Sunday - March 12, 2006

Sunday Discussion Thread

So what do ya think? Was he a madman, a genocidal maniac or what? Regardless, he’s dead. He and Yassir Arafish can compare notes down in hell, I suppose. What’s your opinion of Ol’ Slobby ... ?

History Now Will Be Milosevic’s Judge
_{March 11, 2006}

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP)

One of history’s most important trials has ended abruptly with the death of former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic. After four years, hundreds of witnesses, tens of thousands of documents and tens of millions of dollars, Milosevic can never be pronounced guilty or innocent.

The trial’s premature conclusion also raises questions about the conduct of tribunal judges who made key decisions that led to an exhausting, expensive five-year process. “That’s $200 million down the drain” said Michael Scharf, a former State Department attorney and an expert in international criminal law.

As in previous cases with the death of a defendant, the indictment was to be withdrawn. “The proceedings will be terminated,” tribunal spokeswoman Alexandra Milenov said. Milosevic, 64, who was extradited to The Hague in June 2001, was found lifeless in his bed early Saturday at the U.N. detention center. He had been defending himself against 66 counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Croatia, Bosnia and
Kosovo during the 1990s.

“It’s a huge setback for justice,” said Richard Dicker, legal adviser of Human Rights Watch. “Most of all, it’s a setback for the victims.” Chief U.N. war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said she regretted Milosevic’s death because she believed she would have won his conviction. According to the schedule dictated by the court, he had only a few weeks to go before winding up his defense and handing over the massive case to the three judges to begin their deliberations.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was created in 1993 to try those responsible for atrocities during the Balkan wars then raging. It was the first experiment in international war crimes jurisprudence since World War II, and was the model for the creation of more tribunals. But the success of the court was being weighed by the happenings in Courtroom I, where the defiant, combative Serb leader sparred with witnesses and judges alike.

His victims and former enemies lamented their lost chance to hear the verdict of impartial judges. “Justice was late,” said Hashim Thaci, the leader of ethnic Albanian armed insurgency against Milosevic’s forces in 1998-99 in Kosovo’s capital Pristina. “God took him.” The possibility of his death before the trial’s conclusion was the trial judges’ nightmare. With his history of chronic heart problems, frequent flu attacks, late nights preparing his defense and the stress of the courtroom, Milosevic was always at high risk.

- More on this story here ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/12/2006 at 03:01 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime • Genocide •  
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Im-Peach Fuzz

Obviously these members of Congress haven’t thought this all the way through yet. If they impeach Bush then the man who would become President will be a man who shoots lawyers. Most members of Congress are lawyers. Can you say “open season” ... ?

Members of US Congress Demand Impeachment Inquiry
_{March 11, 2006}

(APN) ATLANTA

30 US House Representatives have signed on as sponsors or co-sponsors of H. Res 635, which would create a Select Committee to look into the grounds for recommending President Bush’s impeachment, Atlanta Progressive News has learned.

“There has been massive support for House Resolution 635 from a very vigorous network of grassroots activists and people committed to holding the Bush Administration accountable for its widespread abuses of power,” US Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) said in a statement prepared for Atlanta Progressive News.

The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) also released a book, Articles of Impeachment Against President Bush. The Center is extremely influential in high-profile court fights over issues such as wiretapping, the treatment of detainees by the US, and felon voting rights.

“We have the book, we are calling for the impeachment of the President, and we’re supporting Conyers’s resolution,” Bill Goodman, CCR Legal Director, told Atlanta Progressive News.

“The fraudulent basis on which the President got us into the war in Iraq; the obvious criminality of the warrantless wiretapping; indefinite detention in violation of the Constitution; torture as a part of indefinite detention and other ways; special rendition and torture, which is the outsourcing of torture… All of these violate various laws of the US, and they also violate his oath office which he swears to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States, and he’s doing just the opposite, he’s undermining the Constitution and attempting to destroy certain parts of it,” Goodman said.

