Executing the "best lead" the FBI has seen in the search for "the human remains of James Riddle Hoffa" is expected to take a couple weeks and involve extensive digging at a horse farm where organized crime figures used to meet.
Detroit FBI agent Dan Roberts said in a briefing Thursday that agents have found "nothing significant" during digging on the farm so far. The search, for which a slate of experts including anthropologists, architects and engineers are being brought in, might include the removal of a barn, officials said.
For years, there has been a rumor in the surrounding neighborhood that Hoffa had been killed and buried there at the order of mobsters and others who didn't want Hoffa to regain power over the union. Deb Koskovich said she heard the rumor about Hoffa's body two decades ago from a neighbor when she moved next door.
"We laughed and that was the end of that," said Koskovich, 52. "I never thought about it again until today so apparently there have been rumors."
Posted by: Phil ||
05/18/2006 16:54 Comments ||
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#5
#4 Phil: "Let's tell them he's buried in Waziristan."
Shhhhhhhh! You weren't supposed to tell anyone!
Now you've done it....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/18/2006 18:30 Comments ||
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#6
reminds me of the joke about the prisoner getting the feds to dig up his Dad's garden for him by saying "It's buried in teh garden" - knowing they were bugging his phone..
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/18/2006 19:42 Comments ||
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A hugely annoying game played by children, typically in a pool. One person is..."IT", and has their eyes closed. They yell "Marco", while the other players respond with "Polo".
The goal being to home in on someone and tag them. Has been known to incite homicidal rage after hours of listening to such nonsense.
A seemingly unbelievable mess discovered last year in an Ogden townhouse has suddenly become an Internet legend. It's all TRUE!
You know how some people, after they use something, just can't bear to throw it away. That might make sense if it's magazines or clothes. But what if it's empty beer cans? In astounding numbers?
You've been looking in my trash again?
When property manager Ryan Froerer got a call from a realtor last year to check on a townhouse, he knew something was up. Ryan Froerer, Century 21: "Said it was the sickest thing he's ever seen. Just unimaginable that someone could live in that."
Never been to college, eh?
He couldn't even open the front door. It was blocked from inside. Ryan Froerer: "There was beer cans I would say probably this high up on the door." The realtor had forewarned him about the smell.
70,000 used beer cans, baking in the heat, yummmmmm!
Ryan Froerer,: "He poked his head in, the smell was so awful he couldn't go in. "
At the back door, Froerer was astounded by what he saw in the kitchen. Ryan Froerer: "As we approached the door, there were beer boxes, all the way up to the ceiling." Inside, he took just a few snapshots to document the scene. Beer cans by the tens of thousands. Mountains of cans burying the furniture. The water and heat were shut off, apparently on purpose by the tenant, who evidently drank Coors Light beer exclusively for the eight years he lived there.
Well, that explains everything. Pound beer, toss can over shoulder, open beer, repeat
Ryan Froerer: "It's just unbelievable that a human being could live like that. "
"I mean, Coors Light?"
To all outward appearances, the person who lived in the townhouse was the perfect tenant. He always paid on time and he never complained. He kept a low profile in the neighborhood.
Comatose people make the best neighbors
Kirk Martin, Letter Carrier: : "Yeah I never delivered any mail there at all. I thought the apartment was vacant."
The cans were recycled for 800 dollars, an estimated 70,000 cans: 24 beers a day for 8 years.
Beer, it's not just for breakfast anymore!
Froerer e-mailed his photos to a couple of friends, who sent them to friends. Now he's getting calls from faraway places
Ryan Froerer: "It's amazing how the internet can have the effect and get around. I'm sure it's been around the world. " The townhouse was cleaned up last year and it's just fine today.
The man who lived there seems to be back on his feet. We spoke to him today and he says he's completely stopped drinking. He was welcomed back to his old job a few months ago, and his co-workers speak highly of him.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/18/2006 12:59 ||
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He's an urban legend! Anyone have a link to the pics?
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
05/18/2006 13:57 Comments ||
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#2
Linky is the title
Posted by: Steve ||
05/18/2006 14:03 Comments ||
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Check out the link. What I found amazing is that 70,000 beer cans would take up only about 1,000 cu ft. A case a day is unbelievable. What's the guy weigh?
Afghanistan is a deeply conservative Islamic society where family problems are invariably kept hidden behind a veil of privacy. The Indian soap operas are gaining popularity with every passing day Dont telephone an Afghan at 8.30 in the evening. Chances are, he or she will be settled down in front of the television for a daily fix of an Indian soap opera. And they wont want to be disturbed.
The series The mother-in-law was a daughter-in-law once too, or Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi in its original Hindi, has transfixed the country. Men, women, young and old - anyone, it seems, with access to a television - is enthralled by the family drama. It centres on Tulsi, a young bride from a poor family who married because of love and is persecuted by her evil mother-in-law. For the first time, Afghans have been able to see a long-running family drama that explores so many of the issues they encounter in their own lives, said television commentator Farzana Samimi. It shows problems that are so common in Afghan families in terms of the relationship of brides in the family, especially with the mother-in-law, said Samimi, who presents a programme on womens issues on Tolo TV, which broadcasts the series. Afghanistan is still a deeply conservative Islamic society where family problems are invariably kept hidden behind a veil of privacy. The series gets people thinking about such problems, Samimi said. It enlightens the minds of people in the family, not only of brides or mothers-in-laws, but others too.
The cultural context of the Indian soap opera was also very easy for Afghans to relate to, she said. People are interested because our culture is so close to India, their way of daily life, the hierarchical system in the family, she said.
Whatever the reason, the soap opera is Afghanistans most popular ever television programme and fans refuse to miss an episode. Generator shops in Kabul have reported heavy sales since the series caught on because so many people want to ensure the citys frequent power cuts dont interrupt their viewing. Many fans who cant afford a generator have rigged up their televisions to car batteries to beat the black-outs.
Tolo TV, the most popular channel to appear since the ouster of the Taliban in 2001, says it is amazed by the success of the series. It declines to say how much it paid to broadcast it. Its our biggest series. Were surprised to see so many people interested in watching it so keenly, said Saad Mohseni, a Tolo director.
Tolo began running the soap opera, dubbed into Afghanistans Dari language, this year. It began in India several years ago and is still running, so Tolo has lots more episodes to run. Every day, the TV station gets calls from people asking for the episodes to be extended and complaining about the interruptions for advertisments, said another Tolo official, Ahmad Tawab Niazi. Some fans have begged Tolo to change the broadcast time because it coincides with congregational prayers at mosques, he said. Some postpone their prayers. Lets pray later, I cant miss Tulsi, a man murmured to his friend recently in a restaurant in the western city of Herat.
The show was about to begin on a television in the restaurant. Its like an addiction, the man said. Mohseni said he had heard stories of a wedding banquet being interrupted so the guests could huddle around the television for half an hour.
Some are taking advantage of the obsession. Robbers in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif stripped a vehicle of its wheels and mirrors recently, confident they had a mid-evening window of half an hour when they wouldnt be caught. Thanks Tulsi, one of the robbers scrawled in paint on the side of the car.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/18/2006 00:00 ||
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This is excellent. It opens the door, big time, for exploration of social issues that have no other forum in Afghanistan. Suddenly everybody is on the same sheet of music.
