Two Navy helicopter pilots from North Island Naval Air Station have been grounded over a YouTube video that allegedly shows them dipping the $33 million aircrafts into Lake Tahoe.
In the video taken Sept. 14, both helicopters hit the water and one seems to spin out of control and crash into the water before its pilot apparently pulls the craft back into the air.
A Navy spokesman confirmed that the video was genuine footage of two MH-60 Romeo helicopters from North Island's Helicopter Maritime Strike 41 squadron, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
#2
-- Thanks for the link to Grandpa Pettibone, I enjoyed reading about him.
Some lines of work are best learned by studying the stupid mistakes of others. Aviation is one of those lines, obstetrics is another. John Figgis Jewett, M.D. (no kidding on the name, sounds like he could be a cousin of Grandpa Pettibone) used to have a regular column on obstetric mishaps in the New England Journal of Medicine. His columns proved far more useful to me than the usual OB literature.
#4
Slow uncontrolled turn with an uncontrollable decent. Settling with power anyone? He's not good, he's lucky. Probably not used to the altitudes he was working at. Hope he has a good story to go with it.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
09/25/2010 19:01 Comments ||
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#5
Hopehe has a good story to go with it.
they were coming from Sacramento area to SD. Last time I checked, Tahoe was an hour-half east by car, but nowhere near a flight pattern described. Asses will be scorched
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/25/2010 19:52 Comments ||
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#6
# 3 I agree. The pilots story has yet to be told. One comment from a helicopter pilot said the one lost some control before the dip. That being closer to the water would offer more resistance for lift. Highly skilled to fly these and a technique used in their skill set. A hefty set of cohoneys required. I'm not ready to trash them.
[Gulf Times] Three groups of armed militia raped at least 303 civilians in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo over four days, said a UN initial report on the atrocities whose "scale and viciousness... defy belief".
"At least 303 civilians were raped, in many cases multiple times," said a statement issued by the UN Joint Human Rights Office in the country in a preliminary report outlining the violations which took place between July 30 and August 2.
"The known victims include 235 women, 52 girls, 13 men and three boys," detailed the probe, following the team's visit to 13 affected villages in the Walikale region in Nord-Kivu province.
"In addition, at least 923 houses and 42 shops were looted and 116 people were kidnapped in order to carry out forced labour," it said.
Rupert Colville, front man for the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, warned that the figures could still rise.
"The total number of victims may be higher, attacks were still going on when the team was in the villages," said Colville.
The team were unable to complete their work in six of 13 villages due to "serious security problems", he added.
Before the probe, the UN officials had noted at least 242 rapes in these villages, and another 260 in other parts of Nord and Sud Kivu provinces.
The UN joint mission said that due to the serious insecurity it had not been able to confirm the circumstances surrounding other incidents.
"While one group was looting and raping in a village... another would be setting ambushes to catch people fleeing through the forest, who were also then raped or taken away as forced labour," it added.
"The scale and viciousness of these mass rapes defy belief," said UN human rights chief Navi Pillay.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/25/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
atrocities whose "scale and viciousness... defy belief".
First time on the continent, eh? The poor dears are in for a rude awakening.
[Gulf Times] Red Ken Livingstone launched a bitter attack on Boris Johnson yesterday as he was confirmed as Labour's candidate for the 2012 mayoral race.
The former mayor branded his Tory rival "Robin Hood in reverse" and called on Londoners to punish him for cuts imposed by the coalition government.
Livingstone, 65, was close to tears as he successfully beat off Oona King's challenge for the nomination, winning support from 68.6% of party members. The result sets the stage for a political rematch with the man who kicked him out of office two years ago. "We need a mayor who will stand up for London," Livingstone told supporters on the South Bank. "The choice between me and Boris Johnson could not be clearer."
He vowed to protect the fare payer -- City Hall's largest source of revenue. "After Boris Johnson's unnecessary fare increases, which go hand-in-hand with cuts to investment, we need fairer fares," he said. "I promise that fares under my administration will be lower than if he is re-elected.
"His conflicts with the government are phoney. They are designed to shuffle off blame. But they won't wash as he fought to get them elected.
"Boris Johnson can't have his cake and eat it. 'It wasn't me guv' won't wash. Boris, your fingerprints are all over the scene of the crime and it's you and your party that damage London."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/25/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
I don't know what's wrong with King. She'd be a great asset on the right side of politics - plus she's been subjected to some of the worst abuse the Left can throw, from two of their greatest (and most anti-semitic) slimeballs: Livingstone and George Galloway. She'd be comfortable in today's Tory party. in 2005 she lost her constituency to Labour renegade and shameless traitor Galloway.
King supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq ... Bethnal Green and Bow with its almost 45,000 Muslims was Galloway's best chance to defeat Labour in what became a "bitter single issue campaign."[11] King described the contest as "one of the dirtiest ..we have ever seen in British politics" and complained of "quite disturbing" anti-semitic racial abuse.[13] She was the putative target of vegetable and egg throwers during a memorial service commemorating the second world war bombing of a block of flats with predominantly Jewish victims.[14] King claimed it was deliberate part of Respect's camapign...
#2
"I promise that fares under my administration will be lower than if he is re-elected."
What a stupid statement. Exactly how would this play out? Have 2 parallel universes with one as mayor in each. That way Mayor Livingston can keep his fares lower than Mayor Johnson.
[Gulf Times] Gennady Yanayev, the Russian politician who led the abortive 1991 coup against then Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, died yesterday following an illness. He was 73.
"Yanayev died after a long and painful illness. He was admitted the night before to a Moscow hospital," a source at the hospital was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.
Yanayev died of lung cancer, television reports said.
The coup plotters, or "putschists", shook the country when they declared a state of emergency on August 19 while Gorbachev was on vacation in Crimea, Ukraine.
Tanks rolled through Moscow towards the White House, where Boris Yeltsin, leader of the Soviet-era Russian republic at the time, gathered his supporters after denouncing the coup from the roof of a tank. Boris' finest hour. Just about his only fine hour, in fact...
In a sign that old wounds have yet to heal, a spokesman for Gorbachev had little to say on Yanayev's death.
"He is a person who betrayed," spokesman Vladimir Polyakov told AFP.
Others were more gracious.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/25/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Gennady Yanayev, the Russian politician who led the abortive 1991 coup against then Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, died yesterday following an illness. He was 73.
Factional in-fighting has broken out between Chang Song-taek, the rogue state's second-in-command, and a group of senior reform-minded officials, according to a source who has recently met people at the highest levels of the North Korean government.
What's the difference between a 'hard-liner' and a 'reformist' in a genocidal state -- how quickly they work people to death?
The battle between the two sides comes as Kim Jong-il, the 68-year-old "Dear Leader", is in frail health and no concrete succession plan has yet to emerge.
Dr. Steve mentioned something about dialysis sometimes leading to sepsis... and then there's years of excessive cognac and the Dear Leader's private collection of pretty girls, the occasional one which he married.
Chang, 64, is married to Kim's sister and "always believed the crown would be his [one day]", according to the source. His ambition may yet be fulfilled, since many observers believe he could take charge of North Korea as a regent while Kim's third son, the 28-year-old Kim Jong-un, gains experience.
Last year Daddy gave Kim the Youngest the secret police to play with. I wonder how that went...
However, Chang has recently seen his hardline views being challenged by a group of reformists, bent on opening up the North Korean economy to Chinese-style capitalism.
"There are normal people who know which direction they have to go in," said the source,
Is this normal as the world defines such things, or normal for North Korea, where excessive paranoia is a perfectly reasonable response to the environment?
who was approached by top North Korean officials and asked to invest in the country. "The government does want to open up, and the only thing stopping them from doing so is Chang," he added.
And the Dear Leader himself, one presumes, as he's never before even hinted at an interest in being even slightly less closed on his countrymen's behalf, although there are areas of openness he's been very happy to explore for himself.
The split in the Workers' Party, which echoes the division in the Chinese Communist party between hardliners and reformists during the 1970s and 1980s, may have prompted the recent two-week delay of the first party conference for nearly 45 years.
Lots of people died as a result of that split in China, as I recall...
The conference is now due to begin next week.
The in-fighting could also explain Moscow's bleak assessment of relations between North and South Korea, with Alexei Borodavkin, the deputy foreign minister, saying on Thursday: "Tensions on the Korean Peninsula could not be any higher. The only next step is a conflict."
Civil war in the North? Because it seems that neither the politicians of South Korea nor the almost-lame-duck rulers in Washington are likely to seek open conflict with the north if there's any way they can find to avoid it.
The views of the army high command could be critical in the struggle in North Korea and the source said Mr Chang had recently been attempting to bolster his support in that area. "The army has to throw its lot in [with one of the groups] and I don't think it has made its mind up yet," he said.
