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Russia invades Georgia
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Woman who was severely burned in gas attack dies in Vancouver hospital
A 79-year-old woman who was doused in gasoline and set on fire has died.
RCMP in Clearwater say charges may be upgraded for the victim's 51- year-old son, who is also accused setting his mother's dog on fire. Sgt. Stuart Seib says Mounties are considering recommending a murder charge, instead of attempted murder.

Kathleen Jennings was being treated at Vancouver General's burn unit after Friday's attack.

Seib says the victim had severe burns to her upper body.

The accused, Parker Mathias, will be in back in court next Monday.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 08/08/2008 14:58 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Mounties are considering recommending a murder charge, instead of attempted murder.

Yeah, them Mounties are sharp...
Posted by: tu3031 || 08/08/2008 16:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Send his a$$ down here. We just had a spot on death row in Texas open up recently.
Posted by: gorb || 08/08/2008 18:05 Comments || Top||

#3  He should just claim it was part of his culture, eh? That way they should let him go in Canada.
Posted by: Rambler in California || 08/08/2008 18:42 Comments || Top||


Woman kills boyfriend for drinking her beer
I like my beer. But not that much...
A West Side woman who allegedly stabbed her elderly boyfriend to death because he was drinking her beer was ordered held Thursday in lieu of $500,000 bail.
That'll buy a lotta beer.
Regina Williams, 55, of the 1000 block of North Waller Avenue appeared in Cook County Bond Court before Judge Israel Desierto, charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of Willie Anderson, 77, of the 2200 block of West Monroe Street.
...and I'll bet Willie thought he'd finally found "the one".
About 6 p.m. Wednesday, the two were sitting in Anderson's car outside his home when Williams became angry that he was drinking her beer, authorities said. They began to quarrel, and Williams allegedly pulled a knife she carried for protection and began stabbing Anderson.
I'll cut ya, man, I'll cut ya...
Anderson yelled for help, but Williams continued to stab him, Assistant State's Atty. Susanne Groebner told Desierto.
Get this crazy drunk bitch off me!
Afterward, Williams got out of the car and called down the street to Anderson's nephew, saying, "You better come get your uncle—I just killed him," according to her arrest report.
Oh. Okay...
Groebner said Williams got back in the vehicle and finished drinking her beer.
Wonder if murdering for it makes it taste better?
Williams is on probation for a 2007 felony conviction for aggravated battery. In that case she was convicted of spitting in the face of a Chicago Fire Department paramedic who was giving her medical treatment.
Yes, they're always so grateful...
Williams has a history of mental illness, according to the Cook County public defender's office.
Drunk and nuts. Nice combination...
Posted by: tu3031 || 08/08/2008 11:40 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Mom was right- drinking while behind the wheel of a car is dangerous; in fact you could die!

Bet she gets off relatively easy; after all it was probably 'Lite' beer.

Posted by: USN, Ret. || 08/08/2008 14:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Remember the "Drink Schlitz or I'll kill you!" commercials?
Posted by: Mike || 08/08/2008 15:37 Comments || Top||

#3  Williams got back in the vehicle and finished drinking her beer.

Now that's cold!

Posted by: Sport Gonque2850 || 08/08/2008 17:02 Comments || Top||

#4  When the mountains change color, it's time to kill.
Posted by: Skunky Glins 5*** || 08/08/2008 22:08 Comments || Top||


Prince George's raid prompts call for probe
Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo and his wife Trinity Tomsic talk during a news conference outside their Prince George's County home, which was raided last week. When the shooting stopped, two dogs lay dead. A mayor sat in his boxers, hands bound behind his back. His handcuffed mother-in-law was sprawled on the kitchen floor, lying beside the body of one of the family pets that police had killed before her eyes.
These types of raids are becomming more common and sometimes end in tragedy. It's outrageous.
After the raid, Prince George's County police officials who burst into the home of Berwyn Heights' mayor last week seized the same unopened package of marijuana that an undercover officer had delivered an hour earlier.

What police left behind was a house stained with blood and a trail of questions about their conduct. No other evidence of illegal activity was found, and no one was arrested at Mayor Cheye Calvo's home in this small bedroom community near College Park.
Just out giving the SWAT Team a bit of a workout.
This week Prince George's police arrested two men for orchestrating a plot to deliver marijuana to the addresses of unsuspecting recipients -- among them, Calvo's wife, Trinity Tomsic. Yet neither county Police Chief Melvin C. High nor Sheriff Michael A. Jackson have apologized to him, his wife or her mother, Georgia Porter, for the raid that traumatized the family and killed their black Labrador retrievers, Payton and Chase.

