WASHINGTON â James A. Traficant, a former Ohio congressman in prison for bribery and racketeering charges, has given his approval to supporters to form a presidential exploratory committee. This is the infamous hair-hat wearing fellow busted for making his congressional staff work on his farm or else heâd fire them. snort
"The battle to free James Traficant and to evict the Socialists and âfree tradersâ from the Democratic Party is now under way," campaign spokesman Marcus Belk said. "Someone buy the Washington establishment a bottle of Maalox." And God Save the Flat World Society! snicker
Belk said the group, which announced Friday that it had gotten Traficantâs approval by letter, has raised $10,224 in cash pledges made on Traficantâs campaign Web site. The average contribution was $71, he said. Where should I send the check to?
Once a campaign committee raises or spends more than $5,000, it is required to file a statement of organization with the Federal Election Commission. Belk said the campaign had mailed that form to the FEC Friday; it had not yet been received by the commission. Traficantâs group filed a signed "Statement of Candidacy" form with the FEC last week.
Belk said the campaign hopes to meet its goal of raising $100,000 to qualify for federal matching funds by Oct. 1, which is when he expects Traficant to formally announce his presidential candidacy. Ahh. More cash that he can get his hands on.
Traficant, a Democrat who represented northeast Ohio in the House for nine terms, was expelled from Congress in July 2002 after being convicted in a federal court of racketeering, bribery and tax evasion. He is now serving an eight-year prison sentence at the minimum-security Allenwood federal prison in White Deer, Pa. Who would vote for this guy NINE times?? But then again, Teddy K. is voted in every six years, and Marion Berry was re-elected after he was filmed smoking crack...
The former lawmaker couldnât immediately be reached for comment. Nope. Heâs busy getting his hair-hat just right for his prison boyfriend.
#1
So now we have a democrat running for president FROM jail right after a democrat who was president running FROM jail.
Amazing.
It is kinda appropriate that a political party that gets gobs of cash from the trial lawyers would eventually have a convicted felon as a political candidate.
Posted by: PD - Prez for Life - Isles of Langerhans ||
08/01/2003 20:02 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Are convicted felons allowed to run for Federal office? I thought they weren't even allowed to vote. (State office is a different matter, of course - Marion Barry is proof of that).
Just click the link above. Words fail me, and I donât want to take up more of Fredâs bandwidth with OT crap--Iâve done more than my share today!
Posted by: Dar ||
08/01/2003 3:21:49 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Dar---Are you going through dark times or what? Your posts are disturbing....I will have to consult with m'lady, who is a clinical psych to get you assistance (LOL). That prisoner is one twisted fellow. Heh heh heh.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/01/2003 16:31 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Wonder if this fellow has a girlfriend? Uggggggggh.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/01/2003 19:04 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Looks like he kept falling on the stairs or the deputies' fists. Clumsy
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/01/2003 19:31 Comments ||
Top||
#4
The things people do to "belong." If he had only found religion before perping his first homocide...
Posted by: PD - Prez for Life - Isles of Langerhans ||
08/01/2003 20:01 Comments ||
Top||
#5
AP--Sorry, I didn't take my medication earlier. But I have now, and I feel so happy! So happy... Bunny rabbits and marshmellows... whee!
Kumbaya, my Lord, Kum-bay-ya! Kumbayah, my Lord, Kum-bay- *smack!*
oops--sorry about that... We now resume our regularly scheduled Dar.
All better now! :-)
Posted by: Dar ||
08/01/2003 21:03 Comments ||
Top||
Edited for brevity.
Even if the only evidence forensic analysts can pull from a crime scene is a fingerprint smudged beyond recognition, a new technique developed by Canadian scientists soon could harvest enough DNA from the print to produce a genetic identity. The novel system can extract DNA in only 15 minutes, even if a print has been stored for a year. Scientists expect the invention to help crime-fighters solve mysteries, and already are in talks with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. In addition, researchers predict the technology could be at least twice as cheap as existing DNA collection methods.
"If you wanted to use blood as a source of DNA, you have fear of contamination, people who donât want to give it, storage issues, and you have to sign a lot of paperwork to get it," research scientist Maria Viaznikova of the Ottawa University Heart Institute in Canada told United Press International. She said forensic scientists have known for about five years that fingerprints contain DNA. However, commonly used extraction techniques need several hours or even days of lab work. "We can do it in 15 minutes," she added. The new extraction technique is under patent. When compared with existing methods, "it is at least as twice less expensive, maybe more," Viaznikova said. Although somewhat OT, I do see relevance here in the WOT--if we can get our hands on some of those audio- and videotapes released by Saddam and Osama on occasion, we may be able to identify whoâs handled them (although likely not Saddam or Osama themselves) and track them back to the source via surveillance--at least âtil they catch on and start wearing gloves, but everybody slips up now and then.
Posted by: Dar ||
08/01/2003 11:38:24 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
If bona-fide and court-approved, it could be an awesome boon to law enforcement. I'll strike Canada from my "Do Not Buy Products" list - if it's real...
Posted by: PD - Prez for Life - Isles of Langerhans ||
08/01/2003 20:05 Comments ||
Top||
#2
WRT the WOT, it won't matter to the ME masses what kind of wondrous technology that the West comes up with to identify whomever or whatever. Should the time come when these state-of-the-art techniques are used to verify that some terrorist fugitive has been whacked and has subsequently developed a case of rigor mortis, the results simply won't be believed.
Edited for brevity.
Beneath the serene surface of Yellowstone Lake, where death from hypothermia comes within 30 minutes, seethes a boiling underwater world. And like a pot too long on the stove, it could boil over, says U.S. Geological Survey geologist Lisa Morgan, Ph.D., of Colorado. She has found that temperatures along the inflated plain have been recorded at about 85 degrees 60 feet down, where the plain bulges up about 100 feet above the lake floor. (Park spokesman Cheryl Matthews says the lake rarely reaches more than 66 degrees at the surface by late summer, and is much colder deeper down.) The inflated plain stretches 2,100 feet - about the length of seven football fields - across.
"We think this is very young," something that occurred in the last few years, Morgan said. "Weâre thinking this structure could be a precursor to an hydrothermal explosive event," Morgan said last week. "But we donât think this is a volcano."
If the bulge should explode, "we think it would create a large crater." But such an explosion, smaller versions of which created Indian Pond, Duck Lake and Mary Bay itself, would probably heat up the water temporarily, create high waves, spew poison gasses and other materials into the lake for a time, and leave a rimmed underwater crater. At this point in her work, Morgan has outlined two possibilities for the plain:
It could do nothing, and "freeze in time," becoming dormant.
It could explode, making a "large crater a couple of thousand feet in diameter."
If the dome blows, 10-foot waves could wash the lake shore, rocks and pieces of lake floor could be tossed into the air, and "chemicals containing toxic materials" could be discharged into the lake. "There would be lots of water," Morgan said. Not the blue serenity of the present lake surface, but roiling, spewed-out hot water. "But we donât think this is a volcano," Morgan said last week. Still, that possibility is being considered. She said what is causing the bulge is likely either carbon dioxide gas or steam.
Posted by: Dar ||
08/01/2003 10:19:48 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
How large an explosion are they talking about here? A crater a couple of thousand feet in diameter sounds huge, who cares if its technically a volcano or not.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
08/01/2003 10:56 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Yellowstone sits in the two craters of two super volcanic events, one of which may have been the biggest volcanic explosion ever. The whole park continues to tilt as the dome grows, and a new eruption is going to occur, though in the timeframe of the tens of thousands of year or so.
The United States is under geologic threat from the many volcanoes along the Pacific coast that are known to be active, the New Madrid fault in the central Mississippi Valley, the San Andreas fault in California, and the Yellowstone Basin volcano. The two fault zones are both overdue, statisticly, for major earthquakes. Several of the Pacific Coast volcanoes are near to their mean eruption periods. Yellowstone is perhaps the least likely of the four for the immediate future.
I believe Ms. Morgan is underestimating the force of a steam explosion, whatever else the geology is telling us.
#3
Chuck, you omitted the Long Valley Caldera under Mammoth Mtn in California. Carbon Monoxide seeping from the ground and volcanic byproducts as well as extensive tremors indicate the same kind of activity there
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/01/2003 11:19 Comments ||
Top||
#4
oops - found it in your volcano link.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/01/2003 11:21 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Frank, Long Valley / Mono Lake, in my generalization, fell into the category of Pacific Coast volcanoes. It does, however, pose as significant a threat to Los Angeles as does the San Andreas Fault. And it is due, as well.
#9
Friend of mine used to be a high-ranking vulcanologist in USGS. His comment to me one evening at a stamp club meeting was "don't move to such and such a place - it's not safe." We were talking about moving to Idaho. Apparently, there's another hot spot associated with the Yellowstone area to the northwest - possibly a secondary hot spot or vent. There's also indication that the eastern Rocky Mountains are overdue for a major event, either vulcanology or earthquakes. Makes me feel so comfortable sitting here in Colorado Springs, also known as "crosshairs city".
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/01/2003 16:21 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Okay... (scratches Colo off list of potential places to move to when US economy picks up)
So many things to consider when choosing a home! Not being vaporized, vulcanized, jihadized, irradiated, PC'd, or taxed to death - any others I should take into account?
Posted by: PD - Prez for Life - Isles of Langerhans ||
08/01/2003 20:10 Comments ||
Top||
Another Guardian story too long to reproduce in full here. Must be something in the oats.
Joseph Stalin ordered the KGB to assassinate John Wayne because he considered his anti-communist rhetoric a threat to the Soviet Union, according to a new biography of the film star based on interviews with Wayneâs close associates and the movie legend Orson Welles. Stalin apparently learned of Wayneâs popularity from the Russian filmmaker Sergei Gerasimov, who attended a peace conference in New York in 1949. Michael Munn, a film historian and author of John Wayne - The Man Behind The Myth, said Gerasimov told Stalin of Wayneâs fervent anti-communist beliefs. "Stalin decided that he would have him killed," said Mr Munn, who says he was told of the plot by Orson Welles at a dinner in 1983. Welles had said that the KGB was given the task of assassinating Wayne.
[more at the link ]
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/01/2003 12:59:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Wayne then relied upon a group of loyal stuntmen who infiltrated communist cells in America and learned of plots to kill him. "He then gathered all the stuntmen, went to the communist meetings, and had a huge fight," Mr Munn said.
Hot damn! My respect for the Duke just went up two more notches! Even the NVA wanted him dead!
Posted by: Dar ||
08/01/2003 10:22 Comments ||
Top||
#2
My bet is this story is bullshit.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/01/2003 21:53 Comments ||
Top||
#3
The assassins were caught on film, dressed as RED Indians, shooting Soviet-made bow and arrows at the Duke...
Refugees. Is that what theyâre calling them now? wink wink
The first group of the Iraqi refugees in Rafhaa camp in the Saudi Arabian desert returned back yesterday to southern Iraq, following 12 years they had spent in exile. A procession of five buses including 244 Iraqis passed yesterday the Kuwaiti- Iraqi borders to Um Qaser accompanied by UN officials and Saudi officials.. Oh itâs ok. Theyâre accompanied by the UN.
Iraqi refugee Shahrour Taher ( 38 year old) said "the days were bitter and difficult. As there were mass graves for the Iraqi deaths in Iraq there were also grave masses but for living Iraqis in the camp." He explained that "through 13 years I spent in the camp, the press was prevented from coming to cover news on the conditions of the refugees who were suffering bad conditions until the few past months when the Syrian TV and al-Arabia channels were permitted in."
The Iraqi child Ahmad Muhammad ( 7 year old) expressed happiness to return back to Iraq. He said "I am now happy and I can at least see cars, houses and trees. In Rafhaa camp we used to see just the desert." Iâm happy for you too. Plus weâve got a surprise for you when you get there: Uday & Qusay are gone!
The UNHCR said that some 3600 Iraqi refugees out of 5233 are still in the camp and will return back home before the end of the year.
Posted by: Rafael ||
08/01/2003 1:13:51 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
I read the Liberation article that MerdeinFrance linked to. Japs AND Brits are also staying "home."
Yet American tourism is up in Italy and Spain.
I wonder why that is??
Liberation also had the same tone, blame the US (or it could just have been how babelfish translated). Even better, the froggies think it's an "organized" boycott.
#3
I guess they'd be happiest if we just stayed home and mailed our money to them. The waiters can send us rude thank you notes ("You call that a tip, American pig dog?").
Posted by: Dar ||
08/01/2003 12:26 Comments ||
Top||
#4
OOOHHOOOHHOOOH!!!!!!!!
Maybe they should ask themselves why we hate them. Maybe look for "root causes."
#7
Yes, I had already read about this, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy reading it again. Post it four or five more times, if you like.
Posted by: Matt ||
08/01/2003 12:42 Comments ||
Top||
#8
"the peace of the brave begins at the table"
somebody please re-translate this into something that makes sense. or, explain it for an unculchah-ed yank.
Posted by: Carl in NH ||
08/01/2003 12:45 Comments ||
Top||
#9
Carl, Yeah I wondered what that meant exactly. I think it's a reference to the historic/archaic/inapplicable practice of enemy officers eating together after a battle, having a jolly good banquet to celebrate the end of the fighting. What animosity there may have been between soldiers was supposedly instantly forgotten. War/international conflict's just politics, oui? Nothing personal, just 'business'. In other words, they don't think they've done anything to feel guilty about, so why the bitterness?
#10
My husband works with a lot of WWII vets (he delivers oxygen), one vet, upon reading some of the horrendous things that are being said and done in France said, "I hate the French. We beat the Germans off their backs twice, and the sons of bitches STILL surrendered."
