Mon, Nov 26 2007
YOU GO, GIRLS
Older white women join Kenya's sex tourists
MOMBASA, Kenya (Reuters) - Bethan, 56, lives in southern England on the same street as best friend Allie, 64.
They are on their first holiday to Kenya, a country they say is "just full of big young boys who like us older girls."
Hard figures are difficult to come by, but local people on the coast estimate that as many as one in five single women visiting from rich countries are in search of sex.
Allie and Bethan -- who both declined to give their full names -- said they planned to spend a whole month touring Kenya's palm-fringed beaches. They would do well to avoid the country's tourism officials.
"It's not evil," said Jake Grieves-Cook, chairman of the Kenya Tourist Board, when asked about the practice of older rich women traveling for sex with young Kenyan men.
"But it's certainly something we frown upon."
Also, the health risks are stark in a country with an AIDS prevalence of 6.9 percent. Although condom use can only be guessed at, Julia Davidson, an academic at Nottingham University who writes on sex tourism, said that in the course of her research she had met women who shunned condoms -- finding them too "businesslike" for their exotic fantasies.
The white beaches of the Indian Ocean coast stretched before the friends as they both walked arm-in-arm with young African men, Allie resting her white haired-head on the shoulder of her companion, a six-foot-four 23-year-old from the Maasai tribe.
He wore new sunglasses he said were a gift from her.
"We both get something we want -- where's the negative?" Allie asked in a bar later, nursing a strong, golden cocktail.
She was still wearing her bikini top, having just pulled on a pair of jeans and a necklace of traditional African beads.
Bethan sipped the same local drink: a powerful mix of honey, fresh limes and vodka known locally as "Dawa," or "medicine."
She kept one eye on her date -- a 20-year-old playing pool, a red bandana tying back dreadlocks and new-looking sports shoes on his feet.
He looked up and came to join her at the table, kissing her, then collecting more coins for the pool game.
"JUST UNWHOLESOME"
Grieves-Cook and many hotel managers say they are doing all they can to discourage the practice of older women picking up local boys, arguing it is far from the type of tourism they want to encourage in the east African nation.
"The head of a local hoteliers' association told me they have begun taking measures -- like refusing guests who want to change from a single to a double room," Grieves-Cook said.
"It's about trying to make those guests feel as uncomfortable as possible ... But it's a fine line. We are 100 percent against anything illegal, such as prostitution. But it's different with something like this -- it's just unwholesome."
These same beaches have long been notorious for attracting another type of sex tourists -- those who abuse children.
As many as 15,000 girls in four coastal districts -- about a third of all 12-18 year-olds girls there -- are involved in casual sex for cash, a joint study by Kenya's government and U.N. children's charity UNICEF reported late last year.
Up to 3,000 more girls and boys are in full-time sex work, it said, some paid for the "most horrific and abnormal acts."
"PREYING ON POVERTY?"
Emerging alongside this black market trade -- and obvious in the bars and on the sand once the sun goes down -- are thousands of elderly white women hoping for romantic, and legal, encounters with much younger Kenyan men.
They go dining at fine restaurants, then dancing, and back to expensive hotel rooms overlooking the coast.
"One type of sex tourist attracted the other," said one manager at a shorefront bar on Mombasa's Bamburi beach.
"Old white guys have always come for the younger girls and boys, preying on their poverty ... But these old women followed ... they never push the legal age limits, they seem happy just doing what is sneered at in their countries."
Experts say some thrive on the social status and financial power that comes from taking much poorer, younger lovers.
"This is what is sold to tourists by tourism companies -- a kind of return to a colonial past, where white women are served, serviced, and pampered by black minions," said Nottinghan University's Davidson.
"LIVE LIKE THE RICH"
Many of the visitors are on the lookout for men like Joseph.
Flashing a dazzling smile and built like an Olympic basketball star, the 22-year-old said he has slept with more than 100 white women, most of them 30 years his senior.
"When I go into the clubs, those are the only women I look for now," he told Reuters. "I get to live like the rich mzungus (white people) who come here from rich countries, staying in the best hotels and just having my fun."
