As usual with such things, the headline is better than the story:
The giant lobster of Plantation Key found its new home Friday morning in the Florida Keys. Betsey, who stands three stories tall, is now out in front of the Rain Barrel Artisan Village shopping complex at mile marker 86.7 of U.S. 1.
Betsey is made of metal and fiberglass. She is a detailed, biologically accurate depiction of a female spiny lobster.
Betsey's new home is directly across U.S. 1 from her longtime perch at Treasure Village, a former shopping complex that has converted to a school.
Posted by: Mike ||
03/30/2009 16:19 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Break out the Lemon Juice and Butter! If you squirt it at him, it repels him!
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/30/2009 17:47 Comments ||
Top||
#2
"a former shopping complex that has converted to a school"
Now there's a sentence I never imagined I'd read....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/30/2009 18:35 Comments ||
Top||
A woman in Northern Ireland says her home has been over-run by grey squirrels. "Faith! And look at all the cute little tree rats!"
Oonagh Nutt, from Moira in County Down, says the animals first came into her garden from an adjoining park six years ago, but in the last 18 months they got too close for comfort. "I thought it was lovely, I called one of them Hazel but then the next thing they'd got into the house," she said. "What's that yer watchin', Miz Nutt? Looks like Animal Planet!"
"It's always Animal Planet with that lot!"
Mrs Nutt says the squirrels have caused serious damage: "They chewed their way through my roof in several places, they tunnel through the cavity walls, they live under the floor boards, they go to the toilet in the attic. "Up close they are quite frightening - they look like puppy dogs with big hands, they growl and bark at you, they're vicious things. They'll go for you. "That was why I had to start packin' heat!"
"I have a small child in the house and regularly at night the scratching and chewing and moving about will wake him up." "Grandmaw! Grandmaw! The tree rats are comin' to get me!"
Mrs Nutt says she's spent thousands of pounds trying to tackle the problem. "I've had pest control round putting poison down in the roof space and travel routes through the house. But then they died inside the cavity walls and the house is infested with flies. It's a nightmare. We've had squirrel catchers, traps, lights, sonar. Everything but the kitchen sink." "I see yer problem, Mum. May I suggest a garbage disposal?"
Mrs Nutt is unhappy with the attitude of her local council to the pest problem. "I rang Lisburn City Council three times and have been told in short to go away. They say they're not a pest so there's nothing they can do." "They're nothin' but cute little tree rats! Don't you go bein' mean to them!"
Ian Woods from Grey Squirrel Control says it's an increasingly common story. "Every year it's becoming more and more of a problem around this time of year. People really don't understand the damage they cause." Lisburn City Council said any resident who experiences a pest problem should contact its pest control unit on (028) 9250 9417.
Posted by: john frum ||
03/30/2009 12:11 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
A .17 HMR bolt gun is the obvious solution to Ms Nutt's troubles.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/30/2009 12:43 Comments ||
Top||
#3
I'm very disappointed this article wasn't accompanied by a picture of the woman in question. It's obvious she's got some serious animal magnetism!
Posted by: Dar ||
03/30/2009 14:07 Comments ||
Top||
#4
I'd say she needs a brace of terriers or a passel of cats, but since she's already gone in for poison in what sounds like a pretty big way, that probably wouldn't work out well.
Tear the sucker down & rebuild. Once you've got rotting carcases in the crawlspaces, you're fucked.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
03/30/2009 16:04 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Una Nutt, you say? I suggest body armour, m'dear...
Fox is teaming with "The Bachelor" producer Mike Fleiss for a new dating-competition series that casts "average-looking" people.
The series, titled More to Love, is billed as the first dating show for the rest of us, throwing open its doors to overweight contestants.
For six years its been skinny-minis and good-looking bachelors, and thats not what the dating world looks like, Fox president of alternative Mike Darnell said. Why dont real women -- the women who watch these shows, for the most part -- have a chance to find love too?
The project has a similar format to "The Bachelor," where a group of woman compete for a relationship with one man (producers describe him as a Kevin James-type). "More to Love" also marks the first time Darnell and Fleiss have teamed for a series in nine years. The duos previous dating show was the controversial and groundbreaking 2000 special Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire? which set the format template for ABCs Bachelor and a legion of imitators.
LAS VEGAS The topless revue "Les Folies Bergere" has hung up its feathers after 49 years at the Tropicana hotel-casino in Las Vegas.
Many performers who had taken part in the show's 29,000 runs since Christmas of 1959 crowded the set after its final curtain yesterday.
The closing leaves Bally's "Jubilee!" as the last full-scale showgirl revue left on the Las Vegas Strip.
Daniel Celario, a comedian who performed in the show with his brother on and off from 1986 to 2000, says it was "like a big family" and like going to work at the office with a lot of people you like."
He married a dancer who is now the entertainment director for the casino.
Hypocritical Animal Rights Groups 2008 Disclosures Bring Pet Death Toll To 21,339
WASHINGTON DC Today the nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) published documents online showing that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) killed 95 percent of the adoptable pets in its care during 2008. Despite years of public outrage over its euthanasia program, the animal rights group kills an average of 5.8 pets every day at its Norfolk, VA headquarters.
