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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Electrocuted bodies of 2 former wiring thieves found
The men were believed to be removing copper wire from an electrical box at an abandoned driving range in Riverside County. They were found after a fire at the site was put out.

The bodies of two men believed to have been electrocuted while stealing copper wiring were found early Tuesday on an abandoned driving range in Riverside County, authorities said.

San Jacinto police and county firefighters received a report of fireworks in the 900 block of Idyllwild Drive about 1:20 a.m., but instead discovered a fire near a transformer, said Deputy Herlinda Valenzuela of the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.

After extinguishing the fire, which took place at what used to be San Jacinto Golf Center, officials discovered the bodies. A spokeswoman with the coroner's office said the bodies were burned beyond recognition and would possibly be identified today.

"They were attempting to remove copper wire from inside what we call a pad-mount enclosure — it's an electrical box or structure that contains high-voltage energized equipment," said Steve Conroy, a Southern California Edison spokesman.

The fire caused a 12,000-volt line connected to the circuit to go out of service, Conroy said, and about 1,600 residences in Hemet and San Jacinto were affected by a brief power outage.
All of which went pretty much unnoticed by lawabiding citizens sleeping soundly at that hour.
Metal theft has plagued Southern California for more than a decade. Thieves cause tens of thousands of dollars in damage annually by swiping brass, copper and aluminum from city property, including fire hydrants, streetlights, wells and sprinklers.

A law intended to deter metal theft took effect in December and requires recycling centers to take a customer's photo, thumbprint and identification for every transaction over $20. After three days, a check is mailed, or the customer may return to pick up their payment.Barbara Messinger, owner of P&T Metals Inc. in South El Monte, said fewer people are bringing in scrap material, but attributes it to the economy. "There's not as many housing projects, people aren't building, so we aren't getting the scrap from that and a lot of the construction companies," she said.
Identification NOT required for voting however.
She said copper was once especially attractive to thieves because it fetched nearly $4 per pound. But, she said, most recyclers now offer only $1.50. Because prices for the metal have plummeted, the attempted theft in San Jacinto was "unusual," said Dennis Gutierrez of the Sheriff's Department.
"Unusual" but the source of dozens of new jokes at the Department and over at the Fire Station.
"Before, we were literally in a daily fight with crooks stealing brass, copper and bronze," he said. "This year has seen a drastic drop. We don't get the calls we used to."

Conroy said Edison has taken steps to mitigate metal theft, including installing surveillance. He said he hopes that the recent deaths discourage other thieves.
Totally out of touch. Doesn't he know death is not a deterrent to crime?
"It's obviously a very tragic incident and one that is a terrible and unfortunate reminder to people to stay out of high-voltage facilities," he said.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/03/2009 14:20 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  this should be put in under idiot of the day, or 2 idiots f the day wnder if that $20 worth of copper was worth it?
Posted by: funky skunk || 06/03/2009 15:05 Comments || Top||

#2  "It's obviously a very tragic incident and one that is a terrible and unfortunate reminder to people to stay out of high-voltage facilities," he said.

Yeah, "tragic". I'm sure these two were pillars of the community who will be sorely missed...
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/03/2009 15:14 Comments || Top||

#3  I've had homeless steal 2 cent wire nuts on 440-volt street lighting. Geniuses
Posted by: Frank G || 06/03/2009 15:15 Comments || Top||

#4  Shocking crime.
Posted by: mojo || 06/03/2009 16:46 Comments || Top||

#5  and they would have been charged with the crime had they survived.
Posted by: anymouse || 06/03/2009 17:35 Comments || Top||

#6  Live by the wire, die by the wire.
Posted by: Walter Wriston || 06/03/2009 19:37 Comments || Top||

#7  If you're going to be a copper wire thief you might want to do a little research on the function of step-down transformers.

On the other hand, Darwin always wins.
Posted by: Parabellum || 06/03/2009 19:48 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Blagojevich: "I wish I was eating the bugs on reality show"
The story's nowhere as good as the headline, of course.