"Convinced that the peace of the brave begins at the table, the French never really believed the Americans would fall out of love with them," it said.
Bulldog: You're right, they really do not get it.
They can't say, however, that they weren't warned. I, for one, am not crying for the sorry bastards.
You reap what you sew.
#13
My wife loves Paris..for 14 years I have told her I would take her back for her 45th birthday. This is the year....she knows and cares squat about politics, she only wants to go back to Paris...and I understand...the heat is on me big time, pressure, pleading, jumping up and down...I'm about to cave...help me...send me strength....not gonna do it, I will pay for this, but I am strong...I will not give in...I may be single soon, but not gonna go over there...not gonna do it...the pressure is terrible....the guilt...how do I stand strong? I'll go back to NY, but not going to Paris....help me...
Don't do it. being 1/2 French, it's been painful for me the last 40 years seeing how the country I spent my summers as a young boy turn into a rabid cesspool of anti-americanism, laziness, and just plain crap.
The France your wife knows is gone. The last time I was back was in '93 to bury my grandmother.
I remember one of our final conversations. She said France was done. It pains me to see how the character of the people in the country have gone from the incredibly hardworking and dedicated grandparents I knew to the selfish, lazy, and whiny people of today.
Needless to say, I won't be back anytime soon.
The world is a big place; is going to the land of no-toilets, dog-shit on the sidewalk, no garbage pickup due to endless strikes so appealing?
Posted by: Francis ||
08/01/2003 16:52 Comments ||
Top||
#15
Er, Mandar. This may not be what you want to hear, but I'd say go. Fulfilling such a pledge to your wife's pretty important. If I were you, I'd sort out some kind of compromise: take her to Paris (you can say "I told you so" as frequently as you like), but only for a couple of days. You don't have to be on your best behaviour any more than the locals. After Paris, spend a few more days somewhere more appealing like Prague, London, Rome, Barcelona...
Do what ya gotta do, but keep Paris down to a couple of days, fill her in on the lack of tourism, strikes, dogs and cats living together, woody allen, and have a good Fun destination B on schedule. She is going after the dream to live it but it will be sad when the expectations turn into a downer. Minimum time in paris. Good luck and send us a report, typewritten, double spaced.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/01/2003 17:38 Comments ||
Top||
#17
I may do it, but I wont like it....to give my hard earned money--dollars--to those surrender monkeys just galls me....and to be treated like a red headed step child will make me fume in my USA t-shirt. Maybe a compromise is the best thing, and I do want her to be happy....but in FRANCE???
Cant she be just as happy strolling down Times Square? I dont know...
I do like the idea of going there and leaving...hit Amsterdam again, find a nice quiet coffee shop and curse the French under my breath as I remember the 60's in the best of ways.
Cheers guys, thanks for the suggestions...I'll do the right thing
Have some fun. Don't tip the waiter. Stop off in Spain, Italy, or Prague first and then while you're in Paris, discuss the diffences in public. Be creative......
#19
Mandar - We feel your pain. Sorry, I couldn't resist. Having principles always comes with a price tag, though this one is obviously born out of some childish fantasy - and remarkably selfish. How romantic (as an example) will it be if you, one half of the equation, would rather be in London or Rome or Poughkeepsie or Tierra Del Fuego or the famous & beautiful far-flung Isles of Langerhans? Sheesh!
Good luck, regardless of what you decide - a tough spot.
Posted by: PD - Prez for Life - Isles of Langerhans ||
08/01/2003 18:30 Comments ||
Top||
#20
Hey this is great.
As if rude waiters, bad wine, expensive hotels with lousy service, a difficult language and arrogant citizens wasn't enough to drive tourists away in droves........
Of course there is absolutely no possibility of this creating any semblance of penetence or other conciliatory poses from these snotheads.
#21
Mandar, do something crazy like pulling the fire alarm on the eiffel tower hehe
Posted by: Rafael ||
08/01/2003 19:31 Comments ||
Top||
#22
Damn you, Raphael! I got watermellon shrapnel all over the screen and keyboard. Pulling the fire alarm on the Eiffel Tower....that's rich!
Mandar. Go to somewhere quality first. Then Paris, then somewhere quality next. The toughest job you will have to do is to be pleasant, romantic, and charming in Paris, surrounded by such....dreck....pardon my French, heh heh. You may have to rehearse this one like a special ops mission, so you are convincing to your Lady in such ambience. As for me, I am going to Kodiak Island with m'lady. We are going to Larsen Bay, where a friend of mine will loan me her truck and we will drive to the dump and see over 15 big ass Kodiak bears live and in color.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/01/2003 19:56 Comments ||
Top||
#23
"...beautiful far-flung Isles of Langerhans..."
#24
Mandar...is your wife's name DeiDei? If so, just have your brother-in-law Dexter transport you to an alternate universe where Frenchmen still have balls. *winks*
#25
MY Isles of Langerhans better not be too well scattered - it's West Nile Virus time in Colorado... again!
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/01/2003 21:18 Comments ||
Top||
#26
PD---The Isles of Langerhans is a wonderful area. While there visit the Monastary of St. Pancreas Pancras, ahem, sorry Bulldog....couldn't help it.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/01/2003 21:58 Comments ||
Top||
#27
No worries AP! The first year I spent in London, in intercollegiate halls of residence, I had a terrific bird's eye view of St Pancras Station (actually the frontage of the station is the Midlands Hotel, to be boringly pedantic), and the new British Library as it was being contructed. Compensated just a little for being trapped in a shoebox-sized room!
Apologies to those who donât want to hear it, but the delinquent froglets are up to their tricks again:
Vandals have damaged the graves of British and Commonwealth soldiers in the latest of a spate of attacks on World War I cemeteries in northern France. Some 15 gravestones were broken in the British cemetery in Aix-Noulette, near Lens. Authorities in France said they believed the destruction was motiveless. Just what is the sudden motivation behind all these motiveless crimes?
A police source added: "It was done by local people — in order to get there, you would need to know the area." On Thursday, six youths were arrested after 12 gravestones were damaged in the British cemetery at Le Quesnel, near Amiens, where the remains of Britons, Canadians and New Zealanders lie buried, and on Monday, gravestones of British, Canadian and New Zealand soldiers were found to have been kicked over at the St Aubert cemetery, near Cambrai. Peter Francis, spokesman for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, said: "It looks like a completely mindless act of vandalism." A St Aubert police spokesman said: "We do not believe the vandals were motivated by any religious, racial or nationalistic feeling. It could have been done by a single person or a group. An investigation has been launched but we do not have any leads as yet."
"We don't think it was a political act. We think they're just stoopid..."
The vandals also burned the visitors book at the entrance to the cemetery. The St Aubert cemetery contains the graves of 435 Commonwealth soldiers killed in battle between 1917 and 1918. The French Minister for War Veterans, Hamlaoui Mekachera, said: "This is an inexcusable attack on the memory of British, Canadian and New Zealand soldiers who fought in France in the First World War and should rest in peace on our soil." Mr Mekachera said he hoped the police investigation "would swiftly identify the culprits, so they can answer for their acts". In April, the graves of British soldiers in the Etaples cemetery in northern France were defaced with swastikas and slogans denouncing the war in Iraq, prompting President Jacques Chirac to send a letter of apology to the UK. Send the culprits over with the letter next time.
Posted by: Bulldog ||
08/01/2003 11:32:01 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Bring the boys home. No reason that a little piece of America need be a part of France.
#3
Interesting, last time they attacked British graves, this time British and Commonwealth graves. The French spew venum at the US but don't mess with American graves. Make your own conclusions.
#4
This is vile. I wonder how the people who are doing this think the graves got there to begin with -- some Canadians on a holiday gone terribly wrong, perhaps?
Posted by: Matt ||
08/01/2003 15:20 Comments ||
Top||
#5
I agrer Chuck.Bring them home,Being in that cesspool of a country defames thier honor ad sacrifice.
#6
We see articles like this, and then one about how American tourism is down in Fwawnce, the the idiots there can't see a link? Man, Kim must have a monopoly on the drug traffic in France!
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/01/2003 20:50 Comments ||
Top||
#7
The French Minister for War Veterans, Hamlaoui Mekachera, said: "This is an inexcusable attack on the memory of British, Canadian and New Zealand soldiers who fought in France in the First World War and should rest in peace on our soil." Mr Mekachera said he hoped the police investigation "would swiftly identify the culprits, so they can answer for their acts".
While I too loathe the French, their Minister for War Veterans seems like a stand up sort of guy.
A look at the way that Jihadi groups recruit and send young men off to their deaths for a couple hundred dollars. If you look at Jihad as a business, and the emirs if these groups want to maintain their luxurious lifestyles and stay in their mansions, then it is a very cost effective way of ensuring that the Jihad will continue and the money will keep being sent their way.
However, Liaquat Ali, a supervisor at a pulse-grinding mill in Faisalabad suburbs, has something different to relate. "These jehadi organisations exploit religious sentiments to get one involved in their activities," says Liaquat. "My sonâs only fault was that he was an innocent and religious-at-heart boy. They made use of his religious mind and got him killed in held Kashmir about six years back when he was just 18 years old," bitterly says Liaquat Ali, originally a resident of a far-off village of tehsil Fort Abbas. After passing his matriculation examination, Wasim Akhtar — Liaquatâs eldest son — had come to Faisalabad to seek employment in some mill or factory. Soon he got job as a helper in a textile mill, but miles away from his fatherâs workplace. "There he met some people of a militant organisation and I donât know how they got him engaged in their activities," says Liaquat Ali, the father of five. "Wasim used to come to see me every weekend, but he suddenly disappeared. I made all efforts to trace him in Faisalabad and also asked from his mother back in my village, but couldnât find him," Liaquat added.
After about one monthâs disappearance, Wasim telephoned his cousin Muhammad Shafiq at his shop in Marot, a sub-tehsil of Fort Abbas situated at about 11 kilometres away from Liaquatâs village. "Instead of Punjabi, he was speaking Urdu as if somebody was dictating him," says Shafiq, a turbine technician. "Wasim told me that they were at a training camp in Azad Kashmir and that he was going to sacrifice his life in the name of Allah. I insisted him to give me his address or exact location in Azad Kashmir as his parents were really worried about him, but he disconnected the line," Shafiq recalls. Later, through the monthly bulletin of the jehadi group, they came to know that Wasim was killed in a clash with Indian forces in held Kashmir. "I saw the picture of my son in the bulletin and knew about his death; otherwise, it was not possible to recognise him. They had changed his name to Commander Abu Turab," Liaquat Ali says. In the account, they claimed that Abu Turab was a non-Muslim; he first embraced Islam and then martyrdom while fighting the Indian occupation forces in the held valley. "They claimed so because my son (Wasim) belonged to a sect different from theirs and they had first convinced him to âconvertâ and then go for jehad," explains Liaquat Ali.
Allah Bakhshâs (not real name) story also strengthens this opinion. A resident of Bahawalpur, this Seraiki speaking man of over 60 years was father of five boys and six girls. His two sons have been killed in Kashmir jehad until now and he is ready to offer more. His other two sons have also acquired training and they are willing to go for jehad whenever their leaders ask for that. Allah Bakhsh publicly eulogises sacrifices of his sons for the cause of Allah, but privately mourns their deaths. "What else could I do? My daughters were getting late to get married and my sons were jobless. Then how could I resist the offer for five or six thousand rupees a month for sending my sons for jehad," the old man is stated to be telling his close friends.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
08/01/2003 2:33:38 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
these types of stories should be repeated loud and wide throughout the muslim lands as a form of counter-terrorism psy-ops.
Imagine the worried parents: don't get involved with those groups - when you die they won't even call you a muslim!
This type of story could really damage the culture of recruitment
ISLAMABAD: Five people were critically injured when three gunmen opened fire indiscriminately at their rival group near the court of the additional district and sessions judge on the court premises here on Thursday.
"Ummm... This ain't gonna prejudice our case, is it?"
Sabir Ahmed and Muhammad Munir, from Morian and Bangial villages, located near the Sihala Police Station, had squabbled over land. Police recorded a case under section of 324 of the PPC against 11 people on July 26. Gulraze, Azhar Aftab, Muhammad Sabir and their accomplices appeared before the additional district and sessions Judge, seeking a bail, the police said. Seven gunmen from other parties, who were lurking outside the court, opened fire indiscriminately at their rivals.
I usually fire indiscriminately when I lurk, too. It's considered good form, y'know?
Five people, including Azher Aftab, Gulraze and Muhammad Sabir, and two pedestrians were seriously injured.
Naturally they had to hit a few innocent bystanders. It wouldn't be Pakland if they hadn't...
The police rushed to the spot following the gunfire and arrested seven people.
Some of whom may even have been involved in the incident...
They also recovered weapons from their possession. The injured were taken to hospital where the condition of two of them was critical. District and Sessions Judge Chaudhry Asad Raza asked district police officials to deploy security personnel around the courts.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/01/2003 00:52 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I'm sorry, given the observed skill of the various Muslim military and para-military groups, how could you ever tell the difference between indiscriminate fire and an aimed volley?
LAHORE: The city district government and other regulatory authorities registered cases against four cable operators on Thursday, accusing them of screening obscene films, dramas and dances on cable. The officials of the city district government, police and Pakistan Electronic and Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), on the direction of District Coordination Officer (DCO) Khalid Sultan, raided several cable operatorsâ offices and found dozens of obscene CDs, cassettes and other objectionable material including liquor and illegal weapons. Mr Sultan said the operation would continue until the government eradicated obscenity from cable networks. He said those who violate the law would be dealt with harshly. Mr Sultan urged cable operators to destroy all obscene material voluntarily. The cable operators against whom action was taken were World Class, New Star, Al-Saba and Deans cable network.
