BEIJING -- China said Tuesday it is considering an offer from the Seychelles to host Chinese naval ships in the Indian Ocean island nation, highlighting the increasing global reach of a navy that recently launched its first aircraft carrier.
Less here than meets the eye; China is in no position to do anything other than occasional port of call visits that far from home.
State-run media gave prominent coverage to the Seychelles offer to allow rest and resupply for Chinese ships in the multinational force conducting anti-piracy patrols off the coast of Somalia, which China has joined since late 2008.
But the reports were careful to reaffirm China's firm policy of not establishing permanent military bases overseas, a cornerstone of Beijing's claim not to be seeking regional hegemony or military alliances with other nations.
"China's position is clear. China has never set up military bases in other countries," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin told reporters at a daily news briefing.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/14/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
See BHARAT RAKSHAK > SHIPS MAY DOCK, BUT NO INDIAN OCEAN MILITARY BASE [for now?]: SAYS CHINA.
BR BLOGGER = noted that China has expressed its willingness to NOT develop or base PLAN assets
at GWADAR, PAK iff India will do similar wid CHABAHAR.
IMO China + PLA need to do something soon, as they are not having much luck getting sole base rights in the First Island Chain.
Also from BHARAT RAKSHAK > SE ASIA'S UNDERWATER BAZAAR [Submarines].
ARTIC > Unlike the many MilPol options available to dedicated Surface Warfare vessels, the design + utility of Submarines is that they have nothing better to do all day than to sink enemy shipping + covertly sneak around in Diplomatically sensitive, PDeniable restricted areas. OVER TIME, CHINA WILL LIKELY BE FACING STEADILY INCREASING NUMBERS OF POTENT = DEADLY MODERN SUBS, SSK ANDOR SSN, VEE ASEAN + REGIONAL NAM NATIONS, not just as per the USN.
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS, TOPIX > JAPANESE LAWMAKER [Noburetu Ishihara, son of infamous Tokyo Governator Shintaro "Japan must have NucWeapons" Ishihara] WANTS TO BUILD MILITARY BASE ON CHINA-CLAIMED ISLANDS [Japan Senkakus = Chinese Daoyus] | JAPANESE LAWMAKER EYES BASE ON CHINA-CLAIMED ISLANDS.
* SAME > [Retired USN Commander John S. Patch] CHINA HAS EFFECTIVELY DEFEATED IN DELOPMENT OF FLEETS OF SMALL WARSHIPS, + SAMS + Advanced fighters.
Wonder iff He is the same USN Officer whom commanded the former USNSRF Guam back in the 1990's.
Rising China's naval competition from India is also becom more acute regionally ...
* INDIAN DEFENCE FORUM > INDIAN NAVY TO DEVELOP "LONG LEGS" BY 2027.
"Sustained" LR Fleet Ops throughout the IOR + "Near-Abroad", albeit should not be considered "global" just yet.
* DEFENCE FORUM INDIA > [US DNI Director] CHINA IS THE NEW [greatest]THREAT TO US, as per his Agency's "China", etal. threat analyses, espec vee China's Nuclear Arsenal.
* CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > CHINA DEPLOYS PATROL BOATS ON MEKONG [China = Lancang/Lacang], in anti-smuggling/piracy, etc. coordination wid Laos + Thailand.
#2
Gonna need a whole host of transportation and refueling vessels to make the port work. As the inline says, China's in no position to do anything like that at this point. It might wake them up to that fact though, if they seriously want to project a bit.
#3
If the Chinese were more in a position to do such a thing it would really tend to starch the Indians' shorts. The Indians might begin to wonder if they were being surrounded.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/14/2011 8:48 Comments ||
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#4
How much money does the average Chinese sailor have in his pocket when he goes ashore on liberty? Or do Chinese sailors even get to go ashore on liberty?
TUNIS, Tunisia: Tunisias newly elected president has been sworn in and promised to be a president for all Tunisians. Veteran rights activist Moncef Marzouki, who was repeatedly imprisoned by the old regime, promised in his speech Tuesday to make a clean break with Tunisias history of dictatorship.
Tunisians overthrew their long ruling dictator in January sparking a wave of pro-democracy protests across the region. In October they elected an assembly to write their new constitution and appoint a new president and interim government.
Marzouki pledged to work with both the ruling coalition that elected him as well as the opposition that turned in blank ballots at his election.
Under the new system, the position of president has few powers, with most authority residing with the prime minister.
Typical Westminster parliamentary system.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/14/2011 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Kuwait's new Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Mubarak al-Sabah on Tuesday formed a new cabinet that comprised only 10 ministers with just small changes in the line-up, state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
reported.
Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah issued a decree approving the new government, the eighth cabinet since February 2006. All previous cabinets were forced to resign because of political disputes.
All key ministers in the previous government, which resigned on November 28 over corruption allegations, were retained but the three ministers who quit a few days earlier were dropped.
Sheikh Ahmed al-Humoud al-Sabah, who held the interior post in the previous government, was also given the defense portfolio, while Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Sabah was retained as foreign minister.
The ministers of finance, oil, and electricity and water remained the same. Besides the premiership, members of the ruling al-Sabah family also hold the portfolios of defense, interior, foreign affairs and information.
No date has so far been set for the new elections which must be held within 60 days of the 50-seat parliament being dissolved.
The new compact cabinet will serve for only several weeks to oversee the polls because under Kuwaiti law the cabinet must resign after declaring election results.
Former prime minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad al-Ahmad al-Sabah resigned after allegations of corruption and huge rallies demanding his ouster organized by the opposition in the oil-rich Gulf state.
The resignation was followed a week later by the ruler dissolving parliament for the fourth time in under six years.
Kuwait has been rocked by a series of almost non-stop political disputes since Sheikh Nasser, a nephew of the emir, was appointed premier in February 2006.
The parliamentary opposition has targeted Sheikh Nasser, 71, claiming that he failed to stop widespread corruption and to run the wealthy state efficiently.
Just days before he resigned, three former opposition politicians filed to question him in parliament over a corruption scandal involving around 15 members of the now dissolved body.
They also accused him of transferring millions of dollars of public funds into his own overseas bank accounts, an allegation strongly denied No, no! Certainly not! by the government.
Kuwait is OPEC's third largest producer, pumping around 3.0 million barrels of oil per day. It has a native population of just 1.2 million besides 2.4 million foreign residents.
Despite accumulating massive assets exceeding $300 billion from high oil prices, development projects have been stalled because of the political turmoil.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/14/2011 00:00 ||
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Pappy was right.
BRITISH oil explorer ROCKHOPPER yesterday scored a hat-trick of strikes off the Falkland Islands -- leaving Argentina fuming.
The firm said a new well proved its Sea Lion field 80 miles off the Falklands coast is BIGGER than expected. And two further big oil hits were made on the way down -- as well as a discovery of gas.
The strikes will infuriate Argentina's Prime Minister Cristina Kirchner -- who slammed Britain last year for trying to exhaust "Argentinian natural resources".
It'll take fifty years to do that -- and the Falklanders won't mind a bit...
Rockhopper -- which has spearheaded the Falklands "black gold" rush -- saw its shares rise 11 per cent yesterday as analysts estimated it could recover as much as 430 million barrels of crude from Sea Lion.
#3
40 billion dollars worth of resources the UK is going to lose because they can't afford a 4 million dollar anti-missile loadout on their 200 million dollar frigate.
Where are they going to get the money for their chavs again?
Infuriate? I'm thinking energize. The best kind of war is one that pays for itself. Count on Kirchner to devote major resources towards taking the Falklands. British war planners had better start thinking about logistics for a Falklands campaign. Because Argentina Land Grab 2 is coming.
#7
Iff FDR can give the Brits 50 overage US destroyers during WW2 at no cost, then in 2011 POTUS Bammer can certainly give the Brits any or all of those NUCLEAR AIRCRAFT CARRIERS PROPOSED FOR ELIMINATION/CUT FROM THE USDOD BUDGET.
ME > Better to see 'em given to US Allies than to see them sunk as artificial reefs.
[Pak Daily Times] The editor of a prominent Russian news magazine said he had been fired after the weekly printed a photograph featuring an obscene message addressed to Vladimir Putin ...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile... as part of extensive reports on alleged fraud in a Dec 4 parliamentary election.
Maxim Kovalsky said on Tuesday he had been dismissed as editor of Kommersant-Vlast over the magazine's Monday edition, which included several articles examining alleged electoral violations favouring Prime Minister Putin's United Russia party. The dismissal appeared to serve notice that Putin still holds vast influence over Russian media, despite mass protests against his rule and a decline in his ruling party's support at the election. "The reason is the issue about the election," Kovalsky told Rooters. He said he believed the Kremlin had put pressure on Kommersant Publishing House owner Alisher Usmanov, a billionaire metals tycoon, and that he had no regrets about the publication.
