VILNIUS, Lithuania: Lithuanian police were so astonished when they pulled over a truck driver and his breathalyzer test registered 18 times the legal alcohol limit, they thought their testing device must be broken. It wasn't.
They must use the same meter supply company Fred uses
Police said Tuesday 41-year-old Vidmantas Sungaila registered 7.27 grams per liter of alcohol in his blood repeatedly on different devices when he was pulled over for driving his truck down the center of a two-lane highway 60 miles from the capital, Vilnius on Saturday. Lithuania's legal limit is 0.4 grams per liter.
"This guy should have been lying dead, but he was still driving. It must be an unofficial national record," Saulius Skvernelis, the director of the national police traffic control service, told the AP. "He was of high spirits and grinning the whole time he was questioned."
Being pickled will do that
Medical experts say anything above 3.5 grams per liter of alcohol in the blood is lethal for most people. "A person this intoxicated should be in an intensive care unit, not behind the wheel," said Tautvydas Zikaras, head of the dependence illness center in the country's second-largest city, Kaunas. Zikaras said he had never heard or read of someone being so drunk.
The good news being no virus will ever survive in his blood stream
Sungaila, who was slapped with a 3,000 litas ($1,110) fine and the loss of his license for up to three years, told police he had been drinking the night before and tried to freshen up by downing a pint of beer for breakfast.
"Beer, breakfast of champions"
Lithuania has one of the worst road safety records in the European Union. Last year, 760 people died in traffic accidents in this country of 3.5 million residents. Most were alcohol-related.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/23/2006 09:42 ||
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Well, at least it wasn't 6,66 g per liter, or else, they would have to call an exorcist or something. Thinking about it,... "This guy should have been lying dead, but he was still driving",... Zombie-driver!
AMMAN - King Abdullah II pledged Jordans readiness to help rebuild south Sudan in talks Monday with Sudanese First Vice President Silva Kiir, a court statement said. Jordan is ready to contribute to rebuild and develop south Sudan as part of efforts to strengthen relations, the king told Kiir, who also heads the autonomous regional government in south Sudan.
The monarch said Jordan could help improve infrastructure in south Sudan, including schools and hospitals, and would examine the possibility of dispatching a Jordanian field hospital to the region.
A January 2005 peace deal ended more than two decades of civil war in the south between Kiirs Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement and the Arab-dominated regime in Khartoum. It provides for a referendum on independence for the mainly Christian or animist south after a six-year interim period of autonomy. The autonomous regional government is now seeking Arab and international assistance to rebuild the war-devastated south.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/23/2006 01:03 ||
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By building mosques?
Posted by: ed ||
05/23/2006 1:37 Comments ||
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The Moroccan Meteorological office denied on Monday rumours, which stated that a Tsunami could hit the Atlantic Ocean after the fall of fragments of a comet that would pass close to earth on May 25, MAP news agency reported. This denial comes after the Ufological Research Center warned on its website of a Tsunami danger that would affect several countries, including Morocco.
"And Mars!"
Eric Julien, author of La Science Des Extraterrestres made an alert in his website about Tsunami. He claims that he has received information psychically, which is corroborated by scientific data, according to which on May 25, 2006 a giant tsunami will occur in the Atlantic Ocean, brought about by the impact of a comet fragment which will provoke the eruption of under-sea volcanoes.
Oh, well, if it's psychic data!
He said that waves up to 200 m high will reach coastlines located above and below the Tropic of Cancer. He added that all of the countries bordering the Atlantic will be affected to greater or lesser destructive and deadly levels.
However, the head of the Meteorological Office, Mustapha Janah, told MAP news agency "the Ufological Research Center does not have technical means" to observe this kind of phenomenon. Citing the American space agency "NASA," the official noted that the comet will pass away from planet earth at about 10 million kilometres, excluding hence any risk of a Tsunami in the Atlantic Ocean.
The last Tsunami hit the Indian Ocean on Dec. 26, 2004. It was caused by a 9- magnitude earthquake which killed nearly 150,000 people throughout the region, and left more than 1.5 million homeless. The 2004 tsunami is the worst in recorded history. Prior to 2004, the deadliest recorded tsunami in the Pacific Ocean was in 1782, when 40,000 people were killed by a tsunami in the South China Sea. The tsunami created by the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa is thought to have resulted in 36,000 deaths. The most deadly tsunami between 1900 and 2004 occurred in 1908 in Messina, Italy, on the Mediterranean Sea, where the earthquake and tsunami killed 70,000. The most deadly tsunami in the Atlantic Ocean resulted from the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, which, combined with the toll from the actual earthquake and resulting fires, killed over 100,000.
The African nation of Uganda has announced it will defy European Union threats and begin indoor spraying of DDT to battle rampant malaria. Malaria kills more people in Uganda each year than any other disease, including AIDS and tuberculosis, which typically receive more media attention. Malaria accounts for 40 percent of all illnesses and 21 percent of deaths in Uganda's hospitals. Every year the disease kills approximately 100,000 children under five years old in the country.
"We have to kill malaria using DDT, and the matter has been settled that DDT is not harmful to humans and if used for indoor-insecticide spraying," Uganda Health Minister Jim Muhwezi told the East African on April 4. "It's the most effective and cheapest way to fight malaria."
About ten-fold cheaper than the next alternative.
Worldwide, malaria infects more than 500 million people annually, and kills at least 1 million. Most of the victims--375 million--are women and children. "That's more victims than there are people in the United States and Canada combined," said Roy Innis, national chairman of the U.S.-based Congress of Racial Equality.
"We [have] emphasized fears about speculative risks from trace amounts of insecticides and ignored the real, immediate, life-or-death risks that those insecticides could prevent," said Innis. "The result has been another holocaust of African mothers, fathers, and children every few years, a death toll since the 1972 DDT ban that surpasses World War II's--over 50 million people. It is a travesty worse than colonialism ever was, a human rights violation of monstrous proportions."
European Union officials and nongovernmental organizations, who claim DDT spraying inside Ugandan huts may result in trace levels of the chemical being found on exported Ugandan crops, threatened to restrict the import of Ugandan crops in retaliation for the nation's use of DDT. "If the strict controls that should be put in place when DDT is used are not fully adhered to, and there is a risk of contamination of the food chain, [it] would not automatically lead to a ban of food products, but it will mean that that particular consignment cannot be sent to Europe," said Tom Vens, head of the Economic, Trade, and Social sectors desk at the European Union delegation to Uganda, according to the April 4 East African report.
Because the mental comfort of Y'urp-peons is far more important than the lives of African children.
"No other insecticide, and no bed net at any price works as well as DDT," countered Innis.
Today, DDT is used in carefully controlled campaigns that spray tiny amounts of the chemical on the inside walls of canvas, mud-and-thatch, or cinder-block dwellings. A single treatment lasts up to eight months (versus eight hours for bug repellants with DEET, the most common active ingredient in mosquito repellants currently legal worldwide), keeps 90 percent of mosquitoes from entering homes, irritates any that do come in so they don't bite, and kills many of those that land on the inside walls.
Used this way, virtually no DDT ever enters the surrounding environment, and results are astounding. "Within two years of starting DDT programs, South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia, Madagascar, and Swaziland slashed their malaria rates by 75 percent or more," Innis noted.
In addition to the direct annual death toll, malaria strangles African economies, preventing them from escaping near-universal poverty. According to a March 22 statement from the United Nations Integrated Regional Information Networks, "Economically, malaria drains the wealth of nations and households.
"Recently the [World Health Organization] reported that malaria costs Africa $12 billion a year. In countries where this disease is endemic, it grinds down the per-capita economic growth rate by 1.3 percent yearly. Poor households can spend up to 34 percent of their total income fighting malaria," the statement continued.
The Euros will send a little guilt money to assuage their consciences and then go on with their lives, not worrying once about malaria. And African children will continue to die.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/23/2006 01:05 ||
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Seven suspected oil thieves are in custody of Nigeria's police. This follows their arrest by Nigeria's State Security Service. They were arrested at the Nigerian National Petroleum Products pipes in Ladugba, Asa in Nigeria's Kwara State. According to THISDAY, the oil thieves travelled to the scene in two trailer lorries. These vehicles are also in custody of police in Nigeria. Machinery such as cutlasses, hoes, diggers, cello tapes, wedge hammers were also found at the scene. It is suspected that these were used in the extraction of the oil. After a tip off, Nigeria's police has camping at he scene for the past two weeks. It is suspectd the captured were Ibadan, Sangam or in Nigeria's Oyo state.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/23/2006 00:00 ||
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Cutlasses, ya say?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/23/2006 9:59 Comments ||
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To clench between your teeth as you clamber up the .... oil derrick. Yarrrr!