Instead of broaching the subject directly, which in such a conservative society would be risky, they can just say, "Did you see the show last night?" If they answer "Yes", the ice is broken.
Just a little more diplomatic niceties to find out if you can talk about it, and most of the time you have a good hour-long discussion or argument about whatever it was. And it's not like it is *your* opinion. It's just something you both saw on TV. And how about that?
#2
Well said, Anonymoose. Some don't realize that many people have never been exposed to anything but what passes for normal in their village. Ideas, new ideas, amazing ideas, blasphemous ideas, acted out as though normal. 'twill boggle, at first, then be contrasted against wild-eyed raving Holy Mokes and repressive rules... Then the questions come. We should collect donations to buy them popcorn.
#4
"...never been exposed to anything but what passes for normal in their village."
Well...in the VAST majority of the "villages" they do not have: full time electricity, running water OR TV's!
So the only places these shows are being watched is in the cities. City folk are a whole different breed from the country bumpkins that live in the villages.
The majority of the village folks that come to the big cities live in slums, no TV there either. What TV the do get exposed to is in the homes of the middle class, where they work as domestics, and have scant time for watching TV.
Kind of shoots your theory down.
How do I know all this? I live in Delhi 6 months a year, I'm married to an Indian.
#5
Oops! You're right Manolo - it will be wasted on those jaded Kabulis. I think a couple of things differ between Afghanistan and India, however. There are communal viewing venues in Kabul - for movies and TV - saw it in a NatGeo documentary produced within a month after the fall of the Taliban. And yes, there was a TV station back in operation in a month - with a cache of movies that had been hidden, LOL. They were wildly popular. As for domestic servants, hmmmmmmm. I'd bet only the UN folks would be hiring people who aren't family or trusted members of the Warlord's domain - for security reasons - among those who can afford servants. And I think the "theaters" will stay open for reruns as long as there are paying customers. Commerce is one thing the Afghanis do well.
Ah well, too bad. I guess I let my optimism get the best of me. Thanks for the post - I learn or remember something here every time I drop by. :)
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/18/2006 22:15 Comments ||
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Do you really believe there are communal viewing venues in every podunk little village in Afghanistan? Oh, NatGeo, well then it must be true. They have their agenda too.
I've traveled the rural areas in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. Recently. They're pretty much the same, that holds true for the cities for the most part.
The difference between city dwellers and rural folk (villagers) is quite similar. The difference is that in India, 20% of the population is educated. Afghanistan and Pakistan... 10% and 15% respectively.
As for servants, those with money never do their own cooking and cleaning...etc. That is how it is that part of the world. CHEAP labor is plentiful.
In that part of the world, one $hithole is pretty much the same as another. And Delhi is most definitely a $hithole. So is Kabul.
True, Frank G, Kabul isn't Delhi, but the differences are not that great. The majority of the population never gets to see these Soap Operas, and it's the ones that don't get to see them that could benefit the most from them.
Still it is a start.
Both you guy's, I'm not looking to start a flame fest, but until you've been there and seen for yourself, don't read too much into what you read in the Daily Times of Pakistan. It's even less reliable than the NYT! And that ain't sayin' much.
#8
no flame - I just think that whatever the viewing rate, and I have no reason to doubt you, it's a start....just like Iran's edict to remove Sat dishes (roundly disobeyed) - it helps to liberate thought and in Iran's case, delegitimize regime authority
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/18/2006 22:52 Comments ||
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"Do you really believe there are communal viewing venues in every podunk little village in Afghanistan?"
No, I don't - and I didn't say that - I said it would be wasted on the jaded Kabulis. The Nat Geo documentary was filmed in Kabul. It wasn't staged in some studio. So I guess it was real, since the station manager proudly displayed about 500 movie tapes and they showed the audience watching an evening's fare. Yeah, it was real.
We agree a taste of the outside world would do the people out in the sticks a lot of good.
No grief was intended. I hope for the best in Afghanistan and currently have only the performance of their Army and Karzai's growing confidence to speak openly about ISI subversion to be somewhat happy about. Have a nice evening, gentlemen.
Libya and Venezuela may work together more on oil projects and increasing aid to poorer states of South America and Africa, Libyan Foreign Minister Abdel Rahman Shalgham said.
Libya, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' eighth-largest oil producer and holder of Africa's largest crude-oil reserves, and Venezuela, OPEC's third-largest producer, will study cooperation in oil, investments, and agriculture, Shalgham said, cited by the official news service of Libya, JANA. The report didn't name any specific project.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi agreed at a meeting yesterday in Tripoli to ``study the possibility of providing an assistance to the poor and needy in Africa and Latin America, especially in the fields of health and education,'' Shalgham said.
Surging oil prices may slow the economic growth of the oil- poor nations of Africa, the Tunis-based African Development Bank said in a report four days ago.
The 53 nation-member African Union plans to discuss in July in Gambia a Libyan proposal to set up a fund that will help its oil-poor members access and refine petroleum produced by the continent's exporters like OPEC members Libya, Algeria and Nigeria, and non-OPEC member Angola, so that they can save on the cost of transport and intermediaries.
Venezuela is already spending on refineries in South America and sending subsidized oil to Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Cuba and Uruguay, in return for agricultural and industrial goods and, in the case of Cuba, medical doctors.
Chavez's visit to Libya was the last leg of a tour in Europe and North Africa.
The body count grew in South America's largest city Wednesday as police -- who lost 41 comrades in gang attacks -- killed 22 more suspected criminals. Authorities said little about the latest deaths, generating criticism from rights groups. Human rights activists said they feared innocent people may have been hurt in the strikes by police enraged by a notorious gang's attacks on officers on the streets, at their stations, in their homes and at after work hangouts. The latest deaths boosted the overall death toll to 156 since a wave of violence enveloped Sao Paulo last Friday, and came after officers shot 33 presumed gang members dead only a day earlier.
I'm sure they were all properly documented cases of "crossfire"
"The climate of terror can't be turned into carte blanche to kill," said Ariel de Castro Alves, coordinator of Brazil's National Human Rights Movement. Critics said police were using public sympathy to justify systematic killings that may end up with the deaths of innocent people.
"It's likely that the police are taking advantage of the general public outrage about the heinous crimes committed by the PCC to take brutal action against suspects," said James Cavallaro, a Harvard Law School professor who is also vice president of Rio de Janeiro's Global Justice Center.
Brazilian lawmakers decided to vote later this week on 30 measures to beef up security and reduce the influence of gang leaders who maintain control from behind bars. The bills would let authorities keep gang leaders in solitary confinement for as long as two years -- up from the current one year. It would also fund a nationwide prison intelligence agency and would require cellular telephone service providers to block cell phone signals inside prisons. Gang leaders reportedly used smuggled cell phones from prison to order the attacks.
