TAMPA, Florida (WTSP) - In emergencies, 911 dispatchers will go to great lengths to help out callers. Unfortunately for 29-year-old Joshua Basso, needing sex is not one of those emergencies.
Tampa Police arrested Basso at his Nebraska Ave. home Wednesday for making false 911 calls after he dialed the number looking for sex. He said he made the calls because his cell phone was out of minutes and 911 was the only number he could call for free.
"Basso admitted he has made obcene calls to 911 in the past," wrote Tampa police officer Vivian Frauenfeld in her incident report. "But he has never been caught because he uses a false name and address when calling."
According to the police report, Basso called 911 four times Wednesday before officers went to his home to arrest him. When officers asked him where his cell phone was, he appeared to be shocked, responding, "How did you know I had a cell phone?"
Frauenfeld states that Basso then pulled his phone out of his pocket to show her. When she called the number recorded by 911 operators, his phone began to ring. She says he then hit "END" to send the call to voicemail. He quickly powered his phone down, and when she redialed the number, it went to voicemail.
The officer then took the phone, powered it on, called again, and when it rang, Basso confessed, "I did it, I did it!"
He then admitted to "trying to have sex with someone" and only calling 911 because it was a free call. He had asked the operator about her clothing, her breasts, and her "butt" and gave her his address when she said she could come over.
Basso faces a misdemeanor charge of "misuse of wireless 911 system."
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/13/2009 11:07 ||
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Ahahahha...
Reminds me of a bit in a teevee documentary about an older "french" algerian guy returning yearly to the old country to see how the home he had being built for his retirement was going (nowhere, materials were being stolen, work was substandard, etc, etc...)...
And how his westernized adult daughters REALLY didn't like going back to algeria even on vacations, because the area boyz & men (even older ones) would follow them in packs, making lewd comments and trying to coarsely "pick them up", almost just one step short from gangrape, as soon as they'd put a foot outside...
Basically, those nice northern african Youths were "like dogs" and they fended them off each time by finally "throwing stones at them". Comedy gold.
Those wimmen were muslim arabs or arabized berbers, no wonder the gypsos (egypt is supposedly more backward than algeria) went apesh9t over teenaged Salma...
Almost never. In Egypt, the Demographic Health Survey in 2000 revealed that 97% of married women surveyed experienced FGC.3 Another study, carried out by the Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population in 2003, reported that 94.6% of married women had been exposed to FGC and 69.1% of those women agreed to carry out FGC on their daughters.
Posted by: ed ||
11/13/2009 11:37 Comments ||
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#4
Its like one of those princess stories where the princess sneaks out of the castle to see what is really going on, and reality ensues.
#5
What would end this nonsense quickly would be a grassroots women's movement with a simple idea: women and girls must be armed with a bladed weapon in public, and use it if assailed by a man.
The idea is to adopt this as a cultural norm, enforced by women on other women. That to be out in public without a knife or edged weapon, even a sharp piece of metal or glass, is as unthinkable as going out naked.
At first some men will be cut, and some women will be beaten, or even killed. But women are beaten and killed right now. But men will quickly learn that they don't know if a woman is armed or not, and this will give them pause before they assail them.
And most of the time, this pause alone will convince them to *not* assail women, for fear that they might get cut. This psychological change happens quickly and pretty soon men will only behave badly in isolated rural areas.
It is called the "social sanction", and I read about a version of it happening in the Philippines, on a different subject. But within a week or two, suddenly a popular behavior turned into a strong taboo across most of the country.
Hopefully if women carrying a bladed weapon caught on in a single country in the Middle East, it would spread over the entire region. Politicians are always on the lookout for new social trends like that, so after they happen on their own, they often follow them up by making written law to enforce the unwritten law.
#7
Actually, she was harassed as a non-descript teenaged wide-eyed tourist came to visit the Mysterious Muddle East, back when she was unknown.
Wonder if she will catch some flak for that? (Quite some years ago, Cameron Diaz made a stir in the french media when she let it slip that she didn't like Paris, because, far from its glamourous image, it was too Diverse™ even for her brazilian taste... I remember how the PC temple guardians went ballistic with that unfortunate, if candid and IIUC quite true, utterance).
Levi Johnston, the hunky baby daddy of Sarah Palin's grandson, called the former vice presidential nominee wise for not trash talking him in her soon-to-be aired interview with Oprah Winfrey. That word you're probably looking for is "twerp."
"She's being smart," said Johnston, when a reporter told him last night that Palin didn't blast him in the interview she taped with Winfrey Wednesday afternoon. "She knows what I got on her. It's a smart move on her part." n. A fool, a twit; A small or puny person; one regarded as insignificant, contemptible;
Johnston described his relationship with Palin and her family is "not good." Reeeeally?? Boned her daughter, knocked her up, Mom got arrested for dealing meth, struts around like he's worth more than the powder it'd take to blow him away, his major accomplishment to date being to lop one or two percentage points off a presidential vote by people who were afraid he'd be shacking up at the White House, and their relationship was "not good"? How odd.
He said he will be going to court to get better access to his son, Tripp. "Rilly. I should at least be allowed to be in the same county with the kid."
On Twitter, Winfrey confirmed that she talked to Palin about Johnston and a host of other topics. "We talked about everything," she boasted. She's got more class than to bad-mouth the child on a teevee show, but likely she'd rather have a boil than him. And now she's rid of him and doesn't have a boil, so life is good...
Oprah's interview with Palin will air Monday to coincide with the launch of her book, "Going Rogue." Already a best seller...