According to public records from the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, PETA killed 2,124 pets last year and placed only seven in adoptive homes. Since 1998, a total of 21,339 dogs and cats have died at the hands of PETA workers.
Despite having a $32 million budget, PETA does not operate an adoption shelter. PETA employees make no discernible effort to find homes for the thousands of pets they kill every year. Last year, the Center for Consumer Freedom petitioned Virginias State Veterinarian to reclassify PETA as a slaughterhouse.
CCF Research Director David Martosko said: PETA hasnt slowed down its hypocritical killing machine one bit, but it keeps browbeating the rest of society with a phony animal rights message. What about the rights of the thousands of dogs, cats, puppies, and kittens that die in PETAs headquarters building?
Martosko added: Since killing pets is A-OK with PETA, why should anyone listen to their demands about eating meat, using lab rats for medical research, or taking children to the circus?
CCF obtained PETAs Animal Record filings since 1998 from the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Members of the public can see these documents at PetaKillsAnimals.com.
In addition to exposing PETAs hypocritical record of killing defenseless animals, the Center for Consumer Freedom has publicized the animal rights groups ties to violent activists, and shed light on its aggressive message-marketing to children.
#2
Membership in a group like this should be prima facie evidence of insanity sufficient that the members not be allowed to vote.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/30/2009 13:07 Comments ||
Top||
#3
True, but....if they kill the dogs and kitties, then they can't victimize other poor animals by eating them. If they would simply go vegetarian, they wouldn't be forced to kill them.
#1
Neat. Fun to watch, no mention of the power source for the electricity. Probably from the Columbia River Dam's the greens want to tear out to save the Salmon (and torch more of the rural economy in WA and OR). Also no mention of the reliance on South America for that nasty Lithium for the batteries.
Courts in Yemen's western province have given 3-month suspended sentences to more than 14,500 people for multiple vote registration.
Some 1,350 other registrants were acquitted of the multiple registration charge, the state-run Saba news agency reported on Sunday.
The multiple registration violations were committed in 15 constituencies of the Amran province, about 50 kilometers north-west of the capital Sana'a, during a nationwide campaign to update the voter registry last August, Saba reported.
The registry update was meant to pave the way for legislative elections that was initially scheduled for next April. However, on February 26, Yemen's House of Deputies (Parliament) approved a two-year postponement of the polls until 2011 in order to provide enough time to reform the country's electoral system.
The agency further said that the duplicate registrants will be denied the right to cast their ballots in the 2011 elections.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Very severe sentences when compared to what ACORN and the dems was given.
APPRENTICE star Yasmina Siadatan's dad is a superstud in the family stakes.
She has FOUR mums-her birth mother plus THREE stepmums living as wives with her randy polygamous father. On top of that she also has 13 brothers and sisters. And wealthy Iranian restaurateur Mehdi Siadatan, 58, is now looking for ANOTHER woman to add to his harem. Yasmina's natural mum Paula, 53-divorced the tycoon after having three of his children.
Mehdi now lives with three women who have converted to Islam to unofficially "marry" him and satisfy his needs. Smiling, he declared: "I am very content with family life considering some men find one wife too much to handle. We live together very well, the women have no jealousy. They know I have enough love for all of them."
Mehdi's partners Cinzia, 47, Stefania, 40, and Sarah, 35, even help deliver each other's babies. Meanwhile devoted daughter Yasmina, 27, lives with her real mum-a successful businesswoman-in Reading, Berkshire, but sees her dad often.
A family friend said: "Mehdi's an amazing person-dynamic, hard-working, supremely intelligent and a total charmer. And Yasmina's a chip off the old block."
A new book claiming that China is a victim of Western bullying and "should rise up and lead the world" has soared to the top of the country's bestseller list.
On the eve of the G20 summit in London, "Unhappy China" has stirred debate about whether China should have a greater role on the world stage. Although the country will soon overtake Japan as the world's second-largest economy, China is not included in the G8 and is a second tier member of the G20. Beijing has little influence in the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund and is highly vulnerable to changes in the value of the dollar.
"We still feel suppressed because we are sometimes condemned or criticised by the western world," said Zhang Xiaobo, the book's publisher.
The five authors of the book advocate a tougher line against China's enemies, including punishment for President Nicholas Sarkozy of France, who met the Dalai Lama last year. The book takes a robust view of Western criticism of China's behaviour in Tibet. "You can start a war if you have the guts, otherwise shut up!" it says.
Another passage reads: "If China stood as the world's top country, it would not act like the United States, which has been irresponsible, lazy and greedy and engaged in robbery and cheating. They have brought economic recession to the whole world."
The book is the latest sign of growing Chinese nationalism, a trend that became highly visible during the riots in Tibet last March.
Spurred on by the government, Chinese nationalists vented their anger at the depiction of Tibet in the West and at the protests over the Olympic torch passing through Paris and London.
Meanwhile, the recent confrontation between America and China over the harassment of a US surveillance ship in the South China sea and Beijing's proposal that the dollar should be replaced as the global reserve currency, have shown China's potential for greater military and economic power.
"Unhappy China" is already into its second print run, while China's major web portals and social networking sites have their own "Unhappy China" forums.
