I'MMA LET YOU FINISH
http://
www.democraticunderground...topic_id=161348
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp...-
2003Oct10.html
The Bush administration is proposing far-reaching changes to conservation policies that would allow hunters, circuses and the pet industry to kill, capture and import animals on the brink of extinction in other countries.
Giving Americans access to endangered animals, officials said, would feed the gigantic U.S. demand for live animals, skins, parts and trophies, and generate profits that would allow poor nations to pay for conservation of the remaining animals and their habitat.
This and other proposals that pursue conservation through trade would, for example, open the door for American trophy hunters to kill the endangered straight-horned markhor in Pakistan; license the pet industry to import the blue fronted Amazon parrot from Argentina; permit the capture of endangered Asian elephants for U.S. circuses and zoos; and partially resume the trade in African ivory (!!!!!). No U.S. endangered species would be affected.
Conservationists think it's a bad idea. "It's a very dangerous precedent to decide that wildlife exploitation is in the best interest of wildlife," said Adam Roberts, a senior research associate at the nonprofit Animal Welfare Institute, an advocacy group for endangered species.
ON EDIT: Later in the article, David P. Smith, deputy assistant secretary at the Department of Interior for Fish and Wildlife and Parks said "This is absolutely consistent with the Endangered Species Act, as written... I think the nature of the beast is such that there are critics who are going to claim some kind of ulterior motive."
For the record, David P. Smith was a former pro-development attorney in Austin, Texas. He was appointed by that great protector of the environment, Gale Norton. At the time, he was hailed as a "problem-solver in the areas of conservation" by Secretary Norton.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/
cs...ol=968705899037
Mexican army deserters form drug gang
Ex-members of elite unit plot takeover of border city
'The Zetas have never released anyone alive'
NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico (AP) - Members of an elite Mexican army unit have deserted and formed a drug gang, using their military training to launch a violent battle for control of Nuevo Laredo on the U.S. border, Mexico's top anti-drug prosecutor said in an interview.
The war for Nuevo Laredo is unlike other recent drug conflicts - it's a turf war involving most of Mexico's major cartels in broad alliances not seen in a decade. It has the Mexican army fighting an organized unit of former comrades and it has cost American lives.
"They are extremely violent and they are very much feared in the region because of the bloodshed they unleash," Jose Santiago Vasconcelos, Mexico's top anti-drug prosecutor, said.
The battles, which have taken 87 lives since 2002, have involved unprecedented alliances among Mexico's drug cartels, said Nuevo Laredo police commander Martin Landa Herrera.
"I don't think anything like this has happened before in Mexico," he said in an interview.
"I have never heard of this many cartels fighting for one piece of territory."
Known as the Zetas or Zs, the new drug gang - which appears to have won control of the city - is led by former members of an elite paratroop and intelligence battalion that was posted to the border state Tamaulipas in the 1990s to fight drug-traffickers.
http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.a...l3.asp?
ao=21785
French sleaze inquiry targets US oil subsidiary
The public prosecutor's office in Paris said yesterday it was opening a formal judicial inquiry into alleged corruption by a French engineering firm and the American oil services giant Halliburton, which was headed until two years ago by Dick Cheney, the vice-president of the United States.
The investigation is the first of its kind in France under laws introduced as part of an international convention on cross-border corruption signed in 1997 by some 35 countries, including the US.
The financial crimes squad in Paris believes a French oil and gas engineering firm, Technip, and particularly the Halliburton subsidiary KBR were jointly involved during the 1990s in the payment of up to $200-million of under-the-counter "commissions" in relation to a huge gas contract in Nigeria.
The convention, under the auspices of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, aims to fight corporate attempts to buy the favours of public authorities abroad.
It allows the police forces of signatory countries to investigate any company suspected of offering commercial sweeteners of any kind to elected or unelected public officials anywhere in the world.
According to Le Figaro newspaper, French police believe KBR was behind a web of off-shore companies and bank accounts set up to "facilitate" the work of TSKJ, a joint venture between four engineering companies that had won a lucrative contract from international oil companies to build a large liquefied natural gas plant on Bonny Island in the eastern Niger delta.
TSKJ, in which KBR was the leading player, allegedly paid a second off-shore company at least $180-million in commissions -- most of which was transferred to a score of different off-shore bank accounts -- for "mediating" with the Nigerian authorities. It is alleged that much of that money wound up in the pockets of public officials.
Atrios - thanks for the heads up.
Dang -- I'm just getting color test bars on my CSPAN 2!!!! Is anyone else having this prob, or is it a Comcast Chicago thing?
Commiecast Chicago must have gone a drinkin' binge last nite.
Speakin' o' CSPAM: CSPAM aired a Congressional hearing about the Brass Hats at the Pentagon sellin' CBW lab equipment o'er the Net earlier this week. They may repeat it again this weekend. Keep an eye out for it. It'll make your skin crawl, especially the second half of the hearing where the Penagon suits pooh-pooh this as no big deal.
Make that "... gone on a ..." Had a bit o' a binge myself last nite.
Double OOPS! Make that "...aired earlier this week...equipment o'er the Net." Jeebus! I give up. I'm goin' to bed.
Also airs Sunday 9am according to the Book TV site:
http://www.booktv.org/General/in...820&
schedID=214
On a related note, did anyone hear Krugman on NPR with Scott Simon this morning?
Simon gave Krugman a ... chilly ... reception. But Krugman was good.
Simon is so witty and... clever.
I don't know why i bother every weekend, except for the occasional gem like a brief Krugman interview.
And Daniel Schorr, so...perspicacious.
