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Anti-Government Webmaster Shot Dead By Russian Police
J.Tatar and a number of other readers alert us to the shooting death of an anti-government webmaster while in police custody in Ingushetiya, a volatile province in southern Russia. Police took Ingushetiya.ru owner Magomed Yevloyev off a plane that had just landed in Ingushetiya. "Yevloyev ... was a prominent opponent of the pro-Kremlin president of Ingushetia, Murat Zyazikov [a close ally of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin]. Prosecutors have opened a preliminary manslaughter investigation after Yevloyev was shot in a police car in Narzan, the capital of volatile Ingushetia, a mostly Muslim region that borders Chechnya, Russian media reported. A spokesman for the prosecutor's office, Vladimir Markin, said 'an incident' took place after Yevloyev was taken into a police car 'resulting in a shooting injury to the head and he later died in hospital,' Interfax reported."
He was shot, and shot by police [for an unspecified reason].
But this still doesn't automatically mean he was "eliminated" for his views on the Russian government.
If each mistake being made is a new one, then progress is being made.
Slashdot is calling!
Part of the hardcore faithful who believed in Apple long before it was cool again to do so
And wouldn't you know it, all his friends and family accidentally car bombed themselves.
Minneapolis.
People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them
Realize that Magomed was shot in the temple, that's a guaranteed way to kill someone. It was no accident, it was premeditated.
You can't handle the truth.
The officer just tended to emphasize things by pointing his pistol and the roads around there are very bumpy. Complete and unfortunant chance. Could happen to anybody.
Haven't you ever seen Pulp Fiction?
Indeed. Why are we giving these twits money again?
They are a third world nation with first world aspirations, but they can't seem to get it right. How long before we get back to the old USSR? I'd guess sooner rather than later. Problem this time is, the US and Europe aren't going to let Russia roll their tanks into every Eastern European nation bulldozing their people into submission. Fool us once...
It's the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.
It's 7am Monday morning, this happened last week. I think one geek is up early before anything else starts happening THIS week. In other words: Shut up.
If Obama was president.
Why is it relevant that Ingushetiya is mostly Muslim? What does that irrelevant factoid have to do with this news?
The only thing that I fear it is relevant for, is for the inevitable Kremlin propaganda offensive to paint themselves as defenders against the Muslim barbarians. A tactic that worked very well to get the Chechnyan separatists out of the Western news and gave Russia a free hand to do whatever they wanted in Chechnya.
Obligatory disclaimer: the Chechnyan separatists were bastards. That does not wipe out the strong suspicion that Russia played on fears of Muslim terrorism in the West for propaganda purposes.
Mart
"I know I will be modded down for this": where's the option '-1, Asking for it'?
some how i just know this is global warmings fault. monsanto probably had a hand in it as well.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
I have not in my lifetime seen any amount of guts displayed by the Europeans (or at least the Western ones) over any issue whatsoever. There is absolutely nothing that would lead me (or the Russians) to believe for a second that they would stand up and do anything of consequence. Hitler himself could reincarnate, and Europe would do the Neville Chamberlain thing all over again. And as for us in the US, I don't know that we'd really fight Russia over an Eastern European country. Just look what we did when the Russians rolled their tanks into Georgia. Still though, I suppose we sent aid and a few diplomats, military advisors and some military hardware. That's more than the rest of the Europeans did, as usual (and we also had the excuse of already being in two other wars).
Note: I'm not saying we shouldn't fight for those Eastern European countries, just that it's exceedingly unlikely anyone would. Which leads me to ask the biological origin question that I know everyone is wondering about: do the Europeans have the same evolutionary line as the rest of the world? Observational evidence so far would make it appear that they're invertebrates...
Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it.
Of course we will. You don't see any U.S. peacekeepers on their way to Georgia, do you? Well, except maybe for the other Georgia just in case the hurricane goes four or five hundred miles to the east before it makes landfall, that is.... :-)
Okay, to be fair, if they start to encroach on Georgia's oil fields, the U.S. might get involved. The rest of those former Soviet states, though---the ones who aren't sitting on oil---I think it's safe to say they're on their own. I'm not saying it's right; I'm just saying that if you think the current U.S. government is going to lift a finger to help anybody without it being for their own significant political gain, you've clearly been living under a rock the last eight years.
Bush Presidency Countdown Clock
Fool me... you can't get fooled again....
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backtotheussr
If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
If you heard a report back in 2000 that Saddam Hussein had had yet another person killed, you'd think it was just par for the course. If rumor was that Bush allowed another fat-cat single-source contracting deal with his friends, you'd think it was probably true. Why? Because it falls in with that person's modus operandi.
