Fake gold bars turn up in Manhattan - A 10-ounce gold bar costing nearly $18,000 turned out to be a counterfeit.
The bar was filled with tungsten, which weighs nearly the same as gold but costs just over a dollar an ounce.
Ibrahim Fadl bought the bar from a merchant who has sold him real gold before. But he heard counterfeit gold bars were going around, so he drilled into several of his gold bars worth $100,000 and saw gray tungsten -- not gold.
What makes so devious is a real gold bar is purchased with the serial numbers and papers, then it is hollowed out, the gold is sold, the tungsten is put in, then the bar is closed up. That is a sophisticated operation.
#4
When precious metals are once again outlawed in the Obama Nation, and Food Stamps finally become the coin of the realm, this problem will not exist.
[Al Ahram] Imbaba Misdemeanour Court has given former Nour Party parliamentarian Anwar El-Balkimy, who claimed that facial injuries from surgery were in fact caused by a violent robbery, a suspended sentence of three months, on charges of filing a false police complaint.
El-Balkimy, who at the time of the claims was an MP in the now-dissolved parliament, became known as the "nose job" parliamentarian when in February his claims that he had been beaten and robbed of LE100,000 were discovered to be false, and the facial injuries he had attributed to the attack were the result of cosmetic surgery.
The manager of a cosmetic surgery clinic revealed that El-Balkimy had undergone rhinoplasty on 28 February, the day before the alleged attack, and had insisted on discharging himself immediately after the operation.
In March, the lower house lifted El-Balkimy's parliamentary immunity, allowing the case to proceed.
In April, El-Balkimy apologised in a parliamentary session for lying about his injuries. The apology came after the speaker of People's Assembly, Saad El-Katatni, announced that a hundred MPs had requested that El-Balkimy's membership of parliament be withdrawn.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/19/2012 00:00 ||
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Female soldiers from Fort Campbell deploying to Afghanistan will field the first U.S. Army body armour that is shorter and better tailored specifically to fit women's physiques.
#3
...not likely B. Pregnancy is all too often used to get out of the theater of operations. Remember last year or so when the Commander in Iraq threaten courts martial for females getting preggy [as male soldiers/grunts were punished for thousands of years for 'self inflicted' wounds or disability to avoid combat or hardship] creating the highly expected righteous political fire storms in the Beltway. Its one of the unspoken politically incorrect slow burning fuses in the service that generates animosity and highlights the PC higher ups divergence from the ranks.
[Al Ahram] A Coptic Christian schoolteacher, Bishoy Kamel, has been sentenced to six years in prison for posting cartoons on Facebook deemed defamatory to Islam and the Prophet Mohamed, and for insulting President Mohamed Morsi and his family.
The Sohag Misdemeanour Court imposed the following sentences on Kamel: three years for defaming Islam and the Prophet Mohamed, two years for insulting the president, and one year for insulting Mohamed Safwat who made the allegations against him.
The prosecution said Kamel had used Facebook to deliberately defame the Prophet Mohamed. He had also insulted the president and shown contempt for society's sacred symbols, the prosecution said.
Members of Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya and various Salafist groups attempted to attack Kamel when he was led out of the court after receiving his sentence. They pelted with rocks the police car used to transport him away from the court.
Kamel's lawyer has filed an appeal which will take place on 27 September at a different court.
The defendant said he did not post the cartoons, claiming his Facebook account had been hacked two days before. He was locked away Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! on 30 July.
In June 2011, Naguib Sawiris, a Coptic billionaire and founder of the liberal Free Egyptians Party, was severely criticised after posting a cartoon of Disney characters Mickey and Minnie Mouse dressed in Islamic garb. Several Islamist lawyers subsequently lodged a complaint with Egypt's attorney-general against Sawiris, whom they accused of offending Islam.
"It is really scary that someone could be sentenced to two years in jail for writing comments about the president on social media, no matter how offensive these comments were," Emad Mubarak, a lawyer who represents human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. activists, said.
Mubarak added that Kamel's case reminded him of the Kareem Amer case that stirred much criticism during the last years of the Mubarak era.
