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Egypt: Justice orders the dissolution of the former ruling party
Today's Headlines
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Page 6: Politix
6 00:00 CincinnatusChili [1]
-Lurid Crime Tales-
Young man killed on wedding night
[Dawn] A bridegroom was killed on his wedding night when a bullet fired by a friend of his friend hit his head at the marriage celebration at his house in Tench Bhata late Thursday, the family said.
That's gonna give gunsex a bad name...
Javaid Iqbal, the grieving father of 25-year-old Jahanzaib Javaid, believes that Ajmal Khan, the shooter, came to the wedding with murder on his mind.

"My son was murdered. We caught the cruel man, seized his pistol and handed him over to the local police," he told Dawn.

According to him, Ajmal Khan came with one of his son's friends, pulled out his pistol as the wedding ceremony was in progress, targeted his son and fired.

Shocked guests seized and disarmed Khan and rushed the bleeding bridegroom to District Headquarters Hospital where doctors declared Jahanzaib dead.

Just days before his marriage, Jahanzaib was in detention of the same cop shoppe to which his murder was reported.

Police and his family said he was jugged for a couple of days for questioning in connection with a private complaint lodged against the family. But police found him innocent of any wrong doing and had set him free three days before his wedding.

"Had I known what tragic fate awaited my son on Thursday, I would have delayed his marriage," said father Javaid Iqbal sobbing.

Iqbal, a taxi who lived in a rented house with his two sons, said he was hard up these days and had barrowed money to hold his son's marriage.

Tench Bhata police have registered a murder case and started investigation into the incident.
Posted by: Fred || 04/17/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Had I known what tragic fate awaited my son on Thursday, I would have delayed his marriage."

Duh. Because it's better to have an unmarried, dead son, I guess.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 04/17/2011 13:27 Comments || Top||

#2  He was lucky!

No I'm not divorced, but someone had to say it.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 04/17/2011 17:22 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Paris Hilton ready to show real self in new TV show
[Arab News] You've seen her on the red carpet, famously walking out of jail, and working on a farm in "The Simple Life".

But now Gay Paree Hilton says she is showing a side of herself on television that fans have never seen before -- the down to earth, funny, relatable girl who nevertheless has a multimillion business based on being famous for being famous.

"On 'The Simple Life', I was playing a character. Now people will get to see my real world, my friends, my house, my business," Hilton said on Friday.

"I would never have done a show like this five, ten years ago. I wasn't really comfortable with myself. I have been through so much. I have nothing to hide. It's like, what else can happen?. I was ready to show myself," she told TV journalists.

"The World According to Gay Paree" debuts on the US cable channel Oxygen in June, and follows Hilton, her mother Kathy Hilton, and friends including Brooke Mueller, the third ex-wife of actor Charlie Sheen.
Posted by: Fred || 04/17/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Didn't she show her real self in that sex video a couple of years ago?
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 04/17/2011 0:28 Comments || Top||

#2  I hear the show will be shot in infrared.
Posted by: Zebulon Thranter9685 || 04/17/2011 1:05 Comments || Top||

#3 
Posted by: gromky || 04/17/2011 2:50 Comments || Top||

#4  Best photoshop.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 04/17/2011 13:24 Comments || Top||

#5  Annoymoose that was nasty. Person has got to check under the hood nowadays.
Posted by: Dale || 04/17/2011 16:56 Comments || Top||

#6  WARNING to all the guys here. Don't look at 'moose's link unless you want a certain appendage to shrivel in horror.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 04/17/2011 17:06 Comments || Top||

#7  'Cuzin Paris needs to present herself in more successful TV, News Interviews like the Kardashian Babes this AM.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/17/2011 20:09 Comments || Top||

#8  Yawn.
Posted by: Cragum Henbane1072 || 04/17/2011 20:42 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Twin quakes strike Australia & New Zealand
Posted by: Oztralian || 04/17/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Glad there doesn't appear to be much damage. Y'all stay safe, Oztralian.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 04/17/2011 10:20 Comments || Top||

#2  Happened near Christchurch. Those poor people must be getting pretty gun-shy about now.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/17/2011 14:00 Comments || Top||

#3  Once again, wid feeling - ARISE, LEMURIA/MU, ARISE!
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/17/2011 20:40 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Burkinabe leader dissolves government amid mutiny
[The Nation (Nairobi)] Burkina Faso's
...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and may be in the process of being chased out now...
President Blaise Compaore has dissolved his government amid reports of a mutiny in the country's military.

