A New Zealand woman who sent a naked man to the wrong house on the promise of a good time has been charged with misusing a telephone, local media reported on Wednesday. The 17-year-old woman sent the man an enticing text message offering him an early Christmas present in the shape of two friendly women and suggested he take off his clothes to save time, the Manawatu Standard reported. The 31-year old man wasted no time in arriving at the house, and took off his clothes and threw them through the window before entering.
But it was the wrong house and the householder did not see the funny side. The police were called and the man arrested for being unlawfully on a property.
The woman, who sent the tempting but deliberately wayward message, was also tracked down and charged for misusing a phone. Both the man and the woman escaped prosecution and were cautioned and put on good behavior bonds.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/14/2007 00:00 ||
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Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF party will formally endorse President Robert Mugabe this weekend as its candidate for re-election next year, a choice that critics say will prolong the economic crisis ravaging the country. Mugabe (83) has overcome a half-hearted attempt by some top Zanu-PF officials to force him to retire before the March 2008 poll, and looks set to tighten the grip on power he has held ever since Zimbabwe's independence from Britain in 1980.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/14/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
lucky for Zimbabwe. They were so much worse off under the hedgemonic, racist, white, colonial rule. Right?
#2
As long as we don't start making excuses for the colonial government which was indeed racist.
Zimbabwe never really had a chance, but one can imagine how well off it would be today if Ian Smith had been able to hand over power to a true, decent, democratic government.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/14/2007 11:21 Comments ||
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#3
......Or if Ian Smith could have been supported by the West in his struggle against communism.
The killers of intellectuals during the Liberation War can be prosecuted on the basis of evidence preserved by the government. It only needs to take a move to resume the long halted process of trial of the intellectuals' murder cases. Sufficient number of documents and records on the cases have been preserved since 1972 at the home ministry, Criminal Investigation Department, Ramna police station, district and sessions judges' courts, chief metropolitan magistrates' courts and deputy commissioners' offices.
Over the years, eminent jurists said all this evidence has now become ancient documents according to the evidence act, and is more effective than any other evidence in trying a case. And the government won't have to gather fresh evidence for trying the killers of intellectuals. The Evidence Act, 1872, says documentary materials, which are more than 30 years old, are to be treated as ancient documents.
To resume the trial process, the jurists said, the government could enact a new law, or revive the Bangladesh Collaborators (Special Tribunals) Order, 1972, which was revoked on December 31, 1975, burying the process of trial of the killers.
"The government can revive the cases any time, if it wants. In the absence of parliament, the president can promulgate an ordinance to this effect," Vice-Chairman of Bangladesh Bar Council Khandker Mahbub Hossain told The Daily Star yesterday. He was chief prosecutor of the cases under the collaborators order.
Echoing his views, Ghulam Rabbani, former judge of Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, said people who collaborated with the occupation Pakistan army should be punished. He pointed out that according to globally acclaimed jurist Lord Denning the main justification for punishment of a criminal is not that it is deterrent, but it is the emphatic denunciation of a crime by a community. "Therefore, the collaborators order should be put into force again, and it will not affect the fundamental rights as stated in Article 35 of the Constitution Secondly, Article 35 will not stand in the way of such revival of the order," Rabbani said.
After the independence, the then government of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman promulgated the collaborators order and set up 73 special tribunals, including 11 in Dhaka to try Razakar, Al-Badr and Al-Shams forces, defined as collaborators in the order. The families of many martyred intellectuals filed a large number of cases under the order, and the government initiated a move to try the criminals.
Trials started in June 1972 at a special tribunal with the first case being that for killing Abul Kalam Azad, a professor at the Institute of Advanced Science and Technology Teaching. The charge sheet in the case was submitted on June 13.
Information gathered from the families of martyred intellectuals, lawyers of the cases and newspaper reports of those days say six cases were disposed of and five persons convicted.
But the August 1975 changeover stopped the trial process since the collaborators order was revoked on December 31 that year and almost all the convicted collaborators were released in the early days of the regime of General Ziaur Rahman.
"I presume that necessary documentary materials for convicting the collaborators including the killers of intellectuals are lying with the home ministry. Since the materials are more than 30 years old, according to the evidence act those are to be treated as ancient documents. No other evidence is required as those at the disposal of the ministry would be sufficient as exhibits in the case records, and conviction and sentence on the basis of that are very much possible," Rabbani said referring to Section 90 of the Evidence Act, 1872.
Section 90 of the act says where any document, purporting or proved to be 30 years old, is produced from any custody which the court in the particular case considers proper, the court may presume that the signature and every other part of such document, which purports to be in the hand writing of any particular person, is in that person's hand writing, and in the case of document executed or attested, that it was duly executed and attested by the persons by whom it purports to be executed and attested. "Furthermore, there are sufficient admissions, as admissible under the evidence act, in the statements, news or photographs published at that time in the newspapers," he said.
Besides, the home ministry regularly kept contact with the occupation army since the Pakistan government sent messages to it, and the ministry also forwarded information about the activities of collaborators to the Pakistan government during the Liberation War. And it has evidence of those.
The government of Bangabandhu had formed a committee comprising the late Supreme Court lawyer Sirajul Haque and the late attorney general Aminul Huq to enquire into the genocide. The committee compiled evidence and submitted a report on about 1,500 cases to the home ministry in July 1972.
The report listed the war criminals in two categories -- 195 members of Pakistani army and bureaucracy, who had been taken into custody in New Delhi and were subsequently handed over to Pakistan in 1974 following the Simla Agreement, and about 12,000 of their local collaborators, including members of Razakar, Al-Badr, Al-Shams and the peace committees.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/14/2007 00:00 ||
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Endorsing the government plea, the Supreme Court yesterday overruled the High Court order that stayed the trial of detained former prime minister Sheikh Hasina in an extortion case at a makeshift court.