The National Liberation Force ambushed a group of soldiers on Saturday, killing four soldiers and a civilian, a local official said. The National Liberation Force, or FNL, has repeatedly violated a ceasefire and it is still holding out against a peace deal to end Burundi's 12-year conflict.
According to local chief Hakizimana Mossi, Saturday's attack was in a rural part of Bujumbura. Burundi is emerging from more than a decade of ethnic clashes between majority Hutus and minority Tutsis which left more than 250 000 people, mostly civilians, dead. Several peace deals led to democratic elections last year and the formation of a power-sharing government between members of the Hutus and the Tutsis. The FNL, a Hutu group, has been the only holdout, but recently agreed to peace talks.
And I, for one, am convinced they're gonna adhere to any agreement they make.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/23/2006 00:00 ||
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A cholera epidemic has flared sporadically in Zimbabwe since late last year, but shortages of drugs, staff and serviceable vehicles have prevented the authorities from stamping it out. The latest outbreak, reported over the weekend, has claimed 15 lives and infected 45 people in the northeastern town of Guruve, 150km from the capital, Harare. A senior disease control officer told IRIN the numbers affected could be much higher, as health teams have been unable to cover the more remote parts of the district. "The problems we face in Guruve are exactly what we have experienced in all the other areas where cholera outbreaks have been reported since January. There is a crisis in the supply of medicines and essential drugs, personnel, and even cars to get to places we believe need thorough check-ups," said the official, who asked not to be named.
Hmmm... Sounds like you need more Marxism. That should take care of it.
According to Portia Mangazira, acting coordinator of the ministry of health's epidemiology unit, the situation in Guruve was under control, and prevention teams were being dispatched around the district. "We have been responding to outbreaks since the beginning of the year and they have all been contained, although the recurrence rate remains high," said Manangira.
I don't think the civilized world has had a cholera epidemic in my lifetime. I could be wrong, of course, but I think I'd have noticed.
Health Minister Dr David Parirenyatwa admitted that foreign currency shortages and an exodus of specialist staff meant his ministry faced huge challenges in running an effective disease control unit. "Fuel and transport problems have also crippled a lot of control operations. However, we have managed to deploy the few resources [we have] with some effect over disease-hit areas," Parirenyatwa told IRIN.
Guess you'll just have to nationalize all the resources, huh?
He acknowledged the reduced capacity of the disease control unit as a result of Zimbabwe's long-running problem with looting economic crisis and the exodus of skilled staff. "The rate at which the diseases have been recurring is proof that we are failing in total epidemic control. A lot of work needs to done in rebuilding the unit, but we are not sure if we are going to be able to attract and retain highly qualified staff," Parirenyatwa said.
"In fact, we're pretty sure we won't."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/23/2006 00:00 ||
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Under their modest flowing robes, two-thirds of Saudi women are too fat.
We're talkin' major blubber, here...
They can try dieting, but you won't find many in aerobics classes or power-walking along this city's walking trails. And very few of their daughters attend schools that have physical education classes. There are no laws against women exercising outside their homes, but in this conservative society many are influenced by scholars and clerics who argue against it.
"Nope. Nope. Can't do it. 'Tain't Islamic, y'know."
In Riyadh, hotel gyms and pools are off limits to women.
"Eeeewwww! Ucky! Cooties! No girlz allowed!"
Along the city's walking trails, where the women walk covered in the mandatory black cloaks, they are sometimes harassed by the muttawa. Rana al-Abdullah said one such official ordered her to go back to her car when she was out walking one day and wouldn't leave her alone until she did. She now walks in malls.
Here in the States it's called "shopping."
Many Saudis say they are baffled by the religious arguments. At a clinic that treats obesity-related diseases, a booklet left by a writer named Muhammad al-Habdan, warned that if girls' schools began P.E., Saudi girls would have to change into workout gear - and good girls should not disrobe outside their homes. Changing in a locker room might cause them to lose the shyness that is the hallmark of good morals, the booklet warned. It went on to say that the girls might become attracted to each other after seeing their classmates in tight leotards and tops.
"Yes! Yes! This is impermissible! To have young women, totally nekkid under their clothes violates the laws of Allen! They have boobies, brethren and sistern! And thighs! And high, gently rounded buttocks! And they have... They have... Oh, Allen! They have pubies!... My gun! Where is my gun! I must... I must... shoot off!... My gun, that is. Yes. My gun. That's what I meant. Really..."
Changing such attitudes has become the goal of many health-conscious women who are alarmed about the rising rate of obesity in their country.
"Go play with yer gun and shuddup! I got cellulite, dammit!"
About 52 per cent of Saudi Arabia's men and 66 per cent of women are either obese or overweight, according to Saudi press reports. Among adolescents the rate is 18 per cent and in preschoolers over 15 per cent. Health officials blame the plush, oil-fuelled Saudi lifestyle for the expanding waistlines. As Saudis have become richer, they have abandoned fibre-rich meals for fast food and meat-based dishes. They have brought in millions of Asian workers to do manual jobs. And they are addicted to technology that encourages staying at home in front of a computer or the TV. "We're a very affluent society, so we have the luxury not to have to move," said Yasmin al-Tuwaijri, an epidemiologist who studies the obesity epidemic at a leading Riyadh hospital.
"Many of us have actually grown roots and become vegetation. I have an uncle who flowers in the spring."
Mindful of the dangers of obesity, the government is trying to educate its citizens about obesity and the diseases related to it. Almost daily, Saudi newspapers, which are government-guided, carry tips on healthy eating and exercise. The Health Ministry and a women's charity, Al-Nahda Philanthropic Society for Women, are spearheading campaigns to encourage Saudis to start moving. Last year, during the fasting month of Ramadan, when people tend to put on weight because of the rich meals after fasting, the ministry set up an information centre where Saudis could get health information by phone and fax. Most of the callers to the "Hello Ramadan" program were women who wanted to learn about diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity.
"Whaddya need to know about it?"
"How to get rid of it!"
Yet the efforts are not making Saudis leaner. "It's because the whole environment doesn't support a change in lifestyle," said al-Tuwaijri.
"We should maybe discuss it over dinner?"
One of those lifestyle changes is getting more women to work out. But it's not just a matter of persuading them to get off their couches. It's changing a mentality that believes that workouts in schools, gyms or outdoors are an evil that will lead, through giving women more freedoms, to the decline of society.
"You can't trust them. As soon as they're at the gym, their pants come off! You don't know who the hell they're doinkin'!"
"The Muslim woman should realize that she is a target for corruption," said al-Habdan in another booklet on why women should not go to fitness clubs.
"She is targeted by... ummm... Muslim men! No. No. That can't be it. It must be Zionists in the health clubs!
"There is no faster way to corrupt nations than the emancipation of women - that is getting her out on the street to entice men and ruin their morals," he added.
"Yes, that's it! Muslim women are targets for corruption because when they go out they target men for corruption. And sin. And copulation. With no clothes on. Nekkid as eggs, I tells yez! Oh, where is my gun?"
Several years ago, some members of the appointed Consultative Council, the closest thing Saudi Arabia has to a Parliament, raised the issue of physical education in girls' schools. Those who voted against it pointed out that exercise classes in boys' schools have not had much effect on male obesity, according to press reports. That is the same argument al-Habdan makes in his booklets.
"Yeah. It don't do no good. Just fergit the whole idea."
Badria al-Bani, a member of the walking campaign al-Nahda is spearheading, said the group's effort will focus on raising awareness among Saudi men of the importance of exercise in a woman's life. "The first point many women have raised is this point," she said. She said the group will suggest that girls' schools dedicate 15 minutes of the lunch break for walking. "Isn't that better for the girls than eating?" she asked.
Wouldn't it be better to do both?
Some months ago, veteran Arab News columnist Abeer Mishkhas said she "was basking in the glow of satisfaction" at some of the successes women had made in 2005 when an article caught her eye and mocked her. It was a Ministry of Education press release that said rumours that girls' schools will have P.E. classes soon were baseless and misleading. And it reprimanded newspapers for suggesting the possibility.
