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Kabul cop shoppe boomed, 5 dead
Today's Headlines
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Page 5: Russia-Former Soviet Union
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3 00:00 Jomosing Bluetooth8431 [3] 
6 00:00 RD [8] 
9 00:00 Helmuth, Speaking for Cromong3228 [4] 
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Page 4: Opinion
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Fla. Woman Has 10 Husbands, Charges Say
HT to Dave in TX at AOSHQ
The honeymoons are over for a 26-year-old woman who authorities say has at least 10 husbands. Eunice Lopez has been charged with bigamy, accused of marrying 10 men between 2002 and 2006 without divorcing any of them, federal immigration authorities say. The Miami Herald reported Saturday that a records search by the newspaper found seven additional marriages under the bride's name and birth date.

Lopez arrived in South Florida from Cuba in 2002 and was a legal U.S. resident.

"I can tell you that none of the individuals she married had any type of residency," said Terry Chavez, a spokesman for the Miami-Dade office of the state attorney.
and where are all these illegals now?
I think I'm beginning to understand the scam here ....
Prosecutors say she charged her husbands an unspecified amount to help them secure immigration status and continued asking the men for money long after the wedding, threatening to expose them if they didn't pay.

Chavez said the state attorney's office began investigating after being tipped off by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Lopez was released on $18,000 bond. Her last known address was in Hialeah, just north of Miami. A telephone listing for her could not be located, and it was not known whether she had an attorney.
really smart giving her bail. Wonder what her new name is and where she scamming now?
Reminds me of the old Rodney Dangerfield joke:

"My wife has cut me down to twice a month. Twice a month! ... I shouldn't complain, two guys I know she cut out completely ...
Posted by: Frank G || 12/16/2007 09:37 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wudn't me.

I married a foreigner and all I got was a cute baby boy. ;)
Posted by: Swamp Blondie || 12/16/2007 13:14 Comments || Top||

#2  not a particularly smart scam. She threatens to turn them in to immigration if they don't pay - but she's a bigamist. Apparently one of her marks wasn't as stupid as she was.
Posted by: Whomong Guelph4611 || 12/16/2007 17:22 Comments || Top||

#3  She's just an addict - to wedding cake.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 12/16/2007 18:25 Comments || Top||


Surveillance photos released from Bawlmer bus attack
The men, who are white, said the attackers yelled racial slurs and that no one on board, including the driver, stepped in to stop the attack.
Maryland Transit Administration officials are investigating a second reported assault on a bus in the last week. Meanwhile, surveillance photos have been released and the bus driver has been taken off the road. Patrick Green and Robert Rothe told WBAL TV 11 News that they were antagonized and attacked after boarding the No. 64 bus late Monday night in south Baltimore.
To put the incident in context, the scene of the crime was the bus stop across from Harbor Hospital. On the other side of the highway from Harbor is the Cherry Hill slum, which is best described as a stench and a pestilence. I do hope they start the search for the perps there, though to do so probably isn't very PC.
The men, who are white, said the attackers yelled racial slurs and that no one on board, including the driver, stepped in to stop the attack. MTA surveillance cameras captured four men boarding the bus at the Hanover Street stop Monday night, moments before Green and Rothe got on.

Green and Rothe said they believe other passengers were afraid to help and that the driver refused to call for help. "We were saying the whole time to the driver, 'You need to help us, call the police,'" Green told 11 News reporter Kerry Cavanaugh. "He said, 'I can't. I'll get in trouble.'"

Roth said the driver closed the door and drove away, even though the attack continued once they got off the bus. "We could've been left on the side of the road, dead," Rothe said.

MTA officials said they're not currently classifying the incident as a hate crime. They said they're simply calling it a common assault
MTA officials said the driver of the bus is currently not operating a vehicle while the incident is being investigated. MTA officials said they're not currently classifying the incident as a hate crime. They said they're simply calling it a common assault.

Green and Rothe said they're mad it took MTA officials three days to release photos of the suspects. "I would have liked to have seen the pictures of the suspects out earlier, just for the protection of the rest of the community," Green said. Anyone with information is asked to call MTA police at 410-454-7720.

