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Page 3: Non-WoT
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-Obits-
Charlton Heston, RIP
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. Legendary actor, civil-rights leader and political activist Charlton Heston passed away today, at 84. He died at his home with Lydia, his wife of 64 years, at his side.

Heston is survived by his two children, Fraser Clarke Heston and Holly Heston Rochell, and his three grandchildren, Jack Alexander Heston, Ridley Rochell and Charlie Rochell. A private memorial service will be held.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 04/06/2008 00:15 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A 64 year marriage must be a Hollywood record. I wonder if he asked to be buried with his rifle. That would be a welcome statement.
Posted by: McZoid || 04/06/2008 0:34 Comments || Top||

#2  A very good actor and a superlative President of the NRA. Thank you for your service, Mr. Heston.
Posted by: Pancho Elmeck8414 || 04/06/2008 0:54 Comments || Top||

#3  God Bless.
See you on the other side Mr. Heston.
Posted by: RD || 04/06/2008 2:33 Comments || Top||

#4  damn.

Loved his work, his principles, and the way he conducted his life. RIP indeed
Posted by: Frank G || 04/06/2008 7:27 Comments || Top||

#5  A good man. The replacement crop of hollywood is a disgrace.
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/06/2008 7:43 Comments || Top||

#6  This guy's belief in America as a good and noble country and people is krypronite to the morons running around hollyweird today...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 04/06/2008 8:07 Comments || Top||

#7  God bless, Mr. Heston.

I'll go to the range today and sight in a new scope in your honor.
Posted by: no mo uro || 04/06/2008 9:31 Comments || Top||

#8  I remember how in his later years he was invited on to the show "Politically Incorrect", with that asshole Bill Maher. All the other guests were notoriously leftist liberal, and kept up a barrage of noise while Heston just sat there. Then one made the mistake of sneering about guns.

Maher interjected, both jabbing at Heston and trying to get him to say something. Heston made a short, subeued and polite comment that was the typical NRA statement-of-fact used to counter emotional leftist polemic.

Then Maher, again with a sneer, asked Heston to "Say it like Moses would say it."

Whoa. Heston "turned on", and with full screen presence like he had in The Ten Commandments, issued forth a MIGHTY, Moses-coming-down-from-Mount-Sinai, proclamation about gun rights, and citing "The Lord Your God Has Said..."

Whoa. Everybody else shut the hell up. After Heston finished, you could have heard a pin drop in that studio. Utter silence for at least ten seconds as everyone, Maher, guests and studio audience, were afraid to *move*.

Finally Maher had to say *something*, but that was effectively the end of the show. They were just timid and unimportant mice, in the presence of gigantic greatness. Nothing that they could say or do mattered at all.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 04/06/2008 9:43 Comments || Top||

#9  Damn, I'd have loved to see that, 'moose.

Wonder if it's around somewhere on You-tube (and how one would find it)....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 04/06/2008 10:04 Comments || Top||

#10  Our staff at EBS-Zaragoza had a chance to interview him in the late 1980s - and what we took away from the experience was that he was a total and complete professional. He could not have been more gracious to the two young airmen (interviewer and camera) who actually did the interview. I wrote about it here.
Posted by: Sgt. Mom || 04/06/2008 10:11 Comments || Top||

#11  Truly a Man amongst Men.

Rest Easy Mr Heston.
Posted by: OldSpook || 04/06/2008 10:35 Comments || Top||

#12  caught in comments at AOSHQ: he was great, even in Wayne's World II. Had to be one of his last appearances on screen? Go to 0:30 in...
Posted by: Frank G || 04/06/2008 10:39 Comments || Top||

#13  ... the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

"If you want to feel the warm breath of freedom upon your neck... if you want to touch the pulse of liberty that beat in our Founding Fathers... you may do so through the majesty of the Second Amendment"
- Charlton Heston

A true American. We are the poorer for his passing.
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 04/06/2008 11:22 Comments || Top||

#14  God Bless this man and his family.

We just found out last week that he has lived in his house, built with the earnings from Ben Hur since 1959. Frugil and classic.

Speaking of classic, "From my cold dead hands"

We will miss him.
Posted by: Icerigger || 04/06/2008 11:43 Comments || Top||

#15  Moose thanks for that memory.
Posted by: Icerigger || 04/06/2008 11:44 Comments || Top||

#16  Can we have his gun now?
Posted by: Sarah Brady || 04/06/2008 13:54 Comments || Top||

#17  No.. not even from his cold, dead, hands
Posted by: john frum || 04/06/2008 14:35 Comments || Top||

#18  Unlike Moses, he spent his life in his promised land. His memory is indeed a blessing.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/06/2008 14:40 Comments || Top||

#19  It's interesting that Charlton Heston was one of the first Democrats to throw his support behind the Zionist Republican Dr. Martin Luther King in the early sixties.
Posted by: tipper || 04/06/2008 17:23 Comments || Top||

#20  Rest in Peace Mr. Heston. You spent your life doing what is right for yourself and your countrymen in a place famous for doing the opposite. That your films will still be seen even after those who are yet unborn have all passed away is the best legacy America can provide.
Posted by: ed || 04/06/2008 18:32 Comments || Top||

#21  Awwwww - RIP MOSES, BEN HUR, GENERAL GORDON, MAJOR DUNDEE, etc.