But President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government said Congress should not rush into legislation. He said Brazil didn't spend enough on education from the 1960's through the 1990's, condemning men now in their 20's and 30's to lives of crime instead of giving them a future. He said he prefers to spend more on schools than on prisons. "Either we give hope to these youths or organized crime will do it for us. I prefer that people work, earning their pay day to day with their sweat to win this battle against organized crime."
#6
It would also fund a nationwide prison intelligence agency and would require cellular telephone service providers to block cell phone signals inside prisons.
And why in the name of rational human thought, does any prisoner have a cell phone? Heck just place a jammer in the place and the only location to make a call is outside the joint.
May 18, 2006: Although the U.S. and many of its friends have come to view the advent of Hugo Chavez as President of Venezuela and Evo Morales as President of Bolivia, as something of a disaster, a lot of cultural and policy analysts have concluded that ignoring them is likely to be the best policy. Despite their often revolutionary rhetoric, neither has an attention-span sufficient to carry through any kind of serious program, much preferring to mug for the crowd, promising pie-in-the-sky but not investing much effort in delivering the goods. To be sure some of their henchmen are more focused, but their status in the hierarchy and their ability to implement programs is very heavily dependent on keeping the bossman entertained. This conclusion seems to have been reached by several governments as well. Apparently China, and perhaps Russia, have decided that going into business with either is not worth the trouble, though if they can get cash up front they're still willing to deal.
Both Chavez and Morales rose to power by tapping into deeply felt resentments in their respective countries. These grievances include widespread poverty, fear of globalization, serious class distinctions and racial discrimination, and, of course, anti-Americanism, which is an easy sell everywhere in Latin America. The "message" of both men was "elect me and everything will get better real quick." But the message has been wearing thin. After some half-dozen years in power in Venezuela, Chavez has yet to deliver any noticeable improvements in living standards, and appears to be losing sympathy among many of country's poorest people. Morales, in power only a few months, has seen his support eroding even more quickly.
Meanwhile, any sympathy they may have had among other Latin American leaders has been eroding to the point that even leftist governments, such as in Argentina and Brazil, have become rather chilly. Castro aside, Chavez and Morales seem to have not notably supportive "friends" in the region. For the U.S., the best course of action is to do nothing and let the two regimes self-destruct. Any efforts to try to pressure either man, or, even worse, to force him out of power, would certainly have precisely the opposite effect.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/18/2006 09:59 ||
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Amen, Jim D. and the other StratPage folks, but during or shortly before the "self destruct" phase of the plan, the Usual Suspects will be clamoring for international aid and support for starving Venezuelans, the practical effect of which will be to prop up the regime for much longer than its sell by date.
The Castro model is a more likely one.
Posted by: Carl in N.H. ||
05/18/2006 11:31 Comments ||
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#2
Although the U.S. and many of its friends have come to view the advent of Hugo Chavez as President of Venezuela and Evo Morales as President of Bolivia, as something of a disaster, a lot of cultural and policy analysts have concluded that ignoring them is likely to be the best policy. Despite their often revolutionary rhetoric, neither has an attention-span sufficient to carry through any kind of serious program, much preferring to mug for the crowd, promising pie-in-the-sky but not investing much effort in delivering the goods.
Let's just ignore all the human misery their kind cause, and the endless opportunities for mischief they offer the more focused psychopaths.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
05/18/2006 12:08 Comments ||
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NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico - Mexican lawmakers angrily denounced a measure approved by the U.S. Senate to build new border fences, and illegal immigrants vowed to skirt them and cross into U.S. territory anyway.
But the administration of Mexican President Vicente Fox, which had called the fence proposal "shameful" and "stupid" as recently as December, was conspicuously silent after the Senate bill passed Wednesday perhaps because the measure also opens the door for millions of undocumented Mexicans to achieve some legal status in the United States.
"There are so many of us, most with families and roots in the United States. They are never going to stop us from crossing," said Julio Cesar Gutierrez, a 21-year-old from the western city of Guadalajara who was planning to swim across the Rio Grande into Texas from the border city of Nuevo Laredo. "We will dig under a wall, go over one. If the authorities over there want a war, we will fight."
Gutierrez, who was wearing a Washington Nationals baseball cap and a backpack carrying bottled water, said he had crossed three previous times and worked as a cook in Houston but was deported each time.
"They want to treat migrants like criminals," he said. "All we want to do is work."
The Senate agreed to give many illegal immigrants a shot at U.S. citizenship, but also backed construction of 370 miles of triple-layered fencing along the southern border. It is unclear where the new barriers would be built, though some have speculated they could go up in an area that includes Nuevo Laredo, across from Laredo, Texas.
The measure, which has yet to clear the House, comes as President Bush continues to flesh out his plans to deploy 6,000 National Guard soldiers along the border to support the Border Patrol.
In Mexico City, lawmakers from Fox's conservative National Action Party and both major opposition parties denounced the initiative.
"It's a lamentable development and more evidence of a step backward in bilateral relations between Mexico and the United States," said Inti Munoz, a spokesman for House lawmakers from the leftist Democratic Revolution Party. "The construction of a wall and the militarization of the border are signs that speak of the absolute failure and lack of Mexican foreign policy."
Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez said late Wednesday that the government would not immediately comment on the Senate bill. Just days earlier, the Fox administration was quick to express concern that Bush's National Guard plan could "militarize" the border region.
In December, the Mexican president said extending border walls was "shameful," and Derbez called a U.S. House proposal to do so "stupid."
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador a fiery Fox critic and the Democratic Revolution Party's presidential candidate in July 2 elections called the president's silence on the Senate bill a sign of weakness.
"The truth is the federal government and the president have no authority," Lopez Obrador said Wednesday. "And for that reason, Mexicans who cross the border out of necessity are being humiliated."
Migrants preparing to cross the border in Nuevo Laredo said they would prefer to climb walls than make dangerous trips through the desert into Arizona and New Mexico, routes that have become popular since U.S. authorities fortified barriers separating San Diego and Tijuana.
"In the desert, smoke rises from the ground and you can die while you're walking," Gutierrez said. "The river here, even with a wall, is easier."
Jose Antonio Maldonado, a 16-year-old from Honduras who was trying to make it into the United States illegally for the first time, said he had no family or friends across the border and was unsure where to find work if he succeeded in crossing.
"We have withstood days of train rides, risking our lives without eating, without sleeping, to get to the border," he said, detailing the trip from his homeland. Central Americans traveling without proper documents in Mexico face deportation and often complain of being beaten or extorted by corrupt authorities.
"If there were a wall here, or any other obstacle, we'd overcome it," he said.
#2
It makes me laugh. These people are insufficiently serious to cause infuriation. It's sort of like how one reacts to the 1 year old who throws lunch from the high chair onto the floor. It will take time, it will take patience, but the children can be trained.
#3
Gutierrez, who was wearing a Washington Nationals baseball cap and a backpack carrying bottled water, said he had crossed three previous times and worked as a cook in Houston but was deported each time.
How about the next time he gets caught he does about 10 years in prison before he gets deported again?
Central Americans traveling without proper documents in Mexico face deportation and often complain of being beaten or extorted by corrupt authorities.
