Vietnam orders submarines and warplanes from Russia
By Nga Pham
BBC Vietnamese Service
Vietnam has signed billion-dollar contracts to buy submarines and fighter jets from Russia, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has announced in Moscow.
The deals make Vietnam one of the key clients of the Russian arms industry.
The weapons purchases come at a time when disputes over sovereignty are increasing in the South China Sea, which Vietnam calls the East Sea.
Vietnam, China and other countries have competing claims over potentially oil and gas-rich island chains there.See map showing rival claims in the South China Sea
"Vietnam signed contracts for the purchases of submarines and planes from the Russian side," the Vietnamese prime minister said, without elaborating.
Russian agency Interfax quoted unnamed sources as saying that Hanoi was to buy six diesel-electric Kilo-class submarines worth $2bn (£1.2bn).
Vietnam is already awaiting the delivery of eight Sukhoi Su-30MK2 fighter jets from Russia in 2010. It is considering ordering 12 more, Interfax quoted another Russian source as saying.
A regional defence analyst said the rising tension in the South China Sea was "clearly a source of concern" to Hanoi.
The submarine acquisition "would increase [Vietnam's] negotiating power in the maritime disputes", Professor Carlyle Thayer of the Australian Defence Force Academy said.
Hockey Stick Hoax:
ReplyDeleteAntidote for Ashes Anthropogenic Kool Aide
How irrelevant man looks over the longer haul!
The Chinese, the French, the Japanese, the French again, the Americans, now the Chinese again.
ReplyDeleteHow irrelevant man looks over the longer haul!
Isn't that the truth.
It seems that China sees itself as the new "Big Dog" on the world scene and as such, expects to be accorded the appropriate respect. The coming decades will be very interesting as China exerts its economic might around the world. Let's see how the Human Rights groups act and react to a growing Chinese nationalism and hubris.
ReplyDeleteThe world may some day long for the flawed but benevolent hegemony of American culture.
We'll see.
This ain't bait, it's just fish that's been already cut.
ReplyDeleteA Westminster, London, magistrate court on Saturday issued the warrant, alleging crimes related to Israel's military operations in the Gaza Strip in late 2008 and early 2009. Ms. Livni, who is now opposition leader, was foreign minister at the time and one of three government officials -- with then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak -- to oversee the offensive.
The warrant was issued ahead of a U.K. convention of the Jewish National Fund, to which Ms. Livni had been invited, but had declined to attend. The warrant was revoked by the court on Monday after it was clear she wasn't in the country.
Iareali war criminals avoiding justice, ain't that just swell.
But they are indicted, none the less. By the other "best" ally that the US has.
I guess that will leave the Zionists out of the Anglophile Alliance that I've read proposals for.
ReplyDeleteNATO, too.
The Obama administration released a seven-point plan to boost U.S. manufacturing today, ahead of a meeting with business leaders hosted by Vice President Joe Biden aimed at boosting jobs in a sector that employs fewer Americans now than it did in World War II.
ReplyDeleteThe administration’s plans tout U.S. manufacturing as a source of strength for the economy in areas such as fuel-efficient vehicles and biotechnology. But the plan faces several tough hurdles to taking effect, including international trade, government spending and relations with China.
“With the right policies, America can build competitive, domestic industries that once again support a vibrant middle class,” said Jared Bernstein, executive director of the administration’s middle-class task force.
Read more
Provided they can hold onto power, it looks as though the Dems are going to find out how profitable their green manufacturing schemes really are.
ReplyDeleteThey have grand visions of a European like social structure here in the good 'ol USA. Unfortunately, their schemes require huge outlays of cash. There will be no end of new proposals for taxes and fees.
ReplyDeleteOh well, "from each according to his means..."
The USSA. The United Socialist States of America. Learn it, Love it.
(If the Dems can hang onto power long enough to make serfs of everyone)
The Federal Socialists are certainly not limited to the Democrats, whit.
ReplyDeleteOh no.
The cornerstone to the economic controls emanating from DC, that was laid by the GOP, back in 1913.
Back when Republicans were proud to be called "Progressives".
For most of 2009, pundits on both the left and right have insisted that the programs enacted to bring the financial system back from the brink wouldn't—and couldn't—work. And they have been wrong. They said the TARP would throw good money after bad, but now Bank of America, recently a basket case, is paying back $45 billion in TARP funds—with interest. They said the stimulus passed in February was way too small to halt the economic decline. Actually, it has short-circuited the recession. The economy shifted from shrinking at a 6.4 percent annual rate in the first quarter to expanding at a 2.8 percent rate in the third quarter. "This growth has been better and stronger than we expected, than anyone expected," says Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
ReplyDeletePrint This ArticlePRINTDiscuss in the FrayDISCUSSEmail to a FriendE-MAILGet Slate RSS FeedsRSSShare This ArticleRECOMMEND...Single PageSINGLE PAGE
Yahoo! BuzzFacebook FacebookPost to MySpace!MySpaceMixx MixxDigg DiggReddit RedditDel.icio.us del.icio.usFurl FurlMa.gnolia.com Ma.gnoliaSphere SphereStumble UponStumbleUponCLOSE
Skeptics are now focused on the next big economic problem we face: unemployment. The numbers have been dismal. America has lost 7.2 million jobs, and the unemployment rate in November was 10 percent. For African-Americans, the rate was 15.6 percent, and more than one in four teens are out of work. Economists believe the unemployment rate will persist at 10 percent through 2010.
But jobs are on the way, and sooner than you think. Not enough to make everybody happy, of course, or to reach anything approaching full employment. But the data suggest that the economy, now growing at a rate above its historical trend, may be creating more jobs than are being lost. Companies shed only 11,000 payroll jobs in November—the smallest drop since late 2007.
...
The final step—adding full-time positions—is happening now. Services account for about 86 percent of jobs. And it's here, not in the shrunken housing and finance sectors, where the employment recovery is taking hold. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said that the service sector added 58,000 jobs in November, the second straight month of growth.
Betting on bad news, to further your political agenda, a fools gambit.
Jobs Are on the Way!
ReplyDeleteThe pessimists are wrong.
By Daniel Gross
Good morning to our bar's resident israel hating rodent!
ReplyDeleteGlad to see how happy you are that England's odd form of government is making a joke of it's self by actions...
Will you be as happy when England drops those same charges? I doubt it...
The good news rat? Israel is still stronger today than yesterday! And these actions will just cause more Jews from England to FLEE to Israel!
So in the end, more Jews will LIVE FREE in ISRAEL!
In other news, Iran is testing a new longer solid fuel rocket that can reach Israel and others.....
Yep Iran and England, two reasons I love Glocks...
I have mentioned this development, before. Now it is drawing a little more attention, from the WSJ.
ReplyDeleteIt is of little real concern, to US, as exemplified by our continued purchase of Hugo's oil.
The US is financing Hugo, we should be concerned that he is expanding his economic base, away from US.
Any bets on how many of those Panamax tankers have been delivered, to Hugo, from China?
The Tehran-Caracas Nuclear Axis
Ahmadinejad and Chávez: new evidence of a radioactive relationship.
"It's a caulking gun, Sweetie, not a turkey baster."
ReplyDeleteLT, thanks for pointing that out to me TEN hours after the fact. It will be a big help in future conversations,unless I just leave out the chaulking gun and just wear the boots and the chaps. What do you think?
It is true that I despise criminal regimes that are Geneva Accord violators.
ReplyDeleteNo matter who or where they are.
The longer the crime has been going on, the greater the severity of the disrespect.
The Zionists have been guilty of violating the Accords, since 1967.
Per the United States of America, our friends the Swiss and now our best ally in the entire world. England, has indicted specific Isreali officials for their part in the expansion of Isreali criminal activities.
The rodent says...
