A German inventor who developed a gadget that berates men if they try to use the toilet standing up has sold more than 1.6 million devices, his business manager said on Tuesday. German women fed up with a man with a poor aim can turn to the ghost-shaped gadget, which lurks under the toilet rim and, if the seat is lifted, declares in a stern female tone: "Hello, what are you up to then? Put the seat back down right away, you are definitely not to pee standing up ... you will make a right mess..." Alex Benkhardt, 46, invented the "WC Ghost" and its creators are in negotiations to market it in Britain, Canada and Italy.
Posted by: ed ||
05/18/2004 14:34 Comments ||
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#4
Has anyone else noticed the camel's nose in the tent effect?
When I was a kid, the female orders of the day were "put the lid up beforehand". Just that; no other requirements.
Then all of a sudden in the '80s it was "put the lid down when you're done". Like women were too weak to put it down them selves? - Hey if you sit down on anything without looking first, you take your chances.
#10
I've always thought it's a vestige of the old "women being taken care of by men" meme. Perhaps, with the advent of feminism, this is the only socially acceptable way in which women can still indicate to men their desire to be cared for and protected?
Personally - and I am female, last time I checked - I've always believed that it's up to the individual user to ensure the equipment is in proper working order. This isn't limited to toilets. Most people don't step into the shower before ensuring the water is the correct temperature, and fewer still step into the elevator without making sure there is a floor to step on. So why is it so difficult to check before you sit down? You check the paper, don't you?
In my house (me, husband, teenage son, multiple critters) the seats AND lids are kept down, to keep the cats from drinking out of the toilets (not that the toilets are unclean or unsanitary, just that the sight creeps the Librarian's Husband out). Keeping bathroom doors shut isn't an option, as cat boxes are located in bathrooms.
Of course, in Indonesia the police write tickets for people who fail to flush in public facilities ... what's next, a toilet alarm if you don't flush?
Sofia the Imperial Librarian
Posted by: Sofia ||
05/18/2004 15:53 Comments ||
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#11
kinda a waste of money since according to women (ok my wife) men (i mean me) do not listen....
Posted by: Dan ||
05/18/2004 16:25 Comments ||
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#12
Stern female voice..huh?
Well some guys like that...
I bet in Britain the voice will talk GERMAN, too!
The Irish are the sleepiest workers in Europe, according to new research. A survey also revealed that most Europeans who fall asleep do so at their desk. Over 21,000 workers across Europe answered the survey, carried out by Monster, which asked: âHave you ever fallen asleep at work?â
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, huh? What was that question?
Almost 40% of respondents from Ireland admitted to falling asleep at work. Workers in Britain are next in line, with 35% saying they catch 40 winks on the job. Long hours and mid-week socialising are cited as reasons for snoozing in both countries.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
05/18/2004 1:13:56 AM ||
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God my boss is away and I was just thinking of snatching 40 on her leather Chesterfield. WEIRD.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
05/18/2004 9:16 Comments ||
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#2
You'd think the car-bombs would keep them awake.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
05/18/2004 10:25 Comments ||
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A man who cooked and ate nearly 30 cicadas sought medical treatment after suffering a strong allergic reaction to the sauteed insects.
Wotta maroon.
The man showed up at a Bloomington clinic Thursday covered from head-to-toe in hives, and sheepishly told a doctor heâd caught and ate the cicadas after sauteing them in butter with crushed garlic and basil. "He said they didnât taste too bad, but his wife didnât care for the aroma," said Dr. Al Ripani, the doctor who treated the man at Promptcare East. The man, who has a history of asthma and shellfish allergies, suffered a "significant allergic reaction," after eating the cicadas, Ripani said. . . .
After living underground for 17 years and feeding on tree roots, the so-called Brood X cicadas are emerging by the billions across the Eastern U.S. Ripani said recent newspaper articles extolling the tastiness of cicada cuisine should have warned people that dining on the bugs can be dangerous for some people. "Severe food allergies such as this can be fatal," he said. "I feel that needs to be stressed in these articles." He said the University of Marylandâs department of entomologyâs Cicada-licious cookbook, which includes recipes for Cicada Stir-Fry and Cicada Dumplings, contains a disclaimer urging people to consult a doctor before eating cicadas. "We ask that you please take special caution if you have other food allergies, such as soy, nuts or shellfish, or if you know of any contact allergies that you may have to other insects," it states. Everybody, all together now . . . one . . . two . . . three . . .
EEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWW!
Posted by: Mike ||
05/18/2004 6:43:48 AM ||
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#5
Mmmm! Promptcare East Bloomington IN is a few blocks from my brother's house. Can't be him tho cos I'm the one who does dumb crazy things.
Posted by: Phil B ||
05/18/2004 8:28 Comments ||
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#6
I was in law school in Cincinnati during the last emergence. One of the radio stations had a joke commercial for "cicada pizza" that they played to death.
Never thought anyone would actually want to eat one of those ugly little suckers.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/18/2004 8:52 Comments ||
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#7
Seems to me like Darwin's ghost's nudging someone in the ribs here.
#9
This gives me a movie Idea: Cicadas vs. Killer Bees - Who's got bigger antenni?
Posted by: Charles ||
05/18/2004 9:33 Comments ||
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every 17 years there's a group of a-holes that appear on the news all smiling and assuring that the red-eyed BUGS taste like chicken when prepared just so...no, they taste like BUGS dammit! If you're not in survival school training, and you eat bugs, you're an idiot, sorry
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/18/2004 9:38 Comments ||
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#11
Yeah, Bulldog, I think this one deserves at least an Honorable Mention in the Darwin Awards.
Maybe his example will inspire some idiot to take it to the next level . . .
Posted by: The Doctor ||
05/18/2004 9:48 Comments ||
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#12
You don't seem to want to accept the fact that you're dealing with an expert in guerilla warfare. With a man who's the best, with guns, with knives, with his bare hands. A man who's been trained to ignore pain, to ignore weather, to live off the land. To eat things that would make a billy goat puke. In Vietnam his job was to dispose of enemy personnel. To kill, period! Win by attrition. Well, Rambo was the best!
#13
One of the radio stations had a joke commercial for "cicada pizza" that they played to death.
Heh. It wasn't the station's commercial, it was a commercial for the regional "Snappy Tomato" pizza chain. They've said they'll run the ad again this time, but I haven't heard it yet.
"Snap! Snap! Snappy Cicada Pizza!"
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/18/2004 10:41 Comments ||
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The wife of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has urged women in the kingdom to stick to Muslim traditions and ignore âspuriousâ calls for liberalisation, according to remarks published yesterday. Addressing women graduates at King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah late on Sunday, Princess Jawhara bint Ibrahim Al Ibrahim slammed âsatellite TV stations which wage frenzied campaigns against Muslim women in general, and Saudi women in particular,â the SPA reported. âIslamâs enemies and the fainthearted women who follow in their footsteps do not tire of waging war against our Muslim traditions, trying to incite Muslim women to shed those norms on grounds that they restrict their freedom,â she said. Such spurious claims in fact seek to spur women to drop âethics and values,â returning them to the state which prevailed in the Arab region before Islam came 14 centuries ago to âraise womanâs status, honour her and shield her virtuousness,â Jawhara said.
Posted by: TS(vice girl) ||
05/18/2004 9:17:58 AM ||
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"The" wife? He has three of them. I'd hope that this is at least the head wife. Can't be getting our moral guidance from second or third-rate wives of senile oiltick tyrants, can we?
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
05/18/2004 9:57 Comments ||
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#2
returning them to the state which prevailed in the Arab region before Islam came 14 centuries ago
Under the tyranny of Islam there can be no movement forward. The only alternative to stagnation, she says, is movement backward.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
05/18/2004 10:06 Comments ||
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#3
Hey, no problem! If you're happy being breeding stock, stay that way. The rest of the world has things to do, though...
Posted by: Fred ||
05/18/2004 11:04 Comments ||
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#4
If you're happy being breeding stock, stay that way.
The possibility of some no-name woman peon to go on to greater heights than just being the king's breeding stock in an oppressive system probably chaps Princess Jawhara's ass.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/18/2004 12:25 ||
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His attempt to divert Venezuelans' attention away from the referendum will not be successful. The only way that could is, if the Opposition gives him the chance to stage another April 12th 2002 Auto-Coup. I hope the Opposition does not schedule a demonstration before the date set for the Signature Repair Process. This will be the opportunity of a lifetime for him!
Plan for manned space station to move forward
China plans to build its own manned space station by around 2020 but has shelved plans to put a man on the moon for financial reasons, state media quoted the chief designer of the nationâs space program as saying. A whiff of sanity or just the stark realization that $250 BILLION worth of bad bank debt has painted them into a rather constrained financial corner?
