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Boom Bitch Kills 10 in Diyala Province
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Skinny-Dipping Tailgater Accused of Kneeing Cop
A tailgater skinny dipping inside a truck bed at a University of Massachusetts football game has been charged with assault for allegedly kneeing a campus police officer in the groin.

Deputy Chief Patrick Archbald said a 21-year-old man was among several fans splashing around in the back of a pickup truck before Saturday's game against the University of Delaware.

When police told them to stop, the man refused to get out. He then approached an officer and kneed him twice in the groin, Archbald said.
Posted by: Mike || 10/09/2008 15:55 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Advice for tourists: be polite to the waitstaff
Waiters have allegedly beaten an Australian tourist to death for being "arrogant" while ordering a beer in an Indian restaurant. . . . Some reports said security staff at the bar joined in the bashing. Others said Mr Kelly was set upon by "a group" of waiters, who also tore up his clothes.
Posted by: Mike || 10/09/2008 15:52 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  When I was stuck in a hotel in Hyderbad India the only problems I had was they washed their beer glasses in something nasty and then looked at me odd when I drank out of the bottle instead. If you provided a cd they'd play it, happily and everyone was nice.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 10/09/2008 16:18 Comments || Top||


Wife pours boiling water on hubby's johnsonal area
The link's worth a look just for the mugshot. She looks quite happy with herself...
A Bradenton woman told authorities Wednesday that her suspicion that her husband had an affair led her to pour boiling water on his groin, scalding the man.
Was the bitch hot? Cuz now you are!
Maverna T. Turay, 52, admitted to boiling a pot of water just after 1:30 a.m. and pouring it on her husband while he slept, according to Manatee County Sheriff's Office reports. Turay told deputies she had been drinking beer before the incident.
Beer, cheating, scalding water, and Florida. A bad combination
She said she attacked her husband of two years because she believed he had been cheating on her and he hadn't come home the night before, sheriff's reports said.
Honey, don't pay the ransom! I escaped!
Ealy Jones Jr., 51, declined to discuss the incident from a Tampa General Hospital burn unit Wednesday afternoon. He is listed in fair condition there, according to hospital spokeswoman Ellen Fiss."I am doing fine," he said.
My johnson? Not so good. But I suppose she coulda cut it off so I can't complain.
The sheriff's report said the couple went to the home of relatives, in the 7100 block of Sixth Avenue Northwest to watch Maverna's nieces and nephews. Sheriff's deputies responded to the home after Maverna's 16-year-old nephew called 911 when Jones ran screaming out of the house.
Oh, damn. Sounds like Aunt Maverna got into the beer again...
He had second-degree burns from the boiling water, according to sheriff's reports.
...and learned a valuable lesson I'm sure.
Deputies arrested Maverna on a charge of aggravated battery causing great bodily harm. She was being held in the Manatee County jail on $7,500 bond.
She looks like she'd do it again tomorrow...
Posted by: tu3031 || 10/09/2008 13:23 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Only second degree? Shoulda used the McD's coffee honey. It's worth millions. :)
Posted by: Procopius2k || 10/09/2008 14:07 Comments || Top||

#2  R - E - S - P - E - C - T ...
Posted by: Steve White || 10/09/2008 14:09 Comments || Top||

#3  This is too easy:

Something about sterilizing meat....

Or quoting the ballpark frank commercial about cooking and plump......

Posted by: USN, Ret. || 10/09/2008 15:14 Comments || Top||

#4  Apparently Ealy hid the sharp objects...
Posted by: Pappy || 10/09/2008 16:59 Comments || Top||

#5  ROFLMAO! Great in-line, tu! :-D

I think I strained something....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 10/09/2008 17:28 Comments || Top||

#6  Hot water kills germs.  If hubby was wandering, this was good disease prevention on her part.
Posted by: lotp || 10/09/2008 17:59 Comments || Top||

#7  SUSPECTED of cheating. Evidently there was no evidence. Wonder what the snark would be if a man poured boiling water in a woman's snatch, based on mere suspicion?

Can you say "DOUBLE STANDARD?"

