Dead-tree media monkeys still trying to sanitize the disloyal opposition, this time with an idyllic fluff piece about a conclave of moonbats and terror-enablers near Pittsburg.
To someone walking through Schenley Park in Oakland (PA, a suburb of Pittsburg)
yesterday, the gathering at the Anderson Pavilion might have looked like any other Fourth of July picnic -- food, kids, Frisbees and fun, even a three-legged race. A scene straight out of State Fair, just plain folks those Anarchists.
Of course, there also was that big black banner with giant letters proclaiming "Anarchy." "Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?"
The third annual anarchist picnic -- an alternative Fourth of July event -- attracted about 85 people, more than in past years. It might be a reflection of the growing movement. Or it might have been just a really nice day. 85? 85! A flea circus or a ten percent discount on toilet paper would probably attract a bigger crowd than that in Pittsburg, yet the dead-tree monkey sees it as evidence of a growing movement.
Alex Bradley, 27, of Bloomfield, has been involved in all three of the picnics and was one of the three speakers who addressed the gathering, sharing the message of the voluntary association of individuals rather than life under a coercive government. "Some animals are more equal than others" however.
"This is the largest anarchist event that happens in Pittsburgh each year, especially nonprotest," Mr. Bradley said. "It's an all-ages event, where everybody is welcome." We want to start the indoctrination young.
Those attending were members of many socially minded projects in Western Pennsylvania, including the Thomas Merton Center, Pittsburgh Organizing Group, Free Ride, "Rustbelt Radio" and Food Not Bombs. Yes, our arsenal of bombs, used to oppress Al Qaeda and other advocates of non-coercive association, has certainly led to widespread starvation in this country. We saw this in the emaciated bodies of Katrina victims.
"A lot of people here work on really different projects and they don't get the chance to interact a lot during the year," Mr. Bradley said. "One group feeds the homeless, another works for peace, others are involved in the political process. They have different, divergent purposes." Anyone working to free Cuban political prisoners? End censorship in Venezuela? We know the answers.
Jessica McPherson, 27, of Garfield, works with "Rustbelt Radio," a weekly radio program that covers "news from the grass-roots that is overlooked by the corporate media." "mostly because we make it up ourselves and they run only the stuff they make up," she added.
She's also part of Free Ride, a bicycle recycling program. "There are a lot of different groups and people with different ideas here, but there is an over-arcing similarity," she said. "And it's nice to get in touch with people with similar ideas who are doing similar work that I might not see day to day in the projects I work with.
"It's also nice to have an alternative celebration. There's a lot of blind patriotism about the Fourth of July and not a lot of introspection. She knows this because, like most moonbats, she not only believes in clairvoyant powers but assigns great range and depth to her own, so much so that she reads millions of minds at at time.
People need to remember what it means. We're celebrating freedom, but are we taking away freedoms? Quite a few AQ killers have had their freedom to breathe taken away, no thanks to these self-important wankers. We're celebrating democracy, but are we building democracy or damaging democracy?" You are definitely damaging it, Jessica.
Mr. Bradley acknowledged that there is a "popular perception" about anarchists that works against them and their cause. Also facts, history and logic but those are constructs of the white male hegemony anyway.
"We're pretty much like everyone else, when you get down to it," said Mr. Bradley, who works 40 hours a week in a post office. "We're not about living in the woods and writing crazy manifestos. Postal? He probably pulls down about 100K a year from the gummint he wants to abolish and that oppresses him so.
"A lot of people think it's about violence, disorder, chaos, people doing whatever they want.
Why would the public think that anarchy is about violence, disorder and chaos?
But, at its root, it's about direct democracy. Anarchists are not anti-organization. Again, some animals are more equal than others. They're anti-hierarchy. People get that confused because most organizations are hierarchical." by definition in fact.
In fact, a little organization can be a good thing, he said, especially when putting together a picnic. "You need some communication and organization," he said. "That way we don't have 25 bags of chips. Hey, they can organize a picnic, let's hand the country over to them.
"I would have preferred that there had been some hot dogs. But it's pot-luck and people can only bring so much. I ate a lot of brownies." I'll bet, probably a lot of Oreos too.
And the anarchists' Fourth of July message? It's anything but anti-American. We have a monkey's word for this, it must be true.
"Just because I have issues with the U.S. government now doesn't mean I want to bring the king of England back," Mr. Bradley said. The Caliph of Cairo or the Commissar of Resource Allocation maybe, but not the King of England.
#3
Anarchy would last long enough for the strong men to organize themselves into warlords.
And, frankly, someone should remind the press that anarchists gave us a presidential assassination and WWI.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
07/02/2007 7:54 Comments ||
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#4
And a very vicious assassinations and random bombings spree in the late 19th century, ended only by WWI, including the complete destruction of a cathedral upon the believers. Anyway, why it is that when one refers to anarchism, it's always collectivist or leftist anarchism? To me, "true" anarchy would be anarcho-capitalism or right-wing anarchism, that is putting the self-reliant, free individual above the group, with the rule of law/contract to cover interactions between individuals and the group. But it seems that since its inception, anarchism always has been de facto accapared by the left, and has a terrible legacy to answer for.
