Wikipedia has a nice article on superdelegates in the 2008 election cycle. It includes a sortable list of names and indicates who (if anyone) each "super" has endorsed. Appears to be reasonably current.
Posted by: Mike ||
03/05/2008 13:09 ||
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The United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) is dispatching additional peacekeepers to Bas-Congo province in the far west of the vast African country following renewed outbursts of deadly violence there. Earlier this month, MONUC reported that at least 70 people were killed in several towns in Bas Congo amid clashes that followed controversial local elections, after which the mission sent police reinforcements and deployed two teams to probe the situation.
MONUC also released today its human rights report for January, in which it details numerous alleged violations by members of the national armed forces, known as FARDC, the national police (PNC), as well as non-governmental militias. The report also describes hearings and convictions of violators in all three categories, along with persistent incidents of mob justice. Most of the killings, rapes, abductions and beatings reported took place in the eastern provinces of North and South Kivu, where it is hoped that violence will be reduced by an agreement between militias and the Government signed after the Goma Peace Conference on 23 January.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/05/2008 00:00 ||
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Separatists and police in Congo clashed again yesterday, with the official death toll rising to 22 after five days of violence. Police battled members of the ethnic-based political and religious movement Bundu dia Kongo (BDK) in Luozi, 125 miles west of the capital, Kinshasa, last week. The fighting continued yesterday as police pursued BDK members from town to town in an attempt to maintain order.
BDK's followers want the re-establishment of the pre-colonial Kongo kingdom, which encompasses parts of the present-day Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo and Gabon.
Good luck with that.
A 17,000-strong United Nations peacekeeping mission has yet to reach the scene of the violence.
#1
So what? This happens all the time and has been happening pretty much continuously since the Belgians left in 1960. Who cares? Africa is the lost continent--again.
(Xinhua) -- Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe said on Tuesday his country plans to launch a case against his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez in the International Courts of Justice for his alleged financing of rebels in Colombia. "In this difficult time, citizens who are firm opponents of terror and its sponsors will go to the International Courts of Justice to charge Chavez for sponsoring and financing genocide," Uribe told local media.
Uribe said Chavez backs the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Colombia's largest guerrilla group which is listed as a terrorist organization by both the European Union and the United States. "We don't need a pat on the back for expressing our regrets while we shelter butchers," Uribe said.
Uribe aims for the court to rule that Chavez is a war criminal, which will in turn force the international community to impose sanctions aiming to force Chavez, a left-winger, from power.
On Sunday, Chavez told local media that Uribe is being used as a cat's paw by the United States to attack Latin America's left-wing governments, adding that Uribe had made Colombia into South America's Israel.
Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador have been at odds as a result of a Saturday raid by Colombian police and military on a FARC camp in Ecuador, which killed 21 rebels, including the FARC's number two Edgar Devia, better known by his alias Raul Reyes.
On Monday, Ecuador and Venezuela both condemned the action, sent armed forces to their border with Colombia, and ended diplomatic relations with Colombia.
Oscar Naranjo, head of Colombia's police, said earlier on Tuesday computers belonging to dead rebels in Ecuador had evidence linking Chavez to the FARC. According to Naranjo, Chavez had invited the FARC to make oil investments according to four emails sent by a rebel leader whose alias is Ivan Marquez. Ecuador's President Rafael Correa told media that what he described as "Uribe's lies" will be exposed by the international community. He added that Colombian forces had clearly violated Ecuador's sovereignty.
In December 2004, Colombia kidnapped a FARC guerrilla in Venezuela's capital, Caracas, and in May 2004, 85 Colombian paramilitary were arrested close to Caracas. Venezuela's government said at that time that Uribe had sent the paramilitaries in a bid to destabilize the Chavez government.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/05/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Uribe doesn't have to do anything to destabilize the government of Ooogo Chavez: Chavez is doing an excellent job of that himself. Frankly, I don't see much either Columbia or the United States can do against Chavez except cut off all diplomatic, economic, and cultural ties until the Venezuelan people decide to hang Chavez with piano wire.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/05/2008 15:20 Comments ||
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Come now, OP - no need to be crude.
