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Maliki Vows Crackdown in Baghdad
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
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Page 4: Opinion
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1 00:00 The Ghost of Walter Duranty [7]
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
UK police escort Naomi Campbell off plane
British police escorted supermodel Naomi Campbell off a U.S.-bound flight at London's Heathrow airport on Thursday, airport sources said. "Police were called to remove a passenger from a British Airways flight this afternoon," a spokesman for the British airport authority told Reuters.

Police said they had arrested a passenger on suspicion of assaulting an officer but declined to provide further details.

Airport sources identified the passenger as Campbell who was on a BA flight due to depart for Los Angeles.

Campbell spent five days mopping floors as part of a community service sentence in New York last year and was ordered to attend anger management classes after throwing a mobile phone at her housekeeper during a row over a pair of jeans. The model has blamed her temper on resentment of her father who abandoned her as a child.
Posted by: Fred || 04/04/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'd say have her spend five days cleaning under beds in the British Army barracks in Afghanistan. In a miniskirt.
Posted by: gorb || 04/04/2008 2:36 Comments || Top||

#2  The model has blamed her temper excuse for being an asshole on resentment of her father who abandoned her as a child.

The only disagreement with this is that the plane was not in flight when she was escorted off.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/04/2008 9:12 Comments || Top||

#3  Spoiled brat needs to be spanked. I'd be happy to turn her over my knee.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 04/04/2008 11:38 Comments || Top||

#4  Maybe her next stunt will be to stab somebody's car with an umbrella.......
(JASCC)*


*Just Another Spoiled Celebrity [Civilian Under Naval Training])
Posted by: USN,Ret. || 04/04/2008 16:12 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Global Warming Alert: U.N. Forecasters: Global Temperatures to Decrease
Average global temperatures in 2008 are forecast to be lower than in previous years, thanks to the cooling effect of the ocean current in the Pacific, U.N. meteorologists say.

The World Meteorological Organisation's secretary-general, Michel Jarraud, said it was likely that La Nina, an abnormal cooling of sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, would continue into the summer.

If the forecast holds true, global temperatures will not have risen since 1998, prompting some to question Global Warming climate change theory.

A small number of scientists doubt whether this means climate chamge global warming has peaked and the Earth has proved more resilient to greenhouse gases than predicted, but Jarraud insists this is not the case and notes that 1998 temperatures would still be well above average for the century.

"When you look at climate change you should not look at any particular year," he told the BBC. "You should look at trends over a pretty long period and the trend of temperature globally is still very much indicative of chamge warming."

"La Nina is part of what we call 'variability'. There has always been and there will always be cooler and warmer years, but what is important for global warming climate change is that the trend is up." Forget the mini-ice age, climate change only counts when temps go up.

Experts at the U.K. Met Office's Hadley Centre for forecasting in Exeter said the world could expect another record temperature within five years or less, the BBC reports, probably associated with an episode of El Nino
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 04/04/2008 11:10 || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  1998 was in itself "a variability", with the winter being the end of a very strong El Nino, and the end of the year the start of a mild, but long La Nina.

There have been three mild El Ninos since 1998.

The current La Nina is the first since 2001.
Posted by: DoDo || 04/04/2008 12:09 Comments || Top||

#2  "Mr. Gore! Mr. Gore! What does this mean?"

"It's very simple, my boy. Either global warming is going to melt the ice caps and kill all the polar bears, or it's going to bring on a new ice age and the polar bears will come south and eat us. Either way, we're doomed unless we give up technology and revert to a hunter-gathere existence. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to catch a Lear Jet to my next bing speech."
Posted by: Mike || 04/04/2008 12:28 Comments || Top||

#3  What about global dimming (due to pollutant particulates in the air that, combined with water vapor, reflect the sun's rays). It just has to be having an effect. I know it because I saw it on NOVA and there were all these nasty pictures of smokestacks and cars and factories and other really bad man-made stuff


Whatta bunch of frickin morons. You want to do something for the environment??? Reduce pollutants (not CO2), manage worldwde fisheries and stop cutting down the rainforest. All directly controlled by human activity, thus all can be quickly impacted by changes in same.
Posted by: Remoteman || 04/04/2008 14:36 Comments || Top||

#4  Remoteman.. Nope! Were going to cut down the rain forest to grow corn for ethanol; all the while we will watch the Chinese drill for oil off-shore of Floridan and the Polar Bears will eat the Caribou at ANWAR. In the meantime the Dems will increase fuel taxes to buy Algores carbon credits while sympathizing with the "poor" that now have to ride bicycles to work (if they haven't quit or been fired because the employer went bust due to soaring overhead).

Smile, it could be worse.
Posted by: tipover || 04/04/2008 15:41 Comments || Top||

#5  I hear there's a big sale this weekend at Al Gore's House of Carbon Credits. C'mon in and have your picture taken with his Nobel Peace Prize...
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/04/2008 17:08 Comments || Top||

#6  March 2008 temperature data just out. Northern hemisphere warms up after cooling in the last few months, but southern hemisphere and tropical temps continue to fall. Both are close to record lows for the satellite record period.

Combine this with the record increase in sea ice over the last year, and 2008 looks like being the year the AGW hysteria died (to the tune of American Pie).
Posted by: Phil_B || 04/04/2008 17:39 Comments || Top||

#7  "Northern hemisphere warms up after cooling in the last few months"

That would be "winter" followed by "spring," Phil. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 04/04/2008 18:36 Comments || Top||

#8  You Conservative Scoffers just haven't studied the Global Warming Theorem at all, or just skipped over the hard parts!

If you Unbelievers would just work on your Gaea Attitudes, you would GRASP that as Temperatures Decrease all over the Globe, The next Waves of Warmth are just around the Corner!

And Global Warming Scientists, from all over the World, have Proven the Global Warming Theorem by rigorously taking inventory of each others feelings, including Al Gore's!

Yep, for you math guys and gals, more simply put:

The Square of the Global Warming Period, heated by the Sun, is Proportional to the Cube of the Pollutants which are OOZING FORTH from the Planet’s Inhabitants.

SEE I told ya!

You Pro Military Types make me sick because you just don't care that Silence moves faster when it's going backwards!

