Hi there, !
Today Sun 09/02/2012 Sat 09/01/2012 Fri 08/31/2012 Thu 08/30/2012 Wed 08/29/2012 Tue 08/28/2012 Mon 08/27/2012 Archives
Rantburg
533710 articles and 1862065 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 59 articles and 114 comments as of 16:23.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Opinion        Politix   
Syria Rebels Say 5 Choppers Wrecked in Raid on Airport
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 3: Non-WoT
5 22:12 Anguper Hupomosing9418 [9] 
0 [6] 
5 11:47 Raider [4] 
2 09:30 lord garth [5] 
0 [9] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
2 15:02 Besoeker [10]
3 17:55 JohnQC [7]
3 14:12 Barbara [4]
2 09:24 AlanC [11]
1 13:51 g(r)omgoru [6]
0 [10]
0 [5]
0 [5]
2 22:37 trailing wife [7]
0 [4]
0 [6]
0 [12]
0 [5]
0 [12]
0 [10]
0 [10]
4 19:54 Glenmore [14]
1 09:48 Raider [4]
Page 2: WoT Background
3 23:41 JosephMendiola [7]
0 [6]
2 19:04 Secret Asian Man [6]
0 [8]
4 23:45 USN, ret. [4]
0 [5]
0 [6]
0 [5]
1 12:05 Thing from Snowy Mountain [7]
3 15:08 newc [6]
6 23:39 JosephMendiola [5]
0 [5]
0 [9]
0 [11]
0 [4]
0 [4]
1 22:39 USN, ret. [6]
0 [4]
0 [9]
0 [4]
0 [4]
1 13:54 g(r)omgoru [11]
0 [10]
0 [4]
0 [6]
4 23:17 Rob Crawford [8]
Page 4: Opinion
1 16:11 g(r)omgoru [6]
2 10:35 JohnQC [3]
1 09:51 Raider [4]
7 23:21 Rob Crawford [5]
Page 6: Politix
0 [3]
5 19:14 Secret Asian Man [7]
14 22:49 JosephMendiola [7]
7 17:24 Jan [3]
9 18:08 JohnQC [5]
13 14:07 Barbara [4]
Africa Subsaharan
Minister tells of Mugabe's sleep
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Zim-bob-we President Bob Muggsy Mugabe
Octogenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case...
sleeps at crucial meetings and has become a liability for the country, one of his ministers has said.

Professor Welshman Ncube who leads of one of the two Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) formations said the 88 year-old leader slept at the recent Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit in Mozambique.

Prof Ncube told party supporters that President Mugabe had to be roused by Zambian President Michael Sata after he fell asleep a few minutes after the meeting that was meant to discuss the Zim-bob-we crisis began.

"The question is not about the retention of Mugabe, even at the SADC meetings he sleeps," Prof Ncube said. "If you are strong and young, you sleep in a dignified way but his whole body collapses when he sleeps.

"You sleep to a point that you are woken up by an equally old Sata as early as 9 am, who would tell other leaders that let us wake Mugabe he is sleeping. "You think that person can rule Zim-bob-we. We need fresh leaders with power and strength who do you do not have to look at and check if they are still awake."

President Mugabe, 87 has been in power since Zim-bob-we's independence from Britannia in 1980.

There have been reports that he is battling advanced prostate cancer and several other chronic ailments.

In April there were even reports he had died while receiving treatment at a Singapore hospital.

But he often scoffs at reports about his death joking that he has resurrected more times than Jesus Christ.
Posted by: Fred || 08/30/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Our party must continue to strike fear in the hearts of the white man, our real enemy.
- Robert Mugabe


Geo H. Wittman, "African Suicide," The American Spectator, April 16,2008
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/30/2012 4:30 Comments || Top||

#2  So, is he 88 or 87? The article contradicts itself in the middle. Does the writer work for the BBC?

