Someone's trying to tell him something. It's not me.
WACO, Texas: A pastor performing a baptism was electrocuted inside his church Sunday morning after grabbing a toaster microphone while partially submerged, a church employee said. The Rev. Kyle Lake, 33, was standing in water up to his shoulder in a baptismal at University Baptist Church when he was electrocuted, said Jamie Dudley, a church business administrator and wife of another pastor there. Doctors in the congregation performed chest compressions for 40 minutes before Lake was taken to Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center, Dudley said.
"He's dead, Jim!"
Police said they weren't called and the hospital referred calls to the church. The woman Lake was baptizing was not injured, Dudley said. Pastors at University Baptist Church routinely use a microphone during baptisms, Dudley said. "He was grabbing the microphone so everyone could hear," Dudley said.
"Brethren and sistern — aaaaiiiiieeee!"
Posted by: Fred ||
10/31/2005 15:07 ||
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Let this be a lesson, kids. Cough up the money and get the wireless microphones. The mixers I'm using provide +48V phantom power to condenser mics. That's plenty to stop your heart.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/31/2005 15:22 Comments ||
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I thought the bark was supposed to be worse than the bite.
Although a Navy guy I know once saw a SEAL bit the head off a gull while stationed on a carrier.
A seal bit off a South African woman's nose after she tried to help it back into the sea, an official said Monday.
Elsie van Tonder, 49, is expected to undergo surgery this week after being bitten on a beach near George, about 240 miles east of Cape Town Saturday. Her nose was found but could not be reattached to her face, local media reported.
"The seal had been lying in the same spot since Friday, so the lady and a few other people were trying to take it back to the water," said Herman Oosthuizen, a marine biologist with the Department of Environmental Affairs. "The young female seal then bit her in the face."
Cape Fur Seals are common on South African shores and many have become accustomed to humans. They are a popular tourist attraction and can be viewed playing in the sea by Cape Town's waterfront.
But they can be dangerous and sometimes attack people who venture too close, especially in fishing harbors where they come into close contact with fishermen offloading their catch. "It's a predator, it's got vicious teeth and if it bites you in the wrong place, it could kill you," Oosthuizen said.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
10/31/2005 13:39 Comments ||
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#2
undergo surgery this week after being bitten on a beach . Bad grammer.Should be "bitten while on a beach". People don't have a beach to be bitten, although it's a bitch to be bitten.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
10/31/2005 14:20 Comments ||
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#4
Although known locally as "Cape fur seals," the marine animals that populate the coastal regions of Namibia and South Africa are actually "sea lions," because they have both external ears and rear legs that allow them to move around on land quite readily.
There's a reason they named them Sea Lions.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/31/2005 15:36 Comments ||
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CHARLOTTE, N.C., Oct. 31 (UPI) -- A cornered South Carolina car thief suspect who decided to wrestle with a police dog and try to strangle it was recovering from bite wounds Monday.
Yeah, that'll work
Sunday night, police in Charlotte responded to a 911 call from a man who said he could see someone trying to steal his car. The canine unit also responded, and after just a few minutes, the dog located the man and had him cornered, the Charlotte Observer said.
Suspect soon to be known as "Chew Toy"
Officers said the man lunged at the dog, and wrestled with it briefly as he tried to choke it. The dog took control and bit the suspect, which required hospital treatment, the newspaper said.
Hope it required a lot of stiches
On top of charges of attempted breaking and entering a vehicle and resisting arrest, the unidentified man faces a charge of assault on a police dog.
Good doggie
Posted by: Steve ||
10/31/2005 12:24 ||
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There was a knifing in a very popular bar about four blocks from here two years ago. The suspect ran out, and tried to run away. Two police dogs were brought over to help find the guy. One of them cornered him in the back of a friend's yard. The guy tried to kick the German Shepherd police dog. The dog grabbed the perp's crotch. You could hear the scream in my house, three blocks away. The dog didn't break the skin, but from what the police said, the guy was in PAIN! Tried to sue the cops - that didn't work out very well, either. He inadvertently admitted to ANOTHER crime than the knifing, trying to make it sound like the police were intentionally targeting him without reason. He's doing 15 to 30 in Canon City.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/31/2005 19:13 Comments ||
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A COUPLE narrowly escaped injury when their ceiling gave way under the weight of a woman who was bathing upstairs.
Rozalia Valiakhmetova had just settled in for a nice long soak when the floor went underneath the bathtub, depositing her naked into the living room of her downstairs neighbours.
"I had just dozed off and then I heard this huge crash and realised what had happened. The bathroom floor just collapsed under the bath and I came crashing through the ceiling of the people below me," Ms Valiakhmetova said.
"They seemed as shocked as I was when they saw me lying there naked in the bath in the middle of their living room."
Posted by: God Save The World AKA Oztralian ||
10/31/2005 10:30 ||
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A MAN getting the words "Last Rites" as a tattoo died when he passed out and crashed through a glass counter. Joaquin Laguer, 27, nearly decapitated himself at the Buzz Tattoo parlour in East Williamsburg. "There was nothing I could do," said tattoo artist Julio Ramos. "I was kneeling next to him, praying to God. My assistant said, 'He's gone'."
After complaining of feeling faint, Laguer had walked across the room to the counter. He fainted and fell headfirst into the glass. His girlfriend, Shanequa Neal, said she was shocked by the irony of "Last Rites" as his tattoo: "It was like it was his time," she said.
Posted by: God Save The World AKA Oztralian ||
10/31/2005 14:00 ||
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#2
Passing out or getting faint while getting a tattoo is common. If this guy would have stayed seated he would be alive. Don't ask me about the 2 years I spent sharing a shop with a tattoo artist. I have seen some pretty big guys laid low and almost passed out my self once. There are places on your body that will cause this to happen and everyone has different spots.
#3
I suppose this should serve as a heads off up for all squeamish tatt enthusiasts. On the sick bright side, at least Laguer received his last rites before succumbing.
#6
Well there are spots and there are "spots" Zenster. One of mine happens to be in a very bad place. A place that isn't one you would expect even expect. I found out the hard way. This spot does not show up on amy body maps as are used in Martial arts. Everyone has spots like this.
Oh and all tattoos come with a 6 month warranty. 6 months after you are dead they will still be there.
A MAN who cut his toe off while slicing bread was caught on the hop when his cat ran off with the digit. Udo Ried, 41, dropped a bread knife on his foot last week. With his second toe severed and the wound bleeding profusely, he limped into his bathroom. His cat, Fritz, pounced on the disembodied member and carried it into the garden. A spokesman for the local hospital said the toe could have been reattached - but Mr Ried had been unable to discover where Fritz had buried it.
Posted by: God Save The World AKA Oztralian ||
10/31/2005 00:00 ||
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MECCA: Seven pilgrims on Sunday were trampled to death in a rush to receive charity handouts. The rush, in which 17 others were injured, was sparked by the arrival of a Red Crescent truck to distribute charity handouts to the needy, reported the Okaz daily.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/31/2005 00:00 ||
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Is it stampede Haj season already?
Posted by: ed ||
10/31/2005 9:41 Comments ||
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Moreal of the Story... Never rush to a charity trampling.
