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Words matter, and in the global war on terror we are losing the battle of words, in a self-inflicted defeat. The consequences could not be more profound. Recent government policy memoranda, circulating through the national counter-terrorism and diplomatic community, establishes a new "speech code" for the lexicon in the war on terror, as reported by the Associated Press and now available in the public domain . These new "speech codes" recommended that analysts and policy makers avoid the terms jihad or jihadist or mujhadid or "al-Qaida movement" and replace them with "extremists" and by extension other non-specific terms. The use...

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I am not an expert or a scholar or an activist. I am more of an eye-witness. I watched the Soviet Union collapse, and I have tried to put my observations into a concise message. I will leave it up to you to decide just how urgent a message it is. My talk tonight is about the lack of collapse-preparedness here in the United States. I will compare it with the situation in the Soviet Union, prior to its collapse. The rhetorical device I am going to use is the "Collapse Gap" – to go...

April 3, 2008 Ben Bernanke admits Bear Stearns was hours from collapse Dearbail Jordan US Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke, today revealed that Bear Stearns was just one day away from going bust when the central bank stepped in to save the Wall Street bank to prevent chaos and a "severe" impact on confidence. Speaking for a second day in front of US Congress, Mr Bernanke attempted to justify JP Morgan Chase's rescue of Bear Stearns, in a deal that included the US Fed agreeing to back $29 billion of the troubled investment bank's assets. Mr Bernanke said: "... on...

Hamstrung by the lack of liquidity and savaged by increasing redemptions, Griffin has had to negotiate new terms with his prime brokers, beg for patience from investors and offered his business for sale to bigger rivals, including GLG Partners. One insider said: "Tisbury has gone from darling to disaster is a short space of time. Griffin is losing staff and probably won't get much for the sale. It's been amazing turn of fortunes." Griffin is not alone. Some of the most successful players in the industry also have serious problems. The past month has been littered with high-profile calamities. At...

Sent: Friday, March 14, 2008 4:20 PM Subject: CLOSED Congress Session Last Night: Only 4th Time In 176 Years ! SPECIAL "CLOSED SESSION" OF U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES DISCUSSED A LOT MORE THAN THE PENDING SECURITY SURVEILLANCE PROVISIONS! This was only the fourth time in 176 years that Congress has closed its doors to the public. What was it that they were discussing that they do NOT want us to know about? Word has begun leaking from last nights special, closed-door session of the United States House of Representatives. Not only did members discuss new surveillance provisions as was the...

A vast ice shelf hanging on by a thin strip looks to be the next chunk to break off from the Antarctic Peninsula, the latest sign of global warming's impact on Earth's southernmost continent. Scientists are shocked by the rapid change of events. Glaciologist Ted Scambos of the University of Colorado was monitoring satellite images of the Wilkins Ice Shelf and spotted a huge iceberg measuring 25 miles by 1.5 miles (41 kilometers by 2.5 kilometers - about 10 times the area of Manhattan) that appeared to have broken away from the shelf. Scambos alerted colleagues at the British Antarctic...

Call it the Obamalypse, if you will. Andrew Sullivan makes an interesting argument that a Hillary Clinton victory over Barack Obama could create “mass flight from the process” as disillusioned voters embrace apathy and reject electoral politics altogether. He thinks that killing it would be 1968 all over again: What I think this misses are the cultural and social consequences of beating Obama (or McCain) this way. I don’t mean beating Obama because the Clintons’ message is more persuasive, or because the Clintons’ healthcare plan is better, or because she has a better approach to Iraq. I mean: beating him...

Hedge fund Focus collapses By James Mackintosh in London Published: March 5 2008 02:00 | Last updated: March 5 2008 02:00 Focus Capital, a $1bn New York hedge fund, has been forced to liquidate its entire portfolio after missing margin calls from banks, it told investors yesterday. The fund, which had produced strong returns by investing in Swiss mid-cap stocks since starting in 2005, is now expected to shut down after losing about 80 per cent of its value. The collapse is the latest to hit leveraged hedge funds, following the failure of Peloton Partners' $2bn ABS fund last week,...

Has An Ocean Circulation Collapse Been Triggered?Geoscientists warn that there can be a considerable delay between the triggering of a collapse of the North Atlantic meridional overturning circulation and the actual collapse. (Credit: iStockphoto/Emmanuelle Combaud) ScienceDaily (Feb. 25, 2008) — Predictions that the 21st century is safe from major circulation changes in the North Atlantic Ocean may not be as comforting as they seem, according to a Penn State researcher. "The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that it is very unlikely that the North Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (MOC) will collapse in the 21st century. They predict a probability...

