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Three US missiles kill 54 in Pakistan
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9 00:00 European Conservative [4] 
4 00:00 Gaz [11] 
2 00:00 mom [4] 
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1 00:00 gromky [5] 
3 00:00 Goldies Every Damn Where [5] 
3 00:00 Besoeker [3] 
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2 00:00 Old Patriot [5] 
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Sharks Wary of Drunk Serbs
this guy takes "hold my beer and watch this" to a whole new level. HT to GGDF
"Dragan climbed on the jumping board, told me to hold his beer and simply ran to jump. There was no time for me to react or to try to stop him, he just went for it" says Milovan.

"Dragan jumped high and plunged down to the sea, but didn't make as much splash as we thought he would", explained Milovan.

The reason could be because Dragan Stevic ended up jumping straight on the shark which was lurking near the beach, probably looking for its next victim. Dragan had nailed it right in the head, killing it instantly. The Egyptian police found the shark washed out on the beach that morning.
Posted by: Frank G || 12/18/2010 08:44 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Color me skeptical. Somebody should ask his drunken friends to confirm the story.
Posted by: Grunter || 12/18/2010 9:22 Comments || Top||

#2  Totally 100% fake. Knocks a shark out by jumping on it? No. And then drags it on the beach to die? Forget it. Didn't happen. What's this doing on Rantburg anyway?
Posted by: gromky || 12/18/2010 10:32 Comments || Top||

#3  Dragan was able to swim to the shore and told his friends he had twisted his ankle, telling them the water was not that soft.
The water is soft buddy, you just landed on a shark. At the moment, the fearless hero is in a hospital recovering from alcohol poisoning. After Dragan gets well, he will get a chance to have some more drinks as the resort had awarded the Serb tourist with a free vacation for his heroic deed.
Posted by: Jeremiah Flainter9609 || 12/18/2010 12:05 Comments || Top||

#4  Because the death of Israeli agents is very serious business gromky.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 12/18/2010 12:15 Comments || Top||

#5  Stupid animal stories (real or fake) are always welcome in the SAST, Gromky. Thought you knew that.

AoS
Posted by: Steve White || 12/18/2010 13:06 Comments || Top||

#6  Surfing with a Great White - Must See!
Posted by: Water Modem || 12/18/2010 13:25 Comments || Top||

#7  I imaging its not really a Great White under that fin ... but....
Posted by: Water Modem || 12/18/2010 13:28 Comments || Top||

#8  If FrankMan sez it's true, it's true, or should be, and if not, why not?

Posted by: Goldies Every Damn Where || 12/18/2010 16:12 Comments || Top||

#9  I never believe stories that involve fish
Posted by: European Conservative || 12/18/2010 17:23 Comments || Top||


Larry King signs off for last time
[Emirates 24/7] Veteran CNN talk show host Larry King signed off for the last time Thursday after 25 years in the same seat, in an emotional show including tributes from presidents and broadcasting rivals.

The 77-year-old, who will be succeeded by former British journalist Piers Morgan, is finally retiring from "Larry King Live," the show he has presented on the now flagging Atlanta-based news network since 1985.

President Barack B.O. Obama sent him a video message calling him "one of the giants of broadcasting," while a brace of rival TV hosts and anchors including Barbara Walters, Diane Sawyer and Katie Couric paid tribute.

Sawyer said they were his "proteges and groupies," while Couric read out a poem including a reference to a notorious King gaffe when he asked comedian Jerry Seinfeld about his show being cancelled -- it had ended with top ratings.

Caliphornia governor Arnold Schwarzenegger came on to announce that he had proclaimed the day Larry King Day in the western US state.

While critics say his interviewing style can be too soft-soap, others argue that's why King got so many people to come on his show, winning scoops that some credit with helping establish CNN in its early days.

But the network that once dominated 24-hour international news has struggled with dwindling audiences and fierce new competitors, and King's replacement by the more aggressive Morgan is seen as part of an effort to woo new viewers.
Posted by: Fred || 12/18/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Remember Larry. We can't miss you if you won't stay away.
Please remember that...
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/18/2010 2:33 Comments || Top||

#2  He was a master at throwing softball questions at his interviewees. What a waste of bandwidth.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/18/2010 2:41 Comments || Top||

#3  Buh-bye
Posted by: Anonymoose || 12/18/2010 9:29 Comments || Top||

#4  I know no one here will believe it but trust me: his replacement will be worse ...
Posted by: Steve White || 12/18/2010 10:24 Comments || Top||

#5  I believe it, but, like most of America, I didn't watch Larry and I won't watch Piers. From the Network that put Joy Behar on the Headline News....CNN, most trusted unwatched name in TV
Posted by: Frank G || 12/18/2010 13:28 Comments || Top||

#6  Honus Wagner Mod 1. Check
Lathe. Check
Shovel. Check
Assorted spices: Check

Rdy.
Posted by: Goldies Every Damn Where || 12/18/2010 16:14 Comments || Top||

#7  Whoopsie, forget 10 lb. sledgehammer.

