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China: At Least 140 Killed in Uighur Riots
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
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Page 4: Opinion
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2 00:00 Besoeker []
11 00:00 Sgt. Mom [4]
8 00:00 DMFD [1]
Page 6: Politix
2 00:00 WTF [3]
7 00:00 OldSpook [5]
8 00:00 Procopius2k [3]
-Obits-
John A. Keel Has Died
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 07/06/2009 11:23 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Thanks for noting this.

BTW, is that one of those Billy Meier pictures everyone says is hoaxed?
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 07/06/2009 11:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Hum, I dunno, the shape looks awfully similar... let me Google™ this... yes, definitively could be a crop of that one.

As for Keel, that's very sad. Still, if there indeed is an afterlife, and if we "get it" after we cross over, then, now he has all the answers.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 07/06/2009 11:45 Comments || Top||

#3  Just hope he isn't too disappointed.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 07/06/2009 13:28 Comments || Top||

#4  that looks like a disc harow, disc, with a hubcap glued on top.

Throw it and snap a pic before it hits the ground.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 07/06/2009 14:41 Comments || Top||

#5  Based on my own personal experiences over the decades, I believe ANGELS, + GHOSTS = GUAM TAOTAMONOAS ["Shadow People"?], + FLORIDA-SOUTHERN "SWAMP APE" [Bigfoot] EXIST.

MR. KEEL IS DULY ENTITLED TO HIS BELIEFS, but FYI just saw a "Fuzzy Wuzzy", FORMLESS GHOST = TAOTAMONA here in Agana a couple of days ago, moving from the Guam Public Library towards the local PDN Building.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 07/06/2009 18:51 Comments || Top||

#6  Harmless man, led a good but odd life, was probably afraid of the dark and never hurt anyone. I hope he rests in peace.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 07/06/2009 20:26 Comments || Top||

#7  Apparently my education is lacking - never heard of him (though I'm guessing from the graphic he had something to do with flying saucers).
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 07/06/2009 21:21 Comments || Top||

#8  just saw a "Fuzzy Wuzzy", FORMLESS GHOST = TAOTAMONA here in Agana a couple of days ago, moving from the Guam Public Library towards the local PDN Building.

That makes sense, JosephM. If I ever became a ghost, I'd spend a lot of time in the library reading... but I'd better be able to access Rantburg, or somebody is going to hear about it!
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/06/2009 23:57 Comments || Top||


Former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara Dies at 93
Posted by: Beavis || 07/06/2009 09:03 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  But, but, but what now becomes of the Project 100,000 and the "subterranean poor?"
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/06/2009 10:12 Comments || Top||

#2  The shmuck was instrumental in losing the Viet Nam war. He can give my regards to Mussolini and Himmler.
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 07/06/2009 10:27 Comments || Top||

#3  Strange!
Posted by: Injun Grinesing9686 || 07/06/2009 10:43 Comments || Top||

#4  I wouldn't go that far. I watched Fog of War, and it was clear that Bob was a well-meaning, very intelligent man who simply didn't understand Vietnam. He couldn't adjust to new data.

Sound familiar with the current crew in the White House?
Posted by: Steve White || 07/06/2009 10:44 Comments || Top||

#5  Steve,
I mostly agree with you re. McNamara but I am not so confident any more that all of the current WH crew is actually 'well-meaning'. Certainly the least transparent administration in a long time, which makes it hard to assess intent, but too many moves seem to have the same 'unintended' consequences.
Posted by: Glenmore || 07/06/2009 10:58 Comments || Top||

#6  He was an "intellectual", not a leader. HE was so overconfident of his intellect that he believed HIS solution was THE solution and pressed it regardless of the ground truth. He refused to listen to the facts, he refused to learn from history, and he destroyed that which he claimed to be saving.

Sound familiar?
Posted by: OldSpook || 07/06/2009 11:11 Comments || Top||

#7  He was an "intellectual", not a leader. HE was so overconfident of his intellect that he believed HIS solution was THE solution and pressed it regardless of the ground truth.

Why, that sounds just like any other ENArch or assorted Uber-civil servant here in France! And they're as susccessful, too!
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 07/06/2009 11:37 Comments || Top||

#8  From Ben on Ace of Spades:
"Robert McNamara is dead. I am willing to bet there is a line of 58,000 Vietnam vets in heaven just waiting to kick the shit out of this man."

