Wednesday - December 14, 2011

court in Malaysia and big mouth nitwit jesse jackson declare bush blair guilty

Some things are so stupid they amuse, others so stupid they anger.
I’m not too sure what to make of this. I mean, just who are these pipsqueaks anyway?
I’m certain they have no real jobs or profession. Or none they are working in.
Pumped up with left wing importance they pontificate on world affairs, as though they and their little country matter in any big way.  And it’s reported here by another one of those folks with a name nobody except his mother can pronounce.

So this is funny. Sort of.  They really take themselves quite seriously. Schmucks!  woo-hoo. Bush and Blair will be frightened.

Bush, Blair found guilty of war crimes in Malaysia tribunal
By Mahi Ramakrishnan, Press TV, Kuala Lumpur

Former US president George Bush and his former counterpart Tony Blair were found guilty of war crimes by the The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal which held a four day hearing in the Malaysia.

The five panel tribunal unanimously decided that Bush and Blair committed genocide and crimes against peace and humanity when they invaded Iraq in 2003 in blatant violation of international law.

The judges ruled that war against Iraq by both the former heads of states was a flagrant abuse of law, act of aggression which amounted to a mass murder of the Iraqi people.

In their verdict, the judges said that the United States, under the leadership of Bush, forged documents to claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

They further said the findings of the tribunal be made available to members of the Rome Statute and the names of Bush and Blair be entered into a war crimes register.

Both Bush and Blair repeatedly said the so-called war against terror was targeted at terrorists.

Lawyers and human rights activists present here say the verdict by the tribunal is a landmark decision. And the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Foundation said it would lobby the International Criminal Court to charge former US president George Bush and Former British prime minister Tony Blair for war crimes.

source

But this isn’t so funny.  This pisses me off on more then one level.

Now then, before Lyndon flames me in the possible mistaken belief that I would defend Tony Blair, rest assured L. that were I to do that, my wife would see it as grounds for divorce and mental instability on my part. No, what bothers me big time is, what damn business is it of that blinking, pompous ass, that disingenuous pc leftist Jesse Jackson, to come here to England and demand that a former Brit Prime Minister (no matter who he is) be tried in some court for war crimes.

No American has any god damn right to come here and do that and I don’t even care were that American a right wing conservative.  What is not our business is best left to Brits.  Being critical on blogs of crime in the streets and how justice is administered or as usually the case, is not, is fair game. They do it to us too.  But what this country doesn’t need is some would be head of state (now that’s a horror story worthy of Stephen King) coming here and giving a speech passing his lefty legal judgement on a former PM. Or any other elected official.  If it bothers me when foreigners do it to us (USA) it also bothers me in this case.

Jackson addressed a conference on radicalisation at a university yesterday.
The ignorant big mouthed bag of poo said that “killing innocent civilians with unmanned drones was an act of terrorism the same as suicide bombings.”

I wasn’t aware btw, that Britain used any drones in Iraq, and the way this lying bastard speaks, one would get the impression (entirely mistaken) that civilians were a prime target.

Things must be slow for Jackson in the USA. I guess he had to come here for an audience that would listen.

There’s a word for Jesse.  Isn’t there? 

Posted by peiper     on 12/14/2011 at 07:19 AM   
Filed Under: • Commies • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • International • Stoopid-People •  
• Comments (6) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Tuesday - December 06, 2011

US/Brit Extradition Treaty … at loggerheads over fairness … your comments welcome

All I know is what I read in the papers and what LyndonB tells me on this subject.  The Brit/American extradition treaty.  Which some say is one way and only favors the USA. If that’s true they’re correct in the criticism.  I really don’t know and have no time to do honest and serious research on the subject.  But it has been causing a stir here, and this is some background.

A computer geek with a new age disease called Asperger’s Syndrome which I renamed Asparagus Syndrome, broke into American security computers and wrecked havoc for a time. 
His name is Gary McKinnon, lives a quiet life with mommy and is in his 40’s, I have read.  He is supposed to be a whiz with a computer.

Well, what Gary did was break into US puters which exposed our security as pitiful.
According to reports, we had no passwords and no firewalls. 
He was eventually tracked down, arrested and has been facing extradition ever since.

Further to the story, his defenders say he wasn’t tying to do harm but was trying to research and track down the “truth” about flying saucers and little green men etc.
Poor deluded Gary. 

Now I can not pretend to know a darn thing about the treaty that the Brits have with the USA on extradition.  From what I have been hearing due to this case though, is that it is very one sided and not only favors the USA, but does so at the expense of the UK.  And they are very unhappy.  If it’s true, one can’t blame them. 

So here we have this poor innocent (by way of his particular syndrome) young man facing possible jail in America if he is indeed turned over to the US.

Yeah well, little green men and flying saucers aside, that was not the subject of messages he left on American computers. Nope.
Perhaps one of the side effects of asparagus syndrome, is the ability to be very articulate which he was, it was originally reported.  He wrote anti-war tracts for the war mongering Americans to read.  Italics are mine.  He knew damn well what he was doing from the get go.  He was well written and one might even say professional in his approach. 

So for well over a year now, maybe two, the fight has been going on to save Gary from American clutches. And oh btw, his mommy said that Gary would kill himself if he had to go to jail in the USA. So now the campaign is not only to stop any extradition, but save his life as well.  And the Daily Mail has been campaigning on his behalf from the beginning, with headlines such as; GARY’S SUFFERED ENOUGH. DON’T LET US DOWN.  Well anyway, that was written by his mommy in a column yesterday in the DM.  Monday’s DM headline covered almost half a page with the words;

* DO YOUR DUTY FOR GARY AND BRITAIN.
* MPs VOTE ON UNFAIR EXTRADITION LAWS.
* AN AFFRONT TO BRITISH JUSTICE
* NEW HOPE FOR GARY AS MPs BACK RETHINK ON EXTRADITION

The hope is that Gary McKinnon if tried and found guilty, which he must be since he said he hacked in looking for the twilight zone, would be allowed to served his time in a Brit jail.  Apparently he wouldn’t try to kill himself there. Only in America. 

