Posted by: Fred ||
02/21/2007 11:25 ||
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#1
She needs rehab, and re-hair.
Posted by: Mike ||
02/21/2007 11:29 Comments ||
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#2
She's been in rehab before, but it didn't even last as long as her first marriage.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/21/2007 11:32 Comments ||
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#3
I think Drudge is now reporting she checked out of the new one.
Between Brit and room temp Anna, the current news cycle is lowering my IQ a couple of points per day.
Personally i think the whole thing was a publicity stunt to get sympathy. Yeah she got sympathy for dumping K-Fed but she wants real, worried about her, sympathy. That hit rock bottom root for the underdog kind of sympathy she's gonna need to reboot her career.
Lawyers for former Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith's boyfriend and her mother jousted over her corpse on Tuesday, making little headway in legal skirmishing over where she should be buried. The fourth day of hearings before south Florida Circuit Judge Larry Seidlin meandered erratically, and the judge seemed determined at times to not only resolve where to bury Smith but also to take on a Californian paternity dispute over her baby daughter -- the most likely heir of the billionaire's widow.
The former topless dancer's long-time attorney and partner, Howard K. Stern, told the court that Smith wanted to be buried next to her son, Daniel, who died five months ago in the Bahamas at the age of 20. "She wanted to go down with Daniel right then," Stern testified.
The former topless dancer's long-time attorney and partner, Howard K. Stern, told the court in soft-spoken testimony that Smith wanted to be buried next to her son, Daniel, who died five months ago in the Bahamas at the age of 20. "She wanted to go down with Daniel right then," Stern testified in recounting Daniel Smith's burial in the Bahamas, where Smith and Stern had lived most recently. "She wanted to crawl inside that space where he was."
Stern said Smith had bought two pairs of burial plots. But he acknowledged he had signed the purchase contracts, saying Smith rarely ventured out of her Nassau mansion because of the swarms of paparazzi outside. Seidlin was supposed to resolve whether to let Smith's body be released to Stern and buried in the Bahamas, or released to her estranged mother, Virgie Arthur, and buried in her native Texas.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/21/2007 00:00 ||
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The drawn-out court battle over what to do with Anna Nicole Smith's body has a new sense of urgency: the starlet's remains are decomposing more quickly than expected and a public viewing could be in danger.
The paper today (couldn't find the exact article online) had a quote from the Broward County M.E., who said that a viewing ought to take place before Saturday. "If it's next week, then I don't know."
#5
No matter where this poor soul is buried, can you imaging the head scratching future anthropologists will do when they unearth the tomb and only find dust and the plastic/silicone parts?
Swarms of giant hornets renowned for their vicious stings and skill at massacring honeybees have settled in France. And there are now so many of the insects that entomologists fear it will just be a matter of time before they cross to Britain.
Global warming has largely been blamed for the survival and spread of the Asian Hornet, Vespa velutina, which is thought to have arrived in France from the Far East in a consignment of Chinese pottery in late 2004. Thousands of football-shaped hornet nests are now dotted all over the forests of Aquitaine, the south-western region of France hugely popular with British tourists. "Their spread across French territory has been like lightning," said Jean Haxaire, the entomologist who originally identified the new arrival. He said he had recently seen 85 nests in the 40-odd miles which separate the towns of Marmande and Podensac, in the Lot et Garonne department where the hornets were first spotted.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/21/2007 11:05 ||
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#1
SURRENDER NOW...BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!!
Hornet's.....why do they hate us????
Japan's giant hornet has prospered in climates similar to Europe's for millenia.
If hornetrs had expande through Siberia that they previously were unable to croos then you couls have put it on global warming but they came by ship or plane!!!
BTW beehive oweners have problem: european bees are sompletely unable to defend against them. I have seen a video where no more than thirty japanese hornets massacred an entire beehive and just lost four or five of their own.
Japanese bees know how to deal with giant hornets, euroean ones don't.
#7
Sooo, can France destroy these things are will fighting them only make more?
I'm starting to see a pattern with Asian insects. Those of us in the States have a bazillion of these silly ass Asian lady bug things that are everywhere all the time.
Bugs, fish, Bird flu, people... It looks like everything Asain spreads like wildfire.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
02/21/2007 12:43 Comments ||
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#8
Japanese bees know how to deal with giant hornets, euroean ones don't.
