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Hamas: Arab State May Have Helped in Syria Killing
Today's Headlines
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Page 3: Non-WoT
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Mt. Saint Helens Rumbling to Eruption?
Hat Tip DRUDGE
SEATTLE - Seismologists believe there's an increased likelihood of a hazardous event at Mount St. Helens due to recent changes in the mountain's seismic activity, and a notice of volcanic unrest was issued Sunday afternoon by the U.S. Geological Survey. "The key issue is a small explosion without warning. That would be the major event that we're worried about right now," said Willie Scott, a geologist with the USGS office in Vancouver. The trails on the mountain are closed to climbing as a precaution. Some of the earthquakes suggest the involvement of pressurized fluids, such as water or steam, and perhaps magma. The quakes have occurred at depths less than one mile below the lava dome within the mountain's crater.

USGS Page : Mt. St. Helens Region
The cause and outcome of the swarm was uncertain Sunday evening. A group of scientists planned to visit the mountain Monday to collect data. "There's been no explosions, there's no outward sign that anything is occurring. This is all based on the pattern of earthquake activity that is occurring below the dome," said Scott. Experts believe there is "an increased probability of explosions from the lava dome if the level of current unrest continues or escalates," USGS and the University of Washington Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network in Seattle said in a joint statement. In the event of an explosion, Scott said the concern would be focused on the area within the crater and the flanks of the volcano. It's possible that a five-mile area primarily north of the volcano could receive flows of mud and rock debris. That portion of the mountain blew out during the 1980 eruption that left 57 people dead, devastating hundreds of square miles around the peak and spewing ash over much of the Northwest.

During the tiny earthquakes last week, UW seismology lab coordinator Bill Steele said heavy autumn rains may have caused groundwater to percolate into hot rock beneath the surface of the crater, which would increase pressure. He said it would also raise the possibility of small steam explosions that could hurl rocks down within the crater. A similar swarm of quakes in November 2001 and another in the summer of 1998 did not result in an eruption. However, the quakes could increase the likelihood of small rock slides from the 876-foot-tall lava dome within the mountain's crater. In the 1986 eruption, magma reached the surface and added to the pile of lava on the crater floor.
Natural Disasters and Purple States?
Posted by: BigEd || 09/27/2004 1:11:55 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I also did some crude stats :
9/24 Avg Mag 1.5
9/25 1.7
9/26 2.1
9/27 2.1

Not felt normally by humans, but trend is upward...
Posted by: BigEd || 09/27/2004 13:31 Comments || Top||

#2  Jeez Louise. The bible-thumpers must be having a field day with the latest news: hurricanes, quakes, volcanic eruptions, the israelite and the pharisee and the christian spilling blood and heads....
Posted by: lex || 09/27/2004 13:33 Comments || Top||

#3  and asteroids!
Posted by: Frank G || 09/27/2004 13:42 Comments || Top||

#4  Not to mention the plague of frogs.

Well, "frog".

OK, it was a plastic frog. But it was annoying me, so I was perfectly justified in throwing it out of my cube.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 09/27/2004 14:02 Comments || Top||

#5  Volcanos: why do they hate us?

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 09/27/2004 14:20 Comments || Top||

#6 

RC - Don't blame us if you cant find your keys!
Posted by: BigEd || 09/27/2004 15:03 Comments || Top||

#7  Itsa all coming true,


mmmm, frogs, rice and locusts. Beats tinned sardines.
Posted by: rhodesiafever || 09/27/2004 15:12 Comments || Top||

#8  Locusts?

Posted by: BigEd || 09/27/2004 15:20 Comments || Top||

#9  Wow. what self restraint, no blaming Bush and the Republicans for St. Helens.
Posted by: Brutus || 09/27/2004 15:29 Comments || Top||

#10  "If only we'd passed the Kyoto Treaty, American Volcano blasts would be prohibited!"
Posted by: Frank G || 09/27/2004 15:30 Comments || Top||

#11  Specially good when the rice is pre-digested.
Posted by: rhodesiafever || 09/27/2004 15:32 Comments || Top||

#12  Not so fast, Brutus, Poisonous Reverse has not commented yet.
Posted by: Tom || 09/27/2004 15:32 Comments || Top||

#13  Sorry, BigEd, I will try the link again, AND paste,
;)
http://rantburg.com/page2.asp?D=9/27/2004#44359
Posted by: rhodesiafever || 09/27/2004 15:46 Comments || Top||

#14  Kubli Kahn ,when a locust plague devasted Central China,was asked to send famine relief responded with"Let them eat the locusts". Pragmatic,dude,that Kubli.
Posted by: Raptor || 09/27/2004 19:18 Comments || Top||

#15  Good source of protein, locusts. And kosher, too. Not that Mr. Khan would care about that (unless he really was the Chinese branch of the Kahn/Cohn/Cohen tribe of Israelite priests decended from Aaron)*grin*
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/27/2004 22:12 Comments || Top||

#16  Is there any reasonable way to release the pressure and avoid an eruption (if one is due)?
Posted by: RJ Schwarz || 09/27/2004 22:40 Comments || Top||


Israeli millionaire to purchase 50% of Al-Jazeera shares
I'ts from Pravda, so you know it has to be true...
Posted by: Dutchgeek || 09/27/2004 05:04 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  hmmm...According to the newspaper, Shiban has purchased a portion of American company Fox for $1.5 billion USD. In addition, last year he's become a shareholder of a German company Bru Sat 1 for 225 million Euro. He also owns 23% of shares of second Israel's channel, reports RIA "Novosti".

God bless the internet - where people can't own the news, anymore than they can own "word of mouth".
Posted by: 2B || 09/27/2004 9:25 Comments || Top||

#2  I just love the fact that this will make the arab world apoplectic (true or not)!

I think the backlash will be sooo severe that the deal can't go through. It'll be interesting to watch, though.
Posted by: PlanetDan || 09/27/2004 10:34 Comments || Top||

#3  I think the person Prada is talking about is Haym Saban, developer of the Mighty Morphin Power Ranger franchise.

I also doubt very much if this story is true.
Posted by: mhw || 09/27/2004 11:16 Comments || Top||

#4  I also doubt very much if this story is true.

Quite probably, but the humiliation factor alone makes it fun to read.
Posted by: Zenster || 09/27/2004 12:25 Comments || Top||

#5  hehe :)
Posted by: Anonymous6361 || 09/27/2004 14:01 Comments || Top||


Hurricane Season Has Some Reconsidering Living In Florida
They do that every hurricane season. What else is new?
Being a month or more without electrical power in sweltering swamp heat, due to four devastating hurricanes in any little over a month, and being made cognizant the current hurricane cycle shall being pounding the so-called Sunshine State from June through November for at least another 15 to 25 years, it's time to head back home, where the lights remain on and the water has a place to drain. Florida is only for a vacation spot during the winter months to go to the beach & Disneyworld.
The latest hurricane to slam into Florida has some residents reconsidering whether or not they want to continue living in the state, according to a Local 6 News report.
"Maudette, I think we should move the trailer house back to Des Moines!"
A Local 6 News exclusive survey found 31 percent of people asked said this year's storm season has caused them to think about leaving. However, 69 percent of those surveyed said no, that they have not thought about moving away from Florida.
"I mean, just because the hurricane blew the house away and we were attacked by alligators, why should we leave?"
The storm sliced across the state Sunday with howling wind and rain, turning streets into rivers, peeling off roofs and rocketing debris from earlier storms through the air. The storm made landfall just weeks after Frances ravaged the same stretch of coast, and hurled debris only recently cleared from earlier hurricanes. Together, Hurricanes Ivan, Charley and Frances have already caused billions of dollars of damage and at least 70 deaths in the state. "The last three weeks have been horrific," said mobile home park owner Joe Stawara in Vero Beach. "And just when we start to turn the corner, this happens."
"What comes next? Volcanic eruptions?"
Some inexpensive land near Mount Saint Helens right now ...
The hurricanes have prompted the largest relief effort in the Federal Emergency Management Agency's history, eclipsing responses for the 1994 earthquake in Northridge, Calif., and the 2001 terrorist attacks, director Michael Brown said. Jeanne is the state's fourth hurricane of the season -- an ordeal no state has faced since Texas in 1886.
Signs and portents, friends, signs and portents.
Posted by: Mark Espinola || 09/27/2004 12:54:53 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Please reconsider. It's damn hot and the state soil is a myakka sand. Jellyfish are on the move and the sharks are getting restless. The aligators are making a huge (and I mean huge) comeback, they've developed a taste for dawgs and children. I counsel fleeing.
Posted by: Shipman || 09/27/2004 9:29 Comments || Top||

#2  And the parrotheads! My God, the parrotheads!
Posted by: BH || 09/27/2004 10:30 Comments || Top||

#3  Since I live there 9 months out of the year, I say good riddance - especially if you are 1) Canadian, 2) over 80, and 3) are still driving your 1980 Buick.
Posted by: Jack is Back || 09/27/2004 10:49 Comments || Top||

#4  When the next blizzard hits Chicago its all forgotten...
Posted by: True German Ally || 09/27/2004 10:53 Comments || Top||

#5  Can anyone give advice on the panhandle (redneck riviera) as a second home location for a young family (toddler)? Trying to understand

1) aesthetic

2) jellyfish, shark, etc

3) Canadian

factors... thanks in advance, Lex
Posted by: lex || 09/27/2004 11:06 Comments || Top||

#6  I have never desired to live in Florida. Naples is nice, but Florida is Florida. Cockroaches the size of a small hot dog, bugs everywhere, crocodiles wandering around gardens biting off people's excess limbs, the aforementioned jelly fish (which I encountered around Sarasota by the 100s--babies), and sweaty, stinky people nearly year round is enough to get me to put up with Chicago blizzards.
Posted by: jules 187 || 09/27/2004 11:13 Comments || Top||

#7  I guess I would love some fresh mountaineous area with crystal clear lakes and down to earth honest people...

And I like the four seasons.
Posted by: True German Ally || 09/27/2004 11:18 Comments || Top||

#8  Lex, the Canucks tend to winter in South Florida (ie Miami-Dade and Broward counties). I think jellyfish are more of an Atlantic phenomenon, dunno about the shark/gator scene on the Panhandle. Oddly enough, I heard one of the residents in Escambia County (Pensacola) on the radio after Ivan...he said all the federal relief funds flowing in were already raising their standard of living even as they pick up the pieces...
Posted by: Seafarious || 09/27/2004 11:24 Comments || Top||

#9  Sounds like the NW--maybe Montana or Washington state--is the place for you, TGA. The NE is also mountainous and very beautiful, and in places the people can be great, but they can be mixed in with real a**holes, too.
Posted by: jules 187 || 09/27/2004 11:27 Comments || Top||

#10  ... or alternatively, advice on Southern Colorado (Salida, Pueblo, Sangre de Cristo generally)-- again, out-of-towners who go there, a**hole factor, hazards for toddler etc.

thanks, L
Posted by: lex || 09/27/2004 11:30 Comments || Top||

#11  thanks, Seafarious. Was Sanibel Island wiped out?
Posted by: lex || 09/27/2004 11:31 Comments || Top||

#12  Have we got the place 4U, TGA up in Alaska. And if you look around, we can even rustle you up a few down to earth honest people.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 09/27/2004 11:32 Comments || Top||

#13  or Idaho - some areas speak excellent German ;-)
Posted by: Frank G || 09/27/2004 11:36 Comments || Top||

#14  Frank-you are dastardly! :)
Posted by: jules 187 || 09/27/2004 11:38 Comments || Top||

#15  All great suggestions but you know someone has to keep the a**holes at bay here as well :-)

Hmmm yes but Alaska is a place I'd really like to see before I die. In summer (or early fall) though because I had my share of winter in Siberia already.
Posted by: True German Ally || 09/27/2004 11:38 Comments || Top||

#16  TGA,
Want crystal clear lakes?
Florida is home to 75 of the top 100 fresh water springs in the world and has some fantashic spring fed rivers and lakes.
O-town native
Posted by: Anonymous6680 || 09/27/2004 11:49 Comments || Top||

#17  A6680--he also said *mountains* ;-)
Posted by: Seafarious || 09/27/2004 11:51 Comments || Top||

#18  A6680 - have a link to a good map of these springs? Preferably sorted by volume of potable water. A great business, spring water is.
Posted by: lex || 09/27/2004 11:54 Comments || Top||

#19  Lex, I think Sanibel is further south along the west coast. I heard there was some damage but it may only be to the back nine. The front nine seem to be playable and the cart path is still in ok shape...
Posted by: Seafarious || 09/27/2004 11:59 Comments || Top||

#20  Two of the Hurricaine Eyes, Frances and Jeanne bot hit land in PALM BEACH COUNTY. The center of the 2000 "recount" storm.