Thursday, Calvo called on the U.S. Justice Department's civil rights division to investigate the raid and other similar actions by Prince George's law enforcement. He said officers burst into his house without knocking or announcing themselves, in violation of the warrant they had. "Trinity was an innocent and random victim of identity theft. Apparently, so were four or five other county residents whose names and addresses were stolen and used as addresses on drug packages," Calvo said at a news conference outside his house, near a garden of tomatoes and strawberries.

"However, Trinity and our family have not been treated as victims of a crime. Instead, our home was invaded. Our two beloved Labrador retrievers are dead. My mother-in-law and I were tied up for nearly two hours," he said. "We were harmed by the very people who took an oath to protect us."

Berwyn Heights police Chief Patrick A. Murphy appeared with the mayor Thursday and said his agency was never informed of the investigation, despite an existing memorandum of understanding to work together on such operations. He said not knowing about the raid could have led his officers to fire upon the sheriff's SWAT team because its members were wearing street clothes, masks and carrying weapons as they approached the mayor's house.
An excellant way to get shot, by the way. If I saw a man in street clothes, a mask, and carrying a weapon I'd shoot first and ask questions later.
"What about the safety of my officers?" Murphy said. If consulted, he added, "We could have gotten the mayor to put the dogs away and consent to a search."

Police officials in Arizona first intercepted the package when a drug-sniffing dog alerted them to the presence of marijuana. It was addressed to Tomsic. An undercover officer in Prince George's delivered the package near 6 p.m. and was told by Calvo's mother-in-law to leave it on the porch, according to Calvo's attorney, Timothy Maloney.

Prince George's County police arrested two men involved in a scheme to transport marijuana. Once packages were dropped off by a deliveryman, a suspect would pick them up -- with the addressee oblivious to the plot. Police seized a half-dozen packages that contained about 417 pounds of marijuana, including the 32 pounds delivered to Tomsic, the Associated Press reported.

Last Tuesday, the mayor arrived home from his full-time job as an executive with SEED Foundation, which establishes urban public charter schools. He took the unopened package inside and placed it on a table near the door. He changed clothes and walked the dogs, waving to the men and women sitting in cars near his home. He did not know they were police. He returned and went upstairs to get dressed for an event. As he changed clothes, SWAT team members darted across the fenced-in lot. Porter, 50, was cooking artichokes in the kitchen and screamed when she saw the approaching masked men with guns.
It could have been mistaken for a kidnapping plot. somebody f**ed up real good and needs to be prosecuted.
The door was kicked in and gunshots rang out, Calvo said. Police killed one dog, Payton -- named for football running back Walter Payton -- even though Porter was standing next to him. Police have said the dogs "engaged" officers. Calvo confirmed that Payton probably moved toward the door but would have ultimately done nothing more than lick them. "He was an aggressive licker," said Calvo.

Cheryl Compton, a neighbor, said her two sons, 5-year-old Cody and 7-year-old Ty, played with the mayor's dogs all the time, and that everyone but the Prince George's County police knew where Calvo lived. "I would have let them stay in a yard by themselves with those dogs," Compton said. "It really upsets me to think that I don't feel safe in my home. If they were to shoot our dog, Amber, I would be outraged."
The continuing story of the Drug War and the officers who protect you (maybe) from the evil ravages of weed.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 08/08/2008 08:29 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  No, it's power without accountability. With criminals upgunning their own, the police have to match fire power. However, that firepower has to be under strict control. As demonstrated here and elsewhere, there is a serious lack of adult supervision in these operations. The amateur mayors and city councils and county commissioners have allowed their constabulary force to evolve para-military units without hard ROEs for their employment and accountability for their misuse. The pols who fund the budgets can cut the monetary backing of these operations if they choose to. They don't.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 08/08/2008 10:20 Comments || Top||

#2  They want to use SWAT for everything now days. Police forces everywhere are turning into paramilitary units. There's a place for them, but not in upper middle class suburbs. The guy's obviously a "sweater and loafers" pussweed, you probably don't need a machine gun to take him down. And I don't think I've ever seen a Lab that is vicious. They shot those dogs because they wanted to, not because they were attacking them. And by the way, isn't that what a dog is supposed to do when a bunch of guys kick in your door and attack your family???
I'd not quite until I had the balls of every one of those idiots in my lawyers briefcase.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 08/08/2008 11:17 Comments || Top||

#3  They need a Fusion Center to coordinate all law enforcement activity from the city, county, state, and federal levels. Des Moines has had one since 1985 but greatly expanded it since 9-11.
Posted by: Danielle || 08/08/2008 11:42 Comments || Top||

#4  The reason the police and the government want to disarm you is to avoid any possibility of resistance to tyranny. If you can't see the writing on the wall now you need glasses.
Posted by: Gleretle Big Foot9918 || 08/08/2008 11:58 Comments || Top||

#5  Sounds like some of the crap Janet Reno pulled under the Clinton regime.
Posted by: Bill Shusorong1219 || 08/08/2008 18:57 Comments || Top||

#6  The police officers commanding and leading those who did this (including the leaders onsite) should be prosecuted for breaking and entering, illicit use of a firearm, kidnapping, and animal cruelty.

