppose coal, gas and uranium.
Do you see where I'm going?
The Waxman-Markey bill that passed the House on Friday by a 219-212 margin will punitively tax energy sources that contribute 90% of current U.S. electricity (or 71% if you want to leave out nuclear). The taxes will be used to subsidize the 10% renewable contributors (but really just 3% after you leave out hydro).
In other words, Waxman-Markey is betting the future of U.S. electricity production on sources that now contribute 3% or supply 10 million Americans with electricity. That's enough juice for the people in Waxman's Los Angeles County. Or, if you prefer, for Nancy Pelosi's metro San Francisco plus Markey's metro Boston.
Well, what about electricity for the other 295 million? You can't get there from here with Waxman-Markey. At very best, solar, wind and cellulosic ethanol will make 20% contributions by 2025. The smart money would bet on 10%.
Renewable dreamers, such as New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, believe this magical 3% is somehow different than the 97%. Different in the way the silicon chip is different than the Eniac computer. In other words, they believe the 3% will see Moore's Law exponential gains that will grow mighty in a decade. That is precisely the bet being made by the giant venture capital fund Kleiner Perkins with its billion-dollar-plus green fund. The firm's alpha dog and green weeper, John Doerr, is convinced that solar and cellulosic ethanol will see Moore's Law gains if you assemble the world's best and brightest minds to work on it.
I see no evidence of that. Now, it is true that solar and maybe cellulosic ethanol have the potential of making bigger technological leaps than traditional sources. But not at the pace of Moore's Law, or even close.
Meanwhile, traditional sources of electricity that are progressing in the direction of cleaner and more efficient are being ignored (or dissed by Waxman-Markey). Here are two must reads--the first on clean coal by Gregg Easterbrook, the second on fission energy by Robert Metcalfe. Study them if you take electricity production seriously.
Bottom line: There is no way the U.S. economy can enjoy future prosperity without the big three electrical energy sources of clean coal, natural gas and nuclear.
#4
In other news... Claiming that the substance made "some boys happy", the Obama administration has moved to impose strict Federal licencing regimes including special taxes and use permits on the polluting and highly, white, waxy solid highly toxic chemical meta-terphenyl, commonly known as "item no. 2911."
Two Camerounians and a Nigerian accomplice were recently lynched in Taraba state over allegations that they were involved in a case of missing genital organs. Confirming the incidence in Jalingo, the State Commissioner of Police, Musa Aliyu, gave the names of the suspects as Thomas Actiotus, Fosting Joseph, a driver attached to Cameroun Embassy in Lagos and the name of the Nigerian friend as Avea Torhinbo who said are passing through Kurmi Local Government area to Cameroun Republic when they were burnt to death. "Burn, doinker snatchers! Burn!"
He disclosed that trouble started when one Moses Umaru from Marraraba Donga raised an alarm that the 3 people who were driving a Toyota Jeep marked BV 802 AGL have removed his genital organ. "Whoa! All that beer! I gotta whizz like a racehorse!... Say... What's this?... Where's my hose?"
The police chief added that sympathizers joined Torhinbo in chasing the victims, adding that three suspects, in sensing danger, fled to Kurmi Divisional Police Headquarters for safety. "Help! Help! Save us!"
"Stay outside, schlang snatchers!"
He added that the mob followed them to the station and threaten to set the station ablaze if the 3 suspects were not released to them. "Hand 'em over or you're toast!"
"You mean...?"
"Fire 'em up, boyz!"
"No, wait! You can have 'em!"
According to the Police Boss, the mob later over powered the Policemen on duty, seized the suspects and set them ablaze along with their Jeep. "Help! Help!"
"Shuddup! Hand me that can o' gasoline!"
The Police Commissioner, also added that recently, there was a similar incident that took place in Zing Local Government Area a town located at the Northern part of the state where one person suspected to be a syndicate of Genital organ snatcher also made his waterloo by the angry youths. "You expect me to talk, Goldwiener?"
"No, Mr. Bond! I expect you to die!"
He then advise the members of the public to disregard any rumour of missing genital describing it as a mere false alarm and baseless. "Tut, tut and tut! An international doinker stealing syndicate? Don't be silly!"
"In that case, where's my pud?"
"Did you look in your other pants?"
He threatened to deal with anybody who is in that habit of raising necessary alarm over the issue because according to him investigation by his intelligent department shows that there is no evidence to show the claimed Cameroonians and a Nigerian accomplice were recently lynched in Taraba state over allegations that they were involved in a case of missing genital organs. "Da witnesses are all dead!"
"The victims are, anyway."
"Can I have my hose back?"
"No. We need it for evidence."
#1
Roving gangs of genital organ snatchers? The world is truly crazy. I am sure that Obama is "deeply concerned and deeply troubled" about these events.
#1
Don't worry, I feel sure that at the right moment, when things have gone to h___, that Obama will tell the world that he's "very concerned and deeply troubled." There, don't you feel better now?
It aint going to be pretty when millions can'taccess their money cos their bank is insolvent. Never mind the economic crash when credit dissapears and businesses can't pay their creditors.
The poor budget outlook may impel the administration to follow up health-care legislation with an effort to fix Social Security. The shortfall in Social Security's trust funds -- which adds to the long-term deficit -- is much smaller than the companion problem in Medicare funding. Public anxiety over deficits may make this fix possible now even though it has been elusive for years. If this could be done, confidence in Washington's capacity to address its debt challenge would rise.
But even with a Social Security fix the medium-term deficit outlook will be poor. Sometime soon, perhaps in 2010, Main Street and financial markets will exert irresistible pressure to reduce the deficit.
The problem is the deficit's sheer size, which goes way beyond potential savings from cuts in discretionary spending or defense. It's entirely possible that Medicare and Social Security will already have been addressed, and thus taken off the table. In short we'll have to raise taxes.
Today, the U.S. ranks next to last among the 28 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development nations in total federal revenue as a share of GDP. Our federal revenues represent 18% of national output, down from 20% just 10 years ago. That makes the mismatch between our spending and our revenue very large, producing the huge deficits we face.
We all know the recent and bitter history of tax struggles in Washington, let alone Mr. Obama's pledge to exempt those earning less than $250,000 from higher income taxes. This suggests that, possibly next year, Congress will seriously consider a value-added tax (VAT). A bipartisan deficit reduction commission, structured like the one on Social Security headed by Alan Greenspan in 1982, may be necessary to create sufficient support for a VAT or other new taxes.
#1
Today, the U.S. ranks next to last among the 28 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development nations in total federal revenue as a share of GDP.
Love the way these guys always ignore state and local taxes when comparing to other countries.
#3
When you pay over 50% of your income on federal, state, and local taxes, fees, and levies, you exist to serve the state. Nice how the Donks finally got a work around on the 13th Amendment they unsuccessfully opposed in the first place. In the past the serf was tied to the land because the land was the source of income for the lord. Now they allow the serfs to move around, but still keep the income generated for the ruling class to use as they see fit.
#6
#4 "Resistance is futile. Your life as it has been is over. From this time forward, you will service us." Posted by: Barack Oborgma
Not as long as I have a short rope, a long drop, and a good foot to assist the maneuver, it ain't. It's gettin' closer and closer to time for pitchforks and shotguns. It's well past time Congress learned once again they are our servants, not our masters.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/30/2009 19:04
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Twenty-six percent (26%) of Massachusetts voters say their states health care reform effort has been a success. A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state finds that 37% say the reform effort has been a failure, while another 37% are not sure.
Only 10% of Bay State voters say the quality of health care has gotten better as a result of the reform plan while 29% say it has gotten worse. Most (53%) say the quality of care has not changed.
As for cost, 21% say the reform has made health care more affordable in Massachusetts. Twenty-seven percent (27%) say health care is now less affordable while 44% see no change.
(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter.
The Massachusetts Health Care Reform was enacted in 2006 by Republican Governor Mitt Romney and a Democratic state legislature. Some consider it a bipartisan model for national health care reform.
By a 37% to 17% margin, Massachusetts liberals consider the program a success. By a 55% to 18% margin, conservatives in the state say its been a failure.
From a partisan perspective, Democrats are fairly evenly divided with 49% not sure if the reform effort has been a success or a failure. Sixty-six percent (66%) of Republicans say its been a failure. Among those not affiliated with either major party, 27% consider the reform plan a success while 41% say its been a failure.
Please sign up for the Rasmussen Reports daily e-mail update (its free) or follow us on Twitter. Let us keep you up to date with the latest public opinion news.
#2
I read an article yesterday on IBD that says Mass is trying to find a way to continue to pay for the current medical program. The state has lost billions in revenue from the financial cricis and unemployment has driven more people to sign up for Mass(casualty)care. The state is whining that it'll run out of money in August if they can't find some way to either cut costs further (ration care) or raise more money (raise taxes). Doesn't sound much like a success to me...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/30/2009 15:42
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#3
Always destroying the majority for the miniority. It's so "democratic".
#6
One major problem in MA is that there are not enough primary care physicians for all those newly insured folks. Universal coverage has not resulted in universal access. The same would happen nationally with Obamacare. Thus far, there've been few specifics by either Congress or the Administration as to how their plans would create an environment conducive to more physicians. Rising malpractice premiums, Loan debt from med school, and decreasing reimbursements do not constitute a model for attracting the best and brightest to medicine.
ST. PAUL, Minn. The Minnesota Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered that Democrat Al Franken be certified as the winner of the state's long-running Senate race.
The high court rejected a legal challenge from Republican Norm Coleman, whose options for regaining the Senate seat are dwindling.
Justices said Franken is entitled to the election certificate he needs to assume office. With Franken and the usual backing of two independents, Democrats will have a big enough majority to overcome Republican filibusters.
Coleman hasn't ruled out seeking federal court intervention.
Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, said the earliest Franken would be seated is next week because the Senate is out of session for the July 4th holiday.
Coleman's appeal hinged largely on whether thousands of absentee votes had been unfairly rejected by local election officials around the state.
The unanimous court wrote that "because the legislature established absentee voting as an optional method of voting, voters choosing to use that method are required to comply with the statutory provisions."
They went on to say that "because strict compliance with the statutory requirements for absentee voting is, and always has been required, there is no basis on which voters could have reasonably believed that anything less than strict compliance would suffice."
#1
Congratulations Minnesotans! You now have the leadership you overwhelmingly ask for and so richly deserve. Let's not have any bitc*ing or whining now. Enjoy the day and his entire tenure in office.
#5
To jog memories, Coleman led Franken by 215 votes election night. Then selective counting happened: Case in point: the panel's dismal handling of absentee ballots. Early in the recount, the Franken team howled that some absentee votes had been erroneously rejected by local officials. We warned at the time that this was dangerous territory, designed to pressure election officials into accepting rejected ballots after the fact.
Yet instead of shutting this Franken request down, or early on issuing a clear set of rules as to which absentees were valid, the state Supreme Court and the canvassing board oversaw a haphazard process by which some counties submitted new batches to be included in the tally, while other counties did not. The resulting additional 933 ballots were largely responsible for Mr. Franken's narrow lead.
During the contest trial, the Coleman team presented evidence of a further 6,500 absentees that it felt deserved to be included under the process that had produced the prior 933. The three judges then finally defined what constituted a "legal" absentee ballot. Countable ballots, for instance, had to contain the signature of the voter, complete registration information, and proper witness credentials.
But the panel only applied these standards going forward, severely reducing the universe of additional absentees that the Coleman team could hope to have included. In the end, the three judges allowed only about 350 additional absentees to be counted. The panel also did nothing about the hundreds, possibly thousands, of absentees that have already been legally included, yet are now "illegal" according to the panel's own ex-post definition.
The 2000 Bush-Gore election should have drilled into every Repub skull to never give an inch to Dem selective counting schemes. And make sure all ballots are guarded around the clock lest overwhelmingly Dem ballots are "found" in filing cabinets.
Posted by: ed ||
06/30/2009 17:06
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#6
I am the Senator Landslide Franken,
I will make worse what's already achin',
Don't blame me for Minnesotans voting,
I do my best work to help them counting,
O marvelous me, o marvelous me,
I am a Senator for all to see.
Only an idiot would vote for me,
That's a large part of the voters you see,
O marvelous me, O marvelous me,
I am a Senator for all to see.
#1
When he was opposing Arnold, Huffington and the others for the governor seat I liked him the best. He was the only real conservative on the ticket. Arnold was more popular but McClintock was obviously more capable imho.
WASHINGTON A U.S. official says a North Korean ship has turned around and is headed back the way it came, after being tracked for days by American vessels on suspicion it was carrying illicit weapons. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence, says it is unclear whether the Kang Nam is going back to its home port in North Korea or diverting elsewhere.
The ship left a North Korean port on June 17 and is the first vessel monitored under U.N. sanctions that ban the regime from selling arms and nuclear-related material. It was suspected the Kang Nam was going to Myanmar. But the U.S. official says that after a week-and-a half at sea, it turned around on Sunday or Monday. It was off the coast of Vietnam on Tuesday.
#1
Mis-direction? Did another ship slip out without the US noticing? Is this another Kimmie game? A bluff that failed? I hope we hear more about this, especially what triggered the recall.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/30/2009 16:04
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#2
At this point I'd say Hong Kong, Macau, or any other Chinese port where they can get a fuel barge.
#1
This puts the onus on the detainees to handle things. The alternative would be to paint an arrow in each cell and public room in the prisons, thus forcing all who walk through to accept the weight of the Muslim presence. The ony thing is, I'd issue a compass for first incarceration only -- if they lose it during or between incarcerations, they're on their own... or make them available for purchase alongside the chocolate bars and cigarettes in the prison's shop. Call it a cost-savings measure, because national finances are so tight.
An Indian soldier has been killed in cross-border firing across the Line of Control (LoC) in the disputed territory of Kashmir, officials say.
Indian army officials said the firing occurred as they foiled an attempt by a group of militants to infiltrate Indian-administered Kashmir on Sunday. They say the attempt was "apparently backed by the Pakistani army".
Usually is, isn't it?
Pakistan has not yet commented on the incident. The two armies have observed a ceasefire on the LoC since 2003.
"If it was fire from the Pakistani army then it can be termed as a ceasefire violation," an Indian army official said. The army has said it will assess the situation and "will communicate disappointment to Pakistan over the incident".
I'd attach the note to a dead Pak terrorist. It would get the point across more quickly. If I didn't have a dead terrorist to which to attach the note, I'd make one.
The BBC's Binoo Joshi in Jammu, in Indian-controlled Kashmir, says that if this did turn out to be a ceasefire violation, it would be the third such violation in the area this year. Indian Defence Minister AK Antony said last year that Pakistan had violated the ceasefire more than 30 times since it had been put in place.
Posted by: john frum ||
06/30/2009
13:03 ||
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#1
I get the drift from the NY Times; Obama is good and noble, but all things American are bad and therefore American projects face a bleak future. For a more balanced view, it would be better to read the BBC news on the web. The BBC is not as anti-American as the NY Times.
#2
We once hoped that a clear timetable for an American withdrawal would finally persuade Iraqs leaders to make the political compromises Indeed there are worrying signs that Iraqi politicians are doing the opposite.
By using the inclusive term We instead of Congressional Democrats the NYTs proves once again it is nothing more then a disingenuous arm of the political left. They conveniently omit the fact that there was a fierce debate over the logic of an announced withdrawal date. And now that some of those concerns have materialized they insinuate it was an all-encompassing decision. They also fail to mention that without the success of the so-called Surge, the strategy they so vehemently opposed, a timetable was completely unthinkable. But, of course, if they were to do otherwise it might prevent them from proceeding to say,
Mr. Obama was right to commit to a carefully paced and responsible withdrawal
Who'd a thunk that we are so efficient that we could steal all the oil before 2009 was thru?
Posted by: Kelly ||
06/30/2009 19:45
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#5
NO surprise here - ala historical enemy "decisive" operations agz the USMC at CHOSIN + KHE SANH, etc, to validate His "DIVINE LEGITIMACY" it would behoove Radical Islam's HIDDEN IMAM-MAHDI to plan and launch a "decisive battle/campaign" [ground] agz US ELITE FORCES, inclusing as combined wid other US ALLIES [read, ELITE EURO UNITS] WHICH AS PER US HISTOIRE' + MSM-NET WOULD PROB BE AGZ THE MARINE PRESENCE OR WHAT REMAINS OF SAME???
"Folks say that if you listen real close at the height of the full moon, when the wind is blowin' off Nantucket Sound from the nor' east and the dogs are howlin' for no earthly reason, you can hear the awful screams of the crew of the "Ellie May," a sturdy whaler Captained by John McTavish; for it was on just such a night when the rum was flowin' and, Davey Jones be damned, big John brought his men on deck for the first of several screaming contests."
Other winners:
"How best to pluck the exquisite Toothpick of Ramses from between a pair of acrimonious vipers before the demonic Guards of Nicobar returned should have held Indy's full attention, but in the back of his mind he still wondered why all the others who had agreed to take part in his wife's holiday scavenger hunt had been assigned to find stuff like a Phillips screwdriver or blue masking tape."
"She walked into my office on legs as long as one of those long-legged birds that you see in Florida the pink ones, not the white ones except that she was standing on both of them, not just one of them, like those birds, the pink ones, and she wasn't wearing pink, but I knew right away that she was trouble, which those birds usually aren't."
#2
I just got an alumni magazine and a guy named Garrison Spik was mentioned as a winner also. His entry:
Theirs was a New York love, a checkered taxi ride burning rubber, and like the city their passion was open 24/7, steam rising from their bodies like slick streets exhaling warm, moist, white breath through manhole covers stamped "Forged by DeLaney Bros., Piscataway, N.N."
As the end of California's fiscal year approaches, the Governor and state legislators confront a $24 billion deficit. While Republicans and Democrats wrangle over how to address the gaping shortfall, some members of the press have started to look for a scapegoat for the fiscal train wreck. Many have blamed the California taxpayer's only protection: Prop. 13, the 1978 measure capping state property taxes at 1% of a home's assessed value.
Perhaps the most egregious example of the finger-pointing is a recent piece from TIME's Kevin O'Leary, moaning that "Before Prop 13, in the 1950s and '60s, California was a liberal showcase." He insists that "at the root of California's misery lies Proposition 13," and concludes that "in California, the conservative legacy lives on."
