Oddz and Endz…

•April 28, 2009 • 7 Comments

first up, Arlen Specter switches to Dem party!!! BOOYAH! the Dems now have a filibuster-proof majority and can help Obama get his agenda passed:

Specter Switches Parties

By Carl Hulse

Senator Arlen Specter was surrounded by reporters on Tuesday after it was announced that he will switch parties.

Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania said on Tuesday he would switch to the Democratic party, presenting Democrats with a possible 60th vote and the power to break Senate filibusters as they try to advance the Obama administration’s new agenda.

“I’m not prepared to have my 29-year record in the United States Senate decided by the Pennsylvania Republican primary electorate, not prepared to have that record decided by that jury,” Mr. Specter declared in a rather defiant tone at a press conference Tuesday afternoon.

Arlen Specter, the Republican senator from Pennsylvania.Doug Mills/The New York Times Mr. Specter’s announcement shocked Senate Republicans.

In a statement issued about noon as the Capitol was digesting the stunning turn of events, Mr. Specter said he had concluded that his party had moved too far to the right, a fact demonstrated by the migration of 200,000 Pennsylvania Republicans to the Democratic Party.

“I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans,” Mr. Specter said in his statement, acknowledging that his decision was certain to disappoint colleagues and supporters.

If Al Franken prevails in his ongoing court case in Minnesota and Mr. Specter begins caucusing with Democrats, Democrats would have 60 votes and the ability to deny Republicans the chance to stall legislation. Mr. Specter was one of only three Republicans to support President Obama’s economic recovery legislation.

The news shocked Senate Republicans, who had been hanging on to their ability to block legislation by a thread. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, called an emergency meeting of party leaders who had no forewarning of Mr. Specter’s plans.

On Capitol Hill, Mr. Specter arrived for a vote shortly after noon with his wife, and said he would be lunching in the private Senate dining room rather than joining either of the weekly party policy lunches that were being held.

Democrats were jubilant about the development.

President Obama was handed a note from an aide at 10:25 a.m. on Tuesday during his daily economic briefing. The note, according to a senior administration official, said: “Specter is announcing he is changing parties.”

Seven minutes later, Mr. Obama reached Mr. Specter by telephone. In a brief conversation, the president said: “You have my full support,” according to the official who heard the phone call. The president added that we are “thrilled to have you.”

Mr. Specter spoke with Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. slightly before 11 a.m.

According to White House officials, the vice president was at the center of the effort to convince Mr. Specter to change parties. They said that this has been the subject of years of bantering and discussion between the two men – who often sat together while riding the Amtrak train back home – but that the conversation turned earnest after Mr. Biden lobbied Mr. Specter to vote with the White House on the stimulus bill.

One adviser to Mr. Biden said that since that day 10 weeks ago, Mr. Biden and Mr. Specter had spoken 14 times – including six in-person meetings and eight conversations on the telephone. In each case, White House officials said, Mr. Biden argued to Mr. Specter that the Republican Party had increasingly drifted away from Mr. Specter since the election and ideologically, he was closer to the Democratic Party.

They said he did not make mention of Mr. Specter’s political situation in Pennsylvania – where he was facing a primary that could have knocked him off the ballot – because it was not necessary.

White House officials said there was no realistic way to flat out promise Mr. Specter that he would not face a primary in the Democratic Party for the nomination, but noted that there is no Democrat out there in a position to resist the state’s political machine and make a realistic challenge. More than that, White House officials said that they had assured Mr. Specter that he would have the full backing of Mr. Obama should he change parties. They also said that the president would happily campaign for Mr. Specter and raise money for him if that was necessary. At the White House press briefing on Tuesday afternoon, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs confirmed that Mr. Obama pledged his full support to Mr. Specter.

“Full support means full support,” Mr. Gibbs said.

“We will welcome him with open arms,” said Senator Debbie Stabenow, Democrat of Michigan.

Mr. Specter faced a primary challenge from former Republican Congressman Pat Toomey and polls showed him trailing Mr. Toomey. But he had previously resisted overtures to join the Democrats.

“Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right. Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats,” Mr. Specter said in a statement released in the early afternoon. “I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans.”

He said he has experienced a change of heart since the response to his vote for the stimulus legislation.

“Since then, I have traveled the State, talked to Republican leaders and office-holders and my supporters and I have carefully examined public opinion,” his statement said. “It has become clear to me that the stimulus vote caused a schism which makes our differences irreconcilable. On this state of the record, I am unwilling to have my twenty-nine year Senate record judged by the Pennsylvania Republican primary electorate.”

Mr. Specter, who has a history of finding his own way in the Senate, said he would not be a guaranteed vote for Democratic initiatives and he declared that he would remain opposed to a top labor priority – legislation that would make it easier to unionize American workplaces.

“Whatever my party affiliation, I will continue to be guided by President Kennedy’s statement that sometimes party asks too much,” Mr. Specter said. “When it does, I will continue my independent voting and follow my conscience on what I think is best for Pennsylvania and America.”

Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona and a man with his own history of breaking with his party, expressed regret and said he had no indication that Mr. Specter would change parties. But Mr. McCain said he understood the reason for Mr. Specter’s shift: “It’s pretty obvious the polls show him well behind his primary opponent.”

Michael Steele, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, did not mince words about the senator, saying Mr. Specter “didn’t leave the G.O.P. based on principles of any kind. He left to further his personal political interests because he knew that he was going to lose a Republican primary due to his left-wing voting record. Republicans look forward to beating Senator Specter in 2010, assuming the Democrats don’t do it first.”

But Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, who also supported the Obama administration’s economic stimulus legislation, said Mr. Specter’s decision reflected the increasingly inhospitable climate in the Republican party for moderates.

“On the national level of the Republican Party, we haven’t certainly heard warm, encouraging words about how they view moderates, either you are with us or against us,” Ms. Snowe said. She said national Republican leaders were not grasping that “political diversity makes a party stronger and ultimately we are heading to having the smallest political tent in history for any political party the way things are unfolding.”

Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, called the decision “a real problem.”

Mr. Specter, who has had serious health problems in recent years, remains active on a variety of major issues and has been a leading advocate for increased funding for health care research.