Posted by: bman || 07/06/2009 11:37 Comments || Top||

#9  bman,
They may have to wait a long time then, since it's not a foregone conclusion that McNamara is headed their direction.
Posted by: Glenmore || 07/06/2009 11:52 Comments || Top||

#10  He was a heavy hitter in the sixties' Cold War; then he challenged Reagan's successful foreign policy. Nobody will name an aircraft carrier after him, now.
Posted by: Percy Snogum9637 || 07/06/2009 13:54 Comments || Top||

#11  When I enlisted in the Air Force in the late 70s, there were still a lot of mid-ranked NCOs and officers who remembered McNamera very, very well - and without exception they despised him so completely, they couldn't even mention his name without cussing. I imagine that wherever his physical remains are planted, there will be a long line of Vietnam and Vietnam-era veterans lining up to piss on that place.
Posted by: Sgt. Mom || 07/06/2009 15:46 Comments || Top||

#12  Sgt. Mom... yes, he ranks nearly as high on the old Vet massive dislike and contemptuous spit scale as Jane Fonda, Henry Kissenger, and Jimmy Carter. As an aside, he was recruited for the beltway from Ford Motor Co. by then president John F. Kennedy who believed he "was the most brilliant member of a very smart Cabinet."
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/06/2009 15:55 Comments || Top||

#13  Sadly, smarter just means you get to stupid faster, if you start out facing in the wrong direction.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/06/2009 16:03 Comments || Top||

#14  As a vet who served in Vietnam, I have no use for Robert McNamara, nor the president(s) who appointed him to high office. Some of his policies were merely stupid - others were criminally insane.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 07/06/2009 17:03 Comments || Top||

#15  McNamara, rot in hell you POS.
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 07/06/2009 18:46 Comments || Top||

#16  Mentioned this story to a friend today, when i read the headline that he had died at 93, my buddy said, "well, only the good die young".
Posted by: abu do you love || 07/06/2009 20:03 Comments || Top||

#17  Hope you have some answers, Bob. Because you're gonna need em...
Posted by: tu3031 || 07/06/2009 22:05 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
World's oldest Christian Bible digitized
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 07/06/2009 11:46 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I would love to know how many changes are found.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 07/06/2009 14:15 Comments || Top||

#2  > "Our Web site has crashed because people want to look at it."

Pathetic scaling.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 07/06/2009 14:36 Comments || Top||

#3  There will be no changes,modern English translations utilized Codex Sinaiticus.

It's been known&read for almost a century.
Posted by: Pheting B. Hayes1053 || 07/06/2009 16:04 Comments || Top||


NYT takes WaPo to the woodshed
Mostly, though they do seem to be trying (at first) to offer Ms. Weymouth some slack.
Posted by: Seafarious || 07/06/2009 01:10 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  My interpretation? Like a matriarch of a once-great family fallen on hard times who quietly begins to sell the heirloom jewels. Then even more quietly, the daughters.

Sadly, word always leaks out.
Posted by: Seafarious || 07/06/2009 2:21 Comments || Top||

#2  I'm all sympathy.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/06/2009 4:28 Comments || Top||

#3  Captain Renault: I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
[a croupier hands Renault a pile of money]
Croupier: Your winnings, sir.
Captain Renault: [sotto voce] Oh, thank you very much.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/06/2009 7:14 Comments || Top||

#4  I thinhk Sea has figgered it out:

LetÂ’s put this in context: Ms. Weymouth is confronted with the same crisis as every publisher in the country. The Web has robbed newspapers of paying readers and advertisers, the economic downturn is cutting into what is left, and smaller, nimbler Internet competitors are learning to slake the 24-hour news thirst on their own.

(The fact that it was Politico that broke this story only added to the sting. Started by two former Post reporters, Politico has become a serious competitor right on The PostÂ’s inside-the-Beltway turf, and now has caught the paper on a fundamental lapse in the wall between church and state. In the increasingly heated race between the mainstream media and newer, digitally enabled ones, much of the remaining competitive edge for legacy media derives from a perception that they adhere to more rigorous publishing standards. Oops.)


Oops, is right, NYT.

