Pop star Britney Spears must increase her child support payments to ex-husband Kevin Federline by $5,000 a month as part of a custody settlement agreed to Friday. Under the terms of the deal approved by Superior Court Commissioner Scott Gordon, Spears will pay a total of $20,000 a month to the former backup dancer. She will also pay his $250,000 legal bill from lawyer Mark Vincent Kaplan.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2008 00:02 ||
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THE president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, has been warned by Thabo Mbeki, the South African president, that he faces prosecution for the crimes he has committed during his 28 years in office unless he signs a deal to give up all effective power.
Mbeki, who has done all he can to shield and support Mugabe for the past eight years, has come under overwhelming western pressure and has had to tell Mugabe that he could no longer protect him and his key cronies from being charged by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The power-sharing talks between Mugabes Zanu-PF and Morgan Tsvangirais Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) are shrouded in secrecy. But The Sunday Times has learnt that Mugabe, who has vowed that Tsvangirai will never be in government and that only God can remove me from power, faces humiliation over the terms of the deal that he will be forced to sign next month.
He will remain as president in name only and all real power will be held by a 20-member cabinet under Tsvangirai as prime minister. The opposition MDC will have 11 cabinet posts to nine for Mugabes Zanu-PF.
All Mugabes senior officials in the army, police and intelligence services, who have unleashed a campaign of terror since the MDC won a disputed victory in the elections held in March, will be dismissed.
Observers caution, however, that bringing Mugabe to justice could be protracted since Zimbabwe does not recognise the jurisdiction of the ICC. Any investigation would require a referral from the United Nations security council, which would probably be blocked by China or Russia.
The transitional government will have close ties to a group of western donor nations known as the Fishmongers Group, set up a year ago on Britains initiative. It includes the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Sweden, Holland, Norway, Canada and Australia. China declined an invitation to join.
The decisive showdown came last week when Mugabe realised that his power was broken. On Monday Mbekis emissary, Sidney Mufamadi, a South African cabinet minister, arrived in Harare to read the riot act to Zanu-PF officials.
According to the officials who were present, he told them bluntly: You dont have a government. You cant summon your parliament. You have no legitimate president and thus you can have no cabinet. You cannot behave as you have been doing. Real talks have to start right away.
The Zanu-PF negotiators, still congratulating themselves on Mugabes spurious victory in last months stolen election, were taken aback.
Worse was to follow. Mbeki flew to Harare and said that Mugabe and Tsvangirai must meet to sign a memorandum of understanding committing themselves to serious negotiations and to share power.
The talks, he insisted, must be concluded within two weeks and the two men must meet, shake hands and sign the memorandum.
Mugabe had never been willing to meet Tsvangirai, let alone shake his hand. According to leading Zanu-PF sources, he is frightened of going on trial for human rights crimes, particularly since an arrest warrant was issued against Omar Bashir, Sudans president, earlier this month. Under Mbekis pressure Mugabe gave in.
He agreed that Tsvangirai should come to State House, the presidents official residence. Tsvangirai refused to attend, saying that to do so would be to acknowledge Mugabe as the legitimate president of Zimbabwe: he would sign only on neutral ground.
Mugabe had to be persuaded to leave State House and was driven to Rainbow Towers, the former Sheraton hotel in central Harare, to sign the document and glumly shake hands with a triumphant Tsvangirai.
The power of the western donor nations has grown as the Zimbabwean economy has catapulted towards meltdown. Hyperinflation means that a newly introduced Z$100 billion note is not enough to buy a loaf of bread.
The latest harvest has been dismal, bread may soon run out and widespread famine is a threat. The World Food Programme estimates that by early next year 5.1m people could be facing starvation.
The Fishmongers Group, which is based in Holland, stands powerfully in the wings and in effect has a veto over the negotiations. Planning is already far advanced for a post-Mugabe future, with individual countries agreeing to focus their efforts on education, health and other sectors. A total of £2 billion has been pledged to date.
The transitional government will be obliged to follow edicts laid down by the group. They will insist that the new government gives full and equal access to food aid, plans a return to financial stability, restores the rule of law with an independent judiciary and respects property rights. This will mean that the farms stolen by Mugabe and his cronies will either have to be restored to their owners or compensation will be paid.
The group will also insist that the government be committed to freedom of the press and hold fair elections within 18 months. The group will not release even a dollar to a government that includes anyone guilty either of gross corruption or human rights violations. Zanu-PF will be hard pushed to find nine ministers who qualify.
The new dispensation will bring to a halt the campaign of terror unleashed by Mugabe since he was defeated in the first round of the presidential elections in March.
A diplomatic source said: The toughest part of the negotiations is going to be the question of immunity from prosecution for Mugabe and, say, the top 20 members of the junta.
Another diplomat said: Its ironic. Mbeki could and should have brought Mugabe to heel eight years ago. It would have saved a lot of lives.
Professor Lawrence Schlemmer, South Africas leading social scientist, said that the deal would be of epochal importance to the whole southern African region: The West could have just walked away from another African disaster. Instead, they are showing a huge commitment to democracy in this region.
THE president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, has been warned by Thabo Mbeki, the South African president, that he faces prosecution for the crimes he has committed during his 28 years in office unless he signs a deal to give up all effective power.
Mbeki, who has done all he can to shield and support Mugabe for the past eight years, has come under overwhelming western pressure and has had to tell Mugabe that he could no longer protect him and his key cronies from being charged by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The power-sharing talks between Mugabes Zanu-PF and Morgan Tsvangirais Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) are shrouded in secrecy. But The Sunday Times has learnt that Mugabe, who has vowed that Tsvangirai will never be in government and that only God can remove me from power, faces humiliation over the terms of the deal that he will be forced to sign next month.
He will remain as president in name only and all real power will be held by a 20-member cabinet under Tsvangirai as prime minister. The opposition MDC will have 11 cabinet posts to nine for Mugabes Zanu-PF.
All Mugabes senior officials in the army, police and intelligence services, who have unleashed a campaign of terror since the MDC won a disputed victory in the elections held in March, will be dismissed.
Observers caution, however, that bringing Mugabe to justice could be protracted since Zimbabwe does not recognise the jurisdiction of the ICC. Any investigation would require a referral from the United Nations security council, which would probably be blocked by China or Russia.
The transitional government will have close ties to a group of western donor nations known as the Fishmongers Group, set up a year ago on Britains initiative. It includes the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Sweden, Holland, Norway, Canada and Australia. China declined an invitation to join.
The decisive showdown came last week when Mugabe realised that his power was broken. On Monday Mbekis emissary, Sidney Mufamadi, a South African cabinet minister, arrived in Harare to read the riot act to Zanu-PF officials.
According to the officials who were present, he told them bluntly: You dont have a government. You cant summon your parliament. You have no legitimate president and thus you can have no cabinet. You cannot behave as you have been doing. Real talks have to start right away.
