With Afghanistan and Iraq already lost, the Wall Street bankers were all desperately looking for other ways to control our world, when suddenly and very conveniently, the Sumatran Trench exploded. Trick or Treat?
by Joe Vialls
Despite a natural human tendency to be shocked into silence by the sheer number of dead and injured across Asia on 26 December 2004, and despite also being slightly fearful of losing personal credibility . . . Can't lose what you never had in the first place, but go on.
. . . because of the magnitude of the apparent crime, there are many provable irregularities in the official American tsunami story that simply have to be recorded now, or forever be lost in the sands of overwrought metaphor time.
It is beyond any doubt that a giant tidal wave (tsunami) smashed its way through South and South East Asia, and still had enough legs to continue all the way across the Indian Ocean to Africa, where it killed and injured a few hundred more. So the only question we must ask, is whether this tsunami was a natural or man-made catastrophe? A natural event would be horrifying enough, but if the tsunami was man-made, then we are unquestionably looking at the biggest single war crime in global history.
To make any sense at all of the irregularities, we must start at the very beginning, and then follow the course of events as they unfold, . . . Several thousand words later--
. . . I will be circumspect as to exactly how a large American thermonuclear weapon managed to arrive at the bottom of the Sumatran Trench, though all of the seismic evidence and preparedness for the resulting mission indicates strongly that this is the case. After all, we are back to the age-old question of "who benefits?", and in this particular case, "Who is insane enough to kill more than 150,000 civilians just to hang on to power?' Based on their past performance in Iraq and other luckless countries, it would seem that the only realistic candidates are Wolfowitz and company, striving as always to create a "One World Government". Aieeee! The Jooooos did it!
. . . For the Zionist Cabal, obtaining a thermonuclear weapon in America is no great trick, especially when we have the precedent of 100 small 'decommissioned' air-to-air atomic warheads being smuggled out the Pentagon's (civilian) back door, to form the core of the Jewish State's current nuclear arsenal. Once a weapon system is out date and out of service, loyal uniformed US military personnel can no longer track it.
Those who wish to understand how such a seemingly small weapon could rattle a 20,000 feet-deep oceanic trench, and then force a giant tsunami right across the Indian Ocean, would do well to look at the diagram of the famous 'Dambusters' attacking the German dam below, most of which is self-explanatory. . . .
My God! They used a 60-year old Avro Lancaster to drop the bomb into the Sumatra Trench! Is there no end to their depravity?
To force subservience on Asia, and ensure the lion's share of incredibly lucrative reconstruction contracts, all that was needed was a very large tsunami targeted on the selected nations, which was easily within the capabilities of a large thermonuke. . . .
Elsewhere in the essay, he claims that Australia and the U.S. are landing troops to occupy the now-depopulated Aceh province.
If everything had gone to plan, But it did!
then Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India would have been in hock to the IMF and World Bank for thirty or more years - time enough to wait for the price of oil to come down again after the lethal fiasco in Iraq. At the same time, if the Indian Government had taken the bait, But they did!
the deadly Russian-Chinese-Indian-Brazilian coalition would have been dead in the water. Not a bad day's work for a single thermonuclear weapon discreetly removed from the decommissioning process.
There are those who may claim that I have 'left out' the giant ExxonMobil gas fields in Aceh, but that is not the case. Certainly they are very productive sub-surface fields, and will unquestionably produce lots of gas again once the surface equipment has been repaired, but in isolation they are completely incapable of saving the New Zion from collapse. Wall Street needs giant reconstruction contracts, and plenty of them.
If I remember correctly, shortly before Christmas I received a large number of emails from various people about some "German Guy", who apparently claimed that Wolfowitz had got hold of a critical weapon and was going to nuke Houston on either the 26 or 27 of December. I never did read the whole email, "It was too crazy, even for me."
but it seems very likely that it was initially circulated by some moonbat Wolfowitz or one of his ilk, as attention-seeking behavior a classic disinformation distraction. Try something along the lines of "You suckers all watch Houston very carefully on 26 December, while I nuke Asia behind your backs⊠" "Was it also mere coincidence that the Houston Texans had an away game that weekend? In which they beat the Jacksonville Jaguars by an improbable 21-0 score? Jacksonville's quarterback has a Jewish name: 'Leftwich!' It's a conspiracy, I tell you! A conspiracy! . . ."
Look for this theory to be a major topic on DU and Daily Kos, and a front-page article in the Arab News, by Friday.
Note to Mr. Viall: ask your doctor if selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors are right for you. SSRIs could change your life.
My Gawd, I looked at the original: he really is a nutter, ain't he!
Posted by: Mike ||
01/05/2005 10:54:28 AM ||
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#1
Nah, everybody knows it was the Halliburton Earthquake/Tsunami Machine. Now with Volcano Action!
#5
If I even see a link to Viles, I need to take a shower. I try to read some of what "the other side" is saying, but Viles is so unbelievably awful and ugly I just can't.
#9
ohhhhh! those diabolical joooooooooos! now that he lays out the plan, it all makes exquisitely perfect sense. I'll explain:
you see, the joooooos, with this technology in hand, knew they could create a devastating tsunami that would roil the third world. So by creating this horror, they so obviously benefit by, um, er, well, uh
(I haven't got that part completely figured out yet, but trust me, it was CLEARLY a wolfowitz/mossad/one world/trilateral commission/campfire girls conspiracy)
#10
What Viles and his credulous slave-followers do not know, or will not acknowledge, is that a 9+ earthquake is millions of times more energetic than a megaton class nuclear explosion. The mass to be shifted, a sizable section of the Earth's crust, will weigh not millions or billions of tons, but quadrillions of tons. How far would a ton of TNT move a billion tons of rock? That is about the scale we are talking about here.
If there is seismic evidence for a nuclear explosion, why doesn't Viles produce it for all to see? More importantly, how does Viles account for the failure of seismologists to point this out themselves? Even if we postulate that all American scientists are under the control of the government, a transparently insane suggestion in and of itself, he would still have to account for seismologists in other countries, including hostile nations like Iran. The preferential idiots, the evil scum, who read this stuff are usually unaware of even the most basic facts about how the world operates. Some, for example, may not know that each country has its own indepedent government. To them the gummint is a single worldwide monolith. Think I'm kidding? A couple of years ago I went on TV to debunk the Loathesome Fox Moon Hoax Show*. I ran into a college student the next day who still believed the show's contention that the landings were faked. During the subsequent conversation, it emerged that she did not know that there is more than one national military force in the world or that scientists did not all work for the US government.
When you run across one of these sub-human conspira-liars (both perps and dupes are equally guilty), make an effort to find out not what it knows, but what it doesn't know. Ask how the gummint works, for example. How many countries are there in the world? How far away is Indonesia? How many oil companies are there? How many professional seismologists?
*Known to its criminally insane con-artist and alcoholic promoters as "Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon."
#11
Rightwing: Freedom of the press also means freedom to mock, ridicule, belittle, and otherwise eviscerate (metaphorically, that is) the Michael Moores, Ted Ralls, and Joe Vialls of the world. The intellectual distance between this nutter and your average DU-nik or Kosophile is a lot less than the MSM will ever admit.
Besides, mocking moonbats is fun!
Posted by: Mike ||
01/05/2005 11:54 Comments ||
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#12
I've heard some stupid things in my time, but this makes the top 25!
#14
There are limits to freedom of speech and the incitement of violence against the United States and its people is one of those limits. Conspiracy theorists are a major factor in inciting the global jihad and, of course, in motivating the fifth column without whose subversive influence the war would end in a week.
Insane devils like Viles are as culpable for Islamofascist violence as Julius Streicher was for the Holocaust and he was culpable enough to end his journalistic career at the end of a rope. The law has not changed, what has changed is that the authorities are intimidated by the institutional media culture, which profits from inflammatory expression, and for this base commercial reason recognizes few if any limits on expression. The MSM is going down, and filth like Viles and the nazi whore Carol Valentine, who incited Tim McVeigh, will pay the full measure for their crimes against reason and humanity.
#15
Mike: I agree. Except what's a DU-nik? Depelted Uranium? Better yet a Kosophile? One who has sex with Kosovars? Please pardon my ignorance. Thanks.
#16
DU is the Democratic Underground: a message board for the people who believe that Viles speaks Truth To Power.
I go there when I think my blood pressure's a bit too low.
Today is good people watching over there...tomorrow is the day that Congress ratifies the election results and they are twisting themselves into pretzels...
DU-nik = a denizen of the Democratic Underground, which is often abbreviated "DU." DU is a bulletin board site for barking moonbatsanti-global nutjobsfifth columnistsescaped mental patientsextreme leftists who march in lockstep extremely passionate Democrats whose view of the world is, oh, let's be nice and call it "not yours and mine." If you read DU postings for any length of time, you might wish you had some D[epleted ]U[ranium] rounds to fire at the DU-niks, but that's a whole 'nother topic.
Kosophile = a reader of Daily Kos, a site run by barking moonbatescaped mental patientneofascist ideologue Democratic party activist/consultant Markos Zuniga. Less of an ideological and philosophical outlier than DU, but not by much.
Posted by: Mike ||
01/05/2005 12:44 Comments ||
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#18
Huh, this guy is blaming it on the Jooos, US and Israel. That's nice.
I've been telling people it was a French nuclear test.... *g*
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
01/05/2005 13:56 Comments ||
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#21
I read some one floating this idea a few days ago. I can't go into how pathetic I think these ass hats are. The list of explitives would be so long and I would end up getting banned.
#23
Every schoolboy knows that the "ZIONIST DEATH RAY" caused the Tsunami. After all the vaunted legendary TESLA DEATH RAY, from whence it was derived, caused the incredible Tunguska explosion early in the twentieth century...
borgboy in the subjunctive
Posted by: Steve ||
01/05/2005 8:54 Comments ||
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#3
I can only access the www.aach.net version of the site from work 'cuz the evil monkeys in IT marked the real rantburg addy as "chat" and blocked it.
Bastids!
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
01/05/2005 9:00 Comments ||
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#4
Rantburg should be required reading at work. We are Fighting the Global War on Terror here, not Chatting.
Moisture-laden storms from the north, west and south are likely to converge on much of America over the next several days in what could be a once-in-a-generation onslaught, meteorologists forecast yesterday. If the gloomy computer models at the U.S. Climate Prediction Center are right, we'll see this terrible trio:
⢠The "Pineapple Express," a series of warm, wet storms heading east from Hawaii, drenching Southern California and the far Southwest, already beset with heavy rain and snow. Flooding, avalanches and mudslides are possible.
⢠An "Arctic Express," a mass of cold air chugging south from Alaska and Canada, bringing frigid air and potentially heavy snow and ice to the usually mild-wintered Pacific Northwest.
⢠An unnamed warm, moist storm system from the Gulf of Mexico drenching the already-saturated Ohio, Tennessee and Mississippi valleys. Expect heavy river flooding and springlike tornadoes.
Meteorologists caution that their predictions are only as good as their computer models. And forecasts are less accurate the further into the future they attempt to predict. "The models tend to overdo the formation of these really exciting weather formations for us," said Mike Wallace, a University of Washington atmospheric scientist. Yet the more Wallace studied the models, the more he became convinced that something wicked was coming this way. "It all fits together nicely," he said. "There's going to be weather in the headlines this weekend, that's for sure."
The three storms are likely to meet in the nation's midsection and cause even more problems, sparing only areas east of the Appalachian Mountains. Property damage and a few deaths are likely, forecasters said. "You're talking a two- or three-times-a-century type of thing," said prediction-center senior meteorologist James Wagner, who has been forecasting storms since 1965. "It's a pattern that has a little bit of everything."
Kelly Redmond, deputy director of the Western Regional Climate Center at the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nev., where an unusual 18 inches of snow is on the ground, said the expected heavy Western rains could cause avalanches. Southern California and western Arizona have had three to four times the normal precipitation for the area since Oct. 1. "Somebody is in for something pretty darn interesting," Redmond said.
I hate it when they say that
Posted by: Steve ||
01/05/2005 11:54:29 AM ||
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#1
Hurray! The water reservoirs are being refilled -- California will be able to water lawns and wash cars all summer. Now if only the stupid tree huggers would allow the smart tree huggers to kill off the Eucalyptus trees, life would be truly good. ;-)
Oh, and don't forget skiing in the Rocky Mountain resorts -- this time of year rain comes down as snow up there. Now I want to go back!
#4
Am I the only one here that thought of Global Warming with this quote
"Meteorologists caution that their predictions are only as good as their computer models. And forecasts are less accurate the further into the future they attempt to predict." ?
Could we maybe just change Meteorologist to Climatologist and leave the rest of the statement, hmmmmm?
#7
Sadly, I've never actually been to the Eucalyptus State to experience that particular perfume. ;-) However, I do know three things about eucalyptus: they are native to Australia, not CA, and extremely invasive (like kudzu or Chinese honeysuckle); the resins are highly flammable (or is it inflammable?), which contributes heavily to the devastating forest fires y'all have been suffering from out there; and the resins when not burning are extremely sticky, and gum closed the beaks of the native birds, so that they starve to death amidst the plenty.
#8
President Bush was praying to God all along for this blessed convergence. Now that God has answered his prayers, we can only hope the red states are protected.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/05/2005 23:12 Comments ||
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A wall of water up to 50 metres high crashing into the Atlantic seaboard of the United States, flattening everything in its path — not a Hollywood movie but a dire prophecy by some British and US academics. Scientists warn an eruption of a volcano in Spain's Canary Islands could unleash a "mega-tsunami" larger than any in recorded history. According to their controversial study, an explosion of the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the island of La Palma could send a chunk of rock twice the size of the Isle of Wight into the Atlantic at up to 350 kilometres an hour. Many experts believe the risk of "mega-tsunamis" from such a massive landslide on La Palma has been hugely overstated. But in the study's scenario, energy released would equal the electricity consumption of the United States for six months, sending gigantic tidal waves across the Atlantic at the speed of a jet plane. Devastation in the United States would reach trillions of dollars with tens of millions of lives at risk. Spain, Portugal, Britain, France, Brazil, the Caribbean and West Africa would also be swamped by giant waves.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2005 00:00:00 ||
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#3
Lol - hey, as Judy Tenuda made famous, and in the same vein as her various routines, "It could happen." But hell, so could a gafreakinzillion other things - all as dire and all as impossible to predict or prevent. I smell grant money...
#8
At worse,
the eastern seaboard would have to be cleared inland for twenty miles! feasible if the residents were given ample warning time like during a hurricane; but a sudden collapse in the middle of the night or bad weather over the westward interstates would make it disastrous! Power grids would mimic what happened with the Cleveland cascade failure!
#9
"...a chunk of rock twice the size of the Isle of Wight..."
Wow! I didn't know the Isle of Wight had made it as an internationally recognised unit of measurement. Anyone know how many IoWs to a Belgium? I assume it's a clean 100.
#10
Isn't there some way to generate electricity using ocean waves? Seem like this would be a fabulous opportunity to move America toward energy independence!
#11
As I understand the situation while the chances are slight of La Palma collapsing it could as .com say happen. Even worse is the potential collapse of the island of Hawaii. Normally geology is a slowly operating thing. But sometimes things happen in a hurry. As far as the grant money goes If we dump 100K on somebody to set up a monitoring operation it would be cheap insurance
#13
SPoD - Inland won't help you because there is that gigantic Yellowstone volcano whose breakout is overdue...
In California the Big One is just around the corner..
Face it, you're doomed.
#14
It's my understanding that the Atlantic would be hit the worst,but this wave would be so massive it would sweep around the globe.On top of that it would revrberate(not sure if that is the term I should use)several times,causing a series of tidal waves.
#15
Forgot to mention,I got banned from Juliusblog(I feel so special,my first banning).Seems it is ok to call me an"ignorant,inbred,redneck f#$%k',but I'm not allowed to respond,and I didn't even curse.
