(NEW ZEALAND) An Auckland glue sniffer was pepper-sprayed and tasered after sparking a major police situation.
A 33-year-old man is now in police custody and undergoing a medical examination.
About midday, police were called by Mangere Bridge School and asked to move a man who was acting strangely outside their gates.
When police arrived the man ran into a nearby house and reportedly locked himself inside.
As police tried to gain entry the man allegedly attacked them with a stick and was pepper-sprayed.
Police spokeswoman Ana-Mari Gates-Bowey said the spray had no impact on the man, who then fled along Coronation Rd, trading his stick for an iron bar.
As more police units arrived the man fled down Dunstall Pl where he allegedly gained access into another house.
A dog handler was called and found the man hiding beneath the house.
Two officers then followed the police dog and its handler under the house and arrested the man.
''It was really confined space as you could imagine and they all had to crawl,'' Gates-Bowey said.
The man began to assault the police dog and that was when officers had to subdue him with a Taser.
He faces a raft of charges including aggravated assault, assault with a weapon, assaulting a police dog and entering two properties unlawfully and is expected to appear in the Manukau District Court tomorrow.
Dec 15 (Reuters) - An adulterated batch of bootleg liquor has killed at least 100 drinkers in eastern India, with dozens more arriving at a cramped rural hospital with poisoning symptoms.
The deaths come just days after a hospital fire killed 93 people in the same state of West Bengal. Both disasters highlight lax health and safety standards as the nation of 1.2 billion people rapidly modernise.
Residents of Mograhat, a town about 50 km (31 miles) south of West Bengal's capital Kolkata, fell severely ill after drinking liquor from several illegal shops. Ambulances brought more patients from villages to the town every few minutes.
"He drank the alcohol late in the afternoon yesterday...we didn't realise his health was deteriorating," Zamir Sardar said about his 32-year-old uncle Jahangir Sardar, a leather cutter, who passed away on Thursday.
"In the morning, his condition seemed very unusual, he cried out in pain. Then we brought him to the hospital as soon as we could, but he passed away within a couple of hours," he told Reuters on Thursday.
Half-conscious patients were carried into hospitals on stretchers, and treated on the floor due to lack of beds.
A hospital document seen by a Reuters witness listed 81 dead, while doctors at the hospital said the toll was climbing rapidly. The Press Trust of India news agency reported at least 107 had died.
Mass deaths from drinking moonshine are common in India, where the poor often drink "country liquor" which is cheaper than alcohol from licensed shops.
If visions of new firearms are dancing in your head this holiday season, join the club, because faster than a Santa's sleigh, guns are going out the door.
Well, not right away, of course - there is that 10-day waiting period, 11 here at TDS Guns in Rocklin, where Bob Norgard wasn't caught off-guard.
Many are putting a new piece under the Christmas tree in the interests of simply "doing what they need to do to protect themselves and their family."
This surge in gun sales - the best holiday sales season in three years, according to the Firearms Dealers Association got a shot in the arm on Black Friday.
"Black Friday sales were off the charts this year," a TDS employee said.
FBI stats show the number of background checks done on Black Friday three years ago pales in comparison to the number done this year - a 32-percent jump.
"People are just coming in to protect themselves," the employee said. "I think there's just a lot of things going on in the world that are getting people thinking."
More women are buying guns than ever before as criminals get more desperate.
Like break-ins while people are at home sleeping. It's happened twice in a few weeks in a Rocklin neighborhood.
TDS Guns says at least three women from the area have come in to buy a gun because as one victim told CBS13: "I'm gonna be ready for the next time."
Three people rode their horses into several bars and a supermarket during a ten-hour journey that ended with one cowboy being tasered by police.
Officers used a stun gun to arrest Michael Miller, 44, when he allegedly became confrontational after being asked to dismount his horse.
Miller was detained at 10:30pm on Sunday, more than ten hours after he and two others - Kenneth Becker and Roxanne Lange - began their ride atop the nearby Emerald Mountain. Becker and Lange were not arrested.
Following his release from the Routt County Jail on $750 bail, Miller told local newspaper the Steamboat Pilot: 'I had a great ride right up until the very end.'
The trio had descended on the town and rode their horses into a number of local bars.