In the presidential decree issued on Friday, Compaore also appointed Colonel Major Nabere Honore Traore to replace General Dominique Djendjere as the chief of general staff for the national army.

He also appointed Colonel Boureima Kere to replace Colonel Major Gilbert Diendere as the head of the presidential security brigade.

Officers attached to the presidential security brigade went on the rampage on Thursday and Friday, destroying property and leaving a number of people injured. The mutineers were reportedly venting anger at the government for failing to meet their demand for housing and food allowances.
Never a smart idea to short the Praetorian Guard...
Heavy gunfire was heard at the presidential palace in Ouagadougou on Thursday night. President Compaore was not in the palace at the time.

Power supply was also disconnected to various districts of the capital.

The officers from the presidential guard unit received support from other military camps, especially in the area of Ouezin. They vented their anger by ransacking various places, particularly the home of the chief of general staff, and the shops in the capital's main market.

Public offices and service stations opened for a short while on Friday morning, but closed after an hour following rumours that the soldiers had surrounded strategic places.

Compaore, himself a former army captain, was re-elected in November with more than 80 per cent of the vote, having won all elections since 1991 after coming to power in a 1987 military coup.
Posted by: Fred || 04/17/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Colonel Major?????????????
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/17/2011 2:18 Comments || Top||


Britain
MOD Fouls Up Again, Releases Classified UK and US Submarine Secrets
The Ministry of Defence has admitted that secret information about the UK's nuclear powered submarines was made available on the internet by mistake.

A technical error meant blacked-out parts of an online MoD report could be read by pasting into another document. Details were reported to include expert opinion on how well the fleet could cope with a catastrophic accident.

The MoD said a secure version had now been published and it was working to stop such an incident happening again.

Information also included measures used by the US Navy to protect its nuclear submarines.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 04/17/2011 14:50 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What exactly makes you think it's a mistake on their part, moose?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 04/17/2011 17:08 Comments || Top||

#2  I seem to recall a similar incident on this side of the pond a couple of years ago.

Doesn't anybody check anything anymore?
Posted by: Bobby || 04/17/2011 17:59 Comments || Top||

#3  It's hard to keep up with what MS Office does to an electronic document. It is probably some secretary typing the document or even worse, the actual Officer making the report. If they aren't trained about these "little things" then you get these leaks. There ARE advantages to paper files.
Posted by: tipover || 04/17/2011 21:19 Comments || Top||


Economy
FBI charges 11 internet poker kingpins
Australian internet whiz Daniel Tzvetkoff, who has become a prized FBI informant in a bid to avoid a 75 year jail sentence in the US, may have brought down the multi-billion dollar American online poker industry.

The FBI announced on Friday it had charged 11 people, including the founders of three of the largest internet poker companies in the US, with bank fraud, money laundering and illegal gambling offences.

The three poker sites - PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker - have been shut down.

Posted by: tipper || 04/17/2011 13:32 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  and yet the Washington DC gubbamint just approved an online poker gaming. Think Holder will shut them down too or just allow them to be the sole operation going. Thuggishness and racial solidarity reigns
Posted by: Frank G || 04/17/2011 14:12 Comments || Top||

#2  What a coincedence, Frank G.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 04/17/2011 16:37 Comments || Top||


Texas University Hold $1 Billion in Gold Bars
The University of Texas Investment Management Co., the second-largest U.S. academic endowment, took delivery of almost $1 billion in gold bullion and is storing the bars in a New York vault, according to the fund’s board.

The fund, whose $19.9 billion in assets ranked it behind Harvard University’s endowment as of August, according to the National Association of College and University Business Officers, added about $500 million in gold investments to an existing stake last year, said Bruce Zimmerman, the endowment’s chief executive officer. The holdings are worth about $987 million, based on yesterday’s closing price of $1,486 an ounce for Comex futures.