Their warrant did NOT authorize them to enter the hosue illegally.

The SWAT unit shoudl be disbanded with a permanent reprimand placed in every officers record as a bar to promotion.

The police MUST be held accountable for the misuse of military tactics, and violating fundamental constitutional rights of people.

This was truly a CRIMINAL act.

Publish the officer's faces and names. They must be held accountable to the public that employs and pays them - the very public they endangered.
They should be dismissed form the force and barred from ever serving as officers again.
Posted by: OldSpook || 08/08/2008 19:22 Comments || Top||

#7  ANd stuff liek this scares the hell out of me - someone comeing into my house like that without proper identification is going to be doubletapped. Its instinct. I will likely be killed in the exchange, but I will certainly kill or wound several of them in the process, as I would beleive them to be criminals entering my home and threatening the life of me and mine.

The "no-knock" raid and use of SWAT teams should be viewed as a civil rights violation, due to its extreme consequences, and high potential for misuse. It shoudl not be routine, nor shoudl it be allowed as anything other than an affirmative defense - charges shoudl be routinely filed against the commanders and officers EVERY TIME one of these raids takes place. Make the PROVE it was needed and justified, or lese end thier careers.

If the police and commanders had to face consequences every time they do one of these, they would save them for when they are truly and overwhelmingly the only tool they havve available.

Posted by: OldSpook || 08/08/2008 19:26 Comments || Top||

#8  This is happening many times everyday. Often with people shot and killed and no one held accountable. We are screwed as there is nothing anyone is going to do about it.

The War on Drugs was the beginning of the war on your civil right. The War on Terror is just going to increase the instances as everyone is now a potential "domestic terrorist". The terrorists have won and we did it to ourselves. It's just going to get worse and worse under the Democrats but the Democrats didn't start it.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 08/08/2008 19:36 Comments || Top||

#9  Jsut to let you know, the "dubletap" was not a threat - its simply the way I train. If you intend to be in a life and death situation and fight, then you must practive to efficiently kill your opponent. 2 to the chest and one ot the head if still standing is how I train, to the point of being instinct. Present, Front Sight, flash sight picture, trigger pull recover and pull, sight to head and pull. I've done it thousands of times from variosu positions, with dummy rounds in at random to simulate feed failures, etc.

And I dont use non-lethal ammunition either. High power load .40 S&W Hyrdashok rounds, one magazine of 10 in the Glock, and 2 in the drawer beside it.

No threat, just facts. And one of these times, the police will run into someone like that, and there will be plenty of dead people, all due to abuse of miitary tactics by police forces.
Posted by: OldSpook || 08/08/2008 19:38 Comments || Top||

#10  This isnt the first time these assholes have raided innocents and killed the dogs:

Prince George's sheriff's deputies executed a warrant on the home of Frank and Pamela Myers of Accokeek in November. The Myers told sheriffs that they had the wrong address as their dog began barking from the yard. The couple asked if they could retrieve their dog, but deputies refused. Minutes later, two shots were fired and the dog was killed, according to a notice of a tort claims filed by attorney Michael J. Winkelman. The Myers were never charged and nothing was seized from their house.

"This has happened before, and without oversight, it will happen again," Calvo said


Charge the SWAT tema NOW.
Posted by: OldSpook || 08/08/2008 19:44 Comments || Top||

#11  I'm not so sure I would charge the entire SWAT team but I would charge the ones who authorized the usage. This was not a situation where the SWAT team should have been involved at all. It was pot, fer gawdsakes! No "gunmen", no threat of violence, just somebody wanting to flex his muscles. OS, I would react the same way. Somebody breaks into my home they will be shot at. I'm a pretty good shot, too.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 08/08/2008 21:06 Comments || Top||


Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick sent to jail
Time for another exciting episode of "Name That Party!"
A Michigan judge sent Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to jail today after learning that the controversial official violated the conditions of his bond in a perjury case by going to Canada for a business meeting without clearing the trip with the court beforehand.

Kilpatrick apologized this morning to 36th District Court Judge Ronald Giles for the unauthorized trip he made to nearby Windsor, Canada, and pointed out that he "ran in, made a presentation . . . and I ran back."

