D.C., not Baghdad.
Last weekend was one of the most violent in D.C. history: Seven people were killed and three wounded in nine hours. For the first time this year, the number of homicides surpassed last year's number at the same point in the year -- and that's before the start of summer and its traditional surge in violence.
With more than half of the year left to unfold, 22 people had been killed as of Wednesday, compared with 21 for all of 2007. The effect on everyday lives is unimaginable, as evidenced by The Post's account of a 61-year-old man who, for fear of walking a few blocks from a parking spot to his home after dark, spends the night in his car parked at the police station if he leaves work late.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/08/2008 14:42 ||
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Quagmire! US out of DC now!
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
06/08/2008 17:06 Comments ||
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Want to know the story behind this? Check out Fred Reed's www.fredoneverything.com. An former Marine, he used to be the crime reporter for the Washington Times. It's not pretty and it's sure as Hell not PC, but his writing has the solid ring of truth about it.
Posted by: Thaimble Scourge of the Pixies4707 ||
06/08/2008 18:14 Comments ||
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Police in the nation's capital set up controversial vehicle checkpoints Saturday in a neighborhood reeling from gun violence, with civil liberties groups considering legal action and closely observing officers.
Police in neon yellow vests stopped motorists traveling through the main thoroughfare of Trinidad - a neighborhood near the National Arboretum in the city's northeast section. Police checked drivers' identification and turned away those who didn't have a "legitimate purpose" in the area, such as a church visit or doctor's appointment.
The checkpoints were announced after eight people were killed in the city last weekend. Most of the killings occurred in the police district that includes Trinidad. Already this year, the district has had 22 killings - one more than in all of last year. The checkpoints have drawn harsh criticism from civil rights groups.
"Trinidad should not be treated like Baghdad," said Mark Thompson, the leader of the NAACP's local police task force. Thompson was joined Saturday morning by about a dozen activists representing myriad groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, at the intersection where the checkpoints began in the evening. They warned of legal action if residents' constitutional rights were violated.
"It seems interesting that police are willing to easily cast aside fundamental freedoms for quick-fix, lazy law enforcement tactics," said Johnny Barnes, executive director of the ACLU for the National Capital Area. "We're going to do everything to make sure that the rights of citizens are protected." Barnes said about two dozen lawyers, law students and other citizens were monitoring the checkpoints Saturday night and interviewing those who were turned away by police to determine if people's rights were violated.
Interim D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles and Mayor Adrian M. Fenty have insisted that the checkpoints are a legal and necessary step to stop a spike in violence.
"It would be unconscionable, maybe even a dereliction of our duty, for the police chief and I to not do something different, to not turn up the heat," Fenty said. The checkpoints will be enforced at random hours for at least five days, though it could be extended to 10 days, police said. Officers will search cars only if they observe guns or drugs. Pedestrians will not be affected. Some residents said they felt the checkpoints were unfair to law-abiding citizens. But others applauded the initiative.
D.C. Council member Phil Mendelson, chairman of the Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary, said the checkpoints are the latest example of recent police initiatives that he believes threaten residents' civil rights. He cited an amnesty program, later scaled back, in which officers planned to go door-to-door asking for permission to search homes for guns. He also pointed to a plan for a large surveillance camera network that he claims lacks adequate privacy rules.
"One has to ask 'What is going on? What is the thinking?'" he said.
#1
Can you say "Police State"? I think you can. Hell must have frozen over as I find myself agreeing with the ACLU on this. I seem to remember a phrase I read somewher. "Citizens shall be free in their persons".
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
06/08/2008 8:12 Comments ||
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understand, DB, but these neighborhoods have become "war zones" all on their own. I bet the law-abiding residents aren't the ones complaining. Notice the racial/social deterioration (absentee fathers sperm donors) components are rarely discussed due to PC considerations. Bill Cosby was right on about this
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/08/2008 15:02 Comments ||
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#3
It's going to be very interesting to watch the military personnel in Iraq come back and use the technology and tactics that have been used to identify and isolate alQ et al in places like DC.
#4
COL McMaster spoke in an interview recently re: Iraq of the necessity of providing basic security to citizens in order to control violent thugs.
There are lots of reasons for the state DC is in, but if security is not restored then we have a 'failed state' in our midst. And that is ALWAYS dangerous to civilization nearby.
It obviously can be taken too far, but in this case IMO it's long overdue.
President Robert Mugabe plans to step down next year after securing power by hook or by crook in this months presidential runoff. It is believed Mugabe, ruler of Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980, is preparing to hand over power to key ally Emmerson Mnangagwa at Zanu-PFs congress next year.
But first, the veteran leader plans to do everything he can to beat opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, beat Mugabe in the presidential election on March 29 by 47.9% to 42.3%, necessitating the runoff.
After winning the election, Mugabe will then set the stage for Mnangagwa to take over. The minister of Rural Housing and Social Amenities has been anointed as heir apparent because the military wants it that way Mugabe believes he will carry on his legacy, according to insiders.