ReplyDeleteblather blather blather dee...
isreali this and that...
yawn....
Rat... check under your bed isrealis are staging a illegal land grab....
what a fool....
That is no joke.
ReplyDeleteAnd it is not bait.
rodent says with glee...
ReplyDeleteThe Zionists have been guilty of violating the Accords, since 1967.
Per the United States of America, our friends the Swiss and now our best ally in the entire world. England, has indicted specific Isreali officials for their part in the expansion of Isreali criminal activities.
To bad the case has been thrown out....
The government is "urgently" looking into reforming the law after a UK court issued an arrest warrant for former Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni.
The warrant was granted by a London court at the request of Palestinian plaintiffs, provoking Israeli anger.
It was revoked on Monday when it was found Ms Livni was not visiting the UK.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Israel was a "close friend" of the UK's and stressed he was keen to "avoid this sort of situation arising again".
try again rat,,,
seems the people in power dont much tolerate you and the fake national people called "palestine"
lol
fool
Criminals of a feather, flocking together.
ReplyDeleteThere they all are, in the Levant.
Arabfats and Europeons alike.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown telephoned opposition leader Tzipi Livni on Wednesday afternoon, and expressed his total objection to the arrest warrant a UK court issued against her.
ReplyDeleteBrown told Livni that she is welcome in Britain at any time, and said that he intended on acting to change the current legal situation.
Semitics, each and everyone of them, Arabfats and Europeons, alike.
ReplyDeleteTwin sons of different mothers.
Seems that when the Libyan terrorist was released, Mr Brown had no control over the legal system of his country.
ReplyDeleteNow he does?
Doubtful, his position is pure spin.
The Courts of England are independent of his control, as that Libyan case exemplifies.
USA Today - 1 hour ago
ReplyDeleteA new report by Vice President Joe Biden, which President Obama mentioned briefly in an appearance Tuesday, projects that the number of US homes with smart meters will jump from about 8 million now to 40 million by 2015.
Great NEWS!
ReplyDeleteIlliteracy in the Arab World is Over 80%
"There's a serious problem today with the Arab youth, in expressing themselves in Arabic."
Question :"Why?"
Salman Masalha: "Because of the language, that great rift between colloquial and literary Arabic. In order to explain a complex idea, you need high language, not the language of the souq. You can't express a complicated idea using the language of the souq. If you take young people, let's say eighth-grade Arab [children], and their French, or Jewish Israeli, counterparts, you will discover the discrepancy in self-expression. Because he does not know the language of thought, the Arab pupil runs into a big problem. Thus it is in the entire Arab world.
"The Arab world does not read. According to various reports, the Arab world is largely illiterate. Illiteracy in the Arab world is not 50% like it says in the reports. I say that it is over 80%. Practically speaking, even those defined as not illiterate because they completed eight years of schooling, I consider illiterate. In this century, anyone who finishes elementary school can't really read.
"A book selling 5,000 copies across the Arab world is a rare achievement. The average book published in Israel sells more copies than a successful book in the entire Arab world. This also has to do with the economic situation. Reading books is a privilege for people who have spare time and money. The poverty that sweeps the Arab world leaves the individual struggling for survival his whole life. How is he supposed to read a book? He must bring food for his children, his family."
I guess that's why rat spells Israel wrong....
Times Online - 1 hour ago
ReplyDeleteWith a little over 48-hours left of the two-week Copenhagen climate change conference, there has been no significant progress on any of the major issues.
Success for the US & China!!!
More Isreali crimes...
ReplyDeleteA 10-month-old Palestinian baby girl who was born blind due to a genetic disease is now able to see thanks to a successful operation at Carmel Medical Center in Haifa. The infant was sent through the Peres Peace Center to the hospital after her parents were unable to find any hospital in the Palestinian Authority able to cope with infantile glaucoma, in which high-pressure fluid is trapped inside the eyeball.
Prof. Orna Geyer, head of ophthalmology at the Clalit Health Services hospital, agreed to perform the very difficult surgery. She said such cases occur in one in 10,000 births. Because of the baby's age, such operations are very complicated and rare here.
Two operations - one after the other - had to be performed on the girl, who is named Hallah. One was to open the tiny channels in her eyes to allow the fluid to flow out, while the second, which was more complicated, involved the implant of microscopic drainage tubes that permanently allow the fluid to leave the eye.
Hospital doctors are excited because they managed to identify the gene that causes the disease, which occurs as a result of inbreeding by first cousins.
INBREEDING is the CAUSE.....
Let's give them a state...
look ma, no war crimes here...
ReplyDeleteonly isreal is a war criminal
Houthi fighters say Saudi forces have launched a major cross-border airstrike on Yemen, leaving at least 70 civilians dead and more than 100 others injured in the northern district of Razeh.
Saudi warplanes also carried out several attacks on the southwestern village of al-Jabiri 966 kilometers (600 miles) from Riyadh early Sunday.
A Saudi military official confirmed the attack, but claimed that the village has been taken by Houthi fighters.
The fighters said earlier in the day that Riyadh targeted a refugee camp and several neighborhoods in the northwestern province of Sa'ada, pouring phosphorous bombs on civilians.
While Riyadh insists that it is targeting Houthi positions on 'Saudi territory,' the fighters say Saudi Arabia is bombing Yemeni villages with chemical weapons and causing the death of Shia civilians.
International aid agencies and the UN bodies have voiced concern over the dire condition of the Yemeni civilians who have become the main victims of the conflict in Yemen.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) warned on Sunday about the deteriorating civilian situation in Sa'ada province as well as Razeh district in northern Yemen.
“Shortages of food and other commodities have pushed the prices sharply upwards and more and more people are unable to afford their basic needs,” UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic told reporters in Geneva on Sunday.
It is a shame that the Kings of Arabia are such poor leaders and educators. No doubt of that.
ReplyDeleteIt seems though that there is little that I or the US can do to remedy that in the short term.
Where we have intervened, militarily, we have not done well at transforming societies and cultures. Mexico, Nicaragua, Haiti, North Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan all stand in testament to that.
The governing elite of the US decided long ago that that with market economies imposed upon the rest of the whirled, the US would materially benefit and the lives of the many peoples of the whirled would improve.
Following the basic British mercantile practices that were implemented to good effect in India and China.
Today, in Mexico and China, Walmart is leading that charge, to good effect.
But no where has a Europeon colonial minority been able to dominate the majorities with military strength and legalized discrimination, for long.
Nuked up or not.
Look Ma, only Isreal walls are a war crime
ReplyDeleteEgypt has begun constructing a huge metal wall along its border with the Gaza Strip as it attempts to cut smuggling tunnels, the BBC has learned.
When it is finished the wall will be 10-11km (6-7 miles) long and will extend 18 metres below the surface.
The Egyptians are being helped by American army engineers, who the BBC understands have designed the wall.
The plan has been shrouded in secrecy, with no comment or confirmation from the Egyptian government.
The wall will take 18 months to complete.
For weeks local farmers have noticed more activity at the border where trees were being cut down, but very few of them were aware that a barrier was being built.
That is because the barrier, made of super-strength steel, has been hidden deep underground.
The BBC has been told that it was manufactured in the US, that it fits together in similar fashion to a jigsaw, and that it has been tested to ensure it is bomb proof.
US officials have though denied to the BBC that they are involved in building or supplying the wall.
The reports say the wall cannot be cut or melted - in short it is impenetrable.
Intelligence sources in Egypt say the barrier is being sunk close to the perimeter wall that already exists.
They claim 4km of the wall has already been completed north of the Rafah crossing, with work now beginning to the south.
in a related story..............
The Saudi Authorities commenced constructing a wall on the Saudi-Yemeni border in the district of Harad last Saturday, said a Sheikh from Harad who wished to remain anonymous.