The 19-year-old Alaska hockey stud is in New York this week for a two-day photo shoot with Playgirl that begins Thursday. Playgirl... What's their circulation? 32?
Johnston said he isn't nervous about taking his clothes off. "Not nervous," he insisted. "I have no reason to be." "It's the only thing I do well."
"I'm just ready to get it over with," he added. "I'm ready as I'm ever going to get, man."
Indeed. He's about to hit his peak for the rest of his life. It will all have been downhill from the Playgirl shoot until the day he dies, whether of old age or next week from annoying just the wrong Alaskan just a little too much. One hopes his grandparents have other grandchildren to comfort them.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Playgirl... What's their circulation? 32?
32 Women perhaps. And perhaps 320,000 Guys..... (Not that there's anything wrong with that!)
He's going to court to get better access to his son so he..... poses in Playgirl. (yup! That works every time!)
#10
If he were good with kids he'd be back in Alaska taking care of his own rather than down here in the lowest 48 doing well, stuff that would get me cut off by the spam filter if I described it.
#12
Broadhead - I think several years in the Marines would actually be beneficial to this young man. Not that he'd actually JOIN or anything. He$$, even a few years in the Air Force would do wonders for developing his intelligence - if he has any.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/13/2009 19:47 Comments ||
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#13
OP, definitely. Getting his ego smashed for 13 weeks at Recruit Training would do wonders for this kid. He acts like a white trash kid w/no strong male role model in the home. I saw them all the time at Parris Island.
A young boy who was attacked by his 3-year-old playmate with a car jack can claim compensation from a British government body that helps crime victims, lawyers said Friday. Because in the final analysis, it's really society's (and taxpayers') fault.
Posted by: ed ||
11/13/2009 12:47 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Two Swiss businessmen prevented from leaving Libya for more than a year will be tried for tax evasion and visa irregularities, Libya's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.
The men have been held in Libya since July 2008 following the arrest in Geneva of a son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on charges, later dropped, of mistreating two domestic employees. The incident caused a diplomatic row.
"They will be tried and charged with not respecting residence visa procedures and tax evasion," the ministry said in a statement read to reporters at a news conference by its general secretary, Khalid Qouaim.
But they must leave the Swiss embassy where they have sought refuge and seek a private address in order to be served with notice that they will be put on trial, Qouaim added. "In line with the law, they must have an address so that justice can be carried out," Qouaim said.
The men face a third charge of failing to respect rules set out for companies working in Libya, he added.
A Swiss foreign ministry spokesman in Berne said he had no immediate reaction.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2009 00:00 ||
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Still trying to recover those terror-support funds, are we Muamar?
[Bangla Daily Star] The Anti-Corruption Commission yesterday pressed money-laundering charges against BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia's younger son Arafat Rahman Koko, around eight months after filing of the case.It charged Koko and Ismail Hossain Simon, son of former shipping minister late Akbar Hossain, with siphoning 28.84 lakh Singaporean dollars and 9.32 lakh US dollars out of the country.
ACC Deputy Director Mohammad Abu Sayeed, also investigation officer (IO) of the case, submitted the charge sheet to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court in Dhaka in the afternoon. He showed 23 people as prosecution witnesses.
Simon, whose name was not in the first information report, was included as a charge-sheeted accused, as investigation found his involvement in money laundering. The IO pleaded with the court to issue a warrant for his arrest and orders for attachment of his property.
Continued on Page 49
This article starring:
Arafat Rahman Koko
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2009 00:00 ||
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H/T Brothers Judd
When in 1983 I described Labour's manifesto as 'the longest suicide note in history',
Which bringeth up that idea, still reviled as McCarthyistic, thoroughly disproven with no disproof, that many of the pols afflicting the Land of Hope and Glory and our own Sweet Land of Liberty are in fact not only on the other side intellectually, but formally so, a treasonous Alger Hissing, if you will.
We've watched the Soviet Union crash and burn, seen Communism land on the ash heap of history, and now we see the intellectual rag pickers browsing through the dump of ideas and picking out the morsels they find delectable, knocking the garbage off them and claiming they're perfectly tasty. Political correctitude demands that we smile and accept it.
I was drawing attention to the party's apparently irreversible meltdown as an electoral force. As leader, Michael Foot was wedded to policies such as unilateral nuclear disarmament and leaving the European Economic Community. The strategy, if there was one, seemed to be to lose as many votes as possible.
The remarkable revelations published in the Chernyaev diaries make this attempted political suicide easier to understand. It is clear that key elements in the Labour party structure were determined to ingratiate themselves with Moscow -- regardless of any adverse electoral impact in Britain. They show, vividly, how Labour was being poisoned by key officials who were laying the groundwork, apparently deliberately, for the debacle of 1983.
Let us take Ron Hayward, who was Labour's general secretary for most of the previous ten years. He was the worst, a vain and self-regarding saboteur who at the 1979 party conference publicly attacked the outgoing Labour government in virulent terms. As Chernyaev's memoirs make clear, his aspiration was not a Labour government implementing beneficial policies for the electorate but a National Executive Committee, elected partly by trade union block votes and partly by hard-left constituency parties.
Hayward envisaged an annual Labour party conference controlled by trade union block votes, dominating the parliamentary leadership, whose electoral fate he regarded as irrelevant. That is why Hayward and his cadres imposed mandatory reselection on parliamentary candidates and attempted (only just failing) to remove from the parliamentary leadership any say in compiling the election manifesto.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2009 00:00 ||
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The REAL questions raised are these.
The current leadership of the UK Labour Party are also the people running the country.
