Bush Aide John P. Wheeler MURDERED

John P. Wheeler, former bush aide has been murdered at age 68.  His body was found dumped in a Delaware landfill by a Waste Management truck . Police has confirmed the finding took place on New Year’s Eve and so far they have no suspect on the crime.

It is also unknown so far when his death took place.  Investigators will have to wait until all the proper tests have been made on the body.

Right now police authorities believe that the former Bush aide was killed in Delaware and his nody was moved to Newark to dump his body on a waste management receptacle. Details about the day he disappeared are not available since he was alone and his wife had left town during those days.

Investigations continue while tests are being made to learn more about the murder.  If you have any type of information that could be useful to authorities investigating the crime, contact them by phone by calling to 1-800-TIP-3333.

Dallas, Texas: Longest Serving Prisoner CLEARED through DNA evidence

Dallas County man cleared in 1979 robbery, rape will be Texas' longest-serving exoneree

01:17 PM CST on Monday, January 3, 2011

By JENNIFER EMILY / The Dallas Morning News
jemily@dallasnews.com

A Dallas County man is expected to be exonerated Tuesday in connection with a 1979 robbery and rape.
Courtesy
Cornelius Dupree Jr.

Cornelius Dupree Jr., the 21st man exonerated in Dallas County, will have served the longest prison term of any Texas inmate cleared through DNA evidence. He was paroled over the summer after serving 30 years of a 75-year sentence.
Also Online

Full coverage: DNA exonerations

Dupree, 51, was convicted of aggravated robbery after two men abducted a man and woman on Dolphin Road in Dallas, said Paul Cates of The Innocence Project in New York.

The two kidnappers forced the man out of the car and later sexually assaulted the woman before shoving her out of the vehicle.

Cates said the rape victim wrongly identified Dupree in a photo array. The man could not pick out Dupree in a photo lineup. At trial, both victims identified Dupree as one of the men who abducted them in court.

Another man, Anthony Massingill, was also cleared in the same case, said Nina Morrison, an attorney with The Innocence Project.

Massingill, 49, will not take part in Tuesday’s court hearing. He was convicted in a second rape case and is waiting to see if there is evidence that can be tested in that case.

Morrison said the two actual perpetrators have not been identified. She said she does not know whether authorities have searched the national DNA database to see if the perpetrators are in the system.

Dupree's exoneration is the first involving DNA in Dallas County since May 2009. Since then, three men have been cleared with other evidence.

Shocker: NY sanitation union supervisors holed up in car getting drunk during snow storm

First, the news broke that the generously paid NY sanitation workers were incompetent at removing snow. Then it got worse - it was a purposeful snowjob by union bosses to try and bilk more money from the taxpayers: Shocker: NY Sanitation workers targeted specific neighborhoods for non-service. They were simply driving through the street NOT plowing:

The New York Post has been all over this:

• VIDEO OF A SNOWPLOW THAT MAY HAVE BYPASSED AN ICY STREET
• STORM'S BABY NIGHTMARE
• BAD NEWS 'BARES'
• BULL-DOZER 'FOLLOWING ORDERS'

But somehow, it got even worse yesterday as union supervisors were caught getting drunk while holing up in parked snow plows waiting it out rather than doing their jobs. From the New York Post: Sanit bigs boozed amid snow chaos: witnesses

A group of on-duty Sanitation supervisors is under investigation for allegedly buying booze and chilling in their cozy department car for hours Monday night after the blizzard stranded a bus and three snowplows blocks away.

The city Department of Investigation is probing the incident after witnesses said four snow blowers blew off their duties to get blitzed, buying two six-packs of beer from a Brooklyn bodega. The workers then walked five blocks to their car, which was in 20 inches of snow in the middle of 18th at McDonald avenues near the F train entrance, passing the stuck bus and idle plows on 18th Avenue between Third and Fourth streets.

The four remained in the idling sedan until morning -- then told their bosses they could do nothing about the blizzard because they had run out of gas, one witness said.

"They just sat in their car all night with the heat running," the witness said.