Ima Harrumphed!
Posted by: Global Warming Wiener || 04/04/2008 19:43 Comments || Top||

#9  that's quite enuff wiener, your act stinks so
shadUP!
Posted by: RD || 04/04/2008 22:24 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Kenya's rivals break deadlock over cabinet
Kenya's political rivals on Thursday said a power-sharing cabinet would be named this weekend, ending deadlock that had threatened the country's chances of peace and economic recovery.

President Mwai Kibaki and prime minister-designate Raila Odinga announced the agreement after a two-hour meeting over the size and membership of the cabinet, a key part of a deal to end Kenya's bloody post-election crisis. "We've agreed to announce the cabinet on Sunday," opposition leader and future premier Raila Odinga told reporters after meeting Kibaki. he said it would be sworn in on April 12.
Posted by: Fred || 04/04/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:


Africa Subsaharan
Zimbabwe gets $50 million bank note

FYI for all you collectors out there...
HARARE, Zimbabwe - How much does it cost for a loaf of bread in Zimbabwe? With inflation raging at more than 100,000 percent, a loaf costs 16 million Zimbabwe dollars. Now, Zimbabweans can buy three loaves with only one bank note. Authorities on Friday introduced a new 50 million bank note, state media reported.
Well, isn't that, I dunno...efficient?
It was the third time in three months that the nation's central bank issued a higher denomination note in response to record inflation.
Do we have any of those WIN buttons in storage in some dusty GAO warehouse we could send them?
(This version corrects price of bread to 16 million Zimbawean dollars, not 50 million.)
Give it a few weeks...
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/04/2008 14:34 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Fancy toilet paper.
Posted by: Chief Running Gag || 04/04/2008 16:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Shucks, my ten megabuck bills will be worthless before I ever get them.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 04/04/2008 16:49 Comments || Top||

#3  "And if elected, I promise that everyone of you will be a millionaire!"
Posted by: James || 04/04/2008 17:05 Comments || Top||

#4  Rhodesiafever said he might be able to get us some, Jim.

Wonder if he can get some $50 mil notes, too? ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 04/04/2008 17:17 Comments || Top||


Mugabe to Meet With Party on Whether to Quit as Advisers Split
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's underlings are divided over whether he should quit, amid reports that he'll meet with his party's leadership to consider competing in a runoff election to continue his 28-year rule.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change claims its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, 56, beat Mugabe, 84, in the March 29 poll. Opposition politicians, most from the MDC, won control of parliament's House of Assembly in the vote, according to election officials, who haven't released presidential results.

At today's meeting, the Zimbabwe African National Union- Patriotic Front's politburo will discuss how to respond to the strong opposition showing, according to an intelligence official for a foreign government in Zimbabwe and news reports from there. ``They'll have to decide whether to proceed with a runoff or to transfer power,'' said Nana Ampofo, an analyst with Boston- based Global Insight Inc., in an interview from London. ``Mugabe has never shown a loss of appetite for power. He's not a timid man, but it's not clear if he has the backing from top to bottom in Zanu-PF.''
Posted by: Fred || 04/04/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:


Zim: backlash begins as paramilitaries launch raids
The ebbing regime of Robert Mugabe began its fightback in earnest last night, launching raids against opposition offices and foreign journalists in what many feared was the start of a campaign of intimidation.

Paramilitary police raided opposition offices at a hotel in central Harare, ransacking rooms as riot police moved in to arrest foreign journalists at a guest house in the capital.

George Sibotshiwe, spokesman of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said that the party’s headquarters in the centre of Harare and offices in Meikles hotel in the capital had been raided. “They took nothing. They simply ransacked the place,” he said.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 04/04/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:


Zimbabwe Opposition Offices Raided
Intruders ransacked offices of the main opposition party and police detained foreign journalists Thursday in an ominous sign that President Robert Mugabe might turn to intimidation and violence in trying to stave off an electoral threat to his 28-year rule. Earlier, Mugabe apparently launched his campaign for an expected run-off presidential ballot even before the official results of Saturday's election were announced, with state media portraying the opposition as divided and controlled by former colonial ruler Britain.
Posted by: Fred || 04/04/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Old commies die hard.
Posted by: Mark Espinola || 04/04/2008 3:34 Comments || Top||


Mugabe rides off into the sunset. Or not.
A New York Times correspondent who has been covering Zimbabwe's elections was among two foreign journalists arrested on Thursday for operating without accreditation, police and the newspaper said. National police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said the pair had been picked up in a raid on the York Lodge, an upmarket guest house near the centre of the capital Harare, and were now being held in custody. "I can only confirm that we have arrested two foreign journalists at York Lodge," Bvudzijena told AFP. "They are being investigated for practising without accreditation. They were picked up early this evening and taken to police custody."
Yet the progressive movement thinks America is the source of all evil ...
New York Times executive editor Bill Keller confirmed its correspondent Barry Bearak, who won a Pulitzer prize in 2002 for his reporting war-torn Afghanistan, had been detained but did not know where he was being held. "We do not know where he is being held, or what, if any, charges have been made against him," Keller said in a statement. "We are making every effort to ascertain his status, to assure that he is safe and being well treated, and to secure his prompt release."
Want us to send in the Marines?
There were no lights on or any sign of activity at the guest house on Thursday evening, an AFP correspondent reported. The owners did not answer the phone.

Zimbabwean authorities, which barred most foreign media from covering last Saturday's general elections, warned a week ago they would deal severely with journalists who sneaked into the country and were caught operating illegally. However a number of news organisations, including the BBC, have been filing reports from correspondents operating under cover.

The situation is growing increasingly tense in the capital as Zimbabweans await to see if President Robert Mugabe has been defeated in his quest for a sixth term. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change claims its leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the presidential poll outright. But there has still been no official word on the outcome five days after the ballot, but the election commission announced overnight that the MDC had won control of parliament.

A leading US press freedom group responded to news of the arrests by calling on the Zimbabwean authorities to immediately release the foreign journalists. "We are alarmed by reports that foreign journalists have been detained in Harare," Joel Simon, the executive director of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said in a statement. "In light of the political situation, it is imperative that all journalists, foreign and domestic, be allowed to work freely. We call on authorities to immediately release all journalists currently being held," he added.