How ridiculous. Of all the problems contributing to the fiscal mess, state under-taxation is the least of them. California's sales and gas taxes are the highest in the country - and it has the highest vehicle license fees and the second-highest top-bracket income tax, too. Its corporate tax rates are the highest of all Western states, and for the fourth year in a row, a survey of 543 CEO's found that California's toxic combination of high taxes and intrusive regulations made it the worst place in the nation to do business.
In fact, at the real root of California's fiscal misery is the profligacy of arrogant, big-spending, left-wing legislators, who have treated taxpayers as if they exist only to support the government. Their attitude was exemplified in a recent statement from state assemblywoman Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa), chairman of the state Budget Conference Committee, repudiating the governor's call for the state to "live within its means":
Well, there is this mantra out there - "live within our means" - and while that sounds really nice . . . and it sounds really responsible, it's meaningless. Our means are completely within our control . . . We have just given away huge corporate subsidies in February; we have given away other tax reductions over many, many years; we've created tax loopholes; in good times, we routinely give away taxes, and then in lean times we never replace those tax deductions or close those loopholes. . . . So "live within our means" doesn't mean anything. The fact is, we have a state with a population that have [sic] needs that we have a moral obligation to provide.
Her assertions - and the obnoxious sense of entitlement underlying them - defy credulity. For politicians like Evans (and the legislature is full of them!), when the hardworking or productive keep more of what they have earned, it's only because politicians have been "giving away" the tax revenues that purportedly belong to them. In this mindset, meeting the "needs" of a greedy, ever-expanding government is the only imperative; taxpayers are nothing more than cash cows, commanded to provide the fodder that allows Evans and those like her to meet their "moral obligations" with other people's money.
Remarkably, even as they have driven California into the fiscal ditch (and demanded ever-higher taxes from its citizens), Evans and her colleagues remain the most highly compensated state legislators in the nation. Along with their six-figure salaries, taxpayers supply them with cars, gasoline and auto maintenance. As regular Californians' budgets are stretched to the limit, many of the "cuts" the state Senate is debating for itself are laughable. They include whether to reduce the benefit that provides their staffers with two new pairs of glasses yearly (or sunglasses, for those who don't wear glasses). The change would limit workers to one new pair - of course, courtesy of the taxpayers.
Ultimately, any honest assessment of California's plight must assign responsibility for the state's fiscal crisis - not to the taxpayers who voted for Prop. 13 three decades ago - but to the politicians who have subsequently exploited them without mercy. Indeed, if spending had simply reflected average population growth plus the average increase in the cost of living since 1991, there would now be a $15 billion surplus. After adjusting for inflation, the state now spends nearly 20% more per capita than it did 18 years ago; even as California's tax revenues increased by 167% during that period, state spending exploded by 189%.
Left-wing legislators like Noreen Evans can demand more taxes and journalists like Kevin O'Leary can bemoan the existence of Prop. 13 all they like. The people know better. And when voters overwhelmingly rejected further tax increases last month, they sent a clear message: It's time for the politicians to start working for Californians again, rather than the other way around.
#1
How voters chose games over bread in California
A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship. - attributed to Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee
#2
Smooth and easy is the road
That leads to hell and destruction.
Down grade all the way,
The further you travel, the faster you go.
No need to trudge and sweat and toil,
Just slip and slide and slip and slide
Till you bang up against hell's iron gate.
#4
The Republicans were essentially threatened and terrorized against voting for revenue. Now [some] are facing recalls. They operate under a terrorist threat: âYou vote for revenue and your career is over.â I donât know why we allow that kind of terrorism to exist. I guess itâs about free speech, but itâs extremely unfair. - California Speaker of the Assembly Karen Bass (D)
Any surprise that California is bankrupt with morons like her running the government.
A £1bn cost over-run is threatening the future of the publicly-funded project to build Britain's biggest aircraft carriers, the BBC has learnt. A memorandum from the lead contractors seen by the BBC suggests there will "be a fight for the programme's survival". The project's cost is now expected to rise from £3.9bn to around £5bn.
The memo also discusses ways to cut costs, including the possibility of 400 to 500 redundancies. The Ministry of Defence said it was currently re-costing the programme and accounts would be published in July.
Work on the two warships - HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales - had been delayed in December but was due to begin soon. They were due to come into service in 2014 and 2016, as the biggest and most powerful warships the UK has ever built. Much of the work is due to take place at Scottish shipyards on the Clyde, where 4,000 jobs are dependent on the project.
The memo was written for the chief executives of the companies participating in the project and attributed the cost increase to "a combination of direct costs, inflation and accounting adjustments. The MOD [Ministry of Defence] will publish its annual report and accounts in July; these will show £1bn of QE Class cost growth and the project will come under severe pressure through the opposition and the media," the memo said. "This is a very real fight for the programme's survival," it adds. The memo also suggests the future of the Appledore shipyard in Devon could be under threat and possible measures to reduce costs include "substantial redundancies" of the order of 400 to 500.
The BBC's business editor Robert Peston said the increase in costs would be seen as alarming, especially at a time when there are intense pressures on the government to cut public spending. He added that if the project was scrapped, the knock-on effects would be serious. For example, some 80,000 tonnes of steel worth £65m has been ordered from Corus, the beleaguered Anglo-Dutch steelmaker.
A consortium of companies are involved in the project including BAE System, VT Group, Babcock and Thales. BAE Systems said that the delay to the project announced earlier was always expected to lead to an increase in costs. The work is split between various yards, including Portsmouth, Rosyth, and Hebburn.
#2
Read something on this yesterday. The current economic downturn is responsible for 75% of the extra cost. The MoD has scrapped a 1bn pound contract with the Hadley Climate Center as part of the belt-tightning. I would expect inflation to run the price up to about 9bn in the long run.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/30/2009 14:18
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#3
DEFENSETECH.ORG > SUBMARINES AT ISSUE [USN Shipbuilding Budget], + FLEETS OPT/PLAN FOR SMALLER WARSHIPS.
#5
A thought occurs to me. Maybe, just maybe, if Bambi keeps alienating his core supporters we might only have to put up with him until 2012; assuming we still have a country then.
#8
"I am your champion, my friends. And I'll keep on fighting till the end (cough of 2012 cough). You have brought me fame and fortune, and I thank you all."
A company based in Berkeley, CA, is developing lightweight, high-energy batteries that can use the surrounding air as a cathode. PolyPlus is partnering with a manufacturing firm to develop single-use lithium metal-air batteries for the government, the use of these batteries would be, at first, limited to underwater vessels
and it expects these batteries to be on the market within a few years. The company also has rechargeable lithium metal-air batteries in the early stages of development that could eventually ten years + probably
power electric vehicles that can go for longer in between charges.
The single-use batteries made by the company employ a piece of lithium metal about two centimeters squared and three millimeters thick; they have a storage capacity close to that of the lithium-ion batteries in today's laptops at one-fifth the weight
Posted by: Lord garth ||
06/30/2009
08:57 ||
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#1
You can already get Zinc Air batteries for hearing aids so what's the big deal?
U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan say air strikes have killed at least 12 militants allegedly involved in sneaking foreign fighters from Pakistan into Afghanistan.
The coalition said in a statement Tuesday, the overnight strikes hit a pair of bunkers in eastern Khost province. The operation targeted insurgents linked to Taliban militant leader Siraj Haqqani, who is accused of carrying out many attacks in Afghanistan.
The exact number of militant casualties is still not clear.
Meanwhile, in the nation's south, Afghan officials say a male suicide bomber disguised himself as a woman and attacked the Torkham crossing at the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Authorities say the burqa-clad bomber blew himself up at the women's crossing point, killing a police officer and a child. They say the bombing also wounded at least 10 people.
Posted by: ed ||
06/30/2009
08:24 ||
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The Tunguska event, sometimes referred to as the Tunguska explosion, was a massive explosion that occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai of Russia, between 7:00 and 8:00 AM on June 30, 1908.
The explosion was most likely caused by the airburst of a large (around 20 m (66 ft) across) meteoroid or comet fragment at an altitude of 5 to 10 kilometers (3-6 mi) above the Earth's surface. . . . The energy of the blast was estimated to be between 10 and 20 megatons of TNT, 1,000 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, or equivalent to Castle Bravo, the most powerful nuclear bomb ever detonated by the US. . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
06/30/2009
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#1
Rubbish, it was the mexican food and candles conference going on at the time...
#2
Some people think that one or more of the circular lakes nearby are impact craters. Problem is glacial action can produce similar circular lakes. But finding a large chunk of meteorite would put the alien spaceship theories to bed finally.
Honduras' ousted president said he will return to his country in two days and reclaim control from coup leaders, urging soldiers to go back to their baracks and stop cracking down on thousands of his supporters who have protested his overthrow. Arrest his ass the minute the plane touches down and put him on trial for treason for usurping the constitution. Then shoot him. That's the only way they're going to stop this nonsense for good.
A great big show trial with lots of television cameras and the entire weight of all branches of government is about all that would shut up the rest of the world.
The military coup has provoked the condemnation of world leaders from U.S. President Barack Obama to Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and sparked clashes in the Honduran capital that have left dozens of people injured. Brought the hairy eyeball from all the leaders who feel like they've got a right to do as they damned well please and the rubes and the rules be damned.
Flanked by leftist Latin American leaders who have vowed to help him regain power, Manuel Zelaya said late Monday that he would accept an offer by Organization of American States Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza to accompany him back to Honduras and work for the restoration of the democratic order.
Zelaya, a wealthy rancher who has championed the poor, said he wanted to make the trip Thursday, after attending a meeting of the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday to seek support from its 192 member nations. "I will return Thursday to Tegucigalpa and I want the support of whoever thinks I have the right to finish my presidency," Zelaya said at a late night news conference in Nicaragua, where he earlier received a standing ovation during a meeting of Latin American leaders to discuss the coup. Honduran military leaders arrested him Sunday and flew him to Costa Rica.
Posted by: ed ||
06/30/2009
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#1
Obama's very own Aristide. Wonderful.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
06/30/2009 9:36
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#2
"The military coup has provoked the condemnation of world leaders from U.S. President Barack Obama to Venezuela's Hugo Chavez..."
#3
seems the one is very comfortable in the arms of anti constitutional forces...guess he see's his own ass on the line in the future and wants to set the stage for public acceptance of going aganst constitution adhearance...for iranian's who desire freedom he drags his ass for almost a week..but for this anti constitional crowd his condenmations are immediate...time for america to wake up the monster we have and start to deal with it.
Posted by: Dan ||
06/30/2009 12:08
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#4
Typical lefty - he never met a totalitarian he didn't like. Note that even Saul Alinsky's trash book for wannabe revolutionaries is called "RULES for Radicals"...
#5
What's really happening here, Oblahblahblah wants badly to set a precedent where the President (Doesn;t matter where) Can ignore the constitution with impunity.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/30/2009 20:58
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#6
Excuse me
"Can ignore both the constitution and the law with impunity".
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/30/2009 21:06
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Four U.S. soldiers were killed in combat on the eve of the withdrawal of American troops from Baghdad and other Iraq cities, the U.S. military said, as Iraqi forces on Tuesday assumed control for security in urban areas.
The U.S. military said the four soldiers served with the Multi-National Division-Baghdad but did not provide further details pending notification of their families. It said they died as a "result of combat related injuries."
Somalia's Islamist rebels threatened Tuesday to attack Ethiopia after repeated witness reports that Ethiopian troops were back in the chaotic Horn of Africa country they withdrew from in January.
"I'm telling the people that it's time we attacked Ethiopia, who are our Christian neighbours," Sheikh Abdiqani Mohamed Yusuf said on a radio station controlled by the al Shabaab rebels in the southern port of Kismayu. "We have to invade their country, like they did to our country. This is our best chance," he said. "The people should be ready to take part in jihad."
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said last week possible suicide attacks in Ethiopia by Somali Islamist rebels were a threat he "didn't expect to go away any time soon." Witnesses have said heavily armed columns of Ethiopian troops have crossed the border and are in several parts of Somalia. The Ethiopian government has repeatedly denied that.
President Ahmed, a moderate extremist Islamist, fled into exile after the Ethiopian intervention but joined a peace process last year and was elected in January. His government is battling hardline jihadis insurgents who were once allies in the Islamist movement. Addis Ababa has said it supports the new government, but is wary of the hardline Islamists, who are obviously seen as a proxy for al Qaeda, because they control large areas of Somalia and have threatened to destabilise neighbouring Ethiopia and Kenya. With reports of foreign jihadists streaming into Somalia, Western security services are worried al Qaeda may get a grip on the failed Horn of Africa state that has been without central government for 18 years.
Tuesday, the hardline insurgents beheaded two residents and shot dead a clan chief in Wajid district of Bakool region in which borders Ethiopia in southern Somalia, witnesses said. Another man was beheaded in the region Monday.
The government, which controls little but a few blocks of the capital, has declared a state of emergency and appealed to neighbouring countries for military assistance. Ethiopia's Meles has not ruled out sending troops to Somalia if Ethiopia is threatened but says he is waiting to see how the international community responds to the deteriorating security situation in the country.
#1
The day after the jihad starts seems like a good time for Ethiopia to annex Somalia and deport any survivors to Yemen.
Posted by: ed ||
06/30/2009 7:24
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#2
Somalia isn't een a real country anymore. Unless someone is willing to invest an awful ot of blood and treasure to create one the alternative is to quarantine the place.
A Muslim religious teacher and his friend were killed in a drive-by shooting in the southern province of Narathiwat Monday evening, prompting provincial authorities to call a meeting to revise security measures for teachers on Tuesday.
Abdulrosah Baha, a teacher of Islam, 25, and his 19-year-old friend, Yakoh Samae, were gunned down by terrorists suspected insurgents as they left a religious school in Rangae district Monday evening. Mr. Abdulrosah was shot in his face and torso, while Mr. Yakoh was shot in the back of his head. Both died at the scene, according to Pol. Col. Nitinai Langyanhai, superintendent of Rangae police station. Police and security personnel found at least 25 spent M16 cartridges at the scene of the attack. According to an initial investigation, Mr. Abdulrosah is a classmate of Masae U-seng, a key jihadi insurgent with an arrest warrant and a five million baht bounty offered for his head.
Meanwhile, Narathiwat deputy governor Thanon Vejjakornkanont convened a meeting on Tuesday with administrators from 78 schools in the three violence-prone districts. Participants discussed revising and improving the existing teacher protection plan following rumours of a plot to kill 50 teachers by terrorists presumed insurgents. At the same time, security forces also asked for co-operation from teachers, requesting that they inform a teacher protection unit every time they travel regardless of official hours, so that an appropriate security plan will be provided.
Attasit Ratanklaew of Narathiwat's Educational District Office 1 revealed that a rumour about a plot to kill teachers terrified teachers in the areas, so security will be tightened stringently throughout the semester, but he advised the teachers not in any case to be reckless. Mr. Attasit acknowledged that a number of teachers in Raman district have submitted requests to transfer out of the area as fear rose after recent fatal attacks on teachers. He said if the teachers continue to ask to move out of the district, this will affect the quality and amount of schooling which can be offered. Consequently, he said, security must be tightened to restore confidence among teachers.
#1
Arm the "Teachers" a 9mm apiece will do wonders in deterring shit like that.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/30/2009 12:29
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#2
Actually, RJ, that wouldn't do much good. The teachers are being killed by ambush, and are usually dead before anyone could respond. You'd need to arm the entire three provinces, and teach them how to defend themselves. That wouldn't be a bad idea if you knew for certain the bad guys were from somewhere else, and not locals. Unfortunately, that's not a given.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/30/2009 14:00
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MK Otniel Schneller (Kadima) lashed out Monday against the US demand for a settlement freeze, labeling it "extortion" and warning it could set back Israeli readiness for peace.
In an interview with The Jerusalem Post, Schneller assailed Obama administration officials as holding beliefs shaped by "far-Left opinions outside of the Israeli consensus."
Schneller, who has been involved in peace deals with the Palestinians and Jordan since 1994, sent a letter Sunday to Defense Minister Ehud Barak in advance of the minister's visit to the US in which he said he "searched for ways to find a meeting-point between Israel's desire to advance peace, the recognition of the agreement of the majority of Israeli people to recognize a Palestinian state, and the fatalism of America that is pushing us into a corner."
"The most dangerous thing to the peace process is to push the Israeli public into a corner," he said.
#1
See it is odd. Presumably O's strategy is to break the current bibi govt, and get Kadima in in place of HabayitHayehudi (and maybe in place of Lieberman and even Shas).
You dont advance that by picking on an issue (a broad freeze in settlement construction, even in E Jerusalem) that tends to alienate Kadima.
It could be that they expect nothing real to come out of this, its all show for the benefit of the arabs. Or, its possible, they expect a compromise on settlements but want to lead with a big request, and also get PR benefits of that. Or it could be they want to isolate Israel. Or it could be they have misjudged Israeli politics. Or it could be they are tied up in internal disagreements within the administration.
I dont know.
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
06/30/2009 12:28
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#2
The other strategy may be adjunct to that: to pressure the current government into an agreement, using the "only Nixon can go to China" rationale. If the Netanyahu government falls in the process, it's an acceptable fallback result.
Either way, the Israeli left gets placated (remember the President's casual 'stopping-by' during Barak's visit) as well as a subset of Obama's domestic supporters.
And you're right - in any case, it's part of the 'diss your allies to impress your not-allies' routine.
For a brief moment it seemed that US President Barack Obama was moved by the recent events in Iran. On Friday, he issued his harshest statement yet on the mullocracy's barbaric clampdown against its brave citizens who dared to demand freedom in the aftermath of June 12's stolen presidential elections.
...Alas, it was a false alarm. On Sunday Obama dispatched his surrogates - presidential adviser David Axelrod and UN Ambassador Susan Rice - to the morning talk shows to make clear that he has not allowed mere events to influence his policies.
...whether an America-hating regime is legitimate or not is completely insignificant to the White House. All the Obama administration wants to do is go back to its plan to appease the mullahs into reaching an agreement about their nuclear aspirations. And for some yet-to-be-explained reason, Obama and his associates believe they can make this regime -- which as recently as Friday called for the mass murder of its own citizens, and as recently as Saturday blamed the US for the Iranian people's decision to rise up against the mullahs -- reach such an agreement.