So, JFM, your insects are like your military or national will to live?
*ducks*
Posted by: BA ||
02/21/2007 13:33 Comments ||
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If your bowel movement changes - Global Warming!
#12
Mike N said: #7 Sooo, can France destroy these things are will fighting them only make more?
I'm starting to see a pattern with Asian insects. Those of us in the States have a bazillion of these silly ass Asian lady bug things that are everywhere all the time.
Bugs, fish, Bird flu, people... It looks like everything Asain spreads like wildfire.
It works basically the same way for any invasive species no matter how it gets to wherever it's invading.
The local ecology simply is not adapted to compete against the invader which has no local competitors. Therefore the natives generally lose and are forced out of the ecological niches.
Lady bugs, for example, were introduced to control certain pests. They expanded out of the introduction areas into other areas and out competed the local fauna.
Japanese kudzu was introduced into the US and promoted as a ground cover. It now covers something like 8-10 million hectares of the southeastern USA and is considered a pest plant.
Eucalyptus trees were introduced to provide for cheap hardwoods. They expanded out of their introduction areas and provide neither cheap nor hard woods.
People have purposefully introduced invasive species into California, just as an example, due to sheer malicious mischief or a sense that one species just won;t make a difference.
It can and does.
There are probably less than 15 species which prey on eucalyptus in California and, in California ecalyptus groves the species diversity is markedly decreased over what you would find in non-eucalyptus groves (mainly due to the amount of dross, or leaf litter, that ecalyptus drop, their chemical defenses, and the fact that they require enormous amounts of water).
Invasive species are real and a very real threat to native ecolonies and economies (and the subject of my new book which hit the 40% mark the other day).
#15
There's an easy solution to this, but I don't think flamethrowers are legal in France.
Posted by: Charles ||
02/21/2007 16:33 Comments ||
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#16
BUGZILLAS 'tis Dubya's fault. HONEYBEES are females and all females [e.g. Islamist/Russian/
Iranian women refusing to have kiddies]refuse to do their thing until Hillary becomes POTUS???
ZIMBABWE'S President Robert Mugabe turns 83 on Wednesday, fit for his age and combative in the face of a crumbling economy, social unrest and a looming battle over who will succeed him. Mugabe, the subject of frequent health rumors but who last year said he feels like a 28-year-old, will celebrate his birthday with a huge party on Saturday.
But gathering clouds risk overshadowing the festivities. Critics accuse Mugabe -- one of Africa's longest-serving leaders -- of plunging the southern African state into a severe political and economic crisis through controversial policies. Although Mugabe has managed to ride out the storm in the past seven years, political analysts say he faces a more potent threat now because the economy -- seen by the World Bank as the fastest shrinking outside a war zone -- could spark anti-government protests.
On Sunday, police riot squads fired tear gas and water cannon to stop a major opposition rally which the government said was a launch pad for a new street campaign against Mugabe's rule. "The economic situation is deteriorating so fast ... and as it does, Mugabe's own situation gets more and more desperate," said John Makumbe, a veteran political commentator and an outspoken Mugabe critic. "The deteriorating economy may prove a much more implacable opponent even for a cunning politician like Mugabe, and I think we are going to see more social unrest and that unrest will destabilize Mugabe and Zanu PF (the ruling party)," he added.
This article starring:
John Makumbe
President Robert Mugabe
Zanu PF
Posted by: Fred ||
02/21/2007 00:00 ||
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A former minister of Bangladeshs outgoing ruling party was detained on Tuesday as part of the interim governments anti-corruption drive, police said.
Ruhul Quddus Talukdar Dulu, a former junior minister of land in the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) coalition government, surrendered to authorities, said Inspector Rabindra Narayan Saha. The arrest brings to 30 the number of high-profile detainees with links to both the BNP and main opposition Awami League. The 30 now include 11 former ministers. The others are lawmakers and businessmen with party links. Dulu was among 50 people named on Sunday by the countrys anti-graft body for having wealth that did not match their income.
This article starring:
Awami League
Bangladesh Nationalist Party
inspector Rabindra Narayan Saha
Ruhul Quddus Talukdar Dulu
Posted by: Fred ||
02/21/2007 00:00 ||
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A 12-year-old Muslim girl has lost a legal challenge to her school's ban on wearing the niqab full-face veil. Lawyers for the girl and her father had argued that the ban was "irrational" and a breach of her human rights. But Mr Justice Silber rejected their plea for a judicial review.