At one club, a group of about 25 dancing men -- most of them Joseph look-alikes -- edge closer and closer to a crowd of more than a dozen white women, all in their autumn years.
"It's not love, obviously. I didn't come here looking for a husband," Bethan said over a pounding beat from the speakers.
"It's a social arrangement. I buy him a nice shirt and we go out for dinner. For as long as he stays with me he doesn't pay for anything, and I get what I want -- a good time. How is that different from a man buying a young girl dinner?"Fri, Nov 23 2007
TODAY'S "WHAT THE FUCK"
Wed, Nov 21 2007
PEOPLE BORN GOOD
Nature pops us out instinctively understanding that being helpful is good, being harmful is bad, and able to a great extent to tell the difference.
Nurture is what fucks us over - we get taught how to hate, how to be destructive.
Babies may make social judgments
WASHINGTON, Associated Press - Even infants can tell the difference between naughty and nice playmates, and know which to choose, a new study finds.
Babies as young as 6 to 10 months old showed crucial social judging skills before they could talk, according to a study by researchers at Yale University's Infant Cognition Center published in Thursday's journal Nature.
The infants watched a googly-eyed wooden toy trying to climb roller-coaster hills and then another googly-eyed toy come by and either help it over the mountain or push it backward. They then were presented with the toys to see which they would play with.
Nearly every baby picked the helpful toy over the bad one.
The babies also chose neutral toys — ones that didn't help or hinder — over the naughty ones. And the babies chose the helping toys over the neutral ones.
"It's incredibly impressive that babies can do this," said study lead author Kiley Hamlin, a Yale psychology researcher. "It shows that we have these essential social skills occurring without much explicit teaching."
There was no difference in reaction between the boys and girls, but when the researchers took away the large eyes that made the toys somewhat lifelike, the babies didn't show the same social judging skills, Hamlin said.
The choice of nice over naughty follows a school of thought that humans have some innate social abilities, not just those learned from their parents.
"We know that they're very, very social beings from very, very early on," Hamlin said.
A study last year out of Germany showed that babies as young as 18 months old overwhelmingly helped out when they could, such as by picking up toys that researchers dropped.
David Lewkowicz, a psychology professor at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton who wasn't part of the study, said the Yale research was intriguing. But he doesn't buy into the natural ability part. He said the behavior was learned, and that the new research doesn't prove otherwise.
"Infants acquire a great deal of social experience between birth and 6 months of age and thus the assumption that this kind of capacity does not require experience is simply unwarranted," Lewkowicz told The Associated Press in an e-mail.
But the Yale team has other preliminary research that shows similar responses even in 3-month-olds, Hamlin said.
Researchers also want to know if the behavior is limited to human infants. The Yale team is starting tests with monkeys, but has no results yet, Hamlin said.
Mon, Nov 19 2007
PRAISE THE LARD, PART 537
And here we go again folks, with the "do as I say not as I do" organized religion hypocrites... yeah, dude, what would Jesus do?
[Earl sez, yep, this is the hand I spank the monkey with.
And spank Clairece with, and Mona, and...]
Sex scandal hits Atlanta-area megachurch
DECATUR, Ga., Associated Press - The 80-year-old leader of a suburban Atlanta megachurch is at the center of a sex scandal of biblical dimensions: He slept with his brother's wife and fathered a child by her.
Members of Archbishop Earl Paulk's family stood at the pulpit of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit at Chapel Hill Harvester Church a few Sundays ago and revealed the secret exposed by a recent court-ordered paternity test.
In truth, this is not the first — or even the second — sex scandal to engulf Paulk and the independent, charismatic church. But this time, he could be in trouble with the law for lying under oath about the affair.
The living proof of that lie is 34-year-old D.E. Paulk, who for years was known publicly as Earl Paulk's nephew.
"I am so very sorry for the collateral damage it's caused our family and the families hurt by the removing of the veil that hid our humanity and our sinfulness," said D.E. Paulk, who received the mantle of head pastor a year and a half ago.
D.E. Paulk said he did not learn the secret of his parentage until the paternity test. "I was disappointed, and I was surprised," he said.
Earl Paulk, his brother, Don, and his sister-in-law, Clariece, did not return calls for comment.
