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Sipah-e-Sahabah Pakistain chief shot up, son killed
Today's Headlines
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Page 6: Politix
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Amy Bishop fired from UAH
University of Alabama in Huntsville officials have fired professor Amy Bishop, who's accused of shooting and killing three colleagues last month.
I'm sure she'll appeal.
A one-paragraph letter dated Feb. 26 was mailed to Bishop informing her the university had terminated her employment effective Feb. 12, said UAH spokesman Ray Garner.
If we're all lucky she'll have a job for the rest of her life.
Bishop was suspended without pay retroactively on the day of the attack, Garner said. Bishop has been charged with capital murder in a shooting that also injured three others in a faculty meeting on Feb. 12. She has been also charged with three counts of attempted murder.
Posted by: Fred || 03/12/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So much for the idea that you get tenure and you're set for life.
Posted by: SteveS || 03/12/2010 2:35 Comments || Top||

#2  As I understand it, she did NOT get tenure, and that set her off.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/12/2010 5:27 Comments || Top||

#3  I find it difficult to profess when one is behind bars in a straitjacket.......nut
Posted by: armyguy || 03/12/2010 7:23 Comments || Top||

#4  "that's Dr. Amy Bishop, dammit"

/"gimme that booster seat or I'll punch you"

Posted by: Frank G || 03/12/2010 8:37 Comments || Top||

#5  Misread as Amy Bishop fired from UAV

Id pay good money to watch that !
Posted by: Oscar || 03/12/2010 9:23 Comments || Top||

#6  Think she can still get COBRA?
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/12/2010 10:57 Comments || Top||

#7  I think this qualifies for the The Gross Misconduct Exception. But give our current leaders a chance...
Posted by: Beavis || 03/12/2010 11:08 Comments || Top||

#8  --Yea, shes got free room & board, and healthcare for life.
Posted by: Tom--Pa || 03/12/2010 17:12 Comments || Top||

#9  Not a good day for the doc...

HUNTSVILLE, AL (WAFF) – Investigators descended on home of Amy Bishop Anderson and her husband, around 9:00 a.m. Friday morning to serve a search warrant. A suspicious device found inside prompted much more investigating.

This comes at the one month anniversary of the U-A Huntsville shootings. Dr. Amy Bishop is accused of killing 3 colleagues and injuring three more.

A robot was sent inside the home of Dr. Amy Bishop Anderson and her husband, Jim followed by a boom that rippled through the south Huntsville neighborhood.

"There was a loud boom," said neighbor Conrad Thomas. "It sounded like a small explosive device, like a bomb."

The sound shook neighbors in the community with more commotion coming from the Bishop-Anderson home. As a precaution and Bomb Squad procedure, people in the homes next door the Bishop-Anderson household were evacuated and the bomb squad was dispatched with the aid of a robot to handle it.

"They used a robot to take it to a safe place and they detonated it," said Huntsville Police Department Major Crimes Unit Supervisor, John Turis. "There was no bomb making materials, nothing suspicious it just happened to be a piece of PVC pipe."
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/12/2010 18:39 Comments || Top||

#10  Hey, whatever happened to "innocent until proven guilty"? I mean, she might get acquitted!
/sarcasm
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 03/12/2010 19:25 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
James Brown's body is 'missing from its crypt'
But John Brown's body is a-moulderin' in the grave.
James Brown's daughter has claimed the singer's body has gone missing from its crypt. LaRhonda Pettit, 48, alleges the body of Brown, who died in December 2006 aged 73, is being hidden to prevent a full autopsy being carried out. Ms Pettit said the official cause of death, which was said to be a heart attack brought by pneumonia, is not the real reason behind the Godfather of Soul's passing.
Posted by: Fred || 03/12/2010 10:53 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I just can't stand myself.
Posted by: James Brown || 03/12/2010 12:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Somehow I doubt he was Raised.
Posted by: Glenmore || 03/12/2010 13:20 Comments || Top||

#3  I'm thinking "Funky Zombie".

