Saturday, June 26, 2010

Target Store Puts English Only Signs In New Development - Area Latinos Claim Ethnic Cleansing, Racism

Why is posting English only signs in a store considered "racist" when it's ALWAYS ok if a store post Spanish only signs in a store.

Below is a fine example of a couple signs in a store front right here in Pocomoke, have you heard anyone complain that the signs were Spanish only?




A new Target store in Columbia Heights in Washington DC decided to only put English signs in its store. Woe the backlash from the community who sees this as racist and being against Latinos who are demanding bilingual signs. Hmmm, OK let's take their argument a little further. Why not trilingual signs? I mean if this isn't about race from their side then all the signs should be in every language, not just a second copy in Spanish only. Right?

The arguments in this article at Campus Progress (an oxymoron if any there were for an article on economic progress being slowed by race baiters) would have you believe that this a white conspiracy to impose ethnic cleansing on the community. That the owners of Target hate Latinos and that they'll soon be loaded onto cattle trains for the gas chambers.


Despite the fact that Columbia Heights has a high Spanish-speaking population, the store has no bilingual signs. Given the demographics of Columbia Heights, Target’s decision sends a clear message: This store is for the new Columbia Heights, not the current Columbia Heights. ...

That's right, the trains are lining up. They'll be dropping off rich white people and exporting poor Latino people.

The absence of bilingual signs in the new Target (which has enshrined its interior with red-and-white framed displays of cheerful multiethnic people) is disconcerting given the store’s immediate vicinity. According to the D.C. Office on Latino Affairs, nearly half of the District’s Latino community lives in Ward One, which includes the neighborhoods of Columbia Heights, Mount Pleasant, and Adams Morgan. ... The Office of Latino Affairs also estimates that one in three Latinos in the District has difficulty with English. The neighborhood around the new Target abounds with Latino culture. ... 14th St. NW immediately to the north contains numerous establishments with almost exclusively Spanish signage. ...

They really would like Target to have exclusively Spanish signs. That is evident, but they can't come out and say that. So instead they say a lack of Spanish anywhere is racist. I'd also like to point out that they say that only 1/3rd of Latinos in the area have difficulty with English. So the reality is that they want to perpetuate Spanish. Spanish speakers, according to them, are too dumb to look down an aisle and see whether it contains mops or canned foods.

Target’s signage is fodder for community activists who say that the Target and other new stores are being built mostly for the sake of Columbia Heights’ future residents, not its current ones.

There they go again with the "round 'em up" conspiracy statements.

What do the "Latino community leaders" (note that they aren't American community leaders, but those who only care about Latinos not Americans as a whole) have to say? What do those in ivory towers - who probably don't even live near this run-down community - have to say?

... “They have a responsibility to the community. A large portion of their clientele is Latino,” [George Escobar, media spokesperson for the Office on Latino Affairs] said. “There have been mixed messages, though. We have to have a wait-and-see attitude with them.” Walda Katz-Fishman, a professor of sociology at Howard University, was less guarded in her assessment about Target’s choice to only display signs in English. “This represents a transition of who is living in the neighborhood. They are not sensitive to the community. The project is for the people who are coming in, not community residents,”

*Choo Choo*

More talk of ending the glorious ghetto that currently exists and improving the community and this portion of America as a bad thing continues below.

... Parisa Norouzi, co-director of Empower DC, an organization that assists lower-income District residents with housing, child services, and government accountability, was also pessimistic about the signs. “The lack of bilingual signs is indicative of who the development project was planned for,” Norouzi said. “If the Target was planned to serve the residents of the community, [accommodations, including signs] would have been a major factor. This is a good example of a major realtor feeling they have no need to serve their community.”

Amazing how having no Spanish on the signs could cause such an uproar isn't it? Well, not really.

For at least the past decade these "Latino groups" have been trying to play a guilt card against Americans. They are trying to play on the guilt of past things in American history such as slavery that some Americans still carry, even though no American born in this country alive today has owned a slave or lived in an America where slavery was legal. They're trying to say that America - the most diverse country on Earth - is racist. And they are saying that we should bow down before their demands in order to prove that we're not.

Target attempts to defend itself by pointing out it has Latino employees and even some that are bilingual. Obviously that is not enough though for these racists. They want it all in Spanish or they're going to string you up and try to ruin your business. And now we come to the most idiotic statement in the whole of this "article". The last question in the paragraph below.

Target Spokesperson Elizabeth Wolf argues that Target’s commitment to diversity is evident in the relevance of items the store carries and the level of respect it gives its diverse guests. ... Wolf stressed that Target employs team members who are available to answer question from Spanish-speaking guests. But how accommodating can Spanish-speaking team members be when nothing in the store is written in Spanish?

How accommodating indeed! I mean we must have everything written in Spanish. All items sold in the store must have everything written in Spanish on it as well because, you know, a bilingual employee there couldn't possibly help you if it's not written in Spanish on the can or on the sign.

.. the store’s decision not to include bilingual signage reflects the deeper fears of certain residents and observers: that the real question about Target and Columbia Heights gentrification isn’t whether it will have short-term benefits, but rather whether, in the long run, it will severely reduce the socioeconomic and racial diversity of the neighborhood by spurring the development of more luxury and upper-class housing. Target’s weak grasp on neighborhood demographics is unlikely to assuage these fears.

Wow, we wouldn't want to actually improve an area. I mean making it cleaner and nicer would ruin the good old ghetto feel of the area.

I have a suggestion to those who don't speak English, don't want to learn English, find it frustrating that American stores aren't providing Spanish signs or those who are appalled at this situation of lack of bilingual signs. That suggestion is that they can choose to go to a place where everything is in Spanish. Where everyone speaks Spanish. Where all the people are Latinos. Where they will feel at home.

