And for those of you wishing to go to Disneyland this Spring/Summer....
Excerpt: The only condition for these released inmates is that local law enforcement officers are allowed to search them without a warrant. However, since local law enforcement will not know who these people are, that is a virtually useless provision,' Weber said.
The first responsibility of government is to provide security to its citizens, their families, and their property. Without security all else devolves. A government that fails to do so forfeits its legitimacy.
#3
Many of them will want to leave the State immediately, on the chance that the order will be overturned and they will be rounded up and put back in prison.
Since it's further to head north to Oregon, a lot will be fleeing to decades long Democrat controlled Tucson, and decades long mostly Republican metro Phoenix.
While a lot of them will try to get quick money in Tucson before continuing to head east, there will probably be a crime wave.
However hopefully Joe Arpaio will set up surveillance teams on I-10 and I-8 to protect Phoenix, and rattle them enough to keep driving.
A Cook County judge has convicted a 38-year-old Chicago woman of attempting to deposit a $1 million bogus check.
And not only was the defendant in Wednesday's bench trial a former Chicago police officer, but prosecutors say she attempted to deposit the bad check in her account at the Chicago Patrolmen's Federal Credit Union.
Circuit Court Judge William Lacy found former officer Tiffany Brown guilty of forgery, attempted theft and official misconduct.
Prosecutors said Brown tried to deposit the check in August 2006, saying it was a windfall from a legal settlement involving Six Flags Great America amusement park in suburban Gurnee.
Great America said the check was fraudulent.
Brown was stripped of her police powers after her arrest.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
What a miscarriage of justice! How can these sorts of things happen in Chicago?
#9
And not only was the defendant in Wednesday's bench trial a former Chicago police officer, but prosecutors say she attempted to deposit the bad check in her account at the Chicago Patrolmen's Federal Credit Union.
Don't forget, folks. These are the types of people 'The One®', his 'controllers' and his lackeys are used to dealing with. They are now beginning to realize that normal folks in the other 56 states don't view life in the same way.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
01/22/2010 13:26 Comments ||
Top||
#10
"Former Chicago police officer convicted for $1 million bogus check"
What, she didn't give the judge a big enough cut?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/22/2010 13:39 Comments ||
Top||
#11
Prosecutors said Brown tried to deposit the check in August 2006, saying it was a windfall from a legal settlement involving Six Flags Great America amusement park in suburban Gurnee.
The hands of justice move quite slowly in Cook County.
On first glance, it could be the ultimate Valentine's Day card -- a gigantic billboard that towers over New York's Times Square, featuring a happy couple with the text: "You are my soulmate forever, Charles & YaVaughnie."
But as every scorned lover knows, looks can be deceiving. This billboard -- which also has gone up in Atlanta and San Francisco -- is the ultimate act of revenge -- a very public retaliation by a dumped mistress aimed at a very wealthy, and married, businessman who is an adviser to President Obama.
YaVaughnie Wilkins posted the signs after she learned that her lover, Charles E. Phillips president and director of the tech conglomerate Oracle Corporation and a member of Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board had reconciled with his wife, the New York Post reported.
The billboards -- there are three in New York and one apiece in Atlanta and San Francisco, where Phillips lives -- may have cost Wilkins up to $250,000, at an estimated $50,000 each.
After the billboards surfaced, Phillips fessed up to his longtime affair through a spokesman on Thursday.
"I had an 8-and-a-half-year serious relationship with YaVaughnie Wilkins. The relationship with Ms. Wilkins has since ended, and we both wish each other well," he said.
The billboards also feature a URL of the Web site www.charlesphillipsandyavaughniewilkins.com, which features photos of Phillips' and Wilkins' lengthy relationship.
In an Oracle newsletter from 2006, Phillips was described as an ex-marine and "family man" who has a wife and 10-year-old son, Chas, the New York Times reported.
#6
And its interesting that most of the commenters reflexively started critiquing her. Don't get me started on him. cheat cheeat chhheeeeeeeting scoundrel. Unless he had an open marriage (which you can surmise he didn't), he is the worse of the two if you ask me, being that he's a Dad, CEO, and Veteran. Uh hum.
#12
Girl Thursday - Its kind of toned down Oracle corporate success motif.
Search for stuff on Larry Ellison's (Oracle's founder) life style... then consider what yours would need to be to even visit Larry's parties.
cough cough cough...
Washington post was very tame using Ellison in this defense of Clinton's scandal:
Sexual involvement with a subordinate can add to an executive's mystique. One of the most envied men in Silicon Valley is Larry Ellison, 54, chief executive of Oracle Corp., one of the richest men in California. He's the thrice-married Lothario of the pocket-protector set, frequently attending business events with a beautiful young subordinate on his arm. Some of his relationships have been with recent Stanford University alumnae in their first real jobs.