"MUHABNEOTSSSHHHH!"

"What'd he just say?"

"I think he said 'Trains', or something like that. I don't know. He mumbles."
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/12/2010 13:39 Comments || Top||

#4  Still the hardest working man in show bizness. He can't stay still
Posted by: Frank G || 03/12/2010 14:41 Comments || Top||

#5  Come here sister...Papa's outta the crypt
He's only mostly dead...and now he's takin' a trip
He sure is brave--
Papa's got a brand new grave
Posted by: Mike || 03/12/2010 15:01 Comments || Top||

#6 
Get up!
Get on up
Get up-a!
Get on up
Maceo! Take me to da bridge!
Posted by: Parabellum || 03/12/2010 15:44 Comments || Top||

#7  Just couldn't stop dancing.
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/12/2010 16:46 Comments || Top||

#8  "John Brown's body is a'moldin' in the grave" > AAAWWWWW, I wanted to say it.

On a serious note, sounds like someone or some persons want 15 minutes of fame by temporarily stealing a CELEBRITY CORPSE???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/12/2010 18:43 Comments || Top||

#9 
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/12/2010 18:44 Comments || Top||

#10  Even now, I betcha he feels good!!
Posted by: GORT || 03/12/2010 20:19 Comments || Top||

#11  Even now, I betcha he feels good!!

although, he probably does not smell too good.
Posted by: Beldar Threreling9726 || 03/12/2010 22:16 Comments || Top||


Patriotic music, big guns, spotter planes, locomotives, sailors and Frenchmen.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/12/2010 10:08 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Have a fine documentary of WWI by Major Channel Four, Professor Hew Strachan.

Of course I have to fast forward past the extensive coverage of the Turkish theatre now because it is against the law to consider the Armenia theatre >:/
Posted by: swksvolFF || 03/12/2010 12:13 Comments || Top||

#2  Excellent Old Film, one correction.
In the Navy the command is "Shoot" the word Fire is reserved for actual fire to prevent misunderstandings.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/12/2010 17:28 Comments || Top||

#3  These were 14"/50 guns and were also used in New Mexico and Tennessee battleships, including the ill-fated Arizona. They saw heavy combat during World War 2, at which time they were well over twenty years old.
Ten of the slightly older 14"/45 guns survive to this day aboard the USS Texas and can give a good idea what these were like.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 03/12/2010 18:51 Comments || Top||

#4  Update: One of these very guns in preserved at the Washington Navy Yard.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 03/12/2010 19:27 Comments || Top||

#5  thanks. Now I feel infinitesimally inadequate
Posted by: Frank G || 03/12/2010 19:37 Comments || Top||

#6  mmmmm. that was wrong. You get the mental picture.
Posted by: Frank G || 03/12/2010 19:38 Comments || Top||

#7  That is one big shootin' arn.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 03/12/2010 20:34 Comments || Top||


Britain
Mass Grave Found With Remains of Illegal Immigrants
What the Brits used to do to those who sought to conquer and enslave.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 03/12/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Betcha no Viking raids to that place for, at least, a generation.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/12/2010 3:44 Comments || Top||

#2  Badly misleading headline, should read
"Defeated Viking warriors killed here"
NOT "IMMIGRANTS".
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/12/2010 5:33 Comments || Top||

#3  The captives, all well built young men in their late teens and early 20s, were herded to the place of execution. Fifty-four in total, their heads were hacked off and stacked neatly in a pile. The bodies were tossed into a pit where they remained a tangle of limbs and headless torsos until archaeologists following the route of a new road stumbled across the remains last year.
Posted by: Icerigger || 03/12/2010 6:35 Comments || Top||

#4  So. Did these guys show battle wounds of the type that would leave them incapable of resisting?
Did they show healed battle wounds that would show them having been warriors beforehand?
What does it take to "herd" several dozen well-built young men to a place they don't want to go?
Really don't want to go.
And make them stand still while their buddies are being slaughtered?
Posted by: Richard Aubrey || 03/12/2010 7:57 Comments || Top||