Angry mob lynched a mugger at East Nabinagar in Hathazari early yesterday. The dead was identified as Abdul Mannan, 28. Sources said a gang of seven to eight muggers waylaid a Hathazari-bound CNG auto-rickshaw, which was carrying three businessmen of the city, at around 4:30am at Gate No 2 of Chittagong University (CU). They took away Tk 7,000 and cellular phones from the businessmen. At one stage the businessmen started screaming for help. The locals came forward and chased the gang. They caught one of the muggers and beat him to death. His accomplices managed to flee the scene with looted goods.
"Feet, don't fail us now!"
"This is what my back looks like!"
"We outta here!"
Posted by: Fred ||
10/31/2005 00:00 ||
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Prince Charles: Climate Change Terrifying
Oct 30 10:59 PM US/Eastern
By MICHAEL McDONOUGH
Associated Press Writer
LONDON
Prince Charles says he believes the pace of climate change is terrifying and people are becoming too dependent on technology.
In a rare TV interview ahead of his official tour of the United States next week, Charles expressed concern that economic progress is "upsetting the whole balance of nature."
I thought would-be kings were never scared.
"You know, if you look at the latest figures on climate change and global warming ... they're terrifying, terrifying," Charles told CBS' "60 Minutes" in the interview aired Sunday.
The prince is a keen environmentalist, but his office declined to say whether Charles will raise the issue of climate change when he dines with President Bush at the White House this week. Clarence House, the prince's office, said it would not be appropriate to comment on a private dinner.
I guess the whit house chefs better be prepared to serve only "free-range" chicken or tofu. Chaz might be offended otherwise...
In the past, Bush has questioned the existence of global warming. The United States has refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol designed to limit greenhouse gas emissions, saying it would harm the economy.
"But I am the prince. You have to listen to what I say, after all you are only the colonies..."
Charles, who will be visiting with his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, also said he was worried about the importance of technology in modern life. "If you make everything over efficient, you suck out, it seems to me, every last drop of what, up to now, has been known as culture," Charles said in the interview, which was recorded last month in Poundbury, England.
Chaz wants to go back to dingy torchlit castles, chamber pots, and being called "Your worship" in a cockney accent...
"We are not the technology. It should be our ... slave, the technology. But it's rapidly becoming our master in many areas, I think," he said.
Charles will travel to the United States on Tuesday for his first official tour of the country since 1994, although he has made a number of private visits since then. He last visited the United States on June 11, 2004, for the funeral of former President Ronald Reagan.
"I wish people liked me just like the way that they liked him. Honest, I AM a nice guy, even if the way I treated Diana sucked."
During the tour, Charles and Camilla will inaugurate a new memorial garden in New York for the British victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center. They will also travel to Washington for their lunch and dinner with President Bush and Mrs. Bush. During the final leg of the tour, Charles and Camilla will meet homeless people in San Francisco.
Charles on the tenderloin - What a sight... Of course Britian has no homeless people {ahem}. He's coming here for the photo-op...
In previously released excerpts of the CBS interview, Charles said he was concerned about being seen as irrelevant. "The most important thing is to be relevant ... It isn't easy, as you can imagine ... because if you say anything, people will say, 'It's all right for you to say that.' It's very easy to just dismiss anything I say. ... It's difficult," the heir to the British throne said.
So, why are you sucking up to Islamists, and Eco-Moonbattery? You ARE irrelevant, it isn't a matter of "seems" anymore... Prez W & Larua Bush are being nice to you out of respect for your mother and elder son, the real heir to the throne..
Charles says his duty is "worrying about this country and its inhabitants." He adds: "I find myself born into this particular position. I am determined to make the most of it."
Poking your nose into US politics. You are a true Eurocrat.
Charles has won respect for the time he devotes to The Prince's Trust, which has helped more than 35,000 disadvantaged young people start their own businesses and provided job training to thousands more each year.
He hopes efforts like these are valued, telling interviewer Steve Kroft lightheartedly: "I only hope that when I'm dead and gone, they might appreciate it a little bit more."
How is he always lighthearted and joking at the end of these articles? He knows everyone is tired of his ugly face, and
glad the interview is now over...
#3
"I find myself born into this particular position. I am determined to make the most of it." Bugger of a job, bugger of a bloody job. Suspect he could find "poor people" in Manchester, if he cared to look. I believe he may be suffering from his own green house gases, at a minimum, too much time on the polo field and mucking around with horses. His selfless act of making Cam an honest woman has certainly saved an island of men an ugly fate.
#6
We've been trying to do that with the Kennedys, too, but no luck. Mass is just too far gone. Sorry tu. Keep a full tank and a change of clothes in your car, bro.
When you hear "Rather than selecting a nominee for the good of the nation and the court, President Bush has picked a nominee whom he hopes will stop the massive hemorrhaging of support on his right wing. This is a nomination based on weakness, not on strength.", haul ass - but not to Vermont, k?
President Hugo Chavez urged Venezuelan parents not to dress their children in costumes for Halloween, calling it a U.S. custom that has no place in the South American country's cultural traditions.
"It's ucky."
Speaking during his weekly radio and television show Sunday, Chavez called Halloween a "gringa," or North American, custom. "Families go and begin to disguise their children as witches," Chavez said. "That is contrary to our ways."
"We disguise them as little Communists."
Chavez said he was urging Venezuelans to reflect on the subject. In recent years it has become common to see Venezuelan parents holding parties for children dressed as ghouls, animals and witches.
All Hallows Eve is a Catholic festival that caught on with Protestants and eventually with most people. It's an occasion for a bit of innocent mockery of death and of evil. We are, after all, all mortal, with the possible exception of Utu Napishtim. So what's Hugo's beef? Could it be that...
In one odd incident a week ago, authorities found more than a dozen jack-o'-lanterns left in spots around Caracas bearing anti-government messages and what appeared to be bomb-like fuses. Police and firefighters removed the pumpkins with caution, though the jack-o'-lanterns reportedly bore messages saying they were not explosives.
Ahah. A light begins to dawn...
Paper skeletons bearing anti-Chavez messages also have appeared in spots across Caracas recently, and government officials have blamed sectors of the opposition with aiming to create chaos.
"Chief! It's chaos out there! People jumping out of windows! The dead rising! Dogs and cats making whoopee together in the streets! There's paper skeletons everywhere!"
Chavez did not refer to those incidents in his comments on Halloween. But he urged parents to think about whether it was appropriate to dress up their children as part of a foreign custom, calling it "the game of terror." He said that is part of the U.S. culture -- "terrorism, putting fear into other nations, putting fear into their own people."
"Sometimes they have entire Ranger battalions dress up like goblins!"
Posted by: Fred ||
10/31/2005 00:00 ||
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El Dia de los Muertos is a big holiday in Mexico. Calvera is Spanish for skull - they're everywhere. Nothing Gringo about that.
Posted by: John in Tokyo ||
10/31/2005 0:54 Comments ||
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#2
El Diablo Norte Americano scares the hell out of Chavez.