Democrats called the decision a game-changer. “It helps on everything,” said Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California. “This is a substantial change.”

Democrats said they made no promises to Mr. Specter about committee positions or other incentives to switch, but the party can provide significant campaign support and deter other Democratic candidates from running against him in the primary next year.

The turnabout was reminiscent of the decision in 2001 by Senator Jim Jeffords of Vermont to leave the Republican party and become an independent, handing control of the Senate back to Democrats just as President George W. Bush’s first term was beginning. The Jeffords switch flipped party control but some Democrats said Mr. Specter’s move could be just as consequential given the Senate’s recent struggles with filibusters.

“Specter’s decision could be more consequential because it came just as the Senate was beginning work on health care reform,” said Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon. “Specter’s decision is a big impact decision.”

Mr. Specter’s move to the Democratic column is likely to have a chilling effect on other potential Democratic candidates for the Senate. So far, Joseph Torsella, former head of the National Constitution Center and a former deputy mayor of Philadelphia, is the only Democrat to have declared his candidacy.

Others with higher name recognition seem to have been holding back to see how the field would shape up. Even before Mr. Specter announced his switch today, Representative Allyson Schwartz, a Democrat representing parts of Philadelphia and the nearby suburbs, had told The New York Times she was unlikely to make the run. Other possibilities, including Representatives Patrick Murphy and Joe Sestak, had also stayed mum.

Gov. Edward G. Rendell, a Democrat, and Mr. Biden, both of them long-time friends of Mr. Specter, had urged him to switch parties several weeks ago but Mr. Specter declined. Mr. Rendell said in a recent interview that he had promised Mr. Specter that if he became a Democrat, he would help him raise money; Mr. Specter joked that if he became a Democrat, he wouldn’t need Mr. Rendell’s help on that front.

There had been speculation in Pennsylvania political circles that something was afoot because Mr. Torsella, a close colleague of Mr. Rendell, said little about Mr. Specter when he announced his candidacy.

But Mr. Specter put the kibosh on talk that he might leave the Republican Party and become either a Democrat or an independent, insisting, though without much evidence, that there was room in the Republican Party for moderates.
The move brings Mr. Specter full circle with his earlier political leanings. He was a registered Democrat when he first ran for district attorney of Philadelphia in the mid-1960s, though he ran on the Republican line.
LINK
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next: Swine flu. This is one equal-0pportunity offender if you know what I mean…..part swine flu, part bird flu, and two types of human flu….where the heck did it COME from?? and how the heck is it spreading so fast?? I mean, yes, it originated in Mexico City, but WHY? and how the heck did it get over to Asia and the middle east so fast? or did it? Im wondering if the media isnt blowing this out of proportion just a tad….on my favorite subversive site, there’s all kinds of talk about this being engineered by the shadow movers and shakers who are trying to further the One World Government agenda. They say that the next step is the WHO (world health organization) declaring this a pandemic and mandating mass vaccinations or else being found guilty of felony disobedience, and being shipped off to a FEMA camp in the outer reaches of Alaska or some other isolated hell-on-earth…I myself am allergic to sharp pointy objects, so there better be no such mandated vaccinations on the horizon. Or stated another way, I’ll get that shot when PIGS FLY !! (swine/bird flu–get it?)
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next: Britain’s got talent. I have been entranced by the Cinderella story of Susan Boyle, the dowdy, frumpy, golden throated sensation that shocked the world when she auditioned on Britain’s got talent this current season. I think its been pretty well established that part of the shock and awe was due to the dichotomy between her appearance and her talent. Yes, yes, I know, you cant judge a book by its cover. But, honestly we all do, and we all have, and she so powerfully reminded us, we are all asses for doing so:

NOTE: ALL VERSIONS THAT I’VE TRIED TO ACCESS HAVE BEEN DISABLED. THEIR LOSS….DUMBASSESSES.

Bless her heart, she shows quite a bit of spunk, in spite of the scorn, and she showed EVERYONE! Brava Susan, an outstanding, brilliannt performance. What really touched me though the most, was her cute little curtsey at the very end before she walked off. I predict she will go far, and she should.

Being the obsessive-compulsive person that I am, I began to sample other Britain’s got talent performers and came across this young lad, Andrew Johnston. This boy has the voice of ANGELS. Seriously! See for yourself:

He didnt win his competition, but he was offered a record contract with Simon Cowell’s own label. I hope he goes far. He’s amazing.

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finally, as a nod to non sequiturs everywhere:
What do you think of the price of peas?
nuffsaidbutton4

Posted in Oddz and Endz
Tags: , , ,

Things that make you go hmmmmm…

•April 24, 2009 • 3 Comments

“post turtle” (from an emailed joke I got from my dad…..)

post-turtle

What kind of yahoo gets their kicks out of doing this sort of thing I wonder?

Perhaps the kind of yahoo that grew up doing things like this precocious tot:

poor-doggie

That is one long-suffering pooch I tell ya…..

manbra

he definitely walks on the WILD side…

AAAAAAAGH! THE HAIR THAT ATE TOKYO!

Real Life Rapunzel (gag)

SHOES!

MY EYES, MY EYES 😦

you know, I have to give credit where credit is due…the last 3 pictures were all from the same blog, and it wasnt intentional. I just chose photos I thought were OUT THERE, and they happened to be from the same source. Anyone who likes this sort of thing can go HERE for more assorted pictorial silliness 🙂

You know, its true what they say: it takes ALL kinds to make a world….

nuffsaidbutton4


Posted in humor, Oddz and Endz

The Name’s O’Brien. Underpants O’Brien.

•April 21, 2009 • Leave a Comment

underpants-obrien-black

Ive been christened with my Leprechaun name.  There’s no going back for me.

Here, in all his sartorial splendor, is my alter ego, Underpants O’Brien.

Feast yer eyes.

nuffsaidbutton4

Posted in Celtic/Irish, humor, its great to be Irish, Oddz and Endz

Chrysler rejects Govt loan because of executive pay limits

•April 20, 2009 • 5 Comments

OMG. Boil up the tar and bring on the feathers! The greedy executives at Chrysler, the auto giant thisclose to filing bankruptcy, have turned down a $750 million dollar loan because top executives refuse to abide by new Government limits on executive pay. They are already talking about 1600 lay offs and they want MORE $$$???? Color me incredulous. The following is from the Washington Post:

Top officials at Chrysler Financial turned away a $750 million government loan because executives didn\’t want to abide by new federal limits on pay, sources familiar with the matter say.