Mnangagwa has emerged as the second most powerful person in Zimbabwe since the elections after being appointed chairman of the Joint Operations Command (JOC), which is running Zimbabwe until a new president and government is sworn in.
Insiders say Mugabe has recently taken to hinting about his imminent departure from Zanu-PF. He told his partys central committee Zanu-PF s second most powerful decision-making body that it was inevitable that he would pass on the baton. Succession is a fact of biology, of life, said Mugabe. No one individual governs for ever. I have to be succeeded.
Mugabe, however, did not publicly name a successor. One Politburo member indicated that Mugabe might stay on for about 18 months after winning the run-off and a date will need to be set for Zanu-PFs next congress. The problem is that if he wins and then goes immediately, the party will collapse, said the member. There is a lot of factionalism and divisions. Mugabe is very aware of it. Thats why he is staying despite the indications that people are tired of him.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2008 04:11 ||
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Lose the heels Gracie, if you catch muh drift.
Posted by: George Smiley ||
06/08/2008 13:44 Comments ||
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Bullshit, once a thug gets power, he NEVER quits voluntarily.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/08/2008 14:40 Comments ||
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Mugabe just doesn't want to leave like Nikolai Ceauescu or be tried for his crimes against Zimbabwe by the people of Zimbabwe. Besides, contemplate for a minute what happens to the leader of a band of merciless thugs once he can no longer make the payroll.
#5
Yep, a comfortable exile in the south of France, living off of the hundreds of millions that he and his cronies have looted from Zimbabwe over the decades. Just ask Baby Doc Duvalier about which estates are open and the correct palms to grease to get into the better clubs and restaurants.
#6
Duvalier reportedly lives in a one-bedroom apartment in Paris with Veronique Roy, his longtime girlfriend and chief public-relations representative. [6] Veronique Roy is the granddaughter of Paul Magloire, President of Haïti from 1950 to 1956.[12]
Zimbabwe's High Court on Saturday overturned a police ban on opposition rallies this weekend ahead of the June 27 presidential run-off, a lawyer for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said. "The effect of the order is to allow MDC rallies to proceed. The order simply says that police should not interfere with the MDC rallies. We made an urgent chamber application after police wrote to say the rallies scheduled for this weekend should not continue," MDC lawyer Charles Kwaramba said.
He said High Court Judge Alfas Chitakunye gave the order on Saturday afternoon. The application only sought to challenge the police ban on MDC rallies scheduled for this weekend. "The ruling is logical. What is disturbing is we have to go to the High Court each time we want to meet our supporters. That only happens in a dictatorship. We are not an underground or guerrilla movement, we need to meet the people," MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2008 04:11 ||
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U.N. envoys met Congo President Joseph Kabila on Saturday and backed his plans to disarm and expel Rwandan rebels behind years of strife, and to refocus the biggest U.N. peace force on rebuilding his shattered nation.
The ambassadors reassured Kabila the peacekeepers who have backed his army's efforts to control almost daily clashes with local militias and Rwandan Hutu rebels in eastern areas since a 1998-2003 war would not simply pack their bags and leave.
"It will not happen very soon," French U.N. Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert, who is leading the Security Council delegation on what has become an annual trip around Africa's trouble spots, said after the meeting.
"It should not happen abruptly. There should be of course a transition, in which to pass from security re-establishment to the development of the country and that the U.N. could do something else than only sending troops for security purposes."
He said Kabila wanted the peacekeeping mission, known by its French acronym MONUC, to shift its priorities from security to development as Congo tries to rebuild an economy ruined by decades of kleptocracy and violence.
An estimated 5.4 million people have been killed as a result of conflict since 1998, mostly through hunger and disease.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2008 04:11 ||
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Ugandan rebels have killed 23 people including 14 south Sudanese soldiers and "started war", a south Sudanese minister said on Saturday.
Wednesday's raid by Lord's Resistance Army guerrillas at Nabanga village on the remote Congo border appeared to signal the collapse of peace talks with the Ugandan government that have been hosted by south Sudan since mid-2006. "The LRA have started war," south Sudan's Information Minister Gabriel Changson Chang told Reuters in Juba. "Southern Sudan will not be the place where they can wage this war."
Chang said his government would decide how to respond. "We do not yet have a definite position on this," he said.
Nabanga had been the site of tentative meetings between Ugandan officials and the LRA's fugitive leader Joseph Kony, who is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court.
But he failed to appear in April to sign a final deal to end more than two decades of civil war in northern Uganda that have killed tens of thousands of people and displaced 2 million more.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2008 04:11 ||
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The LRA is the only organization willing to stand up for human rights in the Sudan?
#2
You have the right to murder. You have the right to rape. You have the right to enslave. This is Sudan after all.
Posted by: ed ||
06/08/2008 7:20 Comments ||
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No surprises. You can learn about this unique African tribal slash and slaughter dynamic in most African American studies classes at major universities throughout the US.