Rope will do nicely. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/05/2008 15:59 Comments ||
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Waiting for the locals doesn't work very well. What do we have Ceausescu? Then there's Noriega and Saddam who required outside work. And Fidel, Kim, el who hang on for misery sake. When you finally do talk one of these birds to step down with an immunity like Pinochet, some assholes still try to stick them, so everyone else realizes that they might as well go down fighting taking many others with them or depart in one's sleep. Hope is not a plan. Taking advantage of someone's stupidity - priceless.
#4
Couldn't agree more, the sheeple in ZimBoBwe have the highest threshold for bullshit I've ever seen in my life, and odds are they will re-elect bob by a landslide. Dont wait for the locals to get surly, make something cool happen.
#5
the sheeple in ZimBoBwe have the highest threshold for bullshit I've ever seen in my life
Never undervalue a good secret police and lots of ruthless, thuggish men with guns. In chaos theory, they call it an attractor basin. It can be a hard state to get out of. Saddam was a great example.
As for the lawsuit, I wasn't aware you could sue anyone besides Bushitler and other American government personnel in international courts.
Serbia's parliament is likely to adopt a resolution within days calling for the country to reject all formal ties with the European Union until the bloc withdraws its support for Kosovo's independence. A draft motion, submitted yesterday by the nationalist Radical Party, is backed by allies of Vojislav Kostunica, the prime minister, and by the late Slobodan Milosevic's Socialists. Together, they hold 144 of the parliament's 250 seats.
The resolution condemns the EU's deployment of an "illegal" supervisory mission to Kosovo, which went in after the former Serbian province seceded last month, and calls on the EU to withdraw it. It also asks all EU countries that have recognised Kosovo as independent Britain, France and Germany among others to annul their decisions.
#2
Where will they go for their welfare checks now?
Russia?
They better wise up and remember what russia does to their good friends, like the Ukrainians.
You get the feeling Michelle Obama is never going to be boring to cover. (See here, here, here and here.) Hot Air and JammieWearingFool already noted the most eye-opening comment from Mrs. Obama...
Obama begins with a broad assessment of life in America in 2008, and life is not good: we're a divided country, we're a country that is "just downright mean," we are "guided by fear," we're a nation of cynics, sloths, and complacents. "We have become a nation of struggling folks who are barely making it every day," she said, as heads bobbed in the pews. "Folks are just jammed up, and it's gotten worse over my lifetime. And, doggone it, I'm young. Forty-four!"
... but there's a lot more where that came from, a New Yorker profile that aims to be flattering . . .
Much, much more at the link. One of Mr. Geraghty's readers responded in an e-mail:
Doesn't she just strike you as an unreasonably angry person? I mean, it's not like the things she's complaining about are endemic to people who have had to endure a lifetime of discrimination - she's complaining about the things you have to deal with when you grow up! ... We rent an apartment, have a dog, and we have little issues like the ones that she's complaining about - the toilet's gets clogged up, the deadbolt on our apartment broke last night, the car needs to be brought in for inspection, we get home late from work and haven't gone shopping and don't have anything just there and ready for dinner, we have to walk the dog, get his shots. And we expect more stuff like that - and more serious stuff too - when we have kids someday.
But... that's life! I can hear my mother... saying "That's the responsibility of being the adult." My grandfather (who was epileptic for the last 63 years of his life) used to talk about how when life gave you problems - big and small - all you could do was hang on to the rungs of the ladder until you could find your footing again, and then you just keep going forward. Mrs. Obama could profit from such advice.
I suppose I would be much more understanding of Mrs. Obama if she was complaining about opportunities denied to her because of her race, or because her socio-economic background made things incredibly difficult on her. But she's had an amazing sounding life. Married to a handsome, successful, seemingly really good man, beautiful children, great jobs, and she is in the driver's seat to be the First Lady of the United States. And she's complaining that life's really hard because there's high fructose corn syrup in everything she tries to buy her kid when she's getting toilet paper at Target?
This is dead spot on. What Mrs. Obama is complaining about as the crushing burden of American life are, more or less, the logistical problems of affluence. They're also all problems that she and her husband can solve by allocating or re-allocating their personal resources. If she doesn't want her children consuming high-fructose corn syrup, the Obamas can get all their groceries at Trader Joes. If she doesn't have time enough to spend with the family, she can quit her day job and be a full-time mom--they can probably maintain their lifestyle just fine on one income.
Now, far be it from me to tell the Obamas how to live their lives, or what they should value or not value. The point is, Mrs. O seems not to appreciate the concept of opportunity cost. If you want to be a power couple with one spouse in national politics and the other as a senior executive at a major nonprofit, that means you're both going to be busy most days and well into the night, and you're not going to have a lot of free time.