Jeez, why don't they have a big march in Mexico City to demand their "rights"?
#6
Bush needs to turn the debate into a debate about the failure of Mexico.
Mexico is a failure and these proud-Mexicans that come to the US should either (a) be shamed Mexicans who want to be Yanks or (b) not come to the USA. It is the combination that is poison.
#7
This morning I went to www.congress.org and sent an email to my state senators and district rep at the same time. I'm trying to find the letter on the website now (I think it takes a few hours or maybe a day to post & unfortunately I didn't cut/paste it to a word doc) and cut and paste it to this thread so you can see the course of action I proposed wrt illegal immigration & securing the border. If any of you get the chance I highly recommend you telling your elected officials how you feel - good, bad, or indifferent. I did so but also proposed (somewhat coherently) solutions to the problem vice just whining.
There are so many people in congress that just need to go. As soon as I retire from the Corps I'm running for local, state, or federal - I have some time to figure which. I've had enough of this shite from these p*ssies.
#10
DV - Want Mexico? LOL. Call the Texas Rangers. I'll bet they remember Jack Hays. His Texas Rangers did the dirty work, lead the attacks on fortified positions, maintained lines of communications, kept guerrilla forces off Scott's shiny US Army, and took the blame for any and all lapses of chivalry... some of it well deserved, LOL. The Rangers learned how to fight no-quarter war from the tribes they had to control. A lost skill we desperately need to re-acquire. They might enjoy a weekend outing. :)
#11
Hmmm...and just what does your own Constitution say...
Article 33 - Foreigners are those who do not possess the qualities determined in Article 30. They have the right to the guarantees of Chapter I of the first title of this Constitution, but the Executive of the Union has the exclusive right to expel from the national territory, immediately and without necessity of judicial proceedings, all foreigners whose stay it judges inconvenient. Foreigners may not, in any manner, involve themselves in the political affairs of the country.
But then of course it also says -
Article 34 - Citizens of the Republic are those men and women, who having the quality of Mexican nationality, have the following requisites besides:
I. Have attained the age of eighteen years; II. Have an honest way of living.
which means that most politicians in Mexico are not citizens themselves.
The body count grew in South America's largest city Wednesday as police - who lost 41 comrades in gang attacks - killed 22 more suspected criminals. Authorities said little about the latest deaths, generating criticism from rights groups.
Police did not identify any of those they killed, say where they were killed or in what circumstances, Sao Paulo's leading newspapers reported Wednesday.
Human rights activists said they feared innocent people may have been hurt in the strikes by police enraged by a notorious gang's attacks on officers on the streets, at their stations, in their homes and at afterwork hangouts.
Saulo de Castro de Abreu, Sao Paulo state public safety secretary, told reporters the identities of the criminals killed were not revealed "so as not to jeopardize investigations."
The latest deaths boosted the overall death toll to 156 since a wave of violence enveloped Sao Paulo last Friday, and came after officers shot 33 presumed gang members dead only a day earlier.
"The climate of terror can't be turned into carte blanche to kill," said Ariel de Castro Alves, coordinator of Brazil's National Human Rights Movement.
But in an interview with Brazil's Globo TV, the commander of Sao Paulo's state police said officers are now convinced they have stopped the gang attacks because most of the latest shootings happened outside of metropolitan Sao Paulo and none were the work of the First Capital Command gang.
Police claimed earlier they had gained the upper hand in their fight against the gang, accused of ordering the attacks on authorities after eight gang leaders were transferred to a lockup hundreds of miles from Sao Paulo.
In contrast to earlier killings of police suspects, Col. Elizeu Eclair told Globo TV that the confrontations Tuesday night and Wednesday morning were sparked by smaller-scale criminals seeking clashes with authorities.
"We're seeing that this had nothing to do with organized crime," he said.
The six-day death toll of 155 included 93 suspected criminals, 40 police and prison guards, 18 prison inmates killed in riots and four civilians, according to the state police. Eclair said authorities were still trying to identify 40 of the dead criminal suspects.
Critics said police were using public sympathy to justify systematic killings that may end up with the deaths of innocent people.
"It's likely that the police are taking advantage of the general public outrage about the heinous crimes committed by the PCC to take brutal action against suspects," said James Cavallaro, a Harvard Law School professor who is also vice president of Rio de Janeiro's Global Justice Center.
Despite the easing of gang attacks, Sao Paulo residents said they were still scared, and many supported the police's aggressive response.
"Now the gang members are going to be scared. Police already died anyway, and it will make the gangs have a little more respect for the police," said Walter Lahoz, a 58-year-old taxi driver.
Brazilian lawmakers decided to vote later this week on 30 measures to beef up security and reduce the influence of gang leaders who maintain control from behind bars.
The bills would let authorities keep gang leaders in solitary confinement for as long as two years - up from the current one year.
It would also fund a nationwide prison intelligence agency and would require cellular telephone service providers to block cell phone signals inside prisons. Gang leaders reportedly used smuggled cell phones from prison to order the attacks.
But President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government said Congress should not rush into legislation. He said Brazil didn't spend enough on education from the 1960s through the 1990s, condemning men now in their 20s and 30s to lives of crime instead of giving them a future. He said he prefers to spend more on schools than on prisons.
"Either we give hope to these youths or organized crime will do it for us. I prefer that people work, earning their pay day to day with their sweat to win this battle against organized crime."
But many Sao Paulo residents say the gang problems are the result of corrupt and poorly paid police, a judicial system that doesn't mete out harsh punishment and decades of failure by politicians to deal with the problem.
Maria Jose Belo, a 50-year-old secretary, said the cycle of violence will simply continue if nothing is changed.
"From violence only comes violence," she said. "I think this is just revenge. Now the police have an excuse to kill gang members."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/18/2006 02:39 ||
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This kind of chaos is the product of liberal education and liberal justice. And, it didn't get that way overnight, it took decades of political corruption.
An international team of drug investigators seized 52 tons of cocaine and three islands off Panama in breaking up an alleged drug-trafficking ring.
Drug law enforcement officers from the United States, Brazil, Colombia and Panama participated in the 3-year investigation that concluded Tuesday with the arrests of more than 100 people and the seizure of some $70 million in assets in addition to the cocaine and islands. The operation broke up the Pablo RAYO-Montano drug trafficking organization, which is alleged to have smuggled more than 15 tons of cocaine a month from Colombia to the United States and Europe.
DEA Administrator Karen Tandy said, "The RAYO-Montano organization had its own private, rogue navy to run a drug business that was nearly as sophisticated as a small nation."
U.S. federal indictments in the case were returned in Florida and Washington, charging members of the RAYO-Montano operation with money laundering and conspiracy and possession with intent to distribute cocaine. If convicted, those charged could be sentenced to life in prison.
#2
52 tons of coke and 3 islands. Sounds like paradise. In other news, police in Iowa seized 320 tons of soybeans and corn and 500,000 acres of farmland.
#4
52 tons of coke?! Either the street price skyrockets, it doesn't make it to the evidence locker, we are even more behind in the war on drugs than I suspected or all three.
