Must be seen to be believed! I am like totally speechless...
"Oh shit! It's Baby Man," says one cashier, a Hispanic kid who's heard the legend but has never been a witness to the spectacle. "It's like Sasquatch!" he says. "You don't believe it exists until you see it."
Posted by: Prof. Clyde Crashcup ||
06/09/2005 16:36 ||
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#1
... have you heard of goatse?
Sorry to say this, but you haven't been on the Internet long enough.
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
06/09/2005 17:58 Comments ||
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#2
This may be the most sad, depressing story I've ever read. I need a drink and a shower.
#3
I have it on good authority that the most exclusive brothel in Hamburg Germany caters to such as him. A friend, a restraunteur-manager, was introduced to the Hamburg entertainment society elite, and was even given etiquette lessons prior to his visit to this establishment. Over there, you usually don't get in the door unless you are a multi-millionaire, and don't even ask how expensive it is. They even frisked him in a special vestibule, searching for any recording devices. All to see a bunch of old, hairy, fat guys in diapers?
#6
Jert: "Wasn't that an episode of CSI?"
No, that was L&O/SVU.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/09/2005 21:19 Comments ||
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#7
CSI, Mike. "King Baby" aired Feb 17 2005.
"A powerful Las Vegas casino owner (who had more enemies than friends) is found dead in his driveway after falling, jumping or being pushed from an upper-floor balcony of his plush mansion. Catherine's team is the first to respond to the scene, but Ecklie also brings in Grissom and his crew to help with the high-profile case, which doesn't sit well with Catherine. The investigation reveals that the dead man had dirt on most every prominent person in town and a dark secret of his own."
The state is investigating allegations that longshoremen's union locals in Boston have placed children as young as 2 1/2 on the payroll in a scheme to give them higher wages as adult dockworkers. Massachusetts Port Authority officials have turned their records over to Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly's office and the State Police, said Kurt Schwartz, chief of the attorney general office's criminal bureau. Reilly's office has launched a grand jury probe. Because seniority is determined by when a union member first receives a union card, regardless of the number of hours worked, union members who got their children enrolled are believed to have ensured that their children would receive higher pay, Schwartz said in a statement Wednesday.
OK, it's crooked. But, damm that's clever.
"The attorney general is investigating allegations that the seniority of some union members has been fraudulently exaggerated, resulting in excessive wages being paid," Schwartz said. An industry official involved in the investigation told The Boston Globe the alleged scam was uncovered earlier this year when shipping officials noticed that a new union member had the same name as the 10-year-old granddaughter of a prominent longshoreman. A check of her Social Security number confirmed who she was, the official said, and a more thorough review of records showed that as many as 30 children had been put on the payroll for a few hours a year going back as far as 1986. "We were absolutely shocked," Massachusetts Port Authority spokeswoman Danny Levy told the Boston Herald. "When Massport was made aware of the discrepancy, we contacted the attorney general and began our own internal audit."
"I'm shocked, shocked to find out that there's corruption in the Longshoremen's union"
"Your campaign contribution, Mr. Levy."
"Why, thank you."
John F. McMahon, a lawyer for the International Longshoremen's Association, said he had heard about the investigation of three locals, and declined to comment further. The three locals reported a total membership of 250 in 2000. International spokesman James McNamara said the union's ethical practices office will investigate the allegations "if there is something concrete tied to a body in the harbor."
Gotta have a lot of seniority to get a job in the ethical practices office...
The industry official told the Globe that payroll checks were issued in the children's names, but that it was unclear who had cashed them or how much money was involved.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/09/2005 11:14 ||
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#1
I'm shocked! Shocked!This happened at MASSPORT!!
I'm surprised their kid's frozen embryos aren't on the payroll...
#2
You know you've lost faith in the family genes when you expect your granddaughter to grow up to be a dockworker. Nothing else is shocking about this article. Unions are monopolies and unfair by definition. They screw the employers, why wouldn't they screw each other?
#3
tu - I worked a temp job at Massport many moons ago. Did you know there are offices between the inbound and outbound decks of the Tobin Bridge? Yep, worked in that office for four months.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/09/2005 12:46 Comments ||
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#6
when you expect your granddaughter to grow up to be a dockworker.
No, he expects her to grow up to be a union official. By the time she graduates college, she'll have enough seniority to step right into the front office.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/09/2005 12:54 Comments ||
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LOL I didn't know you could get a union card without getting a job. Did they form a diaper fillers local 1 of the AFL/CIO in Boston?
#11
Not the first time I've heard this. Back during my summer visits to Brooklyn in the late 60s, I heard stories about 11-12 year old boys being taken by a family member early in the morning to the loading docks, given a pair of gloves and told to stay near "but outta the way", then packed off to school.
The Bob the Builder picture was wreaking havoc due to its size and the way it was included in the comment. If you include pics by IMG SRC tag do two things, please:
first, include 'height=150 width=150' in the tag and
second, include a delimiter tag of 'slash' 'img'
TOKYO (AFP) - Japan has taken a step into the science-fiction world with the release of a "robot suit" that can help workers lift heavy loads or assist people with disabilities climb stairs. "Humans may be able to mutate into supermen in the near future," said Yoshiyuki Sankai, professor and engineer at Tsukuba University who led the project.
And we all know what happens when you have a bunch of mutant supermen in powered armor suits running around Tokyo
The 15-kilogram (33-pound) battery-powered suit, code-named HAL-5, detects muscle movements through electrical-signal flows on the skin surface and then amplifies them.
It can also move on its own accord, enabling it to destroy humankind help elderly or handicapped people walk, developers said. The prototype suit will be displayed at the World Exposition that is currently taking place in Aichi prefecture, central Japan.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/09/2005 10:11 ||
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#1
artificial exoskeleton!= mutation
But it is pretty cool, at least until the batteries run down.
#7
A government report last week showed that pensioners made up a record 19.5 percent of the country's population in 2004 and that the ratio will grow rapidly, surpassing 35 percent in 2050.
A)You people are in big trouble
B)I am pretty sure I could pick up that girl without a supersuit. Well, I mean physically anyhow.
Yup, it's that time of year again:
MIAMI -- Tropical Storm Arlene developed Thursday in the northwest Caribbean Sea, edging closer to western Cuba as the Atlantic hurricane season's first named storm. Gulf Coast residents, including those in storm-battered Florida, were warned to beware. Arlene had maximum sustained winds of 40 mph after strengthening from a tropical depression that formed Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said. Tropical storms have top sustained winds of 39 mph to 74 mph.