The government had been offering the loan earlier this month as part of its efforts to prop up the ailing auto industry, including Chrysler, which is racing to avoid bankruptcy. Chrysler Financial is a vital lender to Chrysler dealerships and customers.

In forgoing the loan, Chrysler Financial opted to use more expensive financing from private banks, adding to the burdens of the already fragile automaker and its financing company.

Chrysler Financial denied in a statement that its executives had refused to accept new limits on their pay.

The company\’s decision comes amid a firestorm on Capitol Hill and elsewhere over the lavish pay of executives at companies being aided by government money. The uproar has made companies skittish about taking federal aid and hindered the Obama administration\’s effort to revive lending by replenishing the coffers of the nation\’s financial firms.

The Treasury Department previously had loaned Chrysler Financial $1.5 billion, when less stringent requirements on executive compensation were in place for recipients of federal bailout money. Since that first loan was announced on January 16, the Obama administration and Congress have toughened the rules.

During March, when it seemed that the first loan would run out, the Obama administration began working on a deal to lend the company another $750 million.

Quickly, most of the agreement fell into place. But on April 7, Treasury asked Chrysler Financial to have its top 25 executives sign waivers regarding their compensation, sources said.

Those waivers would have barred the executives from suing the Treasury or Chrysler Financial over new pay restrictions. As part of the economic stimulus package, Congress approved new executive compensation limits, and the Treasury is currently working on clarifying what the firms must do to comply with these rules.

Within a week, the company responded that some of the executives had refused to give their approval. By last week, Treasury had rescinded the loan offer, the sources said.

Chrysler Financial denied that executives balked at the pay limits and said it had met all the restrictions of its first loan from the government\’s Troubled Assets Relief Program, or TARP.

\”Executives have not been presented with any new demands with regard to executive compensation,\” the company said in a statement. \”As a TARP recipient we remain in full compliance with current executive compensation requirements.\”

A senior industry official with knowledge of the matter said Chrysler Financial turned down the new government loan because, with auto sales down in April, there has been even less need for financing, the industry official said.

The official said that if sales picked up, Chrysler Financial may seek additional government aid, even if it means agreeing to executive compensation limits.

\”If Chrysler Financial needs the cash to support Chrysler, they [the executives] are not going to put the auto company at risk,\” the senior industry official said. \”These guys aren\’t going to blow up the car company for their personal reasons . . . they\’ve done everything they can to support the automotive company.\”

Chrysler Financial recently announced publicly that it no longer needs additional federal loans. Instead, the company said, it will rely on other sources of financing.

\”Chrysler Financial has determined that it has adequate private capital funding to cover the short-term needs of our dealers and customers and as such no additional TARP funding is necessary at this time,\” the company said in its statement.

But by forgoing the government loan, the company must borrow money from a group of private banks, including JP Morgan and Citigroup, sources said. That line of financing had been arranged in August, when the company was on the brink of bankruptcy, according to an industry official. The financing from the private banks comes at a higher borrowing cost for Chrysler Financial, a source said.

Chrysler and Chrysler Financial are separate companies. But both are owned largely by Cerberus, the secretive private equity firm. Daimler owns a 20 percent stake in each.

Huh. I\’ll be following this story closely O_o

Posted in because I said so, rants

Somalia–the elephant in the room

•April 20, 2009 • 2 Comments

There seems to be a universally accepted consensus that Somalis turned to piracy in retaliation to illegal dumping of nuclear waste and illegal fishing of Somali waters. What is less clear is how this apparent \”window of opportunity\” came about.

This from time.com:

One of the world\’s worst humanitarian disasters, Islamic terrorism and rampant human trafficking have all failed to draw the world\’s interest to Somalia. The return of piracy to the high seas, however, has. The Somali pirates have attacked more than 100 vessels in the waters leading to and from the Suez Canal this year, and earned tens of millions of dollars in ransom. Today they are holding 17 ships with around 300 crew members off the Somali coast. And at a weekend security conference organized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Bahrain, headquarters to the U.S. Navy\’s 5th Fleet, opinion appeared unanimous: to fix the pirates, fix Somalia. \”We haven\’t been as involved in Somalia as we should have been,\” Britain\’s Defence Secretary John Hutton told the BBC. \”This is the consequence.\”

Somalia is a textbook example of the theory of failed states. The idea, as encapsulated by the butterfly that flaps its wings and ends up causing a hurricane on the other side of the world, is that an action in one place, even an apparently insignificant one, can have deep ramifications around the globe. (See TIME\’s Top 10 news stories of the year.)

Typically, when those actions take place in a failed or failing state — one with no law and little government — the consequences are negative. They include a refugee and disease exodus (such as from Zimbabwe), sex trafficking (Bangladesh and Nepal) and drug-smuggling and terrorism (Afghanistan and Tajikistan). Indonesia, which has a weak government and endemic poverty and also happens to abut another primary sea route, was the world\’s worst piracy hotspot for a decade, until a couple of years ago, when it was overtaken by Nigeria, which has little law but plenty of poverty and oil platforms.

Now Somalia has overtaken Nigeria as a piracy problem spot, as it claims the title of Ultimate Failed State. It is a haven for Islamic terrorists, currently poised to take Mogadishu and already expanding their operations to neighboring states (for example, killing more than 30 people with five car and suicide bombs at U.N. and foreign government buildings in the autonomous northern regions of Puntland and Somaliland); a departure point for hundreds of thousands of refugees (a refugee camp over the border in Kenya is now the biggest in the world); a center for human trafficking to the Middle East; and a hub of the illegal arms and drugs trade.

