All posts by Ross

Jamaica Uses Buses For Evacuation

Preparing Jamaica for hurricane Dean, the Jamaican government uses buses to evacuate people from low lying areas.

Jamaica’s government urged people to flee low-lying and landslide-prone areas, buses were marshaled to transport evacuees and police and troops were put on alert.

Aside from the effect of displacing the coastal populations and its affect on the economy, the crops, which is their economy beyond tourism, are getting heavily damaged or destroyed.

Dean destroyed all of Martinique’s banana crop and 70 percent of its sugar cane. Around 80 percent of the banana plantations in nearby Guadeloupe were also destroyed, causing $161 million in losses there.

Mind Control, Russian Style

You really need a sense of humor to read Vladimir Putin’s paper, Pravda. Pravda is the equivalent of the daily KOS when it comes to the rhetoric and theories. Like this one, “Russians have psychotronic weapon to zombie people” in the science section.

But that’s only half the story. You have to know why Russians need psychotronic weapons.

In the USA researchers work on psychotronic effect and employ oriental psychophysical systems, hypnosis, neurolinguistic programming, computer psychotechnologies and bio-resonance stimulation in their studies. They seek every opportunity of manipulating human behavior. Israeli researchers conduct similar studies to help people reveal their new potential through self-regulation, changing their consciousness and improving the psychical body potential for athletes. What is more, they also make secret technologies for programming human behavior that are based on mathematical simulation of the Kabbala symbolism.

Aside from sounding ridiculous, on page three the expert admits it.

Boris Ratnikov says that he has never had a chance to hold such a weapon and has no idea how it may look at all. But he supposes that modern technical resources allow making this weapon these days as all theoretic materials necessary for the production have been completely developed.

And this is the kind of media that President Putin wants his people to see.

Pravda link

More Kids Killing Kids In Philadelphia

The murder rate in Philadelphia is still going up. And its kids doing the killing.

The first incident occurred about 4 p.m., when a 23-year-old man was found severely wounded in East Germantown. The fourth in the cluster happened shortly after 6 p.m., when a gunfight broke out among spectators attending a youth basketball game at a recreation center in North Philadelphia near Brewerytown.

When that exchange was over, a 17-year-old boy was left dying of multiple shots to the torso; a wounded 18-year-old man and an automatic weapon were found inside a bathroom at the rec center; and police had arrested one of the alleged shooters.

Way More Than The Lincoln Bedroom

Who believes that the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Bill worked, that is, did it accomplish what it was intended to accomplish? Of course not, and right from the start. Now, how effective do you think the ethics legislation just passed is? More importantly, how can Nancy Pelosi claim this as historic legislation? Because she’s Nancy Pelosi of course. Take pay for access
for example.

In a day and at a time when political ethics issues cast a pall on Washington D.C. caused by ‘special interests’ that influence politicians with money (all out of the kindness of their shareholders’ heart), with NO expectation of government decisions favorable to their company, you might be surprised to hear about this. . .

The host committees of 2008’s biggest political gatherings are soliciting corporations, wealthy individuals and others with a lot at stake in government decisions for seven-figure payments. In exchange, the givers receive all sorts of goodies, including access to lawmakers and other politicians. The more money the donors spend, the more access they get.

A million or five will get you a good meal and some face-time with the man, or woman. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It does raise money necessary to conduct a campaign. It just seems like campaign finance reform is the one thing that politicians really don’t want but say they do.

The premise that special interests, aka money, are corrupting the politicians and that laws need to be made to limit the money, totally misses the point. If anyone is corrupt, it is the politician that does a quid pro quo or who otherwise breaks the law in money laundering and/or takes bribes like William Jefferson (D-La) did. It’s not the donor, it’s what the recipient does. Don’t re-elect a crook.

IMHO McCain-Feingold should be repealed. Despite what the SCOTUS says, limiting political speech is unconstitutional. Besides, it doesn’t work anyway.

WaPo: Convention Party Favors Include Face Time

Wazzup?

Well, we’re back from a quickie vacation. Went a whole week without browsing the net or looking at network or cable news. That, in and of itself, also seems to have some benefits. The stay in Las Vegas was fun, not counting walking down the strip in 106 degree temperature.

Will probably return without the kids next time. 😉

UN Does Human Trafficking Too! And Putin Is Not Pleased.

Two (Russian) United Nations employees were busted for visa fraud. They were essentially writing letters of special permission for certain people to enter the country to ostensibly attend a special meeting or some diplomatic business at the UN. Neither happened, the people just came over.

Noteworthy in this news article is the fact that the MSM here in the US is mute on it. A google search right now shows a Reuters, VOA, and foreign media outlets. No NYT or LAT, no WaPo, no CBS, NBS, or ABS. Definitely does not fit the template.

The Reuters article is the most complete. Two are from Russia. And you ought to see how Pravda reports this. This is the Putin media talking with a Michael Moore twist. That’s President Vladimir Putin, the guy who put democracy in Russia into reverse.

update: The link to the Pravda story is gone. The story isn’t on the server, if the error msg is to be believed. Lesson here is, when it comes to Putin’s press, better capture it because the link won’t be there when you return.

What you missed is the whole tone of the article is different. As though it is a different story altogether. In Putin’s version, it is just trumped up charges on Russian citizens in order to further the anti-UN fervor in the US as an excuse to get out of the UN. And it goes on from there, tinfoil hat and all.

Putin characterizes the US negatively in such a way that he’s not speaking of an ally of Russia. He seems to use this topic as a means to launch on to other attacks. Like James Carville with hair. There is no anti-US reporting in the other Russian media accounts of this story. Well, not yet anyway. The other Russian media’s versions of this story are nothing of the sort of the Pravda version. They are all using a shorter version of the Reuters story.

From here it looks like Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to create some anti-US sentiment in his country. Why would this be? It is what he would need to justify (to the Russian people) his recent arms escalation and unwillingness to participate in a cooperative missile defense arrangement in that part of the world. That is presuming he gives a wit about the Russian people. Seems to me Putin has his sights on eliminating most, if not all, of the freedoms the Russian people are supposed to be able to enjoy. A ‘free’ media in Russia is on the endangered species list.

UPDATE: 8/8/07, the link is back but Putin and references to Putin are gone. His picture is gone. All of that was on the original story. For starters, here is the headline and sub-head.

USA arrests Russian UN officials to slander the organization

American authorities have been looking for a reason to get rid of the UN and obtain the absolute freedom

Congresswoman Bolts From Hearing, Of Progress

Qualifying for the most ridiculous item of the day try this. Rep. Nancy Boyda (D-KS) ran out of an Armed Services Committee hearing when retired Gen. Jack Keane described positive developments in Iraq. The purpose of the hearing was to inform Congress on the situation in Iraq. She then accused the General for further dividing the country by his assessment of progress with the war in Iraq. What’s wrong with this picture?

It’s what happens when your party is invested in defeat. I hope the good people of Kansas will make a different choice when Boyda’s term expires.

RealClearPolitics: Michael Barone

Not Much Diversity In The ‘Center’

The group claims to be the political center of the Democrat party. But people attending the Yearly Kos convention, a gathering of the wacko left blogosphere, noticed an elephant in the room. It’s pretty white.

“It’s mostly white. More male than female,” says the former high school math and science teacher turned activist. “It’s not very diverse.”

“I was completely surprised — shocked even. The political blogosphere isn’t as white as the people in this convention.”

“I hate using the word ‘diversity.’ I don’t know what we use there. But what we definitely need are voices from different communities,” she says. And the problem, she adds, stretches beyond ethnic and gender inclusion. There’s a socioeconomic gap, too.

Washington Post link