At 8 a.m. EDT, the storm's center was about 190 miles south-southeast of the western tip of Cuba. It was moving north at about 8 mph, and this motion could bring the storm's center near western Cuba as early as Thursday night, forecasters said. Arlene was expected to enter the Gulf of Mexico by Friday, and residents from Florida to Louisiana were told to keep an eye on the tropical storm.
"Our best estimate of the track possibilities are that anywhere from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle could expect the center to be approaching them by the middle of the weekend," hurricane specialist Richard Knabb said.
Swell, my wife is going to Pensacola with a friend for a funeral tomorrow. She's supposed to come back Sunday. I just know she'll find some way to blame this on me.
Forecasters said Arlene was likely to remain a tropical storm, but Navy meteorologist Lt. Dave Roberts said there was an "outside shot" that the system could develop into a weak hurricane, depending on atmospheric conditions.
Looks like a Cat 1 at most
The Cuban government has issued a tropical storm watch for the western province of Pinar Del Rio to the capital of Havana. The depression was causing heavy rains and squalls across the Cayman Islands and western and central Cuba. Forecasters warned that very heavy rains in Nicaragua and Honduras could cause flash floods and mud slides. Hurricane season began June 1 and ends Nov. 30.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/09/2005 10:50 ||
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WooHoo! Kegger at Steve's place! Dibs on the nacho chips...he makes a crazy good salsa!!!
#2
I'll bring the salt and the lime ... oh yeah and the tequila too ;-)
Posted by: too true ||
06/09/2005 14:06 Comments ||
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#3
Hmmm, like clockwork - same time every year, there are these storm thingys that pop up - just when she's traveling in the target zone - and Steve begs off going along... Don't you guys think his wife is going to get suspicious, eventually?
;-)
#4
Susssh, keep it down. You know how hard it was to arrange a funeral at the right place and time? Why I had to.......er, never mind.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/09/2005 14:40 Comments ||
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#5
East bound I-10 bridge over still 1 lane of marsten matting. Plan for 1 hour extra. Fun though. You can wave at the boats and fishies under the bridge.
A police chief in a northern Mexican border city has been killed by gunmen - just hours after taking the post. Alejandro Dominguez was sprayed by at least 30 bullets after attackers ambushed his car in Nuevo Laredo late on Wednesday, witnesses said.
Dozens of people have been killed in the region in a wave of drug-related violence since the authorities launched a crackdown on drug gangs in January. The US has warned citizens about the risks of travelling in the border area.
On 2 June 2005, an AF member was abducted from a nightclub in the Boy's Town district of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico by men of Mexican descent. The men assaulted the AF member and searched his belongings which were later returned to him. The AF member was released approximately 30 minutes later. Laughlin AFB has deemed this area off limits to their assigned personnel.
The attackers - who arrived in three vehicles - opened fire as Dominguez was getting in his car on Wednesday evening, a witness was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency. "They cut him off so he couldn't go. They shot him from inside [the vehicles] and then got out to shoot him more," the witness said. He added that the gunmen then drove away slowly, with their lights turned off.
Dominguez had taken office earlier in the day, saying he was not afraid of any threats. "I don't owe anybody anything. My duty is to the citizenry," he said.
More than 50 people have been killed since January in Nuevo Laredo - a major transit point for drugs entering the US. Armed Mexican police have been patrolling Nuevo Laredo - just across from Laredo in Texas - and other Mexican border cities since President Vicente Fox launched "the mother of all battles" on drug cartels and crime there.
And in other Mexican news:
MEXICO CITY, June 9 (UPI) -- Masked gunmen entered a hospital in northern Mexico and killed a federal agent recovering from a previous shooting.Two others also were killed. Investigators said the seven men entered the hospital and covered a security camera before heading upstairs to the room of federal agent Victor Estrada, El Universal reported Thursday. So far authorities have no suspects in Wednesday's killing. Estrada was recovering from a shooting earlier in the week while he was on vacation. He reportedly had been suspended from Mexico's Federal Agency of Investigation for unspecified reasons then reinstated in March.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/09/2005 08:27 ||
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#1
I'm sick of this stupid drug war. It's time to end the prohibition on drugs. Why do we care if people want to ruin their own lives. Time to make the drugs available in a sane manner and stop the illegal trade.
Even in societies where they will kill you for drug use, people continue to use them. The demand exists, time to create a supply system that harms only those who choose to harm themselves.
#2
The 2 June 2005 incident is worst of all -- MS-13?? I need a link ...
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
06/09/2005 9:06 Comments ||
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#3
The problem here is not solved by legalizing drugs. The entire Mexican government is corrupt from top to bottom. Just about everyone from dog catcher to President is on the take in some way. This case points out why we have so much illegal immigration. If we want to stop the flow of illegals across the border, we have to deal with the inherent corruption in Mexico's society and political system.
Yes our government could do a much better job defending the border and enforcing immigration laws, but we could build a moat filled wth fire and a 100' high fence of razor wire and there would still be a flood of illegal immigration as long as Mexico is corrupt.
We should take a hard line with the political leaders of Mexico - especially Vincente Fox. Instead of letting him set the agenda, demanding that the US do this or that, we should make a few demands of our own. Mexico needs to guard the border too. They need to reform their polical system and thereby, their economy. We can play an integral role in their reform, but it shoudn't be in the form of handouts. With the current political climate, spending money on Mexico is throwing it down a rathole.
It never ceases to amaze me that we are the world's one remaining true "superpower" and yet we don't have the guts to wield the power.
#5
The 2 June 2005 incident is worst of all -- MS-13??
More likely just a mugging, or attempted kidnapping. They grab a lot of people of Mexican decent visiting from the US. Their families will pay to have them released. I figure they decided they couldn't get anything for him, so they let him go.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/09/2005 9:44 Comments ||
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not enough killed with alcohol...
that's a red flag and you know it. 40,000 people are killed on our highways annually and alcohol deaths are just a part of it. By your logic, no more cell phones, no more fast food, no more teen drivers, no more old drivers, no more truck drivers.
But wait, instead, let's look at the number of people killed world wide by the drug trade. Let's look at how many governments are corrupted by the money gained through it. Let's look at the money we waste. Heck, if you are so worried about traffic deaths, we could take all of that money we spend on the drug war and all of the taxes that we would get from making it legal in a sane and reasonable manner (no I don't mean crack machines on the corner) and we could do much better than limit the number of people killed by stoned drivers.
#8
and besides, right now there is nothing to stop them from getting the drugs and driving stoned anyway.
I know nothing about getting drugs. But I feel quite certain, that if I wanted to, I could drive downtown and have whatever my little heart desired in less than 1/2 hour.