#6
Is there some reason you keep calling Pittsburgh "Pittsburg"? Pittsburg's in Kansas.
Oakland isn't a suburb of Pittsburgh, it's the university district, the other side of the Hill District from Downtown. It's deep inside the city proper. All the greenspace might confuse someone unfamiliar with the city's rather unique development pattern. (There's a lot of vertical slopes in Pittsburgh which precluded development, which resulted in ravine-floor and ridgeline neighborhoods and steep wooded slopes in between, all the way into the heart of the city.)
Oakland's the home of the University of Pittsburgh & CMU. As such, it's the natural and concentrated centre of SW Pennsylvanian moonbattery. On the other hand, we haven't had real bomb-throwers in these parts since early in the last century. "Anarchists" in these parts are feeble-minded leftists who self-indentify with "left" Marxism who aren't Trotskyites. Think anarcho-syndicalism, not Bukunin anarchism.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/02/2007 8:29 Comments ||
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#7
Is it just me, or are the statements, "This is the largest anarchist event...", and "...everybody is welcome" contradictory?
How do anarchists organize? By default they crave anarchy.
#14
And you put "The conquest of cool" on my radar screen/to read list, with that intriguing notion of collusion between counterculture and mass media/mass consumerism.
#15
Agreed, Atomic Conspiracy, don't go, and don't stop posting. Us mods are s'posed to be the grammar police, and actually Mitch's travelogue was helpful in setting our tiny-fisted friends in their proper context, swaddled in the protective tree-coated Three Rivers Valley.
#16
IIRC, at various times in its history, Pittsburgh has been spelled without the "h." I knew which "Pittsburg" AC was referring to, so no biggie.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/02/2007 10:29 Comments ||
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#17
Yeah, anyone that can use the words pedantic and chickenshit in one sentence is ok in my book. Have another pot of coffee and scream it out, you'll be fine.
#18
They are not Anarchists rather just deluded idiots.
Real anarchists don't organize. PERIOD!.
That say they can be really dangerous!
I remember a long discussion many years ago with a guest lecturer prof from Vermont or NH who claimed to be a WHITE Anarchist.
I was like WTF? So I asked him to explain.
He said: "White Anarchists don't believe in violence for any reason, Grey's sometimes and Black Anarchist's have no problem with it"
Okay, so I was about to ask how an Anarchist could subscribe to any theory and still be an Anarchist when he blurted out "I am sorry but I just can't do needles like you kids do."
WTF? Needles?
I finally figured out he was a drug addict scared of needles. His scam to pay for it was the lecture circuit ranting about White Anarchy.
Next he asked me where he could find some drugs. I looked at him and said: "For a favor to a cute girl I agreed to drive you to where you wanted. Cute is no longer enough. Which street corner in the next 2 blocks do you want to be kicked out of the car at."
#21
So called Anarchists were fun in HS. I used to get them to talk about how there would be no laws, no police, etc, so they could do their drugs, then tell them if there was suddenly anarchy, the first thing I'd do would be hunt them down and shoot them. They'd immediately say, "You can't do that."
My reply was always, "No laws, no way to stop me."
PESHAWAR, June 30: Hundreds of villagers were stranded in the Sonoghur village on Saturday, a day after a large chunk of glacier broke loose in a remote area of Chitral district because of heavy rains. At least 20 houses and a mosque were buried under the sliding glacier. No loss of life was reported. Villagers told Dawn that the glacier was still moving towards low-lying areas.
Sonoghur village is 140kms north of Chitral. People in about 300 houses there have been evacuated. Stranded villagers need food and drinking water. Reports suggested that relief activity in the affected village could not be initiated because of its inaccessibility. Bridges on the only road leading to the remote village were swept away by hill torrents a couple of days ago.
Many others were marooned in the Battagram and Mansehra districts after landslides cut off major roads. Seven bodies were recovered on Saturday from the Khyber Agency, near Peshawar. Five of the dead were identified as Afghans and their bodies were dispatched to Afghanistan. Meanwhile, over 100 NGO officials are stranded in the Allai area of Battagram district and the Kaghan Valley in Mansehra district. Landslides in various areas of both the districts have rendered roads unmotorable.
#5
"Stranded villagers need food and drinking water." Dunno about the food, but why not melt some of that damned glacier? Might be able to kill two birds with one stone, as it were....
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - Inspectors and police raided stores Sunday to enforce sweeping price cuts imposed to curb Zimbabwe's soaring inflation, while shoppers fought over rapidly disappearing staples at supermarkets. At least 20 business executives were arrested over the weekend for hoarding goods and violating the government's order last week to slash prices of most products by half, the official Sunday Mail reported. Gasoline prices were ordered reduced by 70 percent, and stations quickly ran dry.
Store managers have complained they were being forced to sell goods at lower than cost. Inspectors and police forced their way into storage rooms at shops, demanding that stocks be put on sale and accusing managers of hoarding products, possibly to sell on the black market.
Zimbabwe, suffering its worst economic crisis since gaining independence from Britain in 1980, has the world's highest inflation. The official rate is 4,500 percent, but independent financial institutions calculate real inflation on essential goods at closer to 9,000 percent.
