Reprinted below is one for the conspiricy loons.
In one line of inquiry that could improve future responses, some scientists were studying linkages between the freeway collapse and how the World Trade Center came down on Sept. 11, 2001.
The structural failures appear similar, said David McCallen, division leader in nonproliferation, homeland and international security at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. So he's in on the conspiracy, too!
The steel supporting the overpass turned pliable after the gasoline-fed fire below reached temperatures up to 2,000 degrees - more than four times as hot as the hottest conventional home oven. Pliable. The engineering term is plastic. Not melted. Whaddaya say, Rosie?
This is the second time in history that fire's melted steel, huh?
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/01/2007 06:21 ||
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#1
It doesn't need to melt. As my brother, the PhD puts it:
All you have to do is weaken the bolts that hold the trusses to the verticle beams. That doesnt take long at all nor does it take a temperature anywhere near the melting point of steel. There is a Martinsitic phase transformation several hundred degrees below the melting point. It is a displacive transformation, which means it will cause buckling of the beams and bolts. Once that happens, buh-bye.
Steel expands 1.2 cm per meter at 1000 degrees. A ten foot I beam becomes 3.6 cm longer, about an inch and a half. No rivet or bolt is designed with that sort of give.
#2
One other thing, when a steel beam gets hot enough it starts to sag. The more it sags the greater the stress on the connectpoints. They will fail.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
05/01/2007 11:45 Comments ||
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#3
I wonder if Rosie has ever worked in a steel mill? Or watched a story about it on the History Channel? Or driven through Gary on the Indiana Toll Road? Or, . . .
#7
The truly pathetic thing is that the other idiots women on that show never disagreed with her, so they must be just as stupid. The only one whose name I know is Barbara Wawa Walters.
Oh, wait....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/01/2007 16:43 Comments ||
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#8
Why are so many people intellectually incapable of understanding that the supports are already under great stress because they are maintaining the structure and if weakened by fire can collapse suddenly and powerfully? Is it total ignorance of physics (acceleration is constant downward even when velocity is zero) or just an irresistable lust to believe in conspiracy theories?
#9
barbara, the other women where no match for the 300 lb beast. hell the men on the set would have had a hard time whooping her loud mouth ass, much less if you argued she would just talk longer
It's been 26 years since My materials class, but I thought you could only get martinsite from austenite, which has a higher temperature (though still not "melted.")
#12
Fire heats the steel, whether it be in the bolts, supports, or the beams holding up the concrete roadway. The yield point of steel gets less and less until it becomes hot enough to stretch under load stress, like taffy, then the whole thing comes down. Gasoline does that to things, ya know, when it burns and makes heat. That's it.
That's why steel beams are fireproofed in high rises. Bad things happen when 20 stories above start listing when the structural steel columns start to buckle under heat. Jeeze louise.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/01/2007 22:28 Comments ||
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The High Court (HC) yesterday granted bail for two months to detained Sylhet City Corporation Mayor Badar Uddin Ahmed Kamran in connection with the kitchen market graft case. Granting the bail, a division bench comprising Justice Nozrul Islam Chowdhury and Justice SM Emdadul Haque issued a rule upon the government to explain why he should not be granted regular bail.
Army-led joint forces arrested Kamran, also city Awami League president, on April 6. Ekramur Reza, an assistant inspector of the now-defunct Bureau of Anti-Corruption, had filed the case with Kotwali Police Station, Sylhet, on May 8, 2003. According to the case, the mayor in connivance with others leased out the city's Shibganj kitchen market, "violating the rules and misappropriating about Tk 23.5 lakh", for construction of the market.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/01/2007 00:00 ||
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BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia's younger brother Maj (retd) Saeed Iskandar yesterday disclosed that he was made a vice-president of the party by the chief, amid widespread speculation that her stay abroad might be prolonged if she goes to Saudi Arabia for Umrah. Nazrul Islam Khan, joint secretary general of BNP, told The Daily Star yesterday, "Iskandar was made a vice-president on January 10 but we could not disclose the matter formally as the government has a ban imposed on politics."
With Saeed Iskandar's induction, the number of vice-presidents in BNP now stands at 15, although the party constitution limits the number within 12. Other vice-presidents are -- Emran Ali Sarkar, Tariqul Islam, Justice TH Khan, LK Siddique, Nazmul Huda, Begum Sarwari Rahman, Rabeya Chowdhury, Chowhdury Kamal Ibne Yusuf, Shawkat Ali, MK Anwar, Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, Shahjahan Siraj, Hafiz Uddin Ahmed, and Mohammad Nurul Huda.
A party source said Khaleda Zia decided to appoint her brother as a vice-president within the last few days during her meetings with party leaders at her cantonment residence as she is 'facing tremendous pressure' for leaving the country.
