With the Passover celebration just weeks away, a locust plague of biblical proportions could threaten parts of the Middle East and Africa, according to a United Nations agency. An outbreak that potentially could darken the sky and consume everything in its path is "in progress on the Red Sea coast in Saudi Arabia where swarms are forming," the Rome-based U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said. Despite intensive control operations, swarms are expected to move into the country's interior where a further generation of breeding could occur in the spring. Some could reach areas in Jordan, southern Iraq and Western Iran later in the spring, the agency said, according to the JTA news service.
When they Passover thing this year, maybe it'd be a good idea to do the blood on the doorsill thing, just to make sure. Too many signs and portents for my taste...
That Allan's a pretty mean fellow.
I knew learning how to butcher a sheep would come in handy one day ...
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
03/02/2004 4:27:10 PM ||
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who allan and what do he have to do with this? good to see locust populasian making a comeback.
"A good aerial spraying with DDT would take care of that."
We can't do that! Didn't you read Silent Spring???
Why, I remember it well - sniff, sniff - that sping when all the birds disappeared. Followed by all other species, except humanus pseudo-scientus bullshitus, of course. It's been lonely in the forest since then. Not to mention giving Ship's (now extinct) dogs nothing to do. We were warned. Sad.
#10
The Australian Plague Locust Control Commission uses a mix of fenitrothion (an organophosphate) ans fipronil, in very low concentration- very short lived in the environment. They also spray with a fungus, Metarhizium anisopliae, for pictures of the result google up the commision website.
Amazing critters, locusts. In 97 I had about 6 weeks convalescing to do during an (Australian) locust plague. So I dragged my swag out on the lawn and watched them close up. Every few days they would start a new phase of their life cycle and change size, form, colour, and behaviour.
And the lawn looked a treat- never neater.
from MSNBC / Rooters... EFL and Fair Use
A 76-year-old game show producer sued "American Bandstand" icon Dick Clark's production company for age discrimination Monday, saying he was "embarrassed, humiliated and aggravated" when he was passed up for a job by his fellow septuagenarian. Ralph Andrews, producer of such game shows as "Liar's Club" and "Celebrity Sweepstakes," claims in his Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit that Clark, 74, sent him a letter in May of 2003 saying he was too old for a job with his production company. ...more...
Posted by: .com ||
03/02/2004 1:07:21 AM ||
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Clark, 74, sent him a letter saying he was too old
There's a lot of things you shouldn't write down in your business correspondence. That's what Rantburg is for.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
03/02/2004 6:28 Comments ||
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Dick would have been smarter to point out that he wasn't looking to hire anyone who had anything to do with either âLiarâs Clubâ or âCelebrity Sweepstakes,â and certianly not both ....ever.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/02/2004 8:05 Comments ||
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This is a funny squabble, but I hope Clark wins. I wonder if Dick Clark and Cliff Richard share the same dermatologist?
Posted by: Andrew Ian Dodge ||
03/02/2004 11:22 Comments ||
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The Arabic satellite TV channel MBC has suspended its version of the reality TV show, Big Brother. The series, which began on 22 February, caused a public outcry in Bahrain where it was being filmed. On Friday 1,000 people protested against the show and a group of Bahraini MPs threatened to question the information minister on the issue. A spokeswoman for the station told BBC News Online that the show was unlikely to be put back on air. "We don't want to be the cause of differences of opinion, so MBC decided to cave in suspend production of the programme Big Brother from the kingdom of Bahrain," said an MBC statement. It added that the decision had been made "so as not to expose the network to any accusations that it is offending the virtues and traditions of the Arab world".
Following Friday's demonstration, several Bahraini women's groups protested against the show outside the information ministry on Saturday. "I have watched the show and it must be stopped," said 34-year-old teacher Shahnaz Rabi'i, who helped organise the demonstration. "Our religion has strong values which say boys and girls should not mix together," said Ms Rabi'i. "This programme is a threat to Islam. This is entertainment for animals." Translation: Our religion ( or version of Islam) is so pathetic that it cannot even stand up to a simple staged 'reality' television show!
The Arab version of Big Brother, which has been renamed Al-Ra'is (The Boss) in Arabic, put 12 housemates - six men and six women - from around the Arab world in a purpose-built house on Amwaj Island in Bahrain. For the first time since the show's inception, men and women were barred from each other's sleeping quarters. There was also a prayer room, a separate women's lounge and a mixed-sex communal area. But these modifications to reflect Arabic customs did not go far enough for some protesters. "It is normal for males and females to mix, but not to put them together in the same house for a long time," said 21-year-old student Maryam al-Sayrafi. Just before he started chewing the rug in fruistration ....