Store managers tried to limit shoppers to two items of soap, foodstuffs, milk and other goods. "I've got bargains here," said Aenias Mativenga, a Harare cook jostling at a checkout, his arms laden with packs of tea, frozen chicken and cartons of cookies.
Bread and the corn meal staple vanished from most shelves by Saturday. Inspectors ordered stores to slash the prices of all perishable goods Sunday, said one shop manager. "There'll soon be nothing left and we'll be closing," he told people converging on the store. Bargain seekers streamed across the nearby highway as word of the new reductions spread.
Crowds fought for sugar in the capital of Harare on Saturday, tearing open many of the packs and spilling the contents. Private security guards averted a riot at a downtown store that was forced to put scarce sugar on sale at a third of the black market price.
In the crumbling economy, sugar and cooking oil have mainly been available from black market dealers for months.
One wholesaler in western Harare received only 80 loaves of its regular 2,000-loaf order. "We gave it away to our staff rather than have an invasion," said a manager who asked not to be identified, fearing the premises would be targeted by angry shoppers. Police had been called in after the bread delivery truck arrived.
Tuesday's price reduction order included a range of basic goods and services, from commuter transportation to bread, sugar, meat, milk, corn meal and even newspapers. Industry Minister Obert Mpofu later extended it to rents and almost all manufactured products. "Reports are that some businesses are resisting this order. We are going to deal with them accordingly. We are going to arrest them," Industry Minister Obert Mpofu told The Sunday Mail.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/02/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
"Just wait! The Miracle of Socialism™ will be kicking in any minute now!"
#2
We are going to deal with them accordingly. We are going to arrest them," after I finish my ....pinapple ham with avocado and koeksisters, Industry Minister Obert Mpofu told The Sunday Mail.
#5
This is beyond stupid, tomorrow when the stores do not open because they're empty, are they going to slash the prices on their non-existent stock again?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/02/2007 18:50 Comments ||
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#2
Marriages are arranged; most rich men have 4 wives, causing a shortage of available females. Prostitution jaunts are common. There isn't much room for love in the "kingdom."
The biggest political party in Bangladesh, the Awami League, has unveiled a set of internal reforms aimed at curbing the powers of its autocratic leader, former premier Sheikh Hasina.
No person will be allowed to hold the post of party president or general secretary for more than two consecutive terms, said Abdur Razzak, a member of the party presidium, in announcing the 11-point reform plan late on Saturday. Razzak, who heads an Awami reformists panel, told reporters the plan would go to the partys working committee for approval once the army-backed Bangladeshi interim government lifted its ban on indoor political activity.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/02/2007 00:00 ||
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Former British prime minister Tony Blair proposed to his now wife Cherie while she was cleaning the toilet during a holiday in Italy, according to a new television documentary. Cherie Blair told BBC television that the future prime minister popped the question in 1979 as she was tidying a villa in Tuscany before they headed home. Id cleaned the toilet and he suddenly announced when I was on my knees that maybe we should get married, the human rights lawyer told the programme The Real Cherie Blair, which is to be broadcast on Wednesday. So you agreed to marry him while you were cleaning the toilet? the interviewer asked. Yes, lovely. It was terribly romantic! she added, according to extracts of the programme obtained by the News of the World tabloid. The programme also reveals that Blair calls his wife the bolshie Scouser, a reference to her Liverpool, north-west England, roots and often outspoken views. The Blairs later went on to have four children, including son Leo in 2000 who was the first child to be born to a serving prime minister in more than 150 years.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/02/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Poor guy. Who knows what came over him. Not only she is on the other scale of pretty, but a loo-n to boot.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/02/2007 8:05 Comments ||
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#6
While that photo of her is not flattering, Cherie Blair is not an unnattractive woman, and she is quite bright. Her problem is she has been brainwashed of common sense in her liberal upbringing and law school education. For some unknown reason that combination is extremely difficult to de-program.
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - European and Colombian counter-narcotics officials say that Venezuela has become the path of least resistance for smugglers of Colombian cocaine. The drug shipments are flowing nearly unhindered from Colombia into Venezuela, then leaving by the ton on ships and planes making deliveries for the multibillion-dollar U.S. and European markets, the officials say. They say high-level corruption has also helped make Venezuela a major haven for drug smugglers running from the law.
Anyone surprised by this? The Columbians, led by a legitimate President Uribe, have cracked down on the flights. So the nacro-traffickers head to a friendly Venezuela where Chavez is only too happy to take their money and provide them sanctuary.
The cocaine passing through Venezuela on President Hugo Chavez's watch has risen by as much as 30 tons a year since 2002, reaching an estimated 300 tons in 2006, according to U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield. That's roughly a third of the world's supply. "Caracas is replacing Bogota (Colombia's capital) as a center of everything related to drug operations," said Mildred Camero, who was Venezuela's top anti-drug official until she reported high-level corruption and was dismissed in 2005.
Venezuelan airports have become such sieves that airborne smuggling - almost all of it from Venezuela - now accounts for about 30 percent of cocaine and heroin traffic out of the Andes, compared with 10 percent two years ago, said U.S. Adm. Jeffrey Hathaway, outgoing director of the multinational command that coordinates drug interdiction in the region. Of 46 suspected drug flights detected in the Caribbean by U.S. surveillance in the first four months of 2007, all but six originated in Venezuela.
