SANTA FE -- Misdemeanor charges of simple battery have been filed against two employees of the Eldorado Hotel in Santa Fe over a confrontation in January between Occupy movement protesters and attendees at a banquet for legislators. No protesters or lawmakers were charged in the fracas, which took place at a dinner sponsored by the conservative American Legislative Exchange (ALEC) during the legislative session. A local photographer involved in the incident said lamented that only hotel employees, "working stiffs" who were "just trying to protect the diners" and their business, are now facing charges.
"If that's Santa Fe justice, then Santa Fe is really screwed up," she said. Well, Santa Fe does call itself "the city different."
The hotel's general manager, and a hotel hostess have entered not guilty pleas to the battery charges in Santa Fe Municipal Court.
"I'm surprised," the manager said Thursday. "I mean, ... a group invaded our restaurant and physically attacked our patrons, and I'm the one that's getting charged."
#4
It's pretty clear that many of our public officials have completely lost any sense of justice or morality. The Professor sometimes mentions tar & feathers. These public officials are abusing those they were hired or elected to protect. The return of "vigilance committees" may not be far off.
#5
No, g(r)om. I've made it my home, but its not perfect. No place is perfect. It's all a trade off. I've found far more to appreciate than not to. Please don't tell the Californistas abandoning the Golden State. Fortunately, there was no big housing boom here and some of the locals got smart and prohibited 'development' unless the people could come up with 'new' water to accommodate their designs.
Call'm as I see them. Santa Fe is to NM what Austin is to Texas and I don't mean as in 'the state capital'.
#6
A local photographer involved in the incident said lamented that only hotel employees, "working stiffs" who were "just trying to protect the diners" and their business, are now facing charges.
More pinheaded devotion to the letter of the law instead of the spirit. The system is broken all the way from the police to the judges. I would love to see if any of these folks could even make it out of the house in the morning without breaking some kind of law.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] French smokers have formed a lobby to "defend their rights" against what they perceive as unfair curbs imposed by the state, the group's leaders has said.
The Union for the Rights of Adult Smokers (UDFA) says it represents a potential 12.5 million voters and intends to fight against the spread of no-smoking zones or rising cigarette prices.
Chairperson Nathalie Masseron said: "We are being barred from cafe terraces, some want to ban us from parks with children, some hotels are non-smoking, soon a smoker won't be able to rent a flat and there's even talk of banning smoking while you drive," she said.
With the first round of France's legislative election on June 10, the new group is hoping to catch the attention of politicians.
Masseron said there were an average of 21,600 smokers in every constituency -- "which is a lot when you know that most MPs are elected by a margin smaller than 500 votes".
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2012 00:00 ||
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A system of Government (in this case, French Governemnt) where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing and where members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed are rewarded with goods and services are paid for by the confiscated wealth of the diminishing number of producers.
#3
Are you sure you're just talking about France, B?
Posted by: Barbara ||
05/28/2012 15:03 Comments ||
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#4
Californians are being asked (Prop 29)to squeeze another $1 per pack from smokers to fund some 15-year bureaucratic plan "to cure cancer". Fucking proles will probably fall for it.
NB: I am NOT a cig smoker
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/28/2012 15:33 Comments ||
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#5
It's just a clever plan to turn syndicates from drug smuggling to tobacco smuggling, Frank.
[Al Ahram] Greece's once-thriving sex industry has become the latest victim of the country's debt crisis as Greeks spend less on erotic toys, pornography and titillating underwear.
About 50 people, almost all young men, lined up on Friday as the Athens Erotic Dream - Greece's biggest sex fair - opened its gates in a nondescript building squeezed against a highway on the outskirts of the capital.
The annual show attracted big crowds when it opened in 2008, at the height of Greece's debt-fuelled economic bubble. But interest has wilted alongside the Greek economy, mired in its fifth consecutive year of recession.
The austerity measures Greece adopted as part of the country's international bailout deal have led to record unemployment, while wage cuts and tax hikes have throttled consumer spending.
The sex industry is feeling the hit. The number of exhibitors has fallen by half since 2008 to about a dozen, said the fair's organiser George Chrysospathis - a grey-bearded, corpulent man whose jovial manner changes quickly if he spots anyone who has failed to pay the 15-euro entry fee.
