Mounting pressure to get to the bottom of the controversial arrest of black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. is centering on recorded police tapes that may offer a dose of reality amid all the media and political noise.
Cambridge police brass and lawyers are weighing making the tapes public, which could include the 911 call reporting a break-in at Gates' home and radio transmissions by the cop who busted him July 16 for disorderly conduct. "It's powerful evidence because the (people involved) have not had a chance to reflect and you are getting their state of mind captured on tape," said former prosecutor and New York City police officer Eugene O'Donnell, who is now a lecturer at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan.
Cambridge Police Commissioner Robert Haas said last night he has asked City Solicitor Donald Drisdell to review the 911 tape, which has the potential to either bolster or impugn Gates' stance that he is a blameless victim of racial profiling at his own home.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
You wanna see my ID to clear this complaint? I wanna see your ID to see who is targeting innocent African Americans. You are asking me to make this "easy." Hell no; I don't make it easy for racist, cracker MOFOs. And now you are arresting me. Wait 'til my bro, Barack, gets a whiff of this KKKlan shht.
Who remembers when the liberal media trashed Pres Nixon for calling Charles Manson a "bum" during his murder trial?
#2
I'd bet there's a big investigation going on to figure out who set the reporter up to ask that question. Because there's no way for Barry to get out of the kim chi without making enemies.
#3
White, black, latino, asian -- if a police officer asks you for an ID, show it. And if a police officer says he's there because someone called 911 and reported a break-in, thank the officer for coming to check on your home.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/25/2009 9:28 Comments ||
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If his home was broken into and the cops let the burglar go, hell would have been raised. What if this had been domestic dispute, with an angry husband breaking into his own home to attack his wife? The cop was following SOP.
#6
The last time a cop stopped me, I had lost something off the back of my truck, he helped me pick it up and put it back in the bed, I thanked him and went on my way.
I've only had ONE "Evil Cop" harass me, and he was a local constable so bad that the county eliminated the position just to be rid of him.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/25/2009 13:06 Comments ||
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I really tried to see this from Gate's side...but the more I read the harder it is. I think he is reading reading too much of the "black experience" BS he has written and rotted the minds of young people with.
#8
Because there's no way for Barry to get out of the kim chi without making enemies.
It's kim chi of his own making. He could easily have answered that question with some innocuous comments. Instead he showed his default assumptions to the world, assumptions he carefully hid in order to snag the nomination and election. With the Sotomayor issue front and center, people were primed to actually listen and reacted with considerable outrage. I'm guessing the polling showed a big hit to his credibility.
#9
I don't think they can keep the tapes out of public view forever, maybe during an ongoing investigation but after that I don't think they can withhold it legally.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
07/25/2009 15:04 Comments ||
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Accidents happen all the time. A stray bulk eraser wandering by....
(CNN) -- A U.S. Border Patrol agent who was shot and killed Thursday night was responding to a potential incursion into the United States, authorities said. Agent Robert Rosas suffered multiple gunshot wounds and died at the scene around 9 p.m. in the Campo area in San Diego County, California, said Richard Barlow of the U.S. Border Patrol.
Barlow, speaking at a Friday news conference, said authorities did not have additional details about the incident, which he said occurred near the fence that separates the U.S. and Mexico. Other agents responded to the area and found Rosas, Barlow said.
Authorities said they believe more than one person was involved in the killing, said Keith Slotter, special agent in charge of the FBI's San Diego bureau. He said one of those involved may have been injured as well. Authorities weren't sure how the person's wound was caused but said they believe it was significant enough to draw blood, Slotter said.
He said the FBI has set up a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the killing. U.S. authorities are working closely with Mexican authorities, he said.
Barlow said Rosas leaves behind a wife and two small children -- a 2-year-old son and an 11-month-old daughter. The slain agent had been with the Border Patrol for three years, Barlow said.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano vowed to "find and bring to justice" those responsible for the killing. "This act of violence will not stand -- nor will any act of violence against the Border Patrol," she said in a written statement.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/25/2009 00:00 ||
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Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano vowed to "find and bring to justice" those responsible for the killing. "This act of violence will not stand -- nor will any act of violence against the Border Patrol," she said in a written statement.
"pretty obviously we will focus on the most likely suspects: returning vets from Iraq and Afghanistan, disaffected white bible-thumpers, so-called patriotic groups, tea-party participants, Republicans,...you know, the lowest of the low"
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/25/2009 10:14 Comments ||
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I agree, Frank. Probly one of those abortion clinic protesters, or a tea party participant the left is so scared of. Pretty dangerous bunch.
Seriously...close the frickin borders, throw out everyone who is here illegally (yeah, right).
#4
from our local news it appears there were several agents in the area responding to sensor alerts that illegals or smugglers were detected. The manpower available usually dictates a spread pattern, IIUC, and convergence when one makes contact. My guess is that they were drug smugglers (illegals generally surrender peacefully as they are just deported without serious jail time) and prolly fled back to Mexico
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/25/2009 17:56 Comments ||
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That part of the border is compartmentalized with a number of canyons and valleys running SE to NW in orientation. The cross-compartment mobility roads weave a lot around the hillsides. In the sectors, they generally run a relatively small number of mobile units, often on man cars, with larger units to support once an agent has found illegals or significant sign. The serious traffickers in dope or aliens or both will flood a zone to pull all the responders to one compartment, then blitz across another. This agernt just got caught in an unplanned encounter. I once stood in the Pinto wash with the under sheriff of Imperial County during a planning visit and had 2 pickup trucks full of illegals with long guns on the coyotes and we both had 9mm sidearms. We waved and smiled and backed away. Called for ICSO sheriff units and the BP but they were long gone.
