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Calif. Father, Son Charged in Terror Ties
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Page 4: Opinion
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Deer -- Why do they hate us?
Full text at link

Tammy Emery, a secretary at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, was walking along a wooded path on campus when she heard a shuffling in the woods. She looked up. A deer was charging.
MasterCard, VISA, or AmEx?

SNIP
Since June 7, when Emery was attacked, seven people at the university have been threatened or attacked, including four who were sent to the hospital...

Copies of a well-thumbed Koran were later found in the deer's lair.
Posted by: Jackal || 06/17/2005 15:46 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Maybe we can arrange to douse the deer in cheap beer and have the beer bears from West Virginia imported to SIU, thus getting one problem to cancel out the other. Assuming they can fight off the frat boys.
Posted by: Jonathan || 06/17/2005 16:30 Comments || Top||

#2  I appreciate the humor of the well-thumbed Koran line but it just missed the mark because Deers don't have thumbs. Well read would have crossed from mildly funny to hysterical. Still, nicely done.
Posted by: RJSchwarz || 06/17/2005 18:57 Comments || Top||

#3  Haven't heard about the sudden appearance of opposable thumbs on higher mammals? You may be on their list RJ, yes they do keep a list now...
Posted by: Shipman || 06/17/2005 19:46 Comments || Top||

#4  makes the O-Club complimentary Deer Nuts™ more than just an appetizer.... a call to victory!
Posted by: Frank G || 06/17/2005 20:10 Comments || Top||

#5  RJS: Perhaps the Madrassa had an Imam to turn the pages for him. Also, I remember a few months back about a kitten that was born with thumbs. I thought "Well, that's it for the Human race."
Posted by: Jackal || 06/17/2005 21:14 Comments || Top||


Whew, now I can sleep soundly
PARIS (AP) - Tom Cruise popped the question to Katie Holmes at the Eiffel Tower early Friday and then announced the news to the world - they're getting married. Now, back to our 24-7 coverage of the latest missing white girl.....
Posted by: Steve || 06/17/2005 14:27 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The fun chemistry, aka temporary hormonal imbalance. This too, shall pass.
Posted by: .com || 06/17/2005 15:19 Comments || Top||

#2  Any word yet on if he plans to dump her for a second-trimester foetus?
Posted by: mojo || 06/17/2005 15:56 Comments || Top||


Bears, why do they drink our beer?
DUNBAR, W.Va. (AP) — Larry Gaynor and his brother had to cut their latest fishing trip short after a black bear ate their food and guzzled their beer. Gaynor, 67, and his brother, Billy Bob Gaynor, 53, were camping at Summit Lake near Richwood on Friday when the bear wandered into their campsite at about 9 p.m.
Of course his name is Billy Bob, it is West "By God" Virginia
Hearing a noise, they looked outside their tent and saw the bear with its mouth clamped on their cooler. Larry Gaynor said the bear dragged the cooler 30 yards into the woods and flung it against a tree, scattering a case of Coors Light. "He only drank three cans," Larry he said. "He would've drank all of them if it would've been Budweiser."
"Course, if it had'a been Bud, we'd a had to fight him fur it"
Billy Bob Gaynor said the bear ate all of their food, so they returned to Dunbar the next day.
Posted by: Steve || 06/17/2005 11:55 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ironically, the beer in the cooler was this stuff.
Posted by: Mike || 06/17/2005 12:24 Comments || Top||

#2  Now there's an interesting marketing idea--give them bears some assorted 12- or 24-packs and see which beer they prefer.
Posted by: Dar || 06/17/2005 13:26 Comments || Top||

#3  Same reason dogs lick their balls.
Posted by: mojo || 06/17/2005 13:40 Comments || Top||

#4  Yes! Way good idea Dar!
Posted by: Shipman || 06/17/2005 14:17 Comments || Top||

#5  Of course, we all know which beers are preferred by bigfoot....
Posted by: Phil Fraering || 06/17/2005 14:29 Comments || Top||

#6  give them bears some assorted 12- or 24-packs and see which beer they prefer.

That's easy
Posted by: Steve || 06/17/2005 14:34 Comments || Top||

#7  Bears, why do they hate light beer?
Posted by: phil_b || 06/17/2005 18:25 Comments || Top||

#8  Steve - my very first thought: "from the land of sky blue waters"....and beaten again by the AOS! Damn!
Posted by: Frank G || 06/17/2005 19:51 Comments || Top||

#9  Back in the 60's here on Guam, when commercials were as long as 15-30 minutes, SMOKIE THE BEAR and GENTLE BEN were favs of us local kids. POTUS Teddy Roosevelt is famous for wanting the Bear as a national symbol of America - gentle and playful when left alone, absolutely fearless, ferocious, and invincible when riled, with no known natural or superior enemies except man or other bears. Maybe its time for America, Incorporated to make the Bear as a the next pop cultural icon again ala SPUDS, BENJI, "CLYDE" THE ORANGUTAN, and now the Geico GECKO!?
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 06/17/2005 23:57 Comments || Top||


Beauty-School Beatdown
A stick-up man tried to rob a Louisiana beauty school — and ended up getting an extremely nasty makeover. Cops say Jared Gipson, 24, entered Blalock's Beauty College in Shreveport at noon Tuesday and announced a robbery. "I thought it was someone just playing, but then I saw that big old gun," manager Dianne Mitchell told The Times of Shreveport. "He said, 'Get down, big mama.'"
The masked robber ordered the people in the room — 18 to 20 students and teachers — to lie on the floor, leading some to think they were going to be killed. "You'll be the first to go," he allegedly growled to one crying woman. After collecting everyone's money, the gunman pushed the school's sole male employee, Abram Bishop, toward the back of the room — but then turned and began to run out the door. That's when Mitchell stuck out her leg. The robber tripped over it, dropped the gun and slammed into a wall. Bishop immediately jumped on his back, forcing the stick-up man down to the floor. "Get that sucker!" yelled Mitchell, and the dozen and a half women present grabbed whatever they could get their hands on — curling irons, chairs, a table leg — and piled on.
I've seen the video, 20 very large, angry black women. I wouldn't want to make them angry
"They just whooped the hell out of him," said school owner Sharon Blalock. Crying in pain, bleeding and having soiled his pants, the gunman tried to crawl away, but the angry women held on to his legs and kept hitting him until police arrived.
Gipson was charged with armed robbery and taken to LSU Hospital in a neck brace, having suffered multiple lacerations. No one else was seriously hurt. "He got what he deserved," said student Renae Collier.
Gipson's gun turned out to be unloaded. "He walked into the wrong place at the wrong time," one police officer told KTBS-TV of Shreveport.
After he stopped laughing
"You can tell any prospective students: Blalock's Beauty College has got your back," said Mitchell.
Posted by: Steve || 06/17/2005 11:39 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ROFLMAO!!!

*wipes tears*

Thx, Steve - made my day already, lol!
Posted by: .com || 06/17/2005 12:29 Comments || Top||

#2  If only they'd had a hot curling iron handy this idiot could be using a colostomy bag for the rest of his life too.
Posted by: Dar || 06/17/2005 13:28 Comments || Top||

#3  God I love Louisiana.
Posted by: Shipman || 06/17/2005 14:19 Comments || Top||

#4  Hey Matt...this one's all yours!
Posted by: Seafarious || 06/17/2005 14:22 Comments || Top||

#5  "... and then they whallopped me with curling irons until I dirtied my drawyers." I speculate that he will lack street cred in the slammer.
Posted by: Super Hose || 06/17/2005 21:37 Comments || Top||

#6  or lubricant
Posted by: Frank G || 06/17/2005 21:51 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Fourth Significant Quake Shakes Calif.
EUREKA, Calif. (AP) - Just hours after a moderate earthquake shook most of Southern California, a strong quake struck off the state's northern coast to become the fourth significant shaker to jolt California this week. Neither quake Thursday caused serious damage. One person was injured.
A 6.6-magnitude temblor hit about 125 miles off the coast of Eureka around 11:30 p.m., rattling the ocean floor. In the afternoon, a 4.9-magnitude quake struck east of Los Angeles, startling people and knocking items off shelves and desks. Four significant quakes have hit California this week: A magnitude-5.2 quake shook Riverside County on Sunday, and a magnitude-7.2 quake trembled Tuesday under the ocean 90 miles off Northern California.
Stephanie Hanna, spokeswoman for the U.S. Geological Survey, said Thursday night's quake was likely an aftershock from Tuesday's shaker.
The early afternoon quake was centered near Yucaipa in San Bernardino County, east of Los Angeles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. About 25 aftershocks followed in a little over an hour, the strongest estimated at magnitude 3.5.
Let's see, we've had the heavy rains, earthquakes and MJ beating the rap. I believe wildfires are next followed by locust.
Posted by: Steve || 06/17/2005 09:01 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Call me when the Nile turns into blood.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/17/2005 9:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Darn Quakers! Don't they have anything better to do?
Posted by: twobyfour || 06/17/2005 10:14 Comments || Top||

#3  It was only Michael Moore and Queen Latifa slam dancing.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 06/17/2005 10:49 Comments || Top||

#4  The Southern California quakes were nothing really. It shook things around and made some noise; but nothing caused much damage. The only injury the "news" people could find was a woman hit when a lamp fell over. There were worse injuries on a school yard. If it's got be over 6 before it matters much.

The Northern Cal quakes are in the serious size.
Posted by: Calchas || 06/17/2005 12:15 Comments || Top||

#5  #4 that is a stretch...you cannot tell the future...a quake can hit at anytime..in any magnitude..but you are correct..there usually is more damage up north..but it has more to with building quality and not the magnitude of the quake..if that 6.6 hit up north there would've been significan damage
Posted by: Gravigum Sporong5243 || 06/17/2005 13:10 Comments || Top||

#6  Well, speaking as a first-born son, maybe it's time for a vacation...
Posted by: mojo || 06/17/2005 13:39 Comments || Top||

#7  Well, speaking as a first-born son, maybe it's time for a vacation...

Nah, just smear lamb's blood on your door frame. It also keeps away the Jehovas Witnesses.
Posted by: Steve || 06/17/2005 13:52 Comments || Top||

#8  LOL Db and MOJO.... don't try the lambs blood thing tho, the it attracts JW like mad.
Posted by: Shipman || 06/17/2005 14:21 Comments || Top||

#9  Now do you regret not voting for Bush-Cheney?
Remember: Vote Blue and Haliburton comes to You!
Posted by: Jackal || 06/17/2005 21:17 Comments || Top||

#10  Counties! Dammit! Counties voted blue! See: SF. Bezerkeley, et all.... San Diego, Imperial, San B and Orange voted FOR W - don't slam us for the state's lean
Posted by: Frank G || 06/17/2005 21:54 Comments || Top||


Britain
Record gas prices send chill through suppliers (UK)
Reading around, its easy to see the dead hand of Kyoto at work here. Demand for gas is soaring everywhere becuase, apart from Nuclear, its the only way to reduce carbon emissions. More insidiously, I suggest that Kyoto targets morphed into energy projections and they are now being exposed as the fiction they are. Winter fuel bills are likely to soar this year as future gas prices hit their highest-ever level yesterday. The price of gas for delivery in October was 66p a therm, some 75pc higher than it was at this point last year and more than double the current spot price. The head of Powergen, Paul Golby, said it was 'difficult to envisage' that gas bills would not rise

Energy companies said domestic bills would rise again and World Gas Intelligence, an industry analyst, said factories may be forced to shut for "days, weeks or longer in order to cut gas use". Yesterday, Ofgem, the energy regulator, sought to reassure the market, and pointed to a National Grid Transco report that states there will be enough gas to supply the market.