But somehow, you seem to think you're still above it all, instead at the bottom of the pile of slime.
Posted by: Bobby || 07/06/2009 9:36 Comments || Top||

#5  Isn't this the definition of Red on Red?
Posted by: AlanC || 07/06/2009 10:40 Comments || Top||

#6  actually i think it is yellow on yellow...
Posted by: abu do you love || 07/06/2009 15:46 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Report: Mugabe calls top US official 'an idiot'
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 07/06/2009 11:28 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Aim higher, Mugabe, and maybe you'll get a round of applause from The Burg.
Posted by: Ptah || 07/06/2009 12:29 Comments || Top||

#2  Syphilis, it all started with a little kiss...
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 07/06/2009 12:47 Comments || Top||

#3  "Who is he? I hope he is not speaking for Obama. I told him he was a shame, a great shame being an African American,"

Go easy on him Bob until you've met the entire Obama family.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/06/2009 13:05 Comments || Top||

#4  Wish there would be just a little bit of relevant text in these besides just a bare link.
Posted by: crosspatch || 07/06/2009 17:24 Comments || Top||


Zim vows to pull troops out of diamond fields
[Mail and Globe] Zimbabwe has pledged to remove its troops from diamond fields in the east, an official newspaper said on Sunday -- a week after a rights group alleged the military was committing killings and abuses in the area.

The Ministry of Mines has denied last month's report by Human Rights Watch that said troops had killed more than 200 people at the Marange diamond fields while forcing children to search for diamonds and beating villagers who got in the way. The coalition government said the military was there to secure the area, about 250km east of Harare, while the mining is managed by the state's Mining Development Corporation.

But Mines Minister Obert Mpofu on Saturday told inspectors from the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme -- the world's diamond control body -- that the troops would be withdrawn from the diamond fields and the country would meet international mining standards, according to the Sunday Mail. "We are going to work toward getting in line with the standards proposed," the paper quoted Mpofu as saying during a meeting with the Kimberly delegation.

Deputy Mines Minister Murisi Zwizwai -- a member of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's former opposition party -- said the coalition government had "agreed to remove the soldiers, but it will be done in phases while proper security settings would be put in place," Zwizwai was quoted as saying.

The 60 000-hectare Marange diamond fields were discovered in 2006 -- at the height of Zimbabwe's political, economic and humanitarian crisis. Villagers rushed to the area and began finding diamonds close to the surface.

Officials of the Kimberley Process recently visited the fields following allegations that security chiefs and loyalists of President Robert Mugabe were either perpetrating or tolerating rights abuses and illegal diamond exports. "There cannot be effective security where diamonds are concerned with the involvement of the military," the Kimberly delegation said in a report to the Zimbabwean government quoted by the Sunday Mail.
Posted by: Fred || 07/06/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Bangladesh
Strip Sircar of his MP status
[Bangla Daily Star] The all-party parliamentary probe body yesterday finalised its report, which recommends scrapping the House membership of former speaker Jamiruddin Sircar on graft charges.

The other recommendations in the report include taking legal actions against former deputy speaker Akhtar Hamid Siddiqui and former chief whip Khandaker Delwar Hossain on similar charges.

"Parliament should enact new laws if necessary to implement the recommendations," Fazle Rabbi Mia, chief of the probe body, told reporters after the final meeting of the committee at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban.

By means of its inherent power, the legislature can punish anyone for offences related to moral turpitude, provided there is no law in this regard, he noted.

The committee examined the constitutional provisions of India and Canada and parliamentary practices and procedures in the UK before settling on the recommendations.
Posted by: Fred || 07/06/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


BNPs JS affairs in a shambles
[Bangla Daily Star] The BNP Parliamentary Party (BNPPP) has yet to decide whether to join the current session of parliament, which has only four workdays left to go.

Though the main opposition's parliamentary body has lately issued several statements, most of its lawmakers had no knowledge about those.

Last month, opposition Chief Whip Zainul Abdin Farroque read out at least eight statements on behalf of BNPPP at press briefings at the Jatiya Sangsad media centre.

The statements concerned various issues. In those, BNP demanded trial of recently-retired army chief Gen Moeen U Ahmed and withdrawal of Indian high commissioner, and proposed names of five water experts for inclusion in the parliamentary team to visit Tipaimukh dam site.

Besides, it accused the ruling party of turning parliament into a hub of one-party activities and reiterated their stance on joining the House proceedings.

"I drafted the statements in consultation with one or two lawmakers, and later those were okayed by Madam [Khaleda Zia]," Farroque told The Daily Star Wednesday.

Queried if BNPPP met to draw up the statements, he said, "No meeting was held. But senior leaders have been in contact with the party chairperson."

