Tuesday - September 30, 2008

quick quips

Back in 1990, the Government seized the Mustang Ranch brothel in Nevada and, as required by law, tried to run it.

They failed and it closed.

We are trusting the economy of our country to a pack of Government nit-wits who couldn’t make money selling sex and booze to drunk truckers.

Posted by Drew458     on 09/30/2008 at 10:12 PM   
Filed Under: • Humor •  
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It all started with Jimmah Cartah

And it was a decent, compassionate idea. Because it was small. But then PC took over. And so did Slick Willy.

And under Clinton it went straight into hell. And today brokerages and banks are dropping like flies. Which is why it HAS to be Bush’s fault.

Here is a 12 minute video that explains the roots of this financial mess. And puts the blame squarely where it belongs. Watch it, link it, get it out there everywhere.

I found it over at C&S, but I hope it’s viral everywhere by now.

Since I’m really got my cheese in the grater over this ENTIRE mess, I’ll throw in a couple bits that lean the other way:

Bush has been president for the last 8 years. He had a Republican congress for 6 of those years. Bush and McCain both tried to get some regulation going on. Nothing happened. WTF? It could not have been stopped. The Republicans wimped out. Perhaps because they feared being called racists. For the 7 trillionth time. But there it is. They had the power, some of their people saw the problem coming, and they did not push a fix through when they could not have been stopped.

The packaging of these securities was done deliberately to hide the risk. The manipulation of ratings of mortgage-backed securities could not have been accidental. The failure of the rating houses like S&P and Moody’s to demand risk level transparency for each mortgage backed security before rating them is what truly resulted in the crash. Nope. They just helped pad them up and pass them on. Hey, they’re government backed mortgages, so they must be just dandy.  (not totally sure this point is really all that good. But they went along with the scam when they could have dropped the dime)

Also lost in the background noise: the whole speculation market. If it wasn’t running utterly rampant, do you think there would be several popular television shows running on various channels, all telling you how to “Flip That House”? Anybody who could scrap toghether $50 was buying a dump house for a song, slapping on a coat of paint and a new kitchen counter, and trying to sell it for a huge profit. And for several years they were making money. Is this a factor, or just a symptom?  Just how big a slice of the pie was this? When the meltdown first hit, they were the first to foreclose, thus the foreclosure rates in some rather trendy areas went through the roof, before it blew up in the poorer areas. Enough to get the ball rolling, or perhaps rolling a bit faster?

In the same way, the home builders haven’t made a normal house in ages. Every new dwelling built over the last decade was a “McMansion”. Another symptom, or another bit of inertia keeping the old ball rolling?

Personally, I think there is plenty of blame to go around. And now I’m beginning to think that the failure of the bailout bill may not be such a bad thing. I’m really not sure that it’s a good idea.

Posted by Drew458     on 09/30/2008 at 03:48 PM   
Filed Under: • Finance and Investing • Insanity •  
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WTF?

What kind of happy horseshit is this? McCain did the honorable and proper thing, taking some time off his campaign to actually try and do his day job for a change. The bill didn’t pass. So now it’s his fault? Fuck you CNN. He didn’t write the thing. He isn’t even a Congressman. He’s a Senator. The bill failed in CONGRESS you morons.

WASHINGTON (CNN) —The House’s failure to pass a $700 billion bailout package Monday not only held back billions for Wall Street, but also was a major blow to Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign.

The Republican presidential nominee raised the stakes for himself last week when he suspended his campaign and returned to Washington for negotiations over a solution to the financial crisis.

Really? Why? Because he was trying to help solve the crisis? What was he supposed to do, make serious faces at the camera and point fingers of blame, like Oworthless is doing? You leftwing lying scumbags. Damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t, and the Oasshole skates. Always.

“Even before the House vote, voters blamed Republicans more than Democrats for the crisis. Then McCain suspended his campaign to come back to Washington to rally support for a rescue plan,” said Bill Schneider, a CNN political analyst. “He failed, so he gets blamed by both supporters and opponents of the rescue plan.”

Great. Let’s hide the root causes in the Clinton Closet some more. This is just another kind of Bimbo Eruption, so don’t you dare point a finger at the democrats. Even though they helped cause it, and their prime operators were in charge of Fannie and Freddie and doing their best to drive them straight into the ground. Nope, that gets ignored.

