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Today: 72 articles and 548 comments as of 4:38.
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Area: WoT Operations                   
Iran detains UK naval vessels
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 2: WoT Background
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
RPG Shooter popped in Iraq (amazing video but WARNING: graphic)
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 06/21/2004 22:48 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Good SHootin there Tex - notice the shooter was not a US soldier, but an IRAQI?

Wonder if Al Jiz will show this one?

Sic Semper PG-Terrorists!
Posted by: OldSpook || 06/21/2004 23:28 Comments || Top||

#2  way to look for cover, Gomer!
Posted by: Frank G || 06/21/2004 23:42 Comments || Top||

#3  A little context would be nice. Where is this? Iraq? Palestine? Who is the shooter? Why is he sitting out in the middle of the street with no cover? I hate contextless stuff like this. It's no wonder the video comes from a TV station, they're notorious for only showing fragments of the whole story.
Posted by: gromky || 06/21/2004 23:49 Comments || Top||

#4  Well it's a non christian infidel being brutally killed. Just like Jebus told Bush junior. Now when all the muslimanians are dead and most the jews die too all that'l be left is us christ loving southern americans, then we'll convert the rest of them heebs over to our side and holy jebus will come back and he'l be proud and he'l make Pat robertson and Bill O'reilly vice-Gods. Yee Haw!!
Posted by: Ali Abdel Hafiz ben americani al ignorami aziz el alb mahmoud mustafa ben shoo bee doo || 06/21/2004 23:57 Comments || Top||

#5  To bad the "little sheet head" was not wearing his sheet around his stupid ass coconut. It would have prevented his brains from being splattered all over the street and I could have gotten a better idea of the direction of the fire this "sheet head" was taking!!! Oh well, maybe next time.
Posted by: Long Hair Republican || 06/21/2004 23:58 Comments || Top||

#6  I smell something bad - did someone forget to take out the troll leftovers?
Posted by: Frank G || 06/21/2004 23:58 Comments || Top||

#7  I looked hard to see if you could identify the shooter but it appears to have come from off to the left, up the street and off screen. Without more, it's hard to say who shot him. And what language is being spoken? I noticed too that this guy has no shoes. Talk about well equipped. Course he's luckier than that PA vermin that took his AK up against the Merkava.
Posted by: Silentbrick || 06/21/2004 23:59 Comments || Top||

#8  I know u miss me Frank. But man I expected more. C'mon dig deep. give it some umph
Posted by: Ali Abdel Hafiz ben americani al ignorami aziz el alb mahmoud mustafa ben shoo bee doo || 06/21/2004 23:59 Comments || Top||

#9  The trolls sure are proud about their bigotry today, aren't they?
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 06/22/2004 0:04 Comments || Top||

#10  notice the shooter was not a US soldier, but an IRAQI?

Old Spook, I'd love it if this were the case, but how do you know that it's an Iraqi who shot him? :-/

P.S. I may soon upload this myself, or ask my friend to upload it.
Posted by: Edward Yee || 06/22/2004 0:07 Comments || Top||

#11  The commentary is in Spanish, so the clip apparently originally ran on a Spanish language outlet. The accent is Mexican. The narrator says that this is in Iraq a few days ago, but the rest is garbled.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 06/22/2004 0:52 Comments || Top||

#12  Gee, "Ali", is that what your old drunk of a poli-sci prof told you the opposition was like? Maybe it was that super-earnest little weasel in anthropology, the one with his gray mane in a pony-tail, the better to boff your retard girlfriend behind your back.
No wonder your fucking side is losing all over the world.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 06/22/2004 0:57 Comments || Top||

#13  And Allah spoke to Mohammed. "Go forth and fuck every goat you can. Only then will the infidels understand our resolve." And Mohammed said, "Is it not enough that we fuck camels every day in your name? "No." replied Allah. "The only true way to paradise is to fuck every goat in all creation. As the most sacred of all animals, only the goat can help man reach paradise where seventy-two virgin goats await true Muslims." "I understand" said Mohammed. "From this day forward we fuck every goat and kill the infidels who do not believe in the sacred goat-fucking ways. The streets will flow with the blood of the non-believers." "Now go!" Allah commanded. "I need to be alone with the goats! And the believers of Islam continued the goat fucking tradition for over a thousand years but the men grew weary of fucking goats and prayed to Allah. "Oh Allah the great goat fucker, please give your followers wealth so we can buy ourselves women. We are good Muslims, heed our cries!" And Allah appeared in Mecca as a burning pile of camel shit. "I will grant your wish!" the pile of shit said. "I will give you oil so the Infidels will give you money, However, I place a curse on your women because of those who blasphemy the sacred goat. From now on all muslim women will look and smell like goats to remind men of the true path to paradise." "Allahu Akbar!" cried the men as they went back to their goats!
Posted by: Anonymous5746 || 07/14/2004 18:33 Comments || Top||

#14  yes the sons of pigs and whores will have their heads mashed off and their women taken as asslickers
Posted by: Anonymous6299 || 09/02/2004 22:28 Comments || Top||

#15  LOL - troll posting two months later= dickweed idiot. you seem to have a fascination with asslicking, are you a paleostinian? Or just spent time in jail?
Posted by: Frank G || 09/02/2004 22:37 Comments || Top||


Rare Dan Darling photo
Over on Roger Simon's blog, you can see Dan in an Elvis-style pout. Scroll down.
Posted by: Steve White || 06/21/2004 10:46:02 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


RPG shooter popped in Iraq (Amazing video but WARNING: Graphic)
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 06/21/2004 22:45 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  LET THE BODIES HIT THE FLOOR!!! This is what wants to be in your neighborhood killing your children. This is also what the Libs don't want you to see - what the real world is like.
Posted by: USMarine1980 || 07/06/2004 6:11 Comments || Top||


Hindenburg to fly again
Working largely in secret, aeronautical engineers in Germany are drawing up plans to rebuild the Hindenburg dirigible airship, but updating it for the 21st century by making it even larger and more luxurious, accommodating 250 passengers in a two-tier gondola. Though plans are kept under wraps, experts say the new Hindenburg II, as it is already being dubbed in the German press, will loosely resemble its ill-fated predecessor - except for the elongated two-level gondola that would stretch 70 metres along the bottom of the giant airship. The German press has already dubbed the new airship the Hindenburg II.
The new dirigible, which will be designated the HGZ 129 M in memory of the original Hindenburg (called the LZ 129), will also be as large as its infamous sister ship, which exploded on landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey, on 6 May 1937.

A team of 150 engineers, technicians and aeronautical experts has been working behind closed doors on the Hindenburg II project since 1998, according to the Berliner Zeitung newspaper. A feasibility study released in March stated that the project is viable, the Berlin newspaper said. The new ship would use a combination of helium and hydrogen, in 17 separate gas cells, to give it enough lifting power to accommodate hundreds of passengers or up to 80 tons of cargo. In contrast, the old Hindenburg could accommodate only a little over 100 persons, including a crew of about 40, and it also had limited cargo capabilities.
Posted by: Seafarious || 06/21/2004 6:15:02 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I think the US Military should start using dirigibles as mobile/ permanent weapons platforms.

Something you could launch a armed UAV from.

Posted by: Anon4021 || 06/21/2004 18:39 Comments || Top||

#2  As long as they crash the Hidenburg in Germany and not New Jersey this time around.
Posted by: Charles || 06/21/2004 19:12 Comments || Top||

#3  Got your Helium right here.
Posted by: Shipman || 06/21/2004 19:47 Comments || Top||

#4  i hope they leave the swaztika off the detailing this time.
Posted by: Dripping Sarcasm || 06/21/2004 20:10 Comments || Top||


Irish outlaw Muslim second wives
And, why would you be wanting a second wife, me lad?
Well to be shure, to be shure, beallah

Muslims who marry Irish women have to make a formal declaration that they will not take more than one wife on being granted citizenship. The Irish government confirmed yesterday that it has ordered all men from Islamic countries seeking residency to sign a sworn affidavit rejecting polygamy. Muslim men also have to agree they will not seek residency for a second wife if granted Irish citizenship. A man must swear he has "one spouse only" and "has no intention of entering into a simultaneous marriage". A spokesman for the Department of Justice in Dublin said: "Obviously, we don’t recognise polygamy under Irish law." The Irish Council of Civil Liberties said the enforcement was "despicable". A Lebanese army officer was refused residence for both his wives and 13 children.
"Faith! And it's the little wimmin! Hide me, lads, or I'm done!"
Posted by: tipper || 06/21/2004 11:19:16 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I've been "debating" the WoT with an Irish moonbat the last couple of years on another forum. You don't know how useful this article is going to be! :-)
Posted by: Steve White || 06/21/2004 11:50 Comments || Top||

#2  Finally some SENSE coming out of a European legislature.

Posted by: jules 187 || 06/21/2004 12:01 Comments || Top||

#3  As if this means anything. How is Ireland going to stop them from marrying their second wife when they're in a Muslim nation?

Posted by: Robert Crawford || 06/21/2004 12:06 Comments || Top||

#4  This ruling is going to serious harm Irish animal husbandry.
Posted by: Shipman || 06/21/2004 12:21 Comments || Top||

#5  Any man who has ever dated an Irish woman knows that one is more than enough.
Posted by: RWV || 06/21/2004 12:46 Comments || Top||

#6 
The Irish Council of DhimmitudeCivil Liberties said the enforcement was "despicable".
I suspect even our ACLU hasn't gone so far into multiculti moonbattitude...
Posted by: someone || 06/21/2004 12:57 Comments || Top||

#7  I suspect even our ACLU hasn't gone so far into multiculti moonbattitude...

Any evidence of that? Remember, they demanded the county of Los Angeles remove the miniscule cross from their seal. I doubt they'd have had a beef with a crescent moon.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 06/21/2004 13:37 Comments || Top||

#8  Hey who knows maybe the'll work on banning multiple wives in the U.S next.
Posted by: Sammy Frobisher || 06/21/2004 13:51 Comments || Top||

#9  nice troll name "sammy" - asshat
Posted by: Frank G || 06/21/2004 13:54 Comments || Top||

#10  I've been "debating" the WoT with an Irish moonbat the last couple of years on another forum. You don't know how useful this article is going to be! :-)

What forum are you talking about? I would like to read the arguements.
Posted by: Charles || 06/21/2004 14:33 Comments || Top||

#11  Hey who knows maybe the'll work on banning multiple wives in the U.S next.

Sammy-last time I checked, polygamy was illegal in the US-including Utah.
Posted by: jules 187 || 06/21/2004 14:33 Comments || Top||

#12  I believe Sammy may be referring to serial polygamy__ many wives hooked up in series rather than in parallel ....8p
Posted by: Anonymous5310 || 06/21/2004 15:27 Comments || Top||

#13  The only reason this was adopted in the first place was due to the fact that men would go off to war and many would not come back. In effect reducing the rate of women to men to approx. 3-1. In order to help provide for the women who were w/out a man and w/ children, the brother or friend would take on a second wife.This was in like 600 A.D and after. Now it's just a relic that some idiots use. Who wouldnt want a harem of nice young girlies anyway:P
Posted by: Sammy Frobisher || 06/21/2004 15:47 Comments || Top||

#14  Polygamy's every man's dream, every man's nightmare...
Posted by: Fred || 06/21/2004 18:59 Comments || Top||

#15  just like a Menage A Trois - so I can disappoint two women instead of just one?
Posted by: Frank G || 06/21/2004 19:14 Comments || Top||

#16  I once had an Irish outlaw Muslim second wife. That girl sure could shoot, even with hajib on. She could pound the brew too.
Posted by: Zpaz || 06/21/2004 20:04 Comments || Top||

#17  Any man who has ever dated an Irish woman knows that one is more than enough.