The army may have noticed that the nail that sticks up gets hammered down, and in North Korea that means the entire extended family of the nail ends up in North Korea's famous concentration camps. where there is even less to eat than North Korea's civilian rations.
Meanwhile, the reformists have been bolstered by the return of Pak Pong Ju, the 71-year-old former North Korean premier who previously advocated economic liberalisation.
Kim Yong Hyun, a professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University in Seoul, said: "More people may be thinking that they don't have a choice but to use more flexible policies to fix the economy. Pak may have been seen as the hands-on person to fix its problems."
#1
Achieving socialism and juche by the capitalist road would seem to the be the least-bad option. I don't think they can do it without a civil war, though. And in a civil war, I'm pretty sure the hardliners would end up in possession of the nukes. Who knows what they would do if it became clear that they were about to lose?
[Gulf Times] Belarussian President-for-Life Alexander Lukashenko, in power since 1994, will run again in the upcoming December 19 presidential elections, an official at the country's electoral commission said yesterday.
Lukashenko, 55, had previously said he would seek a new five-year term. His closest challenger pulled out earlier this month, saying he believed the poll would be rigged.
Analysts say that Lukashenko will have little trouble winning re-election.
He controls most media in the country of 10mn wedged between Poland and Russia and has won popular support by maintaining Soviet-era subsidies.
Speaking to students on the day his re-election bid was announced, Lukashenko hailed Belarus's state-dominated economy as a model.
The global financial crisis, he said, showed the perils of relying excessively on the private sector.
To overcome the crisis, countries "have strengthened the role of the state which Belarus has always done", Lukashenko said, according to the Interfax news agency.
"Suddenly the Belarus model proved to be eagerly sought," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/25/2010 00:00 ||
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Sorry. Proper link here. Thank you for pointing that out, Free Radical.
With liberals constantly upset about losing foreign policy battles, a few years ago J Street was founded to counter American Israel Public Affairs Committee's (AIPAC) hawkish advocacy for Israel. Since then J Street has actually been the source of considerable diplomatic friction between the Israel and the the U.S. J Street claims to represent "mainstream American Jews" but critics of the organization have always suspected a more extremist political agenda. Now there's some fairly tangible evidence those critics were right. Eli Lake at the Washington Times has the story:
The Jewish-American advocacy group J Street, which bills itself as the dovish alternative to the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) lobby, has secretly received funding from billionaire George Soros despite previous denials that it accepted funds from the Hungarian-born financier and liberal political activist.
Tax forms obtained by The Washington Times reveal that Mr. Soros and his two children, Jonathan and Andrea Soros, contributed a total $245,000 to J Street from one Manhattan address in New York during the fiscal year from July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009.
Making matters worse, Michael Goldfarb at The Weekly Standard notes that J Street may have been lying about their funding:
The Myth vs. Fact section of the J Street website makes clear that "George Soros very publicly stated his decision not to be engaged in J Street when it was launched -- precisely out of fear that his involvement would be used against the organization."
And just six months ago, Ben-Ami told Moment Magazine, "We got tagged as having his support, without the benefit of actually getting funded!"
But wait! There's more. Aside from Soros, Lake's story notes that the largest funder of J Street, which again claims to represent "mainstream American Jews," lives in Hong Kong:
The [Soros] contributions represent a third of the group's revenue from U.S. sources during the period. Nearly half of J Street's revenue during the timeframe -- a total of $811,697 -- however, came from a single donor in Happy Valley, Hong Kong, named Consolacion Esdicul.
Note that this is the second major religious group on the Left that appears to have been dishonest about receiving Soros funding.
Click on headline the proper link at the top of the article (sorry again) to see the links for each article quote.
#2
Good find. My once conservative daughter, with a minor in Social Justice, graduated with a definite liberal slant and no longer practices her faith, after an expensive private education affiliated with a mainline Christian denomination. SojournersMag, along with the NYT's, is complimentary to all on campus. Soros' corrupting influence is everywhere--the devils are really stoking up the hellfire in anticipation of the Kingpin of the Morally-compromised! Roast, baby, roast!!!!Sooner, rather than later, I pray!
Consolacion "Connie" Esdicul appears to be the "business partner" of Bill Benter.
"Nobody's more skilled at masking bets than Bill Benter, regarded by many of his peers as the most successful sports bettor in the world."