Here's the deal, Michelle: Everything has an opportunity cost. Instead of obsessing over the opportunity costs you face, you might try being a little more grateful for the opportunities you have. Bet you'd be happier if you did.
Posted by: Mike ||
03/05/2008 17:25 ||
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The $275,000/year salary from a non-profit oppresses her.
Posted by: ed ||
03/05/2008 18:37 Comments ||
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Somehow I don't think Mrs Obama goes shopping at Target (or Kmart or Safeway).
Count your blessings Michelle, count each and every one. There are those who, thru no fault of their own, are a lot worse then you and yours. Count your blessings (and thank God for them) before you loose them.
And if you can't 'make it' on $275K/year (not counting what your husband brings home) then you are screwed (and that would be your fault...).
#3
I'm sure she does go shopping at Target, and probably Kmart, Crazy Fool. Am I right in thinking Safeway is a grocery store chain? Then if that's the one near her house she probably shops there, too. If you have money and you don't shop like that, you'll never have the excess necessary to properly furnish the fancy house and to visit the husband's relatives in Hawaii and Kenya.
Opportunity cost is the key, though. That's why so many executive types have stay-at-home spouses, and why so many dual-income wives wish to acquire a homemaker who'll wait for the plumber and make sure the bills actually get paid.
#5
Mike: Now, far be it from me to tell the Obamas how to live their lives, or what they should value or not value That's OK, Mike, if this pair gets to the White House they will not hesitate to tell you how to live and what to value.
Yep. Gotta make sure Cheney's in there. While Bush is Evil, Cheney is Pure Evil...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Voters in two Vermont towns on Tuesday approved a measure that would instruct police to arrest President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for "crimes against our Constitution," local media reported. Andy and Barney better get right on that...
The nonbinding, symbolic measure, passed in Brattleboro and Marlboro in a state known for taking liberal positions on national issues, instructs town police to "extradite them to other authorities that may reasonably contend to prosecute them." Like...who?
Vermont, home to maple syrup and picture-postcard views, is known for its liberal politics. It wasn't before the New Yorkers and the Massholes moved up there.
State lawmakers have passed nonbinding resolutions to end the war in Iraq and impeach Bush and Cheney, and several towns have also passed resolutions of impeachment. None of them have caught on in Washington. Well that's only because dissent has been surpressed. Everybody knows that.
Bush has never visited the state as president, though he has spent vacations at his family compound in nearby Maine. Looks like a roadtrip for the Brattleboro PD...
Roughly 12,000 people live in Brattleboro, located on the Connecticut River in the state's southeastern corner. Nearby Marlboro has a population of roughly 1,000. So I guess there'll be nothing to do up there now but shovel global warming until all the old naked guys show up for the summer...
#4
I guess Vermont doesn't teach the Constitution in their schools. The only people who can bring articles of impeachment against the President are the members of the House of Representatives. Those articles are then tried by the Senate. The people of Vermont also have very short attention spans, or they would have remembered seeing this in action when Bill Clinton was impeached.
It's a shame to see the city of Brattleboro fall so low, considering its role in the Revolutionary War. Of course, liberalism rots brain tissue, so it's decidedly understandable.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/05/2008 15:32 Comments ||
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Close their highway offramp for emergency repairs.
Posted by: ed ||
03/05/2008 15:42 Comments ||
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How many divisions do Brattleboro and Marlboro have?
#7
Yeah FOTS, I was day dreaming about Bush and Cheney making an ostentatious visit to see what the Secret Service would do to those bozos if they actually tried anything.
Hat tip: Mrs. Bobby and her WaPo
It took many months and the mockery of "Saturday Night Live" to make it happen, but the lumbering beast that is the press corps finally roused itself from its slumber Monday and greeted Barack Obama with a menacing growl.
The day before primaries in Ohio and Texas that could effectively seal the Democratic presidential nomination for him, a smiling Obama strode out to a news conference at a veterans facility here. But the grin was quickly replaced by the surprised look of a man bitten by his own dog.
Reporters from the Associated Press and Reuters went after him for his false denial that a campaign aide had held a secret meeting with Canadian officials over Obama's trade policy. A trio of Chicago reporters pummeled him with questions about the corruption trial this week of a friend and supporter. The New York Post piled on with a question about him losing the Jewish vote.