Model of Easter Island Collapse Might Reveal Message for Today By Lisa ZygaGraphs based on the researchers’ model, showing the population (top) and resources (bottom). The decline of resources coincides with a sharp population increase, followed by a sharp decrease. Image credit: M. Bologna and J. C. Flores. When a thriving civilization suddenly collapses, it’s often a mystery – and an ominous one, at that. For Easter Island circa 1000-1400 AD, experts believe it was a case of humans overexploiting their natural resources – mostly, the palm tree. But exactly where did the culturally rich Rapanui society go too far?...

Honeybees will die out in Britain within a decade as virulent diseases and parasites spread through the nation's hives, experts have warned. Whole colonies of bees are already being wiped out, with current methods of pest control unable to stop the problem. The British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) said that if the crisis continued, honeybees would disappear completely from Britain by 2018, causing "calamitous" economic and environmental problems. It called on the Government to restart shelved research programmes and to fund new ones to try to save the insects. Tim Lovett, the association's president, said: "The situation has become insupportable and...

The collapse of the St. Anthony Bridge in Minneapolis started with a design flaw in the gusset plates, confirming suspicions that arose in the first week of the investigation. A source familiar with the conclusion told CNN earlier this morning that the NTSB will announce that finding later today, ending speculation that poor maintenance caused the deaths of 13 people last August: Federal investigators have identified a design flaw as the cause of last year's Interstate 35W Minneapolis bridge collapse that killed 13 people, a congressional official said Tuesday. The official, who was briefed by the National Transportation Safety Board,...

A 2,000-foot television tower collapsed while workers were restringing guy wires, knocking a Little Rock television station off the air. KATV news director Randy Dixon said one person suffered a minor injury Friday when the tower collapsed in a field about 20 miles south of Little Rock. The station was working to establish a feed to restore its signal to the portion of its audience that obtains programming by satellite. "We're off the air. It's a heckuva mess," Dixon said. KATV is an ABC affiliate.

Thrown Object Knocks Out Santa   Dec 19 12:31 PM US/Eastern   SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) - A man dressed as Santa Claus was knocked unconscious by a thrown object that hit his face while he was riding on the back of a truck decorated as a sleigh. Kevin Smith says he never saw what hit him Saturday. Whatever it was, it broke his nose and gave him a concussion and two black eyes. "One second I was up there waving to people, and the next minute I wasn't," Smith said. He was taking part in Santa Run, sponsored by...

Lead in doubt, Clinton knocks on N.Hampshire doors Sat Dec 15, 2007 6:15pm EST Obama edges ahead of By Scott Malone MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton went door-to-door in freezing New Hampshire on Saturday, asking for support in the early voting state where her once-huge lead in the Democratic presidential primary race has melted away. The New York senator knocked on doors along a snow-covered block of Manchester, less than a month before the crucial January 8 New Hampshire primary, the second binding contest of the 2008 presidential campaign. "I'd be honored to have your support," Clinton said...

The Utah mine where six workers were entombed after a thunderous collapse has been sealed, leaving expensive mining machinery inside, federal regulators said Tuesday.

Shocka! All Silky has to do is slip a few more points and we may see that alleged Obama scandal-bomb detonated after all.

A major road has collapsed, raw footage being shown on Foxnews.com

HANOI - A bridge under construction collapsed in southern Vietnam on Wednesday, killing at least 60 workers, and 100 others were missing, a contractor and police said. State-run Vietnam TV showed footage of the damage to the collapsed concrete and steel structure in Can Tho City and reported that people were still trapped in the rubble. A contractor with China State Construction Engineering Corp, one of the firms involved in the construction of the bridge, said by telephone that 60 people were dead. "They are still pulling out bodies from the rubble, I could hear the screams," the contractor said...

HUNTINGTON, Utah - The latest holed drilled into a collapsed mine where six men are trapped broke through a chamber too small for the men to survive, a lawyer for several of the men's families said Saturday.

HUNTINGTON, Utah — Lashing out at criticism he was abandoning six trapped coal miners, the mine chief promised Wednesday to keep searching through the weekend and punch yet another hole into "this evil mountain." Bob Murray, the face of the rescue effort since the August 6 cave-in, dropped from public view for a time after three men died trying to tunnel toward the miners, but he said he's always been focused on finding the six - dead or alive. "I didn't desert anybody," Murray, the mine's co-owner, told The Associated Press. "I've been living on this mountain every day, living...