In his 1997 book, "The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison (God Doesn't Think He's Larry Ellison)," St. Petersburg Times reporter Mike Wilson described Ellison conducting simultaneous romantic relationships with as many as three female employees. That sometimes created confusion -- Ellison openly described to Wilson an incident in which a woman employee arrived at the executive's house one night, only to find another girlfriend-employee there.
Ellison's most notorious romance ended up in court. A relationship bloomed when a junior-level marketing employee named Adelyn Lee encountered the boss in the elevator and asked him for a ride in his Ferrari, according to court testimony. Ellison offered, via e-mail, to let her drive. After 18 months, the relationship soured. Lee was then fired. She sued the company for wrongful termination and obtained a settlement, but was later jailed over allegations that she doctored e-mail messages she had used to bolster her claims.
Ellison has suffered no apparent repercussions from his behavior, and remains widely respected for his innovations in the computer industry. Oracle representatives declined to comment.
Michael's Jackson's brother Jermaine Jackson reached out to the Muslim world in a long, controversial interview with the Dubai-based pan-Arab news channel Al-Arabiya aired Thursday night.
During his nearly hourlong talk, he spoke out about his brother's death, the conspiracies he believed were behind the singer's downfall -- and how he believes the King of Pop was on the verge of converting to Islam. After spending time in the Gulf (Michael Jackson lived in Bahrain for a while in 2005), "Michael hired a team that was all Muslim," Jackson told Al- Arabiya, dressed in a red Arab Keffeyeh scarf. "His behavior at the time also showed that he was very close to converting."
Jackson went on to recount to Arab households how the King of Pop was drawn by Islam, saying his brother loved hearing the Muslim call to prayer and eagerly read books on Islam. Jackson said Islam would have protected his brother from harm. "I felt that Michael was looking for that divine feeling .... I brought him books from Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, from a lot of mosques. He read all of them. He was studying ... he was ready to make that journey. His protection would have been Islam ... he had a very tough life," he said.
When asked by his interviewer whether Michael Jackson ever suggested that he would convert, Jackson implied his brother may have been a Muslim in his heart. "I wished he would have made that announcement. Maybe he made it in his soul ... but at the same time we want to hear it," he said. He added that the amount of time Michael spent in the Middle East and the number of friends he had there also indicated he had embraced Islam.
Jermaine Jackson, a composer and former member of the Jackson 5, himself developed an interest in Islam during a trip to the Persian Gulf in the late 1980s and later became a Muslim. When asked to share his travels with the viewers, he said he "never felt a connection" until he became a Muslim and how he believes his ancestors were Muslims and that Christianity was imposed on them through slavery. Because Islam has such a admirable record on slavery and the imposition of faith. *sigh!*
At one point, he explains his emotional and spiritual journey in his pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. "We drove from Bahrain to Riyadh (the capital of Saudi Arabia) and then took a flight to Mecca. It was the most wonderful feeling. It felt so pure, so special. I knew that was the connection," said Jackson.
He only wishes his brother had followed his example and become a Muslim too. Islam, says Jackson, would have saved the King of Pop from many hardships. "I believe that Islam would have helped him a lot. Had he converted, he would have been spared all the problems he had been subjected to throughout his life," he said.
#1
He was gonna convert when he was looking at prison time and needed protection. When he was acquitted that sort of went by the side. If he didn't convert then it was as ham and Jermaine is trying to get headlines out of nothing.
#3
Apologies to Guillibaldo Phuck1, the second message was from me, not Guillibaldo Phuck1. The comment section defaults to the last poster's name (not sure if others have that feature).
Posted by: Jack Salami ||
01/22/2010 10:00 Comments ||
Top||
#4
It would've taken a lot of drugs for me to consider converting to Islam too.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Angola's parliament has voted to approve the country's first constitution, replacing an interim constitutional law in effect since the country's independence from Portugal in 1975. The charter was approved on Thursday following a ballot in the 220-seat parliament, with 186 affirmative votes, AFP news agency reported.
Following the vote, Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos, who has led the oil-rich country for the past three decades, was declared the president of the National Assembly.
The constitution cements the longtime rulers' hold over the country by abolishing direct elections, reserving the power to name the country's future heads of state for the party that possesses the majority of the parliamentary seats.
The prime minister of Britain is chosen by the leaders of the party that has the most members of Parliament, subject to the monarch's approval. How different is Angola's method?
No Magna Carta ...
Other main articles of the document also declare Portuguese as the national language and Luanda as the capital of the country.
The document has been criticized by the main opposition party, National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, which boycotted the session, on the grounds that the constitutional process was flawed and went against democratic principles.
The vote was not expected until March, and the charter now awaits further approvals from the Constitutional Court and Dos Santos.
