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Nativity Church deportee dies alone, unloved in Algeria
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
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Page 6: Politix
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Police: Robbers called Conn. bank for money to go
Police in Connecticut say they had ample warning of a bank robbery because the two suspects called the bank ahead of time and told an employee to get a bag of money ready.
Well, they do have a drive-up window.
Police arrested 27-year-old Albert Bailey and an unidentified 16-year-old boy on robbery and threatening charges Tuesday afternoon at a People's United Bank branch in Fairfield.
Can you Supersize that?
Sgt. James Perez says the two Bridgeport residents showed up about 10 minutes after making the call and were met by police in the parking lot. Perez told the Connecticut Post the suspects were "not too bright."
That's an understatement.
It's not clear if Bailey and the teen have lawyers.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 03/25/2010 12:15 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They should have just gone to a different bank across town and robbed that one while the police were busy waiting for them somewhere else.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 03/25/2010 13:31 Comments || Top||


'Pirate' death puts spotlight on 'guns for hire'
Posted by: Oscar || 03/25/2010 06:16 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Note to pirates. If the shipping companies have the resources to pay off your handlers, they also have the means without the sticky fingers of those handlers, of out spending you on any arms race.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/25/2010 8:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Oh fergawdsake. Leave it to the Beeb to wring their hands over this. Oh those poor, poor 'pirates'!
Posted by: Spot || 03/25/2010 8:24 Comments || Top||

#3  I thought the headline was referring to the fact the pirates are guns for hire, which of course they are. They are also a lot cheaper than western security contractors.
Posted by: phil_b || 03/25/2010 8:26 Comments || Top||

#4  Not to worry lads, as a...professional courtesy, wounded pirates will be covered under Obamacare and the children of KIA's will receive full scholarships to Princeton. Please consult your local AID office for further details.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/25/2010 8:27 Comments || Top||

#5  "One argument is that the use of armed operatives could encourage pirates to use more violence when taking a ship. "

I dunno , but I always felt that someone coming towards me with intention armed with RPG , AK47 and high explosive is generally getting about as violent as it could get .. Call me naïve, or perhaps just old and naïve
Posted by: Oscar || 03/25/2010 8:28 Comments || Top||

#6  Oscar, the 'logic' has been that the pirates are only interested in getting the ship, and if the crew cooperates there won't be violence - but if the pirates get or expect resistance, they could just kill the crew first. Of course this same logic tells victims of sexual assault to just cooperate - but lots of them end up in landfills.
My own attitude is that if you kill the pirates first there's no problem. And the crew has the high ground and more stable platform.
Posted by: Glenmore || 03/25/2010 9:18 Comments || Top||

#7  The 'logic' that the pirates only want the ships is an illusion shown by the ransoms demanded for hostages. That is an indisputable fact.

The only 'spotlight' here is not by the pirate's death (aka, 'succumbing to wounds while engaged in armed criminal activity'), but by the BBC itself (no surprise here).

Oh, while we're criticizing journalistic integrity here, nothing in the article supports the BBC's 'questioning' the death as being anything 'but' a pirate...except the opening sentence ('suspected pirate').

Furthermore, the article closes stipulating that 'pirates have rights', since that would be the only justification for suggesting 'responsibility' for the shooting, especially since the statement was quoted of 'legal experts'.

Ah, woe is the 'Bombastic Broadcasting Corp.'...
Posted by: logi_cal || 03/25/2010 9:34 Comments || Top||

#8  The BBC exists because of seapower.

Unmentioned in this well written exercise in self-loathing.
Posted by: Halliburton - Mysterious Conspiracy Division || 03/25/2010 10:23 Comments || Top||

#9  Seems to me, the best way to make sure this never happens again is to leave no witnesses......
Posted by: Everyday a Wildcat(KSU!) || 03/25/2010 10:39 Comments || Top||

#10  Hey, there may be a way to finance my health care and retirement.
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/25/2010 10:43 Comments || Top||

#11  But... but.... wounded pirates make such fun shark chum...

The BBC has no sense of fun...
Posted by: 3dc || 03/25/2010 10:43 Comments || Top||

#12  "But no ship with an armed guard has been hijacked…”

It sure is nice of the BBC to bury that little nugget halfway through their article. Apparently, their editors believe stories of piracy aren’t compelling enough. Maybe that’s why they felt the need to base their article on innuendos of hair trigger mercenaries and non-existent legal conflicts.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 03/25/2010 11:19 Comments || Top||

#13 
Charlie Daniels approves of how the BBC wants these guys to be taken care of.
Posted by: gorb || 03/25/2010 12:09 Comments || Top||

#14  Have gun, will travel unmolested.
Posted by: ed || 03/25/2010 12:33 Comments || Top||

#15 

Pirates Ye Be Warned!
Posted by: Jolump the Wide5539 || 03/25/2010 17:43 Comments || Top||


Irish bishop resigns over sex scandal allegations
[Iran Press TV Latest] Sex scandal allegations continue to surface in the Roman Catholic Church as Pope Benedict XVI accepts the resignation of a senior Irish bishop.

Bishop of Cloyne in southern Ireland John Magee has been accused of mishandling complaints against Irish priests.