Which now brings us to the American response from the US Ambassador himself.

US - UK extradition treaty is fair and balanced

By Louis Susman

I want to state clearly the US position – and correct some of the myths, distortions, and inaccuracies that have developed. We believe that the existing US-UK Extradition Treaty works, is fair and balanced, promotes justice in both countries, and does not need to be changed.

We are not alone in this opinion. It is a view shared by a distinguished panel of UK legal experts appointed by the Home Secretary to review the fairness of the treaty and to ensure protection of Britain’s interests. That panel was led by the esteemed judge Sir Scott Baker and included two highly respected lawyers with significant experience in extradition proceedings – one from representing the accused; the other from representing governments.

Over more than a year, they solicited views from all interested parties – on both sides of the argument. Anyone holding a grievance was given the fullest opportunity to express their concerns. The panel received more than 200 written responses. Hearings and meetings were held with affected organisations and individuals, including officials and lawyers from the UK and the US. The extradition procedures of both countries were studied, and extraditions already concluded under the treaty examined.

Sir Scott Baker’s Commission conducted an exhaustive, meticulous and considered review. And it reached the only conclusion that could be supported by the facts: that the US-UK treaty in its current form is fair and balanced.

However, we recognise that the panel’s findings are not accepted by everyone. There have, of course, been vocal criticisms of Britain’s extradition arrangements aired for many years. We heard them again during last week’s Parliamentary debate and its subsequent press coverage.

Where there are concerns, they should not be confused with issues surrounding the European Arrest Warrant – a completely different agreement to our treaty. It should be clear that one has nothing to do with the other. As regards the US-UK Extradition Treaty, there appear to be two main criticisms. Neither is justified.
First, critics say that it is easier to extradite someone from the UK than from the US due to a different burden of proof. There may be some confusion because the standards of evidence for extradition under the treaty are different in terminology. But in practice, the UK’s “reasonable suspicion” test is the same as the US’s “probable cause”. They are the standards that police officers in our respective countries must meet to justify an arrest.

British citizens are also protected by the “probable cause” test since the US cannot make an extradition request to the UK until probable cause has been successfully established in a US court. So the standard of evidence that each country has to meet to extradite someone is the same. Plain and simple. In fact, it is worth noting that the United States has never denied an extradition request from the UK under the present treaty.

The second mistaken claim is that the treaty somehow denies British citizens British justice. In all extradition cases, the UK authorities always begin by considering whether an individual can and should be tried in the UK instead of being extradited. Once the UK authorities decide that the case should be tried in the US, all extradition hearings are then held in UK courts – as are subsequent appeals. It is only when these avenues have been exhausted – when UK prosecutors, the courts, and the Home Secretary have all affirmed that the request is proper – that an extradition goes ahead. Moreover, the Baker Commission’s report stated that UK extradition judges “could not think of any case already decided under the 2003 act in which it would have been in the interests of justice for it to have been tried in the United Kingdom rather than in the requesting territory”. These are not the only arguments used by critics of the treaty.

In fact, neither country can ask for an extradition if the crime allegedly committed is not a serious crime in both countries. Nor does the US get special treatment – the UK’s domestic extradition law is the same for Australia, Canada, Israel, Russia, and Turkey. And nor do we seek the death penalty for any individual extradited from the UK.

In an age of international crime syndicates, global terror networks and cyber attacks, my government strongly supports the US-UK Extradition Treaty as an essential tool for bringing criminals to justice. It is a treaty that has been tested robustly by the British and the US justice systems, and now has been validated by the Baker Commission’s review.

For these reasons we remain confident that the treaty is fair and balanced. Because the treaty is valid, we hope that it will receive the endorsement from Members of Parliament that it deserves.

• Louis Susman is United States ambassador to the United Kingdom

source

Posted by peiper     on 12/06/2011 at 10:26 AM   
Filed Under: • International • Politics • UK • USA •  
• Comments (3) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Tuesday - November 08, 2011

are libya’s good guys turning bad, or only reverting to type? time will tell but meanwhile

Gaddifi is gone and not many will miss the cartoonish buffoon.  One of the things that surprised me about him for a very long time, was how seriously he took himself.
I used to think he never looked in a mirror. If he had, he might have died laughing. But for all his loony tune antics, he was a dangerous man and perhaps mad as well.

So he’s gone and unlamented.  Eight months ago when France and England decided it was of earth shaking importance (along with nato) to defend civilians against him, I thought their excuse for their crusade was a crock and still do.  I was peeved that the powers aligned against him weren’t willing to call a spade a spade and launched that dumb propaganda war.  Come on. How many of us truly and honestly believed that all of a sudden, after all those many years, four decades in fact, suddenly nato (with a small ‘n’) led by the nose by Sarkozy and Cameron, all of a sudden they have an epiphany. All of a sudden they wet their collective pants over his supposed attack against his own people. Like it was something new to them.

At the time I wondered, as did many other far smarter and better informed people then myself, just who were these ‘civilians’ Cameron and company were so worked up about.  Well, according to some reports coming from the area, reports I’ve no reason to doubt, perhaps the guys Gaddifi was at war with weren’t all boy scouts or innocent civilians yearning to breathe free.  You don’t say.

Here’s some belated news from last week.  Just in case you missed it.

Libya: revolutionaries turn on each other as fears grow for law and order

Hundreds of revolutionaries fought each other at a hospital in Tripoli early on Monday, in the biggest armed clash between allies since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi.

