#1
Potential Darwin award winners all. I've noticed almost all the winners in the past have been men as well.
Eventially it appears wymen will wind up owning the whole county since we keep killing our selves off.
Posted by: Weird Al ||
11/25/2004 11:33 Comments ||
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#2
most Darwins are preceded by: "Here, hold my beer and watch this"
typically male....lol
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/25/2004 11:43 Comments ||
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Paraguayan police captured a leading Brazilian drug trafficking suspect after a gunbattle with the occupants of a cocaine-laden plane near the border with Brazil, authorities said. Anti-narcotics police said a load of about 880 pounds of cocaine was seized, the biggest haul in Paraguay since 820 pounds of cocaine was confiscated near the Bolivian border in 1990. The Brazilian suspected was identified as Ivan Mezquita. Authorities said he was captured with four other Brazilian nationals Wednesday as the light plane made a refueling stop on a farm some 420 miles north of Asuncion.
Paraguay's anti-narcotics chief, Commissioner Aldo Pastore, said shots were traded as drug agents swarmed around the plane on a small landing strip near the Paraguayan community of Carmelo Peralta, a farming area close to the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso Do Sul. Investigators believe the cocaine was bound from Colombia for Brazil, Pastore said, speaking by telephone with The Associated Press. Authorities said Mezquita would be taken before Paraguayan immigration officials and probably would be expelled to Brazil.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2004 7:06:14 PM ||
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Police found the bodies of nine people, including three federal agents, in two areas Thursday near this Caribbean resort city, apparent victims of drug killings, officials said. Five bodies were found on a dirt road 10 miles south of the resort city, all shot in the head, Assistant State Attorney General Luis Alfonso Chi told a news conference. Three were federal police agents. The charred remains of four people were found in the trunk of a burned-out car parked near a dump, about six miles from Cancun's airport. Police said two anonymous emergency calls Thursday morning reported the killings. Officials said they had no motive or suspects in the cases, but the weapons used and the execution-style killings appeared to be related to drugs. State and federal officials were investigating.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2004 7:03:33 PM ||
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Brazil said on Wednesday it got a go-ahead from the UN nuclear watchdog to crank up its uranium enrichment plant this year after months of negotiations over access for nonproliferation inspectors. Science and Technology Minister Eduardo Campos told a news conference a group of technicians from the International Atomic Energy Agency visited the Resende plant Nov. 16 to Nov. 18 to verify the information provided by Brazil about the design of the plant. "The visit was considered completely successful by both sides," said a statement Campos read. "It means that from the point of view of international safeguards, the plant can start working ... with UF6 uranium gas that will be enriched," he said.
Washington had pressured Brazil to given IAEA inspectors greater access to the Resende installation, worried Brazil's initial reluctance might embolden countries like Iran to close off their atomic programs to international inspections.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2004 10:14:02 PM ||
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#1
And Brazil has also been active in the missile field as witnessed by the recent successful satilite launch
Ukraine's Supreme Court gave the political opposition some breathing room Thursday, ruling that the results of a presidential election are not official until it hears an appeal from a Western-leaning candidate who says it was stolen from him. But there were no indications that opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko's call for a national strike was taking hold, and it was unclear whether the high court even has the right to annul the vote count that gave victory to the Kremlin-backed candidate, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych.
The election pitting Yushchenko against Yanukovych has led to an increasingly tense tug-of-war between the West and Moscow, which considers Ukraine part of its sphere of influence and a buffer between Russia and NATO's eastern flank. At a summit in The Hague, Netherlands, Russian President Vladimir Putin and European Union leaders staked out starkly opposing views of Ukraine's election dispute but agreed the crisis must be resolved peacefully. Although Yanukovych had widespread official backing, including that of outgoing President Leonid Kuchma, the Supreme Court is respected as an unbiased body. The court's decision boosted Yushchenko's supporters, who have flooded the streets of Kiev since the Sunday run-off.
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Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2004 7:07:34 PM ||
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THE senior British MP in charge of monitoring last Sunday's polls in Ukraine has revealed how the election was undermined by intimidation, fraud and invisible ink. Bruce George, chairman of the Commons Defence Committee and head of the international Short-Term Observation Commission in Ukraine, told The Times one of the election monitors handed him a suspicious pen from a polling station. Mr George, a veteran Labour MP who helped to oversee the election in Georgia last year, found that anything written with the pen vanished in 15 minutes. "I saw a pen that had ink that disappeared when it dried," he said. "People were issued with pens to cast their votes, but their votes would have disappeared after they dropped the paper into the ballot box."