Sonia Brown, Ofgem's director of markets, said this winter would be "the same as last year". However, Ofgem recently gave a presentation to the industry which forecast that gas supplies would drop by 20m cubic metres a day this winter, more than 5pc of total demand, as production in the North Sea dwindles "faster than anticipated". Actually demand has risen faster than anticipated and this has resulted in more production and hence declining production yields.

A spokesman for Powergen, one of the largest domestic suppliers of gas, said: "The whole world and his wife are saying that prices are getting higher." The head of Powergen, Paul Golby, said it was "difficult to envisage" that gas bills would not rise, and that any company that held them this year would only have to raise them more aggressively next year.

British Gas warned last month that it may increase prices for the third time in a year and a half. Sir Roy Gardner, chief executive, said: "If wholesale prices stay at these levels an appropriate retail price increase will be necessary". His comments were echoed by Ian Marchant, the chief executive of Scottish and Southern Energy.

Gas prices have been forced up because the UK has been caught short as new pipelines to import gas from Norway and Russia are still under construction. This is becuase the projections said they wouldn't be needed until 2007 - refer to my opening comment. Last winter, prices ran at between 20p and 40p a therm, although they spiked up to £1.70 during a cold snap.

A report from consultancy Global Insight for the Government showed that industrial users responded to the gas price spike last year by shutting factories and cutting consumption by 27pc.

The current infrastructure - the interconnector between Bacton and Zeebrugge in Belgium - provides a spasmodic supply of gas to the UK. Mark Smedley at World Gas Intelligence said that, at one point last winter, the price of gas in the UK was 30p a therm higher than on the continent, but the interconnector still did not provide enough gas. The failure of the market to correct itself is under investigation by the European Commission, but Mr Smedley said the large French and German energy companies dictated the way the gas flows through the pipeline. Lets blame those nasty Europeans.

Gas traders are also worried about competition from the United States for supplies of liquefied natural gas. And lets blame the Americans as well even though the UK doesn't (as far as I can determine) import any LNG - although its first terminal is due to open this year.
Posted by: phil_b || 06/17/2005 00:44 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Also oil is up to just under $57/barrel, although this will be a record high priced in Euros.
Posted by: phil_b || 06/17/2005 4:00 Comments || Top||

#2  phil-I read today that the price of oil hit a new record high of $58.47/barrel. I'll post the link for everyone to read. I guess it could be worse - OPEC has some pretty anti-American nations like Iran, Venezuela, Nigeria - OPEC could choose to turn down their spigots so scarcity would enhance the value of their product but they aren't doing so. In fact, OPEC countries are raising their quotas to keep with the demand.
Posted by: Thotch Glesing2372 || 06/17/2005 16:03 Comments || Top||

#3  That's called greed, methinks.
Posted by: .com || 06/17/2005 16:22 Comments || Top||

#4  OPEC countries are raising their quotas to keep with the demand. Quotas don't satisfy demand, supply does. There is no more available supply in OPEC. Thats it for a number of years. Economic growth will slow until demand for oil stops increasing or alternate energy supplies come on stream. This means a severe and prolonged recession like none of us have ever seen. This seems inescapeable to me, but I'd be interested to hear alternate scenarios.
Posted by: phil_b || 06/17/2005 18:15 Comments || Top||

#5  My theory is that those countries that can't afford petrol will stop using it first. :) I look for a steep drop in demand from India, China and Brazil. Followed by an instant 3 million brl a day surplus.
Posted by: Shipman || 06/17/2005 19:59 Comments || Top||

#6  There could be more supply if certain OPEC nations' dictators (I won't mention Chavez by name) didn't screw up their industry to make it more politically reliable.
Posted by: Jackal || 06/17/2005 21:19 Comments || Top||

#7  gat a US refinery or two online above normal, and it drops $10.bbl....whoda thunk it?
Posted by: Frank G || 06/17/2005 21:56 Comments || Top||


Vandals Desecrate Jewish Graves in London
LONDON (AP) - Vandals desecrated 86 tombstones dating to the 1870s in a Jewish cemetery in London, spraying some of them with Nazi swastikas and racial slurs while knocking them over, police said Thursday. London police said a large hole was made in the heavy wooden doors of a mausoleum building in West Ham Jewish Cemetery, and the structure was sprayed with swastikas. The mausoleum contained members of the wealthy Rothschild banking dynasty.

Dozens of headstones around the mausoleum lay on the ground, some of them cracked or caved in. Jagged knee-high bases stood over the broken fragments of the stones, which previously stood about 5 feet tall. The barely legible inscriptions were mostly in Hebrew. "This was a despicable racist attack," detective Steve Lane said.

Two of the damaged graves belonged to children aged 4 and 13 and had stood undisturbed since the 1870s, said Melvyn Hartog, head of burials for the United Synagogue, which maintains the cemetery and 10 others in the London area. "It's the lowest of the low," Hartog said of the vandals.

The caretaker at the burial site, which opened in the mid-19th century, discovered the vandalism Sunday. By Thursday, cemetery workers had removed the swastikas and racial slurs from the mausoleum and graves.

Daniel Stockdale, a 21-year-old mason who works for the United Synagogue, said the toppled headstones would be put upright but the broken ones would not be replaced with new stones. "It's so bad," Stockdale said. "These stones are irreplaceable."

The attack is the third desecration of a Jewish cemetery in Britain this year. The first involved the painting of swastikas and SS signs on 12 gravestones in a Hampshire cemetery. Earlier this month, staff at a Jewish cemetery in Manchester, northern England, discovered that at least 96 graves had been toppled or smashed. Some of the stones, which are up to 70 years old, may have marked the graves of Holocaust survivors who came to Britain after the war, Jewish community leaders said.

Earlier this week, Europe's top human rights watchdog expressed concern at the "considerable and steady rise of anti-Semitic incidents" in Britain. "While these incidents usually mirror tensions in the Middle East, representatives of the Jewish communities report that there now seems to be a higher level of background violence against these communities," said the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, the Council of Europe's body on combating racism.

There were 532 anti-Semitic incidents in Britain last year, the highest figure in 20 years, said Michael Whine, a spokesman for the Community Security Trust, a Jewish group that works against anti-Semitism. Those incidents included life-threatening assaults, criminal damage to property, hate mail and abusive behavior. The CST did not yet have figures for this year.
Posted by: Steve White || 06/17/2005 00:16 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Bet there's a lot more anti-semitism there than 'islamophobia' - and i bet a lot of the anti-semites are Islamic.
Posted by: anon1 || 06/17/2005 2:44 Comments || Top||


'African boys are brought to Britain to be sacrificed'
African boys are being smuggled into Britain as intended human sacrifices, a report commissioned by the Metropolitan Police has revealed. The children are brought to London and offered up in blood rituals at the behest of fundamentalist sects to combat evil spirits. Police believe that the boys, considered valuable because they are "unblemished", can be bought for as little as £10 in Africa. The report into so-called "faith crimes" was commissioned after the death of eight-year-old Victoria Climbié, who was starved to death by relatives who thought she was possessed. It was compiled by a social worker and a lawyer with the help of London's African community. The authors reported claims of witchcraft, spells, and of HIV-positive people having sex with children in attempts to be cured. The authors pointed out they could not test the truth of these allegations but voiced concerns that children could be in life-threatening situations.

The report also highlighted concerns about church pastors identifying children as witches, who then suffer violence at the hands of their parents. The report says the pastors and their churches have "lucrative business" operations in the UK, Europe and Africa. It said: "A number of pastors maintain that God speaks to them and lets them know when someone is possessed ... After much debate, they acknowledged that children labelled as possessed are in danger of being beaten by their families. However, they would not accept that they played a major role in inciting such violence." The report concluded that police encountered a "wall of silence" in investigating such cases.

Last month Scotland Yard disclosed that 300 black boys, aged between four and seven years of age, had vanished from London schools and only two had been traced. Detectives in the capital are investigating about 30 allegations of children being abused in magic rituals. The potential scale of the problem was exposed by the discovery in the Thames in 2001 of the torso of a four-year-old boy, dubbed Adam. Apparently the victim of a ritual killing, he had been made to eat rock, bone and pieces of gold before he died. Earlier this month Sita Kisanga, 35, of Hackney, London, was convicted for torturing an Angolan child whom she accused of being a witch. Kisanga was a member of a west African church that sanctions aggressive forms of exorcism. John Azar, an adviser to the Metropolitan Police, said that known cases could be the "tip of the iceberg". But Dr William Les Henry, a lecturer in sociology at Goldsmith's College, said that there was an element of racism to be seen in the report. He said: "The model that they're based on, they always seem to base their models on the fact that Africans are less civilised, less rational, so their whole systems of rationality are irrational."
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 06/17/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm rather startled at the use of the phrase "fundamentalist sects" to describe these fantastically syncretic religions. They certainly aren't fundamentalist Christian--there's too much animism mixed in, sometimes a little Islam as well, and always a lot of new "prophecy" from the leaders.
Not all the syncretic groups go in for witch hunts (luckily), and the HIV sex "cure" notion is found among animists, Christians, and Muslims alike.
Dr. Henry missed a good opportunity to shut up. It isn't racist to notice that a large fraction of some group of people have dangerously crazy ideas.
Posted by: James || 06/17/2005 0:35 Comments || Top||

#2  duh. em royels ben dooin this for yeerz.

goddam lizards peples.
Posted by: muck4doo || 06/17/2005 1:15 Comments || Top||

#3  I'm not surprised at all.

The tranzis, in the US or Europe, all despise real Christianity, and especially the fundamentalist kind, viewing them as ignorant dolts. So, any other religion/cult that does get the multicultural seal of approval can be compared to the people of JesusLand as ignorant.

And I'm also not surprised re: they always seem to base their models on the fact that Africans are less civilised, less rational, so their whole systems of rationality are irrational.

Well, yeah, that's the rational thing to do. If all your evidence points a certain way (penis-shrinking polio shots, witchcraft, sex with virgins to cure AIDS, having a culture that brings Charles Taylor, Idi Amin, Robert Mugabe, and on and on into the fore), after a while you treat it as a working hypothesis. There's nothing genetically wrong with Africans, but their culture is hellishly bad, and will sabotage any attempt at making life better.
Posted by: Jackal || 06/17/2005 1:50 Comments || Top||

#4  The report also highlighted concerns about church pastors identifying children as witches, who then suffer violence at the hands of their parents.

Any bets on whether these "pastors" are in the CofE or Roman Catholics?
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 06/17/2005 7:47 Comments || Top||

#5  Sounds like something I saw once on Law&Order:SVU.
Posted by: eLarson || 06/17/2005 9:19 Comments || Top||

#6  I reckon that is pretty far off the beam of believable.

Show me the physical evidence.
Posted by: anon1 || 06/17/2005 11:40 Comments || Top||

#7  Obviously, the "Christian Fundamentalist" phrase is out of place. Apparently, the confusion is with the Arch Bishop being the Arch Druid. Druid's were believed to have involvement with human sacrifice.

Incidentally, "fundamentalist" comes from a series of materials published in the early 20th century, bound as "The Fundamentals". The books are on line here: http://www.xmission.com/~fidelis/
Posted by: Calchas || 06/17/2005 12:21 Comments || Top||

#8  Something sounds very urban legendish about this report.
Posted by: RJSchwarz || 06/17/2005 18:52 Comments || Top||

#9  There was actually an episode of Cold Case Files ( A & E) or Forensic Files that covered the boy's torso they found in the Thames in 2001. There have been other reports but I can't seem to place exactly where.
Posted by: Cleretle Shavising4433 || 06/17/2005 18:56 Comments || Top||

#10  well, we do have to respect their culture right? Oxford should be involved....