I don't mean legal in the sense that you can buy heroin a the local market. I mean legal in the sense of perscription drugs. Legal in the sense that we don't allow advertising. Legal in the sense that we allow people who are already addicted to get it through a doctor or program. And yes, it is possible to determine who is already addicted.
Would there be corruption - yes, in the same way that there is with legal pain killers. But that is much easier to regulate and manage than the present situation with cartels and corrupt governments providing the supply.
#10
Or driving while stupid? Let's make stupidity illegal, setup a war on nitwittery, make prolonged driving in the left interstate lane at 68 MPH a Class 1 felony. We can do it. We have the means.
#14
prohibition vs. decriminalizing vs. legalizing.
The three choices all have there pros and cons.
another slant/ Do you want to raise your kids in a permissive drug culture? Kids make mistakes(as well as adults), some kids are risk takers by nature.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
06/09/2005 10:37 Comments ||
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I'm sick of this stupid drug war. It's time to end the prohibition on drugs. Why do we care if people want to ruin their own lives. Time to make the drugs available in a sane manner and stop the illegal trade.
Arguments about the drug war aside, my cynicism says the traffickers will just move onto something else that's illegal and in high demand.
#17
We have a choice, either have a societal problem with drug abuse, or have a societal problem with drug abuse and a black market. I don't believe in solutions only tradeoffs.
Bad drugs drive out safer (or less unsafe) drugs in a black market. Heroin is more profitable than pot, prisoners go blind from drinking methanol,and
Merck is prohibited from making safer drugs that make you feel good.
Posted by: Eric ||
06/09/2005 11:02 Comments ||
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Prohibition causes artifical shortages, creating higher prices, and coupled with the attendant lawbreaking, the violence associated with such items.
Should cocaine be legalized (something I am not in favor of), it would be no more expensive than caffeine. Anybody killed over a cup of coffee lately? When was the last person killed over liquor distribution issues in the US? The day before prohibition ended would be my guess. But of course, the abuse problem would have to be addressed.... Marijuana has less of an abuse problem than harder drugs...
Posted by: Mark E. ||
06/09/2005 19:21 Comments ||
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June 9, 2005: Chinese submariners are different. In the United States, submarines have crews that stay with the boat, just like on any other warship. The only exception is the SSBNs (ballistic missile subs), which have two crews, so that the boat can spend the maximum amount of time at sea. The Chinese do it differently. Each class of subs has crews trained for different types of missions, and these crews are assigned to a sub in order to train in their specialty (mine warfare, anti-surface warfare, and anti-submarine warfare). Another reason for the multiple crews (usually two per sub) is also to increase the number of trained crews ahead of the introduction of many more new subs in the next decade. The Chinese have recognized, and accepted the fact, that it takes over a decade to train effective submariners, particularly the Chief Petty Officers (the "Chiefs") who really make a boat work. The chiefs were given a big pay raise five years ago, and made to understand that being a naval NCO was a good, and lucrative, career choice.
The only flaw in this plan is the poor condition and reliability of Chinese submarines. Chinese boats are either bad copies of Russian designs, or even worse attempts to build Chinese designs. But the Chinese know that just having submarine crews is not enough, you have to get these guys to sea, as much as possible. Under the old Soviet system, the sub crews spent most of their time living in barracks, and getting lectured in classrooms, or doing dry runs while their sub was dockside, motionless. When Soviet subs did go to sea, it was for a day, and then back to port and the barracks. By the end of the Cold War, the Russians and the Chinese were convinced that the Western approach (keep the boats at sea as much as possible) was ancient wisdom that still applied, and worked.
The Chinese submariners have to work for their higher pay. Keeping their creaky boats at sea means a lot more maintenance and repair work in port, and a lot more alertness and tension at sea. There are more accidents as these boats are pushed beyond what they were designed for. The Soviet design theory held that you built subs that spent most of their time in port, and then went to war and maybe survived a few weeks or months, and maybe got a shot in. This didn't work for the Soviets during World War II, but they stuck with the concept during most of the Cold War. Now China is trying to design and build a new generation of subs on the Western model (spend lots of time at sea in peace time, and be good enough to kick ass and survive in wartime.)
Posted by: Steve ||
06/09/2005 10:29 ||
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where do they store the MSG on a Chinese sub?
Posted by: Little Wang ||
06/09/2005 10:53 Comments ||
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#2
Next to that missle tube filled with lobster sauce.
#3
Yeah they're different. They devote a lot of training to how to hold their breath for a long time.
Posted by: DO ||
06/09/2005 14:22 Comments ||
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#4
Another advantage of moving people around from boat to boat is that you won't get a whole boat defecting like in Red Oktober. Not that anyone would ever want to leave the Middle Kingdom or anything.
#1
Of course while they were buying brand new almost cutting edge personal electronics at Walmart, all made in China, it didn't dawn on them in the least that technology skills were blooming on the mainland. Off with their heads! [Well, they certainly don't need it for thinking.]
#2
You can thank the wonderful Clinton Administration for this. Theu are the ones that authorized the technology transfers to the PRC while at the same time cutting intelligence efforts toward them. Good job Bill and I can't wait to see what Hillary has in store.
THE Mundine fight was on at the bowls club across the road, so mother of seven Lisa Forde and her de facto husband wandered over to have a few beers and watch the action.
Seven children from three families, ranging in age from 15 months to 13 years, were left behind, when a sleepover was arranged in the aftermath of a party.
After the boxing, in the early hours of yesterday morning, Ms Forde and her partner Wayne Shepherd decided to kick on from the Wyong Bowls Club on the NSW central coast, visiting a friend at nearby Tuggerah Lakes.
Mr Shepherd said he believed another man, the stepfather of six-year-old family friend Madison Hands who he knew only as Stewart, was in the house watching the children.
But he wasn't, and at about 2am a fire that ripped through the two-storey brick home left the four youngest children dead and three others in Gosford hospital suffering smoke inhalation.
Those who died in the blaze were Ms Forde's three youngest sons - seven-year-old Jethro Sparkes, two-year-old George Gillette and 15-month-old Harley Wells - and Madison.
Mr Shepherd said he had received a phone call from the three older girls who escaped the fire, Ms Forde's daughters 13-year-old Kira Moore and 11-year-old Chantelle Moore, and 13-year-old family friend Alysse Haddleton.
He said they panicked in the fire and jumped from the balcony, leaving the four youngest children upstairs.
"They were yelling out for help and there was no help. Just imagine the looks on their faces, that's what cuts me up," Mr Shepherd said yesterday.