The Government of South Sudan (GoSS) has suspended its mediation of the peace process between rebels of the Lords Resistance Army and the Ugandan authorities, a day after attacks by the rebels on an SPLA [Sudan People's Liberation Army] base. The attack came on Thursday as President Museveni was delivering his State of the Nation Address before Parliament in which he too declared the peace process over. The attack claimed the life of a major and 21 of his troops.
It would be unreasonable for the Government of South Sudan to continue [with the mediation], said Mr Gabriel Changson Cheng, the GoSS information minister.
Mr Cheng, who spoke to Radio France International (RFI), said the decision to withdraw his governments mediation was brought about by several other factors including the attack itself. [The LRA] are the ones abrogating the peace process, he said, adding that the other party to the talks, the Uganda government, was equally disinterested.
Sources familiar with goings-on in South Sudan tell Sunday Monitor the LRA attack was led by Commander Smart Ojara, who holds the rebel rank of lieutenant colonel, and was aimed at raiding the SPLA detach for food and weapons. New LRA spokesman Justin Okello, however, told RFI the rebels had instead been attacked by a joint Ugandan/SPLA force.
The nearly two-year peace process has unravelled fast in the past two months. Mr Joseph Kony, the LRA leader, was a no-show on April 10 for the signing of a final peace deal at Nabanga. And a spate of abductions in his reported locations between the forests in eastern DR Congo and Central African Republic suggest he is rebuilding his forces. The heads of the militaries of Uganda, DR Congo and GoSS on Wednesday said they plan to launch a joint offensive alongside the UNs Monuc forces in DR Congo on the LRA.
The LRA fighters say they will defend themselves in what amounts now to a resumption of hostilities even if the peace process is yet to be officially called off.
GUATEMALA CITY - Guatemala plans to send hundreds of troops, elite presidential guards and anti-drug police to its border with Mexico to stem growing drug violence, the government said on Saturday. "The unit should be ready within about 90 days. We are talking about 500 troops" and members of the presidential guard, Interior Ministry spokesman Ricardo Gatica said.
Gatica declined to say how many counternarcotics police would be sent to the border, where drug smuggling into southern Mexico, bound for the United States, goes unchallenged.
In southern Mexico, suspected drug gunmen dumped a man's head outside a newspaper in Tabasco state on Saturday with a message threatening police and rivals, the state attorney general's office said. "This is what will happen to those who interfere. The army won't protect you," the message read, according to a spokesman who declined to be named.
The Guatemalan deployment is part of a $1.4 billion U.S. anti-drug aid plan for Mexico and Central America proposed by President George W. Bush. The so-called Merida Initiative needs U.S. congressional approval, but Gatica said Guatemala was likely to go ahead even if Congress failed to act.
Lawmakers in Washington have held up the plan with calls to attach conditions on how and where the aid -- which includes helicopters and encrypted communication devices -- is used. They also want to include human rights oversight in the package.
As usual, the Dhimmicrats in Congress are holding up useful legislation ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/08/2008 00:38 ||
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Rising price of blow really puts a damper on the Democratic Party's parties.
Posted by: ed ||
06/08/2008 8:25 Comments ||
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#2
So THAT'S what happened to Shrillary, got her supply cut off.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/08/2008 14:38 Comments ||
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TORONTO - Canada said on Saturday it had wrapped up free trade negotiations with Colombia and reached agreement on related labor and environmental issues, but the deal could raise criticism from opposition lawmakers concerned about the Andean country's human rights record.
Just as kooky and non-sensical as the Americans who are wound up over this. The Colombians have been bringing peace to their country, and we should be supporting that.
Once implemented, the trade pact would improve access for farm and industrial goods and services trade between Canada and Colombia, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade said in a news release posted on its Web site. The deal would also provide for more secure investments, it said. Talks on the agreement began in July 2007.
The agreements "will help solidify ongoing efforts by the government of Colombia to create a more prosperous, equitable and secure democracy," Canadian Trade Minister David Emerson said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/08/2008 00:36 ||
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concerned about the Andean country's
Indeed.
Posted by: George Smiley ||
06/08/2008 20:07 Comments ||
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South Koreans hatin' the US. Agitators got the schoolkids all wound up, too.
South Korean politics are on the brink of meltdown after spiralling public hysteria over mad cow disease in American beef unleashed a weekend of mass protests and pitched battles between demonstrators and riot police. "spiraling public hysteria" sums it up neatly.
Police vehicles were today attacked by angry mobs armed with sticks and police lines were reportedly charged after the 40,000-strong crowd of peaceful protesters thinned-out to leave a smaller group of activists.
With the violence threatening to continue for another week, and the calls for his resignation being screamed by students on the streets of Seoul, President Lee Myung Bak now faces a series of potentially crippling departures from his immediate circle of allies.
Just a few short months since taking the reins of power in South Korea with pledges of stronger government, Mr Lee is expected within the next couple of days to receive letters of resignation from his Prime Minister, Han Seung Soo, half a dozen members of his cabinet and a number of his closest aides.
Government sources said that a collective resignation was a near certainty over the next few days because of the persistent failure of Mr Lees government to calm a population that believes its leaders are playing fast and loose with an issue of public health. The weekends violence was the culmination of rising fury over a government plan to resume imports of American beef after a five-year suspension.
