A woman suspected of attempting to strike a Kentucky Fried Chicken employee with her car after a dispute over condiments was arrested Wednesday night.
Surprise police said Monique Aguet, 26, was at the drive-through of a KFC near Bell and Reems roads when the argument began. Police said Aguet became angry when employees failed to provide condiments with her meal.
Aguet entered the KFC and had a verbal exchange with an employee about 7 p.m., said Lt. Craig Scartozzi, a Surprise police spokesman. Employees ordered Aguet to leave the building and a KFC employee followed her out of the building and stood behind her vehicle to get a license plate number, Scartozzi said.
"(Aguet) began to pull out and the employee struck the trunk to let her know she was there in case she hadn't seen her," Scartozzi said.
According to authorities, Aguet is suspected of attempting to back out again despite the employee's warning. "She (the employee) was struck with the vehicle but was not injured," Scartozzi said.
Aguet was arrested on suspicion of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and disorderly conduct.
A 26-year old Greek woman has become an overnight national hero after setting fire to the genitals of a 23-year old drunken Briton who allegedly tried to sexually assault her in a crowded bar.
The unidentified woman from the fiercely proud island of Crete won herself even more praise by doing the right legal thing -- turning herself over to police and the courts to be put on trial for what she claimed was her "right to self-defence". She will face a magistrate on Friday to see if the case will go to court. "Some people just need killin' to be set on fire, your honor."
"Dismissed!"
She is currently facing an investigating magistrate on charges of causing bodily injuries to the Briton and of endangering private property.
The Briton himself, whose name is expected to be released later, is currently in a private clinic in Heraklion, the capital of Crete island, being treated for second degree burns to his testicles and penis. Yikes!
According to a police statement issued last night the incident occurred at a club in the notorious coastal resort of Mallia, which is dominated by young Britons seeking all-night revelry. It alleged the Briton took down his trousers and started waving his genitals at a number of girls. He then specifically "forcefully fondled" the 26-year old Greek woman, asking her to take hold of his genitals.
Sounds like a drunken Brit on holiday, all right. Or a stereotypical American frat boy in the same condition.
After asking him to stop harassing her, the police said, she poured the alcoholic drink Sabucco on his genitals (an Italian brand type of Greek ouzo or French Pernod drink). This again allegedly failed to stop his advances, so the woman seized a lighter and set fire to the alcohol-drenched genitals, local press reports said. Beware of Greeks bearing booze.... Persistent bugger, wasn't he ...
I'll bet the flames were pretty...
The charges were levelled after reports claimed that the assailant's genitals suffered considerable damage, requiring that he remain in a private clinic in Mallia. Travel operator sources at Mallia said his treatment is being covered by his travel insurance. Travel insurance covers this type of 'injury'?
The name of the clinic is not being disclosed and is under discreet police guard, police sources said.
However, the magistrate and prosecutor also unanimously agreed to set the woman free pending trial, an indication that they accepted her argument that she "acted in justified self-defence". A small crowd of bystanders outside the Heraklion hospital applauded and shouted "bravo, bravo", as she was rushed away under police escort.
Legal counsel for the woman said that at Friday's hearing the court may either issue an immediate verdict or else might postpone for a future date. This will depend on reported plans by the woman's lawyers to also take legal action against the Briton, as soon as he recovers.
Authorities on the island still refuse to release the names of the Briton and the now nationally famous but still unidentified Greek woman, on the grounds that they are bound by the Personal Data Protection law and the particular sensitivity of the case. Video coverage: The Doors: Light my Fire Jerry Lee Lewis: Great Balls of Fire.
#1
Maybe the next time some bitch is annoying the crap out of me, I'll just set her twat on fire and claim "self defense!". She could have gone to the police. This dude will probably be sexually disfigured for life. It's a sad state of affairs when a vicious cunt like this gets hailed as a "hero".
#4
I take it neither Scooter nor newc has ever been forceably groped or more by a drunk who outweighs you, is stronger than you and won't take 'no' for an answer, even when the 'no' is emphatically repeated. And who has you cornered, more or less, in a crowded place so you can't get away from his emphatically unwanted assault.
I'm sorry this jerk is so badly injured. But jerk he is. And he was more than 'annoying the crap' out of this woman - he physically assaulted her in a sexual way.
Neither of them impresses me, given that they chose to be at a place where drunken, out of control behavior is celebrated.
#5
Yeah, setting fire to his genitals was a little over the top, but considering the provocation... My daughter was in a very popular up-scale bar in a city which won't be mentioned a couple of years ago, where a perv with a camera-cellphone was trying to take pictures up women's skirts! She dribbled his head on the granite-topped bar a couple of times and smashed his phone. She had drinks on the house the rest of the evening, as she was the only woman there who did something a little more forceful with the creep. I was afraid she would be prosecuted for assault... but it wasn't exactly like he was going to complain about being beaten up by a girl, and everyone else in the place was pretty well fed up with him, too.
#6
I somewhat recall an old story of ancient Greece. It seem some boys in one village engaged in the old territorial play of raiding and looting their neighbors and brought the female stock back home as 'war brides'. Well, in those times the cloth used to cover one's natural gifts were held at the shoulder by a broach and pin. As the story goes, that night after the men had their drink and sport, the ladies took their rather large pins and 'offed' their new consorts. The tradition in those parts is that the womenfolk tied their cloth at the shoulders since the boys wouldn't let them have broaches, pins, or any sharpy pointing things since. Never get a Greek lady mad, just ask Clytemnestra.
