Dyre Portents The Rantings and Ravings of a Radical Moderate Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 0 0 72 6351

Articles from Dyre Portents

Bush Proposes Talks on Warming 2007-06-01 11:29:11 Pre-Summit Speech Marks Shift by U.S.By Michael A. Fletcher and Juliet EilperinWashington Post Staff WritersThursday, May 31, 2007; A01 President Bush sought yesterday to take the initiative on global warming talks in which the administration had previously been a reluctant participant, offering to launch negotiations aimed at having the world's most prolific polluters agree on long-term goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The proposal, which Bush unveiled in a speech outlining his priorities for the Group of Eight summit in Germany next week, signaled a shift in the administration's often-criticized approach to combating global warming while offering what the president called a "new framework" for addressing the issue. Though the president is still not backing a mandatory cap on carbon dioxide emissions, he made it clear that he would like the United States to play a major role in shaping global environmental policy after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012."In recent years ...

King of Spam Canned 2007-06-01 11:22:51 Finally a great victory in the war everyone supports.Longtime 'Spam King' Charged With FraudBy Alan SipressWashington Post Staff WriterFriday, June 1, 2007; A01From his 17th-floor Seattle apartment overlooking Puget Sound, Robert A. Soloway allegedly ran an illicit network of computers around the world, secretly commandeering the machines of thousands of unsuspecting bystanders. Prosecutors say Internet users who clicked on infected e-mails and Web sites inadvertently took part in his criminal endeavor: spam.Soloway, 27, used his empire of hijacked "zombie" computers to send tens of millions of unsolicited e-mail messages over the past four years, prosecutors allege. Described as a spammer since he was a teenager, he allegedly covered his digital tracks using Chinese servers, fabricated Web sites and the purloined identities of hundreds of Internet users whose names and e-mail addresses were slapped on the bulk mailings. He opened and closed bank accounts faster than creditors could ...

My First Meme 2007-05-31 03:33:02 Is the Thinking Bloggers Awards. The following is a five blog list of bloggers that have made me think of things I'd never thunk before (or at least re-evaluate my position)My nominations are:Eject! Eject! Eject!MidtopiaDone With MirrorsSideways MenckenDonklephantAs I am smarter than a rabid horny lemming all of them should be honored I nominated them dammit.One may note that most of them are contributers at Donklephant and it is largely due to the quality of their posts that I sought to be accepted as a contributer at Donklephant and as such I have steadfastly maintained since the day of my first post that I am the crappiest blogger on the site. ...

Sudan's Own Tokyo Rose 2007-05-31 02:18:00 Denying Genocide in Darfur -- and Americans Their Coca-ColaBy Dana MilbankThursday, May 31, 2007; A02The Iraq war gave us Baghdad Bob, the Iraqi information minister who, while American troops patrolled nearby streets, held a defiant news conference to proclaim that there were no U.S. forces in the city.Baghdad Bob, whose real name is Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, earned a place among the ranks of colorful propagandists such as Hanoi Hannah and Tokyo Rose. Now, the genocidal Sudanese government has an entry in this category. Let's call him Khartoum Karl.Karl -- a.k.a. John Ukec Lueth Ukec, the Sudanese ambassador to Washington -- held a news conference at the National Press Club yesterday to respond to President Bush's new sanctions against his regime. In his hour-long presentation, he described a situation in his land that bore no relation to reality.Genocide in the Darfur region? "The United States is the only country saying that what is happening in Darfur is a genocide," Ukec shouted, ...

Mutant Scorpion Invades Sewage System 2007-05-30 22:17:00 I had just opened up a blog post and I went to answer the call of nature prior to starting the entry when a scorpion fell from the ceiling fan vent and into the toilet. Needless to say, scorpion go down the hole.For the record they don't float. ...

