#1
So that's the new MO used by the NOPD to cover their activities. Yeah, the chief said, don't embarrass the uniform youre too quickly IDd, so we's just changed into something comfortable.
#1
I'm long on gopher bark futures this week. The rain and lightning storms we've had this weekend have been truly amazing. Right now I'm looking out the office window at our *sixth* drenching shower *today*. We had four feet of water in the basement of the IRS, lost an elm tree at the White House, and our poor panda bears are looking very bedraggled. Last night the ABC affiliate was reporting on the storm damage from *inside* their newsroom as water was cascading into their offices thru the ceilings. And it's s'posed to go on like this for four more days or so.
#7
Barb, believe me, you can tell. Oy. I've started hearing rumors about sharks with frickin' laser beams on their heads recently spotted in the Potomac...
#8
Em my wife is flying out tonight, she sez, they wuz hauling out people at the Union Staion Metro stop and sticking 'em on buses. 6 inches of rain. Ha! It's good. It's a sign Gawed loves us and wants us to be clean and shinny.
#12
One of my co-workers drove to DC on Saturday for a week's vacation. All planned out with tickets to the white house. I don't have the heart to call and ask how his vacation is going. Wife and two kids stuck in a hotel.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
06/26/2006 19:29 Comments ||
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#13
You know gopherwood is only now found in Florida, so JEB! is hoarding it for family use only.
Posted by: bruce ||
06/26/2006 20:42 Comments ||
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#14
Rain showers in D.C. make the grass go up and the crime rate go down.
"Er ist, Jim tot" A marauding brown bear that has eluded authorities in southern Germany and Austria for weeks has been shot dead. The bear - which hails from Italy and has been nicknamed Bruno by German media - wandered into Bavaria last month, becoming the first wild bear seen in the Germany since 1835.
"We don't get many brown bears around these here parts!"
"Grrr! With this kinda reception committee y'won't get many more, either!"
Further details of the shooting have not been released.
"We're all broken up. We don't wanna talk about it!"
The 100 kg (220lb) bear earned the ire of local farmers for killing sheep and rabbits and looting beehives of honey. Officials said Bruno has become a hazard after he was spotted near homes and appeared to have lost his fear of people.
"Beat it, bear!"
"Piss off! You ain't got no claws!"
On Saturday Austrian authorities gave hunters permission to kill Bruno if they encountered him.
"I ain't got no claws, but I do have one o' these!"
"Ehhhrrrm... What's that?"
Bavarian officials said they would consider a similar move as early as Tuesday.
"Hokay. What's on the agenda, Captain von Trapp?"
"Shooting bears."
"In Austria. In 2006. You're kidding, right?... And stop humming 'Eidelweiss'!"
Authorities originally proposed allowing hunters to shoot Bruno, but backed away from the idea after public protest. They then attempted to capture him alive and put him in a nature reserve but he continued to elude trackers.
"You'll never take me alive, trappers!"
In the most recent attempt to catch Bruno, a team of Finnish tracking dogs failed to corner him so he could be shot with a tranquillizer.
"Beat it, dogs!"
"Yow! Those're some claws! Retreat!"
Posted by: DanNY ||
06/26/2006 06:56 ||
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#6
The freaking deer out here in Oregon weigh more than 220 pounds! What wasting disease did this bear have? Or was it injuried badly, and that was why it was raiding farms? That is generally the first step into becoming a maneater for a large carnivore.
Four pelicans were being detained in an animal drunk tank Friday on suspicion of public intoxication, authorities in Southern California said. One of the birds was in guarded condition after allegedly flying under the influence Thursday and crashing through the windshield of a car on Pacific Coast Highway in Laguna Beach, Calif. The driver was rattled but uninjured. The other California brown pelicans were nabbed in backyards or wandering streets in a daze.
"C'mon, birdy! Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! Yez can sleep it off down at the station house!"
Although toxicology tests aren't complete (there are no bird breathalyzers), such behavior usually signals domoic acid poisoning from eating algae, said Lisa Birkle, assistant wildlife director at the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach, Calif., which is caring for the brown pelicans. Domoic acid was likely to have been the culprit behind a 1961 sea bird invasion that inspired Alfred Hitchcock's classic horror film The Birds.
Mmmmm! Tippi Hedron!
According to news reports, thousands of befuddled birds rained down on Northern California towns in August 1961, slamming into buildings and pecking eight humans. Nobody is predicting a Hitchcockian invasion in the latest incident, but Birkle urged Southern California residents to be on the lookout for pelicans acting disoriented or turning up in unusual locations.
"Calling all cars! Be on the lookout for sloshed pelicans! That is all!"
