ANOTHER HUMAN BIRD FLU CLUSTER IN INDONESIA

Xinhua:

Eight people from the same village in Indonesia's Lampung province were admitted to hospital allegedly for developing bird flu symptoms, local press said Thursday.

The patients, including two babies and two teenagers, all come from Way Laga village where dozens of chickens have died of the avian influenza.

They were sent to the state-run Abdul Moeloek Hospital in provincial capital Bandarlampung with high fever and respiratory problems after eating the infected chickens, reported the national Antara news agency.

Lampung is located in the southern tip of Sumatra island.

"The patients are placed in the isolated rooms and have undergone laboratory tests. But it takes several days before we get the results," the hospital's director Dr Wirman was quoted as saying.

At least 102 people have died from bird flu out of some 125 reported cases in Indonesia since the outbreak was confirmed in 2003.

IT'S ONLY A MATTER OF TIME...

CIA'S RENDITION JET SPOTTED IN HUNGARY?

PEOPLE'S DAILY:

An unmarked Boeing 737 airplane, which was thought to be used for CIA rendition flights, has been spotted recently in central Europe, Hungary's national daily Nepszabadsag [A LEFT-WING PAPER] reported on Wednesday.

However, U.S. embassy press attache Jan Krc said he had no knowledge of any CIA-run planes to Hungary or elsewhere.

MORE HERE AT THE BUDAPEST TIMES:

The paper carries a photo of the white plane allegedly taken at Budapest's international Ferihegy airport. The plane bears the registration number N34315.

Reports quoted by the paper suggest that the plane is used to transport terrorist suspects from South Asia and the Middle East to the United States.

The most recent spotting was made by a Slovak television reporter at Bratislava airport. It is the same plane as the one photographed in Budapest in 2006, said the paper. It is also claimed to be the same plane seen at Ireland's Shannon airport.

MAYBE WE RECENTLY CAUGHT A BIG FISH?

Air Force to buy 300 PS3s

GAMEPRO: US Air Force to buy 300 PS3s for 'technology assessment'

"The Air Force Research Laboratory is conducting a technology assessment of certain cell processors," reads the request for proposal. "The processors in the Sony PlayStation 3 are the only brand on the market that utilises the specific cell processor characteristics needed for this program at an acceptable cost."

... this isn't the first time the PS3 is being used for non-gaming tasks. Participating system owners can already have their PS3 crunch cancer research numbers when idle.

COOL.

BBC WROTE FAKED REPORT ON HOUSE OF HAMAS TERRORIST, FOX NEWS NOTICED

FOX News took note of Camera's report on how the BBC faked a report about the house of murderer of several students at Mercaz Harav, with the intention of getting people to sympathise with the devil. The house has yet to be demolished, but the Beeb claimed it had been, when in fact, it had not, though it most certainly should be torn down soon.

Now that's something to give FOX credit for.

A RESPONSE TO ANDREW REVKIN

An email from John A of Climate Audit [climateaudit@gmail.com]

I focus on the new challenge from Andrew Revkin:

"A question for climate skeptics: I presume you agree there's at least a chance you could be wrong, just as you assert those pointing to a clearcut climate apocalypse have little basis for their claims. On that front, I'd be curious to know what you'd propose as a backup plan if the climate's sensitivity to CO2 turns out to be higher than you think?"

Where is the empirical evidence that the earth's climate has any measureable sensitivity to carbon dioxide rise? Theoretically in an equilibrium situation carbon dioxide rises should cause warming. But then we're not in an equilibrium situation. Personally I am baffled by calculations of "climate sensitivity to carbon dioxide" which ignore the fundamental problem that all reconstructions of carbon dioxide versus temperature from ice cores show that temperatures rise first and then centuries later carbon dioxide (and that other dread GHG methane) begin to rise.

Even while carbon dioxide continues to rise , the previous started warming proceeds at the same rate, and then stops abruptly and begins a relatively slow decline. I am baffled because of two things:

1. How can supposed cause or even amplification of temperature rise by carbon dioxide induced warming be deduced from this behaviour which is the reverse of that assumed in greenhouse theory?

2. If the ice core records are correct about the amount of carbon dioxide in ancient atmospheres being lower than today's value (which in itself opens a whole new can of worms about ice core sampling), and given that the theoretical response of temperature rise to carbon dioxide rise is logarithmic, why don't any ice cores show any sensitivity to carbon dioxide at lower levels when the sensitivity should be much higher?