#8
From what I've read over the years, young Brits like to come to the Greek islands and party. All well and good, but some party just a bit too hard and end up acting and looking like louts.
A safety tip to the boys: unholster yourself in public, and you pretty much deserve whatever happens to you.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/07/2009 9:44 Comments ||
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#9
Have a little compassion for the Brit. He is a victim of watching too much Benny Hill.
#12
A safety tip to the boys: unholster yourself in public, and you pretty much deserve whatever happens to you.
First, when one flambe's the food, it's generally only the alcohol that burns. One wonders how long the drunken lout sat there staring stupidly at the flames before someone put the fire out. Second, he should just be grateful she didn't have a can of soup on hand. Can you say, "planaria"?
#14
This reminds me of a story I heard on the radio years ago about a man who went into a woman's apartment, intending to rape her. She was heating water for spaghetti. She threw the boiling water him, which caused major damage to his privates.
He sued the victim(from jail)for using excessive force. My attitude was that in some states, women can use lethal force to prevent rape, he got off easy.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
08/07/2009 18:10 Comments ||
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"She dribbled his head on the granite-topped bar a couple of times and smashed his phone."
That's our Blondie, Sgt. Mom!
Semper Fi. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/07/2009 19:16 Comments ||
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#17
Cut off John Wayne Bobbets junk and women put the attacker on a pedestal as a hero. Now Greeks are doing the same thing. Mutilation is sick, no matter what the provocation.
#18
I never thought much of Bobbit or his attacker. I don't think this falls in the same category of premeditated mutilation, tho.
It doesn't read to me as if this woman intended to mutilate the guy. He wouldn't back off, he tried to get her to touch the genitals he was waving at her, she didn't oblige, he forcibly groped her, she asked him to stop, he didn't, the place was crowded, she didn't have a way to shake him off so she poured her drink on him, he got more and more insistent and offensive and she flicked the Bic.
I don't read the Greek reaction as celebrating mutilation. As TW noted above, if you had asked me before I read the article I would have guessed that the alcohol would have burnt off quickly without doing serious harm. Or that it could / would have been put out quickly after it was lit.
Quite possibly it could have been, and bystanders didn't, because he really had been bullying and obnoxious and was assaulting her and they all had had enough of him.
Eight-year-old Daniela Earnest has made lemonade out of lemons in more ways than one this week.
Hoping to raise money for a family trip to Disneyland, the Tulare girl opened a lemonade stand Monday. But because Daniela didn't have a business license, the city of Tulare shut it down the same day. From that came a radio station's offer of Disneyland tickets to Daniela's family -- in exchange for 30 cups of lemonade -- and an appearance in front of the Tulare City Council on Tuesday night that will likely lead to a compromise allowing her lemonade stand and other pint-sized business ventures to operate legally.
The story began Monday morning when Daniela and her stepmother, Marisa Earnest, set up shop at Cartmill Avenue and Hillman Street in north Tulare. The lemonade was freshly squeezed and priced at $2 for a 32-ounce plastic cup.
Richard Garcia, a Tulare code enforcement officer, happened to be at the same intersection to remove illegal signs left behind by someone selling tetherball poles. Garcia told Daniela and her stepmother that their lemonade stand -- on the northwest corner of the busy intersection -- was not safe, and also that they needed a business license to sell lemonade.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/07/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Someone needs to spend several months under the tender ministrations of the unemployment office.....
#2
Well, there's a neighborhood kid setting up a lemonade stand in her front yard (or at the corner) and then there's a parent putting a child on a major street to make enough money for the family to go to Disneyland. We're talking $56/person here, folks. When I had a lemonade stand as a kid, it was ten cents a glass, and if I made enough money to get ice cream (remember the ice cream man when he wasn't an arm of a major corporation or a Mexican?) or if I was lucky, a Star Wars figure.
I'm leaning towards "abusing children to make real money" and "trafficking up a major intersection" in this one.
#4
Sounds to me the parent was trying to teach her kid about earning money and the value of it. Standing with her kid is thwe only way to keep her safe. Instead the little girl learned about bureaucrats. The comment of not safe, a catch all and crap.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/07/2009 10:58 Comments ||
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#5
There is no mind so small, and no temperament so petty and vindictive, as that of a low-level bureaucrat.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/07/2009 11:35 Comments ||
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#6
Children don't need a business license to sell lemonade. Twit.
A felony suspect who tipped the scale at more than 500 pounds carried an unloaded 9mm pistol into city and county jails beneath flabs of his skin even though law enforcement officers repeatedly searched him, authorities said Thursday.
George Vera, 25, was released on $10,000 bail after being charged with possessing or selling unlabeled recordings and possession of a firearm in a correctional facility. Harris County District Attorney's spokeswoman Donna Hawkins said both charges are third-degree felonies, punishable by two to 10 years in prison upon conviction.
Police arrested Vera on Sunday after he was spotted selling apparently bootlegged compact discs out of the back of a sport utility vehicle parked at Hollister and Pitner, Hawkins said.