With 244 articles, the constitution also clarifies laws on governing and citizens' rights and land ownership. According to the document, all land is owned by the state, which decides who has the right to use it.
So Angola's going to continue to be a failed state, eh ...
That last has proved elsewhere to be a losing formula.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
A Saudi court has sentenced a 13-year-old Saudi schoolgirl to 90 lashes and two months in prison after she was caught with a mobile phone equipped with a camera. The girl, who has not been named, is sentenced to 90 lashed in her school in front of her classmates followed by two months in detention.
The sentences come after she was caught with a cell phone equipped with camera. The gadget is banned in girls' schools.
The austere desert Kingdom's use of such punishment has been widely condemned by human rights organizations.
The world has witnessed several cases of human rights violations. In 2006, a Saudi teenager was sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in prison after she was the victim of a gang rape. The judge sentenced the female victim to more lashes than her assailants. A court had originally sentenced the rapists to jail terms of between 10 months and five years.
Publicity and publication of the event changed the 19-year-old girl's situation. The court had originally sentenced the woman to 90 lashes, but increased the punishment after an appeal, saying the woman had tried to use the media to influence them.
In March, 2002, at least fourteen schoolgirls died at a school in Saudi Arabia after religious police stopped them from fleeing a fire. The religious police maintained that they could not leave the building because they were not wearing correct Islamic dress.
Saudi Arabia appoints religious police, commonly known as mutaween, to patrol public places in teams to enforce the Kingdom's brand of ultra-conservative Islam.
In February, 2008 religious police arrested a Saudi psychology academic for having coffee with a female student. He faced 180 lashes for the act.
Contact between unrelated Saudi men and women in public places is severely restricted. It is an illegal act in the Kingdom which enforces a strict Islamic moral code.
In an April, 2008 report, Human Rights Watch documented that the guardianship system requires Saudi women to obtain permission from male guardians before they can carry out a host of day-to-day activities, such as education, employment, travel, opening a bank account, or receiving medical care. The report demonstrated the negative consequences for women whose guardians - fathers, husbands, brothers or male children - refuse to give such permission.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Some things just bring your day crashing down , this is one of them .
Posted by: Oscar ||
01/22/2010 9:55 Comments ||
Top||
#3
It seems the school principal caught the girl with the phone and confiscated it. The girl then bashed the principal on the head with a cup.
The punishment appears to be for the assault, not possession of the phone.
Still, unbelievable Saudi savagery
Posted by: john frum ||
01/22/2010 17:16 Comments ||
Top||
#4
JUBAIL A court in Jubail sentenced recently a schoolgirl to two months in prison and 90 lashes of the whip for assaulting a headmistress last year, Al-Watan newspaper reported on Wednesday.
Speaking to the newspaper, the headmistress described the sentence as satisfactory, and that it was decided on her advice to carry it out at the school itself because the purpose of it is to serve as a lesson in behavior and not to sully the name of the pupil.
Al-Watan said that the incident, which occurred during the second semester of the last school year, was sparked when the school confiscated the girls camera-equipped mobile telephone which is forbidden on the premises by school rules.
The afternoon-class pupil was then warned over her actions and ordered to study for future classes from home, prompting her to turn up at the school the following morning and hit the headmistress on the head with a glass.
Al-Watan did not divulge the name of the school, but said that it was one of the Kingdoms intermediate schools which educate pupils between the ages of 14 and 16.
Schools are frightening
Responses to the story from the public on the newspapers website reflected a variety of concerns over the situation in the Kingdoms schools and court rulings.
The principal should have dealt with it herself and given her a lighter punishment if it was her first offence, said one of the total 60 comments, reflecting several saying that the principal should have handled the situation differently and internally.
Others saw the sentence as an all but due measure.
The girl had it coming to her, said one comment. Honestly, schools today are scary, and people are frightened to send their girls to school what with all the things we hear about happening in them.
Another comment questioned the consistency of court sentences. Im not defending the girl or her behavior, but the sentence was unfair and there are surely other options. I know someone who was caught with drugs and they only gave him two months prison and 30 lashes.
She deserved the strict punishment, said another, but it would be better if the laws were fixed so pupils know how to behave, education has become a joke.
Id like to defend the girl, the girl whos at intermediate school, in other words a young girl, said one. She might have gone to school all happy with her phone but its us whove made her want to take photos of stuff happening at school and put them on the Internet, and us whove made her a criminal, what say we execute her?! This is the sentence of the strong over the weak. On your conscience be it.
Others took a more balanced partisan view. One comment stated dryly: The headmistress deserved to be hit, and the girl deserved the sentence.
Posted by: john frum ||
01/22/2010 19:16 Comments ||
Top||
[Al Arabiya Latest] A senior Saudi cleric said the Prophet Mohammed's marriage to a nine-year-old girl some 14 centuries ago cannot be used to justify child marriages today, a Saudi newspaper reported Thursday.