In the past week, the wildlife center has fielded 16 calls of suspicious bird behavior. More incidents are likely, because ocean waters south of Los Angeles Harbor have tested positive for poisonous algae, Birkle said. After the pelicans being held in Huntington Beach have sobered up, they will be released on their own recognizance.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/26/2006 00:00 ||
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THE animosity between France and the United States has seen weighty arguments range between Iraq and the merits of fast-food giant McDonald's.
But it appears that Ronald McDonald is having the last laugh. Sales continue to ride high despite the apparently sniffy attitude of Parisians.
Seven years ago, José Bové, the tenacious farmer who campaigns against globalisation, bulldozed a half-built McDonald's restaurant in protest against Americanisation.
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#7
Jules: Do you know what they call a Quarter Pounder with cheese in France?
Brett: No.
Jules: Tell him, Vincent.
Vincent: Royale with cheese.
Jules: Royale with cheese. Do you know why they call it a Royale with cheese?
Brett: Because of the metric system?
Jules: Check out the big brain on Brett.
#8
My (American) friends on holiday in Italy sought out McDonald's for the clean, free restrooms.
Same thing in Australia. I used to have to take a long drive to a remote work site. There was a McDonald's at a town about halfway there. I'm not that wild about McDonald's, but I always wanted to stop there for the bathrooms. I'm sure my Australian colleagues rolled their eyes. Tough.
#10
One of the radio stations in Cincinnati used to have a parody commercial for "McMaisonette* Five-Star Drive Through" which had someone pulling his minivan up to the squawk box to order a Quarter Flounder with cheese, the "Es-Car-Got" McNuggets, two large Bordeax and a Chablis, and come McMousse for the kids. It was screaming hilarious.
*At the time, there was a 5-star French-style restaurant in town called "Le Maisonette."
Posted by: Mike ||
06/26/2006 13:17 Comments ||
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#11
"José Bové, the tenacious farmer who campaigns against globalisation"
They misspelled "communist."
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/26/2006 14:34 Comments ||
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#12
The Maisonette only just closed this year. It was the first restaurant in the US to earn five Michelin stars (in 1965), which honour it held until the end. Unfortunately, the current generation running the place didn't have very good business sense to go along with their exquisite wine celler and classic French cuisine (Zenster, you would have been in hog heaven!).
When my Czech au pair went touring round Europe for a few weeks with her American soldier friends, she drove them crazy by insisting that on the road they always stop at the McDonalds -- she knew that she would find clean bathrooms and trustworthy food there. She explained that food poisoning is only tolerable when one already has a comfortable bed to sleep in -- an experience she knew too well growing up in the wilds of Communist Czechoslovakia.
Mais, non! My dad's old boss, Sy, took my parents to dinner there once, and the waiter nearly choked to death when Sy ordered "a wedge of iceberg lettuce with 1000 Island dressing."
#14
I took my wife to Maisonette for our first anniversary. Great meal . . . needed bank financing to do it, but it was a great meal!
Posted by: Mike ||
06/26/2006 16:36 Comments ||
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#15
Another factor in McDonald's growing strength in France is that ALL McDonalds are climate-controlled. Not a lot of public places in France are; plus, the McDonalds let you sit in the place for as long as you like for the cost of a hamburger or coffee. So old people know that in hot weather, they can be in AC for pocket change and avoid becoming part of a replay of the 15,000 heat deaths during the summer in France.
#17
the McDonalds let you sit in the place for as long as you like for the cost of a hamburger or coffee. So old people know that in hot weather, they can be in AC for pocket change and avoid becoming part of a replay of the 15,000 heat deaths during the summer in France.
WalMart has a similar strategy -- it does pay off in some additional business, but is also a genuine outreach to the poorer members of the community.
SEASIDE HEIGHTS, NJ A live band strummed The Beatles' song "Taxman," children waved American flags and hand-made signs taunted Democrats and Gov. Jon Corzine with slogans like: "Corzine taxed my sign." The anti-tax hike group Americans For Prosperity staged a rally on the boardwalk here Saturday with about 200 red-shirted members some bused in from North Jersey applauding every anti-Corzine, anti-tax-hike, New Jerseyans-are-overtaxed word.
The state Legislature has been embroiled in controversy for months over the governor's plan to raise the state sales tax by a penny in order to help balance the 2006-07 budget. Lawmakers are expected to vote on this and other tax increases and on the $30.9 billion budget Thursday and Friday in Trenton. Rally organizers urged members and an occasional passer-by to pepper Democratic legislators with letters, e-mails and telephone calls over the next four days expressing their displeasure with proposed hikes in the sales tax and taxes on hospital beds and cigarettes. However, speakers such as Sen. Nicholas Asselta, R-Cumberland, also prepared the crowd for the worst, asking them instead to "remember in November."
