A priest in Germany got more than he bargained for during confession when a man not only declared his sins, but also handed over a machine gun and a hand grenade, police in Bavaria said Tuesday. He also gave the priest a cardboard box with a clown's face and the words 'Red Nose Day March 26, 2004' on it, containing 34 cartridges of 7.65 mm caliber, police said in a statement.
The priest from the southern town of Pfarrkirchen turned in the weapons to police but told them church rules governing confession prevented him from revealing the man's identity.
"It's unclear as to whether the church has forgiven the sinner, but specialists in Bavaria's regional crime agency who are bound to earthly laws are now investigating the matter in accordance with gun control laws," police said.
BRITISH women may soon be allowed to lay and sell donate eggs for therapeutic cloning and stem cell research to find new treatments for illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease.
The government's fertility watchdog, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), sister agency to the US FEMA is recommending new guidelines that would enable women to provide eggs for such research.
At the moment only spare embryos from fertility treatments are used.
This is not, repeat NOT, ScrappleFace! EFL'd. Country music outlaw Willie Nelson sang "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys" and "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys" more than 25 years ago. He released a very different sort of cowboy anthem this Valentine's Day.
"Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly (Fond of Each Other)" may be the first gay cowboy song by a major recording artist. But it was written long before this year's Oscar-nominated "Barebutt Brokeback Mounting Mountain" made gay cowboys a hot topic. Available exclusively through iTunes, the song features choppy Tex-Mex style guitar runs and Nelson's deadpan delivery of lines like, "What did you think all them saddles and boots was about?" and "Inside every cowboy there's a lady who'd love to slip out." "Roses are red/Violets are blue/I've always wanted/To rope and brand you."
The song, which debuted Tuesday on Howard Stern's satellite radio show, was written by Texas-born singer-songwriter Ned Sublette. Sublette said he wrote it during the "Urban Cowboy" craze and always imagined Nelson singing it. Sublette: "John Travolta inspired me to write a gay love song."
Travolta: "Great. Kill me now. Thanks for nothin' pal!"
Someone passed a copy of the song to Nelson back in the late 1980s and, according to Nelson's record label, Lost Highway, he recorded it last year at his Pedernales studio in Texas. . . . But how gay is it, really? Does it feature guest vocals by Boy George and KD Lang? A sheep chorus doing backup? Techno club dance beats? A Liberace piano sample?
Posted by: Mike ||
02/15/2006 09:00 ||
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Flush
Posted by: Captain America ||
02/15/2006 9:36 Comments ||
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"The song's been in the closet for 20 years. The timing's right for it to come out," said Nelson.
"I'm just opening the back door," added the performer, who recorded the track at his home in Texas last year.
#4
I can't help but think that our supply of graphic images needs to be expanded.
This article in particular calls for the Fonz on his motorcycle jumping over the shark tank.
Posted by: Phil ||
02/15/2006 11:52 Comments ||
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#5
For the longest time, I thought the movie title was Brokeback Mountin' and it was about gay and severely overweight cowboys. Sort of a My Big Fat Western.
#6
Some clarifications. (1) Fonzi was on waterskies when he jumped the shark. Yeah the bike would look better but some serious photoshop would be required. (2) There are no cowboys in Brokeback Mountain, they are sheepherders and considering those guys are known for doing the dirty with their flick I would think doing another guy is probably a step up.
Makes sense. Here's one you can file under: "you're pulling my plonker". An Indian film director is considering Paris Hilton for the role of saintly Mother Teresa, IANS news agency suggests.
Director T Rajeevnath admitted: "My agents in California have contacted Paris Hilton." He explained that the reason behind this extending of feelers in Hilton's direction was the multi-talented heiress's refusal to get her kit off for Playboy.
Rajeevnath continued: "Although there are several actresses willing to play the role of Mother Teresa, the most widely respected and loved person, the history of the actress who is finally chosen for the role would have to be analysed thoroughly before she is chosen."
We reckon Mr Rajeevnath is going to get a nasty shock when he finally gets around to analysing Ms Hilton's "history". Regarding her acting credentials, well, she last year appeared in House of Wax, which was pretty well universally kicked to death by the critics. Likewise, her steamy Carl's Jr. Spicy BBQ Burger TV advert cavort did little to demonstrate convincing thespian tendencies.
She did, though, give a far more convinving technical performance in One Night in Paris, albeit displaying the sort of skills which we very much doubt will be required to play Mother Teresa. As one critic put it: "In this 37-minute shagfest Hilton literally sucks. And so does her acting." ®
So that whole "Paris & Nicole" thing had a whole 'nother level to it, did it?
