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Old 2010-04-16, 22:19   Link #6881
Joojoobees
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Tax evasion office for 'Politically Exposed People'

New revelations that UBS maintained a PEP office - for 'Politically Exposed People,' to coordinate their tax evasion activities. Meanwhile the only person who went to jail was the whistleblower who revealed the criminal activity, and thus assisted in recovering billions in back taxes.

http://www.nydailynews.com/money/201..._exbanker.html
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Old 2010-04-17, 03:55   Link #6882
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Microsoft “Employs Child Slaves to Make Xboxes”

So, what else is new? Minimising losses and maximising profits...that is the norm for the supplier and retailer.

It's a pity the leaders are so screwed up to even think about working rights. 15 hours per day, making them pay for their own food and letting them bunk in crap conditions is inhuman.

But I suppose that explains the RRODs.
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Old 2010-04-17, 04:49   Link #6883
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Christine Nixon admits cutting her hair, working on memoirs on Black Saturday

Quote:
CHRISTINE Nixon is under severe pressure to quit after being forced to admit she had a haircut and spent time with her biographer as Black Saturday unfolded.

Ms Nixon remained defiant, saying she had never considered quitting her role as head of the bushfire reconstruction authority.

But the Herald Sun reveals that privately Premier John Brumby's support for the former police chief commissioner is wavering.

"The Premier will await the findings of the royal commission before making judgments about arrangements into the future," a spokesman for Mr Brumby said.

Insiders said he was leaving the door open on her future.

The latest damaging admissions come after Ms Nixon was recalled to the bushfires royal commission following revelations by the Herald Sun she left the fire control centre to have a pub dinner.

Friday's press conference was hastily arranged after the Herald Sun raised questions about how much time Ms Nixon spent on her memoirs during Black Saturday.

It is believed she first briefed the Premier, who had no knowledge of the hair appointment or the meeting with her biographer.

"On the morning of February 7th at 9.30am I had a haircut," she said.

"It was a recurring appointment, one I could have cancelled but I believed that I could carry out my duties. As well, I had my phone with me and was available."

And after refusing all day to answer questions from the Herald Sun, Ms Nixon also admitted she spent about 45 minutes working on her biography before returning to the control room about 3pm.

"In hindsight I would have done things differently ... particularly, I would have stayed at the (state emergency) centre that night."

Ms Nixon said whatever she did that day would not have changed the tragic outcome, in which 173 people died and 2000 homes were destroyed.

"What I did on that day as chief commissioner will be judged ultimately by the royal commission," she said.

"They are the ones who will hear all the evidence and make a decision when they report about whether or not my behaviours on that day were appropriate."

Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu last night said Ms Nixon had to go.

"Christine Nixon's position remains untenable," he said.

Ms Nixon said she did not tell the royal commission about the hairdresser and the biographer during her two controversial appearances because she had not been asked and did not consider them relevant.

She started the day with a 9.30am hair appointment. She went to her office at 1.30pm and spent about 45 minutes with her biographer.

"Then I decided I needed to go back to the state emergency co-ordination centre."

Ms Nixon admitted she should have cancelled both appointments, but continued to defend her decisions.

"None of the private matters had any impact on my responsibilities that day," she said.

Ms Nixon said she intended to remain as head of the reconstruction effort.

"It is an honour to work with the bushfire-affected communities and they are people who we deserve to be paying attention to."

Ms Nixon's latest admissions come after two days bunkered down in her Mornington Peninsula home.

She said she called the press conference in the hope it would stop people approaching members of her family, particularly her elderly parents.

It emerged earlier yesterday that Ms Nixon considered accepting a Foster's board appointment before the first anniversary of Black Saturday.

But Mr Brumby urged her to delay the plum corporate position until the anniversary had passed and more progress had been made on the reconstruction effort.
Everybody knows about Black Saturday. It has recently emerged that Ms. Nixon, the bushfire royals commission chief, had left her post on the night of the attack to go have a dinner with someone. This has seriously angered many, who believe that the many lives lost, and the millions of dollars of property damage wouldn't have happened if she'd stood guard. I beg to differ, but I do believe work comes before leisure.
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Old 2010-04-17, 11:51   Link #6884
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SaintessHeart View Post
Microsoft “Employs Child Slaves to Make Xboxes”

So, what else is new? Minimising losses and maximising profits...that is the norm for the supplier and retailer.

