#2
When power becomes an illusion and the realization that you can no longer claim the capacity to provide security (via a 'police force'), you face the reality that law and the government that it suppose to embody it, derives its legitimacy from the people. That power reverts back to the people when the 'law' and 'government' can no or will no longer provide security to one's person, one's family, or one's property. The institutions want power, but in such cases as now Detroit, the game is up. Even the facade of those institutions can no longer stand. Some people are grasping that reality.
#6
To prevent crime and disorder, as an alternative to their repression by military force and severity of legal punishment.
To recognise always that the power of the police to fulfil their functions and duties is dependent on public approval of their existence, actions and behaviour and on their ability to secure and maintain public respect.
To recognise always that to secure and maintain the respect and approval of the public means also the securing of the willing co-operation of the public in the task of securing observance of laws.
To recognise always that the extent to which the co-operation of the public can be secured diminishes proportionately the necessity of the use of physical force and compulsion for achieving police objectives.
To seek and preserve public favour, not by pandering to public opinion; but by constantly demonstrating absolutely impartial service to law, in complete independence of policy, and without regard to the justice or injustice of the substance of individual laws, by ready offering of individual service and friendship to all members of the public without regard to their wealth or social standing, by ready exercise of courtesy and friendly good humour; and by ready offering of individual sacrifice in protecting and preserving life.
To use physical force only when the exercise of persuasion, advice and warning is found to be insufficient to obtain public co-operation to an extent necessary to secure observance of law or to restore order, and to use only the minimum degree of physical force which is necessary on any particular occasion for achieving a police objective. To maintain at all times a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and that the public are the police, the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.
To recognise always the need for strict adherence to police-executive functions, and to refrain from even seeming to usurp the powers of the judiciary of avenging individuals or the State, and of authoritatively judging guilt and punishing the guilty.
To recognise always that the test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, and not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with them.
[NYPOST] It's shear madness! Brooklyn's hipster beard craze has grown so popular that men in New York are rushing to doctors for "facial hair transplants" -- surgery that helps make beards look thicker and less patchy, sources said.
Stubble-challenged guys are forking over up to $8,500 for the beard-boosting procedure, which has spiked in popularity in recent months, plastic surgeons told The Post.
"Brooklyn is probably the nucleus of the trend, it's the hipster 'look' guys want. If you have a spotty beard, and you let it grow out, it looks sloppy, " said Dr. Jeffrey Epstein, a Midtown-based plastic surgeon.
"[Clients] want full beards because it's a masculine look. Beards are an important male identifier," he added.
Epstein performs two or three beard implants per week -- up from just a handful each year a couple years ago, he said.
The specific hipster-inspired style -- a lumberjack-meets-roadie hybrid -- was made popular in neighborhoods such as Williamsburg, Bushwick and Park Slope, doctors and patients said.
One happy patient is Danny, 27, whose beard used to be so patchy, he was forced to "fill it in" with an eyebrow pencil, he said.
Two years ago, he paid $8,500 for the surgery, which he considers a fashion statement.
"I have a baby face but now I'm able to look older. My fashion statement is a little edgy, and I do like the 'rugged look,'" he said,
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Oh, the irony.
A greater desire for facial hair than the average male, yet less testosterone than the average male.
#5
He looks like a toddler who poured oatmeal on his head. I think my son even has those same jammies.
I'm not kidding, that boy's head is like Sputnik; spherical but quite pointy at parts! Now that was offside, wasn't it? He'll be crying himself to sleep tonight, on his huge pillow.
Oh, c'mon! You know! Blonde, blue-eyed, baby-faced, IQ about 75. Ring any bells?
Sure, that narrows it down .. some...
has pleaded no contest to alcohol-related reckless driving after she clipped a Los Angeles County sheriff's patrol car. Just a bit of advice: If you're gonna clip a car, try not to make it one with the blinky lights on top.
But those are the prettiest ones that aren't red Ferraris!
District attorney's spokeswoman Jane Robison says Bynes entered the plea Monday through her lawyer. The former teen star was sentenced to three years of probation and three months of attending alcohol education classes. See? Now you recognize her. Not the one who used to be Hanna Montana. The other one.
Sorry. Still don't know who she is. Wait: trailing daughter #1 informs me Miss Amanda used to be on Nickelodeon in the '90s.
Bynes was incarcerated Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! in April of 2012 on suspicion of drunken driving after the cruiser was hit in West Hollywood. "Whoa! Smells like a gin mill in there!"
"Y'know, McGinty, I suspect she may have been driving while drunken!"
"Y'think? She breathed on me, and now I can't drive for eight hours!"
The 27-year-old actress already is on probation for driving with a suspended license. She received psychiatric treatment last year after authorities said she started a fire in the driveway of a Ventura County home.
Twenty-seven is a bit long in the tooth to still be acting out...
Use of chemicals usually negates that...