Yes... I knew you could!
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 10/09/2008 18:17 Comments || Top||

#8  That's why it's a LURID crime tale, Scooter ...
Posted by: Steve White || 10/09/2008 19:20 Comments || Top||

#9  "Johnsonal" > WHOA, HAVEN'T HEARD THAT TERM IN LONG WHILE.

Back in my younger days, that term here in Vietnam-era and Post-Vietnam/Nixon Guam [as per "Johnson & Johnson" Co. Baby Products] meant only the arse-buttock area, NOT "the Other"!
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 10/09/2008 19:42 Comments || Top||

#10  coulda been worse, recommendations are to poke it with a fork before microwaving.....
Posted by: Frank G || 10/09/2008 20:28 Comments || Top||


Woman shot in crotch for refusing oral sex
A PARAFIELD Gardens man who shot a woman in the crotch after she refused his demand for oral sex will be sentenced in the District Court later this month.

Laurie Edward Elliott is in custody after being found guilty of threatening a person with a firearm and possessing a firearm without a licence. Elliott, 54, demanded the woman perform the sex act on him while the pair were driving in suburban Adelaide. After the gun discharged, hitting the woman in the inner thigh, Elliott told her the gun had gone off accidentally.
So his gun went off prematurely?
The victim today told how the shooting had forced her to move from her home interstate and the stress it had placed on her family.

Judge David Lovell remanded Elliott in custody for sentencing on October 24.
Posted by: Beavis || 10/09/2008 10:28 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Those seem like light charges for what he did.
Felonious assault, assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated assault, forced oral copulation, maybe even aggravated sexual assault might be more fitting. Unless they totally believed the 'accident' story.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 10/09/2008 13:02 Comments || Top||

#2  hard to find a pot of boiling water in the car....

Posted by: USN, Ret. || 10/09/2008 15:16 Comments || Top||

#3  As a former South Australian resident I can tell you that Parafield Gardens isn't exactly all that high on the socio-economic scale.
Posted by: Aussie Mike || 10/09/2008 16:32 Comments || Top||

#4  Really, A. Mike?

Hooda thunk it? ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 10/09/2008 17:30 Comments || Top||

#5  "Laurie" > Any relation to A BOY NAMED SUE???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 10/09/2008 19:26 Comments || Top||


China says 10,700 children in hospital over milk
Posted by: ed || 10/09/2008 09:47 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They had the perfect "Canary in the coal mine" moment with the cat food contamination incident from a year or two ago. And they apparently ignored it.
Posted by: Tranquil Mechanical Yeti || 10/09/2008 10:29 Comments || Top||

#2  They're always trying to pull something. They just did it to themselves this time.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 10/09/2008 10:53 Comments || Top||

#3  The amazing thing is they admitted the numbers are so large.

Someone in China is going to the pokey to become spare parts and I have to wonder if they are a high ranking politicians being set up right now.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 10/09/2008 10:54 Comments || Top||

#4  This is nothing new. Usually it's contaminated alcohol though. and 10,700 is not that many in a country of 1+billion.
Posted by: Lumpy Thising4598 || 10/09/2008 15:09 Comments || Top||

#5  You may be right but do they export alcohol?

Still I expect dictatorships to cover up bad news, perhaps China just doesn't care.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 10/09/2008 16:04 Comments || Top||

#6  Again. many CHINESE NETTERS + Perts are demanding that Beijing formally investigate the "foreign role" in the Melamine crisis, mainly on the argument that the Melamine processing or production methods, etc. is TOO SOPHISTICATED/COMPLEX = BEYOND CURRENT ABILITIES as per CHINESE VENDORS. SOME HAVE ARGUES THAT THE US + UK ARE ENGAGING IN WILFUL + MALICIOUS "ECONOMIC/FOOD IMPERIALISM" AS PER OWG-NWO = US-WESTERN CONTROLLED GLOBALISM???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 10/09/2008 19:35 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Christy Brinkley's ex tells why he slept with teen
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 10/09/2008 12:28 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I thought it was clear (a) He's stupid (b) he thought he wouldn't be caught.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 10/09/2008 12:44 Comments || Top||

