We had a database problem overnight with updates, which applied only to the editor. New articles could be added, but existing articles couldn't be changed. I think it's fixed now. Let me know if it happens again...
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2004 8:03:14 AM ||
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WASHINGTON (AP) - The government announced Wednesday that it has issued the first license for a manned suborbital rocket, a step toward opening space flight to private individuals for the first time. The Federal Aviation Administration gave a one-year license to Scaled Composites of Mojave, Calif., headed by Burt Rutan. Rutan, who hopes to make affordable space travel a reality in a decade, is best known for designing the Voyager airplane that made the first nonstop, unrefueled flight around the world in 1986.
"This is a big step," FAA spokesman Henry Price said.
Sure is! I want Alaska Paul to get one of these, and I want the first ride.
The Scaled Composites craft consists of a rocket plane, dubbed SpaceShipOne, and the White Knight, an exotic jet designed to carry it aloft for a high-altitude launch. SpaceShipOne, made of graphite and epoxy, has short wings and twin vertical tails. It reached 12.9 miles in a trial flight; the license will allow the spacecraft to reach the edge of space, about 60 miles up.
Rutan declined to comment. The company states on its Web site that its goal is to show that private space flight can be done, and at a low cost. "We look to the future, hopefully within 10 years, when ordinary people, for the cost of a luxury cruise, can experience a rocket flight into the black sky above the earth's atmosphere, enjoy a few minutes of weightless excitement, then feel the thunderous deceleration of the aerodynamic drag on entry," the statement says.
Before launching the spacecraft in the X Prize competition, Scaled Composites must give the prize sponsors 90 days notice, Price said. The company can launch its rocket before that, he said, but it must be in an area that isn't risky.
FAA inspectors carefully examined the space vehicle to make sure it's safe, said Price. "There's no sure thing in anything when it comes to rocketry," he said. "We want to do what we can with the knowledge we have to make sure the launch is as safe as possible for the public." The company also had to demonstrate that it was adequately insured for a launch and that it met environmental standards, Price said.
Mustn't harm the baby ducks!
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/08/2004 1:01:52 AM ||
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#1
Pictures of SpaceShipOne? you say you want pictures, I got you pictures right here!
http://www.mojavebooks.com/mhv/
This guy manages to get great coverage of everything going on at Mojave, and most of the flights by Scaled Composites. In case you guys werent already aware, Scaled has also just built a newer-better version of the 1980's voyager aircraft for steve fosset to make a solo around the world flight.
This - is so damn cool.
Posted by: Frank Martin ||
04/08/2004 4:43 Comments ||
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Once they get the design perfected and matured, couples can go up and join the new 60-Mile-High Club. LOL!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/08/2004 10:42 Comments ||
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...and examining science news in other parts of the world, it seems that Mohammed has invented a lighter explosive vest, and Achmed has come up with an elegant method of placing explosives in a subcompact car.
Patents are pending.
Posted by: Carl in N.H ||
04/08/2004 11:55 Comments ||
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Muck you may be right on this one. I tried to teach the cats the in and outs of a water recovery in the "big shower" but theey was always angry and not thinking properly. I had more success with the get the kitten by the chin and spin it on the floor g force simulator but I've yet to find a proper sized cat that could stand more than about 20 rpm. (sigh)
From The Onion
Top-secret information about the design, construction, and delivery of nuclear weapons has never been more affordable than it is today, CIA Director George Tenet announced Monday. .....
"These bargain prices will create more buyers, which will in turn widen the black market to include more sellers," Tenet said. "If this trend continues, then by 2010, nuclear secrets will be well within the reach of Uzbekistan, Morocco, and pretty much anyone else with enough money to buy a used car."
... CIA nuclear-weapons specialist Mitch Romano ... cited another example of plunging prices. "About six months ago, one of our wiretaps recorded the sale of plans for a two-foot, 12-megaton warhead to a Quebecois separatist cell for slightly more than $1 million," Romano said. "Yesterday, the plans surfaced again, this time on the Internet. It was eBay item #2899538529, and it had a âBuy it nowâ price of $18,500."
Romano assured the public that the CIA has the seller, a San Diego-based car-audio retailer with the screen name of BatVette65, under strict surveillance. "Heâs got tons of new deals every week," Romano said. "Right now, heâs got plans for an artillery-launched supergun nuke and a set of blueprints for cool old vintage Soviet-era silos." .....
"Last week, we investigated reports that a cell in Edinburgh had sold classified British intelligence information to an American group," Woess said. "The group turned out to be the Young Republicans organization at the University of Virginia. NATO has since classified the group as a Class D potential nuclear threat," Woess added.
At least one intelligence expert expressed trepidation over the booming nuclear-secrets economy. "It was an embarrassment to our country that Abdul Qadeer Khan sold nuclear secrets and technology to Iran, Libya, and North Korea," said General Mohammed Kanazwa, a senior officer for Pakistani military intelligence. "But it was all the more embarrassing when we found out that he had sold them in the âBargains Under $100â section of the Cleveland Plain Dealer." ....
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
04/08/2004 12:00:00 AM ||
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#1
What better way for Fred to get respect--and mondo linky love! Throw some more money in the tipjar and help Rantburg become the first nuclear power in the Blogosphere!
#2
I am not minimizing the potential for havoc by selling plans for nuclear weapons (on EBAY even...too much!). It is one thing to get the plans. It is another thing to acquire the materials, tooling, and infrastructure to manufacture these weapons. You do not machine plutonium like normal metals on your South Bend lathe, for example.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/08/2004 0:31 Comments ||
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I just noticed that this is from the Onion. Too late in the day. Had me fooled for awhile. *red face*
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/08/2004 0:39 Comments ||
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One of the best things about The Onion is that they constantly point out to the world, with their funny stuff, just how stupid "real" journalism can be --example yesterday when all the major "legitimate" media sources were reporting a "widespread" uprising in Iraq like it was actually happening. Newswriting is a specific style of writing, and unfortunately, carries a carte blanche sense of "authority" when, really, a lot of time it's just smoke and mirrors.
#6
Hey, thought it was a joke UNTIL the Quebecois separatist cell thing...THEN I wondered if it was real....
Posted by: Steve D. ||
04/08/2004 9:37 Comments ||
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Like AP said, anybody with half a brain and a decent college education that includes physics and chemistry can design a nuclear weapon. Building one is a bit more difficult. I got in an argument with a bunch of people at work one day, and walked over to a drawing board. In fifteen minutes, I had convinced them that not only did I know HOW to design a nuclear weapon, I knew all the problems that would have to be overcome to make it work. Scared the bejonkers out of my boss, it did...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/08/2004 11:10 Comments ||
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Throttle back, OP Mike. Someone at work is going to get freaked out and turn you in, heh heh.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/08/2004 11:18 Comments ||
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Makes you wonder what goodies are in OP's garage, doesn't it?
#10
Actually, there's not much of anything 'dangerous' in my garage at all... Still, my neighbors are always EXTREMELY polite whenever they visit. Like the man said, it's not what people know that scares them, it's what they DON'T know, but could well imagine that makes them quake in their boots - something we could use to our advantage, but aren't, in Iraq.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/08/2004 13:24 Comments ||
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I've several portable, electrically powered, semi-focused, random photon generators in my garage.
If, as we are told, ignorance is bliss, then surely oblivion is nothing short of nirvana itself. President Clinton used to joke about Madeleine Albrightâs brooch with the famous three monkeys who see, hear, or speak no evil. Clinton was shrewd enough to see the irony of what his secretary of state was probably unconsciously advertising: If in such a position you donât see or hear evil, you really should go home before you even have the chance to speak evil.
Ignorance is certainly bliss for many Arab leaders. Some of them are miserably ignorant and uneducated. They donât even know what a book looks like until they are ready to burn it. Most have no formal education and gathered what they âknowâ either through trial and error or from the army barracks â and we are not talking West Point.
If it takes two to tango, we might assume that ignorance needs a partner to be effective. The people ruled by such leaders are equally ignorant and have been purposefully kept that way for decades. The atrocity committed in Iraq with the unseemly dragging of the charred corpses was an extension of something historically entrenched in Iraq. Every single deposed leader since independence, including the king, had suffered this dragging fate. No one seems to mention this. More importantly, no one mentions the fact that the bloodiest of those leaders escaped this fate only because the Americans got their hands on him first.
For a people âwithout historyâ, âpolitically naïveâ, and other epithets thrown their way, the Americans have one thing solidly on their side: Decency. Iâd exchange this historical freshness for anything solidly âhistoricalâ any day.
The reality is staring us in the face: Though military boots are heavy no matter what the context is, we are not dealing with Attila nor are we in the realm of Augustus Caesar. Not a single occupying army has ever declared soon after its victory the date of its departure. The Americans have. Just for the record, the Crusaders stayed for 200 years, the Mongols for nearly a century, and the Ottomans hung on for almost 500 years.
Posted by: tipper ||
04/08/2004 12:07:11 AM ||
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#1
For a people "without history", "politically naive", and other epithets thrown their way, the Americans have one thing solidly on their side: Decency.
Not a single occupying army has ever declared soon after its victory the date of its departure. The Americans have.
Now this is a hell of a note...even the Arab News "gets it", while our own fifth-column media does its best to conceal it. Scumbags and traitors, every fucking one of them.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
04/08/2004 0:59 Comments ||
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If only I could get a copy of the picture of Willy, HILLARY, and Maddie doing the monkey thing. It's out there, Me thinks Newsweek.