Putin's Russia has been a very dangerous place for anyone who has opposed him, or even tried to investigate what was happening under him. Many are dead, exiled or in jail. So while I won't automatically put this in the "It's true" category, it does belong firmly in "Most likely true."
Oh wait, never mind.
Please explain WTF does the murder of a provincial governor's critic has to do with Russian tanks in Eastern Europe? Your argument is sort of like saying that a lynching in some Deep South hellhole will lead to a US invasion of Canada.
There was Putin and his public dislike of all things US. The radioactive poisoning. Some FBI link to a SPAMMER inside of Russia but Putins government would not let US prosecutors go after them. The election where Putin creates a seat so he's still on top. More anti-US rhetoric. And more recently the Georgia incident where Putin is the one in the press on the first and second day. After that it is the acting President but it was pretty obvious Putin is da man.
Now a hole in the head of a webmaster while INSIDE a Police car. It all sounds like the old USSR and KGB era tactics to me. Well, it was good for some while it lasted. IMO
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
Well, we should count ourselves lucky that we have free speech. Obviously, the poor bastard who was running that Anti-Kremlin website, is now going to be a martyr to the cause of free speech, being a casualty of it.
I feel for those russians who know there is a better way of life, but are stuck in this transitory stage where many of them are forced to co-exist with the "old school" russian way of thinking.
Anyways, it is always sad to read news such as this.
For additional information about this heinous crime, read the report just issued by the "Daily Telegraph" (DT). According to the DT, "Mr Yevloyev is the most prominent anti-Kremlin journalist to be killed since Anna Politkovskaya was shot dead in the lift of her apartment block in October 2006. ... Russia is considered to be one of the world's most dangerous countries for journalists."
The "Wall Street Journal" provides more information about this and other suspicious deaths of well-known journalists. According to the WSJ, "Mr. Yevloyev was the latest in a series of Russian journalists to have died in suspicious circumstances. The death of Anna Politkovskaya, who was shot in October 2006 at her Moscow apartment, highlighted the dangers faced by Russia's independent press. Ms. Politkovskaya was a lead reporter at Novaya Gazeta, a Moscow-based newspaper that specializes in muckraking and probes of government corruption. She was the third journalist at the paper to die under mysterious circumstances. Paul Klebnikov, editor of the Russian edition of Forbes magazine, was shot on a Moscow street in July 2004."
After I read these news articles, I could think of only 4 words: God damn the Kremlin!
The Bear does things like shut off natural gas to Poland in the middle of the winter.
The Bear does things like shoot you (it's easier than shipping you to North Central Asia to build log bridges).
The Bear does things like running anti-aircraft artillery exercises during which they state that the target areas were the spaces between the aircraft flying the Berlin Airlift.
The Bear (or whatever local bumpkin minion) doesn't always think before acting (or thinks initiative might be rewarded). That's how KAL 007 got shot down: somebody finally decided they didn't want to take the heat for the thing being in the wrong place because SOMEbody was going to take the fall for it...
There was Putin and his public dislike of all things US. The radioactive poisoning. Some FBI link to a SPAMMER inside of Russia but Putins government would not let US prosecutors go after them. The election where Putin creates a seat so he's still on top. More anti-US rhetoric. And more recently the Georgia incident where Putin is the one in the press on the first and second day. After that it is the acting President but it was pretty obvious Putin is da man.
Now a hole in the head of a webmaster while INSIDE a Police car. It all sounds like the old USSR and KGB era tactics to me. Well, it was good for some while it lasted. IMO
LoB
This kind of puts the damper on the whole "won the cold war for us" rhetoric..
now i guess it's "sprayed air-freshener over the diaper pail that was communist russia and claimed to his wife he had emptied it"
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
Was the lynched person critical of the Bush administration's energy policy? If so, Canada having oil and all....
I can see it now. The next day, Bush sends an email to Stephen Harper that says simply, "You're next." A week later, there's a news story that says the Bush administration suspects terrorists are being harbored in Canada and allowed to enter the U.S. across unprotected parts of the border without any challenge from Canadian authorities. Three weeks later, the U.S. has troops in Winnipeg. Apparently Bush thought it was the capital city. Either that or he figured nobody lived in North Dakota, so he could invade and no one would notice. Hard to say which.
Upon his capture, the Canadian prime minister notes that the Canadian prisoners are Americans, too, being from North America and all, and that they therefore cannot be jailed without trial as enemy combatants. The Supreme Court reluctantly agrees. The various political leaders are subsequently tried, found to be almost as clueless as their American counterparts---but still not guilty, per se---and then released.
