THE Grand Master of the Knights of Malta, a group which began as a Christian crusading military order more than 900 years ago, has died. Englishman Andrew Willoughby Ninian Bertie, 78, died in a hospital yesterday in Rome, where the order has been based since 1834.
The order, whose full formal name is the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and Malta, has more than 12,500 members and some 93,000 volunteers around the world. Today it is involved in humanitarian, medical and charity work around the world. It is a sovereign entity with its own passport and has diplomatic relations with 99 countries.
A spokesman said its number two, or Grand Commander, would run the order until new elections are held, probably in several months.
Bertie, who was addressed as "His Highness", was the first Englishman to be elected to the high post. Born in 1929, he was educated at Oxford and the University of London. He served in the Scots Guards and joined the order in 1956. He took solemn religious vows in 1981, according to a biography provided by the order.
The order traces its origins to about 1048 when merchants from the rich Marine Republic of Amalfi in Italy financed a hospital run by monks in Jerusalem to offer medical care for pilgrims to the Holy Land and local non-Christian residents.
But the order later took on a military role during the first crusade and considers that its formal founding was in 1099 when it was involved in protecting Christian pilgrims at a time when the Kingdom of Jerusalem, as it was called, had no standing army.
After the fall of Acre, the last Christian stronghold in the Holy Land, the order moved to Cyprus. A more permanent base was established in Rhodes, but the order was eventually defeated in a long siege by the Ottomans and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V offered Malta to the Knights for a yearly rent of one falcon.
The Knights took over the tiny island because its magnificent natural harbour offered protection for their fleet. They built huge ramparts and after beating off the Turkish siege of 1565, they built Valletta, decorating it with large palaces and richly decorated churches that are today some of Malta's most important tourist attractions.
Napoleon forced the Knights to leave Malta in 1798 and since 1834 their headquarters has been Rome, where they own a building near the Spanish Steps and a villa on the Aventine Hill.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/09/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
"...But what of the Falcon, Mister Spade - what of the Falcon ???"
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/09/2008 0:29 Comments ||
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#2
One hopes the new leader will continue the very helpful role it has played.
Retired army generals Solomon Mujuru and Vitalis Zvinavashe are reportedly going to campaign for independent presidential candidate Simba Makoni, in a bid to oust Robert Mugabe from power.
A source close to Zvinavashe, the Zimbabwe Defence Forces' second commander after Mujuru, told us he was ready to throw his full weight behind Makoni. The retired general has publicly voiced his concern on several occasions about the state of the country's political and economic situation.
Addressing a meeting in Gutu, Masvingo province in December last year, Zvinavashe openly castigated Mugabe for staying in power too long, suggesting it was time he passed on the baton to someone else. 'Everyone in Zanu-PF knows Zvinavashe's position on Mugabe and he's also on public record for criticising Zanu-PF legislators for not telling people the truth about the critical food shortages in the country,' added the source.
Makoni's right hand man at the moment is retired army Major, Kudzai Mbudzi, a close confidante of Zvinavashe. When visiting his home area of Masvingo, Zvinavashe is usually in the company of Mbudzi, a former spokesman for Zanu-PF in the province. He was suspended from the party in October last year for his refusal to organise the 'million man march' in Masvingo in support of Mugabe.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/09/2008 00:00 ||
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Carlos Martinez was in a state of total panic after being deported from the United States to the Mexican border city of Matamoros - he had no money, nowhere to go, and, worst of all, he didn't speak Spanish. The 30-year-old New Yorker had left Mexico as a baby; when the Department of Homeland Security sent him south last May after he had served a prison termfor "dating" a minor, he landed in a foreign land. Foreign? How can Mexico be a foreign land if you are a Mexican citizen? I don't care how long you were there under clearly illegal circumstances, don't forget you were in the US illegally, and there are no longer children involved here. BTW: What was your Social Security Number there?
"I was crying when I went over the border. It was just a big joke to the U.S. immigration officials to have this Mexican who doesn't speak Spanish. But I was terrified," Martinez said. Well, it is a joke. Can't blame them for laughing.
Eventually, a fellow deportee invited Martinez to his family home in Santa Maria Zoyatla, a dirt-poor village of corn farmers, and they hitchhiked 1,000 miles south from the border. Having worked as a limo driver in New York, Martinez had no idea how to work the land, and after a few months he moved onto a nearby town to sell clothes in a market. Couldn't find work as a limo driver?
