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marc
Supporter
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Posted: Mon Oct 10th, 2005 02:38 pm |
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Your all invited...As of yesterday we got an inground pool....Water is a little cool though...LOL...This sux...We got 11 inches of rain in 36 hours...Had about 2 feet of water in the basement and I have 2 sump pumps in the pit that got a great workout...Fortunately we learned from a flood 5 years ago and put up shelves and hung clothes from the ceiling...No point in cleaning up yet....Rain for the next 3 days...My real concern is if the power goes out ...If it does I'm phucked...Could have been worse...Going to go help some of the neighbors now....
Heavy Rain Causes Floods in Eastern U.S.
By DAVID TIRRELL-WYSOCKI, Associated Press Writer
Prolonged, heavy rain caused flooding from North Carolina to New Hampshire over the weekend, forcing hundreds of people to evacuate, knocking out electricity, weakening dams and making roads impassable.
At least four people died, including two people killed in New Hampshire when a car apparently drove off a washed-out bridge into flood waters, officials said Sunday. A fifth person was missing and feared dead.
Gov. John Lynch returned from Europe to take charge of relief efforts in New Hampshire. He declared a state of emergency and called in 500 National Guard members for assistance.
"This is the worst damage they've seen from flooding in 25 years in New Hampshire," the governor said Sunday night.
By Monday, the floodwaters were receding in some areas. But with rain in the forecast for the next several days, the National Weather Service warned that dams in Stoddard, Alstead and Bradford could fail.
The two New Hampshire residents who died in the car were identified as Steven Day, of Unity, and Ashley Gate, of Claremont, both 20, state police said. A kayaker on New Hampshire's North Branch River was feared dead after he was washed away while clinging to a tree as rescue workers tried to reach him.
In Pennsylvania, state police said Tiffany Wieand, 19, of Milford Township died Saturday when she tried to drive through a flooded roadway and lost control of her car. The vehicle slid into a guardrail, flipped onto its side and was submerged under the bridge, trapping her inside, police said.
In Allentown, two boys were rescued from Cedar Creek on Saturday after their inflatable raft overturned. Firefighters tossed the boys — who were clinging to a small tree — a pair of life jackets, and then pulled them to safety with a rope.
In New Jersey, 2-year-old Shane Belluardo of Tobyhanna, Pa., died from head injuries Saturday after his parents' car lost control on eastbound Interstate 80 in Knowlton, and he slid beneath the wheels of a passing dump truck, according to state Police Sgt. Steven Jones.
Eight-foot-high flood waters from the Ramapo River caused officials in New Jersey's Bergen County to evacuate about 30 residents Saturday night and early Sunday, Mayor John Szabo said. Rain also knocked out electricity to as many as 6,000 utility customers across the state.
In Vermont, more than 200 people, including residents of a Brattleboro senior citizen home, were evacuated Saturday night.
And in North Carolina, Gov. Mike Easley warned residents to stay away from swollen rivers and creeks, already high from Hurricane Ophelia last month. The state's Department of Transportation reported 41 roads closed because of flooding.
The National Weather Service reported that more than 5 inches of rain fell in Wilmington, N.C., on Saturday. North Carolina's Brunswick and Pender counties saw between 7 and 10 inches of rain in four days. Allentown, Pa., received 10 inches between Friday and Saturday.
"They didn't predict this much rain," said Joan Kinney, mayor of Boiling Spring Lakes, N.C., which unofficially measured more than 15 inches of rain. "It took us all by surprise."
The most severe flooding in New Hampshire was in Keene, where some major roads were under as much as 4 to 6 feet of water, fire officials said. Keene Fire Chief Gary Lamoureaux estimated 30 to 40 percent of the downtown area was under water. Keene State College canceled Monday classes and told out-of-town students to stay away.
About 500 people were evacuated, and about 150 were staying at a shelter in a recreation center Sunday. In nearby Stoddard, residents were also told to leave. Officials heard reports that houses washed into rivers, dams were breached and bridges in several communities were washed out.