#17
It appears that smn (#8) got a little panicy and left, probably seeking higher ground.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/05/2005 8:36 Comments ||
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#18
seems to be smn's MO
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/05/2005 8:41 Comments ||
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#19
"...because there is that gigantic Yellowstone volcano whose breakout is overdue..."
Darn. If it's not one thing, it's another. I wonder if Yellowstone will go BANG before, or after, the Giant Asteroid clobbers us. And don't forget Global Warming, which will shortly begin melting the Antarctic ice cap, raising sea levels worldwide by nearly 1,000 feet (that'll sure fix the Eastern seaboard, won't it?). And the sun will soon run out of hydrogen fuel and begin a rapid transformation into a burnt cinder...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
01/05/2005 8:54 Comments ||
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#20
soo...I guess we can forget worrying about global warming...seeing as how it will all just be beach front anyway.
#22
And don't forget Global Warming, which will shortly begin melting the Antarctic ice cap, raising sea levels worldwide by nearly 1,000 feet (that'll sure fix the Eastern seaboard, won't it?).
Mark Steyn, noting in 2002 that parts of the eastern and western coasts of the USA, all blue states, would be adversely affected by global warming, noted there just isn't any political downside for Dubya in global warming.
#23
I always figured that the Killer Asteroid of Doom would just hit Yellowstone directly and we'd get a two-fer. ;)
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
01/05/2005 9:21 Comments ||
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#24
Forgot a few things, like desertification: the Sahara is growing, and in another 200 years will encompass the entire globe. And don't forget the Ozone Hole, which will also expand until it occupies the whole sky; once that happens we'll all die from ultraviolet poisoning. And then there's Mega-Plagues, caused by antibiotic-resistant bugs that will attack our flesh...
Did I miss anything?
Posted by: Dave D. ||
01/05/2005 9:31 Comments ||
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#25
I think I should have another beer now, just in case...
#26
Did I miss anything?
Global warming of Greenland ice cap causing melt water to shut down Gulf Stream. Ice age returns, women and minorities suffer.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/05/2005 10:21 Comments ||
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#27
Don't forget the other inevitables. Overpopulation and second-hand smoke kill tens of millions. DDT kills Spring, forever. World runs out of food. Gulf War causes Nuclear Summer.
#28
SH&T! If only we'd listened! John Kerry had a plan
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/05/2005 10:34 Comments ||
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#29
Jeepers.
Does all this sh*t happen before or after we all get cancer from electromagnetic fields emanating from overhead power lines carrying electricity generated by the evil corporations that bankrupted California a couple years back which lead to the demise of Gray Davis which destroyed diversity and put evil Rethuglicans in power, hitting women and minorities hardest?
Posted by: Dave D. ||
01/05/2005 10:38 Comments ||
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#30
Don't forget the Sun's companion Dark Star that appears every umteen million years to disrupt everything. Oh, Yeah, I forgot... on a cyclic basis the solar system cuts through a denser region of the Milky Way. It might get dicey in a few zillion years when that happens again.
Then there is that GIANT BLACK HOLE at the center of the Milky Way. As it gobbles up solar systems it will increase our feelings of being alone.Just think We Would Be HOME ALONE! with no United Galaxy to help us when trouble happens.
#37
As a geologist, I believe that this scenario is simplistic and fundamentally implausible.
The giant landslide could occur, but over a period of many hours as different sections of the dependent mass break away.
The notion of the whole mass breaking away at once and at a uniformly accelerating velocity, (the only way this could cause a gigantic tsunami) does not allow for the effects of diffential friction and varying tensile strength over small sub-masses as the larger mass begins to move.
There is a scaling effect here: rock is rigid, but large enough masses of it are not. By analogy, you cannot normally bend a heavy steel beam but it would be easy if the beam were 5 miles long.
In the case of Cumbre Vieja, the great mass freed by the failure of the fault would break up, parts of it would stop moving altogether, others would slow, and the process would stretch out over many hours. A large enough mass may remain rigid for a tsunami to result, but not the kind of gigantic event postulated here.
#41
Re: #39: too late. already a book out, but some techno-tom-clancy -wanny-be where the plot is this: the Hamas buys an undetectable Russian built nuke sub, goes to NK to buy clones of a Russian cruise missle (some are nukie-tipped of course), then off to the Chicoms for outfitting the boat with the missles, then off to the northwest to blow up Mt St Helens, around South America, to blow up Mount Monserratt (spelling?) all to demonstrate to the newly elected Democratic wimpy President that Hamas means business and get out of the Middle East and take Israel wit' cho. Or ELSE! We blow the Canary Islands up!! There then follows the predictable metropolitan area crisis as the freshly retired hero is recalled to fix things. He does and the nukie Missles get launched, but our daring Navy shoots them down and sinks the boat with most (not all, the head villian escapes for the next book, of course) of the bad guys aboard. A very predictable plot (but no gratuitious sex, too busy chasing bad guys, I guess.)and one that I am glad I didn't spend MY money on. But everybody lives happliy ever after, except the wimpy Demo-Pres; he got the boot in a coup and exiled to some place to live out his days counting chads, or something.
#42
I agree with Atomic Conspiracy, my own small scale simulations (in my pond) suggests the 20 mile inland breach; however I must indicate that two data variables were not assimilated; the Earth curvature effect, and the west to east rotational effect; both would introduce cascading amplification along the wave front. My analysis suggest this would be condusive to iceberg breaks in the northern latitudes but not enough for global warming or continental deluge. This all assumes a singular 'blowoff' and not a chain reactive trigger to a larger tectonic event. Question is, can the US government move the inhabitants of the first 20 mile kill zone westward in 4.5 hours warning time? My data indicates the US would have to phase a 100 mile
'clear corridor' preceeding the bottleneck along the western Interstate Highway System, for any chance of this to work!
#43
I used to be worried about Cumbre Vieja, but it seems the chances of it actually happening are pretty slim. AC's comment is also helping me to sleep better ;)
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
01/05/2005 17:04 Comments ||
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#44
Reminds me of that great 1995 film "Waterworld".
Now available on DVD. Please, see it again and you'll realize that it didn't nearly suck as much as you thought it did the first time you saw it.
Posted by: Kevin Costner ||
01/05/2005 17:10 Comments ||
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#45
KC - and your post reminds me of a Playboy article (I know. Yes, I read the articles. Too.) about Albert Brooks titled, "He's funnier than you think." Um, no he's not.
The government of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez will expropriate its first farm, taking Venezuela straight down Zimbabwe road. The grab was announced this morning and will happen Saturday. The chavistas' first target is a British-owned cattle ranch. The move is a bold beginning for the chavista communists who will roll out both military and police forces for the seizure, beginning the first in a series.
The communists' mendacious rationale is that a British company, Vestey Group, did not have proper title to 3000 hectares of its 13,000-hectare cattle ranch. So they are taking it all. But the owners of the land are fighting this action and maintain that the land has a clear title and deed since 1830. Two previous governments reafirmed ownership in the 1970's after two previous expropriation attempts. It is noteworthy that these communists are going for the most productive land in the country. 64% of Venezuela's undeveloped land is government land, but there is no interest in redistributing that real estate to 'the people' in Venezuela. ... They want the best for themselves and are taking it now.
Castro was tolerated because Cuba was an island and didn't produce anything other than sugar and cigars. Venezuela produces OIL and is on the continent in a position to subvert other major countries. I don't see how we can let this buffoon and his thugocracy continue. We can't tolerate a South American Mugabe.
#1
We will see how Blair and the EU will tolerate land grabs via their response through the international court. That or a SAS boat team could be dispatched.
Don't say that. While you or I or a great many other people would not be willing to stomach the idea of a Latin American Mugabe, the self-haters of the Western world would be more than willing to tolerate the existence of one. Chavez is seizing a British-owned cattle ranch, so theoretically, there's no injustice there.
(remember, in the Western self-haters' eyes, whites can do no good and non-whites can do no wrong)
Venezuela's left-leaning government on Tuesday promised to grant poor farmers at least 100,000 plots of land carved from either state property or large private holdings, a step toward implementing a controversial agrarian reform law, a top agricultural official said. Under the 2001 legislation, the government can and does seize land from large estates if it deems the property is not being used productively for agriculture. Eliezer Otaiza, director of the National Land Institute and a close ally of populist President Hugo Chavez, emerged from talks with regional governors on the land reform holding up a pamphlet titled "War Against the Large Estates."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2005 00:00:00 ||
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We will take your land. You will reform.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/05/2005 0:49 Comments ||
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#2
Oh, I'll bet he does. It seems the first act of EVERY shiny new Commie Dictator is "Land Reform". I hope that the regular Venzuelans are basically self-subsistent. The Land Reform Thingy has a rather poor history of working out, especially the agricultural aspects.
#8
Do these commies get together at their own Summits, Chaired by Mugabe and Nujomo and discuss the best ways to starve their people. Dirt is only worth dirt if you can't grow anything on it. Ask Mengistu or Siad Barre.
#12
Actually land reform CAN work out, when its done by non-commies. Taiwan had land reform in the 1950's, and IIUC it contributed to their later economic success. See when non-commmies do it, they realize A. You need to transfer the land from big land holders to small ones, NOT to communes. B. The small landholders cant be TOO small, to have viable farms, and they need to have capital assets. C. You cant just hand it out to political pals, like in ZimBOBwe.
by Lindsay Beck, The Scotsman. EFL. Hat tip: Brothers Judd.
THE world's most populous nation is still growing, with China's official population expected to hit 1.3 billion tomorrow, despite a quarter-century-old policy of allowing couples to have only one child. . . But while they have helped China curb its birth rate from more than 33 per 1,000 population in 1970 to less than eight per 1,000 three decades later, the country faces new demographic challenges over how to support an ageing population. . . . The strict rules on family size have also created a gender imbalance, with about 117 boys for every 100 girls, as a cultural preference for sons prompts couples, usually in rural areas, to abort girls. . . . . . . or just leave them in the woods to die. One of the guys I work for adopted a little Chinese girl a couple of years ago who was found abandoned out in the wilderness, more dead than alive. Cute little bug, she is, and doing quite well despite the rough start.
You gotta wonder, though, what practices like that do to the soul of the culture, and the souls of the people who are forced into them.
It is sometimes said that children are God's judgment that life should go on. Where the State replaces God, and decrees no more children, is the State thereby saying that we should give up on the world?
Oh, and then there's the other demographic issue:
Last year, about 57,000 babies were born in Shanghai, but there were nearly twice as many deaths. Such a large gap has profound implications for the future workforce and for an ageing society.
At that rate, they'll end up like Old Europe, only worse.
Posted by: Mike ||
01/05/2005 12:31:12 PM ||
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#1
This is what happens when you make it a capital offense to have an older sibling.
#2
What does China do? If they didn't control the Mao induced population explosion for his peasant - agrarian revolution there would be well over 2 Billion Chinese today all vying for resources, land and other commidities. The moral question of aborting babies and leaving female babies for dead is academic. But the solution to the problem is? Birth Control or the rights of humans to determine the size of their families. I for one have 4 children so I have no room to move here. Question is, What should China do?
#3
The problem of China's "popualtion control measures" is that with such an imbalance of males to females makes it worrisome for nations nearby. I read an article not too long agao actually about this very problem of China becoming more pugnacious as a "neighbor" as a result of too many boys/men not having the opportunity to settle down with a woman to raise a family blah, blah. Seriously, the Chinese leaders will soon realize that they've got to "harness" and focus that male energy outward rather than take a chance it make be focused inward in their country and end up toppling their communist thugocracy.
#5
RW: If they didn't control the Mao induced population explosion for his peasant - agrarian revolution there would be well over 2 Billion Chinese today all vying for resources, land and other commidities.
China's problem is a problem of poor government, not a population problem. Japan has 1/10 the population but only 1/30 the arable land. Taiwan has 1/60 the population but only 1/150 the arable land. Just about every wealthy country in East Asia is more densely populated than China.
#8
As for women, you can import those.
Errrk. Wrong. You don't win any prize with that multicultural and diversity loving Western educated answer. Chinese men need Chinese women. Ergo, if there is a shortage of Chinese women in China, from what country are you going to import Chinese women?( the clue is the word Chinese)
#9
India has the same problem as China as regards a sexual imbalance. Especially in rural areas. It's illegal, but abortion of baby girls is not uncommon now that the technology for sexing in utero is widely available.
It's often claimed that China (and India's) feckless bachelors will cause civil disorder unless they can be distracted or got rid of. Sending a few boatloads in the direction of Taiwan does seem suspiciously like murderous stupidity. Good plan then. But then what do they do if India decided to march her Mods 'n' Rockers over the Himalaya...?
#12
JB: Errrk. Wrong. You don't win any prize with that multicultural and diversity loving Western educated answer. Chinese men need Chinese women. Ergo, if there is a shortage of Chinese women in China, from what country are you going to import Chinese women?( the clue is the word Chinese)
Actually, they'll settle for women. Period. Japanese farmers have imported Southeast Asian wives. Chinese farmers have been importing (actually, abducting) Vietnamese wives.
#13
Japanese farmers have imported Southeast Asian wives.
Well I stand corrected.
Hmmm, I thought that in order to gain Japanese citizenship a child's parents both need to be Japanese. According to your sources, ZF, that's not the case?
And the Chinese communists have no problem with importing women as potential wives from nearby countries who may have been "tainted" by Western thinking? The Chinese communists have no problem with diluting their nation's bloodlines? Well, that's encouraging, I guess, that is, apart from the kidnapping aspect.
#14
A child of a Japanese parent can claim Japanese citizenship. And the commie thing isn't nearly as big a deal as you make it out to be. Men are happy to have wives, Chinese men being no exception. Get some facts next time before you go around posting things like "errrk, wrong!"
#15
Joeblow, the bloodlines are traced through the males...it doesn't matter what the mothers are. And China has been quietly importing North Korean women for several years. On the Chinese side of the border there are jobs and marriages for the North Korean women, but not for the NorK men. No problem there with conflicting ideologies, and I'm sure that the NorK women are grateful just for the chance to eat occasionally.
#16
JB: And the Chinese communists have no problem with importing women as potential wives from nearby countries who may have been "tainted" by Western thinking?
Western thinking? Communism is Western thinking. Heck - 99% of everything the Chinese see and touch on a daily basis is of Western origin. (Excluding the food, of course, which is definitely quite uniquely Chinese).
JB: The Chinese communists have no problem with diluting their nation's bloodlines? Well, that's encouraging, I guess, that is, apart from the kidnapping aspect.
Bloodlines? The Chinese are the biggest mongrels around. Mongols, Huns, Sogdians, Tibetans, Jurchens, Turks, Persians, et al are all represented. China is kind of like the Roman empire, except the Chinese empire lasted, unlike its Roman counterpart. The condition for Roman citizenship was service in the Roman army, acceptance of Roman ways and the acknowledgement of the centrality of the Roman empire. The condition for acceptance into Chinese culture is literacy in Chinese coupled with the acceptance of the supremacy of Chinese culture and of the Chinese nation.
Ukraine's fiery opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko said Tuesday she expects to become the country's next prime minister, given her stalwart support for Viktor Yushchenko, whose presidency is increasingly likely. In an interview with The Associated Press, Tymoshenko said she and Yushchenko signed a written agreement when she joined his coalition that leaves no alternative than for her to head a new government when Yushchenko is inaugurated. "I believe that Viktor Yushchenko will follow our formal agreement," said Tymoshenko, whose elaborately braided hair, hip orange outfits and sharp tongue have earned her thousands of worshippers among the opposition. Asked if anyone else could become prime minister, she replied: "There are no other alternatives."
I've read — though the source could be biased — that Yulia carries her own baggage...
