Drunk

Yeah, Clinton did not fuck this country? Hmmm, how conveniently we forget about all of the following: How, in exchange for campaign cash, the Clinton administration cleared the way for U.S. companies to help China improve its strategic nuclear missiles -- targeted at American cities How Clinton wrote a letter to a Silicon Valley executive explaining how export controls would be loosened to enable technology transfers to China How America’s unequalled electronic intelligence services -- our first line of defense -- were "hollowed out" under the Clinton administration, even as China's espionage operations against us were growing rapidly How with American technology, the Chinese developed a Chinese satellite launcher that can be converted into a multiple-warhead missile launcher How the Clinton administration repeatedly ignored Chinese violations of nuclear non-proliferation agreements. How one top official intervened to prevent U.S. sanctions against China for covert missile sales to Pakistan How the Administration relaxed export controls that allowed U.S. sales of supercomputers to Russia and China -- systems that can and probably are being used to design nuclear bombs How the administration gave aid and comfort to a handful of corrupt ex-communists who, far from modernizing Russian socialism, turned one of the world's most resource-rich countries into a bankrupt, Mafia-dominated kleptocracy that stole upwards of $150 billion in Western aid How Clinton let himself be bamboozled into sending Russia tens of millions of dollars for weapons-dismantling programs -- which Moscow then used to pay for its nuclear missile buildup How Clinton has shortchanged vital military and intelligence programs by diverting some $80 billion a year from defense to domestic programs that reward corporations and political donors How the administration saddled the armed forces with more nonvital and nonmilitary missions, while drastically cutting budget and personnel How Clinton appointees in the Energy Department severely undermined U.S. nuclear weapons programs How Clinton's decision to halt underground nuclear testing, combined with his ideological aversion to strategic defense, threatened the viability of our strategic nuclear deterrent How Secretary of State Madeleine Albright deceived Congress about North Korea’s nuclear buildup How Albright’s deputy (and long-time Clinton crony) Strobe Talbott scuttled an intelligence program warning of the growing threat of Russia's nuclear arms And on and on and on and on. . . Yeah Clinton was great for this country.

I see the pre-article editorial sentence was coveniently edited out. I read the original article in the Onion and thought it was hilarious. but to find outsomeone thought it was real just takes the cake. Looks like someone has been removing egg off their face.

I hope you're kidding. Don't believe everything you read. That article comes from The Onion, which is a comedic paper. http://www.theonion.com/onion3916/syria_harboring.html

I do support it, but I think it's only a bandaid on a much bigger problem. The world's existing oil reserves are expected to be completely depleted sometime this century. Some Middle Eastern countries may even deplete their reserves in the next 10-15 years, which is going to lead to sky high oil prices and will wreak havoc on our oil-dependent economy. We need to put more effort into alternative fuel sources, like ethanol and hemp, which are extremely efficient and clean burning fuel sources. Hemp oil can even be used in current unmodified diesel engines. I'd much rather we put more energy into alternative fuels than drill in Alaska, but as part of our overall strategy, I'm all for drilling in Alaska in order to buy us some more time.