...Perhaps what is most significant about Obama's decision to side with anti-American tyrants against pro-American democrats in Iran is that it is utterly consistent with his policies throughout the world. From Latin America to Asia to the Middle East and beyond, after six months of the Obama administration it is clear that in its pursuit of good ties with America's adversaries at the expense of America's allies, it will not allow actual events to influence its "hard-nosed" judgments.
TAKE THE ADMINISTRATION'S response to the Honduran military coup on Sunday. While the term "military coup" has a lousy ring to it, the Honduran military ejected president Manuel Zelaya from office after he ignored a Supreme Court ruling backed by the Honduran Congress which barred him from holding a referendum this week that would have empowered him to endanger democracy.
Taking a page out of his mentor Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez's playbook, Zelaya acted in contempt of his country's democratic institutions to move forward with his plan to empower himself to serve another term in office. To push forward with his illegal goal, Zelaya fired the army's chief of staff. And so, in an apparent bid to prevent Honduras from going the way of Daniel Ortega's Nicaragua and becoming yet another anti-American Venezuelan satellite, the military - backed by Congress and the Supreme Court - ejected Zelaya from office.
And how did Obama respond? By seemingly siding with Zelaya against the democratic forces in Honduras who are fighting him. Obama said in a written statement: "I am deeply concerned by reports coming out of Honduras regarding the detention and expulsion of president Mel Zelaya."
...Like Carter before him, Obama may succeed for a time in evading public scrutiny for his foreign-policy failures because the public will be too concerned with his domestic failures to notice them. But in the end, his slavish devotion to his radical ideological agenda will ensure that his failures reach a critical mass.
(This is near San Diego, btw)
ENCINITAS -- Francine Busby says she will demand an explanation from the Sheriff's Department about deputies breaking up a fundraising party held for her in Cardiff and arresting the host.
The party was Friday night in the 1300 block of Rubenstein Avenue, the home of Shari Barman, a Busby supporter. I guess you could count on someone named "barman" to throw a wild party.
It ended with Barman, 60, being arrested and jailed on suspicion of battery on a peace officer, and resisting, delaying and obstructing a peace officer. Pam Morgan, 62, a Rancho Santa Fe resident and one of the guests, also was arrested and taken to the Encinitas Sheriff's Station, where she was cited for resisting, delaying and obstructing a peace officer.
Other partygoers were doused with pepper spray, and seven deputies, a sergeant and a helicopter were dispatched to the neighborhood of expensive homes. "Here, ya' old hippy, this'll sober ya' up!"
Busby, Barman, guests at the party and a Sheriff's Department spokesman provided varying accounts of what happened. No doubt.
Busby, 58, a Democrat seeking the 50th Congressional District seat in 2010, said she will meet with Sheriff Department officials today to find out who made what she called a "phony" noise complaint.
The Sheriff's Department received the complaint at 9:33 p.m. from a man who said someone was talking on a loudspeaker and a crowd was cheering, keeping him awake. From about 8 to 8:30 p.m., Busby said, she used an amplified microphone to talk to guests, whom she described as middle-aged supporters. Yep, old hippies. Probably hard of hearing from listening to the Dead at max volume for so many years.
During Busby's speech, Barman said in a statement yesterday, a man on the property behind her house shouted "disparaging remarks" about Busby and gay people. Barman lives in the house with her partner, Jane Stratton, 55. After her talk, Busby said, people chatted. "It was a quiet home reception, disrupted by a vulgar person shouting obscenities from behind the bushes," Busby said.
Neighbors on three sides of the house said yesterday there wasn't much noise from the party. One man said he slept through it. "We didn't hear anything until the sheriff came, with eight patrol cars and a helicopter," said Natasha Cortina, 43, who said she and her two children were home with the windows open. Hugh Elliott, 53, who lives closest to the house, said he heard a deputy's radio, then arguing, coughing, crying and finally everyone spilling outside as the smell of pepper spray drifted over his back fence.
Deputy Marshall Abbott, who has worked for the department for about two years, was sent in response to the noise complaint, said Sgt. Thomas Yancey of the Encinitas station, which serves Cardiff. A member of the department's psychiatric emergency response team, who was riding with Abbott that day, went with him. Abbott could not be reached for comment. Right person for the job.
While trying to deal with the complaint, guests at the party surrounded Abbott and he felt threatened, Yancey said. "We don't like people standing behind us -- we have Tasers, guns, clubs," he said.
Busby said no more than 30 people were still at the party. Yancey said deputies' reports indicate there could have been as many as 50.
When Abbott arrived, Yancey said, he told Barman about the complaint, and she uttered an expletive about a neighbor. Abbott asked Barman for her birth date so he could issue a noise warning, but Barman refused to give it, he said. Power game, you lose, lady.
Barman tried to walk away, Yancey said, and Abbott grabbed her. The guests took Barman away, and Abbott used pepper spray on them. In the chaos, someone kicked the emergency response team member, a woman who is 5-foot-2, Yancey said. "He was pepper-spraying the faces of anyone who tried to talk to him," Busby said. "People were stunned. It was something that none of us has experienced."
In her statement, Barman said she asked the deputy why he needed her birth date, because he knew her name and where she lived. "He told me I was under arrest, grabbed my right arm, twisted it behind me and threw me on the ground," she said. When Stratton asked the deputy to be careful because Barman had shoulder surgery recently, the deputy "knocked her to the ground," Barman said.
After the pepper spray was used, the crowded backed off, and Abbott saw Barman in the kitchen and grabbed her, Yancey said. A man held on to Barman's foot to prevent her from being taken out of the room, and she fell to the floor. Abbott took out his Taser, the man backed off, and Barman was arrested, he said. Good. Grief.
At some point Abbott called for backup and six deputies and a sergeant responded, Yancey said. Deputy Derek Sanders arrested Morgan, he said. There were no reported injuries.
Reports from deputies at the scene do not mention alcohol, Yancey said, which indicates people at the party were not suspected of being drunk. Just really mean and stupid.
"The place got out of hand," he said. "If Francine Busby was there, why not take a leadership role, step up, and nip this thing in the bud?"
Busby said she couldn't intervene because the deputy was using pepper spray on people indiscriminately. No he wasn't. He was only using it on the party-goers.
Barman was booked into jail at 2 a.m. Saturday and released on her own recognizance at 11 a.m., a jail official said. She is scheduled to appear in Vista Superior Court on Aug. 11 on the two misdemeanor counts.
Morgan could not be reached for comment.
Busby had sought the 50th Congressional District seat in 2006, but was defeated by Brian Bilbray, 53 percent to 44 percent. The seat was vacated by former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, who is in federal prison after pleading guilty in a corruption scandal. Ok, was Rove in San Diego recently?
#1
This is what happens when you resist the police. Stupid rich liberals think they don't have to behave the same way as everyone else...surprise surprise they do.
#3
Barman tried to walk away, Yancey said, and Abbott grabbed her. The guests took Barman away, and Abbott used pepper spray on them. In the chaos, someone kicked the emergency response team member...
Sounds like refusal to show ID to a Peace Officer, Interference and Assault to me.
#7
Busby, 58, a Democrat seeking the 50th Congressional District seat in 2010, said she will meet with Sheriff Department officials today to find out who made what she called a "phony" noise complaint.
That's right. Play the victim. Blame it on the poor old guy who was trying to get some sleep so he could get up and go to work in the morning.
#11
Francine's "friend" is a long-time L*sbian assaultist. Sounds like a strong case of Democrat elitism, L*sbian politics, and aggressive "do you know who I am". She's a nice face on a fanatical bunch of bitches
Busby's already played the "Right-Wing-target" card. Next she can play the "people don't know who I really am" card
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/30/2009 21:00
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(Another Airbus in the drink)
A Yemeni jetliner with more than 150 people aboard has crashed in the Indian Ocean off the island nation of Comoros, aviation officials in Yemen said Tuesday.
An Airbus 310 like the one pictured has crashed while on the way to the capital of Comoros. The jet was en route to Moroni, the capital of Comoros, from Yemen's capital Sanaa when it crashed about an hour before reaching its destination, officials from the national airline Yemenia said. There was no immediate news of the fate of those on board.
Yemenia Flight 626 left Sanaa at 9:30 p.m. for what was expected to be a 4œ-hour flight. The airline has three regular flights per week to Moroni, off the east coast of Africa about 2,900 kilometers (1,800 miles) south of Yemen.
Most of the 143 passengers aboard the Airbus A310 were Comoran, an official at Sanaa's international airport said. The aircraft also carried a crew of 11, for a total of 154 people on board. There has been no indication of foul play behind the crash, the officials said.
The crash is the second involving an Airbus jet in a month. On June 1, an Air France Airbus A330 crashed off Brazil while en route from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Paris, France. All 228 aboard are presumed dead. The cause remains under investigation.
#4
when it crashed about an hour before reaching its destination
News reports said the plane crashed during landing in bad weather. One report said the plane aborted one landing and was going around for a second attempt when it crashed.
Hope it wasn't something as stupid as running out of fuel as the plane burned more fuel in bad weather and the go around.
Posted by: ed ||
06/30/2009 8:35
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#5
Anyone besides me no longer believe in Airbus coincidences?
#6
Yemen, Russia, Greece... inshallah maintenance would be my first bet. Especially if any Jewish employees recently wandered off the reservation in the direction of Israel.
#9
There is a survivor - a 14-or-15 year old gir. The French are helping search for survivors. Lots of additional information in this article. Apparently the plane had been banned from flying in EU airspace since 2007 for maintenance reasons. The flight still originated in Paris, if I read the article right.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/30/2009 18:51
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Man suffers critical injuries after apparent stunt
MONTREAL -- A man is in critical condition in Montreal after falling off the roof of a moving SUV while performing what may have been a dangerous stunt known as car surfing. The man's head struck the pavement when he lost his balance. Good thing he didn't land on anything he actually uses.
Police say they are attempting to identify the man, who is believed to be in his 20s. Well, he has a really flat face and these red markings all over his torso.
Car surfing is a daredevil-style of acrobatics during which passengers perform stunts while riding on top of a moving vehicle. Stunts beyond riding on a moving vehicle in the first place? Boggle.
Montreal police Const. Anie Lemieux says they are investigating the case as a hit-and-run and are trying to track down the driver. Maybe he was the driver. Look for a car in the weeds with a broken string tied to the steering wheel.
Police went door-to-door at nearby businesses with the hope a surveillance camera may have caught the incident on tape. They should check You-Tube first though. Might save some time.
#1
I like these kind of idiots: healthy young males with head injuries make for good organ transplant donors. His low-mileage parts will be given to people who will appreciate them. The mint-condition unused brain tissue is discarded however...this is the only part of the body that's worth less the less you use it.
#5
After watching the news on television and reading the newspaper, I've got to think there is more than person trying to remove themselves from the gene pool and competing for idiot of the day.
#3
The next person who calls this a 'coup' gets a poke in the nose. I mean it! The Honduran President made an illegal power grab and got smacked down. The system there seems to be working as designed. Leave 'em alone.
When more than 160 playwrights and producers, most of them female, filed into a Midtown Manhattan theater Monday night, they expected to hear some concrete evidence that women who are authors have a tougher time getting their work staged than men.
And they did. But they also heard that women who are artistic directors and literary managers are the ones to blame. The NYT gets this out in the second sentence so 90% of their viewers can click to the next article without having their beliefs challenged.
That conclusion was just one surprising piece of a yearlong research project that both confirms and upends assumptions about bias in the playwriting business.
There is discrimination against female playwrights in the theater community, said Emily Glassberg Sands, who conducted the research. Still, she said, that isnt the whole story; there is also a shortage of good scripts by women. Oh, no...no. This can't be. How can this be? There must be more discrimination by men to explain this...somehow.
To sort out the findings, it helps to look at the research. Ms. Sands conducted three separate studies. The first considered the playwrights themselves. Artistic directors of theater companies have maintained that no discrimination exists, rather that good scripts by women are in short supply. That claim elicited snorts and laughter from the audience when it was repeated Monday night, but Ms. Sands declared, Theyre right. Merit is never the answer, this crowd knows that. Even if it's less meritorious, the correct answer is to let society suffer and let the victim class win.
In reviewing information on 20,000 playwrights in the Dramatists Guild and Doollee.com, an online database of playwrights, she found that there were twice as many male playwrights as female ones, and that the men tended to be more prolific, turning out more plays.
Whats more, Ms. Sands found, over all, the work of men and women is produced at the same rate. The artistic directors have a point: they do get many more scripts from men.
For the second study, Ms. Sands sent identical scripts to artistic directors and literary managers around the country. The only difference was that half named a man as the writer (for example, Michael Walker), while half named a woman (i.e., Mary Walker). It turned out that Marys scripts received significantly worse ratings in terms of quality, economic prospects and audience response than Michaels. The biggest surprise? These results are driven exclusively by the responses of female artistic directors and literary managers, Ms. Sands said. And then her head...didn't explode somehow.
Amid the gasps from the audience, an incredulous voice called out, Say that again?
Ms. Sands put it another way: Men rate men and women playwrights exactly the same. I found this gem in an article written before the results:
"I personally dont think playwriting is a gene on a Y chromosome," said Theresa Rebeck, a playwright whose work has been produced frequently on New York stages, including on Broadway. She added that there has been a reluctance to confront the issue: "Many of our male peers find the debate intolerable. Men in the community seem to think that everything is fine."
Ms. Sands also found plays that feature women which are more commonly written by women are also less likely to be produced. Kathryn Walat, a playwright who attended, said, Most startling was the reaction to women writing and I think of my own work about female protagonists and the unlikability of those characters.
Ms. Sands was reluctant to explain the responses in terms of discrimination, suggesting instead that artistic directors who are women perhaps possess a greater awareness of the barriers female playwrights face.
Still, at the end of the evening, Ms. Sands, who seemed surprisingly comfortable on the stage for an aspiring economist, received the kind of reaction that many playwrights in the audience would wish for: prolonged applause. I wondered why she didn't just bury the research when she found the results, but the question answers itself here.
#3
Having been in both positions; being an office manager with the office comprised mostly of women, and working in an office (also comprised mostly of women) managed by a woman, I can attest to the rampant discrimination, bitchiness, back stabbing and general nastiness done by women to women.
LARNACA, Cyprus: Twenty-one activists from 11 countries set sail from Cyprus Monday to the Gaza Strip in defiance of an Israeli blockade on the impoverished Hamas-ruled territory.
The US-based Free Gaza movement said it is carrying a "symbolic" cargo of humanitarian aid to pressure governments and international relief groups to do more to rebuild Gaza, which was devastated by an Israeli war on Hamas this year.
"We are sending 20 symbolic kits to families to show the effects of the siege which deprives people of electricity, water, cement and other basic amenities," Free Gaza organizer Caoimhe Butterly told AFP. "The $4 billion pledged by donors for reconstruction is not being translated on the ground and the people of Gaza are living in humiliating conditions and the international community must act."
Pro-Palestinian activists have made five successful missions to Gaza from Cyprus since August 2008 - but boats have been turned back twice by Israeli forces. The last attempt in mid-January was intercepted and forced back.
"We are hoping the Israeli Army and Navy will realize this is a humanitarian mission and allow us through," said Butterly.
The activists - including Nobel peace prize winner Mairead Maguire and former US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney - are expected to reach Gaza on Tuesday following a 30-hour trip.
Israel has maintained a strict blockade on the Palestinian territory for the past three years.
"The people living there find themselves unable to rebuild their lives and are sliding ever deeper into despair," a new report by the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Monday.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2009
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#3
Looks like their Dog and Pony Show has hit a snag...
Gaza Maan Israeli naval forces intercepted and boarded, and took control of a converted ferry bound for Gaza, towing its passengers, crew, and cargo to Israels port of Ashdod on Tuesday afternoon.
Activists aboard the ship, dubbed the Spirit of Humanity denounced the action as a violation of international law.
This is an outrageous violation of international law against us. Our boat was not in Israeli waters, and we were on a human rights mission to the Gaza Strip, said Cynthia McKinney, a former US Congresswoman who was on board, according to a statement relayed through compatriots in Cyprus, where the boat left on Monday.
Free Gaza Movement Organizer Huwaida Arraf said No one could possibly believe that our small boat constitutes any sort of threat to Israel. We carry medical and reconstruction supplies, and childrens toys. Our passengers include a Nobel peace prize laureate and a former US congressperson. Our boat was searched and received a security clearance by Cypriot Port Authorities before we departed, and at no time did we ever approach Israeli waters, Arraf added.
The Israeli Navy confirmed that its forces seized the ship, claiming that it contacted the boat while at sea, clarifying that it would not be permitted to enter Gazan coastal waters because of security risks in the area and the existing naval blockade. Disregarding all warnings made, the cargo boat entered Gazan coastal waters, the Navy said. The Navy also said that no shots were fired, and that the crew will be handed over to the appropriate authorities. It also claimed that the humanitarian goods on board will be transferred to Gaza, subject to authorization.
According to an earlier statement from the Free Gaza Movement, the Sprit of Humanity ship was intercepted by Israels navy 60 kilometers from Gaza early Tuesday. The Israeli warships issued an ultimatum, urging the ship to turn back, though statements from the crew indicate the ship will continue on toward the Strip. The most recent communication from the ship said 21 more miles and they will be there. Still 'escorted' by two Israeli gun boats.
The ship set sail from the port of Lanarca, Cyprus on Monday after being delayed by Cypriot authorities. The activists planned to arrive in Gaza on Tuesday in what would have been their fourth successful voyage. Two other attempts to break Israels naval blockade were thwarted by the navy.
Twenty-one human rights advocates representing 11 different countries are aboard the ship. The passengers include Nobel laureate Mairead Maguire, former US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and 83-year-old Holocaust survivor Heddy Epstein.
The converted ferry boat carries three tons of medical aid, children's toys, and rehabilitation and reconstruction kits for twenty family homes.
Israel's military spokesperson unit had no information to release about the ship. Attempts to contact the Israeli Foreign Ministry were unsuccessful.
This aid is desperately needed by the people of Gaza, said Nobel Laureate Maguire in a statement relayed from on board the ship. President Obama has called upon the Palestinians to abandon violence but Israel is denying them the right to non-violently resist the siege of Gaza.
At 1:30am, the crew of the ship said, Israeli warships surrounded the boat and threatened to open fire if they did not turn around. They said that when they refused to turn back, the Israeli navy began jamming their instrumentation, blocking their GPS, radar, and navigation systems.