"I acted absolutely consciously and believe I did the right thing," he said. A spokeswoman for Metalloinvest, a company owned by Usmanov, confirmed that Kovalsky and the head of the magazine's parent company Kommersant-Holding, Andrei Galiyev, had been fired. Asked for comment, the spokeswoman sent a report on gazeta.ru, a news site also owned by Usmanov, that cited Usmanov as saying unspecified material that appeared in recent issues of Kommersant-Vlast had violated journalistic ethics. "These materials border on petty hooliganism," the news site quoted Usmanov, a billionaire who is part-owner of the London soccer club Arsenal, as saying. It reported that he was considering suing Kovalsky.
Kommersant Publishing House director Demyan Kudryavtsev said he had tendered his resignation because he felt responsible for the "unacceptable" publication, Interfax news agency reported. "Please don't kill me!"
It was not immediately clear whether his resignation had been accepted. The shakeup at Kommersant, whose publications include a leading daily by the same name, followed protests by tens of thousands of Russians over alleged election fraud in the biggest opposition rallies of Putin's 12-year rule.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/14/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
"These materials border on petty hooliganism", an expression that clearly hearkens back to the old days of Soviet repression. The only question is was it meant as sarcasm, or did he actually mean it?
Despite the rather "chicken inspector" and crude level of some Russian humor, it also had the flip side of considerable political subtlety, because of the severe penalties that were inflicted by the authorities.
#2
Vladimir Putin slammed the U.S. government for noting how his United Russia Party stuffed ballot boxes and cheated to win on Tuesday. He misunderstood. When the U.S. president and the Secretary of State are both from Chicago there's a real chance it was a compliment
For the first time on record, the Chinese Communist party has lost all control, with the population of 20,000 in this southern fishing village now in open revolt.
The last of Wukans dozen party officials fled on Monday after thousands of people blocked armed police from retaking the village, standing firm against tear gas and water cannons.
#1
This has taken some interesting twists. It is also fairly near Hong Kong, I believe, which makes it a lot easier for news to get out.
For the communist party to retreat could be sending a strong signal that China has entered the cycle of decay last seen from 1908 to 1912, with Puyi, the last emperor of China. Somewhat dangerously, the decay cycle before that precipitated the Taiping Rebellion, about the time of the US Civil War.
Traditionally, the bureaucracy would withdraw from the countryside into Peking, letting the rest of China fall apart. If there is a general withdrawl of government in the rest of China, they could be in for a fun time of it.
#3
Well, if they follow the pattern they have been following, they'll blame everything on the previous local party and just appoint a bunch of new subordinates so they can take the blame for the next revolt.
#4
From behind the roadblock, a propaganda war has broken out. Banners slung by the side of the main road to Wukan urge drivers to Safeguard stability against anarchy Support the government! Nearby, someone has scrawled, simply: Give us back our land.
After decades of tamely accepting excuses for the Party's depredations, some Chinese villagers are finally waking up. If a critical mass of the Chinese gentry and disgruntled low- and mid-level Party members ever decide that the problem isn't merely with central government-appointed local officials, but with the central government itself, then the party could see the beginning of serious challenges to its power. But suggestions that the Party is about to collapse are way premature. The 19th century Taiping rebels staged a revolt that killed 20m, led to their control, for a time, of hundreds of thousands of sq miles of territory and lasted 15 years. The rebels were crushed and the Qing dynasty ruled for another 40+ years after having been in power for 2 centuries.
#5
Well, if they follow the pattern they have been following, they'll blame everything on the previous local party and just appoint a bunch of new subordinates so they can take the blame for the next revolt.
Exactly. The villagers continue to show a touching faith in the Party's fundamental benevolence:
I have just been to see my 25-year-old son, Shen Shaorong, the mother of Zhang Jianding, one of the four, said as she cried on her knees. He has been beaten to a pulp and his clothes were ripped. Please tell the government in Beijing to help us before they kill us all,
#6
But Taiping could have only happened because the government had retracted into the Forbidden City, and their only impulse at such times is to prevent anyone else from asserting order and authority.
Hong Xiuquan was by all accounts little more than a hyper-charismatic fruitcake, with two of four (for the four winds) generals luckily being very good generals. At the same time, the Qing army was just as messy as the rest of the government, which is how rebels were able to seriously thump them for so long.
As further evidence of the decay were the independent, if opportunistic, revolts of Dungan and Panthay.
In any event, after the Empress Dowager Cixi came along, China again changed gears into a rebuilding mode, and the decay cycle was over.
#7
But Taiping could have only happened because the government had retracted into the Forbidden City, and their only impulse at such times is to prevent anyone else from asserting order and authority.