The decision to turn the fund’s investment into gold bars was influenced by Kyle Bass, a Dallas hedge fund manager and member of the endowment’s board, Zimmerman said at its annual meeting on April 14. Bass made $500 million on the U.S. subprime-mortgage collapse.

“Central banks are printing more money than they ever have, so what’s the value of money in terms of purchases of goods and services,” Bass said yesterday in a telephone interview. “I look at gold as just another currency that they can’t print any more of.”
Posted by: tipper || 04/17/2011 02:51 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I store all the gold I own in my mouth.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 04/17/2011 5:16 Comments || Top||

#2  That's a great place to keep your gold. That way you remember where you put it. When people die sometimes things like that disappear especially if you have no family. This happens in Hospitals also in route or even family. The worst is grave robbery. Yes, that is happening.

Just a side note. Do you know what they bury overweight people (500lbs+) in?.

Tic, Tic, Tic

septic tanks.
Posted by: Dale || 04/17/2011 8:57 Comments || Top||

#3  That's about 5% of their endowment. With the Bernank still printing money, that seems prudent. Wonder what Havahd invested in (GE?).
Posted by: CincinnatusChili || 04/17/2011 11:13 Comments || Top||

#4  Bass made $500 million on the U.S. subprime-mortgage collapse.

Clearly the UTX endowment board watches Glenn Beck -- they are clearly influenced by his "Buy Gold!" advertisers, while Mr. Bass is learning Soros' profit from chaos playbook off of Beck's chalkboard.
Posted by: regular joe || 04/17/2011 11:57 Comments || Top||

#5  I am all about being smart enough to recognize what is going down, trying to protect one self by hedging against it like Bass did and is still doing until the rest of America gets half a brain and puts a stop to Obama's madness. Thank you Mr Beck for your wisdom during this crisis. And for all of you trying to pin this crisis on Beck, obviously you need to listen to him and other people who know how to recognize, prepare, survive and overcome.
Posted by: Jinese McGurque4032 || 04/17/2011 21:28 Comments || Top||

#6  In other words, there are people like Beck out there who know what Soros and Obama are doing and are hedging against that by using their playbook, until we get these two out of our country.
Posted by: Jinese McGurque4032 || 04/17/2011 21:30 Comments || Top||


World Bank: Food prices have entered the 'danger zone'
h/t Instapundit
Robert Zoellick, World Bank president, said food prices are at "a tipping point", having risen 36pc in the last year to levels close to their 2008 peak. The rising cost of food has been much more dramatic in low-income countries, pushing 44m people into poverty since June last year.

Another 10pc rise in food prices would push 10m into extreme poverty, defined as an effective income of less than $1.25 a day. Already, the world's poor number 1.2bn.

Mr Zoellick said he saw no short term reversal in the damaging effect of food inflation, which is felt much more in the developing world as packaging and distribution accounts for a far larger proportion of the cost in the advanced economies.

Asked if he thought prices would remain high for a year, Mr Zoellick said: "The general trend lines are ones where we are in a danger zone... because prices have already gone up and stocks are relatively low."
Three cheers for the wonderful: Postindustrial, Gaea saving, World we live in.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/17/2011 02:31 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "World Bank: Food prices have entered the 'danger zone'"

What - they might not be able to afford all the patè and champagne they want? That's the only thing that would really bother these clowns.

Sounds more like they're laying the groundwork to demand the West U.S. give them even MORE money.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 04/17/2011 10:09 Comments || Top||

#2  having risen 36pc in the last year to levels close to their 2008 peak.

I seem to recall -- although perhaps I am mistaken -- that we survived the 2008 peak, apparently still higher than current levels. Is there truly not enough food for the world, or is it just that in much of the world the various national GDPs are hidden away in the ruling class's Swiss bank accounts, unavailable for paying higher prices?
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/17/2011 14:06 Comments || Top||

#3  "Is there truly not enough food for the world, or is it just that in much of the world the various national GDPs are hidden away in the ruling class's Swiss bank accounts, unavailable for paying higher prices?"