By Nick Meo, in Tripoli

The fighting fuelled growing fears that nobody is in control of thousands of swaggering armed men who are still based in Tripoli and that the country’s interim government will struggle to impose law and order.

Two people died from bullet wounds and at least seven fighters were injured during a battle that started when militia from the town of Zintan were stopped by guards from the Tripoli Brigade from entering the city’s Central Hospital to kill a patient.

The hospital front door and entrance hall were afterwards left pocked with bullets, doctors and patients had to flee the building and two elderly patients died of heart attacks during the shooting, which lasted from about 1am until dawn. Heavy machine guns and anti-aircraft guns were used by both factions, supposed allies who in reality nurse a dangerous rivalry.

READ MORE

And now there is this update which won’t surprise anyone.

Libya dispatch: as lawlessness spreads, are the rebel ‘good guys’ turning bad?

Once welcomed as liberators, Libya’s rebel fighters are beginning to outstay their welcome in Tripoli.

By Nick Meo, Tripoli

Abdul Mojan’s moment of realisation came when the good guys threw him into the boot of their car, slammed it shut and drove off with him a prisoner inside.
When they finally stopped and hauled him out, he asked them: “What are you doing? I’m a revolutionary just like you! I’ve never supported Gaddafi.’”

But the former rebels didn’t care. They had taken a liking to the new office block in western Tripoli that Mr Mojan managed and they wanted the keys and ownership documents. He tried to reason with them, pointing out that there were plenty of government buildings standing empty.
To no avail, however. “We have sacrificed for this revolution and you haven’t, and now we will take what we want,” he was told by a cocky 18-year-old. “You can have the building back when the revolution is over.”
A week later Mr Mojan was still incredulous as he recounted his tale toThe Sunday Telegraph, admitting that he felt lucky to escape without a beating although there was nothing he could do about the 5,000 dinar (£2,550) they stole from his car.

Many of Tripoli’s residents have had a similar moment of grim awakening in recent weeks. Their liberators, still swaggering around the city in Che Guevara-style berets and armed to the teeth, have not gone back to their home towns as they promised. Nor have they started handing in the guns they used to fight against Gaddafi, as they said they would.

“When they said Libya Free, they meant the cars, the refrigerators and the flat-screen television sets,” runs one joke doing the rounds in Tripoli’s cafes. Stories of gunmen taking expensive cars at checkpoints, giving receipts saying they will be returned after the revolution, are nervously swapped over cups of tea.

More alarming than the looting have been the armed clashes between militias. There have been three big fights in the capital alone in the past week; shoot-outs at a hospital, Martyr’s Square, and the military airport, which have left several dead and dozens wounded.
Then there are the detentions. With the fighting over, the revolutionaries have not been idle. They have kept busy rounding up hundreds of suspected Gaddafi supporters in a wide-scale witch-hunt, often on the basis of little more than rumour and accusation.

One man, a supporter of the revolution who was full of hope a month ago, described how his brother-in-law, Omar, had been grabbed by gunmen from Misurata. They were acting for a wealthy businessman from the city, with whom Omar had a dispute several years ago.
“They came to his house and Omar went with them because he believed in the revolution and thought it was a misunderstanding that would soon be sorted out,” the man said.

“But when they arrived in Misurata they threw him in their private prison and said they would beat the soles of his feet until he confessed. It is an old Turkish torture called the falakha. He was really scared, and he managed to escape by persuading one of them who felt uneasy about this to let him go.
“Next day they turned up at his house, and threatened his wife and children. Can you believe this? We have hundreds of little Gaddafis now.

SOURCE AND MORE

“are the rebel ‘good guys’ turning bad?” No ... they are only reverting to type.

Posted by peiper     on 11/08/2011 at 09:19 AM   
Filed Under: • International •  
• Comments (5) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Sunday - July 03, 2011

Kiss That Gold Goodbye

A treasure trove of gold and silver jewelry, coins and precious stones said to be worth billions of dollars has been found in a Hindu temple in southern India, officials said. The valuables have an estimated preliminary worth of over 500 billion rupees ($11.2 billion), said Kerala Chief Secretary K. Jayakumar, catapulting the temple into the league of India’s richest temples.

The thousands of necklaces, coins and precious stones have been kept in at least five underground vaults at the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple which is renowned for its intricate sculptures.

“We are yet to open one more secret chamber which has not been opened for nearly 140 years,” Jayakumar told AFP.

The actual value of the treasure haul can be ascertained only after it is examined by the archaeological department, said Jayakumar.

The temple, dedicated to Hindu lord Vishnu, was built hundreds of years ago by the king of Travancore and donations by devotees have been kept in the temple’s vaults since. A necklace found on Thursday was 18 feet (six metres) long. Thousands of gold coins have also been found.

India’s Supreme Court recently ordered that the temple be managed by the state to ensure the security of valuables at the shrine. Until now, the Thirupathy temple in southern Andhra Pradesh state was believed to be India’s richest temple with offerings from devotees worth 320 billion rupees.

The revelation about the huge riches in the Padmanabhaswamy temple has forced police to sharply step install security cameras and alarms. Authorities also plan to set up a commando force for security, said Kerala director general of police Jacob Punnoose.

“Now it?s known all over the world that the Padmanabhaswamy temple has jewels worth billions of rupees we have decided to assign it maximum security,” Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy told AFP.

Kiss your riches goodbye and go back to living in the mud while starving. I can guarantee you that the government is going to steal, lose, misplace, whatever, this treasure. Accounting errors. And the people will never get anything from it. Not that they ever have.

I don’t know the exact age of the temple, and the $11.2 billion figure is preliminary. But if the place has been around for ... 500 years ... that’s about $23 million in treasure donated every single year. While the people go without. And in India, they go without for reals. Without food, without clothing, without shelter, without everything and anything. Without life. And the temple gets all their wealth and then sits on it FOREVER and does nothing with it. But now it will all be stolen by corrupt officials.