In Alstead, firefighters made a dramatic rescue when they tied a rope to Capt. Don Martin, who braved debris-filled floodwaters to retrieve three people stranded in a home that appeared ready to be washed away by floodwaters.
Martin had to make the trip back and forth through the rising and rushing water three times. Each time he surrendered his rescue belt, secured a resident to the rope, held onto a loop in the rope and signaled the crew 200 feet away to start pulling.
The residents, a couple and a man in their 50s or 60s, were not hurt.
"I fell into one ditch that had to be at least 4 feet deep," Martin said.
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marc
Supporter
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Posted: Mon Oct 10th, 2005 01:46 am |
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ROTFLMAO...
AP: FBI May Relax Drug Use Hiring Policy
By TED BRIDIS, Associated Press Writer
The FBI, famous for its straight-laced crime-fighting image, is considering whether to relax its hiring rules over how often applicants could have used marijuana or other illegal drugs earlier in life.
Some senior FBI managers have been deeply frustrated that they could not hire applicants who acknowledged occasional marijuana use in college, but in some cases already perform top-secret work at other government agencies, such as the CIA or State Department.
FBI Director Robert Mueller will make the final decision. "We can't say when or if this is going to happen, but we are exploring the possibility," spokesman Stephen Kodak said
The change would ease limits about how often — and how many years ago — applicants for jobs such as intelligence analysts, linguists, computer specialists, accountants and others had used illegal drugs.
The rules, however, would not be relaxed for FBI special agents, the fabled "G-men" who conduct most criminal and terrorism investigations. Also, the new plan would continue to ban current drug use.
The nation's former anti-drug czar said he understands the FBI's dilemma.
"The integrity of the FBI is a known national treasure that must be protected," said retired Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, who used to head the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. "But there should be no hard and fast rule that suggests you can't ever have used drugs. As long as it's clear that's behind you and you're overwhelmingly likely to remain drug free, you should be eligible."
Current rules prohibit the FBI from hiring anyone who used marijuana within the past three years or more than 15 times ever. They also ban anyone who used other illegal drugs, such as cocaine or heroin, within the past 10 years or more than five times.
"That 16th time is a killer," McCaffrey said.
The new FBI proposal would judge applicants based on their "whole person" rather than limiting drug-related experiences to an arbitrary number. It would consider the circumstances of a person's previous drug use, such as their age, and the likelihood of future usage. The relaxed standard already is in use at most other U.S. intelligence agencies.
Entry-level intelligence analysts usually earn between $36,000 and $53,000, depending on qualifications and where they are assigned to work. Entry-level FBI special agents earn $42,548.
The FBI proposal contrasts with the agency's starched image and its drug-fighting history. A generation of video game players can remember seeing the FBI seal and slogan, "Winners don't use drugs," attributed to former FBI Director William Sessions, on popular arcade games from the late 1980s.
Private companies have wrestled with the same problem. Employers complain they can't afford to turn away applicants because of marijuana use that ended years earlier, said Robert Drusendahl, owner of The Pre-Check Co. in Cleveland, which performs background employment checks for private companies.
"The point is, they can't fill those spots," Drusendahl said. "This is a microcosm of what's happening outside in the rest of the world. Do we dilute our standards?" He said the FBI should have a low tolerance for any illegal behavior by applicants. "If they used marijuana, that's illegal. It's pretty cut and dried."
A recently retired FBI polygraph examiner, Harold L. Byford of El Paso, Texas, was quoted in a federal lawsuit in February 2002 arguing that "if someone has smoked marijuana 15 times, he's done it 50 times. ... If I was running the show there would be no one in the FBI that ever used illegal drugs!"
The proposed FBI change also reflects cultural and generational shifts in attitudes toward marijuana and other drugs, even as the Bush administration has sought to establish links between terrorists and narcotics.
