Lucky he was on the ticket:
"Report of attempt to kill Putin meets with skepticism" February 28, 2012|By Vladimir Isachenkov
MOSCOW — Security forces have foiled a Chechen-linked plot to assassinate Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Russian state television reported yesterday in a broadcast expected to boost support for Putin’s bid to regain the presidency.
Other candidates immediately questioned the timing of the report, which comes just days before Sunday’s presidential election and as Putin and his United Russia party face unprecedented protests after a scandal-marred parliamentary election in December.
The Communist Party candidate called the assassination report a “cheap trick.’’
Putin has portrayed himself as a strong protector of Russia’s national interests and has counted the victory over Chechen separatist rebels as one of the key achievements of his 12-year rule.
That's why Israel and the U.S. don't like him.
The state television report casting Putin as a terrorist target could draw public sympathy and help secure his victory by a wider margin.
I know the feeling, Russian citizen.
The report, which included two televised confessions, said suspects in the assassination plot have been arrested in Ukraine and were linked to a Chechen rebel leader who has claimed responsibility for other terror attacks in Russia.
Putin, who was Russia’s president from 2000 to 2008 and has been prime minister since then, is running for a third, now six-year presidential term. He is expected to win easily against four Kremlin-approved challengers, but a wave of protests since December’s tainted parliamentary election has undermined his image as a strong, popular leader.
Well, we know who is behind those.
Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said any statements linking the reported plot to the presidential campaign were “blasphemous.’’
As long as they are not treasonous.
***************************************
A Chechen rebel website, KavkazCenter, shrugged off the report about the assassination plot as “election propaganda nonsense.’’
We get a lot of that here in AmeriKa.
The website noted that the explosion in Odessa was initially reported to be a gas leak and the men were said to be preparing explosives for a contract hit on a local businessman.
Since when are "terrorist" websites credible to the CIA pa... per?
Gennady Zyuganov, the Communist leader running far second to Putin in the polls, called the report “a cheap trick that reeks,’’ according to the state RIA Novosti news agency.
I think I recognize that smell.
--more--"
"Putin may run again if he wins vote" March 03, 2012|By Ellen Barry
MOSCOW - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who is likely to win a third presidential term tomorrow, said in an interview released yesterday that he might run for president for a fourth time in 2018, which would lengthen his term as Russia’s paramount leader to 24 years.
“It would be normal, if things are going well, and people want it,’’ Putin said in an interview with the editors of six foreign newspapers. “And if people don’t want it and things aren’t going well, and a person clings to his chair and doesn’t want to give it away, and if, on top of that, he violates the law - that would not be normal.’’
“But I don’t know whether I want to remain for more than 20 years,’’ he continued, according to an official transcript of the meeting. “I have not yet made this decision for myself.’’
During the interview, Putin forcefully defended Russia’s position in the Syrian conflict but distanced himself somewhat from the government of President Bashar Assad, refusing to answer the question of whether Assad can survive as a leader.
State-controlled television gave heavy coverage to the three-hour interview, broadcasting video of Putin parrying questions from “the most authoritative foreign editorial offices.’’ After the interview ended, Putin brought the journalists with him to an ice rink to watch him play hockey. The editors were from Britain, Canada, France, Italy, Germany, and Japan; no US publication was represented.
After the tone and tenor of your pieces on the guy what would you expect?
He discussed relations with the United States at length, however, saying the “reset’’ had yielded agreements on reducing stockpiles of strategic missiles, and Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization, but had done “practically nothing’’ to allay Russia’s complaints about a planned US missile defense system.
Related: No deal near on missile shield, Russian says
Russia has long feared the system would compromise its nuclear deterrent, and Putin complained that under President George W. Bush, the United States proposed and then backed out of a deal that would have allowed Russian experts to monitor the system’s radars, to ensure they were oriented toward Iran and not Russia.
“As soon as one side comes under the illusion that it is invulnerable to a strike from the other side, there immediately arise both a number of conflicts and aggression,’’ Putin said. “Not because America is by definition an aggressive country, but because it is a fact of life. There is no way around it. And this worries us.’’
Our government sure has been acting like it.
Putin came across as confident that he would not face destabilizing dissent after tomorrow’s election, despite a series of antigovernment protests that snowballed after parliamentary polls in December....
Near the end of the interview, Putin addressed one of the mysteries of Russian political life: his wife, Lyudmila, has virtually disappeared from public view, and there is little record of his two adult daughters. Lyudmila Putin was last seen in October 2010, when a census-taker visited the prime minister’s residence. Vladimir Putin allowed that his wife may not carry out the public duties of a first lady if he wins a third presidential term.
“I cannot say it’s easy for her to deal with this,’’ he said. “The modern media are quite ruthless and not everyone is prepared to allow this to pass through them. You can see that members of my family are not involved in politics or business. They aren’t involved in anything and I would like them to be left alone, too. This is connected with their personal welfare and security.’’
--more--"
"Putin wins third term as Russian president; Opposition says it will protest alleged fraud" by David M. Herszenhorn | New York Times, March 05, 2012
MOSCOW - In an outcome long predicted, Russian voters overwhelmingly granted Vladimir V. Putin a six-year term as president on Sunday, setting the stage for a far more suspenseful postelection confrontation between Putin and opposition groups.
“We have won,’’ Putin declared to a huge throng of supporters outside the Kremlin walls, a tear running down his cheek. “We have gained a clean victory!’’ He added, “We won! Glory to Russia.’’
Putin has been Russia’s preeminent leader for 12 years, serving two terms as president from 2000 to 2008 before his current term as prime minister. But the prospect of more protests, starting with a rally on Monday night in Pushkin Square in central Moscow, threatened to undercut his promise of stability.
And that is all the Empire's war managers are looking to do: destabilize Russia so it can't rush to assist Iran.
Independent election observers and opposition leaders said there were widespread complaints of vote-rigging, and reports of Putin supporters being bused to multiple polling places to cast votes.
I'll take that with a grain of salt from the AmeriKan media. They never say s*** about the massive fraud here because they are part of it.
Some opposition leaders called for protests beyond those allowed by government permits, raising the prospect of a sharp response from the authorities.
Anticorruption blogger Aleksei Navalny said he would lead an unsanctioned march to the Kremlin after a rally scheduled for Monday. He has called for a permanent encampment of demonstrators like those created by the Occupy movements in the West. “People need to go out on the streets and not leave until their demands are met,’’ he said in a television interview....
I agree with that last part, but here in AmeriKa they would be evicted with scathingly disparaging coverage from the corporate media!
Putin, who did little traditional campaigning and refused to debate his opponents, nonetheless engaged in some of the most aggressive election-year politicking of his career.
Lucky Russians. And when a U.S. president does the same it's called using the office.
He postponed for six months the annual increase in household utility charges, the largest expense for most Russian families; increased pensions and military salaries; and promised an avalanche of new government spending.
It's called stimulus -- or was -- here.
He employed anti-American rhetoric, accusing Washington of trying to stoke revolution in Russia as well as in the Middle East. He appealed to nationalist pride.
In some places, yeah.
Related: New Cold War With Russia
Yeah, some are hoping.
“We still have much to do for our Russia and for our people,’’ he thundered at a rally. “And we will do it based on the talent of our people, on our great history, which is written with the blood and sweat of our forefathers.’’
--more--"
"A jubilant Vladimir Putin shrugged off opposition assertions Wednesday that his presidential election victory was unfair and marred by fraud, saying any violations were not significant enough to affect the vote’s outcome.
Like a U.S. election.
--more--"
Related: Russia to study vote-rigging videos
Also see: US to Attempt Overthrow of Putin Government\
Failed.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Shipping Out of Italy
"Cruise ship adrift in area pirates roam
NAIROBI - An Italian cruise liner carrying more than 1,000 people was adrift without power in the Indian Ocean yesterday after a fire erupted in its generator room....
Officials of the Costa Crociere cruise line say the Costa Allegra was stable and upright off the island nation of Seychelles, where pirates have been known to operate, but the vessel was being pushed by the current.
Captain Giorgio Moretti said during a conference call last night that the fire left the ship without power, including for air conditioning and lights.
Just six weeks ago, one of the vessel’s sister ships, the Costa Concordia, hit a reef and capsized off Italy, killing at least 25 people. Both ships are operated by Costa Crociere, which is owned by the Florida-based Carnival Corp....
--more--"
"Supplies are flown to stricken cruise ship" February 29, 2012
NAIROBI — Helicopters ferried food, phones, and flashlights yesterday to more than 1,000 passengers and crew stuck aboard a disabled cruise ship that was being towed to the Seychelles Islands through waters prowled by pirates.
Those aboard the Costa Allegra, a sister ship of the cruise liner that capsized off Italy last month, face more stifling days and nights before the vessel docks in the tropical paradise....
--more--"
Related: ‘Things became very primitive’ on cruise ship
"The first hearing of the criminal investigation into the Costa Concordia’s shipwreck was held in a theater yesterday instead of a courthouse because of high demand, with angry survivors seeking compensation, justice, and the truth....
--more--"
Also see: Concordia wreck yields 5 more bodies
Globe's Italian Lifeboat
NAIROBI - An Italian cruise liner carrying more than 1,000 people was adrift without power in the Indian Ocean yesterday after a fire erupted in its generator room....
Officials of the Costa Crociere cruise line say the Costa Allegra was stable and upright off the island nation of Seychelles, where pirates have been known to operate, but the vessel was being pushed by the current.
Captain Giorgio Moretti said during a conference call last night that the fire left the ship without power, including for air conditioning and lights.
Just six weeks ago, one of the vessel’s sister ships, the Costa Concordia, hit a reef and capsized off Italy, killing at least 25 people. Both ships are operated by Costa Crociere, which is owned by the Florida-based Carnival Corp....
--more--"
"Supplies are flown to stricken cruise ship" February 29, 2012
NAIROBI — Helicopters ferried food, phones, and flashlights yesterday to more than 1,000 passengers and crew stuck aboard a disabled cruise ship that was being towed to the Seychelles Islands through waters prowled by pirates.
Those aboard the Costa Allegra, a sister ship of the cruise liner that capsized off Italy last month, face more stifling days and nights before the vessel docks in the tropical paradise....
--more--"
Related: ‘Things became very primitive’ on cruise ship
"The first hearing of the criminal investigation into the Costa Concordia’s shipwreck was held in a theater yesterday instead of a courthouse because of high demand, with angry survivors seeking compensation, justice, and the truth....
--more--"
Also see: Concordia wreck yields 5 more bodies
Globe's Italian Lifeboat
Sunday Globe Special: May the Road Rise Up and Meet You
Maybe I should take a different route.
"As climate changes, Louisiana seeks to lift a highway" by Juliet Eilperin | Washington Post, March 25, 2012
GOLDEN MEADOW, La. - The dilemma facing this important lowland road is one shared by communities across the country as climate change begins to transform the nation’s landscape....
Actually, it isn't that at all.
The Obama administration is trying to plan for a country altered by shifts in precipitation, higher oceans, and more intense periods of heat.
Where?
It is rethinking infrastructure projects and creating a new plan for how to manage plants and wildlife in the face of global warming. Every agency is required to come up with a plan by June for how to adapt to climate change.
Yeah, right, tell it to Europe and the Southern Hemisphere.
“It’s about how do we incorporate planning for a future that may look very different from the way the world looks today,’’ said Nancy Sutley, chairwoman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, who is spearheading the administration’s federal adaptation strategy.
Researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who started measuring tides in Louisiana in the mid-1800s, have analyzed the numbers for Highway 1, and they do not bode well. At today’s rate of sea-level rise the road would be under water roughly 22 days of the year by 2030.
I'm tired of agenda-pushing liars.
Windell Curole did not need NOAA’s number-crunching to tell him what’s coming. The 60-year-old general manager of the South Lafourche Levee District said he could not see open water from this road when he was growing up. Now, it is in plain sight, just yards away.
The land is sinking, in part because engineers have redirected sediment flowing from the Mississippi River more directly into the Gulf of Mexico, improving navigation but no longer shoring up the wetlands.
Oh, so it is NOT DUE to GLOBAL WARMING at all!
And climate change is starting to make the problem worse.
Whatever, s*** media.
Not only is the sea rising as the ocean warms and expands, but heavier rainfall in shorter bursts is battering Highway 1. Curole has devised a simple mantra that he believes will address sea level rise, as long as the federal government heeds it: “Elevation is the salvation from inundation.’’
But not from indoctrination and inculcation.
--more--"
And there it is again.
"As climate changes, Louisiana seeks to lift a highway" by Juliet Eilperin | Washington Post, March 25, 2012
GOLDEN MEADOW, La. - The dilemma facing this important lowland road is one shared by communities across the country as climate change begins to transform the nation’s landscape....
Actually, it isn't that at all.
The Obama administration is trying to plan for a country altered by shifts in precipitation, higher oceans, and more intense periods of heat.
Where?
It is rethinking infrastructure projects and creating a new plan for how to manage plants and wildlife in the face of global warming. Every agency is required to come up with a plan by June for how to adapt to climate change.
Yeah, right, tell it to Europe and the Southern Hemisphere.
“It’s about how do we incorporate planning for a future that may look very different from the way the world looks today,’’ said Nancy Sutley, chairwoman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, who is spearheading the administration’s federal adaptation strategy.
Researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who started measuring tides in Louisiana in the mid-1800s, have analyzed the numbers for Highway 1, and they do not bode well. At today’s rate of sea-level rise the road would be under water roughly 22 days of the year by 2030.
I'm tired of agenda-pushing liars.
Windell Curole did not need NOAA’s number-crunching to tell him what’s coming. The 60-year-old general manager of the South Lafourche Levee District said he could not see open water from this road when he was growing up. Now, it is in plain sight, just yards away.
