like former Congressman and child molester Mel Reynolds (D-IL) who looks like Jack Webb?
"They called themselves the 'Chicago connection' and appeared confident that their contacts with Illinois politicians would help persuade newly elected President Barack Obama to lift longtime economic sanctions against leaders in Zimbabwe, according to federal charges unsealed Tuesday," the Tribune reports.Bob Mugabe . . .
"The two, Prince Asiel Ben Israel and C. Gregory Turner, were charged with violating federal law by lobbying on behalf Zimbabwe's longtime president, Robert Mugabe, whose violent and oppressive regime has been the target of U.S. economic sanctions since 2003." Chicago Tribune via Steve Rhodes' Beachwood Reporter: By Steve Rhodes / Posted on August 7, 2013
Dadirai was at home alone when Mugabe's thugs arrived. They descended on the woman, hacking off one of her feet and one of her arms, before setting fire to the dying woman in front of her house. "That was not isolated case," the shocked head of the delegation Marwick Khumalo said after his return to Harare.
It is part of a new strategy on the part of Mugabe's henchmen. Instead of just hunting MDC party officials, many of whom have gone underground, they are going after their family members as well. Last Monday, for example, they caught Abigal Chiroto, the 27-year-old wife of the newly elected MDC mayor of Harare, Emmanuel Chiroto, along with her four-year-old son. They set the house on fire and disappeared with the woman and child, before releasing the boy at a police station.
Abigal's body was found a few days later not far from her house. She still wore a blindfold and her body was so terribly battered that her brother-in-law could only identify her by her clothes and hair. Aus Dem Spiegel -By Jan Puhl and Toby Selander 2008
Children as young as eight are being beaten by Robert Mugabe's henchmen as he hunts down opposition supporters, it emerged yesterday.Here in Chicago, only Steve Rhodes ( no relation to Cecil) and his wonderful Beachwood Reporter has bothered to connect the Race-Grifters/Political Hypocrites/Feebs and Dummies Coalition-
White farmer Roy Bennet, an MP for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, told how three youngsters, aged eight to 12, were beaten by police trying to find out the whereabouts of their MDC-supporting parents.
In another incident, a magistrate was dragged from court, beaten and paraded through the streets.
Mr Bennet said: 'What is happening in Zimbabwe is not a white and black issue. It is an orchestrated attempt by the president to destroy the opposition. It is not land reform - it is the suppression of another view.'
Mr Bennet, who faces arrest for speaking out, said Zimbabwe was experiencing a level of ethnic cleansing 'not seen since Kosovo'. Opposition to Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party was being crushed by any means - from mutilation to starvation, he added.
Hundreds of Mugabe supporters ran riot yesterday in the eastern town of Chipinge, evicting white businessmen and looting their premises.
The violence came as it emerged that Mugabe's wife Grace had chosen the farm she wanted to take over.
She apparently marched on to the Iron Mask estate 30 miles from Harare last week and told the owners John and Eva Matthews, who are both in their 70s, to quit.
More than 90 white farmers, all charged with failing to leave their land, had their cases heard in courts. Among those given 24 hours to vacate their farms was Dennis Streak, father of Zimbabwe's cricket captain Heath Streak.
But here's the interesting part:At least Steve Rhodes bothers to ask*.
"According to the charges, Ben Israel and Turner attempted to persuade undisclosed federal and state government officials - including an Illinois state senator and two U.S. representatives from Chicago - to push for the lifting of the sanctions. The two reached a consulting agreement with Zimbabwe officials to be paid $3.4 million, authorities charged, but it was unclear whether they received any money."
So who was the state senator and who were the U.S. representatives?
"The 56-page criminal complaint described in detail how Ben Israel and Turner allegedly enlisted the support of a 'State Senator A,' who hoped that the election of Obama would cause the U.S. to take a fresh look at Zimbabwe.
"That same state senator wrote in a 2009 letter that he had made a 'commitment' to Mugabe and could use his leadership position with the National Black Caucus of State Legislators to organize a delegation to travel to Zimbabwe and fight for the removal of the sanctions, according to the complaint.
