Kansas City police, a local charity and other city departments on Friday cleared out and filled in a complex of elaborate tunnels and holes at a homeless camp near the East Bottoms.
“One of the tunnels probably went 20 to 25 feet underground towards the back and veered off in another direction about six feet or so, and there was some bedding and some candles,” said Officer Jason Cooley, community interaction officer for the East Patrol. “It was kind of in a little hill and probably four feet beneath the surface.”
Another tunnel dropped about five feet into the ground before shooting off laterally for seven or eight feet. Many of the holes were concealed. At least one had wood stacked around it and others were bare earth. PVC pipe provided ventilation. What especially concerned Cooley was a pile of recently soiled diapers, indicating the presence of children.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-04-11 01:41:262013-04-11 01:41:26Homeless Removed from Complex of Tunnels, Underground Shelters in Kansas City
A bold comeback attempt or the height of chutzpah? In what could be the start of one of the most intriguing second acts in American politics, Anthony Weiner, the congressman who tweeted himself out of a job two years ago with a photo of his bulging underpants, is considering jumping into the New York City mayor’s race.
The Brooklyn Democrat said in a New York Times Magazine story posted online Wednesday that he realizes he would be an underdog, but he wants to “ask people to give me a second chance.”
“I do recognize, to some degree, it’s now or maybe never for me,” Weiner, 48, said in a long and highly personal profile that he clearly hoped would be the start of his rehabilitation.
But are voters ready to forgive? Will they at least stop giggling long enough to hear what he has to say?
Political analysts say Weiner would face a steep climb to get past his past, but his political skills, his rich reserve of campaign money and the dynamics of a crowded Democratic primary could make him a player, if not a clear winner, in the contest this fall to succeed Michael Bloomberg as mayor of the nation’s largest city.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-04-11 01:37:252013-04-11 01:37:25Will New York Take the Weiner Back?
The financially beleaguered Postal Service backpedaled on its plan to end Saturday mail delivery, conceding Wednesday that its gamble to compel congressional approval had failed.
With limited options for saving money, the governing board said the agency should reopen negotiations with unions to lower labor costs and consider raising mail prices.
Yet the board also said it’s not possible for the Postal Service to meet its goals for reduced spending without altering the delivery schedule. Delaying “responsible changes,” the board said, only makes it more likely that the Postal Service “may become a burden” to taxpayers.
Congressional reaction was mixed, mirroring differences that have stalled a needed postal overhaul for some time. Some lawmakers had urged the agency to forge ahead with its plan, while others had said it lacked the legal authority to do so.
The Postal Service said in February that it planned to switch to five-day-a-week deliveries beginning in August for everything except packages as a way to hold down losses. That announcement was risky. The agency was asking Congress to drop from spending legislation the longtime ban on five-day-only delivery. Congress did not do that when it passed a spending measure last month.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-04-11 01:33:242013-04-11 01:33:24Post Office Backs Off Threat to End Saturday Mail Delivery
Cuba and the United States may be longtime enemies with a bucket overflowing with grievances, but the fast return of a Florida couple who fled U.S. authorities with their two kidnapped children in tow shows the Cold War enemies are capable of remarkable cooperation on many issues.
Indeed, diplomats and observers on both sides of the Florida Straits say American and Cuban law enforcement officers, scientists, disaster relief workers, Coast Guard officials and other experts work together on a daily basis, and invariably express professional admiration for each other.
“I don’t think the story has been told, but there is a real warmth in just the sort of day-to-day relations between U.S. and Cuban government officials,” said Dan Whittle, who frequently brings scientific groups to the island in his role as Cuba program director for the Environmental Defense Fund.
“Nearly every time I talk to American officials they say they were impressed by their Cuban counterparts. There really is a high level of mutual respect.”
Almost none of these technical-level interactions make the headlines, but examples are endless. Just last week, Cuba’s top environmental official Ulises Fernandez and several island oil experts attended a conference in New York of the International Association of Drilling Contractors after the State Department expedited their visas.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-04-11 01:27:382013-04-11 01:27:38Obama and Cuba: 'Remarkable Cooperation on Many Issues'
The House Intelligence Committee is warning that “time is running out” before the next major cyberattack: The Russians, Iranians, Chinese and others are likely already on your computer.