They were ALL tutored by, and their careers advanced by KGB stooges...
President Hugo Chavez has been facing a public outcry in recent weeks over power failures that, after six nationwide blackouts in the last two years, are cutting electricity for hours each day in rural areas and in industrial cities like Valencia and Ciudad Guayana. Now, water rationing has been introduced here in the capital.
The deterioration of services is perplexing to many here, especially because the country had grown used to cheap, plentiful electricity and water in recent decades. But even as the oil boom was enriching his government and Mr. Chavez asserted greater control over utilities and other industries in this decade, public services seemed only to decay, adding to residents' frustrations.
With oil revenues declining and the economy slowing, the shortages may have no quick fixes in sight.
Oogo took all the oil revenues and bought as many people as he could. Now the home oil industry can't produce because they haven't been investing in production. Venezuela now begins a big slide into the dumpster. Too bad.
Posted by: lord garth ||
11/13/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
And he has been doing the same to the infrastructure. Sucking off Operations and Maintenance moneys to buy tanks, guns and chasing off those professionals who ran the systems.
#5
Next he will convert to Islam and Iran will save him!
Posted by: Ahab the Arab ||
11/13/2009 9:17 Comments ||
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#6
Cheap electricity to buy off the masses, just like DinnerJacket buys off the masses with cheap, subsidized gasoline. Sometime there is a day of reckoning.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/13/2009 10:40 Comments ||
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#7
would you buy a dead fish from this man?
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/13/2009 10:44 Comments ||
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#8
Chavez has been consuming industries and scaring off foreign investors for a while now. As he feels the pinch, he has to look for new revenue.
I suspect he is going after the drug trade in columbia. It would make sense, he says "prepare for war with the US" which will happen if he becomes a big fish in the drug war.
#10
I seem to hav a different idea about economics?
He drills for oi, finds it, and burns it to make electricity.
So his fuel actualy costs near nothing, just the drilling, piping, pumping (ETC) pay for the machiney and the cost of people to run it is miniscule.
He should have NO "Shortages" except if a pipe ruptures, Or wind knocks down a powerline.
If bigger Generating plants are needed, simply export some oil, and use the income to build anew.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/13/2009 12:50 Comments ||
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#11
So his fuel actualy costs near nothing, just the drilling, piping, pumping (ETC) pay for the machiney and the cost of people to run it is miniscule.
It isn't miniscule enough; I know personally people who lost their jobs because the service companies they work for weren't paid for the work they did for PDVSA down there.
#12
Besides, he doesn't have to use oil for power, they have massive hydroelectric projects on the Orinoco, that are probably good enough to power the whole country.
Instead of keeping his infrastructure up, though, he bought into the delusion that he could use a whole lot of smaller distributed plants. So he bought a lot of large diesel generator sets from Cuba. (I guess so, instead of having a real grid, he could just provide power to the areas that voted for him). Cuba gets the generators from European companies and marks them up a couple hundred percent. So it's an inefficient solution, and it's been inefficiently procured too.
He probably thinks stuff like "Valencia? Did they vote for me?" but that sort of attitude has massive repercussions for the nation's economy as a whole, as we see here.
#14
"To simplify the distribution networks for water and power, we will combine them. Electrify the water supply! It is so ordered!"
/Bolivarian Genius™
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/13/2009 19:15 Comments ||
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#15
No, no, no, Frank. Flowing charged water molecules will induce to much loses due to eddy currents. Now, electrifying the natural gas lines, that's genius!
Posted by: ed ||
11/13/2009 19:24 Comments ||
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Council of Economic Advisers Chair Christina Romer on Thursday touted the findings of a new report about reforms that could reduce health care costs - even though the same study warned lawmakers to avoid "ill-advised proposals such as the public option" and suggested market-based reforms such as encouraging health savings accounts.
But while it is true that the report is supportive of some of payment and insurance market proposals in current legislation, it also warns of several risks posed by pending legislation, including the possibility that creating a new government-run plan could lead to cost shifting that would raise the price on those who have private insurance. You think of this as a bug. They think of this as a feature...
"In light of the significant risks to private health insurance coverage associated with a public plan and the expected availability of competitive options through the exchanges," the report reads, "the potential savings from reductions in federal spending could have the adverse impact of significantly raising private health plan costs for employers and for employees."
The report also was critical of a proposal to tax high end health care plans: "This tax imposes extra costs on employer-sponsored plans which will likely lead to two unintended consequences: Employers will raise out-of-pocket costs for employees to mitigate the impact of the tax, and certain employers will drop employer-sponsored coverage as the cost of providing additional benefits exceeds the cost of paying their employees more in cash."
Asked about this discrepancy, Romer responded that, "the things they point out as risks, we're actually ignoring and hoping they go away dealing with." She said that by making sure that the government plan does not tie reimbursement rates to Medicare, Democrats in Congress are avoiding the problem of cost-shifting. She also argued that the excise tax on high-end plans is being altered to exclude those who have more expensive insurance because they are older or in higher risk occupations, such as fire-fighting.
However, Democratic reforms being proposed in Congress would move in the exactly opposite direction, by forcing individuals to purchase their health insurance through a government-run exchange in which federal bureaucrats would set benefit levels. In the House bill, the level of benefits individuals would be mandated to purchase would be determined by a new presidentially-appointed Health Choices Commissioner. All of this will discourage the use of HSAs. I asked Romer about this, and she suggested that the tax on high-end health care plans was actually about giving more power to the consumer. Wait, it gets worse. Here it comes. Food/drink alert. Ethel, stand by with the pills....