We Now Return to our Regularly Scheduled Blog Post 2007-05-30 22:14:14 From the NY TimesTruth, Fiction and Lou DobbsThe whole controversy involving Lou Dobbs and leprosy started with a ?60 Minutes? segment a few weeks ago. The segment was a profile of Mr. Dobbs, and while doing background research for it, a ?60 Minutes? producer came across a 2005 news report from Mr. Dobbs?s CNN program on contagious diseases. In the report, one of Mr. Dobbs?s correspondents said there had been 7,000 cases of leprosy in this country over the previous three years, far more than in the past. When Lesley Stahl of ?60 Minutes? sat down to interview Mr. Dobbs on camera, she mentioned the report and told him that there didn?t seem to be much evidence for it. ?Well, I can tell you this,? he replied. ?If we reported it, it?s a fact.?(snip) According to a woman CNN identified as a medical lawyer named Dr. Madeleine Cosman, leprosy was on the march. As Ms. Romans, the CNN correspondent, relayed: ?There were about 900 cases of leprosy for 40 years. There have been 7,000 in the pa ...

Of Note 2007-05-30 18:48:35 I ran across this recent article The Porn Myth which comes to a rather disturbing conclusion..?For the first time in human history, the images? power and allure have supplanted that of real naked women. Today, real naked women are just bad porn.?check it out here ...

Rice to Tackle Darfur and Iran at G8 2007-05-30 17:25:41 From Reuters:G8 to tackle Iran and Darfur Foreign ministers from the Group of Eight nations are to gather in Germany to discuss the nuclear standoff with Iran, the unresolved conflict in Sudan's Darfur region and other pressing international issues.(snip)Diplomats said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is hoping her counterparts from Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Russia, Japan and Canada will agree that the elite club of industrialised nations should put pressure on Iran at next week's summit to suspend its nuclear enrichment programme.(snip)Sudan is another topic on the agenda. The United States and Britain are interested in expanding UN sanctions against Sudan due to the violence in its Darfur region, but Russia is wary such action would do little to calm the situation. On Darfur, Rice said she would discuss with G8 ministers what action could be taken at the UN Security Council to put pressure on Sudan's government following the US announcement of new unilateral sanctions ...

Durbin was right? 2007-05-30 15:34:46 At least on the Nazi's having used the same torture techniques the administration has approved for detainees.Courtesy of The Daily Dish:"Freezing prisoners to near-death, repeated beatings, long forced-standing, waterboarding, cold showers in air-conditioned rooms, stress positions [Arrest mit Verschaerfung], withholding of medicine and leaving wounded or sick prisoners alone in cells for days on end - all these have occurred at US detention camps under the command of president George W. Bush. Over a hundred documented deaths have occurred in these interrogation sessions. The Pentagon itself has conceded homocide by torture in multiple cases."Oddly enough they also used the same sort of logic about why they tortured them too:"The victims, by the way, were not in uniform. And the Nazis tried to argue, just as John Yoo did, that this made torturing them legit. The victims were paramilitary Norwegians, operating as an insurgency, against an occupying force. And the torturers had also int ...

Britain Backs U.S. on Darfur Sanctions 2007-05-30 14:30:22 By CLARENCE ROY-MACAULAYThe Associated PressWednesday, May 30, 2007; 12:57 PMLUNGI, Sierra Leone -- Britain supports a U.S. proposal to impose U.N. sanctions against the government of Sudan for its role in Darfur's bloodshed, a spokesman for Tony Blair said Wednesday as the prime minister arrived in Sierra Leone.President Bush announced Tuesday the United States would draft the U.N. resolution, saying the Sudanese government has been complicit in atrocities against civilians and has been uncooperative with international efforts to end the Darfur crisis.Britain "fully supports U.S. efforts to address the desperate situation in Darfur in the Security Council," the spokesman said before Blair arrived in Lungi, near Sierra Leone's capital of Freetown."We hope that all members of the (U.N. Security Council) will work with the U.S. to create a resolution which will effectively address the challenges in Darfur," he said on condition of anonymity in line with British government policy.Aides ...