The 73-year-old bishop resigned last March after a church report found his handling of abuse allegations had put children at risk of harm. Magee have apologized for his actions.

Meanwhile, new sexual abuse allegations have surfaced against a priest in Pope Benedict's former diocese in Germany. The allegations against suspended Peter Hullermann date back to 1998.

The Munich prosecutors' office has confirmed it is looking into the case. More than one-hundred reports of child abuse at Catholic institutions have emerged in recent weeks.
Posted by: Fred || 03/25/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


-Obits-
Robert Culp, 79
Robert Culp, the versatile actor who teamed with Bill Cosby in the groundbreaking comedy-adventure TV series "I Spy," has died. He was 79.

The actor's agent Hillard Elkins says Culp died after collapsing Wednesday on a sidewalk outside his Hollywood home. Los Angeles police say he hit his head while on a walk and was pronounced dead after arriving at a hospital.

A preliminary investigation found that his death is accidental.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/25/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I wonder if he followed instructions and already sent in his census form, listing who's living in his household on April 1.
Posted by: Glenmore || 03/25/2010 9:09 Comments || Top||

#2  You can probably make a bet in Las Wages, that ACORN et al will insure he and dozens of others will be at the address on 1 April.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/25/2010 12:00 Comments || Top||

#3  Surprisingly, one of the things he is best being remembered for is the original Outer Limits episode, "Demon With a Glass Hand", written by Harlan Ellison, with Culp in mind.

Ellison later got a legal settlement from the production of "The Terminator", for ripping off parts of both Demon, and the even more surreal Outer Limits episode he wrote, called "Soldier".

Not too long ago some wit summarized demon as "Culp is a time traveling robot, being pursued by time traveling alien Goths, who he kills by tearing off their nipple rings."

Demon was shot in the Bradbury hotel, which was also used for the final scenes in "Blade Runner".
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/25/2010 17:52 Comments || Top||

#4  That's a shame. Via con Dios, Mr. Culp.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 03/25/2010 19:32 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Today's Idiot
Photo at link
A Russian wedding has ended in tragedy after a game of Russian roulette went wrong, leaving one guest with a life-threatening gunshot wound to his head.

A home video of the wedding in Astrakhan, southern Russia, shows a grinning friend of the groom unexpectedly pulling a pistol from his waistband, putting it to his temple and squeezing the trigger. The gun emits only a clicking sound and the smiling gunman asks who else wants to try his luck.

Another guest is shown taking up the offer, but this time the trick goes wrong.

The second man pulls the trigger and immediately collapses to the floor as the gun releases a rubber bullet into his skull at point-blank range. He is now reported to be fighting for his life.

The gunman, a 33 year-old Chechen man, insists he was sure that he had emptied the pistol's chamber of every bullet and says he only wanted to enliven the wedding. But local police do not believe him and have opened a criminal investigation into the tragic incident.

Russian weddings are notoriously drunken and sometimes violent, with fist fights not uncommon.

The origins of Russian roulette are unclear, but it is thought to have started in the nineteenth century when sadistic Russian prison guards forced inmates to play and bet on the outcome.
Posted by: john frum || 03/25/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Only and idiot would put the revolver to their temple without checking the cylinder to be sure its empty and spinning it again for show.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 03/25/2010 2:41 Comments || Top||

#2  I don't see how anyone gets killed playing Russian Roulette - there can't be any vital organs in their heads.
Posted by: Glenmore || 03/25/2010 7:52 Comments || Top||

#3  The origins of Russian roulette are unclear

A virtual 'riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma'...that.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/25/2010 8:34 Comments || Top||

#4  try it with a semi-auto. I darez ya!
Posted by: Frank G || 03/25/2010 8:40 Comments || Top||

#5  I watched the video a couple of days ago. It was a semi-automatic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QncYs1RFaI0

Posted by: logi_cal || 03/25/2010 9:42 Comments || Top||

#6  Alcohol and firearms...do not mix. Hopefully todays idiot has not propagated his defective genetic material.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man || 03/25/2010 12:28 Comments || Top||

#7  i saw the same thing logi-cal: semi auto and the first guy didn't actually pull the trigger
Posted by: chris || 03/25/2010 12:35 Comments || Top||


Africa North
First granddaughter of Egypts Mubarak born
[Al Arabiya Latest] President Hosni Mubarak's son Gamal, thought by many to be his political heir apparent, became the father of a baby girl on Tuesday, the official MENA news agency reported.

"President Hosni Mubarak was blessed this morning with his first granddaughter, Farida, by his son Gamal Mubarak and Khadiga al-Gammal," MENA said, without providing details.

Farida is the couple's first child.

Mohammed, one of the president's two grandsons from his son, Alaa, died unexpectedly aged 12 last May. The president has worn a black tie in public since then.

The news of Farida's birth came as Mubarak, 81, was recovering in hospital in Germany after surgery on March 6 to have his gall bladder and a growth on his small intestine removed, stoking uncertainty over his state of health. The medical team treating him at Heidelberg University Hospital said he had benign tissue removed.

Members of his family have been by his bedside regularly, but the agency did not say where the baby girl was born nor whether Gamal Mubarak was at the birth.
Posted by: Fred || 03/25/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Compare wid PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUMS > MAN KILLS HIS THREE DAUGHTERS AND HIMSELF TO HONOR GODDESS.