Interesting. Hurricanes supressing voter turnout!
Posted by: BigEd || 09/27/2004 12:07 Comments || Top||

#21  This has been a harsh 6 weeks. The worst thing is that we haven’t gotten a decent surf day out of any of the hurricanes. However it is getting a little boring. The same old routine: wait in line to gas up truck, check still boarded up windows, lay on the couch listening to the wind howl and wonder if the roof is going to blow of this time, wonder how long the power will be off, wait in line to get gas again and try to remember to be thankful for surviving yet again. There is a silver lining: the post storm clean up is easier since there aren’t many branches falling off the remaining trees.
Posted by: Canaveral Dan || 09/27/2004 12:08 Comments || Top||

#22  Lex, Sanibel got whacked by Charlie. Captiva (north of Sanibel) was hit even worse. There is a Little Captiva which is an islet cut from the larger island by an earlier hurricane. Well now there are 2 Little Captivas. Charlie cut a 400 yard channel right through the island. That gives you some perspective on the power of these storms. Imagine the amount of dynamite that would be required to do that. Amazing.
Posted by: remote man || 09/27/2004 13:01 Comments || Top||

#23  Sorry to hear it. Too bad for Porter Goss and the ex-Company guys who (reportedly) make up many of Sanibel's residents.
Posted by: lex || 09/27/2004 13:03 Comments || Top||

#24  Lex, if you got dough St. George Island, it has been hurricane lucky (sic) so far and the sharks are mostly black tip and nurse. The rattle snakes in the middle of the island are large but fairly slow, you can easily dodge them once you get the rythem down and have cultivated your Baptist stare. The Mosquitos are only bad when the bats are migrating north. Due points above 73 degrees only occur nine months of the year.

Posted by: Shipman || 09/27/2004 14:05 Comments || Top||

#25  And the locusts and termites are only bad outside of hurricane season, right?
Posted by: lex || 09/27/2004 14:45 Comments || Top||

#26  Lex -- Here is a site I found that ranks them by volume:
http://www.floridadep.org/springs/locator/Firstmagmap.htm
Posted by: Anonymous6680 || 09/27/2004 16:09 Comments || Top||

#27  Thanks, mous
Posted by: lex || 09/27/2004 16:30 Comments || Top||

#28  Actually Lex if you do have dough St. George is a good place to be, Wakulla County if you are more shall we say, thrifty, such as myself. Taylor County has no beachs but has more magnificient scenery than you can shake a stick at (saltwater marsh wise) it's my second home.
Posted by: Shipman || 09/27/2004 16:34 Comments || Top||

#29  And yes Wakulla Springs is a beyond category 1 Spring.
Posted by: Shipman || 09/27/2004 16:36 Comments || Top||

#30  Check Arizona,TGA.In the winter you can go from mid-70(f)in Phoenix/Tucson to skiing in the White Mountains with a 2 hour drive(sorry no Autobahns here).Besides we got something AP doesn't.Great Mexican food.I'm having home made Enchiladas tonight,with hot sauce made from my own garden.By the way if you like to garden we have 3 growing seasons.Put that in your pipe and smoke it AP(just a little chuckle)
Posted by: Raptor || 09/27/2004 19:43 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Experts Among Expats May Get Soddy Citizenship
Saudi Arabia is likely to grant citizenship to long-serving expatriate workers having high scientific qualifications and rare expertise under a new law to be passed shortly by the Council of Ministers. "The revised citizenship law will be passed by the Cabinet shortly after it has been endorsed by the Shoura Council and reviewed by the Interior Ministry and the Cabinet's committee of experts," said Nasser ibn Hamad Al-Hanaya, assistant deputy interior minister for civil affairs.

However, the official did not say when exactly the Cabinet would pass the much-awaited law. The newly revised law has taken into consideration family relations as citizenship will be given to applicants whose father or mother or most brothers are Saudi. "It has also taken care of the Kingdom's need for people having scientific qualifications and rare specialization," Okaz Arabic daily quoted Al-Hanaya as saying. The new law gives the interior minister the authority to grant citizenship to the children of naturalized Saudis when they reach adulthood, while giving citizenship to their father, if they fulfill necessary conditions. It also allows authorities to give citizenship to a foreign woman whose Saudi husband has died and has given birth to his children. On May 9, the Shoura Council passed the relaxed law, which allows foreigners who have been living in the Kingdom for at least 10 years to apply for Saudi citizenship.
Posted by: Fred || 09/27/2004 10:05:36 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  PD? Reconsidering?
Posted by: Shipman || 09/27/2004 14:07 Comments || Top||

#2  This or 50 dollars buys you a Saudi passport...
Posted by: True German Ally || 09/27/2004 14:09 Comments || Top||

#3  And if they're Joooos?
Posted by: Frank G || 09/27/2004 14:11 Comments || Top||

#4  Lol - Killer comments, lol!

Ship, I may be going back - but not to SA, just the region... prolly either Bahrain or UAE. Mebbe I can hook up with Gentle, heh. There are some personnel shuffles afoot and one particular move would make this a possibility. I'll believe it when it's real and the check clears, etc.
Posted by: .com || 09/27/2004 14:25 Comments || Top||

#5  .com,
Are you sure you want to go back to the area? Please reconsider.

#3...there are no jews (legally) in Saudi Arabia. However, my son went to school with a child whose mother was jewish and father was Christian.
This is going to sound really bad but most of the westerners married to saudis, at least the ones I met, deserve to be citizens of that country. I hope that they are forced to renounce their american citizenship to become saudi.
Posted by: Anonymous4724 || 09/27/2004 16:03 Comments || Top||

#6  A4724 - Of course, though you don't specify it, you'r referring to Western WYMYN married to Saudis - the reverse would not happen within Saudi Arabia - and the number of unattached Saudi wymyn outside Saudi is infinitesimally small (though I actually know one, heh).

Lots of "ifs" betwixt now and then, so I'm not holding my breath. But there is a strange satisfaction that comes from taking their money - and then spending it in Thailand and Singapore and the US, heh. They will have to accept remote development this time - something they wouldn't accept in April 2003, so my exit was thus assured. If they grow up enough to handle that, well, I might just give it a whirl. Appreciate your POV - the place is truly a hellhole on every level - but I won't live there, again, no matter what. Might not even go for a quick meeting - maybe make them meet me in Bahrain. But, as I said, lots of things between here and there - prolly won't work out anyway.

Grins, heh. :-)
Posted by: .com || 09/27/2004 16:15 Comments || Top||

#7  Have 'em meet you on a cruise ship. I hear they're purdy safe, and you can always kill 'em if they get touchey on 'ye.
Posted by: Festus || 09/27/2004 16:45 Comments || Top||

#8  Screw the citizenship. What does it take to qualify as a royal family member?
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/27/2004 16:56 Comments || Top||

#9  SH---the most important qualification is that you give generously to the terrorist outfit charity of your choice.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 09/27/2004 17:21 Comments || Top||

#10  Who in thier right mind would want to be a cetizen of Saudi?
Posted by: Raptor || 09/27/2004 19:42 Comments || Top||

#11  Will the foreigner/citizens be able to get some of that money for marrying someone with special needs? Will the men amongst them be allowed the traditional four full-time wives plus a couple extra weekenders? Enquiring minds want to know!
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/27/2004 22:24 Comments || Top||


Wall Collapses at Dubai Airport
Posted by: Fred || 09/27/2004 9:07:01 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This is news only because there was no one under it at the time.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 09/27/2004 10:12 Comments || Top||

#2  The design consultant for the Terminal 3 construction is Aeroports de Paris International, according to the airport's official web site. The French firm also operates Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, where part of a terminal collapsed in May, killing four people.
"This wall has nothing to do with Aeroports de Paris," said spokesman Matthieu Monnet in Paris. "It was designed and built by another company."

LOL!:) What a pathetic cop out. Of course, it is your responsibility. You design the project and run the show for Sheikh Mo. Plus you allow shitty construction, defective material and bogus design details in favor of a little baksheesh here and some there. What is more irrespsonsible is going denial instead of dealing with the deaths and injuries to the workers who would have expected the job to be run in a professional, safe manner. That is not the French repetoire however.
Posted by: Jack is Back || 09/27/2004 10:56 Comments || Top||

#3  Zionist conspiracy, no doubt
/sarcasm off
Posted by: PlanetDan || 09/27/2004 11:14 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Sri Lankan troops head to Haiti
Aren't they supposed to be busy at home?
Sri Lanka's first major overseas peacekeeping contingent has left to join the UN mission in Haiti. About 750 troops will join the effort to restore stability after Haiti's president was forced out of power earlier this year. In a moving ceremony the first 150 soldiers and their families gathered on sun-baked tarmac at Colombo airport. The leaders of Sri Lanka's many religious communities stood by as Lt Gen Shantha Kottegoda wished them well. The soldiers' children waved paper flags and wiped away tears as the Sri Lankan and UN standards were folded and handed to the head of the mission. A UN peacekeeping mission with about 7,000 soldiers and 1,500 civilian police took over in Haiti in June to bring the situation under control after the ousting of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in February. The French embassy in Colombo held classes in conversational French for the troops before their deployment.
"What's the French for 'don't shoot!', Mukkarjee?"
Until now, Sri Lanka's military has been locked in a decades-long battle with Tamil Tiger rebels, but a truce was signed in 2002 paving the way for the Sri Lankan military to carry out peacekeeping duties at home and abroad.
Posted by: Steve White || 09/27/2004 11:52:52 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  We will see what happens to the peace agreement in Sri Lanka after the Home Team goes on the road for a while.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 09/27/2004 0:10 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
China leaders warn of their corruption
In an unusually blunt message, China's Communist Party has warned its members that corruption and incompetence could threaten the politburo's lock on graft and not just its hold on power. The party's Central Committee said in a policy paper quoted by the official Xinhua news agency that Communist rule could not be taken for granted.
Thinking people take it as an affront to human civilization.
The anti-graft drive was a "life and death struggle" for filthy lucre the party, it said. Thousands of officials have recently been punished for unauthorized corruption, but the problem is continuing, analysts say. The 36-page report amounts to an admission that the Communist Party is facing a legitimacy crisis, the BBC's Louisa Lim in Beijing reports.
Let's have a "BIG F&%KING DUH!" folks.
China's leaders are now grappling with popular discontent at what is seen as widespread corruption among party members, our correspondent says.
Day late and a dollar yuan short.
"We must develop a stronger sense of crisis, draw experience and lessons from the success and failure of other ruling parties in the world and enhance our governance capability in a more earnest and conscientious manner," the report said. "ALL Some leading party members don't have a strong sense of responsibility, personal integrity, a down-to-earth style of work or a close connection with the general public," it said. Although the report called for expanded "socialist democracy" and "ideological innovation", the state-run media gave no hint that the party was prepared to relax its power monopoly, while implementing capitalist-style reforms. The report did not specify how the party would improve its ability to govern, analysts say.
Market economy, the three representatives, whatever they want to call it, it's still the dreaded "C" word, CAPITALISM.

Hu's rise
The document bears the stamp of party leader Hu Jintao, who has been warning that abuse of power and corruption are undermining the party's image, our correspondent adds. A party meeting earlier this month sealed President Hu Jintao's leadership by appointing him head the powerful Central Military Commission, succeeding former leader Jiang Zemin. The move will consolidate Mr Hu's position as China's paramount leader, analysts say.
It's still not what you know, but "Hu" you know.
Posted by: Zenster || 09/27/2004 3:36:42 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Chinese History 101 - the emperors gather great power, the system becomes corrupt, the government falls and is replaced by regional authorities, one eventually displaces all others to become emperor. Repeat.

With all the concern about future Chinese power projections in the region and world, the observers seem to keep overlooking this pattern. Its all about timing. Corruption is alway fatal to the Chinese central government structure. The new Capitalism in China will aid the process along in the form of 'throwing gas on the fire'.
Posted by: Don || 09/27/2004 18:11 Comments || Top||

#2  "Let’s have a "BIG F&%KING DUH!" folks."