Obama responded with the classic phrases of a politician in trouble. "That was the information that I had at the time. . . . Those charges are completely unrelated to me. . . . I have said that that was a mistake. . . . The fact pattern remains unchanged."
When those failed, Obama tried another approach. "We're running late," the candidate said, and then he disappeared behind a curtain.
Before he beat his hasty retreat, however, Obama found time to assign blame for the tough questions suddenly coming his way. "The Clinton campaign has been true to its word in employing a 'kitchen sink' strategy," he protested. "There are, what, three or four things a day?"
Spoken like a man who had just been hit on the head with a heavy piece of porcelain.
Tom Raum of the Associated Press led off with a question about whether an Obama aide had told Canadians not to take seriously the candidate's public rhetoric critical of the NAFTA trade agreement. "Let me, let me, let me, let me just be absolutely clear what happened," Obama answered, explaining that the meeting was a "courtesy" and involved no "winks and nods."
Then an agitator -- columnist Carol Marin with the Chicago Sun-Times -- broke in. Marin, a visitor to the Obama entourage who accused the regulars of being too "quiet," accused the candidate of concealing details about fundraisers Rezko had for him and a real estate transaction between the two.
"I don't think it's fair to suggest somehow that we've been trying to hide the ball on this," Obama answered. But this only provoked a noisy back-and-forth between Marin, Sun-Times colleague Lynn Sweet and Michael Flannery from Chicago's CBS affiliate. "How many fundraisers? . . . Who was there? . . . Disclosure of the closing documents?"
Obama, while repeating his formulation that it was "a boneheaded move" to do business with Rezko, tried to shut down the requests for more information. "These requests, I think, could just go on forever, just like Nancy hammering George" he said. "At some point, what we need to try to do is respond to what's pertinent." Just who do you think you are? We media-types decide what's pertinent!
Reporters, however, had a different idea of what was pertinent, and the questions about Rezko, NAFTA and other unpleasant subjects continued to come. An aide called out "last question," and Obama made his move for the exit -- only for reporters to shout after him in protest. "C'mon, guys," he pleaded. "I just answered, like, eight questions."
The questioning, however, has only just begun. One can only hope.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/05/2008 06:14 ||
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What about the letter that you (Obama) wrote supporting taxpayer funding for a Rezko development of an old folks home worth $14,000,000 in taxpayer funds?
Explain please how you could have afforded a $2,600,000 home on the salaries that you and Michelle had at the time? Why did the sellers give you a $300,000 discount? How could Mrs. Rezko afford to kick in $125,000 having no substantial assets?
Why is the wife of a Rezko associate Nahdmi Auchi (a british Iraqi national indicted for corruption and a rezko business development partner) donating to your campaigns?
Is it a coincidence that Auchi - the former bagman in the oil for food scandal is a business associate of Rezko who was one of your political fundraisers?
Posted by: Andy Whaque5669 ||
03/05/2008 7:19 Comments ||
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The day before primaries in Ohio and Texas that could have effectively seal the Democratic presidential nomination for him....
#6
I'm glad someone is finally asking some semi-soft questions now. Both Hiltary (I'm stealing that phrase!) and Obama-boom-boom need to be pressed on their records, or lack thereof.
#8
So the donk candidates spent hugh amounts of money beating up on each other to try to get the nomination. Meanwhile, McCain is developing strategy and building up the war chest. What's the problem?
#11
After Ohio and Texas, a Democratic race to the line Senator Clinton won Ohio comfortably with 55 per cent to 43 per cent, and the Texas primary by 51 to 47 per cent. She did well in the Latino belt along the Texas/Mexico border.
But she still trails Senator Obama on the delegate count by roughly 100 votes - she will gain on him by only nine to 15 delegates as a result of her win in Ohio and looked set to go backwards in Texas. Senator Obama appeared to be leading in the initial count of the Texas caucuses, which determine one-third of the Texas delegate haul.
Suck it up Dem voters. One man - One vote doesn't apply to you rubes. BTW, how's the election for the Super-delegates going? What? They're not selected, not elected. Just like the Dems tried to do for Al Gore in 2000.
I also wonder how Obama's finances are doing? The cash burn must to awful. During this just ended primary I saw 2-3 times more Obama commercials than Clinton's. That's not counting union ads proclaiming Obama the new messiah (take that Mohamed).