With this WOT, Osama's = Radical Islam's recent escalatory rdirection of Jihad towards Russia-Asia,+ US-led OWG-NWO still nascent, THERE ARE NOT MANY HOLLYWOOD ACTORS LEFT TO REPRESENT OLD-STYLE MASCULINE IDEALS OF RAM-ROD STRENGTH AND GUMPTION. Then again, isn't that what CGI is for - great actors/actresses' persona of yore can live again in new movies.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/06/2008 18:48 Comments || Top||

#22  Sure, Sarah. Bend over.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/06/2008 19:10 Comments || Top||

#23  I'm going to go get drunk now.
Posted by: Secret Master || 04/06/2008 19:17 Comments || Top||

#24  “I think we make a difference together. We are a freer people than if we hadn't fought this good fight,” Charlton Heston
Posted by: Crolusing tse Tung2745 || 04/06/2008 22:40 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Food riots fear after rice price hits a high
A global rice shortage that has seen prices of one of the world's most important staple foods increase by 50 per cent in the past two weeks alone is triggering an international crisis, with countries banning export and threatening serious punishment for hoarders.

With rice stocks at their lowest for 30 years, prices of the grain rose more than 10 per cent on Friday to record highs and are expected to soar further in the coming months. Already China, India, Egypt, Vietnam and Cambodia have imposed tariffs or export bans, as it has become clear that world production of rice this year will decline in real terms by 3.5 per cent. The impact will be felt most keenly by the world's poorest populations, who have become increasingly dependent on the crop as the prices of other grains have become too costly.

Rice is the staple food for more than half the world's population. This is the second year running in which production - which increased in real terms last year - has failed to keep pace with population growth. The harvest has also been hit by drought, particularly in China and Australia, forcing producers to hoard their crops to satisfy local markets.

The increase in rice prices - which some believe could increase by a further 40 per cent in coming months - has matched sharp inflation in other key food products. But with rice relied on by some eight billion people, the impact of a prolonged rice crisis for the world's poor - a large part of whose available income is spent on food - threatens to be devastating.

The consequences are visible across the globe. In Bangladesh, government-run outlets that sell subsidised rice have been besieged by queues comprised largely of the country's middle classes, who will queue for hours to purchase five kilograms of rice sold at 30 per cent cheaper than on the open market.

In Thailand yesterday - where the price for lower-quality rice alone has risen by between $70 and $100 per tonne in the past week alone - Deputy Prime Minister Mingkwan Sangsuwan convened a meeting of key officials and traders yesterday to discuss imposing minimum export prices to control export volumes and measures to punish hoarders. The meeting follows moves by some larger supermarkets in Thailand to limit purchases of rice by customers.

In the Philippines, where the National Bureau of Investigation has been called in to raid traders suspected of hoarding rice to push up the prices, activists have warned of the risk of food riots.

Fear is so deep that the country's agricultural secretary, Arthur Yap, this month asked fast-food restaurants including McDonald's and KFC - which generally supply a cup of rice with their meals in Asian branches - to halve the amount of rice supplied, so that none would be wasted. In addition, traders who try to stockpile rice have been warned that they face a charge of 'economic sabotage', which in the Philippines carries a life sentence.

The shortage has afflicted India, too: on Monday, the government banned the export of non-basmati rice and also raised the price of basmati rice that can be exported.

And although China has said it is secure in its supplies of rice, the fact that the government has offered to pay farmers more to produce more rice and wheat suggests otherwise.

The sharp rise in rice prices has been driven by many factors, not least by a race between African and South-east Asian countries to secure sufficient stocks to head off the risk of food riots and social unrest.

Fears over the potential impact of the rice crisis has been heightened by estimates by both the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation - which has predicted the 3.5 per cent shortfall - and comments from the World Bank president, Robert Zoellick, on the organisation's website, estimating that '33 countries around the world face potential social unrest because of the acute hike in food and energy prices'.

According to the World Bank's figures, the real price of rice rose to a 19-year high last month, while the real price of wheat has hit a 28-year high.

Analysts have cited many factors for the rises, including rising fuel and fertiliser expenses, as well as climate change. But while drought is one factor, another is the switch from food to biofuel production in large areas of the world, in particular to fulfil the US energy demands. A continuing change in the global diet is also putting a further squeeze on rice. In China, for example, 100 million rural migrants to the country's big cities have switched from a staple of wheat to rice as they have become wealthier.

Rapid recent price increases are also likely to have a dangerous secondary effect of stoking further inflation in emerging countries, which are already suffering from record oil prices and surging agricultural commodity prices.

The depth of the crisis for the poorest was underlined in stark terms by the World Bank's managing director at a meeting of finance ministers from the Asian block. Juan José Daboub said governments needed to take steps to protect the poor and also ensure that long-term solutions were found to relieve shortages. 'In virtually every East Asian country, high food prices are raising headline inflation and contributing to a significant decline in the real income of the poor, most of whom spend a big chunk of their income on food,' he said last week.
Posted by: john frum || 04/06/2008 11:40 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I don't care what China says, they lost most of the early rice crop to Global Freezing.
Corn hit $6 on friday, a new high. Many USA farmers decided to grow wheat and there isn't any more land.
Argentina Wheat crop caput.
Virus attacking Iran and Pakistan wheat crops. Could destroy 80% like in Egypt.
Western wheat belt in OK. KS. CO. TX. in sever need of rain. You can't eat oil, and the MEast doesn't have much food, or places to buy it. I predict chaos, and a good year for commodity traders.
Posted by: bman || 04/06/2008 12:02 Comments || Top||

#2  In addition, traders who try to stockpile rice have been warned that they face a charge of 'economic sabotage', which in the Philippines carries a life sentence.