#2  Slow news day over at CNN? Not much happening in the world today, I guess...
Posted by: tu3031 || 10/09/2008 13:32 Comments || Top||

#3  Because he could and he was horny?
Posted by: DarthVader || 10/09/2008 13:39 Comments || Top||

#4  All of the above.
Posted by: Lionel Jiger8451 || 10/09/2008 16:26 Comments || Top||

#5  "Not guilty by reason of insanity, Your Honor. I'm just CRAZY about that stuff!"
--Cheech & Chong, "Big Bambu"

Posted by: Jolutch Mussolini7800 || 10/09/2008 18:40 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Rwanda: Call to Indict French Leaders for Genocide
A Rwandan judicial commission of inquiry into the role of France in the 1994 genocide, in which around 1 million Rwandans were killed in 100 days, has called for the indictment of 33 high-ranking French political and military leaders.

One of those named, then-president François Mitterrand, has since died. The list also includes the then-prime minister and two future prime ministers.
Posted by: 3dc || 10/09/2008 02:35 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Heaven forbid that Africans should assume any responsibility for slaughtering Africans. Yeah, just innocent child-like victims of colonialism.
Posted by: SteveS || 10/09/2008 11:06 Comments || Top||

#2  If you've ever seen the documentary "Dance with the Devil", you'd understand what happened a little better. Not completely, I'm sure. There have been a long line of people positioned to take the blame for what happened, Including the U.N. General from Belgium who had all of 40 troops at his disposal. This is just white noise to put the blame on others instead of themselves. They were the ones in the streets with machetes and knobkerries murdering their neighbors. It was a long simmering tribal conflict, that was the result of one tribe being chosen long ago to be the preferred people to deal with by the colonial powers. They enjoyed a somewhat imaginary preferred status in the post-colonial years.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 10/09/2008 11:33 Comments || Top||

#3  It is not a surprise that Africa cannot manage to govern itself. Nobody is willing to take blame for anything, even things they were taking credit for a decade ago.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 10/09/2008 12:38 Comments || Top||

#4  No kidding, it's their fault for doing it, and the rest of the world's fault for not stepping in and putting a stop to it. In 10 years, I guess they'll try to blame the Darfur genocide, on the African Union or something. Has the UN even decided if it fits the technical definition of a 'genocide' yet?
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 10/09/2008 13:07 Comments || Top||

#5  Bigjim and others

1) The genocide was perpetrated by the precedent (Hutu power ) governement and this one is dominsted by the Tutsi and the modetete Hutu (who were massacred with nearly as much glee then the Tusi). In other words the .

2) The French governemnt supported the genociders before the genocide (it was French forces who a couple years bedore the genocide stopped the FPR forces after they had routed teh Rwanda Army) depite knowing all too well (they made no mysteries misteries about it) what the Hutu power was preparing. It supported them during the genocide by covering their retreat (*), it supported them after the genocide by funding and rearming them so they could start a guerrilla campaign in Rwanda and perpetrate new massacres.

3 In case you want to know why the French did that, it is because Africa is France's milk cow and while Rawnda is dirty poor, French politicians feared a domino effect favoring the Americans.

4) In case you want to know why I take it so personally: because my daughter was eighteen months old and children her age weren't being spared.


(*) Tha forces deployes in Operation Manta officlally for protecting the victims of genicide in fact want to areas where there were about zero survivors. But their deployment prevented the FPR from cutting the retreat of the genociders.
Posted by: JFM || 10/09/2008 15:07 Comments || Top||

#6  1) The genocide was perpetrated by the precedent (Hutu power ) governement and this one is dominsted by the Tutsi and the moderate Hutu (who were massacred with nearly as much glee then the Tusi). In other words the victims.
Posted by: JFM || 10/09/2008 15:08 Comments || Top||

#7  Just a quick clarification:
There were not separate tribal groups in Rwanda. It was, in essence, a class war. The Hutu were the cow-herding class and the Tutsi were the subsistence farmers.
These groups did not typically intermarry,(cow herding brought more wealth and one wants to keep that within the family structure) but they have identical languages and cultural practices. By all definitions, they are the exact same ethnic group. The French created the difference and assigned physical attributes to the two groups.