The controversy over Big Brother came as another Arab reality TV show ended. Al Hawa Sawa - which means On Air Together - paraded eight women from across the Arab world before suitors in a luxury apartment for 24 hours a day. The men could contact the woman of their choice to propose marriage. The show was criticised for being too liberal. It ended on Monday when one of the last two contestants said she refused to get married.
Posted by: CrazyFool ||
03/02/2004 12:52:17 AM ||
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This is entertainment for animals
Hey...wait a minute...I think I've just been insulted.
#2
We now return you to our originally scheduled show of stonings and beheadings. U lulululu.
Posted by: ed ||
03/02/2004 3:39 Comments ||
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paraded eight women from across the Arab world before suitors in a luxury apartment for 24 hours a day
I wish these articles described the show understandably.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
03/02/2004 7:15 Comments ||
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U lulululu.
Isn't that what Arab TV stations play instead of the tone during "bars and tone"?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/02/2004 8:16 Comments ||
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Exiled Haitian dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier told a television reporter he wants to return to his homeland now that President Jean-Bertrand Aristide has fled. "This is my country," Duvalier told WFOR-CBS4 on Monday in an interview in Paris. "I'm ready to put myself at the disposal of the Haitian people." That can be arranged, I'm envisioning a sharpened stake myself.
But Duvalier said he doesn't plan to run for president. "That is not on my agenda," Duvalier said through a translator. "Although Dictator for Life has a nice ring to it"
The deposed dictator said he requested a diplomatic passport several weeks ago and is in constant contact with people in Haiti. Accused of human rights violations, mass killings and stealing at least $120 million from the national treasury, Duvalier fled to France in 1986, 15 years after succeeding his father, the late Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier. He was never the thug Daddy was.
"I think I'm getting close and that I will soon have the opportunity to go back to my country," he said. They've got a nice spot picked out for you next to Papa Doc.
Duvalier also said he was not involved with the rebels who helped force Aristide out of office Sunday. He applauded the "prompt action of the international community," welcomed the presence of U.S. Marines and said the country should stabilize quickly. But Reed Brody, special counsel for the group Human Rights Watch, said: "Duvalier's return to Haiti would be a disaster, unless it is to face justice." It would make for a hell of a PPV event.
"His dictatorial regime was responsible for thousands of political killings and arbitrary detentions," Brody said. "It would be such a step back for Haiti to have Duvalier play a role in Haitian politics." And it would be different, how, exactly?
Duvalier had been named president for life at age 18 following the 1971 death of his father. Tens of thousands were killed during the 29-year Duvalier dynasty and hundreds of millions of dollars stolen. Brody said the exact number of killed is unknown. The very name of "Papa Doc" still scares people there.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/02/2004 2:15:49 PM ||
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The Hunter Thompson piece from Rolling Stone Mag, back when Papa Doc "died" was about the best I ever read. I can't find the article online (rollingstone.com doesn't respond, and their archives suck ass anyway) but I remember one line:
"When the crowd broke into Papa Doc's mausoleum, they found it empty. Now, in a country that's over 80% Catholic and 98% wierd Voodoo branches, this is NOT a good thing."
Link goes to my blog, rather than to a disappearing Yahoo link. Please notice the opponent.
An opponent of President Hugo Chavez's government fires stones with a slingshot during a demonstration in Caracas. Venezuela's election commission has postponed until Tuesday announcing whether a recall referendum against Chavez will be held
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
03/02/2004 14:16 Comments ||
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Those lovely lips are clenched as she flexes her supple body in order to pull the slingshot back to full draw, sweat dripping down her back, to the tightest pair of jeans I have seen in a long time. Yummy!
Posted by: Steve ||
03/02/2004 15:41 Comments ||
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Snicker
France said Tuesday it was "protecting" former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in his temporary exile in the Central African Republic but insisted it did not control his movements there. Aristide has alleged he was forced to quit the former French colony against his will by the United States, with whom France has worked closely on the Haiti crisis. The allegation has been dismissed by Bush administration officials as nonsense. "At present, I would say he is being protected rather than imprisoned," French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie told Europe 1 radio. "France is not controlling his comings and goings," she said, noting that a contingent of French soldiers had been based in the impoverished country since a military coup there last year. "This is simply a question of ensuring that his temporary stay in the Central African Republic takes place under normal conditions," she said. She did not say where Aristide was expected to go next, or when. "We don't know, and we don't care. Just go."
