Dyre Portents The Rantings and Ravings of a Radical Moderate Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 0 0 78 6357

Articles from Dyre Portents

UK: Blair Prepares to Bow Out 2007-05-10 07:16:14 Odds are come June 27th we'll have one less ally in Iraq.On the bright side after that we'll be able lump the Limeys in with the French, which will provide them both with a great source of consternation. ...

I'm Calling BS... 2007-05-10 04:54:29 On Erick and Jeff Emanuel over at Red State:So I'm looking at Memeorandum this morning to see what's being blogged about today and I see the article below over at Redstate and I go over to see what all the fuss is about: "For the Legacy of These Men, You Should Call Congress and Stop This Bill.These are the heros of Guam. The men of the United States military who rescued Guam from the Imperial Japanese. These men shed their blood that Guam might be free. And yet, the House Majority Leader thinks this is not enough. Steny Hoyer thinks we should also have to pay Guam reparations for what Imperial Japan did to Guam.(snipped out call congress at this no. part ) You can stop this madness. You can call your Congressman and tell him to vote against this bill. Call right now and tell your Congressman to oppose H.R. 1595." whole thingFollowed by a list of every serviceman who died liberating Guam. And at the bottom of that post is a link to the original post of which I am only posting the ...

Sarkozy Wins, Vows to Restore Pride in France 2007-05-10 04:52:54 By John Ward Anderson and Molly MooreWashington Post Foreign ServiceMonday, May 7, 2007; A01PARIS, May 6 -- Nicolas Sarkozy, the combative son of a Hungarian immigrant, was elected president of France on Sunday, promising a new generation of leadership to transform the country, restore its self-respect and reinvigorate ties with the United States and Europe.Sarkozy, a member of the ruling party and France's former top law enforcement officer, defeated Socialist Ségolène Royal, who waged a determined battle to become France's first elected female head of state, by a 53 percent to 47 percent vote, according to final results. Voter turnout was a near-record 84 percent.In a victory speech before a jubilant crowd of supporters in Paris, Sarkozy said voters "have chosen to break with the habits and behavior of the past." He pledged "to give greater value to work, to authority, to respect, to merit.""I want to give French people back the pride of being French -- to finish with repentance, ...

May 15th Gas Boycott Doomed 2007-05-10 04:49:01 The last time I talked to my mom she asked me to blog about this and I neither agreed or argued because I knew that a one day boycott is as useless as disagreeing with mom.From MSNBC courtesy of The Rite Wing Technopagan (God luv 'em)"The real problem with this idea is that ? as some versions of this e-mail helpfully suggest ?these "boycotters" simply top off their tanks May 14 or wait to fill them up May 16. All that does is shift sales from one day to another. Any money ?lost? from lower gasoline sales on May 15 will be made up with higher sales on the days before and after the ?boycott.?"The only way to affect gas prices is to reduce consumption. As this has a side effect of reducing funds to countries that support terrorism and improving air quality it's an effort that is highly worthwhile.Since the coffee is still brewing I'm just going to copy and paste a post I made elsewhere on how to reduce gas consumption painlessly:gasbuddy.com tracks prices all over America on a station ...

Red Vs Blue? Opt out 2007-05-10 01:58:37 Believe it or not, I don't read a lot of blogs regularly. I tend to click a link on my alliance blog roll and see where it takes me and then follow a link from there to somewhere else. About once a week I visit DailyKoS or Instapundit to see what's up. Slowly this random blog surfing has reinforced one belief of mine and that's this: There are a lot of sheep out there. Red sheep, Blue Sheep, and just plain freaky conspiracy theory oriented sheep that think the Illuminati stole their wool. (That last herd of sheep can make for some highly entertaining reading though.)I'll come back to that later. Having been on the internet now for 12 years and having been a BBSer before that I am well aware of one of the true downsides of e-communication. It allows people to behave really badly in "public" with no real consequences. Then came blogs where you could yell whatever you want all day long. And boy is it ugly out there. I get 1300 hits on Google when I search for the phrase "Kill all lib ...

US Congress raps China over Darfur 2007-05-09 21:52:37 From the AP:More than 100 US lawmakers signed a robustly worded letter calling on China's President Hu Jintao to take immediate action to stop bloodshed in Darfur, a senior lawmaker said Thursday. Tom Lantos (news, bio, voting record), Democratic chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, expressed grave concern at continuing atrocities in the region, and warned that as the largest foreign investor in Sudan, China had influence to wield. "The international community is stepping up to its responsibilities, but unless China does its part to ensure that the government of Sudan accepts the best and most reasonable path to peace, history will judge your government as having bank-rolled a genocide," the letter to Hu read. The letter also warned China's image could be tarnished ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics if it failed to do more to curtail Khartoum. "This appalling genocide has already destroyed untold numbers of families, due to displacement or death ...

Hamas vs Disney 2007-05-09 18:12:57 From the AP:Hamas 'Mickey Mouse' wants Islam takeover By DIAA HADID, Associated Press WriterTue May 8, 4:59 PM ET Hamas militants have enlisted the iconic Mickey Mouse to broadcast their message of Islamic dominion and armed resistance to their most impressionable audience ? little kids. A giant black-and-white rodent ? named "Farfour," or "butterfly," but unmistakably a Mickey ripoff ? does his high-pitched preaching against the U.S. and Israel on a children's show run each Friday on Al-Aqsa TV, a station run by Hamas. The militant group, sworn to Israel's destruction, shares power in the Palestinian government. "You and I are laying the foundation for a world led by Islamists," Farfour squeaked on a recent episode of the show, which is titled, "Tomorrow's Pioneers." "We will return the Islamic community to its former greatness, and liberate Jerusalem, God willing, liberate Iraq, God willing, and liberate all the countries of the Muslims invaded by the m ...