EFL of a translation of a letter from a retired general - I assume heâs anti-Chavez - concerning the Mondayâs resignation of the Venezuelan Information Minister.
Venezuelaâs Information Minister open lies
By Martin A. Peña T., translation Aleksander Boyd
On April 5, making use of the State television channel, the Minister of Information and Communication Jesse Chacon lied, when in an apparent gesture of taking responsibility he resigned from office owing to a fault in which his ministry had occurred (false information regarding the burning of 8 soldiers in Fort Mara) that caused President Hugo Chavez to say in his dominical programme that the burns suffered by said soldiers were slight. Hours later Venezuelan citizens learned that one of the soldiers had died and a second one was in a coma.
It is our belief that the minister knowingly lied to the country for he knows the laws, rules and other norms -given that he retired from the army- that establish that the administrative mechanisms required impede the President of the country, who in turn is the commander in chief of the army, to opine in such grave matters based on flawed information prepared by his ministry. Said argument is ludicrous if we were to revise the following articles:
1. Art 62 & 63 of the Organic Law of the National Armed Forces states that the execution of presidential orders falls upon the Minister of Defence who is also the intermediary between the President and military officials.
2. Art 94 of the Garrison Service Rules, contemplates that related to daily reports or documents that contain all relevant information occurred during the previous 24 hours; cases of interns in emergency units or soldiers reprimanded or disciplined need be reported without delay. Moreover it is obligatory for garrisons to produce such reports and send it to the respective Superior Command daily.
3. When incidents can be typified as offences or crimes, it corresponds to military justice to learn about said incidents. Art 28 of the Organic Code of Military Justice cites âthe President of the Republic, the Minister of Defence, Commanders in Chief of the army and the navy, Commanders of military jurisdictions (garrisons and so on) are subject to Military Justice.
After reading the articles mentioned and taking into account that the responsible to inform the President about the day to day activities and happenings of the army is the Minister of Defence, it is impossible to believe that the words with which the President referred to the case of the burnt soldiers derived from information provided by the Information Minister.
Brigade General (R)
Manuel A. Piña T
Attorney
Seems innocuous enough to someone who lived through filegate, travelgate.... ad nauseum but Daniel Duquenal provides a good commentatry on why this may be the stone that begins the avalanche.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/08/2004 2:59:15 AM ||
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US President George W Bush wrote to Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt to congratulate him both for stationing F-16 fighter aircraft in the Baltic states and for his continued efforts in the fight against terrorism, La Libre Belgique reported on Wednesday. Bush wrote to Verhofstadt on 29 March, but the letter has only now come to light, the newspaper continued, adding that Verhofstadt had replied to the US President.
Belgium sent the F-16s to patrol the Baltic states' airspace last week to coincide with the formal admission of the three former soviet republics- Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia - into the Nato military alliance.
Not that the Russians were going to do anything about it but make faces, but it sent a message.
In his reply to Bush, Verhofstadt stressed efforts the European Union has taken to combat terrorism since the 11 March train bomb attacks in Madrid, which left 191 people dead and over 1,400 injured.
Too little, too late, but it's a start.
He also pointed out that Belgium recently pledged to double its military presence in Afghanistan to 600 men.
Humm, I didn't know that. Thanks.
Analysts say the exchange of letters is evidence of a continuing improvement in relations between Belgium and the US.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/08/2004 9:01:51 AM ||
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#1
Relationships sure have changed with Belgium since they were talking about filing war crimes charges against Bush and Blair some months ago. We must really have twisted some hairs since then, as they've dropped the charges, amended their war crime statutes, and now this!
Posted by: Dar ||
04/08/2004 9:56 Comments ||
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NATO: Needs Americans To Operate
Posted by: B ||
04/08/2004 10:16 Comments ||
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Did W send some Scharffen-Berger chocolate, too?
#4
I'm sure there was a telephone call to Belgium from George Bush, from an unlisted, untraceable number. Somewhere during the call, the comment was made about "Just ask the French how much it costs to thumb your nose at America". That's all it takes. The French are STILL taking it in the shorts. It may be years before things get back to normal between our two nations, and France may be totally bankrupt by then. At least they make an excellent "bad example".
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/08/2004 11:30 Comments ||
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I LOVE Sharfenn-Berger! Such good flavor.
Posted by: remote man ||
04/08/2004 12:33 Comments ||
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I'm not convinced. Now if they flushed the ICC down the crapper and decided to begin minding their own business with regard to indicting others for actions not within their jurisdiction, that'd be a different story....
#9
Interesting.Belgium is a firm ally of France and Germany in EU.Considering Chirac recently embarrassed England in a speech,the leaking of this by Belgium could be seen as rebuke to French.
(I maintain that a Euro country sending troops to Afghanistan is a way for that country to say "See,we're still good friends of US"-despite opposing everything else US does.)
On the other hand,the exchange of messages may just be routine diplomacy.
Posted by: Stephen ||
04/08/2004 18:53 Comments ||
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#10
EU countries don't have a problem with supporting us in Afghanistan--It's the lies about Iraq they have a problem with
Posted by: Not Mike Moore ||
04/09/2004 1:18 Comments ||
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Both the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders came out Wednesday against a United Nations (news - web sites) plan to reunify the war-divided island, and urged voters to reject it in a referendum set for April 24.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) submitted the plan as a last-ditch attempt to reunite the island after 30 years of separation before Cyprus joins the EU on May 1. The two sides and the Greek and Turkish governments failed on March 29 to reach an agreement of their own after lengthy talks.
Veteran Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktashâs opposition has long been known, but his Greek Cypriot counterpart, President Tassos Papadopoulos, had withheld judgment until now.
In a televised speech, Papadopoulos said that rather than leading to the reunification of Cyprus, the plan "makes its (current) partition permanent."
"After judging all the facts and with a full realization of the historic moment we live through and my heavy responsibility, I am sincerely sorry that I cannot sign acceptance of the Annan plan," Papadopoulos said.
Denktash held a news conference in Ankara where he also urged voters to reject the plan. Denktash repeated his belief that the plan will make Cyprus a Greek Cypriot island and wipe out Turkish Cypriots in the northern half.
This kind of reads like really REALLY bad pun - deja-jew<
SNIP/SMALL>
"The plan writes off the Turkish invasion and the consequences of the occupation" and legitimizes "the illegal presence of the tens of thousands of Turkish mainland settlers, Papadopoulos said.
Polls have shown a majority of Greek Cypriots are against the plan. Their main objections is that it limits the right of all Greek Cypriot refugees â numbering about 200,000 â to return to the north and reclaim their properties in compliance with Security Council resolutions, while allowing more than 60,000 Turkish mainland settlers in the north to remain.
He said the plan violates basic human rights and principles of the European Union (news - web sites) ensuring the right of refugees to return and to repossess their properties.
How about repossessing European properties taken in the 40s, hmmm????
-SNIP-
Posted by: Anonymous2U ||
04/08/2004 12:46:34 AM ||
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#2
Your title is wrong. "Cypriot, Greek leaders against UN plans" implies that both the leaders of Cyprus' and Greece oppose it. That's wrong. The Greek prime minister hasn't taken a position yet (because he's a wimp IMO) and the chief opposition in Greece has supported it.
If you'd removed the word "Greek" and left the title "Cypriot leaders oppose the plan", you'd have been accurate since both the Greek-cypriot president and the Turkish-cypriot one have opposed it.
#3
The Cypriots do indeed rejct the plan - thus far. Your reasons though, are erroneous. The actual objections are two, one soft and one hard,although they are rarely stated:
- the soft one: the Greek-Cypriots (82% of population and currently responsible for ~90% of GDP) reject the plan's mandate of 50-50 power sharing with the Turkish-Cypriots (18%, ~10% of GDP) and
-the hard one: they reject the plan's allowing third parties (Greece, Turkey and UK) a constitutionally guaranteed right of intereference (including militarily) in their internal affairs.
The third parties naturally refuse to accept that the Cypriots can tell them to butt out and they have designed a plan that secures them on that front. It's that simple.
#5
No stealth editors on Rantburg! Why, we associate editors are noisy as all hell, wear buckets on our feet, we do.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/08/2004 11:13 Comments ||
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we associate editors are noisy as all hell
Yaaarr! We be Associate Editors!
Nah, it just doesn't sound right. How about Acolyte Of Fred?
Posted by: Steve ||
04/08/2004 11:37 Comments ||
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Here's a link to the plan, http://www.cyprus-un-plan.org/
I think that Cyprus, if it's truly looking for unity, should agree to the plan. It's the best offer it's gotten in the last 30 years, and it's not likely to get any better offer any time soon.
The 50-50 power share isn't an exact truth: The unified state will have a bicameral parliament, one chamber of which will have proportional representation, even though the other one will be evenly divided.
The Presidency will be shared on a 50-50 basis, yeah, and that's a true negative: but once again I don't see any better offer being made. The presidential council will be divided 2 to 1 in favour of the Greek cypriots.
As for the "intervention", it is already taking place -- and I think it may not be that difficult to later make an amendment to the constitution that removes this in its entirety.
---
If not this plan, then I'll be going with Stefanos Manos' position as the only remaining option: Division. The Greek Cypriots accepting all the territorial and property concessions and in return giving recognition and allowing EU membership to the Turkish Cypriot state.