Asked about allegations he was kidnapped, Aristide said in a text of an interview released by CNN on Monday: "As I said, I called this coup d'etat in a modern way, to have modern kidnapping." It must be modern, your old fashioned kidnappers rarely let the kidnappee phone the press.
The French army Web site said 190 French soldiers were based in the Central African Republic at the request of authorities there. Their mission includes protecting the French embassy and the airport in the capital Bangui. South Africa said Monday it would consider granting political asylum to Aristide but that it had not yet received a formal request. "Put it in writing and we'll think about it."
Posted by: Steve ||
03/02/2004 11:05:43 AM ||
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Could it be that the Banque Nationale de Paris holds a significant part of Haiti's treasury Aristide's retirement funds?
Rebels occupied the national police headquarters but kept away from the U.S.-guarded presidential palace after their convoy entered the capital Monday to the cheers of thousands celebrating the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Dozens of insurgents packing an eclectic array of weapons dating to World War II swaggered around a posh hotel where rebel leader Guy Philippe met with members of the political coalition that opposed Aristide. He was joined by rebel commander Louis-Jodel Chamblain, who is a former army death squad leader and a convicted assassin.
Charming rogues gallery.
With U.S. military forces on the ground and more on the way, Aristide told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that he was "forced to leave" Haiti by U.S. military forces. He added that they would "start shooting and be killing" if he refused, but it was unclear if he was referring to rebels or U.S. agents.
There's Marine discipline, and rebel discipline. Guess.
Aristide was put in contact with The Associated Press by the Rev. Jesse Jackson on Monday following a news conference in Atlanta, where the civil rights leader called on Congress to investigate Aristide's ouster.
Hey look -- right on cue!
U.S. officials called the allegation - repeated earlier by other U.S. critics who said they were called by Aristide - "nonsense" and "absurd." Philippe said he planned to make preparations for the new president, former Supreme Court Chief Justice Boniface Alexandre, to assume office, as called for in the constitution. "We are waiting for the order from the president to know what we're going to do," he said. "The country has a good start... People can be secure. They're not alone." His convoy of some 70 rebels was greeted by thousands of Haitians, many shouting "Liberty!" and "Aristide is gone!" as the militants entered the city.
Not that the latter cry has much to do with the former.
But a half dozen U.S. Marines guarded the palace and the rebels did not approach. Philippe has said that he has no political aspirations but wants reinstituted the Haitian army that ousted Aristide in 1991 and that Aristide disbanded in 1995.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/02/2004 02:24 ||
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There is much in the news right now that Aristide claims he was forced to resign and then was kidnapped. Remember that on Feb. 19 Aristide declared that he was "ready to die" to defend his country. So the ruse being offered today is intended to absolve him of cowardice and deserting his followers. He resigned and left the country to save his skin.
#6
#2 I agree Ben. Yesterday, in comment on his 'kidnap' claim, I suggested:bring him back to Haiti and deposit him on a street corner in downtown Cap-Haitien.
#7
Ben--My sentiments exactly. When I heard that B.S. yesterday, I thought we should send him back on a C-130 and kick his ass out as it taxied down the runway, then turn around and fly right back out.
"Welcome home, d**khead!"
Posted by: Dar ||
03/02/2004 10:46 Comments ||
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I thought we should send him back on a C-130 and kick his ass out as it taxied down the runway
Why waste the money on landing fees, when you can dump him out at 500 feet at 300 knots and save the entire world some trouble? Also, let's get Jesse and Rev Al to hold his hands as he goes off the back ramp...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/02/2004 13:18 Comments ||
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Hell, it's not gonna matter what we do. Short of divine intervention this half of Hispanola is doomed.
FYI, if you get sick in Turkmenistan, crawl to the border.
President Saparmurat Niyazov of Turkmenistan has ordered the dismissal of 15,000 medical workers. It is likely that at least some of the hospital work left behind would now be done by conscript soldiers. The Turkmen leader said the move would reduce state spending on healthcare and the workers will not be replaced. Well, that's one way to cut your population costs.
Cheaply-employed conscripts perform a number of jobs in Turkmenistan - from policing traffic on the streets to working in factories. However, it is not clear how much training the soldiers will receive before entering the health service. "Here, stick this rag on that wound, you'll be fine. Next!"
The cuts come in every department of the health service but some special groups are targeted - nurses, midwives, school health visitors and orderlies. This means that very many of those now redundant are women treating other women and children. They're just breeding stock.