This is only the latest in a recent string of Net News Repors describing the sacrificial killing of children as per local traditions.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/25/2010 2:52 Comments || Top||

#2  congrats on the new arrival.
Posted by: Ptah || 03/25/2010 14:47 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Opposition leader prevented from leaving Rwanda
[Iran Press TV Latest] A Rwandan opposition leader facing investigation over comments made about the 1994 genocide was stopped by the police as she was about to leave the country.

The leader of the Forces Démocratiques Unifiées - FDU-Inkingi, Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, was prevented by Rwandan security forces to board a plane at Kigali International Airport.

Meanwhile, a police spokesman told AFP that the formerly exiled opposition leader was not arrested but it was necessary that she remained in Rwanda for further questioning.

"Police have asked Mrs. Ingabire to not leave the territory because she must respond to a police summons tomorrow," the security official explained.

Ingabire, a Hutu who spent 16 years in exile, provoked controversy earlier this year as she called for the trial of those responsible for the death of Hutus in the 1994 genocide.

The Rwandan government accuses her of denying the 1994 genocide in which some 800,000 people, mainly minority Tutsis along with some moderate Hutus, were slaughtered by Hutu militia supported by the government.

The current government in Rwanda is dominated by the Tutsis.

The opposition leader had previously complained about repeated harassment by Rwandan authorities, saying they were seeking to keep her out of running in presidential elections scheduled to be held in August.
Posted by: Fred || 03/25/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Bangladesh
Youth shoots dead parents of schoolgirl
[Bangla Daily Star] A youth shot a schoolgirl's parents dead in their flat at Kalachandpur in the city's Gulshan yesterday as they declined to marry their daughter off to him.

Rubel, 24, shot the couple when they tried to prevent him from forcefully dragging their schoolgirl daughter away.

Deceased Sadequr Rahman, 55, general secretary of Bangladesh Nursery Owners' Association and his wife Romana Nargis, 45, were living on the first floor of a five-storey building.

Victims' daughter Bithi who witnessed the murders told The Daily Star Rubel along with his friend Mithun reached their flat around 8:45am.

"Rubel had a hot exchange of words with my father as he turned down Rubel's proposal of marriage with my sister Iti; my father asked him to send his guardian instead," she went on to say.

At one stage Rubel tried to drag Iti out of the house. As his father resisted Rubel shot her father in the head around 9:00am, she said adding that Rubel shot her mother as she came to her husband's help.

"My father died on the spot and my mother succumbed to her injury at the United Hospital in Gulshan around 9:30am," Bithi said.

Caretaker of the building Abdul Kuddus told this correspondent that around 9:00am he locked the main gate as Bithi told him that Rubel had killed her father.

"Rubel forced me to open the gate at gunpoint and fled the scene with his accomplices," the caretaker said.

Officer-in-charge Kamal Uddin of Gulshan Police Station told this correspondent that Rubel, a resident of Nadda in Gulshan, tried to develop a relation with Iti over the last one year but Iti's family did not accept it as he was a drug addict.

Rubel had yaba addiction, the OC said adding that police picked up Mithun's mother from her house at Nadda for interrogation but they found none at Rubel's house.

The caretaker said Rubel used to come to meet Iti in the flat over the last six months. Rubel also went out on date with Iti at times.

Iti's cousin Mohammad Kamol said Iti was a student of class x at Kalachandpur High School and College.

As they came to know that Rubel was a drug addict they forbade Iti to develop any relation with Rubel.

The OC said Rubel was the only son of his parents. His father is a transport trader.
Posted by: Fred || 03/25/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I guess this means the wedding is off...?
Posted by: imoyaro || 03/25/2010 7:32 Comments || Top||

#2  The headline... Why would the youth shoot the dead parents of this girl? Did he go and blast away at the gravestones? If they are dead why shoot them?

Ohhh...
Posted by: Beldar Threreling9726 || 03/25/2010 11:40 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Argentina calls UK shameful for colonizing Malvinas
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez says the British should be shameful for its continued colonization of the Malvinas Islands, also known as the Falklands.

"The United Kingdom should be ashamed of itself," said Fernandez on Tuesday, in an address to the Peruvian parliament in Lima, according to Reuters.

She called on the countries in the region to throw their weight behind Buenos Aires in an effort to urge Britain abandon the Malvinas Islands, which she described as "the last colonial enclave on the continent."

Argentina claims the archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean. Britain has ruled the Islands as a colony since the 19th century.

Argentina and Britain went to a brief and bloody war in 1982 over the Islands, though Buenos Aires failed to recover them mainly due to the British military superiority that enjoyed the backing of US naval forces.

The row has been reignited between the two governments following Britain's recent oil exploration in the area that Argentina regards a violation of its sovereignty.

President Fernandez has gone to Peru to mend ties after 16 years of severed relations.
Posted by: Fred || 03/25/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I don't think the word means what she thinks it means. There is no indigenous population there to be colonized. Brits live there.

If Argentinians took over, wouldn't they be the same? Colonizers? More so, because foreign nationals live there.

Maybe UK should declare Falkland Islands Independent, but part of the Commonwealth. "The UK troops stationed are there on the invitation of Falkland Islands government".