All these things are the consequences of non-existent government. All of them can only really be tackled properly when Somalia has a government that is both good and strong. As the French commander of his country\’s anti-piracy force in the Gulf, Vice-Admiral Gerard Valin, told Agence-France Presse in Bahrain: \”We will not end this phenomenon unless we have a Somali government that has the means to act on its territory to fight piracy.\”

That, unfortunately, is more remote than ever. As the vice-admiral was speaking, the Somali President, Abdullah Yusuf Ahmed, was firing his Prime Minister, Nur Hassan Hussein, the second premier to be dismissed in as many years. Not that the nominal government rules more than a few blocks of Mogadishu. Earlier this year, many of the other members of the Somali government and parliament gave up on their country and decamped to the Kenyan capital Nairobi. (See pictures of Somalia\’s pirates.)

Add to that the fact that the two last forces to offer anything approaching a stabilizing presence in Somalia — the Ethiopian army and a small African Union peacekeeping force — are expected to withdraw in the next few weeks. (In the case of the Ethiopians, who invaded in late 2006 to topple an Islamist government and who have been accused of atrocities during their stay, whether they have been a force for or against stabilization is hotly debated.)

That leaves the international community with two unappealing options. The short-term fix is to try to neutralize the pirates by pursuing them on land. Hence a U.S. draft proposal authorizing military action inside Somalia currently before the U.N. Security Council. But sending troops into Somalia is fraught with danger, as the American soldiers of Blackhawk Down, and now the Ethiopians, know to their cost. Present day U.S. operations against the Islamists — publicly confined to air strikes, but also including some clandestine fighting on the ground — have killed two significant leaders, including the bomb-maker in the 1998 al-Qaeda bombings of U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.

But, as in Iraq and Afghanistan, they have also killed civilians and stoked a raging anti-American backlash. In addition, extending the fight against the Islamists to the pirates may make friends of two of the most dangerous groups in Somalia, who until now have been enemies. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates underlined those concerns in Bahrain. \”With the level of information we have at the moment, we\’re not in a position to do that kind of land-based operation,\” he said, adding any such intervention would need to \”minimize collateral damage.\”

The long-term fix is to build a new Somalia. Nation-building is something the Bush administration initially shied away from in Afghanistan, allowing the Taliban to regroup, and came round to in Iraq, with mixed and frequently bloody results. China provides a better model for nation-building in Africa, focusing almost wholly on the continent\’s commercial potential — and, as a byproduct, the stabilizing effects of poverty alleviation — by pumping billions into infrastructure in war-torn territories such as Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Angola is now stable, if horribly corrupt; Congo is still at war, but the Chinese investment there has just begun, and the country at least now has an incentive for peace. China, of course, gets a good return on its investment. Angola is now its leading oil supplier globally, while Congo is opening up its mineral riches in return for new roads, railways, hospitals and universities from Beijing. Then again, as the Somali pirates have demonstrated, it often takes an injection of self-interest for the world to want to act.

Some folks blithely blamed the US for supporting Ethiopia\’s invasion of Somalia, but failed to address the issue of WHY that invasion was necessary in the first place (to topple an Islamist regime that was providing a safe haven for terrorists). This same blogger held the US responsible for the Ethiopian military\’s actions as if the US somehow condoned them. As I said in my first post, such knee-jerk finger pointing at the US is (especially now that we have a new administration installed) ill-informed and short-sighted. And regardless of how or why Somalia became a \”failed state,\” the task the world now faces is what to DO with Somalia\’s pirates. From Time.com again:

Slice it any way you like, it is a challenge that resembles fighting terrorism. There are a lot of suggestions on the table: A system of World War II — style convoys and escorts. An international moratorium on ransom payments. Some urge arming crews, although assuming that shippers can outgun young men fitted out with the best the Somali black market has to offer is a risky bet. The best solution is likely to be military, based on inspections, exclusion zones, rapid reaction and deadly force. That is how our partners are beginning to view it. French commandos retook a yacht on April 10, killing two pirates. (One passenger was killed.) Last November, the Indian navy sank a pirate \”mother ship\” off Yemen. Favoring multilateralism over unilateralism often means favoring talk over action; maybe last week\’s operation is a sign that Obama is not so easily pigeonholed.

In some quarters, there is skepticism about whether a military response is appropriate. These aren\’t terrorists, one argument goes, because privation, not politics, is the root of the crisis. To listen to this woolly-headed analysis, you would think piracy was the closest thing Somalis had to a workable aid program. \”The threat of death,\” editorializes the Los Angeles Times, \”isn\’t much of a deterrent to hopeless young Somali men who face a choice between potentially making millions on the high seas or starving on shore.\”

There is an illogic here. If the incentives for piracy are economic, then a decreased likelihood of booty ought to curtail it. Yet no one seems to expect this to happen. Papers relay the boasts of pirates that they will exact \”revenge\” on Americans. How so? On whose behalf? Such solidarity is less typical of entrepreneurs than it is of terrorists and guerrillas. When Phillips\’ captors ran out of fuel, they radioed other pirate-held ships for help. There is talk of pirate dens on and near the Somali coasts: Harardhere, Eyl, Boosaaso. \”Den\” is a quaint, Peter Pan — ish way of putting it. \”Enemy naval base\” might be more apt.

Somalia is the most failed of failed states, but that doesn\’t make the pirates apolitical. They don\’t need a state. Piracy is their state. Trying to erect a livable society in Somalia would be to confront them with a rival, as we discovered once before. The pirates are not \”desperate.\” They are well fed, crafty and competent. They are the maritime wing of the warlord culture that governs Somalia de facto and does so in such a way that its citizens don\’t eat. Whatever the root causes of Somali piracy, helping Somalia might be a worthy goal once the pirates are defeated militarily. It is a pointless one until then.

Agreed. Trying to excuse the pirates behavior by saying \”its the illegal fishing\” or \”its because of illegal nuclear dumping\” fails to put the blame where it belongs, on the PIRATES themselves. As I said before, two wrongs never have and never will make one right.

Posted in because I said so, Oddz and Endz, rants
Tags: , , ,

Yo Ho Ho (and a bellyful of bravado)

•April 16, 2009 • 4 Comments

Pirates. I never thought I’d be reading about Pirates as a modern day phenomenon…as a newsmaking phenomenon…yet, I am, and they are. Supposedly these pirates are engaging in this risky behavior to protest the ruined fishing industry off their coastline in Somalia. Apparently, because their livelihood has been devastated, they now have no other recourse than to attack passing vessels. Hmmm….