I ask these questions genuinely openly without sarcasm. Which brings me to Andrew Revkin's question: Andrew Revkin assumes that "climate skeptics" are a priori biased for some reason unable to see the marvellous truth of greenhouse gas theory, but why should anyone believe in a theory for which there is no empirical evidence? What if we've all been steamrollered into accepting a hypothesis of "climate sensitivity" to carbon dioxide which is false? If the sensitivity is even higher, as Andrew Revkin asks us to consider, why has this never been seen in the past when amounts of carbon dioxide were much lower?

So first, before too much else happens, before we invent fantastical geo-engineering schemes to manage the Earth's climate, will someone explain what is the climate sensitivity of carbon dioxide rise eight hundred years hence upon the temperature rise of today?

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your handy-dandy summary of Obama news and commentary at OBAMA WATCH

The subprime mortgage collapse was government-caused

The crisis has its roots in the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, a Carter-era law that purported to prevent "redlining" -- denying mortgages to black borrowers -- by pressuring banks to make home loans in "low- and moderate-income neighborhoods." Under the act, banks were to be graded on their attentiveness to the "credit needs" of "predominantly minority neighborhoods." The higher a bank's rating, the more likely that government regulators would say yes when the bank sought to open a new branch or undertake a merger or acquisition.

But to earn high ratings, banks were forced to make increasingly risky loans to borrowers who wouldn't qualify for a mortgage under normal standards of creditworthiness. The CRA, made even more stringent during the Clinton administration, trapped lenders in a Catch-22. "If they comply," wrote Loyola College economist Thomas DiLorenzo, "they know they will have to suffer from more loan defaults. If they don't comply, they face financial penalties . . . which can cost a large corporation like Bank of America billions of dollars."

Banks nationwide thus ended up making more and more "subprime" loans and agreeing to dangerously lax underwriting standards -- no down payment, no verification of income, interest-only payment plans, weak credit history. If they tried to compensate for the higher risks they were taking by charging higher interest rates, they were accused of unfairly steering borrowers into "predatory" loans they couldn't afford.

Trapped in a no-win situation entirely of the government's making, lenders could only hope that home prices would continue to rise, staving off the inevitable collapse. But once the housing bubble burst, there was no escape. Mortgage lenders have been bankrupted, thousands of subprime homeowners have been foreclosed on, and countless would-be borrowers can no longer get credit. The financial fallout has hurt investors around the world. And all of it thanks to the government, which was sure it understood the credit industry better than the free market did, and confidently created the conditions that made disaster unavoidable.

Source

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your handy-dandy summary of Obama news and commentary at OBAMA WATCH

WITH SPITZER GONE, NEXT UP - IN 2010 - WILL BE CUOMO VERSUS BLOOMBERG

PREDICTION: CUOMO WILL WIN THE DEM NOMINATION. AND BLOOMBERG WILL WIN THE NOMINATION FOR THE GOP.

AND BLOOMBERG WILL WIN THE ELECTION IN A LANDSLIDE

VIDEO: BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA JUNIOR AND REZKO, THE SYRIAN SLUM-LORD

VIA REZKOWATCH:

Eleven of Rezko's UNLIVABLE buildings (built using $100 MILLION in sweetheart deals from the government! YEAH: THIS IS BIGGER BADDER AND WORSE THAN WHITEWATER!) were in Barack Hussein Obama Junior's OWN DISTRICT. And Rezko was represented by the law-firm where Obama worked.

And the usually loquacious Obama won't answer any questions about it...

GEE I WONDER WHY?!

THREE CHILDREN DIE OF FLU IN HONG KONG: HUNDREDS SICK; SCHOOLS SHUT - IS IT SARS OR BIRD FLU?

BBC: HK schools close amid flu fears

All kindergartens and junior schools in Hong Kong have closed early for their Easter holiday, after a flu-like illness killed three children.

The Education Bureau described the move as a "precautionary measure".

More than 30 students from one school have showed flu-like symptoms and three children have died from apparently similar illnesses in recent weeks.

Experts are investigating a link to either bird flu or Sars, a respiratory disease that hit Hong Kong in 2003.

The kindergartens and junior schools will be closed for two weeks, affecting more than half a million children.