#8
How long would it take to bomb every one of ooGos runways? I would think that the navy could do this after sunset, get some rest and be able to enjoty the sunrise.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
07/02/2007 11:52 Comments ||
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MEXICO CITY (AP) - The leftist who barely lost Mexico's presidential election criticized President Felipe Calderon's oil policies, promising unspecified consequences during a mass rally Sunday aimed at re-igniting his government-in-resistance.
Mark in Mexico is yer one-stop AMLO and Messkin leftist news aggregator. His current posts are pretty fluffy, but dig around in his archives, they're worth your time.
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador threatened to rouse the masses if Calderon tries to privatize the state-owned oil industry or open it to foreign investment. "Zero negotiation. I repeat, zero negotiation with those who carry out policies against the people, and hand over the nation's sovereignty to foreigners," he told the rally, which drew hundreds of thousands of people.
Lopez Obrador has blamed his defeat on fraud and refused to recognize Calderon - who won the five-way election by a margin of about 230,000 votes - and has mounted his own parallel government with himself as "legitimate president." Lopez Obrador warned of unspecified consequences if Calderon tries to open the oil industry, which suffers from falling production and a lack of investment. He also blamed the current government for the flood of Mexican migrants heading to the United States, saying it was a result of policies that impoverished farm families.
His movement, which draws support from about one-quarter of the population, is keeping alive an undercurrent of skepticism and discontent, though it rarely makes headlines anymore.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/02/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
"Hotice me! Notice me!" he screamend, stamping his tiny feet in impotent rage.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/02/2007 11:03 Comments ||
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#2
This is why the illegals love to march in our streets. Indoctrinated by Commies like this fool and still think it's the thing to do whenever things aren't going your way.
The son of Chad's president was found dead with a head wound Monday in the basement of his apartment building in a Paris suburb, and authorities were treating the case as a murder investigation, judicial officials said.
"Legume! Fetch my cape and saxophone! The game is afoot!"
The building's caretaker found Brahim Deby's body early Monday, the prosecutor's office in the Paris suburb of Nanterre said. It said Deby appeared to have died violently and police were investigating the case as homicide. The body was found in a corridor between the underground parking lot and a flight of stairs in the building in Courbevoie, west of Paris.
Are they sure he didn't fall down the stairs and land on the bullet?
An autopsy was to be performed later Monday, prosecution officials said.
"C'mon, Sam, what the hell is this?"
"It's another dead body, Dr. Qunicy. You've seen those before."
"Sure, Sam, but the RAB is much neater. What a mess this one is!"
In Chad, President Idriss Deby's office said the Chadian leader was aware of the death but had no other details. Brahim Deby, 27, was the president's oldest son and had no official government post, according to the president's office, which added that the Chadian president was in Ghana Monday for an African Union summit.
Brahim Deby was convicted of drugs and weapons charges in June 2006. A Paris court gave him a suspended six-month jail sentence for possession of drugs and illegally carrying a weapon.
#5
Ye Olde Anonymous Police Source sez to the msm that drug deal gone bad is the favored angle so far, not the political killing one, and that brahim choked to death on the fire extinguisher podwer he was sprayed with, while lying on the floor. He died snorting, if you wish, isn't that comforting, as a drug addict, I ask you?
Nicosia - Cypriot police said Monday they had found no trace of a US embassy staff member who had been missing on the island for four days but added that their extensive hunt would continue. 'The search will go on,' a police spokesman said.
The missing man, 45-year-old Thomas Mooney, has been described as embassy secretary. Cypriot television however broadcast photos of him in the uniform of a lieutenant colonel and diplomats from other embassies said they know him as a military attache in the US embassy in Nicosia.
Mooney is reported to have arrived in Cyprus in June 2006 after periods in various Middle Eastern countries and in Iraq.
'We are ruling nothing out,' Cypriot Justice Minister Sophoklis Sophokleous said.
The missing man has not been seen since leaving the embassy building last Thursday. One colleague said he had been going to a fitness centre at a Nicosia hotel while another said he had intended picking up somebody at the international airport in the port city of Larnaka.
Media reports said the search had expanded to Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus.
#5
Two bits says it is an AQ hit. Just like in Jordan a few years back.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
07/02/2007 12:00 Comments ||
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#6
Dead US diplomat in Cyprus 'stabbed himself'
The US embassy's defence attache in Cyprus was found dead on Monday on a hilltop in a remote part of the Mediterranean island after apparently stabbing himself in the neck, officials said.
Thomas Mooney "died as a result of haemorrhaging after the infliction of an injury to the neck," an official involved in the post-mortem told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"The injury was compatible with self-infliction. There was no evidence of foul play whatsover," the official said, adding that the wound was caused by a sharp instrument and that the body was in a state of decomposition.
Police confirmed he had died as a result of a large wound to the neck, but declined to describe it as suicide, which is illegal in Cyprus.
US ambassador Ronald Schlicher had earlier confirmed that the body of a man found in the foothills of the Troodos mountains southwest of Nicosia was Mooney, who was last seen on Thursday.