The border is still way out of control, and washington still really doesn't want to get controlo of it. Double the BP and more fence/vehicle barriers, and you can really reduce the flow significantly. Instead, Zero wants to give billions to the IMF and Acorn.....
watch for the Amnesty Bill, a disaster in the making!!!!!
Harry Patch, the last British army veteran of World War I, has died at 111, the nursing home where he lived said Saturday. The Fletcher House care home in Wells, southwest England, said Patch died early Saturday.
"He just quietly slipped away at 9 a.m. this morning," said care home manager Andrew Larpent. "It was how he would have wanted it, without having to be moved to hospitals but here, peacefully with his friends and carers."
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the whole country would mourn "the passing of a great man."
"The noblest of all the generations has left us, but they will never be forgotten. We say today with still greater force, We Will Remember Them," Brown said.
Prince Charles said "nothing could give me greater pride" than paying tribute to Patch.
Patch had been the last surviving soldier from the British army to have served in the 1914-18 war. The only other surviving U.K.-based British veteran of the war, former airman Henry Allingham, died a week ago at age 113.
The Ministry of Defense called Patch "the last British survivor of the First World War," although 108-year-old Claude Choules of Australia is believed to have served in the Royal Navy during the conflict.
Born in southwest England in 1898, Patch was called up for military service in 1916 when he was working as a teenage apprentice plumber. After training he was sent to the trenches as a machine-gunner in the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry.
A few weeks later, in one of the bloodiest battles of the war, at Passchendaele near the Belgian town of Ypres, he was badly wounded and three of his best friends were killed by a shell explosion.
Patch's death Saturday severs Britain's living links with "the war to end all wars," which killed about 20 million people.
In recent years he and his dwindling band of fellow survivors became poignant symbols of the conflict.
Last year he, Allingham and British naval veteran Bill Stone attended remembrance ceremonies in London to mark the 90th anniversary of the war's end at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918. The three frail men in wheelchairs laid wreaths of red poppies at the base of the stone memorial.
Stone died in January.
At a remembrance ceremony in 2007, Patch said he felt "humbled that I should be representing an entire generation."
"Today is not for me. It is for the countless millions who did not come home with their lives intact. They are the heroes," he said. "It is also important we remember those who lost their lives on both sides."
Patch said he did not speak about the war for 80 years. But he came to believe the casualties were not justified.
"I met someone from the German side and we both shared the same opinion: we fought, we finished and we were friends," he said in 2007.
"It wasn't worth it." The last war of kings and princes.
A massive altar dedicated to an eastern cult deity has emerged during excavations of a Roman fort in northern England.
Weighing 1.5 tons, the four-foot high ornately carved stone relic, was unearthed at the Roman fort of Vindolanda, which was built by order of the Emperor Hadrian between 122-130 A.D.
The Romans built the defensive wall across the north of Britain from Carlisle to Newcastle-on-Tyne, to keep out invading armies from what is now Scotland.
"What should have been part of the rampart mound near to the north gate of the fort has turned out to be an amazing religious shrine," said archaeologist Andrew Birley.
A jar and a shallow dish is depicted on one side of the altar, while the other side shows a god-like figure standing on the back of a bull, with a thunderbolt in one hand and a battle axe in the other.
Romans called this god Juppiter Dolichenus, but it was originally an ancient weather god, known to the Semitic peoples of the Middle East as Hadad and to the Hittites as Teshab.
It was in its war-like representation that the Anatolian god Juppiter of Doliche became a favorite deity among Roman soldiers.
Indeed, an inscription indicates that the altar was dedicated to the Dolichenus god by "Sulpicius Pudens, prefect of the Fourth Cohort of Gauls."
According to Birley, Sulpicius Pudens was the commanding officer of the Roman regiment based at Vindolanda in the third century and he may have dedicated the expensive stone to the god in thanks for fulfilling a vow.
This was a normal practice, as partial inscriptions from badly damaged Dolichenus shrines, all found in England, testify.
"The Vindolanda shrine is unique as it is situated within the walls of the fort, something which has yet to be encountered elsewhere. This casts new light on ritual spaces inside Roman forts," Birley told Discovery News.
Originally worshiped as a weather god on a hilltop close to the small town of Doliche (what is now the modern city of Duluk in southern Turkey) Juppiter of Doliche began attracting Roman worshipers by the early second century AD.
From then on, the cult of Dolichenus took off and spread all over the Roman empire.
According to Anthony Birley, chairman of the Vindolanda Trust and the author of many books on ancient Roman history, the discovery is important because "there are absolutely no literary references to Dolichenus, so all that we know about the religion is based on some 300 surviving inscriptions and sculptures from different parts of the Roman Empire."