Following a writ petition filed by Sheikh Hasina, the High Court on Sunday stayed the trial proceedings of the Tk 3-crore extortion case. The High Court had also issued a rule upon the government to explain why the November 26 gazette notification directing the Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge to hold the trial of Hasina and two others at a makeshift court "should not be declared without lawful authority".
Posted by: Fred ||
12/14/2007 00:00 ||
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"As long as I live, I have nothing to speak to traitor and bluffer, (Colombian President) Mr. (Álvaro) Uribe," said again President Hugo Chávez and noted the relation between his government and the Argentinean government. "I came to visit a president who is starting and should be supported to secure the bilateral relation," Chávez told reporters after a meeting with Argentinean incoming President Cristina Fernández, who took office last Monday.
The head of state labeled as "extraordinary" his almost one hour meeting with Fernández and noted that both Venezuela and Argentina had "some ongoing joint projects."
On Monday night, during a new meeting with the media, Chávez said that Uribe was aware that by December 31st the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) were prepared to release a first group of hostages, including probably ex Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt. "He terminated knowingly the negotiations. He is a fake and a traitor," said Chávez.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/14/2007 00:00 ||
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#3
Better take out the extended warranty policy as well.
Indians negotiating with Russians... ought to put that on pay per view as the undercard for the next Mayweather-Hatton fight.
#7
...The Soviets Russians know exactly where those blueprints are, and as soon as the Indians offer them enough money, they'll 'find' a copy. Trouble is, it's probably entirely too late now. The Indians have had just about enough, and the Russians shouldn't be surprised if the Gorshkov just sits where she's at and rots.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
12/14/2007 13:22 Comments ||
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#8
Perhaps they should as US Naval Intelligence if they have a copy.
#12
Mike K has a good assessment of the *ahem* business situation, it seems to me.
That said, India is in sort of a sticky wicket. They could take posession of the Carrier and tow it out and finish building it somewhere else, or they could write it off and buy an nice used one from us. The problem is that India is in deep with Russian weapon systems, so like a bubble in a lineoleum floor, the problem and money shortfalls will just move to some other venue. Isn't it fun working with the Russians? Got to look deep into Pooty Poot's soul before you bet a billion, heh.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/14/2007 14:54 Comments ||
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#16
I think there were 3 in the class. 1 or 2 ended up in China, so the Chinese do have the blueprints.
Posted by: ed ||
12/14/2007 17:20 Comments ||
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#17
Russia used India, with the money for this upgrade/sale they've been fixing up their fleet. Delaying the Indian delivery the whole time. They may think they're burning just one customer but word spreads and this will seriously hurt naval sales and other sales may require cash on delivery.
#18
I bet the Ukrainians have the blueprints stashed somewhere. Some cash will make it worth their while to open a few file drawers.
Posted by: ed ||
12/14/2007 17:23 Comments ||
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#19
I'm cool with your idea, 'Spook, but I'd rather give India another ship and transfer the Kitty to Japan--where they'd rename it the Hello Kitty Hawk. :-)
Posted by: MIke ||
12/14/2007 22:05 Comments ||
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#20
...they'd rename it the "Hello Kitty Hawk".
And paint it pink?
(AKI) A Serbian leader indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has ridiculed a prosecution witness calling him "incompetent and ignorant".
The leader of the nationalist Serbian Radical Party (SRS) Vojislav Seselj, on Thursday attacked American sociologist Anthony Oberschall. Seselj has been charged by the Hague-based tribunal with persecution, murder, torture, deportations and cruel treatment of non-Serbs during the Balkan wars He cross-examined Oberschall, rejecting point by point his accusations.
Oberschall has been commissioned by the ICTY prosecutors to analyse some 400 of Seseljs articles and speeches in which he allegedly incited volunteers recruited by his party to commit crimes against Croats and Bosnian Muslims. But pressed by Seselj, Oberschall has backed down on many points, saying he wasnt sure or had second hand knowledge of some events. Admit that you are no expert, that you are ignorant, Seselj said to Oberschall during the two-day cross examination carried by Serbian television.
Seselj has not actively participated in the war by the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia, but the indictment holds him responsible for alleged crimes committed by the volunteers recruited by his party. He has rejected all charges, saying he was actually being tried for verbal offense and vowed to make a mockery of the trial.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/14/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
In a truly civilized society, these mass murderers would not be allowed to have a platform such as this to remain on the world stage. For mass murderers, with overwhelming evidence of their guilt, the only platform they should be allowed to stand on is one with a swinging trap door.
#4
Whomong, are you saying it would make us civilized if we just hang him before making some attempt to determine whether or not he really is guilty? Sounds like something the Taleban would do and I don't think they are civilized at all. Hell, even Saddam got a trial before they stretched his neck.
In fact, the way I recall it, when they tried Milosevic at the Hague he was making a pretty good defense for himself too. People were actually beginning to wonder if all the news reports about him being such a monster were true. Unfortunately, he died before the trial could be concluded so we'll never know for sure. But I don't believe the MSM ever told us the whole truth about that war, especially in light of some of things we've learned about muslims since then.
#5
rape rooms, mass graves, genocide. While I have not seen the actual evidence, there are many good people who have. And once you have the evidence, and how hard can it really be to determine who was in charge of a building that kept women enslaved for prostitution or who was in charge when hundreds of males were gunned down.
Yes, you need a trial and review of evidence to be sure that they are not political assinations. But the idea that it is difficult to determine if Saddam or Milosovic or Hitler were monsters is just silly.