Sometimes too much. Maybe it should be two husbands to one Irish wife. Share the misery, y'know.
Posted by: Pappy || 06/21/2004 20:06 Comments || Top||


Britain
Jewish centre fire ’suspicious’
A fire at a Jewish community centre in north London has caused up to £250,000 worth of damage. Firefighters were called to reports of a blaze at the Aish centre in Hendon at about 2300 BST on Friday. Two Torah scrolls, hand-written parchments of the Bible and holy Jewish scriptures were also found "torn and desecrated", a centre spokesman said. A police spokesman said the fire is being treated as suspicious and forensic tests have been carried out. "There were several thousands of pounds worth of damage. We are keeping an open mind as to whether the incident was or was not racially aggravated," he said.
"We are treating this as a single one-off incident and at this stage we are pursuing a specific line of inquiry." Rabbi Schiff, executive director of Aish UK - a Jewish educational charity, said: "Seeing Scrolls of the Law torn and strewn on the floor of my own synagogue in London was devastating." The synagogue which is inside the building was not affected by the fire, the spokesman for the centre said.

Go on Schiff, call for someone’s head over this! I anticipate you on BBC radio 4 tomorrow decrying this shamefal act of Anti Semitism and demanding protection for all UK Jewish religious sites and making veiled therats about the security of the entire population if these acts continue. Further I expect you to link this to international affairs in which Jews are being persecuted as a sign of how downtrodden and victimised your faith and its followers are... Ooops, must have meant someone else.
Posted by: Howard UK || 06/21/2004 9:49:53 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Two Torah scrolls, hand-written parchments of the Bible and holy Jewish scriptures were also found "torn and desecrated", a centre spokesman said ... We are keeping an open mind as to whether the incident was or was not racially aggravated," he said.

Minds which are kept that "open" probably had their brains fall out some time ago. The synagogue's heart and soul are their scrolls. A hate crime is pretty much the only possible explanation for their desecration.

Howard UK, from your comments, I take it that Schiff has come out in vigourous defense of Muslims like Abu Hamza. Should he neglect to place equal emphasis on the investigation of this obvious hate crime it will be a damning indictment of preferentialism on his part.
Posted by: Zenster || 06/21/2004 10:05 Comments || Top||

#2  No - I don't know this guy. However there exists a marked difference between the Muslim and Jewish communities in their responses to hate crimes in the UK. I'll let you guess which is the most vociferous...
Posted by: Howard UK || 06/21/2004 10:25 Comments || Top||

#3  Londonstan and shades of Crystal Night!
Posted by: Mark Espinola || 06/21/2004 10:37 Comments || Top||

#4  What's race got to do with it? Religously motivated, obviously, but race? What race? Hebrew? Sorry, that's a linguistic and religous grouping, not a race. Arab? Same deal, linguistic/religous group, with about a thousand different ethnicities included in it.

Why can't they just say "it was an anti-jewish crime"?
Posted by: mojo || 06/21/2004 12:36 Comments || Top||

#5  Mojo - many antisemitic crimes are perpetrated by neonazis and others who hate anyone of jewish birth, regardless of their religion, or even culture. And traditionally other hate crimes in UK are racially motivated, IIUC, - IE hooligans who attack Hindu Indians, Muslim pakistanis, and Christian West Indians indiscriminately. I guess the police are having difficulty adjustingtheir terminology to the new realities.
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 06/21/2004 12:47 Comments || Top||


In pictures: Summer solstice
Posted by: Howard UK || 06/21/2004 05:06 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I love it when Sol Stices.
Posted by: Shipman || 06/21/2004 8:38 Comments || Top||

#2 

Happy Solstice everybody!
Posted by: Howard UK || 06/21/2004 8:39 Comments || Top||

#3  Beautiful. Thanks, Howard!
Posted by: Seafarious || 06/21/2004 9:54 Comments || Top||

#4  Any word whether the Arch-Druid Bishop of Canterbury will be taking part in Soltice rites at Stonehenge?
Posted by: Frank G || 06/21/2004 10:13 Comments || Top||

#5  Cool pic,saw a neat Discovery Chanel docu the otherday.
Posted by: Raptor || 06/21/2004 10:22 Comments || Top||

#6  The Arch Dru will be 'hanging with his Muslim bitches' according to the social diary in today's Times.
Posted by: Howard UK || 06/21/2004 10:28 Comments || Top||

#7  it always nice see happy reptilian gathering.
Posted by: muck4doo || 06/21/2004 11:11 Comments || Top||

#8  Said the one druid to the other: "You want to build the next henge out of what? And you want to haul the stones from where?"
Posted by: Zpaz || 06/21/2004 11:32 Comments || Top||

#9  Howard, that picture of stonehenge is simply magic. I wish I could be there.
Posted by: Charles || 06/21/2004 14:44 Comments || Top||

#10  It's the winter solstice that stonehenge tracks, guys. Rebirth of spring and all that, eh what?
Posted by: mojo || 06/21/2004 15:15 Comments || Top||

#11  Sol Stice twiced a year mojo. The summer angle gives light and angle to the grave of Mr. Jim Morrison.
Posted by: Shipman || 06/21/2004 19:52 Comments || Top||

#12  Morrison's not in that grave, Ship...he's with Elvis in Tahiti
Posted by: Frank G || 06/21/2004 20:02 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Castro Warns Bush Against Launching Attack
HAVANA - Tens of thousands of dispirited Cubans rallied Monday, as Fidel Castro warned President Bush against launching a military attack on Cuba, saying it would provoke a mass celebration exodus and an all-out ground war. Washington has repeatedly told the old coot denied it is planning any military action against Havana. But an increased tightening of sanctions against the island, along with the Bush administration's pre-emptive strike on Iraq, has convinced the paranoid Cuban leadership that a military attack is not impossible. "Do not try crazy adventures such as surgical strikes or wars of attrition using sophisticated techniques because you could lose control of the situation," Castro said in a speech addressed specifically to Bush before the morning. "You could shatter the immigration agreement and provoke a mass exodus that we would not be in a position to prevent, and you could bring about an all-out war between young American soldiers and the Cuban people," he said. "That would be very sad."
For about 48 hr, then it would become progressively more happy.
"You would never be able to win that war," the Cuban leader said. "Here you will not find a divided people."
Isn't it great how Fidel has managed to unite the people of Cuba against him?
Dressed in his typical olive green uniform and cap, Castro spoke at insufferable length at a mahogany wood podium on a stage outside the oceanfront U.S. Interests Section — the American mission here. The coastal Malecon highway was crowded with tens of thousands of people ordered called out by their workplaces, schools and neighborhood authorities. The government estimated the crowd at 200,000, a number impossible to confirm independently but sounded ridiculous to us reporters. The Communist Party daily Granma said the morning gathering was called to deliver Cuba's "most energetic condemnation and protest against the brutal anti-Cuban measures by the current U.S. government."
Nuttin like a cattle prod to persaude the masses to protest energetically.
Posted by: Steve White || 06/21/2004 1:36:56 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ..Jefe, I inadvertently posted this same article a few minutes ago, please feel free to '86 it.

My comment there was that a friend of mine lives in Cuba about 10 months of the year and is due back here in about three weeks - I'll be able to ask him some more about this then, but based on our conversations last year, there's a possibility that El Commandante is planning another Mariel...in october.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 06/21/2004 14:30 Comments || Top||

#2  Isn't he dead yet?

Proof of the old saying: Only the good die young.
Posted by: mojo || 06/21/2004 14:40 Comments || Top||

#3  guess it is time to distract the cuban people again..it's all the imperlist dogs fault!
Posted by: Dan || 06/21/2004 17:44 Comments || Top||

#4  *deep sigh*
Take a number, Fuzz-face. We'll see if we can work you into the schedule on a space-available basis.
Posted by: Sgt. Mom || 06/21/2004 17:44 Comments || Top||

#5  We should park the fleet just outside of Cuban waters and announce any Cuban that makes it to a US ship will be granted citizenship. Its possible the outflow could cause some collapse, just as the lack of border controls in eastern Europe contributed to the fall. It certainly would be embarrassing to the Castro apologists.
Posted by: Yank || 06/21/2004 18:50 Comments || Top||

#6  Yank - I'd prefer we announce anyone making it to the fleet will be given arms and sent back
Posted by: Frank G || 06/21/2004 19:11 Comments || Top||

#7  Laugh all you want... but it looks like the beard has won yet again. That's 42 years running we didn't invade Cuba. Now that gentle people of the blog is deterance.
Posted by: Shipman || 06/21/2004 19:55 Comments || Top||

#8  "You could shatter the immigration agreement and provoke a mass exodus that we would not be in a position to prevent,..."

It's actually kind of sad when you're an evil dictator and the only weapon you have against the USA is to open the prisons and instigate a second Mariel boatlift. I'd say that's the very definition of impotence. Fidel needs to find some dictator Viagra.
Posted by: 11A5S || 06/21/2004 20:04 Comments || Top||

#9  Are there enough old Chevy's lying around for a flotilla of any size?
Posted by: Super Hose || 06/21/2004 23:36 Comments || Top||


Europe
Loose Canons
WHILE FRANCE SURRENDERS freedom of speech, in Britain freedom of the press is eroding. Let’s give a big "harrumph" to Britain’s "Office of Communication," a government bureaucracy whose mission it is to "balance the promotion of choice and competition with the duty to foster plurality, informed citizenship, protect viewers, listeners and customers and promote cultural diversity." Last week "Ofcom" scolded Fox News Channel’s John Gibson for accusing the BBC of lying and "frothing-at-the-mouth anti-Americanism." Gibson’s broadcast had struck a nerve with twenty Brit whiners who complained to Ofcom when he attacked the Beeb’s Andrew Gilligan for his wildly false reporting during the 2003 Iraq campaign. Gilligan -- most famous for making up the charge that the Blair government had "sexed up" the intel on Iraqi WMD (and thus lied the UK into war) -- had been proven false by a formal investigation. When David Kelley -- Gilligan’s supposed source -- killed himself after denying saying that to Gilligan, the whole mess was investigated. The report by Lord Hutton found that the Beeb, not Blair, had made things up. I remember Gilligan’s reports from Baghdad and its outskirts. They could have been (and possibly were) written by Baghdad Bob. None of those outrages was enough to wake Ofcom up. Now, Ofcom has puffed itself up to chastise Gibson who, predictably, reacted by using one of his opinion segments to tell Ofcom to stuff it. He was much too polite. The Beeb is relentlessly anti-American, anti-war, anti-Bush, and anti-everything else that doesn’t fit neatly into its own far-left view of the world. Just ask the sailors of HMS Ark Royal, who voted to ban it from the ship during the ’03 fighting because of its bias. But forget the Beeb. Its biases are too blatant to even worry about. The real problem is the overreach of Ofcom.
Bulldog, you have a tough row to hoe. Care to borrow a bulldozer?
Posted by: Zpaz || 06/21/2004 6:56:31 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  No country that has an institution like "Question Time" in Parliment can ever go too wrong with respect to freedom of speech. Neither Adam Smith nor Winston Churchill were American. Britania will figure out the problemall the faster as long as the BBC and Ofcom keep yakking and shaking down their constituents for cash.
Posted by: Super Hose || 06/21/2004 22:33 Comments || Top||

#2  Churchill was half American.
Posted by: Mr. Davis || 06/21/2004 22:47 Comments || Top||


EU Commish concerned about Turkey's human rights record
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 06/21/2004 20:02 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Am I the only one who finds this somewhat ironic?
Posted by: The Doctor || 06/21/2004 21:44 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Inside Air America’s Troubles:Optimism and Shaky Finances (Heh)
On March 30, the night before Air America went on the air, the liberal radio network threw itself a $70,000 party at Manhattan’s hip Maritime Hotel. More than 1,000 guests, including Yoko Ono and Tim Robbins, drank red, white and blue vodka cocktails as they toasted the network’s bid to challenge the dominance of conservative talk radio. But behind the scenes, Air America was running out of money. Today several employees say they still haven’t been reimbursed for the costs of attending the New York launch. "It was a fun party, until I knew I was paying for it," says Bob Visotcky, Air America’s former Los Angeles market manager, who hasn’t been reimbursed for his hotel room and flight.

