COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Thursday, June 19, 2008

British Justice Bars Martha Stewart from UK and Frees an Al Qaeda Suspect.


Learned men all.

Martha Stewart refused entry to the UK
By Christopher Hope Home Affairs Editor and Alex Spillius in Washington

20/06/2008

Martha Stewart has been refused a visa to Britain because of her criminal convictions for obstructing justice, the Daily Telegraph has learned.

The UK Border Agency said it would not comment on individual cases. A spokesman added: "We continue to oppose the entry to the UK of individuals where we believe their presence in the United Kingdom is not conducive to the public good or where they have been found guilty of serious criminal offences abroad. The Telegraph

Al Qaeda suspect freed on strict bail
Wed Jun 18, 2008 Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) - A Jordanian who defeated a government attempt to deport him as a "significant international terrorist" was freed from prison on bail on Tuesday but confined to his home for 22 hours a day.

Omar Othman, known as Abu Qatada, was among the highest profile terrorism suspects in a British jail.

A special tribunal dealing with foreign terrorism suspects published a seven-page document setting stringent conditions for his release.

He is forbidden from using any mobile telephone or computer, or connecting in any way to the Internet, and may leave home only between 10 and 11 a.m. and 2 and 3 p.m.

The document sets out a list of individuals that he may not contact or receive visits from -- headed by al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his number two, Ayman al-Zawahri.

Othman won a legal battle against being deported to Jordan when the Court of Appeal ruled in April he would not face a fair trial at home.





23 comments:

  1. That's funny - Martha Stewarts criminal conviction prevents her from travelling to Britain. Good luck trying to get into the US with a criminal record as well. Busted for smokin' marijuana - feeeerrrrrgitaboutit. Well, make special application for clemency and maybe, just maybe, given the proper documentations filed and processed by the various agencies and then you can visit.

    Just sign here Martha...

    and here...


    and here...














    We'll let you know.

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  2. Good thing Poppy Bush took care of the DUI for Dubya.

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  3. Criminal conviction? Amigo, we don't care bout no steenkin' criminal convictions...

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  4. Martha needed a better lawyer, like the muzzie had.


    This is neat--

    Ultimately this remarkable discovery image, from a small robotic observatory in New Mexico, supports the cosmological scenario in which large spiral galaxies, including our own Milky Way, were formed by the accretion of smaller ones.

    Astronomy Picture of the Day

    We're an "accretion". Better than being a secretion, I'd think.

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  5. Seems it may have been ice, deuce.

    Scientists believe Mars lander exposed ice crumbs



    LOS ANGELES - Scientists believe NASA's Phoenix Mars lander exposed bits of ice while digging in the soil of the Martian arctic in recent days.

    Principal investigator Peter Smith said Thursday that crumbs of bright material seen in the trench have since vanished. He says that means it must have been frozen water that vaporized after being exposed.

    Scientists had also considered whether the specks might be salt. Smith points out that salt wouldn't have vaporized.

    The lander is on a mission to discover whether the polar environment could be favorable for primitive life to emerge.

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  6. And if there was life, there could be oil.

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  7. Saw that Bob. I was waiting for you to rub the salt in.

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  8. In July 2005, David Potts of Marietta, Ga., contacted Kmart to complain that his tabletop “shattered into a zillion slivers of glass.” He e-mailed Kmart a few times, answering a customer service rep's questions, and then casually dropped that the rep might better know him as “Dave Michaels,” the name he worked under as a CNN anchor during the early 1990s.

    That got his messages forwarded to Martha Stewart Living, where a customer service rep alerted a colleague that they were dealing with a “high-profile customer.” This prompted a Martha Stewart rep a bit higher up the food chain to send a message to the manufacturer: “CAN YOU TAKE CARE OF THIS CUSTOMER SO WE DO NOT HAVE ANY PUBLICITY.”

    He got a new table.


    Exploding Tables

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  9. Great comparison, deuce, Larry, Moe, and Curly, and the judges. I think I'd go with L, M. and C. if I could pick my judges.

    It's insane when $150 million is asked for a few defective tables. Larry, Moe and Curly would agree. In fact, it was the case they were discussing in the above photo.

    ---
    Holy Man In Benares Waits For Death

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  10. Looks like he's sittin' in front of ol' glory.

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  11. Oldest city is in India?

    I would have thought it was in Iraq or Turkey.

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  12. Yeah, I don't know if that's right. They say continuously lived in. I don't know that anybody knows for sure.

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  13. Looks like a disaster movie.

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  14. "Hamas has emerged for the first time as a regional political force, signing international agreements, after being only a local military and political force," wrote Khaled al-Shami, a columnist for the London-based Arabic daily al-Quds al-Arabi.

    Closer to home, Gaza's residents said they were relieved to have some hope that their lives will improve, however slim it may be.

    "We've been through a very tough situation, and we've suffered a lot," said Mohammed Abdel Malik, an unemployed 35-year-old. "Now, we need a rest, and maybe this truce will even bring us some good news."


    Wary Quiet

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  15. said Mohammed Abdel Malik, an unemployed 35-year-old. "Now, we need a rest"

    :)

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  16. Looking ahead to Iran's presidential election in 2009, the big question is what President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's chances are of re-election.

    ...

    Iran's economy is in trouble, facing 20 percent inflation, sluggish growth, and an uncertain job market, despite the windfall in oil revenue that has come Iran's way in recent years. Many conservatives in the new parliament are highly critical of Ahmadinejad's populist economic policies, and they are likely to present a serious challenge in the coming months.

    ...

    An investigator named Abbas Palizdar gave a speech late last month in which he accused high-ranking clerics — many are rivals of the president — of corruption.


    Support Uncertain

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  17. That's insane. - Logging machine.

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  18. Wonder how big a tree it can take down. That was small stuff really.

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  19. What sounds so simple in theory--opening offshore areas to increase oil production for the energy-price-shocked U.S. populace--turns out to be incredibly complex. And to top it all off, the plan can't resolve the supply and demand problem that is at the core of the run-up in fuel prices.

    Anthony Cordesman, an energy expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former national security assistant to McCain, says trying to solve the problem by focusing on supply or demand won't help the U.S. achieve energy independence. And it won't make oil cheap.

    "It may just make it less expensive," he says.


    Uncle Sam and Oil

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  20. Europe and England after treating their jews for centuries like shit now have the arabs, pakis & moslems replacing them...

    Dream about the good old days when you could just murder and pillage the jews...

    but the Jews are all dead and gone.... (with some small exceptions) and the allah-addicts have replaced them

    karma anyone?

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