Video footage shows an angry bartender confronting Lange as she rides her horse around the Old Town Pub.
He shouts: ''Get out of my restaurant. Take your horse and go. How did you fit a f*****horse through the door?''
The three riders then took their horses into a branch of Safeway where they approached the counter of an in-store Starbucks.
Again, they received a less-than-enthusiastic welcome from staff.
One onlooker, identified only as Jackson, told the Steamboat Pilot: 'I came out and saw three huge horses standing in front of our Starbucks counter, and one of the riders was trying to buy a bag of chips.
''These were three huge horses, not small horses. I looked at the riders and I told them: ''You have got to go. This violates every policy we have.''
Miller faces charges of harassment, disorderly conduct, obstructing a police officer and resisting arrest.
As for the All-American Muslim campaign, FFA says that 65 companies pulled their commercials after its supporters sent thousands of emails, though it's Lowe's that generated controversy with its admission.
''We understand the program raised concerns, complaints or issues from multiple sides of the viewer spectrum, which we found after doing research of news articles and blogs covering the show,'' a Lowe's spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter on Friday.
FFA's problem with All-American Muslim stems from the work of a couple of conservative writers: Robert Spencer, author of The Complete Infidel's Guide to the Koran, and Pamela Geller, author of Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance.
''The main danger of All-American Muslim is that it's misleading,'' writes Geller in an article reprinted by FFA. ''The Muslims portrayed in the show are free to choose their path. That is the beauty of living in a free society. But so many aren't. ...Who speaks for Jessica Mokdad, who lived not far from where this show is taping, in Dearborn, Michigan? Mokdad was honor murdered by her stepfather, Rahim Alfetlawi, for 'not following Islam.' ''
And Spencer writes: ''All that All-American Muslim gives us is a denunciation of 'Islamophobia' featuring Muslims who could never have conceivably inspired any suspicion of Islam in the first place. The show is a bait-and-switch.''
On Monday, civil-rights entities and liberal politicians were denouncing the decision made by the giant home-improvement retailer, as were some celebrities. Mia Farrow, Russell Simmons and Kal Penn, for example, are urging boycotts of Lowe's.
''I will sic evry civil rights agency on @lowes until they straighten this out,'' Simmons tweeted, while Farrow and Penn pointed followers to an online petition that denounces the retailer.
Members of Occupy Denver attempted to shut down a Wal-Mart distribution center yesterday.
Not many people showed up which made it difficult for them to accomplish their goal.
Also, this guy showed up with a flipcam and completely confounded them with tough questions like ''Why are you doing this?''
There are so many good interviews in this one clip.
You have to love the complete fail of pony tail guy who suggests Wal Mart executives be arrested but can't name a single reason for doing so.
We hope you enjoy the guy at the center of the clip most.... After realizing on camera that what he's doing is using force to get his way, he suddenly decides he doesn't want to be interviewed.
The really scary thing is that 20 years ago Barack Obama would have been out there with these folks.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration has delivered a formal request to Iran for the return of a U.S. surveillance drone captured by Iranian armed forces, but said it is not hopeful that Iran will comply.
President Barack Obama said Monday that the U.S. wants the top-secret aircraft back. ''We have asked for it back. We'll see how the Iranians respond,'' Obama said during a White House news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Monday.
In an interview broadcast live Monday night on Venezuelan state television, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said nothing to suggest his country would grant the U.S. request.
''The Americans have perhaps decided to give us this spy plane,'' Ahmadinejad said. ''We now have control of this plane,,''
Florida cops are looking for a man who was wearing a Chewbacca mask during a drive-by shooting last week.
The Wookie wannabe was riding in the front passenger seat of a vehicle that pulled up to a residence in West Palm Beach, according to a police report. Occupants of the car then began shooting at a group of men standing in front of the 11th Street property.
A female witness told cops that the vehicle was ''occupied by three armed individuals with handguns,'' one of whom ''wore a mask that resembled that of Chewbacca from the movie, Stars Wars.''
Cops have arrested Mario Johnson, 21, and Jodeci Window, 19, in connection with the shooting, which is believed to have been gang-related. Both men have been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
The armed passenger in the Chewbacca mask remains at large.