Mr. Visotcky wasn’t the only insider in the dark about the company’s problems. Many of Air America’s investors and executives say they thought the network had raised more than $30 million, based on assurances from its owners, Guam-based entrepreneurs Evan M. Cohen and Rex Sorensen. In fact, Air America had raised only $6 million, Mr. Cohen concedes. Within six weeks of the launch, those funds had been spent and the company owed creditors more than $2 million. When the problems came to light, "we realized that we had all been duped," says David Goodfriend, the company’s acting chief operating officer. Messrs. Cohen and Sorensen say they didn’t mislead anyone about the company’s finances. They say they planned to invest more over time but didn’t because of cultural differences with other managers. Both resigned in early May...

Air America’s left-leaning orientation gave the fledging network a public profile and helped lure donors, including RealNetworks Inc.’s Chief Executive Rob Glaser and New York’s Durst family of real-estate developers. It also helped attract big-name talent, including comedian Al Franken. Amid the hype, however, investors and executives overlooked Air America’s haphazard organization, opaque finances and flawed business strategy. Trying to make a big political splash, Air America embarked on an ambitious and costly plan to get radio-station owners to carry the network’s entire 24-hour lineup. Typically, networks allow stations to pick the shows they want, and both sides share the advertising revenue. Air America got its way in smaller markets. In big cities, Air America agreed to pay for airtime, which ultimately cost more than it could afford. "When you believe you’re doing work for the greater good, you don’t question as much," says Javier Saade, a former Air America executive vice president. "People never questioned the curves and obstacles on the road. People just said, ’We’re on the road.’ "
As they say: read the whole thing.
(schadenfreude is nothing to be ashamed of)
Posted by: Evert V. in NL || 06/21/2004 1:59:57 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...They say they planned to invest more over time but didn?t because of cultural differences with other managers. Both resigned in early May...

TRANSLATION: People expected us to pay our bills. Damned capitalists, they should have given us this stuff for free so we could liberate them from BusHitler...

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 06/21/2004 14:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Via Instapundit, Prof. Bainbridge discusses the ramifications of their takeover & creditors. The word FRAUD appears more than once.
Posted by: Raj || 06/21/2004 14:48 Comments || Top||

#3  "It was a fun party,until I knew I was paying for it"

Lament of every Democratic voter 6 months after his candidate won.
Posted by: Stephen || 06/21/2004 15:00 Comments || Top||


AIR AMERICA In Deep Financial Crisis
From Drudge.
On March 30, the night before Air America went on the air, the liberal radio network threw itself a $70,000 party at Manhattan's hip Maritime Hotel. More than 1,000 guests, including Yoko Ono and Tim Robbins, drank red, white and blue vodka cocktails as they toasted the network's bid to challenge the dominance of conservative talk radio.

But behind the scenes, Air America was running out of money.

The WALL STREET JOURNAL reports on Monday: Several employees say they still haven't been reimbursed for the costs of attending the New York launch. Many of Air America's investors and executives say they thought the network had raised more than $30 million, based on assurances from its owners, Guam-based entrepreneurs Evan M. Cohen and Rex Sorensen. In fact, Air America had raised only $6 million, Mr. Cohen concedes. Within six weeks of the launch, those funds had been spent and the company owed creditors more than $2 million.
Liberals lied, paychecks fried.
When the problems came to light, 'we realized that we had all been duped,' says David Goodfriend, the company's acting chief operating officer. Messrs.
It's not hard to be duped when you're a ...
Cohen and Sorensen say they didn't mislead anyone about the company's finances. They say they planned to invest more over time but didn't because of cultural differences with other managers. Both resigned in early May. Five months before a presidential election, Air America should be on a roll. Instead, it's grappling with a financial crisis. Creditors are lined up at the door, and it is off the air in two big markets, Los Angeles and Chicago.
Posted by: Steve White || 06/21/2004 1:12:44 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In other surprising developments today: the sun rose above the eastern horizon . . . gravity continued its relentless pull on people and objects across the globe . . . the Vatican revelaed that Pope John Paul II is a Roman Catholic . . . and there was no change in Francisco Franco's condition; he is still dead.
Posted by: Mike || 06/21/2004 13:24 Comments || Top||

#2  It's another Enron!
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 06/21/2004 13:35 Comments || Top||

#3  Air America should be on a roll.

No, they should be on a grill. They're cooked!
Posted by: Raj || 06/21/2004 13:57 Comments || Top||

#4  RC: Big difference. As far as I know Paul Krugman is not an advisor to Air America.
Posted by: Matt || 06/21/2004 13:58 Comments || Top||

#5  Does this mean the thong is not coming in the mail? Another $19.95 down the toilet!
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) || 06/21/2004 14:45 Comments || Top||

#6  it does mean Janeane and Al are whoring for free...

sorry Mucky
Posted by: Frank G || 06/21/2004 14:51 Comments || Top||

#7  LOL! Sounds like an Onion headline:

Marxist Radio Station A Microcosm Of Why Marxism Doesn't Work
Posted by: BH || 06/21/2004 15:02 Comments || Top||

#8  According to this article, we may be seeing fraud claims against Air America's investors. (The author's explanation of the relevant corporate law docrines is quite good.)

If so, pop some Trail's End, crack open a good microbrew, and settle in to the Barcalounger to watch the fun!
Posted by: Mike || 06/21/2004 15:56 Comments || Top||

#9  If so, pop some Trail's End, crack open a good microbrew, and settle in to the Barcalounger to watch the fun!

Okay, but I was hoping for something to ridicule this summer, but I guess Air America simply wasn't up to the task. It looks like I will have to settle for lawsuits.
Posted by: badanov || 06/21/2004 16:02 Comments || Top||

#10  hey! say all you are want about franken and him yachts but dont be dis sweet janeane!
Posted by: muck4doo || 06/21/2004 16:05 Comments || Top||

#11  It's this horrible country's fault. Imagine, actually needing 'money' to run a business. What's this world coming to?

Just wait, next you'll see calls for a taxpayer bailout of Air America.
Posted by: Silentbrick || 06/21/2004 17:38 Comments || Top||

#12  "Just wait, next you'll see calls for a taxpayer bailout of Air America." Just bet that there are some Demoncrats thinking just that. Maybe move them under the NPR banner.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) || 06/21/2004 18:17 Comments || Top||

#13  Actually, a good friend of mine was the VP of Operations at Air America from before the launch to a putsch just prior to Memorial Day. He said that the head money men lied to everyone and had originally said they would fund the project for 24 months no questions asked. Then they pulled the plug just as AAR was getting better ratings in NYC than Rush. My friend also thinks "Bush knew" about 9/11, which is why we only chat every once in a while...
Posted by: Seafarious || 06/21/2004 18:27 Comments || Top||

#14  You have got to read the story on WND about Air America, it would make Eron executives proud. It also shows a step-by-step process on how NOT to run a business. I don’t think they will go away but they do have some serious financial problems (due to the business plan THEY developed).
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) || 06/21/2004 18:55 Comments || Top||

#15  The poetic justice here would be if Err America got bought (and picked over) by Murdoch....
Posted by: Pappy || 06/21/2004 20:21 Comments || Top||

#16  true, but not likely. He runs a successful business
Posted by: Frank G || 06/21/2004 20:29 Comments || Top||

#17  Yes, but there may be a few gems amongst the dreck (I gather Franken, despite all his faults, is a pretty good radio host) Murdoch might be able to build a whole new network using them.
Posted by: Pappy || 06/21/2004 22:42 Comments || Top||

#18  well, Mucky may pay premium $ for Janeane's used thongs and beach towels, but there seems to be little market for Al Franken's on-air mis-banter, much less $1 Mil a year
Posted by: Frank G || 06/21/2004 22:45 Comments || Top||

#19  "just as AAR was getting better ratings in NYC than Rush. "

Somehow I doubt this. Not that NYC doesn have a ton of liberals, but that the programming was simply TERRIBLE.
Posted by: OldSpook || 06/21/2004 23:16 Comments || Top||


Great White North
Canadian Textbooks Spur Anti-Americanism
A new study by University of Alberta Professor of Education Amy von Heyking reveals that anti-Americanism is a prominent theme of Canadian school textbooks. Coinciding with the 60th anniversary of D-Day, Heyking’s study found that Americans are presented to students as young as grade school aged as dishonorable bullies, compared to "orderly, harmonious and gentlemanly" Canadians. Heyking - a specialist in the history of curricula and teaching materials - reviewed 75 different classroom textbooks in the subjects of Canadian history, geography, civics and social studies in secondary and elementary schools. Heyking says, "After the Second World War the United States emerged as a champion of democracy around the world. This allowed Canada to trumpet its status as middle-power broker to negotiate and compromise in a way that the United States couldn’t." Canada Free Press reports that textbooks have consistently painted American society as "revolutionary and lawless," and dismiss America’s role in World War I, claiming the "tide had already turned" by the time American forces entered the fray.

Canada’s last two liberal prime ministers, Paul Martin and John Chretien -- products of Canadian classrooms -- are enthusiastic lovers of the U.N. and call U.N. adviser to Secretary General Kofi Annan a friend and mentor. Canada also refused to assist in the efforts to create democracy in Iraq and has criticized the U.S. and its allies. One of Canada’s candidates for re-election on June 28, liberal MP Carolyn Parrish, proclaimed, "I hate those American bastards," and MP Colleen Beumier is known as "Baghdad Beumier" because of her sympathies for Iraq. Entire chapters in Canadian textbooks are devoted to "bad housing as the American way," and a significant factor in America’s crime rate. But the anti-American sentiment is not new in our northern socialist neighbor. According to a popular Canadian textbook from 1934, American children are raised in "filthy tenements, driven out upon the streets to play in gangs." Chalk it up to Canada’s long time malady: jealousy.
Posted by: Mark Espinola || 06/21/2004 12:53:52 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Canuckistani academi-liars are at a disadvantage compared to their Euro and Muslim colleagues, since a high percentage of Canadians can spend enough time here to see for themselves that homelessness is a political myth, that inner city gangsterism is more common in pop culture than in real life, and that American health care is not causing people to fall over dead in the streets. In fact, the big medical centers here in Lubbock have a high percentage of Canadian nurses, lured here by non-socialist wage rates, and a fair number of Canadian patients, the latter willing to pay cash on the barrelhead rather than risk life and limb on endless waiting lists.
Canadians are not as far behind us on the media-culture curve as Europeans, but they have still had little time to develop any degree of skepticism and independence from mass media claims. As for the Euros, there is a reason so many of them get off the plane for the first time and start lecturing us on our alleged shortcomings.
This incredible presumption makes sense only if one realizes that these people have absolute childlike faith in the pronouncements and representations of their media. Canadians are a little less gullible; they may be on the verge of the 1970s in their average awareness of media manipulation, while the Euros are still in the Walter Cronkite heyday of the early 60s.
As for Islamos, they are in the 1890s yellow journalism stage of awareness but, alas, with super powerful electronics as the medium of duplicity and manipulation.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 06/21/2004 3:02 Comments || Top||

#2  As for the tide turning in WW1 by the time the US joined in, it had, but in favor of the Germans. By the time US troops were able to intervene in force, the spring of 1918, the Germans had knocked Russia out of the war, and were in the midst of their most successful offensive yet against Britain and France.
I'm sure some of our historians can provide more detail, but the Germans were close to winning outright by the time the US actually got involved.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 06/21/2004 3:07 Comments || Top||

#3  Atomic Conspiracy,

British will claim French were still shaky after 1917 mutinies and it was Haig's offensive which broke Germany.Unfortunately for British claims,they took very few prisoners as Germans were fighting delaying action while retreating to new shorter,stronger defensive line.

Ludendorff lost his nerve after news of success of American offensive in Argonne,and demanded German Government make peace.(Argonne offensive was demanded by Foch,French CinC.Transferring forces to make the offensive ended American offensive in St.Mihiel.Patton,Marshall,MacArthur and German commander of St.Mihiel defences all believed continued American attack in St.-Mihiel sector would have quickly broken German defenses and w/breakthru could have decisively defeated German Army in the field.)For those interested in slightly revisionist history of WW1,see John Mosier's THE MYTH OF THE GREAT WAR.