The land is sinking, in part because engineers have redirected sediment flowing from the Mississippi River more directly into the Gulf of Mexico, improving navigation but no longer shoring up the wetlands.
Oh, so it is NOT DUE to GLOBAL WARMING at all!
And climate change is starting to make the problem worse.
Whatever, s*** media.
Not only is the sea rising as the ocean warms and expands, but heavier rainfall in shorter bursts is battering Highway 1. Curole has devised a simple mantra that he believes will address sea level rise, as long as the federal government heeds it: “Elevation is the salvation from inundation.’’
But not from indoctrination and inculcation.
--more--"
And there it is again.
Sunday Globe Special: Butler vs. Bullies
"Young advocate pushes for PG-13 for ‘Bully’ documentary" by Donna St. George | Washington Post, March 25, 2012
WASHINGTON - The growing movement to stop bullying in schools may have found a new hero in Katy Butler.
Not that I am for bullying, but I'm sick of a society with such an obsession about it when the government is the biggest bully on the planet.
The self-assured 17-year-old from Michigan, bullied in middle school, was outraged when she learned that a sobering new documentary about the problem would be rated R, keeping those under 17 from seeing it without an adult.
Looking back I realized I was bullied in school. So who can I sue?
Butler started an online petition in late February to change the rating of “Bully’’ - and over three weeks, her own world changed, too. More than 300,000 people signed on. She met the producer and director in New York, then leaders of the Motion Picture Association of America, or MPAA, in Los Angeles.
Recently, Butler’s whirlwind took her to Washington, where she visited lawmakers’ offices....
Her rising profile comes as bullying gets increasing attention nationally. Earlier this month, the Cartoon Network unveiled a 30-minute documentary on bullying at Stuart-Hobson Middle School in Washington. The film opens with a message from President Obama, who held an anti-bullying summit at the White House last year.
The head bully.
The MPAA hosted a small audience for an early showing and discussion of “Bully.’’ Panelists included District of Columbia Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson, who announced a new advisory committee to address bullying and pledged to show the film to D.C. students....
Asked to speak, Butler made another plea for changing the rating to PG-13. Seated beside her mother, Anne, a Michigan pediatrician, she said that with an R rating, “the kids can’t go to see the movie by themselves - and, honestly, how many 13-, 14-, 15-year-olds want to go to the movies with their parents?’’ she said. “That’s just not cool.’’
The MPAA says its rating is not punitive or a reflection of the value of the film, but reflects language used in the film so that parents can make informed decisions....
Joseph L. Wright, who has worked on bullying issues for a decade and leads the Child Health Advocacy Institute at Children’s National Medical Center, was part of both D.C. events and said he has never seen a stronger interest in change - and believes students themselves are the best hope.
As long as they channel it into an agenda-pushing interest.
“I think Katy represents how this movement is really going to be galvanized by young people,’’ he said. “The adult community, in my opinion, has a very steep learning curve.’’
“Bully’’ examines the devastating experiences of five students, including two boys who commit suicide. It ends with the idea of change....
--more--"
WASHINGTON - The growing movement to stop bullying in schools may have found a new hero in Katy Butler.
Not that I am for bullying, but I'm sick of a society with such an obsession about it when the government is the biggest bully on the planet.
The self-assured 17-year-old from Michigan, bullied in middle school, was outraged when she learned that a sobering new documentary about the problem would be rated R, keeping those under 17 from seeing it without an adult.
Looking back I realized I was bullied in school. So who can I sue?
Butler started an online petition in late February to change the rating of “Bully’’ - and over three weeks, her own world changed, too. More than 300,000 people signed on. She met the producer and director in New York, then leaders of the Motion Picture Association of America, or MPAA, in Los Angeles.
Her rising profile comes as bullying gets increasing attention nationally. Earlier this month, the Cartoon Network unveiled a 30-minute documentary on bullying at Stuart-Hobson Middle School in Washington. The film opens with a message from President Obama, who held an anti-bullying summit at the White House last year.
The head bully.
The MPAA hosted a small audience for an early showing and discussion of “Bully.’’ Panelists included District of Columbia Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson, who announced a new advisory committee to address bullying and pledged to show the film to D.C. students....
Asked to speak, Butler made another plea for changing the rating to PG-13. Seated beside her mother, Anne, a Michigan pediatrician, she said that with an R rating, “the kids can’t go to see the movie by themselves - and, honestly, how many 13-, 14-, 15-year-olds want to go to the movies with their parents?’’ she said. “That’s just not cool.’’
The MPAA says its rating is not punitive or a reflection of the value of the film, but reflects language used in the film so that parents can make informed decisions....
Joseph L. Wright, who has worked on bullying issues for a decade and leads the Child Health Advocacy Institute at Children’s National Medical Center, was part of both D.C. events and said he has never seen a stronger interest in change - and believes students themselves are the best hope.
As long as they channel it into an agenda-pushing interest.
“I think Katy represents how this movement is really going to be galvanized by young people,’’ he said. “The adult community, in my opinion, has a very steep learning curve.’’
“Bully’’ examines the devastating experiences of five students, including two boys who commit suicide. It ends with the idea of change....
--more--"
Sunday Globe Special: Loud About Shutesbury Library
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
"War of words over Shutesbury library plan; Tiny town split by projected cost" by Jenna Russell | Globe Staff, March 25, 2012
SHUTESBURY - A push to build a new, 5,800-square-foot library, a source of smoldering tension among the town’s 1,700 residents for years, has fed bitter, acrimonious debate in recent months between supporters who say the need for the $3.5 million project is obvious and opponents who call it too big and costly....
Townspeople weary of the drawn-out saga have been startled by another unlikely development: A two-minute video made by volunteers last month to boost fund-raising for the new library has been viewed more than 30,000 times on YouTube, attracting international attention, $30,000 in donations, and support from celebrities including comedian Paula Poundstone and novelist Margaret Atwood....
Mayhem is not something that comes to mind in these hills, where many residents still live on shaded dirt roads and keep chickens.
Mayhem, huh?
The Tudor-style library, on the edge of the quiet, pine-fringed town common across from a white clapboard church, is a wireless Internet hub in a town where many are still forced to rely on dial-up; it is also the home of a fishing pole loan program....
To Bob Groves, a leading opponent of the library proposal, driving nine miles to Amherst to visit the library there is as routine as driving out of town to buy his groceries. He said Shutesbury has undergone a “somewhat stressful’’ demographic shift with the arrival of highly educated, well-off transplants, many of whom work at nearby UMass Amherst.
His sympathies, he says, lie with longtime residents less able to afford the proposed tax increase, which would have cost the owner of a $284,000 home from $85 to $120 a year....
They don't call it Taxachusetts for nothing!
Of course, they can afford it out there.
“I feel like a lot of the ways America behaves, with regard to overspending and consumption, are crystallized in this little town,’’ said the builder, a UMass graduate who specializes in historic restoration. “I’m interested in keeping values of Yankee frugality. . . . I’m not against the library; I’m against a massive facility beyond our ability to pay.’’
An unused 19th-century building on the town common could be restored for library use, Groves said. The installation of a $50 wireless Internet router could turn the current town hall basement into a haven for frustrated laptop users.
Most frustrating, he said, is the disregard that has been shown for opponents’ view. “The people who want the library will not take no for an answer,’’ he said.
In Massachusetts?
Tired of the ire, proponents have shifted their focus to fund-raising. If they can collect $1 million by June 30 - to cover what the tax increase would have generated - the project can qualify for $2 million in state funding.
State has nothing better to do with $2 million?
The fund drive is a long shot, “but crazier things have happened,’’ library director Mary Anne Antonellis said. “It’s the best thing for the town to bring down the tax impact, so people who are opposed will feel better about it.’’
************************************
Optimism has surged with the success of the video, which makes no reference to the controversy.
In it, adults and children hold up handmade signs listing reasons why they need a new library, while library storyteller Julie Stepanek provides the soundtrack, playing her ukulele and singing “Everybody Let’s Jump,’’ an upbeat tune she wrote for story hour.
Filmed in three hours by Lindsay Van Dyke, a friend and colleague of Emily Bloch, a mother of two young children and a supporter of the new library project who volunteered her time, it has drawn donations from as far away as Singapore. “[M]ade me cry ACTUAL HUMAN TEARS OF HAPPINESS,’’ tweeted comedian John Hodgman of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.’’
“What it says to me, that people are moved to give money to a town they’ve never heard of and a library they’ll never use, is that people personally value their experiences in libraries,’’ said Bloch. “They see it as a social good that won’t just be for our town.’’
Hey, I'm not against libraries. I love books. I bought and read them when I should have been playing video games; however, I amm against divisive, agenda-pushing pos articles like this.
--more--"
"War of words over Shutesbury library plan; Tiny town split by projected cost" by Jenna Russell | Globe Staff, March 25, 2012
SHUTESBURY - A push to build a new, 5,800-square-foot library, a source of smoldering tension among the town’s 1,700 residents for years, has fed bitter, acrimonious debate in recent months between supporters who say the need for the $3.5 million project is obvious and opponents who call it too big and costly....
Townspeople weary of the drawn-out saga have been startled by another unlikely development: A two-minute video made by volunteers last month to boost fund-raising for the new library has been viewed more than 30,000 times on YouTube, attracting international attention, $30,000 in donations, and support from celebrities including comedian Paula Poundstone and novelist Margaret Atwood....
Mayhem is not something that comes to mind in these hills, where many residents still live on shaded dirt roads and keep chickens.
Mayhem, huh?
The Tudor-style library, on the edge of the quiet, pine-fringed town common across from a white clapboard church, is a wireless Internet hub in a town where many are still forced to rely on dial-up; it is also the home of a fishing pole loan program....
To Bob Groves, a leading opponent of the library proposal, driving nine miles to Amherst to visit the library there is as routine as driving out of town to buy his groceries. He said Shutesbury has undergone a “somewhat stressful’’ demographic shift with the arrival of highly educated, well-off transplants, many of whom work at nearby UMass Amherst.
His sympathies, he says, lie with longtime residents less able to afford the proposed tax increase, which would have cost the owner of a $284,000 home from $85 to $120 a year....
They don't call it Taxachusetts for nothing!
Of course, they can afford it out there.
“I feel like a lot of the ways America behaves, with regard to overspending and consumption, are crystallized in this little town,’’ said the builder, a UMass graduate who specializes in historic restoration. “I’m interested in keeping values of Yankee frugality. . . . I’m not against the library; I’m against a massive facility beyond our ability to pay.’’
An unused 19th-century building on the town common could be restored for library use, Groves said. The installation of a $50 wireless Internet router could turn the current town hall basement into a haven for frustrated laptop users.
Most frustrating, he said, is the disregard that has been shown for opponents’ view. “The people who want the library will not take no for an answer,’’ he said.
In Massachusetts?
Tired of the ire, proponents have shifted their focus to fund-raising. If they can collect $1 million by June 30 - to cover what the tax increase would have generated - the project can qualify for $2 million in state funding.
State has nothing better to do with $2 million?
The fund drive is a long shot, “but crazier things have happened,’’ library director Mary Anne Antonellis said. “It’s the best thing for the town to bring down the tax impact, so people who are opposed will feel better about it.’’
************************************
Optimism has surged with the success of the video, which makes no reference to the controversy.
In it, adults and children hold up handmade signs listing reasons why they need a new library, while library storyteller Julie Stepanek provides the soundtrack, playing her ukulele and singing “Everybody Let’s Jump,’’ an upbeat tune she wrote for story hour.
Filmed in three hours by Lindsay Van Dyke, a friend and colleague of Emily Bloch, a mother of two young children and a supporter of the new library project who volunteered her time, it has drawn donations from as far away as Singapore. “[M]ade me cry ACTUAL HUMAN TEARS OF HAPPINESS,’’ tweeted comedian John Hodgman of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.’’
“What it says to me, that people are moved to give money to a town they’ve never heard of and a library they’ll never use, is that people personally value their experiences in libraries,’’ said Bloch. “They see it as a social good that won’t just be for our town.’’
Hey, I'm not against libraries. I love books. I bought and read them when I should have been playing video games; however, I amm against divisive, agenda-pushing pos articles like this.
--more--"
Sunday Globe Special: No Vacancy
"For homeless families, hotel is a life in limbo; With shelters overflowing, they wait and hope for something more" by Kathleen Burge | Globe Staff, March 25, 2012
WALTHAM - The hotel’s main rooms are nearly all occupied by 90 homeless families with children placed here by the state, both the working poor and the unemployed. The state pays $80 a night per room because traditional emergency shelters cannot handle the surge of families who have become homeless in the past few years....
This during an alleged economic recovery my paper has been telling me about. F***ing liars!
Still, there are some perks to living in the comfortable hotel, with its thick carpeting, cozy rooms and televisions in every room....
Yeah, and NEWSPAPER ELITISM and INSULTS isn't one of 'em! Maybe the intrepid Globe reporter wouldn't mind living in one for the rest of her life.
Let's check out a couple rooms:
In Room 213, Rashita Clark wakes before the sun rises high enough to glint off the frost-glazed cars, an early riser from 13 years working for Delta Air Lines. She had just bought a townhouse in Georgia when the airline, which had filed for bankruptcy in 2005, cut her pay by 26 percent.
Fearing more pay cuts, or worse, she took a severance package and got a job teaching business education to high school students. She worked two other jobs to get by. But when the teaching job ended last summer, Clark, 38, moved back to Boston, where she grew up. She figured she would take any job she could find.
But even jobs at corner stores and gas stations were hard to come by.
Related: No Appetite For the Boston Globe
Who likes eating shit?
Managers told her that her bachelor’s degree from Suffolk University and two master’s degrees overqualified her.
All that loan debt for nothing.
In July, with no money and no home, she took her two kids to the Malden office of the Department of Transitional Assistance. They were sent to the Home Suites Inn.