#5  ..carbon tests dated the bones to between AD910 and AD1030

Jim, 1066 is the date that the Normans [Norseman Vikings] continued their immigration from already colonized and established fiefs in Northern France on to England. They stayed around a while. In fact other elements of the clan would set up additional branch offices in Sicily and Southern Italy. Had William been defeated at Hastings, I'd bet that diggers would have found another mass grave in the area as well.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/12/2010 8:03 Comments || Top||

#6  Interestingly, one was north of the Arctic circle, which likely means he was from the Greenland settlements (the whole of Iceland is south of the Arctic circle, as is all except the far northern tip of Scandinavia), supposedly founded around 980 AD. Which means they were exporting surplus manpower within a generation. Further evidence that during the Medieval Warm Period farming prospered in Greenland.
Posted by: phil_b || 03/12/2010 8:07 Comments || Top||

#7  Some more background
Posted by: tipper || 03/12/2010 9:38 Comments || Top||

#8  Now you're just being silly:

http://www.echelonrana.com/viking.html

Viking kittens swf, to the "Immigrant Song".
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/12/2010 9:47 Comments || Top||

#9  If you can get four dozen professional fighting men to surrender without being severely wounded--if they had been wounded, they wouldn't have been herded off to a place of slaughter--you had a big fight that went on for a long time and killed a lot of guys. That meant these folks were mentally and emotionally destroyed. Otherwise they'd have fought, even if they were to have lost.
Which means that someplace around there was a hell of a battle and some digging there would be interesting.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey || 03/12/2010 10:49 Comments || Top||

#10  About that warming period: I think it was a Lonely Planet video on Greenland--either that, or one from National Geographic--that stated that people had raised cattle in the open land of Greenland from the beginning of the Viking settlement around 1000 AD. As the temperature cooled during the Little Ice Age, it became harder and harder to eke out a living, as demonstrated by the skeletons in the Viking graveyards. Archaeologists examined bones from the 1th C and the 14th C. The bones showed that the 14th C people were significantly shorter and dramatically undernourished. The Danes mostly evacuated Greenland after that.

On the subject of William the Conqueror and 1066, Harold The Saxon had just won a bloody victory near present-day York, against the Danes under Harald Hardraada. The Saxons didn't have a chance to rest after this battle; they had a forced march of three days to meet William at Hastings. So they were not in any real condition to fight the Normans.

Given that the Danes were raiding and settling in the British Isles since about 300 AD (it was the Danes who raided Patrick of Ireland's village and sold the teenager into slavery in Ireland), there were probably a lot of battles and a lot of worn-out exhausted soldiers over the next 8 centuries.
Posted by: mom || 03/12/2010 11:59 Comments || Top||

#11  An interesting article on palaeoweather, clam-shells and Iceland
Posted by: tipper || 03/12/2010 17:58 Comments || Top||

#12  What Medieval Warm period are you talking about? Today's climate is warmer than it has ever been! The science is settled.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 03/12/2010 19:36 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Mexican Cartels Push Hard On US Border Patrol
BROWNSVILLE — The Zapata County sheriff Thursday was questioning why a Mexican military helicopter was hovering over homes on the Texas side of the Rio Grande.

It was one of the more jarring incidents of the fourth week of border tensions sparked by drug killings, and rumors of such killings, in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas.

Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez said he'd reviewed photos of the chopper flown by armed personnel Tuesday over a residential area known as Falcon Heights-Falcon Village near the binational Falcon Lake, just south of the Starr-Zapata county line. He said the helicopter appeared to have the insignia of the Mexican navy.

“It's always been said that the Mexican military does in fact ... that there have been incursions,' Gonzalez said. “But this is not New Mexico or Arizona. Here we've got a river; there's a boundary line. And then of course having Falcon Lake, Falcon Dam, it's a lot wider. It's not just a trickle of a river, it's an actual dam. You know where the boundary's at.'