Martinez is one of a rising number of deportees arriving in Mexico with little connection to their ancestral homeland, often pesoless penniless and with criminal records. The increase is a result of a U.S. crackdown on illegal immigrants. In 2007, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported a record 237,000 migrants, up from 178,000 in 2005 and 155,000 in 2003 - the majority of them Mexicans. I wonder how many of them have been deported more than once.
The influx has prompted President Felipe Calderon to announce a new program called "Humane Repatriation," to help reintegrate the deportees into society. The program will organize refuge centers in border cities, transport to hometowns and jobs for the deportees, immigration officials say. Hometowns? You mean the addresses where they have been sending half of their paychecks for the last 20 years?
"Some of these people are arriving in Mexico's border cities with nothing but the clothes they have on and a criminal record. Many have no family links, no knowledge of the country. They are very vulnerable," said Rolando Garcia, an immigration official working on the new program. "What we want to do, quite simply, is give them a human reception." That's a funny way of saying that you have no choice but to accept Mexican citizens back into Mexico.
Calderon has been less vocal in taking up immigration issues with Washington than was his predecessor Vicente Fox, who lobbied unsuccessfully for a guest-worker program. Instead, Calderon says he wants to focus on making Mexico more attractive for them to stay. And his Humane Repatriation program has been welcomed by many who work with the deportees in the border cities. Yay! I'm starting to like Calderon. More logic, less chiseling. He is working within the limits of what seems to me to be legitimate law.
"We definitely need more government co-ordination on this issue," said Blanca Navarrette, who works at the Casa Migrante migrant shelter in Juarez. "The deportees arrive with a lot of difficulties. They don't even have basic Mexican identification." Denial at its finest.
But some say Calderon's program may be more style than substance. There has been no special budget approved for it in 2008, and few concrete details have been revealed. Furthermore, offering deportees attractive jobs could be wishful thinking in a country where the minimum wage is $5 per day. Perhaps they could pay for these programs by taxing the money their expats in the US send to their relatives.
Rep. Jose Jacques Medina, a leftist Mexican lawmaker who was an immigrant activist in California for more than 30 years, says Calderon should be defending migrants' rights rather than easing their landing after deportation. Migrants?! Try formerly illegal aliens!
"Calderon is very ignorant of the needs of the migrant community," Medina said. "Even the name of this program - repatriation - is considered an ugly word for Latinos in the U.S. It makes them think of the wave of deportations in the Great Depression." Expats, repats, migrants, illegal aliens, deportees. Regardless of what term you choose to employ and how you whine about the connotations, all of them quack and waddle the same. Get to work fixing it.
To ease mass unemployment between 1929 and 1937, the U.S. deported hundreds of thousands of Mexicans, including many who had actually been born in the United States, in what was known the Mexican Repatriation. Most eventually headed back up north as jobs returned. Likewise, many of today's deportees plan to head back to the United States, where they have family and are accustomed to earning higher wages. Deport the lot of them the second time around and it won't be long before that $hit stops.
While some plan to trek or swim back, Martinez is fully Americanized and therefore too lazy to train for a triathalon is trying to return to the U.S. by fighting his case in the courts. He was actually raised by U.S. citizens on Long Island, but Homeland Security argued he violated his immigration status when he was convicted of child endangerment for going on a date with a teenage girl. He beat the deportation in the first court, but lost on the prosecutor's appeal. While his stay in Mexico has been hard, Martinez says the people have been helpful. What does being raised illegally by American citizens have to do with this? You're nuts. And why aren't those citizens in trouble for harboring an illegal alien? Suppose Mexico would keep me if I was there illegally? And God help me if I try to get work there. It almost takes an act of Mexican Congress to get approval for that. Feh. Think reciprocity, man. Reciprocity. It might give you the psychological foothold you need to quitcherbitchin'.
"I've become proud of my country and the way people here lend a hand," Martinez said. "I bet if I were deported to the United States, no one would help me out." So who in their right mind would want to return to that hellhole? Besides, that's an unrealistic scenario because you aren't an American citizen. I invite you to get in line with everyone else. You'll have to pay taxes the next time around, but there are benefits of full citizenship. For example, Social Security will provide you with beer money when you can legally retire at 104 years old.