The schedule for her departure however has not been finalised yet as she has not gotten a visa for entering the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. According to the source, Saeed Iskandar will take up the charge of acting chairperson of the party if Khaleda is to leave for Saudi Arabia and if she is to stay there for a prolonged period. Iskandar however told reporters that he is not ready to take up the responsibility during the party chairperson's visit to Saudi Arabia. BNP leaders said Khaleda will leave for Saudi Arabia after the ban on indoor politics is lifted, in spite of the 'tremendous pressure' on her for going abroad.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/01/2007 00:00 ||
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In the first-ever verdict in a case filed by the reformed Anti-corruption Commission (ACC), a Narayanganj court yesterday sentenced, in absentia, former Awami League (AL) lawmaker Shamim Osman to three years' imprisonment for not submitting wealth statements to the commission.
Included in the ACC's first list of suspected corrupt people, Osman was ordered in February by the commission to submit his, his wife's and wards' wealth statements. Senior Special Judge Abdul Kuddus Mia of Narayanganj district court delivered the verdict yesterday in a packed courtroom and the entire area cordoned off by security personnel. The verdict stated that Osman is guilty of not submitting the statement of his, his wife's and wards' moveable and immovable assets as ordered by the ACC.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/01/2007 00:00 ||
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BARCELONA Venezuela President Hugo Chavez's government took over Venezuela's last privately run oil fields Tuesday, intensifying a power struggle with international companies over the world's largest known petroleum deposit.
Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez declared that the fields had reverted to state control just after midnight. State television showed cheering workers in hard hats raising the flags of Venezuela and the national oil company over a refinery and four drilling fields in the Orinoco River basin.
Chavez, a strident critic of the U.S. and a leader of the leftist movement in Latin America, traveled to the refinery for a ceremony with red-clad oil workers on May Day, the international workers' holiday. The military planned a fly-over by Russian-made fighter jets.
While the state takeover had been planned for some time, BP PLC, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., France's Total SA and Norway's Statoil ASA remain locked in a struggle with the Chavez government over the terms and conditions under which they will be allowed to stay on as minority partners.
All but ConocoPhillips signed agreements last week agreeing in principle to state control, and ConocoPhillips said Tuesday that it too was cooperating.
Analysts say the companies have leverage because Venezuela's state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA, cannot transform the Orinoco's tar-like crude into marketable oil without their investment and experience.
"They're hoping ... that as time passes Chavez will realize he needs them more than they need him," said Michael Lynch, an analyst at Winchester, Massachusetts-based Strategic Energy and Economic Research. He predicted most oil companies with the possible exception of Exxon Mobil would stay.
Multinationals pumping oil elsewhere in Venezuela, one of the leading suppliers of oil to the United States, submitted to state-controlled joint ventures last year because they were reluctant to abandon the profitable operations.
Chavez says the state is taking a minimum 60-percent stake in the Orinoco operations, but he is urging foreign companies to stay and help develop the fields. They have until June 26 to negotiate the terms.
"The president has ordered us to assume full control of our oil sovereignty, and we are doing it," Ramirez said at the Jose heavy crude refinery near the eastern city of Barcelona.
An enormous Venezuelan flag was hung between two cranes at the refinery, and smaller flags flew from lamp posts. Red balloons were attached to power lines.
The oil companies, meanwhile, still needed convincing that Venezuela will be a good place to do business.
Chevron's future in Venezuela "will very much be dependent on how we're treated in the current negotiation," said David O'Reilly, chief executive of the San Ramon, California-based company. "That process is going to have a direct impact on our appetite going forward."
BP, Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips all say they're negotiating with Venezuela to determine ownership and compensation for their operations.
Jim Mulva, chairman and chief executive of ConocoPhillips, which has two projects in the oil-rich Orinoco River region and another offshore, has said he expects discussions to be completed by late June.
ConocoPhillips' Venezuelan operations account for roughly 4 percent of its daily worldwide production.
"ConocoPhillips has cooperated with the established transitional committees to ensure a safe, orderly transfer of operations," the company said in a statement Tuesday.
It added, "While discussions between ConocoPhillips and the Venezuelan government are ongoing, agreements have not been reached with respect to ConocoPhillips' future participation in these projects or the compensation the company will receive."
BP spokesman David Nicholas said the London-based company also was negotiating compensation for its 16.7 percent stake in the Cerro Negro heavy oil project in the Orinoco belt. The majority of that project is owned by Exxon Mobil and PDVSA.
In a conference call with analysts last week after reporting first-quarter earnings, Henry Hubble, Exxon Mobil's vice president of investor relations, said the company expected negotiations to continue "for some time." Hubble declined to speculate whether Exxon Mobil would continue to do business in Venezuela after such discussions are finished.
The stakes are high for both sides as Venezuela stands to surpass Saudi Arabia as the nation with the most reserves. If the big oil companies were to leave, Chavez says state firms from China, India and elsewhere can step in, but industry experts doubt they are qualified.
