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Thursday, May 22, 2014
Ukraine SITREP May 22th, 19:32 UTC/Zulu: Ukie death squad murders conscripts
So far all the sources point to the same sequence of events. Here is what I pieced together:
A Ukrainian national guard unit (according to one source the 51st motorized brigade which had been hastily made up with middle-aged reservists) brought in from the city of Vinnitsa. For three days were were told to man a checkpoint, but today they were given the order to attack civilians in a nearby village. The unit refused and the commander announced that he would withdraw because "there were no terrorists here, only civilians". At around 5AM a black sedan, two jeeps and several vehicles (vans and armored) of the company Privat Bank (belongs to the Jewish oligarch Kolomoiski) carrying members of the "Donbass" and "Azov" death-squads drove to the checkpoint and opened fire with everything they had. The soldiers fired back as best they could. The attack lasted 15min after which the attackers put on some Saint George ribbons and beat up the surviving and wounded soldiers while telling them that they were from the Donbass Resistance forces. Not a single solider believed them.
About one hour later two or three more helicopters were seen shooting at the destroyed vehicles of the attackers in an apparent attempt to conceal their origin (Privat Bank). Still, witnesses have categorically identified the vans used by Privat Bank. There is also video footage confirming this.
This is a video showing the attack helicopters and the explosion of what was either an ammo dump or the ammo load of an infantry fighting vehicle.
The next video shows the aftermath of the attack:
This version of events was confirmed in a telephone conversation by the commander of the Ukrainian army brigade to whom the attacked unit belonged. It was also confirmed to the BBC, off the record, by a Major of the same brigade. Officials of the Donetsk People's Republic categorically deny that their forces were involved in the attack.
Furthermore, wounded Ukrainian soldiers interviewed in the local hospitals declared that they had a non-aggression agreement with the local Donetsk Resistance forces. They also confirmed that the attackers were from the Privat Bank.
In other words, the Ukrainian soldiers were murdered for refusing to execute an order which amounted to a war crime. Just as in the case of the bloodbath in Odessa, this latest atrocity was ordered by Igor Kolomoiski.
Interestingly, the Ukie media is now reporting a wave of attacks on Privat Bank vans which, the media claims, "could be used by terrorists".
This is not the first time that such a massacre is committed by the neo-Nazi junta: this is also what happened during the recent massacre of all the members of a police station in Mariupol who had refused to shoot at civilians: they were also all murdered.
In the meantime, in Lugansk heavy fighting is taking place and 24 Ukrainian soldiers have surrendered to the Resistance forces near the city of Rubezhnaia. The Ukrainian soldiers did not come empty handed: they brought several trucks and an anti-air gun with them.
The resistance estimates the total strength of the Ukrainian forces in the Lugansk area at 6'000 soldiers. Lugansk is bracing for an imminent assault, administrations and schools are now closed.
What we can say today is that so far the situation is close to catastrophic for the junta in Kiev. Clearly most conscripted soldiers are refusing to obey as for the death squads, they are only good to terrorize civilians or, at best, lightly armed folks.
The current attack will probably continue - at least this is what the freaks in Kiev have announced - but unless the Ukies have some hidden card up their sleeves, this operations most unlikely to succeed.
I wish that somebody in the Ukrainian military realized that this is the perfect timing for a coup. No need to be a Chief of Staff or anything like that. One well-connected and respected Colonel would do.
I am not holding by breath though.
Kind regards,
The Saker
55 comments:
- Ол Кей said...
new video heli attack http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQt7ukb0kmU
- 22 May, 2014 19:42
- Michael said...
"The surviving soldiers say that out of 53 men, only 7 survived."
Are these 53 soldiers or attackers? - 22 May, 2014 19:55
This event is not so clear: take a look at these two links:
First link is colonel summarizing the events. The most interesting piece there, an announcement from Стрелков that it was DNR forces. However... the source of these Стрелков announcements leads to the second link
His forum account is, apparently, "Котыч".
Could be him. Or not. But very suspicious. Personally, I have trouble believing that he has the free time to post on the internet =P - 22 May, 2014 19:56
Dear Saker,
Have you seen this article: http://vz.ru/world/2014/5/22/688005.html
It sounds like Strelkov is taking responsibility for what happened. Could be a fake, but who knows
Kind regards,
Геннадий - 22 May, 2014 19:58
Dear Saker,
Have you seen this article: http://vz.ru/world/2014/5/22/688005.html
It sounds like Strelkov is taking responsibility for what happened. Could be a fake, but who knows
Kind regards,
Геннадий - 22 May, 2014 19:58
- Jacobo Arbenz said...
All that wealth you've plundered and stolen, Ihor Kolomoyskyi, and still your greed consumes you. You kill your fellow countrymen in psychopathic fits and rages. Your days, all the days of the freaks you control, are numbered. May God have mercy on your worthless soul.
- 22 May, 2014 19:59
- MilesN said...
Your coup suggestion seems stangely coincidental with thwe pull-out of Russian troops from Uke's border vicinity. 25th of May (as things like just described will likely increase in both nu,bers and intensity) would be MOST perfect time of all. Transitional period, fresh war crimes of candidates and all... what else one would need? And Russian withdraval gives additional crds to Putin's statement on absence of Russian troops within Ukraine.In case of coup he'd be blamed anyway, but more precautions you take the tougher it would be to provide at least half-credible-looking shred of evidence. Actually, in China's press conference he stressed that out by saying that withdrawal should be visible by everybody via satellite monitoring.
- 22 May, 2014 20:03
Thanks Saker, I have enjoyed the reading.
The NATO/EU is the main threat for the world peace and they are a dog who is doing dirty work for UKUSA in order to create an Unipolar world. - 22 May, 2014 20:07
- mephistopheles lux said...
The western propaganda machine is sure to blame this massacre on the separatists.
- 22 May, 2014 20:10
Throughout this mess, I am still struck by the refusal by and large of ordinary Ukrainians to kill one another. They just will not be played or provoked or messed with. WOW! What a rebuke to the power mongers of the world.
- 22 May, 2014 20:20
I don't ordinarily watch MSM, but happened to catch a 20 second report about the incident on a local Toronto news station.
The only info I could glean from the news report was that
1) A Ukie guardpost was attacked, many killed.
2) The "separatists" committed the attack. One of them was killed.
3) Putin was behind it.
And that's the news from the Ministry of Truth, between ads for toothpaste and life insurance. - 22 May, 2014 20:22
- Old Ez said...
Luhansk announces conscription, full mobilization of all fit males of military age:
http://en.ria.ru/world/20140522/190040775/Luhansk-Peoples-Republic-to-Announce-Full-Mobilization.html - 22 May, 2014 20:22
Dear Saker, I think you may be wrong on this one. Those were not Kolomoiski's people.
If you follow daily reports from Igor Strelkov, the de-facto commander of the army of Donetsk Republic, you will find in his today's comments that the attack had been carried out by his people. It's just that the leader of the republic in the capital (Donetsk) do not coordinate very well with the republic's military forces. For those who can read Russian the details are here
and here
- 22 May, 2014 20:29
- dusty said...
According to the BBC some other militia leader has claimed responsibility for the attack: "We destroyed a checkpoint of the fascist Ukrainian army deployed on the land of the Donetsk Republic,'' said the commander, who wore a balaclava and identified himself by his nom de guerre, Bess ("demon" in Russian).
It is all a bloody mess. Ultimately the Ukrainian soldiers will fight because they understand that if they do not, one way or another, they get to die anyway.
So, who gains by stiffening the backbones of the Ukrainian military in this way?
Whether the claim of responsibility is true or not, the effect upon all actors will be the same. Everybody will have to treat the claim as if it were true. - 22 May, 2014 20:30
angloamericans are openly giving wahabi teroorists antiaircraft guns and what not but russia doid nto give any agaisnt nato in afganistan nor is she giving much to russians in ukraine!
what a contrast in abndonign your ally. - 22 May, 2014 20:33
It now transparent: while the people in eastern Ukraine are being murdered by scores by the fascists, Putin is blissfully ignoring the entire thing, in an obvious effort to "accommodate" his western fascist "partners" - while pretending in front of the Russian people all along that he "does not want to be provoked" (!!!). Well, Vladimir, one can not fool all the people all the time...
What a shame. What a shame. - 22 May, 2014 20:34
- Daniel Rich said...
During the first few days of the 'conflict' helicopters were shot down ASAP. Why are they flying around freely now?
Does anyone on the ground know? - 22 May, 2014 20:38
- VINEYARDSAKER: said...
@EVERYBODY: Did Strelkov really claim that he did it? Did he do it?
I don't know, but I don't believe so. There are A LOT for FIRST HAND sources which all confirm that the attack was Privat Bank backup up by helicopters. Does Strelkov have Privat Bank vans? Helicopters?
There is PLENTY of witnesses, including at least 3 officers, from the 51st Mech. which all say that this was the Donbass death squad and Kolomoiski.
BTW - this is not the first time that the Donbass folks hallucinate. They also confirmed that that sorry SOB Liashko had been caught (a dream come true for me) and then Liashko went TV - free and happy - and declared that hell would freeze over before he would be caught.
So there are at leas some maybe well-meaning but non-truthful clowns on the side of the Donbass resistance. I just hope that its not Strelkov himself (which I doubt).
As for who the 7 survivors out of 53 soldiers were? The 53 were the men present at the checkpoint who were attacked by the Ukie death squad.
HTH, cheers,
The Saker - 22 May, 2014 20:38
These sort of videos need urgently English captions or translations, to counter the inevitable pro-regime propaganda. A task for appropriate members of the Saker Correspondence Team?
- 22 May, 2014 20:46
Strelkov is bogus - he is part of a misinformation campaign, always has been
- 22 May, 2014 20:50
Crazy Ivan says...
@ Daniel Rich 22 May, 2014 20:38
5 point for perceptiveness.
Perhaps they fly over own troops only keeping far away from the range of shoulder type small AA fire?
- 22 May, 2014 21:11
Posted earlier on the wrong thread.
An attack by the infamous mercenaries bought in to create a split between the Ukraine military and the eastern federalists.
Why mercenaries? The Right Sector would have no qualms killing but would not be able to handle the helicopters. The Ukraine military attacking their own - unlikely. Strelkov attacking the Ukrainians to create the split - no chance. This leaves the mercenaries who would have the professional ground and helicopter skills. - 22 May, 2014 21:20
Exactly happened in Serbia during Kosovo conflict in 1999.
http://youtu.be/Z-muEj_E0PY - 22 May, 2014 21:21
Someone using the alias Strelkov does show a pattern of issuing statements that play into the misinformation campaign.
- 22 May, 2014 21:43
- Francisco said...
Two key points and some comments
1st - Civil wars are always very messy and confused.
There are a bounch of armed groups in the theather of operations:
-regular Ukie army
-Ukie air force
-National Guard
-several nazi/oligarch mitlitias
-several anti-kiev militias
-probably armed bandits too...
With so many groups and agendas it is only normal that stuff gets confusing.
2nd Junta suffered an heavy blow.
Either if they were attacked by rebel anti-junta militia, or it was an execution by the nazi militias this always looks very bad and will disrupt operations for the Junta.
This is a war and Ukranian troops were warned to leave or defect. IF the Donetsk People´s Republic is to be taken seriously than their armed militias have all the right to kick out the invaders... and some times just talking and being nice is not enough. You need the carrot but also the stick! And being conscripts is no excuse.
What is sure is that Ukie helicopters destroyed the vans, but I have seen any other concrete evidence. More, some Gorkvlova militia from DPR said they did it and even showed some captured guns... Something Saker does not mention in this post.
Bottom line:
Very confusing evidence, but in any event a big blow to the fascist kiev junta
- 22 May, 2014 21:55
- jo6pac said...
Thanks for your time to look into this so deeply in seeking the truth.
- 22 May, 2014 22:05
As this statement says: Meanwhile, a Ukrainian army major, who spoke to the survivors of the attack, told the BBC on condition of anonymity that he was sure that the attackers weren't from the Donetsk self-defense forces, but were "mercenaries."
He uses the word mercenaries, does he mean American? If so, the mercenaries would have been with Ukrainian death squad members. The Ukrainians would have struck up a conversation and put the soldiers at ease and the mercenaries would have said nothing. - 22 May, 2014 22:19
- Alex P. said...
There is another vid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQt7ukb0kmU#t=58
There is a comment in English under the video. In addition, as it is stated here http://www.anna-news.info/node/16248, the video is shot by on of the solders of the battalion "Dnepr" being shot. The voices mostly are yelling "They are ours" or "They are not ours". At the end the guy on the phone is trying to find out what's going on apparently from the command authority. The video shooting guy is praying.
I think this video compliments another the first one posted. - 22 May, 2014 22:22
"Why mercenaries? The Right Sector would have no qualms killing but would not be able to handle the helicopters."
Although a few Hinds were brought over to the U.S. for training purposes after the collapse of the USSR/Warsaw Pact (including some Czech Air Force ones) the foreign mercs I've heard about who've flown them in recent civil wars in Africa are mostly South African. Perhaps an enterprising South African with connections in the merc community can put out feelers as to how many SA citizens especially helicopter pilots have departed recently for Ukraine. But the Hind while a fierce machine does not lend itself to pilots growing on trees.
In fact after the rebels shot down 5-8 machines (Kiev only admitted to 4 and 1 rendered a total loss) I thought the real problem for the junta would not be running out of helos but running short on pilots willing to conduct missions over air space thick with MANPADs.
The Strelkov acknowledgement of responsibility makes little sense. Strelkov seems to have more to gain from creating defections with large pieces of hardware the rebels lack (like artillery or BMPs/BTRs) than from boasting about his forces ability to kill scores of Ukrainian Army with near impunity. Beware perhaps some talented hacker in Kiev got into his page even if it is where he's posted in the past.
American Kulak - 22 May, 2014 22:25
Interview with Richard Sakwa on "Here and Now" (NPR Boston): http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2014/05/22/russian-sanctions-sakwa
A voice of sanity gets a little air time. - 22 May, 2014 22:50
Maybe we're backing down??? If so, I would imagine it's because Merkel is no longer able to give us her undivided fealty. It certainly isn't because we see the light.
from RT, "20:41 GMT US – Ukrainian military drills with some European NATO states have been postponed, the US European command announced.
"Exercise Rapid Trident 14, originally planned for July in Ukraine, will be moved to later in the year," Air Force Lt. Col. David Westover Jr. said as quoted by Navy Times. "Exact dates and participants are to be determined as planning continues."
The western Ukrainian city of Lvov is expected to host the military maneuvers. Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Canada, Georgia, Germany, Moldova, Poland, Romania and the UK, will also participate.
"Rapid Trident is an annual Ukrainian-led, US Army Europe-supported, situational training exercise and battalion field training exercise designed to train a US-Ukrainian combined battalion headquarters with a peace support operations scenario," Westover explained.
Voicing his opinion on the Ukrainian tensions, Supreme Allied Commander in Europe and Commander of US European Command, US Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove tweeted that "verified and complete withdrawal" of the alleged Russian troops near Ukrainian border will aid at deescalating the situation.
Verified and complete withdrawal of Russian troops from the Ukraine border will do much to deescalate the situation.
— Phil Breedlove (@PMBreedlove) May 22, 2014" - 22 May, 2014 23:27
This piece has nothing to do with Russia or Ukraine, and everything to do with America. It's the best work I've seen on the subject to date, balanced, detailed, thought-provoking, unflinching, and did I say balanced? I can't recommend it more highly, for real. You cannot understand where we are unless you understand where we've been and what we've done, because we're still doing it. And the "we" is All. Of. Us., not just one group or another.