"I don't think you could find anybody who hasn't tried marijuana, and I take a lot of credit for that," said Tommy Chong, the comedian whose films with Cheech Marin provided over-the-top portrayals of marijuana culture during the 1980s. "They're going to have to change their policy."
While marijuana use is hardly universal, it remains the most commonly used illegal drug in the United States, with about half of teenagers trying the drug before they graduate high school.
"What people did when they were 18 or 21, I think that is pretty irrelevant," said Richard Clarke, a former top White House counterterrorism adviser. "We have to recognize there are a couple of generations now who regarded marijuana use, while it's technically illegal, as nothing more serious than jaywalking."
An agency's attitude toward drug use has been blamed for unexpected consequences. The CIA forced one of its officers, Edward Lee Howard, to resign in May 1983 after he failed a polygraph test and disclosed his drug use in Colombia during 1975 when he was a Peace Corps volunteer. Howard defected to the Soviet Union in 1985 after he was accused of espionage activities that spy hunters believe were driven by resentment over his forced resignation.
"I had been totally honest about each and every misdeed in my past, including my drug use in South America and my occasional abuse of alcohol," Howard wrote in his 1995 memoirs. He died in July 2002 at his home outside Moscow.
Some other federal agencies also have tough marijuana policies. The Drug Enforcement Administration will not hire applicants as agents who used illegal drugs, although it makes exceptions for admitting "limited youthful and experimental use of marijuana." The DEA, however, permits no prior use of harder drugs.
"Recreational marijuana use is a fact of life nowadays," said Mark Zaid, a Washington lawyer who has represented people rejected for FBI jobs over drugs. "It doesn't stop Supreme Court justices from getting on the bench and doesn't stop presidents from getting elected, so why should it stop someone from getting hired by the FBI?"
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weasle
Supporter
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Posted: Sun Oct 9th, 2005 07:37 pm |
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| not a big enough photo op for the politicians mikey!!
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Randy in Pensacola
Supporter
| Joined: | Wed Nov 3rd, 2004 |
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| Posts: | 626 |
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Posted: Sun Oct 9th, 2005 07:11 pm |
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marc wrote:
Like to know their definition of bad enough....
Not enough minoritys and Jessie Jackson didnt go there....JMHO
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marc
Supporter
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Posted: Sun Oct 9th, 2005 07:02 pm |
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| I remember reading about that....They got their heads up their ass....So far up they will never come out...Like to know their definition of bad enough.... Last edited on Sun Oct 9th, 2005 07:03 pm by marc |
Mikey
Supporter
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Posted: Sun Oct 9th, 2005 05:10 pm |
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| Just a quick note..a few months ago...alot of tornadies came thru our area....They leveled a section just outside of Madison WI...and a few other densly populated areas...FEMA came..they saw...then they said FU to the residents who lost evrything. Not one Federal dollar will be made available to them..because the devastation wasn't "Bad" enough.....So..I ask everyone..why the hell should we be giving OUR money to people outside of our borders...and give the Shaft to those who actually work and provide all that "federal" money.??...Just my 2 cents..
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marc
Supporter
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Posted: Sun Oct 9th, 2005 05:01 pm |
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Same thing here...Let them take care of themselves.
Survivors Sought in South Asia Earthquake
By SADAQAT JAN, Associated Press Writer
Villagers desperate to find survivors dug with bare hands Sunday through the debris of a collapsed school where children had been heard crying beneath the rubble after a massive earthquake. Pakistani officials said the death toll ranged between nearly 20,000 and 30,000.
Pakistan's president called Saturday's magnitude-7.7 earthquake the country's worst on record and appealed for urgent help, particularly cargo helicopters to reach remote areas. Rival India, which reported more than 465 dead, offered assistance.
"I have been informed by my department that more than 30,000 people have died in Kashmir," Tariq Mahmmod, communications minister for the Himalayan region, told The Associated Press.
In mountainous Kashmir, the quake flattened dozens of villages and towns, crushing schools and mud-brick houses. The dead included 250 girls at a school razed to the ground and more than 200 Pakistani soldiers on duty in the Himalayas.
