Eideard

Cripes! The headline is just about everything you need to know, right?

An Idaho judge on Wednesday set bond at $100,000 for a Boise woman police say posed as a physician and duped at least two other women into having their breasts examined by her at Boise-area nightclubs.

Kristina Ross, 37, remains in Ada County Jail in Boise on two felony counts of practicing medicine without a license…

As part of her ruse, Ross gave the women the telephone number of a real licensed plastic surgeon in Boise, the state capital, authorities said.

Staff at that medical office became alarmed at the number of calls they received from women in recent weeks attempting to confirm appointments or surgeries with a Berlyn Aussieahshowna, according to charging documents.

And, then, there’s this twist to the plot:

The suspect’s gender is unclear. Idaho court records show that Ross was arrested for petty theft in the spring and that the arrest warrant was issued to a Kristoffer Jon Ross.

The Idaho Statesman website reported that Ross has a previous criminal record as a man but identifies herself as a woman and was booked into Ada County Jail as a female…

Court appearance is set for December 1st and I can hardly wait.

A pensioner who has lived in Britain for 64 years returned from holiday to be told she is an illegal immigrant because she has never been granted UK nationality

Joan Wakely, 65, a grandmother from Shaftsbury, Dorset, has lived in the UK since she was six months old when her parents moved from Canada to Britain. However, when she arrived back at Gatwick Airport with her husband Mike, 64, after a holiday in Florida, she was classed as “an illegal alien” as she was travelling with her Canadian passport.

She has since applied for citizenship but faces being deported in February if her application is rejected…

Mrs Wakely has worked in this country all her life and has reared three children. She also has a National Insurance Number and draws her old age pension.

Her mother was English and her dad is Canadian and lives in a nearby nursing home. However, she has never before completed the correct forms nor had them done for her as a child.

She has now paid £840 to apply for full UK citizenship – which includes taking a test to prove she can speak English.

“Now at 65 I have been threatened with deportation from a country where I have lived since I was six months old.”

The UK Border Agency…spokesman said: “She is not actually British. She now has to apply for British citizenship. She has had to go through the process as has someone who has been here a year. It is the responsibility of everyone seeking entry to the UK to ensure they meet the requirements of our immigration rules.

Idiots. Another clot of bureaucrats living within the body politic, incapable of independent thought, unwilling to spend a single iota of energy on behalf of an ordinary citizen.

And this is aside from some dolt applying a law which didn’t exist when she arrived in the UK. Back in the day, she would have had automatic dual citizenship – English and Canadian.

Black farmers remind Congress for the umpteenth time to fund the settlement
Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

The U.S. Senate approved a $1.15 billion measure Friday to fund a settlement initially reached between the Agriculture Department and minority farmers more than a decade ago.

The 1997 Pigford v. Glickman case against the U.S. Agriculture Department was settled out of court 11 years ago. Under a federal judge’s terms dating to 1999, qualified farmers could receive $50,000 each to settle claims of racial bias.

“This is much long overdue justice for black farmers,” said John Boyd, founder and president of the National Black Farmers Association…

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack called the settlements “a major milestone in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s efforts to turn the page on a sad chapter.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, also said the vote gives “long-suffering Americans … the closure that they deserve. The agreement that we reached shows what can happen when Democrats and Republicans come together to do the right thing,” he said.

Of course, Democrats and Republicans “came together” to support racist practices against non-white farmers for only a bit more than a century.

The measure will now have to be approved by the lame duck House before moving to Obama’s desk to be signed into law.

We hope so, anyway. Certainly there wouldn’t be much hope of achieving justice against bigotry when Republican control of the House arrives in the next Congress.

Probably the biggest and best known of all the cash transfer schemes in the developing world is the Bolsa Familia in Brazil. Since 2003, 12 million families have joined the scheme and receive small amounts of money (around $12 a month). Inequality has been cut by 17% in just five years, which is perhaps one of the most dramatic achievements in welfare ever recorded. The poverty rate has fallen from 42.7% to 28.8%.

Such is the fascination in this “social technology” that Brazil is now being sought for advice on cash transfer programmes by countries across Africa (Ghana, Angola, Mozambique), the Middle East (Egypt, Turkey) and Asia (including India). Even New York City has implemented a version of the programme.

“It’s social policy diplomacy,” suggested one of the ministers involved in the Brazilian programme, Dr Romulo Paes de Sousa, when I caught up with him in London after speaking at the Institute of Development Studies in Sussex earlier this week.