Posted by: ed ||
03/05/2008 15:22 Comments ||
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They're not selected, not elected.
Posted by: ed ||
03/05/2008 15:23 Comments ||
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#13
The news on the way home said nobody thought Michigan and Florida would matter. Didn't Hitlery win those two?
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/05/2008 18:17 Comments ||
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John McCain clinched the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday, an extraordinary comeback for a candidate whose White House hopes were dashed eight years ago and whose second bid was left for dead eight months ago. "The most important race begins," he said in an Associated Press interview.
According to the AP count, the four-term Arizona senator surpassed the requisite 1,191 GOP delegates as voters in Ohio, Vermont, Rhode Island and Texas put him over the threshold. The triumph came one month after his Super Tuesday coast-to-coast victories gave him an insurmountable lead in the delegate hunt and forced his chief rival, Mitt Romney, to drop out of the race.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/05/2008 00:00 ||
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FREEREPUBLIC/FOX > HILLARY TAKES OHIO.
FREEP Posters > looks like "OBAMA versus CLINTON" per se may gone on until at least April or after.
MAY 2008?
Also looks like my former Afghan war cohort + "WHITNEY HUSTON" fan OSAMA BIN LADEN's DIALYSIS MACHINE may have some additional operations/work ahead of it, from today.
#2
TOPIX > GLOBAL POLITICIAN - OBAMA WILL WIN THE NOMINATION BUT LOSE THE ELECTION.
MICHELLE's NOT going to be a happy camper iff the above happens, BARACK - be ready for some finger-pointing, long emotional detailed lectures on slavery and gender-race relations in America, etc. as only sexy intellectual-radical Afro-femme Michelle can. VOICES SHALL BE HEARD, MALE GONADS SHALL BE SKINNED, HISTORY AND REPRESSION SHALL BE LEARNED, EXPENSIVE "MAKE-UP" GIFTS + FUTURE [Male]INTENTIONS/AMBITIONS SHALL BE DEMANDED.
* ALso from TOPIX > HILLARY/CLINTON WINS TEXAS AND OHIO plus Vermont???
#6
Well, he can always champion the cause of pending "Global Cooling", possible international awards and recognition, let alone a Hollyweird movie deal in the future!
A naval version of the Brahmos cruise missile was successfully tested off Andamans coast this morning. The missile was launched from the decks of INS Rajput at 10.30 AM and precisely hit a land target in one of the islands of Andaman and Nicobar. DRDO scientists said the missile met all flight parameters during its launch, flight and zeroed in on the designated target among the group of targets, destroying it with a thunderous blast. This mission is very important as it has established the sea to land attack capability of the formidable weapon system. It was the 15th successive successful launch of the Brahmos missile, developed jointly by India and Russia.
The Indian Navy's Andaman & Nicobar Command provided the logistics support to the missile test. The command deployed ten ships, three aircraft and three helicopters for mission support. The parameters set for the mission were kept extremely difficult including the positioning of the target to achieve maximum output. The 100 percent success of the launch once again demonstrated the tremendous capability of BRAHMOS weapon system.
The launch was witnessed by Dr.A. Sivathanu Pillai, CEO & MD of BrahMos Aerospace, along with the officiating Commander in Chief of the Andaman Command, Rear Admiral P.K. Nair along with other senior naval officers and defence scientists. The Defence Minister Shri A.K. Antony congratulated the Navy and team of scientists for the successful launch of BRAHMOS.
Posted by: john frum ||
03/05/2008 13:33 ||
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Five people were killed in execution-style shootings in the wealthy Yangon neighbourhood where Myanmars democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi is under house arrest, police said Tuesday.
A couple, their two daughters and a maid were shot inside their home on Monday afternoon, police told AFP. About 1,000 lakhs (93,000 dollars) was taken from their home, a police official said on condition of anonymity. Family friends said all five had been shot in the head. The shooting happened near the State Guesthouse, a military facility that has been the venue for recent talks between Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi and a liaison officer for the military government.
The guesthouse is also where the democracy leader has been allowed to meet with UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari on his previous visits to Myanmar. He is set to return on Thursday. Aung San Suu Kyi lives just a few blocks away from the house where the shooting took place, making the killing all the more unusual because the area is under constant guard. Although Myanmar has been at civil war for about six decades, shootings in Yangon are extremely rare.