Sorry.

:(
Posted by: Goldies Every Damn Where || 12/18/2010 16:15 Comments || Top||

#8  Caliphornia governor Arnold Schwarzenegger came on to announce that he had proclaimed the day Larry King Day in the western US state.

Another paid day off for State workers?
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/18/2010 16:20 Comments || Top||

#9  "Caliphornia governor Arnold Schwarzenegger came on to announce that he had proclaimed the day Larry King Day in the western US state."

Nice to see Ahnuld has his priorities straight in his over-regulated, bankrupt state.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 12/18/2010 17:12 Comments || Top||

#10  Whoopsie, forget 10 lb. sledgehammer.


And the wwooden stake, (Just to be sure)
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/18/2010 18:33 Comments || Top||


Saggy pants garter belt invented
[Emirates 24/7] Looking for the gift for someone who has everything? Now you can help your favorite urban fashion consumer wear his pants low - but not too low.

A New York man has invented "Subs" - part suspenders, part garter belt - to help those who like saggy pants wear their droopy drawers without dropping them.

The belt features clips that allow the wearer to adjust how low the waistband goes.

"Instead of going over the shoulders on the outside of the shirt, Subs cinch around the waist and are worn underneath the shirt, creating a subtle, yet very distinct and edgy look," says the product's website on www.hatchadventures.com.

The belt's 43-year-old inventor tells he got the idea from watching young men hold on to the waistband of their pants while climbing the subway stairs.

"Sagging is a huge issue in my community," entrepreneur Andrew Lewis told the paper. "I spent a lot of time observing and I noticed that even for saggers, there is a point which even they're not comfortable with how their jeans were falling."
Posted by: Fred || 12/18/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Try buying pants that actually fit, you schmuck!
Posted by: Shieldwolf || 12/18/2010 0:24 Comments || Top||

#2  I've got a staplegun that will keep them up for ya
Posted by: Frank G || 12/18/2010 0:30 Comments || Top||

#3  "Sagging is a huge issue in my community,"

Yeah. Might be one of the reasons why your "community" is so fucked up...
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/18/2010 2:28 Comments || Top||

#4  I thought police like the fashion, because it's hard for miscreants to run away when their pants are falling down?
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/18/2010 5:35 Comments || Top||

#5 
TW, that's where it all started. Prison inmates are not allowed belts, so some of them walked around with their pants half off.

Now my nephews aspire to dress like convicts. Sigh.
Posted by: Parabellum || 12/18/2010 8:53 Comments || Top||

#6  I saw a teenage boy like that in a convenience store, and knowing how hypersensitive they are about adult male approval, I decided to fun him.

"Son, if your Mama is going to make you wear your brothers hand-me-down pants, you're gonna need a belt or suspenders or you're gonna look like a fool...And your baseball cap's on backwards. The visor's supposed to go in front. That's why they put it there."

It was fun watching his ego crinkle up like that.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 12/18/2010 9:36 Comments || Top||

#7  20 years behind somebody else's culture.

Hatch Adventures, great name for a place peddling ass suspenders.

If it is such a huge issue, perhaps a fund could be established to install escalators for the subways - very basic 1st gen escalators with huge horsepower.

lookin like a fool
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMwhl4IrPNc
Posted by: swksvolFF || 12/18/2010 12:42 Comments || Top||

#8  It was fun watching his ego crinkle up like that.
U dah man Anon!

Rite.
Posted by: Goldies Every Damn Where || 12/18/2010 16:18 Comments || Top||

#9  On the news yesterday, Alabama outlawed Droopys/Baggies or whatever you call them, now he cops can arrest anybody wearing baggies.
(I love it, Finally Outlawing stupidity)

Any second now the screams of "Racist" Begin.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/18/2010 18:48 Comments || Top||

#10  Showing cans of crack (both kinds) in public no good.
Posted by: Miss sun so shiny || 12/18/2010 19:12 Comments || Top||


Camel pageantry starts in Abu Dhabi
[Emirates 24/7] Nearly 20,000 camels from the UAE and other Gulf Arab countries have converged on Abu Dhabi's western region for one of the world's largest camel beauty contests involving prizes worth nearly Dh35 million.

The camels have been brought from various parts of the UAE as well as neighbouring Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait and other Gulf nations for the week-long beauty competition in the western town of Dhafra.

The contest, which started on Thursday, will stretch until next Friday and officials described it as one of the largest camel beauty pageantry events in the world in terms of the value of prizes and number of camels.