Police spokesman Victor Senties said Vera was searched three times by police personnel: once at the scene, again, more thoroughly, when he arrived at the city jail, and a final time before he was transferred to the Harris County Jail.
Vera was subjected to an additional search at the county lockup.
City and county law enforcement spokespeople said inmates at both the city and county jails are not required to pass through a metal detector or undergo wand searches.
Vera's possession of the firearm came to light Monday when he approached a county guard during a shower break and admitted having smuggled the weapon, authorities said.
The incident came just days after the county lockup at 1200 Baker passed a surprise inspection by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards. The review found that deficiencies cited after an April inspection malfunctioning intercoms, broken toilets and crowded holding cells had been successfully addressed.
A small Indonesian tribe which has no written version of its language has decided to adopt the Korean alphabet known as Hangeul, a scholar involved in the project said on Thursday. That makes sense. Of a sort. I guess.
How utterly, utterly, utterly cool! I'd love to know what the Korean connection is that led to this.
It is the first case of Hangeul, a phonetic alphabet, being used by a foreign society, said Seoul National University professor Lee Ho-Young.
Lee told AFP the Cia-Cia tribe in Bau-Bau city on Buton island in southeast Sulawesi has adopted the script to transcribe its aboriginal language. He said the city on July 21 began teaching students the alphabet based on textbooks created by the Hunminjeongeum Research Institute, a linguistic society in Seoul. 'The Cia-Cia are now able to preserve their native language,' said Lee, an institute member who played a key role in creating the textbooks, describing the case as 'historic.'
Green tea for everyone!
The books explain the history and culture of the tribe, which numbers around 60,000. 'I hope this will be a stepping stone for the spread of Hangeul abroad,' Lee said.
The decision 'reflects our efforts for years to spread Hangeul abroad. The tribe also wanted to promote economic and cultural exchanges with our country,' he added.
The institute has promised to start work in November on a cultural centre for the tribe, to train language teachers and to support cultural exchanges. It has been trying for years to spread the Korean alphabet to minority tribes across Asia who lack their own writing system. Indonesia uses the Roman alphabet for its national language Bahasa Indonesia. "Bahasa" means "language" in Indonesian (and Malay). In the language game we usually refer to bahasa Indonesia as "Indonesian."
Koreans are intensely proud of their 24-character Hangeul alphabet, which was introduced by King Sejong the Great around 1443 to supersede the use of Chinese characters. Presumably it's sufficiently better suited to representing the sounds of the Cia Cia language than is the Latin alphabet to make up for the difficulties engendered by having to abruptly switch alphabets when traveling to Bau Bau city in Cia Cia land on the Isle of Button...
I suspect that the choice was dictated by a personal connection. Isn't the Cyrillic alphabet named after St. Cyril?
Posted by: Fred ||
08/07/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
When working in Korea, I found the need to learn to read the language. I was surprised at how quickly I was able to learn to read signs, etc. Plus I had a whole country that was delighted to help, and I have not found Koreans otherwise overly well endowed in the helping out of others category. The next step, character group comprehension and cross-linking to English took longer, but the basic structure of the language was sound. Much easier than Japanese, and much much easier than Chinese. Might also be easier than English. My 2 cents.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
08/07/2009 4:12 Comments ||
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#2
IIRC, being phonetic (a relatively small number of symbols signifying a particular sound) is unique in Asia, being credited as the creation of one of their early kings. Vietnamese also has an alphabet, derived from the western alphabet and created by a French scholar-priest early in the Colonial period. Although widely used, Chinese and Japanese are pictographic - and so there are thousands of specific symbols - which makes it very difficult to learn, and costly to typeset!
#4
Meant unique in Asia, Parabellum - where Chinese pictograms usually rule. I wasn't forgetting the Cherokee. Just that they weren't living in Asia when a very clever member of the tribe worked out an alphabet for their language.
#8
--- Phonetic writing has an inherent advantage over pictographic writing, when a couple dozen characters can be used to generate every possible utterance, vs. needing to memorize several thousand pictographs for basic written communication. English started out phonetic, but as it evolved & sucked in elements from other languages, written English became less & less phonetic in character. So, dyslexics have a really hard time with literacy in English. Written Italian puts great emphasis on matching characters to pronunciation, so there are far fewer dyslexic Italian children.
--- Some of the old Grecian alphabetical characters were actually shaped to picture the way they were pronounced: the character for "O-mega" is a pictograph of the shape of your mouth as you are saying the sound, and the character for "theta" looks like your tongue placed below your incisors to make the sound of the "th" sound signified. If you use your imagination, a wide open mouth saying "Aaah" resembles a capital "A".
--- China has been literate for so long, and the country is so large, that by now different spoken languages have evolved and are not mutually intelligible, so a pictographic language has the advantage of being useful when Chinese speaking different languages want to communicate. Plays on words and musical language usages like poetry may not work too well in those cases.
--- There are only so many sounds human beings can produce with their vocal tract. Matching any alphabet to any verbal utterance is just arbitrary, there is no reason the Latin alphabet couldn't have been used for the Cia-Cia tribe, just as long as a given combination of characters is consistently used to match the sounds of their language.
