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Court Lets Perv Run for President
Today's Headlines
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Africa North
Egypt's al-Azhar wants TV channel for fatwas
The head of Egypt’s Islamic al-Azhar University wants to set up a satellite television channel to broadcast Islamic legal rulings to try to end ‘fatwa chaos’, state media reported on Friday.

The state news agency MENA quoted al-Azhar President Ahmed al-Tayeb as calling for “a special al-Azhar satellite channel entrusted to true scholars who do not desire fame or money and who will be guardians over the science of issuing fatwas and presenting Islamic issues”.

MENA said Tayeb wanted the channel to combat what he described as ‘fatwa chaos’ proliferating on other satellite channels and which he said harmed Islam and spread confusion in society. State-run al-Azhar, Egypt’s most prominent institute of Islamic learning, wants to ensure that there is only one authority for issuing fatwas in coordination with al-Azhar, the agency said.
Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Fred - perhaps you could contract out Thugburg and provide content - a half hour in drive time could be doable.

If nothing else, they should provide english subtitles and offer it to the Dish so we could all keep score more efficiently.
Posted by: Chuckles Jaise7272 || 09/29/2007 0:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Fatwa Chaos Sweeps Nation. Right after this from Mahmoud's House of Korans...
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/29/2007 10:41 Comments || Top||

#3  Fatwa Chaos is redundant. It belongs on the Comedy Channel.
Posted by: Zenster || 09/29/2007 15:36 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Zimbabwe blasts media 'bias' over Mugabe's UN speech
Zimbabwe’s information minister has castigated western media for their coverage of President Robert Mugabe’s speech at the UN General Assembly, state media reported Friday.

Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said CNN and the BBC gave US President George W Bush full coverage when he criticised Mugabe in his address to the Assembly this week, but denied Mugabe similar coverage for his speech. “The so-called champions of press freedom, CNN and BBC cut the live broadcast when the President was hitting hard, full throttle, with a volley of intellectual punches left, right and centre,” Ndlovu said. “Bush was given full coverage to demonise our President and our nation but our President was not given equal time to defend himself and his country. They always claim that they give balanced information through their media but they have proved themselves to be suffering from in-exactitudes and stretches of imagination. I know why my predecessor threw them out of Zimbabwe.”

In his speech at the UN, Bush said the people of Zimbabwe needed help to free themselves from suffering under a “tyrannical regime.”
Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In his speech at the UN, Bush said the people of Zimbabwe needed help to free themselves from suffering under a “tyrannical regime.”

What a difference 30 years makes.

Posted by: Besoeker || 09/29/2007 2:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Bob gave a speech at the UN?
Ooooops...sorry.
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/29/2007 10:44 Comments || Top||

#3  Was it a speech on economics?
Maybe agronomics?
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 09/29/2007 11:38 Comments || Top||

#4  More likely..."I blame THE MAN!!!"
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/29/2007 11:40 Comments || Top||

#5  http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/un34.16973.html
Posted by: Sonny Slusong1239 || 09/29/2007 14:21 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
B'desh unveils new list of graft suspects
Bangladesh authorities have drawn up a list of 80 graft suspects as part of the military-backed government’s corruption crackdown, a report said Friday.

Many on the list are from both main political parties - the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which held power until last October, and the Awami League. In addition to politicians, businessmen, bureaucrats and the son of the most recent finance minister, Saifur Rahman, are on the list, the state-run BSS news agency said. Other suspects include a former high court judge and the mayors of Dhaka and the southwestern city of Khulna, the report added.

The government’s anti-corruption campaign has already seen more than 150 high-profile suspects detained including the country’s two most recent prime ministers, Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina Wajed. It is the third list to be compiled since February.
Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Just like Time-Life books, you get one about every other month. Operators are standing by.
Posted by: Seafarious || 09/29/2007 0:23 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
A massive wrench in Putin's works
A tiny excerpt; please go RTWT:
Moscow certainly took note of these strange goings on - a stream of senior US diplomats attired in pinstripe suits with top executives of oil majors with suspiciously heavy-looking attache cases in tow, trooping out of Ashgabat hotel rooms almost every week. If there was any doubt about what they were up to, that became clear in late July when US-based energy company Chevron announced its intention to open an office in Ashgabat and participate in the development of Caspian energy resources.

On July 3, at a public ceremony in Ashgabat marking his 50th birthday, Berdimukhamedov said Turkmenistan maintained its "neutral status" and had "equal relationships" with all. He added, "Without joining any kind of political alliances, we will carry on with our efforts to build new gas pipelines to carry our gas to China, and to Pakistan and India via Afghanistan, and to Europe via the Caspian Sea. This means that we will have equal and mutually beneficial relations with Russia and the United States, with European countries, and with our neighbors as well."
Posted by: 3dc || 09/29/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What artificial, man-made Russian olympic islands are made for!? RENSE/WORLD NEWS/TOPIX > JOCKEYING FOR CENTRAL ASIA'S MASSIVE NEW OIL, GAS DEPOSITS. Control of same.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 09/29/2007 0:21 Comments || Top||

#2  I guess it'd be too much to ask for a breakthrough in fusion technology.
Posted by: Perfesser || 09/29/2007 14:10 Comments || Top||

#3  Funny you should say that Perfesser....

Are you aware of the work done by Dr Robert Bussard? (he invented the Interstellar Ramjet concept). He has invented a fusion power source that;

a) uses Boron and Hydrogen as fuel sources (both readily available)
b) is non-radioactive
b) works by electrostatic confinement rather than thermal energy (the main benefit here is that the precise energy required for fusion of nuclei can be 'pumped in' via high voltages, whilst the thermal approach - Tokomaks etc - have to provide energy in a Maxwellian distribution, which means very very few of the nuclei will have the necessary energy to fuse)

The physics are effectively done, it's now engineering, and the US Navy have funded additional work. We'll know if things are going to work properly in about 6 months time...

If this works, *all* bets are off.

Further information:
http://www.xevioso.com/projects/polywell/howitworks.html
http://powerandcontrol.blogspot.com/2007/09/is-it-true.html
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 09/29/2007 14:57 Comments || Top||


Europe
US interceptors capable of hitting Russian ICBMs
Interceptor missiles deployed in Poland as part of a US missile defence shield would be fast enough to target Russian intercontinental missiles, contrary to US assurances, a US researcher said Thursday. Ted Postol, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a long time critic of the US missile defence system, said the US Missile Defence Agency (MDA) is understating the speed of the interceptor and overstating the speed of Russian long range missiles. MDA spokesman Rick Lehner said Postol had no access to missile test data and his assertions were “totally false.” The United States is negotiating to station 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a high powered targeting radar in the Czech Republic to counter what it says is a growing missile threat from Iran. Russia has objected vehemently to the plan on grounds that the European site could be used against its missiles, despite repeated denials from Washington.
Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Amer's BMD-GMD works, ergo is the threat to Russia = World peace. *Ya see how screwed up Gummintism is, Moriarty, first Govt doesn't spend enuff $$$ to assure the USA produces more quality Perts than anyone else, and then as iff that wasn't enuff produces Perts that make things that work!? D *** NG IT, THE JOB OF GOVT IS TO SPEND $$$ SO THAT NUTHIN' WORKS!
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 09/29/2007 0:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Even if true, those ten interceptors better be pretty good to hit all 1000+ Russian ICBMs... lol
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats || 09/29/2007 0:19 Comments || Top||

#3  Haven't seen his name in a while but Postol is a long time anti BMD crusader. He is ego and ideologically driven. He was half right in sort of debunking the Patriot intercepts of SCUDs in GW1, soaked in the media acclaim, grew and even bigger ego and is now happy to oblige the media when it calls for quotes against any and all BMD tech.