We need to look into the wording of that law, we may have a use for it here.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/06/2008 13:00 Comments || Top||

#3  Can we get George Soros to move to the Phillipines?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 04/06/2008 13:28 Comments || Top||

#4  It seems trailing daughter #2 deserves my apologies. Permitted to choose a menu, purchase ingredients, and cook dinner, she bought a 20 pound bag of rice because it was cheaper per ounce, then used two cups of the stuff. My freezer is 2/3rds full of rice now which, at our normal rate of consumption, might well last several years.

Interesting, bman, but why did so many farmers choose wheat over corn?
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/06/2008 15:10 Comments || Top||

#5  Too much rice? We can solve dat problem for you right here, cher.
Posted by: Matt || 04/06/2008 17:04 Comments || Top||

#6  Rice Helper™?

How expensive can it be? 2 weeks ago I bought a 25 lb. bag of Thai Jasmine rice at he local oriental market. That's shipped across the Pacific to middle America. All for $13.00.
Posted by: ed || 04/06/2008 17:15 Comments || Top||

#7  "According to the World Bank's figures, the real price of rice rose to a 19-year high last month"
So, adjusted for inflation, it costs about the same as in 1989? The horror.
Posted by: Darrell || 04/06/2008 17:29 Comments || Top||

#8  But with rice relied on by some eight billion people, the impact of a prolonged rice crisis for the world's poor - a large part of whose available income is spent on food - threatens to be devastating.

When did we get an extra 1.5 billion people in the world? The last estimate I saw said 6.5 billion. If this is any indication of the integrity of the article, I wouldn't go rushing out to buy rice.

TW: rice is one of the easiest grains to store, and will store nicely on the open shelf for several years. We eat more rice than the average family, but haven't worried about pricing in quite a while. Asia will be hit hardest, and as the article suggests, the poor will suffer most.

The rice-growing part of the United States (Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida) has seen more rain than normal this year. Whether that helps or hurts is still to be seen. California also produces rice, but I don't know how much. Maybe the price of rice will finally force Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and parts of Canada to "go commercial" on the growing of wild rice.

The idiocy of burning food is lost on Congress, of course...
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/06/2008 17:31 Comments || Top||

#9  I don't think they can blame this on us. I found 2003 rice production figures that put the U.S. in position #11, even lower than tiny Japan.
http://nue.okstate.edu/Crop_Information/World_Wheat_Production.htm
Posted by: Darrell || 04/06/2008 17:43 Comments || Top||

#10  The US is important because it exports much of its rice production. In addition costs are low. For example you can buy at retail a 25 lb. bag of medium grain rice (the kind Asians eat) for $10-12/bag.
Posted by: ed || 04/06/2008 17:50 Comments || Top||

#11  Under Al Gore's dogma scientific crap story settled consensus, increased rain in the rice-growing regions is prognosticate, with withering desert drought/blight in the U.S. Perhaps the starving should purchase food credits from AlGgore LLP, redeemable in a couple years?
Posted by: Frank G || 04/06/2008 17:55 Comments || Top||

#12  2003 Rice Production:
China, 166 million Metric tonnes
India, 132 million Metric tonnes
Indonesia, 52 million Metric tonnes
...
US, 9 million Metric tonnes

We don't exactly control the market.
Posted by: Darrell || 04/06/2008 18:04 Comments || Top||

#13  An article from Pakistan yesterday encapsulated the problem, which I was going to post with the following headline,

Higher oil prices = Higher fertilizer prices = Less fertilizer used = Lower crop yields = Higher food prices

Wheat yields may have dropped as much as 20% in Pakistan due to decreased fertilizer use.

TW, you can conveniently store rice for years in a plastic pail with a tight fitting lid. Scoop out enough for a meal whenever you need.
Posted by: phil_b || 04/06/2008 18:09 Comments || Top||

#14  Many Chinese people are surprised to find out that the USA produces rice. It's a sort of unworldliness. I like cooking up a cup of Texas long grain rice for them.
Posted by: gromky || 04/06/2008 20:53 Comments || Top||

#15  When did we get an extra 1.5 billion people in the world?

Exactly what I noticed, OP. Especially when the inference from the IMMEDIATELY preceding paragraph is that only 50% of the world's population heavily depends on rice.

Methinks this is one more of those "world ends, poor/elderly most affected" type articles. Yes, it my get nasty out there, as oil prices DO affect fertilizer (and thus, food prices, not even including shipping costs of that food), but as others have noted, relatively speaking, rice is still dirt cheap ($.50/pound).
Posted by: BA || 04/06/2008 21:28 Comments || Top||

#16  This is the Guardian. They have never let facts interfere with a good story that advances their agenda. Don't know why any intelligent person reads their fishwrap.
Posted by: RWV || 04/06/2008 23:27 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
ZANU-PF demands recount - Bob's not going quietly
President Robert Mugabe's ruling party demanded a vote recount and a further delay in the release of presidential election results, the state Sunday Mail newspaper reported, prompting outrage from the opposition party.

Meanwhile, militant hard-boys supporters of the ruling party invaded five of the few remaining white-owned commercial farms, the farmers reported Sunday – another sign that Mugabe plans to use violence to stay in power.
How many signs do we need?
Three cattle ranchers were driven off their land Saturday, and equipment and livestock were seized, the farmers said. A crew from state-controlled Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corp. was filming the siege of one farm, where about 50 militants were threatening to break through the farm gates.
The ZBC film will be used as a 'reminder' as to what will happen to the other farmers who are stoopid enough to remain ...
The Movement for Democratic Change, which claims its leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the March 29 presidential ballot outright, said it would not accept a recount, did not want a runoff and pressed ahead with legal attempts to force publication of the results.

