I figured it was about time...- Ukraine: The End of Electoral Crisis: Snipping down to the commentary: Mr. Yushchenko's inauguration - only the country's third since gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 - will end a tumultuous electoral crisis that prompted huge public demonstrations and behind-the-scenes intrigue, deeply dividing the country and souring relations with Russia. There I was, sitting in the refrigerator, minding my own business....
- Condoleeza Rice Off To Predictable Start:
Arrogance, supercilious smarm, belligerence, intrusion and pig-headed idiocy all in one fell swoop. Not bad for a start.
Not surprisingly, Condoleeza Rice's declarations during the process to select her as the next US Secretary of State, show a lightweight, insubstantial, sour female with a bigoted sense of her self importance and yet again a total absence of the skills for the job to which she has been appointed.
For people who apparently think history began and ended in 1848 they seem rather concerned with credentials. Speaking for myself, she impresses me, but then again I'm just another redneck oilfield worker.
Diplomacy, for Colin Powell, meant lying through his teeth at the UN Security Council, complete with satellite photographs of his magnificent evidence of Saddam Hussein's Weapons of Mass Destruction.
Because, as we all know, there's no physical way to get chemical weapons over the Great Wall Of Syria.
Diplomacy for Condoleeza Rice, apparently, is to shoot off in all directions before she has even been appointed, like somebody with either an acute case of PMT or a chronic case of the menopause. In a tantrum more befitting of a spoilt three-year-old brat, Ms. Rice declared yesterday that "in our world, there remain outposts of tyranny, and America stands with oppressed people on every continent, in Cuba, and Burma, and North Korea, and Iran, and Belarus, and Zimbabwe."
What business has Condoleeza Rice to speak of Cuba, when she is not allowed to travel there freely as a US citizen? Has she ever spoken to Fidel Castro? Has she ever interviewed Cubans to find out whether they like their government or not? Or has she limited herself to her books, this perfect example of a laboratory politician, in a comfortable office, and been told by others that the Castro government is tyrannical, probably by the Cuban mafia which operates in Florida?
I can't help but think that Dr. Rice has met many more Cubans than the author of this article has, and that they're not limited to high party officials there... which probably, in his mind, means they're part of the Great Cuban Mafia. Even the guys who try to get out in boats made out of pickup trucks.
Good sources.
Regarding Belarus, what has this to do with Condoleeza Rice? The people chose their leader in a free election. If they consider their leadership tyrannical, they voted for it.
Ah, the left's famous "right to hold a Final Election." I believe Hitler worked under much the same theory. The rest of the article isn't anything to write home about, he attacks the US on Iraq as if that could defend Burma, North Korea, Iran, and Zimbabwe... - America's Biggest Problem:
Americans feel quite comfortable with George Bush at power after they've re-elected him for the second term. George Bush in turn feels quite comfortable with the American people by his side.
Otherwise, it wouldn't have been so easy to deploy troops to Afghanistan, Iraq and God knows where else. Rumor has it that Iran or Syria will be the next target. The rest of the world does not like the head of the White House to say the least. At least, such are the results of the public poll conducted at BBC"s request.
Wait a sec. I thought everyone agreed that kicking the Taliban out of Afghanistan was a good idea.
Actually, one could hardly hope for another kind of results. The rise of anti-American sentiments that have been provoked by the politics of current administration aren"t novel at all. This will hardly be an exaggeration to claim that the major problem of the US' foreign policy is George Bush himself. Such negative attitude towards Mr. President gets automatically applied to ordinary American civilians. So the BBC survey has once again presented a clear picture of rather steadfast negative attitude towards the US.I'm shocked, SHOCKED that BBC viewers might have a negative view of America...
However, there still remain countries in the world which do not have any hard feelings against Americans in general and Bush in particular. These countries are Poland, Philippines and India. The remaining 18 states (out of 21 countries) demonstrated negative attitude towards America.
I wonder how closely this maps with the presense of a real, competitive media industry.
Obviously, Muslim states including Turkey, which is an American ally in NATO, do not tolerate American approach to politics.
Residents of the two biggest states of Latin America: Brazil and Argentina (78 and 79% consequently) do not welcome Bush"s activity. Their point of view is shared by residents of Eastern European countries, including American closest partner - Great Britain, as well as Canada and Mexico.
As far as Russia is concerned, 16% provided positive answers while 39% answered "no" when asked whether the world has become any safer after Bush"s re-election. 16% of Russians view American influence in the world as positive, whereas 64% regard it as negative.