Almost 200 cases of suspected flu have been reported so far.

Hong Kong's health chief, York Chow, said the decision to close the schools was made as the high rate of flu-like infections was expected to continue for weeks.

"We hope such precautionary measures will help reduce the cross-infection of the flu virus in schools and the community," the official Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying.

Expert team

Over the weekend seven-year-old Law Ho-ming was admitted to hospital in a semi-conscious state, suffering from fever and flu.

He died on Tuesday from encephalitis - swelling of the brain.

IS IT SARS? BIRD FLU? PANIC? STAY TUNED...

ANOTHER BLOW AGAINST FREE SPEECH - IN SWEDEN

GOV:

Sweden is a bastion of free speech.

Just ask the Swedish government, or the Swedish media. When it comes to speaking out in favor of avant-garde gay lifestyles, or against Christianity, or in support of transgressive antinomianism, Sweden is in the forefront.

But there are limits, and criticizing Muslims crosses the line.

Don’t you know that free speech must be responsible speech?

From The Local:

Man sentenced for carrying offensive placard

A man who displayed a placard accusing immigrants of group rape at an anti-racism rally has been convicted of agitation against an ethnic group.

During a March 2007 rally organized in the south west coast town of Ängelholm by SSU, the youth wing of the Social Democratic Party, the man was seen holding a sign reading, “While Swedish girls are being group raped by immigrant gangs the SSU is fighting racism.”

• YOU'D THINK THAT BEING ARRESTED FOR A PLACARD LIKE THIS COULD ONLY HAPPEN IN PUTIN'S RUSSIA OR AHMADINEJAD'S IRAN. NOT SWEDEN,

• IN A POSTMODERN-LEFTIST SOCIETY, THE IDEOLOGICAL COMMITMENT TO MULTICULTURALISM (WHICH IS MERELY A FANCY NAME FOR THE EFFORT TO DESTROY JUDEO-CHRISTIAN/WESTERN CIVILIZATION) TRUMPS FREE SPEECH.

• WHICH IS WHY LEFTIST SOCIETIES DEVOLVE INTO TYRANNIES.

SADLY, SWEDEN - AND MUCH OF EUROPE - IS ON THAT PATH.

TO FIND OUT MORE, BUY THIS BOOK.

The Evidence continues to Pile Up like a Giant Snowdrift: Global Warming is the Hoax of the Century

Never have so many otherwise balanced and rational people been so cowed and so completely sold a bill of goods than have those who have bought into to the Great Global Warming Hoax.

As the scientific evidence continues to pile up that whatever warming has occurred over the last half century has nothing whatsoever to do with human CO2 emissions; nevertheless the same snake oil salesmen (who are profiting obscenely from this hysteria with their "carbon credits" -- just as men like Jimmy Swaggert and Jim Baker took advantage of fearful and gullible Christians for millions of dollars) continue to preach the same tired "the end is nigh" prophecies of doom and gloom to keep their own sleazy "money train" coming in. Meanwhile real problems like cancer research, AIDS, drinking water and basic services for the third world continue to receive peanuts in comparison.

The worldwide purveyors of this "religous cult" have one overriding purpose, and that is to transform a sovereign, powerful United States into a funding mechanism (that means out of YOUR paychecks, folks..) for their bankrupt vision of World Socialism. The idea is to create enough hysteria that Americans will gladly give up billions of dollars of their own money for UN sponsored programs, corrupt governments, and NGOs.

Meanwhile the Green Lobby continues to line the pockets of Global Warmism "evangelists" and corrupt Democrat politicians, designed to prevent the same US from harnessing its own plentiful energy resources, becoming more self-dependent, and becoming less dependent on the countries who want to spread the pestilence of Islamic Radicalism to a neighborhood near you.

They want to generate enough hysteria and fear that these same "on the take" politicians will have the cover needed to sink hundreds of billions of YOUR money into unproven Green technologies (some, like Ethanol, which are already driving food prices through the roof). Meanwhile free market solutions--for example energy companies like Exxon, Chevron, and Shell, who are already investing billions in private research into clean energy alternatives, more efficiently than our bloated Government could ever dream of--are roundly condemned by the same politicians, that are in the pocket of the Green lobby, and who in many cases are making hundreds of millions of dollars in selling hysteria-based "carbon credits". What is their response to these energy companies? Why to tax them heavily for making profits (thus removing the capital these companies are putting into this valuable research.). Insanity.