/PC
Posted by: Frank G || 06/17/2005 20:08 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
At Cult's Enclave in Chile, Guns and Intelligence Files
The authorities in Chile searching for victims of Gen. Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship who are said to be buried at the enclave of a secretive, apocalyptic religious cult of German émigrés have unearthed a large cache of weapons and intelligence files.
"This arsenal is going to end up being the biggest ever found in private hands since the restoration of democracy in 1990 and in the history of Chile," the deputy interior minister, Jorge Correa Sutil, told reporters on Wednesday. "Believe me, what has been discovered so far is of a dimension that can only be explained in a military context."
The enclave, Colonia Dignidad, was founded in southern Chile in 1961 by Paul SchÀfer, a former Nazi Luftwaffe medic turned fundamentalist preacher. He fled around 1997 after being charged with the sexual abuse of more than two dozen boys in his care. He was convicted in absentia of pedophilia, arrested in Argentina in March and sent back to Chile, where he is now in prison, facing charges of kidnapping, forced labor, fraud and tax evasion.
Colonia Dignidad enjoyed official protection during the 17-year dictatorship of General Pinochet, and had close relationships with the Chilean Army and the state intelligence agency, known as DINA.
According to a 1991 government report on human rights abuses, Mr. SchÀfer allowed DINA agents to hide political prisoners in the enclave and may have taken part in torturing detainees.
Human rights advocates in Chile said they hoped the files found at the site would help explain the relationship between Mr. SchÀfer and state security forces, as well as the fates of some Pinochet opponents.
The material is being examined by a judge and has not yet been made public, but Chilean news reports said the documents included files on hundreds of people that the government and Colonia Dignidad regarded as enemies. More than 250 people still live at the enclave.
Among the cult's other victims may have been Boris Weisfeiler, an American mathematics professor who disappeared 20 years ago while hiking near Colonia Dignidad. A Chilean military informant later provided an account, found plausible by the American Embassy, saying Dr. Weisfeiler, a Russian-born Jew, had been killed on Mr. SchÀfer's orders.
The weapons seized include machine guns, rifles, rocket launchers, grenades and mortars. Some were said to be of World War II vintage, and were accompanied by manuals written in German; others were more modern.
The discovery may solve another mystery: From the mid-1970's, the United States and other countries cut off weapons sales to the Pinochet dictatorship, which nonetheless managed to stay well armed. Diplomats and rights groups have long suggested that Colonia Dignidad acquired weapons for the Chilean military through trading companies that the sect controlled.
Citing military sources, the Chilean daily La Nación reported Thursday that the arms at Colonia Dignidad were buried there between 1976 and 1978, when Chile nearly went to war with neighboring Argentina in a border dispute.
Government officials said the discovery of the arms would strengthen their case against Mr. SchÀfer and associates who are also in jail by giving prosecutors grounds to invoke a racketeering statute. "Colonia Dignidad was an illicit association dedicated to committing sexual, tax and economic crimes and had a paramilitary purpose," Mr. Correa Sutil said.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 06/17/2005 18:28 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Peace Corps Suspends Haiti Operations
Comes as a surprise, huh?
Posted by: Fred || 06/17/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The UN is in charge of that one. Notice no one promoting the 'Haiti' solution as why the UN should have been put in charge in Iraq.
Posted by: Snetle Tholurong5083 || 06/17/2005 8:26 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Taiwan Supreme Court upholds 2004 Election
Posted by: Steve White || 06/17/2005 00:26 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Down Under
Australia Announces Major Changes To Immigration Laws
Prime Minister John Howard has announced major changes to Australia's system of immigration detention.

Families with children will be placed in community housing, rather than in detention centres, and thousands of those on temporary protection visas will be allowed to stay in Australia permanently.

The primary decision on an asylum seeker's case must be made within three months, and the Refugee Review Tribunal must also finalise decisions within three months.

Long-term detainees who have been held for two years will have their cases referred to the Commonwealth ombudsman for review.

If a person has been detained for two years or more there will be an automatic requirement that every six months a report on their detention must be given to the Ombudsman who will give an assessment to the minister.

The Ombudsman's report to the minister will be a recommendation only.

Mr Howard says he wants a more cases to be dealt with in a timely way.

"Above all in a more timely manner," he said.

"It's fair to say that the more I have delved into this issue the greatest areas of complaint really arise around the issue of time, and therefore quite a number of the announcements I am about to make relate to the issue of the time it takes to deal with matters."

Mr Howard says mandatory detention remains.

"I think they represent a sensible advance on the existing arrangements. They don't undermine the existing policy," he said.

Liberal MP Petro Georgiou has welcomed the deal, saying he will withdraw his two Private Members Bills.

Lobby group, Justice for Refugees, has welcomed the changes.

But its chairman, Don McMaster, says detention cases should be reviewed sooner than after two years.

"I suppose anything is a step in the right direction, but I think two years is a bit too long," he said.

"Certainly after a year would be a much better time span, and using the ombudsman is an improvement."
Posted by: Spavirt Pheng6042 || 06/17/2005 03:01 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This is not a major change to Australian immigration laws. This is a relaxing of the strict detention policy on illegal immigrants. I assume the Howard government has concluded this is a battle no longer worth fighting with the constant drip-drip of Leftist 'this is cruel and inhuman'. These people can return to their home country anytime they like courtesy of the Australian taxpayer. Unfortunately we cannot expel people who claim asylum or claim persecution. It's contary to International Law(TM).
Posted by: phil_b || 06/17/2005 9:38 Comments || Top||


Europe
What Europe Really Needs
by Paul Johnson, Wall Street Journal EFL. Yoiu really should read it all.

That Europe as an entity is sick and the European Union as an institution is in disorder cannot be denied. But no remedies currently being discussed can possibly remedy matters. What ought to depress partisans of European unity in the aftermath of the rejection of its proposed constitution by France and the Netherlands is not so much the foundering of this ridiculous document as the response of the leadership to the crisis, especially in France and Germany.

Jacques Chirac reacted by appointing as prime minister Dominque de Villepin, a frivolous playboy who has never been elected to anything and is best known for his view that Napoleon should have won the Battle of Waterloo and continued to rule Europe. Gerhard Schröder of Germany simply stepped up his anti-American rhetoric. What is notoriously evident among the EU elite is not just a lack of intellectual power but an obstinacy and blindness bordering on imbecility. As the great pan-European poet Schiller put it: "There is a kind of stupidity with which even the Gods struggle in vain."

The fundamental weaknesses of the EU that must be remedied if it is to survive are threefold. First, it has tried to do too much, too quickly and in too much detail. . . .
Long, but very good, discussion on economic policy snipped.
. . . There is another still more fundamental factor in the EU malaise. Europe has turned its back not only on the U.S. and the future of capitalism, but also on its own historic past. Europe was essentially a creation of the marriage between Greco-Roman culture and Christianity. Brussels has, in effect, repudiated both. There was no mention of Europe's Christian origins in the ill-fated Constitution, and Europe's Strasbourg Parliament has insisted that a practicing Catholic cannot hold office as the EU Justice Commissioner.

Equally, what strikes the observer about the actual workings of Brussels is the stifling, insufferable materialism of their outlook. The last Continental statesman who grasped the historical and cultural context of European unity was Charles de Gaulle. He wanted "the Europe of the Fatherlands (L'Europe des patries)" and at one of his press conferences I recall him referring to "L'Europe de Dante, de Goethe et de Chateaubriand." I interrupted: "Et de Shakespeare, mon General?" He agreed: "Oui! Shakespeare aussi!"

No leading member of the EU elite would use such language today. The EU has no intellectual content. Great writers have no role to play in it, even indirectly, nor have great thinkers or scientists. It is not the Europe of Aquinas, Luther or Calvin--or the Europe of Galileo, Newton and Einstein. Half a century ago, Robert Schumann, first of the founding fathers, often referred in his speeches to Kant and St. Thomas More, Dante and the poet Paul Valery. To him--he said explicitly--building Europe was a "great moral issue." He spoke of "the Soul of Europe." Such thoughts and expressions strike no chord in Brussels today.

In short, the EU is not a living body, with a mind and spirit and animating soul. And unless it finds such nonmaterial but essential dimensions, it will soon be a dead body, the symbolic corpse of a dying continent.

Comments from our European contingent? Over to you, JFM, TGA, Howard, et al.
Posted by: Mike || 06/17/2005 07:38 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  C'mon guys - you have a French Socialist in charge of writing the document and then you're surprised that it's an unabridged dictionary-sized mass of boilerplate feel-good twaddle mixed with paleo-commie horseshit?

Get a freakin' clue, why don't ya?
Posted by: mojo || 06/17/2005 10:14 Comments || Top||

#2  I suggest that there are only four main variants to western philosophy, in practice. They consist of optimism and pessimism, realism and idealism. America thrives because it is mostly OR, that is, optimistic and realistic. You see it in our founding documents, and in our culture and society. It is the "red state" opinion. However, in the US, there is also the "blue state" opinion; diametrically opposed to both optimism and realism. It is the IP, idealism and pessimism of the neo-Calvinist old world. Picture Howard Dean: "Everything is horrible, but only we can make it perfect! (Yaargh)." From a realistic and optimistic viewpoint, it looks insane, totalitarian and repulsive. Europe, however, is PR, pessimistic and realistic. Over 2000 years of bitter war and failed promises, the idealism has been burned out of them, and so their attitude is "Things will go on cruddily like this for years and then get worse." This combination philosophy is best expressed in French movies that Americans would rate second choice after a root canal. Miserable people being bored and miserable, then descending into even worse misery. Ironically, despite their strong penchant for the morbid, Russians are OI, that is, optimistic and idealistic. For this reason, they actually get along better with Americans than they do with Europeans. The shared sense of optimism stimulates realistic Americans to be more idealistic, and makes Russians more practical. So what does Europe (and, for that part, the blue states) need? That is a very good question: how does one resurrect optimism in people who abhor it as "naive" or downright "stupid", when they see it in others (especially republican presidents)? Are they damned as a people?
Posted by: Anonymoose || 06/17/2005 11:08 Comments || Top||

#3  'Moose: Interesting theory. Might I throw in an observation that may add something to it?

Europe always has had an elite ruling class and a mass of not-so-elites who are expected to shut up and go along with the program. The Euro-elite generally did not move to the New World because they were already sitting pretty where they were. The New World was therefore mostly settled by the not-so-elites of Europe. To be more precise, the more talented, risk-taking subset of the not-so-elites who believed they could improve things by hard work. Those of the not-so-elite who lack optimism and idealism stayed at home and resigned themselves to their fate.

We see this same pattern in more recent emigration as well: e.g., the socialist elite of India stays in New Delhi and lords over the fatalistic lower caste, while the motivated not-so-elite goes to medical school at Ohio State and ends up with new $1M houses in Delaware County.

Americans are, therefore, to a great extent, self-selected for optimism and idealism--and became so by draining the idealistic optimists from the rest of the world.

Either that, or I'm all wet. Comments?
Posted by: Mike || 06/17/2005 11:39 Comments || Top||

#4  Jacques Chirac personally sold Saddam a nuclear reactor though he KNEW it was not for energy but to build a bomb. He didn't care.

I'd like to see that man dangle on the end of a rope.
Posted by: anon1 || 06/17/2005 11:42 Comments || Top||

#5  Mike - Dead on.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats || 06/17/2005 14:21 Comments || Top||

#6  Yep Mike, arrival of the fittest.
Posted by: Shipman || 06/17/2005 14:26 Comments || Top||

#7  ..as prime minister Dominque de Villepin, a frivolous playboy..