When you get through explaining the connection between buying an election in Ukraine with preventing another Beslan, let me know. - US Special Forces Inside Iran?: Is it only the US government that likes to tell lies?
The famous story of the famous journalist nominated for famous Pulitzer prize for an infamous load of crap sticks into the minds of all journalists who strive to seek for the Truth. Today, breaks the story of US Special Forces operating inside Iran, for six months.
Seymour Hersch, who writes for the New Yorker magazine, quotes unnamed former intelligence officials and anonymous consultants who work with the Pentagon. What reliable sources.
How about "Unnamed sources, who insisted on remaining anonymous, said to be close to the White House by local gossips, claim to have seen President George Bush being kidnapped by aliens from the Oval Office, while wearing a green tunic smothered with swastikas, from where he was taken to a flying saucer and gang-raped by triple-breasted jelloid octopuses wearing orange wigs and screaming 'We hate Baseball!' "
Now that's the Pravda we've all come to know and love.
Or how about "US Secretary of State shows satellite photos of Iraqi WMD to UN Security Council, complete with arrows and labels, claiming that the USA knows where these systems are, but that they are waiting for Hans Blix to find them". Later, Colin Powell, when confronted with growing evidence that WMD did not exist because Saddam had indeed destroyed them a decade earlier, defended himself by stating that they were being driven around the desert, "in vehicles".
I think this is the same writer who wrote the previously-quoted article on Dr. Rice. If Hussein destroyed his weapons, the burden of proof was on him to prove it, not us. Where did the chemical weapons for the attempted attack in Jordan come from, anyway? There's plenty of interesting indications that something was going on, if you're not just looking for reasons to let the Mullahs get the bomb.
Then there was always the one which stated that Niger had sold yellowcake uranium to Iraq for Saddam Hussein to make nuclear bombs, the documents being complete with signatures of the ministers of Niger and Iraq which when shown to Mohammed El Baradei and were greeted with the loudest Egyptian snort in history, with the disclaimer "They are forged". End of story. Only Pravda.Ru has been reporting this one since then.
Your proof that Iraq wasn't seeking yellowcake is that you think a memo was forged?
The question is, anyone who has access to an internet site can write what he or she wants and pass it off as credible until someone finds to the contrary. And thankfully, there's nothing that you can now do to stop it. Unlike the bad old days.In this case, the evidence appears at least a trifle flimsy, because either you quote reliable and accredited sources, or else the whole piece falls flat, into the "they told me so" heap, along with the rest. The question is how many readers believe it.
Certainly Seymour Hersch is not a nobody, yet this does not mean anything. Hence the references at the beginning of this piece to other well documented cases of journalistic fraud.
Certainly nobody these days would be surprised if the USA had operationals inside Iran targeting future strikes. However, for six months? Although CIA operationals these days do not have to wear dark suits, dark glasses, have a bulge in the left inside pocket of the jacket and wear an arrow on their backs, saying "CIA agent" and while such agents these days would be
recruited among Iranian professionals working inside Iran, six months is a long time for such an unnecessary "operation".
I sincerely doubt the US would do such things if they thought it was unnecessary. The forces present were described by Hersch as Special Forces, which are military in nature.
After all, the US satellites would only have to look at their photographs to know where the strike areas are.
Satellites have limitations. And I believe that US Special Forces are trained for much more than providing targeting data for laser-guided bombs.
To begin with, the Iranians have refuted the news by quoting this time a named source, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Masood Khan, who denies that there is any collaboration between the Pakistanis and Americans, as Hersch's unnamed sources state.
"No such secret mission exists at this time!"
"There is no such collaboration" he stated, adding that "I categorically reject the report".
And because it's traditional: "I can say no more!"
As for Washington, the White House spokesperson Dan Bartlett has stated that the report is "riddled with inaccuracies". After the hype and lies concerning Iraq, Washington these days is favouring the diplomatic channel, which it should have used first time around, however, full marks for the turnaround in policy. All George Bush had to do was listen to the international community.
Right about now I'm reminded of Fezzo the Sicilian in The Princess Bride.
Finally, if such were the case, Moscow would already have got wind of what was going on in its back yard and traditional area of influence.
I'm sure they're very aware of the situation, having sold them the equipment...
The feeling in the journalistic community is that Hersch is a well-known name, having had many famous scoops, among which was Abu Ghraib. But this time maybe his unnamed and anonymous sources got the wrong flying saucer and the wrong triple-breasted aliens. - Venezuela Halts Ties With Colombia Over Guerrilla Leader Kidnapping:
Kidnapping?