Zimbabwe has strict rules on media and no independent radio or television stations are authorised to operate. The country's only daily newspaper, the Herald, is controlled by the government.
Posted by: Seafarious || 04/04/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:


Bangladesh
Hasina falls sick during court hearing
Former Bangladesh prime minister Begum Hasina, under detention since last year, was taken ill during a court hearing on Thursday forcing suspension of proceedings, court officials said. Hasina, who was discharged recently from hospital after treatment for high blood pressure and ear and eye ailments, has been accused of accepting 30 million taka ($440,000) in kickbacks in a power plant deal. “She fell sick soon after the hearing started in presence of her lawyers, close relatives and a few senior party leaders,” a court official said, adding the hearing will resume next week.
Posted by: Fred || 04/04/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:


Caribbean-Latin America
Chavez orders cement nationalization
President Hugo Chavez on Thursday ordered the nationalization of Venezuela's cement industry, saying "Squeak squeak squeak!" his government cannot allow businesses to continue exporting raw materials needed to help tackle a domestic housing shortage.

Speaking during a nationally televised address, Chavez said the cement companies, which include Mexico's Cemex, will be paid fair compensation in the state takeover of what he called "a strategic industry."

"We are going to prepare a plan to modernize these cement plants," he said.

Chavez, who says he is leading Venezuela toward "21st century socialism," said the nationalization would take place in the "short term," but did not provide specific dates.

Prior to Thursday's nationalization order, Chavez had already moved to nationalize Venezuela's largest telecommunications company and the electricity sector, slap new taxes on the rich and impose greater state control over the oil and natural gas industries.

Most of the cement market in this South American country, which has suffered from a severe housing shortage for decades, is supplied by foreign companies.

The three main foreign players in Venezuela are Mexico's Cemex SAB, France's Lafarge SA and Switzerland's Holcim Ltd.

Holcim operates two cement plants in Venezuela with a production capacity of roughly 2.4 million tons of cement a year, while Cemex runs three plants that also produce about 2.4 million tons annually. Lafarge has two plants that produce 1.5 million tons a year.

In Mexico, calls to Cemex offices were not immediately answered late Thursday.

Prior to Thursday's announcement, Chavez had repeatedly expressed frustration with the high cost of construction materials and threatened to seize control of companies that fail to provide low-cost cement for the domestic market.

Last year, he said many of Venezuela's cement factories prefer to sell their product abroad at higher prices and warned: "If the cement factories do not (sell in Venezuela), we will occupy them."

The president's critics, including leaders of local business chambers, argue the nationalizations will hurt Venezuela's economy by scaring off foreign investors. Chavez's political allies argue the takeovers are necessary for the success of the government's development plans.
Posted by: gorb || 04/04/2008 02:57 || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's possible there's an Iranian angle to this.

Syria has large interests in the cement industry, and I've wondered for a couple years now if the Hariri family's substantial cement holdings factored into Rafik's murder.
Posted by: Seafarious || 04/04/2008 7:43 Comments || Top||

#2  'Cos gangstas luvs their cement, y'know.
Posted by: Seafarious || 04/04/2008 7:44 Comments || Top||

#3  love the new graphic :-)
Posted by: Frank G || 04/04/2008 8:25 Comments || Top||

#4  The funny part is that after nationalization, they will discover that they don't even know how to make cement.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 04/04/2008 9:09 Comments || Top||

#5  No, their Enemies are preventing the equal distribution of cement to The People.

Enemies all around, I tells ya. Behind every rock, and every tree.
Posted by: Seafarious || 04/04/2008 9:15 Comments || Top||

#6  Friggen ignorant thug. Straight out of Atlas Shrugged.
Posted by: OldSpook || 04/04/2008 9:20 Comments || Top||

#7  Cement prices (also steel and asphalt) have been increasing faster than general inflation for a number of years.

Partly the China economic boom; partly other factors.

Stir in some Hugo style socialism and you have shortages.
Posted by: mhw || 04/04/2008 9:45 Comments || Top||

#8  Now all their new buildings will fall down from crappy cement. What a wonderful socialist paradise, no?
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/04/2008 10:07 Comments || Top||

#9  Flyash Brigade, report to Caracas.
Posted by: lotp || 04/04/2008 11:09 Comments || Top||

#10  The nice thing about 21rst century socialism is the emphasis on recycling!

We just take all the stuff from 20th century socialism, and cross off the '19's and write in '20's.

It is all the same old sh*t right?
Posted by: flash91 || 04/04/2008 11:53 Comments || Top||

#11  The Venezuelan and Argentine governments are both seizing all the cash they can get to fund their patronage (and corruption).

Venezuela expropriates businesses (oil, telecommunications and now construction). Argentina heavily taxes profits and exports.

Both countries are experiencing high (and increasing) inflation as private companies no longer invest to increase productive output. Both economies are headed towards an abyss.
Posted by: DoDo || 04/04/2008 12:23 Comments || Top||

#12  The Venezuelan and Argentine governments are both seizing all the cash they can get to fund their patronage (and corruption).

Venezuela expropriates businesses (oil, telecommunications and now construction). Argentina heavily taxes profits and exports.

Both countries are experiencing high (and increasing) inflation as private companies no longer invest to increase productive output. Both economies are headed towards an abyss.
Posted by: DoDo || 04/04/2008 12:23 Comments || Top||

#13  Perhaps there is a win-win here. Robert Mugabe, world's foremost expert on nationalizing strategic sectors of the economy, is looking for a job and Hugo is looking for someone with a clue....
Posted by: RWV || 04/04/2008 12:30 Comments || Top||

#14  I'd like to see Hugo in cement overshoes.
Posted by: Mike || 04/04/2008 13:21 Comments || Top||

#15  He's expecting concrete financial results from the takeover. Methinks he's in the quicksand instead of the quickcrete.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 04/04/2008 14:45 Comments || Top||

#16  i don't think Mugabe would fit the role of having a clue though RWV
Posted by: sinse || 04/04/2008 15:57 Comments || Top||

#17  From the third world dictator's manual: Isn't a 'cement shortage' shorthand for nuclear weapons and or support stuff?????
Posted by: USN,Ret. || 04/04/2008 16:16 Comments || Top||

#18  Ryugyong Hotel 2, Latin America edition, soon to be coming Caracas' way!
Posted by: Skunky Elmereter3408 || 04/04/2008 22:16 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
N.K. asks China for massive rice aid
North Korea recently asked China to provide massive rice aid for its hungry people amid a flare-up in tensions with South Korea, a news report said Friday. Pyongyang has also decided not to request rice and fertilizer aid from South Korea until Seoul moves to improve ties, the report by the vernacular daily Hankyoreh said. It cited a diplomatic source who is well informed about North Korea-China relations and an unnamed South Korean official who recently returned from a trip to Pyongyang. Seoul's Foreign Ministry said it did not hear of such a request.