"Part of the idea of how that is going to work is precisely because it does empower consumers," she responded. "It empowers each of us to have an employer-sponsored plan to call our HR office and say, 'would you negotiate harder? Would you think about [whether this] is the most efficient plan out there, because I don't want my plan paying an excise tax.' So I think that's something that is very much empowering consumers." Yep, that's just the conversation I wanna have with HR. "Our benefits are way too generous....could you please gut them?" It will set such a nice tone for dealing with my coworkers, too. Can't wait to see what I'd be getting from my "secret Santa"!
This is a jaw-dropping response on several levels. For one thing, candidate Obama blasted John McCain for proposing that we change the tax code that rigs the system in favor of employer-based insurance. But the difference is that McCain wanted to replace the current system with a level the playing field so that individuals could achieve the same tax advantages purchasing their own health care plans. Now, the Obama administration is supporting a proposal that would target some employer health care plans, without any offsetting tax credits for individuals, and calling it consumer empowerment. Furthermore, it may be true that workers will ask their employers to provide them with cheaper health care plans to avoid the tax - but that violates the spirit of the promise Obama made that those who like their health care plan can keep it.
Praising the report on the call, Romer declared: "The health legislation that as it's coming out of congress, they think, could lower costs relative to what they otherwise would have been by as much as $3,000 by 2019." But in actuality, Business Roundtable officer Antonio M. Perez,, who is also Chairman and CEO of Eastman Kodak Company, said in a statement that: "This report shows that effective reforms can slow health care costs by as much as $3,000 per employee in 2019."
The White House has become so desperate to show cost savings from health care legislation, that administration officials are willing to tout any report that says reform can save money - even a report that undermines the case for many of the specific proposals they are touting. Y'know, vetoing this dumb cluck's appointment to Harvard's economic faculty was probably the smartest call that President Drew Gilpin Faust ever made.
Whee! Another Rantburg lady I hope never to make mad at me. She's got words, and she bloody well knows how to use them to make a laser scalpel look blunt.
Illinois posted the third-highest state total of homes receiving foreclosure filings last month, RealtyTrac's latest report shows.
Filings were reported on 19,946 properties--the highest monthly total for Illinois since January 2005 and up 57 percent from a year earlier and up 56 percent from September. One in every 263 homes in Illinois received a filing.
The total number of filings was exceeded only by California and Florida.
Filings were reported on 11,494 homes in Cook County, where the number jumped 67 percent from a year earlier and spiked 131 percent from September.
In the Chicago metropolitan area, filings were reported on 18,541 properties, up 63 percent from a year earlier and up 72 percent from September.
High-risk mortgages, negative equity and high unemployment are the driving forces behind foreclosures, according to RealtyTrac Chief Executive Officer James Saccacio.
The unemployment rate hit 10.5 percent in Illinois in September. October figures won't be released until next week. Nationally, the rate hit 10.2 percent last month.
The Woodstock Institute reported last week foreclosure filings in the six-county Chicago region jumped 67 percent in the third quarter from the second quarter, and rose a smaller 18 percent from the third quarter of 2008. The report showed filings dropped 4.6 percent in Cook County in the third quarter from a year earlier.
Nationally, the RealtyTrac report revealed there were foreclosure filings made on 332,292 properties last month, a jump from nearly 19 percent a year earlier, but down 3 percent from September.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2009 00:00 ||
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The Woodstock Institute reported last week foreclosure filings in the six-county Chicago region jumped 67 percent
A Google search also revealed 2 foreclosures, within 25 miles of Arthur, a bit further downstate in Illinois. As best I could tell, neither property was Amish owned.
#3
Is it just me or does it seem to you also like most of the states in trouble are states that have had years and years of failed liberal policies, corruption (Chicago-style politics) high taxes, and are not particularly business-friendly. Maybe Florida is the exception.
Nine US states have joined California in the club of the worst financially-hit states which face a fiscal 'disaster' over America's reeling economy, a report says.
A new report published by the Washington-based research center on national advances in various fields, Pew Center, has portrayed a bleak outlook for the state of economy in the US and listed ten large states to be in 'grave' need of financial plan adjustments in order to escape insolvency.
Pew's Wednesday analysis has raised the alarm for California, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon and Wisconsin, urging local legislatures and administrations to take strong action in an effort to prevent a 'looming' economic catastrophe.
The widening double-figure budget gaps, increasing job losses and high property foreclosures have amounted to the states' teetering economies that constitute one third of US financial power.
The study, named 'Beyond California: States in Fiscal Peril', also counts single industry economy, history of budget deficits and legal obstacles in the way of tax increases as other contributors to the ongoing financial woes that have hit America in the aftermath of the 2007 economic recession.
US economy has had its worst nightmare since 1930's Great Depression, with some states considering mortgaging Capitol buildings or cutting public expenditures such as public schools and healthcare costs in order to help ease the economic havoc.
The need for cash in the frozen credit market forced the California government to print IOUs, or payable notes, earlier in 2009 to help pay out bills.
A number of other states, however, came up with local money in a bid to inject capital into their cash-strapped economies.
Despite a 0.9 percent gain in economic transactions during the third quarter of the 2009 fiscal year, financial woes in the world's largest free market system continue to defy the US exit from recession due to the hundreds of billions lost in the latest economic downturn.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2009 00:00 ||
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OTOH CHINESE MIL FORUM > WHO SAYS INDIA IS BROKE: SWISS BANKS REVEAL INDIA HAS MORE MONEY THAN THE REST OF THE WORLD [SWISS "Black Money" > INDIA, NOT USA, ranks #1 in TOP FIVE ahead of RUSSIA, UK = BRITAIN, UKRAINE, + CHINA.