The bloody drug war in Mexico shows no sign of relenting. Neither do calls for tighter border security amid rising fears of spillover violence.
This hardly seems a time the U.S. would be willing to allow people to cross the border legally from Mexico without a customs officer in sight. But in this rugged, remote West Texas terrain where wading across the shallow Rio Grande undetected is all too easy, federal authorities are touting a proposal to open an unmanned port of entry as a security upgrade.
By the spring, kiosks could open up in Big Bend National Park allowing people from the tiny Mexican town of Boquillas del Carmen to scan their identity documents and talk to a customs officer in another location, at least 100 miles (160 kilometers) away.
The crossing, which would be the nation's first such port of entry with Mexico, has sparked opposition from some who see it as counterintuitive in these days of heightened border security. Supporters say the crossing would give the isolated Mexican town long-awaited access to U.S. commerce, improve conservation efforts and be an unlikely target for criminal operations.
''People that want to be engaged in illegal activities along the border, ones that are engaged in those activities now, they're still going to do it,'' said William Wellman, Big Bend National Park's superintendent. ''But you'd have to be a real idiot to pick the only place with security in 300 miles (480 kilometers) of the border to try to sneak across.''
North Korea warned South Korea on Sunday of ''unexpected consequences'' if Seoul displays Christmas lights near the tense border, and vowed to retaliate for what it called propaganda attempts.
The South'efence ministry said earlier it was considering a request by a Seoul church group to put up Christmas lights on a steel tower atop a military-controlled hill near the border.
The North's official website--Uriminzokkiri--called the plan ''a mean attempt for psychological warfare'' against the communist state and threatened to retaliate immediately when the lights are switched on.
The 155-metre (511 feet) hill in the South, about three kilometres (two miles) from the border, is within range of North Korean gunfire.
''The enemy warmongers....should be aware that they should be held responsible entirely for any unexpected consequences that may be caused by their scheme,'' it said.
''This issue.....is not something to be ignored quietly,'' it said.
The two Koreas in 2004 reached a deal to halt official-level cross-border propaganda and the South stopped its annual Christmas illumination ceremony.
But Seoul resumed the ceremony last December amid high military tensions with Pyongyan.
Cross-border ties have been icy since the South accused the North of torpedoing its warship with the loss of 46 lives in March 2010.
Last week, the Senate voted 93-7 to pass S 1867, the National Defense Authorization Act.
Congress has passed this Act every year since 1961.
The Act sets policy and outlines financial and legal specifications for the U.S. Department of Defense, such as benefits for military personnel and purchase of equipment.
The ACLU, Occupy San Francisco and other left wing groups are hysterically protesting that one of its provisions encroaches on civil liberties, and Obama has threatened to veto it. Section 1032 states that suspected terrorists related to al Qaeda and 911 shall be detained indefinitely by the military without a civilian trial until the end of authorized military hostilities.
The Senate Foreign Service Committee leadership asserts that the controversial provision merely codifies existing law. Liberal columnist Glenn Greenwald writing for Salon agrees,''......it doesn't actually change the status quo all that much.''
In Hamdi v. Rumsfeld (2004), the U.S. Supreme Court held that U.S. citizen and suspected terrorist Yaser Esam Hamdi could be held indefinitely as an ''illegal enemy combatant.'' However, the court qualified it by saying that U.S. citizens have the right to challenge their enemy combatant status before a judge. U.S. citizen and accused terrorist Jose Padilla, aka the shoe bomber, was arrested in the U.S. and held by the military without a trial for three and a half years. The Fourth Circuit has upheld his detainment.
Section 1032 applies to both terrorists arrested overseas and on U.S. soil. An amendment failed that would have exempted U.S. citizens.
U.S. citizens are not included in the mandatory detention provision, instead the bill states that they may be detained, and an amendment was added giving the president the option to give them a civilian trial instead.
A compromise amendment was adopted which recognizes that existing laws regarding U.S. citizens suspected of terrorism shall be respected. An amendment by Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) to limit military detentions to only those captured overseas failed by 55-35, and an amendment by Mark Udall (D-CO) to strip out the entire detention provision failed by 67-31.
