Hi there, !
Today Wed 03/31/2010 Tue 03/30/2010 Mon 03/29/2010 Sun 03/28/2010 Sat 03/27/2010 Fri 03/26/2010 Thu 03/25/2010 Archives
Rantburg
533596 articles and 1861729 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 75 articles and 331 comments as of 17:01.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Opinion        Politix   
Dronezap kills four in N. Wazoo
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 3: Non-WoT
4 00:00 tu3031 [] 
1 00:00 gorb [] 
2 00:00 ed [3] 
4 00:00 Frank G [2] 
0 [3] 
4 00:00 Free Radical [1] 
7 00:00 logi_cal [9] 
5 00:00 Besoeker [4] 
1 00:00 trailing wife [2] 
0 [1] 
1 00:00 SteveS [7] 
6 00:00 trailing wife [1] 
6 00:00 Rob Crawford [1] 
2 00:00 JosephMendiola [1] 
2 00:00 JosephMendiola [4] 
0 [2] 
0 [6] 
0 [5] 
2 00:00 tu3031 [3] 
3 00:00 SteveS [5] 
8 00:00 trailing wife [2] 
0 [2] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
19 00:00 tu3031 [6]
0 [2]
0 []
6 00:00 Mr. Bill [2]
5 00:00 GolfBravoUSMC [3]
9 00:00 gorb [1]
4 00:00 gorb [4]
4 00:00 Deacon Blues [8]
1 00:00 john frum [10]
0 [12]
0 [3]
0 [11]
0 [9]
13 00:00 trailing wife [5]
3 00:00 TomAnon [1]
0 [2]
Page 2: WoT Background
13 00:00 Glenmore [1]
2 00:00 Spanky Glagum9213 []
1 00:00 Bulldog [1]
28 00:00 Glenmore [8]
0 [2]
0 [1]
8 00:00 Alaska Paul [5]
0 [2]
0 [8]
0 [7]
9 00:00 trailing wife [16]
7 00:00 tu3031 []
0 [2]
5 00:00 rhodesiafever [2]
0 [5]
3 00:00 tu3031 [5]
0 [1]
3 00:00 NoMoreBS [1]
17 00:00 Rambler in Virginia [4]
Page 4: Opinion
0 [7]
16 00:00 Nimble Spemble [1]
11 00:00 Free Radical [3]
0 [1]
3 00:00 49 Pan [1]
16 00:00 abu do you love [1]
2 00:00 Frank G [1]
2 00:00 Canuckistan sniper [1]
7 00:00 JosephMendiola [5]
Page 6: Politix
7 00:00 gorb [4]
7 00:00 DMFD [2]
6 00:00 Pappy [2]
8 00:00 wt [6]
0 [1]
2 00:00 Anonymoose [2]
13 00:00 Elmaiger Hatfield7630 [1]
4 00:00 crosspatch [6]
9 00:00 Abu Uluque [2]
-Lurid Crime Tales-
Issuing Drugged Gherkins And Practicing Witchcraft Without A License
Jobless hairdresser Patrick Baecker, 35, posed as a mystic healer and told Axel Pfeffer he would make him see for £20,000.

The court in Fehmarn, Germany, heard how the former motorcyclist had tried everything to restore his sight after losing it in a crash.

But instead Baecker fed him pickles laced with powerful mind-bending hallucinogenic drugs to induce visions.

‘You are a hairdresser, not a shaman,' Judge Markus Faerber told Baecker in court.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/28/2010 12:15 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Today's Master Criminal
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/28/2010 11:46 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A teen who allegedly defecated in a man's car - thinking it was his girlfriend's - was indicted Thursday on multiple charges of criminal property damage.

I suppose that should have been ex-em>girlfriend.
Posted by: gorb || 03/28/2010 13:07 Comments || Top||

#2  ex-girlfriend
Posted by: gorb || 03/28/2010 13:09 Comments || Top||

#3  "Las Cruces school district records show Purifoy dropped out from Las Cruces High School"

Really? Hooda thunk it?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 03/28/2010 13:29 Comments || Top||

#4  Today's Master Criminal

I love it. I think the Navy's rule of thumb is that when you start 'thinking' with your emotions instead of your mind, your IQ drops about 40 points. Result: primate behavior including poo.
Posted by: Free Radical || 03/28/2010 14:08 Comments || Top||


-Obits-
RIP Colonel George Lane, Who Had Tea With Rommel
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/28/2010 10:51 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What a great guy.

Nobody, nobody writes an obit like the Brits.
Posted by: Steve White || 03/28/2010 11:39 Comments || Top||

#2  "For one mission he had to parachute into northern France, rifle a safe in a German brigade HQ and bring back some important papers. A top safe breaker was released from prison for two days and taught Lane how to open it."

Nobody, nobody writes an obit like the Brits.