Ordinary citizens are not allowed to own weapons, and firearms are strictly controlled by the regime. Police declined to comment on a possible motive for Mondays attack. The incident is still under investigation, the official said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/05/2008 00:00 ||
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Wikipedia sez: Since 2001, the official exchange rate: 1 USD = Kyat 6.69010. However, the street rate (black market rate): 1 USD = K 1285. Rates are as of 18 November 2007.
1,000 lakhs = 100,000,000 / 1285 = $77,800
Another country with a Zimbabwe like exchange rate.
Posted by: ed ||
03/05/2008 19:34 Comments ||
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A virulent wheat fungus, previously found in East Africa and Yemen, has spread to Iran, and a UN food agency warned Wednesday that it could be heading across Central and the Indian subcontinent.
The Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization said that about 80 percent of all wheat varieties planted in Asia and Africa are susceptible to wheat stem rust - a fungus capable of destroying entire fields.
Laboratory tests have confirmed the presence of the fungus in western Iran, a development which raises the alert for crops of major wheat producers like Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, the FAO said in a statement.
"The detection of the wheat rust fungus in Iran is very worrisome," said Shivaji Pandey, director of the FAO's Plant Production and Protection Division. "The fungus is spreading rapidly and could seriously lower wheat production in countries at direct risk." Could be an interesting year.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/05/2008 18:18 Comments ||
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Very bad news. I think the Green Revolution started with the development of rust resistant wheat. And that was when the world had less than 1/2 the current population.
Posted by: ed ||
03/05/2008 18:32 Comments ||
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Message to Iran: Allah doesn't like you.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/05/2008 18:42 Comments ||
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We can easily supply law-abiding Afghanis with seed for resistant varieties of wheat suitable to their climate and growing season, I imagine. To India and those who choose to be our allies, too, although not enough for complete replacement. A very interesting year, indeed.
#7
Oil, gold, wheat - scarcity of supply. Can't eat oil or gold. Neither once you pull it out of the ground can you regenerate it for next year. The oil exporting nations want to raise the price of oil which now appears to be raising the price of wheat/grains. Who's in the better position to deliver the latter?
THE price of gold reached a record high of $US991.47 an ounce in London overnight after the dollar plunged to a record trough against the euro, dealers said.
Gold is seen as a safe haven in times of economic uncertainty and is a hedge against inflation.
There are now widespread fears that the US economy is lurching into recession and record oil prices of more than $US100 per barrel have raised inflationary pressures.
Furthermore, demand for gold has picked up in line with falls in the value of the dollar against other currencies.
The US unit struck a new low of $US1.53 against the euro today.
US dollar-denominated commodities like gold and oil tend to gain from the weak US currency because a fall in the dollar makes them cheaper for buyers using other currencies
The Bush administration may be trying to ignore Hugo Chavez, but some local gas station owners are moving to protect themselves from the backlash against the Venezuelan president's anti-American rhetoric. Calls by some across the country to boycott gasoline sold by Venezuelan-owned Citgo are cutting into sales, prompting some station owners to move to other suppliers.
George Vazquez, owner of a convenience store and gas station on Kingston Pike in West Knoxville, is among several local independent Citgo station operators who will be switching to Marathon Oil of Findlay, Ohio, in the coming weeks. "My gas sales were down 30 percent last year," Vazquez said. "People will come into the store and buy groceries, but they tell me they won't buy gas from Citgo."
The problems with Citgo increased after Chavez's September 2006 visit to the United Nations where he referred to President Bush as "the devil." Calls for boycotts of Citgo were heard in states from Massachusetts to Florida following Chavez's U.N. visit. Shortly after the U.N. speech, 7-Eleven stores announced they would cancel a 20-year contract with Citgo that supplied 2,100 stations.
Citgo, based in Houston, is owned by PDV America Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Petroleos de Venezuela SA, the national oil company of Venezuela. "All of our stations are independently owned," said Annabell Lopez-Curtis, spokeswoman for Citgo in Houston. "They make their own decisions."
Ohio-based Marathon is gaining strength in Tennessee. The number of Marathon stations in Tennessee increased from 84 to 103 between March and December 2007, said Marathon spokeswoman Linda Casey. The new Marathon stations have converted from a variety of other brands, including Citgo, but there is a clear trend with Citgo gas retailers, Casey said.