The couple's frantic dash home was slowed when they ran out of petrol in the middle of the night, but the scene they arrived at was heartrending.
NSW Fire Brigade Superintendent Ross Brogan said the house was engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived eight minutes after receiving a 000 call about 2am.
Firefighters tried to force their way into the house but were unable to reach the four children trapped on the second floor.
Jethro's father Glenn Sparkes released a statement through police. "We are shocked and devastated by our tragic loss. As yet we are still waiting to find out how this tragedy occurred," he said.
Police refused to confirm reports the fire started when one of the younger children put a pillow or blanket over a bar heater.
Jethro, nicknamed "Punkie", and his two half-brothers were lively but not prone to causing trouble, neighbours said.
"It was a large family, there were lots of kids and they were always out on their bikes," said one neighbour, who did not wish to be named.
Madison, who was in Year 1 at Wyong Grove Public School, lived in a nearby street and was close to Ms Ford's family.
"We used to called her Maddymoo. She was a beautiful child, she always wanted hugs and kisses," friend Margaret Spiers said. "Hopefully the smoke's got to them so they didn't suffer, that's all I pray."
Wayne Devine, who is the flatmate of Madison's mother Leanne Pearson, agreed. "The personality just boiled out of her. She was a real little Shirley Temple - lots of blond curls," he said.
Police Acting Superintendent Kim Sorenson said the tragedy was the worst he had encountered.
'It's as high on the scale of tragedy as you can get," he said. "For a community like Wyong to lose four small children in these circumstances is beyond belief."
Nine people have died in house fires in NSW in the past three days, prompting the state Opposition to call for mandatory smoke detectors in all dwellings.
... The subject of ditching the euro, once a taboo, is to become the focus of a big political campaign after the Northern League, a right-wing member of the government coalition, declared that it would fight next year's election on a platform of bringing back the lira.
That will make Italy the first eurozone country where a promise to ditch the single currency has become the subject of an election, and it is a campaign that just might resonate.
Even before the euro was launched three years ago Italy was seen as its soft underbelly, and things have only got worse. Italy has plunged into recession. Two days ago Brussels threatened the country with huge fines for breaking the euro's borrowing rules. Italians blame the single currency for rising prices, and polls show that more than a quarter would like to ditch it.
Alasdair Murray, of the Centre for European Reform, said: "There are in most countries some anti-euro forces, but Italy is the first country where a party in government is making a song and dance about it. It is perfectly feasible there will be a country where a government comes to power promising to pull out of the euro."
Roberto Castelli, the Northern League Justice Minister, announced that his party would present concrete proposals next week for ditching the euro. "Does sterling have no economic foundation because it is outside the euro? Is Denmark living in absolute poverty because it is outside the euro? Are Swedes poor because they are outside the euro?" he asked.
The Northern League hopes to tap into a broad base of frustration with the euro, now popularly blamed for soaring inflation and Italy's economic problems. Polls show that two thirds of Italians still have problems with the euro, and one poll showed that 27 per cent wanted to return to the lira.
The emergence of Europe's first mainstream anti-euro campaign marks the culmination of the currency's worst week. After the French and Dutch rejections of the European constitution cast doubt on the entire European project, the euro's value dropped to an eight-month low. The financial markets speculated over its future, with long-term interest rates on government debt starting to diverge in different eurozone countries. One British stockbroker predicted that it would collapse within a few years...
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/09/2005 15:00 Comments ||
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#2
I think this is a long term foot shooting incident. Italy will in time benefit from what little fiscal discipline is required by the EU regime. Otherwise it's back to biannual devaluations.
#3
There is a nationwide evolution going on here. For years the North has been the cash cow for central and southern Italy, and they resent it terribly. But they were at least guaranteed a modicum of respect by being the national breadwinner. However, with the coming of the Euro, the Rome government has ignored the North completely except to parasite off of it. A return to the Lira would keep Rome focused on at least mollifying them.
#1
In related news, Acme Industries announced it will build a large warehouse/distribution center and 'product demonstration facility'. The company has purchased several under-used vinyard properties in Bordeaux for the project. An unidentified Acme spokesman said that "France was an ideal location" for Acme's wide range of products.
#3
The part-time poet and former foreign minister
[Heh.]
added: "My government will be guided by one principle: the imperative of justice; by one criterion: the general interest; by one aim: to improve the lot of every French man and woman."
#4
Yes if I were an unemployed Phrech citizen I would not be worried because this guy seems to have all the answers. I also would want to buy some stock in that Algerian bank that I keep getting emails about. I guess it's good that Dominique isn't hell-bent on world domination any more (I was begining to think he had a Nepoleon complex).
#5
Here's my prediction - if anyone on this board thought the French were insufferably arrogant and pretentious, you have seen nothing yet. The next two years of listening to the dashing poet (heh) DeVillepin's twaddle will be unparalleled chest-puffing self flattery. I'm going long on barf bags.
#8
Can't make the French citizens life better economically without major reform. Can't make their lives better physically without enforcing the laws and dealing with the Islamic issue.
But they can make their lives better by making the French feel superior to everyone else at every opportunity. All they need is a country or two to villify at every chance. Hmmm, I'm not sure which two countries will get the crap end of French happiness but I have a few ideas.
1. Order job centers to "redouble their efforts" to find jobs. [useless]
2. Encourage firms with fewer than 10 workers to hire more people by cutting social charges and paperwork. [useless, see #3]
3. Suspend tax cuts pledged by Mr Chirac in his 2002 election campaign. [stimulate the economy by raising taxes!]
4. Increase public infrastructure projects such as new railway lines and motorways. [only works for some construction workers and firms, and only short term]
"Gallic genius" is apparently an intelligence category somewhere below "Moron".
Posted by: Tom ||
06/09/2005 15:54 Comments ||
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#11
There's another one of them oxyMORON!s again...
#12
If nothing else the proud little villipan troll will make for excellent humor of the pathetic variety. God help France because they sure as hell can't seem to help themselves with their 20th century cast of boastful clown politicians. I think what he had meant to say was that nothing will save the French but their collective ego can be cryrogenically preserved through the unsurpassed mastery of strict daily self-delusion also known as Juche in Norkland.
PARIS has been riveted this week by a tale of intrigue, skulduggery and betrayal that a Jacobean playwright might have entitled The Revenge of Nicolas.
On one side is Nicolas Sarkozy, 50, leader of President Chirac's UMP (Union for a Popular Majority) party, who is the bitter rival of the Republican "monarch" and the dynamic star of French politics. Eight months after M Chirac banished him from government, M Sarkozy has made a surprise return as Interior Minister in the aftershock of voters' rejection of the European constitution.