He’s delighted by the interest. “Brazil is developing a new model of donor whereby we give expertise as well as aid. Brazil is already one of the largest donors of food aid in the world.” He is also struck by the paradox that Brazil is expanding its welfare state just as Europe is cutting back on welfare.

There are some aspects of the programme, he explains, which have attracted particular interest. The first is conditionality. The payments are dependent on the family’s children staying in school until 17, and attendance must be at least 85% up to 14 years and 75% for the remainder. Another form of conditionality is that children get the full set of vaccinations in their first five years and that mothers attend pre and post-natal care.

RTFA. You can see right off the bat why this would be hated by The Right – from churches to conservatives. Actually trusting poor people to do the right thing with education and opportunity? Practically a sin unto itself. And definitely a crime against class-based republican principles.

“Ah, now isn’t that much better,” asked a soothing Nurse Ratched.

Police officers approached [seven chess players in Upper Manhattan] at the stone chess tables in Inwood Hill Park and issued them summonses for failure to comply with signs.

The tables are behind the gates of the park’s Emerson Playground, which the signs in question state is off limits to adults unaccompanied by minors… to deter what a parks official called “inappropriate adult use of space designated specifically for children.”…

The tables are separated from the rest of the play area by a fence, [and reportedly] there were no children present at the time.

“This incident is an embarrassment to the officers from the 34th Precinct who felt that it was necessary to use their badge and authority to issue such a random summons,” Joanna Johnston, who said that her 7-year-old son learned to play chess from the men in the playground, wrote in a letter to the police and the mayor.

Careful, lady. The parent lobby is not going to like you one bit. Children must be protected from the sight of adults playing chess. We wouldn’t want them to grow up reading Averbakh.

Now do you wonder why Fischer spit?

A federal judge pleaded guilty Friday to two counts of drug possession and another charge, admitting he had paid a stripper to buy drugs for the two to use together.

Senior U.S. District Court Judge Jack Camp Jr. admitted to giving money to a woman to buy drugs, according to prosecutors.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of drug possession, federal prosecutors said. He also pleaded guilty to one count of conversion of government property for giving the woman a government-issued laptop. As part of a plea deal, Camp did not plead guilty to a firearms possession charge included in the initial federal complaint…

Federal prosecutors accused Camp of giving Sherry Ann Ramos, 26, money to buy drugs including cocaine, marijuana and roxicodone, which the two then frequently used together.

FBI agents arrested Camp on October 1 after he tried to buy drugs from an undercover informant.

The judge is spending time reflecting upon the “uncharacteristic nature of his actions.” Seems absolutely characteristic of some of the judges, police chiefs and respected senior politicians I’ve known over the years.

A “Peach” of a police dog
Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

Meet Japan’s newest police dog — all 3 kg of her.

In what is a first for Japan and perhaps the world, a long-haired Chihuahua named “Momo” — “Peach” — passed exams to become a police dog in the western Japanese prefecture of Nara.

The brown-and-white, perky Momo was one of 32 successful candidates out of 70 dogs, passing a search and rescue test by finding a person in five minutes after merely sniffing their cap.

“Any breed of dog can be entered to become a police dog in the search and rescue division,” said a Nara police spokesman…

Momo will be used for rescue operations in case of disasters such as earthquakes, in the hope that she may be able to squeeze her tiny frame into places too narrow for more usual rescue dogs, which tend to be German Shepherds.

Good for you – little Peach.

This is the focus of an anti-immigrant campaign in Switzerland. But, it’s still pretty funny. I couldn’t possibly imagine America’s neocons having either the balls or the sense of humor to produce this:

Which group of water babes do you prefer? Click photo for your choice. Caution – NSFW.

Plain brown duck dewormed – and transformed

A French farmer has been given a one-month suspended jail sentence and fined 500 euros for feeding his ducks marijuana to rid them of worms.

Police arrested Michel Rouyer after they discovered 12 cannabis plants and about 5kg of the drug during a visit to his home after a theft.

Mr Rouyer said there was “no better worming substance” for ducks and that his flock was in excellent health…

Mr Rouyer, who lives in the village of Gripperie-Saint-Symphorien on France’s Atlantic coast, did also admit to smoking some of the marijuana.

One would hope so. Why should the ducks have all the fun?