Greek Protesters Complain About Tear Gas Quality

As tear gas stocks run low, Greek douchebags are complaining that the quality of tear gas has begun to slip.

The police have asked Israel and Germany to send them emergency supplies, while protesters claimed that they had been using old stock from the 1980s in a desperate bid to contain the rioting. They claimed that corroded chemicals were causing some demonstrators to collapse and need medical attention.

“We found tear gas canister dated from 1981,” said one demonstrator, calling himself only GK. “The old chemicals make us sick, people have fainted and have trouble breathing,” he said.

So…tear gas caused people to have trouble breathing?  Are these douchebags confused as the the purpose of tear gas?

With the running street battles showing no sign of letting up, a march by students, anarchists and youths in masks ran into immediate trouble as rioters hurled rocks, fruit and chairs from street cafes at police trying to contain the latest rally.

Police responded by firing stun grenades and snatching rock-throwers who approached too close, at one point knocking down a Greek journalist with their plastic shields. As the masses approached parliament and challenged the police ranks, officers used remaining supplies of tear gas to drive them from the square before the assembly building.

Perhaps these Greek douchebags would be happier if the police started using live ammunition.  Hopefully those stocks aren’t as dated…

McCain Demonstrates Why He Lost Election

On ABC’s “This Week”, John McCain one again demonstrated the lack of resolve and tenacity that lead him to lose the 2008 Presidential election when he sided with Barack Obama against the Republican National Committee.

On ABC’s “This Week,” host George Stephanopoulos asked: “The chairman of the Republican National Committee, Mike Duncan, has been highly critical of the way President- elect Obama has dealt with this.

“He’s had a statement every single day, saying that the Obama team should reveal all contacts they’ve had with Governor [Rod] Blagojevich. He says that Obama’s promise of transparency to the American people is now being tested. Do you agree with that?”

McCain replied: “I think that the Obama campaign should and will give all information necessary. You know, in all due respect to the Republican National Committee and anybody — right now, I think we should try to be working constructively together, not only on an issue such as this, but on the economy stimulus package, reforms that are necessary. And so, I don’t know all the details of the relationship between President-elect Obama’s campaign or his people and the governor of Illinois, but I have some confidence that all the information will come out. It always does, it seems to me.”

Isn’t that sweet.

The Cleanest Thing To Come Out Of Patti Blagojevich’s Mouth Was Rod

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was not the only foul-mouthed Blagojevich in the recent corruption scandal.

According to the complaint, it was Patti Blagojevich’s voice in the background spewing a suggestion to “just fire” some newspaper editors if the Tribune Co. hoped for state assistance to sell Wrigley Field, the storied home of the Chicago Cubs.

“Hold up that (expletive) Cubs (expletive),” she says as her husband is talking on the telephone. “(Expletive) them.”

Patti Blagojevich’s family acknowledged the salty language contained on the recordings but said those words were uttered at a stressful time as both she and her husband were under federal scrutiny.

“I can understand it. This a pressure cooker she’s living in,” said Deborah Mell, who will be sworn in as a state representative next month.

Pressure cooker?  Is that what it’s called when you’re the most powerful couple in Illinois?  What’s the pressure, that someone, somewhere might be ripping off the Illinois taxpayer more than you and your husband?

Patti Blagojevich, 43, has not been charged with wrongdoing, and she has not spoken publicly since her husband’s arrest.

Chicago Alderman Dick Mell said his oldest daughter is “loyal sometimes to a fault” and would “jump down (his) throat” when he argued with Rod Blagojevich at holiday gatherings.

So, are we to believe that her own father thinks that she’s…a douchebag?

He has had his suspicions about his son-in-law for some time.

Dick Mell helped his son-in-law in his first run for governor, but a year after his election in 2002, the alderman publicly questioned if Blagojevich fundraisers were trading political contributions for state jobs.

“At that time, I felt that I was right to say what I said. I don’t know, that’s ancient history,” Mell said.

A breach formed between father and daughter and Mell said a conversation he had with Patti Blagojevich Wednesday was the first time they had spoken in “quite a while.”