Underhand methods :
The pen with disappearing ink was the most devious example of a range of underhand methods observed by the 600-strong STOC on behalf of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe. "My deputy went to a polling station and could not see the ballot boxes, so he became very suspicious," Mr George said. "But we had heard that people were going around throwing some kind of chemical into the ballot boxes to destroy the contents, so they were hiding them or putting masking tape over them to protect them." In Ukraine, prison inmates have the vote, but Mr George received reports of intimidation. "A group (of monitors) told me that prisoners had been told that unless the Prime Minister (Viktor Yanukovych) gets 90 per cent of the vote, privileges will be withdrawn." Mr George visited a dozen polling stations in Kiev without incident, but said: "In eastern Ukraine (a staunchly Yanukovych area), the turnout in Donetsk was more than 96 per cent, and in one polling station it was 99.8 per cent.
'Dead were voting'
"It is an entirely improbable statistic in an area which was very heavily for the Prime Minister. Even the dead were voting to accentuate the total." Mr George heard reports of people being bused around to swell the vote, of many names being added and removed from electoral registers, and intimidation at polling stations. "A Swedish MP saw some thugs come in and say that the polling station had been illegally constituted and they were going to close it down and impound the ballot boxes," Mr George said. "The entire local election commission consisted of young women, who jumped out of their chairs and formed a human shield between these thugs and the ballot boxes. A stand-off ensued and eventually the thugs left, no doubt to intimidate someone else.
"The fraud starts fairly high up," he said. "If you make sure that the central electoral commission is run with your appointees, it guarantees that complaints are thrown out. "Abuse of administrative resources to advance the interests of one political party ... was done blatantly. "It will take some years before they are able to conduct half-decent elections," he said. "They make up the rules as they go along."
Posted by: God Save The World ||
11/25/2004 6:57:51 PM ||
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More than a million people from all over Europe are to deliver a petition to Tony Blair and fellow EU leaders calling for changes to the constitution recognising Europe's Christian heritage. Refusing to accept a secular "fait accompli" from Brussels, a Christian coalition is demanding that each EU state publish its version of the constitution's preamble, with references to God if desired. Already armed with 1,149,000 signatures and with thousands more pouring in from Holland since the murder of the film-maker Theo van Gogh, the group claims that most states want some reference to Christianity but were blocked by France. The move is keenly backed by Pope John Paul II, who has repeatedly condemned the "moral drift" of Brussels. "One does not cut the roots to one's birthright," he told pilgrims this summer.
Euro-MPs voted this week to back the calls for a change in the text. Petitioners, led by Italy's International Mission Centre, will now take their case to EU governments. The current version of the preamble eschews Christianity, talking vaguely of "the cultural, religious and humanist inheritance of Europe". Valery Giscard d'Estaing, the former French president, deliberately left the issue open when he wrote the document, inviting a petition. "I have chosen not to insert the reference to the Christian heritage in the constitution,"he said. "Rather I appeal to you to persuade me of its necessity."
A British official said it was too late to change the preamble, although national parliaments could add a "rider" stressing their country's Christian roots. An EU official said: "These Christians could at least have the good grace to accept that they lost the argument."
Blonde jokes might soon be a thing of past, as they have already been banned in Hungary after blonde women staged an angry protest outside the parliament. The protestors reportedly also handed in a petition claiming they were being discriminated against in every walk of life by bad taste blonde jokes. "Blondes face discrimination in the job market, in the workplace when they get a job, and even on the streets.People are banned from discriminating against Jews, or blacks, so why not grant blondes the same protection,"protestors spokesperson Zsuzsa Kovacs, was quoted by the Ananova, as saying. The petition asks for an investigation into whether jokes about blondes fall into the same category as religious discrimination.
Posted by: tipper ||
11/25/2004 1:13:12 AM ||
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#1
Now, the Star-Belly Sneetches
Had bellies with stars.
The Plain-Belly Sneetches had none upon thars...
Lol, only a humorless blonde would miss the humor... *idea* uh, um, er, nevermind. -Sylvester McMonkey McBean
#2
So, I guess jokes made in good taste are ok?
I don't know any, and I think I've heard them all. I've even told a few, so I guess I've discriminated against myself.
Wow, that is like, soooo confusing!
(BTW, just wanted to point out most dumb blondes started out as brunettes!)
#3
brunettes, redheads et al should seek a legislative action decreeing that "blondes cannot have all the fun"
cripes
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/25/2004 11:09 Comments ||
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#4
My daughter, the Marine known as Cpl. Blondie (who is---and I have pictures to prove it---a natural blond of such blondness that her hair is nearly white after summers spent in the outdoors) maintains a large and growing collection of blond jokes... but then, she is intelligent enough to not feel threatened by the stereotype.