Chavez "is going to discover that nationalism is one thing, but money talks," Lynch said. "And I don't think he's going to be able to get more money out of the Orinoco or the foreign oil companies without being a lot nicer to them."
Pulling out would be damaging for the companies. They have invested more than $17 billion in the projects, now estimated to be worth $30 billion. Venezuela has indicated it is inclined to pay the lesser amount for taking over control with partial payment in oil and, some experts suspect, tax forgiveness.
Venezuela may still prove enticing because three-quarters of the world's proven reserves are already controlled by state monopolies.
Nationalization of the oil industry has been tried in Venezuela before, though with a different tack. Venezuela shut companies out of the oil sector completely between 1976 and 1992 before beginning a series of partial privatizations, which Chavez is now rolling back.
Chavez is also nationalizing electricity companies and the country's biggest telecommunications company, and has threatened to take over private hospitals if they continue raising prices for care. He says radical changes are needed to help the poor benefit more from the country's oil wealth.
#1
So... we can pretty much expect the flow of oil from Venezuela to creep to a trickle as the hardware and infrastructure goes to hell.
Congratulations, Chavez. Not many tinpot dictators can completely cut their own throat. Have a cuban cigar.
#6
Whoever decides to stay better never reveal how things run to the locals, better only have compiled code running on the computers controlling the refineries, better have some backdoor into those computers for when they get kicked out permanently, and better work on a "pay as you go" basis.
#7
The oil companies, meanwhile, still needed convincing that Venezuela will be a good place to do business.
Chavez is very chummy with Castro and ideologically about the same--commie. After the Cuban revolution, Castro expropriated stole American businesses. No reason to think Chavez will do things much differently.
Posted by: ed ||
05/01/2007 20:02 Comments ||
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BP PLC, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., France's Total SA and Norway's Statoil ASA remain locked in a struggle with the Chavez government over the terms and conditions under which they will be allowed to stay on as minority partners.
These fools should have planted satchel charges and blown the hardware to hell moments after Chavez's announcement. Any rebuild contracts would have to include reimbursement for the replacement cost of all that damaged equipment.
Assholes like Chavez cannot be trusted. It's like trying to befriend a scorpion.
Col. Vladimir Vetrov provided what French intelligence called the Farewell dossier. It contained documents from the KGB Technology Directorate showing how the Soviets were systematically stealing -- or secretly buying through third parties -- the radar, machine tools and semiconductors to keep the Russians nearly competitive with U.S. military-industrial strength through the '70s. In effect, the United States was in an arms race with itself.
So, now we're doing the same thing, only with China instead. Brilliant. If so, we'd damn well better be installing Trojan horses by the fistful.
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - President Hugo Chavez announced Monday he would formally pull Venezuela out of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, a largely symbolic move because the nation has already paid off its debts to the lending institutions.
"We will no longer have to go to Washington nor to the IMF nor to the World Bank, not to anyone," said the leftist leader, who has long railed against the Washington-based lending institutions. Chavez said he wanted to formalize Venezuela's exit from the two bodies "tonight and ask them to return what they owe us."
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/01/2007 00:00 ||
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#2
BUT-T-T, besides an "independent" IMF/WB-style regional bank for the states of the lower Americas, WAFF.com Poster > CHAVEZ WANTS MISSLES [wid help from IRAN?]article > CHAVEZ reportedly desires not only a viable potent Air Defense System [ADS]but also a Surface-to-Surface Missle System [SSMS] capable of a 124-mile range. Hugo wants Venezuela to be "independent" from anyone espec US-West/Euros. Posters - UNDERGROUND WMD RESEARCH by Chavez-ruled Venezuela cannot be ruled out via Chavez's ambitions???
#5
'Chevy' is cutting those 'strings' and burning those 'bridges' so fast, his nation may go Red even before "W" leaves office...the ultimate insult facing the administration.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday his Islamist-rooted government would seek early national elections on either June 24 or July 1 to resolve a standoff with the country's secular elite.
Erdogan's decision set the stage for a test of wills at the polls with the secularists, including the military that had threatened to intervene in the standoff over a presidential vote and sees itself as the guarantor of Turkey's secular system.
The secularist opposition has been demanding early national elections but Erdogan's ruling AK Party, which has presided over nearly five years of robust economic growth, is widely expected to win. The standoff has rattled Turkey's financial markets.
The opposition's boycott of the presidential vote in parliament prompted Erdogan to seek early national elections because it left the AK Party short of the required quorum to get its candidate, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, elected.
Posted by: ed ||
05/01/2007 19:18 ||
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Radio KOMMY, Pyongyang! Playin all the hits!
Pyongyang, April 30 (KCNA) -- The people of the DPRK still love to sing songs of the five revolutionary operas created in the early 1970s. The five revolutionary operas are the immortal classical masterpieces "The Sea of Blood","The Flower Girl", "The Story of a Nurse", "Tell the Story, Forest" and "The Song of Mt. Kumgang". Okay, this one goes out to Kimmy in Pyongyang...
