#1
DA CALLS FOR THE SUSPENSION OF NATIONAL POLICE COMMISSIONER The DA is extremely concerned by reports alleging that the national Police Commissioner, Mr Jackie Selebi, may be involved with certain individuals linked to illegal activities.
#2
Both Jan Smuts and Winston Churchill have long since been spinning in their graves at 60Hz over what has happened in the countries they gave their lives to.
Posted by: mac ||
07/21/2006 11:34 Comments ||
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#3
The difference between SA and Zim is about 5 years I reckon. Beautiful place, such a shame.
(SomaliNet) Ivory Coast was a center of violence on Wednesday. Supporters of Ivory Coast president, Laurent Gbagbo, caused the chaos. Ivory Coasts capital was center of most of this chaos as youth used violence to express their disappointment of provision of identity cards to unregistered people in Ivory Coast. According to Ivory Coasts police, youthful militants under the umbrella of young patriots were responsible for the Ivory Coast strike. They set up roadblocks and hindered activities in Ivory Coasts capital, Abidjan and elsewhere in Ivory Coast.
Ivory Coasts government does not agree with the identity cards idea claiming that the move by the opposition movement of Ivory Coast is aimed at sneaking some foreigners names onto Ivory Coasts voting lists later this year. However, some diplomats say that the riots were organized to show the power in the hands of the current president of Ivory Coast "They want to show it will be Gbagbo in power after October," a diplomat said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/21/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
"ok, World Cup is over. Back to the trenches"
Posted by: Steve ||
07/21/2006 16:28 Comments ||
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#2
"C'est un bourbier!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/21/2006 19:09 Comments ||
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Protesters have taken over the center of folkloric Oaxaca, making tourists show identification at makeshift checkpoints, smashing the windows of quaint hotels and spray-painting revolutionary slogans. Police are nowhere in sight.
It's not the tranquil cultural gem beloved by tourists from the United States and Europe. A month of protests to try to oust the governor have forced authorities to cancel many events, including the Guelaguetza dance festival.
Most tourists are staying away, costing the city millions of dollars.
The protests follow other eruptions of civil unrest and class conflict that have plagued President Vicente Fox as his term winds to a close.
Supporters of leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador are holding nationwide demonstrations to demand a ballot-by-ballot recount in the disputed July 2 presidential election. Federal and state police clashed with striking miners in April and farm protesters in May, leaving four people dead.
But the clashes in Oaxaca have paralyzed one of Mexico's top cultural tourist attractions, where visitors normally browse traditional markets for Indian handicrafts, hike ancient pyramids and stroll along cobblestone streets to sample mole dishes.
The protests have reduced tourism by 75 percent, costing the city more than $45 million, according to the Mexican Employers Federation, a business lobby.
"Most of the tourists have been scared off. It doesn't look safe when you have to go through a barricade and everybody is standing there with sticks and stones," said Chris Schroers, a German who manages a restaurant in the central plaza. "The police are not here. They don't dare to come into town."
While there have been no reports of protesters attacking tourists, many visitors, including Lorena Valles, a 43-year-old from El Paso, Texas, have felt intimidated.
Valles and a group of friends went to the city's main theater to see a play last weekend, only to find the event canceled and hundreds of protesters wrecking the auditorium.
"There were people with masks and sticks and slingshots breaking the auditorium windows and setting the building on fire. That was kind of scary," Valles said. "The people here are normally very nice."
The protest leaders, a mix of trade unionists and leftists, say their fight is not with the tourists but with Gov. Ulises Ruiz, whom they accuse of rigging the state election in 2004 and using force to repress dissent. Ruiz belongs to the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which has governed the state since 1929.
The movement exploded in late June when police fired tear gas and attacked a demonstration of striking teachers demanding wage increases of about 20 percent.
"We respect and welcome tourists, but it is important they understand that there is a climate of instability and the government is not meeting the demands of the people," said union leader Enrique Rueda.