http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/05/the-case-for-reparations/361631/ - 22 May, 2014 23:54
I heard on SOA that Strelkov's website was under denial of service attack - and I notice these reports that are supposed to come from Strelkov don't come from his site. So ignore.
Also, I am struck by the negative comments here - I think perhaps disinformation is on full stream at the moment because the global forensic study of this situation is burning away all deceptions faster than the people who think they own this world can fabricate. - 23 May, 2014 00:09
- Chip said...
How convenient that Hunter Biden is on the board for Burisma, able to report directly to Kolomoisky.
- 23 May, 2014 00:47
"Also, I am struck by the negative comments here - I think perhaps disinformation is on full stream at the moment because the global forensic study of this situation is burning away all deceptions faster than the people who think they own this world can fabricate."
It's interesting that Max Seddon is trying hard on his Twitter feed to downplay locals testimony that it was an attack by Kolomoyskyi's thugs. The AP and BBC both reported it, with BBC putting the unnamed Ukrainian soldiers' claims about them being attacked by 'mercenaries' not Donbass militia near the top. None of the Strelkov 'responsibility' claims online match up with his known website which may have been DDoSd' to prevent a denial from being released. At any rate I expect Strelkov to resurface on video later this week maybe to a Russian film crew denying it.
Meanwhile Reason's Soviet emigrant Cathy Young is whining about how too many people are falling for Moscow's evil propaganda demonizing the new Ukrainian government as fascist, she cannot directly rebut any of the videos or claims about Odessa so she just cherry picks a few items favorable to pro-Kiev side and then asks the rhetorical question of why the junta would kill their own people handing Russia a propaganda coup. She doesn't answer her own question by admitting that the intent was to terrorize pro-autonomy forces in Odessa which has largely succeeded -- the pro-referendum rallies drew 10,000 or more and now have stopped.
Overall I see the junta and their Western propaganda helpers losing steam. It's possible Ihor even tried his own little false flag without consulting his fellow oligarchs and junta bosses, though that seems doubtful. If Ihor continues to prove to be a loose cannon or liability for Washington watch for him to have a 'heart attack' or be assassinated and the killing blamed on Donbass forces or FSB. I fully expect as the evidence becomes overwhelming that Ukrainian army forces were shot up by Privat Bank van driving thugs/mercs the junta/West will shift to the 'it was a Russian/FSB planned false flag' Narrative.
American Kulak - 23 May, 2014 00:57
- Rowan Berkeley said...
The Streltsev claim 'followed' a DDoS attack on rusvesna.ru, his outlet. So maybe the site was briefly hijacked. After all, if he denies it and the whole black op/disinfo package falls apart, it won't matter in terms of the primary goal, which would have been to influence the election, and permit a quantum leap in aggression immediately following it, a claim that "the Russians" have escalated, a genuine Army (as opposed to just Right Sector) offensive in the east, something immediate. They never worry that their disinfo will be exposed after it has achieved its purpose, because once something is done, they 'set it in stone' in subsequent western reporting and repeat it in every goddam Reuters roundup, day after day after day.
So, to sum up: I don't really see why we should cling on to the presupposition that the helicopters were trying to destroy evidence. (Who exactly did it come from?) I think they were driving off the raiders. The troops in the field were obviously worried that the helicopters were part of the black op, since the troops knew they were subject to a black op anyway, having seen the PrivatBank armored vans. My hypothesis is that the only Ministry the neo-Nazis control outright is Parubyi's Interior Ministry, and Right Sector is getting govt support out of there, and black ops support out of Kolomoisky and the CIA. Meantime, the army is doing as little to help the Right Sector "punitive battalions" as it can (these "punitive battalions" are really provocateurs, attacking both sides). In this case, the helicopters thwarted and helped expose a classic black op, but the Bes and Streltsev disinfo claims went ahead anyway, as if the attack phase of the op had succeeded in its planned goal, which would have been to annihilate the troops completely. And thus, the other initial claim, that these troops had refused a "punitive" assignment, needs to be examined very carefully. Who initially made this claim, which seems to have preceded all other reporting on our side? Was this claim itself disinfo that set us all off on the wrong track? - 23 May, 2014 01:40
Its quite possible the insane clown posse posing as Ukie Army and National Guard now running around in Donbass indiscriminately shooting at everything, including their own troops whether by accident or on purpose, may kill themselves off.
Kiev seems to have already suffered 1% of its forces dead and at least 3-4% wounded.
I wonder if they can actually muster more than 6000?
I fully expect them to start shelling their own positions around Slavyansk soon. - 23 May, 2014 01:49
Yhe fact that Biden's son and Kerry's relative are working for mass murderer Kolomoisky should be widely exposed.
- 23 May, 2014 02:00
Re: Parubiy the most amusing part of Cathy Young's rant in Reason magazine was the bit about how Parubiy used to be Svoboda back when they were the Social National (Nazi) Party of Ukraine in the 1990s but he's 'moderated to the center left' since then, so he doesn't count as a Svoboda Party member in the junta despite running the National Security Council (UKR equivalent to Natl Security Advisor in the White House?).
I keep forgetting about the Joe Biden son connection. He's truly an employee of Ihor K. with only a few cutouts in between! Unbelievable corruption extending from Kiev and Dnetropetrovsk to D.C.! And to date nobody in US MSM has bothered to ask Sen. McInsane about his friend Oleh Tyanhbok's history of anti-Semitic statements including ranting about that 70s Show girl Mila Kunis...and ever since a Marine veteran called McInsane a traitor for supporting Al-Qaeda in Syria on video he has avoided town hall meetings with his constituents in AZ like the plague.
American Kulak - 23 May, 2014 02:06
Nora, Interesting article regarding reparations. Thanks. The slave trade in North America was centered in Newport, RI. Same families also controlled the rum distilleries -- which were used to trade with American Indians -- and we know how that ended. Not. Well. Interesting that Newport has the oldest Synagog in North America. Slave trading and selling alcohol/drugs was a lucrative family business. Same families went on to Wall Street and continued to enslave Americans -- regardless of color.
Blacks in America have been used and screwed-over by variety of evil-doers. Including members of their own tribe -- as well as other tribal types professing to work on their behalf. Goes to show that one can only trust in God. Humanity tends to be untrustworthy. The article certainly makes that point. AGS - 23 May, 2014 02:12
Kolomoisky Privat Bank steals all of the deposit accounts of Crimean residents. - 23 May, 2014 02:28
Anonymous 02:12
No need to focus on any one group, there's plenty of blame to go around and it's all of our responsibility: every single white-skinned person in America has shared in the wealth of this country -- and it all goes back to cotton and slavery. None of us would have lived so well, and most of the 19th- and 20th-century immigrants would not even have come here -- think about that -- had slavery not created such wealth and Jim Crow perpetuated it. And attitudes towards people of color remain pretty horrifying, frankly; the most recent example would be a bill in the House of Representatives offering free lunches over the summer Only. To. Schoolchildren. In. Rural. Areas. YAY! Let's keep kicking victims -- it's one of the things we do best. And we really need to stop it, you know?
It's really rather funny to see Bloomberg equate losing a couple of McDonalds (which were replaced by, what, Burger King or something) with losing all the money in one's bank accounts. But the phrase "Kolomoiskiy-supporter, you know, that hideous gangster who killed all those people in Odessa, and all those Ukrainian soldiers in the South-East, and threatened that presidential candidate and burned down his house, and put bounties on the heads of all sorts of people" really ought to appear before Biden's name every time it is uttered. - 23 May, 2014 03:14
" the phrase "Kolomoiskiy-supporter, you know, that hideous gangster who killed all those people in Odessa, and all those Ukrainian soldiers in the South-East, and threatened that presidential candidate and burned down his house, and put bounties on the heads of all sorts of .people" really ought to appear before Biden's name every time it is uttered."
I like this idea. Tar Biden with the company he keeps.
The more people discover what monsters they are in bed with, the more people will wake up. - 23 May, 2014 03:35
The way the mainstream media has avoided reporting on and judging the Biden/Ihor K connection displays how complicit and corrupt the MSM is, if any further proof were needed.
- 23 May, 2014 03:42
Blood soaked Kolomoiski is being thrown under the bus for the stupidity of Anglo-Zionist policy in Ukraine -- and he deserves it. Refer again to the Forbes article "Everything you know about Ukraine is wrong." Someone is pissed.
The Anglo-Zionists made a high stakes wager on revovering their losses from Syria with an even bigger -- and more maniacal wager on Ukraine. Kolomoisky was the guy who promised to deliver the goods and failed, miserably.
They Anglo-Zionists have lost badly on all counts. Their credibility has never been lower, at home and abroad. A gaping hole has opened between the Five Eyes and EU. By every measure this is a disaster for the Empire. The Fed is secretly shipping cash to Belgium in a desperate attempt to keep the bubble from bursting. Would the BBC or other official media ever quesioned an Oligarch unless it's been sanctioned? Let's get serious.
I have no idea what's happening in the east but Strelkov has been spewing non-stop disinformation from the begining. I don't like any of the possibilities. Both sides seem to agree on nothing but the 'Strelkov' factor. Nothing is believable.
My speculation is that the EU and Russia are co-operating in an operation to de-escalte and exit the conflict. No one in Russia or the EU want a war in Europe or the especially the disruption of gas supplies to the West. Merkel is non suicidal. Negotiations are ongoing. That might not be popular to say but it fits with every credible piece of information I've seen so far and also accounts for some of the things we're not seeing. - 23 May, 2014 04:16
One more thing.
In the long run Kolomisky will be rewarded for his service as a bag man for the Empire. In the meantime his rough treatment serves as a warning to all the oligarchs concerning who's in charge.
This goes to the very top of the Anglo-Zionist pyramid. These sick people toy with lives without pity and are directly responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of innocent people in just the last several years.
It's about time we stopped playing along with their fairy tale reality. I'm sorry for the people of who died or are suffereing in Ukraine and elsewhere but we'll be right back here again in a few months unless we focus our attention on those responsible for this mass murdering insanity and take them down.
I damn well hope Putin is up for that when things do settle down. Kolomoisky is no more a war criminal than Barack Obama or a thousand other people. - 23 May, 2014 04:53
@anonymouse 3:42...
FWIW Naked Capitalism's Richard Smith has covered a lot of the boring, colourless intricacies of Burisma holdings for "us" so we don't have to here:
The really damning stuff of course you'll find here.
Generally I think much of the rubbish on traditional media sites can be put down to self-satisfied group think among both readers, writers and editors.
Pathetically you don't you need a conspiracy. Most of the time. Sheer ignorance, prejudice and careerism will get you 90 % of the way there.
As a kind of control I'd suggest thinking about the ways the financial crisis was reported. It's almost a decade later and from my reading the shibboleth's that blinded everyone to that utterly predictable disaster are still firmly in place.
Crazy-making but not completely surprising. Ditto the sheer inanity of how Ukraine has been handled / (not) understood.
Something like we go mad in herds but regain our sanity only one-by-one.
I don't mean by this to absolve any of the criminal behaviour involved by people who are real actors in this drama, particularly in the west.
Just suggesting that the vast majority of stenographers passing themselves off as journalists are barely worth the ire.
Here's my trick: whenever I read / hear some particularly tendentious piece of rubbish - BBC / CBC whatever - I just remind myself that Thomas Friedman is a wildly successful intellectual.
Always takes the edge off. - 23 May, 2014 05:09
Very powerful and eloquent rebuke of Western politics in Syria, alluding to Libya by Churkin:
Honk - 23 May, 2014 07:22
- Petri Krohn said...
Kolomoysky's mercenary Donbass Battalion is trapped in Karlivka, 15 km northwest of Donetsk. Desperate calls via telephone from commander Semen Sementchenko on his Facebook page:
1 h ago:
The bulk of the Donbass Battalion is broke. 50% of personnel injured, many have lost a lot of blood. The wounded were taken to an army checkpoint in Krasnoarmeysk.
With are surrounded by a group that has settled in the building until this moment maintained telephone. Just reported that the connection was lost. The fighters have no ammunition. Approach to them is not possible - sniper at work. A BTR needs to drive up to the building and take out the guys. It is impossible to pass past the fueling station.
Near the hospital with the wounded guard exhibited. The rest of the survivors come back. Surrounded by a group of almost all wounded.
I am confident that our movement route was known in advance to terrorists. Since this concentration at normal checkpoint separatists usually not observed. We employ well-trained against Chechen forces.
The leadership and command of ATO (= "anti-terror operation") knows about our situation.
Please bring reinforcements and armored vehicles!
57 min ago:
Appeal to the separators of "Vostok" battalion!
We need a truce for the exchange of prisoners. Get in touch by phone 0501482373
Colorado, reading my Facebook: pass up! If something glows with our people - is terror in the city!
Summary here:
Батальон "Донбасс" попал в засаду террористов: ранена половина личного состава (обновлено)
Battalion "Donbass" ambushed by terrorists: half of personnel wounded (updated) - 23 May, 2014 08:25
Is Strelkov's website hosted in the US? If so, it wouldn't need to have been hacked to put on false content. The CIA/NSA contact as the ISP could easily introduce false flag pages.
- 23 May, 2014 09:20
Maybe the 'mercenaries' came from that middle eastern country which has been so helpful in spreading cannibalism to its neighbour, and whose troops helped the Ukrainians kill each other in Kiev. Perhaps this is another of their helpful interventions, helping the locals to kill each other in the eastern Ukraine.
Perhaps the oligarch whose bank vans were used might have paid them. Maybe he has connections in that country who could supply pilots. Spreading democracy can be lucrative for those who are well connected, and bloody for those who are not. - 23 May, 2014 09:57
How truly tragic that Kolomoisky "Dumbass" batallion fell into an ambush and is trapped.
My heart bleeds for these thugs just as much as their bodies bleed out for them.
Now they know they are in for a war, instead of just killing innocents. I hope they are finished off or forced to surrender. - 23 May, 2014 12:47
Alex P at 22:22 mentions that the soldier filming the video is praying. I will enlarge his statement to place these brave men refusing to shell innocent civilians in the context of the historical record which can be found here:
I would submit that Putin's prayers also, being a Vladimir in his own right, will be for these companions to first heroes of the early Russian state. This historic analogy is what the regime in Kiev is carving out for themselves.
I don't think the vehicles and equipment were destroyed to obliterate criminal activity, but simply to deny weaponry to the feds (using current terminology), They wanted this atrocious deed to be feared among the ranks of disobedient soldiers, as well as being a third provocation towards a larger conflict, timed to disrupt the election.
It may be a tactic that has worked elsewhere. But the citizens of Ukraine have the advantage so far, morally speaking, and it might be that this attempted thrust into chaos had to be rushed forward before all supporting evils could be put in place. It all has an air of desperation about it to me.
Blessings on those who died for refusing to fight. You will be remembered with tears in our eyes. - 23 May, 2014 15:52
I went to the site you recommended, and found this:
"The Transfer of the Relics of the Holy Passion-Bearers Boris and Gleb is commemorated on May 2."
That is the date of the Odessa atrocity.
I can't even find words... - 23 May, 2014 17:22
Some constructive criticism on your post:
CS - 24 May, 2014 08:31