Former White House counter-terrorism official Richard Clarke, now an ABC News consultant, will be portrayed by Sean Penn in the Sony film of Clarke's "Against All Enemies." The book chronicles what happened inside the White House leading up to and through the 9/ll attacks. The film will be directed by Paul Haggis. A dick playing a Dick. Perfect.
#5
Another ani-American movie played by a traitor that I will never go see.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
05/18/2006 11:01 Comments ||
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#6
Jeez, Sean. I'll bet this'll be at least as good as "The Interperter". Probably make as much money too.
What's up next, the remake of "3000 Miles to Graceland"?
Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.), who could face criminal charges for striking a Capitol Police officer at a security checkpoint in March, has signed on to a resolution commending the police force for its courage and professionalism. Despite having maintained at the time of the incident that the officer touched her inappropriately and that he had failed in his duty to recognize her as a member of Congress, McKinney became a co-sponsor Tuesday of H.R. 756, which praises the force for providing courteous, responsible and diligent services and treating members with dignity and respect.
The news, first reported by Atlanta television station WSB-TV, was the latest about-face for the Georgia lawmaker, who was at first spectacularly outspoken about the checkpoint scuffle, charging the officer with racial profiling. Within days, though, as the matter came before a grand jury for possible criminal prosecution, McKinney changed course and apologized for the incident on the House floor. The original co-sponsors of the resolution are Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) and Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.).
McKinney came to the defense of the Capitol Police in 2001 shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks when officers were asked to work longer hours. In a letter to then-House Sergeant at Arms Bill Livingood, she complained about low morale on the force. I am very concerned about the complaints that many officers have made, and I am particularly disturbed by the low morale that appears to be widespread throughout the department, apparently caused by an unfavorable work environment, McKinney reportedly wrote.
#6
In other news, controversial House Democrat Cynthia McKinney filed a petition in a Georgia Superior Court today, seeking to change her name to "Cynthia F. Kennedy." . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
05/18/2006 11:49 Comments ||
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#7
After they insert the claus praising them for drive Kennedy home.
#8
#4 Of course if your name is Kennedy instead of McKinney then nobody cares when you beat up airport security or smash your car while driving on drugs.
Or ignore the clear warning from God who zapped your airplane with a lightning bolt. (Tongue firmly in cheek)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/18/2006 22:19 Comments ||
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Upset over his reported remarks criticising Pakistan during his recent visit, President Pervez Musharraf has banned veteran Bollywood actor Feroze Khan from entering the country.
"He (Khan) has misbehaved, abused our hospitality which was not acceptable, therefore he is barred from entering Pakistan," Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam told PTI today.
"The President House has taken serious notice of his remarks which were widely covered in the Indian and Pakistani media and directed the concerned authorities to blacklist him and impose a ban on his entry into Pakistan," private ARY channel reported quoting sources in the Presidency.
It said the President's decision has been communicated to the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi.
The 67-year-old actor, during his visit to Pakistan last month for the premiere of his brother Akbar Khan's film 'Taj Mahal', had reportedly made the comments in Lahore on April 26 highlighting comfort levels of Muslims in India in comparison to that in Pakistan, setting off a heated verbal exchange between him and local compere Fakher-e-Alam, and trigerring a controversy here.
"I am a proud Indian. India is a secular country. Muslims there are making a lot of progress. Our President is a Muslim, Prime Minister a Sikh. Pakistan was made in the name of Islam but look how the Muslims are killing each other," he was quoted as saying by a Pakistani daily last month.
Soon after airing Musharraf's orders banning Khan's entry, local Geo TV telecast a cartoon video titled 'Feroze Khan, Fakhar-e-Hindustan' depicting him in an inebriated condition.
Ever since the controversy erupted, Fakher-e-Alam, also a pop singer, has been appearing in Pakistani TV channels accusing Khan of insulting and hurting Pakistan's pride in an inebriated state.
Many Pakistani film stars and producers have objected to Khan using the platform of his brother's film's premiere to make "controversial remarks," but they have also been pleading that this was an isolated incident which should not be allowed to spoil the unprecedented friendly ties evolving between the two countries.
Alam himself has been a frequent visitor to India and regularly interviewed Bollywood stars for Pakistani TV channels.
After the Pakistan government gave permission to screen 'Taj Mahal' and new print of 'Mughal-e-Azam', expectations were high that Islamabad would lift the four-decade-old ban on Indian films. But there are apprehensions here that the Feroze Khan episode was being played up by opponents of the peace process to spoil the friendly relations.
The other Indian film stars and delegates accompanying Khan to the premiere of 'Taj Mahal' had reportedly apologised to Alam for the incident.
Posted by: john ||
05/18/2006 18:03 ||
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Western Resistance entry, with lotsa trends. It seems our esteemed muslim websurfers (who, as John pointed out, are the Oumma(tm)'s most educated/tech savvy fringe) are "interested" in anything remotely mammal (or not), except sheep. The child sex thingie is a nice touch too.
#6
For a lot of those animal searches, I'll bet the western searchers are muslims. The proportion seems right for population percentage. Same goes for the EU block. Poland is on it's own tho'.
British parliamentarians have asked Pakistan to spare the life of a British national due to be hanged for murder on June 3, officials said on Wednesday. Mirza Tahir Hussain, from Leeds and of Pakistani descent, was arrested in Rawalpindi in 1988 on charges of murdering and robbing a taxi driver who had reportedly tried to physically and sexually assault him.
If I'm ever stoopid enough to go to Pakland, I hope to hell I'm not stoopid enough to take a cab.
Foreign Office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said that the Pakistan High Commission in London had received some letters from non-governmental organisations and British parliamentarians regarding the case. Diplomatic sources said that the British government was expected to request President General Pervez Musharraf to commute Hussain's death sentence, while Aslam noted that the president had turned down Hussain's appeal for mercy last year. Imprisoned since the age of 18, Hussain is due to be executed two days before his 36th birthday. Though acquitted of murder by a Pakistani high court, the country's Federal Shariat Court sentenced Hussain to death by hanging in 1998 a sentence upheld by the Supreme Court in 2003, which had rejected a review petition the following year.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/18/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
The British people if asked at a referendum, would support the death penalty.
The warming trend from the 1970s through to the late 1990s has stopped and if anything the trend is now slight cooling, despite the record levels of CO2 in the atmosphere. This supports the theory that the warming we did see resulted from reductions in atmospheric aerosols as air pollution was reduced.
#1
Oh, crud. Here we go with the New gloom-n-doom of the decade...Ice Age! (Aiieee- Were all gonna diiieee!)
Give it up, people. You watermelon enviros are getting to be as tedious as the creationism intelligent design people. And about as relevant.
Posted by: N guard ||
05/18/2006 1:43 Comments ||
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#2
Now, now, NEWS > PLANET X is still out there, + Comet Apophis may collide wid Earth [= Moon?] circa 2036 + China running out of water vv desertification + Magnetic Pole-flip + ......@
And no matter what direction it takes, it's Bush's fault.