He added that this wall breaks a Yemeni-Saudi treaty declaring the rights of both Yemeni and Saudi citizens to roam freely across the political border due to their need to cultivate crops and allow their animals to graze. The treaty also protects the rights of these citizens to ship their animals as needed.
The Marebpress website reported a Yemeni military source as saying that Yemeni border guards tried to stop Saudis from building the new wall. In response, the Saudis mobilized their military and threatened force if they were unable to start construction of the barriers. According to the same source, construction halted last Sunday but the Saudis resumed work on Monday. So far they have built deep tunnels and concrete arches and have laid barbed wire along the frontiers to the south of the Saudi towns of Towal, Masfaq, and Khawjarah.
The military source said that the Saudis informed them that the new barriers are necessary for protecting their borders against an influx of illegal immigrants and against the smuggling of drugs and weapons.
Local sources from Harad affirmed that more than 3000 tribesmen from villages adjacent to the areas where the new barriers are being built gathered on Saturday and Monday to rally against the new barrier, claiming it would harm their interests by preventing them from crossing to the other side of the borders to visit their relatives and cultivate their farms there.
Thousands of Yemenis and Africans are believed to have been leaking through the borders to Saudi Arabia daily.
WiO: In order to explain a complex idea, you need high language, not the language of the souq.
ReplyDeleteThey don't need to think, they need to memorize the Q'u'r'a'n in the language of the souq, because the only thing they can aspire to is martyrdom, taking out 50 fellow Muslims and moving on to their eternity with 72 raisins.
WiO: The good news rat? Israel is still stronger today than yesterday! And these actions will just cause more Jews from England to FLEE to Israel!
ReplyDeleteWhy Israel and not, say, Miami?
Daniel Gross is a Moron.
ReplyDeleteTaxpayers paid for bankers "profits."
"Growth" consists only of government GROWTH and the ill-gotten gains of Goldman and the Bankers.
November ALWAYS has increased temp hires for the holiday season.
Google is amazingly successful.
Google is ONE company with 20,000 new employees
20,000/10 Million = .000..?%
Dean urges defeat of emerging health care bill
ReplyDelete(AP) – 38 minutes ago
WASHINGTON — Former Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean argued Wednesday that the health care overhaul bill taking shape in the Senate further empowers private insurers at the expense of consumer choice.
"You will be forced to buy insurance. If you don't, you'll pay a fine," said Dean, a physician. "It's an insurance company bailout." Interviewed on ABC's "Good Morning America," he said the bill has some good provisions, "but there has to be a line beyond which you think the bill is bad for the country."
"This is an insurance company's dream," the former Democratic presidential candidate said. "This is the Washington scramble, and it's a shame."
Dean asserted that the Senate's health care bill would not prohibit insurance companies from denying coverage for preexisting conditions and he also said it would allow the industry to charge older people far more than others for premiums.
It would be better for US and the rest of the whirled, Ms T, if they did come to the US.
ReplyDeleteSuit me if we opened the doors to immigrants of all stripes.
Immigration bill: $500 fine puts undocumented workers on legal path
Phoenix Business Journal
Document them, legalize them, and cripple the "gray market" economy that supports the current illegal activities.
Schumer calls Stewardess a BITCH!
ReplyDeleteOffice apologizes.
Putz.
"Document them, legalize them, and cripple the "gray market" economy that supports the current illegal activities"
ReplyDelete---
Have 10 percent unemployment for natives ad-infinitum.
Accelerate the demise of what was once the most freedom concious culture in the World.
Welcome the arrival of the Socialist Stalag.
"In addition to the $500 fine, the proposed bill would allow some deported illegal immigrants to apply for legal status and would lift immigration rules for those charged only with using fake Social Security numbers."
ReplyDelete---
"ONLY with using fake Social Security numbers."
Yeah, ONLY broke laws and fucked the lives of law abiding citizens.
'Rat favors the dissolution of society as we have enjoyed it.
110 BILLION Text messages in December.
ReplyDeleteDoug has yet to send 1.
"Accelerate the demise of what was once the most freedom conscious culture in the World."
ReplyDeleteHave immigrants to the US played a role of any political-philosophical significance in the rise of the comically over-regulated but deadly serious Nanny State? I've long been under the impression that this is a legacy of Prussian-minded "elites" for whom general disorderliness and absence of effective central control, which are hallmarks of less developed nations, are true horrors to which we are meant to be the happy antipode.
Red Meat And Global Warming
ReplyDelete"A scientist there believes more gas will come out of the tundra than the entire global oil reserve.
And that is one serious fart. "
...passes for Science in Ashes universe.
Passes Gas for me.
Harry Smith maintains his homoerotic relationship w/Algore.
Fancy words, Trish.
ReplyDeleteMy version:
Liberals "educate" children to hate our culture/our country.
Immigrants w/no cultural history here the most vulnerable victims.
Quite obvious really.
Check out curriculum in textbooks.
Check out what is planned by The Marxists "SAFE SCHOOLS CZAR"
"La Raza"
ReplyDeleteThe very essence of liberal multicultural tolerance, no?
The Europeon method of regulation, heartily endorsed by doug.
ReplyDeleteYou want to stimulate the economy?
Bring in some fresh blood to the legal marketplace. Those folks are here, already doug. Some leave, more come. They are both economic and liberty loving refugees, in most cases.
Doctors from India, we need 'em.
For a variety of reasons, the Doctors in charge of US medical schools are not increasing their production of new Doctors.
When the GOP held sway, those in denial of the negatives of the status que were able to mobilize and stop any kind of reform to regularization from advancing.
So the auto insurance rates in AZ are still some of the highest in the country, because the number of folk driving without licenses or the minimum legal insurance required is nauseating.
Doctors from India we need.
ReplyDeleteIlliterate Hispanics, we don't.
"They are both economic and liberty loving refugees, in most cases"
ReplyDeleteYeah, "La Raza"
All the liberty loving of the KKK
With unemployment and underemployment at 23 percent there is little need for MORE illiterate, mimimally skilled citizens.
ReplyDeleteDo Americans of long standing have a greater thirst for individual freedom - live-and-let-live-like - or for order and convenience?
ReplyDeleteThey're not necessarily mutually exclusive but I say the deeper fondness among the majority is for the latter.
"minimally"
ReplyDeleteWell Linear I browsed those climate links you posted and for the most part they were simply blogs with the CO2Science one appearing the most rigorous. I found the data section there interesting. I found it interesting that the first bit of data I explored was the "World Temperatures -GHON" and using the default settings calculated a trend (1800 - 2006) and it produced a very clear indication of a steady rise in temperatures over that period.
ReplyDeleteI didn't see any references to NASA or other sources offering peer reviewed studies in your list just blogs arguing their particular piece of the debate.
This reminds me of a guy who worked for me who got all worked up about a US government conspiracy behind 911. Detailed analysis of the events of the day backed by nefarious motives of the Bush administration as evidenced by their writings at Project for the New American Century (http://www.newamericancentury.org/) Man, those blogs he sent me to went into some minute detail hashing over questions such as 'Why can't you see the damage from the wings of the Plane on the Pentagon building? That hole indicates it was a missile'. or 'The way the buildings fell is more consistent with demolition charges than planes crashing into them' and on, and on, and on pointing out inconsistencies ect.
Or try to argue with Bob about his fixation on "Natural Born Citizen" and he legitimacy of the Obama presidency.
In short, to this casual observer, the science seems to offer a rich source of credible data that indicates a relatively recent warming trend (globally) and it appears that C02 is a factor in this trend. What this means for future weather patterns and what we should do about it is contentious.
