#1
You know, the point that if it was really about safety, they would have pulled him over after watching him don the mask is true. Why did they not pull him over immediately?
The obit writer for USA Today provides us with a colorful demonstration of 'obsequious' ...
Juan Almeida Bosque, a comrade-in-arms of Fidel Castro since the start of his guerrilla struggle in Cuba more than a half-century ago, has died of a heart attack at age 82. A statement read in government media said Almeida died Friday but will "live on forever in the hearts and minds of his compatriots."
Almeida had been among only three surviving Cuban rebel leaders who still bore the honorary title "Commander of the Revolution."
A bricklayer who began working at age 11, Almeida was once among the most important and decisive voices in the battle to overthrow Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista, as well as in the early years following the Jan. 1, 1959, triumph of the revolution.
Born Feb. 27, 1927, Almeida was often seen at public events in his uniform alongside the Cuban leader until Castro fell gravely ill in the summer of 2006 and finally resigned the presidency for good in February 2008. Almeida Bosque then became a mainstay beside Castro's younger brother and successor, President Raul Castro.
With his full head of white hair and mustache, Almeida was a highly visible member of Cuba's ruling elite, sitting on the Communist Party's politburo and serving as a vice presidents on the Council of State, the country's supreme governing body.
Along with Ramiro Valdes and Guillermo Garcia, he was distinguished as a "Commander of the Revolution" -- a title reserved for top leaders of rebel troops under Fidel Castro's command in the 1950s.
Almeida joined the fight against Batista's dictatorship in March 1952 as a young law student at the University of Havana, where he met Fidel Castro, another aspiring attorney.
Almeida was at Castro's side a year later, on July 26, 1953, when Cuba's future president led an armed attack on a military barracks in the eastern city of Santiago. The attack failed, but launched the revolutionary battle that triumphed 5 1/2 years later.
Imprisoned with the Castro brothers and other survivors of the offensive, Almeida was freed in May 1955 under an amnesty granted to the young revolutionaries.
Almeida accompanied the Castros and other revolutionaries to Mexico, where they formed a guerrilla army. They returned to Cuba in December 1956 on the American yacht "Granma" and launched their battle from the island's eastern Sierra Maestra. Almeida, the Castro brothers and Argentine-born Ernesto "Che" Guevara were among only 16 who survived the landing, in which most of the rebels were killed by government troops. "No one here gives up!" Almeida shouted to Guevara at the time, giving the Cuban revolution one of its most lasting slogans and ensuring his place in Cuban communist history. As a guerrilla leader, Almeida later headed his own front of military operations in eastern Cuba.
After Batista fled Havana on New Year's Day 1959, Almeida served in various military posts, ranging from head of motorized units to chief of the Rebel Army's Air Force. He later was named a vice minister and chief of staff of the Revolutionary Armed Forces. Almeida was a member of the Communist Party of Cuba's Central Committee since its creation in October 1965. His duties included welcoming new foreign ambassadors to Cuba and greeting other visiting dignitaries. However, Almeida cut back on public activities in December 2003, announcing he was suffering from heart problems.
Almeida also composed traditional Cuban music and wrote about his years behind bars and in the mountains.
So USA Today is lauding a drunken Communist musician, a law school drop-out who liked to hike? How very odd.
Outnumbered by the enemy, they risked everything to save the soldiers around them -- and they succeeded.
They are heroes, and they have the hardware to prove it. When more than 50 of the 95 living recipients of the Medal of Honor meet in Chicago this week for their annual convention, they'll form one of the nobler gatherings this city has seen. Never before have the Medal of Honor recipients convened here.
[Mail and Globe] Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe on Friday lashed out at Western sanctions against him, condemning "bloody whites" for meddling in Zimbabwe's affairs, on the eve of a landmark European Union visit. "Who said the British and the Americans should rule over others? That's why we say down with you. We have not invited these bloody whites. They want to poke their nose into our own affairs. Refuse that," he said. "We have stood firm and we have refused to let go. Zimbabwe, sanctions or no sanctions, Zimbabwe remains ours," he told a gathering of his party's youth wing.
Mugabe spoke ahead of the first EU high-level visit in seven years led by aid chief Karel De Gucht. The team will visit the nation to meet with Mugabe and his one-time rival, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who joined him in a unity government in February.
The EU and the United States imposed sanctions on Mugabe and his inner circle following a disputed presidential poll in 2002, which Western nations as well as independent local poll monitors described as flawed. "Why are there sanctions? Why are our people being punished? It is because the imperialists want our heritage," he said
He also insisted he would not back down from his controversial land reforms launched nine years ago, which saw white-owned farms resettled with black Zimbabweans in a bid to redress colonial-era inequities. The chaotic reforms were tinged with political violence, while agricultural production plunged, leaving the nation dependent on food aid.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Those dang white folks! They've been screwing up Zimbabwe for, well, about as long as ZimBob has been running the country.
For the past six months Britains elite troops have been schooling soldiers working for Col Muammar Gaddafis regime, which for years provided Republican terrorists with the Semtex explosive, machine-guns and anti-aircraft missiles used against British troops during the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Sources within the SAS have expressed distaste at the agreement.
#2
The IRA was our greatest adversary now we are training their backers. There was a weary rolling of the eyes when we were told about this.
How 'bout resigning?