Reminded of the party charter attaching importance to the role of its lawmakers, the opposition chief whip said, "Khaleda Zia is the owner of BNPPP. We are always in contact with her.

"We speak whenever she wants us to speak and we say whatever she wants us to say."
Posted by: Fred || 07/06/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


28 Rohingyas pushed back to Myanmar
Bangladesh Rifles' (BDR) jawans at Teknaf arrested 28 Rohingyas of Myanmar and pushed them back to their country yesterday. The Myanmar nationals including seven men, 11 women and 10 children were held at about 9:00am at Shah Parir Dwip of Teknaf upazila while they were infiltrating into Bangladesh crossing the Naf river.

Deputy commander of 42 Rifles Battalion Major Shahinur Rahman confirmed the incident.
Posted by: Steve White || 07/06/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If Bangalash is worth a dangerous swim across the border for oneself and one's family what doe that say about life in Myanmar? Trying to escape to Banglash is a little hard to rap my mind around.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon || 07/06/2009 8:11 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Protester killed at Tegucigalpa airport
At least one person was shot dead by the Army in Honduras last night and dozens were injured as the country's ousted President tried to fly back to take power.

Manuel Zelaya, who set out from Washington in a small jet vowing to resume his presidency, was told that the military would prevent him from landing. He was expected to be diverted to El Salvador. After a week of clashes since military coup on June 28, troops fired teargas and warning shots into crowds of Mr Zelaya's supporters who gathered yesterday in anticipation of his return.
Warning shots into the crowd? How very queer.
There's a fair bit to the story that we aren't hearing from Mr. Ferry ...
It really isn't fair to expect verbal proficiency from a news photographer. The dears' strengths tend to lie elsewhere.
Stephen Ferry, a photographer working for The Times, was at the airport in the capital, Tegucigalpa, where the Army fired on protesters. "I saw a kid being shot in the head, I think he is dead," Mr Ferry said. "There are lots of injured -- I don't know how many. They just opened fire -- it was completely unprovoked."
Oh absolutely, the chavezistas sandinistas bolivaristas castroistas protesters would never do anything to provoke a reaction, no sir, Senator ...
About ten thousand protesters marched to the airport despite the Micheletti government's announcement, facing riot police and soldiers, who set up blockades throughout the city. Pumping fists in the air and chanting "Coupsters out!" the demonstrators, some masked, pressed up against riot shields, demanding they be allowed through to greet the man they still hoped would come. "You are Honduran too!" some shouted.
No news report of the anti-Zelaya protests. How unexpected of the MSM ...
Posted by: Steve White || 07/06/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Just posted on the WaPo website: the airplane carrying ousted president Manuel Zelaya was forced to circle the nation's main airport [in Tegucigalpa] twice before flying away Sunday evening after coup leaders who deposed Zelaya blocked his landing with troops on the runway. Zelaya later landed in Managua.
An unnamed US official was quoted in the article: "we respect the right of President Zelaya as a Honduran citizen, and the legal and constitutional leader of Honduras, to make his own decisions." The comments on this article are all over the map, as might be expected.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 07/06/2009 0:34 Comments || Top||

#2  Nice opinion piece in CS Monitor: A 'coup' in Honduras? Nonsense.
Don't believe the myth. The arrest of President Zelaya represents the triumph of the rule of law.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 07/06/2009 0:49 Comments || Top||

#3  Video
Posted by: 3dc || 07/06/2009 2:23 Comments || Top||

#4  Here are some links that have far more detail about the events of today (Sunday).
Legal Insurrection
Honduras Abandoned
Gateway Pundit
Posted by: Old Patriot || 07/06/2009 5:44 Comments || Top||


Clashes in Honduras as Zelaya tries to return
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (CNN) -- Honduran troops used tear gas and fired shots into the air to hold back protesters at Tegucigalpa's airport Sunday evening ahead of an attempted return by deposed President Jose Manuel Zelaya, injuring at least one person, protest organizers said.
One injured, but no deaths claimed by the protest organizers? The fog of protest, it appears.
Soldiers lined barricades surrounding the airport in expectation of confrontations between Zelaya and his supporters and the provisional government that has vowed to keep him from coming back from a weeklong exile.