The Ukraine, Europe's second largest country, is on the verge of outright dictatorship. After the presidential election on November 21, about 200,000 protesters have gathered in Kiev's Independence Square, as well as other places around the country, to protest against alleged ballot fraud. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and Alexander Lukashenka of Belarus, Europe's last dictator (well, so far), have congratulated the establishment candidate, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, who has been pronounced the winner by a slim margin. Meanwhile, international observers say the ballot count was fraudulent. The opposition has claimed victory, and its presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko has symbolically given himself the oath of office.
Western European leaders encourage both the regime and the opposition not to use violence. There is still hope for a peaceful, democratic solution. Just like in Serbia in 2000, after the now indicted war criminal Slobodan Milosevic tried to cling to power by making up election results, people are pouring in to the huge demonstrations from the entire country. Hundreds of thousands have gathered in the Independence Square, defying the Ukrainian winter to defend their liberty. Many more are on their way.
In Serbia, the protesters achieved their goals without violence, by being resilient and many. Likewise, in Georgia a bloodless revolution overthrew president Edward Shevardnadze last fall. Again, large, peaceful protests wore down the support of the regime and led to its downfall. Hopefully, the Ukrainian crisis will be solved as peaceful. But it could also be another Tiananmen Square, where Chinese troops in June 1989 disbanded a large pro-democracy demonstration by massacring about a thousand of the protesters. This time few in Western Europe seem to care much. Sure, the European Union issued a statement calling for the Ukrainian government to release the actual election results, and the European Council urged both sides to resolve the situation peacefully. But who doesn't remember the huge demonstrations of the last couple of years, when the United States was preparing to overthrow the terror regimes of Afghanistan and Iraq? On some days, over a million people gathered worldwide to protest the war against Saddam Hussein. In Stockholm, the demonstration was the largest since the Vietnam War. Where are those protesters today? Well, nowhere near the Ukrainian embassies and far from Kiev's Independence Square.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: tipper ||
11/25/2004 12:27:28 AM ||
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#1
I think I might have the A.N.S.W.E.R. Funded by communists.
#2
Bush: "I've got a good relation with Vladimir. And it's important that we do have a good relation, because that enables me to better comment to him, and to better to discuss with him, some of the decisions he makes. I found that, in this world, that it's important to establish good personal relationships with people so that when you have disagreements, you're able to disagree in a way that is effective."
Instead of the article bizarrely finding a way of comparing the ineffective anti-war protests to some kind of (supposedly effective) participation that supposedly Western people will have in the Ukrainian demonstrations (oh yeah, give ammo to Yanukovich that it's not really the Ukrainian people that are protesting, that it's foreign Western agents that had to be brought in to increase the size of the crowds), I suggest that Bush shows us the effectiveness of his good relationship with Vlad the Terrible.
Not that *Putin* doesn't find it very effective, I'm sure.
#4
Such is life. In Asia we have China and Taiwan. In Europe you have Russia and Ukraine. What's a diplomat to do?? Ms. Rice better re-think whether to take Powell's job or not.
Posted by: Rafael ||
11/25/2004 3:38 Comments ||
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#5
Bulldog> The EU's more powerful or relevant than the UK or France or Germany alone, that's for certain. And it's trying to do more. Why don't you support the European Constitution in order to help it in that effort? Why don't you stop trying to have it both ways, at the same time attacking EU for its weakness and yet opposing any effort to make it stronger? You've already declared your desire to use Trojan horses to destroy the EU, so lack of might isn't your problem with the EU, its existence is.
But perhaps your mocking attack concerning "Mighty EU" shows the moral quality of your character and the importance you give on might as opposed to right. I wish I'd seen one tenth as many condemnations of Russia on your part as I've seen of the EU. But I guess the might of Russia is (according to you) to be sucked up to, rather than opposed.
The EU has already shown the effectiveness of its influence in several places, in Turkey, in Cyprus, in reforms in Bulgaria and Romania. I believe it could have done more in Ukraine, but it wimped out.
Yet Bush has already declared the effectiveness of his relationship with Putin, and he's not yet put his money where his mouth was. The last four years have been the period of vast consolidation of tyranny in Russia and in the neighbouring regions -- *that's* how effective Bush's good relationship with Putin seems to me to be. As effective as Chamberlain's relationship with Hitler.
#6
But perhaps your mocking attack concerning "Mighty EU" shows the moral quality of your character and the importance you give on might as opposed to right.
nice personal atack, loser
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/25/2004 10:27 Comments ||
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#7
Frank are you trying to make this a Frank G thread? I deplore this sort thing. Is it true your Alohas are made by Omar the Tent Maker?
#8
Frank> If someone jabs, then they can expect to be jabbed back.