#3
Ta'hell with this infomercial study, stating that the only way to close the budget is to raise taxes. Lower taxes, 10 payments of $5 beats 3 payments of $15.
#4
Want to balance the budget? Attract industry w/ with decent paying jobs. Too bad gov trade, tax, environmental and social policy is geared toward exporting those same industries and jobs to other countries.
Posted by: ed ||
11/13/2009 13:08 Comments ||
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#5
If it gets bad enough some state legislatures may actually be forced to cut their budgets! Really!
#6
Our local Disasteremocrat in residence has taken money specifically collected to deal with recycling old tires and put it into the general fund, where it immediately disappeared. Just a few days ago there was an article in the local paper that discarded tires are "piling up", and there's no more room to store them. There are several ways to take care of discarded tires - retread the best, grind the rest up for pothole filling (works better than plain asphalt), even recycle the rubber through a rather complex process that's still cheaper than other solutions. Yet our state government isn't bright enough to deal with the problem, and has no money to do anything, because it was siphoned off to meet "general fund" requirements - a violation of state law. We really need to make an example of these spendthrift people.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/13/2009 20:09 Comments ||
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#7
recycled rubber repaving is a great biz: removes the refuse, uses it for new paving, saves money. We encourage it in San Diego
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/13/2009 20:27 Comments ||
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CLINT Eastwood is now a commander in the French Legion of Honour - and it's not a movie role. French President Nicolas Sarkozy has presented the 79-year-old actor with the prestigious decoration for his body of work, his longevity and his ability to delight audiences around the globe.
Eastwood was honoured as a knight of the Legion of Honour two years ago by former French President Jacques Chirac. But today's decoration was a step up from grade three to five on the legion's five-grade scale.
Speaking in English, Eastwood thanked Sarkozy and the French people at a ceremony in Paris.
``This is a wonderful honour,'' he said. ``It is just a great pleasure for me. I really love France. I love movies, and I love the appreciation that the French people have for movies.''
Eastwood promised to be fluent in French the next time he returned to the country, which he called his ``second home''.
Sarkozy bantered with Eastwood and asked the American how he managed to stay so fit. Sarkozy, 54, was hospitalised earlier this year after collapsing while jogging.
``You have to admit that there is a side about you that is a little annoying,'' Sarkozy said. ``Physically, how do you do it?''
Napoleon Bonaparte created the legion in 1802. It recognises military, cultural, scientific or social contributions to France, including by people who are not French citizens.
The Radio Equalizer blog is hot on the trail of left-wing talk radio bringing out the weirdest scenarios to shift the blame for the Fort Hood shooting onto the Islamophobic prejudice of the American people. Montel Williams is really starting to fit into the ludicrous Air America radio family: he suggested on Monday that the Fort Hood backlash against Muslims could be so great we would put Muslims in internment camps like the Japanese under Franklin Roosevelt:
WILLIAMS: We pulled something like this back in World War II when we decided to round up all Japanese Americans and put them in internment camps. This is something that I think before we can blink, the [anti-Muslim] rhetoric, Doc, could get out of hand. What do you think?
FRANK FARLEY, psychologist, Temple University: I agree totally. I mean, the possibilities of prejudice and racism and so on are incredible here. You know, we should be treating this as a unique incident and look at the factors involved in this very unique and specific incident, and not overgeneralize. Unfortunately, we tend to overgeneralize all the time. The idea that all Muslims are the same is ridiculous....
Everybody's got their own personal qualities and individual differences and let's just treat this asa very specific incident and try to figure out why this particular person did this particular thing.
WILLIAMS: Absolutely. No matter what it comes out to, at the end of the day, even if it comes out in the last five months and all his anxiety around his impending deployment, he decided his frame of reference was his religion and that was what was giving him, you know, the power within himself to make his stand, that doesn't mean that the religion is to blame.
FARLEY: Absolutely, it's his interpretation of everything, and his interpretation [of Islam] may vary dramatically from his fellow Muslims.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2009 00:00 ||
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ION WND > CAIR SPEAKER [Radic Cleric ZAID CHAKIR] TELLS MUSLIMS ITS OKAY TO ATTACK FORT BRAGG [North Carolina, USA], EXHORTS FATHFUL TO TARGET PLANES CARRYING ARMY'S 82ND AIRBORNE.
#4
I totally agree. It is "racism and prejudice" at its core. Saying "all Muslims are the same" is just as rediculous as saying all African Americans vote for members of the same political party. Absolutely rediculous.
Sierra Vista, Arizona would be an excellent site for the Relo-Centers. KBR has an existing contract with the nearby military installation and there is a endless supply of excellent, non-union, out of work, hihgly skilled carpenters and masons nearby. Think...Job Creation! All that goes lacking at the moment is the appointment of an administration Relo-Zsar.
#5
1 - not all Japanese [or resident Germans and Italians] were put in internment camps.
2 - recently declassified Japanese diplomatic traffic leading up to December 7th implied the consulates on the west coast had recruited in the local Japanese communities.
3 - around 90 percent of all aircraft production at the time was either in LA or Seattle.
4 - Unable to quickly identify who was and who wasn't involved in the implied Japanese recruitment effort, the government at the time moved those in areas thought critical to wartime operations to be moved.
5 - Today we do know of mosques, their membership and discrete communities that have recruited for jihad. Yet we allow these to operate just waiting for the next act of human sacrifice to happen while the like of Mr. Williams wring their hands because some who truly do threaten our citizenry are allowed to choose the time and place of their mayhem.