The discovery of a case of BSE in a cow in the US in 2003 prompted several countries to suspend imports. Washington has slowly managed to persuade large former customers like Japan to resume their imports, but it was only in April that Seoul agreed to do so.
But many South Koreans via some of the most active internet message boards in the world objected strongly to that decision, arguing that this was an example of Mr Lee being too acquiescent towards the US. ingrates
Sensationalist television documentaries involving questionable science and supposed footage of cows staggering around farmyards, further roused public suspicion in the face of repeated assertions by the US Department of Agriculture that American beef was entirely safe. "Sensationalist" puts it mildly. Agit-prop in its purest form. NBC's Ford Bronco "expose`" pales in comparison.
Schoolchildren and university students have been especially vocal in their distrust of Mr Lee and his government, and could be seen waving placards bearing phrases like Why must I die like a mad cow? Eat mor chikin
With his control over public opinion now in tatters, and his plan to resume US beef imports in limbo, Mr Lee received a phone call from George W Bush on Saturday in which the US President promised that only US beef from younger cattle would be sold to South Korea. It was not enough to calm the mood on the streets, however.
The scenes in the capital over the weekend, which were repeated on a smaller scale in towns across the country, deal a heavy blow to a president who has all but lost the support of the country. Young Koreans who were initially whipped into a frenzy over the issue of US beef imports on hundreds of internet message boards have become increasingly vocal and physical in the streets.
The rioting follows six weeks of demonstrations that have sent the approval ratings of Koreas new president plunging below 20 per cent. Mr Lee was voted in by a huge landslide last December, but has had barely a moment to flex his political muscles. Even by the fickle standards of South Korean politics, say analysts, his fall from grace has been surprisingly hard and fast. Reads like the Commies and the local beef industry have found common cause.
#1
This is the most stupid thing I've ever seen. It's the left, which got their asses kicked in the last election, having finally found an issue that will get some traction and they're pushing it with all they've got.
Korea is a xenophobic society to begin with and anything anti-American rings a loud bell with them. They've long since all but forgotten our part in the Korean War. Go to any of the monuments and memorials that depict that history and it's all about the brave ROKs that defended the country in the Korean Civil War. Funny how T.R. Fehrenbach and Clay Blair, the Korean War's most noted historians, both see the ROKs as damned near useless in fighting that war. Hewers of wood and drawers of water, yes. Fighters...not so much. As an indication of how much we're appreciated over here, I have yet to meet an American in Korea who doesn't strongly wish that the U.S. would pull USFK immediately.
If you really want to know more about this, check out www.rjkoehler.com. This guy writes a blog called "The Marmot's Hole" and he's covered this issue extensively. He's normally pretty pro-Korean but on this issue he's just calling it as it is: a bunch of racist, xenophobic garbage.
North Korea is what South Korea would be if it wasn't for the U.S. No good deed goes unpunished.
Posted by: Thaimble Scourge of the Pixies4707 ||
06/08/2008 18:07 Comments ||
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The SoKors ought to be careful what they wish for - if the US gets tired of this crap and leaves, they will be the ones that get to pay for North Korea all by themselves, once it collapses. And believe me, North Korea will collapse. The only "communist" survivor nations in the world are those that : 1) operate more like EU socialist police states; or 2) are politically valuable enough to earn the needed foreign aid from the anti-American bloc. North Korea has far too much of the Stalinist Cult of Personality running through its entire communist ideology and cadre to risk the EU police state approach, and it has lost its political value over the years.
#4
Well, SW, that's because Korea is Asia's Belgium, the crossroad of conflict between two large nations. There's a saying in Hangul [Korean], when whales fight shrimps backs are broken. For centuries its lands and people have been the collateral damage in fights between those coming from China and Japan.
And is their reaction any different than that of the American automakers and unions when fuel efficient and solidly made Japanese cars started to flood the American market in the 70s during that earlier gas 'crisis'? It's as old as Aesop's fable - depends on whose ox is being gored.
However, we should have been gone years ago leaving a Military Assistance Team for coordination and planning.
ANKARA - Turkey's parliament speaker suggested curtailing the powers of the Constitutional Court on Saturday after it annulled a law which removed a ban on headscarves at universities. Late on Thursday the court sparked protests from the ruling AK Party by overturning a reform which would have let students wear the Muslim headscarf on campus.
"The Constitutional Court made a decision about the contents of this law passed by 411 deputies of our parliament even though the constitution clearly states the court can only carry out procedural examinations," speaker Koksal Toptan said.
He suggested Turkey should discuss drafting a new constitution and establishing a senate in addition to a parliament to trim the powers of the Constitutional Court. "The burden of the Constitutional Court may ease in a two-chamber system," Toptan told a news conference. The government has not commented on the senate proposal.
Turkish TV quoted the staunchly secularist, main opposition party CHP Chairman Deniz Baykal as rejecting such a move. The CHP would not be able to block it on its own and it was not immediately clear how other parties would respond.