But he often scoffs at reports about his death joking that he has resurrected more times than Jesus Christ.
That would be twice, then. DURR DURR
Posted by: gromky || 08/30/2012 6:08 Comments || Top||

#3  He was a liability 20 years ago. Should have kept a date with a Dragunov sniper rifle.
Posted by: Raider || 08/30/2012 9:49 Comments || Top||

#4  Mugabe, Mandela, Zuma, The Red Arch [Tutu] are but symptoms. When they are gone, they will simply be replaced by others like them. We should no more attempt to 'jump start' these people into the 21st century than we would the Yanomami tribespeople of South America.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/30/2012 10:37 Comments || Top||

#5  Boeserker - you have a good point that even in people like Mugabe are no longer in power ... the next guy might be 10 times worse. That's a tough thing about the world. Was the inaction worth it? Think of all the people who were beaten, tortured, and killed - or thrown into hell holes by this guy. It's always a tough call, isn't it :-)
Posted by: Raider || 08/30/2012 11:47 Comments || Top||


Economy
Gasoline Rising To Holiday High As Storm Surge Presses Obama
[Bloomberg] Hurricane Isaac and a deadly blast at Venezuela's Amuay refinery pushed gasoline to an almost four- month high and threatened to revive a debate about energy costs in the run-up to the presidential election in November.

Futures jumped yesterday in New York as Isaac forced closures of Gulf Coast refineries and reduced rates at others. That market is also reeling from an Aug. 25 kaboom in Venezuela that killed at least 48 people and closed the country's largest fuel-making plant. Futures are up 23 percent since their 2012 settlement low of $2.5501 a gallon on June 21.

Retail prices for regular grade increased 0.6 cent to $3.756 a gallon yesterday, the highest level since May 7, according to AAA, the largest U.S. motoring group.

Prices at the pump will be the highest ever for the U.S. Labor Day holiday, AAA said yesterday. The surge reignites an issue that has pitted President Barack Obama
The Cambridge police acted stupidly...
, who has called for the elimination of billions of dollars of subsidies enjoyed by the oil and gas industry, against the presumptive Republican nominee Willard Mitt Romney
...former governor of Massachussetts, currently the presumptive Publican nominee for president. He is the son of the former governor of Michigan, George Romney, who himself ran for president after saving American Motors from failure, though not permanently. Romney's charisma is best defined as soporific, which is probably why he is leading the Publican field. On the plus side, he isn't President B.O...
. It also spurs speculation that Obama will release supplies from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to ease prices for consumers.
Posted by: Fred || 08/30/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  QE3 gone, corn ethanol and gasoline to the roof Alice, unemployment up (previous number two times in a row women hit hardest and more recently college educated) the great ditherer in action. "release supplies from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve"- symbolic.
Posted by: Dale || 08/30/2012 6:54 Comments || Top||

#2  gasoline stocks were already low (about 5 - 10 million barrels below the 210 million normal) before Isaac hit

there are several refineries in the area that are closed or will be closed for a week or so and that will reduce production of gasoline by about 2 to 4 million barrels

however, consumption of gasoline is depressed during the storm and immediately after

the reality is that the slow economy is also depressing consumption by about 1M barrels a week or so; were it not for this, prices would be at least a dollar more per gallon
Posted by: lord garth || 08/30/2012 9:30 Comments || Top||


Europe
Berlin prosecutor nixes circumcision complaint
Prosecutors in Germany's capital city dismissed a criminal complaint lodged against popular local Rabbi Yitshak Ehrenberg over "causing bodily harm" by performing ritual circumcision, according to a document obtained by The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.

A complaint was filed against the Jerusalem-born Rabbi on July 12, and dismissed as unfounded in an August 15 letter. The prosecution’s dismissal document concluded that there is no proof to establish that the Rabbi’s conduct met the "condition of a criminal” violation. In response to Ehrenberg’s appearance on the German talk show "Anne Will,” the Rabbi announced that “we will continue" with circumcisions because it is a core feature of Judaism.

The Post learned on Wednesday that the city of Berlin, which is one of sixteen Federal German States, is considering not implementing the June Cologne court decision outlawing Jewish and Muslim circumcisions.The Berlin prosecutor office’s document suggests that the Berlin government rejects the Cologne decision. According to the prosecutor’s letter “even if a non-medical circumcision were to take place it would not meet the elements of severe bodily harm.”