The division plan doesn't actually *appeal* to me one bit, and there's no chance in hell of it actually being accepted by the Greek Cypriots, but if the Annan plan is rejected, then I really don't see any better option existing.
Ugly new flag though. Couldn't they have atleast included the olive branches to break the monotony?
Americans working and living in Europe are often struck by the preoccupation in defense and security circles with the pernicious influence of âneoconservativesâ on U.S. foreign policy. There is a pervasive sense that American foreign policy is being driven down a radically new path by a small band of ideologues who have virtually hijacked the policymaking process.
European defense and foreign policy elites are not the only ones who seem to believe that current U.S. foreign policy is something of an aberration; this view is found more broadly in European public opinion as well. In a 2003 Pew poll, approximately 75 percent of those surveyed in France and Germany said the current âproblem with the U.S.â was mainly President George W. Bush, while only 21 percent said it had more to do with the United States in general. The end result is a dominant opinion in much of Europe that little will be repaired in the transatlantic relationship until there is a new presidential administration in the United States, or at least a marked reduction in the influence of the small group of neoconservative extremists who surround President Bush.
Although there are notable exceptions, many European commentators and much of the public are resorting to conspiratorial theories to explain the direction of U.S. foreign policy and somehow overlook the fact that American public opinion runs in favor of the presidentâs handling of foreign affairs. Perhaps more important, however, they overlook the deep historical roots of the current direction of American foreign policy. It is not driven by a âneocon cabal.â
Rather, it is that certain individuals associated with the neoconservative label have been particularly articulate in expressing a set of policies that flow from two ideas that resonate deeply in American public opinion. The first is a belief that the United States has a responsibility to spread its vision of individual liberty. The second is that the primary and perhaps exclusive task of the federal government is to protect its citizens from external threats. Whatever the actual causes of U.S. action in any particular instance, those principles loom large in the public debate and shape how and when the United States becomes involved in other countriesâ affairs. article continues
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
04/08/2004 9:09:43 AM ||
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Well the Novemebr election I'm sure will surprise the Europenas then, since they believe that all US citizens are against Bush and his policies. When Dubya kicks Kerry's ass, I wonder if their tone will change? This time moere than ever it is importnat that the President get a mandate from the AMerican people. Forget the polls now. The Blue States are turning red. (Pa, Fl)
Posted by: Bill Nelson ||
04/08/2004 9:21 Comments ||
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In the poll, was there a "nothing is wrong with US" choice? It's like a poll here saying "Will the EU collapse in 10 years or 20?"
Posted by: Homer ||
04/08/2004 9:34 Comments ||
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#7
I lived in Europe when Reagan was in his first term. Demonstration against nukes, cruise missiles, navy warships, and âprovocativeâ U.S. policies with respect to the Soviet Union happened on a near daily basis. I barely missed getting firebombed once outside our base in Athens! Just about every European I talked with told me how we âmust not re-elect that dangerous man.â Well, Reagan won by a landslide, the Soviet Union removed its missiles from the Warsaw pact, the Berlin wall fell, and soon thereafter the USSR ceased to exist. I hope the Europeans are just as right about George Bush as they were with Ronald Reagan.
#8
And after George we had Bill Clinton who actually turned the US into a positive role model as opposed to the war mongering nutz in charge now who have made the US a pariah state like Libya--The GOP's time is up-we're going to take back our country again in spite of Scalia and other Supreme Court justices that like to steal elections
Posted by: Not Mike Moore ||
04/09/2004 1:43 Comments ||
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NMM, Pardon me, WHO tried to steal the election?
Wasn't it really Al Gork?
I think so.
And America's been a positive role model for the world since 1776.
During Clintoon's "Administration" (such as it was), all the US did was to kick the can of History down the road and be played the fool by the tranzi progressivists.
Under President George W. Bush, we've retaken our place as the Leader of the Free World, in the forefront of the WOT and our allies and friends--who are numerous--are grateful because Islamist Terrorism is a problem for all of them.
Under the eagle's wings of the USA, they now feel as if they have more than a chance for victory over the IslamoFascists.
Posted by: Jen ||
04/09/2004 2:28 Comments ||
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"Bill Clinton actually turned the US into a postitive role model"?
Are you on drugs? He disgraced the office and sold us out to the Chinese.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/08/2004 04:49 ||
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Posted by: Man Bites Dog TROLL ||
04/08/2004 8:31 Comments ||
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He has lived an admirable life since then.
Well, excepting that line about n*ggers he said on TV a couple of years ago.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/08/2004 8:36 Comments ||
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#3
membership? He was a Kleagle! Hypocrisy ain't pretty, is it?
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/08/2004 10:03 Comments ||
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He has lived an admirable life since then.
If 'admirable' includes naming half the buildings, parks & highways in West Virginia after yourself, courtesy of pork-barrel politics at its worst the American taxpayer...
#5
Mike, I'm always up for a scandal if you have details.
The article I linked missed the essence of what is wrong with Dodd's words about Byrd. Here is a exerpt from a CNN article from several years ago that includes a more telling statement by Dodd:
Democratic officials have been much quicker to criticize Lott, although to date only Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts -- who is considering a run for the Democratic nomination for president in 2004 -- and Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin have called for Lott's resignation as majority leader.
Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Connecticut, came close Sunday on "Late Edition."
"If Tom Daschle or another Democratic leader were to have made similar statements, the reaction would have been very swift," Dodd said. "I don't think several hours would have gone by without there being an almost unanimous call for the leader to step aside."
Dodd said the problem lies with the Republican Party.
"Mainstream Republican thinking over the last 40 years has been opposed to an awful lot of the civil rights legislation," he said. "So this isn't just about Trent Lott, it's about a party that needs to come to terms with this view here -- that you go to the South, you say one thing to one group of people and another thing nationally."
Dodd said that unless the Republicans address the issue of race relations head on, "they're going to pay an awful price politically and it hurts the country terribly in my view."
Dodd agreed that the Republicans should make the decision about Lott but added that if the senator were to stay, a move to censure him "takes on more of a reality."
"But it ought to be bipartisan," he said. "It ought not to be Democrats versus Republicans."
This Byrd thing probably won't ignite a firestorm, but the new scandal does shred his characterization of the GOP from Dodd's older rhetoric.
Other than the hypocracy of his older statement I have no real interest in yea olde Kleagle - wasn't Kleagle the ringleader of the Banana Splits?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/08/2004 13:19 Comments ||
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#6
This sH*thead Byrd is giving us all a bad name.
Posted by: Gov Bilbo ||
04/08/2004 15:39 Comments ||
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But I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for the Democrats to end their double standard on race.
The man gets it.
Wonder if it will affect his vote?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/08/2004 20:15 Comments ||
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Posted by: Man Bites Dog TROLL ||
04/08/2004 21:30 Comments ||
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#9
Thank you Mike. I had wondered why Williams came out as a spokesperson for Michael Jackson. I wonder no more.
Did the other link back to the Trent Lott story make my purpose in posting this more clear? On my readthru of Armstrong, I missed the fact that he didn't touch on the old statements. My bad.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/08/2004 21:57 Comments ||
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#10
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Posted by: Man Bites Dog TROLL ||
04/08/2004 22:18 Comments ||
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Mike, both what Lott said about the old geezer and what Dodd said about Byrd were pretty silly statements, though. Pretty smarmy stuff without even a touch of moderation or reality.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/08/2004 23:55 Comments ||
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Posted by: Man Bites Dog TROLL ||
04/08/2004 8:31 Comments ||
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#13
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Posted by: Man Bites Dog TROLL ||
04/08/2004 21:30 Comments ||
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#14
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Posted by: Man Bites Dog TROLL ||
04/08/2004 22:18 Comments ||
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#15
In 1997 Armstrong was sued by a former male employee who accused him of more than 50 incidents of sexual harassment. In a $200,000 lawsuit, Stephen Gregory alleged that Armstrong kissed him on the mouth, grabbed his buttocks and genitals, and climbed into bed with him on business trips. He also said his former boss had told him that he loved him, but somehow that didn't make him gay. Armstrong supposedly needed affection because he wanted to stay celibate heterosexually until he got married. He said Armstrong docked his pay and fired him after he spurned him.
First hired as his personal trainer, Stephen worked on his talk show and eventually became executive producer. Armstrong failed to get the suit dismissed in 1998. Stephen had an affidavit from a guy who said Armstrong propositioned him in 1996. He also had testimony from an ex-intern who had to brush off his advances on his first day on the job. They settled the case out of court in early 1999 because Stephen had his own show and wanted to get the case behind him.
#16
Senator Byrd said a long time ago that his membership in the Ku Klux Klan was wrong. He made a mistake as a young man and then corrected it as well as he could. He has lived an admirable life since then. There's no reason for anybody to be outraged about this.
As I recall, Armstrong Williams himself was involved in a nasty scandal several years ago. Does he want someone to incite public outrage about that, forty years from now?
.
#17
In 1997 Armstrong was sued by a former male employee who accused him of more than 50 incidents of sexual harassment. In a $200,000 lawsuit, Stephen Gregory alleged that Armstrong kissed him on the mouth, grabbed his buttocks and genitals, and climbed into bed with him on business trips. He also said his former boss had told him that he loved him, but somehow that didn't make him gay. Armstrong supposedly needed affection because he wanted to stay celibate heterosexually until he got married. He said Armstrong docked his pay and fired him after he spurned him.