Absolutely - for the long-admiring BBC socialists - and one for the Chinese Commie Party, too, lol!
Posted by: .com || 09/27/2004 18:23 Comments || Top||


Europe
Spies'R'Us
Reads like a bad spy novel from 60's
A former German spy has claimed that a traitor in MI6, Britain's overseas intelligence agency, leaked sensitive secrets to Russian agents throughout the 1990s. Norbert Juretzko, once an officer in Germany's BND intelligence agency, says information about MI6 field agents and their handlers was passed to the Russians for nearly a decade. According to Juretzko, German intelligence discovered the leak — and learnt about the names and movements of British agents — but did not tell its British allies for several years because it feared British action might compromise one of its own spies operating in Russia. Juretzko, who worked as a BND officer for more than 20 years, has revealed the existence of the mole to The Sunday Times. "Almost every time I met my source, who was our top spy inside Russian intelligence, he passed me microfilm which also contained sensitive information leaking out of MI6," he said.
Well, there seems to be a fairly established tradition with MI6's spying for Russia, it would be actually a surprise if that was not the case at any point in time.
"The highly classified material could have been obtained only by somebody in a senior position, as it revealed the identities of MI6 personnel and their activities. It also appeared to reveal the cover names and travel arrangements of British handlers." The Germans finally informed the British about the leaks in 1998 and a joint operation was initiated between MI6 and Germany's Militaerischer Abschirmdienst, which is responsible for counter-espionage. It is not known whether the mole was caught. The operation was overseen in Germany by Colonel Joachim Zoeller, head of counter-espionage, and Richard Wandel, another military intelligence officer, according to a source in the BND who corroborated aspects of Juretzko's story.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Memesis || 09/27/2004 2:54:16 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Once the Russians were no longer the Soviets, you would expect that the leftist symps would do the right thing ... spy for the Chinese.
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/27/2004 18:45 Comments || Top||

#2  SH, and who sez it ain't so? Still, some people have a spine and adhere to their loyalties.
[snort..]
Posted by: Memesis || 09/27/2004 19:01 Comments || Top||


U.S. Wants to Lease Swedish Submarine
The United States wants to lease a Swedish attack submarine for naval exercises in the Baltic Sea in a deal possibly worth tens of millions of dollars, defense officials said Sunday. The Swedish submarine would play an ``enemy'' role in the exercises. ``We have asked the government for permission,'' Swedish military spokesman Anders Hedgren told The Associated Press. The Swedish submarine also would participate in joint submarine rescue exercises with the Americans, Hedgren said. Defense Ministry spokeswoman Paula Burreau confirmed that talks were ongoing between Sweden and the United States. The Green Party, which supports the government in parliament, criticized the proposed deal.
"The Americans? Eeewww! Cooties!"
``Sweden has accused the United States for being involved in a war violating international law in Iraq. This deal feels ill-timed under the circumstances,'' Green Party spokesman Lars Aangstroem said.
"And if they weren't, I'm sure there'd be another reason!"
Stationing a submarine with a full Swedish crew outside Sweden for a year would cost as much as $21.2 million a year, press reports said. The 200-foot-long attack submarine has a crew of 33. Vice Admiral Kirkland H. Donald, Commander Submarine Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, praised the Swedish submarines during a visit to Sweden last month. ``The Swedish submarines are silent and have an excellent combat management system. They can be submerged for weeks. I am happy that we are on the same side,'' Donald said.
Posted by: Steve White || 09/27/2004 12:21:20 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Same side? Bahaha.
Posted by: gromky || 09/27/2004 0:57 Comments || Top||

#2  Perhaps Donald has a flair for subtle sarcasm?
Posted by: Memesis || 09/27/2004 1:22 Comments || Top||

#3  I read the subject as:
"U.S. Wants to Leash Swedish Submarine"

Sounds kinda kinky, I like it better. :-)
Posted by: Conanista || 09/27/2004 1:28 Comments || Top||

#4  Declare war on the Swedes. Then we can play with them for free.
Posted by: ed || 09/27/2004 1:33 Comments || Top||

#5  US is(was?) testing with swedish stealth boat and the Collins australian subs(swedish buildt) are kicking US ships in some exercises due to their silence.
Posted by: Anonymous6361 || 09/27/2004 2:24 Comments || Top||

#6  Proper headline - "U.S. Wants to Reverse Engineer Lease Swedish Submarine".
Posted by: AzCat || 09/27/2004 3:00 Comments || Top||

#7  What can we possible gain from the Swedes? They need to stick to their output of beautiful blonde women and very delicious meatball dishes and leave the "...excellent combat management systems" to us! There is nothing in Sweden Bin Laden would like to blow up!
Posted by: smn || 09/27/2004 3:47 Comments || Top||

#8  Delicious meatball dishes? Is this a new swedish meatball sub?
Posted by: Mr. K || 09/27/2004 7:08 Comments || Top||

#9  sweden historically is pretty good at building weapons - they built their own during the cold war - and has exported as well. Looks like their military is friendly, and the govt may cooperate - no need to blame all Swedes for the Greens looniness.
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 09/27/2004 9:15 Comments || Top||

#10  I'd rather have the Finns on our side.
Posted by: Shipman || 09/27/2004 9:35 Comments || Top||

#11  I hear they come with airbags and crumple zones. Very safe, you know.
Posted by: PlanetDan || 09/27/2004 10:38 Comments || Top||

#12  one word: Bofors
Posted by: Frank G || 09/27/2004 10:48 Comments || Top||

#13  Damn! Ya beat me to it, Frank!
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 09/27/2004 11:36 Comments || Top||


Italy criticises Germany's UN bid
Join the crowd.
Italy has lashed out at Germany's bid for a permanent UN Security Council seat, saying it risks dividing Europe. Germany insists Europe would lose out if it were the only region not to have a new representative on an enlarged council. Under a proposed reform, Germany, Brazil, India and Japan are seeking additional permanent seats for themselves and one African nation. Permanent members France and Britain back the plan, but Italy opposes it. "I will not accept competition based around national interests. That risks dividing Europe," Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said in interviews to two Italian daily newspapers, published on Sunday. "In a month we will be signing the new European constitution in Rome which envisages the creation of a European Union foreign minister," he is quoted as saying. "With its request, Germany is going against the ideal for which we have all been working." The drive to reform the council was launched by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, after its failure to reach agreement over Iraq last year.
Who wants to stack the deck against the U.S.
Oh, yeah. Adding lotsa new members, each with a veto, is a great way to make the Security Council more responsive. And since I've gotta lose a few pounds, I think I'll have an entire cocoanut cream pie for lunch.
Brazil, Germany, India, and Japan this week called for new permanent seats for themselves and Africa, saying the plan would boost the legitimacy of the UN.
Lips then fell off their respective diplomats.
Italy's Foreign Minister earlier voiced his country's opposition saying he did not believe the council's difficulties could be resolved through new permanent, irrevocable appointments and adding that Arab nations might feel excluded.
If they're included, I suggest we exclude ourselves, immediately...

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White || 09/27/2004 12:00:00 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Um, am I missing something here. Can't any permanate member block this? France and Germany on the Security council? I don't think so. I hope Russia tells them all to piss off.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 09/27/2004 0:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Let's give everyone a seat on the Security Council. It's what the UN deserves.
Posted by: ed || 09/27/2004 1:49 Comments || Top||

#3  As I've said before, give them our seat. Throw in the building as a freebie. It's a win-win situation.
Posted by: The Caucasus Nerd || 09/27/2004 1:54 Comments || Top||

#4  What a farce! pop-corn, please. I move that Germany be permanently barred from the Security Council!

The only countries deserving of veto power are the USA and Israel. The UK and Australia probably do too, although their local politics seem unfortunately unstable at the moment (and the British attitude towards Iran is puzzling).
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 09/27/2004 8:13 Comments || Top||

#5  France and Germany on the Security council? I don't think so.

Germany *is* in the Security council, just not one of the 5 permanent members thereof.

Abolish the veto altogether.
Posted by: Aris Katsaris || 09/27/2004 9:02 Comments || Top||

#6  1. Its absurd that Germany and Japan arent perm members of the UNSC. Really. The more you make the UNSC reflect world power reality, the more responsible you make it. Add them, you almost have to add India.
2. Yeah, that creates a problem if everyone gets a veto.
3. But, pace AK, you cant abolish the veto. See 1. If the UNSC passes things that great powers dont want, said great powers will ignore the UNSC. Abolishing the veto is a good idea only if you want to sink the UNSC.
4. The best way to reflect POWER REALITY would be to modify the veto as follows. It should take TWO vetos, not one to block a UNSC res. The US, OTOH, should get a double veto, to reflect its power and UN contributions. Thus a UNSC res would fail to pass IF any TWO permanent members opposed it, OR if the US opposed it. This would realign the UNSC with the actual real world power situation.

I dont expect it to happen any time soon though.
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 09/27/2004 9:22 Comments || Top||

#7  Aris--

Abolish the veto altogether.

You're too smart to write such nonsense.
Posted by: BMN || 09/27/2004 9:26 Comments || Top||

#8  Damn! This smells like Nationalism!
Posted by: Shipman || 09/27/2004 9:36 Comments || Top||

#9  If the UNSC passes things that great powers dont want, said great powers will ignore the UNSC.

And now they're simply stopping everything that the UNSC would otherwise be able to do. How would the situation be worse if they just ignored the UNSC?

Abolishing the veto is a good idea only if you want to sink the UNSC

I've no particular interest in preserving the UNSC for the sake of UNSC alone. I've no particular interest in preserving a UN that can only do what Russia or China allows it to do.

Perhaps the "Great Powers" will ignore the UNSC. Or perhaps they'll throw a fit and huff their way out of it. Either way how will the situation be any worse than it currently is?

It'd still be a weak instrument that'd be facto impotent to oppose the great powers. It would at least not be *de jure* impotent.

Shipman> Competing imperialisms. Or colonialisms perhaps. Powerful countries needing to establish their inherent superiority in law. Getting veto powers to ensure that no uppity smaller nation will ever be able to push something they don't like.

Abolish the veto. If it's supposed to be a representation of influence in the world, then let the big countries use their influence by causing the other countries to vote in their favour.
Posted by: Aris Katsaris || 09/27/2004 9:58 Comments || Top||

#10  LH, your veto solution is very wise and its the one I have been promoting for some time (I think I published something about it here, too).

The major point here is: The UNSC is pointless if the nations that matter ignore it (which excludes your "solution", Kalle). Japan and Germany, the second and third largest economies in the world, are the second and third biggest financial contributors to the UN (Germany alone pays more than Russia and China together) and if I'm not mistaken no country has more blue helmets on the ground than Germany. Under the current system Germany will have to leave the UNSC at the end of the year, which will not promote Germany's willingness to take over more responsibilities worldwide.

The "split veto" would be a good thing. (Russia and China will of course never agree to have their veto split). The UK will not really suffer as it is extremely unlikely that the UK would ever vote against the U.S. AND a European veto power at the same time. The only thing that gets hurt will be French pride (so expect the French to boycot the whole thing). Yet the French have been so loud about a joint French-German presence so they will have problems to explain their move. And a joint French-German veto (which will not be the case all the time) is always better than a SINGLE French veto.

The truth that of course nobody wants to talk about it that the UNSC should not be enlarged. Its difficult enough to handle already. Replace 5 non permanent members with permanent ones and let only 5 non permanent members rotate. Of course everybody will yell out. But the UNSC should be a power instrument, not a place where nations that can't really contribute much to world peace and stability can feel special for 2 years. Let them talk in the General Assembly. Rogue states and brutal dictatorships should not be allowed at all in the UNSC (veto to keep them out).

Remember the panic that set in when the small nations where asked to tell us where they stand on Iraq?

Italy's protest has of course little to do with the UN... it's Berlusconi being possed that the "Big Three" shut him out again. I know Silvio gets a pass here because he supports Iraq but given his "stellar" performance when Italy presided the EU for six months I don't care too much about him.

The worst case scenario would be if the UNSC is enlarged and the U.S. vetoes Germany as a permanent member. This would really damage transatlantic relations.

Helmut Schmidt, who is still one of the wisest statesmen Germany has, does not promote Germany as a permanent member of the UN. I should add though that this probably applies to the current UNSC. An enlarged UNSC of say 25 members without Germany would not be understood here in Germany.
Posted by: True German Ally || 09/27/2004 10:06 Comments || Top||

#11  Aris, your "democratic solution" would work in a perfect world with 200 peaceful democracies. That's not what the UN represents.