More than 800 camel owners from the UAE and other regional nations are participating in the event, which is sponsored by Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi's crown prince and deputy supreme commander of the UAE armed forces. It is organized by the Culture and Heritage Authority.

Camel beauty contests and races are among the most popular events in the Arabian Peninsula along with falconing and other desert activities. Camel races are held regularly in all Gulf countries and attended by top officials and sheikhs but they are suspended in summer because of the heat.

The UAE had around 378,000 camels at the end of 2008 while there were nearly 870,000 camels in Saudi Arabia, and124,000 in Oman.
Posted by: Fred || 12/18/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ah, to be in Abu Dhabi when the camels are in bloom...
Posted by: Grunter || 12/18/2010 8:20 Comments || Top||

#2  "I'd walk a mile to smoke a Camel."
...Some SF guy with a big weapon.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 12/18/2010 17:39 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
WikiLeaks cables: UN offered Robert Mugabe a lucrative retirement overseas
Source in the MDC told American officials that Zimbabwe president rejected the offer from Kofi Annan
Posted by: tipper || 12/18/2010 21:18 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Would have been a win/win, too.
Posted by: Grunter || 12/18/2010 21:50 Comments || Top||


Mugabe threatens 'revenge'
[Al Jazeera] Zimbabwe's president has threatened to nationalise British and US-owned businesses operating in the country if economic sanctions imposed on his political party are not lifted.

Bob Muggsy Mugabe told his ZANU-PF party members at a convention in the eastern city of Mutare on Friday that the time has come to implement programmes to fight travel and financial bans imposed on party leaders.

Under empowerment laws, black Zimbabweans are slated to acquire 51 per cent of all businesses. In a live broadcast on state television, Mugabe warned UK and US firms that "unless you remove sanctions, we will take 100 per cent".

"Why should we continue having companies and organisations that are supported by Britain and America without hitting back?" he said.

"Time has come for us to Dire Revenge™."

Western countries imposed targeted restrictions on Mugabe and his party elite to protest violations of democratic and human rights
... which are not the same thing as individual rights, mind you...
during a decade of political and economic turmoil in the southern Africa nation.
Posted by: Fred || 12/18/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Any US or UK "owners" of anything in Zimbobland are too stupid to live.
Posted by: PBMcL || 12/18/2010 11:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Ihave a Zimbob ten Million Dollar bill framed on my wall
Worth absolutely NOTHING, like the rest of the country.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/18/2010 18:20 Comments || Top||

#3  Mugabe IS the bloody 'revenge.'
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/18/2010 19:15 Comments || Top||


Mugabe says power-sharing 'can't continue'
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Zimbabwe President Bob Muggsy Mugabe told his party conference Friday that the country's uneasy power-sharing government "can't be allowed to continue."

"We agreed to work together... as a compromise to enable us to sort things out, establish peace, political stability, now some are dragging their feet," Mugabe told members of his ZANU-PF party.

"The GPA can't be allowed to continue," he added, referring to the Global Political Agreement with the ex-opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party of his prime minister and arch-foe Morgan Tsvangirai.

Mugabe and Tsvangirai formed a power-sharing administration six months after a chaotic presidential vote in 2008 but they are now in the throes of a vicious battle over when the next national elections should take place.

Mugabe said the deal with the MDC had failed.

"What it has done is to reveal and expose to us what we did not know, now we we know this creature the MDC, has no policy, no ideology, no philosophy except change, change," he told delegates at the official opening of the conference.

More than 4,000 ZANU-PF delegates assembled in the eastern city of Mutare where they are expected to rubber stamp Mugabe's push for polls in the first half of 2011.

"Every delegate is ready for the battle of elections next year," Mike Madiro, a ZANU-PF provincial chairman, earlier told AFP.

In March 2008, Tsvangirai won the presidential election against Mugabe but fell short of the required majority, resulting in a run-off ballot which the MDC leader refused to take part in, allowing Mugabe to triumph unopposed.

On Thursday, Tsvangirai said only a presidential vote would address the issue of "illegitimacy" following the disputed run-off poll, but he refused to specify any date when elections should take place.

The MDC has previously said that credible polls are not possible until 2012 at the earliest.
Posted by: Fred || 12/18/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Meaning, I'm itching to beat tsvangirai's ass again.
Posted by: Jeremiah Flainter9609 || 12/18/2010 11:53 Comments || Top||


'AU must remove Gbagbo by force'
[Iran Press TV] Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga has called on the African Union to use force to remove Ivory Coast's incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo from power.

Criticizing the 53-member bloc for doing very little to solve the ongoing political crisis in Ivory Coast, Odinga said on Friday that the AU must act more decisively even if this necessitates the use of military force, a Press TV correspondent reported.

"Gbagbo must be forced, even if it means using military means to get rid of him, because now he is just relying on military power, not the people's power, to intimidate the people," Odinga told a news conference in Nairobi.

