Posted by: Fred ||
07/11/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
There is some evidence that Godawful is mentally ill. He is always seen wearing gaudy silk outfits, that wouldn't be out of place at a transvestite ball. Not a good peace partner.
#2
Looks like Dubya wants to [geographically/
politically] isolate Radical Islamism in North Africa = from Egypt by maintaining a US-Western foothold in Libya. Also helps vv Ethiopia and Somalia troubles, etc.
Around 286,000 people, including former ministers, lawmakers, political leaders and business tycoons, have been arrested across the country on charges of crime and corruption since the state of emergency was declared on January 11.
Over a quarter million people? My mind just boggled.
That's on a population of 150 million. I think they need to arrest some more.
Of them, police held over 260,000, Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) about 9,000 and the army-led joined forces over 17,000 throughout the country, home ministry sources told the news agency.
That says Bangla's been arresting over 1500 people per day for the past 190 days, with no days off.
Besides, police netted about 2100 firearms, over 1280 other weapons and over 25,000 rounds of ammunition, while Rab seized over 1022 firearms, 17148 rounds of bullet, 423 explosives and 474 other weapons during the drives. The arrested persons also include over 600 "listed criminals" held by police. The high profile arrests were made after Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed's caretaker government declared war on corruption and criminal godfathers.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/11/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Besides, police netted about 2100 firearms, over 1280 other weapons and over 25,000 rounds of ammunition, while Rab seized over 1022 firearms, 17148 rounds of bullet, 423 explosives and 474 other weapons during the drives.
A large gun store in the US probably has this much stuff--with the exception of the explosives.
#3
"But no shutter gun? Something very fishy here.." Nothing fishy at all; the shutter gun is part of the RAB Catch and (do not) Release Program. Think of it as a reusable .44 cal ankle bracelet.....
#3
Any rumors whether the infamous BBC radio detector vans can pick up emissions from LCD TVs? My guess is no since there is no high voltage flyback transformer and tuners are now single chip and easily shielded.
Posted by: ed ||
07/11/2007 7:39 Comments ||
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#4
Auntie Beeb is more like the batty old aunt in the attic these days.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/11/2007 9:36 Comments ||
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#9
NHS and the BBC are the best indicators of why you don't want socialized news reporting or medical care. The answer for BBC is do as PBS stations do - beg for handouts and contributions. Leave it to the audience to decide your worth - either that or go commerical. In some respects Channel 4 is more left-leaning than the Beeb (if that is possible). Sky is the big competitor and with more satellite and cable the Beeb market share is shrinking. Its become basically an inner-city service thus the slant to islamists and socialists.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
07/11/2007 11:24 Comments ||
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#10
IIRV, PBC receives a gov't stipend which they funnel down to individual PBS stations. The local PBS stations only do the pledge weeks to fill the remaining $ gap
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/11/2007 21:46 Comments ||
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#11
er...IIRC...dammit
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/11/2007 21:51 Comments ||
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Upset by the government's recent changes to the immigration law, four leading Turkish groups are boycotting an integration summit Thursday called by Chancellor Angela Merkel. But Berlin says the meeting will go ahead.
A summit meant to ease the lives of Germany's estimated 15 million immigrants hit a major hurdle when four Turkish groups representing a chunk of the foreign population threatened to withdraw from talks this week with Chancellor Angela Merkel's government. The groups, who were part of the first such integration summit held last year, say they feel hurt and discriminated against by the government's recent changes to a 2005 immigration law which tightens restrictions on foreign spouses joining their non-German partners in Germany.
"Oh, Achmed, I'm so hurt! Hold me!"
They also say in the spirit of integration the government should have consulted them before making the changes. The groups are now demanding that the government either revoke the changes to the law or else they will boycott the meeting. And if that doesn't work ...
"We've concluded that it doesn't make any sense to participate in the summit because the German government hasn't understood the seriousness of our concerns and apparently doesn't want to talk about making possible changes to the immigration law," Kenan Kolat, head of the Turkish Association in Berlin and Brandenburg (TGB), told the online version of Der Spiegel on the eve of the summit.
Helga and Horst, but not Ahmed and Aische?
