If it's not one thing, it's another. Yesterday's DOS, dragging into today, should be fixed, until technoboy (I have my suspicions: identical search strings, IP addresses all over the place) manages to find another way to peg the CPU. The search page is currently disabled and I'll probably have to shut down Thugburg and the Orgs page for awhile.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/12/2004 11:36:59 AM ||
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#1
Is the DOS attack responsible for the huge number of people online? I've been seeing numbers like 1505 and 1643 last night and this morning, where I'd normally expect around 200. I was wondering if there's a way to make use of this data for recognizing an attack and applying defensive measures...just curious.
#3
DOS attack against Rantburg. Huge number of Barely Literate Defenders of Islam(tm) at jihadwatch. Trolls crawling all over Tim Blair's site.
Sounds like Islam had a bad day yesterday and are doing their best to keep people from knowing it.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/12/2004 11:52 Comments ||
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#4
I think it was a definite DOS attack. But we can handle a couple thousand people online at a time. We can't handle all of them doing terrible things to the database at once.
Now I can spend another week or two programming...
Posted by: Fred ||
05/12/2004 12:00 Comments ||
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#6
Since the DOS attacks started when the Nick Berg beheading became news, copy yesterdays posts about Nick to today. I also urge readers to look at yesterday's posts to see what stuck such a burr up the Islamists @$$es.
Posted by: ed ||
05/12/2004 12:15 Comments ||
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#7
Two things: First, I submitted a link to "Page 2" yesterday, but it seems to have gone into the memory hole. Second, I guess this pretty much kiboshes my suggestion that search be opened up to the comments.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
05/12/2004 12:34 Comments ||
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#8
Fred, lemme help...
If you have access, gimme your IP logs, let me sort them out nice and neat into a database. I will mail the analysis back to you.
#9
Fred -
badanov seems to be making the same suggestion I did in my EMail, and seems to have the facilities to help. You gotta analyze the IPs, then research in arin.net to further complete your detective work.
#10
It will take me four days tops for an analysis of ALL the ips rehardless of the size of the IP logs. (unless they logs files are in the gigabytes, then I will have to make more room.)
I do this for my home website and I can do this for you.
#11
Fred, also, I can setup an immediate, readonly mirror to rantburg on my home web server. Can get it up to refresh every ten mins. Its not pretty, but with a little editing the script can make a mirror look just like your site.
#12
Badanov, it wouldn't take much in terms of wrapping a script around the "wget" command to set up a regularly upgraded mirror, although you'd need to do work to figure out how to keep the mirror daemon from becoming part of the problem during a DDOS attack; maybe have it cued from the main server when the load drops below a certain point?
You'd probably also want some sort of limit into how deep the recursive-web-suck goes, because of server load problems. Again, wget could handle translation of url's so that hitting "browse" would bring up your copy of most recent comments page.
I do not know how to get it to only translate some url's so that comment form requests go back to the original page; that would require that it be selective.
(Hmm. If Fred changed things so that there was a "rantburg-master.com" domain name that mapped to the same machine as rantburg.com, and used that for the url for the comments form, but rantburg.com for everything else, that would let the whole page be mapped across different servers.
There could be rantburg-1.com in Alaska, rantburg-2.com in Houston (or wherever), and rantburg-3.com somewhere else, all mirroring rantburg.com (with url translation), but you'd need to use rantburg-master.com (which would map to the same machine as rantburg.com) in order to post a story, a link, or a comment.
Or just have a rantburg.com that's the mirror, or a collection of mirrors, served round-robin, and a rantburg-master.com that can only be accessed from the mirrors plus a preapproved list of IP addresses.
With luck, this could be set up to use commodity hardware... imagine using $ 100.00 surplus linux boxen for the mirrors, which are just dishing out static content, and use an expensive windows box to drive the main engine.
Is any of this making sense?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
05/12/2004 15:45 Comments ||
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#13
11A5S says: "Time to hit the tip jar."
I'll second that. Consider it done.
Give what you can, Rantburgers - we need to keep this news source on line, and support Fred as he does it.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/12/2004 16:04 Comments ||
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#14
Is any of this making sense?
You lost me at Badanov.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/12/2004 16:20 Comments ||
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#15
I've got Apache 2 on the server. I've been thinking (ow! my head!) in terms of rewriting the whole site in PHP as a "backup." That way, articles will be going to the same database, and searches (when I turn them back on) will still work, though internal links wouldn't work. Problems on IIS would be handled by turning it off, without losing site availability. I could handle the switchover fairly transparently by just switching the port assignments on the two servers. Only problem would come if there was a database crash, but with MySQL that's pretty to fix.
I think that makes sense...
Posted by: Fred ||
05/12/2004 16:32 Comments ||
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#16
Well, I thought that my suggestion would be helpful in that it wouldn't involve reprogramming the whole mess, but just changing three sets of url's (post a comment, post an article, post a link) to point to (for instance) master.rantburg.com, and having a router redirecting requests to "rantburg.com" to journeyman1.rantburg.com, journeyman2.rantburg.com, et cetera... it could be done without massive changes to the code base, and would let you start sharing part of the load right away to donated-ware like the sun server someone mentioned earlier.
(On reflection, I think the master.rantburg.com and journeyman-x.rantburg.com domain name thing would work better than my previous scheme; it wouldn't require buying any new domain names.)
If the windows version you're using has long filenames and a variant of the "wget" command, it could do it instead.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
05/12/2004 16:50 Comments ||
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#17
Phil, just a simple GET, grabs all the comments and all the articles including the highlighting. The value of this is that even if a prick does try an attack, the mirror page will back up all fat and happy, smiling at the little brigand(s) the whole time.
Of course, no one will be able to comment on the mirror, but at least the files and the comments that do get through will be posted. In fact I can do a minimal mirror as a demo to show you all, and I can replicate it on my home server as well as rkka.
I will do that in the next few hours and post the link. I will bring it down at Fred's request, as it is only a demo.
Oh, and Fred: I use PostgreSQL db in my family's business, so if you do rewrite it all in php I can definitely setup a true mirror on my home server and on rkka. RKKA uses mysql, so it will be easy. Aaron uses the mysql on rkka for his mirror.
#18
Well, Badanov, the specific command syntax I was thinking of was:
wget --restrict-file-names=unix -E -r -l 2 -k -K
This should get everything on page 1, page 2, yesterday's page 1, and nothing more.
(Note that setting l to zero basically disables it, and sucks the whole rantburg database down. As Egon says, "that would be bad." If the load ever drops I'll ask Fred if I could do the experiment as stress testing, but given the current situation I think I'll just procrastinate for now.)
If your "get" command isn't doing translation or a recursive download of at least a couple layers deep then it'll probably be going to the server when the user clicks on "browse," if that's what he has to do to read comments, or it'll have gaps in its coverage.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
05/12/2004 19:28 Comments ||
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#19
Uh, forget what I just said.
It starts grabbing more than it should because of the links off to the side, of the two weeks of the war on terror. It starts getting the whole pages for those days... and I killed the process before it got around to doing the translation of the links. I'm going to try l=1 and hopefully that'll keep everything in check.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
05/12/2004 19:40 Comments ||
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#20
Phil, wget or raw GET the output will have to be filtered through a perl script to replace the recursive references to the get request with the real references back to rantburg.