#1
What their women need are female martial artists who make house calls to train them in self-defense. How to fracture a rapist's skull, how to tear off male genitalia, nose and knee breaking, eye gouging and arm breaking.
Really gets the girls fit and trim in a hurry. Improves their morals, too. Or at least morale.
London Mayor Ken Livingstone is hoping to raise the standard of food served in the capitals pubs, restaurants and take-away outlets.
Livingstone and Jenny Jones, chairman of London Food, today launched Londons first ever strategy designed to improve Londons food and reduce the environmental impact of the food industry.
The strategy recommends a range of actions which it hopes will improve Londoners' health through better diet and increase the availability of quality food.
The Mayor is providing a budget of £3.87m over the next three years to support the work of the London Food Strategy.
Ken Livingstone, said: Food is an essential part of everyday living that can easily be taken for granted, yet the effects of our food habits are increasingly clear. Obesity levels are rising and many people dont have easy access to healthy and nutritious food.
The strategy will also look at providing courses for the capitals chefs and food producers.
#1
Or, Livingstone could realize he's not God and stop trying to run peoples' lives. He'd probably be ostracized by his friends and party for doing so, though.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
05/23/2006 7:43 Comments ||
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LMAO - try workign on ENGLISH food to begin with - its damned near as bad as Scotttish and Irish cuisine. About the only things with any favor are the kebabs that seem to be on every corner anymore, and God only knows whats in 'em (but they are tasty).
#3
Why do you think the British Empire was created? They were just looking for some good take-out.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/23/2006 10:15 Comments ||
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Red Ken has a point ... unless you've got a good deal of disposable income and eat out a lot, it's not that easy to find fresh good in London. Been there, tried that. The state of their food stores is .... lacking. As bad as stores in some slums in the US, but surprising to find them in middle income neighborhoods over there.
That said, they'll take away my mushy peas and shepherd's pie when they pry my fork from my cold dead fingers ... or while I'm tipping a pint of bitter and not paying attention. LOL
#5
It's the little things that really matter. And hopefully, when Red Ken is thrown out on his ear for trying to make Londoners eat tofu and bean sprouts with "lite" ale or white wine; he will curse them loud and long as unappreciative peasants who aren't worthy of his brilliance.
#6
I dunno, 'Moose. There's the whole "no smoking in pubs" bit and the proliferation of traffic cameras. These days there's less and less to draw me back to London.
I don't like the politics of many Scots -- all the entrepreneurial ones came to the States and Australia and such so they're left with Socialism (and the greed of the Lairds in the highland clearances didn't help either). That said, though, it's still a place where you can smoke (I don't but I understand their passion for it), drink, eat sweet things and be raucus. Lot to be said for a place that preserves those freedoms.
#1
As I pointed out yesterday, the world has abundant coal and there is therefore no prospect of a coal OPEC. It also means coal prices will be less (and probably a lot less) volatile than oil prices.
#4
Hell, the Nazis did it in WW2 while they were getting their a$$es bombed to smithereens. No reason why we cannot do it.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/23/2006 10:02 Comments ||
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Produces CO2 ya say? Well, if ya are concerned about production of CO2, ya better quit breathing, that's the ticket. I remember the Pogo comic strip by Walt Kelly had an episode about a bunch of critters forming a group of non-breathers.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/23/2006 10:04 Comments ||
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#6
yeah and best of luck to them.
but why not use ethanol/methanol now when we already have the technology and can use it. Why are we always waiting for something new.
#7
I run a race car on methanol every weekend. There are a couple of problems with it.
1st. Fuel mileage. You get about half the mileage you do with gasoline. Imagine the poor engineers that have to figure out a way to put an extra 13 gallons into a compact cars gas tank in order to go the same distance on tank. Not the biggest problem, but a fuel mileage thing leads to a cost problem.
2nd. It's about two bucks a gallon now. Perhap if increasing supply could get it down to $1.50 or less per gallon the cost would be manageable.
3rd. You need to run at least 12.5-1 compression for methanol to burn correctly. This kind of compression is hard on internal engine parts, as well as starters. Not desireable from an O.E. standpoint.
Now this additional compression could offset some of the fuel mileage penalty, and therefore some of the additional cost, but not nearly enough I suspect.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
05/23/2006 12:50 Comments ||
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A FREAK wave smashed into one of the worlds largest ferries in the Bay of Biscay, terrifying passengers and forcing the ship to divert to a French harbour. The wave, estimated at between 40ft (12m) and 50ft high, crashed into the Pont-Aven, the flagship of the Brittany Ferries fleet, at 10.25pm on Sunday, smashing windows and injuring at least six people. Cabins more than 50ft above the waterline were flooded. Passengers described seeing a wall of water, followed by an explosion and then seeing people running around covered in blood after being hit by glass.
Ya know, this might make a good movie plot....oh, wait..
The 41,000-tonne Pont-Aven, which was sailing from Plymouth to Santander in northern Spain, was forced to pull into the French port of Roscoff for emergency repairs. The 1,150 passengers on board were offered a refund and told that they could return to England on another ship or make their own way to Spain.
"I'll walk, thanks"
Posted by: Steve ||
05/23/2006 09:19 ||
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Shit.
One eye barely open, I read the headline as "Wall of Water Strikes Kerry."
sigh...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
05/23/2006 10:39 Comments ||
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Since Hollyweird is presently remaking THE OMEN and POSEIDON ADVENTURE, might as well THE TOWERING WAVE [Inferno]. DAY AFTER TOMORROW > EARTHQUAKE for most part. Solar output is normal, ergo we're doomed.
In the early spring when Turkey's government began to consider its options for the soon-to-be vacant post of central bank governor, a delegation of businessmen travelled from Istanbul to Ankara to lobby for the reappointment of Sureyya Serdengecti.
After a day of meetings, including talks with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, other senior politicians and officials, the businessmen had no clear sense of whom the government preferred.
The only certainty was that ministers were not intending to renominate the widely admired Mr Serdengecti, who during his five-year stint in office had overseen a successful battle with inflation.
The delegation, from Tusiad, Turkey's big-business lobby, left Ankara empty-handed and disappointed. As Mustafa Koc, chairman of the eponymous industrial group and member of the delegation, recalled in a recent interview: "They treated me with great respect, but I realised I had no influence there [with the government]."
The Tusiad representatives were not the only people with an interest in the central bank succession whose advice the government rejected. The pleas of bankers who also argued for Mr Serdengecti's renomination were ignored, according to several bankers.
The incidents would appear to confirm that, after more than three years of wary cohabitation, Turkey's secular and free-wheeling business establishment, centred in Istanbul, has lost patience with the socially conservative, Islamic-rooted government in Ankara.
"A mistake was made," says Erol Sabanci, chairman of Akbank, Turkey's number two privately owned bank. "The government felt it needed a new governor, and we have to respect that. But the handling of the matter was bad, and was not liked by the business community in Istanbul and abroad."
The new governor is Durmus Yilmaz, a central bank veteran. But before choosing him, the government nominated one person who runs an Islamic-style bank that shuns interest rates, and left another would-be candidate hanging out to dry as a debate raged about the fact that his wife wears the Muslim headscarf.
A straightforward appointment became a battle of wills with investors, bankers and industrialists as the prime minister sought to place a party loyalist at the top of one of Turkey's few truly independent institutions. Mr Erdogan was ultimately unsuccessful, but not before the central bank, a technocratic institution that has established a robust independence of politics, was embroiled in the tensions between Islam and secularism that have beset Turkey for decades.
This parting of the ways between the business establishment and Mr Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) may be the most serious consequence of the government's handling of the central bank succession. It reflects a gulf in understanding between Istanbul, Turkey's liberal and energetic business capital, and Ankara, the political capital, where partisanship and ideology can often be rampant.
The gulf in perceptions - and self-perceptions - between the two cities, which are only a 45-minute flight apart, is one of the fascinating aspects of modern Turkey. The two cities are both power centres in their own right and compete for influence. Istanbul used to be Constantinople, capital of the Ottoman empire and one of the world's oldest and greatest cities, bestriding Europe and Asia. The former village of Ankara on a mountain top in Anatolia was nominated in the 1920s to be the capital of the new revolutionary republic created by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and is the bastion of Turkish republicanism.
Erhan Aslanoglu, an economist at Marmara University, says past tensions between the Istanbul business establishment and the Ankara political establishment, while ever present, were mostly technical. This time, he says, the rift is ideological.