#1
...he was convicted of child endangerment for going on a date with a teenage girl.
"A date with a teenage girl"? Sounds to me like a plea deal on a statutory rape charge. The deportation was probably part of the deal.
Either way, this story was deeeeeeeelicious!
First time you get caught here illegally, you get deported.
Second time, you get load of buckshot to the back of the head..
Also, each time we catch a citizen of ANY country in ours illegally, we annex 1 square mile of their country. Any country that complains, we multiply the land annexed by 10.
Some 50 stalwarts of the political right privately met with Mitt Romney minutes after he dropped out of the Republican nominating race to discuss the former Massachusetts governor becoming the face of conservatism, as Ronald Reagan became en route to his 1980 election win.
Participants said the group was not organizing against the presidential bid of Sen. John McCain, the party"s presumptive nominee, but only seeking to revive core values such as lower taxes, limited government and free speech. "The purpose of the meeting was for him to announce his willingness to fight shoulder to shoulder with true conservatives from here on out," said political strategist Paul Erickson, who worked for Mr. Romney"s campaign. "He did just that."
American Conservative Union Chairman David A. Keene presided over the meeting in the Empire Ballroom of the Omni Shoreham in Washington, where the 35th annual Conservative Political Action Conference was held. Besides Mr. Romney and his wife, Ann, and deputy campaign manager Peter G. Flaherty, attendees included former Christian Coalition Executive Director Ralph Reed, radio talk show host Laura Ingraham and former Reagan White House official Donald J. Devine.
Continued on Page 49
President Bush is asking Congress to spend money to help businesses root out illegal workers but he did not request additional funds to help legal immigrants become American citizens more quickly. That will be taken care of after any recession is declared to be over.
In his budget proposal issued this week, Bush asked for $100 million to expand E-Verify, the system employers use to check whether they are hiring documented workers. He didn't ask Congress to allocate money to chip away at millions of citizenship and other immigration applications that flooded the government last summer, before an increase in the agency's filing fees. Complement this with caps on immigration and stiff fines for employing or housing illegal aliens and that should fund things just dandy.
Instead, Citizenship and Immigration Services will rely on $468 million in fees to pay for reducing the backlog by 2010. Those funds are a portion of the total fees that came in with the applications this summer.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the summer's fee increases will give the agency the money it needs to get back on track. "People always argue well you ought to fund this, you ought to fund that. That's great, but the pie is only as big as it is and no one ever comes up with this slice they want to give back in return for this," Chertoff said. Besides, those who want citizenship should be willing to pay for it.
Yes, but let's not make it too difficult. The people who immigrated here legally and now want to be citizens are great people, and we should be proud that they want to be one of us.
A total 7.7 million applications for various immigration benefits poured into Citizenship and Immigration Services in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2007. That's 1.4 million more than the previous fiscal year.
"The backlogs are pretty much back where they were when they started and the agency is back to doing what it used to do, which is robbing Peter to pay Paul. Right now they are taking resources from permanent residence to do citizenship," said Crystal Williams, associate director for programs at the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
The immigration agency increased fees in July largely to raise about $1.5 billion to pay for modernizing computer equipment, hiring and training more workers, improving field offices and other spending. Becoming a citizen now costs $595, up from $330. The price to get a green card is $1,010, up from $395. Applicants for both pay another $80 each for digital fingerprinting, a $10 increase.
Congress gave the immigration agency $100 million a year over five years through 2006 to reduce the immigration backlogs. Agency Director Emilio Gonzalez announced in September 2006 the backlog had fallen to about 139,0000 cases. About 1 million applications in the backlog that were incomplete, from people still awaiting visas or whose FBI name check was delayed, were not counted.
The administration deserves credit for securing the $500 million from Congress for the backlog, said Doris Meissner, former Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner under President Clinton. "They broke through the idea that this should just be purely financed by the applicant fees themselves," said Meissner, a senior fellow with Migration Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. "But it was finite."
Since 1988, the work of Citizenship and Immigration Services and its predecessor, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, has been largely paid for by revenue from application fees. Congress has provided money for specific projects over the years, but generally those have been limited to a few years. Sometimes fee money has been diverted for things like detention centers.