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
I don't know who she is. Don't really care, either.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/26/2014 12:04 Comments ||
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#2
I, on the other hand, eagerly await her views on the 2nd Amendment rights, wymyns choice, global warming, ObamaCare or any other important newsy topic. Maybe MADD could pick her up as a spokesperson? Since she's an actress her opinion means I don't to think hard about things.
[FOX4KC] BEACHWOOD, Ohio -- A man who essentially came back to life after his heart stopped for nearly 45 minutes is now telling the story of his astounding near-death experience.
According to FOX 4's sister station, FOX 8 in Cleveland, kept in touch with the world by Obamaphone, ...was ruled by a Democrat machine from 1942 through 1971. After the river caught fire during the administration of Carl Stokes they tried a Republican, then when back to being Democrats when the party hacked up Dennis Kucinich ... , Brian Miller suffered a massive heart attack and seemed fine until the next day when he began experiencing Ventricular Fibrillation, which is a usually deadly fluttering pattern of the heart where blood is no longer being pumped through the body. Without treatment, the condition can kill a person in just a few minutes.
After about 45 minutes of Miller being without a heart-rate, pulse, blood pressure or oxygen to his brain, he miraculously awoke with a regular heartbeat and without any damage to his brain.
Miller said he had beautiful visions of the after-life as he walked toward heaven, which included both flowers and light. He said he had a loved one who had recently passed tell him he needed to go back.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
No longer pining for the fijords.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/26/2014 7:19 Comments ||
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The publishers Springer and IEEE are removing more than 120 papers from their subscription services after a French researcher discovered that the works were computer-generated nonsense.
Over the past two years, computer scientist Cyril Labbé of Joseph Fourier University in Grenoble, France, has catalogued computer-generated papers that made it into more than 30 published conference proceedings between 2008 and 2013. Sixteen appeared in publications by Springer, which is headquartered in Heidelberg, Germany, and more than 100 were published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), based in New York. Both publishers, which were privately informed by Labbé, say that they are now removing the papers...
Labbé developed a way to automatically detect manuscripts composed by a piece of software called SCIgen, which randomly combines strings of words to produce fake computer-science papers. SCIgen was invented in 2005 by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge to prove that conferences would accept meaningless papers -- and, as they put it, "to maximize amusement" (see 'Computer conference welcomes gobbledegook paper'). A related program generates random physics manuscript titles on the satirical website arXiv vs. snarXiv. SCIgen is free to download and use, and it is unclear how many people have done so, or for what purposes. SCIgen's output has occasionally popped up at conferences, when researchers have submitted nonsense papers and then revealed the trick.
Labbé does not know why the papers were submitted -- or even if the authors were aware of them. Most of the conferences took place in China, and most of the fake papers have authors with Chinese affiliations. Labbé has emailed editors and authors named in many of the papers and related conferences but received scant replies; one editor said that he did not work as a program chair at a particular conference, even though he was named as doing so, and another author claimed his paper was submitted on purpose to test out a conference, but did not respond on follow-up. Nature has not heard anything from a few enquiries.
On the cyclone-prone island of Guam
They wage war upon Spam without qualm.
When they overindulge
Their guts thunder and bulge
And they lash themselves tight to a palm.
[BALTIMORE.CBSLOCAL] Controversial confrontation. A man videotaped Baltimore County police as they arrested two people in Towson, but an altercation broke out between the man and officer. Now an investigation is underway.
County police officials say they are concerned by the video and they've launched an investigation.
Early Sunday morning, a man videotaped as Baltimore County police arrested two people in Towson. As the video rolled, he was confronted by an officer.
"I'm allowed to do this," he told the officer.
"Get it out of my face," the officer replied.
"I have my rights," the man said.
"You have no rights," the officer said.
But the man didn't stop rolling and was once again aggressively approached.
"Do you see the police presence here? Do you see us all? We're not [expletive] around. Do you understand? Do not disrespect us and do not not listen to us," the officer said.
After backing away, the officer came at the man a third time, appearing to grab him.
"I thought I had freedom of speech here," the man said.
"You don't. You just lost it," the officer replied.
County police, auxiliary officers and state police were all responding to a large crowd and disturbance on York Road. County police officials became aware of the video of the altercation Tuesday morning and have launched an investigation.
"We are concerned about what we saw in the video and the department will be taking a thorough look at that video," said Elise Armacost.
But officials with the ACLU say the video clearly shows illegal and improper police conduct.
"I think the officer in the video is extraordinarily agitated, hostile and unprofessional. I think it's highly problematic," said David Rocah, ACLU Maryland. "The fact that officers can act this way, knowing that they're being filmed, I think shows a level of impunity that is quite troubling."
Delegate Sandy Rosenberg says he's also concerned.
"There needs to be either further training for the police and perhaps some appropriate disciplinary action for this individual policeman," Rosenberg said.
The man who was filming was not arrested and has not filed a complaint in this case.
In a statement, county police officials say they recognize and respect the rights of citizens to film officers on duty in a public place, unless the person filming has violated a law or statute.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Put a few of these pigs in state penitentiaries. In general population. The rest will get the message double-quick.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
02/26/2014 1:12 Comments ||
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#2
Unfortunately I suspect the policeman was correct; "we no longer have any rights."