Haaahahahahaaaa......
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 06/17/2005 14:33 Comments || Top||

#8  Mike: self-selected for optimism, certainly, but not for idealism. For realism. The two biggest draws for immigrants to the US are economic improvement and educational opportunity. Immigrants know, or at least are under few illusions, that the US is perfect, or is anywhere near perfect--but it is a place that, with hard work, comes success. It is not seen like Sweden, the land of the hand out--perfect for an idealist wanting rewards for the sweetness of his smile--but as a place where government will get out of your way and let you succeed. Compare the viewpoint of American idealists, that rich people have somehow "won life's lottery", versus the reality, that most of the new millionaires in the US live in middle-class suburbs and work 12-14 hour days at their small business, take fewer vacations, and spend a lot of time caring for their financial well-being. An idealist loathes earning his keep that way. Almost by definition, an idealist believes themselves to somehow be "elite", that is, elite enough to imagine the ideals that they love. And the elite shouldn't have to work hard doing dull things to make their living. They should produce art and music, and be fawned over and rewarded for their brilliance and talent by lesser men. For this reason, they bitterly resent the burgeoisie, the grubby little people who work hard and have all the money. If there was justice in the world, I (the idealist) would have the money, and they (the realistic burgeoisie) would do the dull work that they are so good at. Both of these types exist in the US, with the red states filled with happy, optimistic, realistic people; and the blue states having concentrations of miserable, pessimistic, idealistic people.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 06/17/2005 14:36 Comments || Top||

#9  'Moose: good point, and good catch on the correction. I misread what you wrote as I was typing.
Posted by: Mike || 06/17/2005 15:31 Comments || Top||

#10  Moose, who's pessimistic here...Jesus. Even fatalistic.

Let's for a second assume that idealism represents no specific ideals, just the drive, the faith that makes men do great things. Indeed your methods, not your intentions determine your outcome.

Your explanation of idealism was far too absolutist in its focus, and don't provide for the inherent inventiveness of people, especially Americans.

Were our founding fathers not idealist, I argue that they were. While I'm sure that many others had the same idea of a free and equal society that they had, those others were too lazy or stupid or too French to build a solid democratic republic that would last.

Your "only the Republicans" mantra may fly by Fox News logic standards, but let's not stereotype idealists as commie pinkos here.

Idealists just need a work ethic to bring their ideas to fruition.

Jesus, Napoleon, the Wright Brothers, Rockefeller, MLK, Bill Gates, all idealistic about their ability to make it, they backed their idealism up and what did they do?

My Point... idealism and success can be compatible and perhaps they are inseparable.
Posted by: Mountain Man || 06/17/2005 16:06 Comments || Top||

#11  Mike, Its called the Emigrant Phenomena. Emigrants as a group, self-select for the qualities required for success. As someone remarked (it might have been me) - Those with get-up-and-go tend to get up and go.
Posted by: phil_b || 06/17/2005 17:59 Comments || Top||

#12  Compare the viewpoint of American idealists, that rich people have somehow "won life's lottery"

Actually, the "if he's rich, he must've gotten it through nefarious means" attitude came over with the Irish. They got it through bitter experience, and the attitude spread here, especially in the New England factory towns where I grew up (two guesses what Party ran things?).
Posted by: Pappy || 06/17/2005 19:00 Comments || Top||

#13  Europe is getting that it needs, and deserves.
Posted by: gromgoru || 06/17/2005 19:48 Comments || Top||

#14  Mountain Man: A point of semantics, here. I am very careful to use the word idealism only in contrast to realism. Idealism, by itself covers much of what you said and more; for example, religious idealism, atheist idealism, even such beliefs as environmental idealism. But often these forms of idealism are diametrically opposed to each other in their own right. But realism stands apart from idealism as a whole. Take your MLK example. While he preached idealism in civil rights, he was clearly focused on the reality before him. As such, he did not advocate equality in all things at a racial-personal level; he advocated things like equality of opportunity and success based on character. So, while people embraced his idealism, they still understood his realistic goals. (And, noteworthy, the idealists who took over from him have long since abandoned his practical goals, and replaced them with pragmatic, greedy and short-sighted ideals.) So, was MLK really an idealist? It toto, yes; but compared with realism, no. He was a realist who spoke in terms of idealism.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 06/17/2005 20:10 Comments || Top||

#15  I'm taking my Europe free day today.
So all I say is:
Europe needs more Freibier!
Posted by: True German Ally || 06/17/2005 20:10 Comments || Top||

#16  Yo! Zwei grosse Pils, bitte.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 06/17/2005 21:21 Comments || Top||


Europe turns on France as Britain wins new allies
Via Bros. Judd:

JACQUES CHIRAC suffered a double blow

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!


as the EU summit opened last night when he was forced to admit defeat

--stop, stop, you're killing me here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! wipe tears from eyes.

over the European constitution, and Tony Blair won powerful allies for his campaign to cut French agricultural subsidies.

Oh, to be a fly on Jacko's poo-poo platter.
Posted by: anonymous2u || 06/17/2005 01:02 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That would be sweet if the failed constitution resulted in the death of the CAP. Also note Merkel's support of Britain's position.

Fog in Euroland, France isolated!
Posted by: phil_b || 06/17/2005 1:16 Comments || Top||

#2  This can occur when one intends to be the USA of Europe, or least an integrated entity, instead of the more realistic super-confederatist, super-neutralist Cantons of Switzerland, etc, AND NO D* *** BIKINI TEAM TO BOOT. If one wants the AL BUNDYS, etal. of Europe to like and fight and die for the concept of an integrated "EU", you gotta give them something to wanna fight and die with, and fight and die for!? Don't be putting the cart before the horse like the USSR and now North Korea, wanting a Nation of engineers and specialists at the expense of degrading farmers - you know, the ones whom till and grow the foods that everyone, from the lowliest People's Soviet Waffen SS soldier to the Great Leader himself, survives off of. SO now all the educated Norkie bureaucrats and army units are out getting their hands dirty trying to feed themselves.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 06/17/2005 2:35 Comments || Top||

#3  Let's hope our days of propping up fat, corrupt, inbred, gauloise smoking, port-blockading French farmers are over. Good news from the continent for once.
Posted by: Howard UK || 06/17/2005 5:39 Comments || Top||

#4  WHAT!??! You mean that French farmers will actually have to work for their money!?!? Merde! The horror! This is a sign of the Apocalypse!
Posted by: mmurray821 || 06/17/2005 9:18 Comments || Top||

#5  To speak in your language, no way a Jose. We are tax farmers and are embedded in coulture. Pleae come visit our litte farms and our um..... wall.
Posted by: Farmers General || 06/17/2005 11:59 Comments || Top||

#6  JACQUES CHIRAC suffered a double blow

And not the good kind, either.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 06/17/2005 16:24 Comments || Top||

#7  If they really want to be a united country they should consolidate the national banks and the debt and take it all out of the control of the various nation-states. Just as Alexander Hamilton did.

They won't do that because control of your economy is control of your future, even if your economists are idiots.
Posted by: RJSchwarz || 06/17/2005 18:54 Comments || Top||


EU deal to extend treaty deadline
Leaders of the demoralized European Union have agreed to extend the deadline for ratifying their troubled constitution, insisting they were determined to keep it alive despite French and Dutch "No" votes.
"We're sure the common folk will come around, once we explain it all to them. If not, we can have their rulers approve it in their name."
Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker announced after chairing the first day of a crisis summit that the 25 leaders had agreed that the treaty, meant to streamline EU decision-making, could not be ratified until at least mid-2007. "The date of November 1, 2006 initially foreseen for ratification is no longer tenable," Juncker told a news conference. Countries that were planning referendums would need more time to convince their publics, he said.
"If that doesn't work, the prime ministers and presidents and such can just sign off and it'll all be legal."
Denmark said it was cancelling a referendum due in September, an Irish government source said Ireland would cancel one due in the autumn, and Juncker said Luxembourg's parliament would have to think whether to go ahead with a July plebiscite. Sweden and the Czech Republic said they would delay ratification until the future of the treaty was clear. Europe would now enter a period of "reflection, explanation and debate" on citizens' expectations, and leaders would review the way forward probably in mid-2006, Juncker said. The summit was widely seen as a test of whether the enlarged Union could overcome the shock of the double referendum defeats, or whether political rivalries among its weakened leaders would leave it in limbo.
Posted by: Fred || 06/17/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  On latest news in those countries planning referendums the polls show a strong increase of percentage for the NO after the France and Netherlands rejection. In fact in about every country the NO is leading. Even in Luxembourg (of all places) the NO has a good chance of winning.
Posted by: JFM || 06/17/2005 8:28 Comments || Top||

#2  If you can't carry Luxembourg, you're in trouble.
Posted by: Mike || 06/17/2005 8:41 Comments || Top||

#3  They were in trouble when this wheezing, bloated, three armed abomination of nature called the EU constitution was put up for a vote.
Posted by: mmurray821 || 06/17/2005 10:50 Comments || Top||


Serbia says not negotiating surrender with Mladic
Good idea. Turn yourself in now or die, Mladic... Oh. That's not what they meant.
Posted by: Fred || 06/17/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Fifth Column
Democrats Impeach Bush in mock hearings...
hat tip: LGF
In the Capitol basement yesterday, long-suffering House Democrats took a trip to the land of make-believe.

They pretended a small conference room was the Judiciary Committee hearing room, draping white linens over folding tables to make them look like witness tables and bringing in cardboard name tags and extra flags to make the whole thing look official.


Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) banged a large wooden gavel and got the other lawmakers to call him "Mr. Chairman." He liked that so much that he started calling himself "the chairman" and spouted other chairmanly phrases, such as "unanimous consent" and "without objection so ordered." The dress-up game looked realistic enough on C-SPAN, so two dozen more Democrats came downstairs to play along.


The session was a mock impeachment inquiry over the Iraq war. As luck would have it, all four of the witnesses agreed that President Bush lied to the nation and was guilty of high crimes -- and that a British memo on "fixed" intelligence that surfaced last month was the smoking gun equivalent to the Watergate tapes. Conyers was having so much fun that he ignored aides' entreaties to end the session.

"At the next hearing," he told his colleagues, "we could use a little subpoena power." That brought the house down.

As Conyers and his hearty band of playmates know, subpoena power and other perks of a real committee are but a fantasy unless Democrats can regain the majority in the House. But that's only one of the obstacles they're up against as they try to convince America that the "Downing Street Memo" is important.

A search of the congressional record yesterday found that of the 535 members of Congress, only one -- Conyers -- had mentioned the memo on the floor of either chamber. House Democratic leaders did not join in Conyers's session, and Senate Democrats, who have the power to hold such events in real committee rooms, have not troubled themselves.

The hearing was only nominally about the Downing Street Memo and its assertion that in the summer of 2002 Bush was already determined to go to war and was making the intelligence fit his case. Joseph C. Wilson IV, a former ambassador whose wife was outed as a CIA operative, barely mentioned the memo in his opening statement. Cindy Sheehan, who lost a son in Iraq, said the memo "only confirms what I already suspected."

No matter: The lawmakers and the witnesses saw this as a chance to rally against the war. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) proclaimed it "one of the biggest scandals in the history of this country." Conyers said the memos "establish a prima facie case of going to war under false pretenses." Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) concluded that "the time has come to get out" of Iraq.

The session took an awkward turn when witness Ray McGovern, a former intelligence analyst, declared that the United States went to war in Iraq for oil, Israel and military bases craved by administration "neocons" so "the United States and Israel could dominate that part of the world." He said that Israel should not be considered an ally and that Bush was doing the bidding of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

"Israel is not allowed to be brought up in polite conversation," McGovern said. "The last time I did this, the previous director of Central Intelligence called me anti-Semitic."

Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.), who prompted the question by wondering whether the true war motive was Iraq's threat to Israel, thanked McGovern for his "candid answer."

At Democratic headquarters, where an overflow crowd watched the hearing on television, activists handed out documents repeating two accusations -- that an Israeli company had warning of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and that there was an "insider trading scam" on 9/11 -- that previously has been used to suggest Israel was behind the attacks.

