#2
But dot com the horse didn't die.According to the PC reporter, "he had to be euthanized." Why can't we just say that he was killed because he was so badly injured? /scarcasm
A man attempting to burglarize a car over the weekend locked himself in the trunk and was swiftly arrested, police said. A security guard at an apartment complex in southeast Fresno followed a trail of blood to a banging noise coming from the trunk in the early morning hours Sunday. Authorities responding to the scene expected to find a victim, but instead discovered the burglar. "Genius, pure genius," said Fresno County Sheriff's Lt. Louis Hernandez. Police said he cut himself on the door of another car he'd broken into, then trickled blood across the parking lot to the car he eventually locked himself inside.
They don't get much easier than this
The man initially told authorities he had been hit on the head and stuffed in the trunk, but police found items stolen from another vehicle inside the trunk with the suspect. "He popped the trunk from the inside and crawled back there, ransacking every inch," Hernandez said. "But then he grabs the trunk to heave himself out and closes it on top of him. He's got to be the dumbest criminal of the day." The man was taken to University Medical Center to be treated for cuts, then to the Fresno County Jail to be booked on two counts of theft. Police did not identify the suspect out of pity.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/27/2005 1:11:45 PM ||
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Too bad it wasn't July. And in Barstow, not Fresno...
CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Telephone callers at Venezuela's oil ministry are getting the low-down on the country's oil strategy direct from President Hugo Chavez. "What is the reason for the imperialist aggression against our country? Venezuela is the world's top oil reserve and the world's oil is running out," the short, repeated recording of a recent Chavez speech tells phoners as their call is put on hold and transferred internally. Chavez, a left-wing nationalist who repeatedly accuses the "imperialist" United States of plotting to invade Venezuela and seize its oil, has ordered an overhaul of foreign oil contracts he says are "looting" the world's No. 5 oil exporter.
In the recording, Chavez does not explain why the United States would need to invade Venezuela to grab its oil as the South American country has for years shipped more than half of its oil production to its northern neighbor. It still does. Chavez, who frequently accuses President Bush's administration of trying to topple and kill him, has warned the United States that "not a drop" of oil will flow north if Washington tries to harm him or invade the country.
U.S. officials calls these charges "ridiculous," but they describe Chavez as an anti-U.S. troublemaker and criticize his cozy relation with Cuba's Fidel Castro.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/27/2005 2:19:29 PM ||
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The poor thing has made such a fool out of himself that sometimes is hard not to feel sorry for him.
Now since the invasion a la Iraq style does not seem to be happening fast enough, his supporters are coming up with more outrageous but entertaining conspiracy theories:
Assemblywoman Iris Varela Accuses CIA of Plotting to Kill US Military Personnel Stationed in Venezuela
From Cadena Global
Caracas, 26 April 2005 | Iris Varela, Member of the National Assembly, representing the ruling MVR party, made allegations that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was behind a plan to assassinate US military officers who are working in Venezuela as part of an existing military accord between the two countries, with the intention of justifying a climate of âpolitical destabilizationâ in Venezuela.
âThe information made available to us was that they were preparing an assassination plot against US military officers, so as to fulfill that prophecy made by the director of the CIA that 2005 was going to be a year of political instability for Venezuela" stated Varela.
The assemblywoman thus lent support to what was said this Sunday by President Hugo Chávez, who assured that this sort of actions could very likely be carried out in order to tarnish bilateral relations and justify armed intervention in the country.
She also gave support to the presidentâs decision to put an end to the military accord with the United States, and suggested that US military personnel be on the lookout, âbecause from within the CIA laboratories could very well emerge assassination plots against them, and we have the information; we have the proof.â
Blockhead Varela, poor impressionable thing, has watched waay too many Hollyweird movies. No. there won't be any US agents killing US Military in order to create political instability in Venezuela. Chavez is already doing far better than our poor resources there could do.
I suggest that the Venezuelan people start a grassroots campaign to convert their military to overthrow the fool - while they can. It appears, from here, that the military isn't very solid behind this clown. If they can be swayed, and they don't need the fat-assed Generals, coups are the specialty of Colonels, and the people take to the streets in a coordinated effort they can save themselves 2 or more generations of civil strife and economic disaster. No telling how many lives will be lost under his bootheel. Far better to spend such precious capital removing him.
MEXICO CITY - Mexico said it was working to improve security in the border region but suggested the U.S. State Department had overreacted by renewing a warning to U.S. travelers about drug violence in northern Mexico. As with the original travel advisory, the repeat warning on Tuesday angered Mexicans. The update blamed the continuing violence in Mexican border cities on turf battles between drug gangs but noted that was in part the result of Mexico's success in locking up cartel leaders.
"Imprecisions and generalizations that hurt the spirit of cooperation in law enforcement and the fight against organized crime should be avoided," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement that also promised to investigate crimes against Americans in the border region.