A public apology for their conduct and 30 days off [disciplinary layoff] without pay. That should get their attention.
#3
In a statement, county police officials say they recognize and respect the rights of citizens to film officers on duty in a public place, unless the person filming has violated a law or statute.
Given the fact that all citizens are always breaking some law or statute this is a moot point. Whether it's disorderly conduct or some other catch-all the police will always have an excuse, check out the blog-father for details.
The police attitude demonstrated here is that of all the elite, institutional thugs today, "I have a pen and a phone"; cops have a gun and a badge. Different levels of the same $#it.
#4
Do what several departments already are doing. Fit every beat cop with live feed video. If for any reason the video goes off, goes blank, disappears, so does the officer's career.
You want to remove these idiots out of the force as quickly as possible. With phone/camera technology linked to immediate cloud storage, it's too late to try to hide the event anymore.
Get your state legislatures to remove immunity from any public official who obstructs or confiscates such equipment and you'll see behavior change almost immediately.
#5
Baltimore county actually has a decent police force. Towson is a college town. Note that
"County police, auxiliary officers and state police were all responding to a large crowd and disturbance on York Road
York Road is the main thoroughfare running through Towson. The festivities took place at 1:45 in the morning. Another report sez
"...on-duty officers witnessed a disturbance among several members of a large crowd in the 400 block of York Road"
400 York Road features a Subway sammitch shop on the corner, a bail bondsman, and what looks like student apartments over it. My initial reaction was "bastards," referring to the cops. Closer examination suggests that with the presence of the campus cops, the county cops, and the State Police, it was probably a fairly large gathering of jerkwads and that the cop was feeling harried by yet another jerkwad in his face hollering "Hey! Look at me!"
But I could be wrong.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2014 11:25 Comments ||
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[An Nahar] The U.N. said Tuesday it has deployed around 100 Egyptian special forces to the restive Katanga region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material... , where a surge in violence has caused what it called a humanitarian "catastrophe".
A source at the U.N. peacekeeping mission MONUSCO, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... , said the company had been sent to "reinforce" some 450 troops from Benin already in the area, in the south-east of the country.
"They have begun patrolling," the source said.
The country's wealthiest province, Katanga is about the size of Spain and is believed to hold around a third of the world's cobalt and 10 percent of its copper reserves.
A drive by MONUSCO to stamp out rebel violence in the restive northeastern province of North Kivu late last year left a security vacuum in Katanga, resulting in a surge of attacks by local militias.
Katanga's capital Lubumbashi is the country's second largest city and the province has been plagued by secessionist violence since DR Congo's independence from Belgium in 1960.
Over the past year, rebel groups fighting for Katanga's independence -- known as Mai Mai Bakata Katanga -- have sown terror in a northern area known as the "triangle of death" stretching thousands of kilometers between the towns of Pweto, Manono and Mitwaba.
"It's a humanitarian catastrophe," MONUSCO chief Martin Kobler said in January, reporting that rebel violence had destroyed 600 homes and displaced 400,000 in the three preceding months.
"I feel an element of guilt when I think of Katanga because we have concentrated our military activity on the Kivus but it is important not to neglect Katanga," he said.
With over 20,000 uniformed members, MONUSCO is one of the United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... ' biggest peacekeeping forces in the world and includes a specialized intervention brigade tasked with neutralizing the dozens of gangs in the east of the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2014 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] The mouth is made for eating and kissing, and gay oral sex will give you worms: Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Monday gave a detailed explanation of why he believed homosexuals should be tossed in the slammer Book 'im, Mahmoud! for life. I knew a homosexual guy once that had crickets. Damnedest thing you ever saw.
"I have failed to understand that you can fail to be attracted to all these beautiful women and be attracted to a man," the president told news hounds as he signed off on controversial anti-gay legislation that includes life prison terms for repeat offenders. Everywhere he went, crickets kept jumping off him.
"That is a really serious matter. There is something really wrong with you," he said. They'd land in people's soup, in their hair, everywhere.
Museveni, a devout evangelical Christian, said the only explanation for being gay was money. People started avoiding him, of course.
"Homosexuals are actually mercenaries. They are heterosexual people but because of money they say they are homosexuals. These are hookers because of money," he said, asserting that he had taken the time to get scientific advice before signing off on the law. He said it was because they were prejudiced against homosexuals.
"No study has shown you can be homosexual by nature," he said. "That man can choose to love a man... is a matter of choice. After listening to the scientists, I got the facts. But it was because of the crickets.
"Can somebody be homosexual simply by nature? The answer is no." Even when they weren't hopping, nobody could stand the noise.
The president said he had a particular problem with oral sex. People left him to his chirping solitude.
"One of the cultures that we detest is oral sex. The mouth is for picking food, not for sex. We know the address for sex. That address (the mouth) is not for sex," he said. "The mouth is for eating not for sex. The mouth is engineered for kissing." I guess eventually he wasn't homosexual anymore, because nobody would have homosex with him.