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These beat-the-clock recipes use smart shortcuts to make a gourmet-tasting meal in minutes
Get dinner on the table in 30 minutes or less at the end of a jam-packed day. Whether you're in the mood for chicken, pizza, pasta, or steak, we've got easy recipes for dinner packed with time-saving tricks! Make one of these quick and tasty recipes tonight.
Tortellini with Mushrooms
Total Time: 25 minutes
Halve 1 pound mixed mushrooms (such as regular white mushrooms and stemmed shiitakes). Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large nonstick frying pan over medium-high heat. Saute mushrooms until golden, about 8 minutes. Add 4 teaspoons minced garlic and ¾ teaspoon dried thyme to mushrooms and cook 1 minute. Season with ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon black pepper. Add ½ cup Madeira or dry sherry, reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes. Cook 9 ounces fresh cheese tortellini per package directions. Add pasta to warm mushrooms and simmer 2 minutes. Stir in 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with grated or shaved Parmesan, if desired. 4 servings
Mu Shu Chicken
Total Time: 20 minutes
Whisk ½ teaspoon cornstarch, 1 tablespoon reduced-sodium soy sauce, and 2 tablespoons each dry sherry and hoisin in a small bowl. Heat 2 teaspoons canola oil in a large nonstick frying pan over medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon each minced fresh ginger and garlic and stir-fry 1 minute. Add a 14-ounce bag coleslaw mix and ½ cup chopped scallions and stir-fry until just wilted, about 3 minutes. Add 2 cups shredded rotisserie chicken and soy sauce mixture. Toss until heated through. Drizzle with 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil. Serve wrapped in eight 6" flour tortillas, warmed in the microwave, and, if desired, additional hoisin for spreading on the tortillas and chopped scallions for sprinkling over the filling. 4 servings
Roasted Salmon With Mustard-Dill Glaze
Total Time: 20 minutes
Heat oven to 400°F. In a small dish, combine 3 tablespoons mayonnaise, 1 tablespoon each grainy mustard and chopped dill, 1½ teaspoons dark brown sugar, and 1 teaspoon lemon juice. Put four 4-ounce, center-cut salmon fillets on a foil-lined baking sheet. Season with ½ teaspoon salt and ⅛ teaspoon black pepper and spread mayonnaise mixture over top of fillets. Roast until just cooked through, 12 to 15 minutes. 4 servings
Spicy Shrimp Marinara With Feta
Total Time: 20 minutes
Heat oven to 400°F. Heat 2 teaspoons olive oil in a large ovenproof frying pan or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon minced garlic and ¼ teaspoon crushed red-pepper flakes. Stir 30 seconds. Add 2 tablespoons white wine and stir until almost evaporated. Add 1½ cups jarred marinara sauce and 1 teaspoon dried oregano. Let simmer 5 minutes. Stir in 1 pound large shrimp, peeled. Crumble 2 ounces feta (about ½ cup) over top. Bake until shrimp are just cooked through, about 8 minutes. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon chopped parsley. 4 servings
Maple-Lemon Skirt Steak
Total Time: 25 minutes
Whisk 3 tablespoons maple syrup, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard, and a minced garlic clove in a small saucepan. Season 1 pound skirt steak with ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon black pepper and set aside. Heat a lightly oiled grill pan or heavy frying pan over medium-high heat. Cook steak to desired doneness, about 3 minutes per side for medium-rare. Transfer to a cutting board and let rest 5 minutes. Meanwhile, bring maple-lemon mixture to a boil over medium-high heat. Let simmer 1 minute. Cut steak into thin slices across the grain and drizzle with sauce. 4 servings
Chicken Reuben Quesadillas
Total Time: 30 minutes
Heat oven to 425°F. Brush a baking sheet lightly with canola oil. Put four 8" flour tortillas on a work surface. Spread ⅓ cup bottled Russian dressing on tortillas. Using a total of 6 ounces reduced-fat Swiss, 1 c drained low-sodium sauerkraut, and 6 ounces sliced lower-sodium deli chicken breast, cover half of each tortilla. Fold other half over the filling and put on prepared baking sheet. Brush tops and edges with 1 teaspoon canola oil and bake 10 minutes. Flip the quesadillas, transfer to a cutting board, and let rest 5 minutes. Cut each into 3 wedges. 4 servings
Antipasto Pizza
Total Time: 20 minutes
Heat oven to 450°F. Spread 3 tablespoons prepared sun-dried tomato pesto over a 12" thin-crust pizza (such as Boboli), leaving a ½" border. Top with 3 ounces (about 1 cup) shredded provolone; 3 ounces jarred roasted red peppers, thinly sliced; 6 ounces marinated artichoke hearts, drained and roughly chopped; and 5 pitted and halved kalamata olives. Bake on the top rack until crust is crisp, about 10 minutes. Cut 3 slices salami into strips and scatter over the finished pizza. Cut into 8 wedges. 4 servings
Use these tips to slice minutes off your prep time:
MORE: 20 Not-Boring Chicken Dinners