Customers who saw the group buying beer at the Ocean Mini Mart at 3917 18th Ave. in Kensington shouted at the workers.

"They were saying, 'How can you do this? You should be outside!' " a witness told The Post.

But the Sanitation team was unmoved.

Of course they weren't. It's not like they have to actually perform to compete against anyone. this is the predictable result of running a monopoly rather than a free market service.

Ohio boy, 10, faces charge in mom's fatal shooting

MILLERSBURG, Ohio (AP) — A 10-year-old boy was charged as a juvenile with murder in the fatal shooting of his mother after authorities said he told a neighbor about the killing.

The boy appeared Monday in a Holmes County courtroom with his attorney, who entered the juvenile equivalent of a not guilty plea. A judge ordered that the boy remain in Richland County Juvenile Detention as authorities investigate the shooting.

Deborah McVay, 46, was found dead of a single gunshot wound to the head Sunday night in Big Prairie, located about midway between Cleveland and Columbus, Holmes County Sheriff Tim Zimmerly said. Paramedics found McVay lying facedown on her living room floor, and she was pronounced dead at the scene, Zimmerly said.

Authorities went to the house, in rolling farmland, after a neighbor called a sheriff's dispatcher to say McVay's son had come to her home and said he had just shot his mother.

Another neighbor who knew the boy said the allegations were shocking. Ron Martin, 43, said the boy occasionally visited Martin's family to swim in its pool.

"He wasn't a bad kid, but he has had some problems in the school," Martin said. "Never anything that you would have dreamed that he would go out and shoot his mother."

County Prosecutor Steve Knowling said authorities do not plan to prosecute the boy as an adult. Defense attorney Andrew Hyde said he plans to argue for the boy's release so he can stay with a family member.
Hyde said he did not have the facts of the case, including any information on whether the shooting may have been accidental, and couldn't comment further.

Outside McVay's home on Monday, another son, 21-year-old Josh Mike, described her as "a very loving lady" who ran her own home health care business and served the mentally disabled. He would not comment on the allegations against his brother.

The sheriff said McVay has a 15-year-old daughter who is staying with relatives. It is unclear whether she witnessed the shooting. It's also unclear whether McVay is married.

From the bottom of the driveway, the hilltop house appeared to be a mobile home next to a multi-car garage, but neighbor Martin said the garage had been converted to a living space. He said he had not heard any gunshots but that it would not have been unusual in the area, where hunters often practice.

Knowling said that in more than two decades working in the legal system in the county, he has not seen a similar case.

"We don't have homicides here, period," he said. "I've got nothing to compare it to."
McVay's body was transported to the Stark County Coroner's office for an autopsy. Results were expected on Tuesday.

Associated Press Writer Meghan Barr contributed to this report from Cleveland.

The Real Death Panel

By Robert Romano

“Death panels” received renewed interest over the Christmas season in a New York Times piece by Robert Pear, “Obama Returns to End-of-Life Plan That Caused Stir.” The story outlines a new 691-page regulation that to puts into place end-of-life counseling, called “advanced care planning,” via the Medicare program.

The regulation is provided for “in the case where an injury or illness causes the individual to be unable to make health care decisions”. This is essentially a living will where the patient and the doctor would come to a determination about what to do if a patient became incapacitated. This provision was originally removed in the Senate version of the bill after public outcry emerged, spearheaded by former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

That it has reappeared in regulation after being rejected by Congress is troubling, and has renewed worries that such “counseling” could be utilized to coerce seniors into foregoing life-sustaining treatments. That is certainly cause for concern, but may only be the tip of the iceberg for “death panels”.

Get full story here.

Big Government Bozo of the Week: EPA’s Lisa Jackson

Video by Frank McCaffrey

Get permalink here.

Natural Gas Development Should be Considered as an Alternative to Team Obama’s “Renewable” Agenda

By Kevin Mooney
With the demise of “cap and trade” legislation, the Obama Administration has shrewdly pivoted in the direction of renewable mandates that emphasize solar and wind technology as a sop to green groups. Looking ahead, in 2011, newly elected Republican lawmakers are well positioned to advance energy policies that better exploit America’s homegrown resources and lower consumer costs. They should also press the House leadership to highlight and expose federal initiatives that will most likely boost electricity prices.