#10
I totally agree. It is "racism and prejudice" at its core. Saying "all Muslims are the same" is just as rediculous as saying all African Americans vote for members of the same political party.
I disagree. First of all, because Muslims != Japanese. Japanese americans were born this way and could do nothing about it. Muslims are people who follow an ideology. You can argue, about different versions of this ideology and about people who are more or less ardent about this ideology but the fact is that being a Muslim is per se not different tan being a Nazi or a Communist.
Also while it can be nice and dandy to blame FDR for the internment of Japanese Americans I remind you that given IJN's overwhelming superiority until well into 1943 zero leaks was a sine quanon condition for US Navy survival, and first of all at Midway. A single Japanese American reporting that the American carriers were at sea or about the miracle repair of the "Yorktown" would have meant thousands or American lives lost not to mention the ones lost while struggling to recover the lands the Japanese would have conquered after destroying the American carriers.
So IMHO FDR did the right thing. Those who did wrong were the post-war administrations for not compensating those who had been interned but that is another story.
#11
"You know, we should be treating this as a unique incident and look at the factors involved in this very unique and specific incident, and not overgeneralize. Unfortunately, we tend to overgeneralize all the time."
To say something is definitive is unequivocally stupid and annoying. That certainly puts an end to that discussion.
#12
The dirty little secret about the Japanese-American internment is that it was a political decision by FDR.
No military commander had even suggested we exclude Japanese-Americans from entire states.
(It is interesting that no internment was done in Hawaii, where a stronger case could have been made)
Basically, FDR hated Japanese since his college days, when he had a Japanese naval officer for a room-mate. He always said that there was no possibility for the two countries ever being friends. When the time came to decide about internment, he chose the most severe solution possible.
In addition, there were political considerations. There was ample anti-Asian prejudice on the West Coast and relocating the Japanese might help with the 1942 elections.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
11/13/2009 11:24 Comments ||
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#13
You tease me, Montel.
Posted by: ed ||
11/13/2009 11:48 Comments ||
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#14
Besoeker: The great secret of southern Arizona during WWII is that it had an enormous military prison camp, in the vicinity of, but completely separated and many miles from Ft. Huachucha.
And virtually no record of its existence remains. The one record I have ever found is kept by the Arizona Historical Society. It mentioned that hangings were frequently conducted there. Otherwise nothing is known about it, even its name.
Even the utterly hated desert training facility in Nevada has a marker to denote it.
#16
1) Jihadi goes on rampage and kills a bunch of innocent people.
2) Media apologists and Jihadi sympathizers decry possible backlash against Muslims.
3) Backlash does not occur, but public is intimidated into ignoring problem.
4) Wash, rinse repeat.
#17
I much prefer the thoughts of the OTHER Williams(Walter) to Montel. I don't listen to him, I don't watch him, and I really don't care what kind of psychobabble comes from his mouth. The comments here were much more entertaining and enlightening than anything Montel Williams could ever utter.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/13/2009 20:18 Comments ||
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#18
Arizona POW camp - Camp Florence, Florence, AZ. Not so much secret as forgotten with legions of others.
As for executions of POWs, there were a number, largely for killing fellow POWs.
#19
Procopius2k: No, not the POW camps. Those were well known, and one is still a National Guard installation. A large number of the POWs moved to Phoenix from Germany after the war. A heck of a lot more opportunities than postwar Germany.
The installation I am talking about was for US Army prisoners. US Soldiers who had committed serious crimes like murder, most of whom had never left the US.
When I first discovered this document in the museum, I mentioned it to several State historians, an abandoned military post club, and cartographers, and none had ever heard of it.
Several of us ended up doing a field trip to find the place, and unlike other abandoned posts and sites of this kind, while it was clear something had been there, it had been removed down to the last scrap. Normally there are pieces of concrete and asphalt at WWII sites, even if little else, but here, nothing.
There was some skulduggery in the area, though, at the Papago Park POW camp, in 1944, some of the POWs murdered one of their number who was an informer.
Seven of them were taken to an isolated resort in California where they were tortured until they confessed. They were later executed by being hung in an elevator shaft at Ft. Leavenworth (out of 14 total, for similar offenses), after the war was over.
So the idea of taking US military prisoners to a secret base, and hanging a whole bunch of them is not impossible, but it is not something likely to be recorded.
#20
'Moose, any chance this facility was actually a facility that took part in developing the bomb and was simply not listed as such for obvious reasons?
Posted by: Mike N. ||
11/13/2009 23:10 Comments ||
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[Dawn] Tens of thousands of Maoist activists took to the streets of Nepal's capital Thursday, bringing government ministries to a virtual standstill in their biggest protest since they lost power in May.
Chanting 'Down with the puppet government' and waving red flags bearing their hammer and sickle logo, the protesters surrounded the main government complex in the heart of Kathmandu and blocked off all entrances to the area.
Most civil servants and government ministers stayed at home to avoid clashes with the demonstrators and an AFP reporter at the scene said the protest appeared to be peaceful.
'Nepal may have become a republic, but we have yet to achieve true people's rule,' protester Shanchalal Waiba told AFP outside the Singha Durbar government complex.
'This protest may bring difficulties to the people in the short term, but in the long term it will bring a better future.'
The Maoists won landmark elections in Nepal last year and abolished the monarchy, but their government fell after just eight months when the president overruled their attempt to sack the head of the army.
The blockade is part of a fortnight-long series of nationwide protests being held by the former guerrillas, who fought a 10-year civil war against the state that ended in 2006.