Way to go.

Posted by Drew458     on 07/03/2011 at 11:30 AM   
Filed Under: • International • Religion •  
• Comments (2) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Thursday - June 16, 2011

Murder At Government House

Police on Thursday were preparing to charge the son of Papua New Guinea’s acting prime minister with murder after the body of a 29-year-old waitress was found at the family home.

Theo Abal, 21, will likely make his first court appearance Friday once he is charged in the killing of the woman, police spokesman Dominic Kakas said. He could face the death penalty if convicted.

A guard at the house told police he saw Abal and the woman arrive home in the early hours of Monday and head for a garden on the premises. Police said that the guard later heard the woman scream and that Abal confessed to killing her.

Kakas said her throat had been cut. A kitchen knife found near her body was the suspected weapon, he said.

Acting Prime Minister Sam Abal said he personally reported the “alleged murder” to Police Commissioner Tony Wagambie on Monday after the woman’s body was found at his home in the capital, Port Moresby.

He made no comment on his son’s alleged confession but pledged to cooperate fully. He said in a statement Tuesday that if any of his relatives are involved, “they will face the full brunt of the law and will not be treated differently from anyone else.”

… the island nation has had the death penalty for only a few years and has yet to carry out an execution, though a handful of defendants have been sentenced to death.

Theo Abal, the younger of Sam Abal’s two children, is unemployed and lives at his father’s house.

Kakas said the dead woman worked as a waitress at a Port Moresby hotel. Her name has not been made public.

Wagambie said Tuesday that the acting prime minister was away from the house and was alerted to the death by the security guard, who found the woman’s body in a banana garden.

Sam Abal - who is acting Prime Minister while Sir Michael Somare recovers from heart surgery - said on Tuesday that an ‘’unfortunate and regrettable incident’’ had taken place at the family’s Port Moresby home at the weekend. ABC radio reported yesterday that Teo Abal had been arrested. He had been missing since the body was found.

Mr Abal told the PNG Parliament on Tuesday that his family would co-operate with police to ensure justice was done.

‘’The alleged murder took place within the perimeters of my private home,’’ Mr Abal said in the Post Courier on Tuesday. Mr Abal had recently moved to a hotel and was not living at the Konedobu address, the newspaper said.
...
‘’We will not interfere in this case. If any of my family members are involved, they will face the full brunt of the law and will not be treated differently as anyone else in similar situations,’’ Mr Abal said.
‘’Anyone found to be involved will face the full consequences of the law. They will be charged with murder in the same way as any other person in society that has no regard for value of human life and dignity of a person,’’ he added.

Boy is it easy to draw inferences from this one. But let’s not be hasty. Papua New Guinea has been the target of Christian missionaries for a very long time, to the point where only a third of the population still follows the indigenous beliefs (former headhunters). Islam barely even has a toehold, making up less than 1% of the population. I think what we have here may be a case of a spoiled rich kid who wasn’t going to take a NO from a commoner.

[ from May 12 ] Papua New Guinea’s absent prime minister, Sir Michael Somare, has had heart-valve replacement surgery in Singapore, the PNG parliament has been told.

Three weeks after Sir Michael stepped down and handed the reins to deputy Sam Abal, it is still not known when he will return to work. Sir Michael is recovering in Singapore following corrective surgery after an earlier, operation on his heart, the Port Moresby-based Post Courier newspaper reported on Thursday.

The acting prime minister, Mr Abal, briefed parliament on Sir Michael’s condition.

“The people of Papua New Guinea have been praying for our prime minister since he was admitted into hospital for surgery last month,” Mr Abal was quoted as saying. “The surgery was successful but Sir Michael developed some complications in the post-operative period that required corrective surgery. Consequently, corrective surgery has taken place and Sir Michael is in recovery.”

Sir Michael was expected to return to the office on April 18 following a two-week suspension after he was found guilty of financial misconduct dating back 20 years.

I don’t know what the financial misconduct was, but I think it’s cool that the country gave their leader a big old Time Out for being a bad boy.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/16/2011 at 09:33 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime • International •  
• Comments (1) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Monday - June 06, 2011

it’s only money

Just recently, Drew focused on aid of a foreign nature and had a few choice words to say. Well, things aren’t too much different over here except the UK hasn’t the economy to support things on the same scale. Or the population of course. So all things being relative, the bottom line is that things suck.

The former bland conservative PM, Sir John Major got on his hobby horse a few days ago, and said he was proud of the foreign aid the UK gives away and suggested that the public should be proud too. Oh right. The public here should be very proud of spending on things like:

£300,000 to NUT.  That’s the National Union of Teachers.  What for? Teaching? Well, in a manner of speaking I guess. The money was to make teachers ...

“Global agents of change.” Say what?  What kind of change?  Climate? Whatever.  It’s only money.

Then there was £241,000 spent on a worthy cause for the kiddies.  Everyone wants to do nice things for kids. In this case, the govt. gave the money to a UK theater company in order to teach the kiddies a Brazilian dance.  Isn’t that nice?  Hey. It’s only money.

The G-8 nations in ‘05 pledged to spend 0.7% of GNI (gross national income) on aid.
Here’s how that broke down among the top 5 last year. 

Britain ..... 0.56%
France ..... 0.5 %
Germany 0.38%
USA ....... 0.21%
Russia ...... 0.05%

Sir John Major: foreign spending isn’t just right - it should make us proud

former Conservative Prime Minister John Major argues that David Cameron’s commitment to aid is bold, necessary and right.