A judge ordered the test at the request of the Cobb County district attorney's office and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which are investigating Earl Paulk for possible perjury and false-swearing charges stemming from a lawsuit.
The archbishop, his brother and the church are being sued by former church employee Mona Brewer, who says Earl Paulk manipulated her into an affair from 1989 to 2003 by telling her it was her only path to salvation. Earl Paulk admitted to the affair in front of the church last January.
In a 2006 deposition stemming from the lawsuit, the archbishop said under oath that the only woman he had ever had sex with outside of his marriage was Brewer. But the paternity test said otherwise.
More yaddah...Mon, Nov 19 2007
THE FED INSISTS THERE IS NO INFLATION
...and that's because the CPI (Consumer Price Index) has been seriously kajiggered by the Bush administration to NOT track food and energy price increases, which, ummm, are kind of fundamental to consumer wellbeing. If you're hungry and cold, why the fuck would you buy a widescreen teevee?
But the Fed needs people to believe that everything is okay, so they can keep the economic illusion floating a little longer. It won't help, the collapse has already started. The housing bubble has popped, the dollar is crashing, the rest of the world has begun the decoupling process, and come next spring when the year-end figures come out, the long hard slide down starts for real.
There will be a LOT of people hurting. Me, I'm right now taking my savings out of dollars altogether, and parking them in gold and foreign currency funds.
-----
Food pantries struggling with shortages
CINCINNATI, Associated Press - Operators of free food banks say they are seeing more working people needing assistance. The increased demand is outstripping supplies and forcing many pantries and food banks to cut portions.
Demand is being driven up by rising costs of food, housing, utilities, health care and gasoline, while food manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers are finding they have less surplus food to donate and government help has decreased, according to Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director of the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks.
"I've been doing this for 20 years, and I can't believe how much worse it gets month after month," she said.
Diana Blasingame has lately found herself having to go to a free food pantry once a month to feed herself and her teenage daughter.
"I'm pretty good at making things stretch as far as I can, but food is so high now and I have to have gas in my car to do my job," said Blasingame, 46, who earns $9 an hour as a home health aide. "I work full time, but I don't have health insurance and sometimes there just isn't enough to pay bills and buy food."
More yaddah...Sat, Nov 17 2007
I'M OUT OF DOLLARS
I've pulled my money out of dollars and put it in gold, euros, and energy.
Screw the coming US economic meltdown.
---
Saudi minister warns of dollar collapse
London Telegraph - The dollar could collapse if Opec officially admits considering changing the pricing of oil into alternative currencies such as the euro, the Saudi Arabian foreign minister has warned.
Prince Saud Al-Faisal was overheard ruling out a proposal from Iran and Venezuela to discuss pricing crude in a private meeting at the oil cartel's conference.
In an embarrassing blunder at the meeting in Riyadh, ministers' microphones were not cut off during a key closed meeting, and Prince Al-Faisal was heard saying: "My feeling is that the mere mention that the Opec countries are studying the issue of the dollar is itself going to have an impact that endangers the interests of the countries.
"There will be journalists who will seize on this point and we don't want the dollar to collapse instead of doing something good for Opec."
After around 40 minutes press officials cut off the feed, which had been accidentally broadcast to the press room.
More yaddah...Sat, Nov 17 2007
WE'VE ALREADY CROSSED THE LINE, NOW THE DAMAGE MUST BE CONTAINED
Grim climate change report spurs UN call for 'breakthrough'
VALENCIA, Spain (AFP) - The Nobel-winning IPCC group of climate scientists on Saturday issued their starkest warning yet on global warming, prompting a UN demand for politicians to smash the deadlock on tackling the worsening threat.
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In a panorama of the evidence, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) declared that the impact of global warming could be "abrupt or irreversible" and no country would be spared.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appealed to political leaders to push for "a real breakthrough" at a key conference running on the Indonesian island of Bali from December 3-14.
"We cannot afford to leave Bali without such a breakthrough," he said, branding climate change as the "defining challenge of our age."
Global warming bore the seeds of "catastrophe" yet there was also hope, he said. "There are real and affordable ways to deal with climate change."
The new report is intended to act as a guide to policymakers for years to come.