The Chinese economy has weakened since last year, with exports dropping by more than a quarter in February. Nevertheless, its leaders and intellectuals believe the financial crisis presents an opportunity for Beijing to extend its power. Jing Ulrich, a managing director at JP Morgan, said there is a feeling of economic optimism in China "that you do not find anywhere else at the moment".
Posted by: john frum ||
03/30/2009 08:01 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
So---even French think they should lead the World.
#4
"We still feel suppressed because we are sometimes condemned or criticised by the western world," said Zhang Xiaobo, the book's publisher.
Yeah I'm dreadfully sorry you have some incompetent major producers who decide that everything you export needs to have significant amounts of lead in it.
Dating culture is dead - instead, young New Zealand women are regularly getting drunk and cruising around in packs looking for men to have sex with.
That's one of the findings of a TVNZ Sunday investigation into the sexual behaviour of New Zealand women. The programme makers did the story after Kiwi women last year topped the Durex Sexual Wellbeing Global Survey as the world's most promiscuous.
They are reported to have an average of 20 sexual partners, double that of their Australian and British counterparts and almost three times the global average of seven.
TVNZ Sunday correspondent Janet McIntyre said there was anecdotal evidence from the five women on the show that the Durex survey findings were valid. "There's a new kind of mating ritual sex is the point of entry into the relationship."
If the first-up sex wasn't any good women weren't prepared to waste their time progressing the relationship. "There's no dating culture any more." In candid interviews about their sexual experiences some of the women who are all in their twenties felt empowered by having sex and wanted to celebrate and enjoy it.
McIntyre said all the women who had experienced one-night stands had been affected by alcohol, a term described by at least one expert in a report as "getting pissed and hooking up".
Men are also feeling the impact from the new sexual tactics being employed by women. The Sunday Star-Times' Being a Bloke survey last year found that 29% of the 5000 men surveyed felt they had been pressured into having sex or had had sex unwillingly.
#1
OK, so next trip... Thailand or New Zealand?
OTOH, did not know predatory praying mantises can inkarnate into human bodies. So I stick with Thailand.
#3
I forget who it was who said it, but I think it's true, feminism did't liberate women so much as turn them into unpaid whores.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/30/2009 8:17 Comments ||
Top||
#4
...or men in a different chassis. So they're behaving like so many adolescent/young males. Their rates in stress related illnesses and crime are on the rise as well to catch up with males. Not so much liberation as homogenization.
The companion piece to this silliness should be on a survey about gullibility in TVNZ investigators being at 0%. Also note that the study was funded by Durex, which is surely an unbiased retailer of condoms.
#6
Women are the new men? Sad, very sad. Watch out brothels, these hookers are giving you a run for your money. Gone are the days when the majority of women were seen as civilizing, nurturing influences. Thank God not all women are so twisted as to think casual hook ups are "point of entry" to relationships. After all,not all differences of personalit and opinion can just be patched up in bed.
With an approach to sexuality closer to gay men? The wonders of a feminized society. Though anonymoose may certainly right to beware that kind of "analyzing".
OT, remind sme of a bad joke turned into a skit line y a french comedian, something in the lines (I can't tell a joke) of "today's wimmen drink like men, they smoke like men, they swear like men, but even with they, they get surprized when you f0ck them up the @ss".
#12
These young females feel "empowered by having sex and wanted to celebrate and enjoy it" -- so they have to get "pissed" to do that?
Dunno about the Kiwis, but most of the things I do which I want to celebrate and enjoy are not things I have to get drunk for. Superbowl being an obvious exception.
#13
Frankly speaking today's economic factors (aka men who dont/cant/wont earn enough to look after kin and hearth AND feminism have compelled the majority of women to go out and work like men, and compete like men...so its hardly suprising when they are more hardcore than in the housewife years? However, being a working woman doesnt mean a woman needs to be a floozie. The moral hazard with that joke is, the Suprizing Frenchie is revolting, if men like that would only wear signs on their heads indicating to that effect that they were such sleazebuckets, women, men, and daughters everywhere would be safer.
Women may be able to blame impulse buys and extravagant shopping on their time of the month, research suggests. In the 10 days before their periods began women were more likely to go on a spending spree, a study found.
Psychologists believe shopping could be a way for premenstrual women to deal with the negative emotions created by their hormonal changes.
Professor Karen Pine will present her work to a British Psychological Society meeting in Brighton later this week.
She asked 443 women aged 18 to 50 about their spending habits. Almost two-thirds of the 153 women studied who were in the later stages of their menstrual cycle - known as the luteal phase - admitted they had bought something on an impulse and more than half said they had overspent by more than £25.
A handful of the women said they had overspent by more than £250. And many felt remorse later.
Professor Pine, of the University of Hertfordshire, said: "Spending was less controlled, more impulsive and more excessive for women in the luteal phase. The spending behaviour tends to be a reaction to intense emotions. They are feeling stressed or depressed and are more likely to go shopping to cheer themselves up and using it to regulate their emotions."
She said much of this could be explained by hormonal changes during the menstrual cycle. And the findings were exaggerated in the women with severe PMT. "We are getting surges and fluctuations in hormones which affect the part of the brain linked to emotions and inhibitory control. So the behaviour we found is not surprising."