I'll take Door #2, tw.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 04/17/2011 14:21 Comments || Top||

#4  20 Signs That A Horrific Global Food Crisis Is Coming
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/17/2011 14:52 Comments || Top||

#5  # 4 Mr. G thank you for that post. This article was shown in the UK first. Rice has dropped in price however our only bright spot. An old scout motto "be prepared" comes to mind. We are paying higher prices now and they are going up every day. The poor countries are suffering but we don't hear much about them now for some reason. Water looms as a major issue. Well, it's really a problem now. The solution is not government. Socialism is not an answer. Free capitalism and its people and this can be resolved toot sweet. So much mucking about and nothing to show for it.
Posted by: Dale || 04/17/2011 17:16 Comments || Top||

#6  I'd like to remind you and Mr Bernanke that 'inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon'
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 04/17/2011 17:21 Comments || Top||

#7  Indeed BP that is correct but only on an overall basis.

Food inflation is primarily a supply side problem, made substantially worse by the biofuels lunancy.

The only monetary solution to food inflation is a special currency exclusively for food, also known as rationing.
Posted by: phil_b || 04/17/2011 19:23 Comments || Top||

#8  See also DRUDGEREPORT > WORLD BANK PRESIDENT: WORLD IS "ONE SHOCK AWAY" FROM FULL-BLOWN CRISIS.

IIUC ARTIC = a Global "Perfect Storm" of variable Crises.

WB Prez ZOELLICK = 'Tis a [Global] Econ Recovery wid NOT ENOUGH JOBS, ESPEC FOR WORLD YOUTHS = YOUNG ADULTS... ... IN ANY "REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT", THE "STATUS QUO" METHODOLOGY(S), ETC. IS NOT THE WINNING HAND.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/17/2011 20:05 Comments || Top||

#9  Food inflation is primarily a supply side problem, made substantially worse by the biofuels lunancy.
phil_b, maybe, but have a look at this article from Oct 2010 which anticipated a great deal of what we currently see unfolding in the world.
Bernanke sets the world on fire
Posted by: tipper || 04/17/2011 20:20 Comments || Top||

#10  JM that makes allot of sense "a Global "Perfect Storm" of variable Crises" and it sure looks like we are moving out of the eye into turbulence. Youth not having work is causing trouble true true. One world order? what a laugh. One currency, no way. We are too interdependent now. To me it looks like we either shoot ourselves in the foot or mother nature will.
Posted by: Dale || 04/17/2011 20:46 Comments || Top||

#11  Sorry WB. Egypt beat you to it a couple of months ago.
Posted by: Cragum Henbane1072 || 04/17/2011 20:48 Comments || Top||

#12  tipper, a looming world food crisis shouldn't be news to regulars here. Several people have been warning about it for years.

We are one, overdue, large volcanic eruption away from large scale famine.
Posted by: phil_b || 04/17/2011 21:01 Comments || Top||

#13  phil_b, commodities have moved from their historical purpose of feeding people and making things, into the casino. Sure natural caused can cause short term shortages and price rises, but if handled correctly, these periods are brief and price rises are small.
But with the new Casino Economics instituted by Bernanke, commodities have lost their connection to the real world and depend for their prices on the luck of the casino players. Relying on casino gamblers has always been a receipt for disaster.
Posted by: tipper || 04/17/2011 21:16 Comments || Top||

#14  It's a myth that over the medium to long term, speculators raise prices of physical commodities that can not be easily stored, essentially gold and silver.
Posted by: phil_b || 04/17/2011 21:22 Comments || Top||

#15  It's a myth that over the medium to long term, speculators raise prices of physical commodities that can not be easily stored
phil_b, this is the heart and soul of the biggest debate in economics today.
I hold with the Austrian view that the above statement is nonsense.
The Austrian view is as stated in the article above that "Full-employment can be established only by the private sector. Therefore, the market and the price mechanism have to be allowed to operate without the distortions that have been created by government and central bank policies'
The opposite view is the Krugman/Keynesian view as you stated.
Unfortunately it's also the view being taught to unsuspecting students at most universities. What they fail to understand is the difference between physical speculators and financial speculators (casino gamblers)
Posted by: tipper || 04/17/2011 22:12 Comments || Top||

#16  I got a "D" in Economics 40 years ago. Can someone translate all this into "English for Morons"?
Posted by: Bobby || 04/17/2011 23:09 Comments || Top||

#17  Bobby,
watch the video at this link, it offers a good explanation.
Posted by: tipper || 04/17/2011 23:41 Comments || Top||


Six US banks fail in one single day
[Iran Press TV] Six banks have been closed in several parts of the United States in one single day, bringing the total number of bank failures to 34 in 2011.
That's all? Surely the pace was faster in 2010...
US regulators shuttered two banks in the state of Alabama and two others in the state of Georgia on Friday. Two more were closed in Mississippi and Minnesota on the same day, Rooters reported.