That may shut hup Argentinian pie holes.
Posted by: twobyfour || 03/25/2010 0:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Cristina Fernandez = Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. None of which sounds very South American tribal. Is that I hear her homeland calling from beyond the ocean? Why, yes it is.
Posted by: ed || 03/25/2010 1:31 Comments || Top||

#3  I don't think Argentina ever actually claimed the island until the British were already living there. Just because it is near your coast does not mean it is yours. Just because you've been falsely claiming it is yours for a long time does not make it yours either.

Of course most people don't know the facts and if you throw words like colonizing around you'll get support throughout the undeveloped world which is probably what htey want.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 03/25/2010 2:40 Comments || Top||

#4 
She called on the countries in the region to throw their weight behind Buenos Aires in an effort to urge Britain abandon the Malvinas Falkland Islands, which she described as "the last colonial enclave on the continent."


French Guyana is an integral part of the French Republic, part of the European Union and an important strategic asset of these entities.

It's also located on the South American continent.

Just mentioning.
Posted by: Jolump the Wide5539 || 03/25/2010 3:19 Comments || Top||

#5  "The United Kingdom should be ashamed of itself," said Fernandez

We probably are , but its got nothing to do with the Falklands.. More to do with our inept, weak willed , half witted , self serving , politicians

Was this girl born in Dumbasscus ?
Posted by: Oscar || 03/25/2010 6:50 Comments || Top||

#6  Actually, the Argentine murder of over half of Paraguay's population in consort with Brazil and Uruguay, and their subsequent seizure of the Chaco south of the Pilcomayo was shameful. Maybe if they give back what they stole after that butchery, the Brits should consider it, but until they do, the Argentines should STFU...
Posted by: imoyaro || 03/25/2010 7:26 Comments || Top||

#7  "thelast colonial enclave on the continent."

actually, it's an island quite a ways off IN THE FRIGGIN ATLANTIC, ya dumb twit
Posted by: Frank G || 03/25/2010 8:43 Comments || Top||

#8  Uh huh. You betcha. They feel just terrible.
Posted by: mojo || 03/25/2010 12:35 Comments || Top||


Economy
Congresscritters Agitate to Rehire Security Risks/Those Fired for Bad Credit
A 2005 executive order mandates that credit scores be part of a worker's security profile.
Because someone deep in debt might be tempted to sell secrets..
Congressmen Dennis Kucinich and Steve LaTourette and Congresswomen Marcia Fudge and Betty Sutton asked that terminations at the Defense Financing and Accounting Service (DFAS) be halted while policies are reviewed.
DFAS handles the payroll for all active and retired military personnel.
Some question whether a payroll office without real military secrets needs this level of security.
They only have millions of Social Security numbers directly linked to bank accounts for direct deposit of paychecks. Why would anyone short of cash want those?
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 03/25/2010 13:33 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  DFAS is located in Cleveland. All four members of Congress are from Ohio.

Posted by: Pappy || 03/25/2010 19:09 Comments || Top||

#2  All four members of Congress are from Ohio.

what about the other 56 states?
Posted by: Frank G || 03/25/2010 19:15 Comments || Top||

#3  They don't have costituents near Cleveland? My apologies - i t should have said "All four members of Congress in the article are from Ohio".

And it's more than just possible misappropriation of cash wrt SSNs.
Posted by: Pappy || 03/25/2010 23:08 Comments || Top||

#4  :-) just my nit-picking a-holeness coming to the surface, Pappy
Posted by: Frank G || 03/25/2010 23:16 Comments || Top||

#5  www.dfas.mil/about/Locations/denver.html

Not just Ohio.
Posted by: OldSpook || 03/25/2010 23:19 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Senate Rejects Amendment to Healt Care to ban paid Viagra for Molesters and Rapists

Democrats killed an amendment by Republican Sen. Tom Coburn to prevent the newly created insurance exchanges from using federal money to cover Viagra and other erectile dysfunction drugs for rapists, pedophiles and other sex offenders. The amendment failed 57-42

"The vast majority of Americans don't want their taxpayer dollars paying for this kind of drug for those kind of people," Coburn said.

Democratic Sen. Max Baucus urged his colleagues to defeat the amendment.

"This is a serious bill. This is a serious debate. The amendment offered by the senator from Oklahoma makes a mockery of the Senate, the debate and the American people. It is not a serious amendment. It is a crass political stunt aimed at making 30-second commercials, not public policy," he said.

Democrats have defeated every amendment offered by Republicans so far, arguing that any change will kill the bill.
Posted by: BigEd || 03/25/2010 10:45 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
Posted by: BigEd || 03/25/2010 10:50 Comments || Top||

#2  Now add one that says the Senate will comply with the health care bill...
Posted by: Pappy || 03/25/2010 11:22 Comments || Top||

#3  The campaign ads just write themselves, don't they?
Posted by: mojo || 03/25/2010 12:31 Comments || Top||

#4  They have also voted to keep themselves and their families and staff exempt from this program.
Posted by: OldSpook || 03/25/2010 23:29 Comments || Top||


Almost a quarter of Republicans think Obama 'may be the Antichrist'
And the other three quarters are sure of it.
Americans who suggest Barack Obama should rot in hell are apparently deadly serious. Nearly a quarter of Republicans believe the Democrat president 'may be the Antichrist', according to a survey.
From the Eternal Sea, He rises,
Hawaii is a volcanic island that rose from the Pacific
creating armies on either shore,
Obamabots vs Tea Party
turning man against his brother,
a uniter, he ain't
till man exists, no more."