First hired as his personal trainer, Stephen worked on his talk show and eventually became executive producer. Armstrong failed to get the suit dismissed in 1998. Stephen had an affidavit from a guy who said Armstrong propositioned him in 1996. He also had testimony from an ex-intern who had to brush off his advances on his first day on the job. They settled the case out of court in early 1999 because Stephen had his own show and wanted to get the case behind him.
#18
SH, yes, I did assume that you intended to point out the contrast between the treatments of Byrd and Lott. I myself would have given Lott a pass too, just as I give a pass to Byrd. Lott's apology was good enough for me.
EFL - Rummy provides a perspective on Hearts & Minds in another part of the article.
Q: Last thing, and this â I wrote it down, I carried it around with me for months. I was once the secretary of education, far less exalted than your position, but you said, you know, we lack the metrics to know if weâre winning or losing, but you said, Iâll tell you, recapturing, killing or deferring or dissuading more terrorists every day than the madrassas and radical clerics or recruiting, training and deploying. That is we can kill and weâre good at it and weâre the most effective military in the world. But how do we address the larger problem, which is the problem of the mind, the problem of training, the problem of indoctrination, the education of a terrorist?
Rumsfeld: Well, thereâs no doubt, but that we are putting enormous pressure on terrorists and very successfully on their bank accounts, on their ability to move money, on their ability to travel and communicate. Weâre capturing and interrogating in large numbers all across the world. Weâve got 90 countries that are cooperating and that side of it is moving along. The piece of it that I was referring to there is that thereâs no â I said no metric, thereâs no knowledge. We donât have knowledge as to the numbers of people being brought in the intakeâŠ
Q: Yeah.
Rumsfeld: ⊠and trained and taught that itâs a good thing to go out and kill innocent men, women and children. That is a major job for our country. Itâs particularly a job for the people of that faith who know that their religion is being hijacked by a very small minority o people. And thatâs -- terrorism isnât part of that religion.
Q: Iâve been persuaded a lot by Bernard Lewis, emeritus professor at Princeton. This is â there may be a billion Muslims in the world â maybe 100 million of the radical Islam persuasion. Where are the 900 million making their case, you know, lending their weight to push this thing back in the right direction?
Rumsfeld: Well, think whatâs going on in Afghanistan.
Q: Right.
Rumsfeld: Think whatâs going on â I mean India has a very large Muslim population thatâs conducted itself exceedingly well. Pakistan has a Muslim population and theyâre one of our principal cooperating partners in the global war on terror. Theyâve been enormously cooperative. Turkey is a modern success in a Muslim country. SoâŠ
Q: Youâre right.
Rumsfeld: Theyâre all across the globe. And what youâve got is a relatively small number of people who were determined to have it their way. And as a result, theyâre perfectly willing to kill all kinds of people.
Q: I think India has the second-largest Muslim country and you just mentioned. I read there are no Indian members of al Qaeda, as far as we know, because theyâre too busy building an economy and trying to prove their lot. I mean, thatâs â thereâs an important message there, isnât there?
Rumsfeld: I think there is. Weâve got a number of countries that have large Muslim populations who are contributing to the world and to civilization and you have a relatively small number of terrorists that are going about the globe in Bali and in Turkey and in Saudi Arabia and in Spain and in the United States and in Iraq and Afghanistan, trying to kill people.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/08/2004 3:16:24 AM ||
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Why aren't major media outlets publishing interviews like these?
A nice summary of who says what: via CNN.
...Sen. Robert Byrd, D-West Virginia, the Senateâs senior member and a fierce critic of the civil war, said he heard "echoes of Vietnam" in the talk of increasing U.S. forces in Iraq. In response, Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Oregon, paraphrased Ho Chi Minh, noting that the North Vietnamese leader said the Vietnam War was won by dividing the American public, not on the battlefield. "We must win," Smith said. "We must not have the will of the American people broken by the naysayers."
...Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry said of Bushâs Iraq policy, "Since I fought in Vietnam, I have not seen an arrogance in our foreign policy like this." "The nerve of this man to confront terrorism and evil!"
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, said, "Iraq has developed into a quagmire" for Bush, using a word much cited concerning Vietnam decades earlier.
..."Surely I am not the only one who hears echoes of Vietnam in this development," Byrd said in a speech on the Senate floor. "Surely, the administration recognizes that increasing the U.S. troop presence in Iraq will only suck us deeper, deeper into the maelstrom, into the quicksand of violence that has become the hallmark of that unfortunate, miserable country." Careful Byrdy. Choose your words more wisely.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan rejected Byrdâs assertions. "Given his well-known opposition to the action we took in Iraq making America more secure, it is not surprising that we continue to hear such charged rhetoric from the senator," McClellan said.
The spokesman rejected any suggestion that Iraq is turning into a Vietnam-style quagmire. The United States is overseeing a transfer toward "sovereignty for the Iraqi people," he said. "There is a lot of progress being made throughout the country." But of course, we hear very little about the progress from the mainstream (and âstreamâ is an apt description, IMO).
...Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona said those who call Iraq another Vietnam "either have forgotten or never learned the lessons" of that war. Or they see another opportunity to repeat what they did during Vietnam.
"Itâs a totally false comparison and I know something about Vietnam," said McCain, who spent more than five years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. He said the United States needs more soldiers and a different mix of forces -- more linguists, Special Forces and civil affairs units -- to deal with escalating violence while also preparing to hand power back to civilian authorities. I would have said more AC130 pilots, but what do I know.
McCain said recent events in Iraq were "very disturbing." But, he said, "things donât always go according to plan in conflicts."
Sens. Dianne Feinstein of California and Joe Lieberman of Connecticut were among several Democrats who supported the idea of sending additional troops. "Our troops on the ground in Iraq now are too few in number to battle the insurgents and establish the civil order needed to ensure Iraq does not descend into civil war," Lieberman said.
Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota said most Senate Democrats want U.S. allies to bolster their forces in Iraq before additional American troops are sent. Daschle resisted comparisons to Vietnam even as he criticized Bush for not providing public details of a U.S. plan to hand civilian power to Iraqis by June 30. "Must...resist...must..."
Posted by: Rafael ||
04/08/2004 3:09:15 AM ||
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Damn. Screwed up smartassery again. That should be Civil war, referring of course to the Civil War.
Posted by: Rafael ||
04/08/2004 3:16 Comments ||
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#2
I'd like to think the American public would be smart enough to be outraged by these comments, but unfortunately, they are not. Worse, they suck up this stuff like milkshakes through a straw.
Sigh. Is it wrong for me to wish that these traitors would be sucked up by a freak tornado and thrown into space where they would explode into a billion pieces and vanish from our lives forever?
PS. Rafael - "civil" was good enough to make me lol!
#3
I fear you're right. The latest results from www.rasmussenreports.com aren't good: Kerry 48%, Bush 42%.
Anybody want to speculate what happens to retention rates in the military if Kerry wins? My guess is, they abruptly go in the crapper.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
04/08/2004 7:24 Comments ||
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#4
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry said of Bushâs Iraq policy, "Since I fought in Vietnam, I have not seen an arrogance in our foreign policy like this."
Nice to see some self-criticism from Kerry for a change.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/08/2004 8:29 Comments ||
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#5
Civil war? You mean the War Between the States?
#2
"...Senator Kennedy, the past exemplar of sober and judicious behavior in times of personal and national crisis..."
Ouch! I do believe the Senator's gonna need about 32 stitches for that one.
Posted by: Matt ||
04/08/2004 15:22 Comments ||
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#3
The botox died in fat Teddy's forehead. I rarely wish TF on anyone, but trust me he is likely to die of Terminal Flatulence.
BTW: I'm curious to see if this post brings up a google Ad for the TF Foundation. If you see an exploding toilet that's the one. Give till you can't give anymore.
EFL - from a Cuban perspective so be prepared to excercise the old gag relfex.
GENEVA, Switzerland, April 5.â Cuba was applauded today at the UN Human Rights Commission and shortly afterwards was obliged to publicly condemn the presence of terrorist Luis Zúñiga Rey on the U.S. delegation benches, affirmed PL. Cuban delegate MarÃa del Carmen Herrera was responsible for making the islandâs speech on issue 12 at the HRC, dedicated to womenâs rights and gender perspectives.
An analysis of the problems faced by women throughout the world won applause from many participants in the morning session of the meeting, a somewhat uncommon occurrence at this type of forum. As if further increase tension in the HRC, the Washington delegation section was once again occupied by Zúñiga Rey, an individual of Cuban origin whose criminal past was presented by Cuba to those chairing the event, as well as a request that he be withdrawn as a delegate.
Zúñiga Rey, linked to notorious terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, attempted to respond aggressively to the statement made by MarÃa del Carmen Herrera, who called for a point of order to reiterate that âadmitting that kind of person into the HRC is both shameful and indicative of a lack of decency and respect.â
When the request was denied by Australian Mike Smith, current HRC president, the diplomat left the hall at the Palais de Nations in Geneva. Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has left ...