Go To Another Country


That's right! There are already countries that have exactly the setup that you want! They have all your demands already met! Move there and stop being a ridiculous and ignorant fool who demands others change because you are offended that they don't do it all exactly how you want it to be.

That is of course unless you actually have an ulterior motive, like trying to take over large swaths of the United States that will then only allow one race there. An area that only speaks a language other than English and discriminates against all others. In that case, why not just state it outright, because your "articles" and statements above are quite obvious in their intent. That you want segregation, but segregation where your race gets more than everyone else and the rest of the country is left to suffer.

SOURCE

New Amish Store Coming to Pocomoke

I hope this store is like the one in Laurel that sells meats, cheese and baked goods.

The Great Pocomoke Fair Presents The Truck and Tractor Pull


The Great Pocomoke Fair Presents

Event Classes

Super/Pro Stock Diesel Tractors
Modified Tractors
Four-Wheel Drive Pick-ups
Two-Wheel Drive Trucks


Admission


Adults: $12.00

For Information Call


410-632-3998
or
443-614-3044





"Killin-Time" - Troy Nails



"Suffering from Insanity" - Bryan McDonald

Lunar Eclipse in Central and Western United States


(June 26) -- Early risers in the central and western United States were greeted with a celestial treat this morning, as the moon passed through the earth's shadow, causing a lunar eclipse.

Over half the moon was darkened this morning, starting at around 6:17 am eastern time, according to the BBC. The moon also appeared unusually large, thanks to a little-understood phenomenon called the Moon illusion.

When this occurs, low-hanging Moons appear "unnaturally large when they beam through trees, buildings and other foreground objects", according to the NASA website. The reasons for this are not clear.

"The lunar eclipse was beautiful as it set over the distant Owyhee Mountains on Saturday morning!" Jared Aicher of Boise, Idaho told Spaceweather.com. "The light was changing rapidly, and show was magnificent."

The next lunar eclipse is due in December.

Today's eclipse was also visible over large parts of Asia. Over 3,000 people gathered at the Singapore Science Centre's Observatory to catch a glimpse of the event.

"A partial lunar eclipse is a beautiful thing," Dr Tony Phillips said on the NASA website.

Crippen Indicted On Ten Criminal Counts

SNOW HILL -- A Pocomoke City man accused of murder tried to kill two men one night in May, not just the one he's charged with shooting to death, a new indictment alleges.

A Worcester County grand jury has indicted Alexander Crippen on 10 criminal counts, including the murder of Reginald Jerome Handy Jr., and the attempted murder of Torrance Davis.

The day after the May 27 shooting, police found Crippen, 36, in a room at the Travelers Motel in Delmar, Md. He was arrested and charged with Handy's death, but neither court documents nor statements from law enforcement officials at the time indicated that there was another victim.

According to the indictment Crippen "did feloniously, willfully and of deliberate premeditated malice aforethought attempt to kill and murder Torrance Davis."

What's more, the indictment goes on to say, Crippen "shot at him with a gun, that created a substantial risk of death or serious physical injury."

In court records for minor criminal charges, Davis, 27, lists both a Horntown, Va., P.O. box and a Pocomoke City address.

Crippen has been charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder, concealing and transporting a handgun, first-degree assault, second-degree assault and reckless endangerment. Bond has been set at $1 million and a jury will determine his guilt or innocence during a two-day trial in September.

According to documents filed in Worcester County District Court, a verbal altercation broke out late in the evening of May 27 between Crippen and Handy. Witnesses told police that Crippen approached an individual sitting on the steps of a house in the 500 block of Laurel Avenue in Pocomoke when Handy came up to him and the two began to argue. Crippen then pulled out a handgun, fired several shots aimed at the victim. and fled the scene. A bullet hit Handy in the back and the 22-year-old Greenbush man was pronounced dead before paramedics could get him to the hospital.

Police later said that the attack was targeted and that Crippen and Handy had a history of not getting long. Davis's relationship to Crippen is not explained in the indictment.

According to Maryland court records, Davis has a history of minor brushes with the law. A 2002 second-degree assault conviction came with a $100 fine, and a similar arrest two years later cost him 90 days in jail. Davis also spent a month incarcerated for making a false statement to an officer in 2004 and another 10 days in 2006 for disorderly conduct. He is currently on probation for failing to pay child support.

www.delmarvanow.com


Something To Brighten Your Day

.












A Letter By Dewie Whetsell, Alaskan Fisherman


READ TO THE VERY END! VERY ENLIGHTENING!!!

AND VERY DISTURBING!!!



By Dewie Whetsell, Alaskan Fisherman.
As posted in comments on Greta's article referencing the MOVEON ad about Sarah Palin.


The last 45 of my 66 years I've spent in a commercial fishing town in Alaska . I understand Alaska politics but never understood national politics well until this last year. Here's the breaking point: Neither side of the Palin controversy gets it. It's not about persona, style, rhetoric, it's about doing things. Even Palin supporters never mention the things that I'm about to mention here.

1. Democrats forget when Palin was the Darling of the Democrats, because as soon as Palin took the Governor's office away from a fellow Republican and tough SOB, Frank Murkowski, she tore into the Republican's "Corrupt Bastards Club" (CBC) and sent them packing. Many of them are now residing in State housing and wearing orange jump suits The Democrats reacted by skipping around the yard, throwing confetti and singing, "la la la la" (well, you know how they are). Name another governor in this country that has ever done anything similar.

2. Now with the CBC gone, there were fewer Alaskan politicians to protect the huge, giant oil companies here. So she constructed and enacted a new system of splitting the oil profits called "ACES." Exxon (the biggest corporation in the world) protested and Sarah told them, "don't let the door hit you in the stern on your way out." They stayed, and Alaska residents went from being merely wealthy to being filthy rich. Of course, the other huge international oil companies meekly fell in line. Again, give me the name of any other governor in the country that has done anything similar.