The report came a day after North Korea threatened to cut off dialogue with South Korea, claiming the peninsula is on the brink of another war. "North Korea has recently requested massive rice aid from China, which means the North has no intent to make a request for rice and fertilizer aid from South Korea for the time being," the report said, quoting the diplomatic source. But Beijing has yet to respond to Pyongyang's request, the report said.

It also quoted the South Korean official as saying that a North Korean official from the Workers' Party Unification Front Department that he met during the trip defiantly said the North has no intention of requesting food and fertilizer aid from the South. The department is the North's top office on inter-Korean affairs.

South Korea is a key aid donor to North Korea, which has depended on outside aid to help feed its 23 million residents. The South has annually shipped 300,000 to 500,000 tons of rice and fertilizer to North Korea in recent years. Seoul plans to send this year's shipment if Pyongyang makes a request.

The recent tension began last week when North Korea expelled all South Korean government officials from the joint industrial complex in Kaesong. The move came after South Korea's unification minister said it would be hard to expand the complex without North Korean progress on denuclearization.

The North has since fired a barrage of short-range missiles off its western coast and threatened to turn South Korea into "ashes" unless a top South Korean military official apologizes for his "hostile" remarks on the North.

In another development, a local aid group said Thursday North Korea recently decided to cut food rations in its capital Pyongyang for six months amid "hopelessly" bad food shortages across the country.
I wonder what the Chinese will do in light of the rice shortages across Asia.
Posted by: Phil_B || 04/04/2008 03:50 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They must need more trains.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/04/2008 11:50 Comments || Top||

#2  ummm why do they need fertilizer. do they know how too grow anything anymore?
Posted by: sinse || 04/04/2008 15:53 Comments || Top||

#3  Fertilizer is for making bombs.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 04/04/2008 16:44 Comments || Top||

#4  Little Yappy Dog Hungry? Yap louder, ask your master for din-din.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 04/04/2008 16:55 Comments || Top||

#5  "Massive rice shortage across Asia" > The Perts are still debating the validity/merits of the geological + Hydrological Surveys, etc. for THREE GORGES.

Anyhoo, this is not good sign for the Summer and espec Fall 2008.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/04/2008 18:50 Comments || Top||

#6  "we'll show you! We'll starve to death if you don't apologize and give us stuff!"
Posted by: Frank G || 04/04/2008 19:15 Comments || Top||

#7  they have the shit too too make bombs they don't need fetilizer for that
Posted by: sinse || 04/04/2008 20:22 Comments || Top||


S. Korea tests homegrown second-stage rocket
A locally developed second-stage rocket has been put through a live sequence test to determine if it can send its payload safely into orbit, the state-run aerospace research institute said Thursday. The comprehensive test conducted on the upper portion of the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1) checked the nose fairing separation mechanism, the kick motor rocket and various controls needed to deploy a satellite into a proper orbit.

Scientists at the Deajeon-based Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) also examined the rocket's ability to maintain its bearing, allow the satellite to separate, and end its mission according to the full operational sequence.

The second stage part of the KSLV-1 measures 2.9 meters in diameter and 7.75 meters in length. It will be sent into space in December from the Naro Space Center in December. "The checkup allowed the second stage rocket to go through the entire process after it separates from the main booster," said a KARI scientist.

The rocket's nose fairing is designed to come off at around 166 kilometers from earth, with the second stage boosters to ignite at an altitude of 300 kilometers from the planet's surface. This will hurl the scientific satellite into a pre-set orbit.

KARI said that while the first stage of the KSLV-1 is being made in Russia, local engineers took full responsibility for the building of the second stage rocket. The design, manufacture, assembly and initial testing of the inertial navigation system, electronics, flight controls, safety and the kick motor rocket were made without outside assistance. The nose fairing, which makes up the tip of the rocket, was also made in the country.

The space research laboratory said such know-how will be used to full advantage in all future rockets made in the country.

KARI, meanwhile, said the second stage part of the rocket will be moved to the Naro center in Goheung, about 485 kilometers south of Seoul, in September to await the arrival of the main booster rocket from Russia that may arrive in October.

The KSLV-1 is a two-stage rocket with a liquid fuel main booster and a solid fuel kick motor rocket. Its total weight is 140 tons and its length is 33 meters.

If the launch takes place without a hitch, South Korea will be the eighth country in the world to build its own satellite and rocket and send it into space. At present, only the United States, Russia, Japan, China, France, India and Israel have reached that level, with Brazil trying to catch up with the leaders.
Posted by: john frum || 04/04/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  TOPIX > NORTH KOREA THREATENS SOUTH WITH NEW ATTACKS; + NORTH KOREA CLAIMS THREE SOUTH KOREAN WARSHIPS VIOLATED ITS NAVAL BORDERS.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/04/2008 1:17 Comments || Top||

#2  UPI> OUTSIDE VIEW:KOREAN TENSIONS - PARTS I, II. Article indics that SOKOR's new Conservative Prez had vowed to stop negotiating or working wid NOKOR until bonafide progress was overtly demonstrated???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/04/2008 1:21 Comments || Top||


Europe
Cyprus tears down barricade dividing island
Posted by: Fred || 04/04/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Congratulations and good luck!
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/04/2008 9:39 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Moonbat Fratricide: "Air America is now the Jesus W Bush network!"
The link is to Air America Fuehrer Zampolit el Jefe Maximo Chairman Charlie Kireker's press release announcing that Randi Rhodes has been suspended for calling Hillary Clinton a "f$#%@*&! whore" and all that. Pop up a bag of microwave butter lite and scroll down to the comments. Some in the audience are not amused . . .

…Shame on you Charlie Kireker! You have clearly violated Ms Rhodes’ Constitutional right to Free Speech. Even though you may have been one of the sponsors for her appearance, a simple statement that you do not condone her public language should have sufficed. Instead, you have silenced one of the only voices on the radio that actually has the nerve to speak the TRUTH about what is going on in the world! How is it that Vice President Dick Cheney can tell Senator Pat Leahy to “Go ‘F’ Himself” on the floor of the U.S. Senate, with anger and venom and not in jest, and never even be held accountable for his total disrespect of this distinguished person? But, you, Mr. Kireker suspend Randi for doing a comedy act not even aired by your station! What a despicable and cowardly act on your part!