The comments by Sheikh Abdullah al-Manie, a member of the Council of Senior Ulema (scholars), followed the marriage of a 11-year-old girl to a man 68 years her senior. Manie told Okaz newspaper that circumstances are different today from when Islam's Prophet Mohammed married young Aisha. Aisha's marriage "cannot be equated with child marriages today because the conditions and circumstances are not the same," Manie said.
The sheikh spoke as the case of a girl in the city of Buraidah, in al-Qasim province, marrying a man estimated to be 80 years old, sparked new criticism of Saudi Arabia not having a law banning child marriages.
According to a report last week in Al-Riyadh newspaper, the girl was given in marriage by her father against both her and her mother's wishes. The newspaper reported that the marriage was sealed by a dowry payment and had been consummated.
The father, who took 85,000 riyals (more than $22,000) in dowry, defended his decision to marry off his 11-year-old daughter even though his wife vehemently objected. "I don't care about her age," he told the paper. "Her health and her body build make her fit for marriage. I also don't care what her mother thinks."
The father added that marriage at such an early age has been a custom in the Saudi society for a very long time and that he saw no reason why it should be a problem now. "This is a very old custom and there is nothing wrong with it whether religiously or socially."
Saudi Arabia's legal system is based on Islamic Shariah law, which is defined by the Quran and other Islamic texts. Judges are all Islamic scholars and, instead of adhering to a modern written body of laws, base their decisions on their own interpretations of these texts.
Help requested
The case of Aisha, known to Muslims as "The Mother of Believers," is often used by Saudi judges and clerics to justify child marriages.
The government's Human Rights Commission said it was following the Buraidah case, which is currently being weighed by a local court. "The mother of the Buraidah girl asked for our help, requesting that we become involved to help her daughter in getting a divorce," commission head Bandar al-Aiban told AFP. "The case is now in the hands of the legal authority, and I do not want to say anything before they make their decision, but I hope they will reach a decision very soon," he said.
The groom has expressed his surprise at how the media has leveled harsh criticism against him and his family for marrying the girl. "It is very simple. We didn't do anything wrong. It is a valid contract that meets all the conditions for marriage? What's the point of all this fuss?"
The groom has three other wives, all much younger, and they all have kids.
So the other wives are all younger than their husband of more or less eighty years? That's nice, but the question the journalist forgot to ask is how old were they when their marriages were consummated. One hopes most sincerely they were considerably older than their newest sister-wife.
As for the bride, it is reported she repeatedly called for help and burst into tears. "Save me. I don't want him," she cried.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
the conditions and circumstances are not the same
Yeah..."temporary"! That's the ticket!!
The Obama administration is preparing to handle applications from as many as 200,000 undocumented Haitian immigrants who want to live and work legally in the United States under a new immigration program unveiled last week in the aftermath of Haiti's destructive earthquake. The federal government will begin accepting Temporary Protected Status (TPS) applications on Thursday, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Alejandro Mayorkas, whose agency will process the paperwork.
Administration officials approved TPS for Haitians last week as part of an effort to help Haiti recover from the earthquake that left an estimated 200,000 people dead and about 1.5 million homeless. The TPS designation is reserved for selected undocumented migrants from countries disrupted by natural disasters, armed conflicts or other emergencies.
Those Haitians approved will be allowed to stay in the United States for 18 months and be issued work permits to find jobs. To be approved, Haitian immigrants must submit proof of Haitian citizenship and must show they were in the United States before Jan. 12 -- the day the devastating earthquake struck Haiti.
In other words, this program is for Haitians who were in the U.S. illegally when the earthquake hit their old neighborhood. How does that aid those devastated by the destruction?
Keeps them from heading home. I don't have a problem with this for now, and now is not the time to stir up problems on the immigration front. The Dems want that fight right now.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/22/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#4
Why does the invented word "Tem-permanent" Run through my mind?
Got it, More Democratic voters. Not familiar with our system and laws, they are easily tricked.
And all so grateful to our BLACK (As are they) asshole in chief.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/22/2010 13:26 Comments ||
Top||
#5
According to Reuters, Secretary of Homeland Security Napolitano announced this does not apply to Haitians fleeing their country following the earthquake. "Haitians need to be there to help rebuild their country, this is not an opportunity for migration," Napolitano said.
TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya will end his four-month refuge in the Brazilian embassy and leave the country next week, when his term would have ended, his closest adviser said on Thursday.
Zelaya, a leftist who was ousted in a coup on June 28, accepted an agreement backed by the government of the Dominican Republic to travel to the Caribbean country, close Zelaya aide Rasel Tome told Radio Globo radio. Tome said Zelaya would remain politically active, but leaving the country effectively ends his career as a meaningful leader in Honduras.