Meanwhile, at least eight (8) US cities, including Arcata, Santa Cruz, and San Francisco, each in California; and Brookfield, Dummerston, Marlboro, Newfane, and Putney, each in Vermont, have passed resolutions calling for Bush’s impeachment.

The recent city resolutions in Vermont have directly led to US Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) having signed H. Res 635 on March 09, 2006, David Swanson, 36, Washington DC Director of ImpeachPAC, asserted in an interview with Atlanta Progressive News.

- More on this story here ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/12/2006 at 02:50 AM   
Filed Under: • Politics •  
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Sunday Funnies

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/12/2006 at 02:29 AM   
Filed Under: • Fun-Stuff •  
• Comments (1) • Trackbacks(1)  Permalink •  

   Saturday - March 11, 2006

Space: The Final Frontier

A nearly perfect ring of hot, blue stars pinwheels about the yellow nucleus of an unusual galaxy known as Hoag’s Object. This image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captures a face-on view of the galaxy’s ring of stars, revealing more detail than any existing photo of this object. The image may help astronomers unravel clues on how such strange objects form.

The entire galaxy is about 120,000 light-years wide, which is slightly larger than our Milky Way Galaxy. The blue ring, which is dominated by clusters of young, massive stars, contrasts sharply with the yellow nucleus of mostly older stars. What appears to be a “gap” separating the two stellar populations may actually contain some star clusters that are almost too faint to see. Curiously, an object that bears an uncanny resemblance to Hoag’s Object can be seen in the gap at the one o’clock position. The object is probably a background ring galaxy.

Ring-shaped galaxies can form in several different ways. One possible scenario is through a collision with another galaxy. Sometimes the second galaxy speeds through the first, leaving a “splash” of star formation. But in Hoag’s Object there is no sign of the second galaxy, which leads to the suspicion that the blue ring of stars may be the shredded remains of a galaxy that passed nearby. Some astronomers estimate that the encounter occurred about 2 to 3 billion years ago.

This unusual galaxy was discovered in 1950 by astronomer Art Hoag. Hoag thought the smoke-ring-like object resembled a planetary nebula, the glowing remains of a Sun-like star. But he quickly discounted that possibility, suggesting that the mysterious object was most likely a galaxy. Observations in the 1970s confirmed this prediction, though many of the details of Hoag’s galaxy remain a mystery.

The galaxy is 600 million light-years away in the constellation Serpens. The Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 took this image on July 9, 2001.

_{Image Credit: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA).}

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/11/2006 at 05:15 PM   
Filed Under: • Science-Technology •  
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Most Ridiculous Album Cover Of All Time

This image was sent to me this morning and after nearly losing breakfast I just had to find out who this insane music group was. They are a British rock band called “The Handsome Beasts” and the .. uh .. gentleman on the cover is Gary Dalway, lead singer. This album was released in 1996. You can visit the band’s official web site here - if you dare.

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/11/2006 at 04:23 PM   
Filed Under: • Music • Outrageous •  
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Great Inventions

What do the following things all have in common: coffee, chess, parachutes, cameras, windmills, the crankshaft and soap?

Answer: they were all invented by Arabs.

Of course, that was long ago before they all got a bad case of stoopid.

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/11/2006 at 02:45 AM   
Filed Under: • Odd-Strange •  
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Das Boot

Who would have guessed that Colombia had a navy? Even worse, who would have guessed they would need a navy to catch undersea drug smugglers? Your cocaine shipment is at full fathom five. Ping .. ping .. ping ....

Colombian Navy Takes Sub in Smuggling Bust
_{March 10, 2006, 11:13 PM EST}

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP)

The Colombian navy has seized a 60-foot long submarine that likely was used to haul tons of cocaine out to sea for shipment to the United States, officials say.

No drugs were found when the fiberglass submarine was discovered Thursday about 30 miles from the Pacific Coast port of Buenaventura, but three people were arrested and two speedboats seized, said Adm. Guillermo Barrera, the navy’s chief of operations.