The Taiping Rebellion occurred during a period of great budgetary stress caused by military defeats imposed by Western armies related to trade issues (Anglo-Chinese/Opium Wars I and II). The war reparations paid to France and Britain would have taken a toll on China's military preparedness because of War Department budget cuts. This was obviously on top of the expense of replacing Chinese military stores and shipping seized as war booty by the Western powers. Until almost the end of her reign, the Cixi regency learned not to engage in tests of strength with the Western powers, and no Western power really made any attempt to annex significant chunks of Chinese territory. In fact, I'd argue that without the Anglo-Chinese/Opium Wars, there might not have been a Taiping Rebellion. The sin of pride led Cixi to support the outburst of xenophobia that was the Boxer Rebellion, the costs (reparations and destruction of Chinese civilian and military infrastructure during the subsequent war) of which led to the eventual collapse of the Qing dynasty less than a decade later.
The Chinese government on Tuesday officially expressed regret over the killing of a Korean coast guard by the skipper of a Chinese trawler that was fishing illegally in Korean waters.
"It was an unfortunate incident," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin told reporters. "China regrets that the incident caused the death of a South Korean coast guard officer."
"Currently the relevant authorities in China and Korea are in close communication on investigating this situation. China is ready to work closely with South Korea to properly settle the issue," he added.
Korean Ambassador to Beijing Lee Kyu-hyung said, "The Chinese Foreign Ministry and Agriculture Ministry expressed regret and condolences over the death through diplomatic channels."
The officer was killed and another wounded on Monday when they were stabbed with a piece of broken glass by the skipper while trying to board his trawler.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/14/2011 00:00 ||
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#2
ION DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > CHINA JOINS RUSSIA, ORDERS MILITARY TO PREPARE FOR WORLD WAR III, as it is becom increasingly clear that the only way to stop GWOT-led US global hegemony = imperialism is via DEDICATED, ANTI-US DIRECT ACTION + [devastating] IMMEDIATE MIL COUNTERRESPONSE.
Top Govt Leaders now, e.g. HU JINTAO?, no longer just military command officers.
D *** NG IT, IT LOOKS LIKE THE PLANNED MOTHERLY NORTH KOREAN INVASION OF CONUS-NORAM ALA "RED DAWN II" IS BACK ON THE TABLE!
Drew Greenblatt has been looking for more than a year for three sheet-metal set-up operators to work day, night or weekend shifts.
The president of Marlin Steel Wire Products, a company in Baltimore with 30 employees, Mr Greenblatt says his inability to find qualified workers is hampering his businesss growth. If I could fill those positions, I could raise our annual revenues from $5m to $7m, he says.
Policy moves by the US Federal Reserve reflect a view that most unemployment is not the result of a skills mismatch. But even those who believe that todays unemployment problem is primarily cyclical say closing the skills gap will be essential if Americans are to enjoy stable work and rising wages.
He is offering a salary of more than $80,000 with overtime, including health and pension benefits. Yet in spite of extensive advertising, he has had no qualified applicants. He is trying to train some of his unskilled staff but says none has the ability or drive to complete the training.
Mr Greenblatts predicament speaks to one of the biggest economic debates about todays 8.6 per cent US unemployment rate: is it merely a cyclical problem that will shrink as demand recovers? Or is it something deeper and more structural, a mismatch between the skills workers have and those companies need?
The idea there is something structurally wrong with the US workforce is controversial among economists but has a certain resonance with the public. Since the emergence of Japan as a technology and manufacturing powerhouse in the 1970s, Americans have been anxiousthat they were losing their competitive edge to better-educated, harder-working rivals.
Economists trying to figure out whether unemployment is cyclical or structural have turned to what they call the Beveridge curve: the relationship between unemployment and the job vacancy rate.
Vacancies, the number of unfilled positions, have risen by 35 per cent since their trough in June 2009 but the unemployment rate has remained stubbornly high. If there are jobs but people are not filling them, it may be because their skills are not up to scratch, say those who fear structural unemployment.
But a preponderance of economists argue this is a misreading of the data. A recent San Francisco Fed paper finds that vacancies are high relative to hiring across a broad range of industries, including those such as construction, where recent job cuts mean that there is most unlikely to be a skills shortage.
The authors suggest companies may not be trying very hard to fill jobs, while workers in receipt of unemployment insurance may not be trying that hard to find them.
Policy moves by the US Federal Reserve reflect a view that most unemployment is not the result of a skills mismatch. But even those who believe that todays unemployment problem is primarily cyclical say closing the skills gap noted by Mr Greenblatt will be essential if Americans are to enjoy stable work and rising wages.
Ben Bernanke, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, told an audience in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, in August that the US had to foster the development of a skilled workforce if it was to enjoy good longer-term prospects. The US education system despite considerable strengths, poorly serves a substantial portion of our population, he said.