"We've told you time and time again: no titties! And stop that obscene dancing!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/01/2003 00:48 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
should broadcast a Lil Kim video - their beturbanned little heads would explode!
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/01/2003 11:48 Comments ||
Top||
Is anybody really surprised by obscenity being produced in a city with a name pronounced "la whore"? Hello?!
Posted by: Dar ||
08/01/2003 14:02 Comments ||
Top||
#4
I'm shocked, shocked to find obscene videotapes in this station. Yeh, right. You want to find the porno, you go back to the maintenance shop and look for the cassette marked "Test Tape" in the back of the desk drawer.
Not that i know anything about that.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/01/2003 19:23 Comments ||
Top||
A base housing Polish troops in Iraq came under mortar fire overnight but there were no casualties or damage, the defence ministry said on Friday, adding that US special forces had tried but failed to capture the assailants. The ministry said a total of five mortar shells were fired in the early hours at a logistics base in the town of Hilla, near Baghdad, but all of them fell at the edge of the facility. âOur men were immediately evacuated to a shelter, while US special forces and gendarmes set off to chase the assailants,â said ministry spokesman Eugeniusz Mleczak. The assailants escaped however, he said.
Damn.
The attack was the first reported against Polish troops in Iraq, where some 300 military personnel are working to prepare for the deployment of a multinational division under Polish command.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/01/2003 15:24 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
The Pentagon adopted a new strategy in its search for Iraqâs weapons of mass destruction. It is called the "big impact" plan. Shock and Awe Part II
The plan calls for gathering and holding on to all the information now being collected about the weapons. Rather than releasing its findings piecemeal, defense officials will release a comprehensive report on the arms, perhaps six months from now. Just like we thought after all those initial reports seemed to vanish into a black hole.
The goal of the strategy will be to quiet critics of the Bush administration who said claims of Iraqâs hidden weapons stockpiles were exaggerated in order to go to war. President Bush on Wednesday said "miles of documents" have been gathered and are being analyzed. He described the material as containing "mounds of evidence" on Iraqâs weapons. In addition to analyzing documents on Iraqâs arms, evidence of ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Husseinâs ties to terrorists is being studied, Mr. Bush said. "And Iâm confident the truth will come out," he said. Heh, heh, heh.
David Kay, the special adviser to CIA Director George J. Tenet on Iraqâs weapons said recently that the evidence is there. "I think in six months from now, weâll have a considerable amount of evidence, and weâll be starting to reveal that evidence," Mr. Kay said on NBC July 15. Yesterday, Mr. Kay rebutted a news report that claimed no Iraqi scientists were cooperating with the coalition team hunting for weapons in Iraq. In fact, Mr. Kay said, scientists are talking and are taking his personnel to specific sites. A Pentagon spokesman had no comment on the Iraq weapons plan. Letâs see, 6 months from now, whatâs going to be happening then that this might have a affect on?
Posted by: Steve ||
08/01/2003 9:13:52 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Six months from now? State of the Union address. Earliest Democrat primaries.
To influence the election, the report would have to be released between the conventions, or a couple of weeks after the final convention. Release it too early, and the Democrats might nominate someone who could viably run against the news. Release it too late, and the storm over the timing of the release will drown out the contents. Too near the convention, and it will never get reported.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/01/2003 10:00 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Why not just release the information so the public is informed and to hell with the politics? Wishful thinking, I know, but maybe just once someone could put the public above the politics.
#3
Perfectly reasonable for GWB to report on this at the State of the Union address in January. After all, the search for WMD is really important -- we know this because the Democrats told us so. And we sure wouldn't want to disappoint the Democrats, would we?
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/01/2003 11:16 Comments ||
Top||
#4
"If ya hated my last SOTU, ya gonna luv the next one!"
Posted by: john ||
08/01/2003 11:54 Comments ||
Top||
#6
This is great strategery. Not only will the evidence presented (if it exists) exonerate Bush admin and shame the naysayers...but it will also keep the naysayers from screaming "Bush Lied" in the interim, as they do not want to make their humiliation any worse, if and when the info is released.
BEIRUT: A Syrian official said the US could have captured Saddam Husseinâs sons aliveand waste the lives and time of US soldiers? Not worth it! and hinted that killing the pair in a US military raid in Iraq may have been to cover up past American political dealings with the defunct regime.ohhh the US is to blame - even when the US are the ones that whacked them! Uday and Qusay Hussein were reportedly allegedly, might have been, probably werenât - I saw them in Ali Babaâs last thursday eating falafels with Bin Laden... killed on July 22 in a gun battle in northern Iraq by a US force hunting down leaders of the former regime.
Posted by: Anon1 ||
08/01/2003 6:17:34 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Nah, the US NEVER had any dealings with Iraq--look at that doctored photo of Rumsfeld meeting Saddam--nope, didn't happen
Posted by: Not Mike Moore ||
08/01/2003 9:23 Comments ||
Top||
#2
way back in '83 - when we feared Iran overrunning the gulf. Was the policy of supporting Iraq wise - perhaps not. Did it involve shipping iraq arms - NO. Did it involve giving or selling them WMD - NO. Does it have any bearing on the current situation - NO.
#3
We did provide satellite intelligence so he could gas the Iranians--and snuff out their "human wave" attacks. But I believe that's all we've admitted to
Posted by: Not Mike Moore ||
08/01/2003 10:37 Comments ||
Top||
#4
And your point is? In the 40s the US gave a LOT of aid to a such Stalin because it need him for dealing with Nazi Germany. Are you going to suggest thuis was wrong?
#5
Consider the source. The Syrians have been in rare form lately; it seems like everything, everywhere is either our fault or the fault of our partners in evil - the Jews!!
#6
As far as past history goes between the US and Iraq, politics makes for strange bedfellows NMM; not that two wrongs make a right, mind, but it's a fact that in the real world the enemy of my enemy is my friend -- at least for a while. That's not something unique to America, the Republican Party, or anybody else for that matter.
Some of Iraqiâs missing air force has turned up down below.
Search teams, some hunting for Iraqâs alleged weapons of mass destruction (search), found dozens of fighter jets from Iraqâs air force buried beneath the sands, U.S. officials say.
At least one Cold War-era MiG-25 interceptor was found when searchers saw the tops of its twin tail fins poking up from the sands, said one Pentagon official familiar with the hunt. He said search teams have found several MiG-25s and Su-25 ground attack jets buried at al-Taqqadum air field west of Baghdad (search).
Iraqâs air squadrons were a no-show during the war, and U.S. military officials supposed their pilots stayed grounded because they believed they were overmatched by American and British air power.
Posted by: Patrick Phillips ||
08/01/2003 5:19:15 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#5
Didn't Iraq send a lot of their jets to Iran before Gulf War I?
Posted by: Not Mike Moore ||
08/01/2003 9:25 Comments ||
Top||
#6
I'm not sure whether they'd be scrap metal or not now -- it depends on whether or not they protected the rotating parts from infiltration by sand. Properly prepared, I don't expect being buried under sand would be especially damaging...
#7
That's a hell of a lot of Saran Wrap and duct tape to cover up a Mig-25. I imagine their burying of planes is proof positive how effective our bombs were at destroying the hardened shelters.
Posted by: Dar ||
08/01/2003 9:54 Comments ||
Top||
#8
How many WMD's could be hidden in the same amount of space under featurless sand?
#9
Hey NMM, embarassing or what? Iraq's weapon of mass disruction turns out to be.....sand.
Posted by: john ||
08/01/2003 11:59 Comments ||
Top||
#10
NMM asked a reasonable question (Ethyl! The pills!), so to answer: yes, the top line MiGs bugged out to Iran in 1991. The pilots were detained and repatriated to Iraq, but the fighters remained property of the IRI.
Funny how some liberals would remember that, and then put it past the Baathists to transfer their WMD to Syria...
Posted by: Brian ||
08/01/2003 13:06 Comments ||
Top||
Way too long to reproduce here, so check the story about the boy turned into a sensation. Among the heroes: Iraqi doctors, an American infantry troop and an Aussie reporter.
On Sunday, April 6, at the Al Kindi hospital in downton Baghdad, Samia Nakhoul stumbled across the most horrific thing she had ever seen. In the last, chaotic days of Saddam Husseinâs regime, Nakhoul, the Gulf bureau chief of Reuters, had taken to touring the hospitals daily to monitor the casualties from the blitzkrieg of American bombing that was battering the Iraqi capital. "The hospital was in a really terrible situation," she says. "There were scores of casualties arriving, some said up to 100 in an hour. The nurses and doctors hadnât been home for weeks - they were all sleeping at the hospital. I asked one of the nurses, âWhat is the worst case you have received?â She told me, âWell, thereâs this boy, heâs been burned.â So I asked if I could see him. I wanted to know what âthe worst caseâ meant."
[ more at the link ]
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/01/2003 12:56:09 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Typical Guardian story... every missle that lands in Bagdad and every casualty is caused by "American Missles".
What? Did they analyze the debris in every instance? Maybe it was an errant Iraqi anti-aircraft missle or anti-aircraft shell that injured this kid.
Not that I'm not sympathetic to the kids plight, but let's put it in perspective: How many Iraqi kids are being dug out of mass graves in Iraq today? How many don't have to kneel with their moms in front of mass graves and stare at the bodies already there before they too get shot in the head?
#2
Because they have to stick to reporting the obvious: in wars people usually get hurt, sometimes very badly.
Posted by: Rafael ||
08/01/2003 1:57 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Guardian is a communist publication and any news that can be twisted to put our efforts at national defense in a bad light, the Guardian will damn sure publish it, making facts up if they have to.
#4
--split between Unicef, the British Red Cross and Save the Children (none of it has been spent directly on Ali - the papers did not claim that it would be, though it was all earmarked for use in Iraq).--
EFL
The Bush administration approved a $30 million payment Thursday to the informant who led U.S. troops to Saddam Husseinâs two sons. Secretary of State Colin Powell decided that the informant whose tip led to the deaths of Odai and Qusai Hussein in a firefight July 22 in a villa in Mosul in northern Iraq should get both of the $15 million rewards that had been put on the menâs heads. ``Itâs actually for services rendered,ââ State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in Washington. ``Itâs a lump sum payment of $30 million.ââ For his protection, the informant has not been identified, although people in Mosul have speculated it was the owner the house being used as a hideout. "What really tweaked me off was the way those boys left the bathroom after they used it. So I figured, why not call?"
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/01/2003 12:47:45 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"Sir, there's a Mr. Clark and a Mr. McMahon at the door, asking for you..."
#3
And across the street are a hundred mean-looking gunnies!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/01/2003 13:43 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Ten to one the tipster is already safely at home in a safe house in Fairfax, VA. Why let all that nice US money be spent in Iraq? Besides, the life expectancy of the recipient would have been about 30 seconds otherwise. Money you don't live long enough to spend is not worth the paper it's printed on.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/01/2003 21:44 Comments ||
Top||
Two of Saddam Husseinâs daughters and their nine children received sanctuary Thursday in Jordan on humanitarian grounds, granted by King Abdullah II. Raghad Saddam Hussein and Rana Saddam Hussein — who had reportedly been living in humble circumstances in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, since their fatherâs ouster — arrived in the capital Amman Thursday, Information Minister Nabil al-Sharif told The Associated Press. He refused to say if they traveled through a third country. I donât think itâs proper to use the words "humble" and "Hussein" in the same paragraph.
U.S. officials say they are closing in on Saddam, but it was not clear if his daughtersâ departure from Iraq indicated the hunt for their father was nearing an end. Word of the arrival in Jordan of two of Saddamâs five children came after his elder sons, Odai and Qusai, were killed in a July 22 firefight with U.S. troops. Some U.S. military officers in Iraq said the daughtersâ flight to Jordan was another sign that intensified sweeps are squeezing Saddam and other members of the defeated regime. ``Itâs good news. Even if itâs estranged or extended family, it shows theyâre on the move,ââ said Army Lt. Col. Steve Russell, who commands soldiers patrolling Saddamâs hometown of Tikrit. Then again given the consideration given to women in that part of the world, it may be that theyâre just moving the herd into the barn for the night.
It was not clear whether the Americans had sought the daughters for questioning about their father. The two daughters had lived private lives and — unlike their brothers — were not believed to be wanted for crimes linked to their fatherâs brutal regime. Instead, the women were seen by some as victims of Saddam, who ordered their husbands killed in 1996. Al-Sharif said Saddamâs daughters were allowed to come to the kingdom because they had ``run out of all options.ââ The daughters had been estranged from their father for a time but were believed to have reconciled with Saddam in recent years. A brother of their late husbands, Jamal Kamel, told The Associated Press that the women ``donât know anything about where their father could be. Theyâre not interested in politics.ââ He said the women were in one of Jordanâs palaces under the kingâs protection but refused to elaborate. Wonder if they have the room down the hall from daddy.
The whereabouts of Saddamâs wife Sajida Khairallah Telfah and his fifth and youngest child, daughter Hala, are unknown. Hala Saddam Husseinâs husband, Gen. Kamal Mustafa Abdallah Sultan al-Tikriti, was No. 10 on the list of 55 most-wanted former officials of the regime. He surrendered to U.S. forces on May 17, the U.S. Central Command said. Saddam had a very public affair with Samira Shahbandar, daughter of a prominent Iraqi family, who has been described as his second wife. The two are rumored to have had a son. Last month, a cousin of Saddam, Izzi-Din Mohammed Hassan al-Majid, had said he would try to help Raghad and Rana apply for asylum in Britain, where he lives. That prompted a statement from Prime Minister Tony Blair that Britain would not consider asylum applications from members of Saddamâs family who may have committed human rights abuses.
Shot that down, didn't he?