"On January 27 there is a way out ... The exit will not be a permanent exit, we will come back to the country to continue in these processes with the Honduran people," Tome said.
Zelaya failed to return to office and reverse the coup despite support from the United States and many Latin American countries.
The agreement, signed by Honduras' President-elect Porfirio Lobo, stipulates Zelaya, his family members and his circle of advisers can enter the Dominican Republic after Lobo assumes power next Wednesday.
Lobo won a November election, which a few many nations denounced as illegitimate because it was organized by the de facto government that toppled Zelaya, who took refuge in the embassy in September.
"Many" nations, all existing in the head of the reporter ...
Zelaya was ousted on an order from the Supreme Court after he angered the country's business leaders and members of his own party with a bid to change the constitution, which is illegal under Honduran law. His critics accused him of trying to stay in office past his term, following in the footsteps of Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez, a charge Zelaya denies.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/22/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Where bound? My guess: Nicaragua. Slappy the Clown has no use for failures.
#2
The agreement, signed by Honduras' President-elect Porfirio Lobo, stipulates Zelaya, his family members and his circle of advisers can enter the Dominican Republic after Lobo assumes power next Wednesday.
#3
Undoubtedly appearing on HGTV's House Hunters International looking for a little shack under 2 mil with a view of the ocean, fit for any wannabe Latin Dictator or Hollyweird twit who's threaten to 'leave America'.
Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez Wednesday accused the United States of causing the destruction in Haiti by testing a 'tectonic weapon' to induce the catastrophic earthquake that hit the country last week.
President Chavez said the US was "playing God" by testing devices capable of creating eco-type catastrophes, the Spanish newspaper ABC quoted him as saying.
A 7.0-magnitude quake rattled the desperately poor country on January 12, killing an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 people. As Haiti looks to the world for basic sustenance, the authorities say the biggest dangers facing survivors are untreated wounds and rising disease.
Following the quake, appeals for humanitarian aid were responded to globally. However, the nation is struggling with violence and looting as aid is still not enough for the tens of thousands left homeless and injured.
Chavez said the killer earthquake followed a test of "weapon of earthquakes" just offshore from Haiti. He did not elaborate on the source of his claim.
The outspoken leader had earlier accused the US of occupying Haiti "under the guise of the natural disaster."
At least 11,000 US troops have been dispatched to the country to provide security for aid distribution efforts.
Venezuelan media have reported that the earthquake "may be associated with the project called HAARP, a system that can generate violent and unexpected changes in climate."
HAARP, the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, is a study run in Alaska directed at the occasional reconfiguration of the properties of the Earth's ionosphere to improve satellite communications.
Former US Secretary of Defense William Cohen in 1997 expressed concerned over countries engaging "in eco-type of terrorism whereby they can alter the climate, set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
...a study run in Alaska directed at the occasional reconfiguration of the properties of the Earth's ionosphere to improve satellite communications.
#3
Yes, when you have a dictatorship the leader can say anything. Let's ask Spielberg what he thinks of his hero...I know Glover would approve, but how about you Stevie?
Posted by: Jack Salami ||
01/22/2010 10:03 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Hugo - you can be fat or dumb or an ass. But you can't get away with being all three.
#5
Mebe Hugo had a bad para jump while in the service. I could only guess he hit his head on a rock. These injuries sometimes show up later in life. I can't think of any other explanation.
[Dawn] Rival gangs clashed inside a notorious prison in the Mexican state of Durango on Wednesday, leaving at least 23 inmates dead, officials said.
Army and federal troops as well as police were sent in to quell fighting between gangs which broke out shortly after breakfast at the jail housing 1,800 inmates, well over capacity, outside the city of Durango, reports AFP. It took 40 minutes for the security officers to quell the clashes, reportedly between members of the rival Gulf and Sinaloa drug cartels using makeshift weapons but no firearms.
The prison was surrounded by army troops and police, as dozens of relatives of the prisoners gathered outside the facility anxiously waiting for news of their loved ones.
"We have confirmed that 23 people died in the fighting," a spokesman for the prosecutor's office told AFP. Twenty inmates were injured and most were treated at the prison, the official added. He refused to be drawn on what caused the brawl but the Gulf and Sinaloa cartels have been waging a months-long turf war for control of the smuggling routes into the United States.
Back in August, when 20 inmates were killed and 25 injured in similar clashes at the same penitentiary, Durango public security official Jorge Torres described the prison as a "time-bomb" waiting to explode.
Durango and its neighboring states of Sinaloa and Chihuahua make up a region of Mexico dubbed "The Golden Triangle" because of the amount of marijuana, opium and heroin production conducted there.