Some on the right are also speaking up against the bill. A writer for Forbes has labeled it ''the greatest threat to civil liberties Americans face. ''Senators Rand Paul (R-TX) and Mark Kirk (R-IL) were the only Republican Senators to vote against it.
Opponents contend it violates due process protections provided in the Sixth Amendment's right to a trial as well as Article 3, Section 3 of the Constitution, which guarantees those accused with treason additional due process protections. The bill is accused of significantly expanding the military's detention authority. Hamdi v. Rumsfeld is distinguished by pointing out that Hamdi was arrested overseas, not in the U.S. Critics assert it turns the entire world into an endless battlefield, observing that it has been over 10 years since 911.
This is just more of the same old debate that has been going on for the past 10 years over detaining suspected terrorists without a trial. The problem is that the world has changed due to terrorism. Before the surge of terrorism, war was black and white, fought in identifiable locations and usually with a clear beginning and end. Now, terrorists come from multiple countries and strike multiple countries periodically and indefinitely. The fundamental question comes down to whether terrorism should be treated like war. If it is not and addressed through regular law enforcement, suspected terrorists will receive the full panoply of rights provided to regular criminals.
Ron Marks, Senior Fellow at the George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute, believes there no longer needs to be a distinction. ''We can debate the merits of 20th century laws that distinguish between U.S. soil and overseas,,'' he wrote in a defense of the Act. In some ways, it is almost quaint. But quaint will not deter our enemies.'' Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH)argues that the bill is needed because ''America is part of the battlefield.''
There needs to be a more honest debate over the Act. Right now the hysterical protests against it are not providing a full and accurate portrayal of what the Act actually does. It merely codifies existing federal law. Omitting key information does not bolster the philosophical argument against military detainment of suspected terrorists, but creates a perception that opponents are using deceptive tactics to sneakily shove through an unpopular position. There are some persuasive arguments against it that should be thoroughly analyzed without the veil of misleading language. Greenwald, one of the few on the left to honestly evaluate the bill, sums up the Act the best, ''To be perfectly honest, I just couldn't get myself worked up over a bill that, with some exceptions, does little more than formally recognize and codify what our Government is already doing.''
Michael Graham reports from the front lines in the War on Christmas in liberal Taxachusetts:
On Sunday evening, my kids and I dropped into the Friendly's in Sudbury for a post-Christmas-shopping-day treat. They got ice cream decorated with smiley-faces, and I got a few minutes of blessed relief from ''Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer'' blasting from the car's CD player.
Suddenly the door at Friendly's swings open and who to my wondering eyes should appear, but... SANTA! Perfect timing: Ice cream, kids and Santa Claus---what could be better on a December's eve?
I watched as Santa, dressed in full regalia including the little Santa spectacles on his nose, worked his way from table to table, greeting the delighted children.
''Merry Christmas,'' the kids cried.
''Happy Holidays,'' Santa replied.
Every table, the same thing from Santa: ''Happy Holidays.'' Not a single ''Christmas'' crossed his lips. So by the time he made it back to our booth, I was ready.
''Santa, thanks so much for stopping by to wish my kids a 'Merry Christmas!' ''I said before he could even speak.
''Happy Holidays!'' he returned.
''And how about a 'Merry Christmas' for the kids?'' I insisted.
''Happy Holidays, kids,'' he insisted right back.
I pushed him again, even more directly, and he glared at me. A deep, dark, ''Omigodit's CreepySanta'' glare that kids know and secretly fear every time they see the Big Guy at the mall.
Through gritted teeth came the final ''Happy Holidays'' before he quickly moved on to the next table.
Don't come down too hard on Santa; refraining from saying the forbidden word ''Christmas'' was apparently a condition of his employment.
Alec Baldwin just went OFF about American Airlines, its employees, post 9/11 travel, and the entire airline industry--and best of all....this rant came wrapped in an apology.
In his letter, just published on Huffingtonpost.com, Baldwin begins by apologizing to passengers on yesterday's flight...saying, ''It was never my intention to inconvenience anyone with my 'issue' with a certain flight attendant.'' He claims the woman singled him out to ''make some example of me.''
Baldwin continues....''It's no secret that the level of service on US carriers has deteriorated to a point that would make Howard Hughes red-faced. Filthy planes, barely edible meals, cuts in jet service to less-traveled locations.''