The shrine at Vindolanda includes a small feasting room and reveals evidence of animal sacrifice.
"Since the worship of Dolichenus is not exclusively military, it is quite possible that all members of the military community, including non-combatants, may have worshiped at the shrine/temple and enjoyed the feasts held there," the archaeologist said.
#1
I picture a Roman First Sergeant standing in front of his unit, with enlisted soldiers in ranks, after having been instructed on the proper way to honor the deity, a file at a time, after the "small sacrifice inspection."
"First squad! Prepare for veneration...(wait for it)...venerate!"
Michael Jackson wore a prosthetic nose, according a report -- and it was missing from his surgically mangled face as he lay in an LA morgue.
Left behind was a small, dark hole surrounded by bits of cartilage, Rolling Stone magazine said, citing witnesses who saw the King of Pop's body on the autopsy table.
Jackson, who was notoriously shy about his appearance, wore the prosthetic to mask the effects of decades of plastic surgery, according to the magazine, due to hit newsstands today.
Meanwhile, a Texas search warrant unsealed yesterday indicates that Jacko's doctor, Conrad Murray, is the target of a manslaughter probe into the singer's death.
The document authorized cops who searched the doctor's clinic and storage unit on Wednesday to look for "items constituting evidence of the offense of manslaughter that tend to show that Dr. Conrad Murray committed said criminal offense."
Murray was with Jackson when the singer went into cardiac arrest on June 25 after ingesting a cocktail of powerful drugs.
At the cardiologist's office, investigators took forensic images of his computer and seized documents, weight-loss pills and a tablet of clonazepam, a muscle relaxant.
"Whether or not it means that Dr. Conrad Murray is the center of the criminal probe would be a question for investigators," the doctor's spokeswoman, Miranda Sevcik, said of the warrant.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2009 00:00 ||
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I thought his dermatologist was crowing about how he had rebuilt his nose with collagen injections or some such thing. He even commented about how he could breathe through it again.
I wanted to leave a very complex thought question to discuss regarding the Chinese anti-ship ballistic missile.
What will be the ramifications of a successful PLA anti-ship ballistic missile demonstration? You can take any approach you want to the answer: regional, political, domestic in China, domestic in the US, or internal to the DoD? It is one thing to say the DoD has noted the development of a weapon in its annual report, but a successful demonstration against a moving target in the South China Sea is going to send shockwaves across the Navy.
I think it will be like ÐПÑÑПк-1, except I don't know what the equivalent of Alan Shepard on Freedom 7 a month later will be.
#1
The PLAN is still very much a naval force in search of a doctrine, and so I will guess that once they deconstruct all the inputs they will need for a blue water navy, they will conclude that their naval doctrine will be much what it has always been: littoral instead of blue water.
And a new antiship missile will simply enhance that doctrine.
You may now take that advice and a dollar for something on a fast food value menu, if you want.
#2
They think they have to have a deep water navy to defend their elaborate merchant marine, which is why they sunk all that bread into the port at Gwadar, Hutchinson-Whampoa's Caribbean port, etc.
However, the USN is pushing full ahead for a laser ship defense, and there isn't a missile faster than light.
Huh, what? Don't you love when some moron tries to be cool and put foreign language letters in his post without considering which codepage is being used?
#4
moron? In the case of 3DC, IMHO - you'd be hard-put to match up in a battle of wits based on my knowledge of his job experience. Please reflect before insulting longtime contributors and commenters so cavalierly. I make no disparagement of you as I have no personal knowledge, but I'm willing to grant you a mulligan f*ck-up or two...I'm on a much higher number myself
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/25/2009 19:11 Comments ||
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Calm down boys. The original article had the Cyrillic (Vostok-1).
It's interesting that the Cyrillic font shows correctly in preview. Восток-1
P.S. I think is 3dc is married to a Chinese woman, so it may be enlightening to face a Chinese faceoff between Gromky and 3dc.
Posted by: ed ||
07/25/2009 20:06 Comments ||
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#6
Shows up in comments too. 3dc's browser may not be configured to handle unicode.
Posted by: ed ||
07/25/2009 20:07 Comments ||
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#7
Big deal. If they launched it, we would not know if it had a conventional or nuke payload and would have to shoot it down anyway. The more money they spend on this dumb system the less they have for stuff that might cause a problem.
#8
Yes, 3DC has rather relevant job experience and yes, he is married to a Chinese woman. He also has personal experience in China, if I remember correctly.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, but for a fully veiled Saudi beauty queen who trounced 274 rivals without showing her face and body, morals, not physical beauty, are what matters.
What in heaven's name is she going to do with herself in Malaysia, a fully covered spectacle like that?
Sweat off a couple pounds unless she stays inside an air-conditioned room. And maybe do a bit of Wahabist preaching to her new BFFs.
With her face and body completely covered by the black head-to-toe abaya, or long overgarment, 18-year-old Aya Ali al-Mulla was named "Queen of Beautiful Morals," winning a crown, jewelry and a trip to Malaysia late on Thursday, Saudi-based al-Watan reported Friday.
No swimsuits or evening gown competitions and heavy media coverage of beauty pageants were the highlights of the Saudi contest based in the eastern city of Safwa.
