Chicago Police use Segways for various kinds of foot-related patrols – and now one has been used to chase down a criminal accused of shooting someone. The officer in question was rolling along, writing parking tickets, when he heard a shot and went to the nearby corner to investigate. There, he saw two men running away, and gave chase. It must have been simply thrilling! The cop in the black-and-white checkered cap eventually got his man: Police officer catches suspect in scooter chase — chicagotribune.com Martyka, who has been on the force for 17 years, said he got the electric…
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Economist’s View: Paul Krugman: Snow Job in the Desert And General Petraeus’s history also suggests that he is much more … political … than his press would have you believe. In particular, six weeks before the 2004 presidential election, General Petraeus published an op-ed article in The Washington Post in which he claimed — wrongly, of course — that there had been “tangible progress†in Iraq, and that “momentum has gathered in recent months.â€
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Kanjorski faces public, explains his Iraq vote | Wilkes-Barre News | timesleader.com – The Times Leader Kanjorski walked into the fire hall at 7:05 p.m. and immediately took off his suit jacket.“I’m sure it will get hot in here, especially when you start to yell at me,†he joked. “How many of you are mad or angry? I am too. I can not morally justify the pre-emptive invasion of another country unless the U.S. is in imminent danger of being attacked. We got there under false pretenses and we have stayed there.†Kanjorski took the time to tell the people…
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The GOPs crowded closet | Salon.com Joe Conason of Salon wonders: What makes the Republican Party — and the conservative movement more generally — so attractive to closeted homosexual men?
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Another day, another and another and another and another scandal that highlights the incompetence, hypocrisy, corruption, or greed of the current Administration. We can has impeechment naow? Mebbe not. We can has outrage? Yesh. First of all, let’s have a moment of silence for Lt. Colonel Ted Westhusing. I’ll remember him and his family in my prayers. He’s a victim of the corruption scandals (subset: Iraq) too. TPM Muckracker: Officer’s 2005 Suicide a Painful Reminder of Corruption in Iraq With the Pentagon’s inspector general set to arrive in Iraq in a few weeks to personally investigate allegations of corruption in,…
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Robert L. Borosage: The Utah Mine Disaster: Don’t Call It an Accident – Politics on The Huffington Post At Crandall Canyon, the miners were working at depths that test the limits of safety. Although Murray denies it, federal regulatory officials say that retreat mining was being practiced. Retreat mining is a perilous technique in which pillars of coal hold up portions of the roof, and when the area is mined, the pillars are pulled down, capturing the useful coal and collapsing the roof. Even hard-driving mine owners aren’t allowed to run amok. There are federal and state laws and regulations…
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How a ‘Good War’ in Afghanistan Went Bad – New York Times A year after the Taliban fell to an American-led coalition, a group of NATO ambassadors landed in Kabul, Afghanistan, to survey what appeared to be a triumph — a fresh start for a country ripped apart by years of war with the Soviets and brutal repression by religious extremists.With a senior American diplomat, R. Nicholas Burns, leading the way, they thundered around the country in Black Hawk helicopters, with little fear for their safety. They strolled quiet streets in Kandahar and sipped tea with tribal leaders. At a…
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AP: New Details on Tillmans Death – Forbes.com Among other information contained in the documents:_ In his last words moments before he was killed, Tillman snapped at a panicky comrade under fire to shut up and stop “sniveling.” _ Army attorneys sent each other congratulatory e-mails for keeping criminal investigators at bay as the Army conducted an internal friendly-fire investigation that resulted in administrative, or non-criminal, punishments. _ The three-star general who kept the truth about Tillman’s death from his family and the public told investigators some 70 times that he had a bad memory and couldnt recall details of…
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The Salt Lake Trib has a surprisingly robust editorial on the passing of Tammy Faye Bakker Messner. I’ve never approved of televangelists whose conspicuous consumption while spouting the so-called “prosperity gospel” seemed out of keeping with the Biblical message of helping the poor – it was too much like helping themselves to as much cash they could cadge from a gullible public. But even so, “nil nisi bonum” and all that. Although, I’m pretty taken with the image of Tammy Faye’s spackle – you know, that stuff she laid on with a trowel. Salt Lake Tribune – Tammy Faye Messner:…
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Pot crops, campsite found in preserve — chicagotribune.com n a Cook County forest preserve, about 200 yards from a highway commuters hum along every day, authorities uncovered an elaborate marijuana-growing operation, with 6-foot-tall plants nearly ready to harvest and campsites stocked with beer, canned food, insect repellent and, on one cot, a copy of High Times magazine.On Tuesday, as an Illinois National Guard helicopter circled above the Crabtree Nature Center Forest Preserve near northwest suburban Barrington, federal agents joined local police in chopping and burning as many as 30,000 marijuana plants found last month when a Forest Preserve District intern…