It has become fashionable in some quarters to see the Coalition Government’s decision to protect the life-saving aid budget as a sign of waste and futile modernisation.
The argument runs something like this: the Conservative Party’s commitment to tackling global poverty and disease was never anything more than a handy fig-leaf of modernisation, designed to win over liberal-minded voters; now that times are tough it should be discarded.
And it doesn’t really matter because – in any event – it’s all wasted anyway.
This argument is wholly wrong. Its advocates miss two critical points: first, that our Party’s commitment to Aid pre-dates David Cameron and is based on conviction not calculation; and second, that every pound of Britain’s - still relatively small - aid budget is amongst the best value of any Government spending.
Our party’s commitment to protecting the Aid budget was made six years ago when Michael Howard was leader.

It was driven – not by electoral calculation – but by a sober assessment of Britain’s place in the world, of the immense need in developing countries, and of the significant changes in the
effective use of Aid over the last 20 years.

Right. Lets see what the figures are.
India, with its own nuclear program and space program …
£295 million
Ethiopia
£214 million
Bangladesh
£149 million

Planned growth in the foreign aid budget 2010 - 2011-06-06
£7.8 BILLION
2014 – 2015
£11.5 BILLION

I guess the question always asked is .... where the hell does it end?  The answer naturally is, It Doesn’t!

And then of course there is .....

But hey .... It’s only money.

UPDATE

In the morning paper on June 7.  I toleya they were nuts.  Not all of them tho as he is taking some heat from the party. Take a look.

Backlash as minister boasts ‘Be as proud of our £12bn foreign aid bill as you are of the Army’
By JASON GROVES, POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT

Lavish spending on foreign aid is making Britain a ‘development superpower’ and voters should take the same pride in it as they do in the Armed Forces and the Queen, a senior minister said yesterday.

International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell admitted the Coalition was facing ‘bracing’ criticism over its decision to increase aid spending by 34 per cent to £12billion at a time of austerity at home.

But he insisted the money was achieving ‘brilliant’ results and making Britain admired around the world. His comments sparked an angry backlash from Tory MPs last night, with one accusing him of talking ‘complete tosh’.

SOURCE

Posted by peiper     on 06/06/2011 at 09:50 AM   
Filed Under: • Economics • International •  
• Comments (0) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Friday - June 03, 2011

Boomski Boomski

Explosions caused by a fire at a military ammunition depot in the Russian republic of Bashkortostan nearly a week ago have finally ceased, RFE/RL’s Tatar-Bashkir and Russian services report.

The fire and explosions started at a military base northeast of the republic’s capital, Ufa, on May 26.

Some of those who had been among more than 7,000 local residents evacuated from the area last week started returning to the village of Urman in the Iglino district on June 1.

Those whose homes are situated close to the burning military facility are still unable to return home because the fire is still burning.

More than 116 people were made homeless by the incident, 12 were injured, and some 500 left unemployed after their businesses were destroyed by the fire and explosions.

Bashkortostan Security Council head Marat Magadeev told journalists that new homes will be built and finished by August for those who are homeless.

Firefighters were able to enter the base on the morning of June 1 after the explosions stopped. Magadeev told journalists that heavy rain is currently helping to extinguish the blaze.

Moscow - A Russian ammo dump caught fire for the second time in a week on Monday, with exploding munitions forcing a repeat evacuation of hundreds of people.

Firefighters were having difficulty approaching the artillery ammunition depot in Russia’s Central Asian Bashkorstan province because of shell explosions and flying metal, according to news reports.

More than 1,000 residents of the nearby village of Urman abandoned their homes aboard buses provided by local officials, the Interfax news agency reported.

It was not clear from early reports what caused the fire. The blaze came in the wake of a Thursday conflagration at the same storage site. Army investigators have blamed a soldier who allegedly

tossed live shell casings into a pile, which is believed to have touched off one of the shell detonators.

This week:

PUGACHYOVO, Russia—A fire at a military base in the Russian republic of Udmurtia is causing a series of strong explosions, forcing authorities to evacuate thousands of people, RFE/RL’s Russian and Tatar-Bashkir services report.

According to RFE/RL’s services, some 150 buildings—including 18 ammunition depots—are currently on fire at the military base near the village of Pugachyovo. The fire started around midnight on June 2.

Officials say that up to 10,000 train cars full of ammunition may be inside the base.

Udmurtia’s Health Ministry said 50 people have been injured in the incident thus far, 25 of whom have been hospitalized.
...
An estimated 28,000 people have been evacuated from Pugachyovo and nearby villages, including those living in the neighboring Republic of Tatarstan.
...
Explosions from within the ammunition depots can be heard regularly. Most of the buildings on fire are not yet fully destroyed but their roofs and windows are severely damaged.

Local authorities have blocked the highway that goes from Yelabuga to Perm. The radius of debris from the exploding ammunition is about two kilometers around the military base.

The incident at Pugachyovo is the second large-scale fire and resulting explosions at a Russian military base in the past week.

A total of 200 personnel, 30 fire fighting units and three fire fighting trains have been deployed, although it was early to move them to the still exploding depot, Vesti TV channel said. The Russian Emergencies Ministry has also rushed two Il-76 fire fighting aircrafts, each able to carry 42 metric tons of water [approx. 11,550 gallons]. The accident has forced the ministry to temporarily close the Yelabuga-Izhevsk zone of the M7 federal highway, connecting Moscow and Ufa, the capital of the Urals republic of Bashkortostan. The nearby railway line was also closed.

Large explosion at Russian military base closes oil pipeline
Flames ripped through the military complex near the city of Izhevsk, 750 miles east of Moscow, on Friday causing the evacuation 28,000 residents.  The fire killed two people and injured at least 45 according to Russian media reports. Russian pipeline owner Transneft said that it was not receiving the 161,000 barrels of oil that it usually gets each day from the region.

Video posted on a social media website purportedly shows the complex on fire with lit ammunition shooting into the sky like fireworks amid large fireballs. Russian agencies reported that the base stored 10,000 tonnes of shells and ammunition, equivalent in power to about 58,000 tonnes of TNT.