"The AU must start taking seriously the situation in Ivory Coast instead of lamenting. Democracy must be preserved," the Kenyan prime minister added.

The United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society, European Union, the US and African states say opposition leader Alassane Ouattara won the November 28 election and have urged Gbagbo to step down.

The incumbent president, who still has command of the army, is refusing to give up power.

The EU has urged the Ivorian army to switch its loyalty from Gbagbo to Ouattara. Both men have declared themselves president and have named their cabinets.

EU and US officials have also warned that if Gbagbo fails to stand down by "the end of the week," he will face travel and financial sanctions.

At least 20 people have been killed during clashed between Ouattara's supporters and troops loyal to Gbagbo.

Ouattara is currently holed up in a hotel guarded by UN peacekeepers, while Gbagbo is running his side of government from the presidential palace in the capital.
Posted by: Fred || 12/18/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Thousands flee violence in Ivory Coast
[Iran Press TV] The UN refugee agency says it expects another 5,000 people to flee Ivory Coast by next week as post-election violence continues to rock the West African nation.

Melissa Fleming, a spokeswoman of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says at least 4,200 people have already decamped to Liberia.

"We are expecting 5,000 early next week or before given the pace," Fleming said.

"It could result in fighting that could push people to flee," she added.

A standoff between the country's two self-proclaimed presidents turned bloody on Thursday.

Security forces loyal to incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo clashed with supporters of opposition leader Alassane Ouattara.

At least 20 people were killed and many more were maimed in the main city of Abidjan and central Ivory Coast.

The international community has recognized Ouattara as the winner of the presidential election, however, the incumbent president, who still has command of the army, is refusing to give up power.

President Gbagbo, who is under pressure to step down, accused US-led Western countries of meddling in Ivory Coast's internal affairs.

The country's 10-year President Gbagbo has expressed readiness to sit down and talk.

Ouattara, however, said he will not negotiate unless Gbagbo stepped down from office and respected the will of the Ivorian nation and the international community.

The disputed presidential election has raised the risk of a long power struggle in the country. The world's top cocoa-producing nation is still reeling from the 2002-2003 civil war, which split the West African country in two.
Posted by: Fred || 12/18/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:


Arabia
Sunnis and Shi'ites clash in Medina during Ashura
Saudi police have arrested 38 in Medina after violence broke out near Islam's oldest mosque, Al-Quba, while the minority Shi'ite community marked their most important religious ceremony.

According to reports, several people - including three security officials - were wounded in clashes on December 16. A Shi'ite news website, Rasid, reported that hundreds of Sunnis attacked Shi'a commemorating the Ashura ceremony.
According to this report:
"Security forces arrived to disperse the crowd," said a journalist, speaking on condition of anonymity. "There has been heavy security presence in Medina since then, with police patrolling streets."

The Saudi current affairs website sabq.org quoted a local police official saying police had stepped in to end an argument between two groups of young people that involved stone throwing.
Posted by: ryuge || 12/18/2010 14:31 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They should be allowed to kill each other off.
In the name of Allah, of course.
Posted by: Mikey Hunt || 12/18/2010 16:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Second the Motion, all in favor say ALLAH.
Those opposed(Crickets) the Murderous Assholes have it.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/18/2010 18:30 Comments || Top||


Britain
Ainsworth asks UK govt. to legalize drugs
[Iran Press TV] A former British minister has called on the government to legalize drugs alleging that campaigns against trafficking and using drugs have proved to be a total failure.

Former defense secretary Bob Ainsworth urged the government to consider legalizing drugs, saying prohibition has failed to protest the public, the daily Guardian reported.

The war on drugs had been "nothing short of a disaster" and it was time to explore other options, Ainsworth said, adding that those options could be to decriminalize possession of drugs and to regulate their production and supply legally.

He referred to the legalization of alcohol in the United States after 13 years of prohibition as an example.

"After 50 years of global drug prohibition it is time for governments throughout the world to repeat this shift with currently illegal drugs", former British defense secretary said.

The Labour backbencher, who was previously a Home Office drugs minister, went on: "Politicians and the media need to engage in a genuine and grown up debate about alternatives to prohibition, so that we can build a consensus based on delivering the best outcomes for our children and communities. Prohibition has failed to protect us.

"Leaving the drugs market in the hands of criminals causes huge and unnecessary harms to individuals, communities and entire countries, with the poor the hardest hit", he added.

"We spend billions of pounds without preventing the wide availability of drugs. It is time to replace our failed war on drugs with a strict system of legal regulation, to make the world a safer, healthier place, especially for our children", said Bob Ainsworth.

"We must take the trade away from organised criminals and hand it to the control of doctors and pharmacists", he said.

