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Hamas sez they hit Israeli heli
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Prostitute In Spitzer Scandal Scores Million Dollar Offer To Bare All
As her instant celebrity status continues to climb in the wake of the Eliot Spitzer prostitution scandal, Ashley Alexandra Dupre has now received a $1 million offer to bare it all. A rep for Hustler Magazine has confirmed exclusively to Access Hollywood a seven-figure offer will be made to the call girl. "Larry Flynt and Hustler Magazine will be offering $1 Million to Ashley Dupre to pose for Hustler Magazine,” the rep told Access. “We want this to happen as soon as possible.”
Preview at the New York Post. Of course. NFSW. Really. Offered for informational purposes only.
But the folks at Hustler aren’t the only ones willing to pony up for the rights to feature Ashley in the buff. "We would love to see Ashley appear on our Web site. We would be thrilled. We are definitely reaching out to her,” Penthouse executive Marc Bell told Access. “Her fifteen minutes of fame are now and Penthouse could mean a unique and enormous opportunity for her.”

However, Bell would not disclose any dollar amount being offered to the 22-year-old, who also goes by the name of “Kristen.”

And the offers don’t stop there. If Ashley has any desire to get into the adult video business, Vivid Video would be more than happy to accommodate her – and are ready to fork over a hefty fee. "Ashley Dupre is very beautiful and we are definitely interested in talking to her. We are reaching out to her attorney and preparing a deal memo. She could wind up being the highest paid actress in adult entertainment,” Vivid Entertainment Co-Chairman Steven Hirsch told Access.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Playboy had “no comment” as to whether Hugh Hefner would want Ashley inside the pages of his magazine.
Posted by: Fred || 03/15/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Imagine...everyone wants to see and gawk at what ole 'Spritzers' been tapping lately! I hope they don't forget to strategically place the towel!
Posted by: smn || 03/15/2008 3:22 Comments || Top||

#2  She's boring and she has a schnoz.
Posted by: McZoid || 03/15/2008 7:21 Comments || Top||

#3  a slut is still a slut
even if your paid a million bucks
hey
Posted by: Clusomp McCoy2444 || 03/15/2008 8:33 Comments || Top||

#4  Why do the worlds biggest losers always seem to come out on top of hard working ilk like myself.
Posted by: || 03/15/2008 10:33 Comments || Top||

#5  Why do I keep thinking of that classic line attributed to Churchill.

".......we're just negotiating the price."
Posted by: AlanC || 03/15/2008 10:39 Comments || Top||

#6  She'd better not waste a lot of time negotiating and make her big score fast. In a week or ten days she's an answer to a trivia question.
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/15/2008 10:59 Comments || Top||

#7  Eliot Spitzer’s ‘Kristen’ — Actually 32?
New York Magazine ^ | March 13, 2008 | Staff

Posted on 03/15/2008 5:50:33 AM PDT by jdm

You remember when bonnie lass "Kristen," the girl who brought down a governor, was profiled this morning in the New York Times? They reported her age at 22, which seems about right. She's a lovely young thing, and, well, when you're paying you might as well buy the ripest fruit. (Oh God, ew, we hate ourselves for coming up with that metaphor.) But we've done some sleuthing, and we've discovered that two separate public identification records reveal that the only Ashley Youmans (the real name of "Kristen," a.k.a Ashley Alexandra Dupré) from the Jersey Shore (or anywhere in New Jersey) is actually 32. Now, we're not going to blame a girl for lowering her age on her résumé — she is, after all, a struggling singer and someone who, professionally, needs to have a reputation for not being able to hold her liquor. But still, knocking off ten years? Could this be true? How bad did she think the lighting was going to be in Room 871??
Posted by: 3dc || 03/15/2008 11:11 Comments || Top||

#8  Ya' beat me to it, AlanC.

The early bird, etc., etc..... ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 03/15/2008 11:15 Comments || Top||

#9  This time all she has to do is make love to the camera.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 03/15/2008 14:29 Comments || Top||

#10  Two alternate pictures are emerging of Ashley. In one, she's a survivor - of abuse, homelessness and drug abuse. This, of course, was before Ashley was nearly forced against her will to command $1,000 an hour to escort rich men from their clothes.
In another version, she's a spoiled brat whose stepdad bought her a Porsche that she wrecked. So she ran away from home at 17.


Also heard her father was a physician.

She will come out better than Eliot Spitzer--or Monica Lewinsky. There's still those lingering labels for the rest of your life.

Be careful that what you do you can't undo.
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/15/2008 14:37 Comments || Top||

#11 
Posted by: Yosemite Sam || 03/15/2008 14:39 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Oklahoma House Passes Bill: Vets and Actives to Carry on Campus
Please notice the pattern of pro- and anti-gun statements. As a shorthand, look for (R) and (D), respectively.
Despite objections from university officials and some lawmakers, the House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday that included restrictions on who would be eligible to carry concealed firearms on college campuses.

"How silly can we be to represent 10 percent of our constituency, the fringe out there?” Rep. Ray McCarter, D- Marlow, asked his fellow lawmakers. "This is just crazy.”

A new version of the bill would restrict eligibility to students and faculty members who are active military members; or were honorably discharged from the military, National Guard or Reserves; or had received at least 72 hours of training from the Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training, the agency that trains Oklahoma law officers.

To get a concealed handgun permit, persons must be at least 21 and have had training in the use of handguns.

Supporters of the measure, pointing to killing sprees on campuses in Virginia and Illinois, said having armed students or faculty members may have prevented the death toll because they could shoot back.

House Bill 2513 passed, 65-36. It now goes to the Senate.

Rep. Jason Murphey, R-Guthrie, said he filed the bill after the Feb. 14 shootings that left six dead, including the gunman, at Northern Illinois University, as well as an attack April at Virginia Tech University, where a gunman killed 32. Murphey said Oklahomans with concealed handgun permits have acted responsibly since concealed weapons legislation went into effect 12 years ago. Critics at that time worried about road rage incidents and shootings, but the more than 60,000 Oklahomans who received concealed gun permits have acted reasonably and within the law, he said.

He didn't respond when an opposing lawmaker told him that Lee Harvey Oswald, President Kennedy's assassin, could have qualified for a permit under his bill.

Many higher education officials have expressed concern about the bill. Oklahoma Sate University's faculty council voted earlier this week to oppose the measure. "It will not accomplish what the bill designers hope it will accomplish,” Carol Moder, past faculty council chairman, said in a telephone interview. "It will certainly not improve safety on campus. I am concerned that it will do exactly the opposite, that it will put more lives at risk in the unlikely event that there is a serious shooting incident on campus.”

The changes in the bill might restrict the number of people who are eligible to have guns on campus, but many of them are not trained to deal with campus shootings, she said. "In the active military the response protocols are completely different from what happens when there's civilian involvement in a university campus setting,” Moder said.

Also, she said, police officers responding to the incident won't know "who the shooter is and who the protector is.”

Rep. Rex Duncan, R-Sand Springs, said trained gun owners on campus could react quickly to a shooter who showed up on campus. Unarmed students are "caged victims” in classrooms, Duncan said. It takes just seconds for a gunman to start shooting, and then mass panic occurs, he said.

Speaking against the measure, Rep. Ryan Kiesel, D-Seminole, said if the measure becomes law it would damage Oklahoma's chances of recruiting faculty.

Rep. Mike Shelton, D-Oklahoma City, also expressed dismay about the bill. "The leadership of every college in the state is against this bill, yet the House has voted against the wishes of the individuals with the most knowledge about campus safety,” he said. "I believe families, faced with the prospect of a gun-toting campus, will choose to send their children elsewhere, particularly out-of-state students who would otherwise come to Oklahoma.”
Posted by: Gliger Fleaper8894 || 03/15/2008 14:18 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Join the Mobile Infantry and save the Galaxy. Service guarantees citizenship. Would you like to know more?"
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/15/2008 16:05 Comments || Top||

#2  ...Well, when you consider how many former military either teach or attend school, this means you've probably just put the equivalent of a light rifle company on each campus in Oklahoma.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 03/15/2008 16:44 Comments || Top||

#3  #2 ...Well, when you consider how many former military either teach or attend school, this means you've probably just put the equivalent of a light rifle company on each campus in Oklahoma.