The trick will be the regex routine that will do the substitutions. If I dont figure it out in the next coupla hours, I will be forced to use sed and gawk :oD
As you can see, it isn't pretty, but it gets the job done.
#21
I have done further reading of the man page for wget, and I found an option that will limit the amount of bandwidth it uses as it downloads, which would be useful to keep from melting the server.
I think I'll set it to dialup speeds for now.
(Note: the option doesn't work on small files, but on larger ones instead.)
There's also an option that will keep from downloading files that haven't changed, but in order for that to work the web server has to allow timestamps in the header, which according to the last run rantburg currently doesn't have on everything, probably because they're dynamic content ASP pages. (doh!)
I can also tell it to ignore url's that match the wildcard *comment*.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
05/12/2004 19:59 Comments ||
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#22
Phil, it makes much more sense and far simpler just to tell GET to grab the current page, filter it though a script that either refers to a local page to tell the user the mirror is read only, OR have the script rewrite the output to change the recursive elements back to rantburg.com.
Recursive elemnts I refer to are where standard output rewrites the rantburg references to the local server. I want to filter that output to write the file as it is reading the page with the corrected URLs or a local page reminding ther user, the page is readonly, and that they will have to go to rantburg to post any comments.
You are probablyt aware regex in any *n*x product often behaves funny sometimes. It may take awhile before I get it up to a decent mirror.
#23
Badonov, I just finally got a successful 1-level grab, and will try to get a 2-level now. Wget did the translation correctly, going to the local directory for files that were local, but connecting to rantburg.com if you wanted to make your own comment.
(The last iteration of the command I did was:
" wget --restrict-file-names=unix -E -r -l 1 -k -K -N --limit-rate=10k -L --reject *comment* http://rantburg.com"). I'm going to try -l 2 now, since it seems to work and everything doesn't melt, and I'm not downloading the comments links. With this, hopefully, you won't have to write the perl script.
Let me see if there's a place I can put it up to show you, or maybe send you the tarfile of the resulting directory tree if you want.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
05/12/2004 20:22 Comments ||
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#24
And, as another memo-to-self... you probably want to exclude files that match *jmailer* .
Fred, if you're still reading this and not bored to tears yet, is it viable to slip in some sort of timestamp header into the asp server, so that mirroring software would only be fetching changed pages?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
05/12/2004 20:45 Comments ||
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#28
Holy smokes badanov, that's good! Fred, can we keep it??
Posted by: Rafael ||
05/12/2004 21:33 Comments ||
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#29
OK, after yet further reading and experimenting (going slowly, because I'm limiting the runs to data rates of about 10k to keep from melting the main server), I'm excluding *rchive*,*Mailer*,*comment.asp*, and running with the noclobber option. If I don't, it starts downloading a *whole bunch* of stuff OVER AND OVER AGAIN. (Which is also why you probably want to do -k and -K). You definately don't want to do l=inf; I don't know why that isn't blowing up on you.
And now I have to get back to my other projects.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
05/12/2004 21:42 Comments ||
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#30
I ruled out the -l option early on.
The -K option affects backup and from the purpose of a simple mirror, I rely on Fred for backups.
I will watch it and make sure it doesn't blow up on me, but it seems to be pretty stable at this point.
And if the server itself blows up, well, I guess I will have to pony up a few bucks for a new penitum 1 server. I am pretty sure the critical component, the hard drive, will survive.
Anyways, thanks so much for your help. Phil. I learned something today. You are awesome, and I appreciate the lesson.
Funny how a fifty year old can still learn things.
#31
Oh, and yet another final note... I can't tell for sure, but it seems that the rantburg database refers to the same date in different server directive formats, which gets downloaded as two different files.
In the version of wget I'm using, -m implies -l inf. It might not on yours. I'm wondering if you could mail me the man page for your version. The version on my machine is gnu wget 1.9.1.
And I suggest holding off on putting it on any cron jobs until we're sure it's safe.
And I just found another big bug... I'm afraid we're going to have to shelf this experiment.
On second thought, maybe we should just put this off until the weekend, when I'll have time to mess with it?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
05/12/2004 22:06 Comments ||
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#32
No good.
I am traveling to Florida to see my daughter graduate from high school. I will be gone for several days I do have remote access to the server though and I can keep an eye on it when I am away.
So far, the cron job isn't doing anything funny I can tell. The resulting outfile is pretty big already but that can be fixed by killing the process, deleting the file, at a low activity time for the server.
#33
and I just saw Badanov's last message; I should have pointed out, I didn't mean to use --limit-rate to keep from blowing up your server. I meant it to be used to keep from blowing up Fred's server.
It also gives you time to stop things if it starts downloading the previous year.
I'm learning this as I go along myself, so don't be too impressed with me.
And what I'm watching with the last attempt is that it's downloading the same article multiple times under different id's (with or without the date, or with the date in different format, plus the article ID in itself, which is a 5-digit number.
It looks like Fred was originally right, and that a proper mirror would have to involve an understanding of the database.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
05/12/2004 22:32 Comments ||
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#34
If you need help, Linux, Apache, PHP, Perl and MySQL is how I am making spending cash (living comes from trips to the mailbox for money from my old employer and uncle).
#35
well if it becomes a problem I can stop mirroring, but the way I understand wget, the only thing it does is to get all the data in a website at the moment it was scanned and nothing more.
Which to me means, that even if Fred's mysql db does fail, the only effect for any mirrors should be new content will be delayed, as the db hasn't displayed it yet.
If you think this may blow up on my on Fred's end I will take the whole works down now.
But I am pretty sure that were Fred to suffer another DOS attack the mirror(s) will only display the last update, and will not be affected by any other processes on his server.
I will wait until after I get back from FLA to do this on the more critical rkka site, but I am pretty confidence the only issue on my end will be how large the index page gets over a 24 hour eriod.
#36
As long as it's not getting more than one level it shouldn't be blowing up and should be safe. I can't get runs of wget with l <> 1 to complete in a reasonable time.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
05/12/2004 22:46 Comments ||
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#37
Phil, forget the -l switch. I think that only affects true htm pages, not asp setups like Fred's.
The -m option, according to the man page (btw I am running RH 7.3 wget 1.8.1) overrides several older options available, and it appears as long as the output is directed to a single file with no backups, it just appends and keeps going.
Actually, if an oversized dump file is the only thing I have to worry about, I am pretty excited about getting a second mirror going on rkka.
#40
No, when you access my mirror you are in a copy of rantburg between 0 and ten minutes old. You can browse pages, and reply to comments, and your replies will be directed to rantburg's pages, as the db rests with Fred's site.
The reasoning behind having a mirror of a single site is Fred's site, in the event of an attack is that there will be something of the site up and ready.
Of course, rantburgers in the know will have to be aware of mirrors to be able to continue reading what does get though, and posting will be slow, but the mirrors can also take up the slack in such times.
My little server probably won't be able to handle much traffic, but it will handle some of it.