The Zanu-PF negotiators, still congratulating themselves on Mugabes spurious victory in last months stolen election, were taken aback.
Worse was to follow. Mbeki flew to Harare and said that Mugabe and Tsvangirai must meet to sign a memorandum of understanding committing themselves to serious negotiations and to share power.
The talks, he insisted, must be concluded within two weeks and the two men must meet, shake hands and sign the memorandum.
Mugabe had never been willing to meet Tsvangirai, let alone shake his hand. According to leading Zanu-PF sources, he is frightened of going on trial for human rights crimes, particularly since an arrest warrant was issued against Omar Bashir, Sudans president, earlier this month. Under Mbekis pressure Mugabe gave in.
He agreed that Tsvangirai should come to State House, the presidents official residence. Tsvangirai refused to attend, saying that to do so would be to acknowledge Mugabe as the legitimate president of Zimbabwe: he would sign only on neutral ground.
Mugabe had to be persuaded to leave State House and was driven to Rainbow Towers, the former Sheraton hotel in central Harare, to sign the document and glumly shake hands with a triumphant Tsvangirai.
The power of the western donor nations has grown as the Zimbabwean economy has catapulted towards meltdown. Hyperinflation means that a newly introduced Z$100 billion note is not enough to buy a loaf of bread.
The latest harvest has been dismal, bread may soon run out and widespread famine is a threat. The World Food Programme estimates that by early next year 5.1m people could be facing starvation.
The Fishmongers Group, which is based in Holland, stands powerfully in the wings and in effect has a veto over the negotiations. Planning is already far advanced for a post-Mugabe future, with individual countries agreeing to focus their efforts on education, health and other sectors. A total of £2 billion has been pledged to date.
The transitional government will be obliged to follow edicts laid down by the group. They will insist that the new government gives full and equal access to food aid, plans a return to financial stability, restores the rule of law with an independent judiciary and respects property rights. This will mean that the farms stolen by Mugabe and his cronies will either have to be restored to their owners or compensation will be paid.
The group will also insist that the government be committed to freedom of the press and hold fair elections within 18 months. The group will not release even a dollar to a government that includes anyone guilty either of gross corruption or human rights violations. Zanu-PF will be hard pushed to find nine ministers who qualify.
The new dispensation will bring to a halt the campaign of terror unleashed by Mugabe since he was defeated in the first round of the presidential elections in March.
A diplomatic source said: The toughest part of the negotiations is going to be the question of immunity from prosecution for Mugabe and, say, the top 20 members of the junta.
Another diplomat said: Its ironic. Mbeki could and should have brought Mugabe to heel eight years ago. It would have saved a lot of lives.
Professor Lawrence Schlemmer, South Africas leading social scientist, said that the deal would be of epochal importance to the whole southern African region: The West could have just walked away from another African disaster. Instead, they are showing a huge commitment to democracy in this region.
#1
Damn. Mbeki is throwing Bob under the bus. Note to Zim Bob: yer out of toilet paper. Game over. Time to retire and start tapping your Swiss bank accounts.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/27/2008 17:13 Comments ||
Top||
#2
But, but, but, he's the HERO who ended white food production rule.
(Xinhua) -- Chad's rebel group MDJT has freed a U.S. evangelical missionary after holding him hostage for more than nine months in the northern part of the central African country.
In a statement posted on its website Friday, the Evangelical Alliance Mission (TEAM) based in Illinois announced the release of its missionary Cash Stephen Godbold following extensive negotiations between his captors and TEAM.
Godbold was released by his captors in Chad Thursday evening near the town of Bardai in northern Chad and is presently a guest of local officials in Bardai, TEAM said.
An aircraft will be sent to Bardai to evacuate Godbold to N'Djamena and from there he will travel to the United States via Europe for reunion with family and colleagues, debriefings and medical checks, it said.
Godbold, 49, was captured on Oct. 10, 2007 in Zoumri in the Tibesti region of Northern Chad, where he was assisting a Chadian non-governmental organization transporting water well drilling equipment into the Tibesti in order to provide clean and safe water to residents of the region.
The Movement for Democracy and Justice in T'Chad (MDJT) claimed responsibility for Godbold's captivity.
TEAM emphasized that Godbold's release was unconditional and that no ransom was paid and no concessions of any type were made to secure his release.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2008 00:01 ||
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(Xinhua) -- Four kidnappings have been taken place in Nigerian oil-rich Niger Delta region since late Thursday, with 23 oil workers abducted, local media reported. So far, eight of them were still being held and no ransom has been asked for, local media said.
Eight oil workers from Russia, Latvia and Lithuania were released Saturday hours after they were kidnapped by unidentified gunmen from an oil vessel off the coast of the Niger Delta region. Military spokesman Sagir Musa said the eight oil workers of a U.S. oil and gas company were seized by gunmen in the small hours of Saturday after a brief shootout. The workers were released later without asking for a ransom, which used to be the purpose of an abduction in the region.
This was the fourth abduction in the region over the past 48 hours. On late Thursday, 11 Russians and a Ukrainian were seized on a vessel off Bonny Island. On Friday alone, two kidnapping occurred in Port Harcourtin, in which two Filipinos and a Nigerian were seized. It was not clear whether the same group was behind all the incidents.
Meanwhile, Nigerian troops have enhanced their presence in the Niger Delta Region. Nigerian military attached to Nigeria's unrest Niger Delta region launched separate morning raids on Thursday, killing 12 suspected militants and arrested 48 others in Bayelsa and Rivers states, according to the Punch, a Lagos-based newspaper.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2008 00:01 ||
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#1
"23 oil workers kidnapped in Nigeria"
Don't any of these people have guns? It's not like they can't get them over there.....
Shoot the kidnappers and then go looking for their relatives. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/27/2008 0:35 Comments ||
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#2
There's no way I'd let myself be the only a-hole in the Niger delta without a gun. They either need to kill these guys or make a deal with them and use them to keep down the oil smuggling.
This is how Zim-Bob will come apart: not by the opposition, but by factions within the ruling party grabbing for whatever is left to steal.
DIVISIONS within Zanu PF, which appeared to have disappeared following the shock March 29 election setback, have returned to haunt the party after Vice-President Joseph Msika recently labelled some party functionaries in Matabeleland as sell-outs. Sources in the ruling party said Msika's utterances have stirred a hornet's nest in the region, with some senior Zanu PF officials who claimed the ageing leader was referring to them vowing to bring him down.
"The divisions which rocked Matabeleland provinces before the last congress (in 2004) have resurfaced and this time there is anger over Msika's sell-out statement," said one of the sources.
Msika two weeks ago threatened to expose a cabal of politicians from the region whom he accused of working with unnamed people in Harare to "destroy" provincial leaders in the hope of being rewarded with ministerial appointments. "There are leaders in this region who think that they will be ministers through gossiping about others with leaders who are based in Harare," Msika said. "To those unscrupulous party leaders in Harare, do not think I cannot see you trying to put your stooges in the region. You are reckless and careless."