It's a pity the leaders are so screwed up to even think about working rights. 15 hours per day, making them pay for their own food and letting them bunk in crap conditions is inhuman.

But I suppose that explains the RRODs.
I love how so many sources and readers of these stories villanize China for these working conditions but the reality is that if China were to strengthen their labor laws, Microsoft would just go to Africa to manufacture or South America. Chalk it up to the global economy to solve things.
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Old 2010-04-17, 22:25   Link #6885
Samari
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SaintessHeart View Post
Microsoft “Employs Child Slaves to Make Xboxes”

So, what else is new? Minimising losses and maximising profits...that is the norm for the supplier and retailer.

It's a pity the leaders are so screwed up to even think about working rights. 15 hours per day, making them pay for their own food and letting them bunk in crap conditions is inhuman.

But I suppose that explains the RRODs.
I didn't read the entire thing. Just half, and then bits and pieces. Me and my girlfriend talked about this later on though. I was actually wondering if the earnings these workers make constitute the standard of living there in the various parts of China where these factories are in operation. I remember in the article that one worker said that they can never get to the middle class with the earnings they make. If this is the case, then why keep working at the factory? One other girl mentioned that her parents were farmers and didn't have pension plan and I'm guessing very poor. But is there really no other way for these people that may live in poverty to earn a living than to work at a factory with such strict working conditions? Are they all uneducated or something and there are no other options?
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Old 2010-04-18, 00:27   Link #6886
SaintessHeart
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Samari View Post
I didn't read the entire thing. Just half, and then bits and pieces. Me and my girlfriend talked about this later on though. I was actually wondering if the earnings these workers make constitute the standard of living there in the various parts of China where these factories are in operation. I remember in the article that one worker said that they can never get to the middle class with the earnings they make. If this is the case, then why keep working at the factory? One other girl mentioned that her parents were farmers and didn't have pension plan and I'm guessing very poor. But is there really no other way for these people that may live in poverty to earn a living than to work at a factory with such strict working conditions? Are they all uneducated or something and there are no other options?
China is a very competitive society. It is just like Singapore + Japan + Korea's education system on a larger scale.

If everyone is learning the same thing and is able to do well in it, hiring for top end jobs would become a first-come-first-serve or "coffee money" basis. As the job pyramid is filled up, the lower achieving students would be outside of it.

On the other note :

Hikikomori Baby Butcher Stabs Family of 5 over Net Access
TL Courtesy of Sankaku

Quote:
A hikikomori has brutally attempted to murder his entire family of 5, attacking them with a kitchen knife and successfully stabbing to death his father and a 1-year-old baby girl, and seriously wounding the others, after which he burnt down the family home.

The cause of this rampage was the family cancelling his Internet access after he became massively indebted using his father’s credit card.

The incident began one night when the 30-year-old unemployed hikikomori, who lived together with his family in Aichi prefecture as a recluse, found someone had cancelled his Internet access.

He stormed through the house with a flashlight and beat his sleeping 58-year-old mother into wakefulness, demanding to know who had cancelled the contact – his father had apparently terminated his Internet access after he amassed some $30,000 in debt from buying games and other items in online auctions whilst using his father’s credit card.

Enraged, the hikikomori grabbed a knife from the kitchen and began methodically stabbing to death the 5 family members at the home, first returning to his mother’s bed where he stabbed his mother 10 times in the neck and flank, after which he turned on her 1-year-old granddaughter who was sleeping next to her, fatally stabbing her 3 times.

After this he set about the rest of his sleeping family, killing his 58-year-old father with 4 strikes to his neck and thighs, stabbing his 22-year-old younger brother 10 times in the neck and abdomen, and viciously stabbing his brother’s 27-year-old wife, the mother of the slain baby, 17 times in the face and flank. His brother’s injuries were minor, whilst those of his sister-in-law were grave.

Of his victims, only his father and the baby died. Another member of the family, a 24-year-old brother, escaped the massacre as he was away at the time.

After had finished stabbing his family, he returned to his room, took a lighter and set fire to his futon, with the intent of burning the house to the ground.

Police discovered him nearby, standing in the rain and dripping with the blood of his victims, whilst flames poured from the windows of his burning home. He was arrested and charged with attempted murder on the spot, later elevated to murder.

Witnesses described a scene of carnage outside the burning house, with neighbours frantically trying to save his blood soaked victims.