The songs of these operas are all famous. ...or else.
Among them are "Song of the Sea of Blood", "The Flower Girl", "Dear General, Where Are You", "Song of Women's Emancipation", "Lone Azalea" and "Tell the Story, Swaying Forest". They have been widely known not only to the Korean people but to foreigners for their profound ideological contents and perfect artistic description. Like, wow, man. We was, like doin tree bark and Kimjongilia one time and heard "Dear General, Where Are You" and, like, we saw Kim Il Sung! Saw him, man!! It was, like, really fucked up... "Song of the Sea of Blood" reflects well in a popular style the burning hatred of the Korean people against Japanese imperialists which turned the country into the sea of blood, their firm determination to revenge upon the enemies a hundred and thousand fold, their confidence in the revolutionary victory and their ardent aspiration after building a new society. Yes, I can think of very few times where "burning hatred" has been as "reflected well in a popular style" as in "Song of the Sea of Blood". What say you, Roger?
In particular, "Dear General, Where Are You", the theme song of the revolutionary opera "The Story of a Nurse", represents the mental world of the heroine and servicepersons of the Korean People's Army who believed and followed only General Kim Il Sung in any adversity. It is thus loved by the officers and men of the KPA and people as a song of their conviction. Yep. We of the KPA listen to it ten, fifteen, twenty times a day. You do that, and strapping a twenty pound satchel charge on to jump on an Imperialist Yankee Dog tank and blow up doesn't seem like too bad of an idea.
For drawing people into philosophical thinking and preserving rich national emotion and unique characteristics, the plain songs of the five revolutionary operas are the valuable ideological, spiritual and cultural wealth of the Korean people. ...and Radio KOMMY plays them over and over and over again.
Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus said his country supports the position of the Estonian government in its recent moves related to the controversial Bronze Soldier monument, which was removed from central Tallinn Friday morning during two nights of rioting.
Speaking from the Vatican, where he was meeting with Pope Benedict XVI, the president said he was observing the developments in Tallinn with great concern.
The president's press service reported that Adamkus stressed that this exceptionally sensitive procedure of reburying the remains of World War II soldiers was being conducted observing international legal standards and paying due respect to the fallen.
However some Lithuanian politicians on April 28 had expressed fear that the riots that broke out in Tallinn over the removal of the Bronze Soldier monument would spread to Lithuania as well.
"The situation is very bad. What happened is no special provocation. The events are related to a certain interior policy of Russia, political competition. Any method must go to boost popularity. At the time when a peaceful demonstration was taking place in St. Petersburg, ultra-nationalists gathered to a meeting in Moscow. Their leader was making instigations to bomb Estonia down to hell, and the crowd was cheering. That is shocking," the Vakaru Ekspresas daily quotes member of the European Parliament Gintaras Didziokas saying.
In his opinion, Russia's response was inadequate and intolerable.
"They say they are the only fighters against fascists. That is absolutely wrong. But the Estonians are equally stubborn, failing to start a dialog with Russia over the disassembly of the monument. The Russians can really end diplomatic ties, anything can be expected from them. Russia has too much large-sized equity in Estonia, and the economical relations are much better than, say, with Lithuania," Didziokas said.
Russian ultra-nationalists screaming to "bomb Estonia to hell"? More at the link.
#1
Russians in Baltic states often have been living for decades in these countries without learning the language.
Now, it is a Lebanon-like situation triggered (like Hisballah in Lebanon - country within country), efifciently manipulating and pushing wild propaganda to drunken russian youths. Russian delegation came into Estonia not to meet officials but to instruct demonstrators, purpose = overthrow the government.
Idea of the USSR collapse has initially been to give the countries gasp of wild capitalism, anarchy and then take them back. This seems to work with current emigration of skilled people towards the West (prices now are like in EU, salaries 5-20 times less) and former communists regaining the power like in Lithuania.
#10
Let me get this straight:
It was this warm 1000 years ago and everything was fine. In fact the Vikings spread out all over the world. But now that it is happening again we are all going to die?
Posted by: Dar ||
05/01/2007 18:35 Comments ||
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M'Lady Sjofn (named after a Norse goddess) and I named our son Leif after Leif Ericsson, because, like the Leif of Old, he was a lad of the north (spawned above the Arctic Circle), and he knew where he was going, and he was tough.
In those ancient days, the Vikings weren't wussified, and did not know what PC was. Yeah, the got carried away sometimes, but they went places and did things. Across the hostile north Atlantic in pretty small boats. They took advantage of Global Warming, not beat their gums about it. And their CO2 producing bonfires were second to none. Hear that, Utility Bill Al?
it may be that the primary difference between the two is basically that Cunningham was a minor leaguer and a lot dumber than his states senior senator.
And how many years did Duke get in the slammer?