Nor heterosex either. I heard he eventually went off to be a stylite in the desert, God having already seen to his dinner.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
gay oral sex will give you worms
Knew a guy once; he would have giggled and said, "That's the point."
#3
It's all a trade-off. You can have a larger caliber firearm (such as a .45 cal.) and more rounds, say a double-stack which is good for protection or you can go with the small firearm that fits your hand but is mostly a mouse stunner. Larger game that might be high on crack or PCP; it might just tend to tick them off. The issue gets debated often.
#4
Obviously unqualified for women with BFG in the Rant.
The OPFOR isn't concerned about your wishes. It isn't concerned about judges or adjudicators. The OPFOR will employ whatever it can get its hands on to make your day a bad day (or the last day).
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain ||
02/26/2014 17:20 ||
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Bantamweight/Featherweight boxing champ Antonio Cermeno kidnapped and killed.
I know ransom is a neat industry in SA, but it depends wholly upon the kidnappers following through professionally. With the timing and tactics being described I have to wonder if it was never a business transaction because that would up the level to murdering high profile dissenters.
Again, just thinking out loud, because there seems to be a severe level of Venezuamnesia - other than Cruz's atomics.
[NEWS.YAHOO] Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is expressing concern about Venezuela's escalating political crisis and wants to meet with leaders on both sides in an upcoming trip.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Well, he did support Chavez. Finally saying goodbye to his Socialst pall?
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/26/2014 7:22 Comments ||
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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered a test of the battle readiness of military forces deployed in the western and central areas of the country, a likely show of Kremlin muscle to reassure ethnic Russians in Ukraine that their rights and interests will be defended.
That'll be an interesting exercise; I assume US intel assets will monitor how well the 'test' goes. Is the Russian military a juggernaut or a paper tiger? If the latter, could it still occupy and pacify the Ukraine?
The announcement of the immediate and thorough readiness exercises was made by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and reported by the Interfax news agency.
Putin ordered confirmation of troop capabilities for action in the event of a crisis situation that presents a threat to the military security of the country, as well as anti-terrorism and emergency response readiness, Shoigu was quoted as saying by Interfax.
The readiness test was ordered amid growing tensions in Ukraine between the Russian-allied eastern areas of the restive country and pro-Western political forces now in control of the capital, Kiev, following a rebellion that drove President Viktor Yanukovich to flee his office.
Here again, some sort of deal allowing eastern and western Ukraine to go their own ways would seem to be in everyone's interests, including Putin. Give Russia guarantees on its pipelines through the western half and Putin might not care what else they do.
Russia had been backing Yanukovich with a promised $15-billion package of loans and energy subsidies after he angered liberal and nationalist politicians in late November by scrapping an association agreement with the European Union. That pact would have enhanced Ukrainian economic ties with the West and opened a path to eventual membership in the EU.
Yanukovichs rejection of the EU deal in favor of strengthening ties with Russia, for centuries the dominant political force in Ukraine, set off three months of demonstrations that escalated into rioting last week and a bloody crackdown by security forces. At least 82 people died in the confrontations before an EU-brokered peace accord and agreement on early elections.
Pro-Western opposition politicians who led the rebellion have filled the power vacuum in Kiev, which triggered demonstrations in Russian-speaking areas of eastern and southern Ukraine, where industry remains elaborately entwined with Russias economy and Moscow keeps its Black Sea fleet based in Sevastopol.
Even if Ukraine separates from Russia the industry can't, not easily. It's not like EU industrial interests will pick up the tens of thousands of contracts, deliveries, raw materials, shipping and so on with any sort of reasonable timeline.
Several dozen Russians worried about their status in a potentially opposition-ruled Ukraine have been demonstrating for the last three days outside public buildings in Sevastopol, Simferopol, Odessa and other southern cities, some demanding that Russia protect them or that the region secede and annex to Russia.
On Wednesday, rival demonstrations involving thousands of Crimean Tatars, who were exiled from Russia to Crimea by dictator Josef Stalin during World War II, pledged allegiance to Kiev and their place within Ukraine.
Shouts of Ukraine is not Russia and Allahu Akbar could be heard from the crowd of historically Muslim Tatars as they waved the yellow and blue Ukrainian and Tatar flags in defiance of the considerably smaller pro-Russian turnout, according to news agencies and Ukrainian television.
The Kremlin has taken a cautious approach to the evolving crisis in Ukraine, a country of 46 million and arguably Russias most important ally as most of Moscows exports of natural gas pass through pipelines on Ukrainian territory.
In Moscow, the speaker of the upper house of the Russian parliament dismissed warnings by Russian nationalist politicians that the Kremlin would take military action against Ukraine if it senses any threat to the Russian-speaking population, which numbers about 7.5 million.