The so-called “Solar Energy Development” program that targets six western states (Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah), which was set in motion earlier this month, should be subjected to congressional scrutiny come January. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Secretary of Energy Steven Chu both claim the program will create jobs over the long term.

“Our country has incredible renewable resources, innovative entrepreneurs, a skilled workforce, and manufacturing know-how,” Secretary Chu declared in a press release. “It’s time to harness these resources and lead in the global clean energy economy. Today’s announcement is part of an integrated strategy to cultivate the entire innovation chain to create the jobs of the 21st century economy and to put America on a sustainable energy path.”

However, an analysis of state level public policy measures that include renewable standards and other green schemes concludes that consumers will lose out under Team Obama’s solar energy program.
Get full story here.

Michael Steele’s RNC staff running for the exit

Posted on Monday, January 3, 2011 by Paddy

 

Hmm, doesn’t seem that they’re too confident DJ Mike Master’s gonna triumph.

With the clock ticking down until the next Republican National Committee chair is selected (and time seemingly running out for current chair Michael Steele), some of the committee’s highest-profile staff members are heading for the exits.

From an email sent this morning by RNC Communications Director Doug Heye:

I wanted to let you know that I’ve decided to leave the Republican National Committee following our Winter Meeting next week. At the Winter Meeting, the committee will be electing a Chair and I want to give whomever that might be the opportunity to choose their own staff without any complications.

Heye’s not the only one, according to Politico. The committee’s Chief of Staff, Mike Leavitt, is also heading out the door this month.

The RNC’s 168 voting members will meet later this month to determine who will helm the RNC through the 2012 presidential election.

RLC Convention Speaker Dan Halloran Exposes Union Deal to Slow Snow Cleanup on FOX News

In New York City, the Department of Sanitation, aka “New York’s Strongest,” are tasked with clearing the streets of snow. The sixth most powerful storm in city history pounded New York on December 26, leaving as much as twenty inches of snow covering the Big Apple. Three days later, hundreds of streets remained completely unplowed. New Yorkers, true to their reputation, complained loudly and long, with anecdotal information suggesting that something was amiss with the normal street cleaning operations.

On December 29, Mayor Mike Bloomberg visited a Hunt’s Point hardware store where he expressed his “disappointment” in the snow clearing efforts. ”We did not do as good a job as we wanted to do or as the city has a right to expect,” the Mayor said. ”I cannot tell you for sure why it was a lot worse this time than at other times.”

Harry Nespoli, president of the Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Association (USA), apparently had the answer which eluded the Mayor. Nespoli blamed the recent cuts to the Sanitation Department’s workforce, directly tied to New York’s budget woes, for the city’s “sluggish” response. ”The city currently has 2,400 men and women working 12-hour shifts following a series of cuts, he said.

RLC member and City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Queens) reported that three plow workers from the Sanitation Department, and two Department of Transportation supervisors who were on loan to Sanitation as part of the cleanup effort, came to his office and confessed that the inept response to the storm was a “shameless job action” perpetrated by Sanitation Department bosses in response to a “raft of demotions, attrition and budget cuts” necessitated by the city’s budget crunch.

”They sent a message to the rest of the city that these particular labor issues are more important,” said Halloran . “(Sanitation workers) were told (by supervisors) to take off routes (and) not do the plowing of some of the major arteries in a timely manner. They were told to make the mayor pay for the layoffs, the reductions in rank for the supervisors, (and) shrinking the rolls of the rank-and-file.”

Listen to Dan on FOX News.
While New York City sanitation workers worked to tow a front-end loader after it got stuck, they also destroyed a parked Ford Expedition in the process.