And Halliburton's, too, 'n stuff.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
05/18/2006 5:50 Comments ||
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#4
While sitting in the Shaman's office yesterday I picked up Time Magazine from april. According to Time, Global Warming Climate Change is all mankind's fault. The Earth has warmed a little over one degree C in the last 100 years and we have nothing to look forward to but Wetter, dryer weather, more amd more violent storms, pestilence and increased disease. It's already caused catastrophic changes!! Bugwits.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
05/18/2006 8:03 Comments ||
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#5
Yeah Deacon, I'm still trying to find all those cars and smoke stack industries our ancestors had back in the Middle East and Egypt that melted the ice sheets that covered North America and Europe some 20,000 years ago.
#6
Volcano in Indonesia is blowing up right now. Last time it went off global temperatures dropped. The proble is the volcano gods and we need more virgin sacrifices to appease them!
#9
I don't think you can honestly say global warming has stopped because that implies you know the future.
It's more prudent to say there has been a pause or leveling off in the warming.
As for Kyoto - the original report did not estimate the climatic effect of implementing the accords partly because the effect is embarrassingly small, partly because some people believed there would be a Kyoto II which would impose a limit on the developing world (e.g. India, China) which wasn't done in Kyoto I.
#10
The tiny warming period in which mankind has arisen is occurring within an ice age. Splitting hairs about wobbles over a century or three is laughable.
Perspective.
Maurice Strong & Friends are the most successful scam artists in the history of this little tiny time bubble.
#11
Vader, I would say there are virgins and there are virgins. I'm reffering to the difficult and often unappealing spinster variety.
I'd particularly like to imagine that Al Queda is getting 42 spinsters to deal with when they die, facing eternity of cold shoulders combined with nags and being beaten over the head by a Koran.
#12
mhw, it is a fact that climate warming has stopped over the last 5 to 8 years.
I defy you to show me one global warming proponent who even attempts to explain this fact. You won't won't find one because they kbown the 'truth' and don't need no pesky facts.
AMMAN - A Jordanian man opened fire on his four sisters as they were sleeping at dawn on Thursday, killing three and seriously wounding the fourth, according to the official Petra news agency. The man, who was not identified, committed his crime in the city of Salt, 15 kilometres west of Amman, following a misunderstanding that triggered an argument with his parents.
After committing his ugly crime, the killer turned himself over to a police station along with the gun he used, Petra quoted Brigadier Bashir Daaja, official spokesman of the Public Security Department, as saying. Investigations are under way to arrive at the main reasons behind this incident, he added.
The man reportedly told police that old family differences surfaced anew yesterday leading to an argument between him and his parents and sisters that developed into a beating, according to Daaja. The culprit also said that he had lost his nerve and started firing on what he saw in front of him, Daaja said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/18/2006 22:52 ||
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Navy divers detonated explosives Wednesday aboard the USS Oriskany, sending the retired aircraft carrier on a 212-foot plunge to bottom of the Gulf of Mexico to create the world's largest intentional reef.
Hundreds of Korean and Vietnam War veterans on charter boats watched as the carrier slowly sank about 24 miles off Pensacola Beach.
The 888-foot-long ship, known as the "Mighty O," was commissioned in 1950 and was home to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., when he served in Vietnam. It was also among the ships used by President John F. Kennedy as a show of force during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.
The Oriskany was decommissioned in 1976 and now becomes the first ship sunk for reefing under a new Navy program to dispose of old warships.
Clouds of brown and gray smoke rose in the sky after more than 500 pounds of plastic explosives went off about 11:30 a.m. EDT. The ship took about 45 minutes to go down.
The Environmental Protection Agency in February approved the sinking of the ship with chemical toxins in electrical cables, insulation and paint still aboard. EPA officials said the toxins will slowly leach out over the estimated 100 years it will take the carrier to rust away and should pose no danger to marine life.
Local leaders hope the carrier reef will bring a long-awaited economic infusion from sport divers and fishermen. A 2004 Florida State University study estimated Escambia County would see $92 million a year in economic benefits from an artificial reef.
#4
I understand they were hoping she'd settle flat, keel even.
Doesn't appear that they achieved this. I don't much care about the scuttling of the Oriskany, but I was incensed over the way they did the USS America.
#7
Re: #4 I was incensed over the way they did the USS America.
Easy, Manolo--
CV-66 died so that later ships and their crews might live. Having real-world battle damage data to study for design improvements is hard to beat.
Anyway, FWIW, I've always thought for sentimental reasons that the best use for old warships that you are otherwise going to scrap is as hard targets for weapons development or training. It just seems proper, or completing a circle somehow...and they still wind up as reef structures if sited right. A winner all around, in my little world.
Posted by: N guard ||
05/18/2006 18:10 Comments ||
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#8
"...best use for old warships that you are otherwise going to scrap is as hard targets for weapons development or training."
Sure. No argument there. But the America? The nations namesake. She should have been turned into a museum. Sink some other rust bucket...like, say, the Oriskany, Independence or the Kennedy.
I guess I just have a soft spot for CV-66 because I served on her for three years. That's all.
#9
Unbelievable - I still can't believe the "Mighty O" could not had been saved as per a floating museum, not even by the town or city of Oriskany itself, nor by any of surrounding areas or by the State of New York. This was one of the best-known, near-legendary FIGHTING SHIPS in the US Navy, movie TOP GUN notwithstanding!
The source of this was an e-mail. The attribution was missing so I pointed it at Rantburg,
Foreigners will power UK's next nuclear age
(Filed: 18/05/2006)
If Britain is to build more nuclear power stations it will have to look abroad for expertise because it no longer has the skills to build reactors, writes Russell Hotten
When Tony Blair promised on Tuesday to put the building of nuclear power stations "back on the agenda" few people doubted that this was effectively a green light that Britain would construct a new generation of reactors.
Although an energy review is not due for publication until July, the industry believes that, one way of another, the prime minister is intent on building more stations as the way to guarantee energy supplies and tackle climate change.
According to someone who has advised the Government's energy policy makers: "There's a mood in Whitehall that more nuclear stations are the answer. It's the way things are going. I think Britain will get them."
Yesterday, Areva, the French state-controlled group and the world's largest builder of nuclear power stations, effectively threw its hat into the ring, saying that it could have a new series of reactors up and running by 2017.
Areva stands a good chance of getting any nuclear design and build contacts - as the only serious rival, according to energy experts, is Westinghouse, the US-based but Japanese-owned company.
AECL, a Canadian company, has an outside chance of winning contracts, but energy insiders say the Government has already declared a preference for the PWRs - pressurised water reactors - of Areva and Westinghouse.
The UK effectively ended its expertise in building reactors when British Nuclear Fuels sold Westinghouse to Toshiba for $5.4bn. It is, though, unlikely that the Government would award contracts without insisting that UK companies played some part in any construction consortium.
Amec, the UK engineering group, has nuclear project management and decommissioning experience, but for one observer the firm "has no pedigree in building power stations. Work on this would have to go abroad".
Costain is another UK firm that could get a project management role. But, again, foreign firms, such as America's Bechtel, are seen as having more experience in this area.