The event organizer, Democrats.com, distributed stickers saying "Bush lied/100,000 people died." One man's T-shirt proclaimed, "Whether you like Bush or not, he's still an incompetent liar," while a large poster of Uncle Sam announced: "Got kids? I want yours for cannon fodder."

Conyers's firm hand on the gavel could not prevent something of a free-for-all; at one point, a former State Department worker rose from the audience to propose criminal charges against Bush officials. Early in the hearing, somebody accidentally turned off the lights; later, a witness knocked down a flag. Matters were even worse at Democratic headquarters, where the C-SPAN feed ended after just an hour, causing the activists to groan and one to shout "Conspiracy!"

The glitches and the antiwar theatrics proved something of a distraction from the message the organizers aimed to deliver: that for the Bush White House, as lawyer John C. Bonifaz put it, the British memo is "the equivalent to the revelation that there was a taping system in the Nixon White House."

Of course, Democrats controlled the real committees back then -- though Conyers was not deterred. "We have a lot of work to do as a result of this first panel," he told his colleagues. " 'Tis the beginning of our work."

i'll leave it for everyone else to comment - looks like the Donks are going down hard....
Posted by: CrazyFool || 06/17/2005 18:36 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
The dress-up game looked realistic enough on C-SPAN, so two dozen more Democrats came downstairs to play along.
Am I reading that correctly? They actually were stupid enough to allow C-SPAN to tape this?

The Dims are truely loony. And no surprise that Jim MORON (Moonbat-VA) was right there.

Can we send all these clowns to Gitmo and replace them with the inmates who are there now? I doubt we'd notice the difference.

(Of course, that would be cruel to the soldiers there....)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 06/17/2005 19:37 Comments || Top||

#2  Man, that's just pathetic.
Posted by: mojo || 06/17/2005 20:23 Comments || Top||

#3  I'm disappointed Babs Boxer wasn't there to cry
Posted by: Frank G || 06/17/2005 20:32 Comments || Top||

#4  I note that the infamous Conyers (CP-Detroit) played doctor chairman with the others. There are lot of good things about My home state, but he isn't one of them.
I hated Clinton when he was in office, but I sent a "get well" when he had his heart problem, and would send condolences to his family if something happened to him.
If Conyers died, I'd cheer.
Posted by: Jackal || 06/17/2005 21:25 Comments || Top||

#5  good on ya, Jackal, but even losing Boxer's not worth taking on a Conyers
Posted by: Frank G || 06/17/2005 21:58 Comments || Top||

#6  ...we live in fictitious times....


Does the GOP even need Rove anymore. Now the dems are tryin to give away elections.

Posted by: macofromoc || 06/17/2005 21:58 Comments || Top||

#7  Conyers is playing to his Detroit Palostinian Palolithic voters.
Posted by: 3dc || 06/17/2005 23:13 Comments || Top||

#8  Actually, this is not the first pseudo Congress event run by Conyers. They had a similar piss fest to "probe" the supposed disenfrenchised voters in the November '04 election.
Posted by: Captain America || 06/17/2005 23:40 Comments || Top||


Delicious irony - PETA charged with cruelty to animals
AHOSKIE, N.C. — Two employees of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have been charged with animal cruelty after dumping dead dogs and cats in a shopping center garbage bin, police said. Investigators staked out the bin after discovering that dead animals had been dumped there every Wednesday for the past four weeks, Ahoskie police said in a prepared statement Thursday. PETA has scheduled a news conference for Friday in Norfolk, Va., where the group is based.
It is all Rove's fault!
Police found 18 dead animals in the bin and 13 more in a van registered to PETA. The animals were from animal shelters in Northampton and Bertie counties, police said. The two were picking up animals to be brought back to PETA headquarters for euthanization, PETA president Ingrid Newkirk (search) said Thursday. Neither police nor PETA offered any theory on why the animals might have been dumped.
Why the hell is PETA doing what the shelter should? Is there a law against it in NC?
Police charged Andrew Benjamin Cook, 24, of Virginia Beach, Va., and Adria Joy Hinkle, 27, of Norfolk, Va., each with 31 felony counts of animal cruelty and eight misdemeanor counts of illegal disposal of dead animals. They were released on bond and an initial court date was set for Friday. Hinkle has been suspended, but Cook continues to work for PETA, Newkirk said. Newkirk said she doubted Hinkle had ever been cruel to an animal and said if the animals were placed in the bin, "We will be appalled."
I'm appalled by your continued exsistance on this planet.
Posted by: mmurray821 || 06/17/2005 10:12 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  PETA = People Euthanizing and Trashing Animals
Posted by: Gir || 06/17/2005 10:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Penn and Teller have a cable series on Showtime, I think, titled "Bullshit". One episode was dedicated to PETA. At the end of the episode, Penn remarked on an odd item in PETAs financial records -- a very large, industrial freezer.

While he was speaking, Teller lead a group of dogs and cats into a large, industrial freezer and closed the door on them.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 06/17/2005 10:49 Comments || Top||

#3  That series (both seasons 1 & 2) are available on Netflix if you don't have Showtime. I've seen season 1. I hope that show you're talking about is on the season 2 collection, RC.

Posted by: Desert Blondie || 06/17/2005 11:36 Comments || Top||

#4  I have no idea which season it was. Sorry.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 06/17/2005 12:06 Comments || Top||

#5  Can't we just have the lettuce ladies back?
Posted by: Shipman || 06/17/2005 14:28 Comments || Top||


Ward Churchill Update
The University of Colorado has expanded its inquiry into alleged research misconduct by professor Ward Churchill in the wake of a recent series of stories in the Rocky Mountain News.
CU-Boulder Interim Chancellor Phil DiStefano asked for the inquiry's expansion to "consider additional allegations" reported by the News, the university said Wednesday in a prepared statement.
DiStefano told the committee in a letter dated Monday that he "wished to supplement his original March 29 referral by asking the panel to include the new allegations in its inquiry and to determine whether they warrant investigation," the statement read.
"Chancellor DiStefano noted that he had not investigated the new charges concerning copyright law, fabrication and plagiarism, among others, and could therefore offer no opinion on their validity."
Churchill responded to the News with a one-word e-mail: "Yawn."
The research misconduct committee put Churchill on notice April 22 that it had launched a 60-day inquiry into his scholarship as well as allegations that he had misrepresented himself as American Indian to give his writings added weight.
The probe could produce outcomes ranging from exoneration to termination from his tenured post as an ethnic studies professor.
David Lane, Churchill's attorney, criticized CU's method of communicating the latest news.
"In keeping with longstanding CU policy, the announcement is made through the media, not with any direct communication with me or Ward Churchill," he said.
The "preliminary inquiry phase" of the case is now expected to be extended by up to 60 days to accommodate DiStefano's supplementary referral, the university's release said.
The recent series in the News focused on the four main areas of possible misconduct that DiStefano in March asked the committee to review, including allegations that Churchill:
• Accused the U.S. Army of deliberately spreading smallpox among the Mandan Indians of the Upper Missouri River Valley in 1837 without a factual basis for the assertion, and in some cases apparently contradicted the books and authors he cited.
• Published an essay in 1992 that largely copied the work of Canadian professor Fay G. Cohen after she had withdrawn permission for him to use it. The committee is also considering parts of an essay in a 1993 book that closely resemble a piece that appeared the year before under the name of Rebecca L. Robbins.
• Mischaracterized an important federal Indian law in repeated writings in the past two decades, claiming that the General Allotment Act of 1887 established a "blood quantum" standard that allowed tribes to admit members only if they had at least half native blood. The committee is looking at allegations that he also mischaracterized the Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990.
• Claimed American Indian ancestry to make his scholarship more widely accepted.
Churchill defended his work to the News, saying that he had not plagiarized and that in some instances, is accused of taking work that he originally wrote.
He said he was correct about the Mandan Indians, and that his characterizations of the intent of the two laws are accurate.
Churchill also has said that he qualifies as an Indian under three of four criteria.
In the course of its investigation, the News uncovered additional evidence of possible research misconduct by Churchill.
In one instance, the News discovered a little-known 1972 pamphlet, The Water Plot, written by activists concerning an aborted water-diversion scheme in Canada, that Churchill later began claiming as his own work.
And in least three other cases, the News revealed that Churchill published works by others without their permission. Churchill credited authors Robert T. Coulter, Rudolph C. Ryser and Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, but they say he failed to notify them that he was publishing their articles. Experts described those instances as potential copyright violations.
Churchill refused to respond to those News stories.
CU spokeswoman Pauline Hale said last week that rules precluded the research committee from adding new allegations.
On Wednesday, she said, "The rules, while they are fairly explicit, do allow for some flexibility in interpretation, in order for the university to carry out its obligations."
KHOW 630-AM radio talk show host Dan Caplis, a CU graduate, filed a formal complaint with CU on Friday concerning The Water Plot allegation. Lane drew a connection Wednesday between Caplis' complaint and the DiStefano announcement.
"Dan Caplis, who is a media personality, apparently motivated Di-Stefano, who lives in fear of the media, to respond to a media-inspired series of articles as punishment for Ward Churchill exercising his First Amendment rights."
Churchill stirred national controversy early this year when it was discovered that he had written an essay on the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that likened some World Trade Center victims to Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, suggesting that they deserved their fate.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 06/17/2005 10:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I hope someone will tell us when he is canned and winds up at some jerkwater community college as an Ethics teacher.
Posted by: Bobby || 06/17/2005 13:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Evergreen State, Ward. Update/"embellish" that resume. Go west, white eyes.
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/17/2005 13:40 Comments || Top||

#3  Too late to punish this AH, he's in a win/win situation.

I'd be paying off paparzi for photos and JibJab for funny stuff. Laughing stock is the only thing gonna work.
Posted by: Shipman || 06/17/2005 14:31 Comments || Top||

#4  “Dan Caplis, who is a media personality . . .”

Churchill’s mouthpiece is a bit too dismissive. Mr. Caplis (who does host a talk radio show here in Denver, Colorado) also is a darn good, plaintiff’s trial attorney, and staunch conservative (that’s right, “trial lawyer” and conservative ;) ).

My guess (and hope) is that the state will fight Churchill to the death to keep from paying him a dime. It is sad the LLL will increasingly fawn over this goofball, the more he’s discredited, but hopefully supporting Churchill will drain at least some of their resources away from their PAC favorites.
Posted by: cingold || 06/17/2005 16:58 Comments || Top||

#5  This waste of skin is still stealing oxygen?

Disappointing.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 06/17/2005 17:16 Comments || Top||

#6  Ward's 15 minutes were up about 10 minutes ago...
Posted by: mojo || 06/17/2005 20:25 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Dean Condemns 'Anti-Semitic Literature' distributed at Rep. Conyer's "Bush Trial"
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/17/2005 21:22 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


The Wall Street Journal Is Leftist
Jim Miller explains:
At least on the news side. Who says so? Well, I've said so for years. And Howard Kurtz, who writes on the media for the Washington Post, agrees with me.

During my six years as a reporter in the Wall Street Journal's Washington bureau, my opinions were nearly always in opposition to the line laid down by the Journal's conservative editorial page, and the same held for most of the other reporters I knew, too.