3. The other thing she did when she walked into the governor's office is she got the list of State requests for federal funding for projects, known as "pork." She went through the list, took 85% of them and placed them in the "when-hell-freezes-over" stack. She let locals know that if we need something built, we'll pay for it ourselves. Maybe she figured she could use the money she got from selling the previous governor's jet because it was extravagant.

Maybe she could use the money she saved by dismissing the governor's cook (remarking that she could cook for her own family), giving back the State vehicle issued to her, maintaining that she already had a car, and dismissing her State provided security force (never mentioning - I imagine - that she's packing heat herself). I'm still waiting to hear the names of those other governors.

4. Now, even with her much-ridiculed "gosh and golly" mannerism, she also managed to put together a totally new approach to getting a natural gas pipeline built which will be the biggest private construction project in the history of North America. No one else could do it although they tried. If that doesn't impress you, then you're trying too hard to be unimpressed while watching her do things like this while baking up a batch of brownies with her other hand.

5. For 30 years, Exxon held a lease to do exploratory drilling at a place called Point Thompson. They made excuses the entire time why they couldn't start drilling. In truth they were holding it like an investment. No governor for 30 years could make them get started. Then, she told them she was revoking their lease and kicking them out. They protested and threatened court action. She shrugged and reminded them that she knew the way to the court house. Alaska won again.

6. President Obama wants the nation to be on 25% renewable resources for electricity by 2025. Sarah went to the legislature and submitted her plan for Alaska to be at 50% renewable by 2025. We are already at 25%. I can give you more specifics about things done, as opposed to style and persona. Everybody wants to be cool, sound cool, look cool. But that's just a cover-up. I'm still waiting to hear from liberals the names of other governors who can match what mine has done in two and a half years. I won't be holding my breath.

By the way, she was content to return to AK after the national election and go to work, but the haters wouldn't let her. Now these adolescent screechers are obviously not scuba divers. And no one ever told them what happens when you continually jab and pester a barracuda. Without warning, it will spin around and tear your face off. Shoulda known better.

You have just read the truth about Sarah Palin that sends the media, along with the democrat party, into a wild uncontrolled frenzy to discredit her. I guess they are only interested in skirt chasers, dishonesty, immoral people, liars, womanizers, murderers, and bitter ex-presidents' wives.

So "You go, Girl." I only wish the men in Washington had your guts, determination, honesty, and morals.

I rest my case. Only FOOLS listen to the biased media.

If you've read this far ...............................................now ,open your eyes..........
First Lady Michelle Obama's Servant List and Pay Scale

First Lady Requires More Than Twenty Attendants

1. $
172,2000 - Sher, Susan (Chief Of Staff)
2.
$140,000 - Frye, Jocelyn C. (Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Policy And Projects For The First Lady)
3.
$113,000 - Rogers, Desiree G. (Special Assistant to the President and White House Social Secretary)
4.
$102,000 - Johnston, Camille Y. (Special Assistant to the President and Director of Communications for the First Lady)
5.
$100,000 - Winter, Melissa E. (Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief Of Staff to the First Lady)
6.
$90,000 - Medina , David S. (Deputy Chief Of Staff to the First Lady)
7.
$84,000 - Lelyveld, Catherine M. (Director and Press Secretary to the First Lady)
8.
$75,000 - Starkey, Frances M. (Director of Scheduling and Advance for the First Lady)
9.
$70,000 - Sanders, Trooper (Deputy Director of Policy and Projects for the First Lady)
10.
$65,000 - Burnough, Erinn J. (Deputy Director and Deputy Social Secretary)
11.
$64,000 - Reinstein, Joseph B. (Deputy Director and Deputy Social Secretary)
12.
$62,000 - Goodman, Jennifer R. (Deputy Director of Scheduling and Events Coordinator For The First Lady)
13.
$60,000 - Fitts, Alan O. (Deputy Director of Advance and Trip Director for the First Lady)
14.
$57,500 - Lewis, Dana M. (Special Assistant and Personal Aide to the First Lady)
15.
$52,500 - Mustaphi, Semonti M. (Associate Director and Deputy Press Secretary to The First Lady)
16.
$50,000 - Jarvis, Kristen E. (Special=2 0Assistant for Scheduling and Traveling Aide to The First Lady)
17.
$45,000 - Lechtenberg, Tyler A. (Associate Director of Correspondence For The First Lady)
18.
$43,000 - Tubman, Samantha (Deputy Associate Director, Social Office)
19.
$40,000 - Boswell, Joseph J. (Executive Assistant to the Chief Of Staff to the First Lady)
20.
$36,000 - Armbruster, Sally M. (Staff Assistant to the Social Secretary)
21.
$35,000 - Bookey, Natalie (Staff Assistant)

22. $35,000 - Jackson, Deilia A. (Deputy Associate Director of Correspondence for the First Lady)

(This is community organizing at it's finest.)
There has
NEVER been anyone in the White House at any time who has created such an army of staffers whosesole duties are the facilitation of the First Lady's social life. One wonders why she needs so much help,at taxpayer expense, when even Hillary, only had three; Jackie Kennedy one; Laura Bush one; and prior to Mamie Eisenhower social help came from the President's own pocket.

Note: This does not include makeup artist Ingrid Grimes-Miles, 49, and "First Hairstylist" Johnny Wright, 31, both of whom traveled aboard Air Force One to Europe .


FRIENDS.....THESE SALARIES ADD UP TO SIX MILLION, THREE HUNDRED SIXTY FOUR THOUSAND DOLLARS ($6,364,000) FOR THE 4 YEARS OF OFFICE????? AND WE ARE IN A RECESSION????? WELL....MOST OF US ARE. I GUESS IT'S OK TO SPEND WILDLY WHEN IT'S NOT YOUR OWN MONEY?????