subset: commoncrawl


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The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Buffalo District has awarded a repair contract to Great Lakes Shipyard for two tugs and two barges from the Corps' Cleveland Field Station.
Korean shipbuilder Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) is building five large Arctic Liquefied Natural Gas Carriers (LNGCs), for which it has LNG ordered
NewLead Holdings Ltd. announced today that it recently added five bitumen tanker vessels to its fleet. The Company has expanded its fleet to 10 vessels in less
An Ohio man who recovered as much as $400 million in gold from a shipwreck has been arrested in Florida after two years on the run and was scheduled to appear in federal court on Wednesday.
Shipping companies and the union for 20,000 dockworkers at nearly 30 U.S. West Coast ports have cleared a major hurdle in their protracted labor talks, clinching


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Share your thoughts
What do you think of the
Peak Performance Move Side-Zip Hooded Pullover - Men's
? Share a...
Holy price tag!
No joke that Peak Performance's pricing makes Patagonia seem affordable. After considerable deliberation and chatting with Jeff W. in customer service I took the leap. I am so glad I did!
This shirt is amazing. I love how the neck zips into the hood allowing it to function at a multitude of temps. The thumb loops are a nice feature also.
The material has a strange feel to it, but after wearing it I want everything to be made out of it! It runs small so order one size larger than what you need. I wear a L in Patagonia but a XL in Peak.
Coolest Hoody EVER Made
Yes, it's ridiculously expensive. BUT it's worth it. The fit is perfect, the fabric is just right for cool spring/fall evenings, it breathes, and it has a radical side-zip hood that is so different from every other hoody you'll ever see. My husband LOVES this and wants to wear it every day. The fit is snug through the shoulders and arms without being too tight around the waist. I'd call it an athletic fit. Length is perfect. He's 6'1" 190lbs and we got the XL. Plus, thumb holes. So much awesome in one package! Peak Performance knows the goods.


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Who do you think looks best today? (5 photos)
The best street style from London Fashion Week: http://ow.ly/p48HS via @StyleCaster
They have limited wardrobes, so The Simpsons's Marge and Family Guy's Lois must rely on their signature looks. Marge channels an ink and pen Jackie O with her simple sheath dress, pearls and bouffant, while Louis opts for ballet flats, khakis and a tidy shoulder-length bob. Who has better style?Read MoreLess


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Reviewed Grilled Chicken Taco Pizzas
Aug 10, 2011 in Food Network Community Toolbox on FoodNetwork.com
"First of all even when it might look interesting please do not use a word like taco to something that is clearly not even a tortilla but like a pizza bread.
Being from a Latin country I am honestly so extremely disappointed in how people use other's language and food names to add to their cooking.
Please do not do that; your meal..."


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Two Santa Clarita traffic stops led to Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff's Station deputies making felony drug arrests, according to Sheriff's Department arrest records.
Don't miss a thing. Get breaking Santa Clarita news alerts delivered right to your inbox.
Deputies conducted a traffic stop in Saugus, near the intersection of Seco Canyon and Bouquet Canyon roads, where two large plastic bottles containing marijuana allegedly were found in the suspect's vehicle.
The deputies' discovery was followed by a consent search of the suspect's residence, where Sheriff's Station deputies found evidence of illegal marijuana cultivation and evidence of chemical extraction.
The suspect, a 25-year-old Santa Clarita man, was arrested for the alleged illegal cultivation, in addition to a violation of California Health and Safety Code 11379.6 (a), which states: "Every person who manufactures, compounds, converts, produces, derives, processes or prepares, either directly or indirectly by chemical extraction or independently by means of chemical synthesis, any controlled substance" is subject to a penalty not to exceed seven years in jail.
He's being held in lieu of $75,000 bail.
A little more than an hour later in Canyon Country, Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff's Station deputies found an illegally parked vehicle and contacted the owner near the intersection of Shangri La and Utopia Court.
A 36-year-old man from Sun Valley was suspected of being under the influence and in possession of methamphetamine and narcotics paraphernalia.
Both suspects were booked at the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff's Station. There names were not released because they were part of an ongoing investigation, according to Sheriff's Station officials.
Do you have a news tip? Call us at (661) 298-1220, or drop us a line at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Source: Santa Clarita News