I'd rather see the bugs eating him, to be honest.
Posted by: Mike || 06/03/2009 13:59 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I wish he were just eating bugs....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 06/03/2009 19:04 Comments || Top||

#2  How 'bout peanut butter sandwiches in prison.
Posted by: DMFD || 06/03/2009 22:08 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Giant jellyfish invades Earth!
Not really...

The 600ft monster, similar to a giant Portuguese man-of-war, has delighted crop circle watchers by turning up near Kingstone Coombes, Oxfordshire.

Crop circle-expert Karen Alexander said: 'We have seen butterfly and bird patterns in the past, but this is the first jellyfish crop circle in the world. It is absolutely huge, three times the size of most patterns.

Photo at the link. My compliments to the crop circle artists; this is lovely work.
Posted by: Mike || 06/03/2009 14:02 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A sign presaging the return of Cthulhu, no doubt.
Posted by: SteveS || 06/03/2009 20:10 Comments || Top||

#2  From the headline I thought it was about Michael Moore.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 06/03/2009 20:18 Comments || Top||

#3  I, for one, welcome our Jellyfish overlords!

(Lets hope they at least have more sense than the current administration...)
Posted by: CrazyFool || 06/03/2009 20:24 Comments || Top||

#4  more spine, at least
Posted by: Frank G || 06/03/2009 20:40 Comments || Top||

#5  Taggers.

Next, gang signs.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 06/03/2009 21:40 Comments || Top||

#6  I dast raise your Jellyfish, sir, and instead give you PAKISTANI DEFENSE FORUM > PLANET-DISSOLVING DUST CLOUD [aka "Chaos" Cloud] HEADING FOR EARTH. We're all DDDOOOOOOOOMMMEEED, they'se tells ya, as of JUNE 1, 2014 - THE GOOD NEWS IS SPACE.COM > NEWLY DISCOVERED [prob a RUSSIAN] ASTEROID TO APPROACH EARTH IN 2022.

* DUST/CHAOS CLOUD = WE ALL ANDROMEDANS NOW! NUTHIN' FOR NASA-JPL + OWG-NWO TO DO SAVE CONSTRUCT "SPACE ARKS" AND FLY SOME [but NOT all] OF HUMANITY TO THE ANDROMEDA GALAXY???

[shaking CLASH OF THE TITANS fists angrily].
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 06/03/2009 22:00 Comments || Top||

#7  OLD DREAM/VISION > GOLD = PRECIOUS METALLIC PARTIIIIKLES in dem dar space clouds???

GOD AS "THE GREATEST DIALECTICIST" OF US ALL > EVERYONE ON EARTH BECAME AN AUTOMAT "ZILYUHN-NAIRE" THE MOMENT OUR HUMAN SPECIA GOT WIPED OUT BY HIS GOLD, ETC. CLOUD???

OH THE GOLD-MANITY!
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 06/03/2009 22:06 Comments || Top||


Plague of snakes spark panic in Iraq province
[Beirut Daily Star: Region] A plague of snakes has caused panic in Iraq's southern province of Nasiriyah, biting cattle and worrying residents as the reptiles flee the country's water-deprived marshes.

"We have been surprised in recent days by the unprecedented number of snakes that have fled their habitat because of the dryness and heat," said Wissam al-Assadi, a veterinary officer in Shabaysh town.

"We saw some on roads, near houses and cowsheds. They have attacked cows and buffalo, and farmers have come to us looking for vaccines but we don't have any."

Jabbar Salleh, who farms land near the town, said the snakes had caused huge problems. "I will leave the region if this continues," he told AFP.

Iraq's water reserves dipped to 11 billion cubic meters in May, compared with 40 billion cubic meters three years earlier, although rainfall this past winter was normal.

Experts say Iraq faces agricultural disaster this summer if neighboring Turkey continues to retain waters from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers which have nourished Iraqi agriculture for millennia.

The situation regarding the Euphrates is the most worrying. Reserves behind Haditha dam in the country's west, the first on the river, were just 1.5 billion cubic meters on May 1, compared with eight billion two years ago.