Personally I tend to believe that we (mankind) do have rather profound effects upon the environment and those effects have consequence for our well being (depleted Cod stocks being one example). The Ozone problems and the harmful effects of leaded gasoline are but two areas where we've changed societal behavior and lessened the harmful outcomes. It makes sense, in the broad outline of things, that we excrete CO2, burn fossil fuels creating CO2, and destroy plants (primarily forests) which absorb C02. This seems to be part of 'growth' on which we are so dependent but it does appear to be increasing the relative amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.
I think cap and trade is the wrong way to go trying to address this problem. Instead I suggest that a carbon tax would be much more useful in modifying peoples behavior and it would lessen our dependence up 'jihadi oil' too!
Well, virtually NONE of us are KKK members, Trish.
ReplyDeleteCan't say that for those given the free lunch on our dime.
Guess they may learn to co-exist, doug.
ReplyDeleteLa Raza and the KKK, just look to CA prisons for the model, of that scenario.
Better that we find another solution.
Keeping 20 million or so folks outside the legal system only strengthens La Raza types, not US.
They do not have to be on a "path to citizenship", but they do need to be "regularized". But when the opportunity for rational reform presented itself, well, it was hammered by the Republican "base".
There are a lot fewer nails to hammer, this go round.
HEY ASHE:
ReplyDeleteWhat about the
FIRST VIDEO LINK ON THE PAGE?
ACORN!
ReplyDeleteMy Favorite Yoga Pose
ReplyDelete"Fancy words, Trish."
ReplyDeleteYes, well, I'm fixing to dive right in to a stray bottle of Maker's Mark as soon as the movers are done, so relish them while my literary faculty lasts.
Hot!
ReplyDeleteI'd rather read your post Maker's Mark prose, actually!
ReplyDelete...eliminating the Progressive Concious Filter.
ReplyDeletePC
ReplyDeleteProgressive Conciousness!
Another revelation by Doug.
Times names Ben Bernacke "Man of the Year".
ReplyDeleteEvidently, Jim Bunning didn't have a vote.
"Vietnam, China and other countries have competing claims over potentially oil and gas-rich island chains there."
ReplyDelete1979, 1988, Vietnam and China have been fighting for 0ver a 1000 years, putting to a lie Rusk's simplistic Domino Theory justification.
California Real Estate "Rebound"
ReplyDeleteThat jump you see there is thanks to massive bailouts, FHA insured loans, the Fed buying down mortgage backed securities to keep rates low, and the lower end selling like pancakes. It is all artificial and we are not even close to pre-bubble annual sales figures.
Many counties are clearly overpriced. If the past is any predictor of the future then there will need to be a correction. The lower priced counties have already shown the way to increased sales. Lower prices. Yet the stubborn mentality of banks and those in mid to upper tier markets will be put to the test in 2010 to 2012. The data isn’t pretty but what would you expect with toxic uglified mortgages like Alt-A and option ARMs?
When you party hard sometimes you don’t realize the extent of the damage until you sober up.
Quirk on Bernake:
ReplyDeleteAstounding!
Bunning for POTUS!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteDR,
ReplyDeleteA warrant is NOT an indictment, as any fool knows. It is also not a verdict, as any fool knows.
Gosh, I thought a Constitutionalist such as yourself would have been sensitive to the distinction.
Thesaurus UK
O, and a magistrate has about as much clout as you when it comes to diplomacy.
ReplyDelete"This is your Progressive Consciousness.
ReplyDeleteThis is your Progressive Consciousness on Maker's Mark."
Speaking of Southeast Asia, my daughter along with fifteen of her fellow SASers had a shipboard graduation ceremony four days ago. They wore gowns...and Vietnamese rice paddy hats as graduation caps.
Arriving a couple of days later at the resort in San Diego for their week-long R&R, she and her cabin mate squealed in delight over the en suite "laundry machine." "We don't have to wait between China and Vietnam to wash our underwear!"
And pizza delivered personally to you by the magic of a phone call? Preposterous luxury.
Welcome back to civilization. It missed you.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteBunning Statement on Bernanke: ‘You Are the Definition of a Moral Hazard’
ReplyDeleteInstead of taking that money and lending to consumers and cleaning up their balance sheets, the banks started to pocket record profits and pay out billions of dollars in bonuses. Because you bowed to pressure from the banks and refused to resolve them or force them to clean up their balance sheets and clean out the management, you have created zombie banks that are only enriching their traders and executives.
You are repeating the mistakes of Japan in the 1990s on a much larger scale, while sowing the seeds for the next bubble.
In the same letter where you refused to admit any responsibility for inflating the housing bubble, you also admitted that you do not have an exit strategy for all the money you have printed and securities you have bought.
That sounds to me like you intend to keep propping up the banks for as long as they want.
Even if all that were not true, the A.I.G. bailout alone is reason enough to send you back to Princeton. First you told us A.I.G. and its creditors had to be bailed out because they posed a systemic risk, largely because of the credit default swaps portfolio.
Those credit default swaps, by the way, are over the counter derivatives that the Fed did not want regulated. Well, according to the TARP Inspector General, it turns out the Fed was not concerned about the financial condition of the credit default swaps partners when you decided to pay them off at par.
In fact, the Inspector General makes it clear that no serious efforts were made to get the partners to take haircuts, and one bank’s offer to take a haircut was declined.
I can only think of two possible reasons you would not make then-New York Fed President Geithner try to save the taxpayers some money by seriously negotiating or at least take up U.B.S. on their offer of a haircut.
Sadly, those two reasons are incompetence or a desire to secretly funnel more money to a few select firms, most notably Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, and a handful of large European banks. I also cannot understand why you did not seek European government contributions to this bailout of their banking system.
Bunning To Bernanke: You Are A Systemic Risk
Jul 15, 2008
"We don't have to wait between China and Vietnam to wash our underwear!"
ReplyDelete---
Ugh!
The Magistrate was not making "Foreign Policy" she was enforcing Criminal Law on English territory.
ReplyDeleteThere is a difference.
Even if it escapes you, allen.
T could hang one of those in front of her stationay bike.
ReplyDeleteWhat about that hole in the Pentagon doug? How could a plane fit through that?
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to watch and pay attention to that silly video of a guy rambling on into some little mic saying things like "the ice age was counter inducive to agriculture" leading to some mumbling conclusion that there was a warmer period in the past...
We can be a tag team Allen.
ReplyDeleteYou mount your hobby horse,
I mount mine.
To Crush the Evil Rodent!
"But they are indicted, none the less. By the other "best" ally that the US has."
ReplyDeleteQuoting the British legal system as a model is laughable.
You can bring claims there no matter how rediculous. However, most countries, including the U.S., do not accept Britian's "universal jurisdiction laws." Even in Britian they are ridiculed.
Their human rights laws are skewed so PC it makes Canada and the EU look like Iran with regard to press freedom and individual rights. No one takes them seriously (except those looking or an easy buck or a political advantage).
.
You are an idiot Ash.
ReplyDeleteThe Geological Record is the Geological Record.
Ignore it if you must,
to maintain your faith in magic.
While all that is true, quirk, it is not really important. England is England, our staunch Anglophile ally.
ReplyDeleteThe keystone of our European Alliance. To discount them so easily is an indication of an even grander challenge than that seen in Afpakistan, which is another of the misadventures we inherited from our Anglophile cousins.
DR Devolution forgot something in his breathless Palestinian portrait of the magistrate:
ReplyDeleteThe Foreign Office, clearly deeply embarrassed by the episode, said in a statement: "The UK is determined to do all it can to promote peace in the Middle East and to be a strategic partner of Israel. To do this, Israel's leaders need to be able to come to the UK for talks with the British government. We are looking urgently at the implications of this case."
The Ministry of Justice, Scotland Yard and clerks at the magistrates court refused to discuss the matter. A statement issued by HM Court Service implied that there had been no application for an arrest warrant, stating "there is no record of any such hearing". A spokeswoman maintained that this was not a misleading statement.