Long accustomed to extravagance, the women had been living with their nine children in a modest Baghdad home without electricity since their fatherâs ouster, the pan-Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat reported June 1. In the 1999 book ``Out of the Ashes: The Resurrection of Saddam Hussein,ââ authors Andrew and Patrick Cockburn wrote that the sisters were ``once Saddamâs favorite children, (but they) never forgave him for the killingsââ of their husbands. ``They assumed he had orchestrated the attack .... They continued to live with their ... children in a family house in Tikrit, never going out, always wearing black, and refusing to see any member of their family apart from their mother,ââ the Cockburns wrote. But in July, Londonâs Sunday Times quoted Raghad as saying that Saddam ``is my father and I am his daughter. He was a very good father.ââ "He was a very good father for a blood-sucking sadist! Oh, did I say that?"
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/01/2003 12:42:17 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Now just how in the HELL did they get out of Iraq? Sounds like we have border control there like that between Texas and Mexico
Posted by: Not Mike Moore ||
08/01/2003 9:30 Comments ||
Top||
#2
NMM: I don't think the Coalition really cared about them and let them through. The Coalition really hasn't shown any interest in Saddam's female relations, and because he murdered their husbands these two were likely not close to Saddam or in the know of his whereabouts, plans, and security detail. In any case, women are second-class citizens in their culture and few are given any power or respect (witness the demonstration yesterday against the female judge in Najaf).
Posted by: Dar ||
08/01/2003 9:59 Comments ||
Top||
#3
You are the most intellectually dishonest asshole I've ever wasted time reading. You should seek out your true calling in life and dedicate yourself to it, you'd be great:
prison bitch
Posted by: Not NMM ||
08/01/2003 10:22 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Wow. That was shockingly mature.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/01/2003 10:29 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Not NMM LOL! Sounds like ya been there; done that and got the hemorrhoids to prove it!
Posted by: Not Mike Moore ||
08/01/2003 10:52 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Hilarious! I love it when some asshat is so blinded by rage they just spew hate--and you can't even tell who it's directed at! Me? NMM? Steve?
Hey, Not NMM, you have a nice day! Thanks for the laugh!
Posted by: Dar ||
08/01/2003 10:55 Comments ||
Top||
#7
In other news, comments such as "moving the herd into the barn.." should be preceded with a coffee alert. bad. Now I have to go and change my shirt.
Posted by: john ||
08/01/2003 12:55 Comments ||
Top||
#8
I'm pretty sure it was directed at Not Mike Moore.
Police and soldiers have rescued an official of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in Lanao del Sur province, officials said yesterday. Chief Supt. Acmad Omar, commander of police forces in the Autonomous Region Muslim of Mindanao (ARMM), said Casan Laguindab was rescued around 4 p.m. Wednesday in the village of Piksan in Calanugas town, near where 109 gunmen abducted him earlier in the day. Police stormed the kidnappersâ lair and brief firefight ensued until the gunmen abandoned the victim. Omar said the police are investigating the motive of the kidnapping. Two motorcycle gunman on Tuesday also shot and wounded an election official and his companion in Cotabato City.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/01/2003 15:28 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Myanmar's foreign minister said Thursday he was ready to discuss Thai proposals to resolve an impasse over the detention of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi. Foreign Minister Win Aung, in Bangkok for a meeting of regional foreign ministers Friday, will also hold bilateral talks with his Thai counterpart, Surakiart Sathirathai. "Yes, we are going to discuss everything," Win Aung told Reuters when asked if the release of Suu Kyi would be on the two ministers' agenda.
"Not that anything will happen, but talking about it might abate some of the diplopressure..."
International pressure is mounting on Myanmar's military, which has ruled the country since a 1962 coup and ignored a 1990 election victory by Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy. President Bush signed a bill Monday closing the U.S. market to imports from Myanmar, and key donor Japan has cut off new aid. Myanmar's Southeast Asian neighbors have taken the unprecedented step of publicly criticizing the junta. Thailand, fearing an influx of economic migrants from its western neighbor, is against sanctions and has proposed key Western and Asian countries meet the Myanmar junta to hammer out a "road map" for democratic transition in the country.
Crummy choice of imagery...
"The current situation is challenging Myanmar to do something," Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Sihasak Phuangketkeow told reporters Thursday. "ASEAN has already expressed its view. The ball is in Myanmar's court now to turn this challenge into an opportunity to engage the international community and its internal factions."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/01/2003 01:15 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
Philippine Interior Secretary Jose Lina said on Friday a coup plot that led to an uprising by renegade soldiers last weekend may have included plans to kill President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and other officials. "The assassination has been the subject of an intelligence report, not only of the president but some other personalities, but we did not deem it wise to make that public," Lina told local television. He added the intelligence report had yet to be validated and that the government had the situation under control. The National Bureau of Investigation is seeking coup charges against 321 rogue troops now in detention, but Armed Forces Chief of Staff Narciso Abaya said on Thursday "the threat is still live" with other soldiers still unaccounted for. Local media said about 100 heavily armed men were missing. Arroyo warned on Thursday the Philippines was not totally out of danger after the ninth army uprising in 17 years.
They seem to be better at uprisings than at controlling MILF and the NPA...
She insists she will not run in elections that must be called by May 2004, but she has many enemies who would like to ensure that she has no chance of reversing course. "It was not a simple mutiny, it was a coup d'etat," Lina told a Senate defense committee that began a probe on Friday of the siege at a luxury hotel in Manila's business district on July 27. "There is a civilian component to this coup d'etat."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/01/2003 01:11 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Pyongyang, KCNA — The Korean people consider it their greatest pride and honor to live and do revolution in the best socialist country and are making their way through difficulties and ordeals with a smile, full of hope for the future, says Rodong Sinmun today in a signed article.
"Happy, happy! Joy, joy!"
Stating that the socialist system of the DPRK is the cradle and site of life guaranteeing the eternal future of the Korean people, the article continues: The steel-like single-hearted unity of the army and people closely united around the great leader with one idea and will and the same sense of moral obligation has hardened a thousand times the deep faith of the Korean people in their cause and might and inspired them with renewed conviction of victory and optimism.
"We're number... ummm... wan!"
The invincible single-hearted unity of the party, the army and people which can not be destroyed even by any nuclear weapon instills into them the undaunted gut and self-confidence never to forgive anyone who dare provoke the DPRK, and the formidable fighting spirit and passion to take ten, nay a hundred steps while others take one, and the unbreakable will to remove huge mountains at a breath.
"Soon's we can find something to eat..."
It is the unshakable faith and will of the Korean people that no difficulty is to be afraid of and a bright future is in store for them when they are single-heartedly united. Single-hearted unity is the source of might instilling into the hearts of the Korean people the firm conviction of the future. It is the pride and honor of the Korean people to live and do revolution under the best socialist system, with the whole country forming one large family.
"Mom, can I have some grass?"
The Korean people devote their noble sincerity and conscience to the homeland, envisioning the future of a prosperous motherland, as they are optimistic about the future in the harmonious socialist family. A great prosperous powerful nation is our ideal and future. The great prosperous powerful country of Juche we are building is a country which will be the most dignified in the world and will always prosper and in which the independent life and happiness of the popular masses will be in full bloom, not simply a country where people are fed and clad well.
"I mean, what's that count for? 'S nothing, next to juche!"
The Korean people are living and struggling, full of the spirit of victors, looking ahead to the bright future of a great prosperous and powerful nation built with the might of the Songun policy.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/01/2003 15:18 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Reminds me of Comical Ali. By the way, why aren't South Koreans immigrating to the North by the millions? Must be those U.S. troops holding them back.
Posted by: Tom ||
08/01/2003 16:14 Comments ||
Top||
#2
*holds up card* 6.0. I am not a professional judge, but I do play one on Rantgurg er Rantburg, so here goes: They have the uplifting language, the moving mountains with spirit thing, standing up to Nukes, a mention of Juche, got Songun policy in there, but something is missing: There is not that fire and brimstone language, no screaming and spittle, nothing on the American Imperialist Hegemons wanting to dominate Nork under their jackboot, that kind of thing. It is like it has been put first into an autoclave before it was distributed. Kinda sterilized.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/01/2003 16:51 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Never trust the NorKs. They've just agreed to multilateral talks, so this is just vanilla coating; no Sea of Fireâ¢, no merciless chastisement. When they scuttle the talks in mid-stream (and there is no doubt they will) they will blame it all on the Evil Amurkins and return to the KCNA spittle rants we have come to enjoy. I can only think that Rodong has been cookin' up some good ones these last couple of weeks.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
08/01/2003 18:33 Comments ||
Top||
#4
I can only think that Rodong has been cookin' up some good ones these last couple of weeks.
And every mother in NKor is counting her children, to see who's missing.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/01/2003 21:51 Comments ||
Top||
Hat tip Free Republic--This is a translation of the original Korean article, from what I understand. Edited for brevity.
Russia drew up a plan to mount an unilateral pre-emptive attack on N. Korean military facilities if a nuclear war is about to break out in Korea, according to the Russian daily Izvestia on July 31, 2003. This is to prevent radioactive fallouts in Russian Far East. Quoting a high ranking official at Russian Defense Ministry, the paper reported that this plan was drawn up after an extensive study. The crux of the plan is to attack N. Korean nuclear facilities first, using ships from Russian Pacific Fleet, if there is an indication that N. Korea would use nuclear weapons.
Boris Kubai(sp?), the head of the weather bureau in Russian Far East, explained that, if there is a nuclear explosion in Korean peninsula, radioactive fallouts will descend on Russian Far East , including Vladivostok, within 2-3 hours. The danger is really high in Summer and Fall when wind blows from south-west.
Last week, Russian Federal Emergency Bureau(?) held a meeting at Khabarovsk where they discussed the contingency plan for the possible Korean crisis. A government official, who attended this meeting, said, "The best way to safeguard Russian Far East is a pre-emtive strike against N. Korea. It is best for America to deal with any unusual acitivity of N. Korean military. However, if this does not work, Russian military has to take action."
Izvestia reported that the missile cruiser Varyag from the Pacific Fleet will lead this attack. The 11,200 ton ship carries 64 S300 ship-to-air missiles and 16 P500 ship-to-ship missiles, which can be used to attack N. Korean missile bases. Naturally, all professional militaries have contingency plans--itâs just nice to see this one get some attention at such an appropriate time.
Posted by: Dar ||
08/01/2003 1:59:03 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I would not think that the Russians would publicize an attack plan without an agenda to go with it. They obviously want to distance themselves from the Norks in the public arena. So now that leaves China and SKor (we won't count the other AOEs). We do have some leverage on SKor, but do we really have anything we can use in the near future on the Chicoms? They are the key for sinking the Nork tub.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/01/2003 16:41 Comments ||
Top||
#2
All I see is a big carrot... which apparently isn't being pointed out. I believe financial markets, particularly in Hong Kong and Shanghai, would react favorably to signs of significant US-China cooperation on this.
They've tied their currency to the dollar in such a way that I think it would result in a windfall of several billion dollars for them, going straight into the hands of the party.
Via Drudge
GENEVA (Reuters) - China and Russia, with the United States clearly in their sights, said Thursday "Star Wars" dangers were growing and called for a quick start to talks on a treaty to ban weapons in space. Dangers? Only to their ability to threaten the U.S.
The two powers delivered their plea at a session of the United Nations-backed Conference on Disarmament just over a year after tabling proposals for a pact, to be known as PAROS, that have met with a cold reception from Washington. Um....no
"Dire developments augur ill for the issue of PAROS," Chinese disarmament ambassador Hu Xiaodi told the 66-nation forum, declaring that efforts were under way to "control and occupy outer space." "The risk of weaponization of outer space is mounting," he added, in remarks that sources close to his delegation said were aimed at the U.S. National Missile Defense (NMD) system due to start up in September next year.
U.S. officials say NMD is purely defensive and intended to protect their country from missiles fired by "rogue states" and terrorists. The system does not envisage deploying weaponry in orbit round the Earth, they say.
NMD is promoted by the administration of President Bush as the successor to the mooted program of space-based missile defense, dubbed "Star Wars," championed by then-President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. mooted program? nice shot Rooters!
The new system, which would involve firing missiles out of the Earthâs atmosphere from land-based sites, has been criticized by many countries, and by some U.S. scientists. some U.S. Scientists also think we should destroy all our weapons, open the borders, and all will sing kumbaya in a world of sunshine, moonbeams, ponies and baby ducks. Me? Iâm a little more cynical than that. I would keep an eye on any country that wishes us to minimize our defensive capability...like our "friend" France
Russiaâs ambassador, Leonid Skotnikov, told the Geneva disarmament forum Thursday that his country remained firmly committed to banning the deployment of weapons in outer space and wanted a moratorium while a treaty was negotiated. "because weâre so technologically behind itâll take a while for us to steal the U.S. designs"
"We are ready to take on such a commitment immediately as long as the leading space powers join in a moratorium," he said.
Skotnikov also called for renewed efforts to relaunch discussion on confidence-building measures on PAROS -- Preventions of an Arms Race in Outer Space -- that have been stalled for almost a decade.
Russia, he said, had started to take unilateral action to ensure openness and reduce fears about its own space activities by notifying in advance planned launches of probes, their purpose and their flight paths.
"We call on other countries which have space launching capabilities to join us and undertake all necessary measures for building confidence in outer-space activities," Skotnikov added.
In the past, Russia has accused the United States directly of obstructing discussion at the conference, which holds three sessions a year, on a new space accord.
Proponents of a pact, which include many European and nearly all developing countries, say it is vital to ensure that the 1967 treaty banning weapons of mass destruction in outer space is not undermined.
