Strange & Stupid: Amusing News

MIAMI (AP) - Police are responding in force at a Miami high school where a big fight broke out. Video from television news helicopters showed more than a dozen students being hauled away in handcuffs.
Fire rescue officials say three police officers and a student have minor injuries.

Miami police spokeswoman Martha Carbana says the department received a call before noon Friday about the disturbance at the Miami Edison Senior High School.

It’s not clear what triggered the fight, but school officials say classes have returned to normal.

Miami Edison recently celebrated its move from a designation of an “F” or failing school to “D.” Last year, only 10 percent of students met reading standards. Less than a third met state math standards.

–> Clinton Hauls in $35 Mill; Obama Camp Says They’ll Do Better [about $50]
IN ONE MONTH! ONE MONTH!!!
“I was sure excited by the generosity of thousands of new donors,” Clinton
told reporters in Hanging Rock, Ohio. “It was really heartwarming because a
lot of them sent e-mails talking about why they were contributing and it was
often five, ten, fifteen dollars and they would write about how they wanted
to do for their children.”
Of the 35 million, campaign officials said 30 million came from online donations.
The money included donations from more than 200,000 new donors.

–>In his back-and-forth with Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., over Iraq, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Thursday morning sought to portray the Democratic front-runner as representing the Iraq politics of the past by focusing on the decision to invade in 2003 rather than what to do now.
“That’s talking about what happened before. What we should be talking about is
what we’re going to do now. And what we’re going to do now is continue this
strategy which is succeeding in Iraq and we are carrying out the goals of the
surge, the Iraqi military are taking over more and more of the
responsibilities.”

McCain Wednesday criticized Obama for stating that as president, after withdrawing combat troops from Iraq, he might send troops back in “if al Qaeda is forming a base” there. Seeking to portray Obama as naïve and ill-informed on national security, McCain said, “I have some news — al Qaeda is in Iraq. It’s called: ‘Al Qaeda in Iraq.’”

–> Angry tribal elders in Kenya are calling on Hillary Rodham Clinton to “clear her name” over any involvement in publication of photos of Barack Obama wearing a turban and African garb on a trip to his ancestral homeland.
The photos appeared nationwide after they were published earlier this week on the Drudge Report Web site with a report that they had been circulated by Clinton staffers.
The pictures show Obama wearing traditional Somalian garb on a 2006 visit to the Wajir region of Kenya, where his late father was born.

–>Troubles face Obama if he gets the nomination….The Tennessee Republican Party, identifying him with his middle name as Barack Hussein Obama, suggested that his foreign policy would be shaped by people who are anti-Semitic and anti-Israel.

The Republican National Committee issued a statement on Wednesday invoking a questionnaire Mr. Obama filled out when running for Senate in 2004 to show that he once opposed cracking down on businesses that hire illegal immigrants.

Without using Mr. Obama’s name, President Bush, at a White House news conference on Thursday, assailed his willingness to meet Cuba’s new leader, Raúl Castro, without preconditions, saying that to do so would grant “great status to those who have suppressed human rights and human dignity.”

–>The Texas Democratic Party warned Thursday that election night caucuses scheduled for Tuesday could be delayed or disrupted after aides to Hillary Rodham Clinton threatened to sue over the party’s complicated delegate selection process.
Democratic sources said both campaigns have made it clear that they might consider legal options over the complicated delegate selection process, which includes both a popular vote and evening caucuses. But the sources made it clear that the Clinton campaign in particular had warned of an impending lawsuit.

The Chairman of the Democratic National Committee and former Governor of Vermont contrasted the two parties’ presidential candidates, saying that with a woman and an African-American as the two front-runners, the Democratic field “looks like America,” while the all-white male Republican field “looks like the 1950s and talks like the 1850s.”

Howard Dean focused on politics, the Democratic party’s future, and the Democrats’ role in civil rights in a speech on Tuesday.

“For eight years we’ve had a president who doesn’t understand the law, and we don’t want a third Bush term,” Dean said.
Dean fielded questions from an audience that filled about half of the ICC auditorium.

Looking ahead to 2008, Dean said that he thinks the chances a Democratic candidate will win the White House next year are good.
“The Republican Party has been in power for the sake of being in power,” Dean said.

CREEPY>
Google on Thursday laid out plans for one of its most anticipated new services, a digital health records system meant to give users more control over their personal healthcare.

The plans would put Google’s database of health records at the heart of a broader health information system that draws in health insurers, doctors and others, potentially giving the internet company a central role as the health industry moves towards greater use of information technology.

Eric Schmidt, chief executive, outlined the Google Health plans at a conference in Florida on Thursday. The system will be based on personal health records that patients authorise their health insurers, doctors and others to move into Google’s database.

Other companies will then be able to write software applications that make use of these data, for instance creating services that help patients manage their medications or warn parents when their children need inoculations.

Seriously….as if Google didn’t have enough info on me already…now they will have my vaccination info, as well.

This is just sad. Sad like my life. and my job.

More than one in 100 adults are now behind bars in the United States, home to the world’s largest penal population, with a startling one in nine young black men incarcerated, a study has shown.
The prison and jail population rose by 25,000 to 2.3 million last year, out of a US adult population of 230 million, bringing the incarceration rate to one in 99.1 for the first time in US history, the Pew Center on the States said.