“I’m a determined person,’’ said Clark, who grew up on Roxbury’s Elm Hill Avenue and graduated from Boston Latin Academy, one of the city’s elite exam schools. “I didn’t plan on being in this situation but I don’t want to stay in this situation. I want to be out of here, where I can take care of my family and give them the things that they need so that they can be productive people in society.’’
She and her daughter, Kennedy, 6, each sleep in one of the hotel beds. Marlon, 11, lately prefers the folding cot that fills the gap between his mother and sister, beneath a blue patchwork quilt from his great uncle, who lives in Mattapan. Kennedy drifts off each night holding her stuffed ladybug.
Their hotel room looks like a thousand others, striped tan wallpaper and two colorless prints of poplar trees. But this room is overflowing with the possessions of a family that has been here a long time: juice boxes, instant oatmeal, a folding chair, bags of laundry, toys, schoolbooks, paper plates, and plastic forks. Still, seven months after moving into the hotel, Clark has not unpacked everything. She wants to be ready to leave at a moment’s notice.
She is also fiercely vigilant about not getting comfortable here, or succumbing to the despair that has settled heavily over the hotel’s guests. Everyone knows of families that have lived here a year or longer.
Clark uses the television, turned up loud, to block out the sounds of her neighbors. “You hear everything - babies screaming, people yelling, things that I don’t think are appropriate for you to hear,’’ she says.
Think of it as a perk.
Every night, she falls asleep to the sounds of “Law & Order,’’ or a movie on TBS, setting the timer so the TV will switch off. She leaves the television on during the day, creating a sound barrier between her room and the rest of the hotel. This week, hope arrives in the form of an e-mail from a friend whose cousin works at a Cambridge church looking to hire a part-time office manager. “It’s funny when people go, ‘I know the job is beneath you,’ ’’ Clark says. “Wait a minute, I have no job. How can it be beneath me?’’
The church asks her to come in for an interview, but she has already decided that she won’t tell her kids. If she isn’t hired, she doesn’t want to disappoint them. She has become an expert at managing expectations.
“As parents, the only thing to do is try to be positive,’’ she says. “But it’s kind of hard to tell your kids, ‘Oh, stay positive,’ and then we’re struggling to eat and get to school and get to work, can’t find a job.’’
At night, once her kids fall asleep, she works on homework for her online psychology course through the University of Phoenix, for her third master’s degree.
WTF?
And she thinks about her kids. Marlon has grown tall and lanky, and in sixth grade, he already wears a men’s size 9 shoe. Normally, his mother would not let him play on two basketball teams, one at his middle school and one at the Waltham Boys & Girls Club.
But now, she makes an exception. All the practices and games, Clark calculates, will keep him out of the hotel.
For couple, troubles pile up
Clark’s neighbor, Nicole Sheck and her family, moved into Home Suites after they had to leave their Waltham apartment and could not find another place they could afford on her waitressing wages. She and Peter Braun, her boyfriend, would like to stay near Waltham. Sheck’s oldest daughter is in second grade, and the two younger girls go to preschool programs in Watertown.
“I’ve got to be able to get to work,’’ Sheck says. “I can’t not have a job.’’
They couldn’t afford to keep their car but they’re planning to get another with their tax refund. They trek to the grocery store, often by bus, every other day to restock the tiny refrigerator in their hotel room.
Lately, she and Braun, 29, have been spending a lot of time at medical appointments with their 15-month-old daughter, Nevaeh. The toddler with wisps of blond hair was born with a cleft palate and has already undergone two surgeries.
Now a specialist suspects Nevaeh - her name is “heaven’’ spelled backward - has Stickler syndrome, a progressive genetic disorder that can cause serious problems with vision and hearing. Nevaeh’s jaw hasn’t grown since she was born, crowding her tongue.
She has trouble swallowing, and for a while, doctors prescribed a gluten-free diet, which burned through the family’s food stamps. It didn’t help. The doctors tell Sheck and Braun that she will need more surgery to expand her jaw with a bone graft.
The recovery will be painful. They hope they can postpone the operation until they have their own apartment....
To see who got the apartment go here
FLASHBACKS:
"A room to call home; State sheltering a record number of struggling families in motels" by Jenifer B. McKim, Globe Staff | June 24, 2009
More homeless families are being lodged in hotels than ever.
And that is in LIBERAL, COMPASSIONATE, SMUG and SELF-RIGHTEOUS MASSACHUSETTS that just rammed tax increases up your....
Don't let them fool you, readers.
Officials blame the increase on rising unemployment and a flood of foreclosures.
But EVERYTHING is GETTING BETTER (wait for the next article).
The state says it provides families with services similar to those offered at shelters, including transportation for children to their original school districts, and referrals to community resources for food and clothing.
Yeah, right, the LOOTING TRANSFER OPERATION known as STATE GOVERNMENT is "helping" us.
“We are obligated to put them in a place where they can have at least a roof over their head,’’ said Bob Pulster, executive director of the Interagency Council on Housing and Homelessness, created by Governor Deval Patrick in 2007 to end homelessness by 2013. “A motel may be the best we can do right now.’’
But advocates for the homeless worry that motel families are left largely on their own, without the in-house support of shelters equipped with kitchens, living rooms, and play areas.
Nancy Paladino, director of the family team for Boston Health Care for the Homeless, said the nonprofit agency, which helps families obtain medical care, has been overwhelmed by the need for assistance.
“I don’t see a solution or an end in sight,’’ said Paladino. “It’s really challenging if you have kids with special eating needs, or a parent with diabetes. It is tough to eat healthy.’’
**********
While the state has placed families in motels since 2007, when the 2,000 rooms in homeless shelters reached capacity, the temporary solution has become a long-term problem....
Government all over!
As a result, budget motels like the Gateway Inn have essentially become homeless shelters, with nearly all rooms occupied by state-paid guests. Massachusetts is one of the few states that mandate shelter for homeless families.
Sort of HIDES the PROBLEM real good, doesn't it?
Why not PUT 'EM in a FORECLOSED HOME (or let those people stay)!
And wait until you see what our COMPASSIONATE LOOTERS LEGISLATED!
Last week, the Legislature voted to tighten family eligibility requirements for emergency shelter, something that could leave hundreds scrambling for a place to live....
But THEY don't have to WORRY about a TAXPAYER-FUNDED ROOF over THEIR HEAD -- if it ain't paid for by lobbyist loot!!!!
Some question whether motels are an efficient use of tax dollars. A monthlong stay costs an average of $2,550 - similar to rent in some upscale Boston high-rises.
Oh, I KNOW IT IS NOT! This is MASSACHUSETTS after all!!!!
“It’s an extraordinary waste of money when we know the best way to house people is in permanent housing,’’ said Joe Kriesberg, president of the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations, which works to promote affordable housing and economic development.
An AMERICAN SCANDAL, folks!
Related: Who Remembers Timothy Finch?
But housing options remain limited.
“The only reason they are in the motels is because shelter space is full,’’ said Robyn Frost, executive director of the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless. “We should not take down the safety net until every single person is housed.’’
Aren't you ASHAMED, Bay Staters, when we are GIVING NEARLY $1 BILLION to Hollywood alone in TAX SUBSIDIES?!!!
The state hopes to reduce the ranks of motel families over the next six months by offering short-term housing subsidies.... Officials also anticipate receiving $44.5 million in federal stimulus money to help communities prevent homelessness....
Well, WHERE IS IT? STOLEN? Why isn't there more?
--more--"
"Homeless use of motels still on rise" by Jenifer B. McKim, Globe Staff | September 16, 2009
The number of homeless families living in motels funded by the state now tops more than 1,000, a dramatic 37 percent increase since June 1, a top official for the state Department of Housing and Community Development said yesterday.
Tina Brooks, undersecretary of the department, said 1,010 families - including more than 1,400 children - are now living in motels, at a monthly cost of about $2.8 million for taxpayers....
That is a DROP in the BUCKET compared to the HUNDREDS of MILLIONS profitable Hollywood gets!
The recession, high unemployment, and continuing foreclosure crisis are forcing more families to seek help. The state has been placing families in motels since 2007, when the 2,000 rooms in the homeless shelter system reached capacity.
Robyn Frost, executive director of the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless, said her office is receiving a flood of calls for help from desperate families seeking shelter and often her only option is to recommend they live in motels funded by the state. Frost said it’s not ideal because motels aren’t equipped to take care of families long-term....
She had to tell a mother that she couldn’t qualify for shelter because she owns a car. She’ll likely be sleeping in the vehicle with her teenage daughter, Frost said....
During the WINTER?
This is COMPASSIONATE, "liberal" Massachusetts?!!!!
In an effort to quickly move families out of state-funded shelters, the housing department started an emergency program in late July to provide rental assistance to families who need help for up to 12 months. Brooks said 352 families received help in the program’s first month, at a cost of $850,000. She said this is a better use of money than putting them in shelters, where families live an average of eight months at a cost of $24,000 per family.
The state also is working with property management companies to find vacant units in private developments to house homeless families and is working with community agencies to expand their involvement to help the homeless.
Yeah, the state is all over the problem. Pffft!
The state is looking forward to $44.5 million in federal stimulus funds, to be made available next month, to help the homeless....
That is NOT STIMULUS!!!
I'm not opposed to the idea; however, STIMULUS leaves a GOING CONCERN that CONTINUES to SELL PRODUCTS and CREATE JOBS! This DOES NONE of that!!!!
WALTHAM - The hotel’s main rooms are nearly all occupied by 90 homeless families with children placed here by the state, both the working poor and the unemployed. The state pays $80 a night per room because traditional emergency shelters cannot handle the surge of families who have become homeless in the past few years....
This during an alleged economic recovery my paper has been telling me about. F***ing liars!
Still, there are some perks to living in the comfortable hotel, with its thick carpeting, cozy rooms and televisions in every room....
Yeah, and NEWSPAPER ELITISM and INSULTS isn't one of 'em! Maybe the intrepid Globe reporter wouldn't mind living in one for the rest of her life.
Let's check out a couple rooms:
In Room 213, Rashita Clark wakes before the sun rises high enough to glint off the frost-glazed cars, an early riser from 13 years working for Delta Air Lines. She had just bought a townhouse in Georgia when the airline, which had filed for bankruptcy in 2005, cut her pay by 26 percent.
Fearing more pay cuts, or worse, she took a severance package and got a job teaching business education to high school students. She worked two other jobs to get by. But when the teaching job ended last summer, Clark, 38, moved back to Boston, where she grew up. She figured she would take any job she could find.
But even jobs at corner stores and gas stations were hard to come by.
Related: No Appetite For the Boston Globe
Who likes eating shit?
Managers told her that her bachelor’s degree from Suffolk University and two master’s degrees overqualified her.
All that loan debt for nothing.
In July, with no money and no home, she took her two kids to the Malden office of the Department of Transitional Assistance. They were sent to the Home Suites Inn.
“I’m a determined person,’’ said Clark, who grew up on Roxbury’s Elm Hill Avenue and graduated from Boston Latin Academy, one of the city’s elite exam schools. “I didn’t plan on being in this situation but I don’t want to stay in this situation. I want to be out of here, where I can take care of my family and give them the things that they need so that they can be productive people in society.’’
She and her daughter, Kennedy, 6, each sleep in one of the hotel beds. Marlon, 11, lately prefers the folding cot that fills the gap between his mother and sister, beneath a blue patchwork quilt from his great uncle, who lives in Mattapan. Kennedy drifts off each night holding her stuffed ladybug.
Their hotel room looks like a thousand others, striped tan wallpaper and two colorless prints of poplar trees. But this room is overflowing with the possessions of a family that has been here a long time: juice boxes, instant oatmeal, a folding chair, bags of laundry, toys, schoolbooks, paper plates, and plastic forks. Still, seven months after moving into the hotel, Clark has not unpacked everything. She wants to be ready to leave at a moment’s notice.
She is also fiercely vigilant about not getting comfortable here, or succumbing to the despair that has settled heavily over the hotel’s guests. Everyone knows of families that have lived here a year or longer.
Clark uses the television, turned up loud, to block out the sounds of her neighbors. “You hear everything - babies screaming, people yelling, things that I don’t think are appropriate for you to hear,’’ she says.
Think of it as a perk.
Every night, she falls asleep to the sounds of “Law & Order,’’ or a movie on TBS, setting the timer so the TV will switch off. She leaves the television on during the day, creating a sound barrier between her room and the rest of the hotel. This week, hope arrives in the form of an e-mail from a friend whose cousin works at a Cambridge church looking to hire a part-time office manager. “It’s funny when people go, ‘I know the job is beneath you,’ ’’ Clark says. “Wait a minute, I have no job. How can it be beneath me?’’
The church asks her to come in for an interview, but she has already decided that she won’t tell her kids. If she isn’t hired, she doesn’t want to disappoint them. She has become an expert at managing expectations.
“As parents, the only thing to do is try to be positive,’’ she says. “But it’s kind of hard to tell your kids, ‘Oh, stay positive,’ and then we’re struggling to eat and get to school and get to work, can’t find a job.’’
At night, once her kids fall asleep, she works on homework for her online psychology course through the University of Phoenix, for her third master’s degree.
WTF?
And she thinks about her kids. Marlon has grown tall and lanky, and in sixth grade, he already wears a men’s size 9 shoe. Normally, his mother would not let him play on two basketball teams, one at his middle school and one at the Waltham Boys & Girls Club.
But now, she makes an exception. All the practices and games, Clark calculates, will keep him out of the hotel.
For couple, troubles pile up
Clark’s neighbor, Nicole Sheck and her family, moved into Home Suites after they had to leave their Waltham apartment and could not find another place they could afford on her waitressing wages. She and Peter Braun, her boyfriend, would like to stay near Waltham. Sheck’s oldest daughter is in second grade, and the two younger girls go to preschool programs in Watertown.