"We're down in both houses, and if things stay the way they are, people need to be aware for the next election," Asselta said. "I think there are many Democrats who are under pressure and need to decide whether they are loyal to their party or to their constituents. "Thursday they will drive New Jersey further into fiscal oblivion," Asselta said. "After this vote, it will be clear who was loyal to the citizens, and the people need to remember."
Beth Zamorski, 41, of Lavallette remembers the promises made by Corzine during his campaign. "He lied to us," Zamorski said. "He told us no more new taxes, and what do we have? More new taxes. More spending, spending, spending. I love New Jersey. My husband and I would like to retire here. We ski in New Jersey, we go to the beach in New Jersey, we think it's a great location. It's getting to the point where we can't afford to live here anymore. How can you bring a family to the beach when it costs $9 per person to get on and then buy lunch? They are killing us."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/26/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Hmmm...taxes. Wasn't that the causa bellum that started a country? And what country was that? Shhheeeh, they never learn.
#8
There is a toll to get to the beach. Seaside Park, anyway.
The stupid, non-english speaking New Jerseyites are all democrats and tell each other that only the whites are republicans. The republicans move out, and the white english speaking democrats become republicans. It's a melting pot thing.
MONTPELIER, Vt. -- Retiring Sen. James Jeffords will give most of his $2 million in leftover campaign money to causes in Vermont. "The bulk of the money is going back to Ben & Jerry's in Vermont," said William Kurtz, Jeffords' chief of staff. "It will highlight the ski resort areas where the senator focused much of his earmarks good work over his career." The money will be used to create five college scholarships. Large donations will be made to a historical site and to the University of Vermont, according to Federal Elections Commission records and the senator's office. About $225,000 has been donated to a political cause: the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
Jeffords announced more than a year ago that he was retiring. At that time he had more than $2 million in campaign donations. Much of the money came before his decision not to seek re-election. Jeffords, who has held the Senate seat since 1989, gained national recognition in 2001 when he announced that he would abandon the GOP, which placed the Democrats in control of the U.S. Senate. UVM expects to receive more than $800,000, said Karen Meyer, UVM's vice president for state and federal relations.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/26/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
I hope he likes being remembered as a Quisling.
#3
Look closely, his eyes are too close together.
Now, remember, this is a man who changed from republican to tranzi because Bill Clinton was no longer president. While the rest of us breathed a sigh of relief, he became disoriented and began to fall in the shower.
I conclude he was born with a shrunkin skull, and his brain has compressed as a result. I'm waiting for him to die so an autopsy can be preformed.
In the mean time, try to be nice to him, the poor idiot.
#4
You know, if he hadn't switched parties back in 01, whould anybody outside of Vermont ever heard of this guy?
But those were heady times back then weren't they, Jim? All two weeks of them...
#5
Jeffords is in very poor health, and has been for quite some time. He is not in command of himself. I suspect this has been the case for years, worsening with time. Think Alzheimer's, but different. He is aware that he is not 'right', which has got to be bad. And the vultures have been squabbling over the spoils for a while. I have spoken to him, do not hold with many of his political views, but as a person, I am saddened by his downward slide.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
06/26/2006 19:01 Comments ||
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#6
Hummm... Parkinson's dementia? That's bad business.
BOULDER, Colo. -- The University of Colorado announced Monday that it will dismiss controversial professor Ward Churchill. "Today, I issued to Professor Churchill a notice of intent to dismiss him from his faculty position at the University of Colorado Boulder," CU Interim Chancellor Phil DiStefano said Monday afternoon.
Churchill has 10 days to make a request to have the university president or chancellor forward the recommendation to the faculty senate Committee on Privilege and Tenure. A special panel will then conduct hearings on the matter and make a recommendation to the president on whether grounds for dismissal are supported. Another committee found Churchill guilty of research misconduct and another panel recommended that he be fired because of "repeated and deliberate" infractions of scholarship rules.
Churchill, who ignited a firestorm by calling some of the World Trade Center victims "little Eichmanns" in an essay he wrote after Sept. 11, 2001, has vowed to sue the school if he was fired. The tenured professor of ethnic studies has repeatedly denied all accusations of misconduct. He told the Associate Press in mid-June, "The basic situation here is that there was a call by high officials in the state, notably the governor but hardly restricted to the governor, for my termination clear back last February, whether or not it was legal. They were willing to take the heat and go to court if necessary to stand behind an illegitimate investigation."
When his essay was brought to light in January 2005, Gov. Bill Owens, state lawmakers and relatives of Sept. 11 victims in New York immediately denounced it. University officials concluded Churchill could not be fired for the essay, but in March 2005 they launched an investigation into allegations of plagiarism and other research misconduct. Last month, an investigative subcommittee concluded that Churchill repeatedly fabricated his research, plagiarized others' work and strayed from the "bedrock principles of scholarship."