"The US-educated, impeccably dressed technician who developed the first successful program put to use at Happy Valley. The importance of his pioneering work is confirmed by rivals and experts alike.
"Benter got his start in the mid-1970s, when he discovered Beat the Dealer, a bible for blackjack card counters. He memorized the best-selling book's strategies and hit the casino circuit, where he met his future partner, Australian (the late) Alan Woods (not the radical communist), a former actuary turned counter."
"More than a decade later, Benter seems to have more in mind than just being a racing guru. He's lectured at Hong Kong universities, consulted with internationally known mathematicians, and branched out into other technological endeavors (one is ACUSIS, a digitized transcribing system for doctors). He's also served as president of a Hong Kong Rotary Club and made substantial donations to respected charities."
Benter is also active in trying to create a major gambling enterprise in the Middle East, so perhaps his anti-Israel activities are more to support his Muslim partners.
An enforcement mechanism needs to be created to help curb unlicensed use of news on the Internet, Associated Press President and CEO Tom Curley said Thursday.
#1
AyPee is just following the lead taken by Reuters in scanning websites in search of verbatim quoted articles and demanding licensing fees for use.
AyPee has also been pressing Congress to license facts it and its members report as means of stopping what they see as piracy, not necessarily copyright infringement. That means if a story by a member media outlet reports on, for example, a plane crash, then only associated members may use the facts of the event in their stories, anyone else may not because that content is licensed independent of copyright issues.
Sounds like a good idea on paper until the first time someone who is in the news demands a cut of the revenue of all media outlets. In a crime, the cop who arrests the bad guy, the bad guy's lawyer, even a court clerk could conceivably demand restitution for use of their names and likenesses, etcetera.
News stops being a public event and then becomes a rights orgy.
AyPees real problem is the dinosaur in the room. The internet has made barriers to news distribution so low anyone can do it. Except for crime news and political news, nearly every story generated and distributed by AyPee is institutionally generated; all the members do is rewrite the news. Do they license that content, too?
What do they do after they have set up an "enforcement" system and surviving bloggers really do decide to start writing original news. WTF do they do then? How do they recover the costs of investment in the "enforcement" mechanism, when another enforcement mechanism is turned back on them?
How do you explain to your investors, "Well, we didn't forsee this..."
How do you stop advertisers from going to specialized websites who do write their own news and then license it as they publish it? Is the AyPee gonna pony up the bucks?
Journalism has become diffused; the costs of gathering news has not changed very much, but the revenues generated by advertisers, the value-added services used to service those accounts, have dropped through the floor.
Journalism as a business is still very much in flux. The only positive for the news business is that the economy really hasn't recovered, yet. When it does, advertisers will start driving costs again to the floor as news outlet bid to retain business.
How do you explain to investors that your "enforcement" mechsnism won't even cover its own costs and you need something else?
#3
All this seems to have a pretty simple work around. Copy the article, put it all in Quotes and report it as news. For example, The Wash Post has released this in today's paper" bla bla bla". Now it is in itself news being reported on and should be covered.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
09/25/2010 1:56 Comments ||
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[Dawn] Vice President Joe Foreign Policy Whiz Kid Biden and visiting British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg on Thursday pledged their countries' "sustained long-term" support to Pak flood victims.
Meeting for the first time here since Britain's Conservative-Liberal Democrats coalition was formed in May, the two said their governments were "committed to ensuring the most effective possible international response to Pakistain's ongoing flood disaster." "We're talking years and years of boodle here!"
In the wake of devastating monsoon rains that have left some 10 million Paks homeless, "the US and the UK affirm their commitment to sustained long-term post-flood reconstruction in Pakistain, beyond the immediate humanitarian needs," they added. "Stability in Pakistain... is vital for the stability of the region and for security in the wider world," they said.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Friday called the floods in Pakistain "the worst natural disaster the United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society has responded to in its 65-year history." Ban requested a record two billion dollar international aid effort for the Asian country four times his initial request.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/25/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
No doubt this squandering of taxpayers' money will be stopped the next time evidence of Pakistani support for the Taliban emerges.