So we give them a platform and allow them to continue their feeling of power. No. Take good qualified individuals to conduct interviews and review the paperwork and then either imprison them for life or hang them.
You can wring your hands for them if you want to. But they never wrung their hands for the thousands of lives they destroyed and I won't wring my hands for them.
I wasn't there. I don't know what all happened. I don't even know how that war started. I'm not sure that anybody knows although I have an idea that those people have been at each others' throats for centuries.
Maybe you could enlighten me on that. Really. I'd read your response because I really don't know.
What I'm saying is I don't believe a lot of the reporters who toss around words like ethnic cleansing and genocide were there either. Looking back, especially in light of what we've learned since 9/11, I wonder if the news coverage might have been slanted. (The MSM wouldn't do that, would they? Dan Rather slant the news?)
The question that comes to my mind is what would have happened to the Serbs if they hadn't been winning that war? Would the muslims they were fighting have obeyed the Geneva Convention? Do they ever?
A super power like the US feels compelled to obey all the stipulations of the Geneva Convention when fighting much weaker enemies in far away countries like Afghanistan and Iraq. As a wealthy nation we can afford to set up POW camps and let the Red Cross inspect them to make sure everything is in order.
But what if our enemy was right next door, just as strong as us, and it took every resource we had just to keep them from killing us and annexing our territory? How would you feel about feeding enemy prisoners if you were about to starve yourself?
I'm not so sure it's all that easy for a little country like Serbia when they are fighting for their lives against an enemy who would gladly kill them if they could.
From East Asia Intel, subscription.
National Counterintelligence Executive Joel Brenner said recently that the case of defense contractor Chi Mak represents a major compromise of U.S. military technology. It was the first such case by a non-government employee. Maybe first case gone to trial.
Mak, a China-born U.S. national, was found guilty of passing technology to China in a case that had profound implications for our military, especially our Navy and also for the Air Force, Brenner said. It was the first public reference that Mak and his brother, Tai, compromised Air Force technology.
Brenner also said in a recent speech that the Mak case is the first major espionage case we've had that didn't involve a government employee.
As we push out information and privatize across all government operations, much of what we have to protect in the way of information is no longer in the government, Brenner said. This now was a contractor employee; in fact, a subcontractor employee.
Mak worked on developmental Navy systems, including advanced missile destroyers and advanced submarines for Power Paragon, a subsidiary of L-3 Communications/SPD Technologies/Power Systems Group in Anaheim, CA.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/14/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
L-3 is way high up on the list of earmark recipients. Prolly at least in the top 10.
#2
ION, KOREA TIMES > US SENATOR DEMANDS CONDITION ON REMOVING NK FROM US TERROR SPONSOR LIST. Norkies must first prove they have stopped or are not engaged in WMD proliferations + have stopped counterfeiting US currencies + have shut down covert Govt bureau/sections in charge of handling illicit/criminal activities.
#6
I'm starting to wonder if it is a good idea to have any ex-chinese people in classified work. Maybe if the family moved here in the 70s and the person was born here.
#8
Another ABC traitor. Surprise, surprise. Feeling more loyalty towards the mother race his wallet than towards the country whose passport he holds. And yeah, SuperMax cell w / door welded shut...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/14/2007 10:29 Comments ||
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#9
I'm starting to wonder if it is a good idea to have any ex-chinese people in classified work. Maybe if the family moved here in the 70s and the person was born here.
It is not a good idea. It is also not a good idea to allow thousands of Mainland Chinese to attend our best technical Institutes.
Even 2nd and 3rd Generation Americans of Chinese extraction present an unreasonable risk, even if loyal to the U.S. Usually Chinese immigrants have extensive families still in China that can be leveraged to coerce even loyal Americans of Chinese ancestry.
This is not rocket science, it is willfully blindness and PC bull sh!t on the part of the authorities. It will ultimately result in massive loss of life, here and in the world as a whole.
#11
I remeber when I was working in aerospace they had a requirement that all workers on these projects be born in the US.
Allowing foreigners to work in these projects makes them vulnerable to blackmail (families in the home country) not to mention divided loyalties.
I think it was Clinton whoi changed the rules.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
12/14/2007 14:00 Comments ||
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#12
wxjames, only an idiot accepts polygraph reports. "Lie detectors" are voodoo, and about as effective. Polygraphs didnt stop the walkers, nor Hanssen. The Australians already discarded them. The only thing polys do is fool the uninitiated and untrained into confessing. Someone that is simply nervous can lose their job over a bad poly, or a bad polygrapher. Its simply a scare tactic.
If polygraphs were truly effective, you wouldnte need specially trained questioners face to face. They could replace it with simple intrumentation, a video screen and a yes-no switch the person being questiond would flip one way or another. When run that way it has a very high failure rate, meaning its NOT SCIENCE. Its a con-game to call it that.
Best thing is to actually do the footwork, and rely on good "detective" skills of good investigators.
#15
gromky: Another ABC traitor. Surprise, surprise. Feeling more loyalty towards the mother race than towards the country whose passport he holds.
I think ABC means American-born Chinese. From the article:
Mak, a China-born U.S. national
In our current politically-correct climate, the problem with hiring ethnic Chinese for sensitive defense-related tasks is that every time we investigate people who are suspected to be spies for the opposition, we get accusations of racism. The great thing about investigating Eastern Bloc nationals during the Cold War was that they couldn't play the race card.
#16
There are two trends working against the US.
1. PC stupidity. It's just stupid to expect all immigrants in the US to have good intentions or loyalties to the US. Other nations spend time and treasure to plant, recruit or pressure spies in the US. Even one foreign spy out of 1000 workers can undo billions of dollars worth of R&D or steer US policy to the detriment of US interests (e.g. Chalabi).