Wang Yongzhi, godfather of the mission that completed its first manned flight successfully last year, said the permanent station would take about 15 years to complete, the official Xinhua news agency said, citing a Beijing newspaper. "China will also conduct a lunar orbiting program," Wang told a gathering of high school students on Sunday, the Beijing News reported. But contrary to previously announced plans, the 72-year-old said the lunar probe would not land a man on the moon. China rocketed ex-fighter pilot Yang Liwei into orbit around Earth in October, becoming only the third nation in space after the former Soviet Union and the United States and fuelling bigger dreams of galactic exploration. Officials of the highly secretive program have made vague reference to a future space station but the timeline projected by Wang was believed to be the most specific to date. China has welcomed international cooperation in its space station. I donât see where thereâs much prestige to be gained from any participation with Chinaâs Spam-in-a-can aerospace technology.
It was unclear if plans to forge ahead on its own were influenced by recent signs the United States might not want China to join the 16-nation, $95 billion International Space Station. So long as China maintains itâs aggressive posture in Asia, it should rightfully be shut out from gaining any expertise in aerospace technology at ourâs or anyone elseâs expense.
Chinese space officials were "shocked" the United States had not done more to welcome them into the small community of space-faring nations, a leading U.S. expert said last month after a trip to China. Quite fitting considering how Americaâs space program is civilian.
The United States harbors concerns that the army-run Chinese program could some day pose a threat to U.S. dominance in military satellite communications. In light of Chinaâs overt aggression in Tibet and constant saber-rattling over Taiwan such concerns are not just predictable but obligatory.
#2
I never had confidence they'd get to the moon according to their aggressive schedule. I was hoping there would be a race though, something to spur another space race. Generate interest.
Depending upon the design this could be a much wiser step to getting to the moon. A space station was the first step Von Braun expected. Still, the more likely course is Mir 2.
The French government Monday described the 35-hour working week as a financial disaster that was costing the state billions of dollars and promised to reform the system despite fierce union opposition. The finance minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, said that the 35-hour week had burdened the state with additional social charges and that it had demoralized millions of workers. "The Socialists made a decision which is not compatible with our responsibilities to Europe," he said. He suggested a system whereby those who wanted to stay on the 35-hour week could do so, but those who wanted to work and earn more had greater latitude. The 35-hour week came into effect in 1997, as the Socialistsâ idea for reducing unemployment. Unemployment now is just under 10 percent.
#1
35 hours a week, and an unemployment rate "just under 10 percent". Hmm... How do they calculate unemployment in France or the EU in general?
Does it include only people looking for work, or all people not actually working or retired or what?
He suggested a system whereby those who wanted to stay on the 35-hour week could do so, but those who wanted to work [Sacre bleu] and earn more had greater latitude to send more taxes into the bureaucratic machine.
#2
France's 35-hour work week was supposed to take more people to do the same job; it was actually an employment ploy (which, with unemployment hovering around 10%, must not have worked). Frogs aren't allowed to work overtime.
Of course, it also guarantees you can't make any more money. The socialists' dream come true: everyone is equally poor. (except them, of course)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/18/2004 17:41 Comments ||
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#3
lazy bastarts...stop whinning about dominace of american economics and culture if you can't put the time in....35 hours and probably paid for 40...nothing but big babies
Posted by: Dan ||
05/18/2004 18:04 Comments ||
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#4
What kind of enonomic wizard was it who persuaded the French that a mandatory 35-hour week would create jobs?
Socialist stupidity: will it ever ceases to surprise?
#8
Why blame just the 35 hour work week. France is failing.
Posted by: B ||
05/18/2004 18:50 Comments ||
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#9
But Bulldog, Marx said that the total amount of capital was fixed, so it must be true! /sarcasm
Poor French. They think that they can wave a magic wand and, poof, dirty "Anglo-Saxon" capitalism will go away. Retards. Capitalism is capitalism. It doesn't come in French, Hindu, Latino, or "Anglo-Saxon" flavors.
They have three choices: Sharia, Facism, or John Locke. Time is running out.
I just came to that realization the other day. If they do nothing, they get Sharia. If they wait too long before reacting, the only one that'll save them is Le Pen. Afterwards, we'll have to deal with the human toll of ethnic cleansing, and then spend two or three generations listening to the Frogs blame it all on us since we were too capitalistic or unilateral or whatever their BS excuse of the day is. Lemonde will probably print some cartoons of Uncle Sam jerking off on Madeleine or some similarly low-life crap.
The only way they're going to win this war without wearing burkas or jackboots is by growing their way out of it. They need to dump Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity and get on with Life, Liberty, and Property. The French being the French, will ignore their Sabine Herolds, screw it all up, and blame everyone else.
Via Bros. Judd:
God is back in the debate on the draft EU constitution as several states renewed demands to make a reference to Europeâs Christian roots. Predominantly Roman Catholic Ireland and Poland as well as Italy and Spain have long sided with the Vatican in demanding a reference to God, or at least Christian values, in the charter, against strong opposition from secular France. The issue was raised again by Italy and Poland at a meeting of European Union foreign ministers on the constitution, which the 25-member bloc hopes to approve in June. "We are aware of the difficulties but we believe that a small inclusion in the text would not alter the preamble too much," Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini told reporters on Tuesday.....
#1
. . .demanding a reference to God, or at least Christian values, in the charter, against strong opposition from secular France.
Francois Poulenc (1899-1963), French composer wrote an opera, "Dialogue of the Carmelites", in which the closing scene is a group of nuns getting guillotined.
France and Germany have responded with anger to British demands for more clarification on the EU constitution's national vetoes. Joschka Fischer and Michel Barnier, the German and French foreign ministers, warned Britain's Jack Straw that he should not use "salami tactics" to slice up more of the constitution. Fischer and Barnier fear that Britain is using the promised referendum on the treaty as leverage to wring more concessions on national independence. Straw and Prime Minister Tony Blair claim to have secured most of Britain's "red lines" in areas of taxation, finance, criminal justice, defence and foreign policy. However, as the pace of the negotiations has hotted up, the government is eager to ensure that no loopholes are left in the text which could allow British sovereignty to be undermined in future.
Particular attention has fallen on the Charter of Fundamental Rights, which Britain fears could lead to the European Court obliging Britain to enforce stifling EU-style labour legislation. Workers' groups could take their complaints to the Euro-court, which might then be able to exploit ambiguous clauses in the Charter to impose its ruling on the UK.
A man slapped Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in the face during a campaign rally Tuesday, causing no apparent injury, police said. The man lunged at Schroeder while he was giving autographs to a crowd of people at a Mannheim civic center during a campaign stop for his Social Democratic Party ahead of European Parliament elections next month. Security agents subdued the man, and police took him into custody, Mannheim police spokesman Volker Dressler said. Police did not immediately identify him. Schroeder suffered "no visible injuries," Dressler said. Shortly afterward, the chancellor held a campaign speech as planned. Anyone remember Zsa-Zsa Gabor and the Beverly Hills Policeman?
#1
Germans bitch slapping each other and peeing sitting down, all in the same day. Coincidence? I think not. What next, crying at Barbra Streisand moves? Time to slip a little testosterone into their beer and ship them some NFL.
Posted by: ed ||
05/18/2004 15:12 Comments ||
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#2
Hey, Ed - they have NFL already such as the Frankfurt Fire where from once Bulger and Warner and a host of other top guys came from.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
05/18/2004 15:16 Comments ||
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#3
ed-ship them some NFL
What happened to the Frankfurt team of the World league?
Sikh school boys must exchange their turbans for hair nets when a new law banning religious apparel in public schools takes effect in September, France's education minister said Monday, shocking representatives of the Sikh community. Education Minister Francois Fillon spoke after education officials adopted - with some misgivings - a set of guidelines to help school officials apply the law, which was enacted in March after a marathon parliament debate. The law forbids conspicuous religious symbols and attire in the classroom, such as the Jewish skull cap and large Christian crosses, but it is chiefly aimed at the Muslim head scarf. Under the guidelines, Muslim girls can only wear bandannas in schools that allow them, Fillon told a news conference Monday. Asked in an interview about the turbans worn by Sikhs, he said an "arrangement" had been made with Sikhs to replace the traditional head gear with hair nets. We've come up with an arrangement," Fillon told The Associated Press. "They accept wearing a hair net. It's less aggressive, less showy."
Representatives of the small Sikh community of 5,000-7,000 said they were unaware of any such arrangement. On the contrary, they said, Sikh representatives had received a letter from a counselor to Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, dated May 10, that provided "conditional assurance" that Sikh boys could wear turbans in class. "We were told that we could wear turbans because we never posed a problem," said Karmvir Singh, a Paris member of United Sikhs.
Since when is good behavior an excuse in France?
"A hair net has no place and no meaning," said the director of United Sikhs, Hardyal Singh, based in New York. "It's appalling."
But it will allow your boys to work in any Mickey-D's in Paris.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/18/2004 12:57:06 AM ||
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It is a highly bad idea to tease or otherwise annoy Sikhs. Their religion can best be described as "the worship of the big Command Sergeant Major in the sky", as far as militarism goes.
They are so *good* at soldiering, as a group, that they run the Indian army. The British will tell you that they are damn effective in combat.