You have to be a PhD to be so monumentally stupid as to think purely defensive systems are somehow a threat to peace and stability. Russia can saturate our defenses but Iran and NK cannot. I'll take that deal. It's better than nothing.
Posted by: JAB || 09/29/2007 0:55 Comments || Top||

#4  The headline strikes me as a feature, not a bug.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 09/29/2007 1:49 Comments || Top||

#5  As President Reagan used to say: "peace with security." However, I think constructive engagement is the best way to bring Russia into the western fold. The Euro missiles will have the reverse effect. The real enemies are in Islamabad, Teheran, Riyadh, Damascus, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Tripoli, Hamastan, Helmund (Afghanistan), etc.
Posted by: McZoid || 09/29/2007 2:29 Comments || Top||

#6  This would be the same missile defense shield that could never possibly work?
Posted by: Excalibur || 09/29/2007 7:59 Comments || Top||

#7  The sign of true genius is the ability to sustain belief in two mutually exclusive ideas at the same time. Postal is a genius.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 09/29/2007 8:05 Comments || Top||

#8  Nice call, Nimble!
Posted by: logi_cal || 09/29/2007 12:10 Comments || Top||


Ukraine Prepares for Sunday Election
The party of Ukraine's prime minister, who has championed the country's Russian-speaking east, appeared to hold the lead Friday before parliamentary elections, prompting a last-minute reconciliation between his divided, Western-oriented opponents.

Sunday's vote was called early to end a political deadlock pitting forces loyal to Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych against those of President Viktor Yushchenko, elected following the mass protests in 2004 that became known as the Orange Revolution. But experts predict the electorate will split their votes between Yanukovych's forces and those led by Yushchenko and his occasional ally, Yulia Tymoshenko.

Yanukovych's Party of Regions, which draws its support from the mainly Russian-speaking east and south, appears likely to get the most votes, giving him a strong chance of remaining prime minister, according to the most recent polls. But Tymoshenko, the blond-braided former prime minister and Orange Revolution heroine, is also a likely contender for the premier's job.

Voters in the Yanukovych strongholds of the industrial east are eager to maintain Ukraine's traditional ties to Russia. The parties of Tymoshenko and Yushchenko are more popular in central and western regions, where nationalist feelings run higher and voters hope to expand ties with Europe and the West.

Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko is expected to come in second, trailed by the pro-Yushchenko Our Ukraine-People's Self-defense group. But if they follow through on a last-minute decision to work together, their combined forces could outnumber Yanukovych's in the parliament, called the Verkhovna Rada.

All three parties held last-minute rallies in central Kiev on Friday. Yushchenko has called for unity between the once-estranged Orange forces, hinting he could support Tymoshenko as prime minister. ``I would like to say that we only have one option: forming a democratic coalition. Period,'' Yushchenko said while meeting with Tymoshenko on Thursday. ``There won't be any other coalition.''

Yuriy Lutsenko, leader of Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defense, predicted that a majority coalition between his party and Tymoshenko's would be forged the day after the vote. ``I am convinced that ... Ukraine will get a pro-Ukrainian democratic majority,'' he told thousands of supporters in downtown Kiev on Friday.

Tymoshenko has long called for such a pact, and she cheered the president's decision. ``I believe in our victory, the victory of the democratic team, which - having learned from its mistakes - will work even more effectively,'' she told reporters.
This article starring:
Orange Revolution
President Viktor Yushchenko
Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych
Yulia Tymoshenko
Yuriy Lutsenko, leader of Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defense
Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Politix
Pelosi 'praying' Bush doesn't veto children's health insurance bill
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday she is "praying" that President Bush has a change of heart and does not veto a bipartisan children's health insurance bill that he has labeled an unwarranted expansion of government-run health insurance.

"The tide is going a different way than a presidential veto would reflect," Pelosi, a California Democrat, said. "It was with great ulterior motives friendship that I reached out to the president this morning to say that I was still praying that he would have a change of heart and sign this legislation and then told all of you."

"I think I have to pray a little harder, but I will not give up," Pelosi said.
Don't forget to pray hard that people don't figure it out.
Pelosi's comments came a day after the Senate voted 67-29 for the measure, which would expand the State Children's Health Insurance program by up to 4 million less-needy children.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino on Friday said Bush still intends to veto the bill when it arrives at his desk. Perino also said the disagreement between Congress and the White House was a simple policy difference, not "about who cares about children more than the other as suggested by certain members of congress who care more about politics and less about The Children(TM)."

"The president is saying, 'Let's take care of the neediest children first, let's not put scarce federal dollars toward a program that was meant for the poorest children and let it creep up to middle-income families with incomes up to $83,000 a year,' " Perino said.
Is this really a money-loser? Wouldn't preventative care cost the feds less than emergency care or the consequences of no care for some conditions?
Bush and many Republicans contend that the program's original intent -- to give parents who make too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to buy private insurance coverage for their children -- would be changed under the current bill, prompting parents to wind up dropping private coverage their children already have to get cheaper coverage under the bill.
Looks like the Dems figured out an additional use for the bill. Too bad the original purpose was forgotten in the feeding frenzy. Oh well.
Perino also objected that the rhetoric surrounding the SCHIP bill has become too heated.

"I think it is preposterous for people to suggest the president of the United States doesn't care about children, that he wants children to suffer," Perino said.
Not if you're a hate-filled liberal with your eyes rolled back in their sockets!
The bill enjoys bipartisan support. Eighteen Republican senators Thursday night joined all the Democrats in voting for expanding the popular program from its current annual budget of $5 billion to $12 billion for the next five years.
Hmm. Riding on the coattails of appearances?
Four senators -- Republicans John McCain of Arizona and Sam Brownback of Kansas and Democrats Joseph Biden of Delaware and Barack Obama of Illinois -- did not vote.

With the current program scheduled to expire Saturday, the White House encouraged Congress to stop posturing and send the president a continuing resolution extending the program.

"We should take this time to arrive at a more rational, bipartisan SCHIP reauthorization bill that focuses on children in poor families who don't currently have insurance, rather than raising taxes to cover people who already have private insurance," Perino added.
What? I thought it was the trunks' job to soak the poor and the donks' job to soak the rich.
Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah was among those Republicans who split from the president. "It's very difficult for me to be against a man I care so much for," he told his colleagues on the Senate floor prior to the vote. "It's unfortunate that the president has chosen to be on what, to me, is clearly the wrong side of this issue."
Why don't I see your reasoning?
Though 67 votes in the 100-person chamber would suffice to overturn a veto, the House version, which was approved Tuesday, fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto.
Posted by: gorb || 09/29/2007 04:53 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I got a letter on this from my Congresscritter. What she says, vice the propaganda, is that the ..."bill to expand funded health insurance for families making up to $80,000 a year and would slash funding for a program called 'Medicare Advantage'(whichi is managed care for Medicare) to pay for it." The impact in the district in the highly enriched state of New Mexico (per capita income around number 47) is reflected upon the datum that 40% of the seniors here get Medicare through that plan. If the Prez signs it, that means the seniors will forced to start paying more out of pocket. In other words, its a rob Peter to pay Paul setup. So why is the coverage in the 'Children's' plan for families with comes above the national average? Do I sense a blue versus red country interest here?