Reportedly he had lost control on previous occasions, with no less than 9 incidences of domestic disturbance reported to police. His family reported “he’d calm down after police came.”

A neighbour described not having seen him since he graduated from school 15 years ago – “After he graduated those 15 years ago, I never set eyes on him again.”
Cause => effect. That is how competitive societies run.

And....

N. Korea Blames South for Sinking

Quote:
SEOUL – North Korea, in its first public statement about the recent sinking of a South Korean naval ship near the inter-Korean border, on Saturday blamed South Korea for the incident, which resulted in the deaths of 46 South Korean sailors.

The statement accused the South Korean government of "fabricating" the cause of the sinking and added it was "caused by their fault." It also said the South Korean government is using the sinking as a plot against the North. The statement was issued by North Korea's military and carried by its state-run news agency.

South Korean government and military officials have repeatedly said they won't be able to determine a cause until the ship is recovered. They have said they are open to all possibilities and have not ruled out North Korean involvement.

The ship was on a routine patrol in the Yellow Sea a few miles south of the maritime border with North Korea on the evening of March 26 when it was rocked by an explosion and split in two. The stern immediately sank, but the bow floated for hours and rescuers saved 58 sailors from that section of the boat.

A salvage crew on Thursday recovered the stern, which was placed on a barge and transported to port on Friday. A military investigator said a preliminary examination of the recovered confirmed survivors' accounts of an external explosion rather than an internal problem. But he said it's unclear whether a torpedo, mine or some other type of device was involved.

The bow of the 1,200-ton ship settled in shallower water than the stern. A salvage crew will begin work to lift it on Monday.

In its statement, North Korea used the extreme invective that's often heard from its authoritarian government. "The war maniacs of the South's puppet military and right-wing conservative politicians are now making a foolish attempt to link the tragedy to us after having failed to find out the cause of the sinking," the statement said.

It accused South Korea of seeking to put more international pressure on North Korea. And it accused the South's government, which has been led by the conservative party since the presidential election of 2007, of trying to use the sinking for political advantage in an upcoming legislative election in June.

The sinking could present President Lee Myung-bak with a major national security issue at a time when he's focused chiefly on economic problems and the hosting of a G-20 summit later in the year. Mr. Lee has said little about how he'll proceed if North Korea is found responsible for the sinking.

North Korea has never formally accepted the inter-Korean maritime border, which was created by the United Nations after the 1953 cease-fire that ended hostilities in the Korean War. It has tested the South's response to the border via naval incursions through the years, resulting in three bloody skirmishes.

The two Koreas traded fire in the same area where the patrol boat sank last November after a North Korean vessel strayed south of the maritime border. The North's ship caught fire and returned to port, with some reports indicating North Korean sailors were killed. North Korea has never publicly acknowledged the skirmish.

In June 2002, a North Korean patrol boat crossed the maritime border and sank one South Korean boat, killing six South Korean sailors and injuring 19 others. In a larger skirmish that lasted for several days in June 1999, South Korea sank two North Korean warships, killing an unknown number of sailors. Seven South Korean sailors were injured at that time.
I suspect that N.K torpedoed the ship. Probably advanced submarine technology from China.
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Last edited by SaintessHeart; 2010-04-18 at 00:47.
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Old 2010-04-18, 01:56   Link #6887
Samari
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SaintessHeart View Post
China is a very competitive society. It is just like Singapore + Japan + Korea's education system on a larger scale.

If everyone is learning the same thing and is able to do well in it, hiring for top end jobs would become a first-come-first-serve or "coffee money" basis. As the job pyramid is filled up, the lower achieving students would be outside of it.
But what about the pay that these children receive? Does it compare with the equal cost of living status in these places where these factories are?
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Old 2010-04-18, 03:07   Link #6888
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Originally Posted by SaintessHeart View Post
I suspect that N.K torpedoed the ship. Probably advanced submarine technology from China.
I'd be surprised if they didn't. Though thinking about things like the gulf of Tonkin incident or the sinking of the Maine, it's possible the North did have nothing to do with it. I'd be surprised if it were the case, but it's possible.
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Old 2010-04-18, 03:45   Link #6889
SaintessHeart
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Originally Posted by Samari View Post
But what about the pay that these children receive? Does it compare with the equal cost of living status in these places where these factories are?
That is how manufacturing industries work. Since your technology costs are constant throughout the market, you lower the manpower pay to maximise profits.