Superior Bank in Alabama's capital, Birmingham, which was closed on Friday with nearly USD 3 billion in assets and USD 2.7 billion in deposits, was the largest bank to be closed in the current year.

Washington Mutual Bank, closed in 2008, is the largest bank, with a total of USD 307 billion in assets, to be seized since the beginning of the US financial crisis.

In 2010, US authorities shuttered 157 banks with an ownership value of USD 92 billion. The figure followed 140 bank foreclosures with total assets of USD 169 billion in 2009.

According to Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Chairman Sheila Bair, the number of failures is expected to drop through the rest of this year.

The growing number of closures has cost the deposit insurance fund billions of dollars since it started four years ago.
Posted by: Fred || 04/17/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Good Morning Moonbeam and all others. What a distraction. Well I don't like that word anymore "expected". That's all you hear nowadays "(FDIC) Chairman Sheila Bair, the number of failures is expected to drop through the rest of this year". Unexpected that is.
Posted by: Dale || 04/17/2011 5:25 Comments || Top||

#2  Not counting the banks force out of business, not so much as investment or financial failures, but because the Feds jack up reserve levels at the same time extorting multi-year advance payments in FDIC insurance.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/17/2011 8:57 Comments || Top||

#3  #2 Hello!; This is a weak subject for myself. I do however run into business people who pass on general information. This week I was told Banks want to loan money now. The problem is that those people who apply are overextended, bad credit risks and so on.
Posted by: Dale || 04/17/2011 9:21 Comments || Top||

#4  ...And Friday, BoA - which has my checking, savings, and mortgage - 86'd their CFO and hired one of the most powerful and well connected regulatory lawyers in Washington:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/42608309

I am very seriously considering pulling my savings out TOMORROW.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 04/17/2011 10:45 Comments || Top||

#5  In the 20's and 30's people put money in Mason jars for good reason.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/17/2011 11:05 Comments || Top||

#6  BOA has my mortgage, Mike, but only because they bought Countrywide (who bought it from someone - it's hard to follow); I wouldn't let them or one of the other bankconglomerates near my actual money.

Can't do anything about the mortgage, but I'd definitely look around for a regional bank to move the checking and savings to. Or, if you're eligible, a credit union.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 04/17/2011 11:22 Comments || Top||

#7  In the 20's and 30's people put money in Mason jars for good reason.

If it were in the form of coins that were made of silver ....
Posted by: gorb || 04/17/2011 11:24 Comments || Top||

#8  Gorb is correct. I have some confederate paper money and it has no value. They are still finding gold buried in Rome when their economy tanked. The problem with gold is this money is taken out of circulation.
Posted by: Dale || 04/17/2011 13:09 Comments || Top||

#9  Miss Barbara -
Thank you for the advice - there is a regional here that has a great rep plus one of my wife's uncles was a VP there and until recently was a member of the board. I'll have to start physically taking the payment to the bank every month but it will be worth it to know I wont possibly end up getting only pennies on the dollar. (I know by the book FDIC fully insures every dime in there, but 1) I don't trust Washington to pay up and 2) if BoA goes under a LOT of banks are going with it, and that will spread any payout even further. I ain't takin' any chances.)

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 04/17/2011 20:16 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Political Gambit: Dems Plan On Running LTG Sanchez (ret.) For Senate In Texas
Democrats appear to have recruited retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez to run for the U.S. Senate in Texas, setting the stage for the party to field a well-known candidate in the 2012 race to replace retiring Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.

Former Texas Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes, a Democrat, confirmed that Democratic Senate campaign chief Patty Murray, D-Wash., was referring to Sanchez on Thursday when she said Democrats were close to announcing a candidate in Texas.