An even greater number compared him to Hitler.
Funny, I thought Bush was Hitler
Mr Obama was jubilant this week after securing his £626billion healthcare reform plan. But his triumph seems only to have inflamed his critics among the evangelical Christians from America's heartland who kept George Bush in power for eight years and have demonised his successor.

More than half of the Republicans quizzed by Harris Poll, 57 per cent, believed the president was secretly Muslim, something he has consistently denied. And 67 per cent of Republicans who responded believed Obama was a socialist, despite his central leanings.
Central according to who? Ah yes, this is a UK rag.
The startling results came as lawyers representing 14 U.S. states filed lawsuits yesterday challenging an overhaul of the country's $2.5trillion healthcare system, minutes after President Barack Obama signed the landmark legislation.

One joint lawsuit by a dozen Republican attorneys general and a Democrat claims the sweeping reforms violate state-government rights in the U.S. Constitution and will force massive new spending on hard-pressed state governments.

Virginia went to court separately, while Missouri Republican Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder said he would like to join the suit.

The joint suit, led by Florida, was filed with a federal court in Pensacola, according to the office of Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum. In addition to McCollum, the Republican attorneys general from Alabama, Colorado, Idaho, Michigan, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Washington joined the suit.

The lawsuit says the law - which expands government health plans for the poor, imposes new taxes on the wealthy and requires insurers to cover people with pre-existing medical conditions - violates the Constitution's commerce clause by requiring nearly all Americans to buy health insurance.

Mr McCollum said: 'It forces people to do something - in the sense of buying a healthcare policy or paying a penalty, a tax or a fine - that simply the Constitution does not allow Congress to do.'
They got the idea from Bill Clinton when he redefined "$ex".
Mr McCollum, who is seeking the Republican nomination to run for Florida governor, said the healthcare reforms would add $1.6billion to Florida's spending on the Medicaid health program for the poor.

The Justice Department, which is responsible for defending U.S. law in court, pledged to vigorously fight any challenges to the new healthcare law. 'We are confident that this statute is constitutional and we will prevail,' said Justice spokesman Charles Miller.

The White House agreed the suits would fail.

'There have been hearings about the constitutionality of the law, and I think there's pretty much widespread agreement that it is constitutional,' Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform, said. 'I think we have governors who might be aiming for higher office who are starting to just send a message.'

The suits were filed just moments after Mr Obama signed the healthcare reforms into law.

But on the most historic occasion of his presidency so far, vice-president Joe Biden managed to put his foot in it. Gaffe-prone Mr Biden inadvertently broadcast the F-word to America after he introduced the President to sign his much vaunted health reform bill into law yesterday.

After hugging Mr Obama at a ceremony in the White House, Mr Biden leaned in and whispered in the President's ear: 'This is a big f****** deal.'
Even better than the New Deal. I'd prefer to call it the "Fuc&ed Up Deal".
The remark was caught on microphones recording the event that was shown live across the country. By last night, the clip was being replayed all over the internet.
Posted by: gorb || 03/25/2010 03:19 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The best Obama Bitch-slap was when Democratic Candidates didn't want Obama to show up For their Campaigns.

Now that's a serious smackdown.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/25/2010 5:04 Comments || Top||

#2  When Ol' Frank Roosevelt had New Deal legislation overturned by the SCOTUS, he threatened to pack the court, so they backed down. And the SCOTUS has knuckled under to clearly unconstitutional acts ever since.

But you have to wonder if the 5 conservative justices will finally say enough, and tear down this monster. If they don't, then only the individual States are left to do so. And if they do, I doubt they will stop with Ol' Frank, but may even tear down a lot of the Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson progressivism.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/25/2010 9:48 Comments || Top||

#3  despite his [Obama's] central leanings.

What central leanings?
Posted by: Frozen Al || 03/25/2010 11:57 Comments || Top||

#4  And yet it's Obama who thinks the British can go to hell.
Posted by: ed || 03/25/2010 12:16 Comments || Top||

#5  From what little I know, he fits the mold pretty well, certainly better than Bush!
Posted by: Bobby || 03/25/2010 12:30 Comments || Top||

#6  Damn, I'm getting sick and tired of the lefty British rags trying to influence American politics. They seriously need to bugger off and worry about their own 2nd rate country.

Is there any way we can switch April and November around so we can drain the swamp in D.C. now?
Posted by: Jefferson || 03/25/2010 15:11 Comments || Top||

#7  This "poll" used an opt-in protocol.

Thus the people answering it were self selected.

and most of the questions were of the "do you agree that..." and thus they were leading questions

Thus this poll is BS.
Posted by: lord garth || 03/25/2010 17:58 Comments || Top||

#8  Just a another lefty loser, he's too dumb to be the anti-Christ.
Posted by: DMFD || 03/25/2010 19:32 Comments || Top||

#9  I wonder if Dark Lord Cheney is happy about this because it gets him off the hook, or pissed off about the competition?
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/25/2010 19:34 Comments || Top||

#10  Thus this poll is BS.