Copyright 2009 CanadaFreePress.Com

Yes, I know, The Canadian Free Press has to publish this because the USA media is too scared they might be considered racist. Sorry USA !

Fee Increases To Get On Beach


The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that the daily entrance fee to the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge will increase from $5 to $8 on July 1. The price of the weekly, refuge annual, interagency annual and senior passes will not change. All passes are accepted at both ends of Assateague Island.

The additional revenue will be used to offset the maintenance costs of beach parking facilities and safety services on the Virginia end of Assateague Island National Seashore, as well as additional costs of visitor service projects.

Eighty percent of all money collected from the passes with the exception of the Federal Duck Stamp remains at the refuge to be used for visitor services and facility improvements. In 2009, the refuge utilized recreation fee dollars for repairs on the historic Assateague Lighthouse, annual maintenance of roads, trails, beach parking lots, visitor safety services (lifeguards), fee collection, and law enforcement support. These are some of the many projects that your fee dollars have provided.

Bankrupt Greece Selling Islands

What's a country with no money and thousands of islands to do? Greece is trying to pay off some of its massive debt by selling or offering long-term leases on some of its 6,000 islands, only 227 of which are inhabited, the Guardian reports. The country, which received a $135 billion bailout from the European Union last month, has also put its rail and water systems up for sale.

"I am sad—selling off your islands or areas that belong to the people of Greece should be used as the last resort," said the director of one property agency. "But the first thing is to develop the economy and attract foreign domestic investment to create the necessary infrastructure. The point is to get money."

www.newser.com

Oil Spill Became Too Much For Boat Skipper

(June 24) -- Two weeks after he was hired by BP to help with the oil spill cleanup, William Allen Kruse killed himself.

The 55-year-old charter boat captain shot himself in the head Wednesday morning as he prepared to spend another day skimming oil off the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, clearing the spill that threatened to destroy his livelihood and community.
Kruse left no note, so it's impossible to know why he took his life. But those who knew him say the veteran fisherman and father of four was almost certainly the latest casualty in the gulf oil crisis, and a symbol of the spill's exacting human toll.

"There's not a doubt in my mind, the oil spill was the cause of this," Tom Ard, who fished alongside Kruse for 25 years, told AOL News this morning. "It was just too much for him."

In a phone interview, Ard, 39, the president of the Orange Beach Fishing Association, said Kruse was in his prime when he killed himself and had been enjoying taking his 13-year-old son out on his boat to teach him how to fish.
"He had everything going for him. He was at the top of his game," Ard said. "He was the kind of guy that made everyone smile, and he was one heck of a fisherman."

In Orange Beach, Ala., where Kruse ran a sport boat business for more than two decades, acquaintances of the man known as "Rookie" said he did not have any psychological problems. And many said he was no more devastated than anyone else in the community, which has been hit hard by the spill.

"He didn't show any signs he was going to do this that would have thrown up any red flags where you'd think you better keep an eye on him," Jason Bell, Kruse's co-captain, who knew him for a decade,told the Press-Register of Mobile, Ala.

"He wasn't any more aggravated with the whole situation than any of the rest of us," Bell said. "I hate to say it, but I'm surprised something like this hasn't already happened."

Bell said Kruse had planned on retiring soon. He declined comment this morning.

Ard described a community under a severe amount of stress that doesn't know what will become of businesses that have been in families for generations.

"This is something that you put your whole life and soul into. You've done it for 25 years. Just the thought of all that gone, when it's not your fault, you didn't do anything wrong ... that's a lot of stress," he said.

Ard is grateful to have been hired by BP to help in the cleanup efforts, but said the oil spill has threatened an entire way of life.

"The cleanup is all we've got right now. It's the only work here," he said.

The death of a second cleanup worker Wednesday was unrelated to the spill. The unnamed worker drowned in a swimming pool accident. But when Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen announced the deaths at a press conference Wednesday, they seemed to emphasize the human cost of the crisis anyway.

"On a more somber note,we had two deaths reported on people that were involved in this response earlier today," he said. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to their families. We know this is a devastating thing to happen."

A BP official told AOL News today the company extends its condolences to the families.

Until now, the psychological toll of the disaster has not been widely discussed, but experts say the oil spill could cause emotional and social devastation in communities along the gulf.

Ard said the emotional toll of the spill killed his friend. "It's been a ton of stress on all of us," he said. "I guess everybody handles stress differently. And I guess he went off the deep end."

The Washington Post noted that Dr. Howard Osofsky, a Louisiana State University psychiatrist, said he'd noticed "an increase in suspiciousness, arguing and domestic violence" among those affected by the spill.

In Kruse's case, the boat captain had asked his staff to help him prepare to go out on the water one more time when he apparently chose to take his life instead.

"He had just let his deckhands off the boat and sent them to get something," Baldwin County Coroner Rod Steade told the Press-Register. "He was going to meet them at the fuel dock. They heard a pop, and when the boat didn't come around, they went back and found him."

Bell remembered Kruse as a kind man. "Even in the wintertime when things got tough, if you needed a little extra cash, he was always like, 'Here, take it,'" he said.

The community where Kruse lived is in mourning. But Ard said the town would recover.

"We are a very resilient bunch. We've had to deal with hurricanes and fishing closures and everything. I truly believe we'll all be fine. This morning we all went up, and we got to work," he said.
www.aolnews.com

AWOL Afghans On Facebook??

At least 11 of the 17 members of the Afghan military who went AWOL from an Air Force base in Texas and are considered deserters by their nation have turned up in the exact place you'd expect to find them in the year 2010.

They're on Facebook.