With the U.S. withdrawal last year from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty with the old Soviet Union, they argue there is no reliable legal pact barring countries from using space for military purposes.
Remember the woe and tears that would ensue from withdrawal from the ABM treaty and deployment of a defensive system? Think NK remembers it?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/01/2003 12:50:17 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Russiaâs ambassador, Leonid Skotnikov, told the Geneva disarmament forum Thursday that his country remained firmly committed to banning the deployment of weapons in outer space and wanted a moratorium while a treaty was negotiated.
("because weâre so technologically behind itâll take a while for us to steal the U.S. designs")
"We are ready to take on such a commitment immediately as long as the leading space powers join in a moratorium," he said.
Since they can't afford to put anybody up in Mir anymore, and China has no space program, I guess they mean us, huh? That huge group of "leading space powers" that consists of one... Oh, wait - I forgot the Japanese space program, but that's mostly launching sats. ESA? Hah!
#2
Agreeing to PAROS would be sheer suicide for the United States -- China and Russia just want to stall us while they catch up. Do you think China is going to follow ANY treaty that doesn't serve its immediate interests? How about the Arab League? They're not stupid; eventually they will get out into space. If you think they aren't going to build space-based weapons, think again! It's a no-brainer; even Al Gore, who is not exactly a hawk, was in favor of space- based defense
Appearently the Chinese Space Program which is a derivitive of the Military missile programs has as one of it's goals the negation of US superiority in the strategic and tactical uses of space.
Posted by: Someone who did NOT vote for William Proxmire ||
08/01/2003 14:44 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Is it just me or is the yammering of the news media about ABM systems illogical. On one hand we are told that it is too hard or impossible. On the other hand that even trying to develop ABM systems will be a bad thing and will make the Russian and Chinese nervous. Either it won't work (and others will laugh) or it will work (no more nuclear nightmare). Can't have it both ways.
#5
China and Russia just want to stall us while they catch up. Do you think China is going to follow ANY treaty that doesn't serve its immediate interests?
Of course it's a load of crock. The correct response to this proposal is the diplomatic equivalent of "Are you on drugs?" But you can't blame 'em for trying.
Too bad our media seems to believe everything foreign governments say and nothing that comes from our elected officials. In the media's view, foreigners are inevitably honest brokers whereas US officials are by default morally tainted. Only in America (and the UK, too, I guess)...
At least 20 people are feared dead after a huge car bomb explosion at a mIlitary hospital in Chechnya. The Interfax news agency says at least 20 have been killed in the blast. The car bomb destroyed a hospital in the town of Mozdok in the North Ossetia region, said Boris Dzgoyev, the regional Emergency Situations Minister. He said there were at least 100 people in the hospital at the time of the blast.
When the 2nd division moves to Pyeongtaek or Osan, Seoul may construct a local railroad line that connects the new base and with the Yeongpyeong training grounds in Pocheon, Cho said. "This will prevent accidents when U.S. forces move to the northern training area."
Nothing was mentioned in the article about whether or not the South Korean government will eventually cover the entire country with railroads to prevent traffic accidents all together, but for now Koreans can rest assured - those bad driving, imperialist occupying American soldiers wonât be "accidentally" running over anymore school girls.
#2
those bad driving, imperialist occupying American soldiers wonât be "accidentally" running over anymore school girls.
Actually, we have a better way of preventing accidental deaths among Korean civilians during American military exercises. It's called troop withdrawal, which we should have carried out years ago. As much as I detest Carter, I think he had the right instincts on South Korea - pulling out will serve American interests better than staying there. My suspicion is that our deployment in South Korea will prove to be useless for any future confrontation with China - South Korea will declare its neutrality while leaving our troops stranded.
#6
Don't want to blame the dead but it's been nagging me for months. How is it that the school girls didn't see/hear/feel an APC/Tank coming there way?
#7
John writes: OK, I'll bite. Who is going to keep the schoolgirls off the railway tracks?
That sounds like a job for me!!
Posted by: Scott Ridder ||
08/01/2003 15:37 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Yank: I heard a third-hand rumor that the girls were playing chicken. I've seen similar stuff happen in Germany (without the dead kids) so it's possible. I doubt we'll ever know due the extreme political sensitivity of the incident. The soldiers (track commander and driver) weren't prosecuted, so I've always assumed that they weren't at fault. If there had been any American or Korean testimony that the TC and driver had acted negligently, there would have been a court martial.
#9
Yank: I went back and researched some more. Narrow road, two convoys of armored vehicles moving in opposite directions, and a broken intercom are the basic facts. Here is a fairly unbiased account. Here is a very emotional account with pictures. From the photos, the girls seem to have had room to jump out of the way, but did not. The thing we'll never know is what was going through the girls' minds: frozen with fear, playing a game that they'd "won" many times before, or so deafened by one convoy that they didn't hear the second. Its a tragedy and it needn't have happened.
No traces of anthrax were found in tests of soil samples taken from a Maryland pond drained in June by the FBI, law enforcement officials said Friday. Authorities found a gun, a bicycle, fishing lures and "a lot of junk, but nothing of an evidentiary nature in the anthrax case," said one official. Officials have not determined whether the gun might be linked to some other unsolved crime. The 1.45 million-gallon pond in a Frederick, Md., forest was drained after a search by FBI divers last winter uncovered a plastic box with two holes cut into it that some investigators theorized could have been used to safely fill envelopes with deadly anthrax spores. Oh, so thatâs what got the FBI intersted. I can see their point.
Anthrax-laced envelopes mailed to government and media offices killed five people and sickened 17 others in the fall of 2001. Some officials thought that the box could have been used to fill the envelopes and then dumped in the pond, or perhaps used while submerged to reduce the chances of exposure. The FBI is still chasing Hatfill. I sure wish I knew what it is that they know that seems to make them so sure that the source of the anthrax wasnât al-Queada.
Posted by: Patrick Phillips ||
08/01/2003 11:43:34 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Althought it's a multiple murder investigation, I think we're rapidly approaching the point where they have to start releasing more information. It's not fair to Hatfill to have trashed his reputation apparently without reason, and a controlled release of information may turn up new information to break the case.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/01/2003 12:22 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Hatfill. Richard Jewel. Collen Rowley. The list is long and ugly. Investigation by Press Conference is not law enforcement. Elite Law Enforcement Agency my ass. The political shitheads have taken over and screwed this organization up beyond recognition. No Elliot Ness' here folks.
Sadly, the Fibbies degenerated into a media-driven publicity whore some years ago. Anything emanating from Washington is spun until it's dizzy. Only the field offices seem to contain anyone resembling real investigators anymore - and they are in the minority in the "headline" offices, such as NY and El Lay.
For an example that came to light in spite of the best efforts of FBI HQ, just recall Colleen Rowley's experience trying to investigate "20th Hijacker" Moussaoui...
The "story" as reported by the "news":
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/warnings020524.html
The Rowley memo to Mueller - which is a knockout by a real FBI Agent, not a media darling peacock politico:
http://www.startribune.com/stories/484/3738192.html
Sadly, it's a bureaucratic nightmare and buddy-network that, in sum, can't find its own ass with an arc-light. If they beheaded the FBI and put people like Rowley in charge, it might actually serve us, the taxpayers, and become the "elite" investigative force it's advertising claims.
Drain the FBI HQ swamp and good things will start to happen in the WoT.
#3
Unfortunately, PD, it's not limited to the FBI. EVERY government office in the wasteland known as DC is tainted. You can smell the decay in every state of the union. The real root cause of much of what's bad in the United States rests with the Civil Service Employee's Union, or whatever it's called these days. Too much dead wood, too little thinning, lots of insest and disease, rampant crime, and an unlimited capacity for self-deception.
What's needed is a good, old-fashioned "control burn" to eliminate the deadwood and cut back on the underbrush. Unfortunately, there aren't enough Americans willing to do that to make it work.
No foreign power would ever THINK of destroying DC. It's much too much an ally, especially if it's a totalitarian or dictatorial power.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/01/2003 21:26 Comments ||
Top||
LILBURN, Ga -- A post office and surrounding area were evacuated after a mail carrier came across a suspicious, vibrating package. X-rays soon revealed the box to be..... X-rated.
U.S. Postal Service spokesman Michael Miles said the package aroused suspicion from a carrier and his supervisor, who took the priority-listed mail into the parking lot and called police.
The Gwinnett County bomb squad, U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Gwinnett County Fire Department evacuated the building and the parking lot Wednesday and shut down a nearby street.
A high-tech robot was sent in to pick up the package and X-ray it. The X-ray showed wires and objects, Miles said. When it was opened, authorities found adult toys, including a vibrator and massage oil.
The resident to whom the package was addressed will be notified of what happened, but will not be prosecuted.
"Since these are all legal items, we wonât be doing any follow-up investigation," police spokesman Cpl. Dan Huggins said. How long before everyone in the county knows the name of the intended "priority mail" recipient? Time to move away, no forwarding address LOL
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/01/2003 11:13:59 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The resident to whom the package was addressed will be notified...
The Lilburn, GA, police department analysed your package and discovered the following:
The massage oil creates a sensational hot and tingly feeling when applied to skin and breathed upon.
The vibrating clitoral rings are a wonderful addition to the conventional vibrator, but they drain the batteries way too fast (which, by the way, you may need to replace).
We recommend water-based lubricant instead of oil-based, as it won't stain and feels more natural.
Posted by: Dar ||
08/01/2003 12:21 Comments ||
Top||
BEIJING (Reuters) - China denounced a Pentagon report on Friday accusing it of deploying growing numbers of ballistic missiles aimed at Taiwan and said Washington was making excuses to sell advanced weapons to the island.
"The motive is to foment public opinion and excuses to sell advanced weapons to Taiwan," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement when asked to comment on the Pentagonâs annual report on Chinese military might.
"The Chinese side expresses its strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition." So youâre not deploying missiles as fast as you possibly can to intimidate a democracy across the straits?
On Thursday, Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan used the occasion of Army Day to underscore the mantra of the mainlandâs communist rulers that they would not tolerate any attempt to prevent reunification with the island.
"Realizing the complete reunification of the motherland is the common desire of all Chinese people, including Taiwan compatriots," Cao said in comments carried by the Peopleâs Daily, the Communist Partyâs mouthpiece. a free Taiwan just drives the ChiComs batshit
"We have the determination and the ability to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity," Cao said during celebrations to mark the 76th anniversary of the founding of the Peopleâs Liberation Army.
"We will never allow anyone to separate Taiwan from China in any way," said Cao, a vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission and who sits on the Communist Partyâs elite Politburo. It already is separate. We need to make sure that Taiwan has every possible chance to remain separate. Recognize them in the UN. China will always be our rival and enemy, and the Taiwanese are our allies. The people who carp about antagonizing the Chinese mainland are appeasers
China is boosting military spending and deploying increasing numbers of ballistic missiles to prepare for a possible conflict in the Taiwan Straits aimed at bringing the island to its knees before the United States has time to intervene, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.
The White House said on Thursday that Chinaâs build-up of ballistic missiles capable of striking Taiwan could destabilize the region, and added it was prepared to sell the island weapons to defend itself. Then DO IT
Since China and Taiwan split at the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, Beijing has threatened to attack if the democratic island declared independence or dragged its feet on reunification talks.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/01/2003 10:46:08 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I hope China isn't always going to be our enemy. It doesn't have to be. China for Chinese is fine by me. Chinese are civilised and not back stabing by nature. The commie-way won out there, so what! If Taiwan wants it's independace they will have to fight for it. Sounds like that day may be coming. It would really be a stunner if the commies started a war with Taiwan. It would be a very stupid thing to do. Very bloody by our current standards.
#2
I hope China isn't always going to be our enemy. It doesn't have to be. China for Chinese is fine by me. Chinese are civilised and not back stabing by nature.
The Chinese empire has grown for 2000 years, with a 150-year hiatus, due to its relative weakness, starting in the 1800's. As soon as the Communists took power, China started attacking its neighbors one by one for its "lost territories". The biggest clashes occurred in the late 60's when the Soviets actually threatened nuclear war against China. The most recent clash was in the 90's, with attacks on Vietnamese territory. About a year or so ago, Chinese forces started building military structures on Filipino territory. China also claims the South China Sea as its lake.
Taiwan is just the tip of the iceberg. If you want to see the Chinese version of Leni Riefenstahl's (Hitler-era) Triumph of the Will, check out Zhang Yimou's Hero, which received a rapturous reception (breaking all box office records) in China. It's a paean to a tyrannical Chinese emperor's* ambition to "unite" (i.e. conquer) all under heaven (tian xia).
#3
Ouch! Tian Xia sounds like Japans intention before WW2. My only point is that as a civilized people they are reasonable. But I don't know. Do Chinese people want world domintation?
#4
Ouch! Tian Xia sounds like Japans intention before WW2.
The Japanese were making up for lost time. China had been expanding for thousands of years. The Japanese were just getting started. Japanese atrocities are against foreign POW's and civilians are inexcusable*, but they figured it was finally their turn - the Chinese had monopolized that game for so long.
The relative lack of imperial expansion in Japanese history may be why Japan had such an easy time dropping its ambitions in the postwar era. The Chinese still have much of the imperial hauteur of their late 17th century forebears. They continue to have the Central Kingdom (zhongguo or China) vs vassal state (all else under heaven) mentality of antiquity.
Here's are some telling excerpts from a letter from the Chinese Emperor to King George in the late 18th century: "I have already taken note of your respectful spirit of submission" and "Tremblingly obey and show no negligence!" This was written right after China had conquered Tibet and East Turkistan, which together form 40% of China's existing territory (obviously this is disputed by the Tibetans and the Turkic tribes on these disputed lands). The recent economic expansion has gone to their heads - young Chinese are once again thinking of imperial glory in the fashion of prewar Japan and Germany.**
* Chinese atrocities against US POW's are unrivalled in US military history - a smaller percentage of US POW's survived Chinese captivity than in any of America's other wars. I think about half as many (in % terms) survived Chinese depradations against POW's during the Korean War as did POW's held by the Japanese during WWII.