“You have criminal organizations trying to get into your personal computer and steal your personal stuff. And by the way, the Chinese are probably on your computer, the Russians are probably on your personal computer, the Iranians are already there,” House Intelligence Committee chairman Mike Rogers (R.-MI). told Fox News.
“They’re trying to steal things that they think are valuable or use your computer to help them steal from someone else,” he said. “That’s a real problem.”
Experts say Rogers may be stretching the truth: most people’s computers likely aren’t infected by agents of foreign governments.
“The Iranians, the Chinese, and the Russians are probably already on my computer? Sheesh … I guess it must be getting pretty crowded in there,” joked Graham Cluley, a consultant with U.K. Web security company Sophos. But the threat Rogers describes is certainly real, he pointed out.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-04-11 01:26:092013-04-11 01:26:09House Intel Chair: The Iranians, Russians and Chinese are Already on Your PC
Republican Pat Toomey and Democrat Joe Manchin announced a gun bill compromise to expand background checks earlier today. The legislation is in direct response to the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December.
“This amendment won’t ease the pain … but nobody here, not one of us in this great capital of ours in good conscious could sit by and not try to prevent a day like that from happening again,” Manchin told the press at today’s announcement.
But aides on Capitol Hill admit that there is not a thing in the bill that would have prevented the killer, Adam Lanza, from killing 26 at the school in Newtown, Connecticut.
“There’s nothing in this legislation that addresses the fact pattern at Sandy Hook,” a senior Senate aide told me on the phone.
The aide explains that the bill expands on the background-check system already in place, but that the system doesn’t work properly. “They are expanding on a broken system that we know will fail,” says the aide.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-04-11 00:00:552013-04-11 00:00:55GOP and Democrats Announce Compromise on Gun Control; Aide Says it Wouldn't Have Stopped Newtown
It’s big news in Philadelphia, but nationally, not so much. The lack of coverage is a problem for a growing chorus of conservative and media critics, who allege that the scant national media attention can be attributed not to the courtroom drama but the politics of abortion.
Dr. Kermit Gosnell was an abortionist, meaning that any coverage of the trial risks painting the pro-choice movement in an unflattering light. In a statement issued last week, 20 conservative leaders called for an end to what they described as a “media blackout” and “censoring” of the trial for political reasons.
“The horrific excesses of the abortion industry exemplified by Gosnell and Planned Parenthood are major, national news stories any way you look at them. But the pro-abortion liberal media are determined to hide them from the public,” said the April 4 statement led by the conservative Media Research Center and signed by former Republican presidential candidate Gary Bauer, columnist Kellyanne Conway and Family Research Council President Tony Perkins.
“The media have a solemn duty to the American people to report the news, not just news that helps the positions they support. It’s unprofessional, it’s disgusting, and it’s inhuman,” the statement said.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-04-10 03:10:122013-04-10 03:10:12Mainstream Media "Disgusting, Inhuman" for Failing to Report on Gosnell's House of Horrors
Mainstream media publications immediately exploited the passing of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on Monday to again advance their political agendas by falsely smearing former Alaska Gov. and Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.
In a rush to write whatever they could to tarnish both, outlets like Politico and the Washington Post resorted to “reporting” on a fictitious story and an imaginary trip that have already been debunked years ago.
The Post, a publication known for its liberal agenda, immediately “re-upped” the debunked story about Thatcher having snubbed Palin when Chris Cillizza, the editor of “The Fix,” allowed his underling to publish parts of the disproven 2011 report.
Politico ironically included the story in its article about Thatcher as well, even though the publication debunked the story two years ago.
In 2011, a left-wing and anti-Thatcher British newspaper, the Guardian, tried to smear Palin by writing a fictitious story, with an anonymous quote, about how Thatcher supposedly snubbed Palin for a meeting that had never even been scheduled, as both camps immediately confirmed. The British newspaper also claimed a Thatcher adviser called Palin “nuts.”