It summarises three massive assessments published this year on the evidence for global warming, its impacts and the options for tackling the emissions that cause it.
The report said notably:
-- Evidence of the planet's warming was now "unequivocal" and the effects on the climate system could be "abrupt or irreversible."
-- Retreating glaciers and loss of alpine snow, thinning Arctic summer sea ice and thawing permafrost show that climate change is already on the march.
-- By 2100, global average surface temperatures could rise by between 1.1 C (1.98 F) and 6.4 C (11.52 F) compared to 1980-99 levels.
-- Sea levels will rise by at least 18 centimetres (7.2 inches). An earlier estimate of an upper limit of 59 centimetres (23.2 inches) does not take into account "uncertainties" about the impact of disrupted carbon cycles and melting icesheets in Greenland and the Antarctic, the new report says.
-- Heatwaves, rainstorms, tropical cyclones and surges in sea level are among the events expected to become more frequent, more widespread or more intense this century.
-- "All countries" will be affected by climate change, but those in the forefront are poor nations, especially small island states and developing economies where hundreds of millions of people live in low-lying deltas.
-- Reducing emissions can be met at moderate cost relative to global GDP, but the window of opportunity for quickly reaching a safer, stable level is closing fast.
"We need a new ethic by which every human being realises the importance of the challenge we are facing and starts to take action through changes in lifestyle and attitude," said IPCC Chairman Rajendra Pachauri.
"Every country in the world has to be committed to a shared vision and a set of common goals and actions that will help us move toward a much lower level of emissions.
Green groups said the IPCC had highlighted the dangers of warming more clearly than at any time in its 19-year history.
"This is the strongest document the IPCC has produced," said Hans Verolme, director of WWF's Global Climate Change Program.
More yaddah...Thu, Nov 15 2007
FILE UNDER 'KNICKERS BUNCHED TOO TIGHT'
Now, if they were hollering "yo, bitch, what up?", I could see it.
Santas warned 'ho ho ho' offensive to women
SYDNEY (AFP) - Santas in Australia's largest city have been told not to use Father Christmas's traditional "ho ho ho" greeting because it may be offensive to women, it was reported Thursday.
Sydney's Santa Clauses have instead been instructed to say "ha ha ha" instead, the Daily Telegraph reported.
One disgruntled Santa told the newspaper a recruitment firm warned him not to use "ho ho ho" because it could frighten children and was too close to "ho", a US slang term for prostitute.
"Gimme a break," said Julie Gale, who runs the campaign against sexualising children called Kids Free 2B Kids.
"We are talking about little kids who do not understand that "ho, ho, ho" has any other connotation and nor should they," she told the Telegraph.
"Leave Santa alone."
A local spokesman for the US-based Westaff recruitment firm said it was "misleading" to say the company had banned Santa's traditional greeting and it was being left up to the discretion of the individual Santa himself.Wed, Nov 14 2007
GO AHEAD, MAKE MY DAY
Yup, I think most thugs would think twice about harassing or assaulting someone they thought might blow their fucking heads off...
Opposing view: More arms, less crime
By Larry Pratt, USA Today - The Supreme Court should agree to hear District of Columbia v. Heller and uphold the majority opinion of the federal appeals court.
Heller presents the Supreme Court with a clear choice as to whether the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms or a collective right of states to have a militia. Judge Laurence Silberman's opinion for the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit presents a strong case for individual rights.
In recent years, the Supreme Court has already stated that whenever "the people" is mentioned in the Bill of Rights that it refers to the same "class of persons." So if "the people" in the Second Amendment doesn't refer to all of the people, then it doesn't in the First or Fourth Amendments either.
In the USA, the people are the sovereigns. They are the "We the People" who established and ordained the government, and they were expected to own firearms in the defense of their free society. More than that, people were required by the legislatures to own and possess firearms.
Those who would claim that the National Guard fulfills this function in modern society are forgetting that the Guard is ultimately controlled by the federal government, rather than We the People.
One of Washington's principal arguments for its gun ban is that it's needed as a crime-fighting tool. Say what? In 2005, FBI data reported a murder rate there of 35 per 100,000 residents. Compare that with the nearby suburban county of Fairfax, Va. (with nearly twice the population — and the traffic); the murder rate there was 0.3 per 100,000.