If the scare-mongers' scheme succeeds, the result will be to further cripple our already stretched-to-the-limit economy, to send still greater numbers of American workers s to the unemployment lines (and thus making more citizens more dependent on their social programs and handouts--funded again, by higher taxes on YOU)...and ultimately to cede increasing amounts of American sovereignty to organizations like the utterly corrupt United Nations.

And for what? The same "scientists" who can't tell you with accuracy what the temperature in one location is going to be exactly one week from today are pretending they have unassailable "models" (which has flatly been proven to be complete fabrication) that know what temperatures worldwide are going to be 100 years from now?

The most stunning thing of all is that people are actually swallowing this load of garbage, with the help of the leftist media and corrupt politicians. Con men selling snake oil remedies in the old West had as much "science" behind their outrageous claims as do today's "consensus scientists".

Unfortunately for those who are on the receiving end of the Global Warming Church's "collection plates", real scientific evidence does continues to pile up--but against the poison they are peddling. Previous "true believers" have now turned into skeptics--esteemed scientists who now are treated as pariahs by their colleagues, who fear that if the truth does come out, all of their grants and funding will dry up. Which it probably would do...

The immorality of this waste is staggering; there are so many more pressing problems that would be a better use for an estimated $558 Trillion which governments advocate spending on this what amounts to nothing more than "religious faith" (and in reality, is as much of a leap of faith as is the immaculate conception), that it defies the imagination. Yet in the face of all this new evidence, the very same charlatans continue to preach the same message--gloom and doom--even as the science now coming in refutes their outrageous claims one by one.

When will the madness end?

Gateway Pundit continues to chronicle the hoax of the Century, that becomes more fantastic with each passing day:

Several scientific studies along with record cold temperatures this past year in both hemispheres is shedding light on the fallacy of manmade global warming.
Merinews reported:

Satellite measurements available since 1979 show no warming in the southern hemisphere and the trend in the northern hemisphere appears to have waned since 2001.

--In August 2007, the UK Met Office acknowledged that obvious global warming had stopped.

--Paleo-climate scientist Bob Carter testifying before the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works has noted that the accepted global average temperature statistics used by IPCC show no ground-based warming has occurred since 1998.

--A research led by David Bromwich, Professor of Atmospheric Science in the Department of Geography at Ohio State University and researchers with the Byrd Polar Research Centre at Ohio State University shows that during the late 20th century, the temperature in Antarctica did not rise to the level predicted by many global warming models.

--According to UN scientist Madhav L. Khandekar, a retired Environment Canada scientist and an expert IPCC reviewer in 2007, the recent worldwide analysis of ocean surface temperatures shows that sea surface temperatures over world oceans are slowly declining since mid-1998.

--While the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is steadily rising from 280 ppm and might reach 560 ppm by 2100 as predicted by IPCC, the world’s average temperature, instead of following a steep upward gradient, is actually plunging after a period of upward trend. However, the IPCC is not coming out publicly with the truth surrounding the correlation between rise in carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere and its possible consequence on global warming, if any.

--A study by researchers of the Atmospheric Science Group, Department of Mathematical Science, at the University of Wisconsin, found that global warming in the last century was linked to natural causes.

--The Royal Meteorological Institute at Brussels in its report last year said that not carbon dioxide but the most important greenhouse gas was water vapour; it was responsible for 75 per cent of the greenhouse effect. According to Belgian climate scientist Lu Debontridder, the warm winters of the last few years in Belgium are simply due to the North-Atlantic oscillation that has absolutely nothing to do with carbon dioxide.

--A study published in Science last September found that contrary to past inferences from ice core records, carbon dioxide did not cause the end of the last ice age. According to the same study, deep-sea temperatures warmed about 1,300 years before the tropical surface ocean and well before the rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide.

--USC geologist Lowell Scot, the lead author of the study, said that the climate dynamics are much more complex than simply saying that carbon dioxide rises and the temperature warms.