What to make of the fact that our most important business newspaper has mostly leftist reporters? It adds, as I have said, an interesting tension to that newspaper. But it also shows how hard it is for a newspaper, any newspaper, to recruit reporters who will cover politics in a balanced way.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 06/17/2005 11:30 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Nearly all journalists are liberal to leftist. The more conservative papers simply keep them on a short leash with strict oversight. If left to themselves, you couldn't tell the difference between the OC Register and the LA Times.
Posted by: Jackal || 06/17/2005 21:27 Comments || Top||


Governator goes Green???
A top German governmental official praised California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday for pledging to fight global warming over objections from the White House. In a message to Schwarzenegger, German federal environment minister Juergen Trittin congratulated the California Republican for his courage in splitting with President George W. Bush on the issue of reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. "With his exemplary programme for reduction emissions, California - like Germany - has proved that even a country of car lovers can be in the vanguard of protecting the environment," Trittin said. Earlier this month, the governor attended the United Nations
World Environmental Day Conference in San Francisco, where he won praise from environmentalists with a plan to reduce the state's emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for trapping heat in the earth's atmosphere and raising temperatures worldwide.
Schwarzenegger signed an executive order that calls for reducing the state's emissions of greenhouse gases to 2000 levels by 2010, 1990 levels by 2020, and 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. The Republican governor said that developing cutting-edge environmental technologies such as hydrogen fuel cells will conserve energy, curb pollution, protect natural resources - and be good for business.
Some very interesting background information and a rebuttal to Arnie's eco-fantasy at the always excellent Greenie Watch blog.
Posted by: Seafarious || 06/17/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Em? I thought you had special editor-highlighting?
Posted by: Phil Fraering || 06/17/2005 0:21 Comments || Top||

#2  Oh, and getting back on topic:

Given how much of California's power is out and out bought from out of state, isn't this a comedy of errors, in a way? The CO2 generated by California's pwoer needs is emitted in Texas and the great plains. So all he'd be doing would be shifting the blame around, at the cost of making the state even more vulnerable to the sorts of crises it faced in 2000, both from power wholesalers and the already strained electrical grid.
Posted by: Phil Fraering || 06/17/2005 0:30 Comments || Top||

#3  Oops. My fine, hand-carved mahogany blue hilighter pen inlaid with jasper and lapis lazuli unfortunately fell back behind the desk and I was too lazy to go fish it out from under the dust bunnies.

I'm also goooogling around for the meeting resolutions signed by the mayors attending on behalf of their cities. Horrifying. Worse than Kyoto, if any international law could be. Will post when I find 'em, later today.
Posted by: Seafarious || 06/17/2005 1:06 Comments || Top||

#4  I thought Arnie had more sense. If he really wanted to help the environment there's loads of logical, common-sense things he could do.

carbon emissions are not part of the problem that can or should be solved
Posted by: anon1 || 06/17/2005 2:26 Comments || Top||

#5  Phil, that is the hydrogen economy in a nutshell. Shift the emissions somewhere else and so what if it doubles or triples energy consumption. It's happening somewhere else.
Posted by: phil_b || 06/17/2005 4:06 Comments || Top||

#6  Hydrogen economy is a no-go unless supported by massive changeover from coal/oil electrical power generation to nuclear power. And that includes so-called "breeder reactors" that will produce more fuel (enriched plutonium and uranium) as part of the process.

If we want to truly go "green" (without the masked marxism that often accompnaies it), and get to a hydrogen/fuel-cell economy, we need to go nuclear, NOW.
Posted by: OldSpook || 06/17/2005 9:58 Comments || Top||

#7  Petroleum is a solar savings account that was deposited (read: converted) millions of years ago. Now we humans are drawing on that savings account. To substitute another energy source will require an energy conversion, and none of the conversions are ideal. The only one I can think of that is "green" is solar, and we are certainly not there yet.

There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. Plug in your electric car and somewhere there is a dead dinosaur going up in flames to power a generator.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 06/17/2005 9:58 Comments || Top||

#8  Arnie can sign an executive order declaring that the moon is made of green cheese if he likes, but that don't make it so.
Posted by: mojo || 06/17/2005 10:08 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
US House Votes to Trim UN Funding Unless Reform Happens
Posted by: mojo || 06/17/2005 15:52 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Finally, something has happened in Congress that I can wholeheartedly support.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 06/17/2005 16:18 Comments || Top||

#2  'Bout goddam time!
Jeane Kirkpatrick, also weighed in, telling lawmakers in a letter that withholding of dues would "create resentment, build animosity and actually strengthen opponents of reform"
BULLSHIT, Jeane. The UN can't resent us any more, can't have any more animosity against us than they already do.

As for the "opponents of reform," it makes absolutely NO difference what we do - the kleptocrats in the UN will oppose any reform that would cost them one damn dime.

Close the UN, kick them out of NYC, and ship the whole sorry mess to Paris. Or better yet, Harare. They deserve each other.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 06/17/2005 17:12 Comments || Top||

#3  A journey of a thousand li starts with one step.
Posted by: gromgoru || 06/17/2005 19:41 Comments || Top||

#4  A peasant always hangs himself in his landlord's doorway.
Posted by: mojo || 06/17/2005 20:21 Comments || Top||

#5  Mojo: that's too zen. I think the lose of bowel control is what they seek
Posted by: Frank G || 06/17/2005 20:35 Comments || Top||

#6  loss? Jeebus
Posted by: Frank G || 06/17/2005 21:22 Comments || Top||


Annan may jump before he is pushed over Oil-for-Food
EFL: I'll believe it when I see it.
Fresh information involving the Secretary-General forces the reopening of UN inquiry
THE steady drip of revelations about the Oil-for-Food scandal threatens to force Kofi Annan from his job as United Nations Secretary-General before the end of his term. Speculation is mounting at UN headquarters in New York that Mr Annan will announce his resignation at a summit of world leaders in the city in September, in the larger interests of the organisation.
Ya gotta take one for the family, Kofi...
It follows the reopening of the Volcker inquiry into the scandal, part of which had focused on the award of a border inspection contract in Iraq to a company employing Mr Annan's son, Kojo. One senior UN official told The Times that the UN leader could present his resignation as a means of sparing the organisation further embarrassment. "It would be a way of regaining the initiative," he said.
Kofi, let's go fishing...
Asked about the rumours of his resignation at the September summit, Mr Annan told New York magazine last month: "That's a question for the future. In life, you cannot rule out. You cannot say never or for ever." In an interview for the French newspaper Le Figaro today, however, he denies "absolutely" any plans to quit.
And, what, go back to... Ghana?
Once a diplomatic superstar who won the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize, Mr Annan is now the target of a full-scale investigation by a UN commission and the US Congress.
I thought the UN won it, not Kofi. Not that he wouldn't take credit for it...
After the stress of the Iraq war, the normally sunny UN Secretary-General became haggard and lost his voice. Aides cut his schedule and ordered him to take a holiday. On one occasion he skipped a summit in Africa so that he could return home to New York. One ambassador said that Mr Annan's mood has been fluctuating ever since like a "sine curve".
When you're close to being busted, you're probably pretty moody.
Mr Annan, a Ghanaian, married to a Swede, has been personally linked to the Oil-for-Food scandal because of Kojo, one of two children by his Nigerian first wife.
Thanks, Pops!
In 1998 the UN awarded a lucrative border inspection contract in Iraq to Cotecna Inspection Services, a Swiss firm that employed Kojo Annan. Kofi Annan denies that he knew about Cotecna's interest in the $10 million (£5.5 million) annual contract until after it was awarded.
Oh, wow. Look at that. Doesn't my son work for them?
A UN inquiry, led by Paul Volcker, the former chairman of the US Federal Reserve, found that Kofi Annan "could have been alerted" to Cotecna's efforts to get the UN contract at "several points". But it found no conclusive proof. The inquiry concluded in March that "the evidence is not reasonably sufficient to show that the Secretary-General knew that Cotecna had submitted a bid".
That was when he was "exonerated", right?
The Volcker commission's two top investigators in the case resigned in protest. Calling the inquiry's finding "flawed", one of the investigators gave the US Congress six boxes of documents from the Volcker files. They are now the subject of a court battle. On Tuesday Mr Volcker had to reopen the investigation into Mr Annan after the release of a potentially devastating Cotecna memorandum suggesting that the UN chief secretly backed the company's bid. The e-mailed memo was written by Michael Wilson, the son of the former Ghanaian Ambassador to Switzerland and a childhood friend of Kojo Annan, who considers Kofi Annan his "uncle".
Thanks, Uncle Kofi!
Mr Wilson was a Cotecna executive at the time, but left the company in 2000 and joined Kojo Annan on the board of Air Harbour Technologies, founded by Hani Yamani, son of the former Saudi Oil Minister. Recently Mr Wilson has been embroiled in a separate UN scandal involving suspected kickbacks in the rebuilding of the Geneva headquarters of the World Intellectual Property Organisation.
Thanks, Uncle Kofi!
In the newly released Cotecna memo, dated December 4, 1998, Mr Wilson reports discussions with the UN Secretary-General at a francophone summit in Paris in November 1998. The memo says: "We had brief discussions with the SG and his entourage. Their collective advice was that we should respond as best as we could to the Q & A session of the 1-12-98 and that we could count on their support." The "1-12-98" session was a meeting Cotecna had scheduled with UN procurement officials about its bid for a UN contract, which the firm won ten days later. Cotecna acknowledged this week that the document "may result in speculation about the procurement of its Oil-for-Food authentication contract". But the company insisted it "obtained that contract fairly and on the basis of price". Fred Eckhard, the chief UN spokesman, said Kofi Annan had "no recollection" of meeting Mr Wilson on the 1998 trip. But he was unable to say whether the UN chief had met his son, Kojo, then a Cotecna consultant, during the trip.
I've got a son named Kojo? I don't recall.
Mr Wilson's lawyer said: "Mr Wilson never met or had any discussion with the United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, on the issue of the bid for the UN contract by Cotecna at the francophone summit, during the bidding process, or at any time prior to the award of the contract." Diplomats say they can foresee a scenario in which Mr Annan magnanimously resigns at the September summit on UN reform.
Would that get him off the hook on any possible charges down the road?
The Volcker commission's final report was originally due this month but has been pushed back. Sources say that it may even be delayed until after the summit. That would allow Mr Annan to step aside before Mr Volcker delivers his findings. Mr Volcker's investigators have recently been to Britain, seeking to answer "significant questions" about Kojo Annan's business dealings.
Why do the powers that be seem so concerned about letting this bastard skate on this?
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/17/2005 08:50 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Why do the powers that be seem so concerned about letting this bastard skate on this?

'Cause most of them are up to their eyeballs in it too and they also want the status quo left in place. How else are they gonna get rich while denoucing the US?
Posted by: mmurray821 || 06/17/2005 9:24 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Cambodian police arrest hostage drama 'mastermind'
Cambodian police have arrested a security guard suspected of masterminding the hostage-taking at a school near the Angkor Wat temples in which gunmen shot dead a Canadian toddler, officials said on Friday. The guard, 29-year-old Ul Samnang, worked at a souvenir shop and did not take an active part in Thursday's hostage drama at the international school in Siem Reap, Phoeng Chenda, the town's police chief, told Reuters. The four hostage takers, all Cambodians in their 20s who were seized as they tried to escape at the end of an eight-hour siege, were also being held for questioning in the tourist town 200 km (125 miles) northwest of Phnom Penh and the gateway to the famous Angkor Wat temples.

Visible through the window of the police station, the suspects were handcuffed and in their underwear. Bruises could be seen on their faces and one had stitches across his forehead. The men, armed with a handgun and knives, stormed into the school, first demanding $1,000 and a van, increasing the sum later to $30,000, police said. The two-year-old Canadian boy was shot in the head in the opening moments of the siege and 29 other children and their teacher were held at gunpoint.

An eerie calm had settled on Friday morning on the dirt road leading to the school which had been packed the previous day with soldiers and police, distraught parents and onlookers. Around 20 military policemen stood guard in front of the school and police said security had been stepped up at all tourist locations across the booming town to ensure the safety of foreigners. "This incident has forced us to improve security, not only at hotels but also guest houses and restaurants where foreigners are," said provincial police chief Noun Bophal. "This is a lesson for us." Authorities in the deeply impoverished country, which is still awash with weapons after decades of war, including the Khmer Rouge genocide of the 1970s, ruled out terrorism. "It is an act of revenge or armed robbery," the province's deputy governor, Ung Oeun, told reporters after questioning the suspects. Doctors at the town's main hospital said they were setting up a trauma unit for the 29 children from as many as 14 different countries who had had to endure the ordeal.
Posted by: Fred || 06/17/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Visible through the window of the police station, the suspects were handcuffed and in their underwear. Bruises could be seen on their faces and one had stitches across his forehead."