Randi has become so many of our voices. It's a damn shame that her knowledge, outstanding research capability and her willingness to educate in the most unique fashion is being trumped by a politically incorrect stand-up comedy routine!!! For God's sake, you corporate gurus at Air America are single handedly willing to take this away from us... for what? Political correctness? Bowing to the Clintons? (don't tell me they had no hand in this... their political claws are OUT!!) This is shameful! Randi is a breath of fresh air, whether you agree with her or not, ONLY because she's willing to cut the crap. As a wife, mother of 2 teenagers, registered nurse and an independent thinker... who lives in the midwest and has, along with millions of Americans, been completely traumatized from the multitude of crimes committed by this horrendous Bush Administration..... I demand that Randi be re-instated immediately, be completely vindicated, and allowed to resume her show UNALTERED by political correctness. I'm completely discouraged that voices are being suppressed and the "dumbing down" of Americans continues. I, for one, will cancel my Premium Membership if that's what it takes, and only listen to Mike Malloy on Nova M Radio, or The Young Turks (who recently left Air America voluntarily....wonder why?) You corporate thugs only listen to one God.... Money. Sincerely pissed off, Kelly Shepherd

This last one heer is a real classic (emphasis added):

I agree with everything Ms Rhodes said. Air America is now the Jesus W Bush network. It's time for another bankruptcy to go with your ethical bankruptcy.
Posted by: Mike || 04/04/2008 08:34 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  These people are genuinely insane. These mentally ill schizophrenic (separated from reality) people actually want to run the government?

Amazing. And I thought the Ron Paul cult was weird...
Posted by: OldSpook || 04/04/2008 9:15 Comments || Top||

#2  Alien vs Predator for liberals.
Posted by: mhw || 04/04/2008 9:38 Comments || Top||

#3  “I'm completely discouraged that voices are being suppressed.”

This is just another example of “The Man” trying to keep the vulgar skank down.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 04/04/2008 9:50 Comments || Top||

#4  What about those of us who never had Air America contracts to begin with? Are we being oppressed?
Posted by: Abdominal Snowman || 04/04/2008 9:55 Comments || Top||

#5  That is right guys. It is all a plot. Lock yourself in your room and tinfoil the walls. Don't ever come out or we will be able to control your thoughts. Stay safe in that room forever.
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/04/2008 10:05 Comments || Top||

#6  Good to see that both of her listeners made the effort to check in...
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/04/2008 10:55 Comments || Top||

#7  It's a damn shame that her knowledge, outstanding research capability and her willingness to educate in the most unique fashion...

Cuz nothing sez 'learning experience' like an insipid monologue from a bitter middle-aged leftist with a drinking problem...
Posted by: Pappy || 04/04/2008 11:40 Comments || Top||

#8  Damn, and here I thought Randi Rhodes waz an old 'Rastler.. a heel no less [villain character]
Posted by: RD || 04/04/2008 11:55 Comments || Top||

#9  Good to see that both of her listeners made the effort to check in... lol!
Posted by: Woodrow Slusorong7967 || 04/04/2008 13:53 Comments || Top||

#10  Pat Leahy is a distinguished person? Who knew?
Posted by: Raj || 04/04/2008 14:45 Comments || Top||

#11  Pat Leahy did. Just ask him.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/04/2008 14:48 Comments || Top||

#12  Video. Fetching if you were ever into say, Janet Reno.
Posted by: Icerigger || 04/04/2008 15:45 Comments || Top||

#13  I loved her playing on "Crazy Train".
Posted by: charger || 04/04/2008 17:13 Comments || Top||

#14  It occurs to me that the headline for this article could have been the already used

"Qaeda backers may be questioning tactics"
Posted by: charger || 04/04/2008 17:15 Comments || Top||

#15  #13, my sentiments exactly. I wonder what Ozzie has to say about it.
Posted by: WolfDog || 04/04/2008 20:32 Comments || Top||

#16  The video has been flushed down the memory hole:

"This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by AMFM Broadcasting Inc."
Posted by: Mike || 04/04/2008 20:52 Comments || Top||

#17  OS, I don't think they're really insane - just unimaginably stupid. I used to think far-lefty's and most libs suffered from some sort of bi-polar/schizo white guilt/mental thingy...I've now come around to thinking that they are just incredibly stupid. Most of their ideologies are stupid (socialism & communism by nature are stupid) - these people just don't think things through, I don't think that makes them crazy - just irritatingly dumb.
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 04/04/2008 23:06 Comments || Top||

#18  How is it that Vice President Dick Cheney can tell Senator Pat Leahy to “Go ‘F’ Himself” on the floor of the U.S. Senate, with anger and venom and not in jest, and never even be held accountable for his total disrespect of this distinguished person?

Uh, I for one think it's the difference between a Private Company making H.R. decisions vs. a National Politician being accountable to the entire U.S. population. Now, if America (by the Congress) held a vote on whether or not we should "fire" Dick Cheney for his remark (a.k.a. "Impeachment"), then yes, we'd be following that little piece of paper you might call THE CONSTITUTION moron.

Of course, I'd bet the majority of Americans would like to tell Sen. Pat "Leaky" Leahy to "F Himself" themselves, but that's just me.
Posted by: BA || 04/04/2008 23:10 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Democrat Fratricide: Clinton donors press Dean on seating FL & MI delegates
Leading donors to the Clinton and Obama campaigns sat down together last night with DNC chairman Howard Dean at a meeting at the Fifth Avenue apartment of super-bundlers Maureen White and Steven Rattner.

According to the accounts of several attendees, things quickly got contentious when Clinton donors raised the issue of seating the delegates from Florida and Michigan. Dean, who was there to appeal for more fund-raising for the party, found himself on the defensive for not being aggressive enough in pursuing a solution to the problem. . . .

. . . Over appetizers of caramelized bacon and copious glasses of wine, they listened to a short address by David Boundy, a Dean ally and political activist, before the chairman himself offered remarks. According to one of the attendees, he talked broadly about the dynamics of the race and urged everyone to rally around the eventual nominee, before taking questions.