Here is an article, courtesy of CNN:

No way to stop us, pirate leader says

From David McKenzie
CNN

NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) — Somalis are so desperate to survive that attacks on merchant shipping in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean will not stop, a pirate leader promises.

“The pirates are living between life and death,” said the pirate leader, identified by only one name, Boyah. “Who can stop them? Americans and British all put together cannot do anything.”

The interview with the pirate was conducted in late August by journalists employed by the Somali news organization Garowe Online. The complete interview was provided to CNN last week and provides a glimpse of why piracy has been so hard to control in the region.

Recorded on grainy video, the interview took place in the Somali port city of Eyl, now a center of pirate operations. Eyl is on the east coast of Somalia in the autonomous territory of Puntland. It is a largely lawless zone, considered extremely dangerous for Westerners to enter.

The Puntland government said two unidentified Western journalists were taken hostage Wednesday as they attempted to report on pirate activity.

Boyah said that the piracy began because traditional coastal fishing became difficult after foreign fishing trawlers depleted local fish stocks. Traditional fishermen started attacking the trawlers until the trawler crews fought back with heavy weapons. The fishermen then turned to softer targets. VideoWatch why fishermen turned to piracy »

“We went into the deep ocean and hijacked the unarmed cargo ships,” Boyah said.

“For the past three years, we have not operated near the Somali coast. We have operated at least 80 miles [out], in international waters.”

When merchant shipping started avoiding the Somali coast, Boyah said, “we went to ships traveling other routes.”

Over the past year, the number of pirate attacks has increased dramatically. The International Maritime Bureau cites more than 90 pirate attacks off East Africa so far in 2008. When attacks are successful, the hijacked ships are taken to Somali waters, where the ships and crew are held until a ransom is paid. See how pirate attacks have increased »

Ships recently captured include a massive Saudi supertanker laden with crude oil valued at more than $100 million and a freighter carrying Russian-built tanks.

The hijackings have been profitable. Kenya‘s foreign minister, Moses Wetangula, estimates the pirates have been paid more than $150 million during the past year. One pirate gang wants $2 million dollars to release a Yemeni freighter and crew seized last week.

Facing increasing disruptions through one of the busiest sea lanes in the world, several countries have sent warships to patrol the area. There have been reports of skirmishes between pirates and naval forces, but the military presence does not concern pirate leader Boyah. He boasts the pirates literally sail in a vast ocean beneath the radar of the warships. VideoWatch how piracy thrives off Somalia »

“No ship has the capability to see everything,” he said. “A ship can see 80 miles or so [on radar]. It cannot see us at all. No one can do anything about it.”

Boyah said it is unlikely the Puntland regional government would ever crack down on piracy because government officials are involved in financing the piracy and collect a cut of the ransoms.

“They motivate us. It’s their money and their weapons,” Boyah said. “Thirty percent belongs to them.”

The Puntland foreign minister, Ali Abdi Aware, denied government involvement with the pirates, including taking bribes. The minister cited the arrest of six pirates earlier this year as evidence it is acting to stop piracy.

Pirate Boyah said he is unimpressed with the arrests by Puntland authorities.

“The pirates are at sea and Puntland does not approach them. The pirates are on land and Puntland does not approach them,” Boyah said. “They arrest some small people and tell the world that they captured pirates, but they are liars.”

While Boyah may have been outspoken about the government’s ineffectiveness, he did not allow interviewers to show his face, an indication that even in this lawless country, pirates still have some fear.

Interesting…..there are apparently quite a few folks out in blogger-land that feel the Somalis are actually the victims and their “retaliation” is justified:

(from commondreams.org)

Putting the ‘Pirate’ Attack in Context

A US ship, owned by a Pentagon contractor with ‘Top Security’ Clearance, was seized off the Somali coast. Reports say the US crew has retaken the ship. But the question remains: Why are the pirates attacking?

by Jeremy Scahill

UPDATE: US Crew Tricked Into Giving Over Captain to the Pirates? Meanwhile US Warships head to Scene
Just as it seemed that this drama was coming to an end, the story has taken a very bizarre turn.[The Maersk Alabama container ship which was hijacked by Somali pirates. (AFP/HO)]

The Maersk Alabama container ship which was hijacked by Somali pirates

At least one nuclear-powered warship is reportedly [1] on its way to the scene of the hijacking off the coast of Somalia of a vessel owned by a major Pentagon contractor. A US official told the Associated Press the destroyer USS Bainbridge is en route while another official said six or seven ships are responding to the takeover of the “Maersk Alabama,” which is part of a fleet of ships owned by Maersk Ltd., a US subsidiary of a Denmark firm, which does about a half-billion dollars [2] in business with the US government a year.Just as it seemed that this drama was coming to an end, the story has taken a very bizarre turn. It seems as though the pirates essentially tricked the ship’s “all-American” crew into handing over the Alabama’s captain, Capt. Richard Phillips.

After reports, based on Pentagon sources, emerged that the ship had been retaken by the US crew, word came from the ship that the captain of the “Alabama” had been taken by the pirates onto a lifeboat. The details of how exactly the four pirates managed to get the captain onto a lifeboat are still sketchy, but it seems a little bit like a scene out of a Marx brothers movie. The ship’s second mate Kenn Quinn was interviewed on CNN and described how the crew was essentially tricked into handing the captain over to the pirates. Quinn spoke [3] to CNN’s Kyra Phillips:

Quinn: When they board, they sank their boats so the captain talked them into getting off the ship with the lifeboat. But we took one of their pirates hostage and did an exchange. What? Huh? Okay. I’ve got to go.Phillips: Ken, can you stay with me for just two more seconds?

Quinn: What?

Phillips: Can you tell me about the negotiations, what you’ve offered these pirates in exchange for your captain?

Quinn: We had one of their hostages. We had a pirate we took and kept him for 12 hours. We tied him up and he was our prisoner.

Phillips: Did you return him?

Quinn: Yeah, we did. But we returned him but they didn’t return the captain. So now we’re just trying to offer them whatever we can. Food. But it’s not working too good.”

As TV Newser [3] pointed out, “Later Phillips gave what may be the understatement of the day: ‘It sounds like the pirates did not keep their end of the deal.'”

