WATERTOWN, New York, Oct 24 (IPS) - Iraq war veterans now stationed at a base here say that morale among U.S. soldiers in the country is so poor, many are simply parking their Humvees and pretending to be on patrol, a practice dubbed "search and avoid" missions.
...
Millard told IPS "search and avoid" missions continue today across Iraq.

"One of my buddies is in Baghdad right now and we email all the time," he explained, "He just told me that nearly each day they pull into a parking lot, drink soda, and shoot at the cans.

They pay Iraqi kids to bring them things and spread the word that they are not doing anything and to please just leave them alone."

...Ah ...soldiers who wonna fight anymore...interesting.

The struggle of man against tyranny is the struggle of memory against forgetting.(Kundera)

This time on the roots of anti-americanism. I'm not gonna quote any of his self-pitying whine, rather a comment which more or less sums up what I think (although a little more politely)

Ah, good ole Fukuyama. How's it been going since you signed on to the Project for a New American Century? Not good? Such a shame that your murderous experiment in neoconservatism has turned out so badly, although you "jumped ship" some time ago, right? What was it you said? Its failure is a sign of "the danger of good intentions carried to extremes"? "Good intentions"? Now that's an odd thing to say, from someone who put their name to the idea of using race-specific bioweapons as a political tool.

But yes, we're pissed off at the likes of yourself and Bush because we're anti-American. It has nothing to do with the fact you're a bunch of fucking war criminals.

Flanders is top of the class when it comes to sorting rubbish for recycling and compost.

More than 70% of household waste in Flanders is either recycled or turned into compost.

Of the 530 kg of waste produced by every man woman and child in our region, just 150kg is sent to the incinerator.

This is 100kg per person less than in ten years ago.

Over 500 kg/year.....we buy it, we transport it and we dump it at a price(waste-taxes)....sure we are rich people.

The struggle of man against tyranny is the struggle of memory against forgetting.(Kundera)

Citigroup Says Senate Fuel Economy Standards Attainable, Profitable for Automakers

Global Banking Giant's Findings Rebuts Auto Industry's Doom-and-gloom on 35 MPG Standard

The report can be found by clicking HERE (pdf).

WASHINGTON (October 25, 2007) - Global banking giant Citigroup released a report this week that concludes the fuel economy targets included in the energy bill currently being considered in Congress are both achievable and can result in profits for automakers. Citigroup's conclusions regarding the financial impact of the Senate CAFE provisions that require that the combined fleet of cars and trucks achieve 35 miles per gallon in 2020 are quite the opposite from the doom and gloom scenarios being put forth by auto industry lobbyists.

"When you have the world's number one bank, which has financial ties to many major automakers, saying fuel economy standards are a good economic play, it drives a stake through the heart of the auto industry's scare tactics," said Chairman Edward J. Markey of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.

The report, "CAFE and the U.S. Auto Industry; A Growing Auto Investor Issue, 2012-2020", was created in partnership with Ceres and the Investor Network on Climate Risk, along with industry experts at the Planning Edge, University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, and NRDC. It evaluated potential changes to the U.S. Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) program.

DALLAS - Anyone can get a "Che" T-shirt for a few bucks, but an actual relic from the revolutionary figure is likely to cost a bit more at an auction Thursday.

Bidding starts at $100,000 for a 3-inch lock of hair from Ernesto "Che" Guevara, the Marxist whose iconic picture has become a popular, even sometimes fashionable commodity since he was killed in a Bolivian jungle 40 years ago this month.

Heritage Auction Galleries is putting the hair, allegedly snipped off Guevara before burial, up for sale despite alleged threats made against the company by Guevara admirers since the auction was announced in September.

The Dallas-based auction house said it will have extra security on hand for the bidding after monitoring "leftist bloggers" upset that the company is profiting from Guevara's death.

That's just wrong on so many levels...

Maybe we can eventually make language a complete impediment to understanding. -Hobbes

Former FEMA Director and Director of Corporate Strategy for Cotton Companies Michael D. Brown Available for Interviews Regarding California Wild Fires

NEW YORK, Oct. 23 PRNewswire-USNewswire -- Michael D. Brown, Former FEMA Director and Current Director of Cotton Companies, one of the leading disaster preparedness and restoration organizations in the nation, is available for comment regarding the wild fires that are devastating Southern California.