The U.S. announcement includes a new warning that U.S. citizens have been among the homicide victims. The warning singles out the Mexican border town of Nuevo Laredo, across the Rio Grande from Laredo, Texas.
Is that precise enough for you?
More than 30 U.S. citizens have been kidnapped or murdered in the past eight months in that city. Daytime shootouts are not uncommon. And in one case, guns were fired on one of the Rio Grande bridges linking Nuevo Laredo to Texas. In some cases assailants killed U.S. citizens near busy shopping areas and within blocks of those bridges. Officials attribute the violence to a power struggle within the cartels after Mexican authorities arrested several leaders. Laredo is believed to have some of the most lucrative and established drug smuggling networks on the Mexico border.
Mexico's statement suggested the United States should help, rather than criticize. "Mexico's government has traditionally maintained that combatting organized crime in the border region is a shared responsibility," the statement said.
OK, the 4th ID is back at Ft. Hood, we'll send them right down.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/27/2005 2:01:36 PM ||
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Mexico missed an opportunity to STFU
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/27/2005 14:25 Comments ||
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Mexico - Piss off.
Why not comply with your demands of the US and remove your troups, and open your southern border to unfettered foreign entry?
How 'bout making your own country less of a shit hole so millions of your own citizens will stop risking their lives to escape to the north (obviously because they send home BILIIONS of stolen cash that the lazy Mexican government doesn't have to work for)?
#3
Sort of responds to the brochures from the Mexican govt about how to cross the border, no?
Posted by: too true ||
04/27/2005 15:36 Comments ||
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Mexico's statement suggested the United States should help, rather than criticize.
What's the problem, Amigos? Why is it necessary to demand help from the imperialist Yanquis? This is happening on YOUR soil, so basically, it's YOUR problem. Now take care of it.
#5
Typo: "attribute the violence to a power struggle within the cartels after Mexican authorities arrested several leaders" should read
"attribute the violence to a power struggle within the Mexican authorities...."
#6
The 4ID! Talk about overkill. I think all we'd need is Chris Adams & Co.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
04/27/2005 15:59 Comments ||
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Mexico is a should be first world country that has been third world because of corruption and idiocy. Now they are going to elect the Socialist mayor of Mexico City to see if they can rival Haiti for the Hemisphere's shithole. It's just sad.
And all of the folks pushing for increased immigration have allowed this idiocy to continue for decades. Screwing millions of Mexicans in Mexico out of misguided sympathy.
#8
If the Mexican political class is determined to force Mexico's poor to head north for sustenance, perhaps we should accept this deal on condition we get land in return.
We take in one-tenth of Mexico's population + we get complete control of one-tenth of Mexico. But we choose the regions. ;-) Millions of American retirees and entrepreneurs could move into low-cost living areas like Baja, Guanajuato, Zacatecas etc.
#10
Now you're talking. Sonora would look like Arizona in no time flat. Major growth opportunity for our economy and much higher pay for the Mexican local employees than they can make now.
#11
"Mexico's government has traditionally maintained that combatting organized crime in the border region is a shared responsibility," the statement said.
OTH, maintaining control of the shared border and preventing undocumented Mexicans and others from crossing into the US illegally is solely an American responsibility. He added?
#12
Or, forbid transfer of money from the US to Mexico.
Banks have been ramping up their ability to provide money transfers to Mexico. Maybe not so much forbidding transfers, but revoking of their FDIC coverage.....that would probably get their attention.
Colombia's defense minister, in a confidential statement to the Senate, said Venezuela's planned arms purchases appear to be unjustified and create a "military imbalance" in the Andean region.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a leftist populist, has arranged to buy 100,000 assault rifles and 10 helicopters from Russia and patrol boats and military transport planes from Spain, moves that have already drawn criticism from U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
Defense Minister Jorge Alberto Uribe, in written responses labeled "secret" to questions by Colombian senators, criticized the purchases. A senator's office provided a copy of the responses to The Associated Press on Tuesday.
"It's an undeniable fact that Venezuela's military buildup deepens the military imbalance in the Andean region," Defense Minister Jorge Alberto Uribe wrote.
"There is no clear justification at the moment to acquire certain types of these strategic arms," Uribe added.
The criticisms emerged as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is making a Latin America trip. Rice - who visits Colombia on Wednesday - said she will talk with hemispheric leaders about Venezuela's commitment to democracy and its relations with other nations of the region. She is not stopping over in Venezuela during her four-nation trip.
Several Colombian senators have criticized the arms purchases by the government in neighboring Venezuela.
"The weapons Venezuela is acquiring are offensive, not defensive," said Sen. Jimmy Chamorro. "This really worries us."
Relations between Colombia and Venezuela have been soured over the alleged presence of leftist Colombian rebels on Venezuelan territory. Chavez has denied his government harbors the rebels and said any guerrillas present in Colombia would be considered enemies of his government.
Posted by: Anonymoose ||
04/27/2005 11:14:32 AM ||
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Wouldn't want to destablize the Andean region, it's been such a rock of stability all these years.