When I get back from my trip I will make a new mirror on my rkka site. One or two more mirrors and rantburg is hardened from DOS attacks.
#1
Oh right. the Right had the Terrorists Kill Nick because his father is associated with ANSWER....
The problem is that ANSWER probably has direct ties with the terrorist organizations while Conservative wouldn't have anything to do with the terrorists (except kill them of course...).
The media might run with this. After all the swallowed Hillary's "Right Wing Conspiricy' without blinking an eye....
#2
That website is just as kooky in its own way as the Freepes are.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/12/2004 22:48 Comments ||
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So, outing Nick's dad as a terror-tool somehow gets the terrorists to kill Nick?
In the demented world of DUpistan, where Islamos are praised for atrocities that are simultaneously blamed on the Mossad/CIA/LGF, this actually makes sense.
The Mexican Air Force has released footage of what a UFO expert said were 11 invisible unidentified flying objects picked up by an infrared camera as they whizzed around a surveillance plane. A long-time believer in flying saucers, journalist Jaime Maussan told a news conference on Tuesday the objects were real and seemed "intelligent" after they at one point changed direction and surrounded the plane chasing them. "They were invisible to the eye but they were there, there is no doubt about it. They had mass, they had energy and they were moving about," he said, after showing a 15-minute video he said the Defense Ministry gave him permission to publicize.
I think we found that missing bong.
The ministry confirmed to Reuters it had provided the video, filmed by the Air Force on March 5 over the eastern coastal state of Campeche. "We are not alone! This is so weird," one of the pilots can be heard yelling, after the plane's crew switched on an infrared camera to track the objects, first picked up by radar. The film, recorded by a plane looking for drugs trafficking near the Gulf of Mexico, shows 11 objects as blobs of light that hover in formation or dart about, sometimes disappearing into cloud.
"Wow, man! Dig the pretty lights!"
Mexico's most popular nightly news broadcast showed the video on Monday night. Interviewed by Mausson on another section of the video, the pilots said they grew nervous when the objects, still invisible, turned back during a chase and surrounded the plane. "There was a moment when ... the screens showed they were behind us, to the left and in front of us. It was at that point that I felt a bit tense," said Maj. Magdaleno Castanon.
Just loosen up the tin foil, Major. Oh, and I'd have your instruments checked out.
Mexico has a long history of fanciful UFO sightings, most of which are dismissed by scientists as space debris, missiles, weather balloons, natural weather phenomena or hoaxes.
That's what they want you to think.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/12/2004 1:53:21 PM ||
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Sounds like the Free Mexican Air Force is back in the business.
"We're being shadowed by invisible UFOs!"
"How can you tell? You don't even know what an invisible UFO looks like!"
"Well... they're invisible!"
"You can't be sure. Have you seen one?"
"No!!!"
"Then how do you know that it's invisible UFOs that are shadowing you?"
"I can't see them!"
"Well, then..."
Posted by: Old Grouch ||
05/12/2004 15:00 Comments ||
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#11
The Mexican AF can find invisible flying disks, but when it comes to catching the dirt bags smuggling drugs across the border, they are blind as bats.
Posted by: Douglas De Bono ||
05/12/2004 19:30 Comments ||
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#12
As much as I like to joke about UFOs don't be surprized about the invisible part. On a hot sunny day you'll not be able to see the end of a road. It is invisible due to thermal reflection. The end of the road is there but you can't see it.
We recently discussed the situation with US companies employing contractors to help with intel work at Abu Ghraib. Someone noted a US law that specifically covers the behavior of these employees. I can't find the law and I need the reference to deal with an Irish ninny-moonbat with whom I'm having a debate. Can anyone help with the reference?
On a different note: got e-mail from Fred last night. The problem has been a server problem, not an attack. I'm sure he'll post an explanation shortly, and believe you me, you don't want the likes of me trying to explain computer stuff.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/12/2004 12:10:17 PM ||
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I know someone who would be willing to give you a free Sunblade 100. :-) Interested? I'd like to write it off, but I can't seem to unload this thing.
Posted by: B ||
05/12/2004 13:23 Comments ||
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#2
I sell server actually. Contact me @ stavka@rkka.org to discuss a price, etc.
Also send information about things like interfaces, OSs (if any ) etc...
If so, how can I help. Put up a mirror? Soemthing?
Posted by: badanov ||
05/12/2004 9:28:52 AM ||
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Wondering the same thing m'self...yesterday was rough. Alaska Paul seemed to have some success holding down the fort though.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
05/12/2004 11:51 Comments ||
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Sure, but look at what time AP gets in. He's got the entire internet to himself. Must be the arrival of the midnight sun.
Posted by: Mr. Davis ||
05/12/2004 11:53 Comments ||
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#3
A friend of mine here in Wales, Alaska has a good satellite internet connection, but posting on RB was EXTREMELY SLOW. I saw over 1000 people on the line at 12 midnight Alaska Time or 5AM EDT. I posted my comment on the Berg murder and went to bed while RB slowly digested the message. BTW, cloud deck is up from yesterday's fog and we can see Little Diomede Island from here today.
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Wales, Alaska ||
05/12/2004 11:56 Comments ||
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Had trouble yesterday, and until 30 mins ago. What was the problem? Virus? Server breakdown?
#5
Might be the big one. I'm not allowed out after dark so not sure of a full moon or extra terrestial stuff. Heard in Mexico they are under an UFO flyover.
#9
Nah, big quake in Sumatra; signals megaquakes around the world, CO2 causes global warming. Whoops make that global cooling. Then volcanoes heat up the worlds atmosphere causing atmospheric warming, check! that should be atmospheric cooling and we still don't have weather here in Singapore - 33C every day year after year gets tiresome!
Posted by: Phil B ||
05/12/2004 12:08 Comments ||
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#10
2,044 people on line right now.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
05/12/2004 12:11 Comments ||
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#11
2,044 people on line right now.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
05/12/2004 12:11 Comments ||
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#12
Snows expected above 7'000 today/tonight here in CO. Yesterday it was 80F!
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
05/12/2004 12:11 Comments ||
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#13
I was having "Rantburg Withdrawl". I couldn't even access the site until about 30 minutes ago. Did somebody let the Blue Smoke out? If you have something that works on electricity and you let the Blue Smoke out it won't work any more. That happened to my refrigerator last week. Now I have to drink warm beer. Or it could be neutrinos.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
05/12/2004 12:14 Comments ||
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#14
Links to video of the butchery are causing a lot of odd things.
#19
Hey everybody! Group hug!
I was bereft last night...I was so upset about the Berg beheading and needed to vent and could NOT get on RB!
I was forced to talk about it on my own blog! The horror.
The one time I got here, it said there were 905 people on line...
is Fred ready for Fame?
Posted by: Jen ||
05/12/2004 12:47 Comments ||
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#20
Hear that, everybody? Keg party at Jen's place! C'mon over!
Thanks for inviting us, you're a sweetie. You sure you ordered enough pizza?
(Seriously: I went and checked out Jen's 'blog, and you should, too.)