What's the point if your beloved small nations want to "pass things". What the UNSC does is pass sanctions and enforce resolutions militarily if need to. And without the U.S. 99 percent of those resolutions are not worth the paper they're written on.

Realpolitik anyone?
Posted by: True German Ally || 09/27/2004 10:13 Comments || Top||

#12  saying the plan would boost the legitimacy of the UN

BWAHAHAHAHAHA...not possible, The UN has been a fraud for the past 30 years.
Americans must be masochists, if it wasn't for the US infusing that useless sack of shit with billions, it would have mercifully and rightly died long ago.
The EUroweenies think so highly of it it, let them have it.
Posted by: JerseyMike || 09/27/2004 10:19 Comments || Top||

#13  A better solution is for the UN to recognize the EU's new solidarity, remove France and Britain from the UNSC and replace them with a seat for the EU. Then let India and Japan finagle to see who gets the newly vacant seat.

Or, if the EU insists on still having multiple memberships, then the US should be given 49 more seats in the General Assembly, with the possibility that those reps could be on the UNSC.

Or, the most honest solution of all: Admit the UN is a criminal joke and just disband the damned thing.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 09/27/2004 10:20 Comments || Top||

#14  As I said I don't see any reason to enshrine de facto impotence into de jure impotence. The UN would either way be impotent of doing anything militarily without the "Great Powers". No reason to enshrine which countries are those in law however.

I'm also thinking of whether eventually the UN might be able to be transformed into a council of democracies. So far China and Russia would be able to block any insistence on human rights and any other internal issues. Would an abolition of the veto turn UN impotent, or simply cause tyrannies to leave it instead?

The "split-veto" is an improvement to the current system, but to allow USA a double veto when the other countries don't have one is even less likely to happen in real life than my own suggestion is.
Posted by: Aris Katsaris || 09/27/2004 10:24 Comments || Top||

#15  Last comment was in response to TGA.

Robert, EU still has 25 foreign policies. If member states ever abolish their own individual foreign policies in favour of a European one, I'm guessing it will happen only the way that the Eurozone happened. A subset of the EU nations, letting others like Britain go their own way. And either way it's still far *far* in the future.
Posted by: Aris Katsaris || 09/27/2004 10:29 Comments || Top||

#16  another thread driven into the ether, thx Aris
Posted by: Frank G || 09/27/2004 10:41 Comments || Top||

#17  No, thank *you*, Frank. Once again I had forgotten that in the good conformists' network only booing and cheering is allowed, not actual alternate suggestions.
Posted by: Aris Katsaris || 09/27/2004 10:47 Comments || Top||

#18  Aris, you still haven't found your wits.

Posted by: Robert Crawford || 09/27/2004 10:50 Comments || Top||

#19  Aris--

I think you understand Europe a lot better than most Europeans (and most Rantburgers, obviously) and are more realistic than most of the ones I knew when I lived there (four years). You'll notice I don't make fun of the EU and indeed I try not to make generalizations about Europe. But Aris, you really don't understand the US. Without the veto, the US would absolutely leave the UN. No matter what John Kerry's personal feelings about the UN, he would withdraw--it's not just a George Bush thing.
Posted by: BMN || 09/27/2004 10:52 Comments || Top||

#20  AK - weak though the UNSC is, it still sometimes gets things done.

A council of democracies - in theory i like it, but two problems. Excluding China would be dangerous to world peace. Its the number 2 power in the world, it needs to be kept in as long as possible. Second excluding China (and possibly Russia) gives too much weight to the US - I cant see France and Germany agreeing to that.
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 09/27/2004 11:04 Comments || Top||

#21  BMN> Then let the UN die, and build the Global Council of Democracies in its place. No vetos but strict control of membership criteria.

Perhaps you are right and the UN *can't* exist without the veto. But the problem is that UN doesn't deserve (or have a point) to exist *with* the veto.
Posted by: Aris Katsaris || 09/27/2004 11:04 Comments || Top||

#22  *Sigh*
Posted by: True German Ally || 09/27/2004 11:06 Comments || Top||

#23  Liberalhawk> "weak though the UNSC is, it still sometimes gets things done."

I'll have to take your word on that one.
Posted by: Aris Katsaris || 09/27/2004 11:06 Comments || Top||

#24  Aris--

Then let the UN die, and build the Global Council of Democracies in its place

Would you put France in? France is of course a democracy, but it certainly isn't interested in building democracy anywhere else (and I don't just mean Iraq). Quite the opposite, actually.
Posted by: BMN || 09/27/2004 11:13 Comments || Top||

#25  the beauty of the veto is that if France and Germany don't like it, they can kiss our behind.

The UN is a joke - we should stop footing the majority of the bill for it.
Posted by: 2B || 09/27/2004 11:16 Comments || Top||

#26  Should be a council not of democracies but of real powers with the ability and the willingness the step up to the plate when it comes to devoting real resources and political capital to the task of heading off collective security crises.

Call it the Council of the RealPowers, as in realistic and with real assets and really determined to arrive at solutions rather than posture for rhetorical effect. It should be limited to those RealPowers located along the arc of instability: SoK, Japan, China, Indonesia, Australia, India, Pakistan, Russia, Turkey, Germany, Italy, France the UK and us. No need for anyone else from the Western Hemisphere or Africa.

Posted by: lex || 09/27/2004 11:17 Comments || Top||

#27  Non-superpower representation by region = 7 Asian, 2 Eurasian, 3 EU powers.

A much more, shall we say, realistic allocation of seats than 2 EU - 1 Eurasian - 1 Asian.
Posted by: lex || 09/27/2004 11:21 Comments || Top||

#28  BMN> Yeah. All countries rating as "Free" in the Freedom House system, and perhaps the highest rated of the "Partly Free" nations as well.
Posted by: Aris Katsaris || 09/27/2004 11:23 Comments || Top||

#29  Call them the "Free and Able"
Posted by: True German Ally || 09/27/2004 11:25 Comments || Top||

#30  "Free" is not synonymous with "serious". Canada brings next to zilch to these discussions. France and the UK bring nothing to the Korean issue. Straw's mission has retarded progress re Iran.

Time to dispense with the foolish notion that democracies will also perceive their interests to be aligned with ours, or will be willing to actually commit political and financial and military capital to solving grave problems.

And time to recognize that this is an Asian Century which, if it's to be at all stable, will require a major increase in constructive participation by China, Japan and India.
Posted by: lex || 09/27/2004 11:27 Comments || Top||

#31  How about a contest? Any country ( and yes, I mean any country) who can successfully perform an underground nuclear blast of more than 1/2 megaton within six weeks gets a seat and a veto.

See ya, France. Write when you find work.
Posted by: mojo || 09/27/2004 13:45 Comments || Top||

#32  mojo, France actually CAN do that.
Posted by: True German Ally || 09/27/2004 13:48 Comments || Top||

#33  Ok then : the U/G test AND a majority of your population showers on any given day?
Posted by: Frank G || 09/27/2004 13:52 Comments || Top||

#34  Frank G, I'd call it an urban legend that the French don't shower, at least in these times.

Try again :-)
Posted by: True German Ally || 09/27/2004 13:55 Comments || Top||

#35  the UNSC is NOT an alliance to deal with the WOT, or the arc of instability, as currently defined. Its where the worlds great powers, and representatives of the lesser powers, gather to do things that require the legitimacy of the world community. For those who think the world community has no legitimacy, theres no point to it, I understand. Might as well use other forums. But if it IS to have legitimacy, it must have SOME lesser power representation, or the rest of the world wont give it any legitimacy. OTOH it DOES have to represent real power. And that power CANT be too oriented to geographic positions - ie country A is important cause its near trouble spot X. That makes sense for ad hoc coalitions to deal with trouble spot X - thats NOT what the UNSC is.

Posted by: Liberalhawk || 09/27/2004 13:56 Comments || Top||

#36  Fine, of course we need legitimacy but look at the UNSC's recent track record: failed to prevent slaughter in Bosnia, Rwanda, Darfur, Iraq. Or if you think that reining in the hyperpower's key, the UNSC failed to prevent the US war to overthrow Saddam. Either way, the UNSC is more often irrelevant to great power behavior than not.
Posted by: lex || 09/27/2004 14:02 Comments || Top||

#37  Give Germany a seat, The one France has.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 09/27/2004 14:04 Comments || Top||

#38  Please forgive me, but I believe the majority of you are mistaken w/ regards to the UN's role [cringing and ducking in anticipation of the backlash]. From the comments here, some see the UN as a great 'alliance' to throw weight around by decrees and military/economic influence to bitch-slap the rogue nations into line. Others see it as an intermediate step to legitimize 'internal law' and a 'world government'. IIUC it was only intended to be a big shared embassy designed to diplomatically avoid a crisis spiraling out of control and causing a conflict on the WWII scale. IMO, trying to make the UN into something else (by many differing motivations) has caused the UN to become the useless p.o.s. that it is today. Koffi is not the pres of a government. The position should be that of a referee and nothing else.
Posted by: Psycho Hillbilly || 09/27/2004 15:37 Comments || Top||

#39  Like it PH!
It's just like a big 'ole quilting bee for the poor girls, who make sure the new teacher don't git too funky with the boombox of love.

Posted by: Festus || 09/27/2004 16:50 Comments || Top||

#40  Bosnia, Rwanda, Darfur, Iraq.

Bosnia - the big powers were divided. ANY mechanism of uniting the big powers to act would have failed. With no UNSC, you would have had no UN forces there at all. Would that have avoided the massacre at Srebinica? I dont know, but I dont think there would have been a better overall result in Bosnia.

Rwanda - ditto - the French opposed action, and the US was not eager to act. The structure of the UNSC was not particularly the problem so much as lack of will and the US anxiety over another Somalia.

Iraq - youre not referring to 1991, are you? That worked out, and the UNSC was useful. THe subsequent resolutions, including 1441, are important as well. And despite the UNSC failure to pass a second res (which we probably should not have gone back for - Powell misjudged Chirac) the UNSC has been useful in passing resolutions on the postwar situation, which have enabled us to go forward.

Darfur - the UN has moved painfully slowly, but its moving. Again, I dont see any alternative structure that would do any better.
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 09/27/2004 17:01 Comments || Top||

#41  Make Clinton the General Secretary, he'd feel the pain of the third world and give the illusion of caring without the annoying problems associated with actually doing something about said problem.

Having said that the chances of enlarging the number of permenant seats is 0 because it requires a unanimous vote of the permenent members. France would never allow Germany or anyone else to take a seat because it would dillute their own power.

Knowing it cannot happen the US should champion the idea. Become the benefactor of those that want permenent seats and at the same time villify the French in the process. Consider this the reverse Kyoto, Europe knew the US wouldn't sign so they were all safe and had the moral high ground and could bash the US.

Oh, and if by some miracle it passes then it dillutes the power of the UN which is also a benefit. Win-win.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 09/27/2004 17:26 Comments || Top||

#42  rjschwarz, both France and the UK have voiced their support for Germany, Russia and China seem to agree as well. The U.S. seems less inclined at the moment.

The French want their veto but they very much prefer not to use it alone.
Posted by: True German Ally || 09/27/2004 17:37 Comments || Top||

#43  Why does the EU need SC 3 votes? Again I say Germany gets Frances SC seat.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 09/27/2004 17:44 Comments || Top||

#44  Rather than adding Germany to the UNSC, it would be better to remove France and the UK and replace them with the EU and Japan. Perhaps at some point in the future, India could be added. Having Germany, France and the UK all on the Security Council would be akin to the old USSR having three votes in the general assembly (Russia, Ukraine, Byelorussia). Not a good idea then, not a good idea now.
Posted by: RWV || 09/27/2004 17:48 Comments || Top||

#45  Actually, stepping back a little, remember the purpose of the Security Council was to provide a stable framework for the world to live in peace. France and Germany are incapable of projecting any significant amount of military power. Further, none of the proposed new members can pony up anything resembling an expeditionary force. Therefore, in the spirit of the founders of the UN, the Security Council should be comprised only of those with enough deployable military to enforce the framework, notably the US, UK, Russia and China. Sorry France.
Posted by: RWV || 09/27/2004 17:53 Comments || Top||

#46  RVW's comments certainly make sense. No teeth = pointless debating society.