Tusiad has long considered itself a non-governmental organisation, arguing over many years for Turkey's entry to the European Union, and for the adoption of measures needed to secure it - including social and political reforms that the entrenched bureaucracy in Ankara is only now beginning to address.
The AKP, equally self-consciously, presents Turkey's democratic, Muslim face to the world.
It is one that can make Turkey's secular elites uncomfortable, because they are not natural supporters of the party and its social policies. After treating each other gingerly since the AKP came to power in late 2002, a clash was perhaps inevitable.
"The starting point of Tusiad and the AKP is very different, and the central bank appointment was a crucial moment in their relationship," Prof Aslanoglu says.
Others say the rift fits a historical pattern and should not be exaggerated. Ersin Ozince, chief executive of Is Bank, the country's biggest bank, says it may be a simple swing of the pendulum in the love-hate relationship between business and politics.
He says the late Turgut Ozal, who as prime minister in the 1980s had a reputation as a liberal but was personally conservative, stuffed his administration with like-minded people, just as Mr Erdogan has sought to do.
"It's like a wave that comes and goes," Mr Ozince says.
Opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi threatened Monday to withdraw his coalition from Parliament if it turns out that his side won general elections in April and the president refuses to call a new vote, according to news reports. Berlusconi's conservative coalition narrowly lost last month's election to the center-left coalition of Romano Prodi. The April 9-10 vote was so close that the final results were not certified for days as localities counted contested votes, and the narrow margin highlighted a bitterly and virtually evenly divided nation.
Prodi eventually was sworn in last week after receiving the mandate from the country's new president, former Communist Giorgio Napolitano. But Berlusconi has repeatedly challenged the results. He vowed Monday during the taping of the late-night TV talk show "Porta a Porta" that if a check of the vote shows that he won rather than Prodi, and Napolitano did not call for new elections, he would order "the immediate withdrawal of all the deputies and senators of the House of Liberties coalition," according to the show's transcripts cited by the Apcom and ANSA agencies. Berlusconi did not say whether he had officially appealed the election results. According to Italian law, all complaints regarding blank, null or otherwise irregular ballots must be taken up by legislative commissions formed once the new parliament convenes.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/23/2006 00:00 ||
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Montenegro ended nearly a century of formal ties to Serbia on Monday after its people voted for independence in a referendum that closed the final chapter in the story of Yugoslavia. The world's newest independent state has a population of just 650,000, with a rugged coast and even more rugged mountains in a territory about the size of Northern Ireland. Tourism is its planned ticket to prosperity as it strikes out on its own. "I am convinced Montenegro could be the next country from this region to join the European Union, after Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia, which are further along the process," said Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, the architect of the independence drive for the past 10 years. Serbia reluctantly conceded that its little cousin on the Adriatic had opted to split, and the European Union quickly gave a seal of approval to a separation it had once tried to prevent, fearing further instability in Europe's most turbulent corner. Announcing the first official results, Montenegro's referendum commission said 55.4 percent of Sunday's referendum votes were in favor of independence, clearing the EU-required target of 55 percent for recognition.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/23/2006 00:00 ||
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surprise surprise - we need to snag the pic of Gore from the link as well
Is President Bush likely to see Al Gore's documentary about global warming?
"Doubt it," Bush said coolly Monday.
But Bush should watch it, Gore shot back. In fact, the former Democratic vice president offered to come to the White House any time, any day to show Bush either his documentary or a slide show on global warming that he's shown more than 1,000 times around the world.
"The entire global scientific community has a consensus on the question that human beings are responsible for global warming and he has today again expressed personal doubt that that is true," Gore said in an Associated Press interview from France where he attended the Cannes Film Festival.
Bush and Gore have had bitter disagreements about the environment and other issues. Bush defeated Gore in a disputed presidential election that was finally settled by the Supreme Court in 2000.
Gore's documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," chronicles his efforts to bring greater attention to the dangers of climate change.
"New technologies will change how we live and how we drive our cars, which all will have the beneficial effect of improving the environment," Bush said. "And in my judgment we need to set aside whether or not greenhouse gases have been caused by mankind or because of natural effects and focus on the technologies that will enable us to live better lives and at the same time protect the environment."
Gore said the causes of global warming should not be ignored.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/23/2006 19:39 ||
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#1
Gore said the causes of global warming should not be ignored.
Further proof that Bush indeed does have 2 brain cells to rub together.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/23/2006 22:27 Comments ||
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#5
Further proof that Bush indeed does have 2 brain cells to rub together.
Which Gore has proven time and again is more than he has.
This idiot needs to read Rantburg, especially the article by the German(?) and Swedish(?) scientist that say that the SUN is burning a bit brighter at the moment, and may, MAY be a contributing cause to global warming. Of course, they also weasel-word their discovery by saying that man ALSO contributes. They shot their credibility with me when the article states that CO2 is the "main" greenhouse gas (at 5% - water vapor is the majority of the other 95%).
Gore is the personification of the Democratic Party - always preaching last year's news, always trying to grab the limelight, always wrong, and ALWAYS a jackass.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/24/2006 0:00 Comments ||
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As many as half of all illegal immigrants in the United States initially entered the country legally, according to a study released Monday by the Pew Hispanic Center.
Approximately 40 percent to 50 percent came across the border using short-term visas or other legal means. Then they simply stayed after their visas expired.
That means 4.5 million to 6 million now-illegal immigrants passed legally through U.S. customs and immigration officials at airports or other established border-crossing points.
Overall, about 12 million illegal immigrants live in the United States, according to the center, based in Washington, D.C.
The findings come as members of the Senate continue debate on a comprehensive immigration bill and a week after President Bush urged Congress to authorize more than $1.9 billion to bolster security along the border with Mexico.
The study underscores the need for a comprehensive review of immigration policy, not just enforcement measures, said Roberto Reveles, president of We Are America, a coalition of Arizona community groups advocating immigration reform.
If we are going to be deploying National Guard troops to the border and think that is going to solve the issue, Im absolutely sure its not, Reveles said.
Part of Bushs funding request called for 6,000 Na- tional Guard troops to assist the U.S. Border Patrol with surveillance and logistics for two years while the Border Patrol increases its ranks.
Improving visa procedures also would be part of a comprehensive approach to immigration reform, Reveles said.
Former state senator and Hispanic activist Alfredo Gutierrez said Pew studies tend to skew toward long-term U.S. residents, so the actual number of visa violators probably is less because it was easier to get visas years ago.
Those who apply for visas are required to show U.S. officials that they have economic incentives and family ties that entice them to return to their home countries, Gutierrez said.
If you talk to people who have been here five years or longer, many arrived on visas. If you talk to people who have been here five years or less, very few of them arrived with visas, Gutierrez said.
The researchers determined that roughly 4 million to 5.5 million illegal immigrants entered the United States with non-immigrant visas, mostly as tourists or business visitors, then overstayed their permits.
In addition, 250,000 to 500,000 used Border Crossing Cards, documents that allow short visits near the border, then violated their terms of admission.
The researchers concluded 6 million to 7 million crossed the border illegally, evading U.S. Border Patrol agents along the countrys borders with Mexico and Canada and along its coasts.
Tougher U.S. visa policies have restricted the free flow of foreigners across the borders, Gutierrez said, and that in turn has encouraged foreigners to overstay their visas.
Foreign agricultural workers, among others, are reluctant to leave the United States after their seasonal jobs, because they fear they wont be permitted to return the following season.
One of the consequences of trying to keep people out is capturing people in, Gutierrez said.
The federal government has no way of tracking legal foreign visitors who overstay their welcomes, according to the Pew researchers.
The study shows that there isnt one single strategy that is going to stop illegal immigration. To really stop it, you need a comprehensive program, Gutierrez said. Such a program would include visa vigilance, increased border security and sanctions against employers who hire illegal immigrants, he said.
#1
The study shows that there isnt one single strategy that is going to stop illegal immigration. To really stop it, you need a comprehensive program,...
I think annexation and commonwealth status for the o'home country will work remarkably well in deterring government sponsored diaspora of their population upon their neighbors.
#2
My Argentine friend has been married to an American for 15 years and the INS bureaucracy in Milwaukee hasn't finished her paperwork YET. She fills out a form that expires in 6 months, INS doesn't act on it, the form expires, and she has to go back to Milwaukee and fill the same stupid form out again, which they ignore for another 6 months, and so on ad nauseam.