And, as a group, they are also very businesslike and middle class.
I just cringed when the US Army ordered them to shave their beards or get out. Even the few hundred in the ranks were inspirational, and every one left, rather than shave. What a loss.
#2
Anonymoose - isn't it an Army requirement for all soldiers to remove beards (don't know about moostaches) because having them prevents the use of a gas mask (can't have an effective seal with it on)? Based on that, I doubt that Sikhs themselves were singled out, though I could be wrong.
#3
Raj - that was the rationale, however, Sikhs had worn beards and served with the Army for many years, long after gas was an issue. The change came with what I would call "The Ugly Man Program" in the Army: the systematic effort to eliminate everybody who didn't "look good" in a uniform. This included the smokers, the "overweight" and the 'unusuals'.
N.B.: the "fat man" program eliminated large numbers of very competant senior soldiers, something only a peacetime military would dare.
All-in-all, it was a military version of Political Correctness. Foolishness.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/18/2004 12:22:30 AM ||
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The rarely used 1872 law was aimed at keeping boarding houses from luring sailors off inbound ships with offers of harlots, strong drink and warm beds. Law books mention the law only twice, most recently in 1890. "It harkens to the Barbary Coast and wenches with heaving bosoms and kegs of rum," said Kayanan.
*sigh* Ah, the good old days . . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
05/18/2004 0:27 Comments ||
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#2
The poor hippies finally met their match in an 1872 law :)
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
05/18/2004 0:34 Comments ||
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#3
They take all the fun out of going to sea.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/18/2004 0:57 Comments ||
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#4
this is really about them losing their tax exempt status should they get conviced. I pray that it happens.
#5
Did I just not read this carefully enough or is this just more biased media?
Individual Greenpeace members were prosecuted immediately. In an unprecedented move, prosecutors indicted the organization itself 15 months later on misdemeanor charges of illegal boarding and conspiracy. A conviction could be punished by five years of probation and a $20,000 fine.
Could someone please explain to me how a law against illegal boarding and conspiracy is the same as a law meant to keep sailors out of the warm beds of harlots? Because, unless I skimmed too quickly - this article doesn't give us a clue.
#6
"U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan has rejected Greenpeace's attempt to access records to determine who authorized the prosecution.
Jordan has sounded open to dismissing the case on Greenpeace's claim that the wording of the old law is too vague. In an order last month, he said the group's argument "looks like a winner.""
B. I would say the Judge sees it the same way as well as you.
#7
of course, the ACLU has joined the defense. I hope they lose their tax-exempt status, but then again, boarders should be immediately shot as a security measure
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/18/2004 9:28 Comments ||
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Why all the kerfluffle? Illegal boarders should be shot as pirates. End of problem.
This crapâs been bothering me for a while, as youâll soon see... Hillary: Bush Making America âUnrecognizableâ
U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton warned yesterday that if President Bush were re-elected, the United States would change beyond recognition by the end of his second term. In what way is America becoming âunrecognizable / beyond recognitionâ? To use phrases like this and my current âfavoriteâ, "We have to take our country back!!! YEEEAAAAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!", are symptoms of a complete dumbing down and content free campaigning style, done almost entirely by the DemocRATS. The former is a mere assertion thatâs not based on any concrete examples, although one (they) may infer that Bush, being a religious guy, might be turning the USA into a Catholic theocracy of some sort. The latter phrease implies some sort of theft / expropriation by the evil, greedy, profiteering warpigs of the Bushitler neocon cabal thatâs firmly in the pocket of crony capitalists like Enron and Halliburton, while we all dance to the tunes of these sick, twisted fascist puppet masters. Itâs enough to drive you up a wall and go on a rant, know what I mean?
"If by some fluke this administration is elected for four more years, we will not recognize our country," Clinton told delegates at New Yorkâs state Democratic convention in Manhattan. Once again, a redundant stock phrase devoid of content, facts and meaning. How about some specifics?
Calling President Bushâs policies the product of "the most radical right-wing agenda" in recent memory, Clinton said that Novemberâs vote "may be the most important election any of us has seen in our entire lifetimes." The Bush administration can hardly be considered âradicalâ in the conservative sense. I cannot picture Reagan enlarging Mediscare, or endorsing the No Child Left Behind Act, or signing an unconstitutional restriction on political speech campaign finance reform bill. But hey, if the sap rubes that make up the modern Democratic party buy this shit hook, line and sinker, itâs the results that count, right?
The former first lady addressed state Democrats who were gathered to nominate Sen. Chuck Schumer for a second term. But even Sen. Schumer had his sights on President Bush, accusing the White House of nominating "right-wing ideologues" to the federal bench and acting "like a bull in a china shop" on foreign policy, according to The Associated Press. Bush wishes to appoint judges that wonât discover âpenumbrasâ or âemanationsâ in the Constitution and has the spine to tell the UN and Old Europe to piss off if they didnât want to enforce seventeen UN resolutions against Saddam Husseinâs Iraq. Basically Senator Broomstick and Chuck "I Love to Legislate" Schumer translate disagreements on policy into nefarious motives and equate them with unruly animal behaviour. Wonder if muck4doo takes issue with the latter characterization, being all fluffy wuffy with kittens & baby ducks?
New York state Democratic conventions are tradionally vitriloic in tone. I hadnât noticed, thanks...
When Sen. Clinton was nominated four years ago after a campaign that demonized her then-opponent, Rudy Giuliani, as soft on police brutality, her delegates spit on an American-flag-carrying police honor guard. And class acts, all. Forget your baseball bats at home?
Clinton later apologized to the police in writing for the spitting. Proforma apology, probably had her fingers crossed behind her back when she said it. The lust for power for its own sake is fairly evident based on the content free rants and the watered-down Brownshirt antics of the True Believers dancing to her tunes. Eric Hoffer would be proud, sort of.
#4
To use phrases like this and my current âfavoriteâ, "We have to take our country back!!! YEEEAAAAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!", are symptoms of a complete dumbing down and content free campaigning style, done almost entirely by the DemocRATS.
It's not dumbed down or content-free. The intent is to radicalize and enflame.
Conservatives aren't wrong; they're evil.
Bush hasn't made the wrong decisions; he's Hitler.
Any bombs that go off in the US in the next six months have (IMHO) a 25% chance of being left-wing terrorists, thanks in large part to language like this.
(70% Islamist; 5% right-wing for the remainder)
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/18/2004 19:58 Comments ||
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#5
Beautiful, Ed! Captures her perfectly!
If we don't fight the war on terror, the country won't be recognizable. If we bow to Islamic influence, this country won't be recognizable. If we get a French president this country won't be recognizable.
And when Hillary speaks, logic and manners are far, far away.
Posted by: The Doctor ||
05/18/2004 20:50 Comments ||
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#6
Jeezus H. Christ! Can't that butch bitch shut her trap for five freakin' minutes?
Robert, I agree. If the lefties (home-grown or Islamist) set off bombs before the election, it will be a least partly because of their encouragement by the Democratic party.
Wankers.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/18/2004 21:41 Comments ||
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IMO Greenspan is OK but he is certainly not all knowing. He made some wrong calls during the run up to the Savings and Loan problems of the 80s and he may have acted to slowly to the excesses of the late 90s.
Even if he makes all the right calls, monetary policy is just one component of the economy.
by Michael Rubin, National Review Online. EFL; go read it all.
. . . On March 5, 2004, Senator Edward Kennedy, [the hefty, gin-soaked Massachusetts Democrat who once drove off a bridge,] speaking before the Council on Foreign Relations, took the president to task for allegedly exaggerating the threat posed by Iraq: "The evidence so far leads to only one conclusion. What happened was not merely a failure of intelligence, but the result of manipulation and distortion of the intelligence and selective use of unreliable intelligence to justify a decision to go to war," Kennedy said. . . .
To support his attack on the president, Kennedy cites Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski . . . . Kennedy describes Kwiatkowski as a "recently retired Air Force intelligence officer who served in the Pentagon during the buildup to the war."
Kwiatkowski did serve in the Pentagon prior to the war, as did I, as did approximately 23,000 others. But, Kwiatkowski was not involved in Iraq policy. Her reminiscences fall more into the realm of fiction than fact. I worked in the Office of Special Plans (OSP), charged with some aspects of the Iraq portfolio. My job was that of any desk officer: Writing talking points for my superiors, analyzing reports, burying myself in details, and drafting replies to frequent letters from Congressmen John ["Dingbat"] Dingell and Dennis ["Moonbat"] Kucinich. I was a participant or a fly-on-the-wall at many postwar planning meetings and accompanying video teleconferences. One person I never met was Kwiatkowski. This should not be a surprising. Kwiatkowski was an Africa specialist who was the point woman for issues relating to Morocco. Just as I never attended meetings relating to Western Sahara, Kwiatkowski was not involved in Iraq policy sessions.