He also claims the industry used 9/11 ''as an excuse to make the air travel experience as inelegant as possible.''
In his closing shot, Baldwin says many flight attendants ''walk the aisles of an airplane with a whistle around their neck and a clipboard in their hands,'' and make air travel a ''Greyhound bus experience.''
Now there is proof that the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives discussed using ''Fast and Furious'' to push for new regulations on gun sales.
CBS News reported:
Documents obtained by CBS News show that the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) discussed using their covert operation ''Fast and Furious'' to argue for controversial new rules about gun sales.
In Fast and Furious, ATF secretly encouraged gun dealers to sell to suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels to go after the ''big fish.'' But ATF whistleblowers told CBS News and Congress it was a dangerous practice called ''gunwalking,'' and it put thousands of weapons on the street. Many were used in violent crimes in Mexico. Two were found at the murder scene of a U.S. Border Patrol agent.
ATF officials didn't intend to publicly disclose their own role in letting Mexican cartels obtain the weapons, but emails show they discussed using the sales, including sales encouraged by ATF, to justify a new gun regulation called ''Demand Letter 3''. That would require some U.S. gun shops to report the sale of multiple rifles or ''long guns.'' Demand Letter 3 was so named because it would be the third ATF program demanding gun dealers report tracing information.
Over at Wired, Spencer Ackerman gives us the long and short of things:
''There are still changes swirling around the Senate, but this looks like the basic shape of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act. Someone the government says is ''a member of, or part of, al-Qaida or an associated force'' can be held in military custody ''without trial until the end of the hostilities authorized by the Authorization for Use of Military Force.'' Those hostilities are currently scheduled toend the Wednesday after never. The move would shut down criminal trials for terror suspects.
But far more dramatically, the detention mandate to use indefinite military detention in terrorism cases isn’t limited to foreigners. It's confusing, because two different sections of the bill seem to contradict each other, but in the judgment of the University of Texas' Robert Chesney--a nonpartisan authority on military detention-- ''Us. citizens are included in the grant of detention authority.''
An amendment that would limit military detentions to people captured overseas failed on Thursday afternoon. The Senate soundly defeated a measure to strip out all the detention provisions on Tuesday.
So despite the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of a right to trial, the Senate bill would let the government lock up any citizen it swears is a terrorist, without the burden of proving its case to an independent judge, and for the lifespan of an amorphous war that conceivably will never end. And because the Senate is using the bill that authorizes funding for the military as its vehicle for this dramatic constitutional claim, it's pretty likely to pass. ''Weirder still, the bill's chief architect, Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), tried to persuade skeptics that the bill wasn't so bad. His pitch? ''The requirement to detain a person in military custody under this section does not extend to citizens of the United States,'' he said on the Senate floor on Monday. The bill would just letthe government detain a citizen in military custody, not force it to do that. Reassured yet?
Sen. Susan Collins on Wednesday blasted the Defense Department for classifying the Fort Hood massacre as workplace violence and suggested political correctness is being placed above the security of the nation's Armed Forces at home.
During a joint session of the Senate and House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday, the Maine Republican referenced a letter from the Defense Department depicting the Fort Hood shootings as workplace violence. She criticized the Obama administration for failing to identify the threat as radical Islam.
Thirteen people were killed and dozens more wounded at Fort Hood in 2009, and the number of alleged plots targeting the military has grown significantly since then. Lawmakers said there have been 33 plots against the U.S. military since Sept. 11, 2001, and 70 percent of those threats have been since mid-2009. Major Nidal Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, who is being held for the attacks, allegedly was inspired by radical U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in late September. The two men exchanged as many as 20 emails, according to U.S. officials, and Awlaki declared Hasan a hero.
A convicted felon chose the wrong victim when he tried to rob an MMA fighter Friday night on the Southwest Side and ended up with two black eyes and a gunshot wound to the ankle.
Police say 24-year-old Anthony Miranda walked up to a parked car near 55th and Kenneth about 11:30 p.m. and asked the drive--whose identity was not released by police--for a lighter.
