We note for the record that should Mr. Fisk be captured by terrorists, he would prefer to be rescued by non-elite forces; perhaps a troop of Girl Scouts waving copies of The Guardian would satisfy him. I would defer to Mr. Fisk's evident belief that "non-elite" rescuers would increase his chances of surviving the experience, were it not that I dislike the sight of dying Girl Scouts.I love it when a fisk comes together.
Thunderstruck Democrats should look south of the border, to Brazil, for an example of how to win the hearts and minds of voters.
Nine days prior to the U.S. elections, Luis Inacio "Lula" da Silva overwhelmingly won the Brazilian presidency with 61 percent of the vote and turned the Workers Party into Brazil's leading political organization. In the campaign, the Workers Party, like the Democrats in recent years, moved to the center.
But the Workers Party did not abandon its core, progressive principles.
A group of squatters has taken over a historic house in central London worth millions because they say the British capital is too expensive a place in which to live.I remember that about 20 years ago squatting was a problem in London because trespassing was a civil matter, not a criminal offense. According to the original Times (UK) article, things have only slightly improved.
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Located on King Street, opposite Covent Garden, the house is in one of London's prime locations. It is estimated to be worth up to £20 million ($56million).
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Mattresses, empty beer cans and piles of rubbish are strewn across the five-storey house which in its time played host to the cream of British society.
One squatter was quoted in The Times saying: "I like to travel and it's very hard to stay in London and save money. Squatting allows me to save my money so I can go off around the world."
When Rudy Giuliani comes to Mexico City this month, he'll find a law enforcement system with an Alice in Wonderland quality where cops sometimes are not cops, and it's often better to avoid them than ask for protection.If he can pull a rabbit out of this hat, he is a magician.
The former New York mayor, who championed a ``zero-tolerance'' policy credited with drastically reducing crime, was hired in October as an anti-crime consultant for North America's largest city. His first visit, set for Nov. 18, will probably include a tour of some of Mexico City's rougher areas.
But in this megalopolis of 18 million, Giuliani's idea of zero tolerance may clash with a practice of total tolerance, in which the current mayor once ordered police to overlook violations like parking on crosswalks in an effort to reduce corruption.
``Rudy is entering the Twilight Zone of crime,'' wrote newspaper columnist Carlos Toledo.
Police officers have been arrested for holding up other cops, using their patrol cars to kidnap people and taking bribes to let offenders walk. They have fled from armed suspects, yet killed unarmed detainees.
In Mexico City's system of antiquated laws and spotty enforcement, it's all ``by the book'' literally. Cops carry bound versions of traffic laws because the small books are a good place to stash bribes.
Sometimes, what looks like a police officer actually is not: Cops occasionally make extra money by renting out their uniforms, badges and patrol cars to shakedown artists known as ``madrinas'' or ``godmothers.'' City residents have learned to spot the telltale signs of a ``godmother,'' such as ill-fitting uniforms and badge numbers hidden by vests or electrical tape.
Even his own advisers were surprised at Rep. Eric I. Cantor's margin of victory in the 7th District congressional race Tuesday.
The Henrico County Republican won 70 percent of the vote in defeating Democrat Ben L. Jones, an experienced campaigner well-known as the actor who played garage mechanic "Cooter" Davenport on the "Dukes of Hazzard" television show.
The Republicans may have control of Congress, but Al Gore has control of the future.
The former Democratic vice president has a guest role on Sunday's season premiere of Fox's animated sci-fi comedy "Futurama," supplying the voice of his own disembodied, scientifically preserved head.
"I think I may have a future as a disembodied head," Gore joked in an interview with The Associated Press on Friday. "I'm not sure that any political calculation would have steered me toward this part, but it was great fun doing it."
"Futurama" chronicles the 30th-century life of a hapless time-traveler named Fry, his raunchy robot pal, Bender, and their cyclopean space pilot Leela. It is the brainchild of "The Simpsons" creator Matt Groening.
In Sunday's episode (7 p.m. EST), Gore's head is introduced at a global-warming convention as "the inventor of the environment and first emperor of the moon." He's also known as the author of "Earth in the Balance," and the "much more popular `Harry Potter and the Balance of Earth."'
The U.S. citizen killed by a missile launched from a pilotless drone aircraft over Yemen was the ringleader of an alleged terrorist sleeper cell in Lackawanna, N.Y., administration officials said yesterday.And soon to be a grease spot.
Kamal Derwish, one of two unindicted co-conspirators in the Lackawanna case, died along with the intended target of the attack, senior al Qaeda leader Abu Ali al-Harithi, who is accused of masterminding the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole in which 17 sailors died.
These two men and four others were traveling in a car outside the Yemeni capital of Sanaa when they were hit by a Hellfire missile operated at an undisclosed location by the CIA. Derwish had been identified by sources Thursday as Ahmed Hijazi, an alias.
The CIA knew Derwish had returned to Yemen and was, as one administration official described him, "a fellow traveler" in a tight circle of terrorists atop the United States' unofficial most-wanted list. But the CIA officers who targeted the car, following it via live video from the drone and ultimately firing the missile, did not know Derwish was a passenger, the official said.
But, as the administration official -- who asked not to be identified -- noted dryly, "it would not have made a difference. If you're a terrorist, you're a terrorist."
President Bush continues to tell the world that he has not made up his mind about attacking Iraq. But in the Kuwaiti desert, the US Army is busy preparing for war.If Saddam hasn't jetted off somewhere after depositing the national treasury in offshore banks.
At their huge military base on the outskirts of Kuwait City, hundreds of American army tanks are being prepared to roll northwards towards Baghdad. As US military hardware piles up at Camp Doha, the locals have given it a suitably gung-ho nickname - "Camp F*** Iraq".
As the US army's Abrams tanks and Apache gunships venture out into the desert, ostensibly for "training exercises", they look ready to roll northwards at very short notice.
Posted all along the road north, from Kuwait City to the Iraqi border, are small detachments of GIs, hidden under camouflage netting and cautiously watching the desultory traffic passing them by. Kuwaiti construction teams are hard at work improving the road, fitting lighting and laying new tarmac, despite the fact that the border has been closed since the Gulf War 11 years ago. "Either the Kuwaitis are very optimistic about a speedy and peaceful resolution to the crisis, or the US military want to have their main supply route into Iraq in tip-top condition," was the wry comment of one western diplomat.
"They have not come here for fun", was the conclusion of a British engineer, watching the display of military might from an oil field only 20 miles from the Iraqi border. "The Yanks tell us they will be ready to go after Ramadan in early December."
To say that Kola Boof is the target of a fatwa sentencing her to death for blaspheming Islam only begins to tell the story of this controversial Sudanese-born author.Smart move - hanging out with Osama leads to desert dirt naps.
Boof, who is now under the protection of U.S. government agents, told WorldNetDaily that her first book about women who live under Islam prompted a phone call from Osama bin Laden, with whom she had become acquainted in Marrakesh, Morocco.
"If I had the time, I would come there and slit your throat myself," she recalls bin Laden saying in February 1998.
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Boof insists that she did not want to make public her acquaintance with bin Laden, but was forced to reply to recent claims in the Spanish press by a former roommate, Lourdes Harris, that she had an affair with bin Laden in Marrakesh. That claim was picked up by a "diary" column in the London Guardian on Oct. 24.
The Sudanese writer denies the story, but admits that bin Laden tried to pick up on her at a restaurant and later came to her hotel room.
"I can't deny he was in the room," she said. "He was only there because I was trying to get out of being around him without getting hurt."