Yushchenko, who won a court-ordered revote on Dec. 26 but has not been declared the victor as his opponent appeals the results, has so far refused to say who he will tap to be prime minister. "It's too early to begin with names," he told Ukraine's TV5 last week. The Central Election Commission said Tuesday that it expected to announce final results Wednesday, at which point Yushchenko's opponent Viktor Yanukovych is expected to file an appeal with Ukraine's Supreme Court.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2005 00:00:00 ||
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#1
Is this a Ukrainian dish?
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/05/2005 0:51 Comments ||
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#2
May have a bite of an after taste.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/05/2005 0:53 Comments ||
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#3
Great! It sounds like the deal is done and it also sounds like she deserves her shot. I hope she gets it and continues to be a firebrand of freedom! Rock on, Sis!
#4
Easy on the eyes she is. Evidently she's got charisma and smarts, too. Here's an article on her from BBC - perhaps the only "baggage" she's got(from the perspective of the Bolsheviks @ the BBC) is that she's rich and successful, having made a ton of $ on gas trading.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4070663.stm
Two more pics of her in the article.
#5
Sorry, folks, but this one's a fake democrat. She stole many millions, perhaps billions, in her previous life as a bandit executing the takeover and fleecing of Ukraine's energy industry in concert with the kleptocrat and felon (charged in California for, I believe, money-laundering) PM Lazarenko. Similar scheme as that applied by Chubais and other crooks in Russia with that country's energy monopoly, UES, but on a much grander scale. At one point Yulia controlled nearly 20% of Ukraine's entire GDP. This isn't liberal capitalism; it's Brazilian-, or more likely Nigerian-style kleptocracy.
This little bandit symbolizes everything wrong with Ukraine and Russia. She's part of the problem and should never have been brought on board with Yushchenko.
#6
I don't mean to piss on Yushchenko's parade but the facts are the facts. We've been screwed before by kleptocratic clowns like Yeltsin, Chubais et al masquerading as liberal capitalist "reformers", and what follows the misrule of these jokers is Putinism.
Yulia is bad news. Maybe not (yet) bad enough to completely overshadow the very good news of Yushchenko's triumph, but a sign that Ukraine has a long, long way to go before it can be considered even a normal, screwed-up east european country. Backsliding is much more likely.
#8
Keep it in yer trousers, fellas. When it comes to slender slavic beauty, this little whore couldn't hold a candle to what you can see any day of the week on any Moscow Metro line. And moral corruption ages you, rapidly. She'll look like Kirstie Alley within a few years.
#10
Keep it in yer trousers, fellas. When it comes to slender slavic beauty, this little whore couldn't hold a candle to what you can see any day of the week on any Moscow Metro line. And moral corruption ages you, rapidly. She'll look like Kirstie Alley within a few years.
All the more reason to drool over it now, while it still looks doable.
Ugh. Why don't you let her *first* reveal herself to be a fake reformer *before* you use such vulgarity on her?
Neither Yushchenko nor Tymoshenko are paragons of perfection. Nor do they need to be in order to act as reformers. I'm sure her hands aren't clean: But compared to the beheading murderer Kuchma and his fellow gang of poisoners she looks like a saint. Interesting info about the money you claim she stole -- any murders in her past though?
Right now what I've heard of Tymoshenko I tend to like. For starters, unlike the moderate and often compromising Yushchenko, she's been one of the few voices that opposed the recent despicable "package" that ended up propping up the Kuchma regime by playing Calvinball just before the rerun election. Tymoshenko also seems to be one of the most anti-Russian members of the opposition, which is all to the good when Russian imperialism still remains the greatest threat for Ukrainian democracy and freedom.
So far Ukraine had been in the hands of the murderers. Even if Yulia is a thief (which hasn't been proven I believe), that's still a step to the right direction.
#14
Crazyfool> There's corruption and then again there's corruption.
There's Western-style corruption where a politician grabs a couple million to have a cozy retirement, and there's Eastern-style "corruption" where a politician orders a reporter beheaded for criticizing him.
Ukraine had been living in the latter of the two worlds.
#16
IIUC there was an attempt to get an interpol warrant on her, which was shot down for lack of evidence.
The privatizations in Russia and the Ukraine have been pretty squirrely. Theres definitely a grey area of unethical but not illegal practices. Theres a lot of mixed opinion on Tymoshenko. I wouldnt consider her a hero, but I would give her a chance.
#17
Aris, clearly you've never lived in any of the former Soviet Union nations. What the West fails to grasp about the particular nature of corruption in the FSU is that it coincides with, in fact is both cause and effect of, the complete trashing of any kind of effective government. Where individuals can control 20% (Yulka's case) or 40% (Russian oligarchic clans' case) of an entire economy, you will have governments that don't govern.
The implications are vast. First and foremost, pensions aren't paid, ie tens of millions of Russian and Ukrainian pensioners are living in third-world poverty. Get that? Third-world poverty, not the pseudo-poverty we have in which people are grossly obese and drive ten year-old rather than new cars. No, in Russia and Ukraine millions of people are subsisting on potatoes grown in private plots. A direct consequence of the corruption and criminalization of the state.
The next most important consequence of the Timoshenko-Berezovsky-Khodorkovskyite corruption is the destruction of democracy and the rule of law. Yulka's running for office is like Michael Milken running for president with Ken Lay as his VP. Aside from the implications for human rights-- who will investigate Yulka's ill-gotten gains when she's PM?-- there'a also a huge economic cost.
No rule of law means no attachment of collateral for lending, which means in effect no real banks, which means no significant economic growth outside of natural resources and the subsistence and sin industries (food, beverages, vodka--no joke). So in Russia and Ukraine you now have economies that are almost entirely dependent on commodity prices, ie, third world, Nigerian-style economies where there should be Hewlett-Packards and Nokias and Intels. Hell, they aren't even capitalist. How can you ahve capitalism when you don't have a banking system? Nice job, Yulia.
Finally, the enfeeblement of the state by corruption and no rule of law means there's the complete degradation of the nation's ability to defend its borders or defeat terror. This last is so obvious that even Russians not given to conspiracy theories suspect, with much justification, that the West's support for gangsters like Khodorkovsky-Berezovsky-Yulka is likely a deliberate attempt to weaken the former SU. Better a sick Russia than a healthy Soviet Union, as Havel said.
Trust me, when it's your country that has lost an entire generation and seen any hope of becoming a normal country disappear, you'll have a different take on this. Yulka's as much to blame as Putin or Kuchma.
#18
...corruption in the FSU...coincides with, in fact is both cause and effect of, the complete trashing of any kind of effective government.
...when it's your country that has lost an entire generation and seen any hope of becoming a normal country disappear, you'll have a different take on this...
Lex, that's exactly how many friends of mine in Latvia would say it. Corruption is at the heart of the biggest problems in the former Soviet Union and its satellites. It's a huge killer, of people, progress and hope-it is not an annoyance. That millions feel either apathetic about it or powerless in its wake is worrying.
#19
Westerners need to get it through their heads that the economic system that prevails in the post-communist FSU is not capitalist. Capitalism requires above all intermediary financial institutions, primarily banks, to channel savings into productive investments. Russian and Ukrainian banks are nothing more than money laundries. Hardly any private savings in those countries find their way to companies that desperately need capital for worthy investments. Instead, savings are hoarded under mattresses (by the vast population) or spirited abroad (by the lucky or cunning or corrupt few).
The economic system that actually prevails can be thought of as a grand game called arbitrage the state: grab hold of cheap, regulated, state-owned resources and flip them at market prices. It has zip in common with real capitalism.
#20
Oh please since when should we get so uptight about supporting a politician because of a possible corruption linked past? Heck we support politicians even when we know they are corrupt. Cough, cough-who's the head honcho of corruption that our Prez says he can tell is a great man by virtue of gazing at his blue eyes and seeing his soul? Why do you think Kofi food for oil scamster Annan is still head of the UN??? It's because our gov't supports the slimester, that's why. Why are we supporting the UN at all when 2/3 of the countries are corrupt dictator led and our substantial financial support goes straight into their pockets? Puhleaze....get your pink lensed glasses off when you speak about our country's disdain of corruption. As a matter of fact, we are sending $350 Million for disaster aid at this very secod to one of the most corrupt regions in the world where terrorism co-mingles with the corruption. No worries. All the poor tsunami people will get the $ directly and use what's left over to send their kids to college. Sheesh.
And being concerned about a country's apathy...heheheheheh....are you serious? What exactly is happening in Iraq and to a certain degree in Afghanistan if it's not the indigenous population's apathy? In Afghanistan if we tried tried to uproot the country's corrupt poppy growing warlords, we'd have hell to pay, so we don't and as a result everything is copascetic. In Iraq where we needed to uproot the corruption, we do have hell to pay and how many people are going forward to report the insurgents in their midst? Nada. We get intel only if we nab these Iraqi militant/terrorists types. The Shiites are less upset about our prescence because they have the most to gain in the future, but they're not exactly busting their ankles to join the Nat'l Guard or the army to fight with us against the former ruling class. They're listening to their clerics and sitting on the fence by and large.
So my point is give the Ukraine and this lady a break before you folks get so SELECTIVELY judgemental about them. If you used the same standards for juding the other countries that you currently cheer on as "embracing democracy" there wouldn't be much to cheer about, if you know what I mean.
#21
I'm pro-Yushchenko and anti-Yulka. She's on the same side as Kuchma and the other kleptocrats.
She made her gazillions by working hand-in-glove with Kuchma's predecessor Lazarenko. If Yushchenko is to avoid becoming another Yeltsin-- ie a grand western "reformist" hope who ends up screwing everyone and failing miserably-- then he needs to get rid of this woman. She's poison.
#23
West's support for gangsters like Khodorkovsky-Berezovsky-Yulka
i agree with most of your analysis Lex, but must take issue with the above. Under Yeltsin there was, IIRC, a contest for influence between ideological liberalizers like Gaidar, Yavlinsky, Nemtsov versus Yeltsins "kremlin family". The West generally wanted Yeltsin to lean to the former, but ultimately our leverage was limited. In Putin propaganda this distinction is forgotten - its all = the West supported Yeltsin, ergo the West supported corruption. This is a convenient line for Putin, but I think unfair to Western policy makers and opinion. It also elides the distinction between oligarchs who made their peace with Putin, and Khodorovsky who tried to ally with the liberals - thus earning the wrath of the Putinists, who are far gentler with other oligarchs.
Your case about corruption is strong. Whether thats also a case against Tymoshenko depends on how corrupt she actually was, and whether her corruption is causal in the other rule of law issues you eloquently describe. AFAIK, that case remains disputed.
#24
The point isn't "corruption." It's the complete, utter trashing of any kind of effective governance. We've seen this again and again from kleptocratic pseudo-reformers with handsome faces and/or western college degrees and pleasing, western-friendly rhetoric: the Salinas clan in Mexico. Collor in Brazil. Yeltsin-Chubais-Nemtsov in Russia. Yulka the Democratic Hottie in Ukraine.
And the result is always the same: perpetuation of the same old kleptocracy on an epic scale. Salinas and Co trafficked in drugs, stole hundreds of millions and assassinated one of their opponents. Collor stole billions. Yeltsin et al stole many millions and transferred hundreds of billions'-- the amount is simply staggering-- worth of assets to a handful of swindlers who ensured a compliant media for yeltsin's re-election. And it was Yeltsin who bequeathed us Putin!
Mark my words, this slut is not a democrat, or a capitalist, or a liberal capitalist. Leopards don't change their spots, and there has never been a kleptocratic grand larcenist who "reformed" himself once he came to office.
#25
LH, we were all duped about the influence of Gaidar et al. The real power in Russia, in Yeltsin's as in Putin's era, is almost certainly the security services, mainly the FSB (ex-KGB). When the government is a complete shambles, these services will necessarily have the whip hand. They're well-organized and (not in the US but in Russia, anyway) disciplined, and above all they understand how to get things done across borders, a crucial skill in a resource-rich and industrially-poor country.
So when you have economic corruption PLUS government collapse PLUS a ruthless, cynical, pervasive security-service shadow government, you have the complete collapse of any hope of democracy or rule of law or minimally effective governance. That's why this is about far more, ultimately, than theft or corruption.
#26
Speaking for myself only, I would say that corruption is so bad there that it is the point. The things you list, lex, are the end product of corruption. I guess my 'judgmentalism' in speaking out against massive theft-stealing of millions/billions-and assassinations of opponents means that I have a rose-colored view of the world. Whatever.
I do not hold corrupt US politicians in a separate protected class, either, BTW.
#27
Did I mention her name, joweblow?
What's that supposed to mean? Maybe you're the one who is being sensitive.
My response was in response to all posters who generally poohed-poohed the possibility of the Ukraine ever rising above swamp level due to the corruption of their politicians, one of them being Tymoshenko, and due to the apathy of the masses.
Mark my words, this slut is not a democrat, or a capitalist, or a liberal capitalist
And yet you believe that the notably corrupt warlord oligarchy in Afghanistan is or that the violent, uber religious Shiite Iraqis who will form the majority voice in the next Iraqi government are? Letsee - Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani - yep that title speaks to me "democrat and liberal capitalist" all right. Hehehehe. But I'll give you this- Mr. born in Iran Grand Sistani is no slut.
#28
yet you believe that the notably corrupt warlord oligarchy in Afghanistan is or that the violent, uber religious Shiite Iraqis who will form the majority voice in the next Iraqi government are?
OK, perhaps I'm a bit of an ethnic chauvinist. As someone with Russian family, I find it appalling and disgusting that a great nation like Russia, with more brilliant scientists and programmers per capita than any nation apart from maybe Israel, should have sunk so far in the ranks of nations as to be compared to a fourth-world stone-age state and a third-world oil-rich fascist dictatorship.
What hurts the Russians more than anything else is the realization that their great nation is now and will be for at least another 30 years in the same political-ceconomic development category as Indonesia and Nigeria. Maybe Brazil, if they're lucky (ie if oil stays north fo $40/bbl for another few years).
Nothing for us to worry about, sure. For the Russians, it's shameful and depressing beyond imagination.
#29
lex, with nary a drop of Russian blood, I agree completely.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/05/2005 11:43 Comments ||
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#30
Corruption is at the heart of the biggest problems in the former Soviet Union and its satellites....That millions feel either apathetic about it or powerless in its wake is worrying.
Any time a nation transitions from one system to another you will always have people who get massively rich, be it through corruption or legitimate means. Corruption will be rampant. A small percentage of the population will get obscenely rich, simply because of all the wealth and opportunities lying around the country. It is almost always the case that these people will be former government types, or holders of power. The simple truth is, that a certain percentage of the population will have to get rich. That this occurs through corruption is sad, but not entirely worrisome.
What is worrisome, is if this corruption and lawlessness continues for the next 50 years or so. Once all the pigs get theirs at the trough, the hope is that all the wealth will have been distributed (amongst the rich initially) and stability sets in.
Posted by: Rafael ||
01/05/2005 12:01 Comments ||
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#31
Apparently, many Rantburgers think that corruption in Russia is no bigger problem than corruption in the US or anywhere else-that the scale and preponderance of it is no big deal. Or is it not a big deal because you imagine you can't be affected by it?
So, is the Rantburg final word that corruption is a necessary evil, a fact of life, something people should just roll over and accept? Would that position mean that if my company ran away with yor 401K or bilked you out of your savings, I should simply tell you to stop being so idealistic, lie down and take it like a man?
#32
A little imaginative exercise to bring home to Americans what's gone down in Russia recently.
Imagine a) Gates, Soros, Larry Ellison, Mike Milken, Ivan Boesky, Ken Lay and Marc Rich were to join forces behind an even more distracted and venal version of Clinton and ensure his election.
b) In return for which ClintonRedux transfers assets equalling 40% of the entire US economy, public and private combined, to this gang. Yes, 40%: ie not just MSFT (which = less than 1% of our public/private GDP) but also ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, GM, GE, Boeing, Citigroup, Bank of America, AT&T, Verizon, SBC, WalMart, Cisco, Intel, Ford and McDonnell Douglas. Plus all of the TV and cable networks. No exaggeration, 40% of all public and private productive assets.