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11lb Maris Otter (Hugh Baird) 10 oz Crystal 70-80L (Simpson's?) 60 mins 2.0 oz First Gold KO 1.5 oz First Gold dry hop 0.5 oz First Gold 1 tsp gypsum (in the mash) 1 whirlfloc tab @ 15m Mash @ 148F, 1.75qt:lb, 90 mins Capped mash w/~190F water for mashout I intended to use 1968 in this beer, but, as it happened, my yeast was not viable at all, and hadn't even taken 1 point off of my 2qt starter in 36 hours. Note to self: 1968 does NOT freeze well (though most other yeasts I've frozen have lived to tell). As it happened, Windsor did an amazing job on this beer as it tastes amazing. Nicely malty with a detectable amount of bready/nuttiness and a complexity from the crystal malt that plays nicely with the classic english ester profile of Windsor. You'd never guess that it's 1.010 and 6.7% alcohol from the mouthfeel or malt flavours here. The hops are delicious too - they provide a very 'english' character to the beer that's earthy, and yet fruity - sort of a marmalade thing going on there. This beer strongly reminds me of Fuller's ESB, just a little hoppier. At present, this is my favourite homebrewed beer ever.
Congrats on the brew. Having drunk mainly Americanized, supersized ESBs, Fuller's tastes really boring to me. I can't really appreciate the more subtle British variants. I've gotten good results on ESBs using Belgian Aromatic and Biscuit malts at 3% each. It's not exactly "true to style" but William III was a Dutchman, after all. Close enough for me.
When I first started drinking beer and tried (fuller's) ESB, I remember thinking 'whoa, this is IPA-hoppy!' Now, I do find fuller's a little on the 'boring' side, hence the (slightly) exaggerated hop profile I used here. Over the years, I've tried a bunch of different ESB and EPA recipes to try to create the 'ideal' ESB. While I've made and enjoyed beers with Aromatic, Biscuit, or Amber malts in them, they've never really seemed 'english' enough for me. The kilned malts tend to hide the subtle Maris Otter characteristics, I think, so when I do use them, I tend to pair them with (much cheaper) canadian 2-row. Anyway, this one is the closest I've come thus far to a big, yet still 'british' ESB.
I bought a pound of First Gold. Orange Marmalade is a good description. I use them in my ESB to great effect.
"Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has no heart; and any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains."
they're quickly becoming one of my favourite UK hops


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New American Standard (NAS) | New International Version (NIV) |
8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord , saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" Then I said, "Here am I. Send me!" | 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!" |
9 He said, "Go, and tell this people: 'Keep on listening, but do not perceive; Keep on looking, but do not understand.' | 9 He said, "Go and tell this people: " 'Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.' |
10 "Render the hearts of this people insensitive, Their ears dull, And their eyes dim, Otherwise they might see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, Understand with their hearts, And return and be healed." | 10 Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed." |
11 Then I said, "Lord , how long ?" And He answered, "Until cities are devastated and without inhabitant, Houses are without people And the land is utterly desolate, | 11 Then I said, "For how long, O Lord?" And he answered: "Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged, |
12 "The LORD has removed men far away, And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. | 12 until the LORD has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken. |
13 "Yet there will be a tenth portion in it, And it will again be subject to burning, Like a terebinth or an oak Whose stump remains when it is felled. The holy seed is its stump." | 13 And though a tenth remains in the land, it will again be laid waste. But as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land." |
New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, California. All rights reserved. (New American Standard Version - Holy Bible) | Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide. (New International Version Bible Online) |