John Lott, senior research scientist at the University of Maryland and author of More Guns, Less Crime, has shown through his massive analysis of crime data, for each county throughout the country, that laws that encourage folks to carry concealed weapons lower crime. Washington's crime will come under control when its citizens are able to defend themselves with guns.
The district already has an effective crime-fighting tool if it will use it — the Second Amendment.
Tue, Nov 13 2007
ZERO SUM
That's 1,600,000,000,000.00 dollars. Can you even wrap your mind around that many zeros? That's 16 times more dollars than there are stars in the entire Milky Way galaxy...
Yet there's no money for health care or infrastructure.
Costs of Iraq, Afghan wars total $1.6T
WASHINGTON, Associated Press - The economic costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are estimated to total $1.6 trillion — roughly double the amount the White House has requested thus far, according to a new report by Democrats on Congress' Joint Economic Committee.
The report, released Tuesday, attempted to put a price tag on the two conflicts, including "hidden" costs such as interest payments on the money borrowed to pay for the wars, lost investment, the expense of long-term health care for injured veterans and the cost of oil market disruptions.
The $1.6 trillion figure, for the period from 2002 to 2008, translates into a cost of $20,900 for a family of four, the report said. The Bush administration has requested $804 billion for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined, the report stated.
For the Iraq war only, total economic costs were estimated at $1.3 trillion for the period from 2002 to 2008. That would cost a family of four $16,500, the report said.
Future economic costs would be even greater. The report estimated that both wars would cost $3.5 trillion between 2003 and 2017. Under that scenario, it would cost a family of four $46,400, the report said.
More yaddah...Tue, Nov 13 2007
STEPS IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION
New technique creates cheap, abundant hydrogen: report
CHICAGO (AFP) - US researchers have developed a method of producing hydrogen gas from biodegradable organic material, potentially providing an abundant source of this clean-burning fuel, according to a study released Monday.
The technology offers a way to cheaply and efficiently generate hydrogen gas from readily available and renewable biomass such as cellulose or glucose, and could be used for powering vehicles, making fertilizer and treating drinking water.
Numerous public transportation systems are moving toward hydrogen-powered engines as an alternative to gasoline, but most hydrogen today is generated from nonrenewable fossil fuels such as natural gas.
The method used by engineers at Pennsylvania State University however combines electron-generating bacteria and a small electrical charge in a microbial fuel cell to produce hydrogen gas.
Microbial fuel cells work through the action of bacteria which can pass electrons to an anode. The electrons flow from the anode through a wire to the cathode producing an electric current. In the process, the bacteria consume organic matter in the biomass material.
An external jolt of electricity helps generate hydrogen gas at the cathode.
In the past, the process, which is known as electrohydrogenesis, has had poor efficiency rates and low hydrogen yields.
More yaddah...Tue, Nov 13 2007
THAT'S OKAY, WE'LL MAKE MORE
China has always taken the long view of everything, including its people...
China recycling used condoms as cheap hair bands
BEIJING (AFP) - Used condoms are being recycled into hair bands in southern China, threatening to spread sexually-transmittable diseases they were originally meant to prevent, state media reported Tuesday.
In the latest example of potentially harmful Chinese-made products, rubber hair bands have been found in local markets and beauty salons in Dongguan and Guangzhou cities in southern Guangdong province, China Daily newspaper said.
"These cheap and colourful rubber bands and hair ties sell well ... threatening the health of local people," it said.
Despite being recycled, the hair bands could still contain bacteria and viruses, it said.
"People could be infected with AIDS, (genital) warts or other diseases if they hold the rubber bands or strings in their mouths while waving their hair into plaits or buns," the paper quoted a local dermatologist who gave only his surname, Dong, as saying.
A bag of ten of the recycled bands sells for just 25 fen (three cents), much cheaper than others on the market, accounting for their popularity, the paper said.
A government official was quoted as saying recycling condoms was illegal.
China's manufacturing industry has been repeatedly tarnished this year by a string of scandals involving shoddy or dangerous goods made for both domestic and foreign markets.
