In a follow-up to an January 19 report from the Navy Times, the Army Times reported yesterday that:
The promoter who failed to hold a promised Veterans Inaugural Ball on Tuesday has left behind a trail of angry corporate sponsors and charities who contributed to the event, disappointed performers who were booked for entertainment, and 17 to 25 beauty queens who were told they would be ambassadors for their states at the ball and help raise up to $10 million for veterans' causes.
Reporter Rick Maze gave a detailed account of promoter Dante Hayes's lies and fabrications:
He disappeared last week, about the time that the performers and beauty queens were expecting to receive final details on their travel and lodging arrangements, and around the same time that the hotel where the ball was supposed to be held pulled the plug when it had not received payment.
[...]
Hayes did not respond to telephone calls to three different numbers he had provided to people involved in helping with the inaugural, and he also did not respond to e-mail. Entertainers, the hotel where the ball was going to be held, the people invited to attend and those who bought tickets — which sold for up to $385 for veterans and $500 for nonveterans — said they have not heard from Hayes since they learned there was no ball, no visits with veterans and no money to be turned over to charities.
The story is not unknown among members of the mainstream media at large. Indeed, the Washington Post's gossip column [3] picked up on the first Navy Times story on Hayes in its January 20 edition. Even so, a search on Nexis for Dante Hayes shows no recent stories on broadcast network news programs, nor the AP news wire.
Had such a scam that victimized veterans gone down in January 2005, when President Bush was criticized by many in the media for spending $40 million on inaugural festivities, there's little doubt this story would receive major play on the networks.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2009 00:00 ||
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Speaking of balls - hang him by his.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/24/2009 0:14 Comments ||
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By comparison, the quadrennial "Salute to Heroes Ball" went on as planned, just as it has on every Inauguration Night since 1953. But this year's event was noteworthy for its most prominent no-show: the new commander-in-chief. Barack Obama was the first president to skip the event, breaking a tradition that began with Dwight D. Eisenhower.
To his credit, Mr. Obama did attend the Commander-in-Chief's ball, but the Heroes gala is no ordinary event. It's been a staple of the inauguration for six decades and it's chief sponsor is a powerful organization (the American Legion) that has been courted by every recent president and presidential candidate. Among those honored at the Heroes ball are the nation's Medal of Honor recipients. This year, 47 of the 99 living MOH winners were at this year's ball, where they were honored by Vice-President Joe Biden and other dignitaries.
Obviously, the president can't make it to every inaugural event, but nine commanders-in-chief found time to attend. As for President Obama, he found time to attend something called the "Neighborhood Inaugural Ball," aimed at D.C. residents. Apparently, living inside the federal district puts you higher on the social register than winning the nation's highest decoration for military valor.
#3
He attended the "Hood" ball because that's where his roots lie. He's got nothing in common with the soldier, Marine, sailor, or Airman MOH winner. He knows he must betray Gates, Petreaus and DoD one day, one day very soon I suspect. It should come as no surprise to anyone
The Mauritanian junta, which seized power in a coup last August, announced Friday they would hold elections on June 6, according to a statement published by the official press agency AMI.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2009 00:00 ||
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Congolese rebel leader Laurent Nkunda, whose recent advance across eastern Congo threatened to plunge the region into another all-out war, was arrested late Thursday evening in a joint Rwandan-Congolese military operation, according to U.N. and Rwandan officials.
The arrest represents a stunning reversal of fortune for the brash Nkunda, whose Tutsi-dominated rebel movement was largely a Rwandan creation. It comes just a day after thousands of Rwandan troops poured into eastern Congo to join the Congolese army in a mission to hunt down the Rwandan Hutu militia known as the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR, whose members fled into the region after 1994 Rwandan genocide.
Together, the two events mark a major turning point in a complex conflict that has simmered and raged across eastern Congo for more than a decade, leaving by some estimates up to 5 million people dead from starvation, disease and other effects of being driven from their homes.
"It's hugely significant," said Alan Doss, the United Nations envoy to the region. "I hope it will result in now putting to an end this chapter -- dealing with the FDLR problem and ending a rebellion and putting the country back on the road to peace."
An estimated 4,000 to 5,000 Rwandan troops entered Congo this week at the start of a joint operation that was itself surprising given the enmity between the two countries.