“How do you have a vote recount for a result that has not been announced? That is ridiculous,” said opposition spokesman Nelson Chamisa.
Good point
He accused the ruling ZANU-PF party of vote fraud, saying that police have told opposition leaders that the ruling party has been tampering with ballots since early last week. “These claims are totally unfounded and they are only meant to justify ZANU-PF's rigging,” he said.

The ruling party cited “errors and miscalculations in the compilation of the poll result” and asked the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to defer announcement of the presidential election results because of the “anomalies,” the Sunday Mail reported.
And who would know better about all the errors and miscalculations than the ruling party?
The report came a day after Tsvangirai called on Mugabe to step down and accused the 84-year-old longtime ruler of plotting a campaign of violence to bolster his chances of winning an expected runoff.

Eight days after the election, the commission has yet to announce the results. Unofficial tallies by independent monitors show Tsvangirai won more votes than Mugabe – but fewer than the 50 percent plus one vote required to avoid a runoff.

The high court heard testimony Sunday afternoon from opposition party lawyers who lodged an urgent petition demanding publication of the election results. Reporters were not admitted to the court hearing. Armed police prevented opposition lawyers from entering the court on Saturday but there was no police presence Sunday.

The Movement for Democratic Change maintained its resistance to a runoff. “We are not going to accept the so-called runoff. It is going to be a 'run-over' of Zimbabwe. People are going to be killed,” Chamisa said. “We are not so naive a leadership to lead our people to slaughter.”

Tsvangirai on Saturday stopped short of saying the party would boycott any runoff. But he voiced concerns that the state would mobilize the armed forces, feared youth brigades and war veterans to terrorize voters into supporting Mugabe.
Don't boycott, it just guarantees Bob another term.
Mugabe has been accused of winning previous elections through violence and intimidation. Scores of opponents were killed during the 2002 and 2005 campaigns. Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga dismissed fears of violence as “a lot of nonsense.”

The law requires a runoff within 21 days of the initial election, but diplomats in Harare and at the United Nations say Mugabe may order a 90-day delay to give security forces time to clamp down.
Posted by: Frank G || 04/06/2008 12:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Two words - Nicolae Ceaucescu...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 04/06/2008 12:26 Comments || Top||

#2  Bob should call Al Gore for tips on the best way to conduct a recount.
Posted by: charger || 04/06/2008 15:22 Comments || Top||


Police block Zimbabwe's opposition from entering court
Police blocked the entrance to Zimbabwe's High Court building in Harare on Saturday, preventing lawyers for the country's main opposition party from entering and pressing for the publication of presidential election results. Opposition lawyer Alec Muchadehama said a senior police officer wearing a shirt of President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party said no one would be allowed into the building.

The Movement for Democratic Change party wants the court to force Zimbabwe's electoral commission to publish the tally of the March 29 presidential vote. Results from legislative elections the same day, already released, show the MDC won, and early reports suggest the MDC also took the presidential vote, though not necessarily with the 50-per-cent-plus-one majority required to prevent a runoff.

MDC lawyer Andrew Makoni said the case has been postponed until Sunday. He said the commission had asked for more time to file papers contesting the request.

In another development on Saturday, the MDC appealed for the United Nations to intervene to prevent bloodshed in an expected presidential runoff campaign between Mugabe and MDC candidate Morgan Tsvangirai because it fears Mugabe will use brute force to try to retain power.

ZANU-PF said on Friday that it is endorsing Mugabe for a runoff presidential vote, which some media reports say could be held within three weeks. However, the Zimbabwe Independent newspaper on Friday said that Mugabe wanted to use his presidential powers to amend the Electoral Act to extend the runoff period to 90 days and rule by decree in the interim.
Three weeks not being enough to ensure he can steal the run-off ...
Diplomats in Harare and at the UN said Mugabe was planning to declare a longer delay before holding a runoff vote to give security forces more time to clamp down on the opposition.

A series of police raids on opposition offices were carried out on Thursday, a day after the returns from the legislative election showed Mugabe's party had lost control of the parliament's 210-member lower house.
Posted by: Fred || 04/06/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  How much more time is required to demonstrate the election is being stolen?
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 04/06/2008 19:34 Comments || Top||


Zimbabwe opposition: Runoff risks violence
  • Opposition candidate is against runoff with Mugabe, saying he fears violence
  • Opposition party tries to force publication of delayed election results
  • Zimbabwe's electoral commission has yet to release final results
  • Delay raises concerns that Mugabe is trying to remain in power
  • Posted by: Fred || 04/06/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  You forgot
    Thug Stays in power
    Water flows downhill
    Sun rises in east
    Posted by: Redneck Jim || 04/06/2008 15:01 Comments || Top||


    Britain
    "Poisoned in Russian attack", British Defector
    LONDON - British detectives are investigating claims by a Russian former double agent of an assassination attempt against him, police told The Mail on Sunday newspaper. Oleg Gordievsky, a high-profile Cold War defector, claims he was poisoned by another former Russian intelligence agent just weeks after he was highly decorated by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II for his services to Britain’s security.

    The former Soviet colonel claimed he was next on the hit list following the November 2006 radiation poisoning murder of Alexander Litvinenko, which plunged relations between Britain and Russia to a post-Cold War low.

    Gordievsky, who was the London bureau chief of the KGB Soviet intelligence agency and defected in 1985, accused the British authorities of wanting to keep the episode covered up. He claims he was visited by a Russian man at his safe-house in the county of Surrey, south-west of London.

    The ex-spy was taken by ambulance from his home to a hospital in the town of Guildford. “Surrey Police was called to an address in Surrey on November 2, 2007 at around 11:30 am following concerns for the safety of a man,” a spokeswoman said. “The man, who was 69 at the time, was taken by ambulance to the Royal Surrey County Hospital for treatment.