Posted by: Mike ||
02/15/2006 9:27 Comments ||
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#2
Even more incredible than Paris playing Mother Theresa is Upyer Khadami's plans to have her play a virgin in his new movie "The (After)Life of Mohammed".
#11
RD - Defamer.com had pix of her from teh front where you could see her cheeks hanging down...something weird going on that nobody could explain, I mean she's NOT fat, she just needs a butt bra
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/15/2006 20:24 Comments ||
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#12
Well, Viggo Mordor's Man Mortensen played Aragorn in LotR.
COTONOU, Benin, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Priests who tear out the throats of live chickens in ritual sacrifices to Voodoo gods may risk contracting bird flu after the deadly virus reached Africa. Voodoo priests in Benin, which borders with Nigeria where an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 virus was found in poultry last week, sacrifice animals to invoke blessings or favours from various gods.
I just hate Benin. I'm still not sure where they put Dahomey, but I think that UN should look into it, since Dahomies now have noplace to live, having been displaced by the chicken-killing Beninoise.
Officials in the tiny West African country which is the home of the ancient religion say spreading the word about bird flu may help save the lives of Voodoo devotees. "We have identified the groups at risk, including fetishists, democrats, and followers of the Voodoo cult who sometimes kill animals with their teeth," Guillaume Hounsou-ve, director of livestock at Benin's Agriculture Ministry, told Reuters in an interview.
Let me reiterate this important safety tip: When you kill a chicken, don't use your teeth.
Sheep, goats and other animals are sometimes used for sacrifice, but the favourite offering is a chicken.
Don't use your teeth to kill sheep or goats, either, dammit!
Priests commonly kill birds by ripping their throats out with their teeth or using a knife to cut their heads off, both of which would bring them into contact with chicken blood, one of the ways bird flu is thought to be spread to humans. Who would have thought?
The disease has killed more than 90 people in Asia and Turkey since 2003.
And... ummm... how many in Benin?
Hounsou-ve and other senior officials in Benin have spent the past few days drafting an action plan to counter bird flu by importing rubber chickens from China. "We will target our messages, above all in regions where there are "convents" said Hounsou-ve, referring to the houses used for Voodoo rituals.
I'm sure we have many bureaucrats at the US Department of Agriculture drafting similar directives to farmers in Wisconsin and Minnesota. They will be delivered by registered mail, and farmers will sit around telling each other: "Bob, were you thinking of killing old Bossie with your teeth?... Well, it sez here not to do it."
An estimated 60 percent of Benin's 7 million people practise Voodoo, although many also follow other religions like Christianity or Islam. Voodoo "convents" are found across Benin but more commonly in southern areas near the Atlantic seaboard. Once known as the Slave Coast, many thousands of Africans were shipped from here by European traders during more than three centuries of slave trading, many taking their Voodoo beliefs with them to the New World, notably Haiti, Massachusetts, and the District of Columbia where rites and traditions from different parts of Africa met and evolved.
"Hey, there, Kunta Kinte! What's that yer doin'?"
"Killin' a chicken with my teeth!"
"Neat! Can I try?"
"Sure! What's that you've been doing?"
"Playing basketball."
"Kewl! Can I try?"
Voodoo as practiced in West Africa and the Caribbean encompasses a wide range of rituals, from sacrificing animals to dancing, in which devotees fall into trances said to be a form of possession by gods or liberals. Yawn.
#2
I just hate Benin. I'm still not sure where they put Dahomey, but I think that UN should look into it, since Dahomies now have noplace to live, having been displaced by the chicken-killing Beninoise.
You too did notice, eh? Not only that, but Upper Voltans were utterly displaced by Fassy Burpkinars.
#3
Not only that, but Lower Volta's been gone even longer. It's a conspiracy.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/15/2006 8:17 Comments ||
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#4
Dahomies live in Dahood.
Posted by: ed ||
02/15/2006 9:21 Comments ||
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All things considered, I think the voodoo priests and witchdoctors are probably the least likely of their people to get the disease, at least once the word gets around.
Why? Because they are the smartest of their people.
Think about it, they have set up a scam involving minimal work, and live high on the hog while their kinsmen sweat.
I'm reminded that down in South America, the practicing healing witches have an unofficial professional organization, which many years ago was persuaded that antibiotics are pretty darn powerful magic. So along with the colorful candles, the incantations, the cigars, etc., they give out bottles of antibiotics when they spot an obvious infection.