--- In the US, some missionaries to the Indians found they were able to teach adult Indians to read in their tribal languages rather easily using the Latin alphabet to more or less match the sounds of the native language. There were other instances of natives in the USA(besides Cherokees) devising their own alphabets and creating their own written languages. Unfortunately the problem for the tribes was not illiteracy, but inability to communicate in English. Teaching spoken English to natives was always difficult. Being literate in a language understood by only a few thousand people isn't much of an advantage in this crowded world.
Victor Agosto, a 24-year-old soldier with the III Corps, found himself in military court on Wednesday for disobeying orders that would have sent him to Afghanistan. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail and demoted to private.
Rather than refusing to go overseas, Agosto just never went to the office that takes care of the deployment paperwork, which the Army only considers a minor offense. If he had directly refused an order to deploy the repercussions would have been much more severe.
So what made this Army man have a change of heart regarding the war? A 13-month stint in Iraq, sitting behind a computer. I realized that the war in Iraq had nothing to do with making Americans safer, Agosto told The Associated Press After I got back, I started feeling guilty about my part in the occupation.
When Agosto found out that he wasnt being discharged in June as he had expected, but would be deployed to Afghanistan instead, he stopped obeying orders and became active in local antiwar protests. Agosto told the court that he believed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan violated international law.
Hes not opposed to all wars; he is opposed to this war, because it is not a war of self-defense, his lawyer James M. Barnum told the NY Times. About 20 antiwar protesters that were present at the hearing cheered Agosto on as he was taken to jail.
#1
I'm of mixed minds about this. He was smart enough to do it in the least offensive way. And being leash jerked when you are expecting to ETS bugs the hell out of soldiers.
Give him his General Discharge. There are a lot more soldiers than him who are thinking about this right now.
#2
"I realized that the war in Iraq had nothing to do with making Americans safer," Agosto told The Associated Press "After I got back, I started feeling guilty about my part in the occupation."
Same could have been said about the invasion of (neutral) Vichy North Africa, to include the preservation of European colonial rule. However, the road to Berlin started there. Iraq was declared 'the battle' by Al Qaeda who this person forgot did this.
#3
WASHINGTON, DC Today, U.S. Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) introduced a bill to provide a monthly bonus to troops affected by stop loss, a Pentagon policy that involuntarily extends military service beyond an enlistment contract. The bill would require the Pentagon to pay $1,500 to each service member for each month he or she is kept beyond the end of their enlistment period. (www.http://lautenberg.senate.gov)
#7
6 and a kick cheaper than 1500 per month for every soldier who has been stoplossed for months and years. If DoD ever to gets rid of stoploss, theres a good chance they'd reinstitute a draft. Bring it! I was kept 11 month extra.
Title X USC. Subtitle A > PART II > CHAPTER 39 > § 671a
Unless terminated at an earlier date by the Secretary concerned, the period of active service of any member of an armed force is extended for the duration of any war in which the United States may be engaged and for six months thereafter.
which was engaged by this. Note well Sec 2(b)(1) which invokes the War Powers Resolution. The fact that they're not fully exercising this capability says a lot on their part to address all needs, both of the government and the citizen.
#9
And Lord knows, we wouldn't want to do things using overt power upfront like a draft to meet staffing needs, so doing it sneakified style with the backdoor draft is SO much better. Because being dishonest sneaks is what our gummint is all about. yea, yea, I know theres a clause in the contract, youre protesting. Still, the stop loss justifies the indignity of calling on our boys and girls to give and give somemore while fat ass dems sit on their couch and complain. Draft for everyone under 30 I say, women included, gangsta style.
Personally, I think at least the draft punished the anti military as well as pro military by making them all serve.
The stoploss penalizes our boys and girls that were good enough to volunteer, and I dont like that. And just because they volunteered, doesn't mean that sacred service pact should be abused ad infinitum.
[Maghrebia] Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz took the oath of office on Wednesday before a crowd of 20,000 to become President of Mauritania. Supporters and opponents alike attended the event, in support of the political process.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/07/2009 00:00 ||
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[Mail and Globe] Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe is stockpiling arms and ammunition and preparing for war, the Democratic Alliance (DA) warned on Thursday. Briefing the media at Parliament, following a fact-finding visit to Zimbabwe last week, DA MPs Wilmot James and Kenneth Mubu said "credible sources" within the country reported Mugabe was talking to Venezuela, Cuba and Korea to fund a war chest ahead of the next election.
The ageing leader was also trying to procure 7,62mm and 9mm ammunition from South Africa.
"I think there is no doubt Mugabe is preparing for war. We spoke to very, very reliable sources," Mubu told journalists.
These included the Human Rights NGO Forum, comprising 16 local NGOs; and the Harare-based organisations Justice for Agriculture, the Legal Resources Foundation and the Research and Advocacy Unit.
Mubu said they had also spoken to Zimbabwe's Regional Integration and International Cooperation Minister, Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga, and Foreign Affairs Deputy Minister Moses Ndlovu. "These people are on the ground, they are in touch with the communities, in rural areas particularly, and we have no doubt what they tell us is true," he said.