The Rwandan and Congolese troops moved Thursday on one of Nkunda's strongholds in the town of Bunagana near the Ugandan border, according to a U.N. military official who asked not to be named.
According to one account, Nkunda, a former Congolese army general, was arrested as he was negotiating the terms of rejoining the Congolese army and cooperating with the joint force in its hunt for the FDLR.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2009 00:00 ||
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A case was filed against Awami League lawmaker from Cox's Bazar-4 constituency Abdur Rahman Bodi Thursday night accusing him of violating electoral code of conduct and beating up assistant presiding officers at a polling centre during upazila polls.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2009 00:00 ||
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The top U.S. diplomat in Bolivia has left a speech by President Evo Morales after the leftist leader said Washington is plotting against his government.
Kris Urs says the accusations are "unfounded,""false,""intolerable."
Urs, the highest-ranking U.S. diplomat since Morales booted the ambassador last year, walked out Thursday near the beginning of Morales' four-hour address on the third anniversary of his taking office. Morales during the speech repeated accusations that the U.S. embassy conspired with his opposition to "foment the disintegration of the country."
Morales, a former coca grower who also kicked out DEA agents last year, has expressed hope for improved relations with new U.S. President Barack Obama.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2009 00:00 ||
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Krishna "Kris" Urs is the Charge dAffaires, a veteran Foreign Service Officer and a pretty good one I might add. I suspect O.B. and the Hilderbeast will be sending him elsewhere quite soon.
The government of Iceland today became the first to be effectively brought down by the credit crunch.
After several nights of rioting over the financial crisis, Prime Minister Geir Haarde, surrendered to increasing pressure and called a general election for May. A poll would not normally be held until 2011.
Haarde also revealed that he had been diagnosed with a malignant tumour of the oesophagus and would not seek re-election. 'I have decided not to seek re-election as leader of the Independence Party at its upcoming national congress,' he told a news conference.
Ouch. Esophageal cancer? Not good.
The global financial crisis hit Iceland, which has a population 320,000, in October, triggering a collapse in its currency and financial system under the weight of billions of dollars of foreign debts incurred by its banks, The economy is set to shrink 10 percent this year and unemployment is surging.
Critics wanted Haarde, the central bank governor and other senior officials to resign. Some senior figures in his party have also said they favour an early election, but Haarde had up to now vowed to defy plunging popularity and stay on.
Protests had been held weekly since the crisis broke last year, but since Tuesday have been held every night. On Thursday, police used teargas on demonstrators for the first time since protests against the North Atlantic island's entry into the NATO alliance in 1949. Special forces had to rescue Haarde from his car after he was surrounded by an furious mob hurling eggs and cans outside the government offices, in Reykjavik.
The seething crowd spattered the building with paint and yoghurt, yelling and banging pans, hurling fireworks and flares at the windows and even lighting a fire in front of the main doors. 'There were a couple of hundred (protesters) when they had to use the gas,' police spokesman Gunnar Sigurdsson said. 'It went on for two hours or so. There were no arrests. Some injuries, but not serious.'
Latvia, Bulgaria and other European countries hit hard by the global economic meltdown have also seen unrest.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/24/2009 14:09 ||
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(AKI) - Kosovo's newly formed security force was targeted in a grenade attack in the north-western town of Pec, police said on Friday. Police said on Friday the roof of one barracks was struck by a mortar shell. There were no injuries but serious damage was reported and the barracks was almost destroyed in the attack late Thursday, police said. Investigations were continuing but no-one has yet been arrested for the attack.
The attack came a day after the Kosovo Security Force replaced a 3,000-strong civilian emergency organisation formed out of the disbanded ethnic Albanian guerrilla force.
Serbia -- which rejects Kosovo's independence and insists Kosovo remains a part of its territory -- has said it will file a protest with the United Nations against the new force, which it says is designed to intimidate the Serb minority in Kosovo.
The Kosovo Security Force was formed this week from members of the former Kosovo Protection Force and the Kosovo Liberation Army which started a rebellion against Serbian rule in 1998. Majority ethnic Albanians declared independence from Serbia last February and Serbia is afraid that the KSF is the basis for a future army.
Serbia continues to oppose Kosovo's independence, which has been recognised by 54 United Nations member states, including the United States and most European Union countries. Serbian president Boris Tadic has written to UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, saying that the formation of the KSF was in violation of Security Council resolution 1244 according to which Kosovo officially remains a part of Serbia.