Rather than an inside scoop, Kwiatkowski provided an ideological screed. By her own admission, she started writing Internet columns while still a Pentagon desk officer. But, she did not know many of the people about whom she wrote. The Office of Special Plans consisted of a small number of active duty military officers, reservists, and civilians; both Democrats and Republicans. Kwiatkowski got ranks and services wrong. In rank-conscience corridors of the Pentagon and among military officers, such things do not happen.
Upon her retirement, Kwiatkowski took her story to Jeff Steinberg, editor of the Executive Intelligence Review, the journal of Lyndon LaRoucheâs movement. Pat Lang, former chief Middle East analyst at the Defense Intelligence Agency, circulated Kwiatkowskiâs deposition to Steinberg in a September 16, 2003, e-mail in which he carbon-copied, rather than blind carbon-copied his distribution list. Among the recipients were prominent journalists and producers, scions of the alternative press, and a smattering of current and former intelligence analysts who often serve as sources in news analyses and articles.
Many journalists and pundits ignored the deposition, tainted as it was by innuendo and falsehood. LaRouche, after all, has both peddled the theory that Queen Elizabeth II is a drug dealer and that former Vice President Walter Mondale was a Soviet agent. . . .
Personally, Iâd love to hear LaRoucheâs theory on "what really happened at Chappaquiddick." But no matter . . . .
The Steinberg memorandum of the Kwiatkowski conversation is a study in conspiracy and innuendo. Based on Kwiatkowskiâs recollection that she bumped into a Fletcher School classmate of Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Bill Luti on the platform of the Pentagon Metro station, Steinberg speculates that there may be a wider Israeli conspiracy. After all, according to Steinberg, the Fletcher School was the "roost" of Uri Raanan, a former Israeli diplomat. Jonathan Pollard, convicted of espionage, had attended the Fletcher School. Steinberg neglected to mention that Raanan taught at Tufts for two decades, is a renowned scholar of Russian politics, and currently directs Institute for the Study of Conflict, Ideology, and Policy at Boston University. Steinberg also omits that Pollard failed to matriculate from Tufts.
According to Steinberg, Kwiatkowski told him that the Office of Special Plans was a "propaganda" unit. "Each week, OSP produced an updated Power Point talking points [presentation] on why the US must go to war in Iraq," the Kwiatkowski-Steinberg memorandum relates. Kwiatkowski should know better. The Office of Special Plans did produce Power Point slides, but not for the purpose Kwiatkowski insists. Talking points are a standard way to provide information throughout the military. This is well-known to Air Force officers, who joke they log more Power Point time than flight hours. . . .
In her expose to the LaRouche organization, the substance of which was later published in ["Pitchfork Pat" Buchananâs]The American Conservative magazine, Kwiatkowski alleged that there was a purge of desk officers within International Security Affairs. Not true. Kwiatkowski may have been upset that some colleagues received promotions when she did not. . . . New desk officers rotated in, many of whom had far better language ability and on-the-ground experience than Kwiatkowski.
Kwiatkowski prides herself on her expose of a "neoconservative coup." She explained this to the Executive Intelligence Review editor. But, many of the people she alleged to be part of the Office of Special Plans, either worked in other Pentagon departments, or had long since retired from government. The errors are not surprising. In the 18 months I served in Special Plans, she did not visit the office (which would also explain subsequent errors in relating the location of the office).
Progressing from the ridiculous to the sublime, the Kwiatkowski-Steinberg memorandum suggests that one staff member pretended to care for his wheelchair-bound wife in order to travel on undercover secret missions. Unfortunately, Kennedy staff members took the LaRouche organization at its word, and dragged the career government employee in for questioning on this allegation. In her conversation with Steinberg, Kwiatkowski chided colleagues for alleged violations of standard Pentagon procedure, and yet ironically got wrong such basics as the escort ratio between Pentagon employees and visitors.
Kwiatkowski has dishonored the U.S. military by using her Pentagon position to grandstand and legitimize fringe ideology. Like LaRouche, she rails against imaginary conspiracies and questions the loyalty of government employees who happen to be Jewish. While writing under the moniker "Deep Throat Returns," Kwiatkowski wrote, "The neocons must be squirming. Strategic placement of chickenhawks should have leveraged the full might and political resources of the United States to build greater Zion, resolve the Middle East, and award energy development contracts to all true believers." That Kwiatkowski would refer to her direct supervisor, Bill Luti, as a "chickenhawk" is ridiculous. Luti had a 26-year military career, including during the first Gulf War. Likewise, former National Security Council member General Wayne Downing â and everyone who served under his command in places like Panama â may take issue with Kwiatkowskiâs allegations. But to Kwiatkowski, facts do not matter. In subsequent essays, she alleged her colleagues were fighting for a "greater Zion" rather than for U.S. national security.
Kwiatkowskiâs extremism undermined her competence. Her enthusiasm for conspiracies was matched by a lack of focus on national security. In a January 15, 2003, e-mail to a colleague, Kwiatkowski wrote that neither Osama bin Laden nor al Qaeda, let alone nuclear North Korea, posed "a serious threat" to the U.S. national security. "On the other hand, you gotta watch out for them Canadians!" she continued. "Theyâre sneaky, yâknow. According to my friend Lyndon, they put fluoride in the black helicopters to drop on baby seals in Idaho so that . . . ." There is a place for debate in policy â and, within the Pentagon, debates are frequent and fierce. But, living in denial about the threat al Qaeda posed after the Pentagon itself was hit in a terrorist attack did not inspire confidence.
In normal times, Kwiatkowski might not have passed journalistsâ credibility threshold. Donât be too sure of that.
But, with Internet information laundering and Langâs gatekeeping, she met a small number of ambitious journalists hungry for a scoop. They did not source their material to LaRouche and, at times, did not source their material to Kwiatkowski, but nonetheless betrayed their source by repeating her errors. . . .
In April 2003, the LaRouche organization published a pamphlet entitled "Children of Satan." The pamphlet contained a Steinberg essay alleging that students of the late University of Chicago professor Leo Strauss had formed a secret "cabal" to drag the United States into war by falsifying evidence.
The following month, I returned from a meeting at the National Security Council to Special Plansâ suite of offices on the first floor of the Pentagon (Kwiatkowski falsely wrote that we worked in the basement). Several colleagues were pouring over a fax. Public Affairs had just brought it over, saying that a New Yorker fact checker had inquiries and that Seymour Hersh was planning an expose of our office. We answered his questions immediately. Many of his statements were factually wrong and repeated Kwiatkowskiâs mistakes verbatim. But, when the article was posted on the Internet on May 5, 2003, Hersh had not incorporated any corrections; his article is rife with errors.
But, with the Pentagon leadershipâs decision to concentrate on work rather than on public relations, falsehoods transformed into conventional wisdom. Take Hershâs opening sentence: "They call themselves, self-mockingly, the Cabal." We had never called ourselves that, although we were aware that Lang (whom Hersh cites openly), Defense Intelligence Agency official Bruce Hardcastle, and some Central Intelligence Agency officials used the term to describe Jewish colleagues. Before Hersh, it was The Washington Report for Middle Eastern Affairs which popularized the term "cabal" to describe certain Pentagon officials. The Washington Report is not a mainstream publication. Rather, it is a fringe magazine which has put in print theories such as that the Mossad was behind John F. Kennedyâs assassination.
Emphasis added. Someone posted a couple of Washington Report links here at the âBurg yesterday; I think, not realizing who they are.
Robert Dreyfuss, contributing editor to The Nation, repeated many Kwiatkowski conspiracies as fact, in a series of article for The Nation, The American Prospect, and Mother Jones. . . .
The Triple Crown of left-wing moonbattery! Wonder if the Mother Jones people realized in their marijuana-induced stupor they were aligning themselves with Lyndon LaRouche and Pat Buchanan? Wonder if they would care if they did?
Many Democrats and Republicans, whether opponents or proponents of the Bush administrationâs foreign policy, have engaged the executive branch on substantive issues of policy; they ask pertinent questions and professionally exercise oversight. It is a shame that some do not. Senator Edward Kennedy, eager to score points in an election year, cast his lot with a disgruntled conspiracy theorist. In doing so, he undermined tens of thousands of hardworking servicemen, not only at the Pentagon, but also in conflict zones across the world. Kennedy has failed as a leader. Before senators speak, they should make sure their sourcing does not rely on Lyndon LaRoucheâs magazine.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/18/2004 10:54:50 AM ||
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#1
Wonder if the Mother Jones people realized in their marijuana-induced stupor they were aligning themselves with Lyndon LaRouche and Pat Buchanan?
IMHO, they are just flip sides of the same coin.
Posted by: B ||
05/18/2004 15:10 Comments ||
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Progressing from the ridiculous to the sublime, the Kwiatkowski-Steinberg memorandum suggests that one staff member pretended to care for his wheelchair-bound wife in order to travel on undercover secret missions. Unfortunately, Kennedy staff members took the LaRouche organization at its word, and dragged the career government employee in for questioning on this allegation. Nice!