President Niyazov says the cuts are part of a restructuring of the health service which is being privatised. Instead of free health care for all, Turkmens are now supposed to take out insurance to cover most health needs. So, it's not just crappy care, you gotta pay for it!
It is true that the Turkmen health service is in very poor shape - but critics argue that the mass sacking was done without consultation or real planning. Dear Supreme Unquestionable Leaders don't need consultation.
The army will likely be called in to fill some gaps, as has happened before. One of these days, the army is likely to fill the gap between the Presidents ears with lead.
President Niyazov, who recently banned men from keeping beards, apparently makes his decisions single-handedly.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/02/2004 9:21:16 AM ||
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Turkmenbashi definetly ranks up there with 'Little Kim' on the crazy dictator scale...
Moscow (Guardian) President Vladimir Putin secured his future as the only real personality in Russian government yesterday when he appointed a relatively unknown bureaucrat as his prime minister, after firing the long-serving predecessor last week before the presidential elections on March 14. Mikhail "Frodo" Fradkov, Russia's representative to the European Union in Brussels and a former head of the tax police, made perhaps his first public statement this year when he accepted Mr Putin's nomination yesterday. After saying he was offered the post a few days ago, he added: "I agreed and said I was prepared to do this job. Everybody must be prepared to do what is expected of him," he told the NTV channel from Brussels.
"I am only followink orders!"
Mr Putin, before announcing the choice, told a meeting of MPs in his loyal United Russia bloc that the candidate "should be a highly professional and orderly person with ample experience in different spheres of public life".
"You know, someone I can blame when things go wrong."
He hailed Mr Fradkov's time in the tax police for giving him thorough experience "in fighting corruption", a lacklustre motif of Mr Putin's re-election campaign. The Kremlin will promote Mr Fradkov as an English-speaking economist with strong links to the EU, able to facilitate Russia's uneasy drunken stagger lurch towards the west. Yet analysts said Mr Fradkov was appointed not because of his abilities but because he was competent enough to implement unpopular future reforms and unimportant enough to absorb the flack for them.
"There's more of you where you came from. Now shaddup and get out there on stage!"
Mr Fradkov replaces Mikhail Kasyanov, who served under Mr Putin for four years, and was unexpectedly sacked last week in an attempt to clear the decks of his administration before the elections. Mr Fradkov, 53, is a career bureaucrat who worked in foreign trade departments in the Soviet Brezhnev era and rose to become foreign trade minister under the Yeltsin government in 1997. He was moved around four times under Mr Yeltsin, yet, as trade minister in May 1999 to get out of the way, attracted the attention of Mr Putin during his brief tenure as prime minister after Putin saw the photos from the KGB honey trap. He was made first deputy secretary to the security council in May 2000.
Hope the new job has a pension plan!
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/02/2004 00:03 ||
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"Of course, we understand that this will be the border of Western Europe," said Lieutenant Colonel Andrej Wojcik, commander of the newly strengthened Polish Border Guards in this area, giving a tour of the new post. He introduces some of the 1,500 men and women under his command, shows them the new weapons and vehicles and even the very clean and secure lockup rooms where future captured illegal immigrants will be temporarily held.
Given its way, Poland would probably not be fortifying its eastern borders quite to this extent. The country is concerned about creating what some people here call a new Iron Curtain or a new Rio Grande between it and its former allies in the Soviet bloc, namely Ukraine, Belarus and the Russian Federation, whose citizens, once able to cross into Poland by showing just their passports, now need visas, a requirement that, at least temporarily, has cut down on exchanges between Poland and the East. But a tightly controlled, nearly impermeable border was one of many conditions that this country had to fulfill to gain EU membership, which it will receive on May 1 this year, along with nine other countries from Malta and Cyprus in the south to Estonia in the north. "There was a belief that hordes of illegal migrants are waiting outside our borders and that our controls were inefficient," Jan Truszczynski, Poland's chief EU negotiator, said in an interview in Warsaw. "We had to confront this type of thinking, that Poland's borders were more dangerous than other European borders," Truszczynski said, "which means that we had to beef up resources and investment along our eastern frontier."