Better luck next time, Herr DR Devolution.
naw doug, you are the idiot for grasping on to such a poor interpretation and presentation of the 'geological record'.
ReplyDeleteJust saw a show, today, on the Science Channel. A show about "time". From "nano seconds" to fellas studying hurricane cycles. Then to the Ice Ages and their cycle of life. Seems that the Earth's position in the 23,000 year "wobble", another 40,000 year cycle in inclination, plus the orbital cycle of circular to elliptical, a 100,000 or million year cycle.
ReplyDeleteI do not recall the exactitudes, but the bottom line was that climate change was not at all dependent upon man.
Past performance being the best indicator of future prospects.
Big George
ReplyDeleteThe British "Federals" are spinning away, but the Magistrate recalled her arrest warrant when it was apparent the suspect was not in the country.
ReplyDeleteThat was in the original linked passage.
Ignore all evidence, Ash.
ReplyDeleteIgnore 'Rat's post.
Faith is a wonderful thing!
(especially when it empowers you to enslave others)
No ones denying that the earth has gone through climate changes over the past. The question facing us now is whether we will survive the current changes and can we do anything about it?
ReplyDelete...and there appears to be clear EVIDENCE (doug) that changes are occurring.
ReplyDelete"...and there appears to be clear EVIDENCE (doug) that changes are occurring."
ReplyDeleteYeah, just like changes that the earth has gone through climate changes in the past.
...for the same reasons.
Unrelated to (mere) Man.
Some of the reasons unknown to man.
ReplyDeleteSome of the reasons NEVER to be known by man.
Perhaps we should re-discover humility?
Right...like that MASSIVE, multi-generational conspiracy concerning the USS Liberty, heh?
ReplyDeleteHey, why don't we argue that one again. It has been so much fun the last twenty times.
If it weren't for Jews, you'd have no life at all.
We just have to migrate to the "Southern Latitudes"
ReplyDeleteor is it "Attitudes"
Some of your homies, doug
Keep tellin' yourself that, allen.
ReplyDeleteI am sure that you believe it.
"The keystone of our European Alliance. To discount them so easily is an indication of an even grander challenge than that seen in Afpakistan, which is another of the misadventures we inherited from our Anglophile cousins."
ReplyDeleteNot sure of your point, Rat. The British are our allies the same as the Israeli's are our allies. It's all based on mutual intrests. In most cases we can depend on them the same as on the Israeli's. However, if they consider it in their national interest to stick it to the U.S., they will do so, the same as the Israeli's.
We've seen it happen with both countries.
.
Ash:
ReplyDeleteInstead I suggest that a carbon tax would be much more useful in modifying peoples behavior...
You self-define efficiently. My behaviour needs no modifying to your standards. Put your carbon tax where the sun don't shine, Ash.
Carbon taxes, cap-n-trade, greenie government meddling in energy supplies. All non-solutions to mythical problems created by fraudsters giving control over the masses to political elitists.
Just where would you like to start modifying my behavior?
No, Quirk, they are not allies in any equivalent sense.
ReplyDeleteThe United States has signed and sealed Treaty Obligations with regards mutual defense and England. Multi-lateral Treaties that are binding, under the Law of Nations as econgnized by the Congress.
The is no such alliance between the United States and any country in the Middle East.
None ever ratified or even offered for ratification, by the Senate.
Your use of leaded gasoline was problematic and your behavior was successfully modified Linear.
ReplyDelete"I think the matter isn't ‘procedure, procedure, procedure.’... You can't just put forth some text from the sky," the representative said.
ReplyDeleteWell, of course you can, Dear Boy. We (US) are making it an art form.
Didn't Belgium attempt to indict the US President and each of the Principals, for war crimes, back when?
ReplyDeleteI think they tried this a couple of times.
And there we still are, all of us, sharing the same office space (and Godforsaken endeavors, at least theoretically) in Mons.
Memorandum of Agreement between the Governments of the United States of America and the State of Israel
ReplyDeleteMarch 26, 1979
US signs $30 billion defense pact with Israel
Hmmm...
I believe we threatened not go ahead with the new carpet install if they didn't STFU.
ReplyDeletetrish,
ReplyDeleteRe: alleged warrant
According to the Brits, it didn't happen, and therein is the difference.
It is possible that some magistrate looking for sheit's 15 minutes of fame might try grandstanding, but that's about the size of it.
Happily today, to repeat, the government of the UK denies that anything of the sort happened.
Oh, for fuck sake, we're all gonna die anyway on Dec 21, 2012. So get over it and move on, already.
ReplyDeleteHappily today, to repeat, the government of the UK denies that anything of the sort happened.
ReplyDeleteWed Dec 16, 12:54:00 PM EST
This is what one gets for eating lunch and ignoring the news.
Why Ms. D, you're making me blush.
ReplyDeleteLet's watch the language.
.
Excuse me, I didn't mean to make you blush. Would it have made a difference if I put a few asterisks in between those letters?
ReplyDeleteI'm just asking because of an earlier conversation, I had with someone on the subject.
I want you to answer me, too. I'm curious.
ReplyDeleteYour use of leaded gasoline was problematic and your behavior was successfully modified Linear.
ReplyDeleteNew name for LEAD SUPREME 130
The producer has changed the name to OCTANE SUPREME 130 to better reflect the "octane enhancing" ability of the product. The formula and Lead Content have NOT changed .
Key Benefits
--59.4 grams of Tetraethyl LEAD per Gallon
--Higher Octane to Match Your Requirements
--Protects Vital Engine Components
--Increase Horsepower & Performance
--20% Lower cost than Max Lead 2000
Don't leave home without it, Ash!
If it weren't for Jews, you'd have no life at all.
ReplyDeleteheh, when I saw that Tispi Livni thing late last night I knew the rat would be on it this morning.
But, alas, it seems the sands have washed away from under the argument--
Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Israel was a "close friend" of the UK's and stressed he was keen to "avoid this sort of situation arising again".
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown telephoned opposition leader Tzipi Livni on Wednesday afternoon, and expressed his total objection to the arrest warrant a UK court issued against her.
Brown told Livni that she is welcome in Britain at any time, and said that he intended on acting to change the current legal situation.
I still say the place for rat is there at Hayden, ideologue and propaganda mininster for the remaining rump Aryan Nations, currently rudderless.
"I want you to answer me, too. I'm curious."
ReplyDeleteJust jerking your chain MLD.
It's what I do.
It's quite rare to see you use profanity.
Trish must be wearing off on you.
.
Looking at the map, I'd say the Chinese have the least claim to the area of any of them, though they probably maintain their claim goes back to the middle kingdom or some such sometime, as it might too, as they had good sailing ships away back then, whenever it was. Then they got ruled by mandarins and bureaucrats, Ash types, and the whole enterprize went to hell for centuries, is my foggy understanding of some of their past.
ReplyDeleteThe Chinese were big in Vietnam, back in the wayback day, too. Finally got the boot.
Well, you don't know me that well. But I do have respect and if that bothered you well then, I would have to refrain from any further profanity.
ReplyDeleteBut I did have a conversation on that subject. Does it matter or make a difference when people use asterisks to hide letters that spell a not so nice word.
I feel if you're gonna say it, say it. If you're gonna write it, write it.
fuck or f**k...means the same to me.
"No, Quirk, they are not allies in any equivalent sense...
ReplyDeleteThe United States has signed and sealed Treaty Obligations with regards mutual defense and England. Multi-lateral Treaties that are binding, under the Law of Nations as econgnized by the Congress."
Your legalistic musings are ofttimes simplistic in that they discuss the legality of a situation while ignoring the validity.
I'm sorry if you read my post and assumed that I was saying that the US/British relationship was equivalent to the US/Israeli relationship de jure as opposed to de facto. But hell, if you want to base our initial conversation strictly on a legal basis, the Japanese are more important to us in today's world than the British.