The girl's lawyers said after the judgment that she and her family were "bitterly disappointed" and were considering an appeal. The judge was told at a recent hearing that the girl's three elder sisters all attended the same school - two of them under the present headteacher - and all wore the niqab..
But when the girl - referred to only as X - began wearing the veil last September, the school objected on the grounds it would make communication and learning difficult. The veil covers all of the face except the eyes.
About 120 of the school's 1,300-plus pupils are Muslims, and up to 60 of them wear the hijab headscarf, though no others are thought to be demanding the right to wear the niqab. The girl is currently receiving tuition at home and has been offered a place at a different, mixed school which permits the niqab, but she wants to go back to her original school.
The girl's solicitor, Shah Qureshi, said after the ruling: "This is a case about religious tolerance and the freedom to practice your religion as long as it does not interfere with others.
"This freedom is enshrined within Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights. My client and her family are not the extremists that they have been portrayed as by some elements of the press. All she wants is to be able to practice her deeply held beliefs whilst getting on with her daily life. She is not impinging on the rights of others and has always been willing to meet with the school to reach a resolution."
Also a mildly amusing (to me, at least) photo of a veiled woman with glasses at link. She must be the nerd of the harem.
#3
Lawyers for the girl and her father had argued that the ban was "irrational" and a breach of her human rights.
Funny that. I consider the niqab to be irrational and a breach of the girl's human rights. She should be taken into cared an deprogrammed instead of having her father's Slave-Girls of Gor "religion" entertained by the courts.
An assistant state prosecutor in Mexico was detained for questioning in an investigation into the killing of an opposition politician and four others, and the passing of information to drug traffickers. In the border city of Nuevo Laredo, gunmen wielding assault rifles attacked a vehicle carrying a federal Congressman, wounding him and killing his driver just a day after the government announced a crackdown on drug crime in the area.
The detention of prosecutor Hugo Resendiz Martinez, who was immediately fired from his post in the northern state of Durango and taken to Mexico City, was a rare public acknowledgment of the degree to which drug corruption has penetrated law enforcement. "Investigations have revealed that during his term in office, the former assistant prosecutor passed on information about criminal investigations to (Sergio) Villarreal," a drug trafficker known as "El Grande," or "The Big One," the federal Attorney General's Office said in a statement Monday.
Resendiz Martinez's detention marks one of the highest-profile corruption cases since the 1997 arrest of Gen. Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, once Mexico's top anti-drug official, who was found to have been paid by the now-deceased cocaine kingpin Amado Carrillo Fuentes. Gutierrez Rebollo is serving a 71-year sentence for drug trafficking and racketeering.
Resendiz Martinez was detained on suspicion of participating in organized crime and drug trafficking. He is accused of tipping off drug traffickers about raids in return for money, and engaging in extreme acts of brutality. Prosecutors said an investigation into Resendiz Martinez revealed a gun that may have been used in the Jan. 14 killing of opposition politician Jaime Meraz Martinez. Meraz Martinez's wife, son and an employee of the opposition were also killed in the attack.
Tests were being done on the weapon to determine if it was used in any of the killings. Meraz Martinez, 63, was a former lawmaker and adviser to the left-leaning opposition Democratic Revolution Party and ran a business. The investigations also turned up a clandestine burial site in Ciudad Lerdo in Durango, 490 miles north of Mexico City, where the bodies of a missing federal investigative agent, two pilots, and a businessman from the nearby state of Nuevo Leon were discovered.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/21/2007 00:00 ||
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Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev on Tuesday rejected opposition demands to step down, saying such calls threaten stability in the ex-Soviet republic. Former Prime Minister Felix Kulov on Monday accused his former revolutionary ally Bakiyev of usurping power in the impoverished Central Asian nation, and urged him to resign before his current term ends in 2010.
Making such noisy statements which have nothing in common with the real state of things, such politicians do not realise ... that they deal a blow to the political future of our entire nation, Bakiyevs office said in a statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/21/2007 00:00 ||
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Maureen Dowd's column in The New York Times today, in which she quoted former Bill Clinton supporter David Geffen offering a few caustic comments, has incited a strong Hillary Clinton campaign attack on Geffen -- and the candidate he now favors, Sen. Barack Obama.