I suggest that the UN, as was the case with the League of Nations and due to the veto being in the hands of those who have been party to its demise as a rational and effective body, should be replaced with something that actually makes sense. This current collection of the entire spectrum, from mullahcracy to thugocracy to monarchy to democracy, all with membership, makes no sense - and just won't ever work.

Design a new entity, taking the hard-won lessons of the UN into account. The purpose should be an entity which defends and promotes freedom. Freedom, for me, covers most of the other topics that people hold near and dear. It can sponsor outside entities, such as WHO, which provide valuable services to the world.

The freedom aspect is the key. Membership, voting rights, the whole lot should be reserved for free nations which have and keep their noses clean. No one else need apply or ever be admitted. Surely we can do better than the UN and having such absurdities as Libya holding the Human Right Commision chair becoming commonplace, no?

Perhaps, after a dozen more 9/11 events, it will become obvious enough and appealing enough for it to happen. I would certainly welcome Germany and even France - it's their elected leaders who've made a mockery of the UN and cooperation. If designed well, being caught in something such as the Food for Oil scam would be sufficient for suspending the voting rights of a nation until those involved were thrown out of Govt. There must be way, a design, a set of operating rules which can keep such an entity on-track and doing useful work.

If not, well, such is the state of the world. No organization is required, it's just desirable - if it works.
Posted by: .com || 09/27/2004 18:13 Comments || Top||

#47  Two world Wars, the Holocaust and now Berlin wants additional world influence & power through the U.N. Security Council ..NO!
Posted by: Mark Espinola || 09/27/2004 19:12 Comments || Top||

#48  Mark Espinola, I don't know what personal reasons you have for your passionate hate of Germany (which everything you comment on this country transpires), but sorry... reality changes.

Expecting Germany to be the third biggest financial contributor of the UN, expecting it to have more Blue Helmets serving in Afghanistan, Kosovo and other places and then denying it to have a say is not a strategy that is going to work.
This is a different Germany than 60 years ago. Are you going to deny Japan the same rights?
I have forgiven (and I may have more reasaons than you not to). Why can't you?

I'm not against a EU seat. But the EU doesn't have a common foreign policy it can agree upon (yet), nor are the UK and France willing to give up their seats.

OK you can leave things as they are. But an expanded UNSC of 25 seats without Germany (and Japan) would be rather absurd.
Posted by: True German Ally || 09/27/2004 21:31 Comments || Top||

#49  TGA:

France claims to be able to do that...
Posted by: mojo || 09/27/2004 21:56 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Gallup Likely Bush +8, Registered Bush +13
Posted by: BigEd || 09/27/2004 17:14 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Registered not Likely is therefore:

Sept 23-25 Bush 63% Kerry 27%
Sept 13-15 Kerry 53% Bush 39%
Sept 5-7 Kerry 61% Bush 35%

Does anyone believe that the the percentage of registered non-likely voters had such a turnaround?
Posted by: BigEd || 09/27/2004 17:16 Comments || Top||

#2  BE - And we're approaching that 30 day deadline, after which the zoomers can't register and vote in this cycle. I hope they all stay stoned and miss it.
Posted by: .com || 09/27/2004 17:24 Comments || Top||

#3  WARNING the Dhimmicrats are going to flame out this election and a few of thh loonyer ones will twist off. Luckily I have the days after the election off and will hunker down im my fotress of solitude, drink beer, and rant ALL DAY LONG!
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 09/27/2004 17:55 Comments || Top||


Another Dem Pundit throws in Kerry towel, pines for Dean
Democratic [primary] voters guessed wrong: Dean would be doing better against Bush than Kerry is. Yes, it's too late for Democrats to switch horses, but imagining how Dean might have done sheds light on what's going on now. Here's the logic: If Dean were the nominee, flip-flops wouldn't be the issue; Iraq would. The former Vermont Governor opposed the war from the start, and his rationale was as simple as Kerry's was convoluted: Saddam was not a threat.
Not necessarily a good argument but without question the strongest card the opposition has.
Of course, Dean would have had other general-election vulnerabilities. Republicans would have branded him the second coming of McGovern. But Dean could have retorted that he (unlike Kerry) backed the first Gulf War. They would have ridiculed his lack of foreign policy experience. But there's an advantage to not having 20 years of Senate votes to defend, as Kerry has learned. (That's part of the reason Governors usually make stronger presidential candidates than Senators.)
Excellent point. But the Dems have no bench strength among the governors beyond Granholm of Michigan, and she's a Canuck.
...Dean's lack of a war record might have actually helped him. For the Kerry campaign, Vietnam has been a crutch, an all-purpose response to any foreign policy attack. Partly as a result, Kerry's team didn't use the Democratic....Dean, because he couldn't talk about Vietnam, might have focused on other things — like Bush's failure to get tough with the Saudis or fund homeland security — that Americans care more about than whether Lieutenant Kerry deserved his Bronze Star. Dean would have one more, less tangible advantage: he doesn't sound like a politician.
Say that again. Recalls Steyn: "Dean's a centrist pretending to be a nut. Kerry's a nut pretending to be a centrist."
One reason the flip-flop charge has stuck is that Kerry, with his meandering, caveat-filled speaking style, often seems like a guy trying to avoid a straight answer. Kerry's biggest deficit versus Bush in the TIME poll is in "sticking to his positions." Only 37% of registered voters in the survey said Kerry does that, compared with 84% for Bush. Dean wouldn't have that problem. Polls in Iowa showed him doing best among voters who value a candidate who "takes strong stands." It's true that Dean's passion exploded the night he lost Iowa — into a scream heard around the world. But it was the flip side of the spontaneity that made him seem authentic, a straight shooter. With his blunt, no-nonsense style, Dean actually evoked — more than any of his Democratic rivals — President Bush.
Expect the Dems to go isolationist, in a hard left nutso way, the next time around. Senator Obama won't do any better than Sens. Kerry, Graham, Lieberman, Gore, Biden, Hart, Bayh, Kennedy...
Posted by: lex || 09/27/2004 4:22:51 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I think that the worst knock against Kerry is that 90% of Americans would hide from him at a company picnic.
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/27/2004 18:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Isolationism is the default position of the minority party inj the U. S.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 09/27/2004 18:45 Comments || Top||

#3  Mrs D - You nailed it - even when the majority party is also isolationist, lol!

Re the article: Dean?

Lol! The only Donk national figure with a track record (Obama's still in diapers) that isn't an utter and total laughing-stock for anyone with 2 neurons to rub together, IMHO, is Lieberman. And look how they treated him. An honest, ethical, logical, patriotic, common sense and straight-shooting man - and with a spine! Sheesh, he never had a chance, damnit. We do need a two party system, IMHO, but one of them shouldn't be fascist socialist self-hating looneytune morons.
Posted by: .com || 09/27/2004 18:51 Comments || Top||

#4  :) SH

The Right Reverend Governor Dean would be in the quiet place by now.
Posted by: Shipman || 09/27/2004 19:36 Comments || Top||

#5  I've observed elder Democrats spitting with hatred while talking about "the Jew" Lieberman. Interesting ho people who support the DemParty are so full of hatred for Israel and the Jewish people.
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 09/27/2004 21:22 Comments || Top||


Debate Rules Without End - 70 Degree Room Temp So Kerry Won't Sweat
Posted by: BigEd || 09/27/2004 15:13 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Make it subliminal. Obviously Kerry is worried about sweating, so the Prez should have answers early on that include the words heat, hot, turn it up...

Psycological warfare, baby! It may be cool, but Kerry won't know it.... 70 degrees.....Ha ha ha ha ....
Posted by: BigEd || 09/27/2004 15:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Just curious.
Is profusive sweating a side effect of Botox?
Posted by: Urako || 09/27/2004 16:33 Comments || Top||

#3  If you can't stand the heat...
Posted by: True German Ally || 09/27/2004 16:38 Comments || Top||

#4  Urako: Ironically, Botox is used medically to control excessive sweating...
Posted by: Seafarious || 09/27/2004 16:45 Comments || Top||

#5  LOL! Falling into a Rovian trap. If he doesn't sweat he will be a bug eyed baby cat. Dammit where's that link.... fooey.
Posted by: Festus || 09/27/2004 16:54 Comments || Top||

#6  Festus:

MEOW!!!
Posted by: BigEd || 09/27/2004 17:36 Comments || Top||

#7  I am surprised that Kerry insisted that the room temperature be in degrees Celcius.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 09/27/2004 21:16 Comments || Top||


Once Again The MSM Say The Public Don't Like Negative Ads
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Key voters in this key state don't like and don't trust many of the TV ads that President Bush and Sen. John Kerry have spent more than $300 million to air this year......Negative or attack ads fared worst...
Negative ads work. People love them. But trying to get them to admit it is like trying to get them to admit that they look at pornography and enjoy it.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 09/27/2004 2:20:36 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yeah? And the PUBLIC doesn't like forged documents used to smear in a "news" report. But the PUBLIC has little to say about the way the newrooms are run either...
Posted by: BigEd || 09/27/2004 15:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Depends how they are offered. I like a little humor. The grim, dark ads that claim "Senator X voted no on Proposition L. Why does X want seniors, policemen, and baby duckies to die?" are obnoxious and stupid. On the other hand, the John Kerry weather vane ad was f*cking hilarious.
Posted by: BH || 09/27/2004 15:07 Comments || Top||

#3  Well, there are negative ads, and there are negative ads.

The ones about Kerry not earning his medals or whatever are just annoying and not helpful.

Those talking about Kerry's voting record in the Senate are "negative," but are talking about his position(s) on the issues, so actually serve a purpose.
Posted by: jackal || 09/27/2004 15:48 Comments || Top||

#4 

An ill wind that blows no good....
Posted by: BigEd || 09/27/2004 15:51 Comments || Top||

#5  The public probably doesn't like ads at all (unless, for the male viewers, there are some hot chicks in them).
Posted by: True German Ally || 09/27/2004 15:51 Comments || Top||

#6  I like the Southwest Air "Must be football season again" ads.... and the new Miller Ads with the Beer Referees are hilarious :-)
Posted by: Frank G || 09/27/2004 15:55 Comments || Top||

#7  So are you saying the ultimate political ad would have Claudia Schiffer, wearing Victoria's Secrets, lying on silk sheets, whispering "I Love Bush"?
Posted by: ed channeling Whoopi || 09/27/2004 19:45 Comments || Top||


Carter: 2004 Fla Vote Doesn't Meet "basic international requirements"
Thanks Dhimmi! Jumping the gun a bit to delegitimize W's win, aren't ya?
Voting arrangements in Florida do not meet "basic international requirements" and could undermine the US election, former US President Jimmy Carter says. He said a repeat of the irregularities of the much-disputed 2000 election - which gave President George W Bush the narrowest of wins - "seems likely". Mr Carter, a veteran observer of polls worldwide, also accused Florida's top election official of "bias". His remarks come ahead of the first TV debate between Mr Bush and John Kerry.
HT to Drudge
Posted by: Frank G || 09/27/2004 11:25:17 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  so use paper ballots.
Posted by: 2B || 09/27/2004 11:40 Comments || Top||

#2  yah know - if it isn't close they can't cheat. Let's just hope that Bush doesn't need Floriduh to win.
Posted by: 2B || 09/27/2004 11:42 Comments || Top||

#3  Mr. Carter, IMHO, doesn't meet basic international requirements for sanity and stability. He should retire and go sailing with Walter Cronkite (for a very long time).
Posted by: Xbalanke || 09/27/2004 11:43 Comments || Top||

#4  I like the Accuvote system that we have in Anchorage. You fill in the well spaced ellipses with a common pen and slide the sheet ballot into the machine. It counts the ballot, and you always have a paper trail. Good backup. Simple.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 09/27/2004 11:43 Comments || Top||

#5  "He accused Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood, a Republican, of trying to get the name of independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader included on the state ballot, knowing he might divert Democrat votes."

Hehe it gets WORSE. This brazen girl even got George Bush on the ballot and man, he is going to divert Democrat votes!

I'm glad I declined the observer status... I'd probably get into a fight with Jimmy Carter.
Posted by: True German Ally || 09/27/2004 11:44 Comments || Top||

#6  I have a feeling it doesn't matter what they use in Floriduh. No system is perfect - so matter what they do - it won't be good enough, unless Kerry wins. Then it will be fair and balanced.
Posted by: 2B || 09/27/2004 11:45 Comments || Top||

#7  AP, that system sounds too complicated for florida voters.