“I’ve got to be able to get to work,’’ Sheck says. “I can’t not have a job.’’
They couldn’t afford to keep their car but they’re planning to get another with their tax refund. They trek to the grocery store, often by bus, every other day to restock the tiny refrigerator in their hotel room.
Lately, she and Braun, 29, have been spending a lot of time at medical appointments with their 15-month-old daughter, Nevaeh. The toddler with wisps of blond hair was born with a cleft palate and has already undergone two surgeries.
Now a specialist suspects Nevaeh - her name is “heaven’’ spelled backward - has Stickler syndrome, a progressive genetic disorder that can cause serious problems with vision and hearing. Nevaeh’s jaw hasn’t grown since she was born, crowding her tongue.
She has trouble swallowing, and for a while, doctors prescribed a gluten-free diet, which burned through the family’s food stamps. It didn’t help. The doctors tell Sheck and Braun that she will need more surgery to expand her jaw with a bone graft.
The recovery will be painful. They hope they can postpone the operation until they have their own apartment....
To see who got the apartment go here
FLASHBACKS:
"A room to call home; State sheltering a record number of struggling families in motels" by Jenifer B. McKim, Globe Staff | June 24, 2009
More homeless families are being lodged in hotels than ever.
And that is in LIBERAL, COMPASSIONATE, SMUG and SELF-RIGHTEOUS MASSACHUSETTS that just rammed tax increases up your....
Don't let them fool you, readers.
Officials blame the increase on rising unemployment and a flood of foreclosures.
But EVERYTHING is GETTING BETTER (wait for the next article).
The state says it provides families with services similar to those offered at shelters, including transportation for children to their original school districts, and referrals to community resources for food and clothing.
Yeah, right, the LOOTING TRANSFER OPERATION known as STATE GOVERNMENT is "helping" us.
“We are obligated to put them in a place where they can have at least a roof over their head,’’ said Bob Pulster, executive director of the Interagency Council on Housing and Homelessness, created by Governor Deval Patrick in 2007 to end homelessness by 2013. “A motel may be the best we can do right now.’’
But advocates for the homeless worry that motel families are left largely on their own, without the in-house support of shelters equipped with kitchens, living rooms, and play areas.
Nancy Paladino, director of the family team for Boston Health Care for the Homeless, said the nonprofit agency, which helps families obtain medical care, has been overwhelmed by the need for assistance.
“I don’t see a solution or an end in sight,’’ said Paladino. “It’s really challenging if you have kids with special eating needs, or a parent with diabetes. It is tough to eat healthy.’’
**********
While the state has placed families in motels since 2007, when the 2,000 rooms in homeless shelters reached capacity, the temporary solution has become a long-term problem....
Government all over!
As a result, budget motels like the Gateway Inn have essentially become homeless shelters, with nearly all rooms occupied by state-paid guests. Massachusetts is one of the few states that mandate shelter for homeless families.
Sort of HIDES the PROBLEM real good, doesn't it?
Why not PUT 'EM in a FORECLOSED HOME (or let those people stay)!
And wait until you see what our COMPASSIONATE LOOTERS LEGISLATED!
Last week, the Legislature voted to tighten family eligibility requirements for emergency shelter, something that could leave hundreds scrambling for a place to live....
But THEY don't have to WORRY about a TAXPAYER-FUNDED ROOF over THEIR HEAD -- if it ain't paid for by lobbyist loot!!!!
Some question whether motels are an efficient use of tax dollars. A monthlong stay costs an average of $2,550 - similar to rent in some upscale Boston high-rises.
Oh, I KNOW IT IS NOT! This is MASSACHUSETTS after all!!!!
“It’s an extraordinary waste of money when we know the best way to house people is in permanent housing,’’ said Joe Kriesberg, president of the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations, which works to promote affordable housing and economic development.
An AMERICAN SCANDAL, folks!
Related: Who Remembers Timothy Finch?
But housing options remain limited.
“The only reason they are in the motels is because shelter space is full,’’ said Robyn Frost, executive director of the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless. “We should not take down the safety net until every single person is housed.’’
Aren't you ASHAMED, Bay Staters, when we are GIVING NEARLY $1 BILLION to Hollywood alone in TAX SUBSIDIES?!!!
The state hopes to reduce the ranks of motel families over the next six months by offering short-term housing subsidies.... Officials also anticipate receiving $44.5 million in federal stimulus money to help communities prevent homelessness....
Well, WHERE IS IT? STOLEN? Why isn't there more?
--more--"
"Homeless use of motels still on rise" by Jenifer B. McKim, Globe Staff | September 16, 2009
The number of homeless families living in motels funded by the state now tops more than 1,000, a dramatic 37 percent increase since June 1, a top official for the state Department of Housing and Community Development said yesterday.
Tina Brooks, undersecretary of the department, said 1,010 families - including more than 1,400 children - are now living in motels, at a monthly cost of about $2.8 million for taxpayers....
That is a DROP in the BUCKET compared to the HUNDREDS of MILLIONS profitable Hollywood gets!
The recession, high unemployment, and continuing foreclosure crisis are forcing more families to seek help. The state has been placing families in motels since 2007, when the 2,000 rooms in the homeless shelter system reached capacity.
Robyn Frost, executive director of the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless, said her office is receiving a flood of calls for help from desperate families seeking shelter and often her only option is to recommend they live in motels funded by the state. Frost said it’s not ideal because motels aren’t equipped to take care of families long-term....
She had to tell a mother that she couldn’t qualify for shelter because she owns a car. She’ll likely be sleeping in the vehicle with her teenage daughter, Frost said....
During the WINTER?
This is COMPASSIONATE, "liberal" Massachusetts?!!!!
In an effort to quickly move families out of state-funded shelters, the housing department started an emergency program in late July to provide rental assistance to families who need help for up to 12 months. Brooks said 352 families received help in the program’s first month, at a cost of $850,000. She said this is a better use of money than putting them in shelters, where families live an average of eight months at a cost of $24,000 per family.
The state also is working with property management companies to find vacant units in private developments to house homeless families and is working with community agencies to expand their involvement to help the homeless.
Yeah, the state is all over the problem. Pffft!
The state is looking forward to $44.5 million in federal stimulus funds, to be made available next month, to help the homeless....
That is NOT STIMULUS!!!
I'm not opposed to the idea; however, STIMULUS leaves a GOING CONCERN that CONTINUES to SELL PRODUCTS and CREATE JOBS! This DOES NONE of that!!!!
--more--"
Yeah, somehow EVERYTHING HAS GOTTEN MUCH WORSE the LAST THREE YEARS -- even as the Massachusetts economy outperformed that nation (or not).
Sunday Globe Special: Corporate Charity Takes Care of City
"Mayor Menino reveals donors to city charity; Says he will make fund more transparent" by Andrew Ryan | Globe Staff, March 25, 2012
Mayor Thomas M. Menino controls a charity at City Hall that some years collects more than $1 million to pay for festivals, a toy drive, and other initiatives important to the mayor. But unlike political contributors, the benefactors who give money to the Fund for Boston Neighborhoods often have remained confidential, shielded by the anonymity of federal tax law.
Donors have given $12.5 million to the city-run charity since Menino took office in 1993, and contributors include large corporations, developers, law firms, contractors, lobbyists, and others with business before the city.
Established by Kevin H. White while he was mayor, the charitable arm of city government is legal, and there is no evidence of wrongdoing. But government watchdogs say there is always the possibility of peril when corporations and other entities - especially those with business before the city - can make unlimited donations out of public view.
“This is an area that cries out for full transparency,’’ said Pamela Wilmot, executive director of Common Cause Massachusetts, a government watchdog. “All donors should be disclosed. This is an entity that is controlled by the city, and by having secret donors, there is a potential for using a contribution as a way of gaining access and influence.’’
After almost six months of records requests and inquiries from the Globe, Menino has released for the first time a comprehensive list of donors and a line-by-line accounting of recent expenses. Looking ahead, he vowed to make significant changes to the nonprofit.
“We’re going to have a website out there that shows where the money is coming from, and where the money is being spent,’’ Menino said last week in an interview. “We’re going to add transparency to it.’’
Just wondering why it wasn't transparent from the start.
The fund will no longer collect payments for events and promotions on City Hall Plaza and other public land, said Menino’s spokeswoman, Dot Joyce. Fees will now be paid to the city’s general fund, which is subject to oversight by the City Council....
Only because the Globe was asking about it.
While vowing to overhaul the nonprofit, Menino vigorously defended the charity and said donations do not influence decisions made by his administration.
“If we didn’t have this fund, a lot of events we have in neighborhoods in Boston would not exist,’’ Menino said. “If I were to spend all this money on parties, the headline would be, ‘Mayor spends money on parties.’ But what I’m doing is using private resources to make sure people have a livable city.’’
That translates into victory parades for championship sports teams, turkeys at Thanksgiving, and the Boston Arts Festival. The fund also has paid to bury young victims of violence....
The fund emerged into the spotlight last fall as competition to build a casino in the Boston area heated up. The Globe reported that the owner of Suffolk Downs, Richard Fields, had donated to the charity. The newly released city records show that from 2007 through 2011, Suffolk Downs and Fields contributed $47,500 to support neighborhood arts and the holiday toy drive.
After the Globe’s report, the charity returned a $5,000 donation from Suffolk Downs because city officials said they wanted to avoid any appearance of impropriety. Menino has been a vocal booster of the racetrack’s push to build a casino in East Boston.
In a statement, Suffolk Downs said it strives “to be a good neighbor and has a longstanding record of contributing to local charities, especially those benefiting neighboring children and families in need.’’
The Fund for Boston Neighborhoods was founded in 1968 to raise money for summertime concerts. As a nonprofit not subjected to City Council oversight, the fund can immediately cut checks for performers and vendors, making it easier, Menino said, to stage events like last year’s parade for the Boston Bruins on short notice.
Over the years, the fund’s mission has expanded to pay for programming at the city-owned Strand Theatre in Dorchester and much of the budget at the Parkman House, a mansion used by the mayor for meetings and official entertaining.
Most of the money comes from tax-deductible contributions....
From July 2010 through June 2011, the top expenditures included roughly $524,000 for Hub on Wheels, an annual event that administration officials said drew 4,000-plus bike riders to city streets. More than $223,000 was used to pay for the Mayor’s Cup, a professional bike race that officials said attracted over 5,000 spectators.
But 2 1/2 years of expenses provided by the city showed the fund does more than support cultural events.
The charity paid for extras that might be hard to justify with tax dollars, such as $778 worth of gifts for departing city employees. The presents included an engraved weather station for a retiring police captain; $150 charm bracelets from DePrisco Diamond Jewelers; and a $138.13 American Express charge at high-end clothier Thomas Pink with the handwritten note “TMM gift,’’ using Menino’s initials to indicate that the item was for a staff assistant leaving the mayor’s office.
The charity paid $500 to rent a horse-drawn carriage for Menino so he could lead the First Night 2010 parade, shortly after undergoing knee surgery. It allowed his administration to give away roughly $150,000 worth of presents to more than 4,000 needy families each Christmas....
Joseph Fallon, the developer building an $800 million headquarters for Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. in South Boston, has also been a significant contributor. The project won almost $12 million in city property tax breaks. Fallon and his company have donated $51,125 cumulatively from 2008 to 2009.
Pretty good return, 'eh?
In a statement, Fallon said: “The Fund for Boston Neighborhoods has a record of helping those in most need and producing quality events for the enjoyment of many Bostonians and visitors alike. It’s good for the city and helps continue to bring a vitality to our community.’’
********************************
Other cities have charities that allow elected officials to solicit private money to pay for events that might not be appropriate for taxpayer funds.
The Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, for example, has helped preserve portraits in City Hall and expand the number of salad bars in schools. The New York fund reported $28.8 million in contributions in 2009 and has a website where it promotes its accomplishments while also posting a newsletter, annual report, and IRS filings. But the site does not list contributors, and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s office did not respond to inquires about whether donors’ identities are made public.
The Fund for Boston Neighborhoods has not had a website, but it does submit annual reports, audits, and limited financial filings to the state attorney general’s office and the IRS....
--more--"
Mayor Thomas M. Menino controls a charity at City Hall that some years collects more than $1 million to pay for festivals, a toy drive, and other initiatives important to the mayor. But unlike political contributors, the benefactors who give money to the Fund for Boston Neighborhoods often have remained confidential, shielded by the anonymity of federal tax law.
Donors have given $12.5 million to the city-run charity since Menino took office in 1993, and contributors include large corporations, developers, law firms, contractors, lobbyists, and others with business before the city.
For years, the Menino administration used the nonprofit to collect donations that were akin to rent payments from advertising firms, movie companies, and other commercial entities that used City Hall Plaza and other public land, taking in more than $250,000 in site fees since 2009.
“This is an area that cries out for full transparency,’’ said Pamela Wilmot, executive director of Common Cause Massachusetts, a government watchdog. “All donors should be disclosed. This is an entity that is controlled by the city, and by having secret donors, there is a potential for using a contribution as a way of gaining access and influence.’’
After almost six months of records requests and inquiries from the Globe, Menino has released for the first time a comprehensive list of donors and a line-by-line accounting of recent expenses. Looking ahead, he vowed to make significant changes to the nonprofit.
“We’re going to have a website out there that shows where the money is coming from, and where the money is being spent,’’ Menino said last week in an interview. “We’re going to add transparency to it.’’
Just wondering why it wasn't transparent from the start.
The fund will no longer collect payments for events and promotions on City Hall Plaza and other public land, said Menino’s spokeswoman, Dot Joyce. Fees will now be paid to the city’s general fund, which is subject to oversight by the City Council....
Only because the Globe was asking about it.