As to could Germany win in 1918,doubtful.She had two allies,Austria-Hungary which was disintegrating and Turkey which was losing in Mid-East.Allies had lost Russia and Italy was about done,and Balkan allies were defeated,but...a mixed force was reclaiming Balkans,and there were all those lovely Americans.W/out American intervention WW1 might still be straggling on.Britain had neither the troops,nor the Generals to beat the Germans,France was exhausted and the Germans weren't strong enough to finish France off.

Final note.US forces in WW1 were almost entirely equipped w/French and British cannons and aircraft.Most training camps were run by French mountain troops.W/out French assistance there would have been no AEF.US politicians talked of massive armaments but delivered nothing to troops.One reason Hitler discounted US power in WW2.And why Chamberlain rejected Roosevelts' attempts to help before WW2,believing US to be paper tiger.This is what the Rabid Left refuse to accept when they make reckless attacks on President's policy simply cause they don't like him;there are others listening to your words and they will draw deadly conclusions.
Posted by: Stephen || 06/21/2004 4:35 Comments || Top||

#4  I was watching"History of the Gun"(History Chanel),they were talking about the effectivness of the BAR(sure wish I could get my grubby little hands on one)The War Dept.(U.S.)was so worried about the BAR falling into enemy hands they refused to issue them to the troops(dumb ass').Thousands sat in wharehouse' for the duration.The Doughboys had to carry a badly made French automatic weapon.When asked"If that is such a lousy weapon,why are you carrying it?"
reply:Because the parts make a great still.

By the way the BAR was Bonnie's(Bonnie and Clyde)favorite weapon.
Spaceship one took off about an 40 min ago,seperation and pre-orbit burn in aprox.20 min.
Posted by: Raptor || 06/21/2004 10:36 Comments || Top||

#5  Damn snowbacks...
Posted by: mojo || 06/21/2004 12:31 Comments || Top||

#6  Still the best use of a BAR
in a movie goes to MoonShine War

The Prisoner impersonating a revenuer assembling his BAR from a suitcase in a cheap hotel just has to be seen.

Ever Seen One of these Boy?


Oh... yeah a presenstive Alan Alda plays the moonshiner.
A hoorificly good bad movie




Posted by: Shipman || 06/21/2004 12:34 Comments || Top||

#7  This may come as a surprise to my American cousins, but Canadians never did like Americans. In my school days I remember one teacher explicitly telling us that "Canadians don't like Americans", though she didn't give a reason why and did not otherwise engage in anti-American tirades. This was over two decades ago. I can imagine what sort of anti-American bile gets cranked out today.
Posted by: Rafael || 06/21/2004 12:41 Comments || Top||

#8  Why should Canadian textbooks be different than American textbooks? The American educational establishment has been deriding, denigrating, or deleting the foundations and successes of American culture as the product of dead white guys for years. In the new multicultural world Western civ sucks.
Posted by: RWV || 06/21/2004 12:44 Comments || Top||

#9  yea canadians never liked the US ..but all thier best people go south..kinda conflicted up north
Posted by: Dan || 06/21/2004 13:38 Comments || Top||

#10  AC, Stephen-
I disagree in the sense that I think Germany could have won in 1918. Their spring offensive was pretty successful initially, but by that time the number of US troops in combat began to turn the tide (US troops in combat really began to be of important numbers in about June of 1918). With regard to France, as much as we like to dis them (and appropriately so for their recent actions), the loses she took in WWI were enormous. As a percentage of the population France was the hardest hit of that war. The whole country was shell-shocked.
Posted by: Spot || 06/21/2004 18:14 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Nader Chooses A Running Mate
Wotta surprise...
By SAM HANANEL, Associated Press Writer
Independent vanity presidential candidate Ralph Nader selected longtime Green Party activist Peter Camejo to be his fall guy running mate on Monday, a move sure to boost his chances of defeating John Kerry winning the Green Party’s endorsement this week and its access to ballot lines in 22 states and the District of Columbia. Camejo, an investment adviser from Folsom, Calif., had been one of two leading contenders for the Green Party’s presidential nomination.
Wonder who the other chump candidate was?
The announcement came in advance of the Green Party convention beginning Wednesday in Milwaukee. Nader, who ran as the Green Party candidate in 2000, is not seeking the party’s nomination but he has pursued an endorsement from the third party.
Doesn’t matter much. When I think of Nader, I think Green Party.
I think "Destroy all Corvairs!"
"Camejo shares my concerns for income redistribution economic and social justice as well as the urgent need to protect our environment," Nader said in a statement before introducing him at an afternoon news conference.
Um, anything about national defense? (crickets)
One Green Party leader said a Nader-Camejo ticket would have a very strong chance of winning the party’s endorsement. "This is an opportunity for Nader to bend over for make an overture to the party membership," said Ben Manski, one of five co-chairs of the Green Party. "I think it certainly would put him much more in the running but not a guarantee."
Sounds like they want some concessions from Ralphie Boy for their endorsement. Wonder if he’s going to bite the pillow?
Nader also has been endorsed by the national Reform Party, which gives him access to the ballot in at least seven states, including the battlegrounds of Florida and Michigan.
The Reform Party? The one Pat Buchanan hijacked last election?
On second thought, not likely...
Nader garnered nearly 3 percent of the vote in 2000, when he was viewed by many as having cost Democrat Al Gore the White House by taking votes in the deciding state of Florida.
And for that you’ll kinda, sorta, be a patriot in my eyes, Mr. Nader!
But he chose not to run under the party banner this election year. Camejo received more than 212,000 votes as the Green Party candidate for California governor during the 2003 recall drive that led to the ouster of Democratic Gov. Gray Davis and the election of actor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Nearly 400,000 people voted for Camejo in 2002 when Davis was re-elected. Nader was polling about 6 percent nationally, according to a recent Associated Press poll conducted by Ipsos-Public Affairs. The consumer advocate has raised just under $1 million and spent nearly all of it, starting June with about $73,000 in the bank and just under $25,000 in debts, according to the latest reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.
Defeat Kerry by supporting Nader. Works for me.
The Green Party has ballot access for a presidential candidate in Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont, Wisconsin and Washington, D.C.
He’s halfway there; I think he started on like 6 or 7 ballots a few months ago. Karl Rove needs to help with the remaining state ballots.
Camejo ran for president as the Socialist Workers Party in 1976.
There’s another surprise, a dyed in the wool Marxist.
As a gubernatorial candidate in California, Camejo supported abortion rights, gun licensing, universal health care and a moratorium on the death penalty. An environmental activist, Camejo has been a director of EarthShare, a coalition of more than 40 major environmental groups. In his campaign for governor, he supported greater use of alternative fuel technology and issuing a bond for clean air, parks and water conservation programs. He also called for phasing out nuclear power plants and for a ban on all oil drilling along the California coast.
Power to light homes will come magickally from flowers and kozmic good vibes...
Camejo, 64, was born in New York and is a first-generation Venezuelan American. A biography provided by the Nader campaign said Camejo was a social activist in his teens and marched in Selma, Ala., with Martin Luther King Jr. He also protested the Vietnam War and supported labor protests by migrant farm workers. In 1987, Camejo founded the Progressive Asset Management of California, an investment firm that seeks what it considers to be socially responsible companies in which to invest. He is chairman of its board of directors. From 1999 to 2002 Camejo was the county-appointed trustee of the Contra Costa County Employees Retirement Association.
The Dean crowd ought to love that lineup...
Posted by: Raj || 06/21/2004 2:25:41 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader selected longtime Green Party activist Peter Camejo to be his running mate . . .

. . . thereby bringing bitter disappointment to dzens of op-ed writers whose nearly-complete 800-word essays on the possibility of a Nader-McCain ticket will go unpublished.
Posted by: Mike || 06/21/2004 15:14 Comments || Top||

#2  Camejo was entertaining in his very sincerely-held moonbat beliefs - artfully argued in our CA Gubernatorial recall debates. He'll provide some fun in the fall
Posted by: Frank G || 06/21/2004 15:21 Comments || Top||

#3  Peter Camejo was also the Trotskyite "Socialist Workers" Party nominee in 1972 at age 37.

I guess he "toned it down" a bit. . . .
Posted by: BigEd || 06/21/2004 15:32 Comments || Top||

#4  If he lives to be 130 he'll be a Republican.
Posted by: Steve White || 06/21/2004 18:42 Comments || Top||

#5  In the meantime, encourage all of your liberal loonie friends to vote for Nader. Encourage them to send money to Nader. You might want to be sneaky about it though...say things like, "Nader is a real threat to George Bush! If he can get support and funds in his war chest, Bush will be shaking like a leaf on a bush!"

Go Nader!
Posted by: B || 06/21/2004 19:10 Comments || Top||

#6  dont be dis on nader!
Posted by: Anonymous5316 || 06/21/2004 19:17 Comments || Top||

#7  This is great.

Over half of the Kerry voters are voting "Against Bush" instead of "For Kerry", so this gives them an outlet, and can possibly take 3-5% of the "I hate Bush" vote. Take that out and it drops Kerry by 1-2% across the board - which is enough to throw Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania to Bush and basically gives Bush the Electoral college win. Plus it brings California into play. Which forces Kerry to spend his money playing Defense there against the Governator.

Say what you want, but Nader would not be out there were there not a constituency for him. And those are the ones who are too far left for the Democrats. Much like Perot ensured the election of Clinton twice - this shoe is now on the Dems foot and they are screaming bloody blue murder.
Posted by: OldSpook || 06/21/2004 23:23 Comments || Top||


Clinton: Arafat made me a failure
Arafat ?? Clinton did that on his own! LOL
Bill Clinton held Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat responsible for the collapse of Middle East peace efforts, and told him so, the former president said in an interview published ahead of his new book’s release. Clinton said that as he was preparing to leave the White House, Arafat thanked him for his work and called him a great man. “I replied: ‘I am not a great man. I am a failure, and you have made me one,’” Clinton said.
He had help!
He said then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak was ready to make major concessions for peace in 2000 but Arafat was not able to “make the final jump from revolutionary to statesman 
 he just couldn’t bring himself to say yes.” But Clinton said his successor George Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon cannot ignore Arafat if they want to make peace in the Middle East. “Unless they just want to wait for him to become incapacitated or pass away or unless they seriously believe they can find a better negotiating partner in Hamas 
 then they need to keep working to make a deal,” he said.
Umm, Bill, there is another way to get Yassir out of the way ... work with me here ...
Clinton said the the Palestinian leader’s refusal to accept formulas for peace was an error of “historic proportions”. Clinton recalled a lighter moment seven years earlier just before the signing of the Oslo peace accords. Clinton had told Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin that he (Rabin) would have to shake Arafat’s hand. Rabin begrudgingly agreed, saying: “All right, but no kissing.” Clinton said he and national security adviser Tony Lake found themselves practising at being Rabin and Arafat to figure out how to keep Rabin from receiving the traditional Arab greeting of a kiss on the cheek. They eventually found a way, leading to a historic handshake at the White House.
Posted by: Mark Espinola || 06/21/2004 6:22:29 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "It's your fault, Arafat, your fault! I was a contendah, I would'a been the greatest President of all time, heavyweight cham-peen of da woild, until you ruined everything. You and that Ken Starr . . . and Matt Drudge . . . and that little tart Monica . . . and Hillary . . . and . . . ."
Posted by: Mike || 06/21/2004 13:30 Comments || Top||

#2  Clinton said the the Palestinian leader’s refusal to accept formulas for peace was an error of “historic proportions"

Ummm...could it be because he is a terrorist and Billyboy should have known better than to try and deal with him?
Posted by: JerseyMike || 06/21/2004 15:23 Comments || Top||

#3  C'mon, Bill, everyone knows it was Rush Limbaugh and the Neocons who made you a failure.