TGA, I'd put money on you in a fight with Dhimmi...
Posted by: Seafarious || 09/27/2004 11:47 Comments || Top||

#8  and venzuela does...the left is tarnishing thier reps just to get Bush out..
Posted by: Dan || 09/27/2004 11:55 Comments || Top||

#9  I used to think Jimmuh was a decent man that was a total incompetent. Now I believe we are lucky to have survived him. Thank God for Ronald Reagan!
Posted by: BigEd || 09/27/2004 11:58 Comments || Top||

#10  Big Ed - so true! The liberals are just consuming themselves with their hatred of Bush.
Posted by: 2B || 09/27/2004 12:02 Comments || Top||

#11  I have a feeling that the election will not be that close. Thinking back to the 2002 election when the Dhimis claimed that they were going to toss Jeb bush and the Republicans from Floirda. Well Jeb won by a large margin, as did most state-wide Republican candidates. That's after two full years of cries about 'stolen elections'. I hope they put the DNC on suicide watch come Nov 2, because I want them to live with the ass kicking they are going to get!
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 09/27/2004 12:15 Comments || Top||

#12  I hope you are right.
Posted by: 2B || 09/27/2004 12:19 Comments || Top||

#13  No, it won't be close. The polls are bogus. Most undecideds will make up their minds during the last 48 hours, and their calculations will almost certainly turn on

1) "character" (advantage: Bush),

2) gas price spikes (potentially big advantage: Kerry);

3) the war turning south in a hurry (advantage: Kerry)

4) most importantly, Kerry's team's incompetence and the superb discipline and competence of Rove (advantage: Bush).

What's the probability ("p") of each of the above continuing to hold true,a nd influencing the election in a major way?

Well, CBS failed miserably in the latest effort to smear Bush, so I'd rate #1 as p=75% pro-Bush.

Gas prices: I'll defer to the futures market. Could break either way; another hurricane, a Russian disruption, and maybe they could rise sharply. Call it p=60% pro-Kerry.

As to the war, certainly there will be big battles and lots of hand-wringing tby the Tet-mongers but more than half the public no longer finds them credible, so a ginned-up media "Tet" that is believed by and acted upon by a majority of undecided voters is not likely to happen. Not a factor.

As to the last, my party still has plenty of competent, sharp people in high places. Can't imagine they'll stay completely incompetent, so prob'y of Rove holding all the cards over Kerry's people is maybe only 55%. Slight advantage to Bush.

Add those up and you get a clear advantage for Bush. If Kerry's people don't get their s**t together AND if gas prices do not spike ie move up another 40-50 cents at the pump by Nov, then this election will not be close.

Posted by: lex || 09/27/2004 12:50 Comments || Top||

#14  Jimmy Carter is one of the great assholes of all time. He is a stain on this country. I read this article on Drudge this morning and knew that when I got to work I would be able to go on Rantburg and tell the Rantburgians what you already know...Jimmy Carter is a LOOOOOOOOOOOOSER. Thank you, I feel better now.
Posted by: remote man || 09/27/2004 12:55 Comments || Top||

#15  Can anyone explain to me why Jimmy Carter isn't in an old folks home? Or an asylum?

Or why he hasn't been prosecuted under the Logan Act? (I think that's the right one.)
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 09/27/2004 12:56 Comments || Top||

#16  [Off-topic or abusive comments deleted]
Posted by: Heartless Bastard TROLL || 09/27/2004 13:03 Comments || Top||

#17  I think Jimmy Carter has a plan.
He isn't satisfied with being the worst president in US history, he also wants to be the worst ex-president.

I'd say he made it. Claim victory and go home, Jimmy.

God I still remember the times when Helmut Schmidt tried to persuade Jimmy Carter to do something about the Soviet SS20 missiles.

It wasn't pretty (unfortunately Schmidt lost the fight against his party loonies).
Posted by: True German Ally || 09/27/2004 13:08 Comments || Top||

#18  Note that he's not concerned about those New York / Florida "dual citizen" Democrats who have residences in both states and do one vote in person and the other by absentee ballot.
Posted by: Tom || 09/27/2004 14:44 Comments || Top||

#19  TGA:
Jimmeh also screwed Schmidt (maybe his predecessor???) over with the Neutron bomb issue. He made the Europeans go out on a limb against the Soviet-backed politicians of their states, then cancelled the thing. Frankly, we probably deserved one or two back-stabbings from Germany for that.

The first vote I ever cast was for Ronald Reagan in 1980. I was so happy when President Malaise was crushed 15 minutes after the polls closed that night.

I don't think Carter was the worst President ever (Clinton, Buchanan, and Taylor come to mind), but he is the worse ex-President ever.
Posted by: jackal || 09/27/2004 15:58 Comments || Top||

#20  FLA better get with it if they hope to participate in the next vote for UN Secretary General.
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/27/2004 16:54 Comments || Top||

#21  Baker Act.
Posted by: Festus || 09/27/2004 16:57 Comments || Top||

#22  The key is to get a large margin for Bush in Fla - get the vote out. Also t get Bush's EV margin above 30, so Fla will not matter anyway.

If it ain't close they can't cheat.
Posted by: OldSpook || 09/27/2004 20:33 Comments || Top||

#23 
Can't someone hunt this senile peanut farmer down and cut out his tongue? I am so tired of this forkhead.

There should be law, ex-presidents should STFU and disapear after their terms.

HB
Posted by: Heartless Bastard || 09/27/2004 13:03 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
EU bans girl-only ads
WOMEN will no longer be able to advertise for same-sex flatmates under new EU equality laws. The rulings will make it an offence for home-owners to stipulate whether they want men or women in their houses. Critics fear it will spark a shortage of accommodation if widows, divorcees and groups of singles drop plans to take in lodgers. And they claim hostels for battered women will be forced to take in MEN as well as women.

The plan is part of a European Commission anti-discrimination directive. The commission insists the ruling, which bans all forms of discrimination, "must be ensured in all areas". But yesterday furious peers warned the rules go too far. A report by the House of Lords EU Committee warned the laws were unworkable and demanded exemptions for women's refuges and people letting rooms. And Tory deregulation spokesman John Redwood said: "This is another unwanted piece of business from the EU. "It will mean less accommodation on the market and more women worried about safety. The EU should grow up and learn to trust people to live their own lives as they choose."

The laws would also force careful women drivers to pay hundreds of pounds more for their car insurance. Many pay up to 40 per cent less than men because they have fewer crashes. And they get cheaper life insurance because they live longer. But the anti-sexism regulations would force the financial services industry to treat women the same as men.
If a little is good, lots must be better. This is such an obvious truism that anyone can verify it. Go ahead. Try it when you're having lunch, using salt, pepper, or garlic.
Posted by: Mark Espinola || 09/27/2004 1:39:01 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Allow me to doubt anything that comes from the Daily Sun in relation to the EU.
Posted by: Aris Katsaris || 09/27/2004 10:39 Comments || Top||

#2  Always trust the Currant Bun on Europe. Get out now! Run away! Jump!
Posted by: Howard UK || 09/27/2004 10:42 Comments || Top||

#3  In other news new EU equality laws require men to have babies now.
Posted by: True German Ally || 09/27/2004 10:51 Comments || Top||

#4  At least your menstruating will be in compliance now, Aris
Posted by: Frank G || 09/27/2004 10:54 Comments || Top||

#5  EU bans girl-only ads

I can only suppose this heralds an end of the Sun's page seven as well.
Posted by: Zenster || 09/27/2004 12:26 Comments || Top||

#6  Will this law prevent female Clerics at Islamic mosques? Is this another law akin to the headscarf ban?
Posted by: rjschwarz || 09/27/2004 12:48 Comments || Top||

#7  Zenster - it's page 3. And I don't suppose this ruling would mean an end to it. The Sun would just be obliged to to select the models based on sexually neutral criteria. Bust-to-waist ratio, for instance.
Posted by: Bulldog || 09/27/2004 12:54 Comments || Top||

#8  The above was meant to be scarcastic. Actually, it's probably what'll happen...
Posted by: Bulldog || 09/27/2004 12:57 Comments || Top||

#9  EU bans girl-only ads

What about girl-on-girl ads?

kewl!
Posted by: lex || 09/27/2004 13:02 Comments || Top||

#10  Bulldog and Howard, I've probably asked this before, but isn't there some way the sane people in the UK can take back your country?

It's a great place overall, but geez....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 09/27/2004 13:48 Comments || Top||

#11  The Sun a news paper? It's like the National Inquirer with more Skin.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 09/27/2004 13:57 Comments || Top||

#12  I see some conflicts coming up with same-sex marriage...lol
Posted by: True German Ally || 09/27/2004 13:58 Comments || Top||

#13  Barbs; I assure you we're trying - I think the population is beginning to swing to a 'UK out of European Union' view. It will take time.
Posted by: Howard UK || 09/27/2004 14:05 Comments || Top||

#14  The laws would also force careful women drivers to pay hundreds of pounds more for their car insurance. Many pay up to 40 per cent less than men because they have fewer crashes.

So penalizing more concientious drivers makes things "equal"?

The plan is part of a European Commission anti-discrimination directive.

Hey! April 1 passed some time ago!
Posted by: Cynic || 09/27/2004 14:29 Comments || Top||

#15  Aye, Cynic, there's the rub. Equality and justice are not always in sync.

See for example John Kekes' critique of egalitarianism, "Dangerous Egalitarian Dreams".
Posted by: V is for Victory || 09/27/2004 19:09 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
Asteroid 4179 Toutatis close, but no cigar.
The Sep. 29, 2004, approach is the closest in this century of any known asteroid at least as large as Toutatis (or more precisely, of any known asteroid with an absolute magnitude as small as H = 15.30) Dist KM 1,549,719; Miles 962,951.
Came within a million miles? That does it! I'm leaving!
Posted by: Memesis || 09/27/2004 1:35:36 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I wonder what the gravity impact of that will be.
Posted by: 2B || 09/27/2004 9:53 Comments || Top||

#2  Dunno - the girlfriend's been acting strange tho'
Posted by: Howard UK || 09/27/2004 10:24 Comments || Top||

#3  I hope it doesn't have Lucas steering gear.
Posted by: Shipman || 09/27/2004 10:24 Comments || Top||

#4  Not to worry... the way this year is shaping up, it'll prolly hit Florida.
Posted by: BH || 09/27/2004 10:35 Comments || Top||

#5  963000 Miles - which is 4x the orbit of the Moon... After two direct hits by Hurricane eyes, Palm Beach County will avoid this one. Isaac Isaac Newton and his laws of motion do not allow for orbital shifts like the odd path hurricane Jeanne.


Path of Jeanne
Posted by: BigEd || 09/27/2004 12:40 Comments || Top||

#6  seems Asterix had reason, he was just afraid that sky could had fallen in his head..
Posted by: Anonymous6361 || 09/27/2004 14:14 Comments || Top||

#7  Was Asterix muslim too?
Posted by: Howard UK || 09/27/2004 14:36 Comments || Top||


Inside the Bigelow Inflatable-Module Plant
The Bigelow Aerospace project to privately develop inflatable Earth-orbit space modules is beginning to integrate diverse U.S. and European technologies into subscale and full-scale inflatable test modules and subsystems at the company's heavily guarded facilities here. While much public attention is focused on the massive International Space Station (ISS), Bigelow has quietly become a mini-Skunk Works for the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC). Ongoing technical assistance to Bigelow from JSC is focused on helping the company spawn development of orbiting commercial inflatable modules by the end of the decade, with the possibility of JSC later using the Bigelow technology for inflatable modules on the Moon or Mars.
Rest at link.
Just don't run with sharp objects and keep the bicycle repair kit nearby.
Posted by: ed || 09/27/2004 2:53:24 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  There are several new technologies that might make this far more practical. The first and most extraordinary is quantum fabric anti-radiation shielding: unbelieveably enough, a thin layer of flexible fabric that can stop as much hard radiation as can a thick layer of lead.
The second is light inflatable foam concrete, that can be sprayed into an inflated shell and will harden as strong as concrete--maybe enhanced with carbon fibers to give you 5-10 ft thick concrete walls.
The last few layers, if I were building this thing would be advanced ceramic tiles that can handle the hard radiation and micro-meteors. Again, fairly light.
Since it has to be built in space, a logical step would be to reduce the radical construction environment, to cut down on intense heat and cold variations, along with light and darkness problems. This can all be solved with a giant "balloon"-like construction area: think a very light Buckminster Fuller ball. You build your spaceship inside the ball (no atmosphere, though.) But it still solves a ton of problems.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 09/27/2004 17:36 Comments || Top||


Virgin announces first commercial space flight service
Not the 72 variety of virgin...
Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson has announced his company has signed an agreement worth £14m to secure the first commercial flights into space. The deal with the US firm which owns the technology, could be worth millions over the next 15 years depending on the number of space vehicles built. Prices for each seat into space are expected to start at around £115,000. Sir Richard revealed the new venture at a briefing held on Monday at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London.
I suppose the Russians were really the first to offer a commercial space flight, but the price tag for the Virgin one is within reach of the middle-upper rich, the Russian one was the province of the insanely rich.
Posted by: Lux || 09/27/2004 4:52:00 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Good plan. In space, British tourists can be as drunk and unruly as they like, and offend no one! Win-win.
Posted by: Bulldog || 09/27/2004 7:03 Comments || Top||

#2  Three words:

British space stewardesses.

