Ok, Let’s See The Left Denounce This

Hollywood actors flock over to see him. Some accept cash from the proto-dictator. Some scions of American political dynasties accept more money from him, supposedly for the poor. Some American "activists" just swap a bit of spit with him. But have any of the steady string of visitors asked (T)Hugo Chavez how he supplements his income? Being a glad-handing financier of Hollywood movies and activist vote-buying schemes costs money, you know. And what better way to do it than by smuggling and trading in  "blood diamonds?"

LONDON (AFP) - Rights campaigners Global Witness called Tuesday for Venezuela to be excluded from the international diamond market, accusing it of undermining the fight against trade in so-called blood diamonds.

The group called on the European Commission to expel Venezuela for "flagrant non-compliance" with the Kimberley Process (KP), the regulatory system designed to prevent trade in diamonds used to fund conflicts.

"Failure to do so could compromise the entire scheme," said a statement from the group.

"Nearly one year after clear evidence of massive diamond smuggling in Venezuela came to light, the country continues to flout the KP," said Charmian Gooch, Director of Global Witness in the statement.

"If the KP does not address large-scale smuggling of rough diamonds in Venezuela and other countries, it cannot effectively protect against the threat of blood diamonds."

Global Witness referred to a 2006 report by Partnership Africa Canada, a non-governmental agency, that implicated Venezuela in the trade in illicitly mined and smuggled diamonds.

"Venezuela has also failed in its obligation to provide the KP with an annual report and credible statistics this year," it added.

Partnership Africa Canada (PAC) itself echoed that position in a press release on its website:

"Venezuela made a half-hearted attempt to supply a few statistics earlier this year, but the numbers are simply not credible," it said.

PAC said it had repeatedly called on the European Commission, which currently administers the Kimberley Process, to "get tough with Venezuela."

So, Danny, how many people may have died to supply money for your films? Yo, Sean and Kevin and Joe, how does it feel to be pals with someone who trades in diamonds potentially tainted with human blood? Hey, Cindy, used enough mouthwash yet?

Just when you thought you'd heard how bad Hugo Chavez is , he ups the ante. Here's the press release from PAC. It is not clear how much of the trade referred to here is from domestic Venezuelan production (They have a fair amount) and how much more is from smuggled African diamonds. But a lot of diamonds (in fact, all 150,000 carats of them) have gone missing in Venezuela - in defiance of international agreements. That helps hide real conflict diamonds in the world market and provides a back channel for more smuggling. Think nobody uses that?

Into The Night

The Times of London has posted a chance for you to listen to the newest single from Santana, a collaboration with Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger titled Into the Night. It is one of two new songs on a retrospective of Santana's greatest hits, Ultimate Santana. It's pretty good.

Dobson’s Plan?

Jay Cost over at the Real Clear Politics Horse Race Blog has a very interesting bit of speculation as to why James Dobson may have pulled the "third party candidate" idea out. I suspect he may be on to something here. It was never about a real third party challenge - it was about a cheap way to get a message out.

I think that perhaps they are trying to signal to their constituency that Giuliani does not stand with them. Do not underestimate the monetary expense of this kind of mass communication. The rank and file Christian evangelical voter is not yet paying full attention (remember that most of them are not members of the interest groups that these people lead) - and to communicate a message to them could be very expensive because they are diffused across the country. They do not all live in one or two media markets. They are in every media market. Accordingly, they might need to do something drastic, like get Giuliani's pro-choice stance in all the papers and television shows by threatening a bolt from the GOP.

Read the whole thing, it is very well reasoned - and I suspect he may have hit it right on the head. Cost points out the best and worst case scenarios for such a third party. The worst case is pretty much the complete and utter political self-immolation of the people who tried the third party option. Something I suspect Dobson would not be willing to risk.

(I stand by my earlier posts on this, though. It is the courts - pure and simple - that are at stake. Keep your eyes on that - it means everything.)

Conrad The Conquering Crocodile Stalks Bavaria

Conrad the Fierce is on the prowl through the Bavarian jungle, intent on eating his fill of Lederhosen. Or rather, the occupants of those short pants. Conrad means business. Why else would a crocodile move to Bavaria?

The hills are alive with the sound of snapping jaws as Conrad the crocodile goes hunting for supper in the jungleland of…Bavaria.

Last year it was a bear called Bruno in the sights of local hunters - now a croc is said to be stalking the south German countryside.

Signs up gone up saying "Warning - Crocodile Danger!" around ponds where the most lethal wildlife used to be catfish and pike.