US companies that are growing say an unqualified workforce is already a significant barrier to hiring.
In a September poll of owners of fast-growing, privately held US companies undertaken by the non-profit Kauffman Foundation, the inability to find qualified workers was cited as the biggest obstacle to growth. Some 40 per cent of respondents said they were being held back by the skills gap, compared with just 13 per cent by lack of demand.
#1
all that funding and advanced educational skills by the National Teachers Association and the Department of Education, especially the doubling in real inflation adjusted dollars, of education funding since the advent of the Great Society. Net effect, we need to import engineers and chemists because hard science, actual education not social studies, has been abandoned as too hard for some students so we undereducate all.
#2
How much of the mismatch is due to people with skills unable to move because they can't sell homes with underwater mortgages? I have the impression that historically American workers have been more willing to move for jobs than, eg. Europeans...
#3
Drew Grennblatt is a moron. Find a quality guy willing to learn "with the dive and ability", and teach him at an apprentice wage with promises of higher wages once his skillset improves.
He expects to find an experienced sheet metal worker out of the blue? Dumbass. Plenty of good people are looking, find a couple of them, hire them and develop your own. Don't get stuck on age - if there is a 35 or 40 year old guy wanting to change careers, give him a hard look and a tryout. Had he done that 3 years ago, he would not be waiting now.
#4
He expects to find an experienced sheet metal worker out of the blue? Dumbass. Plenty of good people are looking, find a couple of them, hire them and develop your own.
I totally agree. Since WHEN has it been the job of the government to provide basic training of the kind needed for potential workers referred to in the article?
#5
He expects to find an experienced sheet metal worker out of the blue? Dumbass. Plenty of good people are looking, find a couple of them, hire them and develop your own.
Don't you need somebody experienced to train people?
#6
Greenblatt's in Baltimore. Lots of steel/iron workers used to be available in their city. But the quality of the workforce in Baltimore ain't what it used to be.
#7
Big ongoing problem with training in a lot of our domestic 'heavy' industries (especially with machinists, welders and so on). Seems the 'conventional wisdom' over the last two decades has been to 'rob' your competitor's skilled workers so you wouldn't have to spend the time, $$ and effort to train new hires. We heard this reasoning a lot on apprenticeship standards committees when we queried a particular company as to why they hadn't trained any apprentices for years.
When times were good (and these workers still fairly young), this method worked for many companies. Unfortunately, these workers aged and are now retiring in droves.
It's hard to break the mindset that you'll always find someone who knows the trade. It's harder still to start a training regimen when you only have a dim memory of how that works.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
12/14/2011 15:11 Comments ||
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#8
It's hard to break the mindset that you'll always find someone who knows the trade. Life is hard, and it's harder when you're dumb. That applies to managers & owners of businesses as well.
#9
MR, they need to look at our Military's training methods. They can train a good high school grad (even some college grads) to operate and maintain some of the most sophisticated equipment in the world.
Too many high school students are pushed into academics and college where they are not suited. It's time to recognize that not all want or are suited to white collar work (via college). Doesn't mean they aren't from the "right half" of the bell curve, just that they aren't interested in a desk job.
#10
Mike "Dirty Jobs" Rowe has been pushing the truth that, contrary to current 'self esteem building' trends, not everyone is suited for college.
Vocational schools and shop classes in high school provide career training and real skills at building and maintaining things we need as a society. Those skills are underavailable in the employment market and are paying pretty damn well, which, if you've had an electrician or plumber out, you well know
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/14/2011 18:23 Comments ||
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#11
80K with OT, health, and benefits. So what's the base rate, 50K? And he's missing out on 5M$ revenue? Dope. Keep raising the offer along with moving expenses until they flock in. It's called a "market". Or maybe no one likes to work for the guy?
#12
Agree with Military Training. Many of our company's best workers and managers have come out of the military and/or from farming families. Both environments foster 'can-do' attitudes and the will to succeed as an individual plus working together as a group to achieve a tangible and valuable goal, something our public educational systems generally don't teach.
Our company pays our skilled trades persons between $60K and $95K (plus excellent benefits, pension plans and profit sharing) depending on achievement. Money's better than most college graduates make in their chosen field (plus you don't have all those student loans for your Art and 'Wine Tasting' classes to pay back). Parents and School Guidance Counselors might want to listen when we attempt to explain the benefits of a technical career (which we do often at school and other public/private functions), but they usually don't.