By comparison, China, with a population of one billion people, was second in the world with 1.5 million inmates, followed by Russia with 890,000 people in the slammer, the study said.

The statistics are particularly striking among minorities.

While one in 106 adult white men are incarcerated, one in 36 Hispanics and one in 15 African-Americans are behind bars, according to Pew’s examination of Justice Department data from 2006. Younger black men fare even worse, with one in nine African-Americans ages 20 to 34 held in cells.

One in 265 women ages 35 to 39 are behind bars, but minority women are also sent to jail or prison at a higher rate than white women.
One in 100 black women and one in 297 Hispanic women are incarcerated, compared to one in 355 white women, the study said.

Two decades ago, the 50 US states spent 10.6 billion dollars from their general funds — their primary discretionary money — on corrections. In 2007, they shelled out 44 billion dollars, or 315 percent more than 20 years ago.

“Cage fighting” slugs its way on to prime-time TV

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - CBS is bringing mixed martial arts, the bone-crunching combat sport popularly known as “cage fighting,” to prime-time television this spring, the U.S. network said on Thursday.

Branded as barbaric by critics in the 1990s for its lack of rules, mixed martial arts, or MMA, has evolved into a more mainstream sport that bars biting, eye-gouging, head-butting and strikes to the groin.

But fierce punching, kicking, karate, judo and wrestling moves — with no protective gear — are still very much a part of the sport.

Beginning in April or May, CBS plans to broadcast four MMA events each year as two-hour live specials airing on Saturday nights, a time period once reserved for such family fare as “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “The Bob Newhart” and “The Carol Burnett Show.”

Now that he’s won, Leyde, a 26-year-old member of the Washington National Guard, says he’s still going to volunteer to go back to Iraq for a third tour and won’t spend any of the money in the meantime.

Leyde was driving near his home in Mead, Washington when he stopped at a store on the side of the road and bought a ticket.

“I decided to walk into a local Zip Trip. I got a Coke and beef jerky and walked up to the counter and thought I’d pick up a few scratch tickets and try my luck. I was on my way out when the lady said, ‘Do you have a lucky scratch coin?’

“I said ‘no, you gave me a dime and nickel back.’”

“She said ‘no, try this,’” handing Leyde a penny. “On my way home I started scratching tickets. They were losers. I’m thinking, boy, that lady didn’t know what she was talking about.”

Leyde couldn’t believe it when he scratched a winning ticket, but he still plans to return to Iraq.

“It was a commitment I made about three months ago. I’m going to stick to it,” Leyde said about his decision.

The sergeant says rents have gone sky high where he and his parents live in the Mount Spokane area of Washington and that, for now, he’s not going to spend any of the money.

“For right now, I’m going to hold off [spending] and let reality sink back to earth. This is a true blessing. I’m going to turn it around and see if I can bless other people with this,” Leyde said.

wow. This guy is great.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With late-night TV watching, Internet surfing and other distractions, Americans are getting less and less sleep, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday.

Sleep experts say chronic sleep loss is associated with obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, cardiovascular disease, depression, cigarette smoking and excessive drinking.

The CDC surveyed 19,589 adults in four states. Ten percent reported they did not get enough sleep or rest every single day of the prior month, and 38 percent said they did not get enough in seven or more days in the prior month.

The National Sleep Foundation recommends adults get seven to nine hours of sleep a night.

The CDC said 50 to 70 million Americans suffer from chronic sleep loss and sleep disorders in a country of 300 million.

The CDC four-state survey found that younger adults are more likely than older adults to report getting too little sleep. It also found overall that 30 percent of respondents said they got enough sleep every day of the past month, and 33 percent got too little on one to six days in the prior month.

Beijing airport’s new mega-terminal opens

Beijing’s colossal new airport terminal opened on Friday with the first commercial plane touching down earlier than scheduled, a landmark moment for the Chinese capital as it prepares for the Olympics.

Designed to appear like a giant dragon, the terminal is the largest covered structure ever built, according to its British architect Norman Foster.

The building runs for 3.25 kilometres (2.0 miles) and covers 98 hectares (245 acres) of floor space, the equivalent of about 170 soccer pitches.

Oh well hey, thanks for the clarification.

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush said Thursday the country is not recession-bound and, despite expressing concern about slowing economic growth, rejected for now any additional stimulus efforts. “We acted robustly,” he said.

“We’ll see the effects of this pro-growth package,” Bush told reporters at a White House news conference, acknowledging that some lawmakers already are talking about a second stimulus package. “Why don’t we let stimulus package 1, which seemed like a good idea at the time, have a chance to kick in?”

oil at all time high? exchange with euro at all time low? No, those things don’t MEAN anything….

On one issue particularly worrisome to American consumers, there are indications that paying $4 for a gallon of gasoline is not out of the question once the summer driving season arrives. Asked about that, Bush said “That’s interesting. I hadn’t heard that. … I know it’s high now.”

Bush also telegraphed optimism about the U.S. dollar, which has been declining in value.

but the real money quote of this press conference:
“The Turks need to move, move quickly, achieve their objective and get out,” he said.
man, if he had followed that in Iraq….just THINK!