2. Shortage of US born technical talent. In many companies more than half of their engineers are foreign born. The US trains a huge number of foreign science talent/competition. In both my Master's and PhD studies, the majority of students were foreign citizens. American born prefer the financial or legal sectors where the rewards where the work is easier and the reward much greater. So you have crazy policies where Iranian engineers are working on missile defense for airliners while the IRGC is funding terrorist groups to blow up those airliners. Or Chinese engineers engineers are working on aircraft or missile defense systems whose deployment will be targeted at Chinese forces. Even in the commercial world, many of us just assumed the foreign engineers were feeding design information back to their home intel services or industries. America is it's own worst enemy in many cases.
Posted by: ed ||
12/14/2007 18:05 Comments ||
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#17
ed: Even one foreign spy out of 1000 workers can undo billions of dollars worth of R&D
Not necessarily. As far as I know, R&D gets broken out into pieces for individuals to solve. But no one gets the whole enchilada. It's like the story of the blind men and the elephant. The guy who touched the tail thought elephants were rope-like and slender, whereas the one who touched the legs thought elephants were like tree trunks:
It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind
The First approached the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
God bless me! but the Elephant
Is very like a wall!
The first blind man of six blind men feels the side of the elephant and interprets it as a wall.
The Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried, Ho! what have we here
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a spear!
The second blind man of the six blind men feels an elephant tusk and interprets the elephant to be like a spear.
The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:
I see, quoth he, the Elephant
Is very like a snake!
The third blind man of the six blind men touches the elephant's trunk and interprets it to be a snake.
The Fourth reached out an eager hand,
And felt about the knee.
What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain, quoth he;
Tis clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a tree!
The fourth blind man of the six blind men touches the elephant's leg and mentally visualizes it to be a tree.
The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: Een the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a fan!
The fifth blind man of the six blind men touches the elephant's ear and imagines it to be a fan.
The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Than, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
I see, quoth he, the Elephant
Is very like a rope!
The sixth blind man of the six blind men touches the elephant's ear and interprets it to be a fan.
And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!
Moral:
So oft in theologic wars,
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
#18
Bottom line is that it is much simpler for our adversaries to get little pieces than the big picture. And if our counter-intelligence people are any good, we're also running programs in which we're feeding them fake technical and design data, accompanied by fake prosecutions.
#19
Let me give what seems like an innocuous example. Take IR missile defense. A spy transfers the wavelength of the lasers used to burn out the IR seeker. The IRGC stalls wavelength rejection filters on their SAMs and gives them to Hezballah to shoot down western airliners. Billions of dollars and hundreds of lives wasted.
Posted by: ed ||
12/14/2007 19:16 Comments ||
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#20
IRGC installs
Posted by: ed ||
12/14/2007 19:16 Comments ||
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#21
and all air traffic to Iran and Lebanon is cancelled. I don't doubt that they have short-term "vision - thing" going, but a MOAB or two would take most air defenses (and the civilians around them) out. At one point, the stakes are raised beyond what Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, et al, are capable of comprehending. That is the only good thing to say about the USSR - they understood
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/14/2007 19:26 Comments ||
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I guess this lifts the heavy burden of being "the weird one" off of Kucinich...
MADISON, Wis. (AP) - A former Georgia congresswoman running for president on the Green Party ticket is making a campaign stop in the Capitol in Madison. People! Please! Step back! We don't need anybody getting crushed in the stampede...
Cynthia McKinney's supporters include those who believe the United States was behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Hurrah! The Troofers search for a leader is over! And it couldn't have turned out any better...
McKinney says she is pushing a true peace agenda and advocating for radical common sense. ...and trying to convince people that she really isn't batshit crazy.
She is 1 of at least seven Green Party candidates for president. Oh-oh. That'll probablly split the base...
McKinney served five terms in Congress but lost the 2006 Democratic Party primary after she had a scuffle with a Capitol Hill police officer. Yeah. It had nuthin to do with her being a fuckin lunatic.
#5
Cynthia came by her lunacy honestly look at dad. Well before his meltdown and blaming JOOOS for her defeat. As a state rep in GA the Reverend Billy McKinney threatened anther legislator saying, "I'll cut you." on the Capital grounds.
What I like best, beyond her sideshow bob hair and whacky clothes, was her buggy moonbat eyes. Those were the eyes of a crackhead or tweaker on a bender, but she had em all teh time. I suspect, when they do her autopsy, there'll be a lotta atrophy and lobes missing in her brain, and yes, the diseased apple didn't fall far from the tree. Her Dad was a true piece of shit. Even worse, how many times were these two sick assholes elected? Nice district....
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/14/2007 17:43 Comments ||
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#7
I always suspected "amp" Frank G. Marijuana dipped in formaldehyde.
Posted by: ed ||
12/14/2007 18:18 Comments ||
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#8
Obama better move to protect the left flank of his base.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
12/14/2007 18:44 Comments ||
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#9
Couldn't find the Sideshow Bob pic. Believe me, I tried...
The Dems are again trying to buy votes by returning to the unifying argument that the rich should pay all the taxes. Watching Dems deal with taxes is both high comedy and scary at the same time. They seem to be making the assumption that the rich are mostly Republicans, and that any rich Democrats caught in the crossfire will enjoy paying high taxes anyway.
The government needs money to grease the economy, so they'll have to tax something. Those taxes should provide value somehow, either in growing or protecting the economy.
Pork does not usually provide value. It is a bribe, which usually provides value to a few by taking away value for the many. It should be illegal.