As for technical educational classes in high school, unfortunately few of our children are directed there by either parents or school professionals (unless the child is deemed 'unfit for college'). Plus funding and facilities for these programs is usually woeful (unless you're in a rural area). Not saying there aren't some excellent and well-attended technical course curriculums in many of our high schools, just that the really good ones are the exception rather than the norm.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
12/14/2011 21:04 Comments ||
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#13
Our companies have simply loved to eliminate everyone in order to keep bonuses flowing to management. It's been great fun for them and very profitable. Now they expect to get someone similar without having developed them.
I have a cousin who was trained by Boeing to be a skilled machinist. They let him go in costcutting and he became a truck driver. And now businesses complain because they can't find qualified help. I have watched this repeated over and over and over again in my lifetime.
Get Wall Street out of American business. Employees are not disposable pieces of trash.
#14
Keep raising the offer along with moving expenses until they flock in. It's called a "market". Or maybe no one likes to work for the guy?
If all you pay is peanuts, all you'll get are monkeys.
#15
Reminds me of radio add I heard other day. Company looking for Sheet Metal operator or some such thing(don't remember exactly) was looking for positions. And offering to pay for the classes to learn it while giving you the job at the same time. America's decline isn't because we aren't willing, it's because we've been taught that those essential jobs are "demeaning" and "low-class". We're taught "You could become a lawyer, or doctor, or Astronaut". They teach us to accept nothing BUT the top.
It's like musical chairs, except everyone wants the nice one and there's 2dozen perfectly good ones with some scratches on it they refuse to use.
Posted by: Charles ||
12/14/2011 21:58 Comments ||
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Environmental Protection Agency Strikes Gas! That should have been the headline last week that instead ran as EPA says fracking may be polluting groundwater. Heres the story: the EPA says tests it conducted in Pavillion, Wyoming indicate that ground water in the aquifer contains compounds likely associated with gas production practices, including hydraulic fracturing. However, it turns out that the EPA drilled two monitoring wells to some 900 feet much deeper than water wells which are usually at about 300 feet and indeed found hydrocarbons. In short, they drilled into the natural gas reservoir that has long attracted industry producers. It may the single most productive moment in EPA history.
The United States has stumbled upon an enormous gift almost unlimited supplies of natural gas -- that are available because of advances in technology. Improved methods of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, used to recover hitherto trapped hydrocarbons in certain rock formations, mean that natural gas could be substituted for other fuels currently used to generate electricity or heat our homes.
This could accomplish what many presidents have promised but none has delivered important strides towards energy independence. Though natural gas cannot easily displace our use of oil for transportation, it can dampen that demand at the margin. Approximately one third of our oil is consumed by 18-wheelers; conversion of truck and lighter vehicle fleets to natural gas would take some time and investment but would leave our air cleaner and our pocketbooks fatter.
Most water wells are in the range of 300 to, in the case of far west Texas, 1,000 feet.
Most gas wells are in excess of 3000 feet.
Beavis is right that the EPA drilled too deep in their monitoring wells. The bigger issue is why is it that the EPA is trying to kill every opportunity we have for energy independence? Shale oil, wind farms, nucelar, every one of them has been criticized for either being a pollutant or a danger to wildlife.
I say the EPA is full of ex-fanatics that want to destroy our economy. I don't want to sound like an extremist but they seem to want us all to ride horses, live in caves and eat raw food, because cars are bad, buildings are bad and cooking pollutes the air.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
12/14/2011 13:39 Comments ||
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#2
They never had any sense of shame---nowadays, they lost any sense of fear.
Jon Corzine was back in Washington to answer questions on the downfall of MF Global Tuesday, and offered slightly stronger language to defend his ignorance of whether any commingling of customer funds took place as alleged, but the real bombshell came later in the day when CME Group Executive Chairman Terrence Duffy said he heard a different story from an MF Global employee.
Testifying before the Senate Agriculture Committee after an earlier panel featuring Corzine and two other top MF Global executives, Duffy said during Q&A that one of the firm's employees told the CME that Corzine knew about a loan to European affiliates shortly before the company's Oct. 31 bankruptcy filing, a loan that came from commingled customer funds.
The CME's auditors were told at 2 a.m. on Oct. 31 to stop looking for an accounting error, Duffy said, that MF Global had dipped into customer segregated funds and that Corzine was aware of the fact.
The CME's auditors were told at 2 a.m. on Oct. 31 to stop looking for an accounting error, Duffy said, that MF Global had dipped into customer segregated funds and that Corzine was aware of the fact.
CME is not undertaking its own investigation, Duffy said, after being told not to by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Department of Justice. Duffy estimates the MF Global shortfall at between $700 million and $900 million. The $1.2 billion figure estimated by bankruptcy trustee James Giddens goes beyond the U.S. futures accounts that comprise the CME's estimate.