What lies behind the Zimbabwe demolitions? The homes of some 700,000 Zimbabwean city dwellers have been demolished in the past few weeks, according to the United Nations. Police have been moving from area to area, in some cases forcing people to knock down their own homes. In others, they have turned up with bulldozers to demolish structures which they say have been built illegally. "We were busking, enjoying the winter sun when we heard trucks and bulldozers roll in. There was pandemonium as we rushed to salvage the little we could," one resident of the capital, Harare told the BBC News website. "In no time the cottage I had called home for three years was gone. Then it dawned on me that I was now homeless, you try and pinch yourself and wake up but this was no dream. My life had been shattered before my very own eyes."
Worshippers at a Harare mosque have even been made to destroy it, says opposition MP Trudy Stevenson.
An elixir of life Royal Blood-Fresh (RBF) is getting all the more popular at home and abroad for its efficacy in preventing DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis).
Royal Blood-Fresh, now with more blood!
DVT cases are often to break out among long-distance travelers. Various kinds of DVT medicines have been developed in the world but they have shortcomings that may cause hemorrhage. The RBF can be said it is a potent medicine that overcomes such shortcomings. In recent years the public health sector confirmed that sufferers from DVT, heart disorder, hypertension, etc. have not been reported from among those who have traveled for many hours in immobile posture after taking RBF.
Dead men tell no tales
Some research centers and relevant organs of foreign countries including Britain admitted that RBF is the only remedy for DVT.
Would those be the same people who keep filling my in-box with baldness cures?
The application of the medicine before, during and after travel can perfectly prevent blood circulation troubles and get people out of such symptoms immediately. The medicine is manufactured by the Korea Pugang Pharmaceutic Co., Ltd (E-mail:pugang@silibank.com, Fax:850-2-3815274).
"Accept no subsitute!"
Besides, the corporation is producing Kumdang-2 injection, Chongungpaekhwa, Kumgangchonghyol pills, etc. In particular, the Kumdang-2 injection, insam (ginseng) polysaccharide highly activated by rare earth elements, has become famous as a strong immune control and reanimation substance.
Reanimator IV, The Kumdang Connection!
As it boosts the immunity and resistance of the human body, the injection is efficacious for treating and preventing bird influenza and other viral epizootic diseases.
#3
It gives you an erection and wins the election.
Posted by: Tom Waits ||
02/15/2006 13:49 Comments ||
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a Kumdang-2 injection? WTF?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/15/2006 14:49 Comments ||
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I thought they had already invented this one. IIRC:
1) collect grass
2) run through juicer
3) rename (kumgangchonghyol rolls off the tongue)
4) drink
5) gag, but praise Dear Idiot Leader
South Korea's LG Electronics says it has begun selling an air-conditioner with a filter that destroys the killer bird flu virus. It filters air through a chemical mix that includes an enzyme extracted from kimchi, which is reportedly capable of eliminating the H5N1 virus.
Kimchi is a spicy fermented vegetable dish made with red peppers, radishes and a lot of garlic and ginger. Koreans eat it with almost every meal.
"It is too early to tally the sales figures yet but we believe the new air-con will sell very well," a company spokesperson said yesterday.
Researchers at Seoul National University said last year that they fed an extract of kimchi to 13 chickens infected with the bird flu virus, and 11 recovered.
A lawmaker who said Australians were aborting themselves "out of existence," and that the country was at risk of becoming a Muslim state angered colleagues on both sides of the political spectrum Tuesday. Danna Vale, a lawmaker from the ruling center-right Liberal Party, told reporters Monday she worried that immigrants from Muslim countries could eventually outnumber native-born Australians if the current rate of abortions continued.
Her comments came as members of the House of Representatives prepared to debate whether to strip regulatory control of an abortion pill, mifepristone -- also known as RU-486 -- away from Health Minister Tony Abbott and hand it to the country's main drug regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration. The TGA has control over all other drugs in Australia, but a 1996 law shifted regulatory authority over RU-486 to the health minister. Last week, the Senate voted to hand control of the drug back to the TGA, a move expected to pave the way for the drug to be cleared for use in Australia.
"A certain imam ... actually said that Australia's going to be a Muslim nation in 50 years time," Vale said, explaining her opposition to the bill. "I didn't believe him at the time, but when you actually look at the birth rates and when you look at the fact that we are aborting ourselves almost out of existence by 100,000 abortions every year ... that's five million potential Australians we won't have here [in the next 50 years]," Vale said. Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said most immigrants come to Australia from England, New Zealand, China, India, South Africa and the Philippines. Visit the Netherlands and have a look around.
The German economy stagnated in the final quarter of 2005, casting doubt on the durability of its nascent economic recovery. Economic output was flat in the three months to 31 December, official data showed, after positive growth in each of the previous three quarters. On an annualised basis, output was 1% higher than in 2004's final quarter.