6 arrested in plot to kill soldiers at Fort Dix 2007-05-09 18:07:06 From the Star Ledger:Federal investigators last night arrested six Islamic radicals who were planning a heavily armed attack against soldiers at Fort Dix as part of a jihad against America, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.In a statement released this morning that confirmed an earlier report on nj.com, The Star-Ledger's Web site, the U.S. Attorney's Office said the men planned to "kill as many soldiers as possible."The alleged plot included conducting surveillance of the Army base and purchasing multiple firearms, including hand guns, shotguns and semi-automatic weapons, according to the federal complaint released this morning.The bust came after several of the suspects were lured by a secret informant to a meeting with an arms-seller, according to the complaint.Some of the would-be attackers have been living illegally in the United States, while others are legal immigrants, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Four are ethnic Albanians, one was born in Turkey, and a six ...

What Gun Closet? 2007-05-09 06:26:10 Over at The Atlantic Andrew Sullivan asks "If gun rights are civil rights, why would anyone feel the need to hide the fact that they own one?" in regards to a story that the Tennessean published the names of all owners of concealed carry permits in the state.Those records are public and thus fair game, but if a media outlet provides the names of those who have gone through the often tedious process of state licensing then they should also publish the names of all living criminals who have committed crimes with illegally possessed weapons so that the public can make a comparison between the two lists. It's not about hiding, it's about responsible journalism and bias.Cross posted at Donklephant ...

Spy Coin Culprits Caught Red Handed 2007-05-07 15:25:39 Numismatic nanotechnology is crossing our border. Spy coins are sneaking their way into our pockets, rental cars, and piggy banks thereby threatening our national security by tracking our movements and sending our conversations to their shadowy creators....or not. 'Poppy Quarter' Behind Spy Coin AlertBy TED BRIDISThe Associated PressMonday, May 7, 2007; 3:56 PMWASHINGTON -- An odd-looking Canadian quarter with a bright red flower was the culprit behind a false espionage warning from the Defense Department about mysterious coins with radio frequency transmitters, The Associated Press has learned.The harmless "poppy quarter" was so unfamiliar to suspicious U.S. Army contractors traveling in Canada that they filed confidential espionage accounts about them. The worried contractors described the coins as "filled with something man-made that looked like nano-technology," according to once-classified U.S. government reports and e-mails obtained by the AP.The silver-colored 25-cent piece ...

Obama Requests Secret Service Detail 2007-05-05 20:22:16 Hey, If I were the only candidate of color to ever stand a snowball's chance of being the president I'd be requesting a security detail too. ...

22% Believe Bush Knew About 9/11 Attacks in Advance 2007-05-05 02:51:49 From Rassmussen Reports:Friday, May 04, 2007Democrats in America are evenly divided on the question of whether George W. Bush knew about the 9/11 terrorist attacks in advance. Thirty-five percent (35%) of Democrats believe he did know, 39% say he did not know, and 26% are not sure. Republicans reject that view and, by a 7-to-1 margin, (86%) say the President did not know in advance about the attacks. Among those not affiliated with either major party, 18% believe the President knew and 57% take the opposite view. Overall, 22% of all voters believe the President knew about the attacks in advance. A slightly larger number, 29%, believe the CIA knew about the attacks in advance. White Americans are less likely than others to believe that either the President or the CIA knew about the attacks in advance. Americans are more likely than their elders to believe the President or the CIA knew about the attacks in advance. full report22% of America? Geeez! That's hard to believe. I never ...

Quick Note 2007-05-04 02:55:47 I decided to remove the Snap site preview tool from this blog. It greatly increased loading time even on broadband and given the choice of ditching Snap or the video clips I chose to say goodbye to snap. I want this blog to be as dial up friendly as possible and Snap was just increasing loading time too much thereby offsetting what benefits it brought to the site. ...

Republican Presidential Contenders face Off 2007-05-04 02:34:55 Well with the Republican primary debates over the question is who won? According to two major Republican blogs Red State and Powerline McCain did although Redstate throws in the caveat that as no participant truly captured one's spirit Fred Thompson won by default.Frankly given Giuliani's centrist views I don't see him winning over the GOP base. I foresee a deal in which he drops out and becomes a vice-presidential nominee. But then again I think the same about Obama. Only time will tell. ...

D.C. Law Firm Suspends Woman Who Worked as Escort 2007-05-04 01:51:55 From ABC News:A legal secretary at one of Washington's most prominent and well-connected law firms, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, has been suspended after telling her bosses she secretly worked at night for the escort service run by the so-called D.C. Madam, Jeane Palfrey.The woman both serviced clients and, at times, helped to run the business, Palfrey told ABC News in an interview to be broadcast on "20/20" Friday.The firm said it would not make her name public.According to e-mails the woman sent to Palfrey on her Akin Gump account, she "enjoyed and even missed" the work she did at night for Palfrey, who has been charged by federal prosecutors with running a large scale prostitution ring. moreObviously she either was being underpaid or was overdue for a promotion to client services. ...