It only took two or three queries for the Clinton partisans to put Dean on the defensive about the Florida and Michigan delegate issue. Nemazee, a Clinton national finance chair, pointedly asked Dean why he and the DNC were not doing more to seat the Florida and Michigan delegates. Dean energetically defended himself, saying it was up to the states and the candidates to reach a solution, and that DNC involvement could be perceived as unfairly assisting one campaign or the other. As he spoke, some Clinton supporters protested, while the Obama supporters mostly sat quietly, according to the attendees.

Patricof, another of Clinton's national finance chairs, sensed that things were going to get ugly, and left early. . . .

Some participants grew so angry that Gail Furman, a Democratic donor who is neutral in the race, bemoaned the divisions in the party. According to a source, Furman said that as a psychologist, she was saddened and upset that some of the party's leaders were displaying such raw and rancorous emotions. . . .

UPDATE: More here on a particularly sharp exchange between Dean and Nemazee.
Posted by: Mike || 04/04/2008 14:28 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Leading donors to the Clinton and Obama campaigns sat down together last night with DNC chairman Howard Dean at a meeting at the Fifth Avenue apartment of super-bundlers Maureen White and Steven Rattner.

Looks like a helluva time for a house fire...
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/04/2008 14:47 Comments || Top||


WND : Hillary: Free-market doctrine not for today
Vows more active role in guiding economy, using tax, regulatory policy

The nation's free-market doctrine is ill-suited for today's global market, Sen. Hillary Clinton emphasized in an interview with USA Today.

The New York Democrat told the national daily that if elected president, she will aggressively use federal tax and regulatory policy to promote key sectors of the U.S. economy.
"And the money kept rolling out in all directions
To the poor to the weak to the destitute of all complexions
Now cynics claim a little of the cash has gone astray
But that's not the point my friends
When the money keeps rolling out you don't keep books
You can tell you've done well by the happy grateful looks
Accountants only slow things down, figures get in the way
Never been a lady loved as much as Eva Peron!"
She proposed stripping tax benefits from sectors such as the oil industry and using government policies to boost industries such as automakers, wind turbine producers and steel companies, the paper said.
Sounds like a 1930s soviet style economy, except for the wind turbines ...
Clinton insisted, however, her policies would not be dramatically different than the country's traditional practice. "We subsidize the oil companies. We think it's important that we give them our tax dollars so they can go out and explore and extract and produce oil. That's a clear decision right along the lines of an industrial policy," she said. "We subsidize all kinds of industries. We don't call it that. But we've made a decision we're going to subsidize them. I think that what we subsidized in the past is not what we should be subsidizing right now."

Leaving economic outcomes to the market, she argued, has resulted in stagnant incomes for the typical family and special treatment for the well-connected. "People say all the time, 'We can't pick winners and losers.' Well, then fine. Take every single dollar of subsidy out of the federal tax code. Get rid of all of it. … Let's have a real level playing field where nobody gets a penny in subsidy," Clinton told USA Today. "Then see what happens. You'd hear the squeals of protest from Wall Street to Houston to Silicon Valley."

As WND reported, Sen. Barack Obama expressed skepticism about free-market values as he entered politics in 1995, disparaging the "right wing" American value of achieving prosperity through personal initiative as the "old individualistic bootstrap myth."

USA Today – speaking to Clinton after a town hall meeting in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. – said she offered few details of how business incentives would be reshaped other than to vow to preserve auto manufacturing and steel-making capacity and promote alternative energy industries.

But she insisted that government subsidies are needed to counteract the market's tendency to "punish" investments that don't deliver swift returns.

The paper said her most impassioned remarks in the interview came as she blistered the oil companies and the "moneyed class" she said has reaped the economy's rewards. "Americans have been sold a bill of goods about the way the economy should work through a very concerted ideological effort at propaganda," she said.
I wonder if this means all the Dhimmicratic hedge fund operators have to give their money back ...
Clinton's "full-throated economic populism" struck a chord in working-class Wilkes-Barre, USA Today said, where the average weekly wage in March was $679, less than 80 percent of the state average.

Clinton, touting the 1990s economic record of her husband, President Bill Clinton, promised to create 3 million jobs by investing in building roads and bridges.

Clinton also said that if she becomes president, she will push for a more active government role in shaping the effect of globalization on the economy, including identifying key industries for protection. That includes identifying key industries for protection, she said. "We have to adjust our view of this. … What is it we really believe the United States should continue to make? I would put certain defense items in that category. I would put certain basic goods in that category, like steel," she said. "If you look at every other country, they make such judgments like that. We are competing against countries that directly and indirectly subsidize what they have concluded to be in their national interest."

Clinton was asked whether she favored coordinated central bank intervention to halt the decline of the dollar worldwide but did not respond directly, USA Today said. She suggested a change in the White House would bring a reversal. "It is in danger with respect to being a reserve currency," she said. "A lot of the problem is of our own making. I think we could see the dollar start to creep up if we had a different president."
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 04/04/2008 13:19 || Comments || Link || [12 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If it is so "ill suited", why are we still kicking everyone's ass even in an economic slump?

Fuck off and die, Marxist.
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/04/2008 14:01 Comments || Top||

#2  The paper said her most impassioned remarks in the interview came as she blistered the oil companies and the "moneyed class" she said has reaped the economy's rewards.

Geez, ya mean like these people?

WASHINGTON - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and former President Clinton reported $20.4 million in income for 2007 and more than $109 million since 2000 as they gave the public the most detailed look at their finances in eight years.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/04/2008 16:55 Comments || Top||

#3  In a very cryptic way, she's saying she and Putie can see eye to eye [with or without heels].
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/04/2008 21:10 Comments || Top||

#4  Gawdalmighty, she's not Richard Nixon in a pantsuit. She's Hugo Chavez.
Posted by: SteveS || 04/04/2008 22:44 Comments || Top||


Why the Democratic race could end in North Carolina
I started reading the story with high hopes. I was let down when I figured out that the author must have meant something other than what I thought at first. Democrats will still be part of the Human Race after North Carolina. ;-)

Click the link if you're still interested.
Posted by: gorb || 04/04/2008 03:49 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:


Breck Boy sez would not accept VP nomination
Posted by: Fred || 04/04/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Been there, lost that.
Posted by: Spot || 04/04/2008 8:37 Comments || Top||

#2  Meanwhile, at Castle Breck...the brooding continues.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/04/2008 11:00 Comments || Top||

#3  That is ok Brecky. No one wants your losing ass anyway.
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/04/2008 12:15 Comments || Top||

#4  The answer to a question nobody asked.
Posted by: Mike || 04/04/2008 12:29 Comments || Top||

#5  Wanna bet? If anybody calls, he will trip over his feet running to get the door.
and since he belongs to the Donks, you can bet that he will flip-flop positions (required of a 'D') more than a fish in the bilge of a Bayliner....
Posted by: USN,Ret. || 04/04/2008 16:23 Comments || Top||

#6  "Reknowned as the prettiest Vice President, John Edwards was nevertheless, ultimately confirmed as a male by chromosome analysis"
Posted by: Frank G || 04/04/2008 19:27 Comments || Top||


Democrats poised to tighten hold on Congress
The election-year call for change echoing through the 2008 presidential campaign is also being heard in U.S. House and Senate races as Democrats appear headed toward expanding their control of Congress.