Oh, and the fact that you lied every single day for 8 years...
Posted by: Chris W. || 06/21/2004 15:41 Comments || Top||

#4  Clintons been saying this about Arafat ever since leaving office. The Arafat loving left ignores it, as does the Clinton hating right. Since Clinton was the senior non-Israeli, non-Pal individual at the talks, I think it should carry some weight.
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 06/21/2004 15:42 Comments || Top||

#5  Typical Clinton, blaming everyone but himself...
Posted by: Raj || 06/21/2004 17:20 Comments || Top||

#6  Note to self: remember not to place personal success or failure in Yasir Arafish's hands.
Posted by: Sludj || 06/21/2004 17:49 Comments || Top||

#7  Sludj - LOL! No sh*t.
I have to agree with LH on this one. It's perhaps the only time Clinton has told the truth. It wasn't up to him to make it a success. On the other hand, he's an idiot for still thinking Yasshole is relevant. Arafass had and has no intention of making a real deal. That will happen only over his dead body (which is soon I hope).
Posted by: Spot || 06/21/2004 18:25 Comments || Top||


Lileks: Dems prefer Bush Losing to Catching Bin Laden
Just a taste
For the last few weeks I’ve had this gnawing belief that bin Laden got lucky by attacking during Bush’s term. Conventional wisdom says the opposite, because Bush fought back. But he’s the enemy now. I ask my Democrat friends what they’d rather see happen – Bush reelected and bin Laden caught, or Bush defeated and bin Laden still in the wind. They’re all honest: they’d rather see Bush defeated. (They’re quick to insist that they’d want Kerry to get bin Laden ASAP. Although the details are sketchy.) Of course this doesn’t mean they’re unpatriotic, etc., obligatory disclaimers, et cetera. But let’s be honest. People are coming up with websites that demonstrate ingenious technology for spraying anti-Bush slogans on the sidewalks; it would be nice if they sprayed "DEFEAT TERRORISM" or "STOP AL QAEDA" now and then. Wouldn’t it?

Is that too much to ask?

RTWT, as they say...
Posted by: Frank G || 06/21/2004 11:39:38 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Kerry Says He Would Raise Minimum Wage
Posted by: Steve White || 06/21/2004 1:02:35 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Inflation is not a concern for Mr. Kerry. It substantially increases the values on his (wife's) multiple million dollar properties and thus his own net worth.
Posted by: B || 06/21/2004 7:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Gee, why not just raise the minimum wage to $25/hr and abolish poverty altogether? Then everybody could afford groceries, housing, transportation, clothing, and medical care! [/sarcasm]
Posted by: Dar || 06/21/2004 8:52 Comments || Top||

#3  Yeah... rich countries like the US can afford squish fig leafs like the "minimum wage". It hasn't been raised in nearly a decade, and is probably due. It won't affect things one way or the other, I don't think, based on the last time they did it - right at the beginning of the Clinton "Long Boom".

In most regions, including my somewhat less impoverished corner of Appalachia, the current minimum wage is a dead letter. Nobody offers or takes true minimum wage work. Last time I looked, starting, dead-end crap work was starting at about 75 cents above the legal minimum. Once you get into the richer ends of the state, we're talking three dollars an hour more.
Posted by: Mitch H. || 06/21/2004 9:36 Comments || Top||

#4  The current minimum wage is 5.15 dollar/hr.
A good site on the history of the minimum wage is at: http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/anth484/minwage.html

Personally, I have been in favor of a two tier minimum wage, with a national level (I think $7 would be reasonable if it was phased in over a few years) and a lower level in counties and parishes with a ten year history of high unemployment and where the elected county official requested a lower level. Of course this is a pretty geeky idea and, as far as I know, I'm the only one who advocates it.
Posted by: mhw || 06/21/2004 9:53 Comments || Top||

#5  The truth about minimum wage is that it only really effects young workers new to the workforce and otherwise unskilled. If you raise minimum wage it often become easier to not hire someone and work the others a bit harder to cover the difference.

Increased minimum wage means increased unemployment.

Decreased minimum wage means kids may choose not to take the jobs and the employer may have to raise the value to what the job is worth.
Posted by: yank || 06/21/2004 10:08 Comments || Top||

#6  dar is have purdy good idea but im thinking $27.50 more beter.
Posted by: muck4doo || 06/21/2004 11:13 Comments || Top||

#7  I'll see your $27.50, and raise it to $30.00.
Posted by: Chris W. || 06/21/2004 11:31 Comments || Top||

#8  To .com:
Some friends and I have got a quote for flying a banner over San Diego If Kerry comes back.We are planning putting this on: FOR/AGAINST KERRY WAFFLES.This will be 7foot high letters and towed by plane for two hours.Input/ideas accepted.One version was a target with the statement:Throw your medals at this !!
Posted by: rich woods || 06/21/2004 11:47 Comments || Top||

#9  Take your monthly housing costs + food + utilities + mandatory auto insurance + medical + incidentals and make a real-life suggestion on what it should be. Unless a person is prepared to work 60-80 hours per week and walk 5-30 miles to work (most people commute a good distance, making a car & insurance a necessity), it is apparent that for many places in the country, anything in the $5.00-7.00 hr range isn't going to cut it. Theories and philosophies are useless in the face of real-life reality.

I sympathize with business owners but also with people who are unable to make ends meet while doing the right thing (working and not taking governmental support).
Posted by: jules 187 || 06/21/2004 11:58 Comments || Top||

#10  ima vote chris w. for prezident! :)
Posted by: muck4doo || 06/21/2004 12:05 Comments || Top||

#11  sorry, but the only people making minimum wage are high-school students, high-school dropouts, the uneducated, the illegals, or the truly unskilled.... tough times, indeed, but nobody's guaranteed a house, a car, etc. - you just might have to share living accomodations, take the bus,etc.
Posted by: Frank G || 06/21/2004 12:08 Comments || Top||

#12  sell drugs...break into peples houses...where there a will theres a way! :)
Posted by: muck4doo || 06/21/2004 12:17 Comments || Top||

#13  Chris, You can buy my vote for $40/hr.....

In truth SKerry is only trying to buy the vote of 18YOs are are just joining the workforce. The fact that raising the MW would lower jobs hardly ever gets mentioned. Some of these people would be literally voting themselves out of a job.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 06/21/2004 12:32 Comments || Top||

#14  sorry, but the only people making minimum wage are high-school students, high-school dropouts, the uneducated, the illegals, or the truly unskilled.... tough times, indeed, but nobody's guaranteed a house, a car, etc. - you just might have to share living accomodations, take the bus,etc.

mr G those the peopoles that need $32.45 an hour! you a cold cold man
Posted by: HalfJustVisiting || 06/21/2004 12:37 Comments || Top||

#15  $45
Posted by: Chris W. || 06/21/2004 12:50 Comments || Top||

#16  Frank G.
Yes a substantial portion of the minimum wage labor force is comprised of illegal immigrants.

What that implies is that if we ended or even reduced illigal immigration, wage rates would rise.
Posted by: mhw || 06/21/2004 13:29 Comments || Top||

#17  The minimum wage is just a baseline cost for employers that props up the wage envelope for employees. I live in somewhat rural Northern California and NOBODY pays minimum wage to the employees. Even the illegals working the fields make better than minimum wage. They (Democrats) act like government needs to dictate wages rather than market values. This is a TOTALLY MADE UP issue that I hope the Republicans expose communists lefty Democrat party for what they are.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) || 06/21/2004 13:34 Comments || Top||

#18  Although I think the raise is reasonable (if you're going to have a minimum wage, you should at least adjust it to inflation), for Kerry to make this a campaign issue just shows that they are desparate for a platform. Bush should try and cancel it out with a 6.50 increase in 2005 and underscore it by saying it won't cost as many jobs. He really should ask "how does a raise in the min. wage HELP the economy?" or "what happens to the people currently making $7/hr?"
Posted by: BigMutha || 06/21/2004 13:39 Comments || Top||

#19  As I understand it, the real reason to raise the minimum wage is the number of union jobs set at $X above or Y times the minimum wage. Basically, Kerry's promising unions automatic raises.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 06/21/2004 13:48 Comments || Top||

#20  Ahhh yes, John F'n Kerry a man of the people
Posted by: Frank G || 06/21/2004 13:58 Comments || Top||

#21  Robert, I think you hit the nail on the head.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 06/21/2004 15:28 Comments || Top||

#22  You know what's so "cool" about raising the minimum wage? It's that for a little bitty while people think they're making more money! It's so neat, because by the time pricing has caught up with the wage line, everyone has forgotten all about it. It's the perfect campaign strategy! After the recession starts, Kerry can blame Bush for the bad economy. And people will believe him because he's the one that raised their paycheck, to start.

Question: what do we do about the fact that $7 don't cut it, in terms of trying just live? What about the street?


From the link on post (#20): "He (Kerry) also will rely on scientific leaders and expert advice when making decisions, the campaign said, and will allow stem cells to be researched in full under the appropriate ethical oversight."

"ethical (?) oversight"--oh sure, yeah, that's how it works . . .

With abortion industry profit dollars decreasing, Kerry will do something "good" for his contributors--Planned Parenthood, NARAL, etc. Brought to you by one of the (very) few Senators that voted to support partial birth abortion (D&X) .

What a guy.

Posted by: ex-lib || 06/21/2004 15:34 Comments || Top||

#23  FYI #22, Stem cell research is not banned in this country. Bush just won't allow any Federal $$$ to be used for the project. There is stem cell research being done by private companies. Care to bet that is will cost WAY less than if the Feds go involved?
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) || 06/21/2004 18:21 Comments || Top||

#24  Cyber Sarge: I have no trouble with stem cell research if conducted without the use of frozen human embryos (human beings). Don't know about government funding of research and the subsequent cost to the consumer. Comment?
Posted by: ex-lib || 06/21/2004 19:36 Comments || Top||


Rather gives better Lewinsky than Lewinsky
I would never have thought I would see the day when the NY Times beats the hell out of something The Clintons have done. They make this book sound worse than a bad comic book, they make it sound as they struggled to say anything "nice".

From what I have been reading, Dan Blather interview could be the best thing that happens to Clinton during the "Summer of Bill".

Very long, but RTWT as they say.
Posted by: Long Hair Republican || 06/21/2004 12:53:52 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The NYTimes has it in for Bill because there is residual feeling he betrayed left as President(example Welfare reform)and more importantly now,he doesn't attack Bush over Iraq.Don't attack Bush,no praise for you from NYTimes.
Posted by: Stephen || 06/21/2004 3:45 Comments || Top||

#2  Interesting speculation by Stephen.

A similar hypothesis could account for the very negative interview the BBC gave Clinton.
Posted by: mhw || 06/21/2004 7:53 Comments || Top||

#3  It is just a great rantburg day, NO?

First NMM aka DBT is defending the argument that someone should have done something to stop Pakistan and Saudi Arabia because there were LINKS! LINKS! I TELL YOU, between AQ and their countries. Bwahahahahhahaaaa! (Shhhh! they don't get that they are making mockeries of their reaction to the 9/11 commission).

Second...continuing today's theme of BJs...it is sooo fun watching the same crowd, whose only regret during the debacle that we called, "The Clinton Administration" was that they, themselves, could not BE Monica......

...trip all over themselves to turn on their beloved Clinton. Now that he's no longer any use to them politically, they are turning on him with a fury that the Right Wing Conspiracy could never have hoped to muster. The gruesome spectacle of them feeding on the corpse of what remains of the "Clinton Legacy" is grotesque, yet compelling to watch.
Posted by: B || 06/21/2004 7:58 Comments || Top||

#4  I forgot to give the URL for a news report on the BBC interview. It is:

Link
Posted by: mhw || 06/21/2004 8:38 Comments || Top||

#5  Jeez, mhw. That URL is so long that it has a vanishing point! :<)
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 06/21/2004 10:02 Comments || Top||

#6  use tinyurl.com to shrink it up, kids
Posted by: Frank G || 06/21/2004 10:04 Comments || Top||

#7  ..they are turning on him with a fury that the Right Wing Conspiracy could never have hoped to muster.