In addition to raising the minimum age for foreign spouses to 18, Germany wants them in future to learn basic German before they enter the country. The aim is to combat forced marriages believed to be widespread among Germany's Turkish community.
Turks make up the largest group among the country's 6.7 million foreigners. But Turkish groups are irked that the regulation only applies to non-Germans. "If Helga and Horst are allowed to get their partners here why not Ahmed and Aische too?" Kolat said. Speaking at a press conference, Kolat added the law amounted to "ethnic discrimination" and applied "double standards." Brother, the Turks have written the book on "ethnic discrimination" and applied "double standards" - in Turkey
Always a good idea to point out that you'd be happy to make your immigration laws reciporical to the other guy's. We Americans just want our southern border to be patrolled as well as Mexico enforces its southern border. The Germans want their new citizens to speak German as well as the new immigrants in Turkey speak Turkish.
What's that you say, the Turks don't have any immigration? Like I was just saying, simply ask for reciprocity ...
Kolat also raised doubts about the law's effectiveness in fighting forced marriages. He pointed out that the number of brides being imported from Turkey had fallen in recent years. Those who do come in, Kolat said, tended to be better educated.
"We too believe that every forced marriage is one too much and should be severely punished," he said. "But the law is no means to counter forced marriages." So what alternative does Herr Kolat offer? (crickets)
Government says summit will go ahead
The integration summit on Thursday is one of a number of measures drawn up by Chancellor Angela Merkel's government to reach out to its large immigrant population amid mounting concerns in Europe about radicalization and home-grown terrorism.
They don't need to 'reach out' to their immigrant population, they need to explain how things work ...
German media regularly reports about the poor school performance of children from immigrant families, conflicts over the wearing of the Islamic headscarf and the building of so-called parallel societies in large cities.
Picked right up on that whole parallel society thing, did they? Have they heard of 'sharia'?
The summit, which brings together representatives from the government, migrant groups and independent experts, plans to introduce a weighty "national integration plan" which analyzes the problems of immigrants and includes some 400 voluntary commitments for states and local governments to promote the integration of foreigners. The plan is a result of a year's work by the various groups that are part of the integration summit.
They don't need a weighty immigration plan, they need a simple immigration plan. They can borrow mine: 1) come ready to work 2) learn our language 3) adapt to our customs 4) don't put your hand out for anything 5) make sure your kids become fully assimilated into our society. Simple, no?
German politicians say the threatened boycott by the Turkish groups should not be allowed to disrupt the work achieved so far. "The summit will take place in any case and there will be no empty chairs," said Maria Böhmer, federal commissioner for integration and immigration issues and a member of Merkel's Christian Democratic Party (CDU). "You don't solve problems by staying away, but only when you speak to each other."
In German.
A "self-boycott by the organizations" will not help the 2.5 million Turks in Germany, Böhmer added. They're staying away from an infidel-sponsored meeting. No haram, no foul.
"Dream of multiculturalism has failed"
The rift between the Turkish groups and politicians ahead of the summit also reflects a tougher attitude in Germany towards immigrants after decades of politicians refusing to accept its status as an immigrant country.
They had no problem with an 'immigrant' country, they just didn't demand that immigrants had to become German.
Böhmer insisted that the new immigration law was not discriminatory and said integration also meant accepting the values and laws of the country that immigrants came to. "The dream of multiculturalism has failed," she said.
#2
after decades of politicians refusing to accept its status as an immigrant country
Germany an "immigrant country"? Won't go well with the german notion of nationhood... what a bunch of crap, no european country is an "immigrant country", or at least, was, until the past 30 years or so with massive and unprecendented immigration from alien cultures. There basically has been more immigration to France since 1976 than in the last 2000 years total, and this is not an exageration, and I don't recall reading much about pakistani enclaves in the Shakespeare plays I've studied.
Blood & Soil is what they are and have been all along, not that there anything wrong with that, on the contrary. But the french revolution has blurred the lines, changing the notion of Patrie (patria, nationality defined as a "family", Blood & Soil again, much like the german idea of germanhood) into the one of Nation (the Nation as an idea, a common destiny to which anyone can adhere), and blurred citizenship and nationality. And in fact nationalism is a creation of the *left*, a direct heir of the french revolution, like many other harmful "isms".