While vowing to overhaul the nonprofit, Menino vigorously defended the charity and said donations do not influence decisions made by his administration.
“If we didn’t have this fund, a lot of events we have in neighborhoods in Boston would not exist,’’ Menino said. “If I were to spend all this money on parties, the headline would be, ‘Mayor spends money on parties.’ But what I’m doing is using private resources to make sure people have a livable city.’’
That translates into victory parades for championship sports teams, turkeys at Thanksgiving, and the Boston Arts Festival. The fund also has paid to bury young victims of violence....
The fund emerged into the spotlight last fall as competition to build a casino in the Boston area heated up. The Globe reported that the owner of Suffolk Downs, Richard Fields, had donated to the charity. The newly released city records show that from 2007 through 2011, Suffolk Downs and Fields contributed $47,500 to support neighborhood arts and the holiday toy drive.
After the Globe’s report, the charity returned a $5,000 donation from Suffolk Downs because city officials said they wanted to avoid any appearance of impropriety. Menino has been a vocal booster of the racetrack’s push to build a casino in East Boston.
In a statement, Suffolk Downs said it strives “to be a good neighbor and has a longstanding record of contributing to local charities, especially those benefiting neighboring children and families in need.’’
The Fund for Boston Neighborhoods was founded in 1968 to raise money for summertime concerts. As a nonprofit not subjected to City Council oversight, the fund can immediately cut checks for performers and vendors, making it easier, Menino said, to stage events like last year’s parade for the Boston Bruins on short notice.
Over the years, the fund’s mission has expanded to pay for programming at the city-owned Strand Theatre in Dorchester and much of the budget at the Parkman House, a mansion used by the mayor for meetings and official entertaining.
Most of the money comes from tax-deductible contributions....
From July 2010 through June 2011, the top expenditures included roughly $524,000 for Hub on Wheels, an annual event that administration officials said drew 4,000-plus bike riders to city streets. More than $223,000 was used to pay for the Mayor’s Cup, a professional bike race that officials said attracted over 5,000 spectators.
But 2 1/2 years of expenses provided by the city showed the fund does more than support cultural events.
The charity paid for extras that might be hard to justify with tax dollars, such as $778 worth of gifts for departing city employees. The presents included an engraved weather station for a retiring police captain; $150 charm bracelets from DePrisco Diamond Jewelers; and a $138.13 American Express charge at high-end clothier Thomas Pink with the handwritten note “TMM gift,’’ using Menino’s initials to indicate that the item was for a staff assistant leaving the mayor’s office.
The charity paid $500 to rent a horse-drawn carriage for Menino so he could lead the First Night 2010 parade, shortly after undergoing knee surgery. It allowed his administration to give away roughly $150,000 worth of presents to more than 4,000 needy families each Christmas....
Joseph Fallon, the developer building an $800 million headquarters for Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. in South Boston, has also been a significant contributor. The project won almost $12 million in city property tax breaks. Fallon and his company have donated $51,125 cumulatively from 2008 to 2009.
Pretty good return, 'eh?
In a statement, Fallon said: “The Fund for Boston Neighborhoods has a record of helping those in most need and producing quality events for the enjoyment of many Bostonians and visitors alike. It’s good for the city and helps continue to bring a vitality to our community.’’
********************************
Other cities have charities that allow elected officials to solicit private money to pay for events that might not be appropriate for taxpayer funds.
The Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, for example, has helped preserve portraits in City Hall and expand the number of salad bars in schools. The New York fund reported $28.8 million in contributions in 2009 and has a website where it promotes its accomplishments while also posting a newsletter, annual report, and IRS filings. But the site does not list contributors, and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s office did not respond to inquires about whether donors’ identities are made public.
The Fund for Boston Neighborhoods has not had a website, but it does submit annual reports, audits, and limited financial filings to the state attorney general’s office and the IRS....
NYPD Now a National Police Force
What were they doing in New Orleans?
"Documents show NYPD infiltrated liberal groups; Kept intelligence on US activists" by Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo | Associated Press, March 24, 2012
NEW YORK - Undercover NYPD officers attended meetings of liberal political groups and kept intelligence files on activists who planned protests across the nation, according to interviews and documents that show how police have used counterterrorism tactics to monitor even lawful activities.
The infiltration echoes the tactics the NYPD used in the run-up to New York’s 2004 Republican National Convention, when police monitored church groups, antiwar organizations, and environmental advocates nationwide.
Police said the spying before the convention was needed to prepare for the huge, raucous crowds headed to the city. But documents obtained by The Associated Press show that the police intelligence unit continued to keep watch on political groups in 2008, long after the convention had passed.
In April 2008, an undercover NYPD officer traveled to New Orleans for the People’s Summit, a gathering of liberal groups organized around their shared opposition to US economic policy and the effect of trade agreements between the US, Canada, and Mexico....
--more--"
And they are STILL DOING IT, lefties! Please WAKE THE F*** UP!!
"NYPD program aided by White House grant" Associated Press, February 28, 2012
WASHINGTON - Millions of dollars in White House money has helped pay for New York Police Department programs that put entire American Muslim neighborhoods under surveillance.
Related: NYPD Steps in Shi'ite
NYPD Tracks Shi'ite Into School
Can't you smell it?
The money is part of a little-known grant intended to help law enforcement fight drug crimes. Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Bush and Obama administrations have provided $135 million to the New York and New Jersey region through the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program.
Yeah, WHO CARES WHERE THEY APPLY your TAX MONEY when it comes to TYRANNY, 'eh?
Can't use it for drugs because government intelligence agencies are the biggest drug-runners around and the banks benefit from laundered drug loot, so let's shift the money over to pursuing false-flag, intelligence-agency supervised patsy plots while spying on the populace at large.
Now about those social service cuts....
Some of that money - it is unclear exactly how much because the program has little oversight - has paid for the cars that plainclothes New York police officers used to conduct surveillance on Muslim neighborhoods. It also paid for computers that store even innocuous information about Muslim college students, mosque sermons, and social events....
In addition to the liberal/lefty threat files.
The Associated Press confirmed the use of White House money through secret police documents and interviews with current and former city and federal officials. The AP also obtained electronic documents with digital signatures indicating they were created and saved on computers funded by the grant. The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy oversees the grant program.
The disclosure that the White House is at least partially paying for the wholesale surveillance of places where Muslims eat, shop, work, and pray complicates efforts by the Obama administration to stay out of the fray over New York’s controversial counterterrorism programs.
--more--"
Also see:
US only starting review of NYC police surveillance
NYPD stumbles in terror hunt
Muslims(?) picked 'em and put 'em back on their feet:
"Muslims rally in support of NYPD program" March 06, 2012
NEW YORK - Qazi Qayyoom, an imam in Queens, says he believes the New York Police Department is keeping his community safe, and if that means some Muslims are monitored, so be it.
What a wonderfully fascist attitude.
Qayyoom and about three dozen other people attended a rally Monday held by Muslims in support of the NYPD after a series of Associated Press stories detailing the department’s secret surveillance of mosques, Muslim-owned businesses, and college campuses across the Northeast since Muslim extremists attacked the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, killing thousands of people.
The rally, held by the American Islamic Leadership Coalition outside police headquarters, illustrated a division even among the faith’s adherents about how far authorities should go in seeking to protect the nation’s largest city from terrorists.
Among the speakers was Dr. Zudhi Jasser, the narrator of “The Third Jihad,’’ a documentary about the dangers of radical Islam that the NYPD showed in the lobby of a police training area and has since disavowed.
Jasser and others said the danger is clearly coming from within the Muslim community and that it is up to other Muslims to help law enforcement stop the threat.
Yeah, well, as it turns out Muslims didn't do 9/11; Israel and her helpers in various western governments and intelligence agencies did.
--more--"
Has to be controlled opposition.
Obviously the good imam doesn't mind them watching him:
"New files show more Muslim NYPD targets; Those watched had been here for generations" by Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo | Associated Press, March 10, 2012
NEW YORK - The New York Police Department collected information on businesses owned by second- and third-generation Americans specifically because they were Muslims, according to newly obtained secret documents. They show in the clearest terms yet that police were monitoring people based on religion, despite statements from Mayor Michael Bloomberg to the contrary.
The police department has faced criticism from Muslims, lawmakers, and even the FBI for widespread spying operations that put entire neighborhoods under surveillance. Police put the names of innocent people in secret files and monitored the mosques, student groups, and businesses that make up the Muslim landscape of the northeastern United States....
In late 2007, plainclothes officers in the department’s secretive Demographics Unit were assigned to investigate the region’s Syrian population. Police photographed businesses and eavesdropped at lunch counters and inside grocery stores and pastry shops. The resulting document listed no threat. And though most people of Syrian heritage living in the area were Jewish, Jews were excluded from the monitoring.
That is why there isn't much of a fuss. Too bad; they likely missed some nice dancing.
“This report will focus on the smaller Muslim community,’’ the report said.
Similarly, police excluded the city’s sizable Coptic Christian population when photographing, monitoring, and eavesdropping on Egyptian businesses in 2007, according to the police files.
Oh, so it was ONLY MUSLIMS and LEFTIES, 'eh?
Maybe you guys ought to talk, or maybe not.
“This report does not represent the Coptic Egyptian community and is merely an insight into the Muslim Egyptian community of New York City,’’ the police department wrote.
Many under surveillance were American-born citizens whose families have been here for the better part of a century....
Un-flipping-real!
Yes, the government must find SOME WAY to SPEND all that TAX LOOT!!! Not like they would want to give it back to you or provide health care!!!
And yes, dear 'murkn, they SPIED on AMERICAN CITIZENS!!!
The Demographics Unit was conceived in secret years ago as a way to identify communities where terrorists might hide and spot potential problems early.
And find patsies for their plots!
If the plainclothes officers, known as “rakers,’’ overheard anti-American sentiment or violent rhetoric, they flagged it for follow-up investigation.
They are raking something, all right.
If police, for example, received a tip that an Egyptian terrorist was plotting an attack, investigators looking for him would have the entire community already on file. They would know where he was likely to pray, who might rent him a cheap room, where he would find a convenient Internet cafe, and where he probably would buy his groceries.
As a result, many people were put into police files, not for criminal activities but because they were part of daily life in their neighborhoods. Shopkeepers were named in police files, their ethnicities listed. Muslim college students who attended a rafting trip or discussed upcoming religious lectures on campus were cataloged. Worshipers arriving at mosques were photographed and had their license plate numbers collected by police.
Hey, it is NOT LIKE THEY HAVE CRIMES TO SOLVE down in the city!
The Demographics Unit is one example of how, since the 2001 terrorist attacks, the police department has transformed itself into one of the most aggressive domestic intelligence agencies in the country, operating with little oversight and in areas outside the city such as New Jersey....
I don't know, but the word jurisdiction keeps coming up in my mind, followed by illegality.
Since the AP began reporting on these efforts last year, Bloomberg and the police department have offered varying explanations for the clandestine efforts.
At first, police spokesman Paul Browne denied the Demographics Unit existed.
That's called a LIE, and it is the FIRST THING out of GOVERNMENT'S MOUTH EVERY F***ING TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!
When documents proved that it did, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said his department only follows investigative leads....
Caught in a lie and they LIE AGAIN!!
--more--"
Think it can't get any worse?
"N.Y. police boss defends Muslim surveillance" Associated Press. March 16, 2012
NEW YORK - New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly challenged City Council members who want to create an inspector general to regulate the department’s surveillance of Muslims Thursday, saying his department needs no additional oversight.
What oversight?
In sometimes heated exchanges with council members at a budget hearing, Kelly defended his department’s counterterrorism surveillance program as well as another crime-fighting policy, the stopping, questioning, and frisking of people on the street.
I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that a cop defends fascism.
“I think there’s plenty of oversight,’’ Kelly said. He cited New York’s five district attorneys, two US attorneys, a committee that investigates police corruption, the department’s own internal affairs office, and a 2003 court order that governs police surveillance.
“I don’t know what more you would want,’’ Kelly said.
Yeah, they have been doing a great job so far, sigh.
Some council members say they are deeply concerned by a series of stories by the Associated Press detailing the extent of the surveillance program, which overwhelmingly targeted Muslim ethnic groups in its hunt for suspicious activity.
Don't forget your LIBERAL CONSTITUENTS!
Undercover police officers eavesdropped in cafes and grocery stores, infiltrated Muslim student groups and monitored the Internet activity of people as far away as Buffalo. They set up a command center in New Brunswick, N.J., without the knowledge of the FBI or local police.
They monitored people who changed their names from Arab-sounding names to more Americanized ones, created detailed catalogs of Muslim-owned businesses, and recorded the license plates of worshipers at a New Jersey mosque.
Some people whose names have appeared in the police reports are worried that such notes could damage their lives if the information were ever leaked or misused....
--more--"
Can't get anymore outrageous than that, right?
WRONG!!
"Iran’s UN Diplomats Videotaped NYC Landmarks, Police Say" Associated Press, March 22, 2012
WASHINGTON - Iranian diplomats may have carried out “hostile reconnaissance’’ of sites in New York as many as six times, a warning sign that the city might be targeted for a terrorist attack, according to a police official.
Just LAYING the GROUNDWORK for the FALSE FLAG ATTACK, 'eh?
I thought I smelled something familiar.
The incidents occurred between 2002 and 2010 and involved videotaping or photographing landmarks, rail service, and bridges, said Mitchell Silber, director of the city police department’s intelligence analysis unit, in testimony before a House panel Wednesday.
I guess New York City doesn't like tourists anymore so why don't you take your business elsewhere, readers.
Hezbollah, a militant group allied with Iran that has been designated a terrorist organization by the US State Department, also has ties to the New York region, he said.
“The city remains the most likely venue for global tensions with Iran to spill over onto American soil,’’ Silber said.