The quake was felt across a wide swath of South Asia from central Afghanistan to western Bangladesh. It swayed buildings in the capitals of three nations, with the damage spanning at least 250 miles from Jalalabad in Afghanistan to Srinagar in northern Indian territory. In Islamabad, a 10-story building collapsed.
"We are handling the worst disaster in Pakistan's history," chief army spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said.
Officials said Balakot was one of the hardest-hit areas. Near the ruins of one collapsed school, at least a dozen bodies were strewn on the streets of the devastated village of about 30,000. At least 250 pupils were feared trapped inside the rubble of the four-story school.
Dozens of villagers, some with sledgehammers but many without tools, pulled at the debris and carried away bodies. Faizan Farooq, a 19-year-old business administration student, said he had heard children under the rubble crying for help immediately after Saturday's disaster.
"Now there's no sign of life," he said Sunday. "We can't do this without the army's help. Nobody has come here to help us."
Helicopters and C-130 transport planes took troops and supplies to damaged areas Sunday. However, landslides and rain hindered rescue efforts, blocking roads to some remote areas.
There was no sign of government help in Balakot, in the North West Frontier Province about 60 miles north of Islamabad. The quake leveled the village's main bazaar, crushing shoppers and strewing gas cylinders, bricks, tomatoes and onions on the streets.
Injured people covered by shawls lay in the street, waiting for medical care. Residents carried bodies on wooden planks. The corpses of four children, aged between 4 and 6, lay under a sheet of corrugated iron. Relatives said they were trying to find sheets to wrap the bodies.
"We don't have anything to bury them with," said a cousin, Saqib Swati.
Elsewhere in Balakot, shop owner Mohammed Iqbal said two primary schools, one for boys and one for girls, also collapsed. More than 500 students were feared dead.
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf appealed to the international community for medicine, tents, cargo helicopters and financial assistance.
"We do seek international assistance. We have enough manpower but we need financial support ... to cope with the tragedy," Musharraf said in Rawalpindi, a city near the capital Islamabad, before touring devastated areas.
He told the British Broadcasting Corp. the only way to reach many far-flung areas was by helicopter because roads were buried by landslides.
"Our helicopter resources are limited," he told the BBC. "We need massive cargo helicopter support."
The president said he knew of as many as 20,000 people killed, but "I wouldn't be able to make an accurate assessment for days."
The United States, the United Nations, Britain, Russia, China, Turkey, Japan and Germany all offered assistance. An eight-member U.N. team of top disaster coordination officials arrived in Islamabad on Sunday to plan the global body's response.
In Pakistan's northwestern district of Mansehra, police chief Ataullah Khan Wazir said Saturday that authorities there pulled 250 bodies from the rubble of a girls' school in the village of Ghari Habibibullah. Dozens of children were feared killed in other schools.
Mansehra was believed to be a hotbed of Islamic militant activity during the time the Taliban religious militia ruled neighboring Afghanistan. Al-Qaida operatives trained suicide squads at a camp there, Afghan and Pakistani officials told The Associated Press in 2002.
At least 215 Pakistani soldiers died in Pakistan's portion of Kashmir, Sultan said. On the India side of the border, at least 54 soldiers were killed when their bunkers collapsed, said Col. H. Juneja, an Indian army spokesman.
The only serious damage reported in Islamabad was the collapse of a 10-story apartment building, where at least 24 people were killed and dozens were injured. Doctors said the dead included an Egyptian diplomat, and the Japanese Foreign Ministry in Tokyo said two Japanese were killed.
On Sunday, Pakistani rescue teams pulled two survivors from the rubble. The boy and woman, who were listed in stable condition, told doctors others were trapped alive and calling for help beneath the debris.
"These people heard voices and cries during the whole night," said Adil Inayat, a doctor at PIMS hospital in Islamabad.