By By Aaron

North and South Korea ponder nuclear war as China finally steps up

Don't worry they tell me! Q&A: Inter-Korean crisis and South Korea's instigation in pictures
I have to rethink the supposed sinking of South Korea's ship and which country is really doing the instigating



Q&A: Inter-Korean crisis

North Korea Says US, South Korea Drill 'Inviting Nuclear War' North Korea said the US and South Korea are “inviting a nuclear war” by conducting military drills, even as a Seoul-based think tank predicted that Kim Jong Il's regime may hold another atomic test next year.
North Korea nuclear test 'possible' in new year They have conducted nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009 and want to show off for the new leader but have yet to prove they have a way to deliver a nuclear weapon. If China does not continue to come through for these North Korean mad men I think they have as much to worry about as South Korea.

At the brink China has finally stepped up to diffuse this mess at their door It's about time!

Recap: Supposedly this crisis started when on the evening of 26 March, the Cheonan, a South Korean warship, was sailing off Baengnyeong island close to the disputed maritime border when an explosion split it in two. Fifty-eight sailors managed to escape but 46 were killed. Now I am really wondering who did it knowing how we lied about TonKin to start the Vietnam war and tried it in the Gulf to instigate war with Iran. Gulf of Tonkin wikipedia


We forget history but China does not. They remember the Korean war that they fought too and the fact that General MacArthur wanted to take China too. To bad he didn't! Yes, Beijing has been using North Korean belligerence in order to keep us off their door step. They have also for a long while been abusing their increasing financial and military strength. Yes in the past we too did it but that time must be over if we are to move successfully through the 21st century.Time to diffuse this!

China said nothing while the rest of the world freaked out and they are building aircraft carriers to project their power in Asia and around the world. China's real role here is her goal to keep Democracy off her doorstep and the Kim regime in power because they will remain a puppet whose strings China can pull. Kim Jong Il said he was committed to establishing "a lasting peace system" on the Korean peninsula and to making it nuclear-free "through dialogue and negotiations" a lasting peace system, what is that? donations of food and supplies from us while he maintains his 7 million man army for China and continues to toy with advanced weapons and starve its people?

In the end I don't care what they say. This is a confrontation long in the works and only China can diffuse it. MacArthur was right wanting to go right through North Korea then China back than because it would eventually have to be done. There is a lot behind the scenes to be concerned with here and yes China is our banker but they have been overstepping their boundaries. We owe them trillions but with Russia's cooperation we can come out on top here and I have to believe China agrees. I fully expect we would and in the end being victors we would cancel our debt to China!

I have had those that point out Russia and the US will never join against China because of Russia and China's connection in the Shanghai cooperation but don't forget China is also connected with South Korea and Japan and look what that's worth. Dmitri Medvedev realizes as I do that Russia and the US need each other and our close relationship is critical to both of us proceeding successfully through the 21st century. That relationship in the end could be our saving grace.
James Joiner
Gardner, Ma

Oil Prices Set to Escalate

We vividly recall the election of 2006, when Hillary Clinton promised lower fuel costs if only Americans would overwhelmingly elect democrats to the Congress. Americans did, and judging from the price of gasoline at the pump and winter home heating fuel prices, Hillary Clinton (unsurprisingly) told the American people a bald-faced lie.

Currently, the average cost of a gallon of gasoline is $3.00 (or more) per gallon, necessitated because a barrel of sweet crude costs $90.00. Former Shell Oil Company CEO John Hofmeister now predicts a gradual increase to $5.00 per gallon by the end of 2012. Moreover, Mr. Hofmeister predicted supply and demand will become so out of balance that entire regions of the United States will experience gasoline shortages.

Hofmeister criticized the Obama administration for its decision to curtail offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico —a ridiculous decision that resulted in a substantial increase in unemployed Americans. Some pundits suggested that George Soros was behind this idiotic decision and that since the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Soros has made hundreds of millions of dollars in his Venezuela oil investments. Given the present cat fight between Obama and Chavez, Soros may stand to make hundreds of millions more. Hofmeister said, “"It is pure politics that keeps us from drilling more of our own resources.”