** Once again, it's a load of crock that poverty leads to military expansion - when Japan and Germany embarked on their imperial wars in the 20th century, they were at the peak of their powers. It all comes down to ideology and national power. The Chinese don't need ideology, they have a history, of seeking "unification" with neighboring countries, that spans thousands of years.
They're able to spend $80B a year based on their present economic capacity. In 20 years, they will match what we're spending, given that they have 5 times our population. When that happens, we'll find out the true scale of their ambitions.
#5
Zhang Fei: Regarding HERO, I hate saying this, but "Mussolini did get the trains to run on time". Not a defense of either, just that this was none other than Qin Shihuangdi - before becoming the tyrant we've all heard of in our textbooks, that is. Incidentally like Muhammed in having been a good guy before taking Medina and becoming a pedophile looter-tyrant, but ...
Let's just say that this right-wing conservative happened to like the movie, okay? (I found the positive qualities of "Qinwang" to be much more akin to Bush than to the PRC ...)
Lucky: Tianxia translates to tenka, but I'd say that amongst the young, I must disagree with Zhang Fei; I see a particular xenophobia amongst them more than "ambition" (usually meaning "world" domination in Chinese; in the ol' days, China was the world). In both China and Japan, it's been more about "lost glory" than ambition. Japan also spouted similar bullpoppery to Kangxi's statements under the Tokugawa shogunate (the most actively xenophobic period in Japan until pre-WW2) long after unification, without having seized territory from anyone. Neither could take their own delusions of grandeur being shattered by Western encroachment, and aspects of both (in China and Japan alike) still haven't forgiven the West. Like a crack whore beating someone who woke her out of her stupor which she wants back into ...
(The Yomiuri Giants' guy-in-charge actually taunted the Orix Blue Wave for Suzuki Ichiro's "sell out" to MLB, which he called the new "black ships" - only for Giants superstar Matsui Hideki to sign on as New York Yankee #55.)
P.S. For the "world domination ambition" irony, have you read RTK lately, Zhang Fei?
Posted by: Lu Baihu ||
08/01/2003 15:58 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Taiwan will not be an easy nut to crack. The island has been preparing for invasion since 1949, and has expanded its capabilities enormously, both economically and militarily. They are also another nation that rumor indicates may have developed nuclear weapons.
The reunification rant has been used several times in the past to divert young Chinese males from their restlessness under the Chinese Communist party. This may be the case again. However, since the PRC has made numerous public statements about "reunification", it's going to be almost impossible for them to allow Taiwan to remain independent without losing losing enormous "face". Personally, I've marked Taiwan off my list of future vacation spots.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/01/2003 18:33 Comments ||
Top||
#7
However, since the PRC has made numerous public statements about "reunification", it's going to be almost impossible for them to allow Taiwan to remain independent without losing losing enormous "face".
This isn't an issue of face - it's an issue of megalomania and a yearning for past imperial glory. The bottom line is the same - the Chinese are going to come for what they think is theirs, and the Taiwanese would be well-advised to have Uncle Sam on their side when that day dawns.
#8
And in Sports, today, More Science High defeated Communist Martyrs High in last Friday night's big matchup to reach the semifinals.
Next on the schedule is Islamic Jihad High. Rumors abound that IJHS has been practicing secretly and has adopted a "trick play" approach since they lost the practice scrimmage and feel they can't match up with MSHS.
If MSHS can get past IJHS, it will meet Golden Dragon High in the finals.
Posted by: PD - Prez for Life - Isles of Langerhans ||
08/01/2003 19:47 Comments ||
Top||
#9
Zhang Fei - I totally agree. I hope this president lays the groundwork to prevent a future Clinton (or other sloucher receiving donations from teh mainland..et tu Gore?) from letting them have it without a massive fight. We control the seas and air compared to PRC, but a massive missile bombardment would wreak havoc. It isn't a very large island. I'm not ready to write it off, and would prefer a partner like the Taiwanese than the geriatric corruption in Beijing. If the PRC goes for Taiwan it will be because they thought we were too weak, too unwilling, or bought off....can you say President Rodham?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/01/2003 19:50 Comments ||
Top||
#10
It's a bit late, but the male problem in China's probably also responsible for China looking India's way. War is a dandy way to cut down on the number of surplus males, and if you happen to _win_, well, it hasn't been that long since taking the women of the defeated nation for your brides was standard operating proceedure.
Ed Becerra
Posted by: Ed Becerra ||
08/01/2003 22:05 Comments ||
Top||
#11
If MSHS can get past IJHS, it will meet Golden Dragon High in the finals.
I think we've already gotten past IJHS - we've defeated 2 Muslim armies in retaliation for 9/11. They're not capable of inflicting a military defeat on us. They recognize that another 9/11 would cause us to take even stronger measures. The true value of attacking Iraq is to put Muslim governments on notice that they don't have to be directly connected to a specific terror attack on Americans for them to become targets for American retaliation. The basic template is that if another attack occurs, the Muslim government most threatening to American national security at the time will be toppled. This keeps Muslim governments on their toes, and ensures that they will pay a little more attention to the activities of terror organizers on their soil.
The killing of Saddam's sons served another worthy purpose - it showed Muslim governments that we're not too squeamish to kill Muslim leaders after they are toppled from power. It'll take time, but the lesson is undoubtedly sinking in.
The White House on Thursday denied a report that talks are being held between the United States and Iran on a possible exchange of senior al Qaeda figures in Iran for U.S.-held members of an anti-Iran terror group. The United States has "communicated to Iran the importance of turning over senior members of al Qaeda," a senior Bush administration official said. "No quid pro quo, no negotiations, no exchange."
The report said the possible exchange may involve members of the Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MEK), who struck a deal with U.S. troops in Iraq during the war for a cease-fire, following a series of clashes between coalition troops and MEK fighters. The MEK was backed by former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, and he allowed it to carry out training activities in his country. The groupâs aim is to replace Iranâs religious government with democratically elected leadership. And for this theyâre designated a terrorist group? (yeah I know, no double standard)
Iran Intelligence Minister Ali Yunesi confirmed reports that had been circulating for weeks, saying that his country was holding what he said was a "large number" of al Qaeda members, but he would not name them. U.S. officials said those in custody included Saif Al Adel, al Qaedaâs military chief, and Suleiman Abu Ghaith, along with two other al Qaeda members.
Posted by: Rafael ||
08/01/2003 2:42:47 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
No deals with Iran?! Haven't we heard THAT from another Republican administration? OOPS Admiral Poindexter has left the building!
Posted by: Not Mike Moore ||
08/01/2003 9:17 Comments ||
Top||
#2
No deals with Iran?! Haven't we heard THAT from another Republican administration? OOPS Admiral Poindexter has left the building!
It's sad that commie-loving Democrats reduced the Reagan administration to having to fund the Nicaraguan freedom fighters via parts sales to Iran. If not for Democratic sympathy for the Sandinista Communists, Iran-Contra would never have happened.
Of course, if Carter had shown a little more backbone, the Shah would still be in power, and Iran would not be sponsoring terrorist groups against us or continuously threatening our oil supplies. Just another one of the reasons I am glad Carter remains a one-term ex-president.
#3
Zhang--"Commie loving"!?! --that's so 1950's. And if a Democrat had pulled that Iran-Contra crap--there would have surely been another Starr Chamber
Posted by: Not Mike Moore ||
08/01/2003 10:49 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Of course, if Carter had shown a little more backbone, the Shah's advanced cancer would have magically disappeared. He would still be in power I tell you!! And the people of Iran would have converted to Christianity. And Panathinaikos would have won in Greece's Soccer league.
Why, commie-loving Democrats??? Why are you doing this to us?
#5
Of course, if Carter had shown a little more backbone, the Shah's advanced cancer would have magically disappeared.
Before the Shah of Iran, there was the Shah of Iran, just as before the Queen of England, there was the King of England. Hard to believe that the Greek shall inherit the earth.
#6
Not Mike Moore: Zhang--"Commie loving"!?! --that's so 1950's.
Not only does he not deny it, he seems to think Communism is a good thing. Too bad he can't seem to bring himself to move to that Communist paradise on earth called Cuba.
#7
If a dem pres has pulled that, NMM, the only reason there would have been a star chamber is because the commies in this country would have gone berserk because the pres wasn't aiding rapist Danny-boy to create the utopia they just know is around the corner.
#8
And if a Democrat had pulled that Iran-Contra crap--there would have surely been another Starr Chamber
A Democrat would never have had to pull that stunt - he would have had the full support of the Republicans and conservative Democrats for upfront funding for the Nicaraguan freedom fighters. If a Democrat had funded Communist rebels, of course, it would have been a different story. Let's face it - Democrats wanted to fund the Sandinistas, but were prevented from doing so by public opinion.
#9
"Before the Shah of Iran, there was the Shah of Iran, just as before the Queen of England, there was the King of England. "
Before the Shah of Iran there was a Prime Minister actually, whom the US helped overthrow, but that's a different discussion.
Point is, we really don't know how long the new dictator-for-life son-of-a-Shah would last either. Or indeed how he would act towards the West and Islamic fundamentalism, had he actually lasted.
#10
Aris: Good point, the long term result could have
been about the same. NMM: Not a very good point. Love it or hate it, this administration is not much like Regan's. Different world, different priorities, mainly different people (yes, yes I know - Cheney and Rumsfeld). Each party contains about 35% of the population, each group with varying goals and beliefs. There is no brush big enough to accurately paint an entire major American political party. You don't have one, neither does Ann Coulter.
#12
Before the Shah of Iran there was a Prime Minister actually, whom the US helped overthrow, but that's a different discussion.
Like I said, the Shah preceded the Shah, even before Mossadegh (the Communist) became a big shot. Aris needs to get his head out of Communist works of literature and read some actual history once in a while.
#13
Point is, we really don't know how long the new dictator-for-life son-of-a-Shah would last either. Or indeed how he would act towards the West and Islamic fundamentalism, had he actually lasted.
Actually, the reason the Shah was deposed was because he wouldn't make common cause with the mullahs, like the Saudis have done. Carter sold him down the river by telling him that the US would not resupply him if he cracked down hard on his opponents. (Given that all his weaponry was American, this would have presented him with serious problems). The reason the Ayatollah was in France was because the Shah would not tolerate his ilk like the various Arab emirates have done. Women were forbidden to wear scarves anywhere (in France, it only applies to schoolgirls). Carter is ultimately responsible for what the people in Iran are going through today, and for our geopolitical problems with respect to Iran.
#14
What Regan,Bush sr.,Bush jr.all have in common is the courage to do what needs to be done.All the other Priesdents in between were ethier appeasseniks or just plain cowards.
What Aris,NMM,and alcoholic/drug addict Stevey R.etc... have failed to accept or understand is that we finally have a Priesdent with enough brass in his balls to take the fight to the enemy,in the enemys home.
I for one am damn glad we have leaders like Bush,Blair,and the Spainish Pries.(sorry Mr.Priesdent for not remembering your name).
Iranian President Muhammad Khatami has stressed his countryâs support to Lebanese national resistance against the Israeli occupation, calling on the Islamic countries to unify facing the current challenges. *yawn*
During his meeting with Lebanonâs Minister for Administrative Reform, Karim Bakradouni, Khatami underlined the need for peace, security and stability. Israel & the Great Satan notwithstanding of course.
For his part, Bakradouni stressed that the dialogue of civilizations is the effective way to achieve peace and security in the world. He called for more cooperation and coordination among Syria, Lebanon and Iran and on boosting the relations between Beirut and Tehran. "dialogue of civilizations"???
Posted by: Rafael ||
08/01/2003 2:10:59 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Speaking of the great satan, there was a funny cartoon in the Toronto Sun the other day:
Uday & Qusay standing next to satan in hell, with Uday (or Qusay) remarking with astonishment "What do you mean you're not American?!?!?!?"
Posted by: Rafael ||
08/01/2003 2:15 Comments ||
Top||
#2
A big cheese like Khatami only gets as high as the Lebanon Minister for Administrative Reform. What a dis.
#3
LGF has a link to a story that a Canadian minister who just wanted to plant trees in Lebanon has been jailed. Took him 11 days to get a message to the Canadian ambassador.
Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez on Wednesday warned the United States not to meddle in his country's affairs following comments by a U.S. official about a possible referendum on his rule. "I have to remind the U.S. one more time that they have no right to express their opinion ... we are an independent country not a colony of north America," the president told thousands of cheering supporters during a street rally.
We warn the president of Venezuela that he has no right to express an opinion. The United States is an independent country and not a colony of a pipsqueak wannabe dictator.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/01/2003 01:59 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Does Hugo miss his good friend Sammy? Poor little Hugo. This guy is such an iconoclast. You know he is just waiting for the chance to seize control of everything in his country.
When is the next election scheduled and what are the odds that he'll cancel and or rig them when it's apparent that he's losing. I hope he learned a lesson from Fujimori - but probably not.
Posted by: Tokyo Taro ||
08/01/2003 6:19 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Ahh...Hugo,Opinions are like a#$holes.Everybody has one and yours stinks.
#5
What a thug. This guy has just ruined his country and doesn't want us to point that out. We should maybe tell him that this is a "good oppertunity to shut up".
#6
He's got to say something once in a while to burnish his nationalist credentials. Whether his statements actually bear any relationship to reality is a different matter.