Posted by: ed ||
10/31/2005 1:19 Comments ||
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#8
All Hallows Eve is a Catholic festival that caught on with Protestants
Actually, Halloween is a direct descendent from the pagan Celtic Samhain. On the last day of the year in the Celtic calendar, all chaos, all that is against nature, order, peace, has its opportunity to break out, it was believed.
The Catholic church established the All Hallows Day on the following day - the first day of the new year in the Celtic calendar - to offset a deep ritual that they couldn't stamp out.
#10
Anon, your post does not negate that Halloween is Catholic argument. I don't believe anyone said it was a holy day, or anything, just that the Catholics passed it along to the Protestants (by way of the Irish I believe). Harmless holiday unless you live in Detroit.
#12
Sorry Hugo, you were born too late. Che is dead now and all Fidel (your lifelong mentor) is worried about is hot burning senorita and a nice cigar.... or was that a hot burning cigar? Nice nipple cap by the way, Madonna must be drooling!
China might want to pay attention to the quiet change in Japanese attitudes towards fighting. Japan is picking herself up from resignation in many ways after a tough decade of economic uncertainty. China is in real danger of overstepping if she tries to elbow this Japan aside ...
Moritsuna Arakaki entered the boxing ring last Sunday, making his way through the cheering crowd while speakers blasted the Village Peoples' disco anthem Y.M.C.A. The well-known English lyrics: "Young man, there's no need to feel down. I said, young man, pick yourself off the ground!" reverberated across the venue. The intended humor was not lost on the crowd.
Mr. Arakaki is making his amateur debut in this brutal sport at the age of 38. In the opposite corner was 40-year old Naoto Hirose.
Last weekend the Maki Dojo Kick Boxing Gym hosted the third "Oyazi Battle in Okinawa," bringing together a scrappy brunch of fighters in their late 30's and early 40's eager to fight not only each other, but a society that has been marginalizing the status of older men.
Hiroshi Miyake, left, waits the for the judge's decision.
Japan's decade-plus economic slump has not been kind to the nation's middle-aged men. Deemed as overpaid and a step behind the Internet era, these men here have been finding themselves at the unforgiving end of restructuring and downsizing across Japan Inc. Hoping to infuse more creative "young blood," businesses have introduced merit-based pay systems, doing away with the traditional seniority-based wage systems.
Outside the workplace as well, the status of graying men in Japanese society has been on the ropes. Youngsters addressing their elders do not hesitate to use the derisive term of "oyaji", which can be loosely translated as "gramps" or "pops." Even worse, juvenile crime statistics now include an offense known as "Oyaji Hunting." This is the practice of young delinquents mugging white collar older men staggering home from a late night of drinking with clients. So much for respect for the elderly.
Delinquents might want to think twice before trying to "Oyaji Hunt" Hirsohi Miyake, who works for a real-estate management company. At 45 years old, he was the elder "Oyaji" at Sunday's fights. A tall man with his 85 kilograms of bulk built around a broad frame, Mr. Miyake was an imposing presence in the ring. "I started kick boxing just to stay in shape. I continued practicing for some time and then decided that I wanted to jump into the ring myself," he told me before the fight.
The fact that a kick boxing debut at 45 raised a few eyebrows among acquaintances did not deter Mr. Miyake. "I don't want to be the guy that goes out drinking every night so he can moan about his job. Life is much more fun when you set a goal for yourself and then work toward that goal," he said.
Back in the ring, however, Mr. Miyake did not look like he was having much fun. His younger opponent, at 39, seemed to be beating him to the punch. Mr. Miyake was staggered by a solid hook, forcing the referee to give him a standing eight count. But Mr. Miyake cleared his head and stormed back into the fray.
His pluck and determination thrilled the crowd that had piled into the dojo. The mood was festive with family, friends and curious onlookers munching on rice balls and downing cans of beer, while cheering on the fighters. The opened windows filled the room with a salty breeze coming off the Pacific Ocean just a few miles away.
The dojo was so packed that some spectators had to sit on punching bags laying on the floor. "This just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Last year we had six matches, this year we have eight. Next year we may even add women's boxing," said Masaaki Asato, director of the Maki Dojo.
Back in the ring, Mr. Miyake was again taking the worst of the exchange between the two aging boxers. But Mr. Miyake's somewhat flabby stomach belied the fire in his belly. He struck back with a nice flurry of punches that briefly put his opponent in trouble. A few more solid punches from his opponent, however, staggered Mr. Miyake once more. Fortunately, the bell sounded to bring the two-round fight to its conclusion.
The "Oyazi Battle" uses a combination of ring-side judges and audience participation to determine the outcome of each bout. The judges concluded that Mr. Miyake was beaten by his younger opponent. But the audience had yet to have its say. There was only a smattering of claps when the referee pointed to the younger fighter, but the room erupted with applause when the referee pointed to Mr. Miyake.
So with the crowd picking Mr. Miyake and the judges giving the nod to the other fighter, it was up to Mr. Asato to give the final word -- it was after all his dojo. "I think what we had here was a classic showdown of skill versus heart. I am calling it a draw," he shouted into the microphone perched on the judges' table.
Everyone in the room seemed satisfied with the outcome, even Mr. Miyake's opponent. "A lot of these guys work in an office all day, but this gives them the chance to show their family a different side. Show that they can take their knocks and not give up. That is something they do not only in the ring, but in life in general," Mr. Asato said.
I asked Mr. Asato if he thought these battles, which are also staged in Tokyo and Osaka every year, are helping to bolster the image of middle-age men in Japan. "Without a doubt. It gives them an opportunity to show the true strength of the oyagi," he said.
#2
while speakers blasted the Village Peoples' disco anthem Y.M.C.A. The well-known English lyrics: "Young man, there's no need to feel down. I said, young man, pick yourself off the ground!" reverberated across the venue. The intended humor was not lost on the crowd.
It was indeed lost on the crowd. The Japanese don't care what the English lyrics of songs are. "Y.M.C.A." is bafflingly popular there, as is "Dancing Queen" and other horrifying songs from the 70s. Stupid writer putting his own (nonexistent) views on the story.
#3
Eye of the Tiger and Viagra is a dangerous combination.
Posted by: ed ||
10/31/2005 13:18 Comments ||
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#4
Japan is going to revise their pacifist constitution -- and guys like the ones in this story will back that. If that doesn't catch your attention, it's probably because you haven't talked with anyone who fought them in WWII.
Gromky, how many Japanese do you know? The ones I did business with were quite fluent in English, although the senior executives use translators as a matter of privilege and negotiating tactic.
#5
I lived there for a year...I heard those horrid two songs over and over. And not just anywhere, but fancy-shmancy clubs and such. Ugh.
Sure, executives in international business are going to speak English. Not many other people do, despite the fact that it's taught in school. Ah well, I don't want to get into a "I know XXXX country" debate.
#7
It's a cultural thing..."oyaji" is a term for "not a spring chicken any more". They're considered mired in routine. Also, they create the demand for all the creepy pornography. They are 'old' but not 'elderly', if you get my drift.
Occasional getting drunk is a core part of national identity for most Australians, according to new research. The National Drug and Alcohol Research Council study of 1500 Australians found that some 58 percent of people agreed that sometimes having too much to drink was "simply part of the Australian way of life." The survey found that about one in 10 people had a problem with alcohol at some point in their lives and that about 60 percent were close to someone who had experienced a drinking problem.