Now the search is intensifying for Conrad - reputed to be up to two metres long - in water-filled quarries, meadows and lakes with firemen being called in to assist.

Last year Bruno, a brown bear that wandered across the Alps from Italy, was shot dead by a hunter after cutting a swathe of destruction through sheep herds, beehives and small villages in a chase that knocked the World Cup from newspaper headlines.

Now it is Conrad that has got the Germans on the run in the area around Schwarzenfeld.

Police are asking people to be careful and keep their eyes open for the crocodile following a a sighting on Tuesday.

"One man is absolutely convinced that it was a crocodile," said police spokesman Peter Kraemer.

We here at Blue Crab Boulevard, world renowned for our expertise in all things having to do with the reptile legions of the Animal Uprising™ are willing to offer our services to the Bavarian authorities absolutely free of charge. (And we'd tell them so if they would get their phones fixed. Every time we call, the connection is lost as soon as we tell them who's calling.) Our advice: leave copious quantities of the world famous Bavarian beer out for Conrad. After he's partied long enough in a crocodile version of Oktoberfest, he'll be easily captured.

We assume the authorities will take our advice as soon as possible. Which is why we're booking a flight at once. Conrad might miss some of the bait.

Talking Turkey

Turkey has reacted with anger over the vote from the House Foreign Affairs Committee's vote to approve the Armenian Genocide motion. Rather a lot of anger, in fact.

Turkey reacted angrily today to a House committee vote in Washington on Wednesday that condemned the mass killings of Armenians in Turkey during World War I as an act of genocide, calling the decision “unacceptable.”

a rare and uncharacteristically strong condemnation, President Abdullah Gul criticized the vote by the House Foreign Relations Committee and warned that the decision could work against the United States.

“Unfortunately, some politicians in the United States have once more dismissed calls for common sense, and made an attempt to sacrifice big issues for minor domestic political games,” Mr. Gul said in a statement to the semi-official Anatolian News Agency. “This is not a type of attitude that works to the benefit of, and suits, representatives of a great power like the Unites States of America. This unacceptable decision of the committee, like similar ones in the past, has no validity and is not worthy of the respect of the Turkish people.”

The situation has worsened since that article was posted. Turkey has recalled their ambassador, a very big diplomatic deal.

ANKARA (Reuters) - NATO member Turkey recalled its ambassador to the United States for consultations on Thursday after a vote in a U.S. congressional committee branded killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks genocide.

I spoke my piece last night. Here's what a couple of others are saying today:

PoliBlog: While calling the deaths of the 1.5 million Armenians starting in 1915 a genocide may be the right thing to do semantically speaking, I am not sure what practical benefit it has at this exact moment in time.

The Glittering Eye: In the meanwhile I don’t think that alienating Turkey makes a great deal of sense but I see it as just another step towards the U. S. isolating itself from the rest of the world. One country at a time, guys. One country at a time.

OTB: The value to be gained by passing this resolution, beyond mollifying a small interest group, is non-existent. The potential harm to U.S. national security interests is substantially greater.

This Makes No Sense

Why would Columbia University refuse to cooperate with police and hand over surveillance tapes that could shed light on who hung a noose on a professor's office door? The police department spokesman says that the college administrators have been stonewalling police requests since Wednesday. They intend to get a court order.

NEW YORK (AP) — Columbia University has refused to turn over security videotape that could help identify who hung a noose on a black professor's office door, police said Thursday.

Investigators began asking on Wednesday for tapes from cameras in the building, but have been rebuffed by administrators, said Paul Browne, the New York Police Department's top spokesman.

He said police will have to get a court order to force the school to provide video they believe could crack the case.

"It's unfortunate because it adds a time-consuming step to the investigation," Browne said.

A Columbia spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment.

Authorities were testing the 4-foot-long twine noose for DNA evidence, but had no suspects as of Thursday morning.

On Wednesday, the professor who was the target of the attack, Madonna Constantine, told hundreds of faculty and students at a rally on the Ivy League campus that the incident was a "blatant act of racism" that "reeks of cowardice and fear."

"I'm upset that our community has been exposed to such an unbelievably vile incident," she said.

Then encourage your University to hand over the tapes so police can track down whoever did this. It is very hard not to suspect that something is going on here that the administration would prefer to bury.

UPDATE: Columbia is cooperating with a court order now and turning over all tapes. They deny they refused to turn over the tapes - only that they required a court order to do so to comply with privacy laws.

