April Reign

Speak your mind even if your voice shakes

Debra

Get it done

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“We can get it done,” Brownback told a crowd of about 100 people, according to the Des Moines Register.
“We’re one justice away, and if we lose this we’re going to be two or three judges away from overturning this thing that is wrong,” he said.

This is the second time that Brownback has said he would like to nominate the next Supreme Court justice who could provide the fifth vote to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Canada’s New Government™ (retch) Getting things done for all of us

Nascar Get er done

Coincidence?

Do as we say, not as we do

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Brian D. Kelly didn’t think he was doing anything illegal when he used his videocamera to record a Carlisle police officer during a traffic stop. Making movies is one of his hobbies, he said, and the stop was just another interesting event to film.

Now he’s worried about going to prison or being burdened with a criminal record.

Kelly, 18, of Carlisle, was arrested on a felony wiretapping charge, with a penalty of up to 7 years in state prison.

His camera and film were seized by police during the May 24 stop, he said, and he spent 26 hours in Cumberland County Prison until his mother posted her house as security for his $2,500 bail.

Kelly is charged under a state law that bars the intentional interception or recording of anyone’s oral conversation without their consent.

Interestingly enough the cops were filming and audio recording them from the cruiser cam, which is perfectly legal due to a loophole for cops.

First Assistant District Attorney Jaime Keating said case law is in flux as to whether police can expect not to be recorded while performing their duties.

“The law isn’t solid,” Keating said. “But people who do things like this do so at their own peril.”

That sounds pretty ominous and really what is it they always say, if you aren’t doing anything wrong you shouldn’t have anything to hide.

Guess that only applies to those not wearing a badge.

Here come da (sob) judge

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It must have been some pair of pants!

WASHINGTON (AP) – A judge had to leave the courtroom with tears running down his face Tuesday after recalling the lost pair of trousers that led to his $54 million US lawsuit against a dry cleaner.

This might be even better;

Manning has said the cleaners made three settlement offers to Pearson, but the judge was not satisfied and increased his demands – including asking for money to rent a car so he could drive to another business.

I hear in another case he was upset with the sparkling wine and ordered them to book and pay for a flight to Champagne.

CAPs Update

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Community Access Program (CAP) has been renewed. However, the funding only lasts till March 2008 and $1.5 million was cut from the budget.

This proves the lack of commitment this government has to those in need, and to ensuring that all citizens have access to what is fast becoming necessary technologies.

Thank you to all who signed the petition. I hope we will see this program reinstated in full in the not too distance future.

From the NDP

OTTAWA – NDP Literacy Advocate Denise Savoie (Victoria) cautiously welcomed yesterday’s long-delayed announcement that the Community Access Program (CAP) has been renewed, albeit only until March 2008 and with a $1.5 million cut.

“This is a victory for the community groups who deliver and believe in this program, and it’s good news for those vulnerable Canadians whose access to online literacy and job skills resources was hanging in the balance,” said Savoie. “But once again it is only a short-term reprieve instead of a long-term commitment. It is consistent with the Conservatives’ half-hearted, piecemeal approach to literacy programs.”

The program, which expired on March 31st, supports the provision of Internet access to low-income, unemployed and homeless Canadians at over 4,000 community sites across Canada. Yesterday, Industry Minister Maxime Bernier formally announced that funding would be provided for the 2007-08 fiscal year. The call for applications went out quietly to past recipients in late April to early May, with a May 31st deadline and a warning that contribution agreements could take up to three months to issue.

“That’s seven months’ worth of funding before the program expires again in March,” said Savoie, who also noted that the program’s budget was cut for the second consecutive year. Last October’s Supplementary Estimates (A) confirmed a $6 million cut from 2005-06, to $20.5 million in contributions for CAP. This year, the department says the budget is set at $19 million.

“This Conservative government is clearly not committed to literacy for vulnerable Canadians,” said Savoie. “They have undermined literacy programming at every turn, with delays, cuts, and one-year extensions instead of providing stable, transparent funding for the long term.”

Savoie questioned the secrecy surrounding the renewal of the program.

“The whole process was inexplicably hidden from public view,” said Savoie. “I hounded the Minister for months in the House to publicly confirm that CAP would be renewed. But the formal announcement didn’t happen until after the application deadline. Why did the Conservatives leave these vulnerable groups in the lurch?”

Could it be Satan?

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Mark 5:25 And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, 26 And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, 27 When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. 28 For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. 29 And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. 30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes? 31 And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? 32 And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing. 33 But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth. 34 And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.


1 And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes. 2 And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, 3 Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains: 4 Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him. 5 And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.

6 But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, 7 And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not.
8 For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. 9 And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.

Jesus, the son of god, was not afraid of the people but walked freely among them tending their maladies, healing their pains, freeing them from their demons.

The pope…ah… well lets just say he does things differently.

A German man tried to jump into Pope Benedict XVI’s uncovered popemobile as the pontiff began his general audience Wednesday and held onto it for a few seconds before being wrestled to the ground by security officers.

The pope was not hurt and didn’t even appear to notice that the man – who was between 20 or 30 years old – had jumped over the protective barrier in the square and had grabbed onto the white popemobile as it drove by. The pontiff kept waving to the crowd and didn’t even look back.

At least eight security officers who were trailing the vehicle as it moved slowly through the square grabbed the man and wrestled him to the ground.

The man was a 27-year-old German who showed signs of “mental imbalance,” said the Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman.

The Guardian

Google buys FeedBurner

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googleEver feel like google is pacman and all other companies are just dots waiting to be devoured?

Google has acquired another medium for its advertising engine by purchasing FeedBurner, a company that distributes syndicated content for blogs and other media Web sites, the companies said Friday.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, although the figure of $100 million had been reported by TechCrunch, which broke the story last week.

“This is an area where we saw a lot of opportunity and that was growing quickly,” Susan Wojcicki, vice president of product management at Google, said in a conference call with reporters.

Google is the titan of paid search advertising and has a large network of Web sites that host ads Google sells through its AdWords online marketing system. The company has been expanding aggressively into enabling offline forms of advertising, such as in print and on radio and television. Now it can put ads in the more than 430,000 RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds that FeedBurner has and it can expand its AdSense Web site publisher network with the FeedBurner publishers, Wojcicki said.