Energy Secretary Ken Salazar apparently agrees: “As a result of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill we learned a number of lessons, most importantly that we need to proceed with caution and focus on creating a more stringent regulatory regime.”

It seems to us this is a good summary of liberal energy policy. To leftists, the central issue is stringent regulatory regime, not jobs for Americans, or more affordable oil for the American consumer. We mention this because we think it is important that Americans know their enemy.

What the Obama administration has offered the American consumer is “alternative energy resources” that are not viable, no one can afford, nor anyone with a lick of sense would buy. According to Fox News, “While clamping down on domestic energy production, the Obama administration has invested billions in renewable energy sources via last year's stimulus bill and has pushed improved energy efficiency for a range of products in a bid to at least keep demand a bit lower in the long term. New emissions standards for cars and trucks will soon mandate an average fuel economy of just over 35 miles per gallon for new vehicles by 2016.”

Let’s be succinct: the real winners are manipulative bastards like Al Gore and George Soros who have made hundreds of millions of dollars. The real losers are the American people whose refusal to pay $40,000 for an all-electric car will permit the government to force them into a death trap powered by a two-cylinder Briggs and Stratton engine.

What, exactly, is the problem? According to Hofmeister, seventeen successive administrations and congresses have refused to address America’s energy needs. Our government is closing down oil and gas drilling sites when they should be expanding them; we continue to rely on foreign oil, when we should be expanding domestic oil and gas production. Moreover, as we expand this important and responsible use of natural resources, we must proceed with developing alternative energy and transportation resources to serve the needs of our cities and surrounding areas. This is America, not Italy. The American people will not convert to the primary use of Vespa motor scooters. If Disney can create an elevated rail system, why must our large cities retain smog-belching buses and continue to spend billions on the so-called diamond lanes? Why must our government continue to make the American people dependent upon foreign (Saudi) oil?

I think we know the answers to these questions. Do you?

Posted by Mustang

Prison rioters ‘must be punished’

Written on January 2, 2011 by Editor - BBC News

About 40 of the 496 prisoners were involved in the riot

Related stories

A "high-level" investigation has been launched into a riot at an open prison in West Sussex.

A number of buildings were burned to the ground at Ford prison, near Arundel, during the violence which broke out at midnight on 1 January.

The Prison Officers' Association said the incident started after staff tried to breathalyse some prisoners.

Prisons minister Crispin Blunt said the formal inquiry would be led by the regional custody manager for Wales.
Prison officials said the disturbance was "successfully resolved" by specially trained staff by 2200 GMT.
Michael Spurr, chief executive officer of the National Offender Management Service, said: "Although damage has been sustained to the prison, there has only been a minimal loss of accommodation.

"These types of incidents in open prisons are rare and it is to the credit of all the staff involved that no staff or prisoners sustained significant injuries during the incident."

He said staffing levels at the time were "appropriate and usual" and a "high-level investigation" had been launched.

Mark Freeman from the Prison Officers' Association said there had only been two prison officers and four support staff on duty at the time to manage a population of 496 inmates.

"In our view they do not have enough staff. The general policy is that prisons in an open state have less staff but we feel they should have more because they have more access to illegal activities," he said.

HMP Ford557 capacityCategory D male prisonFocuses on resettlementFormer Fleet Air Arm stationConverted 1960Mixture of huts and landings

He said those responsible for the trouble had worn balaclavas to conceal their identities.

Alcohol had been a concern at the jail for some time, he said, with dozens of empty bottles found in recent days.

Mr Freeman said: "In the early hours, staff tried to breathalyse a number of prisoners because they suspected they had been drinking.

"When the prisoners refused to be breathalysed they became violent along with other prisoners and went on what we call a mutiny."

Mark Freeman, Prison Officers' Association: "Wardens were chasing prisoners, trying to get breath tests"

Six prisoners had been identified as the ringleaders, he added, and three were being transferred, while the other three were "hiding" among the other prisoners.
About 40 inmates were involved in the riot, and the fires destroyed six accommodation blocks, a mail room, a gym, a snooker room, and a pool room.
Mr Blunt said 150 prisoners had been moved to closed conditions, either because they were involved in the disturbances or because of damage to their accommodation.