#3
Wait a minute. You'd want to train the man's most important troops, his bodyguards. Oh, don't throw me into that briar patch. No, no, I'd rather be gasping for oxygen at 20,000 feet humping a hundred plus pounds of gear tripping over the rocks of some god forsaken peak tracking some goat herder, then having to train these people. /sarc off
I added the scare quotes on coup as Rooters and the Obama DOS are too ideologically blinkered to be honest. Our dear leader is dumbassing his way to alienation of allies. Think that's an accident? I just hope we get him out before he does permanent damage
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/12/2009 17:43 ||
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by the way: Viva Honduras!
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/12/2009 17:46 Comments ||
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Posted by: Frank G ||
09/12/2009 19:15 Comments ||
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#5
Frank G - more likely it's "We respectfully agree you're a chicken-sh*t act, Secretary Clinton." :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/12/2009 19:30 Comments ||
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#6
May I suggest, "I don't know why, Madam Secretary, but whenever I think of you the image of your respected predecessor, Madeline Albright, comes to mind. President Kim Jong Il of North Korea found her charming, as I recall."
[Al Arabiya Latest] Dutch-language public schools in Belgium will ban the wearing of Muslim veils in classes, school officials in the Flanders region announced Friday. The ban affects 700 schools in the northern region of Flanders, including some in Brussels.
It follows protests after two schools in Antwerp this month joined other schools where the veil is already banned.
Responding to a complaint by a student at one of the schools, Belgium's highest administrative tribunal ruled on Tuesday that schools could not take such decisions on their own.
The tribunal will rule on the student's appeal next Tuesday -- prompting the community's education board to make public its unified stance on Friday.
Belgian schools have previously enjoyed autonomy in such decisions, with one third authorizing the wearing of Muslim veils, another forbidding them and the remainder giving no formal guidance.
The Flemish school board said the ban in communal schools would be introduced gradually to give time to those establishments which have not banned the veil to do so.
Schools in Flanders that are financed by other Belgian communities -- mostly Catholic schools run by municipalities -- are not bound by the order.
School authorities in the main Flemish town of Antwerp announced a ban on the veil from the start of the next academic year. A similar debate is underway in Belgium's French-speaking Wallonia, and the Brussels capital region.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2009 00:00 ||
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Yeah, me too since it was linked during the tweets today. The original is no longer on Twitpic now & there's no explanation for its removal. Could be server hits, could be timeout, could be it was pulled. I dunno. You can check out Instapundit for some other, less panoramic views.
#7
From the shadows, I'd say it's about 9:30-10 in the morning. I was at a Beach Boys concert on the Mall in 1980, when the crowd was estimated at 500,000. There are at LEAST twice as many people there in this photo, and perhaps as many as five times as many.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/12/2009 21:57 Comments ||
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#8
Ok, there now are multiple reports that this photo is from years ago. Sigh.
OP, I'm confused by your comment. The shadows suggest the sun is in the southwest since the long Mall axis runs from East (the Capitol) to West (the Monument). And that would mean the photo was taken in the afternoon, no??
#9
sorry, there are two dead giveaways now that I look at the photo again. First, there was no green space anywhere near the Capitol. Second, there was only one stage on the Mall, and it was down by the Smithsonian Metro stop.
#10
Well, I'm glad we caught it and can correct it here / now. Thanks for alerting us IG-88 .... it took me a while to track down the facts on this one.
Brazil on Friday issued a stark warning that developing nations would be hit by a pending US climate bill, threatening action at the WTO if the law passes in its current form.
"If the United States Congress approves the law as is, then the Brazilian government should prepare to act at the World Trade Organization," trade minister Miguel Jorge wrote in an article published in the Folha de Sao Paulo daily.
Jorge said the clean energy bill would see US companies get unfair subsidies, designed to offset a dip in competitivity because of measures to curb emissions.
"The subsidized sectors would compete with Brazilian firms (producing) chemical, iron and steel, cement, paper and cellulose products, among others," Jorge wrote.
Steps to "introduce license purchases as a requisite to enter the North American market... will have an impact equivalent to the imposition of a tariff," he said.
"Various developing countries are mobilizing" to take action at the WTO, he added.
#2
Jorge is absolutely right. The bill is an abomination precisely because in order to pass the House the Obumble administration had to give Christmas presents to all sorts of industries, particularly in the midwest.
And it still can't get through the Senate.
This might be the best way to kill cap and trade.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/12/2009 15:44 Comments ||
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#3
the coal senators will kill it (even Feingold's getting cold feet)
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/12/2009 16:08 Comments ||
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#4
Are we just trying to p*ss off all our friends or is this some kind of joke?
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
09/12/2009 17:09 Comments ||
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#5
A very good question is if Robert Byrd pegs, because he is in the heart of coal country, and the Obamaniacs hate coal with a burning passion. He is so weak and decrepit, he hasn't been standing up for his State like he should have, so his demise could push things strongly either way.
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.
[Mail and Globe] Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe on Friday lashed out at Western sanctions against him, condemning "bloody whites" for meddling in Zimbabwe's affairs, on the eve of a landmark European Union visit. "Who said the British and the Americans should rule over others? That's why we say down with you. We have not invited these bloody whites. They want to poke their nose into our own affairs. Refuse that," he said. "We have stood firm and we have refused to let go. Zimbabwe, sanctions or no sanctions, Zimbabwe remains ours," he told a gathering of his party's youth wing.