"Records show that state Sen. Donne Trotter, D-Chicago, chairs the international committee of that caucus. Efforts to reach Trotter were unsuccessful Tuesday. His attorney, Thomas Anthony Durkin, said he had not seen the complaint and had no comment.
"Ben Israel and Turner were successful in arranging for State Senator A and several other lawmakers to meet with Mugabe and other top Zimbabwean officials during several trips there in 2008 and 2009, according to the charges."
And the reps?
-Read Beachwood Reporter and support it with a modest but significant donation or One Big-Assed Grant!" One day soon, the Illinois Legislature is going to make it legal for gay and lesbian couples to get married in Illinois — despite the Catholic Church’s opposition.You see the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) cut its grants to the lllinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) because the ICIRR's board of directors was touched by Same Sex Marriage Illinois, a much broader coalition of money, influence, ink and iconoclasts, to fully support same sex marriage in its fight for immigrant and refugee rights. The Chicago Tribune published a letter that excoriated Francis Cardinal George and CCHD for what it regards as a heartless neglect of the poor. The letter’s signers were Chicago Aldermen Proco Joe Moreno, Danny Solis, Patrick O’Connor, and James Cappelman; Cook County Commissioners John Fritchey and Larry Suffredin; and Chicago City Clerk Susana Mendoza - huge Catholics, Huge. Like the Castro Brothers (Cuba, not Ohio) the signers are all about the Church, poor and really helping folks - Salvation Army and such.
But there will still be poor kids in Albany Park who need help fixing their bikes.": markbrown@suntimes.com Twitter: @MarkBrownCST
It is intellectually and morally dishonest to use the witness of the Church’s concern for the poor as an excuse to attack the Church’s teaching on the nature of marriage. Four weeks ago, Pope Francis wrote: “…marriage should be a stable union of man and woman…this union is born of their love, as a sign and presence of God’s own love, and of the acknowledgement and acceptance of the goodness of sexual differentiation, whereby spouses can become one flesh and are enabled to give birth to a new life.” In other words, when it comes to marriage and family life, men and women are not interchangeable. The whole civilized world knows that.
Those who signed the open letter in the Tribune proclaimed their adherence to the Catholic faith even as they cynically called upon others to reject the Church’s bishops. The Church is no one’s private club; she is the Body of Christ, who tells us he is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” Because the signers of the letters are Catholic, they know that in a few years, like each of us, they will stand before this same Christ to give an account of their stewardship. Jesus is merciful, but he is not stupid; he knows the difference between right and wrong. Manipulating both immigrants and the Church for political advantage is wrong.
The decision of the Illinois legislature to initiate the requirement in the first place — knowing it would hamstring Catholic Charities, which provides essential services — demonstrates an appalling willingness to allow an adult agenda — the mainstream acceptance of gay behavior — to supersede children’s interests. The spokesman for the state’s child welfare agency has said he thinks the child welfare system Catholic Charities helped to build is strong enough to withstand CC’s departure. But it’s hard to believe the shuttering of so many CC affiliates won’t make the burden of finding a home for children in need even greater.( emphasis my own)
The Great Bull Run, modeled after the festival that takes place each year in Pamplona, Spain, will hold its inaugural run next month in Richmond, Va., and will hit at least eight other cities before arriving at Hawthorne Race Course in Stickney on July 12.
Organizer Bradford Scudder decided to create the U.S.-based event to give thrill-seekers a chance to run with bulls without having to spend the time and money to fly to Spain.
For a fee starting at $35 , participants can enjoy a bull run followed by a rotten tomato fight, another Spanish tradition.
The Great Bull Run website warns participants that the race is "the real deal" and that participants "accept the risk that you might be trampled, gored, rammed or tossed in the air by a bull." Participants must pay an insurance fee, and medical staff will be at the site.
To minimize risk, organizers said they will use less aggressive bulls than the ones that run in Spain.
