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Man sentenced to 3 years for holding up bookies with cucumber hidden in sock Gary Rough claims he was 'only joking' when he tried to rob the Ladbrokes in Glasgow, England, with a cucumber hidden inside a sock, which he tried to play off as a sawed-off shotgun. Rough was given 40 months jail time for the incident. A British robber has been jailed for holding up bookies with a cucumber. Gary Rough, 28, stuffed the lengthy vegetable into a black sock to try and make it look like a sawed-off shotgun. He then demanded cash from terrified staff at...

Man suffers smoke inhalation trying to get Xbox out of burning home • Fire possibly started in electrical junction box OLATHE, Kan. —A man suffered minor smoke inhalation early Friday morning when he ran back into his burning home to retrieve an Xbox, according to Olathe firefighters. Fire crews were called to the home in the 800 block of Loula Street about 3:30 a.m. Two men lived in the home. They were awakened by smoke alarms sounding. Authorities said both men got out, but one man went back into the home to get the video game system and was overcome...

Jackass-style shark stunt goes horribly wrong It was a Jackass-style stunt that nearly turned around and bit Australian adrenalin junkie Shaun Harrington – or rather mauled him. Harrington, 27, and fellow forever-clowning twin brother Dean decided to go “cage diving” with sharks off the Gold Coast, which is Australia’s answer to Miami, last weekend for an extreme video shoot for their surfing and fishing clothing label, fittingly called The Mad Hueys. But the cage wasn’t the jaws-proof reinforced steel type typically used by shark divers – it was a flimsy $50 bird cage Shaun planned to put on his...

"....Crist also recalls the 2008 presidential campaign, his friendship with Republican John McCain and Crist's near-selection as McCain's running mate.Crist writes that he and aides spent three days filling out a detailed questionnaire before McCain officials arranged an official meeting. The group, led by McCain confidant A.B. Culvahouse, met Crist at his parents' house on Snell Isle in St. Petersburg. "We set up in the living room and stayed there all day,".......Weeks went by before Crist was told he wouldn't be McCain's running mate, he writes. McCain made the call to Crist personally, about 45 minutes before the world knew...

Immigration: The Border Patrol and other agencies report a "surge" of unaccompanied minors coming across our border. It coincides with the White House's de facto amnesty via the Dream Act to reward such lawbreaking. The Office of Refugee Resettlement noted a "surge" in unaccompanied alien children in its year-end report last week, pointing out that 24,668 foreign minors in the country illegally were placed in the care of a federal de facto baby-sitting service because no parents were around to care for them. Last year's number was a near doubling from 2012, and nearly quadruple what it was at the...

Since losing the 2008 presidential election and almost completing a full term as governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin has remained on the edge of the national consciousness. She's like America's racist aunt; not evil, just painfully ignorant and around the holidays she usually opens her mouth and says something embarrassing. Her newest book Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas is like her others: a delightful read if you're able to disconnect the hate part of your brain and just focus on the imaginary world she creates. It's an amusing, Seussian world, featuring combinations of real and...

Sarah Palin responded publicly for the first time Sunday on the nasty comments thrown her way by MSNBC host Martin Bashir, who later apologized for saying she deserved degrading punishment. "Everybody in life takes shots," the former Alaska governor said on "Fox News Sunday." "You have a decision to make when you take a shot. Are you going to become bitter or better? In a case like this, you know, I don't have to accept his words - his vile, evil comments. So they don't have to affect me. I move on and I charge forth." ---snip--- Palin said if...

MARTIN BASHIR: Last Friday, on this broadcast, I made some comments which were deeply offensive and directed at Governor Sarah Palin. I wanted to take this opportunity to say sorry to Mrs. Palin and to also offer an unreserved apology to her friends and family, her supporters, our viewers, and anyone who may have heard what I said. My words were wholly unacceptable. They were neither accurate, nor fair. They were unworthy of anyone who would claim to have an interest in politics, and they have brought shame upon my friends and colleagues at this network, none of whom were...

Am I the only one who caught it? Some of you clever techies post that for us please.

Women would do a better job than men of solving the current government stalemate, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) said on Monday—because “a woman doesn’t want to ruin the person on the other side of the aisle or the table.” … Why not put Sarah Palin in the room, joked Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), who was interviewed along with Wasserman Schultz. “You know, I would argue that even if Sarah Palin were in the room, that we could find a way to get to yes, because that’s usually women’s goal,” Wasserman Schultz replied. …

The key bit comes at the very end, in response to a question about who’s responsible for the temporary suspension of death benefits to families of fallen troops. McCain’s answer: Everyone in Congress — but, implicitly, especially the “defund” caucus. You can tell how eager Maverick was to make that point by how quickly he turns a segment about the administration giving short shrift to the military — normally an easy lay-up for a Republican against a Democratic president — into a lament about Cruz et al. I’m not sure a guy who’s positioned himself as the lead Republican opponent...