* * * *

The Somali pirates who took [4] control of the 17,000-ton “Maersk Alabama” cargo-ship in the early hours of Wednesday morning probably were unaware that the ship they were boarding belonged to a US Department of Defense contractor with “top security clearance,” which does a half-billion dollars in annual business with the Pentagon, primarily the Navy. What’s more, the ship was being operated by an “all-American” crew—there were 20 US nationals on the ship. “Every indication is that this is the first time a U.S.-flagged ship has been successfully seized by pirates,” said [5] Lt. Nathan Christensen, a spokesperson for for the U.S. Navy’s Bahrain-based 5th Fleet. The last documented pirate attack of a US vessel by African pirates was reported in 1804, off Libya, according to The Los Angeles Times [5].

The company, A.P. Moller-Maersk [6], is a Denmark-based company with a large US subsidiary, Maersk Line, Ltd, that serves US government agencies and contractors. The company, which is based in Norfolk, Virginia, runs the world’s largest fleet of US-flag vessels. The “Alabama” was about 300 miles off the coast of the Puntland region of northern Somalia when it was taken. The US military says the Alabama was not operating on a DoD contract at the time and was said to be delivering food aid.

The closest US warship to the “Alabama” at the time of the seizure was 300 miles away. The US Navy did not say how or if it would respond, but seemed not to rule out intervention. ”It’s fair to say we are closely monitoring the situation, but we will not discuss nor speculate on current and future military operations,” said [7] Navy Cmdr. Jane Campbell.

The seizure of the ship seemed to have been short-lived. At the time of this writing, the Pentagon was reporting that the US crew retook the ship and was holding one of the pirates in custody. At this point, it is unclear if the crew acted alone or had assistance from the military or another security force.

Over the past year, there has been a dramatic uptick in media coverage of the “pirates,” particularly in the Gulf of Aden. Pirates reportedly [7] took in upwards of $150 million in ransoms last year alone. In fact, at the moment the Alabama’s seizure, pirates were already holding 14 other vessels with about 200 crew members, according to the International Maritime Bureau. There have been seven hijackings in the past month alone.

Often, the reporting on pirates centers around the gangsterism of the pirates and the seemingly huge ransoms they demand. Indeed, piracy can be a very profitable business, as the following report from Reuters [8] suggests:

A rough back-of-the-envelope calculation shows that the operation to hijack the Saudi tanker, the Sirius Star, cost no more than $25,000, assuming that the pirates bought new equipment and weapons ($450 apiece for an AK-47 Kalashnikov, $5,000 for an RPG-7 grenade launcher, $15,000 for a speedboat). That contrasts with an initial ransom demand to the tanker’s owner, Saudi Aramco, of $25 million.

“Piracy is an excellent business model if you operate from an impoverished, lawless place like Somalia,” says Patrick Cullen, a security expert at the London School of Economics who has been researching piracy. “The risk-reward ratio is just huge.”

But this type of coverage of the pirates is similar to the false narrative about “tribalism” being the cause of all of Africa’s problems. Of course, there are straight-up gangsters and criminals engaged in these hijackings. Perhaps the pirates who hijacked the Alabama on Wednesday fall into that category. We do not yet know. But that is hardly the whole “pirate” story. Consider what one pirate told [9] The New York Times after he and his men seized a Ukrainian freighter “loaded with tanks, artillery, grenade launchers and ammunition” last year. “We don’t consider ourselves sea bandits,” said Sugule Ali:. “We consider sea bandits those who illegally fish in our seas and dump waste in our seas and carry weapons in our seas. We are simply patrolling our seas. Think of us like a coast guard.” Now, that “coast guard” analogy is a stretch, but his point is an important and widely omitted part of this story. Indeed the Times article was titled, “Somali Pirates Tell Their Side: They Want Only Money.” Yet, The New York Times acknowledged, “the piracy industry started about 10 to 15 years ago… as a response to illegal fishing.”

Take this fact [10]: Over $300 million worth of tuna, shrimp, and lobster are “being stolen every year by illegal trawlers” off Somalia’s coast, forcing the fishing industry there into a state of virtual non-existence.

But it isn’t just the theft of seafood. Nuclear dumping has polluted the environment. “In 1991, the government of Somalia collapsed,” wrote Johann Hari in The Independent [10]. “Its nine million people have been teetering on starvation ever since – and the ugliest forces in the Western world have seen this as a great opportunity to steal the country’s food supply and dump our nuclear waste in their seas.”

According to Hari:

As soon as the [Somali] government was gone, mysterious European ships started appearing off the coast of Somalia, dumping vast barrels into the ocean. The coastal population began to sicken. At first they suffered strange rashes, nausea and malformed babies. Then, after the 2005 tsunami, hundreds of the dumped and leaking barrels washed up on shore. People began to suffer from radiation sickness, and more than 300 died.
…

This is the context in which the “pirates” have emerged. Somalian fishermen took speedboats to try to dissuade the dumpers and trawlers, or at least levy a “tax” on them. They call themselves the Volunteer Coastguard of Somalia – and ordinary Somalis agree. The independent Somalian news site WardheerNews found 70 per cent “strongly supported the piracy as a form of national defence.”

As the media coverage of the pirates has increased, private security companies like Xe/Blackwater have stepped in, seeing profits. A few months ago, Blackwater executives flew to London to meet with shipping company executives about protecting their ships from pirate attacks. In October, the company deployed [11] the MacArthur, its “private sector warship equipped with helicopters” to the Gulf of Aden. “We have been contacted by shipowners who say they need our help in making sure goods get to their destination,” said the company’s executive vice-president, Bill Matthews. “The McArthur can help us accomplish that.”

According to an engineer [12] aboard the MacArthur, the ship, whose crew includes former Navy SEALS, was at one point stationed in an area several hundred miles off the coast of Yemen. “Security teams will escort ships around both horns of Africa, Somalia and Yemen as they head to the Suez Canal… The McArthur will serve as a staging point for the SEALs and their smaller boats.”