The death toll in India rose Sunday to 465 after rescue workers and soldiers pulled out 90 more bodies in the frontier Tangdar region, 65 miles north of Srinagar, the summer capital of India's Jammu-Kashmir state. Most of the deaths were in the border towns of Uri, Tangdar and Punch and Srinagar, where the quake collapsed houses and buildings.
Hundreds of angry villagers blocked roads in the region Sunday, protesting the slow pace of rescue efforts. On the main road between Baramulla and the border town of Uri, locals demanded that journalists and soldiers with aid go to their mountainside villages.
"Everything is destroyed — the ground shook and took everything down," said Syad Hassan, pointing toward the peaks surrounding the valley road. "All the government people, the press people, they are just driving past."
Most people in Jammu-Kashmir spent the night in the open, lighting fires with wood pulled out from fallen houses to keep warm in the near-freezing temperatures.
Afghanistan reported four killed.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centered about 60 miles northeast of Islamabad, six miles below the forested mountains of Pakistani Kashmir. That was followed by at least 22 aftershocks within 24 hours, including a 6.2-magnitude temblor. Hospitals moved quake victims onto lawns, fearing more damage, and many people spent the night in the open.
India, a longtime rival of Pakistan, offered help and condolences in a gesture of cooperation. The nuclear rivals have been pursuing peace after fighting three wars since independence from British rule in 1947, two of them over Kashmir.
Afghanistan appeared to suffer the least damage. In its east, an 11-year-old girl was crushed to death when a wall in her home collapsed, police official Gafar Khan said. Three others also died.
The U.S. military said the quake was felt at Bagram, the main American base in Afghanistan, but there were no reports of damage at bases elsewhere.
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marc
Supporter
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Posted: Sun Oct 9th, 2005 04:54 pm |
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Sound familiar.....Wonder how much Katrina & Rita $$ will be diverted to these people that hate the USA???? Fuck em.....
India Quake Survivors Complain of Slow Aid
By MATTHEW ROSENBERG, Associated Press Writer
Angry villagers blocked roads in earthquake-ravaged regions of Indian-controlled Kashmir on Sunday, complaining the government was too slow in getting rescue and aid efforts to them.
Hundreds were known dead from the 7.7-magnitude earthquake that rocked South Asia on Saturday and rescue workers and soldiers were still pulling bodies from wreckage in the frontier Tangdar region, 65 miles north of Srinagar, summer capital of Jammu-Kashmir state.
While the worst of the quake's devastation came in neighboring Pakistan, where tens of thousands were reported dead, damage was severe in parts of Jammu-Kashmir.
Collapsed houses and shops line the streets in towns and villages nestled in Tangdar's deep valleys as well as in the towns of Uri, Punch and Srinagar. Hundreds of people were injured.
Most people spent the night in the open, lighting fires with wood pulled from fallen houses to keep warm in near-freezing temperatures.
Sonia Gandhi, head of India's governing political alliance, visited Uri on Sunday and talked with some of the injured in hospitals.
"We have come here to share your grief," she said.
Gandhi told reporters the immediate aim was to provide food and shelter, especially tents and blankets.
"The requirement is 40,000 blankets and tents so that those who have lost their houses get a shelter over their heads," she said.
The Indian army has flown in planeloads of medicine, food and drinking water to the worst-hit Baramulla district, said Jammu-Kashmir state's chief secretary, Vijay Bakaya. More than 1,000 tents were being distributed in remote villages flattened by the quake.
However, many people said they had received no help.
A crowd of some 200 people blocked the main road between Baramulla and Uri for about 45 minutes, demanding that journalists and soldiers with relief supplies go to their mountainside villages, which they said were being ignored.
"Everything is destroyed. The ground shook and took everything down," said Syad Hassan, pointing toward the peaks surrounding the valley road.
The quake killed at least 65 people in his home village of Namala and three neighboring hamlets, he said, but no aid had been provided to them.
"All the government people, the press people, they are just driving past," he said.