#2
I'm sorry, but a couple gunships and a shitload of assault rifles are not my idea of particularly offensive weapons, nor are they by any stretch of the imagination "strategic". Not exactly police-issue, no, - but intrinsically offensive? Maybe if it was Costa Rica buying them. Or armor & artillery. But we're not exactly talking air superiority fighters and mechanized equipment, here.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
04/27/2005 15:06 Comments ||
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First inclination is to write off Chavez as a Castroite pest, nothing more. (Maybe Venezuela should be renamed the "Mosquito Coast.")
But he's just stupid and unbalanced enough to dance with the devil. If he were to start cooperating with Al Qaeda, or even AQ wannabes, he could do a great deal of harm to us. AK-47s can do wonders in the hands of 15-20 jihadist kamikazes attacking a US school or a mall...
#4
thibaud (aka lex),
You are so right! I still do not understand why Americans understimate the possibility of this lunatic cooperating with muslim terrorists. There is a large population of arab muslims in Venezuela, mainly palestinians...do I need to say more?
#9
For too long, the US has had a policy that both recognized that central and South America, for the most part, are filled with irresponsible and self-destructive imbeciles, vacillating between the dictators in power and the dictators currently out of power; and that it is not worth our while to bother with them. While the first part is not inaccurate, the second part must change. Central and South America must eventually enter our day-to-day sphere of mutual interest as part of "the Americas", otherwise they will continue their decline into something paralleling the middle east in the 1990s--a powder keg full of ambitious villains like Ghadaffi and Saddam. Already Britain has been at loggerheads with Argentina. Hopefully that will not be the trend for the other nations of the region. Picture how difficult and expensive it would be to base SOUTHCOM in a South American nation, subsequent to a US invasion.
TOKYO: More than half of Japanese voters feel Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is not doing enough to improve ties with China, which have deteriorated to their worst level in decades. According to a public opinion poll conducted by Kyodo news agency on Monday and Tuesday to mark the fourth anniversary of Koizumi taking office, 55.6 percent of the more than 1,000 voters surveyed said the prime minister's efforts to mend ties "were not enough." No further details were given, but a newspaper poll published on Monday showed that 48 percent of respondents said Koizumi should stop visiting Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, seen by many at home and abroad as a symbol of Japan's past militarism. Koizumi and Chinese President Hu Jintao agreed to mend ruptured ties after a meeting at the weekend on the sidelines of an Asia-Africa summit in Jakarta, a move hailed by some Japanese officials as an important step forward.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Posted by: Frank G ||
04/27/2005 15:28 Comments ||
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No doubt the poll questions were phrased like this: "Given that Prime Minister Koizumi is an alleged child molester and may have an extensive collection of Ricky Martin albums, how would you rate his efforts to mend ties with China?
a. Poor
b. Piss poor
c. It's Bush's fault
d. I thought I ordered a cheeseburger
Equatorial Guinea's exiled opposition leader Severo Moto, who was reported missing, has told a Croatian newspaper that he is in hiding in Zagreb. He said he had left his home in Spain, because the Spanish secret services wanted to kill him, Spain has denied these accusations. He said Spain wanted good relations with Equatorial Guinea, its former colony, in order to explore for oil. Mr Moto was accused of involvement in an attempted coup last year.
He set up a self-proclaimed government in exile in Madrid two years ago and Equatorial Guinea said he would have been installed as leader, had the coup, which had links to the UK, South Africa and Zimbabwe, succeeded. Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang Nguema also accused Spain of involvement in the coup plot - charges which were denied in Madrid. "Spanish secret services, political and business circles see their interest in good relations between Spain and Equatorial Guinea so Madrid would obtain concessions for oil wells in my country," Mr Moto was quoted as telling the weekly Globus newspaper, which also published photographs of him in Zagreb. "As opposition leader... I have become an obstacle to the deals with Obiang and that is why they want to eliminate me," he said.
While I'm sure Spain considers him a pain in the neck, I don't think they'd go as far as wacking him. They might look the other way while a outside contractor did the job.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/27/2005 8:39:49 AM ||
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The red-hot rhetoric over Social Security on liberal talkradio network AIR AMERICA has caught the attention of the Secret Service, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned. Government officials are reviewing a skit which aired on the network Monday evening -- a skit featuring an apparent gunshot warning to the president!
The announcer: "A spoiled child is telling us our Social Security isn't safe anymore, so he is going to fix it for us. Well, here's your answer, you ungrateful whelp: [audio sound of 4 gunshots being fired.] Just try it, you little bastard. [audio of gun being cocked]."
The audio production at the center of the controversy aired during opening minutes of The Randi Rhodes Show. "Even joking about shooting the president is a crime, let alone doing it on national radio... we are taking this very seriously," a government source explained.
Developing...
Posted by: Steve ||
04/27/2005 9:19:22 AM ||
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"Investigators have since learned that the gunshots occurred when Randi Rhodes and Al Franken shot themselves in the foot . . . ."