Citing a Belgian research group, International Peace Information Service, James said some arms shipments had already arrived in Zimbabwe. "On August 21 2008 the first of many arms shipments, containing 32 tons of [ammunition] was flown from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Harare.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/07/2009 00:00 ||
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newc, like many other shithole countries, Zimbabwe does not have money for food and other essentials, but they have plenty of money for weapons and ammo. Witness the years long fights that have gone on in places like Somalia, Sudan, and many others.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
08/07/2009 7:14 Comments ||
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#4
...War on his own people.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/07/2009 9:32 Comments ||
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#5
Mike's right, he's preparing for an (Well deserved) Uprising.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/07/2009 13:13 Comments ||
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Telegraph.co.uk
Hillary Clinton presses for South Africa role in Zimbabwe
By Sebastien Berger in Pretoria
Published: 5:55PM BST 07 Aug 2009
Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, asked for further help from South Africa in solving Zimbabwe's political problems, as she promised closer ties between the Washington and Pretoria.
Mrs Clinton acknowledged that Zimbabwe's continuing problems, despite the formation of the unity government, were an issue for its neighbour as she met South African officials on the second stop of her seven-nation African tour.
"South Africa has three million refugees from Zimbabwe and every one of those refugees represents a failure of the Zimbabwean government to care for its own people and a burden that South Africa has to bear," she said.
The United States, troubled by what it sees as an absence of reform in Harare, has no plans either to offer major development aid or to lift sanctions against Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's president, and some of his supporters.
Washington wants more evidence of political, social and economic reforms by Mr Mugabe and the government he shares with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe's prime minister.
Tehran prepares to declare three detained Americans "Israeli spies"
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
If it's DEBKAfile, a very large shaker of salt and the 48 hour rule are in order.
Ahmadinejad launches second term with fresh crisis with Washington
On Aug. 5, the day of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's inauguration as president, Tehran officials said they could not confirm or deny Iran was holding three American journalists detained on July 31 while crossing from Iraq into Iran on the Kurdistan border. According to DEBKAfile's Iranian sources, Tehran is preparing to claim the three captives, Jewish Americans, are Israeli spies, arousing fears in Washington and Tehran that the newly elected president plans to use his captives as a stick to humiliate the Obama administration and force an apology for the way it treated him.
Ahmadinejad is furious over the White House's refusal to congratulate him on his reelection, although Washington did say that the US recognizes him as the president of Iran. He is plotting to use the three Americans to provoke a new crisis between his government and Washington. Mustafa Najr will therefore not be reappointed defense minister but interior minister instead so as to put a hardliner in charge of the American detainees.
To turn the screw, Tehran will spread a thick smoke screen over their fate after which they will be accused of having been assigned by Israeli and US intelligence to spy on Iran.
They are identified as Shane Bauer from California, who writes for the San Francisco Chronicle, The Nation and New American Media, his partner Sarah Short, age 30 from California, who writes for "Matador", and Joshua Steel Petel, age 27 from Oregon, who attended a New York yeshiva and writes for Jewish Week.
The Petel family have their origins in Iraq, and Joshuah told his friends he was going on a roots tour of places from which his family emigrated to the US.
Seriously? Why now instead of two years ago, or two years hence, when the nuclear refining facilities are deep, smoking holes in the ground? Truly, one can't escape Darwin.
Our Washington sources report that in discussions held over the past few days at the State Department and the National Security Council, an estimate was formed that the capture of the three American journalists by Iran is nothing like the case of the two American journalists Euyna Lee and Laura Ling, whose release Bill Clinton obtained on a mission to North Korea this week. No high-ranking American figure would have a chance of a welcome in Tehran such as the US former president received in Pyongyang. The Iranians will instead demand an exorbitant diplomatic price for the three Americans' freedom, which the US will not want to pay.
If the affair is not handled carefully, US diplomatic sources warn, it has the potential of deteriorating very quickly into Obama's "Irangate" - a repeat of the 1985 episode which bedeviled the Reagan administration for many months after the US and Israel were found sending a high-ranking delegation to Tehran with an offer of weapons in return for the release of US hostages abducted by the Hizballah in Lebanon.
Tehran may well involve Hizballah this time too, adding the Lebanese Shiite organization's demands from Israel on top of its own. Next stop: Iran? It's deniable by Bama if Billy goes to Persia and it falls apart
[Iran Press TV Latest] Soldiers have occupied state hospitals in Honduras as health workers declared an indefinite strike calling for the return of ousted President Manuel Zelaya.
As the political stalemate dragged on more than one month after the military coup, foreign diplomats met with the defiant interim leaders in a bid to seek a negotiated end to the crisis.
A day after police fired tear gas and water cannons at some 3,000 student Zelaya supporters, hospital workers told AFP they were on an indefinite strike.
"All the hospitals are militarized but the stoppage will continue," said Elvin Canales, a union leader at a hospital in the east of the capital Tegucigalpa.
Around 8,000 health workers went on strike this week, in a move affecting 28 hospitals and more than 1,000 health centers across the impoverished Central American nation.
Most of the country's 50,000 teachers have maintained strikes since the June 28 ouster of Zelaya, which followed a dispute with courts, Congress and the military over his plans to change the constitution.
Demonstrations both for and against Zelaya continued in the capital and in the northern economic hub of San Pedro Sula Thursday.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/07/2009 00:00 ||
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Curse Obama for backing this a-hole Zelaya. He is another castro, and so is obama. You both are uaseless to all of humaity scum seeking destroyers of Liberty, Life and Happiness. YOU OBAMA are no different from that scumbucket CHE. I have no respect for you asshole anymore - nor ever. You remember that Mr President.