Recent economic indicators have been mixed, with unemployment rising but exports performing strongly. The jobless total rose back above the five million mark in January, while retail sales fell in December. On the other hand, Germany's trade surplus rose to a record level last year - and business confidence is at a five year high.
Europe's largest economy slowed towards the end of 2005 after seeing growth of 0.6%, 0.3% and 0.6% in the first three quarters of 2005. "The economic growth of the first three quarters did not continue towards the end of 2005," Germany's Federal Statistics Office said in a statement.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/15/2006 00:00 ||
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"The economic growth of the first three quarters did not continue towards the end of 2005."
Excellent example of overstatement and understatement in the same sentence.
#3
Along with the rest of Old Europe, including, unfortunately, the British as well. As Claudius said, it will have to get much worse before it gets any better.
Posted by: mac ||
02/15/2006 7:32 Comments ||
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If it weren't so tragic (given all the mass graves in Bosnia), this would be pure farce. Instead, it's an illustration of just how hollow, how corrupt, and how plain worn-out the left progressive Europeans are. They know Milosevic is a genocidal murderer, but they just can't seem to bring themselves to do anything about it. And I'm not going to honor the sonofabitch by running the picture we have of him.
The trial of the former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, the first sitting head of state to be indicted for war crimes, enters its fifth year this week amid expectations that a verdict will be pronounced by the end of the year.
Or maybe not. Depends on Carla del Ponte. The end of the year is only ten months away.
Mr Milosevic, 64, faces 66 charges stemming from the Balkan wars of the 1990s. He is accused of genocide against Muslims in Bosnia, war crimes and grave breaches of international conventions in the military offensives that led his forces into Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo.
More than 300 witnesses have taken the stand, including Western politicians and the leaders of the former Yugoslav states torn apart by the war. Yet far from undermining Mr Milosevic's reputation in Serbia, the trial has provided the former leader with a new propaganda tool.
"The indictment against Mr Milosevic is the most serious one laid by the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague," said human rights activist Biljana Kovacevic Vuco. But "media coverage should deal more with the indictment itself, rather than with the comments of Mr Milosevic and his witnesses."
The live broadcasts of the trial and some media reporting have had a counter-productive effect on the public, which is still deeply divided as to what really happened in the conflict.
You'd think it would be hard to dispute the mass graves and the forensics evidence, but as a simple American, you'd be wrong ...
Mr Milosevic concentrates on discrediting the court by depicting it as illegitimate and anti-Serb. At this stage of the trial, his defence witnesses are taking the stand and placing all the blame for the wars on an evil world conspiracy against the Serbs. They attack the "unprovoked" Nato bombing campaign in 1999, which they say was aimed at annihilating the Serb nation.
Which it did so well that today no one has ever seen or heard of a Serb ...
Television broadcasts of the trial have provided Mr Milosevic with a political platform in Serbia and the chance to seek revenge against those who toppled him in 2000. The prosecution and Mr Milosevic have called 350 witnesses since February 2002. The former Serbian leader has only 22 working days left in the defence proceedings. Once this part is over, the panel of three judges will need months of deliberation before delivering their verdict.
There's a big part of the problem. Months. Oh, they'll weigh and scrutinize and measure. They won't deliver justice -- it's already gone out the window -- but they'll deliberate, by gum. What about I don't know.
But Mr Milosevic's presence in Serbia comes not just through the trial broadcasts. His influence on local politics remains strong, through regular consultations and decisions taken with aides in Belgrade. Delegations of Socialists regularly visit him, while phone communications take place almost daily.
Even in the simple U.S., we manage to limit the ability of imprisoned mob bosses to communicate with their underlings ...
Mr Milosevic's Socialist party supports the minority government of Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica in the parliament only after his instructions arrive from The Hague. Such was the case when the Serbian budget was adopted recently, Socialist leader Ivica Dacic has confirmed.
The trial of Mr Milosevic is among the longest in the annals of international justice. It has been adjourned more than 20 times due to his high blood pressure, flu or other health reasons. Since 2003, trial hearings have been scheduled for only three days a week to provide rest for the ailing Mr Milosevic, who acts as his own lawyer after successfully appealing the imposition of a defence team.
The Euros won't execute him, of course, but even if they wanted to, he'd be too ill.
In December, Mr Milosevic asked to be transferred to Moscow, to obtain "proper" medical care. A ruling is expected shortly.
To a nice country dacha with all the latest medical supplies and telecommunications gear.