By David Keene
April 30, 2007
Anyone who knows much about real power in Congress knows that almost every member of the House and Senate lusts after a seat on the Appropriations Committee and hopes one day to achieve the status of Cardinal. The Cardinals, of course, are the folks who chair the various Appropriations Committee subcommittees and literally control the billions of dollars that pass through their hands.
California Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D) chairs the Senate Rules Committee, but shes also a Cardinal. She is currently chairwoman of the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies subcommittee, but until last year was for six years the top Democrat on the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies (or Milcon) sub-committee, where she may have directed more than $1 billion to companies controlled by her husband.
If the inferences finally coming out about what she did while on Milcon prove true, she may be on the way to morphing from a respected senior Democrat into another poster child for congressional corruption.
The problems stem from her subcommittee activities from 2001 to late 2005, when she quit. During that period the public record suggests she knowingly took part in decisions that eventually put millions of dollars into her husbands pocket the classic conflict of interest that exploited her position and power to channel money to her husbands companies.
In other words, it appears Sen. Feinstein was up to her ears in the same sort of shenanigans that landed California Rep. Randy Duke Cunningham (R) in the slammer. Indeed, it may be that the primary difference between the two is basically that Cunningham was a minor leaguer and a lot dumber than his states senior senator.
Melanie Sloan, the executive director of Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington, or CREW, usually focuses on the ethical lapses of Republicans and conservatives, but even she is appalled at the way Sen. Feinstein has abused her position. Sloan told a California reporter earlier this month that whilethere are a number of members of Congress with conflicts of interest because of the amount of money involved, Feinsteins conflict of interest is an order of magnitude greater than those conflicts.
And the director of the Project on Government Oversight who examined the evidence of wrongdoing assembled by California writer Peter Byrne told him that the paper trail showing Senator Feinsteins conflict of interest is irrefutable.
It may be irrefutable, but she almost got away without anyone even knowing what she was up to. Her colleagues on the subcommittee, for example, had no reason even to suspect that she knew what companies might benefit from her decisions because that information is routinely withheld to avoid favoritism. What they didnt know was that her chief legal adviser, who also happened to be a business partner of her husbands and the vice chairman of one of the companies involved, was secretly forwarding her lists of projects and appropriation requests that were coming before the committee and in which she and her husband had an interest information that has only come to light recently as a result of the efforts of several California investigative reporters.
This adviser insists apparently with a straight face that he provided the information to Feinsteins chief of staff so that she could recuse herself in cases where there might be a conflict. He says that he assumes she did so. The public record, however, indicates that she went right ahead and fought for these same projects.
During this period the two companies, URS of San Francisco and the Perini Corporation of Framingham, Mass., were controlled by Feinsteins husband, Richard C. Blum, and were awarded a combined total of over $1.5 billion in government business thanks in large measure to her subcommittee. Thats a lot of money even here in Washington.
Interestingly, she left the subcommittee in late 2005 at about the same time her husband sold his stake in both companies. Their combined net worth increased that year with the sale of the two companies by some 25 percent, to more than $40 million.
In spite of the blatant appearance of corruption, no major publication has picked up on the story, the Senate Ethics Committee has reportedly let her slip by, and she is now chairing the Senate Rules Committee, which puts her in charge of making sure her colleagues act ethically and avoid the sorts of conflicts of interest with which she is personally and so obviously familiar.
#12
If the Russians draw a little piggy picture on the package of Space Food Sticks, does that make them non-halal? And, how are they going to be sure their heads and not their butts are pointed towards Mecca when they are circling the earth in zero G?
#17
Dress code; in space? must be covered between the navel and the knees? that leaves a very unappetizing visual of nekkid muzzies floating around.
and second question: who wants to be the ground crewman that gets to wash their flight suits (especially the left glove) after they get back????
goat tending is indeed the best alternative.
Iran on Monday warned tourists and other foreigners visiting the country to obey its Islamic dress code, the ISNA news agency reported. "We have asked travel agencies to warn tourists and to explain the laws of this country," said Tehran's deputy chief of police, Hussein Sajedi-Nia. Iran has handed out more than 10,000 warnings over the past 10 days to women deemed to have infringed the dress code in the Islamic Republic, and dozens of others have been briefly detained at police stations. Sajedi-Nia indicated there was no chance of a let-up in the crackdown, a regular pre-summer measure, saying that from next week "plainclothes police will go into action." Women must cover their heads and conceal their curves in public in Iran.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/01/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
"Come for the pistachios! Stay for the prison food!"
#3
Muzzie visitors to other countries should also comply with dress codes and customs. Get rid of the veils and burqas. We will deal with the ugliness.
#4
"tourists and other foreigners visiting the country"
Ane why the hell would anybody visit that nuthouse? Particularly a woman.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/01/2007 16:49 Comments ||
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#5
"Women must cover their heads and conceal their curves in public in Iran."
