Australian people brawling? I'm shocked! I really though they were quiet, subdued people, like thoses nice irish guys.
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Pugnacious Australians just love a good fight -- in the ring or in the pub. Some 30 bar brawls broke out across the nation, and one man died in a fight, on Wednesday night following a much-hyped televised bout between Aboriginal boxer Anthony "The Man" Mundine and Danny "The Machine" Green.
Mundine, an ex-footballer renowned for his quick mouth and flamboyant clothes, won the super middleweight non-title fight on points at Sydney's Olympic Stadium, but not everyone was happy.
Police in the western city of Perth, Green's home town, said they were called to 13 hotel brawls involving up to 60 people. One man died in hospital after being punched to the ground in a hotel carpark and hitting his head on the pavement.
In South Australia, police were called to break up 14 hotel fights and police in the northeastern state of Queensland had to sort out three brawls involving some 50 people.
A violent brawl in a hotel in New South Wales state left a bystander with a suspected fractured wrist and another person suffered cuts from a broken glass.
Police told local media that the fights were fuelled by alcohol and, depending on who you supported, the fight outcome.
They also said many hotels were unprepared for the large crowds that gathered to watch the bout live on cable television.
"All had been drinking and watching the fight live on TV," said a police spokesman.
"Either it wasn't a popular win and they were fighting over the result or they were just fuelled by too many drinks and then suddenly everyone thinks they're Rocky Balboa."
#3
Mundine is a motormouth, a muslim "revert" and the guy who said after 9/11 "America brought it upon themselves".
I'd love to see how how he goes if he ever has to fight in the US.
NEW YORK -- Actress Susan Sarandon, a longtime liberal political activist and outspoken opponent of the Iraq war, endorsed an anti-war Democrat challenging Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's re-election bid Tuesday.
I love it when they eat their own
Sarandon is backing Jonathan Tasini, a labor advocate and former president of the National Writers' Union, who has based his longshot campaign on Clinton's vote in 2002 authorizing military intervention in Iraq.
"Warmonger!"
Clinton, who is widely considered the front-runner for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination if she chooses to run, has sharply criticized the Bush Administration's handling of the war. But she has also refused to call for American troops to be removed from Iraq.
She's trying to hold the the middle ground, but the far-lefties won't have any of it.
Sarandon has been a harsh critic of Clinton's vote on the war, telling a British television interviewer last month that Clinton had "crumbled under the pressure of the moment." She also told ITV1 that she wasn't enthusiastic about a Clinton presidential candidacy
Posted by: Steve ||
05/18/2006 16:32 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
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#1
"crumbled under the pressure of the moment.": leftyspeak for "listened to her constituents instead of meeeeeee!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/18/2006 19:55 Comments ||
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#9
Brad - John Kerry
Janet - Susan Sarandon, of course
Frankenfurter - Screamin Howard Dean
Riff-Raff - Ward Churchill
Magenta - Hillary Clinton
Columbia - Nancy Pelosi
Rocky - John Edwards
Dr. Everett Von Scott - Al Gore
Eddy - Michael Moore
More importantly though, who gives a sh*t what this washed up heffer thinks. Like she knows anymore than the guy who works down at the plant, or the land scaper, or the bus boy at the Sizzler, or my sorry ass for that matter. What a presumptuous twat.
Yo Sarandon, you're an actress not an authority on strategic geopolitics - you get paid to do what little kids all across this country do every day - play make believe.
#12
I read that this was a labor advocate and expected some blue-collar type who I might respect but still disagree with, and who might command some voter influence. But then the next clause tells us that he was President of the National Writers Union. Good G*d! So much for working class hero, man of the people. This is something straight out of Monty Python. Have you seen the sketch with the gritty old writer whose rebellious son wants to be a polished, urbane coal miner?
#13
In my paranoid moments, I fret that the Hollywood freaks finally figure out that the voting public hate them and even their few remaining fans, for the most part, don't vote according to their proscriptions. I worry that they will get smart and secretly conspire to boost candidates like Hillary's centrist credentials with half-hearted moonbat denouncements. I fear that one day the Democrats will stop pandering to actors, musicians, studio heads, etc. and focus more on the real Mature-Adult-American community.
The increasingly tense Republican gubernatorial primary between Marc Holtzman and U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez led to a physical standoff Wednesday between rival campaign workers during a forum at a posh country club.
The surprising dustup came at the beginning of a forum at Plum Creek Golf and Country Club in Douglas County that featured Holtzman and Democrat Bill Ritter. Beauprez was in Washington, but was represented by state Sen. Shawn Mitchell.
An intern for the Holtzman campaign, Laura Mendenhall, tried to block a Beauprez staffer, Jory Taylor, from videotaping the event. That outraged the Beauprez campaign, which says it routinely tapes such forums.
"They were shoving him out of the way," said John Marshall, a spokesman for Beauprez. "They totally accosted him. This is just junior high school stuff. It's disappointing and juvenile and not befitting a campaign for the highest office in Colorado."