"After notification of next of kin, with deep sadness, I announce that Thomas Mooney, who served his nation with distinction as our defence attache, was found dead by Cypriot authorities on Monday," he said in a statement.
"The cause of his death is being investigated."
Sounds like that's their story and they're sticking to it..
SAMMY'S HOUSE
By Kristin Gore
Hyperion. 384. $24.95
Kristin Gore, the second of Al and Tipper Gore's three daughters, has been known as the one with a hyperactive funny bone. . . . "Sammy's Hill," published three years ago, introduced lovable, klutzy Samantha (Sammy) Joyce, then an aide to Sen. Robert Gary. Now, in "Sammy's House," Gary is vice president, in the administration of President Max Wye, and Sammy works on health-care issues in the White House.
The new book is readable, sometimes funny and certainly interesting, but ultimately it has the problem of being two different novels that don't fit together. Perhaps two-thirds of Gore's story is high-grade chick-lit about Sammy's romantic adventures and professional mishaps. The rest can only be read as an angry, down-and-dirty roman a clef in which President Wye and Vice President Gary stand in for President Clinton and Vice President Gore; we watch as the former becomes embroiled in a scandal that horrifies the honorable No. 2 who has served him loyally. Kristin Gore is a comic writer, but there's nothing remotely funny about her scathing fictional portrait of Clinton. . . .
The book starts as chick-lit. Sammy is sweet, smart, sexy and scatterbrained. . . . Meanwhile, a darker story begins to surface. President Wye, a former governor of Louisiana, is sometimes brilliant, but "he always stared at himself for too long in mirrors," "he wanted to please too many people to be able to consistently take tough stands," and "he lacked a strong inner compass." There was a problem during the campaign when reporters realized that Wye's stump speech had plagiarized an obscure foreign politician . . . .
Now, two years into the presidency, a far bigger scandal looms. President Wye claims to have not used alcohol for many years. But our Sammy, in her Nancy Drew mode, is among the first to learn that's not true. Soon the president is behaving erratically. He's leaving incoherent voice-mail messages around town, and rumors are spreading. Worse, as Sammy knows, he's also been using an illegal experimental drug to combat his drinking. At a televised news conference, he flatly denies he's had a drink in years, although many people know better. An independent counsel is appointed, and subpoenas begin to fly. Where will it end? Will the erring president survive like Clinton or go down like Nixon? We must take this drinking-and-lying scandal as an analogy to Clinton's problem with bimbo eruptions in general and Monica Lewinsky in particular. . . .
The upstanding Vice President Gary is agonized by the scandal and, before he goes to testify, confides in Sammy -- they seem to have almost a father-daughter relationship: "I didn't realize how weak he truly is. . . . It's just amazing how quickly a person you thought you knew can completely disappoint you. . . . And now we're all trapped. . . . Now he's made us all look like liars."
The roman a clef doesn't stop with the president and vice president. The first lady has a nasty disposition, a "glossy smile," a "hairsprayed coif" and "heavy perfume" (it makes Sammy sneeze), and her "paranoia was legendary." . . .
In all this, Gore demonstrates narrative skill and a knack for good dialogue and vivid descriptions. But will readers who come to this expecting chick-lit enjoy the political hardball, or will political types endure Sammy's romantic tribulations? Gore should have gone one way or the other. If she had written this as a political novel, without the cute stuff, it would certainly have been a cut above average in that genre. As it is, Kristin Gore has not told us anything about Bill Clinton that we haven't known for years. Still, for Al Gore's daughter to remind us of the former president's failings (and of her father's virtues) in this very public manner, at a time when Al Gore may still seek his party's presidential nomination, and Clinton's wife might be his rival, leaves us wondering if her excursion into recent history can be entirely innocent of political intent.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/02/2007 15:24 ||
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I hope Kristin has a good bodyguard. People close to the Clintons that have talked have had mysterious "accidents".
#2
One of the great secrets is how both Al and Tipper have a burning hatred of Bill and Hillary. For more than eight years, B&H treated A&T like lower class dogs.
Hillary in particular treated Tipper as if she was a despised servant, frequently belittling her as fat, ill-educated and lower class (only graduating from Boston College instead of Wellesley, like Hillary). Hillary also like to sneer at Al to his face.
For his part, Bill saw Al as an errand boy and gopher. "Go get me a cup of coffee, Al". Which is how he treated a lot of his subordinates, like the Secret Service detail, who despised him. Bill enjoyed embarrassing Al by contradicting him, having him lie in Bill's behalf, and then denying everything.
Yep, A&T would not be unhappy to see B&H sold into slavery.
#3
I like how Alchohol fits into the picture though since the immediate mental connection is with Bush W. She's a sly girl. I think she was a staff writer for Futurama some time ago.
#6
I like the idea of restoring democracy but I have a feeling that Pakistan would cease to exist soon after. Pakistan has a cancer and I believe it's too late to remove it without causing the entire nation to collapse into pieces.