Ainsworth called on those on all sides of the debate to support "an independent, evidence-based review, exploring all policy options, including further resourcing the war on drugs, decriminalizing the possession of drugs, and legally regulating their production and supply".

"As drugs minister in the Home Office I saw how prohibition fails to reduce the harm that drugs cause in the UK, fuelling burglaries, gifting the trade to gangsters and increasing HIV infections.

"My experience as defence secretary, with specific responsibilities in Afghanistan, showed to me that the war on drugs creates the very conditions that perpetuate the illegal trade, while undermining international development and security", he said.

"My departure from the front benches gives me the freedom to express my long-held view that whilst it was put in place with the best of intentions, the war on drugs has been nothing short of a disaster", Ainsworth stipulated.

Crime prevention minister James Brokenshire dismissed Ainsworth's proposal as unhelpful.

"Drugs are harmful and ruin lives - legalization is not the answer", he said.

"Decriminalization is a simplistic solution that fails to recognize the complexity of the problem and ignores the serious harm drug taking poses to the individual", added the crime prevention minister.

"Legalization fails to address the reasons people misuse drugs in the first place or the misery, cost and lost opportunities that dependence causes individuals, their families and the wider community", he said.
Posted by: Fred || 12/18/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Narcos

#1  "'My departure from the front benches gives me the freedom to express my long-held view that whilst it was put in place with the best of intentions, the war on drugs has been nothing short of a disaster', Ainsworth stipulated.

Crime prevention minister James Brokenshire dismissed Ainsworth's proposal as unhelpful. 'Drugs are harmful and ruin lives - legalization is not the answer', he said.


Quite a breath-taking and wilfully ignorant non-sequitur from Brokenshire there, and typical of those on the pro-criminalization side of the argument.

Why do politicians talk sense about drugs once they're rid of the shackles of responsibility for the problem?
Posted by: Bulldog || 12/18/2010 4:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Bulldog, do you seriously think that the criminals are going to roll over and hand off their profitable businesses, or let the price drop, if drugs should become legal? Dream on.
From the experiences of our friend in Colombia, whose family has been pressured by FARC and Narco goons, nothing will change; in fact, it will get worse if the thugs have a bigger market.

I have already expressed my opinion on this matter at great length on the Burg, so I will keep this short: drugs destroy not only the users but injure their loved ones as well. The cost in bad health, injuries, neglected children, and violence will be far higher than the cost of trying to keep this poison out.
Posted by: mom || 12/18/2010 17:54 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Chavez Loses $8 Billion Bond Debt Case
Posted by: Grunter || 12/18/2010 10:31 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  $8 billion bond debt his government ran up -- or face seizure of his 14,000 nationally owned Citgo gas stations in the US.

Does this mean we'll still be importing from Venz?

Posted by: Uleger Barnsmell4617 || 12/18/2010 14:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Yes, we'll continue to import from Vz. so long as they have oil to sell. If that doesn't make any sense to you I'll draw a map showing the distances to US refineries (that's where the gas comes from) vs. the distance to WHOKNOWSWHERE but maybe China
Posted by: Goldies Every Damn Where || 12/18/2010 16:22 Comments || Top||

#3  It will be interesting to see how tHugo reacts. Either way he loses.

Yes he has oil, but no refining capacity, and it will take years and billions to replace his lost refining capacity.

His regime can not hold up under the financial strain of severely reduced petro dollars.
Sure Iran could help him, but the Iranian are in a pickle of their own.

I say seize the refineries and Citgo stations. And encourage all other companies and institutions that have had their assets seized in Venezuela, to seize any Venezuelan assets in their countries to pay for their losses. Especially Banks and oil companies.
And encourage all multinationals to refrain from any & all investment in Venezuela's economy.
Time to choke the baboon economically.
Posted by: Mikey Hunt || 12/18/2010 16:37 Comments || Top||


National Assembly passes enabling law for 18 months
[El Universal] In a heated debate, opposition deputies suggested to grant special ruling powers to President Hugo Chavez only until January 5, 2011, when the new National Assembly takes office. This motion was rejected by pro-government lawmakers
Posted by: Fred || 12/18/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Because the opposition did so well in the last elections, this is a cheap trick to go around them entirely, stealing their power. Hopefully this will ruin Chavez's power in the Assembly. Otherwise he will make Venezuela a one party state with a rubber stamp assembly giving him absolute power. Which is what he wants.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 12/18/2010 9:24 Comments || Top||

#2  Will make Venezeula a one party state? I think that he already has.
Posted by: Highlander || 12/18/2010 11:30 Comments || Top||

#3  Did so well in the last elections? Granted the opposition got slightly more than the Bolivarian grandee... but Jesus... WTF? Where the hell you been 'moose, this ain't about elections, this is about a 3rd rate military dicatorship sitting on a rapidly dying golden goose.
Posted by: Goldies Every Damn Where || 12/18/2010 16:25 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
N.Korea says war with South would go nuclear
Posted by: Water Modem || 12/18/2010 15:34 || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And North Korea would be turned into a radioactive glass desert.