The press makes me want to puke. Americans make me want to puke. Can’t you assholes think for yourselves for one goddam minute? Can’t you remember ANYTHING for more than a couple weeks? Are you that FUCKING STUPID you can’t put 1 and 1 together and come up with 2? The first person I see today who echoes this BS meme. “McCain is to blame for the financial crisis” is going to get a seasoned 2x4 right in the teeth. People that stupid don’t deserve to breathe.

During a campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa, on Tuesday, McCain appeared to distance himself from Monday’s House vote, saying the congressional inaction had “every American and the entire economy at the gravest risk.”

“Yesterday, the country and the world looked to Washington for leadership, and Congress once again came up empty-handed,” he said.

But over the weekend, McCain had involved himself in the efforts to get the bailout package to the president’s desk.

Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, the top Republican in the House, said that McCain was actively involved in lobbying Republican House members Sunday to line up behind the bailout.

“He has been making calls to members in support of this bill ... and I’m grateful for his support,” Boehner said.

So? He felt this was the right thing to do, and he worked for it.  That’s making and effort. So this measure failed. So what? Find out what the sticking points are and go write another one. Are the Republicans suddenly against a bailout? Or did they just vote against it because it was Democrat sponsored? Or did the Dems lay in a boatload full of pork at the last minute?

Where’s the story, CNN? Where’s the actual investigative reporting????  Don’t tell us that it didn’t pass and who you want to get blamed. Tell us WHY it didn’t pass. Tell us what the sticking points were. DO SOME REAL REPORTING FOR ONCE you lazy bottom feeders.

And Oworthless?

While Obama and McCain have mostly agreed on the principles of the bailout, Obama has mostly stayed out of negotiations and has used the financial crisis to attack the economic policies of the Bush administration and tie McCain to the unpopular President Bush.

”He didn’t put himself in that process. He was smart enough to realize he couldn’t control the House Republicans or Democrats,” said Ed Rollins, another Republican strategist and CNN contributor.

Exactly. He stood by on the sidelines crying like a little girl and laying out blame. He took advantage of one of the most perilous moments in recent history to play politics. He didn’t rush in to help. He didn’t lead any efforts at all. He didn’t even do his job, which is to show up and vote “present”. This is leadership? No, this is bullshit. Total. But being a lazy worthless jerkwad is now being “too smart” to get involved. Really? I’d call it clear and unquestionable proof that this turd is unfit to lead. Hell, he’s unfit to even follow!

PS - Ed Rollins? Huckabee’s Ed Rollins? Ross Perot’s Ed Rollins? The mouthpiece for CBS? Oh, whoopdedoo. He’s just as big a microphone whore and just as worthless as Dick Morris.

Posted by Drew458     on 09/30/2008 at 12:22 PM   
Filed Under: • Finance and Investing • Government •  
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Now it’s methane that will kill us all

Oh noes!!!

The first evidence that millions of tons of a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide is being released into the atmosphere from beneath the Arctic seabed has been discovered by scientists.

The Independent has been passed details of preliminary findings suggesting that massive deposits of sub-sea methane are bubbling to the surface as the Arctic region becomes warmer and its ice retreats....
Underground stores of methane are important because scientists believe their sudden release has in the past been responsible for rapid increases in global temperatures, dramatic changes to the climate, and even the mass extinction of species. Scientists aboard a research ship that has sailed the entire length of Russia’s northern coast have discovered intense concentrations of methane – sometimes at up to 100 times background levels – over several areas covering thousands of square miles of the Siberian continental shelf.

In the past few days, the researchers have seen areas of sea foaming with gas bubbling up through “methane chimneys” rising from the sea floor. They believe that the sub-sea layer of permafrost, which has acted like a “lid” to prevent the gas from escaping, has melted away to allow methane to rise from underground deposits formed before the last ice age.

They have warned that this is likely to be linked with the rapid warming that the region has experienced in recent years.

Methane is about 20 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide and many scientists fear that its release could accelerate global warming in a giant positive feedback where more atmospheric methane causes higher temperatures, leading to further permafrost melting and the release of yet more methane.

“The conventional thought has been that the permafrost ‘lid’ on the sub-sea sediments on the Siberian shelf should cap and hold the massive reservoirs of shallow methane deposits in place. The growing evidence for release of methane in this inaccessible region may suggest that the permafrost lid is starting to get perforated and thus leak methane… The permafrost now has small holes. We have found elevated levels of methane above the water surface and even more in the water just below. It is obvious that the source is the seabed.”

