(CNN) -- The mayor of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was in stable condition Sunday at a Milwaukee hospital after he was attacked by a man with a metal pipe at the Wisconsin State Fair on Saturday night, police said.
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett was attacked at 10:45 p.m. at the state fair in West Allis, Wisconsin, as he was leaving the event with his family, according to Milwaukee police. Barrett heard a woman crying for help, according to a police statement and Patrice Harris, spokeswoman for the Wisconsin State Fair.
When Barrett began calling 911, the man who had been attacking the woman charged at him and began battering him with a metal pipe, the police statement and Harris said. "It's our understanding it was just a domestic disturbance and he had replied to someone's cries for help when he was attacked," Harris said.
Barrett was alert and talking when he arrived at the hospital for treatment, according to police. The woman involved in the incident was not injured. Milwaukee police are assisting West Allis authorities in trying to track down the suspect. The bad boy's in custody, described by cops as a "knucklehead" who's a regular customer at the calaboose.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2009 00:00 ||
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I understand that Mayor Barrett got between the 'knucklehead' and the woman (a grandmother accompanying her granddaughter to the fair - AND an ex-girlfriend of said 'knucklehead'). Probably not the wisest action, but it saved the woman and her granddaughter from getting injured. One thing about mid-westerners, we tend not to 'walk away'.
I may not agree with his politics, but my hat's off to Mayor Tom for this one.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
08/17/2009 8:34 Comments ||
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MR, since you don't like his politics and the article doesn't reveal his political affiliation, should I assume he's of the mulish party?
#2
HMMMMMM, weeheell, this idea was floated around PSU + Central PA since the late 1980's save for also being potens inclusive of the KOREAN WAR. LOCALS were already big on CIVIL WAR REENACTMENTS [+ WW2 equipment] - "VIETNAM" reenacs per se were a totally differ animal entirely. AFAIR VERY FEW IFF ANY THOUGHT IT WOULD WORK i.e. ATTRACT TOURISTS ALA GETTYBBURG + VALLEY FORGE, ETC.
A UFO was seen firing laser beams into the ground while hovering over a cemetery in Widnes in Cheshire by a young man on his way home after a night out. A police officer sent later to investigate found a railway sleeper was "still smouldering".
The man -- "a sensible sort of lad and genuine", according to police -- was going home at about 2.30am on July 15, 1996, when he noticed he was being followed by a bright yellow light as he crossed a footbridge from Avondale Drive into Upton.
According to a police log released today by the Ministry of Defence, he reported the light was "two houses high" and that it followed him when he tried to walk away from it. He told police it made a high-pitched noise "like cats wailing", before blasting light beams downwards.
"It turned me into a newt!"
When he returned home, he told his father what happened and he returned to the spot with him.
"Well .. I got better."
The pair found four railway sleepers smouldering and one with a 4in hole burned through it.
The official record shows a police officer was sent to the scene and he reported there was no sign of an accelerant being used. The officer reported to his station: "One of the sleepers is still smouldering. It does look rather odd."
The local chief inspector was informed as well as the Aeronautical Information Service -- which passes information to the air authorities to ensure the skies are safe.
#12
Yah, Phil_b, it was an optical effect. A temperature inversion combined with certain clouds can wreack havok with those cheap chinese knockoff cloaking devices.
#13
One of these days, I would like to see a UFO over Phoenix that isn't a USAF aircraft en route, to or from San Diego. They fly back and forth between there and Groom Lake ("Homey Airport", one of the silliest AFB names around.)
This is because the coast off of San Diego down towards Baja is about the only place in the US where you can go supersonic without ticking off the locals. They used to travel too close to the coast, until San Diego asked them to take it further out to sea.
The disinformation campaign after The Phoenix Lights was a hoot. We figure he blew his transmission and had to hover for an hour until the breeze blew him enough out of the city so he could land where the AF mechs were waiting.
#2
At this point, the only "energy security" I am interested in is a means, using lots of different tricks, to consume as little electricity as possible from the grid and still live well. This is because these idealistic simpletons intend to drive energy prices so high with their pathetic schemes, that it will be measured in "dollars per Kilowatt hour".
What they need is to be disembodied brains in jars, living in a Sim-world where they rule like the petty gods they think they are.
#3
"Tell me why I had to be a powerslave
I dont wanna die, Im a god, why cant I live on?
When the life giver dies, all around is laid to waste.
And in my last hour,
Im a slave to the power of death.