“… I Couldn’t Care Less.”

The words of Doris Lessing on being informed by a pack of reporters that she had won the Nobel Prize for her writing. I think she managed to shock the reporters.

Lessing later said she thought the cameras were there to film a television program. Vegetables peeked out from blue plastic bags she carried out of the cab.

"This has been going on for 30 years," she said, as reporters helped her with the bags.

"I've won all the prizes in Europe, every bloody one, so I'm delighted to win them all, the whole lot, OK?" Lessing said, making her way through the crowd. "It's a royal flush."

"I'm sure you'd like some uplifting remarks," she added with a smile.

Lessing, who turns 88 this month, is the oldest winner of the literature prize. Although she is widely celebrated for "The Golden Notebook" and other works, she has received little attention in recent years and has been criticized as strident and eccentric.

Asked repeatedly if she was excited about the award, she held court from her doorstep and noted she had been in the running for the Nobel for decades.

"I can't say I'm overwhelmed with surprise," Lessing said. "I'm 88 years old and they can't give the Nobel to someone who's dead, so I think they were probably thinking they'd probably better give it to me now before I've popped off."

I've never read a word the woman wrote - but she sounds like a tough old bird, doesn't she? It really is nice to see someone so unimpressed with themselves after getting a Nobel Prize.

Global Goregasm Coming Right Up

Oh my, won't the true believers just be wetting themselves? It certainly appears as if Al Gore is about to join Jimmy Carter and Yassar Arafat on the list of undeserving Nobel winners.

Sen. Barbara Boxer's office just contacted us to say former Vice President Al Gore has been called "overseas" for a trip related to his work on global warming and has canceled his scheduled appearance Thursday in San Francisco at a fundraiser for Boxer's re-election effort. So the Boxer fundraiser — which was to include Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne — is off until Nov. 9.

Here's a note Boxer sent supporters about the change:

I just got a call from Vice President Al Gore. He told me that he needs to travel abroad tomorrow for an exciting and urgent mission that could result in a major breakthrough in the fight against global warming.

Isn't it a bit unseemly to rush off to be on the stage for the announcement? I think the actual award ceremony is later, isn't it? Oh well, court decisions would appear to have no impact on propaganda these days.

UPDATE: The Fix says it is a false alarm:

Gore spokeswoman Kalee Kreider threw cold water on the rampant speculation, however, in an email exchange with The Fix earlier today.

"The events in California were postponed because of a request to participate in senior level meetings on the climate crisis in Asia," Kreider said. "However, early Thursday morning these meetings were postponed." As a result, Gore will resume his planned trip in California today and tomorrow will be a "normal long business day" according to Kreider. On Saturday, Gore is set to return to his home in Nashville.

As for the draft efforts, Kreider said that "we truly appreciate all the enthusiasm out there for the former vice president, but he does not have any intention to run for President."

Not Your Mother’s Skippy

Remember Skippy peanut butter? The company that produces Skippy used to sponsor the Dennis the Menace television show. Sandwiches made with Skippy and (usually) grape jelly were a staple of growing up. Skippy is still available here in this country - I have no idea how global they are. Greenpeace, however, wants people down under to put a different skippy altogether between two slices of bread. Who's up for a kangaroo sandwich?

The controversial call to cut down on beef and serve more of the national symbol on our dinner plates follows a report on curbing greenhouse gas emissions damaging the planet.

Greenpeace energy campaigner Mark Wakeham urged Aussies to substitute some red meat for roo to help reduce land clearing and the release of methane gas from flatulent cattle and sheep.

"It is one of the lifestyle changes we can make," Mr Wakeham said.

"Changing our meat consumption habits is a small way to make an impact."

The eat roo recommendation is contained in a report, Paths to a Low-Carbon Future, commissioned by Greenpeace and released today.

It also coincides with recent calls from climate change experts for people in rich countries to reduce red meat and switch to chicken and fish because land-clearing and burping and farting cattle and sheep were damaging the environment.

They said nearly a quarter of the planet's greenhouse gases came from agriculture, which releases the potent heat-trapping gas methane.

Report author Dr Mark Diesendorf said reducing beef consumption by 20 per cent and putting Skippy on the dinner plate instead would cut 15 megatonnes of greenhouses gases from the atmosphere by 2020.

“Kangaroos do not emit greenhouse gases. They are not hooved animals either so they don't damage the soil,''  Dr Diesendorf  said.