Kashmir's finance minister, Muzaffar Hussain Baig, said the government was doing its best.
"The quake caused a lot of damage to infrastructure and communication. And the weather also became bad, which hampered relief temporarily," he said, referring to heavy overnight rains.
Mud, debris and knee-high slush from landslides blocked roads, cutting off many remote villages.
Baig said the government had canceled vacations of officials, especially doctors, to bolster relief efforts.
"There might be some places where delays have occurred, but officials are also humans," he said.
Teams of doctors and Red Cross volunteers were traveling by road and on foot to remote areas in the mountains to provide emergency medical care, said Bakaya, the chief secretary.
The assurances made little difference to Farid Khan, a farmer in Jabla, a village about 70 miles north of Srinagar visited by an Associated Press correspondent.
"No one has come to help us," Khan said. "Yesterday, we buried 20 people in the village, including my five-year-old daughter. We don't know how many more people are lying under the debris."
Khan watched helplessly as his wife writhed in pain on a cot nearby, her ribs broken when their home collapsed.
Last edited on Sun Oct 9th, 2005 05:02 pm by marc |
marc
Supporter
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Posted: Fri Oct 7th, 2005 04:36 pm |
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Mikey wrote: 50 Billion.....what a shame...Think of how much better our own country could be if that money was better spent on the people who provide it....I am 100% behind our Service people....I say bring 'em home...Close the borders...and lets clean up our own house. JMHO I agree 100%...Clean up your own back yard first and then worry about the others...We got to much going on over here to fix....
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Mikey
Supporter
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Posted: Fri Oct 7th, 2005 04:25 pm |
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Someone's Using their Head...LOL
House Diverts Money For Sex Drugs To Hurricane Relief
POSTED: 6:59 am CDT October 7, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The House has voted to divert federal funds covering erectile dysfunction drugs to hurricane relief.
The bill's sponsor said the government would save $690 million over five years by prohibiting Medicare and Medicaid health care programs from subsidizing prescriptions for sexual performance drugs.
The money will be used to provide $500 million in federal unemployment funds to hurricane-affected states to help them pay benefits to out-of-work people.
The bill, passed by voice vote, also extends several health programs that assist low-income families nationwide.
The Senate has also approved legislation to end federal funding for such drugs. The House earlier this year approved a similar amendment to a spending bill covering health programs. But no bill banning federal payments for the drugs has cleared Congress.
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Mikey
Supporter
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Posted: Fri Oct 7th, 2005 04:03 pm |
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| 50 Billion.....what a shame...Think of how much better our own country could be if that money was better spent on the people who provide it....I am 100% behind our Service people....I say bring 'em home...Close the borders...and lets clean up our own house. JMHO
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marc
Supporter
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Posted: Fri Oct 7th, 2005 03:51 pm |
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This is not good.....
Senate Votes to Give Bush More War Funds
By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer
The Senate voted Friday to give President Bush $50 billion more for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and U.S. military efforts against terrorism, money that would push total spending for the operations beyond $350 billion.
In a 97-0 vote, the GOP-controlled Senate signed off on the money as part of a $445 billion military spending bill for the budget year that began Oct. 1. The measure would also put restrictions on the treatment of detainees who are suspected terrorists — a provision that has drawn a White House veto threat and demonstrated a willingness by Republican lawmakers to challenge Bush.
Passage comes at a time when public support for Bush and the Iraq fighting has slipped, U.S. casualties have climbed and Congress has grown increasingly frustrated with the direction of the conflict.
The Senate bill provides $5 billion more for the wars than the House version. The final bill is expected to include the full $50 billion extra after House-Senate negotiators work out their differences over the coming weeks.
"It's absolutely necessary to support our people who are in the field, both in uniform and who do intelligence work throughout the world," said Sen. Ted Stevens (news, bio, voting record), R-Alaska, the chairman of the Senate defense appropriations subcommittee.