Pull up a comfy chair, toss a bag of popcorn in the microwave and crack open a cold one. It's gonna get ugly
Then Obama's team fired back. "Everybody in politics lies, but they [the Clintons] do it with such ease, its troubling, Geffen had said.
You should know, Dave
Clinton campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson released the following statement this morning: "While Senator Obama was denouncing slash and burn politics yesterday, his campaign's finance chair was viciously and personally attacking Senator Clinton and her husband.
"If Senator Obama is indeed sincere about his repeated claims to change the tone of our politics, he should immediately denounce these remarks, remove Mr. Geffen from his campaign and return his money.
"Or send it to us.."
Hillary really does have rabbit ears, doesn't she.
"While Democrats should engage in a vigorous debate on the issues, there is no place in our party or our politics for the kind of personal insults made by Senator Obama's principal fundraiser against Saint Hillary."
Obama's team responded a few hours later. Communications director Robert Gibbs just released the following statement:
We arent going to get in the middle of a disagreement between the Clintons and someone who was once one of their biggest supporters. It is ironic that the Clintons had no problem with David Geffen when was raising them $18 million and sleeping at their invitation in the Lincoln bedroom. It is also ironic that Senator Clinton lavished praise on Monday and is fully willing to accept today the support of South Carolina State Sen. Robert Ford, who said if Barack Obama were to win the nomination, he would drag down the rest of the Democratic Party because he's black."
Ohhhh, that's going to leave a mark
Among other things, Hollywood and music mogul Geffen had told Dowd, "God knows, is there anybody more ambitious than Hillary Clinton?" and "Obama is inspirational, and hes not from the Bush royal family or the Clinton royal family. Americans are dying every day in Iraq. And Im tired of hearing James Carville on television.
Dave better get himself a car-starter
More from Dowd:
-- "I dont think anybody believes that in the last six years, all of a sudden Bill Clinton has become a different person, Mr. Geffen says, adding that if Republicans are digging up dirt, theyll wait until Hillarys the nominee to use it. I think they believe shes the easiest to defeat.
-- She is overproduced and overscripted. Its not a very big thing to say, I made a mistake on the war, and typical of Hillary Clinton that she cant, Mr. Geffen says. Shes so advised by so many smart advisers who are covering every base. I think that America was better served when the candidates were chosen in smoke-filled rooms.
-- Once, David Geffen and Bill Clinton were tight as ticks. Mr. Geffen helped raise some $18 million for Bill and slept in the Lincoln Bedroom twice. Bill chilled at Chateau Geffen. Now, the Dreamworks co-chairman calls the former president a reckless guy who gave his enemies a lot of ammunition to hurt him and to distract the country.
-- They fell out in 2000, when Mr. Clinton gave a pardon to Marc Rich after rebuffing Mr. Geffens request for one for Leonard Peltier. Marc Rich getting pardoned? An oil-profiteer expatriate who left the country rather than pay taxes or face justice? Mr. Geffen says. Yet another time when the Clintons were unwilling to stand for the things that they genuinely believe in. Everybody in politics lies, but they do it with such ease, its troubling.
"I mean, what's a double murderer doing in jail when you've got oil executives walking around free?"
Posted by: Steve ||
02/21/2007 13:12 ||
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#1
plus Marc's ex-wife had big tits....and you know Bill's priorities
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/21/2007 14:02 Comments ||
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Jesus, David. Kinda sucks when your the last one to figure it all out, isn't it? Kinda makes you feel like a fuckin idiot, doesn't it?
#6
this only hurts Obama. Not what Geffen said (I mean he was always the kinda the most off the wall guy at Dreamworks, right?) Not that Hillary reacted fast and harsh. I mean thats her MO, and everybody knows it, and she thinks its the only way to deal with the kind of nasty stuff the GOP has dished out since Lee Atwater was the Man. What is a big deal is that Obamas main guy then turned and got nasty on Hillary. Its tough bitch Hilary vs St Obama, Hillary aint been a saint for a long time. St Obama, OTOH, with two years in the Senate, no policy accomplishments at all, no record at all, has nothing to sell but his sainthood, his politics of hope. Without that hes just a half Kenyan Howard Dean - not even. And hes not looking too saintly in this.