    “Surrey Police is continuing to investigate allegations made by this man and it would not be appropriate to comment further until our investigation is complete.”

    He lay unconscious and “close to death” for 34 hours and spent two weeks recuperating. He was initially left partially paralysed and still has no feelings in his fingers, The Mail on Sunday reported.

    “I’ve known for some time that I am on the assassination list drawn up by rogue elements in Moscow,” Gordievsky told the weekly tabloid. “They murdered my friend Alexander Litvinenko. I have no doubt my sudden illness last November was a similar attempt on my life. It was obvious to me that I had been poisoned.

    He said Moscow-authored poisonings were based on their difficulty to detect, citing the deaths of Litvinenko and others.
    Posted by: Steve White || 04/06/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  He lay unconscious and “close to death” for 34 hours and spent two weeks recuperating. He was initially left partially paralysed and still has no feelings in his fingers

    I read in the Independant that Mr Gordievsky believed he was poisoned with thallium..

    any clues or other possible poison candidates that jump out Dr White?
    Posted by: RD || 04/06/2008 3:10 Comments || Top||

    #2  None I know of, but then I don't have the degree in advanced chemistry offered by the University of the KGB ...
    Posted by: Steve White || 04/06/2008 10:08 Comments || Top||

    #3  Ummm, I had a Stroke last year,
    (Almost fully recovered, thank you)
    One of the symptoms is "Numbing of the fingers" sounds NOT like poisoning, in my case the remaining effects are a semi-paralysis (Numbing) on the left little, and next to left little fingers.
    Other than this numbing, there's no other damage remaining.(My doctors are astounded at my complete recovery)
    Posted by: Redneck Jim || 04/06/2008 14:49 Comments || Top||

    #4  Good for you, RJ, continue healing!
    Posted by: Frank G || 04/06/2008 15:10 Comments || Top||

    #5  Redneck Jim, really thanks for sharing that buddy were all getting older and dropping like flies servicing any unattended fillies!

    For real get well, and git buzy with them girlz!!
    Posted by: RD || 04/06/2008 17:12 Comments || Top||

    #6  TV Trailer > coming movie AWAKE. Trailer seems to depict a man maliciously or criminally subjected to experimentation - he looks unconscious or "dead"? but is actually alive and cognizant of things being done to him???
    Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/06/2008 19:54 Comments || Top||


    Caribbean-Latin America
    Ecuador says CIA controls part of its intelligence
    QUITO - Ecuador’s president accused the CIA on Saturday of controlling many of his country’s spy agencies, in comments that could fray ties with Washington and drag it into Ecuador’s feud with neighboring Colombia. President Rafael Correa has fired a top intelligence officer and plans to overhaul spy agencies for belatedly informing him about links between Colombian rebels and an Ecuadorean who died in Colombia’s raid inside Ecuador last month that sparked a regional crisis.
    Must be his turn to whip up a faux-crisis ...
    “Many of our intelligence agencies have been taken over by the CIA,” the leftist leader said during his weekly radio show. ”Through the CIA, information found here was passed to Colombia to improve their position” in the dispute.

    Correa also charged the United States with financing some officers in the Ecuadorean spy agencies.

    U.S. Embassy spokesman in Quito Arnaldo Arbesu declined to comment on the charges but said, “We are always willing to work with the Ecuadorean government in any type of issue.”
    Posted by: Steve White || 04/06/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  If the CIA did have this control then why is he in power?
    Posted by: 3dc || 04/06/2008 0:21 Comments || Top||

    #2  Better question: If the CIA is in control, how much longer does he have to live?
    Posted by: Anonymoose || 04/06/2008 0:35 Comments || Top||

    #3  When I travelled throughout Central and South America in the mid-seventies, the 2 most friendly countries to the US were: Ecuador and Venezuela. Times change.
    Posted by: McZoid || 04/06/2008 0:37 Comments || Top||

    #4  Ecuador's intelligence? Hardly an embarrassment of riches, but about as much as today's CIA could handle.
    Posted by: regular joe || 04/06/2008 13:54 Comments || Top||

    #5  McZoid, obviously the change is George W Bush's fault.
    Posted by: Rambler in California || 04/06/2008 16:05 Comments || Top||


    Venezuela to buy subs from Russia
  • Russian news media: Venezuela expected to sign deal for at least three submarines
  • Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez reportedly will sign contracts during May visit
  • Venezuela already has bought some $3 billion worth of arms from Russia
  • Posted by: Fred || 04/06/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  How much cocaine can the coke-head prez ship in these subs?
    Posted by: 3dc || 04/06/2008 0:24 Comments || Top||

    #2  "Blow the main ballast!"
    (Sniiiiiff) "Aye, aye, sir!"
    Posted by: PBMcL || 04/06/2008 2:47 Comments || Top||

    #3  pure putinesque move, must be seen as an extension of the empowerment of putins stable of useful idiots. Missle shield nyet, subs to bobo..tit for tat.....clearly in the best interest of putins on demand chaos program.

    Bobo can now terrorize the waters instead of drilling them.....probably will make great mules for drug trafficing as well.
    Posted by: Thraviper Panda2099 || 04/06/2008 8:35 Comments || Top||

    #4  You can buy Kilos with a check, but you still need a trained crew to drive and fight them.