Amer was sentenced in February 2007 to three years imprisonment for insulting Islam and one year for insulting President Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... . He was the first person in Egypt to be jugged Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! due to a blog post. The case raised fears of a crackdown on bloggers.
On Thursday, Albert Saber, a 25-year-old activist, was locked away Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! for insulting religion after allegedly posting on his Facebook page the controversial anti-Islam film that has sparked angry protests across the Moslem word in recent days.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/19/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
The ultimate weapon--cartoons! Who would have thought?
The armys defences on the China border will get a major offensive boost with the impending deployment of two tank brigades, one each in Ladakh and north-east India. This is the first time that India will deploy armoured formations on the China border. Such formations, equipped with main battle tanks and BMP-II infantry combat vehicles, are traditionally used for striking into enemy territory. How refreshing, a journalist who read a book about military affairs.
Authoritative MoD (Ministry of Defence) sources tell Business Standard that the plan, cleared by the MoD, involves raising six new armoured regiments, equipped with 348 tanks (58 tanks per regiment, including reserves). In addition, three mechanised infantry battalions will be raised, amounting to about 180 BMP-IIs. Think of all that graft. Indians are salivating.
The decision to deploy tanks to beef up Indias light, mountain infantry divisions was taken due to doctrinal changes in Chinas Peoples Liberation Army (PLA). The PLA has deployed armoured and motorised formations in both their military regions across the Line of Actual Control, as the de facto Sino-Indian border is called. According to the International Institute of Strategic Studies, Lanzhou Military Region, which faces Ladakh, has 220,000 PLA troops, including an armoured division and two motorised infantry divisions (a division has three brigades). The Chengdu Military Region, opposite Indias north-eastern states, has some 180,000 PLA troops, including two armoured brigades and four motorised infantry divisions.
The Ladakh-based 14 Corps will be allocated an armoured brigade to cover the flat approaches from Tibet towards Indias crucial defences at Chushul. In the Sino-Indian war of 1962, six vintage AMX-13 tanks that the Indian Army had airlifted to Chushul inflicted serious losses and delay on the advancing Chinese.
The second armoured brigade will be located in the Siliguri corridor in Bengal, covering the approaches from Sikkim to the plains. One regiment will be located on the flat, 17,000-feet-high North Sikkim plateau, on which border areas are hotly disputed between China and India.
As first reported in Business Standard, India is also raising a mountain strike corps in the northeast, consisting of two mountain divisions with about 40,000 soldiers. The addition of an armoured brigade would add real teeth to the strike corps.
The army demanded such capability because Chinas infrastructure build-up in Tibet allows it to rapidly concentrate forces in a sector, overwhelming the Indian defenders there. If China manages to capture a chunk of territory, India will no longer be forced into bloody, Kargil-style, counter-attacks to recapture it. Instead, an Indian strike corps could launch an offensive in an area of its choosing, capturing Chinese territory.
The north-east has already seen a vastly strengthened Indian Air Force (IAF). Sukhoi-30MKI fighters are flying from new IAF air bases in Tezpur and Chhabua, with additional air bases coming up in Jorhat, Guwahati, Mohanbari, Bagdogra and Hashimara. Six squadrons of the anti-aircraft Akash missile will defend north-eastern airspace. The IAF is modernising eight Advanced Landing Grounds, which would support offensive operations in the sector.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has announced it will close its offices in Russia following an order from the authorities there to cease operations.
The Russian government gave the US until 1 October to close the mission, accusing it of meddling in politics.
USAID has worked in Russia for two decades, spending nearly $3bn (£1.8bn) on aid and democratic programmes. Worked well, didn't it. Maybe the Rooskies are right and it was all a waste of money...
The expulsion follows a government crackdown on pro-democracy groups.
"The decision was taken mainly because the work of the agency's officials far from always responded to the stated goals of development and humanitarian cooperation. We are talking about attempts to influence political processes through its grants," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
Front page WaPo, again.