When I was living this lie-fear was my game
People would worship and fall-drop to their knees
So bring me the blood and red wine for the one to succeed me
For he is a man and a god-and he will die too."
[Al Arabiya Latest] Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Saturday began his first visit to the United States in five years, to meet his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama for talks that will focus on Middle East peace.
His trip comes as the United States pressures Israel to halt settlement construction in the West Bank, while demanding that Arab countries begin normalizing ties with Israel ahead of a peace deal Obama is trying to broker.
Mubarak, who is accompanied by several ministers, will meet senior administration officials before holding talks with Obama on Tuesday, the third meeting between the presidents in as many months.
No doubt President Mubarak will have many very good reasons why Egypt cannot possibly normalize relations with Israel before the Israel-Palestine peace is signed. Besides, they already signed a peace treaty with Israel back when Mr. Carter was president, which is more than most of the other guys did.
Um, Egypt does have normal relations with Israel, including an exchange of ambassadors.
It's a very, very cold peace. There aren't many Egyptian citizens hitting the tourist spots in the Jewish Entity or arranging cultural exchanges.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2009 00:00 ||
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Making sure that 3 bil a year doesn't fall into anybody else's pocket.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Forty-one people, mainly women and children, were killed when a fire ripped through a wedding party in Kuwait, triggering a stampede, officials said on Sunday.
"The number of dead has reached 41," Kuwaiti fire chief general Jassem Mansuri told the official KUNA news agency. Health Minister Hilal al-Sayer reported that 76 people had been injured with various degrees of burns, some seriously, in the disaster.
The blaze broke out late on Saturday in a tent reserved for women at a wedding ceremony in Jahra, which lies to the west of the capital Kuwait City.
The two officials hinted that the death toll might rise, with Mansuri talking of a "provisional toll" while Sayer said many of the injured had been admitted to intensive care units of various hospitals in the country. Mansuri said rescue teams were still sifting through the debris and charred items, searching for more possible casualties, KUNA reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
The camels escaped harm? Not all is lost, then.
Mexico has replaced all 700 of its customs inspectors with agents newly trained to detect contraband, from guns and drugs to TVs and other big-ticket appliances smuggled to avoid import duties.
The shake-up part of a broader effort to root out corruption and improve vigilance at Mexican ports with new technology doubled the size of Mexico's customs inspection force.
The inspectors at all 49 of Mexico's customs points were replaced with 1,400 better-educated agents who have undergone background checks and months of training, Tax Administration Service spokesman Pedro Canabal said Sunday.
He said the inspectors were not fired. Instead, government did not rehire them when their contracts expired, Canabal said.
The main focus of the overhaul is to combat tax evasion, although Mexico is also trying to seize more guns smuggled in from the United States and elsewhere that end up in the hands of ruthless drug gangs. Mexican cartels are responsible for the majority of cocaine smuggled from South America to the United States.
Canabal said the government hopes to improve its tax collection with the new system, noting that more than 40 percent of Mexico's value-added tax is collected at customs. However, he said the main benefit will be stopping the flood of pirated and cheap goods that he said undermine Mexican industries.
Posted by: ed ||
08/17/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
A good move, and I don't care if he is a Canabal.
#4
They have to sell it to their citizens, Besoeker, and their citizens consider the drugs an American problem. So long as we benefit from the result, I don't care what rationale they state. I'd be just as happy if they called it a jobs training program, with the graduates getting certificates and interviews in the private sector.
Desperation move on Oogo's part. Nobody is going to believe that Bambi has the stones to do something like that ...
Aug. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he has information that indicates that U.S. troops were involved in removing deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya from power and putting him on a plane to neighboring Costa Rica. Zelaya told Chavez that when he was awakened by armed Honduran troops on June 28 he was taken to the U.S. military base in Honduras and that U.S. generals made the decision to send him to Costa Rica, Chavez said today.
If we wanted him gone we would have flown him to Miami like we did Noriega ...
U.S. President Barack Obama doesn't understand what is happening in the region, Chavez said, and should close military bases in Honduras and Guantanamo, Cuba.
"I think Obama is lost, he's confused," he said on his weekly television program. "We're not asking him to intervene in Honduras. To the contrary, we're asking him to take the empire's hands off of Honduras and its claws out of Latin America."
Phone messages left at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas seeking comment weren't immediately returned.
"You want to take the call, Tyrone?"
"No way, Sid, I'm laughing too hard as it is."