The sources, however, said after Msika's comments were published in the press there was a furore with some provincial leaders engaging Ministry of Information and Publicity permanent secretary, George Charamba, complaining that the state media should bar the coverage of the veteran politician.
Zanu PF sources were unanimous that Msika's message was directed at war veterans leader Jabulani Sibanda, Industry and Trade Minister Obert Mpofu and Bulawayo Governor Cain Mathema. "Sibanda and Mpofu have President Mugabe's ear when it comes to issues affecting the region and this has been irritating the senior leadership who say they have no mandate of the region and Msika's outburst confirms that the divisions in the region are far from over," another source said.
Msika's controversial statement, however, is set to further exacerbate the rifts within the party.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/27/2008 00:00 ||
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It is an extraordinary sight to walk into a basic two-room house under a mango tree in rural east Africa and discover what is essentially a shrine to Barack Obama.
The small brick house with no running water, a tin roof and roving chickens, goats and cows is owned by Sarah Obama, Barack's 86-year-old step-grandmother. Inside, the walls are decorated with a 2008 Obama election sticker, an old "Barack Obama for Senate" poster on which he has written "Mama Sarah Habai [how are you?]", a 2005 calendar that says "The Kenyan Wonder Boy in the US", and more than a dozen family photos.
But this bucolic scene in his father's village of Kogelo near the Equator in western Kenya conceals a troubling reality that, until now, has never been spoken about. Barack Obama, the Evening Standard can reveal, after we went to the village earlier this month, has failed to honour the pledges of assistance that he made to a school named in his honour when he visited here amid great fanfare two years ago.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/27/2008 00:00 ||
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Seriously, someone should set up a charity to help Obama's relatives' village school.
Think of it:
"We don't want them to think that all Americans break their promises - contribute now to get running water and a good education to those who trusted in Obama but were disappointed. Don't leave them with a bad impression of the USA."
Where do I contribute? :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/27/2008 0:32 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Well, nice to see that some of our mainstream media types have taken off their kneepads and rose-tinted glasses... and actually taken a good hard look at the Obamessiah. It does seem that the bloom is at least a little off this particular rose, at long last.
#3
Well, nice to see that some of our mainstream media types have taken off their kneepads and rose-tinted glasses...
Nah, they were just practicing for their next job in the adult entertainment industry after a couple more rounds of media downsizing. Got to build that resume. Qualifications and skills for work are apparently about the same.
#10
I do believe someone DID promise something to Sudan - a royal a$$-kicking, among other things. I wouldn't lose any sleep over Khartoum becoming a huge lake along the Nile, glowing greenly at the bottom. Epaulet-man needs to be the guy that catches that 10MT nuke in his lap.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/27/2008 21:02 Comments ||
Top||
Four-dollar-a-gallon gas has done something that few Republicans thought possible just a few months ago: given them hope.
United behind a renewed push for offshore oil drilling, Republican members of Congress and the party's presumptive presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain, think they have found their best political issue of the 2008 campaign.
McCain strategists and GOP leaders on Capitol Hill say the issue, which polls suggest Americans favor by healthy margins, lets Republicans demonstrate their plans to address the anger over high gas prices as well as the broader economic distress that many voters feel.
Because most Democrats, including Sen. Barack Obama, are opposed to increased drilling, McCain and the GOP have already begun casting their rivals as unconcerned about gas prices and unwilling to wean the country from foreign oil. "The failure of Senator Obama to understand the need to increase domestic production is just stunning, and that's going to be a real hurdle for him to overcome, because everybody gets it," said Nancy Pfotenhauer, a senior McCain adviser.
The risks for Republicans became clear this week, however, when a McCain visit to an offshore oil rig was quickly scuttled in the face of Hurricane Dolly and a massive fuel oil spill in the Mississippi River near New Orleans. Didn't see the massive oil spill on the Missippi? Explanation below.
McCain's support for offshore drilling also threatens to unite environmentalists against him, after he spent months portraying himself as a friend of the environment by endorsing the basic tenets of those who want to wage war on global warming.
"Apparently, hundreds of thousands of gallons of spilled oil, dead fish and oil-covered birds aren't ideal conditions for peddling a misguided plan for more offshore drilling," said Cathy Duvall, the national political director of the Sierra Club. "Unfortunately, the risk for such spills -- and far worse -- would only increase if John McCain and George Bush get their way and allow Big Oil to begin the 'exploitation' of our coasts."
McCain and his advisers reject such criticism, saying the safety record for deep-sea oil rigs is very good. The oil slick in the Mississippi River was caused by a collision between a tanker and a barge, not a leak at an oil rig.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/27/2008 06:35 ||
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#1
"Unfortunately, the risk for such spills -- and far worse -- would only increase if John McCain and George Bush get their way and allow Big Oil to begin the 'exploitation' of our coasts."
No one was injured, but heavy, almost tar-like fuel oil spilled from the barge, forming a slick 12 miles long, said Lt. Cdr. Cheri Ben-Iesau, a Coast Guard spokeswoman. About 29 miles of the river was closed.
The barge "was T-boned and split in half," she said.
FUEL OIL you lying sack of shit.
Offshore drilling and their pipelines to the coast PREVENT this sort of thing you lying bitch.
Its shipping that caused the leak - not drilling and piping it ashore.
I repeat, NOT offshore drilling, you stupid fecking liberal.
Want the capper?
Here goes, from the same article and other news reports:
The double-hulled tanker Tintomara was loaded with about 4.2 million gallons of biodiesel
Yep. Shipping biodesel instead of stuff that can go in pipelines from the rigs to the refineries to the pipeline terminals.
Someone needs to grab the Sierra club people and beat the everliving shite out of them every time the lie like this.
#2
Someone needs to grab the Sierra club people and beat the everliving shite out of them every time the lie like this. Posted by: OldSpook
Unfortunately, it's not just the Sierra Club, but just about any group that has the word "envoronmental" anywhere in their organizational paperwork. As long as they have large bank balances and are willing to spend their money on politicians, the only solution is to take out the smallest number of people. That means Representatives and Senators. Flush 'em at the ballot box, or flush 'em in some deep bay or abandoned mineshaft - it makes no difference to me.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/27/2008 21:47 Comments ||
Top||
White House hopeful Barack Obama returned from a triumphant, presidential-looking foreign tour but immediately faced a new assault from rival John McCain over his cancellation of a visit with wounded US troops in Germany.
Despite the adulation that greeted him on a his stops through the Middle East and Europe, before departing London the Democratic Party candidate played down the potential gains the trip might have for him in the presidential race.
"I am not sure that there is going to be some immediate political impact," Obama said in a solo press conference earlier outside 10 Downing Street, the official residence of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. "I wouldn't even be surprised if that in some polls you saw a little bit of a dip as a consequence," he said, just over three months before the election.