He'll make a fortune.*S*

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 09/27/2004 8:49 Comments || Top||

#3  Are they gonna wear those pink wigs, like they had in Space 1999?
Posted by: Fred || 09/27/2004 9:05 Comments || Top||

#4 

A large Brandy please, Linda.
Posted by: Howard UK || 09/27/2004 9:13 Comments || Top||

#5  Better check the holds for thermites before departure.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 09/27/2004 11:40 Comments || Top||

#6  Drink all you want, Howard, but separate flights for Arsenal and Chelsea, please.
Posted by: Seafarious || 09/27/2004 11:45 Comments || Top||

#7  When shall we expect the Moslems to achieve something as magnificent as this? or does their god demand martyrdom in jihad, rather than spaceflight?
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 09/27/2004 12:24 Comments || Top||

#8  Are they gonna wear those pink wigs, like they had in Space 1999?

That was UFO, a very entertaining show. And that photo, Gabrielle Drake, what a beauty.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 09/27/2004 13:31 Comments || Top||

#9  I was waiting for a UFO buff to turn up. Now what did SHADO stand for?
Posted by: Howard UK || 09/27/2004 13:41 Comments || Top||

#10  Howard-
Supreme Headquarters Alien Defense Organization.

Tell 'em SID sent you.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 09/27/2004 14:25 Comments || Top||

#11  Bingo. Many thanks.
Posted by: Howard UK || 09/27/2004 14:32 Comments || Top||


Navy to Shut Down Sub Radio Transmitters
With terrorism the new global threat, a network of radio antennas that let the Navy maintain secure communications with submarines at sea has become yet another Cold War relic. On Thursday, the Navy will shut off its extremely low frequency (ELF) radio transmitters in northern Wisconsin and Michigan, saying the 15-year-old system, first proposed in the 1960s, is outdated and no longer needed. The Navy now will use 12 ``very low frequency'' transmitters located worldwide.

For years, peace activists and environmentalists targeted the two huge transmitters in the Chequamegon National Forest near Clam Lake and in Upper Michigan's Escanaba State Forest. Each transmitter consists of an antenna strung on 600 40-foot poles across dozens of miles of forest. Critics contended that the system was for use during a first-strike nuclear attack, and that the radio waves could cause health and environmental problems. Demonstrations led to hundreds of arrests, some for trespassing onto the site and sawing down poles.
The critics were the usual LLL moonbats who had no evidence of any kind. Typical.
It was the nuclear strike part that got to them. If you can't do it, you won't do it. Even if the Russers were in the process of obliterating Des Moines and Peoria.
Steven Davis, spokesman for the Navy's Space and Navy Warfare Systems Command in San Diego, said the Navy spent about $25 million on research and studies into public and environmental safety and found no problems. But Sen. Russ Feingold, who has wanted to shut down ELF since 1993, said the Navy had a ``bunker mentality'' in trying to pretend the facility had a purpose. ``I do think the war on terror had something to do with this,'' Feingold said. ``I think people are finally realizing we need to equip our military and everything we do toward the real threats.''
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White || 09/27/2004 12:32:12 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  How much will be spent on a replacement system (e.g. satellites)?
Posted by: ed || 09/27/2004 1:39 Comments || Top||

#2  Satellites isnt same as a replacement system, ELF and VLF can be received under water while sat needs that sub put an antenna or buoy at surface. So suppose the replacement syst. is the VLF´s they are talking about
Posted by: Anonymous6361 || 09/27/2004 2:20 Comments || Top||

#3  Is this thing on…
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 09/27/2004 6:41 Comments || Top||

#4  Now it can be used full time for weather control.
Posted by: Shipman || 09/27/2004 9:49 Comments || Top||

#5  I don't know about weather control, shipman, but it is one hell of a ground grid. Put it on Ebay.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 09/27/2004 11:45 Comments || Top||

#6  in San Diego we have had a couple radio tower sites for Navy communications that have been taken down - latest was by Chollas reservoir near 94 and college. Building Navy housing there now..
Posted by: Frank G || 09/27/2004 11:50 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Oakland cops halt checks for DUIs - Activists say roadblocks unfair to unlicensed immigrants
All I can say is....Crap
Oakland police officers have stopped setting up roadblocks to check whether drivers are under the influence because of a rash of complaints from the Latino community and City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente. The checkpoints, which allow officers to demand licenses and proof of insurance, are an effective way to get drunken drivers off Oakland's streets, city leaders agree. But the checks also have ensnared dozens of illegal immigrants who are not licensed to drive yet otherwise obey the law.
Illegal immigrants. Unlicensed Drivers. No Insurance, for sure. Otherwise obeying the law. Guess we get to pick and choose, and anyone who criticizes or judges is a racist, right?
"These checkpoints make people's lives miserable, not make them safer," said Jesus Rodriguez of Oakland Community Organizations, which filed most of the complaints about the checkpoints. "I've watched while the police have towed away cars (full) of groceries, leaving children crying on the sidewalk." The complaints and pressure from De La Fuente, who represents the largely Latino Glenview-Fruitvale district and plans to run for mayor in 2006, prompted police Chief Richard Word to order his officers to hold off on any more DUI checkpoints while new guidelines are drafted.
Chief Dick Word = spineless butt-weasel
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Frank G || 09/27/2004 4:08:29 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'll tell you what's unfair.....last year I had one of these illegal ALIENS total my car with me in it....and I had just mailed the last payment 2 weeks prior....I'm crapping you negative. Thank god for airbags. Of course, no license, no insurance, nothing....and everyone's rates go up as a result. Bet the union put pressure on ol' butt weasel Word to tow the Dhimmicrat pol line. Dhimmicrats can kiss my @$$!
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 09/27/2004 18:03 Comments || Top||

#2  But the checks also have ensnared dozens of illegal immigrants who are not licensed to drive yet otherwise obey the law.

Uhhh, no. For beginners, an illegal alien's very presence on U.S. soil is proof that a law has been broken. Driving without a license is the second offense. Try again, Ms. MacDonald.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 09/27/2004 18:12 Comments || Top||

#3  ... drug hot spots and stopping sideshows."

Great, more police at the carnies bugging the midget and bearded lady.
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/27/2004 18:49 Comments || Top||

#4  But the checks also have ensnared dozens of illegal immigrants who are not licensed to drive yet otherwise obey the law.

"But Your Honor! While it is true that my client stabbed the prostitute and put her in the trunk, he was obeying all the traffic rules when police stopped him after seeing the blood on the bumper."
Posted by: Pappy || 09/27/2004 19:06 Comments || Top||

#5  But the checks also have ensnared dozens of illegal immigrants who are not licensed to drive yet otherwise obey the law.

1) There is no such thing as illegal immigrants - these ALIENS have not be granted immigrant status.

2) By definition ILLEGAL ALIENS are not law abiding. If they were law abiding they would not be on US soil.

Anyone fool enough to vote for some idiot (De La Fuente) who would put people at risk in order to pander to groups who should not be voting any-farking-way becaue they are illegal aliens deserves what they get.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 09/27/2004 19:22 Comments || Top||

#6  This is Oakland Ca. The Mayor is Jerry "moonbeam" Brown. The place needs to be bulldozed.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 09/27/2004 19:25 Comments || Top||

#7  Let me see if I got this straight:the C of Police for Oakland has been ordered to break the law(not enforceing the law is in itself a violation of the law,aidding and abetting)and he(CofP)agreed,what a wussy.
Posted by: Raptor || 09/27/2004 20:01 Comments || Top||

#8  Seems to me that some research into the law may find a Federal law not being enforced somewhere, which may affect Federal funding to Oakland. Hit them in their pocketbook and they will come around......well it is Oakland, so I will say maybe they will come around.

For instance, you do not have seatbelt laws, you do not get Federal highway funding.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 09/27/2004 20:08 Comments || Top||


Book on our Oldest Enemy: Tu comprends, vrai?
Posted by: Mercutio || 09/27/2004 15:16 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Regular Folks Know a Lot (Unlike CBS et al.)
EFL. Via Instapundit.
In all the blizzard of words published about Blathergate over the last couple of weeks, one paragraph caught my eye. It's this one, from the September 19 Washington Post story headlined, "In Rush to Air, CBS Quashed Memo Worries." Howard Kurtz, Michael Dobbs and James V. Grimaldi wrote it.

"It quickly became clear that the people CBS hired to authenticate the documents had -- and claimed -- only limited expertise in the sometimes arcane science of computer typesetting technology and fonts. Such expertise is needed to determine whether the records could have been created in 1972 and 1973. Independent experts contacted by The Post were surprised that CBS hired analysts who were not certified by the American Board of Forensic Document Examiners, considered the gold standard in the field."

"Sometimes arcane science"? "Expertise
needed"? "Analysts
certified"? Granted, you want a credentialed expert when you take something to a courtroom, and CBS News ought to have had appropriately credentialed analysts backing up their story, too. But truly, there's very little arcane science involved in answering an immediate question: Was a piece of text created on a computer or a typewriter? Even more important, was a memo typed or printed in 1972?
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 09/27/2004 2:58:41 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa: Subsaharan
Thirty-seven rebels killed near Burundi capital
Posted by: Fred || 09/27/2004 1:50:10 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine
Greek Orthodox, Franciscans Duke It Out at Church of the Holy Sepulcher
Greek Orthodox and Franciscan priests got into a fist fight Monday at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Christianity's holiest shrine, after arguing over whether a door in the basilica should be closed during a procession.
Cheeze. I think it must be something in the water over there.
At least they didn't go for their guns ...
Or their boom belts.
Dozens of people, including several Israeli police officers, were slightly hurt in the brawl at the shrine, built over the spot where tradition says Jesus was crucified and buried. Four priests were detained, police spokesman Shmulik Ben-Ruby said. Custody of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is shared by several denominations that jealously guard territory and responsibilities under a fragile deal hammered out over the last centuries. Any perceived encroachment on one group's turf can lead to vicious feuds, sometimes lasting hundreds of years.
Posted by: Fred || 09/27/2004 9:58:07 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Don't some of the parties live on the roof?
Posted by: Shipman || 09/27/2004 10:26 Comments || Top||

#2  Yes, Shipman, and some of the newer, ie Protestant, varieties don't get any real estate at all. But as the article states, this has been going on for a very long time. Under the Ottomans, the Muslims moderated, now the Israelis do, at least as much as possible (there aren't any drains down there for hosing out blood). Mark Twain wrote pithily about this, as he did about so much else.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/27/2004 10:48 Comments || Top||

#3  Yup, Religions of Peace, all of them.

Or is it Religion of Piece of (of rival soul merchant's) Flesh?
Posted by: lex || 09/27/2004 10:50 Comments || Top||

#4  I wonder why the Jooooos stopped the Christian massakkre. This is an outrage!!!!
Posted by: Poison Reverse || 09/27/2004 11:03 Comments || Top||

#5  The Church is divided into many smaller areas inside, demarked by railings and sometimes by walls. It can get pretty crowded and the fights can about who should count as a different group can rival arguments about UN representation. (i.e. how many different orders in Roman Catholicism should count, given that the Eastern church doesn't divide that way to nearly the same degree?)

It's a wonderful old holy place nonetheless. When I was there in 1987 I had a long talk with a Coptic monk in a tiny, incense and icon-filled chapel. But it is a rubbing-elbows experience & I can imagine things would get touchy after decades of the guy next door continuing to hum off-key or leave the door open or whatever .... LOL
Posted by: rkb || 09/27/2004 11:34 Comments || Top||

#6  Duh, preview is my friend! I think I need some caffeine before I can write coherently today ....
Posted by: rkb || 09/27/2004 11:36 Comments || Top||

#7  I say take the place away from them until they decide to get the f over it.