Iraq says the problem is the many dams Turkey has built over the past 30 years to irrigate its own southeast. These dams allow Turkey to regulate the flow of rivers according to its wishes.
Posted by: Fred || 06/03/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The juice drank all the water?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 06/03/2009 9:28 Comments || Top||

#2  When life gives you snakes, make snake burgers.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 06/03/2009 11:46 Comments || Top||

#3  Ok, someone has to do this:

"I'm tired of all these m-----f------ snakes in m-----f------ Nasiriyah!"
Posted by: Mike || 06/03/2009 13:43 Comments || Top||

#4  When you walk use a knobkerrie as a walking stick see a snake, whop it, end of problem. Also cats (Domesic) Love snakes, they're delicious, plus it's hereditary, ever see a kitten chasung the end of a string? nobody taught him that.
Posted by: mstrmech || 06/03/2009 14:50 Comments || Top||

#5  Snake is tough, chewy meat, not for most people. However, someone could make a good living tossing snakes into an industrial shredder, and selling what comes out as premium cat food. Like the old saying, "When the world gives you lemons, make lemonaide". When the marshes give you snakes, make cat food.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 06/03/2009 18:09 Comments || Top||

#6  With rivers, it is good to live upstream. Ask California and Mexico what it thinks of Nevada and Arizona taking their full share of the Colorado River.
Posted by: rwv || 06/03/2009 19:34 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Afghanistan expects biggest wheat harvest in 32 years
Afghanistan is projected this year to collect its biggest wheat harvest in 32 years, taking the impoverished country to near self-sufficiency in the staple crop, the agriculture minister said Tuesday.
Think how much better they could be doing if they weren't spending so much effort growing poppies ...
The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) expects a bumper harvest that is 63 percent higher than that of last year, mainly because of good rains, griculture Minister Asif Rahimi told reporters. Other factors were a 20 percent increase in farmland devoted to wheat -- a result of last year's high prices for the crop -- and the provision to farmers of seeds and fertilisers, he said.

"The wheat harvest this year will be record high for the past 32 years if the projection proves to be accurate," Rahimi said. This yield would mean Afghanistan would have to buy in only 200,000 metric tonnes of wheat compared to 2.1 million tonnes last year, he said. And it would make Afghanistan only 10 percent short of self sufficiency in wheat for the year, the minister said.

FAO representative Tekeste Tekie told the press conference that Afghanistan needed six million metric tonnes of wheat every year. The population is estimated at 26-30 million although there has never been a census.

Tekie said his agency's studies showed production this year would reach 6.3 million metric tonnes. However, "there may be 15 percent losses in harvesting and in storing", he said. "If we reduce our harvest losses on the field and in the storing... there will be no shortage or the shortage will be very minimal," he said.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/03/2009 00:27 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa Subsaharan
Zimbabwe's destitute Britons to be repatriated
Up to 500 destitute Britons living in Zimbabwe are to be repatriated after their savings and pensions were wiped out by President Robert Mugabe's economic policies.

The first five will return this weekend after the British embassy in Harare arranged for them to be flown home. The group, which includes former colonial administrators, wives and civil servants, have seen their assets destroyed by hyperinflation.

Their air fares are being paid by the British taxpayer and officials said each person would be given permanent accommodation in Britain and the same entitlement to state benefits as any other pensioner.
We'll just cut everyone else's benefits 'a bit'....
Fred Noble, a 78-year-old Scot, will return to Fife this weekend, 51 years after he and his wife departed with £100 for what was then Britains Crown Colony of Southern Rhodesia. He worked for Rhodesian Railways, retiring on a pension with medical aid 13 years ago.

"I helped more people than helped me and I deserve a Christian burial. I dont want to get ill in Zimbabwe," said Mr Noble, who lost his wife four years ago and was the second pensioner to apply for "repatriation" at the British Embassy.

Mr Mugabes bankrupt regime stopped paying his pension five years ago, leaving Mr Noble dependent on his investments.
Note to union pensioners who think the gubermint is their friend
When Zimbabwes inflation reached more than 230 million per cent, the value of his portfolio plunged to less than a penny.
Are we here in the US far behind?
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 06/03/2009 08:41 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Are we here in the US far behind?

We certainly don't appear to be. "The Great Betrayal" redux.