A spokesman for Holtzman said Mendenhall had made "a rookie mistake" and gotten carried away. "She's very protective of Marc," said Jesse Mallory.
But Marshall said it was Holtzman political director Laura Teal who first grabbed Taylor's arm and told the intern to block his camera.
"Laura ordered the intern to stand directly in front of the camera," said Marshall.
Teal, however, said she had simply touched Taylor's arm and asked him why he was filming when Beauprez wasn't present.
"I nudged his arm and said, 'Hey, what are you doing?' " said Teal. "If I'd shoved him and smacked him, I think people would have noticed."
Mallory said the Holtzman campaign apologized for the incident.
"We're sorry the girls in our campaign beat up the boys in their campaign," he said.
The antics overshadowed the debate sponsored by the Castle Rock Economic Development Council.
In it, Ritter assailed Holtzman's call for a $1.2 billion tax cut, saying it would gut education in the state. He said Colorado already suffers from a lack of adequate funding for community colleges and vocational education.
"We need public dollars to have a world-class educational system," Ritter told the audience.
The confrontation between the two Republican campaigns came just days before a showdown at the party's state convention in Colorado Springs on Saturday. Delegates will vote on the candidates for governor, providing a crucial test of support for both campaigns.
Holtzman began broadcasting his first television ad earlier this week. He said he would be running ads from now until the Aug. 8 primary, and indicated that future spots will target Beauprez's record.
Holtzman's parents, Seymour and Evelyn Holtzman, attended the forum. Seymour Holtzman's company, Jewelcor Inc., was a major funding source of TV ads Holtzman ran last fall opposing Referendum C. Those ads were the subject of a trial earlier this month, in which the Holtzman campaign was accused of violating Colorado campaign finance laws. An administrative law judge has not yet ruled in the case.
Seymour Holtzman said he would not be involved in funding his son's gubernatorial campaign, including any so-called 527 political groups that might run ads attacking Beauprez.
"Marc has asked me not to make any contributions to any 527s," he said.
#3
"We're sorry the girls in our campaign beat up the boys in their campaign."
Snark attack!
Posted by: Mike ||
05/18/2006 16:59 Comments ||
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#4
After reseraching his disctrict, Beaurprez needs tio stay in Congress -why the hell is he running for Governor? His district is a gerrmandered all to hell and could go to a Democrat this time, making even more possible that we woudl lose the house. On top of that, Beauprez woudl get reelected handily, and he is sitting onthe ways and means comiottee, not something you walk away from.
Beauprez sounds like a greedy POS country club Repub to me.
Who cares if he wins the Gov of Colorado if we lose the house?
By John Chase and Ray Long
Tribune staff reporters
Published May 18, 2006
Under investigation for alleged hiring improprieties, Gov. Rod Blagojevich's administration acknowledged Wednesday it has kept a list of thousands of names of state job applicants and their politically connected sponsors since his election to office nearly four years ago.
But Blagojevich aides said compiling the list does not violate rules that prohibit political considerations in most state hiring or promotions. A spokeswoman for the governor said the office kept track of applicants' names and job status to be able to quickly respond to inquiries from those who recommended them.
The administration revealed the job tracking effort after the disclosure of a list of state job seekers that notes what appears to be the people who recommended them and the agency for which they were being considered for work. The Chicago Sun-Times and the Associated Press, which first obtained the lists, reported Wednesday that most of the nearly 300 people on the list got jobs.
The list indicates sponsors for jobs that include the governor's estranged father-in-law, Ald. Richard Mell (33rd), other prominent Democratic allies of the governor and key Blagojevich fundraisers, a Tribune review of the list shows. Some applicants sought jobs that are not covered under the rules prohibiting political hiring.
Both the governor's office and his re-election campaign said they had no knowledge of the list described by the news organizations.
Last week, Blagojevich's office announced the firing of two former top hiring officials in the state's personnel management agency after an inspector general's investigation found instances of favoritism involving the testing of "special" applicants forwarded by the governor's office and others. Some agency officials contended they felt pressured to treat the "special" applications differently.
On Thursday, the two fired officials--Dawn DeFraties and Michael Casey--are scheduled to fight attempts by the Blagojevich administration to dismiss their appeals before the state's Civil Service Commission. The lawyer for the two contends they are being used as scapegoats by the administration for trying to bring more fairness to a system rife with political favoritism.
DeFraties and Casey have been contacted by the FBI regarding hiring practices and questions surrounding personnel procedures, according to sources familiar with the investigations of the administration.
Blagojevich has not been accused of any wrongdoing and has said his administration has worked to root out any hiring irregularities and acted within the law.
Abby Ottenhoff, a governor's spokeswoman, said the administration has been keeping track of more than 15,000 applicants who were recommended for state jobs since Blagojevich's November 2002 election.
Abby Ottenhoff, a governor's spokeswoman, said the administration has been keeping track of more than 15,000 applicants who were recommended for state jobs since Blagojevich's November 2002 election.
Ottenhoff said fewer than 10 percent of the applicants received jobs. Applications were forwarded to the Department of Central Management Services, the state's personnel and office management agency, where they were tested and graded if they were for civil service positions, she said.