In a similar incident, Sarah Kreager said she suffered broken facial bones and other injuries after she was punched, kicked and dragged off a bus Dec. 4. Kreager's companion, Troy Ellis, was also attacked, but not beaten as severely. That incident is still under investigation.
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The return of "wilding..."
Posted by: M. Murcek || 12/16/2007 9:14 Comments || Top||

#2  This stuff happens on a fairly regular basis in Bawlmer. Only the Kreager incident draws any attention to this one.
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2007 10:40 Comments || Top||

#3  Sounds like it's time for some Bernie Goetz-style defense.
Posted by: Jomosing Bluetooth8431 || 12/16/2007 19:17 Comments || Top||


D.C. Official Accused in $20M $44M Scheme
A few notes: The missing amounts keep climbing; they seem to have settled around $44 Million. As far as we know. I am sorry about Natwar Gadhi's incompetence, we all thought he was doing a great job managing the District's finances. And finally, we had another case a few years ago that to my mind was even worse: the case of Barbara Bullock, who was the chairman of the Washington Teachers' Union. She embezzled more than $5 million from the teachers! They had a TV crew filming the perp walk of all her ill gotten gains from her house to the evidence van. But they didn't perp walk the things I wanted to see most: her dozens and dozens of wigs.
The courthouse files look like the Christmas list of a high-society fashion maven with a purse fetish: mink coats, jewelry, Faberge eggs, a Mercedes Benz and more than 100 handbags and wallets with designer names like Chanel, Hermes and Louis Vuitton. Those are among the items the FBI found at the Washington home of Harriette Walters, who until recently was an $81,000-a-year city tax official.

Her salary was a pittance compared with the tens of millions of dollars prosecutors say she and at least five others stole in what may be the biggest embezzlement case in the city's history.

Authorities say Walters was the ringleader of a scheme in which she and the others wrote themselves bogus property-tax refund checks. The scam went on for seven years until a bank employee last summer noticed irregularities in the checks. The rip-offs were so brazen that one $346,000 check was made out to a fictitious company the embezzlers named "Bilkemor LLC."

The audacious scheme has been an embarrassment for the city's finance chief, Natwar Gandhi, who has been praised for helping to produce surpluses and strong bond ratings for Washington, a city that was headed toward insolvency in the 1990s after years of mismanagement.
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Big government lack of accountability + PC quota hire + third world ethics = Washington DC business as usual...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 12/16/2007 9:16 Comments || Top||

#2  "It's remarkably brazen," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a government watchdog group.

"If you take out the killings, Washington actually has a very very low crime rate." -- M. Barry, Mayor of Washington, DC
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/16/2007 10:56 Comments || Top||

#3  Once again, I'll propose that the federal government buy up all of D.C. and make it nothing but the seat of the federal government, monuments and parks.

With no residences or private businesses except contract franchises and VIP hotels; few roads for only official vehicles, with most converted to pedestrian walkways; and significant public transport to and from the city.

There would be plenty of space for government building expansion, lots more open space for gatherings, much better security, and even things like moving sidewalks to quickly move large numbers of pedestrians around.

Washington D.C. would be prettier, cleaner, quieter, safer, with very little crime, much more tourist friendly, and more places to put monuments to great Americans and events.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 12/16/2007 11:29 Comments || Top||

#4  yeah great, room for more government buildings filled with more bureauocrats. Just what we need.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/16/2007 17:09 Comments || Top||

#5  significant public transport to and from the city

Obviously you've never worked in South D.C.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/16/2007 21:01 Comments || Top||

#6  re: #3.

tho, it got plenty of theory in it mooses! :)
Posted by: RD || 12/16/2007 23:13 Comments || Top||


Man Accused Of Trying To Tow Police Car
GRESHAM, Ore. -- A tow truck driver tried to tow a Gresham police car from an apartment complex early Thursday morning, according to the Gresham Police Department. Police said officers responded to the Kempton Downs apartments on a domestic disturbance call. When Officer Tyson Conroy returned to his patrol car, he noticed a tow truck driver had hooked up another officer's marked car to the truck, according to police.

Officer Tom Pohlman said he was surprised to see his car hooked up to the truck. "I asked him, 'what are you doing?" Pohlman said. "And he said I was parked in a fire lane."

Steven Syverson, 32, was ordered to release the car. He eventually did, but police said he otherwise refused to cooperate with them. Syverson locked himself in the tow truck and then called his dispatchers, asking them to call police, according to officers. Police said the towing company's manager eventually showed up and talked Syverson into surrendering to officers.

Gary Coe, the owner of the towing company, said Syverson was having personal problems. But he said he was a good employee. "He obviously lacked common sense," Coe said. "It's not something you train (them for), (you) don't tow police cars." Syverson was arrested on charges of unlawful use of a vehicle, obstructing governmental administration, interfering with an officer and criminal mischief.
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Gonna eat me some chickens!
Posted by: Henery Hawk || 12/16/2007 1:57 Comments || Top||

#2  That, tow-talitarian!

/Moe from The Simpsons.
Posted by: Mike N. || 12/16/2007 2:09 Comments || Top||

#3  He's a tow-tal idiot!
Posted by: gorb || 12/16/2007 2:48 Comments || Top||

#4  And in observance of the Christmas season:

"Toad Awaaaaaay, Toad away
Toad Awaaaaaaay, Toad a-waaaay
Where do you go when you're tooooooad a-waaaaaay?"