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(This report contains items about companies both in bankruptcy and not in bankruptcy. Updates Borders and adds Friendly Ice Cream as first item; Washington Mutual, Madoff and NewPage in Updates; General Maritime in Watch List; and Liberty Tire and Chukchansi Casino in Downgrades.)
Oct. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Friendly Ice Cream Corp., the owner and franchiser of about 490 restaurants, filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in Delaware to sell the business mostly in exchange for debt to an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners Inc.
The existing owner and holder of second-lien debt are also affiliates of Sun Capital. Friendly, based in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, said today it is closing 63 stores, leaving about 424 operating. Franchise operators have about 230 of the locations.
Debt totals $297 million, the company said. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. was listed as the creditor with the largest unsecured claim.
An affiliate of Boca Raton, Florida-based Sun Capital will pay about $120 million for the business. The price includes enough cash to pay first-lien debt and an amount of cash for unsecured creditors to be negotiated with the official creditors' committee.
Most of the remainder will represent a so-called credit bid from the $267.7 million in second-lien, pay-in-kind notes that a Sun Capital affiliate owns.
If the bankruptcy judge goes along with the proposal, other bids would be due Nov. 24, followed by an auction on Dec. 1. To qualify, a competing bid must be at least $122.6 million in cash.
Wells Fargo Capital Finance Inc. is the first-lien revolving credit lender owed $21.5 million. Existing lenders are offering $71.3 million in secured financing for the Chapter 11 case, including $50.6 million to be advanced on an interim basis.
Friendly blamed the filing on the decline in customer traffic resulting from economic conditions, rising food prices and above-market rents. Comparable-store sales have declined 4.5 percent this year, following a 3.7 percent drop in 2010.
Revenue during the first eight months of 2011 was $329.7 million. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $8.6 million in the period resulted in a default on loan covenants.
The case is In re Friendly Ice Cream Corp., 11-13167, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington).
New Filing
Chef Solutions Files for Sale to Mistral, Reser's
Chef Solutions Inc., the second-largest North American producer of fresh prepared food, filed a Chapter 11 petition yesterday in Delaware with the aim of selling the business to a joint venture between Mistral Capital Management LLC and Reser's Fine Foods Inc.
The buyers are under contract to acquire ownership in exchange for $36.44 million cash and $25.3 million in secured debt. They will also assume specified debt.
Based in Birmingham, Michigan, the company has plants in Kansas, Ohio and California. Its brands include Orval Kent and its customers include Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Safeway Inc., and Costco Wholesale Corp.
Sales topped out at $220 million in 2008, declining to $209 million in 2010. The company was a 2004 acquisition from Deutsche Lufthansa AG by Questor Management Co., which recently surrendered control to Mistral.
Liabilities include $23 million owing to Wells Fargo Capital Finance Inc. as agent for first-lien lenders. Mistral has $24.3 million in second-lien debt.
Wells Fargo has offered to finance the Chapter 11 effort with a $28 million secured credit.
If the bankruptcy judge goes along, there would be an Oct. 19 hearing for approval of bidding procedures. Nov. 7 is being proposed as a date for submission of competing bids in advance of a Nov. 9 auction and a hearing on Nov. 11 to approve the sale.
The petition says assets and debt both exceed $100 million.
The case is In re Chef Solutions Holdings LLC, 11-13139, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington).
WaMu to Propose Confirming Plan Without New Vote
Washington Mutual Inc. will tell the bankruptcy judge at a status conference tomorrow that the proposed full-payment reorganization plan can be modified and approved by the court at a confirmation hearing without having creditors vote again.
WaMu also proposes to move ahead with confirmation while mediation proceeds on a parallel track.
The status conference in bankruptcy court tomorrow will discuss how to move the case forward in light of the 139-page opinion issued on Sept. 13, where U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Mary F. Walrath ruled for a second time that the WaMu plan has defects that preclude confirmation.
WaMu said in its court filing that the four defects can be remedied without resoliciting votes from creditors because none of the changes affects creditors' economic recoveries. WaMu produced charts showing that projected recoveries after the changes will exceed what creditors previously were told.
WaMu argues that using the interest rate that Walrath required will harm no creditor group because the judge concluded that the reorganized company's valuation is higher, thus enhancing projected recoveries.
WaMu says that pausing for another vote will delay confirmation by two or three months and result in a $60 million to $90 million loss for the so-called Piers creditors who are at the bottom of the distribution waterfall. The losses would result from fees and expenses and the continued accrual of interest owing to senior creditor classes.
The bank holding company likewise opposes holding up the confirmation process pending mediation that Walrath required when she denied confirmation last month. WaMu says that mediation should focus on the lawsuit that the judge is allowing equity holders to bring against noteholders who allegedly traded debt using non-public information.
If confirmation were to await completion or failure of mediation, the resulting loss to Piers creditors would be $180 million, WaMu predicted.
For details on Walrath's opinion rejecting the plan a second time, click here for the Sept. 14 Bloomberg bankruptcy report. For details on Walrath's opinion early this year rejecting the prior version of the plan, click here for the Jan. 10 Bloomberg bankruptcy report. For details on the plan as revised after the January ruling, click here for the Feb. 14 Bloomberg bankruptcy report. For details on later changes, click here for the March 21 Bloomberg bankruptcy report.
The WaMu holding company filed under Chapter 11 in September 2008, one day after the bank subsidiary was taken over. The bank, once the sixth-largest depository and credit- card issuer in the U.S., was the largest to fail in the country's history.
The holding company filed formal lists of assets and debt showing property with a total value of $4.49 billion against liabilities of $7.83 billion.
The holding company Chapter 11 case is In re Washington Mutual Inc., 08-12229, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington).
Appeals Block Madoff Trustee from Distributing All $8.7 Billion
The trustee liquidating Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities Inc. announced yesterday that he will make a first interim distribution of $313 million to customers, representing 4.6 percent of their claims for principal.
Although the trustee collected $8.7 billion, he can't distribute the remainder mostly on account of pending appeals, the trustee said on his website. The $8.7 billion represents more than half of the $17.3 billion in customers' approved claims for return of principal.
The largest part of the holdback, $5 billion, results from appeals two customer are taking from approval of a settlement with the estate of the late Jeffrey M. Picower. Another $1.65 billion can't be distributed as a result of efforts by some customers to overturn a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals upholding the trustee's method of determining the amount of customers' claims.
Another appeal is holding up distribution from a separate $220 million settlement.
The distribution is going to 1,230 customers. In May, the trustee estimated he would distribute $272 million. Resolved disputes in the meantime allowed for increasing the distribution, the trustee said.
The $8.7 billion doesn't include an additional $2.2 billion ultimately flowing to customers from the government's portion of the Picower settlement. Under arrangements with the government, the trustee will distribute the $2.2 billion.
The Madoff firm began liquidating in December 2008 with the appointment of the trustee under the Securities Investor Protection Act. Bernard Madoff individually went into an involuntary Chapter 7 liquidation in April 2009.
His bankruptcy case was consolidated with the firm's liquidation. Madoff is serving a 150-year prison sentence following a guilty plea.
The Madoff liquidation case is Securities Investor Protection Corp. v. Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities Inc., 08-01789, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan). The criminal case is U.S. v. Madoff, 09-cr- 00213, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
Borders Files Liquidating Plan, Hearing November 10
Borders Group Inc., the former bookseller, filed a liquidating Chapter 11 plan arm-in-arm with the official creditors' committee, together with a disclosure statement containing blanks where creditors eventually will be told how much they can expect to recover.
Borders arranged a Nov. 10 hearing for approval of the disclosure statement. Going-out-of-business sales at the remaining locations were completed on Sept. 20.
Separately, the consumer privacy ombudsman reported to the bankruptcy court that the buyer of the customer list, Barnes & Noble Inc., failed to comply with procedures for using customer information.
The plan in substance pays creditors in the order of priority laid out in bankruptcy law. Remaining secured claims will be paid in full, according to the disclosure statement.
The disclosure statement has blanks where the amounts of remaining secured and unsecured claims eventually will be listed. There also are blanks listing the assets to be available for distribution.
Unsecured creditors will be paid after payment in full of secured creditors, expenses of the Chapter 11 case, and priority claims that likewise must be paid in full, such as taxes. There is no guess as yet about the percentage recovery by unsecured creditors.
Even with an agreement with the official creditors' committee on the plan, Borders is asking the bankruptcy judge to extend its exclusive time for proposing a plan until Jan. 12. Assuming the bankruptcy judge approves the explanatory disclosure statement Nov. 10, Borders projects having a confirmation hearing to approve the plan around Dec. 20. The hearing on the exclusivity motion will take place Oct. 17
Michael St. Patrick Baxter, the ombudsman, said in an Oct. 3 court filing that Barnes & Noble "omitted material information from the opt-out notice" sent by e-mail to Borders customers. Barnes & Noble bought the domestic customer list and other intellectual property for $13.9 million.
Baxter faulted the notice to customers for not saying that Barnes & Noble took e-mail addresses and purchase histories, not only a customer list. He also faults the notice for failing to say that the ability to opt out was required by the bankruptcy court and wasn't the "result of buyer's generosity."
Baxter argued that a "robust" opt-out notice was crucial. Baxter hasn't yet said whether he will ask the court to require Barnes & Noble to send another opt-out notice. Barnes & Noble has said that the notice it sent complied with the court's requirements.
Borders began liquidating the remaining stores in July. The creditors' committee said before the liquidation began that Borders expected to generate $252 million to $284 million in cash from going-out-of-business sales. Separately, Borders sold store leases and intellectual property.
The sale of trademarks and other intellectual property brought in a gross sum of $15.8 million. Hilco Streambank LLC, the adviser in connection with the sale, said in a court filing that its commission on the sale is about $1.1 million.
Borders, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, had 642 stores on entering bankruptcy in February and was operating 399 when the liquidation began. It listed assets of $1.28 billion and liabilities totaling $1.29 billion.
Debt included $196 million on a revolving credit and $48.6 million on a term loan. Trade suppliers were owed $302 million for inventory.
The case is In re Borders Group Inc., 11-10614, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
NewPage Receives Final Approval for $600 Million Financing
Coated-paper maker NewPage Corp. prevailed over most objections from the official creditors' committee and won agreement from the bankruptcy judge at a hearing yesterday on final approval for $600 million in secured financing.
The committee didn't want liens placed on the company's few unencumbered assets. During the hearing, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross complimented the company and creditors for cooperating toward the goal of keeping the company operating. Gross said he is committed to helping find a way to save 6,000 manufacturing jobs.
NewPage, based in Miamisburg, Ohio, was acquired in 2005 by Cerberus Capital Management LP. It listed assets of $3.4 billion and debt totaling $4.2 billion. Listed liabilities included $232 million on a revolving credit plus $1.77 billion on 11.375 percent senior secured first-lien notes.
Second-lien obligations include $802 million in 10 percent secured notes and $225 million in floating-rate notes.
In addition to $200 million in 12 percent senior unsecured notes, $498 million is owing on two issues of floating-rate pay- in-kind notes.
NewPage has 16 paper-making machines operating in seven plants in the U.S. and Nova Scotia. The Canadian affiliate filed for reorganization in Nova Scotia.
The company reported a net loss of $229 million in the first half of 2011 on revenue of $1.79 billion, following a net loss of $674 million in 2010 on revenue of $3.6 billion.
The case is In re NewPage Corp., 11-12804, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington).
Tribune Has a Bonus Program, Still Awaits Plan Ruling
Since Tribune Co. hasn't heard whether the bankruptcy judge will confirm a reorganization plan, the company and creditors are going about business as though the Chapter 11 case will continue a while longer.
In connection with a hearing this week, the judge approved a renewed bonus program for 640 managers, court records show. For details, click here for the Aug. 31 Bloomberg bankruptcy report.
The judge also extended the time for the creditors' committee to serve about 150 lawsuits for recovery of so-called preferences. The suits were technically commenced late last year, just before the two-year time limit for preference suits was about to expire.
The committee wanted to preserve the ability to sue for recovery of preferences, saying that the suits might not need to proceed were a Chapter 11 plan confirmed. By not yet serving the suits, creditors who received alleged preferences aren't put to the task of defending or going out of pocket to pay settlements.
A preference is a payment within 90 days of bankruptcy that allows the creditor to recover more than it would through liquidation in bankruptcy.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin J. Carey heard final arguments on June 27 on the question of whether to confirm Tribune's plan or a rival plan from a note-holder group led by Aurelius Capital Management LP. The judge said at one point during the trial that he might not approve either plan.
For confirmation of either plan, the judge must use the so- called cramdown process because the note holders were among a handful of classes that voted against the Tribune plan. For a rundown on the company's plan as modified in April, click here for the April 7 Bloomberg bankruptcy report.
Tribune is the second-largest newspaper publisher in the U.S. It listed $13 billion in debt for borrowed money and assets of $7.6 billion in the Chapter 11 reorganization begun in December 2008. It owns the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, six other newspapers and 23 television stations.
The case is In re Tribune Co., 08-13141, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District Delaware (Wilmington).
A&P Evicts Grocery Haulers from Avenel Warehouse
Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., the supermarket operator, won the first round in its effort at evicting Grocery Haulers Inc. from a warehouse in Avenel, New Jersey.
Grocery Haulers provided trucking services for A&P's Pathmark brand stores. As part of the arrangement, Grocery Haulers rented the Avenel warehouse for $1 a year. Early in the Chapter 11 case A&P rejected the contract with Grocery Haulers.
When Grocery Haulers refused to vacate the warehouse, A&P sued, seeking a declaration that there was a violation of the so-called automatic stay in bankruptcy. Grocery Haulers responded by arguing that rejection of a lease doesn't oust a tenant from the right to occupy the premises for the remainder of the term of the lease.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert D. Drain didn't buy the argument. In an Oct. 3 ruling, Drain said it wasn't a "true lease." He directed Grocery Haulers to "vacate the premises as promptly as practicable."
Drain said he would hold a hearing later to decide if damages should be imposed for violation of the automatic stay. A&P said it intends to lease or monetize the value of the warehouse once Grocery Haulers is gone.
Montvale, New Jersey-based A&P filed for reorganization in December with 395 supermarkets. There are now 330 locations, the company said in a court filing. The stores are mostly in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. A&P listed assets of $2.531 billion and debt totaling $3.211 billion. Along with A&P, store brands include Pathmark, Food Emporium and Waldbaum's.
The case is In re The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company Inc., 10-24549, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District New York (White Plains).
Nebraska Book Reports Five-Month $6.2 Million Net Loss
College bookseller Nebraska Book Co. filed an operating report with the bankruptcy court showing a $6.2 million net loss for five months ended Aug. 31 on revenue of $264.4 million.
Operating income for the period was $24.1 million. Reorganization costs totaled $9.65 million. Interest expense was $19.1 million for the period, the operating report said.
The company has been unable to secure the $250 million loan required for confirming and implementing the Chapter 11 plan largely worked out before the Chapter 11 filing in late June.
Currently, the confirmation hearing for approval of the plan is set for Oct. 24. The company said there is a "substantial possibility" of further delay. For details on the plan after a settlement with shareholders, click here for the Sept. 9 Bloomberg bankruptcy report. For details on the original plan, click here for the July 19 Bloomberg bankruptcy report.
Based in Lincoln, Nebraska, the company sells used textbooks and operates more than 290 college bookstores. The company said $598 million in sales during fiscal 2011 resulted in a net loss of $98 million, including an $89 million writedown of intangible assets.
The case is In re Nebraska Book Co. Inc., 11-12005, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington).
Watch List
General Maritime Moves Closer to Formal Restructuring
General Maritime Corp., the owner of 31 crude oil and petroleum product tankers, moved closer to a restructuring when it signed a standstill agreement on Sept. 30 with affiliates of Oaktree Capital Management LP, lenders on three credits totaling $1.12 billion.
The agreement requires delivering an acceptable restructuring proposal. The standstill expires Nov. 10.
Moody's Investors Service said in September there is an "increasing prospect" for "a restructuring of the terms of certain of its credit facilities, if not the entirety of its debt."
The majority of General Maritime's charter agreements expire in the next 15 months.
For the six months ended June 30, New York-based General Maritime reported a $55.5 million net loss on revenue of $208.1 million. The operating loss in the period was $20.2 million.
The $300 million in 12 percent senior unsecured notes due in 2017 traded yesterday at 23.3 cents on the dollar, according to Trace, the bond-price reporting system of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
The shares closed yesterday at 18.5 cents, down 1.5 cents in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The three-year closing high was $12.94 in December 2008.
Liberty Tire Recycling Demoted to B3 Corporate
Tire recycler Liberty Tire Recycling Holdco LLC was lowered by one notch yesterday to a B3 corporate grade by Moody's Investors Service.
Moody's cited the effects of opening a new plant and four acquisitions in 2011. The $200 million in senior unsecured notes went down by one grade as well, to Caa1.
"Without higher demand for Liberty Tire's end products, net losses could continue," Moody's said. Likewise, Moody's does "not anticipate much in the way of sustainable free cash flow generation."
Liberty recycles 180 million tires a year into crumb rubber and feedstock for molded products. Revenue last year for the Pittsburgh-based company was almost $250 million, Moody's said.
Indian Casino in Coarsegold, California, Downgraded
The Chukchansi Economic Development Authority, formed to operate the Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino near Coarsegold, California, was downgraded two clicks yesterday to a Caa2 corporate rating by Moody's Investors Service.
The new Moody's rating is two steps lower than the ding issued last month by Standard & Poor's.
Moody's focused on the two issues of senior notes that mature in November 2012 and 2013. The notes, totaling $310 million, also are now rated Caa2.
Like S&P, Moody's noted the possibility of increased competition resulting from a positive determination by the Interior Department for what would be a competing Indian casino 30 miles away in Madera County, California.
The development authority was created by the Picayune Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians.
Dodgers, Solyndra Trustee, Eastman Kodak: Bankruptcy Audio
The schedule for the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball club and the commissioner of Major League Baseball to hold a trial over whether the team can sell broadcast rights is the first topic on the bankruptcy podcast with Bloomberg News bankruptcy columnist Bill Rochelle and Bloomberg Law's Lee Pacchia. Rochelle explains why it took the U.S. Trustee a week to seek appointment of a trustee after two top executives from Solyndra LLC declined to answer questions at a congressional hearing by invoking Fifth Amendment rights. The conditions in the credit markets may force Nebraska Book Co. to come up with a new reorganization plan, Rochelle says. The podcast wraps up with a look at volatile trading in stock and bonds of Eastman Kodak Co. resulting from news reports that bankruptcy is among the company's alternatives. To listen, click here.
--With assistance from Dawn McCarty, Steven Church and Michael Bathon in Wilmington, Delaware. Editors: John Pickering, Fred Strasser
To contact the reporter on this story: Bill Rochelle in New York at email@example.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Pickering at email@example.com.