Yes, I realize that Seoul would be gone too.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 12/18/2010 15:58 Comments || Top||

#2  What is the half life of nuclear kimchi?
Posted by: Fire and Ice || 12/18/2010 17:05 Comments || Top||

#3  If NORK wants to make this a Dick swinging contest, Give me a minute to unroll,
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/18/2010 18:22 Comments || Top||

#4  You can count on evil doing what is in its immediate short term interest. That is the very definition of bad.

STRATCOM has a dial labeled 'rubble', 'gravel', 'dust'. For the NORKs, they would dial up 'dust'. Being turned into nuclear dust is not in evil's short term best interest. The NORKs will not go nuclear.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey || 12/18/2010 21:37 Comments || Top||

#5  Um....I'm getting an uneasy feeling in my stomach:

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/08/205_40484.html

Posted by: Uncle Phester || 12/18/2010 22:58 Comments || Top||

#6  Methinks the key will CHINA ALLOWING RUSSIA + INDJUH [India] + JAPAN + USA, etc. TO ECON SET UP IN THE DPRK ala FREE = DEREGULATED TRADE.

Again, IMO the DPRK wants be the US-WORLD'S + WALL STREET's "NEW BFF" ALA VIETNAM, which IMO again is the real reason the DPRK sent an Envoy to RUSSIA POST-YEONGPYEONG. CHINA, however is unlikely to agree to such international presence in the DPRK unless it is assured of its own NATIONAL SECURITY = CONTINUED OR "MAJORITY" MILPOL DOMINANCE OER ALL THINGS NORTH KOREA OR KOREAN.

WHICH NORTH KOREA = PYONGYANG IS TRYING TO AVOID.

At minima, IMO the USGovt-DOD should expect China to demand the formal end to USFK + UNC Commands on the Korean Peninsula, + prob ditto also as per USFJ = JAPAN.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/18/2010 23:26 Comments || Top||


'China constructing first aircraft carrier'
[Iran Press TV] China is reportedly building game-changing aircraft carriers that can pave the way for ending the dominance of the United States at sea, reports say.

China is believed to be building aircraft carriers at Changxingdao Shipyard in Shanghai and is expected to launch the aircrafts in 2012 and 2014, the Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun reported on Friday.

The Chinese Institute for Ocean Development Strategy says Beijing "conceived the idea and worked out a plan in 2009 to build an aircraft carrier."

The think tank says that the task was essential in achieving the great revival of the Chinese nation.

The country is expected to launch a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier by 2020 as well.

This shows that China "is determined to become a maritime power," the report said

According to a Financial Times report, defense experts have also spotted, from Google Earth imagery, the construction of runways at two military airports over the past year suitable for training pilots in take-off and land under aircraft carrier conditions.

Experts say carriers could revolutionize China's role in the Pacific balance of power and will make it risky for the US to intervene in any potential dispute over Taiwan or North Korea.

It could also deny US ships safe access to international waters near China's 18,000-kilometer- (11,200-mile-) long coastline.

The report comes as relations between China and the United States have become tense over a number of issues.

China has already reduced its military cooperation with the Pentagon over the 6.4-billion-dollar US arms sales to Taiwan. China considers the island as part of its territory.

Moreover, in recent months, the US and South Korea have conducted several massive joint sea and air drills in the waters east of the Korean Peninsula.
Posted by: Fred || 12/18/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I gather the first time the Russians tried to make an aircraft carrier, it was about 2/3rds the size of the US Nimitz class, yet didn't even make it out of the harbor before floundering.

Their first successful carrier was about 1/2 Nimitz class, and it was still a nightmare. It took them years to finally figure out that having stabilizers wasn't enough. They not only had to have quality stabilizers, but a very skilled crew to operate the ship.

The US has about 90 years of experience with carriers, and just because China has money does not mean that they can buy experience.

Odds are that they will cut corners, to their detriment. The WWII Japanese tried to do that with, of all things, damage control. Bad idea.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 12/18/2010 9:18 Comments || Top||

#2  ...It took us almost half a century to figure out how to use them without killing ourselves - and that was, in the end, because we told our people to get the job done then stood back while they figured out how. The Chinese will commission this ship and then tell their crews to sweep us from the seas, without training or doctrine.