Polls show voters favor Democrats over Republicans on a host of issues -- including the Iraq war, the economy and energy -- and believe the country is on "the wrong track" as an unpopular President George W. Bush nears the end of his term.

Yet Democrats face challenges, too. Surveys show just one in five Americans approves of the closely divided Congress, where Democrats took control from Bush's Republicans in January 2007. Despite their loss, Republicans have blocked Democrats on a number of fronts, including efforts to withdraw from Iraq. "The public wants change," said Stu Rothenberg of the nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report, which tracks presidential and congressional elections.
Posted by: Fred || 04/04/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  stop ordering from the menu - you know the kos-cos are hussling you.

I don't care who you are, the previous term of democrat delegates has been worthless.

"The public wants change,"
If I had a nickle for every time...
Posted by: swksvolFF || 04/04/2008 2:22 Comments || Top||

#2  Rooters BS. Still way too early to make calls like this. Depending on how the dumocrat race turns out, McCain could have coat-tails in the fall. Keep yer powder dry.
Posted by: Spot || 04/04/2008 8:40 Comments || Top||

#3  Considering that Congress has an approval rating of 13%, I would say the dhimocrats are in serious fucking trouble.
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/04/2008 14:21 Comments || Top||

#4  The problem is that Congress as a whole has a 13% approval rating. However, probably many people love their own Congress critter and are willing to re-elect them, because they bring home the bacon to the district/state. So incumbents are often re-elected, even if they should be arrested or worse.
A good argument for term limits for Congress. Unfortunately, since the first step in passing a constitutional amendment is a vote in Congress, it will never happen.
Posted by: Rambler in California || 04/04/2008 18:47 Comments || Top||


Nader files signatures to get on ballot in N.M.
Posted by: Fred || 04/04/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Thank you, God.
Posted by: gorb || 04/04/2008 2:37 Comments || Top||

#2  The Greens usually get a decent turn out in NM. Nothing that gives them any seats or offices, but more than enough to cause the oxymoron named Democrats to go to court to keep them off the ballot by any trick possible or judge by blood relation.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/04/2008 9:06 Comments || Top||

#3  Run, Ralphie, run!

(I love watching red-on-red engagements. I really do.)
Posted by: Mike || 04/04/2008 12:55 Comments || Top||


Obama Outraises Clinton 2-1 in March
Posted by: Fred || 04/04/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Most Dems are buying Obama's leftist solutions. Meanwhile, Senator McCain is showing compassion to victims of economic conditions while floating good ideas on better regulation of home-finance operations.
Posted by: McZoid || 04/04/2008 1:09 Comments || Top||

#2  are you sure those McCain ideas are that great?I haven't heard anything different than most other politicians, from both sides,it sounds like sweet talk. I will vote for him if Hillary is the Dem nominee.Anyone but her.
Posted by: Crolusing tse Tung2745 || 04/04/2008 1:38 Comments || Top||

#3  The d-candidates can suck a turd through a kofi straw. McCain better get his domestic turds in a line if he wants people like me to show positive. (IMHO)
Posted by: swksvolFF || 04/04/2008 2:06 Comments || Top||

#4  foriegn
investment
Posted by: swksvolFF || 04/04/2008 2:49 Comments || Top||

#5  A preceding piece and worthwhile read. Both parties are dirty as hell as top heavy donors sway their votes but this election the paper trail tells the tale in greater clarity.

Business Donors Bypass McCain

Ice
Posted by: Icerigger || 04/04/2008 6:39 Comments || Top||

#6  Did Kerry's commanding lead in the 2004 election's money raising game guarantee him victory duing that election cycle?

Watch for how the numbers of small donors go, rather than the cumulative amounts of big ones. So goes the election.
Posted by: no mo uro || 04/04/2008 6:50 Comments || Top||

#7  Attention small doners, Bob Barr may announce his candidacy for President. You may not love him, but he will be the easiest for patriots to elect. He will be running because he sees there is no real patriotic American in the race, just elites, commies, and cranky old farts.
I used to believe in the Republican Party, but after the 7 years of free spending, the national debt has passed critical mass, and the resulting plunge of the value of the dollar is a reality.
We are phucked my friends. Our greedy Congress and willing President have sold out our childrens heritage.
Posted by: wxjames || 04/04/2008 11:43 Comments || Top||

#8  Radio sez all of Obama's donors are small time - the average is just $96.

I've donated $50 to my favorite terrorist news blog, but never a $100 to a politician.

Question: How hard would it be for soemone with a lot of cash - say George Soros, for example - to generate thousands of small-time 'donors'? Wasn't that the suggestion of one of Hilly's friends in Caliphornia? Or am I just being paranoid?
Posted by: Bobby || 04/04/2008 12:30 Comments || Top||

#9  Bob Barr may announce his candidacy for President.

Oh goody. The political-comedy team of Barr and Nader.
Posted by: Pappy || 04/04/2008 13:09 Comments || Top||

#10  The easiest thing in the world is to sling shit, Pappy. What else can you do ?
Why don't you remind us of Bob Barr's comedy routine. I can't remember one.
Posted by: wxjames || 04/04/2008 13:31 Comments || Top||

#11  As a lifelong resident of GA's 7th congressional district you can have Barr.
Posted by: Beavis || 04/04/2008 14:16 Comments || Top||

#12  What else can you do ?

Come up with an idea for a TV show?

Described as 'populism on drugs', NBC's newest show "Fringes" features two presidential candidates from opposite ends of the political spectrum forced by necessity to campaign together.