#3
Former president Zelaya is most certainly not another Fidel Castro, nor even a Hugo Chavez, merely a laughingstock wannabee. He'll spend the rest of his life as a hanger on at the courts of the successful caudillos, like the French nobles in England after the Revolution.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/07/2009 12:48 Comments ||
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#5
Not so, you'd better believe Oblahblahblah is taking detailed notes on how to takeover a country, he plans to use the learned tactics against US soon.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/07/2009 13:17 Comments ||
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#6
That or it's Latin American Coffee ina Teapot.
No wate......
Is it awesome how Hugo is even smarter that Castro? I mean damn!
Venezuela prepares for a major military deal with Russia in the event of a possible state of armed confrontation with 'the US Empire.'
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez spoke of plans to purchase a large procession of tanks and other military gear from Russia in the face of growing 'threats' from US presence in neighboring Colombia.
"We're going to buy several battalions of Russian tanks," he told reporters on Wednesday, heralding a new era of frozen ties with its western neighbor over reports that give evidence to increasing US-Colombia diplomacy aimed at building military bases in the South American state.
Venezuela has already embarked on an incremental military spending, developing the country's warfare grid with the purchase of billions of dollars in arms from Russia.
The leftist Venezuelan leader warned his pro-US Colombian counterpart, Alvaro Uribe, that his intentions to station 'Yankees' - - a reference to US troops-in South America could trigger a 'war' in the region. He further accused Uribe of being a US 'puppet.'
Colombia has rejected Chavez's claims outright, saying that a ten-year lease contract granted to the US would not add to its military forces due to limitations stipulated in their accord.
Bogota also maintains that such measure serves a 'rightful' purpose meant to defend the country against the oldest South American communist militia, the FARC.
The country has been grappling with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) for over 45 years and alleges that the leftwing leader of Venezuela supplies the anti-government militants who live off drug trade and other means of illegal operations.
Tensions have been running high between the two Hispanic nations over the recent developments sparked by the strained mutual discord and compounded by the US-Colombia military agreement in order to place around 1,400 fully-armed soldiers with military equipment in South America.
Chavez went on to toughen his stance on Colombian government, threatening to halt 'all' business transactions with the neighbor. The two countries have trade pacts topping an annual $7 billion.
A number of Latin American states, such as Brazil, have backed Chavez's bid and called upon Colombia to call off the establishment of 'foreign bases in the region [that] look like relics of the Cold War'.
Cuba has also voiced its support for Chavez, saying that "Venezuela isn't arming itself against the sister nation of Colombia, it's arming itself against the (US) Empire."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/07/2009 00:00 ||
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From Aviation Week
The unofficial diplomatic mission done and a complete success, the operator of the Boeing Business Jet that transported former president Bill Clinton from the US to North Korea on Monday Aug. 3 and back on Tuesday Aug. 4 is now free to provide details of the that flight resulted in the release of American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling who returned with Clinton to Burbank. The aircraft is managed and operated by Burbank, Calif.-based Avjet Corp. This ain't no C-130 with web seats in the cargo bay. Check out their website.
"We got the request on Friday, July 31 at 11:00 AM and immediately we called the U.S. Department of State for assistance," Marc Foulkrod, Avjet's chairman and CEO, said. "We had to get a waiver from SFAR 79 that prohibits flights to North Korea, obtain an overflight permit from Russia, arrange for flight coordination between Japan and North Korea, set up ground support at Elmendorf AFB near Anchorage and Misawa AFB in Japan, request special Customs and Immigration services at Burbank, vet our crews with U.S. Secret Service and pre-position pilots in Alaska. We also had to coordinate with FAA and the U.S. Department of Defense because of the special and sensitive nature of the mission. State Department made it happen. Sixty-six hours later, we were airborne from Burbank to Pyongyang via Elmendorf and Misawa with President Clinton's team at 3:00 AM on Monday." By "State Department" read Hillary.
The mission was conducted as a private flight in accordance with FAR Part 91, sponsored by the aircraft's owner, Stephen Bing of L.A.-based Shangri-la Entertainment. Bing's BBJ has seven aux fuel tanks, giving it a 12.5 hour endurance and a 5,500 nm range. However, the longest leg on the Pyongyang trip was the 2,700+ nm, six-hour leg between Elmendorf AFB and Misawa AFB.
After departing Burbank early Monday morning, the Avjet crew flew the Clinton team to Elmendorf AFB where the aircraft was refueled and the second flight crew boarded the airplane. It then flew to Misawa AFB where it again was refueled and the first crew was dropped off, along with the flight attendants and other non-essential personnel.
The aircraft then departed for North Korea with President Clinton's team. The great circle distance from Misawa AFB to Pyongyang only is 726 miles, but the BBJ spent an hour in a holding pattern in Japanese airspace before being given clearance by the North Koreans to continue to Pyongyang. Foulkrod believes it was escorted by North Korean fighters during the entire time it operated in North Korean airspace. And a warm, fuzzy feeling was had by all.