#3
I have no problem at all with the USa being a "Nation of immigrants", even if that's currently used to cover "excesses" to say the least, this is what you are, fine, and good for you. But Europe and european countries are not "Nations of immigrants", period.
Like I was just saying, simply ask for reciprocity ...
This is the key to dealing with all Islamic societies. The West had better begin demanding reciprocity on a number of issues. Freedom of religion should top the list. A Western ban on the practice of Islam needs to hinge on the MME (Muslim Middle East) ending religious intolerance. If Muslims want equal rights in Western countries then they'd damn well better start complying with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that all them signed in order to join the UN where they vote down so many of America's proposals. If Muslims want to squawk about "Islamophobia" then they'd better SHUT THE FUCK UP about genocide against the Jews. If Muslims want a stop to negative portrayals of Islam in the West then they'd better stop printing school textbooks showing Americans and Jews as pigs, dogs and monkeys. Reciprocity, it must become mandatory and no longer remain an option.
Bravo, BP! Reciprocity is a one-word summation of the golden rule. Reciprocity is the bedrock of the social contract. Islam's refusal to recognize this basic fact excludes it from all further consideration as a player in civilized society.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, due to start a one day visit to Algeria on Tuesday, defended his refusal to apologise for colonial misdeeds saying leaders should focus on the future and not beat their breasts. Algeria, Frances largest trading partner in Africa but also its touchiest former overseas possession, has long demanded that France apologise for killings during 132 years of colonial rule which ended with independence in 1962 after an eight year war.
Sarkozy, reiterating a long-held position, told Algerias El Watan and El Khabar newspapers: Young people on either side of the Mediterranean are looking to the future more than the past and what they want are concrete things. Theyre not waiting for their leaders to simply drop everything and start mortifying themselves, or to beat their breasts, over the mistakes of the past because, in that case, thered be lots to do on both sides. Sarkozy is due to arrive at about 1000 GMT on his first visit outside Europe since his election to the presidency in May. The Maghreb, a zone of French commercial influence, is traditionally the first destination outside Europe for newly elected French presidents.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/11/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
This is a very important concept to get across in much of the potentially good Muslim world (as opposed to the majority of the Muslim world), that they should pay far more attention to the future than the past.
Which include sewers, electricity, hospitals, etc [insert Monty Python 'Life of Brian' routine on "What have the Romans ever done for us?"]. It's not like the rest of Africa has grasped the future and shown skills and abilities to wrench its existence to catch up with the developed world much in the past forty years on their own. More like driving over a cliff. Its enough to actually give old fashion Euro colonialism a good name. What a match. Thinking about it, the snobbish paternalistic self important class conscious EU bureaucrat weenie in charge, as they desperately want to be, are just a bunch of wantabe old school African colonial administrators. When someone figures it out, maybe the Euros will save themselves and Africa by merging the lot of them again. It fits. Now drop the guilt routine and make everyone's life better.
Let's not get to carried away here. Yes, the Euros built roads, sewers, hospitals, etc., in their colonies.
Mostly for themselves and their own ability to exploit the colonies.
Let's not have rose-tinted glasses. The imperial powers treated the colonies and their inhaibitants poorly (at best). They exploited the natural resources for themselves and generally played the population off against each other to keep them under control.
And now after all that, the French, who were not the nicest imperialists, are telling their former vassals to 'look forward'.
That's not going to go over well, I predict.
Don't get me wrong, it's the right message.
But the wrong messenger.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/11/2007 11:06 Comments ||
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#5
Go google the Monty Python bit. Of course the Romans did the stuff for themselves as well. However, in the greater perspective, after the initial incorporation, the locals generally benefited too. Notice that when the Romans disappeared the period that followed was known as the 'Dark Ages'. Things can be worse. And it has in Africa. All the natives have shown is that they can be even more exploitive and destructive than the former Euros. There is no perfect. And the demand for perfection results, as amply demonstrated, more hardship and lower life expediency for the majority of the people, while other parts of the world are actually evolving forward.