In other words, its a bill with a name attached for no other purpose than to give the Donks a sound bite to show how cruel the Trunks are if they oppose it. It's not the "We're Robbing the Poor Elderly to Buy the Votes of Middle Class Families who have Children Act". Guess how MSM is going to handle it? Hmmmm...
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/29/2007 8:36 Comments || Top||

#2  I wonder who or what she's praying to? Mother Gaia? Stonehenge? Athena?
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/29/2007 9:13 Comments || Top||

#3  Pelosi prays with her constituents at the (nsfw) Chaper of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.(/nsfw)

(sfw)Boycott Miller Beer.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 09/29/2007 9:43 Comments || Top||

#4  If you make 64K a year and you have a do-nothing 25 year old child still living with you, this bill give you money to buy insurance.

25? Child? Gimme a break.
Posted by: OldSpook || 09/29/2007 9:47 Comments || Top||

#5  Creeping socialism is what it is. Kill it before it crawls from the congress ooze filled pit that spawned it.
Posted by: DarthVader || 09/29/2007 9:50 Comments || Top||

#6  Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

She still hasn't explained why she was hanging out with that "V for Vendetta" guy.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 09/29/2007 13:38 Comments || Top||

#7  Nimble and Anonymoose,
I don't know which pictures are more perverted.

Al
Posted by: Frozen Al || 09/29/2007 15:57 Comments || Top||

#8  San Francisco being the homosexual capital, has a 0 growth birthrate. So what does she care about this bill? To here, it is about spending money.
Posted by: Lampedusa Glagum1736 || 09/29/2007 17:44 Comments || Top||

#9  No, it's about getting their foot in the door of socialized medicine. This is the top in the door move, much pushing later, they have the whole leg in. Kill it now and moveon. Anything by FAT Kennedy should be shitcanned.
Posted by: wxjames || 09/29/2007 20:15 Comments || Top||

#10  Creeping socialism is what it is.

It's beyond the creeping stage. It is an all out assault, the Leftists sense that time is almost right for them to take a grab at all the marbles.

It goes back to cleaning its weapons and loading the magazines
Posted by: Natural Law || 09/29/2007 20:48 Comments || Top||

#11  Let us hope Cthulhu doesn't hear her prayers.
Posted by: DMFD || 09/29/2007 23:03 Comments || Top||


McCain Refreshes a Plan for League of Democracies
In a week in which the U.N. Security Council once again demonstrated its impotence by failing to halt the massacre of monks in Burma and the U.N. General Assembly became a pretext for a strutting performance by the Iranian president, Senator John McCain refreshed his ideas for a more effective international body: what he calls "the League of Democracies."

The Arizona senator, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, has voiced increasing frustration with the shortcomings of the United Nations and its inability — through the intransigence of two Security Council members, China and Russia — to tackle a succession of major international political disasters. He has worried aloud that the world body will be inadequate to the task of heading off the threat to Israel and the Western world posed by a nuclear-equipped Iran, not least in the Islamist state's capacity to provide terrorists such as Hezbollah with a nuclear weapon.

Mr. McCain has spoken out against the persistent procrastination by China and its client state Sudan to allow an international force to stop the genocide in Darfur. And he has said he is appalled by this week's inadequate and belated response by the U.N. Security Council, and the obfuscating role that China has played, in preventing the current slaughter of monks and pro-democracy demonstrators in Rangoon, the Burmese capital.

The news from Burma has deeply disturbed him. He has a portrait of the democratically elected Burmese leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, in his Senate office, the only non-family member whose portrait he displays there. In the absence of a properly functioning world peace body, Mr. McCain says he is conscious of feeling powerless in the face of a preventable horror, just as he felt "shame" at the impotence of America to prevent the genocide in Rwanda.

Asked what America should be doing to intervene on behalf of the democracy movement in Burma, the senator told The New York Sun yesterday, "I think we should pressure the ASEAN states," the 10-member state mutual assistance organization of Southeast Asia. "They were the ones who said that they could take" the Burma military junta "in and it would all turn out all right. Well, they should condemn the junta and throw them out of ASEAN."

The Bush administration should use its considerable influence with the leaders of China to bring Burma, their client state, to heel, he said. "The Chinese have eventually responded to pressure on Darfur. We need to tell them to do the same over the terrible events in Burma," he said.

To Mr. McCain, the days of the United Nations as anything other than a refugee and humanitarian emergency organization are numbered. "There are some things they do very well," he said, but he went on to deride "the so-called U.N. Human Rights Commission," which he said is made up of regimes that perpetrate some of the most flagrant human rights abuses in the world.

He told members of the Hudson Institute meeting at the Four Seasons restaurant in New York yesterday that he believes the only reason the United Nations has any value at all — as the gambler said when explaining why he played in a poker school, knowing it was crooked — "because it is the only game in town."

Instead, he told a questioner, America should champion a new League of Democracies, a notion he first proposed earlier this year in a little-noticed address to members of the conservative Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He described his League of Democracies as "like-minded nations working together in the cause of peace."

"It could act where the U.N. fails to act, to relieve human suffering in places like Darfur. It could join to fight the AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa and fashion better policies to confront the crisis of our environment," he told the Hoover audience. "It could bring concerted pressure to bear on tyrants in Burma or Zimbabwe, with or without Moscow's and Beijing's approval. It could unite to impose sanctions on Iran and thwart its nuclear ambitions. It could provide support to struggling democracies in Ukraine and Serbia and help countries like Thailand back on the path to democracy."

"This League of Democracies would not supplant the United Nations or other international organizations," he said. "It would complement them. But it would be the one organization where the world's democracies could come together to discuss problems and solutions on the basis of shared principles and a common vision of the future."

Mr. McCain has promised that if he is elected president, within his first year he will call a summit of the world's democracies "to seek the views of my democratic counterparts and begin exploring the practical steps necessary to realize this vision."
Posted by: || 09/29/2007 00:33 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Good thinking. Bush's idea.
Posted by: newc || 09/29/2007 1:21 Comments || Top||

#2  Iran will want to join. After all, they are a democracy! (Just ask them!)
Posted by: gorb || 09/29/2007 2:41 Comments || Top||

#3  Iran will want to join. After all, they are a democracy! (Just ask them!)
Yes, but they're not like-minded.
Posted by: Uninese Pelosi5463 || 09/29/2007 7:25 Comments || Top||

#4  Technically, such an organization exists in NATO. Regardless of the effectiveness of NATO [or for that matter any organization] in dealing with 'issues', the fact is that an existing political structure already exists. Why fund two? Which would be a good starting point in ditching the existing waste fill on the Hudson. The added bonus is that it is headquartered outside of our borders.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/29/2007 8:23 Comments || Top||


O'Bama Favors Changes in Drug Sentencing
Democrat Barack Obama said Friday that as president he would relax drug sentencing laws and address vast racial inequities in the justice system as part of his crime policy.