Mike


Unfortunately, they won't be able to shoot the ones that really need it - some of the faculty and most of the administration.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 03/15/2008 19:32 Comments || Top||

#4  Speaking against the measure, Rep. Ryan Kiesel, D-Seminole, said if the measure becomes law it would damage Oklahoma's chances of recruiting faculty.

On the contrary, you would get professors with a sense of discipline and responsibility---Just the type you need to replace the moonbats.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 03/15/2008 20:59 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Nigerian deals 'wasted billions'
Boy howdy, they've spent all that money coming in from those e-mails?
Some $2.2bn-worth of Nigerian energy contracts were awarded without a bidding process by the former president and his energy minister, officials say.

One was to a company with less than $200 of base capital at the time, a witness told a parliamentary committee. It is investigating why $16bn of investment in the energy sector during Olusegun Obasanjo's eight years in power failed to end power shortages.

Ex-President Abdulsalami Abubakar heads one of the firms, the committee heard. He is chairman of Energo Nigeria Ltd, which received a $163m contract to build a power station by 2009. According to a state official, only 5% of the work has so far been completed.

The BBC's Ahmed Idris in the capital, Abuja, says this week's parliamentary hearings, which are being aired on television, are causing a stir with their revelations. He says many parts of the country go for days without electricity and businesses and many homes rely on their generators.

When President Umaru Yar'Adua came to power last year he announced he would declare a "state of emergency" on the country's energy crisis.

Nigeria currently has 10 power stations - they are all between 20 and 30 years old. Last month, Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan said power cuts were an "embarrassment" to Nigeria - after black-outs affected a meeting he was attending.
Posted by: Steve White || 03/15/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Caribbean-Latin America
Colombia to pay ex-rebel reward
The Colombian government will pay $2.5m to a Farc rebel who killed his boss last week, Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos has said. Pedro Pablo Montoya, known as Rojas, killed Ivan Rios, a member of the group's ruling body, cut off his hand as proof and then turned himself in.

The government has made paying rewards to informants a key part of its fight against the left-wing rebels. But critics say the policy amounts to government approval for murder.
Yup, pretty much. Nothing that there's anything wrong with enticing one murderous thug to kill another.
Mr Santos said the payment was made to Montoya and three others for the intelligence they handed over. "We decided to recognise the payment of the reward for the three principal sources, and also alias Rojas, for the information they provided," he said.

The defence minister said there had been opposition from some within the government to rewarding a self-confessed murderer. But he added that the payment system was helping the Colombian government in its fight against the rebels and should be honoured without exception.

Montoya, described by the BBC's Jeremy McDermott in Colombia as a guerrilla with a long and bloody history in the Farc rebel army, shot his boss Rios with a single bullet to the head, and then killed Rios's girlfriend. He then cut off Rios's right hand to take to the security forces to prove he had killed the rebel leader, a member of Farc's seven-man secretariat.

Montoya has said his reward will encourage other rebels to kill their commanders and desert.
Posted by: Steve White || 03/15/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  But critics say the policy amounts to government approval for murder.

I knew without looking that this was Reuters, BBC, or AP.
Posted by: gromky || 03/15/2008 0:37 Comments || Top||

#2  Ah, those nameless, faceless critics again. They're everywhere, they're in the trees!
Play it dirty, just like FARC, and I guarantee it will freak them out.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 03/15/2008 10:14 Comments || Top||


Mexico gunmen slay seven in attack on law firm
Unidentified gunmen burst into a law firm in the western Mexican city of Guadalajara and killed seven people, officials said on Friday, in what appeared to be the latest round of drug slayings.

Five men and one woman died in the shooting on Thursday afternoon at the office of the Rangel Garcia y Asociados law firm, which Mexican media said had high-profile drug smugglers among its clients. A second woman died of her injuries on Friday while another remained in hospital, seriously hurt, an official at the Jalisco state attorney general's office said. "We know that three or four of the deceased were attorneys," the official said, declining to be quoted by name.

Guadalajara is Mexico's second-biggest city and its colonial center is popular with tourists. Mexican has seen more than 300 killings by drug gang this year, as troops and federal police hunt cartel members in a crackdown that has intensified gang turf wars.

The first six victims in Thursday's shooting were found with their hands tied. They had been shot in the head from close range, according to Mexican newspapers. The daily Reforma said the firm handled several cases linked to drug smuggling. One client was the son of Mexico's most-wanted trafficker, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, head of the Sinaloa cartel.

Guzman's son, Archivaldo Ivan Guzman Salazar, was sentenced last month to five years in prison for money laundering.
Posted by: Fred || 03/15/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Tango de Los Pistoleros
Posted by: Muggsy Ebbager || 03/15/2008 0:44 Comments || Top||

#2  Probably dissatisfied relatives of imprisoned clients.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 03/15/2008 3:34 Comments || Top||

#3  Or the lawyers had 'laundered' the clients money in Bears Stearns et al paper. Other cultures have different ways of dealing with speculative financing.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/15/2008 9:04 Comments || Top||

#4  I must have an evil streak - part of me wants to cheer.
Posted by: Glenmore || 03/15/2008 11:44 Comments || Top||

#5  Let's see.
1 Mexican Lawyers killed.
2 They defended druggies.
3 They won't defend anymore Drug smugglers.

So where's the down side, I don't see any.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/15/2008 16:03 Comments || Top||


Ecuador president tells Bush to send troops or 'shut your mouth'
Ecuador's president is challenging U.S. President George W. Bush to send troops to the Andean nation's border with Colombia "or shut your mouth" about

Rafael Correa made the comments late Thursday in angry response to Bush's strong support for Colombia after it raided a rebel camp on Ecuadorean soil on March 1 — an act that Correa denounced as an attack on his country's sovereignty. "Bring your soldiers Mr. Bush," Correa said during a heated speech late Thursday. "Let it be your soldiers who die along the southern border with Colombia. We'll see if the Americans, the citizens of the United States will accept tremendous atrocity. "If not, shut your mouth and understand what is happening in Latin America."

Ecuador has repeatedly said it is the victim of a spillover of violence from Colombia's long armed conflict. Colombian officials complain that Ecuador hasn't done enough to keep rebels from hiding in its territory.
Posted by: Fred || 03/15/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Small dog barking...
Posted by: tipover || 03/15/2008 1:01 Comments || Top||

#2  Lets suppply Columbia with a squadron of A10's...they would totally neutralize the ground forces on both sides. Oh.... some high altitude air cover for a few days wouldnt hurt either.
Posted by: Thraviper Panda2099 || 03/15/2008 6:21 Comments || Top||

#3  Send him photos of Bennie's cave dwellings so he knows what his future will look like if he ever really gets out attention.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/15/2008 9:07 Comments || Top||

#4  ..our attention.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/15/2008 9:07 Comments || Top||

#5  I think we could handle this without a single pair of boots on the ground. We don't use donkey carts and bolt action rifles bro, we have, no, we invent and manufacture, the real shit.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 03/15/2008 10:37 Comments || Top||

#6  Invent and manufacture. Now those are concepts bobo and his buddies never bumped into on there way to the table of political larges.
Posted by: Thraviper Panda2099 || 03/15/2008 10:58 Comments || Top||

#7  #6 Invent and manufacture. Now those are concepts bobo and his buddies never bumped into on thier way to the table, of political largess.

correction applied so as not to confuse.
Posted by: Thraviper Panda2099 || 03/15/2008 11:00 Comments || Top||

#8  Actually, the Columbians seem to be handling the situation pretty well, so we'll sit this one out my yippy little puppy. Say hello to your fat friend with the big mouth and little tiny balls that put you up to this for us too. Maybe he'll give you some money or sumthin...
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/15/2008 11:06 Comments || Top||

#9  We have troops on the ground. They're called Army A-Teams. Seems like they're having the desired effect.
Posted by: Free Radical || 03/15/2008 11:11 Comments || Top||

#10  Invent and manufacture. Now those are concepts

we are rapidly losing ourselves.
Posted by: Glenmore || 03/15/2008 11:45 Comments || Top||

#11  Chihuahua yipping...and about to soil it's bed.
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/15/2008 14:10 Comments || Top||

#12  An A-Team needs to put a horse's head in Correa's bed.