However, posters around the city declare the movement is also against the Guelaguetza dance festival because "only the rich and foreigners" can afford the $42 entrance fee.
"We have seen the festival of our people become a circus that is just for whites and gringos and Europeans," said Rosendo Ramirez, 51, a spokesman for the Oaxaca People's Assembly, formed to coordinate the protests.
Ramirez says the checkpoints were set up to weed out agitators. But he concedes the group has no control over many protesters, including some anarchists and communists who have come to Oaxaca to join the movement.
Thousands have camped out in the city center, sleeping under tarpaulins. Speakers declare the revolution has arrived, while dozens hold political debates.
Business leaders have called on the state to intervene, but state Interior Secretary Heliodoro Diaz says authorities have to tread carefully to avoid antagonizing the protesters.
Hotel and restaurant owners are lobbying the Fox administration to help resolve the crisis. They also want the government to declare Oaxaca a disaster area and release federal funds normally reserved for areas hit by earthquakes and hurricanes.
Fox's spokesman, Ruben Aguilar, has played down the problem, saying "it is annoying, but no more."
Some analysts say Fox is hesitant to get involved because he himself is under fire from supporters of Lopez Obrador who claim the presidential election was tainted by fraud. Lopez Obrador lost to conservative Felipe Calderon of Fox's National Action Party by less than 0.6 percent, according to official vote tallies.
Some fear the tensions might explode if federal troops are sent in.
"There is rising social conflict in Mexico and the government appears impotent and unable to confront it," historian Lorenzo Meyer said. "If the government doesn't learn how to control these conflicts, they will only get worse as time goes on."
More than 100 people are dead or missing in North Korea due to floods and landslides, an aid group operating in the communist nation said Wednesday. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said heavy rains last week and this week had caused flash floods that totally or partially destroyed 11,524 houses, leaving more than 9,000 families homeless. The damage has cut off telephone connections, making collecting reliable information difficult, it said. A lot of people have been displaced, they are trying to find out who is actually missing, Jaap Timmer, head of the International Red Cross in North Korea's capital, Pyongyang, told The Associated Press by telephone.
South Korea has also suffered from the heavy rains, which have led to at least 25 deaths as of Wednesday, according to the South's Yonhap news agency. The North's official media has reported on the weather affecting the country, but has not mentioned any damage or casualties. The federation said the heavy weather could also affect North Korea's food supply critical to the country that suffered famine in the 1990s believed to have killed as many as 2 million people. Extensive areas of arable fields have been inundated, wiping out much of the anticipated harvest, the federation said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/21/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Har-de-har. Couldn't happen in a better place. I'm sure Hu will send you a couple of trains of relief aid. Or did you really stael those trains ?
#9
Anyone care to place bets on how long it will take the NorKors to threaten a couple of missile launches in a attempt to get food aid? Not that it actually worked in the past, but does a great job of getting some free press and jack up peoples blood pressure.
#4
cruiser: So much for my favorite Asian carrier.
There's always Cathay Pacific. Or Eva Air. If you're looking for transcontinental Asian flights, that is. Although price is a key concern in this time of skyrocketing fares, I try to fly United, Northwest or Continental whenever I head out to Asia from the states.
I fly transpacific regularly and will replace their aging 747-400's (aging because they were early adopters, just as they are here with the 380s) with these A380s on those routes. Never an empty seat in tourist - so a bigger cattle-car is an obvious boon on those routes - and everyone thinks a ticket is a license to become and importer, LOL. That was the source of my reaction.
Cathay flies a decent mix, but it was all Airbus on the routes I needed over the last year. Eva's OK, I've flown on them maybe a dozen times, but it sure isn't SA in food or "customer care", darnit. SA was, indeed, my favorite Asian carrier - very classy in all respects. But no Airbus flights for me.