#3
I feel much better now the UN is in charge. Failing that, I know they treasure meteorite rock in "mecca"; they even have a vulva-shaped Blarney Stone arrangement in place. Perhaps we could arrange for Apophis to pay them a visit.
#5
The UN will save us. It will create an impenetrable shield of bullsh*t, held in place with the amazing inertia of endless committee meetings; it's leaders will steal every Newton of momentum it has going forward, and their relatives will skim every bit of precious metal in the asteroid and put it in their bank accounts.
#7
PRAVDA > says the USA is ready and willing to destroy the MOON for the sake of HE-3, etc. PLANET X still incoming + Earth-damaging/destroying SUPER SOLAR CYCLES Year 2010-2012, etal; .........................+ JEB BUSH MAY RUN FOR WHITE HOUSE. ANTI-US OWG-SWO > World needs to be saved from American Materialism -Civilization - Domestications = World needs to make D *** sure it can destroy itself at any time.
As for APOPHIS > OWG "NEW MATH" > 2029 = 2031 = 2036 = 2039 = 2041 = ........ = as of February 20, 2007, back to 2036 OR 2035.
#9
Joe - first the sub shop at Penn State reference awhile back, now a SUBWAY reference? I have no idea what you are talking about but I'm with you buddy!!
#10
Distrust of the UN notwithstanding, this is a real issue with a real need for an international agreement before any colliding asteroid is ever identified. Saw a presentation by Rusty Schweikart about it this summer in Strasbourg, and this is a serious attempt to get agreement on the process and the liabilities involved in eliminating the threat of a colliding asteroid. About time, since international space law as a going concern is seriously underdeveloped and could use some refreshing.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Two months after his brain hemorrhage, South Dakota Sen. Tim Johnson has left a Washington hospital and entered a private rehabilitation facility, his office said Tuesday.
A spokeswoman refused to say whether the senator remained in Washington or was moved to a facility in South Dakota, citing family concerns about media scrutiny. ``They just want him to focus on getting better and not worried about outside cameras snapping away,'' said spokeswoman Julianne Fisher.
Johnson was rushed to George Washington University Hospital after becoming disoriented during a phone call with reporters Dec. 13th and underwent emergency surgery hours later. He was diagnosed with arteriovenous malformation, a condition that causes arteries and veins to grow abnormally large, become tangled and sometimes burst. He was sedated and on a ventilator for several weeks due to fluid that developed in his lungs as a result of the initial hemorrhage. He was upgraded from critical to fair condition on Jan. 9.
Johnson will continue undergoing physical, occupational and speech therapy at the private facility. Dr. Philip Marion, the hospital's chief of rehabilitation, said in a statement released by Johnson's office that the senator has made ``great progress'' and a final test showed no evidence the tangled arteries that triggered the senator's hemorrhage remain. Part of Johnson's therapy has been to deal with weakness on his right side. Doctors have said the senator showed that weakness when he arrived at the hospital in December.
Johnson's office has said his recovery is expected to take several months, though he has been doing some work from his bed. ``He's reading memos, but he still needs time for recovery,'' Fisher said.
Let's hope the senator continues his recovery. Prospects aren't bad at all for enough recovery to return to the Senate, at least for a while, though the residual weakness is a concern.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/21/2007 00:12 ||
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#1
Get well soon.
Posted by: Mike ||
02/21/2007 6:15 Comments ||
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"Prospects aren't bad at all for enough recovery to return to the Senate"
Yes, but that's not saying much. Guys like Kennedy and Byrd seem able to function normally in the Senate well after their deaths - they are dead, aren't they?
#3
"enough recovery to return to the Senate" ain't saying much, Doc. I got toe jam that could do a passable job there. I wish the man recovery to real life, not the twlight zone DC.
#4
In the meantime, So Dakota is only 50% represented, due to the Dems' desire to hold power in the Senate, for what looks like 6+ months....
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/21/2007 12:42 Comments ||
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#5
``They just want him to focus on getting better and not worried about outside cameras snapping away,'' said spokeswoman Julianne Fisher.
Johnson's office has said his recovery is expected to take several months, though he has been doing some work from his bed. ``He's reading memos, but he still needs time for recovery,'' Fisher said.
This must be the South Dakota version of Castro Watch.