Presidential advisor Mohammad Shariati said Wednesday the US support of Israel is the reason behind Washington's assertions that Iran's nuclear energy program has military objectives. "The US should distance itself from the Zionist state. The US government supports the 'Likud' party's policies and some officials are more Israeli than the Israelis themselves," said Shariati. He said Iran nuclear program is peaceful and it has signed all the relevant international safeguard protocols and "is against the spread of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/01/2003 01:57 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
those jeyuwwws and their puppet kaffir Americans won't let us have a nice peaceful nuclear reactor.
don't worry muslim brothers, when we've got one things are gonna be verrry different around here.
#2
as if only "likud" party policies have problems with the Iranian nuke program. In fact Israelis across the political spectrum have trouble with it, as do supporters of israel who have no love for Likud. As does anyone concerned with nuclear proliferation.
#4
I looked up Mohammad Shariati in the Persian-English dictionary: Pat Buchanan.
Posted by: af ||
08/01/2003 13:46 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Peaceful nuclear program, like Iraq's. No you cannot even let the Egypt U's grads of the intl atomic energy inspector bureau inspect it. Your are peaceful and sensitive, well so is a couple of kg of plute kept separate from itself. Well, Mr. Mo Shariati, we could distance ourselves from the "Zionist" state as you say. But we are still interested in your nuclear energy program. And by the way, what's the deal with your Nork rocket motors on your Shahib-3's? Are they peaceful, too?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/01/2003 19:02 Comments ||
Top||
#6
I wonder how long it will be until "some major power" pulls an "Osirak" on Iran's nuclear program. Any bets?
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/01/2003 21:32 Comments ||
Top||
Minister of Health and medical Education Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday denied that scars of other injuries had been found in the body of photojournalist Zahra Kazemi. Kazemi's mother Mrs Ezzat Kazemi had told Persian daily Yas-e-Nou that she noticed scars on the body of her daughter. Dr Pezeshkian said that the scars Kazemi's mother had referred to in her interview with the daily had been caused by injection in the hospital. He also rejected that Kazemi had a such scar below her eye. Pezeshkian said that the videotape of Zahra Kazemi's body is available and there is no sign of other wounds except for the blow to her head.
"And she prob'ly had that when they picked here up, so there."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/01/2003 01:54 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Obviously she died of natural causes. It's only natural to die after your head is hit sufficiently hard and often.
EXTERNAL arrears have ballooned to about US$1,6 billion (about Z$1,3 trillion at the official rate) as Zimbabwe sinks deeper into a debt crisis, The Financial Gazette can reveal. Government arrears constitute the bigger part of the outstanding debt, which has skyrocketed in Zimbabwe dollar terms because of the devaluation. As of July 4, 13 members of the Paris Club were owed US$416.8 million up from US$397.9 million as of June 27. The 13-member states include Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United States. Zimbabwe has been failing to service its debts for the past three years because of the shortages of foreign currency. In his last monetary policy statement presented in November last year, out-going Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Leonard Tsumba said external borrowing by government has been mainly to finance on-going projects.
Like Bob's bank accounts...
Analysts said the total debt stock would continue to rise because exporters are not generating enough foreign currency to service it. It is, however, in the government's interest not to continue to devalue the local unit to keep a lid on the arrears in Zimbabwe dollar terms. "There is no way the debt would go down. Instead, as a nation we are sinking more into this debt. There is no end in sight," said Best Doroh, a senior economist with the Financial Holdings Limited.
Not until Bob leaves, anyway...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/01/2003 01:48 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
As of July 4
hmm, there's gotta be a conspiracy theory here somewhere...
Posted by: Rafael ||
08/01/2003 1:52 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Maybe they can rely on their agricultural sector to produce enough income to repay the debt... Oh wait, the owners of the farms were driven out so the right colored folks can own a farm. Wonder how that's going...
#3
On the farms, yesterday I read a story that Bob was telling his buddies that he had a new one man, one farm policy. They get to pick which farm they want and have to give the others back for redistribution. Opponants say it's a sham. I think Bob wants to spread the land to more supporters to improve his base. We'll see.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/01/2003 8:35 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Yup, the white folks stole it fair and square!
Posted by: Not Mike Moore ||
08/01/2003 9:12 Comments ||
Top||
#5
The flue-cured tobacco crop in Zimbabwe is estimated to drop to 85 million kilos in 2003 (based on seed sales), down more than 50% from approx. 175 million kilos in 2002 (and 237 million kilos as recently as 2000). They say many of the white farmers kicked out of Zimbabwe have moved to Malawi.
Posted by: Not Mike Moore ||
08/01/2003 9:34 Comments ||
Top||
#7
NMM-
The only clean and complete way to assuage your WLPGS (white liberal perfectionist guilt syndrome) is suicide. I recommend a quart of Jack Daniels and 60 heavy duty sleeping pills. Maybe in the next life you can find multi-culti perfection!
#8
Craig, Craig, Craig, thanx for the oh so witty suggestion--but when you finally realize that we are no longer living in the 18th century--you'll be the one calling Dr Kevorkian--since simply by being born a white male you no longer are automatically given domain over the earth--now STFU.
Posted by: Not Mike Moore ||
08/01/2003 10:43 Comments ||
Top||
#9
Why NMM, what a positively ... liberal comment to make!
You may feel plenty of guilt about your birth status, which explains your defensiveness when it's pointed out to you. We understand. Really. Don't we, my fellow Rantburgers? (Alaska Paul, dial 9-1-1 on your cell phone and get the county mental health clinic on the line. Now, please.)
There was a time, not so long ago, when 'liberals' supported human rights, democracy and economic development, and stood firm against dictators. While some (e.g., LiberalHawk) still can claim that proud heritage, others (e.g. you) have moved on to a brave, new world that seems to have only one clear rule: whatever America does, it's wrong.
Nevertheless, even though I too am a white, Christian male of Anglo heritage, I support ridding the world of bloody dictators like Bob, Saddam and Kim. It's a character flaw but I've managed to live with it so far.
PS: about those sleeping pills Craig mentioned -- please don't break them in half, they don't work so well that way.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/01/2003 11:08 Comments ||
Top||
#10
NMM- The actual history of the region cannot be easily defined in good/bad black/white terms. The ancestors of the white Zimbabwean farmers immigrated to the region over 100 years ago, by and large occupying unused land. Their efforts provided the infrastructure which helped create modern Zimbabwe, which until recently was one of Africa's more developed nations. I honestly think that without Bob's idiocy the racial issues of that former British colony would not be so severe.
#11
Steve and Secret,
Now don't spoil NMM's well deserved guilt trip! I am certain that he likes wearing a hairshirt and sleeping on glass shards. NMM, please take away all the sins of my white, white world. What makes you assume that we crackers want to undertake world domination anyway?
#12
NMM said: "Shut the fuck up." I'll spell it out, since the abbreviation removes so many of the violent and disrespectful connotations normally associated with that clever turn of phrase. Not what I'd call real intelligent argument. What I always find amazing about the Internet is the number of people who write things in text that they would never say to your face. Abbreviating gross insults only demonstrates a greater degree of cowardice.
#13
As it happens NNM, you are also wrong about North Carolina. The US market is distorted by a subsidy and quota arrangement adminstered by the USDA that keeps domestic blend tobacco prices well above world prices (severely limiting exports). The benefit is going to Brazil and Argentina.
#14
Come on guys, I'm sure if NMM was one of those white farmers that got the boot from the land he worked, for say, the last 20 years, he simply would've turned to the new owner and said, "Sir, would you please hire me. I'll even work for half the price and wash your clothes." (Unjustified guilt is a terrible thing)
Me, (under the same circumstances) would've salted the earth the night before I left and gave them a wave, a smile, and wished'em luck in the morning. MUAH HAHAHAHAHAH.
(but that's just me)
It never ceases to amaze me. When you work hard, make sacrifices, go through hell and succeed, you're a selfish evil human being. (Oh, and don't be caught BSWW'ing (Being Successful While White...it's the worst of all of the sins.)
If, however, you sit on your ass, do absolutely nothing to improve your situation, except to take no responsibility for your laziness, bitch about it, and blame everyone else for your problems. They label you a victim and petition for a social program. Of course, it's funded by raising the successful person's taxes. GO Nationial Liberal Front! Losers.
Posted by: Paul ||
08/01/2003 17:07 Comments ||
Top||
#15
I am going to hammer home white guilt. We are clear of white guilt. Those rotten ass white farmers in Zimbabwe were thrown off their land as an expression of social justice. They got what was coming to them.
For my money, I am pretty sure Zimbabwe will suffer from a budding famine this winter, but hey, at least there are no white farmers in Zimbabwe. Social justice reigns supreme in Zimbabwe.
I hope NMM enjoys watchig the starvation his brand of social justice will bring.
I won't enjoy human suffering myself, but according to NMM it is all in the cause of social justice.
#16
Steve White---I've got the Municipality's mental health specialists on the line with 9-1-1 (we have no counties here in Alaska, only municipalities and boroughs), WTF do you want me to tell 'em, that I went to UC Berkeley during the sixties. You wanna get me in trouble?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/01/2003 19:06 Comments ||
Top||
The Mauritanian security forces have arrested several dozen people for resisting their attempts to detain an Islamic preacher in the capital Nouakchott, who is considered by the government to be extremist. Police first tried to arrest the preacher, El Hacen Ould Habiboula, at the Arafat mosque as he gave a sermon on July 18, but were prevented from doing so by a crowd of his supporters. The eyewitnesses said police again tried to arrest the iman at last Friday's prayers, but were again thwarted by his followers. Several dozen people were arrested in the melee on this occasion and on Monday many of them were still in custody. Judicial sources said the four people arrested following the July 18 incident at the Arafat mosque appeared appeared before a state prosecutor last Thursday, charged with threatening public order and were remanded in custody. The government's attempts to detain the Muslim cleric are the latest sign that President Maaouiya Sid'Ahmed Ould Taya is continuing his crackdown on Islamic radicals, who he has accused of masterminding an attempted coup against his government on June 8. The uprising led to two days of heavy fighting in Nouakchott before the pro-western Ould Taya managed to re-assert his authority.
And it looks like he intends to keep it...
It was preceded by the arrest of more than 30 Islamic radicals and opposition activists, the closure of an opposition newspaper in May and a government attempt to exert tighter control over religious activities in mosques. In early June, days before the coup attempt, the government issued a decree which declared mosques to be "public institutions." It gave the government powers to appoint imams and regulate the content of speeches and sermons delivered inside these places of worship. Mosques had been hitherto been regarded as private charitable organizations over which the authorities had no powers of oversight.
We'll see if he's succeeding when the finally do jug the spittle-spewer...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/01/2003 01:40 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Now if we could only enact a similar law and jug some spittle spewers like Pat Robertson and make churches pay property taxes--render unto Caesar!
Posted by: Not Mike Moore ||
08/01/2003 9:08 Comments ||
Top||
#2
You misspelled "repeal the First Amendment". HTH.
Posted by: David ||
08/01/2003 10:28 Comments ||
Top||
Six people were stoned to death on Wednesday by angry residents of Bunia, the main town of the troubled Ituri District of northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the UN mission in the country, known as MONUC, reported. "The Red Cross recovered the bodies of five men of Lendu ethnicity, and the body of one woman of Nande ethnicity," Leocadio Salmeron, the MONUC spokesman, said. He added, "While the precise reason for these stonings remains unknown, it could be because of their ethnicity."
I put it down to savagery, myself...
Economically-driven ethnic strife in natural resource-rich Ituri between Hema and Lendu militias caused between 200,000 and 350,000 people to flee when fighting worsened in May, humanitarian sources have reported. The latest killings follows a stream of recent reports from NGOs and local residents regarding massacres in the towns of Fataki, Nizi and Drodro during fighting between the Union des patriotes congolais (UPC), a predominantly Hema militia, and the Front des resistants pour la protection de l'Ituri (FRPI), a predominantly Lendu militia. UPC Secretary-General John Tinanzabo has accused Lendu combatants of the massacre of Hema populations, while Lendu community representatives have accused Hema combatants of mass killings of Lendus.
And Nandes are fair game for everybody...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/01/2003 01:35 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
stoned to death
Well well. Looks like that arms embargo is really working. I stand corrected.
Posted by: Rafael ||
08/01/2003 1:44 Comments ||
Top||
#3
hmmm I guess the Paleo youths throwing stones at the Israeli troops may actually be on to something... New motto for the Congo: "back to the stone age"
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/01/2003 11:40 Comments ||
Top||
Why do some Muslim countries get it, while others do not?
Moroccoâs King Mohammed VI on Wednesday stressed that "efforts to build a stronger democracy will still be inadequate unless there are strong political parties." The king, who noted that he looks forward "to the rehabilitation of politics, in its noble meaning," urged for legislation on political parties to be passed promptly. "I want to make it clear that I am determined to provide those parties with efficient means to enable them to discharge their mission fully," he said. Morocco has a multi-party system and bi-cameral parliament, comprising a House of Representatives and a chamber of advisors.
... King Mohammed VI underlined that "the proposed legislation should seek to enhance the role of parties in guiding and representing citizens, by banning the setting up of parties or groups along religious, ethnic, linguistic or regionalist lines." sorry for the bold type but anything this intelligent has to be proclaimed from a mountain top.
"It is no longer prepared to accept that certain parties indulge in the use of pompous, meaningless slogans. Nor will it let such obsolete mottos jeopardize efforts to tackle the real challenges of the present and the future," he said.
Posted by: Rafael ||
08/01/2003 1:32:38 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
If only we could do the same in the US with the Christian Coalition pulling the GOP strings--kinda like the "Gott bei Uns" of another political party of the same ilk huh TGA?