/Firesign
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/16/2007 2:55 Comments || Top||

#5  Cops aren't s'posed to park in the fire lanes either.
Posted by: Seafarious || 12/16/2007 3:12 Comments || Top||

#6  Have to agree with Steven and Seafarious on this - a domestic disturbance can and could include a fire (skillet pan grease, candle, firearm discharge) and if the police officers are involved in the area/crime scene they do not have the luxury to call a time out to move their vehicles, thus endangerment (and proper to call additional/outside police officers, correct me if im wrong LE pros). We are talking 10-15 yards out of the way now.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 12/16/2007 6:19 Comments || Top||

#7  Think about it. - A tow truck driver tried to tow a Gresham police car from an apartment complex early Thursday morning

Did the usual domestic calls happen at 6am or 2am?
If it is 2am why is a tow truck operator cruising the city looking for 'opportunities'? While the police car may have been unmarked, it certainly wasn't ticketed or called in. So, tow operators in Gresham OR have the government's explicit authority to 'steal' property which is then ransomed by its owner. Who needs any verification that a violation was happening at 2am? Evidence, who needs stinking evidence? Just pick anyone's car out in the open. Who's word is the local government authority going to believe? Guesses on what cut the city gets for this operation? Guess who is asleep in the newsroom?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 12/16/2007 7:58 Comments || Top||

#8  I'll bet dollars to donuts the guy had a beef with the local police because they had given a ticket for something (probably something stoopid). I remember about 20 years ago some guy deciding it was OK to tow a mail truck. He got keelhauled for it. Then he did it again . . . .
Posted by: gorb || 12/16/2007 14:04 Comments || Top||

#9  Tow trucks crews are gangsters. I'm glad he learned a lesson.
Posted by: Helmuth, Speaking for Cromong3228 || 12/16/2007 20:33 Comments || Top||


Europe
Saddam’s yacht on sale for 23.5 mln euros
NICE, France - A super-yacht built for former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is awaiting a buyer in the port of Nice, with an asking price of 23.5 million euros, according to a specialist web site. The 82-metre (270-feet) Ocean Breeze, built in 1981 by Danish shipyard Helsingor Vaerft, started life as the Qadissiyat Saddam, but was never actually delivered to Iraq, says www.superyachttimes.com.

Instead it ended up in Saudi Arabia, taken over by that country’s royal family and renamed Al-Yamamah.

Saturday’s daily Nice-Matin reported Saturday that the yacht, which can take 28 passengers and has a crew of 35, was moored in the Saudi port of Jeddah for 10 years. The paper said the vessel was disposed of earlier this year to King Abdullah of Jordan, before being renamed again.

Brokers Burgess of London are selling the yacht for 23,512,790 euros, or 34,450,000 dollars, according to superyachttimes.com.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/16/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  CHEEEEEEP
Posted by: Henery Hawk || 12/16/2007 1:58 Comments || Top||

#2  I will buy an LST first before I get that tub.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/16/2007 2:57 Comments || Top||

#3  The 82-metre (270-feet) Ocean Breeze, built in 1981 by Danish shipyard Helsingor Vaerft, started life as the Qadissiyat Saddam

It being too much to ask for businesses to avoid selling baubles for the edification of mass murderers.
Posted by: Excalibur || 12/16/2007 9:16 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
NJ Community rallies for Iraq Vet after bomb leaves him crippled
caught this from a commenter at AOSHQ. This is the America we know and love
WHARTON -- For about 18 months, this community has been engaging in a labor of love on behalf of retired Army Sgt. Jim Benoit and his wife, Pamela.

Benoit served his country proudly in Iraq until Sept. 7, 2005, when his body was shattered by an improvised explosive device that went off in a roadside bomb attack. The explosion left the Wharton native severely disabled and has forced him to go through some 80 surgeries to get him to the point where he can now walk short distances with the assistance of a cane whenever he is not in his wheelchair.

But Benoit needed more than medical help when he returned to the states. He and his wife also needed a wheelchair-accessible home.

The Wharton community stepped in to fulfill that need when local leaders decided to build a new house on Eileen Court and donate it to the Benoits. That decision was made about 18 months ago. Since then, plans have for the house were drawn up and the land where the house will sit was sold by the borough to the Benoits for $1.

Construction on the 2,400-square-foot, three-bedroom colonial began about a year-ago, with nearly all the materials and labor being provided by volunteers. Today, the house is just days away from about completion. And the Benoits are scheduled to get the keys to their new home at an invitation-only ceremony scheduled for Dec. 27.

"I'm absolutely thrilled to death that it's nearly finished" said borough Councilman Scott Hutchins, who spearheaded the drive to donate the home to the Benoits. Hutchins said the progress made on the house can be attributed to the "gracious efforts" of the volunteers who have put in so much time on the project. "I think it's progressed along great," Hutchins said. "It's been quite successful."