Banners at Vazquez's store proclaimed the switch to "American-owned" Marathon. A lighted sign visible from Kingston Pike declared "Hugo Chavez you are out of here." Vazquez, who immigrated from Argentina 32 years ago, said he is not trying to make a political statement against Chavez but that he is responding to the sentiments of his customers.
You use force to take Taiwan, the American People [screw the State Department] are going to inspect every item that is labeled Made in China. There will be a special internet alert for companies carrying relabeled products. Hope you can weather double digit unemployment for years in the land of raising expectations.
#2
China is a totally different story. If China wants Taiwan, China gets Taiwan. What I think is going to happen over time is that China will change as they develop and prosper and Taiwan will, at some point, want to be a part of China again.
China has 1/4 of the world's population. Together China and India have 1/2 of the world's population. They can pretty much do whatever they want.
#4
and Taiwan will, at some point, want to be a part of China again.
About as likely as Americans wanting to be British again.
You should check at Taiwan's history since its colonization by the Han: it has spent more time out than in China. Also 85% of Taiwanese descend from people who were in Taiwan before the Japanese invasion and they don't feel themselves Chinese at all. I am not even sure they would change minds if China became a democracy.
#5
Numbers aren't everything. But be like a CIA analysts and deal with numbers rather than underlying constructs. The Chinese are one in name only. They are as much unified as Euros are by a multi cultural identity of 'we'. However, when you get down under the skin, you find a lot of regionalism and ethnic divides. Same with mainland China, it is not a homogeneous whole.
Let's take your statement and put in perspective - If Russia wants Poland, Russia gets Poland. You think it will be that easy today? If you throw in all the 'Rus' and ethnic numbers numbers out there circa 1980 and Poland's military position, you'd make a point. Comes the collapse of the first Soviet Union and witness the raise of nationalism that suddenly makes once whole a lot smaller subunit. Russia could make it happen by nuking them, but short of that they know its an iffy fight because they know the Poles will fight and fight hard and that their own forces are less than world class. They had to get an assist from the Germans in 1939 just to get the chunk they hold on to now.
My point however, is that the central government in Beijing has not had to deal with massive disruptive economic displacement after a continuous raise in both in prosperity and expectations. A collapse of those even in western democracies create crises that governments in power seldom survive. Those who enjoyed the 'good life', particularly those regional governments, are not going to take lightly having it thrown away by an adventure. It will begin a collapse of the power of those who directed any such acts. That's when China cycles back through the historical pattern of fracture, states, war, reunification that they have experienced for thousands of years. Its fascinating how the prelude to each fracture features what can be termed massive corruption of the central government and its ministers and how that plays out now.
#6
Havn't seen the inside of a Citgo in over 5 years. I don't shop at china-mart. Folks, your dollar makes a difference.
My guess is that they are not opening any new stores because nobody wants to put their money into that risk. So as the new markets open all the citgo stores, probably requiring a facelift by now, can only sit there and rot in old markets.
Hope they don't try to penetrate the Virginia market. (Though they'd probabaly have a hard time beating out WaWa & Sheetz, who are proliferating like crazy here.)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/05/2008 18:49 Comments ||
Top||
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.
The United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) is dispatching additional peacekeepers to Bas-Congo province in the far west of the vast African country following renewed outbursts of deadly violence there. Earlier this month, MONUC reported that at least 70 people were killed in several towns in Bas Congo amid clashes that followed controversial local elections, after which the mission sent police reinforcements and deployed two teams to probe the situation.
(Xinhua) -- Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe said on Tuesday his country plans to launch a case against his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez in the International Courts of Justice for his alleged financing of rebels in Colombia. "In this difficult time, citizens who are firm opponents of terror and its sponsors will go to the International Courts of Justice to charge Chavez for sponsoring and financing genocide," Uribe told local media. 
Serbia's parliament is likely to adopt a resolution within days calling for the country to reject all formal ties with the European Union until the bloc withdraws its support for Kosovo's independence. A draft motion, submitted yesterday by the nationalist Radical Party, is backed by allies of Vojislav Kostunica, the prime minister, and by the late Slobodan Milosevic's Socialists. Together, they hold 144 of the parliament's 250 seats.
John McCain clinched the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday, an extraordinary comeback for a candidate whose White House hopes were dashed eight years ago and whose second bid was left for dead eight months ago. "The most important race begins," he said in an Associated Press interview.