Zelaya was en route to Tegucigalpa on Sunday evening, and several thousand supporters gathered outside the airport in expectation of his arrival. But Civil Aviation Director Alfredo San Martin said in a radio address that the ousted leader's flight would be barred from landing in Honduras and diverted to El Salvador. At a news conference, provisional President Roberto Micheletti said Zelaya's return could create unrest in a country that has seen demonstrators for both sides in the streets since the June 28 military-led coup that sent Zelaya into exile. "I don't want a single drop of blood to be spilled in Honduras," Micheletti said.

At the same moment, speaking from aboard a small jet that was transporting him from Washington to the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, Zelaya told Telesur TV that he intended to land in his native country. "I am the commander in chief of the armed forces elected by the people, and I ask the armed forces to comply with this order to open up the airport and avoid any problems with the landing," Zelaya said. Zelaya was accompanied by United Nations General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto. A delegation supporting Zelaya, including the head of the Organization of American States and Presidents Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner of Argentina, Rafael Correa of Ecuador and Fernando Lugo of Paraguay, were to fly on a separate plane heading to neighboring El Salvador.

In a conference call with journalists, senior U.S. administration officials -- who insisted on anonymity because of diplomatic sensitivities -- said that Zelaya is expected to be back in Washington Monday, if he is denied entry, to continue conversations at the Organization of American States.

Sunday's political standoff follows a vote Saturday by the OAS to suspend Honduras from the organization after the provisional government failed to respond to a 72-hour deadline to restore Zelaya as president. The OAS had demanded Zelaya's return in a resolution. Following a visit to Honduras, OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza said he found Micheletti's government "extremely firm" and "inflexible."

Micheletti and his supporters have repudiated the characterization of the transfer of power as a coup. The provisional government maintains the military action against Zelaya was backed by a court order and that arrest warrants have been issued against him for violating the constitution. In his remarks Sunday, Micheletti extended a diplomatic branch to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, two of Zelaya's closest allies. Micheletti also said small groups of Nicaraguan soldiers were mobilizing on the Honduran border, something that Ortega denied. Micheletti said his government was open to "good faith" talks with the OAS, but reiterated that his government was legitimate and would not be moved. "We are going to remain here until the country becomes calm," he said.
Posted by: Steve White || 07/06/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Is this the same incident I referred to with the video question before the witching hour? If so that would explain why the "gun shots" really didn't sound like gun fire. Rather tear gas.
Posted by: 3dc || 07/06/2009 0:25 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
U.S. seeks Malaysia's help to block N. Korea's access to banks
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 07/06/2009 11:28 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


China unveils scale model of new carrier
CN Carrier website describes its mission as "giving the construction of a Chinese aircraft carrier a shot of nationalistic steroids.")

According to a report appearing in today's Chongqing Times, the look of the model resembles the Soviet aircraft carrier Varyag, which was to be the second Admiral Kuznetsov class carrier before construction was halted and the ship was sold to China, stripped of much of its propulsion system.

Certain parts of the future aircraft carrier's specifications were revealed: the displacement will to be 53 thousand tons light, and 67 thousand fully loaded, with a projected speed of 30 knots.
Posted by: gromky || 07/06/2009 09:20 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  English translation of the name - "Target".
Posted by: Mizzou Mafia || 07/06/2009 15:52 Comments || Top||

#2  Resembles? It's an exact copy, down to the deck markings. Not the first time Chinese websites have taken a foreign model and claimed it as their own.
Posted by: ed || 07/06/2009 19:56 Comments || Top||

#3  ION WAFF > RUSSIA'N NAVY UNDER COLLAPSE [may in time become weaker than CHINA's OR JAPAN's]???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 07/06/2009 22:23 Comments || Top||


Economy
Russia, India Question Dollar Reliance Before Summit
Hat tip, Instapundit
July 6 (Bloomberg) -- Russia and India said the world economy is too reliant on the U.S. dollar and called for changes in how $6.5 trillion in currency reserves are managed, as Group of Eight leaders prepare to meet this week.
Some prejudice against Harvard education?
They're doing it wrong. If the US dollar should not be the world's currency reserve, people, companies and countries will have been at more decision points choosing something better. If the change must come by fiat, it is the wrong decision, being taken for political rather than economic decisions.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/06/2009 04:32 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They just don't trust USA under new management, TW.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/06/2009 7:55 Comments || Top||

#2  They should know. They have extensive experience with socialism. Even the "scientific" variety.
Posted by: ed || 07/06/2009 9:06 Comments || Top||

#3  Obviously racist
Posted by: Obama || 07/06/2009 10:31 Comments || Top||

#4  They just don't trust USA under new management

They should know. They have extensive experience with socialism.