Action taken some 40 years late, but nonetheless action. Good on Perfidious Albion.


Posted by: Besoeker || 06/03/2009 10:29 Comments || Top||

#2  Hear, hear, Besoeker, although the US failed to also come through in the early 70s, forcing the South Africans to pull out, after which the war truly revved up.
As an aside, there was a lively debate recently as to whether the UK tax-payer should fund all this. It became quite heated. It appears that 'heritage' as a concern comes second to personal wishes and short attention spans.
(So...), in the end, the question is, at that age, whether to die in poverty in a land where everyone is miserable and it always rains and is cold, or to die in poverty with another bunch of miserable people in the sunshine. What a choice!
Posted by: Rhodesiafever || 06/03/2009 14:28 Comments || Top||

#3  If it were up to me I'd conduct a monthly NEO evacution from the port of Maputo and bring everyone to the States, Auzzieland, New Zealand or wherever they wished to go!
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/03/2009 14:41 Comments || Top||

#4  Booking my single, one-way ticket to Maputo right now, just waiting for my sidearms to arrive, lol!

This is the end of an era, which the Brits arent reporting, choppers on the roof-tops time.
Expect the same in South Africa in the next few years.
Posted by: Rhodesiafever || 06/03/2009 15:23 Comments || Top||

#5  Yes RF, I fear you are dead on. The BBC and the British media are not reporting the inconvenient little bushveld genocide because they and a few here are responsible for it! Success has many fathers, failure only one... as they say. Jacob is indeed an evil bastard, but something tells me South Africa may not go down as quietly however. Time will tell.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/03/2009 15:57 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Mexican undocumented repatriation exceeds undocumented emigration
MEXICO CITY — A government survey finds Mexican emigration dropped 13 percent in the first quarter of 2009 — an ongoing trend as the U.S. economic recession discourages Mexicans from crossing the border in search of work.

The National Statistics and Geography Institute found that 137,497 people left Mexico in the first three months of 2009, compared to 159,024 during the same period of 2008.

More people returned to Mexico than left: Immigration to Mexico rose from 120,715 to 138,599 in the first quarter, a 12 percent increase.

The institute released its findings from household surveys Tuesday.

Mexican emigration has dropped steadily over the past two years, a trend experts attribute to the U.S. economic downturn and tighter border security.
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 06/03/2009 10:12 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  As Glenn Reynolds might say: pricing signals work.
Posted by: Seafarious || 06/03/2009 10:45 Comments || Top||

#2  The decline in illegal immigrants also points out something more ominous. For years, Mexican Mafia and other gangs have been crossing illegally, hidden by the large number of other illegals. No intention to stay in the US, just to kill and go back to Mexico.

But now, what amounts to bands of serious killers are crossing "in the open", heavily armed and deadly to anyone they might encounter, including BP. And BP is not thrilled with the idea of being outgunned by a squad of Zetas or MS-13.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 06/03/2009 11:34 Comments || Top||

#3  Maybe we should send Mexico a couple of truckloads of money to help out.
Posted by: Kelly || 06/03/2009 12:05 Comments || Top||

#4  I'm sure Obama can turn this around. Perhaps a few billion in stimulus dollars for "undocumented" workers.
Posted by: DMFD || 06/03/2009 21:07 Comments || Top||

#5  Wasn't that the purpose behind that $2B for Acorn?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 06/03/2009 21:14 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
First economic espionage trial begins in US
A Chinese-born engineer stole trade secrets critical to the US space program and passed them to China for three decades without detection, prosecutors said Tuesday in the first economic espionage case to reach trial in the United States.

Prosecutors laid out their case against Dongfan "Greg" Chung, 73, in US District Court in Santa Ana. The Chinese-born engineer has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy, economic espionage, lying to federal agents, obstruction of justice and acting as a foreign agent.

In his opening statement, Assistant US Attorney Greg Staples said Chung gained the trust of Boeing Co. and his previous employer, Rockwell International, and used his job as a stress analyst at the companies to steal more than 250,000 pages of sensitive documents.