As Mitt Romney struggles to put a cascade of missteps behind him, the Republican presidential nominee faces a twofold challenge: first, to steer the conversation back to the economy, and second, to prevent his recent difficulties from curdling into a perception that the race is becoming unwinnable.
"The challenge to the Romney campaign is how do you make the number one issue the number one issue," said David Winston, a pollster who advises GOP congressional leaders. "Any day there are other things going on that do not allow them to make the number one issue the number one issue is not a good day for the campaign." We that's it then. The MSM keep finding distractions and staying away from perspectives that make The One look less than optimal. "My expectation is that if you want to be president, you have to work for everyone, not just for some," Obama said during a taping Tuesday of "The Late Show With David Letterman." And that has been ALL OVER the radio for the past few days, along with the ensuing cheers. But I'm not sure how to tell you this, Mr. President - as far as I'm concerned, you have not been working for everyone for any given day of the last four years.
But Obama also noted that presidential candidates slip up on the campaign trail. He expressed regret over an episode in 2008, in which a recording device caught Obama telling wealthy donors in San Francisco that some small-town Americans become bitter and "cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them."
"The danger date for Romney is October 4, the day after the first and most important debate," said one veteran GOP operative, speaking on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly about Romney's prospects. "And he needs to keep an eye on Capitol Hill, because members of Congress are always the first rats off the ship." Too candid an opinion to name names, unless you're caught on a secret recording.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/19/2012 06:23 ||
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#1
Willard has got to get off the apology tour, take the 47% issue, sort out valid recipients, flesh it out with skyrocketing Food Stamp increases, Social Security disability fraud, unemployment facts, and drive it home!
This is a winner if he can craft the argument properly and STOP using terms like "inelegant".
#2
I saw the Mother Jones 52 minute video or at least most of it. The video gave a good look at the Romney that doesn't come across in the 24/7 news cycle sound bites. Mother Jones was probably hoping for red meat that just wasn't there. The 2 min they thought was going to be harmful is only so in the minds of the donks who will vote for "O" even as he fiddles or the Titanic is sinking. Another distraction--time to move on--nothing to see.
But, Mittens is a lousy campaigner. I worked on his '94 Senate campaign. He sucked then and hasn't gotten any better. Running against Obama should be easy. Mitten just isn't the guy to do it.
I don't think Mitt can win, but I do think Obama might lose.
#4
I can envision a worst case scenario where this muslim outrage thing graduates from burning US Embassies to hostage taking, beheadings, and domestic violence here at home. Champ's alleged handling of foreign policy is rapidly being revealed for what it is. He knows he can't pick the turd up from the clean end, so he's attacking Willard with everything he's got.
#5
But, Mittens is a lousy campaigner. I worked on his '94 Senate campaign. He sucked then and hasn't gotten any better. Running against Obama should be easy. Mitten just isn't the guy to do it.
If Romney loses, I think the post-mortem will be that Romney didn't have the political skills to win the presidency, due to his inexperience in politics. He overpowered his GOP opponents in 2012 because (1) he spent more money than all the other candidates combined, thanks to business sector support and (2) he had one liberal opponent who dropped out early, whereas the conservatives stayed in till the end. If the trailing conservatives had made a pact to pull out a little earlier, there would have been a united front against Romney. I almost want to say that if there's a place for campaign finance limits through Federal funding, it's in the GOP nominating process, so that guys like Romney can't simply pummel his opponents into submission with unlimited amounts of money.
Look - I don't blame the losing conservatives for sticking it out until the last minute - many gave a year or more of their lives seeking the nomination. At the same time, I think the most experienced politicians are also the ones with the best political instincts, in the sense that they have a better feel* of what wins votes and what doesn't. Romney's single term as MA governor is nowhere near enough political experience to give him an understanding of how to win elections.
Even Obama had more political experience than Romney when he ran for the presidency. Despite being an arriviste from Hawaii who parachuted into Chicago politics, he managed to win an Illinois State Senate position against authentically black race hustlers, and then won a Democratic Senate primary against significant Democratic opposition, thereby catapulting him into federal office. All told, he spent 12 years in politics before running for the presidency. But in a sense, he's been running for the presidency all his life, with his book-length musings on the strategic and tactical aspects of getting political power. Bottom line is that Obama has sunk 20-30 years of his life figuring the practical ins and outs of winning elections. Romney has 4. In retrospect, it's not entirely surprising that Obama steamrolled Hillary Clinton *and* John McCain.