This was his real crime, and for it, the press and the powers that be all agree he must be destroyed!
The French and the Arabs are all on the same page. The essence of life is to blame the Americans and Jews for the fact that you found it necessary to rob your own people.
Director Michael Moore has been given permission to stage a hissy fit film festival in his US home state of Michigan. The Traverse City Film Festival in July will feature classics such as Casablanca on giant inflatable screens.
Moore, who has made third-rate Riefenstahl-aping propaganda films that have failed to sway the elections, dammit! documentaries including Fahrenheit 9/11, said the four-day event in the town would be strictly non-partisan. Suuuuurrrre.
The film-maker has said he hopes the festival will become an annual event for screening quality movies. Like Team America? He added that it could become a beacon for Americans who want to watch quality cinema. One word: Netflix.
Moore - who heads the Traverse City Film Festival committee - was given the go-ahead to use a park on the shores of Lake Michigan to stage the gala. The 51-year-old persuaded city bosses that the festival, which will screen some 30 films, would be solely for the promotion of his political views culture.
Family-rated films will be shown on giant screens in the park, while other films are being screened at a number of indoor venues across the city. The festival has a budget of $150,000 (£81,668), which is expected to be covered by box office returns and donations. Somehow, I don't think any of it came from Mikey...
Moore, who was also responsible for Osama's favorite film of 2004 Bowling for Columbine, made a film called Roger And Me about Flint, his home city. It chronicled its economic slump in the 1980s as car manufacturing was hit by job losses.
He now divides his time between New York and a rural county near Traverse City that wishes to remain anonymous.
His work has won him numerous awards, including best documentary Oscar for Bowling for Columbine, and the Palme D'Or at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival for Fahrenheit 9/11.
#7
According to my eldest son, who wrote a college paper on Mr. Moore, he has spun even his hometown: "... frequent references to his âhometownâ of Flint, Michigan (where his first movie, Roger and Me, was based), one wonders if Moore isnât trying to be something he is not. For Michael Moore is not from Flint, but from Davison, Michigan. While the two towns are not too far apart, when you look at the culture of each city, the discrepancy becomes more apparent. Flint, where Moore says he is from in most interviews and press, is an industrial, working class city where the majority of the factories are located. Davison, however, where Moore grew up and attended high school, is a middle-class suburban area populated primarily by factory managers and other âprofessionalsâ. Whereas most of the children of Flint end up working in the factories or becoming part of the 15% unemployment rate, the majority of the children of Davison end up going on to higher education."
Mikey's "higher education" however, seems to have been in la-la land.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/09/2005 13:18 Comments ||
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#8
I saw him on TV at 2:00 AM last night advertising Ronco's Fat-O-Matic for only $19.95.
Posted by: Matt ||
06/09/2005 13:50 Comments ||
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#9
Hey, Matt! Where can I get one? Does it add or subtract?
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/09/2005 13:59 Comments ||
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#10
All I know is that Mikey says it helps him maintain his svelte figure. His waist is down to a size 72.
For $29.95 you get the Fat-O-Matic and the Bad-Info-Matic from Moveon, plus (FREE)the Aarrrgh-O-Matic from Howard Dean. Postage and handling are extra. I highly recommend it.
Posted by: Matt ||
06/09/2005 14:10 Comments ||
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#11
Traverse City.... home of one novel and 1 good movie and 1 lousy remake and I ncan't think of the damn name..... crime drama, bad guy comes back to get the DA that sent 'em up nthe river. First one was filmed on location. I'd live on the UP for a month or two ifn I could afford.
A protest organized June 1 by MoveOn, a liberal political action committee, drew about 20 people Does anyone get the feeling their memebership is -er- limp?
to the Michigan Avenue office of U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Brighton. Demonstrators protested Rogers' ties to embattled House Majority Leader Tom Delay.
There was only one problem: They had the wrong Mike Rogers.
Whoops.
The group came armed with financial records from a Web site that detailed various financial contributions between the two Republicans, including a $20,000 campaign contribution from DeLay to Rogers as well as a $5,000 contribution by Rogers to DeLay's legal defense fund.
However, the Mike Rogers involved was not the Michigan congressman, but rather Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala.
Federal Election Commission filings show that Michigan's Rogers did receive $15,000 from DeLay's PAC, but not the $20,000 that the other Mike Rogers received.
Michigan's Rogers has not contributed to DeLay's legal defense fund, according to Conor Kenny of Public Citizen, a non-profit watchdog group.
The Web site houseofscandal.org, where the information was gathered, apparently posted inaccurate information. A democratic group posting inaccurate information you say? Hmm... not a twitch on the suprise meter here.
"It's unfortunate that they made an error," said Bill Rittenberg, a protest organizer.
Democrat Bob Alexander, who ran against Michigan's Rogers in 2004, also participated in the event. Not the brightest nail in the bucket is he?
"It's unfortunate that we had this inaccuracy," Alexander said. "We didn't attempt to mislead anyone." Well at least now I know my BS meter is working.
Sylvia Warner, press secretary for Michigan's Rogers, said her boss and the Alabama congressman are frequently confused with each other.
"We get each other's mail and each other's calls from reporters," Warner said, adding people should be more careful not to confuse the two lawmakers.
The protesters delivered a petition signed by 1,166 voters in Rogers' Michigan district asking him and other Republicans to disassociate themselves from DeLay.
DeLay, R-Tex, has been the center of several recent ethics scandals. The House Ethics Committee has admonished him three times, and questions concerning trips financed by special interest groups continue to hound him.
The discrepancy between the numbers has not affected Rittenberg and Alexander's opinion on the petition, however. Its fake.... but accurate....
"Tom DeLay is the core of it," Rittenberg said. "I think it's a sound petition."
Alexander, meanwhile, said the overall effect of "a few dollars here and a few dollars there" was not relevant to Rogers of Michigan's ties to DeLay.
#7
LOL 20 and at the WRONG office? And they only got 1,166 signatures on their petition? His district has maybe 100,000 voters, so he should change his position based on 1% of the voters? These people really have no clue on how insignificant they have become (except when they do crazy stuff like this). Must be getting their marching orders from Dean.
Keep digging, boys!