Dossier reveals France briefed Iraq on US plans The Sunday Times ^ | April 27, 2003 | Matthew Campbell FRANCE gave Saddam Hussein's regime regular reports on its dealings with American officials, documents unearthed in the wreckage of the Iraqi foreign ministry have revealed. The first Iraqi files to emerge documenting French help for the regime show that Paris shared with Baghdad the contents of private transatlantic meetings and diplomatic traffic from Washington. The information, said in the files to have come partly from "friends of Iraq" at the French foreign ministry, kept Saddam abreast of every development in American planning and may have helped him to prepare for war. One report warned of an American "attempt to involve Iraq with terrorism" as "cover for an attack on Iraq". Another, dated September 25, 2001 from Naji Sabri, the Iraqi foreign minister, to Saddam's palace, was based on a briefing from the French ambassador in Baghdad and covered talks between presidents Jacques Chirac and George W Bush. Chirac was said to have been told that America was "100% certain Osama Bin Laden was behind the September 11 attacks and that the answer of the United States would be decisive". The report also gave a detailed account of American attitudes towards Saddam amid anxiety in Iraq that the country might soon become a target of American reprisals. "Information available to the French embassy in Washington suggests that there is no intention on the part of the Americans to attack Iraq, but that matters might change quickly," said the document from folders marked France 2001 found by The Sunday Times. "According to French information, a discussion about Iraq is going on in Washington between [secretary of state] Colin Powell and the Zionist [Paul] Wolfowitz [the deputy defence secretary]. Powell was against a military attack on Iraq whereas Wolfowitz was in favour of a strong military operation against Iraq." The report noted that "the Israelis have informed the French ambassador in Washington that they have no evidence of Iraqi involvement in the attacks". An account of a meeting between Hubert Vedrine, the former Socialist foreign minister of France, and Powell after September 11 also made its way into the Baghdad archives. Powell was said to have disclosed that he would raise with Russia the subject of its "co-operation" with Iraq. Powell, the report said, "is going to ask the Russian foreign minister how Russia could co-operate with a country that had expressed satisfaction at America being subjected to such attacks. He is going to ask for a new draft resolution from the United Nations security council on Iraq". Bernard Jenkin, shadow defence secretary, said the briefings went beyond diplomatic courtesies and pointed to French "duplicitousness". A report last night claimed documents found in the headquarters of the Mukhabarat, the Iraqi security service, showed that a representative of Osama Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network had visited Baghdad in 1998. However, a western intelligence source said: "There have been contacts between Bin Laden's people and Iraq's people in the past, but fleeting contacts and we have never seen that as a strong institutional link. Even if there was a visit it does not amount to an ongoing institutional relationship." At least 12 Iraqis died yesterday when unknown attackers threw an incendiary device into a Baghdad arms dump.

I think Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess counties are also looking to pass bans.

It's only NYC, Nassau and Suffolk that have passed smoking bans as far as I know. It's already in effect for NYC and Nassau. It'll go into effect for bars/clubs/restaurants in Suffolk in January 2006.

:laugh:

Not for Junior's party.

Paul Renews Legislation to Withdraw America from the United Nations Washington, DC- Congressman Ron Paul, known for his longtime opposition to global government, recently renewed his call for America to withdraw from the United Nations. HR 1146, the “American Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2003,†would end all U.S. participation with the UN and expel the organization from its taxpayer-subsidized New York headquarters. HR 1146 represents the continuation of Congressman Paul’s ongoing fight against the loss of American sovereignty. “Our current situation in Iraq shows that we cannot allow U.S. national security to become a matter of international consensus,†Paul stated. “We don’t need UN permission to go to war; only Congress can declare war under the Constitution. The Constitution does not permit the delegation of congressional duties to international bodies. The decision to send American troops into harm’s way cannot be made by international bureaucrats.†“The UN increasingly wants to influence our environmental, trade, labor, tax, and gun laws,†Paul continued. “Its global planners simply aren’t interested in our Constitution and republican form of government. The choice is very clear: we either follow the Constitution or submit to UN global governance. American national sovereignty cannot survive if we allow our domestic laws to be crafted by an international body.†Noted constitutional scholar Herb Titus has thoroughly researched the United Nations and its purported “authority.†Titus explains that the UN Charter is not a treaty at all, but rather a blueprint for supranational government that directly violates the U.S. Constitution. As such, the Charter is neither politically nor legally binding upon the American people or government. The UN has no authority to make “laws†that bind American citizens, because it does not derive its powers from the consent of the American people. Paul’s legislation has attracted support from dozens of members of Congress in past votes. HR 1146 now awaits action in the House International Relations Committee. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Any opinions on this?

If you don't know what the fuck you are talking about you should really shut the fuck up up. You're sounding like a complete idiot. Conspiracy theory as to why there is a new mod? How much lead paint did you swallow as a child? Seriously, shut up for your own good.

You really are a moron.