The documents included trade secrets on a phased array antenna for the US space shuttle and on the Delta IV booster rocket, according to government allegations.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 06/03/2009 09:19 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Down Under
Last World War I digger Jack Ross dies
AUSTRALIA'S oldest man and last remaining World War I digger Jack Ross has died, aged 110. Mr Ross died peacefully in his sleep at the Golden Oaks Nursing Home in the central Victorian city of Bendigo about 4am (AEST) this morning.

Mr Ross turned 110 on March 9 this year.

As an 18-year-old Mr Ross enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in January, 1918 and trained at the wireless training school before he was posted to the 1st Battalion at Broadmeadows camp in Victoria. But the war ended before he could be posted overseas and he was demobilised on Christmas Eve.

He served Australia again in World War II as a member of the volunteer defence corps.

Mr Ross was awarded the 80th Anniversary Armistice Remembrance medal in 1998 to commemorate the end of WWI. He also received the Centenary Medal for his contribution to Australian society in the 100 years since federation.

In civilian life Mr Ross worked for the Victorian railways for more than 45 years before retiring in 1964.

He is survived by his daughter Peggy, son Robert, four grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

Mr Ross didn't drink or smoke, but his one vice was chocolate.

A life-long member of the Labor Party, he marched in Anzac Day parades until recent years when he preferred to watch the marches from the comfort of his bed.
And so now every April, I sit on my porch
And I watch the parade pass before me.
And I see my old comrades, how proudly they march,
Reviving old dreams of past glory,

And the old men march slowly, all bones stiff and sore,
They're tired old heroes from a forgotten war
And the young people ask "What are they marching for?"
And I ask meself the same question.

But the band plays "Waltzing Matilda,"
And the old men still answer the call,
But as year follows year, more old men disappear
Someday, no one will march there at all.

Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda.
Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?
And their ghosts may be heard as they march by the billabong,
Who'll come a-Waltzing Matilda with me?
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 06/03/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  God Bless the Diggers, every one.
Posted by: Steve White || 06/03/2009 8:23 Comments || Top||

#2  I am reminded of a lady, over a hundred, highly respected in her town. So much so that her local newspaper pre-wrote her prospective obituary to highlight her importance. Then, through a serious screw up, published it under the headline, "Three die in drunken knife fight in local bar".

The old lady remarked that she preferred that obit headline to whatever the real one would eventually be.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 06/03/2009 11:44 Comments || Top||

#3  My father always said he wanted to be shot climbing out of a bedroom window at age 95.
Posted by: mstrmech || 06/03/2009 14:55 Comments || Top||

#4  I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather did, and not screaming in terror like his passengers.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 06/03/2009 21:05 Comments || Top||

#5  R.I.P Mate.
Posted by: Oztralian || 06/03/2009 21:07 Comments || Top||

#6  I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather did, and not screaming in terror like his passengers.

Oh my. I did not expect that last bit, Atomic Conspiracy.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/03/2009 23:39 Comments || Top||


Economy
Creditors Use Loophole to Seize Protected Veterans Benefits
Bill collectors are exploiting a legal loophole to seize Social Security and veterans' benefits even though federal law is supposed to protect the payments from creditors.

Lawmakers from both parties who have been pressing the Treasury Department for years to close the loophole with new regulations are growing impatient. The Obama administration is now promising action but has offered no timetable for developing the new rules.

Federal law has long protected Social Security and veterans benefits from most creditors, with a few exceptions for child support, alimony, unpaid federal taxes and debts to other federal agencies. But creditors have been seizing the payments anyway by getting court orders to freeze and garnish bank accounts that receive the benefits through direct deposit.

Activists say the issue has festered for years, but has intensified as more recipients get their benefits deposited directly into bank accounts.

Many people who receive Social Security or veterans benefits can't afford to have their bank accounts frozen for even a short period of time, said Margot Saunders of the National Consumer Law Center. It's hard to hire a lawyer to get your money back when all your resources are frozen, she said.

"They take all your money, and they take it illegally," Saunders said. "But when you live on $700 or $800 a month and have all that money garnished, there's very little recourse."