On top of which, c) hyperinflation wipes out all savings and home values for ca 40% of the population.
And d) we lose most of the southwest to Mexico and are forced by Mexico and Canada to renegotiate NAFTA on terms totally favorable to those nations. Mexico over time becomes a Chinese ally tightly integrated into the Chinese economy.
How would you feel if you were told, Don't worry, in another five years you'll catch up to Venezuela?
#33
Hey Aris! I never said: There's corruption and then again there's corruption. Dont put words in my mouth dammit! (I am perfectly capable of putting my own foot in my mouth just fine...).
There is western corruption where a pol would take a few million - we are used to that and somewhat expect it. There is also real corruption (which is what I was talking about) where a school kid would 'disappear' because they offended the kid of someone in power.
The first is simply greed corruption. The second is POWER corruption.
#34
So, is the Rantburg final word that corruption is a necessary evil
It's to be expected in a state of initial transition and instability. If you don't expect it, then you're being naive.
Posted by: Rafael ||
01/05/2005 12:37 Comments ||
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#35
Uh, Crazyfool, I wasn't quoting you, nor was I pretending to be. If we agree, that's cool.
lex, when it first began, you were demeaning the role of the Orange Revolution as it being insignificant, and though you now declare yourself pro-Yushchenko, I remember you mocking the difference between two sides where one IIRC (next best thing possible to moral equivalency) was according to you just slightly more liberal than the other.
Now that this attitude has failed you seem to me to be going for the next best target, suddenly declaring yourself in favour of Yushchenko and the Orange Revolution, and opposing the least compromising, most anti-Russian and yet still widely popular in Ukraine, Tymoshenko.
I think I'd trust your comments for sincerity more, if I wasn't seeing you following so closely the Kremlin line of response to the Ukraine opposition. "Let's attack the whole Orange revolution -- oh damn that didn't work, let's atleast attack the most anti-Russian and least compromising member of the opposition Tymoshenko."
Your two-pronged tactic of:
1. Vulgarity of commentary such as "this slut", "this whore"
2. Attempts to talk endlessly in generalities about the ill-effects of corruption and lack of rule of law.
both divert this thread from the single central question - would Tymoshenko help take Ukraine forwards or backwards?
Would she be good for Ukraine or bad? I've already given my arguments for why I think she'd be good. She's anti-Russia when Russian imperialism is still the greatest danger. And all comments I've seen do indicate she's pro-freedom of the press and pro-freedom in general.
If she stole money that's not been proven, I believe. And calling her a slut and a whore isn't actually a real argument.
#37
Our most powerful pols can see their careers ended for misuse of the franking privilege to the tune of $20,000. There simpy is no comparison with a Salinas or a Yeltsin or a Collor.
Remember, Yeltsin shredded Russia's democracy, such as it was, by handpicking a KGB stooge to succeed him in return for not prosecuting Yeltsin and his family.
#38
Aris, your argument boils down to: she's better than an alternative. It's a valid argument. However, a better question might be: Is a better alternative available? If she's the best available ..then she's the best available. But it doesn't necessarily imply she's a good choice.
#39
Attempts to talk endlessly in generalities about the ill-effects of corruption and lack of rule of law
Aris, don't be an ass. I have cited specific after specific instance, with data points to back me up, of the very specific and debilitating effects of the extraordinary and, to westerners, nearly unfathomable degree of racketeering and theft which this criminal woman has committed. I call her a slut because here beauty, and the adulation given her by credulous foreigners like you, tend to overwhelm any attention to her crimes.
both divert this thread from the single central question - would Tymoshenko help take Ukraine forwards or backwards? Would she be good for Ukraine or bad?
What are you smoking? I stated clearly that Yulka is bad for Ukraine. Again, she's no better and no different from her partners in crime, Lazarenko and Kuchma.
She's anti-Russia when Russian imperialism is still the greatest danger
Maybe to a Greek, but not to any of the miserable subjects of the former Soviet Union. You're as ignorant of Ukraine as you are of Russia. Ukraine is Russia's Russia, a complete basket case. Again, it's kleptocrats like Yulka who brought Ukraine to its current level of degradation.
#40
Apparently, many Rantburgers think that corruption in Russia is no bigger problem than corruption in the US or anywhere else-that the scale and preponderance of it is no big deal. Or is it not a big deal because you imagine you can't be affected by it?
I'll clarify what I said- if I'm one of the RB'ers that you've cast into this lot...
We as a country and we as RB'ers support corrupt leaders and corrupt countries 24/7, you included, lex. I used Iraq and Afghanistan and Russia and tsunami stricken Indonesia as examples where the majority of our GOP politicians and even RB'ers give political or material or military support to corrupt nations and politicians without a second thought about whether these entities are or will be wonderbar "democratic liberal capitalist" societies. We give support because the world is imperfect so we need to make Faustian deals. It may be that Ms. Ukraine Beauty is no angel but at this point she's the best hope we've got for that country along with Yuvchenko, who probably has some baggage himself if we put him under the microscope of high standards. Let's give it a chance, heck we're supporting warlords in Afghanistan and a religious Muslim holy roller in Iraq and an Spanish-blooded oligarchy in Mexico , so what's the issue with giving Ms. beauty some leeway and see what she can do in the future nix her potential for what she might have done before?
OK, perhaps I'm a bit of an ethnic chauvinist. As someone with Russian family, I find it appalling and disgusting that a great nation like Russia, with more brilliant scientists and programmers per capita than any nation apart from maybe Israel, should have sunk so far in the ranks of nations as to be compared to a fourth-world stone-age state and a third-world oil-rich fascist dictatorship
Personally Russia is a lost cause for liberal capitalism. It's been way too long that communism has been there. Even though the Russians are very smart - in fact, IQ wise when the discussion of IQ was not name called as "racist"...IQ studies have shown that Russian Jews specifically are the smartest ethnic sub group in the world- anyways back to Russia's future, inspite of the intelligence of Russian peoples, the body politic still believes in communism or at least socialism fervently and those who don't have long since emmigrated.
The Eastern bloc nations though like the Ukraine and Poland and Czech Republic-now they're just as smart and there's more hope there because they were actually victimized and fight against Russian communism and very finally subjugated by the Iron fist of Stalin and his facsimiles. Now those nations have a future and we should definitely support them. While there's still vestiges of the old communist corrupt way in those nations, so democracy or at least our idealized version of democracy will not come over night, it will come maybe even in our lifetime. And they will be a major frontier against the push of Russia's imperial ways in the future. This time I hope we don't disappoint the Eastern bloc nations as we did in the past-shiver-how ashamed we should be for that.
It's interesting to note that Poland, the Ukraine, and the Czech Republic were part of the coalition contingent in Iraq from the start. So freedom and democracy are positive values to those countries, whereas Russia sees those concepts as threats.
#42
No, the comment isn't directed to you or anyone in particular, lex. What you said about corruption in Russia I agree with.
It is true the world isn't perfect and will never be perfect. I do think it matters what one defends, though. Many Rantburgers have expressed their disgust with Oil For Food corruption-I would wager because it affects them, even if only by a glancing blow against their government. Are we going to start divvying up tolerance of corruption based on what nation takes a hit? Are we going to fight against corruption only when it affects our own lives?
You and I touched on Russia before on another thread. Of course a governmental bouleversement could affect corruption, as Rafael points out, but I would assert, based on my own limited experience of having lived in Latvia in 1993 and 1994, that corruption was well imbedded in that society long before Putin rose to power in Russia. Sometimes it takes petty forms, sometimes it takes massive form, but it is pervasive in the former Soviet Union. And though apathy among the people was mocked by Joeblow earlier on, I saw apathy all over the Baltics and it IS worrying. For example: nearly 100% of my students in all my classes told me that they would not report a murder if they were witness to who committed it, in part because it did not involve them, which is surely a sign of apathy/indifference, and in part because of the corruption of the police forces-it would put their own lives in danger. If nearly 100% of my post-secondary students felt that way, you basically had a country (in 1993-1994) of Genovese-like murder witnesses-unwilling to move, speak, act to prevent crime. It seems to me that such widespread apathy is a serious societal problem. But perhaps that is being naive or looking through rose-colored glasses at the world.
If you have a people who view corruption with indifference, they cannot expect a different lot than getting corruption all the time. There is an old adage-aim at where you want to go and you'll land fairly close to it. If you aim towards a country that is indifferent to or cynical about corruption, then you will likely land fairly close to that aim. The darker impulses of human nature would take over because there would be little disincentive for being corrupt. If the citizens of a country are not indifferent to getting robbed, etc., if they fight corruption, they might have a country that is a lot closer to what they dreamed of all that time they were under the Soviet boot.
#43
What if Yushchenko withdraws Ukraine's contingent from Iraq, as seems likely
What difference does that make? Other coalition partners have announced that they're winding down their committment. Hopefully the US will eventually wind down its presence in Iraq in a few years, too, unless you're one of the ones who thinks we should keep a 150,000 strong troop presence in Iraq ad infinitum.
My point is that these Eastern Bloc countries were in Iraq from the start. They showed their pro democrcay colors from the start and that's what's important.
if they fight corruption, they might have a country that is a lot closer to what they dreamed of all that time they were under the Soviet boot.
You think it's so easy to "fight corruption" ??? Even GWB is reluctant to call a spade a spade re: the most visible corrupter in the USSR - Putin. Instead he calls him a friend.
The Eastern Bloc nations have got very little help from the USA or other Western countries to get corruption out of their countries. I'm actually impressed with what they've done so far, largely on their own. We've been spoon feeding countries like Afghanistan and Iraq these past few years with a military presence and a huge infusion of $ and look what a tentative bunch these Muslims are even with all that support. When the Ukrainians stood up against the fraud of their elections and marched in support of Yuvchenko instead of the Putin puppet, they did that with great courage. Certainly there were no 150,000 strong GI's guarding their backs. If the Iraqis showed 1/100 the level of support for democracy, we'd be on Clous 99 with happiness. Sheesh, the Afghans show up at an election and we're thinking this is next best thing to the Declaration of Indepedence.
The eastern Bloc nations still have corruption, I don't argue that point with you, but I think they're a heck of a lot closer to reform than any of the Muslim dominated people, with the exception of the kurds, because these Eastern nations are taking risks are fighting themselves against the old Communist way of life. I think you're too judgemental about how far the Eastern Bloc countries have progressed considering they've done it mainly by their own muster. If we did for them what we did for the Iraqis or the Afghans, they would have beenup and running as liberal democracies in short order.
#44
How could anyone not be impressed with what they accomplished, joeblow? I can only admire them for what they DID. They are courageous, tough people, VERY self-sufficient people.
If we did for them what we did for the Iraqis or the Afghans, they would have beenup and running as liberal democracies in short order.
Perhaps you are right-but that does not disprove my point-if you are blase about corruption, it becomes an even larger presence in your lives-with your tacit permission.
#45
JB: When the Ukrainians stood up against the fraud of their elections and marched in support of Yuvchenko instead of the Putin puppet, they did that with great courage. Certainly there were no 150,000 strong GI's guarding their backs. If the Iraqis showed 1/100 the level of support for democracy, we'd be on Clous 99 with happiness. Sheesh, the Afghans show up at an election and we're thinking this is next best thing to the Declaration of Indepedence.
I can't agree with this statement. If the Ukrainians had a few hundred people disappear via political murder every month for decades and still demonstrated in that square, I would say they were brave. Remember, it was only after the security services stopped being repressive that Ukrainians started carrying out semi-free elections almost a decade ago. Afghans and Iraqis have been under one repressive regime or another for decades, and these were governments that weren't afraid to shed the blood of its internal opponents en masse (with rape and torture as significant components of their instruments of state control). Uncle Sam has cut off the head of the snake, but various pieces of it are still capable of independent action. Afghans and Iraqis are rising to the challenge despite being systematically slaughtered like livestock. And for that, I salute them. If Ukrainians were willing to take this kind of punishment, they would have kicked the Russians out long ago. (Note that the Afghans fought the Russians for close to a decade before persuading the Russians to leave. How long did the Ukrainian resistance to Soviet rule last?)
#46
JB: When the Ukrainians stood up against the fraud of their elections and marched in support of Yuvchenko instead of the Putin puppet, they did that with great courage. Certainly there were no 150,000 strong GI's guarding their backs.
What JB has missed here is that even though Uncle Sam is in-country, he can't protect the locals. He can kill the guerrillas that attack him, but he can't protect locals who are attacked when GI Joe isn't around, because GI Joe can't be everywhere. And guerrillas are smart enough to wait until GI Joe has passed by before staging their attacks.
Even the local security services can't protect the locals, at least not using American tactics. Saddam's way of protecting his people was via deterrence, by staging bloodbaths among the kin of those he suspected of attacking his kith and kin. It worked for Saddam, but we're constrained by American values from using that approach. American methods are why it takes real bravery to work for the interim government in Iraq.
When even the Governor of Baghdad can be assassinated despite the presence of dozens of bodyguards, what hope does the average Iraqi National Guard trooper have of making it out of this insurgency alive? Note that at the end of the day, he goes back to his family, who don't live in fortified camps. As of now, Iraqis haven't proven that they are as staunch as the South Vietnamese, who lost over 200K men defending their country. But they are getting tougher, and if they persist, this may rank alongside the Salvadoran and Colombian anti-insurgency actions as some of the most hard-fought around since Vietnam (and Afghanistan).
#47
If Ukrainians were willing to take this kind of punishment, they would have kicked the Russians out long ago. (Note that the Afghans fought the Russians for close to a decade before persuading the Russians to leave. How long did the Ukrainian resistance to Soviet rule last?)
The Afghans fought the Russians and ultimately prevailed because of the USA's considerable materials and intelligence help.
The Ukrainians and the Poles never received help from us after WWI nor after WWII. The Soviets military apparatus was too strong for countries that were largely agrarian.
If we had let Patton take on the Soviets, that would have been all the help that the Eastern Bloc countries needed to beat off communism. But the timing was bad for us and the UK and there was no stomach for a longer military campaign. But if we had, pushed the Soviets back, the Eastern bloc countries would have taken to democracy and capitlaism like ducks to water IMO. There has never been any love for the Russians in either Poland or the Ukraine. Also in the Eastern bloc countries, most of them don't have the Islamic pure devotion of its subjects type of religious thingey going on like Afghanistan and Iraq, which is a significant obstacle to liberal capitalism and democracy.
Heh, Afghanistan is lumping along with its warlords and its poppy fields - I'm no purist like some RB'ers. As long as Afghanistan no longer functions as a full blown training camp for AQ, I'm okay with it. We're getting good bang for the US taxpayer buck in Afghanistan. We have minimal troops there, very few troops killed, and a reasonable amount of $ wasted on bribes of Karzani whatever his name is to 'keep the peace" there.
Iraq-well it will be interesting to see how that all works out at the end of the day. I'm not sure that the Iraqis or any ME countries have the same smarts as the Eastern Bloc countries have for one thing. It's not like they've done much since the discovery of the abacus. hush we're not supposed to speak of raw IQ any more in polite circles. As for their desire to "embrace" freedom and democracy - we'll see - the verdict is still out.
It can go either way IMO.
I look at how the Polish and Ukrainian immigrants to this country have embraced freedom and liberty and tolerance as great values. But otoh when I look at the way Muslims continue with their anti-American positions here while benefiting from its largesse and how they show reluctance to discard the restraints of their religion, I'm not getting my hopes up for Iraq. But heh, as long as they don't export terrorism from their country, what do I care if the ACLU can't build branch offices in Baghdad?
#48
JB: The Afghans fought the Russians and ultimately prevailed because of the USA's considerable materials and intelligence help.