Posted by: Mike ||
04/27/2005 9:41 Comments ||
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Initially this was being investigated as a suicide after they saw their winter arbitron ratings. Seems that the announcer in Walmart has a larger following than Err Amerika.
#3
Randi Rhodes might just be the most classless act on radio/TV today, and there's stiff competition for that award.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/27/2005 10:10 Comments ||
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This moron can't figure out how to move her ratings out of the basement without reprising her lame little "shoot Bush" routine. Last year IIRC she said someone "needs to take Bush out in a boat and off him, like Freddo was offed...'pffffft"
#8
Bah. The previous was in response to trailing wife's question: Don't you have to cock a gun before firing? Make your own joke about single vs double-action posting.
#10
What the idiots don't understand is that the Zero Factor is still in play and Bush could still fall victim to it. If he does in the manner portrayed in these sick pieces of self promotion, the people pushing it will be really packing for the border. They'll find that as Lincoln was the last casualty of the first American Civil War, George would be the first of the next. Civil War, Part II, in 10...9....8...
Australian wheat bound for Iraq has been unloaded in Kuwait as a growing dispute over its quality threatens a major wheat market.
Two loads of wheat have had to be left at Kuwait because the ships are needed elsewhere, while another three ships with Australian wheat are sitting off the Iraq coast waiting to unload.
Up to 250,000 tonnes of wheat is being held up following claims by Iraq that the shipment is contaminated with iron filings.
A spokesman for Australia's monopoly wheat exporter AWB Ltd said the company has tested the wheat and found it uncontaminated and of very high quality.
He said AWB is hoping for a breakthrough in coming days that will clear the way for the wheat in both Kuwait and aboard the ships to be delivered to Iraq.
"We're still working through these issues with the customer," the spokesman told AAP.
"The wheat has been tested and that shows it is uncontaminated and of the best quality."
The issue erupted last week when the director general of the Iraqi Grain Board, Khalil Assi, said his country had suspended talks with Australia over a 500,000 tonne contract potentially worth more than $500 million.
He also claimed Australian wheat had been contaminated.
The comments were made during a trip to the United States, which is hoping to win a major share of the valuable Iraqi wheat contracts.
The Australian wheat at the centre of the dispute has already been paid for by Iraq.
Opposition agriculture spokesman Gavan O'Connor said it appeared the issue was being driven by pressure from the US, rather than any genuine concern over the quality of Australian wheat.
"The Howard government cannot allow our hard-earned reputation as a reliable supplier of quality wheat to Iraq to be undermined as a result of pressure from the Americans or anybody else," he said.
"This issue cannot be allowed to drag on like so many others have in this portfolio area in the past."
Australia has written to the Iraqi interim government in a bid to end the stand-off, while AWB officials are working in the Middle East to find a solution.
Next article: Muslim leader's rape comments under fire
Posted by: God Save The World ||
04/27/2005 11:30:23 PM ||
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How are the segments of a TV news show really developed? Here's the first part of a series on creating and broadcasting the blog roundup at MSNBC's Connected Coast to Coast. Of interest primarily for how stories get selected, compressed and presented online as a rank amateur goes behind - and in front of - the camera.
The mainstream media and the blogosphere: oil and water? diamonds and pressed glass? fox and hounds?
Lots of bits have been spilled on the topic. Meanwhile, an interesting experiment is playing out at MSNBC, where Monica Crowley and Ron Reagan host Connected: Coast to Coast twice a day, along with guest bloggers. The show, like most TV news programs, is a curious mix of reporting and entertainment.....
Posted by: Robin Burk ||
04/27/2005 12:27:40 PM ||
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The good media news today is that the print edition of the New York Times finally published -- on the front page, no less-- a photo of flag-waving, cheering civilians welcoming soldiers back home.
The bad news is that the civilians are Syrians, and the troops are the ones Assad just pulled out of Lebanon.
Posted by: Matt ||
04/27/2005 16:50 Comments ||
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That is a classic, Matt. Sums up the MSM elite agenda perfectly.
Ron Reagan is an asstard. That's on a good day.
The last time I really enjoyed watching the news was a late-night show called Overnight (on NBC) with just Lloyd Dobbins and Linda Ellerbee doing the news on a roll...
By Maggie Farley, Los Angeles Times. EFL -- LRR -- hat tip: Kathryn Jean Lopez, National Review. Long excerpt, but it's a really powerful story.
TORONTO — She is perhaps 12 now, her hair still light blond, but she doesn't smile anymore. Over the last three years, she has appeared in 200 explicit photos that have become highly coveted collectibles for pedophiles trolling the Internet. They have watched her grow up online — the hair getting longer, the look in her eyes growing more distant.