Another explanation might be that women are buying items to make themselves feel more attractive - coinciding with the time of ovulation when they are most fertile, typically around 14 days before the start of a period. Most of the purchases made by the women were for adornment, including jewellery, make-up and high heels.
Professor Pine said: "Other researchers have found there is an ornamental effect around the time of ovulation."
Researchers have found women tend to dress to impress during their fertile days.
Professor Pine, author of the book Sheconomics, said if women were worried about their spending behaviour they might avoid going shopping in the week before their period was due.
#1
that's gotta lead to some Sharia tension in Olde Araby
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/30/2009 18:00 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Problem "if women were worried about their spending behaviour they might avoid going shopping in the week before their period was due."
Solution: go to www.landsend.com and sign up for the virtual shopper. Its a virtual anatomical replica of your body: measurements, hair, skin and eye color, complete with a hairstyle of your choice that you can dress up in outfits. Plug in your information and try different outfits on your "You" without the guilt. Enjoy shopping Ladies!
#5
I believe the sequence goes 1. Cardmember 2. Member. Or so the Penthouse Forum letters bragged.
Posted by: ed ||
03/30/2009 19:04 Comments ||
Top||
#6
gold miners. send em to the landsend.com virtual model. no woman NEEDS a man to clothes shop for her unless the one of the following conditions are met: youre engaged, it really is her birthday, or she owns exactly 3 outfits and youre taking her somewhere fancy. Like Julia Roberts and its Pretty Woman time and youre Richard Gere. Normal women already have too many clothes already.
#7
Maybe too many clothes, maybe not. But a girl has got to dress to impress.
People may not be slaves to hormones, but they sure are indentured.
Posted by: ed ||
03/30/2009 21:33 Comments ||
Top||
#8
so if dressing to impress is how women game men around ovulation time, what is wearing our sunday best to church mean? is that like a ovulation false alarm?
#10
Yea, that or mentioning she does need to wear make-up, or chocolate is no longer on store shelves. Say these things to your lady and its like welcome to your own personal hell, like falling into a fiery pit, or attack by fire ants.
Personally i am very proud of my extensive wardrobe and shoes, Gawd help anyone who tells me to not to have pride in these things.
IKEA, the world''s biggest home-furnishings retailer, said Saturday that it was reconsidering new investment in Russia and that it would have to lay off 245 employees after months of delays kept it from opening a store in Samara.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Industrial production in Japan fell a sharp 9.4 percent in February, the government said Monday, as the sharp slump in global demand continued to paralyze the nation's factories.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
The chief executive of US car giant General Motors (GM) is to resign under pressure from the White House, Obama administration officials have said.
Rick Wagoner's removal comes hours before Barack Obama, the US president, is to unveil a second bailout for GM and its smaller rival Chrysler. Wagoner, who has helmed the largest US carmaker for eight years, had said last week that he had no plans to quit, but was asked by the White House to go, said US media citing administration officials.
The GM chief executive and chairman came under fire for his leadership of ailing company late last year when US politicians debated a bailout for the carmaker.
And when the next government bailout doesn't work another head will roll ...
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
So he made the curious decision that government managed and subsidized labor contracts and capital injections are more valuable/profitable than taking GM through Chapter 11?
And the stockholders and more importantly bondholders have gone along with this analysis?
I'd be insulted if I were a bankruptcy judge. Of course they've already been thoroughly disregarded and insulted and ignored by the current administration (and terminal actions of the last) who rather pointedly NEVER even raise the possibility of such filings.
I'll grant that the FDIC/Treasury/Fed. are contemplated differently form a legal aspect than all other business concerns, but this administration simply doesn't want to recognize ANY business concerns.
#2
With one hand, the Obama administration raises fuel efficiency standards for the auto industry, making them strain even harder while they are already on life support -- and with the other hand they pull the plug on the industry. Nice going, bozos!
#3
Obama hasn't done anything for fuel efficiency standards, and even if they were raised, it isn't clear that the auto industry could do anything to meet them.
Bambi can't let GM go Chapter 11: any competent bankruptcy trustee would restructure the labor contracts and the work rules. That would finish the UAW and, more importantly, end the multi-million dollar contributions to the Dhimmicrats.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/30/2009 1:11 Comments ||
Top||
#4
any competent bankruptcy trustee would restructure the labor contracts and the work rules. That would finish the UAW...
Which is pretty much what needs to happen. GM's fundamental problem is not that they can't make cars, it is they can't make cars profitably. At least not with the UAW dragging them down.
#9
While I won't miss Wagoner (the value of GM's stock is down 95% under him. I'm surprised he lasted 8 years.), I don't like Uncle Sam's involvement. Steve is right, Ch. 11 would have been the right answer, but that is of the table now.
#10
and now Obama owns GM's future. Whatever happens better (hah!) or worse, it's his. No more voting "present". Sucks to be responsible, huh, Barry? Dow futures are down 200 right now
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/30/2009 9:27 Comments ||
Top||
#11
Flying to D.C. with your own jet to beg for money didn't go down that well
Posted by: European Conservative ||
03/30/2009 11:31 Comments ||
Top||
#12
Doesn't matter for GM if the CEO is gone. The same inept board of directors that let him stay and approve the inept business plans is still there.