The following month, I returned from a meeting at the National Security Council to Special Plansâ suite of offices on the first floor of the Pentagon (Kwiatkowski falsely wrote that we worked in the basement). Several colleagues were poring over a fax. Public Affairs had just brought it over, saying that a New Yorker fact checker had inquiries and that Seymour Hersh was planning an expose of our office. We answered his questions immediately. Many of his statements were factually wrong and repeated Kwiatkowskiâs mistakes verbatim. But, when the article was posted on the Internet on May 5, 2003, Hersh had not incorporated any corrections; his article is rife with errors. No surprise here... Read the whole thing, and despair at the grand convergence of the idiots.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/18/2004 10:24:46 AM ||
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#1
Beat me to it by half an hour! Aaaarrrugh!
Posted by: Mike ||
05/18/2004 11:01 Comments ||
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#2
I went and read (tried to read) the entire article at the Nation Review site. I could follow it until this sentence: "Upon her retirement, Kwiatkowski took her story to Jeff Steinberg, editor of the Executive Intelligence Review, the journal of Lyndon LaRoucheâs movement."
From that point on, the article is hard to understand beyond the idea that the author doesn't think that Kwiatkowski, Steinberg, Hersh, etc., are reliable. I think the article needed an editor. I can't figure out the narrative that is supposed to be told here.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
05/18/2004 11:14 Comments ||
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#3
FOX News? Hello? Can any of you guys or gals pick this up and make it a cohesive story to get it out there?
SENATOR BAGOGAS and LOONY LYNDON . . . this is too good!
- Kwiatkowski wanted to get in on the Internet publishing thing and used her position to do so.
- She wrote about areas of the Pentagon she had never visited and made very basic mistakes.
- Nonetheless, the people who published her work, or took it further, as the case may be, took her at her word, based on her position.
Bottom line - In this era of 24-hour, non-stop news, The Scoop is all, and fact checking merely holds you back. In short: Journalism today is so much passing on of whispers from supposedly inside sources.
Add to the mix "name journalists", such as Hersh, who long for the good old days when a Republican President could be hounded from office, and you've got "newspapers of record" being on par with the Weekly World News, and Senators spouting ridiculous conspiracy theories.
#5
eLarson - Unfortunately I think the Weekly World News is more accurate more often than the "newspapers of record."
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/18/2004 15:58 Comments ||
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#6
Re #4: The basic mistakes described in this article don't have anything to do with what Hersh reported, as far as I can tell.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
05/18/2004 16:59 Comments ||
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#7
RE #6
I don't get your point, Mike. Rubin doesn't attempt a point by point exposee of the various (alleged) mistakes in Hersh's article. Maybe you think he should have, but I think it would have mired him in the details of a sub-plot.
Also, I don't really get your first comment, either. eLarson's comment is a good first stab at a summary, doncha think?
#8
I think Rubin should have written the article so that the story makes sense. Starting right after the sentence I quoted, I became thoroughly lost. There's some deposition. There's some e-mail. There's some wheel chair. There's some people with wrong ranks. There's something about Powerpoint. It's incoherent.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
05/19/2004 0:15 Comments ||
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#1
I'm not a Powell fan, but I think the New York Times is deliberately being misleading here. Powell said that some of the information presented to the administration was misleading, which is to say that the French deliberately planted a false story to discredit the administration's case on WMD's.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/18/2004 10:17 Comments ||
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#3
It's been a staple of conventional press wisdom since, oh, say, about 9/13/01 that the Administration is bitterly divided between the "moderate" "sensible" Colin Powell (who would do what the NYT wishes he would do if he were in charge) and the "neocon cabal" of Rumsfeld and Rice (who, of course, want to blow up the world for Haliburton).
Don't believe it for a moment. These guys are all on the same team. Powell is the "nice cop" because, as Secretary of State, he is the institutional advocate of diplomacy. Rummy is the "bad cop" because, as Secretary of Defense, he's the institutional advocate of military force. Like any good nice-cop-bad-cop team, they're all on the same page. They may have disagreements--in fact, they're supposed to--but they're not adversaries.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/18/2004 10:20 Comments ||
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#4
No wonder he takes distance, that Pinokio nose is keeping growin and growin, could get in the eye you know.
Posted by: Murat ||
05/18/2004 10:40 Comments ||
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#5
Murat, the personal rancor for our beloved President reflected in that statement I do not intend to dignify with comment.
Seriously, though, I haven't been following this terribly closely, but I heard rumors at one point that Powell may not be in the next administration (please forgive my ignorance if this has actually been confirmed and I missed it). Has there been some sort of split - perhaps over the course to take now in Iraq - or something?
I'm not as old as some of the people on this site, and only follow politics (esp. ME) as a hobby and because of some good friends who got me into it, but I've always admired Powell, thought he had a fairly decent head on his shoulders. It really would be a shame if Bush didn't have his counsel in some capacity - though that's just my personal opinion.
Posted by: The Doctor ||
05/18/2004 10:49 Comments ||
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#6
Hey, Murat -- they caught the people behind the latest bombing in Turkey?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/18/2004 11:11 Comments ||
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#7
"I do not take offense that Mr. Colon Bowel has chosen this particular moment to distance himself from me, in fact I welcome it- Wheew!"
#8
wow - that was sophomoric, even by MY low standards
the medi aloves to use unnamed sources to divinne s chism between Bush and Powell, Bush and Rumsfeld, Bush and...well you get it. The LATimes has outdone itself this last week saying our Gov. Schwarzenegger (I love hearing that LOL) is distancing himself from Bush, but could offer zero proof - Ron Brownstein doing his Dem Whore act
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/18/2004 11:32 Comments ||
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#12
Mike - its not just the liberal press that sees daylight between Powell (and the CIA) and the neocons. If you follow pro neocon pundits, like Jim Hoagland in the WaPo, Bill Kristol in the Weekly Standard, Frank Gaffney in the Wash Times, etc you see it as well. Oh, and a recent piece by an ex-CPA staffer in the NRO. And Wolfies statement that they justified the war on WMD (and not on terrorists connections or democracy promotion) cause it was "the only thing everyone agreed on". I think the factionalism within the current foreign policy team is blatant, and intense, and responsible for many of the problems. I myself favor the neocons over Powell, since I see Powell as favoring Saudi interests, and ready to back away from democracy in Iraq, along with other "realists".
#13
LH (ref#3) It's Powell's DUTY to represent the world throught the prism of the Sec State. In that capacity he will undoubtly conflict with CIA, DOD, and DOJ on various issues. That's his job to present that view and he is very good at it. I remember when he was in Uniform he struck me as more politican than military (reagardless of the fruit salad) and this is the best position for him. If he doesn't stay on in the next administration look for Condi to take over state and Karen Hughes to become NSA. That would drive the Liberals CRAZY! Also don't look for some tell-all book (by Powell) that undermines the second term.
#14
Powell is a root conservative with the good that means in normal times and the bad that means in challenging times. He always have been too much prudent and adept of following the book. I think is good for admin to have diferent views, but the Powell service in a State Department that has all vices that made possible 911 hasnt been positive.
State Department needed a cultural overhaul...
#15
Murat - you talk as if the Turkish govt has/is always telling the truth..like to your kurdish population..you should look at home before you start making false statements.
Exactly what did Bush lie about? I live in the US and follow politics closely and he did not lie. But what he did say has be misreprensented..and anyways there was and is WMD still in iraq..dumbass
your post have really sunken - almost to the point I question if this is really Murat.....
either way your a dumbass...
oh and say hi to your new niegbors..the proud nation of KURDISTAN...dumbass
Posted by: Dan ||
05/18/2004 20:35 Comments ||
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HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) - Two months before pictures of Iraqi prisoner abuse became public, the family of one accused soldier wrote to 14 members of Congress that "something went wrong" involving "mistreatment of POWs" at Abu Ghraib prison.
Separately, a suspended Army officer in Iraq wrote to Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania. He sent the letter six weeks before the CBS program "60 Minutes II" first broadcast photographs of the prisoners on April 28.The strongest reply any of them got was a note saying what they already knew - that the Army was investigating, according to documents released last week by Specterâs office and the family of Army Reserve Staff Sgt. Ivan L. "Chip" Frederick.
Frederick, of the Maryland-based 372nd Military Police Company, faces a general court-martial on charges of conspiracy to maltreat detainees, dereliction of duty, maltreatment of detainees and wrongfully committing an indecent act. In late February, his family sent letters or e-mails to 11 Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee, plus three of their local congressional members and Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, seeking information on Frederickâs status, said Frederickâs uncle, William W. Lawson, of Newburg, W.Va.
A Feb. 23 letter from Lawson to Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia said Frederick was relieved of prison-guard duty without explanation Jan. 14, two days before the Army publicly announced a criminal investigation of alleged prisoner mistreatment. Rockefeller responded on March 2 that the Army could not act on the request unless it came from Frederickâs wife or mother.