Six months and eighteen billion dollars later, the U.S. soldiers return home in defeat after being successfully sued in Canadian courts for not painting their Humvee signage in both English and French.
Am I close?
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Shoot you and another AC takes your place. You're agent Smits brother, aren't you?
Where in the article does it say that the murderers were "under direct orders from the Kremlin"? As far as I can make out, these were local cops who acted under the orders of the provincial governor Zyazikov - the main target of Yevloyev's criticisms.
those who say invading georgia is like the usa invading iraq?
where are those who say russia's invasion of georgia is the usa's fault?
it's all morally relative, right? we have to let russia do anything they damn well please, because the usa did something bad once, right?
i have a crazy idea: why can't we condemn them both?
why can't you condemn the usa, AND condemn russia?
given that, with all of the vitriol some of you found to fling at washington dc in recent years, why can't you fling some of that now at moscow?
or do crimes of war only stick to the west?
are you motivated by principles? or some weird geopolitical vendetta? (and therefore, part of the problem)
if you are motivation by principles, you must condemn russia now as hard as you condemn the usa
fight imperialism, wherever the fount
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
"shooting injury to the head"...to me...that's an execution.
u know...like that infamous video clip and photo from the vietnam war?
man....how far humanity has and hasn't come.
True, the states will probably start watching all Russian, keeping tabs on them, recording serial numbers, seizing the laptops of the owners, etc, etc.
Then the next thing you know, the Russians will drive a jeep in instead!
In Soviet Russia, police don't kill people, guns do.
We can wait, there are plenty of nutters in georgia who are more than happy to give our visitors something to do.
You mad
Is Michael J. Fox available?
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
"...subjunctive mood is screwed up with such regularity..."
Yea, everyone has Subjunctivitis.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
In other news, the editors of slashdot decide to postpone their trans-siberian railroad holiday
As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a reference to Godwin's Law approaches 1
Bush knew damn well it was not the right thing to do. There's substantial evidence (which seems to be rapidly mounting) that he was fully aware that all of the accusations against Iraq were bogus, and some recent evidence actually implicates the Bush administration in deliberately forging evidence to trick Congress and the American public into going to war.
What's not clear is the real motivation---whether Bush thought it was a potential political win, wanted revenge against the Iraqi government for trying to kill his father, or just wanted to throw some money to Cheney's buddies at Halliburton---but there's no way be believed it was "right" unless his ability to discern right from wrong is borderline sociopathic....
I contrast this with the Clinton administration, in which the U.S. went into Bosnia and Somalia, neither of which were of any significant military importance. During Bush Jr's term, the same sort of ethnic cleansing and/or forcible ejection from people's homes has been happening in Sudan (Darfur region), Kenya, South Africa, Burma, Zimbabwe, etc. but because those places aren't of military significance, have no oil, etc., Bush and the U.N. haven't done jack, and the Bush administration has even used signing statements to actively undermine legislation passed overwhelmingly by Congress designed to put pressure on the Sudanese government to get things back under control. That's not even counting all the ethnic cleansing that has occurred in Iraq and Afghanistan under the watchful eye of the weak puppet governments that the Bush administration has installed with their largely dismantled military forces....
The difference between the last two administrations in this area is quite appalling, frankly.... No administration in my recollection did more to foster good will and help out the people of the world than the Clinton administration. No administration in my recollection has done more to foster bad will and screw the rest of the world than the Bush administration. I'm surprised Bush hasn't been tried for treason yet.... The guy makes Nixon look like a pretty good idea by comparison.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
I have not in my lifetime seen any amount of guts displayed by the Europeans (or at least the Western ones) over any issue whatsoever. There is absolutely nothing that would lead me (or the Russians) to believe for a second that they would stand up and do anything of consequence. Hitler himself could reincarnate, and Europe would do the Neville Chamberlain thing all over again. And as for us in the US, I don't know that we'd really fight Russia over an Eastern European country. Just look what we did when the Russians rolled their tanks into Georgia. Still though, I suppose we sent aid and a few diplomats, military advisors and some military hardware. That's more than the rest of the Europeans did, as usual (and we also had the excuse of already being in two other wars).
Western Europe != France and Germany. The rest of Nato would likely back Eastern Europe. And the US would intervene to help once pictures of civillians getting blown to bits appeared on CNN. It took the world a while to act in Kosovo, but I think most of it would if the Russians actually attacked a Nato country.
Hell, I think even the French and Germans would fight once the rest of Nato did, they did in Kosovo.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
Please explain WTF does the murder of a provincial governor's critic has to do with Russian tanks in Eastern Europe? Your argument is sort of like saying that a lynching in some Deep South hellhole will lead to a US invasion of Canada.