Toptan said he planned to call main political party leaders to hold talks on the court's decision.
The court's ruling was also criticised by U.S.-based Human Rights Watch on Saturday as a blow to freedom of religion. "This decision means that women who choose to wear a headscarf in Turkey will be forced to choose between their religion and their education," Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. "This is a truly disappointing decision and does not bode well for the reform process," Cartner said.
Holly, of course, completely misses the point. The issue isn't freedom of religion. The issue is control. Women won't choose to wear a headscarf, they'll be forced to do so by their fathers, brothers, or the local hard boyz on the street. Women who don't will be considered sluts and will be fair game in the open. It's all about making women conform to a male-dominated model.
Now if Holly thought about that, she'd change her mind. But the folks at HRW (and Amnesty, etc) have their narrative handed to them precisely so that they don't have to think.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/08/2008 01:00 ||
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Michelle Malkin has some info on the Steyn case. Apparently, once a human rights case is taken, the defendent is already deemed guilty, and all the bureaucrats want is: a groveling apology. Steyn is expected to deny that Muslims won`t assimilate to the West, and seek to takeover same. Duh, I believe that; DON`T SHOOT ME!
"BUKHARIN: This is not my defence, it is my self-accusation. I have not said a single word in my defence. If my program-stand were to be formulated practically, it would be, in the economic sphere: state capitalism. the prosperous muzhik individual, the curtailment of the collective farms, foreign concessions, surrender of the monopoly of foreign trade, and, as a result: the restoration of capitalism in the country." (March 5, 1938; Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR)
#3
It will take a martyr to end this. That is, when they order the persecution of someone, they refuse the punishment.
Let the fines accumulate, and stay in prison as a "political prisoner". Continue to say what they have been forbidden to say, if necessary by confederates outside of Canada.
If possible, have your confederates hire computer hackers, to break into public Internet sites to remind the public of the political prisoner, and what he is imprisoned for.
Have them take your case before international human right tribunals, file lawsuits against the government of Canada. Request diplomatic letters of protest from the Vatican.
If any of the human rights panel leaves the country, arrange their arrest for criminal or civil offenses.
#5
As long as Mr. Steyn remains in exile from Canada, there really isn't anything they can do to him, except punish his publishers. His main publisher is fighting this thing, and last I heard wasn't losing.
The U.S. would no longer use the Electoral College to choose its presidents under a proposal introduced Friday by Florida's Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson.
Instead, presidents would be picked by popular vote, a method that would have given former Vice President Al Gore the White House after the contested 2000 election. "It's time for Congress to really give Americans the power of one person, one vote," Nelson said in a statement.
But changing the system requires a constitutional amendment and a meat grinder of legislative tests.
First, Congress must approve the idea, and then 38 state legislatures must ratify the change within seven years. Even if it succeeds, a change likely wouldn't come until the next decade.
"Election reform is always a subject that gets people's attention, but it's always more difficult to do than people anticipate," said Susan MacManus, a political scientist at the University of South Florida.
The problem is twofold, she said. Throughout U.S. history, the idea of eliminating the Electoral College has been opposed by whichever major party would be put at a disadvantage. Smaller states also have resisted the change because it diminishes their influence in presidential races.
#1
Let's see. There are at least thirteen states so small that they would lose any influence on the presidential election at all. They would all reject the amendment in their own self interest. Which pretty much guarantees that the amendment is DOA.
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
06/08/2008 2:14 Comments ||
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#2
"It's time for Congress to really give Americans the power of one person, one vote,"
Baker v Carr has to be one of the 5 worst SCOTUS decisions of the twentieth century. If only they would apply it to the Senate, pieholes like Nelson would shut up in a hurry.
#5
While you're at it include the dissolution of the 50 redundant state governments and consolidate into a provincial system of a dozen or so regional administrative districts for the central government in Washington. Cause you obviously don't want a United STATES of America, but a Federal Peoples Republic of America. Then we can save on having just couple dozen idiots senators than the current gaggle of a hundred. Aught to save on the cost of their retirement boondoggle.
#6
Wouldn't it be easier for the Dems to have a shitload of dead people vote? How about yet another early call of FL for the Dems (Obama) so the Panhandle (i.e., Navy families around Pensacola) vote gets suppressed?
Or am I just lacking the good Senator's imagination?
#9
The EC is a check to the power of large states and large cities, who pass laws that tend to trample the rights of those in less population dense areas or smaller states.
#10
There are at least thirteen states so small that they would lose any influence on the presidential election at all. They would all reject the amendment in their own self interest. Which pretty much guarantees that the amendment is DOA.
What Rambler said. More posturing by idiots -- not worth getting exercised over.
Posted by: George Smiley ||
06/08/2008 13:46 Comments ||
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#12
given Florida's prominent place in the pantheon of stupid political moves, anything proposed by their reps should be tabled. Sorry George
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/08/2008 15:30 Comments ||
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#13
Long as it doesn't impact the peanut alotment I'm all for it.