Zelaya has been seeking support to return to Honduras since his removal. Roberto Micheletti, the former president of the Congress, took over as the acting president.
Obama, who met with leaders from Mexico and Canada on Aug. 10, said that democratic order must be restored to Honduras. He also said that the same Latin American countries that asked him not to intervene in the region are now asking him to take action to restore Zelaya.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/17/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Does Chavez actually believe anything Chavez says? Does anybody? Besides Obama, I mean.
#5
Does Chavez actually believe anything Chavez says? Does anybody? Besides Obama, I mean.
I dunno, but everyone else in Venezuela gets kicked off the air so he can say it. I imagine there are lots of people who have to believe it, too, regardless of how likely they think it is. It's probably a requirement for keeping their job.
Computer translation from Spanish with corrections by me. All errors mine.
Santiago, Chile -- The deposed president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, said today in Santiago, after being met with the Chilean president, Michelle Bachelet, that for the moment has ruled out to return to its country because has received threats of death. The announcement came at a time when a group of his followers demanded his immediate return to power with violent actions in the streets of Honduras.
His statements also coincided with the public done comments yesterday by his former Minister of Defense Arístides Mejía, who said that the deposed former president "is not interested in returning to the power", because he "already governed" and had little to finish.
"My presence would be a threat such that they [would] eliminate me, murder me in national territory", said Zelaya to the journalists, after participating in a lunch in the Palace of The Currency which was attended by representatives across the Chilean political spectrum.
The visit Thursday to Chile continues the international campaign that he has undertaken to reinforce the pressure against the de facto Government of Roberto Micheletti. Zelaya, who was received by Bachelet in a new gesture of support to the restoration of the democratic order in the central american country, said that the international community still can take new "commercial measures and of international criminal law".
Also, he reiterated the call of last Wednesday in Brazil, where met with the president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and emphasized that "in the hands of the U.S. are a great part of the solution to this blow to the democracy".
According to Zelaya, the American authorities have been "clear in their opposition" to the blow, but "the measures have been tepid".
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/17/2009 00:00 ||
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Ruled out because of threats of death?
Or in english,
YOU COME BACK , WE SHOOT YOU.
Sneaky bit of wordbending.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/17/2009 13:06 Comments ||
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The Honduran government just needs to hold out until the December elections, for which dumbass will not be allowed to stand, then it is game over. By then, hopefully, his entire corrupt machine will have been rolled up and smoked, and his foreign backers in Honduras will be shown the door.
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras A Honduran editor says assailants threw molotov cocktails at the offices of his newspaper, setting fire to the entrance.
El Heraldo chief editor Fernando Berrio says security guards were the only ones in the building at the time. They extinguished the fire, and nobody was hurt.
Honduran media have been the focus of tensions since the June 28 judicial order coup that ousted President Manuel Zelaya.
But it's the Zelayists who's been doing the fire-bombing, something the MSM doesn't tell you ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/17/2009 00:00 ||
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The Russian-crewed freighter that sparked a high-seas mystery when it disappeared nearly three weeks ago has been found by a Russian naval frigate off the West African coast, the country's defense minister said Monday.
The Arctic Sea's 15 crew members, last heard from July 28, were alive and now aboard the navy ship, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said in a meeting with President Dmitry Medvedev shown on national television. He did not give details about what happened to the ship, saying the full story could be made known later Monday.
Since the Arctic Sea sailed from the Finnish port of Pietarsaari on July 21 with a euro1.3 million cargo of timber, a fog of rumors, unconfirmed reports and red herrings has swirled around it.
On July 30, Swedish police said the ship's owner had reported that the crew claimed the vessel was boarded by masked men on July 24 near the Swedish island of Gotland. The invaders reportedly tied up the crew, beat them, claimed they were looking for drugs, then sped off about 12 hours later in an inflatable craft.
But by the time the Swedish report emerged, the ship had already passed through the English Channel, where it made its last known radio contact on July 28. Signals from the ship's tracking device were picked up off France's coast the next day, but that was the last trace known until Monday.
The Arctic Sea was to make port in Algeria on Aug. 4. But after it was late by more than a week, Medvedev ordered the defense ministry to use all necessary means to find the freighter.
Which any country ordinarily does for a common timber freighter ...
Subsequently, the ship was said to have been seen in the small Spanish port of San Sebastian, then in the area of Cape Verde. On Saturday, a Russian maritime expert said the ship's tracking device had sprung to life off France's coast -- but France said the signals came from Russian warships.