"Waitresh! My friend's got a drinkin' problem!"
"Right! I'll get a mop!"
The study also found that 17 percent of those interviewed said that they sometimes felt pressure to drink alcohol while in a work situation.
"Jones! I need those reports by 1 o'clock!"
"Right, boss! Soon's I finish this sudser!"
Paul Dillon, information manager with the council, said the findings showed that Australians appeared to be having their first alcoholic drink at a younger age than previously.
"Here ya go, little fella!"
"Fergawdsake, Sid! Wait'll he's weaned, at least!"
The study found that 54 percent of respondents had their first alcoholic drink when under the legal drinking age of 18, with people in the 30 and under age group saying they had their first drink when they were only 10-12.
That'd be when boys are most likely to discover beer. At that age, the burping's the best part...
Dillon said while Australians had been successful in banning smoking in most public places, the community was not ready to sever its ties to booze. "Australians are not ready yet to make that big leap that we've seen with tobacco," he told AFP. "I don't think the community is ready for a wave against alcohol. It really is part of our culture," he said.
"So piss off! There ain't no damned Massachussetts in Australia!"
Most Australians interviewed for the survey said they did not think that warning labels on bottles would encourage people to drink less.
Hold the line, guys. First it's the smokes, then it's the beer, then they come for your testicles.
Posted by: God Save The World AKA Oztralian ||
10/31/2005 18:55 ||
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When Muskrat Love simply isn't enough.
News from Yorskhire
Extract from the Yorkshire Evening Post:
"A drunk who claimed he had been raped by a dog was yesterday jailed for 12 months by a judge. Martin Hoyle, 45, was arrested by police after a passing motorist and his girlfriend found a Staffordshire bull terrier, called Badger, having sex with him at the side of a road in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.
Prosecutor Ben Crosland said the couple had stopped to help because they thought Hoyle was being attacked by the animal. But when they got closer they saw that he had his trousers round his ankles, was down on all fours and the dog was straddling him from behind.
"The defendant mumbled something about the dog having taken a liking to him," said Mr Crosland. "The couple were extremely offended and sickened by what they saw." Another passing motorist contacted the police and Hoyle was arrested as he walked with the dog down the road.
Hoyle, of East view, Marsh, Huddersfield, told police "I can't help it if the dog took a liking to me. He tried to rape me."
He repeated the ra pe allegation at the police station and added "The dog pulled my trousers down." Hoyle, who has had a long-standing alcohol problem, was jailed for 12 months after he admitted committing an act which outraged public decency.
His barrister said Hoyle had no memory of the incident because of his drunken state, but was now very remorseful and incredibly embarrassed.
Jailing him, Judge Alistair McCallum told Hoyle "Never before in my time at the bar or on the bench have I ever had to deal with somebody who voluntarily allowed himself to be buggered by a dog on the public highway. Frankly it is beyond most of our comprehension. It is an absolutely disgusting thing for members of the public to have to witness."
Eighty-six percent of people in Britain aged 18 to 30 think the French deserve "a popular negative stereotype," suggests an opinion poll conducted for an Anglo-French art show in London.
That compares to 27 percent of like-aged people in France who felt the British held a negative stereotype of their nation, according to the survey.
The informal poll of 500 people in London, and as many in Paris, was commissioned by the organisers of an Entente Cordiale art show that opened in west London over the weekend. No margin of error was disclosed.
"British people should face up to the fact that they have an enormous problem when it comes to the French," said exhibition organiser Richard Kaye, a Brition resident in France.
"The British will make jokes about the French which would, if made to the detriment of other national or ethnic groups, be considered extremely racist and dangerous."
#1
Eighty-six percent is pretty conservative, but the poll was from poms in the 18-30 year bracket. If you kick it up a notch, say to the 45-65 year range, I'm sure you run in the steady 98-99 percentile area. After a pint of Guinness, I'm certain you'd be well beyond 100%.
#2
Maybe the French should stop and ask "why do they hate us?"
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
10/31/2005 17:33 Comments ||
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#3
Our problem with France, is that it is populated by the French. Most are socialist, crying babies (JFM and his like excluded from the previous group).
#4
"British people should face up to the fact that they have an enormous problem when it comes to the French," said exhibition organiser Richard Kaye, a Brition resident in France.
Background piece, to the extent that Europe matters.
Germany's chancellor designate, Angela Merkel, yesterday signalled a new era for the country's foreign policy, including a "fresh start" with the US and looser ties with Paris and Moscow. Mrs Merkel intends to repair relations with Washington after the row between her predecessor, Gerhard Schröder, and George Bush over Iraq, her aides said over the weekend. She also promised a transformation in Germany's relationship with its two closest allies, Russia and France.
Mrs Merkel wants "more distance" with Moscow and a looser, less exclusive alliance with France's president, Jacques Chirac, officials from her Christian Democratic party told the magazine Der Spiegel. She also wants to improve relations with the new EU states in eastern Europe, especially Poland, they added.
Mrs Merkel's aides also held out the prospect of Germany playing a "moderating" role in Europe - able to adjudicate between competing national interests within a vastly expanded EU. "The transformation will be subtle, but carried out with the full authority of the chancellor," a senior Merkel official said.
There was no mention of Britain. But Mrs Merkel's apparent determination to draw a line under the Schröder era is likely to delight Downing Street, which is trying to broker a deal over the EU budget. The issue provoked a furious row in June between Tony Blair and Mr Chirac. Mr Schröder, Mr Chirac's closest ally, criticised Britain's refusal to compromise on its rebate, and last week dismissed Mr Blair's attempts to reform the EU as irrelevant. The prime minister had hoped that Mrs Merkel would attend last week's EU summit at Hampton Court. Instead, after Germany's deadlocked election, Mr Schröder came in her place, ridiculing Mr Blair's attempts to introduce "Anglo-Saxon" economics to the rest of Europe.
Leading politicians from Mr Schröder's Social Democrats yesterday cast doubt on Mrs Merkel's ability to transform German foreign policy when she takes office next month. Coalition negotiations between Mrs Merkel's party and the SPD are continuing, with Mrs Merkel likely to be formally appointed chancellor after a vote in parliament on November 22.
However, the Social Democrats will hold on to the post of foreign minister. They have nominated Frank-Walter Steinmeier - a lawyer and confidant of Mr Schröder whose command of English is inferior to that of his predecessor, the dazzling Joschka Fischer. Although Mrs Merkel would be able to set "accents" in foreign policy, the "main thrust" would come from the SPD, the party's deputy leader, Gernot Erler, said at the weekend.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/31/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Right. She's not getting anywhere with the anti-American clowns running their foreign office.
#5
lip service is all she can do. The party of Gerd controls the Foreign Ministry.
Count on zero change.
Gerd ran the foreign policy last time and Fischer was often very unhappy about it but could do nothing. Merkel will do the same to whatever SDP loser is going to be made a sap. Given that she can do little else with her odd coalition, I would expect her to focus on FP to build stature for next election.
#6
Hell, I would be perfectly happy with an indifferant neutral Germany. One that works on solving its problems with real solutions rather than blaming America/Jews/Turks.