HMP Ford accepts category D offenders who have under two years left to serve on their sentences.

The Prison Service website says the institution does not house criminals who have been convicted of arson, some sexual offences, or "restraining" offences.

The facility is split into two sites divided by a main road. One of the sides is mainly residential, while the other generally consists of work spaces.

Rattner settles with Cuomo for $10 million

• Source: Reuters
• News Date: 12/30/10 the last 10 of the 10 year
• Author: Jonathan Steeple

Steven Rattner, Former Head of U.S. Treasury Department’s Auto Task Force in New York, November 19, 2009.
Credit: Reuters/Brendan McDermid

Former Obama administration auto industry czar Steven Rattner agreed to pay $10 million to resolve lawsuits by New York’s attorney general over kickbacks allegedly paid to do business with the state’s pension fund.

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Days of Noah

Facing WikiLeaks Threat, Bank Plays Defense

Source: New York Times

By the time the conference call ended, it was nearly midnight at Bank of America’s headquarters in Charlotte, N.C., but the bank’s counterespionage work was only just beginning.

A day earlier, on Nov. 29, the director of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, said in an interview that he intended to “take down” a major American bank and reveal an “ecosystem of corruption” with a cache of data from an executive’s hard drive. With Bank of America’s share price falling on the widely held suspicion that the hard drive was theirs, the executives on the call concluded it was time to take action.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/03/business/03wikileaks-bank.html?src=busln

Xavier Dequan Thomas Sr. accused of stabbing 6-year-old son more than 20 times

Posted in January 2nd, 2011

 

by claudette in Mental Illness, crime

 

A Florida father is accused of stabbing his six-year-old son more than 20 times as they watched New Year’s Eve fireworks near their Tampa home.
Authorities say twenty-three year old Xavier Dequan Thomas Sr. was watching fireworks with his family, when he took his son, Xavier Jr., aside to an apartment complex and stabbed him several times.

Reports say he then threw the bloody child over a 6-foot fence into a wooded area, leaving him to die, while returning to the fireworks as if nothing had happened.

Thomas’ 24-year-old sister, Terenesha, later told police that her brother, who suffers from a mental illness, was watching fireworks with the rest of the family when he asked to spend some time alone with his son.
Terenesah Thomas said her brother “seemed really sincere” and his put his arm around his son and took him for a walk.

She said about 30 minutes had passed since seeing her brother and nephew, so she started walking toward the playground to look for them.

Thomas said she saw her brother walking back to the group without his son and when she asked where her nephew was he said, “I gotta go, I gotta go,” and ran off. Teerensah Thomas said she began to scream her nephew’s name as she called 911.

She said while law enforcement officers were searching for her nephew by air and ground, she saw her nephew staggering from the woods drenched in blood. She said when she asked him who had hurt him and he replied, “My dad,” and when she asked him with what, he replied, “A knife.”

Xavier Jr. was taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital.  An update on his condition was not available at press time.
Thomas’ grandmother, Yvonne Mickles, said her grandson has had problems since witnessing two murders in 2004. She said one of the incidents involved a best friend who died in his arms after being shot in the head.

Mickles said Thomas, who has been institutional at least five times; sometimes talk to his dead friend.
Xavier Thomas Sr., who has been arrested 13 times since the age of 14, was later arrested near I-94.

On final day in office, Schwarzenegger shortens manslaughter sentence for son of ex-Speaker Fabian Nunez

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has commuted the manslaughter sentence of Esteban Nunez, the son of former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez. Saying that he thought the 16-year prison sentence Esteban Nunez was serving was "excessive" the governor reduced his sentence from 16 years to 7 years.

 The move comes just hours before Schwarzenegger leaves office. Nunez pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and assault with a deadly weapon for his role in a fight that killed a 22-year-old man near San Diego State University in 2008.

Prosecutors say Nunez and friends went looking for a fight after they were refused entry to a fraternity party.