Dr Diesendorf said he was aware of the controversy encouraging people to eat Australia's national emblem would create, but that kangaroo was very healthy and low in fat.

Throw another 'roo on the barbie. There is no word from California animal activists yet who managed to get a ban on kangaroo leather in that state.

The California Supreme Court has banned the sale of soccer cleats popularized by soccer star David Beckham and other goods made from kangaroo leather.

There is an effort to get that changed - I don't know where it stands at this point. But we may yet get to see Greenpeace activists and PETA people in a full-scale brawl over this. That would be amusing. Excuse me, I have to hop over to the grill and turn the ribs.

SpiderGorilla

It's the Gorilla your nightmares! Shabani the gorilla has taught himself how to walk a tightrope!

The 10-year-old Western Lowland gorilla is meant to hang on the rope but has started walking across it instead, flapping his arms to keep balance as onlookers cheer him on.

"The rope is meant for hanging on but he started walking on it shortly after he got here," said Hiroshi Kobayashi, head of Higashiyama Zoo in the central city of Nagoya.

"Gorillas climb trees in the wild but we have hardly seen them walking a tightrope," he said.

We'd just like to point out that it would be a really good idea to make sure no wires overhang the gorilla enclosure. We suspect this is a warm-up for an escape.

The Blue Marble

The next generation of The Blue Marble is out. If you don't know what that is, NASA has made extremely high resolution images of the earth available for download.

In celebration of the deployment of its Earth Observing System, NASA is pleased to share the newest in its series of stunning Earth images, affectionately named the “Blue Marble.” This new Earth imagery enhances the Blue Marble legacy by providing a detailed look at an entire year in the life of our planet. In sharing these Blue Marble images, NASA hopes the public will join with the agency in its continuing exploration of our world from the unique perspective of space.

The detail is exquisite, approximately 500 meters per pixel and many different file sizes are available for the entire series. (For those who are gluttons for punishment or have really high speed connections, the largest ones run up around 11-12 Gb).

Another Water Warning

The International Water Management Institute has just issued a report on ambitious plans in China and India to grow crops to turn into biofuels. After studying the issue in depth they come to a fairly grim conclusion. The biofuel crops will deplete both countries water supplies and severely restrict their ability to grow food for human consumption.

China and India, expected to account for nearly 70 percent of global oil demand between now and 2030, are using cheaper biofuels derived from crops to help power their economies, the International Water Management Institute said.

"But to grow biofuel crops you need to use more water and land," Charlotte de Fraiture, a scientist at the institute and lead author of the biofuels study, told AFP.

India and China, which both have over one billion people, "suffer from water shortages which will only get worse as their food demand keeps pace with a growing population, their rising income and their diversifying diets."

The two Asian giants "are already struggling to find enough water to grow the food they need," the study by the Sri Lanka-based institute noted.

As global crude oil prices race past 80 dollars a barrel, countries are increasingly relying on biofuels, which produce energy by using organic waste, wood, dung and residues from crops like sugarcane and grains, the study said.

China plans to use maize while India wants to use sugarcane for biofuel production. Both crops rely heavily on irrigation, de Fraiture said.

China aims to increase biofuel production four-fold from a 2002 level of 3.6 billion litres of bioethanol to around 15 billion litres by 2020, or nine percent of the countryÂÂ’s projected gasoline demand.

India is pursuing a similarly aggressive strategy.

To meet their biofuel targets, the study said, India needs to produce 16 percent more sugarcane and China 26 percent extra maize.

"Crop production for biofuels in China and India would likely jeopardize sustainable water use and thus affect irrigated production of food crops, including cereals and vegetables, which would then need to be imported in larger quantities," de Fraiture noted.

Both countries are already struggling with water issues. Adding more biofuel production to the mix is going to make things worse. TANSTAAFL.

Just When You Thought It Was Safe To Go Back In The Pasture

From Shelby, North Carolina comes this item: Mad Goat!

SHELBY — Cleveland County Animal Control received a complaint Sept. 20 of a goat acting abnormal at 3606 Weatherly Lane.

The goat tested positive for rabies Oct. 8, marking the 19th confirmed rabies case this year.
Residents need to make sure their animals are under their direct control. Animals that are allowed to run loose are at risk of coming into contact with a rabid animal. If your animals are exposed to a rabid animal and not vaccinated, then your animals will have to be euthanized or quarantined for six months.

Local residents have to keep their pets under observation for the next six months. (I don't believe I have ever seen a rabid goat story before.)