In response, it launched a public relations blitz this summer aimed at playing up efforts to strengthen monitoring systems.Mon, Nov 12 2007
TRUST US, WE'RE THE GOVERNMENT
We can start by making all this bozo's business public...
Intel official: Expect less privacy
WASHINGTON, Associated Press - As Congress debates new rules for government eavesdropping, a top intelligence official says it is time that people in the United States changed their definition of privacy.
Privacy no longer can mean anonymity, says Donald Kerr, the principal deputy director of national intelligence. Instead, it should mean that government and businesses properly safeguard people's private communications and financial information.
Kerr's comments come as Congress is taking a second look at the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Lawmakers hastily changed the 1978 law last summer to allow the government to eavesdrop inside the United States without court permission, so long as one end of the conversation was reasonably believed to be located outside the U.S.
More yaddah...Sat, Nov 10 2007
PRIORITIES
Bush vetoes labor bill
NEW ALBANY, Indiana (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Tuesday vetoed a measure to fund education, job training and health programs, marking the sixth veto of his presidency and the latest salvo in a fight with congressional Democrats over domestic spending.
But Bush signed a separate bill to give the Pentagon about $460 billion for the fiscal year that began on October 1, even though the White House was disappointed the military bill was $3.5 billion less than the administration requested.
The White House criticized the $600 billion labor, health, and human services legislation that Bush vetoed, calling it bloated and filled with special projects. It was about $10 billion more than what Bush requested.
"We call on Congress to take out the pork and reduce the overall spending levels and return it to the president," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino as Bush traveled to Indiana for a budget speech.
But House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, a Wisconsin Democrat, said the bill boosted spending on essential programs and that the money is dwarfed by Iraq war costs.
Bush, Obey said, "is now pretending to protect the deficit by refusing to provide a $6 billion increase to crucial domestic investments in education, health care, medical research and worker protections."
Of the $600 billion in the bill, nearly $151 billion is for programs Congress reviews closely each year. The rest helps pay for programs like Social Security retirement benefits and Medicare and Medicaid health care for the elderly and poor that Congress might have to revise significantly in coming years because of their escalating costs.
The Pentagon bill money will pay for weapons and soldiers' salaries but does not include $196 billion more Bush wants for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Bush had hoped that at least some of the war funds would have been included in the Pentagon's larger funding bill.
Instead, House Democrats are expected to vote this week on a $50 billion war down payment. But they also want to attach conditions Bush objects to, including timetables for withdrawing combat troops from Iraq.Wed, Nov 07 2007
JUST SAY YO
Report: Abstinence programs don't work
WASHINGTON, Associated Press - Programs that focus exclusively on abstinence have not been shown to affect teenager sexual behavior, although they are eligible for tens of millions of dollars in federal grants, according to a study released by a nonpartisan group that seeks to reduce teen pregnancies.
"At present there does not exist any strong evidence that any abstinence program delays the initiation of sex, hastens the return to abstinence or reduces the number of sexual partners" among teenagers, the study concluded.
The report, which was based on a review of research into teenager sexual behavior, was being released Wednesday by the nonpartisan National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.
The study found that while abstinence-only efforts appear to have little positive impact, more comprehensive sex education programs were having "positive outcomes" including teenagers "delaying the initiation of sex, reducing the frequency of sex, reducing the number of sexual partners and increasing condom or contraceptive use."
"Two-thirds of the 48 comprehensive programs that supported both abstinence and the use of condoms and contraceptives for sexually active teens had positive behavior effect," said the report.
A spending bill before Congress for the Department of Health and Human Services would provide $141 million in assistance for community-based, abstinence-only sex education programs, $4 million more than what President Bush had requested.
The study, conducted by Douglas Kirby, a senior research scientist at ETR Associates, also sought to debunk what the report called "myths propagated by abstinence-only advocates" including: that comprehensive sex education promotes promiscuity, hastens the initiative of sex or increases its frequency, and sends a confusing message to adolescents.
None of these was found to be accurate, Kirby wrote.