Posted by: Mike ||
05/12/2004 12:53 Comments ||
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#21
Good thoughts on your blog, Jen. I was so pissed when I heard about the video, then couldn't post my thoughts, thought there was something netharious going on. . . .
#22
Hi Jen, big group hug for you returned from touchy feely Seattle.
Rantburgers: Anything we can do to help Fred out with capacity & contingency planning? Seems like we are vulnerable to some brownouts and blackouts here. Would it help if I issued a fatwa or did a bit seething?
This attack would suggest that Rantburg is EXTREMELY EFFECTIVE at getting the truth out. Way to go, Fred! Somebody(s) out there sure wants to shut Rantburg up.
I'm sure the bad guys DON'T the promotion of free speech and critical thinking on Rantburg. I'm sure they don't like our discussions, our photos, our links, our growing popularity, our commitment to each other, our support for the WOT, our support for our president George Bush, our level of knowledge, our ability to educate others, or our resolve. (I know I wouldn't have, back in the day when I was-- cough, gag, sputter--a misinformed liberal activist idiot.)
Rantburg (thank God) is a REAL THREAT to the Kerry campaign, because it tells the truth, and is a REAL THREAT to Islamofacists around the world, because it tells the truth. Both believe it's their duty to mount cyber attacks against the dissemination of accurate information as a kind of guerilla warfare tactic so their side can win . See, they're "the bad guys." Yeah, it really is like that.
Fellow Rantburgers and honorable newcomers: Don't let your own commitment to the noble path confuse you regarding "the bad guys." The plan of the Islamofascists and their "friends" is to destroy the West--period. Anything else they say is just smoke and mirrors. I know it might sound like the stuff of comic books, but it's true--according to their own stated goals, their plans, their actions. (You gotta admit, they're pretty f-ckin' consistent.) Their most effective accomplices (unwittingly, or not so unwittingly) in the West, are the LLL crowd--especially in the media, and many in the Democrat Party.
The funny thing is, we at Rantburg will continue to soldier on--blog attack or no.
So, get used to it, you puny little database attack twerps.
A missing unmanned submarine that eluded the US Navy for a week was found Tuesday by a man strolling along a beach in western Norway, reports CNN.
The 3.5 meter (11-foot) mini-sub, or Battlespace Preparation Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, disappeared April 29 during tests off the port of Kristiansand in southern Norway, the network said.
The mini-submarine, which is not remote controlled, is programmed to chart the seabed and search for mines, and contains classified equipment worth millions.
Itâs mother ship, the minesweeper USS Swift, broke of its participation in the NATO exercise to search for it in vain. A local television network said the navy also had deployed specially trained dolphins in the search.
"On Monday, the crew of its mother ship, the minesweeper USS Swift, said that they considered it lost for good," CNN quoted Cmdr. Thom Knustad, a spokesman for the Norwegian joint command, as saying.
It finally surfaced a Wednesday about 200 kilometers (125 miles) to the north.
200 km, eh? Wonder what it was up to for all that time.
A man going for walk along the coast near Stavanger, on Norwayâs west coast, spotted a small, torpedo-like object marked "Department of Navy" grounded just off the beach and called the police Tuesday, CNN said.
"A police officer went to the scene, found the submarine and pulled it into land," Arvid Jensen, of the Stavanger police, told Norwegian news agency NTB.
On Saturday, a British-made mini-sub of similar design also went missing off the coast of Southern Norway, said the Norwegian daily Aftenposten. It is yet to be found.
Naval officials deny any connection between the subâs activities in the time it was missing and a recent increase in young womenâs excuses to their fathers for being out late all along the Nowegian coastline.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
05/12/2004 1:06:51 PM ||
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Crowds of well-meaning people gathered, taking turns pouring seawater over the stranded device. Experts called in expressed doubt that the device could survive and be returned to the ocean. A discussion is underway to determine if the device could be moved to an aquarium, or if it has been to damaged to survive even in captivity.
MONTPELLIER, France, May 11 (AFP) - Sixteen jet-setters competing in an illegal road race across France, Spain and Morocco, have been fined for speeding in southern France, and five of them lost their licences, police said Tuesday. The drivers in the "Gum Ball 3000" - known for drawing film stars, singers and world-class athletes - were clocked at speeds from 151 to 191 kilometres (95-120 miles) per hour, well above the 130-kilometre per hour speed limit.
The bastards stole our race!
Some 160 participants left Paris on May 5 in their Lamborghinis, Bentleys, Ferraris, Porsches and Maseratis for a jaunt through Spain and Morocco before ending up in Cannes on Wednesday for the start of the film festival. Among the thrill-seekers are Oscar-winning US actor Adrien Brody, British supermodel Jodie Kidd and a nephew of Saudi Arabia's King Fahd.
Shit, that was the plot of Gum Ball Rally, actors, super models and rich arab playboy racing across America.
"The first bunch arrived in Cannes this morning. They seem to have calmed down a bit as compared with last year," a French police commander told AFP. "If there had been a serious violation, we would have impounded their vehicles, but we haven't had to do that thus far."
"Besides, they tip very well."
Five multi-millionaire participants - described as men from Belgium, Britain and Canada - were arrested at the weekend in northeastern Spain for speeding.
Guess the Spanish cops take speeding more seriously.
According to the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia, the drivers of the 2004 event travelled from Paris to Madrid to pay a visit on Real Madrid footballer David Beckham. They then sped down the Costa del Sol, skipped over to Casablanca and Marrakesh where they were the guests of Morocco's King Mohammed VI, and headed back to the French Riviera for the start of the Cannes film fest.
Damm, now that's a road trip.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/12/2004 12:09:46 PM ||
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"speeds from 151 to 191 kilometres (95-120 miles) per hour."
I've driven 120 on the I-5 and without a picture of the roads in question you can color me unimpressed. They should have a stretch of the race on the Autobahn and really clock up some speed.
#2
Up to 120MPH in Lamborghinis, Bentleys, Ferraris, Porsches and Maseratis?
Wusses. But then they probably couldn't floor it much past that without hitting a border station of the next little country.
Posted by: ed ||
05/12/2004 13:08 Comments ||
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ruprecht - exactly! I-5 on the Grapevine, you better be going 90+ or you'll have a Semi drafting your tailgate, same on I-15 to Vegas ...what a bunch of pussies
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/12/2004 13:20 Comments ||
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120? Is that all? We thought that was a normal speed on the Autobahn when I lived in Germany (boyfriend drove a stick-shift Beemer). I thought these wussies were supposed to be racing.
Typical Euros - all hat, no saddle.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/12/2004 18:15 Comments ||
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Air America talk show Randi Rhodes said on May 11 that Bush is "Fredo" and that he should be taken out fishing to be assasinated: "Why doesnât his father take him or his brother, one of them, take him out for a little fishing...take him out and...(simulates gunshot) works for me."
Posted by: RMcLeod ||
05/12/2004 3:33:18 AM ||
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Drudge links to NY Daily News scathing review of Air Amerikka:
"Rock bottom came when she compared Bush and his family to the Corleones in the "Godfather" saga. "Like Fredo, somebody ought to take him out fishing and phuw," she said, imitating the sound of gunfire.