The sighting came amid ongoing fighting between the Gulf Cartel and its former enforcers, Los Zetas. The mounting death toll and crisis of fear in cities across from the Texas border have drawn global attention, as has a news blackout in affected cities due to the kidnappings of eight Mexican journalists, at least one of whom was killed.

As violence continued Thursday with a highway shootout in Tamaulipas, a Senate subcommittee in Washington heard testimony that drug cartels are trying to infiltrate U.S. agencies along the border, with corruption cases among Homeland Security personnel on the rise.

In the past two years, there have been 400 public corruption cases involving federal, state and local law enforcement agents originating from the Southwest border region, Kevin Perkins, FBI assistant director for criminal investigations, told the Senate Homeland Security subcommittee on preparedness.

James Tomsheck, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection assistant commissioner, told the panel the drug cartels operating in Mexico are making a concerted effort to infiltrate CBP, and the agency is responding with more screening of job applicants with polygraph tests and background investigations. Corruption cases were opened last year on 576 CBP officers and Border Patrol agents.


A military operation Wednesday in Reynosa reportedly resulted in the wounding and arrest of a man identified by witnesses as a former engineer for Pemex, the government oil monopoly. The witnesses told the Mexican newspaper El Universal that an attempt by army soldiers to stop his late-model white Suburban escalated into a pursuit with gunfire. More than 100 soldiers closed off neighborhood streets as part of the operation.

Gonzalez, the Zapata sheriff, said he couldn't confirm reports that the helicopter was scoping out the home of a drug criminal. He said the incursion about a mile over the border took place over a neighborhood populated by many U.S. Customs officers who work at area border crossings — and that they knew what they were seeing.

“My understanding is the U.S. military were informed,' he said. “I don't know what action was taken, if any.'
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/12/2010 09:07 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  “My understanding is the U.S. military were informed,” he said. “I don't know what action was taken, if any.”

If the Obama administration takes no action, perhaps a little ground fire from the subdivision would be justified.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/12/2010 10:21 Comments || Top||

#2  This is war!
Posted by: Lumpy Elmoluck5091 || 03/12/2010 10:23 Comments || Top||

#3  perhaps a little ground fire from the subdivision would be justified

Don't mess with Texas!!!!Texas has liberal gun and self defense laws and they are certainly justified with the cartels warring across the border. If this was Mexican military in pursuit of the bad guys, why didn't they radio and enlist the US feds for help?
Posted by: Lumpy Elmoluck5091 || 03/12/2010 10:30 Comments || Top||

#4  remember, shoot the occupants not the machine
Posted by: 746 || 03/12/2010 10:36 Comments || Top||

#5  And when they capture a US Border Patrol Agent and kick him out of the helicopter at 1200 AGL over Falcon Heights-Falcon Village for all the wives and family to see....what then President Obamba?
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/12/2010 10:49 Comments || Top||

#6  Well, I'm not sure he's bowed in Mexico yet, so there's always that option.
Posted by: lotp || 03/12/2010 12:41 Comments || Top||

#7  Failing state alert. This may actually be the fire under everyone's arse to finally get serious about enforcing the border and stopping the mexification of the US southwest. Could help anti-illegal immigration candidates this fall and in 2012.
Posted by: lex || 03/12/2010 14:53 Comments || Top||


In Haiti, kidnapped aid workers released
[Iran Press TV Latest] Two female aid workers with the Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) in quake-ravaged Haiti, who have been adducted last week, were freed Thursday and are "safe and sound."

For security reasons and in a bid not to "complicate" negotiations to free the women, the Friday kidnapping had been kept secret.

"We confirm that there was a kidnapping," spokesman Michel Peremans told AFP on Thursday. The two women "were freed today."

According to Peremans, the kidnapping of foreign aid workers was the first such incident in the aftermath of the January 12 earthquake in Haiti that took the lives of more than 220,000 people and left 1.3 million people homeless.

"We will see how we can keep working," Peremans said, adding that providing security for workers was of high importance to the group.

The organization maintains 400 foreign employees along with 3,000 Haitians who work in the Central American nation.