The Illinois senator said he would review mandatory minimum drug sentencing and give first-time, nonviolent drug offenders a chance to serve their sentence in drug rehabilitation programs instead of prison. ``If you're convicted of a crime involving drugs, of course you should be punished,'' Obama said in a speech at Howard University's opening convocation. ``But let's not make the punishment for crack cocaine that much more severe than the punishment for powder cocaine when the real difference is where the people are using them or who is using them.'' The historically black college awarded Obama an honorary degree.
Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  While you're at it Barack, how about relaxing the penalties on bank and security frauds. That seems to have a disproportionate number of another 'group' represented in its incarcerated numbers. /sarcasm off

Don't do the crime. Don't do the time.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/29/2007 8:15 Comments || Top||

#2  Well they've already made it easier to declare personal bankruptcy ....
Posted by: lotp || 09/29/2007 8:18 Comments || Top||

#3  Hussein Obama's proposal is the worst of both worlds. Make them guilty of a victimless crime with a record for life, but don't punish them. A more respectable position would be to declare the War on Drugs a quagmire and to promise to withdraw all police from it in the first 30 days of his administration.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 09/29/2007 8:29 Comments || Top||

#4  the disparity in sentencing for crack vs powder was based on the widespread (and accurate) fear of the more highly addictive and destructive crack lifestyle, where someone would cut your throat for $10 to buy a rock. The fact that it hit the black community the hardest is undeniable, but there were crackheads of all colors
Posted by: Frank G || 09/29/2007 8:49 Comments || Top||

#5  Like, we should all chill out, spark up a splib, party hearty, and not have to worry about THE MAN.
Peace out...and thanks for the degree.
Posted by: Sen. Barack Hussein Obama || 09/29/2007 9:19 Comments || Top||

#6  Didn't mention Meth did he? Must not be a problem...
Posted by: Sid 6.7 || 09/29/2007 9:27 Comments || Top||

#7  He'd be better off favoring a change in black society to shame unwed mothers and the men who sire (NOT father) children then fail to become fathers. The illegitimacy rate is as high as 80% in some inner city black communities, and its highly correlated with incarceration rates (especially compared to rural blacks who marry at much higher rates). Young black men have been taught from the earliest age to not respect themselves or others and to abdicate responsibility - that's the example the "baby daddy" culture brings home early in life.

If Obama had any guts he'd take on the "establishment" blacks and hammer them on how they have promoted the abandonment of responsibility in the black community, abrogated fundamental personal accountability, and abetted the destruction of the societal core: the nuclear family.
Posted by: OldSpook || 09/29/2007 9:53 Comments || Top||

#8  Pretty pathetic when a black presidential candidate has to pander to black college students this way -- does he think they're going to vote for Hillary? I detect the pungent scent of flop sweat on this loser.
Posted by: regular joe || 09/29/2007 11:37 Comments || Top||

#9  Good catch Sid,
Meth is the scourge of the rural midwest, and predominantly a white problem. I have a feeling that if he wins, there will be a total focus on 20% of the population and very little paid to the rest.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 09/29/2007 11:54 Comments || Top||

#10  A lot of the people he's pandering to have lost their voting rights.
Posted by: Zenster || 09/29/2007 15:47 Comments || Top||


Edwards focusing on Clinton in White House bid
Democrat John Edwards would like to focus his presidential campaign on change in Washington but Hillary Clinton keeps getting in the way. In challenging the front-runner, the failed former one-term North Carolina senator who didn't accomplish anything significant inevitably finds his own political vision becomes secondary to his differences with Clinton, a New York senator and former first lady.

The sustained focus on Clinton seemed to irritate Edwards in an interview with Reuters, and his voice hardened as he faced questions about her rather than his own positions. "I want to be certain that voters understand that they have a choice," Edwards said. "I just think there are important choices for voters to make between myself and Senator Clinton."

Edwards trails in third place, according to the latest Reuters/Zogby poll which showed Clinton with 35 percent and Sen. Barack Obama with 25 percent among Democrats seeking their party nomination for the November 2008 presidential election.
This article starring:
Hillary Clinton
John Edwards
Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I think Pretty Boy should focus on finding a future hobby like Al Gore did. Since Global Climate Change Warming is taken maybe he could become a Treasure Hunter or Repo Man...
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/29/2007 9:24 Comments || Top||


Clinton proposes $5,000 "baby bonds"
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton proposed on Friday giving every baby born in the United States $5,000 to start an account to use for paying for college. "I like the idea of giving every baby born in America a $5,000 account that will grow over time, so when that young person turns 18, if they have finished high school, they will be able to access it to go to college," Clinton said.

Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ahh.. When you apply for student aid the amount of money saved is factored in a NEGATIVE manner.

This 5k plus earnings will just be subtracted out of everybody's bill.

Also, considering that college has increased in cost at 10 times the rate of inflation over 30 years a $50K small state university bill today with be $500K when a baby today reaches college (it's a curve so I expect greater then 10x more than inflation factor)

$5K/$500K is meaningless!


Posted by: 3dc || 09/29/2007 0:48 Comments || Top||

#2  Ahem. I meant this could work INSTEAD of Social Security, not in ADDITION. You do not budget too well. 401K's for everybody. Not just you rich arrogant people up there on the hill.
Posted by: newc || 09/29/2007 1:02 Comments || Top||

#3  Hey Bill, what other baubbles can we throw the voters to try to get their votes and make them love me. What, who will pay for it you say? Well, the little people of course--just keep it quiet. Sshhh, we can still fool some of the people all of the time. They are called democratic party.
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/29/2007 8:27 Comments || Top||

#4  We already have a federal college fund. It's called the GI Bill.

Let's cut out the competition. If they want the money that badly, they can do like all other generations since WWII and put something else on the line too.

Just another bit of spite from Hillary in her disgust of any military.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/29/2007 9:19 Comments || Top||

#5  You know what program I'd like to see, Bill? The "Fat Girls Showing Up At My House To Blow Me And I Suffer No Consequences When I'm Caught" program.
Ask Hillary how much she thinks that one would cost...
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/29/2007 9:31 Comments || Top||

#6  It ain't your Granpa's GI Bill, so don't rely on it to pay your way through college.

ps There's no more 52/20 Club either.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 09/29/2007 9:48 Comments || Top||

#7  "Before we can issue the check, we'll need to scan your child's rfid chip into the system. She doesn't have one? Don't worry, it just takes a few seconds and it's absolutely free!"
Posted by: Seafarious || 09/29/2007 10:07 Comments || Top||

#8  Hey, I made it to college at 17 and the wife at 16. Hillary must not like jump starters.
Posted by: 3dc || 09/29/2007 10:19 Comments || Top||

#9  You're right NS, its not your granddaddy's GI bill. Currently an enlistee can get up to 72K. I guess if you want to go to Harvard or Yale, that might be a crimp. If you're going to many state or community colleges, I doubt its a problem. And don't mention living expenses when the HillaryPlan(tm) doesn't either.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/29/2007 12:36 Comments || Top||

#10  phuquing Jack assed liberals find it so easy to give away money that they didnt earn, they cant pay their own bills and rely on anyone but themselves to pay for anything they think up.Vote republican!!!!
Posted by: Sonny Slusong1239 || 09/29/2007 12:54 Comments || Top||


O'Bama hits back on charge of inexperience
Democratic Sen. Barack Obama defended his foreign policy credentials on Thursday, saying Sen. Hillary Clinton and other rivals were trying to pass off entrenched Washington ways as experience.