Sanchez, reached by phone at his San Antonio home, asked where the reports of a Senate run came from and then said, “I can neither confirm nor deny.”

Sanchez, the former top military commander in Iraq who was left under a cloud from the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, would not discuss the Senate race.

Already, LTG Sanchez is emphasizing that he’s going to be more to the right than the average Democrat:

“I would describe myself as during my military career as supporting the president and the Constitution,” Sanchez said. “After the military, I decided that socially, I’m a progressive, a fiscal conservative and a strong supporter, obviously, of national defense.”

“Sanchez himself wrote and signed a 2003 memo that included specific interrogation tactics approved for use despite noting that they may violate the Geneva Conventions. In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sanchez denied signing off on these interrogation methods.”
Posted by: Anonymoose || 04/17/2011 12:48 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "during my military career as supporting the president and the Constitution"

After the military...I'm a progressive

He brown noses whoever butt he thinks will sign the next pay check.
Posted by: Tyranysaurus Phomoger7360 || 04/17/2011 13:39 Comments || Top||

#2  I’m a progressive, a fiscal conservative and a strong supporter, obviously, of national defense.

Two oxymorons and a potential lie.
Posted by: Pappy || 04/17/2011 14:15 Comments || Top||

#3  Two points:

1) This is the kind of Democrat we want. As long as he is serious about the fiscally conservative bit, his socially progressive side won't do the kind of harm that's been done by the socially progressive/fiscally irresponsible Democrats have done. We want the Republicans we elect to be fiscally conservative as well, which too many of them have not been.

2) How much responsibility does he hold for not preventing an atmosphere in which Abu Ghraib behaviour occurred? Managerially he is responsible for not making sure that woman who commanded the prison was doing things properly, but at that level she should not have needed close supervision. In other words, should I hold it against him in terms of his judgement and ability that it was on his watch that it occurred?
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/17/2011 14:16 Comments || Top||

#4  "I'm a progressive, a fiscal conservative"

I'd say the two are mutually exclusive.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 04/17/2011 14:19 Comments || Top||

#5  Pappy's point makes mine moot. Do we dislike him as much as we did former Secretary of State Colin Powell?
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/17/2011 14:19 Comments || Top||

#6  I'd say the two are mutually exclusive.

Barbara, Mr. Wife has long described himself as socially progressive and fiscally conservative. By that he means that he wants to provide the underprivileged help to pull themselves up to the middle class, should they be willing to do the hard work, and within the constraints of funding provided by a reasonable tax and regulatory scheme. He grew up the son of a union steel worker -- his father had a high school diploma, his mother finally got her GED a decade ago. He was bright and hard working, and so was given a place in a research program for high school students that he parlayed through harder work into an education and a career.

I imagine an awful lot of American military people have similar stories, thanks to taking advantage of the opportunities the Armed Forces provide the troops and their families in return for hard work. The key is remembering that an individual's hard work has to be the response to proffered help.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/17/2011 14:32 Comments || Top||

#7  "The key is remembering that an individual's hard work has to be the response to proffered help."

It strikes me the today's "progressives" think the downtrodden are incapable of doing anything to pull themselves out of their crappy lives, tw, and really don't want them to, as that would lead to fewer guaranteed votes for said "progressives." I don't mind helping give others a chance to pull themselves up, though I'd rather see it done by charities rather than the government, which has proved over the decades that it's incapable of helping anyone but itself (in the form of the people who get cushy jobs "helping" poor people stay poor).

Hopefully Sanchez is more like your husband and less like clowns such as Patty "Osama-bin-Laden-builds-day-care-centers" Murray.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 04/17/2011 14:49 Comments || Top||

#8  Hopefully Sanchez is more like your husband and less like clowns such as Patty "Osama-bin-Laden-builds-day-care-centers" Murray.

Agreed, Barbara. That's why I'm hoping some here can comment knowledgeably about the gentleman. Pappy was a bit cryptic.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/17/2011 15:06 Comments || Top||

#9  In the miltary Senore Lopez supported the constitution, but now he is a progressive. Texas will over whelmingly vote this Democrat down, just like Texas did to all the other major progressives last fall. Period.
Posted by: wr || 04/17/2011 16:30 Comments || Top||

#10  TW,
I suspect his interest in the Democratic Party is due to bitterness about how his career ended.