All of this is important to keep in context any time you see a short blurb pop up about pirates attacking ships. “Did we expect starving Somalians to stand passively on their beaches, paddling in our toxic waste, and watch us snatch their fish to eat in restaurants in London and Paris and Rome?” Hari asked. “We won’t act on those crimes – the only sane solution to this problem – but when some of the fishermen responded by disrupting the transit-corridor for 20 percent of the world’s oil supply, we swiftly send in the gunboats.”

And for a really snarky blogger’s take on this whole situation, I direct you HERE According to this blogger, the US is entirely to blame. Why am I not surprised??? There will always be a certain faction that wants to blame every heinous act upon the good old USA. While I can believe that during the Bushwhacker administration, many many unsavory and illegal and immoral and yes CRIMINAL things went on, I do not automatically believe the US is responsible for EVERY illegal or immoral or criminal act around the globe. Even IF the Somalis have a legitimate beef in complaining that their main livelihood has been devastated by commercial fishing industries, that doesnt excuse their turning to piracy as a result! What’s more, many of the ships that they are attacking are actually carrying FOOD to these hungry peoples, food which doesnt reach its intended destination!!! Now WHERE is the logic in THAT???

for an excellent program on piracy, please see the history channel. LINK

No, Im sorry. I cant feel any sympathy for these eejits. Two wrongs never have and never will make one right.

nuffsaidbutton4

Posted in because I said so, Oddz and Endz, rants
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Who is obstructing whom? (France vs Lance Armstrong)

•April 9, 2009 • Leave a Comment

Good Grief,  here we go again!  France is doing its level best to harrass Lance Armstrong in yet another pathetic attempt to smear his credibility.  The latest salvo asserts Lance Armstrong ‘initially evaded drug testing’  apparently by taking a shower???  See for yourself:

PARIS – France‘s anti-doping agency accused Lance Armstrong of violating its rules Thursday for not fully cooperating with a drug tester and says it could punish the seven-time Tour de France champion.

Armstrong has denied misbehaving during a test of his hair, urine and blood on March 17. No banned substances were found.

The agency, known as AFLD, said in a statement that the doctor leading the tests maintains Armstrong “did not respect the obligation to remain under the direct and permanent observation” of the tester.

At question is a 20-minute delay when Armstrong says the tester agreed to let him shower while the American rider’s assistants checked the tester’s credentials.

AFLD said cycling’s governing body has given its permission to open disciplinary procedures against Armstrong, but did not say what the punishment could be.

AFLD president Pierre Bordry noted that the statement does not say that Armstrong is guilty of an infraction. AFLD is expected to make a decision on whether to proceed with sanctions after its nine-member ruling committee has considered the tester’s report.

Messages left with Armstrong’s spokesman for comment Thursday were not immediately returned.

Armstrong, who has had tense relations with France’s anti-doping authorities for years, is hoping to win an eighth Tour title in July after having retired in 2005.

Bordry said the agency has not yet decided whether to seek sanctions against Armstrong. Asked if the agency is launching disciplinary proceedings, he said: “Not yet. We’ll see.”

Armstrong recently gave his own version of events, saying he wasn’t sure of the identity of the drug tester.

“I did not try to evade or delay the testing process that day,” Armstrong said in a statement Tuesday.

Armstrong was training in Beaulieu-sur-Mer in southern France when the test was conducted. Armstrong said he had returned from a ride to find the tester at his house, identifying himself as a representative of a French lab.

In France, drug testers take an oath before a court to discharge their duties honestly before they are allowed to work.

LINK

Personally, I think they are scared spitless he’s going to win an 8th Tour De France title, and they are throwing up all sorts of smoke and mirrors at him, maybe to rattle him mentally/emotionally?  Who knows.  All I know is, they sure are making themselves look desperate.  I would question a stranger’s credentials too, under the circumstances.  Lets just hope this goes away…

nuffsaidbutton4

Posted in because I said so, Oddz and Endz, rants
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Seeing double O-o

•April 8, 2009 • Leave a Comment

there must be something in the water down in Tinseltown….I mean, doesnt it seem like EVERYONE is having twins? Here is a shortlist of stars who have had (or will have) twins:

Nicole Ritchie and Joel Madden (who is himself a twin)

Dennis and Kimberly Quaid

Julia Roberts and Danny Moder

Brad Pitt and whats-her-name

Charlie Sheen and his wife Brooke

Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony

Marcia Cross and hubby

Jerry O\’Connell and Rebecca Romjin

Lisa Marie Presley and Hubby

Patrick Dempsey and wife

of course, there are also twins who have been around awhile:

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen

And twins of famous celebs you never hear about (from THIS LINK):

Jill and Jacqueline Hennessy

Kiefer and Rachel Sutherland Kiefer Sutherland – Kiefer has a twin sister named Rachel who\’s a post-production supervisor working in film and television in Toronto, Canada.

Scarlett and Hunter Johansson – Scarlett has a twin brother named Hunter who worked as community organizer at Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer\’s office and became a campaign organizer for Pressident Obama in Denver.

Ashton and Michael Kutcher – Ashton has a twin brother named Michael who born with cerebral palsy and had a life-saving heart transplant when they was 13-years-old. Michael stayed in Iowa and sells retirement plans.

Gisele and Patricia Bündchen – Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover model Gisele Bündchen has a twin sister named Patricia who act as Gisele\’s manager.

Giovanni and Marissa Ribisi – both in acting career.

Jon and Daniel Heder – identical twins, both in film business. Daniel worked as an animator on the movie \”Monster House.

Isabella and Isotta Ingrid Rossellini – flawless model Isabella Rossellini has a twin sister named Isotta Ingrid who earn a PhD in Italian Literature at Columbia University, and became a professor and taught at Harvard and Princeton.

Alanis and Wade Morissette is also a perfect celebrity twins in entertainment world.

I dunno…..I think yer asking for double diaper duty if you drink the water in Tinseltown.

Posted in because I said so, Oddz and Endz
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Just call me Underpants O’Brien!

•April 4, 2009 • 1 Comment

On Facebook, I tried this application called the Leprechaun Name Generator. It said my Leprechaun Name was

Underpants O’Brien.

LINK

I LOVE IT!! These things are so much fun! You do need to have a Facebook account to be able to access that link, however….