Excuse us for talking about something that isn't already said in the article, but instead coming up with new points of discussion. Also, that's not what his argument is saying at all. I'd explain why it's not, but I've done enough feeding already.
My preferred name is frazz, but someone keeps taking it. If you see him, tell him I said hi.
Answer: Yes you can both criticise the US and the People's Republic of Putin that doesn't make either one any better.
The big difference however between the PRP and the US is that the impact of the criticism is more direct and obvious. There is no "Daily Show" in Russia, they just have the equivalent of Fox News wall to wall. What this means is that dissent is very hard to see inside the country.
The other difference is the risk of them going postal. The US administration might have done some very bad things on the way into Iraq, but there is at least the perception of some accountability and sanity within parts of the US. In Russia you have Putin and his puppet President and dictatorship style popularity figures in elections.
That gives us the final challenge. There has always been an expectation that one day the current US administration would be held to account by Congress or a court of law, this appears to be a ill-founded expectation but it is what people however thought. In Russia however the rule of law is clearly subservient to the rule of Putin.
That is why they will be condemned differently because their systems of government are so different. Russia has never pushed itself as the land of the free and a shining beacon of democracy, the US has. This is why the US is judged to a higher standard, it has asked to be.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
There's this little thing called NATO which mandates defending member states, some of which are in eastern Europe. Europeans honored their NATO obligations to invade Afghanistan, which was quite a stretch since the Afghan government didn't attack the U.S., so they'll certainly defend Europe. (Not that Russia is interested in attacking Europe.)
This space intentionally left blank
Maybe this is like that scene in Pulp Fiction where Vincent accidentally shoots Marvin in the face?
You never know, it could have happened that way, especially since in Russia there is no real difference between the police and organized crime.
Muslim community leaders warn of backlash from tomorrow morning's terrorist attack.
Even during the cold war the communist governments werent this open about killing their opponents. A possible explanation for this mode of operation is that someone wanted to send a clear message along the lines of "we do what we want - fear us". Or maybe it's just a tragic occurence Hanlon's razor (they police might actually be that stupid).
To all the people who support the thesis:
We don't know what happened, as nerds we should wait for more information instead of jumping to conclusions.
You're plain wrong, and just silly. The exact design of this assassination is:
You know exactly what happened, and that we can get away with it. Fear that.
You heard about it.
Deleted
Oh, yeah, I forgot about America right? Because a comparison between Russia and America is called for because America is more inherently evil AMIRITE?
You American-hating leftists who spin everything as "America is teh evil" ought to become familiar with the Tu Quoque fallacy. Here it is:
"Tu Quoque is a very common fallacy in which one attempts to defend oneself or another from criticism by turning the critique back against the accuser. This is a classic Red Herring since whether the accuser is guilty of the same, or a similar, wrong is irrelevant to the truth of the original charge. However, as a diversionary tactic, Tu Quoque can be very effective, since the accuser is put on the defensive, and frequently feels compelled to defend against the accusation."
Source: http://www.fallacyfiles.org/tuquoque.html
The current administration is a Lame Duck.
Georgia is going to have to "take one for the team" so to speak, though in the long run they will be better off than they were before. Russia has traded its dreams of future empire for a small region within a small country in the Caucasus. Congratulations Vlad, you got the boobie prize.
What will happen is that other nations that Russia wants under its thumb will move closer to us, just as Poland has done. I expect to hear any day now that the Ukraine has entered into a similar treaty to the one we have with Poland. Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia are kissing our ass like there is no tomorrow. Belarus isn't, but then it is a dictatorship ruled by a tyrant beholden to Putin.
Russia has a very long history of making its own worst fears come true through its own behavior. This is no different.
Russia is not a modern nation. This is something that most people don't understand. It is not a democracy and never has been. It is an oligarchy. As such it is ruled by men whose lives are defined by their craving for power and influence.
They have dreams of empire and see the US as attempting to prevent their designs from coming to fruition. The truth is that we're not nearly as concerned about them as we are about nations like Iran. When Putin started rattling his saber, our first response was "You're still here? The cold wars is over....go home." Like an old girlfriend who has been spurned for a new lover, Russia is jealous of our new enemies and wants to be our main adversary again. Like I said, it is not a modern nation. Nor is it run by sane individuals.
They see the things that we've been doing as strategic moves against themselves, and are responding to that misapprehension, thereby creating the very situation that they most fear: former client states cozying up to us instead of kow towing to them.