This scenario is impossible, said Valentina Matvienko, speaker of the Federation Council. Russia has been stating and reiterating its stance that we have no right and cannot interfere in domestic affairs of a sovereign state. We are for Ukraine as a united state, and there should be no basis for separatist sentiments.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/26/2014 11:05 ||
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"We are for Ukraine as a united state, and there should be no basis for separatist sentiments."
You'd think so, look at E/W Germany! But consider Yugoslavia, East Pakistan, Sudan, and the list goes on an on - of countries who would rather be tribes.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/26/2014 13:33 Comments ||
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#2
Vlad warning the Ukrainians + SSSSHHHHHH ... CCCCC
the Turks.
#1
Interesting. Factually incorrect in a number of places, but interesting.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
02/26/2014 7:09 Comments ||
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#2
Nearly as fast as the SR-71, but didn't say if it had effective countermeasures, like the Blackbird.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/26/2014 10:38 Comments ||
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#3
Nearly as fast as the SR-71, but didn't say if it had effective countermeasures, like the Blackbird.
It wasn't even "nearly" as fast. The Mig-25 had a max speed of Mach 2.8, which it could use for exactly four minutes before the aircraft began to overheat. The SR-71 had a max speed of Mach 3.2 to 3.6 (depending on who you talk to) and could sustain that speed for 30 minutes or more, and ROUTINELY flew at Mach 3.0 for 80% of its mission package. That's one of the reasons it had to refuel every two to two and a half hours. The SR-71 could also fly "significantly" higher than the Mig-25, which maxed out at about 78,000 feet.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/26/2014 11:27 Comments ||
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#4
Rantburg U - dedicated to the proposition that whatever the subject, somebody here knows quite a lot about it. (and often, more than they can publicly discuss, I'll bet)
#4
The loony tunes of the world all seem to be surfacing at the same time. This is right up there with Muzzie reaction to Katie Perry, Russian reaction to the Ukraine, etc. etc.
[An Nahar] A thin wisp of smoke rises from a chimney in the barricaded residential complex of deposed president Viktor Yanukovych in the eastern city of Donetsk, but Ukraine's most famous runaway is nowhere to be seen.
The mystery of the former president's whereabouts has gripped the nation since he fled the capital on Friday, following a week of deadly festivities between anti-Yanukovych protesters and security forces. Many believe he is holed up somewhere in the Russophone east of the country.
"I am sure we won't find him. So many people have been looking for him for so many days," said local firefighter Vitali, who was accompanying AFP news hounds.
The cluster of opulent villas, a few kilometers outside the industrial city of Donetsk appears thoroughly deserted apart from that small line of smoke.
"If I knew anything, I would say it and get a huge reward," said Vitali.
Donetsk, home to one million residents, sits deep in the heart of the Donbas mining region, where Yanukovych was born in 1950.
It is impossible to penetrate the imposing perimeter of Yanukovych's residence here at 65 Rainissa Road, ringed by pine trees and a huge brick and cement wall topped with a metal barrier.
No one answers the buzzer next to the imposing brown door. A guard house with tinted windows also looks empty.
Only the bark of a dog breaks the heavy silence that surrounds this luxury island in the middle of nowhere.
The former president is wanted for "mass murder" after the violence in Kiev last week left nearly 100 dead, prompting his ouster and the collapse of his entire government.
On Tuesday, parliament approved a resolution calling for him to be charged with crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... in The Hague.
Wild rumors have circulated since Yanukovych fled his presidential palace in Kiev at the end of a bloody week in which nearly 100 anti-government protesters were killed.
With his allies deserting him in the wake of his brutal crackdown, Yanukovych has only been seen in a brief televised statement in which he denounced the events as a "coup" and likened the protesters to "neo-Nazis".
Acting Interior Minister Arsen Avakov wrote on Facebook that Yanukovych had tried to flee the country on Saturday out of Donetsk airport, before escaping to Crimea with a team of guards and a cache of weapons the next day.
But many in Donetsk believe he is still in the vicinity.
"I think he is in Donetsk and that he's hiding," said Mark, a student on the huge Lenin Plaza where a few dozen were demonstrating against the revolution on Tuesday.
Others claim he is in Sevastopol, the Crimean port city that is home to Russia's Black Sea navy.
Or perhaps he has already escaped the country? No one knows for sure.
One thing is certain: he has few supporters left in Donetsk, his former fiefdom where he ruled as governor from 1997 to 2002.
Dmitri, a 22-year-old student, summed up the mood: "His escape from Kiev was an act of treason. He has abandoned his people."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2014 00:00 ||
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No one answers the buzzer next to the imposing brown door. A guard house with tinted windows also looks empty.
Only the bark of a dog breaks the heavy silence that surrounds this luxury island in the middle of nowhere.
"It's quiet"
"Too quiet"
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/26/2014 15:33 Comments ||
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#2
No one answers the buzzer next to the imposing brown door. A guard house with tinted windows also looks empty.
Only the bark of a dog breaks the heavy silence that surrounds this luxury island in the middle of nowhere.
"It's quiet"
"Too quiet"
Suddenly the spot was umm.... noted.
"Which Spot?"