In October 2008, 21 inmates were killed in a prison riot in northeastern Tamaulipas state. One month earlier, 19 were killed, including two Americans, in a prison uprising police put down with gunfire in the northern border state of Tijuana.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
The U.S. Navy accidentally posted their classified estimate on the size and composition of the Chinese Navy. This data was quickly taken down, but not before it was copied and posted worldwide.
The strength of the Chinese fleet was listed as;
Submarines- 62 (53 diesel Attack Submarines, six nuclear Attack Submarines, three nuclear Ballistic Missile Submarines). The U.S. has 72 submarines, all nuclear (53 attack and 18 ballistic missile.)
Destroyers-26. The U.S. has 52.
Frigates-48. The U.S. has 32, including two of the new LCS vessels.
Amphibious Ships 58. The U.S. has 30, all much larger and equipped with flight decks and helicopters, plus landing craft.
Coastal Patrol (Missile)- at least 80. The U.S. had a few of these, but got rid of them. China uses these for coastal patrol and defense, a concept they inherited from the Russians.
In addition, the U.S. has eleven aircraft carriers (ten of them nuclear powered) and 22 cruisers.
Most of the Chinese ships are older (in design, if not in the age of the vessels) than their American counterparts. China is building new classes of ships, with more modern equipment and weapons.
Their new destroyers have better anti-aircraft weapons, although nothing to match the American Aegis system, much less the 20 U.S. Aegis ships with anti-missile capability. China is trying to develop classes of nuclear submarines that come close to the capabilities of their American counterparts.
China is also vastly outmatched in naval aviation, with nothing comparable to the hundreds of American maritime patrol (P-3) aircraft. But China is building aircraft carriers, and upgrading its naval aviation. They are also innovating in some areas, like the development of a ballistic missile that can hit a moving ship (preferably an American carrier.)
Only a portion (about a third) of the U.S. fleet is facing China, because of other commitments, while nearly all the Chinese fleet operates along their coast. But the U.S. also has major naval allies in the region (like Japan and South Korea), while China has none.
The Chinese fleet is no match for the U.S. Navy now, but the Chinese are building and planning for the future. In another few decades, the Chinese expect the situation to be quite different.
#3
The U.S. had a few of these, but got rid of them. China uses these for coastal patrol and defense, a concept they inherited from the Russians.
LOL Wut
China should thank the Russians for a common sense naval doctrine that comports with their national level of technology?
The Chinese fleet is no match for the U.S. Navy now, but the Chinese are building and planning for the future. In another few decades, the Chinese expect the situation to be quite different.
In a few decades the China will learn it's great fun to compete with the US Navy on the high seas, and they will find it is a damn sight easier to play a competitor than it is to do the job the US Navy does.
The PLAN is a force in search of a doctrine still.
#4
If the strategy page info is really the extent of the info released, I really don't see the big deal. It's just a sign that too many things are classified. All of this is available through open sources, hell, I could probably find photos of almost every Chinese warship were I inclined to do so.
This summary seems a bit misleading in that it groups together modern ships with obsolete and obsolescent classes. That count of SSKs would seem to include the elderly Romeo/Ming boats, for example.
#5
badanov, the PLAN may not have to match the USN on the high seas to achieve Beijing's goals. An operation to seize Taiwan, for example, would take place under air cover from the mainland. Those "coastal patrol" vessels would be of great use in such a scenario, too. The recent-build Type 022 missile boats aren't meant for patrol so much as they are built for swarming attack.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
01/22/2010 7:34 Comments ||
Top||
#7
The Chinese are beginning to understand capitalism and international trade, particularly securing critical resources, and are dependent upon a sea going navy to protect those trade routes. One just has to look at all the business activity in making oil deals to grasp that they understand what's all involved in a modern economy. If their approach is to treats the US as an enemy or hostile competitor, then they need to rely upon other resources in the future to protect those organs of commerce. It's basic 19th Century Alfred Thayer Mahan stuff.
#8
Back in the days when one could reasonably expect to run into a Russian naval vessel under its own power in the western Pacific (and not being towed to some Indian scrapping yard), I used to keep my copy of Combat Fleets of the World handy. It had a lot more useful information than any of those so-called "classified" assessments. Given the state of our intel apparatus, I have no reason to believe that anything has changed in this regard.
The mayor was so upset about the move -- and a suggestion that Wall Street bonuses be put in escrow, which means the money wouldn't be spent here, wouldn't help the city economy -- he responded with a proposal of his own for members of Congress.
"Maybe we should hold back their salaries for a decade or so and see whether the laws they pass work out," Bloomberg said.
#4
A different Bloomberg article today: The proposals highlight the difficulties the administration has faced in dealing with institutions that have grown so big and risky that their failure could rock the financial system. Until thats resolved, the U.S. will be forced to use taxpayer money to rescue failed firms or risk the same sort of global financial panic that occurred in the wake of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.s collapse in September 2008. Of course Wall Street is reacting unfavorably, their appropriation of taxpayer money is in doubt.