Tensions with Iran have increased over the country’s unwillingness to scale back its nuclear program.
--more--"
"Documents show NYPD infiltrated liberal groups; Kept intelligence on US activists" by Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo | Associated Press, March 24, 2012
NEW YORK - Undercover NYPD officers attended meetings of liberal political groups and kept intelligence files on activists who planned protests across the nation, according to interviews and documents that show how police have used counterterrorism tactics to monitor even lawful activities.
The infiltration echoes the tactics the NYPD used in the run-up to New York’s 2004 Republican National Convention, when police monitored church groups, antiwar organizations, and environmental advocates nationwide.
That effort was revealed by The New York Times in 2007 and in an ongoing US civil rights lawsuit on how the NYPD treated convention protesters.
In April 2008, an undercover NYPD officer traveled to New Orleans for the People’s Summit, a gathering of liberal groups organized around their shared opposition to US economic policy and the effect of trade agreements between the US, Canada, and Mexico....
--more--"
And they are STILL DOING IT, lefties! Please WAKE THE F*** UP!!
"NYPD program aided by White House grant" Associated Press, February 28, 2012
WASHINGTON - Millions of dollars in White House money has helped pay for New York Police Department programs that put entire American Muslim neighborhoods under surveillance.
Related: NYPD Steps in Shi'ite
NYPD Tracks Shi'ite Into School
Can't you smell it?
The money is part of a little-known grant intended to help law enforcement fight drug crimes. Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Bush and Obama administrations have provided $135 million to the New York and New Jersey region through the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program.
Yeah, WHO CARES WHERE THEY APPLY your TAX MONEY when it comes to TYRANNY, 'eh?
Can't use it for drugs because government intelligence agencies are the biggest drug-runners around and the banks benefit from laundered drug loot, so let's shift the money over to pursuing false-flag, intelligence-agency supervised patsy plots while spying on the populace at large.
Now about those social service cuts....
Some of that money - it is unclear exactly how much because the program has little oversight - has paid for the cars that plainclothes New York police officers used to conduct surveillance on Muslim neighborhoods. It also paid for computers that store even innocuous information about Muslim college students, mosque sermons, and social events....
In addition to the liberal/lefty threat files.
The Associated Press confirmed the use of White House money through secret police documents and interviews with current and former city and federal officials. The AP also obtained electronic documents with digital signatures indicating they were created and saved on computers funded by the grant. The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy oversees the grant program.
The disclosure that the White House is at least partially paying for the wholesale surveillance of places where Muslims eat, shop, work, and pray complicates efforts by the Obama administration to stay out of the fray over New York’s controversial counterterrorism programs.
--more--"
Also see:
US only starting review of NYC police surveillance
NYPD stumbles in terror hunt
Muslims(?) picked 'em and put 'em back on their feet:
"Muslims rally in support of NYPD program" March 06, 2012
NEW YORK - Qazi Qayyoom, an imam in Queens, says he believes the New York Police Department is keeping his community safe, and if that means some Muslims are monitored, so be it.
What a wonderfully fascist attitude.
Qayyoom and about three dozen other people attended a rally Monday held by Muslims in support of the NYPD after a series of Associated Press stories detailing the department’s secret surveillance of mosques, Muslim-owned businesses, and college campuses across the Northeast since Muslim extremists attacked the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, killing thousands of people.
The rally, held by the American Islamic Leadership Coalition outside police headquarters, illustrated a division even among the faith’s adherents about how far authorities should go in seeking to protect the nation’s largest city from terrorists.
Among the speakers was Dr. Zudhi Jasser, the narrator of “The Third Jihad,’’ a documentary about the dangers of radical Islam that the NYPD showed in the lobby of a police training area and has since disavowed.
Jasser and others said the danger is clearly coming from within the Muslim community and that it is up to other Muslims to help law enforcement stop the threat.
Yeah, well, as it turns out Muslims didn't do 9/11; Israel and her helpers in various western governments and intelligence agencies did.
--more--"
Has to be controlled opposition.
Obviously the good imam doesn't mind them watching him:
"New files show more Muslim NYPD targets; Those watched had been here for generations" by Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo | Associated Press, March 10, 2012
NEW YORK - The New York Police Department collected information on businesses owned by second- and third-generation Americans specifically because they were Muslims, according to newly obtained secret documents. They show in the clearest terms yet that police were monitoring people based on religion, despite statements from Mayor Michael Bloomberg to the contrary.
In late 2007, plainclothes officers in the department’s secretive Demographics Unit were assigned to investigate the region’s Syrian population. Police photographed businesses and eavesdropped at lunch counters and inside grocery stores and pastry shops. The resulting document listed no threat. And though most people of Syrian heritage living in the area were Jewish, Jews were excluded from the monitoring.
That is why there isn't much of a fuss. Too bad; they likely missed some nice dancing.
“This report will focus on the smaller Muslim community,’’ the report said.
Similarly, police excluded the city’s sizable Coptic Christian population when photographing, monitoring, and eavesdropping on Egyptian businesses in 2007, according to the police files.
Oh, so it was ONLY MUSLIMS and LEFTIES, 'eh?
Maybe you guys ought to talk, or maybe not.
“This report does not represent the Coptic Egyptian community and is merely an insight into the Muslim Egyptian community of New York City,’’ the police department wrote.
Many under surveillance were American-born citizens whose families have been here for the better part of a century....
Un-flipping-real!
Yes, the government must find SOME WAY to SPEND all that TAX LOOT!!! Not like they would want to give it back to you or provide health care!!!
And yes, dear 'murkn, they SPIED on AMERICAN CITIZENS!!!
The Demographics Unit was conceived in secret years ago as a way to identify communities where terrorists might hide and spot potential problems early.
And find patsies for their plots!
If the plainclothes officers, known as “rakers,’’ overheard anti-American sentiment or violent rhetoric, they flagged it for follow-up investigation.
They are raking something, all right.
If police, for example, received a tip that an Egyptian terrorist was plotting an attack, investigators looking for him would have the entire community already on file. They would know where he was likely to pray, who might rent him a cheap room, where he would find a convenient Internet cafe, and where he probably would buy his groceries.
As a result, many people were put into police files, not for criminal activities but because they were part of daily life in their neighborhoods. Shopkeepers were named in police files, their ethnicities listed. Muslim college students who attended a rafting trip or discussed upcoming religious lectures on campus were cataloged. Worshipers arriving at mosques were photographed and had their license plate numbers collected by police.
Hey, it is NOT LIKE THEY HAVE CRIMES TO SOLVE down in the city!
The Demographics Unit is one example of how, since the 2001 terrorist attacks, the police department has transformed itself into one of the most aggressive domestic intelligence agencies in the country, operating with little oversight and in areas outside the city such as New Jersey....
I don't know, but the word jurisdiction keeps coming up in my mind, followed by illegality.
Since the AP began reporting on these efforts last year, Bloomberg and the police department have offered varying explanations for the clandestine efforts.
At first, police spokesman Paul Browne denied the Demographics Unit existed.
That's called a LIE, and it is the FIRST THING out of GOVERNMENT'S MOUTH EVERY F***ING TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!
When documents proved that it did, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said his department only follows investigative leads....
Caught in a lie and they LIE AGAIN!!
--more--"
Think it can't get any worse?
"N.Y. police boss defends Muslim surveillance" Associated Press. March 16, 2012
NEW YORK - New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly challenged City Council members who want to create an inspector general to regulate the department’s surveillance of Muslims Thursday, saying his department needs no additional oversight.
What oversight?
In sometimes heated exchanges with council members at a budget hearing, Kelly defended his department’s counterterrorism surveillance program as well as another crime-fighting policy, the stopping, questioning, and frisking of people on the street.
I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that a cop defends fascism.
“I think there’s plenty of oversight,’’ Kelly said. He cited New York’s five district attorneys, two US attorneys, a committee that investigates police corruption, the department’s own internal affairs office, and a 2003 court order that governs police surveillance.
“I don’t know what more you would want,’’ Kelly said.
Yeah, they have been doing a great job so far, sigh.
Some council members say they are deeply concerned by a series of stories by the Associated Press detailing the extent of the surveillance program, which overwhelmingly targeted Muslim ethnic groups in its hunt for suspicious activity.
Don't forget your LIBERAL CONSTITUENTS!
Undercover police officers eavesdropped in cafes and grocery stores, infiltrated Muslim student groups and monitored the Internet activity of people as far away as Buffalo. They set up a command center in New Brunswick, N.J., without the knowledge of the FBI or local police.
They monitored people who changed their names from Arab-sounding names to more Americanized ones, created detailed catalogs of Muslim-owned businesses, and recorded the license plates of worshipers at a New Jersey mosque.
Some people whose names have appeared in the police reports are worried that such notes could damage their lives if the information were ever leaked or misused....
--more--"
Can't get anymore outrageous than that, right?
WRONG!!
"Iran’s UN Diplomats Videotaped NYC Landmarks, Police Say" Associated Press, March 22, 2012
WASHINGTON - Iranian diplomats may have carried out “hostile reconnaissance’’ of sites in New York as many as six times, a warning sign that the city might be targeted for a terrorist attack, according to a police official.
Just LAYING the GROUNDWORK for the FALSE FLAG ATTACK, 'eh?
I thought I smelled something familiar.
The incidents occurred between 2002 and 2010 and involved videotaping or photographing landmarks, rail service, and bridges, said Mitchell Silber, director of the city police department’s intelligence analysis unit, in testimony before a House panel Wednesday.
I guess New York City doesn't like tourists anymore so why don't you take your business elsewhere, readers.
Hezbollah, a militant group allied with Iran that has been designated a terrorist organization by the US State Department, also has ties to the New York region, he said.
“The city remains the most likely venue for global tensions with Iran to spill over onto American soil,’’ Silber said.
Tensions with Iran have increased over the country’s unwillingness to scale back its nuclear program.
--more--"
Taking Shots in Arizona
"Ariz. inmate executed with single drug" March 01, 2012
FLORENCE, Ariz. - Arizona executed an inmate yesterday for killing and dismembering his adoptive mother while he was out of prison on furlough for another crime, despite a spate of last-minute appeals over his mental disabilities and over how the state has violated its own execution protocol.
Laws are only for you and me.
Just before he was put to death, Robert Henry Moormann used his last words to apologize to his family and to the family of an 8-year-old girl he kidnapped and molested in 1972.
“I hope this brings closure and they can start healing now,’’ he said. “I just hope that they will forgive me in time.’’
Moormann is the first Arizona inmate to be executed with one lethal drug, as opposed to the state’s longstanding three-drug protocol.
The switch was made after corrections officials realized Monday that one of the three drugs had expired. In doing so, they violated their own new written execution protocol by giving Moormann only two days’ notice of how he would be put to death instead of seven days’ notice.
Moormann appeared to move more than other inmates executed with the three-drug protocol. Unlike the other inmates, who appeared to fall asleep immediately, Moormann kept his eyes open during the entire execution.
Arizona joins Ohio, Texas, and several other states that last year made the switch to pentobarbital after the only US manufacturer of execution drug sodium thiopental said it would discontinue production.
Related: Slow Saturday Special: States Scramble to Execute
In July, the only US-licensed manufacturer of pentobarbital said it would put the drug off-limits for executions. And a company that bought the pentobarbital line in December is required to also keep it from use by prisons for executions.
Once states use up their current supplies of pentobarbital, executions could be delayed across the country as officials look for yet another alternative.
Oh, what a bummer. The state won't be able to kill people for a while.
Hours after the Supreme Court turned down a request for a stay, the two-member execution team gave the lethal injection to Moormann at 10:23 a.m. The 63-year-old was pronounced dead at 10:33 a.m.
Related: Supreme Court Says Let God Sort 'em Out
The execution happened just a minute’s drive away from the Blue Mist Motel, where on Jan. 13, 1984, he beat, stabbed, and suffocated his adoptive mother, Roberta Moormann, 74, who sexually abused him into adulthood, according to defense lawyers.
He cut off her head, legs, and arms, halved her torso, and flushed all her fingers down the toilet. He then went to various businesses asking if he could dispose of spoiled meat and animal guts before he threw most of her remains in trash bins and sewers throughout the dusty town, about 60 miles southeast of Phoenix.
Gruesome.
--more--"
Related:
"Hundreds of concertgoers waiting outside an Arizona nightclub for a hip-hop show fled in panic as shooting erupted involving three gunmen, leaving at least 14 people wounded. Police arrested one suspect and were hunting two others....
--more--"
"Prison gets OK to keep treating Loughner" Associated Press March 06, 2012
PHOENIX - A federal appeals court denied a request Monday by the Tucson shooting suspect’s lawyers to halt their mentally ill client’s forced medication with psychotropic drugs and end his treatment at a Missouri federal prison facility.
The ruling by the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals allows prison authorities to continue to medicate and treat Jared Lee Loughner.
The court also rejected two other appeals by Loughner’s lawyers over their client’s forced medication.
The 23-year-old has pleaded not guilty to 49 charges stemming from the Jan. 8, 2011, shooting in Tucson that killed six people and wounded Representative Gabrielle Giffords and 12 others.
Loughner is being treated at a Missouri prison facility where he has been forcibly medicated for about seven months in a bid to try to make him mentally fit for trial.
US District Judge Larry Burns had ruled that Loughner was not psychologically fit to stand trial after experts concluded he suffers from schizophrenia. But Burns has said Loughner can eventually be made ready for trial after more treatment in Missouri. His current stay is set to end June 7.
Even though psychologists have said Loughner’s condition is improving, his lawyers have vigorously fought the government’s efforts to medicate him. Last summer, the appeals court temporarily halted Loughner’s forced medication, but it resumed once mental health specialists at the prison concluded that his condition was deteriorating further.
Loughner has demonstrated bizarre behavior since his arrest.