Mark Ferrell, a spokesman for Rockefeller, said the letters sent on behalf of Frederick were "consistent with what had been in the news about a Pentagon inquiry into prisoner abuse but gave no indication that widespread abuse existed." But you would think that he would have checked, especially with teh way that they treated Rummsfeld and Wolfowitcz. Still, he said, several people on Rockefellerâs staff have had telephone conversations with Lawson since receiving his letter in February. "The senator is eager to talk to Mr. Lawson and tried to call him ... but didnât reach him," Ferrell said.
Warnerâs spokeswoman, Ellen Qualls, said Sunday that the governorâs office has found no record of a letter written by Frederickâs family about the former corrections officer. "Iâm unaware of it," Qualls said.
Frederickâs mother, Jo Ann Frederick, wrote on Feb. 24 to Sen. Paul Sarbanes, D-Md., and Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett, R-Md. Sarbanes replied on Feb. 27 that he had "written to the appropriate officials" and would contact her when he received a reply.Bartlett forwarded to her a response he received from the Army, saying that "inquiry into this matter has been initiated."
On March 18, Lt. Col. Jerry Phillabaum, formerly second-in-command at Abu Ghraib, wrote an e-mail to Specter mentioning "digital pictures of naked prisoners," The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Saturday. At the time, Phillabaum had been suspended as commander of the 320th Military Police Battalion while Army investigators probed the alleged abuse. He has since been reprimanded and relieved of command.
In the letter, Phillabaum sought Specterâs help in expediting the investigation so he could return to his family in Lansdale, Pa. Specterâs office released copies of its electronic correspondence with Phillabaum and his family last week. In a statement accompanying the e-mails, Specterâs office said it paid little attention to the Abu Ghraib references because "Phillabaum stated an investigation was underway," the Inquirer reported.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/18/2004 12:24:00 AM ||
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Not likely to be heard on 60 Minutes:
"Senator, what did you know and when did you know it?"
Posted by: John Anderson ||
05/18/2004 2:30 Comments ||
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#2
Anybody else think these guys might be a little nervous about all clustering in one room? Sure would make things easy for an cough al Qaeda cough terror attack.
The United Nations refugee chief said Tuesday that he is under investigation for sexual harassment after a staff member filed a complaint. Ruud Lubbers said the case was filed on April 27 and related to a meeting that took place in his office on December 18 last year that was also attended by five other staff members. "There was no improper behavior on my part," Lubbers, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and former Dutch prime minister, said in a statement. UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond said the case is being investigated by the U.N. Office of Internal Oversight. "That is all we will be saying, as this inquiry is underway," Redmond said. Tuesday's edition of The New York Times said that the complaint was made by an American woman in her 40s who had worked for the refugee agency for more than 20 years. The incident allegedly happened as she and a group of male staff members were leaving Lubbers' office at the end of the December meeting, the paper said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/18/2004 12:25:54 PM ||
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Lubbers, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees
Which runs sex-slave operations in half a dozen different countries.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/18/2004 12:51 Comments ||
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The Chadian government was still negotiating on Tuesday with rebel army units that attempted to stage an uprising at the weekend, but the motivation for the uprising against President Idriss Deby remained unclear. "The negotiations with the mutineers are well advanced, and we expect a positive outcome by tonight", Emmanuel Nadingar, the acting Minister of Defence told IRIN on Tuesday afternoon.
Chadian officials said on Monday that the rebellion had been led by units of the elite and well armed Republican Guard and elements of the presidential guard and the highly mobile National and Nomadic Guard. They said then that around 80 military personnel linked to the mutiny had been intercepted and surrounded. However, following an emergency cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the government announced that a residual group of mutineers had taken refuge in the Gassi garrison on the eastern outskirts of the capital N'djamena and that negotiations with them were still under way.
Nadingar and other officials attributed the mutiny to the two-month suspension of salary payments following the government's attempt to weed out phantom soldiers from the army payroll as part of a crackdown on corruption in the armed forces. "The measures taken by the government to control army figures and reajust them did not please everyone," Nadingar said, adding that the wages had since been paid and the situation rectified. However, diplomats said the mutiny could be the latest sign of growing friction between Deby and rival factions of his Zagawa ethnic group which dominates government and armed forces in Chad. They said Zagawa officials close to Deby had recently criticised the president in private for failing to support the rebels in Sudan's western Darfur region - many of whom are also Zagawa.
Diplomats said the timing of the army mutiny could be linked to a crucial parliamentary vote on government proposals to ammend the constitution in order to allow Deby to stand for a third five-year term in 2006. Discussion of the ammendment was due to start on Wednesday. Chadian opposition activists fear that an additional constutional ammendment to create the post of vice-president is aimed at installing Deby's eldest son as his father's deputy and eventual successor.
Ahhh... The old hereditary presidency trick...
The streets of N'djamena remained calm on Tuesday though 150 soldiers of the Republican Guard maintained a series of road blocks on roads leading out of the city in the direction of Gassi barracks.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/18/2004 5:35:56 PM ||
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Gangacharan Rajput, a Congress party member, threatens to shoot himself if Sonia Gandhi backs out of becoming Indiaâs prime minister, outside the partyâs headquarters in New Delhi, earlier in the day May 18, 2004. Sonia Gandhi, heir to Indiaâs Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, tearfully gave up her chance to become prime minister on Tuesday to protect her new Congress government from damaging attacks over her Italian birth.
#1
U.S. forces in Karbala have also recently uncovered 55-gallon drums loaded with chemicals that were said to be "pesticide," some of which were stored in what military sources described as a "camouflaged bunker complex."
Why camouflage insect spray?
The alleged agricultural site just happened to be located alongside a military ammunition dump, reports Insight magazine.
Doh!
Boy! Those UN Inspectors, they dont miss a bribe beat do they?
#3
The lack of WMDs is actually a great diplomatic ploy by the US. Of course there are WMDs in Iraq, tons of them, which the US will steadfastly deny, while continuing to find more and more of them. Why? Because of the UN resolution that the US is using to be there in the first place!
If the US either "finds" WMDs, or pronounces that there are "NO" WMDs, then the justification for the US invasion is OVER, as far as the UN resolution is concerned. Then the UN can take over or resolve that the US has to get out.
However, if the US continues to "look" for WMDs, without finding them, then it can continue to stay there and look. Hell, at this point we might as well set up a permanent office of "Looking for WMDs", that will continue onward even after the turn-over of power to the Iraqis.
It will keep the US in and the UN out.
Diplomatically, we have been beating the drum for a "new" UN resolution, that would turn power back over to the new elected government. Perhaps then, but I'm not counting on it, the US will "find" WMDs.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
05/18/2004 14:17 Comments ||
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#5
Why camouflage insect spray?
"So the cockroaches don't notice it. They're tricky, those suckers; the minute they see you coming, they scatter."
"Darn, Hans, he's got us there, his logic is just impeccable. Guess we'll be moving along then; sorry to interrupt you there, Mr. Hussein."
Posted by: Mike ||
05/18/2004 14:27 Comments ||
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#6
well, I don't know if Anonymoose is right about the UN resolution or not - but he's right about one thing. Of course there always were and are still WMD's in Iraq. You had to let go of your common sense to think that Sadaam didn't have WMD's and that all of those camoflauged bunkers full of pesticides and mobile labs were meaningless.
Just because a lie is repeated over and over and over again by the media doesn't mean that it's true.
Posted by: B ||
05/18/2004 15:00 Comments ||
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#7
Sorry, guys - you don't search an area the size of California over night, especially when ammo dumps are one of the more common features of the landscape.
#8
Um - we have a Sarin shell, and a Mustard gas shell. Now we need to find the source of those bad puppys. Being that the Sarin one was unmarked as such, it make the whole thing rather tricky. Precursors in drums labeled as bugspray? Matches with unmarked Sarin in an artillery shell.
Seriously, I hadn't seen that angle before. I haven't really been able to understand WHY the US seems to be UNDERPLAYING their hand.
1. Iraqi-AQ links: see Czech intel
2. WMD: It's all bugspray
3. Torture by Saddam: Yeah, he kept lots of records... uh... but let's not let them out.
4. UNSCAM: Why the UN didn't want US going into Iraq, but we still love them.
5. Insurgents: Odd... they're Syrian, Iranian and Jordanian. Not a peep.
At times it seems like the US LIKES it's bad press. And hasn't said a word in defense. It's like they used all their PR juice in the run-up to the invasion.
The only thing I could figure out, is that it's playing nice with the UN and others, for support in rebuilding Iraq. But it never dawned on me that we might want to keep ALL of the UN out of Iraq. (I guessed/hoped that France, Germany and Russia might get the cold shoulder, but I doubted it)
Anyway, it could be going it alone in Iraq to more effectively build a democracy by itself. Unless, I'm mistaken, nation-building attempts by the UN have been horrible disasters. And so far, we've done pretty good in the past. (See: SKor, Japan, Philipines... sorta and Europe... sorta)
Of course this is all just wild speculation on account of my tinfoil hat shrinking, but it's all FASCINATING.