Posted by: George Smiley ||
06/08/2008 18:17 Comments ||
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#14
So Bill Nelson wants to get rid of the Electoral College. I want to get rid of Bill Nelson. Odds are neither of us are going to get what we want anytime soon. I'd bet, however, that I'll get what I want long before he does.
Posted by: Thaimble Scourge of the Pixies4707 ||
06/08/2008 18:19 Comments ||
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#15
Let's ask Rhode Island what they think, hmmmm?...
#16
well, if you think about it, noone who has authority via the Senate should be complaining that other institutions don't have enough direct democracy.
No more View from the cheap seats for Michelle Obama.
The potential next first lady of the United States is slated to appear June 18 as a guest host on The View.
No celebrity guests have been booked yet, but we're sure Barack Obama's Princeton and Harvard-educated missus will have no trouble being heard over the most vocal ladies in daytime.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/08/2008 16:19 ||
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perhaps they could ask her how the Obamas came to be ensconsed for so many years among the TUCC, listening to Reverend Wright, yet never seemed to hear the hate (answer? She did, and relished it). She is the more despicable of the two. He's an empty suit. She's a bitter marxist racist
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/08/2008 17:40 Comments ||
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#2
You just know that they aren't going to ask her any even interesting questions.
#3
Had to stay home a few days recently and Mrs. Uluque had The View on. Repulsive. Disgusting. Ugly. Stupid. Scary. They have these old hags on there who think Obama is wonderful and will not hear anything bad about him. And then there is little Elizabeth Hasselbeck with her old fashioned, conservative views who tries meekly to point out that Obama sat in that church for TWENTY YEARS listening to that racist bile. But the old hags shouted her down and drowned her out. Well, I guess in her own, quiet way Elizabeth finally got the best of Rosie O'Donnell. Whoopi Goldberg might be a tougher nut to crack. Whoopi is a truly repulsive creature like something out of some old space alien horror movie. How does Elizabeth get up every morning and face these hags unless they're paying her great, big piles of megabucks? I could only watch two or three minutes before I had to walk away. "How can you watch that?" I asked Mrs. Uluque. She just shrugged her shoulders and laughed at me. I don't get it. How can anybody watch that crap?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
06/08/2008 19:18 Comments ||
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#4
I sense 'ye olde rick-roll.
Posted by: George Smiley ||
06/08/2008 20:10 Comments ||
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#5
I hope I'll have time to watch it - the MICHELLE I remember from years ago is a very intellectual, authoritative, and even emotional speaker-lecturer. Michelle's also the type whom, once riled, is not afraid to "NUNS WITH RULERS" sternly or openly put people in their place before an audience.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2008 04:11 ||
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#1
When you organize your strategy with 'special interest groups' and field candidates that have strong appeal to separate ones, particularly the ones which represent large voting blocks, why would you not expect a fracturing?
#2
Now Hillary turns from nasty opponent to murderous enemy. She will do everything in her power to ruin his campaign, so she can run again in four years.
And heaven help him if he was elected. He would need a Secret Service detail the size of the Praetorian Guard.
#3
Now Hillary turns from nasty opponent to murderous enemy. She will do everything in her power to ruin his campaign, so she can run again in four years.
Quite right! If there's one constant in the Clinton universe, it is revenge.
While there's no way in hell she'll get the VP slot, I think Obama needs to offer her a Cabinet slot, in the vein of 'keep your friends close and your enemies closer', but I also think she'd be better off as a Senator if / when she runs again for 2012.
#8
Obama will not offer her anything except valueless stuff like 'a promise to consult her' on health care, whatever that is.
What's going on here is that the Dean wing of the party (e.g., all the crazies and hard-lefties) want the Clintonistas gone, gone, gone. And they've succeeded. So they're not going to let the camel get her nose back under the tent.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/08/2008 12:20 Comments ||
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#9
Note that Hillary only suspended her candidatecy - she did not end it nor did she release her delegates - I believe they are still required to vote for her on the first ballot.
She is still a circling buzzard over the Obama campaign. (An apt description I've heard).
As crass as it may sound, I wonder of anyone has started an Obama 'suicide' pool -- I don't want to sound morbid or wish him ill but it does seem that suicide plaques those who oppose the Clintons.
#11
Hillary's best bet is to facilitate an Obama loss, and screw up the McCain presidency form the senate.
By Obama losing, that leaves her with the "big stick" and Clinton Machine - they will collect quite a few scalps over the next 2 years to bring the Dem party into line with their desires. The next 2 years she basically campaigns full time from the senate, and with the help of SanFran Nan, they screw McCain by giving him suicidal "reach across the ailse" on low impact things that will piss conservatives off, and withhold from him things that might actually help the economy and country.
2012 hits and you have the following scenario: Hillary running with a full Dem party behind her including blacks and far left who have been put in their place, and she is running against the OLDEST guy to ever stand for the office, who is facing massive economic problems form his passing "green" laws (which get none of the economic blame, all the blame being placed on McCain), and who no longer has the war as an issue (having been allowed to win it so Hillary doenst have to campaign against it).