Bulldog can prove me wrong by reminding me of a time he ever attacked Russia. Neither memory nor google search shows me such an attack but I freely attack both can be flawed.
#12
Re #5 (Aris Katsaris): Why don't you stop trying to have it both ways, at the same time attacking EU for its weakness and yet opposing any effort to make it stronger?
Well put. And one could also replace the abbreviation EU with UN.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
11/25/2004 11:34 Comments ||
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#13
LOL - saw that one coming...
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/25/2004 11:44 Comments ||
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#14
Incoming! UN-coming! Take cover, Frank
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/25/2004 11:54 Comments ||
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#15
Aris and Mike, you are soooo concerned with the weaknesses of the EU and UN...
People who love liberty would rather have a government weakened by constitutional limits (the American model) than multi-national structures strengthened by absence of individual rights and motivated by corruption. That's why lovers of liberty make fun of the EU and the UN.
#16
There is still hope for a peaceful, democratic solution. Just like in Serbia in 2000, after the now indicted war criminal Slobodan Milosevic tried to cling to power by making up election results, people are pouring in to the huge demonstrations from the entire country.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the National Archives set aflame in Yugoslavia's "peaceful" transition? And building's ransacked, and Milosevic life threatened?
Aris: FrankG never said Russia needed to be sucked up to. In fact, Rantburg has stated repeatedly that Russia's "might" is in decline on articles concerning it's Navy. And the EU has been on the table for how long now? Seriously, it's hard to make an equal constitution when the countries making up the EU don't respect eachother. You can't blame FrankG for ruining negotiations between European allies on the budget.
Unless FrankG is really working for Halliburton, ordering Bulldog through secret posts here on Rantburg to poison Tony Blair with Hallucigens to make him more suceptible to Bush's ideas. But you didn't hear that from me.
Posted by: Charles ||
11/25/2004 11:59 Comments ||
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#17
ixnay on the alliburtonhay!
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/25/2004 12:00 Comments ||
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#18
People who love liberty would rather have a government weakened by constitutional limits (the American model) than multi-national structures strengthened by absence of individual rights and motivated by corruption.
Except that we're not talking about the EU having a single power over citizens than national government have over them. We're instead talking about the EU having power over national *governments*, which in practice and reality has meant that the liberties of the EU *citizens* are increased since the primary way that the EU has acted in its integration processes is the lifting of the *barriers* that the national *governents* placed. The EU restricts the powers of the *governments*, not the powers of the people, the same way that the federal government of the United States has sometimes acted to stop abuses and violations of rights in individual states or groups of states (e.g. deep South and segregation)
So that whole line of argument is a false diversion on your part. This isn't about rights of citizens. This is instead about the power of the EU in comparison to national *governments*, and about the power of the national veto to block and sabotage the rest of the Union. When a single country can block decisions then the EU is weak. When that single country more often than not tends out to be UK I have a reason to be angry at it for not leaving the EU and letting the rest of the countries alone.
So it's not people who love liberty, but rather people who love nationalistic tyrannies that tend to be the ones that most oppose the EU. Aka, the reason why both communists and neonazis hate the EU.
So, don't even start on the "lovers of liberty" pretend-game. I can see through such Bull (pun intended).
Charles> Aris: FrankG never said Russia needed to be sucked up to.
My comment was to Bulldog. But hey, if Bulldog has any negative comment to make about Putin, let him make it and prove me wrong. Come on, Bulldog, do you consider Putin a supporter of tyrannies yes or no? Comparing CIS and the EU which block is more democratic? And given all that, why is it only the EU that you attack and never Putin, Russia or the CIS?
And I have no idea what you are talking about supposed breakdown of negotiations. The Constitution has already been agreed and signed, and the ratification process has started.
#19
I believe it could have done more in Ukraine, but it wimped out.
I think that means we agree wrt my observation. As for your onanistic ranting - maybe you should keep it short? Straw men don't need to be thirty feet tall, you know.
#20
I think that means we agree wrt my observation
No. Your observation was "Glad to see you're not expecting the Mighty EU to be able to influence anyone, Aris" My observation was that the EU was capable but *wimped out* of trying to influence *Ukraine*. Atleast in the past. It's trying to do something now, though too little too late perhaps.
But point remains that unless we ratify the Constitution that'll allow the EU to keep on functioning with more member states, then the EU will be not only unwilling but incapable of bringing Ukraine into the fold or promising anything to that point.
This isn't an unrelated issue. EU *is* the West in the region, will all the good connotations of that word. To weaken EU's capacity to make Ukraine a member-state is to increase Russia's power and to diminish Ukraine's long-term chances for freedom, democracy and independence. If the European Constitution fails ratification or the EU stagnates (and *definitely* if the EU is dissolved) then Ukraine has little to look forward to than further integration with the CIS.