She said the list was kept in the personnel division of the governor's office, overseen by Joe Cini.
For more than a year, federal prosecutors have been conducting an investigation into allegations of criminal wrongdoing in the governor's personnel office, and at the Department of Children and Family Services. Last fall, the federal probe was expanded to the Department of Transportation and the Department of Corrections and subpoenas were issued.
In a letter federal prosecutors wrote in March of 2005 to encourage the cooperation of a potential witness, they noted that "the government is conducting a grand jury investigation regarding allegations of criminal wrongdoing" involving Cini and others "in relation to public corruption." Cini has declined to comment through the governor's office.
The campaign of state Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka, the Republican candidate for governor, compared the jobs list cited in the published reports to the lengthy list of political favors compiled for former Gov. George Ryan, who was recently convicted on federal corruption charges. Blagojevich has sought to link Topinka to Ryan, noting her name appeared repeatedly on the favors list.
Doug Scofield, an adviser to Blagojevich's re-election campaign, said the application list was far different from the favors list compiled for Ryan because the Republican governor expected favors for job placements and low-digit license plates to be returned.
What a LAME-ASSED response.
Under Blagojevich's system of dealing with job applicants, "You put them in a list and the most qualified people go through a process and they get the job," Scofield said. And if you go to the Serbian neighborhood on the northside... what was once a poor neighborhood is now wealth and booming with lots of Porsches and Mercedees and upscale rehabs. So Most qualified = bagmen from his wife's org. and Serbians immigrants.
The Howard County Board of Education is considering a policy that could effectively prohibit Muslim students from leaving school early for Friday afternoon prayers.
The measure, which will be the subject of a public hearing Tuesday, would allow students to miss class for prayer only if the services are held in school. Currently, some Muslim students are allowed to leave school on Friday afternoons to pray with a congregation.
"We just want the situation to continue the way it is," said Anwer Hasan, president of the Maryland Muslim Council. "I don't know what's the reason for changing it now."
Hasan said it would be very difficult to arrange congregational prayer services on campus for Muslim students.
The current policy does not allow students to miss class for any reason except official holidays, but school officials said that the rule has been applied inconsistently and that some students routinely leave school early on Friday afternoons to pray.
The new policy would expand opportunities for religious observance because, for the first time, it would allow students to miss 30 minutes of class each week for religious observances conducted in school.
"The biggest issue on the docket right now," said Ellen Miller, a school system policies specialist, is "balancing the need for different groups to be able to observe religion in the way that they wish to and the equal responsibility of the school system to meet its obligation for instruction and making sure students are in attendance at schools."
But Hasan said Muslim students do not need to leave school more than 30 minutes early -- they just need to be allowed to leave campus to pray. He said his daughter Aisha, a junior at River Hill High School, has permission from the school to leave campus at 1:45 p.m. and travel to prayers at the Owen Brown Interfaith Center. The school day ends at 2:10 p.m.
Aisha, who has a 4.0 grade-point average, misses most of the sermon, which begins at 1:45, but Hasan said students don't mind, as long as they arrive before prayers begin at 2:15. "In my opinion, things are working fine," he said.
Min Kim, co-chair of a committee that reviewed the policy, said only five students in the county leave school for prayers. Only one of the county's 12 high schools has received requests from students to leave campus; 10 others have had requests from students to hold prayers on campus.
The 30-person committee -- comprising administrators, teachers, parents and religious leaders -- began meeting in December to review the school system's decade-old policy on religious observance. The committee voted 18 to 3 last month to approve a policy that would allow a student to fill a weekly "religious obligation" only if the observance is "within the school building."
The dissenters, according to the committee report, assert that confining students to the school building "will cause undue hardship and constraints not only to Muslim students, but others as well who would like to congregate and practice their faith according to customary guidelines." But the report indicated that the majority had concerns that Muslim students would want to miss as much as 40 minutes of a 50-minute class in order to hear the sermon as well.
Allowing students to miss that much class time, the report added, could compel the school system to deny them credit for the classes concerned.
#1
Allowing students to miss that much class time, the report added, could compel the school system to deny them credit for the classes concerned. Public school is no place for religious teachings. If you want your children to have a religious education then send them to a religious school. Giving one group preferential treatment is extremely unfair. If you give one group credit for a class they miss 40 minutes of then you have to give everyone credit. Fail them.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
05/18/2006 8:08 Comments ||
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#2
Why do I get the impression this is only being extended to Muslims? I just can't imaging a school allowing students to leave early to attend a christian service. The ACLU would have a field day.
Nor can I imagine a school allowing a mass on campus. But this seems to be allowing muslims to have sermons (in arabic I presume) and prayer meetings.
#7
Us Native American Churchers required every Friday and Monday off to deal with the DeeTees Thetans we'd get from the public school gelatin salad of death.
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.
NEW YORK -- Actress Susan Sarandon, a longtime liberal political activist and outspoken opponent of the Iraq war, endorsed an anti-war Democrat challenging Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's re-election bid Tuesday. 