The result has been an agency constantly shifting resources to respond to the latest crisis, critics say. "Every time the system breaks down, they are incentivizing people to say, 'Screw the system, I'll just overstay my visa.'" said James Jay Carifano, a research fellow with the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank.
Immigration officials say they will be able to chip away at the backlogs as 1,500 new workers are hired and trained. Things should be back where they were before the application spike by 2010, the agency's spokeswoman Chris Rhatigan said.
Williams thinks that's an optimistic prediction. The 7.7 million applications the agency received last year amount to about three years of work, she said. Yeesh. Al Gore should be totally debunked by the time they take care of that backlog!
#2
"Yes, but let's not make it too difficult. The people who immigrated here legally and now want to be citizens are great people, and we should be proud that they want to be one of us."
WRONG. They've been allowed to immigrate under far too lenient criteria. Since we don't need any more people, the ones we do allow to come should come with qualifications and capital that will be of real use to the country. Most of the legal immigrants coming now are off-quota family reunification immigrants. Just because they're related to someone who got in earlier should not automatically allow them to come also. For example, it does us absolutely no good to allow some guy's aged parents to immigrate if the first thing that happens is for the citizen to sign them up for old age assistance. The family reunification quota exemptions have burdened us with a LOT of underqualified welfare cases. Ask any West Coast or Fla Social Security worker.
#3
Bluetooth, I must say I find your comments pretty darned repugnant.
I have no problem whatsoever allowing families to stay together. This country was built on families. Having Mom and Pops come over after Sonny has made it good is wonderful incentive for Sonny to become a productive citizen.
We've been allowing families to come over for a couple hundred years. I'd be interested in knowing how much of your family came over on the boat, and how many followed after Great-great-great-great-grand Uncle Jomosing wrote a letter back to the old country.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/09/2008 19:46 Comments ||
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#4
I like hard working immigrants. I don't like free loaders. Our laws have been changed to make it easier to be a freeloader. That's a problem.
#5
SW - agreed as long as those entering can pay for themselves (with or without family help). It is not our responsibility to pay for the future medical treatment or retirement of foreign citizens related downstream to naturalized citizens, izzit?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/09/2008 21:31 Comments ||
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#6
Generally speaking The Health Care System is on or near the brink of failure everywhere along our Southern Border.
As the strain builds everywhere in the system you can accurately say that the CONTRACT between CITIZENS and our Government is breaking down and failing!
The CONTRACT has been BREACHED in many cases Dr. Steve because our Government refuses to say NO to all the illegal immigrants who have broken the law by breaking into the USA and squatting here!
Then our Licentious Government in full contempt of our hard earned taxes, Goes on a Spending SPREE with our money by casting Hundreds of Millions of Dollars on services for entire load of illegals up here.
Yes that's right, our own government steals from our Old Citizens funds which were contracted with them to go into the system for them when they retire Dr. Steve.
Here are just a few of the increased costs for us because of Illegal Immigrants. [Not counting the murders, theft, injuries, heart break and loss etc.]
Increased INS
Increased Border Guards
Increased Border Patrol
Increased Detention Centers
Increased Federal Court Cost Load
Increased State Court Cost Load
Increased Local Court Cost Load
Increased Local Jail Costs
Increased State Prison Coasts
Increased Federal Prison Coasts
Probation Costs
Parole Costs
Deportation Costs
Increased Juvenile System Costs
Increased Local Police Costs
Increased Local State Police Costs
Increased Federal Police Costs
School Costs K-12
Teachers Costs
Book Costs
Cafeteria Costs, Food Costs
School Plant and Buildings Costs
Heating, Cooling and Lighting Costs
Fuel Costs, Gasoline and Diesel Costs
College and University Costs
Medical Costs
Prenatal till Death
"General Election season!"
"Primary Season!"
"General Election Season!"
"Primary Season!"
With John McCain poised to win the Republican nomination, Democrats are already gathering ammunition to use against him in the general election. In more than a few instances, the best fodder has been provided by the candidate himself.
A case in point: As the economy was rising late last year as a major issue for voters, McCain in New Hampshire delivered this grenade, with its pin still in it: "The issue of economics is not something I've understood as well as I should," he said. "I've got Greenspan's book."
