Virtual_Burlesque
Former Ecdysiast
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2004
- Posts
- 4,083
9/11 Panel Finds No Collaboration
Between Iraq, Al Qaeda
The terrorist attacks carried out on Sept. 11, 2001, were originally envisioned as an even more spectacular assault involving 10 jetliners on the east and west coasts, but the plan was scaled back and was nearly derailed on several occasions by setbacks and squabbling among senior al Qaeda officials, according to a new report released this morning. .....
Link to full length
Grim Numbers
A U.S.-sponsored poll shows Iraqis... want
Coalition troops out of the country ‘immediately’
June 15 - The first survey of Iraqis sponsored by the U.S. Coalition Provisional Authority after the Abu Ghraib prison scandal shows that most say they would feel safer if Coalition forces left immediately, without even waiting for elections scheduled for next year. An overwhelming majority, about 80 percent, also say they have “no confidence” in either the U.S. civilian authorities or coalition forces.
Sixty-seven percent of those surveyed also said they believed violent attacks have increased around the country because “people have lost faith in the coalition forces.”
...
According to the poll, a mere one percent of Iraqis now feel that the coalition forces contribute most to their sense of security; only 18 percent described Iraqi police the same way. By contrast, a total of 71 percent said they depended mostly on their family and friends and neighbors for security.
Link to full article
And just to keep things interesting:
Calling fries fresh veggies half-baked.
By Andrew Martin Washington Bureau
Tue Jun 15, 2994
French fries may be the bane of low-carb diets and obesity foes, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture and a federal judge in Texas have another name for the popular food: fresh vegetable.
U.S. District Judge Richard Schell last week endorsed little-noticed changes by the USDA to federal regulations that govern what defines a fresh vegetable. The changes were made at the behest of the french-fry industry, which has spent the past five decades pushing for revisions to the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act.
Known as PACA, the law was passed by Congress in 1930 to protect fruit and vegetable farmers in the event that their customers went out of business without paying for their produce.
Under an obscure USDA rule, most frozen french fries have been considered fresh vegetables since 1996. Now they all are, under a revision last year that added batter-coated, frozen french fries to the list of fresh produce.
In his ruling last week in a lawsuit that challenged the designation, Schell sided with the USDA argument that the PACA law is so ambiguous on the definition of fresh fruits and vegetables that it should be left to the agency to define what it means.
The Frozen Potato Products Institute appealed to the USDA in 2000 to change its definition of fresh produce under the law to include batter-coated, frozen french fries, arguing that rolling potato slices in a starch coating, frying them and freezing them is the equivalent of waxing a cucumber or sweetening a strawberry.
The USDA agreed and, on June 2, 2003, amended its PACA rules to include what is described in court documents as the "Batter-Coating Rule."
Tim Elliott, a Chicago attorney who recently challenged the revision in a Texas federal courtroom on behalf of a bankrupt food distributor, said defining french fries as fresh vegetables defies common sense.
"I find it pretty outrageous, really," said Elliott, who argues that the Batter-Coating Rule is so vague that chocolate-covered cherries, packed in a candy box, would qualify as fresh fruit.
"This is something that only lawyers could do," he said, pointing to a stack of legal documents debating the french-fry rule change.
"There must be 100 pages there about something you could summarize in one paragraph: batter-coated french fries are not fresh vegetables."
Among the documents cited in the lawsuit is a patent from french-fry maker Lamb Weston on how to make batter-coated fries, including direction that the potatoes be coated with an "aqueous starch enrobing slurry."
"Fresh vegetables are not typically associated with `aqueous starch enrobing slurries,'" Elliott wrote in court documents.
However, in a ruling released last week, Schell sided with the USDA.
"PACA does not define the term `fresh vegetables,'" the judge wrote.
Link to full article
Between Iraq, Al Qaeda
The terrorist attacks carried out on Sept. 11, 2001, were originally envisioned as an even more spectacular assault involving 10 jetliners on the east and west coasts, but the plan was scaled back and was nearly derailed on several occasions by setbacks and squabbling among senior al Qaeda officials, according to a new report released this morning. .....
Link to full length
Grim Numbers
A U.S.-sponsored poll shows Iraqis... want
Coalition troops out of the country ‘immediately’
June 15 - The first survey of Iraqis sponsored by the U.S. Coalition Provisional Authority after the Abu Ghraib prison scandal shows that most say they would feel safer if Coalition forces left immediately, without even waiting for elections scheduled for next year. An overwhelming majority, about 80 percent, also say they have “no confidence” in either the U.S. civilian authorities or coalition forces.
Sixty-seven percent of those surveyed also said they believed violent attacks have increased around the country because “people have lost faith in the coalition forces.”
...
According to the poll, a mere one percent of Iraqis now feel that the coalition forces contribute most to their sense of security; only 18 percent described Iraqi police the same way. By contrast, a total of 71 percent said they depended mostly on their family and friends and neighbors for security.
Link to full article
And just to keep things interesting:
Calling fries fresh veggies half-baked.
By Andrew Martin Washington Bureau
Tue Jun 15, 2994
French fries may be the bane of low-carb diets and obesity foes, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture and a federal judge in Texas have another name for the popular food: fresh vegetable.
U.S. District Judge Richard Schell last week endorsed little-noticed changes by the USDA to federal regulations that govern what defines a fresh vegetable. The changes were made at the behest of the french-fry industry, which has spent the past five decades pushing for revisions to the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act.
Known as PACA, the law was passed by Congress in 1930 to protect fruit and vegetable farmers in the event that their customers went out of business without paying for their produce.
Under an obscure USDA rule, most frozen french fries have been considered fresh vegetables since 1996. Now they all are, under a revision last year that added batter-coated, frozen french fries to the list of fresh produce.
In his ruling last week in a lawsuit that challenged the designation, Schell sided with the USDA argument that the PACA law is so ambiguous on the definition of fresh fruits and vegetables that it should be left to the agency to define what it means.
The Frozen Potato Products Institute appealed to the USDA in 2000 to change its definition of fresh produce under the law to include batter-coated, frozen french fries, arguing that rolling potato slices in a starch coating, frying them and freezing them is the equivalent of waxing a cucumber or sweetening a strawberry.
The USDA agreed and, on June 2, 2003, amended its PACA rules to include what is described in court documents as the "Batter-Coating Rule."
Tim Elliott, a Chicago attorney who recently challenged the revision in a Texas federal courtroom on behalf of a bankrupt food distributor, said defining french fries as fresh vegetables defies common sense.
"I find it pretty outrageous, really," said Elliott, who argues that the Batter-Coating Rule is so vague that chocolate-covered cherries, packed in a candy box, would qualify as fresh fruit.
"This is something that only lawyers could do," he said, pointing to a stack of legal documents debating the french-fry rule change.
"There must be 100 pages there about something you could summarize in one paragraph: batter-coated french fries are not fresh vegetables."
Among the documents cited in the lawsuit is a patent from french-fry maker Lamb Weston on how to make batter-coated fries, including direction that the potatoes be coated with an "aqueous starch enrobing slurry."
"Fresh vegetables are not typically associated with `aqueous starch enrobing slurries,'" Elliott wrote in court documents.
However, in a ruling released last week, Schell sided with the USDA.
"PACA does not define the term `fresh vegetables,'" the judge wrote.
Link to full article