Beforehand, Herrera had pointed out that poverty throughout the world has many faces, the majority of them being women, who constitute almost 70% of the nearly two billion people without resources and almost two thirds of the 876 million illiterates throughout the world. Herrera emphasized that whilst the world speaks of the âfeminization of poverty,â Cuba is able to speak of âthe feminization of rights,â given that âwomen make up 44.9% of the labor force in the civil state sector.â
She also referred to the difficult situation of a specific group of Cuban women - mothers, wives and daughters, namely the relatives of âthe five Cuban patriots unjustly imprisoned in the United Statesâ, whose only crime was to be âtrue heroes in the fight against terrorism.â She pointed out that some of those women were present at the meeting.
âThey are not only suffering on account of the unjust and arbitrary imprisonment imposed on their loved ones, but also because Washington has even denied them their legitimate right of visiting them in prison, an event that would at least provide them with the affection of a mother, wife or daughter,â she observed.
Touching, truly touching.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/08/2004 3:51:45 AM ||
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crap - at first I thought you were talking HRC as Hillary Rodham Clinton - thought I was having a nightmare
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/08/2004 8:16 Comments ||
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Being used to KCNA, this is pretty tepid.
And they call themselves Commies!
In spring 1993, an FBI informant uncovered an al Qaeda-linked plan to crash an airplane into the U.S. embassy in Cairo. In testimony little noted during a 1995 court case, FBI informant Emad Salem testified that a Sudanese national, Siddig Ibrahim Siddig Ali, asked him to assist a plot in which a Sudanese Air Force pilot would first bomb the home of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarek from his airplane then crash the plane into the American Embassy. ....
According to Salem, an informant integral to FBI efforts to crack a New York terror cell in 1993, Siddig Ali asked Salem to help the alleged pilot find "gaps in the air defense in Egypt so he can drive to bomb the presidential house, and then turn around, crash the plane into the American embassy after he eject himself out of the plane (...) ." ..... Terror cell member Abdo Mohammed Haggag testified that the alleged pilot received a fatwa from radical Egyptian Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman approving the operation as early as 1992.
The alleged pilot was not arrested or charged when the rest of Rahman-linked New York City cell was apprehended in June 1993, and itâs not clear whether the plot had any credible basis. .... Itâs not clear where the alleged pilot lives now, and itâs also unclear if the allegations made in court had any basis in fact. Defense lawyers during the trial claimed the supposed pilot was a U.S. cab driver and that the plot was fanciful. ....
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
04/08/2004 8:45:44 AM ||
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SEE? it WAS Bush's fault, why,....if Richard Clarke had been on the job at that time, why...., he'd have....uh...nevermind
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/08/2004 10:13 Comments ||
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Nah, that's gotta be wrong. None of this shit happened when Clinton was in charge. Everything was cake, ice cream, and blowjobs.
FROM JOSEPH FARAHâS G2 BULLETIN
Is bin Laden the âMahdiâ? (Or just a bastard terrorist?)
Some Muslim followers believe he is prophesied âawaited enlightened oneâ
September 8, 2003
U.S. military intelligence experts are studying a video clip of Osama bin Laden in which he stands before a dry-erase board with an Arabic phrase written upon it â "awaited enlightened one," reports Joseph Farahâs G2 Bulletin.
No one who has seen the video is quite certain of the meaning or the context. But, the Hadith, a collection of Islamic holy writings that supplement the Quran, predicts a messianic figure will arise in the last days of history. This "Mahdi," along with the "Prophet Jesus," will lead the believers to victory over the infidels.
Osama bin Laden
The video raises the question of whether bin Laden sees himself as this Mahdi or if he is expecting another to arise and lead. Either way, the addition of a dimension of Islamic prophecy to the global terror war may seriously complicate matters for planners in the West, G2 Bulletin reports.
According to G2 Bulletinâs military sources, some of the detainees currently held at Guantanamo Bay have told interrogators they joined bin Ladenâs al-Qaida offensive because they think he is the "awaited enlightened one." Others in military intelligence say some of the terrorists crossing the border into Iraq with al-Qaida ties are doing so because of their belief in this Islamic prophecy. Muslim believers â both Sunni and Shiite â expect the Mahdi to return one day to restore justice to the world. This messenger is not as great as Muhammad, but is a messianic figure found in all branches of Islam.
Interestingly, since the end of 2001, bin Laden has been signing his name "Osama bin Muhammad bin Laden," rather than just Osama bin Laden. This is significant, reports G2 Bulletin, because it gives the al-Qaida leader an apocalyptic dimension. The Hadith says the Mahdi will be recognizable, among other things, by the fact that he carries the name of the Prophet.
"Al Mahdi" is supposed to appear at a time when Muslim believers are severely oppressed in every corner of the world. He will fight the oppressors, unite the Muslims, bring peace and justice to the world, rule over the Arabs, and lead a prayer in Mecca at which Jesus will be present, according to some religious scholars who have studied the issue.
While some Islamic analysts have expected bin Laden to declare himself as "caliph," few have speculated about the possibility of the terrorist upping the ante. Operating as he does without a territorial base, bin Ladin could, some suggest, resort to claiming the most powerful title in Islam â the Mahdi.
The Mahdi is one of two positive prophetic figures who, according to Islamic teachings, will appear at the end of time â Prophet Jesus being the other. Together, these two will combat unbelievers and the forces of evil: the antichrist-like Dajjal, or "Deceiver"; the Dabbah, or "Beast"; and the murderous, rapacious hordes of Yajuj wa-Majuj, who appear earlier in the Bible as "Gog and Magog."
The description of the Mahdi that emerges from these Islamic sources can be summarized as follows, according to Dr. Timothy R. Furnish:
he will be descended from the Prophet via his daughter Fatima;
he will have the same name as the Prophet, and his fatherâs name will have been the same as the Prophetâs father;
he will have a distinct forehead and prominent nose;
he will be extremely generous and altruistic;
he will arise in Arabia and be compelled by popular acclamation in Mecca to lead the Muslims;
he will withstand attack by an army from Syria, which will be swallowed up by the desert;
he will fill the earth with justice and equity;
he will reign for five, seven or nine years, perhaps as co-ruler with Jesus (after which, an unspecified amount of time later, the last trumpet will sound and the final judgment will ensue).
If bin Ladin â or some other Islamist leader â were to declare himself the Mahdi, should that make a difference to U.S. policy-makers? "If the claim were believable to the Islamic world, then the U.S. could no longer claim to be fighting terrorism alone," writes Furnish. "Indeed, it would become a global religious conflict."
This article contains research originally published by Timothy R. Furnish, Ph.D, in Middle East Quarterly.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
04/08/2004 12:00:00 AM ||
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Come on. EVERYBODY knows that the Mahdi lives on the planet Dune. "The spice must flow . . ." Oh, never mind. Wrong blog.
#2
The word is the Mahdi is staying at The Ritz have a few drinks, while the brianwashed jihad boys are meeting 72...72 year old ladies :)
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
04/08/2004 1:07 Comments ||
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#3
Dr. Furnish, Phd: "If the claim [that OBL is the Mahdi]were believable to the Islamic world, then the U.S. could no longer claim to be fighting terrorism alone.... Indeed, it would become a global religious conflict."
Lord Kitchener: "One good way to disabuse the Islamic world of such an absurd delusion, is to find their "Mahdi" , cut off his nead, and throw his decapitated body into the nearest river-- worked for me!"
Seriously, folks, the best way to prove that some guy ain't the Mahdi is by giving him a good, public whupping. And seems to me we are well on our way to doing that to OBL-- if he isn't already a stain in some cave somewhere.
#4
...IIRC, this theory made an appearance of sorts not long after 911 - that supposedly, after OBL defeated us in Afghanistan, he was going to declare that he was the Mahdi. Of course, the way these folks think - and I wish this was a joke - there will be claims that OBL really IS the Mahdi...because he's vanished.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
04/08/2004 2:01 Comments ||
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#5
And here I thought that Lord Lawrence Olivier was the Mahdi! I mean his followers killed Charlton Heston, didn't they? No mean feat, methinks...
____________________
p.s. Quiz time: Was Chuck Heston more endangered by General Ursus or the Mahdi?
#6
I've long believed that rather than 9/11 being a high tech razzia (tribal raid), it was an attempt to provoke an eschatological event. In other words, OBL and the cult that surrounds him hoped to force Allah to intervene decisively in world affairs. The OBL cult felt that by attacking the US savagely, they would force us to use our weapons of last resort, nukes. And since Allah would never allow the destruction of the Ummah, he would intervene, and the End Times sequence would begin. Crazy? Yes. But then we are dealing with crazy people.
#7
I'd like to see the moongod stop a B-2 on it's way to turn mecca into a radioactive waste land. When the 'god' of the pedophile prophet doesn't stop the destruction of his holiest place, do you think the muslims will realize they worship a false god?
#9
11a5S -actually there is (or are said to be - ive never met one) a tiny group of Jews (VERY tiny, thank goodness) who beleive in the same logic. Their plan - destroy the mosques on the Temple Mount. This would lead to a global muslim war on Israel, with Israel lacking Western support. Since G-d would not allow the destruction of his people, he would be forced to intervene, and the end times would begin. This is called "forcing the end" and is generally considered heretical by normative beleivers.
#10
Thanks LH. I guess there's always been nuts like this loose in the world. I've read similar things about some Christian groups and then there is Aum Shinkyo (sp?) in Japan. However, until recently we didn't have A.Q. Khan selling nuke manufacturing equipment from catalogs. Nor did we have scientists synthesizing polio viruses from reagents in a lab. I think that I need to get drunk this weekend.