When the driver said he didn't have one, Miranda allegedly pulled a handgun, pointed it at the driver and demanded money. After getting some money, he ordered the driver out of the car, police News Affairs Officer John Mirabelli said.
At some point, Miranda's attention was diverted and the victim was able to grab control of the gun and the two wrestled.
During the fight, Miranda accidentally discharged his gun, shooting himself in the ankle, Mirabelli said.
The victim, who told police he's a martial arts expert and ultimate fighting champion was able to pin Miranda down until police arrived. Police arrived to find Miranda with a face full of cuts and two black eyes. He was taken to Holy Cross Hospital for treatment, police said.
Miranda, a convicted felon, is charged with armed robbery and aggravated discharge of a firearm, a Class X felony.
He was ordered held on $350,000 bond Sunday, according to the CooK County Sheriff's office.
Records show he has several convictions, including at least one for a residential burglary.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Thousands of people have lodged complaints over independent Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee's (CHAY'-feez) decision to call a spruce erected at the Statehouse a holiday tree and not a Christmas tree.
Chafee spokeswoman Christine Hunsinger says his office has received 3,600 telephone calls of protest since Fox News included his office number in a piece on the tree squabble last week. All but 700 of the calls were from out of state. Ninety-two callers supported Chafee.
Chafee says the word ''holida'' is inclusive and reflects Rhode Island's origins as a haven for religious diversity. Previous governors also used the term to describe Statehouse trees.
Chafee will host a tree lighting ceremony Tuesday evening. A Republican state lawmaker upset with Chafee's terminology plans to decorate a Christmas tree outside her Statehouse office at the same time.
She's gone from Occupy Wall Street to occupying a job on Wall Street. Tracy Postert went from Zuccotti Park to Wall Street, where she was hired by Thomas Belesis and Wayne Kaufman.
Down-on-her-luck protester Tracy Postert spent 15 days washing sidewalks and making sandwiches at Zuccotti Park--then landed a dream job at a Financial District investment firm thanks to a high-powered passer-by who offered her work.
The Upper West Sider, who has a Ph.D. in biomedical science specializing in pharmacology, was unemployed and had all but given up on finding work in her preferred field of academia when she joined the movement in October.
She held signs that read, ''Reagan sucks'' and, ''I'll vote after the revolution.''
But she said she still needed to get a real job. So she made a new sign.
On the front, she wrote, ''Ph.D. Biomedical Scientist seeking full time employment,''and on the back, ''Ask me for my resume.''
It caught the eye of Wayne Kaufman, chief market analyst for John Thomas Financial Brokerage. The exec wasn't looking to hire, but he took Postert’s resume anyway.
The next day, Kaufman, impressed by her CV, sent her an e-mail asking if she'd like to come for an interview.
It wasn’t far--only two blocks from Zuccotti Park at 14 Wall St.
Kaufman offered her a job as a junior analyst evaluating medical companies as potential investments.
Postert said the decision to accept was painful. But practicality won out.
The starting salary as a junior analyst is near minimum wage, but in time, she can earn a cool six figures, assured Kaufman.
She's already studying for her exams to be a certified financial analyst.
''I want to get a perfect score.'' she said.
Life has definitely changed for the former Occupier.
She's in the office by 8 a.m., and she still has to get used to Kaufman's rallying cry of ''Go! Go!Go!'' blaring over the speakers in the morning.
CEO Thomas Belesis said he believes Postert will be a great asset.
Newt Gingrich on Nancy Pelosi's threats: "I'd like to thank Speaker Pelosi for what I regard as an early Christmas gift. Well, she's suggesting that she's going to use material that she developed when she was on the ethics committee. That's a fundamental violation of rules of the House and I would hope that members would immediately file charges against her the second she does it. I think it tells you how capriciously political that committee was that she was on it. It tells you how tainted the outcome was that she was on it. And I think what she said to you today should explain a great deal about what happened on the ethics process that Nancy Pelosi was at the heart of it and is now prepared to totally abuse the House process. So I regard it as a useful education to the American people to see what a tainted political ethics operation Nancy Pelosi was engaged in and I would hope the House would immediately condemn her if she uses any information that was gathered by the committee."