The aircraft remained on the ground in Pyongyang for 20 hours during the President's diplomatic mission. The flight crew remained on board the aircraft during the layover. Once the President's team was safely back aboard with Lee and Ling, it departed for Misawa AFB, picked up the other crew members and few directly home to Burbank.
Foulkrod said the mission was tough, especially considering the short lead time during which all the preparations had to be completed. Bu he says the mission is generating a lot of new business leads for his company. It's a win-win. Clintons ace out the Big O. Kimmie gets the image as one who is willing to work with the West, at the expense of the Big O, and Foulkrod gets more business deals from the trip.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/07/2009 14:32 ||
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#1
So Avjet provided tha plane but who really paid for this? They landed at Air Force bases, jerked the State Dept around for days, jerked the FAA and US Customs as well. And if anyone thinks they did not have escorts as well as the Sat and other tracking of that ex-prez we are kidding our selves. This cost millions, the aircraft was the cheap part of this trip. All to do what??? Pick up Al Gore's messy and ignorant employees.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/07/2009 15:30 Comments ||
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#2
Pan---you're an agitator and obstruction of the program. Turn in your email address.
Heh.
All kidding aside, Did SoS Clinton do this on her own, or did she get the ok from the Big O for this little op? THAT is the question.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/07/2009 19:33 Comments ||
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THE former head of the company that owns Beijing Capital International Airport was executed today, convicted of bribery and embezzlement totalling nearly $US16 million ($19.06 million), state media reported.
Li Peiying, former chairman and general manager of Capital Airports Holding Company (CAH), which also operates numerous other airports throughout China, was put to death in the eastern city of Jinan, Xinhua news agency said.
He was put to death after the Supreme People's Court upheld his sentence, according to the agency.
Li, 60, was convicted in February of accepting bribes totalling 26.61 million yuan ($4.65 million) and embezzling 82.5 million yuan while in his post from 1995 to 2003.
CAH, which is under the Civil Aviation Administration of China, is a major state-owned enterprise.
The group has more than 30 airports, including the flagship Beijing Capital International Airport, manages assets of more than 100 billion yuan and has more than 38,000 staff.
Massive corruption has emerged as one of the greatest scourges attending China's economic resurgence in the past three decades and the Communist Party often hands down harsh sentences to show it is serious about the problem.
Nonfarm payroll employment continued to decline in July (-247,000), and the unemployment rate was little changed at 9.4 percent... a slight decrease in labor force participation drove the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate from 9.5 in June to 9.4 in July
average monthly job loss for May through July (-331,000) was about half the average decline for November through April (-645,000). In July, job losses continued in many of the major industry sectors.
In July, the number of unemployed persons was 14.5 million. The unemployment rate was 9.4 percent, little changed for the second consecutive month. at 1100 EDT, the financial equity markets are up ABOUT 2%
Posted by: Lord garth ||
08/07/2009 11:11 ||
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Folks: The people who have exhausted their unemployment benefits are no longer counted as unemployed, the people who got part time jobs instead of full time, are also not included in the 9.6 %, also the people who were reduced from 40- hours to 32- hours are not figured into the average !! And the people who accept wage cuts are not in this total. Also, the people who live on the streets are not included and any person who graduated from high school and never had a job, also are not figured into this 9.6% . This number was adopted by the Republican party and has never been debated !! The truth is Folks, no employment is unbelievable and our people are starving, losing their houses and life savings, no health care, and the illegals in this country are draining our system dry. Folks: Believe what you want, I don"t care. But, you will see the future will be a new experience for us all with little credit available, your mortgage is higher then your house is worth, you have little or no money saved, and you will learn to live a life of wanting and never having !!!! Good Luck Folks and I hope you are ready for CHANGE !!
#2
gerachty has the numbers: In June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said the civilian labor force was 154,926,000 people.
In July, 796,000 of those were taken out of their definition of the workforce, and thus their unemployment calculations for this month, because they have stopped looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. Ten percent of the June workforce would be 15.4 million, 1 percent would be 1.5 million, and so 796,000 is roughly one half of one percent.
In other words, BLS took .5 percent of what you and I would consider unemployed and took them out of their total. And with that, unemployment went down one tenth of one percent.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/07/2009 13:01 Comments ||
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There was a large increase in layoffs beginning Jan 2009. Those, still unemployed, bennies are now expiring and are being magically removed from the unemployment rolls. The more relavent number is total employed. And remember the US needs to add 1.5 million jobs/year (1%) just to keep up with population growth, so anything under 1% delta means increasing *real* unemployment.
% change in employment
The graph also shows this is the worst employment crisis since 1962.
Posted by: ed ||
08/07/2009 13:21 Comments ||
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In times past when slow downs occurred, Congress would extend unemployment benefits for those who ran out of benefits without finding a job. Not likely to happen this time since that would increase the number of people counted as unemployed.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
08/07/2009 14:18 Comments ||
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Labor force participation is a tricky number. People leave the work force for various reasons
- death
- incarceration
- inducted into the armed forces
- married a high wage earner
- retired
- started a sole proprietor business
- discouraged
and of course the BLS number for the work force participation is based on a sample (fairly large sample but just a sample).
Posted by: Lord garth ||
08/07/2009 15:10 Comments ||
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Previous administrations have also removed from the unemployment ranks those who have quit looking for a job, so it's not a new policy.