#13
True enough....everyone here at RB has wondered aloud what's been goin' on over there. The communication has been awful in regards to reported finds concerning WMD. This latest incident just adds to it. I do remember that one contact either at DoD or Pentagon was surprised at the release of the info on the sarin attack....that it was his understanding it was classified (and was to remain so)...so who knows. I still don't see it adding up to a conspiritorial effort to keep us in and the UN out (but hey...I've got my own foil stash ready to go...I just haven't dipped into it yet) The UN bugged out on their own. Fine..we're better off.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
05/18/2004 17:56 Comments ||
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#15
I work in a chemical plant that has in the past made insecticides. These chemicals are nerve agents. They fry a bugs nervous system. They do the same thing to humans if enough is injested or gotten on the skin. They can be refined to make MUCH more potent nerve agents. But I guess the pesticides found in Iraq by the barrel-load are for peaceful purposes only.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
05/18/2004 18:35 Comments ||
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#16
well...it's intriguing anyway, Moose. There has to be some reason why they do it. I'm very curious as to why.
Posted by: B ||
05/18/2004 18:46 Comments ||
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Nadeem Haider, whose family was murdered in Mughalpura on Friday, was not murdered but he committed suicide, witnesses told investigators on Monday. The witnesses, two children, saw Mr Haider drive up to the canal, slit his wrists, and walk into the water on Saturday, police sources told Daily Times. âWe became scared and ran away,â sources quoted the children as having told the investigators. The sources said investigators now believed that Nadeem had professional hit-men murder his family. They added that the investigation police might close the case on the basis that Nadeem was the real culprit.
Ummm... What about the triggermen?
âHe could not have killed them himself. The clothes on his sisterâs body were torn,â sources said. The investigators also found a pair of surgical gloves at the crime scene. A similar pair of gloves was found at the crime scene of Nadeemâs death, sources said, adding no fingerprints were found at either crime scene.
Why wear surgical gloves to slit your own wrists? Then again, who bumps somebody off by slitting his wrists? I'm so confused...
Posted by: Fred ||
05/18/2004 12:51 ||
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Plagues and pestilences... What's next? A swarm of locusts?Somebody turning into a pillar of salt?
Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever has killed four people and infected at least six more in Quetta, health officials said on Monday. Tariq Khoso, medical superintendent at Fatima Jinnah Chest Hospital in Quetta, said six patients suffering from the fever had been admitted and placed in an isolation ward. âThey arrived at the hospital in the past week from two affected regions,â Mr Khoso said. He said that a week ago, the disease killed Omar Khan, his wife, their 13-year-old son and infant daughter near Qila Saifullah, 150 km northweast of Quetta. âWe have sent medical teams to the affected area to monitor the situation there,â said Balochistan Director General for Health, Pir Khawajakhel.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/18/2004 12:49 ||
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#1
sounds like Allah's not happy, or a returning Jihadi brought something more than murderous fervor home from Africa?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/18/2004 12:52 Comments ||
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#2
Export murder and import death. There's a rather fitting reciprocity to this. In light of how Pakistan has sold nuclear technology to anyone with a checkbook, maybe it's time for them to reconsider the wisdom of circulating among so many ill-controlled regions.
#3
Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever can be caused by a tick bite or contact with an infected animal or person. Because of the virus, the infected person suddenly becomes ill with fever, dizziness, neck pain, aching muscles and stiffness, and recurrent headaches within a few days. Soon, after vomiting and diarrhoea have set in, the volume of blood platelets falls, causing the blood to be unable to clot properly. The bleeding then begins: from the gums, from under the skin, in the nose and internal organs. Without treatment, a patient can literally bleed to death.
I'd say this would count as a plague in the Signs/Portents Department.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/18/2004 13:07 Comments ||
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#4
This is Ebola one of the nastiest diseases known.
Posted by: Phil B ||
05/18/2004 19:25 Comments ||
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Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a viral haemorrhagic fever of the Nairovirus group. Although primarily a zoonosis, sporadic cases and outbreaks of CCHF affecting humans do occur. The disease is endemic in many countries in Africa, Europe and Asia, and during 2001, cases or outbreaks have been recorded in Kosovo, Albania, Iran, Pakistan, and South Africa.
The mortality rate from CCHF is approximately 30%, with death occurring in the second week of illness. In those patients who recover, improvement generally begins on the ninth or tenth day after the onset of illness.
I think that an outbreak in the NWFP provinces was reported here in 2002 or 2003, though I cannot find it by searching Rantburg.
Nigeria's president declared a state of emergency in a troubled central state on Tuesday, invoking sweeping powers in a bid to halt religious and ethnic bloodletting that he said posed a "great threat" to national unity. The declaration came amid reports of new violence by suspected Muslim militants against four predominantly Christian villages in Plateau state, wracked for months by cycles of revenge raids. Survivors of Tuesday's attacks spoke of gunmen opening fire on fleeing civilians and burning homes. President Olusegun Obasanjo sacked Gov. Joshua Dariye and dissolved the legislature in the central state of Plateau, saying elected officials had "wittingly and unwittingly encouraged acts that have subverted peace and tranquility."
The state of emergency — announced in an address on national radio and television — came after months of violence in the state of hilly farms and pastures. Retired Maj. Gen. Chris Ali, who served in the Nigerian army under previous junta rulers, will replace Dariye. Dariye's spokesman, Stanley Bentu, said the governor accepted Obasanjo's declaration. It was Obasanjo's first emergency declaration —giving him the ability to govern by decree _ since his 1999 election ended 15 years of repressive military rule. Since then, intertwined ethnic, political and religious violence has left more than 10,000 dead across Africa's most populous nation. Rights activists and religious leaders on both sides accused Obasanjo of overstepping presidential powers, saying it threatened Nigeria's nascent democracy.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/18/2004 12:23 ||
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since both Christians and Muslims are unhappy with the move, will it do any good? He needs to weed out the Wahhabi influence if he wants the killing to stop, or else massively arm the Christians for self-protection
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/18/2004 13:40 Comments ||
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Posted by: Frank G ||
05/18/2004 10:11 ||
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Whoa! That blew the needle right off my surprise meter!
Posted by: Fred ||
05/18/2004 10:33 Comments ||
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Can you blame her? She strikes me as the subcontinent's very own Teresa Heinz Kerry. Despite having married into politics, she appeared to want nothing to do with the whole sordid business.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
05/18/2004 10:43 Comments ||
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Mine, too, Fred; know where to get a good one?
There are governing families and then there are governing families. For every Kennedy or Saud, it looks like there's a Bush or a Ghandi . . .
Posted by: The Doctor ||
05/18/2004 10:43 Comments ||
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#4
Er, Gandhi.
Posted by: The Doctor ||
05/18/2004 10:44 Comments ||
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#5
What I can't get is how it came down to this point. Everything I've ever seen about Sonja Gandhi suggests that she's uncomfortable with politics. Why was she coasting as the leader of the Congress Party? What the hell is wrong with these people, that they can't find someone who doesn't hate power politics to run things? It's not as if the leader of an opposition party doesn't have to play the game. Was she playing puppet for a eminence grise, so long as she didn't have to be responsible for policy decisions?
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
05/18/2004 10:55 Comments ||
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#6
this has a lot to do with her support by communist parties and the enormous drop in their stock market yesterday (I lost my ass on Janus overseas...crap). No confidence in her or her backers...
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/18/2004 11:51 Comments ||
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#7
Wise move - this will preserve the Gandhi mystique, and win new adherents from the other side. She can be the power behind the throne. In time, her children will grow old enough take up the reins of power.
#8
Glad they nipped that whole prosperity trend in the bud. Could of put a lot of aid workers on the street with a few more years of that type of economic performance.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/18/2004 12:06 Comments ||
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#9
You know, Zhang, I hadn't thought of that. Definitely possible, I suppose . . .
Posted by: The Doctor ||
05/18/2004 18:14 Comments ||
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#10
SH... there's big money to be siphoned off in aid money. It's probably easier pickings than casinos. All you have to do is create a humanitarian crisis and the money is there for the taking.
Posted by: B ||
05/18/2004 18:26 Comments ||
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According to the report, Israel has destroyed more than 3,000 Palestinian homes, most of them in the impoverished and densely populated Gaza Strip, since Palestinian Israeli fighting broke out more than three years ago. The report also found that 10 percent of Gazaâs agricultural land has been destroyed and more than 226,000 trees uprooted there in 2002 and 2003. The Gaza strip is 360 SQ KM and densely populated. Lets assume there is some agricultural activity, and lets further assume that say 10 SQ KM is forested. This is also certainly way to high. It means there are 23,000 trees per SQ KM (assuming those nasty Jews uprooted all the trees in the area), which is a density you might achieve in a Christmas tree farm when the trees were a few inches high.
Posted by: Phil B ||
05/18/2004 9:44:56 AM ||
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Here's an orthophoto map of the Strip, circa 1999, with built-up areas indicated. Looks like built-up areas, even in an area as overpopulated as the Strip, is about thirty percent. Looks like maybe as much as twenty percent of the rest of the strip, mostly in the center and north of Gaza City, is forested. Probably orchards, although it's kind of hard to tell from this scale. Here's a small-scale land usage map.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
05/18/2004 10:11 Comments ||
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#2
Asshat International strikes again.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
05/18/2004 10:51 Comments ||
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#3
Amnesty International At Gaza :
"Hey, I told you not to count that tree. That palm tree is a friend of the palm tree in Jordan Tim Russert talks to."