If any readers want to share your Leprechaun Names, please feel free to do so…

nuffsaidbutton4


Posted in Celtic/Irish, humor, its great to be Irish
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gay marriage–closer to becoming a reality

•April 3, 2009 • 1 Comment

First the Iowa Court legalizes gay marriage, and now this:

Vermont legalizes gay marriage with veto override

By DAVE GRAM, Associated Press Writer Dave Gram, Associated Press Writer 26 mins ago

MONTPELIER, Vt. – Vermont, which invented civil unions, on Tuesday became a pioneer again as the first state to legalize gay marriage through a legislature’s vote, suggesting growing popular acceptance of the idea.

The House barely achieved the votes necessary to override Gov. Jim Douglas’ veto of a bill that will allow gays and lesbians to marry beginning September 1. Four states now have same-sex marriage laws and other states soon could follow suit.

Bills to allow same-sex marriage are currently before lawmakers in New Hampshire, Maine, New York and New Jersey. The three other states that currently allow same-sex marriage — Connecticut, Massachusetts and Iowa — each moved to do so through the courts, not legislatures.

“For a popularly elected legislature to make this decision is a much more democratic process” because lawmakers have to answer to the voters every other November, said Eric Davis, a retired Middlebury College political science professor.

Courts typically deal with arcane points of constitutional law. While legislatures debate some of the same principles, the process may become much more personal. In Vermont, some of the most gripping debate came when gay and lesbian lawmakers took to the House floor last Thursday and told their own personal love stories.

Getting gay marriage approved in a political, rather than purely legal, forum is a big step, said Boston University law professor Linda McClain, an expert on family law and policy. “What may give courage to other legislatures is that this legislature managed to do it,” she said.

She added that using the civil rights language of equality — the measure in Vermont was dubbed the marriage equality bill — could help make gay marriage more acceptable elsewhere.

Opponents said they, too, believe activists will be emboldened in other states. The action comes just days after the Iowa Supreme court ruled that not permitting gay marriage there was unconstitutional.

“To the millions of Americans who care about marriage, we say get ready: President Obama and Democrats will use Vermont as an excuse to overturn the bipartisan federal Defense of Marriage Act,” said Brian Brown, executive director of the National Organization for Marriage, which waged a radio campaign against the measure. “The next step is to ask the Supreme Court to impose gay marriage on all 50 states.”

The Defense of Marriage Act, signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996, defines marriage as a legal union between a man and a woman, and provides that states need not recognize the marriage of a same sex couple from another state.

To date, the same-sex marriage movement’s main gains have been in New England, which some attribute to Yankee liberalism and the gradual acceptance of gay relationships after Vermont’s groundbreaking civil unions law took effect in 2000.

Douglas had announced his intent to veto the gay marriage bill two weeks ago, saying he believed marriage should be limited to a man and a woman and calling the issue a distraction during a time when economic and budget issues were more important.

In Tuesday’s vote, a “yes” was needed from two-thirds of those present to override the governor’s veto. The goal was easily achieved in the Senate, which voted 23-5, but in the House it was much closer, 100-49.

The speaker’s announcement of the results to a packed Statehouse chamber, set off whistles and cheers among supporters whose hopes had been temporarily dashed last month when the Republican governor announced he would veto the measure if it passed the Legislature.

Among the celebrants: Former state lawmaker Robert Dostis and his longtime partner, Chuck Kletecka. Dostis recalled efforts to expand gay rights dating to an anti-discrimination law passed in 1992.

“It’s been a very long battle. It’s been almost 20 years to get to this point,” Dostis said. “I think finally, most people in Vermont understand that we’re a couple like any other couple. We’re as good and as bad as any other group of people.”

Dostis said he and Kletecka will celebrate their 25th year together in September.

“Is that a proposal?” Kletecka asked.

“Yeah,” Dostis replied. “Twenty-five years together, I think it’s time we finally got married.”

Craig Bensen, a gay marriage opponent who had lobbied unsuccessfully for a nonbinding referendum on the question, said his side was outspent by supporters by 20-1.

“The other side had a highly funded, extremely well-oiled machine with all the political leadership except the governor pushing to make this happen,” he said. “The fact that it came down to this tight a vote is really astounding.”

The measure had only 95 “yea” votes when it passed the House on Friday. But some changed their votes Tuesday.

Rep. Jeff Young, D-St. Albans, who voted no twice because he’s philosophically opposed to gay marriage, joined most other Democrats in voting to override Douglas’ veto.

“I think if I wanted to continue my career here and have any chance of being effective, I had to vote with my caucus,” he said.

“You have some pet projects, you think you can help your district back home with things that need to happen,” he said. “I want to get a railroading bill through. I wouldn’t even have had a chance to testify, let alone get it through. Now, people will listen to me. It’s the way the political game is played.”

House Speaker Shap Smith said he didn’t use any specific arguments to get lawmakers to switch. He said he had argued mainly that they should support the will of the legislative majorities on the bill’s initial approvals — 95-52 in the House and 26-4 in the Senate.

“I thought it was to some degree just a vote to recognize the work that the Legislature had done,” the speaker said.

Sitting next to him was Rep. William Lippert, D-Hinesburg, a gay man who championed both the 2000 civil unions bill and this year’s gay marriage legislation.

“It’s been an incredibly powerful personal journey,” Lippert said. “I consider it my personal great good fortune to be a member of the Vermont Legislature under the leadership of speakers who have in fact prioritized civil rights for the community of which I’m a part. It touches me deeply.”

I personally am THRILLED about this newz. Mostly becuz it finally FINALLY gives Gay folks the same rights as Hetero folks, and to date, Ive heard NO compelling reason why they shouldnt be treated equally under the law. Personally, I dont think ANYONE has any right to dictate to another person who they should love for crying out loud. Thats just ASININE. I myself am straight so any trolls who think they can attack me based on my own sexuality can just go take a long walk off a short pier. Anyone who tries to bring religion into the mix is blatantly ignoring the concept of religious freedom upon which this country was founded , so any right wing nutjobs can keep their homophobias to themselves as far as IM concerned. That makes 3 states and counting. To all my Gay friends, Im with you 100%, and I vote and I DO write my congresspersons..so….Im with you all in your fight no matter how long it takes!!!!!

nuffsaidbutton4

Posted in because I said so, Oddz and Endz
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