The force consists of 2,500 lightly armed men recruited mostly from the KPS and trained by NATO forces stationed in Kosovo.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Of the many Clinton crimes, enabling Muslim conquest of Kosovo is perhaps the most heinous.
Kosovo is the fourth country I've visited where the UN has or has had a key role, and in only one of them Lebanon is the UN not despised by just about everyone. In Lebanon the UN has so little power to make a difference one way or the other that any anger at the institution would largely be pointless. In Bosnia, though, UN peacekeepers stood by impotently while genocide and ethnic-cleansing campaigns were carried out right in front of them. The UN's Oil for Food program was thoroughly corrupted by Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq at the expense of just about everybody who lives there. Kosovo, meanwhile, declared independence from Serbia on February 17, 2008, but the elected government is still subordinate to the almost universally despised UN bureaucrats who are the real power. Many Kosovars insist the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) is actually a dictatorship.
Vetevendosje self-determination in Albanian was formed as a non-violent civil resistance movement against UN rule in a country that is supposed to be sovereign. Recently the European Union, which announced its own mission in Kosovo without being invited, was added to the list of opponents, but the UN remains the primary target. I attended one of Vetevendosje's rallies as an observer which began as a long march through the streets of Kosovo's capital Prishtina and ended at the United Nations headquarters where activists dumped a truckload of garbage inside the gate and hosed down the walls of the compound with sewage...
#5
activists dumped a truckload of garbage inside the gate and hosed down the walls of the compound with sewage...
Now THAT'S how to treat the UN! Why haven't the people of New York City done that yet? Are they waiting for the unpaid bills from the United Nations to reach $1trillion before taking action?
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/24/2009 19:56 Comments ||
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When Secretary of State Hillary Clinton -- flanked by President Obama -- introduced Richard Holbrooke as the formidable new U.S. envoy to South Asia at a State Department ceremony on Thursday, India was noticeably absent from his title.
Holbrooke, the veteran negotiator of the Dayton accords and sharp-elbowed foreign policy hand who has long advised Clinton, was officially named "special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan" in what was meant to be one of the signature foreign policy acts of Obama's first week in office.
But the omission of India from his title, and from Clinton's official remarks introducing the new diplomatic push in the region was no accident -- not to mention a sharp departure from Obama's own previously stated approach of engaging India, as well as Pakistan and Afghanistan, in a regional dialogue. Multiple sources told The Cable that India vigorously -- and successfully -- lobbied the Obama transition team to make sure that neither India nor Kashmir was included in Holbrooke's official brief.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/24/2009 12:00 ||
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1) Just starting to figure it out or
2) Setting up the negative tone they feel is necessary to create news for the next four years.
Or both.
Let the mutual backstabbing begin. You deserve each other.
Just a couple of nights ago, we heaped praise on the new president for announcing what he called a new era of openness, where in his administration, transparency would rule the day.
And the lobbyists that he was so critical of during the campaign? Well, he told us they will now face even tougher new restrictions.
President Obama: "The executive order on ethics I will sign shortly represents a clean break from business as usual. As of today, lobbyists will be subject to stricter limits than under any other administration in history. If you are a lobbyist entering my administration, you will not be able to work on matters you lobbied on, or in the agencies you lobbied during the previous two years. When you leave government, you will not be able to lobby my administration for as long as I am president."
Actress Susan Sarandon says that Egypt, Abu Dhabi and "the world" are impressed with the American people for selecting Barack Obama as their president.
"I know just coming back from Egypt and Abu Dhabi and other places in Europe that the world is so happy that we've changed direction. They're so hopeful," Sarandon told CNSNews.com at The Creative Coalition's post-inauguration dinner on Tuesday night. "They are as hopeful as we are, and they are really impressed with the American people that they have taken on this guy and that uh, he's going to be -- they hope, managing things in a different way."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2009 00:00 ||
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Here's a free clue, dipshit - we don't give a rat's ass in hell what you, or the world, think.
If you can call it thinking....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/24/2009 0:06 Comments ||
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Ms. Saranwrap, is that Kool-Aid residue on yer lips?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/24/2009 2:19 Comments ||
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What part of "they're happy because they want us weak" do you not get, Ms Sarandon?