Hillary wins in a landslide.
These starry eyed emotional Obama peopel are about to get the crap smacked out of them if Hillary can arrange a loss for the Messiah. They deserve it.
Only way out for the GOP? Make MCCain a one-termer andput Jindal-Palin there in 2012.
President Pervez Musharraf is cashing in on the vacuum created by the coalitions incompetence and its failure to govern and deliver on their promises, PML-Q Secretary General Mushahid Hussain told Dawn News on Saturday.
That was how they ended up with Perv as dictator in the first place, wasn't it? So what's changed?
He said the coalition was using Musharraf as a decoy for its own incompetence. He said Article 270 (AAA) of the Constitution provided indemnity to the PCO and NRO.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/08/2008 04:10 ||
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AOMORI, Japan - Energy chiefs from the world's industrial powers huddled for talks on soaring oil prices Sunday amid deep doubts that their actions can quell markets - or stave off damage to their economies - anytime soon. Ministers from the Group of Eight nations met in northern Japan in the morning to discuss energy security. They are to be joined later in the day by China, India and South Korea for talks on oil and gas markets, energy investment and climate change.
Five top energy consumers - the United States, China, Japan, South Korea and India - urged oil producers Saturday to boost output to meet growing demand, while pledging to develop clean energy alternatives and increase efficiency.
But U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman warned against hopes for a quick fix. We have been three decades without really working on this issue, and it's only been the past three or four years that we have really focused on it," he told reporters Saturday. This has been a long time coming, and it's not going to be something we're going to work our way out of in a matter of months or even a year or two."
Oil prices made their biggest single-day surge on Friday, soaring US$11 to US$138.54 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, an 8 percent increase. That followed a US$5.50 increase the day before, taking oil futures more than 13 percent higher in just two days.
World oil production has stalled at about 85 million barrels a day since 2005, while global economic growth - boosted by spectacular surges in China and India - has pushed demand to unprecedented levels. Analysts have also cited the decline of the U.S. dollar, fears about the long-term supply of oil and aggressive speculation as factors in rising prices.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/08/2008 00:00 ||
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The whole art of war consists of getting at what is on the other side of the hill," said the Duke of Wellington, conqueror of Napoleon at Waterloo. In the murky kind of fight that marks modern warfare against terrorists and guerrillas, knowing what's on the other side of the hillor inside a buildingtakes on a whole new urgency and meaning. Lt. Col. Scott Williams, who leads a unit of Apache helicopters in Baghdad, is in the business of "servicing" targets, by which he means anything from blowing up a building with a Hellfire missile to helping local police make arrests. He must know when to shootand when not to.
Williams recently spoke to a NEWSWEEK reporter after leading an airborne foray into Sadr City, where a dronea pilotless craft generically known as a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle)had found a rocket emplacement and transmitted images back to the ground commander. Insurgents had attacked the Green Zone with rockets from the site and retreated into a nearby apartment block. Williams and his fellow Apache pilots swooped in for the kill, but pulled back. The UAVknown as a Shadowhad spotted children going in and out of the building. "We knew the bad guys were there," Williams said. "We saw them walk in and out, we saw them place the [missiles] We could have serviced that building and we probably could have killed four or five of the guys that were involved in it.
But the decision was made at the command levelbecause of the women and children who were potentially in that buildingnot to service the target." Instead, the Apaches took out the rocket-launch site and a few of the men around it.
In the kind of counterinsurgency struggle fought in Iraq and in troubled places around the globe, winning hearts and minds is more important than body counts. There is no technological silver bullet that will help America win these wars. But in the cat-and-mouse game played by insurgents who mix freely with civilians, the ability to loiter over a target, to watch closely with cameras before the bombs begin to fall, is crucial. American forces call this "persistent stare capability" or "the unblinking eye"and only drones have it.
The UAV is the "smart bomb" of the Iraq War, the latest turn in the unending offense-defense spiral that characterizes the history of warfare. Army units searching and fighting house-to-house are using hundreds of drones, some of them as small as a model airplane (the Raven), to track enemy movements. Patrols regularly use them to scout out the route ahead. Commanders position them over well-traveled roads to keep an eye out for insurgents planting IEDsa task once performed by soldiers sitting in their Humvees for hours on end. The Army is even working on drones that can detect IEDs by seeing where the earth has been recently disturbed. Army drones alone flew more than 46,450 hours in March.
More at the link. An interesting article on their multi-decade development, and what's next
#1
One of the contributory reasons for the American success on the battlefield of Europe in '43-'44 was the prevalence in the culture of dealing with automotive technology down to about the lowest level unit. Someone grew up with the skills to keep a truck or vehicle in operation. American units were known to 'add' equipment and lift to their property catalog either through 'liberation' or repair of abandoned material.
In a similar vain, the small unmanned vehicles being put out on the battlefield today is accommodated by the American experience with game consoles of the '90s and '00s. There's someone who is already skilled in remote manipulation, hand controls, and, through game simulations, cognitively situationally aware.
You just can't buy that sort of cultural wide capability. If leveraged, it is something the 'other guy' can't compete with.