#13
If this is the way Obama stays onside with the unions while getting GM to what is essentially a prepackaged bankruptcy, then it's the most competent and free market oriented thing he's ever done. Not sure and not saying much, but Wagoner did nothing to prepare his company for a downturn. His lasting 8 yrs was in part due to the moral hazard that comes with being too big to fail.
#15
If this is the way Obama stays onside with the unions while getting GM to what is essentially a prepackaged bankruptcy, then it's the most competent and free market oriented thing he's ever done.
I don't (necessarily) wish to argue, but only to understand.
Could you explain that, please, JAB?
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/30/2009 12:53 Comments ||
Top||
#16
Why wasn't Gittelfinger (head of UAW) fired also?
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/30/2009 15:07 Comments ||
Top||
#17
There was a quote on some site linked to by Instapundit this am.... something like....
"President Fires GW CEO" is as dissonant as "Pope Fires Missle".
First they came for the CEO's but I didn't care because I wasn't a CEO.
The question isn't whether Wagoner deserved it; it's whether Obama had any business making that call.
Posted by: Herman Chunter2725 ||
03/30/2009 15:35 Comments ||
Top||
#18
"President Fires GW CEO" is as dissonant as "Pope Fires Missile"
was a Lileks quote
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/30/2009 15:36 Comments ||
Top||
#20
So, if you want your president to succeed
you'll dump your volvo, saab, lexus, prius,
and every other non Deetroit iron for an
Impala.
Posted by: Andy Spasing6529 ||
03/30/2009 16:08 Comments ||
Top||
#21
Drudge links to a Wall Street Journal article suggesting that President Obama's team would like to see GM and Chrysler file for bankruptcy in May, unless the UAW agrees to a new labour contract. Very interesting details at the link. Note that in addition to forcing out Mr. Wagoner, more than half of the board members will be replaced as well.
#22
Wagoner probably has blue eyes and we now know that they are the ones to blame for everything. So someone with with brown eyes, say Je$$ie Jack$on or Rev Wright should fit the bill.. right!
#23
Before the inaugural, rumor was Obama wanted a 'prepackaged' bankruptcy for GM. Basically, a smooth transition into a reorganization status in which they can renegotiate contracts with the UAW, suppliers and dealers while new owners for the assets are already identified. This is probably the most realistic approach, in my humble opinion. However, the unions won't like it because bankrupt corporations have a lot more power in union negotiations.
So, my point was, maybe Obama's making a big deal out of Wagoner while essentially undermining the UAW preference to avoid bankruptcy. Not sure though. Not looking to argue either. It's a sad mess however it goes down but a government run auto company is all the sadder.
#24
The news cycle is already turning to focus on Wagoner golden parachute -- forget about the fact that one of our biggest businesses has been nationalized and your Crapolet is now warranteed under the full faith and credit of the US
Posted by: regular joe ||
03/30/2009 17:33 Comments ||
Top||
#25
Bankruptcy Leads Possible Plans for GM, Chrysler GM looks increasingly like it will be forced into filing for bankruptcy protection, sometime in mid-to-late May, in a plan where the automaker breaks into two companies, the surviving entity a "new GM" that maintains key brands such as Chevy and Cadillac and some international units, say several people familiar with the situation.
Stakes in this new GM could be given to creditors and UAW members. It is also possible the new company could be sold whole or in parts to investors.
Under this plan, the "good" GM would not be expected to hold the tens of billions of dollars in retiree and health care obligations that hurt the auto maker in recent decades. Instead, those obligations would be transferred to an "old GM," made up of less-desirable brands like Hummer and Saturn, and underperforming plants and other assets. This part of GM would likely sit in bankruptcy much longer while a buyer is sought for the parts or it is wound down. Proceeds from the sale of old GM would go to pay claims to various creditors, including GM retirees.
In other words, taxpayers will continue to subsidize the "bad" GM.
Posted by: ed ||
03/30/2009 18:41 Comments ||
Top||
#26
Even if this move winds up being a runaway success, and GM is the most profitable company in the world next year for no other reason than Bammo taking swift and decisive action -- I STILL have a huge problem with this. Putin, on the other hand, is nodding approvingly.
Wagoner would not declare bankruptcy. He said so repeatedly and in fact, I do not believe GM could have had a Chapter 11 BK because it would have been unable to get debtor in possession financing. Sot the BK would move to Chapter 7 and we'd be in much, much worse shape than we're in now, much like the AIG rescue.
So Wagoner got his chance to try to save the company and failed to do so.
Now he's out and the Feds have said they will assume the warranty liability from GM. In 60 days, GM will file with Uncle Sam providing the DIP financing. The interesting thing to watch is whether Bambi will let a BK judge make the hard decisions or whether he will try to smooth things over for the UAW with some sort of ad hoc administrative procedure.
I suspect the later. And that it will drag on for a long time and ultimately cost him the support of organized labor. At the same time, the far left will turn on him for the quagmire in Pashtunistan. He should start reading about LBJ. Often.