One thing that can be said for fighting a world war on your doorstep is that is makes a lot of lives a lot more interesting than would otherwise have been the case!
Posted by: Bulldog || 03/28/2010 12:30 Comments || Top||

#3  I wonder if Col. Lane was a part of the Jedburghs?
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/28/2010 13:09 Comments || Top||

#4  Not the only interesting Brit obit today. I sure hope they're still making them like this, cause we're going to need them at the rate Barry is going.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 03/28/2010 16:21 Comments || Top||

#5  “They shall not grow old
As we who are left, grow old.
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn,
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.”
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/28/2010 21:32 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Today's Idiot
MIAMI (Reuters) -- A Carnival cruise ship was held off the Florida coast for several hours on Sunday while authorities searched the vessel and arrested a drunk passenger on bomb hoax charges, the Coast Guard said.

No explosives or hazardous materials were found and the ship, the Carnival Sensation, was allowed to dock at Port Canaveral on Florida's Atlantic coast Sunday morning, Coast Guard petty Officer 1st Class Christopher Evanson said. The ship carried 3,470 passengers and crew and was headed back to Port Canaveral after a three-day cruise to the Bahamas when a passenger reported hearing another passenger make a bomb threat, the Coast Guard said.
And here's a hint. See if you can guess where this is heading...
The man was quoted as saying, "We are jihad. Come to the top deck and watch the bomb. The bomb is going to blow," Evanson said, adding that the Coast Guard was told that the man was "highly intoxicated."
Ha! Take that...INFIDELS!Burp...
Jihad is the Arabic word for "struggle," though it is sometimes used to describe an Islamic holy war.
Yeah..."sometimes". Thanks for clearing that up, Reuters...
Brevard County sheriff's deputies arrested an American passenger, Ibrahim Khalil Zarou, 31, of Leesburg, Virginia, on a state charge of making a false report of a bomb. The felony count carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.
Don't worry, Ibrahim. They spray paint arrows pointed at Mecca on the cell floors so you know which way to pray now...
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/28/2010 17:05 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  a passenger reported hearing another passenger make a bomb threat

No actual bomb. One man allegedly heard a threat. The alleged bomber was drunk as a skunk, not the behavior of a good Muslim. I'd be looking as hard at the reporter of the threat as the guy they grabbed. (And note I said AS HARD - don't ignore the threat but don't assume it's real either.)
Posted by: Glenmore || 03/28/2010 17:51 Comments || Top||

#2  He'd be bonking his head on the cell floor about 5,000 times a day if I were King. Elect Frank G the King now!
Posted by: Frank G || 03/28/2010 17:55 Comments || Top||

#3  Leesburg is very multicultural: Muslims, rednecks, MS-13, the horsey set, and an unusually large contingent of Marines.
Posted by: Fester Thaiger8930 || 03/28/2010 17:56 Comments || Top||

#4  Yeah, the guy's a drunken idiot but he sure does know how to push infidel buttons if that's what he said. Surprise, Ibrahim...
I do look forward to the "what a fine All American boy he is" and the "oh, you silly, ignorant infidels" stories in the coming days.
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/28/2010 18:03 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Hardship deepens for South Africa's Poor Whites
Posted by: tipper || 03/28/2010 10:10 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


DR Congo rebel massacre uncovered
Just more of a bloody conflict that has killed more people than have been killed in the Middle East, Iraq and Afghanistan. Combined.
There are no juices or Americans involved, so nobody who matters cares. The opinions of those caught in the situation matter to no one but themselves.
Evidence of the massacre of at least 321 people in Democratic Republic of Congo has been uncovered by the BBC. The killings took place last December but have not previously been reported.

Fighters from the notorious Lord's Resistance Army
Are they the ones who wear dresses and women's underwear to make themselves invisible to their foes?
raided several villages in a remote part of north-eastern DR Congo, killing and abducting children.

Human Rights Watch says this is one of the worst massacres carried out by the LRA, whose fighters roam across several countries after spreading from Uganda.

The rebel leaders initially claimed to be fighting to install a theocracy in Uganda based on the Biblical Ten Commandments, but they now sow terror in Sudan and Central African Republic, as well as DR Congo.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White || 03/28/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Just another post colonial African success story. As long as no white Euro's are in charge it's all good, the atrocities are just growing pains.
Posted by: Jefferson || 03/28/2010 11:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Yokay, I'll bite, seeming "CHRISTIAN TALIBAN"???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/28/2010 19:58 Comments || Top||


Britain
UK Ambulance Squads Get Bonuses Not to Transport Patients to EDs
The Sunday Telegraph has discovered that dozens of Primary Care Trusts in London are now paying the capital's ambulance service a £38 bonus for each patient crews do not send to hospital. The bonuses are among dozens of schemes being tried out by ambulance trusts across the country as they attempt to improve their emergency response times and help A&E departments meet controversial targets to treat all patients within four hours of arrival
Coming soon to a country near you(?)
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 03/28/2010 04:44 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The inevitable consequence (sooner or later) of big government micro-management of things better left to intelligent people to manage for themselves.
Posted by: Bulldog || 03/28/2010 8:37 Comments || Top||

#2  .. to treat all patients within four hours of arrival

Huh? This is the model of 'better medical' care of universal coverage? Nuff said. We're not talking a mass casualty situation here people.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/28/2010 9:33 Comments || Top||

#3  One would hope the idea is that the EMTs evaluate the situation to see if it really is a medical emergency. When services are free or low-cost, people tend to go to that as a first choice, rather than only when necessary. Nonetheless, people are going to die when those EMTs who are venal allow less than $60 affect their decisions.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/28/2010 9:55 Comments || Top||

#4  Coming soon to a country near you(?)(.)