Adding to the mystery, Russia's envoy to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, told the ITAR-Tass news agency Monday that bogus information was deliberately provided to news media "which did not allow them to calculate the true actions of the Russian forces."
With details still sparse, Viktor Matveyev, director of the ship's operator Solchart, told The Associated Press "We are all incredibly happy. Now the big work starts to find out what happened."
Russian hackers hijacked American identities and U.S. software tools and used them in an attack on Georgian government Web sites during the war between Russia and Georgia last year, according to new research to be released Monday by a nonprofit U.S. group.
In addition to refashioning common Microsoft Corp. software into a cyber-weapon, hackers collaborated on popular U.S.-based social-networking sites, including Twitter and Facebook Inc., to coordinate attacks on Georgian sites, the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit found. While the cyberattacks on Georgia were examined shortly after the events last year, these U.S. connections weren't previously known.
The research shows how cyber-warfare has outpaced military and international agreements, which don't take into account the possibility of American resources and civilian technology being turned into weapons.
Identity theft, social networking, and modifying commercial software are all common means of attack, but combining them elevates the attack method to a new level, said Amit Yoran, a former cybersecurity chief at the Department of Homeland Security. "Each one of these things by itself is not all that new, but this combines them in ways we just haven't seen before," said Mr. Yoran, now CEO of computer-security company NetWitness Corp.
The five-day Russian-Georgian conflict in August 2008 left hundreds of people dead, crushed Georgia's army, and left two parts of its territory on the border with Russia -- Abkhazia and South Ossetia -- under Russian occupation.
The cyberattacks in August 2008 significantly disrupted Georgia's communications capabilities, disabling 20 Web sites for more than a week.
Greek police on Sunday said they freed 10 migrants, eight of them from Pakistan, who had been kept in a shipping container in Athens and were mistreated by smugglers for a month.
In a statement, the police said the migrants -- who also included a Somali and a Syrian -- had come into Greece via Turkey, and then were put into the container in the industrial suburb of Aspropyrgos.
They were mistreated "daily" by smugglers who demanded that they each pay 4,000 euros ($5,700), on top of the 7,000 euros each migrant had already paid for their journeys, the police said.
A Greek man, aged 60, has been arrested on suspicion of running a network that smuggled Pakistanis into Greece -- a gateway for migrants hoping to enter Western Europe -- via Turkey.
Five suspected accomplices -- two Greeks, two Pakistanis and an Indian national -- are being sought.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2009 00:00 ||
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Dr. Anne Doig, the incoming president of the Canadian Medical Association, said her countrys health care system is sick and imploding, the Canadian Press reported.
We know there must be change, Doig said in a recent interview. Were all running flat out, were all just trying to stay ahead of the immediate day-to-day demands.
Canadas universal health care system is not giving patients optimal care, Doig added. When her colleagues from across the country gather at the CMA conference in Saskatoon Sunday, they will discuss changes that need to be made, she said.
We all agree the system is imploding, we all agree that things are more precarious than perhaps Canadians realize, she said.
Current president of the CMA, Dr. Robert Ouellet, will make a presentation at the conference about his findings when he toured Europe in January, and met with health groups in several countries.
Ouellet has said that competition should be welcomed, not feared, meaning private health insurance should have a role in the public health system.
Doig said she isnt sure what kind of changes will be proposed when the conference wraps up, but she does know that changes have to come and fast. She said she understands that universal health care, while good in some ways, has not always been helpful for sick people or their families.
"(Canadians) have to understand that the system that we have right now if it keeps on going without change is not sustainable," Doig said.
#1
I suppose the NYT will have that on the front page today? Above the fold?
Not likely, probably in the classifieds next to the obits.
Posted by: James Carville ||
08/17/2009 11:14 Comments ||
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#2
A timely statement.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
08/17/2009 12:04 Comments ||
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#3
In 2002/2003 I had to wait 9 months just to get to see the surgeon who would replace my knees. In 2003/2004 I had to wait 18 months for the operation - and thankfully I got them both done at once - or I'd have been waiting ANOTHER 18 months for the second one.
The system has only gotten worse since then.
Government health care is rationed health care.
Take it from a Canuckistainian who has been there.
Dupe entry, so I posted the one that came in first
Self-identified conservatives outnumber self-identified liberals in all 50 states of the union, according to the Gallup Poll even though Democrats have a significant advantage over Republicans in party identification in 30 states. At the same time, more Americans nationwide are saying this year that they are conservative than have made that claim in any of the last four years.