I was merely lamenting that I know this purchase will directly affect me - and cause me to switch carriers. I don't know why it elicited such a pointless response from the fool. I'll miss SA and, since I always fly Biz or First, they'll miss me, as well.
Eurosclerosis: For those seeking an elegant and romantic milieu, France has long been a favorite destination. Recently, however, it's become more of a departure point for a certain class of Frenchmen: millionaires.
According to French government data, at least one millionaire on the average leaves France every day. It's not that they're finding other places more charming than their native terroir. No, it's that France punishes its wealthiest with burdensome tax rates that sometimes reach as high as 72%.
Many of those leaving aren't just the nouveau riche. Even some old-line families who have guided French business and industry for decades are also saying au revoir.
In addition to high income, capital gains, inheritance and social security taxes, the wealthy French are hit with a "solidarity tax." Like the U.S.' alternative minimum tax, the solidarity tax is meant to make sure the wealthy pay their fair share for France's out-of-control welfare state. In some cases that levy can actually exceed a person's income, making it one of the great incentive killers of all time.
Of course, the Socialists responsible for these punitive levies say that the wealthy who leave are avoiding their responsibilities.
Someone should tell them the French Revolution and its dream of radical economic egalitarianism has been over for more than two centuries. Or didn't that occur to them as they celebrated Bastille Day last week? True equality, unreachable under any conditions, will never be achieved through a redistributionist system.
At least some Frenchmen recognize this. "This tendency to take from the rich and give to the poor, which is supposed to solve all the problems in France, is ruining the country," said Alain Marchand, a London-based consultant who helps relocate French business executives, in an interview with the The Washington Post.
The Post foreign service reports that Eric Pinchet, who has written a French tax guide, reckons that revenues from the solidarity tax are roughly $2.6 billion a year. That's a trifling amount, especially considering that Pinchet believes the tax has cost France more than $125 billion in capital flight since 1998.
An economy grows slowly or is ruined, as Marchand, who left France himself six years ago, might say when investment is choked off. To say nothing of the loss of a nation's brightest and hardest-working citizens. Entrepreneur, after all, is a French word.
Both the rich and the not-so-rich who are young, skilled and ambitious are leaving for countries where the labor markets are less regulated by the state and taxes not as burdensome. That exodus might help explain why real GDP in France has grown just 1.5% a year on average since 2000 lagging the rest of Europe.
Unless these trends are reversed soon through labor law reform which was tried and failed this spring and deep tax cuts, France's economy will continue its steady decline.
#2
French are pikers. During the late 70's, a Swedish writer of children's stories managed to position herself to be in a 105% marginal tax bracket. That was too much for even the stoic Swedes and was a national scandal.
#4
They're going to make their revolution work, by gum, even if they have to kill their nation in the process.
A nation of maroons, it would seem.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
07/21/2006 6:21 Comments ||
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#5
FBR (French Bolshvic Republic) will be the first country in Eurabia to be destroyed by the "advanced" ideas of the lazy lefto-socialist bums that run France.
The economic downfall of france will trigger a bloody internal conflict between the native French and the Islamo-fascist denizens of the Ghetos in a conflagration that would tear down the foundations of Europe.
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
07/21/2006 6:52 Comments ||
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#6
Robin hood robbed the sherrif of nottingham of the tax and gave it back to the serfs.
#7
At least some Frenchmen recognize this. "This tendency to take from the rich and give to the poor, which is supposed to solve all the problems in France, is ruining the country," said Alain Marchand, a London-based consultant who helps relocate French business executives, in an interview with the The Washington Post.
Hilderbeast, Kennedy, Kerry, Gore, McCain.... various other donks in Washington, take note.
#8
There's a nice little cottage industry of offshore jurisdictions with no extradition treaties and really nice debtor-friendly trust rules which cater to continental Europeans looking to put the money out of reach of the home government.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/21/2006 9:22 Comments ||
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#9
Take from the rich and give to the poor? It's more like take from the productive and give to the non productive.