Senators rushed to finish the bill before leaving Friday for a 10-day recess because military officers have informally told them they will need the money by mid-November to continue war operations. The Bush administration has not formally requested more war money, but costs are certain with no end to the Iraq conflict in sight.
Stevens said the $50 billion should last through the first half of the year, but acknowledged that Congress likely will have to approve more money for wars in May or June.
Overall, both the Senate and House bills provide for a 3.1 percent pay raise for the military and increased benefits for troops. But the bills differ in other areas.
Bucking the White House, the Senate added an amendment sponsored by Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz., to ban cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment against anyone in U.S. government custody. The amendment also would standardize how service members detain and interrogate terrorism suspects by requiring the military to follow the Army Field Manual that outlines acceptable techniques. McCain was a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
The Senate action shows that members of the president's own party are concerned about his wartime policies. Their worries reflect those of their skeptical constituents. Public opinion polls show declining American support for the war that has so far claimed the lives of more than 1,940 U.S. military members.
Bush administration officials say the provision would limit the president's authority and flexibility, and the White House says advisers would recommend a veto of the entire spending bill if it includes provisions that would hurt efforts in the war on terror.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Thursday that some of the wording about detainees was unnecessary and duplicative, and that the administration hoped to press the concerns with congressional negotiators.
Support for the provision in the GOP-controlled House is unclear.
Stevens said he will try to tweak the language in House-Senate negotiations to makes sure that it doesn't endanger the lives of non-military intelligence officials who work for the United States. "I'm talking about people who aren't in uniform, may or may not be citizens of the United States, but are working for us in very difficult circumstances," he said.
The Congressional Research Service, which writes reports for lawmakers, says the Pentagon is spending about $6 billion a month for Iraq and $1 billion for Afghanistan, and war costs could total $570 billion by the end of 2010, assuming troops are gradually brought home.
CRS analysts say that since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Congress has given the president about $311 billion for combat and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan and securing U.S. bases. About $280 billion has gone to the Pentagon, while $31 billion has been provided for foreign and diplomatic operations.
Excluding the $50 billion in new money, the Senate bill totals $395 billion — about $2 billion less than what the president had requested for the Defense Department. The House bill totals $364 billion, but it is not directly comparable to the Senate version.
The Senate bill provides $5 billion in emergency money that was not in the House version. About $4 billion of that would be used to stockpile medicine to protect people against bird flu and prepare for a potential outbreak. The other $1 billion would replenish National Guard and Reserve equipment.
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Vero Steve
Supporter
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Posted: Wed Oct 5th, 2005 06:34 pm |
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marc wrote: empty wrote: Mikey wrote: empty wrote:
And to think, we are supposed to have the best court system in the world.
MT
Not sure if you are being sarcastic or not...but in my slightly pessamistic view..The court system is only as good as you can afford. If you have the money to pay..chances are you will walk...If you have a public defender....well..I think you will probably get sent up....... Best bet is to shoot to kill....A little eaaier when there is just one side to the story..JMHO
Sarcasm? Yup, a little bit. What you said? Yup, completely. I think someone also mentioned 'jury', I think (around here) a large reason there are bad jurys is due to the fact that most of the sharper individuals use their skill trying to get out of jury duty instead of actually serving.
MT
MT...Ya hit the nail on the head...Had jury duty a few years ago and you would not believe some of the people that ended up getting selected..... Lawyers love stupid people on a jury, their easy to manipulate and they believe what the lawyers tell them......................
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marc
Supporter
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Posted: Wed Oct 5th, 2005 05:49 pm |
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empty wrote: Mikey wrote: empty wrote:
And to think, we are supposed to have the best court system in the world.
MT
Not sure if you are being sarcastic or not...but in my slightly pessamistic view..The court system is only as good as you can afford. If you have the money to pay..chances are you will walk...If you have a public defender....well..I think you will probably get sent up....... Best bet is to shoot to kill....A little eaaier when there is just one side to the story..JMHO
Sarcasm? Yup, a little bit. What you said? Yup, completely. I think someone also mentioned 'jury', I think (around here) a large reason there are bad jurys is due to the fact that most of the sharper individuals use their skill trying to get out of jury duty instead of actually serving.