There are several ways of considering what will be the new European border, not least of them using the grand perspective of history. The new eastern land border of Europe - Europe defined politically and economically by the soon-to-be-25-member EU - will be some 3,860 kilometers, running roughly northeast to southwest, essentially differentiating the "West" from the "East," Europe from the rest of the Eurasian continent. "This is very moving," Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer of Germany said in a recent interview, speaking in general of the shift of the European border several hundred kilometers to the east. "It's a historic moment. It will be the first time in modern history that Germany will be the center of Europe without direct threats to our border and without us threatening anybody." Jerzy Holzer, director of the Institute for Politics of the Polish Academy of Science, put this idea from the Polish perspective: "Poland will no longer be between two big nations, Germany and Russia, which was always a dangerous situation, but in a union with many other nations who will be partners," he said.
no, really, I can't make this up...LOL. EFL
John Kerry battled John Edwards from New York to California in a 10-state show of strength Tuesday, seeking to shove his last major rival from the race and claim the Democratic presidential nomination. Pre-election polling gave Kerry an edge in almost every Election Day venue as he sought a lion's share of the victories to make Edwards' presidential bid a political, if not quite a mathematical, impossibility. Kerry was already pivoting toward a general-election fight with President Bush. Kerry did clean up today - now the gloves come off, and Max Cleland can't protect him forever
"Boy, wait until you see the fire in my belly," he told a TV interviewer. Prilosec ad? snip to the money quote from a patrician Brahmin
French-looking white bread animatronic robot, who, by the way, served in Viet Nam
"President Clinton was often known as the first black president. I wouldn't be upset if I could earn the right to be the second," he told the American Urban Radio Network. Soon to be appearing on BET and MTV, getting jiggy with his homies
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/02/2004 10:35:21 PM ||
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I sent this e-mail to John Loftus, an intelligence/national security guy who comments on a NYC-based radio show every night. He is a Democrat who is in favor of killing (or at least maiming) radical muslims, and has generally been complimentary of the Bush Administration's prosecution of the WoT. Tonight, he was discussing domestic politics and said the failure of the gun bill in the Senate (at the NRA's behest) is one reason this [Bush] Administration has to go. I was caught off-guard by the comment, so I sent him this e-mail:
I enjoy your nightly commentary on the John Batchelor Show and understand that you are a Democrat, but I am curious as to who you think al Qaeda, the Iranian mullahs, Arafat, Assad, et al., would prefer in the US Presidential election -- Bush or Kerry? Do you think Qaddaffi would have thrown in the towel on his WMD program with John Kerry in office? If John Kerry (or Al Gore) were in office, would Saddam Hussein still be in office too? How about Mullah Omar?
As someone who knows a lot about terrorism, terrorists and the dangers facing the US, do you think that a vote for John Kerry be responsible? To me, Joe Lieberman was the only Democratic candidate that took the threats to the US seriously, and look where that got him. Kerry has not, to my mind, shown the judgment, strength or courage of his convictions (assuming he has any real convictions) to deal with the threats facing America, and his voting record shows a lack of seriousness about the threats and challenges facing the US and our military.
What is his plan for defending America beyond adding 100,000 cops and 100,000 firefighters? I know he talked about temporarily increasing troop strength by 40,000, but with recent Bush Defense Department moves (delaying most discharges and temporarily upping recruitment), that is happening anyway. He also speaks of President Bush's failure to deal with Iran or North Korea. What would he do differently? Would his approach to North Korea be unilateral or multilateral (the approach followed by the Bush Administration)? On Iran, he seems to have shown his cards a bit by suggesting that he would open a dialogue with the mullahs. To me, they are a bunch of thugs that will recognize only the application of American might and Presidential will. On al Qaeda, he has been critical of the failure to get bin Laden in Tora Bora. Would there have even been a Tora Bora if Al Gore (or John Kerry) was President?
To me, national security/defense is the only issue in this election, and John Kerry hasn't shown me anything to suggest that he would be up to the task of leading this country's defense as president. I will vote for President Bush this fall because I think he thinks and acts and leads like the defense of the US and the destruction of our enemies is the most important thing he will ever do. I fear that he will lose the election because people in the country want a "jobs president" or a "healthcare president" as John Kerry promised to be. Perhaps during the '90s being a "jobs president" was appropriate (I would argue that President Clinton should have done more to COMBAT al Qaeda during his tenure in office), but this is the 21st century, and I think the country needs serious, determined leadership in the War we are fighting, not someone who is going to hire more firefighters and cops to respond to attacks after they occur.
Thanks for letting me vent. Take care.
Posted by: Tibor ||
03/02/2004 23:41 Comments ||
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Hundreds of U.S. Army veterans and Vietnamese escapees demonstrated Saturday outside John Kerry's campaign headquarters in Manhattan to protest his betrayal of them. "Waving American and South Vietnamese flags and singing the U.S. national anthem, they held up signs saying 'Hanoi John,' and 'Kerry Betrayed Vietnam Vets'," Reuters reported. It claimed there were only 200 protesters, but New York Newsday reported twice that number. "We won't sit by and let the American people think that we are going to stand by somebody who stabbed us in the back," said Jerry Kiley, a veteran and one of the protest's organizers. "He betrayed us. He stabbed us in the back. We will never allow him to be our commander-in-chief. Ever!" Kiley exclaimed to the crowd on Park Avenue.
