Air travelers are asking for trouble if they show up for a flight with 3.5 ounces of shampoo in their carry-on bags. But the Department of Homeland Security has decided that the government should not even trouble chemical plants to account for the storage of anything under 2,500 pounds of deadly chlorine. The department’s new rules on reporting stockpiles of toxic chemicals, issued last week, have certainly made the industry happy. They should make the public worried.
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The rules the department issued last week are far too lax about when facilities need to report stockpiles of chemicals like chlorine, fluorine and hydrogen fluoride to the government. According to the new rules, which watered-down proposed rules that the department had released in April, a chemical plant does not have to report the storage of 2,499 pounds of chlorine, even if it is located in a populated area — or across from an elementary school.

If 450 pounds of chlorine are stolen, enough to cause mass casualties, the theft need not be reported. Chlorine has been used by insurgents in Iraq, and it is high on the list of chemicals that should be kept out of terrorists’ hands.

Chemical Industry 1, Public Safety 0 - New York Times

By imposing martial law, Gen. Pervez Musharraf has pushed nuclear-armed Pakistan further along a perilous course and underscored the failure of President Bush’s policy toward a key ally in the war on terrorism. The events should not have come as a surprise to administration officials. This is what you get when policy is centered slavishly on a single, autocratic ruler rather than more broadly on his country.

another fine mess
another man ol' George has looked in the eyes and decided here was a man he could trust

The Pakistan Mess - New York Times

The world's richest model has reportedly reacted in her own way to the sliding value of the US dollar - by refusing to be paid in the currency.

silly article but the intriguing point raised is the possibility (and i stress possibility), a subject a friend of mine wrote his masters thesis on about 3 years ago, that this is one of the first signs that the euro will replace the dollar as the global reserve currency

BBC NEWS | Business | Supermodel 'rejects dollar pay'

After ignoring the Internet for years to focus on controlling traditional media such as television and newspapers, the Kremlin and its allies are turning their attention to cyberspace, which remains a haven for critical reporting and vibrant discussion in Russia's dwindling public sphere.

the tale of the boiling frog episode xxvi

Kremlin Seeks To Extend Its Reach in Cyberspace - washingtonpost.com

Pakistani security forces exchanged heavy gunfire with militants at the sprawling seminary of an increasingly powerful extremist cleric in the troubled North-West Frontier Province today, according to regional police officials.

The fighting was in the same region where a bomb attack on Thursday killed 17 members of a civil armed guard and 3 civilians.

Battle at Pakistan Cleric’s Stronghold - New York Times

Russia has started a diplomatic effort to curtail the activities of the most influential election observers in the former Soviet Union, submitting proposals to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe that would sharply cut the size of observation missions and prohibit the publication of their reports immediately after an election.

the tale of the boiling frog episode xxv

Russia seeks to derail election monitors - International Herald Tribune

Afghanistan is a divided country. The south and east are dangerous because Taliban forces are resurgent there; NATO casualties have been significant. The north and west are quieter; peacekeeping prevails. Tensions have grown between front-line alliance states fighting a war and those that are not.

The former group, battling the Taliban in Helmand Province and elsewhere, includes the United States, Britain, Canada and the Netherlands. The latter is dominated by Germany, Spain and Italy. The split gives a rough guide to parts of the world that still see military force as inextricable from international security and others that are now functionally pacifist.
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One German retort I’ve heard is that it’s no good having the United States demand that its allies fight and die in southern Afghanistan when Washington refuses debate over the role of its pampered friend, Pakistan, in the violence.

That’s a fair point. Still, it’s time to bring on the Bundesmacht and past time for continental Europe to overcome its pacifist mirage and accept that these are dangerous times demanding serious defense budgets and sacrifice.

Time for the Bundesmacht - New York Times

As recently as Aug. 7, President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan declared the Taliban a "defeated" and "spent" terrorist force, and vowed publicly, together with President George W. Bush, to finish off the militia. But barely seven weeks later, Karzai has publicly pleaded with the reclusive Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, and a notoriously murderous warlord leader, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, to meet with him for peace talks.

Don't cave in to the Taliban - International Herald Tribune

The head of the Federal Communications Commission has circulated an ambitious plan to relax the decades-old media ownership rules, including repealing a rule that forbids a company to own both a newspaper and a television or radio station in the same city.

fuck fuck fuck

Plan Would Ease Limits on Media Owners - New York Times

Balloting for Parliament will be held across Russia in December, and this much is already clear: Vladimir A. Ryzhkov, who was first elected in the turbulent yet hopeful days after the Soviet Union’s fall and then blossomed into a fervent advocate for democracy, will lose.

the tale of the boiling frog episode xxiv

With Tight Grip on Ballot, Putin Is Forcing Foes Out - New York Times