#5
"proposal of his own for members of Congress. 'Maybe we should hold back their salaries for a decade or so and see whether the laws they pass work out,' Bloomberg said."
Works for me.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/22/2010 13:45 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Karl Denninger's view of Wall Street's elevated opinion of itself, prior to Obama's announcement: a huge number of issues in the S&P 500 are trading with P/Es over 60 - in clear bubble territory having no relationship of any sort to fundamental value or forward earnings potential. Employment is still in the tank, spending ex-government has not recovered and real-time indicators of forward demand continue to be extremely weak
#7
Janet Tavakoli's view of Wall Street's recent stumble: Some bank stocks fell in price after the President's remarks yesterday. That was because savvy investors knew that speculators might no longer be able to report high risk-based earnings subsidized with taxpayer dollars. In this case, a fall in stock prices for banks driving down Wall Street should be viewed as a healthy sign. A few bank stocks rose, because they rely on traditional banking backed by sound financial principles.
#10
President Obama launched his Harness the Anger tour today in Ohio. When he bellowed campaign style about still fighting the good fight for healthcare reform you could have heard a fart in the balcony. Of course, he couldnt miss an opportunity to remind America how ignorant we all are. In his patented off the cuff manner he told how he and the other politicians on the way to the rally mused how the average person cant distinguish between the TARP bailout and the Stimulus Package. Oh but he saved his real timber for his Wall Street/Main street Fat Cat screed. He shouted We want our money back We want our money back!(I shit you not.) But before he opened it up for canned questions he Tilted at the windmills to say he can guarentee that people are going to fight him on his proposals. You can bet theres an I told yall so statement already penned for an upcomming speech.
#11
Wall Street is not reacting kindly to Barry's latest move
And less kindly to threats of not renewing Bernanke. The Obama administration hasn't clued into the fact that businesses don't like uncertainty. It makes planning very difficult. But since Obama and his cohorts know nothing about either business or planning, it's not surprising.
#12
"The Obama administration hasn't clued into the fact that businesses don't like uncertainty."
That's because Bambi and his minions know absolutely nothing about running a business.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/22/2010 19:17 Comments ||
Top||
#13
Wall Street is not reacting kindly to Barry's latest move
step into my conspiratorial mind: The Donks DO want to tap your 401K balances with the promise to pay your retirement annuities from Gubbamint funds (which don't exist - as your 401K $ will go into their free-spending general fund). What better way to get people to agree to this than if their stock holdings plummet in value and banking crashes?
Uh huh
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/22/2010 19:28 Comments ||
Top||
The Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development reported today that the unemployment rate rose to 9.4 percent in December from the revised November rate of 8.7 percent. The Massachusetts rate remains below the national unemployment rate, which was 10.0 percent in December, the same as the November rate.
In Massachusetts, Education and Health Services; Government; Other Services; Manufacturing; and Financial Activities added jobs in December, while Trade, Transportation and Utilities; Leisure and Hospitality; Construction; Professional, Scientific and Business Services; and Information recorded job losses. Jobs were down 8,400 for the month of December. At 3,164,000, jobs are down 66,200 or 2.0 percent from one year ago.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Now, let me take a wild guess---they were supposed to release these statistics two weeks ago?
#7
Mass is going to get really hurt when the education bubble bursts. And that won't be long. As one college professor put it, "They (the local college) haven't figured out they aren't competing with the Ivy League anyhmore, they're competing with every college in China and India. And those guys can be really selective and demanding."
Excerpt: Hidden behind accounting fictions, the politically unspeakable reality is that public employee pension systems are under-funded by more than $2 trillion. Add more than $1 trillion in unfunded health-care benefits for retired public employees, and state governments face protracted structural deficits ranging from challenging to insurmountable.
In the WaPo's story on the bankruptcy:
Since last summer, Air America has been heard in the Washington area on WZAA (1050 AM). Its audience has been so small that Arbitron, which compiles radio ratings, was unable to detect any listeners for WZAA during several weeks in December. No detectable audience . . . in DC . . . in a DC run by liberal Democrats.
Posted by: Mike ||
01/22/2010 10:23 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#3
It might not be a gloatworthy event. The progressives can use the lack of any (non-public) liberal talk radio outlets as one more excuse to shut down the conservative ones. And we know that's a goal.
#10
"No detectable audience . . . in DC . . . in a DC run by liberal Democrats."