#11
11A5S-
Exactly what I'd heard, and when you add the OBL=Mahdi story, it makes you wonder what September 12th would have looked like if the President had turned the keys the morning of the 11th.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
04/08/2004 11:53 Comments ||
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#12
Ah yes, immanentizing the Eschaton again, are we? That trick NEVER works. Actually, there's some nutbag out there (shareintl.org) who's been claiming (via Benjamin Creme) to be the Mahdi for about 20 years now. One of them must be wrong.
#13
Mike: I honestly think that there were a lot of cells out there with their black flags ready to go on 9/12. What pity that we had to disappoint them [wolfish grin].
Xbalanke: You got at real honest guffaw out of me with that one. Not an Internet courtesy LOL, but the real thing.
Just rename the place PCU. In order to close a budget gap, San Francisco State U. is clising the engineering program while they keep the social engineering programs. AKA the Slow, Steady Decline of Western Civilization...
Social engineering 101
Debra Saunders (archive)
April 8, 2004
It doesnât reflect well on San Francisco State University that President Robert Corrigan has announced that he is considering axing the entire School of Engineering to close a budget gap. The university has no shortage of courses that appear short on academics and long on liberal brainwashing -- you know, courses in majors that prepare students for careers as low-paid malcontent activists. Yet Corrigan wants to kill a program that actually enables poor and minority Bay Area students to learn in-demand, high-level skills with which they can make good money.
What gives? Does Corrigan think that if he puts the screws to students who actually spend their days and nights studying, he wonât have to endure protests that would surely follow if he proposed cutting courses in majors in which the students already know everything and hence have the leisure time to engage in political protest? Yes, thatâs exactly why the Social Engineering courses will remain.
Or, as others in academe have suggested, is this proposal Corriganâs ham-handed way of suggesting the dumbest cut imaginable in order to scare some funding out of Sacramento? Yaaa! Ahhhnold must terminate Corrigan!
If so, Corrigan is only hurting his own institution. Word is that Gov. Schwarzeneggerâs team sent out the message to California college administrators that institutions willing to cut waste in these tight times would be rewarded. Corriganâs gambit sends the opposite message -- that some schools are willing to cut academic meat, while sparing junk-food scholarship.
Corriganâs idea for saving $2.5 million -- in the face of a $14 million gap -- and shortchanging 700 engineering students led me to the S.F. State Web site to take a look at some of the universityâs other classes -- the ones Corrigan apparently doesnât want to eliminate.
Hmmmm. Raza Studies. Recreational and Leisure Studies. Women Studies.
My fave: The Institute on Sexuality, Social Inequality and Health. Do you get to bang hot chicks? Oh, wait, this is San Francisco, sorry...
It makes you wonder if the guys in Engineering should rename their discipline. You know, make it the School of Engineering, Structural Inequality and Disparity Dynamics. Even better: the School of Social Engineering. Then maybe engineering wouldnât be expendable. Iâd pick up on that theme and embarass Corrigan. Whatâs the difference? You have little to lose, and eventually youâre out of there either way, might as well make a stand & piss off the PC Martyrâs Brigades.
Bill Nott, a vice president with the American Society for Mechanical Engineers, was disappointed to read in the San Francisco Chronicle that S.F. Stateâs School of Engineering might have a date with planned obsolescence. Itâs a tough break for students who are working long and hard to get ahead, said Nott. Or you could just say "Fuck âem, Iâm transferring to Cal Poly".
"Engineering is tough," he said. "Itâs a lot of math, a lot of science, and the problems are difficult. Itâs not one of those things where you can miss a course and get through it, and just expound back to the teachers what they want to hear." Nice dig!
Not expound back to teachers what they want to hear? No wonder Engineering may be doomed.
If they want to save their hallowed hall, the pocket protector set at the School of E should start writing course descriptions with more B.S. (and I donât mean bachelorâs of science) -- and less promise of "a practical education that emphasizes applications" or a "solid foundation in mathematics and sciences."
So the engineering profs need to dump words like: design, chemistry, physics, mechanics and projects (unless theyâre "group projects"). Replace those words with the scholarsâ siren songs -- "strategies," "addressing issues," interfacing with "stakeholders," "promoting change" and classes that put an "emphasis on personal experience." In academia, exercises are supposed to prompt students to "reflect" -- not, as happens in the School of Engineering, to "solve." Donât forget to "study the problems of thermodynamics from a black / Asian / transgendered perspective"!
Let professors with pens in their shirt pockets take a cue from the Urban Studies department. Henceforth, engineering course descriptions should promise to help students "identify crucial issues," to make the "electrical environment sustainable," to facilitate public transit and other "green" causes. Or ready graduate students to become effective citizens who can promote a balance between positive and negative forces in conflict in the global community.
Then, let the Department of Social Engineering end every course description with the magic words: "Special attention is given to social class, gender and ethnic diversity in the socially charged engineering environment."
I shouldnât make light of this, but even though I wasnât an engineer at the home of Marc Herold, I had tons of respect for them. This is disturbing on a number of levels, the main one being is that the Left is slowly but surely winning the culture war on campus. The only solution I see to fix this crap - abolish tenure, and go in with the ax swinging.
#2
no problem - plenty of other schools will pick up the slack. Pretty obviously the E school is low on the priority/funding/attention/pride list at STFU SFSU
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/08/2004 17:04 Comments ||
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#3
They may be on to something - given U.S. companies outsourcing engineering jobs to other countries, there's not a whole lot of demand for U.S. engineers. Many of the CS and EE's I've worked with are moving into other fields.
Posted by: A Jackson ||
04/08/2004 18:15 Comments ||
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#4
It makes you wonder if the guys in Engineering should rename their discipline. You know, make it the School of Engineering, Structural Inequality and Disparity Dynamics.
At the University of New South Wales, it's the Faculty of the Built Environment. It's the environment, see? Environment=good. Not engineering. Hey, there's one at Berkeley, too.
#5
This does sound like a typical govt. bureaucrats' response to the money tap being slowed.Threaten to close something important/popular unless you get all the funding you want.(For example,isn't it funny how the Interior Department can't find any fat to cut when budgets are tight-it always has to close the National Parks.)
Funniest example to me of bureaucratic hysteria exploding in their face occurred a few years ago in Tampa.The school district went crazy claiming it faced a shortage of 6000 teachers and it needed a ton of money immediately to fix problem-they discovered the shortage only a month before start of new school year.The shortage was blamed on low pay of teachers,that no one wanted to teach in Tampa because of low pay.Local papers were soon flooded w/accounts of applicants who were told the school district didn't need them.School officials then tried to claim applicants weren't qualified-that backfired when scores of part-time teachers said they wanted to work full-time,and experienced teachers from up North who'd moved South were all told they weren't wanted.
Posted by: Stephen ||
04/08/2004 19:17 Comments ||
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#6
"Revolutionary Engineering" - the integration of the School of Engineering with College ROTC. THAT will put them in their place! 8^)
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/08/2004 19:55 Comments ||
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#1
"But the UN is supposed to represent a global will, a moral purpose beyond crude hard-power calculations: instead, born in the wake of one genocide, it sat by and idly watched another unfold, so serenely complacent it couldnât even rouse itself to jam the state radio station, through which the ruling thugs urged their teenage hackers on in public service messages pointing out âthe graves are not yet fullâ. So the killing continued, until some 800,000 were dead."
If the League of natons had succeeded, which it didn't, There would have been no holocaust of 12 million Jews, Gypsies, Poles, Slaves; because, if the League of natios had succeeded, which it didn't, Hitler would have been pre-emptively deposed from power even before Deutschland had invaded and siezed the Saar in 1936, because removal of the Nazi regime from power would have been predicated on the surrender agreements Germany signed forbiding them from the production of WMDs, the old fashioned kind. And enfored with extreme consequenses following his violation of the surrender and subsequent (unenforced) resolutions passed by the ineffectual failure that is, and was, the "League of Nations.
Just curious if any of yinz (Pittsburghese for "yâall") have seen this documentary of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and what you thought of it.
Posted by: Dar ||
04/08/2004 1:20:24 PM ||
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#1
I saw it. Considering it was done by a pro Israel group, it was remarkedly done. The sad thing is that I saw very little which hasn't been on various blogs. The group I saw it with were amazed seeing the Pal education system and how they bend the minds of the kids (in violation of the Oslo agreement). They also showed clips of Arafat in English and then translated Arabic. Of course it was diametrically opposite.
What was disappointing was that I saw it with a Jewish group who were learning some of this stuff for the first time. Where have they been. And this is a group you would think was aware of what is going on over there. If this group was as uninformed as they were, what about the rest of our public?
EFL
Human rights activists are calling the worldâs attention to bloodshed in western Sudan, where the government is accused of resorting to murder and rape of thousands of civilians in a campaign to put down a rebellion. Sudanâs government has limited aid groupsâ and journalistsâ access to Darfur, where local tribes have been in revolt since early 2003. Much of the information on the violence comes from Sudanese refugees in neighboring Chad. "The government strategy of closing this off and trying to make it invisible, so far, is working," said Leslie Lefkow, who recently traveled to Chad to study the situation in Sudan for Human Rights Watch. "You donât have the photographs of the dead children and women who have been gang raped. That I think would spur more attention."
he said, as the world yawned.