#6
Very little has been disclosed of Sen. Johnson's thinking, speech and comprehension ability. Residual weakness is not important (see FDR), a legislator can function well if he can concentrate, speak and understand language decently. Changing the rules of Congress to allow for this kind of problem is long overdue.
#7
If he has weakness on his right side then I believe his speech is likely impacted. I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV. But my mom had a stroke this year and can't move her right arm nor can she speak much beyond yes and no.
I can't compare my mother to fat Teddy, even in jest. She is too dear a woman for that.
It is the nation's highest military honor-- the Medal of Honor. On Monday, Bruce Crandall will receive it during a White House Ceremony for his role in the first big battle in the Vietnam War. "I don't think you can tell what a thrill that is or how important it is, in words. Other soldiers will know," says Crandall. "I'm very proud of him," says his wife Arlene.
You won't find many heroes who admit they are. "Are you a hero?" I asked him in his Manchester [WA] home. "No.... No. The simple answer is no," says the 74-year-old Vietnam veteran.
A major in the Army, the helicopter pilot and mission commander survived enemy fire, rescued dozens of soldiers in the battle of Ia Drang in November of 1965. "Like on the 5th lift, I had 3 dead and 3 wounded on my aircraft when I got back to the pick up point. And my crew chief had been shot through the throat, and the radio operator was killed in his seat," Crandall says.
Crandall had faith he would survive. "I don't even consider dying. I've already lived 18 years longer than anyone in my family," says Crandall.
He's lived long enough to have a famous actor play him. Greg Kinnear portrays him in the 2002 movie "We Were Soldiers". "It was wonderful except I was better looking at that age," Crandall says as he laughs. Crandall was a consultant on the film that starred Mel Gibson.
Bruce Crandall and his wife Arlene fly out to Washington, D.C. Friday. He'll receive the Medal of Honor Monday, 42 years after the Battle of Ia Drang.
Posted by: Dar ||
02/21/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
good movie, too.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/21/2007 12:50 Comments ||
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#2
Damn good movie.
Posted by: John Frum ||
02/21/2007 13:14 Comments ||
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#3
Outstanding song: "in the houses of the lord" at the end of the movie.
#4
For me, the best song in the movie was "Sgt. McKenzie", a lament, played during the climatic battle scene, which illustrated the tragedy and glory of war at the same time. A music video of this piece is here.
I read the book "We Were Soldiers" before the movie came out & thus didn't want to see it. Then I learned a cousin of mine was in the 1st Air Cav when he was shot down & KIA in 1970. I saw the movie & visited the Wall shortly after that. I met a lot of chopper crew vets there. Chivalry lives!
#6
One thing about the movie: choice of the landing site wasn't haphazard as portrayed; in reality, use of high ground advantage was planned as means to inhibit flanking. VC/NVA had to re-think use of the human-wave envelopment tactic, after their defeat.
#7
I read the book after seeing the movie. What's interesting that after that battle, there was another one the next day about a half mile away that was just as bloody.
#8
The soldier pictured on the Ia Drang battlefield on the cover of the first edition of We Were Soldiers Once....and Young is none other than Lt. (later Colonel) Rick Rescorla, who lost his life while leading evacuation efforts at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
#9
Profile of LTC (Ret.) Crandall at Army's MoH gallery here.
Posted by: Dar ||
02/21/2007 19:24 Comments ||
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#10
There's a great slideshow (30+ images) from Crandall's life and career at the profile above as well, from his wedding and days as a lieutenant to Feb. 5 of this year (with fellow MoH recipient Ed Freeman). Hover the mouse pointer over the pictures to get captions.
Posted by: Dar ||
02/21/2007 19:32 Comments ||
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The grand sheik at the highest theological college in the Muslim Sunni world has agreed to meet with Pope Benedict XVI in Rome, the Vatican said Tuesday.
Cardinal Paul Poupard, who leads the Vatican's commission on relations with Muslims, extended greetings from the pontiff as well as the invitation during a meeting with Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, grand sheik at the Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo. The invitation "was accepted with satisfaction," the Vatican said. No date was announced for the visit.
Benedict's predecessor, the late Pope John Paul II, visited the Cairo institute in 2000.
#1
The sheik will just be checking out the real estate. Mighty fine digs. Aught to go well with the earlier acquisition of Saint Sophia in Constantinople Istanbul. Not that anyone in Western Europe seems interested in stopping it.