And what is this continual reference to the Law of Nations? There have been many "Laws of Nations". I assume you’re talking about de Vattel’s treatise. But that was no “law.” It was a mere treatise, a series of principles based on natural law or, more specifically, on how de Vattel viewed natural law.
All laws are political statements. If you read de Vattel's treatise, you can interpret many of the clauses in different ways depending on your political leanings.
.
Britain to End Arrest Threat on Officials from Abroad
ReplyDeleteBritain pledged on Tuesday to change a peculiar legal power that permits judges to order the arrest of visiting politicians and generals, a threat currently focused on Israeli officials that could potentially be invoked against President Obama or Russian Prime Minister Putin. The latest target has been Tzipi Livni, the former foreign minister of Israel and currently the country's opposition leader. Foreign Secretary David Miliband announced that Britain would no longer tolerate legal harassment of Israeli officials by judges invoking universal jurisdiction.
Legal experts in England and Israel say "universal jurisdiction" could be abused endlessly to harass any high-profile visitor who oversaw a military or anti-terrorist operation. "Why not use this against Vladimir Putin over Russia's role in Chechnya? There is no end to it," said Yehuda Blum, a former Israeli ambassador to the UN. "The abuse and misuse of this concept of universal jurisdiction should be discontinued." Eugene Rogan, director of the Middle East Center at Oxford University, said the demands of global diplomacy required leaders to be able to travel abroad without facing arrest threats. (AP/New York Times)
Generic Congressional Ballot
ReplyDeleteGeneric Ballot: Republicans 44% Democrats 37%
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Republican candidates have bounced back to a seven-point lead over Democrats in the latest edition of the Generic Congressional Ballot.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 44% would vote for their district’s Republican congressional candidate while 37% would opt for his or her Democratic opponent.
Support for GOP candidates is up just one point over the past week, but support for Democrats slipped two points. A week ago, the Republican lead was down to four points from a seven-point margin the last week in November.
Fuck yes, I agree with Melody.
ReplyDelete"...if that bothered you well then, I would have to refrain from any further profanity...
ReplyDeleteI feel if you're gonna say it, say it. If you're gonna write it, write it.
fuck or f**k...means the same to me."
Very little bothers me MLD.
My comment was merely an attempt at light banter. (Obviously, a very poor attempt.)
With regard to your question regarding the use of astericks, it depends. In a practical sense, on some blogs the use of profanity is prohibited and you wouldn't be allowed to post it. Here at the EB it is not an issue.
Therefore, if you feel comfortable throwing the F-bomb around, please do so.
.
Health care overhaul bill slowed by read-a-thon
ReplyDeleteIt would be financed with tax increases and Medicare cuts.
AP.
Surprising whom?
How To Accurately Guage Temperatures
ReplyDeleteMaggies Farm
That health care vote in the Senate is interesting, still struggling to get to 60. I imagine they'll do it, but something given to one side p.o.s the other side. I surely wish the whole thing would collapse, and start over.
There's supposed to be a CBO cost estimate of the newest proposals coming out, maybe that will blow it out of the water.
ReplyDeleteRufus, did you ever hear of something like this--
ReplyDelete67. Whitehall:
Using the pebble bed reactor design we could have a demonstration “nuclear gasoline” plant in operation by 2020. It would need a bit more development of the pebble bed reactor to increase outlet temperature and the chemical cycle using sulfuric acid to convert water into hydrogen and then react the hydrogen with coal to make hydrocarbons.
We have 155 oil refineries in operation today. 200 nuclear gasoline plants could meet our needs for liquid transport fuels and be carbon-neutral compared to day AND produce oxygen as a by-product.
BTW, I’m a nuclear engineer and have done some work on the pebble bed. But the government blocks it at every turn and nothing gets done in the nuclear field without the support of the government.
Dec 16, 2009 - 10:42 am
Then I will resume with my explicit and unique personality along with my ass whooping buffoonery.
ReplyDeleteSarah Signing
ReplyDeleteSarah in Sandpoint
ReplyDeletefrom Sarah Tracker
Casino time
Just a reminder:
ReplyDeleteThe rules of the bar are simple.
This is a bar not a temple.
Informal conversation and colorful language is fine.
Just remember that your comments to other bar mates should go only so far as would keep you from getting knocked off your stool, if spoken up close and within beer breath.
So it has been, so it shall be.
Now I must get back to my sauvignon blanc and my gently swaying palm trees.
Nuclear Gasoline?
ReplyDeleteBob, that is the First time I have ever heard that term. I have no idea.
One question: Where does this "unlimited" supply of sulfur come from?
It now appears that a magistrate’s warrant WAS issued, naming Livni as a war criminal. Palestinian activists sought the warrant (what poetic justice). Poor Ms. Livni, poor Mr. Olmert, poor Mr. Barak. They danced to another's tune; now they may dance at the end of a rope.
ReplyDeleteThis should be a lesson to all Israelis: If you can be arrested for defending your country, make the best of that defense.
Yes, every Jew should give a round of applause to that magistrate for clearing the air. We now know where we stand…the same place we have stood in Europe for the past one thousand years.
Thankfully, a UK precedent has been set with the release of the Libyan Lockerbie murderer: three weeks soft time per death, with early release if a dental appointment would have to be canceled in Libya.
Hey, Ms. Livni, how did that "house Jew" thing work for you?
You always seem to swoop in just in time to read the bar's rules. Why is that? Do I need to get my whip out?
ReplyDeleteAs a rule, I generally don't like them and most of the time, I don't follow them.
Tsk tsk, and to pull you away from your sauvignon blanc and gently swaying palm trees.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm jealous.
Russians claim CRU Cherry-picked Small Number of Warmer Stations.
ReplyDeleteMisrepresented Data.
It's Dead, Jim.
allen said...
ReplyDeleteIt now appears that a magistrate’s warrant WAS issued, naming Livni as a war criminal. Palestinian activists sought the warrant (what poetic justice). Poor Ms. Livni, poor Mr. Olmert, poor Mr. Barak. They danced to another's tune; now they may dance at the end of a rope.
This should be a lesson to all Israelis: If you can be arrested for defending your country, make the best of that defense.
Yes, every Jew should give a round of applause to that magistrate for clearing the air. We now know where we stand…the same place we have stood in Europe for the past one thousand years.
Allen, the rodent beat you too it..
By calling Israel "isreal" and that is a criminal enterprise worse than sudan north korea and iran, it GIVES it the political cover to do worse than those mentioned..
and yet...
today there are more Israelis of ARAB descent that LIVE in Israel than were in the total area back in 1948
today there are MILLIONS more of those so called "palestinians" in gaza and west bank fuckin and humping with each others 1st cousin breeding suicide bombers by the score...
so much for Isreali war crimes... can even kill a million or two?
yep israel sucks at being like rat's people....
from Der Spiegel,
ReplyDelete"The task for the next few days remains huge given the gulf between the interests of the nations involved. Oil-producing states fear for their economic future, small island states for their actual existence. And, thanks to the principle of unanimity, every single one of the 192 governments represented at the summit could torpedo a conclusive closing statement. "This is a United Nations conference," says the Danish conference head Connie Hedegaard. "Everyone must agree to everything."
.
They're so very sorry, allen! And here, please accept these coupons for free drinks and 10% off a London hotel room of your choice with a three-night Monday thru Thursday stay in the shitty month of March. Anything else they can do to make it up to you, just let them know!
ReplyDeleteAnd of all the ports of call - grand, shabby, or indifferent - and all the inland travels, one destination knocked her socks off more completely than any other: Hong Kong.
It's everything everybody says it is. And far more even so.
Remember when we thought the Chinese were going to flush it down the toilet just for spite - or perhaps simply because they couldn't help doing so - and we deplored for that reason Britain's decision to honor their agreement and send Her Majesty's loyal-but-not-too-loyal servants off into the sunset?