#7
This could be a disaster and looks to be another State Department run amok by Clinton hold overs. Everyone knows the history of Pakistan-Americans and their love of the Clintons to the tune of millions of dollars. Go here for the story:
http://users.aol.com/beachbt/pakistan.txt
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
07/02/2007 12:06 Comments ||
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The United States has urged for the restoration of democracy in Pakistan and expects Pakistans planned 2007 general elections to be free and fair, according to an updated report on US-Pakistan relations issued by the Congressional Research Service (CRS).
The report notes that Congress has annually granted one-year presidential authority to waive coup-related aid sanctions and that Pakistan is among the worlds leading recipients of US aid, obtaining about $3.4 billion in direct US assistance during 2002-2006, including nearly $1.5 billion in security-related aid. Pakistan has also received nearly $5 billion in reimbursements for its support of US-led counter-terrorism operations since 2001.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/02/2007 00:00 ||
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Indias navy will acquire six new submarines and 33 ships, a top admiral said on Saturday, a day after India decided to invite bids for combat jets to upgrade its air forces capability.
Our interest is not restricted to the Indian Ocean, Admiral Sureesh Mehta told reporters in the eastern city of Kolkata. He did not elaborate, but said we need a vibrant navy to safeguard Indias economic interests. India has 7,516km of coastline.
Mehta said it would take about six years for the navy to acquire the six new submarines and 33 ships. It currently has 126 ships and 16 submarines, some of which are ageing. India has been seeking to bolster its rise as an economic power by reshaping its armed forces into a modern military capable of projecting power well beyond its shores.
The defence ministry said on Friday that it was inviting bids from international aircraft makers for 126 combat jets to upgrade its air forces capability at an estimated cost of Rs420 billion ($10 billion). India is expected to evaluate aircraft built by US manufacturers Lockheed Martin and Boeing, Frances Dassault Aviation, Swedens Gripen-SAAB and Russias Sukhoi.
Indias defence spending has steadily risen in recent years, despite significant steps towards peace with Pakistan. The government raised the defence budget by 12 per cent to Rs960 billion ($21 billion) in fiscal 2007-08 to support the militarys modernisation.
#1
I think that the US should seriously consider selling India 2 Wasp class LHDs : the next 2 in line for retirement. However, the US should start building 2 new Wasp plus LHDs to replace them in the next 3-5 years, and then sell the 2 older Wasps to the Indians, along with 22 Harriers each, and the 6 MH-60s ASW helos, and spares. Then the Indians would effectively have 2 sea control carriers of their own, and would be able to deny access to ports on either of their coasts to hostile ships/planes. Of course, the Indians may want to have the Wasps modified with a permanent ski jump to enhance them for sea control duties. And the Indian Navy would also be smart to pickup some air-cushion vehicles to take advantage of the amphib capabilities of the Wasps.
#3
Y'all won't buhlieve how pissed off ah am raht now!
Ungrateful bastids!!
Posted by: Jimmy Carter ||
07/02/2007 12:17 Comments ||
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#4
Fascist tyrant honors German prime minister who sided with other fascist tyrants.
Surprise meter reading "off-scale low."
Posted by: Mike ||
07/02/2007 14:34 Comments ||
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#5
Honorary degrees usually cost a university building or a fully funded Chair. Granted, Herr Doktor (Hon.) Schroeder worked for Gazprom (I think) for a bit, but German pensions are not the kind of thing wealth grows from. Hmm...
#7
Mebbe Schroeder bestowed an Iron Cross 2nd Class on Alois Brunner while in Syria. Mebbe Gerhard, Bashir, and Alois had dinner together to discuss "The Good Old Days"...
DONNA ABU-NASR - The Associated Press
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- As the car stopped outside a Riyadh amusement park, two bearded men dragged the driver from the wheel and took the uncovered meat pieces three women on a wild ride of more than an hour, bouncing over sidewalks and finally abandoning them on a darkened street.
The women at first thought they had been kidnapped by terrorists. The two men however, said they were religious police.
It might have gone down as just one more excess of zealousness by the forces charged with upholding Islamic modesty, except that Umm Faisal, the senior of three women, did something that is believed unprecedented in Saudi Arabia: She went to court.
On Monday, four years after the incident, the latest chapter of the legal battle being waged by this 50-year-old mother of five reopens before Riyadh's Grievances Court, which handles damages suits for abuses by government and public figures.
The unusual publicity surrounding Umm Faisal's story comes on top of two cases involving the death of two Saudi men in religious police custody -- one arrested for allegedly consuming alcohol, another for being alone with a woman not of his family.
A trial opened June 25 against three religious police officers and a fourth man in the death of Ahmed al-Bulaiwi, the man detained for being alone with a woman. Relatives demanded the death penalty against the defendants. He he.
Taken together, the cases threaten to undermine the authority of the force's employer, the powerful, independent body called the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.
Since the commission's creation more than six decades ago, there has been no known public legal action taken against its members despite complaints they occasionally overstep their boundaries. The public view has tended to be that whatever their faults, they are acting in Islam's name to defend morality.
But things may be changing.
The National Society for Human Rights, a nongovernment body, has issued a report which, according to the daily Arab News, levels a string of allegations at the religious police: abusive language, unsubstantiated accusations, humiliation of people during interrogation, beatings, unnecessary body searches, forced entry into private homes and coerced confessions.