Caracas took the decission to protest a Colombian special operation in which a top FARC leader was arrested from Venezuelan soil
Tension between Colombia and Venezuela steamed up last weekend, as Caracas announced the halting of bilateral accords and business deals to protest a special operation of the Colombian police in which the foreign relations chief of the Colombian FARC rebel group was kidnapped from Venezuelan soil. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, in turn, offered to meet his Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chavez, but refused to apologise for the operation.
You know, I think I missed it when Pravda called the perpetrators of Beslan rebels instead of terrorists. Is it remotely possible Columbia, and more importantly Columbians, have a Right To Exist? - Russia's Far North to promote "American" governor?
The last governor elections in the foreseeable future of Russian history to be determined by the joint venture of major Russian and American oil companies.
You know, way out here in the rest of the world, elections are scheduled at regular intervals. In the US, we even held them in the Civil War.
Attempting to condense the article: there are two major candidates for governor, one of whom is being portrayed as a puppet of Lukoil and Conoco, and the other of whom supposedly represents Russia's interests. - Russia To Sell Strategic Bomber Planes To China
It is not ruled out that Russia might arm a potential enemy.
The article contains a general summary of the state of the Russian Air Force:
he Russian government has been assigning considerable funds for the needs of the Armed Forces recently, although it still leaves many unsolved financial problems. The most important one of them - a lack of combustive and lubricating materials - exerts a direct influence on the level of pilots' professionalism. The current situation is a lot better in comparison with the end of the 1990s, of course, when training flights were minimized to the maximum so to speak. Vladimir Mikhailov said that the situation has been improving considerably over the recent years. It is impossible, however, to say that the Russian Air Force is completely satisfied with fuel supplies - they are still insufficient. It became quite a surprising revelation, when the general said that the Air Force had acquired almost 65 percent of kerosene owing to commercial transport flights. "Such measures give pilots a possibility to train their piloting skills at international flights," Vladimir Mikhailov said. The general, however, hopes that the vital problem of the Russian aviation would be solved.
And acquisition plans:
The modernization of MIG-29 pursuit planes will start in 2005 too. The renowned Russian helicopter Mi-28 will also be modernized in compliance with modern requirements. ABM troops will have a new S-400 missile system in the arsenal, which has no analogues anywhere in the world. The tests of the Su-34 bomber plane are to be over in the near future too.
Vladimir Mikhailov touched upon the military hardware of the future too. It goes about a universal jet of the fifth generation, which is tentatively called "The perspective aviation complex." According to the general, an electronic model of the future plane has been recently presented for the Air Force command. "The work of the complex is being conducted strictly according to the schedule. The tests are slated for 2007," Mikhailov said.
Experts and scientists, however, say that it will be possible to create a pursuit plane of the fifth generation only by 2012-2015. Americans plan to launch the serial production of a new jet already in four years.
He must be talking about the F-35. The F-22 is under production now. Finally:
In addition to all above-mentioned facts, the Russian Air Force Commander does not exclude a possibility to sell Tu-22M3 and Tu-95 bomber planes to China. "We could sell a certain quantity of Tu-22M3 and Tu-95 planes to China," Mikhailov told reporters at the press conference. "We will demonstrate the planes at a joint military exercise to make China get interested. If they have money, let them buy the planes," Mikhailov said. Spokespeople for the Russian defense export enterprise Rosoboronexport refused to comment the general's statement.
It is noteworthy that China does not have up-to-date bomber planes of a large range. It only has the outdated Tu-16: the USSR handed over the production license for this bomber plane to China in the 1950s. Tu-16 planes do not pose any serious danger to China's major potential enemy - Taiwan. The Tu-22M3 outfitted with modern Russian missiles, can be a threat even to the vessels of the US Navy approaching Taiwan. Until recently, Russian military men refused to sell the Tu-22M3 bomber to China on account of the plane's power, the Vedomosti newspaper wrote.
The serial production of the Tu-22M3 was ceased in Russia in 1991. China, therefore, will be able to buy the planes of the Russian Air Force arsenal, which currently counts 130 planes of this particular model. It would be reasonable for China to purchase not less than 40 planes - this would be a group of planes to guarantee the destruction of a group of American aircraft carriers. A batch of 40 planes would cost over a billion dollars.
The state needs money, of course, albeit not at the expense of the national security. It is not ruled out that Russia might arm a potential enemy.