They will have a short, spectacular career if they ever go to war in them. I would also point out that they have only built two missile submarines (a far better weapon to threaten us with than a CV) and in the THIRTY ONE YEARS since they laid them down, they've lost one and just kind of sail the other one around looking fierce.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 12/18/2010 12:08 Comments || Top||

#3  I would like to dog pile on the comments about the fact just because you can buy (or build) a weapon it doesn't make it top of the line or make you the best. I can afford to buy the top of the line Snow Skies AND I am a short drive from some of the best slopes. Even if I took some lessons and practiced a lot there is no way I would be good at it the first year or even the fifth. Maybe ten years down the line I might have enough experience assuming I don't break my neck/leg or both.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 12/18/2010 13:00 Comments || Top||

#4  Baby dawgs I am here to tell you that if the Japaneese ever decide to build a carrier it will be hot shit and fast. Make no mistake, they have big deck experience second (maybe 3rd UK) only to the the USN. They know this shit, don't let the dancing sailors fool you.

I'm damn glad they're on our side.
Posted by: Goldies Every Damn Where || 12/18/2010 16:31 Comments || Top||

#5  It takes three things to be a nation with a successful carrier strike force: a well-built ship, a decently trained crew, and topflight, well-trained carrier air and maintenance crews. China can obviously build a carrier. Whether it's well-built or not won't be discovered until sea trials (remember the De Gaulle?). Training a crew won't be easy. A carrier crew must know more than just how to operate machinery - they must know how to be a functioning, 700-800ft floating airfield. Ship handling is different for a carrier than ANY other vessel. Regardless of what position in the crew a person has, they also have to be fully aware of how a carrier operates, and learn to perform their duties around a carrier's first priority - launching and recovering aircraft. Finally, you have to have exceptionally-well-trained pilots who can put a very large, heavy aircraft down on a very short, moving runway. The crews that service those aircraft have to have special knowledge and training, or those aircraft will never get off the deck, much less back on it.

The Chinese can build a somewhat-serviceable aircraft carrier in three to five years. Training the crew to the degree of proficiency needed to maintain SUSTAINED carrier operations in a wartime environment will take a decade or more.

I still think we need to "sell" the Kitty Hawk to Japan for 40 yen or so. They'll beat the Chinese to the punch having full-blown carrier crews by five to seven years. Then let them build their own - five or six at least.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 12/18/2010 18:21 Comments || Top||

#6  Finally, you have to have exceptionally-well-trained pilots who can put a very large, heavy aircraft down on a very short, moving runway. The crews that service those aircraft have to have special knowledge and training, or those aircraft will never get off the deck, much less back on it.

They've been working on that for a decade-plus, albeit not the 'moving' part.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/18/2010 21:47 Comments || Top||


Europe
Anti-Islamists Against Batman
Posted by: tipper || 12/18/2010 03:00 || Comments || Link || [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  PC takes over comics.
Posted by: Bobby || 12/18/2010 6:58 Comments || Top||

#2  The first time there was an Islamist Batman, there were three Islamist Batmans, in the amazingly bizarre Pakistani movie "International Gorillay".

The Plot?

The great climax when Salman Rushdie is killed by the laser beam flying Korans.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 12/18/2010 9:04 Comments || Top||

#3  "Takes over"? Dude, the PC crowd always had comics. Frank Miller is about as far-right as you get, and he's usually a left-wing fascist with law-and-order issues - Giuliani on a bad hair day. And they didn't let Miller do his "Batman vs. al Queda" comic back in '01-'02 when he wanted to, and everybody was theoretically down on Islamic terror.

For all that, DC is usually the less-left-of-centre comics monolith. Marvel was like 80% commie-pinko even back in the Ditko days, and ever since he got screwed over by Lee, it's been all-left, all the time. To the point where they like to kill off or otherwise retire Captain America whenever there's a Republican in the White House.
Posted by: Mitch H. || 12/18/2010 21:42 Comments || Top||

#4  So the plot of the series is that Batman goes around the world, teaming up with masked vigilante types in different countries (England, France,Japan, Argentina) and one of them is a Muslim...Certainly seems like something worth getting agitated over.
Posted by: Gaz || 12/18/2010 23:36 Comments || Top||


Fist fight in Ukraine House injures 6
A fierce fight in Ukraine's parliament sent at least six politicians to the hospital with concussions, a fractured jaw and multiple bruises, setting a new low for the often-tumultuous body.

Ambulances rushed to parliament late Thursday after politicians from President Viktor Yanukovych's Party of Regions stormed the parliament podium, which was occupied by opposition allies of former premier Yulia Tymoshenko. The pro-presidential politicians threw fists and chairs at their opponents.

Pro-Tymoshenko legislators had been blocking legislative work all day, protesting a corruption probe against her.

Scuffles between politicians are frequent in Ukraine, but Thursday's fight was the most violent to date. Parliament Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn, who hid from flying eggs and smoke bombs behind an umbrella during a fight in April, said Friday it was time to put an end to the mess.

Lytvyn produced iron bars, chains and locks, which he said were brought into the hall Thursday and said some politicians even threatened to use the guns that they often bring with them.