    Having some so close to home will give the USN a convenient place to practice while Hugo annoys his neighbors.
    Posted by: SteveS || 04/06/2008 10:05 Comments || Top||

    #5  Yup, I could imagine a Los Angeles class sub training their sonar people:

    Senior CPO: "Awright, kid, hear that on the headphones? See it on the waterfall? This is a Kilo-class sub."
    PO3: "Got it Chief. But it sounds erratic. Course is all over the place, no noise-discipline at all. Who are these guys?"
    Senior CPO: [sigh] "That's the Hugo Chavez, kid. Now shaddup and listen."
    Posted by: Steve White || 04/06/2008 10:19 Comments || Top||

    #6  Do they come with a money back guarantee if the number of submergings and surfacings don't equal???
    Posted by: USN,Ret. || 04/06/2008 12:15 Comments || Top||

    #7  Dunno about the warranty, ask the Chinese.
    Posted by: OldSpook || 04/06/2008 15:16 Comments || Top||

    #8  The Russian batteries for the Kilo don't work too well in warm water regions. The hull coatings also give problems.

    Hugo will need the Indian made batteries.
    Posted by: john frum || 04/06/2008 20:14 Comments || Top||

    #9  Mobilis in Mobili...

    Calling Jacques Cousteau, Hugo is stuck fast to the head, please send divers with food and vaseline.
    Posted by: RD || 04/06/2008 20:34 Comments || Top||


    China-Japan-Koreas
    SKorea conservatives set to win election
    SEOUL - The conservative party of new South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak is poised to win Wednesday’s general election despite a barrage of threats from North Korea against his administration, analysts say. The former CEO won a huge victory over his liberal rival in December’s presidential poll with his “Economy First!” pledge.

    Lee now wants his ruling Grand National Party (GNP) to secure a parliamentary majority over the liberal United Democratic Party (UDP) so he can enact sweeping changes designed to revitalise the economy.

    And even though North Korea last week labelled him a traitor, a US sycophant and a political charlatan, he is likely to get his wish. North Korea announced Thursday it was suspending all dialogue with South Korea, the culmination of a week of growing cross-border tensions. It has also expelled South Korean officials from a joint industrial complex, test-fired missiles and threatened to turn the South into “ashes” should Seoul launch any pre-emptive strike.

    Pyongyang is furious at Lee’s tougher line linking economic aid to the North’s progress in nuclear disarmament, and at his declared readiness to raise the issue of human rights abuses. Lee’s government “is driving North-South relations to confrontation and catastrophe,” North Korea said Thursday.

    Analysts say the North may be testing Lee’s resolve and trying to sway people against the GNP. “North Korea’s recent threats are causing concern and are certain to sway some voters. But unlike in the past, the impact is not so big this time,” said Park Myung-Ho, a Dongguk University political science professor. “Our political culture is mature enough to digest such developments. North Korea is no longer a decisive factor in South Korean elections.”
    And that's got to really grind on Kimmie ...
    Posted by: || 04/06/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Yet another country chooses a conservative government. Australia aside, this seems to be a trend.
    Posted by: trailing wife || 04/06/2008 15:12 Comments || Top||


    8 killed in new violence in Tibet, activists say
  • Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy: Hundreds protested Thursday
  • Demonstrators called for the release of two arrested monks, center says
  • China calls the incident "a riot" and says an official was seriously injured
  • Violence erupted last month amid protests for Tibetan independence
  • Posted by: Fred || 04/06/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


    Home Front: Politix
    Michelle Obama's Thesis Unblocked
    The whole thing is available at Polico.com.

    Did I miss it, or does nobody care?

    Am I a bad person for posting it?

    How has Obama and the MSM handled it? Seems like it's been pretty far off the radar screen?
    Posted by: Bobby || 04/06/2008 14:32 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  "My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my 'blackness' than ever before," the future Mrs. Obama wrote in her thesis introduction. "I have found that at Princeton, no matter how liberal and open-minded some of my white professors and classmates try to be toward me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don't belong. Regardless of the circumstances underwhich I interact with whites at Princeton, it often seems as if, to them, I will always be black first and a student second."

    hmmmm, a victim even at Princeton. The MAN's always keeping her down. He seems like a genial, if dangerously naive and liberal, person. She....not so much
    Posted by: Frank G || 04/06/2008 15:41 Comments || Top||

    #2  You will always be black first if you are always making it an issue, like making it your thesis subject.
    Posted by: Darrell || 04/06/2008 18:07 Comments || Top||

    #3  What do yall expect? She's a Democrat!
    Posted by: Deacon Blues || 04/06/2008 18:15 Comments || Top||

    #4  If whitey made it such a grind at Princeton, maybe she could've transferred to Grambling or Alcorn State?
    Posted by: tu3031 || 04/06/2008 19:37 Comments || Top||

    #5  Who really owns the presidency?
    Posted by: Crolusing tse Tung2745 || 04/06/2008 22:38 Comments || Top||


    Moonbat Fratricide: rapper Snoop Dogg claims Obama is supported by the Klan
    Hip-hop star Snoop Dogg has launched a scathing attack on U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama, accusing him of gleaning support from the Ku Klux Klan.

    The rapper, real name Calvin Broadus Jr., insists the Democratic candidate has received funding from the KKK. He tells the Guardian, "The KKK gave Obama money. They was (sic) one of his biggest supporters ... Why wouldn't they be? The media won't tell you that. They don't want you to know that. They just want you to know that this [bleep] befriended this other [bleep] who be (sic) threatening your values.