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The Tussy Mussie is a beautiful cone shaped flower holder used during the Victorian era to hold the wedding bouquet. Small ones, with pins attached, were used to hold the boutonniere.
The Tussy Mussie was an elegant addition to the Victorian wedding and would make a beautiful quilt for any bride and groom's wedding day!
Tussy Mussie was inspired by the antique traditional nosegay pattern but I wanted a faster and simpler method to piecing this beautiful block. So, I redesigned it, eliminating all "Y" seams so even the confident beginner will find this block a snap to piece.
This pattern includes a very easy paper pieced pattern, a template patchwork pattern, and a quilting pattern along with easy to understand written instructions. My instructions are written for an approximate size of 50" x 50" but can easily be adapted to smaller or larger quilts. This makes a lovely table cover as well.
Included in your Tussy Mussie Pattern
This beautiful quilt is a challenging project for the confident, ambitious beginner to the intermediate skill level. Paperpiecing or Traditional Pieced instructions and patterns are included for your preference.
PAPER/FOUNDATION PIECING: Complete step-by-step paper piecing, cutting, and assembly instructions, and a full-sized MASTER paper piecing pattern included - no enlarging necessary.
TRADITIONAL PIECING: Complete cutting and assembly instructions included along with all the templates and optional setting.
TWO QUILTING STENCILS: Master hand or machine quilting design included.
Tussy Mussie- Materials List
These elegant bouquets look great in solids and small prints, but especially those reproduction fabrics you've been collecting and stashing away.
Flower petals - Assorted pinks/roses - 1 1/2 yds
Flower centers-Burgandy - 1/4 yd
Leaves and cone-Assorted greens - 1 1/2 yds.
Background-Off-white/cream - 1 3/4 yds
Backing/Binding/Hanger(optional)2 3/4 yds, total
Cotton Batting- 2 1/4 yds
Quilting | |
Home Decor | |
Blanket/Bedspread |
I guess crafting and needlework of all kinds was in my blood since birth. My Mom, Aunts and Grandma always had a project in the works of some sort or other.
View all patterns by designer (59) »


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Gourmet | October 2004
Adapted from Pic, Valence, France
I make this with blue cheese added into the batter. It makes for a great start with hearty cabernet! The shortbreads are so fragrant while baking -yum.
28 reasons why doughnuts (and doughnut holes)baked or fried, glazed or dustedare perfect morning, noon, and night
plus: everything you need to know about making doughnuts at home ›
Get the inside dish on 10 restaurants Parisians don't want you to know about
plus: Over 1,300 recipes à la Française to cook at home ›


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NIRPC opposes loophole money going to RDA
By Carole Carlson firstname.lastname@example.com/302-0949 March 7, 2014 12:12PM
Updated: March 7, 2014 1:15PM
PORTAGE — The Northwestern Regional Planning Commission's executive board is asking state lawmakers to return $4 million from a Lake County low income tax credit loophole to the gaming communities where the revenue was generated.
The amended version of Senate Bill 367 routes the new-found money to the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority, earmarking it for the $571 million extension of the South Shore commuter rail line from Hammond to Dyer.
The bill is being considered by a joint chamber conference committee and must be acted upon by March 14 when the General Assembly adjourns.
The amended NIRPC resolution, adopted Friday, specified the returned loophole money be used for mass transportation in Lake County, including the resurrection of bus service.
Despite backing from the RDA, Lake County officials saw the demise of the Regional Bus Authority last year after they failed to come up with a tax to sustain it.
Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. is leading the fight for the money he says is being unfairly taken by the state.
McDermott and other officials from Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties said they're not opposed to the General Assembly reauthorizing the RDA or to the South Shore extension.
McDermott said the resolution probably won't make a difference.
"It probably won't change anything at the end of the day, but it's not fair. We're dealing with a lot of pressure on this issue," McDermott said. "I want the South Shore expansion to happen. I want the RDA reauthorized. But if you have a gun to our head, it's not fair."
Some NIRPC commissioners, however, voiced concerns on the resolution.
"I fear for the future of the extension if this message is sent," said Jim Ton, a Chesterton Town Council member. "We sent a message with Illiana , not all of us agreed with that, but it was a regional development plan. The extension is a regional activity."
Lake County Commissioner Roosevelt Allen, D-Gary, first discovered the loophole in 2012 as the county searched for revenue to support the Regional Bus Authority that folded last year when money to continue its operation didn't surface.
Allen said it was discovered that a cutoff limit wasn't included on a low income tax credit, so even wealthy people could take it.
Now, Allen said he's questioning the $2.1 million allocation Lake County targeted in its capital development plan for the South Shore extension. "We did this not knowing they'd do a run around, we'll reconsider our capital allocation.... We cannot not sit back passively."
The state contributes $10 million annually to the RDA, while Gary, Hammond, East Chicago and Lake and Porter counties each contribute $3.5 million. Unless the state reauthorizes its share, the RDA disappears in 2015.
McDermott argued that Hammond already contributes $3.5 million annually to the RDA and in losing the loophole money, he said Hammond would give up another $600,000 in revenue to the RDA.
NIRPC Chairman and Hobart Mayor Brian Snedecor said sending the money back to the gaming communities is a matter of principle.
"It says all tax credit is paid by the state which deducts the casino tax revenue that would have gone to Hammond, Gary and East Chicago," he said.
Snedecor said NIRPC still supports the re-authorization of the RDA and the South Shore extension.
"We're not trying to be obstacles," he said.