This does not exempt the two groups from what happened, but the French did play a much larger role in defining these groups than we like to give them credit for. French involvement in the fighting was a completely different story and I agree with JFM on that.
Posted by: sjb || 10/09/2008 16:33 Comments || Top||

#8  Sorry SJN but you have it all wrong, or more excatly you have been lied. The people who lied to you tried deny an emabrassing evidence for them (Balck racism) and horseshoe it into their cheap marxist ideas

1) Hutus and Tutsis share a language (Kinyarwanda) a bantu language. Hutis seem to be native and Tutsis are Nilotic (like Masai in Kenya) and came mater (there is a third ethina, the Twas: avraity of pygmeys). Hutus and Tutsis are phisically very different: Hutus tend to be realtivaly short and broad, while Tutsis are very tall (a lot/most of their women are over six feeet, three inches. Men are taller), with very long legs and arms. Also most hutus have the same squat noses and fat lips typical in African Americans. Tutsis have thin lips and straight noses a feature who cannot be explained by mode of life or alimentary habits.
Also while there were cases of Hutus becoming cow-herders that never made Tutsis of them. ditto for Tutsis becoming farmers.

2) Even if you believed the cow herders versus farmers theory the fact is that teh Hutu propganda didn't present it as a class war. They presented it not as class war but as a racial war between Nilotics and Bantus (properly the Bantus are a linguistic not racial group, but since most Bantus have "negroid" facial features and those with Nilotic like ones are a miority coming from outside and adopting Bantu languages, the Hutu power people defined Bantus as race).

3) Rwanda was conquered by Germans and became Belgian fter WWI. It was never in French hands. Tutsis had been the rulers of Rwanda (and cut to pieces all slave-taking expeditions venturing in their kingdom) since around 1600. After WWII, the Belgian version of Mountbatten thought it would be a good idea to handle power (and thus the weapons and army) the majority ie the Hutu. Pogroms started neraly immediately, culminating with a quasi genocide in 1962 (*). Benjamain Franklin said: "Democracy is when two wolves and a lamb vote about dinner, a Republic is when you have a weel armed lamb able to object. The Belgian governor who handled power to Hutus should have thought about it.

(*) That was slogan Radio Mille Collines repeated during the genocide: "Let's not repeat the 1962 mistake: don't spare the children". There is a kind of sinners Jesus Christ was unable to forgive: those who harmed children.
Posted by: JFM || 10/09/2008 17:46 Comments || Top||

#9  JFM,
I certainly cannot dispute your last two points in the slightest.
As to the first, well, the gist of what you say i agree with. It is possible that I have been lied to, but the people I talked to about it were people from the region, and also researchers who have spent extensive amounts of time in the country during and after the conflict.

Were they biased in telling me details? Quite possibly. If so, I apologize deeply. I hate being wrong and I hate even more inaccuracies in information sharing. But I prefer first-hand accounts and study, and they all told me the same thing, so forgive me for my thinking.
Posted by: sjb || 10/09/2008 18:28 Comments || Top||

#10  When will they investigate the culpability of Bill Clinton for the Rwanda debacle?
Posted by: Woozle Unusosing8053 || 10/09/2008 20:18 Comments || Top||

#11  Never, he simply did nothing, that's not a crime unfortunately. He him-hawed around until there was nothing left to do. And do you know he had the balls to show his face in Rwanda after it was all over.

JFM and SJB, however you stack it up, it seems it was one 'favored' group with either real or imagined social status that was being murdered by people they lived next to and looked, spoke, lived and dressed identically to. It was pointless.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 10/09/2008 22:26 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
3 women commit suicide in city
I'm posting this because I sense a disturbing trend: young women 'hanging' themselves in what are really 'honor' killings. That is to say, murder. These read about the same and makes me wonder if the 'Crossfire' PR flak is moonlighting ...
Three young women, including a domestic help, committed suicide in the city yesterday. The deceased were identified as Tuntoni Begum, 20, Marina Akhter, 22, and Amena Akhter,16.