Still it was the right thing. As though he had a choice. That's why whoever won the last election was the loser.
#28
Thank you for the explanation, Nimble Spemble. Mr. Obama said he alone knew how to fix our little financial bobble, so I do not begrudge him his success, when it comes... with all that voting more than "present" entails. As for Mr. Wagoner, I now know longer feel sorry for him. Thank you for that.
Couldn't answer your tax thing yesterday.
Any tax claims in Germany lapse 10 years after being due.
Lets say if you made money in 1994, you had to file by 1995. Taxes were due in that year. Now count ten years from December 1995. December 31st 2005 was the last chance for the German tax office to claim anything, IF you filed a tax return in 1995. If you filed at a later date, the clock starts ticking later.
But even if you didn't file at all, claims would have expired by now.
So if Germany hasn't told you by now that it wants something from you, it's over.
In return, you can't claim anything from them either.
So close that chapter.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
03/30/2009 21:12 Comments ||
Top||
..But it is also has Ukraine's highest unemployment. In a crowded field, the previously little-known Freedom Party won 50 of the regional assembly's 120 seats as voters embraced its hard Right leader, Oleg Tyagnibok, who has urged the expulsion of all Jews and Russians from Ukraine,,
#1
Ukraine was the biggest dropped ball during Bush's presidency. Should have done everything to bring them to the west, including free trade, energy (nukes) and NATO. Instead there's a good chance the Soviet Union will be reassembled, something that isn't possible w/o Ukraine.
Posted by: ed ||
03/30/2009 19:02 Comments ||
Top||
#2
And yes, Clinton also ignored the Ukraine when they were going through very hard times in the 90's. Could have been different if Ukraine could have place a hottie intern in the Whitehouse.
Posted by: ed ||
03/30/2009 19:10 Comments ||
Top||
"The aircraft can't be built under the current conditions," said Thomas Enders, chief executive of Europe's planemaker, in an interview with Der Spiegel. "It is better to put an end to the horror than have horror without end."
The project has been plagued by delays and excess costs, entailing 1.7bn (£1.57bn) in penalties. The aircraft is over-weight. Its turbo-prop engines built by Rolls-Royce and France's Snecma are under-powered. There have been serious glitches in the software from MTU Aero Engines.
Germany's state-secretary for defence, Rudiger Wolf, has threatened to pull the plug on the A400M if Berlin does not receive clarification for the delays by early April. "I don't think it makes any sense to struggle on to the bitter end," he said.
#4
I see no way EADS will scrap the A400M. They have too much of their own money invested and will have to give back government money already spent. It would be cheaper for EADS to finish the plane themselves. More like putting pressure on member governments to renegotiate specs and schedules and cough up more money.
Posted by: ed ||
03/30/2009 19:40 Comments ||
Top||
Tens of thousands of people have protested in Madrid, the Spanish capital, against government plans to liberalise the country's abortion laws.
The demonstrators marched through the city on Sunday, with many gathering outside the Equality Ministry, which has been tasked with changing to the regulation. "Get out of here and let the children live," protesters shouted, while calling for Bibiana Aido, the socialist government's equality minister, to step down.
About 500,000 people took part in the protest, a spokesman for the groups organising the protest said, but reporters from the Agence France Presse news agency put the turnout at about 100,000.
Police did not issue an estimate of those attending the protest, which was supported by Spain's right-wing opposition and the country's Roman Catholic church. "As a Catholic, I think we should help women have children, not abort them," Paco Ortega, one of the protesters, said.
In one part of the demonstration, children danced and sang: "Thank you mummy for letting me live."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Provisions of the law include:
-Abortion without parental consent for 16 years old girls
-Abortion until 22th week. That is five month. At this stage the baby has been for long being able to move (people will remind an issue from a Tv series, who I have been told was based on real facts, where a faoetus grabs a fringer of the surgeon who was intervening his mother: that was a 20 weeks foetus).
Opposition hasn't been merely a catholic thing. I know a lot of liberal (european sense: free market) atheistic or agnostic bloggers and all of them are adamantly against this law. In fact a number of left wing Spaniards oppose it and others only support it due to party discipline.
#3
JFM, you messed up your nick. Interesting still how lively is the spanish conservative opposition, even when the msm, french or not, will not report on the sheer massiveness of some street protest turnouts (like that education reform a couple years ago, with literally millions in the street, with barely a peep from the teevee talking heads, whereas any 10-15 leftists protest is accompanied by several news crews). Spain seems heavily spoiled by an hedonistical & left-leaning spirit, but it DOES have an actual conservative movement.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party is leading local elections as poll counting is still going on. With 50 percent of the Sunday votes counted so far, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) ranked first, garnering almost 40 percent of the ballots, AFP reported.
The Republican People's Party (CHP) is following AKP with 20.2 percent and the Nationalist Action Party (MHP) is in third place with 16.7 votes.
The election is to choose about 93,000 local representatives in the country's 81 provinces. Some 48 million people were eligible in Sunday's elections, which turned violent, leaving at least six people dead and nearly 100 others wounded in five different provinces.
Recent polls have predicted that the AKP would keep the control of the capital Ankara and the important city of Istanbul.
Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has been in power since 2002. Erdogan's party secured more than 41 percent in the last local polls in 2004 and followed it up with a 46.6 percent win in Turkey's parliament elections in 2007.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
LAHORE: PML (N) quaid Mian Nawaz Sharif has said that President Zardari has fulfilled the basic demand for the restoration of the judges and now he is ready to set up a working relationship with the govereement.
In an interview to Wall Street Journal, Nawaz Sharif said that with the start of the efforts for the reconciliation we are ready to work together with the government.
He said that we want the present government to complete its tenure.
Nawaz Sharif said that no single party can meet the challenges the nation is currently facing and on this occasion, we cannot afford the politics of confrontation.
Replying to a question, Nawaz Sharif said that there is no problem working with the new management of the United States while he appreciates the contacts made by president Barack Obama with the Pakistani leaders.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
President Asif Ali Zardari has said the party will sit in opposition in the Punjab Assembly and the PML-N should give up the PML-Q forward bloc.
Addressing the parliamentary meeting of the PPP Punjab at the Governor House on Sunday, the PPP co-chairman said governor's rule in the Punjab would be lifted immediately after the prime minister sent him an advice to this effect, while it depended upon the PML-N how it dealt with the PPP in the Punjab.
PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also addressed the party MPAs amid loud slogans of 'Zinda Hay Bibi Zinda Hay' and 'Jeay Bhutto'. Besides, Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer, PPP Secretary-General Senator Jehangir Badr, Parliamentary Leader in the Punjab Raja Riaz Ahmed Khan, Punjab President Rana Aftab and Information Secretary Dr Fakhruddin Chaudhry were also present.
During his 20-minute-long address, the sources said, President Zardari said the PPP wanted to promote national reconciliation and to respect the mandate of all the political forces. The sources said the president asked his party members not to be worried as they were enjoying power at the Centre and in three provinces.
He said the PPP would play the role of opposition in the Punjab and it depended upon the PML-N whether or not it was willing to work with the PPP in a coalition. About his experience with the PML-N, he said it was a tough rival as well as a tough friend. In case the PPP became a coalition partner, its MPAs would have to be respected by the PML-N, said a senior PPP leader quoting the president. Asif Zardari also said the PPP didn't favour the formation of a forward bloc and would discourage it.
According to sources, the president slammed his critics and said he had even pardoned those who had filed fake cases against him. He said he spent several years in prison and faced hardships but didn't make any deal with rulers. Without mentioning the names of critics, the PPP co-chairman said he could have saved his skin while signing a deal like "friends" but he didn't bow before anyone.
About the reinstatement of the judges, Asif Zardari said the judges were not reinstated under any pressure, rather they were restored at the right time keeping in view the public aspirations. He said the PPP always upheld the democratic norms and strove for strengthening Pakistan and promoting politics of reconciliation. Then his lips fell off.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
TASER International, Inc., a leading provider of technology solutions and the market leader in electronic control devices (ECDs), today announced that it will begin selling the TASER(r) Shockwave(tm) area denial system to tactical law enforcement, corrections, homeland security, critical infrastructure and military customers on March 31, 2009.
``The TASER Shockwave system provides a tactical intermediate-force area denial option for law enforcement, corrections, homeland security, and military personnel,'' said Rick Smith, CEO and founder of TASER International. ``The Shockwave system is a mobile, remote force-multiplier which uses our proven TASER Neuro Muscular Incapacitation technology to deny access to strategically important areas.''
The basic Shockwave unit consists of a six-shot TASER ECD that covers a 20-degree arc with 25-ft XP TASER(r) cartridges. The Shockwave is designed as a fully modular system, allowing the end user complete flexibility to deploy as needed to achieve the desired objective. The units can be stacked side-by-side, vertically, or can be 'daisy-chained' together in limitless combinations to allow an optimized response for every deployment.
#3
Claymore without the ball bearings. Placed at choke points this could stop a charge in it's tracks. If the darts don't get them they will trip over the wires running everywhere.
The Khmer Rouge regime's prison chief finally stood trial on Monday for Cambodia's "Killing Fields" atrocities, accused of overseeing the torture and execution of 15,000 people three decades ago.
Former teacher Kaing Guek Eav -- better known as Duch -- appeared before a UN-backed war crimes court set up to deal with senior members of the 1975-1979 communist movement which killed up to two million people.
Wearing a white striped shirt, the frail 66-year-old heard charges that prisoners at the notorious Tuol Sleng prison he ran were subjected to beatings, suffocation and electrocution before being killed.
Posted by: ed ||
03/30/2009 07:45 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Thirty years ago this month, an accident at the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania inflamed public opposition to nuclear power. The mishap - a loss of coolant that caused the reactor core to overheat - caused no known deaths or diseases, and it exposed area residents to only a negligible amount of radiation. But it fueled an antinuclear frenzy that soon brought the expansion of the industry to a halt.
Dozens of planned reactors were canceled. In the years since Three Mile Island, not a single nuclear plant has been ordered and built in the United States.