The Arctic region as a whole has seen a 4C rise in average temperatures over recent decades and a dramatic decline in the area of the Arctic Ocean covered by summer sea ice. Many scientists fear that the loss of sea ice could accelerate the warming trend because open ocean soaks up more heat from the sun than the reflective surface of an ice-covered sea.

Hey, way ahead of you there buddy! The Japanese have already mostly figured out how to do it. But, surprise!, the eco-whackos are against it.

Japan is celebrating a groundbreaking science experiment in the Arctic permafrost that may eventually reshape the country’s fragile economy and Tokyo’s relationships with the outside world.

For an unprecedented six straight days, a state-backed drilling company has managed to extract industrial quantities of natural gas from underground sources of methane hydrate - a form of gas-rich ice once thought to exist only on the moons of Saturn.

In fact, the seabeds around the Japanese coast turn out to conceal massive deposits of the elusive sorbet-like compound in their depths, and a country that has long assumed it had virtually no fossil fuels could now be sitting on energy reserves containing 100 years’ fuel. Critically for Japan, which imports 99.7 per cent of the oil, gas and coal needed to run its vast economy, the lumps of energy-filled ice offer the tantalising promise of a little energy independence.

Environmentalists, though, are horrified by the idea of releasing huge quantities of methane from under the seabeds. Although methane is a cleaner-burning fossil fuel than coal or oil, the as yet untapped methane hydrates represent “captured” greenhouse gasses that some believe should remain locked under the sea. The mining of methane ice could also wreak havoc on marine ecosystems.

And they aren’t alone. There is methane hydrate under the seafloor all over the world. Off all the coasts. The US has loads of it. Zillions of tons of the crap. Why? Because it’s naturally produced! It’s the half decayed remains of billions of years worth of sea critters. All we have to do is figure out how to get it up, either in a frozen state, or thaw it out and suck it up and bottle it. And that’s exactly what the oil companies are working on right now.

Anchorage, Alaska - Scientists from the U.S. Energy Department are looking for ways to tap a new and unusual source of natural gas underneath the frozen ground near Prudhoe Bay. 
Gas hydrates—methane gas trapped in ice—were recently drilled by oil giant BP near its Milne Point well.

Have you ever seen ice burn? It will, when the ice contains methane gas, and that simple fact has scientists from around the globe looking to Prudhoe Bay and a new test well drilled by BP.

“You would probably say it looked like snow,” said Scott Digert. 

What to most may look like an especially hard-hitting snowball could be a source of energy for researchers at BP, including Digert, who is BP Alaska’s Milne Point Resource manager.

“It’s a gas molecule contained in an ice lattice, which provides quite a good storage for methane molecules inside a frozen zone,” said Digert. 

Methane gas trapped in ice. And it burns.  Scientists with the federal Energy Department paid $4.6 million to drill for the hot ice just below the surface of the Milne Point well, which is situated northwest of Prudhoe Bay. Methane will only stay in its solid or frozen state at extremely cold temperatures and under lots of pressure, both of which are abundant in Alaska’s frozen grounds.  Until recently, though, hydrates were seen as a drilling hazard.

“When you warm it up or you take the pressure off of it, it starts to thaw, basically. So you get free water and free gas, the methane, and so we try to control the release of that gas,” Digert said. 

Now, scientists from around the world are waiting for pieces of this strange ice to conduct their own tests and determine whether Alaska’s frozen grounds contain untapped, clean-burning energy. BP says it found two separate layers of gas containing ice at Milne Point, each about 25-feet thick.  Operators drilled it many times over to come up with about 400 feet of 3-inch diameter ice cores that will be sent via cryogenic packaging to labs around the world for further study. But if gas hydrates contain clean burning energy, why hasn’t any one done test drilling to find them on the North Slope before? Methane needs extremely cold temperatures and pressure to stay in its solid form. BP says it new this form of methane was under the tundra all along. On the surface, it is a flammable gas, and only recently have scientists determined how to safely bring the ice to surface without melting it first.

Posted by Drew458     on 09/30/2008 at 11:51 AM   
Filed Under: • Environment • Oil, Alternative Energy, and Gas Prices •  
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Horny goat weed ‘could rival Viagra’ .  (I just report this stuff but, can’t help wondering,)

Does it work?  How many goats has it been tested on?  What do the goats say?

I think I’m gonna file this under humor. Although I suppose it isn’t really a funny subject to many. 
Still, you know.  Can anyone help the giggle that forms when this subject comes up.  Wait ... no pun there.