You forgot vast. V-A-S-T Right-Wing Conspiracy&trade, and don't you forget that. ;)
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 06/21/2004 11:15 Comments || Top||

#8  B and BAR- the NYT and Howell Raines were always negative on Clinton. They never forgave him for supporting welfare reform. Stephen is not only right, he understates the degree of loathing from the NYT towards Clinton.
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 06/21/2004 11:29 Comments || Top||

#9  LH - it can't be worse than my degree of loathing for the NYT. When I'm forced to think about them at all.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 06/21/2004 18:19 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
UN slams US over spending Iraq funds
United Nations-mandated auditors fresh from having concluded their investigation that showed no wrong doing by any member of the UN staff in the administration of the Food for Bribes Program have sharply criticised the US occupation authority for the way it has spent more than $11bn in Iraqi oil revenues and say they have faced "resistance" from coalition officials.
Didn’t Kofi tell them the UN was out of the loop on this one?
In an interim report, obtained by the Financial Times, KPMG
The same bunch of whores who can’t finish the oil for food audit. They learned the bribery lesson well from Kofi. Or was it the other way around?
says the Development Fund for Iraq, which is managed by the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority and channels oil revenue into reconstruction projects, is "open to fraudulent acts".
Unlike every public company whose books KPMG audits? Can KPMG demonstrate an accounting system that is not open to fraudulent acts? Can KPMG make a statement that is not a fraudulent act?
The auditors criticise the CPA’s bookkeeping and warn: "The CPA does not have effective controls over the ministries’ spending of their individually allocated budgets, whether the funds are direct from the CPA or via the ministry of finance."
Perhaps the UN should enact a version of Sarbanes Oxley for use in war zones.
The findings come after US complaints about the UN’s administration of the oil-for-food programme under Saddam Hussein.
What a coincidence!
According to the CPA, the Development Fund for Iraq has taken in $20.2bn since last May and has disbursed $11.3bn, with $4.6bn left in outstanding commitments. One adviser to a member of the recently disbanded Iraqi Governing Council
auditioning for a job on Iraq’s new UN delegation
said the report raised the fear that no audit of the CPA’s work would ever be completed. "If the auditors don’t finish by June 30, they never will, because the CPA staff are going home," he said. "I lament the lack of transparency and lack of involvement by Iraqis." The KPMG auditors are answerable to only their partners the International Advisory and Monitoring Board, set up by the UN Security Council
the same Security Council that wouldn’t vote for the war but does vote to nit pick all actions a day late
in May last year to oversee coalition spending from the development fund. The account contains oil revenues, frozen assets and money left over from the UN’s oil-for-food programme. The lapwatchdog comprises representatives of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and Arab Fund for Social and Economic Development. It spent much of last year battling with occupation administrators over the watchdog’s remit. Officials said they were able to begin working in earnest only after confirming deposits in their Swiss bank accounts in April. In their first interim report, KPMG said it had "encountered resistance from CPA staff". CPA staff told KPMG they were overworked and had given them a "low priority".
Sounds reasonable to me. Don’t the account staffs of all KPMG’s clients’ them this? We call it Response #1.
The UN decided this month that responsibility for the Development Fund for Iraq will pass to the Iraqi interim government and be monitored by the the IAMB. The panel also intends to widen its scrutiny of past CPA spending by examining reports and audits by the Pentagon’s inspector general and the General Accounting Office, an official said. IAMB officials were meeting in Paris on Monday and were not available for comment. Some of KPMG’s most damning criticisms were of the State Organisation for Marketing Oil, responsible for the sale of Iraq’s most crucial asset. Oil sales, which go into the US-controlled fund, have topped $10bn since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. Somo’s only record of barter transactions was "an independent database, derived from verbal confirmations gained by Somo staff", the report found. The CPA declined to address the KPMG report, saying only that it "has been and will continue to discharge its responsibilities under the Iraqi Development Fund". One Iraqi minister due to take office on June 30 told the FT he and many colleagues felt "let down by how the CPA has controlled resources".
Obviously the CPA is not paying enough bribes.
Posted by: Mr. Davis || 06/21/2004 7:23:51 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Looking for some more where the first came from, eh, Kofi? Must've bought big on installment payment plans
Posted by: Frank G || 06/21/2004 19:35 Comments || Top||

#2  I hope that the UN complains PIERCINGLY AT A REALLY HIGH VOLUME.
Posted by: Super Hose || 06/21/2004 22:40 Comments || Top||

#3  The auditors criticise the CPA’s bookkeeping...

At least they kept books.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 06/21/2004 22:52 Comments || Top||

#4  How would they even know what is going on? They all left for Cypress.
Posted by: Long Hair Republican || 06/21/2004 23:33 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran to ban water-pipe in public
Iranian officials have said that smoking the hubble-bubble, or water-pipe, will be banned in all restaurants and leisure places from Monday. The water-pipe is one of the most traditional instruments of relaxation and indulgence in the Middle East. In Iran, where it is known as the qalyoun, it has been at the centre of traditional culture for centuries. The sweet scent of fruit-flavoured tobacco wafting around restaurants and teahouses is a familiar part of any scene of public relaxation in Tehran. But not for long - if the authorities have their way. Police and public health officials will now be out and about making sure that this latest clampdown on public pleasure is fully applied. Restaurant owners and people caught smoking the qalyoun on their premises or in public places will be liable to fines and confiscation of the offending items. For a transitional period only, private rooms may be set aside for men only to indulge their habit. It is not clear quite why this highly popular, traditional and seemingly innocent pastime is being suppressed. Officially, it is to do with health - but cigarette smoking is still permitted in restaurants and elsewhere - and is generally regarded as much more harmful. The move comes amid preparations for a broader summer crackdown on what hardline officials here call "social corruption". This includes poor observance of Islamic dress codes and public morals, parties involving alcohol and the mingling of unmarried people from both sexes.

It is in this context that most people are bound to see the move to oust the hubble-bubble from public sight and scent, especially since young people have recently taken increasingly to gathering around the qalyoun to smoke and flirt. It remains to be seen how successful the drive will be in such a big country where the practice is so widespread. Qalyoun vendors complain that their sales have already been plummeting. But it is not illegal to sell the pipes or to use them at home, so the indulgence is certain at least to be kept alive where most Iranians have their real fun nowadays - behind closed doors.
How long is Mr Average Iranian going to put up with these asshats? Doubtless those RB’ers who chided me for defending smoking in public places will be delighted with the Mullahs’ actions.
Posted by: Howard UK || 06/21/2004 4:32:46 AM || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Just what the world needs, a bunch of "nic-fitting" Shiites!

Chalk up another pyric victory for "The Religion of No Fun Peace."
Posted by: Zenster || 06/21/2004 9:45 Comments || Top||

#2  During '96 & '97, We used to go down town in Kuwait City to the local Fudruckers (or was it Applebees?) on the gulf for a meal and a round of Shee-Sha pipe. Good stuff, the tobacco was like apple Beechnut, the smoke was produced by a piece of charcoal on top of the leafs. Good smoke, very relaxing. The Bongs we smoked were quite fancy, lots of carved brass and ornately colored glass. On a bet, I tried smoking a pinch of my Copenhagen at the Egyptian Bunk House; after my first (and only) puff, I saw Elvis, Jesus, and a few other notable characters before going into convulsions. Copenhagen. It's not just for breakfast anymore.
Posted by: Bodyguard || 06/21/2004 10:29 Comments || Top||

#3  halfempty going be pissed.
Posted by: muck4doo || 06/21/2004 10:38 Comments || Top||

#4  The next news flash out of Iran shall be 'Iran bans public breathing'!

Sing along ....'It's time for the mullahs to go.. go.. go.. go.. It's time for the mad mullahs to go.. go.. go.. go' :)
Posted by: Mark Espinola || 06/21/2004 10:41 Comments || Top||

#5  This ought to go over real big,the Hookah has been in use for hundreds of years.
Posted by: Raptor || 06/21/2004 10:47 Comments || Top||

#6  My mom confiscated my qalyoun back when I was in high school.
Posted by: Chris W. || 06/21/2004 11:34 Comments || Top||

#7  chris w i was a work on a silencer for my qalyoun but bubbles is tough to make quiet
this work was on non caviatating water pipe but the effort were growing out of scale of benefit

i may bring that back if i can remember which storage unit it in

i think prarie masker is stole from my original research
Posted by: HalfJustVisiting || 06/21/2004 12:43 Comments || Top||

#8  time to give the iranian people hand...4th id manuevers on border, take out silk worm's on strait of hormuz, a few iranian ships sunk and a few oil platforms..operatives through the porus border??..and see what the asshats do..if they escalate then take out the nuke centers...
Posted by: Dan || 06/21/2004 17:57 Comments || Top||


Syrian jailed for internet usage
Posted by: Howard UK || 06/21/2004 05:30 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  One can bet ASSad has a great computer system but the Syrian humanoids should be greatful to only read offical Ba'athist newspapers and like it ..or else.
Posted by: Mark Espinola || 06/21/2004 10:45 Comments || Top||


Caucasus
Russian Gov’t Building Seized Near Chechnya, Acting Minister Killed
In nearly simultaneous attacks, assailants armed with grenade- and rocket-launchers seized the Interior Ministry headquarters and police buildings in Ingushetia, a Russian region bordering warring Chechnya, local officials said Tuesday. Ingushetia’s acting Interior Minister was killed, and witnesses reported at least six other people dead. Emergency and military officials estimated 100 to 300 armed assailants were involved in the attacks, which took place in the city of Nazran and at least one village, Karabulak. An official from the Ingush Interior Ministry said it was not immediately clear who the attackers were, but said some of them were shouting "Allahu akhbar" -- a frequent cry of Chechnya’s separatist rebels as their insurgency increasingly comes under the influence of radical Islam.Hello? Allah Akhbar, hmm who could it be?? sheesh!

Fighting from the 4-year-old Chechen war has occasionally spilled into Ingushetia, highlighting the Russian military’s ineffectiveness against the rebels despite having heavier weapons and far superior manpower. But the latest attack comes after recent statements by separatist leaders indicating plans to step up military actions outside of Chechnya. In addition to the Interior Ministry building in Nazran, which was attacked late Monday, assailants seized police buildings in Karabulak, the Interior Ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Emergency officials in Rostov-on-Don said that the fighters had targeted border guard posts in Karabulak and Nazran, and that three Russian servicemen had been wounded.

Acting Ingush Interior Minister Abukar Koshtoyev was wounded in the first minutes of the fighting in Nazran and was taken to Vladikavkaz in neighboring North Ossetia, where he died, the Ingush Interior Ministry official said. A convoy of three ambulances later could be seen speeding into Vladikavkaz from Ingushetia. The ITAR-Tass news agency reported that the building of the border guard service in Nazran and an Interior Ministry warehouse in the city were on fire.

A three-man crew from Russia’s NTV television said they came upon some of the attackers at a border crossing as the crew tried to reach Nazran from neighboring North Ossetia. "Out of the dark, a voice says ’Stop, put your hands on the hood,’ said NTV correspondent Maxim Berezin. "A man carrying an automatic weapon came up. ’Who are you?’ ’We’re from NTV.’ He took a few steps back, as if to shoot us. "Then he said, ’Say that we are the Martyr’s Brigade,’ I don’t remember of whom, Abu, Alyua, I don’t remember what he said. ’We have shot everyone here. Go and announce that.’" Berezin said he was able to identify them as militants because they were wearing masks and were speaking accented Russian.Who wrote this article?! lol, yeah, mask, gun, tell ’em we’re the ’Martyr’s Brigade’...yep, them be militants.