Responding to this, Congresswoman McKinney declared, according to the statement, "I am extremely angry. We demand that the Israeli government call off their attack dogs. We are unarmed civilians aboard an unarmed boat delivering medical and reconstruction aid to other human beings in Gaza. Why in God's name would Israel want to attack us?"
Another ship was due to arrive in Gaza on 26 June, but the organizers cancelled the trip after Israel threatened to stop all solidarity ships and send them back.
#5
Break the right hand of all those "humanitarians" by slamming them repeatedly with a sledgehammer. You can do both hands of Cynthia McKinney, and I'll not say a word. These people are trying their best to destroy the legitimate government of Israel, and supporting one of the most bloodthirsty terrorist groups in the world. Hanging them from a bridge would work wonders on the general "smell" of the "humanitarian" organizations in this world.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/30/2009 15:32
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#6
a stern rifle-butt to the forehead might cure Cynthia of her chronic "Crazy-Eyes" syndrome. Consider it a clinical test. No, don't thank me
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/30/2009 19:22
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#7
ION CYPRUS, WAFF > US OFFICIAL: TURKEY IS THE ONLY SUPERPOWER IN THE REGION. US PRESSURE [on Turkey ala CYPRUS Issue-Negotiats wid GREECE] IS NOT POSSIBLE ANYMORE [Offic > proclaimed its NOT the 1970's-90's anymore].
ARTIC > "140,000 TURKISH REFUGEES ARE PREPARED TO 'INVADE' GREECE"!?
North Korea criticized the U.S. on Monday for positioning missile defense systems around Hawaii, calling the deployment part of a plot to attack the regime and saying it would bolster its nuclear arsenal in retaliation.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said he ordered the deployment of a ground-based, mobile missile intercept system and radar system to Hawaii amid concerns the North may fire a long-range missile toward the islands, about 4,500 miles away.
"Through the U.S. forces' clamorous movements, it has been brought to light that the U.S. attempt to launch a pre-emptive strike on our republic has become a brutal fact," the North's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary. The paper also accused the U.S. of deploying nuclear-powered aircraft and atomic-armed submarines in waters near the Korean peninsula, saying the moves prove "the U.S. pre-emptive nuclear war" on the North is imminent.
The commentary, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, said the North will bolster its nuclear arsenal in self-defense.
The North routinely accuses the U.S. of plotting to invade the North. But the U.S., which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, has said it has no such plan.
Tensions on the Korean peninsula have been running high since the North defiantly launched a rocket in April and conducted an underground nuclear test last month, prompting U.N. Security Council sanctions. North Korea responded to the U.N. resolution on the nuclear test with threats of war, and pledged to expand its nuclear bomb-making program.
In what could be the first test of the U.N. sanctions, an American destroyer has been tracking a North Korean ship sailing off China's coast amid suspicions that it is carrying illicit weapons. The Kang Nam, which left a North Korean port on June 17, is the first vessel monitored under U.N. sanctions that ban the regime from selling arms and weapons-related material. The resolution requires member nations to request permission to inspect the cargo of ships suspected of carrying banned goods. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, said on CBS television Sunday that Washington is "following the progress of that ship very closely." Rice would not say whether the U.S. would confront the Kang Nam.
North Korea has said it would consider any interception of its ships a declaration of war.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2009
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#1
ION WORLD MIL FORUM > SOUTH KOREA MAY LAUNCH A PREEMPTIVE STRIKE AGZ NORTH KOREA IFF IT BELIEVES THE NORTH INTENDS TO LAUNCH NUCLEAR-WMD MISSLES. STRENGTHENING OF SOUTH KOREAN
"PRECISION STRIKE" MILSYS TO COVER THE WHOLE OF NORTH KOREA.
* SAME > "NEW DELHI COMMENTS": INDIA'S MILITARY INTENDS TO USE ITS AIRCRAFT CARRIER SUPERIORITY TO DEFEAT OR DESTROY THE PLAN [China] IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEAS IN CASE OF WAR.
* SAME > CHINA RELEASES VIETNAMESE FISHERMEN CAPTURED BY PLAN ARMED CONVERTED PATROL BOATS NEAR THE SINO-VIET DISPUTED XISHA ISLANDS [Paracels]. CHINA PLANS TO DEPLOY A STRONGER NAVAL-AIR PRESENCE [Large-sized Destroyers, Submarines, Mil-controlled Armed-Recce offshore Platforms]: + VIETNAM CALLS CHINA'S FISHING BAN [ends AUgust 1st] WHOLLY "UNACCEPTABLE" AS THE BAN COVERS VIET-CLAIMED "SOVEREIGN VIETNAMESE TERRITORY" IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA.
#2
ION WORLD MIL FORUM > SOUTH KOREA MAY LAUNCH A PREEMPTIVE STRIKE AGZ NORTH KOREA IFF IT BELIEVES THE NORTH INTENDS TO LAUNCH NUCLEAR-WMD MISSLES. STRENGTHENING OF SOUTH KOREAN
"PRECISION STRIKE" MIL SYS TO COVER THE WHOLE OF NORTH KOREA.
* SAME > "NEW DELHI COMMENTS": INDIA'S MILITARY INTENDS TO USE ITS AIRCRAFT CARRIER SUPERIORITY TO DEFEAT OR DESTROY THE PLAN [China] IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEAS IN CASE OF WAR.
* SAME > CHINA RELEASES VIETNAMESE FISHERMEN CAPTURED BY PLAN ARMED CONVERTED PATROL BOATS NEAR THE SINO-VIET DISPUTED XISHA ISLANDS [Paracels]. CHINA PLANS TO DEPLOY A STRONGER NAVAL-AIR PRESENCE [Large-sized Destroyers, Submarines, Mil-controlled Armed-Recce offshore Platforms]: + VIETNAM CALLS CHINA'S FISHING BAN [ends AUgust 1st] WHOLLY "UNACCEPTABLE" AS THE BAN COVERS VIET-CLAIMED "SOVEREIGN VIETNAMESE TERRITORY" IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA.
[Geo News] A proposal has been presented before National Assembly for imposing tax on having many children while Minister for Population Welfare Firdous Aashiq Awan observed that increasing population is linked with terrorism. To a question in National Assembly, Aashiq Awan said due to poverty and illiteracy people tend to engage with elements who exploit them in negative activities. He said if tax is to be imposed on having many children it should be started from members of the Parliament. The Minister said the government admits that it has failed in controlling the population.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2009
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#1
So, more sex-selective abortions and medical care, right? Boys are more valuable than girls, you know.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
06/30/2009 8:18
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Finnish-German telecom equipment maker Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) said Monday technology it sold to Iran in 2008 could be used to monitor calls, but denied claims it can be used for web censorship.
A petition calling for a boycott against Nokia has begun circulating over the Internet, claiming the technology had helped Iran to monitor mobile phones and read emails during the recent post-election protests.
"There is a lot of misinformation out there," NSN spokesman Ben Roome said, pointing out that NSN is a separate organization from Nokia.
He explained that NSN had delivered a network expansion with voice call monitoring centre to Iranian telecommunication operator TCI in the second half of 2008. "Voice call monitoring is required by the courts to listen to phone calls coming from a particular phone number, the telecommunication systems have an ability to do that," Roome said.
He added that the standard for call monitoring was set by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute and available in many other countries as well.
The technology "we provide in Iran allows millions of Iranians to communicate every day," Roome noted.
A spokeswoman for the world's biggest mobile phone maker Nokia said the company had received some feedback relating to NSN delivery in Iran.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2009
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party would defeat the rival Islamist faction Hamas if a legislative election were held now, according to an opinion poll published on Monday.
Discontent with Hamas over slow-moving Palestinian unity talks and Israel's ban on Gaza reconstruction aid have led to a sharp decline in the Islamist group's popularity according to the survey conducted by the Jerusalem Media and Communication Centre (JMCC.) The poll showed Fatah would win 38.5 percent of the vote compared to 18.8 percent for Hamas, with the remainder going to smaller factions. In the 2006 election, Hamas won 74 parliamentary seats to 45 for Fatah.
According to the poll, 26.5 percent of those surveyed blamed Israel for the deadlock in the Hamas-Fatah dialogue while 23.5 percent pointed a finger at Hamas and 15.5 percent said Fatah was responsible. Only 17.8 percent of Palestinians trust Abbas, but he is still the most trusted Palestinian personality, followed by the head of the Hamas government in Gaza, Ismail Haniyah, with 14.8 percent, the poll showed.
Abbas has said he plans to call a general election in January 2010 at the end of the mandate of the current Hamas-dominated legislature.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2009
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#1
Gosh I can't believe this! Hamas has done sooo much for those losers.
#3
spin A: see the Israeli incursion (and associated restrictions) worked. Things are bad in Gaza, improving in the West Bank, and the Pal street is turning away from Hamas. Olmert, not as dumb as folks on both left and right thought.
Spin B: Its obamas speech in Cairo, of course
Spin C: Polls in the Pal territories tend to be unreliable.
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
06/30/2009 12:20
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North Korea has sought various legal and illegal ways to dodge the tightening net of the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative for the past few years, a government source said Sunday.
South Korean and U.S. intelligence agencies believe the North exported some US$800 million worth of weapons including missiles, submarines, multi launch rockets and field artillery to Iran, Syria and Burma between 2000 and last year.
I wonder what the curve of dollar value of exports over time for that period looks like: constant, increasing or decreasing. More devious shipment methods/routes generally cost more both in terms of time and money, which generally cuts profits significantly... and I wouldn't expect these particular customers to have significant excess funds to cover increased prices.
Until the 1990s, such exports were relatively easy for the West to track since the North exported finished goods directly to recipients with its own cargo vessels. But tighter controls by the international community of weapons of mass destruction and restraints on the North's arms industry meant Pyongyang had to look for more devious ways.
For instance, the North took a roundabout land route via China and Russia, which is harder to trace, or used transport planes at night. It also exported weapons by building assembly factories in importing countries. To circumvent an entry ban on its ships in ports, North Korean chartered ships under the names of foreigners, falsified the country of origin, or did business through a third country. That is mostly how it was able to export to Iran, Syria, Burma and Laos.
Due to these opaque methods, the U.S. is now keeping an eye on a number of ships and airplanes in addition to the North Korean cargo ship Kangnam it is tracking. As the North becomes more sophisticated in its methods, the international community too must become smarter in tracing and controlling the North's movements, a government official said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/30/2009
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#1
Nork shipping wouldn't be hard to trace if it all happened to have an "unfortunate accident" while in transit, and sank. Just saying...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/30/2009 15:23
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#4
She must have a hat, Richard. She didn't pin that feather to her scalp, y'know. If you look veeeery closely, you'll see it's a kind of a beret thingy. It looks like it ought to be her hair in a smooth bob, but it's the hat.
#5
TW, somewhat personal but I'll ask anyway. It might appear she's getting ready to go Trout fishing. Isn't that a beaded Red & White Spoon spin casting lure adorning her right huh, hmmmm.
What is your assessment?
#7
I'm afraid I don't fish except with safety pins, string and just the right stick, Besoeker, so I can't say. I'd assumed the tassel on the other side of her camisole had fallen off during the previous excitement, during which one of her stockings slipped down.
California is preparing to issue IOUs to its creditors this week as it grapples with an unprecedented cash crunch and prepares to begin its new fiscal year deep in the red.
Once the USs richest state, California now has the dubious distinction of having the worst credit rating in the country. It is facing a budget deficit of $24bn (17bn, £14.5bn) yet Arnold Schwarzenegger, its governor, and the state assembly cannot agree on a budget that would address the shortfall.
Californias fiscal year ends on Wednesday but as the states cash reserves are empty, IOUs will be issued to a range of creditors, including contractors, such as information technology companies and the food service groups that cater for prisons.
On Wednesday we start a fiscal year with a massively unbalanced spending plan and a cash shortfall not seen since the Great Depression, said John Chiang, the state controller. Unfortunately, the states inability to balance its chequebook will now mean short-changing taxpayers, local governments and small businesses.
The state is also likely to issue IOUs to the US government. California currently contributes funding for government-run programmes for elderly and developmentally disabled people but is considering issuing IOUs to cover its contributions because of the lack of cash. Education funding is protected under the states constitution while payments on the states bond debt are also guaranteed under state law.
Democrats and Republicans in the state government last week struck an agreement on a range of money-saving measures. However, Mr Schwarzenegger has threatened to veto the plan on the grounds that it was a piecemeal solution to Californias budgetary woes.
Mr Schwarzenegger said he would veto any bills that raised taxes without reforming the states government. I will veto any majority vote tax increase bill that punishes taxpayers for Sacramentos failure to live within its means, he said. The legislature will have a difficult time explaining to Californians why they are running floor drills the day before our budget deadline. We do not have time for any more floor drills or partial solutions. Its time for the legislature to send me a budget that solves our entire deficit without raising taxes.
Could have been this all along, Arnie; instead you allowed state spending to jump out of control these last few years, and now you're paying for it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/30/2009
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#1
Time to issue the politicians IOU instead of votes and paychecks.
#3
Print all the cash you need, Oblahblahblah's doing it.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/30/2009 0:59
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#4
Will California ex-pats all over the western states finally stop with the "we're so much better and smarter in the Golden State than you idiotic peasants" crap?
#5
One can read opinions of Californians moving to other states and bringing their ruinous politics with them. These Californians who spread their disastrous liberal politics to their new states are being compared to a Biblical plague of locusts.
#6
Lagom is right. I live in the Land of the Locusts. Locally, we have 15% unemployment and due to our progressive politics, our future looks ever downward.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
06/30/2009 11:11
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#7
One can read opinions of Californians moving to other states and bringing their ruinous politics with them.
Same thing that's happening to NH with the influx of so many Massholes.
#8
Will California ex-pats all over the western states finally stop with the "we're so much better and smarter in the Golden State than you idiotic peasants" crap?
Yes, Blondie. I've learned humility. But, OTOH, and as I've said before, a whole lot of your so called "California ex-pats" were not born in California. The ones who are natives are probably fleeing the over crowding because people have been flooding into this state from all over the U.S. and from all over the whole, wide world. Yes, we ruined this state but we had a lot of help. There are millions of current California residents who speak with New York and New Jersey accents. There are millions more who speak with Mexican, Indian, Chinese, Vietnamese and English accents. Yes, we are the New Yorkers of the West but a lot of us were actually born in New York. Believe it or not, there are a whole helluva lot of transplanted mid-westerners living here. They came from places like Iowa, Missouri, Colorado, Michigan and Texas. I myself was a Navy brat whose father was stationed here in 1954. Maybe you could just call me an American. There used to be a saying about someone tilting the United States on one end so that all the loose fruits and nuts rolled into California. So don't blame me if some of us are rolling back in your direction.
#9
Mirroring the above, I've been in California since 1976, originally from DC. It was paradise when the USMC first put me here, and I've watched it peak and settle in the ooze of overcrowding and fiscal imprudence. The state is now run by people who haven't a clue about how to govern, only how to buy votes through bread and circus tactics. They keep bringing foreign born here, (currently over 25% of the people in California were born in a foreign country) to stack the political deck for more of the same. The exfiltration of the actual economic producers (business, people of means, retirees) is ongoing and increasing. Now the water crisis brought to us by the Endanged Species Act has destroyed central valley agriculture, further weakening tax revenue. SO what do the idiots do here in Sacramento, fight to raise more taxes, further speeding the bleedout, with not a clue that they are circling the drain with the state.
Tragic end of the slippery slope of inattention we all ignored while we trusted the elected ones to do our business, and the schools to actually educate our kids, and frankly, the slide is beyond repair. Tragic and sad....
feels like Rome circa 410 AD....
California native ('59). I believe more of our residents came from your other states (and Mexico) than are native-born. Ergo: kiss my ass.
I've voted against every whackjob proposition and state candidate outside my San Diego County residence (and those within). My representatives to DC (Duncan Hunter, Duncan Duane Hunter, USMC) and CA (various, but Rep., Conservative) have nothing to apologize for. I STRONGLY object to your slurs and would note that I am not alone. You have a LARGE military presence (especially in my county), are they all drooling socialist morons? Knee-jerk labels are fun, but I'll kick your ass if we meet in a bar and you question my patriotism
/end rant, dammit
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/30/2009 21:14
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At least seven people were killed and three seriously wounded when mortar shells hit Sra Shaga area here on Monday, official and local sources told Daily Times. The sources said that five shells were fired from Soor Dhand in Bara. A Khasadaar official said those who had been hit by the shells were having tea in a guesthouse. Sra Shaga is about 15 kilometres from Landikotal bazaar near the Pak-Afghan border.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2009
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SEOUL, June 29 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will maintain its position that North Korea's "unreasonable" demands over a joint business park cannot be accepted, the unification minister said Monday, as the two sides are set to meet again over the troubled venture this week.
At least the translators will eat well for the duration of the talks. The negotiators, I'm sure, eat well all the time.
Seoul heads to the third round of inter-Korean talks set for Thursday in the North's border town of Kaesong amid few signs of compromise from either side. Pyongyang has demanded a hefty wage and rent raise, but refused to discuss Seoul's major concern about a detained worker.
"We will continue to pursue the stable development of the Kaesong industrial park. But we will do so with principles. We have been emphasizing that unreasonable demands cannot be accepted," Unification Minister Hyun In-taek said in a briefing for the National Assembly unification, foreign affairs and trade committee.
In the first round of talks on June 11, North Korea demanded a four-fold monthly wage increase to US$300 for its workers employed by South Korean firms at the park. It also sought to raise the rent for 50-year development rights to $500 million from the $16 million paid by South Korean developers when the joint park opened in 2004.
South Korea rejected the demands in the second round held eight days later. North Korea insisted on its initial offer, but showed some flexibility, proposing to lift a traffic curfew it imposed along the inter-Korean border in December to protest Seoul's conservative policy.
Hyun said the two Koreas share an understanding that the last remaining inter-Korean venture should remain intact despite the political stalemate. "We head to the talks with an understanding that North Korea does not intend to quit the Kaesong industrial complex," Hyun said, asked by Rep. Chung Ok-il of the ruling Grand National Party about Pyongyang's stance. "We will try to explain to North Korea sufficiently that the businesses should make profits" if the business park is to continue.