"She's a collector's item," says Det. Sgt. Paul Gillespie of the Toronto Sex Crimes Unit. "I know somebody out there could lead us to her. But right now, the only ones who can see her face are the wrong ones." . . . A 25-year veteran of the Toronto Police Service, Gillespie is a tall, mustached man with intense energy, blue language and a willingness to push boundaries — including teaming up with Microsoft's Bill Gates to pioneer a tracking system that became available this month to any police unit investigating child pornography. . . .
Their work is a daily sojourn to the underworld. Gillespie has a team of 10 men and six women who spend hours in front of their computers, extracting leads, writing warrants and sifting photos for clues. The payoff is the day they get to kick down a door and take the "bad guy" away. The mood is light and the humor often off-color to ease the horror. . . . That is one of the biggest challenges of the Child Exploitation Section's work. They need to get inside the minds of the victims and the perpetrators to find them, but there is only so far they can — or want to — go. . . .
One night in 2003, a frustrated Gillespie e-mailed Gates asking for help creating a database that could combine data from around the country — and the world — to help track down offenders and their victims. To his surprise, Gates responded. After a year and a half of collaboration, Microsoft Canada and the Toronto police unveiled the Child Exploitation Tracking System this month to help investigators share information. The system is designed to enable police in any country to plug into the system and cross-check data, including names, Internet aliases and the digital signature of every captured photograph. The software is free to any police team working to stop child pornography.
"It's important, because when we see a new series of photos online, that child could be anywhere," Gillespie said. "We need to cooperate and not duplicate each other's work. We just traced a toddler to a particular neighborhood in Spain through a subway ticket in his picture.".
Gillespie hopes the tracking system will not only link the often-overlapping investigations around the world, but that it will save his team heartache by letting the computers do some of the dirty work of sifting through the photos by their digital signatures.
"We arrested a bad guy last week," he said. "There were 1,000 images on his hard drive. Can I pay you enough to sit at this computer and look at every image? There are babies raped and sodomized with romantic music playing in the background. You are never the same person after you see something like that. It's soul-destroying." . . .
For hours at a time, [Det. Constable Paul] Krawczyk looks at pictures of abuse that the average person could not even imagine. His immersion in this sordid world doesn't leave him unaffected. "Sometimes you just want to take a shower after doing this," Krawczyk says. "Sometimes you want to throw the computer across the room. But when we do get a bad guy, it gives you great satisfaction. He wouldn't have been caught any other way." . . .
Krawczyk sometimes sneaks a look at a framed quote from Nietzsche above his computer: "He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster." But nothing purges the taint of the day like the way his son runs to hug him when he walks through the door at night, he says. . . .
Their hard-won successes keep team members on the right side of sanity. One day last year, they discovered pictures of a 6-year-old girl cowering in a dog cage, her gaze perplexed and despairing. In another, her hands are bound, a hunting knife is pressed to her abdomen, and messages are written on her body in a red substance meant to look like blood: "Hurt me." "Kill me." "I'm a slut." Her face is flushed purple. She is crying.
"These were some of the most horrific images we had seen," Gillespie says. "We dropped everything to look for her."
They were lucky to find a few clues in the pictures: an orange wristband from an amusement park, her school uniform, a logo from a T-shirt. They found the amusement park in North Carolina, then contacted uniform manufacturers to narrow down which schools in the area used that particular pattern.
"About 36 hours after we got the pictures, we pinned it down to a certain school," Gillespie recalls. "The FBI showed her pictures of her face to the principal, and bam, they rescued her."
The confessed offender, Brian Tod Schellenberger, has been arraigned and faces up to 30 years in prison. His victims are undergoing intensive counseling, the first step in the long process of recovery. . . .
To paraphrase Orwell, our children sleep peaceably in their beds at night because rough men like Paul Gillespie daily descend into hell on their behalf. May I suggest, to those who are prayerfully inclined, that you put in a word for the souls of Det. Gillespie and Det. Krawczyk and their comrades.
Posted by: Mike ||
04/27/2005 12:22:37 PM ||
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Thank you, Mike. This is very good to know. Of course, just after we moved back from Belgium, it was revealed that the police were the main suppliers of children to the Dutch paedophile circuit...
Posted by: ed ||
04/27/2005 10:49 ||
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His only real mistake was issuing an apology. The people he is up against are a cabal of under handed, word twisting, experts at deception. You don't give this kind of cabal any help. They are soulless red diaper babies raised to do what they are doing from infancy.
I only half jokingly prescribe a visit from a few large football players for some 2 on one discussions on why they should STFU and do their job. That is something they will understand. What would you do if someone was unjustly trying to deprive you of anything?
President Bush Wednesday will propose new steps to increase domestic energy production, including incentives that could result in construction of nuclear-power plants and building oil refineries on abandoned military bases. Details of Bush's proposals were outlined in a conference call with reporters Tuesday night by three administration officials with direct knowledge of a speech Bush will deliver today to a Small Business Administration conference. The White House refused to allow the officials to be identified because it's common practice for such sessions to be conducted anonymously.