In the past, when a Republican was president, you'd always hear about the millions who had given up. Now that Bambi is president, you see articles about how much fun it is to go to the beach when you're unemployed.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/07/2009 15:33 Comments ||
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#7
Funemployed!
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/07/2009 15:34 Comments ||
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#8
Perspective:
That's every man woman and child (maybe U student too) in the City of Lincoln NE - Laid off.
That's every man woman child and pol in Austin Tx taken off the job roles with expired benefits.
#9
This means tax revenues will decline even further, and brings closer the day when governments have to make mass layoffs further decreasing revenues. This process has quite a ways to go and current predictions of the end of the recession are much too optimistic.
From Fannie Mae's website. The link is a .PDF file.
Why don't they just sell the sunuvabitch?
From TFA:
WASHINGTON, DC -- Fannie Mae (FNM/NYSE) reported a loss of $14.8 billion, or ($2.67) per diluted share, in the second quarter of 2009, compared with a loss of $23.2 billion, or ($4.09) per diluted share, in the first quarter of 2009. Second-quarter results were driven primarily by $18.8 billion of credit-related expenses, reflecting the ongoing impact of adverse conditions in the housing market, as well as the economic recession and rising unemployment. Credit-related expenses were partially offset by fair value gains. The company also reported a substantial decrease in impairment losses on investment securities, which was due in part to the adoption of new accounting guidance.
Taking into account unrealized gains on available-for-sale securities during the second quarter and an adjustment to our deferred tax assets due to the new accounting guidance, the loss resulted in a net worth deficit of $10.6 billion as of June 30, 2009.
As a result, on August 6, 2009, the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which has been acting as our conservator since September 6, 2008, submitted a request for $10.7 billion from the U.S. Department of the Treasury on our behalf under the terms of the senior preferred stock purchase agreement between Fannie Mae and the Treasury in order to eliminate our net worth deficit. FHFA has requested that Treasury provide the funds on or prior to September 30, 2009.
Just days after Sarah Palin left the governor's office, in part because of a crush of what she called frivolous ethics complaints, Alaska's new attorney general is proposing sweeping changes in how such matters are handled.
Attorney General Dan Sullivan on Wednesday released a 19-page opinion about the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act and said reforms are needed to prevent bad-faith misuse of the process.
As evidence of a troubled ethics system, Sullivan singled out the leak two weeks ago of an ethics investigator's confidential report on Palin just as efforts were under way to resolve the matter. Such breaches could be stopped by changing the law so that people who bring complaints don't get interim reports from investigators, the way they do now, he said.
Sullivan also wants to change the rules so that the state can cover legal bills for public officials who are exonerated after an ethics investigation.
Perhaps the biggest, and most controversial, element of Sullivan's proposal targets people who abuse the ethics complaint system for political reasons.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/07/2009 00:00 ||
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#2
I live in Alaska, and the dipwad who filed most of the frivolous lawsuits was on the tube almost as much as Palin. I think it would be pretty funny and ironic if the Palinistas would start filing frivolous lawsuits against her, running up her legal bills.
#3
Sullivan also wants to change the rules so that the state can cover legal bills for public officials who are exonerated after an ethics investigation.
Simple solution is have the [false] accuser pay all expenses if there is no ethics violation. What part of 'thou shall not bear false witness' don't they understand? /rhetorical question.
we're going to have to be careful about what laws or policies we implement being used against us.
Look at how the left was able to use the ethics law Palin put into place against her. Now we need to think about what they're going to do with whatever precedents we set now.
#1
Fascinating article.
There are probably 1000's of similar codes hiding in human DNA, inactivated millenia ago, and potentially of use in improving human life. Check out GULO, which is the reason why human beings cannot make their own Vitamin C. Primitive primates like lemurs make their own Vitamin C, though.
OTOH, turning on some of this DNA could cause problems worse than the diseases cured.
#2
You're correct Anguper. There are reasons that they are no longer 'active'.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
08/07/2009 18:42 Comments ||
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It's a 'cheap' way of saving stuff that was of value in the evolutionary past.
The reason why it is inactive is that there is a 'cost' to activation that only results in a net benefit when the disease is circulating (See sickle cell anemia and malaria for an example).
Of course, all of this happens on evolutionary timescales, which for humans is many 100s to 1000s of years.
AN EXPERT witness told Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes tribunal on Thursday that the most notorious Khmer Rouge prison was a secret 'anteroom to death'.
American professor David Chandler, 76, was testifying at the trial of Duch, the man accused of overseeing the torture and execution of about 15,000 people at Tuol Sleng prison, also known as S-21.
'I use the word anteroom (to death) because... every single person in S-21, except for these handful of survivors and some of the staff, (had a) forceful and violent death,' he said.
Mr Chandler said he believed the prison was able to exercise a high degree of autonomy because of the value put on secrecy under the regime.
The 66-year-old Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, has previously accepted responsibility for his role governing the jail and begged forgiveness.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/07/2009 00:00 ||
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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.
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.
Tehran prepares to declare three detained Americans "Israeli spies"
Just days after Sarah Palin left the governor's office, in part because of a crush of what she called frivolous ethics complaints, Alaska's new attorney general is proposing sweeping changes in how such matters are handled.