They DO know, that's WHY they don't trust US ubder Ohblahblahblah.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 07/06/2009 14:28 Comments || Top||


Europe
Turk generals object to military court law
[Beirut Daily Star: Region] Turkey's armed forces say a law under which army personnel will be tried in civilian courts in peacetime rather than military ones is unconstitutional and they have told the president so, media reported on Sunday. The legislation, aimed at meeting European Union membership criteria, has fuelled tensions between the powerful secularist military and the Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) government in predominantly Muslim Turkey.

"Politics will enter the barracks," said a front-page headline in the liberal Milliyet newspaper which detailed the military General Staff's objections to the law, which has still to be approved by President Abdullah Gul.

The army, the second biggest in NATO, has ousted four Turkish governments in 50 years and regards itself as guardian of the country's secular system. But its power has been reined in by democratic reforms in recent years.

According to the military, the law infringes the inviolability of military areas and will lead to clashes between the military and civilian judiciary.

The military also voiced concern at the way the legislation was passed by Parliament in a late-night session at the end of June after Defense Ministry officials had left the assembly.

The articles, also published in Radikal newspaper, did not specify a source.
Posted by: Fred || 07/06/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Politics will enter the barracks," said a front-page headline in the liberal Milliyet newspaper which detailed the military General Staff's objections to the law, which has still to be approved by President Abdullah Gul.
With the fate of Zelaya staring him in the face from the T.V, I doubt that Gul would want to tempt fate, even if he thinks Allah is on his side.
Posted by: tipper || 07/06/2009 15:32 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
25,000 to 35,000 Attend Dallas, TX July 4 Tea Party
[The Dallas Morning News] An estimated crowd of 25,000 to 35,000 people attended the Independence Day tea party at Southfork Ranch on Saturday, one organizer said. While the official figures haven't been tallied yet, Debbie Meyers said the bulk of the crowd arrived after 7:30 p.m. to avoid the heat of the day. The temperature reached a high of 101 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

"I was standing on the stage and couldn't see the end of the people," said Meyers, president of the event-planning business Bravo Entertainment.

The event had been billed as the largest tea party in the nation, and some organizers had said the crowd could reach 50,000.
Posted by: Elmusonter Lumumba4302 || 07/06/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So... were IRS cameras in evidence?
Posted by: 3dc || 07/06/2009 0:23 Comments || Top||

#2  That cain't be so or the news people wooda reported it....Oh, wait....."All the news that's fit for you to know about"
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 07/06/2009 10:12 Comments || Top||

#3  Imagine the headlines for 20K in Crawford "against the war".
Posted by: OldSpook || 07/06/2009 11:09 Comments || Top||

#4  I estimate the crowd in Baton Rouge at only about 1000. Good speakers, well organized event, but not the crowd I had hoped. Hot, and competed with family events, but still, the apathy among people who ought to understand the problems is very scary.
Posted by: Glenmore || 07/06/2009 11:14 Comments || Top||

#5  Well, I've heard about Louisiana; I'm willing to bet that 1500 showed up but 500 got eaten by alligators.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 07/06/2009 11:29 Comments || Top||

#6  We had a crowd of 5,000 at the San Antonio Tea party - it was also at a ranch venue - but in late afternoon it was 105! It did cool off after the sun went down. Everyone there was very keen, though - and the speakers were well-received, also.
Governor Perry came, and signed off on our "Contract with the Constitution". He came and sat down opposite my daughter and I, the mother of one of the executive committee members and the husband of another member, who was wearing an 82 Airborne ball cap. He started up a joking conversation about how paratroops will jump out of perfectly good airplanes, and talked with us for about fifteen minutes - about the military, and Texas, and how we all wound up here; my daughter had the brass enough to tell him about my books, and he was very interested to hear that I wrote about Texas history in a big way; he seems to be a mad fan of historical fiction. (Yes, of course I gave him one of my author business cards!) Daughter says she thinks he glommed on to us because we weren't talking about politics! And that he doesn't seem to get out much...
Posted by: Sgt. Mom || 07/06/2009 14:19 Comments || Top||

#7  And the MSM is studiously ignoring it all, hoping it will go away.

Kill the Mainstream Press NOW!