In an interview on Radio Liberty last week, Chechnya’s separatist president, Aslan Maskhadov, said rebels were preparing to undertake new offensives. "We are planning to change tactics. Before, we concentrated our efforts on acts of sabotage, but soon we are planning to start active military actions," he said. Maskhadov’s foreign emissary, Akhmed Zakayev, was quoted Monday by the newspaper Kommersant as saying the decision was made at a rebel council this month after rebel commanders including Shamil Basayev demanded more resolute military action, including outside the borders of Chechnya. The last major rebel incursion into Ingushetia was in October 2002, when a band of fighters attacked Russian forces well inside the republic near the village of Galashki, killing 17 servicemen.
Posted by: TS(vice girl) || 06/21/2004 10:18:16 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Culture Wars
Federal judge compares Bush to Mussolini
By JOSH GERSTEIN, New York Sun
EFL
Well, at least it’s more original than "Bush = Hitler." Just as silly, but much more original.
"Busholini"?
A prominent federal judge has told a conference of liberal lawyers that President Bush’s rise to power was similar to the accession of dictators such as Mussolini and Hitler. “In a way that occurred before but is rare in the United States
 somebody came to power as a result of the illegitimate acts of a legitimate institution that had the right to put somebody in power. That is what the Supreme Court did in Bush versus Gore. It put somebody in power,” said Guido Calabresi, a judge on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, which sits in Manhattan. “The reason I emphasize that is because that is exactly what happened when Mussolini was put in by the king of Italy,” Judge Calabresi continued, as the allusion drew audible gasps from some in the luncheon crowd Saturday at the annual convention of the American Constitution Society. “The king of Italy had the right to put Mussolini in, though he had not won an election, and make him prime minister. That is what happened when Hindenburg put Hitler in.
"Urk. Excuse me while I remove my foot from my mouth."
I am not suggesting for a moment that Bush is Hitler.
"I said ’Mussolini,’ not ’Hitler.’ I’m not a moonbat, really. Don’t lump me in with the ’Bush = Hitler’ crowd."
I want to be clear on that, but it is a situation which is extremely unusual,” the judge said. Judge Calabresi, a former dean of Yale Law School, said Mr. Bush has asserted the full prerogatives of his office, despite his lack of a compelling electoral mandate from the public. “When somebody has come in that way, they sometimes have tried not to exercise much power. In this case, like Mussolini, he has exercised extraordinary power. He has exercised power, claimed power for himself; that has not occurred since Franklin Roosevelt who, after all, was elected big and who did some of the same things with respect to assertions of power in times of crisis that this president is doing,” he said. The 71-year-old judge declared that members of the public should, without regard to their political views, expel Mr. Bush from office in order to cleanse the democratic system.
Judge Moonbat Calabresi has drawn some harsh critiques from the legal end of the blogosphere. The Instapundit delivers a relatively gentle rebuke:
From a federal appeals judge, Guido’s remarks (assuming they have been correctly reported) are not only tendentious and inflammatory, but will serve to further encourage those who call the federal courts politicized and overweeningly liberal.
Prof. Eugene Volokh is not so soft:
Hitler’s and Mussolini’s faults did not include Bush’s supposed fault. Bush’s faults do not include Hitler’s and Mussolini’s faults. The supposed analogy that Judge Calabresi is making thus seems to have no basis at all. . . . So what possible legitimate role does the analogy to Hitler and Mussolini have here?
The Curmudgeonly Clerk (another lawblogger) notes:
. . . Judge Calabresi’s remarks go too far. His speech constitutes an unambiguous violation of the Code of Conduct [for United States Judges]. He has improperly publicly declared opposition to a specific political candidate (and thereby implicitly endorsed another). Such brazen politicking from members of the federal bench cannot be tolerated.
Jonah Goldberg astutely notes:
. . . demanding a popular uprising to "cleanse" the decadent democratic system in order to sweep your side into power is itself an argument a great many fascists would find very familiar.
So who’s Il Duce now?
Posted by: Mike || 06/21/2004 6:45:27 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Problem is, Bush was not 'placed in power' by the supreme court but was elected. It was a fair, open, and honest election and the winner of the election was George W. Bush.

The supremes only ruled that the election was proper and not 'stolen'. They did not rule that Bush was the winner or 'put someone in power'. There is a large difference.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 06/21/2004 19:11 Comments || Top||

#2  CF - that argument was fought/won long ago - anything more is revisionism by losers (losers in all sense of the word)
Posted by: Frank G || 06/21/2004 19:22 Comments || Top||

#3  I read a story about how to fix manual recount elections by rehandling ballots until the chads fall out an invalidate the ballots. Its been a sucessful strategy for the DNC in several California elections. One DNC operative, is quoted as having said that he could win any election that is within 100 votes. My guess is that Hitler or Mussolini would have whole-heartedly adopted that methodology. Why would it be wrong to stop a group of crooks enegaged in that type of game?

As Calabresi studied Hitler, is it possible that he ran across this quote? - "By means of shrewd lies, unremittingly repeatedly, it is possible to make people beleive that heaven is hell - and hell heaven."
Posted by: Super Hose || 06/21/2004 23:32 Comments || Top||


You VILL Show Us Your Papers!
Posted by: Mercutio || 06/21/2004 14:32 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  cingold? What do you think about this?
Posted by: ex-lib || 06/21/2004 19:45 Comments || Top||

#2  This decision is crap.

It smacks of police state type activity.

I absolutely cannot fathom why the government can demand your identity and jail you for not providing it, in the absence of a crime or reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. The police shoudl at least have to tell you why you were stopped or pulled aside to be identified PRIOR to demanding your ID. Kind of like the Miranda warning.
Posted by: OldSpook || 06/21/2004 22:28 Comments || Top||

#3  This represents the complete repudiation of a law abiding citizen's right to privacy.

NO ONE should have to produce personal identification if there does not exist any sort of "probable cause" to associate them with an existing crime. Our nation is spiraling towards, perhaps not an "Orwellian" police state, but idiocy, at least.

I'm with you, OldSpook.
Posted by: Zenster || 06/22/2004 0:44 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Tech
THEY DID IT!!! - Private rocket ship breaks space barrier
EFL
MOJAVE, Calif. - The SpaceShipOne rocket plane soared high above the Earth on Monday, becoming the first privately developed craft to go into space. SpaceShipOne took off from the Mojave Airport, nestled beneath its White Knight carrier plane, at about 6:45 a.m. PT, sailing up into the clear desert sky. About an hour later, at an altitude of almost 50,000 feet, the White Knight released its companion craft, and SpaceShipOne test pilot Mike Melvill lit up his rocket engine for a 70-second straight-up blast. About 15 minutes later, officials announced that Melvill and SpaceShipOne had done it, reaching an altitude of at least 62 miles (100 kilometers), the internationally recognized boundary of outer space. At around 8:15 a.m. PT, SpaceShipOne glided safely back to Earth, landing back at the Mojave Airport.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam || 06/21/2004 11:33:33 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.


--John Gillespie Magee, Jr., 1941

Posted by: Mike || 06/21/2004 13:15 Comments || Top||

#2  Too cool! And more than a little ironic, looking at today's news. On one hand we have Islamonauts trying to drag us back into the 7th century and on the other, we have private citizen Astronauts trying to fly us into the future.

I know whose side I'm on.
Posted by: SteveS || 06/21/2004 13:39 Comments || Top||

#3  All we need now are a FLIR and pyrex encased HellFires.

Demand a Lettre of Reprisal!
Posted by: Shipman || 06/21/2004 13:56 Comments || Top||

#4  About time.
Posted by: Chris W. || 06/21/2004 15:38 Comments || Top||

#5  *cues up Steppenwolfe's Magic Carpet Ride.
Posted by: Anonymous4021 || 06/21/2004 15:50 Comments || Top||

#6  The Byrds: Eight Miles High
Posted by: mojo || 06/21/2004 17:43 Comments || Top||

#7  Lenny Kravitz, "Fly Away"
Foo Fighters, "Learn To Fly"
James Horner, "The Launch" (Apollo 13 soundtrack).
. . . and for those with really large LP collections:
Moody Blues, "Higher and Higher" (To Our Children's Children's Children)
Pink Floyd, "Fearless" (Meddle) and "The Gold It's In The . . . " (Obscured By Clouds;)
Posted by: Mike || 06/21/2004 18:14 Comments || Top||

#8  Van Hagar (Van Halen)

Higher and Higher (Thats what dreams are made of) - the old vid with the Blue Angels.
Posted by: OldSpook || 06/21/2004 22:22 Comments || Top||

#9  Fearless and Higher work for me...congrats Rutan and team!
Posted by: Frank G || 06/21/2004 22:25 Comments || Top||


Central Asia
Turkmen President Asks Not to Praise Him
Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov, who has built a vast personality cult, on Monday asked government officials not to stop praising him. "I have a request: don't praise me. I even feel uncomfortable appearing at various meetings and events," Niyazov told a Cabinet meeting. "It upsets me that I'm the only one who gets credit for all Turkmenistan's achievements. In fact, they belong to the entire Turkmen people," Niyazov said.
No praise, just worship as a living god.
Last month, in a surprise move, Niyazov ordered removal of his portraits from administrative buildings. No reason was given. But a new bronze and stone monument depicting Niyazov taking an oath as president was unveiled Monday in front of the parliament building in the capital Ashgabat to mark 12 years since his inauguration as the nation's leader as an independent country. Niyazov, has ruled 1985 in this former Soviet republic and prefers to be called Turkmenbashi, or "the Father of all Turkmens." He has made himself the central element of independent Turkmen national culture. His image is inescapable in the capital Ashgabat, with dozens of billboards and monuments to him adorning virtually every street corner. Niyazov's golden statue in Ashgabat's main square rotates to always face the sun. His face is on the country's currency and his golden profile is the national television's logo, adorning the television screen. There are more then a dozen Niyazov's monuments around Ashgabat. The new one is next to a similar monument in front of the Defense Ministry building.
Such a modest man.
Posted by: Steve || 06/21/2004 12:54:01 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  He probably just had a nice cup of soothing pine-needle tea with Kimmie.
Posted by: Seafarious || 06/21/2004 13:08 Comments || Top||

#2  Muslim's instinctively need an Icon to look up to. Since Turkey is a democracy, I would guess that the people chose Niyazov. Whether he wanted it or not isn't the question, it's that the people give him the praise willingly.
Posted by: Charles || 06/21/2004 14:48 Comments || Top||

#3  Ummm Charles, Turkey and Turkmenistan are different countries...
Posted by: Frank G || 06/21/2004 14:52 Comments || Top||

#4  Perhaps Charles instinctively needs to read carelessly. ;-)

Turkmenistan ranks about to the level of North Korea, as to how democratic it is. It's one of the old Soviet Union break-away states, Charles, next to Uzbekistan.
Posted by: Aris Katsaris || 06/21/2004 15:11 Comments || Top||

#5  Very funny Aris. Honest mistake, not that you've ever made one of those.
Posted by: Charles || 06/21/2004 19:07 Comments || Top||

#6  Sounds like him and Kimmie drink out of the same water fountain.
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/21/2004 19:54 Comments || Top||

#7  LOL! An honest one? I'm remember back a year or so ago.... :)
Posted by: Shipman || 06/21/2004 19:56 Comments || Top||

#8  meant no teasing, Charles....
Posted by: Frank G || 06/21/2004 20:04 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Tech
Historic rocket powered by rubber fuel
EFL
Hybrid ingredients easier to use and less toxic
... But the fuel in SpaceShipOne’s tank is about as exotic as the spacecraft’s design. SpaceShipOne, set to be the first nongovernmental crewed vehicle to reach space, uses a combination of rubber and nitrous oxide — also known as laughing gas — as the powerhouse for test flights and an anticipated suborbital spaceshot set for June 21. "These are all state-of-the-art technologies," Jim Benson, founding chairman and chief executive of SpaceDev, said of SpaceShipOne’s fuel process. "It’s a very stable and nontoxic system." Based in Poway, Calif., SpaceDev is responsible for refueling SpaceShipOne after each flight as well as providing crucial elements of its hybrid rocket engine, a cross between traditional liquid and solid rocket motors ...