Posted by: Not Mike Moore ||
08/01/2003 9:14 Comments ||
Top||
#2
NMM- #sigh# Maybe you really should consider those sleeping pills.
#3
Wait a minute. I thought the Joooooos were running our goverment?
Posted by: Ryan ||
08/01/2003 12:15 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Sounds like King Mo Six isn't a multiculturalist. Maybe he's not into a swirling collage, a salad bowl if you will, of balcanized bull. I hate multi party (more than 2) politics. Get on one side and pull that party to your side by civil, well reasoned discourse.
#5
But they still have this King thing going... Other than that, sounds like Paradise, er, um, Nirvana...
Posted by: PD - Prez for Life - Isles of Langerhans ||
08/01/2003 20:13 Comments ||
Top||
#6
It's kind of intriguing, hearing about this. Morocco was the first foreign nation to exchange diplomats with the United States. We have always had excellent relations with them, and there have been very, very few problems between the two nations. Yet we have almost nothing in common except the desire to let people live as they wish. Even Islam is held in check in Morocco, and Jews, Christians, and even a few animists manage to live together in peace.
Maybe King Mohammed VI should be king of more than Morocco, if he and his clan can do so much good. Either that, or we need to clone the guy and set him up in a few dozen OTHER African nations...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/01/2003 21:01 Comments ||
Top||
West African leaders have announced that a first contingent of regional peacekeepers is expected in Liberia by Monday, opening the way for the departure of beleaguered President Charles Taylor who has already agreed to step down.
Then decided not to, then agreed, then decided not to...
The decision came at an emergency summit of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) on Thursday in Ghana, whose President John Agyekum Kufuor is the current chairman of the regional organisation. The news was greeted with some relief by civilians in Liberia, and brought a welcome glimmer of hope to people who have been begging for an intervention force to come between the warring factions. After 12 straight days of clashes, the capital Monrovia was reported quieter Thursday with a marked reduction in clashes between loyalist Taylor troops and Lurd rebel forces. Correspondents said the relative lull in the fighting in the city could also be due to the presence of a minimal 10-member advance, fact-finding team dispatched by West African leaders to assess the conditions for the deployment of regional peacekeepers to Liberia.
My guess would be that it's due to having to bring up more ammunition...
Leading the reconnaissance mission is Nigerian General Festus Okonkwo, who will head the West African force in Liberia, to be known as Ecomil. Okonkwo told reporters on Thursday "There is going to be peace in Liberia as soon as possible."
"At present, it's not possible. But when it is, there will be peace..."
War-weary Monrovia residents lined the streets clapping and cheering as Okonkwo's convoy drove past, chanting "We want peace, no more war, we want peace". West African heads of state approved the deployment "of the vanguard interposition force, calling for an early deployment (at the latest) by Monday, August 4". Two Nigerian battalions, numbering about 1500 troops, have been on stand by for at least two weeks, waiting for orders to go into Liberia. After the regional summit in Ghana, Ecowas leaders issued a statement saying that Taylor, a former rebel leader-turned-president and now indicted war criminal, would be given three days from the arrival of the troops "to hand over power to his successor and depart for Nigeria," which has offered asylum to the Liberian leader.
No doubt he'll do just that...
It was not immediately clear whether Taylor had agreed to their timetable. But the message will be delivered to him in person on Friday, when the Ecowas executive secretary, Mohamed Ibn Chambas, and a delegation of three West African foreign ministers from Ghana, Nigeria and Togo are dispatched to Liberia with collective instructions from their respective bosses to brief Taylor about the outcome of the Accra summit.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/01/2003 01:30 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Chuck out by Thursday? Yes, Thursday, Feb. 9, 2012.
Posted by: Dar ||
08/01/2003 10:24 Comments ||
Top||
#2
five bucks says Chuck leaves before NNM.
Posted by: john ||
08/01/2003 12:57 Comments ||
Top||
...while the rest of the arab nations focus on how to improve jihad...
Tunis has been able to protect its national economy from the implications resulting from the changes in the world market. Despite its limited natural resources and the changes in world market, Tunisia has been able to contain the negative reflections of globalization and the implications of September 11 incidents. you know, those 9-11 accidents The Tunisian economy has been able to attain a growth rate estimated at 5.2%. A considerable result in a difficult international condition in which developmental indicators receded in several countries which exceed Tunisiaâs material potentials and natural resources. In order to enhance its economic performance Tunisia has continued structural reforms at three basic pillars, which are: first supporting the banking system and improving its competitive ability by enhancing its financial grounds, secondly continuing fundamental reforms of the national economy for further control of internal and external balances, and thirdly preserving continued economic growth and improvement of investment for creating more job opportunities and minimizing unemployment rate.
Posted by: Rafael ||
08/01/2003 1:03:02 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Damn. Should've changed the headline to Tunisia.... But y'all can figure it out.
Posted by: Rafael ||
08/01/2003 1:22 Comments ||
Top||
#2
couldn't get on rantburg last night, and read some AWESOME stuff on USS Clueless regarding why the Arabs are failing to make it in the modern world.
Tunisia is doing better than the others: they'd do better still if they move further towards these pillars of modernity:
loosened censorship
equal rights for women
secular government and education
restrained restrictive religion
#3
And guess which European country exerts the greatest influence there?! It ain't GB or Germany--it's France--they even have a Club Med there! OK--let loose Rantgurgers!
Posted by: Not Mike Moore ||
08/01/2003 9:10 Comments ||
Top||
#4
most rational states in the arab world - Morocco, Jordan, and Tunisia.
why is that surprising - i mean unless you believe that France is in full alliance with Al qaeeda, which is a pretty moonbatty belief if you ask me. France wants to maintain itself as an independent great power and so maintains close relations with lots of its former colonies - including Tunisia, Algeria, and lots of west africa states. Its their "sphere of influence". And IN that sphere they are quite eager to minimize or cruch Salafist influence - look at their policy wrt Algeria. Where bringing improvement to the arab world might incidently enlarge the US sphere of influence, like in Iraq or Palestine, there they are not so concerned with battling extremism.
#6
Thanks for making my point LH--I'm tired of seeing France demonized on this site for one
Posted by: Not Mike Moore ||
08/01/2003 9:19 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Anon1: Good morning, my lovely. Tunisia actually has a women's rights section as part of its constitution. As far as I know, headscarves are banned for those who work, public or private. How they feel in their hearts is another question. Re secular govt., Bin Ali hates Islamists and suppresses (SP?)them to the hilt. Islamic studies are part of their curriculum, but only a moderate sort.
You're right on re censorship. Bin Ali runs a tight ship, for sure. NMM, France considers Tunisia as part of the "precarre" (didn't do accents over e, sorry) and it's a bit of a stretch for you to think France exerts great influence there. They don't tell Bin Ali what to do; rather he tells them what he's gonna do, and they can stuff it if they don't like it. After all, he's on good terms with US, GB, Ger. and EU. My gosh, you sound like a real supporter of neocolonialism.
Posted by: Michael ||
08/01/2003 9:46 Comments ||
Top||
#8
No, but know for a fact Tunisia and France have a long relationship and many Tunisians live/work in France
Posted by: Not Mike Moore ||
08/01/2003 9:53 Comments ||
Top||
#9
the fact that Tunisia has rid itself of the cancer that was the PLO also would seem to indicate that it has moved on past the corrupt policies and economy of France. France-bashing here on RB? Pshaw! BTW NMM - it's Rantburgers, not gurgers :-
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/01/2003 10:37 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Howsabout Rantbourgeois?
Posted by: Not Mike Moore ||
08/01/2003 10:45 Comments ||
Top||
#11
Uh...too French :-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/01/2003 10:47 Comments ||
Top||
#12
Now Frank, he TOLD you not to bash the Frogs :-)
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/01/2003 10:59 Comments ||
Top||
ISTANBUL: Syrian Prime Minister Mustapha Miro wound up a two-day visit to neighbouring Turkey predicting a âbrilliant futureâ for relations between the two Middle Eastern states, which he described as âtwo brother countries.â
No skin off my fore. As long as we know which side everybody's on...
âI can see a brilliant future for our relations as long as this proximity goes on,â said Miro late on Wednesday, addressing a meeting of Turkish and Syrian business leaders in Istanbul. Anatolia news agency said that he added that the two countries had âinterests in common,â and that he considered their relationship to be strategic. Turkey and Syria should set up an âeconomic and commercial union,â he added. Turkish Minister of State Kursad Tuzmen said: "I like to think that the two countries have broken through an initial psychological barrier, with trade going over a billion dollars this year.â Miro, who was the first Syrian prime minister to visit Turkey in 17 years, later left for home. Turkeyâs often tense relations with Syria as well as Iran have warmed in the wake of the US-led war in Iraq. The three neighbors share concerns that any move towards self-rule by the Kurds in northern Iraq could spark unrest among their own Kurdish minorities.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/01/2003 00:57 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I thought Syria backed the PKK during the 1990s until Turkey threatened them with war.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/01/2003 1:41 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Yes, but that's all in the past now. Your attention span is entirely too long...
Posted by: Fred ||
08/01/2003 1:50 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Excuse me if I'm confused about that reference to "proximity."
Like continental drift is going to make enough difference in putting space between Ankara and Damascus in historical time?
#4
Hmmm. The Turkish comment (more money - whoop de whoop) wasn't anywhere near as enthusiastic as the Syrian comment (brilliant future). I wonder if this is general theme in the Turkish newspapers.
#5
I see no wrong in improving the trade, sure Syria had a bad record in backing terror, but they have shown their will to distance themselves from terror aiding. It will be good if Syria gets out of isolation back into international community.
#6
which he described as âtwo brother countries.â
If Mr. Miro had an attention span as long as Dar's, he might remember who the Turks would consider to be the "big brother" in this tightly-knit family.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/01/2003 11:23 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Steve, Mr. Miro used to have a (Baathist) "brother" who mysteriously dissappeared as I recall. Think Mr. Miro has that short a memory?
Posted by: john ||
08/01/2003 13:11 Comments ||
Top||
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/01/2003 14:34 Comments ||
Top||
#10
wouldn't worry too much - turkey know's where it's future is. they have a long history of playing games to get what they want. they want the us to repsect thier wishes about the kurds. wouldn't be suprised if you see powell over there reminding the turks where there future lies.
the syrians are really scared right now and are trying create a situation on the ground where the we cannot attack. very dangerous for the sryians -best for them would be to throw in the towell and get with the picture. but that won't happen as long as sr assad's advisors are still around - they still think they can stick it to uncle sam and still get away with it. god i love bush!
Posted by: Dan ||
08/01/2003 14:37 Comments ||
Top||
#11
Where's Murat when he's needed? Is Turkey really going to set up an âeconomic and commercial unionâ with Syria? You'd think at some point their politicians would learn to stop backing history's losers.
The Bush administration said today that North Korea appeared ready to agree to proposed multiparty talks to resolve the impasse over the North's refusal to dismantle its accelerating nuclear weapons program. Administration officials and Asian diplomats said that while no formal word had been received in Washington, there were several indications that months of pressure had been successful in getting North Korea to meet the American demand for talks to include South Korea, Japan and possibly Russia. China took part in discussions with the United States and the North in April. Foremost among the new indications was an announcement from the Foreign Ministry in Moscow that North Korea had accepted the proposal for multiparty talks with the other countries, including Russia. It had not been clear until then that Russia would take part. Subsequently, administration officials said that in a telephone conversation on Wednesday, President Hu Jintao of China had told President Bush he expected a positive response from Pyongyang, the North Korea capital. Richard A. Boucher, the State Department spokesman, said the United States was "very encouraged" by these signs, but he and other officials said there had been no formal acceptance transmitted. Asian and American diplomats said that the talks could occur in August but that September was more likely.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
08/01/2003 00:30 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
This is very good news - both for the US, and again, for the Bush admin. The North korean policy, which was being widely attacked, now seems to have achieved its intermediate goal of bringing Nkor to multilateral talks.
#2
Agreed, LH. Unless they are truly insane - and it's becoming rather apparent that it's merely a bizarre ploy (a.k.a. NorK Foreign Policy) by an even more bizarre cretin (a.k.a. Dear Leader) - then the Bush admin has effectively parried their best efforts. Rather like a babysitter watching a child throw a massive tantrum, again.
NorK is a one-trick pony. We've seen the trick and it's lame. We never should've fallen for it the first time, but we certainly won't be suckers again. Send it back to Mumsie and Daddy for a spanking.
I don't believe we should even participate in whatever "talks" eventually occur - at least initially. What's there to talk about? Scrap the nukes, the missiles, the "programs", the nuke plants, the massive military, the foreign policy, the regime, the whole nine yards of this mock country - then we'll talk about how you can feed your people and come out of the Dark Ages.
Then, from the same shop-worn drama club, we have Cuba, Burma, et al. Perhaps they, too, will "get it."
#3
They are only trying to buy time by talking to the stupid Americans while they build more nukes. There is no getting away from it. Sooner or later we have to take them out. Best to do it sooner. North Korea delenda est.
#5
SPQR 2755 and Hodadendon---Re: negotiating with the NORKS. You guys are right on in the "negotiating is stalling for time" idea. This has been going on for 50 years with no progress. The NorKs have their agenda and it has not changed. They have been throwing tantrums. It worked with Bubba. It did not work for Dubya. So they change their tack. Our biggest enemies in our dealings with the NORKS are China (diesel sugar daddy now) and SKOR, who keep undermining the negotiating process by giving the NORKS stuff UTT (under the table). We need to have a chat with China. But the biggest chat we need to have is with the SORKS (formerly Skor) who keep buggering us while our backs are turned. Sorry for the imagery, but we have to get the point across with emphasis...
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/01/2003 13:54 Comments ||
Top||
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.