Instead, the winner and the two runner-up princesses had to undergo a three-month test of their dutifulness to their parents and family, and their service to society. Tests probing their psychological state-of-mind, social and cultural awareness determined the winner.
Mullah, a high school graduate, managed to pip her rivals in the huge field, with good grades and hopes to go into medicine. She raked in a 5,000-riyal ($1,333) prize, a pearl necklace, diamond watch, diamond necklace, and a free ticket to Malaysia with her win.
A single ticket? But surely she would not go alone, unchaperoned by father or brother.
Beauty contests focused on physical beauty are non-existent in segregated Saudi Arabia, where women cannot mix with unrelated men, and must appear in public completely covered -- even in photographs.
Miss Moral Beauty pageant organizer Khadra al-Mubarak kept the focus on inner beauty, as defined by Islamic standards of Saudi Arabia.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2009 00:00 ||
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"Oh boy, Mohamhead, that one over there must be showing her ankles! I'll bet she's hot!"
[Iran Press TV Latest] The ruling Labour Party of British Premier Gordon Brown loses the parliamentary seat of Norwich North to a 27-year-old Conservative candidate.
On Friday, the Tories' Chloe Smith ended the Labour's 12-year reign over the position with a majority of over 7,300 votes to become the youngest lawmaker in the House of Commons, the Guardian reported.
The defeat has been projected as a considerable setback for the Labor Party, which is already widely accused of 'incompetence' in managing the affairs of state.
The by-election was occasioned after the former MP in the office Ian Gibson stood down once the party forbade him from contesting in the next general elections.
Ignoring Gibson's popular approval and in a move to show toughness on financial misdemeanors, the party imposed the ban accusing him of redirecting government money into funding a flat, which he reportedly later sold to his daughter at a low price.
The defeat, which follows a series of resignations from Brown's government, has not shaken his resolve to continue as prime minister. "No, no! Really. I'm fine."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2009 00:00 ||
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Forbidding a member of your own party from running because of serious corruption charges, what a concept! Could we import some of that, please?
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
07/25/2009 15:26 Comments ||
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EL PARAISO, Honduras -- Ousted President Manuel Zelaya took a symbolic step into his homeland Friday, vowing to reclaim his post a month after soldiers flew him into exile.
But he stayed less than 30 minutes before returning to Nicaragua, saying the risk of bloodshed was too great. He said he would give talks with the coup-installed government another try. "I am not afraid but I'm not crazy either," Zelaya told the Venezuela-based television network Telesur. "There could be violence and I don't want to be the cause."
Shortly before Zelaya's crossing, his supporters clashed with soldiers and police nearby after the government ordered everyone off the streets along the 600-mile (1,000-kilometer) border with Nicaragua in a noon-to-dawn curfew. Police said one demonstrator was slightly injured.
Wearing his trademark white cowboy hat, Zelaya walked up to a sign reading "Welcome to Honduras" and smiled to cheering supporters at the remote mountain pass flanked by banana trees. He stopped a few steps into Honduran territory, speaking to nearby military officials on his mobile phone.
"I've spoken to the colonel and he told me I could not cross the border," Zelaya said. "I told him I could cross."
But he soon went back to Nicaragua and said he was ready to return to the negotiating table. "The best thing is to reach an understanding that respects the will of the people," Zelaya said.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called Zelaya's trip "reckless." International leaders had urged Zelaya not to go home without an agreement out of fear it would lead to bloodshed. Zelaya had said he had no choice after U.S.-backed talks with his ousters failed to reinstate him.
It's all posturing, of course. He looks like big heat to his supporters, and it nudges the useful fools at State, the EU, etc to continue their bullyragging of the legitimate government of Honduras.
The interim government has insisted it will arrest Zelaya once he returns, ignoring threats of sanctions from nations worldwide if he is not reinstated. Soldiers formed a human chain near the border crossing Friday but did not move to approach Zelaya.
In a statement, the interim government of Roberto Micheletti said it too still believes in negotiations. Its deputy foreign minister, Marta Alvarado, accused Zelaya of seeking "subversion and a bloodbath."
Interim Deputy Security Minister Mario Perdomo told The Associated Press that authorities didn't bother to arrest Zeyala because he barely entered Honduras. "Zelaya made a show of entering Honduras, he put one foot in, and left," Perdomo said. "And he did this in a dead zone of the frontier, which we tolerated."
Zelaya said his reinstatement is necessary to preserve democracy and prevent coups, not only in Honduras but across a region that has seen many in its turbulent political history. "The people of Latin America and the world have been losing their rights," Zelaya said.
Thanks to Castro, Hugo, Correa, and Ortega ...
Thousands of Zelaya opponents demonstrated in San Pedro Sula, the country's second-largest city.
An equal number of supporters flocked to the border to support Zelaya's return, and soldiers manned checkpoints on highways leading to the border area to prevent them from getting to El Paraiso. Some made their way on foot after bus drivers refused to risk the trip.
The government said the border curfew was intended to preserve the peace, but by late afternoon authorities did not appear to be enforcing it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/25/2009 00:00 ||
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Thousands of Zelaya opponents demonstrated in San Pedro Sula, the country's second-largest city. An equal number of supporters flocked to the border to support Zelaya's return,
Given the photos Ive seen (that the AP and US press never manages to print) I rather doubt the numbers were equal. More lies and obfuscation by the press.