"It's very important for us. We want to keep working in Haiti," said the spokesman.

It is believed that the prisoners, who following the quake broke out of their jails, are responsible for the criminal acts underway in the quake-ravaged country. Most of these criminals have sought refuge in Cite Soleil, a city slum ruined by the quake, where police and UN peacekeepers struggle to impose the law.
Posted by: Fred || 03/12/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


China-Japan-Koreas
Follow up - Anti-Whaling Ship Boarder Arrested By Japanese Coast Guard
An activist from New Zealand has been arrested by Japan's coastguard after he boarded a Japanese whaling ship in the Southern Ocean last month. Peter Bethune said he had boarded the ship intending to make a citizen's arrest of the Japanese crew.

Instead, the Shonan Maru 2 immediately set sail for Japan with him on board.

He is a member of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which has been trying to disrupt the annual hunt of the Japanese whaling fleet. Scores of camera crews and photographers waited on the quayside as the whaling ship sailed into Tokyo bay with the anti-whaling activist on board.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/12/2010 09:54 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Their overpriced ski boat wasn't sliced in two, it just got a little trim around the bow area. They could've saved it if they weren't so incompetent. And if it wasn't intentional on their part.

Screw this mook, toss his skinny round-eye butt in Radio Prison...
Posted by: mojo || 03/12/2010 10:49 Comments || Top||

#2  I suspect he could be charged with reckless endangerment w/r the collision as well.
Posted by: tipover || 03/12/2010 11:36 Comments || Top||

#3  Now I know what I was missing...
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 03/12/2010 13:13 Comments || Top||

#4  To add to their lies, the video plainly shows them powering INTO the whaling ship,
(Hard turbulence as the Andy Gill revved up IN FORWARD)
This was NO accident, they scuttled the "Andy Gill" and tried to blame the whaler.
(I LOVE Video cameras)
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/12/2010 17:12 Comments || Top||


China orders journalists to retrain in communist theory
China wants to crack down on press freedom and introduce a new training system that requires journalists to train in Marxist and communist theories of news.
"It's 'running dog lackies'? I always thought it was 'running lackie dogs'!"
"Wang, shoot him!"

Li Dongdong, deputy director of the General Administration of Press and Publication, told the South China Morning Post that some mainland reporters were giving Chinese journalism a bad name because they were not properly trained. Under communist theories of journalism, media should support the leadership rather than operate as a watchdog.
"Woof! Woof! Arf! Bark!"
[BEAT! BEAT! BEAT!]
"Yipe! Yipe! Yipe!... [LICK! LICK! LICK!]"
"Good boys!"

The initiative seems to be aimed at mainland journalists only.
Hong Kong journalists get to watch.
Chinese officials already routinely censor journalists, but Chinese media has become less restricted in recent years as they have gained more revenue from independent sources via advertising.
Posted by: Fred || 03/12/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Under communist theories of journalism, media should support the leadership rather than operate as a watchdog.

Funny, that describes the New York Times ever since Obama got into office.
Posted by: gromky || 03/12/2010 0:29 Comments || Top||

#2  Fred's in-line commentary FTW
Posted by: badanov || 03/12/2010 0:53 Comments || Top||

#3  ..new training system that requires journalists to train in Marxist and communist theories of news.

Guess speaker including Chris Matthews?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/12/2010 0:57 Comments || Top||

#4  Why do they have to go to the trouble to set up a brand new system to train their journalists in this? The school they want already exists.

They can just send their reporters to Columbia Journalism School. They've been teaching "Marxist and communist theories of news" as the highest form of the art since the '60s.
Posted by: Cravitle McGurque3255 || 03/12/2010 5:39 Comments || Top||

#5  I wonder what the hell is left of Marxism and communism in China. They've revised it so many times since Mao that it is probably unrecognizable to the Marxism and communism taught in American journalism schools.