During a day of torture by radio, I heard ads for Hewlett-Packard, Greyhound and, especially, General Motors. I asked GM why it appeared in such shows.
Ryndee Carney, GM's manager of marketing communications, said the ads were wrongly picked up from an earlier deal with WLIB. She said the station was ordered to "cease and desist" yesterday, and added: "GM will not advertise on any Air America affiliates.""
LOL - thing's going great, huh Al?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/12/2004 11:46 Comments ||
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"GM will not advertise on any Air America affiliates."
What's good for General Motors actually is good for the USA, for once. At this rate, I might even start buying their cars again.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/12/2004 11:52 Comments ||
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How long can they sustain this without corporate sponsors? At some point they have to admit taht its nothing more than a really long infomercial for the left. I was suprised that they even had commercials when I listened. Why would any company want their name associated with this bile? It's one thing to have a position but quite another to call for assasinations.
#4
How long until a Secret Service person decides to peer down this person's gullet to find out just how much that would work for her?
It's one thing to argue about one's preference for higher or lower marginal tax rates, or what constitutes a legitimate causus belli. It is wholly another thing to advocate assassination, and to these ears that is EXACTLY what she has done.
#6
My patience has gone. I feel so angry inside at this crap the left spews out daily. Their issues regurgitate thier hate with every word from their treasonous mouths. To place this in some perspective though Lincoln had to endure this crap too.
Posted by: Bill Nelson ||
05/12/2004 12:27 Comments ||
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#7
good news! you get you merchandise now here! supply wont last so hurry and order. i had ask them to make janeane beach towel but it look like they refuse.
#8
Frankly a better name for Air America would be Al-Jizz West.
Posted by: Bill Nelson ||
05/12/2004 12:57 Comments ||
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eLarson, Sarge, got it right!
Hey, girlie, how 'bout some federal prison time. You are not supposed to advocate violence against federal elected officials.
(Why isn't Alec Baldwin in Leavenworth?)
If you'd just keep calling the president, "Shrub", you would be perfectly legal. A ninconpoop, but legal.
#14
mucky - If they made "Janeane" Beach towels too many of us would be tempted to put our over-ample butts on her face. That would be so unsympathetic, and politically incorrect.
#15
hey!!! that not what janeane beach towel for! im shure if i kep asking they eventualy offer them. halfull im not seen you in long time. im going order the boxers and im also getting the teddy bear to put with my alla in the house teddy.
#17
janeane beach towel for the beach! sheeesh! must i explain evrything for you. ima liking thought laying on it hardly any clothes and looking down at sweet janeane underneath.
#19
added sensual bonus, Muck: It'll have the same intelligence and personality as the real thing...now if you could just get the towel to make a fist....
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/12/2004 19:52 Comments ||
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Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader has been endorsed by the national Reform Party, giving him ballot access in seven states, including Florida and Michigan, party leaders announced Wednesday.
Florida, huh? That should be fun.
Nader spokesman Kevin Zeese said Nader welcomes the support but plans to continue running as an independent. He said Nader would decide on a case-by-case basis whether to accept the ballot lines in each state.
That would be a "Yes".
``This shows that Nader can garner support from across the political spectrum, including conservatives who supported Bush in 2000,'' Zeese said. ``The naysayers who said Nader could only get liberal votes are being proven wrong. Conservatives are upset with Bush and looking for an alternative.''
They may be upset at him for spending like a Democrat, but they ain't stupid.
Zeese said Nader spoke to Reform Party leaders via conference call Monday night and asked for their support. Other states in which the Reform Party has already secured ballot access for its nominee include Colorado, Kansas, Mississippi, Montana and South Carolina. Nader is not yet on the ballot in any state.``Ralph Nader has stood up for the rights of American citizens his entire life,'' Reform Party USA Chairman Shawn O'Hara said in a statement posted on the party's Web site. ``He is a raving lunatic man of peace, and with the help of every Howard Dean supporter citizen who think Kerry is too far to the right did not vote in the primaries, he can win the November presidential election for George Bush.''
The Reform Party USA said it has more than 1 million active supporters, who Zeese said Nader will use to help him gain ballot access in other states. Reform Party founder Ross Perot received more than 19 million votes when he ran for president in 1992 and more than 8 million votes in 1996.
Different time, different issues.
The party endorsed maverick conservative Pat Buchanan in the 2000 election.
Who got a lot of those Florida votes.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/12/2004 3:46:11 PM ||
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Idiotarians unite! Nader-Buchanan '04!
Posted by: Mike ||
05/12/2004 16:25 Comments ||
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Well things are becoming clearer everyday. The Dims are already endorsed by Osama, the French and the tin foil heads. What an election year!
Posted by: Bill Nelson ||
05/12/2004 16:27 Comments ||
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NADER or KERRY?
As a Florida Senior contemplates the ballot, and realizes that both candidates have five letters in the last name, and the reading glasses were left at home. Time to challenge the Bush electors!
During the very same 10 days that every newspaper and television news program in the world featured photo after photo, day after day, of Iraqi prisoners being humiliated, a government not far from Iraq engaged in mass murder, mass rape and ethnic cleansing of approximately 1 million people.
Is that more serious, more evil and more scandalous than a handful of Americans sexually humiliating Iraqi prisoners?
Not to the worldâs news media.
To the worldâs (including Americaâs) news media, the Nazi-like, racist, mass ethnic cleansing warranted minuscule attention as compared with the humiliation of some Iraqis.
Why?
The answer is as obvious as it is painful.
The worldâs news media are, with almost no exceptions, agenda-driven rather than news-driven.
The agendas are:
1. The political bias of the news reporting organization.
2. The monetary need to attract readers/viewers.
3. The desire to be the center of societyâs attention.
4. Not to be too different from other news media. As one who peruses up to a dozen American newspapers a day, I am struck daily at how virtually identical international news articles are. International reporters are like baseball players -- they all do the same thing, just on different teams.
In the case of the massive attention the news media have been giving to the stripping and humiliation of Iraqi male prisoners, all four agendas play a role, but the first one predominates.
How does this explain the tiny amount of news media coverage devoted to the near-genocide in Sudan (and North Korea and Tibet) as compared with the massive 24/7 coverage of the Iraqi prisoners?
The primary reason is the political bias of the news reporting organizations. Virtually every major newspaper in the world is anti-Bush, and most are anti-American. The desire to humiliate America (or George Bush) has deep roots. The America of those who support President Bush portrays itself as a moral beacon, and it has contempt for the moral authority of the United Nations and "world opinion." Therefore, those who loathe this American self-appointed moral role cannot pass up the chance to portray America as morally no better or even worse than other countries.
The virtually monolithic ideology that drives the worldâs news media should be a major concern among all those who treasure independent thought, not to mention moral clarity and Americaâs well-being. For example, though free of governmental control, the reporting of the BBC has been almost as predictably leftist as Soviet newspapers.
The news media are numbing the human mind. The anti-American and anti-Israeli news reporting that saturates the European media is the major reason for the recent polling results that show most Europeans regard America and Israel as the greatest threats to world peace.