I’ll refrain from making any trite remarks about roasted taters and 12 steppe plans.

Pugachevo and Ufa are about 200 miles apart, and both are located a few hundred miles north of Kazakhstan’s northwestern frontier, north of the Caspian Sea.  Kazakhstan is an oil and gas rich former Soviet republic that has been ruled by the same guy, Nursultan Nazarbayev, since 1989. The country is about half muzzie, maybe more. Nazabeyev recently won a surprise election with 95% of the vote.

Kazakhstan has come under repeated fire for instituting effective one-party rule in which all political and economic decisions are made by Nazarbayev and his hand-picked ministers and assistants.

But this closed system has pursued a decade of business-friendly policies that have ensured 8.5 percent annual growth and a dramatic improvement in the lives of the 16.4 million people living across the vast country’s steppes.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/03/2011 at 12:10 PM   
Filed Under: • International • Military •  
• Comments (0) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Tuesday - May 31, 2011

Male, Female, Other

In what is believed to be a world first, Nepal’s Central Bureau of Statistics is giving official recognition to gay and transgender people—a move seen as major victory for equality in a country that only decriminalized homosexual relationships three years ago.

Among those happy to stand up and be counted in the third gender category is Dilu Buduja, 35. “I was born as a girl, but as I grew up I felt I was a boy. Today I totally feel like a man,” he said.

A spokesman for the statistics bureau, Bikash Bista, said the new categorization was an attempt to open up the traditionally conservative country up to different points of view.

Huh? Looks to me like the loonies have taken over in Shangri-La. They have confused physical gender with sexual orientation.

But the state’s recognition of the rights of gender minorities, gays and lesbians has not come without a fight.

“We had to put in a lot of pressure to have the third gender counted in the census,” said gender minority rights activist Sunil Babu Pant. “It was only after we said that we would go to court that the officials agreed to include the third gender as a category.”

If the case had gone to court, it would likely have been upheld thanks to a landmark 2007 Supreme Court ruling that directed the state to end discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and decriminalize “unnatural sex.” It also decreed the issue of citizenship certificates that clearly indicate an individual’s choice of gender identity. Citizenship certificates, which work as national identity papers, are needed in Nepal to open a bank account, own property, secure a job and get a passport among other things.

Oh yes, gender identity so totally needs to be on your national ID card, because you never know when you’ll have to have sex with some random government official. And if their card doesn’t line up with your card, then you can play the victim card. Otherwise it’s just a convenient bribe, or the new Nepalese way of saying howdy? This is really strange. And it makes me wonder what ‘gender identities’ that allowed you to choose from, and why the really far out folks aren’t protesting their lack of choice?

Nepal Identity Card Form
Gender Identity Section
Check the One Category That Applies
* Just with women
* Just with men
* Depends on my mood
* After 3 drinks, who cares?
* men, women, medium sized livestock, government officials who can do something for me
* Avatars of the Gods and demons from the underworld, but only if they’re hot
* religious statues and icons I don’t approve of
* religious statues and icons I do approve of
* Shojo, help me turn this Panda around the other way!

see? It’s so limiting!

“Local authorities did not know about third gender and they were afraid that they would lose their jobs if they gave such a citizenship,” said Buduja, who last month became only the second person in the country to obtain a citizenship certificate indicating gender.
...
Though discrimination persists, there is progress. The government is also finalizing a list of discriminatory laws that need to be changed so that gender minorities can enjoy the same rights as others, including inheritance rights.
...
“We visited several districts in the country and Norway to look at its experience and use it as a case study,” said sociologist Chaitanya Mishra, a member of the recommendation committee.

According to another member of the committee, it will recommend that the government legalize same-sex marriage, which would be a first in South Asia.

The committee members of the government of Nepal had to go to NORWAY to learn about “gender minorities” and what to do about them? Damn. I have GOT to get me some of that wicked shit these guys are smokin’.

Posted by Drew458     on 05/31/2011 at 11:32 AM   
Filed Under: • International • Sex •  
• Comments (0) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Monday - May 23, 2011

You Can Keep Him If You Want

And when they got to Ireland the wind blew Michelle’s hair all over the place. Thanks for the pics, Daily Mail. We were running short of new snaps of the klingon war bride looking ridiculous.

But you know what surprised me? Ambassador Rooney! Who knew? The United States Ambassador to Ireland ... is a leprechaun.

Posted by Drew458     on 05/23/2011 at 01:03 PM   
Filed Under: • International •  
• Comments (3) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Wednesday - May 11, 2011

Zero Man On A Zero Mission

Oh yeah, This Will Surely Help™

Senator John Kerry will travel to Pakistan in coming days to put relations “on the right track” after the killing of Osama bin Laden in a surprise Navy SEALs raid, but he is likely to face fury from the army over what it sees as a breach of trust.

Kerry, a Democrat who is close to the Obama administration, said he expected to see “all the main players” in Pakistan to discuss strains in bilateral ties following the May 2 operation that killed the al Qaeda leader in his Pakistani hideout.

“A number of people suggested it would be good to get a dialogue going about the aftermath and how we get on the right track,” Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters in Washington.

Co-author of a 2009 bill that tripled non-military aid to Islamabad, Kerry is seen as a friend of the country, but he is likely to face the wrath of the powerful security establishment which has been embarrassed by the unilateral U.S. action on Pakistani soil.

This figures. Given that yesterday’s post was correct, that all of this is much ado about nothing, then sending this loser horse face over there is perfect; there’s nothing to do, so even he can’t screw it up. It looks like a perfect case of “John Kerry, reporting for doody”.

Posted by Drew458     on 05/11/2011 at 08:48 AM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • International •  
• Comments (5) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Tuesday - May 10, 2011

Cities Online

The little widget over on the right sidebar tells me we have a visitor from Barrigada. Dude. That’s in Guam! Wiki tells me it’s an upscale neighborhood. Well of course; they’re online and visiting BMEWS, so it only goes to show, right?