"We used to get 20,000-30,000 visitors, but this year I don't know, we'll just have to see," Chrysospathis said.
Only a quarter of the 300 to 400 sex shops that once existed in Athens have survived the crisis, and business looked bleak for those who brought their wares to the sex fair.
"Things look really bad, buddy," said stall holder Donatos Passaris, 38, standing in front of a long bench of vibrators, lotions and other items.
Shoppers at the stands were few and Passaris brushed off questions quickly for fear of losing a rare customer.
"We're making just 20 euros ($25) a day, if at all," said Marianna Lemnarou, another retailer. "Some customers just don't feel like having sex - others can't afford to buy our stuff in the crisis."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2012 00:00 ||
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#3
An alternative theory would be that as the economy declines; women are searching for a partner more and "putting out" more so there's less demand for transactional sex.
Former Shin Bet officer whose gumption saved lives of 154 passengers gets token of gratitude -- 42 years later
Yoel Lavi doesn't immediately strike you as a hero. But the 92-year-old grandpa certainly deserves the title: In 1970, he saved the lives of 154 El Al passengers when he prevented a bomb from being loaded on a Tel Aviv-bound flight from Frankfurt.
Only a handful of security officers knew of Lavi's laudable act. And only now -- 42 years after the fact -- did he finally receive the thank you he deserves in the form of a plaque of appreciation from El Al and the Shin Bet.
Lavi immigrated to Israel as a teen, alone, in 1935, as part of the Youth Aliyah, a movement that saved numerous kids from the Nazis. His entire family later died in the Holocaust. He soon enlisted with the Haganah, the army organization that turned into the Israel Defense Forces after the State of Israel was founded. He was one of the first officials to join the Shin Bet, Israel's internal security agency, in 1949.
In the late '60s, prompted by a wave of terror attacks involving planes, the Shin Bet deployed officers to large airports worldwide. After a brief training session, where he was taught to identify fake passports, Lavi was stationed in Franfurt due to his fluency in German.
Unlike today's harsh cargo security regulations, back then the policy was simple: Packages were delayed at the airport for three days to make sure that they didn't contain a bomb that might go off midair.
'My whole body was shaking'
On February 20, 1970, the head of El Al's cargo department turned to Lavi with a request. A package that was on its way to Israel had a time sensitivity that required the three-day rule to be broken.
"He said that it was present for an important man that had to arrive in Jerusalem on Saturday night," Lavi recalled. "But I said it was out of the question."
Lavi did not relent even when the district postmaster called him and tried to pressure him.
"My whole body was shaking when he called me on Friday afternoon at my home," he said. "You have to realize that the postal service in Germany is a powerful institution. But I refused to give in."
Finally, he advised the postmaster to send the packages with another airline. That night he could not fall asleep, and in the morning he reported the incident to the police at the airport.
'I didn't feel a hero'
Four hours later, the police commander stormed into his office and asked Lavi to accompany him. The two drove onto the airport's runway, where they saw an Austrian Airways plane -- with a "huge gaping hole" in its underside. The urgent package that Lavi refused to accept was then transferred to the Austrian aircraft, and went kaboom! shortly after takeoff. Miraculously, the pilot managed to land the plane safely; none of the passengers were hurt.
"Back then, I didn't feel like a hero," Lavi said.
The El Al flight arrived in Tel Aviv as planned, but a different flight that left at the same time from Zurich made for a painful reminder to the catastrophe that Lavi prevented. Nine minutes after taking off, a bomb that was planted on the plane went off, killing 38 passengers, including 15 Israelis.
Today, Lavi lives in Haifa; he has two sons and seven grandchildren.
"The public didn't know about the thwarted attack, but we knew that dad prevented a big incident," one of his sons, Udi, said. "I think that my dad is a great hero; there are many other wonderful things he did for the State's security, but we cannot discuss them."
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
French smokers have formed a lobby to "defend their rights" against what they perceive as unfair curbs imposed by the state, the group's leaders has said.
Greece's once-thriving sex industry has become the latest victim of the country's debt crisis as Greeks spend less on erotic toys, pornography and titillating underwear.
"We used to get 20,000-30,000 visitors, but this year I don't know, we'll just have to see," Chrysospathis said.