FTFY, Anguper.
Posted by: gorb || 03/28/2010 13:11 Comments || Top||

#5  I had a mild stroke and drove myself to the Hospital (Wife has RP and is near blind) all is well, it was only a quarter mile or so.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/28/2010 16:24 Comments || Top||

#6  You're a special case, Redneck Jim.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/28/2010 20:25 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Chavez: Clinton thinks US owns 'the continent'
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez scorns US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as an ancient thinker, charging her with interfering in Venezuelan domestic affairs.

"She still considers herself the imperial lady. She is behind the times," Chavez said during his visit to Ecuador on Friday.

"She still thinks the United States is the owner of this continent," he added.

Chavez made the remarks after Clinton criticized Caracas over the detention of television station owner Guillermo Zuloaga.

During a Latin American tour, Clinton said that the Venezuelan government is limiting freedom and should restore "full democracy."

"A Venezuelan judge comes along and orders the detention of a criminal in Venezuela who owns a media outlet," Chavez noted.

"And then they attack the government of Venezuela ... for attacking press freedom, for attacking journalists and the news media - what cynicism. It's the cynicism of the (US) empire."

Attorney General Luisa Ortega said Zuloaga is charged with deliberately spreading false information and insulting Chavez at an Inter-American Press Association meeting in Aruba last weekend.
Posted by: Fred || 03/28/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Chavez: Clinton thinks US owns 'the continent'

Odd statement, yes we DO own the continent.
Last I looked, he was NOT in OUR continent.
Mexico and Canada ARE, but NOT Venezuela.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/28/2010 16:29 Comments || Top||

#2  I thought he thought he owned the continent?
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/28/2010 16:44 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Honeytrap ensnares enemies of Kremlin
“These are classic KGB tactics,' said a leading Kremlin critic. “It's professionally done. A long list has been drawn up of opposition figures who should be discredited. Then they cast the net and see who gets entangled.'
Wonder what video Putin's FSB have on Hillary?
Posted by: ed || 03/28/2010 14:52 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Agent Huma, you have done well, performing admirably under...disgusting....circumstances"
Posted by: Frank G || 03/28/2010 15:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Yuck! But more seriously, what does the KGB archives have on Barack Obama's daddy and Soviet agent Frank Marshall Davis?
Posted by: ed || 03/28/2010 16:09 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Taiwan president calls security alert after Korean clash
President Ma Ying-jeou ordered Defence Minister Kao Hwa-chu to initiate the national security mechanism to monitor developments in the wake of the sinking of a South Korean patrol boat by a North Korean navy vessel off Baengnyeong Island west of North Korea Friday evening.

After televised reports of the sinking reached Ma, the president called an emergency security meeting with National Security Council Secretary-General Hu Wei-chen and other staff accompanying him on the last evening of a six day series of state visits to Taiwan`s six Pacific allies.

Presidential Spokesman Lo Chih-chiang told reporters accompanying Ma about the emergency meeting, which was convened at held at 12 midnight in the wake of the reports of the event. Lo said that the president had telephoned Defense Minister Kao Hwa-chu and Armed Forces Chief of Staff Lin Chen-ying and asked them ``initiate the national security mechanism and pay close attention to developments in South Korea and adopt necessary measures.``

Government Information Office Minister Chiang Chi-chen related that he had already called Premier Wu Den-yih to notify him of the president`s decision, and Wu had in turn stated that the Executive Yuan had been carefully monitoring the situation.
Posted by: || 03/28/2010 09:46 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  in the wake of the sinking of a South Korean patrol boat by a North Korean navy vessel

Taiwan doesn't seem the least bit unsure about what happened, no matter what the South Koreans are saying.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/28/2010 20:26 Comments || Top||


Economy
Phony products impress federal Energy Star program
Federal investigators who submitted phony products, such as a gasoline-powered alarm clock, to the government's energy-efficiency certification program found it easy to obtain approval and say the program is "vulnerable to fraud and abuse."
Posted by: Fred || 03/28/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
Nato chief proposes missile shield to include Russia
Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen has called for a new missile defence system that would protect the US and its allies, and include Russia as well. Mr Rasmussen was speaking at the Brussels Forum - an international gathering in the Belgian capital.
I think I've seen this movie: Uncle Sugar pays for a major defense element that benefits Europe. And now we have to include the Russians in whatever we give away to the Y'urp-peons or the Rooskies will shut off the gas.
Mr Rasmussen said the threat of missile proliferation was real and growing and, in cases such as Iran, these missiles could threaten Nato territories. He said missile defence could bring Nato and Russia together.