* The reason I use the word "feel" is because vote-winning strategies change. Goldwater's use of defense issues failed miserably, even though Kennedy's myth-making about the "missile gap" worked for him.
#6
If this episode leads the Romney campaign to loosen the bonds on Ryan it could get interesting. Mitt is a manager, not a leader. Ryan has leadership/motivation potential. That is why his nomination reconciled the base. Free Paul Ryan.
#7
Please, please, Mitt. Do not go John McCain on us. Embrace your 47% remark. It was the best thing I've heard you say so far. WAPO is gonna hate you anyway. Run with it. Go for it.
#8
Well, IMHO, for the past four years I've watched all the Karl Roves and their ilk in the commentariat say, "If it only weren't for Sarah Palin we'd have prevailed against Obama; please give us a more professional candidate and we PROMISE we in the rest of the party will actually act professional this time."
Well, they got their dream "act professional" candidate, but PROFESSIONALISM DOESN'T WORK LIKE THAT.
The Press is going to play the same damn gotcha games against Romney they did against Palin, and guess what? It's a little too late to actually start learning the rules of the game and to start fighting back, there's basically only a month left in the campaign.
#12
You shouldn't worry about the "47" video for much longer. It's already been proven the tape was cut out during that part of the speech he gave. Scumbag who posted it claims it was "a mistake of 1-2 minutes but the context was already shown". Yeah, sure it was. And the damn video-camera, angle and all, didn't move an inch in the before and after part that was cut off. LegalInsurrection is all over it.
Posted by: Charles ||
09/19/2012 14:08 Comments ||
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#13
Zhang:
One nit to pick. Romney is not an inexperienced politician. He's been running for one thing or another for 17 years, give or take. It's just that, with the exception of one term as governor of MA, he always loses.
I don't want to be the dark harbinger of doom here. I still think Champ will lose. If any incumbent president is beatable, this is the guy. I'm just really disappointed that we went with Mitt. We had much, much better options. It will be nice to see Champ retreat to his Hawaiian paradise in January, but I'm not looking forward to spending the next 4 years fighting the same battles against a president of our own party.
#15
Don't forget about the Congress. If we elect another 20 Reps and 10 Senators with Tea Party leanings, Mitt will be more malleable in that direction.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/19/2012 15:05 Comments ||
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#16
The missus is Jewish and said she would vote for a ham sandwich so long as it's not Obama. I figure that's pretty serious.
There just may be a lot of people in the 47% who don't count themselves as living off the government--they just want a job and don't want to be in the position they are in. Romney stacks up fairly good when compared to Obama. Obama is a fraud, an empty suit, an empty chair. He doesn't do well without a teleprompter. A skillful debater could make him crumble. There is so much low-hanging fruit surrounding this guy and his administration just waiting to be picked for the debates. His record is terrible. His administration is not good on the issues of the day. He is good on promises and give-aways. His ideology sucks. He just might crumble in a withering debate or resort to lying. If he resorts to manipulation of the truth and Romney is prepared, he should be able to handle that. He is aware of this tendency in Obama and mentioned it on TV--I'm surprise the media didn't go ballistic--they are nearly as bad as the islamists who see cartoons that make them crazier.
#17
The MSM and the WH are trying to push the fiasco in Bengazi, etc.,below the fold. So just about anything Mitt did would be a "campaign misstep"
Heck, he could have spilled catsup on his tie at a Micky D's and they would have made a front page story out of it.
The bigger issue is they are just wagging the dog to get attention diverted from the complete disaster brewing in the ME and how screwed up BO's foreign policy is.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
09/19/2012 15:41 Comments ||
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#18
Does anyone remember how many people showed up and waited in long lines, FOR A CHICKEN SANDWICH? All across the nation, wherever there was a Chick-fil-A!