Most Serbs think the request had nothing to do with his health. They believe Mr Milosevic is desperate to see his wife, Mira Markovic, who fled to Russia in 2003. She used to visit Mr Milosevic regularly until then, but can no longer do so. The couple's son, Marko, also lives in Russia, where he fled from Serbia days after Mr Milosevic was ousted.
Or perhaps it's Slobo's need to carress his Kruggerands.
As Serbs still struggle to come to terms with the legacy of the conflict, the Sarajevo-based Investigation and Documentation Centre has halved the number of people estimated to have been killed in Bosnia between 1992 and 1995. Mirsad Tokaca, the head of the Centre, funded and financed by Norway, finalised a list of 100,000 citizens of Bosnia killed in the war. Some 70 per cent of victims were Bosnian Muslims, about 25 per cent were Serbs and 5 per cent Croats. "This is still an extremely high figure, but there is a big difference now that people cannot irresponsibly use inflated numbers for their political goals," Mr Tokaca recently said in Sarajevo.
A hundred thousand dead, and Mr. Tokaca is concerned about people using numbers 'irresponsibly'. Anyone see the problem with this? Bueller?
The 450,000 project to establish the exact toll is likely to be completed by the end of March, with all the confirmed victims' names made available on the internet.
A real comfort to them -- well it would be if they weren't dead.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/15/2006 00:00 ||
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Five years on, Milosevic is still in the dock
Kinda makes you wonder about ol' Uncle Saddy, and what would have happened if the EU had gotten their hands on him, doesn't it?
Peace activists have revived plans for a sculpture to commemorate Vietnam War draft resisters who fled to Canada, a proposal that had drawn the ire of U.S. veterans groups and conservatives.
The activists, who are also organizing a reunion for "draft dodgers" in July, said Tuesday the proposed monument is still needed to warn Americans and Canadians about the dangers of militarism.
"It is very important educationally that we have specific peace monuments," said Isaac Romano, an American who immigrated to Canada and now lives in British Columbia's Kootenay region where many U.S. war resisters settled.
The plan for a monument in Nelson, British Columbia, was originally announced in 2004, but quickly dropped after it was denounced by the U.S. Veterans of Foreign Wars and conservative media commentators.
Nelson city officials withdrew support for the sculpture to avoid a threatened U.S. boycott of the area's important tourism industry.
Romano said the activists have not decided on a location for the planned sculpture, and welcomed proposals from both Canadian and U.S. communities.
"It could be that there is a group in the States that sees it as an opportunity to remind Americans that they are not locked into the militarism. That there is an escape valve," Romano said.
The proposal calls for a sculpture of two Americans, a male and a female, crossing an imaginary border where a Canadian figure is waiting to welcome them.
It has been estimated that 125,000 draft-age Americans fled to Canada to avoid Vietnam and prosecution under U.S. law, although about half returned home after President Jimmy Carter granted amnesty in 1977.
Organizers of the Our Way Home reunion planned for Castlegar, British Columbia, in July say the event and sculpture are to honor both the Americans who resisted the war and the Canadians who helped them build lives in a new country.
Speakers at the four-day event are expected to include former U.S. Senator George McGovern, who campaigned to get the United States out of Vietnam in his unsuccessful 1972 bid for the White House.
Romano said the event will also provide an opportunity for draft dodgers and Vietnam War veterans to discuss their differences on the decision to go to war.
#1
While you are busy commemorating Mr. Romanov, please don't forget to commemorate those who, unlike yourself, had the courage and patriotism to stand up and take your place. I'm sure your children, parents, grandparents, and neighbors are justly proud of your decision.
#2
although about half returned home after President Jimmy Carter granted amnesty in 1977.
Another thing Carter is responsible for... They should never have been granted amnesty - they made their decision and they should have to abide by it.
I think we should have a memorial for the millions of Vietmanese who were victims of the 're-education centers' which McGovern and the left loved so much. Have it feature a statue of that Hero of North Vietnam - John Fkin Kerry.
#6
I met a number of US draft dodgers when I lived in Toronto in the early eighties. I was left with the impression they were losers, the type who whine about everything. Whether they were losers before they came or as a result of coming, I don't know.
The new director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Julie Myers, wants federal agents to make examples of high-profile violators of immigration laws, hoping other businesses will avoid a similar fate by hiring only workers who are legally eligible to work in the United States. As part of the Department of Homeland Security, ICE plays a key role in securing the nation's borders. It investigates immigrant smuggling, detains and removes unauthorized immigrants from the country, and battles money laundering, arms exports and potential terrorism. The agency has 20,000 employees and a $4billion budget.