Horny goat weed ‘could rival Viagra’
A Chinese plant known as horny goat weed could be an alternative to Viagra in tackling impotence, research suggests.

By Jon Swaine
Last Updated: 3:23PM BST 30 Sep 2008

A compound made from epimedium brevicornum - also known as horny goat weed and Bishop’s Hat - could also have fewer side effects than the drug, scientists from the University of Milan found.

Mario Dell’Agli, the lead researcher, said that experiments showed that icariin, a compound found inside the horny goat weed, blocks PDE5, an enzyme which limits blood flow to the penis and therefore prevents erections.

Sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra, also works by inhibiting PDE5. It is thought to be 80 times more effective than icariin. However, Mr Dell’Agli said that by producing a modified version of the horny goat weed molecule, a compound that “works as well as Viagra” can be produced.

Mr Dell’Agli and his colleagues tested four plants which are regarded as natural aphrodisiacs in their traditional cultures. Only horny goatweed was found to have an effect.

“This could be the natural Viagra,” said Mr Dell’Agli. “We have synthesised a new molecule that one day may be able to replace Viagra.”

In addition, a new drug could have fewer downsides than Viagra, Mr Dell’Agli said. People with heart problems are unable to take Viagra because it also affects enzymes crucial to heart function. Tests suggest the horny goat weed alternative does not have the same side-effect.

Mr Dell’Agli said that further tests were necessary and that it would be at least 10 years before any drug was available to consumers.

http://tinyurl.com/4udp98

Posted by Drew458     on 09/30/2008 at 09:36 AM   
Filed Under: • Blog Stuff • Health-Medicine •  
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THIS IS BIZARRE! >> An amateur chef died the day after eating a “superhot” chilli in a bet .

I once lost a chocolate ice cream bet ... I was just a kid going on 25 at the time.  Got kind of sickly as I remember. 

Chef dies after eating ‘superhot’ chilli for bet
An amateur chef died the day after eating a “superhot” chilli in a bet with his friend over who could make the hottest dish, an inquest heard.

By Jessica Salter

Andrew Lee was in perfect health before he ate a chilli

Andrew Lee, 33, suffered heart failure the morning after he ate the chilli.

Toxicology tests are now being carried out to see if the fork lift truck driver suffered a fatal reaction to the dish or whether anything else contributed to his death.

Mr Lee, of Edlington, Doncaster was apparently in perfect health and had just passed a medical at work, the opening of the Doncaster hearing was told.

Cooking was one of his main interests and he went to his girlfriend Samantha Bailey’s house to make a chilli.

His father John Lee told the inquest: “He had a bet with Samantha’s brother who could make the hottest chilli then went back to her house to stay.”

Mother-of-four Miss Bailey called the emergency services to her home nine days ago.

Police officers were called to the house after receiving reports of a man suffering a cardiac arrest and Mr Lee was found lying on the floor.

Paramedics failed to revive him and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

A full post-mortem examination is underway and further inquiries are being carried out.

Deputy Doncaster coroner Fred Curtis granted a burial order and adjourned the inquest for further evidence.

http://tinyurl.com/4tdlx6

Posted by Drew458     on 09/30/2008 at 09:23 AM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous • Scary Stuff •  
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Bureaucrats in an Italian town are trying to impose a new ‘rain tax’ on residents.

At first I was going to ignore this story but .... I got to thinking about it.
Hang on there I thinks ....

Back Date Taxes three years?  That doesn’t look right.  And so here’s the very short story.

Wet Italian town imposes ‘rain tax’
Bureaucrats in an Italian town are trying to impose a new ‘rain tax’ on residents.

By Urmee Khan
Last Updated: 11:16AM BST 30 Sep 2008

Authorities in Ravenna in the Emilia Romagna region have added 3 per cent to water bills to maintain and improve drainage systems by arguing that heavy rain causes severe damage to infrastructure, buildings and agriculture in the Po valley.

The local water board, which wants to backdate the new tax three years, claims that the payments will save it €1 million (£800,000) a year.

Gianluca Dradi, head of environmental policy for Ravenna city council, likened the proposal to a “utility service”, similar to paying taxes for streets to be cleaned.

“Including the cost in water bills is more equitable,” he told the Repubblica newspaper.

“Those who pay more for their water use, such as factories, will pay proportionately more than households, which by comparison will pay relatively little,” he added.