And, by the look of things, they're not unlike millions of other young men on the social networking site. One proclaims to be a fan of Paris Hilton and is a member of a group named “FREE Webcam Sex with ME!” Another is a fan of hip hop music, Michael Jackson, the tearjerker movie The Notebook, Family Guy and Sports Center. Another is a fan of soccer and the Godfather.

But others have friends whose motives may be much more sinister. Some belong to the “Afghanistan Mujahideen” group, a page that features, among other content, videos from the American-born Al Qaeda spokesman Adam Gadahn, a.k.a. Azzam the American.

According to a nationwide be-on-the-lookout (BOLO) bulletin that was sent by the North Texas Joint Terrorism Task force to law enforcement agencies across the country last week, the 17 Afghan deserters walked away from the Defense Language Institute at Lackland Air Force Base, where they had been studying English. The men have military identification that would give them access to secure U.S. military installations, the bulletin read. The existence of the BOLO alert was revealed exclusively by FoxNews.com.

One week later, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement source told FoxNews.com that only two or three of the 17 Afghans remain at large. The source said investigators have been working with Canadian immigration records and now believe that many of the men are in Canada.

David Smith, spokesman for Randolph Air Force Base in Texas, told FoxNews.com he was told that four of the men remain unaccounted for. Of the 13 who have been located, he said, six have pending refugee claims in Canada, two have permanent residency in Canada, four are in the process of being deported and one is a conditional resident alien in the U.S. But one thing most of them have in common is an affection for social networking.

FoxNews.com found Facebook pages belonging to 11 of the 17 deserters. The wife of one of them also created a page, on which she said her husband should not have appeared in the BOLO alert because authorities knew exactly where he was — at a South Texas immigration detention center, where she said he’s been held for the past eight months.

Many of the men found on Facebook appear unconcerned that they are being actively sought by law enforcement officials, having made little or no attempt to disguise their identities or whereabouts. Eleven of the men can be linked together either directly or through mutual friends on Facebook. On June 17 at 11:50 p.m., Mohd Ali Karimi posted an online note to the Facebook pages of two of the other AWOL men, Mohammad Nasim Fateh Zada and Sardar Mohd Ahmadi.
All three list their current city as Toronto. Zada’s profile lists his favorite quotation, Reinhold Nieburh's Serenity Prayer: “God grand me the serenity to accept the things I can not change, courage to change the things I can and wisdom to know the difference.” He says he graduated from Uluanovsk Signal Military College in 1986 and attended Military High School in Kabul, Afghanistan.

His “likes and interests” include soccer, jogging, gymnastics, history books, the movies Slumdog Millionaire and the Godfather, Fox News and CBC Radio 1.

On May 2, he posted a photo of himself at Niagara Falls, timestamped June 21, 2008 Zada’s online friends include a U.S. Army liaison officer and other members of the Afghan military.

On Sunday, Ahmadi, 32, who belongs to a Facebook group for Defense Language Institute students, posted a link to a Fox News report,


Kakar is friends with another AWOL man named in the BOLO alert, Sayed Qadir Shah Habiby, who provides this description of himself: “I like to spend time with the people I love! I enjoy having fun in what ever I do. Life is short, live it to the fullest."
He is a fan of Michael Jackson, The Notebook and Sports Center, and he says, “I want everyone to be a Democratic.” He says he graduated from National Military Academy of Afghanistan in 2008 and Kabul Military High in 2005.

In a comment posted on a friend’s wall, Habiby reveals that he studied civil engineering at NMAA and is living in California. Last active on March 29, he belonged to a Facebook group dedicated to making Pashto Afghanistan’s only official language. The description reads, in English, “To destroy a nation, Turn it into a bilingual or multilingual country. History shows that no nation can survive the tension, conflict, and antagonism of two or more competing languages and cultures."

It continues in Pashto,“75 percent of Afghanistan’s people speak Pashto, so this is the right of all Afghans that the national language be Pashto. In the near future, a grand jirga will be held in Kabul, so I request all patriotic Afghans to fulfill their responsibility and national duty in order to get their rights, and to put an end to Iran and its proxies.”

Another group Habiby belongs to is “Let us laugh,” a Pashto site described as “Let’s laugh so much that we forget our sorrows, but let’s not laugh too much because it’s harmful.”

The wife of Mohammad Fahim Faqier, one of the missing men, started a Facebook group page called “Set Fahim Free,” following his incarceration at an immigration detention center in South Texas. But she changed the page to “Setting the record straight for my husband: Mohammad Fahim Faqier,” once news broke that her husband, who she says has been detained for more than eight months, was included in the BOLO alert.

In an e-mail to FoxNews.com she wrote, “Believe me no one was more shocked than me to see my husband's name and photo on that list, especially considering the fact that he wasn't missing and ICE knew exactly where he was.”

None of the AWOL men, other than Ahmadi, replied to Facebook messages. A man named Ahmad Sameer Samar, when contacted by Fox News, replied that he was not the same Ahmad Sameer Samar named in the BOLO alert.

The following 17 Afghan military members have gone AWOL from an Air Force base in Texas and are being sought in a nationwide alert in the U.S.