USS Enterprise: Update on videos

Here's an CCN story on the USS Enterprise videos.

Two comments:

1. CNN is quite correct that substantial official resources were required in their production. This isn't someone clowning around with a personal video camera.

2. If the Navy has already been aware of these videos, and took action way back in 2007, well, then action has been taken, so it's just egg on the Navy's face at this point.

The Chavez show in Brazil

Well, maybe Brazil inaugurated a new president yesterday but in chavistadom the news was of Hillary Clinton shaking hands with Chavez.

Amused Santos, eeked! Clinton, shocked Piñera and Trinidad's "payaso"

Now, a lot of tall tales seem to be sown here and there but form the picture above we can see a few clear things that cannot be hidden, at least to everyone that has a vague idea of what body language stands for.

Santos knows Chavez first hand and he knows how far in his clownishness this one will go to score a point valid at home (Santos also knows that Chavez does not care much anymore about points he may score for the foreign peanut gallery, too much trouble in Caracas to worry about that).  In other words, Santos "been there, done that, hated it" moment is in the past and he is checking out the other three guys.

Hillary is of course the Secretary of State and she has been kissing enough frogs for the past 2 years that she will kiss that one too.  But her face is a poem of surprise and disgust although she recomposes herself real quick.  I was impressed at how quick, by the way.  Whatever it is they say from the right, Hillary clearly looks like the entrapped one in this picture.

Piñera is in shock.  He cannot believe what is going on, and possibly the rudeness that came before the scene and that cameras may have missed.  He looks at the hands, wondering is Clinton will shake it after all.  She will, of course, she has been around the block but we can understand Piñera moment of doubt.

As for the "payaso" according to Spanish Foreign Minister Trinidad (see wikileaks), he is doing his show, oblivious of any ridicule he may encounter.  After all he needs to prove to the world that it is the US that is threatening to break with Chavez and not the other way around.  This is of course solely for at home chavista consumption as outside of Venezuela the dice have rolled long ago.  So he sports a fixed smiling grimace that looks more like the spoiled brat that got away with a nasty trick than the responsible statesman that brought peace to two countries (though that faciès is better seen in other pictures that I will not bother posting).  The left can say whatever it wants, we know better now.

But of the four of them I am sure that Santos had the better moment, as in "see Hillary, I get no respect from you and your stupid democrats and trade unions blocking my FTA treaty with you.  That is what you get in return, bitch!  Deal with him too! Mwahahahahah!"

Egyptian New Year Begins with a Bombing of Christian Church

At least 21 people have died in the Egyptian city of Alexandria when a bomb blew up outside a church.

The targets were Coptic Christians who were participating in a New Year's Eve prayer service.

Egyptian police are sifting through evidence at the scene, attempting to determine who is responsible for the explosion. Officials have suspected foreign elements such as Al Queda.

After the bombing, Copts marked with fury to to a nearby mosque, where they clashed with police.
Al Jazeera visited the scene, speaking with victims who were admitted to a nearby hospital.

Goldman Sachs invests £290 million in Facebook

 

 

Goldman Sachs has invested $450 million in social networking giant Facebook, valuing the site at $50 billion.

The investment values the company higher than Time Warner, eBay and Yahoo.

Says angel investor Chris Sacca (via NYT):

"When you think back to the early days of Google, they were kind of ignored by Wall Street investors, until it was time to go public. This time, the Street is smartening up. They realize there are true growth businesses out here. Facebook has become a real business, and investors are coming out here and saying, ‘We want a piece of it.’"

CEO Mark Zuckerberg has long resisted going public, but many recent reports have suggested an IPO (initial public offering) for the company could be coming in 2012.

As part of the deal, Goldman has invested $450 million, and Russian investment firm Digital Sky Technologies has invested another $50 million. DST now has over $400 million invested.

Goldman also has the right to sell up to $75 million worth of their stake to DST.

When DST first invested, however, their stake valued the company at $10 billion, meaning their investment is already worth five times what they paid for it, in just a short number of years.