He was removed from a May 25 court hearing when he lowered his head to within inches of the courtroom table, then lifted his head and began a loud and angry rant. But his psychologist has said that since Loughner has been forcibly medicated, his condition has improved. He sat still and expressionless for seven hours at a hearing in September....
--more--"
Also see: Apathetic About Arizona Post
Or anything else I find in my Globe these days.
"An Arizona jury yesterday found a man guilty of child abuse for forcing his grandsons on grueling hikes in the Grand Canyon in searing August heat even as the boys threw up and two repeatedly fell because of cramping....
Yeah, time to move on.
--more--"
FLORENCE, Ariz. - Arizona executed an inmate yesterday for killing and dismembering his adoptive mother while he was out of prison on furlough for another crime, despite a spate of last-minute appeals over his mental disabilities and over how the state has violated its own execution protocol.
Laws are only for you and me.
Just before he was put to death, Robert Henry Moormann used his last words to apologize to his family and to the family of an 8-year-old girl he kidnapped and molested in 1972.
“I hope this brings closure and they can start healing now,’’ he said. “I just hope that they will forgive me in time.’’
Moormann is the first Arizona inmate to be executed with one lethal drug, as opposed to the state’s longstanding three-drug protocol.
The switch was made after corrections officials realized Monday that one of the three drugs had expired. In doing so, they violated their own new written execution protocol by giving Moormann only two days’ notice of how he would be put to death instead of seven days’ notice.
Moormann appeared to move more than other inmates executed with the three-drug protocol. Unlike the other inmates, who appeared to fall asleep immediately, Moormann kept his eyes open during the entire execution.
Arizona joins Ohio, Texas, and several other states that last year made the switch to pentobarbital after the only US manufacturer of execution drug sodium thiopental said it would discontinue production.
Related: Slow Saturday Special: States Scramble to Execute
In July, the only US-licensed manufacturer of pentobarbital said it would put the drug off-limits for executions. And a company that bought the pentobarbital line in December is required to also keep it from use by prisons for executions.
Once states use up their current supplies of pentobarbital, executions could be delayed across the country as officials look for yet another alternative.
Oh, what a bummer. The state won't be able to kill people for a while.
Hours after the Supreme Court turned down a request for a stay, the two-member execution team gave the lethal injection to Moormann at 10:23 a.m. The 63-year-old was pronounced dead at 10:33 a.m.
Related: Supreme Court Says Let God Sort 'em Out
The execution happened just a minute’s drive away from the Blue Mist Motel, where on Jan. 13, 1984, he beat, stabbed, and suffocated his adoptive mother, Roberta Moormann, 74, who sexually abused him into adulthood, according to defense lawyers.
He cut off her head, legs, and arms, halved her torso, and flushed all her fingers down the toilet. He then went to various businesses asking if he could dispose of spoiled meat and animal guts before he threw most of her remains in trash bins and sewers throughout the dusty town, about 60 miles southeast of Phoenix.
Gruesome.
--more--"
Related:
"Hundreds of concertgoers waiting outside an Arizona nightclub for a hip-hop show fled in panic as shooting erupted involving three gunmen, leaving at least 14 people wounded. Police arrested one suspect and were hunting two others....
--more--"
"Prison gets OK to keep treating Loughner" Associated Press March 06, 2012
PHOENIX - A federal appeals court denied a request Monday by the Tucson shooting suspect’s lawyers to halt their mentally ill client’s forced medication with psychotropic drugs and end his treatment at a Missouri federal prison facility.
The ruling by the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals allows prison authorities to continue to medicate and treat Jared Lee Loughner.
The court also rejected two other appeals by Loughner’s lawyers over their client’s forced medication.
The 23-year-old has pleaded not guilty to 49 charges stemming from the Jan. 8, 2011, shooting in Tucson that killed six people and wounded Representative Gabrielle Giffords and 12 others.
Loughner is being treated at a Missouri prison facility where he has been forcibly medicated for about seven months in a bid to try to make him mentally fit for trial.
US District Judge Larry Burns had ruled that Loughner was not psychologically fit to stand trial after experts concluded he suffers from schizophrenia. But Burns has said Loughner can eventually be made ready for trial after more treatment in Missouri. His current stay is set to end June 7.
Even though psychologists have said Loughner’s condition is improving, his lawyers have vigorously fought the government’s efforts to medicate him. Last summer, the appeals court temporarily halted Loughner’s forced medication, but it resumed once mental health specialists at the prison concluded that his condition was deteriorating further.
Loughner has demonstrated bizarre behavior since his arrest.
He was removed from a May 25 court hearing when he lowered his head to within inches of the courtroom table, then lifted his head and began a loud and angry rant. But his psychologist has said that since Loughner has been forcibly medicated, his condition has improved. He sat still and expressionless for seven hours at a hearing in September....
--more--"
Also see: Apathetic About Arizona Post
Or anything else I find in my Globe these days.
"An Arizona jury yesterday found a man guilty of child abuse for forcing his grandsons on grueling hikes in the Grand Canyon in searing August heat even as the boys threw up and two repeatedly fell because of cramping....
Yeah, time to move on.
--more--"
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Putting a Price on New Mexican Post
"New Mexico police in shootings got union checks" Associated Press, March 24, 2012
ALBUQUERQUE - Albuquerque police officers involved in a rash of fatal shootings over the past two years were paid up to $500 under a union program that some have likened to a bounty system in a department with a culture that critics have long contended promotes brutality.
Maybe someone should call the NFL commissioner.
Mayor Richard Berry called Friday for an immediate halt to the practice, which was first reported in the Albuquerque Journal during a week in which Albuquerque police shot and killed two men....
Although the union said the payments were intended to help the officers decompress from a stressful situation, one victim’s father and a criminologist said it sounded more like a reward program....
Law enforcement officials called speculation of a bounty system ridiculous, but acknowledged the payments could be poorly perceived.
“Frankly, it’s insulting and very insensitive that somebody would believe that a police officer would factor in a payment for such a difficult decision,’’ said Joe Clure, president of the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association.
Yeah, they don't need extra pay to blow people away here in AmeriKa.
--more--"
"New Mexico town elects mayor who called Obama evil" Associated Press, March 08, 2012
CLOVIS, N.M. - A former New Mexico mayor, who called President Obama “the carnal manifestation of evil’’ and said Obama’s election was part of a CIA conspiracy, has been elected to his former job, according to unofficial results.
He may not be far off there.
The Clovis News Journal reports that David Lansford, the former Clovis mayor, won his old job back Tuesday by defeating Mayor Gayla Brumfield with nearly 63 percent of the vote.
Lansford, 53, recently gained national attention after the newspaper reported his ties to a fringe religious and political group, ATLAH Media Network in New York. After threatening to withdraw from the race, Lansford later changed his mind and stayed in but said he felt disclosing his activities was unfair and would prompt others to label him “a whack job.’’
Lansford participated in ATLAH’s mock treason trial of Obama and wrote articles for its online publication, calling Obama an illegitimate president under the Constitution and “the carnal manifestation of evil,’’ claiming Obama’s election was part of a CIA conspiracy.
Both parties are guilty of that.
Lansford later told KOB-TV that he did not believe Obama had the legal right to be president because Lansford thinks he is not a natural born citizen.
It's not that; it is that his real father isn't who they have told us.
ATLAH Media Network has come under fire from the Southern Poverty Law Center, which posted details of the group’s trial on the center’s “Hatewatch’’ blog.’’ On various YouTube videos, ATLAH’s leader, James David Manning, also has blasted Obama for wanting to turn America into an “Islamic Caliphate’’ and has compared him to a pimp.
Related: Is the SPLC An American Arm of the Mossad?
With "right-wing" provocateurs playing their role.
“I think everybody in this country has their opinions,’’ Lansford said Tuesday night after winning his race. “And I think the great thing in America is where you can freely express your opinions.’’
For now.
Brumfield said she was surprised that someone with Lansford’s extreme views of the president managed such a large margin of votes. “I guess the city made their choice,’’ she said.
--more--"
Related: Santorum Takes Shots at Obama
"Missing 4-year-old’s body found in hole" Associated Press March 06, 2012
CARLSBAD, N.M. - Crews pulled the body of a 4-year-old boy from a narrow, 30-foot-deep hole in Carlsbad Monday, nearly two days after he disappeared while playing outside his home next door, state and local authorities said.
Crews reached the boy about 7 a.m. Monday and police spokesman Robert McDonald confirmed the body was that of Samuel Jones.
He lived in the house next door with his parents and two older siblings, a boy and girl ages 6 and 7, said Lieutenant Jennifer Moyers, a spokeswoman for the Carlsbad Police Department.
Some young cousins were at the house Saturday when Samuel was last seen playing in the yard.
The rural neighborhood is a mix of homes and vacant lots. A 4-foot-high chain link fence separates the boy’s home from his neighbor’s, where the hole is located in the backyard.
It is possible Samuel could have climbed the fence and simply fallen into the hole, which was dry, Moyers said.
Samuel was reported missing Saturday evening, prompting authorities to launch a search and issue an Amber Alert.
Family friend Gabriela Morrison said that moments before he disappeared, Samuel’s mother said he was playing with toys outside.
“She said he may have thrown them over the fence and went over to get them,’’ said Morrison. “She went in for a minute and when she came out, he was gone.’’ Police were called within a half-hour, she said.
A renewed house-to-house search had just started shortly after daybreak Sunday morning when a detective found the 14-inch-wide hole, Moyers said.
--more--"
Related: Missing hiker found alive in forest with cat
ALBUQUERQUE - Albuquerque police officers involved in a rash of fatal shootings over the past two years were paid up to $500 under a union program that some have likened to a bounty system in a department with a culture that critics have long contended promotes brutality.
Maybe someone should call the NFL commissioner.
Mayor Richard Berry called Friday for an immediate halt to the practice, which was first reported in the Albuquerque Journal during a week in which Albuquerque police shot and killed two men....
Although the union said the payments were intended to help the officers decompress from a stressful situation, one victim’s father and a criminologist said it sounded more like a reward program....
Law enforcement officials called speculation of a bounty system ridiculous, but acknowledged the payments could be poorly perceived.
“Frankly, it’s insulting and very insensitive that somebody would believe that a police officer would factor in a payment for such a difficult decision,’’ said Joe Clure, president of the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association.
Yeah, they don't need extra pay to blow people away here in AmeriKa.
--more--"
"New Mexico town elects mayor who called Obama evil" Associated Press, March 08, 2012
CLOVIS, N.M. - A former New Mexico mayor, who called President Obama “the carnal manifestation of evil’’ and said Obama’s election was part of a CIA conspiracy, has been elected to his former job, according to unofficial results.
He may not be far off there.
The Clovis News Journal reports that David Lansford, the former Clovis mayor, won his old job back Tuesday by defeating Mayor Gayla Brumfield with nearly 63 percent of the vote.
Lansford, 53, recently gained national attention after the newspaper reported his ties to a fringe religious and political group, ATLAH Media Network in New York. After threatening to withdraw from the race, Lansford later changed his mind and stayed in but said he felt disclosing his activities was unfair and would prompt others to label him “a whack job.’’
Lansford participated in ATLAH’s mock treason trial of Obama and wrote articles for its online publication, calling Obama an illegitimate president under the Constitution and “the carnal manifestation of evil,’’ claiming Obama’s election was part of a CIA conspiracy.
Both parties are guilty of that.
Lansford later told KOB-TV that he did not believe Obama had the legal right to be president because Lansford thinks he is not a natural born citizen.
It's not that; it is that his real father isn't who they have told us.
ATLAH Media Network has come under fire from the Southern Poverty Law Center, which posted details of the group’s trial on the center’s “Hatewatch’’ blog.’’ On various YouTube videos, ATLAH’s leader, James David Manning, also has blasted Obama for wanting to turn America into an “Islamic Caliphate’’ and has compared him to a pimp.
Related: Is the SPLC An American Arm of the Mossad?
With "right-wing" provocateurs playing their role.
“I think everybody in this country has their opinions,’’ Lansford said Tuesday night after winning his race. “And I think the great thing in America is where you can freely express your opinions.’’
For now.
Brumfield said she was surprised that someone with Lansford’s extreme views of the president managed such a large margin of votes. “I guess the city made their choice,’’ she said.
--more--"
Related: Santorum Takes Shots at Obama
"Missing 4-year-old’s body found in hole" Associated Press March 06, 2012
CARLSBAD, N.M. - Crews pulled the body of a 4-year-old boy from a narrow, 30-foot-deep hole in Carlsbad Monday, nearly two days after he disappeared while playing outside his home next door, state and local authorities said.
Crews reached the boy about 7 a.m. Monday and police spokesman Robert McDonald confirmed the body was that of Samuel Jones.
He lived in the house next door with his parents and two older siblings, a boy and girl ages 6 and 7, said Lieutenant Jennifer Moyers, a spokeswoman for the Carlsbad Police Department.
Some young cousins were at the house Saturday when Samuel was last seen playing in the yard.
The rural neighborhood is a mix of homes and vacant lots. A 4-foot-high chain link fence separates the boy’s home from his neighbor’s, where the hole is located in the backyard.
It is possible Samuel could have climbed the fence and simply fallen into the hole, which was dry, Moyers said.
Samuel was reported missing Saturday evening, prompting authorities to launch a search and issue an Amber Alert.
Family friend Gabriela Morrison said that moments before he disappeared, Samuel’s mother said he was playing with toys outside.
“She said he may have thrown them over the fence and went over to get them,’’ said Morrison. “She went in for a minute and when she came out, he was gone.’’ Police were called within a half-hour, she said.
A renewed house-to-house search had just started shortly after daybreak Sunday morning when a detective found the 14-inch-wide hole, Moyers said.