"Nielsen Ratings says, 'Those with high ratings during prime time, with best demographic age and gender groups, will prosper under heaven, and be smiled upon by the advertiser gods.' "
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/12/2010 13:51 Comments || Top||


Economy
IRS to Track Online Sellers' Payment Transactions Beginning Next Year
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 03/12/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Merchants will simply start promoting certified checks and money orders as a way of payment, particularly place like e-bay and Gunbroker.
Posted by: no mo uro || 03/12/2010 6:02 Comments || Top||

#2  Simply said......the irs needs to be put down
Posted by: armyguy || 03/12/2010 7:32 Comments || Top||

#3  That's great; another freakin' form I have to put up with...
Posted by: Raj || 03/12/2010 7:59 Comments || Top||

#4  Sorry, I agree with the IRS on this one. If it's income you're supposed to report it, whether it's a transaction over the counter of your store or a transaction done over the internet. Income is income.
Posted by: Steve White || 03/12/2010 8:39 Comments || Top||

#5  That's great; another freakin' form I have to put up with...


a nice lead in to in collecting sales and use taxes.
Posted by: Slearong Henbane8806 || 03/12/2010 9:20 Comments || Top||

#6  Interstate commerce is federal, sales taxes are local and state. The Supreme Court of the US has already ruled the states cannot collect sales tax in almost all of these instances.
Posted by: Beldar Threreling9726 || 03/12/2010 9:28 Comments || Top||

#7  Will moneybookers, based in the UK be affected by this?

What about Escrow.com and similar escrow services who do not do "payment" functions (they only serve as escrow between seller and buyer) and may not be covered by the law?
Posted by: Beldar Threreling9726 || 03/12/2010 9:36 Comments || Top||

#8  Income is income. Posted by Steve White

What about coupons? Should I declare clipped grocery store coupon savings as income? The guilt! Oh, the GUILT!
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/12/2010 9:59 Comments || Top||

#9  Taxation of Income is just stupidity on a stick.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 03/12/2010 10:31 Comments || Top||

#10  Gosh, I sure hope no nasty, eeeee-vil hackers figure out how to flood the system with bogus reports. That could prove messy...
Posted by: mojo || 03/12/2010 11:00 Comments || Top||

#11  So if I sell my used cat-litter scoop on ebay or craigslist, should I report it as income?
Posted by: gorb || 03/12/2010 13:20 Comments || Top||

#12  It is what it is intended to be - a bookkeeping nightmare that drives micro-businesses out of business (and competition). It will have collateral damage against individuals selling used property - which should generally be recovery of depreciated capital and not taxable revenue, but gorb probably doesn't have his dated original purchase receipt for the litter scoop to establish his basis cost.
Posted by: Glenmore || 03/12/2010 13:28 Comments || Top||

#13  The IRS can't even keep up with cabinet members, congressmen and federal employees; how are they going to keep up with this? People will have paypal accounts tied to bank accounts not even in their name and not even in this country
Posted by: airandee || 03/12/2010 16:08 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
NJ Gov. Christie to privatize 2,000 jobs and suspend Civil Service
Gov. Chris Christie today will create a commission to privatize as many as 2,000 state jobs beginning next January, officials said Wednesday night.

As he grapples with an $11 billion deficit in the budget he will present on Tuesday, Christie is also considering invoking the Disaster Control Act to suspend Civil Service rules to make it easier for him to lay off higher-paid workers, according to two administration officials.

Privatizing jobs would require layoffs. By beginning them in January, Christie would not be subject to a deal between former Gov. Jon Corzine and state worker unions that would require the state to pay millions in raises to remaining workers if he orders layoffs before then.
Privatizing also has the benefit of slowing the drain on the public employee pensions.
Suspending civil service would allow Christie to order layoffs of higher-paid unionized state employees with many years of service, rather than the usual practice of layoffs that affect lower-paid new employees first, the officials said. Currently, workers with more seniority can "bump" less-experienced workers from their jobs.