The Nato secretary general said he saw a new Euro-Atlantic missile defence system, as he called it, as more than just a means of defending Nato countries against ballistic missile attack. Mr Rasmussen clearly believes that such a system could re-invigorate not just the European allies' relationship with the US but also Nato's whole relationship with Russia.

"It would be an opportunity for Europe to demonstrate again to the United States that the allies are ready and willing to invest in the capabilities we need to defend ourselves," he said.

But he also argued that such a step would create a new dynamic in European security. It would be a strong political symbol that Russia is fully part of the Euro-Atlantic family, he said.

It's a bold proposal. The US has tried to draw Russia into its missile defence plans with very limited success. Moscow tends to see the proposal as ultimately undermining its own nuclear deterrent. But Nato as a whole is increasingly interested in such defences and looks set to go ahead with them with or without Russia on board.
Posted by: Steve White || 03/28/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Actually, Bush (cleverly, IMO) was the first to invite the Russians. IIRC W's proposal was to base the station in Azerbaijan, essentially in Ajad's backyard.
Posted by: lex || 03/28/2010 2:33 Comments || Top||

#2  TOPIX > [SecGen Rasmussen]NATO CHIEF: IRAN MISSLES CAN REACH ROMANIA, BULGARIA, GREECE, AND TURKEY. EUROPEAN UNION + EU SECURITY will remain a "Paper Tiger" unless EU Member-Sttaes can make more State(s)-specific "concrete contributions" to same on theor own behalf [as opposed to tote reliance on US includ GMD-TMD].

Read, $$$ + MEN + MATERIEL, BY THE EU FOR THE EU.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/28/2010 21:13 Comments || Top||


Merkel rejects Erdogan's call for Turkish schools in Germany
German Chancellor Merkel has rejected calls by Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan to set up Turkish schools in Germany. The proposal has also been criticized by politicians and Turkish groups in Germany.

"This will not get us ahead," Merkel said in her weekly video blog on Saturday. "We want that people who over many generations live in Germany will integrate. And that means that of course they have to learn the German language and live by German laws."

Integration, she said, should not be confused with "assimilation or giving up your country of origin."
That's a stupid statement. Integration pretty much is assimilation. You can still recall your country of origin: Italians in America still think fondly of Chris Columbus, German-Americans still cook a mean dish of sauerkraut, and Chinese-Americans can celebrate the Chinese New Year. But it's not just learning the American language and living by our law, it's becoming an American. Your parents may have grown up in Delhi, but you understand our civil war. Your grandparents may have grown up in Serbia, but you freeze like the rest of us at Valley Forge. America used to demand assimilation. You became an American and gave up all the attitudes and trappings of Ye Olde Country.

That's being challenged by the doctrine of multiculturalism. We're worse off because of it.
In an interview with German weekly Die Zeit on Thursday, Erdogan called for Turkish schools to be established in Germany. The Turkish premier said many of the 2.7 million people of Turkish origin in Germany had problems learning German.

"We have German schools in Turkey - why then can't we have Turkish schools in Germany?" he said.
Posted by: Fred || 03/28/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Global Jihad

#1  Must be taking lessons from the Spanish-only charter schools which focus on Hispanic culture here in the US.
Posted by: Highlander || 03/28/2010 9:58 Comments || Top||

#2  Turkish PM rebukes Merkel for rejecting high school offer
Posted by: tipper || 03/28/2010 11:05 Comments || Top||

#3  "The Turkish premier said many of the 2.7 million people of Turkish origin in Germany had problems learning German."

How can they live and thrive in a country if they won't can't learn the language?

If the Turks living in Germany "can't" learn the language, maybe they'd be happier moving back to Turkey, where they can speak the language. Just sayin'....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 03/28/2010 13:41 Comments || Top||

#4  many of the 2.7 million people of Turkish origin in Germany had problems learning German

Is he saying Turks are too dumb to learn the language of the country where they were born and live? Good thing they only send us the smart ones.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 03/28/2010 13:46 Comments || Top||

#5  Given that most of the Turks in Germany by now must be second and third generation, if they can't speak the language it's because the parents are fools. If they want to learn in Turkish, let them go back to Turkey for their schooling. PM Erdogan is trying for colonization paid for by the benighted natives.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/28/2010 20:34 Comments || Top||

#6  Oh, and the German schools in Turkey are no doubt expensive private schools, not state-supported public ones. The American school my Turkish girlfriend graduated from certainly was. She is now a professor at U. of Michigan, a nice little school, so her parents' investment paid off. ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/28/2010 20:39 Comments || Top||

#7  U. of Michigan, a nice little school, so her parents' investment paid off.