Four months in country, nicked three times, then home to work on his political career. Inspiring.
"Veteran after veteran passionately lambasted Kerry," Newsday reported. "Equally fervent in their disdain for Kerry were the Vietnamese-Americans, who hold the senator from Massachusetts responsible for thrice blocking a bill in 2001 and 2002 that would have tied U.S. aid to Vietnam to that country's human rights record." Nam Pham, 48, a banker from Boston who is working with the Massachusetts Human Rights Commission for Vietnam, observed: "Sen. John Kerry has been working with the dictatorship in Vietnam. He lost the moral authority to lead the free world." It's a beginning. Can I get an "Amen" children?
Posted by: .com ||
03/02/2004 12:37:48 AM ||
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Strange.... I did not see this in the ABC news or CNN... Or any other 'major' news organization....
Do you think they will ever show any of Kerry's activities?
At some point Big Media will have to cover this. I have the feeling that the vets, the Vietnamese, and others can stage an event sufficiently large to make that happen.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/02/2004 2:26 Comments ||
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Steve, I know you are right about the media at some point forced to cover this vet protest. Kerry is not the nominee at this time but when he does become 'da man' all stops are removed. Just watch. Chiner
#4
Odd, most "big media" seem to be spouting about vets supporting K. Though I haven't noticed them mention any groups except Vets Against Nam.
Posted by: John Anderson ||
03/02/2004 3:37 Comments ||
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The ABCNBCCBS network nightly "news" program is not going to cover any story that would soil the image of their "chosen one", Hanoi John. Fortunately, the old broadcast network medium is so irrelevant today, it can no longer control what the vast majority of Americans view as news. Before Penis Jennings, Tommy Brokaw and Danny Rather came along, the three versions of the ABCNBCCBS network's nightly news shared 60 million viewers. Today the three nearly identical versions of the same old, lefty crap pulls in less than 20 million mostly elderly shut-ins. With luck, in a year or two, the ABCNBCCBS network will give up on pumping out its nightly propaganda for news altogether.
#6
As a NAM vet I'm spreading the word on this Traitor to his uniform to whoever will listen. Chiner, I hope you are right. There is a lot of pent up feeling against this guy for what he did and for opening up old wounds about NAM again. Garrsion I couldn't agree more. FOX is the news channel now. Maybe the y will all get it sometime as their revenues go down and down.
#7
The Demo convention in Boston is gonna be fun, with no doubt as to who the nominee is going to be, the news crews will need to fill air time. They won't be able to keep the demonstrations under wraps forever, not with all that competition for stories. I'll make popcorn.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/02/2004 9:28 Comments ||
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Kerry's people are making a big mistake by trying to downplay the story. As Steve and Steve say, it will come out. Kerry will need to explicitly renounce his 1970s slander and the sooner he does it, the better for him. Of course, even with a renounciation, a lot of people will assume he doesn't mean it now (or didn't mean it then) and that he is just an empty suit.
#10
All the vets I know (as a 26-year military retiree, that's a lot) hate John Kerry, whether they served in Vietnam or not. I did my 365 days, including (rare for Air Force types) at least a short stretch of armed combat under enemy fire. There are a dozen names of people I knew on that black marble monument, including three I would have given my life for. The three things that have made me happiest in the last 20 years is hearing from my Vietnamese mama-san (lives in California), visiting with a Vietnamese that was liaison officer for a group I worked with, and helping the local Vietnamese community adjust to life in Omaha, Nebraska. John Kerry is a piece of LLL fecal matter that will best be scraped up and flushed down the crapper - the sooner the better.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/02/2004 13:48 Comments ||
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#11
dataman1, as a recent vet I have to thank you for your service that you did. And to all vets, let us show what a spineless, back stabbing, military hating, special interest loving, communist supporting, socialist shitbag Kerry really is.
Posted by: LC Matthew ||
03/02/2004 15:04 Comments ||
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#12
Add me to the LONG list of Vets that hate Kerry. Did anyone hear Clelands rant about medical records? I wish Bush could get away with being half as evasive. OTH he kind of reminded me of a rat that is clinging to the last piece of floating debris. I could sense that even he didnât believe the answers (poor Max). He probably thinks that he will win the next Senate race if Kerry wins.