The privatization effort deals a blow to state worker unions just 48 hours after Christie publicly acknowledged he is bound by the agreement struck by Corzine where state workers would get two 3.5 percent raises in the coming fiscal year -- one in July and one in January. They deferred one raise and took 10 unpaid furlough days last year in exchange for the no-layoff pledge.
This guy is doing what needs to be done.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 03/12/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hope. And change, of the positive sort.
Posted by: lex || 03/12/2010 14:45 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
New USAF Boeing tanker
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/12/2010 15:51 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:


Sri Lanka
Fonseka faces court martial
[Bangla Daily Star] Sri Lanka's military yesterday announced court martial proceedings against its former chief Sarath Fonseka for engaging in politics while in uniform and violating military procurement laws.
Valentinian III killed Aetius with his own hand, once Attila was out of the way. Of course, Valentinian was murdered within a year, and 20 years later there was no Western Empire.
Army spokesman Prasad Samarasinghe made no mention of the more serious conspiracy and assassination plot charges that
Fonseka and Rajapakse were allies in the crushing of Tamil Tiger separatist rebels last May, which ended their 37-year struggle that left up to 100,000 people dead according to a UN estimate. Fonseka later fell out with Rajapakse over who should claim credit for the victory.
some in the ruling party had levelled at Fonseka after his defeat in presidential elections in January.

The highly decorated ex-army commander will be charged on seven counts of breaking army rules, Samarasinghe said, adding that a court martial would start hearing the case on Tuesday at the navy headquarters in Colombo. "There is no time frame to end the court martial proceedings," Samarasinghe said, adding that Fonseka, who is under military custody at a naval detention centre, could appeal to a civilian court after the military verdict.

Supporters of Fonseka say the court martial is an attempt to stop the 59-year-old campaigning in parliamentary elections due next month.

President Mahinda Rajapakse has been accused by rights groups and other critics of cracking down on the opposition and dissent since he defeated Fonseka, a former ally and now bitter enemy, in a poll in January.

Fonseka was arrested by the military on February 8, two weeks after he lost the presidential election. Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse, who is the president's younger brother, had said that the government had clear evidence of Fonseka plotting a coup and planning to assassinate the president.

The defence secretary had speculated that the hearing against Fonseka could go on for at least six months and on conviction he could be sentenced to five years in prison.

Ruling party politicians had also accused Fonseka of planning to overthrow the government and had labelled him a "traitor" for standing against his former commander-in-chief at the presidential polls.

Spokesman Samarasinghe said he was unaware of "conspiracy charges" against Fonseka, but said an investigation was being carried out by the police Criminal Investigations Department too. "The CID is doing a separate investigation on General Fonseka," Samarasinghe said. "It might be related to charges to overthrow the government. That is a civil matter. The military will limit itself to violations of the Army Act."

Samarsinghe said Fonseka said the seven counts related to two charges -- engaging in politics and wrongdoing in military procurements. Fonseka is accused of "conduct unbecoming" an officer, as well as maintaining contacts with opposition politicians while being head of the army and unfairly granting an arms contract to a company run by his son-in-law.

The police have already mounted a search for Fonseka's son-in-law, whose bank accounts have been frozen by the authorities.

Fonseka has challenged his arrest in the Supreme Court, which has fixed a hearing for April 26.

Fonseka and Rajapakse were allies in the crushing of Tamil Tiger separatist rebels last May, which ended their 37-year struggle that left up to 100,000 people dead according to a UN estimate. Fonseka later fell out with Rajapakse over who should claim credit for the victory.

Despite his detention, he still intends to contest the April 8 parliamentary elections, which Rajapakse is expected to win.
Posted by: Fred || 03/12/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Culture Wars
ACLU Files Complaint Against Rapid City Police
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a complaint against the Rapid City Police Department, saying two officers were responsible for getting a lesbian Air Force sergeant tossed out of the military.

Police went to Jene Newsome's Rapid City home last November to serve an out-of-state warrant on Cheryl Hutson, Newsome's partner.

The officers allegedly noticed an Iowa marriage certificate showing the two were married and notified Ellsworth Air Force Base, which later gave Newsome an honorable discharge.