So, as well as the political and regulatory hurdles of embarking on a nuclear-build programme, this lack of indigenous experience could also be a problem. British experts in the nuclear field are a dwindling breed.
According to Prof Ian Fells, a leading expert on the industry: "The teams of engineers that built Sizewell B in 1995 are all retired or dead. We do not have the skills to build nuclear power stations any more."
Although there is no immediate urgency to begin a new nuclear programme, the industry believes that planning and setting a timetable would have to start within three or four years if the UK is to meet climate change targets and prepare for the run-down of gas and oil stocks.
"That would at least give time to start building up the knowledge base and bring back skills that have laid dormant," said an Amec spokesman. "There are still a lot of young scientists coming into the industry."
Although small power stations are being phased out, the first big closures, including Hunterston B and Hinkley Point B, start being decommissioned in 2011, with the rest being taken out of service by about 2023.
It is estimated that there is a need for up to 10 new stations, though it is thought that the UK could build only two simultaneously. When Areva spoke yesterday of building "a series" of reactors by 2017, the number in mind was probably at least four, which would keep the costs low.
The capital cost of a new nuclear plant depends on how quickly the reactor can be built and whether economies of scale can be achieved. Using a modular design will cut costs if several reactors are built in sequence.
A nuclear station that Areva is building at Olkiluoto, in Finland, is thought to cost about £2bn to £3bn. But a series of four reactors, each using the same design, might cost as little as £1.2bn per plant.
A modern PWR reactor should take about five years to build, but could be as long as 10 years if unexpected project delays are factored in - sending the interest payments on the capital investment soaring. In comparison a gas-fired power station can be built in around six to 18 months, so interest payments are less of a problem.
In Finland, the backers of the Olkiluto nuclear project recently admitted that it was about nine months behind schedule despite being only one year into the construction programme.
It is possible that any new UK reactors would be built on the sites of existing power stations, which would cut down on planning delays. But, as the UK has found with many large-scale construction projects, it has a poor record meeting deadlines.
At least the taxpayer won't be expected to pick up the direct cost of a nuclear-build programme. The Government has made it clear that the market - the power station construction companies and the distributors who will buy the electricity - will be expected to meet the costs. I don't understand that. Don't end-purchasers of electricity also pay tax? So, isn't the cost passed on to the taxpayers? Or is all the electricity to be sold to large firms that avoid taxes?
The Rev. Pat Robertson says God has told him that storms and possibly a tsunami will hit America's coastline this year. The founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network has told viewers of "The 700 Club" that the revelations came to him during his annual personal prayer retreat in January. "If I heard the Lord right about 2006, the coasts of America will be lashed by storms," Robertson said May 8.
I was talking to God the other day, and He told me Robertson's full of it.
He added specifics in Wednesday's show. "There well may be something as bad as a tsunami in the Pacific Northwest," he said. Robertson has come under intense criticism in recent months for suggesting that U.S. agents should assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was divine retribution for Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip.
#1
By the way, you all might want to know that a french ex-army air controller turned ufo-guru (he's written two books on the subject IIRC) has announced that his alien pals/ascended masters told him a comet was gonna hit the Pacific on may 25th and smash us all really bad.
He may be a raelian, I think.
Given that 25th is my birthday, I firmly hope the End-Of-Civilization-As-We-Know-It will come AFTER I've finished eating my cake, thankyouverymuch.
#3
Robertson must have been watching the Weather Channel's "It Could Happen Tomorrow" and wanted in on the latest fads ... figures it will raise $$ I suspect.
#5
Christianity has lost it's social power and moral influence in America. One reason is that instead of fulfilling the message of Christ, many of us listen to stark raving lunatics. Turn off the 700 club and go do good for your fellow man.
20'But the prophet who speaks a word (A)presumptuously in My name which I have not commanded him to speak, or (B)which he speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.'
21"You may say in your heart, 'How will we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?'
22"(C)When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken The prophet has spoken it (D)presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.
#12
Christianity has lost it's social power and moral influence in America. One reason is that instead of fulfilling the message of Christ, many of us listen to stark raving lunatics. Turn off the 700 club and go do good for your fellow man.
With all due respect mcsegeek1, have you been to church lately? Any church, anywhere? If you'd gone with me to the vigil mass last Saturday and taken a look at the bulletin, you'd've seen items soliciting donations for St. Vincent dePaul Society, looking for families to host summer Bible study, on missions work, and various volunteer projects around the parish. Oh, and Fr. Russ' homily--'bout as far from "stark raving lunatic" as you can get.
If, instead, you'd gone to the Baptist church with my wife and mother-in-law, you'd see much the same, including a very intelligent and well-rendered, non-stark, non-raving sermon of about 30 minutes duration. They're sending a missionary team to the Dominican Republic to build playgrounds this summer, did'ya know?
I daresay that Christianity has quite a lot of influence, but it's the sort of quiet, low-key, local influence that the MSM doesn't think of as "news."
As for Pat Robertson, he was a lot more influential (and a lot more sane) 20 years ago. He's discovered that if you say something outrageous that makes Christianity look bad, you can get a lot of coverage and attention from the MSM. Pat loves to do this because it gets his name in the papers. The MSM loves Pat because they can use him to reinforce their hostility to religion. You'll never see the MSM engage a Father Russ or a Pastor Dave or anyone like that with the same enthusiasim, because they might be hard-pressed to hold fast to their smug little bigotries when confronted by reality.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/18/2006 11:04 Comments ||
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#13
SH3352, don't dare trying to quote scripture unless you intend to fully adhere to it as well: the verses plainly state that you must wait for the prediction to fail BEFORE you throw stones. And if digging up Old Testament laws is to your taste, then consider that a false accuser, when discovered, is sentenced to the same punishment he intended the system to inflict on the one he accused. Shall we go on and impose the adultry, witchcraft, and homosexuality/lesbianism rules as well?
Countering what appears to be pseudo-religiosity by equally false religiosity that selectively quotes scripture (the clear identifying mark of hypocrisy) is a losing game. Better to counter the false with the true, as mcsegeek1 notes.
However, the 700 club DOES do a lot of social work as well: chalk up suppression of that knowledge to the same group of media assholes who write about Iraq. Lying and suppression of the truth are like Lay's potato chips: you can't stop at just one.
Posted by: bk ||
05/18/2006 13:55 Comments ||
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#16
Hell, science says a tsumani is possible for the U.S.
And any other coutry with an ocean coastline.
Moron.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/18/2006 14:01 Comments ||
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#17
Mike, let's not get sidetracked with personal attacks on whether I attend Church or not (BTW, I do, every week).
You may not like it that Pat Robertson and other clowns like him are doing great harm to the cause of Christ, and contributing to the waning influence of Biblical Christianity in American social life. I don't like it either. The fact that there are many good preachers and good churches does not change this. Attacking the anti-religion, particularly anti-Christian MSM is too easy. Much of the blame lies with the Preachers in the pulpits and the parishoners in the pews not denouncing these charlatans, loudly and publicly.