Abdul Ghani Barakzai, born 8/8/1977
Mohd Ali Karimi, born 9/3/1982
Mohammad Nasim Fateh Zada, born 12/4/1966
Aminullah Sangarwal, born 8/27/1982
Mohd Ahmadi, born 5/5/1978
Ahad Abdulahad, born 5/5/1984
Sayed Qadir Shah Habiby, born 5/7/1985
Javed Aryan AKA Aryan Javed, born 1/1/1987
Mirwais Qassmi, born 4/24/1974
Barsat Noorani, born 6/3/1981
Atiqullah Habibi, two dates of birth are listed on the alert: 6/2/1982 and 7/2/1982
Ahmad Sameer Samar, born 5/2/1983
Mohamed Fahim Faqier, born 6/1/1987
Obaiddullah Abrahimy, born 8/1/1979
Sayed Nasir Hashimi, born 4/5/1972
Shawali Kakar, born 12/31/1979
Khan Padshah Amiri, born 4/1/1978

www.foxnews.com

Friday, June 25, 2010

Spinach Recall In Three States


Tests by a state agency have prompted the voluntary recall of spinach sold in North Carolina, Maryland and Virginia. The North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services said in a statement Wednesday that Lancaster Foods of Jessup, Md. is recalling its Krisp-Pak Ready to Eat Hydro-Cooled Fresh Spinach.

Routine tests found, an organism which can cause serious ailments in pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems. The agencys Food and Drug Protection Division found the bacteria in a sample from an Elizabeth City store.

Although no illnesses have been linked to the spinach, the company is asking people who bought the product to throw out the spinach, save the package and call 800-247-8125.

Oil Skimming Ship Makes Stop In Virginia


I wonder how long it will take for all of this to get through the red tape? Finally a country coming to the United States in he time of great need!! Why didn't anyone think about this a loooong time ago? Surely, someone that deals with oil MUST have some idea of what this ship can possibly do. I don't buy it for a second that they didn't. So much time has been used on the "duh and um" factors.


NORFOLK, Va. — With no assurances it will be allowed to join the Gulf oil cleanup, a Taiwanese-owned ship billed as the world's largest skimming vessel is sailing Friday to the Deepwater Horizon disaster in hopes of gulping down 500,000 barrels a day of oily water.

The ship — the length of 3 1/2 football fields and 10 stories high — is designed to work 40 to 50 miles offshore and collect oily water through 12 vents on either side of its bow. It docked in Norfolk en route to the Gulf from Portugal, where it was retrofitted to skim the seas.

The owners of the "A Whale" said the new skimming approach has never been attempted on this scale.

"We really have to start showing people what we can do," said Bob Grantham, project coordinator for TMT Group, a Taiwan-based shipping company. "We're seriously looking at whether we can go on site and just try to do it ourselves. That's not a good solution. We need to work with everyone else."

The company is still negotiating with the Coast Guard to join the cleanup and does not have a contract with BP to perform the work. The company also needs environmental approval and waiver of a nearly century-old law aimed at protecting U.S. shipping interests.

Environmental Protection Agency approval is required because some of the seawater returned to the Gulf would have traces of oil.

The company said it also needs a waiver of the 1920 Jones Act, which limits the activities of foreign-flagged ships in coastal U.S. waters.

Grantham said TMT was hopeful it could secure the necessary approvals during the ship's three-day passage to the Gulf. The Liberian-flagged ship was to leave Norfolk later Friday.

The converted oil tanker has the capacity of holding 2 million barrels, but would limit its holding tanks to 1 million barrels for environmental reasons. Oil skimmed up by the tanker would be separated from seawater, then transferred to another vessel.

"I believe this spill is unprecedented and you need an unprecedented solution," said T.K. Ong, senior vice president for TMT.

The effort received the endorsement of at least one Louisiana resident.

Edward Overton, a professor emeritus from Louisiana State University, was among the visitors at the port where the A Whale was berthed. He called the current cleanup inadequate.

"We need this ship," he told TMT executives. "That oil is already contaminating our shoreline."

www.chron.com

photos- Daily Press

Delaware Man Found Dead At Virginia Accident Scene


Parksley, Va. — Detectives with the Virginia State Police are investigating a pickup truck crash in which a Delaware man was found dead.

The accident occurred at 7:14 a.m. June 24, southeast of Parksley, Accomack County, Va., said police spokeswoman Sgt. Michelle Cotten.

The dead man was identified as Anthony Wayne Wilson, 46, of the 500 block of Blaine Drive, Felton, Cotten said.

Their initial investigation, which still was under way as of 4 p.m., indicated the 1994 Chevy ran off the highway, overcorrected, hit an embankment and crashed.

Wilson’s body was discovered next to the truck, she said. He was identified through his driver’s license.

“It is not known if he was the driver or the passenger,” Cotten said. Wilson’s family has been notified of the accident, she added.

Virginia authorities have requested warrants in order to search the truck, she said.

Cotten discounted initial reports in the local press that Wilson had sustained a gunshot wound.

“He was dirty and disheveled, and we have to wait until he is examined by the medical examiner,” she said.

BWI Celebrated 60th Birthday

YESTERDAY -- In 101 degree heat BWI had a birthday yesterday and my sister and I were unaware of it as we sat and waited for a relative's plane to land. Gee, I didn't see a birthday cake!

Sixty years ago an airport carved out of Anne Arundel County farmland ushered Baltimore into the airliner age

Today, Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport is the nation's 23rd busiest.

The airport, dedicated by President Harry Truman as Friendship International Airport, now serves about 21 million passengers and handles more than a quarter-million takeoffs and landings a year. BWI is an important base for low-cost carriers and is estimated to support about 22,000 jobs. It was one of only two large U.S. airports to grow in 2009.

"We are the low-cost-carrier airport," said BWI Chief Executive Paul Wiedefeld, pointing to the strong growth of such carriers as Southwest Airlines and AirTran Airways.

Friendship replaced Harbor Field, a 360-acre municipal airport on the site of what is now the Dundalk Marine Terminal.

Mayor Theodore McKeldin appointed a committee to study the idea of building a new airport in 1943. The site that was selected is between Baltimore and Washington, which at the time was served only by National Airport, on a plateau high above sea level, which reduces the dangers of fog.

In 1945, the city created the Baltimore Aviation Commission to oversee construction of the airport. Its cost would eventually run to $15 million about $136 million in current dollars.