That's what I'd call a good start, though I wonder why they wasted some perfectly good stitches.
Posted by: .com || 06/17/2005 1:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Of course, on reflection, they might've been used...
Posted by: .com || 06/17/2005 5:56 Comments || Top||

#3  Well, .com, when the stitches have been applied with a sewing machine...
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 06/17/2005 7:48 Comments || Top||

#4  Lol, RC - zigzag or chain?
Posted by: .com || 06/17/2005 12:44 Comments || Top||

#5  According to the version in the morning paper, the children's parents attacked the hostage takers. A number of angry dads pounded the tar out of them.
Posted by: mom || 06/17/2005 12:47 Comments || Top||

#6  Even better! Thx for the update mom.
Posted by: .com || 06/17/2005 12:54 Comments || Top||

#7  SIEM REAP, Cambodia (Reuters) - A Cambodian man who shot dead a Canadian toddler during a school hostage drama near Angkor Wat was driven by revenge against his South Korean ex-employer, police said on Friday. Chea Khom quit last week as driver for a Korean restaurant owner in Siem Reap, gateway to the famed 800-year-old temples, after being slapped in the face for taking the children to school late, senior police investigator Ou Em said.
He then decided to exact revenge by kidnapping the Korean's children from the school, hatching a plot with friends in Phnom Penh which led ultimately to Thursday's school siege and the death of the 2-year-old Canadian boy, he said.
"When he entered the school his first target was to kidnap the Korean children, but when he saw the parents of the children he was afraid to do it," Ou Em told reporters. "So he turned to another classroom and took them hostage."
Armed with knives and a handgun, the four hostage-takers, all in their 20s, first demanded $1,000 and a van in return for the release of the 29 infants in the class. Later, they increased the sum to $30,000, police said.
When negotiators stalled over the demand for weapons, Chea Khom and his accomplices started to lose their cool. "The gunmen demanded we give them money, a van and grenades. We did not agree to give them grenades and guns, so they got mad and shot the kid in the head," he told Reuters.

Kanika Cowled, a 6-year-old Cambodian-Australian girl who hid in the school library, said the Canadian child was singled out and shot in the head "because that little boy just yell."
Posted by: Steve || 06/17/2005 14:11 Comments || Top||

#8  Screwing with foreigners kids in a Cambodian town dependent on tourism? How long you figure these guys have to live?
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/17/2005 14:14 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Tech
Photo Series of Goodyear Blimp Crash
Posted by: Anonymoose || 06/17/2005 21:19 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Economy
Oil Prices Hit New High - $58.47 per barrel
Posted by: Thotch Glesing2372 || 06/17/2005 16:04 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The plan of having a second motorcycle in my stable next year is looking more and more likely to come about. :)
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 06/17/2005 16:15 Comments || Top||

#2  Too bad.
Posted by: gromgoru || 06/17/2005 19:43 Comments || Top||

#3  Could be worse. Could be wheat.
Posted by: Shipman || 06/17/2005 20:03 Comments || Top||


Africa: Subsaharan
Zimbabwe extends demolitions to rural areas
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) -- Zimbabwe has extended the destruction of informal homes and businesses from the cities to rural areas, police told state radio Friday. The government calls the campaign a cleanup effort, but critics at home and abroad say it is a violation of human rights and inspired by politics. Police spokesman Austin Chikwavara said his force has started tearing down shacks and kiosks found at major crossroads in Chirumanzu, Umvuma and Lalapanzi in the Zimbabwe Midlands, between 200 kilometers (124 miles) and 300 kilometers (186 miles) south of the capital, Harare. Another police spokesman, who was not identified, told the radio station that police also are demolishing homes built without permission on some of the thousands of farms seized from their white owners for redistribution to black Zimbabweans who are in tight with Bob.
However, Security Minister Didymus Mutasa maintained in the same broadcast that the monthlong campaign was aimed only at cleaning out city streets and would not affect the government's rural strongholds.
The government's Operation Murambatsvina, or Drive Out Trash, has already left more than 250,000 city dwellers homeless in the winter cold.
Oh no! Not the Brutal Zimbabwe Winter!
Police also have arrested more than 30,000 vendors, accusing them of dealing in black market goods and attempting to sabotage Zimbabwe's failing economy.
President Robert Mugabe's dismissed propaganda chief condemned the evictions Thursday as "barbaric." Jonathan Moyo, addressing his first public meeting in the capital since he was fired in January, said the blitz was linked to a power struggle within the ruling party over who would succeed the 81-year-old Mugabe. "It seems to be a directionless activity of some mischievous group which imagines it can profit by this in some mysterious way and position itself ahead of the pack in the succession game," he told the gathering at a Harare hotel Thursday.
That cleared things things right up. Thanks, Jonathan.
Moyo, who spent five years as information minister, was fired for opposing Mugabe's choice of Joyce Mujuru as a vice president. Moyo backed parliamentary Speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa, who represents a younger generation of ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front members.
Opposition leaders say the eviction campaign is aimed at driving their supporters among the urban poor into rural areas, where they can be more easily controlled. "The government wants to depopulate urban areas ahead of the 2008 elections and re-create a rural peasantry in which voters are brought under the control of local chiefs and Mugabe's militias," Sydney Masamvu, an analyst from the International Crisis Group think tank, said in a statement Friday.
SEE: Cambodia, Pol Pot

As the unpopular drive spreads, Zimbabwe officials sought to play down superstitious fears that the ancestors have been angered. Residents of a small mining town told a government newspaper that the presence of a baboon in a destroyed shack was a sign of the ancestors' displeasure. The animal leaped out of the shack as it was being pulled down and refused to leave the site in Shurugwi's Mukusha township, 450 kilometers (280 miles) south of Harare, The Herald reported. Many Zimbabweans believe the spirits of ancestors inhabit wild animals and invade human habitations to take revenge when offended. "We are not really concerned because a baboon can never harm a person," police spokesman Patrick Chademana told The Herald.
Only when he's president of Zimbabwe
Posted by: Steve || 06/17/2005 11:06 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  a baboon can never harm a person

You might want to talk to the guy bringing the birthday cake to his old pet chimp - a baboon looks a lot stronger than the chimps that took him half apart.
Posted by: VAMark || 06/17/2005 11:34 Comments || Top||

#2  ...and attempting to sabotage Zimbabwe's failing economy.

How do you sabotage a failing economy?
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/17/2005 12:31 Comments || Top||

#3  1)If Dick Durbin had reserved some of his vitriolic rhetoric aimed at the Gitmo soldiers for this regime he might not be in the hot water that he is.
2)Just hope that not a penny of the aid slated for Africa is going to Zimbabwe.
Posted by: GK || 06/17/2005 12:32 Comments || Top||

#4  Per Encyclopaedia Britannica:

Baboons "are very destructive to crops, and, because of their large canines and powerful limbs, they are dangerous adversaries, especially since they travel in troops."

Reinvented Pol Pots are dangerous too.
Posted by: mom || 06/17/2005 13:01 Comments || Top||

#5  of informal homes

Martha said it was the new way?
Posted by: Moshe Shipman || 06/17/2005 13:38 Comments || Top||

#6  Pal, anything with four-inch fangs and a brain the size of a chimp's can seriously hurt you.
Posted by: mojo || 06/17/2005 14:29 Comments || Top||

#7  Oh no! Not the Brutal Zimbabwe Winter!

Temperature in Harare has been ranging from 48F at night to 75F in the day.
Posted by: Pappy || 06/17/2005 14:40 Comments || Top||

#8  I remember one night in Liberia when the night watchman for the compound knocked on the door to ask for a blanket, because it was too cold for him to sleep. (It had dipped below 60.)
Posted by: James || 06/17/2005 16:34 Comments || Top||

#9  When I was child I remember a documentary over baboons. There was a leopard who had killed a gazel and before he could draw his prey to a tree for eating it, a baboon appeared fought the leopard. None was seriously hurt but the leopard abandonned his prey. Baboons can't rake with their claws for disemboweling like leopards do but their teeh are bigger than those of the leopard.

For chimpanzes they don't have baboon's teeth but an animal who spends his life in treees will develop inmensely powerful arms.
Posted by: JFM || 06/17/2005 17:50 Comments || Top||

#10  Yeptrees good, big brains and crazy strong arms.
Posted by: Shipman || 06/17/2005 19:55 Comments || Top||

#11  Baboons are the brownshirts of the ape world. Alone they are dangerous, but they prefer to attack in packs.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/17/2005 21:47 Comments || Top||

#12  like Jackals or Sigma Chis
Posted by: Frank G || 06/17/2005 22:12 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Economy
I blame the Bush tax cuts
Via Bros. Judd:

Government Hits One-Day Tax Revenue High

After totaling it all up, the Treasury Department announced Thursday that it had collected $61 billion on Wednesday. That surpassed the old one-day record of $56 billion set on Dec. 15, 2000.

The bulk of the revenue — $49 billion — came from corporate tax payments, also a one-day record for such receipts. The old mark was $46 billion set last Dec. 15. Wednesday's date, June 15, and Dec. 15 are both deadlines for corporations to make quarterly tax payments.

The government's coffers have been swelling this year as tax receipts from both individuals and corporations have been on the rise, reflecting an improving economy. Because of those increases, this year's federal deficit is expected to fall to around $350 billion, down from the $413 billion record in dollar terms set in 2004.

Posted by: anonymous2u || 06/17/2005 00:59 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Which is why recruiting is so tough [while retentions are no problem] for the Army. Was the same in the economy when it was rolling in the 80s and 90s. Not that MSM could ever figure out cause-> effect.
Posted by: Snetle Tholurong5083 || 06/17/2005 8:29 Comments || Top||

#2  Also the MSM and the Dems don't get the fact that if the people have more money, they spend more. Thus the governments get higher tax dollars from the increased spending. Remember, the people are much better at spending money for economic growth than the government is.
Posted by: mmurray821 || 06/17/2005 9:21 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Draft of law finalised to abolish marriages to Quran
The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) has drafted a law abolishing the un-Islamic and inhuman custom of so-called marriage of a girl to the Holy Quran and recommended life imprisonment for persons involved in this practice. This practice, commonly known as 'Haq Bakhshwan,' is rampant in rural areas of Pakistan where feudal lords and other rich people deny the right of marriage to a woman just to preserve their property.

The CII approved the draft bill in its 157th meeting. Official sources said the bill has been sent to the Ministry of Religious Affairs for its subsequent approval by parliament. The bill titled 'Pakistan Penal Code Amendment Act 2005' seeks amendments to section 295(b) of PPC which makes 'Haq Bakhshwan' a punishable offence whereby anyone involved in such practice would be liable to be sentenced to life imprisonment. According to the amendment whoever wilfully defiles, desecrates or damages a copy of the Holy Quran or allows the Holy Quran to be used for purpose of its marriage to a female or induces any person to swear on the Holy Quran never to marry anyone in her lifetime, shall be punishable with imprisonment for life.
Posted by: Fred || 06/17/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Feel free however to continue fucking goats...
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/17/2005 8:06 Comments || Top||

#2  ...and camels. Don't forget the camels!
Posted by: Raj || 06/17/2005 13:34 Comments || Top||

#3  My blood ran cold my camel was a centerfold.
Posted by: abu 80ies || 06/17/2005 19:49 Comments || Top||


Africa: Subsaharan
USD 20m demanded for Germans held in Nigeria
Kidnappers holding two German oil workers captive in Nigeria's Niger Delta area have demanded a ransom of USD 20 million (EUR 16.6 million), it was reported on Thursday. The abductors are also reported to have demanded that multinational oil concern Shell step up efforts to assist the poverty-stricken local population. "If the SPDC Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria does not comply immediately, we are going to take over all the oil installations," Nigeria daily This Day quoted a member of the kidnap gang as saying. The two Germans, employees of a Mannheim-based company sub- contracted by Shell, were seized along with four Nigerian co-workers while travelling in a boat to a platform operated by the oil giant.