The Ukrainians and the Poles never received help from us after WWI nor after WWII. The Soviets military apparatus was too strong for countries that were largely agrarian.
The Afghans also lost a million dead during that war. Did Ukrainians die in any comparable numbers fighting the Russians? No. Instead of fighting the Russians, the Ukrainians sat around and starved to death.
But back to the point - I really don't see how a bunch of Ukrainians standing around in the cold is braver than Iraqi civilians and security forces working for the interim government being tortured to death, shot, bombed and beheaded on a daily basis. Note that we have not seen any tapes of these men begging for their lives. That can't be an accident. They died like men. Or to put it a different way - they died like Americans.
#49
the lviv/lvov (dare i say lwiw? lemberg?)city council has apparently called for Yulia to become PM. Evidently SOME ukrainians think she'll do a good job.
#50
JB: I look at how the Polish and Ukrainian immigrants to this country have embraced freedom and liberty and tolerance as great values. But otoh when I look at the way Muslims continue with their anti-American positions here while benefiting from its largesse and how they show reluctance to discard the restraints of their religion, I'm not getting my hopes up for Iraq.
This is because the US has never gone to war with either Poland and the Ukraine. German-Americans were ardently pro-Germany until Hitler declared war on the US. In fact, they spearheaded the isolationist movement along with the American left (who opposed entering the war all through the Molotov Ribbentrop Pact until Germany invaded the Soviet Union). And Japanese-Americans were fervently pro-Japan until Pearl Harbor (and many even after Pearl Harbor).
Since no Muslim government has officially declared war on the US, they aren't really sure what Afghanistan and Iraq are all about. But the one thing that is reassuring is this - none of the successful attacks on US targets by Muslim jihadists have involved American-born Muslims. Note that many of the potential terrorists arrested in America were headed abroad for jihad, not planning to kill Americans on our soil. The other interesting aspect is that many of these people could only have been betrayed by other Muslims. This means that there are Muslims who may (or may not) have agreed with them about America's foreign policy, but decided that personally killing Americans wasn't the way to address these grievances.
The Iraqis are far more protected than we are from terrorist attacks, with hundreds of thousands of military men, police and heavy equipment all over the place. And yet attacks killing dozens occur on a daily basis. They occur in Iraq but not here for one reason - the six million or so American Muslims in-country are simply not interested in slaughtering their fellow Americans.
#51
lviv/lvov (dare i say lwiw? lemberg?)city council has apparently called for Yulia to become PM. Evidently SOME ukrainians think she'll do a good job.
Hey thanks for that info, lh. I'd say that's a very good sign. Lvov is the emotional heart of western Ukraine and has always leaned to Europe rather than to Mother Russia, like Eastern Ukraine where the Russians were re-settled by Stalin and where they still have influence.
No. Instead of fighting the Russians, the Ukrainians sat around and starved to death.
That's a disgustintg contemptible statement to make, ZF. Quite frankly I expected better from you. That's like saying the Jews were willing victims, they didn't fight the Nazis, they just went calmly to the showers.
The Ukrainian farmers were no better equipped to fight the Soviet military than the Jews were to fight the German Nazis. More Ukrainians were killed in one year in the 1930's than casualities any other European modern day genocide. Grow up, ZF.
I really don't see how a bunch of Ukrainians standing around in the cold is braver than Iraqi civilians and security forces working for the interim government being tortured to death, shot, bombed and beheaded on a daily basis.
The Ukrainians, when given armaments, fought very bravely for your country in WWII and their sons fought for the US in Vietnam. Who do you think filled the ranks of WWII and Vietnam US forces- immigrants from Eastern Europe, Germany, Italy and the sons of those immigrants, that's who. The Ukrainian and Polish farmers from the Central states were very good soldiers. I think the courage of Eastern Europeans should never be in question, especially coming from a young generation American, as I assume you to be, ZF.
Note that we have not seen any tapes of these men begging for their lives. That can't be an accident. They died like men. Or to put it a different way - they died like Americans.
Dream along with me. No tapes have been made because they were shot or blown up by and large. The beheading of Westerners was for political effect and for ransom from these same countries. Who would Sunni terrorists blackmail over a Kurdish soldier being held as prisoner with the threat of beheading? Duh.
I don't know where you get all this uber confidence that the Iraqis identify with the US or our values. I have not seen any proof of this. The Shiites are sitting on the fence, waiting for elections so they can form the majority gov't. The Kurds want independence ultimately but are going along with the program because they may need US protection again in case the Shiite majority don't end up being as "federally minded" or as benevolent as promised. As for the Sunni, well we know where their interests lie and it sure isn't with the US.
At best I think we can hope that Iraq eventually lumps along like Afghanistan without much of our military or financial support needed and has a somewhat neutral or even in our wildest dreams perhaps a pro-US gov't 10 years from now.
At worst, Iraq may descend into Civil War between the Shiites and the Sunnis, with the Shiites victorious and with a definite pro-Iran tilt and antagonistic to the US. Hey that's the worst-at least the Shiites will never tilt pro-OBL, who is a Sunni extremist.
#52
JB: The Ukrainians, when given armaments, fought very bravely for your country in WWII and their sons fought for the US in Vietnam. Who do you think filled the ranks of WWII and Vietnam US forces- immigrants from Eastern Europe, Germany, Italy and the sons of those immigrants, that's who. The Ukrainian and Polish farmers from the Central states were very good soldiers. I think the courage of Eastern Europeans should never be in question, especially coming from a young generation American, as I assume you to be, ZF.
As did Americans of every other stripe, including many Arab-Americans. As I am sure Arab Americans will fight when they are called upon to do so. But the comparison here is not between what Ukrainian-Americans did in WWII vs what Iraqi- and Afghan-Americans did - it is between the courage of Ukrainian demonstrators standing in the cold vs Iraqis working for the interim government, who are dying by the dozens on a daily basis, after having been killed by the dozens every single day for decades.
JB: No tapes have been made because they were shot or blown up by and large. The beheading of Westerners was for political effect and for ransom from these same countries. Who would Sunni terrorists blackmail over a Kurdish soldier being held as prisoner with the threat of beheading? Duh.
Hundreds have been shot or beheaded after they were abducted. Blackmail has nothing to do with it - the whole point of these videos is to intimidate other "collaborators" into not working for the government.
JB: I don't know where you get all this uber confidence that the Iraqis identify with the US or our values.
This has nothing to with US values - it has to do with whether Iraqis working for the government are more courageous than the demonstrators in the Ukraine. One thing you've got to realize is that the people of a certain epoch in a certain geographical area stand for no one but themselves. The Ukrainian-Americans who fought in WWII covered themselves - not the Ukrainians still in the Ukraine - in glory. The German-Americans who fought like lions during WWII were great men, but not the Germans who fought against them. The Ukrainians who demonstrated in that square can't say that they are brave because Ukrainian-Americans fought well in WWII, any more than the Greeks can say that they are brave because their ancestors held off the Persians. Every generation of a certain time and place stands alone in its glory or its humiliating defeat.
#53
JB: The Ukrainians, when given armaments, fought very bravely for your country in WWII and their sons fought for the US in Vietnam. Who do you think filled the ranks of WWII and Vietnam US forces- immigrants from Eastern Europe, Germany, Italy and the sons of those immigrants, that's who. The Ukrainian and Polish farmers from the Central states were very good soldiers. I think the courage of Eastern Europeans should never be in question, especially coming from a young generation American, as I assume you to be, ZF.
Again, JB seems unable or unwilling to make even elementary distinctions. He is questioning Muslim opposition to American foreign policy without understanding the origin of this opposition, which is that the US is attacking Muslim countries. When were Ukrainians or Poles in the US ever called upon to fight their home countries? Japanese- and German-Americans have balked at fighting their home countries - until a formal declaration of hostilities - so Muslim-American opposition is not particularly exceptional. Conflating the wartime sacrifices of American immigrants with a mere peacetime outdoor demonstration in a city square is an insult to the former's sacrifices. Saying that this same demonstration show superior courage to that of the sacrifices of various Iraqis working for the government is simply odd - if this is so, then what does the word courage mean?
#54
The Ukrainians, when given armaments, fought very bravely for your country in WWII and their sons fought for the US in Vietnam. Who do you think filled the ranks of WWII and Vietnam US forces- immigrants from Eastern Europe, Germany, Italy and the sons of those immigrants, that's who. The Ukrainian and Polish farmers from the Central states were very good soldiers. I think the courage of Eastern Europeans should never be in question,
I offer as evidence my uncle/godfather, Joseph Phillipovich Kowalchuk. Silver Star and 2 Bronze stars and 3 Purple Hearts, all awarded to this very young sargeant at Bastogne in the darkest days of WWII.
His sister Olga's husband Joseph Petro: in the first wave of paratroopers at Normandy and then again at the battle of the Bulge.
In all, 8 of the 9 Kowalchuk brothers and their 1 brother-in-law saw combat in WWII. Several, like my father, lied about their age to enlist. My father was the last one badly wounded, when the airplane he was a gunner on was shot down in the Pacific. This was after he survived having his ship sunk out from underneath him earlier. He spent 15 months in a body cast and rehab, emerged into the US economy after the other GIs had already claimed the jobs and the places at college.
He never complained.
There were Kowalchuks in combat in Korea and Vietnam. My cousins flew for USAF and commanded missile silos during the Cold War. Some of their kids are serving in uniform today.
None of this is surprising, as my great-grandfather and his ancestors held their estates in the Ukraine in exchange for breeding and training cavalry horses and for organizing and leading border patrols of those vast grasslands. Often they were gone on patrol for 6 months at a time, and the women ran the estate in their absence.
I didn't marry a Ukrainian, but my husband is a retired USAF officer who now teaches future Army officers at West Point. The tradition continues.
#55
ZF, I agree with your statement that each generation must establish their own creds - or not - in their own time and place.
I disagree with you re: willingness of Ukrainians to fight for the US against the Ukraine. I have close relatives who collected military intelligence from the Soviet Union, including the Ukraine, had close encounters with their fighter aircraft and were willing to launch nuclear-armed missiles against them. They did not take that stance lightly.
#56
You missed my point about citing Ukrainians and Poles fighting bravely in WW II and Vietnam. You implied Ukrainians were a scardey cat race who didn't fight back when Stalin starved them. my point was they had nothing but pitch forks to fight the Soviet military-many fought and died, but starvation does sap one's strength. The number of Ukrainians who starved in 1 year is estimated to be over 12 million - in 1 year. My point was if we had armed the Ukrainians then with what we're giving the Afghans and Iraqis now, there'd be no question that the Ukrainians would have delivered themselves from the evil Stalinists. No one helped the Ukrainians not after WWI and not after WWII. So where do you get off mocking their courage and holding up the courage of Afghans and Iraqis as something so refined and worrthy of our respect? Don't kid yourself for one insta-second - we are doing all the heavy lifting in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Afghanistan would be more of a problem than it is if we didn't reach a quid pro quo arrangement with the war lords about letting them pursue their poppy field agriculture, which was cut back under the Taliban religious rule days. That's not bravery we're seeing in Afghanistanright now-that's lack of free time on their hands because they are too busy cultivating drug profits. As for the "brave" Iraqis - the Kurds are our allies - the best we can hope for from the Shiites is neutrality which they have given us by and large thusfar. As for the "brave" Shiite/Sunni soldiers and national gaurd, puhleaze...even our own military leadership has confirmed that the Iraqi forces on the whole have been less than brave and not exactly consistent in being responsible or predictable (apart from the Kurdish contingent). I would suggest to you that in terms of sheer numbers of "brave" Iraqi soldiers blown up and killed versus not so brave Iraqi soldiers who have cut and run and left their uniforms and armaments behind for the "insurgents", there are greater numbers in the latter column than in the former column. Get serious. If we pulled out our troops today, Iraq would fall like a deck of cards tomorrow, except for the Kurdish territory.
#57
JB: You implied Ukrainians were a scardey cat race who didn't fight back when Stalin starved them. my point was they had nothing but pitch forks to fight the Soviet military-many fought and died, but starvation does sap one's strength. The number of Ukrainians who starved in 1 year is estimated to be over 12 million - in 1 year.
This has nothing to do with race or ethnicity. It has to do with demonstrated courage. When cornered, people can fight like lions. Or they can meet their fate passively. Starvation can demoralize. Or it can lead to violent resistance, as occurred in the Warsaw Ghetto. Ukrainian-Americans met the test, Ukrainians did not. Afghanistan wasn't exactly a land of milk and honey when the Soviets invaded. How exactly did Afghans eat when the Soviets sowed the fields with mines?
JB: Don't kid yourself for one insta-second - we are doing all the heavy lifting in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
We are doing the heavy lifting, but the Iraqis working for the government are now doing the bulk of the dying and certainly a lot more dying than a bunch of Ukrainian demonstrators. Once again there is no way you can compare their courage with that of those demonstrators. When you get a bunch of murdering thugs after the Ukrainians on a daily basis, maybe - but not today.
JB: I would suggest to you that in terms of sheer numbers of "brave" Iraqi soldiers blown up and killed versus not so brave Iraqi soldiers who have cut and run and left their uniforms and armaments behind for the "insurgents", there are greater numbers in the latter column than in the former column. Get serious.
Has a single Ukrainian demonstrator been blown up? Beheaded? How can you compare the courage of demonstrators against that of a people subject to successful and fatal armed attacks every single day? The reason I say Iraqis working for the government are brave is because they are being killed by the dozens every single day. How many Ukrainian demonstrators were killed in that square? How many are being killed today?
#58
It does not detract from the recent achievement of the Ukrainian people to note that ZF is right. The Ukrainians during the last fifteen years have not suffered anything at all like what the Iraqis suffered under Saddam.
The point here is that Ukrainian passivity is the result of the complete destruction of both civil society, under communism, and public governance and rule of law, under post-communist kleptocrats like Lazarenko, Kuchma and their partner in crime, Yulka Tymoshenko. The wages of such corruption is a polity and a populace so enfeebled that relatively minor acts of political normalcy, like the recent demonstrations, are heralded as a "revolution."
Again, no skin off these people's necks, but what happened in Ukraine was not anywhere close to a "revolution." It doesn't even compare to what happened in Prague and E Berlin in 1989. They simply gave a qualified no to kleptocracy-- qualified because in their rejection of Yanukovich they have embraced Mademoiselle Bandit.
#59
Are you people nuts? The Ukraine had 12 million of their people starved to death by the Russian communists in 1 year. What part of that equation can you not understand as contributing to the brutal subjugation of those peoples, which you blithely label as "apathy."
http://www.artukraine.com/famineart/kuhner.htm At a recent conference at McGill University in Montreal, sponsored by Memorial, a leading Kiev research institute, the full extent of Soviet atrocities was exposed. Roman Krutsyk, the head of the institute, explained that newly discovered documents and archives show that about "50 million ethnic Ukrainians within the borders of the Soviet Union" were killed during the Bolshevik regime from 1917 to 1991.
By comparison, let's look at Afghanistan and Iraq where we hope to spawn a love of democracy and a pluristic society, concepts which unfortunately are totally foreign to their 7th century religion - no worries- it will happen - just "believe" We have spent nearly $300 Billion in the past 2 years and lost approximately 1500 troops propping up 2 Islamic dominated countries with little help from the "liberated" peoples themselves except for pockets of help from the entrepreneural( to be polite) Afghan warlords and from Kurdish Iraqis. And you think these 2 Islamic countries' peoples are oh-so brave and so worthy of our respect??? Why? They've done nothing for themselves. Ever. Except go from one Muslim despot to another and pick on the Kurds whenever they get a chance. That's courageous?
Whereas we have not done next to nothing for the Eastern Bloc countries except pretend Stalin wasn't committing genocide in 1932-33 and pretend that everything was going to go swell for the Poles and Ukrainians after WWII. Nice Mr. Stalin was our ally after all. But let's make sure Germany and France are re-built. They will be great allies in the future if we help them after WWII. Yesiree that really worked, didn't it?