A German doctor filed a criminal charge earlier in August against Rabbi David Goldberg for performing circumcision. Dr. Sebastian Guevara Kamm from Giessen in the German state of Hesse, lodged the complaint on the basis a June ruling in Cologne, the North Rhine- Westphalia state, that "non-medical circumcision is a serious and irreversible interference in the integrity of the human body

The local prosecutor’s office is still investigating the complaint against Goldberg. The mohel, or person trained in the practice of Jewish circumcision, sees the complaint as part of an anti-Semitic campaign spreading throughout the Federal Republic.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/30/2012 13:26 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Nazis didn't even stoop that low.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 08/30/2012 14:15 Comments || Top||

#2  I'm surprised that Muslims haven't spoken up. IIRC, Muslims also circumcise their young boys, although the requirement isn't as strong as in Judaism. I can't wait until someone files a criminal complaint against an Imam.

According to Wikipedia, Mohamed was born without a foreskin, so his followers had themselves circumcised to imitate him.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 08/30/2012 17:49 Comments || Top||

#3  Mohamed was born without a foreskin

Mohamed was a Jew?
Posted by: SteveS || 08/30/2012 19:34 Comments || Top||

#4  I was discussing this with Mr. Wife this morning, and it is his considered opinion that this is not actually antisemitic -- although it may be anti-Muslim -- but rather that Germans, and Europeans in general, see male circumcision as being as barbaric as female circumcision. And indeed, the original Cologne case involved a Muslim child, not a Jewish infant. A rather responsible Muslim family, in fact, who sought modern medical treatment at a German hospital when complications developed, and were punished for it.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/30/2012 19:44 Comments || Top||

#5  Male circumcision is sometimes medically indicated. News doesn't say whether or not Germany has banned that as a medical procedure also. Whether done for medical or religious reasons, procedure can have complications.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 08/30/2012 22:12 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Babar to head commission on provinces
[Dawn] PPP Senator and Presidency's front man Farhatullah Babar was unanimously elected chairman of the controversial Parliamentary Commission on Creation of New Provinces in Punjab which held its fist meeting on Tuesday despite a boycott by its PML-N members.Talking to news hounds outside the Parliament House after his election, Mr Babar requested the PML-N to end its boycott of the commission. He announced that the commission would meet again on Wednesday to frame its rules of business and prepare the terms of reference.
Posted by: Fred || 08/30/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


-Election 2012
Willard's Secret Service security detail has potential job opening
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/30/2012 08:24 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:



Who's in the News
36[untagged]
5Arab Spring
4Govt of Pakistan
4al-Shabaab
3Govt of Syria
2al-Qaeda in Arabia
2TTP
1al-Qaeda in Iraq
1Lashkar e-Taiba
1Thai Insurgency

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
Thu 2012-08-30
  Syria Rebels Say 5 Choppers Wrecked in Raid on Airport
Wed 2012-08-29
  Russian Suicide Blast Kills Muslim Leader in Dagestan Region
Tue 2012-08-28
  59 Dead as Syrian Regime Opens New Front in Damascus
Mon 2012-08-27
  Kenyan cleric shot dead, sparks riots in Mombasa
Sun 2012-08-26
  Badruddin Haqqani drone zapped!
Sat 2012-08-25
  Breivik gets 21-year prison term
Fri 2012-08-24
  Gunmen attack U.S. diplomatic vehicle in Mexico
Thu 2012-08-23
  115 Dead in Syria as Troops Unleash Deadly Damascus Assault
Wed 2012-08-22
  Deputy PM Says Syria 'Ready to Discuss' Assad Departure
Tue 2012-08-21
  US drones kill 10 militants in Pakistan
Mon 2012-08-20
  Third Drone Strike In 24 Hours Kills Two In North Waziristan
Sun 2012-08-19
  Suicide bomber kills six policemen at funeral in Ingushetia
Sat 2012-08-18
  US drone kills 5 militants in northern Pakistan
Fri 2012-08-17
  Algeria’s Brahimi agrees to be Syria mediator
Thu 2012-08-16
  20 Shiites in Pakistan pulled from buses, gunned down


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.
18.188.175.182
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Operations (18)    WoT Background (26)    Opinion (4)    (0)    Politix (6)