--The IPCC climate model is based on the assumption that increased warming would cause more rainfall that would produce more clouds on the higher reaches of the atmosphere. Since high clouds have a net warming effect this would cause more warming, more rainfall and the cycle will continue. It is this positive feedback that causes the UN climate models to predict a temperature rise in the range of 2.5 degree Celsius to 4.7 degree Celsius due to rise in the level of carbon dioxide to 560 ppm. Dr Roy Spencer along with researchers at the University of Alabama Huntsville and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, California, after observing the temperatures, clouds and rainfall reported that warming is actually associated with fewer high clouds. There is no data to support the theory that more rainfall will produce more high-altitude clouds.

--The mainstream media seems to be purposely ignoring the bulk of the findings by renowned researchers throughout the globe that the current global warming fear attributed solely to carbon dioxide rise is utterly unfounded.

Dave wrote in that the February global temperature anomalies show that February like January was another cold month.

Have they asked Al Gore to return the Peace Prize, yet?

If you still are a believer that man-made CO2 is a problem, this may be the most important hour or so you will ever spend. And if you you are one of those who used to "go along with the 'progressive' on this, just to get along", it is not too late to let your Congressmen and Senators know that there are much more pressing matters that deserve more attention than does this charade. The American economy for one...

"Progressive" - one who believes in progress--towards the destruction of the greatest experiment in democracy, freedom, and created wealth in World History. And Global Warming is their primary vehicle to make this happen. Don't let these modern day televangelists get away with it.

Finally there are three video segments of Charlie Rose grilling Dr. Michael Crichton regarding his views on Global Warming, and a couple of other Crichton videos that are really worth watching here on the subject:

• Environmentalist/Economist Bjorn Lomborg on our skewed priorities
  
• Rose and Crichton on Global Warming (Part 1)
• Rose and Crichton on Global Warming (Part 2)
• Rose and Crichton on Global Warming (Part 3)
• Crichton Statement on a Debate on Global Warming
• Excerpt from Crichton speech: States of Fear - Science or Politics?
  

It is difficult to fathom how any reasonable person--who actually who spent the time to read all of what I have linked and view the linked videos (especially the one linked above as "the most important hour, etc..."), yet persists in calling this a crisis that argues for a $558 Trillion crash program for the world to end this "catastrophe" now--is either a religious fanatic or a Marxist--or both.

Many of the same people who refuse to view this evidence did not have any problem whatsoever throwing their money away to watch Al Gore's refuse film (I actually saw it on HBO and almost became ill...). In reality the alarmist conclusions of An Inconvenient Truth have been all but disproven already. It is pure fear-mongering. And it has made this modern day Oral Roberts a very rich man, and the toast of the Far Left.

The longer that we as a society continue to treat unfounded alarmist predictions like Gore's as "fact", when almost none of the actual science supports his conclusions, the closer we will come to a real catastrophe--and one that could have easily been avoided if we had only had the good sense to listen to the facts, not to America-hating politicians.

David Mamet Will Go To Heaven After All

David Mamet gets Saved; becomes a Conservative:

I found I had been—rather charmingly, I thought—referring to myself for years as
"a brain-dead liberal," and to NPR as "National Palestinian Radio."

This
is, to me, the synthesis of this worldview with which I now found myself
disenchanted: that everything is always wrong.

But in my life, a brief
review revealed, everything was not always wrong, and neither was nor is always
wrong in the community in which I live, or in my country. Further, it was not
always wrong in previous communities in which I lived, and among the various and
mobile classes of which I was at various times a part.

And, I wondered,
how could I have spent decades thinking that I thought everything was always
wrong at the same time that I thought I thought that people were basically good
at heart? Which was it? I began to question what I actually thought and found
that I do not think that people are basically good at heart; indeed, that view
of human nature has both prompted and informed my writing for the last 40 years.
I think that people, in circumstances of stress, can behave like swine, and that
this, indeed, is not only a fit subject, but the only subject, of drama.

I'd observed that lust, greed, envy, sloth, and their pals are giving
the world a good run for its money, but that nonetheless, people in general seem
to get from day to day; and that we in the United States get from day to day
under rather wonderful and privileged circumstances—that we are not and never
have been the villains that some of the world and some of our citizens make us
out to be, but that we are a confection of normal (greedy, lustful, duplicitous,
corrupt, inspired—in short, human) individuals living under a spectacularly
effective compact called the Constitution, and lucky to get it.

That's great news. One less person will have to go to hell.

Oh, by the way, just in case you don't understand the humor, here's another joke ...