Hello Guam!

Send me an email so we can register you so you can comment, and tell us all what’s going on waaaay over there. We never get any news from Guam, hardly ever. A few Aussies, one or two from Indonesia, but almost never from Guam. I think. I’ll have to check that country counter thingy and see.

Updated a few minutes later: Ok, we’ve actually had 669 visits from Guam since I put that flag counter in, down at the bottom of the page. If you click it, it takes you to a page which gives you some BMEWS stats. Which I never pay attention to. Ha, it turns out we have more traffic than I realized. And from almost everywhere, almost every day! Last month I got my first visitor from Gabon, and over time we’ve been visited from just about everywhere. 280 countries. Except North Korea. And Tasmania. Come on, what’s up with that? Let’s get it together Tassies, m’kay?

♫ We are the world
Of anti-moonbats ♬
We are the ones who make the lefties squirm ♪
♬ So let’s get to posting

♫ We are the wor-

Shut up Drew.

Oh, Ok.  Fine.  

Posted by Drew458     on 05/10/2011 at 02:30 PM   
Filed Under: • International •  
• Comments (5) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Wednesday - April 27, 2011

open season on open borders … coming soon to your country

Some of the regulars at this site may recall a few days ago, I was on a rant of sorts with regard to the overcrowding of an Italian island with refugees.
Those folks have played havoc of course with the natives of the island who they may well outnumber.
Well BMEWS, here’s an update. Seems the French (Bravo) want to take another look at that agreement they signed about open borders some years ago.
They and the Italians are having an argument. Italy wants France to help more. France says NEIN! Oh wait.  Wrong language but you get the idea.

You folks get upset in the USA over the way our borders there are seemingly unattended and libs banging away to allow more in etc. Hey, take a good look at Europe and view America’s future. It might not be in this situation with regard to war refugees on the border and overwhelming an island, but this is how things are here and the same sort of folks that believe in open arms and borders exist in plenty in the USA. Just saying, keep your eyes and ears open.
This is becoming a mess. I’m not sure if I’m right to blame the Conservative (Lite) PM, David (call me Dave) Cameron. But he it was got on his high moral horse after years and years of fun with Gadiffi, and decided he needed to support the “civilians” who are at odds with the govt. there. In a neat bit of some kind of 1984 the enemy is our friend now and our friend is our enemy, it’s decided and all apparently agree, that everyone with a gun who opposes Gadiffi is an innocent civilian, and everyone taking sides with Tripoli are not.  It hasn’t occurred to some that there may actually be ppl there who do support him, who are not being held to some kind of ransom or being forced to fight for him. It’s a damn tribal thing as well, it’s a civil war that some thought would be “Over by Christmas, over there.”

Oh by the by people.  The UN is now making noise about Syria and complaining about ... come on ... one word.  “CIVILIANS” in harm’s way and DEMANDING the govt there stop what they are doing. 

So then, there’s this rush of refugees mostly of the wrong sort that Italy can not handle and the French do not want.  Oh Dear, oh dear what to do?
Why I know .... there’ll always be an England.

Take a look at what’s in store.

The Eurostar migrants: North African refugees mass at the Paris gateway to Britain as Sarkozy and Berlusconi row about open borders

By PETER ALLEN

· Immigrants who have fled Tunisia say Britain is their ‘only hope’
· Franco-Italian immigration problems comes amid international business tensions and discord over Libya
· Agreement reached to revise Treaty to account for ‘exceptional’ circumstances

Desperate immigrants fleeing the chaos in North Africa are massing around the Eurostar terminal in Paris – prompting fears that they will head for Britain.
Most are refugees from the recent revolution in Tunisia and the continuing conflict in Libya who have arrived in Europe via Italy.
Up to 1,000 North Africans have set up temporary home in squares surrounding the Gare du Nord, from which fast trains reach the UK in less than two hours.

Almost all are complaining about harassment from the French authorities. They say their hopes of finding accommodation and jobs in France are next to nil.

President Nicolas Sarkozy has pledged to do all he can to get rid of the migrants. Some 25,000 North Africans have arrived in Italy by sea since the start of ‘the Arab Spring’ and many then moved on to France.

We were treated as heroes during our Jasmine Revolution but now we are unwanted. People are already offering us passages to England.’ Mr Trikki was speaking from a makeshift camp on the Jemmapes quay in Paris, where charity workers were dishing out soup to some 400 migrants.
Another camp, at Porte de Villette, has Tunisian flags at the entrance. The 300 residents complain daily about the lack of food and threats from the police.
Khalid, a 27-year-old Tunisian, said: ‘We know that the English supported the Jasmine Revolution, and that they are also fighting for freedom in Libya by bombing Gaddafi.

If a country is prepared to fight for us, then they will be prepared to welcome us as brothers.

We must be allowed to travel to countries like England.’

ANALYSIS: Quelle surprise! France discovers the need for stricter border controls

For a quarter of a century, France – one of the architects of the 1985 Schengen agreement – has been the main cheerleader for Europe throwing its borders wide open, writes James Slack.

So there is a distinct irony that – now it is causing him a headache – President Sarkozy is leading demands for Schengen to be reformed.

In other words, the open movement permitted by Schengen is only a good thing for Europe when it is a good thing for France. Quelle surprise!

Schengen creates a single external border for Europe. People inside the boundary, which excludes Britain and Ireland, can move around freely, with security checks kept to a minimum.

France’s change of position over the wisdom of this policy is a response to the crisis in North Africa.

Since the beginning of February, the Italian island of Lampedusa has been overwhelmed by the arrival of more than 25,000 migrants. The majority of them are Tunisian.