#2
I'm not quite sure, but he seems more a publicity hound than president?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/25/2009 13:01 Comments ||
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#3
How will the down home folks view this? The brave steps of a real he-man? or the nervous sauntering of a girly-man? I suspect he lost more face than he gained with this stunt.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
07/25/2009 14:52 Comments ||
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On July 15, sources within the Russian MoD said that two missile launches, using a flattened trajectory, were conducted by submarines the previous day. In particular, they alleged that U.S. and NATO intelligence were "surprised," not by the launches but that they were unable to determine the source of their launch. "The American missile defense system of course detected the missile launches themselves, but the area from which the launches were conducted was completely unexpected for them," the source said. Reportedly, attack submarines from the Northern Fleet arrived in the Arctic Circle, closed the area to tracking, and from beneath the pack-ice two Delta IV submarines conducted launches. "In its turn, the U.S. space detection equipment, as an element of the missile defense system, cannot track the presence of submarines under the Arctic ice," the source claimed. The deployment of submarines in this area, and the apparent absence of sufficient operational information, reduces the time it takes to reach a target and until the launch it is effectively invisible to tracking systems (RIA Novosti, July 15).
#1
Sorry Volodya. Not as clumsy a piece of propaganda as Pravda but still lacking in reality. Too bad for you US DSP satellites can detect SAM missiles. Detecting ICBMs is child play, esp against a cold background like the arctic. So by all means go flat trajectory and cut the missile's range in half. Perhaps your real goal is to nuke Ottawa?
Posted by: ed ||
07/25/2009 14:15 Comments ||
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#2
Of course, if you ask the USN, they will smile and say, "Golly, do you suppose the Russians have submarines? Well, we wouldn't know anything about that."
[Al Arabiya Latest] Not only banned in Sudan, but also in North Korea, women in pants have become a sign of faltering public morals as the communist regime has set fines and hard labor as punishments for women who wear pants, South Korean activists said Friday. I spent many of the days of my wasted youth trying to get women out of their pants. Despite a few successes, on the big scale it was a lost cause.
Offenders can be punished with hours of forced labor or fines of 700 won ($ 0.56), almost a week's salary for the average worker, human rights group Good Friends said, citing its own sources within the isolated nation.
" The Dear Leader has said national character shows up not only in language, etiquette and morals but in attire as well "
Uriminzokkiri, North Korean website
The Stalinist leadership's campaign is angering women who see skirts as less practical than trousers, Good Friends director Lee Seung-Yong said. "Women are told to wear skirts in public places and in the streets, sparking complaints among them as they often have to work in tough conditions," he told AFP.
Disciplinary officials from students' bodies and women's organizations stand at street corners during the morning rush hour and lunch breaks, to keep watch for any women violating the pants ban, according to Good Friends.
Uriminzokkiri, an official North Korean website, noted on Monday that ruler Kim Jong-Il had issued a decree in 1986 urging women to wear traditional Korean attire. "The Dear Leader has said national character shows up not only in language, etiquette and morals but in attire as well," the site said.
It quoted Kim as saying the country's traditional skirts and jackets are a "source of our (national) pride" and that women should be "actively encouraged" to wear them.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2009 00:00 ||
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Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/25/2009 12:55 Comments ||
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I guess we know what's in the minds of those government officials. Wait, it's on the minds of most of the government officials in all other countries, too. Maybe stoppping random sexual thoughts is kinda like stopping an ocean wave by standing in it's path.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
07/25/2009 15:20 Comments ||
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I wonder if this is intended to make it harder for the women to slip into China.
The unemployment rate in the Chicago metropolitan area continued to surge in June, reaching 11.3 percent, up from 6.9 percent a year earlier and the highest level since July of 1983, the Illinois Department of Employment Security said Thursday.
The rate is up from 10.7 percent in May and from 9.9 percent in April. It exceeds the state's 10.3 percent rate and the nation's 9.5 percent rate.
The jump was evident Thursday at a career fair in downtown Chicago that drew 1,010 job seekers. That's more than double the usual Chicago turnout of 350 to 500, National Career Fairs event coordinator Bob Hillman said. Talking to hopefuls were 32 companies, "from Comcast to Avon."
"The numbers are going up and up all over," Hillman said. "It's not like it's Chicago by itself."
Regardless of the unemployment rate, Hillman's advice is the same: Be open-minded to opportunities. "The hardest thing for a lot of job seekers to understand is . . . just because you've never done something doesn't mean you couldn't do it or wouldn't like doing it."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2009 00:00 ||
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just because you've never done something
items that come to mind that might actually help here..
1) get a job instead of rely on government welfare
2) vote for qualified candidates
Posted by: abu do you love ||
07/25/2009 8:59 Comments ||
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#2
Sounds low compared to where I'm sitting.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
07/25/2009 15:10 Comments ||
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Gov. Rick Perry, raising the specter of a showdown with the Obama administration, suggested Thursday that he would consider invoking states' rights protections under the 10th Amendment to resist the president's healthcare plan, which he said would be "disastrous" for Texas.