The Maoists say the president's move was unconstitutional and are demanding an apology and a parliamentary debate on the role of the head of state.
Maoist leader and former prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, known as Prachanda or 'the fierce one,' said their main aim was to restore 'civilian supremacy' over the military.
'Our achievements have been hijacked and civilian supremacy has been hijacked. The main aim of our protest is to restore it,' he told reporters outside the Singha Durbar complex.
'Unless the president's move is corrected, we will continue our protests.'Maoist leaders had said they hoped to mobilise at least 300,000 people for the two-day protest, which will continue on Friday, but witnesses put the number of demonstrators at around 20,000.
Dahal described the blockade as a 'celebration,' with Maoist activists, many of whom had travelled in from far-flung areas of the country, singing and dancing in the streets of the capital.
One senior party leader, Krishna Khatri Chettri, told AFP that the peaceful rally 'proved that all those who say the Maoists are only interested in violence and anarchy are wrong.'
Authorities in Kathmandu have deployed more than 2,000 riot police, but both the Maoists and the government said they wanted to avoid any clashes.
Protesters are banned from entering an exclusion zone around Singha Durbar and authorities had said they would expand the zone during the two-day protest.
But they backed down after the Maoists said they would defy the new rules.
'We will not allow the Maoists to move beyond the restricted zone,' police official Ashutosh Rana told AFP.
'So far the protest has been peaceful and we are committed to show maximum restraint.'
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
TOPIX > VARIOUS > NEPA MAOISTS LAY PROTEST SIEGE IN KATHMANDU [Katmandu]; + NEPAL MAOISTS RIOT OVER ARMY CHIEF.
ION BARAT RAKSHAK > CHINA WARNS INDIA: INDIA SHOULD NOT FORGET 1962 [Chin-alleged repeated provocations by India led to Sino-Indian troop border clashes = 1962 war].
#2
ION WMF > RUSSIA ACCUSES GEORGIA OF VIOLATING ABKHAZIA, SOUTH OSSETIA AIRSPACE WID UAVS; + GEOPOL COUNTAINMENT AND COUNTER-CONTAINMENT: A NEW STAGE IN SINO-US AND "GREAT POWERS" GAMESMANSHIP IN MYANMAR.
Whoa, first FLUS MICHELLE's repor FASHION FAUX PAX at Arlington [IMO twas Michelle's High Boots, not the whatever-women-and-fashion world-call-it dress], now COMMIE MAOISTS!
D *** NG IT, MORIARITY, STOP EXPECTIN' US GUYS = MALES TO KNOW W-T-H THAT IS! Most of us anyways.
#2
Anomoly identification via pattern analysis. A step in the right direction as long as trained analysts remain in the loop...and people in key leadership positions pay attention.
#4
"With tens of thousands of ships on the world's oceans every day, it is very difficult to identify behaviour that may indicate a threat," said Rich Dickinson,
Hmmmm....small high speed boats with a crew heavily armed with AKs and RPGs trailing a known cruising merchantman would not seem to be difficult to figure out. Then again, I'm not a professional lawyer doing ROEs for DoD. /sarc off
#6
Hmmmm....small high speed boats with a crew heavily armed with AKs and RPGs trailing a known cruising merchantman would not seem to be difficult to figure out.
Think 'larger ships'. Maybe mother-ships, but more likely merchants.
#7
The article was written by someone who doesn't know jack about shipping.
Just about any legitimate merchantman on the high seas is now using AIS (Automated Identification System). Think of it as IFF for ships. For any of you who served at sea even a decade ago and played the "Ship on my port bow, identify yourself" game at 3 in the morning, AIS now lets you see who that somebody is automatically.
AIS lets shipping companies know exactly where there ships are. It helps navies know where white shipping is (especially helpful during exercises and the real-deal).
In all likelihood, this PANDA thing (if the author didn't completely make up his info) is about comparing an AIS ID to the current position (manifest says you're supposed to be 2 days out of Pusan, why are you off the coast of Myanmar?) or finding non-AIS ships and having a look at them. There are well-defined great circle routes for international commerce, and ships that deviate from them are of course of interest.
This could be of use in combatting drug trafficking, arms shipments, etc.
#8
When I said legitimate, I meant a major carrier like Maersk or APL. Obviously there are vast numbers of fishing vessels or coasting traders, who are completely law-abiding, but are just too small to bother with AIS.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Cambodia and Thailand have expelled each other's top diplomats amid a deepening row over Phnom Penh's naming of the former Thai Premier Thaksin Shinawatra as an adviser.
A spokesman for Thailand's government said Thursday that Bangkok had given the Cambodian diplomat 48 hours to leave the country.
"We decided to expel the Cambodian first secretary after Cambodia expelled our first secretary from the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh," AFP reported, quoting Panitan Wattanayagorn, a spokesman for Thailand's government.
The expulsions follow the appointment of Thaksin as an economic adviser to the Cambodian government.
Thaksin, who was toppled in a bloodless coup in 2006 and sentenced to two years in jail in absentia, arrived in Cambodia on Tuesday.
Cambodia has repeatedly vowed to refuse any request from Thailand to extradite Thaksin, asserting that the charges against him are politically motivated.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2009 00:00 ||
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[Straits Times] MALAYSIA'S weekly Catholic newspaper has lost its publishing permit for next year amid a long-running dispute over its use of the word 'Allah', the editor said on Thursday.
The loss of The Herald's permit comes as it prepares for a High Court hearing on Dec 14 in a legal battle between the Catholic Church and the authorities over the use of the world 'Allah' in the paper's Malay-language section.