The ruling, though shocking to prosecutors and allies of the mayor alike, comes after months of the mayor's defiant and sometimes flippant attitude toward his legal woes.

Both the mayor and his former top aide, Christine Beatty, testified during a "public whistle-blower" trial last year that they did not have a relationship. But the Detroit Free Press in January released racy snippets from more than 14,000 text messages sent to and from Beatty's city-provided pager in 2002 and 2003, including one Kilpatrick sent to Beatty in 2002 that read "I'm madly in love with you."

Kilpatrick now faces felony charges -- including perjury, misconduct and obstruction of justice --for attempting to hide his extramarital relationship with Beatty, who also was charged with seven felonies. (Earlier this week, the pair both waived their right to a preliminary hearing previously scheduled for next month.)

As the case has moved toward trial, Kilpatrick has refused to step down from his mayoral office and, at times, acted as if nothing was wrong.

Kilpatrick's travels have come up before. This spring, after Kilpatrick and his wife flew to Dallas for a meeting with church officials, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy's office asked the court to add travel restrictions as conditions of the mayor's bond.

A judge ruled that when Kilpatrick needed to travel for city business reasons, he simply needed to make a phone call to the court -- and then he was free to travel worldwide. But last week, Giles revoked the mayor's right to make any trips without a court hearing, after a Wayne County Sheriff's deputy testified that he was physically assaulted by the mayor and suffered a fractured hip.
Posted by: Fred || 08/08/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Atlas Shrugs reports: "Kwame's mother, Carolyn Kilpatrick, is Chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus." Obama gave broad support to Kwame.
Posted by: McZoid || 08/08/2008 2:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Obama gave broad support to Kwame

....and will add Kwame's name to the presidential pardon he and Michelle have waiting for the tens of thousands of 'political prisoners' now held in US prisons.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/08/2008 8:06 Comments || Top||

#3  Check the Power Line story. Maybe not so easy to throw under the bus with Michigan in play.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 08/08/2008 8:27 Comments || Top||

#4  he'll be charged with Felony Assault:
At 10 this morning, Cox is expected to announce that he is charging Kilpatrick with assaulting an officer in July as he tried to serve court papers on one of Kilpatrick's best friends.

Before the Cox announcement, Kilpatrick will appear in Wayne County Circuit Court for an emergency hearing in which he hopes to regain his freedom with a new bond. He already is charged with eight felony counts related to the text message scandal revealed by the Free Press in January. If Cox adds charges, the mayor faces the threat of being jailed again.

Giles' decision to jail the mayor followed a lengthy apology from Kilpatrick, who begged Giles for another chance. He invoked the image of his 12-year-old twins as he pleaded for leniency.

"I am asking for your forgiveness. It will never happen again," the mayor said, his voice quavering as the courtroom scene was broadcast. "My sons are watching this proceeding, because I asked them to. I told them that I did something wrong."


insincere lil f*ck doesn't fall free from the tree, huh?
Posted by: Frank G || 08/08/2008 10:17 Comments || Top||

#5  He's gonna Strike! Strike! Strike! Again!



/LOL FAMU
Posted by: .5MT || 08/08/2008 12:51 Comments || Top||

#6  Obama says that Kilpatrick "is going to be doing astounding things for many years to come"

... in prison.

Hopefully not country club style, but PMITA prison.
Posted by: OldSpook || 08/08/2008 13:46 Comments || Top||

#7  Prison, thats where Gangstas go.
He wants to live the lifestyle, so be it.
Posted by: Bertie Grise4247 || 08/08/2008 15:02 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
John "Breck Boy" Edwards' new campaign song - Great lyrics and Pics
CAUTION: This music may get stuck in your head

Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 08/08/2008 16:09 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Don't Fence Me In
A farmer has erected a backyard fence made of three old cars sticking up in the air to send a message to new neighbors that he can do whatever he wants on his property. "This is just a fun way for me to say, `Hey boys, I'm still here,'" Rhett Davis said. "This is my redneck Stonehenge."