As for his responsibility for the scandal, 2 thoughts:
1) It is traditional for the top guy to take a hit for any scandal.
2) The memo to interigators is pretty damning, and his defence is pretty weak.

At the very least he (and others in the chain of command) are guilty of lax supervision. Probably of the "Don't tell me. I don't want to know" kind.
Posted by: Frozen Al || 04/17/2011 16:52 Comments || Top||

#11  Problem for him is he is up against a solid Republican field - including one who has won state wide office in Texas more than once, and has bona fide in-office fiscal conservative credentials: Michael Williams (Whom I have contributed to from out of state)

Posted by: OldSpook || 04/17/2011 22:51 Comments || Top||

#12  Michael Williams is a Commissioner on the Railroad Commission of Texas, which regulates the oil and gas industry. It is the state’s oldest regulatory agency. Elected statewide three times, he was elected to complete an unexpired term in November 2000. In November 2002 and 2008, they re-elected him to full six-year terms. He was initially appointed to the Commission by then-Governor George W. Bush in December 1998 to fill a vacant seat. Williams served as Chairman of the Commission from September 1999 to September 2003 and again from July 2007 to February 2009. He is the first African American in Texas history to hold an executive statewide elected post.

Williams serves as the Chairman of the Governor’s Competitiveness Council. He also chairs the Governor’s Clean Coal Technology Council, represents the Governor on the Southern States Energy Board and is a member of both the National Coal Council and the Interstate Compact Commission. Williams also serves as the Railroad Commission’s “point person” for the agency’s regulatory reform and technology modernization efforts.

The son of public school teachers who earned degrees in math and the husband of a mechanical engineer, Michael is the creator and co-sponsor of the “Winnovators,” a summer camp for 6th through 12th graders to inspire the next generation of scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians.

An advocate of alternative energy, Williams is championing the conversion of Texas public and private fleets, especially school buses, from diesel and gasoline to environmentally cleaner, cheaper and domestically produced natural gas and propane through his “Breathe Easy” initiative.

Michael is the immediate past Honorary State Chairman of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Texas. He initiated the Texas response against the tragedy in Darfur. Williams also narrates short stories for children of all ages, including the visually impaired and those with special needs.

Previously, Williams served as general counsel to a Texas high-tech corporation and “of Counsel” with the law firm of Haynes and Boone, L.L.P. He also has served in a volunteer capacity as the General Counsel of the Republican Party of Texas, the chairman of the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission, on the Board of Directors of the Arlington Chamber of Commerce, the Texas Public Policy Foundation and Our Mother of Mercy Catholic School.

A devout conservative, Michael helped get out the vote for Republicans as Chairman of Texas Victory 2004 and 2006, has served as Convention Chairman and Platform Committee Chairman at Republican Party of Texas’ State Conventions and was one of the original board members of the Texas Christian Coalition. He is also a life time member of the National Rifle Association.

He also had the pleasure to serve as an adjunct professor at Texas Southern University in the School of Public Affairs and Texas Wesleyan School of Law.

In 1990, President George H. W. Bush appointed Williams to be Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education, a position previously held by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Former President Bush previously appointed Williams as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Law Enforcement at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. He had policy oversight responsibility for the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, the U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Customs Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. Williams also served in the Department of Justice as Special Assistant to Attorney General Richard Thornburgh.

Williams served as a prosecutor in the Department of Justice under President Ronald Reagan. In 1988, he was awarded the Attorney General’s “Special Achievement Award” for the conviction of six Ku Klux Klan members on stolen military weapons charges. Early in his career, he was an assistant district attorney in his hometown of Midland, Texas.

Williams is a proud alumnus of the University of Southern California where he holds a bachelor’s, a master’s and a law degree.

He is a member of Most Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Arlington, Texas. He and his best friend, Donna, celebrate 24 years of marriage.
Posted by: Jinese McGurque4032 || 04/17/2011 23:51 Comments || Top||


Tea Party faithful rally against taxes
[The Nation (Nairobi)] Hundreds of Tea Party supporters rallied in Boston in an anti-tax day event headlined by likely US presidential contender and former Republican governor of Minnesota Tim Pawlenty.