The military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy bans service members from acknowledging they are gay or engaging in homosexual behavior.

Police Chief Steve Allender declined comment, other than to say that it is routine to notify the base of criminal matters involving military personnel.

Newsome had been in the military for nine years and said she planned to make it a career.
Posted by: tipper || 03/12/2010 04:45 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What's going on - I actually agree with the ACLU for once.

I'm scared...
Posted by: Bisa || 03/12/2010 11:57 Comments || Top||

#2  The UCMJ recognizes civilian laws. Civilan law recognizes the UCMJ. If we lose this, we've got a much larger problem than two tongue dashers.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/12/2010 12:04 Comments || Top||

#3  The officers allegedly noticed an Iowa marriage certificate.... Do most people have their marriage certificate out on display like some dentist or lawyer's office? Any different than finding out someone they have contact with is listed as awol or as a deserter and reporting it? Had they not had the marriage certificate visible and/or on display, proof of relation beyond being 'roomies' would have been impossible without someone 'telling'. Self inflicted wound.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/12/2010 12:56 Comments || Top||

#4  Police went to Jene Newsome's Rapid City home last November to serve an out-of-state warrant on Cheryl Hutson, Newsome's partner.

I'm guessing it wasn't about parking tickets. Nice couple.
Posted by: Gomez Threter7450 || 03/12/2010 14:10 Comments || Top||


How Obama spent his $1.4 million Nobel Peace Prize
The President ended up giving it all away to charity, including a chunk to the Fisher House, a national non-profit organization that provides housing for families of patients receiving medical care at major military and VA medical centers.
Credit where due, although I wonder if we'd approve of the rest of his donations.
Posted by: Steve White || 03/12/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The whole $1.4 mil is shown there, so I assume Ms. Periwinkle is wondering about other donations. I'd say he did a good job with the Nobel prize, so I'm going to have to upgrade my opinion to "worthless loser who occasionally does something right."

That's better than a lot of folks ever gave W.
Posted by: Bobby || 03/12/2010 7:00 Comments || Top||

#2  He didn't give my people any money, so he's still a worthless loser.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 03/12/2010 7:04 Comments || Top||

#3  --This is a 'drop in the bucket' compared to the billions(?) stolen from the coffers of this country..
Posted by: Tom--Pa || 03/12/2010 7:27 Comments || Top||

#4  So I imagine Obama's 2009 tax return will show the Nobel as "unearned" income.
Posted by: ed || 03/12/2010 8:03 Comments || Top||

#5  Doesn't he get income tax relief for making the donations? From money he didn't earn?
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 03/12/2010 8:04 Comments || Top||

#6  I'm not sure how the tax law works here. Maybe he reports the $1.4M prize as income and takes the charitable donations on his Schedule A or maybe, since he is giving it all away, it never counts as income in the first place.

Anyway, he doesn't need the money. After he leaves the Presidency he will hire someone to write his (3rd) autobiography and take in $10M plus and then he can give make $2M/yr giving speechesand 'consulting' for various orgs.
Posted by: lord garth || 03/12/2010 8:33 Comments || Top||

#7  Doesn't he get income tax relief for making the donations? From money he didn't earn?

No, only if he disclaims the prize entirely. Since he had control over the money (ie., he made the decision where it's spent), the money is counted as income.

Posted by: Slearong Henbane8806 || 03/12/2010 9:18 Comments || Top||

#8  you guys crack me up. Tax consequences for Obama or anyone in his regime? LOL
Posted by: Frank G || 03/12/2010 14:50 Comments || Top||

#9  he whole $1.4 mil is shown there, so I assume Ms. Periwinkle is wondering about other donations.

I'm afraid I was lazy this time, Bobby, and did not read the article. Thank you for not letting me get away with it.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/12/2010 17:16 Comments || Top||

#10  I thought that gifts from foreign countries to POTUS were actually the property of the United States. In other words, it wasn't his to give away.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 03/12/2010 19:30 Comments || Top||



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