For now.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 03/28/2010 20:44 Comments || Top||

#8  She's been there a decade. Anything beyond this point is gravy, Nimble Spemble.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/28/2010 20:46 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
NYT(!): Who are those Tea Partiers anyway?
The venerable New York Times decides to look into those teabagging loonies, discovers the leaders are unemployed members of the middle class, who found something more important than job-hunting. The journalist's confusion is palpable: the people she interviewed are all benefitting from Social Security and other government programs, so how can it be they are working to force the government to give them less? This is the same confusion the New York Times has felt in the past, when Americans have voted in large numbers for Republican candidates, clearly against what the NYT feels to be their best interests,
When Tom Grimes lost his job as a financial consultant 15 months ago, he called his congressman, a Democrat, for help getting government health care.

Then he found a new full-time occupation: Tea Party activist.In the last year, he has organized a local group and a statewide coalition, and even started a "bus czar" Web site to marshal protesters to Washington on short notice. This month, he mobilized 200 other Tea Party activists to go to the local office of the same congressman to protest what he sees as the government's takeover of health care.

He and others do not see any contradictions in their arguments for smaller government even as they argue that it should do more to prevent job loss or cuts to Medicare. After a year of angry debate, emotion outweighs fact.
Mr. Grimes is one of many Tea Party members jolted into action by economic distress. At rallies, gatherings and training sessions in recent months, activists often tell a similar story in interviews: they had lost their jobs, or perhaps watched their homes plummet in value, and they found common cause in the Tea Party's fight for lower taxes and smaller government.

The Great Depression, too, mobilized many middle-class people who had fallen on hard times. Though, as Michael Kazin, the author of "The Populist Persuasion," notes, they tended to push for more government involvement. The Tea Party vehemently wants less -- though a number of its members acknowledge that they are relying on government programs for help.

Mr. Grimes, who receives Social Security, has filled the back seat of his Mercury Grand Marquis with the literature of the movement, including Glenn Beck's "Arguing With Idiots" and Frederic Bastiat's "The Law," which denounces public benefits as "false philanthropy."

"If you quit giving people that stuff, they would figure out how to do it on their own," Mr. Grimes said.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/28/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Bone head NYT writer. They are blind. They never consider TeaParty people are treating the cause of the unemployment (over-intrusive over-regualting over-sized government distorting the economy), whiel the NYT only sees not the symptom (businesses hurting and laying people off or failing).

Damned doctrinaire idiots at the NYT cannot see past their collectivist, statist blinders.
Posted by: OldSpook || 03/28/2010 10:31 Comments || Top||

#2  They still think of the business cycle as something that Just Happens, and all business downturns are caused by the magic business cycle.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 03/28/2010 11:07 Comments || Top||

#3  .....cause everyone knows recessions are caused by taxes being too low and to little government regulation.

Elite lefty's are all the same, if you don't march to their drummer you're obviously an idiot and not to be taken seriously in any way.
Posted by: Jefferson || 03/28/2010 11:36 Comments || Top||

#4  Mr. Grimes is one of many Tea Party members jolted into action by economic distress.

I wonder how many Times grunts signed up when they found out what Pinch and Judy bagged in bonuses?
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/28/2010 15:50 Comments || Top||

#5  Why any Tea Party activist - or any other conservative or Republican, for that matter - would ever talk to a NYT journoturd is beyond me. Everyone on our side needs to realize that when they see a "reporter", the chances are 99% that they're looking at a paid operative of the Democratic Party.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) || 03/28/2010 15:56 Comments || Top||

#6  Weird that the NYT never speculates that "peace" marchers will get over it when the pot wears off.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 03/28/2010 17:15 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
India surprises with big new coal ports
LONDON/NEW DELHI: The speed with which large, private, fully-mechanised ports are springing up in India is making coal producers and traders think again.

Suppliers had until recently doubted India could import the coal it will need because most of its ports were small and shallow, and government port expansions were running late. The international perception of India's coal ports has been of a collection of mostly small, old, terminals which cannot take standard coal 150,000 tonne capesize vessels but are mostly limited to 50,000-75,000 tonne panamaxes or handysizes. These small ports can take up to a week to discharge, are plagued by delays and have poor road and rail links to end-users.

But the slew of private ports under construction or expansion and their sheer size has taken the international coal market by surprise.

"We're going to have to revise our projections for Indian coal imports and look at the impact of the ports being built," said John Kearsey, head of research at ship brokers Simon Spence & Young.

India will need more imported coal to make up for its domestic shortfall for the next 20 years. In 2010-2011 India will import 81 million tonnes.

"Indian and Chinese coal demand is a significant driver behind our forecast for dry bulk demand growth over the next few years," said Will Fray, shipping analyst with London-based consultants Maritime Strategies International (MSI). "Together we expect them to account for over 50 percent of global incremental seaborne coal imports over this period."

India is fully geared up to handle its coal import requirements by 2012, said a spokesman for the Adani Group, India's largest coal importers.

"Adani Group itself will have fully-mechanised capacity to handle close to 90 million tonnes of coal at various ports, including its Mundra terminal which will take 60 million tonnes alone," the spokesman said.