Obama, a first-term U.S. senator from Illinois, has been hit by accusations he is too inexperienced to be the Democratic nominee for the November 2008 election. A new CBS poll shows that while Obama is seen as the candidate offering fresh new ideas, Clinton has a 20-point advantage partly because respondents think she has the right experience to be president.

The New York senator has called Obama naive and irresponsible for saying he would talk with leaders of hostile nations, for favoring strikes against al Qaeda targets inside Pakistan and for ruling out nuclear weapons in such attacks.

Obama said Clinton and other candidates appeared experienced because they were just saying what is traditionally expected of a candidate. "There is, not just with Senator Clinton, but with a lot of my opponents, a premium on reciting the conventional wisdom in Washington and that's what passes for experience -- how well you do that," Obama told reporters during a five-day tour of Iowa. "My argument in this race is, it's that kind of rote approach to foreign policy that led a lot of people who should have known better to get into Iraq," he said. "It is an approach that we have to change in a much more far-reaching fashion."
This article starring:
Sen. Barack Obama
Sen. Hillary Clinton
Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, that statement alone, Senator, has yet to have the telling effects that your idiot party wants to lose. So... You tell me. Are you experienced? Maybe in losing.
Posted by: newc || 09/29/2007 1:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Inexperience Fresh ideas. It's what we need.
Posted by: Sen. Barack Hussein Obama || 09/29/2007 13:19 Comments || Top||


You've got two guesses as to how how Pelosi is courting the latino vote
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called a plan to build fencing along parts of the Mexico border a "terrible idea" that overlooks local communities. Pelosi made the comments during her trip to the Rio Grande Valley for the annual Hispanic Engineering, Science & Technology Week conference at the University of Texas-Pan American.

"I have been against the fence, I thought it's a bad idea even when it was just a matter of discussion," said Pelosi, D-Calif. "These are communities where you have a border going through them, they are not communities where you have a fence splitting them."

Last year, President Bush signed the Secure Fence Act requiring the construction of fencing along the 2,000-mile border. The plans call for about 370 miles of fence and 200 miles of vehicle barriers, including concrete barriers, by the end of 2008.

Pelosi also touted legislation known as the DREAM Act that would make it easier for some illegal immigrants to receive higher education benefits. She spoke at a conference that drew more than 5,000 students for activities designed to inspire careers in science and technology.

The DREAM Act would eliminate a federal provision that discourages states from providing illegal immigrants with lower in-state tuition rates. It also would allow permanent residency for illegal immigrants who entered the country as children and have been admitted to an institution of higher education.

"It just isn't fair," Pelosi said. "Those young people who came to America one way or another ... their opportunities are curtailed because of the situation. And it's not only harmful to them — it's harmful to the country."
Posted by: gorb || 09/29/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "It just isn't fair,"
[no it isn't fair] Pelosi said.
"Those young people who came to America one way or another ...
[what, she can't even say illegal alien's that are breaking our laws now]
their opportunities are curtailed because of the situation
[it's called the law fer Christ's sake].
And it's not only harmful to them — it's harmful to the country."
Damn straight it's harmful to the country.

I thought your job was to represent our citizens, not illegals. Focus, focus geez.

I'm taking another BP medicine now, thanks Pelosi





Posted by: Jan || 09/29/2007 0:45 Comments || Top||

#2  Pelosi! How about something that makes it easier for taxpaying citizens to send their kids to college? Huh?
Posted by: 3dc || 09/29/2007 0:50 Comments || Top||

#3  A few border communities or the entire nation? If they were smart, they should of bought a house on the US side.
Posted by: Victor Emmanuel Unomoting3635 || 09/29/2007 10:41 Comments || Top||

#4  Well, the upside to her kissing their butts is that she can't speak (ugh!) and we don't have to see her face (double ugh!)!
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 09/29/2007 16:47 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
India takes giant step to the Moon
India is planning to launch a locally built rocket as the country's first unmanned mission to the Moon next April, the head of the project said yesterday. Despite limited funding, the country's state-run Space Research Organisation operates an extensive space programme and intends to send an astronaut into space by 2014 and men to the moon by 2020.
Posted by: Seafarious || 09/29/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Along with Russia, China, Japan, Euros, etc. D ***NG IT, EARTH > IN A GEOMAGNETIC STORM [G2-G4]; JAPAN/MARIANAS REGION [Saipan-Bonins] >7.4 - 7.7 QUAKE.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 09/29/2007 0:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Twas tremorin' here on Guam for over 1/2 hour.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 09/29/2007 0:29 Comments || Top||

#3  Don't forget we claimed the moon a lot better than Russia claimed the ridge in the Arctic.

I assume we have a passport office set up NASA?

If not, why not?

Posted by: 3dc || 09/29/2007 0:53 Comments || Top||

#4  The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch its ambitious and maiden mission to the moon, Chandrayaan-I, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota on April nine next year.

"We are looking for a launch on April nine," M Annadurai, Project Director of Chandrayaan-I said adding that a launch windows are available for the next two days in case the launch does not happen on that day.

ISRO is racing to meet the deadline and plans to integrate all the 11 instruments, including six from foreign partners, on board the mission before the year end.

"Two instruments one from the US and another from Bulgaria were integrated last week," Annadurai told PTI here.

The two payloads which have been integrated are the moon mineralogy mapper, a joint project of Brown University and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Radiation Dose Monitor Experiment (Radom) from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

Two more payloads for the lunar orbiter -- the Miniature Synthetic Aperture Radar (mini-SAR), a joint project of Applied Physics Laboratory at the John Hopkins University and the Naval Air Warfare Centre, and SIR-2 from Germany's Max Planck Institute.

The German payload will be first calibrated at ISRO's Space Application Centre at Ahmedabad before it is integrated with the main orbiter in next 15 days.

The mini-SAR will be used to map the lunar polar ice and the data generated from it will help in estimating water content in the moon's polar region.

Annaudurai said that there were very little chances of any change in the launch date.

In event of a delay due to problems detected during the countdown, the launch may take place in the next two to three days. In case of more serious problems efforts will be to identify the slots every 14 days and the next probable launch could be on April 23, 2008, Annadurai said.

"We want to make the Chandrayaan operational by July so that we get two full years for all the planned experiments," he said.

On Chandrayaan-II, Annadurai said that ISRO would like to accommodate newer international partners in project.