This past week, America has watched in anticipation as workers attempt to rescue six trapped miners in a Utah coal mine. Daily news conferences and minute updates have kept us on the edge of our seats, anxious for any sign that the trapped miners are alive. Murray Energy and the Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration have deployed over 130 miners to dig into the mine. Without hesitation or question, local mining companies have devoted much of their resources to this rescue mission. No one ever stopped to consider the bottom line. For a moment allow me to...

Minneapolis I-35 bridge collapse: Failure Analysis The I-35 West bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota, consisted of three trussed spans and several beam and post spans typical of 1960's era freeway construction. Analysis to date here at Free Republic has centered on looking for the triggering cause in the bridge collapse, and the sequence of failure, as determined by available pre- and post-collapse imagery and video. Efforts so far have been hampered by uncertainty regarding the condition and disposition of the eastern truss panels originally located above and near pier 6. I hope to rectify this uncertainty and...

Regular readers will recall that we are on the verge of a population problem. Fertility rates have been falling across the globe, and in nearly every industrialized country are already below the replacement rate of 2.1 children per woman. Despite the appearance of a world bursting at the seams with an ever-greater number of people, the current growth rate is slowing and the world's population is likely to peak about nine billion and then begin contracting - precipitously - by 2080. Regular readers also will recall that there are convincing, if not certain, reasons to suspect that population contraction could...

Representatives of Zimbabwean President Mugabe offered a positive, upbeat assessment of their country at the most recent Southern African Development Community meeting in Lukasha, Zambia. "Political reform is not necessary in my country because we are a democracy like any other democracy in the world," Patrick Chinamasa, minister of justice, legal and parliamentary affairs, told reporters as the two-day summit opened in the Zambian capital Lusaka. CNN (16 Aug, 2007) Chinamasa also dismissed calls for a dialogue with Zimbabwean political opposition leaders such as Morgan Tsvangirai. He accused them of harboring plots to dethrone Robert Mugabe."There can be no justification...

HUNTINGTON, Utah — Officials extinguished nearly all hope of finding any of the six miners alive on Sunday, nearly two weeks after the men were trapped in a violent collapse deep with a mine. The latest results from a fourth hole drilled more than 1,500 feet into the mountainside found the air quality could not sustain life, said a top executive of the company that co-owns the Crandall Canyon Mine. "It's likely these miners may not be found," said Rob Moore, vice president of Murray Energy Corp.

The Utah mine tragedy underlines the importance of oversight of presidential appointments Saturday, August 18, 2007 T he United States Senate knew exactly how to respond when Richard Strickler was nominated to monitor the health and safety of U.S. miners. It rejected him. Twice. Last year, President Bush waited until October, when senators were out of town, to hand Stickler what's called a "recess appointment," meaning he got the job without having to be confirmed. As the drama unfolds beneath Utah, it seems none to soon to re-examine quite what was the Senate's concern? It turns out that senators, who...

Zimbabwe: anarchy in four, says the West Stephen Bevan in Pretoria, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 12:42am BST 19/08/2007 The economy of Zimbabwe is facing total collapse within four months, leaving the country facing a slide into Congo-style anarchy, The Sunday Telegraph has been told. Western officials fear the business, farming and financial sectors may be crippled by Christmas, triggering a collapse of government control that could leave the country prey to warlords and ignite long-suppressed tribal tensions. 80 per cent of Zimbabweans live below the poverty line and the economy is close to total collapse The stark warning of the...

Magnitude 3.9 - UTAH <!-- .map{ padding:10px 10px 10px 10px; width:120px; float:left; display:block; height:175px; text-align:center; } <p> .map a { text-decoration:none; } --> 2007 August 18 13:16:30 UTC Details Maps Where can I find...? Earthquake Details Magnitude 3.9 Date-Time Saturday, August 18, 2007 at 13:16:30 UTCSaturday, August 18, 2007 at 07:16:30 AM at epicenter Location 38.102°N, 113.404°W Depth 0.1 km (~0.1 mile) (poorly constrained) Region UTAH Distances 44 km (27 miles) WSW (254°) from Minersville, UT 47 km (29 miles) SW (226°) from Milford, UT 50 km (31 miles) NW (320°) from Enoch, UT 112 km (69 miles) ENE...