Pamela Benoit said the pending completion of her new home was "very exciting" and added that the house will be a "major improvement" over the trailer she and her husband have been living in at Picatinny Arsenal.

She said the main improvement would be in terms of the additional space the couple will have. She said the cramped quarters in their trailer have forced them to keep many of their possessions, including gifts from their 2006 wedding, packed in boxes inside the trailer. She added that the trailer does not even have enough space for all of her things, many of which are being stored by the Army at Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn until the new house opens. "We'll be able to have all of our stuff in once place," said Pamela Benoit, adding "it will be nice to bring everything out (of the storage boxes)."

At the site of the new house, workers have been putting the finishing touches on the structure and the surrounding property. Site manager Matt Febbi said the home's carpeting was installed Wednesday. The driveway was supposed to be paved Thursday, but that work was postponed until this week because of Thursday's snowstorm.

Workers also have been touching up some of the walls that were scuffed during the construction process, Febbi said.

Landscaping for the property will not be complete until the weather turns warmer in the spring. Otherwise, the Benoits will be presented with a fully completed home on Dec. 27.

Febbi, who worked on the project as a volunteer, said he was pleased with how the house has turned out. "It looks great," Febbi said. "But then again, I'm biased."

Like Hutchins, Febbi praised the work of the many volunteers of the project. Those volunteers will be honored during the Dec. 27 key handing-over ceremony. "It was pretty neat the way everybody got on board," Febbi said.
Posted by: Frank G || 12/16/2007 09:08 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It is the America that still exists outside of the MSM and Hollywierd.
Posted by: Whomong Guelph4611 || 12/16/2007 17:24 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Uproar in Roswell over Alien
Roswell, New(?) Mexico 12/8/07 -- U.S. immigration officials deported a pregnant Roswell High School senior after she was pulled from class Wednesday by a local police officer on duty as an SRO (Student Resource Officer), regarding a traffic ticket issued days before.
There's so much material here. Suspect had been stopped for driving without a license, in a state that gives driver's licenses to illegal aliens anyway.
A protest was held by 50 members of the local Hispanic community "over security of other illegal immigrant students at RHS". The chief of police said "If you don't trust us then we need to do some more work here."
But since the chief will be retiring on Jan. 4, someone will have have to do that work.
The Assistant Superintendent said the district has officially protested Acosta's arrest with the INS and the Mexican Consulate. The Roswell PD has removed all SRO's from the RISD system.
One of our states is missing.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 12/16/2007 05:03 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  School officials said Acosta was on course to graduate in the spring.

...and drop her anchor baby.
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/16/2007 9:25 Comments || Top||

#2  The Assistant Superintendent said the district has officially protested Acosta's arrest with the INS and the Mexican Consulate.

The Assistant Superintendent can move to Mexico and enjoy their hospitality. From the Mexican Constitution:

Chapter III
Of Foreigners
Article 33 - Foreigners are those who do not possess the qualities determined in Article 30. They have the right to the guarantees of Chapter I of the first title of this Constitution, but the Executive of the Union has the exclusive right to expel from the national territory, immediately and without necessity of judicial proceedings, all foreigners whose stay it judges inconvenient. Foreigners may not, in any manner, involve themselves in the political affairs of the country.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 12/16/2007 12:43 Comments || Top||

#3  Chapter III must be too complicated to be interpreted by your average man or else they wouldn't need so many lawyers.

I'm sure that if I were writing a document as complicated as a constitution that I would make it as complicated as I could for people to understand it because it's best that way.

Either that, or people have been tricked into discarding common sense. Or have lost it somewhere along the way.
Posted by: gorb || 12/16/2007 14:08 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
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In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
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Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2007-12-16
  Kabul cop shoppe boomed, 5 dead
Sat 2007-12-15
  Mehsud to head Taliban Movement of Pakistan
Fri 2007-12-14
  Khamenei appoints Qassem as Hezbollah military commander
Thu 2007-12-13
  Leb car boom murders top general
Wed 2007-12-12
  Qaeda in North Africa claims Algiers blasts
Tue 2007-12-11
  Taliban abandons Musa Qala
Mon 2007-12-10
  al-Abssi is in Syria and Fatah al-Isalm is in Gaza
Sun 2007-12-09
  Fierce battle rages for Taliban stronghold
Sat 2007-12-08
  Berri postpones Lebanon presidential election to Tuesday
Fri 2007-12-07
  Pak troops capture Mullah Fazlullah's base
Thu 2007-12-06
  Suicide attack on army bus in Kabul kills 16
Wed 2007-12-05
  Somali leader taken to hospital
Tue 2007-12-04
  Abu Maysara Positively Deader Than a Rock
Mon 2007-12-03
  40 Taliban killed, 14 held in Afghanistan
Sun 2007-12-02
  Walkout in Iraq parliament over Sunni leader raid


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