Barrera said the submarine carried cocaine to speedboats in the Pacific Ocean for transportation to Central America and on to the United States. Authorities say smuggling cocaine by sea has in recent years become the top method of transport, as radar systems have made it exceedingly difficult to smuggle drugs in small airplanes without being detected.

In a separate joint U.S.-Colombian operation Friday, the navy stopped a speedboat carrying three tons of cocaine about 1,000 miles west of Buenaventura. Five Colombians were arrested, said Adm. Jairo Pena, head of the navy’s Pacific fleet.

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/11/2006 at 02:30 AM   
Filed Under: • Odd-Strange •  
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Headline Of The Week

If ecstasy causes depression in our porcine friends, what does sorrow cause? I’m afraid to ask ....

Ecstasy Causes Depression In Pigs

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, March 10 (UPI)—Danish scientific experiments where Ecstasy was adminstered to pigs may help to explain depression in humans abusing the drug. The three-year study conducted at the PET Center at Arhus Hospital in Denmark showed the recreational drug caused depression in laboratory pigs, reported The Copenhagen Post Friday.

The scientists injected pigs with varying doses of Ecstasy to study the effect the drug has on the pigs’ brains. Pigs’ brains are similar to human brains. “We have proven that Ecstasy releases seratonin in the brain, which we know plays a role in depression,” said Dr. Aage Kristian Olsen at Arhus Hospital. “Ecstasy users risk depression given its long-term effects on the brain.”

The scientists noted that pigs on Ecstasy lost control of their body temperature, an effect also seen in human overdose fatalities, Olsen said.

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/11/2006 at 02:20 AM   
Filed Under: • Science-Technology •  
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Saturday Silliness

- “The Truth About Television” by Lawrence Keleman

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/11/2006 at 02:05 AM   
Filed Under: • Humor •  
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   Friday - March 10, 2006

The Power of Chalk

I saw this on Boortz today and found it simply stunning.  Look at this picture drawn on a sidewalk with chalk. (notice the man)

Amazing, eh?  Want to know how it’s done?  Scroll down.
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Wow.

Now go here and see the rest.

Posted by Drew458     on 03/10/2006 at 04:30 PM   
Filed Under: • Art-Photography •  
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Yuck-Yuck-Yuck

We already know Republicans aren’t too happy with President Bush after the Dubai Ports deal and a lot of GOP Senators and COngressmen are running away from the White House in an awful hurry prior to the November elections. Well .... it’s even worse on the other side of sanity ... namely, the DemocRATs.

The unabashedly liberal website SLATE.COM is in a feeding frenzy as editor Jacob Weisberg goes ballistic on the Donk party leadership, comparing them to three very famous morons. As John Kerry would say, “Quelle apropos, n’est ce pas?” This is turning into a laugh riot, folks. No one seems to think either party has leadership worth a flying damn. Ain’t democracy wonderful ... ?

The Three Stooges:
Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Howard Dean
By Jacob Weisberg (SLATE.COM Editor)
_{Wednesday, March 8, 2006, at 3:30 PM ET}

According to the latest CBS News poll, George W. Bush’s approval rating hit a personal worst of 34 percent in February, making him the most unpopular president since Nixon during Watergate. Thanks to the Abramoff scandal, confidence in the Republican-run Congress is only two points higher.

Such numbers naturally provoke Democratic fantasies about doing in 2006 what Republicans did in 1994, taking both houses in a historic sweep. Conditions seem ripe in many ways. But Democrats do not have a charismatic schemer like Newt Gingrich to lead the way. Instead, they have Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Howard Dean.

Pelosi is a conventionally liberal congresswoman from San Francisco who serves as House minority leader. The quite conservative Reid, who comes from a small town in Nevada, is the Senate minority leader. Dean, the former Vermont governor who seemed headed for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004 until he yodeled in Iowa, is the chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Since assuming their positions, the three of them have shown themselves to be somewhere between useless and disastrous as party leaders. Individually, they lack substance and policy smarts (Pelosi); coherence and force (Reid); and steadiness and mainstream appeal (Dean). Collectively, they convey an image of liberal elitism, disarray, and crabbiness.