Police said Tuntoni, wife of Shahid Hossain of Aganagar Dewri in Lalbagh area, committed suicide by hanging herself from a ceiling fan at her house early yesterday. Following an altercation with her in-laws and family members she committed suicide, they added.

Domestic help Marina, who worked at the house of Abdus Sobhan at officers' quarters in Eskaton area, fell sick when she tried to commit suicide hanging herself from a ceiling fan with a scarf at the residence. Police recovered her body from Holy Cross Red Crescent Medical College and Hospital as she was taken to the hospital where on-duty doctors declared her dead, police said. She hailed from Debiganj in Panchagarh, family sources said.

Mirpur police recovered body of Amena from her sister's house at Prianka Housing at Mirpur-1. She also committed suicide with her scarf in the same tactics at her bedroom in the residence, police added.

Reasons behind the incidents could not be known immediately, they added.
So that's three ceiling fans and two scarves. Certainly would be helpful to get the attention of feminist groups and the world press -- ah, but they're too busy right now.
Posted by: Steve White || 10/09/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Just like the dowry murders in India: "Gee, her sari caught fire while she was cooking."
Posted by: mom || 10/09/2008 9:49 Comments || Top||


Down Under
Ex-Aussie Soldier allowed to fly Aussie flag after public outcry
A PUBLIC outcry has forced a Queensland local council to back down on its decision to make a former soldier pull down his Australian flag.

Logan City Council ordered former Digger Aaron Wilson to take down the flagpole outside his Eagleby house after a neighbour complained it was "offensive".

A furore broke out yesterday as patriotic Australians voiced their support for Mr Wilson, whose friends fought in Iraq, the Courier-Mail reported Only hours later, a council spokeswoman said they would work with Mr Wilson to help him relocate the flag.
Posted by: Oztralian || 10/09/2008 17:57 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Politix
"... the next vice president of the United States--John McCain!"


Ooopsies!
Posted by: Mike || 10/09/2008 06:55 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  My, my, my. He has probably been vilified to the point of actually voting for McCain.
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 10/09/2008 8:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Almost as funny as Palin trying to pronounce "Nuclear". She's a Bush, just hotter.
Posted by: Todd || 10/09/2008 11:03 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Mutant fish 'killing people in river'
Posted by: Oztralian || 10/09/2008 04:38 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Since catfish are eating peole just release some specimens of their natural predator. Crocodiles.
Posted by: JFM || 10/09/2008 10:15 Comments || Top||

#2  More likely it is a cover story for why rival clansmen are disappearing and turning up in the river. It looks like a regular catfish to me.
Something is fishy here.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 10/09/2008 10:31 Comments || Top||

#3  There is a pond in front of the Phoenix zoo, with large catfish that were there when it was a fish hatchery in the 1930s. Food dispensers on the bridge over the pond allowed people to feed the ducks below, and also the catfish, which kept getting bigger.

Eventually the pond had to be subdivided down its length by a chain link fence, with the catfish on one side and the ducks on the other, as the catfish developed a taste for duck.

But the very big catfish are found in the dam lakes, where they rest on the bottom near the dam, and food literally rolls downhill. Body recovery divers started noticing pieces of cadavers had been torn off.

One diver got the bends after surfacing too rapidly, after meeting one of these giants unexpectedly.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 10/09/2008 11:17 Comments || Top||

#4  Big Jim,
I don't know about Kentucky, but we don't get catfish that size up here. (Texas is a whole other story)

Posted by: Frozen Al || 10/09/2008 11:17 Comments || Top||

#5  On occasion a fisherman will pull a 100lb cat out of the Ohio river. I don't know what the record is, but 100lb is fairly good sized. I never saw anything bigger than about 40lb when I was diving for a living.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 10/09/2008 11:27 Comments || Top||

#6  In France we have catfish weighing from 200 to 250kg (450 to 550 kilograms).
Posted by: JFM || 10/09/2008 11:51 Comments || Top||

#7  Distant memories can be wrong. It was size who was 2m50 (over eight feet). Weight is "only" 120kg (270 lb).
Posted by: JFM || 10/09/2008 12:05 Comments || Top||

#8  Mutant Catfish Attack!