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NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - There's more trouble brewing for Connecticut hedge fund firm Bayou Securities as law enforcement officials believe hundreds of millions of dollars have gone missing from the firm, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
Citing a source briefed on the investigation, the Journal said that the firm's assets -- which Bayou had told investors accounted for more than $500 million last year -- had sharply declined in the last 18 months. Trading activity also dropped off.
The firm announced that it was shuttering its operations in late July. In August, investors received a letter from its founder, Samuel Israel III, promising investors that they would receive their investment back by the end of the month. But investors, who had been promised 90 percent back by mid-August, were unable to retrieve their money from two of Bayou's funds and received no response to calls placed to the firm, prompting a state and federal investigation into Bayou Securities.
A Bayou investor who called the Connecticut Banking Commission was told that the investigation was just beginning and any assets that were recovered would be a frozen, the Journal said.
The firm's disappearing act came as a surprise to investors. Israel had a solid reputation as a successful money manager and his partner, Daniel Marino, had been shopping for extra space to expand the business in April. In a letter to investors, Israel said he was closing the fund to concentrate on his children after going through a messy divorce.
But the Journal reported that much of the information Israel had provided in its marketing and investor materials regarding his own background and the firm's auditors had been misleading or out of date.
And Bayou has had previous run-ins with regulators. The Connecticut Department of Banking filed an administrative proceeding against the firm in 2003, alleging the company's records didn't accurately reflect the business it was doing, according to a report in The New York Times on Thursday.
The firm settled the proceeding, paying a $7,500 fine and agreeing to provide regulators with a list of complaints filed against it by Connecticut residents until 2005. It did not admit or deny wrongdoing, however, according to the report.
In 2003, two former employees, Paul Westerveld Jr. and his son, Paul Westerveld III, sued Israel and Marino, accusing them of possibly violating SEC regulations regarding the operation of hedge funds and claiming Bayou's management persuaded the pair to join the firm but did not provide them with necessary business documents and financial information relating to the firm, according to the Times report.
The case was dismissed from federal court in 2003 after a judge ordered the case to be heard by an NASD arbitration panel, though it was not clear an arbitration proceeding ever occurred, according to the Times.
Report: Connecticut hedge fund probed.
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Amnesty International is at it again. But don't panic: It's not time for another Sting benefit concert. No, I refer here to their recent pronouncement that the Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo prisons have become "the gulag of our time," which is the sort of hyperbole that only the historically illiterate are capable of. Carelessly tossing around terms like "gulag" trivializes history's great horrors, just as when PETA called the eating of meat a "holocaust on your plate," or whenever Republicans (or, to be fair, feminists) are called Nazis, or when Ted Kennedy gravely announced that Abu Ghraib under U.S. forces had merely "reopened under new management."
Wait, there is such a book: Alexander Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago. Now, you'd think that a spokesman for Amnesty International would be familiar with one of the most important books about human rights ever published, even minus the "Oprah's Book Club" sticker I always look for in the bookstore. In fact, I would have thought that every new Amnesty International employee would be issued a complimentary copy of The Gulag Archipelago during his employee orientation, along with a parking sticker, laminated photo I.D., and a booklet listing human-rights-friendly local merchants (see your local chapter for details).
Solzhenitsyn writes that the gulag interrogators weren't content to simply torture until the pain became so unbearable that one cried out, "I'm guilty. Where do I sign?" Instead, detainees were required to guess which counterrevolutionary crime they had supposedly committed by confessing to one, then another, then another, and so on until by sheer trial and error they stumbled upon which particular, imaginary offense "against the people" their interrogators had pre-determined them guilty of. Only then would the pain stop, making the gulag interrogation process something of a macabre game show. Except that instead of cash and prizes contestants fought for their lives while suspended from a ceiling by their heels with electrodes stuck in their various orifices.
Which is not to say that life inside the gulag was without its perks. These included hands-on training in exciting industries like strip-mining and pole-cat skinning, as much sawdust and fish-head soup as you could eat, sometimes twice a day, and a dental plan which consisted of the occasional rifle butt to the mouth. Plus, many of the camps were located in virtually uninhabitable Siberia, the kind of place where the start of the brief summer season was announced by the appearance of ravenous, crow-sized mosquitoes. The kind of place where any day in which the temperature approached zero degrees Fahrenheit was considered balmy. As opposed to Guantanamo, which I believe is still located on a sun-kissed island in the Caribbean.
O.K., some of you are thinking, what's the catch? Could just anybody sign up for a sweet deal like that? Actually, compared to Guantanamo it was a cinch to get into the old Soviet gulag. You didn't have to be a would-be suicide bomber, or take up arms and shoot at American soldiers, or even actively plot terrorist attacks in faraway places like New York. All you had to do was say or write something against the Soviet government, or even be suspected of doing so. Sometimes just being an intellectual, like being a doctor or a professor, was enough to get you in. And if all else failed you could just get on the wrong side of some petty military bureaucrat like Solzhenitsyn did and it was goodbye, civilian life, hello gulag! Where, of course, you were not entitled to a trial, or a lawyer, or even to hear the charges against you until such time as your mock trial was scheduled.
Much has been written about real and alleged abuses in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. But by way of perspective, consider this: In the current war on terror coalition forces, mostly American, have liberated some 50 million people in Afghanistan and Iraq. Of these 50 million newly liberated people, about 68,000 have been detained as possible enemy combatants, terrorists, or both. Of these 68,000 detainees, (many of whom were trained to claim that they were tortured after being released), about 325 have formally claimed some degree of abuse. Each of the claims is being investigated, and 100 people found guilty have been punished. We know that a certain number of detainees have died during their captivity, at least some of them at the hands of American forces.
Comparing even the reprehensible criminal acts of abuse during the current war to the breadth and depth of the decades-long horrors of the Soviet gulag is, frankly, an obscenity. And not just because of the sheer number of respective abuses or their relative severity, either. The abuses in question now were initially uncovered as the result of internal military investigations that were under way long before the Abu Ghraib photos were publicly disseminated. Guilty parties have been charged, and punished, and further adjudicating is an ongoing process.
To date, according to the Pentagon, at least ten major probes have been launched into the current abuse allegations, and so far not a single one of them has found that President Bush, Vice President Cheney, or Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ever knew of or condoned so much as a single act of torture, much less ordered any of them. Compare this to the Soviet gulag, where decades of daily torture and forced labor under starvation conditions were official, explicit Soviet policy. Yet the administration's critics insist that we still haven't gotten to the bottom of things yet and that more studies are needed. What is this, global warming?
All of which is lost on the "new American gulag" crowd because they don't really care about prisoner abuse. If they truly cared about the mistreatment of the incarcerated they would have demanded the liberation of Iraq long ago. And Afghanistan, and Cuba, and, if I understand the facts of the case, the Neverland Ranch. These Bush haters aren't even focusing on the genuine outrage of the few cases in which detainees were genuinely tortured and even killed. No, most of their ire is over the embarrassment of few dozen prisoners by a handful of sick people at an understaffed military prison called Abu Ghraib. The same prison where Saddam's surgeons practiced punitive amputations. Where men and children watched their wives and sisters and daughters being gang raped. Where tens of thousands were murdered, and then dumped into unmarked trenches. And on, and on, and on.
No, the real goal of these Bush haters is to delegitimize this war and this scandal is just another weapon in their feeble arsenal. They would have you believe that it was morally wrong-impeachable, even–to liberate Afghanistan and Iraq and perhaps trigger the democratization of an entire subcontinent because some terrorist prisoners may have been improperly (and unjustly–don't get me wrong) treated during the chaos of a shooting war. Which is a bit like saying the United States was on the wrong side of World War II simply because Allied soldiers sometimes roughed up German POWs during questioning, or shot Japanese troops deep behind enemy lines because they had no means of securely detaining them (both of which happened). With this new report and its gratuitous use of the term "gulag," Amnesty International has joined that shameful chorus who would reflexively condemn any initiative, even one to liberate an entire region of the world, rather than give George W. Bush credit for doing something good. As anyone familiar with history and warfare knows, Amnesty International's characterization of the U.S. prisons as being a "the gulag of our time" are more than just obscene. They are, as President Bush recently noted, absurd.
–Ned Rice is a staff writer on the new and improved CBS talk show The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Rice is also an NRO contributor.


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They do for propane and diesel fuel oil, but then again you have a truck that comes to the house and fills it up. Not sure if they have a truck that will bring that much co 2 haha
I saw a service truck 'deliver' CO2 to a convenience store where they filled a tank outside the building. If you can get that setup for home delivery up there, go for it. I can only imagine the costs though.
Haha ya it seems totally un-realistic. I will stick with the more common approach on this I think.
Talked with the AirGas guys today (getting supplies for my oxy-acy welding rig)... You can lease the 50# and 100# tanks from them for not a lot of cabbage. A 50# tank would be around $50 to fill/exchange, with the $50/year lease on it. Didn't get pricing on a 100# tank. Might be worth looking into for you. They are up in Alaska, so it's possible they're in your area, or close enough to take care of you. Even if you only go through one 50# tank a year, having it delivered would make it damned convenient.
Ya it would. I will have to give them a jingle and see if that would work up here. I bet I would spend $50 a year on gas driving 10 5lb tanks the 20 miles to swap at airgas. 50lb tank would be badass.
Better to let them spend the fuel getting the CO2 to you, in less trips, than you doing it. Gives you more time to drink/brew. I'm still working on the first fillup of the 20# tank I have. I would probably get another for when I set up a keezer or second brew fridge. Not ready for that just yet. I do need to think about getting my 2.5# tank filled. I'll probably do it when my 5# needs to be filled too. I also got pricing on getting the paintball gun bottles filled at the local Dick's Sporting Goods. Cheaper than the paintball store was, and it's straight CO2. No lubricants/etc. added. BTW, with what you're paying per 5# filling/swap, I suspect you'll be saving money right off the bat. Even with the lease cost. I also found out that AirGas is in all 50 states, so including Hawaii...
They are in Alaska too it's true. I just have to drive about 20 miles to get to em. It's about twice as far as the other place I usually go to swap tanks. Both stores however do not fill on site... All the tanks they have are trucked down 3 hrs from anchorage and dropped off periodically depending on demand. That's why I have stated with two 5lb tanks, they always have one and if thy don't, my beer is still on emergency co2 until the next tanks arrive. I'm curious how long 50lbs would last... Force carbing two to three cornies a month with 6 on tap. I would to build a stand and screw it into the wall to hold the damn tank for safety reasons haha.
How long does a 5# tank last you??? My 20# tank still reads full (after over a year). I use 3 gallon kegs, going with the slow force carb method. My 'reserve' tank is a 10#, with secondary reserve being the 5# tank. In a pinch, I could use the 2.5# tank too. If I run out of those, I could start going through the paintball bottles. But, something MAJOR would need to have happened for me to even go through the 10# tank before getting the 20# filled. I plan on getting one of the 20 cubic foot O2 tanks I've been using to oxygenate my wort swapped with a 60. I might swap out the acetylene tank with whatever is the correct matching size. Or just keep using the one I have (was matched to a 40 cubic O2 tank before)... Looking forward to doing more welding at home again. Been many years since I did it last. Need to practice some before I do anything important. Luckily, I should have the flux I need before the end of the week for silver soldering. I hope there's some brazing flux still in my sister's garage.
It depends but atleast a month, probably 2. Haven't kept real good track of the time line there. Having just installed new lines and manifold, I have been making sure I have no leaks. So far so good, and the tank still has pressure after 2 weeks running new stuff haha. Is the tank volume gauge fairly accurate when the tank is outside the keezer? Can I trust it to tell me when it's getting low?
More accurate on the larger tanks (10# and up) than the small ones (5#). Only true way to KNOW how much is left would be to weigh it. But, you'll either need to disconnect the regulator, or weigh it full, with everything connected. I didn't do that, so it's hard to say. But, the sucker is still heavy enough to have a lot of CO2 still in it.


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Thy princes [are] rebellious
Stubborn and obstinate, refused to receive and acknowledge the Messiah; such were the Jewish rulers, civil and ecclesiastical, in the times of Christ. And companions of thieves:
who devoured widows' houses; made the temple, which was a house of prayer, a den of thieves; and took away the key of knowledge from the people, and would not suffer them to attend the ministry of the Gospel, ( Matthew 21:13 ) ( Matthew 23:13 Matthew 23:14 ) ( Luke 11:52 ) everyone loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards.
The Targum paraphrases it,
``everyone says to his neighbour, do me a favour in my cause, I will return "it" to thee in thy cause;''and so justice was perverted: they judge not the fatherless;