Powerful lawmaker Charlie Rangel has provoked the ire of the Anti-Defamation League by likening U.S. military action in Iraq to the Holocaust of World War II. The Iraq war "is the biggest fraud ever committed on the people of this country. ... This is just as bad as the 6 million Jews being killed," the 74-year-old Harlem Democrat insisted during a Monday radio appearance on the WWRL-AM morning show with Steve Malzberg and Karen Hunter. "The whole world knew and they were quiet about it because it wasn't their ox being gored." Nice to be in a bulletproof district, huh Charlie? You can spout whatever you want and they can't lay a glove on you.
When interviewer Malzberg challenged Rangel's analogy, the congressman replied: "I am saying that people's silence when they know things terrible are happening is the same thing as the Holocaust." Yesterday, after Malzberg sent me an audiotape of Rangel's appearance, ADL President Abraham Foxman responded: "It is so outrageous that a leader of Congress would compare one thing to the other. Sometimes we say it's ignorance. Charlie Rangel is not ignorant. Charlie Rangel has been there." That's right. And he knows he'll always get away with it.
On the radio show, Rangel also suggested that proponents of military action - namely Vice President Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Rumsfeld's former deputy Paul Wolfowitz and Pentagon adviser Richard Perle - don't worry about the Americans in Iraq because they're "black and poor white soldiers" from "the lower economic class. They had a plan to put our kids in harm's way long before 9/11," Rangel said. "Because it's not their kids ... that's exactly why. They go and pick a fight, and then say, 'I'll hold your coat.'" You left out Latinos, Charlie. They'll be pissed.
Foxman retorted: "It is so outrageous that I think he owes an apology not only to the families of the victims of the Shoah, but he also owes an apology to the soldiers who are fighting for freedom. If the world had recognized the evil of Hitler early enough - just like we're confronting the evil of terrorism and fundamentalism now - then maybe the 6 million wouldn't have died." Don't hold your breath waiting for that apology.
#2
Spot-on, BH. Rangel's just another race-baiting ankle-biting racist asswipe - from a safe district. I needn't add that it's BLUE, do I? Nah, didn't think so, heh.
I would be banned for saying what I really think of people like Rangel. Blood-sucking leech is as close as I dare.
#5
Not "powerful". Think of him as "influential", like the "influential" Association of Moslem Scholars. I think in either case, "influential" has some associated meaning with influenza or something.
#6
Charlie's got a way with sticking his own foot in his ... nevermind ... every couple of months. Sad fact is that an idiotic racist can pass as a thoughtful and intelligent person in some quarters. Worse yet, the same type of nutter can get elected.
#8
Charlie Rangel served this country well in the Korean War and the Civil Rights movement but age and power have been clouding his judgment ever. It has long since become opaque.
Washington (CNSNews.com) - Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) criticized Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean Wednesday night for using "religion to divide." Obama told reporters gathered at the Rock the Vote awards dinner at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., that Dean needs to tone down his rhetoric. Dean said on Monday that the Republican Party was "pretty much a white, Christian party."
"As somebody who is a Christian myself, I don't like it when people use religion to divide, whether that is Republican or Democrat," Obama said. "I think in terms of his role as party spokesman, [Dean] probably needs to be a little more careful and I suspect that is a message he is going to be getting from a number of us," Obama explained. "We are at a time in our country's history that inclusive language is better than exclusive language," he added.
Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe, also attending the Rock the Vote event, empathized with Dean. "I was [DNC] chairman for four years -- it's a tough job -- he's doing a great job," McAuliffe told Cybercast News Service. "I gave one piece of advice [to Dean]. I said 'Howard, you are about to become a human fire hydrant,'" McAuliffe said, referring to a conversation he had with Dean before he became DNC chairman.
Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona seemed pleased that Dean had made the latest in a series of controversial statements. "Howard Dean is the gift that keeps on giving," McCain told Cybercast News Service outside the Rock the Vote event.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/09/2005 08:32 ||
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It's hilarious how they keep trying to downplay his gaffes by claiming he "doesn't speak for the whole party" -- What purpose does a party chairman serve, in that case?
McCain's quote is spot on, and given the success of the compromise he helped engineer to end the filibustering and get those judges approved he's starting to earn back my approval. At the time I thought the compromise was pandering to a defeated, whiny party who can't accept that they lost the election, but it's starting to look like an end run that will give the Republicans everything they wanted.
Posted by: Dar ||
06/09/2005 10:06 Comments ||
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#5
His instincts are good, almost a classic liberal instead of the typical (socialist) liberal.
But it doesnt matter: they will bend him to the partisan dark side in DC. Its already begun with him tacitly backing the demagogery going on with judges.
#15
Rove needs to tell Howlin' Howie to scale it back a bit and wait just a little longer between soundbites. The Donks are starting to get suspicious.
...Ann dismantles the beatification of Deep Throat quite nicely.
Best Quote:
All this time, Nixon had suspicions about Felt being Deep Throat. Others may attribute Nixon's kindness toward Felt to Nixon's high principle and class. I prefer to think of it as sadism.
RTWT.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/09/2005 08:04 ||
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#1
A fun read, as Coulter almost always delivers, but I, um, had otherunseemly thoughts when I saw the title. Gosh, silly me. Color me blue-balled red-faced, heh.
A federal grand jury has indicted a former high-ranking federal immigration official in San Diego for allegedly covering up a drug and immigrant smuggling ring in exchange for money and gifts.
Daphiney Kimberly Caganap, 43, the former head of intelligence operations for the Immigration and Naturalization Service in San Diego, has been placed on administrative leave from her current post as port director for U.S. Customs and Border Protection at Detroit Metro Airport.
She is expected to surrender to authorities next week, Assistant U.S. Atty. Edward C. Weiner said.
The indictment, filed on Tuesday, grew out of an investigation targeting an INS inspector who was part of a ring smuggling marijuana and illegal immigrants through the San Ysidro Port of Entry in 2000 and 2001.
The inspector, whose name was not released, has been criminally charged and is a cooperating witness in the case.
During the investigation, Caganap was an assistant port director in the San Diego District of the INS, where she oversaw anti-smuggling operations and supervised the intelligence unit.
Caganap, who was briefed by federal agents on the investigation of the inspector, passed along sensitive information to the suspect, the 11-page indictment said. She also lied to federal agents about the inspector's illegal activities, it said.
In return, Caganap received a hot tub spa worth about $10,000, free repairs on her Mercedes-Benz and $20,000 to $30,000 in cash, the indictment said.
The investigation was headed by the Border Corruption Task Force, which includes the FBI, the office of the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
If convicted on the nine felony counts, Caganap faces a potential 36-year prison term, Weiner said.
"Officials in high places will not be permitted to cover up criminal activities of other employees," said Daniel R. Dzwilewski, the FBI special agent in charge in San Diego. "When false statements are made to investigators, even years after the events, such dishonesty will be exposed and punished."