"Wow, if that's how much they're gearing up for imports we have to look at that market," a European utility source said.

Krishnapatnam Port in Andhra Pradesh is one of the new state-of-the art cape ports and will be able to take in more coal than South Africa's total 2009 exports by end-2011. Gangavaram, also on the east coast, is already taking capes and will soon be able to import 35 million tonnes coal.

"The long-held dream of capesize discharging at India has now become a reality and volumes will continue to increase," said Stuart Frost of ship brokers Lorentzen & Stemoco.

"It's astonishing. Breathtaking. We went to Gangavaram in March and just could not believe it. They can already discharge capes and will eventually take in 35 million tonnes of coal a year -- just one port," one South African producer said.

These are two on a long list of ports being built by private firms in partnership with government, which will dramatically speed up India's ability to import coal open up the market to suppliers who need efficient logistics on the demand side.

"All the Indian ports are getting a facelift but there are a lot of excellent new ports such as Mundra, Reva, Gangavaram and Krishnapatnam which have worked their logistical connections right," said ports consultant Poul Jensen.

"Nobody believed they would do it but it's one of the reasons I think the coal market should be looking more at India and China - India needs coal, it's not just arbitrage," said one European economist and coal expert.

India is also building a host of state and private coal-fired power plants plus private merchant power plants which sell power to local industry on a spot basis and could need as much as 200 million tonnes of imported coal within the next several years to feed these.

"India is one of those markets where the projections going forward are not just empty projections," said Anjali Bhasin, a director of ship brokers Braemar Seascope India.

"Coal has to come in. There is a certain amount of power that has to be generated and these are power projects that are on track. Steel plants which are on track," he added.

India infrastructure is changing radically, said Ajay D'Souza, head of Mumbai-based CRISIL Research. "The industry which was stagnating with no new investments or technological breakthroughs saw a radical change in the last couple of years and it will pick up more speed," D'Souza said.

The government's aim is to expand major state ports to handle 1.5 billion tonnes of total cargo by 2012 but plans are behind target -- a gap being filled by the private sector.
Posted by: john frum || 03/28/2010 10:57 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  India is building a bunch of coal-fired power plants. China is building new coal and nuclear plants. The US is building nothing but talking about "green jobs".

I always wondered what it would be like to live in a third world country. I guess I'm about to find out. And I won't even have to move out of the US. Thanks a lot Barry.
Posted by: DMFD || 03/28/2010 11:58 Comments || Top||

#2  Let's hear it for capitalism!
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/28/2010 12:11 Comments || Top||

#3  You can just hear them now...

"But... capitalism isn't supposed to be able to build big useful stuff! You need the government to do that!"
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 03/28/2010 12:23 Comments || Top||

#4  They spent the last forty or so years nickel-and-diming away the ability to get stuff done by private industry and they think they've proven that private industry can't do stuff. And they stand around looking suprised when they find out the Indians or Chinese don't know that.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 03/28/2010 12:24 Comments || Top||

#5  Jobs for West Virginia coal miners! See? President Obama is providing green (or black at least) jobs as promised.

/sarcasm
Posted by: trailing wife on the other computer || 03/28/2010 13:54 Comments || Top||

#6  How strange! A developing country builds the infrastructure to exploit a cheap, available energy supply. In other news, some guy was bitten by a dog.
Posted by: SteveS || 03/28/2010 14:31 Comments || Top||

#7  The US is building nothing but talking about "green jobs

Better: Here in Oregon, the State has publicly announced an energy policy that has NO plans for new power plants through 2050. With projected power needs far exceeding current capacity, the stated aim is to "achieve 80% of the shortfall through conservation"...

Yeah, you can guess where that's going to lead. There's a pilot program right now that residences can 'opt-in' for that permits the utility to 'throttle-back' a home's electricity by cutting major consuming appliances/devices.

Coming soon: Mandatory 'big brother' utilities.

In other news: No word on what our State plans on doing for the other '20%'...but you can bet it's rooted in wind & solar which, paradoxically, require conventional electricity production to back them up. Idiots.
Posted by: logi_cal || 03/28/2010 21:37 Comments || Top||


Popular kite festival shot down in Pakistan
But other government officials have suggested there is more to the ban than safety. Sajjad Bhutta, a top Lahore district officer, has said Basant involves immoral drinking and parties that cannot be tolerated in a Muslim society. He declined to elaborate on those views in an interview.

Muhammad Raghib Naeemi, head of one of Lahore's largest religious schools, cited many reasons to drop kite-flying, including its ties to Hindu culture and its origins allegedly linked to a man accused of committing blasphemy against the prophet Muhammad. The perils of the festival and the depravity associated with it only strengthen the need for the prohibition, he said.
rest at link
Posted by: john frum || 03/28/2010 09:44 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If it is fun, it is un-Islamic. Any questions?
Posted by: SteveS || 03/28/2010 12:27 Comments || Top||


Fake degrees threaten many more high profile MPs
[The News (Pak) Top Stories] A Pandora's box has been opened after two MNAs, PPP's Jamshed Dasti and PML-Q's Nazir Jatt, resigned after their degrees were found to be fake in a Supreme Court case, as many more elected representatives fear they may also fall into this ditch.