Q: How many Liberals does it take to change a lightbulb?

A: How much money you got? And, by the way, that's not funny, and we're bringing you up on Human Rights charges just for asking.

YESHIVA ATTACKER'S HOUSE TO BE DEMOLISHED

The order has been given to police to hand it the wrecking ball.

They'll be doing the right thing by leveling the house of the scummy Hamas-supporting family that raised that monster.

Leftist Jew-hatred virulent in Australia too

Back to the 1930s and uncle Adolf. Hitler's view of Jews would be counted as wise among today's Leftists, though not among the centre-Leftists who at present run Australia. Once again it is the conservatives who are the best friends of Israel

A bipartisan motion congratulating Israel on 60 years of statehood has provoked division in federal Labor, with one government MP threatening to boycott the vote and union heavyweights accusing the Jewish state of racism and ethnic cleansing. The parliamentary motion is due to be passed by MPs today, commemorating 60 years of friendship between Australia andIsrael.

The motion provoked a clash between Kevin Rudd and Labor MP Julia Irwin yesterday after Ms Irwin questioned why the Government was supporting the gesture, given Israel's treatment of the Palestinians. And today a group of individuals and organisations, including the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union, the Maritime Union of Australia and South Australian Democrat MP Sandra Kanck, have put their names to an advertisement in The Australian condemning themotion. "We, as informed and concerned [and hate-filled] Australians, choose to disassociate ourselves from a celebration of the triumph of racism and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians since the al-Nakba (Catastrophe) of 1948," the advertisement reads.

Today's motion will commemorate Australia's role in the establishment of Israel and commend Israel's commitment to democracy, the rule of law and pluralism. It reiterates Australia's commitment to Israel's right to exist and to finding a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian issue.

Partyroom sources told The Australian that Ms Irwin unsuccessfully attempted to table a number of Amnesty International reports during yesterday's caucus meeting, which she said detailed Israel's alleged mistreatment of the Palestinians. Ms Irwin told The Australian she had yet to decide if she would support the motion.

National secretary of the CFMEU John Sutton said the union was critical of Israel's treatment of Palestinians. Referring to the recent violence, he condemned the "latest slaughter of Palestinians". The man who authorised the CFMEU's participation in the ad, NSW secretary Andrew Ferguson - brother of Labor MPs Laurie and Martin Ferguson - said while he objected to some of the more pungent language in the statement, he supported the basic thrust. He said the CFMEU had no problem with Israel's right to exist.

Sections of Labor's Left have long struggled to reconcile themselves to the party's support of Israel, and the problem threatened a rift between Labor and the Jewish lobby last year. In 2003, Ms Irwin called for UN intervention in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and read an email to the parliament that described the Jewish lobby in Australia as "the most implacable, arrogant, cruel and powerful lobby in the country". The head of the Australia-Israel and Jewish Affairs Council, Colin Rubenstein, dismissed Ms Irwin's remarks, saying Israel's critics in the ALP were confined to the party's fringes.

Source

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your handy-dandy summary of Obama news and commentary at OBAMA WATCH

JUNE 12, 2008: THE DATE IRELAND CAN STOP THE EUSSR AND SAVE A DEMOCRATIC EUROPE

BBC:

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern says the vote on the Lisbon Treaty will be held in the second week of June.

He told the Dail - the lower house of parliament - that a final decision on a date was still to be made.

"The government have more or less signed off on the date. It is really a question about the day of the week".

Ireland is the only member state planning a vote on the treaty which reforms the EU's institutions and replaces the ill-fated EU constitution.

In 2001, Irish voters created a problem for Brussels by rejecting the Nice Treaty although they approved it the following year.

A vote against the Lisbon Treaty would jeopardise efforts to bring it into force in January 2009 as it has to be ratified by all 27 member states.

I pray the Irish do what's right: defeat the treaty.

The Brits would do it if they got the chance - which is why the left-wing Labour Party reneged on a promise and is in the process of ratifying the treaty. BBC:

EU treaty bill clears the Commons

The government says a referendum is not needed on the treaty
The controversial bill which will ratify the Lisbon Treaty has cleared its final Commons stages.

MPs voted by 346 votes to 206 to approve the EU (Amendment) Bill, after topic-by-topic debates over six weeks.