Over a 12-month period in 2006-2007, an estimated $178 million was garnished from bank accounts that included a mixture of Social Security benefits and other deposits, according to the Social Security Administration's inspector general.

"Some banks are doing the right thing to protect their customers by denying creditors' requests to freeze and garnish accounts with Social Security funds, but too many banks are not," Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wisc., chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, said this week.

"We need our banking regulatory agencies to recognize this widespread problem and start enforcing the law," he said.

Kohl and other lawmakers have introduced a bill that would stop further promotion of the direct deposit programs for Social Security and veterans' benefits until the Treasury Department issues rules to protect the benefits from creditors. More than 80 percent of the 51 million Social Security recipients get their payments through direct deposit.
Years ago, the government forced many benefits to be direct deposit.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 06/03/2009 09:48 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Some banks are doing the right thing to protect their customers by denying creditors' requests to freeze and garnish accounts with Social Security funds, but too many banks are not,"

Stupid Activists are awaiting bureaucrats who, as we've seen with TARP and the Bailout, are more concerned with the money men than with the citizens. Would it be too difficult for the activists to simply collect the name of the banks that do freeze [and for that matter those who refuse to freeze] these accounts to be identified and their names plastered all over the internet? If the bureaucrats in Washington felt the heat on messing with Veterans benefits, just imagine what the negative impact that will have on a bank's reputation. No amount of commercial advertising money will displace that stain. And we might get a little bit of collateral damage by identifying who received their campaign donations.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 06/03/2009 10:33 Comments || Top||

#2  Great point P2k.
Posted by: tipover || 06/03/2009 10:54 Comments || Top||

#3  P2k makes a great point that the internet has given free speech a new and powerfull boost.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 06/03/2009 11:06 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
US govt accidentally posts nuclear sites online
A government office accidentally made public a report that gives detailed information about the nation's civilian nuclear sites and programs, but the disclosure didn't jeopardize national security, the Obama administration said late Tuesday.

The report, which includes maps of facilities showing the locations of stockpiles of fuel for nuclear weapons at those facilities, was posted last month on the Web site of the Government Printing Office. It was removed from the site late Tuesday, after the Federation of American Scientists reported on the document's existence Sunday in an online bulletin. The Obama administration prepared the document to comply with a decade-old international agreement aimed at providing the International Atomic Energy Agency with a comprehensive picture of the country's nuclear and nuclear-related activities. The U.S. made the agreement to encourage other countries to provide similar disclosure of their nuclear activities.

The document is marked "Highly Confidential Safeguards Sensitive." It was published on the GPO's Web site on May 22, according to Steven Aftergood, a security expert at the scientists' group. A cover letter on the document, addressed by President Barack Obama to Congress, calls the information "sensitive but unclassified."

In a written statement late Tuesday, Damien LaVera, a spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration, said that while administration officials "would have preferred it not be released, the Departments of Energy, Defense, and Commerce and the [Nuclear Regulatory Commission] all thoroughly reviewed it to ensure that no information of direct national security significance would be compromised." Mr. LaVera's statement didn't specify how the document came to be made public by the GPO. A GPO spokesman couldn't be reached for comment. A White House spokesman echoed Mr. LaVera's statement.

Mr. Aftergood said he didn't regard the disclosure as constituting a serious security breach. "There's nothing in this document to put anyone in any jeopardy," he said.

The list details the existence of nuclear facilities at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois and a Westinghouse research facility in Pittsburgh, among others.

"It's quite well known where our research and nuclear facilities are," Mr. Kimball said. This information has been out there for years."
Posted by: ryuge || 06/03/2009 08:40 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  accidentally made public a report that gives detailed information about the nation's civilian nuclear sites and programs, but the disclosure didn't jeopardize national security

I wonder what would've happened if the same map was found in possesion of an AIPAC employee?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 06/03/2009 9:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Prepared by the Obama administration to.... "encourage other countries" then leaked it via the internet. Now it has found it's way HERE. No recovery now possible.