#6
Is this the price we have to pay for all those drone zaps over Wazoo? I gotta tell you, I don't think it's worth it. Wouldn't it be a more effective way to wage war against the Taliban if we just cut off the funds at the source? Can't we just cut our losses and let these people drain the Soddy coffers or the Chinese coffers or whatever? I'm so sick of the Paks I think I could barf.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
09/25/2010 13:23 Comments ||
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Something besides the Iranian leader's nuclear plans or calls to destroy Israel seems to be bothering residents of the Big Apple and guests at the hotel in which he is staying. The New York Post reported that hotels guests complained of a foul odor in the hotel caused by the food cooked especially for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The leader of the Islamic Republic does not eat the food prepared by the hotel chefs for guests, but instead brought his own personal chef from Iran to cook his meals for him.
Guests told the New York Post that his meals "stunk up the hotel," prompting them to leave the hotel and seek lodging elsewhere.
More legislation from the liberal bench. From a financial aspect alone, this will be litigation bonanza for lawyers as gays (and anyone claiming to be gay) seek reinstatement, backpay, retirement, medical coverage, awards for damages and discrimination, etc. Tough road ahead for the taxpayer and the military services I'm afraid.
Time to force the issue. Release all servicememebers from all their contractual obligations since the terms of service under which the original contracts are no longer valid. No mission critical, mission essential excuses. These judges don't accept such arguments. They want a crisis, give them a crisis. Any member who chooses to stay does so under the 'social justice' standards of the judiciary. Screw it that we're in the middle of the war. It too is not critical to the judiciary. Force the issue.
#2
THE Constitution gives to the Congress the power over our military. What part of that did this judge miss?
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/25/2010 8:59 Comments ||
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#3
Steve,
'Social Justice' trumps the Constitution. The words mean only what they, the judiciary, declare it to be regardless of your and my capability to read them yourself. They expand the meaning of the 14th Amendment to suit their bias rather than go through the actual amending process, which they probably anticipate can't get approved, like the Equal Rights Amendment. Once again, its all about power. l'etat, c'est moi!
#5
...Ain't happening, and the judge knows it. He's showing off what a good lib he is, even though he knows she ain't going back any time soon - the reports of how he was crying when he read his decision and how he praised the plaintiff tells me that there was absolutely no attempt at impartiality here.
Reality check: Major Witt better not be holding her breath to get back in, because if she waits until Congress changes the rules she'll be the same shade of blue as her uniform used to be. And there will be no back anything unless Congress says so...and that ain't happening either.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
09/25/2010 13:14 Comments ||
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#6
A federal court messing with the internal discipline of federal armed services sounds as UNCONSTITUTIONAL as all get-out.
#7
Exactly, Mike. People complain about the eeeevil homophobic military. It is CONGRESS who passed DADT.
As a Navy veteran, I am opposed to openly gay people serving in the military. In the civilian world, it doesn't matter to me who people screw around with on their own time. In the military, especially in close quarters like aboard ship, it does, because you don't go home at night when you are under way. Having openly gay people aboard a ship can lead to all kinds of problems.
My son is a newly commissioned Air Force officer. We were discussing DADT. He said it doesn't matter to him, as long as they do their job. I pointed out that right now he is stationed stateside, and the work he does is essentially like an office job in the civilian world. He used to be a Marine, and I asked how he would have felt about openly gay people serving with him in the field. His response was "Hmmm".
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
09/25/2010 17:00 Comments ||
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#8
Congratulations on your son's commission, Rambler! May it bring him even more satisfaction than he had hoped.
#9
congrats Rambler to both you and your son. You should be proud (I'm sure you don't need my assurance :-))
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/25/2010 19:49 Comments ||
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#10
the policy is actually - Don't Ask, Don't tell, and Don't Pursue - I don't know everything about this case but if someone pursued her based on a rumor that could backfire.
Letting gay folks serve openly is just stupid. So sick of the anectdotal emotional blithering of liberals and out of touch general officers on this one. Go the fuck away. The military is not a social experiment. Another stupid liberal line of rhetoric is equating DADT to the civil rights movement - many of my black Marines would love to hear how being gay (a sexual behavior) is some how congruent to a person's skin color.
#11
The are completing a survey of Active Duty personnel concerning gays in the Military. I am pretty sure the answer is "don't care" but how/where do we house and treat the gay lifestyle. If Sgt Bob gets together with Civilian Dave do they get housing? If Bob is single does he get a male/female/or gay roommate? I would be interedted as to how the "integrated" countries deal with this.
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.
Gennady Yanayev, the Russian politician who led the abortive 1991 coup against then Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, died yesterday following an illness. He was 73.
Belarussian 
[Dawn] Vice President 