So France has the right to use its political muscle by attempting to sway international opinion on a second UN resolution, but the United States doesn't have the right to use ITS political influence to treat France as a political pariah. Please. Go cry me a river and drown in it.

(Wall Street Journal) French audacity has it charms, but sometimes even they get carried away. Consider President Jacques Chirac's transparently self-interested generosity yesterday in suddenly proposing that U.N. sanctions against Iraq be "suspended." At least the French are figuring out that it doesn't look good for them to fight openly to maintain Saddam-era sanctions on newly free Iraqis. But in proposing merely to suspend, rather than lift, sanctions, the French also suggested leaving the U.N. in control of Iraqi oil revenues. A final lifting of sanctions would then have to wait for a clean bill of health from . . . Hans Blix and his U.N. weapons inspectors. Really. At least the French are smoother spin-artists than the Russians, who don't even bother to conceal their Iraq agenda. "We are not at all opposing lifting of sanctions. What we are insisting on is that Security Council resolutions must be implemented," Russian U.N. Ambassador Sergei Lavrov asserted. In other words, the two countries that did the most to erode sanctions against Saddam Hussein's dictatorship are now joined at the pocketbook in attempting to maintain them in some form on a newly free Iraq. They were only too happy to do business with Saddam. But now they're just as pleased to use sanctions as leverage to get some Iraqi affirmation of their odious debts and oil contracts from the Saddam era. If Iraqi redevelopment is held back in the meantime, so what? The polite word for this is blackmail. And on Manhattan's east side, it doesn't hurt their cause that the corrupt oil-for-food program helps the U.N. itself (the 2% or so its bureaucracy skims off the top for "administrative" expenses) or that the U.N. is desperate to prove its own relevance in post-Saddam Iraq. President Bush has for now delegated this thorny little problem to Foggy Bottom, which at least seems wise to the game. Sanctions should be lifted rather than suspended, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Negroponte said yesterday. But we hope Mr. Bush is also prepared to make a moral issue of the sanctions, and from the Presidential bully pulpit if need be. Holding hostage the only major source (oil) of hard currency for a newly liberated people isn't exactly an attractive position. But the French and Russians may get away with it so long as the U.S. remains reluctant to rebut the idea that either its occupation in Baghdad or any new Iraqi government require any kind of U.N. imprimatur. Mr. Bush could start by pointing out the extent to which the oil-for-food program served as little more than an instrument of Baath Party control. One reason American relief workers haven't been able to administer oil-for-food is because the Baath workers who previously ran it all melted away. General Tommy Franks's description of it as "oil-for-palaces" was entirely apt. The money intended for food and medicine went instead to finance, among other things, Uday Hussein's Olympic Committee. As this truth leaks out, even the French may find this hard to defend. There is also a strong legal case to be made that the sanctions can simply be declared null-and-void, having been imposed on a regime that no longer exists. Russian oil companies and their lawyers are blustering that they will challenge any new oil sales. But the idea that it will be difficult to find buyers for Iraqi oil absent a U.N. seal of approval isn't credible; oil is a commodity and a slight price discount should find enough willing buyers. The other U.N. game of the moment is to get Hans Blix and his U.N. weapons inspectors back into Iraq. No one should deny Mr. Blix a tourist visa, if he wants to see for himself the wreckage of Saddam's rule. But Mr. Blix has made clear his hostility to the war so many times in recent weeks that one suspects he has a vested interest in not finding the weapons he didn't find the first time around. The search for chemical and biological weapons is also about future security even more than past vindication. Something happened to Saddam's stockpiles of anthrax and botulin toxin, and it's vital that the U.S. learn if they were destroyed or moved somewhere else. That news is likely to come from interviewing Iraqi scientists and generals, and the U.S. needs to get that information first before it gets to U.N. inspectors (and perhaps other intelligence services). Having liberated Iraq, the U.S. has no reason to be defensive about removing the U.N.'s sanctions and oil-for-food chokeholds over the Iraq economy. As for the validity of Saddam's debts and oil contracts, that should be up to a new Iraqi government to decide. Once that principle is established and declared non-negotiable, French and Russian behavior is likely to improve in a hurry.