However consumer organisations in Ravenna are urging householders not to pay up.

“This is just another tax in disguise,” said Roberto Passino, a spokesman for a protest group.

The case will continue until a final decision is reached.

Ravenna, in the North East of Italy, is connected to the Adriatic by a canal which was overwhelmed by floods in 1636. A network of canals was built to divert nearby rivers and drain marshland, creating a protective belt of agricultural land around the city.

The Po delta receives 750mm of rain a year, mostly in November, December and January.

http://tinyurl.com/3rta8c

Posted by Drew458     on 09/30/2008 at 09:09 AM   
Filed Under: • Government • Taxes •  
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Consumers should cut meat and milk intake to combat climate change.  Ahhahahahahahaohboy!

Now if this don’t take the cake ....
Gee, sorry it originates on this side of the pond but ... this glorbel warming climate change thingy is ceer-ee-us stuff.
Only the suggestion of idiots saying use mother’s milk in place of cow stuff could be dumber.

Consumers should cut meat and milk intake to combat climate change
Consumers will have to satisfy themselves with four small portions of meat and one litre of milk a week to slow down escalating climate change, a major new report has warned.


By Aislinn Simpson
Last Updated: 1:44PM BST 30 Sep 2008

The study also recommends a cut in consumption of low nutritional value foods such as alcohol, chocolate and sweets, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions caused by their production, along with a return to wartime practices of shopping on foot, buying local products and cooking in bulk.

It concedes that people are unlikely to make such changes voluntarily, and so suggests caps on greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and carbon pricing to control what food is available at what price.

Conducted by the Food Climate Research Network, based at the University of Surrey, the four-year study is one of the most thorough of its kind.

It has been prompted by growing concern about the impact of food production and consumption on the changing global climate.

It estimates that food produced in the UK accounts for 18.5 per cent of the country’s total emissions while food consumed in the UK - produced at home and abroad - accounts for 19 per cent.

Meat and dairy production alone is responsible for eight per cent of our total greenhouse gas emissions, it says, and over half of food-related emissions, followed by fruit and vegetables accounting for around 2.5 per cent of UK total emissions.

It also singles out alcohol, which is responsible for around 1.5 per cent of total emissions but contributes little in nutritional value.

“We may need to reduce consumption of such foods if we are to reduce the GHG intensity of what we consume,” the report reads.

However, it concedes that this approach “raises enormous questions and accusations of nannystate misery-guts spoilsportism”.

Agriculture - principally methane produced by sheep and cattle - is responsible for generating the most emissions through food production, followed by manufacturing, transport, cooking and refrigeration by consumers and packaging.

It recommends that people in the UK should cut their consumption of meat from an average of 1.6 kg (3.5lb) a week and milk from 4.2 litres (8.8 pints) a week to 500g (1lb) of meat and one litre of milk (2.1 pints).

At present, we eat an equivalent of six sausages, two chicken breasts, 100g of ham (3.5oz), eight rashers of bacon and two burgers a week, washed down with three litres of milk, 100g of cheese, and a little cream.

Under the stricter regime, we would eat one quarter-pound burger, two sausages, three rashers of bacon and one chicken breast, along with a litre of milk and 100g of cheese.

The UN has estimated that our consumption of meat and dairy products will have doubled by 2050, not only because of a growing population but because people will are expected to eat more, not less, animal-derived foods.

Tara Garnett, the report’s author, said that if the UN’s target of reducing carbon emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 is to be achieved, we must instead drastically change our diet, and increase production efficiency and the development of renewable fuels.

“If we don’t act now, it may be too late and very much more expensive to act later,” she said.

http://tinyurl.com/4o9ye5

study also recommends a cut in consumption of low nutritional value foods such as alcohol, chocolate and sweets

Right you are bunky. And here’s my contribution to the cause.

Dangerous Chocolate Mug Cake
I am not a cake connoisseur but this is tasty and definitely quick and also thrifty because you don’t have to bake an entire cake (which might not all be eaten before spoiling) to fulfill a craving. If you like small portions, it’s good for two servings.
Ingredients

Posted by Drew458     on 09/30/2008 at 08:41 AM   
Filed Under: • Fun-Stuff • UK •  
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   Monday - September 29, 2008

Not a new Sci-Fi Cover

Believe it or not, this picture is not the cover art for the latest Sci-fi novel:

This view can actually be seen from right here on Planet Earth, although you’d need sharp eyes, clear skies, and some patience. And a bit of mountain lion repellent.