The officials said that in his speech Bush will:
⢠Ask Congress to allow the Energy Department to provide federal risk insurance to companies that build nuclear-power plants. The insurance would compensate companies for delays resulting from problems meeting federal licensing regulations. It has been nearly a decade since a new nuclear plant opened in the USA. Smart move. Businesses are loath to spend big $ on high risk long term projects that can send even the largest companies bankrupt. It has long been my contention that only governments can take on these kinds of risks, especially in cases where they are in part the cause of the risks.
⢠Instruct federal agencies to work with state and local governments to encourage construction of new oil refineries on former military sites. No refineries have been built in the USA in nearly 30 years. Less significant than it might appear. gasoline can be bought and sold on the world market whereas electricity can't.
⢠Ask Congress to clarify existing laws to ensure that the federal government has the final say in the locations of new liquefied natural gas terminals. Local governments and residents often object to having such facilities in their communities.
⢠Expand eligibility for a $2.5 billion, 10-year tax credit now available to producers of hybrid and hydrogen fuel-cell cars to vehicles that run on energy-efficient clean diesel fuel. A few carrots to the greens.
⢠Encourage more international cooperation in the development of more efficient energy technology and greater use of so-called clean coal and nuclear power. The USA has been pioneering these real make-a-difference initiatives unlike the pointless and counter-productive Kyoto measures.
Oil prices have been rising because increased demand in countries such as China and India has made it difficult to keep production up. The editor should be shot for that sentence. Bush has said that passage of energy legislation he proposed four years ago was the best solution. The proposals he plans to announce today are not included in that bill, but Bush hopes they will be incorporated into it.
The new proposals would not have an immediate impact on prices, the officials said, but would help ensure affordable energy in the future.
The proposals come at a time when Bush's poll ratings have dropped as gas prices have soared. An ABC News/Washington Post poll taken Thursday-Sunday found that 47% of Americans approve of the overall job Bush is doing, tying his record low rating in that poll. Slightly more than a third approve of Bush's energy policies. OK, we know you are not a real journalist unless you include plenty of spin.
Posted by: phil_b ||
04/27/2005 3:05:30 AM ||
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Whatever happened to fusion? The hot type. If we spent a tenth of what we wasted on HUD over the last 10 years we would have had the technology by now. One of my peeves. Sorry for venting.
#2
Hot fusion aint gonna work in my lifetime. In 30 years of research and billions of dollars spent they haven't got a net energy fusion reaction that lasted for more than a few milliseconds. Cold fusion is far more promising. You can build a set up in your garage thats a net energy producer for weeks.
#3
that right, phil? Eeeevil oil companies are suppressing that tech, huh?
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/27/2005 8:15 Comments ||
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In the U.S., fusion research began at Princeton in 1951. I would love to know how many billions have been poured into the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory over the last 54 years. And they can't hold the genie in the bottle for even one second. Meanwhile, phil_b is advocating a run on the palladium market so that he can theoretically produce less energy in his garage in weeks than I can produce in my garage with a single "c" cell battery for one buck.
Posted by: Tom ||
04/27/2005 8:33 Comments ||
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I can produce in my garage with a single "c" cell battery for one buck. And I can produce more energy by burning down my garage. The issue is not how much energy is produced, its whether its a net energy producer or not. A battery is not a net energy producer, its a net energy consumer.
Its your right to be sceptical, but I have looked at the evidence and if repeatable observable results contradict theory then you have no choice but to reject the theory.
Why there should be such antipathy towards cold fusion is an interesting question and I don't claim to have a good answer, but its no more mysterious than much of the Kyoto psuedo-science. The simple fact is much of science is driven by irrational forces.
This solves the electricity issue. Freeing up oil for consumption elsewhere, ultimately reducing oil consumption. Use the newwer "Fail to safe" designs instad of the old high-pressure water "Fail to hot" designs. Put pebble-bed reactors out there. For remote communities, get deploy the in-place thermal reactors - the self-contained ones like they are putting in up in Alaska. Cuts down on the need for the grid.
2) New refineries.
We are so dependant upon forgein refineries that its causeing instability here any time Chavez or some other tinpot third world dictator gets exited or someone pops a bomb in one of thos countries. Yes gasolin can be shipped around, but shipping the crude is easier and better - that way we get ALL the products, and the US market can drive the portion of the fractiosn that are produced, instead of some bozo in Caracas deciding he want to make diesel for the Chinese instead of JP-4 for the US.
3) Hydrogen economy research and development for transportation.
Not just R&D, but practical deveopment. Start deploying the fuel distribution system to kickstart the hydrogen vehicles, at least in major metro areas.
All this works to get us at least self sufficient on oil, and energy independant for our core economy.
#8
OldSpook, a hydrogen economy depends on cheap abundant electricity because it requires somewhere between 2 and 4 times more energy inputs than burning gas in vehicles. Absent cheap electricity its just a recipe for massively increased energy imports.