Caganap's attorney could not be reached for comment.
Posted by: too true ||
06/09/2005 14:51 ||
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Brazil, Germany, India and Japan dropped their demand Wednesday for veto power for new permanent members in an expanded U.N. Security Council. The so-called Group of Four, who have been campaigning vigorously to become members of the U.N.'s most powerful body, were forced to back down because of opposition from a number of countries. The group has circulated a resolution that would increase the Security Council from 15 to 25 members, including six new permanent seats — with four hopefully going to them and the other two to African nations. But Wednesday's revised draft would delay consideration of a veto for the new permanent members for 15 years.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/09/2005 00:00 ||
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#6
They should just set up hidden cameras in every meeting room and edit it together for a weekly reality show. General Disassembly. I'd watch. The UN could be good for something then. Entertainment.
THE Zimbabwean government has found a way around the arms embargo imposed by its former suppliers in Europe and America and has entered into massive secret deals with neighbours South Africa and Malawi.
Highly placed sources said the government - scrounging around for almost US$420 million needed to import grain - has splashed millions of rands on military hardware, mainly to replace its obsolete equipment.
At least R1 million was forked out to buy military equipment from Armaments Corporation of South Africa (Armscor). The government is also reported to be purchasing tear gas canisters from Malawi.
Reports from South Africa suggest the government purchased helicopter spares in a deal which had the blessing of that country's National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC), which gives permission before military hardware can be sold to any country. Armscor is a quasi-state institution established by an Act of Parliament. The spare parts, military experts say, will be used to repair the Airforce of Zimbabwe's Alloutte helicopters, which have been grounded due to a shortage of spare parts. Armscor spokesperson, Bertus Cilliers confirmed to The Financial Gazette that the Zimbabwean government had taken delivery of military spares to repair its ageing Alloutte helicopters, originally manufactured in France in the mid-1960s.
Cilliers brushed aside concerns that Harare was under an arms embargo, saying South Africa was not "part of the EU" adding that the door will always be open for more arms trade with the Zimbabwean government. "The EU has imposed sanctions, but South Africa is not part of the EU, we are not bound by any sanctions from the EU. As long as the South African government approves an export of arms to Zimbabwe, we will continue to do business. The only time we will stop is when there are United Nations (UN)-imposed sanctions against Zimbabwe," Cilliers said in a telephone interview from South Africa. Cilliers said the Airforce of Zimbabwe has previously taken delivery of unspecified quantities of spare parts from Armscor.
Government spokesperson George Charamba declined to comment on the reported arms purchases, citing national security considerations.
"These are issues of national security and I will not comment. This government has every right to take measures it deems necessary to protect its citizens from any form of aggression," Charamba said.
"We know you are trying to perpetuate issues which are being pushed by foreign powers. The British have every reason to be worried and to want to know what is happening regarding our arms imports," Charamba charged.
Government has reportedly set its sights on acquiring Russian-made Mig-29s as well as Chengdu PAC FC1 combat aircraft jointly manufactured by Chengdu Aircraft of China and Pakistan Aeronautical Complex. The government bought six Hongdu Karakorum-8 state-of-the-art jet trainer aircraft from China for US$120 million. ". . . We bought some Hawks from Britain and we now need spare parts for them but Britain has said no. That's why we have now grounded all our Hawks and Britain is losing because we have resorted to the "Look East Policy" and we now have similar planes from China", President Robert Mugabe is quoted as having said in the current issue of the New African Magazine.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/09/2005 12:17 ||
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#1
If mugabe makes it another six months I'll be amazed. He's pissing off everybody he can think of, including about a million people in the capital city. His junky chinese jets and classic 1960's helicopters arent going to do him any good when a mob storms the presidential palace and tears him to pieces. The only curious thing to me is that he seems to think that you can go around doing whatever you want without any consequences. That seems to be a common condition with tyrants.
Mr Mugabe added that Zimbabwe was making "great strides towards economic recovery". Tourism was enjoying a "strong recovery", he said, and the demolitions in the townships were a "vigorous clean-up campaign to restore sanity and order in urban and other areas".
In reality, Zimbabwe suffers inflation of 130 per cent and more than one third of its economy has been wiped out in the last five years.
The president's speech "reflects his senile dementia," said Tendai Biti, the MDC's secretary for economic affairs. "Any decent doctor will tell you that once you are in your eighties, you lose your memory, you lose your grasp of reality and you have no grip of time or space. That's what is happening with this old man."
Posted by: john ||
06/09/2005 19:35 Comments ||
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#4
I just cannot believe that someone has not popped off this madman yet.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/09/2005 21:51 Comments ||
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#4
Shipman - I know there is one somewhere -- I was able to download a few of them such as 'We are all Bozo's on this bus'.... I just don't have the location anymore...
Adding a common ingredient in shampoo to paints and varnishes can create self-sanitizing coatings for frequently touched surfaces in public buildings that continue killing germs for months, according to research conducted by a multi-state consortium of high school students and retirees.
Working through the website science-projects.com, 10 students from New York, Texas and Virginia joined three World War II veterans and a retired railroader from Virginia to report their research findings at the 105th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.
"Public buildings and especially schools are at the center of the epidemiological web for spreading common upper respiratory diseases that cost the U.S. hundreds of billions of dollars annually in lost productivity. While it has long been known that our coinage possesses the quality of being self-sterilizing, little previous thought has been given to making frequently handled surfaces such as railings, doorknobs, push-plates, desktops, and faucet handles in public buildings similarly self-sterilizing through the addition of rapidly effective agents," says Carl Vermeulen, a retired microbiologist who runs the website and is coordinator of the project.
In order to find additives that could create the most effective self-sterilizing surfaces, the students tested a variety of metal dusts, salts and other organic chemicals by mixing them into clear varnish. Once dried, varnished surfaces were tested for the speed in which they killed the microbes applied to them. The coating doped with cetavlon, a major detergent component of many shampoos that is completely safe for humans, killed the microbes within seconds of application. Even after 5 months the coating could still self-sterilize within 30 seconds.
"We found that the common shampoo ingredient cetavlon was especially effective, as well as having good dopant properties due to its being a detergent that mixes well with both aqueous and oil-based coatings," says Vermuelen.
While they have shown that paints and varnishes can be made rapidly and inexpensively self-sterilizing, the group has yet to develop floor and furniture polishes that work. Students who may be interested in pursuing this line of research can contact Vermeulen through his website at science-projects.com. Bravo! A discovery that could save thousands of lives by helping to sanitize hospitals and schools.