(companies, not people)
Posted by: OldSpook || 07/06/2009 21:11 Comments || Top||

#8  Fishkill, NY had one this evening. About half the April attendence. People don't care that they are being screwed.
Posted by: Glenmore || 07/06/2009 21:26 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Man sexually assaults 6-year old girl in Kasoor
[Geo News] An unknown man abducted a 6-year old girl in Allahabad area of Kasoor and subjected her to sexual assault. The girl is now presently under treatment at the ICU of a children's hospital,

Mumahhand Hanif, father of the young girl, Anisa, said that she was playing outside the house when an unknown man appeared and enticed her into going with him into the fields where he raped her. A passerby spotted the girl lying in the fields and informed at her house.

Muhammad Hanif has appealed that the perpetrator of the crime be awarded an exemplary punishment.
Death would be suitably exemplary ...
According to the girl's doctor, her condition is now better and that she will be discharged in a couple of days.
Posted by: Fred || 07/06/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The girl's father will have a serious advantage in negotiating a dowry.
Posted by: Excalibur || 07/06/2009 10:15 Comments || Top||

#2  In many Muslim countries they call this "Friday night."
Posted by: Iblis || 07/06/2009 12:35 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
China wants 100 GW of windpower by 2020
The government has said it aims to rely more on cleaner ways to power its economic growth, with the development of wind power a focus.

It has set a target to install 100 gigawatts of wind power capacity by 2020, likely making the country the world's fastest growing market for wind energy technology.

Zhang Guobao, head of China's National Energy Administration, said last year that the government would build several "Three Gorges of wind power" by 2020 in provinces and regions including Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Gansu and Jiangsu.
Posted by: 3dc || 07/06/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And michelle obama wants real influence in the administration, and I want a Bugatti, and, oh, never mind...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 07/06/2009 0:53 Comments || Top||

#2  Oi vey, them too?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/06/2009 4:29 Comments || Top||

#3  And exactly how much land would be required to generate 100GW of wind power? To produce 1GW it takes about 300 square miles, according to some sources. You do the math.. I know China is big, but jeez, that's a lot of freaking giant turbines.
Posted by: AllahHateMe || 07/06/2009 9:52 Comments || Top||

#4  China has plenty of wide open spaces out west, just like America.
Posted by: gromky || 07/06/2009 11:11 Comments || Top||

#5  And even fewer powerlines & less infrastructure to take "advantage" of any large-scale windfarms they might build next to the pinwheels in outermost Tibet.

Feh. Windpower buffs bore me. It's worse than Keynsian hole-diggery, because the resulting plant disrupts existing, previously productive plant & causes cascading malapportionment of maintenance respurces.
Posted by: Mitch H. || 07/06/2009 11:19 Comments || Top||

#6  And exactly how much land would be required to generate 100GW of wind power? To produce 1GW it takes about 300 square miles, according to some sources. You do the math.. I know China is big, but jeez, that's a lot of freaking giant turbines.

China, at 3.6m sq miles, is just a little larger than the US. 30,000 sq miles would be less than 1% of China's total land area. China does have huge areas of desert in its western border region.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 07/06/2009 12:22 Comments || Top||

#7  If they sell T-bonds to fund it then...
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 07/06/2009 12:45 Comments || Top||

#8  Im into wind power, but it's not practical until the storage problem is solved, Batteries cannot be made that large (Yet), and intermittent wind is the killer here.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 07/06/2009 14:36 Comments || Top||

#9  What is the impact, if any, of these mega-wind farms on normal air flow, and therefore the environmnent? Taking that much power out of an air-stream would seem to have some effect in it's lee.
Posted by: AlanC || 07/06/2009 15:57 Comments || Top||

#10  Then, of course you get the blowhard tax to go along with the Carbon tax AlanC.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 07/06/2009 16:23 Comments || Top||

#11  My, AlanC, you have stumbled on a great point. Let's not go for nonpolluting power, instead let's stick with coal in China. What a great idea. I know that environmentalists like to invent mythical threats in order to block anything new, but this is just nuts.
Posted by: gromky || 07/06/2009 16:45 Comments || Top||

#12  Here's the kicker most do not realize: for Wind to be effective it needs a fast-turn-on standby. And that's natural gas, if you look at available technology these days.

So look for China to start building NatGas power-plants to go along with the wind power. And for the price of Nat Gas to zoom when they turn those plants up.