The factories increase their by increasing the number of contracts they have with in-sourcing companies rather than the quality of the products they supply. Then it moves to the idea of market competition where lowering the bids can get them the factory owners' contracts.

Since the in-sourcing company only pays the money requested, it is up to the factory owners to set their own work ethics and standards. Subsequently I think the "expansion funds" from the profits actually went into lining the supervisors' pockets.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kamui4356 View Post
I'd be surprised if they didn't. Though thinking about things like the gulf of Tonkin incident or the sinking of the Maine, it's possible the North did have nothing to do with it. I'd be surprised if it were the case, but it's possible.
But the technologically advanced S.K ship got sunk, so it might be likely that the naval vessel involved on the N.K side had advanced technology of some sort.

I am not sure if the ship fired warning shots, but if they did, it would be a show of restraint on the S.K side. If it didn't it is a stealthy torpedo attack.
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When three puppygirls named after pastries are on top of each other, it is called Eclair a'la menthe et Biscotti aux fraises avec beaucoup de Ricotta sur le dessus.
Most of all, you have to be disciplined and you have to save, even if you hate our current financial system. Because if you don't save, then you're guaranteed to end up with nothing.
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Old 2010-04-18, 03:48   Link #6890
Samari
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Originally Posted by SaintessHeart View Post
That is how manufacturing industries work. Since your technology costs are constant throughout the market, you lower the manpower pay to maximise profits.

The factories increase their by increasing the number of contracts they have with in-sourcing companies rather than the quality of the products they supply. Then it moves to the idea of market competition where lowering the bids can get them the factory owners' contracts.

Since the in-sourcing company only pays the money requested, it is up to the factory owners to set their own work ethics and standards. Subsequently I think the "expansion funds" from the profits actually went into lining the supervisors' pockets.
I'll take that as a no.
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Old 2010-04-18, 04:13   Link #6891
ganbaru
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Originally Posted by SaintessHeart View Post
I am not sure if the ship fired warning shots, but if they did, it would be a show of restraint on the S.K side. If it didn't it is a stealthy torpedo attack.
There's still the possibility of a mine, which would lead to some interesting questions...
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Old 2010-04-18, 04:21   Link #6892
SaintessHeart
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There's still the possibility of a mine, which would lead to some interesting questions...
The ship broke into two....so I doubt it would be a mine. To torpedo a ship the best thing to do is to hit it from the side. Even if it is a vintage mine tethered to the seabed, there should be CMs onboard since the corvette sunk carried depth charges and torpedoes for ASW missions.

According to reports, the ship was bent upwards when it sunk, but it was broken evenly. The latest report stated that it was an "external explosion", but it could be more than that.
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Most of all, you have to be disciplined and you have to save, even if you hate our current financial system. Because if you don't save, then you're guaranteed to end up with nothing.
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Old 2010-04-18, 07:30   Link #6893
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Poles mourn as they prepare to bury president

Shame that so many delegations couldn't come....
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Old 2010-04-18, 10:37   Link #6894
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Thai Protesters Foil Raid, Free Leader

Quote:
BANGKOK—The Thai government's pledge to crack down on antigovernment protesters took a surreal turn Friday after special forces surrounded a Bangkok hotel only to see their quarry—a pop idol-turned-activist—escape by scaling down the front of the building by clinging to an electrical cable and fleeing into a horde of waiting supporters.

Compounding the government's embarrassment, two senior police officers were taken hostage by red shirt-wearing protesters who swarmed through police ranks during the operation. The officers were paraded before tens of thousands of people at the demonstrators' main camp in the heart of Bangkok's commercial district as they continued their raucous campaign for new elections. After a few hours, the officers were released unharmed.

Friday's dramas were the latest sign that Thailand's political and military hierarchy hasn't yet come to terms with the scope and ingenuity of the "Red Shirt" protest movement, which emerged as a grass-roots support base for former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra after he was ousted in a military coup four years ago, but now is turning into a broader social movement focused on encouraging more democracy.

Its leaders accuse Thailand's powerful military and bureaucratic elites of interfering with democratic processes to bring down two populist pro-Thaksin governments in recent years. They also say these elites helped to elevate into power the current army-backed government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

Violent clashes between protesters and troops on April 10 claimed 24 lives—the majority of them demonstrators—and appear to have strengthened the Red Shirts' resolve to bring down Mr. Abhisit's government. The worsening tension also seems to have set back the prospect of negotiations to end the monthlong standoff between Thai authorities and demonstrators, which has already crimped tourism and domestic spending and is now threatening Thailand's recovery from the global economic slump.