I sincerely hope we as a nation will survive the Obama experiment, but I am beginning to have my doubts.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/03/2009 9:26 Comments || Top||

#3  Obamaechtomy 2012
Posted by: HammerHead || 06/03/2009 9:40 Comments || Top||

#4  Obama - trying hard to make Jimmy Carter look a genius.
Posted by: 3dc || 06/03/2009 9:59 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Punjab CM's aide resigns over rape charge
PML-N MPA Munawar Gill has resigned as special assistant to the Punjab chief minister following the registration of a rape case against him, and Shahbaz Sharif has accepted his resignation, a private TV channel reported on Tuesday. The MPA has been accused of raping a Green Town resident, who told police that she had gone to meet Gill in a Gulberg hotel to get a property issue resolved, where he raped her. Police said the accused had not been arrested, but investigations were underway. The MPA said the accusation was an attempt to defame him, the channel reported.
Posted by: Fred || 06/03/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  she had gone to meet Gill in a Gulberg hotel to get a property issue resolved

No comment.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 06/03/2009 9:30 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
'Jesus' T-shirt becomes factor in 'hate crimes' argument
Christians who have been protesting a plan pending in the U.S. Senate to impose a "hate crimes" law on citizens of the United States say they already are experiencing what life under that law would include, because they are being targeted because of the message on their T-shirts: "Truth is Hate to those who Hate the Truth."

The shirts, promoted on the Operation Save America website, have the slogan "Jesus is the Standard" on the front.

Operation Save America spokesman Rev. Flip Benham told WND that people wearing the shirts had assembled recently in Washington to protest S. 909, now pending in the Senate Judiciary Committee after being approved by the U.S. House on a 249-175 vote.

But he said police officers providing security at both the U.S. Senate building and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to allow citizens wearing the shirts to enter the buildings.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 06/03/2009 16:05 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Truth and the Senate is like garlic and Dracula.
Posted by: ed || 06/03/2009 18:55 Comments || Top||

#2  1st amendment violated way to hell and gone with that action. Violating Right to petition, and freedom of speech, freedom of religion. Its a 3-fer.

Where's the ACLU? They were there for Code Stink.. Hypocrites.
Posted by: OldSpook || 06/03/2009 23:40 Comments || Top||


Liberal website calls for summary execution of "global warming deniers"
Marc Morano, Climate Depot

A public appeal has been issued by an influential U.S. website asking: “At what point do we jail or execute global warming deniers.” The appeal appeared on Talking Points Memo, an often cited website that helps set the agenda for the political Left in the U.S. The anonymous posting, dated June 2, 2009, referred to dissenters of man-made global warming fears as “greedy bastards” who use “bogus science or the lowest scientists in the gene pool” to “distort data.”

The Talking Points Memo article continues: “So when the right wing fucktards have caused it to be too late to fix the problem, and we start seeing the devastating consequences and we start seeing end of the World type events - how will we punish those responsible. It will be too late. So shouldn't we start punishing them now?"

Background, from Wikipedia:

Talking Points Memo (or TPM) is a liberal web-based political journalism organization created and run by Josh Marshall. It debuted on November 12, 2000. It covers a wide range of topics including U.S. foreign policy, domestic politics (especially at the federal level) and domestic policy....

A "spin-off" blog also created by Josh Marshall is a companion website called TPMCafe, which debuted on 2005-05-31. This site features a collection of blogs about a wide range of domestic and foreign policy issues written by academics, journalists and former public officials among others.

Update: 8:44 AM ET: Talking Points Memo (TPM) has removed the article from their website. "The file you are looking for has not been found" - But the url with a portion of the chilling message lingers as evidence: "at-what-point-do-we-jail-or-ex..." - http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/crazedandconfused/2009/06/at-what-point-do-we-jail-or-ex.php?ref=reccafe - Climate Depot has also saved a screen shot of the original article.

Full text of the original TPM posting at the link.
Posted by: Mike || 06/03/2009 13:43 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The anonymous posting, dated June 2, 2009, referred to dissenters of man-made global warming fears as "greedy bastards" who use "bogus science or the lowest scientists in the gene pool" to "distort data."