And to add salt to the wound you say that tsk, tsk the rampant corruption in the Eastern European countries makes them hopeless?
Since when was the Communist Soviet corruption fully wiped out from the Ukraine or Poland? It never happened. We gave these countries very little economic aid after the USSR fell, whereas we hand aid hand over fist to any Muslim country that pokes its hands from out of its burkas. We let these Eastern countries sink or swim by their own devices, by and large, so obviously they are going to rely on old underground corrupt systems to get by. It's only since the Poles and Ukrainians and other "new European" countries have joined us in the Iraq War, that the US has even given these countries a second glance, never mind financial perks.
Always Jordan, Turkey, Egypt, and Mexico {all corruption free countries}were named as our good friends, our favored allies, and to whom we have sent big chunks of foreign aid over the years for doing squat for the USA. Big friends they have turned out to be with regards to Iraq and Afghanistan. In fact, unless I'm mistaken Turkey pulled the rug from under the USA re: Iraq and weren't several of the 9/11 terrorists carrying Egyptian passports and wasn't it Mexico who had a Security Council seat and voted AGAINST the US regarding the Iraq war? Nice how our hallowed friends treat us and how wonderfully free and democratic these countries are, not to mention how capitalistically successful their economies are.
You seem to think because Reagan said tear down that wall, Mr. Gorbachov... whamo vamo communism disappears? I've got news for you - it doesn't. It may take 50 years of struggle for those nations to finally get rid of the vestiges of the communist moles and communist believers in their society.
Fyi, East Germans whom you credit with such courage wouldn't know how button their shirts without instructions from Putin were it not for the West Germans taking them under their wings with re-unification. As for the Velvet Revolution in Prague in 1989, a bloodless revolution I might add, the Czechs had the tacit help of Gorbachov with the introduction of Perestroika reforms. Gorbachov didn't care much for the Czech communist hardliner PM of the time, Gustav Husak, who had assumed power after the Soviet Invasion of 1968, so it was much easier for the Czechs reformers to force him and his cronies out of power. Consider that the Czechs never represented a geopolitical prize for the Kremlin/KGB power brokers anyways, whereas the Ukraine (and Poland to a lesser degree) represent something symbolic to the Russians and to their dreams of empire and domination past and future.
Russia will grip the Ukraine and Poland as long as their communist grubbing fingers can hold on. And now of course with Russia needing the "right of way" for their Golden Goose egg ie. oil pipelines to traverse these 2 countries to European markets, Putin will continue to meddle and manipulate their politics whenever he gets the chance.
I have nothing but respect for what the Poles and the Ukrainians have done for themselves thusfar, and I believe, like Rumsfeld, that these are our true allies - new Europe - even though we've done very little to earn their loyalty and co-operation. Perhaps it's the white color of their skin or their insistence on having a non Muslim religion in their lives, but somehow these Eastern European countries continue to be an "overlooked" region of the world when it comes to American largesse or interest or optimism.
#60
They simply gave a qualified no to kleptocracy-- qualified because in their rejection of Yanukovich they have embraced Mademoiselle Bandit.
They gave an unqualified *yes* to democracy and independence, which are also important values. When the other side poisons the opposition leader, beheads journalists and is seen taking direct commands from Putin, I'm sure the fact that Yulia was once an oligarch is seen as trivial in comparison.
And I wish I had seen you attack the Kremlin-supporting oligarchs one quarter as much you are attacking the anti-Kremlin oligarchs. I could believe you as a non-biased observer then, rather than a fellow whose words reveal him to have a grudge against the independence movement of Ukraine.
You never gave a damn about attacking the oligarchs of Ukraine until one of them started vigorously opposing Moscow's dreams of Ukraine -- Tymoshenko pretty much *cemented* the Orange Revolution, by convincing Yushchenko himself to become the leader of the opposition.
So when I suddenly see you care about *this* oligarch so very much more than you cared before, I do have to wonder if your words state the real reason for it.
#61
Let me be clear. Again, I'm totally in favor of Ukrainian democracy and have great respect for the recent upswell of Ukrainian democratic action. Because I favor this so strongly, and because I myself have seen such actions betrayed hideously by faux democrats in Russia during the mid to late 1990s-- a betrayal and a failure that directly resulted in Putin's coming to power in that country-- I consider it extremely important for Yushchenko and his partisans to purge their movement of kleptocratic faux democrats like Mademoiselle Bandit.
#62
And I wish I had seen you attack the Kremlin-supporting oligarchs one quarter as much you are attacking the anti-Kremlin oligarchs.
Do I know you? Who are you? Me, I've lived through it, mate. I was there. My family and I have suffered at their hands.
I could believe you as a non-biased observer then, rather than a fellow whose words reveal him to have a grudge against the independence movement of Ukraine.
Calm down. If you're going to pick a fight with me, then you'll have to learn some basic rules of how adults make valid arguments. Lesson #1: Avoid straw man arguments.
#63
And now of course with Russia needing the "right of way" for their Golden Goose egg ie. oil pipelines to traverse these 2 countries to European markets, Putin will continue to meddle and manipulate their politics whenever he gets the chance.
Funny that you mention this because there is a political scandal right now in Poland concerning certain Polish oil companies, Polish corrupt politicians, and Russian involvement. The big fear is that Poland will become dependent on Russia for fuel/energy.
Posted by: Rafael ||
01/05/2005 22:23 Comments ||
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#64
scandal right now in Poland concerning certain Polish oil companies, Polish corrupt politicians, and Russian involvement
Good point. Again, folks, corruption in these post-soviet bloc countries is far more than an economic issue. It goes to the heart of the viability and integrity of the state, ie of democracy, and the ability of a nation to exist as a collection of free men rather than helots.
A handful of House Democrats plan a long-shot effort to snarl President Bush's formal re-election by preventing Congress from counting Ohio's pivotal votes when lawmakers tally the electoral vote on Thursday. No one expects the action to undo Bush's victory. Instead, it seems likely to do little more than call attention to Election Day voting irregularities, a growing frustration for Democrats who blamed similar problems in Florida for Bush's 2000 defeat of Democrat Al Gore.
In a measure of the dispute's political delicacy, proponents are considered unlikely to find a senator who will co-sign the objection, which is required to force Congress to act on the challenge. Most Democrats are reluctant to launch a serious effort to undo the election, in which Bush outpolled Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., by more than 3 million votes nationally. "I am hoping that you will consider joining us in this important effort to debate and highlight the problems in Ohio which disenfranchised innumerable voters," wrote Conyers, top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. The House Democrats' chief hope of finding a supportive senator may be Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. Her spokesman, David Sandretti, said Tuesday that she has been asked to sign the complaint "and she is considering it." Should a senator and House member formally challenge a state's results, the two chambers must meet separately and consider the objection. That scenario would still ensure Bush's re-election because both bodies are controlled by Republicans. A recount last week showed Bush winning Ohio by 118,457 votes over Kerry, according to an unofficial tally by The Associated Press. Some critics have asked the federal courts to force a second recount, but few Democrats believe enough irregularities can be documented to reverse Bush's winning margin.
Kerry is traveling in the Middle East and will not attend Thursday's joint session. In a written statement, spokeswoman April Boyd seemed to provide little support for Conyers' effort. "Senator Kerry conceded the election on November 3rd. ... He has been very clear all along that voting irregularities must be examined, not because it would change the outcome of the election but because it's critical to our democracy," Boyd said. It seems that the Dhimis have no shame. What are they really trying to accomplish? The answer is they are trying to drive a wedge in the voters. The mythical "Disenfranchised Voter" that didn't get to vote because the mean Republicans didn't send enough voting machines. Also it will be helpful if these precincts are in minority areas. Then they can point and say: "See the Republicans hate minorities and don't want them to vote." Never mind that the Dhimis are in control of that precinct and are responsible for the voting irregularities. Notice they are happy with the questionable returns coming out of Washington State. Seems that there were 6,000 extra voters on election day that were counted? Are these "Extrafranchised Voters" that don't need to register or even be a citizen? They are giving a new meaning to the phrase 'Sore Loser'.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge ||
01/05/2005 10:22:34 AM ||
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#1
What are they trying to accomplish? A coverup of the fact that they're the cheating, election-stealing party. In spades.
#4
Why am I not surprised by the Turkeygate situation? Also why it is surpressed in the news? If this had been a Republican's office they would be storming the office! On the other hand they probably consider themelsves needy and like to 'keep it real' by using donated food during the holidays.
An Ethiopian man suspected of torturing and murdering political opponents in the 1970s has been arrested near Atlanta, say United States officials. Kelbessa Negewo fled to the US in 1987 and now faces deportation proceedings. In 2002 in his absence, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for multiple murders by an Ethiopian court. His wife denies charges made against him when he was an official during the deposed dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam's "Red Terror" campaign. "These are all false accusations. He is a good man. He didn't kill anybody," his wife, Athena Negussie, told Reuters news agency shortly after his arrest. In 1993, a US district judge ordered Negewo to pay $1.5m to three women who accused him of torturing them under Ethiopia's Marxist regime between 1977 and 1978. Negewo, who works at an Atlanta hotel has paid only a small amount of the fine, pleading poverty. Tens of thousands of people died during Mengistu's 17-year rule - especially in the late 1970s. Mengistu lives in exile in Zimbabwe.
And feel's right at home.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/05/2005 9:14:08 AM ||
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The "core group" of nations announced by US President George W. Bush to channel aid to victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami will be dissolved on Thursday after only eight days as the United Nations steals takes credit control of the international relief effort, delegates to a donors summit said on Wednesday.
Mr Bush's initiative on December 29 - which at first included only the US, India, Japan and Australia - appeared to have been prompted by an accusation by Jan Egeland, the UN's emergency relief coordinator, that the response of wealthy nations had been "stingy". The UN was included the next day after Mr Bush was criticised for sidelining the UN in a rescue operation involving dozens of countries. Ah... no - because the UN wasn't doing a farking thing besides talk. In fact they stil have not done anything. Translation: the 24/hr catering service at the 5-star hotel has been restored.
Kofi Annan, UN secretary-general, will take centre stage on Thursday at the hastily convened meeting in Jakarta when he appeals for aid to cover the next six months. Among those attending are Colin Powell, US secretary of state; Junichiro Koizumi, Japanese prime minister; Wen Jiabao, Chinese premier; and other leaders from Asia and Europe. What the fark is Powell doing there?
Governments and individuals from around the world have already pledged over $2bn in assistance to help survivors of the December 26 tsunamis, which were triggered by an undersea earthquake off the island of Sumatra and killed 150,000 people in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and as far away as the east coast of Africa.
UN officials and Washington's allies have tried to avoid public criticism of the core group during its short life, and Mr Tsuruoka insisted the group had been "innovative" and "very effective" in mobilising aid. Translation: They did the shitwork - but now that 24hr catering at the 5-star hotel is restored the U.N. can proceed to take the credit (and a slice of the funds for 'administrative costs (lunches, conferences, and 5-star catering)' of course...)
Thursday's one-day summit is expected to focus on the short-term needs of the region for emergency aid and on plans to set up a tsunami early warning system for the Indian Ocean similar to the one already working in the Pacific.
On Wednesday donors continued to announce aid pledges. Germany linked its pledge of E500m ($664.5m, ￜ352m) for victims of the Asian tsunamis to the ending of rebel insurgencies in Sri Lanka and in the Aceh region in of Indonesia. Translation: We have an 'out'....
Joschka Fischer, foreign minister, said he would use a trip to the region starting on Friday to press the governments of the two countries to prioritise "national reconciliation" as relief efforts are stepped up in the disaster-hit districts. Translation: Appeasement will work!
He noted that government leaders in the two countries could not ignore the "political context" in which the disaster took place. Translation: The tsunami was your fault because you did not appease your rebels.....
But Andrew Tan, a Singapore official, warned against complicating the relief and reconstruction drives by "tying them to insurgency problems such as the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka".
Unusually for such a disaster, no one has suggested there is an immediate shortage of funds, and diplomats say the challenge over the next few months will be to coordinate the delivery of aid rather than to raise more money. Translation: We are here to focus on taking credit for others delivering aid.....
Louis Michel, the EU's development Commissioner, who is touring the affected area, said there was too much emphasis on money and not enough on longer term projects. Such as getting these people totally dependant on U.N. aid.
#3
Disaster relief in Thailand. The UN has to be absolutely giddy about this. It's easier to organize a child prostitute ring rescue mission when the infrastructure's already there.
#4
Germany has not linked its pledge to political requirements.
I found it interesting that Schröder didn't even mention the UN in his press conference. The money will go directly to projects. This is not a check to the UN at all.
#5
What the fark is Powell doing there?
Duh, I don't know, maybe he was sent there by our President? Let's see. Has George W. Bush ever come out and said that Kofi Annan and the UN are a bunch of corrupt slimeballs, which we laymen know to be true. I'll save you scratching your head - the answer is no. Our President supports Kofi and the UN corruption ridden kleptomaniacs, always has and always will. Does this help you better understand why our $350 Million disaster aid is as good as flushed down the toilet? No worries. Our Congressmen and the WH know how to "create" more $ to replace that which has been flushed away. It's called increasing the deficit... for a good cause.
#7
joeblow - You are, without a doubt, the most cock-sure SOB I've had the privilege to read when it comes to what's going on inside the Bush admin -- and more specifically, which is the bigger eye-opener, what's going on in Bush's head.
So what's your secret?
ESP? Or are you The President's Analyst?
Must be amazing to know what you know. Color me motherfucking impressed. Who'da thunk it? Right here on RB. Praise the Fates and Pass the Ammunition.
So what's next? C'mon, give us a hint of what to expect over the next few months. Got the lowdown on Iran and the Mad Mullahs?
#10
Very funny .com. All kidding aside, my observations about why Powell is huddling with Kofi at the Jakarta meeting or how GWB will handle the UN's insistence to take over disaster aid siphoning..ahem...I mean disaster aid co-ordination doesn't take rocket science.
GWB is a liberal in many ways. He is the son of a blue blood East Coast liberal Republican. He married a woman who is very liberal and he converted to her religion - Methodist - a very left wing church. GWB has been consistently supportive of the UN financially, paying the dues dutifully even after the UN called the Iraq war illegal even after the oil for food scandal dribbled out in the press. GWB has even been recently restrained by Congress( drunken sailors themselves when it comes to spending)for budget allocations to UN peacekeeping "missions"... wink, wink.
Guys, here's a major clue that you missed a while back - who but a closet liberal/ UN supportive President would willingly appoint a known leftie like Colin Powell to be Sect'y of State and kept Powell in that office for 4 long years until Powell himself called it quits?
Too bad we didn't elect Kerry. He had a plan that didn't include the UN. oh wait..
Hey jackoff how is GWB that different from kerry re: support of the UN? I'm not seeing GWB giving Kofi the thumbs down when food for oil scandal surfaced. I'm not seeing GWB telling the UN to take a hike wth regards to dues and other financial support after the UN stabbed us in the back with regards to Iraq. Kofi referred to it as an "illegal war" just a few months ago and what does GWB do in return - he asks Congress for an increased allocation for UN peacekeeping. Oh wow that was a tough and mean Texan response.
Bush is better than Kerry on other issues, but they're pretty much equal in their support of the UN and the status quo in that failure of an organization. Don't kid yourself that GWB embodies a second coming of Reagan who actually told the UN to take a hike because they were anti-American and went so far as with holding the paying of dues.
As far as predicting GWB's tie, hmmm that's a toughie - he'll wear whatever co-ordinates nicely with his wife's ice-blue inaugeral gown.
#14
I think we are seeing some horse-trading going on. As much as I dislike the UN and many European governments we do need to work with these people. This is reality.