The demonstrators' widening appeal, and their apparent success in outflanking officials, was on display Friday when the government went after one of the movement's unlikely leaders.

Arisman Pongruangrong, 46 years old, bears little resemblance to the government's depiction of protesters as impoverished farmers and laborers who blindly following the free-spending Mr. Thaksin.

Equipped with a law degree and generous shock of hair, Mr. Arisman gained fame in Thailand for crooning romantic pop ballads such as "My Heart Is Not Insensitive" and "I Love You Eternally."

Among Thailand's political classes, Mr. Arisman is better known for leading a contingent of Red Shirts that crashed a regional summit near Bangkok last year, forcing the leaders of China, Japan, South Korea and other countries to flee in speedboats, helicopters and bulletproof limousines.

Late Friday morning, Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban announced that security forces were closing in on "terrorist" forces at the SC Park Hotel in central Bangkok. Mr. Suthep didn't say who the government was seeking but police officials later said they knew Mr. Arisman would be at the hotel.

Within minutes of Mr. Suthep's televised announcement, hundreds of protesters sped to the hotel where Mr. Arisman and other Red Shirt leaders were holed up.

Mr. Arisman double-locked his room door and then leapt out to the balcony when police began shooting the lock and lobbing tear gas inside, he said later in an interview. With the help of an aide, he gingerly found his way down from this third-floor room with a steel electrical cable wrapped around his torso, he said. Red Shirt supporters below blocked police teams—whose members were clad in vests marked "SWAT"—and whisked Mr. Arisman to safety.

A few moments later, the aging heartthrob returned on top of a truck. "I would like to thank all of the people who saved me—you have helped save Thai democracy," Mr. Arisman said.

He then returned to a hero's welcome from tens of thousands of people amassed at the protesters' main stage in the heart of Bangkok's primary shopping corridor, where he stood alongside core protest leaders including veteran politician Veera Musikapong and Nattawut Saikua, a firebrand speaker and the former star of a television political satire show.

Mr. Arisman's escape came on top of several failed government efforts to scatter protesters or apprehend their leaders in recent weeks.

Protest leaders have directed their forces around the city by deploying demonstrators amassed in their main protest area to fan out by motorcycle or other means to television stations or army camps.

In some cases, security forces have deployed forces only to see them surrounded or overrun by exuberant demonstrators. During the violent April 10 street fights, protesters were seen making off with shields stolen from soldiers and chasing them off with sticks.

"The Red Shirts are very well organized, while the sheer incompetence of the authorities is reinforcing doubts about who is really in charge here," said Paul Quaglia, a director at Bangkok-based security consulting firm PSA Asia. The danger now, he said, is that some of Thailand's military commanders will be "champing at the bit to show they can clear out the protesters" and this might significantly increase the risk of further bloodshed.

Late Friday, truckloads of Red Shirt supporters continued to zoom about the city brandishing giant flags. In a late-night television address, the premier, Mr. Abhisit, said security forces would continue preparations to break up the protests. He also assigned army chief Gen. Anupong Paochinda to play a more direct role in restoring order, a move some analysts interpreted as encouraging more forceful military action.
How the heck did the SWAT team fail that way? Don't they have "linesmen" to clear the area of civilians first?

And why did the DPM announce the raid? That is stupidest thing the internal security agencies can do : tell of a raid before it's over!
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When three puppygirls named after pastries are on top of each other, it is called Eclair a'la menthe et Biscotti aux fraises avec beaucoup de Ricotta sur le dessus.
Most of all, you have to be disciplined and you have to save, even if you hate our current financial system. Because if you don't save, then you're guaranteed to end up with nothing.
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Old 2010-04-18, 14:05   Link #6895
ganbaru
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Originally Posted by SaintessHeart View Post
Thai Protesters Foil Raid, Free Leader



How the heck did the SWAT team fail that way? Don't they have "linesmen" to clear the area of civilians first?