For the Conservatives, William Hague accused ministers of "ramming through" the bill without a referendum.

But Foreign Secretary David Miliband [whise father was a major SOCIALIST] said the treaty was good for the UK and said Conservative "scaremongering" was "dangerous and deluded".

The Bill, which will now go to the Lords, will ratify the Lisbon Treaty - which was drawn up to replace the EU constitution, after that was rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005.

'Prosperity agenda'

Last week the Conservatives lost a vote on their proposal to put the treaty to a referendum - something opposed by the government and Lib Dems who say the treaty does not have constitutional implications.

AS OTHERS HAVE WRITTEN, the west derides Putin for his anti-democratic ways, and then rams through this HUGELY UNPOPULAR treaty without ANY democracy.

"YOU FIGHT THE DEMOCRATS WITH THE GOP YOU HAVE, NOT THE GOP YOU WANT."

RUMSFELD WAS RIGHT WHEN HE SAID:

"As you know, you go to war with the Army you have. They’re not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time."

THE SAME IS TRUE OF ELECTIONS.

I DON'T LOVE MCCAIN.

HE'S TOO LIBERAL, AND TOO SOFT ON THE WAR. (WANTS TO CLOSE GITMO, ETC.)

BUT HE'S LIGHT YEARS BETTER THAN ANY DEMOCRAT WITH A CHANCE AT THE NOMINATION.

AND HE CAN WIN.

AND DEFEATING THE DEMOCRATS IS JOB ONE.

I'LL BE VOTING FOR MCCAIN THIS FALL.

I WON'T JUST BE HOLDING MY NOSE; I'LL BE WEARING A GAS MASK.

BUT I WILL SUPPORT HIM.

BECAUSE YOU FIGHT THE DEMOCRATS WITH THE GOP YOU HAVE, NOT THE GOP YOU WANT OR WISH TO HAVE AT A LATER TIME.

FORMER MUSLIM MARYAM NAMAZIE: "It's time to take a stand against Islam and Sharia."

TIMES OF LONDON:

Picture this, says Maryam Namazie: “A child is swathed in cloth from head to toe every day. Everything but her face and hands are covered for fear that a man might find her attractive. At school she learns that she is worth less than a boy. She is not allowed to dance or swim or feel the sun on her skin or the wind in her hair. This is clearly unacceptable, yet it is accepted when it is done in the name of religion.”

Namazie is the founder of the Council of Ex-Muslims in Britain (CEMB) which started life in the middle of last year. On Monday - in celebration of the centenary of International Women's Day - she spoke at a conference on Political Islam and Women's Rights, and launched a campaign against Sharia.

Iranian Muslim by birth, Namazie, 41, is friendly and softly spoken. But she does not mince her words.

It takes nerve to start an organisation for people who have rejected Islam.

In Islamic law, apostasy is punishable by death.

Namazie receives periodic threats, usually on her mobile phone: “One said, 'You are going to be decapitated'...I went to the police. They were very attentive at first because they thought it might be linked to the attempted bombings in Glasgow . But when they realised it wasn't, they never bothered contacting me again.” Doesn't she worry about her safety? “Yes, I do, frequently. I worry about whether I will live, especially now I am a mother. If I see someone looking at me strangely, I wonder.”

Why doesn't she use a pseudonym? “They can find out who you are anyway. And the point of the Council of Ex-Muslims is to stand up and be counted.”

She doesn't really like the label ex-Muslim and would prefer not to frame her identity in religious terms but, she says, it is like gays “coming out” 30 years ago: something has to become public if you are to break taboos.

The CEMB has more than 100 members with inquiries from people who do not dare to join. “Some have horrendous stories but do not put them on the website because they are afraid.”

RTWT.

SILDA WALL SPITZER: ONE OF ELIOT'S MOST TRUSTED ADVISORS

FROM THE 11/10/06 NYTIMES PROFILE OF MRS. ELIOT SPITZER:

Moreover, Mr. Spitzer’s circle of close advisers is small, and his wife is among those he trusts most on political matters, friends and aides say.

“I can’t imagine he would do anything significant — from appointments he would make to major decisions on policy issues — without full consultation with her,” said Lloyd Constantine, a former prosecutor who was the chairman of the transition committee in 1998 as Mr. Spitzer prepared to take office as New York attorney general.