Al
Posted by: Frozen Al || 03/15/2008 14:35 Comments || Top||

#13  Just read an article at Air Force Magazine (pdf file) that showed a firepower demonstration. We need to do one of these on the Colombian-Equadorian border, only include the Navy and some Army artillery. I'm sure Correa will get the message (the next one could be through the heart of Quito or Guayaquil).
Posted by: Old Patriot || 03/15/2008 19:41 Comments || Top||

#14  Funny thing is - ask yourself how the Columbian army got to be so effective...

Its US troops there as advisors and trainers.

So El Presidente, we are already there, you've just been too stupid to notice.
Posted by: OldSpook || 03/15/2008 22:13 Comments || Top||

#15  Last I heard American military trainers in Colombia were limited to 800. Private contract trainers are another matter. Correa's golden boy FARC have been trying to kill them for years and made no progress. Why does he think his even less talented military can do any better?

Cut off Ecuador's banana exports to the US and watch Correa wither and die.
Posted by: ed || 03/15/2008 22:38 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Deaths reported in Tibet protests
Clashes between protesters and security forces in Tibet's main city, Lhasa, have left at least two people dead, according to reports. An emergency official said that many people had been hurt and an unspecified number had died. The US-based Radio Free Asia quoted witnesses who said they had seen at least two bodies on Lhasa's streets.

Tibet's government would "deal harshly" with the protesters, its Chairman Qiangba Puncog warned. "We will deal harshly with these criminals who are carrying out activities to split the nation," he told the Associated Press news agency, denying that police had opened fire.

China's state-run Xinhua news agency earlier said police had fired warning shots and used tear gas to disperse protesters. Rallies have continued all week in what are said to be the largest protests against Beijing's rule in 20 years.

PROTEST TIMELINE

10 March: Monks arrested while marking 49th anniversary of failed uprising
11 March: Police use tear gas on monks staging peaceful rallies
13 March: Police seal off key Lhasa monasteries
14 March: Rioting in Lhasa
A Western tourist in the city told the BBC: "[The rioters] seemed to go for all the Chinese shops and the Chinese people as well. I saw quite a few Chinese people beaten up... it turned totally crazy." Another eyewitness said there were tanks on the street and he had seen people being carried away on stretchers.

British journalist James Miles, in Lhasa, told the BBC rioters took control of the city centre on Friday. He some were looting shops and "taking out the contents and throwing them on huge fires which they've lit in the street".

China's government is braced for any further unrest on Saturday, with reports that a curfew is in place. From exile in India, the Dalai Lama expressed deep concern and called for an end to the violence. He called on China to "address the long-simmering resentment of the Tibetan people through dialogue".

The rallies began earlier this week when a number of Buddhist monks were reportedly arrested after a march marking the 49th anniversary of a Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule.

In other developments on Friday:

  • Hundreds of monks led a rally at Xiahe, in China's north-western Gansu province, the site of one of Tibetan Buddhism's most important monasteries

  • More then 100 Tibetans in New York staged a protest outside the UN headquarters

  • Police in New Delhi, India, clashed with protesters trying to reach the Chinese Embassy

  • In Kathmandu, Nepal, police reportedly scuffled with some 1,000 demonstrators at a rally

  • BBC China editor Shirong Chen in Beijing says the Chinese government certainly does not want bloodshed - echoing that last September in Burma - five months before staging the Olympic Games. On the other hand, they cannot allow the monks and other Tibetans to vent their anger in case this is seen as a sign of weakness, he says.

    The US urged China to "respect Tibetan culture" and the American ambassador to China urged officials in Beijing to show restraint. A White House spokesman said: "The president has said consistently Beijing needs to have a dialogue with the Dalai Lama."

    The European Union issued a statement urging China to address the concerns of Tibetans. "We would like to see some kind of reconciliation between the Chinese authorities and the Tibetan representatives," said Dimitrij Rupel, foreign minister of Slovenia, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency.

    China says Tibet has always been part of its territory - although Tibet enjoyed long periods of autonomy before the 20th Century and many Tibetans remain loyal to the Dalai Lama, who fled in 1959.
    More eyewitness accounts here.
    Posted by: Steve White || 03/15/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  (comment found elsewhere)

    "I checked it out when rumors appeared online (English Yahoo front page) about some trouble in Tibet-early reports of the police shutting down some monasteries after demonstrations by monks there. But nothing prepared me for the sights on regular Chinese TV CCTV1 tonight - full scale rioting, an attack on a Bank of China branch, tipped over cars, fires burning out of control.

    The commentary was viscous "Splitters and separatists, led by followers of the Dalai Lama, rioted today but they are doomed to failure..." No signs of police or army on the TV. External reports from Tibetan exiles say as many as 100 dead. Chinese admit to 10 killed, hinting that they were Chinese shop owners or hotel staff "burned to death."
    Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/15/2008 9:30 Comments || Top||

    #2  Add to that time line:

    8 August: American athletes unfurl Tibetan flags as they march at Olympic opening ceremony.
    Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 03/15/2008 9:35 Comments || Top||


    UN urges all parties concerned in Tibet crisis to avoid violence
    "Cheez, guyz, yer makin' us look bad, here!"
    The UN has urged the parties concerned in the Tibet crisis to avoid confrontation and violence, deputy spokesperson Marie Okabe said on Friday. "We are following that situation. We urge that care be taken by all concerned to avoid confrontation and violence," she said. A demonstration was held earlier today by Tibetans in front of the UN headquarters. Six were arrested by New York Police for trying to force their way into the UN compound, UN security said.
    Thus allowing the UN to not have to sully its well-manicured hands with physical confrontation.
    Posted by: Seafarious || 03/15/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  I wonder if anyone at the UN ever realizes how useless and inane they sound issuing these unending impotent little statements?
    But I suppose those expensive dinners and summits in exotic locales makes it all worth it.
    Posted by: tu3031 || 03/15/2008 16:22 Comments || Top||

    #2  The UN has not got their Plan™ done yet for Darfur, and it's been over a year. And they want to use their corrupt and unaccountable good offices to save Tibet. Back to yer cave, bat.
    Posted by: Alaska Paul || 03/15/2008 21:03 Comments || Top||


    Europe
    BBC: Albania rocked by huge explosions - US citizens may be injured too.
    At least four people have been killed and more than 150 injured in a series of explosions at an arms depot near the capital, Tirana. Juela Mecani, a spokeswoman for Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha, said it was feared the death toll could rise. She said more than 60 people - including US citizens - were at the scene at the time.

    Military experts were disposing of old shells at the time of the blasts. They were reported to be being assisted by employees of a US company contracted by Nato to help the Albanian army dispose of surplus munitions.

    The explosions at the army depot in Gerdec village, some 10km north of Tirana, were heard more than 50km (30 miles) away. The initial explosion was followed by a series of blasts, and ammunition continued to detonate for hours.

    Attempts to fly rescuers into the area by helicopter were thwarted by the continuing explosions, and armoured vehicles were used to ferry rescue units into the area. Injured people were taken to nearby hospitals. Local media reports said their injuries included burns, concussion, broken limbs, and cuts from flying glass and shrapnel.