With a hot budget fight raging in Washington, Pawlenty was quick to sling spending cut slogans in an attempt to win over Tea Party die-hards in the home state of Mitt Romney, a potential rival for the Republican nomination in 2012.

"We can't spend more than we take in," Pawlenty roared from a makeshift podium beneath the dome of gazebo on Boston Common.

"You can't do it as an individual, you can't do it as a family, you can't do it at your place of work and we can't let the government do it anymore."

His remarks drew cheers from the crowd on a day that also saw Republicans in the US House of Representatives muscle through a politically risky budget outline presented by Republican Representative Paul Ryan.

Roundly denounced
The blueprint, which has been roundly denounced by the B.O. regime, aims to cut some $4.4 trillion from deficits over the next decade.

While it would cut the Medicare and Medicaid health programmes for the elderly, poor and disabled, it would also slash taxes on the richest Americans and corporations.

Some at the Tea Party rally here suggested it won't go far enough.
Posted by: Fred || 04/17/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The difference between conservatives & liberals
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/17/2011 14:56 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Lawyers thrash ACE official
[Dawn] A group of lawyers on Friday thrashed Anti-Corruption Establishment Assistant Director Umar Farooq who is investigating a case against former SSP investigation Shafqaat Ahmad Bhaddar.

The officer had come to appear before the court of Justice Manzoor Ahmad Malik with regard to a petition filed by the former SSP for cancellation of a case against him.Advocate Chaudhry Wasim Bhaddar, a relative of Shafqaat Bhaddar, was leading the lawyers who gave a sound beating to the ACE officer when he came out of the courtroom.

The lawyers hurled abuses at him and tried to snatch record of the case, accusing him of not conducting investigation on merit. ACE officer Umar Farooq later informed the judge about the treatment meted out to him and the judge asked him that he could initiate legal proceedings against the lawyers.

At this the officer left the court premises but the infuriated lawyers again beat him up.

Highly frustrated and angry, Umar Farooq again went to the judge and loudly said he did not to work. "I am resigning from job. There is no respect. I want justice," he told the judge.

The ACE officer alleged that both parties involved in the case of Shafqaat were pressuring him but he was doing investigation on merit.

Justice Malik took strong notice and called Lahore High Court Bar Association President Asghar Ali Gill who tried to placate the official but to no avail.
Posted by: Fred || 04/17/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  sounds like a group of lawyers need a beating - even more than the usual
Posted by: Frank G || 04/17/2011 11:48 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Yet another Palestinain shot in the leg -- stop judging, it's their culture
A 24-year-old man was moderately injured on Friday after he was shot in the legs near a market in Um el-Fahm.

Magen David Adom paramedics arrived at the scene and took the man to HaEmek Hospital in Afula.
Posted by: || 04/17/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "stop judging, it's their culture"

I'm not judging - as long as they're maiming and killing each other, works for me.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 04/17/2011 10:11 Comments || Top||



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Sun 2011-04-17
  Egypt: Justice orders the dissolution of the former ruling party
Sat 2011-04-16
  Qaddafi bombards Misrata
Fri 2011-04-15
  Pro-Hamas Italian activist hanged in Gaza
Thu 2011-04-14
  Pro-Hamas Italian Kidnapped By Salafists In Gaza
Wed 2011-04-13
  AU Libya Peace Plan Flops
Tue 2011-04-12
  Syrian soldiers shot for refusing to fire on protesters
Mon 2011-04-11
  Metro blast in Minsk kills several
Sun 2011-04-10
  Shooting erupts in seaport of Baniyas, Syria
Sat 2011-04-09
  22 Syrian protesters killed, hundreds wounded
Fri 2011-04-08
  Gulf states expect Yemen's Saleh to quit: Qatari PM
Thu 2011-04-07
  Rebels push back toward Brega
Wed 2011-04-06
  Gaddafi troops force retreat towards Ajdabiya
Tue 2011-04-05
  Suicide kabooms kill 30 at Pakistani shrine
Mon 2011-04-04
  Gaddafi in Tripoli, crushes officers revolt
Sun 2011-04-03
  Rebels claim Brega

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