@ Arc.

New York Times 4/21/2003 Arms Kept Till Eve of War, an Iraqi Scientist Is Said to Assert By JUDITH MILLER WITH THE 101ST AIRBORNE DIVISION, south of Baghdad, Iraq, April 20 — A scientist who claims to have worked in Iraq's chemical weapons program for more than a decade has told an American military team that Iraq destroyed chemical weapons and biological warfare equipment only days before the war began, members of the team said. They said the scientist led Americans to a supply of material that proved to be the building blocks of illegal weapons, which he claimed to have buried as evidence of Iraq's illicit weapons programs. The scientist also told American weapons experts that Iraq had secretly sent unconventional weapons and technology to Syria, starting in the mid-1990's, and that more recently Iraq was cooperating with Al Qaeda, the military officials said. The Americans said the scientist told them that President Saddam Hussein's government had destroyed some stockpiles of deadly agents as early as the mid-1990's, transferred others to Syria, and had recently focused its efforts instead on research and development projects that are virtually impervious to detection by international inspectors, and even American forces on the ground combing through Iraq's giant weapons plants. An American military team hunting for unconventional weapons in Iraq, the Mobile Exploitation Team Alpha, or MET Alpha, which found the scientist, declined to identify him, saying they feared he might be subject to reprisals. But they said that they considered him credible and that the material unearthed over the last three days at sites to which he led them had proved to be precursors for a toxic agent that is banned by chemical weapons treaties. The officials' account of the scientist's assertions and the discovery of the buried material, which they described as the most important discovery to date in the hunt for illegal weapons, supports the Bush administration's charges that Iraq continued to develop those weapons and lied to the United Nations about it. Finding and destroying illegal weapons was a major justification for the war. The officials' accounts also provided an explanation for why United States forces had not yet turned up banned weapons in Iraq. The failure to find such weapons has become a political issue in Washington. Under the terms of her accreditation to report on the activities of MET Alpha, this reporter was not permitted to interview the scientist or visit his home. Nor was she permitted to write about the discovery of the scientist for three days, and the copy was then submitted for a check by military officials. Those officials asked that details of what chemicals were uncovered be deleted. They said they feared that such information could jeopardize the scientist's safety by identifying the part of the weapons program where he worked. The MET Alpha team said it reported its findings to Washington after testing the buried material and checking the scientist's identity with experts in the United States. A report was sent to the White House on Friday, experts said. Military spokesmen at the Pentagon and at Central Command headquarters in Doha, Qatar, said they could not confirm that an Iraqi chemical weapons scientist was providing American forces with new information. The scientist was found by a team headed by Chief Warrant Officer Richard L. Gonzales, the leader of MET Alpha, one of several teams charged with hunting for unconventional weapons throughout Iraq. Departing from his team's assigned mission, Mr. Gonzales and his team of specialists from the Defense Intelligence Agency tracked down the scientist on Thursday through a series of interviews and increasingly frantic site visits. While this reporter could not interview the scientist, she was permitted to see him from a distance at the sites where he said that material from the arms program was buried. Clad in nondescript clothes and a baseball cap, he pointed to several spots in the sand where he said chemical precursors and other weapons material were buried. This reporter also accompanied MET Alpha on the search for him and was permitted to examine a letter written in Arabic that he slipped to American soldiers offering them information about the program and seeking their protection.

Fuck off.

Seriously it's fucking old already, not to mention, J-Lo ain't all that. This thread needs to be shot.

Eh, sometimes people will disagree it's all good. How boring would life be we agreed all the time. I personally had a sick time and so did my crew. I've also followed DT since the days at the Tunnel. DT was in top form last night IMO. Lots of new tracks, tight mixing. A nice dose of acid house, funky house, progressive, dark progressive, and tribal. He definitely showcased his versatility last night. One real bad trainwreck, but you can't blame DT for that. The CD he was spinning was scratched. My only real issue was all the preaching last night. No thugs, no circles, no smoking, no glowsticks bla bla bla. Just shut up and spin! All in all a great night though.