    "The number of injured is considerable," Mr Berisha told reporters. Mr Berisha - who visited some of the injured in hospital - said he could not rule out human error as the cause of the explosions, but added that the ammunition could have exploded spontaneously because of its age. "The problem of ammunition in Albania is one of the gravest, and a continuous threat," Mr Berisha said. "There is a colossal, crazy amount of it dating back to 1945."

    Flights were suspended at Mother Teresa Tirana International Airport, several kilometres from the base, for 30 minutes after windows there were shattered.

    The US embassy in Tirana said it was unable to confirm that there were US citizens at the depot.
    Posted by: 3dc || 03/15/2008 13:24 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  more details
    Posted by: 3dc || 03/15/2008 13:56 Comments || Top||


    EU leaders meet to address economic cooling, global warming
    Posted by: Fred || 03/15/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Natter, natter, natter....

    Say, which 5-star restaurant are we going to this evening?



    Pfui. >:-(>
    Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 03/15/2008 16:52 Comments || Top||


    Prosecutor asks Turkish court to close ruling party
    A state prosecutor asked Turkey's top court on Friday to shut the ruling AK Party for anti-secular activities, intensifying tensions between the secular elite and the Islamist-rooted government.

    Turkish television channels quoted the Court of Appeals Chief Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya as saying he also wanted President Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, and senior AK Party members banned from politics for five years. He said a government move to lift a ban on women students wearing the Muslim headscarf amounted to anti-secular actions.
    He's trying to start something, which makes me wonder who's behind him. And who plans to finish it.
    Turkey, which is seeking European Union membership, is predominantly Muslim but an officially secular system. "With a political party with this much of a majority in parliament, we must think what Turkey will win and what it will lose from a demand like this," Gul was quoted by state-run Anatolian news agency as saying in Dakar, Senegal.

    The AK Party has been locked in a battle with Turkey's secularist establishment, including judges and army generals, since it first came to power in 2002. Secularists says the AK Party is seeking to undermine separation of state and religion. The AK Party denies it has any Islamist agenda.

    It was not immediately clear whether the move would hurt Turkish financial markets which were closed when the announcement was made.
    Posted by: Fred || 03/15/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Global Jihad

    #1  Does he have good, and they'll have to be very good, bodyguard detail?
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/15/2008 7:43 Comments || Top||


    Fifth Column
    Bush family touched by subprime crisis - Carlyle Capital Corp Ltd
    Posted by: 3dc || 03/15/2008 14:03 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Do you think Rantburgers will have to take up a collection?
    Posted by: JohnQC || 03/15/2008 14:38 Comments || Top||

    #2  A collection for what, John - more popcorn?
    Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 03/15/2008 16:31 Comments || Top||

    #3  Are these A-holes going to run the country into a damned depression? I've read that the last few years before the housing crunch were the biggest corporate glut in the history of the country. It's pay time now and they squeal like pigs. I think they deserve it, but they're going to take us down with them.
    Posted by: bigjim-ky || 03/15/2008 16:59 Comments || Top||

    #4  I've got a sneaky suspicion that much of what we see today in the "financial cricis" of the United States is manipulated by George Soros, who definitely wants a Democrat in the White House, no matter how they get elected. Someone needs to nuke Soros' home, wherever it is. That bas$$$$ is trying his best to destroy the United States.
    Posted by: Old Patriot || 03/15/2008 19:52 Comments || Top||

    #5  If you'll recall, he made his fortune speculating against the Pound. No doubt he and his Chinese frends are hoping for the really big play this time. Too bad they decided to host the Olympics.
    Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 03/15/2008 20:20 Comments || Top||

    #6  Carlyle group, 32 times leverage.

    bye bye, good riddance.
    Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 03/15/2008 21:18 Comments || Top||


    North American Union Meeting... - ARGHHHHH!
    Posted by: 3dc || 03/15/2008 10:46 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  An economic union of the countries of North America would be a good thing. We would be by FAR the largest oil producing economic unit on the planet.

    For that and a few billion other reasons I would 100% COMPLETELY support a complete economic union of Canada, US, and Mexico. Moving goods from Mexico to Canada should be like moving goods from Texas to California.
    Posted by: crosspatch || 03/15/2008 12:55 Comments || Top||

    #2  It is amazing more people cannot see it this way.
    Posted by: newc || 03/15/2008 13:02 Comments || Top||

    #3  crosspatch, And how about all the attendant problems with that philosophy, massive migration of the Mexican populace north into the USA, massive migration of foreign alien populace from Canada to the USA, the attendant reduction in economic income per capita for citizens of the USA, the opening up of our institutions to attack by foreign powers and terrorists in those migrating populaces, the complete loss of control over who is living in this country and for what reason, and the destruction of our economy by the massive outflow of goods, services, and money from the USA to Mexico and Canada?

    That's just a few of the reasons why this is a bad idea that I can think of.

    It puts the USA in a position of being Rome with the barbarians streaming across the borders and no legions to stop them. It is a formula for the destruction of the American way of life and the country of the United States and the absorption of our country and citizens into the populations of foreign powers by domination, not assimilation.

    Posted by: FOTSGreg || 03/15/2008 13:03 Comments || Top||

    #4  For that and a few billion other reasons I would 100% COMPLETELY support a complete economic union of Canada, US, and Mexico.

    So Mexico and Canada, in parts or in whole, will agree to Commonwealth status like Puerto Rico?
    Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/15/2008 13:29 Comments || Top||

    #5  Put it to a vote of the people and see how far it will get...
    Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 03/15/2008 13:54 Comments || Top||

    #6  Free trade is a good thing. But this is the "camel's nose" thingy. It's not just economic, but political. Oh, and what's that old piece of paper lying in the wastebasket? Why, I do believe it's the U.S. Constitution.

    The tranzi's are relentless. They must be relentlessly opposed.
    Posted by: PBMcL || 03/15/2008 14:03 Comments || Top||

    #7  Cross what you and other morons overlook is that Mexico is not capable of being treated like an equal partner. It has restrictions on foreign ownership of businesses, corruption running rampant in the police and government at the local state an national levels, and has many state-run industries.

    Basically, Mexico is a third world nation, and integrating it would only drag down the US standard of living and economy. Look at the German economy when they reunited the second-world eat to a productive West. Mexico would be far worse.

    Restrictions are reasonable and prudent until Mexico gets its act together. And that includes the border fence and strict enforcement of current laws against illegal immigration.

    The only way to truly open the borders woudl be to require Canada and Mexico to agree to rule under the US Constitution, submission ot the US Federal Government, and a transitional phase of a couple of decades before they are fully accepted.

    If you can get Mexico to kneel and obey, then it might work.
    Posted by: OldSpook || 03/15/2008 14:28 Comments || Top||

    #8  Mexico could never be incorporated into the United States absent conquest or a violent revolution that overthrew its semi-feudal aristocracy. Incorporating Mexico without an overthrow or, preferably, conquest would yield results worse than pre-Jindal Louisiana. Mexico, unlike Canada, is inherently inimical to the American way of doing business.
    Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 03/15/2008 15:04 Comments || Top||

    #9  I used to think this was a good idea, but these are 3 different ways of doing business. Trade and understanding, sure. Incorporation based on the ideas of a hand picked small committee, ludicrus. The EU is a farce and will lead to another pininsular war IMHO.

    I can't travel 200 miles without finding completely different ways of life and they want to absorb whole countries with the wave of a pen it just does not work. Then the question is begged 'why stop at Mexico, might as well go into Panama'. The only thing Mexico has to offer is labor and tequila. Canada has its own destiny. If they want to suceed from their own union and make an applicaton to become a state then that is their own choice and as far as I have noticed they have not chosen to do so.
    Posted by: swksvolFF || 03/15/2008 15:29 Comments || Top||

    #10  Well, OldSpook, I am not going to resort to name calling but I would say that correcting some of those issues would go unsaid as a requirement before an economic (not political) union could take place. Some of those other issues either don't need to be addressed or are simply figments of people's imaginations.