Posted by: Canaveral Dan ||
01/05/2005 22:09 Comments ||
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#15
An Aussie comment on "The Diplomad" blog had suggested that since the UN wasn't world government and only had expensive conferences to talk about talking about doing something.... Perhaps it could be replaced with a "login" type "UN BLOG".
I thought it was a wonderful idea.
Maybe GWB heard about it and was afraid We The People might replace Washington with a Blog on the next round.
#16
Not a matter of politeness, fucktard, it's a matter of you packing your BDS routine up and moving on.
And you are... the moderator, the adjudicator, the Holy See of this forum? I'll tell you what you are,Mr.(or is it Ms.?).com.
You are a foul mouthed blowhard bullyboy poster with little to contribute in the way of original ideas in political discussions except for the occasional mildly humorous/off color video or photo link.
#17
actually, Joe, he's been a longtime contributor and you haven't. I find .com pleasantly sarcastic, willing to admit when he's wrong (happens rarely) and less jingoistic and full of BS than you. Your track record, pal, is short and not so sweet. I'd advise you to get a can of humble and sup heartily. My $0.02
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/05/2005 22:32 Comments ||
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#19
Thank you - so much. you're the man of the hour, so you must be right. You've been around, what, a coupla weeks? Or have you been here under another nym? Lol! You sound soooo familiar. Anyway, doesn't matter what I might've said prior to your appearance, I'm just a bully with little to contribute. And you?
Lol, I know you. No matter the nym - you're old news and you have the same odor as the other lame creatures who have visited us 5 or 6 times in the last year. You're another ultra-sensitive political genealogist with a flaming case of BDS and a certainty that your shit doesn't stink. It does. You can trace the pain your hang-nail causes directly to George W Bush. Pretty fucking amazing. Another trait of your moron ilk is that you're deep into instant gratification. IWWIWWIWI* - the War Cry of the Three Year Old. There are no other considerations beyond your opinion becoming instant policy. So hey, Dubya, microwave that thing will ya? joeblow's got himself a woodie and needs release!
Dubya's not perfect, but he's the best we could hope for in the circumstances, and has delivered far more than I ever expected from any of the politican types. I'll take him, warts and all. And jettison your brain farts.
I just don't know how the Earth managed to rotate or revolve until you came (onanistically) to RB to set us all poor dumbfucks straight and assume the mantle of blame-giver. News Flash - that's a hotly disputed position. Guys like you are a dime a dozen. And almost as constructive as a genital rash, after sifting is completed.
To maintain my image, in closing may I offer kiss my ass, asshat. *big kiss*
#21
I'd advise you to get a can of humble and sup heartily. My $0.02
Thanks for your 2 cents worth, Frank, but you've got bad taste as far as who you respect. I think the intellectual content of post #19 says it all. I rest my case.
#24
And you are... the moderator, the adjudicator, the Holy See of this forum?
No, .com doesn't have any editorial duties here.
He only bought the server.
NOW, some of the time you've been making sense, but a lot of the time you haven't, and in the latter cases especially you seem to mistake insulting your opponents for rational argument, and think insulting Bush in particular for rational argument (for instance, your belief that Bush has some sort of veto power over the selection of the UN Secretary-General. AFAIK, such does not exist, and you need to find a better way of supporting such assertions than you currently have).
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
01/05/2005 23:06 Comments ||
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#25
Phil - I love ya, but I'd rather be judged strictly on my merits as a contributor, Period. Full stop.
If the denizens of RB (You Know Who Not Included) want me to STFU and disappear - NO Problemo. Consider it done. Gone. Adios. Hasta La Vista, Baybee.
I'll just come back under another nym like blowhard. Heh. You don't think I'm crazy enough to give up RB, do ya?!!!! LOL!
#27
Nah, flamewars are good. Ya need to reinforce the creds once in a while. I'm sure some Womyn's Studies major is doing a paper right now on Male Hierarchichal Patterns in Weblogs: A Cybersexual Perspective regarding the Gynophobic Polemic. Or somesuch.
And let's not be changing names, shall we? I think I finally know who all the key players are.
#28
This reminds me of what an outside consultant told me when our company's merger was announced about the great lie in business: We're from Corporate, and we are here to help you.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/05/2005 23:41 Comments ||
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#29
Except Shipman, of course. Only The Shadow knows all of the nyms he employs! I'm guilty too, but I include the little leading dot to make sure ya know I'm not trolling. I'd post a couple of pictures on the topic, but it'd make me seem crude and foul.
#30
your belief that Bush has some sort of veto power over the selection of the UN Secretary-General.
Where did you get that as being my "belief?" I never said GWB had veto power over Kofi Annan's selection. I simply said GWB supports the status quo in in the UN. He had an opportunity to join the chorus of disapproval being voiced by some GOP Senators, led by the MN.senator, shortly after the oil for food scandal made the news, especially on FOX news. And instead of taking the opportunity as I imagine Reagan might have done to cheer his GOP senators on, GWB gave a press conference giving his full support to Kofi Annan.
in the latter cases especially you seem to mistake insulting your opponents for rational argument,
Re-read the posts. Who changed the direction of the discussion to personal insults? Who started the provocateur bullyboy posts? Those posts were not mine. It was your hero doing what he always does when he has no rational evidence to support his position - character assassination, immature distraction.
think insulting Bush in particular for rational argument
How did I "insult" Bush - by callinmg him a closet liberal when it came to how he supports the UN? Zowie. That was sure some insult! Ouch.
Look, I call a spade a spade. I'm certainly not going to pretend that GWB is my everything President, because he isn't. GWB has good qualities, but he also has some weak points, largely when his "compassion" gets the best of his cerebral businessman's instincts. The UN is one of those areas that plays to GWB's weak points, to his liberalness if you like. If you can show me instances when GWB told the UN to take a hike, like Reagan did, I might change my mind.
#31
Phil - I love ya, but I'd rather be judged strictly on my merits as a contributor, Period. Full stop.
I know that... I just felt like pointing out the absurdity of the situation. I have had moderation duties in other fora, and I am quite happy NOT having such responsibilities at the present. I understand if you feel the same.
I've done the angry flame-master thing online before, and it's kind of tiring. And these days, it's boring for me to read. Frankly, I come to Rantburg for the news items I can't easily find anywhere else; if I wanted a little political analysis and a lot of flamewars, I'd be over at some more forum-heavy site like LFG.
If the denizens of RB (You Know Who Not Included) want me to STFU and disappear - NO Problemo. Consider it done. Gone. Adios. Hasta La Vista, Baybee.
But will we find another mark contributor in time for the next server upgrade?
SERIOUSLY: I don't like what the UN has been doing lately, but I fail to see the point of accusing everyone here who disagrees with me (and most of those who agree with me) of overtly or covertly supporting the UN's corruption, especially when our ability to influence the UN is limited.
Now that I think about it, the UN does a much better job of limiting itself than we ever could.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
01/05/2005 23:53 Comments ||
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#32
How did I "insult" Bush - by callinmg him a closet liberal when it came to how he supports the UN? Zowie. That was sure some insult! Ouch. Look, I call a spade a spade. I'm certainly not going to pretend that GWB is my everything President, because he isn't. GWB has good qualities, but he also has some weak points, largely when his "compassion" gets the best of his cerebral businessman's instincts. The UN is one of those areas that plays to GWB's weak points, to his liberalness if you like. If you can show me instances when GWB told the UN to take a hike, like Reagan did, I might change my mind.
JB, there's a very old adage in diplomacy, first uttered by Talleyrand, to the effect of "Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice Doggie' while you are looking for a rock."
It doesn't necessarily mean that you actually think the dog is nice.
Bush hasn't actually told the UN to take a hike. But he actually got the security council to pass resolutions in support of the campaign in Iraq, which matters a lot more than whatever Kofi has blathered this month.
Perhaps another example: I spent the whole summer watching Kerry and Company's attacks on Bush while Bush mainly did nothing and generally abstained from campaigning. Yet here we are, with Bush having won re-election and the Democrats scratching their head about how did they wind up with such a lousy candidate (because obviously, in their opinion, Bush would have lost to a good one).
I would suggest we're in a similar situation wrt the UN.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
01/06/2005 0:02 Comments ||
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#33
Actually, joeblow, you have been trolling for hits since you arrived. You have zero, zip, zilch, nada evidence about me except for this thread. I reached saturation right here regards your arrogance and closet BDS.
What makes you think your opinion has been lacking around here? You post substance and others, me in particular, do not? Lol - you take yourself too seriously. What you post - we see it all the time. They come and they go. They suck and they blow.
You're just another zit on America's ass, sonny. My language offends you? Who fucking cares? You're a pretentious posturing poseur, a wannabee expert and authority. Your opinions are old hat. I have not seen you give an inch, give credit where due, apologize for your own nastiness, or indicate via "intellectual content" that you have a superior position. All there is is your "reads", your "takes", your "demands", your "accusations", your "pontifications", your childish tantrums, and your opinions. It's a dime a dozen for input such as yours. You are irrelevant.
Several blogs have reported that the government of Sri Lanka has rejected a contingent of 1,500 US Marines sent there to aid in tsunami recovery.
Today, I just heard that a huge US military relief force had been rejected. More than 1,300 Marines ready to disgorge from a US warship with emergency equipment and shelters for the tens of thousands made homeless were simply given the message "No thanks!".
A small contingent of US Marines had already landed in Sri Lanka before someone there changed their minds. Also see
Jerusalem, Dec 28 : Sri Lanka has refused to accept an Israeli rescue team which was to leave today for the island nation to assist operations, as it would accept only supplies because the tsunami-hit areas "are swamped with rescue teams
Also see A vocal, influential, and extremely small Muslim minority in Sri Lanka was blamed by talk show host Steve Lucas on the 12/28 refusal. There is no evidence that there has ever been a "surplus" of rescue teams in Sri Lanka, rather the opposite. These twin refusals of aid have gotten virtually no coverage in the MSM. Perhaps additional thousands of Sri Lankans died due to the stupidity of the Sri Lankan government. No wonder they have a civil war. Their dithering caused a large contingent of aid to be delayed in delivering critically services to those willing to accept it.
Posted by: Whutch Threth6418 ||
01/05/2005 9:42:16 AM ||
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#1
If they've changed their minds, fine, let them be. Our help should only go where it's wanted.
Oh, and no money in lieu of direct help. No telling where that money would end up, but it certainly wouldn't be in the hands of those that really need it.
#2
If there was ever a chance for the blogosphere to outshine the MSM, this is it. Bloggers are in the thousands, on the ground and can cover the regions far more effectively than the Beeb or CNN can. And most importantly, bloggers don't give a shit about the idiotic pronouncements of UN Coordinators of Coordination and do not consult "experts" in order to write speculative BS about the effects of a colossal event whose effects are massive and completely unpredictable.
#7
The UN special representative has got to them. Look for a communique shortly announcing a Massive UN Coordinated Effort for Sri Lanka.
Food for Flood complete with minor administration charges levied for all.
Posted by: john ||
01/05/2005 16:16 Comments ||
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#8
I guess in this case, the Sri Lankans really will FOAD. If they won't tolerate help from our military, we should take care that not one red cent of our aid is allowed to be washed through some politically correct organization for their benefit. Help the Thais and, if they're sufficiently grateful, the Indonesians.
EXPERTS have warned that an Asian tsunami warning system would be rendered useless unless affected countries beef up their communications infrastructure. Australian government experts said the system could be built in the Indian Ocean in a year and cost as little as $US20 million ($25.73 million). But they warned that many coastal villages that bore the brunt of tsunami lack modern communication networks required to support the high-tech network of sensors and buoys. "There's no point in spending all the money on a fancy monitoring and a fancy analysis system unless we can make certain that the infrastructure for the broadcast system is there," Phil McFadden said, chief scientist at Geoscience Australia, which has been tasked with designing an Indian Ocean system. "That's going to require a lot of work. If it's a tsunami, you've got to get it down to the last Joe on the beach. This is the stuff that is really very hard."
Mr McFadden said the system would take 12 months to build, require 30 seismographs to detect earthquakes, ten tidal gauges and six special DART (deep ocean assessment and reporting of tsunamis) buoys costing $US250,000 each. "My guess at this stage is probably about six DART buoys, which is a fair amount of money," he said. "But this amount of money is nothing compared to the cost of what has happened."
But Mr McFadden's figures do not include the cost and time needed to upgrade communications networks in many countries nor the process of educating local populations unfamiliar with the dangers of tsunamis. Prih Harjadi of the Indonesian Meteorological & Geophysical Agency agrees. "It's a problem of infrastructure," he said. "We could produce information but we would just send it to local governments. It is up to the authorities there to evacuate the people. Right now, there is nothing."
Posted by: God Save The World ||
01/05/2005 5:08:25 AM ||
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The Federal Opposition has called for the Prime Minister to pressure Burma's military regime to provide more details about the impact of the tsunami in that country. The Burmese Government is reporting that 59 people died in the disaster, but the United Nations and other observers are sceptical about the figures, believing there may be dozens more. In Burma, aid agencies are restricted in their work and journalists are banned. Labor's foreign affairs spokesman, Kevin Rudd, says it is an issue that must be raised during tomorrow's summit of world leaders in Jakarta. "As Mr Howard heads to Jakarta for the summit on the tsunami impact on the region, for him gently to raise with his ASEAN counterparts of which Burma is a member can apply some leverage on the regime in Rangoon to come clean with what precisely has occurred in the aftermath of the tsunami," he said.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
01/05/2005 5:12:18 AM ||
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FORENSIC workers faced the grim task of reopening 600 bags containing bodies of Thailand's tsunami victims today after identification data on them was washed away by rain or antiseptic spray. Work to re-identify the corpses was being undertaken at three temples in Phang Nga province, where the corpses of some 1800 victims of the December 26 tsunami disaster have been collected. Thai forensic expert Pornthip Rojanasunan, speaking at Ban Muang temple, said a rough identification of Thai victims had been almost completed and experts from some 22 nations were working on foreign victims. "The problem we have now, however, is that the antiseptic solution that we have sprayed on the body bags has dissolved the markings on their identification tags," the doctor said. "So we are going to have to re-identify more than 600 bodies in the three temples being used. We used a permanent marker but we did not know that the antiseptic solution would make the ink disappear."
The tags did not bear names but contained information on whether the corpse was that of a Thai national or of a foreign tourist, the clothes it had been wearing, whether it had tattoos, and DNA and dental identification. "We will have to reopen the body bags and see if we can visually identify them. If not, we will have to do the tests again," Dr Rojanasunan said.
It was not clear how many of the 600 were believed to be Thais and how many were foreigners. Sutatip Bhamarapravati, director of ground operations at Yan Yao and Ban Muang temples, said rain and body fluids were also responsible for washing off data. "We had lots of rain yesterday even though this is not the season for rain, and some bodies are outside," Mr Bhamarapravati said. "It is very unfortunate but given these terrible circumstances and the number of bodies we are dealing with, things like this can happen."
Thailand's official confirmed death toll is more than 5200, about half foreign holidaymakers. Phang Nga, where the devastated beach resort of Khao Lak is located, had 4134 reported dead, of whom 2213 were foreigners and 1921 were Thais. Local and foreign experts face a huge task identifying the dead after days of decomposition. The bodies of foreigners will be collected at three sites in refrigerated containers but experts say identification work will last for months.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
01/05/2005 5:07:03 AM ||
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The chief UN disaster coordinator Jan Egeland compared the human toll from the Asian tsunami disaster to the Tangshan earthquake in China in 1976.
The so-called Great Tangshan Earthquake on July 28, 1976 was one of the worst natural disasters of all time with an official toll of more than 240,000 dead, though some estimates put the toll at twice that number.
Egeland made the comparison as he described the difficulty of getting an accurate toll for the tsunami disaster on December 26 for which nearly 146,000 are known to have died so far, mainly in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand.
"We're waiting for the Indonesian authorities to really try to estimate what is the real toll on the Sumatra and Aceh coast," he said.