Women, Minorities hardest hit.
Posted by: Tranquil Mechanical Yeti || 10/09/2008 12:10 Comments || Top||

#9  I've seen photos of 200 lb cats taken from the Mississippi river in Missouri, back in the 1920's. There were NO reports of them ever trying to eat people though....
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 10/09/2008 12:18 Comments || Top||

#10  European and asain catfish (silures) are not from the same stock and I think not even emparented to tehj American catfish (even if the later can be found now in european rivers after accidental or purposeful introduction).
Posted by: JFM || 10/09/2008 12:35 Comments || Top||

#11  It swallowed Chang whole I tell ya.
Posted by: ed || 10/09/2008 13:14 Comments || Top||

#12  I saw this movie when I was 12 or 13 on "Shock Theatre" on Channel 33.
Posted by: Mike || 10/09/2008 13:25 Comments || Top||

#13  And, you know, the thing about a goonch... he's got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be living... until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then... ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin'...
Posted by: Quint || 10/09/2008 15:08 Comments || Top||

#14  FYI, the records for US catfish are:
Blue catfish- 124 lbs
Flathead Catfish- 91 lbs
Channel Catfish- 58 lbs
Mind you there are records of flathead around 100 lbs that were caught on "unlimited tackle". Flatheads are most likely those giants at the bottom of dams etc., blue cats are riverine fish. So blue cats are the giants of the Mississippi river and are most likely also found in the Ohio and Missouri river.
Posted by: bruce || 10/09/2008 15:12 Comments || Top||

#15  FROM : Guiness Book of World Records
http://www.thunderstone.com/texis/site/demos/gbwr/+QheFLP_eohbnmeE-7mkeutwww/record.html

" Fishes - Gnathostomata, Agnatha : Largest freshwater
Description: The largest fish that spends its whole life in fresh or brackish water is the rare Pla beuk (Pangasianodon gigas). It is confined to the Mekong River and its major tributaries in China, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand. The largest specimen, captured in the River Ban Mee Noi, Thailand was reportedly 3 m 9 ft 10 1/4 in long and weighed 242 kg 533.5 lb. This was exceeded by the European catfish or wels (Silurus glanis) in earlier times (in the 19th century lengths up to 4.57 m 15 ft and weights up to 336.3 kg 720 lb were reported for Russian specimens), but today anything over 1.83 m 6 ft and 91 kg 200 lb is considered large. The arapaima (arapaima glanis), also called the pirarucu, found in the Amazon and other South American rivers and often claimed to be the largest freshwater fish, averages 2 m 6 1/2 ft and 68 kg 150 lb. The largest 'authentically recorded' measured 2.48 m 8 ft 1 1/2 in in length and weighed 147 kg 325 lb. It was caught in the Rio Negro, Brazil in 1836. In September 1978, a Nile perch (Lates niloticus) weighing 188.6 kg 416 lb was netted in the eastern part of Lake Victoria, Kenya.
Country: BRA Rio Negro, Brazil / KEN Kenya, Lake Victoria /"

Google Image search of Texas Catfish :
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Texas+Catfish&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2

I've caught some in the Guadalupe River. Have also seen them eat water birds and once, chased a small dog that was swimming. (The dog made it)
Thar be some bigguns in Texas.

Larry Everett
Posted by: Larry Everett || 10/09/2008 15:19 Comments || Top||

#16  I think the largest fresh water fishes are... the Zambeze shark and the Lake Nicaragua shark.
Posted by: JFM || 10/09/2008 17:58 Comments || Top||

#17  Well, they were using stinkbait.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 10/09/2008 19:19 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
STUDY: 22% of 2007 Felonies Caused by Illegals - Arizona
Arizona taxpayers shell out $114 million annually to cover the cost of incarcerating them.

Click here to read the study

A new study from the Maricopa County Attorney is showing that illegal immigrants are responsible for a disproportionate amount of crime.

Data used in the report wasn't gathered until the passage of Prop 100 two years-ago. The voter-approved law denies bail to those in the country illegally accused of a class 4 felony or above.