Questions are already being raised about the future of these other dubious degree holders and on top of the list is the incumbent president of Pakistan, who holds a graduation degree in Economics and Business Administration from Pedinton School, London.

This qualification of President Asif Ali Zardari was mentioned on the official website of the Pakistan People's Party but was removed after the general election of 2008. The official wire service of Pakistan also mentioned his London degree when he was elected as the president.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 03/28/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Boycotts bring Pakistan's judiciary to a halt
[Al Arabiya Latest] Pakistani judiciary, engaged in a do-or-die battle for gaining independence from the executive and legislature, received another jolt this week as both judges and lawyers took positions against each other to boycott the courts and stage protests after a lawyer slapped and manhandled a judge while he was holding the court.

The incident happened on March 22 in Faisalabad, the industrial hub of Punjab province also dubbed as Manchester of Pakistan for its vast industrial base, about 300 kilometers south of Islamabad but it soon spread across the largest province, Punjab, as the courts reopened on March 24 following the holiday of Pakistan Day.

Reacting to the aggressive attack, the judges belonging to subordinate judiciary stopped the work demanding immediate and stern action against the lawyer Liaqat Javed who slapped the Civil Judge Tariq Mahmood, terming it extremely outrageous and devastating for the prestige of judiciary.

The judges led by the Sessions Judge of the District, not only shut down courts for few hours as token boycott but also wore black armbands as mark of protest, pressing for their demands of exemplary legal action against the lawyer and cancellation of his license.

With another day passed the judges began tendering resignations as close to one hundred of them submitted their resignations in different cities of Punjab. This forced the Lahore High Court to take suo moto notice of the situation by ordering registration of contempt of court case against the lawyer. However, the lawyer could not be arrested as he fled from home.

Authorities feared a possible clash between the judges and lawyers, the two arms of the judiciary, as lawyers boycotted the courts and staged protests demanding the withdrawal of contempt of court case against the accused lawyer.

The lawyers' defiant posture against the judges has brought the institution of judiciary at crossroads again where it is faced with an enemy from within, the lawyers community.

The judiciary had regained much of its independence as a result of a glorious mass movement over past few years which saw the exit of former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf and restoration of judges whom he had illegally sacked,

The anti-Musharraf mass movement for judges' restoration is believed to have emboldened certain elements among the lawyers community. There have reports of repeated attacks from lawyers on the media men, police officials, and their repeated attempts to pressure a court to release on bail a lawyer leader accused of torturing to death a minor-aged housemaid.

"Such incidents not only brought bad name to legal fraternity but also posed a serious question mark on the future of judiciary's independence since these lawyers rise to become judges," said a former vice chairman of Punjab Bar Council Hamid Khan.

He expressed sorrow over the rising incidents of the hooliganism by lawyers saying it was most unfortunate for the judiciary with which the poor masses have pinned fresh hopes following its revival against the iron hands of military and civil establishment.

A senior official requesting anonymity said the incident of slapping the judge was "totally outrageous and uncalled for" since the judge, hearing a loan default case, refused to release the accused on bail as requested by the lawyer who insisted that the amount had already been deposited.

The judge ruled against the request observing that the case record had no mention of such payment. This flared the lawyer up and he started abusing the judge, and suddenly rushed to the rostrum and reportedly slapped the judge repeatedly. The judge was rescued by court officials and lawyers.

As the reports of judges resignations keep pouring in from all major cities of the province with every passing day, the situation seems to be going from bad to worse as the accused lawyer was still at large despite that four days past issuing arrest warrants against him. The Lahore High Court has ordered the police to arrest the lawyer [Liaqat Javed ] till March 30, the day when the court is scheduled to resume the suo moto proceedings against him.
Posted by: Fred || 03/28/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


India test-fires two nuclear-capable missiles
India has successfully test-fired two short-range missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads off the country's east coast.

According to Indian defense ministry officials, locally-produced Prithvi-II and Dhanush missiles were launched from two sites in the Bay of Bengal on Saturday.

"The tests were successful and met all the mission objectives," said S. P. Dash, director of the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur in the eastern state of Orissa.

The Prithvi-II has a range of 295 kilometers while the Dhanush missile can cruise 350 kilometers, according to the Press Trust of India.

New Delhi has developed an array of weapon systems that can reach potential targets in neighboring Pakistan and China.

India and Pakistan, non-signatories to the non-proliferation regime, have conducted a series of nuclear-capable missile tests since 2002.
Posted by: Fred || 03/28/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Agni-1 is supposed to be tested today.