In a plodding, CW kinda way.
must read: the editor of the times fights back....
one thing i find interesting about all those blowhards that attacked the la times INCLUDING estrich is the fact they never mentioned gov groper's camp was given an advance of 36 hours to comment. ron brownstein and doyle mcmanus have both stated this little known fact.
the nyt has a piece mentioning carroll's piece as well. the people of california got suckered and now comes the hangover.
http://www.latimes.com/news/
poli...0,6655129.story
COMMENTARY
The Story Behind the Story
How The Times decided to publish the accounts of 16 women who said they had been sexually mistreated and humiliated by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
By John S. Carroll
Los Angeles Times Editor
October 12, 2003
The volcanic passions of the recall are largely spent, though we'll no doubt be feeling their effects for many years. Today, on this Sunday of relative calm, I'd like to tell you how the Los Angeles Times decided to publish the stories of 16 women who said they had been sexually mistreated and humiliated by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Why is Bush babbling about democracy in Cuba? So he can solidify his right-wing Cuban base in Miami, of course. Hey, I have no love for Fidel, but I wish Shrubby would quit trying to run the entire world and concentrate on the economy, Afghanistan, and cleaning up the mess he has made in Iraq. The idea that Cuba somehow threatens us is a complete joke.
Virtually every foreign policy decision this administration makes pisses off the rest of the world. How can any serious person believe we are more secure as a result of the post 9-11 policies and rhetoric coming out of this White House?
I'm with you, scribeboy. Bush should quit eyeballing everyone from Syria to Cuba and eat what's already on his plate.
Ten Presidents have been unable to do anything about Fidel. Even the Neocon's sainted Raygun. I know Bush thinks he's the chosen one but if he gets us into another Bay of Pigs I'm going to the oval officve and giving him a spanking myself.
Cuba. Oh, Jeebus. It just hit me. Rove could make Cuba the Iraq of 2004.
Imagine - Cuba with democracy and Cuba without embargos and sanctions.
Clark, Dean: Make Free Cuba Democratic policy today! This is THE key to 2004. Not soon, not tomorrow. NOW!
Make Cuba a Democratic issue. Don't let the regressives pretend they adore human rights.
CLARK! DEAN! GET ON THIS TODAY!
Iraq was planned to push every other thing out of the news in the fall of 2002. The economy, the environment, civil rights, education, human rights - all the things the Rove administration was destroying - were ignored while the media was on Iraq, Iraq, Iraq.
And the regressives won the Senate.
Don't let them do it again in 2004.
You mean the US will finally be able to carry out the original Operation Northwoods?
(Not to be confused with the strikingly similar Project Bojinka & Operation 9-11).
well, i listened to joe on booknotes.
he mostly got it accurately.
but he made one humongous mistake. when the audience questioned him about plame[mrs. joe wilson] he responded that wilson's nyt op-ed disputed iraq acquiring "enriched" uranium from niger.
now, either joe hasn't been paying attention or he knows too little.
asserting that niger could supply "enriched" uranium gives nourishment to the bushies.
and makes most of the right wingnuts lies sustainable.
here is the real scoop...
niger could supply only yellowcake[unfissionable uranium oxide].
now, even if iraq could acquire yellowcake, they would have to acquire shiploads of it if they were going to convert it to fissionable[weapons-grade] material.
and this is where the bush lies become revealed.
1. shiploads of yellowcake would have to be acquired.
2. shiploads of yellowcake would have to traverse the sealanes from niger to iraq. this would require entry into the gulf, a body of water completely controlled by the us navy.
3. supposing shiploads of yellowcake reached iraq, imagine the port facilities that would be required to unload it and transfer it to some land-based transport media[trucks, trains].
4. because if the yellowcake reached iraq, it was going to have to become "enriched" if it was to become weapons-grade material.
so, where was that enrichment facility? anyone out there ever been to oak ridge, tn? if you have, you will recognize that an enrichment plant requires tons of power. and lots of water.
since the "coalition" has controlled iraqi air since 1991, can you imagine any such facility becoming constructed or being operational?
5. and let us consider the nro surveillance. how about asking for the satint evidence of the iraqi enrichment facilities.
again, ever been to oak ridge? the enrichment facilities cover acres and acres of ground.
iraq could not do it with any smaller facilities.
6. similar to the manhattan project, there are some engineering verities concerning the enhancement of yellowcake into weapons grade material.
that this reality is avoided confirms that our journalists are nothing but stenographers for the state.
to reiterate, consider the requirements that iraq have to fulfill to process yellowcake.
a. port facilities to unload shiploads of the raw material.
b. dedicated transport[truck, train] to move the raw material to the enrichment facility.
c. extensive plant and equipment with sophisticated and expensive machinery to enrich the raw material.
d. dedicated transport to move the enriched material to a weapons plant[such as pantex, in the texas panhandle].
7. how is it that no one has provided the proof that any of this activity ever existed?
even the anti-bush left doesn't go here. why i wonder? are they ignorant of the realities of yellowcake enrichment? of nuclear weapons fabrication?
8. just suffice it to say that at the most basic level, anyone assertin
8. just suffice it to say that at the most basic level, anyone asserting that iraq could enrich yellowcake to a weapons grade level is a prevaricator.
9. in closing, for some reason, the left[this includes joe conason] does not want to use this nuclear engineering evidence to trump the bushies.
why i wonder?
10. question any nuclear engineer[physicist] about these engineering verities. i tell you that not a one would dispute what i have said.
i recommend that you consult gordon prather. he was a reaganaut and he can confirm what i have written.
the lying of the bushies about iraq and wmd was more out in the open than has been reported.
we all laugh about monica fellating bill. it appears to me as if gwbush and his myrmidons have been fellating the press. ok, for all the females carrying press badges, the bushies have been cunning linguists.
all the same, the simplest engineering scrutiny should have revealed the prevarications of the bushies[neocons] concerning iraq and nuclear weapons.
Characters Remaining:
Commenting by HaloScan