That is what is coming on election day. I'm not voting for Romney, I'm voting the Commie off the island.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
09/19/2012 16:49 Comments ||
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#19
I will low crawl to our polling place if I have to.
#21
I would vote for a syphalic camel before I'd vote for Bambi.
Syphalis can be cured - socialist stupidity can't.
So I'm supporting Romney and donating to his campaign, and to the House/Senate campaigns of fiscal conservatives (I think the federal gummint should butt OUT of social stuff - leave that to the individual states).
I will admit I hadn't donated to Mitt before he named Ryan as his running mate; intended to, but just hadn't gotten around to dipping into the war chest yet. He got a very large donation from me the day after he named Ryan. That's when I got excited.
Posted by: Barbara ||
09/19/2012 18:49 Comments ||
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#22
Shipman, "below the fold" is newspaper-speak for pushing articles to lesser places within the paper so that they do not assume any importance and are consigned to irrelevancy. Other variant sayings are "put on page 10" or "with the obituaries".
The argument then can be made that "we published it". Yes, but it's like a Congressman addressing the House floor after the day's session is over. It's for the record only.
#23
Iblis: One nit to pick. Romney is not an inexperienced politician. He's been running for one thing or another for 17 years, give or take. It's just that, with the exception of one term as governor of MA, he always loses.
Would you call someone who's failed the police exam 12 years an experienced cop? An experienced politician is someone who has held elected office. Romney has repeatedly run for elected office, but only served in elected office for 4 years. This means that he has only spent 4 years thinking about the art of winning office. Someone who was serious about politics would have moved to a solidly red state where he could have (1) done more good and (2)spent years in office working with the legislature and getting re-elected. Romney is a dilettante who thinks winning office is just another consulting gig you can parachute into. This is why Obama will probably defeat him in November. Relative to Obama, Romney knows everything about running a business and nothing about politics. The art of winning political office is probably no different from anything else - the more you do it, the better you get at it. Romney's been spending too much time doing things other than politics - he hasn't been willing to make the sacrifices needed by moving to a red state and holding office, and is now paying the price for his lack of attention.
#24
Why was Bush a much more effective politician than Romney? Because he managed his dad's campaigns and was a GOP governor in a conservative state for 8 years, a position where you can do a lot more than being the GOP governor of a liberal state like MA.
Romney is an experienced campaigner. Is that better?
Experienced, but not skilled.
And prior to being elected president, Obama had held public office for 4 years, exactly the same as Romney.
One last point. I am sick unto death of hearing about how Romney's hands were tied because MA is a blue state. Rubbish. Pawlenty managed to run a blue state as a conservative, more or less. Romney ran in MA to Ted Kennedy's left.
#26
And prior to being elected president, Obama had held public office for 4 years, exactly the same as Romney.
The number is 12 years, 8 of them as an Illinois state senator.
One last point. I am sick unto death of hearing about how Romney's hands were tied because MA is a blue state. Rubbish. Pawlenty managed to run a blue state as a conservative, more or less. Romney ran in MA to Ted Kennedy's left.
While in office, Romney dealt with a legislature that was 80% Democratic. When he ran against Kennedy in 1992, the legislature was also 80% Democratic.
As MN governor, Pawlenty came into office with one house that was majority Republican and another that was evenly balanced. Having said that, I think Pawlenty was an excellent candidate. Although he's as colorless as Romney, I don't recall him making any gaffes. The guy simply did not have the resources to get the GOP nod. If he had Romney's money, he'd have won the nomination and be polling ahead of Obama today. The guy's been in some political office or other since 1989. I think if he runs again in 2016, he's got a solid shot at the nomination, assuming Romney loses this year.
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 Coptic Christian schoolteacher, Bishoy Kamel, has been sentenced to six years in prison for posting cartoons on Facebook deemed defamatory to Islam and the Prophet Mohamed, and for insulting President Mohamed Morsi and his family.
"My expectation is that if you want to be president, you have to work for everyone, not just for some," Obama said during a taping Tuesday of "The Late Show With David Letterman."