#7
I doubt the Foreign Ministry is on the Whitehouse speed dial list. Schröder should know better than to think George or Condi can't pick up the phone and directly call Angela. Just because George wouldn't answer Gerhard's calls, doesn't mean the the Chancellory is on the call block list.
Posted by: ed ||
10/31/2005 10:13 Comments ||
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#8
Having grown up on the East side of the wall, Merkel is fully acquainted with the fruits of leftest-think and old fashioned communism. Staying 'loose' when deal with Chirac might prevent a boning. The fact that the Social Dems have doubts is a good thing. I am hopefully about her election.
A documentary seven years in the making tying Bill Clinton to an Arkansas prison blood scandal that spread AIDS to thousands around the world is set to screen in Hollywood next week â renewing controversy about the long-forgotten story.
The film, which premieres at the prestigious American Film Institute film festival next Tuesday, reportedly uncovers fresh evidence about how thousands in Europe contracted AIDS and hepatitis through tainted blood deliberately shipped even after widespread problems were discovered in Canada where some 10,000 had already been infected...
As if the world cares about the crimes of a leftist. Advocating socialism and despising America is a permanent "get out of jail free" card; Clinton will never be held accountable for ANYTHING he or his cronies did.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
10/31/2005 20:18 Comments ||
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#2
Double Yawn. Yep, he'll never face the music on this side. I suspect the slickster will fade away to nothing and eventually sucumb to a mysterious blood disease. He'll soon be be forgotten about. Hillary will reap a widows sympathy and unfortunately, future headlines.
#3
The AFI is pretty much high-brow establishment Hollywood. I find it fascinating that they would host the premier of such a film. That says something to me about Hollywood waqnting to perhaps distance itself from what has proven to be an unprofitable legacy from its romance with Bill and the Progressives. It would not surprise me to see more moves like this as they try to reidentify with the mainstream of the U. S. population that they have done such an excellent job of alienating. But only a return of the Hayes office will do the trick.
#4
Hmmm...not so fast. The Cindy Sheehan crowd is pretty unhappy with Hillary right now because she supported the war and dissed St. Cindy. I can see the Hollywierd set abandoning her and pushing her out of the way to make room for a Deaniac/Move-on type.
The left is a religion of faith and Hillary is unpure.
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi
"Last week after Harriet Miers withdrew her nomination, I asked the President: Who was in charge? Today, the President answered: the radical conservative right is in charge of his Administration. Instead of seeking to unify the country with a nominee who would command wide consensus, the President again chose to submit to the dictates of the radical right. The President's nomination of Judge Alito reflects weakness - the President is unable or unwilling to withstand pressure by an extreme element in our country, rather than acting as a leader of all the people.
"The Supreme Court must not be used as a tool by extremists to fulfill an ideological agenda and to undermine our individual rights. Under our Constitution, the Senate has an independent role in deciding whether to confirm a nominee to the Supreme Court. That responsibility is especially compelling with this nominee, whose rulings on the right to privacy, including a woman's right to choose; civil rights; and basic labor protections are troubling and far removed from the mainstream. The Senate must have full, comprehensive hearings and carefully scrutinize Judge Alito's record."
Howard Dean
"A lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States is too important to be sacrificed on the altar of short-term political gain. President Bush's nomination of Alito is not leadership, it is capitulation.
"Alito's record suggests an activist judicial philosophy bent on rolling back the rights and freedoms that all Americans value. Alito has sought to limit the rights of women and people with disabilities in discrimination cases, demonstrated an open hostility to women's privacy rights even in basic reproductive health matters, has a record of hostility toward immigrants, and tried to immunize employers from employment discrimination cases. It is particularly troubling that President Bush would nominate a judge who would reverse American progress and make the Supreme Court look less like America on the same day that most Americans are honoring the life and legacy of Rosa Parks."
Brady Campaign
In 1996, Judge Samuel Alito was the sole judge who dissented from his Third Circuit Court of Appeals colleagues when they upheld the authority of Congress to ban fully automatic machine guns. "Earth to Sammy -- who needs legal machine guns?" asked Jim Brady, chair of the Brady Campaign. "The Chicago mobsters of the 1930s would be giddy. But the man I worked for, who gave us Sandra Day O'Connor and signed the 1986 machine gun ban, would be shaking his head."
"Judge Alito's ludicrous machine gun decision is bad enough. But it also indicates that a Justice Alito would attempt to prevent Congress from passing other laws to protect Americans from gun violence," said Michael D. Barnes, president of the Brady Campaign. "If Judge Alito had his way, the federal machine gun ban would have been struck down as unconstitutional, and the private possession of these weapons would have become legal."
NARAL
âInstead of unifying the country, President Bush has chosen the path of confrontation,â said Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. âSandra Day OâConnor has been the Courtâs swing Justice, casting the deciding votes over the years to protect womenâs reproductive freedom. Alitoâs confirmation could shift the Court in a direction that threatens to eviscerate the core protections for womenâs freedom guaranteed by Roe v. Wade, or overturn the landmark decision altogether.â
Excellent! Fights On!
Posted by: Steve ||
10/31/2005 14:18 ||
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Dems are lookin' for that mainstream Judge who fall somewhere between Marx and Mao.
#9
Pelosi asking the president 'who was in charge?' Duhhh.... she had to ask. Thank God it will never be her. I guess that would the President of the United States you screaming, whining, leftest, oxygen stealing piece of dog poop. Howard Dean? Sacrifice on an alter? Please don't hand that Vermontite screaming witch doctor a machette.
#10
"If Judge Alito had his way, the federal machine gun ban would have been struck down as unconstitutional, and the private possession of these weapons would have become legal."
And since it expired how many bloodbaths have we had? None? Gee.... it is almost like that law was worthless or something.
CBSNEWS Chief White House correspondent John Roberts described the Presidentâs selection of Judge Samuel Alito as âsloppy secondsâ during todayâs press gaggle with White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan.
John Roberts: âSo, Scott, you said that -- or the President said, repeatedly, that Harriet Miers was the best person for the job. So does that mean that Alito is sloppy seconds, or what?â
Scott McClellan: âNot at all, John.â
"Sloppy Secondsâ is described in the United Kingdomâs A Dictionary of Slang as: Noun: âA subsequent indulgence in an activity by a second person involving an exchange of bodily fluids. This may involve the sharing of drink, or more often it applies to a sexual nature. E.g. âIâm not having sloppy seconds, I want to shag her first.ââ
Another pearl from the Class-less Broadcasting System
Posted by: Steve ||
10/31/2005 10:31 ||
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Shit like this stops if the Whitehouse had the huevos to revoke press passes. The inmates to not run the asylum.
Posted by: ed ||
10/31/2005 10:53 Comments ||
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It's a question of pressure. Roberts just didn't have the time to manufacture a memo saying bad things about Judge Alito, so he reverted to high school.
Posted by: Matt ||
10/31/2005 11:04 Comments ||
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#4
âSloppy secondsâ! Ha! I'll have to remember that one for when I get back stateside as a legend in journalism. Kinda like Walter Duranty.
Turn up the tube, Achmed. Gotta catch up on the war news. And bring me another double...