On Friday, after blaming conservatives like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) for the Obama administration's mishandling of military death benefits, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said Cruz simply did not represent the GOP. Fox News host Martha MacCallum mentioned that Cruz would be visiting President Barack Obama along with other Republican senators like Rand Paul (R-KY), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Marco Rubio (R-FL) at the White House on Friday. She asked McCain, "How do you feel about him representing you there?" In response, McCain smirked before saying, "First of of all, Martha, please, he's not representing us there." Also in the interview,...

Sen. John McCain said Wednesday that there was never a chance of defunding Obamacare, blaming politicians who said it was possible for the current government shutdown. “We started this on a fool’s errand, convincing so many millions of Americans and our supporters that we could defund Obamacare,” McCain (R-Ariz.) told Wolf Blitzer on CNN. “[That] obviously wouldn’t happen until we had 67 Republican senators to override a presidential veto.”[snip] “[It was] the people that convinced so many millions of Americans, tea partiers specifically we’re talking about, that there was some way to defund Obamacare. We can’t,” McCain said.

Sen. John McCain said Thursday that he’s worried about the Republican Party’s future and the infighting that is dividing it, calling efforts by conservatives to unseat incumbent Republican lawmakers “wrong.” The famously wry McCain, R-Ariz., said he regretted calling the Tea Party wing of the Republican Senate conference “wacko birds” during budget negotiations, saying he’s learned to “never get personal” in political disputes… “I do worry about the Republican Party,” he said at the Hero Summit hosted by The Daily Beast. “It’s the first time I have ever seen Republican senators running ads, raising money that is being used to...

Rod Blagojevich is peeling potatoes in prison Rod Blagojevich is "a lovely guy," according to defense attorney Sam Adam Sr. Apparently he isn't the only one with that assessment. Adam says that Blago's fellow prisoners "just adore him." So what does the Bureau of Prisons have him doing? "They've got him working in the kitchen peeling potatoes just like I did in the Army! They've given him a lot of time to run and exercise. He’s settled in now, which knowing the Bureau of Prisons, they’ll probably transfer him!"

Sen. John McCain has hired Elizabeth O'Bagy, the Syria analyst in Washington who was fired for padding her credentials, The Cable has learned. She begins work Monday as a legislative assistant in McCain's office. O'Bagy was a young but well-respected adviser at the Institute for the Study of War and had emerged quickly as an important voice among those arguing in favor of intervention in Syria. McCain and others had cited her work publicly before her nascent reputation collapsed when it was discovered that her claims to having a combined masters/PhD were false and that in fact she had not...

Sen. John McCain said Thursday that it is “not rational” to think the Senate will vote to defund Obamacare. “In the United States Senate, we will not repeal, or defund, Obamacare. We will not. And to think we can is not rational,” McCain said on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper.” McCain said that a government shutdown would negatively impact the American people’s view of Republicans and was critical of members of Congress who are pushing the strategy. “I do note with some interest that most of the people who are doing this are new and do not have the...

Is there a person anywhere in the world who still thinks there is an ounce of sanity in the Bush administration? If so, let that person read John Bolton’s orders to Syria in the January 24 online edition of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. [UN Security Council calls on Syria to comply with Lebanon By The Associated Press] Bolton is Bush’s unconfirmed ambassador to the United Nations. Bolton, a neoconservative warmonger, has managed to get the UN Security Council on January 23 to instruct Syria to disband and disarm the Lebanese militias. Bolton says, "I hope in Damascus they read it...

America Discredited 06.08.2013 America Discredited. 50771.jpeg Paul Craig Roberts As Washington loses its grip on the world, defied by Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, and now Russia, the US government resorts to public temper tantrums. The constant demonstration of childishness on the part of the White House and Congress embarrasses every American. Washington's latest outburst of childish behavior is a response to the Russian Immigration Service granting US whistleblower Edward Snowden asylum in Russia for one year while his request for permanent asylum is considered. Washington, having turned the US into a lawless state, no longer has any conception of legal procedure....

The executive branch coup against America has succeeded. The American people have suffered a coup d’etat, but they are hesitant to acknowledge it. The regime ruling in Washington today lacks constitutional and legal legitimacy. Americans are ruled by usurpers who claim that the executive branch is above the law and that the US Constitution is a mere “scrap of paper.” An unconstitutional government is an illegitimate government. The oath of allegiance requires defense of the Constitution “against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” As the Founding Fathers made clear, the main enemy of the Constitution is the government itself. Power does...