    Such a union would probably stop Northward migration from Mexico dead it its tracks and probably reverse it. But before we can do that we need to get rid of the crime cartels down there and before THAT can happen, there needs to be some serious reform of their legal system (which is already underway, actually).

    It is going to take at least 20 more years to get Mexico's legal system in line enough with Canada and the US to make that happen but when it does, it turns the US into as huge an economic powerhouse as China is.

    What many people fail to understand is that unless we do something like this, we are going to quickly be insignificant on the global scene. As China modernizes and as India develops, their economies are going to so literally swamp ours that we aren't going to amount to a pinch of bat scat and most people in this country aren't used to that idea.

    We just aren't really going to matter all that much once China and India become their own largest customers. And that is no matter who is President.
    Posted by: crosspatch || 03/15/2008 16:09 Comments || Top||

    #11  As China modernizes and as India develops, their economies are going to so literally swamp ours that we aren't going to amount to a pinch of bat scat and most people in this country aren't used to that idea.

    I heard basically the same thing about the former Soviet Union in the 70s. China and India have their own internal problems and issues in effectively applying all that 'potential'. I for one don't see it except in the fears it instills in others.
    Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/15/2008 16:25 Comments || Top||

    #12  The tranzi's are relentless. They must be relentlessly opposed.

    thank you PBMcL and Old Spook, swksvolFF, Nimble Spemble, Anguper Hupomosing9418, FOTSGreg,

    To the poor weak minded souls who are for this fucking suicide union for my country the USA:

    Meet The The Regulators:
    Politicians [Ted Kennedy, John Conyers etc] and the unelected Judges, unelected Government bureaucrats in the unelected State Department, unelected Commerce Dept, unelected Justice Dept., etc. all the usual suspects.

    If you loved the State Department's history of back stabbing American Small & Medium business Visa Vi China, Japan, Europe, etc. then you'll love them as UNELECTED REGULATORS in the North American Union.

    And the torn up families and cities who were promised to be winners in the other "treatries"

    WAKE UP: Here's a sample of the regulator history:

    2/3-3/4 of Californian American citizens have been against illegal immigration by state wide vote and poles [25 + years]. Country wide the percentage is higher.

    Yet your beloved politicians and bureaucrats [regulators] haven't done squat except to make the matter worse over the decades with ever more attracting entitlements, that draw ever more illegal immigrants.

    Apparently you village idiots love giving the USA's scarce money to Illegal Immigrants instead of:

    American Veterans who earned them by serving AND paying into the system for a life time. many are permanently disabled and need tons of care.

    American Citizens who payed into the system for a life time. many are permanently disabled and need tons of care.

    Schools, Health care, Prison costs, Court Costs etc.

    Have any of you PRO North American Union people even visited a Veterans Hospital? and seen how busy they are with new veterans and old vets alike receiving care? Recently? Or have helped out at all etc?

    THEY NEED MORE FUNDS NOT LESS.

    BTW: once a "treaty" or a North American Union is enacted there are NO PROVISIONS to dump it and return our US sovereignty [short of a Civil War] if it is ruinous.
    Posted by: RD || 03/15/2008 17:25 Comments || Top||

    #13  and thank you Procopius2k. ~;)
    Posted by: RD || 03/15/2008 17:34 Comments || Top||

    #14  The arguments for the "North American Union" remind me of some politicians promise of "change". /s

    Lots of promise that all will work out, trust me. (there have been a lot of pregnant teenagers that heard that too!)
    Posted by: tipover || 03/15/2008 21:00 Comments || Top||

    #15  Never have understood why people seem so anxious to give away what make America special.

    No to Mexamericanada.
    Posted by: SR-71 || 03/15/2008 21:03 Comments || Top||

    #16  1. $11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each year.

    2. $2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens.

    3. $2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens.

    4. $12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary school education for children here illegally and they cannot speak a word of English!

    5. $17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies.

    6. $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens.

    7. 30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens.

    8. $90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on illegal aliens for Welfare & social services by the American taxpayers.

    9. $200 Billion Dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal aliens.

    10. The illegal aliens in the United States have a crime rate that’s two and a half times that of white non-illegal aliens. In particular, their children, are going to make a huge additional crime problem in the US

    11. During the year of 2005 there were 4 to 10 MILLION illegal aliens that crossed our Southern Border also, as many as 19,500 illegal aliens from Terrorist Countries. Millions of pounds of drugs, cocaine, meth., heroin and marijuana, crossed into the U. S from the Southern border. Homeland Security Report

    12. The National Policy Institute, ‘estimated that the total cost of mass deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion or an average cost of between $41 and $46 billion annually over a five year period.’

    13. In 2006 illegal aliens sent home $45 BILLION in remittances back to their countries of origin.

    14. ‘The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One Million Sex Crimes Committed by Illegal Immigrants In The United States ‘.

    The total cost is a whopping $ 338.3 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR!!!”
    Posted by: OldSpook || 03/15/2008 22:05 Comments || Top||

    #17  1. BUILD THE FENCE!

    2. Fine or jail those who knowingly employ illegals.

    3. Tax remittances at a 90% rate.
    Posted by: OldSpook || 03/15/2008 22:08 Comments || Top||

    #18  OldSpook - you got my vote.
    Posted by: 3dc || 03/15/2008 22:14 Comments || Top||


    Home Front: Politix
    Moonbat Fratricide: Writer's strike at "Daily Kos"
    This is an open letter to the progressive blogosphere...

    I’ve been posting at DailyKos for nearly 4 years now and started writing diaries in support of Hillary Clinton back in June of last year. Over the past few months I’ve noticed that things have become progressively more abusive toward my candidate and her supporters.

    I’ve put up with the abuse and anger because I’ve always believed in what our on-line community has tried to accomplish in this world. No more. DailyKos is not the site it once was thanks to the abusive nature of certain members of our community.
    Well, let's see. It's always been abusive, foul-mouthed, and classless, so what's new? Oh, I see now. In the words of Noam Chomsky, "the guns have turned inward."
    Ye olde circular firing squad ...
    I’ve decided to go on "strike" and will refrain from posting here as long as the administrators allow the more disruptive members of our community to trash Hillary Clinton and distort her record without any fear of consequence or retribution.
    "Not unless you allow us equal time to trash and distort correct the record of her coke-snorting, closet-Muslim, miscegenated opponent"
    I will not be posting at DailyKos effective immediately.
    "Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out!"
    I will not help drive up traffic or page-hits as long as my candidate – a good and fine DEMOCRAT - is attacked in such a horrid and sexist manner not only by other diarists, but by several of those posting to the front page.
    Reactions in the comments box are entertaining, to say the least:
    oh dear, Alegre plays the pity us card after being a complete attack dog for Hillary, oh, poor, poor, unappreciated Alegre - I agree, you're perspective of this site has changed. But, I disagree that we've changed -- you have. We're progressives -- I don't think you are.

    The whole point of a strike is to be missed. If no one will miss you, then going on strike is just...well, not very smart. It doesn't make sense. Just blog somewhere else where you're appreciated.

    Yay!! Progressive sellouts, go home! Plant seeds of Rovian politics at other sites, and vacate these hallowed grounds!
    You, author of diary, epitomize the worst traits of progressives: steadfast insistence on ALL-THE-WAY with your preferred candidate, even when such repulsive behaviors and strategies emerge which would have outraged you had they been from Bush Republicans.

    But you want what you want, and feel entitled to get who you want, more than you care about the damage that this candidate has created all across America and certainly across progressive land.