Another awesome picture, courtesy of APOD. Who knew Utah was this funky at night?

Posted by Drew458     on 09/29/2008 at 09:16 PM   
Filed Under: • Fun-Stuff •  
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The Royal Mail is a Royal Pain

Peiper’s trouble with his local Post Office cracks me up. I get mail that looks like this:

Oh, speaking of “royal” and “pane” (neat segue there, plus a pun!), this is where I’ll be working this week into next week, cleaning the windows.

Poverty sure sucks, don’t it? It’s some tiny little 12,500 square foot shack, designed by some architect guy named George B. Post. You know, the same guy who designed the New York Stock Exchange. We’re talking Old Money here, at least in American terms. And I really hope they have LOTS of friends!

Hey, it’s good money. Sort of. I had to go “official” to get the work. Which means I had to get insurance, and a contractor ID from the state. And I’ll probably have to buy a 24 foot class IAA extension ladder, and a 6 foot step ladder too, so I’ll be lucky to even turn a profit on this deal. But now that I’m an official business, sort of, I can deduct all that stuff anyway. Fame and fortune, here I come! As long as I don’t fall and kill myself. That would suck.

Posted by Drew458     on 09/29/2008 at 03:43 PM   
Filed Under: • Fun-Stuff •  
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56 reasons to have sex?

This post is neither about nor from Europe. Europeans are welcome to participate though.

Does anyone need 56 reasons to have sex?

It’s not just for tickling your taco. Getting it on is good for the whole enchilada Do the nasty. Knock boots. Bump uglies. Shag. Schtupp. Boff. Boink. For every silly nickname we use for sex, there’s a totally legit reason why you should be having more of it.

Bear in mind that this is an article for women. (Don’t women ever think about anything else?) So these reasons are from her point of view. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

1. Shag your guy’s ticker into shape. According to a study at Queens University in Belfast, men who have sex three or more times a week can cut their risk of heart attack in half.

So guys, if you’re not getting any, be worried. Check for recent changes to the life insurance policy.

2. According to that same study, regular romps will also halve your man’s chances of suffering a stroke.

Ditto.

And sex is good for . . . dental health?

9. Protect your pearly whites by stepping up to the mic. Semen contains zinc, calcium, and other minerals proven to fight tooth decay. (Only trace amounts, but who’s counting?)

Does that mean what I think it means?

The article only has 20 reasons listed. It’s taken from a Women’s Health article. Maybe someone can find it so we can read the other 36 reasons.

Posted by Christopher     on 09/29/2008 at 07:28 AM   
Filed Under: • Fun-Stuff • Sex •  
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DO THE FOLKS IN CHARGE KNOW WHAT THEY’RE DOING?  UNCLE JAY EXPLAINS THE NEWS.

Uncle Jay explains the news.

This guy is fun.  Stay with it to end.

cheers .... hey .... it’s from the USA!

Even the people in charge don’t know how it works! 

How do you think they got to be the people in charge?

http://www.unclejayexplains.com/

Posted by Drew458     on 09/29/2008 at 03:39 AM   
Filed Under: • Blog Stuff • Fun-Stuff • Humor •  
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   Sunday - September 28, 2008

Oops, wrong fence

News from up North ...

Russian police this week arrested four Indian citizens suspected of having planned to illegally cross the Russian-Finnish border.
The Indians were arrested by FSB officials in Petrozavodsk, Republic of Karelia, on Tuesday this week, Regnum reports with reference to the regional FSB press service.

All the four individuals now face trial on charges of attempted trespassing. The maximum penalty for the offence is five years.

Russia has a border fence with Finland. Guys from INDIA try to sneak over. INDIA??? How the EFF did they get there in the first place? Problem is, this is what they found on the other side of that fence:

Posted by Drew458     on 09/28/2008 at 09:49 PM   
Filed Under: • Illegal-Aliens and Immigration •  
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It’s tough being a pirate

So this other bunch of Somali pirates, the ones who failed rocks and mud in the village school system, and got a D- in sticks, hijacked a freighter the other month. Hey, one freighter is the same as the next right, and they’re all good for a few million in ransom. Right? Wrong. These guys hijacked some Iranian rustbucket. Iranian ships are infamous for their fudged manifests. It might say “cargo contains fresh ice cream and condensed sunshine, no peanuts at all”, but what’s in the hold is often as deadly as the next shipment of little children’s toys from China. They still have the boat, and they’re still demanding some kind of ransom. That is, the ones who aren’t dead yet. From the toxic or radioactive chemicals on board. Like I said, not too smart. Can you say “arrgh-d’oh!”? Hey, that sounds fwench don’t it?