If you saw the photos of that presser, BO is in the middle of the street outside #10, and the press make a half-circle around him. Apparently no fans were permitted. Pretty damned arrogant, all in all ...
Obama sailed through the biggest tests of his trip, in Iraq, Afghanistan and Israel, apparently gaffe-free, and captured an unprecedented photo-op for a presidential candidate, speaking before a staggering 200,000 people or maybe only 20,000, but who's counting? in Berlin.
Republicans however branded his tour, also including Kuwait, France and Jordan, as a shallow political stunt. McCain's team sought to highlight Obama's failure to visit wounded troops from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars at the Landstuhl US military hospital in Germany on Friday -- probably the only real hiccup of the trip.
"I think there have been nine different excuses out of Barack Obama's campaign as to why that trip and that visit never took place, and all of them fundamentally ignore one fact, which is that he couldn't make time in his schedule to meet with wounded combat troops who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan," McCain's spokesman Tucker Bounds told Fox News on Saturday. "He prioritizes throngs of fawning Germans over meeting with wounded combat troops in Germany," Bounds said. And even before Obama got off the plane in Chicago, McCain personally, in concert with Chaney and Rove, already had created a television ad raising the issue.
"And now, he made time to go to the gym, but cancelled a visit with wounded troops. Seems the Pentagon wouldn't allow him to bring cameras," the ad goes. I'll hafta watch for that one! Obama's tour was seen as an attempt to reduce voters' doubts over his credentials as commander-in-chief -- one of the few policy areas in which he trails McCain. I went to Morocco, once. So now I'm a diplomat?
Those meetings followed visits with France's Nicolas Sarkozy and Germany's Angela Merkel, Obama opening illicit relations with Washington's three largest allies in Europe. Compared to Berlin, where he addressed an estimated 200,000-strong crowd to rapturous cheers and applause Thursday, the London leg of Obama's world tour, like his short stop in Paris Friday, was more low key.
McCain, who has struggled to get media coverage in the United States during Obama's trip, delivered a sarcastic verdict on Obama's travels in his weekly radio address. "This week the presidential contest was a long-distance affair, with my opponent touring various continents and arriving yesterday in Paris," he said. "With all the breathless coverage from abroad, and with Senator Obama now addressing his speeches to 'the people of the world', I'm starting to feel a little left out. Maybe you are too."
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/27/2008 06:24 ||
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#1
Barrack, little pissant, I've been to 70 different countries on five continents. I lived overseas for sixteen years out of 26. You're still an over-educated idiot, and a piker to boot. Why don't you get a REAL job, where you actually, you know, have to ACCOMPLISH something? THEN I might be interested. In the meantime, FOAD.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/27/2008 21:49 Comments ||
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Senator Barack Obama's Republican critics accuse of him of profligate public spending plans, but at home the Democratic presidential candidate adopts a frugal policy with his two young daughters. In a magazine interview Obama and his wife Michelle revealed that one of their steadfast house rules is not giving Christmas or birthday presents to Malia, 10, and Sasha, seven.
The couple explained that they spend "hundreds" on birthday slumber parties and want to "teach some limits". Santa Claus is still permitted to deliver seasonal gifts however. The girls are also given an allowance of just $1 (50p) a week for performing household chores, according to People magazine. Those chores include making their own bed, setting and clearing the dinner table and putting themselves to bed by 8.30pm.
On the campaign trail, Mr Obama has often spoken of the need for Americans to be "better parents" who aren't afraid to "turn off the TV". He has also exhorted black males to be more responsible fathers.
Though he has been away "98 per cent of the time", Mr Obama told People that before the campaign he did "the house and car repairs, the grocery shopping" and "sometimes the laundry".
His two daughters keep up the sort of busy schedule that any over-reaching parent would recognize: football, dance and drama for the eldest and gymnastics and tap dancing for the youngest, with daily piano practice for both.
If Mr Obama issues clear rules at home, his speech in Berlin on Thursday before 200,000 adoring Germans has come in for criticism for its vagueness. The website of the National Review magazine ran a quiz asking readers to compare sentences from the candidate's address on global unity to the lyrics of We Are The World, the 1985 song that raised money for the Ethiopian famine. Two examples were: "The world will watch and remember what we do" and, "But if you just believe there's no way we can fall." The first is from Obama, the second from the song, written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/27/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
the house and car repairs
LOL, oh pls, pls, pls. Maybe Redneck Jim has a few simple questions for him.
#3
I've no problem with this. No doubt the girls get plenty of gifts from grandparents anyway, not to mention all the Barbie dolls and sparkly nail polish brought by little birthday party guests. I respect the parents for choosing not to overwhelm the girls with even more packages with fancy paper and ribbon, just because they can afford to pile packages under the Christmas tree.
#5
I've no problem with it in theory, but in practice, I think it can lead to problems. And in this case the problems are suffered by the little ones.
In a society, you've got to go along with a certain amount of the cultural practices or find yourself on the fringes. The good thing about us is that we allow pretty wide margins for the fringes. But that doesn't mean we have to pick our leader from there. This will hurt the Obamessiah. Not immediately, but cumulatively with the normal sort who don't bother to make up their minds till the last minute but end up deciding the election. The ones who think those on the fringes are a bit too odd.
Or is he of the mind that Christmas is a "white man's holiday"?
Posted by: James Carville ||
07/27/2008 16:19 Comments ||
Top||
#16
Sorry, front brakes pads are pretty easy to do. Replacing turn signal lamps in the newer cars, however, is not.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
07/27/2008 21:06 Comments ||
Top||
#17
Do the ball joints on a 20-year-old clunker for one of the kids. That would impress me. Do it without the proper wrenches and sockets, and you'll REALLY impress me.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/27/2008 21:53 Comments ||
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Pakistan has threatened to torpedo negotiations on a fissile material cut-off treaty if the international community approves a unique civil nuclear cooperation initiative with India.
Shahbaz, Pakistan's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, warned that if the IAEA approves a draft safeguards agreement with India, and nuclear sanctions are lifted against New Delhi, then this would nip in the bud upcoming talks on the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT).
He told Nucleonics Week, a journal tracking global nuclear issues, that the IAEA and Nuclear Suppliers Group, a club that regulates nuclear commerce, can say good-bye to it (the FMCT).
The fissile material cut-off treaty has been in the works for years, with Pakistan and India being among those who had objections to the principles behind commencing talks on curtailing the production of material which can be used to produce nuclear bombs.
He said Pakistan's objections to the civil nuclear tango with India was its last chance to ensure that New Delhi doesn't desert the league both countries have been in since their nuclear explosions in May 1998.
It's evident that Pakistan's last-ditch efforts to queer the pitch for India's civil nuclear initiative is being driven by the fact that the rest of the world is loath to extend a similar deal to Islamabad.