The report, as well as the extensive coverage the cases have received and editorials calling for the commission's reform, suggest the government may act to regulate the force.
Another setback for the commission came in the appointed Consultative Council, the nearest thing to a parliament in Saudi Arabia. It rejected proposals to build more commission centers and give its members a 20 percent salary raise. While the council's actions are not binding, they reflect a general desire to curb the religious police's power.
"Society has developed and the relationship of other governmental bodies with the people has developed and become more human," said Dawood al-Shirian, a Saudi journalist. "Yet the commission has not changed."
"Society in principle doesn't reject the commission," he added. "But the commission's problem is that it doesn't have a proper job description."
Several media outlets have conducted informal surveys asking Saudis whether the commission should be dissolved. Some have said yes. While the polls may be unscientific, simply asking the question is significant.
Ibrahim al-Ghaith, the commission's head, dismissed the polls, saying the commission is "one of the oldest governmental agencies ... and not a cooperative that can be eliminated because of individual mistakes," according to the Al-Jazira newspaper.
The Saudi government is reluctant to tamper with its religious establishments for fear of angering conservatives and weakening its credentials as custodian of Islam's two holiest shrines. The conservative impulse has lately been illustrated by a request from 14 faculty members of King Saud University's medical school to ban male students from treating women and vice versa, on the grounds that handling bodies of the other sex can give you cooties is un-Islamic.
But there are signs the commission is acting to limit the damage to the religious police's reputation. It now has a spokesman and a legal department to guide its members.
Umm Faisal -- her full name is withheld in reports on the case -- says she, her 21-year-old daughter and her Indonesian maid went to pick up her two teenage sons from the amusement park in the family's new Chevrolet Caprice.
"I kept asking the men, 'Are you terrorists?' They finally said they were members of the commission," she said. "When I asked what they wanted, they called me names, including adulteress."
Umm Faisal said the men drove so fast and badly that smoke came out of the car.
The men stopped the car, called their friends and asked them to pick them up. The women, who don't know how to drive (and can't anyway, under Saudi law), were left to the mercies of passersby.
Umm Faisal headed to the police to lodge a complaint. "When questioned, the commission members claimed we were indecently covered," because her daughter's veil didn't cover her eyes, she said.
In early 2004 she filed suit at Riyadh's General Court, but says several judges pressed her to drop it and late last year the case was dismissed.
She then turned to the Grievances Court, which fined one official $540 for mistreating the women and acquitted the other.
Umm Faisal isn't satisfied, and her appeal opens before the court today.
#2
What will matter is who Umm Faisal's father and brothers are.
The muttawa may have thought her unconnected, due to the relatively inexpensive car they were driving. But the royal family has grown quite large of late and even lesser members can claim status when there is a public offense against them.
members of the appointed Consultative Council, the closest entity Saudi Arabia has to a parliament, have rejected proposals to build more commission centers (for the muttawa) in the kingdom or give its members a 20 percent salary raise. While the council's actions are not binding, they reflect a general desire to curb the religious police's power.
Why is the U.S. Navy buying only enough special bomb racks (130) to equip four percent of its F-18 fighters?
The problem here is that the JDAM is so efficient that most F-18s are lucky to drop one of them per sortie.
The smart bombs have eliminated speed as a problem, and made that larger bomb carrying capacity a virtue. The targeting pods enable the pilots to make out armored vehicles from 20,000 feet up, and twenty kilometers away. The fighter pilots keep quiet about it, but they are eager to strut their new stuff against a large enemy armor force. In theory, a force of fifty fighters (F-16s, F-15s, F-18s, F-35s, even F-22s) could destroy an enemy tank division in a few hours. The potential enemies, particularly the Chinese, are alarmed at this prospect, and are desperately seeking a solution. So far, they haven't found one. Not yet.
#1
Right about now I could make a snarky comment about how the other wing stations are needed to hold fuel tanks to compensate for the Lawn Dart's short legs, but I won't. Oops, too late.
Sorry.
#2
But you won't. Otherwise posters will have to point out the Falcon's range beats the Navy's beloved Hornet (about as far as the catapult can throw it).
Posted by: ed ||
07/02/2007 16:56 Comments ||
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Are you using Windows Vista? Then you might as well know that the licensed operating system installed on your machine is harvesting a healthy volume of information for Microsoft. In this context, a program such as the Windows Genuine Advantage is the last of your concerns. In fact, in excess of 20 Windows Vista features and services are hard at work collecting and transmitting your personal data to the Redmond company.
Microsoft makes no secret about the fact that Windows Vista is gathering information. End users have little to say, and no real choice in the matter. The company does provide both a Windows Vista Privacy Statement and references within the End User License Agreement for the operating system. Combined, the resources paint the big picture over the extent of Microsoft's end user data harvest via Vista.
Together with Windows Vista, Microsoft also provides a set of Internet-based services, for which it has reserved full control, including alteration and cancellation at any given time. The Internet-based services in Vista "coincidentally" connect to Microsoft and to "service provider computer systems."
Continued on Page 49
#1
Lots of hyperbole and hand-wringing in this article, but there's plenty of reason to be concerned. That's one reason I bought a Mac a couple of weeks ago.