#11
The wealthy create more wealth in the country, especially if they own buisnesses. If they are morons with a trust fund, they spend it all away and it goes into the econonmy.
Strange how such a simple idea can't be grasped by socialists.
#12
"From each, according to what we can get away with; to each according to whatever is "left over" after we buy mansions and luxury cars and hire all our friends-n-relatives. It's For The Children(TM)"
#13
Tax the Rich to feed the Poor until there are no Rich no more. I'd love to change the world, but I don't know what to do.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
07/21/2006 10:51 Comments ||
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#14
"Funny" thing is that many middle class (or lower!) people are more more asked to pay the ISF (tax on wealth), which they can't without selling their property, because of the explosion of real estate. Typical case, as shown in the media, is the retired farmer who has land and a family home/farm on a touristical area, say the île de Ré, and whose increased assets value due to specualtion brings him in the ISF tax bracket... of course, he has not enough income to pay it, and he must sell.
I'll agree, this whole tax is insane, but it was invented for purely udeological purpose by the socialists, it was briefly suppressed by the "right" after shiraq's house election victory in 1986-1988, and was restored after the re-election of mitterrand. From then, the "conservatives" never dared to supress it again, as shiraq blamed his 1988 presidential defeat on that.
Anyway, the pattern is always the same : since "right" was treaumatized after the 1945 epuration and the overhelming supremacy of the cultural/metapolitical left, it NEVER dare to undo what the left has done. So, sociaists and their allies do socialism, and the "right" (already statist and centralist thanks to gaullism) does... socialism. It's been going on since 1981, or even 1974, in fact.
Look it up. I recently read a book on taxes (forget the name off the top of my head) and I was astounded over what our forefathers went to battle over, as far as tax rates go. For example, the Boston Tea Party was started over an import (I believe) tarriff on tea of something like only 3%-4%! The colonialists were willing to go to war over that. And yet, today, with Local (sales)/State (income, mostly)/Federal (income) taxes taking up to and over 50% of our paycheck, we do nothing. Add in other "hidden" taxes (taxes on gasoline, medicare/social security witholdings + their employer "match" portions/etc.), and I bet we pay well over 50% of our paycheck to the government. Can't really fathom what French taxes are like, but this article gives me a clue.
Posted by: BA ||
07/21/2006 11:10 Comments ||
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#16
There is something fundamentally wrong with France.
They have a national film program to support French film yet the biggest French directors end up leaving the country and making films in English (Luc Bessan comes to mind).
They have a rich literary history yet they do not make many movies of the works of Dumas and Verne but instead let the British and Americans bastardize these works for the world to watch.
And lastly the Japanese make Samurai flicks, the Yanks make our cowboy flicks and the Britts are in love with Shakespeare and Edwardian periods. The French should be making medieval movies like they were coming out of style but for some reason they can't or won't.
If the French want French culture to be a contender again they should start with how the world views them. That is through whiney politicians and their movies. And French movies have not been there since the 60s.
#17
When has taxing oneself into prosperity ever worked? Can anyone provide example of success?
What a bunch of idiots. The people who are wealthy, are also likely the ones who start, build and run the business that provide jobs. Lose the Rich, and watch everything tank.
I blame the citizens that keep voting these jokers that support this nonsense into office. Probably on the dole.
#18
A nation that tries to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. - Winston Churchill
#19
If the French want French culture to be a contender again they should start with how the world views them. That is through whiney politicians and their movies. And French movies have not been there since the 60s.
Consider how they wail at American culture which appeals the masses. The French culture program was to appeal to the elites. Guess you get what you aim for. The problem for the French elites' ego is they want admiration from the very people they raise the middle index finger to and then bitch when the salute is returned.
#20
America is worse on taxes. We are taxed over and over on our income. The wealthy beat the taxes because they can. They leave or find a way. Big government is a world constant. Middleclass get used to it.