YIELDS on eurozone government debt tumbled to record lows for a second consecutive day yesterday, amid deepening market gloom over economic prospects for the 12-nation bloc.
Benchmark ten-year German government bonds sank to 3.121 per cent before closing three basis points lower at 3.133 per cent after the Dutch central bank slashed its forecast for growth in the Netherlands this year from 1.7 per cent to just 0.4 per cent.
The latest fall in yields is likely to fuel consternation among European Central Bank policymakers, who are trying to dampen hopes of an impending interest rate cut and leave investors puzzling where bond markets are headed next.
Axel Weber, a member of the ECB's governing council, stressed yesterday that the central bank was in "wait-and-see" mode.
Otmar Issing, the ECB's chief economist, also said it was being made "a scapegoat for many problems" in Europe's economy.
However, City economists suggested that Europe's lacklustre economic performance might force the bank to act sooner rather than later.
Fixed income markets in the US face a similar conundrum. Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve, has admitted that he is at a loss to explain why yields on longer-dated US bonds are so low. On Tuesday he suggested that "new forces" might account for the low level of interest rates.
The dip in borrowing costs prompted a rush of companies to tap the corporate bond markets yesterday. GlaxoSmithKline, Europe's largest drugs maker, said that it would raise as much as â¬1.5 billion through the sale of two bonds, while LVMH, the luxury goods maker, and Veolia, the French utilities company, each sold â¬600 million in new paper.
If the central banks can't predict the likely response to rate changes, or if structural changes are occuring globally but no one has a good handle on them, expect a lot of financial and economic instability for the next few years.
Posted by: too true ||
06/09/2005 06:31 ||
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#1
Long term interest rates are signalling an imminent and probably severe recession. There is a lot of debt out there that will never be collected. As I said yesterday - too much liquidity chasing fewer returns and discounting risk to zero.
#3
Europeans are so smart, and soo much smarter than us, it's hard to believe this is really happening.
It couldn't happen to a nicer, more pleasant people.
Posted by: Scott ||
06/09/2005 7:57 Comments ||
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#3
Horn Silica is finely ground quartz meal that spends the summer in the soil inside a cow horn
ROFL- sand that spends the summer inside a cow horn is still sand. Alex, I'll take looney for $500!
A GROUP of Cubans trying to reach the United States in a vintage American car converted into a boat were intercepted by the US Coast Guard, relatives said today. It is their third attempt in two years to reach the US in the amphibious 49 Mercury.
In their impoverished Havana neighbourhood, tearful mothers implored US authorities to allow the emigres to stay in the United States, saying they would be jailed if returned to Communist-run Cuba. Thirteen Cubans, including six children, sailed across the Florida Straits in a 1949 Mercury with a built-on prow and a taxi sign on the roof. They were intercepted about 32km off Key West on the southern tip of Florida yesterday morning, Miami television station NBC 6 reported.
The group set off on Monday night local time from a beach east of Havana in the converted car owned by Rafael Diaz, who was making his third attempt to leave Cuba in the makeshift amphibious craft. Miami television images showed them aboard a US Coast Guard cutter. A Coast Guard spokesman said he could not provide details on the incident until the fate of the migrants was resolved. "He's my only son. He is all I have got," said Diaz's mother Josefina Rey, 79. "But at least in the United States he can remake his life. Here they will not leave him in peace."
"I implore the US government that they be allowed to stay. If they are returned they will be refugees for ever, there will be reprisals," said Efigenia Bello, whose daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren, aged 3 and 4, were on the vessel. She said her daughter Yerani was a doctor and Cuba would not allow her to emigrate legally to the United States.
Generally, Cubans intercepted on the 140km crossing to Florida are sent back to the island, while those who make it to US soil are allowed to stay. Others are taken to the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay and later allowed to go to a third country from where they can make it to the United States. According to Coast Guard statistics, some 1406 Cubans have been intercepted illegally crossing the Florida Straits since October. Most are ferried over in smugglers' vessels.
#5
I heartly agree with the idea of exchanging leftists for ingenious Cubans. I would add to the list of people to send there: ungreatful muslims, ungreatful latins, Howard Dean's supporters, Kerry's supporters and resentful minorities, in general.
#6
I shudder looking at that thing immersed in salt water -- the winter road salt here in PA does enough damage to cars as it is!
Jackal's right -- anyone this ingenious and determined deserves amnesty.
And JFM's exchange program idea is perfect. I nominate Alec Baldwin as our first dropping offering.
Posted by: Dar ||
06/09/2005 9:58 Comments ||
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#7
Those cubans needed to put an angular superstructure on the vessel to dissipate radar waves, some better camo paint, and they would have been able to dock at Miami. I agree, though, they are they type of people that we need, if we take immigrants.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/09/2005 11:08 Comments ||
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#8
Would emeral-green not blend with the color of the water? I have flown over that area and the water, in some parts, looks just like the color of the car!
#11
Can't we just pretend people like this are Mexicans crossing the land border and "forget" to ask them about their immigration status?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
06/09/2005 16:23 Comments ||
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#12
The thing that really impressed me is that they painted the bow the same colour. Talk about pride.
These people really ought to be offered the opportunity to live and work in the US - they've certainly shown they have the guts and drive (ho ho!) to have a go!
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
06/09/2005 16:26 Comments ||
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#13
Those cubans needed to put an angular superstructure on the vessel to dissipate radar waves, some better camo paint
Hell no - looks sweet the way it is. These guys could get a job in about 10 seconds in Florida.
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.
Massachusetts Port Authority officials have turned their records over to Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly's office and the State Police, said Kurt Schwartz, chief of the attorney general office's criminal bureau. Reilly's office has launched a grand jury probe. Because seniority is determined by when a union member first receives a union card, regardless of the number of hours worked, union members who got their children enrolled are believed to have ensured that their children would receive higher pay, Schwartz said in a statement Wednesday. 
PARIS has been riveted this week by a tale of intrigue, skulduggery and betrayal that a Jacobean playwright might have entitled The Revenge of Nicolas.
Brazil, Germany, India and Japan dropped their demand Wednesday for veto power for new permanent members in an expanded U.N. Security Council. The so-called Group of Four, who have been campaigning vigorously to become members of the U.N.'s most powerful body, were forced to back down because of opposition from a number of countries. The group has circulated a resolution that would increase the Security Council from 15 to 25 members, including six new permanent seats — with four hopefully going to them and the other two to African nations. But Wednesday's revised draft would delay consideration of a veto for the new permanent members for 15 years.