The other reason is, as I investigated, I realized Macs are more serious machines for software development. I mean, a free profiler that works with Java, when the equivalent would set me back $500 for Windows?! Not to mention the underlying BSD...
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
07/02/2007 12:00 Comments ||
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Damascus, 2 July (AKI) - A high-level Syrian-Malaysian committee, whose brief is to develop economic and trade cooperation between the two countries, was meeting for the first time on Monday in Kuala Lumpur. The Syrian delegation is led by the economy and trade minister Amer Lutfi. During the meeting, Damascus and Kuala Lumpur are expected to a series of accords and protocols in the areas of trade, science and technology, culture and the media. Hmmm... what does Syria have that Malaysia wants/needs?
The Syrian government is especially interested in recent economic and political developments in Malaysia. In 2004, the King of Malaysia and the then prime minister visited Syria and last year the current premier Abdullah Badawi came to Damascus where he signed eight cooperation accords.
Malaysia is considered a model for members of the Syrian government in view of its desire to create a stock exchange, as well as a gateway through which Damascus is seeking entry for its products into the South East Asian market.
The volume of trade between the two countries is currently around 40 million euros per annum.
Posted by: mrp ||
07/02/2007 08:21 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#2
Malaysia is considered a model for members of the Syrian government in view of its desire to create a stock exchange, as well as a gateway through which Damascus is seeking entry for its products into the South East Asian market.
You ask what they want? Econometric modelling extrapolated from trading psychology and tendencies mimiced by market behavior. Much like our short lived idea of using future market force predictions to estimate and select future terrorist activity, you can probably use the inverse to determine targets and date planning. Thats what. What else would expect from Syria.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
07/02/2007 12:21 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
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.
PESHAWAR, June 30: Hundreds of villagers were stranded in the Sonoghur village on Saturday, a day after a large chunk of glacier broke loose in a remote area of Chitral district because of heavy rains. At least 20 houses and a mosque were buried under the sliding glacier. No loss of life was reported. Villagers told Dawn that the glacier was still moving towards low-lying areas.
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - Inspectors and police raided stores Sunday to enforce sweeping price cuts imposed to curb Zimbabwe's soaring inflation, while shoppers fought over rapidly disappearing staples at supermarkets. At least 20 business executives were arrested over the weekend for hoarding goods and violating the government's order last week to slash prices of most products by half, the official Sunday Mail reported. Gasoline prices were ordered reduced by 70 percent, and stations quickly ran dry. 
Former British prime minister Tony Blair proposed to his now wife Cherie while she was cleaning the toilet during a holiday in Italy, according to a new television documentary. Cherie Blair told BBC television that the future prime minister popped the question in 1979 as she was tidying a villa in Tuscany before they headed home. Id cleaned the toilet and he suddenly announced when I was on my knees that maybe we should get married, the human rights lawyer told the programme The Real Cherie Blair, which is to be broadcast on Wednesday. So you agreed to marry him while you were cleaning the toilet? the interviewer asked. Yes, lovely. It was terribly romantic! she added, according to extracts of the programme obtained by the News of the World tabloid. The programme also reveals that Blair calls his wife the bolshie Scouser, a reference to her Liverpool, north-west England, roots and often outspoken views. The Blairs later went on to have four children, including son Leo in 2000 who was the first child to be born to a serving prime minister in more than 150 years.
The son of Chad's president was found dead with a head wound Monday in the basement of his apartment building in a Paris suburb, and authorities were treating the case as a murder investigation, judicial officials said. 
The new book is readable, sometimes funny and certainly interesting, but ultimately it has the problem of being two different novels that don't fit together. Perhaps two-thirds of Gore's story is high-grade chick-lit about Sammy's romantic adventures and professional mishaps. The rest can only be read as an angry, down-and-dirty roman a clef in which President Wye and Vice President Gary stand in for President Clinton and Vice President Gore; we watch as the former becomes embroiled in a scandal that horrifies the honorable No. 2 who has served him loyally. Kristin Gore is a comic writer, but there's nothing remotely funny about her scathing fictional portrait of Clinton. . . .
Now, two years into the presidency, a far bigger scandal looms. President Wye claims to have not used alcohol for many years. But our Sammy, in her Nancy Drew mode, is among the first to learn that's not true. Soon the president is behaving erratically. He's leaving incoherent voice-mail messages around town, and rumors are spreading. Worse, as Sammy knows, he's also been using an illegal experimental drug to combat his drinking. At a televised news conference, he flatly denies he's had a drink in years, although many people know better. An independent counsel is appointed, and subpoenas begin to fly. Where will it end? Will the erring president survive like Clinton or go down like Nixon? We must take this drinking-and-lying scandal as an analogy to Clinton's problem with bimbo eruptions in general and Monica Lewinsky in particular. . . .
The roman a clef doesn't stop with the president and vice president. The first lady has a nasty disposition, a "glossy smile," a "hairsprayed coif" and "heavy perfume" (it makes Sammy sneeze), and her "paranoia was legendary." . . . 
The United States has urged for the restoration of democracy in Pakistan and expects Pakistans planned 2007 general elections to be free and fair, according to an updated report on US-Pakistan relations issued by the Congressional Research Service (CRS).