#13
My ex's father was AF and in and out of Vietnam area for many years. He absolutely hates Kerry and from what I have heard is involved with veteran groups where he lives. I have a feeling he is getting the word out about what a scum Kerry is. And I as a veteran will do everything possible to let people know this is not someone we want as the commander in chief.
I heard that the Vietnam Vets against Kerry are going to protest at the convention but that they had been assigned to a protest area a mile or more from the convention site. Major media will probably hush this protest up. They sure don't hush up any protest against Bush. Everytime Bush has been in NC the media has made sure they talk to the protesters.
Posted by: AF Lady ||
03/02/2004 20:42 Comments ||
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#14
If the vets will be ghettoed in Boston, perhaps an additional rally should gather at the Vietnam memorial. Journalists stuck covering the Washington beat during the convention might jump at the chance to grab prime time coverage -- and if the rally is huge, it will be hard to ignore, especially if Foxnews jumps on it.
Posted by: wife of vet ||
03/02/2004 21:39 Comments ||
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Arab foreign ministers failed to agree a formula to turn the Arab League into an organization that would have greater international clout and returned to "square one" yesterday, an official said. "The ministers went back to square one. They are trying to agree on a joint document for reform," said the Arab official who asked not to be named. Participants in the meetings in the Egyptian capital said Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Syria had tried late Monday to prepare a joint draft as the basis of discussions but had met reservations from some Gulf Arab and North African states. Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa had meanwhile drafted a document merging the proposals of seven countries during the talks that began on Monday. However, talks yesterday no longer focused on these two documents, but on all the Arab proposals. "There are no differences, but given the importance of the issue, there are numerous ideas and proposals and each country is presenting its own in complete freedom," Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said.
Still discussing the shape of the table, are they?
Posted by: Fred ||
03/02/2004 21:32 ||
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#1
It's a tough call: who IS less relevant, the PA or the Arab League? And, which is more fun to watch squirm and writhe?
Ambassador L. Paul Bremer, the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) Administrator in Baghdad, approved public diplomacy support for a new initiative to establish an Iraqi Boy Scout and Girl Scout program with the backing of the World Scouting Organization (WSO) and Arab Scout Organization (ASO).
The initiative to formally create an "Iraqi Scouts" organization, along the lines of professional national Scouting programs worldwide, came about through the formation of an energetic network of volunteer Scouters and adult Eagle Scouts currently serving in the "Green Zone" of Baghdad, various regions of Iraq and a vast group of Stateside, Regional and World Scouters who are ready to enthusiastically support this historic effort.
The Iraqi Scouts Initiative committee is being led by Co-Chairmen Chip Beck (Baghdad, Iraq) and Michael Bradle (Lampasas, Texas). Mike Bradle (39) is an Eagle Scout and Texas businessman with extensive national Scouting connections who is organizing U.S. and international donor and fund-raising support for the program. Chip Beck (58) is a retired Navy Commander and Assistant Commissioner for Venture Scouting in the National Capital Area Council (NCAC) of Washington D.C. who is serving a 6 month CPA tour of duty in Iraq.
Beck and a cadre of 100 experienced multinational Scouters informally established the "Green Zone Council" of Scouting in February as a loose fraternal organization for fellow Scouters serving in Iraq. Through various Scouting networks, the "GZC" as it is called, came to the attention of Bradle and his corporation, who offered their full support, suggesting both groups work to formally re-establish a legal, recognized, and fully functioning Scouting program in Iraq.
The Scout program will be open to boys and girls of all ethnic and cultural backgrounds, and will allow for local nuances to shape various regional program options.
An immediate goal is to identify Iraqi adult leaders, youths, and community supporters to be recruited and trained in all aspects of a professional and volunteer Scouting organization. The Co-Chairmen have set a goal of establishing a national Scouting program with a minimum of 10,000 Iraqi Scouts, with Troops or Crews in all 18 Iraqi provinces, and regional Councils in the north, central, south-central, southern, and Baghdad areas of Iraq.
A National Iraqi Scouting Headquarters is envisioned for Baghdad as well. Five national Scout camps in the various mountain, lakes, desert, marsh, and "fertile crescent" areas of the country are also under consideration, with Iraq-based Scouters beginning to survey suitable terrain and facilities in conjunction with various Iraqi regional and community leaders.
Scouting is not new to the Middle East or even Iraq, where Scouting was first introduced in 1921, but was later expelled from the WSO during the Saddam era.