The study concluded that nine percent of Arizona's population is in the country illegally, yet nearly 22 percent of felonies sentenced in Maricopa County are committed by illegal immigrants. Arizona taxpayers shell out $114 million annually to cover the cost of incarcerating them.
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 10/09/2008 13:38 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Photo provided courtesy of the Phoenix ACORN offices. /snark off
Posted by: Procopius2k || 10/09/2008 14:11 Comments || Top||

#2  I bet the misdemeanors are at the same level. Prosecuting them ain't cheap, either.
Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie || 10/09/2008 16:52 Comments || Top||

#3  Commission of a felony crime while in the country illegally should result in the forfeiture of all assets and a mandatory extension of ten years to all criminal sentences.
Posted by: Jolutch Mussolini7800 || 10/09/2008 18:43 Comments || Top||

#4  I live in Maricopa county. It's insane here. The homes in my neighborhood range in value from $350 to 450k. EVERY home on my street was broken into over the last 18 months! The police won't even come out any more, they just take the report over the phone.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 10/09/2008 18:54 Comments || Top||

#5  Where is the surprise meter?
Posted by: Iblis || 10/09/2008 19:12 Comments || Top||


Home Front Economy
White House considers ownership stakes in banks
The Bush administration is considering taking ownership stakes in certain U.S. banks as an option for dealing with a severe global credit crisis.

An administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because no decision has been made, said the $700 billion rescue package passed by Congress last week allows the Treasury Department to inject fresh capital into financial institutions and get ownership shares in return. This official said all the new powers granted in the legislation were being considered as the administration seeks to deal with a serious credit crisis that has caused the biggest upheavals on Wall Street in seven decades and continues to roil global markets.

Supporters of this approach, such as Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., argue that injecting fresh capital into U.S. banks who want to participate in the program would be an effective way to bolster banks' balance sheets and get them to resume lending. Taxpayers would benefit because the government would receive an equity stake in the bank in return for providing the capital. "This idea would, at a minimum, complement the administration's planned approach of buying up troubled assets and may prove to be the most promising tool of all in Secretary Paulson's kit," Schumer said in a statement.

A decision to inject capital directly into financial institutions in return for ownership stakes would be similar to a plan announced Wednesday by Britain. ...
Posted by: ed || 10/09/2008 09:15 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And how much will the 'middleman' get to skim off the 'infusion'? Do it yourself and cut out the middleman.

Taxpayers would benefit because the government would receive an equity stake in the bank in return for providing the capital

What's the equity stake of 0? What's the equity stake of owning the whole friggin bank?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 10/09/2008 9:34 Comments || Top||

#2  The Euro-Ruski nesting doll model. Everything belongs inside the state. How very ingenious of Sen. Schumer.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/09/2008 10:26 Comments || Top||

#3  Are we, or at least our financial system, communist now? I'm confused, central state run financial systems are indicative of communist countries, aren't they? Does this move really fit our economic model? What is happening?
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 10/09/2008 10:57 Comments || Top||

#4  The national government has been a central player since the Constitution gave the fed’s the monopoly on minting/printing money. Back in those day, and pretty much the 19th Century, if it wasn’t gold or silver, it wasn’t money. So, the government influenced the economy by the availability of the stuff in could get into the market system. The Bank of the United States was one of the mechanisms to do that and remained so till a feud between its director and Andrew Jackson saw it killed. So, we’ve had a national bank before there was even a concept in Karl Marx’s little brain. Since then we’ve had panics, recessions, a Depression, and various and repetitive shots at regulations. Human nature being what it is, you’re not going to get a pure laissez faire system and we can perceive that single state banking/market system isn‘t a winner either. Humans have a habit of trying to influence or control their environment. The economic one being no different. What the government can do is set a bench mark for the rest of the business to compete against. If they beat it, good. If they can’t, then they have to take the riskier side of the market or go out of business. For the pubic, it becomes a trade off between lower return and security versus higher return and risk. Right now we have a library full of regulations and federal program offices that could be consolidated by creating a benchmark for competition rather than multiple bureaucracies whose basic objectives are the same.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 10/09/2008 13:55 Comments || Top||


Jobless claims drop from 7-year high
New applications for unemployment benefits dropped last week from a seven-year high, the Labor Department said Thursday, though claims remain at elevated levels that indicate recession. Initial claims for jobless benefits dropped 20,000 to a seasonally adjusted 478,000, the department said, the same level that Wall Street economists expected.