Interviewed by conservative talk show host Mark Davis of Dallas' WBAP/820 AM, Perry said his first hope is that Congress will defeat the plan, which both Perry and Davis described as "Obama Care." But should it pass, Perry predicted that Texas and a "number" of states might resist the federal health mandate.
"I think you'll hear states and governors standing up and saying 'no' to this type of encroachment on the states with their healthcare," Perry said. "So my hope is that we never have to have that stand-up. But I'm certainly willing and ready for the fight if this administration continues to try to force their very expansive government philosophy down our collective throats."
Perry, the state's longest-serving governor, has made defiance of Washington a hallmark of his state administration as well as his emerging re-election campaign against U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the 2010 Republican primary. Earlier this year, Perry refused $555 million in federal unemployment stimulus money, saying it would subject Texas to long-term costs after the federal dollars ended.
Interviewed after returning from a trip to Iraq and Afghanistan, Perry spoke out against President Barack Obama's healthcare package less than 24 hours after the president used a prime-time news conference Wednesday night to try to sell the massive legislative package to Congress and the public.
"It really is a state issue, and if there was ever an argument for the 10th Amendment and for letting the states find a solution to their problems, this may be at the top of the class," Perry said. "A government-run healthcare system is financially unstable. It's not the solution."
Perry heartily backed an unsuccessful resolution in this year's legislative session that would have affirmed the belief that Texas has sovereignty under the 10th Amendment over all powers not otherwise granted to the federal government.
In expressing "unwavering support" for the 10th Amendment resolution by state Rep. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, Perry said "federal government has become oppressive in its size, its intrusion into the lives of our citizens and its interference with the affairs of our state."
Returning to the "letter and spirit" of the 10th Amendment, he said in April, "will free our state from undue regulations and ultimately strengthen our union."
Perry, in his on-air interview Thursday with Davis, did not specify how he might use the 10th Amendment in opposing the Obama health plan. His spokeswoman, Allison Castle, said that the governor's first goal is to defeat the plan in Congress and that any discussion of options beyond that would be "hypothetical."
"I don't think it's surprising that the governor is taking a stand against it," said Anne Dunkelberg, associate director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities, an Austin-based research organization that supports the House version of Obama's plan. "Unfortunately, the national dialogue on health reform has been extraordinarily partisan and polarized."
The White House Media Affairs Office, asked to comment on Perry's statements, did not have an immediate response. In his remarks to the nation Wednesday, Obama restated his midsummer deadline for passage of the bill in Congress, saying it is urgently needed to help families "that are being clobbered by healthcare costs."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2009 00:00 ||
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Is the 10th Ammendment not in effect? Why need to re-inforce what's already in place. Pretty sure the Bill of Rights and the Constitution don't mention healthcare. Go for it Rick...and tell the Feds to shove it up their collective asses...after all they have the healthplan now..
LAHORE - PIA seems to be loosing out the passengers and cargo, but has certainly become the favourite airline for rats. On July 21, the passengers on board PK 204, an Airbus 310, coming from Dubai to Lahore, were shocked to see rats roaming in inside the plane during the flight, feeling more at home than the passengers who were frightened by their very presence. These rats have become a normal phenomenon for PIA, since nothing has been done to secure these aircrafts of rodents, which threaten aircraft safety, sources in the airline disclosed, as third such incident in the month of July has surfaced.
According to details, panic was created in PK 792 when well-fed rats were spotted during the flight. One such rat jumped on a lady, whose screams frightened all other passengers. As a result, most of the passengers refused to consume food because of the rats that were jumping all around. It is important to note that rodents can nibble the wires that spread across the aircraft thereby threatening short-circuits. These rats are suspected to enter the PIA aircrafts via catering equipment or luggage that are loaded on aircrafts.
It is worth noting that PIA has outsourced both its Flight Kitchen and TGS around three years ago. Instead of an improvement, the incidents of rats being found frequently on PIA flights have become a routine matter. During the last 7 months, it is the 6th incident in the planes still in the air.
Aviation industry experts have said that any other airline facing such influx of rats, would have taken the issue on a priority basis, because of the possible fatal consequences that can be caused by an accident resulting from damage done to wiring by the rats. In this regard, PIA spokesman was of the view that the national flag carrier did not allow its planes to fly after if rats were found. It would be a violation of safety rules if aircraft was kept on flying even after the rat/rats were spotted.
Posted by: john frum ||
07/25/2009 00:00 ||
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It's when the rats desert the plane that you really have to worry.
Posted by: ed ||
07/25/2009 1:00 Comments ||
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Posted by: john frum ||
07/25/2009 7:08 Comments ||
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#5
Warfarin doesn't work on PIA planes? It works on maneating lions in Africa and is cheaper than bullets.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
07/25/2009 14:47 Comments ||
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#6
One way to curb the rat infestation is to depressurize the cargo compartment in flight. Even rats can't breathe at 30,000+ feet. Do it for eight minutes just to be sure.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/25/2009 17:19 Comments ||
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#7
Then you'd have lovely smells coming out of the aircraft for the next six months.
Iraqi Kurds are going to the polls in a double election to choose a new parliament and president for their autonomous region in the north of Iraq. Some 20,000 troops have been stationed at polling stations in the region, due to open at 0800 local time (0500 GMT).