When the commanders had assembled at Salamis from the States which have been mentioned, they began to deliberate, Eurybiades having proposed that any one who desired it should declare his opinion as to where he thought it most convenient to fight a sea-battle in those regions of which they had command; for Attica had already been let go, and he was now proposing the question about the other regions. And the opinions of the speakers for the most part agreed that they should sail to the Isthmus and there fight a sea-battle in defence of the Peloponnese, arguing that if they should be defeated in the sea-battle, supposing them to be at Salamis they would be blockaded in an island, where no help would come to them, but at the Isthmus they would be able to land where their own men were.
50. While the commanders from the Peloponnese argued thus, an Athenian had come in reporting that the Barbarians were arrived in Attica and that all the land was being laid waste with fire. For the army which directed its march through Boeotia in company with Xerxes, after it had burnt the city of the Thespians (the inhabitants having left it and gone to the Peloponnese) and that of the Plataians likewise, had now come to Athens and was laying waste everything in those regions. Now he had burnt Thespiai 3101 and Plataia because he was informed by the Thebans that these were not taking the side of the Medes.
51. So in three months from the crossing of the Hellespont, whence the Barbarians began their march, after having stayed there one month while they crossed over into Europe, they had reached Attica, in the year when Calliades was archon of the Athenians. And they took the lower city, which was deserted, and then they found that there were still a few Athenians left in the temple, either stewards of the temple or needy persons, who had barred the entrance to the Acropolis with doors and with a palisade of timber and endeavoured to defend themselves against the attacks of the enemy, being men who had not gone out to Salamis partly because of their poverty, and also because they thought that they alone had discovered the meaning of the oracle which the Pythian prophetess had uttered to them, namely that the "bulwark of wood" should be impregnable, and supposed that this was in fact the safe refuge according to the oracle, and not the ships.
52. So the Persians taking their post upon the rising ground opposite the Acropolis, which the Athenians call the Hill of Ares, 32 proceeded to besiege them in this fashion, that is they put tow round about their arrows and lighted it, and then shot them against the palisade. The Athenians who were besieged continued to defend themselves nevertheless, although they had come to the extremity of distress and their palisade had played them false; nor would they accept proposals for surrender, when the sons of Peisistratos brought them forward: but endeavouring to defend themselves they contrived several contrivances against the enemy, and among the rest they rolled down large stones when the Barbarians approached the gates; so that for a long time Xerxes was in a difficulty, not being able to capture them.
Themistocles heard them out -
So when they were gathered together, before Eurybiades proposed the discussion of the things for which he had assembled the commanders, Themistocles spoke with much vehemence 36 being very eager to gain his end; and as he was speaking, the Corinthian commander, Adeimantos the son of Okytos, said: "Themistocles, at the games those who stand forth for the contest before the due time are beaten with rods." He justifying himself said: "Yes, but those who remain behind are not crowned."Themistocles went all NPR for a while -
60. At that time he made answer mildly to the Corinthian; and to Eurybiades he said not now any of those things which he had said before, to the effect that if they should set sail from Salamis they would disperse in different directions; for it was not seemly for him to bring charges against the allies in their presence: but he held to another way of reasoning, saying: "Now it is in thy power to save Hellas, if thou wilt follow my advice, which is to stay here and here to fight a sea-battle, and if thou wilt not follow the advice of those among these men who bid thee remove the ships to the Isthmus. For hear both ways, and then set them in comparison. If thou engage battle at the Isthmus, thou wilt fight in an open sea, into which it is by no means convenient for us that we go to fight, seeing that we have ships which are heavier and fewer in number than those of the enemy. Then secondly thou wilt give up to destruction Salamis and Megara and Egina, even if we have success in all else; for with their fleet will come also the land-army, and thus thou wilt thyself lead them to the Peloponnese and wilt risk the safety of all Hellas. If however thou shalt do as I say, thou wilt find therein all the advantages which I shall tell thee of:—in the first place by engaging in a narrow place with few ships against many, if the fighting has that issue which it is reasonable to expect, we shall have very much the better; for to fight a sea-fight in a narrow space is for our advantage, but to fight in a wide open space is for theirs. Then again Salamis will be preserved, whither our children and our wives have been removed for safety; and moreover there is this also secured thereby, to which ye are most of all attached, namely that by remaining here thou wilt fight in defence of the Peloponnese as much as if the fight were at the Isthmus; and thou wilt not lead the enemy to Peloponnese, if thou art wise. Then if that which I expect come to pass and we gain a victory with our ships, the Barbarians will not come to you at the Isthmus nor will they advance further than Attica, but they will retire in disorder; and we shall be the gainers by the preservation of Megara and Egina and Salamis, at which place too an oracle tells us that we shall get the victory over our enemies. 37 Now when men take counsel reasonably for themselves, reasonable issues are wont as a rule to come, but if they do not take counsel reasonably, then God is not wont generally to attach himself to the judgment of men."