Corzine, who told a House committee last week that he had no knowledge of how as much as $1.2 billion in customer money went missing and that it was not his intent that any funds would be improperly moved, said Tuesday that he "never gave any instruction to misuse customer funds."
During the hearing, before the Senate Agriculture Committee, Corzine appeared with MF Global COO Bradley Abelow and CFO Henri Steenkamp. When Chairwoman Debbie Stabneow, D-Mich., asked all three where the missing customer funds went, Abelow and Steenkamp said they did not know either.
#1
Cute. He "never gave any instruction to misuse customer funds". Of course not. Now, he might have give instructions (or tacitly approved such) to USE customer funds. But MISUSE? Perish the thought.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
12/14/2011 7:32 Comments ||
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#2
start asking Obama if "he will promise not to pardon his close Democrat friend, Corzine". Ask it at EVERY press conference, PR stunt, and campaign stop.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/14/2011 7:34 Comments ||
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#3
Yet more Stuff That Wasn't Supposed To Happen Thanks To Sarbannes-Oxley.
#4
Don't worry, Snowy, Dodd-Frank will fix* all of this. Just you wait.
* I use 'fix' in the Chicago sense of the word.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/14/2011 8:58 Comments ||
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#5
Somebody did this. When they find him, he'll doubtless say Corzine approved it directly, or if that can't be proven, that Corzine indicated indirectly that it would okay,or, at last,that he, the employee, must have misunderstood Corzine.
The alternative would be that some trading program on the computers went rogue when nobody was looking.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
12/14/2011 9:17 Comments ||
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#6
All major financial companies have a "chinese wall" between customer accounts and proprietary accounts. I've worked in the IT departments of several financial companies (Citibank, Wells Fargo, GMAC and others). We could not find out what "the other side" was doing (they frequently used completely different applications).
Simply stated, only members of the Management Committe and Board of Directors would have a reason to know what's happening on both sides of the wall.
In addition, financial companies have such detailed controls that it is impossible to move money between the two sides without it being thoroughly recorded and multiple alarm bells going off. In fact the controls preventing this would need to be over-ridden multiple times, and the only person that could have done that is the CEO or COO.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
12/14/2011 11:17 Comments ||
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#7
Yet more Stuff That Wasn't Supposed To Happen Thanks To Sarbannes-Oxley
What Corzine may not realize is that it doesn't matter whether he "intended" for the funds to be misused or not. He is still in violation of Sarbanes-Oxley.
He may be counting on his good buddy Holder to give him a pass (What's a few felonies between friends?). However, if Obama looses the election, Corzine is looking at jail time.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
12/14/2011 11:25 Comments ||
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#8
Why did the commodities exchange and DOJ tell the auditors to stop looking?
Did they realize it was not an accounting error and that it was malfeasance or did they call it off to run cover for MF G?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
12/14/2011 13:46 Comments ||
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#12
In fact the controls preventing this would need to be over-ridden multiple times, and the only person that could have done that is the CEO or COO. -- the very definition of 'control fraud.'
#14
"CME is not undertaking its own investigation, Duffy said, after being told not to by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Department of Justice - who don't plan on investigating either, since it would implicate their buddy and major Bambi donor, JC."
FTFY, Mr. Duffy.
Posted by: Barbara ||
12/14/2011 20:40 Comments ||
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The internal affairs office of U.S. Customs and Border Protection is reviewing whether Tom Faller, director of unmanned aircraft systems operations, violated internal rules when he took an unpaid position as a board member of the Assn. for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International on Aug. 16.
Faller oversees eight Predator B surveillance drones that are chiefly used to help search for illegal immigrants and drug smugglers on the northern and southwestern borders. In some cases, the drones also have been used to assist the Drug Enforcement Administration and other law enforcement agencies in criminal investigations, and to survey damage after floods and other natural disasters.
After inquiries from the Los Angeles Times last month, Faller notified the group on Nov. 23 that he was resigning from the board, said Melanie Hinton, a spokeswoman for the drone group. She said Faller did not attend any board meetings.
"Internal affairs is reviewing issues related to an employee's outside associations," Joanne Ferreira, a Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman, said Monday in response to questions about Faller. "We are unable to comment on any ongoing investigation."
If found in violation, Faller could be issued a written reprimand, suspended or dismissed from government. He has held the post since April 2009. He did not respond to requests for comment.
Over the last six years, Customs and Border Protection has spent more than $240 million to buy and operate eight drones. It's scheduled to add two more drones next summer.