Jan Egeland, U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, has said Arab militia groups, reportedly with government backing, are engaged in "ethnic cleansing, but not genocide" against Africans in Darfur. Egeland called the situation "one of the most forgotten and neglected humanitarian crises."
My guess is that the corpses think of it as genocide, but then maybe there aren't enough of them...
Sudanese government officials, Lefkow said in an interview, seem to think they can act with impunity in Darfur because the worldâs attention is focused elsewhere, including an unrelated and longer-standing rebellion in southern Sudan. "I hope that we can prove them wrong," she said.
Betcha don't, though.
State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said Tuesday the United States has dispatched personnel to western Sudan to facilitate humanitarian aid deliveries and promote settlement discussions between the government and Sudanese rebels. "if we keep the discussions going long enough, we can wipe em ALL out"
A pro-government human rights activist dismissed a Human Rights Watch report last month that laid much of the blame on the government as "mere falsifications and lies compiled by intelligence hirelings." and they should know better than most. after all, Sudan is on the UNâs Human Rights Committee! REALLY!
The Human Rights Watch report said indiscriminate bombing, raids by the independent ethnic Arab militia and the army against mainly African villages and denial of humanitarian aid amount to "a strategy of ethnic-based murder, rape and forcible displacement of civilians in Darfur." Lefkow, who helped prepare the report, says thousands have died. U.N. figures say 750,000 people have been displaced inside Sudan and tens of thousands have fled into Chad. So hereâs a story about ruthlessness and evil being perpetrated on muslims BY muslims. The victims suffer 10 times worse than palestinians. Further, atrocities like these ABSOLUTELY permeate the muslim world. Yet it is Israel who is vilified for its, by comparison, tame treatment of palestinians in its attempts to protect its citizens from terror.
furthermore, I suspect this will get VERY little media attention.
#1
Human rights activists are calling the worldâs attention to bloodshed in western Sudan
Hmmm... us "evil conservatives" have been screaming about this for years. Why the sudden attention from the "human rights" industry?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/08/2004 13:03 Comments ||
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RC, I'm sure we'll find that HRW has been on the case as you have been. Before 9-11 I remember hearing that there was still slavery in Africa and that there was an Aspirin factory of interest in the Sudan, but I had written off all-things African after we turned tail in Somalia. OBL got my attention focused on the back alleys of the world and my focus has continued. Others have returned to Reality YV, but the remains a higher percentage of engaged citizens in the US that American media has begun to target. World News is still not front-and-center, but happenings abroad are no longer totally buried. Lets call it progress.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/08/2004 13:31 Comments ||
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Okay, we got a target for him. And I think in all fairness, given our lack of response in 1994, that we ought to help transport the Rwandan troops to Darfur. Maybe provide some air cover and heavy weapons as well. Perhaps some advisors? Some special ops guys to train the Rwandans?
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/08/2004 14:24 Comments ||
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#4
Jan Egeland, U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, has said Arab militia groups, reportedly with government backing, are engaged in "ethnic cleansing, but not genocide" against Africans in Darfur.
As the UN ups its legendary global credibility quotient another notch.
In the: "We broke it you pay for the repairs catagory". EFL&sanity
JERUSALEM â The Palestinians expect a large aid package from the United States Expect? Begging for is a much better description and other donor countries to help rebuild the Gaza Strip after an Israeli withdrawal, the Palestinian foreign minister said Thursday. snip
The two sides are nowhere near a deal which would require major concessions, including agreement by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to give up some of his power Yeah Right and an implicit recognition of Israel by Hamas I repeat: YEAH RIGHT! (only louder).The Islamic militant group, which has killed more than 300 Israelis in attacks since 2000, seeks Israelâs destruction.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said he expects to withdraw from Gaza in the coming year. As part of Sharonâs unilateral "disengagement," Israel would also impose a boundary in the West Bank, at least temporarily. snip
The Palestinians fear Sharon is giving up Gaza in order to tighten his hold on much of the West Bank Now why on earth would Sharon want to do that?. However, they also said they welcome any withdrawal.
Shaath said the Palestinians will demand DEMAND? Now thereâs a case of misplaced selfconfidence for ya. that the United States do "nothing that will pre-empt a permanent settlement, neither on borders nor refugees or anything."
In the event of a Gaza withdrawal, "the Americans should be ready with the World Bank and other donors to make massive economic support for the Palestinian Authority," Shaath whined said in interview with Israel Radio. He did not give a sum.
The Palestinians, already heavily dependent on international aid, are hoping for more money to help rebuild an economy shattered in more than three years of fighting with Israel.
Shaath said the funds were needed for "relief, reconstruction, economic activities, labor and job creation, and others."
Shaath was quoted as saying he is aware of American expectations that in return for the aid, the Palestinians crack down on militant groups and arrest those behind the bombing of an U.S. convoy in Gaza in OctoberAmong other things.
In other developments Thursday, the Israeli military said 27 wanted Palestinians were arrested in overnight raids across the West BankGood score. Palestinian officials said two of those arrested were female students from the Al Quds university in Nablus. Final snip
Posted by: Evert Visser in NL ||
04/08/2004 10:46:29 AM ||
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and you thought Chutzpah was only a yiddish word....
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/08/2004 10:50 Comments ||
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I rather suspect the only recognition Hamas will get from the Israelis is the lock-on tone from the target acquisition system.
As for the Paleos, maybe we could send them shovels so they can dig themselves even deeper into their self-created hole.
#5
I tried to post this wth comments a couple of hours ago and hit some bug. The substance of my comments was that is more phantasy nonsense where the Paleos actually believe they deserve a few more billion dollars to squander. We don't have oil but we are Arabs and therefore people should give us large amount of money. Islam is a cargo cult,
Posted by: Phil B ||
04/08/2004 11:56 Comments ||
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#8
It's not Chutzpah, but Jizya. And they do expect the infidels to pay them.
Posted by: ed ||
04/08/2004 13:49 Comments ||
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#9
Rewrite this classic in Paleo terms...
"If a man once indulges himself in murder,
very soon he comes to think little of robbing;
and from robbing he next comes to drinking
and sabbath-breaking, and from that to
incivility and procrastination.
-Thomas DeQuincy"
#10
Actually, they probably expect the EU and the Arab states to pay. Both of these groups have been shelling out for years and are pretty tired of it.
#11
Wow. Like the Shia in Iraq recently, they don't see any inconsistency in trashing/attacking the US while holding their hand out and demanding US cash. Clearly, some parts of their brains are not communicating with others. I think it is fair to call this CRAZY. Not much hope for them until they achieve some degree of sanity.
#12
Let Arafat pay them -- he has stolen enough money from them that he owes them big time. Or let Egypt pay them -- that would be neighborly, brotherly, and a fine act of Muslim charity. But not one damned dime from me!
Posted by: Tom ||
04/08/2004 14:04 Comments ||
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#13
First the PA establishes accountability. That will be a huge job, given their history.
Then they will have to present a plan, with milestones.
Then we will review the plan, put in our comments, and send them back our recommendations.
If we decide to fund, they will first have to implement. We review, and if progress is made, then we reimburse them, after an audit is done on their operations.
Then we go to the next step in the PLAN.
Before we give even one thin dime in reimbursement, the PA will have to change their overall philosophy.
That is a big, hairy step for the PA. They can do it or they can FOAD. Like Fred sez, "it's no skin off my fore." They can rant and rave, lie and cheat, but WE are the bank and it is our money. So we can do what we want. Laying guilt trips may work on the Dems but it is getting old and ineffective now, in a post 9-11 world, olde chap.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/08/2004 14:07 Comments ||
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I think they should address their fundraising letters to Paris, attn: Suha.
#18
These morons had better clean out Arafat's bank account of all those millions he stole before coming to the world community for a handout. Not a single penny should be forthcoming until they have done this.
Posted by: tipper ||
04/08/2004 9:41:10 AM ||
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What a proud man Mr Kerry must be. I can't even believe that people believe this man should be our next president. Just more fodder for my own campaign to get the word out agianst this traitor to his country.
Posted by: Bill Nelson ||
04/08/2004 9:58 Comments ||
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Bill, unfortunately little of this will be reported in the 'media' :^((. They are to busy finding people who did not see Bush in Alabama to report this.
What I found new was this particular snippet of timeline:
Late May or early June, 1970 -- John and Julia Kerry travel to Paris on a private trip. Kerry meets with Madam Win Thi Binh, the Foreign Minister of the Provisional Revolutionary Government of Vietnam (PRG) -- the political wing of the Vietcong -- and with representatives of Hanoi who were in Paris for the peace talks.
June, 1970 -- Kerry joins Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
Also note that the 'Winter Soldier Investigation' has been proven to have been a fraud. People who testified had never been to Vietnam or were imposters of people who had been.
#4
You can lie about John Kerry all you like but the facts are he served our country in VietNam while Bush was AWOL and supposedly working for some GOP hack in Alabama
Posted by: Not Mike Moore ||
04/09/2004 1:27 Comments ||
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NMM, what specifically about .com, Bill or CF's statements are you saying are lies? Without specific identification of what you are calling fallacious, its impossible to judge the validity of what you're saying.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/09/2004 4:54 Comments ||
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#4
"Join the Air Force. Almost like being in the Military."