Incumbent President Masood Barzani and the ruling parliamentary coalition are both expected to win re-election. President Barzani heads the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), one of the two big Kurdish parties, who were once rivals, but now partners in the ruling coalition.
There are four other candidates, but none is likely to come close.
It is the first time the president of Kurdistan is being elected directly by popular vote.
In the parliamentary stakes, the KDP and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which is led by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, are fielding a joint list for the 100 seats being contested. Another 11 seats are reserved for minorities.
While the coalition is generally expected to win, the two parties' dominance is facing a serious new challenge from the Change movement, led by Noshirwan Mustafa. The movement has shaken the establishment with its demand for an end to corruption and elitism, and seems to have strong support particularly in the eastern areas, says the BBC's Jim Muir in Kurdistan.
Some of its more optimistic supporters believe it could win enough seats to team up with Islamists and leftists to deny the two big parties a majority.
Oh boy, just what we need, an unstable Kurdish region ...
While that seems unlikely, the movement is certainly expected to do well enough to form a vocal opposition in parliament for the first time, our correspondent says.
Some 2.5 million people are registered to take part in the vote, the first since 2005.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/25/2009 00:00 ||
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BBC doom and glooming.
While corruption is a problem, I doubt it will stop the coalition winning a landslide.
Something didn't quite look right about the zebra, but it was hard to say exactly what. Of the several ramshackle zoos in Gaza, Marah, located not far from the Bureij refugee camp, is by far the cheeriest: The animals are lively, the enclosures clean, and children gather around the cage of a resting lion. Then again, the competition is hardly stiff: The zoo in Rafah features dead animals left to rot in their cages; another animal park, situated in a densely populated neighborhood in Bureij, recently shut down amid financial difficulties (and after neighbors complained of the smell). A third, also in Bureij, is so short of funds that a fox is kept in a grocery cart with a board over the top.
Marah, with its broken-down bumper cars and a pit filled with sadly deflated balls, had its own not-quite-right feelparticularly the zebra. Standing near the back of its cage, facing away from the spectators, the animal kept its head tucked down. "It's really a painted donkey," admitted Mahmud Berghat, the director of Marah, when asked about the creature. Making a fake zebra isn't easyhenna didn't work and wood paint was deemed inhumane, so they finally settled on human hair dye. "We cut its hair short and then painted the stripes," Berghat explained behind the closed door of his office. It did the trickif not for zoologists, then at least for legions of Gaza schoolchildren who have never seen a real zebra. When I asked him whether anyone had ever caught the ruse, the director admitted that two sharp university students had IDed the counterfeit creature. "But don't tell anyone," he said. "The children love him."
The idea of a zoo creating a fake zebra sounds preposterous, but this is Gaza, which, after two years of an economic blockade, is renowned for recycling, repurposing, and smuggling just about anything that can't be imported legally. The zoo, in a way, represents all three of these coping mechanisms: a couple of house cats stand in for wild cats; the lion was drugged and smuggled through a tunnel from Egypt; and the zebra, as Berghat joked, was "locally made."
Zoos in war zones produce an unending cascade of heart-string-tugging stories. Kabul, Afghanistan, had Marjan, the one-eyed lion, who famously survived the Soviet invasion and Taliban rule only to die in his sleep in 2002. The Baghdad zoo, once the largest in the region, was looted during the 2003 invasion. Likewise, in Gaza, stories of hardship abound. During Israel's Operation Cast Lead, which started in December 2008 and continued through January 2009, Marah's zookeepers couldn't reach the animals. Some were hit by shrapnel; several, including a prized peacock, escaped; and many more died of starvation. The zoo stories are at times apocryphal. The Marah zoo says its lioness was killed by shrapnel; the same story was told about a lioness at the nearby Middle Zoo. (An odd coincidence, or perhaps life is hard for female lions?) But what differentiates Gaza's zoo is how the animals got there. Prior to the Hamas takeover, many of the animals were brought in legally from Egypt and Israel. But since 2007, the most common route animals take to their cages in Gaza is through the underground labyrinth of tunnels that snake from the southern tip of Gaza into Egypt's Sinai.
Though strictly regulated shipments are allowed in through the Israeli border, the majority of what's sold in Gaza's marketsfrom cement to Converse sneakersis smuggled through the tunnels. The zoos, like everything else in Gaza, have become caught up in the bizarre economic situation of living in an international no man's land. When the Marah zoo, or just about any zoo in Gaza, needs a new animal, it places an order with a smuggler. Other than price, size is the only limitationone tunnel owner in Rafah told me the biggest animal that can fit in the tunnels is a cow. For most Gazans, the tunnels are an economic lifeline, but they are also a conduit for weapons and drugs. During the recent military operations, the tunnels took a beatingIsrael dropped earth-penetrating bombs in an attempt to destroy the underground passageways. But many tunnels survived, and smuggling operations quickly resumed.
"Before the war, you could bring anything through the tunnels," explained Mahmud Berghat's father, Ahmed, the owner of the Marah zoo. "You just had to get it to the border." But now clashes with Egyptian security forces have grown worse, and many tunnels are still damaged and out of operation, so prices have gone up. The painted zebra is also a product of the tunnel economics: The zoo had requested a quote for a zebra and found it would cost $30,000 to buy the animal and bring it through the tunnelswell beyond its budgetso Berghat enlisted the donkey instead.