There is a second and related reason for the mind-numbing coverage of the Iraqi prisoners. The worldâs Left, which sets the United Nationsâ and the news mediaâs priorities, is only interested in human suffering when it is caused by whites, Christians or Jews, especially Americans and Israelis. That explains the worldâs and the mediaâs indifference to the decimation of Tibet -- it was perpetrated by Chinese; to the genocide in Rwanda -- it was perpetrated by black Africans; to the genocide of blacks in Sudan -- it is perpetrated by Arab Muslims; to the genocide in North Korea -- it is perpetrated by Koreans. On the other hand, when Israelis killed Palestinian terrorists and bystanders in Jenin, the world press was fixated on it, and the BBC declared it a "massacre."
So, too, the deaths of Arabs at the hands of Arabs -- the tens of thousands in Algeria, the hundreds of thousands in Iraq, the tens of thousands in Syria, the thousands of Arab and other Muslim young women in "honor killings" -- are of little interest to the news media, the Arab world, the United Nations and the Left. But Americans stripping male prisoners in Iraq? It is the most important story on earth.
It is essential to note that it is precisely because I believe Americaâs role is to be a moral beacon to the world that those pictures from Abu Ghraib prison so anger me. Americans are not dying in Iraq so that other Americans can pile naked Iraqi men on each other and smile for photos next to them. The harm those pictures have done to the cause of good may be incalculable.
But it is not moral revulsion, let alone newsworthiness, that is animating the news media. One day, a Sudanese black will scour the world press archives to find out what the world was preoccupied with while her family and hundreds of thousands of other Sudanese blacks were raped, enslaved, ethnically cleansed of their lands and murdered. She will learn the world was deeply concerned with a couple of dozen Iraqi men photographed in humiliating sexual positions.
Posted by: tipper ||
05/12/2004 11:57:57 AM ||
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If you saw Hannity and Martian yesterday, their guest was Meet the Press bigshot, brain fart can't remember his name, Tim Russert. He kept referring to the soft porn stuff as a catastrophy, actually I think he used a more brutal word but the tinfoil is a little tight. His propogandizing was laughable. Hey Timmy it's all relative dude. If it's Africans hacking each other by the wholesale then its a tragedy. If it's American anything. It's massive brutality on a global scale.
#2
We talk a lot about the âarab streetâ. Well, let me tell you a little bit about the âAmerican streetâ and what I am angry about:
1) We have 3 CIA agents murdered in Palestine: no one caught or punishedâ¦â¦
2) We have 6 Israelis killed in Gaza, and body snatchers around picking up parts for ransomâ¦â¦..
3) We have, in Iraq, four Americans murdered, mutilated, and their perpetrators not caughtâ¦â¦very good example to the âarab streetâ (they can get away with anything).
4) Now, we have another D. Pearl style atrocity. This time in Iraq. Another American murdered, and to pacify the âarab streetâ lets not say âmumââ¦.
5) We have a military base in Qatar.We also have Al Jazeera not mentioning one word about the beheading of an American.
6) We give Mubarak 2 billion dollars a year in aid of my taxpayerâs money, so his controlled press can continue to attack us. How about giving him 70 % to encourage him to behave more nicely.
7) FINALLY: In the subject of the hypocrisy on the prisoners abuse on Iraq.: I am going to apply for a job as an interrogator in Iraq. Since I was raised to say please and thank you, I should qualify 100% for, what I suspect, will be the new âguidelinesâ for interrogating prisoners. It will go as follows: Please Mr. Muhammad Ali Baba, please please tell me what you know about the beheading of an American in Iraq, please please. I have to tell my superiors that I have said many times pleaseâ¦â¦.
8) As the wife of a Viet Nam veteran, if those American kids go down I also want to see 2 and 3 star generals going down. (We had enough incompetent generals in Nam).There is no way that you could convince the âAmerican streetâ that their behavior was not encouraged from the very topâ¦â¦.S. Hamilton
#3
Anonymous4804 - you are a fraud. How do I know? Because you say, "As the wife of a Viet Nam veteran, if those American kids go down I also want to see 2 and 3 star generals going down"
If your husband had really served in "Nam" as you say, then you would be outraged by the behavior of those who committed those acts AND YOU WOULD KNOW that your husband would never have done those things...that is, unless he is in that one percent of LOSERS sadistic enough to commit those crimes.
Your are an obvious fraud. Go post elsewhere. It is obvious to this crowd that your husband never served in "Nam" or you would know how perverted these people at AG really were.
Your husband is an incredible LOSER or you are a FRAUD..which is it?
Posted by: B ||
05/12/2004 13:09 Comments ||
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The third reason that the US media refuses to let the Abu Ghraib story go is the soft porn, homoerotic nature of the pictures. They are titillated and can't get enough of the pictures. It lets them feel all warm and wet inside while letting them feel morally superior in castigating their enemies. The members of the media are exactly what you thought they were when you knew them in college.
Posted by: Random thoughts ||
05/12/2004 14:52 Comments ||
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Posted by: Frank G ||
05/12/2004 11:39 ||
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I don't care about your steenkin' taxes paid. What did she contribute to!!
Posted by: Bill Nelson ||
05/12/2004 12:24 Comments ||
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I may part company with some of you on this. I don't care who she contributes to or how much. I do care if those organizations are anti-America or terrorists. I also think that the campaign reform act was a bunch of wasted paper and restricts MY rights to free association and speech.
#3
and this man might still become our President. How low the once idealistic Democrats have sunk.
Posted by: B ||
05/12/2004 13:14 Comments ||
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"...and this man might still become our President. How low the once idealistic Democrats have sunk..."
If ,God help us, Hanoi John should get elected, which I still think is impprorable, you may insert the word "Americans" in place of "Democrats". For if this man wins then truly we as a nation have sunk to that level of discourse.
Posted by: Bill Nelson ||
05/12/2004 13:19 Comments ||
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Final figures were not released because she has sought an extension to file her return in October.
Either this was misreported by Kerry's campaign or the reporter's a jackass. The 4868 gives her an automatic four month extension to August 15th; if, around that point you're not going to make the 8/15 deadline you then file a 2688, which is an additional two month request to be granted by the IRS. The report gives the impression that the 2688 has already been submitted and the additional time either granted or the request is pending, either of which is extremely unlikely.
In other words, you don't file a 4868 and follow up immediately with the 2688.
#6
One further thought - if over 1/2 of her investments are in tax exempt instruments, doesn't this strongly imply that after tax rates of return on tax exempt instruments are higher than taxable ones or, put another way, that tax rates are still to high? In theory, after tax rates on both classes of investments ought to be equal.
excerpted from Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz Remarks at the World Affairs Council of Greater Philadelphia
Q Thank you, Secretary of State. Iâm Morton Janvier (sp). Iâm from Haiti. Everything have been said, as a former soldier, everything a human being says is a lie. Thatâs what the universe is all about. The universe is a lie. So I was in Haiti, which is my country. I saw people -- (inaudible) -- we need food, thatâs the only thing we need. So since I was born, this country is the way it is, and now itâs worse.