Davis came up with the idea after neighbors who recently moved into homes next to his hayfield complained about his farm.
It's Icky!
"The people who bought the homes say, `Well, we love looking into your yard and seeing the horses and the cattle, but we don't like the flies, and we don't like the mosquitoes,' and when I cut my field to bale it, they say, `We don't like the dust in the air,'" Davis said.
We came out here to enjoy everything but can't you get rid of the icky stuff? I mean, we might get dirty. Can't you keep the poop cleaned up? Back home we had to clean up after our dogs.
Neighbors declined to comment to the Standard-Examiner of Ogden.
Davis said he offered to pay for half the cost of a fence between his property and the others and to build it. He said his neighbors declined the offer, saying it would block their view.
We want to look at beautiful things. Make it like a picture.
Davis said he used a backhoe to dig three large holes on the edge of his property, then took three cars that had competed in demolition derbies and planted them nose-first into the ground.
He said the cars were planted out of humor rather than spite. He stressed that it's important for new residents to realize that Hooper is a farming community.
Made his own little Car Hinge, he did.
"I respect that they're here and spent a lot on their homes, but on the other hand, give me a little bit, too," Davis said. "I've been here since I was 7 years old."
Damned Interlopers.
He said he doesn't intend to keep the cars up permanently. "These can come out just as easy as they went in," Davis said.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 08/08/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Soon to become a major tourist attraction.
If you plant it, they will come.
Posted by: Rambler in California || 08/08/2008 1:29 Comments || Top||

#2  In-laws who live on the Maine ocast report a similar phenomenon. Picturesque fishing villages are less attractive to the ears and nose than they are to the eyes, so yuppies rusticating there from NY and Boston are trying to limit fishing activities, which means other people's livelihoods.
Posted by: no mo uro || 08/08/2008 5:34 Comments || Top||

#3  Does that guy know how much cars are junking for right now?
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 08/08/2008 10:47 Comments || Top||

#4  Same problem in Avon, CT - homeowners bitched because the Governor's Horse Guard facility was 'bothersome'.
Posted by: Pappy || 08/08/2008 12:23 Comments || Top||

#5  Same story here with a very small private airport. People bought adjacent new homes and then tried to get the airport shut down for noise reasons. The airport is decades older than the homes.
Posted by: Darrell || 08/08/2008 15:34 Comments || Top||

#6  I have some family south of Denver. They moved there to be closer to the wildlife; deer, elk, etc. City folk started moving into the same area for similar reasons, then started complaining that the wildlife was destroying their flowers and made it dangerous for the kids to go out and play. Now that the area is suburbanized people are complaining that there is no wildlife which is why the yuppies moved there - and my relatives lost the reason they chose that place because of the new neighbors.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 08/08/2008 15:48 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
From the er0tic domain, an aerobic trend in China
The link does the subject better justice than I! ;-)
The normally staid International Herald Tribune manages to offer video as well ...
Posted by: gorb || 08/08/2008 05:14 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "I wandered into a pub, and there was a woman dancing on the stage," she said. "I thought it was beautiful."

Thats how it happened to me TOO!
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/08/2008 8:01 Comments || Top||

#2  The link does the subject better justice than I! ;-)

I could have done without this though
Posted by: Beavis || 08/08/2008 8:18 Comments || Top||

#3  For millenniums, the Chinese have absorbed foreign conquerers by slow assimilation in to the 'Chinese' way. This allowed traditional China to historically prevail before all comers. Now it appears that an outside power without force of arms or occupation of land is doing on to China what they've done to others. Heh.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 08/08/2008 8:34 Comments || Top||

#4  I think I'm gonna be trading in my wifes mini-trampoline for one of them pole thingies.....
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 08/08/2008 8:50 Comments || Top||

#5  Boy what a cardio workout. My heart rate got to 160 just watching the video.
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 08/08/2008 9:06 Comments || Top||

#6  the Chinese have absorbed foreign conquerers by slow assimilation

Obligatory: Is that what the kids call it now?
Posted by: .5MT || 08/08/2008 12:54 Comments || Top||

#7  Pole dancing is removed of its erotic overtones - it's a sort of trendy exercise for recent mothers to shed weight and the like. I wrote an article for my magazine about it back in March when it arrived in my town [PDF link] Although it's nice to see girls strutting around innocently in what are known as "f*** me boots".
Posted by: gromky || 08/08/2008 12:57 Comments || Top||

#8  Ima worried about gromky
Posted by: .5MT || 08/08/2008 13:14 Comments || Top||

#9  I think the one on the end really likes me!
Posted by: tu3031 || 08/08/2008 13:22 Comments || Top||

#10  China is probably one of the freest countries in the world. You can do what you want as long as you don't attack the government. It feels weird after living under western bureaucratic rules and regulations.
Posted by: tipper || 08/08/2008 13:37 Comments || Top||

#11  You can do what you want as long as you don't attack the government.

Yeah, we've noticed that with all the product and food recalls. :)
Posted by: Procopius2k || 08/08/2008 16:33 Comments || Top||

#12  Where was this 20 years ago when my wife wanted us to exersize together? I told her no because I couldn't find an exersize bike with a sidecar.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 08/08/2008 18:59 Comments || Top||

#13  Ship: Ima worried about gromky

grom's gone and went Native... We'd better take up a collection...

Quite possibly Dr. Steveo haz the answer?!