India is keeping up the diplomatic momentum on pushing its nuclear deal with NSG members. Science & Technology Minister Kapil Sibal, who just returned from Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands, leaves for Finland and Sweden on Saturday night.
It should be all right, Sibal told HT on Saturday afternoon when asked about the signals received from interlocutors in the three countries he has visited.
Posted by: john frum ||
07/27/2008 11:58 ||
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#1
Just cut aid to Pakistan now. Don't give them the F-16 targeting do-dads either.
#3
Alternatively, what hold do we have over the Pakistanis, besides the threat of Arc-lighting the entire country, then giving the rubble to Afghanistan to colonize? (Which I can't imagine we'd actually threaten, let alone do.)
#4
a ABM system and Raptors for India? We need to refocus the Paks on the fact that they are only significant allies now for the routes we need for transport, and if those routes were clear of annoying eye-rolling people and militants and not very irradiated, that might be a better situation. Time to slap the Paks with the fact that they haven't beaten teh Indians in teh past, they can't beat the Indians now and if we help the Indians out of pique, they're toast for the forseeable future, even if they use their nukes.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/27/2008 15:19 Comments ||
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#5
TW, Someday we'll find out that's a major part of the reason behind stupid W's rapproachment with India.
If we ever do go into Pakistan it will be to clear a path for the indians to Shermanize the place. Only somehow I doubt the Indians will be able to find a kinder, gentler leader like Uncle Billy.
#6
Ya know, I really don't MIND the US doing a one-up on the Mongols in Pakistan, and "pulic opinion" can go where it belongs. When it's time to get people's undivided attention is before you reach the point where you don't want to leave any survivors. We've failed to do that, and it's hurting us. Time to take off the gloves, roll up the shirt-sleeves, grab an axe in both hands, and start laying about us with a vengence. Pakistan is the source of far too much trouble to put up with any longer. I'm sure India and Pakistan can do a bang-up job of governing whatever population is left after we finish. In the meantime, gather together a dozen or so CB battalions, and pave a new road to Kabul - say, through Quetta. If anybody gets in the way, napalm them into ashes and flush the ashes.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/27/2008 21:59 Comments ||
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NEW DELHI - India is trying to avoid a vote at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors meet on August 1 even though one of its members, Pakistan, has circulated a letter marking its opposition to the safeguards agreement that New Delhi is planning to sign with the IAEA. We know of Pakistan's opposition, but we are still trying to avoid a voting at the meeting of the Board of Governors scheduled for next week, an External Affairs Ministry official said here yesterday.
South Block is confident that there is overwhelming support for the proposed Indian safeguard agreement among the IAEA members. The view has also been publicly shared by the United States.
Gregory Schulte, US ambassador to the IAEA, said he expected the India-specific safeguards agreement to be approved by the 35-member Board of Governors on August 1. "I am expecting that the Board of Governors will approve this agreement on August 1. It is a sound agreement based upon established safeguards principles. This is an agreement that has benefits for everyone in the region, including India's neighbours," said Schulte in Vienna on Friday.
He added: Basically India is committed to move into the non-proliferation mainstream and the safeguards agreement will allow India to put 14 of its 22 nuclear facilities under safeguards. In future all of India's civil reactors will come under safeguards and this is a benefit to all.
India has to get the safeguards agreement approved and subsequently get a waiver from the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG) before it can place the 123 agreement on civil nuclear energy agreement before the US Congress for approval. It wants the nod from the US Congress before September to ensure it can sign the nuclear agreement with the US under the George W. Bush presidency.
The feedback from most other member countries of the IAEA has also been encouraging for India. But unlike the NSG, where decision is by consensus, the IAEA board has the provision for a vote, though the last time there was a vote it was two years back on Iran's nuclear programme.
"Having made their position public it may now be difficult for Pakistan not to ask for a vote," the official said. But he added that India was hopeful that countries like the US or China that have influence on Pakistan will be able to convince it not to go for a vote. "Even if Pakistan abstains, it is good for us, though ideally we want the safeguards agreement to be approved by the board without a vote," the official said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/27/2008 00:00 ||
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The U.S. will team up with eight other nations in a new effort to explore the lunar surface
In hopes of discovering clues to the origin of life on Earth, the United States and eight other nations signed a landmark agreement at NASA's Ames Research Center this week that scientists hope will lay the groundwork for a new generation of lunar exploration and science.
Unlike the all-American Apollo program, the new agreement sees a multinational fleet of robot spacecraft returning to the moon in coming years, with the maturing space programs of countries like India, Germany and South Korea playing key roles in an effort that ultimately would lead to the return of astronauts.
"It's sort of like the beginning of a beautiful friendship, like at the end of 'Casablanca,' " James Green, director of NASA's planetary science division, said at Moffett Field this week.
"Many of these countries are quite interested in the manned program. They want to provide astronauts to be the first Canadian or the first Italian or the first French man or French woman on the moon."
NASA and the eight other countries - Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Britain and France - plan to formally announce the agreement Tuesday. The multinational agreement capped a momentous week at Ames, including the largest NASA science conference purely devoted to the moon since the 1970s.
A multinational moon effort would allow NASA to share costs. The United States budgeted money for four landers, but scientists want up to eight spacecraft on the surface. Representatives of the space and science agencies of the nine countries spent Thursday at Moffett Field working on a plan to launch lunar landers and orbiters, establishing a network to monitor the moon's seismic activity that would stretch from the poles to the far side.
"The exploration of the moon in the next decade will not be human, it will be this international flotilla," said David Morrison, interim director of the newly created Lunar Science Institute at Ames. "Ultimately, I think we will send people to the moon, but we don't have to wait for that."
Nearly ignored since the last Apollo landing in 1972, the moon is a unique place for scientists to perhaps answer one of the most basic questions of science: When did life originate on Earth?
Apollo moon rocks in recent years have yielded the surprising suggestion that the early solar system was more like a game of cosmic billiards than a placid hierarchy of planets.
That planetary havoc may have indirectly sparked life on Earth, one reason scientists say it is so important to return to the moon.
"What's happening right now is that a revolution in planetary science is going on," Green said. "We are taking these small pieces and we are starting to put together the puzzle, and we are surprised by what we find."
Because the moon has not been resurfaced by plate tectonics, volcanoes or erosion, it is the only body in the solar system where scientists might still read that most ancient of histories, a report by National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences concluded last year.
What some scientists call the "terminal cataclysm hypothesis" suggests that Uranus and Neptune were once inside the orbit of Jupiter, until the powerful gravitational field of the largest planet cast them toward the outer regions of the solar system.
That epic migration of planets may have triggered a bombardment of Earth and the moon by asteroids and icy comets. The strikes could have been the source for 65 percent to 85 percent of the water in the oceans, Green said.
Lunar scientists believe the record of a "late heavy bombardment" between 3.8 billion and 4 billion years ago - just before life may have first emerged on Earth - can be studied on the moon.