It seems the Indians have upgraded the guidance system of these missiles (single figure CEPs)
Posted by: john frum || 03/28/2010 8:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Missile #3

Agni-1 test-fired off Orissa coast
India on Sunday successfully test-fired its indigenously developed, nuclear-capable, short range ballistic missile (SRBM) Agni-1 from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Wheeler Island, about 100 km from Balasore off Orissa coast.

User of the missile, the strategic force command of the Indian Army, executed the entire launch operation with the necessary logistic support being provided by the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) at the integrated test range (ITR).

Weighing 12 tonne, the 15 metre tall Agni-1, which can carry payloads weighing up to one tonne, has already been inducted into the Indian Army.

Posted by: john frum || 03/28/2010 11:44 Comments || Top||

#3  Indians have upgraded the guidance system of these missiles (single figure CEPs)

Short range nukes with a low CEP? Yeah, given the neighborhood, I can see that coming in handy. It won't be pretty, though.
Posted by: SteveS || 03/28/2010 20:05 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Israeli advance in stem cell tech
A new technology developed at Hadassah University Medical Center has made it possible to produce large amounts of human embryonic stem cells (hESC) for industry and research purposes by growing them in suspension.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/28/2010 15:39 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I wonder what the "Palestinians" are going to contribute to the world here. Or the Taliban. Or Al Qaeda. I'm sure Iranian technology is light years beyond this by now.
Posted by: gorb || 03/28/2010 20:35 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
Soupnazi gets 20 years for 'largest ever card theft
Posted by: tipper || 03/28/2010 12:30 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  leading a scheme that cost companies, banks and insurers nearly $US200 million

Who the hell does he think he is, Congress? Oh, wait, million, not billion, never mind ...
Posted by: DMFD || 03/28/2010 12:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Did anyone else click through to see if it was really The Original Soup Guy rather than (as it turned out) a hacker just using the label?

(BTW, he allegedly hates the label "the Soup ____" which I will respect and not try to repeat here).
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 03/28/2010 13:11 Comments || Top||

#3  I don't think he's the original Soup Guy, Snowy Thing. The article describes the man as a computer hacker from Miami named Albert Gonzalez.
Posted by: trailing wife on the other computer || 03/28/2010 13:59 Comments || Top||

#4  that would be Caldo Nazi to you, Señor
Posted by: Frank G || 03/28/2010 14:52 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Junta to keep political role
[Straits Times] MYANMAR'S junta chief warned political parties to behave while campaigning for historic elections later this year, noting yesterday that the armed forces can take part in politics 'whenever the need arises.'

Addressing 13,000 troops at the country's annual Armed Forces Day parade, Senior General Than Shwe said: 'We, the patriotic Tatmadaw (military), not only defend and protect the nation and the people with our lives, but take part and serve in national politics whenever the need arises.'

He also warned against foreign meddling in upcoming elections and said 'divisive acts' could spark anarchy and derail the transition to democracy.

'During the transition to an unfamiliar system, countries with greater experience usually interfere and take advantage for their own interests,' said the reclusive junta supremo, wearing full military garb bedecked with medals, in a speech.

'For this reason, it is an absolute necessity to avoid relying on external powers,' he said in the address, which was broadcast to the nation and witnessed by foreign journalists, who received a rare invitation to the isolated nation.

Gen Than Shwe did not reveal a date for the long-awaited polls, the first to be held in more than two decades in the former Burma, a strategically situated but isolated country with rich natural resources from natural gas to timber and gems, and a South-east Asian port.
Posted by: Fred || 03/28/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:



Who's in the News
62[untagged]
4Govt of Pakistan
3Taliban
3TTP
1Global Jihad
1al-Qaeda in Pakistan
1Pirates

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


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.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2010-03-28
  Dronezap kills four in N. Wazoo
Sat 2010-03-27
  Allawi wins Iraq election by two seats
Fri 2010-03-26
  B.O. snubs Netanyahu, dines alone
Thu 2010-03-25
  Nativity Church deportee dies alone, unloved in Algeria
Wed 2010-03-24
  Saudis break up 101-strong Al-Qaeda cell
Tue 2010-03-23
  Hekmatyar dispatches peace delegation to Kabul
Mon 2010-03-22
  Boomer kills 10 Helmand picnickers
Sun 2010-03-21
  4 More Dronezapped in N.Wazoo
Sat 2010-03-20
  Al-Shabaab big turban bumped off
Fri 2010-03-19
  David Headley pleads guilty
Thu 2010-03-18
  'Jihad Jane' due in federal court in Philadelphia
Wed 2010-03-17
  N.Wazoo dronezap reduces 10 to component parts
Tue 2010-03-16
  Local Qaeda big turban titzup in Yemen strike
Mon 2010-03-15
  Sipah-e-Sahabah Pakistain chief pegs out
Sun 2010-03-14
  Kandahar hit by suicide bombers, 30 dead
Sat 2010-03-13
  Lahorkabooms kill 49


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.
3.135.217.228
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Operations (16)    WoT Background (19)    Opinion (9)    (0)    Politix (9)