Those are not the only words that will come back to haunt him in November. From the economy to Iraq to immigration to abortion, the Arizona senator's lengthy voting record and his primary season offerings to the Republican Party's conservative wing provide a deep vein for opposition researchers to mine for shifting positions and policy inconsistencies.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean is already moving to redefine the presumed Republican nominee. In a fundraising appeal sent out Wednesday, Dean called McCain "a media darling" and warned that "from Iraq to health care, Social Security to special interest tax cuts to ethics, he's promising nothing more than a third Bush term."
Fred Thompson, the one-time Republican presidential candidate, endorsed Sen. John McCain Friday, calling on the party to "close ranks" behind the presumed nominee.
For Fred, this appears to be about winning the Presidency, not so much of an endorsement of the candidate. Same as Romney.
Of course the psychosis that is sweeping the GOP will paint this as part of the McCain Conspiracy. Sigh...
#1
since they are multi-denominational, I guess this was necessary in our PC world. First time they try to install a footbath or segregated areas for women, they should get a riflebutt to the head
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/09/2008 15:18 Comments ||
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#2
So what are they going to do with all those VA cemeteries with obvious Christian indicators? Not good enough in life,, but ok in the after?
#3
All the VA is probably doing is installing some cabinets with locks on them for particular denominations.
When individuals enter to pray, there are just pews, but when a particular denomination requests the chapel for an hour or two, it can quickly place its symbols about, then when done, return them to their cabinet.
On the plus side, this means that the chapel can, when decorated, actually have *more* religious symbols for a particular group than a "generic" chapel, since they don't have to lug their special stuff with them--they can store them in their cabinet.
(And it also means that a lot less of their stuff, like candlesticks and crosses, gets stolen, which does happen.)
A company of Marine Corps Reservists received a cold send-off from downtown Toledo yesterday by order of Mayor Carty Finkbeiner.
The 200 members of Company A, 1st Battalion, 24th Marines, based in Grand Rapids, Mich., planned to spend their weekend engaged in urban patrol exercises on the streets of downtown as well as inside the mostly vacant Madison Building, 607 Madison Ave. Toledo police knew days in advance about their plans for a three-day exercise. Yet somehow the memo never made it to Mayor Finkbeiner, who ordered the Marines out yesterday afternoon just minutes before their buses were to arrive.
"The mayor asked them to leave because they frighten people," said Brian Schwartz, the mayor's spokesman. "He did not want them practicing and drilling in a highly visible area."
Marines frighten people? They certainly frighten the bad guys. If they were doing an exercise on my street I'd whip up pitchers of lemonade and coffee for them.
So after a brief stop at a friendly base in Perrysburg Township, the Marines by early evening were back on their way home to Grand Rapids. "I wish they would have told us this four hours ago," Staff Sgt. Andre Davis said.
Sergeant Davis, who traveled ahead of the five-bus convoy, stepped from his vehicle into downtown about 3:20 p.m. and was told by a city employee that the mayor wanted him and his soldiers packed up and out by 6 p.m.
Members of the 1st Battalion, 24th Marines have trained periodically in downtown Toledo since at least 2004 and most recently in May, 2006. Past exercises have involved mock gun fights, ambushes, and the firing of blank ammunition.
The Marines' buses set a course for their battalion's Weapons Company headquarters in Perrysburg Township as soon as they heard of the mayor's decision.
The Reservists' visit was no surprise to Toledo police, who Tuesday issued a news release to media outlets on behalf of the Marines that asked Toledoans not to be startled by the sight of camouflaged soldiers toting M16 rifles. Police officers were awaiting the Marines' arrival yesterday afternoon and had set up a roadblock at Madison Avenue and Huron Street. "There was apparently a break in communication somewhere between the mayor and the police department," Mr. Schwartz said. "Where that break was, we don't know yet."
Maj. Jeffrey O'Neill, the company's commanding officer, said he was disappointed by how events played out yesterday, especially because Toledo had been a gracious host for Marine exercises in the past. "You can go to military ranges for live fire [exercises], but there's no way to duplicate the urban jungle unless you actually train inside a city," Major O'Neill said.