James Taranto of Best of the Web fame says the same as our own lord garth, but in greater detail.
Posted by: trailing wife on the other computer || 03/25/2010 19:44 Comments || Top||


UN weighs in on US health care reform
Now I know we're headed in the wrong direction.
The head of the U.N. World Health Organization on Wednesday praised U.S. healthcare reforms signed by President Barack Obama this week as a breakthrough, stepping into a sharp domestic political debate.

"The people in this country and their leaders are courageous. That (healthcare reform) is an unprecedented achievement," WHO Director General Margaret Chan said.

She was speaking to reporters after a lecture in which she argued that unrestricted market forces were limited as a means of redressing imbalances in global health care.

The reforms of the $2.5 trillion healthcare sector passed by Congress after months of heated debate will extend health insurance to 32 million Americans who currently have none.

It will also bar insurers from refusing coverage to people with preexisting medical conditions, expand the Medicaid government health insurance program for the poor and impose new taxes on the wealthy.

Conservatives and other critics argue that it will send the U.S. budget deficit soaring and slow economic recovery, but also that it represents unwarranted federal intrusion into the freedom of individuals to make healthcare choices.

Chan has made clear her view that governments and global organizations such as WHO should make a case for market regulation to deliver more equitable health benefits.

"Market forces, all by themselves, will not solve social problems. That is why public health needs to be concerned," said Chan in a lecture at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"The hardest thing ... is persuading world leaders or ministers ... that health concerns can, in some instances, be more important than economic interests. Economic growth is not, after all, the be-all, end-all, cure-all," said Chan, whose organization is based in Geneva.

She cited pharmaceutical companies which she said would not by themselves conduct costly research to deliver cheap drugs to combat preventable diseases that largely affect the poor.
Posted by: gorb || 03/25/2010 03:12 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Is Venezuela going to start monitoring our elections?
Posted by: Highlander || 03/25/2010 5:33 Comments || Top||

#2  US Healthcare is none of the UN's fucking business!
End of Story!
Posted by: 3dc || 03/25/2010 10:35 Comments || Top||

#3  Rubbish! When the US economy is left alone, those that choose to take part, can pay for, and have easy access to, the best medical care found on the planet.
Posted by: Jefferson || 03/25/2010 15:15 Comments || Top||

#4  The UN is correct only twice per day LESS than a broken clock.
Posted by: DMFD || 03/25/2010 19:35 Comments || Top||

#5  Screw the un
Posted by: Kelly || 03/25/2010 19:56 Comments || Top||

#6  In a couple of years, the UN will be out of business--about the time our money dries up.
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/25/2010 20:42 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Federal alert: Crime gang may target El Paso police
Law enforcement officers in El Paso, Texas, have been warned that a Mexican-related gang may target them in retaliation for a crime sweep over the weekend.

An officer safety alert issued this week by the federal Department of Homeland Security said authorities had "received uncorroborated information that the Barrio Azteca gang in El Paso is considering retaliating against law enforcement officers in response to the 'gang sweep' conducted from Thursday 3/18/2010 through Sunday 3/21/2010. The Barrio Azteca gang may issue a 'green light' authorizing the attempted murder of LEOs in the El Paso area."

Officers are urged to take extra safety precautions, such as varying their routes to and from work and to wear body armor while on the job. Officers also are encouraged to talk with family members about the possible threat.

The crime sweep in the El Paso area occurred after the Barrio Azteca gang was identified as possibly being responsible for the recent killings in Mexico of three people associated with the U.S. consulate in Ciudad Juarez. Two of those killed were U.S. citizens who lived in El Paso.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/25/2010 13:02 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I would enjoy seeing the Texas Rangers deployed to El Paso, with instructions that any bad guy they meet up with who volunteers to get a government paid for bullet be provided with one or more as the Rangers see fit.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/25/2010 17:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Texas also has something similar to the national guard called the Texas Guard. Worked with them before. Just don't mess with Texas...
Posted by: Elmaiger Hatfield7630 || 03/25/2010 19:04 Comments || Top||

#3  ...because the last play at Columbus, New Mexico didn't draw enough attention.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/25/2010 22:07 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
3D TV is a complete game changer
Posted by: Frozen Al || 03/25/2010 12:59 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Culture Wars
From a Doctor Who Will Not Comply
An M.D. in family practice passed along this letter she sent to her patients after Obamacare became law. She relates that, so far, "100% of those who have contacted me about it have supported me and accepted the new conditions."

March 23, 2010

My Dear Patient,

As you must know, Congress has just passed extensive legislation governing health care delivery and insurance systems. Whether you agree with what it does or not, we are all now subject to this law and its sweeping changes.

I have always conducted my medical practice with my patient's best interests as my first priority. Although not legally obliged to do so, I have routinely provided you with a receipt that has all the codes necessary to bill your own health insurance company for any reimbursement to which you are entitled. Until now, that insurance company was a free enterprise despite the fact that it was heavily regulated by state and federal laws. Now the situation is quite different. Through the new law's mandates, regulatory powers and reform, health insurance is and will be largely a government activity which will have an ever larger jurisdiction over how doctors practice, make clinical judgments and are paid.