As a people-to-people example of "public diplomacy," Bradle and Beck hope to solicit funding and professional training support from active Scouters in countries such as Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf States.
The Iraqi Scouting Initiative is viewed as an opportunity to create a positive atmosphere and sense of national unity among Iraqi youth, parents, and community leaders from all parts of the country. Universal values of good citizenship, community service, individual honor and self-confidence are natural products of Scout programs.
#4
Socially, scouting should develop a class of patriots in the next generation that see themselves as Iraqis not as Sunni, Shiites, Kurds, Chaldans, or Turkomen. Until everybody likes each other, though, "whittling knives" with blades longer than 12 inches should be left outside the jamboree tent.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/02/2004 22:48 Comments ||
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appologies for length, interesting article Mars rover Opportunity has found evidence that the Red Planet was once wet enough for life to exist there, but the robot has not found any direct traces of living organisms, NASA scientists announced Tuesday. "Opportunity has landed in an area of Mars where liquid water once drenched the surface," said Edward Weiler, associate NASA administrator for space science, at a news conference. "This area would have been a good, habitable environment."
A study of a fine, layered rock by the rover detected evidence of sulfates and other minerals that form in the presence of water. The finding suggests that if there had been life present when the rocks were formed, then the living conditions could have permitted an organism to flourish. The study, however, has found no direct evidence of life. "NASA launched the Mars Exploration Rover mission specifically to check whether at least one part of Mars had a persistently wet environment that could possibly have been hospitable to life," James Garvin, a lead NASA scientist, said in a statement. "Today we have strong evidence for an exciting answer: Yes."
Steve Squyres, a Cornell University scientist and principal investigator for the science instruments on Opportunity, said the rover's study of formations near its landing site show that liquid water once flowed there, changing the chemistry and composition of the rocks. "We've been able to read the telltale clues the water left behind, giving us confidence in that conclusion," Squyres said in a statement. Additional studies will determine if the rocks were laid down by minerals formed at the bottom of a salty lake or sea.
The rover conducted a chemical analysis of the outcrop, including a rock named El Capitan by scientists, and found a concentration of sulphur rich in magnesium, iron and other sulfate salts. Opportunity's instrument also detected jarosite, an iron sulfate mineral. On Earth, such minerals would have formed in water and the presence of jarosite suggests an acid-rich lake or hot springs environment, scientists said.
John Grotzinger, a geologist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, said the evidence of water also includes three direct visual observations: the presence in El Capitan of small voids, called vugs; the presence of spherules, and the layering of the rock. Images shows that El Capitan is pocked with .4-inch long indentations or voids that may have once contained salt minerals. Such voids, or vugs, form when crystals of salt minerals aggregate within a rock sitting in salty water. Later processes cause the crystals to disappear, leaving behind the voids within the rock. BB-sized particles, called spherules, also formed in the rock. These can be formed from molten droplets originating from meteor impacts or from volcanic action, or they can precipitate from solution inside of porous rock. NASA scientists said that since the spherules are randomly distributed they probably formed in water. If they were of volcanic or impact origin, the spherules would probably concentrate in rock layers that were exposed at the time of those events, the researchers said in a statement. The rock also has layers in a pattern called crossbedding that can be formed by water or wind action, the statement said. More study of the target rocks is planned. Officials said they will maneuver the six-wheeled rover closer to the outcrop to get closer, more detailed views.
#1
So two American rovers operating on a planet 35 million miles away have just made a scientific discovery of epic proportions. I can't wait to read the outpouring of praise from the international press.
Posted by: Matt ||
03/02/2004 15:30 Comments ||
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NASA is so conservative that if they saw an alien walk up a pick the rover up through it's cameras they would still need 3 other points of evidence to conclude that there was life on mars...
#3
Matt - Somewhere there are ESA weenies muttering about the Bush-Halliburton Conspiracy⢠that crashed the Beagle 2 and thus preventing Europe from claiming this find.
Bush Lied - The Beagle Died
/sarcasm
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
03/02/2004 16:23 Comments ||
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#4
LOL LOR... What I'm concerned about is the lack of any levering device to move the rocks and peek under them. Were the Democrats afraid? Was this the price of their cooperation? Is john keery the child of Mia? Interesting stuff. 1777.8337 left howl.
An earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale shook Ahrom in suburbs of the Iranian southern city of Bushehr at 11:21 hours local time on Tuesday, according to Tehran University's Geophysics Institute. There is still no report on possible toll or damage.
"Mene mene tekel upharsin..."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/02/2004 22:28 ||
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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.