A Democratic congressman facing a bribery probe after FBI agents found $90,000 in his freezer denied wrongdoing on Monday and said he would not step down from his congressional seat. Speaking to reporters, Louisiana Rep. William Jefferson said he could not discuss details of the pending federal investigation. "There are two sides to every story. There are certainly two sides to this story," said Jefferson, adding, "This is not the time, this is not the forum" to discuss it.
"Just gimme a little time. I'll think of something!"
He again declared his innocence and vowed he would not resign. "I expect to continue to represent the people who sent me here," he said.
"If they don't mind me wetting my beak why should you?"
The investigation has complicated Democratic efforts to exploit several scandals involving Republicans as they try to take back control of Congress in November's elections. FBI investigators raided Jefferson's office over the weekend and disclosed they had videotaped the New Orleans lawmaker accepting $100,000 cash intended as a bribe for a Nigerian official. The FBI also said in a court affidavit that it found $90,000 of that money hidden in a freezer in his house.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/23/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
There are certainly two sides to this story
Sure. Doesn't everybody have at least 90G's in their freezer?
#2
Like I said before. Doesn't everyone keep 90K of cold, hard cash around? He just takes it literally.
Did anyone notice how ABC news barely mentioned in passing that he is a democrat? If it were a republican every other phrase would be a republican. Isn't that what they did with Delay?
#5
That bitch set me up ... ooops, wrong guy. But not wrong party.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/23/2006 0:52 Comments ||
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#6
I feel a song coming on!
“Mr. X, may we ask you a question?
It's amazing, is it not,
That the city pays you slightly less than fifty bucks a week,
Yet you've purchased a private yacht?”
“I am positive your Honor must be joking!
Any working man can do what I have done.
For a month or two I simply gave up smoking,
And I put my extra pennies one by one
“Into a little tin box,
A little tin box
That a little tin key unlocks.
There is nothing unorthodox
About a little tin box.
In a little tin box.
A little tin box
That a little tin key unlocks.
There is honor and purity,
Lots of security,
In a little tin box.”
“Mr. Y, we've been told you don't feel well,
And we know you've lost your voice,
But we wonder how you managed on the salary you make
To acquire a new Rolls-Royce.”
“You're implyin' I'm a crook and I say no, sir!
There is nothin' in my past I care to hide.
I been takin' emply bottles to the grocer
And each nickel that I got was put aside
(That he got was put aside)
“Into a little tin box,
A little tin box
That a little tin key unlocks.
There is nothing unorthodox
About a little tin box.
In a little tin box,
A little tin box
There's a cushion for life's rude shocks.
There is faith, hope and charity,
Hard-won prosperity,
In a little tin box.”
“Mr. Z, you're a junior official
And your income's rather low,
Yet you've kept a dozen women in the very best hotels,
Would you kindly explain how so?”
“I can see your Honor doesn't pull his punches,
And it looks a trifle fishy, I'll admit.
But for one whole week I went without my lunches,
And it mounted up, your Honor, bit by bit.
(Up your Honor, bit by bit.)
“It's just a little tin box,
A little tin box
That a little tin key unlocks.
There is nothing unorthodox
About a little tin box.
In a little tin box,
A little tin box
All a-glitter with blue-chip stocks.
There is something delectable,
Almost respectable,
In a little tin box,
In a little tin box.”
Little Tin Box, from Fiorello.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
05/23/2006 1:13 Comments ||
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#7
It's a frame-up by the Bush-Gonzalez Justice Department; yeah, that's the ticket. But Johnny C. isn't available anymore to represent me, so how can I convince the jury that $90,000 won't fit so they must acquit.
#9
Well, I got excited, inspired, and felt a little foolish, but I looked inside my freezer downstairs. All I found were frozen fish, blueberries, king crab legs, and frost. Not one dollar bill, dammit. Should I claim reverse discrimination. Mucky, help me out here......
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/23/2006 10:10 Comments ||
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#10
You have the Bridge to Nowhere to rip off funds from .... whatcha gripin' about, AP??? LOL
#11
Well, FYI, right after Katrina hit New Orleans, and while the rescues of civilians on their rooftops was ongoing, Rep. Jefferson commandeered a LA Nation Guard Helo to bring him to his uptown home to retrieve some "documents" before the looters (his constituents, ironically) got them. At the time, it was a small story, but with this new evidence, I wonder how much cash he had at is uptown New Orleans home? Jefferson's buddy, Cleo Fields, also was caught by the FBI on tape stuffing $10,000 cash in his underware in the LA Governor's office. Former Gov. Edwards is currently doing time in a federal prison for that one, Cleo walked. Edwin Edwards, Cleo fields, and William Jefferson...what a bunch of crooks. And people in New Orleans wonder why the rest of the contry doesn't want to rebuild their city with these types in charge....
Posted by: Louisiana Son ||
05/23/2006 10:49 Comments ||
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#6
Frank, most Arabs in the US are not muslim. Last I checked Jesse MacBeth is not a Halal name. Now if he is a convert to the Religion of Backstabbers, or if he is claiming to do this for "the Arab brothers" then that would be something worth exposing.
Posted by: ed ||
05/23/2006 22:12 Comments ||
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A 14-year old girl has died a month after being shot four times by male relatives in an attempted "honour killing", police said on Monday. Nur Jehan had been shot in the stomach, leg, knee and arm in Gadap on April 19 and left for dead in a ditch by her relatives, who accused her of having pre-marital sex. Crawling out of the ditch and onto a road , she was rescued by a passer-by and admitted to hospital here Her condition, however, deteriorated on Sunday morning. "She died due to a stomach infection caused by the bullet wound," police officer Jahan Khan Niazi confirmed.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/23/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
If she did have pre-marital sex it was poor parenting. The father should emasculate himself before shooting himeself in the head. It was his error. He was the poor role model.
The size of the summer polar ice cap has shrunk 20 percent since 1979, reaching its smallest size last year. With average temperatures in the Arctic rising twice as fast as elsewhere in the world, climate scientists predict the Arctic Ocean could be ice-free by the summer of 2050.
In place of the white wilderness that killed explorers and defeated navigators for centuries, the world would have a blue North Pole and a seasonally open sea nearly five times the size of the Mediterranean. Last August, a Russian vessel, the Akademik Fyodorov, became the first ship to reach the North Pole without having to use an icebreaker.
Who stands to lose from all this?
The melting of the ice could shut down the Gulf Stream and wreak havoc with the worlds coasts and climate. It would spell potential disaster for traditional Arctic communities, for ecosystems, and for plant and animal speciespolar bears would drown or starve, and the species could become extinct. But fish would prosper.
Warming Arctic waters are already creating new fishing grounds as fish migrate and adapt to new conditions. Pink salmon have been seen spawning in rivers far to the north of their traditional territory.
Who stands to gain?
The melting ice cap represents a colossal commercial opportunity. Russian icebreakers are already preparing to take tourists to the Pole for $30,000 each this summer, and the thaw could open up some highly lucrative shipping routes.
A northeast sea route, north of Siberia, would allow shipping to sail from Europe to northeast Asia, cutting the journey by a third; and the fabled Northwest Passage through Canadas Arctic archipelago could be open to shipping in a few decades, cutting the journey from Europe to East Asia (now routed through the Panama Canal) by 4,000 miles. The greatest profits, however, are likely to be found under the ice.
What is being discovered there?
Oil and natural gas. A quarter of the worlds untapped fossil fuels (including 375 billion barrels of oil) are thought to lie under the Arctic, and will become accessible as the ice melts.
Industry experts now talk of a "black gold rush," as companies such as BP Amoco, Statoil of Norway, and the Russian giant Gasprom all race to tap already discovered reservoirs in the region. The Arctic, says Moscow-based energy analyst Christopher Weafer, "is the next energy frontier."
But who owns the Arctic?
Unlike the Antarctic, which was carved up in 1959, there is no international treaty to determine each Arctic nations ownership. In 1932, when Stalin drew lines from the North Pole to either end of Russias northern coast and designated it the USSR Polar Region, no one took much notice; the area seemed to offer only howling winds, drifting icebergs, and months of freezing darkness.
Today it is the focus of fierce territorial disputes among the eight countries with claims: Russia, the United States, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland. Under Article 76 of the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, countries can claim a 200-nautical-mile exclusive zone and beyond that up to 150 nautical miles of rights on the seabed.