Currently, the brush fires are affecting hundreds of local businesses and have forced more than 500,000 people out of their homes. Of these 500,000 people, an estimated 10,000 of them have taken shelter at the local NFL stadium, Qualcomm, vaguely reminiscent of circumstances of Hurricane Katrina evacuees two years ago.

"The agency has learned some hard lessons regarding the handling of mass evacuations especially in regard to the bureaucratic red tape that is involved in such a process," said Mr. Brown. "This is a tragic time for many of the people of California, and Cotton Companies is working to ensure that normalcy is restored and that businesses and organizations are back up and running as soon as possible."

Cotton has already deployed a team to San Diego to prepare recovery efforts and has a Community Assessment Team in full force.

Mr. Brown can speak to the turmoil being caused by the California wild fires as well as to some of the new processes in disaster relief efforts that will help to restore California communities. He can offer advice to residents and businesses on proper relief and recovery efforts and provide suggestions for future disaster preparedness.

Since its inception in 1996, Cotton Companies, the nation's leading provider of disaster recovery services, has been coming to the aid of businesses and communities coast to coast with its ability to react, take charge, mobilize and execute on the spot crisis management. Cotton has responded to such high-alert disasters as Hurricane Katrina and the tragedy of 9/11 in New York City.

U.S. crude settled up $3.36 to $90.46 a barrel after striking a record $90.60. The rise added to Wednesday's gain of nearly $2. London Brent rose $3.11 to $87.48 a barrel.

I'm pumped.  Go, Migeru!

_Our knowledge has surpassed our wisdom. --Charu Saxena._

I am sorry I didn't inform you about my  traveling to Africa for a program called Empowering Youth to Fight Racism,  HIV/AIDS, Poverty and Lack of Education, the program is taking place in  three major countries in Africa which are Ghana, South Africa and Nigeria . It as been a very sad and bad moment for me, the present condition  that I found myself is very hard for me to explain.I am really  stranded in Nigeria because I forgot my little bag in the Taxi where my money,  passport, documents and other valuable things were
kept on my way to  the Hotel am staying, I am facing a hard time here because I have no  money on me. I am now owning a hotel bill of $600 and they wanted me to pay the bill soon else they will have to seize my bag. I need this help from you urgently to help me  back home, I need you to help me with the hotel bill and i will also  need $400 to feed myself and help myself back home so please can you help me  with a sum of $1000 to sortout my problems here? I need this help so much  and on time because i am in a terrible and tight situation here. I  don't even have money to feed myself for a day which means i had been  starving so please understand how urgent i needed your help.

I am sending you this e-mail from the city of lagos and I only have 30 min, I will appreciate what so ever you can afford to send me for now  and I promise to pay back your money as soon as i return home, you need to  transfer the money through Western Union, please
email me back so that i can email you one of the Hotel Management name that you will send the western union to.

Thanks

As he neared the end of a posting in Gaza, the BBC's Alan Johnston was seized at gunpoint by militants. Here he tells the full story of his 114 days as a hostage.

Through all this I gradually came to know my guards.

One of them, a man in his mid-20s called Khamees, with a dark, quite handsome face, would be with me almost every day. Right through to the kidnap's frightening climax.

Like many young men who I had met in Gaza, Khamees was the son of a family that had either fled or been driven from their home in what is now Israel.

He had been raised in the poverty of one of Gaza's intensely crowded cities, and been drawn to the militant groups that had fought the occupying Israeli army.

Khamees had matured into a battle-hardened urban guerrilla.

He walked with a limp and had a slightly misshapen torso, the legacy of a wound inflicted by the Israelis. But they were not his only enemy.

He had trouble too with both of Gaza's main factions, Hamas and Fatah.

He was a wanted man, and he almost never left the succession of flats that were my prisons.

He lived confined to the shadows - almost literally, in the second of our hideouts - where the shutters on the windows were kept closed and I did not see the sun for nearly three months.

Alan Johnston: My kidnap ordeal

words fail me

The difference between theory and practise in practise ...

I went to a talk of his at Berkeley while I was a molecular biology grad student there, and he spoke for an hour in a public setting making completely fabricated scientific claims as to links between skin color, obesity, happiness and sex drive. With some misogyny thrown in (...). The whole thing was written up by the SF Chronicle at the time.