Jesse Jackson isn't a stranger to gaining attention for uttering bizarre comments and confusing platitudes. The reverend, who has also made two runs for the American presidency, served as President Bill Clinton's spiritual adviser, and made a name for himself as a human rights activist, is gaining attention for some very odd comments he made about Christmas.
On the Rainbow PUSH Saturday Morning Forum this weekend, Jackson decided to take on ''non-christian'' merchants who he says have tried--in the past--to ''lure'' people into ''Santa Claus' birthday party.'' Below, find the full text of his message (via Newsbusters)
This (Christmas) is a holy day for the poor, not a holiday for the merchants. I once heard some people that I know say that when Christmas Eve is over, they have midnight services in the back of their shops. These were non-Christian people I was, they say we, say every December 24th around midnight we have, we close our shops and we're not Christian but we start singing ''What a Friend We Have in Jesus.'' We use Jesus to lure you into Santa Claus's birthday party and unless you have the holiday spirit, which is his songs, his wine, and his stuff you're not welcome at the party of the man whose party it is. This is, Christmas should be a poor people's holy day.
It's been called the ''world's most expensive car crash.'' Auto fans across the world are demanding answers to what caused a pile-up on stretch of Japanese highway that laid waste to a small fortune of luxury automobiles--maybe $4 million worth.
A Japanese newscast showed the aftermath of the wreck that claimed 14 vehicles in all, including 8 ferraris, 3 Mercedes, a Lamborghini, a Skyline, and a Prius that no one cares about.
Reports are that a group of foreign car enthusiasts were heading to Hiroshima from Kyushu when one of the drivers lost control trying to overtake a car on a wet, curved part of China Road in Yamaguchi Prefecture. The Ferrari driver reportedly hit the median and created a reaction that caused the other cars in the lineup to crash.
''While we regret that the passenger feels she had an unpleasant screening experience, TSA does not include strip searches as part of our security protocols and one was not conducted in this case,'' the statement read.
''Private screening was requested by the passenger, it was granted and lasted approximately 11 minutes,'' the TSA statement read.'' TSA screening procedures are conducted in a manner designed to treat all passengers with dignity, respect and courtesy and that occurred in this instance.''
A review of closed-circuit television at the airport showed that proper procedures during the rest of her screening were followed, Jonathan Allen, a TSA spokesman, said in a statement.
The private screening was not recorded.
Lenore Zimmerman said she was taken to a private room and made to take off her pants and other clothes after she asked to forgo the screening because she worried it would interfere with her defibrillator.
Zimmerman, who spends half the year in Long Beach, New York, said she banged her shin during the process and it bled ''like a pig,'' partly because she is on blood-thinning medication. She said an emergency medical technician patched her up, but she was told to see a doctor when she arrived in Florida to make sure the wound didn't get infected.
There are no records indicating medical attention was called on her behalf.
She missed her flight and had to take one two-and-a-half hours later,she said.
Her son Bruce Zimmerman said he'd like to see someone fired, and screeners re-trained after his mother's ordeal.
''My mother is a little old woman. She's not disruptive or uncooperative,''he said Saturday.''I don't understand how this happened.''
He'll be on vacation practically the entire month of December.
It's good to be King.
President Obama is planning to jet off to Hawaii for a 17-day Christmas vacation.
Obama, who visited the island two weeks ago for an economic summit, is set to relax in Honolulu from Dec. 17 to Jan. 2.
The family trip to Hawaii over the holidays has become routine for Obama, who grew up on the island.
At a fund-raising event during the summit last month--held prior to the congressional supercommittee announcing it failed to reach a budget deal--Obama said the budget fight in Congress could prompt him to call off the trip.
''Michelle and the girls will be back shortly for Christmas vacation as we do every year,'' Obama said.
''We'll see if Washington gets its business done so I can get here as well. But that's always a challenge.''
Obama picks up the bill for the family's $3,500-a-day private beachfront compound in Oahu, but taxpayers are stuck with the tab for travel and security costs
Jesse Jackson isn't a stranger to gaining attention for uttering bizarre comments and confusing platitudes. The reverend, who has also made two runs for the American presidency, served as President Bill Clinton's spiritual adviser, and made a name for himself as a human rights activist, is gaining attention for some very odd comments he made about Christmas.