Mr. Schwartz said the Marines declined Mayor Finkbeiner's alternative offer for them to practice their urban patrol tactics inside the former Jones Junior High School, 550 Walbridge Ave. Major O'Neill said he was not aware of such an offer. A pair of Marines spent the better part of yesterday setting up the Madison Building with generators, heaters, radios, and food to become the unit's overnight headquarters. After receiving the mayor's request to leave, they began the task of moving the equipment back into an armored Humvee.
Lance Cpl. Brandon Bukrey-McCarty, 22, recalled taking part in the company's 2006 urban patrol exercise in downtown Toledo. He said he learned skills during that exercise that proved useful during the unit's deployment to Fallujah, Iraq, in 2006-2007. "It was extremely helpful," Corporal Bukrey-McCarty said. The training "got me used to looking up on rooftops, looking around every alley, every open door."
Sergeant Davis and other company leaders estimated the total cost of the aborted training exercise, including travel, at roughly $10,000. Before he left downtown for Perrysburg Township, Major O'Neill said he was not sure what type of training, if any, his unit could undertake without access to downtown Toledo. "But we're Marines," Major O'Neill said. "We'll adapt and overcome."
2. In the 1830s, Ohio and Michigan fought a border war over Toledo. (Not much of a war, really: no casualties due to hostile fire on either side.) Obviously, Michigan won.
Posted by: Mike ||
02/09/2008 13:51 Comments ||
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#6
Mayor Carty Finkbeiner is a donk. Toledo has been a donk stronghold forever.
#7
We've got some useful members of Congress here in Ohio. I wonder what undiscussed earmarks for Toledo were in that latest federal budget thingy -- and how quickly a bill to remove them can be submitted to both House and Senate.
I read a squib last night on Lucianne.com that one of the California state legislators is proposing to cut off Berkeley's roads'n'highways funding because they misused public roads to set aside parking space for Code Pink in front of the Marine recruiting center. These little political games can be so amusing for those with the right temperament... and contacts.
#9
Instapundit, Blackfive, Roger Kimball, et al are on it. Da Mayor's gonna get famous, for all the wrong reasons, and what a special name to have in Wiki, LOL.
From Instaguy:
And a reader from Toledo emails: "The really rich part of this is that our downtown still has many vacant buildings. One of Carty's 'arts' initiatives was to get artists to paint scenes that would be put up inside the windows of the vacant buildings so they wouldn't look so 'vacant'. Oh, and did I mention that the City and County were pleading with the Feds a couple of years ago not to move the local Air National Guard Base (and its jobs/payroll taxes) out of Toledo Express Airport? Pray for us." This won't help with that
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/09/2008 16:47 Comments ||
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#10
Aww, not that shit again!
Pity that we can't eject these localities like Laputa floating islands of Gulliver's fame...
Or fence it good and give a 3 years lease to Taliban (or Khmer Rouge if they prefer) to do as they please (then shoot the leasees at the end of lease [undisclosed clause]--hopefully the populus will be cured by then).
Dunno, WTF is wrong with he sizable portion of people?
#11
C'mon now, folks. Our man Carty's a...visionary.
New York Times
November 6, 1994
Mayor Carty Finkbeiner suggested at a staff meeting that a way to resolve complaints about airport noise would be to move deaf people into the neighborhood.
On Friday, after the remark was publicized, Mr. Finkbeiner wept at a news conference and said he had meant no disrespect. "Nobody intended to be insensitive," he said. "My only words were that it was an interesting idea."
Advocates for deaf people said the Mayor's original remark was an insult. A deaf woman who attended the news conference, Delores Lisac, said that deaf people could feel the vibrations from the jets.
Dave Wielinski, chairman of Barrier Free Toledo, a group for disabled people, likened the Mayor's suggestion to "saying let the blind work at night because they can't see."
#12
the man's a pretentious asshole genius, I tell ya
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/09/2008 17:50 Comments ||
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#13
It's not just the deaf he dislikes. It's also the handicapped and dogs.
"Mayor Finkbeiner speaks out
Tuesday, August 07, 2007 | 5:42 PM
He says he did nothing wrong
WTVG--August 7, 2007 (WTVG) -- Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner is still catching flak for parking in a handicapped space and for leaving his dog in the car while it was still pretty hot. Now the Mayor is speaking out.