#21
BA, I've read it somewhere, but of course I can't remember anything of it, but french taxes started at a ridicoulously low level in 19th, only as "temporary measures" (imagine people getting all worked over for a 7% income tax!), got-off ground during/after WWI, and went haywire after WWII with the social sytem which drain about 50% of all salaries before any taxation is calculated.
Anyway, in most developed countries, one works about 180 days a year for the State, give or take a few weeks. During Middle Ages, a serf was someone who had to work 40 days a year for his lord...
Big gvt is a leftover of a 20th century marked by world wars, socialism (think keynes & social-democracy) and statism. I hope 21th will revert to less invasive and all-powerful States (think flat taxes).
The highest-earning groups pay a share of taxes much greater than their share of income
The highest-earning 20% of taxpayers earn less than half of all income but pay more than four-fifths of all federal income taxes. The highest-earning one percent bears an even more disproportionate share of the income tax burden, earning 14% of all income but paying 34% of federal income taxes, more than double their income share.
Because the largest share of federal income taxes is paid by the highest earners, lower-earning
households bear a much smaller share of the overall income tax burden, thereby creating progressivity in the federal income tax system. However, it also means that federal revenues devoted to general government operations are particularly sensitive to changes in the income of the top earners.
Source: Congressional Budget Office (http://www.cbo.gov/showdoc.cfm?index=5324&sequence=0)
#1
Democrats are on track to jumble the states in the presidential primary calendar in response to growing criticism that the same predominantly white states hold many of the cards in early voting
You know if you all schedule it on the same day, then it won't make any matter. No one state will then have an edge, if that is what you're worried about. Petty local politics trump common sense. However, the real bottom line is power. Cheat, steal, con your way to power because in the end its self justifying.
KATMANDU, Nepal - A planned peacemaking meeting this week between leaders of Nepals communist rebels and the ruling political alliance will likely be postponed, further delaying attempts to end a decade-old conflict, officials said on Thursday.
The already-delayed meeting - between Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, top leaders of the seven-party ruling alliance and Maoist rebel leaders Baburam Bhattarai and Prachanda - had been scheduled for Friday. However, the meeting was likely to be postponed again because the government side has not been able to complete preparations it, said government Minister Ramesh Lekhak, a member of the government peace negotiating team.
The first such meeting was held on June 16, when the leaders decided that within a month an interim constitution would be written and put in place, along with an interim government that would include the rebels. However, there has been little progress in drafting the interim constitution, and no development in the rebels joining an interim government.
Instead, differences are widening between the two sides, who have been blaming each other for the delay in the peace process aimed at ending more than a decade of deadly communist insurgency in the impoverished Himalayan country.
Maoists to resume killing in 5 .. 4 .. 3 ..
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/21/2006 00:46 ||
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Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/21/2006 15:53 Comments ||
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#2
Blue-green algae are the most efficient photosynthesizers on earth and have very high oil concentrations (50% or more). It makes a heck of a lot more sense than converting corn kernels to oil and alcohol. The process works best when scrubbed smoke stack CO2 is dissolved into the water.
www.greenfuelonline.com/gf_files/GFTCInBusiness.pdf
Posted by: ed ||
07/21/2006 16:28 Comments ||
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#3
But what about the whales? The whales will starve!
#5
It's just a cover. Remember -
"The government dispenses rations of synthetic food substances made by the Soylent Corporation: Soylent Yellow, Soylent Red, and the newest product, Soylent Green, the most popular version derived, according to the firm, from plankton."
#8
Shit, ed, no offence intended but there are SO many problems your pubmed paper is just a glimpse. No offence intended but Please Science it! Yeah! I'ts just an agent that induces cell growth, like cancer
A growing number of Minuteman Civil Defense Corps leaders and volunteers are questioning the whereabouts of hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of dollars in donations collected in the past 15 months, challenging the organization's leadership over financial accountability.