But financial difficulties and lack of expertise, as much as war, are at the heart of the zoos' problems. At several zoos, the employees said they had no idea what to feed the animals, and found themselves searching the Web for information abut the diets of exotic snakes and tropical birds. Even when the diet is simple, it may be expensive. "It costs 100 shekels [$25] a day to feed him," said Shadi Nassir, the caretaker for the now-closed Middle Zoo, pointing to the emaciated lion that sat listless in its cage. "Would you like to buy him?" Nassir offered. "We're selling him for $700."
But it's not all bad news. The Marah zoo, which features an assortment of animals, from owls to monkeys, was busy that day. And director Berghat had a wish list of animals he wanted to buy: a llama, a gazelle, and a mountain wolf. "What we really want is an elephant," he said. "But a small one, so it can fit in the tunnels."
TEHRAN -- An Iranian airliner overshot the runway and slammed into a perimeter wall killing 17 people in the second city of Mashhad on Friday in the country's second air disaster in 10 days, state media said.
"There was an accident and a fire involving a passenger plane from Tehran to Mashhad that has left 17 people dead and 19 injured," the official IRNA news agency reported, quoting the deputy governor of Khorasan province, Ghahreman Rashid.
Rashid identified the plane as a Russian-designed Ilyushin and said it carried 153 passengers. "All the dead and injured people and passengers have been evacuated and the fire has been completely controlled," Rashid said, according to IRNA.
Russian design and Insh'allan maintenance ...
Either that, or somebody important but not well-liked was flying.
That's about half of Iran right now ...
A senior transport official said the incoming aircraft had overshot the runway. "Instead of landing at the beginning of the tarmac, the plane landed in the middle of the runway," the ISNA news agency quoted deputy transport minister Ahmad Majidi as saying. "Because the tarmac?s length is short, it has gone off the tarmac and crashed into the opposite wall.
The Mehr news agency said the plane crashed through the airport's perimeter wall before hitting power lines and coming to a halt in adjacent farmland.
State television said that the accident occurred as the plane was landing at the international airport in Mashhad, a popular Shiite Muslim pilgrimage centre in northeastern Iran.
I seem to recall rumours that Israel had some people working airplane maintenance in Iran... or perhaps the Mossad spy squirrels are running with the American spy squirrels now. I wouldn't put it past them -- squirrels are known for their delight in chewing on vehicle wiring.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/25/2009 00:00 ||
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None of Short Round's relatives or unwanted appointees aboard?
Pretty amazing, that a so-called professional woman would speak so. And the commander has quotes, dates, witnesses, requests for intervention to her peers -- he's been documenting for her fall for quite some time. This gal will be finding a new career shortly.
#1
Journalists behaving in a filthy and nasty manner has old roots. The most recent wave began with Sam Donaldson, who began yelling obscenities at Ronald Reagan when Reagan didn't stop to talk to the press.
For his part, Reagan responded by directing that the Presidential helicopter be running before he even stepped outside, so he wouldn't have to listen to Donaldson's abuse.
But the end result was that the WH press corps slowly lost any decorum, acted like a rabble, and shouted down each other's questions.
#4
I wonder if this snotty-nosed little bi*** understands that as a GUEST on a military reservation, she comes under military law. They should throw her useless a$$ in the stockade for a few weeks, so she'll understand that being a reporter does NOT give her privileges not available to others.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/25/2009 17:15 Comments ||
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#5
This chick has a history of being somewhat "forceful" with military public relations folk. Spend a few google cycles and you can quickly get a sense of her agenda.
Posted by: frank martin ||
07/25/2009 18:32 Comments ||
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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.
Michael Jackson wore a prosthetic nose, according a report -- and it was missing from his surgically mangled face as he lay in an LA morgue. 
[Iran Press TV Latest] The ruling Labour Party of British Premier Gordon Brown loses the parliamentary seat of Norwich North to a 27-year-old Conservative candidate. 
EL PARAISO, Honduras -- Ousted President Manuel Zelaya took a symbolic step into his homeland Friday, vowing to reclaim his post a month after soldiers flew him into exile.
LAHORE - PIA seems to be loosing out the passengers and cargo, but has certainly become the favourite airline for rats. On July 21, the passengers on board PK 204, an Airbus 310, coming from Dubai to Lahore, were shocked to see rats roaming in inside the plane during the flight, feeling more at home than the passengers who were frightened by their very presence. These rats have become a normal phenomenon for PIA, since nothing has been done to secure these aircrafts of rodents, which threaten aircraft safety, sources in the airline disclosed, as third such incident in the month of July has surfaced.
Iraqi Kurds are going to the polls in a double election to choose a new parliament and president for their autonomous region in the north of Iraq. Some 20,000 troops have been stationed at polling stations in the region, due to open at 0800 local time (0500 GMT).
TEHRAN -- An Iranian airliner overshot the runway and slammed into a perimeter wall killing 17 people in the second city of Mashhad on Friday in the country's second air disaster in 10 days, state media said.