A national mine safety expert believes the two collapses at the Crandall Canyon Mine [snip] were caused by "bumps" that resulted from the way operations were being conducted at the Huntington mine. Mining bumps are pressure-shifting seismic events than can cause the walls, pillars, ceiling and even the floor of a mine to literally explode and disintegrate. They can cause deaths and injuries, and can result in cave-ins. [snip] And while an investigation ultimately will determine the cause, Ferriter told the Deseret Morning News on Friday he feels certain the bumps were caused by mining activity. "In my opinion, based...

HUNTINGTON, Utah (ABC 4 News) - Equipment used in the Crandall Canyon Mine rescue efforts picked up "significant noise activity" early Wednesday evening. Mine officials say the sound came from the area where a third hole broke through the mine Wednesday. "Don't read too much into this," said mine owner Robert Murray. Mine officials say the noise is not necessarily an indication of life in the mine, but are saying it is a reason to continue hope. Officials expect to get video back from the third hole by 9:00 p.m. Air sample readings are expected around 11:00 Wednesday night. A...

The problem-plagued effort to rescue six miners trapped in a Utah coal mine suffered its most grave setback Thursday night, when a seismic shudder sent rock tumbling onto rescue workers, killing three and injuring six, authorities said. The mountain "bump" occurred about 6:30 p.m., as the group of more than 100 rescue workers continued to carefully tunnel through the collapsed Crandall Canyon Mine. Since Aug. 6, when a predawn cave-in buried the miners, regular seismic tremors have slowed the dig to a virtual crawl. There has been no indication of whether the trapped miners are alive, and officials emphasized that...

HUNTINGTON -- Underground efforts to reach six miners trapped in central Utah's Crandall Canyon mine since Aug. 6 have been suspended indefinitely following a Thursday night cave-in that killed three rescue workers. Richard Stickler, assistant secretary of Labor over the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, said efforts deep inside the coal mine would remain halted unless some way is found to safely resume them. "This was a tragic accident [that] was the result of seismic activity, a mountain 'bump,'" he said at a late-morning briefing near the mine. "We had put in the strongest ground-support system . . ....

The rumble echoed in the flicker of a heartbeat, striking instant fear through bones and nerves. For that split second, as the mountain shrugged, mining equipment weighing several tons bounced inches off the ground. For the miners working in this dark tunnel—men who count their experience in these coal veins not by years, but by generations—they paused, looked up, took a breath and then continued to dig for their brothers.

Two medical helicopters enroute to Utah mine after report of new collapse

Rescuers trying to find six miners missing a week in a devastated coal mine failed to see any sign of them through a video camera lowered through a drill hole and will drill yet another hole in an attempt to locate the men, a federal official said Sunday. Poor lighting allowed the camera to only see about 15 feet into a void at the bottom of the drill hole, far less than the 100 feet it's capable of seeing, said Richard Stickler, head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration.

How many other substandard bridges in Republican districts has the democrat-dominated congress been denying funds for replacement? They want to blame Bush for Minneapolis; Democrat Hypocrisy at it’s finest! Chatham board to discuss how to get money to replace Skidaway Narrows bridge By Larry Peterson Created 2007-08-08 23:30 Funding to replace the substandard Skidaway Narrows bridge will be discussed at Friday's Chatham County Commission meeting. Faulty spans have attracted sharper scrutiny since a bridge collapse last week in Minneapolis that killed at least five people. Meanwhile, Skidaway Narrows became a political football this week when a leading local Democrat blamed...

Structure Collapse Reported at Fontainebleau Aug 6, 2007 07:41 PM PDT Three floors of the Fontainebleau construction project collapsed around 10:30 Monday morning near the Las Vegas Strip. Firefighters from three departments rushed to the scene to help with rescues. Fortunately, all of the construction workers escaped without injury. Eyewitnesses say they heard a noise and saw plumes of dust coming from the structure but they didn't know what had happened. This is the second incident at the construction site in less than a week. Last Thursday, a worker was killed after he fell from a beam. The Fontainebleau is...

Evidence of increasing international trade truck traffic on Interstate 35 through Minnesota raises concerns that NAFTA Superhighway traffic contributed to last week's collapse of the freeway bridge in Minneapolis.

ANKENY, Iowa - Republican John McCain said Saturday that Congress could share in the blame for the Minnesota bridge collapse because lawmakers diverted billions of dollars in transportation money from road work to pet projects. "I think perhaps you can make the argument that part of the responsibility lies with the Congress of the United States," the Arizona senator said. McCain said Congress spent roughly $20 billion on special-interest projects when it approved a new highway bill, signed into law by President Bush. "We spent approximately $20 billion of that money on pork barrel, earmark projects," said McCain. "Maybe if...

MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) - Politicians trying to account for one of the worst bridge collapses in U.S. history cast blame ranging from engineering faults to the Iraq war on Friday, while divers tried to reach the bodies of more victims in the Mississippi River's treacherous waters. As investigators probed Wednesday's collapse that killed at least five people, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said outside experts would review the decisions of state engineers to shore up problems with the heavily-traveled 40-year-old bridge in central Minneapolis. Engineers had decided to periodically inspect the steel superstructure beneath the Interstate 35W bridge and bolt on reinforcing...

Click here for live camera. The camera updates every 5 seconds or so. The link doesn't bring you straight to the camera though. When the map comes up, find 35W and where it intersects with 394 and head north from there. The second and third dots above that intersection are the northbound and southbound cameras that cover the bridge. I imagine MNDoT has pictures of the bridge collapsing.

Bridge Collapses Minnesota - A key bridge on I-35 in Minneapolis, Minnesota unexpectedly collapsed into the Mississippi River last night at rush hour. Authorities say at least 50 cars were on the structure at the time it collapsed. Four people are confirmed dead, and many more are injured and reported missing. At this time no reason is being given for the collapse, but investigators have ruled out an earthquake or terrorism as possible causes. O'Donnell, Moore, Kennedy Join For Forum Minneapolis - To raise awareness and support for universal health care, gay rights, and ending the Iraq war, Senator Ted...

The White House said Thursday that an inspection two years ago found structural deficiencies in the highway bridge that buckled during evening rush hour in Minneapolis. White House press secretary Tony Snow said the Interstate 35W span rated 50 on a scale of 120 for structural stability. "This doesn't mean there was a risk of failure, but if an inspection report identifies deficiencies, the state is responsible for taking corrective actions," he said. The bridge was 40 years old.

When I heard the news late Wednesday afternoon about the Minnesota Interstate 35W bridge collapse, after the initial shock and sadness for the victims, one of my first thoughts was that the Left would try to score points and blame the tragedy on President Bush and the Republicans. Sure enough, within four minutes of the news breaking nationally at 7:32 pm ET on the Fox News Channel, the initial discussion thread about it at Daily Kos was already collecting comments (blaming Bush and Republicans) like the following ones which are representative of hundreds of messages that soon appeared there...

MINNEAPOLIS (Aug. 2) - An interstate bridge jammed with rush-hour traffic suddenly broke into huge sections and collapsed into the Mississippi River Wednesday, pitching dozens of cars 60 feet into the water and killing at least four people. The eight-lane Interstate 35W bridge, a major Minneapolis artery, was in the midst of being repaired and two lanes in each direction were closed when the bridge buckled. About 20 families gathered at an information center, looking for information on loved ones they couldn't locate. "There were two lanes of traffic, bumper to bumper, at the point of the collapse. Those cars...

Just turned on the news. 35W bridge collapsed in the Mississippi River. Cars, trucks, semis..... Fires burning, tanker trucks, at least one school bus, more than ten cars...... Just now breaking.......

Zimbabwe's hospital system 'beyond help' By Sebastien Berger Last Updated: 1:44am BST 02/08/2007 A young girl had to have her leg amputated because no antibiotics were available to treat her wounds The public hospitals of Zimbabwe, once a model for Africa, have become waiting rooms for death. A doctor at one of the country's five central hospitals - the biggest and supposedly best equipped health care centres in the country - laid bare the desperate state of the system. "Patients are dying of things like dehydration - in a hospital," he said. Neither the doctor nor his institution can be...

CAMAGUEY, Cuba - Raul Castro said Thursday that Cuba has avoided the collapse the U.S. predicted when his brother Fidel fell ill a year ago, and signaled he was willing to talk with a new American administration after President Bush leaves power. The acting president said the island suffered "a hard blow" when Fidel relinquished power last year, but he focused more on the future while addressing tens of thousands of loyalists celebrating Cuba's Revolution Day. "These have truly been difficult moments, although with a diametrically different impact than that expected by our enemies, who wished for chaos to take...

20 Rumored Killed in N.Korea Building Collapse Rumor has it that a seven-story apartment building in Hyesan, Yanggang Province in North Korea collapsed last Thursday, killing about 20 and seriously injuring dozens of others. South Korea’s National Intelligence Service said Monday it is checking the information. According to well-informed source, soldiers and residents arrived to the rescue of victims right after the collapse, collecting about 20 dead bodies and transporting dozens of other seriously injured people to hospitals. But fatalities are reportedly growing due to the lack of rescue equipment. Some 42 families, including those of senior party members and...