#18
mcsegeek1, I wasn't meaning to be personal or judgmental, and I apologize if it came off that way, though I'll admit I did read your comment as carrying the implication that you aren't as churchgoer. Glad to be proved wrong on that point.
I actually think we're probably 90% in agreement on this stuff. I disagree with your assessment of the magnitude of the damage that the unholy duality of Pat Robertson and the MSM does to the cause, but not with the underlying point that he is doing damage.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/18/2006 14:52 Comments ||
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#19
Path, notice carefully, I said collect. Yes, I'm waiting for the event first. As to citing the verse, it is his law that he himself [Robinson]uses. I'm simply using the very thing he uses as measure to measure him.
#24
There will be a subduction superquake off the Pacific northwest and it will cause a huge tsunami that will be funneled up Puget Sound and the damage and loss of life will be horrendous. From memory, there is a 50% chance in the next 2 or 300 hundred years.
And on a related point, the much hyped tsunami warning system will do no good, because there won't be enough time to react. The tsunami hit Ache just fifteen minutes after the earthquake and there will be a similar amount of time to react.
#26
Wel now, according to the local MARIANAS VARIETY [mvariety.com], an independent think-tank known as the OXFORD RESEARCH GROUP has indicated that Guam's USAFB will be used for long-range strikes by USAF bombers [B-2's/B-52's]in support of Milops against IRAN, operations which are surreally/ tentatively scheduled to begin around OCTOBER 2006 acccording to the think-tank. TIMING?Human nature is by definition NON/ANTI-SECULAR. As someone whom has seen extranormal phenomenon a myriad times, including extra-human spiritual entities preparing andor escorting sick relatives for the passage from life to death [and beyond?], NO INTELLECTUAL SECULARIST OR SCIENTIFIST IN THE WORLD COULD'VE RATIONALLY EXPLAINED OR FAKED THESE PHENOMENON DESPITE THE CURRENT ADVANCES IN SCIENCE AND TECH - NOT HOUDINI, NOT CHRIS ANGEL, NO ONE. And iff unexplainable entities such as these exist, entities which are consistent with the teachings, ptenets, or traditions of JudaoChristianity, then Scientifism and Secularism must accept that God, or a higher-than-mortal/human sentient Being, at minimum, may exist, and exists in a way(s) that is presently incomprehensible to mankind. Man, even wid all the capabilities of current technology-thought, is the Inferior, NOT the Superior. MAN DOESN'T RULE THE PLANET, GOD DOES IN HIS WAY - IT IS NOT THE PLACE NOR POWER OF MAN TO TELL GOD WHO IS, AND WHO ISN'T, WHAT IS OR WHAT ISN'T, IN REALITY, REALITY(S), OR ANYWHERE OR ANY DIMENSION(S) IN THE UNIVERSE. It is Madonna's daddy's job to serve and obey God as God wants him to be, not the mortal or physical world, not the United Nations, not World Govts or Washington or the CIA or world Intel, not the Vatican or the Pope, not even Madonna, etal. herself or themselves.
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.
Afghanistan is a deeply conservative Islamic society where family problems are invariably kept hidden behind a veil of privacy. The Indian soap operas are gaining popularity with every passing day Dont telephone an Afghan at 8.30 in the evening. Chances are, he or she will be settled down in front of the television for a daily fix of an Indian soap opera. And they wont want to be disturbed. 
The cultural context of the Indian soap opera was also very easy for Afghans to relate to, she said. People are interested because our culture is so close to India, their way of daily life, the hierarchical system in the family, she said. 
Tolo began running the soap opera, dubbed into Afghanistans Dari language, this year. It began in India several years ago and is still running, so Tolo has lots more episodes to run. Every day, the TV station gets calls from people asking for the episodes to be extended and complaining about the interruptions for advertisments, said another Tolo official, Ahmad Tawab Niazi. Some fans have begged Tolo to change the broadcast time because it coincides with congregational prayers at mosques, he said. Some postpone their prayers. Lets pray later, I cant miss Tulsi, a man murmured to his friend recently in a restaurant in the western city of Herat. 
Libya and Venezuela may work together more on oil projects and increasing aid to poorer states of South America and Africa, Libyan Foreign Minister Abdel Rahman Shalgham said.
The body count grew in South America's largest city Wednesday as police -- who lost 41 comrades in gang attacks -- killed 22 more suspected criminals. Authorities said little about the latest deaths, generating criticism from rights groups. Human rights activists said they feared innocent people may have been hurt in the strikes by police enraged by a notorious gang's attacks on officers on the streets, at their stations, in their homes and at after work hangouts. The latest deaths boosted the overall death toll to 156 since a wave of violence enveloped Sao Paulo last Friday, and came after officers shot 33 presumed gang members dead only a day earlier. 
May 18, 2006: Although the U.S. and many of its friends have come to view the advent of Hugo Chavez as President of Venezuela and Evo Morales as President of Bolivia, as something of a disaster, a lot of cultural and policy analysts have concluded that ignoring them is likely to be the best policy. Despite their often revolutionary rhetoric, neither has an attention-span sufficient to carry through any kind of serious program, much preferring to mug for the crowd, promising pie-in-the-sky but not investing much effort in delivering the goods. To be sure some of their henchmen are more focused, but their status in the hierarchy and their ability to implement programs is very heavily dependent on keeping the bossman entertained. This conclusion seems to have been reached by several governments as well. Apparently China, and perhaps Russia, have decided that going into business with either is not worth the trouble, though if they can get cash up front they're still willing to deal. 
NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico - Mexican lawmakers angrily denounced a measure approved by the U.S. Senate to build new border fences, and illegal immigrants vowed to skirt them and cross into U.S. territory anyway. 
An international team of drug investigators seized 52 tons of cocaine and three islands off Panama in breaking up an alleged drug-trafficking ring.
Former White House counter-terrorism official Richard Clarke, now an ABC News consultant, will be portrayed by Sean Penn in the Sony film of Clarke's "Against All Enemies." The book chronicles what happened inside the White House leading up to and through the 9/ll attacks. The film will be directed by Paul Haggis.
Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.), who could face criminal charges for striking a Capitol Police officer at a security checkpoint in March, has signed on to a resolution commending the police force for its courage and professionalism. Despite having maintained at the time of the incident that the officer touched her inappropriately and that he had failed in his duty to recognize her as a member of Congress, McKinney became a co-sponsor Tuesday of H.R. 756, which praises the force for providing courteous, responsible and diligent services and treating members with dignity and respect.
British parliamentarians have asked Pakistan to spare the life of a British national due to be hanged for murder on June 3, officials said on Wednesday. Mirza Tahir Hussain, from Leeds and of Pakistani descent, was arrested in Rawalpindi in 1988 on charges of murdering and robbing a taxi driver who had reportedly tried to physically and sexually assault him. 
AMMAN - A Jordanian man opened fire on his four sisters as they were sleeping at dawn on Thursday, killing three and seriously wounding the fourth, according to the official Petra news agency. The man, who was not identified, committed his crime in the city of Salt, 15 kilometres west of Amman, following a misunderstanding that triggered an argument with his parents.
The Rev. 