This is a battle between two vast geopolitical arrangement, not just a battle between Yanukovich and Yushchenko. Choose your side Bulldog. Even if you loathe the EU and consider it a tyrant, let us atleast know if you see it as the Hitler or the Stalin of the situation.
#21
Aris sez "we're not talking about the EU having a single power over citizens ... [instead] the EU having power over national *governments*, which in practice and reality has meant that the liberties of the EU *citizens* are increased..."
False. The EU directs member states to change their laws according to its directives, thereby acting on individual people's lives. It persecutes those individuals who try to report fraud in its institutions. It pressures low-tax countries to raise their taxes on individuals who happen to enjoy a modicum of freedom in their private property. It also has an executive and judiciary with absolutely no representative legitimacy.
The rest of your rant, in particular your vile attacks on the UK, demonstrate your lack of respect for freedom -- whether embodied in the rights of individuals or the powers of separate States.
I'd start to believe in a freedom-oriented EU if they adopted a simple, clean Bill of Rights, including the inalienable individual right to own and carry weapons (guns, rifles, etc.).
#22
we're not talking about the EU having a single power over citizens ...
Why don't you quote that sentence in full, Kalle? I spoke about the EU not having a single power over citizens *that national governments don't already have*. Are you intentionally trying to quote me out of context?
You tried to frame this issue as a topic between big-governent vs individual rights. This is ofcourse bogus. It's about EU vs national governments, and only that.
False. The EU directs member states to change their laws according to its directives, thereby acting on individual people's lives.
Ofcourse -- and if you hadn't intentionally cut my sentence in half you'd have known I never disputed this. The point is that national governments already have that power. And the point that *EU's* laws tend to be towards the increase of individual freedom. How about freedom of movement of people, of goods, of capital, and of services, or freedom of establishment and residence? How about free trade?
It also has an executive and judiciary with absolutely no representative legitimacy.
Really? "Absolutely no" legitimacy? This is really a bad time for you to try and claim something like such.
Have you even heard of the name Buttiglione? Have you?
I'd start to believe in a freedom-oriented EU if they adopted a simple, clean Bill of Rights, including the inalienable individual right to own and carry weapons (guns, rifles, etc.).
If that's your criterion then you can't believe in a freedom-oriented United Kingdom either, since it doesn't have such a bill of rights that includes such an inalienable right either. In fact you couldn't believe in anything freedom-oriented outside the US borders. That's probably the definition of parochialism.
Not to mention that it's ofcourse only the United Kingdom that prevented the Charter of Fundamental Rights from having direct application to the member states, and instead it will remain something that only binds the EU's instruments. So that's a bit ironic.
And also ironic is your mention of "freedom whether embodied in the rights of individuals or the powers of separate States" -- ofcourse I believe in both the rights of individuals and the powers of separate States, and that's why I believe the UK should have the power to leave the European Union, instead of stay and sabotage the rest of those separate States that do want to move forward but are stopped by the UK who in fact DOESN'T respect the inalienable power of separate states to willingly tranfer sovereignty to a common body if they so choose to.
#26
Not a moron, Bulldog, merely a person who remembers who you have attacked in the past and who you haven't, and wonders about the selectiveness.
Now second question in the effort to reach some agreement: Do you think that West-leaning Yushchenko is a villain or an idiot for wanting EU membership for his country?
#27
This crisis shows one of the few areas in which the West is united, the EU and US are working seamlessly toward the same end, and US power and EU carrots are completely complementary. And yet the Grand Transatlantic Pissing Match begins again. Why?
Two explanations: 1) the Aris principle; 2) (more likely) for the EU mainly, it's all about pissing rights. We're here, we're queer, get used to it! We're big boys now and we're going to handle this by ourselves, so butt out!
Meanwhile, Powell and Kwasniewski patiently, soberly sternly set about solving the problem. Also, note which major EU nation's leader is absolutely silent on this crucial issue that unites the US and EU.... gimme an 'F'...
The EU has direct, negative and positive impact on individual freedom in Europe. To claim that it only impacts States is ridiculous. The individuals persecuted by the EU because they are denouncing fraud in its institutions are not States, are they?
Free trade existed without the EU, thanks to the AELE (which included Israel and Switzerland). Freedom of movement is a good thing, and btw it already existed in Scandinavia long before the EU pushed it onto the rest of Europe.
As for your hatred of UK resistance to abrogation of the freedom it protects, it's rather telling. If Greece and France want to violate the rights of residents there (note that it's different from citizens), they don't need to ask for permission from the UK. The problem they have is that they want all EU members to always go along with their tyrannical goals.