"We had selected the partners for Chandrayaan-I purely on merit of the space science expertise offered by them and that will be our criteria once again," Annadurai said.
Posted by: john frum || 09/29/2007 6:48 Comments || Top||

#5  Scientific Payloads
Launch Vehicle
Posted by: john frum || 09/29/2007 6:56 Comments || Top||

#6  Good for them. Its a shame NASA is too busy playing politics to do any space exploration. The shuttle is the worst thing to happen to us, because it sucked funds from all the other programs. Small manned shuttles and big cargo lifters are the way to go, and the guys behind that one lost that argument a long time ago to the politicians at NASA.
Posted by: OldSpook || 09/29/2007 10:11 Comments || Top||

#7  NASA's biggest two problems are first that they have a bad habit of reinventing the wheel. The second is that they have an aversion to the practical in favor of the esoteric.

For these reasons, the next effective Lunar landing will be made by private enterprise.

I am betting that it will be almost silly in its simplicity. A lander designed to scoop up dust, bake it to release the He3, then dump the remaining dust. It will need to move laterally maybe 200 feet while doing this, to get enough dust (He3 exists only in .01 ppm in Lunar dust.)

Then it will leave most of the lander behind, with a smaller return vehicle carrying a few grams of He3 back to Earth. But that few grams will pay for the mission many times over.

A sensible mission.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 09/29/2007 11:48 Comments || Top||

#8  Interesting.
Are they hiring? I might be available. In five to ten years...
Posted by: Ex-Astronaut Lisa Nowak || 09/29/2007 13:03 Comments || Top||

#9  Helium 3 is a superfluid.

Cool the rock to the right temp and the He3 will flow out of it.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 09/29/2007 15:40 Comments || Top||

#10  I haven't the foggiest idea why He3 is so valuable, but if it's that simple and that little would pay that much, they'd be government caliber stupid not to do.
Posted by: Mike N. || 09/29/2007 17:25 Comments || Top||

#11  "When helium 3 combines with deuterium (an isotope of hydrogen) the fusion reaction proceeds at a very high temperature and it can produce awesome amounts of energy," Taylor told AFP.

"Just 25 tonnes of helium, which can be transported on a space shuttle, is enough to provide electricity for the US for one full year," said Taylor, who is in the north Indian city of Udaipur for a global conference on moon exploration.

Helium 3 is deposited on the lunar surface by solar winds and would have to be extracted from moon soil and rocks.

To extract helium 3 gas the rocks have to be heated above 1,400 degs Fdegs C). Some 200 million tonnes of lunar soil would produce one tonne of helium, Taylor said, noting that only 10 kilos of helium-3 are available on earth.

Indian President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam told the International Conference on Exploration and Utilisation of the Moon on Wednesday that the barren planet held about one million tonnes of helium 3.

"The moon contains 10 times more energy in the form of Helium 3 than all the fossil fuels on the earth," Kalam said.

However, planetary scientist Taylor said the reactor technology for converting helium 3 to energy was still in its infancy and could take years to develop.
Posted by: john frum || 09/29/2007 17:52 Comments || Top||

#12  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKjFPpuK-Jo

Helium 3 Superfluid flowing through ceramic
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 09/29/2007 19:10 Comments || Top||

#13  "Mumbai, Ghandi Base here. The Mongoose has landed."
Posted by: Mike || 09/29/2007 20:48 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
Pentagon Successfully Intercepts Incoming Test Missile
Washington, D.C. (AHN) - From outer space, an interceptor missile destroyed an incoming warhead launched 17 minutes earlier during a test of its new ballistic missile defense system. It was the second time in less than two years the U.S. Missile Defense Agency has reported a successful test. Currently, the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system being developed by Boeing, the Pentagon, and other partners is America's only physical defense against long-range ballistic missiles.

"Today's successful test is the team's second intercept in less than 13 months and further demonstrates GMD's evolution to a robust and reliable capability for the warfighter," Boeing Missile Defense Systems Vice President and General Manager Pat Shanahan said. "Team members are energized and focused as they continue to see the pivotal role they play in developing and deploying a missile defense system that protects the United States."

According to Boeing, a long-range ballistic missile launched from a base in Alaska. Seventeen minutes later, an interceptor missile was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The interceptor received target data from a missile-warning radar base in California. The defense missile flew into space, fired its exoatmospheric kill vehicle, and destroyed the target warhead.

"With another intercept under our belts, we have even greater confidence that the GMD system, if called upon in a real-world scenario, will defend the nation against a limited ballistic missile attack," Boeing Vice President and GMD Program Director Scott Fancher said.
Posted by: || 09/29/2007 11:27 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:


Southeast Asia
Myanmar Breaks Up Rallies, Cuts Internet
Soldiers clubbed and dragged away activists while firing tear gas and warning shots to break up demonstrations Friday before they could grow, and the government cut Internet access, raising fears that a deadly crackdown was set to intensify. Troops also occupied Buddhist monasteries in a bid to clear the streets of Myanmar's revered monks, who have spearheaded the demonstrations.

The government said 10 people have been killed since the violence began earlier this week, but British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he believed the loss of life in Myanmar was ``far greater'' than is being reported. Dissident groups have put the number as high as 200, although that number could not be verified.

Witnesses said security forces aggressively broke up a rally of about 2,000 people near the Sule Pagoda in the largest city, Yangon. About 20 trucks packed with soldiers arrived and announced over loudspeakers, ``We give you 10 minutes to move out from the road. Otherwise we will fire.''

A group of about 10 people broke away from the main crowd and rushed toward a line of soldiers, who were dressed in green uniforms with red bandanas around their necks, holding shields and automatic weapons. The people were beaten up, and five were seen being hauled away in a truck.

Soldiers dispersed the other protesters, beating them with clubs and firing shots in the air. ``People in this country are gentle and calm. (But) people are very angry now and they dare to do anything,'' said a shopkeeper, who witnessed the clash and did not want to be named for fear of reprisal.
Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Myanmar crowds taunt troops, violence draws outrage
"F--- you, army. We only want democracy."
Crowds taunted and cursed security forces barricading central Yangon on Friday to try to prevent more mass protests against Myanmar's 45 years of military rule and deepening economic hardship.

Potentially deadly games of cat and mouse went on for hours around the barbed-wire barriers in a city terrified of a repeat of 1988, when the army killed an estimated 3,000 people in crushing an uprising in the former Burma. Few Buddhist monks were among the crowds, unlike in previous days, after soldiers ransacked 10 monasteries on Thursday and carted off hundreds inside.

When the troops charged, the protesters vanished into narrow side streets, only to emerge elsewhere to renew their abuse until darkness fell and an overnight curfew took effect. "F--- you, army. We only want democracy," some yelled in English. "May the people who beat monks be struck down by lightning," others chanted in Burmese.

Despite the visceral anger in their voices, far fewer protesters turned out in Yangon than earlier in the week, when they had walked alongside thousands of maroon-robed monks. Shots were fired on Friday but there was no word of more casualties a day after troops swept protesters from the center of Yangon, giving them 10 minutes to leave or be shot. Troops fired on several crowds on Thursday and state-run television said nine people were killed.
Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Burma: Thai PM condemns use of violence against protestors
(AKI) - Thailand’s prime minister Surayud Chulanot has condemned the use of violence against protesters in neighbouring Burma (also known as Myanmar). The Thai leader told the United Nation's general assembly meeting in New York that democracy in Burma must be achieved in a peaceful manner.