MT
MT...Ya hit the nail on the head...Had jury duty a few years ago and you would not believe some of the people that ended up getting selected.....
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empty
Supporter
| Joined: | Tue Jun 28th, 2005 |
| Location: | Plano, Texas USA |
| Posts: | 1298 |
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Posted: Wed Oct 5th, 2005 05:44 pm |
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Mikey wrote: empty wrote:
And to think, we are supposed to have the best court system in the world.
MT
Not sure if you are being sarcastic or not...but in my slightly pessamistic view..The court system is only as good as you can afford. If you have the money to pay..chances are you will walk...If you have a public defender....well..I think you will probably get sent up....... Best bet is to shoot to kill....A little eaaier when there is just one side to the story..JMHO
Sarcasm? Yup, a little bit. What you said? Yup, completely. I think someone also mentioned 'jury', I think (around here) a large reason there are bad jurys is due to the fact that most of the sharper individuals use their skill trying to get out of jury duty instead of actually serving.
MT
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Mikey
Supporter
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Posted: Wed Oct 5th, 2005 05:17 pm |
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empty wrote:
And to think, we are supposed to have the best court system in the world.
MT
Not sure if you are being sarcastic or not...but in my slightly pessamistic view..The court system is only as good as you can afford. If you have the money to pay..chances are you will walk...If you have a public defender....well..I think you will probably get sent up....... Best bet is to shoot to kill....A little eaaier when there is just one side to the story..JMHO
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zippo
Supporter
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Posted: Wed Oct 5th, 2005 04:04 pm |
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empty wrote: Vero Steve wrote:
A store owner was shot by a robber here in this county a few years back and has the guy was going thru the cash register and safe of this store the owner woke up and shot the robber. The robber ended up losing the use of his right arm and sued the store owner and won 10 million dollars. The store owner remains paralyzied in a wheel chair to this day. His insurance company finally settled and paid the robber 1 million. All the store owner got was a higher insurance bill..........Justice????
The law states you can meet deadly threats with deadly force.................
And to think, we are supposed to have the best court system in the world.
MT
Its the idiots on the jury that piss me off!
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Dave
Supporter
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Posted: Wed Oct 5th, 2005 03:36 pm |
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| Hate to disagree with ya Mikey. But, at most, they should be warned to ignore PETA...
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marc
Supporter
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Posted: Wed Oct 5th, 2005 03:35 pm |
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Unfortunately here in NJ your in deep shit if you shoot a burgular and you had the chance to run.....I posted the actual law last year but can't find it....Law says if someone is in your house and you are able to escape via window, door or whatever you got to do it......Deadly force is an option only if your life is in danger....If you shoot make sure you kill em...Dead people don't talk....So many criminals have won big $$$ up here suing the people that shot em....Does that suck or what?????
Try and rob me and your dead..... You tried to kill me.....I am not going to run....
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Mikey
Supporter
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Posted: Wed Oct 5th, 2005 03:26 pm |
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O.K...gimme a friggin break here...dont these people have anything better to do??...At the most they should tell the kids the hazards of eating uncooked fish.....
PETA Wants School To Punish Boys Who Ate Live Fish
POSTED: 7:41 am CDT October 5, 2005
FEDERAL WAY, Wash. -- A couple of Washington state teens are in a bit of trouble for eating seafood, of sorts.
Two boys swallowed live goldfish during an assembly at Todd Beamer High School in Federal Way. A school district spokeswoman said the kids were apparently fulfilling a promise they made if one was elected a class officer.
The boys got a stern talking-to and a letter to their parents.
But some animal rights activists feel the boys should be in hot water for eating live fish. A spokeswoman for PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said the stunt deserves harsher punishment. PETA said killing fish in the name of school spirit is unacceptable.
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