#6
"After my 4 1/2 years covering the Bush White House, I couldn't imagine the name 'John Roberts' and the phrase 'widely admired for his intellect, his sound judgment and his personal decency' being used in the same time zone, let alone the same sentence." -- CBS's John Roberts , on the strangeness of covering the Supreme Court nomination of John Roberts. At least he acknowledges that he is a worthless tit.
#9
The proper response would have been an aside to an assistant, "Have the Marines escort Mr. Roberts to the street." Back to the reporters, "Next question."
#16
Was it just me, or did the Conservative boys on FNC comment that the reason for the Lefties going after DICK CHENEY was to divert and protect anyone from finding out about Bill's former Veep AL GORE AND DER HILLARY???
#17
I'll go with #9 as well. He needed his stuff put in the street following a low class, sophmoric comment like that. I wonder how many parents are having a difficult time explaining what he was talking about to their young kids.
President George W Bush has nominated federal appeals court judge Samuel Alito to the US Supreme Court. He described Mr Alito as "one of the most accomplished and respected judges in America" and urged the Senate quickly to approve his nomination. Mr Alito, seen as a conservative, said the role of a Supreme Court justice was to interpret, not make, the law.
Good
The leader of the Democrats in the Senate has warned Mr Alito may face opposition in confirmation hearings.
Mr Bush's first choice, Harriet Miers, withdrew after Democrats questioned her judicial credentials and conservative Republicans her views on key issues. The new nomination comes at a tense time for the White House, with a senior aide to Vice-president Dick Cheney charged last week in connection with a CIA leak.
If approved by the Senate, the 55-year-old Mr Alito will take the place of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who often held the swing vote in the court. Announcing the nomination, Mr Bush stressed Mr Alito's "extraordinary breadth of experience", saying he had a longer judicial record than any nominee in the past 70 years. He urged the Senate to approve his choice in a quick up-or-down vote before the end of the year. Mr Bush called Alito a "thoughtful judge who considers the legal merits carefully and applies the law in a principled fashion".
He went on: "I'm confident that the United States Senate will be impressed by Judge Alito's distinguished record, his measured judicial temperament, and his tremendous personal integrity." The BBC's Justin Webb in Washington says the choice of Mr Alito is likely to prove highly controversial.
As a supporter of restricting, if not entirely abolishing, the constitutional right of American women to have abortions, Mr Alito's selection would galvanise the conservative base of Mr Bush's Republican party but horrify the US left. If he gets to the Supreme Court, he will be in a position to join forces with other social conservatives to reshape the culture of the nation, our correspondent adds.
Republican Senator John Cornyn has praised Mr Alito as a "man of outstanding character, who is deeply committed to public service", the Reuters news agency reports. But Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, who leads the Senate Democrats, said he was disappointed by Mr Alito's nomination, warning he may prove "too radical for the American people".
Mr Reid and other Democrats had urged the president to pick a moderate, consensus candidate rather than bowing to pressure from conservative Republicans.
Mr Alito is considered a quiet and reserved member of the federal appeals courts, having sat on the Third Circuit in Philadelphia since 1990. He is known for consistently conservative judgements, leading commentators to compare him to current Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. The justices of the Supreme Court have immense power and are appointed until they die, resign or are impeached.
In the near future, the court is expected to consider some of America's most bitterly contested social issues, including assisted suicide, abortion, same-sex marriage, human cloning and campaign finance law.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/31/2005 08:05 ||
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The leader of the Democrats in the Senate has warned Mr Alito may face opposition in confirmation hearings.
Gee, my jaw hit the floor on that one. I wonder if the Dims would of raised the automatic objection is GW had nominated say Babs Feinstein
#5
The dems/communists will fight like rabid dogs and end up filibustering. Once again the media focus will be all about Roe vs Wade, only this time there will be no question where Judge Alito comes down on the issue. The process goes, "oh, you didn't like the nice lady I nominated, well dumb asses, you'll REALLY love ole Sam! Bring it on!
#6
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Al-QuedaMass., pulled no punches. "Rather than selecting a nominee for the good of the nation and the court, President Bush has picked a nominee whom he hopes will stop the massive hemorrhaging of support on his right wing. This is a nomination based on weakness, not on strength."
If the old Fat Drunk is against him -- he has to be good!
#11
I wrote on this website some time ago that I would vote Republican until the party got "too interventionary in my life". It has done so with this nomination.
President Bush-you are standing for loss of autonomy for women. With a nomination which is unmistakably hostile to reproductive freedom and the majority of Americans who support the legality of abortion, watch the edges of your majority dissolve away-starting with me. I will be now working for the success of Democratic nominees in the elections of next year.
You have principals, President Bush, I grant you that, and you are consistent. But I never before saw you as a man who wants to force women to have children. Now I do. Shame on you.
#12
Jules: Thanks for finally 'coming out' and making infant death - via choice, your litmus test. Welcome to the Democratic party. Neither the Republican party nor 'W' need your bloody vote anyway.
#13
Well, Jules, be as autonomous as you need to be, but please protect the entirely separate life living in a woman's womb, won't you?
I also assume that you are fully against laws that tell women they can't be drunk to get a tattoo or put limits on the age a woman can get her ears pierced.
#14
Jules, take some time and actual read what Alito opinioned. It wasn't that a wife had to notify her husband. That wasn't even the case. The legislature of the state had already made that rule. Alito just opinioned, it was not unconstitional for the legislature to pass that bill.
#15
btw Jules - if Roe v Wade is overturned you'll still have most states where aborting a fetus is legal. So you can be happy about that. It becomes a state question rather than a fed, as it should be.... a "penumbra of emanations"....*snort*
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/31/2005 19:14 Comments ||
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#16
I must disagree, Frank. Overturning Roe will be difficult to do on federalism basis alone. When the case is made to overturn it, I suspect there will be strong 14th amendment arguments made about the time at which life begins and rights adhere to the individual. There is a certain inconsistency in convicting Scott Peterson of two counts of murder but allowing abortionists to practice legally, even in Caliphornia. I don't think the justices who are willing to overturn Roe will find this an easy probelm to finesse.
#17
Got to agree with Chomotch. The Scott Peterson thing was a no brainer. He clearly killed two not one, and the entire country knew it. The abortion crowd was holding their breath on that one. This 'right to choose' crap has expanded to include women who throw thier kids into San Francisco Bay and pedifiles who rape and murder. It cheapens life for all. If a pregnant motorist dies in an auto accident, a ciscerian is performed to attempt to save the baby. The same is done for livestock. Peterson murdered two, no question about it.
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Police in northeastern Iran are launching a new morality drive by confiscating alluring mannequins from boutiques and clothes stalls in the bazaar, authorities in the city of Bojnourd said on Monday. A spokesman for the city's judiciary, who asked not be named, explained the drive would tackle problems of "public chastity". Sixty five mannequins have been impounded so far.
He explained the crack-down on tailors' dummies was part of a larger offensive against anti-social behaviour such as vandalism and biker gangs.
Bojnourd owes its traditional religious climate to the nearby shrine city of Mashhad, a focal point of pilgrimage for the world's Shi'ite Muslims.