In an interview with The Arizona Republic last week, her first in Washington since taking the job, Myers discussed her broad goals for the agency but acknowledged she was learning about its operations and how its work will mesh with immigration plans in Arizona and other states. Still, she said she already has decided that a key priority for her agency is to make sure there are tough consequences for employers who break the law by hiring undocumented workers, as well as giving companies clear guidelines for how to verify their employees are citizens or have work permits.
That would reverse recent trends at the agency, which hasn't fined many businesses lately. But it fits into President Bush's broader plans for immigration reform. Last week, Bush asked Congress for money for about 200 additional ICE agents to investigate employment violations, though immigration experts said that won't be enough to find the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants already living in the United States. About 6 million work illegally in this country.
Myers, 36, took office in January after Bush gave her a recess appointment, which did not require congressional approval, to the job overseeing the federal government's second-largest investigation force after the FBI. Her nomination was controversial, and she would have faced a tough fight to win Senate confirmation. Lawmakers and critics outside government questioned her lack of experience with immigration issues and her close ties to the Bush administration.
For Arizona, the most popular crossing point for illegal immigration, Myers promised that her agency will work closely with others involved in securing the border and battling drug smuggling. Federal authorities soon will establish a border violence task force based in Tucson that pulls together ICE, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and other law enforcement agencies.
Q: Does ICE's focus on investigating terrorism interfere with its ability to enforce immigration laws? The agency has been criticized in the past for doing national security investigations instead of cracking down on employers of undocumented immigrants.
A: The problem is we don't know who's crossing the border just to come in and find a job and who's crossing the border to build a bomb or to cause harm to our country. In my view, we have to get a handle on the immigration problem so we ensure we know who's in our country so we can get a handle on terrorism.
Worksite enforcement is going to be an increased area of emphasis for the department, the agency. We really want to make sure that employers have the tools that they need to make sure they're hiring individuals who are allowed to work in the country and to make sure if they don't, that . . . there are consequences for those actions.
Q: What specific things do you intend to do to make sure that there are more worksite enforcement actions taken?
A: One thing that ICE is looking at is, can we target some of the high-risk industries like hospitality, like meatpacking, like some of those really high-risk industries, as well as critical infrastructure, and let's partner with them to come up with good practices and work with them to avoid violations. And so I think you're going to see that as a trend from ICE in trying to avoid being on the Wal-Mart "name and shame" bad list.
Q: The president's budget was intended to beef up enforcement, but ICE would add only 200 agents. Is that enough?
A: One of the ways we would leverage (existing resources) is really working on the partnership and trying to get companies who are not criminal enterprises to look at themselves, at the state of their house, how are they auditing what they do, how are they looking at that. And we want to help companies avoid the situations where they get into problems. And that would be something that we would also be trending toward, relying on the private sector and looking to them to do some additional self-policing.
Q: What incentives do businesses that have been able to hire undocumented workers without much trouble from law enforcement have to partner with ICE?
A: I don't know if you heard about the Wal-Mart settlement, which is a huge settlement (Wal-Mart agreed last year to pay ICE $11 million to settle charges the store contracted with cleaning companies that hired undocumented immigrants). I think that was more significant than almost anything else we could have done. So there are companies that want to avoid being in that situation and make sure that they're . . . on the right side of the law.
A lot of companies want to do the right thing, they just don't always kind of know how to do it. I think if they knew the best practices, and we helped give them some of the tools, they'd want to do that. You always have some criminal companies, criminal enterprises . . . - and we'll focus our criminal resources on them - but by and large for the people that want to do the right thing, I think it's good to give them the opportunity to learn how to do it.
Q: How has the controversy surrounding your recess appointment affected your first few weeks on the job?
A: I've actually been very pleased with the amount of support that I've gotten. It is true perhaps that it maybe initially caused some people to underestimate me, but I've been underestimated before, and I looked forward to the opportunity to come in and explain what I wanted to do, how I wanted to do it, and how I needed their support to do that. And I think just in this month, I think the folks that I've seen in the field and in these buildings have really seen some of the things that I've wanted to do and really how my past experience is really kind of an ideal fit for this job. I've been very pleased. It's been a tremendous month.
A liberal advocacy group that consistently opposes both the conservative agenda and conservative Republicans may also target conservative Democrats in the upcoming election cycle.
Borrowing Dick Cheney's shotgun and sticking it in the party's mouth.....
MoveOn.org, in an email message to supporters, said it is considering a plan to support "progressives" who challenge "right-wing Democrats" in primary races. "We think this makes sense, but it's a big decision so we wanted to check with you and other MoveOn members. What do you think?"