But national zones can be expanded if a nation can establish that there is a natural prolongation of its continental shelf beyond previously recognized limits. Countries that ratified the Convention before 1999 have until 2009 to make their claims.
Is that a recipe for conflict?
Yes. Each summer, research ships from the Arctic nations set out on political missions to map the ocean floor to bolster territorial claims. The Akademik Fyodorov, for example, didnt turn up at the North Pole just to prove it could reach it without an icebreaker.
The research ship was there to shore up Russias claim, made in 2001, to almost half the Arctic Ocean, including the pole. But that claim has been challenged by Denmark, which insists the pole sits on the continental shelf belonging to Greenland (a Danish territory).
Denmark is also locked in a dispute with Canada over Hans Island, a freezing lump of rock that could determine rights to drill for oil in the Nares Strait between Canada and Greenland; ministers from each side pay visits to the lump, and landing parties from both navies raise their flags and leave whiskey and brandy as tokens of their claims.
How will these conflicts be resolved?
In theory, through negotiation, but when two nations cannot agree, the U.N. Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf is brought in as an arbitrator. (It has just turned down a Russian demand for greater Arctic rights.) The U.S., however, wont accept the commissions authority, fearing that to do so would entail a loss of sovereignty over the seas above Alaska.
Besides, the commission deals only with continental shelves, and most surveys suggest that only Russias and Denmarks shelves extend far enough to give them a claim on the pole.
Meanwhile, the race to extract the Arctics mineral wealth is likely to accelerate as sustained high oil prices fund ever-bolder exploration. The best that can be hoped for in the new Great Game is that contestants keep it orderly.
A passage across the Arctic
For hundreds of years, European explorers tried to open up new trade routes to China and Japan by using the fabled Northwest Passage through the polar coast of Canada.
British mariner Martin Frobisher tried three times to get to Cathay the cold way. On his third voyage, in 1578, he sailed into Hudson Strait between the Canadian mainland and Baffin Island and ran into "a sudden and terrible tempest, whereby the ice began marvelously to gather about us."
Frobisher returned to Britain defeated.
The Northwest Passage claimed its most famous victim in 1845 when Sir John Franklin and 134 men, in his ships Erebus and Terror, were spotted by the crew of a whaler entering Baffin Bay. They were never seen alive again.
Finally, in 1906, Norwegian Roald Amundsen managed to sail right through. Learning from Franklins fatal error, he realized the Arctic regions could not support large crews, and accomplished the feat with just six companions in a small, 47-ton fishing boat.
Since then only a few, specially strengthened ships have made it through the mighty ice barriers that block the route even in summer. That all may soon change, as the ice melts into an open, wind-swept sea.
#2
Watch this year. Polar ice cap shifted in Arctic gyre. Multi-year ice into the Chukchi Sea for the first time in years. Ice edge climatologically way south in the Bering Sea in late May.
#3
As I mentioned yesterday melting sea ice is a lagging indicator. What we have seen is the result of climate warming 10 or 20 years ago. Climate has stopped warming and even started to cool a little, so sea ice will stop melting.
#4
Ozone holes are the earth's natural way of venting itself, like the exhaustpipe or tailpipe of any car - adding normal hemispheric air/wind circulation patterns to solar-based forces, etc should raise temps over the poles as a matter of course. Various news reports from yesterday indic that many of these pro-global warming surveys which use the ice caps as evidencia only focus on a small or the same part of the ice caps, thus while the caps in total gain new ice, by these limited survey areas these scientists think the caps are losing ice.
TEHRAN, Iran -- The Iranian government closed one of its own newspapers Tuesday for publishing a cartoon that provoked riots among the Azeri minority.
State television reported that the national media supervisory body had closed the state-owned Iran "due to its publication of divisive and provocative materials."
The closure was indefinite, the television reported.
On Friday, the newspaper published a cartoon showing a cockroach speaking Azeri, the language of an ethnic group in northwestern Iran.
The cartoon touched off riots in that part of the country on Monday, and the unrest ended only after police used tear-gas on the crowd.
Culture Minister Saffar Harrandi appeared on state television and apologized for the cartoon.
The truth about global warming - it's the Sun that's to blame By Michael Leidig and Roya Nikkhah
Global warming has finally been explained: the Earth is getting hotter because the Sun is burning more brightly than at any time during the past 1,000 years, according to new research.
A study by Swiss and German scientists suggests that increasing radiation from the sun is responsible for recent global climate changes.
Dr Sami Solanki, the director of the renowned Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Gottingen, Germany, who led the research, said: "The Sun has been at its strongest over the past 60 years and may now be affecting global temperatures.
"The Sun is in a changed state. It is brighter than it was a few hundred years ago and this brightening started relatively recently - in the last 100 to 150 years."
Dr Solanki said that the brighter Sun and higher levels of "greenhouse gases", such as carbon dioxide, both contributed to the change in the Earth's temperature but it was impossible to say which had the greater impact.
Average global temperatures have increased by about 0.2 deg Celsius over the past 20 years and are widely believed to be responsible for new extremes in weather patterns. After pressure from environmentalists, politicians agreed the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, promising to limit greenhouse gas emissions between 2008 and 2012. Britain ratified the protocol in 2002 and said it would cut emissions by 12.5 per cent from 1990 levels.
Globally, 1997, 1998 and 2002 were the hottest years since worldwide weather records were first collated in 1860.
Most scientists agree that greenhouse gases from fossil fuels have contributed to the warming of the planet in the past few decades but have questioned whether a brighter Sun is also responsible for rising temperatures.
To determine the Sun's role in global warming, Dr Solanki's research team measured magnetic zones on the Sun's surface known as sunspots, which are believed to intensify the Sun's energy output.
The team studied sunspot data going back several hundred years. They found that a dearth of sunspots signalled a cold period - which could last up to 50 years - but that over the past century their numbers had increased as the Earth's climate grew steadily warmer. The scientists also compared data from ice samples collected during an expedition to Greenland in 1991. The most recent samples contained the lowest recorded levels of beryllium 10 for more than 1,000 years. Beryllium 10 is a particle created by cosmic rays that decreases in the Earth's atmosphere as the magnetic energy from the Sun increases. Scientists can currently trace beryllium 10 levels back 1,150 years.
Dr Solanki does not know what is causing the Sun to burn brighter now or how long this cycle would last.
He says that the increased solar brightness over the past 20 years has not been enough to cause the observed climate changes but believes that the impact of more intense sunshine on the ozone layer and on cloud cover could be affecting the climate more than the sunlight itself.
Dr Bill Burrows, a climatologist and a member of the Royal Meteorological Society, welcomed Dr Solanki's research. "While the established view remains that the sun cannot be responsible for all the climate changes we have seen in the past 50 years or so, this study is certainly significant," he said.
"It shows that there is enough happening on the solar front to merit further research. Perhaps we are devoting too many resources to correcting human effects on the climate without being sure that we are the major contributor."
Dr David Viner, the senior research scientist at the University of East Anglia's climatic research unit, said the research showed that the sun did have an effect on global warming.
He added, however, that the study also showed that over the past 20 years the number of sunspots had remained roughly constant, while the Earth's temperature had continued to increase.
This suggested that over the past 20 years, human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation had begun to dominate "the natural factors involved in climate change", he said.
Dr Gareth Jones, a climate researcher at the Met Office, said that Dr Solanki's findings were inconclusive because the study had not incorporated other potential climate change factors.
"The Sun's radiance may well have an impact on climate change but it needs to be looked at in conjunction with other factors such as greenhouse gases, sulphate aerosols and volcano activity," he said. The research adds weight to the views of David Bellamy, the conservationist. "Global warming - at least the modern nightmare version - is a myth," he said. "I am sure of it and so are a growing number of scientists. But what is really worrying is that the world's politicians and policy-makers are not.
"Instead, they have an unshakeable faith in what has, unfortunately, become one of the central credos of the environmental movement: humans burn fossil fuels, which release increased levels of carbon dioxide - the principal so-called greenhouse gas - into the atmosphere, causing the atmosphere to heat up. They say this is global warming: I say this is poppycock."
#4
Iff Lefty Universalist Secularist Humanist Scientifist/Intellectual Socialist Utopians, etc. can't control the Sun, etal. then by their own wafflin' precepts the Left must acknowledge that God exists. Becuz once something, anything, goes wrong wid the Sun, the Left is gonna be wishing God andor Jesus Christ exists, or at minima realize how stupd "the Party/Govt/Agency" was in ordering the PDeniable assassination of Christ, ala "We can't be held responsible becuz we didn't know or didn't believe". NATIONAL-GLOBAL SECURITY AND PC, YA KNOW, BESIDES ALSO FORGOT TO ASK!?