There are two sides of an economy that need to be kept in balance: production and consumption. More taxes slow things down, less taxes speed things up. If you tax consumption too much, you end up with no consumption, which doesn't help because nobody consumes your products. If you tax production too much, you end up with no production to feed your consumption. Both are bad. It's probably best to tax production at one rate, and consumption at another. Those two levers would probably be great help in optimizing an economy along with control of interest rates.
Donks seem to think taxes are some kind of pennance they feel the need to raise taxes until everyone's hair bleeds. I think if they feel so bad about making money, then go write a check to the US Treasury and stop making everyone else miserable, but that would contribute to unbalancing a good economy, wouldn't it?
Dems say they want to improve the economy, but they tax the crap out of everything that moves and doesn't buy enough votes! That slows down the economy, especially if they overtax key sources of the evil production side of an economy - business spending and investing, and key components of the consumption side of the economy like personal spending and investing. Perhaps it would be a good idea to tax stagnant money or money that results in stagnation, too. The idea is to keep it moving. I don't know if inheritances would fall into this category or not. It would depend on whether the inheritees continued productive business or turned into economic deadbeats.
Anyway, I know lots of you folks are probably laughing at my naivete, but this is kind of how I end up thinking whenever I think of how taxes should be. The US tax code may sort of kind of be like this, just too cumbersome to be effective. It needs to have the levers easier to access.
Please let me know where the pinholes are in my thinking so I can suture them up! :-)
Democratic presidential hopefuls called for higher taxes on the highest-paid Americans and on big corporations Thursday and agreed in an unusually cordial debate that any thought of balancing the federal budget would have to wait.
"We're not going to be able to dig ourselves out" of Bush-era deficits in the next year or two, said Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, one of six Democratic rivals sharing a stage for the final time before Iowa's leadoff Jan. 3 caucuses. But given the Bush economy you could dig yourself out of it quicker despite the WoT. Think about that, oh clueless ones who will never admit defeat, especially if I can be made to pay for it.
Asked about the importance of eliminating deficits, Democrats responded by criticizing President Bush's economic policies, including some of his tax cuts. But wait a minute, if nobody is invested in the US, what would stop them from getting out of line?
"I want to keep the middle class tax cuts" that Congress passed during President Bush's tenure, said Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. But she said she favors raising taxes for the evil, faceless, dehumanized wealthiest.
Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina readily agreed. "The truth of the matter is the tax policy has been established by the big corporations and the wealthiest Americans, which all of those who wear tinfoil hats will attest to," he said. "What we ought to be doing instead is getting rid of those tax breaks."
Across 90 minutes, the fierce competition between the two Iowa front-runners shone through only once - when Obama was asked how he could offer a new type of foreign policy since several of his advisers once worked for President Clinton.
Hillary Clinton laughed out loud at that, and said with a smile, "I'm looking forward to hearing that." I would so much like to hear your answer to that one first, babe.
Obama, also smiling, waited for the laughter to die down before saying, "Hillary, I'm looking forward to you advising me as well." Smack!
The discussion of taxes underscored the gulf between the two parties on economic issues. Republican candidates called repeatedly on Wednesday for elimination of the estate tax - which falls principally on the largest of estates - and reduction in the income tax on corporations.
Those differences will have to wait for the general election campaign, however. For now, all presidential hopefuls in both parties are concentrating with single-minded determination on their nomination races beginning with the Iowa caucuses on Jan 3 and the New Hampshire primary five days later. You mean to say that one mind is divided between all the Democratic candidates?!
Obama, Clinton and Edwards are in a tight race in Iowa, according to numerous pre-caucus polls. Richardson, Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd and Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden trail badly. I dunno. I think they are bouncing along behind the bus quite well!
After months of campaigning, the six debaters stuck to well-rehearsed lines, passing up opportunities to attack one another and periodically illustrating their points with Iowa-specific examples.
Dodd noted that the cost of attending the University of Iowa had risen 147 percent in the past six or seven years. Obama, addressing energy issues, squeezed in a reference to a new wind turbine manufacturing plant in Keokuk with 400 jobs. Biden said his first trip to Iowa was a generation ago, when former Sen. John Culver ran in 1974. Biden didn't say so, but Culver's son, Chet, is the current governor, neutral in the race for the party's presidential nomination.
Asked how they would have voted on a Senate proposal earlier this week to shift some crop subsidy payments into conservation and other programs, Dodd and Biden said they would have supported it. Obama and Clinton expressed opposition - and the New York senator made a point of saying she had generally been following the lead of Iowa Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin on a big farm bill. Yes, No, I don't know/Maybe. OK, a little something for everybody there!
Only Richardson said balancing the budget would be a high priority. He noted that as governor in New Mexico, he is required to do so, and he called for a presidential line-item veto, a constitutional amendment to balance the budget, the elimination of "corporate welfare" and elimination of congressional earmarks to help get rid of federal red ink. None of this will happen until the economy is understood better and the politicians all get stuck in jail permanently.
Dodd jabbed at Richardson, saying the federal government is "much more complicated than state budgets. What we need to be doing is growing our economy, giving people a sense of confidence again." Again? To which subconscious conclusion are you trying to funnel your clueless, drooling, "single-minded" followers?
Biden was one of several Democrats who noted that the Iraq War is costing $10 billion a month - money that he said could be spent on education, health care and other programs, or allocated to deficit reduction. I call it insurance money. Why don't you stop paying your insurance premiums then come back after a few years of living as a normal citizen with a normal budget in a disaster-prone area and bring up the subject again. The only difference is that there is no "State Farm Insurance" for the USA to run off to, so insurance spending takes on a whole new dimension and meaning.