Me, too.
Nuclear gasoline.
ReplyDeleteThe way I read that story the nuclear part was just to get the hydrogen.
From memory, from talking to the oil from coal guys, adding hydrogen is an old deal. (I don't know where they get the hydrogen they're adding now.)
You hear refinery terms like hydrocracker and crack gas and I believe they're referring to units where the hydrogen is added to make more useful hydrocarbon molecules; more useful in the sense that more "high end" product like gasoline will be produced...
The part that stuck in my mind was when they told me that, by adding hydrogen, they ended up with something like a 105 bbls of product from 100 bbls of crude...
Maybe Rufus can flesh out the details...
trish,
ReplyDeleteShe will never forget Hong Kong.
Refinery Operations of this sort are over my pay grade, Gnossos.
ReplyDeleteI'm still trying to figure out how to make a good grade of "moonshine." *Hic*
Hopefully she'll never really forget any of it, allen, and will in any event spend quite some time metabolizing the whole thing...While she figures out what she really wants to do.
ReplyDeleteWhich is more than alright with me and with the Guy Who Will Continue To Foot The Bill.
Rufus, sounds like it's time for another round of Hide The Decline
ReplyDeleteGod, I just love that video, Bob.
ReplyDeleteThe first time you linked it (day before yesterday?) it was a couple of hundred views. Now it's over 400,000. :)
The Italian, Scotch/Irish, Swedes of the Middle East are gettin' down, you say, "misdirection".
ReplyDeleteGood for them.
Other folks sexual habits are important to you, it seems.
That King David, he was into fuckin' other folks wives, then getting the husband kilt, was that a genetic trait or just something that "happened"?
This is just too good!
ReplyDeletePELOSI: NO HEALTH CARE DEAL THIS YEAR
Socialist Berman, Southern Hating Anti-Semite Dean, and Nancy Pelosi turn out to be our best Spokespeople!
Rufus will be right, Doug will be wrong, 'Rat will REALLY be wrong, but we all knew that anyhoo.
If this keeps up, we won't have amnesty, either!
Almost a first for me, I'm writing DeMint and Coburn to thank them for requiring Socialist BERNIE SANDERS (not Berman) 900 page ammendment to be read.
ReplyDeleteAnd, perhaps, the entire 3,000 page Socialist Manifesto of a
"Health Care Bill"
to be read.
Gotta luv it.
Does C-Span have that?
If so, I'm gonna record it, then play it back at a slower speed so I can follow it, and pick out some of the real gems these Amerika Haters have spawned.
"CRS, which provides background information to members of Congress on a bipartisan basis, said it expects an additional 26,000 to 56,000 contractors to be sent to Afghanistan. That would bring the number of contractors in the country to anywhere from 130,000 to 160,000."
ReplyDeleteContractors in Afghanistan
Do these qualify as stimulus jobs?
.
Supreme Court jolt to Asif Ali Zardari
ReplyDeleteNational Reconciliation Ordinance declared null and void
Over 8,000 cases, including corruption cases against Zardari, were closed under the ordinance
ISLAMABAD: In a major political setback to President Asif Ali Zardari, the Supreme Court of Pakistan on Wednesday declared the National Reconciliation Ordinance null and void, and ordered that criminal and civil cases withdrawn under this controversial law be restored and proceedings reinitiated against the accused.
Several corruption cases against President Zardari, and thousands of other criminal and civil cases against more than 8,000 others, were closed under the terms of the NRO, decreed by the former President, Pervez Musharraf, in 2007.
A full court, comprising 17 functioning judges of the Supreme Court, passed a short order of the significant judgment late on Wednesday night, following seven days of hearing.
The court also declared the cases against Mr. Zardari in the Swiss courts as pending, as letters from the Attorney-General’s office withdrawing the request for mutual legal assistance and withdrawing the government of Pakistan as a damaged party in the cases, were without authority and illegal.
Putting up a brave face, Farhatullah Babar, the presidential spokesman, told reporters after the court’s ruling that the President enjoyed immunity and no criminal cases could be instituted or continued against him. “The President is not affected by this judgment,” he said.
But Hafiz Pirzada, who argued the petition asking the court to strike down the NRO, said there was “no such thing as unconditional immunity.”
I wouldn't be running the victory lap, quite yet, dougo.
ReplyDeleteWe're still a long way from the end, but if I'm wrong about "something" passing, then good deal.
Take two laps.
Hispanic Leaders Disagree over Christmas-themed Census Poster
ReplyDelete”Luke 2:1-4 says Jesus was born during a census ordered by Caesar Augustus.Although historians question the accuracy of the account, Luke stated that everyone had to return to his ancestral town to be registered for taxes and that Joseph and Mary left Nazareth for Bethlehem.”
Am I being too sensitive in observing that the WaPo story would have been just as informative without the obligatory PC comments about the Christian gospels?
.
They wil end up, sometime before Jan 20, passing just what I said they'd pass, ie something that looks a lot like the Mass healthcare bill (or, something considerably weaker.)
ReplyDeleteALL Gov. Options are dead; but, as someone said, Obama will sign a tuna salad sandwich, and call it a "healthcare bill" if he has to.
As for Immigration, I do not predict passage or failure, yet.
ReplyDeleteJust have commented that it is back and the anti-reform faction has less to work with then in 2007.
I cannot understand how yu support having 20 million folks in the US without any authorization, at all, as opposed to getting them a photo ID along with a fingerprint card and DNA sample in the file.
For my bud Doug.
ReplyDeleteGovernment Jobs are Us
"Department Of Defense
Agency: National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
Job Announcement Number: 20101199
Hiring Event
SALARY RANGE: 38,117.00 - 118,803.00 USD /year
NGA is currently accepting applications for our February 2010 invitation only hiring event to be held in Honolulu, HI. We are seeking entry to mid career level candidates, pay bands 2 to 3, interested in joining our highly skilled team supporting national security objectives of the United States..."
(As soon as I saw Geospatial Intelligence Doug, I thought of you.)
.
ReplyDeleteBy Yasuhiko Seki and Ben Levisohn
Dec. 17 (Bloomberg) -- The dollar traded near a 10-week high against the euro after the Federal Reserve said deterioration in the labor market is “abating,” stoking optimism about the outlook of the U.S. economy.
The greenback advanced against 12 of the 16 major currencies before reports today that economists said will show U.S. initial jobless claims slowed and a gauge of the outlook for the world’s largest economy rose. The Fed said the economy is strengthening and most of its special liquidity facilities will expire on Feb. 1, 2010.
“An improvement of the labor market enhances confidence in the U.S. economy,” said Akio Yoshino, chief economist in Tokyo at Societe Generale Asset Management (Japan) Co., a unit of France’s third-largest bank. “The dollar will fare well.”
"But the real damage is being inflicted by the environmental left.
ReplyDeleteThey had been bought off by political promises which were barely capable of fulfillment when the tide of public opinion had not yet been turned.
With the public increasingly skeptical, the environmental Left rightly sees that it has no chance of getting what it wants.
Whenever the Left doesn’t get what it wants it does what comes naturally: it becomes more militant."
---
The same dynamics are driving "Healthcare" into oblivion.
Socialists Bernie Sanders, Southerner Hating Anti-Semite Howie Dean, and Nancy Pelosi turn out to be our best Spokespeople!
"PELOSI: NO HEALTH CARE DEAL THIS YEAR "
At this rate, we won't have a vote on Amnesty until after the Dem Supermajorities are devastated.
I'm writing thank-you notes to Coburn and DeMint for having these monstrosities read in their entirety.
Is C-Span covering that?
If so, I'm gonna record it, then play it back at a slower speed so I can follow it, and pick out some of the real gems these Freedom Haters have spawned.