And why did the DPM announce the raid? That is stupidest thing the internal security agencies can do : tell of a raid before it's over!
I would rather wonder if there's much ''Red Shirt'' sympathisers amond the police, it look to me either like sabotage or pure incompetence.
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Old 2010-04-18, 14:14   Link #6896
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Originally Posted by ganbaru View Post
I would rather wonder if there's much ''Red Shirt'' sympathisers amond the police, it look to me either like sabotage or pure incompetence.
most of the support for the red shirt come form the lower economic class and that includes not just the farmers form the countryside but the maid working for the elite, the bellboy in the hotel and the various little stall owners. A lot of the lower level police and military come form this class. Any general order tot he troops to open fire could end having those guns being pointed back at the commanders.
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Old 2010-04-19, 08:50   Link #6897
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It's time to stop the looters in loafers
Quote:
By Paul Krugman

LAST October, I saw a cartoon by Mike Peters in which a teacher asks a student to create a sentence that uses the verb "sacks", as in looting and pillaging. The student replies: "Goldman Sachs."

Sure enough, last week the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused the Gucci-loafer guys at Goldman of engaging in what amounts to white-collar looting.

I'm using the term looting in the sense defined by the economists George Akerlof and Paul Romer in a 1993 paper titled Looting: The Economic Underworld of Bankruptcy for Profit. That paper, written in the aftermath of the savings-and-loan crisis of the Reagan years, argued that many of the losses in that crisis were the result of deliberate fraud.

We've known for some time that Goldman Sachs and other firms marketed mortgage-backed securities even as they sought to make profits by betting that such securities would plunge in value.

This practice, however, while arguably reprehensible, wasn't illegal. But now the SEC is charging that Goldman created and marketed securities that were deliberately designed to fail, so that an important client could make money off that failure.

That's what I would call looting.

> FULL STORY ON NYT
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Old 2010-04-19, 09:37   Link #6898
SaintessHeart
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Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf View Post
It's time to stop the looters in loafers

Quote:
LAST October, I saw a cartoon by Mike Peters in which a teacher asks a student to create a sentence that uses the verb "sacks", as in looting and pillaging. The student replies: "Goldman Sachs."
Wrong thread. Should be in the Silly News or A Laugh A Day thread.

Nonetheless, the "Goldman Sacks" ad-lib was brilliant. That other day, I was talking to a newly acquainted ex-banker I met (he got laid off last December), and he proposed new names for the investments and nuts at Wall Street :

1. Minibuang (buang in Singlish, means to become worthless)
2. Goldman Sucks
3. Walls Meltdown (Walls is a confectionery which makes ice-cream)
4. Sub-sai Crisis (Sai being shit in Hokkien)
5. Bull out (meaning that the bailout plan is fruitless)

and among others. Can't remember all.


Woes Mount for Japan's Hatoyama


Quote:
TOKYO—Half a year after winning a historic landslide election ushering in a new ruling party, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama now has the backing of just one-quarter of the public, as his erratic handling of the relocation of a controversial U.S. military base and other issues has led many voters to question his leadership.

A poll conducted by the Asahi Shimbun daily over the weekend showed the support rating for Mr. Hatoyama's cabinet has fallen to a new low of 25%, compared with 32% in March—and with 71% at the time of its inauguration in September, amid high hopes that he could shake up the government after ousting the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party from power.

Moreover, 51% of the 2,083 respondents said Mr. Hatoyama should step down if he fails to resolve the dispute over where to move U.S. Marines from the Futenma air station, located in a crowded urban area in Okinawa island, by his self-imposed deadline on May 31.

A survey by the Mainichi Shimbun, another daily, also showed support for the cabinet tumbled to 33% from 43% a month ago. The newspapers don't disclose margins of error for their surveys.

The latest poll results will likely give ammunition to some lawmakers within Mr. Hatoyama's ruling Democratic Party of Japan seeking a new leader before key national elections in July. One of Mr. Hatoyama's own cabinet members—National Policy Minister Yoshito Sengoku—created a stir last Friday when he said Japan could call a double election of both the lower and upper houses of parliament if Mr. Hatoyama steps down before the planned upper house votes in July.

Mr. Hatoyama has his defenders. "There is absolutely no need to talk about his resignation," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano told reporters Monday. "The voters gave us a mandate, and the prime minister continues to conduct policies according to that mandate."

For Japanese voters, Mr. Hatoyama's anemic poll ratings are nothing new. He has room to fall before becoming the least-popular national leader of recent years. According to Asahi, support for Mr. Hatoyama's predecessor, Taro Aso, was at 14% in early 2009, and another LDP premier, Yorhiro Mori, was at 9% in 2001.