- You have GOT to go read the rest of this at SLATE ...

From the Movie: “Pies And Guys”

Moe: Is there anything you won’t bet on?

Larry: Yeah, a winner.

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/10/2006 at 10:56 AM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists •  
• Comments (10) • Trackbacks(1)  Permalink •  

Liars

AHA! Caught you red-handed this time. You folks have been lying to me all the time, telling me “Sure, Skipper. I read the ads occasionally because I know it helps pay the bills”. Horse-shiite! Liars, liars, pantses on fires!

Normally, I don’t accept ads for organizations I have “issues” with. However, I decided to try a little experiment. For the past week there has been an ad running over there in the BlogAds and not one of you bothered to see what it was about. Not one. If you had, you would have screamed at me by now.

Somebody got some ‘splaining to do here. I’m waiting ..... 

(As punishment, you are all hereby ordered to go read this news story)

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/10/2006 at 06:32 AM   
Filed Under: •   
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Headline Of The Day

I only wish this headline meant what it sounded like. When are we all going to stop yelling, screaming and cursing at each other, inventing all kinds of conspiracy theories, throwing out all manner of accusations - in other words, acting like children. This means you, Liberal America.

Census Foresees an Older, and Wiser, America
_{March 10, 2006}

(WASHINGTON POST)

The U.S. population age 65 and older will double in 25 years, and the new elders will be healthier, wealthier and more highly educated than previous generations, redefining what it means to be older in America, a Census Bureau report issued yesterday shows. By 2030, about 72 million Americans, or one in every five, will be 65 or older, the report found.

“The aging of our society will have profound consequences on our future, and, in fact, it’s a not-very-distant future,” Census Bureau Director C. Louis Kincannon said in a teleconference with reporters. The first of the baby boomers, those born between 1946 and 1964, are turning 60 this year at the rate of about 8,000 a day, Kincannon said.

While much of the data is not new, the study puts more data in one place than ever before with the goal of benefiting the public and policymakers, said officials of the Census Bureau and the National Institute on Aging, which commissioned the report. The boomers “will enter retirement as the most educated generation in American history,” Kincannon said.

- More on the aging of America at the WAPO...

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/10/2006 at 06:04 AM   
Filed Under: • News-Briefs •  
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Quote Of The Day

How can anybody say, with a straight face, “a billion just isn’t what it used to be”? It looks like all that outsourcing has helped India, which now has more billionaires than Japan. The Walton family totalled $75 billion. Wal-Mart had a good year. The Russians must have finally figured out capitalism - they’re now richer than the Arabs. In related news, I finally saved enough to buy a full tank of gas.

Forbes Reports Billionaire Boom
_{March 10, 2006}
(BBC)

A worldwide economic boom has yielded a record number of dollar billionaires in the past year, according to Forbes. Their number rose by 15% to 793 with India taking the lead in Asia and new Russians lining up to fill the gap left by jailed Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Microsoft’s Bill Gates tops the list for the 12th year running, with a net worth of $50bn (£29bn).

The combined net worth of the 793 is $2.6 trillion and US billionaires account for just under half the amount. “A billion just isn’t what it used to be,” said Luisa Kroll, Forbes magazine’s associate editor, revealing the 20th annual list in New York.

According to the 2006 list:

* the youngest billionaire is a Lebanese woman, 22-year-old Hind Hariri, who inherited $1.4bn from her assassinated father, former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri

* India’s 23 billionaires have a combined net worth of $99bn, surpassing former Asian leader Japan’s 27 billionaires with their total worth of $67bn

* Russia’s 33 billionaires now have a combined wealth of $172bn, based largely on oil and gas prices, compared to a total of $68bn for oil-rich Saudi Arabia’s 11 billionaires.

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/10/2006 at 04:47 AM   
Filed Under: • Corruption and Greed •  
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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