#7
I disagree wholeheartedly. Nobody can move on until the sins of the past have been fully expiated through confession. Forgiveness follows repentance. Sarkozy should offer Algeria a full and unconditional apology and institute reparations for the destruction of Algiers and should immediately bulldoze all of the hideous colonialist architectural phallusses they built.
...right after Algeria apologises for hundreds of years of piracy, naval terrorism, for enslaving tens or hundreds of thousands of white europeans in the European slave trade and for slapping the French Consul in the face with a fly whisk.
#9
JFM has it down perfectly. The Algerians are scumbag liars who can't be trusted any further than one can throw their country. Look at how well they kept their end of the Evian Agreements for proof.
Posted by: Mac ||
07/11/2007 20:17 Comments ||
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Turkeys main opposition party on Tuesday agreed to an offer by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to seek a compromise candidate to elect as the next head of state after months of wrangling.
The ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party lost a battle with the secular elite, including opposition parties, generals and senior judges, to have its candidate, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, elected in parliament in May, triggering a political crisis. Parliament has now postponed the presidential contest until after a parliamentary election on July 22. The prime ministers words about compromise are a positive development ... We should find a candidate that could be supported by politicians, society and the armed forces, Republican Peoples Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal told leading Hurriyet newspaper in an interview published on Tuesday.
The CHP successfully blocked the appointment of Gul on the grounds that the party had not been consulted over the AK Partys candidate and over concerns about Guls Islamist past.
Ahmet Necdet Sezer, a staunch secularist and frequent critic of the government, remains in office until a new president is elected. The election of the president has greatly divided the people. We should select someone who has been outside of politics for a period, Baykal said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/11/2007 00:00 ||
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It is not the kind of militaristic statement expected of the peace-loving Canadians. In front of a choreographed line-up of 120 sailors in their summer whites at a naval base outside Victoria in British Columbia, the prime minister, Stephen Harper, gave a warning to other nations with their eye on the potentially oil-rich Arctic. "Canada has a choice when it comes to defending our sovereignty over the Arctic," he said. "We either use it or lose it. And make no mistake, this government intends to use it."
Mr. Harper at least has some semblence of muscle to flex.
In other places at other times his words could be dismissed as posturing. But he backed them up with the chequebook, announcing that he was ordering up to eight military patrol ships that would be converted for use in ice up to a metre thick, and a new deep-water port that would service them. Total bill: C$7bn (£3.3bn).
Mr Harper's message, and the belligerent style in which it was delivered, are a sign that the Arctic, the vast ice-covered ocean around the North Pole, is hotting up - both literally, through global warming, and metaphorically as a political issue. With Canada, Denmark, Russia and the United States all having claims on the region, together with those of Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland, international tension in the region is mounting.
#2
Looks like Canuck INTEL got wind of the "Take Back Alaska/Canada" rants from Russian Netters, or Putin's decision to base more boomer subs and strategic aviation in the northern Pacific and Arctic areas.
#3
Russians should not worry about Alaska/Canada, but about central eastern Sibiria. With their population dying out, it is only a matter of time when it will be taken over by Chinese, with very little resistance--not that Russians wouldn't want to resist, but there would be almost no one to resist with.
#7
We'll not likely discover the next oil field, we'll probably patent it. Several millenia of "alchemy" will disappear with a few bio- or molecular-engineering process patents, and we'll be making oil out of rearranged carbon atoms, say, from dirt. That, or nuclear generated hydrogen.
#8
May I suggest slicing up the Arctic like a pie, with countries getting slices equal to their northern boundaries on the outter edge, and tapored to meet at the center point. Russia wound no doubt get the largest slice, followed by Canada, the US, Denmark, and so on.
Since the US will never drill in it's pie slice, perhaps we can trade it to another country for land, i.e. Give permanent drilling rights to Mexico for Baha California.
#11
A. the problem with slicing it up like a pie, is that doesnt work for shipping. Due to non-existent global warming, the NW passage is actually opening up, and may be a valuable shipping route. The US, Europe, and Japan all have substantial interests in that route being international waters, while the Canadians want to claim sovereignty over it.