More yaddah...Mon, Nov 05 2007
HOW COULD IT HAPPEN
Sat, Nov 03 2007
PAPER AIRPLANES IN SPACE
How brave and fragile it all is...
In this image provided by NASA television astronaut Scott Parazynski, rides in the foot restraints at the end of the 90-foot robotic arm and boom extension, at the start of a 45-minute ride to the damage site of the damaged solar array Saturday Nov. 3, 2007. Astronaut Douglas Wheelock gets into position of observe on the Space Station's truss, top.
(AP Photo/NASA)
US astronaut Scott Parazynski performs the second of five scheduled spacewalks as construction continues on the International Space Station in October 2007. Astronauts from the shuttle Discovery made some progress on a spacewalk Saturday to repair a torn solar wing deemed vital for the future of the International Space Station.
(AFP/NASA/File)Sat, Nov 03 2007
MARTIAL LAW, BY ANY OTHER NAME, WOULD STINK JUST AS MUCH
Basically, this assclown Pervez Musharraf has seized control of the country so he can't be voted out in favor of the far more popular Benazir Bhutto, who has been elected Pakistan's Prime Minister twice before. She (Bhutto) is currently the Pakistan People's Party chief, and according to news reports, is at this moment sitting on a plane tarmac awaiting either arrest or deportation by Pakistan's very own Stalin.
Mind you, this is the same bozo who has been hiding Osama Bin Laden, enabling Al-Qaeda and their ilk, making buttloads of money arming all sides of all conflicts in all his neighboring countries, and has a shitload of nuclear weapons in his fist.
Musharraf suspends Pakistan's constitution
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- President Pervez Musharraf suspended Pakistan's constitution Saturday and the military leader imposed emergency rule throughout the country.
The BBC said that in addition to declaring a state of emergency in response to recent Islamic violence, Musharraf suspended the country's constitution and deployed troops at media locations nationwide.
The security effort comes as Musharraf is awaiting a ruling by Pakistan's Supreme Court on whether he was eligible to run for re-election as president last month while remaining head of the country's army.
Musharraf has been an open supporter of the United States ongoing "war on terror," leading to a recent series of attacks in Pakistan by pro-Taliban militants.
Paired with fears that the Supreme Court may not support the president, Pakistan has been mired in a political quagmire for the last few months.
Musharraf is expected to make a public address soon, while Cabinet members have begun deliberations to approve the imposed emergency rule, the BBC reported.
Sat, Nov 03 2007
...BUT HALF A TRILLION FOR A PERSONAL VANITY WAR IS JUST FINE
Bush Vetoes Water Bill, Citing Cost of $23 Billion
WASHINGTON, New York Times — President Bush on Friday vetoed a bill authorizing $23 billion in water resource projects, calling it overly expensive, and Congressional Democrats responded angrily, accusing him of insensitivity to the hurricane-damaged Gulf Coast, a big beneficiary of the legislation. They pledged to override him.
The bill, the Water Resources Development Act, would authorize $3.5 billion in work for hurricane-ravaged Louisiana, nearly $2 billion for efforts to save the Everglades and additional sums for a host of other projects favored by lawmakers. Critics said the bill not only was costly but also failed to provide vital changes to the often criticized Army Corps of Engineers, which would do most of the work.
Mr. Bush has now cast five vetoes as president, four since Democrats took control of Congress in January. None have been overridden, although this legislation passed both houses with more than the two-thirds majorities needed to override.
In his veto message, the president noted that when the bill emerged from a House-Senate conference committee, its cost had risen more than 50 percent above the cost of legislation originally passed by the two houses. He also said a backlog of projects for the Corps of Engineers meant that many projects in the bill would never be financed or completed.
“This bill lacks fiscal discipline,” he said. “This authorization bill makes promises to local communities that the Congress does not have a track record of keeping.”
[That's a real fucking snicker, ain't it? This coming from the jackal that has put this country NINE TRILLION dollars and counting in the hole. Let's veto clean water and health care for kids to save money, but god forbid we should take a single $800 toilet seat away from the Pentagon...]
More yaddah...Fri, Nov 02 2007
PRIORITIES ON T.W.O.T.
Remember how it was called "The War Against Terror" until everyone pointed out what a crappy acronym it made?
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