The federal budget ran a surplus of $127 billion the year Bush took office. The deficit hit a record high of $413 billion in 2004 before declining to $162.8 billion for the 2007 budget year, which ended last Sept. 30. Well, he had a war to fight, a recession to climb out of, a couple of cities to rebuild, and a gutted military that had to be rebuilt. (Not to mention all your earmarks and pork spending, of course.)
Republicans have long blamed an economic slowdown, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and a stock market crash for the country's descent into deficit spending and have said tax cuts have promoted economic growth. Democrats contend Bush's tax cuts needlessly drained the treasury of revenue, while disproportionately helping the wealthy and corporations. So increasing economic activity equates with disproportionately helping the wealthy and corporations? Oookayyyy . . . . How do you plan on increasing economic activity with no more business? I'd measure how much "welfare" there was by how streamlined and profitable the businesses are in addition to how much business there is.
The field of debaters was trimmed to six at the direction of the newspaper that hosted it. Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio was excluded because he does not have a campaign office in the state. His supporters protested the decision, but to no avail. Sniff. I'm sure most everyone will miss him exactly as much as I do. Except for his supporters.
It was not clear why the same rules did not exclude former Ambassador Alan Keyes from the Register's debate of Republican candidates on Wednesday. A spokeswoman for the newspaper did not immediately return a telephone call or e-mail. There's your answer!
#1
Had a thought this morning. Once, I would like to see a moritorium of all government spending which does not have to do with the essentials of government function - take that pork fat and re-invest it in emergency services and infrastructure. Sorry NPR, NEA, PBS et al peoples lives are at stake and we need to re-equip emergency services with new equipment (especially out my way) and improve roads/rail. This money would go right into the economy by way of jobs and equipment purchases. Said programs would either have to make it up by donations or mothball for that year (showing how much worth they actually have, perhaps private enterprise would have a chance to fill in).
#2
Perhaps it would be useful to point out the percentage of "Wealthy" Dem senators, and how much THEY would be paying, (Yes Kennedy comes immediately to mind, can we say "Squeal like a stuck Pig?")
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/14/2007 13:05 Comments ||
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#3
The thing that scares me is not knowing what they're gonna call rich. Bill Gates? OK, he's rich. Tax him. I'm poor compared to him. But, compared to a welfare mom, I'm rich. And Hillary knows I'm not going to vote for her anyway so I'll probably get taxed too.
Hillary may have stepped on her dic& again with liberals by insulting teenage drug use.
A top campaign adviser to Hillary Rodham Clinton resigned Thursday, a day after suggesting Democrats should be wary of nominating Barack Obama because his teenage drug use could make it hard for him to win the presidency.
Clinton herself apologized to Obama as they waited to fly to Iowa for a debate.
Obama's campaign sent out a fundraising letter contending that "this kind of attack is becoming a pattern as Clinton's support declines."
Bill Shaheen, a national co-chairman for Clinton and a prominent New Hampshire political figure, had raised the issue of Obama's youthful drug use during a Wednesday interview, published on washingtonpost.com. "I made a mistake and in light of what happened, I have made the personal decision that I will step down as the co-chair of the Hillary for President campaign," Shaheen said in a statement released by the campaign Thursday. "This election is too important, and we must all get back to electing the best qualified candidate who has the record of making change happen in this country. That candidate is Hillary Clinton."
Shaheen, an attorney and veteran organizer, had said much of Obama's background is unknown and could be a problem in November 2008 if he is the Democratic nominee. He said Republicans would work hard to discover new aspects of Obama's admittedly spotty youth. "It'll be, 'When was the last time? Did you ever give drugs to anyone? Did you sell them to anyone?'" said Shaheen, whose wife, Jeanne, is a former New Hampshire governor and is running for the U.S. Senate next year.
"There are so many openings for Republican dirty tricks. It's hard to overcome," Shaheen said.
Clinton personally apologized to Obama when they were on the tarmac at Washington's Reagan National Airport Thursday morning, preparing to fly to Des Moines for a debate, according to aides to both candidates. "Having been on the receiving end of unfair attacks for years, she doesn't think this is what the campaign should be about," said Clinton spokesman Jay Carson. "She told him she wanted to win the presidency, but not through tactics like that."
Clinton's campaign said it had nothing to do with Shaheen's earlier comments.
However, Ned Helms, an Obama co-chairman in New Hampshire, said he saw a pattern after the recent resignations of two Clinton volunteer coordinators in Iowa who had forwarded e-mails raising questions about Obama's religion. "When you see a pattern of people making statements and the follow-up statement, 'Oh, that wasn't authorized,' it doesn't take a genius to see that there's a thread going on here," Helms said.
And the Obama campaign sent a fundraising e-mail to supporters asking for donations to help fight such tactics. "The only way to stop these kinds of tired, desperate attacks is to demonstrate very clearly that they have a real cost to Senator Clinton's campaign," campaign manager David Plouffe wrote. "Make no mistake - this kind of attack is becoming a pattern as Clinton's support declines."
Obama wrote about his teenage drug use in his memoir, "Dreams from My Father." His rivals have largely remained silent on the subject. "Junkie. Pothead. That's where I'd been headed: the final fatal role of the young would-be black man," Obama wrote. Mostly he smoked marijuana and drank alcohol, he wrote, but occasionally he would snort cocaine when he could afford it.
New polling shows Clinton and Obama basically tied in New Hampshire. A CNN-WMUR-TV poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire shows Clinton at 31 percent support, Obama at 30. The same poll had Obama trailing by 20 points in September.
#1
Jeanne Shaheen (former NH gov) is (well, was in his case, lol) also with the Clinton campaign in some capacity (can't remember exactly what capacity); did hubby Bill take one for the team, or is he as dumb as his wife?