"How much of the oceans would have been brought to Earth by that bombardment? We don't know," Green said. "But we can go back to the moon to find out."
The wave of scientific interest in the moon is coupled with the fact that space capability is no longer an exclusive club. For countries with emerging space capabilities, going to the moon "is the next logical step," Green said.
Already, India hopes to send its Chandrayaan-1 probe to orbit the moon this year. China's Chang'e probe and Japan's Selene are already there.
One sentiment at the conference was that moon exploration should be an international effort.
President Bush said in 2004 that the United States should return to the moon, as a stepping stone toward the human exploration of Mars. A generation of robotic explorers will lead the way.
Ames is directing one of those first crucial missions, the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), which will crash a rocket booster into the moon in 2009 to see if ice might exist in a perpetually shadowed crater.
This week's lunar conference brought together Apollo-era veterans with younger researchers who hope to take part in a new multinational generation of lunar exploration.
"It really marked a new era," Morrison said.
In sessions ranging from the toxicity of lunar dust to the implications of lunar exploration to human society, scientists grappled with issues as far ranging as the need for environmental protection on the moon.
One session asked: If NASA strip-mined the moon, would it provoke environmental opposition? And what about preserving the Apollo landing sites?
"A leg of the Apollo 11 LEM - the lander?" Green said. "Can you imagine what that would fetch on eBay?"
Posted by: john frum ||
07/27/2008 18:16 ||
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#1
"Fly me to the Moon and let me play among the stars." Frank Sinatra.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
07/27/2008 18:34 Comments ||
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#2
HAARP + HADRON COLLIDER > HADRON PRE-TEST? > "BABY" OR MINI WORM/BLACK HOLES = PROTO-HOLES HAVE APPEARED ABOVE GUAM-WESTPAC, ala STAR TREK:DS9.
IMO "GLOBAL WARMING" GUISE > THE USG may had covertly = accidentally? discovered the beginnings of poten TIME-SPACE TRAVEL CAN SCIENCE EFFEC DEV AND, MORE IMPORTANTLY, LARGER AND MORE POWERFUL "HOLES" AS EMPLACED NEAR EARTH - AND, ALSO VERY IMPORTANTLY, WIDOUT DESTROYING TERRA FIRMA IN THE PROCESS???
Lest we fergit, Milyuhns and Zilyuhns of US HIgh School and University Instructors have taught that ANY WORM-BLACK HOLES OCCURRING NEAR BIOTIC PLANETS SUCH AS EARTH RISKS UTTERLY DESTROYING SAME, INCLUD BUT NOT LIMITED TO SUCKING IN AND TRAPPING EARTH IN INTER-DIMENSIONAL, INESCAPABLE, TIME-SPACE VOIDS. THE "SUCTION" EVENT ALONE MAY CATASTROPHICALLY DESTROY EARTH LONG BEFORE THE PLANET PER SE EVEN ENTERS THE HOLE.
Again, iff Mankind truly desires and is ready for OWG-NWO = "GLOBALISM/UTOPIANISM", then Mankind must be willing to face the challenges and travails that arise from same.
D *** NG IT, HOW CAN MY FUTURE GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-.............@ GREAT TIMES TEN **26 MAGN NEPHEWS-NIECES, ETC. TRAVEL BACK IN TIME TO VISIT THEIR CRAZY UNCLE FROM GUAM BACK ON OLD EARTH WIDOUT A DAGNABIT WORMHOLE [shaking ancient fists angrily]!
Iran is planning a mass execution of 30 people convicted of murder and drug trafficking, in the biggest such event in recent years, a local newspaper reported on Saturday.
"Thirty people convicted of murder, drug trafficking, illegal relationships... will be executed on Sunday at dawn," the Aftab newspaper quoted Tehran's prosecutor office as saying. It would be the largest mass execution in the country in recent years. In January, Iran hanged 13 people including the mother of two young children who had been found guilty of murdering her husband.
The prosecutor's office said that the verdicts against the 30 people had been approved by "high judicial authorities." It said 20 of those on death row were convicted drug traffickers. The remaining 10, identified as "murderer thugs" were also convicted of "disturbing public security and disorder, beating up people, repeated robberies, having illegal relationships and showing up drunk in public."
The location of the planned executions was not given. Hangings often take place inside prisons but can be carried out in public in Iran. In January, Iran's judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi decreed that public executions would only be carried out with his approval and "based on social necessities."
Human rights groups have accused Iran of making excessive use of the death penalty but Tehran insists it is an effective deterrent that is carried out only after an exhaustive judicial process.
Iran has so far hanged at least 126 in this year, according to an AFP count. Amnesty International reported that in 2007 Iran applied the death penalty more often than any other country apart from China, executing 317 people during the year.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2008 00:02 ||
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#1
Under the name of "disturbing public safety and security", for sure are some Christians among these 30!!!!
Is they way they found to kill people that enter that country to speak about Jesus Christ!!! WAKE UP - IS EXACTLY THIS WHAT IS HAPPENING!!!!!
#4
its actually a good idea. come on, if they were proven guilty in florida they would suffer the same fate, only 7-20 years after being found guilty. there are christians in florida, and for that matter all across the U.S., that are being executed. we dont bat an eye because it is, for the most part,a christian society. It upsets us because we distrust their legal system and values. we dont trust that they were tried to our standards and morals. Yes, they actively pursue and persecute gays. its appalling. but, we in america look the other way when someone interprets the bible and finds a need to persecute gays here. we cannot be hypocrites. most of us want harder punishment for criminals, it shouldnt be a vacation. we should not forget, prison is not just for punishment...the promise of prison/punishment should deter the crime. its obvious the system does not work here. maybe it doesn't work there but let he without sin cast the first stone. lets fix our problems first and screw them. we cant control what they do. if the people there don't like the system they are ultimately free to leave.
#5
You complain about Islamic people killing Christians for shallow reasons - need I remind you of the Crusades? The Christian religion has just as much blood on its hands; it may not go about it with swords and shield these days, but that blood hasn't gotten any thinner.
You guys need to wake up and realize that some all-powerful being isn't going to save our planet. The only thing capable of that is the human race itself.
Posted by: Jon ||
07/27/2008 5:38 Comments ||
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#6
The Christian religion has just as much blood on its hands; it may not go about it with swords and shield these days, but that blood hasn't gotten any thinner.
So basically, Jon, you're saying that Christians ought to be able to kill Muslims with impunity as some members of their religion did it a bit in the past? I think you're a bit bloodthirsty, but you're entitled to your opinions.