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-04-10 03:09:402013-04-10 03:09:40Politico, Washington Post Carry Fabricated Stories About Palin in Wake of Thatcher's Death
Walk into the Cajun Experience on Loudoun Street in downtown Leesburg on a Wednesday night, you are sure to be greeted with a smile and the smell of authentic food from the Mississippi Delta.
Glance down around the customers’ waists, and you will likely see a firearm. This is Open Carry Wednesday, the day at the New Orleans-style eatery when patrons are encouraged to bring their licensed firearms, and they’ll get a 10 percent discount on their meals.
This was the brainchild of owner Bryan Crosswhite, who started the special four weeks ago. Crosswhite is a native of Lafayette, LA, and said he has worked internationally as an economist, including in the Middle East.
“I’ve seen what the restricting of freedom is all about,” Crosswhite said. “It’s our legal right to carry. I want it to be [my customers’] right to carry in our restaurant.”
Crosswhite encourages his customers to carry licensed firearms every day, but the discount is only offered on Wednesdays. Many of those who come in are law enforcement and former military, he said, but others come in to enjoy the atmosphere among like-minded individuals.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-04-10 03:08:212013-04-10 03:08:21Strap On a Gun for Dinner, Get 10% Off at this Restaurant
You really can’t make this stuff up. In the most recent iteration of ‘America gone wild,’ a man who impregnated his girlfriend at the age of 17, married, and then joined the Navy, later decided he was really a woman.
To make the outside match the inside, he left the Navy and then traveled to Bangkok, Thailand in 2006 where he underwent the knife in several gender reassignment, breast augmentation, and hair transplant surgeries. He named himself “Fallon Fox.”
He is now fighting as a woman in the UFC. Unfortunately for his original opponents, they didn’t know about his past.
In this clip, Fallon brutally knocks out his female opponent with a powerful knee to the head, just 39 seconds after entering the ring:
This didn’t set well with some long-time UFC participants. One, ringside announcer Joe Rogan, complained:
She wants to be able to fight women in MMA? I say no f***ing way. I say if you had a d**k at one point in time, you also have all the bone structure that comes with having a d**k. You have bigger hands, you have bigger shoulder joints. You’re a f***ing man. That’s a man, OK? …I don’t care if you don’t have a d**k any more.
Although Rogan’s distinctly un-PC statement does not appear to have been career ending for him, NFL player Matt Mitrione’s outrage earned him an indefinite suspension from the UFC:
“She’s not a he. He’s a he,” Mitrione said. “He’s chromosomally a man. He had a gender change, not a sex change. He’s still a man. He was a man for 31 years. Thirty-one years. That’s a couple years younger than I am. He’s a man. Six years of taking performance de-hancing drugs, you think is going to change all that? That’s ridiculous.
“That is a lying, sick, sociopathic, disgusting freak,” he continued. “And I mean that. Because you lied on your license to beat up women. That’s disgusting. You should be embarrassed yourself. And the fact that Florida licensed him because California licensed him or whoever the hell did it, it’s an embarrassment to us as fighters, as a sport, and we all should protest that. The woman that’s fighting him, props to you. I hope you beat his ass, and I hope he gets blackballed and never fights again, because that’s disgusting and I’m appalled by that.”
“The UFC was appalled by the transphobic comments made by heavyweight Matt Mitrione today in an interview on ‘The MMA Hour.’
The organization finds Mr. Mitrione’s comments offensive and wholly unacceptable and – as a direct result of this significant breach of the UFC’s code of conduct – Mr. Mitrione’s UFC contract has been suspended and the incident is being investigated.
The UFC is a friend and ally of the LGBT community, and expects and requires all 450 of its athletes to treat others with dignity and respect.”
Yes, it’s an upside down world.
The reaction of UFC has drawn a flurry of responses from common sense folk on the web, like this articulate young lady:
We can only hope that most Americans think the same.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-04-10 03:07:282013-04-10 03:07:28UFC Suspends MMA Fighter Who Criticized Sex-Changed Man Who Fought Women
You really can’t make this stuff up. In the most recent iteration of ‘America gone wild,’ a man who impregnated his girlfriend at the age of 17, married, and then joined the Navy, later decided he was really a woman.