But these are totalitarian Maoists, or whatever the North Korean version of that is. Kimists, perhaps? At any rate, they aren't going to understand anything other completely draining the blood of the mixed-breed South Korean plutocrats.
Hyun's uncompromising stance on North Korea's wage demands garnered general support in the parliamentary briefing, which was held in the absence of the major opposition Democratic Party. The liberal opposition was boycotting the Assembly plenary session to protest the ruling party's push for controversial media bills.
Good timing, guys.
A rare criticism came from Gu Sang-chan of the ruling party, who rebuked the government's procrastination on its promise to build dormitories and nurseries for North Korean workers, mostly women in their 20s and 30s. He also called on Seoul to ease its own restrictions on border traffic that were imposed after North Korea's May 25 nuclear test.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/30/2009
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The Kaesong workers are only paid $75/month? That's hardly enough to eat bark on after deducting $70/month for the Party.
#2
Chosun Ilbo: The basic monthly salary of North Korean workers at the complex is US$63.4, consisting of $55.1 in wages and $8.3 in social insurance. In addition, overtime work pay amounts to between $11 to 18.3 a month, and a welfare package subsidizing lunches, snacks and transport costs is provided at a range of between $36.6 and 47.9 per month. In total, the monthly salary of a North Korean worker ranges from $110 to 130, which, the companies argue, is comparable to that earned by workers in China and Vietnam.
A survey of some 40 firms operating at the complex was carried out after the first round of talks on April 25 to discover why these firms were having difficulty accepting North Korea's demands. According to the survey, the productivity of an individual North Korean worker is just 33 percent that of a South Korean worker. In comparison, the productivity of Chinese and Vietnamese workers is 96 and 85 percent that of South Korean workers, respectively.
Posted by: ed ||
06/30/2009 8:42
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Islamic law should not be recognized under the United Kingdom's arbitration laws because its principles are outdated and they contradict Western laws, a report by a British think-tank said on Monday, which UK Muslim figures have dismissed as ''scaremongering.''
The report, Shariah Law or One for All?, claimed to have discovered as many as 85 Islamic ''courts'' operating in Britain that hand out unofficial rulings, or fatwas, sought by devout Muslims from their mosque imams, which the report claims are in contrast to the laws applied in British courts.
''They are not official in terms of British law but they carry weight in terms of Shariah,'' Dennis MacEoin, author of the report published by independent think-tank Civitas, told Al Arabiya, adding such rulings are ''inappropriate with Western legislation.''
MacEoin said he believed the worst contradictions were in Shariah's laws on marriage and divorce and said Muslim men can easily divorce their wives, leaving the woman with no rights and turning Muslim women into ''second class citizens.''
When asked about Beth Din, the Jewish court that operates freely across the U.K., MacEoin said they only rule according to British law.
''It is discriminatory against a woman and I'm not happy about that," MacEoin explained.
According to Jewish law it is ''very difficult'' for a woman to get a divorce from her husband and this makes the arguments against Islamic law applicable to Jewish law.
MacEoin said he believed Shariah was outdated and was ''no longer appropriate for the modern period'' because ''it is not how the world works any more.''
He added it was not possible to integrate Shariah law into British law and said the current situation was harmful to relations between Muslims and non-Muslims and hindered Muslim integration into British society.
Last year, head of the Anglican Church and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, caused public outcry when he suggested that the adoption of aspects of Islamic law in the U.K. was "unavoidable."
The issue of integrating Britain's 1.8 million Muslims has been widely debated since July 2005, when four British Islamists carried out suicide bombings on London's transport system, killing 52 people.
However a member of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) criticized the report, splashed across the British press, for its lack of research credibility. ''It must be gratifying to be able to publish work without ever properly researching the subject matter,'' the unnamed MCB member wrote on Engage, a U.K.-based media awareness website. ''And it says something of any institute willing to even entertain the idea of publishing such poor quality work.''
Inayat Bunglawala, also of MCB, told Britain's the Telegraph: "To term them Shariah courts is ridiculous, it's just scaremongering."
Bunglawala was referring to the 85 ''courts'' allegedly operating across the U.K., which is a massive jump from only five believed to be dotted around the country.
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06/30/2009
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[Beirut Daily Star: Region] Less than two years after its discreet sealing, the truce between ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) seems to have ended. The publication June 12 of an article in Taraf, a liberal newspaper, of an alleged plan by army officers to overthrow the government and incriminate Fethullah Gulen, a religious leader and founder of the country's largest Muslim brotherhood, revived the polemic over the role of the military in the governance of the nation.
Although Taraf's scoop stirred indignation among politicians from all sides, the spirits remained calm for the past two weeks. But the verdict last Wednesday of the General Staff military prosecutor that the plan revealed was not prepared at TSK headquarters, and his decision not to file charges against the plan's purported author, Colonel Dursun Cicek, an officer serving in the army's psychological warfare unit, triggered the ire of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The plan, according to the accusations by Taraf and AKP, contemplates mobilizing agents controlled within AKP to discredit the party through their actions and words.
I guess I'm simple-minded. It seems to me that is how a political party ought to be discredited.
It also envisages planting of weapons in the homes of members of Gulen's movement, in order to make a convincing case that its members are "terrorists" with links to separatist Kurdish PKK rebels.
Manipulation of the media for igniting nationalistic and anti-Greek and Armenian feelings among the public is another milestone in the plan.
Military coups are a periodical occurrence in Turkish politics. Since the end of World War II, there have been three dictatorships, in 1960, 1971 and 1980, and a "post-modern" coup, when on Febuary 28, 1997 the National Security Council demanded that "the forces of reaction should be confronted," precipitating the collapse of the government and its replacement by a secularist coalition.
The "forces of reaction" in the event was a reference to the Welfare Party (RP), the first Islamist political movement to have won legislative elections in the country. Its leadership, including Erdogan, then mayor of Istanbul, was banned from politics for several years. Erdogan also served time in prison as a result of this crisis. After the victory of the newly formed AKP, successor to RP, in the 2002 national elections, and especially after the return in 2003 to politics of Erdogan and his appointment to premiership, senior army officers again became more vigilant.
When, in April 2007, Abdullah Gul, a leader within AKP, remained the sole candidate to the presidency of the state, the Chief of the General Staff, at that time General Yasar Buyukanit, issued a warning against the appointment of an Islamist at the top office of the republic, implying that the armed forces might intervene. An arm-wrestling contest began, which ended in August at a confidential meeting between Erdogan and Buyukanit.
No spectacular incidents have been observed since. On August 28, 2007, Gul was elected President by the AKP-dominated parliament. His swearing-in ceremony, held the same day, was not attended by the Chief of the General Staff. Tradition, supported by certain articles of the Constitution, calls for the army's allegiance to the principles defended by the founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, a resolute secularist.
Gul is the first head of the state to have an Islamist background. He served between 1983 and 1991 at the Islamic Development Bank in Saudi Arabia, where his wife Hayrunnisa completed her university studies. The First Lady wears the Islamic headscarf in all her appearances. The President is a supporter of Fethullah Gulen, who is resident in the US.
Political life seemingly took its normal course. This was the case on the surface only, however, because in the meantime the government had started legal proceedings to bring to justice 89 politicians, journalists, and retired military officers, suspected to have conspired to overthrow the government. Their trial began last October, on the basis of a 2,500-page indictment, but 39 new arrests, including active officers, were added earlier this year.
The trial has been stretching the nerves of the officers at all levels. Most at TSK believe that the plot is a set-up to discredit the armed forces. The government claim that the "action plan" to fight Islamic fundamentalism, revealed by Tafar, was masterminded at TSK headquarters could be the drop that will make the vase overflow.
Prime Minister Erdogan and General Iker Basbug, the Chief of General Staff, met at the end of last week privately for over an hour.
Their respective positions seem to have remained unchanged. Gen. Basbug has backed the decision of the military prosecutor, and insisted that the document was not produced at his headquarters. Erdogan remained convinced that the plan is an official army document, and declared that the quest for culprits will be pursued unrelentingly.
This clash may just be the top of the iceberg. Public opinion, which, according to polls, considers the armed forces the most trusted institution of the country, has shown since 2007 that military juntas are no longer in fashion. A plan for a coup could therefore only be the work of an isolated group of officers. What may be more likely as the cause of the crisis is the diverging agendas of the government and the military on a number of issues, including Cyprus, the Kurdish issue, the recent rapprochement with Armenia, the low-key but systematic introduction of laws that favor Islamist practices in everyday life, the dosed purge of 300 TSK officers this decade so far, and the new constitution intended by AKP which will aim at clipping the wings of the military in order to prove Turkey's adherence to the process for accessing the European Union.
As the economy is still away from recovery, in spite of daily assurances of local pundits, and the regional situation increasingly unstable, the protagonists of this new version of AKP-TSK performance are stuck in a prisoner's dilemma.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2009
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ION TOPIX > TURKEY WILL NOT ACCEPT ANYTHING LESS THAN FULL [EU] MEMBERSHIP. 'Tis "All or Nothing".
[Iran Press TV Latest] Kabul has detained more than 40 Afghan guards, who were on the payroll of the US military, after a deadly shootout left several police officers dead.
Afghanistan arrested and disarmed 41 guards employed by an international base in the southern province of Kandahar on Monday. Sources said the guards would be sent from the southern province to the capital Kabul for investigation and trial. The guards are accused of raiding the provincial prosecutor's office in the volatile region.
Earlier, Afghan President Hamid Karzai accused Afghan guards, purportedly working for US coalition forces, of engaging in a gun battle that killed 10 police officers including Kandahar Police Chief Mutaiullah Khan Qateh. In a statement, Karzai demanded that the US-led troops hand over the guards involved in the incident.
US forces have denied responsibility for the controversial attack, saying that no international force had been involved in the lethal shoot out. The US further called the deadly shootout an 'Afghan-on-Afghan' incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2009
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Two seemingly different incidents the same day where Afghan guards on US payroll shoot multiple Afghan police? That seems like a pattern. Question is (given the source of the stories) whether it's a publicity pattern or a Tali-tactic. Either way it's damaging.
[Geo News] Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani on Monday said that the second and third tier of terrorists, against whom the Army is fighting, has been eliminated.
Speaking in the National Assembly, the Prime Minister said Pakistan Army was fighting the extremists bravely and soon the top tier of terrorists, on whom the government has announced head money, will be eliminated.
Responding to a point of order from Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, the Prime Minister said that the aim of recruiting former army personnel in police was to train police force.
He said at present there were some difficulties for recruitment in police and law enforcement agencies as they are prime targets of terrorists and extremists.
He said there is also a lack of trained police personnel and since ex-army men are already trained therefore they have been hired.
He said once the situation improves, recruitment in police force will be made locally.
The Prime Minister asked the ministers to refrain from issuing statements on situation in Swat or the army operation as information minister is the focal person to speak on the subject along with representatives of NWFP government and ISPR.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2009
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#1
"STFU, ya attention whores!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/30/2009 19:05
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Last year South Carolina Rep. James E. Clyburn was expected to stay neutral in the long, bitter Democratic presidential primary struggle between Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.
An influential endorsement from Clyburn, a civil rights hero and top member of the House Democratic leadership, would have been welcomed by former President Clinton, who worked closely with him in the 1990s and thought they were close friends.
But the down-South campaigning got a little rough and, as The Ticket noted here, Clyburn didn't help his old ally. In fact, he started to quietly tilt toward Obama, whom he eventually endorsed after the primary. And Clyburn and the ex-president are not talking much anymore.
Last week, tucked inside a short announcement of White House nominations being sent to the Senate for confirmation was a little-noticed line: "Mignon L. Clyburn, of South Carolina, to be a Member of the Federal Communications Commission for a term of five years."
Clyburn is the eldest daughter of James Clyburn and a member of South Carolina's Public Service Commission. She's also a former weekly newspaper publisher. Now, the nation's first African American president has nominated someone who would become the nation's first African American female member of the FCC.
But there's probably no connection with last year's maneuvering.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2009
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get it as corrupt as possible so it shall be easier for me to decide.
Relatives of a teenager who eloped and married without parental consent shot her dead on Monday in a raid on her new home, also killing her husband and in-laws, police said.
Dressed in police uniforms, dozens of relatives attacked the bridegroom's house in the district of Charsadda. "The assailants took the bridegroom out while some of the attackers climbed the wall and entered the house. They killed the bride, the mother and sister of the bridegroom," said Charsadda district police official Saleem Jan. "They beat them first and then shot them dead," he told AFP. The groom's father was also killed, another police official told AFP from Sardheri village in Charsadda.
The bride was aged 18 to 19 and the groom 29 to 30, he added. Police said the teenager, from the deeply conservative Mardan district next to Charsadda, had run away and recently married without her parents' consent. "They married some weeks ago," the bridegroom's uncle Misal Khan told reporters at the scene. "The attackers were headed by the girl's (paternal) uncle, cousin and maternal uncle. One of the attackers left his police uniform at the site. They also left one mobile phone in a pocket of the uniform," he added.
Police said the main suspects were two uncles and a cousin. "We have registered a case against three of the girl's relatives and their unidentified accomplices," police official Saleem Jan told AFP on telephone.
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Congress has yet to come up with a clear prescription for the nation's health care system. But some state legislators are already urging voters not to take the medicine.
Under Arizona's Health Care Freedom Act, which was passed by the state legislature this week, a voting initiative will be placed on the 2010 ballot that, if passed, will allow the state to opt out of any federal health care plan. Five other states -- Indiana, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota and Wyoming -- are considering similar initiatives for their 2010 ballots.
"Our health care freedoms are very much at risk by health care reforms proposed in Washington, D.C.," said Arizona state Rep. Nancy Barto, the Republican legislator who sponsored the measure. "We needed to act as a state to protect our citizens and ensure that they will always be able to buy their own health care and not be forced into a plan they don't want."
But an opponent of the bill, state Rep. Phil Lopes, says the measure has less to do with individual freedom and more to do with the protecting the status quo. "The proponents of this are saying the system we have now works and we don't want any kind of reform," the Democratic legislator said. "This flies in the face of what the public tells us they want."
Not so, says Christine Herrera, director of the Health and Human Services Task Force for the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). The group's 1,800 state legislator members have endorsed a resolution opposing a Medicare-modeled federal health plan and a national health insurance exchange, two concepts that are gaining ground in Washington.
"Our state legislatures are looking at what's going on in Washington as trampling state's rights," Herrera says.
Some state legislators say they worry that a government-mandated program will effectively eliminate their traditional role in regulating health insurers -- an important power base. Others raise constitutional concerns. "The real goal of national health insurance exchange isn't competition -- it's a federal power grab that flies in the face of the Tenth Amendment," says Wisconsin state Rep. Leah Vukmir, a Republican.
The Tenth Amendment ensures that "the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." It's the same constitutional roadblock Franklin D. Roosevelt ran into during the Great Depression when he tried to ram through the first round of recovery programs under the New Deal. In a series of rulings, the U.S. Supreme Court found the National Recovery Act, the Agricultural Adjustment Act and several other recovery programs unconstitutional.
But constitutional scholars say it's unlikely history will repeat itself with health care reform efforts. "It's hard to imagine Congress passing anything that would be plausibly challengeable under the Tenth Amendment, but it's certainly theoretically possible," said Paul Bender, professor of constitutional law at Arizona State University. He said Congress has broad powers to regulate interstate commerce, which would include something as big as health care.
But Bender also said he sees a striking similarity between the current makeup of the Supreme Court and the "Nine Old Men" who stymied FDR's sweeping reform efforts in the 1930s. "Both sets of jurists seem to share a belief that the balance of power has shifted too far in favor of Congress at the expense of the states," Bender said.
Some state lawmakers who oppose President Obama's efforts to implement a national health care plan say the inevitable result will be socialized medicine. "The public plan and national health insurance exchange will squeeze out private insurance and put us on the road to single-payer health care," warns Georgia state Sen. Judson Hill, a Republican.
"Having the public plan now will mean socialized medicine later," he said.
Hill and other state legislators expressed concerns that millions of people will drop their private coverage if there is political pressure to keep a public plan's premiums low and benefits high. And if private insurers leave the market, they say, consumers will essentially be left with no choice of plans and no control over how their health care dollars are spent.
"Pure speculation," says Lopes. "In 1964 this was the same argument insurance companies made with President Lyndon Johnson when he proposed Medicare. Medicare did not do away with private insurance companies. They did very well."
"Protecting the rights of individuals to be in control of their health and health care must be a fundamental component of health care reform," says Dr. Erick Novack, chairman of Arizonans for Health Care Freedom, which promoted the state's ballot measure. "We are confident that the people of Arizona will vote to ensure their own rights."
With a constitutional challenge to health care reform problematic at best, that vote may turn out to be largely symbolic. But for now, that doesn't seem to be stopping other states from following Arizona's lead.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2009
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State Lawmakers Considering Move to Opt Out of Federal Health Care
If it can be done GOOD.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/30/2009 0:56
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#2
Gov. sanford tried something like that in SC and got shot down by the courts.
And no doubt Congress will sneek in some poison-pill language that will deny Medicare reimbursements in the state if they don't play nice with Team Barry.
#3
He said Congress has broad powers to regulate interstate commerce, which would include something as big as health care.
This is going to be a huge battle. Every State has its own, unique, statutes regarding Health Insurance. And demographics based on geography are the key to proportionate premiums. A One size fits all option will defiantly result in a winners and losers scenario. Surprise...surprise...the NE region will be on the winners side.
#4
Tick off enough states, get a Constitutional Convention. People will be surprised how much local interests can trump party affiliation when its an issue of power, particularly under the long yoke of unfunded Federal mandates which have effectively stolen state budgets. All of the sudden those lower on the hierarchical chart are equal or great in power than those in the Beltway.
[Al Arabiya Latest] A Casablanca court heavily fined three top Moroccan newspapers Monday for publishing critical articles on Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi.
Freedom of the press landed the three local newspapers al-Jarida al-Aoula, al-ahdath al-Maghribia, and al-Massae in hot water after they published articles criticizing Kadhafi, prompting the Libyan leader to sue them for libel.
Actually, it was non-freedom of the press that landed the three in trouble. And Morocco is one of the freer "Arab" countries.
The court fined the dailies three million dirhams ($374,129), an amount far less than the 90 million dirhams Kadahfi initially filed for when he accused the papers of "attacks on the dignity of a head of state."