A tense standoff has developed in waters off Somalia over an Iranian merchant ship laden with a mysterious cargo that was hijacked by pirates.

Somali pirates suffered skin burns, lost hair and fell gravely ill “within days” of boarding the MV Iran Deyanat. Some of them died.

Andrew Mwangura, the director of the East African Seafarers’ Assistance Programme, told the Sunday Times: “We don’t know exactly how many, but the information that I am getting is that some of them had died. There is something very wrong about that ship.”

The vessel’s declared cargo consists of “minerals” and “industrial products”. But officials involved in negotiations over the ship are convinced that it was sailing for Eritrea to deliver small arms and chemical weapons to Somalia’s Islamist rebels.

The Iran Deyanat was sailing in those waters on August 21, past the Horn of Africa and about 80 nautical miles southeast of Yemen, when it was boarded by about 40 pirates armed with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades. They were alleged members of a crime syndicate said to be based at Eyl, a small fishing village in northern Somalia.

The ship is owned and operated by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, or IRISL, a state-owned company run by the Iranian military.

Andrew Mwangura, the director of the East African Seafarers’ Assistance Programme, told the Sunday Times: “We don’t know exactly how many, but the information that I am getting is that some of them had died. There is something very wrong about that ship.”

Mwangura has added: “Our sources say it contains chemicals, dangerous chemicals.”

But IRISL has denied that — and threatened legal action against Mwangura.

That’s right, Iran is going to sue the spokesman for Somali Pirates Assistance Programmmeee because he said the cargo was dangerous. Because Somali pirates drop dead in bunches all the time, after losing their hair and teeth. Probably from a lack of Vitamin C. Tough to find fruit to eat in Africa you know.

More on the story over at Bill Roggio’s Long War Journal. I know, he covered this one last week. I’m late to the party, again. But hey, he gets to talk to governments and stuff directly, and actually has a staff working for him around the world. Color me green, m’kay? Just not with Iranian ice cream or Chinese non-toxic toy paint, pet food, or powdered milk.

News about the illness and the toxic cargo quickly reached Garowe, seat of the government for the autonomous region of Puntland. Angered over the wave of piracy and suspicious about the Iranian ship, authorities dispatched a delegation led by Minister of Minerals and Oil Hassan Allore Osman to investigate the situation on September 4.
...
Once in direct contact, the pirates told Osman that they had attempted to inspect the ship’s seven cargo containers after they developed health complications but the containers were locked. The crew claimed that they did not have the “access codes” and could not open them. The delegation secured contact with the captain and the engineer by cell phone and demanded to know the nature of the cargo, however, Osman says that “they were saying different things to different people.” Initially they said that the cargo contained “crude oil” but then claimed it contained “minerals.”

“Puntland requested the pirates two weeks ago to hand over this Iranian ship, saying that it is carrying weapons to Eritrea,” Puntland Fisheries Minister Abdulqadir Muse Yusuf told Reuters. “I have seen food and other odd items on the ship but I do not know what is hidden underneath.”

Iran’s involvement in the conflict in Somalia on behalf of Islamist insurgents is well documented. In 2006, Iran flouted arms embargos and provided sophisticated anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons to the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), intelligence sources told The Long War Journal, including SA-7 Strella and SA-18 Igla MANPADS - shoulder fired surface-to-air missiles - as well as AT-3 Sagger antitank missiles.

So there is no real government in Somalia, yet this “semi-autonomous” corner of that barbaric sandbox seems to have ministers and government agencies and trade union associations. And they can come and go and visit with the pirates and “negotiate” whenever they want. Sound a little fishy to you? Sounds like In Total Cahoots to me. And the pirates couldn’t open the containers because they didn’t have the “access codes”?? WTF? If the classic pirate “access code”, usually called a blunderbuss, doesn’t work, try an acetylene torch! Like I said, this bunch failed mud.

This is at least the 4th pirate story I’ve posted about that has been based out of the little village of Eyl. That fancy sailboat full of frenchies was taken there too. Why is this place still standing?

Posted by Drew458     on 09/28/2008 at 08:55 PM   
Filed Under: • Pirates, aarrgh! •  
• Comments (3) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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