On the Rainbow PUSH Saturday Morning Forum this weekend, Jackson decided to take on ''non-christian'' merchants who he says have tried--in the past--to ''lure'' people into ''Santa Claus' birthday party.'' Below, find the full text of his message (via Newsbusters)
This (Christmas) is a holy day for the poor, not a holiday for the merchants. I once heard some people that I know say that when Christmas Eve is over, they have midnight services in the back of their shops. These were non-Christian people I was, they say we, say every December 24th around midnight we have, we close our shops and we're not Christian but we start singing ''What a Friend We Have in Jesus.'' We use Jesus to lure you into Santa Claus's birthday party and unless you have the holiday spirit, which is his songs, his wine, and his stuff you're not welcome at the party of the man whose party it is. This is, Christmas should be a poor people's holy day.
He'll be on vacation practically the entire month of December.
It's good to be King.
President Obama is planning to jet off to Hawaii for a 17-day Christmas vacation.
Obama, who visited the island two weeks ago for an economic summit, is set to relax in Honolulu from Dec. 17 to Jan. 2.
The family trip to Hawaii over the holidays has become routine for Obama, who grew up on the island.
At a fund-raising event during the summit last month--held prior to the congressional supercommittee announcing it failed to reach a budget deal--Obama said the budget fight in Congress could prompt him to call off the trip.
''Michelle and the girls will be back shortly for Christmas vacation as we do every year,'' Obama said.
''We'll see if Washington gets its business done so I can get here as well. But that's always a challenge.''
Obama picks up the bill for the family's $3,500-a-day private beachfront compound in Oahu, but taxpayers are stuck with the tab for travel and security costs
When Congress passed a spending bill earlier this month to keep the government from shutting down, it quietly lifted a funding ban on horse meat inspections meaning horses can once again be butchered in the US for human consumption, and slaughterhouses could open within 30 to 90 days.
The US has no outright ban on horse slaughter, although two states do ban it and many others regulate the sale of horse meat, but funding for horse meat inspections was cut off in 2006. Congress did not allocate new money to pay for inspections, meaning the USDA would have to find the money within its own struggling budget.
The USDA says that no US slaughterhouse currently butchers horses for human consumption, but that if one opens, it will conduct inspections. Most of the meat produced would be sold in European and Asian countries,the AP notes.
Animal welfare activists are not happy, and promise outcry if a slaughterhouse opens, but those who advocate for slaughterhouses say that the ban increased horse neglect and abandonment.
Some such activists are working to open a plant in Wyoming, North Dakota, Nebraska, or Missouri, and one president of a pro-slaughter group says many investors are interested.
The passage of state medical-marijuana laws is associated with a subsequent drop in the rate of traffic fatalities, according to a newly released study by two university professors.
The study, by University of Colorado Denver professor Daniel Rees and Montana State University professor D. Mark Anderson, found that the traffic-death rate drops by nearly 9 percent in states after they legalize marijuana for medical use.
The researchers arrived at that figure, Rees said, after controlling for other variables such as changes in traffic laws, seat-belt usage and miles driven. The study stops short of saying the medical-marijuana laws actually causes the drop in traffic deaths.
"We were pretty surprised that they went down," Rees said Tuesday.
Rees said the main reason for the drop appears to be that medical-marijuana laws mean young people spend less time drinking and more time smoking cannabis.
Legalization of medical marijuana, the researchers report, is associated with a 12-percent drop in the alcohol-related fatal-crash rate and a 19-percent decrease in the fatality rate of people in their 20s, according to the study.
The study also found that medical- marijuana legalization is associated with a drop in beer sales.
"The result that comes through again and again and again is (that) young adults . . . drink less when marijuana is legalized and traffic fatalities go down," Rees said.
The study is sure to add fuel to a debate over the impacts of Colorado's medical-marijuana boom on traffic safety, which has embroiled cannabis advocates and law enforcement officials for more than a year.
Reports are that a group of foreign car enthusiasts were heading to Hiroshima from Kyushu when one of the drivers lost control trying to overtake a car on a wet, curved part of China Road in Yamaguchi Prefecture. The Ferrari driver reportedly hit the median and created a reaction that caused the other cars in the lineup to crash.