"Should we pull the trigger or not?"
The message allows readers to register their opinions by clicking on the appropriate link.
Here's one opinion at a MoveOn forum: "The closet Conservatives in the Dem Party are only going to stay Dems until the Republican juggernaut has complete control, then they will do the same. Since there is no other party in a position to compete with the GOP, IMO it is in our best interest to wrest control from the sleeper cells. The Lieberman's of the Dem party are the newcomers who want us to become GOP-lite. If they don't like the proud history of the Dem party, let them go infiltrate the GOP and try to make them more left leaning."
MoveOn.org is telling supporters its top goal in 2006 is to break the conservative Republican "stranglehold" on Congress, but its mission also includes holding Democrats to the party's "highest values" on issues like foreign policy, the economy and government. "That sometimes means grappling with specific right-wing Democrats who consistently side with big corporations and right-wing Republicans," the message said. MoveOn says there should be "real consequences" for Democrats who "sell out," and it pointed to Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Tex.) as an example of a "right-wing Democrat infamous for supporting the Bush agenda and Republican legislation."
"Replacing a right-wing Democrat with a more progressive Democrat will help voters more clearly understand what Democrats stand for -- and that will help Democrats win," MoveOn said.
Heh, heh, BWAHAHAHAHA!
"We would start with the worst like Cuellar and work to build a progressive majority one election at a time."
Cuellar's challenger in the March 7 Democratic primary is former Rep. CIro Rodriguez of San Antonio. According to MoveOn.org, a Democratic majority in Congress would be a big step towards "progressive reform," but it says liberals must also work to build a "progressive majority that will work toward bold reforms."
#1
Yes, yes, a purge is what we need! A purge! Drive the fainthearted from the party, and what is left will be stronger for its purity!
Oh, and while you're at it, be sure to throw the bunny in the briar patch--it's the one thing he fears the most.
Posted by: Mike ||
02/15/2006 9:45 Comments ||
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#2
Born and raised in the briar patch. Heh.
I love when the rats start eatin' their young. I wonder if the Democrats are going to end up with a major schism and end up as two parties? The moral high ground may be the place to be, but if you're too high (pun intended) noone is going to hear the messge.
#9
"The Lieberman's of the Dem party are the newcomers who want us to become GOP-lite..."
Lieberman? A "newcomer"????
Posted by: Dave D. ||
02/15/2006 14:11 Comments ||
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#10
Hey, he doesn't hang wi' MY bro's .... gotta be new around here. We OWN this 'hood.
Posted by: too true ||
02/15/2006 14:15 Comments ||
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#11
A liberal advocacy group that consistently opposes both the conservative agenda and conservative Republicans may also target conservative Democrats in the upcoming election cycle.
Edited for brevity
People who believe the Constitution would break if it didn't change with society are "idiots," U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia says. In a speech Monday sponsored by the conservative Federalist Society, Scalia defended his long-held belief in sticking to the plain text of the Constitution "as it was originally written and intended." "Scalia does have a philosophy, it's called originalism," he said. "That's what prevents him from doing the things he would like to do," he told more than 100 politicians and lawyers from this U.S. island territory [Puerto Rico]. According to his judicial philosophy, he said, there can be no room for personal, political or religious beliefs.
Scalia criticized those who believe in what he called the "living Constitution." "That's the argument of flexibility and it goes something like this: The Constitution is over 200 years old and societies change. It has to change with society, like a living organism, or it will become brittle and break. But you would have to be an idiot to believe that," Scalia said. "The Constitution is not a living organism, it is a legal document. It says something and doesn't say other things."
Proponents of the living constitution want matters to be decided "not by the people, but by the justices of the Supreme Court." "They are not looking for legal flexibility, they are looking for rigidity, whether it's the right to abortion or the right to homosexual activity, they want that right to be embedded from coast to coast and to be unchangeable," he said. The favorite plan in the liberal playbook--the ol' end run around the legislature!
Posted by: Dar ||
02/15/2006 00:00 ||
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#2
I used to believe in a living constitution but somewhere along the line I realized the founders put the ability to change the constitution in there for a reason. You can't just reinterprut something, if it doesn't agree get the people behind you and change it.
Takes a lot of people though doesn't it. Easier to just get some judges in the right position. Living Constitution is a farce.