During the trial an array of defense lawyers argued that the premise upon which Gaddafi's claims were based was out of keeping with the Libyan constitution, as he is nowhere referred to as head of state, but simply as "guide."
Five of nine staff members from the three dailies were each fined 120,200 dirhams ($15,000).
Other journalists who came under fire were Ali Anouzla, director of al-Jarida al-Aoula, Mohamed Brini, director of al-Ahdat al-Maghribia and one of his journalists, Mokhtar Labzioui, and Rachid Nini, director of al-Massae and Youssef Meskine, a journalist from the same paper.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2009
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[ADN Kronos] Lebanon's Grand Mufti on Monday condemned the violence that occurred between rival factions in Beirut at the weekend. Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani said the violence, in which a woman was killed, was an act of aggression against the state and called for the arrest of those responsible. "Rioting on the streets of Beirut is an act of aggression against security in the country and against the state," said Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani in a statement quoted by Lebanon's English-language media site Naharnet.
He also called for "the arrest and punishment of the aggressors" and urged Lebanon's security forces to "address any breach of security and to intensify efforts to protect the safety of citizens."
According to Qabbani, the unrest was aimed at thwarting the formation of a new government to be headed by prime minister-designate Saad Hariri. The unrest took place on Sunday, a day after Hariri was appointed prime minister of Lebanon by the country's president Michel Suleiman. Supporters of the western-backed Sunni prime minister clashed with followers of the Shia Amal group aligned with Lebanon's re-elected parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri. Thirty-year-old Zeina Miri was killed by a stray bullet and six other people were injured. Gunfire was also reported in several districts of Beirut.
The Lebanese army has warned it would fire on any armed person in the streets and many people have reportedly been arrested in overnight raids.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2009
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[Beirut Daily Star: Region] The Palestinian Authority (PA) said on Monday that it dismantled a Hamas cell that was planning attacks against Palestinian leaders and public buildings in the Occupied West Bank.
PA secretary general Tayeb Abdel-Rahim claimed that the plotters had hoped to torpedo reconciliation talks between Fatah, the party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and Hamas, the Islamist rulers of the Gaza Strip.
Egyptian mediators hope to persuade the two rival factions to sign a national unity agreement on July 7.
Abdel-Rahim said the members of the cell had been arrested over the past days, without specifying how many arrests had been made.
"Interrogation revealed that the leadership in Gaza of Hamas and [its armed wing] told them to carry out terrorist attacks on personalities and institutions of the PA," Abdel-Rahim said at a news conference. "They admitted that their leaders asked them to commit those attempts on July 7, date of the signing of the reconciliation accord we are determined to reach," he added "We are now convinced [Hamas] doesn't want to reach an accord in Cairo," he said.
Fatah also accused Hamas of arresting dozens of Fatah activists in the Gaza Strip Monday.
A Hamas spokesman said there had been no arrests and accused Fatah of distortion aimed at undermining the talks.
Arrests and counter arrests by forces loyal to the two groups have hampered efforts to restore political unity and boost prospects for a resumption of peace-making with Israel.
Senior Fatah lawmaker Ashraf Gomaa told Reuters by telephone from Gaza that at least 90 of those arrested on Monday had been identified, but that the Hamas sweeps were continuing. "We urge the Egyptian leadership to take a stronger position towards these actions by Hamas, which create doubt among our people over the importance of, and the need for, these continued talks in Cairo," Gomaa said.
"These Fatah positions have only one aim, which is Fatah's desire to foil the dialogue," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters by phone from the Gaza Strip.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2009
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#2
so hamas cells are trying to undermine Fatah-hamas talks? Hmmm. Must be dissident hard line elements of hamas (Okay, i could buy that, though the folks who would usually be behind that sort of thing, the Syrians, are supposed to be interested in talks themselves - perhaps that is true but they still dont want fatah- hamas reconciliation?)
but wait, its not so complicated, the cells were TOLD by Hamas leadership to plan the attacks. So Hamas leadership wants the cells to commit acts of violence, to undermine the very talks Hamas leaders are participating in.
Wouldnt it be easier to just not participate in talks? Unless you are under heavy pressure to talk, and want to make it look like youre talking, while provoking violence to create an excuse to end the talks.
Byzantine, even for me.
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
06/30/2009 12:15
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[Iran Press TV Latest] France calls on Israel's hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to dispose of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who is labeled as 'racist' by critics, a report says.
The French President Nicolas Sarkozy has urged the Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu to dispose of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, a report says.
During Netanyahu's meeting with the French president in Paris last Wednesday, Nicholas Sarkozy advised the Israeli premier to appoint opposition chairwoman Tzipi Livni in place of hardliner Lieberman, according to a report circulated by Israel's Channel Two on Monday.
"With her and (Defense Minister Ehud) Barak you can make history. I have always accepted Israeli foreign ministers, and I loved to have Tzipi Livni here at the Elysee, but with (Lieberman) I can't," Sarkozy was quoted as saying.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry in a statement censured Sarkozy's remarks and described them as "intolerable intervention in internal Israeli affairs."
Meanwhile, the Member of Knesset (Israeli Parliament) Ahmed Tibi welcomed Sarkozy's comments, saying that he hopes "the international community has started to absorb the danger of the fascism being taught by Lieberman."
Lieberman -- a West Bank settler who is seen as an ultra nationalist -- was dubbed 'racist' by his critics after making harsh statements about Arab Israeli lawmakers and refusing to recognize Palestine's statehood.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2009
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Why every piece of Eurogarbadge thinks it has a right to give instructions to Israel?
China is not just content to have the Norks as a convenient yapping dog. It is using North Korea as a colony; buying out its natural resources and using it as a captive market for cheap manufactured goods. The cash goes straight to the Nork military on their side, and to the Chinese military on their side. It's one of the more important reasons why China won't curb their dog.
Cash Aids Military, May Offset Sanctions
SEOUL -- Behaving badly hasn't hurt the bottom line in North Korea. Thanks to China, foreign trade has soared since Kim Jong Il's government began detonating nuclear bombs nearly three years ago. As U.N. sanctions mount and business between the two Koreas fizzles, North Korea's trade with China is setting new records. It rose 41 percent last year, while China's share of the North's overseas trade mushroomed to 73 percent.
In recent months, exceptional eruptions of North Korean belligerence have been attributed to the murky logic of hereditary succession as Kim, ailing since he had a stroke last year, positions his third son to take command of the communist country. Kim Jong Un is just 26, and many analysts have explained the North's missile launches, a second nuclear test in May and repeated threats of "merciless war" as a way of cementing the young man's credibility as a fearsome and deserving heir.
While that may be true -- and few outsiders really know what's up in Pyongyang -- there is another way to understand the North's willingness to antagonize much of the world: Chinese buyers of North Korean minerals don't seem to mind.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
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Is china sending FOOD
Yes/no
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/30/2009 0:53
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North Korea sells donated US food aid to China.
Posted by: ed ||
06/30/2009 8:57
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Uranium exists on the moon, according to new data from a Japanese spacecraft.
The findings are the first conclusive evidence for the presence of the radioactive element in lunar dirt, the researchers said. They announced the discovery recently at the 40th Lunar and Planetary Conference and at the Proceedings of the International Workshop Advances in Cosmic Ray Science.
The revelation suggests that nuclear power plants could be built on the moon, or even that Earth's satellite could serve as a mining source for uranium needed back home.
The Japanese Kaguya spacecraft, which was launched in 2007, detected uranium with a gamma-ray spectrometer. Scientists are using the instrument to create maps of the moon's surface composition, showing the presence of thorium, potassium, oxygen, magnesium, silicon, calcium, titanium and iron.
"We've already gotten uranium results, which have never been reported before," said Robert Reedy, a senior scientist at the Tucson-based Planetary Science Institute, and a member of the Kaguya science team. "We're getting more new elements and refining and confirming results found on the old maps."
The findings could help decide where to build future lunar colonies, since manned outposts will need energy, and could potentially derive it from nuclear power plants.
Furthermore, since uranium supplies on Earth are scarce, mining uranium on the moon to satisfy our energy needs at home could prove lucrative.
Kaguya, officially named SELENE ("Selenological and Engineering Explorer"), crashed into the lunar surface at the end of its mission on June 10.
#3
Uranium is cheap enough on earth that we don't bother recycling the stuff in this country, even though it would help the nuclear waste problem substantially.
#7
Japan has got the coolest little space program you've never heard of. Nice work, Kaguya!
Posted by: Mike ||
06/30/2009 7:37
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#8
Now, let's put a nuclear waste dump on the far side of the moon, and then we'll see what happens.
Am I showing my age?
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
06/30/2009 8:22
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#9
There may be U on the moon, but I seriously doubt that there is very much of it or that it is concentrated enough to be economically feasible to mine.
#14
Publicity report babble. They're looking for He3 and won't release those findings.
This century's gold rush started years ago when He3 was discovered in lunar samples collected by Apollo missions.
www.popularmechanics.com/science/air_space/1283056.html?page=4
The first 'claim' to be worked for a return trip with a load is right around the corner...if they find what they're looking for.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Iran's top legislative body confirmed on Monday the results of a disputed June 12 election which was won by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, state broadcaster IRIB reported, while British staff remained in detention in Tehran. "The secretary of the Guardian Council in a letter to the interior minister announced the final decision of the Council ... and declares the approval of the accuracy of the results of ... the presidential election," IRIB said.
Iran's English-language Press TV television station said a partial recount of the election that was carried out on Monday had shown no irregularities in the vote.
Defeated opposition candidate Mirhossein Mousavi had previously rejected the Council's offer of a partial recount, saying the vote was rigged in Ahmadinejad's favor and that the whole election should be annulled.
"This recount is being done before (state broadcaster) IRIB cameras in various provinces and cities and we will subsequently announce the outcome for public information. ... We will try to release the outcome by the end of working hours (on Monday)," Kadkhodai had said.
Iran's state-run Press TV broadcasted live from one Tehran district where a Guardian Council supervisor was quoted as saying the recount in the area showed no major irregularities. The information could not be independently verified as foreign media are banned from the streets under tough new restrictions imposed by the authorities in the wake of the election.
The results of the election that saw record turnout were announced 12 hours after polls closed.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2009
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
TOPIX > CHAVEZ BELIEVES CIA CAUSING IRAN UNREST; + AZERBAIJAN ACCUSED OF FOMENTING "ORANGE REVOLUTION" IN IRAN.
#3
Serious question, Has there EVER been peace in the mideast? Even when the crusaders were in charge?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/30/2009 12:26
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#4
Yes, RJ, there was. From about 1450 to about 1890, the Ottoman Empire kept the peace over an area stretching from Albania to the Iranian border, over about half of North Africa, and all of the Arabian Peninsula. The Ottomans began to lose control in 1840, when the Greeks managed to gain their independence on a small portion of what is now Greece. The Ottoman Empire maintained peace by a complex system of bribes, assassinations, and religious supremacy. The end of WWI saw the Ottoman Empire broken into about a dozen entities, controlled by Britian or France, that gained independence beginning in the 1920's. That's the "map" - and the mess - we're currently living with.
Iran was actually fairly peaceful but backward until WWII, and the needs of the British and Americans to ship war material to the Russians. The Allies practically occupied the country, while building a road and rail net from Abadan to Baku. The US also interfered to keep the Russians from claiming a large part of Kurdish Iran as Russian territory following the war.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/30/2009 14:14
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21 Taliban, 4 tribesmen killed in Kurram clash
8 Taliban killed in Swat
Lashkar kills two Taliban, apprehends 14 in Upper Dir
At least 45 Taliban were killed as jet aircraft bombed suspected Taliban hideouts in Waziristan and in clashes with the security forces and pro-government tribal militias in Swat and Kurram on Monday.
The airstrikes hit a guesthouse used by Taliban in the village of Kani Guram in South Waziristan Agency, killing four Taliban, according to intelligence officials.
Twenty-one Taliban were killed in overnight clashes with an anti-Taliban militia in Kurram Agency, tribal elder Ali Akbar Toori and lawmaker Sajid Toori said. Four militiamen were also killed.
Security forces launched an early morning raid on a suspected Taliban hideout in Tank, killing two suspected Taliban and arresting nine others, senior police officer Abdul Rasheed said.
Chief military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said security forces raided a compound in Khawazakhela area of Swat on a tip-off, killing eight Taliban and seizing weapons and explosives.
A lashkar in Upper Dir closed in on the Taliban trapped in the Shortkas Dogdarra village. Citing a private TV channel, APP said the lashkar killed two Taliban and arrested another 14 from the area and demolished their five houses.
In Swat, the Taliban "command structure has been totally dismantled, their training centres discovered and destroyed, their recruits either killed or driven away, their ammunition dumps destroyed and their headquarters ... destroyed," the military spokesman said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2009
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#1
Do the pakis have the force to "hold and build" Swat? Is moving into S waziristan to clear, when hold not yet implemented in Swat, premature? Over stretch?
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
06/30/2009 12:23
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The strategy appears to be to administer a serial-beating to the Taliban; 'hold and build' wouldn't on the list of objectives.
[Beirut Daily Star: Region] Darfur rebels on Sunday accused Sudan government forces of a bombing raid on their territory which killed at least eight civilians, as mediators step up pressure for a settlement in the violent western region. Fighters from the rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) said military planes bombed land they controlled near the settlement of Hashaba in remote North Darfur around midday on Saturday. SLA founder Abdel-Wahed Mohammad Ahmad al-Nour told Reuters his commanders reported eight civilians were killed in Hashaba, about 70 kilometers west of the North Darfur state capital, Al-Fasher. Another SLA commander reported over 20 casualties.
Sudan's armed forced were not immediately available to comment and it was impossible to verify the figure independently. United Nations sources could not confirm the reports. "Tens of people have been injured and hundreds of cattle have died. This is the government's policy, to kill people to hang on to power," Nour told Reuters from Paris. He has refused to enter peace talks until after a full ceasefire.
Other international sources said they had unconfirmed reports of fighting in the area and several Sudanese Army planes had been seen leaving Al-Fasher airport. If confirmed, the attack will dismay UN and African Union mediators who have been building up pressure for a political settlement in Sudan's west, which has been going through a period of relative calm.
The attack would mark the first significant number of casualties in government-rebel clashes since Khartoum and the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) fought over the two northern towns of Umm Baru and Kornoi in May.
SLA and JEM took up arms against Sudan's government in 2003, accusing it of marginalizing the region and starving it of funding. Khartoum mobilized troops and militias to crush the uprising, launching a counter-insurgency the US calls genocide.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2009
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Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan
[Khaleej Times] A senior Iraqi leader of the Iraqi Islamic party was killed in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi, security sources told the German Press Agency dpa on Monday. The source said that a sticky bomb put under the car of Jalil Matar went off as he was coming out of the Ramadi hospital on Sunday evening.
Leaders of the Sunni parties, including the Iraqi Islamic Party, the largest Sunni party in Iraq, are a constant target for assassination by military groups operating in Iraq. On June 12, Harith al-Obeidi, the leader of the leader of the Iraqi Accord Front, Iraq's largest coalition of Sunni political parties, was shot dead as he was leaving a mosque where he led the Friday prayers in the western Baghdad neighbourhood of Yarmuk.
Separately, two Iraqi policemen died on Monday when a bomb went off near a security check point in Mosul, 400 kilometres north of Baghdad. Two further policemen were wounded.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2009
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#1
I wonder if George is reading this now, and rolling on the floor laughing.
[ADN Kronos] By Syed Saleem Shahzad - Pakistani Taliban leader Gul Bahadur, once an arch rival of Baitullah Mehsud, apparently shelved a ceasefire agreement with security forces when he and his militants attacked a military convoy killing two officers and 12 soldiers at the weekend.
But shelving them when they become inconvenient is what hudnas are for.
Militants claimed to have killed 60 personnel in the attack carried out in Miran Shah area of North Waziristan.
"There was no reason for the attack. The military was not conducting any operation so there was no reason for such an attack," said Major General Athar Abbas, spokesperson for the Pakistan Army at a media conference late on Monday in Islamabad.
Pakistani minister information Qamaruzaman Kaira was also present and explained the government policies.
He denied that there was a military operation in either North or South Waziristan to rival what the military was doing in the northwestern Swat valley. "The military operation called Raye Rasat in South Waziristan is only aimed to establish the writ of the government it is not against any commander, tribe or the area," Athar Abbas maintained. "It should be borne in mind that the operation in South Waziristan was only aimed against the people who are a source of terrorism in the entire country and they are brutally killing the people of security forces," federal minister Kaira added.
However, the Sunday attack showed that this is not what the militants believe.
Pakistani security forces had tried to take the anti-Baitullah Mehsud warlords into their confidence. Two little known commanders, Qari Zainuddin and Haji Turkestan, vowed to support the government. But Qari Zainuddin, who could barely muster a few dozen fighters to combat Baitullah Mehsud, was assassinated last week. He could not get even get a burial plot in his home town and Haji Turkestan's whereabout are unknown since Zainuddin's assassination.
Gul Bahadur, the chief of Taliban in North Waziristan, and warlord Mullah Nazir, the chief of the Taliban in Wana, South Waziristan, were arch rivals of Mehsud even though they were sceptical of government moves against him.
The prevalent idea was that an operation against Mehsud could turn against all the Taliban groups. So Mullah Nazir was the first who refused to give passage to the army and warned that he would not tolerate the military presence in or around his area. Although Bahadur had expressed similar views to Naziran, an attack launched by Bahadur's militants aginst the army convoy on Sunday showed that ideological connections overrode tribal differences. The attack also indicates that all the Taliban commanders are united against the military.
Well-placed sources in the military establishment believe that Sunday's attack could have a far-reaching effect and could threaten the military operation's success.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2009
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#1
The military was not conducting any operation so there was no reason for such an attack
Therein lies the problem - have the military conduct aggressive and competent operations and there won't be such attacks anymore.
[Beirut Daily Star: Region] Turkey's Parliament speaker said on Monday he favored changes in the Constitution to allow leaders of a 1980 military coup to be put on trial. Koksal Toptan's comments, the latest by a Turkish politician backing a trial of past army plotters, underscore the waning influence of Turkey's generals in the EU candidate nation.