    Until you and your compadres can learn to apply critical thinking and fairness and standards of excellence to your candidates, thereby appealing to the best America we can have, then it is apleasure to have your voice self-censored here.

    Please take as long as you like. And please enjoy posting in your newly plowed lands; may you reap a harvest that keeps you happy there.

    Buy bye cruel...wait, I forgot, we are just strikin'. Why don't we all come back here if Hillary gets the nod, if nuthin else, just to do a big group "nanny nanny boo boo". ; )

    lmao you and all the other mydd'ers only your NoDkos patch. We'll see you back here once Barack has taken the oath of office in spite of your votes for McCain. p.s. you might want to consider more than a person's chromosomes next time when you pick whom to support.

    There is also this refreshing blast of honesty:
    How were our attacks of Lieberman any more respectful?

    More amusing KKKos KKKiddie fun and froliKKK here.
    Posted by: Mike || 03/15/2008 16:22 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  [Mike Sylwester has been pooplisted.]
    Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 03/15/2008 17:52 Comments || Top||

    #2  :-(
    Oh well, I'm sure the comment would've been OT but interesting, in a car-wreck kinda way...
    Posted by: Frank G || 03/15/2008 18:01 Comments || Top||

    #3  "I will not help drive up traffic or page-hits as long as my candidate – a good and fine DEMOCRAT - "

    artificial? or just the normal hits from blogging normally?
    Posted by: RD || 03/15/2008 18:03 Comments || Top||

    #4  Wow, we may be a bunch of a-holes in our own respect, but those people of really into conformity of thought. Deviate from what they call approved "progressive" ideas and you better watch your ass. Kind of makes the little spats we have here look, well, friendly in comparison.
    Posted by: bigjim-ky || 03/15/2008 18:31 Comments || Top||

    #5  whenever I hear about Page-Hits, I think of Gerry Studds and Mark Foley.....
    Posted by: Frank G || 03/15/2008 18:42 Comments || Top||

    #6  GTFO, noob
    Posted by: badanov || 03/15/2008 20:21 Comments || Top||

    #7  [Mike Sylwester has been pooplisted.]
    Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 03/15/2008 21:29 Comments || Top||

    #8  Who would have known their was a writer's strike at DailyKos--they are such a bunch of disorganized anarchists.
    Posted by: Unomotle Stalin3685 || 03/15/2008 22:02 Comments || Top||


    Bobby Jindal rocks Louisiana
    The state Legislature on Friday wrapped up its second special session during the 2-month-old administration of Gov. Bobby Jindal by completing a full sweep of the governor's proposed package of business tax cuts and $1.1 billion in surplus spending priorities.

    Jindal and his legislative allies won all the initiatives they set out to accomplish during the six-day session, including a controversial bill to grant a partial tax deduction for private school tuition.

    Flanked by many members of his supporting team of lawmakers at an evening news conference, the governor framed the results as a positive statement on Louisiana's national image.

    "This group should be proud of batting a thousand," Jindal said. "The country's watching us ... we know they'll like what they see."
    Posted by: Mike || 03/15/2008 08:45 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Now here's a VP contender.
    Posted by: BrerRabbit || 03/15/2008 9:30 Comments || Top||

    #2  Nope. Let him finish the job, then run for Pres. Perhaps after a stint as Sec Def.
    Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 03/15/2008 9:32 Comments || Top||

    #3  I like Bobby, but don't oversell him. He's playing an unusually strong hand - following a pair of administrative incompetents, carrying a budget surplus (oil revenues), and overseeing economic activity primed with lots of Federal Katrina & Rita recovery funds. He does seem to have administrative skills but his political skills have really not been tested yet.
    Posted by: Glenmore || 03/15/2008 11:43 Comments || Top||

    #4  His political skills have been tested plenty: he's won (and lost) as a Republican in a deeply Democratic and corrupt state. He's doing well for himself.

    I do agree that he should finish what he's started in Louisiana before moving on. A term or two as governor and then let's see. He's young and he doesn't want to make the mistake Obama has made.
    Posted by: Steve White || 03/15/2008 12:42 Comments || Top||

    #5  If he can turn around Louisiana after decades of Democrat corruption and incompetence, than he assuredly deserves a place on the national stage. But first, lets see some results.
    Posted by: DMFD || 03/15/2008 16:17 Comments || Top||

    #6  Since when is spending $1.1 billion an accomplishment? Show me someone who can have $1.1 billion and *not* spend it, and he (sorry, but it probably wouldn't be a she) will have my vote.
    Posted by: Iblis || 03/15/2008 23:33 Comments || Top||

    #7  Since when is spending $1.1 billion an accomplishment? Show me someone who can have $1.1 billion and *not* spend it, and he (sorry, but it probably wouldn't be a she) will have my vote.
    Posted by: Iblis || 03/15/2008 23:33 Comments || Top||

    #8  Ahem.

    I believe the majority of Congresscritters (as well as State gummintcritters) are MALE, Iblis. And they aren't able to hold onto one thin dime of the billions they confiscate from us.

    Just sayin'.
    Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 03/15/2008 23:52 Comments || Top||


    Obama Disagrees With Pastor's 'God Damn America' Sermon
    Sen. Barack Obama says he "obviously disagrees" with his pastor of 20 years who said black Americans should sing "God Damn America" instead of "God Bless America."
    In what way?
    Reacting to an ABC News story about the sermons of Rev. Jeremiah Wright of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, Obama told the Pittsburg Tribune-Review, "I haven't seen the line. This is a pastor who is on the brink of retirement who in the past has made some controversial statements. I profoundly disagree with some of these statements."
    Which ones, B.O.?
    But he defended Rev. Wright's overall record, accusing ABC News of "cherry picking" statements of the man with a 40-year career. "There are times when people say things that are just wrong. But I think it's important to judge me on what I've said in the past and what I believe," he told the paper. Rev. Wright remains part of the Obama campaign, as a member of the candidate's religious advisory board.
    Posted by: Fred || 03/15/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  When cooked without sauce,over time, teflon peels.

    November minus March =
    Posted by: swksvolFF || 03/15/2008 0:58 Comments || Top||

    #2  Not a good enough answer.
    Posted by: 3dc || 03/15/2008 1:01 Comments || Top||

    #3  October 2003 Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. Obama's Pastor:
    In the 21st century, white America got a wake-up call after 9/11/01. White America and the Western world came to realize that people of color had not gone away, faded into the woodwork or just “disappeared” as the Great White West kept on its merry way of ignoring Black concerns.

    Obama has had 4 1/2 years to denounce the Reverends celebration of this mass murder of Americans. Instead Obama has for 23 years been so steeped in the black supremest racist ideology of the Trinity United Church of Christ that he has devoted this time and vast sums of money to advancing this racist agenda while hiding behind the skirts of liberal white and Jewish guilt. Only when threatened with losing his goal of the most powerful office in the world does he make the faintest protestations. But have no fear, Mama Michelle will slap Barack back onto the One True Path.
    Posted by: ed || 03/15/2008 1:56 Comments || Top||

    #4  Obama says he only recently became aware of his pastor's controversial comments.

    Truth? I think not.
    Posted by: ClemScheck || 03/15/2008 3:09 Comments || Top||

    #5  What a morally bankrupt weasel. It is like saying I disagree with Hitler and Stalin. And there is no cherry-picking; the book section of the Trinity United website openly promotes "Afrocentrism." Wait until the GOP opens the "reparations" gate, after the Dems self-destruct.

    The Left is over-playing McCain's contacts with Holy Roller, Rod Parsley. Do they think that McCain has never accessed Youtube? I think that Rev Parsley is a nut-bar, but he appeals to a lot of African-Americans. That would scare Obama.
    Posted by: McZoid || 03/15/2008 7:30 Comments || Top||

    #6  There are PLENTY of racist blacks out there. Pastor Wright is just one of many.