My attitude is that if they want a war, we can certainly give them one. When Russian armed, trained, and advised forces went up against us in 1991, we cleaned their clocks so fast that the war was over almost before it began. Twelve years later we overran a Russian trained, advised, and armed force that had vast numerical superiority in just a few weeks. If Russia thinks it can go toe to toe with us then bring it on.
Muslim community leaders warn of backlash from tomorrow morning's terrorist attack.
He was shot in the temple. I'd say it is almost impossible to force someone to shoot you this way.
Regardless of which Georgia you mean, that's not entirely accurate. In the U.S., there's oil shale in NW Georgia. I don't think that it is being actively exploited right now, AFAIK, but still, the reservoirs are there, and I found a few hints that there may have been some low yield wells at one time in some parts of GA. Consider that last part "citation needed", though. :-)
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
so if a boyfriend says to a girlfriend that if she wears a certain dress he will hit her, and then the girlfriend's friend encourages her to wear the dress anyways, and she gets hit, in your eyes, the friend who encouraged the girfriend is the ultimate culprit?
here's an idea: the scumbag who hits his girlfriend for wearing a certain dress is the ultimate vulprit
and in the caucasus, russia's imperial proving ground for more centuries than the usa has existed, you're telling me the usa is the ultimate culprit?
if the usa gave georgia a goddamn aircraft carrier, russia, russia alone is responsible for invading georgia
or do you believe the line the boyfriend probably fed his girlfriend:
"why did you make me hit you"
you really fucking believe what you just wrote?
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
... the cops shoot you in the head if you criticize the government.
Sorry, just doesn't have the humor value some days.
Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
It's the same story actually. For example if you are leader of state and want to go to war agains some other country, you need badly that your people support your plans. You need your journalists write excactly what you want. A corpse is quite powerful message to send to other journalists. There is old soviet time joke:
November 7, the anniversary of the October Revolution. The military parade at the Red Square in Moscow. Napoleon and Murat are among the invited VIPs: ambassadors, chairmen of the communist parties and so on. Napoleon reads "Pravda" newspaper and Murat observes the parade in excitement.
Murat: "Your Excellence, look at these brave soldiers! If we had a battallion of such soldiers, we could have won the battle of Waterloo!" Napoleon keeps reading Pravda. The Kantermirov tank division enters the Red Square.
Murat: "Your Excellence, look at these tanks! If we had one of them, we could have won the battle of Waterloo!" Napoleon keeps reading Pravda. The mobile tactical missiles slowly enter the scene.
Murat: "Your Excellence, look at these missiles! If we had just one of them, we could have won the battle of Waterloo!"
Napoleon raises his eyes, watches Murat sadly and finally utters: "Mon cher, if we had a newspaper like Pravda, the world would have never known that we had lost at Waterloo..."
Pravda (Russian: , "The Truth") was a leading newspaper of the Soviet Union and an official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party.
history repeats.
an old newspaper was recently circulated around here - http://www.ltn.lv/~slanarsx/base/gruz.jpg.
as you can see, it's year 1924. the description talks about western europe doing nothing while russia brutalises georgia. forward some years, they invade other countries.
fast forward to today. russia again occupies georgia, while nobody does shit. increases confidence, doesn't it ?
Rich
The only false evidence are leftist talking points.
Uh. . , now which government office issues those? Douglas Feith certainly doesn't.
-FL
ossetia is considered georgian territory by many valid measurements. it also contains people who do not want to be a part of georgia. similiar to east timor, or kosovo
so ok, let the ossetians be free
as if these were the only considerations
other considerations:
1. these ossetian considerations equally match chechnya, whose fight for freedom russia has crushed. do you support chechnya as a free and independent state form russia, on the principles of your support for osssetian independence from georgia? by your rationale, russia should give up chechnya. do you agree with that?
2. furthermore, in the case of kosovo, and east timor, separation was achieved by broad spectrum international support, and a peaceful vote. in the case of ossetia, russia did a sneak attack, on a region it has been involved imperialistically for centuries. do you think the comparison is still valid
3. and finally. what exactly is russia's motivations again?:
http://www.moscowtimes.ru/article/1010/42/370554.htm
study your history in the caucasus. anyone who thinks what is going on here is anything more than an old-style imperialistic landgrab that should be universally denounced by anyone interested in progress in this world is an utter fool
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Okay, to be fair, if they start to encroach on Georgia's oil fields, the U.S. might get involved. The rest of those former Soviet states, though---the ones who aren't sitting on oil---I think it's safe to say they're on their own. I'm not saying it's right; I'm just saying that if you think the current U.S. government is going to lift a finger to help anybody without it being for their own significant political gain, you've clearly been living under a rock the last eight years.