Many of the group's most active members say they have no idea how much money has been collected as part of its effort to stop illegal entry -- primarily along the U.S.-Mexico border, what it has been spent on or why it has been funneled through a Virginia-based charity headed by conservative Alan Keyes. Several of the group's top lieutenants have either quit or are threatening to do so, saying requests to Minuteman President Chris Simcox for a financial accounting have been ignored.
Other Minuteman members said money promised for food, fuel, radios, computers, tents, night-vision scopes, binoculars, porta-potties and other necessary equipment and supplies never reached volunteers who have manned observation posts to spot and report illegal border crossers.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/21/2006 00:46 ||
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#1
How did Alan Keyes get involved in this ? Is he trying to outdo Jesse ? I thought Simcox was OK, but now I wonder.
There is you answer right there. This really is a scandal because people have donated millons and I'm guessing most of it went to reelct Alan Keyes.
This worm won't have the option of just saying it's his businessbecause the money wasn't donated to him or to Alan. Really a sad situation. And of course, as usual, we won't be able to expect our federal government to help. They'll sit on the sidelines instead of getting involved in this fraud.
#7
I got mail from Simcox et al, the usual funding request. I'm holding off until this shakes out.
My local pro-life charity can have this slug of money - they are using it to pay medical cost (prenatal, post-natal and delivery) for pregnant girls/women who cannot afford to have a child but had the courage to say no to the abortion industry (Planned Parenthood Liars).
#8
FYI: souce of this is the Wash times - a normally right-side paper. So this isnt jsut NYT style posturing.
Questions have been asked - answers must be given.
Simcox is stonewalling, and any time there is a pool of moeny and policiians sniffing around it (Keyes), I get VERY suspicious.
We need an open non-profit organization formed that will openly accoutn for all funds - and have a single mission: the securing of the US Borders against illegal entry.
We want the government to be accountable - and so should the Minutmen, no double or lesser standards allowed. From what I'm reading, Simcox is jacking this up big-time!
Simcox = wrong guy for the part. Right place, right time, right cause - wrong person.
He had no organizaitonal skills but thought that he did. His ego got in the way when the real pros (ex-military) showed up ans started calling him out on all this - and he went running to Keyes, who has an agenda of his own. Now hes hosed.
And no this will not end the movement - the pros will do an end around and set up a proper organization, one that focuses on operatiosn and is properly formed as a non-profit with full and open accounting - and an organizationt hat will do the damn job instead of talking about it.
the labor is there - freely volunteered. so is the organizational skills. All it takes is for some of the old founders to get out in front of a new organization, set up patrols, etc - and be very clear about where the money and supplies go, and demonstrate a linkage between donations and border security.
It can be done - and better now than when it was the only game in town.
#13
OS -- glad you popped in. I do believe this is going on. My question. Why are these people doing this? Is there something about power that I just don't understand? Do they so think the Repub are so wrong, that it is their duty to do this? Or, is it a money issue, or just simply, a power question?
If you can't answer, I do understand. Thanks for staying close to us.. I always feel much better, seeing your name!
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
(SomaliNet) Ivory Coast was a center of violence on Wednesday. Supporters of Ivory Coast president, 
More than 100 people are dead or missing in North Korea due to floods and landslides, an aid group operating in the communist nation said Wednesday. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said heavy rains last week and this week had caused flash floods that totally or partially destroyed 11,524 houses, leaving more than 9,000 families homeless. The damage has cut off telephone connections, making collecting reliable information difficult, it said. A lot of people have been displaced, they are trying to find out who is actually missing, Jaap Timmer, head of the International Red Cross in North Korea's capital, Pyongyang, told The Associated Press by telephone.
KATMANDU, Nepal - A planned peacemaking meeting this week between leaders of Nepals communist rebels and the ruling political alliance will likely be postponed, further delaying attempts to end a decade-old conflict, officials said on Thursday.