#14
Due to non-existent global warming, the NW passage is actually opening up, and may be a valuable shipping route.
Really? For how much of the year? Can you name the first ship to take the NW passage?
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
07/11/2007 20:40 Comments ||
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#15
In other places at other times his words could be dismissed as posturing. But he backed them up with the chequebook, announcing that he was ordering up to eight military patrol ships that would be converted for use in ice up to a metre thick, and a new deep-water port that would service them. Total bill: C$7bn (£3.3bn).
As long as the Canucks don't deploy their subs, no one should get hurt.
That's less than 20 million (19,940,000) for all three combined, and a 5.4% drop from the low-water mark of a year ago. The 25-54 demo for all three nets was under 6 million (5,920,000), and their combined 25-54 demo ratings of 4.9/21 are down 14% and 19% from last year's 5.7/26. Ouch.
You don't suppose that almost 20 years of Media Research Center truth-telling about the relentless bias in the nets' evening news shows might have something to do with the ongoing decline? Nah, can't be (/sarcasm).
#10
I suspect news viewership declines are largely because the bulk of the population just doesn't give a s**t about news. The networks have tried to hold them with 24/7 (un)coverage of Paris Hilton and her kind, but all that did was drive the true news market away to Rantburg etc. (but we aren't anything close to a big enough market for Big Media to miss). The bias while dealing with the little real news they carry has also helped purge this market segment. Fox prospered, relatively, for a while, by collecting the left-bias-averse, but even when they had it all, it wasn't enough, so they brought us 24/7 Natalie Holloway. I fear for us more than for the networks.
#11
Because of all that has been said above is why the dhimmicrats want to invoke the so-called "Fairness Doctrine" to regain control of the "message" being sent out.
#12
Viewership is dropping because its audience is also dropping, literally. It's the WWII with some latency in the baby boomer generation. They're dying off. TV is no longer 'magic' for younger people for whom it is just another form of cultural static. A lot of people stick with stuff that is in their comfort zone, that gives them routine to frame their daily lives around. Even if it is, from the perspective of newer generations, crappy. It's why old people raise a fuss over tearing down dilapidated buildings and neighborhoods. It's their anchor to their existence even though its an albatross to everyone else's future.
#15
Now if we can win some of the donk voters to become patriotic once again and vote for trunks, and capitolism, and responsibility, and put the lid on the PC bullshit finally, we have won the battle of our lives.
Self fulfillment over stupidity, dependency, and victimization.
#16
The network news lost me long ago because of the low information density. I could get more news from 3 minutes with a newspaper than 30 minutes with the hairdos ("right after this!"). I missed watching highlights from the OJ trial, but I think I'll live.
Posted by: James ||
07/11/2007 11:26 Comments ||
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#17
Add the NYTs and WaPo and LAT to the mix and you have a real decline that the ad people have been paying attention to - the real reason values are down and income is plummeting is lack of growth in ad dollars. Always follow the money.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
07/11/2007 11:31 Comments ||
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#18
We came to the table for meat and potatoes and they served up Twinkies.
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.
Around 286,000 people, including former ministers, lawmakers, political leaders and business tycoons, have been arrested across the country on charges of crime and corruption since the state of emergency was declared on January 11.
Upset by the government's recent changes to the immigration law, four leading Turkish groups are boycotting an integration summit Thursday called by Chancellor Angela Merkel. But Berlin says the meeting will go ahead.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, due to start a one day visit to Algeria on Tuesday, defended his refusal to apologise for colonial misdeeds saying leaders should focus on the future and not beat their breasts. Algeria, Frances largest trading partner in Africa but also its touchiest former overseas possession, has long demanded that France apologise for killings during 132 years of colonial rule which ended with independence in 1962 after an eight year war. 
Turkeys main opposition party on Tuesday agreed to an offer by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to seek a compromise candidate to elect as the next head of state after months of wrangling. 
That's less than 20 million (19,940,000) for all three combined, and a 5.4% drop from the low-water mark of a year ago. The 25-54 demo for all three nets was under 6 million (5,920,000), and their combined 25-54 demo ratings of 4.9/21 are down 14% and 19% from last year's 5.7/26. Ouch.