"The Spot, the same The Spot we done unto death for years without Copyright Protection"
"Oh, That Spot"
[An Nahar] Ukraine's parliament on Tuesday called on the International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... in the Hague to prosecute ousted president Viktor Yanukovych over the "mass murder" of protesters in Kiev. Recipe for rabbit stew: First, catch the rabbit...
"We appeal to the International Criminal Court...to bring to justice Viktor Yanukovych and other high-ranking figures who gave and carried out criminal orders," the parliament said in a statement.
That should put the problem off for a decade. At least...
Meanwhile, ...back at the revival hall, the pastor had finally been wrestled from the pulpit. Y'got the wrong guy! he yelled just before Sergeant Malone's billy club landed... boxer-turned-politician Vitali Klitschko announced also on Tuesday that he will be running for presidency.
A former heavyweight boxing world champion, the towering Klitschko turned his back on the ring to become one of Ukraine's most popular opposition leaders during months of anti-government protests.
On ground, two armored personnel carriers were deployed near Russian military installations in Ukraine's second port of Sevastopol, an Agence La Belle France Presse journalist said Tuesday, as hundreds of protesters rallied in the city.
One of the vehicles was visible on a base belonging to Russia's Black Sea fleet -- stationed in the pro-Moscow autonomous Crimea region for some 200 years -- while another was parked in the courtyard of a building rented by the Russian navy in the city center, the journalist said.
The appearance of the vehicles came as Ukraine's interim leader warned of "dangerous signs of separatism" amid fears that Ukraine's pro-Moscow regions could push for partition following the weekend ousting of Kremlin-backed Yanukovych.
Western countries have warned the Kremlin not to interfere with Ukraine's territorial integrity and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov toned down strident rhetoric from Moscow on Tuesday by saying it was sticking to a policy of "non-interference".
A front man for the fleet in Sevastopol questioned by AFP refused to comment on the deployment of the vehicles but local media reported that they had been sent out in case of "terrorist attacks".
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2014 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Slovakia's leftist prime minister said Tuesday he was ready to back a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union between man and woman, effectively closing the door to same-sex marriage.
The opposition Christian Democrats and other center-right parties drafted the amendment that will need support from Prime Minister Robert Fico Smer's social democrats for the two-thirds majority required to change the constitution.
"Smer is willing to support the amendment in exchange for the opposition's support for an amendment introducing changes in the judicial system," Fico told news hounds in Bratislava.
"The marriage amendment will not bring about any drastic changes, it only seals in the constitution what is already defined by law," said Fico, whose Smer is a member of the traditionally liberal Party of European Socialists group in the European Parliament.
The European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... 's newest member Croatia outlawed same-sex marriage in a referendum last year, triggering a similar constitutional amendment.
Slovak law defines marriage as a "union between a man and a woman".
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
..oh well, there goes the UN cocktail party circuit invites..
And so we see that the coming election will be even more interesting than previously thought.
[WashingtonPost] The latest list of big lobbying spenders contains a surprising name: George Soros.
Well, not the billionaire himself, but the Open Society Policy Center, the Washington-based advocacy affiliate of his Open Society Foundations.
Soros and his generous support of liberal causes, through his philanthropy and his personal political spending, have long been the subject of conservative ire. But, until now, he hasn't done much on the formal lobbying front, and the group's huge increase in reported spending -- it hit $11 million in 2013, more than triple the $3.25 million it spent the previous year -- has drawn remarkably little notice.
The big jump placed the Soros group 27th in a recent year-end lobbying tally by the Center for Responsive Politics -- just below defense giant General Dynamics and ahead of corporate powerhouses Dow Chemical, Chevron and Microsoft ...producers of Windows, Office, and the late Microsoft Bob, contributed $852,167 to the 2008 Obama campaign... .
#2
Maybe this effort will end like his effort to spend huge amounts to unseat George W. Bush after Bush's first term which ended in a bust. He p!$$ed away a substantial amount down a black hole.
#3
He p!$$ed away a substantial amount down a black hole.
That's ok. The Keynsians tell us it's that the money gets into the economy to circulate, not that it was spent productively to begin with. I vote Mr. Soros spends even more trying to buy this country out from under the voters. Perhaps we'll get to put his gains from the pound and the Thai baht(?) to better use, and eventually the results will help back home, too.
[DAWN] Pakistain has the highest rate of first day deaths and stillbirths in the world at 40.7 per 1,000 births, followed by Nigeria (32.7), Sierra Leone (30.8), Somalia (29.7), Guinea-Bissau (29.4) and Afghanistan (29.0), a report out on Tuesday said.
The charity Save the Children said in the report that a million newborn babies a year die within 24 hours, urging governments to tackle preventable deaths.
In Pakistain, fewer than half of women had a skilled health worker present at birth.
Attempts to improve this have been dogged by "delays in the salary disbursements, 'stock-outs' of medicines, unavailable and dysfunctional equipment, and an unhelpful referral system", the report said.
Earlier India had the highest number of first day deaths and stillbirths at 598,038 per year, a quarter of the 2.2 million lives lost.