#8
The Crusades? Let this impact on your brain: there were NO speakers of Arabic in Byzantine Palestine and Syria until the Muslim horde commenced its savage conquest in 634 AD. Arabs imposed sovereignty and either coerced or forced conversions to their murder cult. Christians attempted to recover lands under Arab occupation, during the Crusades. The Old Testament and Assyrian documents reveal the Semites didn't begin living in the Levant until the Hebrew and Assyrian drifts from what is now Iraq. Palestine and its environs is properly a holding of Judaeo-Christian sovereignty. Arab Muslims are occupiers. I am with the Kahanists in pushing them back to their aggression bases. Of course, one in six Israeli Arabic speakers (they are not true arabs) is a Christian.
#9
guido dear, the Mullahcracy of Iran actively prosecute homosexuals, whether male or female, heterosexuals who have relations of any sort outside of marriage, Shiite Muslims who are not devout enough, Muslims who are not Shiites, Baha'i, Christians, Jews, and women who show their ankles or object to being raped. One could say they are equal opportunity killers, and most of those they execute are guilty of things not considered crimes in the Western world. Here in the West there certainly is discrimination on a personal level, but such behaviour is illegal and prosecuted as such. Nor do Western governments kill off those arrested for "having illegal relationships and showing up drunk in public," of which several of those being hung in Iran have been convicted, according to the article above.
As for you, Jon, on the one hand you advocate vigorous self-defence now, on the other chastise the Christians of 1,000 C.E. (or A.D. if you are prefer the Christo-centric form) for fighting back against Muslim invaders who galloped out of Arabia to conquer the world in the name of their new god, giving the peaceful Christian and Jewish inhabitants the choice of forced conversion, slavery or death. Please do try to find some sort of consistency: if it's a good idea for us to fight the Muslims who wish to conquer us now in the name of their religion, why was it such a bad idea then, when the Muslim invaders were in the habit of killing entire cities down to the last babe in arms for clinging to their own faith?
#11
You complain about Islamic people killing Christians for shallow reasons - need I remind you of the Crusades?
From the "Manual of the liberal friend of dictators and genociders" thirtieth edition aka Michael Moore edition (first one, Berlin 1933, aka Goebbels edition) chapter 10, page 324. "The straw and beam technique": "The straw and beam technique" When someone is telling about a major crime our side has pêrpetrated scream like a banshee about something wrong the other side has done including when it was comparatively minor and happenned in times of Neandetal. This way you divert attention of the aqudidnece an, except for the cleverest and experienced opponents, the other guy will go on the defensive"
Mr Guido, illustrates this technique for us, notice that he uses something who happenned
some one thoussand years ago to divert our attention from crilmes perpetrated npw and
thet he conveniently ignores that unlike in Islam where the muders and genocides perpetreted by Muhammd himself are nowadays set as an example to follow, nobody in Christanty vindiactes Simon de Montfort (the guy who told "Kill them all, God will recognize his own").
A,nd for the crusades so waht? After four centuries of continuous agressions by Islam, countless invasions, genocides, horrendous masscres (the invaders paraded in Cesarea with eth guts of their victims), enslavings, rapes (The Arab chronicler tells that thirty thousand
women of great beauthy were enslaved during the invasion of Spain. Beuaty is irrelevant for cleaning dishes). Christains decided that enough was enough and decided to strike back a right that Mr Guido and his islamo-nazi friends deny them.
And for the bloody capture of Jerusalem in first crusade this was the rule when a city was taken by storm: since these was very costly to the attacker it was intented to dissuade other cities of resisting. Muslims did exactly the same thing to other Muslims. Cf what happened to the Turkish garison of Jerusalem when it was captued by Egiptians only one year before. In this case it was only the citadel who rsisted so the atrocities were confined to the citadel). We could also tell
of teh one hundred million Hindus killed.
And while we are it, we havde our liberel unbeliever sêka of the blood in Christain hands. Let spake about the bloood in atrheitic hands from the Vendean genocide during French revolution to the killing fields in Cambodia (ncver fororgibe, bnever forget that it was the Jane Fonda and John Kerry crowd who amde them possible without forgetting Auschwitz or the Gulag.
Crusades, though, was a mere series of skirmishes, compared to Islamic expansion into Indian subcontinent, mainly between 1300 and 1500. According to tally of Islamic documents themselves, the slaughter list totalled over 80,000,000 souls. In terms of current population figures, that would roughly translate to 700 million. Whole regions got virtually depopulated for a century. One of the documents brags about a slaughter of 100,000 Hindus in one day.
#14
Christianity is spread by 'witness' and persuasion (where the convert chooses of his/her own free will) - attempts to spread it 'by the sword' usually fail. Its simply against the main tenants of the faith which is love and the 'witness' or 'example' of the faith. Prime Example: Jesus Christ who died (horribly I might add) for his faith.
Islam on the other had is spread mostly by the sword, or more recently in Europe, birthrate. Any 'persuasion' is a far, far, second. "Convert, pay a huge tax (in humiliation), or die" is not a free choice. This is in accordance with its main tenant - which is war, death, and the killing of the unbelievers. Primary Example: Mohammad who murdered, enslaved, and raped others for his faith (not to mention his Pedophillia). Even the belivers of Islam are enslaved - when to leave Islam is often a death sentence.
#15
Bringing up the Crusades everytime some moslem country decides to execute a Christian missionary is just "liberal guilt" plan and simple.
Everyone talks about what the Crusaders did in Jerusalem about EIGHT HUNDRED YEARS AGO. But no one mentions the mass slaughter of the crusaders' families, church clerics and various camp followers after Jerusalem fell and they were offered safe passage to the sea.
There was plenty of blood on the hands of both sides in that ANCIENT MISGUIDED tragic series of conflicts HOWEVER nothing of that justifies executing someone purely on the basis of his faith NOW.
This liberal guilt crap is tedious and tiresome. It is intellectually lazy and sophmoric.
Our guards in Guantanamo can't look crosseyed at the Quram without some ACLU nincompoop wanting to scream war crimes but when an innocent CHRISTIAN is executed for speaking of his faith in Iran, they work overtime to try to justify this crap because they, the liberal left, are basically anti-Christian.
To the Islamofascists of the world, these impotent little sniveling weinie guilt ridden liberals are just "Useful idiots".
Just remember all you liberal guilt types out there, the Islamofascist, Jihadists will hack off your head for a video opportunity in a heart beat. You are not immune to their brutality just because you happen to "sympathize" with them.
Excuse me while I go throw up, I get this urge to vomit everytime someone trots out the Crusades as a justification for murder and terrorism.
Posted by: James Carville ||
07/27/2008 10:59 Comments ||
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#16
troll droppings
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/27/2008 12:34 Comments ||
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#17
AKA: if you're not perfect, you can't criticize others
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/27/2008 12:35 Comments ||
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#18
I'm not sure that preaching Christianity in a place known as an Islamic Republic is such a good career move.
#20
They using strangulation via rope, or drop hanging? Probably the former, they put the rope around the neck, and the raise them up via a crane, where they slowly strangle to death.
I guess they havent caught up to the 1880's (standard drop[ or long drop) methods in the west.