The case of Victor Manuel Cabellero falls into a whole new zone of troubles. He not only lives here illegally; the state Supreme Court has now opened a legal door for him and other undocumented immigrants to collect from a special state fund set up to protect anyone hurt in a car accident with an uninsured driver. Victor Caballero may not have the legal right to actually live in New Jersey, but New Jersey says he has the legal right to receive generous benefits for being here. Lets call it the DREAM Act for uninsured alien drivers.
When Victor arrived, he moved into an apartment with his brother and two cousins. Victor quickly got a job in a restaurant. But after two months, he moved up to a computer repair job, earning around $400 a week. His day began at 5 a.m., when he would be picked up by a co-worker, 19-year-old Ricardo Martinez. Only two weeks into the computer job, court papers say, Martinez fell asleep at the wheel one morning. The car veered off the road and struck a parked tractor trailer.
He was transported to the Jersey Shore Medical Center where surgeons repaired injuries to his abdomen and intestines. Caballero stayed a week at the hospital, then needed another six weeks to recover before he could return to work. The cost: $38,300 in medical bills and $1,482 in lost wages. Caballero had no medical insurance, nor did his family.
Caballero's attorney, Victor Covelli of Belmar, says his client was worried that he would be deported when he filed suit against fellow illegal immigrant, Ricardo Martinez. Complicating the issue, Caballero was also suing to collect from a special New Jersey fund for anyone injured in an accident with an uninsured driver. Caballero lost twice, when courts ruled he was not a legal resident and therefore had no right to the special accident fund. But last week, the state Supreme Court ruled in his favor, declaring him a resident even though he was here illegally.
In the opinion authored by Supreme Court Justice James Zazzali; "We recognize the apparent paradox that exists when an undocumented alien intends to remain in this state but that alien, because of his or her illegal status, is subject to deportation at any time ... The fact that an undocumented alien may some day be forced to return to his or her homeland does not necessarily defeat the intent to remain. That is especially true in light of the uncertain nature of deportation." Simply put he was "Forced" to live in the shadows.
The $38,300 bill from the medical bill was paid by a special hospital charity fund. So why is Caballero suing? His lawyer says the Supreme Court ruling makes him eligible to collect up to $15,000 -- for pain and suffering. Edited, full text at link
#2
This letter was sent to Tennessee Senator Bill First from a retired border
patrol agent, and it has more common sense than all the bull being spewed from
the Senate, with the exception of a few sensible representatives.
Dear Senator First:
There is a huge amount of propaganda and myths circulating about illegal
aliens, particularly illegal Mexican, Salvadorian, Guatemalan and Honduran
aliens.
#1.
Illegal aliens generally do NOT want U.S. citizenship. Americans are very
vain thinking that everybody in the world wants to be a U.S. citizen. Mexicans,
and other nationalities want to remain citizens of their home countries while
obtaining the benefits offered by the United States such as employment, medical care, in-state tuition, government subsidized housing and free education for their offspring. Their main attraction is employment and their loyalty usually remains at home. They want benefits earned and subsidized by middle class Americans. What illegal aliens want are benefits of American residence without paying the price.
#2.
There are no jobs that Americans won't do. Illegal aliens are doing jobs that Americans can't take and still support their families. Illegal aliens take low wage jobs, live dozens in a single residence home, share expenses and send money to their home country. There are no jobs that Americans won't do for a decent wage.
#3.
Eery person who illegally entered this nation left a home. They are NOT
homeless and they are NOT Americans. Some left jobs in their home countries.
They come to send money to their real home as evidenced by the more than 20 billion dollars sent out of the country each year by illegal aliens. These illegal aliens knowingly and willfully entered this nation in violation of the law and therefore assumed the risk of detection and deportation. Those who brought their alien children assumed the responsibility and risk on behalf of their children.
#4.
Illegal aliens are NOT critical to the economy. Illegal aliens constitute
less than 5% of the workforce. However, they reduce wages and benefits for
lawful U.S. residents.
#5.
This is NOT an immigrant nation. There are 280 million native born
Americans. While it is true that this nation was settled and founded by
immigrants (legal immigrants), it is also true that there is not a nation on
this planet that was not settled by immigrants at one time or another.
#6.
The United States is welcoming to legal immigrants. Illegal aliens are not
immigrants by definition. The U.S. accepts more lawful immigrants every year
than the rest of the world combined.
#7.
There is no such thing as the "Hispanic vote". Hispanics are white, brown,
black and every shade in between. Hispanics are Republicans, Democrats,
Anarchists, Communists, Marxists and Independents. The so-called "Hispanic vote" is a myth. Pandering to illegal aliens to get the Hispanic vote is a dead end.
#8.
Mexico is NOT a friend of the United States. Since 1848 Mexicans have
resented the United States. During World War I Mexico allowed German Spies to operate freely in Mexico to spy on the U.S. During World War II Mexico allowed the Axis powers to spy on the U.S. from Mexico. During the Cold War Mexico allowed spies hostile to the U.S. to operate freely. The attack on the Twin Towers in 2001 was cheered and applauded all across Mexico. Today Mexican school children are taught that the U.S. stole California, Arizona, new Mexico and Texas. If you don't believe it, check out some Mexican textbooks written for their school children.
#9.
Although some illegal aliens enter this country for a better life, there
are 6 billion people on this planet. At least 1 billion of those live on less
than one dollar a day. If wanting a better life is a valid excuse to break the
law and sneak into America, then let's allow those one billion to come to
America and we'll turn the USA into a Third World nation overnight. Besides,
there are 280 million native born Americans who want a better life. I'll bet
Bill Gates and Donald Trump want a better life. When will the USA lifeboat be
full? Since when is wanting a better life a good reason to trash another nation?
#10.
There is a labor shortage in this country. This is a lie. There are
hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of American housewives, senior citizens, students, unemployed and underemployed who would gladly take jobs at a decent wage.
#11.
It is racist to want secure borders. What is racist about wanting secure
borders and a secure America? What is racist about not wanting people to sneak into America and steal benefits we have set aside for legal aliens, senior
citizens, children and other legal residents? What is it about race that
entitles people to violate our laws, steal identities, and take the American
Dream without paying the price? For about four decades American politicians have refused to secure our borders and look after the welfare of middle class
Americans. These politicians have been of both parties. A huge debt to American society has resulted. This debt will be satisfied and the interest will be high. There has already been riots in the streets by illegal aliens and their
supporters. There will be more. You, as a politician, have a choice to offend
the illegal aliens who have stolen into this country and demanded the rights
afforded to U.S. citizens or to offend those of us who are stakeholders in this
country. The interest will be steep either way. There will be civil unrest.
There will be a reckoning. Do you have the courage to do what is right for
America? Or, will you bow to the wants and needs of those who don't even have the right to remain here? There will be a reckoning. It will come in November of this year, again in 2008 and yet again in 2010. We will not allow America to be stolen by third world agitators and thieves.
David J. Stoddard
U.S. Border Patrol (RET)
Hereford, Arizona
#3
Other than his current or past US employer(s) protecting his own ass by imposing prequisite deductions from Victor's paycheck. a routine that the employer himself may not like andor fully comprehend the legal merits for or against, the article makes no mention of supporting evidencias Victor submitted in court to prove his alleged "intent to remain", e.g. notarized affidavits of intent to stay + paperwork/prelimin public docs proving personal effort towards achieving de facto US citizenship or permanent residency!? It remians to be seen iff Victor or tohers like him will willingly pay for his personal medical bills as opposed to the more likely NEW JERSEY STATE GOVT - as long as he stays illegal, the taxpayers and Govt of New Jersey may be held accountable for payment of Victor's bills. Iff the State is gonna tolerate LT illegal aliens residing and working in their state, and wid little to no proof of progress by the illegal towards national-state citizenship or legal residency , IMHO the Hospital can and should sue the State for payment. ANY JUDGE THAT DOEOS OTHERWISE IS JUST BEING A POLITICIAN IN JURIST'S CLOTHING, MAKING A POLITICAL DECISION(S) NOT A LEGAL ONE(S)!? Too many Lefties and Governmentists love making alleged universal libertarianist decisions as long as somebody else pays for the consequences, to make things right again.