And as a superpower, Iâm here, since I came here -- we will come to my question, as everything is a lie, people say Iâm crazy, I donât know anything, Iâm just so stupid, Iâm a bad person. So what can I do, if you were in my place, in a situation I can help my country? I have the skill required to help them, but because everything is a lie, if I have to talk to anybody, anywhere -- Iâve sent letters, Iâve talked to people everywhere. It just doesnât work. Thatâs the way the universe goes. You canât change it.
So now, what can be done to see the whole world together, every country? We donât have to fight each other in the sense we hate each other. We must love each other, share in the same piece of cake together, because we belong to one universe.
Thank you very much.
MR. WOLFOWITZ: Iâm not sure if it was a question, but I think you are certainly expressing your desire to see Haiti do better. And I think one of the keys to success everywhere is when people take responsibility for their own future, as we hope is going to happen in Iraq and weâve seen happen -- I mean, let me say this. Weâve seen it happen in many, many places in the world where 20 or 30 years ago, people were prepared to write people off.
The rest of the Q&A session is worth a read. Here is some meat from it:
Shortly after taking office, the secretary visited with his counterparts in NATO and he told them about the experiences of one of his predecessors, a man named Dick Cheney. Back in 1989 when Cheney was undergoing his Senate confirmation hearings, not a single mention was made of the word "Iraq." And yet Secretary Cheneyâs tenure at the Defense Department would turn out to be marked -- some indeed would say dominated -- by the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and the extraordinary victory of the coalition in Operation Desert Storm.
-snip-
When I became assistant secretary of State in 1982 there was one democracy in all of East Asia, and that was Japan. And there were, frankly, a lot of people who, I guess, considered themselves realists who said, Thatâs the way it has to be, thatâs the way itâs going to be forever, that Marcos is a -- I heard this -- Marcos is a bad guy, but you donât understand how inept the Philippine opposition is. I heard people -- intelligent, rational, humane people -- saying Korea has never had a democracy in its history, and itâs not capable of one. I heard people say, yeah, Taiwan has a terrible dictatorship, but itâs not nearly as bad as the one on the mainland.
I mention those examples because in the course of the 1980s every one of those countries became a democracy, some more successful than others, but every one, I think, better off for it. And I think what the president spoke about in that speech at the National Endowment for Democracy, what he spoke about again a few weeks later in Westminster in London, sets out a horizon that some people say is hopelessly unrealistic; but I think itâs a false realism that says weâre better off if the Arab world continues to be governed by dictators.
-snip-
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/12/2004 3:37:56 AM ||
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I muffed the edit on this post. I meant to snip everything after "snip". Sorry for the SNAFU
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/12/2004 3:56 Comments ||
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KRNV Channel 4, Reno, Nevada.
Nevada Senator John Ensign blasted Democrat Ted Kennedy for his "shameful" statements likening US soldiers to Saddam Husseinâs torturous regime. The Nevada Republican was commenting on a statement credited to Senator Kennedy Tuesday. Credited to? Who do they think that was appearing on C-SPAN? Ron Higgins, professional Cardinal Richelieu impersonator, in his Ted Kennedy mask and fat suit?
Kennedy is quoted as saying, "Shamefully, we now learn that Saddamâs torture chambers reopened under new management: U.S. management." Ensign believes Kennedy crossed the line with his comments and called on Kennedy to retract them immediately. "To express disappointment or anger over what has occurred at Abu Ghraib prison is one thing. To put American servicemen and women in the same category as one of the most evil and bloodthirsty regimes in modern history is reprehensible." Ensign said it is appalling that anyone would make those kind of comparisons, let alone a US Senator. "Iâm disgusted and ashamed that such a comment would be made by anyone, in any setting. For it to be uttered by a United States Senator is especially shameful." He believes Kennedy owes US service members an apology. "Senator Kennedy needs to retract that statement and apologize immediately to the men and women risking their lives in Iraq." If you think he actually will apologize, thereâs a bridge in Massachusetts Iâd like to sell you.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/12/2004 6:43:34 PM ||
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time to tie Bighead Ted to Kerry's bumper...
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/12/2004 19:43 Comments ||
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Ok Dubya your up next. Start stomping some Kerry ass. Now don't be holding back anything. The future of our country depends on you right now. Call these people Kennedy, Soros et al what they really are made of. Bring it on George W!!
Posted by: Bill Nelson ||
05/12/2004 20:07 Comments ||
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A former FBI agent pleaded guilty Wednesday to lying about his affair with a woman alleged to be a Chinese double agent. James. J. Smith pleaded guilty to a single count of making false statements and agreed to cooperate with the government. He faces up to five years in prison when he is sentenced. Smith was the longtime handler and lover of Katrina Leung, a naturalized citizen and San Marino socialite who was recruited 20 years ago to work for the FBI, gathering intelligence during frequent business trips to China.
"Handler? I hardly knew her!" (rimshot) Thank you, I'll be here all week.
Prosecutors claim she began working for China around 1990. Smith was originally charged with gross negligence for allegedly allowing Leung access to classified materials and with mail fraud for allegedly filing false reports to FBI headquarters about her reliability. He faced 40 years in prison if convicted of those charges.
Pled to a lower charge in exchange for testimony
Leung is charged with taking classified documents from Smith's briefcase, although she has not been accused of relaying that information to China. She faces up to 14 years in prison if convicted of illegally copying and possessing national security papers that she intended to use, or could have used, to harm the interests of the United States. She has denied the allegations.
Chinese female spies, why does the FBI love them?
Posted by: Steve ||
05/12/2004 2:14:56 PM ||
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Damn, did he sell us cheaply:
Katrina Leung
Posted by: Carl in N.H. ||
05/12/2004 19:05 Comments ||
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#2
what???? All Katrina's are hot! She must be able to do gymnastics or sumpthin?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/12/2004 21:58 Comments ||
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EFL:
Hybrid cars are hot, but not as hot as their owners, who complain that their gas mileage hasn't come close to well-advertised estimates. Don't knock the car companies for inflated claims: Experts say the blame lies with the 19-year-old EPA fuel-efficiency test that overstates hybrid performance. Pete Blackshaw was so excited about getting a hybrid gasoline-electric car that he had his wife videotape the trip to the Honda dealership to pick up his Civic Hybrid. The enthusiastic owner ordered a customized license plate with "MO MILES" on it, and started a blog about his new hybrid lifestyle.
Can you say "Geek"?
But after a few months of commuting to his job in Cincinnati, Blackshaw's hybrid euphoria vanished as his car's odometer revealed that the gas mileage he was hoping for was only a pipe dream. Honda's Civic Hybrid is rated by the EPA to get 47 miles per gallon in the city, and 48 mpg on the highway. After nearly 1,000 miles of mostly city driving, Blackshaw was getting 31.4 mpg. "I feel like a complete fraud driving around Cincinnati with a license plate that says MO MILES," says Blackshaw, who claims that after 4,000 miles his car has never gotten more than 33 mpg on any trip. The tenor of Blackshaw's blog shifted from adulation to frustration after his Honda dealer confirmed that his car was functioning properly, and that there was nothing he could do. Blackshaw, who is chief customer satisfaction officer at Intelliseek.com, spoke to a Honda regional manager about his concerns, and wrote a letter to a Honda vice president on April 15 that was not answered. His story has been echoed dozens of times online by owners of the Honda Civic Hybrid and Toyota Prius.