Egeland told a press conference it would be more difficult in Indonesia, which was near the epicentre of the strongest quake recorded in 40 years, than for Sri Lanka or Thailand.
"Whole coastal lines have been washed away, with everything including the villages and the villagers," Egland said.
"I do not foresee even in the next few days us having a very accurate figure," he added.
Like China's 1976 Tangshan earthquake, Egeland believes the toll "will be very very high here as well."
As for people displaced by the disaster, "we're saying that altogether there are much more than one million people displaced," Egeland said.
"The figure of around five million people we have to assist in one form or another, I think is a fairly accurate figure," he added.
Posted by: tipper ||
01/05/2005 8:34:22 AM ||
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An Iranian who beheaded his two sons after they witnessed him murder a woman was sentenced to hang on Tuesday by a Tehran court, in a case that has hit Iran's front pages. The man, known only as Ismail, pleaded guilty to beheading and dicing up the bodies of two adults and severing the heads of his sons, aged 7 and 11, newspapers and the ISNA students news agency reported. "Ismail suspected his wife Masoumeh of having an affair with a man called Ebrahim. He then forced her to marry him in a lavish ceremony attended by some 700 guests," Naser Seraj, the head of penal courts in Tehran province, told ISNA. Ismail then killed Ebrahim and his sister Fatemeh.
What the hell did Fatemeh do?
"I had beheaded sheep before and I felt Fatemeh was a sheep so I cut her head off and chopped her body to small pieces. I placed her head in a tray which scared the life out of my children," he was quoted as saying by Etemad newspaper. After learning that his sons had witnessed Fatemeh's murder, Ismail beheaded them.
Oh. Well. That makes sense. Islamic sense, but sense. I guess.
Seraj said Ismail received two death sentences for killing the adults. Under Iran's Islamic law a father need only pay blood money for killing his children. Masoumeh was sentenced to death for her affair with Ebrahim. Adultery is punishable by death in Iran.
It's like looking at the world in a fun house mirror, only without the fun...
Posted by: tipper ||
01/05/2005 12:25:03 AM ||
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#1
So. Everybody's been beheaded except Ismail, and he's about to be. What a happy Islamic ending.
via Lucianne
Thirty-eight percent of people in the United States say they keep a gun in their homes, a Gallup Poll Tuesday Briefing analysis reported. In addition to the people who say they have a gun in the house, another 2 percent said there was one elsewhere on their property, such as in a car, garage or barn. 38%+2%=40%
Those who have guns are likely to have more than one, Gallup said. A total of 62 percent of respondents said they have more than one gun in their house, including 29 percent who said they have five or more guns. This part doesn't quite make sense to me. Do they mean that 62% of the 40% have more than one gun? (62%x40%=24.8% of US population, 29%x40%=11.6% of US population)
Those figures boost the average to 1.7 guns in every U.S. home. Gallup said the percentage of people in the United States reporting they have a gun in their homes has been near the 40 percent mark since 2000. Gallup has been polling on this subject since 1959. From that first polling through 1993, an average of 47 percent of respondents said they had a gun in their homes. Since then, that average has dropped to about 40 percent. The polling firm said tougher gun laws in the mid 1990s likely played a role in declining gun ownership. Gallup conducted telephone surveys of 1,012 adults Oct. 11-14, 2004. The data have a margin is error or plus or minus 3 percent.
#2
Mojo asks the important question. Still I wonder how many people might answer yes because they felt the call might not be legit and they'd rather bad guys think they are armed.
#4
I don't buy into pollsters getting honest answers on any topic. I just hang up on them, but my mother-in-law will stay on the phone telling them the opposite of what she thinks just for fun when she has the time.
The pigment that gives curry spice its yellow hue may also be able to break up the "plaques" that mark the brains of Alzheimer's disease patients, early research suggests.
Scientists found that curcumin, a component of the yellow curry spice turmeric, was able to reduce deposits of beta-amyloid proteins in the brains of elderly lab mice that ate curcumin as part of their diets.
In addition, when the researchers added low doses of curcumin to human beta-amyloid proteins in a test tube, the compound kept the proteins from aggregating and blocked the formation of the amyloid fibers that make up Alzheimer's plaques.
Accumulation of beta-amyloid proteins in the brain is one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease.
The new findings suggest that curcumin could be capable of both treating Alzheimer's and lowering a person's risk of developing the disease, said study co-author Dr. Gregory M. Cole of the University of California Los Angeles and the Greater Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Healthcare System.
Cole and his colleagues have gotten funding to begin a small trial in humans suffering from Alzheimer's disease. "The big question is how high are the doses we need to fight Alzheimer's and are they really safe in elderly patients?" he told Reuters Health.
The current findings, published online recently by the Journal of Biological Chemistry, add to the body of research pointing to curcumin's medicinal value. Long used as part of traditional Indian medicine, curcumin is now under study as a potential cancer therapy, and animal research has suggested the compound might serve as a treatment for multiple sclerosis and cystic fibrosis.
Interest in curcumin as an Alzheimer's therapy grew after studies found low rates of the disease among elderly adults in India, where curry spice is a dietary staple.
Curcumin is structurally similar to a stain known as Congo red, which is used by pathologists to identify amyloid protein in autopsied brain tissue in order to confirm a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease after a patient's death.
Curcumin can also stain amyloid deposits, Cole said, but it has the additional ability, when eaten or injected, to cross into a living animal's brain and bind to amyloid deposits.
What's more, he explained, curcumin is an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agent, and it appears to counter the oxidative damage and inflammation that arises in response to amyloid accumulation. "It attacks both the amyloid and the response to amyloid," Cole said.
Because oxidative damage and inflammation mark a number of diseases of aging - such as arthritis and the buildup of plaques in the heart's arteries - Cole said he and his colleagues hope that curcumin eventually proves useful for a range of age-related conditions.
SOURCE: Journal of Biological Chemistry, online Dec. 7, 2004.
#7
Something about the idea of elderly lab mice depresses me, can't run the maze anymore? Can't can't ingest a gram of god knows what an hour anymore? Hell, let's send 'em to the olde mice research lab.
Okay. Who we rooting for here?
A prominent U.S.-based animal rights group urged former President Jimmy Carter on Monday to give up fishing on the grounds that the activity was inconsistent the Nobel peace laureate's humanitarian efforts. Can they give one for fishitarian efforts? Then they might have a point. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals made its appeal in a letter faxed to Carter's non-profit Carter Center on Monday. The group said the letter was prompted by Carter's recent appearance on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno. Carter, who served as president from 1977 to 1981 and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, told Leno of the pain he suffered when he accidentally hooked himself through the face on a fishing trip. Serves you right, you fish killing bastard!
"We're asking President Carter to think this through and to grant fish peace by leaving them in the water where they belong," PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said in a press release. Ingrid, you should be in a home.
A Carter Center spokesman said the center does not comment on Carter's private correspondence. The big question: Will Jimmy cave?
#2
Okay, just for the halibut, here's my two cents: PETA goes overboard, and the press falls for it, hook, line, and sinker. Personally, I think they're all wet, and the lure of publicity was too much for them. On a scale of one to ten, it's hard to rate who's more gill-ty, but that's the way the worm turns.
OK, I'm fin-ished!
Posted by: Mike ||
01/05/2005 13:38 Comments ||
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#15
Arrogant Worms: "Carrot Juice is Murder"
(imagine a very folky group harmonizing over an acoustic guitar)
Listen up, brothers and sisters
Come hear my desperate tale
I speak of our friends of nature
Trapped in the dirt like a jail
Vegetables live in oppression
Served on our tables each night
This killing of veggies is madness
I say we take up the fight
Salads are only for murderers
Cole slaw's a fascist regime
Don't think that they don't have feelings
Just 'cause a radish can't scream
{Refrain}
I've heard the screams of the vegetables, (scream scream scream)
Watching their skins being peeled, having their insides revealed
Grated and steamed with no mercy, burning off calories
How do you think that feels, bet it hurts really bad
Carrot juice constitutes murder, and that's a real crime
Greenhouses prisons for slaves, let my vegetables grow
It's time to stop all this gardening, it's dirty as hell
Let's call a spade a spade (it's a spade it's a spade it's a spade)
I saw a man eating celery
So I beat him black and blue
If he ever touches a sprout again
I'll bite him clean in two
I'm a political prisoner
Trapped in a windowless cage
'Cause I stopped the slaughter of turnips
By killing five men in a rage
I told the judge when he sentenced me
"This is my finest hour
I'll kill those farmers again
Just to save one more cauliflower"
{Refrain}
How low as people do we dare to stoop
Making young broccolis bleed in the soup
Untie your beans, uncage your tomatoes
Set potted plants free, don't mash that potato, ah
#3
American- and human techs are so good we can influence planets we haven't even reached yet, or have we-e-e??? So are these scientists indir saying the sun will go nova in 100 years, ergo OWG and "Socialism/ Communism NOW", where Amerika pays all the bills of global modernization only in the end to become a weak Sovietized Socialist Republic under OWG.
#8
Any planet anywhere is likely to be either warming or cooling. This, and attention-seeking astronomers, will be sufficient to unleash a slew of MSM reports.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/05/2005 8:32 Comments ||
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#9
any studies on Uranus warming that neglect the effect of Mexican food are bunk
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/05/2005 8:43 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Superconducting Women and Children Hardest Hit!
#13
Very odd.. especially since Pluto is currently headed away from the sun. IIRC, its atmosphere had been projected to freeze completely by 2018. Looks like we've got a bit more time to go look.
#6
a2U - Regards #4, indeed, usury is forbidden - so they call them "fees" and there is (believe it or not) a box you check on your bank account application that says something like,
"Do you wish the Bank to pay you fees for the balance held in your account, payable..."
[ ] Yes [ ] No
At least that's how they handled it in Saudi at Saudi British Bank, where I had to go, monthly, to collect my pay back in '92. The "fee" back then was a 3% APR on any balance held more than 30 days. Prolly handled similarly everywhere in Islam where they must deal with Westerners.
The Federal Shariat Court (FSC) has overturned the acquittal of two rape suspects Allah Buksh and Muhammad Aslam and sentenced them to seven years. They raped a 13-year-old girl in Mandi Bahauddin but a sessions court had acquitted them on June 26, 1996. The FSC bench of justices Zafar Pasha Chaudhry and Saeedur Rahman Furrukh said that the trial court had not examined the case facts in detail and acquitted them, which was illegal in light of several Supreme Court verdicts. The court said that the 18-hour delay in FIR after the incident could not be considered a ground to disbelieve the prosecution's story.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Pakistan's current inflation, unemployment and poverty are bigger problems for the national economy than any natural calamity or war, said Mohammad Pervaiz Malik MNA, central leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), on Tuesday. Addressing a party meeting he said that the wars of 1965 and 1971 along with the floods and earthquakes, which hit the country in the past, did not have as bad an effect on the economy as did faulty policies and corruption. In the past, he said, a struggling economy could be attributed to global trends. However, now that the rest of the world was progressing, there was no excuse for a weak economy, he said. Malik said that the current inflation regime was self-inflicted, and the government, by drastically increasing prices of petroleum products twice in a span of 14 days, had dealt a severe blow to the prices of all goods, including household items. This, he said, coming at a time when the price of petroleum products was on a global decrease, was unacceptable, adding that this was an additional burden on the country's tax-weary population, who were already struggling.
Just keep on managing the old economy. Oh, and divert a significant percentage of your national income into religious studies. You can never have enough holy men.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Ruffians. We need more ruffians in American media. Also ne'er-do-wells.
... and layabouts.
... and scallawags.
Don't forget hooligans and miscreants
The flag hoisting ceremony at Bilawal House, the house rented by Asif Ali Zardari on Sher Khan Road, was marred by a clash between two groups of a Pakistan People's Party (PPP) youth wing.
They can't even have a party get-together without duking each other out...
Two separate groups of the PPP youth wing led by Dr Hatfield Fakharud Din and Muhammad McCoy Ayub started exchanging hot words shortly before the flag hoisting ceremony.
"Arrr! Yer mudder wears army shoes!"
"A curse on yer moustache!"
Ayub allegedly slapped Dr Fakhar on his face, which prompted his supporters to whip out a rod pelt bottles at Ayub's supporters. Umer Sharif, a PPP ticket holder, and some of other activists were injured in the ensuing fight. PPP leaders intervened to settle the dispute and Ayub and his supporters left the scene hurling abuses at some leaders. Speaking on the occasion, Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar, former PPP secretary general, strongly criticised the people involved. Mukhtar welcomed the decision of party chairperson Benazir Bhutto and her spouse Asif Ali Zardari to have a residence in Lahore and said that Bilawal House would be the centre of all PPP political activities from now on.
There goes the neighborhood.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2005 00:00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A wall of water up to 50 metres high crashing into the Atlantic seaboard of the United States, flattening everything in its path — not a Hollywood movie but a dire prophecy by some British and US academics. Scientists warn an eruption of a volcano in Spain's Canary Islands could unleash a "mega-tsunami" larger than any in recorded history. According to their controversial study, an explosion of the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the island of La Palma could send a chunk of rock twice the size of the Isle of Wight into the Atlantic at up to 350 kilometres an hour. Many experts believe the risk of "mega-tsunamis" from such a massive landslide on La Palma has been hugely overstated. But in the study's scenario, energy released would equal the electricity consumption of the United States for six months, sending gigantic tidal waves across the Atlantic at the speed of a jet plane. Devastation in the United States would reach trillions of dollars with tens of millions of lives at risk. Spain, Portugal, Britain, France, Brazil, the Caribbean and West Africa would also be swamped by giant waves.
The government of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez will expropriate its first farm, taking Venezuela straight down Zimbabwe road. The grab was announced this morning and will happen Saturday. The chavistas' first target is a British-owned cattle ranch. The move is a bold beginning for the chavista communists who will roll out both military and police forces for the seizure, beginning the first in a series.
Ukraine's fiery opposition leader 
A handful of House Democrats plan a long-shot effort to snarl President Bush's formal re-election by preventing Congress from counting Ohio's pivotal votes when lawmakers tally the electoral vote on Thursday. No one expects the action to undo Bush's victory. Instead, it seems likely to do little more than call attention to Election Day voting irregularities, a growing frustration for Democrats who blamed similar problems in Florida for Bush's 2000 defeat of Democrat Al Gore. 
An Ethiopian man suspected of torturing and murdering political opponents in the 1970s has been arrested near Atlanta, say United States officials. 
An Iranian who beheaded his two sons after they witnessed him murder a woman was sentenced to hang on Tuesday by a Tehran court, in a case that has hit Iran's front pages. The man, known only as Ismail, pleaded guilty to beheading and dicing up the bodies of two adults and severing the heads of his sons, aged 7 and 11, newspapers and the ISNA students news agency reported. "Ismail suspected his wife Masoumeh of having an affair with a man called Ebrahim. He then forced her to marry him in a lavish ceremony attended by some 700 guests," Naser Seraj, the head of penal courts in Tehran province, told ISNA. Ismail then killed Ebrahim and his sister Fatemeh. 
Pakistan's current inflation, unemployment and poverty are bigger problems for the national economy than any natural calamity or war, said Mohammad Pervaiz Malik MNA, central leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), on Tuesday. Addressing a party meeting he said that the wars of 1965 and 1971 along with the floods and earthquakes, which hit the country in the past, did not have as bad an effect on the economy as did faulty policies and corruption. In the past, he said, a struggling economy could be attributed to global trends. However, now that the rest of the world was progressing, there was no excuse for a weak economy, he said. Malik said that the current inflation regime was self-inflicted, and the government, by drastically increasing prices of petroleum products twice in a span of 14 days, had dealt a severe blow to the prices of all goods, including household items. This, he said, coming at a time when the price of petroleum products was on a global decrease, was unacceptable, adding that this was an additional burden on the country's tax-weary population, who were already struggling. 