#3
If the rules change based on the whim of a handful of people, you don't have a just society -- you have autocratic rule by that handful of people.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
02/15/2006 6:13 Comments ||
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#4
Face it. It is an autocracy with a Potemkin village frontage of democracy. Not only do a handful of individuals dictate daily what the law is, they all come from a very small select community. One entire branch of government is reserved for them and only them. Do you see anywhere in the Constitution as printed that only lawyers and judges can become a Supreme Court Justice. Ah, but it is so technical. 1 - they make technical. 2 - Use the same rational for qualification for Commander-in-Chief, particularly during time of war and that aught to limited the candidates for President the next time around. However, remember its all about power so expect no consistancy on qualifications for key positions in the government.
The Judiciary has accumulated vast powers and prerogatives through decree since the 60s. Its no longer a question of just putting the right people into place anymore. The Genie is not going back into the bottle except in your wildest dreams. The legislative branch has been AWOL in the exercise of its authority and powers to oversee the rouge behavior of the third branch. The only way to recover the power is to place the entire branch in a position of deriving their powers from the direct consent of the governed. However, in one form or another both the pols and the too many of the people prefer a king. See, not my fault, I was told I had to do it.
#5
This problem did not start in the '60s. Like most problems that are ascribed to the '60s, its origins lie in the New Deal of the '30s. This one relates directly to the switch in time that saved 9 when the Supreme Court backed down from upholding the Constitution against Roosevelt. But slowly the damage of the ND is being undone. This is one important step.
#6
The 30s may have been a backdown by the Court in the face of Roosevelt's threat, but the 60s witness the assumption of powers by the Court beyond anything the original writers of the Constitution envisioned.
In the decade since they voted to join the European Union the islanders of the Aland archipelago in the Baltic Sea have been outvoted and overruled by Brussels, time and again.
Now Aland, a unique, autonomous region of Finland, is about to teach Brussels a lesson in democracy it may never forget.
Thanks to a quirk of early 20th-century history, Aland's 26,000 people are essentially sovereign co-rulers of their home nation of Finland. As such, they can veto any international treaty that Finland wants to enter, including EU treaties.
And the islanders are threatening to do just that when the European Commission attempts to revive the moribund EU constitution later this year.
But last week the archipelago's head of EU affairs, Britt Lundberg, travelled to Brussels - a day-long trek - to deliver a warning that dismally low public opinion on Europe could mean Alanders prevent Finland from ratifying the constitution.
Posted by: Captain America ||
02/15/2006 18:16 ||
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We are Vikings! We will make oarsmen of the Belgies and silly Euros and make loft slaves of their women.
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.
Country music outlaw Willie Nelson sang "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys" and "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys" more than 25 years ago. He released a very different sort of cowboy anthem this Valentine's Day. 
Here's one you can file under: "you're pulling my plonker". An Indian film director is considering Paris Hilton for the role of saintly Mother Teresa, IANS news agency suggests.
COTONOU, Benin, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Priests who tear out the throats of live chickens in ritual sacrifices to Voodoo gods may risk contracting bird flu after the deadly virus reached Africa. Voodoo priests in Benin, which borders with Nigeria where an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 virus was found in poultry last week, sacrifice animals to invoke blessings or favours from various gods.
What lies behind the Zimbabwe demolitions? The homes of some 700,000 Zimbabwean city dwellers have been demolished in the past few weeks, according to the United Nations. Police have been moving from area to area, in some cases forcing people to knock down their own homes. In others, they have turned up with bulldozers to demolish structures which they say have been built illegally. "We were busking, enjoying the winter sun when we heard trucks and bulldozers roll in. There was pandemonium as we rushed to salvage the little we could," one resident of the capital, Harare told the BBC News website. "In no time the cottage I had called home for three years was gone. Then it dawned on me that I was now homeless, you try and pinch yourself and wake up but this was no dream. My life had been shattered before my very own eyes." 
An elixir of life Royal Blood-Fresh (RBF) is getting all the more popular at home and abroad for its efficacy in preventing DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis). 
The German economy stagnated in the final quarter of 2005, casting doubt on the durability of its nascent economic recovery. Economic output was flat in the three months to 31 December, official data showed, after positive growth in each of the previous three quarters. On an annualised basis, output was 1% higher than in 2004's final quarter.
A liberal advocacy group that consistently opposes both the conservative agenda and conservative Republicans may also target conservative Democrats in the upcoming election cycle. 
MoveOn.org is telling supporters its top goal in 2006 is to break the conservative Republican "stranglehold" on Congress, but its mission also includes holding Democrats to the party's "highest values" on issues like foreign policy, the economy and government. "That sometimes means grappling with specific right-wing Democrats who consistently side with big corporations and right-wing Republicans," the message said. MoveOn says there should be "real consequences" for Democrats who "sell out," and it pointed to Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Tex.) as an example of a "right-wing Democrat infamous for supporting the Bush agenda and Republican legislation."