The department said Hurricanes Ike and Gustav were responsible for adding about 20,000 claims on a seasonally adjusted basis. That's down from approximately 45,000 the previous week. The four-week average, which smooths out fluctuations, rose to 482,500, the highest since October 2001.

The number of Americans continuing to claim unemployment benefits rose to 3.66 million, above analysts' estimates of 3.6 million. That's the highest total in more than five years. The housing slump and resulting credit crisis has hit the economy hard, causing consumers to cut spending and businesses to eliminate jobs.

In response to what has become a global credit crisis, the Federal Reserve and six other central banks on Wednesday announced a coordinated interest rate cut. The Fed reduced its target interest rate to 1.5 percent from 2 percent. The Fed's cut means borrowing money becomes cheaper. Home equity loans, credit cards and other floating-rate loans all fluctuate depending on what the Fed does.

Jobless claims have come in above 400,000, a level economists consider a sign of recession, for 12 straight weeks. Claims stood at 316,000 a year ago.

The Labor Department said in a separate report last week that the economy shed jobs at its fastest pace in five years in September. Employers cut 159,000 jobs last month, the ninth straight month of reductions. Companies have eliminated 760,000 jobs so far this year. The unemployment rate remained at 6.1 percent in September, up from 5.7 percent in July and 4.7 percent a year ago.

The financial crisis will likely cause greater job cuts in the coming months as several large, troubled banks have been bought by competitors and layoffs are likely. Several companies announced job cuts in the past week, including eBay Inc., Kraft Foods Inc. and MetLife Inc.
Posted by: ed || 10/09/2008 09:12 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ....and the LA Times. Yeah, I can see unemployment continuing to rise in our self appointed 'ruling caste'. It's a feature, not a bug. Faster, faster.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 10/09/2008 9:18 Comments || Top||

#2  For being on the abyss of another great depression, I'm sure seeing mixed signals from the disparate sectors of our economy.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 10/09/2008 11:08 Comments || Top||

#3  People are such nincompoops sometimes. Look at what happened late this summer. Two hurricanes ripped through Louisiana and Texas. The *FIRST* thing federal relief folks do is get everyone signed up for federal unemployment so they have some money coming in.

People aren't working because practically the entire area on the coast near Galveston was wiped out. But now we see the numbers start to decline as people in New Orleans have gone back to work and people in Galveston will be doing so over the next few months as businesses and homes are rebuilt.

When you have 100,000 people in long-term evacuation, you have 100,000 people hitting the unemployment roles until they can find another job or their old place of employment opens back up.
Posted by: crosspatch || 10/09/2008 11:12 Comments || Top||

#4  Good point crosspatch, hadn't thought of that.
Posted by: bman || 10/09/2008 11:56 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Thu 2008-10-09
  Boom Bitch Kills 10 in Diyala Province
Wed 2008-10-08
  World's Stock Markets Plunge
Tue 2008-10-07
  Iran forces down Corporate Executive ''Fighter Jet''
Mon 2008-10-06
  Saudi hosts Afghan peace talks with Taliban reps
Sun 2008-10-05
  Baitullah makes appearance amid reports of his death
Sat 2008-10-04
  US drone strikes kill 20 in North Waziristan
Fri 2008-10-03
  'Biggest suspect' in ship piracy arrested
Thu 2008-10-02
  U.S. Begins Transferring Sunni Militias to Iraqi Government
Wed 2008-10-01
  Baitullah reported titzup
Tue 2008-09-30
  ISI chief, four corps commanders changed
Mon 2008-09-29
  At least six dead in Tripoli kaboom
Sun 2008-09-28
  Sudan desert chase 'n gunfight kills 6 kidnappers
Sat 2008-09-27
  Car boom kills 17 in Damascus
Fri 2008-09-26
  Shots fired in US-Pakistan clash
Thu 2008-09-25
  NKor bans nuke inspectors

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