That will fix the problem.

What I just don't understand is that Christianity attaches no spiritual merit to holy places. All spiritual merit is derived from faith in Jesus. No commandments are given by Jesus to pray in certain places nor is it at all necessary to go on a pilgrimage to lead a full and complete Christian spiritual life. Christianity is alone among the religions in that our scriptures do not command pilgrimages.

I think its just a case of old habits die hard. Christians have long exercised the option of visiting holy places and I can understand the appeal, but it really is time to get over it or else have someone else force you to get over it. It doesn't help that both the old world Catholic and Orthodox churches are just as stuck back in the early centuries as islam is and still fighting old battles like they just started yesterday.

When is it time to abandon principle? When you bring everlasting shame upon Jesus and on the spot where tradition says that he accomplished the greatest act of love and peace ever known in history.

These guys are idiots.
Posted by: peggy || 09/27/2004 11:40 Comments || Top||

#8  I went there in 1998 (full disclosure: I'm a practicing Christian), and I was appalled at the atmosphere: jostling in lines, bored priests acting as gatekeepers at various points, and an overall cheap and tawdry feel. To top it all off, there was a money changer in the portico as we were leaving.

The visit strongly reinforced in me the feelings expressed by peggy.
Posted by: Xbalanke || 09/27/2004 11:50 Comments || Top||

#9  Do away with ALL Holy sites. It is my observation that people tend to start worshipping the site and forget the spiritual aspects of their religion. They same goes for the Bible and the Koran. People call for bloodletting if the Bible or Koran are "desecrated". Theese are words on paper that can easily be reprinted. So what if I destroy a Bible or the Koran. I'm not destroying the ideas they espouse.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 09/27/2004 12:04 Comments || Top||

#10  PS. Its examples like this one as well as the stampedes in Mecca as well as all the fighting and butchery associated with all holy places in the world that demostrates the wisdom of Jesus in not making religious pilgrimage an obligation.

Now if only people would make the connection that Jesus didn't find it at all important to pray in certain places, we would all be in much better shape. The pressure to fight for space would evaporate.

But I'm not going to hold my breath.

BTW, maybe I shouldn't have been so harsh on the preists in my first post. I read rkb's post after I wrote it and from that I realized that I was being a bit unfair to these people not having ever been there or having met any of them. I still think its silly and not to mention theologically questionable to attach so much importance to their rights to the place but I should also remember that they are only human and can only take so much stress.

I really do think that the solution would be a temporary eviction of all parties until they can get over their divisions and agree to share the whole place equally giving all parties the run of the place on a regular basis for their particular important rites etc.

Jesus was all about surrendering ones rights for the good of all. Do these guys really have to stake out a permanent territory that they must occupy exclusively all the time? Could it be less about territory and more about time share? I guess all that we can hope for is that wiser heads will prevail one of these days.
Posted by: peggy || 09/27/2004 12:05 Comments || Top||

#11  I totally agree with Peggy and Deacon Blues.
Posted by: Ptah || 09/27/2004 18:22 Comments || Top||


Africa: North
Mali: Locusts swarm in to threaten rice fields
The worst locust plague in more than a decade in West Africa has begun threatening a key rice-growing region, Mali's press agency reported on Saturday. The locusts "quickly darkened the sky above the area of Sokolo and the surrounding countryside, creating dismay in all the villages," Amap said. The Niger development project, situated in the centre of Mali, is one of the oldest and largest agricultural development projects in sub-Saharan Africa. Huge amounts of rice are grown there, supplying both Mali and its neighbours.

A team of experts has gone to the area to try to set in place measures that could hold back the devastating invasion. A source close to the Malian presidency who did not wish to be named said Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure was due to travel to the region "shortly." "If the locusts invade the rice paddies, it's over for the country," the source said. Locusts have destroyed an estimated four million hectares of crop land and devoured millions of tonnes of grain from Mauritania to Chad in recent months. Their arrival this year could not have come at a worse time for the arid nations, which had endured three years of drought or more before ample rains began to fall last summer - creating ideal breeding conditions for the grasshopper-like insects.
Posted by: Mark Espinola || 09/27/2004 1:03:56 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hmm... locusts eat the rice... catch the locusts and eat them. Presto: "Rice-stuffed locusts: a bit o' protein to go with your rice ration."
Posted by: eLarson || 09/27/2004 10:50 Comments || Top||

#2  Some guy did that in the recent east coast locust swarm. Turns out some folks are highly allergic - nearly croaked.
Posted by: Anonymous6686 || 09/27/2004 14:48 Comments || Top||

#3  cicada reaction
Posted by: Frank G || 09/27/2004 14:50 Comments || Top||

#4  A6686: Some guy did that in the recent east coast locust swarm. Turns out some folks are highly allergic - nearly croaked.

That was cicadas. Locusts are quite distinct and very edible, or so I've read. Haven't you heard of chicken-fried locusts?
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 09/27/2004 14:58 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Nantucket boondogle (no, another one)
You knew this was coming.
Posted by: Steve White || 09/27/2004 12:36:50 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I thought it had come a long long time ago.

These guys always have a bunch of bogus statistics about how getting other people to cut back always produces more power, and that's their excuse for shutting down anything that could ever produce more power for real.

Bah, humbug.
Posted by: Phil Fraering || 09/27/2004 1:12 Comments || Top||

#2  It is NIMBY. This same stupid dip would have no problem putting that here. All the other stuff is a smoke screen. I bet the ass hat tosses Aluminum cans in the trash (the energy saved recycling one can will run a TV 3 hrs or a 60 watt light 6 hrs.)

Build the damm windmills. Kennedy and Kerry can ESAD.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 09/27/2004 1:12 Comments || Top||

#3  How about banning private jets and monster yachts in Nantucket? That would save even more energy. What, you scream that would cause extraordinary hardship for Nantuckians?
Posted by: ed || 09/27/2004 1:32 Comments || Top||

#4  I think Billy Joel said it best in the song The Downeaster"Alexa".

"Like all the locals here I've had to sell my home.
Too proud to leave I worked my fingers to the bone"

And at the end

"but there ain't no island left for islanders like me"
Posted by: Cheaderhead || 09/27/2004 5:48 Comments || Top||

#5  My liberal mother-in-law was complaining last year about mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants, a subject on which she knows nothing more than what she read in one NYT article. I suggested that she could cut back on electricity use to help reduce the emissions. On my very next visit to her house, she had the central air conditioning going and she had a sliding door and about three windows open. Her response: she likes air conditioning AND fresh air.
Posted by: Tom || 09/27/2004 7:44 Comments || Top||

#6  Tom your MIL and I think alike. I just don't fool myself. I've always wanted a Nixonian airconditioner, one that could drop the temp to 55 in July so I could build a nice fire.
Posted by: Shipman || 09/27/2004 9:40 Comments || Top||

#7  heh..heh...the "rich" of Nantucket get a cold dose of reality when they realize that when Kerry and Kennedy talk about those evil "rich", they failed to give them an exemption.

"But..but...we vote Democrat - we are against ANWAR and Iraq - that means we are different. We're the OK kind of rich. For years we've been demanding that no one can build powerstations anywhere and instead demanded that 'they' develop clean sources of fuel. Hey! We're all for it. Just DO IT IN A NEIGHBORHOOD INFERIOR TO OURS!"
Posted by: 2B || 09/27/2004 9:51 Comments || Top||

#8  "those with the correct views shouldn't have to inconvenienced by the consequences. That's why we have the little people"

The Mozambuiqi
Posted by: Frank G || 09/27/2004 10:32 Comments || Top||

#9  bravo Frank G - well said!
Posted by: 2B || 09/27/2004 10:46 Comments || Top||

#10  Look at This from "Orwell Today"!

A Windmill in Animal Farm
Posted by: BigEd || 09/27/2004 13:46 Comments || Top||


Africa: Subsaharan
Missing tanker found in Nigeria
I thought we ran this a few days ago?
A missing oil tanker laden with crude oil has been found, the Nigerian navy has announced at a parliamentary hearing. The MT Jimoh was found at Dutch Island, close to Port Harcourt with a freshly painted name - MT Lord on its side. The MT Jimoh and a Russian oil tanker, the MT African Pride, were seized suspected of being used to smuggle crude oil out of Nigeria. But both disappeared from custody several weeks ago causing huge embarrassment, with navy and police officials blaming each other. A naval officer said three people on board had been arrested when the ship was found last week. "The missing ship has been arrested," navy commander Kabir Aliyu told AFP news agency.
"And don't even think of running off again, ya lil' trollop!"
Posted by: Steve White || 09/27/2004 12:00:19 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Lo-Jack. Don't go to Nigeria without it.
Posted by: ed || 09/27/2004 1:47 Comments || Top||

#2  "The missing ship has been arrested."

This reminds me of another recent nugget on Rantburg: "The headquarters has been surrounded and trapped." (And if it tries to make a run for it, mow it down.)

In Africa, they'll steal anything portable. And if it's not portable, they'll carry it away anyway. Last century a family returned to Johannesburg from holiday to find that their entire house had been stolen. It had been demolished and transported from the site, brick by brick, tile by tile, door frame by door frame.
Posted by: Bryan || 09/27/2004 5:25 Comments || Top||

#3  I believe arrested is the correct term in maritime law.
Posted by: dorf || 09/27/2004 8:22 Comments || Top||

#4  This doesn't surprise me, my Nigerian neighbours manage to get through three executive cars a week(BM's, Mercs, Jags etc). No joke. Are the police interested? - Are they f***. I never knew kleptomania to be a source of national pride.
Posted by: Howard UK || 09/27/2004 8:35 Comments || Top||

#5  Did they have Sgt Shultz guarding it?
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/27/2004 9:44 Comments || Top||

#6  How could it be an MT if it was laden with crude oil?
Posted by: BH || 09/27/2004 10:32 Comments || Top||

#7  Kinda hard to slap the cuffs on an oil tanker, I'm bettin'. Lifting a few well-chosen vital parts from the engines, now....
Posted by: mojo || 09/27/2004 14:04 Comments || Top||

#8  #3 "I believe arrested is the correct term in maritime law."

I stand/sit corrected.
Posted by: Bryan || 09/27/2004 15:54 Comments || Top||

#9  Yep. Matthew said to clap iron on the tanker, that's the way it's done, Matthew call's it freedom of the seasons or somesuch.
Posted by: Festus || 09/27/2004 16:40 Comments || Top||

#10  He'll be back from Hays tomorrow and we'll see what's what, meanwhile check out this sawed off shotgun in the case to your left.
Posted by: Festus || 09/27/2004 16:42 Comments || Top||

#11  Festus knows more than he lets on, of course. That red hair, for instance, didn't come from a bottle, heh. (NSFW)
Posted by: .com || 09/27/2004 16:47 Comments || Top||

#12  Coincidentally, i just received an email from a Nigerian Senator who needs to move funds out of the country - and - what luck - he wants to do so through MY bank account - he just needs the number - I may get a hefty commision.

Aint the world great ;)
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 09/27/2004 16:50 Comments || Top||

#13  Let's give them a permanent seat at the UN Security Council.
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 09/27/2004 21:09 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2004-09-27
  Hamas: Arab State May Have Helped in Syria Killing
Sun 2004-09-26
  French national killed in Saudi Arabia
Sat 2004-09-25
  Sudan foils Islamist coup plot
Fri 2004-09-24
  Maskhadov sez Basayev should be tried for Beslan
Thu 2004-09-23
  Noordin Mohammed Top not in custody
Wed 2004-09-22
  Spiritual leader of al-Tawhid killed
Tue 2004-09-21
  2nd US Hostage Beheaded in Two Days
Mon 2004-09-20
  Afghan VP Escapes Bomb
Sun 2004-09-19
  Berlin Deports Islamic Conference Organizer
Sat 2004-09-18
  Abu Hamza Could Face British Charges
Fri 2004-09-17
  60 hard boyz toes up in Fallujah
Thu 2004-09-16
  Jakarta bomber gets 12 years
Wed 2004-09-15
  Terrs target Iraqi police 47+ Dead
Tue 2004-09-14
  Syria tested chemical weapons on black Darfur population?
Mon 2004-09-13
  Maulana Salfi banged

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