The new law provides for about 150 new government agencies, many of which are designed to be ‘oversight' bureaucracies which will have the right to decide what medical care is legal to provide through insurance. Among other things, they will have the right to review my medical care of you and read your medical record. Now, as soon as you submit our economic transaction to your insurance company for reimbursement, you have involved me in these regulations and put me in the jurisdiction of government for my activities, decisions and behavior as your doctor.

No one can have two masters. Either I can serve you as my patient or I can serve the government. Either I can continue to make your welfare and health my only concern, including the protection of your privacy and medical records, or I can abide by ever-increasing amounts of government regulations and dictates to my decisions. I can't do both. I choose to continue to follow my conscience and practice medicine to serve you.

For this reason, I am responding to the situation created by this new law by exercising my right not to participate in any health insurance program. I will still provide you with the same medical services that I always have, but the interaction will be exclusively and privately between you and me. This means that I will provide you only with a receipt for the services you have paid for, but without the additional information that is required to submit your receipt for reimbursement to your health insurance company. That is the only way I can make sure there will be no conflict between following the law and serving you. Because the law is now in effect, so must these changes be to my practice.

Sincerely,

Linda Johnston, MD
Posted by: Beavis || 03/25/2010 15:02 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This post got me to thinking....(yeah, pipe down back there....)

Do any 'burgers know if this stupid Obamacare bill will outlaw what is commonly known as "concierge care" practices?

Me & the Tsar were thinking that it might be a better option to pay the stupid fine to the lazy slobs in DC for not participating, pay the annual fee for a family plan with one of these practices and possibly be able to write the fees off as medical expenses on our taxes.

(Besides, I think that the whole scheme would make my Obamabot sis in law cry if we could pull it off, which would make us happy indeed...)
Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie || 03/25/2010 18:28 Comments || Top||

#2  If the current combination of laws doesn't ban that now, they'll undoubtedly try later. In the mean time I'm contemplating any future hospitalization somewhere nice, like Costa Rica.
Posted by: eLarson || 03/25/2010 19:41 Comments || Top||

#3  "possibly be able to write the fees off as medical expenses on our taxes"

You don't really think the feds will continue to let you do that, do you, Blondie?

As Glenn often quotes, "They'll turn us into beggars 'cause they're easier to please." >:-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 03/25/2010 19:48 Comments || Top||

#4  In the mean time I'm contemplating any future hospitalization somewhere nice, like Costa Rica

Club Med-ical
Posted by: Frank G || 03/25/2010 19:50 Comments || Top||

#5  Well Cornsilk Blondie, unfortunatly the health system is not about health or care. It is as Dingle let slip and tried to lay off his slip on being tired rather than having tyrant aspirations, it is about "control of the people."

BO and his leftists minions will learn that Americans have a steel in their spines and a legacy of freedom that has been paid for dearly. You can not govern Americans with force. And you cannot force physicians to practice medicine. You may end up having a health care system without doctors. Herding cats is much easier than herding Americans. I predict you will see considerable civil disobedience to hand-handed passed unjust laws. Consider it a matter of civil rights.
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/25/2010 22:09 Comments || Top||

#6  hand-handed ham-handed
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/25/2010 22:10 Comments || Top||

#7  Barbara, they probably will have it in some form for the Obamaklatura.
Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie || 03/25/2010 22:12 Comments || Top||

#8  Well, yeah, Blondie.

Just like they get to fly first class on our money, they get raises (again with our money) when we don't, etc., etc.....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 03/25/2010 22:15 Comments || Top||

#9  Obamaklatura

be nice if we can get them to wear armbands or special uniforms. For the backlash
Posted by: Frank G || 03/25/2010 22:22 Comments || Top||


Ballot to decide whether California legalises mariguana
CALIFORNIA took a step closer to being the first American state to legalize marijuana, after state officials agreed the issue would be included in the November 2 ballot.

A voter initiative to let the drug be legally sold and taxed was supported by a massive petition, with many more signatures than the 433,971 needed for the plan to be certified submitted before Wednesday's 5pm (local time) deadline, The Los Angeles Times reported.

Lawmakers are allowed to place constitutional amendments and proposed changes in law on the ballot. These can be driven by "ballot measures" - voter initiatives that need a certain number of signatures on a petition.

Passage of the marijuana measure on election day is not certain but it places California at the forefront of America's debate on drugs. It could also put California at odds with the US government, which opposes legalizing marijuana.

Supporters say outlawing marijuana has failed - and that taxing the drug could help California's troubled finances.

"We're one step closer to ending cannabis prohibition and the unjust laws that lock people up for cannabis while alcohol is not only sold openly but advertised on television to kids every day," said legalisation advocate Richard Lee, an Oakland marijuana entrepreneur.

However, a broad range of opponents will be fighting the measure.

"We'll educate people as to what this measure really entails," John Lovell, a Sacramento lobbyist who represents the California Police Chiefs Assn, told The LA Times.