Lets Hope anyways folks...
Posted by: Red Dawg || 08/08/2008 21:43 Comments || Top||


Great White North
Canadian Military probes mystery blast in Arctic
The Canadian military is sending a long-range Aurora aircraft to investigate reports of a mysterious explosion along Canada's Northwest Passage that may have killed several whales.
Posted by: 3dc || 08/08/2008 15:06 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Bad plankton?
Posted by: Pappy || 08/08/2008 15:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Fishing with depth charges?
Posted by: swksvolFF || 08/08/2008 15:40 Comments || Top||

#3  Russians Gone Crazy?
Posted by: Danielle || 08/08/2008 16:01 Comments || Top||

#4  Some whales ate too many beans?
Posted by: Glenmore || 08/08/2008 16:06 Comments || Top||

#5  Kursk (K-141) part II?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 08/08/2008 16:11 Comments || Top||

#6  Looks like our work is done here, boys...
Posted by: Halliburton: Mystery Arctic Blast Division || 08/08/2008 16:13 Comments || Top||

#7  After reding it, my guess is more maintainence problems on Russian subs.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon || 08/08/2008 17:02 Comments || Top||

#8  Snowman, you haven't been playing with fireworks again, have you?
Posted by: Mike || 08/08/2008 17:10 Comments || Top||

#9  yah know ... cocaine is explosive and I have heard about drug problems that far north... A cocaine "sub" could take out several whales.... when it "blows".
Posted by: 3dc || 08/08/2008 17:41 Comments || Top||

#10  The Canucks have an Aurora???

Color me surprised!
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 08/08/2008 18:07 Comments || Top||

#11  Was this the Nuke The Whales people testing?
Posted by: OldSpook || 08/08/2008 19:10 Comments || Top||

#12  Memo to self: don't feed whales pop rocks.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 08/08/2008 21:08 Comments || Top||

#13  I think the Aurora is their name for their version of the P-3 Orion.
Posted by: Abdominal Snowman || 08/08/2008 22:43 Comments || Top||

#14  And no, it wasn't me this time.
Posted by: Abdominal Snowman || 08/08/2008 22:45 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Not just guns: Gazans smuggle lions into zoo
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 08/08/2008 14:53 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Gee. Thanks.
Posted by: The Lions || 08/08/2008 16:14 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
Video - Neat Chinese Programmed Waterfall
Posted by: Anonymoose || 08/08/2008 00:17 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Weird.

Somebody's got way too much time on their hands....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 08/08/2008 0:27 Comments || Top||

#2  ION CHINESE MIL FORUM Thread > WILL THE 2008 BEIJING OLYMPICS BE THE FIRST TO USE GENETICALLY MODIFIED ATHLETES ["Super-DNA"]?
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 08/08/2008 1:44 Comments || Top||

#3  WAFF.com > CHINESE ISLAMIST GROUP [Turkistan Islamic Party = Uighurs?] JUSTIFIES OLYMPIC THREATS. Alleged State Repression and stifling of Chin Muslims.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 08/08/2008 1:46 Comments || Top||

#4  ALERT!

I SAW p0rn..

Yep.. and Heard it TOO!

Sneaky Chi-Coms!!

.
Posted by: Red Dawg || 08/08/2008 2:11 Comments || Top||

#5  Impressive.

The waterfall I get to look at when at work , just isnt much cop . Had a dead pigeon in it last week . Prolly died from drinking the blue dye :P
Posted by: Mad Eye || 08/08/2008 4:12 Comments || Top||

#6  Nothing a little Flomax wouldn't fix. ;-)
Posted by: gorb || 08/08/2008 4:55 Comments || Top||

#7  It's clever, and cool, you gotta give it that.
Posted by: Mike || 08/08/2008 9:38 Comments || Top||

#8  Kind of cool, BUT, very unislamic.
I don't approve.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 08/08/2008 11:20 Comments || Top||


Home Front Economy
America's Fastest-Dying Cities
Something for Kwame to read while he's sitting in the jug...
Where's it worst? Ohio, according to our analysis, which racked up four of the 10 cities on our list: Youngstown, Canton, Dayton and Cleveland. The runner-up is Michigan, with two cities--Detroit and Flint--making the ranking.

Posted by: tu3031 || 08/08/2008 08:38 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I wonder how many have Democratic mayors and council majorities? Probably all.