For all its cutting-edge features in 1950, Friendship did not remain a paragon of modernity for long. Though passenger growth remained strong through the 1960s, Friendship would be eclipsed by more advanced facilities soon after it opened. Once jets began commercial operations in 1957-1958, Bentley said, "you had the airports all over the country mushrooming."



In the 1970s, the state spent $36 million to take over the airport, renamed it Baltimore-Washington International to capitalize on its location and launched a $70 million rebuilding program.


In 2001 a $1.8 billion expansion began with a long-term hub for Southwest Airlines, which began flying out of BWI in 1993 and is now the airport's biggest customer.

But BWI has retained some of the feel of the original airport with less "tenseness" than some of its rivals, Wiedefeld said.

"We did not lose sight of the personal connection the people feel you have compared with other airports," he said. "It's still Friendship Airport in a lot of people's minds.

www.wbal.com

Orioles and Nationals go to bat for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation

BALTIMORE—Some Orioles and Nationals players are going to bat for a new team—the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

MASN, the television network that broadcasts the Baltimore and Washington games, was to announce Friday that it is launching a "Go to Bat for the Bay" public service campaign with the foundation.

The spots featuring players such as Orioles pitcher Jeremy Guthrie and Washington's Adam Dunn are designed to educate viewers about the bay and its restoration. Tips include using less lawn fertilizer and chemicals and planting trees.

In Guthrie's pitch, he tells viewers the Chesapeake produces 500 million pounds of crabs, oysters and other seafood.

"A cleaner bay means better seafood and more jobs for those who bring the Chesapeake's bounty to our dinner tables," Guthrie says in the spot, which cuts from scenes of crabs, oysters and boats on the bay, to the pitcher standing in his uniform at Camden Yards.

In another commercial, Nationals manager Jim Riggleman tells viewers the bay has lost half of its forested shoreline, more than half its wetlands and 90 percent of its underwater grasses.

"The health of the Chesapeake is in jeopardy. Go to bat for the bay," Riggleman says.

The bay is the nation's largest estuary and was once a major producer of oysters and crabs. However, pollution and development have spurred oxygen-robbing algae blooms, killed bay grasses that provide habitat for many species, and hurt the seafood population. The bay watershed covers Maryland, the District of Columbia, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia, almost all of MASN's seven-state territory. MASN spokesman Todd Webster said the network is available to 7 million households from Harrisburg, Pa., to Charlotte, N.C. On an average night during baseball season, about 175,000 people watch the Orioles and Nationals.

Foundation President Will Baker said the partnership will "enhance awareness and educate millions of sports fans who live in the Chesapeake region."

www.eveningsun.com

OPERATION DRY WATER In Effect

RICHMOND


Virginia conservation police officers will be patrolling the state's waterways for boaters under the influence.

Called Operation Dry Water, the initiative begins today and continues through the weekend.

The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries said conservation officers will be looking for boat operators with a blood-alcohol concentration of .08 or higher. That's the legal limit in Virginia.

In the past five years, Virginia has had an average of 128 recreational boating incidents each year. An average of 17 of those each year have been alcohol-related.

The Virginia crackdown is part of a national safe-boating initiative.

www.hamptonroads.com

Federal Witness Killed After Name Is Leaked

Kareem Guest ignored the "stop snitching" credo, and authorities say his candid chatter to the FBI about drug dealers got him killed. The woman police say saw him get shot won't talk about it, and prosecutors have charged her with lying to a grand jury and want her imprisoned for 30 years.

It is at first glance an all-too-familiar and tragic tale of witness intimidation and a demonstration of the collateral damage of Baltimore's epic drug war, but with a sardonic twist: The silence of one witness has thwarted efforts to make an arrest in the silencing of another.

Authorities say they caught Raine Zircon Curtis bragging on a cell phone to her imprisoned boyfriend: "Kareem got killed last night. They killed that boy while we was right there. … We was standing right there." Yet to a grand jury, she denied seeing anything, court documents say.

As a result, Guest's execution-style slaying in September 2009 on a walkway known as "the blacktop" in South Baltimore's Westport neighborhood has gone unsolved, and for FBI agents who protect their informants like one of their own, it has gone unavenged.
Authorities say that a defense attorney gave his client's mother a copy of Guest's statement, which was distributed in Westport and might have been the reason Guest was outed and killed.

Defense attorneys have argued that witnessing the killing of a witness might understandably make one hesitant to become a witness. But Assistant U.S. Attorney John F. Purcell Jr. wrote in court documents that Curtis was not being obstinate out of fear and should be held in jail pending trial on a rarely used perjury charge.

"Outside the grand jury, the defendant has expressed pride in her refusal to cooperate with authorities," Purcell wrote. "The defendant's refusal is based on her disregard for Guest and his family, her obvious contempt for the justice system and her overarching loyalty to the code of the streets."

The prosecutor charged that Curtis "has expressed pride in not being a 'snitch,' " and considered the perjury charge "a joke."

Curtis' attorney, Joseph Murtha, has asked a federal judge to reconsider holding his client without bail until her trial, and a hearing has been scheduled July 9 in U.S. District Court. Murtha declined to comment on the case.

Guest, 31, was shot repeatedly in the head and chest on Sept. 20, 2009, at 10 p.m. He collapsed on Maisel Court, near where he had lived with his mother, and died 36 minutes later at Maryland Shock Trauma Center.

In one of those familiar bloody Baltimore weekends, he was one of 13 people shot over two days — one more name on a burgeoning list noting the violence but saying virtually nothing of the circumstances.

City police and the news media (though the City Paper profiled the case this month) initially dismissed Guest as a routine victim, a man on probation for drugs, leaving the impression that he was killed, like many others, in some sort of petty dispute over heroin.