Posted by: no mo uro ||
01/24/2009 6:17 Comments ||
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Can Egyptians feel happiness? Their emotional range runs from peevishness to anger to gassyness.
Posted by: regular joe ||
01/24/2009 9:32 Comments ||
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#5
Now that the evil Bushitler is gone, I think the opportunities for these intellectual giants to step up and spout the spew will be fewer and far between, as their friends in the media won't really care to waste the time on quoting them on what a great job Barry's doing.
Dog bites man. Yawn....
#7
Ms. Saran-gas needs to spend a few days in those countries talking to the women-folk...yes, stop in the Saudi Misogynist Apartheid Republic first, if you dare.
Less than three weeks before the general election, Likud leads Kadima by four mandates, according to the results of two polls published Friday morning.
A Dahaf poll, conducted for Yediot Aharonot, gave Likud 29 seats, Kadima 25, Labor 17 and Yisrael Beiteinu 14. A second poll, conducted by Teleseker for Ma'ariv, predicted 28 mandates for Likud, 24 for Kadima and 16 for both Labor and Yisrael Beiteinu.
Meanwhile, Welfare and Social Services Minister Isaac Herzog, of Labor, repeated a claim previously made by Kadima that Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu as prime minister would find it difficult to work with new US President Barack Obama. "Whoever thinks that it will be easy for Israel with Netanyahu as prime minister is wrong. It will be hard because it seems that Netanyahu's policies will be in direct contrast with those of Obama," Herzog told Army Radio. "That's how I see it."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2009 00:00 ||
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Netanyahu's policies will be in direct contrast with those of Obama
And anyone else who wants the Zionist Entity eradicated.
EXPLOSIVE experts have removed about 60 World War Two mortar rounds found in the grounds of the US Embassy in Manila by construction workers, officials said today.
The embassy was evacuated yesterday afternoon when the ordnance was found by workers digging in the grounds of the mission, said embassy spokeswoman Rebecca Thompson. This morning, experts had carefully removed 60 of the rusted and mud-covered rounds and transported them to a police base.
"They got everything that was found there," Ms Thompson said, adding the US embassy grounds facing Manila Bay were used as the main headquarters of Japanese military forces from 1942 to 1945. "It's not surprising to find those old bombs inside the compound, but we appreciate the quick response from Philippine authorities. They quickly and safely removed them."
Leopoldo Bataoil, Metro Manila police chief, said the ordnance was potentially lethal. "Those bombs could still kill and create massive destruction," he said.
"There are sets of standard operating procedures we follow in properly disposing of these materials. We will examine these and take them to an area north of Manila where these will be properly detonated."
Police said reports of unexploded ordnance being found at construction sites in the Philippines capital remained common more than six decades after the end of World War Two.
Manila, which was occupied by the Japanese military and then retaken by Allied forces, saw fierce fighting and was heavily bombed during World War Two.
#1
Manila, which was occupied by the Japanese military and then retaken by Allied forces, saw fierce fighting and was heavily bombed during World War Two.
#2
Never underestimate the brutality of someone who believes their race is superior. I had the fortune to spend time with some of the survivors of the Japanese rape of the Philippines. A true horror story and of the will of man to survive.
The flag pole at the US embassy in Manila is the one that was there during the war. It was never repaired and is riddled with bullet holes.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/24/2009 12:12 Comments ||
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I web-searched (not exhaustively) to find a photo of the flag pole, but to no avail. Did turn up a great web site devoted to the history of Clark Air Base, complete with post-Pinatubo posts.
The Arab world's most storied English-language daily newspaper has suspended publication because of financial woes, the publisher said on Thursday. I was wondering why they haven't updated their website in a week or so...
The Daily Star, which until 2006 was distributed throughout the Middle East alongside the International Herald Tribune, had been in trouble for years. But nobody expected so abrupt a fall for Lebanon's only English-language daily. One morning last week, without any notice, The Daily Star was simply not available on newsstands. It has not been published since then. The website has not been updated either.
The decision to shut down the newspaper was made by a court order following months of financial negotiations with a Lebanese bank over debt amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars, the newspaper's publisher and editor in chief, Jamil Mroue said. There were no indications that the sometimes-controversial paper was closed because it broke a taboo or offended a politician, as sometimes occurs in the Middle East.