61. When Themistocles thus spoke, the Corinthian Adeimantos inveighed against him for the second time, bidding him to be silent because he had no native land, and urging Eurybiades not to put to the vote the proposal of one who was a citizen of no city; for he said that Themistocles might bring opinions before the council if he could show a city belonging to him, but otherwise not. This objection he made against him because Athens had been taken and was held by the enemy. Then Themistocles said many evil things of him and of the Corinthians both, and declared also that he himself and his countrymen had in truth a city and a land larger than that of the Corinthians, so long as they had two hundred ships fully manned; for none of the Hellenes would be able to repel the Athenians if they came to fight against them.Finally, Themistocles unloaded common sense on the waxed-up ears of the timid -
62. Signifying this he turned then to Eurybiades and spoke yet more urgently: "If thou wilt remain here, and remaining here wilt show thyself a good man, well; but if not, thou wilt bring about the overthrow of Hellas, for upon the ships depends all our power in the war. Nay, but do as I advise. If, however, thou shalt not do so, we shall forthwith take up our households and voyage to Siris in Italy, which is ours already of old and the oracles say that it is destined to be colonised by us; and ye, when ye are left alone and deprived of allies such as we are, will remember my words."
63. When Themistocles thus spoke, Eurybiades was persuaded to change his mind; and, as I think, he changed his mind chiefly from fear lest the Athenians should depart and leave them, if he should take the ships to the Isthmus; for if the Athenians left them and departed, the rest would be no longer able to fight with the enemy. He chose then this counsel, to stay in that place and decide matters there by a sea-fight.
The legal basis on which SACs are selected and designated is the EU Habitats Directive, transposed into Irish law in the as amended in 1998 and 2005. The Directive lists certain habitats and species that must be protected within SACs. Irish habitats include raised bogs, blanket bogs, turloughs, sand dunes, machair (flat sandy plains on the north and west coasts), heaths, lakes, rivers, woodlands, estuaries and sea inlets. The 25 Irish species which must be afforded protection include Salmon, Otter, Freshwater Pearl Mussel, Bottlenose Dolphin and Killarney Fern.Bollocks.
TWO north Kerry men are to appear at Tralee Circuit Criminal Court in October on charges relating to the extraction of turf from a protected bog.ohn O'Connor (50) and Christopher McCarthy (26), each with an address of Kilbaha, Moyvane, are charged with using a machine to extract turf from the protected Moanveanlagh bog near Listowel last May.
At Listowel District Court the book of evidence in the case was served on the men, who are fully contesting the charges. They were once again supported by members of Turf Cutters and Contractors Association (TCCA) from north Kerry, Clare, Kildare and Galway, including Deputy Luke 'Ming' Flanagan (pictured right), who was in court for the proceedings.
At a previous court sitting, State Solicitor Ed O'Sullivan alleged that National Parks and Wildlife Service officers and gardai found Mr O'Connor and Mr McCarthy operating turfcutting machines on Moanveanlagh Bog on May 20 of last year, two months after a ban on cutting turf in Moanveanlagh was introduced. The investigation continued on May 21, 22 and 24, he said.
"Further inspections were carried out and found that turf was still being cut on different parts of the bog by personnel using the exact same machinery," he said.
At the time, Judge Larkin said she would not accept jurisdiction in the case, am on Tuesday sent the case forward to the October sittings of the Circuit court in Tralee.
Colorado's first recognized same-sex divorce is final.
Supporters of Colorado's new civil unions law say the court ruling sets a precedent for gay couples married in other states who want to legally terminate their relationships here without uprooting their lives.