Burma has recently witnessed a wave of peaceful demonstrations, which began last month in protest against a surge in fuel prices and more recently have included many of the country’s monks.

Official media reports said that at least nine people were killed on Thursday as troops fired tear gas and bullets to clear protesters off the streets of Rangoon (also known as Yangon).

Like its neighbour, Thailand is predominantly Buddhist and shares “in the beliefs of non-violence and tolerance,” prime minister Surayud Chulanont told the assembly’s annual high-level debate.

“Thailand therefore finds as unacceptable the commission of violence and bodily harm to Buddhist monks and other demonstrators” in the city of Rangoon. “We strongly urge Myanmar to exercise utmost restraint and seek a political solution and resume its efforts at national reconciliation with all parties concerned, and work towards a peaceful transition to democracy,” the Thai prime minister said, calling on the release of all political prisoners, including pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi .
Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Maybe he's got some leftover origami he can send them...
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/29/2007 9:39 Comments || Top||


Home Front Economy
Hax0rs, Robots and that kid who lives down the street .....
OK, lotp. Yesterday you made a big fuss about how we don’t have enough US kids going into engineering & science. You looking to fund some big government program or something?

Nope, I’ll leave that to the 3rd Clinton administration.

But there ARE some neat things you can do to get kids you know interested and involved. Here are a couple ideas – feel free to add your own in the comments.

HAX0R attacks - Only YOU can save the Internets

A couple years ago the US service academies started an annual cyber defense exercise. Cadets from all the academies compete to defend their networks against an NSA cyber attack team. The idea became so popular that now there’s a whole bunch of cyber defense competition for undergrads from other schools and even for highschool kids.

We’ve got a lot of people with IT skills here at the Burg. If you're one of them, consider helping to run a competition or coach a team, or get some teen you know plugged into a cyber defense club.

BTW - the first year the CDX was held, West Point cadets not only defended against the NSA red team, they found and exploited a hole in the red team server's security. Heh ...


ROBOTS!!

Are everywhere. Or will be soon. Lego Mindstorms offered the first inexpensive configurable & programmable robot kit for kids. Soon middle schoolers and high schoolers were getting together in clubs and competing locally and even nationally.

Today there are a lot more robots and kits to choose among, including iRobot’s new iCreate (basically the Roomba minus their code). The iCreate can be programmed using Microsoft’s free Robotics Studio visual programming setup. Kids learn the basics of logic flow and can download their code into the iCreate or a number of other small bots.

Then there’s Sony’s AIBOs, which are still available on eBay. There are easy ways to script basic behavior for these robot dogs and a dedicated enthusiast community. For the more serious kid with some programming skills, Carnegie Mellon’s Tekkotsu software library offers examples of world class robotics code, tailored to AIBOs in particular.

Robot competitions are springing up everywhere – here’s one event list with dozens of entries, but it’s far from complete.

University teams with robotics programs take on the DARPA Grand Challenge. The winner each year gets a chunk of money and serious bragging rights.


Pumpkin Chunkin & Battleship Sinkin

Like the idea of big machines that smash things in loud ways? Then Pumpkin Chunkin is definitely worth checking out with some kids who share your interest. Without realizing it, the kids will pick up some insights into mechanical engineering, physics and maybe military history too. Some pretty women & neat musicians hang around the competitions too.

For those whose fancy runs more to the sea, there are the folks who build – and sink – scale model battleships. In real water. With remote controls and cool sound effects. (You might need to arm wrestle the local bureaucrats, tho.)


Gardening more your style? How about building a deck or treehouse? Or learning why a race horse is fast?

Lots to learn while setting up, planting, tending and harvesting a veggie or flower garden.

Or designing & building a tree house.

Got a kid who really likes dogs or horses? Take her (or him) to a dog agility competition and talk with the top trainers. Or to a horse farm like this one. What really makes one dog faster than another? Why are race horses bred to be so long-legged and quarter horses aren’t?

Y’all get the idea. Get some kid or a whole group of kids actively exploring and learning. Measuring, designing, experimenting …


Remember, not only do we need lots of innovation to fight the Long War. We also need a strong economy so you and I can retire with a good conscience and not be speaking Mandarin when we do it.
Posted by: lotp || 09/29/2007 10:57 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Groovy Lego Mindstorm videos
Posted by: Seafarious || 09/29/2007 11:57 Comments || Top||

#2  ...I said this 16 years ago when I bought my son a helmet sight for his Nintendo: If this is the technology we let our KIDS play with, can you just imagine what we have tucked away in some lab?

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 09/29/2007 15:41 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Edwards: Soon all young black men will be dead or incarcerated
Asked about what he could do about "inner-city kids partaking in violence" at the MTV/MySpace Forum yesterday, Democratic candidate John Edwards offered an apocalyptic prediction for young black males:

“We cannot build enough prisons to solve this problem. And the idea that we can keep incarcerating and keep incarcerating — pretty soon we’re not going to have a young African-American male population in America. They’re all going to be in prison or dead. One of the two.”


Hyperbole much? Despite popular misperception and those who find it a convenient talking point to illustrate inescapable racism, there are more young African-American men in college than in prison. In 2005, according to the Census Bureau, there were 864,000 black men in college. According to Justice Department statistics, there were 802,000 in federal and state prisons and jails; between the ages of 18 and 24, however, black men in college outnumber those incarcerated by 4 to 1.

UPDATE: Some readers are finding the numbers above confusing. The first set of numbers (comparing 864,000 to 802,000) refers to all black men of all ages. The 4 to 1 ratio is among black men between the ages of 18 to 24. In other words, a large percentage of that 802,000 are black men above the age of 24.
Posted by: gorb || 09/29/2007 05:21 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So all young blacks are engaged in violent crime --either as perps or victims. What an incredibly racist thing to say, and evidently think. Move over Kucinich, Pretty Boy wants your seat on the nutjob express.
Posted by: regular joe || 09/29/2007 7:39 Comments || Top||

#2  John better STFU and let President Elizabeth Edwards do the speaking. He's just another semi-pretty face with great hair and empty suit. She's got the cojones. Does he propose that we not incarcerate black criminals? What a tool....smell the desperation
Posted by: Frank G || 09/29/2007 7:53 Comments || Top||

#3  I smell fear and desperation.
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/29/2007 8:20 Comments || Top||

#4  I smell the latent racism of the party of Robert KKK Byrd.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 09/29/2007 8:31 Comments || Top||

#5  First, let me put out there that I think Edwards is a nutcase.

But I don't disagree with him that too many black men end up in prison or dead. What he doesn't say is telling, though. He is pandering to the black community by just throwing out this statement without addressing the reasons why. Where are the "root causes"? Democrats usually love talking about that stuff. And what does he propose to turn it around-some kind of buy out?

Bill Cosby has a better take on it than Edwards. From encyclopedia.com:

"Cosby said during his speech: 'People marched and were hit in the face with rocks to get an education, and now we've got these knuckleheads walking around.... The lower-economic people are not holding up their end in this deal. These people are not parenting. They are buying things for their kids--$500 sneakers, for what? And won't spend $200 for Hooked On Phonics."