Italy’s response was to grant a six-month visa for the Tunisian refugees who arrived before April 4. However, the temporary passport entitles its holders to free movement in the entire territory of Schengen.

Many of the Tunisians speak French, and would naturally wish to travel to France – prompting Mr Sarkozy and his colleagues to cry foul.

First, France decided to stop Italian trains carrying Tunisian migrants from entering its soil. Then, in a statement which must have brought a wicked smile to every British home secretary of recent years, the mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, an ally of Mr Sarkozy, uttered the following: ‘It’s easy for Italy to be generous with other people’s territory.’

Which, of course, was precisely the view taken by France over the Sangatte refugee camp. For years, France was happy for illegal immigrants to mass by the Calais ferry ports and Eurostar terminals which lead to England – safe in the knowledge they would soon be somebody else’s problem.

During his time as French interior minister, Mr Sarkozy agreed to close the 2002 version of Sangatte only if the UK agreed to take in 1,200 refugees living there.
While it is tempting to laugh at the hypocrisy of Mr Sarkozy suddenly discovering the need for stricter border controls, that would be unwise.

For there are already signs Mr Sarkozy’s tactic for dealing with the Tunisian problem will be a tried and tested one: allow the migrants to mass near Calais, and try to sneak into Britain. The Home Office – as is usual when dealing with France – must be on its guard.

Posted by peiper     on 04/27/2011 at 07:37 AM   
Filed Under: • Border Security • FRANCE • International •  
• Comments (2) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Tuesday - March 15, 2011

Willfull Blindness

Is “journalist” another word for “idiot”? I have to wonder sometimes. Perhaps this is a deeper question than it appears to be. Seen at Theo’s, a link to a Telegraph article that asks “Why is there no looting in Japan?” after their disaster.

Maybe it’s because they actually have a culture? One that deplores that kind of behavior? One that honors honor? Or honesty? Oh, and they’re about as ethnically homogeneous a society as you can find, so that, um, “post-Katrina” aspect isn’t in play either.

I don’t know how Japan works. I don’t know how, or if, their society is layered. In the long ago past they had a very stratified society, with a beaten down group of untouchables at the very bottom. I’ve also had the opinion for a long time that they are one of the more obedient cultures.

Perhaps they know that the whole world is watching, and don’t want to embarrass their country on TV. Perhaps they actually are a civilized society.

What do you think the reason is? The Telegraph author isn’t the only one asking this question.

Posted by Drew458     on 03/15/2011 at 08:58 AM   
Filed Under: • International •  
• Comments (2) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Thursday - March 10, 2011

a brief lecture on the arab spring from the left … make em feel welcome europa

OK ... We’re overdue for a liberal lecture on The Arab Spring ...  And naturally this comes from Europa, in fact if you want to visit the site you can listen instead of read, to this side of the libtard, hand wringing, bleeding heart side of things.  Meanwhile, in the papers yesterday there were photos of the boats landing on an Italian island with thousands more on the way.
But this post just shows how much their liberal heads are buried in the sand.  You’re darned tootin’ there’s something to worry about. Unless of course you live on the left.

I guess I have to do this.  H/T World Radio Switzerland

Dateline CH: Revealing reactions to the ‘Arab spring’

Journalist Imogen Foulkes examines Europe’s reaction to the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa. And it’s not very flattering:

Europe’s response to what many are calling the “Arab spring” has been intriguing. I’m sure many listeners can remember the autumn of 1989, and the euphoria which greeted the fall of the Berlin wall, the jubilant scenes as East Germans streamed over the border into the west.

Obviously the analogy can’t be taken too far–nevertheless I think it’s understandable that many in north Africa and the Middle East were a bit disappointed by Europe’s initial reaction to the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and now Libya. So what were those first reactions? Italy warning of waves of migrants crossing the Mediterranean into Europe–and the EU border agency Frontex beefing up its presence in the Med to prevent such a thing.

Italy’s Foreign Minister, Franco Frattini, was especially supportive to the democracy protests in north Africa–he predicted a biblical exodus towards the EU, asked for 100 million euros from Brussels to help cope, and suggested Italy would send migrants on northwards if such help was not forthcoming.

Newspaper headlines across western Europe advised us to brace ourselves for something akin to an invasion–Swiss television’s flagship weekly discussion programme Arena debated not the sudden flowering of democratic protests, but what Switzerland should do if it too faced a wave of migrants.

Granted, there were some low-key words of welcome for the change apparently sweeping across north Africa and the Middle East, but they simply weren’t as loud as the worries about immigration. And here in Geneva, another reaction to the uprisings which I have heard several times, from aid agencies who have been present in the region for decades is “we just didn’t see it coming.”

Why is that I wonder? Why was it such a surprise, that in a part of the world with a very young, relatively well-educated population, with widespread access to the internet but low employment prospects—there should be frustration and impatience with governments who have ruled autocratically for decades, and lined their pockets while their people remained impoverished. Could it be that our own attitude to North Africa and the Middle East is a little patronising?

Have we assumed for too long that the people in those countries are somehow not as interested in freedom of speech, in democracy, as we are in Europe? Or have our governments been too comfortable with the autocratic status quo in our neighbours to the south, and encouraged us to believe that in the interests of stability, those regimes are worth doing business with?

In fact, I think our reactions to the momentous events of the Arab spring are rather revealing–about Europe, not about north Africa–and not all the revelations are especially flattering. Because instead of an instinctive welcome for a wave of protests from people who simply want a better future in their own countries, our instinct has been to worry that these same people might decide instead to invade our precious European space, and to close our doors even tighter, just in case.

Posted by peiper     on 03/10/2011 at 12:43 PM   
Filed Under: • International •  
• Comments (1) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

DISCLAIMER

THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.

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.

THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.

Copyright © 2004-2015 Domain Owner