This week's episode shows Ralph and Bob mistakenly sent by their staffs to spend the night at a home of the other's supporter. Hilarity ensues when the candidates manage to convince their hosts to support them instead. Bob also develops an insatiable appetite for hummus, while Ralph receives disturbing news that a major automaker has made a major contribution to his campaign...

Saturday 10:30 p.m. - Just before Saturday Night Live!
Posted by: Pappy || 04/04/2008 16:07 Comments || Top||

#13  wx, you're welcome to vote for Barr, assuming you get out to vote at all. Will you also vote Democrat down the ticket? In protest that your chosen one (whoever the f*ck that could be) isn't on the ticket? I'd preferred Hunter, Thompson, etc., before McCain. I'm also mature and intelligent enough to know they aren't on the ballot, dipshit, and McCain is the best of the choices. You continue to depreciate the wxjames brand here....
Posted by: Frank G || 04/04/2008 19:33 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
India & Myanmar sign multimillion-dollar deal
NEW DELHI - India has agreed to build a multimillion-dollar (euro) seaport and transportation system in Myanmar as it presses ahead with investment in its much-criticized neighbor. The second-highest ranking member of Myanmar’s ruling junta, Senior Gen. Maung Aye, signed the deal Wednesday with Indian Vice president Mohammad Hamid Ansari during the Myanmar official’s visit to India, according to a statement from India’s Foreign Ministry.

India has been investing in Myanmar despite international calls for sanctions on the Southeast Asian country’s military government, which violently suppressed pro-democracy protests several months ago. India has established deep economic and military ties with Myanmar’s ruling junta over the past decade and has said it believes talking quietly is a better approach than sanctions.

The ministry statement gave no details of the deal. Indian officials earlier said the US$120 million (Ð81 million) project it involves would see India upgrade waterways and highways along Myanmar’s Kaladan River and develop the port of Sittway in the country’s northwest. "This project will greatly enhance connectivity between Myanmar and India, in particular with India’s northeast states,” the statement said.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/04/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  TOPIX > NORTH KOREA SOLD ROCKET LAUNCHERS TO MYANMAR.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/04/2008 0:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Better Myanmar in India's orbit than China's.
Posted by: Phil_B || 04/04/2008 5:56 Comments || Top||


Zardari offers governorship to Iftikhar Chaudhry
Asif Ali Zardari, the co-chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), has offered the position of Balochistan governor to Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the sacked chief justice of Pakistan, Aaj television channel reported on Thursday. The channel said Zardari made the offer through Iftikhar’s counsels Aitzaz Ahsan, Athar Minallah, and Munir A Malik.
Posted by: Fred || 04/04/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  What about Zardoz? Does he get a say?
Its like man, like he has that flying godhead filled with rice and guns he has to flit all over the waring lands with...
Posted by: 3dc || 04/04/2008 18:06 Comments || Top||


Home Front Economy
Lloyd's warns of a lack of natural disasters
Clouds, silver linings, ill-winds, etc.
Posted by: phil_b || 04/04/2008 17:58 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Reminds me of SPACEWEATHER.com on April 1st >
D *** NG IT, WE DEMAND THE SUN TO EXPLODE IN SUNSPOTS + HEAT, OR ELSE [Solar Cycle 24]!

Madonna + siblings Daddy still feeling very cold.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/04/2008 18:45 Comments || Top||

#2  Tomorrow the Magnetic field flips and Lloyds folds under the compass weight.
Posted by: 3dc || 04/04/2008 20:57 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Anybody drink Absolut? You won't anymore
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/04/2008 16:20 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I drink Russian Vodka anyway.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 04/04/2008 16:50 Comments || Top||

#2 
ABSOLUT Manifest Destiny. (Note Cuba).

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/mluphoup/UnitedStates_1.gif
Posted by: Anonymoose || 04/04/2008 18:59 Comments || Top||

#3  I think the damned fool who put that ad out for public consumption is going to be looking for another job shortly. Bad, bad move and it's going to hurt their business a LOT. They deserve it for being so rude and offensive. They have no one to blame but themselves.
Posted by: Pancho Elmeck8414 || 04/04/2008 19:16 Comments || Top||

#4  "The Nose on Your Face" offers two alternate versions! HEH!

http://www.thenoseonyourface.com/fake-news/absoluts-new-imperialism-campaign/#comments
Posted by: Elmavitle Fillmore9918 || 04/04/2008 20:03 Comments || Top||

#5  I'm BATMAN! Elmavitle Fillmore9918.
Don't know why it changed on me.
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 04/04/2008 20:05 Comments || Top||

#6  Maybe they'll get 100% of the Mexican vodka market. But losing 10% of the US market could be real painful.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 04/04/2008 20:46 Comments || Top||

#7  I wonder if the brilliant minds of Absoult would run an ad in Norwegian mag showing a [re-]unified Sweden which incorporates Norway with a similar implication. Try that on May 17th in Oslo.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/04/2008 21:00 Comments || Top||

#8  Somewhere, you just know some Muslim is having a fit because that new map resembles one of the 657,845,223rd most holy place in the pisslam world and it is heretical to ridicule that (or some such)
but i absolutly won't be buying any absolut anyway.
Posted by: USN,Ret. || 04/04/2008 23:26 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
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Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2008-04-04
  Maliki Vows Crackdown in Baghdad
Thu 2008-04-03
  Iraq commander leads convoy into Basra
Wed 2008-04-02
  45 Qaeda suspects held in Turkey
Tue 2008-04-01
  US charges Foopie with Africa bombings
Mon 2008-03-31
  Iraqi govt lifts curfew across Baghdad
Sun 2008-03-30
  Sadr orders fighters off Iraq streets
Sat 2008-03-29
  Maliki extends ultimatum for gunmen to drop the hardware in Basra
Fri 2008-03-28
  Iraqi forces say kill 120 militants in Basra operation
Thu 2008-03-27
  Twenty killed, 239 wounded in Sadr City clashes in 24 hrs
Wed 2008-03-26
  Maliki overseeing Basra operation
Tue 2008-03-25
  Tater urges 'civil revolt' as battles erupt in Basra
Mon 2008-03-24
  Ayman urges attacks on Israel, U.S.
Sun 2008-03-23
  Rocket, mortar strikes on Baghdad Green Zone
Sat 2008-03-22
  Fatah, Jund al-Sham fight it out in Ein el-Hellhole
Fri 2008-03-21
  Iraqi troops clash with Shiite hard boyz


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