The under-five mortality rate in India has been more than halved since 1990, from 126 per 1,000 live births to 56.1.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
some of these might be gendercide
Posted by: lord garth ||
02/26/2014 7:59 Comments ||
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[DAWN] Kalash people danced and sang during the funeral of an elder here on Monday. The Kalash are one of the few non-Moslem tribes in Pakistain.
The festivities continued for three days. Body of elder, Jawsha, 71, of Brun village of Bumburate valley was placed in the dancing place called Jastakhan. The people narrated the acts of courage and bravery performed by the deceased during his lifetime.
Badusha Kalash, a relative of the deceased, said that 24 goats were slaughtered to feed the people who attended the rituals. Besides 100kg cheese, 80kg ghee, 3,000kg wheat flour and 300kg rice were also used up on the occasion, he added.
He said the deceased was soft spoken and generous who welcomed guests in his home and served them with lavish foods. "Jawsha was respected equally in all the three Kalash valleys," said Badusha Kalash.
Gunshots were also fired to pay respects to the elder.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Ynet] The Gaza blockade leaves local industry gasping for resources, as Egypt began a fierce campaign to close cross-border smuggling tunnels that used to provide Gaza with basic goods including food, fuel and building materials.
Voices of construction workers and the noise from their tools used to ring out in Gaza's streets. Now hulks of unfinished buildings stand in eerie silence, and the idle builders are left to worry how to make ends meet.
An Egyptian-Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip, run by the Hamas Islamist movement, has left industry and construction gasping for resources, pushing unemployment to dizzying heights and deepening suffering for impoverished residents.
The problem intensified after a campaign begun in July by Egypt's military-backed government to close cross-border smuggling tunnels that used to provide Gaza with basic goods including food, fuel and building materials.
Joblessness jumped to 38.5 percent at the end of last year from 32 percent in the third quarter of 2013, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.
The downturn has put Hamas, deemed a terrorist organization by many Western states, in a financial and political bind.
Buoyed by the Arab uprisings which brought its Muslim Brotherhood allies to power in Cairo, Hamas shunned its old patrons in Iran and Syria. But when the Egyptian army ousted the Islamist government last July, Hamas was left isolated.
Determined to cling to the weapons that have made it a pariah in the Western world, it is being forced to explore economic reforms, including possible privatizations, hoping to alleviate the woes that are everywhere to be seen.
Sitting beside a huge apartment building he has been unable to finish because of the lack of cement, businessman Mohammed Abu Izz sips his tea and smokes a cigarette.
"Forty families have been waiting for five months to move in. Most of them paid the price of their apartments in full and I could not deliver," he said glumly.
Gaza is wedged between Israel and Egypt on a 40-km (25-mile) stretch of the Mediterranean coast. Israel tightened a blockade when Hamas, sworn to its destruction, seized control of the strip in a brief 2007 civil war, ousting the forces of the Western-backed Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas .
Privatized crossings?
Goods from Israel used to account for between a third and half of imports to the enclave, with the rest coming through the tunnels on the border with Egypt.
Over the past six months, an angry Egypt has caved in many of the underground passages, once a lifeline to Gaza's 1.8 million people, taking the economy down with them.
Egypt accuses Hamas of backing al-Qaeda-linked militant groups which have stepped up attacks against Egyptian security forces in the neighboring Sinai Peninsula over the past few months. The violence has spread to Cairo and other cities.
Hamas leaders deny this, saying their arms are aimed only at arch-foe Israel.
Looking to lessen friction with both Egypt and Israel, Gaza's deputy prime minister, Zeyad al-Zaza, told Reuters Hamas had proposed that control of key crossings with its neighbors should be transferred to Gaza's private entrepreneurs.
Such a move would need to be coordinated with numerous parties, including Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and there is no guarantee it will be approved.
"The issue is now being studied by the businessmen," said Zaza, who is also finance minister. "We have told them 'Go and have your discussions with Israel and Egypt'."
Economist Maher al-Tabbaa, who is also director of pubic relations at the Gaza Chamber of Commerce, said the suggestion reflected Hamas's appreciation of how bad the situation had become. But he wondered how it could be implemented.
"I would say it was more of an attempt to find a solution to (the government's) crisis rather than a practical exit from the current difficult situation," Tabbaa said.
Since 2007, Israel has eased some of curbs on exports to Gaza but maintains a ban on construction materials and a list of items it deems have "dual use" - both civilian and military.
The list looks set to stay in place for the foreseeable future regardless of who operates the crossings.
Layoffs
Resourceful Gazans had managed partially to offset Israeli restrictions by sucking in goods via the tunnels, allowing the economy to grow nearly 15 percent in 2011 and 7 percent in 2012. By the end of last year, growth was put at just 3 percent, Zaza said, with a possible recession looming.
With the population growing at about 3 percent a year, that level of growth represents effective stagnation.
Many factories in Gaza have stopped; others have lowered their output or laid off workers to stay in business.