Finally, where do I --as an EU citizen-- vote to choose the EU executive? never? nowhere? some representation that is.
#29
To claim that it only impacts States is ridiculous.
Oy, vey. I never claimed that. Start reading what I actually say instead of what you imagine me of saying. This discussion can't go any further if you don't do that.
As for your hatred of UK resistance to abrogation of the freedom it protects, it's rather telling
How am I hating the UK when I want it to leave the EU and keep as much freedom as it likes outside the European Union? I hate the UK's effort to stop the freedom of the *other* countries to do what they wish -- I hated it for example when the UK imposed this extremely watered-down Constitution on the rest of us. Once again, start reading what I actually write instead of the echoes in your own head.
Finally, where do I --as an EU citizen-- vote to choose the EU executive? never? nowhere? some representation that is.
EU has a democratic deficit -- too bad that none of the EU's opponents actually gives a damn about it except in deceitful rhetoric. If the anti-EU folk truly cared about the democratic deficit, then they'd have supported rather than opposed all moves made to reduce this deficit. For example why haven't Bulldog or you ever said that you *want* the President of the Commission to be directly elected by the public? I *have* stated that, why do none of the anti-EU folk I meet have?
If you care so much about the democratic deficit, why aren't you supporting the Constitution which for the first time contains processes of EU-wide direct referenda? No matter how small, this Constitution's a step towards improving democracy in the Union.
Why did none of the UK's objections to the Constitution concern a lack of democracy and why did it make no proposals in efforts to increase it?
Because, it's mere *deceit* (though in many cases a self-deceit I guess) that the europhobes' fear of the EU has anything to do with a lack of democracy. You aren't afraid of the lack of democracy, you aren't afraid of the "bureacracy" --- you are simply afraid of the *other nations of the EU*.
Which means that you oppose European unification in *principle*, and which explains why you don't want it improved, democraticized, whatever, you merely want it disbanded.
The problem they have is that they want all EU members to always go along with their tyrannical goals.
Screw you dearie. The so-called "tyrannical goals" of the EU have probably done more for freedom of the Kurds in Turkey than the US invasion of Iraq has done for the Kurds there.
As a sidenote I can't find anything about AELE? Sure you spelled it correctly?
lex> And yet the Grand Transatlantic Pissing Match begins again
#30
Not a moron, Bulldog, merely a person who remembers who you have attacked in the past and who you haven't, and wonders about the selectiveness.
Putin doesn't pass 40% of new laws affecting me, does he? Can you see the difference? Please try. I know it's hard for you to understand but the EU is a more pressing concern for me than is the provincial rearguard scheming of the wannabe dictator of an ailing former power. I don't comment on Putin much. You don't comment on Castro much. I don't assume you support Castro. It seems I have to point out again that absence of evidence does not constitute evidence of absence.
Do you think that West-leaning Yushchenko is a villain or an idiot for wanting EU membership for his country?
He's, quite sensibly, choosing the lesser of two evils. I would support him if I were Ukranian. I sympathise with him and his supporters. Me: I do not want to be in a federal union with Belgium, France, Greece, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Portugal.... Britain is not the Ukraine, and has far less to gain, much more to lose, than the Ukraine, when it comes to trading sovereignty with the EU. Get it yet?
#31
Aris, here's more about AELE (may be EFTA in English?).
For the EU Constitution, I'd rather not see a president, but a triumvirate or small collegial group, following either the Swiss or New Iraqi models. I'd rather see an imitation of the original US electoral college than direct democratic election of a president, Further, my purpose is to promote freedom in a republic through representative government. I oppose democracy, if it means unlimited majority rule.
I would have liked to see public European arguments as thorough and freedom-oriented as The Federalist Papers (and Anti-federalists). Maybe in the next century? or shall we start now?
I don't care what or how the UK may have dealt, or not dealt, with the EU Constitution. I care about freedom. The EU is a force for freedom in a few ways, but not enough to my taste. Hard to avoid when France dominates so much of the EU policies.
I also oppose a Constitution that dictates specific policy details. It should only uphold individual rights, define institutional structures that promote multiple checks and balances to prevent the usual drift of government into tyranny. 10-20 pages should be amply sufficient.
#32
He's, quite sensibly, choosing the lesser of two evils.
Or perhaps he's choosing the good over the evil.
Well anyway atleast we have an acknowledgement on your part that the EU is not as bad as Putin -- it was rather frustrating to hear EU referred to as practically the worst thing since Hitler.