    "But we all know all presidents lie to get into [bleep] office. That's they (sic) job."
    Posted by: Mike || 04/06/2008 13:39 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Snoop Dogg is a degenerate idiot. Obama could earn points with 99% of the population by publicly stating that fact.
    Posted by: DMFD || 04/06/2008 14:22 Comments || Top||

    #2  What up, Dogg! What you been smokin'?
    Posted by: Rex Mundi || 04/06/2008 17:44 Comments || Top||

    #3  Poor Snoop victim of oppression spouting off crazy rumors because he is a righteously suspicious of the man -- next thing you know he'll be muttering about the US injecting blacks w/AIDS or the CIA distributing drugs in the inner city.
    Posted by: regular joe || 04/06/2008 19:02 Comments || Top||

    #4  The next time Snoop gets sentenced to probation again, a stipulation should be that he gets drug tested about every thirty seconds.
    Posted by: tu3031 || 04/06/2008 19:41 Comments || Top||

    #5  Serious example here, though, about how even educated blacks are falling for this crap.

    About a month ago, an e-mail went around linking to a story from some British paper that said Obama had been "endorsed" by the KKK (even had "scary" photos of KKK goons in their white hoodies). Anyways, a very well educated elderly black man (from work) sent it to me. Then, not five minutes later, another (younger) black guy I work with (we're talking an Engineer from GA Tech, here, no dummy off the street) talking about it, as if it were serious.

    I finally clicked the link and about lost it! I think it's a British version of theonion.com. Stories so ludicrous that NO ONE should "fall for them." Yet these guys wanted to believe it. Maybe snoop got the same e-mail???
    Posted by: BA || 04/06/2008 21:33 Comments || Top||


    McCain Is Vocal on War, but Silent on Son’s Service
    Long piece in the NYT about John McCain's youngest son, Jimmy, who enlisted in the Marines at age 17 and has recently returned from a tour in Iraq. Outstanding young man.
    Posted by: Steve White || 04/06/2008 00:22 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Instapundit comments:

    No doubt he can expect an endorsement from those antiwar types who have criticized the Bush daughters for not serving in Iraq.
    Posted by: Mike || 04/06/2008 7:06 Comments || Top||

    #2  Remarkable that he has not exploited his son's service for cheap political purposes. Recently I heard McCain quoted as saying "My country owes me nothing, and I owe it everything."

    I am beginning to think he is unfit for national office.
    Posted by: regular joe || 04/06/2008 8:37 Comments || Top||

    #3  Well, at least they waited till he returned from Iraq to tell this, unlike the Press and the Prince.
    Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/06/2008 9:50 Comments || Top||

    #4  Compare and Contrast to Cindy Sheehan.

    If McCain get it straight about the border and amnesty, and wakes up on global warming being a hoax, then he will have me (and a lot of others) fully on board. Because stuff like this convinces me his heart is in the right place, but his his still has a ways to go.
    Posted by: OldSpook || 04/06/2008 10:30 Comments || Top||

    #5  It's stories like this-- the dedication to duty, the sacrificing for your country, the sense of honor and integrity evident in all of this-- when compared to the petty bickering over race and what not going on in the Dem party, that could well propel McCain to a decisive victory in November.
    Posted by: eltoroverde || 04/06/2008 11:14 Comments || Top||

    #6  I agree, NOT using his son's service as a political ploy is definitely a plus in my book, Meanwhile Hillary is shilling Chelsea as hard as she can, the comparison works greatly to McCains favor and Hillary's detriment.
    Posted by: Redneck Jim || 04/06/2008 15:10 Comments || Top||

    #7  Because stuff like this convinces me his heart is in the right place, but his his head still has a ways to go.

    (preview is your friend)
    Posted by: OldSpook || 04/06/2008 15:14 Comments || Top||

    #8  He can act human, unlike the donks, that's not gonna hurt him in certain circles.
    Posted by: bigjim-ky || 04/06/2008 22:26 Comments || Top||


    Barr forms exploratory committee
    Former Republican Rep. Bob Barr said Saturday he has formed a presidential exploratory committee and may seek the Libertarian party nomination. "America today faces a grave moral and leadership crisis, and those of us who care about our country's future can no longer sit on the sidelines and remain neutral," Barr told an audience at the Heartland Libertarian Conference in Kansas City, Mo. The former Georgia congressman left the GOP in 2006 over what he called bloated spending and civil liberties intrusions by the Bush administration.

    Barr, 59, became a darling of conservatives in the 1990s for his persistent attacks on President Clinton. He was among the first to press for impeaching Clinton and helped manage House Republicans' impeachment case before the Senate. He currently runs a lobbying and public affairs firm with offices in Atlanta and outside Washington.
    Posted by: Fred || 04/06/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  His turn on Borat "...is the kind of spontaneous publicity that makes people!"
    Posted by: regular joe || 04/06/2008 8:41 Comments || Top||


    Obama Camp Chides Host Who Called McCain a 'Warmonger'
    Barack Obama’s campaign distanced itself Saturday from a liberal talk show host who called John McCain a “warmonger” while introducing the Illinois senator at a North Dakota campaign stop the night before, after the McCain campaign called on Obama to denounce the comment.

    Local talk show host Ed Schultz used the term to describe the Arizona senator while warming up the crowd in Grand Forks, N.D., before Obama’s arrival at the state’s Democratic convention. “John McCain is not a warmonger and should not be described as such,” Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Saturday. She added, “He’s a supporter of a war that Senator Obama believes should have never been authorized and never been waged.”

    The campaign stressed that Obama was not present when the “warmonger” comment was made and that Schultz is not a campaign surrogate.

    That wasn’t enough for the McCain campaign, which pressed Obama to personally repudiate Schultz. “Barack Obama promises a new brand of politics, but today refused to directly denounce Ed Schultz and his vicious smear attack on John McCain. John McCain is committed to a civil debate worthy of the American people and has a record of standing by that commitment,” said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds. “Senator Obama must personally and publicly repudiate his campaign supporter’s attacks — rather than give tacit approval to this blatant smear — or his rhetoric of change will be exposed as nothing but words.”