Snicker
Drivers rarely see the actual EPA-rated mileage in the real world, according to John DiPietro, road-test editor of automotive website Edmunds.com. DiPietro says most drivers will get between 75 to 87 percent of the rated mileage, with individual variations based on driving habits and traffic route. "If a new car gets less than 75 percent of its EPA rating, then it should be retested." Data from independent product-testing organization Consumer Reports indicates that hybrid cars get less than 60 percent of EPA estimates while navigating city streets. In Consumer Reports' real-world driving test, the Civic Hybrid averaged 26 mpg in the city, while the Toyota Prius averaged 35 mpg, much less than their respective EPA estimates of 47 and 60 mpg. Hybrid cars performed much closer to EPA estimates in Consumer Reports' highway tests. Consumer Reports' senior auto test engineer Gabriel Shenhar says that while the EPA test is a lab simulation, Consumer Reports puts the cars on the streets and measures the fuel consumed to more accurately reflect gas mileage.
Gee, you mean the lab doesn't reflect the real world? Who knew?
Posted by: Steve ||
05/12/2004 4:12:20 PM ||
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In Consumer Reports' real-world driving test, the Civic Hybrid averaged 26 mpg in the city
Oh, that's hilarious! In my daily commute, a mix of some highway and mostly city, my Grand Prix gets 23 mpg. It's also more comfortable. This is ESPECIALLY bad for the hybrids because city is supposed to be their sweet spot.
I wonder if the hybrids have been engineered to SPECIFICALLY perform well on the EPA tests...
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/12/2004 16:33 Comments ||
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the EPA test is a lab simulation
That's absolutely typical of the gummint.
Imagine the screaming and lawsuits if a corporation tried that stunt.
I'll stick with my Honda CRV, thankyouverymuch. I've no desire to drive one of those little baby cars anyway, no matter what the mileage.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/12/2004 18:09 Comments ||
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I've been driving a Prius for the last year and a half (it's a nice HOV dodge in VA, I'm a one-man car pool) and have never gotten less than 40 mpg for a tankfull, usually 45+ in the summer. Not the 50 advertised, but not bad. The EPA numbers have always been bogus as an absolute measure, but usually a fair comparison between models. Sounds like this new technology is throwing the comparison a curve, though.
Associated Press. Is this a sign of the Apocalypse?
STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. â The American Civil Liberties Union, perhaps better known for helping keep religion out of the classroom, came to the defense of a high school graduate whose yearbook entry was censored because it contained a biblical verse.
The organizationâs Michigan chapter announced a settlement Tuesday with Utica Community Schools that restores Abby Molerâs message to Stevenson High Schoolâs 2001 yearbook.
Moler, the class of 2001 valedictorian, was among a group of students asked by school officials to offer their thoughts for the yearbook. Her entry included the biblical verse, Jeremiah 29:11: "âFor I know the plans I have for you,â declares the Lord, âplans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."â
The entry was deleted from the yearbook because of its religious nature, school officials told Moler at the time. She responded by asking the ACLU for help.
Wonder of wonders, they actually helped!
. . . "The Supreme Court has said there can be school oversight in official publications, but the schools still have to honor the constitutional rights of their students," said Kary Moss, executive director of the ACLU of Michigan.
In other news, pigs flew, cats and dogs were seen lying down together, and Turkish pundit Murat endorsed the reelection of George W. Bush. Todayâs weather forecast for greater Hell and vicinity: continued cold temperatures, with heavy snow and blizzard-like conditions . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
05/12/2004 1:18:55 PM ||
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The ACLU is not against religion, at least not formally.
The ACLU is against anything threatening "the separation of church and state" (words that are not part of the 1st Amendment). Many American religious believers read those words as an attack on religion, especially Christianity.
In this case, the yearbook's printing of the student's quotation from the Bible is not against "the separation of church and state." The reason is that apparently every student had a chance to include some words of their own in the yearbook. Hence, the government created a "public forum." In a public forum, the 1st Amendment's freedom of speech clause applies. The 1st Amendment certainly covers religious expressions, including a quotation from the Bible. Therefore, not only would the ACLU consider the inclusion of her quotation allowable by the government, the ACLU considers it mandatory. And indeed, although I ain't no lawyer, I believe the law agrees with the ACLU as to that conclusion.
Of course, religious conservatives would bypass that argument. As the Rantburg "highlight writer" would say, religious expressions should always be protected, including when they are made by the government.
In short, the ACLU and the conservative position here agree. Unfortunately, conservatives typically do not want to "hear" the ACLU position, and thus are surprised to learn whenever the ACLU is not diametrically opposed to them. The ACLU does have significant differences with the conservative view, but it is not diametrically opposed.
Posted by: Old Guy ||
05/12/2004 15:39 Comments ||
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OG: I'd agree with you, and the ACLU, that this was not a case of government endorsement of religion, and that the Constitution clearly protected the student's comment.
However, one often finds the ACLU opposing what should be protected speech, usually in situations where the speech they oppose is also opposed by elite liberal opinion (e.g., peaceful protest outside abortion clinics).
I'm glad to see the ACLU live up to its principles here--just wish they'd do it more often.
(Besides, the pigs-fly hell-freezes-over Murat-endorses-W combination was too good to pass up.)
Posted by: Mike ||
05/12/2004 16:00 Comments ||
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I agree with you.
Posted by: Old Guy ||
05/12/2004 17:36 Comments ||
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The government on Tuesday deported Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shahbaz Sharif to Saudi Arabia a little over an hour after he flew into Lahore to try to end his three-year exile. Shahbazâs plane touched down in Lahore at 6:22pm and was immediately surrounded by commandos. Kissing the ground was all Shahbaz could do before the commandos took him into custody.
"Finish your smoochin', buddy! Back on the plane!"
Airport authorities cancelled a Pakistan International Airlines flight for Karachi and the plane took Shahbaz on an unscheduled flight to Jeddah. Commandos beat up some journalists accompanying Shahbaz, snatching their cameras and exposing their film. âThey slapped two photojournalists and snatched their cameras before they came out of the aircraft,â a British journalist said.
"Got a statement for the press, officer?... Ow!... Oooch! Hey! Stop that!"
Large police contingents were posted on most roads and key intersections throughout Lahore, to stop PML-N workers from welcoming Shahbaz at the airport. They fired teargas, made baton charges and detained dozens of PML-N and ARD activists among the thousands who joined the rally. A senior police officer said 16,000 policemen were deployed in Lahore on Tuesday to stop the PML-N workers from going to Lahoreâs Allama Iqbal International Airport to welcome Shahbaz.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
05/12/2004 2:13:28 AM ||
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Not exactly the way to encourage the formation of a loyal opposition party!
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Wales, Alaska ||
05/12/2004 2:28 Comments ||
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The PML-N is the one faction of the Pakistan Muslim League that is anti-Musharraf.
They grossly overreacted since there is little support for them in Pakistan, but then again there is very little support for the loyalist PML either.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
05/12/2004 2:49 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.