Mr. Hatoyama, however, was expected to usher in a new era of politics. Instead, his approval rating has been declining steadily since his party's election, due in part to political-funds scandals involving him and Ichiro Ozawa, the DPJ's influential secretary general.

The slide has been accelerated in recent weeks as the resolution of the Okinawa-base issue seemed to grow remote as a result of what many see as problems of Mr. Hatoyama's own making. Having promised during last year's election campaign to move the Futenma facilities outside of Okinawa, Mr. Hatoyama has tried to find a new site satisfactory to both the U.S. and to the local community. But he has already missed two of his own deadlines.

Mr. Hatoyama has set the end of May as his final deadline, but it looks increasingly difficult for him to act by then. The government has identified Tokunoshima, a small island between Okinawa and Japan's southern main island of Kyushu, as a possible alternative site. That has only emboldened local opposition there. On Sunday, some15,000 people participated in a rally against the plan, according to the organizers of the event.

"I was impressed by the energy of the local people gathered there," Mr. Hatoyama told reporters Monday. "I will closely study how they feel as I continue to think seriously about the Futenma relocation.

Japanese media have harshly criticized Mr. Hatoyama. After the prime minister's trip to the nuclear summit in Washington last week resulted in just 10 minutes of face time with President Barack Obama, apparently with little progress on the base issue, the mass-circulation Yomiuri Shimbun called Mr. Hatoyama "thoughtless and light weight" in a front-page article titled "Futenma, A Maze with No Way Out."

A Washington Post columnist described Japan's "hapless and increasingly loopy" prime minister as the "biggest loser" of the nuclear summit, a line widely picked up in the Japanese press. That caused an angry Mr. Hirano, the chief cabinet secretary, to call the American writer "rude" at a news conference. Still, 84% of the readers participated in a Nikkei Daily's online poll Monday said they agreed with the statement.
Everyone together now........LOL! (No offense to the Japanese citizens in this thread.)

He could have gotten better votes if he changed his name to "Akiyama" and named his daughter Mio.
__________________

When three puppygirls named after pastries are on top of each other, it is called Eclair a'la menthe et Biscotti aux fraises avec beaucoup de Ricotta sur le dessus.
Most of all, you have to be disciplined and you have to save, even if you hate our current financial system. Because if you don't save, then you're guaranteed to end up with nothing.

Last edited by SaintessHeart; 2010-04-19 at 09:50.
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Old 2010-04-19, 11:29   Link #6899
TinyRedLeaf
Moving in circles
 
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Singapore
Age: 49
All your Twitter belongs to history
Quote:
Washington (April 14): It began with "just setting up my twttr" at 3.50pm on March 21, 2006. Four years and 105,779,710 registered users (as of yesterday morning) later, Twitter has become an official social network of record, with the announcement by the Library of Congress — the world's largest library — that it will store every single tweet posted on Twitter for posterity.

Fittingly, the announcement was made within 140 characters on the Library of Congress's own Twitter feed: "Library to acquire ENTIRE Twitter archive — ALL public tweets, ever, since March 2006! Details to follow."

The Library's blog then reported:
That's right. Every public tweet, ever, since Twitter's inception in March 2006, will be archived digitally at the Library of Congress. That's a LOT of tweets, by the way: Twitter processes more than 50 million tweets every day, with the total numbering in the billions.
Twitter's official blog commented:
Since Twitter began, billions of tweets have been created. Today, 55 million tweets a day are sent to Twitter and that number is climbing sharply. A tiny percentage of accounts are protected but most of these tweets are created with the intent that they will be publicly available. Over the years, tweets have become part of significant global events around the world — from historic elections to devastating disasters.

It is our pleasure to donate access to the entire archive of public Tweets to the Library of Congress for preservation and research. It's very exciting that tweets are becoming part of history.
There will be restrictions on the use of tweets. According to the Twitter blog, there will be a six-month delay before tweets are available for internal library use, for non-commercial research, public display by the library itself and preservation.

Personal, direct messages on Twitter will not be archived.

- GUARDIAN.CO.UK
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Old 2010-04-19, 13:07   Link #6900
Joojoobees
Senior Member
 
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: USA
Quote:
Originally Posted by SaintessHeart View Post
Wrong thread. Should be in the Silly News or A Laugh A Day thread.
I guess that depends on if you think a multi-billion fraud that contributes to a global economic catastrophe (including hundreds of millions out of work for over a year, just counting the US) is a crime, or merely silly.
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