But given how's nobody forcing Ukraine to become an EU member, (the opposite, EU's seems to be trying to dissuade it from membership -- hence my "wimped out" remark), I wonder why you think independence from the EU wouldn't be a possible and even better scenario.
Kalle> EFTA, which still exists, but Israel was never a part of it. And the EEC was created *first*. EFTA could only function based on the EU (then EEC) framework. My understanding is that EFTA only works through a number of countries agreeing to comply EEC's (now EU's) regulations in regards to trade but having no say in creating these regulations. It's not really that nice a position for countries that value their pride. Which is probably why you don't see long lines of candidates for the position of EFTA membership, you only see such lines for EU membership.
But I'd love to see UK simply an EFTA member again.
#1
My Final Four prediction: Carville (Michael Moore may be #1 seed in that bracket, but the fat boy is no match for the Ragin' Cajun), Krugman, Franken, and Dowd.
Posted by: Mike ||
11/25/2004 6:32 Comments ||
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#2
If only their field of candidates were as rich. What the military calls a target rich environment.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
11/25/2004 6:58 Comments ||
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#3
Franken's a punk. Molly Ivans is much more a man than he will ever be. Dowd owns the World's Oldest Incoherent Schoolgirl shtick, but I give it to Helen Thomas, the real World's Oldest Everything.
Posted by: ed ||
11/25/2004 6:59 Comments ||
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#4
Helen Thomas vs. Maureen Dowd -- the world's first pay-per-view catfight!
Posted by: Mike ||
11/25/2004 7:09 Comments ||
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#8
Why isn't Lawrence "you're a liar" O'Donnell in the brackets? I'd PPV to watch him get pummelled
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/25/2004 10:41 Comments ||
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#9
Who picks these seeds, anyway? Mark Shields at 7 and Helen Thomas at 8? I do not think so. And somebody has a nasty sense of humor, matching up Ron Reagan against Andrew Sullivan (who shouldn't even be in there).
Do you suppose condescension or shrillness will be a more important factor? These two techniques will be highlighted in the Moyers-Estrich match-up.
O'Donnell's 5th seed in the lower right. But where's Rall?
#10
Estrich a 13 seed? Watching that insufferable rasp compress into an ugly little ball of tongue-biting hate with Brit Hume on Election night was immensely pleasing to me.
Be careful what you wish for from the UN -- you may get it.
Linked in the past to sex crimes in East Timor, and prostitution in Cambodia and Kosovo, U.N. peacekeepers have now been accused of sexually abusing the very population they were deployed to protect in Congo. And while the 150 allegations of rape, pedophelia and solicitation in Congo may be the United Nations' worst sex scandal in years, chronic problems almost guarantee that few of the suspects will face serious punishment.
The problem is simple: The United Nations often implores nations to discipline their peacekeepers, but it has little power to enforce the rules. And when nations are reluctant anyway to contribute soldiers for dangerous missions like Congo, it's tough to turn the tables and shame them publicly. "The U.N. goes around trying to cajole countries to provide peacekeepers," said Edward Luck, a professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. "They're having a hard time getting any member states to respond, and that doesn't give the U.N. a great deal of leverage in these kinds of situations."
While thousands of U.N. peacekeepers have served without incident, some have been accused of smuggling weapons and exotic animals, selling fuel on the black market, vandalizing airplanes, and standing by while mobs looted storefronts — if they didn't join in the chaos themselves. Other times their inaction led to even more grievous crimes, as when Dutch peacekeepers under a U.N. mandate didn't stop Bosnian troops in the enclave of Srebrenica from loading Muslim men onto buses and taking them away to be killed.
Posted by: Capt America ||
11/25/2004 11:44:30 PM ||
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#1
Ohh boy . On top of being inept , theiving , lying , nepotistic weasels . I can now add pedo's , cowards , vandals , and illegal traders to the list of UN talents .
#2
When the US was in Mogadishu they raided a black market and caught UN officials selling the food. They were told to release them. When the Marines were in charge of the food distribution everything went well. It was only when the UN took over that things went to hell.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
11/25/2004 10:02 Comments ||
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#3
Is it possible that countries sending peacekeeping troops are recruiting "volunteers" from their military prisons? I mean, who the hell in their right mind wants to go to the Congo, East Timor, or Kosovo in the first place?
President Laurent Kabila suspended six cabinet ministers and 10 directors of state-run companies Thursday after a parliamentary inquiry alleged they had embezzled government funds. The crackdown targeted the ministers of mines, energy, transport and communications, higher education, public works and commerce, the presidency announced on state television. The parliament launched its inquiry after the government's accounting office issued a report in September denouncing suspected corruption in several government firms. The office had accused the directors of some state-run companies of paying themselves monthly salaries of up to $32,000 and expensing exorbitant private vacations.