#9
phil b - I'd love cold fusion to work - call me a skeptic. Should it be a workable, reproduceable phenomenon, it would bust the world economy right open - cheap energy for all! Woohoo! The fact it's still in question says all
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/27/2005 9:48 Comments ||
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#10
Old Spook -
One and Two get my vote on the spot.
Three is a bit more iffy.
#11
Actually, if you think about it, if you had sufficient electricity to manufacture all that hydrogen, you would also have sufficient power to either a) run everything directly by electricity or b) use that power to create the needed hydrocarbons from raw materials. Note that making hydrogen, the original idea, and item b are a very poor use of energy because of the conversion losses involved.
Or you could use all that power to create hydrogen from methane, mostly what we do today. Here again item b is also a viable option. Again item b looses out. So does hydrogen. More efficient to just use the methane or electricity directly.
My point is, no matter how you cut it, hydrogen as a fuel on a mass scale will never cut it. It is just a feel good thing with no significant future.
Posted by: Michael ||
04/27/2005 10:19 Comments ||
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#12
BTW, when I said much of science is driven by irrational forces, I didn't mean science is irrational. What I meant was what gets funded is substantially a political decision and has little to do with the scientific merits.
#13
And besides, ain't nothing going to happen anyway. Democratic energy policy is aimed at blocking any Republican proposals (and this year specifically making President Bush look bad in any way, shape or form) and Republican energy policy is essentially to stop the Democratics from doing anything in the off chance that thay can come up with any meaningful proposals as a party.
Posted by: Michael ||
04/27/2005 10:28 Comments ||
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#14
Cold fusion is far more promising. You can build a set up in your garage thats a net energy producer for weeks.
Citation, please.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/27/2005 10:31 Comments ||
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#15
Door #1 and #2. Especially nukes.
More nukes, faster approvals, a lower risk threshold via risk insurance: this should have been done twenty years ago. We're only making up for lost time now. Accelerate it to the max.
#16
Um phil_b, maybe you should have a look at the DOE report on cold fusion. Something's happening, but the apparatus isn't exactly something you'd assemble in your garage, and the excess energy they find seems to be a small fraction on top of the energy they put into the system.
Posted by: James ||
04/27/2005 12:30 Comments ||
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#17
But methane is stinky!
/end whine.
Actually, that is one energy source that could be obtained from garbage dumps and the hind ends of cows, if someone would work out an effective way to do so. Surely there is an engineer with some free time to play... ;-)
My opinion? Nukes all the way - pebble bed and other failsafe designs initially, but then there's the possibility of much smaller systems being deployed, such as portable systems! Phil_b is spot on as regards fusion - unlikely to happen in the near future. In the longer-term, I wouldn't be surprised to see zero-point energy (ZPE, warning - equations!) systems being developed and deployed.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
04/27/2005 16:14 Comments ||
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#20
Tony, the ZPE concept is onto something, but in my humble opinion, the theoretical footing is wrong.
I don't have time at the moment explain why, but the moment someone introduces normalization constant, I am vewwy, vewwy suspicious (that applies to current cosmology as well, as it sins plenty in this regard)...
and what may be the basis for certain effect that some experiments point to... cuz at the moment I haven't yet digested the data and see where they may lead. One of these days when I'll have time to ponder, I'll tell ya.
#21
RC, here is a link to a cold fusion experiment performed by high school students using materials costing $500. You can also buy more sophisticated kits. If you are interested I'll find the link.
BTW, I make no claim that this stuff will ever be commercially viable, but we should be doing the R&D to find out.
#23
Thanks, Jackel. Oh, btw, what you explained for me the other day (slow production of those cute little precision bombs, as I recall) was what, when I worked (O, so briefly!) in Product Development for a civilian company, we called the Manufacturing Start-up Mode. Key was not to do anything to tax the people or the machinery until all the bugs were worked out of the system. Sound right?
#24
H2S is acidic when dissolved in water and would cause corrosion problems inside the gas pipes. H2S is actually removed from natural gas; before removal the natural gas is called "sour gas". The deliberately-added-for-safety stink is from mercaptans.
http://www.oxy.com/OXYCHEM/Products/odorants/mercaptans.htm
Posted by: Tom ||
04/27/2005 20:04 Comments ||
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#25
Tax petroleum. Let engineers and the market do the rest. Anything else the government does will only delay discovery of the correct solution 99 times out of 100.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
04/27/2005 21:11 Comments ||
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#26
Mrs D, I agree with you on taxing petroleum, but in addition the government can subsidize consumption and they should be subsidizing consumption of electricty from nuclear at least as much as they subsidize electricty from solar, wind, etc., with additional generous breaks for those who live near the plants. Then listen to the clamour for more nuclear power stations in my backyard please.