The FBI knew better.

Guest, despite his personal battle with drugs, or perhaps to get favorable consideration on pending charges, sat down with FBI agents in January 2008 and provided enough information to fill nine typewritten pages describing the intricate life of slinging heroin called "Dynasty" on Westport streets.

The tips helped the FBI arrest eight people seven months later sporting nicknames like Playboy, Pooh, Marly Mar and Fingers. By May 2009, six had pleaded guilty to drug conspiracy charges, including ringleader Jamal Stewart, who is serving a 22-year prison sentence.

Two others demanded trials, and federal prosecutors had to give Guest's statement to their defense attorneys as part of a process called discovery, to give attorneys a chance to prepare their cases and research potential witnesses. Just before the trial, in June 2009, those two men pleaded guilty as well.

That spared Guest from having to testify in public.

But it wouldn't spare him apparent retribution on the street.

"By then … the damage that led to the murder of Kareem Guest had already been done," federal prosecutors said in court papers.

Two defense lawyers had Guest's statement. The prosecutors wrote that one of the attorneys gave the documents to his jailed client and to his client's mother. It was done, prosecutor Purcell said in court documents, "without permission from the U.S. attorney's office and in direct violation of the discovery agreement put in place to prevent these very sorts of disclosures."

Purcell wrote that the documents were "distributed and displayed … throughout Westport" and that "several individuals confronted Guest" about what he had told the police. Guest was killed three months after his statement first started appearing on the streets.

Prosecutors don't specifically name the two attorneys who got the forms. But they said in court documents that they did not give them to the six attorneys whose clients had pleaded guilty by May 2009 because their cases ended before trial dates were set.

The documents were given to two attorneys whose clients held out until June, prosecutors said. Court records show those defendants as Larry Cheese, represented by attorney Michael Carithers, and Elliot Brown, represented by attorney David R. Solomon.

Carithers left his Baltimore law firm and could not be reached for comment. Phone numbers to his house and cell phone have been disconnected.

Solomon said in an interview that he reviewed Guest's statement with his client, which is permissible, but said that "under no circumstances did I give him any of the paperwork." Solomon also said he has talked with prosecutors and has been "cleared of any wrongdoing."

It is not clear whether distributing copies of the FBI statements is a crime or would be considered a breach of ethical conduct.

Federal prosecutors declined to comment, and a spokeswoman for the Maryland U.S. attorney's office would not say whether defense attorneys are being investigated. The spokeswoman, Marcia Murphy, did say that no attorney has been charged in connection with the case.

Meanwhile, authorities are still trying to determine who killed their star witness.
www.baltimoresun.com

Fallen Heroes Poker Run- Federalsburg VFW

Many PGR attended Federalsburg Maryland's funerals' for two young men; 21 yr old Navy Corpsman HM3 Manuel Ruiz in 2007 and 19 yr old Army Spc Michael"Mikey"Yates in 2009.


These families have been fighting very hard for the last three years to build a memorial for these fallen soldiers and ALL veterans from ALL wars. Recently they were granted permission to build just down the road from Federalsburg's VFW!

This first ever poker run, of an annual event, will be to raise money for the Federalsburg Hometown Veterans Memorial that will honor our hero's near and far, some gone but not forgotten!!!


Poker Run
Saturday June 26th 2010
Federalsburg Md VFW
Registration 9am-11am
Roll out 11:30am
Cost:$25.00 for driver, $15.00 for each passenger (includes meal upon return)

Grand Prize $150.00
3 runner ups
D.J , 50/50 raffle, door prizes food,fun etc...


www.mdpatriotguard.com

Husband Arrested In Venus Stewart Murder Case

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WAVY) - A Michigan woman's estranged husband has been arrested in connection with her disappearance.

A prosecutor in St. Joseph's County, Michigan announced Wednesday, Douglas Stewart is charged with murder and conspiracy. Douglas, who has ties to Newport News, was arrested and taken into custody Tuesday night.

His estranged wife Venus vanished from her parents' home near Kalamazoo, Mich., on April 26. At that time, Doug told police he was at his home in Newport News. Someone was in Newport News making transactions on his accounts, so the alibi appeared to be legitimate.

In May, police in Michigan and Newport News asked the public for information about anyone who might have impersonated Doug Stewart.

St. Joseph County Prosecuting Attorney John McDonough said investigators spoke with a man Tuesday who admitted to portraying Doug in Newport News. McDonough said the co-conspirator had been "extremely cooperative."

Authorities are not releasing many details about the man, such as his age, hometown, or relationship to Douglas Stewart; however, WAVY.com has learned he is not from Hampton Roads.

A relative told WAVY sister station WOOD TV that Stewart met the co-conspirator through an online video game. As of Wednesday night, the man had not been charged with a crime.


McDonough said Stewart and the impersonator started planning in early April. According to McDonough, evidence and interviews with several people including the co-conspirator, lead him to believe Venus is dead.

McDonough said he believes Stewart abducted, killed, and disposed of his wife's body, then went back to Newport News, met up with his look-alike, and exchanged clothes.

Dustin Jasper, Venus's brother, said after so many weeks of hoping she would be found alive, the latest developments are tough on the family.

"I just feel so bad that all this had to come this way... it's just terrible," he said.

In a report from WOOD TV , Colleen Roussey said: "[Doug] was such a controller."

Roussey, a friend of Venus' parents continued, "I just knew he killed her. He had to have killed her. We're all just -- we're calling each other and crying. It is so horrible for all of us, because we've all been working so hard to bring that girl home. And that didn't happen."

McDonough explained prosecuting the case may be more difficult without a body, but he said there is strong evidence. He added though that finding Venus is a "number one priority."

Stewart is being held at the St. Joseph County Jail on $4 million bond.