Mr. Spitzer makes no bones about his wife’s influence. “At the end of every day, there’s the inevitable recounting of what I was doing and where we’re heading on different issues,” he said. “She pushes me to defend my views where we disagree. If I can’t convince her, I know my thinking needs work.”

He cited Ms. Wall Spitzer’s “deeply held sense of ethics” and her intellect as forming the bedrock of her judgment. “I rely on her very much as someone to talk to in order to resolve a tough issue,” he added. “What length of sentence to ask for, how severe a fine should be. They come down to questions of what is just and fair.”

• WHAT A STEAMING CROCK OF SHIT.
• SHE SHOULD TAKE THE THREE CHILDREN, HALF HIS MONEY - AND SPLIT.

TWO TERRORISTS ARRESTED IN PHILIPPINES TOURIST RESORT

XINHUA:

Two suspected terrorists, including a foreigner, were arrested by intelligence agents on the Philippines' tourist island of Boracay in the central Aklan province, media reports said on Tuesday.

The arrested suspects were named as Almizhabr Bonadial, a suspected Jemaah Islamiyah member, and Mohammad Bani Macarya suspected to be a member of the Abu Sayyaf Group, Philippine TV network ABS-CBN reported, citing a military source.

The Indonesia-based militant group Jemaah Islamiyah and the AbuSayyaf, a small but violent southern Philippine-based group blacklisted by Washington as a terror organization, have been blamed for a series of deadly bomb attacks, including the February 2004 bombing of a ferry in Manila Bay that killed more than 100 persons.

The two were arrested in operations conducted on Boracay Islandlast week, the source said.

• THESE COWARDLY JIHADI SCUM USUALLY ATTACK RESORTS, BARS, YESHIVAS, PET MARKETS - SO IF THEY WERE ARRESTED IN BORACAY, THEN IT'S LIKELY THEY WERE GOING TO ATTACK OR KIDNAP SOME TOURISTS, (AS THEY JUST DID IN TUNISIA).

• WE MUST ERASE THESE COWARDLY JIHADI SCUM FROM THE FACE OF THE EARTH - ANYWAY WE CAN.

Top 8 reasons Mrs. Spitzer should have known Eliot was cheating

1. While in the throes of passion, kept moaning his Mastercard number
2. Referred to his privates as the "stimulus package"
3. Mentioned that he kept running into Charlie Sheen.
4. Mysterious collection notices from "Pleasure Island"
5. Always humming theme song from Shaft in the shower
6. Traded in Ford Explorer for '72 Cadillac Fleetwood with curb feelers
7. Wore mink overcoat and hat in bed
8. Yellow crime scene tape in his pants

Also see: Eliot Spitzer croons his greatest hits!

NANO-SOOT FROM DIESEL MAY CAUSE BRAIN-DAMAGE

ABC/REUTERS:

Inhaling diesel exhaust triggers a stress response in the brain that may have damaging long-term effects on brain function, Dutch researchers said on Tuesday.

Previous studies have found very small particles of soot, or nanoparticles, are able to travel from the nose and lodge in the brain. But this is the first time researchers have demonstrated a change in brain activity.

... Further research is needed to determine the clinical effect of this stress and whether it has any long-term impact on verbal and non-verbal intelligence or memory abilities.

Still, the result appears to be another black mark for nanoparticles found in traffic fumes, which have already been linked with increased rates of respiratory and cardiovascular disease.

• MAYBE WE NEED TO WALK AROUND WEARING GAS MASKS WITH NANO-FILTERS.
• OR OR PUT THEM ON TRUCK EXHAUSTS.
• AND ON THE EXHAUSTS OF ALL THE NEW HIGH MPG DIESEL CARS COMING OUT.

NANOTECH ON RYE: IS IT SAFE?

ABC/AU:

The food industry's increasing use of nanotechnology in ingredients, additives and packaging has prompted two new reports calling for better consumer protection.

The reports, one a review led by UK government scientists and the other by an international lobby group, add to growing calls for better safety assessment and regulation of nanotechnology in food.

Complicating the issue is debate about which sized particles can cross into the body's cells and whether the commonly used definition of nanotechnology is adequate.

Scientists writing in the latest issue of the journal Food Additives and Contaminants say the food industry, including Australia's, is already using some nanotechnology, and safety research is needed urgently.

YIPES!

RTWT.