A rubbery fuel
Rocket propellants come in two parts, fuel and oxidizer, which work together to keep an engine burning. SpaceShipOne burns a material called hydroxy-terminated polybutadiene, or HTPB — a common ingredient in tire rubber — as fuel, with nitrous oxide serving as the oxidizer. According to press statements by Scaled, the combination was chosen for SpaceShipOne after a lengthy study into potential engine systems. The propellant comes together in an 8-foot (2.4-meter) combustion chamber, where the liquid oxidizer is converted into a gas, then ignited by small pyros to start the engine. SpaceShipOne pilots can shut down the vehicle’s engine by closing a valve through which nitrous oxide enters the fuel chamber.
And a lusty cheer for these aerospace pioneers. Such skill and engineering prowess is a delight to behold. If ever the old cliché was called for, it is now: ONLY IN AMERICA!
Posted by: Zenster || 06/21/2004 11:53:19 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Brought to you by American Small Business. Now I hope to see the private Canadian, Texan, English, Romanian, Russian, and Argentine groups get their crafts into the air in the next few weeks.
Posted by: Secret Master || 06/21/2004 12:14 Comments || Top||

#2  The system also touts a somewhat cleaner way to reach space. Its byproducts — water vapor, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen..

Uh oh. Watch out, CARB will probably have to decide whether the vehicle should undergo a Smog Check before each flight... ;)
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 06/21/2004 12:43 Comments || Top||

#3  Nitrous Oxide. Coming to a lawnmower near you.
Posted by: Zpaz || 06/21/2004 12:49 Comments || Top||

#4  ------->
LOL. Check out the ads. "Low prices on rockets." "Hmmm, got any Saturn V's in the back Charley?" "Dunno, Lemme check...Nope, but I can strap a couple of Redstones together, will that do her?"
Posted by: Zpaz || 06/21/2004 12:56 Comments || Top||

#5  Ads? I've got "Everything Cincinnati", "Dancin' James Brown Doll", an ad for the audio version of "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot", and one simply titled "News".
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 06/21/2004 14:25 Comments || Top||

#6  Follow the link for the story & comments page vice the main rantburg page. The ads change often.
Posted by: Zpaz || 06/21/2004 14:40 Comments || Top||

#7  Cheap fuel that works? NASA may have just found a way to cut expenses.
Posted by: Charles || 06/21/2004 14:51 Comments || Top||

#8  Fred MacMurray wasn't hanging around, was he?
Posted by: mojo || 06/21/2004 15:43 Comments || Top||

#9  Blame the BATF, you see when they started to play with the High power rocket people somebody started to play around with hybrid motors. You see when they said APCP was a regulated explosive the race was on to find something unregulated. Hybrid motors will burn about anything that burns. My personal favorite was when some folks in CA used a salami as fuel.
Posted by: bruce || 06/21/2004 17:28 Comments || Top||

#10  Damn straight Bruce!

I need motors!
If you won't sell them to me
I will build the damn things and
you won't like that!

Ima no call FAA anymore unless BATF makes nice.
Posted by: Shipman || 06/21/2004 17:34 Comments || Top||

#11  If you want rocket stuff see http://www.aeroconsystems.com
You can get a computer program to design your own hybrid motors.
Posted by: bruce || 06/21/2004 20:33 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
President Announces Controversial New Educational Initiative
Posted by: tipper || 06/21/2004 11:11 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa: Subsaharan
Aids ’killing Africa’s thugs soldiers’
Aids is the leading cause of death in military and police forces in Africa, according to research. A study carried out by scientists in Nigeria says Aids could now be responsible for more than half the deaths in these services. The researchers interviewed about 500 Nigerian naval officers. Almost a third of those interviewed admitted having had sex with prostitutes, with nearly a half saying they did not use a condom. Many knew how HIV was transmitted, but more than 50% thought a cure for Aids was already available. The research was published in the Biomedcentral Public Health Journal.

Lifestyle link
In further work the scientists also reviewed much of the available data on HIV in the military. According to the scientists, this type of lifestyle - being posted away from partners for long periods of time - encourages soldiers to have sex elsewhere and has lead to HIV being a major problem in many African countries. Discussions are already under way between naval authorities and doctors to address the problem. Tackling the issue in the military, the authors say, is one of the most realistic ways of controlling the spread of HIV across Nigeria. The country has one of the world’s highest numbers of people living with the Aids virus, according to Nigeria’s health minister. Eyitayo Lambo has said that some 2.3m Nigerians had already died from Aids, while 3.8m were HIV positive. Only South Africa and India have more people infected with HIV.
Does this article strike anyone else as not a little disingenuous?

Why is there no mention of mass rape being a common practice among African military men? Gang rape would certainly vector HIV more quickly than even an active prostitute could on her best night.

I suppose it would be culturally insensitive of me to suggest such a thing or expect there to be any outcry and condemnation regarding it. Can anybody tell that I’m just dripping with sympathy for all these uniformed thugs who have acquired themselves a one-way ticket to Hell?

If only they were unable to further transmit this plague, their punishment would be ultimately fitting. Sadly, there exists the horrific misconception that sex with a virgin will cure HIV.

There also exists a distorted belief in some Asian and African countries that having sex with a virgin will cure HIV. (These notions are unfounded and false. In fact, the average rate for HIV infected children rescued from brothels is 50 percent, and some rates are as high as 90 percent.)

One can only dread to think of how many more child rapes will result from all these soldiers being diagnosed as HIV positive. Again, no mention of such "culturally insensitive" information like this which might lessen any sympathy for what has to be some of the most brutally criminal armies in the world.

At some point this sort of biased reporting crosses the line and begins facilitating the crimes they fail to document accurately.
Posted by: Zenster || 06/21/2004 10:29:21 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  You dont get it. Mass Rape, Gang-rape, murder, etc... are all perfectly ok in the eyes of the BBC/CNN/NBC/CBS/ABC/etc.... as long as it is being comitted by Muslims.

Just look at what they are reporting....
Posted by: CrazyFool || 06/21/2004 11:53 Comments || Top||

#2  It isn't all Muslims: see Liberia and Sierra Leone. And the networks seem to offer a "tut-tut, but what do you expect," so long as the perps and victims are brown or black. I guess that kind of news doesn't sell enough soap.
Posted by: James || 06/21/2004 12:34 Comments || Top||

#3  I think it's quite clear that BushHitlerChaneyHalliburonRightWingFoxMediaCorporateWhores already have the cure for AIDS and are keeping it from Africans because they have brown skin and everyone knows that blah blah blah blah blah...

/LLL
Posted by: Chris W. || 06/21/2004 12:36 Comments || Top||

#4  Nah. Pretend you're a reporter. Where do you want to be stationed? London or Freetown? Right. Instant news bias.

And we might as well face it; a large fraction of Americans are content with tabloid-journalism. Some of us want more; so we go to places like Rantburg or roundups of Liberian news reports to find things that not even the BBC bothers to notice. (And the BBC, for all its biases, provides an order of magnitude more Africa news than my local newspaper.)

Does racism play a role in reporting? Maybe not, but the value of an overseas story does seem to correlate with the race of the participants. You can explain it in terms of connections instead or racism. Most of us have more connections to people and events in richer countries; so stories from those countries will get more audience bang for the buck (unless there's lots of blood involved).

But back to the story at hand: armies are proving to be very effective at spreading AIDS, whatever else they do. There are several kinds of armies, of course. I suspect gang rape is more common in the militias and fighting units, and stealing women to bring along for cooking and sex. The garrison troops seem more likely to use prostitutes and pick up a new woman for cooking and sex at each redeployment--less likely to go in for rape. I don't have hard numbers, but that's the impression I get from reports.

Posted by: James || 06/21/2004 14:14 Comments || Top||

#5  ...misconception that sex with a virgin will cure HIV --- natural selection at work.
Posted by: virginian || 06/21/2004 14:15 Comments || Top||

#6  except that it leads to exposure of innocent little girls to rape and HIV
Posted by: Frank G || 06/21/2004 14:16 Comments || Top||

#7  You dont get it. Mass Rape, Gang-rape, murder, etc... are all perfectly ok in the eyes of the BBC/CNN/NBC/CBS/ABC/etc.... as long as it is being comitted by Muslims.

I guess that's their version of tolerance.
Posted by: eLarson || 06/21/2004 14:17 Comments || Top||

#8  except that it leads to exposure of innocent little girls to rape and HIV

Someone should really gather together those who want to be protected from harm into a giant camp and gaurd it with a militia. I'm sure they're plenty of decent men, who if armed right, would defend the camp to the death. Not to mention teaching the women to fight back would help.

Of course, all this is just a dream for me. It would take years of planning, Government approval, supplies, ect that would have to be diverted from elsewhere, like the UN programs. And that will never happen.
Posted by: Charles || 06/21/2004 14:39 Comments || Top||

#9  And we might as well face it; a large fraction of Americans are content with tabloid-journalism.

This is one of the most damning aspects of modern American culture. That people even read rags like The Inquirer and The Star, much less actually believe them is a searing indictment of our nation's educational system.

... except that it leads to exposure of innocent little girls to rape and HIV

Thank you, Frank G, for making sure that compassion wasn't lost amongst the recriminations. My deeply cynical attitude about African politics has led me think that AIDS may almost be necessary to eradicate the viciously chauvinist culture of male privilege that continues to plague that continent. The corrupt and often tribal mentality that drives so much of their genocide and abuse must be stopped somehow and it looks like only an epidemic will achieve such an end.
Posted by: Zenster || 06/21/2004 15:56 Comments || Top||

#10  People:
Ahem, there is no polite way to say this but the life span of the average adult in many portions of Africa is not really all that high to begin with. How can you be scared of a disease which will kill you in 12-15 years (Africans are generally tougher than we are) when you don't figure you're going to live more than another six anyhow? You add to that fact things like the government of Zimbabwe passing out pamplets which tell their population that AIDS is a myth the white man cooked up....
Posted by: Secret Master || 06/21/2004 18:50 Comments || Top||


Report: Zimbabwe Backtracks on Land Plan
President Robert Mugabe's government said it would honor ownership rights to land bought on the property market, backtracking on previous announcements it would nationalize all farmland, according to a state newspaper report. Citing a letter by Foreign Ministry official Joe Bimha to Zimbabwe embassies abroad, the Sunday Mail reported that the government would be nationalizing only the land it had seized under its land reform program. "The correct position is that all land acquired under the current phase of the land reform program now reposes to the state," Bimha was quoted as saying.
Which is all the good stuff.
The report clarifies a June 8 statement by Land Reform Minister John Nkomo that title deeds to all productive land were being abolished and replaced with 99-year state-issued leases. Nkomo's statement raised fears of massive new seizures of farms, industrial holdings, private properties and even homes. "In the end, there shall be no such thing as Zimbabwe private land," Nkomo had said.
"All ownership will repose with the king..."
But Bimha said only land seized by the state, including more than 5,000 farms confiscated from former white owners for redistribution to new black farmers, was being nationalized. "With respect to land falling outside this category, the applicable constitutional provisions (of ownership) remain valid," he was quoted as saying. Mugabe argues redistribution is needed to redress British colonial injustices, when much of the best farmland was settled by whites. About 200,000 black families have been allocated land under the government program, most for small-scale farming. Scores of others have bought commercial farms. Critics of the redistribution program say much of the best farmland has been allocated to Mugabe's cronies thug-boys crooks syncophants supporters and is currently underutilized or lying fallow.
Posted by: Steve White || 06/21/2004 1:20:43 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:



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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.

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In no particular order...
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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2004-06-21
  Iran detains UK naval vessels
Sun 2004-06-20
  Algerian Military Says Nabil Sahraoui Toes Up
Sat 2004-06-19
  Falluja house blast kills 20 Iraqis
Fri 2004-06-18
  U.S. hostage beheaded
Thu 2004-06-17
  Turks Nab Four In Nato Summit Bomb Plot
Wed 2004-06-16
  Hosni shuffles off mortal coil?
Tue 2004-06-15
  Zarqawi sez jihad's not going great
Mon 2004-06-14
  Somali charged in plot to blow up Ohio mall
Sun 2004-06-13
  Iran sez no to nuke oversight
Sat 2004-06-12
  Brahimi hangs it up?
Fri 2004-06-11
  Dagestani Duma turns down ban on Wahhabism
Thu 2004-06-10
  UN experts find evidence of WMD
Wed 2004-06-09
  Boom in Cologne
Tue 2004-06-08
  Yargulkhels get 24 hours to surrender Nek
Mon 2004-06-07
  Sacred Sadr arms depot kabooms


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