    Shelby Steele says whites are rapidly losing any residual guilt they might have had about the past concerning blacks. The rest of the country's ethnic groups, particularly hispanics, never had any to start with. When the cloak of PC finally gets ripped asunder and people start publicly saying what they've long been privately thinking, there's going to be one hell of a row and probably a not inconsequential number of violent incidents.

    To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure that's a bad thing. You can't fix a problem until you openly admit what the problem is and examine it closely. Race relations in the U.S. need honest reassessment more than any other part of our national fabric. Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind does an excellent job of explaining how America arrived at the currently poisoned state of affairs between blacks and everyone else. He didn't see any easy answers.

    That's probably because there aren't any. However, the state of affairs we currently have where the black 15% of the population commits 53% of the violent crime (not to mention a vastly disproportionate amount of the non-violent crime) can't continue.

    Blacks right now have it both ways: when there are benefits to being black, as in affirmative action, they're happy to be part of the black group. When it's not a benefit, as in being considered part of that group that commits the majority of violent crime in America, they want to be judged as individuals apart from the group. Affirmative action was a poisoned apple to start with and its perniciousness has only gotten worse with time.

    I agree with Steele; I think the patience is running out and that we're going to have some very blunt assessments of the black community out in the public fora that won't be deflected by accusations of racism. Truth is a winning defense against charges of libel.

    Don't be surprised when you hear them coming from East Asians and hispanics, either. The Dem primary results are showing there's no love lost between blacks and hispanics, and I've never seen a white American yet who held blacks in as low esteem as most of the Koreans I know.

    I don't think Obama's got a chance in the general. As I despise the Dems, however, I'm almost tempted to wish he would win. I think he'd be such an abject failure that even the ridiculously stupid lot of Republicans we have in office now would look like Einsteins by comparison. It took two years of Clinton's left-wing liberal idiocy to get the Republican majorities of 1994. It might take two more years of egregious Dem mismanagement to bring the Repubs back for another decade.
    Posted by: Pancho Elmeck8414 || 03/15/2008 8:59 Comments || Top||

    #7  you can understand where Michelle Obama got her hating Amerikkka groove on, though. I suspect he "obviously disagreed" with her too? Or was he "unaware" of that for the last 20+ years too?

    After watching some of the video clips, the Rev Wright just f*cked Obama's chances methinks
    Posted by: Frank G || 03/15/2008 9:01 Comments || Top||

    #8  If this is your "spiritual" guide week after week, I assure you Obama, Jesus will have nothing to do with it. OR You.
    Posted by: newc || 03/15/2008 9:14 Comments || Top||

    #9  So like Slick Willie, he 'never inhaled' the sermons?
    Posted by: Bobby || 03/15/2008 9:24 Comments || Top||

    #10  Yo baby, do'’t you listen to that smack. I'm your man. Yeah, so way back when I used to hang with Shifty back in the hood, but man, he's just strutten, nothing real, its just the show. We go way back but its nothing. Come on, you know you want to be with me. Looky here. I got the threads, the class that everyone and your posse are just jealous of . They'll be talking down cause they know its just you and me. I can make your future. Be my number one priority in life. Don't mind those wannabe number nines. This is the real thing babe, honest.
    Posted by: B D Hustler || 03/15/2008 11:36 Comments || Top||

    #11  Sniff do I detect the first sharp tang of flop sweat wafting from BO?
    Posted by: regular joe || 03/15/2008 11:59 Comments || Top||

    #12  Why am I thinking about Abu Mazen condemning terrorist attacks---surely there cannot be any logical connection?
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/15/2008 12:35 Comments || Top||

    #13  Obama is on record saying he was never in attendance when his pastor made any of these 'controversial' statements.

    A Newsmax representative has just gone on FoxNews to say they will run a story on Monday with proof that he is lying about that.

    Amen and pass the popcorn!
    Posted by: ClemScheck || 03/15/2008 14:07 Comments || Top||

    #14  Here's another little nugget about Big Mama Obama: She already had a cushy position with a hospital at $100K/yr, but when Barry got tapped by The Machine to go for US Senate in fall of 2003, her pay went from $100K to $325K. Damn, not bad for a merit promotion. Most of the rest of us were stumbling around with 3-4%. She must be realy, ree-aaly good at sumthin'!
    Posted by: Woozle Elmeter 2700 || 03/15/2008 14:39 Comments || Top||

    #15  It's really too bad. I dislike Hillary so much I wanted to believe Obama was different. Liberal, but honorable. It appears he is pulling a Roger Clemens.

    I would say his candidacy is in real trouble right now. If there is absolute, incontrovertible evidence that he attended one of those "black-KKK" sermons he is done.

    Posted by: anymouse || 03/15/2008 14:57 Comments || Top||

    #16  Sen. Barack Obama says he "obviously disagrees" with his pastor of 20 years who said black Americans should sing "God Damn America" instead of "God Bless America."
    What were you doing, sleeping in Church? If you were awake, did you hold your hand over your heart or just grab your cockles?

    Hows that story your wife wrote coming along?

    Audacity of Hope, what does that mean anyways? (Like something I'd read from Foucault's Pendulum). I watched the sermon, continue the lyrics..land that I _________.

    OK, y'all, Ima gonna dig up ye ol time capsule so we remember what 'hope' means. -Hope- an exostential ideal, an idea that if one believes true enough then it will happen. What is belief, a feeling that there is something greater than oneself..and what is that? Spirituality. An understanding that He has a plan and that it will all work out in the end according to His plan.

    That 'sermon' is not hope it is blame, it is hate. The very place where you can stand out in the open and proclaim this dribble is the very place where you can stand up and spew, thus disproving the very point.

    A bartender said it best - "Why do people hate America? Because it is the best goddamn country in the world and people know it."
    Posted by: swksvolFF || 03/15/2008 15:13 Comments || Top||

    #17  Obambi and Omamma are now unelectable. Rev. Wright's sermons encapsulate what so many people hate about the loony left and about Afrocentrism.

    Obama doesn't really disagree with the Rev.'s positions. He wants to talk to all of our enemies. He wants to transfer American's wealth to Third World $hit holes. He wants to cut the military, slow weapons development, eliminate nuclear weapons... Socialize healthcare and who knows what else. The public will begin to match his programs with Wright's sermons, and game over.

    Pancho Elmeck8414 might be correct: that the dialog that has been suppressed by PC for so long will finally commence. I think it is more likely that people will say nothing. They might even say to pollsters that they will vote for Obama, but will pull the lever for someone else. This is the beauty of the secret ballot.

    BTW I wonder who released the videos to the net?
    Posted by: SR-71 || 03/15/2008 15:30 Comments || Top||

    #18  Someone deeply connected to the DNC or the Clintons released those videos - at the perfect time to start chipping away at the super delegates and others worried about a brokered convention. The more this issue gets airplay, the more cover for the super delegates and others to do a deal at the convention for Hillary.
    Posted by: Shieldwolf || 03/15/2008 18:37 Comments || Top||

    #19  Michelle O'Bama (in early honor of St. Pat's day) is being kept under heavy wraps, a la Bill Clinton, and you know the campaign managers live in constant fear that she'll say something stoopid like "Pastor Wright was right, and you just disagree because you're white". God, I hope she slips her bonds and ball gag and starts speaking her mind ....
    Posted by: Frank G || 03/15/2008 18:47 Comments || Top||

    #20  Why does Hillary's Personal Destruction Team[tm] remind me of the Wrath of Khan;

    Khan: From hell's heart, I stab at thee. For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee

    Please, pass the popcorn.
    Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/15/2008 19:03 Comments || Top||

    #21  #13 ClemScheck - Extra butter, or perhaps a sprinkling of parmesan?

    Looks like I'd better double my popcorn order :-D
    Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 03/15/2008 19:26 Comments || Top||

    #22  Oops, didn't see ya' there, #20 p2k.