"What relation does this have to legislative activity?" he said. "How can we teach children democracy and love for their motherland?"

The Prosecutor General's Office this week opened a criminal investigation on suspicion that Tymoshenko misallocated hundreds of millions of dollars when she was premier. Tymoshenko, who lost February's presidential election to Yanukovych, calls the probe politically motivated.

Six politicians were maimed in the fight and four of them were still in the hospital Friday, Tymoshenko's office said.

"This hall has not yet seen such inhuman hatred, animal rage and a desire not only to handicap but to kill," her party said.

Party of Regions said its members weren't hurt but blamed the opposition for triggering the fight. Oleksandr Yefremov of the party said opposition politicians brought chains into parliament hall to block its doors and prevent his colleagues from entering.

Yefremov also noted that dozens of his colleagues were hurt in April when opposition politicians threw smoke bombs into the hall to protest a naval pact with Russia.

Yanukovych condemned the fight but refrained from assigning blame. "It's high time for politicians to reach agreement and raise the level of political culture from all sides," Yanukovych told news hounds Friday, according to the UNIAN news agency.

Tymoshenko was summoned for questioning by prosecutors Wednesday and was banned from leaving Kiev as part of the corruption probe. The abuse of office accusations against her center on the alleged misspending of $280 million (euro200 million) received by the government for the sale of carbon credits under the Kyoto protocol.

Tymoshenko has admitted that she used the money to pay pensions amid a severe recession, but said all the funds were later returned and spent on environmental needs as stipulated by the agreement.

A number of bigwigs in her former government have been investigated, charged and jugged in what Tymoshenko calls the president's "witch hunt of the opposition." The government says it is fighting corruption.
Posted by: Fred || 12/18/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Whither the lictors?
Posted by: gromky || 12/18/2010 2:00 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Senate votes to end ban on openly gay troops
Gay soldiers
In a historic vote for gay rights, the Senate agreed on Saturday to do away with the military's 17-year ban on openly gay troops and sent President Barack Obama legislation to overturn the Clinton-era policy known as "don't ask, don't tell."

Obama was expected to sign the bill into law next week, although changes to military policy probably wouldn't take effect for at least several months. Under the bill, the president and his top military advisers must first certify that lifting the ban won't hurt troops' ability to fight. After that, the military would undergo a 60-day wait period.
Posted by: tipper || 12/18/2010 20:48 || Comments || Link || [16 views] Top|| File under:

#1  the military's 17-year ban

Which was the implementation of Congress' law Title X U.S.C. Sec. 654 [the Party Media seems to always over look that part]. They may have repealed that piece of legislation but did they leave in place Article 125 of the UCMJ, which is a different subsection of Title X?
Posted by: P2kontheroad || 12/18/2010 21:42 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Muslims for Peace work Times Square
Posted by: ryuge || 12/18/2010 12:21 || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "We have given up jihad by sword in favor of jihad by pen"

Grow your own peas.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 12/18/2010 12:48 Comments || Top||

#2  It's the Ahmadiyyas again. The ones that Pakistan has a law declaring aren't Muslim, who can be arrested there for using the "Muslim greeting" on the street. Some time ago they were going door to door -- in Houston, if I recall correctly -- telling people that they were Muslims against jihad.

The sad thing is that it's only here they can safely call themselves Muslim... and safely speak out against Muslim jihad.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/18/2010 16:37 Comments || Top||

#3  Sad to be sure.
Posted by: pan || 12/18/2010 23:17 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2010-12-18
  Three US missiles kill 54 in Pakistan
Fri 2010-12-17
  Car Bomb Explodes at a Coppe Shoppe in Monterrey
Thu 2010-12-16
  Suicide Attack Kills 33, Wounds 95 Mourners in Iran
Wed 2010-12-15
  Border Patrol agent gunned down in southern AZ
Tue 2010-12-14
  Another man arrested for plotting bomb attack on DC Metro
Mon 2010-12-13
  Six police among 13 killed in Iraq suicide attacks
Sun 2010-12-12
  Yemen jails 12 Qaeda members
Sat 2010-12-11
  Car Explodes in Stockholm, Gas Cannisters & Second Blast Involved
Fri 2010-12-10
  India's ambassador gets pat-down at US airport
Thu 2010-12-09
  Pakistan suicide attack kills 17: police
Wed 2010-12-08
  Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claims suicide kaboom on Balochistan chief minister
Tue 2010-12-07
  50 dead, 120 maimed in Mohmand double kaboom
Mon 2010-12-06
  Pirates hijack Bangladeshi ship in the Arabian sea
Sun 2010-12-05
  150 killed in Nigeria's oil delta
Sat 2010-12-04
  Officers killed in deadly Nairobi attacks


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