"To the extent that the agency purchases any of this technology, there might be a conflict" of interest, said Stanley Brand, who was general counsel to the House of Representatives from 1976 to 1983, and is an expert on government ethics.
In September, a month after Faller joined the board, the association hosted a technology fair in the foyer of the Rayburn building, where members of the House maintain offices. Drone aircraft companies were able to display their products and meet members of Congress. Faller's division, the Office of Air and Marine at Customs and Border Protection, took part in the exhibit.
Based in Arlington, Va., the drone association has a $7.5-million annual operating budget, including $2 million a year for conferences and trade shows to encourage government agencies and companies to use unmanned aircraft. It has 23 board members and claims about 6,000 members around the world.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., a private company in San Diego that builds the Predator B drone, and defense giant Raytheon Co., which develops the cameras and radar sensors used on the aircraft, each paid $10,000 in annual dues to the association in 2011, records show.
[Pak Daily Times] Mocking the 'strict' security arrangements at district courts, a gunman shot and injured an under trial prisoner on Tuesday in yet another incident of firing at the court premises.
An eyewitness talking to Daily Times, said about 11:30 AM a man wearing lawyers' dress, taking advantage of absence of a walk through gate security official, entered court premises.
At the same time, murder accused Rana Sarwat was coming out from the court of Additional Sessions Judge Wajahat Hussain after case hearing with special guard squad (SGS) of police. Sub-Inspector Ghulam Shabbir led four constables of SGS police.
Taking advantage of poor security arrangements, the man, later identified as Muhammad Iqbal opened fire on the accused and attempted to flee the scene but was captured at main exit of the court. The police recovered 30-bore pistol from his possession.
The police official Ghulam Shabbir said, Sarwat has received two bullets to his shoulder.
The injured man was taken to Pakistain Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), where the prisoner was discharged after emergency treatment and taken to the jail hospital.
Earlier, on September 11, 2011 in a similar firing incident at the same court beat feet while two other police officials received bullet injuries.
Shabbir said the shooter fired three bullets, two of which hit the Sarwat while third went astray.
Sarwat was indicted in a case of kidnapping a boy for ransom from Lahore and taking him to Islamabad and later killing him.
The kidnapping case was registered in Lahore while the murder case was registered at Bhara Kahu Police Station Islamabad. After the murder, Sarwat decamped to the US in 2001. He was pursued by the police and was finally incarcerated with the help of Interpol, a police official said.
Sarwat has completed his sentence in kidnapping case but the said court is hearing the murder charges.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/14/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#2
That is one wicked looking monster of an airplane. The force and moment changes on the wing when the payload drops off will be... large. They'll be sweating bullets on the first real test.
#3
As said before, "GREEN TECHS" is notsomuch about GWCC but more about PREPPING WORLD GOVTS-SOCIETIES TO SCIMP IN SUPPORT OF [OWG-LED = US?] DEEP SPACE EXPLORATION + ULTIMATELY COLONIZATION.
Among other, OWG-NWO = synonyous wid SPACE GOVT-ORDER.
Just as one's Parents had to stop or cut back on certain things to meet bi-weekly or monthly, etc. Personal + Household Budgets, DITTO NOW FOR ALL OF EARTH'S GOVTS-SOCIETIES VEE DEEP SPACE COLONIZATION.
Sri Lanka on Tuesday said it was "true friends" with China due to military assistance provided during the island's bloody civil war, underlining growing links with Beijing.
China's influence in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal and other surrounding countries is a sensitive subject with neighbouring India, which itself has emerged as a strong regional player in Asia as its economy has boomed.
Army chief Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya thanked China for its "unfailing support" in helping to train the Sri Lankan army, which wiped out the Tamil Tiger rebels in a brutal offensive in 2009 after decades of war.
Jayasuriya told visiting Chinese General Ma Xiaotian "how the nation, as the war was on, looked at the true friends of Sri Lanka with a deep sense of pride and appreciation", the army said on its website.
China was a key supplier of arms and aircraft during Sri Lanka's conflict with the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels, who in 2006 controlled up to one-third of the island.
China is also actively involved in funding infrastructure projects in Sri Lanka through loans to build railways, roads, a cargo terminal and an airport in the island.
India traditionally considers itself Sri Lanka's closest ally and it enjoys close ethnic and cultural ties with the island.
Officials in New Delhi were not immediately available to respond to Jayasuriya's comments.
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.
...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile...
Mocking the 'strict' security arrangements at district courts, a gunman shot and injured an under trial prisoner on Tuesday in yet another incident of firing at the court premises.