Sidenote: Alaska, thanks to Palin's pipeline, will be in a great position to deliver a lot of Natural Gas to the lower 48 if they can get the enviro-whackos out of the way and drill for it.
Posted by: OldSpook || 07/06/2009 18:14 Comments || Top||

#13  So they plan on installing lots of wind generators and then inviting Obama by to give a speech.
Posted by: DMFD || 07/06/2009 19:47 Comments || Top||

#14  Nah, Biden will generate more wind.
Posted by: OldSpook || 07/06/2009 21:11 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Ban leaves Burma disappointed with junta
[Mail and Globe] UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon ended a mission to Burma on Saturday saying he was "deeply disappointed" that the isolated nation's top military ruler denied him a visit to jailed opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

In two days of rare talks with Senior General Than Shwe, the UN chief urged the reclusive 76-year-old autocrat to release Suu Kyi and other political prisoners and embark on democratic reforms ahead of elections scheduled for next year.

But their meetings on Friday and Saturday in Naypyitaw, the junta's remote administrative capital, left Ban saying that his diplomatic gambit had produced no immediate results and amounted to "a setback to the international community's efforts to provide a helping hand to Myanmar".

"I am deeply disappointed that they have missed a very important opportunity," Ban said.
Posted by: Fred || 07/06/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  But, was the food good? Did he get a nice shoe shine?
Posted by: M. Murcek || 07/06/2009 0:55 Comments || Top||


Myanmar denies U.N. chief a visit with Suu Kyi
(CNN) -- United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon was denied permission to see Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, reporters traveling with the secretary-general said Saturday.

Ban told reporters about the denial after he met with Than Shwe, leader of Myanmar's military junta. Ban is in Myanmar at the invitation of the ruling military junta for talks that are expected to include the detention of Suu Kyi, as well as the detention of other political prisoners.

Officials in Myanmar delayed the resumption of the trial of Suu Kyi Friday. The delay is the latest in a string of postponements and came as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in the Asian nation for talks with government officials.

"The secretary-general believes that the sooner these issues are addressed, the earlier Myanmar will be able to move towards peace, democracy and prosperity," Michele Montas, Ban's spokeswoman, said this week. "He looks forward to meeting all key stakeholders to discuss what further assistance the United Nations can offer to that end."

Suu Kyi -- the face of Myanmar's pro-democracy movement -- is on trial on allegations of subversion. The Nobel Peace Prize winner and two of her maids have been charged in a May 3 incident in which an American provocateur, John William Yettaw, 53, swam across a lake to her house and stayed for at least a night. If convicted, Suu Kyi, 64, could face three to five years in prison. Her trial is being held inside a prison compound near Yangon. The proceedings have repeatedly adjourned while Suu Kyi's lawyers have challenged the court's rulings in the case.

Ban told CNN in May that he was in talks with Myanmar's leadership about traveling to Yangon to seek Suu Kyi's release, as well as push for democratization. "This is an unacceptable situation when she has been under detention for such a long time," Ban said. "She's a Nobel peace laureate."

Myanmar's military regime has held Suu Kyi under house arrest for 13 of the past 19 years and rarely allows her visitors. Suu Kyi has been barred for life from running for political office, but human rights groups suspect that Myanmar's junta worries that her release would invigorate the opposition.
Posted by: Steve White || 07/06/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:



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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2009-07-06
  China: At Least 140 Killed in Uighur Riots
Sun 2009-07-05
  British Forces Join Afghan Operation
Sat 2009-07-04
  US forces repel Taliban suicide assault, kill 22 Taliban fighters
Fri 2009-07-03
  15 dead in suspected US missile strike in Pakistan
Thu 2009-07-02
  Mousavi, Karroubi call Short Round govt ''illegitimate''
Wed 2009-07-01
  11 cross-dressing Haqqani turbans arrested in Khost
Tue 2009-06-30
  Iran confirms Ahmadinejad's victory
Mon 2009-06-29
  Mousavi's website shut down
Sun 2009-06-28
  Saad al-Hariri Leb's new premier
Sat 2009-06-27
  Council appoints commission to probe election
Fri 2009-06-26
  Mousavi warns of more protests
Thu 2009-06-25
  Somali legislators flee abroad, Parliament paralysed
Wed 2009-06-24
  Khamenei agrees to extend vote probe
Tue 2009-06-23
  Revolutionary Guards Say They'll Crush Protests
Mon 2009-06-22
  Guardian Council: Over 100% voted in 50 cities


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