Last week, members of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the main opposition CHP Party, which traditionally sides with the military, held talks to discuss reforming an article in the constitution that bans prosecuting leaders of the coup. "Such an article should not be in the Constitution and it is beneficial to remove it," Koksal told reporters. "It does not belong in a modern constitution."
Such talk would have been unthinkable a few years ago in Turkey where the military has ousted four governments in the past 50 years and regards itself as the ultimate guardian of the republic. But reforms aimed at meeting EU membership criteria have clipped the wings of the military. Legislation passed early on Saturday allows civilian courts to try members of the army accused of threats to national security, constitutional violations and attempts to topple the government.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2009
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[Quqnoos] At least 4 including the police chief and head of the criminal department of Kandahar were killed Monday in a clash in the city, officials said
A spokesman for the Interior Ministry, Zemaray Bashari in a phone call confirmed the causalities of the gun-fire that erupted after the guards -- employed by US special forces -- opened fire on the police. The fighting happened as troops attempted to take away a prisoner from the provincial attorney's office, Bashari further said.
The provincial attorney department sought urgent help from the police department. Police Chief Gen Matiuallah Qateh, was gunned down when he reached the scene to prevent the assailant armed men to remove an alleged criminal. Five other policemen were also wounded in today's fighting in Kandahar city, MoI spokesman added.
A local witness said that US troops were also involved in the fighting. The US military spokesman in Kabul, Colonel Greg Julian, confirmed to AFP there had been an incident but he did not immediately provide details. "I am not sure which unit was involved," he said. "It does appear that there were some Afghan police casualties," he said.
Quqnoos' Mohammad Masumi in Kandahar said the gun-battle last over an hour in the city and all the security forces have turned on alert in the city.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2009
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama said on Monday the coup that ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was illegal and would set a "terrible precedent" of transition by military force unless it was reversed.
As opposed to all the other times in Latin and South America? This is predictable. Bambi waited a day to see what Fidel and Oogo are saying, and now he's fallen into line. Then again, it's Bambi so this could all be just talk with no practical consequence.
"We believe that the coup was not legal and that President Zelaya remains the president of Honduras, the democratically elected president there," Obama told reporters after an Oval Office meeting with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.
Zelaya, in office since 2006, was overthrown in a dawn coup on Sunday after he angered the judiciary, Congress and the army by seeking constitutional changes that would allow presidents to seek re-election beyond a four-year term.
In violation of the Honduran constitution, apparently. For some reason the latest version of that document doesn't want to re-elect presidents -- something about strongmen ...
The Honduran Congress named an interim president, Roberto Micheletti, and the country's Supreme Court said it had ordered the army to remove Zelaya.
The European Union and a string of foreign governments have voiced support for Zelaya, who was snatched by troops from his residence and whisked away by plane to Costa Rica in his pajamas.
Obama said he would work with the Organization of American States and other international institutions to restore Zelaya to power and "see if we can resolve this in a peaceful way."
This sounds very much like when we forced Haiti to take back that rapacious Priest-President whose name I can't remember, with disastrous results for Haiti.
"It would be a terrible precedent if we start moving backwards into the era in which we are seeing military coups as a means of political transition, rather than democratic elections," Obama said, noting the region's progress in establishing democratic traditions in the past 20 years.
Despite Obama's comments, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the administration was not formally designating the ouster as a military coup for now, a step that would force a cut-off of most U.S. aid to Honduras. Under U.S. law, no aid -- other than for the promotion of democracy -- may be provided to a country whose elected head of government has been toppled in a military coup. "We do think that this has evolved into a coup," Clinton told reporters, adding the administration was withholding that determination for now.
Asked if the United States was currently considering cutting off aid, Clinton shook her head no.
The State Department said it was unable to immediately say how much assistance the United States gives Honduras. The State Department has requested $68.2 million in aid for fiscal year 2010, which begins on October 1, up from $43.2 million. This covers funds for development, Honduran purchases of U.S. arms, military training, counter-narcotics and health care but does not include Defense Department aid, a U.S. official said.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said he did not believe Obama had spoken to Zelaya since the ouster. He said the administration had worked in recent days to try to prevent the coup from happening, and "our goal now is on restoring democratic order in Honduras."
Analysts said quick criticism of the coup by Obama and Clinton on Sunday pleased Latin American countries bitter about the long history of U.S. intervention in the region.
A senior U.S. official who spoke on condition he not be named said that by holding off on a legal determination that a coup has taken place, Washington was trying to provide space for a negotiated settlement. "If we were able to get to a ... status quo that returned to the rule of law and constitutional order within a relatively short period of time, I think that would be a good outcome," Clinton said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/30/2009
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Top|| File under:
#1
he angered the judiciary, Congress and the army by seeking illegal constitutional changes
Fixed it for you.
It is unconstitutional in Honduras to force through a change in Honduras constitution without TWO consecutive Congresses voting for it to be allowed to come to a popular vote.
The president was proceeding despite Congress telling he cannot do so, and the Supreme court telling he cannot do so and ORDERING him to stop the illegal plebiscite.
#2
Hondurus made the best with what they have considering that little dictator squirrel they locked out, let's support it. He was a scumbag destroying all that took but 50 years to make. Support mu army in this.
#3
Simply put Olahblahblah is a wanna-be dictator, he sees nothing wrong with ignoring the Constitution, or any laws that don't suit him.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/30/2009 0:48
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#4
WTF is wrong with that dipshit president of ours?
Other than that he's a communist socialist, America-hating a$$wipe doing everything in his power to sabotage free enterprise and turn our Republic into the next Zimbabwe, I can't think of a thing, OS.
#5
I think that this is a big moment of truth where Obama has stripped off his mask and revealed his true nature. No turning back now. Now it is just a race to see if Obama can get enough control to squash our freedoms before we can get control back to the people.
#7
Hint: In the event of an actual coup, President Zelaya would have been shot in his bed and his corpse hung from the highest ventana del palacio by his own sash. Not flown business class to a cozy guest house in Costa Rica.
Just ask the officer corps of the Bangladesh Rifles. Although it may be some time 'til they get back to you with their answer.
#11
Hopefully our military is as smart as Hounduras'. Posted by: Parabellum
Your military will do exactly as it is told by POTUS and I suspect we all know why. Barry controls the congress. Congress controls the Posse Comitatus Act. Enough said.
#12
Are not the Honduras officers sworn to loyalty to their Constitution, but not any specific government official?
Is this not also the case with the US Military Oath I found on Wikipedia:
I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic
It is amazing to see your US President criticize this as a coup when it is in fact the Honduras legislature, courts and military acting together to defend their constituted government by acting to prevent a dictatorship from being formed due to an illegal act by the Honduras president.
I am amazed. Does Mr Obama have that little respect for liberty and the law?
If so, it is frightening to have such an unscrupulous man in charge of the US with few limits on him from the US legislature and press.
#13
It's going to get a LOT worse Lagom. Obama has only been in office for 5 months and is in first gear of his journey to gut capitalism and democracy.
Posted by: ed ||
06/30/2009 9:58
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#14
The Honduran Congress named an interim president, Roberto Micheletti, and the country's Supreme Court said it had ordered the army to remove Zelaya.
Obama has no desire for yet another anti-US Tinhorn with unchecked power in the region. And given the circumstances surrounding Zelayas removal this is, at worst, a Coup-Light. But in order to get a resolution there needs to be cooperation amongst the other OAS toads. So before reading too much into his response, one should view his transition by military force rhetoric for what it is you guessed it appearance.
#16
Mr Obama now proposes sanctions against Honduras due to the defense of Honduras constitution against a would-be dictator. It makes one wonder what Mr Obama's designs are for the USA and the world.
The inconvenient truth for Mr Obama:
Honduras' now ex-president, Mel Zelaya, last Thursday defied a Supreme Court ruling and tried to hold a "survey" to rewrite the constitution for his permanent re-election. It's the same blueprint for a rigged political system that's made former democracies like Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Ecuador into shells of free countries.
Zelaya's operatives did their dirt all the way through. First they got signatures to launch the "citizen's power" survey through threats -- warning those who didn't sign that they'd be denied medical care and worse. Zelaya then had the ballots flown to Tegucigalpa on Venezuelan planes. After his move was declared illegal by the Supreme Court, he tried to do it anyway.
As a result of his brazen disregard for the law, Zelaya found himself escorted from office by the military Sunday morning, and into exile. Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Cuba's Fidel Castro rushed to blame the U.S., calling it a "yanqui coup."
President Obama on Monday called the action "not legal," and claimed that Zelaya is still the legitimate president.
There was a coup all right, but it wasn't committed by the U.S. or the Honduran court. It was committed by Zelaya himself. He brazenly defied the law, and Hondurans overwhelmingly supported his removal (a pro-Zelaya rally Monday drew a mere 200 acolytes).
Yet the U.S. administration stood with Chavez and Castro, calling Zelaya's lawful removal "a coup." Obama called the action a "terrible precedent," and said Zelaya remains president.
In doing this, the U.S. condemned democrats who stood up to save their democracy, a move that should have been hailed as a historic turning of the tide against the false democracies of the region.
The U.S. response has been disgraceful. "We recognize Zelaya as the duly elected and constitutional president of Honduras. We see no other," a State Department official told reporters.
WHY IS MR OBAMA SUPPORTING A VENEZUELAN THUG AND PUPPET?
#18
Half of us already knew or at least suspected, Lagom. The others are slowly beginning to catch on. The catch is that unless He does something 'Honduran', we are stuck with Him for the next few years.
#20
Some of Europe is beginning to wake up and see how Mr Obama really is. Will USA wake up?
Posted by Lagom
Something like malaria eh Lagom? Once you've had it, the recurrent symtoms of headaches, fever, chills, shakes, nausea and vomiting, etc, are quickly identified and self-diagnosed. There are numerous species of the Tsetse. Like all other parasites, we are enduring this one as well. It too shall pass and we shall learn from it.
#21
WHY IS MR OBAMA SUPPORTING A VENEZUELAN THUG AND PUPPET?
Ask instead "what kind of person would support a Venezuelan thug and puppet in favor of constitutional democracy?". When you answer that question you will know what kind of person Bammo is.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Lebanon's military prosecutor on Monday charged three suspects allegedly linked to al-Qaeda with planning terrorist attacks in Lebanon and Syria, a judicial source said.
"Judge Saqr Saqr has charged the three people, none of whom are Lebanese, with forming a gang linked to al-Qaeda and preparing to carry out terrorist acts in Lebanon and against the regime in Syria," the source told AFP.
" (The al-Qaeda network planned to) destabilize Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Gulf countries including Kuwait "
Brigadier General Jean Kahwaji
The suspects were identified as Syrian national Samir Hijazi, Kuwaiti Mohammad Abdul Latif al-Dosari and Mohammad Zahamor bin Qamaruddin of Tajikistan.
Lebanon dismantled an al-Qaeda network earlier this month, according to army chief Brigadier General Jean Kahwaji, who told a Kuwait newspaper it planned to "destabilize Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Gulf countries including Kuwait."
In December 2007, Lebanon indicted 31 al-Qaeda-linked suspects, including a Saudi national and four Syrians, on charges of plotting to carry out attacks in the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2009
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[Geo News] The operation commencing from different directions has linked up at critical Junctions and with securing of Biha valley in the North and Shamozai in the West, main areas occupied by terrorists have been cleared.
According to Director General ISPR Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, their command structure has been totally dismantled, their training centers discovered and destroyed, their recruits either killed or driven away / ran away, their ammunition dumps destroyed and their Headquarters at Peochar, Chaprial, Matta, Khawazakhela, Mingora, Kabal, Banai Baba Ziarat, Sakhra Valley, Saidu Sharif and Biha have been destroyed.
During last 24 hours, Security forces killed 18 terrorists in Swat and North Waziristan Agency and also recovered cache of arms, ammunition, while 16 soldiers embraced shahadat including 3 Officers. 6 Soldiers including 1 Officer were injured.
A totally unprovoked attack by terrorists on the convoy of security forces with intense fire followed by IEDs at Inzar Kas when convoy was moving from Gharlamai to Wucha Bibi in North Waziristan Agency.
Security forces effectively responded the attack, while soldiers including Lieutenant Colonel Tahir, Captain Abid and Lieutenant Zishan embraced Shahadat, whereas 10 terrorists were killed. 12 Soldiers embraced shahadat yesterday while 4 succumbed to injuries later in the Combined Military Hospital, taking the toll to 16.
Meanwhile, security forces operating in Swat successfully established link up at Khel Kandao, while operating at Buner and are consolidating their positions in areas around Dangram, Kukarai and Jambil.
Security forces secured area around Khazana, Zarra Khela and Garai and are consolidating secured areas of Kabbal, Dhadara, Akhun Khalle, Rangeela, Zarra Khela.
Security forces commenced clearance and search from Shalkosar towards Jukhtai and Balasur towardsShah Dheri.
Security forces during search operation, apprehended a terrorist Muhammad Raheem alias Bhai resident of Sambat near Shangla.
On a tip off Security forces conducted a raid on a compound in Khawazakhela, resultantly 8 terrorists were killed and also recovered few weapons and some explosives.
It is heartening to know that hundreds of young men are showing their inclination for induction in community Police force in Upper Dir. Appropriate steps are being taken to recruit them.
In Upper Dir Lashkar has further closed on to terrorists trapped in a village Shortkas-Dogdarra.
Security forces conducted search operation at Nek Ikthair house at Lower Dir and recovered 11 tons of wheat stolen from World Food Programme on 4 May 09. The wheat has been distributed amongst the IDPs.
Tribesmen from Chamarkand and Kamangara areas of Bajaur met security officials and vowed full support to the government and security forces in eradication of the anti state elements.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2009
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
OTOH PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUMS > PAKISTAN-BASED BANNED MILITANT GROUPS "EXPAND" [Operations, recruitment, + entrenchments in WAZIRISTAN].
D *** NG IT, MORIARITY, apparently nobody told them they were "banned" by Paki since 2002!
A MILYUHN-AND-ZILYUHN DOLLAR, BUDGETED US FEDERAL AGENCY, AND YET NO ONE THOUGHT, TOLD OR TRAINED TEEN AGENT CODY BANKS HOW TO TALK TO A GIRL!
#2
* ISRAELI MIL FORUM > [Gen McChrystal]TALIBAN RETURNING TO TERRITORY HELD PRIOR TO 9-11. Infiltration = penetration and set-up into village structures most feared. US-AFGHAN GOVTS had NOT yet dev the TROOP CAPACITY = MILPRESENCE to effec stop or obstruct them.
* PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > PAKISTANI ARMY NOW FACING A "COMBINED INSURGENCY" CAMPIGN IN WAZIRISTAN [ Multi-MilTerr Groups now fighting together]???
The White House is forming an interagency team to coordinate sanctions efforts against North Korea with other nations, senior administration officials said yesterday. The team will be led by Philip S. Goldberg, a former ambassador to Bolivia who is slated to leave for China in the near future as the United States seeks concerted action to punish North Korea for recently conducting a second nuclear test.
Goldberg is the ambassador who got thrown out of Bolivia for opposing what Morales was doing to the country. I'm rather surprised Bambi is putting him into another important job.
Does the president consider this job important? What odds that one even so silver throated as the president himself could persuade China to punish their pet rabid dog?
"There is a broad consensus about the need to have a focused and engaged effort to see that these sanctions are implemented . . . and that we're sharing information with each other," one official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
The officials said they are hoping the group -- with representatives from the State Department, the White House, the National Security Agency, the Treasury Department and others -- will help "shine a spotlight" on Pyongyang's actions. "We wanted somebody who woke up every morning and thought about nothing but sanctions implementation," one official said. "It's a huge difference when you have somebody who isn't worried about any of the other aspects of this."
If he can truly work to get Treasury, State and the White House on the same page to start shutting off Nork access to the world financial markets, etc., then it's a good choice.
Stephen W. Bosworth, the administration's special envoy for North Korea, works on a part-time basis.
Administration officials say they will not stop pursuing sanctions unless North Korea takes "irreversible steps" to dismantle its program to show it is serious about talks.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/30/2009
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The leader of a group of militants killed last week by Kyrgyz security forces was trained in Pakistan, officials said on Monday.
The ex-Soviet Central Asian state, home to a US military air base, reported two gunfights between security forces and militants last week. The State National Security Committee on Monday said it had identified the body of the leader of three fighters killed in the southern region of Osh on Saturday.
"The leader of the killed terrorist group (was) Khasan Suleimanov, born in 1977 in Osh, Kyrgyzstan, trained at the international terrorist centres in Pakistan," it said. The committee said both Suleimanov's group and five militants killed days before in the nearby town of Jalalabad likely had links to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU). Western security analysts say the IMU was largely wiped out during US-led operations in Afghanistan. Some have pointed to a possible rise in its activity in recent months alongside a parallel resurgence in Taliban operations.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2009
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Top|| File under: Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
#1
dead militant trained in Pakistan
and poorly, it seems.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/30/2009 12:36
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#2
student-exchange program
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/30/2009 19:00
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[Straits Times] ONE of the few survivors of the Khmer Rouge's deadliest torture centre gave a long-awaited testimony on Monday, weeping as he recounted life at the facility where 16,000 others were tortured before execution.
Mr Vann Nath, 63, escaped execution because he was an artist and took the job of painting and sculpting portraits of the Khmer Rouge's late leader, Pol Pot. His special status did not spare him misery. 'The conditions were so inhumane and the food was so little,' Mr Vann Nath told the tribunal, tears streaming down his face. 'I even thought eating human flesh would be a good meal.'
Mr Vann Nath said he was fed twice a day, each meal consisting of three teaspoons of rice porridge. Prisoners were kept shackled and ordered not to speak or move. 'We were so hungry, we would eat insects that dropped from the ceiling,' Mr Vann Nath said. 'We would quickly grab and eat them so we could avoid being seen by the guards.'
'We ate our meals next to dead bodies, and we didn't care because we were like animals,' he added.
The testimony came at the trial of Kaing Guek Eav - better known as Duch, who headed the S-21 prison in Phnom Penh from 1975-1979. Up to 16,000 men, women and children were tortured under his command and later taken away to be killed. Only about a dozen people, including Mr Vann Nath, are thought to have survived, most of whom have since died. Two other survivors are scheduled to testify this week.