--more--"
Related: Missing hiker found alive in forest with cat
Dead Man's Dentist
"Colorado embalmer charged with stealing gold teeth" March 01, 2012
DENVER - A Colorado embalmer was indicted after authorities said he plundered the bodies of clients’ loved ones by taking their gold teeth and fillings.
Adrian Kline, 43, of Brighton is accused of pawning more than 8 ounces of gold along with jewelry taken while he worked alone at night at several mortuaries.
With gold fetching nearly $1,800 an ounce in the sluggish economy, pawnbrokers say the items could be worth a lot.
Rod Brandenburg, owner of Grandpa’s Pawn shop in Longmont, Colo., said a single crown can be worth up to $700, depending on the size of the tooth and the quality of the gold. Brandenburg said he was not approached by Kline.
Authorities were told that as part of the embalming process, the mouths of the deceased are sewn shut and the removal of any teeth would not be detected.
A grand jury indicted Kline on Feb. 23 on charges of providing false information to a pawnbroker and providing false information to a secondhand dealer. He turned himself in the next day and was released on $2,500 bond.
--more--"
DENVER - A Colorado embalmer was indicted after authorities said he plundered the bodies of clients’ loved ones by taking their gold teeth and fillings.
Adrian Kline, 43, of Brighton is accused of pawning more than 8 ounces of gold along with jewelry taken while he worked alone at night at several mortuaries.
With gold fetching nearly $1,800 an ounce in the sluggish economy, pawnbrokers say the items could be worth a lot.
Rod Brandenburg, owner of Grandpa’s Pawn shop in Longmont, Colo., said a single crown can be worth up to $700, depending on the size of the tooth and the quality of the gold. Brandenburg said he was not approached by Kline.
Authorities were told that as part of the embalming process, the mouths of the deceased are sewn shut and the removal of any teeth would not be detected.
A grand jury indicted Kline on Feb. 23 on charges of providing false information to a pawnbroker and providing false information to a secondhand dealer. He turned himself in the next day and was released on $2,500 bond.
--more--"
High School Basketball Star Chokes
"Dead inmate linked to other killings
DENVER - A man who died in prison in 1996 after being convicted of murdering three women also killed four others between 1979 and 1988 and might be responsible for as many as 20 homicides, authorities said.
Vincent Groves, who played on a high school championship basketball team, strangled most of his victims, said Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey.
Groves was first convicted of second-degree murder in 1982 for killing Tammy Sue Woodrum, 17, and was released in 1987 on mandatory parole. In 1990, Groves was sentenced to life in prison for the slaying of Juanita “Becky’’ Lovato, 19, and 20 years in prison for second-degree murder in the death of Diane Montoya Mancera, 25.
By using DNA from one of those murders, crime analysts have since linked Groves to the slayings of Emma Jenefor, 25, Joyce Ramey, 23, and Peggy Cuff, 20, who were all strangled in 1979, authorities said.
--more--"
DENVER - A man who died in prison in 1996 after being convicted of murdering three women also killed four others between 1979 and 1988 and might be responsible for as many as 20 homicides, authorities said.
Vincent Groves, who played on a high school championship basketball team, strangled most of his victims, said Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey.
Groves was first convicted of second-degree murder in 1982 for killing Tammy Sue Woodrum, 17, and was released in 1987 on mandatory parole. In 1990, Groves was sentenced to life in prison for the slaying of Juanita “Becky’’ Lovato, 19, and 20 years in prison for second-degree murder in the death of Diane Montoya Mancera, 25.
By using DNA from one of those murders, crime analysts have since linked Groves to the slayings of Emma Jenefor, 25, Joyce Ramey, 23, and Peggy Cuff, 20, who were all strangled in 1979, authorities said.
--more--"
Santorum Takes Shots at Obama
"Santorum backtracks on Romney comments
WEST MONROE, La. - Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum is taking back his comment that the country might as well reelect President Obama if Mitt Romney wins the GOP nomination.
Santorum emphasized Friday that he will support whomever wins the Republican primary.
On Thursday, Santorum argued that Romney and Obama are so similar on the issues that Republicans might just as well vote to give the president a second term instead of casting their ballots for Romney.
If the guy forestalls an Israeli assault on Iran and the coming of WWIII I will be considering it.
Santorum was campaigning at a gun range in northern Louisiana, and as he fired a .45-caliber semiautomatic Colt pistol, a woman in the audience shouted: “Pretend it’s Obama.’’
Santorum was wearing protective ear muffs. He said later that he didn’t hear the remark but denounced it as “absurd.’’
The Secret Service was investigating.
--more--"
Related: Uzbeki's Aim is Off
But ours isn't.
Don't worry, Mr. President; I may oppose your policies, but bloggers have your back.
There is no way the globe-kicking powers that be and their intelligence agency services pull off another lone gunmen event or an"Al-CIA-Duh" team pulling off an assassination. Maybe we believed once, long ago; however, THOSE DAYS ARE LONG GONE!
WEST MONROE, La. - Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum is taking back his comment that the country might as well reelect President Obama if Mitt Romney wins the GOP nomination.
Santorum emphasized Friday that he will support whomever wins the Republican primary.
On Thursday, Santorum argued that Romney and Obama are so similar on the issues that Republicans might just as well vote to give the president a second term instead of casting their ballots for Romney.
If the guy forestalls an Israeli assault on Iran and the coming of WWIII I will be considering it.
Santorum was campaigning at a gun range in northern Louisiana, and as he fired a .45-caliber semiautomatic Colt pistol, a woman in the audience shouted: “Pretend it’s Obama.’’
Santorum was wearing protective ear muffs. He said later that he didn’t hear the remark but denounced it as “absurd.’’
The Secret Service was investigating.
--more--"
Related: Uzbeki's Aim is Off
But ours isn't.
Don't worry, Mr. President; I may oppose your policies, but bloggers have your back.
There is no way the globe-kicking powers that be and their intelligence agency services pull off another lone gunmen event or an"Al-CIA-Duh" team pulling off an assassination. Maybe we believed once, long ago; however, THOSE DAYS ARE LONG GONE!
Santorum Steals Ron Paul's Strategy
Along with his delegates....
"Santorum seeking to coax delegates" March 22, 2012|Michael Levenson, Globe Staff
Rick Santorum’s campaign, pushed to the brink after losing badly to Mitt Romney in Illinois, believes it has found a way to cut into Romney’s delegate lead and potentially prevent the former Massachusetts governor from collecting the 1,144 delegates needed to secure the Republican presidential nomination.
Santorum’s unorthodox strategy centers on states where delegates are selected at local party conventions, after the popular vote has been held.
In those states, such as Washington, where Romney won the popular vote at the caucus, Santorum could still lure delegates to his side, because at these local conventions delegates do not have to follow the results of the popular vote.
Related:
"With the final results tallied from the Washington State’s Saturday caucuses, Mitt Romney held onto a strong lead, while Ron Paul narrowly edged out Rick Santorum for second place"
The strategy hinges on the idea that picking up even some of these delegates could keep Romney from reaching the threshold. Santorum would then hope to wrest the nomination from Romney in a floor fight at the Republican National Convention in August....
--more--"
"Santorum seeking to coax delegates" March 22, 2012|Michael Levenson, Globe Staff
Rick Santorum’s campaign, pushed to the brink after losing badly to Mitt Romney in Illinois, believes it has found a way to cut into Romney’s delegate lead and potentially prevent the former Massachusetts governor from collecting the 1,144 delegates needed to secure the Republican presidential nomination.
Santorum’s unorthodox strategy centers on states where delegates are selected at local party conventions, after the popular vote has been held.
In those states, such as Washington, where Romney won the popular vote at the caucus, Santorum could still lure delegates to his side, because at these local conventions delegates do not have to follow the results of the popular vote.
Related:
"With the final results tallied from the Washington State’s Saturday caucuses, Mitt Romney held onto a strong lead, while Ron Paul narrowly edged out Rick Santorum for second place"
The strategy hinges on the idea that picking up even some of these delegates could keep Romney from reaching the threshold. Santorum would then hope to wrest the nomination from Romney in a floor fight at the Republican National Convention in August....
--more--"
Globe Delegates Ron Paul Coverage
"Ron Paul, who has an ardent following but has yet to win a nominating contest, was campaigning in Alaska on Sunday. “Do I believe I can win? Yes,’’ he said on “Face the Nation.’’ “Do I believe the chances are slim? Yes, I do.’’
--more--"
"Santorum triumphs in Kansas, Romney takes Wyoming; Polls show races Tuesday in Miss. and Ala. are close" by Felicia Sonmez and Brady Dennis | Washington Post, March 11, 2012
WICHITA, Kan. - Final returns in Kansas showed Rick Santorum, former Pennsylvania senator, with 51 percent support, sweeping all but one of the state’s 105 counties, according to the Associated Press.
Santorum picked up 33 of the state’s 40 delegates at stake, cutting slightly into Romney’s overwhelming advantage.
In Wyoming, Romney won seven of the 12 delegates at stake, Santorum three, Paul one. Uncommitted also won one.
The contests in Kansas and Wyoming left Romney with 453 delegates in the AP’s count, more than all his rivals combined. Santorum had 217, while Gingrich had 107 and Paul had 47....
Romney and Gingrich decided to bypass the state in favor of campaigning in the South. That left Santorum battling on the ground against Paul, who drew huge crowds of enthusiastic young people in recent days but whose supporters did not materialize in great numbers on Saturday....
Meaning that the RESULTS were RIGGED by the REPUBLICAN PARTY!!
--more--"
Here is why:
"Paul says GOP rivals itching for another war in Mideast" March 16, 2012
COLUMBIA, Mo. - Republican candidate Ron Paul refused Thursday to commit to backing Mitt Romney if Romney becomes the party’s nominee for president.
An antiwar candidate, Paul said he would need more information about Romney’s foreign policy to make that decision.
“I’d talk to him and see what kind of a foreign policy he is going to have,’’ Paul, a congressman from Texas, said after a rally two days before Missouri’s presidential caucuses.
He's filled his advisors with former Bush neo-cons and wants to raise the "defense" budget.
Paul hit strongly on his antiwar theme while speaking to about 1,000 people at the University of Missouri’s flagship campus. Romney and Santorum also campaigned in Missouri this week.
Paul shied away from naming any of his rivals but suggested they all want to plunge the United States deeper into military conflicts in the Middle East.
All part of the PNAC plan set forth by their Zionist masters.
“They’re just itching, the other candidates are saying: ‘When are we going to go get Syria? Why don’t we start dropping bombs on Syria? When are we going to hit Iran?’ ’’ Paul said. “The Republicans are going to be in trouble unless they come our way and decide they want a president who’s more for peace than for war.’’
That is what the AMERICAN PEOPLE WANT -- and thus we are subjected to scripted and staged polls and elections.
--more--"
Speak of the devil:
"Romney’s support nationwide is at 40 percent, according to a new Gallup poll, which is the highest level any GOP candidate has reached during this campaign. He has a 14-point lead over Santorum, who got 26 percent in the poll. Newt Gingrich was third, with 14 percent, followed by Ron Paul, at 8 percent....
--more--"
--more--"
"Santorum triumphs in Kansas, Romney takes Wyoming; Polls show races Tuesday in Miss. and Ala. are close" by Felicia Sonmez and Brady Dennis | Washington Post, March 11, 2012
WICHITA, Kan. - Final returns in Kansas showed Rick Santorum, former Pennsylvania senator, with 51 percent support, sweeping all but one of the state’s 105 counties, according to the Associated Press.
GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney, whose campaign bypassed the state, ran a distant second at 21 percent. Newt Gingrich had 14 percent and Ron Paul 13 percent.
In Wyoming, Romney won seven of the 12 delegates at stake, Santorum three, Paul one. Uncommitted also won one.
The contests in Kansas and Wyoming left Romney with 453 delegates in the AP’s count, more than all his rivals combined. Santorum had 217, while Gingrich had 107 and Paul had 47....
Romney and Gingrich decided to bypass the state in favor of campaigning in the South. That left Santorum battling on the ground against Paul, who drew huge crowds of enthusiastic young people in recent days but whose supporters did not materialize in great numbers on Saturday....
Meaning that the RESULTS were RIGGED by the REPUBLICAN PARTY!!
--more--"
Here is why:
"Paul says GOP rivals itching for another war in Mideast" March 16, 2012
COLUMBIA, Mo. - Republican candidate Ron Paul refused Thursday to commit to backing Mitt Romney if Romney becomes the party’s nominee for president.
An antiwar candidate, Paul said he would need more information about Romney’s foreign policy to make that decision.
“I’d talk to him and see what kind of a foreign policy he is going to have,’’ Paul, a congressman from Texas, said after a rally two days before Missouri’s presidential caucuses.
He's filled his advisors with former Bush neo-cons and wants to raise the "defense" budget.
Paul hit strongly on his antiwar theme while speaking to about 1,000 people at the University of Missouri’s flagship campus. Romney and Santorum also campaigned in Missouri this week.
Paul shied away from naming any of his rivals but suggested they all want to plunge the United States deeper into military conflicts in the Middle East.
All part of the PNAC plan set forth by their Zionist masters.
“They’re just itching, the other candidates are saying: ‘When are we going to go get Syria? Why don’t we start dropping bombs on Syria? When are we going to hit Iran?’ ’’ Paul said. “The Republicans are going to be in trouble unless they come our way and decide they want a president who’s more for peace than for war.’’
That is what the AMERICAN PEOPLE WANT -- and thus we are subjected to scripted and staged polls and elections.
--more--"
Speak of the devil:
"Romney’s support nationwide is at 40 percent, according to a new Gallup poll, which is the highest level any GOP candidate has reached during this campaign. He has a 14-point lead over Santorum, who got 26 percent in the poll. Newt Gingrich was third, with 14 percent, followed by Ron Paul, at 8 percent....
--more--"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)