Juli Yim and Lorelei Jones wed in Massachusetts in 2009, where same-sex marriage is legal.
Yim tells the Fort Collins Coloradoan ( http://tinyurl.com/nzqoxwd ) the relationship went sour and she found a new partner in Colorado.
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle has fired a top county ethics official who was trying to punish Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios for putting relatives on his payroll.
MaryNic Foster was quietly dumped from her $110,355-a-year post in May after five years as executive director of the county’s Board of Ethics.
Now, lookee, here, Dan! Toni fired a Goo-Go?
With Preckwinkle’s support, the ethics board had hired attorney David Hoffman, the former City of Chicago inspector general, earlier this year to press its case that Berrios should pay $10,000 in fines and fire three family members.Berrios, who also chairs the Cook County Democratic Party, has ignored ethics board rulings against him. He maintains that the county’s ethics rules apply only to the Cook County Board, not to the assessor or other countywide officials whose positions were established by the state of Illinois.
Foster said top aides to Preckwinkle didn’t give her a reason for removing her from the post she’s held since 2008 — a job that’s exempt from rules that ban political considerations from influencing county hiring or firing decisions.
Due to my proclivity for ignoring articles, plays, poems, or chit-chat featuring the Female Johnson, I very nearly missed a delightful AP report on Pope Francis' visit to Rio Slums -Despite heavy security and a cold rain, Francis waded into the cheering crowds and hugged and kissed residents young and old before blessing the altar at the shoebox of a church that serves the community. He prayed before a replica of Brazil's patron saint, the Virgin of Aparecida, and met with a family in their squat yellow home.
"He gave each of us a rosary, he took photos with everyone and embraced each one," said Diego Rodrigues, a 26-year-old friend of the da Penha family who received the papal visit. "I think everyone but the pope was speechless!"
Francis brought a message of hope, following in the footsteps of Pope John Paul II who visited two such favelas during a 1980 trip to Brazil and Mother Teresa who visited Varginha itself in 1972. Her Missionaries of Charity order have kept a presence in the shantytown ever since.
Like Mother Teresa, Francis brought his own personal history to the visit: As archbishop of Buenos Aires, then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio frequently preached in the poverty-wracked slums of his native city, putting into action his belief that the Catholic Church must go to the farthest peripheries to preach and not sit back and wait for the most marginalized to come to Sunday Mass.
In remarks to a crowd of several thousand Varghina residents, who slushed through a muddy soccer field to welcome him, Francis acknowledged that young people in particular have a sensitivity toward injustice.
"You are often disappointed by facts that speak of corruption on the part of people who put their own interests before the common good," Francis told the crowd. "To you and all, I repeat: Never yield to discouragement, do not lose trust, do not allow your hope to be extinguished. Situations can change, people can change."
It was a clear reference to the violent protests that paralyzed parts of the country in recent weeks as Brazilians furious over rampant corruption and inefficiency within the country's political class took to the streets.
Francis blasted what he said was a "culture of selfishness and individualism" that permeates society today, demanding that those with money and power share their wealth and resources to fight hunger and poverty.
"No amount of peace-building will be able to last, nor will harmony and happiness be attained in a society that ignores, pushes to the margins or excludes a part of itself," Francis said.
"Events like this, with the pope and all the local media, get everyone so excited," said Antonieta de Souza Costa, a 56-year-old vendor and resident of Varginha. "I think this visit is going to bring people back to the Catholic Church."
In the last two decades, the church has lost legions of faithful in the country, most of them poorer Brazilians who have switched to Pentecostal evangelical congregations with a huge presence in Varginha and most other slums.
The Varginha slum butts up against what until about six months back was the largest "cracolandia" — crackland — in Brazil, where hundreds of crack cocaine users gathered under a train overpass and used the drug openly night and day. Crumbling brittle shacks still give the area a bombed-out feel.