I understand that Rosie has been in contact with the Goodyear company for an old blimp cover for her next trip" that's about the only thing big enough to 'cover the blubber, er, curves'
(AKI) - The culture committee of the Iranian parliament approved on Monday a bill sentencing to death producers of 'pornography', videos and films deemed vulgar by the country's censorship. The draft law will now go to parliament where it is expected to be approved by an ample majority. Amateur porn films have a properous market in Iran and can fetch up to 30 euros each. The market, tolerated for a long time, became a nationwide issue earlier this year after a porn film of popular television actress, Zohre Mir Ebrahimi, having sex with her partner, was released.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/01/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
com - if you are out there, send links to the Iranians you think need to buy it big time.
(AKI) - Alireza Hashemi, the founder and leader of the independent union of Iranian teachers, was suspended for three months from his job on Monday. Hashemi, who was jailed for three weeks in March, was barred from his classroom Monday morning, the teacher told Adnkronos International (AKI). "On the door of the classroom there was a letter signed by the deputy education minister saying I had been suspended for three months with a salary cut of 75 percent," he told AKI.
Hashemi has been a teacher for the past 25 years and is a key figure for independent trade unions. He is believed to have been suspended for talking to the press, notably to Farsi-language radio and television stations broadcasting outside Iran. Iranian teachers have been staging protests since February, demanding salary raises and that colleague fired or suspended for political reasons be given their jobs back. Teachers across the country have called for another day of protests on Wednesday and are expected to stage a rally in front of parliament in the capital Tehran.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/01/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
I heard Sen. Brownback on Hannity's Meet the Candidate feature yesterday. He mentioned working Iran over a la Solidarity in Poland.
New York Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis confirmed Monday that the newspaper had decided not to participate in the [White House Correspondents' Dinner], but gave no reason for the decision. She said the paper also would not attend future Gridiron Club dinners, while some sources at the paper said the policy could extend to other similar events.
"That is what the decision was," Mathis said, declining to elaborate. "I don't want to go beyond that."
"I don't feel that reporters should be used in presidential publicity stunts," [columnist Frank Rich] told E&P. "This is used by the president of the United States as a political event."
Criticism of journalists hobnobbing with top officials -- accompanied by sometimes insensitive jokes or skits -- has grown recently. Andrew Rosenthal, Times editorial page editor and a former Washington editor for the paper, said he had no involvement in the decision. But he recalled past discussions in the Washington bureau during his time there about possibly pulling out. "I felt at the time that participating in them was an increasingly bad idea," Rosenthal said. "They became about celebrities and reporters and government officials pretending they were friends. There was some resistance at the time on the part of reporters who felt they were useful."
Rosenthal said attending the dinners is not the worst thing D.C. staffers can do, but "it becomes more and more of a problem because it has become more public."
Executive Editor Bill Keller and Washington Bureau Chief Dean Baquet did not immediately return calls for comment.
WHCA President Steve Scully noted that the Times had skipped at least one dinner in the past for similar reasons, during the Clinton administration. He again defended the event, but said he would respect anyone's decision not to attend. "I am told it will not affect their participation in the associaton," he said, noting that Times photographer Doug Mills is on the nine-person WHCA board. "Everyone has to look at it through their own perspective."
The decision comes just a week after this year's dinner, which most in attendance agreed was not among the most memorable. Noting the Virginia Tech massacre just days before, President Bush declined the usual humorous address, while entertainer Rich Little, sticking to dated material and poor preparation, drew many complaints.
Ann Compton, incoming WHCA president, said she had not seen Rich's column, but said the Times would not be missed at the dinner. "The New York Times has never been a major player in there, they only buy two tables," Compton said of the event, which usually includes some 250 tables with 10 people each. "We had checks in hand that we had to return that would have filled 42 more tables. I hope they will still be members of the association."
Ron Hutcheson, a former WHCA president and current McClatchy White House correspondent, defended the dinner, saying accusations of conflict are largely unfounded. "It is driven by a misperception, largely in the blogosphere, that because we are civil to each other, we forget what our role is, which is ridiculous," Hutcheson said. "Especially in these times, we need civility. The whole reason you get a guest like Karl Rove is to get what you can from Karl Rove."
But Rich, who said in his column that the dinner "illustrates how easily a propaganda-driven White House can enlist the Washington news media....," defended his views again Monday. "I don't feel that reporters should be used in presidential publicity stunts," he told E&P. "This is used by the president of the United States as a political event."
Rich said he had planned mid-week to write his column as part tribute to the late David Halberstam and partly to criticize the dinner, but added in the Times' decision after hearing about it from Rosenthal. He said he sent Rosenthal and others in charge of the editorial pages a note on Wednesday about his column, as he usually does, and later found out from Rosenthal about the policy change. "I put that in, but it did not change the [focus of the] column," he said.
Rich, who has criticized the dinner in the past, said he had played no part in the policy change and had never lobbied editors to stay away from the dinner. "I did not lobby anyone, but I agree with it," he said. "I feel strongly that the Times has to stay clear of things that are potential conflicts of interest."