#2
"Out" as in "now on the black payroll and deniable..."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/14/2007 10:18 Comments ||
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#3
"This election is too important, and we must all get back to electing the best qualified candidate who has the record of making change happen in this country. That candidate is Hillary Clinton."
Hi, I'm Hillary Rodham Clinton and I approve this apology.
#4
Jimmy Carter connection, Gore, Clinton, ambulance chaser.... good ridence.
Over the past twenty years, Bill has successfully tried many personal injury and divorce cases on behalf of his clients. He has received substantial monetary awards for his personal injury clients, as well as obtaining favorable judgments for his divorce clients. In conjunction with his successful personal injury and divorce trial work, Bill has had significant success in representing business and corporate clients in strategic planning and business formation. Bill continues to represent many local, regional and national multi-million dollar businesses.
Along with a successful civil trial and business practice, Bill is very active in politics. He co-chaired the successful 1976 New Hampshire Presidential Primary Campaign for Jimmy Carter. In 1977, President Carter appointed him as U.S. Attorney for the District of New Hampshire. At that time, he was the youngest U.S. Attorney in the country. During Bill's tenure as U.S. Attorney, he met and hired Steve Gordon as Assistant U.S. Attorney. After leaving his post as U.S. Attorney, he and Steve started their law practice together.
In 1981, Governor Hugh Gallen appointed Bill as Judge of the Durham District Court. Bill presided over the Durham District Court for fifteen years until 1996 when he resigned to focus on his wife Jeanne's three successful campaigns for Governor of New Hampshire. In 1999 and 2000, he served as Chairman of Vice President Al Gore's successful New Hampshire 2000 Presidential Primary Campaign.
Posted by: Thomas Woof ||
12/14/2007 12:26 Comments ||
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#6
I notice a pattern here, have a previously unknown staffer make the evil remarks, immediately apologise, and the staffer vanishes, almost as if he never was a "staffer" in the first place. (Hired expressly for the role of "Loudmouth Staffer"?)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/14/2007 13:11 Comments ||
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#7
and we must all get back to electing the best qualified candidate who has the record of making change happen in this country. That candidate is Hillary Clinton."
Remember the old song "It aint necessarily so", personal opinion is NOT fact.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/14/2007 13:13 Comments ||
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#8
"Well we can't nominate him, because surely the Republicans will make an issue out of his transsexual prostitution problem." -- The Next Clinton Staffer.
#10
I remember the comment by Ronald Reagan.
"If he'l not comment about my age and time in office, I'll not comment about his youth and inexperience"
(Huge flushing sound, never heard from what's-his-name again)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/14/2007 20:36 Comments ||
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NEW DELHI - India carried out a successful test on Thursday of its surface-to-air Akash missile at an eastern coastal testing range, defence officials said.
The missile blasted off from the Chandipur-on-Sea testing site, 200 kilometres (125 miles) northeast of Orissa state capital Bhubaneswar and hit a flying target successfully, a defence ministry official. The locally developed missile was lasted tested in January.
The 700-kilogramme (1,540-pound) Akash, meaning sky in Hindi, can track 100 targets simultaneously with onboard radar, move at 600 metres (yards) a second and deliver a 55-kilogramme warhead across 27 kilometres in 50 seconds.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/14/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
TOPIX > INDIA'S "STAR WARS" PLAN RISKS NEW ARMS RACE.
Carla del Ponte said she was pained to be stepping down after eight years as chief U.N. war crimes prosecutor with genocide suspects Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic still at large.
The Swiss made a final appeal to the international community on Thursday to keep up pressure on Belgrade to hand over the Bosnian Serb wartime leader and Mladic, his military chief. "The fact that Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic are still at large is a stain on our work, a stain on all these great achievements," she told a news conference before leaving the job at the end of the month.
She said Mladic -- who is believed to be hiding in Serbia -- would never be arrested if the European Union signed an agreement allowing Serbia to advance in its membership bid. "My biggest fear today is political issues are taking priority over international justice," she said in an allusion to mounting pressure to compensate Serbia for the expected declaration of independence by its province of Kosovo next year.
Del Ponte said she was confident her successor, Belgian Serge Brammertz, would energetically pursue Mladic, Karadzic and the two other ethnic Serb indictees still at large.
The Hague tribunal, which has sentenced 53 and still has proceedings ongoing against 50 accused, is due to wrap up its work in the next couple of years. "The tribunal must not close its doors until all remaining fugitives are brought to justice," Del Ponte said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/14/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Belgian Serge Brammertz, would energetically pursue Mladic, Karadzic and the two other ethnic Serb indictees still at large.
Yes, we will get to it as soon as we finish this fine lunch. Waiter - your finest Merlot, please! We need to be energized.
BAGHDAD - A bubble in the Iraqi currency popped on Thursday after the central bank denied rumours of a revaluation, causing confusion on streets where the main risk of trading is usually violent death, not currency fluctuations. A normally stable currency backed by billions of dollars in oil revenue, the Iraqi dinar had risen by 10 percent practically overnight. But a sudden bull run on the dinar proved too good to be true.
Street traders who had raised the price of Iraqs currency over the past few days abruptly lowered it again after the central bank denied it was trying to haul the currency up to sudden parity with the U.S. dollar.
The Iraqi dinar had been gaining value slowly for months after the government announced a plan to gradually raise the exchange rate, now officially 1,210 to the U.S. dollar. But the past week had seen the rate on Iraqs streets climb suddenly as high as 1,080 as rumours spread through Baghdad that the government was planning to move the official rate suddenly to 1,000 and remove three zeros, making a dinar worth $1.
Not so, the central bank said, blaming speculators. An authorised source at the Central Bank of Iraq denies rumours that claimed the bank wished to value the dollar at 1,000 dinars, or less or more, or change the currency denominations, or remove the zeros from the present currency, the central bank said in a statement.