#29
TW:
Well, sort of. In our case, there was the current production run still being done, plus the depot/rework units back from the field. We cut over the various test sets (this was final production; all the PCBs, structural components, and such were made in another building) from production to the new run one at a time. We weren't allowed to slow down production (they were bringing money in, while we were still pouring money out). So, we had two of the first stage test sets while they had eight. Of course, this being a government contract, many components were very, very old (25 MHz RISC CPUs, IEEE-488 disk drives), and a switch or something would fail so we'd only have one test set until someone could dig through the museums to find a replacement part. (They've all been upgraded to modern stuff last year. Whew.)
But the real problem is just in getting the thing to work right, every time. For the prototypes, EDMs, PODs, and PTUs, we would crunch the compensation data, load them into the unit, then do verifies all over the place, then print out predictions of performance (that was My job), then the Chief Engineer of the whole program would personally view the "pizza plots" (so-called because they were 3D color plots that actually looked like pizzas, down to bubbles in the crust) and say "OK, that's good." or "We need to improve this here" and we'd replace a component or hand-patch (in hex) the comps. Rinse and repeat. You obviously can't work that way in production.
Another problem is the suppliers. We got a very important component from another company and had an incoming inspection pass rate of about 5%. That's OK when you're hand-building a few for evaluation, but you can't run a factory that way. Imagine trying to build cars and having to order 20 times as many engines as you need to have enough ones that work correctly. Oh, and the failures were these little subtle things that couldn't be automated. You had an Engineer sitting on the bench for half a day per unit.
Oh, and then you have to train the technicians. We are fortunate in that we are in a Right To Work state (though we do have a union, it's not mandatory) and that the clearance process means that we can keep the workers we have, since it takes too long to get new ones, and they are very experienced, careful, and smart. Still, this was a radical departure in technology from the previous version, and had many new techniques they had to learn. One time, they reversed the connections. Think of any kind of feedback system (autopilot, homing missile, heck, even an air-conditioning system) in which the sensor is reversed. You now have positive feedback. Plus, the test sequences were very different from the old version, and sometimes people wouldn't do all the test, so the comp files would have default values. Or they would do the tests but no rebuild the comp files in the right order. Or...
I have lots of stories, and in 2021, will be able to tell them.
Not true. My "contribution" stinks to high heaven, all the time... :D
BTW, I saw the beginning of a news piece on the tube about the Prez' proposal and I switched the channel immediately. I absolutely cringe at the thought of hearing him say "nucular".... :P
Expressing concern about women's position in Pakistan, the European Union has asked the government to immediately repeal discriminatory provisions in the Hudood, Blasphemy, Qisas and Diyat laws. "The abolition of discriminatory laws will help improve women's situation in Pakistan," said an European Union Presidency statement released at the Pakistan Development Forum on Tuesday. However, the EU welcomed the Pakistani government's ongoing gender responsive budgeting pilot programme suggesting it become a standard planning principle in Pakistan's Medium Term Development Framework (MTDF). The EU expressed concern about the MTDF saying it did not address the risk of growing inequality in Pakistan. "Experiences have shown that macro-economic growth by itself does not necessarily lead to reduction in poverty," the statement said adding that Pakistan needed a better plan to achieve the MTDF. It said the MTDF and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) should be united and an independent statistical system must be set up because the statistics of government institutions about poverty figures were not reliable. "More targeted interventions are needed to allow the poor to participate in and thereby help sustain economic growth," the EU statement said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2005 00:00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
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#1
âExperiences have shown that macro-economic growth by itself does not necessarily lead to reduction in poverty,â
True. Fair and equitable enforcement of fair and equitable laws, and universal education (yes, that does include girls and infidels. Sorry) are what lead to reduction in poverty.
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.
Authorities responding to the scene expected to find a victim, but instead discovered the burglar. "Genius, pure genius," said Fresno County Sheriff's Lt. Louis Hernandez. Police said he cut himself on the door of another car he'd broken into, then trickled blood across the parking lot to the car he eventually locked himself inside. 
CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Telephone callers at Venezuela's oil ministry are getting the low-down on the country's oil strategy direct from President 
TOKYO: More than half of Japanese voters feel Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is not doing enough to improve ties with China, which have deteriorated to their worst level in decades. According to a public opinion poll conducted by Kyodo news agency on Monday and Tuesday to mark the fourth anniversary of Koizumi taking office, 55.6 percent of the more than 1,000 voters surveyed said the prime minister's efforts to mend ties "were not enough." No further details were given, but a newspaper poll published on Monday showed that 48 percent of respondents said Koizumi should stop visiting Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, seen by many at home and abroad as a symbol of Japan's past militarism. Koizumi and Chinese President Hu Jintao agreed to mend ruptured ties after a meeting at the weekend on the sidelines of an Asia-Africa summit in Jakarta, a move hailed by some Japanese officials as an important step forward.
Equatorial Guinea's exiled opposition leader 
The red-hot rhetoric over Social Security on liberal talkradio network AIR AMERICA has caught the attention of the Secret Service, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned. Government officials are reviewing a skit which aired on the network Monday evening -- a skit featuring an apparent gunshot warning to the president!