So far, no other news outlets appear to be making similar decisions. Doyle McManus, D.C. bureau chief of the Los Angeles Times, said his staffers are free to go, calling such dinners "largely useless and largely harmless....There is a valid concern about coziness in Washington, but the test of coziness is in the coverage," he added. "I have seen no evidence that these rather dreadful events are affecting coverage."
E&P was one of the few to note before the dinner the potential conflicts of some guests, including embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, brought by USA Today, and Karl Rove as the guest of The Times. When asked about the paper's unusual guest, Columnist Maureen Dowd quickly pleaded innocence, saying during the dinner, "I don't do the inviting anymore."
Times Staffer Jim Rutenberg, also at the table, defended the choice of Rove that night, saying "We cover him, I just asked him." He then joked, "he is telling us everything."
#1
"I feel strongly that the Times has to stay clear of things that are potential conflicts of interest."
Leaving them to focus on their core principles - leaking secret information that makes the Country, and especially George Bush, look bad. No conflict of interest there!
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/01/2007 6:04 Comments ||
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#2
...the dinner "illustrates how easily a propaganda-driven White House can enlist the Washington news media....,"
As long as it's not a Republican administration, it seems.
#3
The NY Slimes obviously doesn't wish to give even the slightest appearance of impartial collegiality. Doubtless, the Sulzbergers would re-evaluate should Her Thighness win the White House.
#5
Couldn't meet the requirement of being a real reporter! :-o
Posted by: Almost Anonymous5839 ||
05/01/2007 9:10 Comments ||
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#6
I guess they got an adavance copy of KKKarl Roves speech where he made a joke about the NYT being part of the terrorists intelligence network (or is it a joke?). Booo Friggin Hooo
#7
This is well placed in the Culture Wars as it is indicative of the self sanctimony and loss of humor on the part of the NYT and its recruitment into the Nutroots wing of the left. This augurs well for a campaign in which the true believers exercise so much control over the donk candidate that she will be unable to move sufficiently to the center to prevail in the general election. It may also prove to be the last gasp politically of the Class of '74 and the peak of boomer political power. We can only pray.
#8
HA, HA, the NYT can't even afford to send their reporters to expensive banquets anymore. Gotta give them a thumbs up for the "we don't want to go" cover story. Yeah, sure, right. Your reporters don't want to go. heheh
#9
I'm assuming the "Rich" blankly referred to as a column writer in the middle of the article is Frank Rich, who brings his extensive knowledge of theater, drama and restaurants to his reporting on world geo-political events. TimesSelect spares us of his, MoDo's, and other dribbles from the so-called elite of the East. How's that profit-sharing plan doing, assholes?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/01/2007 12:42 Comments ||
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#10
How else are we peasants going to learn about the banquet menus at international gatherings (except the WH Correspondents' Dinner) but by the timely reporting of Frank Rich?
Posted by: ed ||
05/01/2007 13:32 Comments ||
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#12
Not too long ago I got some junk mail from the NYT. They were trying to get me to subscribe to them. I noticed it had a return envelope. Not being one to miss an opportunity, I just licked it shut and mailed it back to them empty because they would have to pay the postage. Oh yeah, I also wrote something like "No way. You guys support terrorists!" on the envelope in big letters for all to see. I can't wait for them to send me another offer.
#13
The WH should just revoke all press credentials that NYT has in relation to the WH. Tell them, "We're sorry, only news organizations are permitted" Course that means CNN and all the others would have to too...hmmm, no downside there.
#16
Why should there be a White House Correspondents Dinner anyway? That is an inappropriate activity between newsies and the White House. Whether one hobnobs or palzie walzies around the other is not appropriate for the professional relationship.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/01/2007 22:40 Comments ||
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Average paid weekday circulation of the nation's 20 largest newspapers for the six-month period ending in March, as reported Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The percentage changes are from the comparable year-ago period.
1. USA Today, 2,278,022, up 0.2 percent
2. The Wall Street Journal, 2,062,312, up 0.6 percent
3. The New York Times, 1,120,420, down 1.9 percent
4. Los Angeles Times, 815,723, down 4.2 percent
5. New York Post, 724,748, up 7.6 percent
6. New York Daily News, 718,174, up 1.4 percent
7. The Washington Post, 699,130, down 3.5 percent
8. Chicago Tribune, 566,827, down 2.1 percent
9. Houston Chronicle, 503,114, down 2 percent
10. The Arizona Republic, 433,731, down 1.1 percent
11. Dallas Morning News, 411,919, down 14.3 percent
12. Newsday, Long Island, 398,231, down 6.9 percent
13. San Francisco Chronicle, 386,564, down 2.9 percent
14. The Boston Globe, 382,503, down 3.7 percent
15. The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., 372,629, down 6.1 percent
16. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 357,399, down 2.1 percent
17. The Philadelphia Inquirer, 352,593, up 0.6 percent
18. Star Tribune of Minneapolis-St. Paul, 345,252, down 4.9 percent
19. The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, 344,704, up 0.5 percent
20. Detroit Free Press, 329,989, down 4.7 percent
The Dallas Morning News is reporting for the first time since being censured in 2004 for misstating circulation figures. The Chicago Sun-Times has not yet resumed reporting.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/01/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
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#2
FREEREPUBLIC/LUCIANNE > Nation-wide, 'tis generally downward for the Paper/Print Media. VARIOUS TV > BLOGOSPHERE RULES - US GOP-DEM-OTHER politicians must now include Net = ELectronic Response Managers-Sections as significant part of any full-time campaign. GOOD AS DEFEATED WID OUT THE NET.