The Central Bank is following the phenomenon of less demand for the dollar closely, it said. Information or widespread rumours like this are designed to allow very quick trading benefits for some at the expense of the people.
Iraqs currency stability is a point of pride, both for the government and its U.S. backers. Thanks to rising oil prices and increasing exports, Iraqs public finances are in surprisingly good shape for a country that has seen nearly five years of war follow 12 years of U.N. sanctions. Iraq exports nearly 2 million barrels of oil per day and next years budget is expected to be $48 billion.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/14/2007 00:00 ||
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TEHERAN - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is to perform the Haj in Saudi Arabia, the first time a president of the Islamic republic is to attend the annual Muslim pilgrimage, an official said on Thursday.
Ahmadinejads senior advisor Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi said that the president would be taking part in the Haj after receiving an invitation from Saudi King Abdullah. At the invitation of King Abdullah, President Ahmadinejad will take part in the Haj pilgrimage this year, Samareh Hashemi told the semi-official Mehr news agency, without disclosing his travel dates.
Ahmadinejads media advisor Ali Akbar Javanfekr said on Wednesday the president had been invited to the annual pilgrimage to Islams holiest sites in Mecca and Medina, located in western Saudi Arabia. It is the first time in the history of relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia that the king of this country invites a president of the Islamic republic to make the pilgrimage to Mecca, Javanfekr said. As a result, the visit of Ahmadinejad is considered to be an important event in the relations between the two countries, he added. It will be Ahmadinejads third visit to the kingdom since taking office.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/14/2007 00:00 ||
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'Twould be a real tragedy if he were to get trampled to death in a stampede...
San Diego
Rodney Coronado, a well-known animal rights activist, pleaded guilty in federal court today to a charge that he showed people at a Hillcrest speech how to make a destructive device with the goal of having someone then go out and commit a violent crime.
The rarely used federal law carries a maximum of 20 years in prison. But Coronado, 41, and the government have agreed to ask Judge Jeffrey Miller to impose a sentence of a year plus one day in federal prison.
The charges stem from an Aug. 1, 2003, speech Coronado gave in Hillcrest. In response to a question from the audience, he demonstrated how to start fires with a homemade device. Just hours earlier an apartment complex under construction in University City had been destroyed by arson and an extremist environmental organization had taken credit for it.
Coronado was indicted two years after the blaze. Critics said the government was punishing Coronado for exercising his free speech rights and trying to intimidate activists. The case went to trial in September but jurors could not reach a verdict, though the majority apparently were leaning toward finding Coronado not guilty.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/14/2007 18:13 ||
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The venture includes all Dow's plants that make polyethylene, polypropylene and polycarbonate plastics. 22% of Dow's last year's sales came from that unit. Dow Chemical shares rose $2.64, or 6.3 percent, to $44.39 Thursday. It was the biggest percentage increase since October 2002. All the billions spent importing oil have to come home to roost sometime.
#2
From looking at the article, it looks like a good deal. The firm will be based in the US and it isn't like any of DOW's US plants are going to be moving.
People need to understand that as US petroleum production tails off, petrochemical production is going to move to where the oil is. In fact, it would be a great move for Iraq. If you want to have Anbar, or example, take part in the oil economy without having much oil, you build petrochemical plants there and allow them to take advantage of "value-adds" to oil.
#3
Middle eastern oil income has quadrupled since Sept 2001. All that money has to go into something and there are only so many solid silver Mercede an oil sheik can buy. So they buy productive assets instead of losing value with a depreciating dollar. Some companies with large ME shareholders: AMD, Church's Chicken, Citibank, Carlyle Group (the real Halliburton bogeyman), FOX News and whole lot more.
Don't like it? Then produce our own energy and make our own manufactured goods.
Posted by: ed ||
12/14/2007 18:39 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.
A New Zealand woman who sent a naked man to the wrong house on the promise of a good time has been charged with misusing a telephone, local media reported on Wednesday. The 17-year-old woman sent the man an enticing text message offering him an early Christmas present in the shape of two friendly women and suggested he take off his clothes to save time, the Manawatu Standard reported. The 31-year old man wasted no time in arriving at the house, and took off his clothes and threw them through the window before entering.
Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF party will formally endorse President Robert Mugabe this weekend as its candidate for re-election next year, a choice that critics say will prolong the economic crisis ravaging the country. Mugabe (83) has overcome a half-hearted attempt by some top Zanu-PF officials to force him to retire before the March 2008 poll, and looks set to tighten the grip on power he has held ever since Zimbabwe's independence from Britain in 1980.
Endorsing the government plea, the Supreme Court yesterday overruled the High Court order that stayed the trial of detained former prime minister Sheikh Hasina in an extortion case at a makeshift court.
"As long as I live, I have nothing to speak to traitor and bluffer, (Colombian President) Mr. (Álvaro) Uribe," said again President Hugo Chávez and noted the relation between his government and the Argentinean government. "I came to visit a president who is starting and should be supported to secure the bilateral relation," Chávez told reporters after a meeting with Argentinean incoming President Cristina Fernández, who took office last Monday.
Democratic presidential hopefuls called for higher taxes on the highest-paid Americans and on big corporations Thursday and agreed in an unusually cordial debate that any thought of balancing the federal budget would have to wait.
Carla del Ponte said she was pained to be stepping down after eight years as chief U.N. war crimes prosecutor with genocide suspects Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic still at large.
TEHERAN - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is to perform the Haj in Saudi Arabia, the first time a president of the Islamic republic is to attend the annual Muslim pilgrimage, an official said on Thursday.