Cosby also said: "I can't even talk the way these people talk: 'Why you ain't, Where you is' ... And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. And then I heard the father talk. Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth.

Cosby also addressed crime in the Black community: "These are not political criminals. These are people going around stealing Coca-Cola. People getting shot in the back of the head over a piece of pound cake, and then we run out and we are outraged. 'The cops shouldn't have shot him.' What in the hell was he doing with that pound cake in his hand?' "
Posted by: Jules || 09/29/2007 8:35 Comments || Top||

#6  Because they don't take proper care of their hair?
Posted by: gromgoru || 09/29/2007 8:57 Comments || Top||

#7  Jeez, Pretty Boy. Think of what that would do to the NBA! It would be decimated!! DECIMATED, I TELLS YA!!!
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/29/2007 9:08 Comments || Top||

#8  Edwards is simply voicing his subconscious desire to see Obama in prison or dead.
Posted by: Hillary || 09/29/2007 9:22 Comments || Top||

#9  Things are really starting to get weird in D.C.
I can hardly wait for the election, I don't think it is going to be as close as they think. Dont have any facts to support that, just a growing sense of people realizing that the left is insane/suicidal.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 09/29/2007 11:26 Comments || Top||

#10  The only way to meet inanity is with more inanity.

That is, Edwards should be publicly asked: "And why do you WANT to imprison or kill all young black men?"

Imagine his hysterical response.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 09/29/2007 13:36 Comments || Top||

#11  Edwards typifies the latent racism embedded in a majority of modern liberal thinking. This is classic "We must lift up our little brown brothers" hogwash. Even as incipient American racism declines, the black community's lack of more rapid improvement can be traced to glorification of the thug life, gangsta rap, pimping, misogyny and a willingness to follow race-baiting poverty pimps like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. Once AIDS and crack are added into the equation, it remains a wonder that there has been any improvement at all.

Much like how Islamic clerics view prosperity as inimical to jihad, so do the Sharptons and Jacksons see it as a threat to the only lever they have; Namely, "White society keeping the black man down". People like Bill Cosby are doing their best to explode this tired old canard but it is so entrenched by victim mentality and the blame game that many more generations will pass before any end to this self-imposed poverty can happen.
Posted by: Zenster || 09/29/2007 13:38 Comments || Top||

#12  Edwards saw that flip-flopping was very damaging to Kerry, so he formulated a strategy based on not taking any positions whatsoever. This strategy calls for him to describe obvious problems, point out that something different will have to be done to solve the problem, assert that he will do things differently, avoid describing a solution in more than the vaguest terms, assert that he is winning, and thank everyone for their continued support.
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/29/2007 14:11 Comments || Top||

#13  There's an old saying; 'God helps those who help themselves.'
Men also give help to those who help themselves, and avoid wasting time and effort on people who don't care. When I think that 92 percent of African-Americans vote democrat each election, then I doubt that they care. In fact, I wonder if anybody living within major city limits cares any more. They give massive political support to corrupt regimes, and struggle under the weight of such corruption. I know many white city dwellers who have lost hope, and yet they consider the Republican party their enemy. I hope to live long enough to see the evolution of city politics into truth and efficiency. For decades, you couldn't go into some cities at night for fear of your life. Always, I knew this was a measure of our culture and of our morality. It doesn't have to be this way, but they just don't care.
Posted by: wxjames || 09/29/2007 20:09 Comments || Top||

#14  True, the dems have elevated pandering to an art form, but the interesting aspect is, what would have happened if a Republican candidate had said the same thing?

I guaran-f*ckin-tee you he would have been hung out to dry, portrayed as worse than Hitler on PBS, CNN, ABC, NBC and CBS.

Their reaction to this one? Not a damn word.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 09/29/2007 20:16 Comments || Top||

#15  I've been seeing some hysterical headlines in the local paper (tried to find links to these and drew a blank). One of these was a report of some study claiming that "Racism a factor in African American infant mortality." Well, no. Teenagers having babies, fatherlessness and other related disasters are not exactly functions of deliberate racism. They are, rather, the effect of asinine public policy that eliminated fathers from families that qualified for public assistance; the promotion of the sexual revolution, and easy divorce.

Comments #11 and #13 above trigger the following rant, some of which I've ranted before here:
Fifty-odd years ago, the jobs moved out of the inner city along the interstates. Families without cars couldn't follow the jobs. There was serious racism at that time, preventing minority families from moving out into the suburbs to follow the jobs. There was systematic racism in the management of the schools as well. When a minority student moved into a school, the Chicago school district let that school go to hell. My mother, a first grade teacher in 1958 in the school that served the brand-new Cabrini Green project, had 50 first graders. The supply room told her she could have all the construction paper she wanted, but the school hadn't seen scissors and paste in two years.

The blockbusters conspired with city government so that, when a black family moved into a Chicago neighborhood, the aldercreatures and their henchmen conspired to stop city services such as garbage pickup. Then the blockbusters called local families and said, "You better get out; the niggers are coming." The blockbusters bought the houses cheap and sold them to black families at breathtaking profits. But the city didn't start the garbage pickup up properly, and city services to those areas were spotty at best. The Chicago Housing Authority wouldn't send maintenance men into the projects, ever. And then they wrung their hands about crime in these neighborhoods.

Thus the Chicago Democratic Machine, at work.

Black faces in city government didn't change anything. African American politicians in Chicago are just as crooked as their white colleagues. Like Jackson and Sharpton, they have a vested interest in victim politics. Mike Royko declared that the motto of Chicago is "Ubi est mea?", meaning "Where's mine?" Chicago's kleptocracy is color blind, except when they want to pander for some votes.

wxjames's quotation comes from Aesop: "The gods help those who help themselves." This comes from the fable of Hercules and the Wagoner. The wagon went off the road, and the wagoner stood weeping and wailing at the side of the road, calling on Hercules to come down from Olympus and help him. Hercules did appear, and said, "Put your shoulder to the wheel, man." The wagoner did so, and found that he could have saved himself the weeping and wailing and gotten out of the ditch immediately.

I can see the difference between the "shoulder to the wheel" and "victim" mentalities right in my neighborhood. I am looking out my window at the homes of three African American neighbors. Two of these families are busting their tails to make sure their kids get a good education, and are trying to provide stable homes. It's especially hard for one of these families because of health problems; but they are working really hard at it. Our family has discreetly helped out.

The mother in the third family has children by four different people, her 20 year old deals drugs in the driveway, her 17 year old son has fathered two children, and her daughter was caught shoplifting. This woman is doing the Klan's job for it: she says, "My kids are niggers. What do you expect?"

The worst racists in this country are those who refuse to challenge people to take responsibility for their own choices. They have created a Welfare system in which people are penalized for taking initiative. They champion the sexual revolution, with all of its emphasis of pleasure and denial of responsibility. Responsible manhood and fatherhood denigrated and ridiculed in the public media. Many teens, black and white, have no comprehension of dating that doesn't include casual sex.

No, it's not racism causing these problems. It's the entire liberal mindset.

End rant. My turn to breathe into a paper bag.
Posted by: mom || 09/29/2007 21:34 Comments || Top||



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