#2
"detect IEDs by seeing where the earth has been recently disturbed"
An old technique from IMINT - differential temporal image analysis (a fancy way of saying: overlay pictures that are N time apart and see whats different, and see what the difference looks like).
#3
Post 9-11 and IRAQI FREEDOM I supported a plan to build a massive, integrated GROUND/BUILDING IMAGING SYS utilizing High Energy Towers, ADVANC DIRIGIBLES, Sensor(s)/Tech-carrying modified ground vehix, and of course UAVS. The drawback was that it was prob cheaper in LT to use NUCLEAR ENERGY to power and suppor aspects of this system > VERY POLITICALLY INCORRECT VV GLOBAL WARMING, PEAK OIL, + GREEN/ENVIRON LEFT; + also as per PRO-MUSLIM HUMAN/LIBERTARIAN RIGHTS since it wouod basically transform BAGHDAD and major Cities-Towns into SURVEILLANCE CAMPS. Everybody + everything would be surveyed both visually, by natural/ground motion, infrared, etc,
Boeing fired its new thin-disk laser system repeatedly in recent tests, achieving the highest known simultaneous power, beam quality and run time for any solid-state laser to date.
In each laser firing at Boeing's facility in West Hills, Calif., the high-energy laser achieved power levels of over 25 kilowatts for multi-second durations, with a measured beam quality suitable for a tactical weapon system.
The Boeing laser integrates multiple thin-disk lasers into a single system. Through these successful tests, the Boeing team has proven the concept of scalability to a 100-kilowatt-class system based on the same architecture and technology.
"Solid-state lasers will revolutionize the battlefield by giving the warfighter an ultra-precision engagement capability that can dramatically reduce collateral damage," said Scott Fancher, vice president and general manager of Boeing Missile Defense Systems.
"These successful tests show that Boeing has made solid progress toward making this revolutionary capability a reality."
The thin-disk laser is an initiative to demonstrate that solid-state laser technologies are now ready to move out of the laboratory and into full development as weapon systems. Solid-state lasers are powered by electricity, making them highly mobile and supportable on the battlefield.
The Boeing laser represents the most electrically efficient solid-state laser technology known. The system is designed to meet the rapid-fire, rapid-retargeting requirements of area-defense, anti-missile and anti-mortar tactical high-energy laser systems. It is also ideal for non-lethal, ultra-precision strike missions urgently needed by warfighters in war zones.
"This accomplishment demonstrates Boeing's commitment to advancing the state of the art in directed energy technology," said Gary Fitzmire, vice president and program director of Boeing Directed Energy Systems. "These successful tests are a significant milestone toward providing reliable and supportable lasers to U.S. warfighters."
Boeing's approach incorporates a series of commercial-off-the-shelf, state-of-the-art lasers used in the automotive industry. These industrial lasers have demonstrated exceedingly high reliability, supportability and maintainability.
A high-power solid-state laser will damage, disable or destroy targets at the speed of light, with little to no collateral damage, supporting missions on the battlefield and in urban operations.
#2
how degraded is the usefulness by inclement weather/ Fog, clouds, etc...? Anyone know?
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/08/2008 15:50 Comments ||
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#3
All high energy laser weapons are degraded, not only by inclement weather, but even by humidity and the thickness/thinness of the atmosphere (elevation, etc.). There are some not-public models that quantify the extent of the degradation of the beam based on the laser characteristics, the atmospheric conditions and the target.
BTW, I didn't say that the lasers were ineffective, just that the atmospheric conditions affect beam strength. In many cases that can be adjusted for. ;-)
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.
President Robert Mugabe plans to step down next year after securing power by hook or by crook in this months presidential runoff. It is believed Mugabe, ruler of Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980, is preparing to hand over power to key ally Emmerson Mnangagwa at Zanu-PFs congress next year.
ANKARA - Turkey's parliament speaker suggested curtailing the powers of the Constitutional Court on Saturday after it annulled a law which removed a ban on headscarves at universities. Late on Thursday the court sparked protests from the ruling AK Party by overturning a reform which would have let students wear the Muslim headscarf on campus.
AOMORI, Japan - Energy chiefs from the world's industrial powers huddled for talks on soaring oil prices Sunday amid deep doubts that their actions can quell markets - or stave off damage to their economies - anytime soon. Ministers from the Group of Eight nations met in northern Japan in the morning to discuss energy security. They are to be joined later in the day by China, India and South Korea for talks on oil and gas markets, energy investment and climate change.
The whole art of war consists of getting at what is on the other side of the hill," said the Duke of Wellington, conqueror of Napoleon at Waterloo. In the murky kind of fight that marks modern warfare against terrorists and guerrillas, knowing what's on the other side of the hillor inside a buildingtakes on a whole new urgency and meaning. Lt. Col. Scott Williams, who leads a unit of Apache helicopters in Baghdad, is in the business of "servicing" targets, by which he means anything from blowing up a building with a Hellfire missile to helping local police make arrests. He must know when to shootand when not to.