NASHVILLLE, Tenn., May 22 (UPI) -- It appears the war U.S. country radio stations mounted against the politically outspoken Dixie Chicks has not abated in the least.
I do believe the Chicks fired the first shot
The band is promoting "Taking the Long Way," its first album since Natalie Maines told a London audience in 2003 she was ashamed to be from the same state as U.S. President George Bush. The comment sparked a radio boycott of the group's music.
Although the album hits stores Tuesday, the first two singles from the album are not getting widespread airplay, Billboard.com reported Monday. The first single, "Not Ready to Make Nice," only peaked at No. 36 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and the second single, "Everybody Knows," is moving downward after its peak at No. 48.
Well, they did say they wanted to appeal to a small group of fans. Looks like they've succeeded.
WKIS FM in Miami reported it pulled "Not Ready to Make Nice" due to listener complaints after only one week. The program director at KUBL/KKAT in Salt Lake City told Billboard he was angered by its "self-indulgent and selfish lyrics." Neither the Chicks or their label, Columbia Records, would speak to Billboard for its article.
I'd put Columbia Records on a suicide watch
Posted by: Steve ||
05/23/2006 09:26 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Pix at Six.
Posted by: ed ||
05/23/2006 9:37 Comments ||
Top||
#3
I don't think country music is big in La Belle France, we much prefer french rap (need I to say more?) and insipid french pop, in fact I'm not even sure anybody has heard of country music... but I could be wrong.
#4
Natalie Maines is playing idiot roulette - instead of doing it "Russian ROulette" style using a revolver and 1 round, she decided to load a full clip into a a .45, rack it, and try her luck.
"self-indulgent, selfish, whiny" - yep, thats loudmouthed entertainment liberals for ya. I just love Liberals when they get angry - they do more damage to their cause than any conservative ever could. And they'll cheer themselves all the way!
Operation Foot-Bullet continues apace! Howard dean clandestinely backing a white candidate against a blcak one, etc. Now this.
"Just shot myself in the foot! Must be the Conservatives fault - so I'll Reload and Shoot Again!"
#11
Howard dean clandestinely backing a white candidate against a black one,
All due respect, OS, but Drudge was the only one with that story and he backed off on it. There was general GOTV and some assistance to voters who haven't moved back to NOLA yet from DNC, but no aid to Landrieu.
#12
I'm waiting for the followup story. I can see it now . . . .
CHICKS NIX BLIX PIX
NASHVILLE (Dissociated Press) -- Former UN weapons inspector Hans Blix was supposed to appear in a photo spread in next month's Vanity Fair with antiwar recording stars The Dixie Chicks, but the Chicks backed out at the last minute. The Chicks gave no reason for the sudden change of heart, and Blix is said to be furious . . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
05/23/2006 16:15 Comments ||
Top||
#13
Now, now. The world can always use three good waitresses...
#16
to finish...now though, the trio have done shot the horse that brung 'em home. I was listening on NPR (I believe) a few days ago and one of them was saying things like, "We never considered ourselves country".
-Well then, maybe they should've let all those record stores know so that their CD's could've been properly displayed in sections *other* then country thus stopping those confused country fans from buying all those CD's and making them awfully rich. Or, just drop the "Dixie" from their name & replace it with "Hippie".
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.
AMMAN - King Abdullah II pledged Jordans readiness to help rebuild south Sudan in talks Monday with Sudanese First Vice President Silva Kiir, a court statement said. Jordan is ready to contribute to rebuild and develop south Sudan as part of efforts to strengthen relations, the king told Kiir, who also heads the autonomous regional government in south Sudan.
The Moroccan Meteorological office denied on Monday rumours, which stated that a Tsunami could hit the Atlantic Ocean after the fall of fragments of a comet that would pass close to earth on May 25, MAP news agency reported. This denial comes after the Ufological Research Center warned on its website of a Tsunami danger that would affect several countries, including Morocco. 
Seven suspected oil thieves are in custody of Nigeria's police. This follows their arrest by Nigeria's State Security Service. They were arrested at the Nigerian National Petroleum Products pipes in Ladugba, Asa in Nigeria's Kwara State. According to THISDAY, the oil thieves travelled to the scene in two trailer lorries. These vehicles are also in custody of police in Nigeria. Machinery such as cutlasses, hoes, diggers, cello tapes, wedge hammers were also found at the scene. It is suspected that these were used in the extraction of the oil. After a tip off, Nigeria's police has camping at he scene for the past two weeks. It is suspectd the captured were Ibadan, Sangam or in Nigeria's Oyo state.
The National Liberation Force ambushed a group of soldiers on Saturday, killing four soldiers and a civilian, a local official said. The National Liberation Force, or FNL, has repeatedly violated a ceasefire and it is still holding out against a peace deal to end Burundi's 12-year conflict. 
A cholera epidemic has flared sporadically in Zimbabwe since late last year, but shortages of drugs, staff and serviceable vehicles have prevented the authorities from stamping it out. The latest outbreak, reported over the weekend, has claimed 15 lives and infected 45 people in the northeastern town of Guruve, 150km from the capital, Harare. A senior disease control officer told IRIN the numbers affected could be much higher, as health teams have been unable to cover the more remote parts of the district. "The problems we face in Guruve are exactly what we have experienced in all the other areas where cholera outbreaks have been reported since January. There is a crisis in the supply of medicines and essential drugs, personnel, and even cars to get to places we believe need thorough check-ups," said the official, who asked not to be named.
They can try dieting, but you won't find many in aerobics classes or power-walking along this city's walking trails. And very few of their daughters attend schools that have physical education classes. There are no laws against women exercising outside their homes, but in this conservative society many are influenced by scholars and clerics who argue against it.
"The Muslim woman should realize that she is a target for corruption," said al-Habdan in another booklet on why women should not go to fitness clubs. 
Opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi threatened Monday to withdraw his coalition from Parliament if it turns out that his side won general elections in April and the president refuses to call a new vote, according to news reports. Berlusconi's conservative coalition narrowly lost last month's election to the center-left coalition of Romano Prodi. The April 9-10 vote was so close that the final results were not certified for days as localities counted contested votes, and the narrow margin highlighted a bitterly and virtually evenly divided nation. 
Montenegro ended nearly a century of formal ties to Serbia on Monday after its people voted for independence in a referendum that closed the final chapter in the story of Yugoslavia. The world's newest independent state has a population of just 650,000, with a rugged coast and even more rugged mountains in a territory about the size of Northern Ireland. Tourism is its planned ticket to prosperity as it strikes out on its own. "I am convinced Montenegro could be the next country from this region to join the European Union, after Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia, which are further along the process," said Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, the architect of the independence drive for the past 10 years. Serbia reluctantly conceded that its little cousin on the Adriatic had opted to split, and the European Union quickly gave a seal of approval to a separation it had once tried to prevent, fearing further instability in Europe's most turbulent corner. Announcing the first official results, Montenegro's referendum commission said 55.4 percent of Sunday's referendum votes were in favor of independence, clearing the EU-required target of 55 percent for recognition.
A Democratic congressman facing a bribery probe after FBI agents found $90,000 in his freezer denied wrongdoing on Monday and said he would not step down from his congressional seat. Speaking to reporters, Louisiana Rep. William Jefferson said he could not discuss details of the pending federal investigation. "There are two sides to every story. There are certainly two sides to this story," said Jefferson, adding, "This is not the time, this is not the forum" to discuss it. 
A 14-year old girl has died a month after being shot four times by male relatives in an attempted "honour killing", police said on Monday. Nur Jehan had been shot in the stomach, leg, knee and arm in Gadap on April 19 and left for dead in a ditch by her relatives, who accused her of having pre-marital sex. Crawling out of the ditch and onto a road , she was rescued by a passer-by and admitted to hospital here Her condition, however, deteriorated on Sunday morning. "She died due to a stomach infection caused by the bullet wound," police officer Jahan Khan Niazi confirmed.
Global warming has finally been explained: the Earth is getting hotter because the Sun is burning more brightly than at any time during the past 1,000 years, according to new research.
The case of Victor Manuel Cabellero falls into a whole new zone of troubles. He not only lives here illegally; the state Supreme Court has now opened a legal door for him and other undocumented immigrants to collect from a special state fund set up to protect anyone hurt in a car accident with an uninsured driver. Victor Caballero may not have the legal right to actually live in New Jersey, but New Jersey says he has the legal right to receive generous benefits for being here. 