Nah, the members of NATO will not be shafted. This includes Poland, Romania, the Baltic States, and other former Soviet slave holdings. To allow such a thing would carry the unacceptable political cost of destroying NATO's credibility altogether, turning NATO into a lame duck, and shifting massive power and prestige Russia's way. Only the most naive western leadership could possibly think of allowing such a thing. Okay, so it could happen if Obama wins in November. A big factor in how the Georgia situation went down is that they didn't quite make it into NATO.
In the grand scheme of things US doesn't give much money to Russia. EU and China do. That's the trend, at least. The role of US is to boost fossil fuel prices, so that EU and China pay even more.
I have not in my lifetime seen any amount of guts displayed by the Europeans (or at least the Western ones) over any issue whatsoever.
Confucious say, he who conflates wisdom with weakness is a chump. Just because Europe doesn't go around invading the country of any camel jockey that thumbs his nose in their general direction, doesn't mean that Europeans are in any way weak. Europe hasn't blown most of its budget on military adventurism (hows that working out for you by the way?), but there is no weakness in the old world, where exist gargantuan industrial resources and some of the most advanced weaponry on earth.
Which leads me to ask the biological origin question that I know everyone is wondering about: do the Europeans have the same evolutionary line as the rest of the world? Observational evidence so far would make it appear that they're invertebrates...
Conversely, observational evidence would lead one to conclude that the US has a lot of people with small penises in charge.
What he can't kill, he has sex on. Trent.
Common people, an article about Russia is up for more then 5 minutes and no Russian jokes yet??
You can easily add a zero to that and if you leave out the country, you can add another one or 2 zeros.
People do generally do not interfere, unless they can gain something.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Volkswagen is a German company, not Russian..?
this is not a single or rare occurrence. in the last 5 years all kinds of opponents all around russian federation have been killed 'accidentally' in numerous 'incidents'.
anyone who would think that this was a real accident is thoroughly naive or stupid.
Read radical news here
could they officially call an execution, "a shooting injury to the head".
They're using their grammar skills there.
Russia seems to pride itself on mafia style shows of force. Russian/Soviet actions have always seemed this way. Their leaders have always had that look too -- of course, that could just be the vodka.
Yeah, just a coincidence that the bullet hit him in the head. Certainly.
We know it wasn't Putin's fault because Bush looked into his eyes and got a sense of his soul.
Play Command HQ online
This Godwin principle is a way for people who don't like the truth to rationalize that they are on the winning side of an argument. Many times, the Nazi comparison is apt. Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. Idiots who yell "GODWIN" are intellectually 'forgetting' history because they don't like or agree with a particular point, even if it might be true. Kind of like the ridiculous American legal system throwing out literal smoking guns in a murder investigation on technicalities. Intellectually blinding oneself to reality, throwing away truth, and in at least one of the cases, encouraging legality over justice. In both cases it often results in people getting away with murder when people dogmatically and purposefully ignore truths. (For those morons who want to change the subject, there are better ways to make up for police ignoring civil rights: like punishing the police for illegal searches when they find a murder weapon without a warrant for example... and not punishing society... no criminal should go free to possibly murder again if it can be proved in any way they are guilty... the people who break laws should be punished no matter what... including police who do illegal searches... and no-one should not be given a free ride no matter what.)
Granted, some make the comparison to Nazis too quickly, but Godwin enthusiasts throw those points away, way too quickly too. I think the latter often lack critical thinking skills more than the former as they rely on blind dogma and the resulting intellectual laziness to proclaim to all that they won the argument. Something along the lines of, "even though a Nazi comparison might be true I don't have to think, I can just shout 'Godwin', and I win the argument... I'm soooo smart [then pats self on the back in a self congratulatory manner]."
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
I dunno. You're always complaining about this and that, and then get back asking for more gas and oil. If you really want to deal with us properly, work on making your energy consumption independent of those things. Invest heavily into nuclear tech. Kick out the Green weenies who block development of nuclear projects and introduce bans on nuclear energy out of your parliaments (Germans, I'm pointing a finger at you in particular). Kick out the notable Putin's dick suckers such as Berlusconi, and bring in some more hardline leaders - Merkel seems to be doing great so far. This is mostly applicable to Europe, though US does its share too.
I have to stress this again: every time you vote for an anti-nuclear politician, you vote for Putin/Medvedev. This immediately disqualifies most of Europe's Green parties. Keep that in mind during the next local or EU parliamentary election.