Mayor Finkbeiner is sticking to his story and that is, he parked in the spot to keep his dog cool in the shade. There's no arguing the ticket. Last Friday, it was on the car of Toledo's Mayor Carty Finkbeiner. It was there because his car was parked in a handicapped spot. The Mayor admitted fault and agreed to pay it. But then, attention shifted to what was in the car Finkbeiner's dog, Scout.
All of the sudden the issue became one of Scout's maintenance."
Thanks to the 90-degree weather, the mayor started taking heat from radio call in shows and websites."
#15
perhaps collective punishment, Gaza-style, is in order, not just for the injustice and inconvenience to our Marines, but for the city of Toledo repeatedly electing a Mayor with the name Carty Finkbeiner. To get away with that name, he'd have to be hyper-qualified, and it's apparent he shouldn't even be restocking tp in city hall restrooms, ethically, and probably technically. I'd bet he's from a long line of Finkbeiners, who've reached the end of a family fortune due to poor genetics, but perhaps, I'm taking it too far....
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/09/2008 18:39 Comments ||
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#16
But wait! There's more...
Toledo Blade
2/25/06
Finkbeiner defends $9,996 shower stall
Figures show city facing $4.5 million deficit
Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner yesterday justified the new shower stall in his 22nd-floor office as a way to work more efficiently for the city - despite adding to an unexpected $4.5 million deficit suddenly forecast for 2006. The mayor said he wants to begin jogging during his lunch hour and needs a shower in his office so he can get back to work quickly.
The fitting out of a long-unfinished shower stall in the mayor's personal bathroom has raised eyebrows because the $9,996 price tag fell $4 short of the $10,000 threshold at which a council vote is required.
Mr. Finkbeiner downplayed the cost of the shower and said it ultimately will pay for itself by allowing him and his successors to make better use of their time. He predicted the cost will fall short of the $9,996 projected by the Reuben Co., which manages the building for the Ohio Building Authority and which controls any renovations in the building.
However, Michael Sullivan, the property manager for Reuben who ordered the work at the mayor's request, was doubtful that the cost would decline. "I don't see how," he said.
City facilities administrator Dale Raczkowski acknowledged that he asked Mr. Sullivan to cut the original estimate of $10,006 by $10 to get below the $10,000 ceiling. He said it was not done to avoid council scrutiny, but rather to avoid additional red tape triggered by the $10,000 threshold.
First Lady Amy Finkbeiner yesterday gave reporters and photographers a tour of the new shower and other improvements to the mayor's office. She had 26 chairs or sofas reupholstered and a table repaired at a cost of $2,531. She showed pictures of other blemishes on mayoral furniture that she said conveys a bad image.
"The chairs were torn and tattered and certainly not giving the impression we wanted to give," Mrs. Finkbeiner said. "When the general public comes up to meet with the mayor, we want to provide them with seating that is appealing."
In addition to the shower stall, the mayor had a storage area converted to an exercise room. Mrs. Finkbeiner said the shower and exercise facilities will cut the time the mayor now takes to drive to Medical University of Ohio for his workout.
The mayor said he plans to start running outside when it gets warmer. He said he is determined to keep up his exercise schedule, having had heart bypass surgery two years ago. He said he would prefer to exercise in the middle of the day than in the evening as he does now three or four times a week."After this surgery of mine, I was pretty fixed in my mind I was going to have a shower that was operational," he said.
10 grand? That's about what the Marines got screwed out of, right?
#17
since he's been Mayor since at least that 1994 article, I'm assuming the damage to furnishing occurred on his watch. I'd be surprised if he had drunken greco-roman midget oil-wrestling in there, but not much. This tool's an embarrassment and Toledo needs to feel the shame for reelecting such an asshole. Perhaps earmark disruption?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/09/2008 19:06 Comments ||
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#18
This idiot needs run to Kentucky and find a hooker. He can follow the long prestigious line of other Ohio Mayor's.
#19
one of the California state legislators is proposing to cut off Berkeley's roads'n'highways funding because they misused public roads to set aside parking space for Code Pink in front of the Marine recruiting center
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.
Retired army generals Solomon Mujuru and Vitalis Zvinavashe are reportedly going to campaign for independent presidential candidate Simba Makoni, in a bid to oust Robert Mugabe from power.