And then the blogosphere exploded 2007-05-30 13:25:34 with news that Fred Thompson was finally going to run for president. Only to find out via the National Review that nobody from Thompson's crew said any such thing as the NR called and verified rather than risk publishing a rumor. See what happens when one news agency just assumes that another news agency or a blog checked its facts? On the bright side Mr. Thompson got a free test on how much media coverage to expect when he does decide to announce he's running. ...

Tx Senate Approves Short Term Park Funding 2007-05-29 15:57:35 Parks would receive more of tax, not allWeb Posted: 05/28/2007 11:04 PM CDT Gary ScharrerAustin bureauAUSTIN ? Texas lawmakers gave final approval Monday to increasing spending for state and local parks but stopped short of using all of the sporting goods tax revenue supporters said is necessary for the long-term vitality of parks. "This is mixed. Short term, we did great, but long term is very much a question," said House Culture, Recreation and Tourism Chairman Harvey Hilderbran, R-Kerrville, a longtime champion of state and local parks. A special parks advisory committee last year recommended a 10-year plan and urged lawmakers to allocate all of the sporting goods tax revenue for state and local parks. The bill would increase funding for state and local parks by $156 million, and it includes a $44 million bond issue that requires voter approval in the November election. "It's a good, solid package, and it's a good first step," said George Bristol, vice chairman ...

Bush Intensifies Pressure on Sudan 2007-05-29 12:33:51 Bush Intensifies Pressure on SudanBy Michael Abramowitz and Debbi WilgorenWashington Post Staff WritersTuesday, May 29, 2007; 12:10 PMPresident Bush today announced broader sanctions on the government of Sudanese president Lt. Gen. Omar Hassam al-Bashir in an effort to halt violence in the troubled Darfur region, nearly three years after the White House described the conflict there as genocide.In a brief address that included sharp criticism of Bashir, Bush said the Treasury Department will step up efforts to squeeze the Sudanese economy by targeting government-run ventures involved with its booming oil business, which does many of its transactions in U.S. dollars.(snip)The United States will also seek new U.N. Security Council sanctions against Khartoum, including a provision preventing the Sudanese government from conducting military flights in Darfur, Bush said. The United Nations has accused Sudan's government of bombing Darfur villages.(snip)Bush and his aides say Bashir and ot ...

Man Wearing Only Underoos Pins Leopard 2007-05-29 01:51:25 Having previously fended off a St. Bernard and Pit bull while naked (No, I'm not making that up.) I tip my hat to this man. Hell, I only scared them away, he effin wrassled and pinned a leopard for chrissake. Man clad in underwear pins leopard By ARON HELLER, Associated Press WriterMon May 28, 5:44 PM ET A man clad only in underwear and a T-shirt wrestled a wild leopard to the floor and pinned it for 20 minutes after the cat leapt through a window of his home and hopped into bed with his sleeping family. "This kind of thing doesn't happen every day," said 49-year-old Arthur Du Mosch, a nature guide. "I don't know why I did it. I wasn't thinking, I just acted." Raviv Shapira, who heads the southern district of the Israel Nature and Parks Protection Authority, said a half dozen leopards have been spotted recently near Du Mosch's small community of Kibbutz Sde Boker in the Negev desert in southern Israel, although they rarely threaten humans. moreSynopsis of ...

Of Mountains and Molehills 2007-05-28 23:41:42 I recall seeing posts about a fake memo earlier this week but frankly the issue at hand was so unimportant to me that I skimmed over it and went on with blogging about really important things like the war against Spam. Little did I know that certain large blogs completely blew it out of proportion launched vicious four letter word laden attacks on former Green Berets for refusing to take down the relatively harmless memo only to find out said memo was real. (You can read the whole story here.)At the tail end of that article is the part I find interesting because I recently discovered it to be true when I caught Red State lying and numerous blogs reporting that lie as truth. In the end I found statement below to completely accurate."right-wing bloggers continuously hurl accusations like this and then, when proven wrong, simply move on to the next accusatory orgy without any real acknowledgment of wrongdoing or apology."Whats sad is that some of those blogs have actually broken real ne ...