'cause we all know blogs are reliable source of information. US Ambassador in Moscow must have been lying when he said that they've tried to dissuade Saakashvili till the last moment on August 7th when the attack was launched. Then Russia spent a precious day trying to get help through diplomatic channels. And only THEN they kicked the Georgians out and took away their toys.
I suggest that he titles it "Restoring constitutional order by dropping cluster bombs on civilians":
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5je4oTliESokD-zge0diVbbczCPIgD92TT2VG0
While that does describe about 80% of the political leaders---most politician don't help anyone other than themselves---every now and then you get one who actually does things for the common good. Let's see. In my lifetime, we have Clinton's aid/peacekeeping missions to Kosovo and Somalia (though he didn't do anything in Rwanda in part because he was bitten so badly by events in Somalia). Before that, we had Lincoln, who took the country to war to free people who didn't get the right to vote for another 5 years. We had Herbert Hoover, who organized a food relief effort to help Belgium during WWI, putting U.S. ships into harm's way. We had Roosevelt, who created TVA and the FDIC, did the whole land-lease act to help Britain in WWII prior to our forced entrance into the war, etc.
So the U.S. actually has some history of at least helping out European countries when bad things happen. In the rest of the world, it has been pretty spotty unless it involved the red scare or a war on "terrah" or some other boogeyman.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Michael Totten is not your average blogger.
"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows." - Bob Dylan
How could he write this drivel without even TALKING to the other side? It doesn't take a genius to see, that the guy is vehemently anti-Russian. Consequently, the only source he quotes is also vehemently anti-Russian.
Is this your idea of "unbiased information"? I could find some intensely anti-US nutcases in Russia for you, and they will tell you that the US is a nation of bloodthirsty retards with short memory span. Just because they say it doesn't make it true.
Read up on Saakashvili in this article on Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/29/AR2008082902336.html
Compared to him, Putin as an etalon of democracy.
I can see it now. The next day, Bush sends an email to Stephen Harper that says simply, "You're next." A week later, there's a news story that says the Bush administration suspects terrorists are being harbored in Canada and allowed to enter the U.S. across unprotected parts of the border without any challenge from Canadian authorities.
You kid, but I have read all sorts of paranoid news reports claiming some sort of underground Chinese invasion of Canada. So it wouldn't be that much of a stretch for those people to claim it had terrorists I guess.
THE SAME OLD Russia mean anything to you? Do you recall what they did to most of the Eastern European countries (now independent) that made up the USSR? Or do I have to draw a picture? Learn to connect the dots... most other people seem to be able to... SAME OLD RUSSIA... new coat of paint.. same old tactics. Get it? Good. Now let's move on... there will be handouts for those who can't keep up. The Russians are holding their typical "show the world our military" parades again... they're making inroads into "disputed" areas with an aggregious overuse of force, they're posturing about everything that happens within 1000 miles of them (Poland joining NATO? We kick you in arse!) I am not saying this particular incident BY ITSELF is the first step towards tanks in Hungary again, but the pattern of behavior over Putin's tenure HAS been very Soviet-like. Jeez, get some reading comprehension... I didn't think I had to draw a picture.
It's the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.
You've got 4 more months of this administration. Do you think Obama will be any different? He'll fight for oil same as the rest of them... the only difference is, he'll make you feel bad about having to do it.
:)
Do you think McCain's any different? Nope... same old same old... Just like Obama... "change"... my ass.
We didn't do anything the first time the Soviet tanks rolled into Eastern Europe... so why bother this time? Western Europe was impotent... the UN was a waste of breath, and the US simply built more missiles. How history repeats itself.... I just didn't think it would be so soon. I have no delusions that we would do anything useful, or forceful for that matter, but I do believe this time around we've got the upper hand in terms of military might and presence. Problem is, we don't use it effectively.
It's the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.
The deficit is not the same thing as the debt.
You knew that though, when you responded to his "the amount of debt..." comment with "You do realize the Federal deficit is...", right?
To quote LongNoi "QZTR was right and won't leave me alone because I called him a moron when I was wrong" FYS
"Since these goods have to be bought capital flows out (eg to gulf states for buying oil). "
And goods flow in.
"This capital flows back in the form of investments in US companies."
Or in the form of purchases of US goods.
These glaring omissions to your "formula" make me wonder what your agenda is. An honest analysis of the facts doesn't brign anyone to the conclusion you've reached.
To quote LongNoi "QZTR was right and won't leave me alone because I called him a moron when I was wrong" FYS
"You've already got the largest home default rate in the first world"
First [citation needed], second, we've got the largest hoe ownership rate in the fist world, so the largest default rate would kind of go hand in hand. Last, so what? what is that a measure of besides the easy availability of credit for home ownership?