Naeem al-Siksik, owner of the largest plastics plant in the enclave, said the trade restrictions and tunnel closures were piling pressure on his business, which he valued at $5 million and which used to produce more than half of Gaza's plastic.
Total production output had fallen by almost half over the past seven months, Siksik said.
"We have had to lay off 15 percent of our 150 workers and lower salaries by 20 percent as we try to tackle this crisis, but the situation is becoming worse all the time," he added.
Gaza industries' problems are not limited to import restrictions - power shortages that forces residents to live with up to eight hours of blackout a day means Siksik spends over $100,000 a month on fuel for his own generators.
In an apparent effort to boost efficiency, finance minister Zaza said Hamas was also open to privatizing power distribution in Gaza and was in contact with business leaders, although once again, no quick fix was in sight.
"I do not claim the situation is rosy," he said. "But we are seeking by all means to give our people a dignified life."
#1
Remember all those Resort Hotels the Palestinians trashed along the Gaza Coast? No tourists there? Whose fault is that?
And the nice Airport they had? Trashed too? And who did that to themselves? The Palestinians? Were they THAT stupid? Guess.
Remember the huge Israeli Complex of Greenhouses for Vegetables and other products the Palestinians destroyed because the Israelis originally built the place and then GAVE it to the Palestinians? And what did the Palestinians do to create and build? Palestinians don't DO creating and building.
Well, do they? Then the Palestinians bit the Egyptians on the hand. Smooth move there, Abdrool.
#4
If Arab Paleostinians were a race, racists would have all the proof they need to justify their racisim.....but they're not a separate race.
They're a part of a distinct religio/cultural grouping. They should be crawling with anthropologists and sociologists studying what it is about that group that makes them "eat" each other like rats in an over crowded cage.....but they're not cause you don't want to harsh the PC mellow.
#5
Before the 20th Century, history usually showed what happened to failed political and cultural systems. Now various foreign governments and NGOs spend their time and other people's resources preserving them as 'unique environments'.
Nonsense. They've got beautiful marble, brass, and glass shopping malls, beautiful expensive hotels and apartment buildings, a beautiful and expensive amusement park... One can do such things when the Israelis can be trusted to precisely target miscreants, leaving the beautiful and fragile uninvolved buildings untouched.
#9
Doesn't look too bad...buy footware by the shoe, grab a bite at White Casbah, and watch the children get dressed up for their marriage. Very modern.
#10
"Forty families have been waiting for five months to move in. Most of them paid the price of their apartments in full and I could not deliver," he said glumly.
#11
"Forty families have been waiting for five months to move in. Most of them paid the price of their apartments in full and I could not deliver," he said glumly.
So, did you...ummmmmmmmmmmmmm...give them their money back, Mo?
#2
If you had to MAKE a choice between Katy Perry and the Ayatollah, which would it be? Or if you HAD to make a choice between a Goat or a Camel ?
Ever been in a top of the line Egyptian toilet where they pass out towels and everything smells of.....industrial disinfectant? Lysol, probably. And the guy with the towel wears a fez. And he has a pencil mustache and interesting postcards? You would have had to have "been there"to savor the Arab culture.
#3
Honestly, Mr. Spereting Tingle4064, ask you mother (or your wife, if you have one) why the smell of industrial disinfectant is a good thing in such an environment. After that double check your memory to see if you aren't remembering the Count von Droste-Schattenburg as bathroom attendant in the Billy Wilder film "One, Two, Three", though it was set in pre-Wall Berlin. But he had a little whisk broom to brush the dandruff off his gentlemen's shoulders, which garnered him an extra tip.
Someone is making a killing at the NY Times and it ain't the NY Times.
Solomente plata (cash only), pinche pendejo...
Billionaire Carlos Slim is poised to double his money after investing $250 million in a 2009 lending agreement with the New York Times, showing how dearly the newspaper's owners paid for his help.
Slim, who controls mobile-phone carrier America Movil SAB (AMXL) and is the world's second-richest person according to data compiled by Bloomberg, already has earned $122 million from his loan to the Times, based on an annual interest rate of 14 percent and a 12 percent premium charged to the company when its debt to Slim was redeemed in 2011. Under the terms of the loan, the Times still owes Slim additional shares worth as much as $141 million based on the Jan. 17 stock price, thanks to options he received to buy shares at what is now a deep discount.
Slim's loan to the Times gave the publisher time to sell some assets and bolster a digital-subscription strategy to offset slumping ad sales. The agreement with Slim required the parent New York Times Co. to accept terms that effectively reduced a stock market windfall five years later. By selling 15.9 million shares at a fraction of their market value, the company risked giving up more than $100 million it could raise through an offering to the public. Slim charged quite the vig, didn't he...
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.
[An Nahar] Actress Amanda Bynes 
[FOX4KC] BEACHWOOD, Ohio -- A man who essentially came back to life after his heart stopped for nearly 45 minutes is now telling the story of his astounding near-death experience.
[BBC.CO.UK] 
International Criminal Court