Iranâs hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the latest cabinet meeting in the Iranian capital that âif we were permitted to hang two or three persons, the problems with the stock exchange would be solved for everâ, according to a Tehran-based newspaper.
Ahmadinejad was addressing a cabinet meeting held to discuss the rapidly deteriorating situation at the Tehran Stock Exchange, the daily Ruznet reported on Sunday. Ministers and experts disagreed with all the different views and proposals raised at the meeting, which came to an end without any concrete results. Tempers flew high and participants shouted at each other during the discussion, according to the daily. Frustrated with the inability of his economic advisers and experts to come up with any solution, Ahmadinejad told them that the only way out of the current stock exchange and financial market problems was to âfrightenâ speculators by hanging two or three of them.
Iranâs ultra-Islamist President first sent jitters through the countryâs markets when he said on the eve of the presidential elections in June that âstock exchange activities are a kind of gambling and we are against themâ. Gambling is banned in Islam. Nervous investors have been transferring their capital to other countries, and Dubai has benefited palpably from the flight of capital from Iran. The Tehran Stock Exchange has lost 20 percent of its value in the past four months.
Looks like they've got one of the Great Minds of the 21st Century running things there. This might not be as difficult as it seemed...
Posted by: Fred ||
10/31/2005 00:00 ||
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âif we were permitted to hang two or three persons, the problems with the stock exchange would be solved for everâ
All too true, but only if Ahmadinejad is amongst the recipients.
#6
Other famous people who spoke thus of free markets and businessmen: Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot.
I predict massive misery in Iran. They have put a murderous thug in power. His instinct is to threaten and to kill. The Iranian people had better act promptly to kill the mullahs themselves, or they will be suffer a fate worse than any people in modern history.
btw, one dollar US is worth about 10,000 Iranian Rials at the official exchange rate so the total value of their publicly held stocks is about $30 billion or about the same as the value of all common stock in Halliburton
#12
If I was in Iran, I'd take what little money I had left and leave the country while the getting is good.
I don't know of course, but short of Ahmad's untimely death, it seems to me that their stock market will crash within days - or at least months. Things are going to get worse fast. Writing is on the wall. Time to high-tail it otta there while you can.
When newly-promoted CBS News president Sean McManus gets around to chatting with Dan Rather about the fallout from his Bush National Guard story, we hope he uses more tact than Mike Wallace. According to sources inside the network, Wallace recently got into a shouting match with Rather after telling the disgraced journo he should have resigned over âMemogateââwhile the two men were standing side-by-side at a urinal. The argument erupted in a menâs room at CBS headquarters in New York, we hear, after Wallace sidled up to his whizzing 60 Minutes colleague of three decades and told him he had just confided to Katie Couric in a Today Show interviewâscheduled to air this morningâthat he thought Rather should have resigned when his underlings were canned for basing the National Guard story on what turned out to be phony documents.
âThey were both standing at the urinals when Wallace casually mentioned what he had told Katie,â says the source. âThere proceeded a twenty-minute shouting match in the bathroomâ between Rather and the 87-year-old journalist. It just can't get any better than this.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
10/31/2005 15:14 ||
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while the two men were standing side-by-side at a urinal
Oh, come on. You don't think that an ego as big as Rather's hasn't got its own private executive loo? This sounds like smoke.
#5
There sure have been a lot of schadenfreude stories like this lately, where the lefties, having been defeated at every turn, lash out at each other in bitterness.
#6
Sounds like Wallace was just bragging about wringing some "sloppy seconds" attention out of Rathergate to me.
Posted by: Edward R. Murrow ||
10/31/2005 17:56 Comments ||
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#7
(Reports that CBS kingpin Les Moonves has been wooing Couric as Ratherâs replacement on the CBS Evening News when her NBC contract expires in May canât have helped matters.)
WND, I guess the "salt needed" part applies here, though it wouldn't even surprize me after all. I would rather have expected parentless children to be sold to brothels or something like that, though.
Gang arrested for removing organs from corpses, others sell own parts
As relief efforts continue in earthquake-stricken Pakistan and Afghanistan, police have arrested a gang of Afghans allegedly caught stealing kidneys from the corpses of quake victims.
Four men were reportedly carrying a freezer box containing 15 organs from bodies trapped in the rubble in the Kashmir region.
According to London's Sunday Times, the gang and other kidney traders have been racing to find dead bodies and survivors willing to sell their own organs.
For instance in the town of Bagh, near the epicenter of the Oct. 8 quake, a handwritten note reading "kidney for sale" was found attached to the entrance of a tent in a temporary camp.
It was pinned there by a 33-year-old man who gave his name only as Rumzan. The Times says his brother, Bashir, was crushed during the catastrophic temblor, leaving Rumzan to care for seven children in a small tent.
"Some months ago I heard on BBC radio that a woman in Dhaka had put up an ad to sell her one eye to support her family," he told the paper. "This gave me the idea to sell my kidney."
An organ broker in Bagh said he knew of Rumzan's situation, and had found a foreign client willing to pay $4,200 for the kidney. The commission would be $1,000.
"Rumzan is lucky to get a foreign client," the broker said. "Had it been a local client he would not have got more than $2,100. I will take Rumzan to Lahore, along with his family, to have his preoperative tests and to sign legal papers. I will take care of his every need until the kidney is donated."
Varied reports say between 57,000 and 80,000 people have died as a result of the earthquake, and relief agencies warn they're fighting a losing battle to prevent thousands more deaths from hypothermia when the snows arrive next month.
"Time is running out," a spokeswoman for Save the Children said.
Meanwhile, Pope Benedict XVI today called for more generous international aid to the region, saying from Rome that "the needs seem greater than the help offered so far."
"I renew my appeal to the international community, so that the efforts to support this sorely tested people are multiplied," he said.
#2
Yes, take with some salt. But it is possible. People out there probably don't KNOW you can't use a cadaver kidney. Remember the education level and the nature of the press in the culture we're talking about here.
ZIMBABWEâS president, Robert Mugabe, has ordered his ministers to disclose all their assets in a move aimed at blocking any plots against him as the country descends into economic collapse. âMugabe has files on everyone,â said a source close to the 81-year-old leader. âHe encourages those around him to stick their hands in the till so the moment anyone gets cold feet about what heâs [Mugabeâs] doing and wants to quit â or starts thinking heâs a liability â he pulls out their file.â
The order has left ministers scrambling to divest themselves of assets such as apartments in Johannesburg, houses in Cape Town and diamond holdings in Congo. Some properties, such as farms in Zimbabwe itself, have simply been grabbed. Others have been acquired with the aid of a differential in exchange rates that allows government and ruling party officials to buy US dollars at less than a quarter of the market rate. However, sources of foreign exchange are drying up. The countryâs main foreign exchange earners â tobacco, agriculture and tourism â have been largely wiped out by a government land grab that began five years ago and has left only about 200 of 4,500 commercial farmers operating.
With few foreign heads of state willing to be linked with a brutal dictatorship, Mugabe is rapidly running out of friends. Even his closest allies were horrified by Operation Murambatsvina (drive out the filth), which saw the demolition of at least 700,000 homes and livelihoods last summer and has resulted in mothers and babies squatting in cardboard shelters. South Africa has refused to give a $1 billion bailout unless conditions aimed at restoring democratic government are met. China, which has provided buses, passenger planes and fighter jets in the past year, gave only $30m after it received warning telephone calls from the presidents of Nigeria and South Africa.