Long and unexpected article in the International Herald Tribune. Hattip Drudge.
Mexico border fence and Guardsmen complicate crossings
SAN LUIS RÍO COLORADO, Mexico: All along the U.S.-Mexican border, there are signs that the measures that the U.S. Border Patrol and other agencies have taken over the past year, from erecting new barriers to posting 6,000 National Guardsmen as armed sentinels, are beginning to slow the flow of illegal immigrants into the United States.
For 10 years, Eduardo Valenzuela has been crossing the Mexican border near Yuma, Arizona, illegally, trekking over desert scrub and hopping on a freight train to get to his job with a construction company in Phoenix, Arizona. But on a recent afternoon, Valenzuela and four travel companions from his hometown of Los Mochis plopped down on a bench in a park in the border town of San Luis Río Colorado, exhausted and dispirited. Border patrol agents had caught them two times over three days, hounding them with helicopters and four-wheel-drive trucks. "It's become much more difficult," Valenzuela said, echoing the comments of dozens of other migrants.
#1
As with the war in Iraq, just a modicum of backbone combined with innovative thinking can sort this problem. Make the costs of illegal immigration high enough and it WILL stop. This story is proof of that. Whether there is the political will to display that backbone is always the real question to be answered.
Posted by: mac ||
02/21/2007 8:14 Comments ||
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#2
Much of the crossing is based on a few factors.
First is publicity, the news and gossip getting to the illegals about how easy, or how difficult, a crossing is.
Second is the weather. Prime time for crossing is in the Spring and Fall.
Third are the main crossing points. A few channels get 60-80% of all the illegal crossers; whereas most of the border gets none. If these channels are blocked, it really would put a crimp in the flow.
Fourth is the "back pressure" in Mexico. Since their birthrate has dropped to 2.3 kids per family, there is nowhere for this back pressure to go but down. This will on its own eventually reduce illegal crossing to a trickle.
#3
This is one of just a very small number of issues I have with President Bush. I'm hoping that he's now doing one thing while saying another (kinda like the "surge" in Iraq, when the *real* news is the change in the RoEs). Yes, it sucks that our troops (Nat'l Guard) aren't even allowed to defend themselves on the border, but maybe, just maybe their *presence* alone is enough to scare the beejeebus out of the illegals.
Posted by: BA ||
02/21/2007 9:38 Comments ||
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#4
Some are indignant that the United States would treat them like enemies or criminals.
#6
"...posting 6,000 National Guardsmen as armed sentinels..."
Wrong! The National Guards role is one of support NOT armed sentinels. More importantly, its been established that the illegals are aware of that fact.
"The only barometer to gauge whether migrants are being discouraged to attempt entering the United States is how many migrants are caught."
Wrong! All migration experts agree that apprehension rates alone do not establish trends in migration. (Especially motivation) Furthermore, apprehension rates alone are not indicators of enforcement efficiency.
Of course, its impossible to prove or disprove their change in momentum angle. But the beauty of propaganda is that all you need to do is elicit emotion. Clearly, this article is nothing more then a fluff piece for DHS and is intended to provide political cover for the Bush Administrations legalization plan.
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.
Lawyers for former Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith's boyfriend and her mother jousted over her corpse on Tuesday, making little headway in legal skirmishing over where she should be buried. The fourth day of hearings before south Florida Circuit Judge Larry Seidlin meandered erratically, and the judge seemed determined at times to not only resolve where to bury Smith but also to take on a Californian paternity dispute over her baby daughter -- the most likely heir of the billionaire's widow.
An assistant state prosecutor in Mexico was detained for questioning in an investigation into the killing of an opposition politician and four others, and the passing of information to drug traffickers. In the border city of Nuevo Laredo, gunmen wielding assault rifles attacked a vehicle carrying a federal Congressman, wounding him and killing his driver just a day after the government announced a crackdown on drug crime in the area.
Maureen Dowd's column in The New York Times today, in which she quoted former Bill Clinton supporter David Geffen offering a few caustic comments, has incited a strong Hillary Clinton campaign attack on Geffen -- and the candidate he now favors, Sen. Barack Obama. 
The grand sheik at the highest theological college in the Muslim Sunni world has agreed to meet with 