"With legalization of recreational marijuana use, impaired driving, fatalities, injuries and crashes will go up, and we don't want to see that," California Mothers Against Drunk Driving spokesman Silas Miers said.
Posted by: tipper || 03/25/2010 04:23 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Whoever wrote that headline, can't spell.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/25/2010 5:00 Comments || Top||

#2  A mariguana is a pot smoking lizard.
Posted by: Highlander || 03/25/2010 5:31 Comments || Top||

#3  "With legalization of recreational marijuana use, impaired driving, fatalities, injuries and crashes will go up, and we don't want to see that," California Mothers Against Drunk Driving spokesman Silas Miers said.

A couple years back there was a study done by the Brits that concluded pot smokers actually drove safer than straight drivers. That was before cellphones really kicked in and way before texting while driving became necessary.
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 03/25/2010 6:12 Comments || Top||

#4  New law: DWG - Driving While Gorging [oneself on snack food...]
Posted by: CrazyFool || 03/25/2010 6:27 Comments || Top||

#5  Given the condition and culture of California, we can observe another leftist fallacy, religion is not the opiate of the masses. They want the real stuff to avoid dealing with real life.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/25/2010 8:15 Comments || Top||

#6  A couple years back there was a study done by the Brits that concluded pot smokers actually drove safer than straight drivers.


Made by the same people who concluded about Global Warming?
Posted by: JFM || 03/25/2010 9:47 Comments || Top||

#7  Redneck Jim, in Spanish the letter "g" is pronounced the way we pronounce the letter "w" especially when combined with a "u". So the spelling in the headline would appear to be correct to Spanish speakers and in Kaliphornia these days there are an awful lot of Spanish speakers. Even those of us who aren't Hispanic have become so accustomed to Spanish words and spellings that the "g" in mariguana looks normal. Well, pretty soon it might be "normal" to go around smoking reefers. I mean, there has to be some explanation for people like Barbara Boxer and Nancy Pelosi getting elected.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 03/25/2010 12:07 Comments || Top||

#8  #7, there you go. A law requiring a voter to test clean to vote might take care of the pelosi / boxer problem...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/25/2010 13:01 Comments || Top||

#9  Ebang Uluque I fear your Spanish is a bit rusty.

To begin with it is not mariguana but mrrijuana and the J is pronunced like the h in harsh

For the Spanish g, it is a very special letter if it is followed by an e or a i it is pronounced like the h in harsh. If it is followed by an A an O or an U it is pronounced like the G in begin.
Now the combos GUI, or GUE the G is prounced like in begin and the U is not pronounced at all: it's only use is to point at pronouncing the G like in begin (there is the rare ü for the cases where the U must be prounced like in ciguëńa ie stork). In the combos GUA or GUO the U is pronounced since these letters don't need the U top make the G be pronounced G.

For the english J sound like in jail it doesn't exist in Spanish.

BTW I am a native speaker in Spanish (in addition to French).
Posted by: JFM || 03/25/2010 13:35 Comments || Top||

#10  How's about legalizing Mariguano ?
I heard there are lots ofBats in Kalifornica :)
Posted by: Elder of Zion || 03/25/2010 13:38 Comments || Top||

#11  Mariguana: Stacy Keach in "Up In Smoke"...
Posted by: mojo || 03/25/2010 13:52 Comments || Top||

#12  La Mariguana es adictiva ?
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 03/25/2010 14:14 Comments || Top||

#13  JFM, it's 'Mexican', not 'Spanish'.
Posted by: Pappy || 03/25/2010 19:12 Comments || Top||

#14  By their actions I'd say most of the California Legislature is stoned 99% of the time.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 03/25/2010 19:38 Comments || Top||

#15  Only 99%, Deacon?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 03/25/2010 19:54 Comments || Top||

#16  Wasn't long ago that some university disovered pot use leads to schitzophrenia.

Then again who can trust English Universities these days.

I don't particularly like pot but i have a hard time justifying it being illegal. It is primarily a gateway drug because it is illegal and thus have to go through a dealer who has other wares to push.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 03/25/2010 22:49 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
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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.
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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
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trailing wife
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Two weeks of WOT
Thu 2010-03-25
  Nativity Church deportee dies alone, unloved in Algeria
Wed 2010-03-24
  Saudis break up 101-strong Al-Qaeda cell
Tue 2010-03-23
  Hekmatyar dispatches peace delegation to Kabul
Mon 2010-03-22
  Boomer kills 10 Helmand picnickers
Sun 2010-03-21
  4 More Dronezapped in N.Wazoo
Sat 2010-03-20
  Al-Shabaab big turban bumped off
Fri 2010-03-19
  David Headley pleads guilty
Thu 2010-03-18
  'Jihad Jane' due in federal court in Philadelphia
Wed 2010-03-17
  N.Wazoo dronezap reduces 10 to component parts
Tue 2010-03-16
  Local Qaeda big turban titzup in Yemen strike
Mon 2010-03-15
  Sipah-e-Sahabah Pakistain chief pegs out
Sun 2010-03-14
  Kandahar hit by suicide bombers, 30 dead
Sat 2010-03-13
  Lahorkabooms kill 49
Fri 2010-03-12
  Sipah-e-Sahabah Pakistain chief shot up, son killed
Thu 2010-03-11
  Droukdel reportedly ousted as GSPC emir
Wed 2010-03-10
  Dulmatin Confirmed Dead


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