#4
In overpopulated areas it is common for the population to deforest their own landscape due to the lack of camel dung to burn for heating. Is it possible that the original counter mistook a gardeners picture of his Brussels sprout farm for an aerial view?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/18/2004 12:13 Comments ||
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#5
Considering the Islamic line about the trees calling out to expose Jews hiding behind them, I think we should count trees as enemy combatants.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/18/2004 12:16 Comments ||
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#6
RC, is it possible that Arafat planning a checkoint attack inspired by the plot of the bard's Macbeth?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/18/2004 12:36 Comments ||
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#7
Amnesty International has drifted far from its original mission.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
05/18/2004 18:27 Comments ||
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Posted by: Frank G ||
05/18/2004 09:30 ||
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what a bunch of idiots -- so i guess under a dem admin america (or as these commies write amerikka) will be the america of our forfathers!
these asshats are pure socialist-communist-anachist who hate america. it is a disgrace that kerry accepts support from groups like these.
Posted by: Dan ||
05/18/2004 11:11 Comments ||
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#2
This memo gets it wrong. It will be easier to claim the "WMD" were faked or a fabrication. Nobody died. There were no stockpiles. This is just Bush trying to distract us from the prison story.
That's the angle I expect the tin-foil hat brigade to take.
#3
Did they think that you can only transport a single shell on a black helicopter? If we were liars, we would have found a big stash pretty early in the stash. The Russians would have.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/18/2004 12:16 Comments ||
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Four in five Iraqis believe Saddam Hussein was guilty of murdering and torturing civilians in their country, according to a recent nationwide poll in Iraq.
The other 20% are Ba'athists and were polled inside Abu Ghraib.
The Gallup Poll of Iraq found that Iraqis have grown increasingly impatient with British and American troops in their country, but they have no nostalgia for the rule of Saddam. "As much as they are looking forward rather than backward, Iraqis still want justice for past crimes," said Richard Burkholder, director of international polling for Gallup. When asked whether they thought Saddam was guilty of murdering Iraqis, 84 percent said yes; when asked whether they thought he tortured Iraqis, 83 percent said yes. U.S. authorities will eventually turn Saddam over to Iraqi authorities to face trial. The United States estimates that Saddam's regime killed at least 300,000 Iraqis; some human rights groups say the number is closer to 1 million. If an Iraqi tribunal finds Saddam guilty of murdering Iraqis, 61 percent of Iraqis say he should get the death penalty. One in five say he should face a life sentence.
The remainder want him fed into a plastics shredding machine feet first.
Three-quarters of all Iraqis have a very unfavorable view of Saddam. A more sympathetic view of Saddam comes mostly from the heavily Sunni areas of the country. In those areas, almost half, 46 percent, say they have a favorable view of Saddam, more than the number who see him unfavorably. Gallup released the first results of its Iraq poll two weeks ago. It released the findings about Saddam in the Gallup Tuesday Briefing, a subscription service run by the polling firm. The poll of 3,444 Iraqi adults was conducted by the Pan Arab Research Center of Dubai in late March and early April and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
Pretty interesting given that it was illegal to have a differing opinion in Iraq for about three decades.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/18/2004 12:41:58 AM ||
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Three-quarters of all Iraqis have a very unfavorable view of Saddam.
Just come out and say they want too feed him to a woodchip grinder already.
Posted by: Charles ||
05/18/2004 9:26 Comments ||
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I wonder if there will be much media hoopla w/the return of Saddam to Iraq for trial. Hopefully people will get back on track w/focusing on why it's good that he's gone and getting off the Abu Ghraib overkill.
You may have sipped from this ladle of thin gruel. Yes, I did indeed Fall Silent last week, because â ready? â I was on vacation. And I still posted four updates â one of which was specifically about the issues of the day - and wrote a national column about the response of some Senators to the prison scandal AND did a radio interview about current affairs. So sheâs mistaken. And by âmistakenâ I mean âtoo lazy to check her assertions against the facts.â This woman seems to think I am a member of the Necon Blogging Pantheon, even though A) this is not a blog, and B) it has always been a mix of many topics, some of which concern the war. I usually write about the war once a week. The rest of the time itâs parenthood, movies, music, culture, architecture, nostalgia, and so forth. My life isnât devoted to one single thing and I donât intend for my site to descend into howling monomania, unless something bad really happens. I mean, look at the main page and tell me that this is a NEOCON WARBLOGGER SITE. Thatâs the thing that so peeved the hack who wrote the hit piece for City Pages â why, itâs the perils of toddlerdom one day, the need to extirpate Islamic fascism the next. Sometimes itâs the same day! As though this has to be one thing or the other. As though Iâm Rush Fackinâ Limbaugh, obliged to pound the table for three hours a day about a specific set of topics. Does this woman even understand the medium she so confidently dismisses? Nope.
Note to Antonia.
Because you get hate mail doesnât mean youâre good.
Or right.
And taking a single inert sentence and setting it apart as a paragraph for dramatic effect just looks like youâre padding the column to make the length.
Unless an editor did it.
Which is possible.
I suppose.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/18/2004 12:48:29 AM ||
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It's intersting to read what somebody has to say about X vs Y, someone that has a history and a view. A diverse topic can lead to new thought. Take for example UFO sitings in Iran. US military ops? UFO sighting in Mexico. Tequila?
Jihadies a death cult vs Anti-Mahdi Army patriots. If someone has an attitude regarding a certain subject, what can you learn from them, about them, in another, even moronic, subject.
Five members of a labourerâs family were killed and 22 people were injured when several armed people, allegedly at the behest of a landlord, attacked them in village Utra, about 40 kilometres from here on Monday. Police sources said landlord Malik Chiragh Utra was driving to the village in his Pajero on Sunday night, when a donkey-cart blocked his way. He blew the horn for the cart to give way, which it did, but apparently not soon enough. Mr Utra got infuriated and allegedly beat up cart driver Hakim Ali, who reported the abuse to his clan. Some members of his family went up to Mr Utra and complained about the incident. Later, several armed henchmen of Mr Utra reportedly fired at the hutments of Hakim Ali and his relatives, killing five people instantly. The attackers also torched their huts. The injured were taken to the Quaidabad Hospital. Eight of them, who were in critical condition, have been shifted to the Joharabad District Headquarters Hospital. Police rushed to the spot but no case has been registered.
All the witnesses are dead. No case.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
05/18/2004 12:35:09 AM ||
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The recent 20 percent reduction in the staff salaries for the Baghdad Municipality has aroused many questions but the amount may be further increased to 38 percent this month to cover the shortage in the budget resulted from embezzlement of billions of Iraqi dinars. The administrative corruption committee of the Governing Council has discovered that many officials of the Municipality indulged in fake projects. The decision to reduce salaries is meant to cover the shortage. Some staff members are upset because of the reductions. They say it is not right for them to pay for the mistakes of their bosses.
(Al-Sabah is issued daily by the Iraqi Media Network on behalf of the Coalition Provisional Authority.)
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/18/2004 12:28:00 AM ||
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Not that I'm suggesting violence or anything (perish the thought!), but if those corrupt bosses were to meet with fatal "accidents" there'd be more money for the rest.
Just sayin', 's all.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/18/2004 18:53 Comments ||
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At the end of todayâs press conference
Q    (Through interpreter.) Mr. Kimmitt, Dr. Sabiah Jabil al- Khabi (ph) from al-Wasat (ph) and al-Hayat Iraqi newspaper. My question is that there are nowadays more than 3,000 humanitarian organizations in Iraq. But its too dangerous for the UN. Or maybe thereâs not been enough bribes.
Why youâre not trying to shed light on these organizations so that you can know what is the nature of these organizations and what are the foreign forces or the foreign organizations that are supporting these organizations? They might just form a threat. Why not trying to investigate regarding the nature of these organizations?
           MR. SENOR: We have a number of NGOs that are working in Iraq with the coalition. USAID, for instance, has multiple relationships with various humanitarian organizations and NGOs. As to any that may be posing a terror threat inside Iraq, obviously weâd rely on coalition and Iraqi intelligence services and resources to make that determination. And, obviously, any foreign fighters that come into the country, we try to monitor quite closely. Youâve heard us from this podium talk quite consistently that foreign fighters pose a significant threat inside Iraq. It is something weâre deeply concerned about. We have sent very strong messages to governments whose countries border Iraq -- like the Iranian government, like the Syrian government -- about foreign fighters coming in from their countries. So we take the threat from foreign fighters quite seriously, and if you have any information, of course, that we donât, we would certainly welcome it.The ICRC perhaps?
Posted by: Mr. Davis ||
05/18/2004 12:05:58 AM ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