Duch is the first senior Khmer Rouge figure to face trial and the only one to acknowledge responsibility for his actions. Senior leaders Khieu Samphan, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary and Ieng Sary's wife, Ieng Thirith, are all detained and likely to face trial in the next year or two.
Duch, 66, sat silently and watched Mr Vann Nath impassively as he spoke. Duch is charged with crimes against humanity and is the first of five defendants scheduled for long-delayed trials by the UN-assisted tribunal.
Duch has previously testified that being sent to S-21 was tantamount to a death sentence and that he was only following orders to save his own life.
Mr Vann Nath said he was arrested Dec 30, 1977, from his home in north-western Battambang province where he worked as a rice farmer.
He was accused of trying to overthrow the Khmer Rouge and of being an enemy of the regime - a common accusation against prisoners. He arrived at S-21 on Jan 7, 1978, and was kept there until the regime collapsed about one year later.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2009
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Thanks for posting. The communisation of SE Asia is not discussed often in polite society. Behold... the Vietnam war pull-out peace dividend.
Iranian police officials have reportedly arrested the armed imposters who posed as security forces during post-election violence in the country.
Iran's Basij commander, Hossein Taeb, said Monday that the imposters had worn police and Basij uniforms to infiltrate the rallies and create havoc. Taeb added that the recent anti-government riots have killed eight members of the Basij and wounded 300 others.
Iranian security officials --and in particularly the Basij volunteer forces-- have been accused of killing and injuring protestors who took to the streets to protest the outcome of the June 12 election -- which saw incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad win by a landslide. "Basij forces are not authorized to carry weapons," said Taeb, asserting that armed groups are the main culprit behind the killings.
Tehran Police Chief Azizallah Rajabzadeh has also insisted that his department had no role in the shoot-out that has become the focus of most media outlets in the West. "Policemen are not authorized to use weapons against people," said Rajabzadeh. "They are trained to only use anti-riot tools to keep the people out of harms way," said Rajabzadeh.
Last week saw some of the worst violence since the election after some 'terrorist elements' infiltrated the rallies on Saturday, according to Iranian officials. The insurgents set fire to a mosque, two gas stations and a military post in Western Tehran, leaving scores of people dead and wounded.
Supporters of the defeated candidates have staged a torrent of rallies, which have provoked unprecedented mayhem in the country over the past nine days. Mir-Hossein Mousavi election campaign officials, however, have insisted that the defeated candidate's supporters are not within the rioters.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2009
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#1
Dinner Jacket has a bus to throw his people under too?
#2
That's their out. It's a pretty good one, too - blame "outside agitators" who were pretending to be basji, and they'll pull a karma houdini & preserve the basji for the next round of motorcycle-riding axe-swinging suppression of political unrest.
Some of the Arab mercenaries who were brought in to fill out the basji ranks are about to get prominently lynched for the mullahs' sins.
I'd call this endgame preparation. They think they've won, and they're getting ready for the aftermath.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
06/30/2009 9:34
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#3
Ah, the "no good Scotsman" excuse
Posted by: European Conservative ||
06/30/2009 11:54
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#4
They had better see to it that the imposters don't talk to journalists. Tongues out every one!
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
06/30/2009 12:04
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The Littoral Combat Ship program just hit a speed bump on the way to the export market. Israel has decided they are no longer interested in the LCS, and cite costs as the major reason.
#5
Instead, sources say, the Navy is pushing to establish a combat shipbuilding industry through customized, locally built versions of a German corvette design.
Everyone knows German stuff is well built. Besides, the Germans don't meddle in our politics. Create or save how many jobs?
[Quqnoos] A bomb blast killed at least 9 militants in Paktika province while rigging explosive devices, an official said
The explosion occurred Monday inside a house in Yousuf Khail district, south of the provincial capital, Sharan. "It was a Taliban compound where they were making bombs. Suddenly, the explosives went off and killed nine of them," a spokesman for the provincial government, Hamidullah Zwakh said. Three of the militants were foreign nationals, the spokesman further said without naming a specific country.
Taliban militants confirmed the incident in which according to them, only three Taliban elements were killed. A Taliban spokesman denied the casualties of any foreign fighters in Paktika's incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2009
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#1
(A)OSHA needs to shut this outfit down for serious and repeated workplace safety violations.
#5
Seems like the US has perfected that nanometer oscilator that sets off certain kinds of explosives. The trick now is to get enough electricity to use it more than once a month.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/30/2009 13:35
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#6
We could be using it daily, Old Patriot. News coverage is spotty out there in the compounds, after all. And who is to know or care why the daughter and son stealing bastards no longer roll into town to bother the locals... by the time anyone bothers to knock on the door, the evidence has long since been eaten by maggots.
[Al Arabiya Latest] The Bangladesh High Court asked the home ministry and security forces on Monday to stop extrajudicial killings of alleged criminals. Spoilsport
Deaths of people detained for alleged criminal links are often reported across the country by security forces who say the prisoners were brought along to assist in purported raids and other action against gangs. You mean the moonlight drives at O-dark-thirty looking for "arms caches", stumbling upon "cohorts" who wildly open fire, then disappear without a trace leaving the dead bodies of the "suspect" bleeding out after he tried to "escape". You mean those deaths? Never heard of um.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch said in May that more than 1,000 people had suffered extrajudicial deaths in Bangladesh over the past five years, though the numbers had dropped since a new government took power in January 2009. "The High Court also asked the secretary of the home ministry and chiefs of police and the elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) force to explain within the next four weeks why criminal proceedings should not be drawn against such killings," a court registrar told reporters. The order was issued following a petition by three local rights organizations that claimed at least 10 people had been killed during what they said were recent fake encounters in the capital Dhaka alone.
The latest controversy was sparked when two students were killed in Dhaka during an alleged violent encounter between the battalion and criminals early this month.
" The High Court also asked the secretary of the home ministry and chiefs of police and the elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) force to explain within the next four weeks why criminal proceedings should not be drawn against such killings "
A court registrar
After every such death police or the RAB said the suspected criminals were killed in the crossfire after their cohorts attacked security forces during a raid.
Home Minister Sahara Khatun said last week all extrajudicial killings would be investigated, but she again said it was a constitutional right of the security forces to retaliate when attacked. "We was attacked. Honest, you can trust us. One of these days we might even catch one of the guys shooting at us."
HRW urged Bangladesh's democratically elected government to end alleged impunity for unlawful killings. It said the military, the RAB, and the police have been responsible for the killings. According to local rights group Odhikar, 322 people were killed in encounters during the last two years of the interim government ahead of general elections last December. After the election the new Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, announced extrajudicial killings perpetrated during the tenure of the interim government would be investigated.
The RAB was formed in 2004 in the midst of a crime wave and played a key role confronting Islamist militants responsible for a spate of bombings that killed dozens of people, including judges, lawyers, police and officials. Of course, most of the deaders seem to be commies instead of jihadists.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2009
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"Mr. Green, with the pipe wrench, in the Burg Library"
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/30/2009 19:40
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[Straits Times] SCRAP the policy of teaching Science and Mathe-matics in English and bring back Bahasa Melayu as the medium of instruction in the education system, said Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. He also called for the return of Bahasa Melayu"s status as the supreme language, which includes using it as the medium to teach Science and Maths in national schools and also strengthening its usage in Chinese and Tamil schools.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2009
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TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Honduras came under pressure on Monday to reinstate ousted President Manuel Zelaya as many Latin American leaders agreed to withdraw envoys, Washington said the ouster was illegal and protesters took to the streets.
Police in the Honduran capital fired tear gas at stone-throwing supporters of Zelaya, who was toppled in an army coup on Sunday. They arrested about two dozen people. Some 1,500 protesters, some of them masked and carrying sticks, taunted solders and burned tires just outside the gates of the presidential palace in a face-off with security forces.
Zelaya, a leftist, was detained and sent into exile in a dispute over his push to extend presidential terms. The coup is Central America's biggest political crisis in decades.
Left-wing Latin American leaders led by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced at a meeting in Managua, capital of neighboring Nicaragua, that they would withdraw their ambassadors from Honduras in protest at the coup. Leaders from Central America, also meeting in Managua, followed suit soon after, a senior diplomatic source said.
Honduras, an impoverished country of 7 million people, is a major coffee producer -- and is expected to export some 3.22 million 60-kg bags in the 2008-2009 harvest season. But there were no immediate signs that output or exports were affected as ports and roads remained open.
In Monday's protests in the capital, about two dozens protesters were arrested in scuffles as police cleared away some barricades behind the presidential palace. "The police surrounded us. They fired gas and they started hitting everyone," said pro-Zelaya demonstrator Joel Flores, 19, who was red-eyed and said a police officer beat him on the back with a baton.
Back to school, Joel, it's either study or pick coffee beans ...
The coup followed a week of tension when Zelaya, a Chavez ally who took office in 2006, angered the Honduran Congress, Supreme Court and army by pushing for a public vote to gauge support for changing the constitution to let presidents seek re-election beyond a single four-year term.
Before he could hold the poll on Sunday, the Honduran military seized Zelaya and flew him to Costa Rica in Central America's first successful army coup since the Cold War era of dictatorships and war in the region. The Supreme Court, which last week overruled Zelaya's attempt to fire the armed forces chief, said it had told the army to remove the president.
Interesting the details the Roooters articles leaves out: that the vote was illegal, that the constitution specifically prohibits trying to change the term of the president, that the Supreme Court had told Zelaya not to hold the vote, that he tried to anyway, that the ballots had been printed in Venezuela and conveniently pre-marked 'Si', and that Zelaya tried to co-opt the army.
Roberto Micheletti, named by Congress within hours of the coup as interim president until elections due in November, imposed a curfew for Sunday and Monday night. Micheletti said no foreign leader had the right to threaten Honduras.
Zelaya met Chavez, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa and Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega in Managua. Bolivia's Evo Morales and OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza were due to join the group for talks later on Monday. Zelaya, 56, is a logger and rancher who was originally close to Honduras' ruling elite but then threw his lot in with Chavez's regional bloc and has steered the country leftward. His close alliance with the Venezuelan leader, and his efforts to lift presidential term limits, upset the army and the conservative elite.
Hondurans are divided over the crisis. Recent polls show support for Zelaya dropped to around 30 percent in recent months.
The country, a coffee, textile and banana exporter, had been politically stable since the end of military rule in the early 1980s. Following the coup, there was panic-buying in stores and many people drew out cash or closed businesses. Disruption to the coffee industry is less likely because the current harvest season is drawing to a close and Honduras only has a few hundred thousand bags left to export. But the longer term outlook for the industry was more uncertain.
Honduras was a U.S. ally in the 1980s when Washington helped Central American governments fight Marxist rebels and the United States still keeps some 600 troops at a Honduran base used for humanitarian and disaster relief operations.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/30/2009
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The usual MSM suspects who pedaled the "Bush Stoled the Election" mantra when it was Al Gore and company who sought to throw out the absentee ballots [ie military voters] as the opening moves of the Florida recount, are now plastering this as a 'coup' rather than the enforcement of Constitutional law. It was the ousted El Presidente who was attempting the coup over the Constitution. Intentional misdirection from the Ministry of Truth(tm-Big Brother).
#2
Zelaya met Chavez, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa and Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega in Managua. Bolivia's Evo Morales and OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza were due to join the group for talks later on Monday.
Target-rich environment. I hope someone notices...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/30/2009 16:01
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The Lahore police on Monday claimed arresting seven terrorists linked to the Jaish-e-Muhammad and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and recovering explosives and weapons.
According to a handout by the Capital City Police office, the police arrested the terrorists from T-4 Ali Park, Bund Road Lahore after a brief exchange of fire. It said the men planned to launch terrorist attacks in the city. The handout said the suspects were arrested at a checkpost near Shera Kot bus station. They were identified as Karim Bukhsh, Abdul Rehman, Muhammad Younas, Shafaqat Farooqi, and Hafiz Muhammad Ijaz. The police said two rifles, three pistols, 22 kilogrammes of explosives and bullets were recovered. It said the arrested suspects informed the police about their three accomplices residing in the Bund Road area. The police raided their hideout and arrested Shehzad and Ijaz Mahmood. However, Muhammad Ramazan, a resident of Rahim Yar Khan, managed to escape. The police recovered 12 kg of explosives from the suspects' hideout.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2009
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[ADN Kronos] Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has asked the head of the country's judiciary to investigate the death of Neda Agha-Soltani, the young woman killed during the protests against the presidential election. Iranian state media said Ahmadinejad sent a letter to judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi on Monday calling for a probe into what it called the "suspicious" death of 26-year-old Neda, suggesting her death could be linked to "opponents of the Iranian nation".
"Neda Agha-Soltan was shot dead in one of Tehran's streets on June 20 by unknown elements in a completely suspicious way," said the president, quoted by the English-language state channel Press TV.
Ahmadinejad used his statement about the investigation to attack foreign interference in the events that followed the disputed election.
"Amid vast propaganda by foreign media and many other evidence about the heartfelt event, it seems definite that opponents of the Iranian nation interfere (in Iran's internal affairs) for their political misuse."
According to Press TV, Neda's death was considered "suspicious" after sources said she was killed by a small-calibre pistol, a weapon not used by Iranian security forces.
Last week, one of Iran's most powerful clerics, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami said that protesters were responsible for the death of Neda.
Khatami considers Ahmadinejad the official winner of the presidential election on 12 June despite complaints by defeated candidates including Mir Hossein Mousavi.
Official election results gave a landslide victory to Ahmadinejad but supporters of the defeated candidates including Mir Hossein Mousavi have disputed the result and taken to the streets of Tehran and other cities in the thousands.
It is the most dramatic upheaval seen in the country in more than 30 years since the Islamic revolution in 1979.
At least 17 people are believed to have died in protests after the disputed presidential poll, which the opposition complains was rigged.
At least 1,000 opposition supporters are reported to have staged a noisy rally outside a mosque in Tehran on Sunday evening before it was broken up by police and militia.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2009
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#1
The old O.J. ploy. Dinnerjacket will find the real killers too?
[Iran Press TV Latest] Ex-Congolese Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba is due to stand trial before the International Criminal Court (ICC) for five counts of war crimes.
Bemba is facing war crime charges such as rape, torture and pillaging during the 2002-2003 civil war in the African republic.
The charges relate to the conduct of Bemba's troops in the neighboring Central African Republic.
A panel of ICC judges issued a pre-trial statement saying "There is sufficient evidence to establish substantial grounds to believe that Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo is criminally responsible" for murders, rapes and pillaging.
Bemba's lawyers deny the charges, arguing that Bemba was not in charge of the troops once they crossed the border.
The former vice president led the Movement for the Liberation of Congo during the civil war in Democratic Republic of Congo.
He later became vice president after a peace deal.
Civil war broke out in DR Congo after Rwanda and Uganda backed the rebel movement to overthrow the ruling President Laurent Kabila in 1998.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2009
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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.
The man behind the world's biggest online Michael Jackson fan club has said heartbroken followers of the star have committed suicide because of his death. 
Iranian Regime-Affiliated Organization: Europe and America Are Turning Muslim An Opportunity to Spread Shi'a Islam
Two Camerounians and a Nigerian accomplice were recently lynched in Taraba state over allegations that they were involved in a case of missing genital organs. Confirming the incidence in Jalingo, the State Commissioner of Police, Musa Aliyu, gave the names of the suspects as Thomas Actiotus, Fosting Joseph, a driver attached to Cameroun Embassy in Lagos and the name of the Nigerian friend as Avea Torhinbo who said are passing through Kurmi Local Government area to Cameroun Republic when they were burnt to death. 
A Muslim religious teacher and his friend were killed in a drive-by shooting in the southern province of Narathiwat Monday evening, prompting provincial authorities to call a meeting to revise security measures for teachers on Tuesday.
Man suffers critical injuries after apparent stunt
LARNACA, Cyprus: Twenty-one activists from 11 countries set sail from Cyprus Monday to the Gaza Strip in defiance of an Israeli blockade on the impoverished Hamas-ruled territory. 
[Al Arabiya Latest] Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party would defeat the rival Islamist faction Hamas if a legislative election were held now, according to an opinion poll published on Monday.
California is preparing to issue IOUs to its creditors this week as it grapples with an unprecedented cash crunch and prepares to begin its new fiscal year deep in the red.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Islamic law should not be recognized under the United Kingdom's arbitration laws because its principles are outdated and they contradict Western laws, a report by a British think-tank said on Monday, which UK Muslim figures have dismissed as ''scaremongering.''
[Al Arabiya Latest] A Casablanca court heavily fined three top Moroccan newspapers Monday for publishing critical articles on Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi.
[ADN Kronos] Lebanon's Grand Mufti on Monday condemned the violence that occurred between rival factions in Beirut at the weekend. Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani said the violence, in which a woman was killed, was an act of aggression against the state and called for the arrest of those responsible. "Rioting on the streets of Beirut is an act of aggression against security in the country and against the state," said Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani in a statement quoted by Lebanon's English-language media site Naharnet.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Iran's top legislative body confirmed on Monday the results of a disputed June 12 election which was won by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, state broadcaster IRIB reported, while British staff remained in detention in Tehran. "The secretary of the Guardian Council in a letter to the interior minister announced the final decision of the Council ... and declares the approval of the accuracy of the results of ... the presidential election," IRIB said.
At least 45 Taliban were killed as jet aircraft bombed suspected Taliban hideouts in Waziristan and in clashes with the security forces and pro-government tribal militias in Swat and Kurram on Monday.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama said on Monday the coup that ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was illegal and would set a "terrible precedent" of transition by military force unless it was reversed.
Iranian police officials have reportedly arrested the armed imposters who posed as security forces during post-election violence in the country. 
[Quqnoos] A bomb blast killed at least 9 militants in Paktika province while rigging explosive devices, an official said
[Al Arabiya Latest] The Bangladesh High Court asked the home ministry and security forces on Monday to stop extrajudicial killings of alleged criminals.
[ADN Kronos] Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has asked the head of the country's judiciary to investigate the death of Neda Agha-Soltani, the young woman killed during the protests against the presidential election. Iranian state media said Ahmadinejad sent a letter to judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi on Monday calling for a probe into what it called the "suspicious" death of 26-year-old Neda, suggesting her death could be linked to "opponents of the Iranian nation".
[Iran Press TV Latest] Ex-Congolese Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba is due to stand trial before the International Criminal Court (ICC) for five counts of war crimes. 