In 2009, 40% percent of respondents in Gallup surveys that have interviewed more than 160,000 Americans have said that they are either "conservative" (31%) or "very conservative" (9%). That is the highest percentage in any year since 2004.
Only 21% have told Gallup they are liberal, including 16% who say they are "liberal" and 5% who say they are "very liberal."
Thirty-five percent of Americans say they are moderate.
Gallup's 2009 party ID results indicate that Democrats have significant party ID advantages in 30 states and Republicans in only 4.
Even though conservatives outnumber liberals in all 50 states, in 21 of these states self-identified moderates outnumber conservatives, and in 4 states the percentage saying they are conservative and the percentage saying they are moderate is exactly the same.
Gallup's results were derived from interviewing 160,236 American adults between Jan. 2, 2009 and June 30, 2009.
Time will tell if this a WoT item.
U.S. officials are holding for undisclosed reasons a Pakistani journalist who works for an American media outlet. Rahman Bunairee, a reporter with Voice of America who has been targeted by Taliban militants, was detained Sunday at Washington Dulles International Airport by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The agency's spokeswoman, Kelly Nantel, said she could not say why Bunairee is being detained because of confidentiality laws.
Posted by: ed ||
08/17/2009 00:00 ||
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In a stunning reversal of its stand, Pakistan has stalled the start of negotiations on a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty despite having given its consent three months ago to a hard fought consensus decision. This has raised concerns over Islamabads intentions, which has cited national security interests for this sudden change.
On May 29, Pakistan Representative at the Conference of Disarmament (CD) in Geneva Zamir Akram had said that Pakistan had joined the consensus because it reflects a compromise and enables us to break the impasse in the conference.
But when the CD met in the first week of August, Akram informed the Conference President that he was awaiting fresh instructions from his government. On August 10, Caroline Millar from Australia, the Conference President, revealed that the Pakistan representative had informed her that his government wanted the text of the decision to be reopened.
She, in fact, is said to have told the conference that she was slightly at a loss to explain what had happened because some of the things Pakistan was asking to be reopened were issues she thought had been worked out with all delegations through extensive consultations. She was concerned that the delicate compromises put in place would be placed in jeopardy.
Pakistan is now the only country standing in the way of negotiations. Coming under severe criticism from other countries, Akram is said to have described the development as unfortunate but made it clear that everyone had to work on behalf of their own national security interests.
The FMCT is supposed to be an instrument through which production of fissile material will be banned. The United Nations mandated the Geneva-based Conference of Disarmament in 1993 to come up with a non-discriminatory, multilateral and international verifiable treaty. For several years, talks on the treaty were blocked due to divergence in views.
Finally, three months ago on May 29, the CD was able to reach a consensus among its 65 members on a programme of work that effectively meant starting negotiations on FMCT before the end of 2009. It was expected that the current session which started in August first week will work out an implementation time table and identify coordinators for the different working groups.
India too supported the consensus given its commitment under the Indo-US nuclear deal to play a constructive role in breaking the logjam on FMCT. Indian Representative Hamid Ali Rao, however, made it clear that it would not accept any obstacles to its strategic programme.
We will not accept obligations not in keeping with or prejudicial to our national security interests or which hinder our strategic programme, our R&D as well as three-stage nuclear programme. The treaty should not place undue burden on military non-proscribed activity, he said.
In this context, sources said there is speculation in Geneva that Pakistans reference to national security interests at this juncture is a revision which could be prompted by Indias line when the consensus was adopted. More so, there is growing concern in Pakistan over India launching its nuclear-capable submarine.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/17/2009 10:19 ||
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[Geo News] A man shot dead the accused murderer of his father and uncle held up under police custody in Faisalabad on Sunday. According to the police sources, during a robbery incidents in 2004, the accused Sheikh Naeem with his two accomplices looted 20 million rupees and gunned down Mirza Aslam Baig and his brother Mirza Dilshad Baig besides their two gunmen. The accused was held in custody at Kotli Police station today for investigation into the above incident. In the meantime Irshad Baig, son of Mirza Dilshad Baig entered the police station with his collaborator, and opened fire on the accused Naeem Sheikh. The accused died on the spot while three other men also under police custody sustained injuries. Later, Mirza Dilshad Baig along with his accomplice surrendered to the police.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/17/2009 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Dr. Anne Doig, the incoming president of the Canadian Medical Association, said her countrys health care system is sick and imploding, the Canadian Press reported.