The AA morons believed their own propaganda about conservative talk-show hosts being nothing more than emotive ranters, and hired and produced shows accordingly. They ignored the fact that
a) their take was wrong in the first place.
b) most self-identified liberals thought of themselves as more "intellectual" than that, thus they preferred NPR's higher production values and mellower style. Pacifica already had the lefty wingnut market share wrapped up.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Egypt's Grand Mufti issued a fatwa that prohibits the use of Quranic verses or the call for prayers as ringtones on the basis that they show lack of respect, according to a copy of the fatwa text obtained by Al Arabiya on Thursday.
Dr. Ali Gomaa, considered Egypt's highest religious authority, argued that using verses from the Quran for ringtones violates the sanctity of the divine words.
"The Quran came from God so that we can worship Him and it should be read or listened to with reverence," Gomaa said in his fatwa. "Picking up the phone is sure to interrupt the verse and this is disrespectful to the holy book."
As the phenomenon seems to be increasing amongst Egyptian cell phone users, observers argue that using Quranic verses for ringtones is considered by many a sign of piety and keenness to be in constant contact with God's words.
"In this case, Quranic verses can be replaced with religious songs or poems that praise the prophet," said the fatwa.
The prohibition, added the fatwa, applies to the call for prayers as well, not only because it shows disrespect, but also because it can give people the illusion that it is actually the time to perform the prayer.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
[Straits Times] TO STRAIGHTEN or not to straighten? Women's hair styles have become a hot topic for Indonesia's Muslims after calls from some Islamic clerics to have the procedure banned on the grounds it invites moral danger.
On Wednesday, the council's Fatwa Commission said it had received a request from a group of clerics linked to a girls boarding school in East Java to issue a fatwa banning chemical hair straightening, a type of perm treatment known in Indonesia as rebonding.
The deputy secretary of the Fatwa Commission, Aminudin Yakub, said on Wednesday that the East Java Forum Musyawarah Pondok Pesantren Putri had requested a formal edict declaring rebonding a breach of Islamic law 'except for women who are married and have the permission of their husband.'
The boarding school clerics had also asked for a fatwa banning dreadlocks, punk do's and 'funky hairstyles' he said. 'For now, we are yet to make an institutional decision on this. So far, we have not seen strong evidence to ban it,' he said. 'It could be discussed in future but right now it is not a priority.'
Hair salons in downtown Jakarta were bustling with young Muslim women, bemused by the sudden interest in their hair. Eryanti, 21, a Jakarta-based accountant who is Muslim and has had her hair straightened four times, said she had no intention of stopping. 'I like my hair to look this way and if I stop, it will go back to the way it was before,' said Eryanti, who, like many Indonesians, has only one name. 'It looks better and it is easier to brush.'
AD Kusumaningtyas, a spokeswoman from the Islamic women's rights group Rahima, said women's hairstyle preferences could be the topic of discussion but were ultimately an individual choice. 'We don't need to (proscribe) everything as haram or not. Some injustices such as polygamy and female genital mutilation are more important' than rebonding,' she said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
[Iran Press TV Latest] Sri Lanka's opposition says it fears the president might use the military to remain in power if he is defeated in next week's elections. The opposition candidate, Sarath Fonseka, said on Thursday that the government was preparing the ground to hold on to power.
The government is accused of pushing army commanders to appear on state-run television to express support for President Mahida Rajapakse.
A military spokesman has denied that senior officers are being dragged into the presidential race.
Rajapakse says next Tuesday's vote comes two years ahead of schedule. The early election is said to be a direct result of the government's defeat of the Tamil Tiger rebels after decades of fighting.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
You'll remember Fonseka as the general who defeated the LTTE. Of course, this ended his usefulness to the government, and they kicked him out shortly thereafter. Now he's running for President and the mooks in power have no intention of giving up their position to an upstart like him.
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.
On first glance, it could be the ultimate Valentine's Day card -- a gigantic billboard that towers over New York's Times Square, featuring a happy couple with the text: "You are my soulmate forever, Charles & YaVaughnie."
Michael's Jackson's brother Jermaine Jackson reached out to the Muslim world in a long, controversial interview with the Dubai-based pan-Arab news channel Al-Arabiya aired Thursday night. 
A Saudi court has sentenced a 13-year-old Saudi schoolgirl to 90 lashes and two months in prison after she was caught with a mobile phone equipped with a camera. The girl, who has not been named, is sentenced to 90 lashed in her school in front of her classmates followed by two months in detention. 
[Al Arabiya Latest] A senior Saudi cleric said the Prophet Mohammed's marriage to a nine-year-old girl some 14 centuries ago cannot be used to justify child marriages today, a Saudi newspaper reported Thursday.
TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya will end his four-month refuge in the Brazilian embassy and leave the country next week, when his term would have ended, his closest adviser said on Thursday.
Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez Wednesday accused the United States of causing the destruction in Haiti by testing a 'tectonic weapon' to induce the catastrophic earthquake that hit the country last week. 