Posted by: Homer ||
04/08/2004 9:27 Comments ||
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#5
US Air Force Academy: "Keep it in your pants"
Posted by: Steve ||
04/08/2004 9:36 Comments ||
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#6
Okay you guys - watch it. The AF Space Cadets are watching you - yes, I mean YOU, buddy, through your living room window.
I say, free the Space Force from the jet jockeys. But then, I'm prejudiced since that's where my best guy played for a good while.
Since only a few can play in space, the rest of y'all can continue to play in the sand and in the air. We'll help you figure out where you are, hit the targets and communicate with the rest of the troops.
Don't have a good slogan for the USAF academy, but I really really want Marvin the Martian as the Space Force mascot. [smile]
#7
Soar to Great Heights
The Sky's the Limit
Aim for the Sky
Aim to Fly High
Achieve great heights
Lead from Above
Look Down on the little people below
Posted by: B ||
04/08/2004 10:41 Comments ||
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Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
04/08/2004 11:33 Comments ||
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#10
As a former cadet whose read the entire poem from which that original line is taken, I don't want the slogan changed at all. Screw the PC attitude that demands it be changed, and tell the weenies to shove it. If the ladies can't understand the meaning behind the slogan after they've read the poem, they don't deserve to be there.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/08/2004 11:40 Comments ||
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Some of them are good, obviously written tongue in cheek. My favorite mocks the jargon they always seem to include in these "slogans":
"Journey Future Conquering the Challenges and Maximizing My Fullest Potential on âDestiny Wayâ"
Posted by: Carl in N.H ||
04/08/2004 12:07 Comments ||
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Good one Jarhead! Just because we stay in hotels, eat with utensils, take showers daily, and are fine looking male specimens does not mean we are not in the military. We are the younger service and need a more nurturing environment in which to work. I am with you OP, screw the PC crowd and keep the slogan. P.S. I like the Marvin suggestion, but I think Space Command has it as an âunofficialâ mascot.
#14
Sarge> yes, you are some sexy beasts, and I much prefer getting on a starlifter then a ship! However, you forgot about satellite t.v., treadmill machines hooked up to mep-16 generators in air controlled tents when it's too hot to run outside.........
#15
Cyber Sarge, I remember the big fights about the Strategic Defense Initiative Office / Org ... between those who wanted to form a 5th, "space force", and those who fought it tooth and nail.
Space Command is okay, but those of us who remember the blue cube when it was all still Space Division know what we couldv'e done with those space-based lasers and smart rocks if we'd been allowed. ;-)
-- (signed) survivor of 2 complete Presidential Budget cycles LOL
#16
I'll never forget how pissed off my fellow Airmen were at the chow in the "dining hall". One husky NCO stands out more than others. "How many ways can you name roast beef, Monday it's roast beef, tuesday it's Yankee potroast, wednesday it's Beef'n'gravey". I always thought it was great. Like a smorgasborg. Piss'n and moan'n.
#22
Luck, vegetables and new furniture?! You gotta be F*ckin' sh*tt'n me. Also, what is this chicken you speak of? I've had stew 52 different ways without meat and the gristle special but this chicken thing I am not familiar with........
#23
I spent one night in an Air Force "stockade" - the infraction won't be disclosed, heh, let's just say I made Spec-4 twice. I was enroute to the Mean Green's stockade... I hadn't eaten that well in the previous year, nor did I in the subsequent year. The AF facility was purty! Lol - now.
#25
Here's a link to the poem by Samuel Taylor Foss.
http://www.people-places.com/usafa/bmm.htm
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/08/2004 13:39 Comments ||
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#26
Air Force: Delivering Explosives Worldwide, 24/7, since 1947.
Posted by: Mike ||
04/08/2004 13:39 Comments ||
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#27
Jarhead: Yeah, yeah. It's worse than that - my last 6 mos I spent on swings, sitting in an air-conditioned computer vault that *I* controlled access to, then had the days to sit on the beach and ogle purty girls. !
Yup, no doubt about it - Hawaii was a tough assignment. But hey, somebody's gotta do it...
#28
What if the payed ELO for the rights to the song Don't Bring Me Down. :-)
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/08/2004 14:23 Comments ||
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#29
"Join the Air Force, and see North Dakota."
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
04/08/2004 14:27 Comments ||
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#30
I hate to break this to you Jarhead. One time I was involved in directing combat ops, awarded medals, and I never left the continental U.S. I had to work 12-hour night shifts but I slept in my own bed during the day, had dinner with the family, went to school, and coached little league. All this and went to war at night! No tents, no remote, and (except for the traffic) no danger. God I loved the Air Force!
#36
REMF, POGUE or whatever anyone wants to call it now, all the folks need to have their sh*t wired tight; baby Jessica found that out the hard way. Instead of being an organization of MOS's - all branches of service need to indoctrinate a warrior mind set w/an expeditionary attitude. Just my opinion.
#37
all branches of service need to indoctrinate a warrior mind set w/an expeditionary attitude
Jarhead, I couldn't agree more! I spent 11 days "up-country" in Nam working with the Army on a classified project, part of Dewey Canyon II. The nature of the mission required us to work nights, and we usually tried to sleep during the day - the opposite of most of the activity where we were. Things went to bloody he$$, and we were handed rifles and sent to the perimeter to fight, ready or not. Luckily, I'm an old Louisiana farm boy, squirrel & rabbit hunter, and acquainted with firearms - a couple of the other AF people with us hadn't used a rifle since basic.
Modern warfare has erased the concept of "front line/rear area" - everything is part of the "combat zone" now, even the CONUS. All of us, even those of us who have done our duty and are now "retired" are front-line soldiers in a new type of warfare, whether we admit (or accept) it or not. Since that's the situation, we need to act accordingly. I think I'll petition for my M-16, M204 and 1500 rounds of ammo tomorrow...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/08/2004 20:07 Comments ||
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#38
Meanwhile, getting back on topic...A Slogan for the Air Force:
Load 'em up heavy
Fuel 'em up light
Send 'em out
In the middle of the night
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/08/2004 20:12 Comments ||
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#39
Hey! I thought of a really good one. No serious. I LIKE it! Short, sweet and I'm wondering if I actually heard it somewhere before.
FORCE YOUR DREAMS HIGHER
oh wait...maybe it was .... find the force within...or....oh forget it...those 3AM things never sound as good after breakfast.
A delegation of Afghan Muslim clerics met with Afghan Transitional Administration Chairman Hamid Karzai on 5 April and requested curbs on "moral corruption," Peshawar-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported.
Why be a mullah if you can't tell people what to do?
The delegation, numbering about 60 clerics and headed by Supreme Court Chief Justice Mawlawi Fazl Hadi Shinwari, presented Karzai with a resolution from Afghanistanâs Council of Clerics, an influential group of religious scholars and clerics.
That's why they call it a Council of Clerics, rather than something else...
An unidentified source told AIP that Karzai gave the delegation his full assurance that their concerns will be addressed. In March, the Council of Clerics issued a resolution condemning having a few cold ones the consumption of alcohol, hookers prostitution, and having a senzayuma remarks critical of Islam in the press. It has also demanded that the Afghan leader address these issues. It was unclear from the report whether the delegation delivered the same resolution to Karzai or a different one.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
04/08/2004 8:50:22 AM ||
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Posted by: Dar ||
04/08/2004 9:45 Comments ||
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In Massachusetts they would "send this to committee for study"... and you would never hear about it again.
Especially with the convention coming in.
The Israeli government claimed last night that Tony Blair telephoned the Israeli leader, Ariel Sharon, to support his planned withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territories.
Either he did or he didn't. Tony?
This would amount to a turnaround in British Middle East policy, which until now has opposed unilateral withdrawal and remained committed to the idea of a peace settlement negotiated between Israel and the Palestinians. When Mr Sharon last December announced his plan for a unilateral withdrawal, the Foreign Office expressed hostility, seeing it as a potential source of continued instability in the region.
Downing Street and the Foreign Office were yesterday caught on the hop by the Israeli account of the conversation with the British prime minister. Number 10 was last night reluctant to get into a tit-for-tat argument with the Israeli government over what Mr Blair regarded as a confidential discussion. A Downing Street spokesman said: "They spoke today and discussed the latest developments in Israel and the occupied territories. We are not commenting on the detail of what was discussed in the prime minister's confidential phone call."
He added: "But we would welcome Israel's disengagement from the occupied territories subject to seeing the final detail of any proposals, and provided it is consistent with the [US-sponsored] road kill map and would help provide a lasting two-state solution."
A statement issued by Mr Sharon's office said: "British prime minister Blair called to voice his support for the disengagement plan and his appreciation for the step Israel is taking. Blair added that he intends to work toward enlisting support for the plan among the international community."
Umm, those two statements aren't consistent.
Mr Blair has made a close relationship with Mr Bush a central part of Britain's foreign policy. But, until now, Britain's prime minister has had a different approach on the Israel-Palestinian conflict, arguing that its resolution is one of the most important global issues. Mr Bush, by contrast, has been reluctant to engage.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/08/2004 12:14:38 AM ||
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#1
Tony is coming to visit this weekend.
However, is it me or can't the Israelis keep their mouths shut for a few days???
Something also happened recently w/Syria, didn't it?
#2
IMHO the Israeli statement was meant to make Blair take taht position publicly, or back off of it. There comes a time when you stand by your friends and allies (in principle if not name) or you don't. See for example: Turkey
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/08/2004 11:52 Comments ||
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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.