Mroue said that he had been discussing his financial troubles with the bank for months and was taken aback by the swiftness with which a court ordered the newspaper closed because of its unpaid debts. The newspaper offices were sealed off only an hour after the ruling, he said.
Most news publications live off generous contributions from wealthy political figures or parties. Others are openly owned by political groups or government agencies, and reflect their benefactors' views.
On-and-off for decades, The Daily Star had been a unique English-language source of information in the Arab world. In the past few years, however, a flurry of news websites began challenging the newspaper's once-absolute reign.
The Daily Star's fate is also a symptom of tough business environment for independent newspapers in the Middle East. Most news publications live off generous contributions from wealthy political figures or parties. Others are openly owned by political groups or government agencies, and reflect their benefactors' views. Newspapers like The Daily Star - in which articles and opinion pieces by neoconservatives run side-by-side with those by radical Islamists - struggle to cover expenses by selling ads.
Mroue said Lebanon has suffered through nearly four years of assassinations, political intrigue and wars that hurt the newspaper's revenues. He complained that these factors were not taken into consideration by bank officials judging the company's solvency.
Employees working at the newspaper said that they were shocked when security officials suddenly showed up January 15, the day after the last issue hit the newsstands, and ordered them to leave immediately. They said they were not even allowed to remove their personal laptops. "At a time when the whole world is seeking information on the Middle East, it will be a real shame not to have an English language newspaper out of Lebanon," one reporter said on condition of anonymity.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2009 00:00 ||
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at least we still have Paris presstv.iran and the DailyPaki times
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/24/2009 8:14 Comments ||
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It's a loss. They were pretty good to Rantburg. They covered the news in Lebanon far better than Reuters or the AP.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/24/2009 10:59 Comments ||
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#3
They covered the news in Lebanon far better than Reuters or the AP.
Hat tip Instapundit
I think a threshold or tipping point exists in the ratio between the political power of those who pay taxes and those who consume taxes directly. After that tipping point is reached, those who pay taxes become the economic slaves of those who consume taxes.
I think California has passed that point. Tax consumers now control the state government and can vote themselves almost any level of personal income and benefits they wish while taxpayers cannot muster the political capital to defend themselves. What about the rest of the Country?
#1
A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:
* From bondage to spiritual faith;
* From spiritual faith to great courage;
* From courage to liberty;
* From liberty to abundance;
* From abundance to complacency;
* From complacency to apathy;
* From apathy to dependence;
* From dependence back into bondage.
- Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee (October 15, 1747 - January 5, 1813)
#3
Sounds like Alexander Fraser Tytler and Lord Woodhouselee nailed the cycle of history two hundred years ago.
Posted by: regular joe ||
01/24/2009 12:51 Comments ||
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#4
I'm in California, have significant access within state government, and couldn't agree more. The state is actually run by Susan Kennedy, Governor S's Chief of Staff, and interestingly, Gray Davis' Chief of Staff before that. The government, at appointee and senior management level is riddled with progressives and literal socialists, many in thrall to the unions and the liberal extremes of the democrat party. There is no doubt that they cater to, and will shortly be enthusiastically welcoming the 5 million illegals in the state when BHO and Nancy/Harry extend citizenship to all of the illegals nationwide. This will for all time tip CA into the socialist camp, and those 55 electoral votes will be solidly democrat forever.
We have literally taken paradise and ruined it.
someone here recently said it best, California, a second world economy, populated by third world citizens, run by first world academic twits.....
(with my addition) living off the few actual Americans left. Most of us are are just waiting for a little recovery in the housing market before returning to the actual United States, leaving emerging chaos behind).
Our national sloth and the subversion of educational systems led us to this. It makes me cry just to watch the death spiral increase in velocity so quickly.....
#7
OldSpook: I think the only solution for Colorado is to secede from the Denver/Boulder/Fort Collins urban area. When 85% of the population of the state reside in 7 of the 59 counties, you're in trouble if you don't live in one of those seven counties.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/24/2009 19:59 Comments ||
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#8
Look at California. Or PA. But OS feels comfortable now.
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.
Actress Susan Sarandon says that Egypt, Abu Dhabi and "the world" are impressed with the American people for selecting Barack Obama as their president.
The Arab world's most storied English-language daily newspaper has suspended publication because of financial woes, the publisher said on Thursday.