Harbinger of things to come nationally.
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 08/08/2008 9:10 Comments || Top||

#2  All four Ohio cities have Dems running the show. Youngstown has been a one-party town since before I was born--one of many reasons I left.
Posted by: Mike || 08/08/2008 9:40 Comments || Top||

#3  Springfield was the Anus of Western Massachusetts when I was out around there thirty years ago. Sounds like it's even worse now.
Posted by: tu3031 || 08/08/2008 9:52 Comments || Top||

#4  The sad part is that every one of the cities listed were once powerhouses of heavy industry. Chocked full of high paying union jobs. We've been sold down the river boys. All those jobs are in Korea or China now. I guess we'll all have to be IT guys or Lawyers if we dont want to starve to death in the next 20 years.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 08/08/2008 9:59 Comments || Top||

#5  Old industrial cities that have lost their economic base to overseas operations with lower labor (and environmental and regulatory) costs. The exodus was accelerated by union actions to protect their own. Politicians were unwilling or unable to see alternatives - new economic bases - so the people have to leave. Mechanization did the same to farm labor 100 years ago and drove the workers TO these same cities.
Posted by: Glenmore || 08/08/2008 10:01 Comments || Top||

#6  Those were all big union and dhimocrat places. Higher than market pay with low productivity and high taxes have been the death of those areas.
Posted by: DarthVader || 08/08/2008 10:02 Comments || Top||

#7  Bigjim,

Look around. Those are Honda, Nissan, and Toyota plants around the US. They're just not union. The Japanese built them here. With the dollar low, they're getting their money's worth, while we bid farewell to Detroit. It also trumps the union and Detroit's attempt to put import quotas on the vehicles like they did in the first oil shock in the 70s. Consumer Reports Apr 07, built in the US:
Acura TL, BMW X5, Honda Accord*, Honda CR-V*, Honda Odyssey*, Hyundai Sonata, Infiniti QX56, Mazda6, Mazda Tribute, Mercedes M Class, Mercedes R Class, Mitsubishi Galant, Nissan Altima, Nissan Maxima, Nissan Pathfinder, Nissan Titan, Saab 9-7X, Subaru Legacy, Toyota Camry, Toyota Sienna, Toyota Tundra. * built in more than one country.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 08/08/2008 10:12 Comments || Top||

#8  Economic migration out of the Northeast has been going on for a long time. First it was the mills moving to the south. Then high-tech going to more business friendly environs.

Aggressive mostly mobbed up unions and politicians succeeded in killing the golden goose.
Posted by: AlanC || 08/08/2008 10:54 Comments || Top||

#9  The auto industry is a little more ambiguous than other heavy industry like the steel industry, mining, manufactured goods. And as for the unions, that is their affair, I used to be in the carpenters and piledrivers union before returning to school. I made good money, with OK benefits. The alternative was $12/hr. with no benefits. Why the f*ck would anyone legally in this country work for that? Unions have their place, large companies cant negotiate with every single worker. But they have done a real number on GM at the same time. Without the union you are probably going to make peanuts, just eating money, if you've never worked in the trades you probably wouldn't understand.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 08/08/2008 11:09 Comments || Top||

#10  My father was in the trades and the older of my brothers still is. I've seen both sides of the union issue ....

Union wages in the 60s sent me to college. But by the 80s my father himself was disgusted with what he saw as short-sighted focus only on wages and arcane limitations on job descriptions, to the exclusion of safety issues and cooperation to keep industry competitive. It wasn't only the CEOs who got very greedy in the 80s.

Now it's corruption. My brother switched unions after having been a foreman in his old trade. He casually mentioned the bribe he had to pay to get accepted and the bribes that go into job letting. Not pretty and definitely not healthy for our society IMO.
Posted by: lotp || 08/08/2008 11:34 Comments || Top||

#11  The sad part is that every one of the cities listed were once powerhouses of heavy industry. Chocked full of high paying union jobs. We've been sold down the river boys.

Oh dear, I must've missed the part in the Constitution about high wages being a right.
Posted by: Pappy || 08/08/2008 12:28 Comments || Top||

#12  In contrast, the 10 fastest-selling areas are linked nearby - a couple of surprises, and I suspect many (or all) are Democraptic:

1. Raleigh, NC
2. San Francisco, CA
3. Austin, TX
4. San Antonio, TX
5. St. Louis, MO
6. Houston, TX
7. Portland, OR
8. Dallas, TX
9. Denver, CO
10. Baltimore, MD
Posted by: Bobby || 08/08/2008 12:52 Comments || Top||

#13  Chocked full of high paying union jobs

Don't worry the next election is going to take care of that little Right-to-Work law.
Posted by: .5MT || 08/08/2008 12:57 Comments || Top||

#14  And then the US will retake it's rightful place as #1 producer of Pig Iron, Lead, Steel and Fullers Earth.
Posted by: .5MT || 08/08/2008 13:16 Comments || Top||

#15  And Whips, Buggy, assorted, consisting of Birch, Ash, Oak and remanents there of, weighing each less than 2 lbs but more than 3 oz. Colored, dyed and otherwise changed by agents of titanium, cobalt, selium and others not mentioned. Class 150 unless KD then Class 120.
Posted by: .5MT || 08/08/2008 13:20 Comments || Top||

#16  Stop waving around those scalpels, .5MT, someone's going to get hurt. ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/08/2008 13:38 Comments || Top||

#17  My Honda was made in Ohio apparently.
Posted by: OldSpook || 08/08/2008 13:39 Comments || Top||

#18  I'd not recommend IT - its fully being sent overseas, places like India or Manila. That's where my non-Defense job vaporized and then reformed (Manila).