Churchill called the investigation "a kangaroo court" designed to reach the conclusion that he should be fired.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/26/2006 17:05 ||
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#3
It's long past time when they should have run this worthless bastard's butt out of there but better late than never, I guess. I'd personally like to see him looking at 10 to 15 years in jail for theft.
Posted by: mac ||
06/26/2006 18:32 Comments ||
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#4
I imagine Harvard can find him a suitable position working with Noam Chomsky.
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett announced plans Sunday to give the bulk of his roughly $42 billion fortune to five foundations in annual gifts of stock starting next month.
The decision represents a stark reversal for the worlds second-richest man, who for years had said his wealth would be pledged to philanthropies after his death. Rest at link.
Posted by: ed ||
06/26/2006 08:13 ||
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#1
I am also just getting into charities.
The Blue Whale Foundation, or how about the Seniors Outlook Improvement Fund ?
#2
As big as that fortune sounds, it is still just a drop in the bucket of the national debt. The feds could take every cent of it and it would just be invisibly absorbed into the gaping maw of the DC bureaucracy.
#3
Will he be paying the Estate Tax he so dearly loves on these bequests first? Or is he planning on cheating the tax man so he can give it to institutions even more liberal than the government?
#4
His contributions to the expansion of industry and business thus creating new jobs and opportunities, and the creation of new capital for further investment are charity enough. How many of the guilt mongers who know better than Warren, on how to spend his monies, can make that claim of literally enriching society to the extent he has simply by the capitalist model?
#5
Giving to charity, so no estate tax. Between Gates and Warren, the leftist trustafarian leeches will be deep in patchouli for generations.
Posted by: ed ||
06/26/2006 9:07 Comments ||
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#6
Like Gates, Buffett's donation is far less charitable than an economic decision. That is, most of Gates' fortune is tied up in Microsoft. He has vast amounts of money until he tries to have it, by selling Microsoft stock. As soon as he does, its price will plummet.
He has his cake, but can't eat it. He would get screwed by the lower sale price *and* by capital gains taxes.
Foundations are under strict federal rules that they must use 10% of their principal each and every year. But they can be limited to giving away no *more* than 10%.
This means that if Bill gives his charity a huge amount of stock, he not only gets a huge tax deduction, out of his capital gains taxes; but protects any stock sales he makes from crashing MS stock, because investers are insured that his foundation *won't* sell.
The same trick applies to Berkshire-Hathaway, Buffett's organization, which I suspect may be heading towards some very rough times in which its stock could plummet. Thus Buffett is protecting his stock value, spending a billion to save ten billion and get a major capital gain tax deduction.
But now the $64 question. Since there is very little you can do with more than a hundred million dollars than invest it, why does both Gates and Buffett want to be that liquid? Are they expecting there to be some huge investment opportunity in the near future?
#7
I really admire the generosity that Gates and Buffett are displaying. I'm just depressed that so much of their wealth will go towards "family planning" in the third world. In other words their generosity, will result in a lot of aborted children. Sad to see such a bitter result from such a generous gesture.
#9
The way I understand it is that Buffett doesn't pay taxes on that portion of his estate that went into a charitable trust.
However, he also can't pass that trust on to his heirs (it is possible, even likely, that some of his heirs will be employees of the charitable trust but their salaries will be little compared to the value of the trust itself).
#11
Warren, next dance you have with Melinda, kindly whisper to her that when she's finished with the geek you know a nice old Dutchman that she'll simply adore.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A marauding brown bear that has eluded authorities in southern Germany and Austria for weeks has been shot dead. The bear - which hails from Italy and has been nicknamed Bruno by German media - wandered into Bavaria last month, becoming the first wild bear seen in the Germany since 1835.
Four pelicans were being detained in an animal drunk tank Friday on suspicion of public intoxication, authorities in Southern California said. One of the birds was in guarded condition after allegedly flying under the influence Thursday and crashing through the windshield of a car on Pacific Coast Highway in Laguna Beach, Calif. The driver was rattled but uninjured. The other California brown pelicans were nabbed in backyards or wandering streets in a daze.
THE animosity between France and the United States has seen weighty arguments range between Iraq and the merits of fast-food giant McDonald's. 
SEASIDE HEIGHTS, NJ A live band strummed The Beatles' song "Taxman," children waved American flags and hand-made signs taunted Democrats and Gov. Jon Corzine with slogans like: "Corzine taxed my sign." The anti-tax hike group Americans For Prosperity staged a rally on the boardwalk here Saturday with about 200 red-shirted members some bused in from North Jersey applauding every anti-Corzine, anti-tax-hike, New Jerseyans-are-overtaxed word.
MONTPELIER, Vt. -- Retiring Sen. 