Well, it's your chance to feel really important in between the fight over Taiwan and the fight over Siberia. - Gay Marriage Issue Raised in Russia as Two Men Try to Wed Each Other:
...The application was accepted, but the men are certain that the paper would soon be returned to them with an official denial. "Me and Ed Mishin have different sexual orientations, but the goal of our action is to amend the Russian law for the benefit of those people who are referred to as sexual minorities," Bashkirian deputy Edward Murzin said. Murzin, a straight man, decided to participate in the daring adventure in order to obtain a formal document, which denies a gay marriage registration. - And now on to science... Autotrophs: New Kind of Humans Appears Who Neither Drink nor Eat:
It is not ruled out that they will replace us at a new evolution stage.
Well, I, for one, welcome our new autotrophic overlords...
..."Russia's most famous autotroph's name is Zinaida Baranova. The old lady from the city of Krasnodar is 67 years old. She was approaching her new existence very slowly. At first she gave up meat, then she turned vegetables down. She has been living without food and water for 4.5 years already. Scientists of the Bauman Institute examined her organism and were very surprised to find out that the woman's biological age corresponded to 20 years. Professor Spiridonov came to conclusion that the pensioner was a perfectly healthy lady; all her systems and organs, except for the stomach, were functioning normally. Indeed, she is a very energetic and bubbly person. She got rid of all diseases, even chronic ones. She said, however, that it was rather hard for her to get used to the new lifestyle. She was suffering from cramps, exhaustion, dry mouth, etc. There were moments, when she thought she was dying. The woman's health improved in 1.5 months.
"Doctors say that autotrophs make a fundamentally new type of self-sufficient human beings. It is not ruled out that they will replace us at a new evolution stage. Modern science has already confirmed the ability of a human being to maintain itself. Dietitians were recently saying that the B12 vitamin was naturally contained only in animal foods. Vegans, therefore, were supposed to die, since they could not receive the vitamin. However, doctors found out that the concentration of the B12 vitamin was fine with vegans. The situation became clear, when scientists discovered the synthesis process in the intestines. It became known that human beings could live on their own microflora. Medics have already discovered that the human intestines produce microorganisms that can synthesize amino acids." - Russia and Iran Join Efforts to Struggle Against Invasion of UFOs:
If a UFO appears in the sky above Iran, anti-aircraft systems will most likely down it.
Unidentified flying objects continue terrorizing the Eastern hemisphere of planet Earth. No one knows what to do with them, although it is obvious that something has to be done with the problem. Russia and Iran agreed to join efforts to study the mysterious phenomenon. The news may seem to be ridiculous at first sight, but it is actually a rather serious matter: UFOs pose a big threat to Iran in connection with its growing nuclear potential.
The UFO mania has gripped Iran. The Air Force command of Teheran has recently been given an order to down any unknown or suspicious object seen in the air space of Iran. If a UFO appears in the sky above Iran, anti-aircraft systems will most likely down it.
Iranian mass media, meanwhile, are distributing more and more information about extraterrestrial threats to the nation's nuclear objects. The flights of unknown objects in the air space of the country have become much more frequent lately, the Resalat Daily wrote. According to the newspaper, unusual luminous objects were spotted above Busher and Natanza, where nuclear facilities are located. One of the objects exploded in the sky, eyewitnesses said. The Iranian defense department is trying to pacify the anxious population. "We have developed plans to protect nuclear objects from any danger. The Iranian Air Force is on alert and ready to fulfill the duty," General Qarim Gavani stated.
Are these the same nuclear objects which the previously cited article implied didn't exist?
The interest in UFOs started growing very fast in Iran more than a year ago. News agencies reported dozens of incidents, when people could see strange objects flying above their heads. The state television of Iran aired the footage of a shimmering white disk above Teheran. People ran out of their houses in eight cities to see the bright extraterrestrial light in the clouds. IRNA reported about multicolored objects with green, red, blue and violet rays seen above the towns of Tabriz and Ardebil and above Golestan Province in the area of the Caspian Sea.
So they're certain they're objects of extraterrestrial origin? And that maybe they don't believe Pravda about Iran's nuclear programs, either?
Russia promised to help Iran in the struggle with UFOs. Russia put an end to the anomalous problem in the beginning of the 1990s, when the entire population of the Soviet Union was panicking over strange flying objects. Both Russian and Iranian officials emphasize the fact of expanding the bilateral cooperation, particularly in the field of space exploration and the development of satellites. In addition to UFO-related contracts Russia and Iran are working on the details of the agreement to launch the Zohreh satellite.
Are the Russians now publicly saying that they have the ability to shoot down extraterrestrial craft? - Gazprom Finances Anti-Putin Opposition?
Now here's something that's really strange. Especially the choice of headline.