The government has argued that the word 'Allah' should be used only by Muslims, who dominate the population of Malaysia.
'It is very confusing. One letter in August said we have the licence to print (in 2010) and the next thing is we receive a letter in September saying the permit is not approved. Something is amiss,' The Herald's editor, Father Lawrence Andrew, told AFP.
Father Lawrence said the home ministry cancelled the new permit without any reason.
The Roman Catholic Church has waged a two-year legal battle with Malaysian authorities over the use of the word 'Allah'. The priest said he had met with home ministry officials last month to resolve the issue but declined to elaborate.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
The government has argued that the word 'Allah' should be used only by Muslims, who dominate the population of Malaysia.
That's why we here at the 'Burg, out of deep respect for the Mooselimb faith, refer to him as Allan. It also helps to make sure he does not get confused with a legitimate deity.
#2
Let's hope that the Obama administration isn't paying attention to this. Otherwise, they will start issuing publishing permits to "legitimate" news organizations.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
11/13/2009 7:02 Comments ||
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#3
RiV I'm afraid that the Obamanation and his clique don't need the hint. I'm sure that this is already on the horizon with the FEC doing the enforcement via campaign financing (aka despotic) laws.
US President Barack Obama, starting an Asia tour in Tokyo today, stressed his country's commitment to its long-term ally Japan and said that the United States is a Pacific Rim nation.
"The alliance between the United States and Japan is a foundation for security and prosperity, not just for our two countries, but for the Asian-Pacific region," said Mr Obama in a Tokyo press conference.
After meeting centre-left Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who took power two months ago, Mr Obama said "our alliance will endure and our efforts will be focused on revitalising that friendship so that it's even stronger and more successful in meeting the challenges of the 21st century".
Mr Obama, who at the weekend meets leaders of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum before travelling to China and South Korea, stressed that the United States sees itself as part of the region.
"Throughout my trip and throughout my presidency I intend to make clear that the United States is a Pacific nation and we will be deepening our engagement in this part of the world," he said.
Be afraid, be very afraid ...
"The United States will strengthen our alliances, build new partnerships and we will be part of multilateral efforts and regional institutions that advance regional security and prosperity."
Mr Obama said he and Hatoyama had agreed to work together toward a nuclear-weapons-free world.
Asked whether he would want to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the cities bombed by the United States in World War II, he said: "I certainly would be honoured, it would be meaningful for me to visit those two cities in the future.
"I don't have immediate travel plans, but it's something that would be meaningful to me."
#1
Well, for once he's right: the US IS a Pacific nation. And an Atlantic nation, and an Arctic nation, and for that matter a Gulf of Mexican and Caribbean nation.
#4
Barry badly needs an encyclopedia read to him, By an adult.
Pacific means "Peaceful" which is a misnomer, the Pacific is home to the worst storms on Earth,
The Pacific Cyclone (Hurricane) and it's all because of the huge expanses of uninterrupted water's (No mountain Chain to break up winds)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/13/2009 12:43 Comments ||
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#5
ION "SEA OF GLASS/PEACE" = PACIFIC, WMF > CHINA'S "STORM-II" HEAVY ICBMS TO BEGIN SERVICE IN 2012. HAINAN ISLAND "STORM-II" ICBM BASE TO BREAK US CONTAINMENT OF CHINA.; + CCTV "FACE TO FACE" SHOW: CHINA'S AIRFORCE IN 60 YEARS: PLAAF'S JF-14 FOURTH-GENERATION STEALTH FIGHTER TO BREAK THE GEOPOL BALANCE OF FORCES IN ASIA-PACIFIC IN FAVOR OF CHINA AND ASIA; + JAPANESE MEDIAS: GROWING SOPHISTICATION OF CHINA'S ARMED FORCES CONTINUES TO SURPRISE COLLAPSING JAPAN.
versus
PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > BBC: US SUPERPOWER STATUS IS SHAKEN.
Also, I could be mistaken but IIRC TOPIX? > ARTIC denoted that OKINAWA BASE CONTROVERSY THREATENS DESTABILZ OR LOSS OF VITAL US STRATEGIC POSITION IN ASIA-PACIFIC VIA WEAKENING = DE-PRIORITIZATION OF US MILFORS IN HAWAII STATE, vee USDOD-Navy Officios???
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.
911 Phone Sex: Tampa Man's Emergency
Levi Johnston, the hunky baby daddy of Sarah Palin's grandson, called the former vice presidential nominee wise for not trash talking him in her soon-to-be aired interview with Oprah Winfrey.
President Hugo Chavez has been facing a public outcry in recent weeks over power failures that, after six nationwide blackouts in the last two years, are cutting electricity for hours each day in rural areas and in industrial cities like Valencia and Ciudad Guayana. Now, water rationing has been introduced here in the capital.
Illinois posted the third-highest state total of homes receiving foreclosure filings last month, RealtyTrac's latest report shows.
The Radio Equalizer blog is hot on the trail of left-wing talk radio bringing out the weirdest scenarios to shift the blame for the Fort Hood shooting onto the Islamophobic prejudice of the American people. Montel Williams is really starting to fit into the ludicrous Air America radio family: he suggested on Monday that the Fort Hood backlash against Muslims could be so great we would put Muslims in internment camps like the Japanese under Franklin Roosevelt:
[Iran Press TV Latest] Cambodia and Thailand have expelled each other's top diplomats amid a deepening row over Phnom Penh's naming of the former Thai Premier Thaksin Shinawatra as an adviser. 