#21
You guys need to wake up and realize that some all-powerful being isn't going to save our planet
Jon, You guys?! many of us here have been trying to get the obamessiah followers to wake up.
Maybe Iran can have this entertainment when BO visits, if God forbid he's elected.
Posted by: Jan ||
07/27/2008 23:22 Comments ||
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(Xinhua) -- Oil should be trading at between about 70 U.S. dollars to 80 dollars per barrel if the dollar strengthens and the Iranian nuclear crisis is defused, Chakib Khelil, rotating president of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), said here Saturday.
He made the prediction in his brief remarks to reporters, noting "there could be volatility ... but normally long-term oil prices should move in that lower direction without the interference of geopolitics or of the U.S. monetary policy." He said the recent meeting between senior U.S. diplomat William Burns and Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili in Geneva and the strengthening of dollar were the main factors that helped push the oil prices down rather than changes in supply and demand.
"I do not see a fall in demand ... (and) supply is the same," said Khelil who is also Algeria's Minister of Energy and Mines.
The OPEC head also voiced dissatisfaction with some European countries' insistence on promoting bio-ethanol energy.
Oil prices for September delivery fell to 123.26 dollars per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange and to 124.52 per barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London on Friday, the lowest in seven weeks.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2008 00:01 ||
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#1
...Which would put it down to about, what - $2Something a gallon? I wouldn't be crazy about it but I could live with it.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/27/2008 7:13 Comments ||
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#2
They'll make it happen. They want to see the Volt fail.
#3
If it does drop to $2/Gal - look for the Democrats in congress push for [at least] a $1/Gal tax -- for alternative graft fuel development of course.
#4
My guess is that its 80-90 once we start drilling.
And for once, I support a tax /shock.
I propose that we tax all imported oitl to where it sustains a price of $100/bbl, annually adjusted.
This provides a proice floor for US domestic production, and gives the oil and refinery companies a bit of incentive to invest. Pay it back with an excise tax on the oil extracted when prices exceed $100/bbl.
This keeps shale, OCS and nukes competitive, and can be seen as a strategic defense energy initiative - we need to become self sufficient on fuel, and for economic reasons as well.
#10
Sadly, Doc, you can count on Congress to immediately spend any new revenue. Energy-targeted "trust funds" will simply become big piles of IOU's, just like Social Security or the Highway Trust Fund. Plus, most of our political class appears to be in the pockets of the Saudi's, and, short of "angry mobs at the gates," will continue to obstruct alternatives while claiming the opposite. Before any progress is possible on energy, the current crop of weasels in D.C. need to get thrown out en masse.
#11
Maybe I'm wrong but I think this time it's different. In the past there has always been the idea that we would just find more oil and continue on as usual after another "blip" in normality.
Now, I think a LOT of people have woken up to the realization that "normality" means we give huge sums of money to people who hate us and inspire others to fly loaded airplanes into tall buildings. If GM will make the Volt and enable Americans to drastically cut back on the gasoline addiction, there will be a lot of people who will take advantage of that opportunity.
If the Chindians want to continue sucking on the oil teat, that's their business. I don't care if our drop in demand means they pay less; it means the oil ticks GET less, no matter who is paying it, and it brings us closer to energy independence. Anything which gets us closer to that is a very good thing. I suspect we would have a much different foreign policy if we had the freedom to tell the Saudis and the rest of those M.E. characters to pound sand. Get the U.S. off the oil addiction and their influence in our affairs will be tremendously diminished.
#12
I'm a big Volt proponent. Even if it isn't perfect, even if the range on battery leaves me wanting more, even if it still uses some gas. I'll pay $25,000 for an American car that will make the Saudis squeal. If this country can decrease its oil demand another 2-5% we could make a huge impact on the oil market. Look at what the decrease in demand in the last year has recently done to the oil market. If it isn't a total gang rape the investors bail out on you apparently.
#13
If the Volt arrives in '11, I'd expect to see base at $39,995 advertised and pay $45-50K+ for a nice one. And there will be a line. If they can do it in'11. Big if.
#14
.5mt: that's easy to fix. You have the tarrif in place for countries besides NAFTA countries (and, IMHO, Columbia). Although Mexico is under-investing its oilfield into irrevelancy these days, or so I hear.
#15
Include NAFTA as exempted, however, encoruage the Canadainas to enter into an agreement guranteeing a price floor floor and taxing appropriately.
Its simply a matter of national survival.
We invest heavily in things like armor, jet engines, stealth technology, ballistic missile defense technology.
Why not fuel and energy technology?
Place the tax. Rebate parts of it to the Canadian and Mexican companies under NAFTA so they get a given amount of profit. Tax all oil over $100/bbl with an import or excise tax.
To get enough of the Dems on board, direct half the remaining tax to "renewable energy", and the rest to defense related fuels research and development, like developing and deploying the USAF program for coal to jet fuel.
You can put these to take the "waste heat" from engines, and turn it into electricity. Couple that with a diesel-electric, or dual-fuel(petrol/cng)-electric or hybrid vehicle.
#17
I propose that we tax all imported oil to where it sustains a price of $100/bbl, annually adjusted.
This provides a price floor for US domestic production, and gives the oil and refinery companies a bit of incentive to invest. Pay it back with an excise tax on the oil extracted when prices exceed $100/bbl.
Makes perfect sense. Problem with oil is that the ME has lower costs of production. This allows them to periodically drop prices low enough to clear out competition. A price floor takes away that ability. Of course it only works if US companies are legally permitted to develop domestic sources.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Pop star Britney Spears must increase her child support payments to ex-husband Kevin Federline by $5,000 a month as part of a custody settlement agreed to Friday. Under the terms of the deal approved by Superior Court Commissioner Scott Gordon, Spears will pay a total of $20,000 a month to the former backup dancer. She will also pay his $250,000 legal bill from lawyer Mark Vincent Kaplan.
It is an extraordinary sight to walk into a basic two-room house under a mango tree in rural east Africa and discover what is essentially a shrine to Barack Obama.
Four-dollar-a-gallon gas has done something that few Republicans thought possible just a few months ago: given them hope.
Obama's tour was seen as an attempt to reduce voters' doubts over his credentials as commander-in-chief -- one of the few policy areas in which he trails McCain.
Senator Barack Obama's Republican critics accuse of him of profligate public spending plans, but at home the Democratic presidential candidate adopts a frugal policy with his two young daughters. In a magazine interview Obama and his wife Michelle revealed that one of their steadfast house rules is not giving Christmas or birthday presents to Malia, 10, and Sasha, seven.
NEW DELHI - India is trying to avoid a vote at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors meet on August 1 even though one of its members, Pakistan, has circulated a letter marking its opposition to the safeguards agreement that New Delhi is planning to sign with the IAEA. We know of Pakistan's opposition, but we are still trying to avoid a voting at the meeting of the Board of Governors scheduled for next week, an External Affairs Ministry official said here yesterday.