Since independence in 1960, top government officials have regularly been accused of stealing millions of dollars from the state treasury. Despite Congo's mineral wealth, Congo's near-60 million people have remained among the world's poorest. Corruption during the reign of late dictator Mobutu Sese Seko was so bad, critics described the impoverished nation a "kleptocracy." In October, the group Transparency International ranked Congo the 12th most corrupt nation in the world out of 145 countries.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2004 8:07:03 PM ||
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(2004-11-24) -- Faced with the constitutional prohibition against teaching about the Christian origins of Thanksgiving in public schools, the Maryland State Department of Education has rewritten its curriculum, and renamed the holiday 'Lucky Thursday'.
Starting in 2005, 'Lucky Thursday' lessons in public schools will instruct children in the random, yet fortuitous, events which led a band of deranged religious fanatics (called Pilgrims) to beach their boat on an unexpected continent where the native people stumbled upon, then rescued them.
"The Pilgrims jumped on a boat, spun the wheel of fortune, and whammo...they ended up here," said an unnamed professor at the University of Maryland who directed the curriculum adjustment project. "Then they knelt in the sand and thanked their lucky stars."
Donald Trump, whose casino operations declared bankruptcy earlier this week, has promised to provide dice, cards and other instructional tools to help reinforce the curricular concept that "We're Americans because biology accidentally collided with geography."
Posted by: Korora(abu Oh look! A black-capped chickadee!) ||
11/25/2004 9:18:40 AM ||
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#2
The enviro-whackos will keep any large-scale implementation tied up in the courts 'til doomsday, if they can. "We must preserve this waterless, lifeless, barren expanse of desert or Gaia will be upset!"
#4
they've got a farm of these in the mojave desert, I-395 south of red mountain....
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/25/2004 11:29 Comments ||
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#5
I've read you can use a Stirling Engine to generate power from modest temperatur differentials, such as between surface sea water and water thirty feet down. Otherwise the article glosses over the hard problem, which is you need a truly massive storage infrastructure for when the sun don't shine and until you solve that problem you will not replace a single oil fired power station (although you may reduce its oil consumption).
#6
Go solar. I keep hoping against hope that some whiz-bang invention will make solar energy a workable reality. No more unsightly than a field of oil wells. Sure, there are infrastructure problems, but there are with petroleum as well.
#7
I would dearly love for this stuff to work, but the elephant in the room is an electricty production system has to be on-demand. And anyone who has spent time in countries where it's not, knows how disasterous it is to have a power system that cannot cope with demand.
Not only is the storage infrastructure untried technology and of unknown but certainly very large cost, it is unlikely to get beyond a 30% efficiency. So the article's power at a comparable cost, immediately becomes hugely more expensive (multiply the cost by 0.3 and add the cost of the storage). Perhaps in 20 years they might get it down to 5 times more expensive, I personally doubt they will ever get it below 10 or 15 times more expensive.
U.N. peacekeepers deployed an additional brigade in eastern Congo amid reports that Rwanda was threatening rebels based in its huge neighbor, U.N. officials said yesterday. The alleged threat jeopardizes the peace process in Congo, spokesman Fred Eckhard said at U.N. headquarters in New York. A spokeswoman for the U.N. in Congo, Patricia Tome, said Rwanda had warned it will launch an attack "very soon" on Rwandan Hutu rebels taking refuge in east Congo. Alfred Ndahiro, a spokesman for Rwandan President Paul Kagame, said, "I know absolutely nothing of this." Rwanda has invaded Congo twice in recent years - in 1996 and in 1998 - to hunt Rwandan Hutu rebels, many of whom instigated the 1994 Rwandan genocide, in which extremists from the Hutu majority orchestrated the slaughter of more than 500,000 people, mostly from the Tutsi minority.
Rwandans are practicing their own offensive strategy, getting these guys before they come back home.
The U.N. peacekeepers deployed in eastern Congo were part of a 5,900-member addition to the peacekeeping force in the country, which until now numbered about 10,800 men. Rwanda's 1998 invasion of Congo drew in the armies of a half-dozen African nations. More than 3 million people, mostly civilians, died in fighting or from famine and disease that followed.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/25/2004 12:07:46 AM ||
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#1
"Rwanda's 1998 invasion of Congo drew in the armies of a half-dozen African nations. More than 3 million people, mostly civilians, died in fighting or from famine and disease that followed."
That wouldn't have happened if Palestinians weren't deprived of their birthright!
#2
It's also the Baalestinaan who share the blame from perpetually drawing the complicit world media attention to themselves....and of course the royal share of material aids.
Posted by: Wo ||
11/25/2004 8:44 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