So Im either going back into DoD work again, or (likely) finding something at night while I go back to school and get my RN.
Posted by: OldSpook || 08/08/2008 13:42 Comments || Top||

#19  Ima putting muh Dell thru VN school.
Virtual Nuss is the next big thing.
Posted by: .5MT || 08/08/2008 13:51 Comments || Top||

#20  My very first job after high school was at Republic Steel in Canton in the early 70's as a overhead crane operator. Big money - small work. I got two weeks paid vacation even for three months of "work". Earned enough during summer vacations to pay cash for four years of college.
Republic went bankrupt in 2000.

First job after college was in IT (office job) at Youngstown Sheet and Tube in (where else) Youngstown. Big money - hard work. The union guys made huge money. Boats, campers and winter vacations in FL when noone else did. YS&T is gone gone gone now too.

The USW was greedy and management was stupid and inept.

Always a bad combination.

Posted by: GORT || 08/08/2008 13:57 Comments || Top||

#21  If there are any Boeing Bubbas on this thread y'all might wanta read this and rethink what YOUR union is doing to you. That 787 outsource thing is really working well ain't it?
(for the rest: the IAM contract w/ Boeing ends real soon ( like next month, i think) and the SPEEA one (for the white collar folks) in December). the IAM 'leadership' hasn't realized that there is life outside of Everett, WA and taking the airplane industry the same place the UAW took the auto world.
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 08/08/2008 14:16 Comments || Top||

#22  I don't work for Boeing - but live in Washington State (Lynnwood between Everett and Seattle).

Don't forget that Boeing also moved their headquarters from Seattle to Chicago a few years back. I can't help but think its part of a stratagy to start outsourcing more and more of the work overseas.

I'm sure places like the Philippines can easily supply a boatload of willing workers who will work for a quarter of the cost of labor in the US - and think its heaven on earth.

Then there are the 'monopoly' unions, like the Washington [non]Education Association (teachers union), who practically run the state DNC.

I think unions should also be held _responsible_ for their workforce. Ok you can prevent someone from being fired - but if a teacher molests a student the UNION should be held responsible (and liable for multi-million-dollar lawsuits) as well and the union should be held responsible for the quality of the teachers they force us to use.

I think in the olden days that was called a 'guild' wasn't it?

Posted by: CrazyFool || 08/08/2008 14:35 Comments || Top||

#23  CF- I like your take on the WEA; Daughter and Son-in-law both are teachers in Yelm and have the same opinion.

Teh Oak Harbors school system also is infected with condoning the WEA-mandated mediocrity; when daughter was in 6th grade, her teacher bragged that he had only 3 more years till retirement and was on what we in the service called the ROAD program; retired on active duty. we got her to a new teacher that very same day.

Posted by: USN, Ret. || 08/08/2008 17:00 Comments || Top||



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Steve White
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Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2008-08-08
  Russia invades Georgia
Thu 2008-08-07
  Paleo hard boy Jihad Jaraa survives ''assassination attempt'' in Ireland
Wed 2008-08-06
  Bin Laden's Driver Guilty
Tue 2008-08-05
  Philippine Supremes halt MILF autonomy deal
Mon 2008-08-04
  16 officers killed,16 wounded in an attack in Xinjiang
Sun 2008-08-03
  ''Assad's right hand man'' assassinated in Syria
Sat 2008-08-02
  Taliban deny al-Qaida No. 2 hit by missile
Fri 2008-08-01
  189 arrested, curfew lifted in Diyala
Thu 2008-07-31
  Qaeda big turban in Afghanistan killed in US airstrike
Wed 2008-07-30
  Gilani in Washington; Paks raid Haqqani's empty madrassa in N Wazoo
Tue 2008-07-29
  Military offensive under way in Diyala
Mon 2008-07-28
  Mudhat Mursi: Dead Again?
Sun 2008-07-27
  3 people killed in second day of Tripoli festivities
Sat 2008-07-26
  India: Serial kabooms in Ahmadabad
Fri 2008-07-25
  Serial booms in Bangalore


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