Yet far from being washed up, atomic power seems poised for a renaissance. Consider:
#2
Anyone have any idea how many people have died from nuclear accidents? How does this compare to those from mining coal and drilling for oil? Seems to me that every other week there is a coal mining accident somewhere. A couple weeks ago 17 people died in a helicopter flight from an oil rig off Newfoundland. I suspect that 100's of times more have died collecting fossil fuels than from nuclear accidents....
#3
Chemist,
American or foreign accidents? The American total is zero. The Russians have an "Inshallah" attitude toward job safety -and a casualty list to match.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
03/30/2009 14:02 Comments ||
Top||
#4
I'll bet more people have died minimg coal than mining uranium than in nuclear accidents. Way more when you look at it on a deaths per 100,000 kwh basis.
The Red River is approaching record flood levels, likely to break century-old records this weekend. Flowing north toward Manitoba along the Minnesota-North Dakota border, the river is jammed up by ice and is being fed by rain, snow and meltwater. The National Weather Service has issued projections of a crest of 43 feet near Fargo, North Dakota, 24 feet above flood stage.
Volunteers and national guardsmen are out in force, building levees, rescuing and evacuating those that need to get to higher ground. Cold temperatures are hampering efforts, freezing damp sandbags and making the job that much more strenuous for volunteers. 800 more National Guard troops and 150 Red Cross personnel are arriving in the area this weekend. (30 photos total)
#1
I'm amazed at how the locals share the burden. From the Fargo Forum:
Bruce Boelter and Tony Guck figured theyve expended ample sweat helping erect a sandbag wall blocking the Red River from their Fargo neighborhood. And theyre being proactive making sure its up to par.
On Saturday, Boelter, 56, had walked the entire length of a roughly milelong stretch of sandbag dike to eyeball the manmade wall separating their subdivision an eclectic mix of townhouses, duplexes and split-level homes from the Red River. Guck, 42, joined up with him halfway along, each figuring they had a special stake in the integrity of the dike they helped build.
Monitoring the dikes, they said, was a shared duty, with someone assigned to walk the 3-foot-tall wall of sand every hour around the clock until the crisis passes.
Guck said he expected to walk the line every six hours, with others taking part in the rotation.
Theres always a person every hour going, he said. If we dont protect this, its gonna get us.
That guy in the helicopter in the photos is my dad! He has been really busy with this flood and I don't see him much because he leaves early in the morning and comes home in the late evenings. My dad has also had to go to Fargo to help up there too. I'm proud of what he does and if you happen to know him or see anyone in uniform please thank them for what they do here at home or over seas.
We were lucky enough to be far away from the flood but some of my friends weren't. They are all O.K. though. On the bright side, we got out of school for a few days. :)
#5
But where is BUSH? He should be down up here NOW! And where are the fancy, charter buses to get these people out of here and the 'three hots' and FEMA trailers? [snark off]
#6
Not many wusses in that part of the country. Those folks know how to survive, and they'll do it without the whining of city-dwellers who are conditioned to depend on the government.
#8
and...and...and where's all the ice and snow coming from???? It's spring and AGW means there's no ice in the Arctic!!!!! so how can their be ice way down south like that??????
#10
No worries, bus loads of reinforcement volunteers will soon be arriving from New Orleans and communities throughout Louisiana. A coalition of the concerned including President Obama, Mayor Ray Nagin, Rev. Al Sharpton and Rev. Jesse Jaskson have seen to it! [snark off]
#11
No looting of big screen televisions or folks on their roof with a Help US signs to be sure. However, less then a third of all residents in the area have Flood Insurance. It should be interesting to see if, in the aftermath, rebuilding is done with Disaster loans or if there will be another outcry for victim subsidies. Or maybe, just maybe, people just wont build their homes in a flood plain this time.
#12
Looting of big screen tely's? Probably not much of a worry. I suspect their Neigborhood Watch programs include pre-planned "firing lanes" and "kill zones" as we have in rural Georgia.
#15
Apparently the river crested below the projection because the water from upstream froze. North Dakota and the states surrounding it were hit with a severe winter storm that pretty much locked up the excess storm water. They're expected to get another dose today or tomorrow.
Al Gore could not be reached for comment...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/30/2009 16:19 Comments ||
Top||
#16
It's amazing. Good to note the contrast with Katrina and God bless those folks.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The chief executive of US car giant General Motors (GM) is to resign under pressure from the White House, Obama administration officials have said.
"The aircraft can't be built under the current conditions," said Thomas Enders, chief executive of Europe's planemaker, in an interview with Der Spiegel. "It is better to put an end to the horror than have horror without end."
Tens of thousands of people have protested in Madrid, the Spanish capital, against government plans to liberalise the country's abortion laws.
LAHORE: PML (N) quaid Mian Nawaz Sharif has said that President Zardari has fulfilled the basic demand for the restoration of the judges and now he is ready to set up a working relationship with the govereement.
President Asif Ali Zardari has said the party will sit in opposition in the Punjab Assembly and the PML-N should give up the PML-Q forward bloc. 
TASER International, Inc., a leading provider of technology solutions and the market leader in electronic control devices (ECDs), today announced that it will begin selling the TASER(r) Shockwave(tm) area denial system to tactical law enforcement, corrections, homeland security, critical infrastructure and military customers on March 31, 2009.