Some companies have been forced to make âdonationsâ to the ruling Zanu-PF party to continue operating. Those which fail to do so are well aware of their likely fate. In the past two years seven private banks have been âspecifiedâ â closed down and their assets seized. âMugabe is willing to downsize the whole economy just to feed the political elite, a few hundred thousand at most,â said a European diplomat. âItâs a mafia state.â
During his 25 years in power Mugabe has become extremely skilled at drawing people from all sectors into his web of patronage. Among those handed farms that had been seized were High Court judges, police chiefs, military officers and the Anglican bishop of Harare. However, Mugabe is now running out of the means to do this. According to Zimbabwean bankers, the Central Bank has had no foreign exchange available for weeks.
Mugabeâs lieutenants are increasingly resorting to criminality in the scramble for the countryâs remaining assets. Apart from extortion, many have launched get-rich-quick schemes. Residents of Harare were astonished when signs suddenly appeared all over the city earlier this month threatening fines of 1m Zimbabwe dollars for parking illegally. A government minister had apparently acquired a tow-truck and hundreds of people have since had their cars clamped. Other forms of profiteering include buying fuel or flour at the official low price and then re-exporting it to Congo, Zambia or Mozambique, where prices are much higher. Leo Mugabe, the presidentâs nephew, was caught smuggling flour into neighbouring countries earlier this month. Shortages of fuel are so severe that the top prize in the national lottery is a tank of petrol while the plummeting Zimbabwe dollar â now standing at almost 200,000 to the pound, makes spiralling school fees of Z$17m a term almost unattainable. Teachers and civil servants earn Z$3m a month.
Mugabeâs recent announcement that he will not stand for re-election when his term ends in 2008 has seen bitter jostling for position within the ruling party, with many ministers already referring to this as a transitional period. Last month Patrick Chinamasa, the minister of justice, revealed that the government was considering changing the constitution to synchronise presidential and parliamentary elections. This could extend Mugabeâs term to 2010 or beyond.
When he'd be 86 or thereabouts. He's making the assumption he's immortal. So are his henchmen...
Even if he were to step down, that would not be the end of Zimbabweâs problems. âThis is not just about Mugabe any more,â said Roy Bennett, a former white farmer and leading member of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. âThere are many people with blood on their hands, including military and intelligence officers who know that as long as Mugabe is there, they are protected. The moment heâs gone, they start being exposed and accountable for what they have done. You are talking about an entire cabal with an interest in this continuing.â
Posted by: Fred ||
10/31/2005 00:00 ||
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âMugabe is willing to downsize the whole economy just to feed the political elite, a few hundred thousand at most,â said a European diplomat. âItâs a mafia state.â
But evidently not quite enough of a "mafia state" to prevent European leaders from inviting and applauding Mugabe's anti-coalition tirade at the FAO meeting in Rome. I detect a distinct stench whiff of reciprocal political eliteism.
Trotting out this demented hyper-corrupt poster boy for overt governmental decap operations speaks volumes about Europe's anti-American agenda. They might as well praise Iran's Ahmadinejad for his attempts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
#2
"Files on everyone"....? how very Congo-Clintonian. I thought Bad Bob's problems would be over when all those nasty colonials aka white farmers left Zim. "China has provided busses....?" Did anyone tell Ray Nagin? Mugabe is "out of friends" and it all started out as... the lovely Lancaster House Agreement, democracy and nation building, etc, fully embraced by the all knowing US State Dept, and Washington political set. All the very best egalitarian intentions gone bad/mad on another African mulitcultural experiment. With or without Leo's flour, they'll all be eating one another soon. Just a point of trivia... Rhodesia supplied more troops per head of population to the allied war effort than any other country in the empire. One in ten of the 8500 Rhodesians of all races who served overseas were killed or died on active service. Suspect we'll not be able to count on those lads again eh?
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.
A MAN getting the words "Last Rites" as a tattoo died when he passed out and crashed through a glass counter. Joaquin Laguer, 27, nearly decapitated himself at the Buzz Tattoo parlour in East Williamsburg. "There was nothing I could do," said tattoo artist Julio Ramos. "I was kneeling next to him, praying to God. My assistant said, 'He's gone'."
A MAN who cut his toe off while slicing bread was caught on the hop when his cat ran off with the digit. Udo Ried, 41, dropped a bread knife on his foot last week. With his second toe severed and the wound bleeding profusely, he limped into his bathroom. His cat, Fritz, pounced on the disembodied member and carried it into the garden. A spokesman for the local hospital said the toe could have been reattached - but Mr Ried had been unable to discover where Fritz had buried it.
MECCA: Seven pilgrims on Sunday were trampled to death in a rush to receive charity handouts. The rush, in which 17 others were injured, was sparked by the arrival of a Red Crescent truck to distribute charity handouts to the needy, reported the Okaz daily.
Angry mob lynched a mugger at East Nabinagar in Hathazari early yesterday. The dead was identified as Abdul Mannan, 28. Sources said a gang of seven to eight muggers waylaid a Hathazari-bound CNG auto-rickshaw, which was carrying three businessmen of the city, at around 4:30am at Gate No 2 of Chittagong University (CU). They took away Tk 7,000 and cellular phones from the businessmen. At one stage the businessmen started screaming for help. The locals came forward and chased the gang. They caught one of the muggers and beat him to death. His accomplices managed to flee the scene with looted goods. 
President 
Occasional getting drunk is a core part of national identity for most Australians, according to new research. The National Drug and Alcohol Research Council study of 1500 Australians found that some 58 percent of people agreed that sometimes having too much to drink was "simply part of the Australian way of life." The survey found that about one in 10 people had a problem with alcohol at some point in their lives and that about 60 percent were close to someone who had experienced a drinking problem.
CBSNEWS Chief White House correspondent John Roberts described the Presidentâs selection of Judge Samuel Alito as âsloppy secondsâ during todayâs press gaggle with White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan. 
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Police in northeastern Iran are launching a new morality drive by confiscating alluring mannequins from boutiques and clothes stalls in the bazaar, authorities in the city of Bojnourd said on Monday. A spokesman for the city's judiciary, who asked not be named, explained the drive would tackle problems of "public chastity". Sixty five mannequins have been impounded so far.
Iranâs hard-line President 
When newly-promoted CBS News president Sean McManus gets around to chatting with Dan Rather about the fallout from his Bush National Guard story, we hope he uses more tact than Mike Wallace. According to sources inside the network, Wallace recently got into a shouting match with Rather after telling the disgraced journo he should have resigned over âMemogateââwhile the two men were standing side-by-side at a urinal. The argument erupted in a menâs room at CBS headquarters in New York, we hear, after Wallace sidled up to his whizzing 60 Minutes colleague of three decades and told him he had just confided to Katie Couric in a Today Show interviewâscheduled to air this morningâthat he thought Rather should have resigned when his underlings were canned for basing the National Guard story on what turned out to be phony documents.
ZIMBABWEâS president, 