"one of the highest tax rates on low income earners "
The lowest earners pay nothing in taxes. Zero. How, exaclty would you suggest we make them pay less than zero (and no, that is not a small amount of people either, it was about 1/3rd of the population in 2006 http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/1410.html)
"shitty government spending on education and health care per capita even when compared to many third world nations"
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/edu_spe_per_pri_sch_stu-spending-per-primary-school-student
Which of Denmark, Switzerland and Austria are third world countries? Those are the only ones that are above the US in primary school spending per student.
So what about secondary school?
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/edu_spe_per_sec_sch_stu-spending-per-secondary-school-student
It appears now it's only Switzerland and Austria. I'm sure they'll be surprised to know they're third world...
So what about healthcare spending then? Ar eyou really going to try and make the case that the US, well know for spending more on healthcare than anyone by far, is behind a third world country?
Well, you'd be wrong.
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_spe_per_per-health-spending-per-person
#1. What else is there to say?
I don't like taxation any more than you do, but nothing you said there was true to the facts.
To quote LongNoi "QZTR was right and won't leave me alone because I called him a moron when I was wrong" FYS
An Aegis cruiser is a lot like the AT&T it can reach out and touch somebody. Note that the Russian gov was not to happy with 3 or 4 of them cruising around the Black Sea. They were REALLY not happy with the one that was in port in Georgia. The old 5" 54 could put a 5 inch projo in a moving cubic foot air or land space 40 times a minute. They carry lots of them. It took me and another beeforilla 8 hrs to load the magazine. That only covers some of the short range stuff. The Russians know what a Modern US cruiser can do better than that. It has been 20yrs since I was on one. Lets just say it can dispense a lot of ordinance in short period of time.. They know when the US is not fooling around, the big tonnage naval vessels start showing up. Remember that a US cruiser just shot down a satellite with an "obsolete" missle system.
Are you sure you want to protect a person that imposes state of emergency and disperses demonstrations, as soon as someone actually protests against him?
They are a third world nation with first world aspirations, but they can't seem to get it right. How long before we get back to the old USSR? I'd guess sooner rather than later. Problem this time is, the US and Europe aren't going to let Russia roll their tanks into every Eastern European nation bulldozing their people into submission. Fool us once...
I been born in Moscow and leaved half of my live in USSR (not Russia, - the USSR), the other half of my life I leaved in New York USA and in my opinion those 2 the USA and the USSR were were so close to each other in the cense of "what they did and why did they do that"... I mean I almost see them as an identical countries. Of course USSR was monarchy ruled by the communist party, while USA was showing off as a "true democracy capitalism". but those are about ALL the differences there were in those 2 countries. USSR was very furious about controlling their people, as a tool to accomplish control they used fear along with killing or sending away those who protested, while they did it ONLY to their own people (the ones under Molotov Pact). During the 70+ years of USSR the only major war is Afghanistan. US has found a different way to control their people, since US is "democratic" they could not use force as a first strike instrument against people, instead US has achieved the same (or even better) results with a united media used as a direct propaganda tool. - US has started a major war/incident with almost every precedent US had (some of the precedents have even achieved to start more than 1 major war during his precrdancy) dislocating and killing as many people as USSR. The only BIG difference was the Stalin who managed to kill more Soviet People than Hitler during his whole WWII !! (And that is according to soviet sources! so the actual numbers can be much higher!) - Most aggressive Stalin repressions were reported during 1937 - 1939 - US seem to LOVE stalin at that time (Time Magazine made him man of the year in 1940! http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19400101,00.html ) - Does that look ironic to you? or do you want to say that US and europe did not know that Stalin killed millions of people in 1939 alone?? At that time the West did not think that it was any bad to kill those people, and silenced about the whole thing!!! This is just one of the examples where after 50 or so years we can clearly see that there was no difference between the US and USSR intentions toward "peace and democracy". - The end result is the same, call it democracy or what ever else the intention is to conquer and rule one way or another. Perhaps Baltic states think they will be better off with US... Perhaps they dont see that US is building a "human shield" employing those Baltic states against a "Possible attack from Russia" Perhaps Baltic states dont see that US and Russia are simply competing against each other because they both want essentially the same thing? Perhaps Baltic states dont realize that IF SUTCH AN ATTACK will ever happen they will be among the first ones to suffer with most casualties anyway since they are on the "border of conflicting parties". Perhaps they think that it is better to inflame the aggression between Russia and US - will that make them any safer? Perhaps those states should learn a thing or two from Finland who managed to stay in the balance between the 2 opposing powers! Just my opinion of course...