Well this is news. When did Al Gore come over to the Dark Side?
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/03/2009 14:28 Comments || Top||

#2  WAAHHH!!!!! Change my diaper!!!!!
>-(
[/liberal mode]
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 06/03/2009 14:37 Comments || Top||

#3  I'd laugh, but it is no longer funny and quite frankly is getting a bit scary. I noticed on another site that liberals were threatening to report to homeland security another poster whom they labeld a "terrorist" for expressing that, though he was appalled by Tiller's murder, he felt that that the abortion doctor had much blood on his hands. In San Diego, they demanded a pastor get a multi-use permit costing thousands for holding small Bible studies in their home. I fully expect we will see the Bible labeled hate speech for its opposition to homosexuality - or whatever- within the next few years. And those who think this will stop at Christianity aren't paying attention. This will quickly extend to anyone with any opposing view on anything. It is amazing how fast this is all coming about.
Posted by: Jumbo Slinerong5015 || 06/03/2009 16:46 Comments || Top||

#4  FYI - the County of SD backed down on the permit req't for the Pastor
Posted by: Frank G || 06/03/2009 16:51 Comments || Top||

#5  People - always remember.

The left point of view REQUIRES that conservatives - and in particular, devout Christians - be deemed the greatest evil possible in the universe.

If this becomes not so, even for a microsecond, their entire worldview falls apart, since their basic governing principle is that the worst evil is a white male Christian heterosexual non-Marxist. (To which has been added, apparently, anyone who doesn't believe in the AGW hoax.)

If something is that evil, in their minds,it must be destroyed. (See the Messiah's description of the private sector as 'the enemy' for another example.) This is why you see these writings. And these people are dead serious when they write it.

"When you're in with the Lord, there's just one reward, and they'd just as soon make it come true...."

Robert Earle Keene


Posted by: no mo uro || 06/03/2009 17:48 Comments || Top||

#6  If they are going to lock everybody up, they better get a move on before the next Ice Age sets in.

Perhaps one day in the not to distant future, the word 'liberal' will once again come to mean a belief in freedom, markets and small government.
Posted by: SteveS || 06/03/2009 17:58 Comments || Top||

#7  Jeeze, I would like to cut off their access to evil electric power. Let them try to get internet access using wind or biomethane or whatever flatulence they substitute for knowledge and the scientific method.
Posted by: ed || 06/03/2009 18:37 Comments || Top||

#8  Global warming IS occurring. Sea level IS rising. It's been going on for the last 20,000 years or so. And it happened several other times in the last half million years. Some claim CO2 was involved. Some think continental shifts. Most think it was mainly solar variations. In any case, the human species was not the cause then. While we may be a contributing factor now, precedent strongly suggests we are not the primary cause now.

And, libtards, if you want to execute me, you had better come with a lot more firepower than you normally carry or approve of. Oh, and spend some serious time at the range first.
Posted by: Glenmore || 06/03/2009 19:30 Comments || Top||

#9  This is what happens when people confuse political science with science. These people are too stupid to talk to.
Posted by: rwv || 06/03/2009 19:32 Comments || Top||

#10  The earth is only 150 years out of the Little Ice Age (1450 to 1850). The sun's activity only recently recently reached that of the Medieval Warming Period, that is, until the recent inactivity and dropping temperatures.
Sunspot Activity and Temperature

Historical Sunspots Activity

Posted by: ed || 06/03/2009 20:18 Comments || Top||

#11  Google Cache is your friend but hurry up
Posted by: European Conservative || 06/03/2009 20:51 Comments || Top||

#12  dude! use the linkage feature - the one with the globe and what looks like goggles? 9th in from the left.
Posted by: Frank G || 06/03/2009 21:02 Comments || Top||

#13  left goes Stalin on our ass
Posted by: badanov || 06/03/2009 21:08 Comments || Top||

#14  From the Rantburg gun club,"Come on down you little misguided liberal and bring your finest weapon." "It will look good in my gun safe after your failed attempt."
Posted by: 49 Pan || 06/03/2009 23:33 Comments || Top||

#15  We will speak as much of global warming in 2020 as we are speaking now of the Y2K-bug
Posted by: European Conservative || 06/03/2009 23:38 Comments || Top||



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Wed 2009-06-03
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Sun 2009-05-31
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