#6
Our own San Diego UT rag has lost too: The Union-Tribune lost 6.5 percent of its weekday print readers and 7.2 percent of its Sunday circulation. Its percentage decline on weekdays was the third-largest among the nation's 25 biggest papers. Its Sunday drop was the second-largest, behind the Dallas Morning News
that NYT, WaPo syndication news is working out so well, huh, UT?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/01/2007 9:32 Comments ||
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#7
Arizona Republic has an affiliation with NYT/Boston Globe and also has WaPo syndication.
#10
The NYT's spreads its propoganda with complimentary copies at many colleges and universities, too. Luckily this generation is digitized and has access to information for their own research.
#11
In fact, at some high-class joint in Dallas a couple of weeks ago, we got the Sunday NYT, which my wife (WaPo reader) refused to even open! So their circulation numbers inlcude give-aways, too.
No doubt.
I say that because I have not independently verified it, but I suspect it to be true.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/01/2007 14:09 Comments ||
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#12
I'm glad to see the Star Ledger taking a bath. I used to get that horribly slanted rag in the days before I found Rantburg and wised up.
#13
Another trick is what the last paper I got did: they insisted that to get the Sunday we had to agree to at least one weekday delivery.
Most definitely the case. I have a Saturday & Sunday only subscription, but through some accountant's magic pen, I manage to get the Monday and Wednesday editions for free. That doubles the numbers for every account like mine.
As all of this is done in the name of keeping advertising rates up, I wonder how television broadcasters deal with this looming crisis. The Internet is killing viewership numbers. How do they bloat their Neilsen Ratings to overcome this?
As an aside, I'll bet some 25%-50% of USA Today's circulation is complimentry.
Gotta echo that sentiment. The 'Burg simply lays waste to all other news sources for concentrated reporting on the GWoT. The accompanying lessons on spin-detection and parsing are absolutely priceless. Being able to share views and openly debate these critical issues is just icing on the cake.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The High Court (HC) yesterday granted bail for two months to detained Sylhet City Corporation Mayor Badar Uddin Ahmed Kamran in connection with the kitchen market graft case. Granting the bail, a division bench comprising Justice Nozrul Islam Chowdhury and Justice SM Emdadul Haque issued a rule upon the government to explain why he should not be granted regular bail.
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia's younger brother Maj (retd) Saeed Iskandar yesterday disclosed that he was made a vice-president of the party by the chief, amid widespread speculation that her stay abroad might be prolonged if she goes to Saudi Arabia for Umrah. Nazrul Islam Khan, joint secretary general of BNP, told The Daily Star yesterday, "Iskandar was made a vice-president on January 10 but we could not disclose the matter formally as the government has a ban imposed on politics." 
In the first-ever verdict in a case filed by the reformed Anti-corruption Commission (ACC), a Narayanganj court yesterday sentenced, in absentia, former Awami League (AL) lawmaker Shamim Osman to three years' imprisonment for not submitting wealth statements to the commission.
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - President Hugo Chavez announced Monday he would formally pull Venezuela out of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, a largely symbolic move because the nation has already paid off its debts to the lending institutions.
Iran on Monday warned tourists and other foreigners visiting the country to obey its Islamic dress code, the ISNA news agency reported. "We have asked travel agencies to warn tourists and to explain the laws of this country," said Tehran's deputy chief of police, Hussein Sajedi-Nia. Iran has handed out more than 10,000 warnings over the past 10 days to women deemed to have infringed the dress code in the Islamic Republic, and dozens of others have been briefly detained at police stations. Sajedi-Nia indicated there was no chance of a let-up in the crackdown, a regular pre-summer measure, saying that from next week "plainclothes police will go into action." Women must cover their heads and conceal their curves in public in Iran.
(AKI) - The culture committee of the Iranian parliament approved on Monday a bill sentencing to death producers of 'pornography', videos and films deemed vulgar by the country's censorship. The draft law will now go to parliament where it is expected to be approved by an ample majority. Amateur porn films have a properous market in Iran and can fetch up to 30 euros each. The market, tolerated for a long time, became a nationwide issue earlier this year after a porn film of popular television actress, Zohre Mir Ebrahimi, having sex with her partner, was released.