    Posted by: Fred || 04/06/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  He's osama obama and he approved that message...
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 04/06/2008 8:09 Comments || Top||


    Clinton and Obama Fight for N.D. Votes -- Again
    Sen. Hillary Clinton made a blunt appeal to North Dakota delegates to switch their support to her, despite the fact that Sen. Barack Obama handily defeated her in the state's caucus in February.

    In an indication of how tense the battle has become for each Democratic delegate, Obama abandoned the campaign trail in Pennsylvania and scooted to North Dakota for the state party's annual dinner last night, despite the fact that he's already won 14 of the state's 21 delegates as well as six of the state's seven superdelegates.

    The two candidates also will battle for votes tonight in Butte, Mont., when Democrats there hold their annual dinner. The Montana primary, which offers only a handful of delegates, is scheduled for June.
    Posted by: Fred || 04/06/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  I just saw the SNL weekend update. Several anti Clinton funlines with huge applause. They also were mildly anti Clinton in their cold opening.

    The liberal love for the Clintons is so over.



    Posted by: mhw || 04/06/2008 0:21 Comments || Top||

    #2  Maybe the Democratic (heh) Party could import some poll watchers from Zimbabe to help run their caucuses.
    Posted by: SteveS || 04/06/2008 12:04 Comments || Top||

    #3  (Hillary) "And the whopper I expect you to believe was THIS big."
    Posted by: Redneck Jim || 04/06/2008 14:58 Comments || Top||


    India-Pakistan
    India: plan for 70 space missions in 5 years
    India moves smartly into the 21st century while its two Muslim neighbors remain stuck in the 9th century.
    BANGALORE — India plans to undertake 70 space missions in five years, a nearly three-fold jump from the previous half-decade, as it seeks to address requirements and develop new technologies to meet future needs.

    "We have proposed something like 70 missions totally (in the 11th plan (April one 2007 to March 31, 2012) compared to about 26 missions in the tenth plan period," Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation, G. Madhavan Nair, told reporters on the sidelines of a function here. The proposed missions have a "good mix" of both INSAT class satellites as well as remote sensing ones, he said.

    Nair, also Secretary in the Department of Space, indicated that the aim is to address requirements of the area of communication transponders and work in the fields of microwave remote sensing, hyper spectral and other new technologies of the future. "Future developments will be towards the manned space mission and reusable satellites and Ka-band satellites," he added.
    Posted by: Steve White || 04/06/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  India plans to launch an advanced remote sensing satellite, Cartosat-2A, on April 28 along with a Third World Satellite (TWSAT) and eight nano satellites on board home-built Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) from its spaceport of Sriharikota.

    Cartosat-2A will carry a panchromatic camera capable of providing scene-specific spot imageries for cartographic and other applications. "It has better than one metre resolution",
    Posted by: john frum || 04/06/2008 6:50 Comments || Top||

    #2  Space agency ISRO has finalised its project report on India's proposed first manned space mission in 2015 and will submit it to the Government within a few days for approval. "We have now finalised the project report on the manned mission.
    Posted by: john frum || 04/06/2008 6:50 Comments || Top||

    #3  India's first planetary mission, Chandrayaan-1, has now been rescheduled to take place in the first week of July as the mission personnel work overtime to sort out payload integration and launch-related issues.

    The lunar mission was originally scheduled for April this year, a time-frame targeted four years ago to get all the payloads well ahead of time and to galvanise the scientists into mission mode with a target to work on.

    The 525-kg lunar orbiter will carry as many as 11 instruments (payloads), including six from overseas two from the US and one each from Britain, Sweden, Germany and Bulgaria
    Posted by: john frum || 04/06/2008 6:52 Comments || Top||


    Home Front: Culture Wars
    Walls close in on Phelpses
    A federal judge in Maryland on Thursday ordered liens on the Westboro Baptist Church building and the Phelps-Chartered Law office.

    If the case presided over by U.S. District Court Judge Richard D. Bennett is upheld by an appeals court, the church, at 3701 S.W. 12th, and the office building, at 1414 S.W. Topeka Blvd., could be obtained by the court and sold, with the proceeds being applied toward $5 million in damages Bennett imposed on church members for picketing a military funeral.

    A lien is a legal hold on property, making it collateral against money owed to a person or entity. It can keep the owner from selling the property or transferring title to the property.

    The $5 million penalty is the result of a lawsuit filed against three of the church's principals by Albert Snyder, the father of Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder, whose funeral was picketed by church members.
    It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood.
    Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 04/06/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Shirley-the-lawyer was bragging about future victories on appeal. I suppose law school didn't lead her to understand that if high courts agree with the courts below, there is NO leave to appeal. Done deal, hag.
    Posted by: McZoid || 04/06/2008 0:28 Comments || Top||

    #2  Life is tough, but it's tougher if you're stupid. - Sgt. Stryker.
    Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/06/2008 0:41 Comments || Top||

    #3  Next step will be to slap liens on the Phelps's personal property.
    Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 04/06/2008 5:39 Comments || Top||

    #4 
    Posted by: DMFD || 04/06/2008 9:57 Comments || Top||

    #5  Next step will be to slap liens on the Phelps's personal property.

    Like the clothes on their backs, Anguper Hupomosing9418? ;-)
    Posted by: trailing wife || 04/06/2008 15:15 Comments || Top||

    #6  Uh, oh! Courts aren't just for liberal assholes anymore!
    Posted by: bigjim-ky || 04/06/2008 18:54 Comments || Top||

    #7  I wonder if God Hates Federal Judges now?
    Posted by: tu3031 || 04/06/2008 19:32 Comments || Top||



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