Although historically justice has been understood differently, from “sevenfold retribution … where if someone hits you on the cheek you slit their throat … [resulting in] spiraling violence,” to “one for one kind of retribution,” Alexander stated Jesus brought a new “revolutionary” way as the “Che Guevara Jesus, the nonviolent revolutionary Jesus.” This Jesus, as opposed to the “Colonial Settler Jesus” Alexander joked he asked into his heart at a young age, advocated “turning the cheek of equality, turning the cheek of respect, staying engaged in the conflict and in the problem and working toward hopefully transformation and a solution.”
He concluded: “I’m hoping that the next … few decades, the next few years, already starting that the European North American lighter pigmented folks that are this way because we live further from the equator and create the color hierarchies … that we can listen to and learn from the churches around the world … Skin pigment being a tie to privilege is a serious problem. Amen?”Nah. Historically justice has been understood differently, just as anything is understood differently by one whose cultural context is limited to Ward Churchill. Che-sus of Nazareth? Dan'l Boone of Bethlehem?
But Michael Sherrard, executive director of Faithful America, which launched the petition drive, contends “priests and therapists will be trained in dangerous and debunked techniques that don’t cure homosexuality but do contribute to suicide and depression.”Faithful America's mission statement says " Love They Neighbor, No Exceptions," yet its members like Move-on.org and Organizing for American have ready made comment trolls to bash the likes of Cardinal Dolan and Cardinal George and Catholics in general. Ms. Knowles dug deeply to unearth all of persons and organization deemed objectionable to Faithful America, but offered absolutely no information about Faithful America in words or deed.
He added, “By appearing at this conference and celebrating mass there, Cardinal George is implicitly endorsing practices that cost the lives of gay and lesbian youth.”
George responded in an email: “Courage is an organization of homosexually-oriented Catholics who support one another in their quest for holiness as homosexuals. I haven’t seen their program, but their literature speaks only of spirituality, not of therapy.
“When national Catholic organizations meet, the local Bishop is often asked to offer Mass for them. That’s the only reason I’ll be there. (It’s called loving your neighbor.)”
(infinity and not a side-ways 8 -the old lemniscate) any selected carbon foot-print becomes as a god - no questions asked or allowed.
The IRS chief counsel is named William Wilkins. And again, he is one of only two Obama political appointees in the IRS.What happens in the White House does not stay in the White House. Detroit Happens. Syria Happens. ObamaCare should not happen. Things happen because almost twenty years ago, Barack H. Obama, community activist, Woods Fund Executive Director, and neighborhood guy of Bill Ayers attached himself to Valerie Jarrett,Real Estate player and Slum Queen. She's the crazy aunt who makes uncle Jeremiah Wright seem like Justice Clarence Thomas, in my humble opinion.
What was the chief counsel's office looking for? The letter to Mr. Werfel says Mr. Hull's supervisor, Ronald Shoemaker, provided insight: The counsel's office wanted, in the words of the congressional committees, "information about the applicants' political activities leading up to the 2010 election." Mr. Shoemaker told investigators he didn't find that kind of question unreasonable, but he found the counsel's office to be "not very forthcoming": "We discussed it to some extent and they indicated that they wanted more development of possible political activity or political intervention right before the election period."
It's almost as if—my words—the conservative organizations in question were, during two major election cycles, deliberately held in a holding pattern.
So: What the IRS originally claimed was a rogue operation now reaches up not only to the Washington office, but into the office of the IRS chief counsel himself.
At the generally lacking House Oversight Committee Hearings on Thursday, some big things still got said.
Ms. Hofacre of the Cincinnati office testified that when she was given tea-party applications, she had to kick them upstairs. When she was given non-tea-party applications, they were sent on for normal treatment. Was she told to send liberal or progressive groups for special scrutiny? No, she did not scrutinize the applications of liberal or progressive groups. "I would send those to general inventory." Who got extra scrutiny? "They were all tea-party and patriot cases." She became "very frustrated" by the "micromanagement" from Washington. "It was like working in lost luggage." She applied to be transferred.
For his part, Mr. Hull backed up what he'd told House investigators. He described what was, essentially, a big, lengthy runaround in the Washington office in which no one was clear as to their reasons but everything was delayed. The multitiered scrutiny of the targeted groups was, he said, "unusual."
I am a
Canna
What Flower
Are You?