Posted by: Seafarious || 06/17/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  here's an idea: $1 million for their safe return and another $1 million for proof positive the kidnappers are dead
Posted by: Frank G || 06/17/2005 18:51 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Gunman dies after public gun sex in downtown Amman
AMMAN - A gunman who fired randomly at people in downtown Amman on Thursday died after apparently shooting himself in the head, eyewitnesses and police said.
There's gun sex and then there's gun sex ...
The body of the gunman, whose identity and motive were not known, was carried on a stretcher out of the Jordanian Hunters House, a arms dealer shop in the heart of Amman's commercial district, said an Associated Press reporter on the scene.

Police said the man killed himself after wounding several people during an hour-long shooting spree. A police official on the scene, insisting he not be identified under police regulations, declined to disclose the number of wounded people or provide other details.

An eyewitness who identified himself as Ammar Mohammed said the gunman, dressed in a black shirt and trousers and sported a long beard, entered the arms dealer shop and threatened the owner with a knife.
Brought a knife to a gun shop?
Police had sealed off the area to keep people away, and fired tear gas to try in an effort to have the gunman surrender. But later, the police official on the scene said the gunman killed himself. An eyewitness, who declined to be identified, said he saw police shooting the man after he failed to surrender.
Posted by: Steve White || 06/17/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Police fired a few warning shots through him,eh?

'Good way to convince the gunman to commit suicide.

Rot in hell, gunman.
Posted by: Lone Ranger || 06/17/2005 3:22 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
At U.S. newspapers, news is nearly all bad in 2005
These days your local newsstand isn't the only one selling The New York Times, The Washington Post or USA Today. Investors have also been unloading the biggest names in the newspaper business, driving down shares of the group by about 10 percent this year amid worries about harsh circulation and advertising declines in the age of new media.
That's alright, though. Keep peddling the same old tired product. The public's sure to come around, eventually...
... watching Newsday execs get indicted for padding circulation prolly didn't help calm invester nerves ...
Next week, top executives from the country's leading publishers will try to win back investors during two days of presentations at the Newspaper Association of America's Mid-Year Media Review. But convincing Wall Street that newspaper companies are being treated too harshly -- their stocks have underperformed the broader market by about 9 percent this year -- will be no easy pitch, experts say. Peter Appert, a media analyst with Goldman Sachs, wrote in a recent report that investors will likely "come away from next week's meetings with a more cautious view of the near-term industry outlook" than they have now.
I think Rantburg shows that you can publish interesting and timely stories and still get your politix in — that's what the yellow, green, mauve, blue, and plaid comments are for. If you let the politix drive the story, rather than interpreting it, people are going to blow you off. I'm a great believer in Just the Facts, Ma'am, and I'm of the opinion that newspapers were a lot better when they had reporters, rather than journalists. Maybe that's just me and my antiquated outlook, but maybe it's just me and the stockholders, too. And the readership, that's been going elsewhere.
Posted by: Fred || 06/17/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And just look at the so-called reporters, Fred. They just ask softball questions, never go for depth, avoid the real stories, their grammer and syntax sucks, and they can't write worth a crap. Other than that, they are doing great.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 06/17/2005 3:28 Comments || Top||

#2  What is it about sowing and reaping?
Posted by: Bobby || 06/17/2005 7:44 Comments || Top||

#3  If papers had dismal sales in a year where there was a presidential election then it smells very, very bad for them. Aren't you sad the equivalents of Dan Rather for the printed press being soon on unemployment? Just like I thought, you heartless individual.
Posted by: JFM || 06/17/2005 8:18 Comments || Top||

#4  Their 'Enron' opportunity is coming nearer.
The sooner the real numbers come to light, the more will fall. For decades the newspapers have been hiding behind corporate creative bookkeeping and conglomerate paper shuffling, but the foundation is rotten cause they have become instruments of power rather than a commercial commodity directly subjected to the market place. When the advertisers start to sue for the inflated rates they were charged based upon inflated circulation numbers, watch the executives bail like Enron and Worldcom, but don't expect to see the same amount of 'news' coverage of that event. One set standards for members of the inner circle and another set of standards for everyone else.
Posted by: Snetle Tholurong5083 || 06/17/2005 8:24 Comments || Top||

#5  A good exemple of of the media's sources ability to inform (AP, Reuter, AFP, etc...) is the story by AP (U.S. Launches Major Operation in West Iraq) you report this morning under "Another big operation in the wild west". Only 2 small paragraphs are relevant.
Posted by: SwissTex || 06/17/2005 8:40 Comments || Top||

#6  "...the NEW IMPROVED! Acme buggy whip!"
Posted by: mojo || 06/17/2005 10:09 Comments || Top||

#7  question the abilities of the MSM - you don't have to be competent to get along with like-minded editors. To disagree, you better have your ducks in order and your resume current. Tell me how this breeds "diversity" in the media? riiiigghhhtt
Posted by: Frank G || 06/17/2005 21:21 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Outcry over Indian clerics' order that woman marry man who raped her
These folks don't quite yet understand the principles of Western liberalism ...
I think they do, and the very thought gives them the runs...
A man accused of raping his daughter-in-law in a north Indian village has been arrested, police said on Thursday, amid a growing outcry over an order by local clerics that the woman marry her rapist and treat her husband as her son.
That's logic, I guess... If your turban's really, really tight...
Ali Mohammed was arrested at Charthawal village in the Muzafarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh state and appeared in court Thursday, district police chief Amrindra Kumar Sengar said. He was remanded in custody for 14 days, another police officer told television news channels. He added that Mohammed had claimed his daughter-in-law had consented to having sex with him.
"Of course I'll let you diddle me! I'd love to! Just put the acid down, okay?"
Local clerics had said the rape had annulled the woman's marriage to her husband and had ordered that she marry her father-in-law. "Her father-in-law has used her and she must marry him," one of the clerics told NDTV television news, citing Islamic Sharia law.
I'm not even sure that this makes sense in an Islamic way ...
As I mentioned before, what's to prevent the husband from "using" her and getting her back?
"Whatever takes place now (in regard to the criminal trial), she will remain the symbolic mother to her husband."
... and the clerics will remain the nuts in the scrotum of India...
Another cleric said the woman, a 28-year-old mother of five children, had been party to a criminal act and she too should be punished. But an Islamic scholar said the rulings by local clerics in the village, 350 kilometers (217 miles) from the state capital Lucknow, are not legally binding. "The cleric is acting as an arbitrator, he has no judicial power. Both parties have to accept the decision voluntarily. The woman can approach a normal court of law to enforce her existing marriage if she wants," said Zafarul Islam Khan, editor of a fortnightly Indian Muslims' newspaper called the Milligazette. "No panchayat (village council) or moulvi (cleric) can force her to give up her existing marriage unless she wants to," he added.
"Of course, if she refuses we'll have to stone her," he added.
After the incident about two weeks ago, the woman left the house to live with her brother. She pleaded with her husband, a rickshaw puller, to join her, but he refused, news reports said. The matter was taken up by the village council comprising local Islamic clerics who ordered her to marry her father-in-law and treat her husband as her son. The incident has outraged women's rights groups.
The National Organization for Women is especially outraged over ... oh right, not that womens rights group.
A member of the All India Muslim Women Personal Law Board, a body for protecting the rights of Muslim women in India, has demanded that the man be whipped 60 times and then stoned according to Islamic law.
You go, girls!
"The decision taken by the clerics is totally wrong and against the premises of the Koran," said board member Shahista Amber. "We are going to write to the board. Ali Mohammed should be subjected to 60 lashes and he should also be stoned for the heinous crime he committed." The National Commission of Women has asked for a report from the Uttar Pradesh state government and has demanded the man be punished if found guilty. It has also asked that compensation be paid to the woman.
Posted by: Steve White || 06/17/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Local clerics had said the rape had annulled the woman’s marriage to her husband and had ordered that she marry her father-in-law. “Her father-in-law has used her and she must marry him,” one of the clerics told NDTV television news, citing Islamic Sharia law.

Doesn't that sorta say it all? Even if they're squabbling about it, now, just the fact that anyone, anyone at all, could've thought this was the rational solution puts the "OverDue" (by about 1400 yrs) stamp on Shari'a. Just one of a zillion reasons why this pathogen needs to be put down, forever.
Posted by: .com || 06/17/2005 0:55 Comments || Top||

#2  an order by local clerics that the woman marry her rapist and treat her husband as her son.

Head-slapping moment of realization. I just remembered where they got this oh-so-charming idea.

From ol' Mo' himself. That's right, folks, the prophet of Allan (piss on him), is the model in this case. I can't remember the exact source -- one of the hadith, I'm sure -- but Mo' went to visit his son and his son's new wife. Turns out the new daughter-in-law was a nice piece, and Mo' got jealous. So Mo' did his frothing and twitching routine, then claimed that Allan had passed onto him a new message: His son MUST divorce his new wife.

The son -- and daughter-in-law -- were distraught, but what could they do? If they disobeyed, then one of Mo's holy men would slit their throats -- no acid available in those days, after all. So they divorced.

A few days later, Mo' goes into another fit of getting messages from Allan. This time the message is -- get this -- the ex-daughter-in-law has to marry Mo'!

So the "cleric" in this case is just applying his religion, the lessons of his "prophet". We really shouldn't be surprised.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 06/17/2005 7:55 Comments || Top||

#3  LOL, RC. Of course one must never forget that the famous and "tolerant" "four muslim males must witness adultery for it to be adultery" schtick wasn't so very tolerant after all. Folks were accusing one of Big Mo's wives (I think it was Aisha) of fooling around. So in another "prophetic" moment, God's Little Ol' Messenger revealed Allah's will: four mooselimb males had to witness intercourse to prove adultery. People often wonder how mooselimbs can be so oportunistic, callow and self serving. When the "model for all mankind" was himself oportunistic, callow and self serving, then it follows logically.
Posted by: 11A5S || 06/17/2005 8:17 Comments || Top||



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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.
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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2005-06-17
  Calif. Father, Son Charged in Terror Ties
Thu 2005-06-16
  Captured: Abu Talha, Mosul's Most-Wanted
Wed 2005-06-15
  Hostage Douglas Wood rescued
Tue 2005-06-14
  Bomb kills 22 in Iraq bank queue
Mon 2005-06-13
  Terror group in Syria seeks Islamic states
Sun 2005-06-12
  Eight Killed by Bomb Blasts in Iran
Sat 2005-06-11
  Paleo security forces shoot it out with hard boyz
Fri 2005-06-10
  Arab lawyers join forces to defend Saddam Hussein
Thu 2005-06-09
  Italy hostage released in Kabul
Wed 2005-06-08
  California father and son linked al-Qaeda, arrested
Tue 2005-06-07
  U.S-Iraqi offensive launched near Syria
Mon 2005-06-06
  Iraq Nabs Nearly 900 Suspected Militants
Sun 2005-06-05
  Marines uncover bunker complex, Saddam sad.
Sat 2005-06-04
  Iraqi troops nab 'prince of princes'
Fri 2005-06-03
  Virgin Airbus Jet Emitting Hijack Signal Lands In Canada; False Alert

Better than the average link...



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