Gazprom, Menatep, Ilim Pulp and many others finance "Going Without Putin" Movement?
We hereby would like to unveil a little secret that we managed to obtain from rather well-informed sources: recent natural disasters were not incidental. They were supposedly organized by the Kremlin in response to the US-led "orange revolution" in Ukraine. Moscow arranged the disasters to let the US administration know that Russia could adequately respond to both Ukrainian events (recent devastating hurricanes in the USA caused multi-million damage) and attempts to export it to Russia. In order to remind world governments and millions of Internet users of its power, a Kremlin agent visited Portland at the end of last week and pushed the Six Apart red power supply button. The latter was also organized to destroy only one record among thousands of LiveJournal diaries: a subtle boy, who heads the most massive movement in Russia's recent history called "Going Without Putin."
You know, the last time I checked, the hurricanes happened before the recent events in Ukraine. As a lifelong resident of the gulf coast, I find this claim hilarious. And I do suspect that Six Apart backs up their data... and I know that individual weblog authors can create backups of their weblogs to their own computers. I just did :-)
It has recently transpired that the Russian administration hacked the LiveJournal website because of the diary published by an identified individual, a member of the "Going Without Putin" movement. The rumor about it appeared at 8 a.m. on the air of the Echo of Moscow radio station with reference to the Ukrainian-Israeli website MigNews. The radio station continued reporting the message every hour during the day. Even when the primary source informed about the true reason of LiveJournal's inaccessibility, other news sources of the Russian Internet continued reported about its original version with reference to MigNews. It brings up the idea that there was someone's certain interest involved in the matter.
We had to surf several St.Petersburg-based websites to be able to answer the question. As it turned out, the message about the hacking of the above-mentioned diary appeared on January 14th on the Zaks.ru webpage. The page is sponsored by Cross-Media information group. The group unites a series of publishing projects, incorporating Novaya Gazeta, Lenizdat.ru, the North-Western department of the Federal Investigation Agency. Zaks.ru also mentions Cross-Media's sources of income: such well-known business structures as Gazprom, Ilim Pulp Enterprise, North-Western Telecom, Baltica Brewery, LSR group of companies, Balt-Trade, Temp construction company, Rustrubprom, banks Menatep and BaltOneksimBank, Parnas-M meat-processing factory and many others.
It is not ruled out, of course, that Cross-Media decided to support the website of the movement just because of its passion for democratic principles, although the movement existed for only two weeks. However, it somehow seems that Cross-Media is the main figure of the PR campaign for "Going Without Putin."
When LiveJournal website was back online, it became possible to get acquainted with the diary of the above-mentioned boy. It is easy to grasp the essence of his intellectual capacity from the following line: "People talk about freedom and have certain convictions. How can it be? Freedom is here and now, freedom is not only meant for Khodorkovsky, it is meant for all people - for you first and foremost. It is about being free of convictions, hopes, attachments, some mythical beliefs."
There is another interesting point in the boy's diary - his friends. A well-known spin doctor Marat Guelman, who was noticed in Ukraine during the peak of the "orange revolution," was listed among them. The young man wrote in his diary that as soon as he created the webpage on the free hosting of Yandex.ru, when the Kommersant newspaper (the paper belongs to Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky) informed about it and even presented several opposition-oriented opinions.
The subtle boy's archive page (the person refers to himself this way) is curious too. The most curious feature about it is that the Echo of Moscow radio station's label is seen at the bottom of the page, in the copyright section. One can imagine the boy listening to the radio all day long taping all programs, where spokespeople for so-called rightist forces participate.
Everything is clear with the "movement." The webpage was created on January 13th. The Kommersant newspaper, Grani.ru website (controlled by Berezovsky), as well as Zaks.ru, Lenizdat.ru, Cross Media, Newsru.com (controlled by media tycoon Vladimir Gusinky) and Echo of Moscow radio (the station belongs to Gazprom) informed about it next day. These companies presented the event as the birth of the "Going Without Putin" movement. On January 15th, the above-mentioned publications reported about the Kremlin's implication in the matter. It was said that the Russian administration disabled the entire LiveJournal portal because of the boy's diary (the boy was portrayed as the movement's ideologist).
One should bear in mind the appearance of such a PR technique.
It may also be that not everyone dissatisfied with the politicians in Russia, even random people with weblogs, is in the pay of the 'oligarchs.'
- Time Can be Turned Back
Includes reports of alleged time travel experiments in Antarctica. I'm going to pass on posting excerpts, the important thing is they still don't know about the Stargate.
And that's all that's interesting there, at least today...