---
It’s about money, money and more money.
From those who claim to represent the frail, downtrodden, powerless victims.
Not to mention,
THE CHILDREN!
(And, of course...
POWER and CONTROL!)
Nancy Pelosi in 'campaign mode'
Speaker Nancy Pelosi predicted Wednesday that job creation and deficit reduction will be the central Democratic themes for the coming year – and that public support for health care reform will rebound once a bill has been sent to President Barack Obama.
Nancy in the Sky with Diamonds
Yeah, Quirk,
ReplyDeleteMy favorite hangout:
In GeoSpace!
I will forward that to the kid, he has the credentials to join them in "Saving the World"
ReplyDeleteMaybe he won't have to work for a Super-Macho Marine Faggot forever!
"Wed Dec 16, 07:25:00 PM EST"
ReplyDelete---
You INSIST on ignoring my point:
Self-Deportation would solve the problem with workplace enforcement and border security.
...but since you ignore that, perhaps I should quit repeating it ad-infinitum.
U.S. gave up billions in tax money in deal for Citigroup's bailout repayment
ReplyDelete”The federal government quietly agreed to forgo billions of dollars in potential tax payments from Citigroup as part of the deal announced this week to wean the company from the massive taxpayer bailout that helped it survive the financial crisis…
While the Obama administration has said taxpayers are likely to profit from the sale of the Citigroup shares, accounting experts said the lost tax revenue could easily outstrip those profits…”
Here come the new boss, same as the old boss.
.
"I will forward that to the kid, he has the credentials to join them in "Saving the World"
ReplyDeleteHe would be entering a growth industry.
One of the few left.
.
It is not that I ignore it, doug, it is that even in todays economic climate, it is not an effective tool. It does not work, net illegal immigration is still increasing, by the Federals' own count.
ReplyDeleteDespite the high unemployment figures.
You want to let 20 million stay in the gray zone, while you hope 2 million will self deport.
That is just plain nuts.
rodent pontificates:
ReplyDeleteWhere we have intervened, militarily, we have not done well at transforming societies and cultures. Mexico, Nicaragua, Haiti, North Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan all stand in testament to that.
Shhh dont mention Germany, Japan, Italy?
come on.. stop pulling your pud....
No, "misdirection" we did not attempt to transform the "Culture" of any of those countries you list.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, in Japan the Emperor stayed on the throne. There was no attempt to transform Japanese culture.
In Italy it was IBEC and market capitialism that transformed the culture, not the US military.
Germany, we did not attempt any transformation at all, just a turning back of the clock to democratic christian socialism, instead of national Socialism.
So, no "misdirection" they were left off intentionally. It was not the US military that did the transforming of any of those societies, though they did set the stage.
It was market capitalism that transformed them, where any transformation occurred.
We may not have transformed North Korea, but South Korea sure is bright by night. While North Korea is dark as a tomb.
ReplyDeleteAnd it was the failure to install market capitalism in the litany of failed projects that is telling the story of abject military and political failure.
ReplyDeleteWhat mincing of words!
ReplyDeleteRodent comments on the King of Jerusalem, the Israelite, King David...
ReplyDelete"That King David, he was into fuckin' other folks wives, then getting the husband kilt, was that a genetic trait or just something that "happened"?"
It's a HUMAN trait....
But thanks for pointing out the HISTORIC linkage of the Jews to Israel...
"It is not that I ignore it, doug, it is that even in todays economic climate, it is not an effective tool. It does not work, net illegal immigration is still increasing, by the Federals' own count.
ReplyDeleteDespite the high unemployment figures."
---
Right.
I forgot to include,
CUTTING OFF WELFARE AND FREE EDUCATION FOR ILLEGALS!
---
We both know that ain't likely to happen, but it would solve the problem, if implemented.
Regularizing them may happen, and it will serve only to make the problem worse in terms of attracting MORE illegals.
The South was always a more "liberal" society than the North, in Korea, bob.
ReplyDeleteAll through their history, which is quite extensive.
Korea has rarely been unified, usually has been split into two or three different kingdoms.
Again, bob, it was the global market capitalism of an open US economy that lit up the South, not the US military.
But thanks for pointing out the HISTORIC linkage of the Jews to Israel...
ReplyDelete:)
And, that's another truly great thing about the Jewish writers, how they tend not to cover up the shortcomings of their protagonists, and make out of it a moral and a meaning.
The Supremes have ruled on that issue, doug.
ReplyDeleteWe attempt to educate all the youthful residents, legal or not, in the United States.
We give all the residents access to Emergency Room care, in the United States.
Neither will be changing, so why not regularize those folk and cripple that black and gray market economy that thrives around them?
When we stayed long enough in those countries, they turned out for the better, is the way I'd look at it. Yes, market capitalism was a great part of it.
ReplyDeleteCostco time, to check the Holiday Specials.
No, the linkage is to adultery in person and murder by proxy.
ReplyDeleteNothing to do with the land.
It is a universal myth.
King David is the story of a brave man's transformation into a moral coward, corrupted by power, absolutely.
ReplyDeleteThe 25,000 troops in Korea, bob, have had little cultural impact upon the Koreans.
ReplyDeleteExcepting the KATUSAs and the professional ladies there is not a lot of cross cultural contact.
The US military is pretty much contained in it's area of operations, far, by Korean standards, from the population centers.
Okay move the party to the next topic!
ReplyDeleteDR Devolution wrote:
ReplyDelete"That King David, he was into fuckin' other folks wives, then getting the husband kilt, was that a genetic trait or just something that "happened"?"
Fortunately for you, there are not lengthy chapters on bonking goats, sheep, chickens, camels and small children, as is the case with your Islamic friends. Otherwise, your busy little fingers would be otherwise occupied, denying us the benefit of your vast store of wisdom.
Thanks, bob, for noticing: our heroes come warts and all...sorta object lessons for those not eaten up by ego. The saving grace was their ability to admit their flaws and repent (an object lesson for us all). There was/is no mincing...in any of its forms.
PS: Also, our texts do not contain the optimum oven temperatures for cremation as do some websites apparently frequented by others.
Thanks DR Devolution!
ReplyDeleteIn pointing out the King David crimes you offer one of the examples used by those small brained, childish, religious Founders of the Republic and ratifiers of that gosh-awful Constitution for having an elected executive rather than a monarch.
Repeatedly today, you have been helpful in your own spacial way.
bob,
ReplyDeleteConsider (and I know you have): the heroes, exemplars, role models and, yes, villains of our myths are HUMAN BEINGS...no dungeons and dragons for us…
Ruffy, old man,
ReplyDeleteThe last thread, Sleepless in Hanoi, had great potential…until posts “3” and “4” etc, etc, etc. Those were Jewish screeds by your bunkmate, DR Devo. Where was your righteous indignation, then? Your brown shirt is showing, Hoss.
II Samuel 12:7-24
ReplyDeleteAnd Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. This saith the Lord God of Israel, I annointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul;
And I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things.
Wherefore hast thou despised the commandmant of the Lord, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.
Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.
Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbor, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun.
For thou didst it secretly; but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.
And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, the Lord also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.
Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die.
And Nathan departed unto his house. And the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bare unto David, and it was very sick.
David therefore besought God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night upon the earth.
...the child dies...
Then David arose from the earth and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came into the house of the Lord, and worshipped; then he came to his own house; and when he required, they set bread before him, and he did eat.
Then said his servants unto him, What thing is this that thou hast done? thou didst fast and weep for the child while it was alive; but when the child was dead, thou didst rise and eat bread.
And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me, that the child may live?
But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.
And David comforted Bathsheba his wife....
This doesn't sound like the story of a moral coward, corrupted by power, absolutely to me.
Some see just the sin, others see also a return. But at a heavy price.
bob,
ReplyDeleteThanks!