    Here, have an extra-large. ;-p
    Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 03/15/2008 19:30 Comments || Top||


    McCain: Congress 'disconnected' from Americans
  • Sen. John McCain blasts Congress after Senate votes down earmark moratorium

  • McCain: Congress and the Senate are "disconnected from the American people."

  • Arizona senator prides himself on having never requested an earmark

  • Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton vote with McCain for the bill Thursday
  • Posted by: Fred || 03/15/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Duh
    Posted by: Shoth Speaking for Boskone8716 || 03/15/2008 0:06 Comments || Top||

    #2  Disconnectioned from Americans, hell - Congress is disconnected from reality.
    Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 03/15/2008 0:15 Comments || Top||

    #3  They know what's going on. They're hoping for safety in numbers.
    Posted by: gorb || 03/15/2008 2:31 Comments || Top||

    #4  I'm slowly warming up to this Mccain guy. ;)
    Posted by: AzCat || 03/15/2008 2:49 Comments || Top||

    #5  I'm slowly warming up to this McCain guy.

    You better hope he has the common decency to give a reach around.
    Posted by: badanov || 03/15/2008 7:16 Comments || Top||

    #6  However, you don't want to sound too confrontational in an election year.
    Posted by: McZoid || 03/15/2008 7:19 Comments || Top||

    #7  You know, McCain's on to something here, not that it takes genius to recognize it. I can't think of anyone I know personally, or whose published opinions I have read in recent years, who believes the U.S.G. handles our tax revenue wisely. I think most Americans, right or left, thinks U.S.G. spending is out of control and needs to be drastically curtailed. The only real difference between the extremes is on where the cuts should come.

    My question is this: when the government is disdained, if not held in complete contempt, by the majority of the taxpaying population, how long can a system of taxation based on voluntary compliance continue to work?

    My intuitive belief is that it probably won't continue to work for much longer. Bankruptcy went from being a serious moral failing to a debt-management tool in less than one generation. General willingness to cheat the IRS in any and all ways possible will come even sooner.
    Posted by: Pancho Elmeck8414 || 03/15/2008 7:56 Comments || Top||

    #8  However, you don't want to sound too confrontational in an election year.

    Strongly disagree. This election will end up being about either the Bush administration or the Pelosi/Reid Congress. Guess which one is less popular? McCain should run strongly against Congress. Don't let bHo/HrC run against Bush. Make them defend their Congress's record. Then, if he wins, he has a mandate to do what he proposes as opposed to what they dispose.
    Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 03/15/2008 9:02 Comments || Top||

    #9  Congress are a bunch of ho's for soros.
    Posted by: newc || 03/15/2008 9:17 Comments || Top||

    #10  NEVER requested an earmark?!
    He must be part of a very, very small minority of people who can say that. If he can document that, it would be an enormous hammer in his toolkit.
    Posted by: bigjim-ky || 03/15/2008 10:39 Comments || Top||

    #11  Congress: "Hello operator? It seems we've been disconnected from the American people."
    Operator: "Your line is in service, and indicating no problems; they musta hung up."
    Posted by: regular joe || 03/15/2008 11:57 Comments || Top||

    #12  Do you think so, John? They have been disconnected for a long time. Probably a good election issue. Congress approval ratings are lower than whale shit. Bush approval rating is somewhat better. Run against Congress, earmarks, elitism, and wasteful spending. The thing is how do you distance yourself from Congress since you are a part of this body?
    Posted by: JohnQC || 03/15/2008 14:50 Comments || Top||

    #13  Congress will remain 'disconnected' as long as the people are denied 'None of the Above'. Amazing things will happen if both parties can't field candidates anyone will give a plurality to.
    Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/15/2008 16:30 Comments || Top||

    #14  This is one way McCain can trade on his "maverick" image the press has built for him the past decade.

    And his is right on this - especially when it comes to Illegal Immigration and building the border fence.
    Posted by: OldSpook || 03/15/2008 22:10 Comments || Top||

    #15  sorry left off the /irony tags on the last line of mmy previous post.
    Posted by: OldSpook || 03/15/2008 22:13 Comments || Top||

    #16  #11 regular joe wins the thread! :-D
    Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 03/15/2008 23:46 Comments || Top||


    India-Pakistan
    Zardari may nominate sister as interim PM
    PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari may nominate his sister, Dr Azra Fazal Pechooho, as the interim premier, according to a BBC Radio report on Friday. Quoting close aides of Zardari, the BBC said that as he had not been elected to the National Assembly, Zardari could not become premier himself. They said he might nominate his sister as temporary prime minister instead. Daily Times had anticipated this possibility on March 11, citing Dr Azra as a “dark horse” candidate for the position.
    Posted by: Fred || 03/15/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

    #1  before or after he marries her?
    Posted by: Frank G || 03/15/2008 9:04 Comments || Top||


    International-UN-NGOs
    UN official threatens to use NATO force against Serb demonstrators
    [The UN official] stressed that the storming of an official building in northern Kosovo is a "red line" and will not be tolerated
    Head of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo Juachim Ruker on Friday called on the Serbian government to refrain from igniting unrest and riots in Kosovo through inciting Serb minority in northern Kosovo to cause chaos in the enclave. The UN radio from Pristina quoted Ruker as saying that he sent letters of warning to the leaders of Serbia and leaders of organizations in northern Kosovo urging them to pressure Serb demonstrators who had stormed a government building in Mitrovica that included the city hall and a court and hoisted Serbia flag at the building. Ruker threatened that NATO forces in northern Kosovo would use force "in the end" if the Serbian groups did not withdraw from the building as soon as possible. He stressed that the storming of an official building in northern Kosovo is a "red line" and will not be tolerated.
    Being on the other side of the gate from the barbarians *does* tend to focus one's thoughts...but I bet the cables from Geneva didn't authorize this message...
    He's mighty brave with someone else's soldiers ...
    Posted by: Seafarious || 03/15/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  When are we going to pull our troops out of Yugoslavia?
    Posted by: 3dc || 03/15/2008 0:53 Comments || Top||

    #2  I'm looking at NATO's org chart and I can't see the UN anywhere on it.
    Posted by: ed || 03/15/2008 2:30 Comments || Top||

    #3  Kosovo muslims can go to Albania. They are only Muslims because Turks slaughtered the priests 300 years ago. We are still paying for Clinton's ego trip.
    Posted by: McZoid || 03/15/2008 7:17 Comments || Top||

    #4  For 10 years, Muzzies ethnically cleansed Serbs from Kosovo, burned their churches & convents --- some of them among the oldest in Europe, and UN did 3 monkeys imitation.
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/15/2008 7:49 Comments || Top||

    #5  Out of all of the aggressive forces o this earth, the Serbs and Israelis are the greatest threat?

    The UN is strategically corrupt.
    Posted by: newc || 03/15/2008 9:36 Comments || Top||


    Syria-Lebanon-Iran
    Voting starts in Iran's parliamentary elections
    (Xinhua) -- Iranians on Friday began voting in the country's eighth parliamentary elections in which conservatives are expected to retain their control of the legislature. The polling stations opened at 8 a.m. (0430 GMT) Friday morning and were due to close at 6:00 p.m. (1430 GMT). But the deadline would be extended if there is heavy turnout, the state television reported.
    Posted by: Fred || 03/15/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

    #1  conservatives are expected to retain their control of the legislature

    I guess they will when they are the only one's the mullahs allow to run for office. Not that a Chinese communist news service sees anything wrong with that.

    Posted by: ed || 03/15/2008 2:36 Comments || Top||

    #2  anyone know if a referrendum about kleptocracy made it too the ballot?
    Posted by: Thraviper Panda2099 || 03/15/2008 11:03 Comments || Top||

    #3  Now there's a worthwhile activity.
    /sarc
    Posted by: SR-71 || 03/15/2008 21:04 Comments || Top||



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