So the corruption of the Blagojevich’s was too much for the rest of her political family?  That’s impressive.

Greeks Leave Athens Flaming

After a week of riots, over 100 douchebags attacked an Athens police station Sunday.

Greek militants warned of new protests Sunday after an attack on an Athens police station became the latest clash with authority over the police killing of a teenager.

About 100 protesters attacked a police station where two officers accused over the December 6 death of Alexis Grigoropoulos, 15, are based.

The police station is near the Exarchia district where the shooting took place and where Athens Polytechnic student protest leaders met on Sunday to plan new action.

Pamphlets announced rallies at the Athens police headquarters on Monday and at parliament square on Thursday, while students in Thessaloniki distributed manifestos via motorbike.

So that’s useful.

Douchebags have been attacking banks, government offices and, naturally, luxury cars.

Molotov cocktails were hurled and fires set off at three banks near the Polytechnic.

Protesters also struck an environment ministry office, torched luxury cars and blocked roads with blazing bins.

At Thessaloniki, in northern Greece, youths vandalised a gym before retreating behind university walls. Two blasts hit Greek Communist Party offices in the country’s second city.

Greece’s constitution bans police from entering educational establishments, a legacy of a crackdown on a 1973 student protest against the then military dictatorship in which 44 demonstrators were killed.

So police can’t enter educational establishments?  That’s interesting.  Stupid…but interesting.

The week of protests have reignited radical groups against Greece’s right-wing government.

Opposition socialist leader George Papandreou on Sunday demanded fresh elections, and an Athens office of the ruling conservative party was targeted by youths employing slogans including “killer state.”

Speaking at a meeting of his PASOK party, Papandreou said Karamanlis’s government “ignores the calls of society, is incapable of steadily driving the country towards change and is afraid of the people.”

Possibly because the people keep burning down buildings and destroying every nice car they come across.

Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis has rejected calls to quit, saying the country needs “a steady hand” to deal with economic downturn, “not scenarios about elections and successions.”

However, with a quarter of 15-to-24-year-olds unemployed, anger would grow in coming months as more and more people lose their jobs in Greece, a top union official said.

“A massive wave of redundancies will kick in come the New Year when, according to our estimates, 100,000 jobs will be lost, which represents an additional five percent on the unemployment rate,” said Stathis Anestis of the General Confederation of Greek Workers.

A former socialist minister, Yannos Papantoniou, blamed the “tragic consequences of accumulated failures and (political) impasses.” Socialists held power for two decades until September 2007.

Oh, so that’s the problem.  Why is it that every major political problem in Europe can be traced back to socialism?

Santa Claus: Environmentalist Douchebag

An army of Santa Clauses descended on energy company E-on’s headquarters in Coventry, England to protest a new coal-fired power plant. Apparently Santa Claus will have a hard time affording the coal he needs to give naughty children with the increased demand for the fossil fuel the plant will create.

E-on is planning to build a new coal-powered power station in Kingsnorth, near Rochester in Kent, and the protestors believe this will cause too much damage to the environment.

Paul Cooper-Clarke, group spokesman, said: “We are in a climate crisis and building a coal-powered station is the last thing we need to be doing. We’ve got nothing against Coventry but this is the beginning of an ongoing campaign against the E-on company.”

About 20 people from Climate Camp, which has previously targeted Heathrow Airport and other power stations, took part in yesterday’s protest.

Mr Cooper-Clarke said eight people managed to enter the building while four had stuck their hands to the glass doors with strong glue.

Laura Wilkes, who took part in the protest, said E-on’s plans make the company a “climate criminal”. She said: “They want to build new coal-fired power stations, which is the most polluting way of producing electricity known to man.

The most polluting way of producing electricity known to man?  Douchebag Report doubts that.  What about burning baby seals and hippie carcasses to boil bleach to spin a turbine?

Climate Camp sounds like the typical bunch of ill-informed holier-than-though douchebags we’ve  come to expect from the environmental Left.

Sex, Lies And Videotape 2: Atlantic City

We all know that New Jersey is full of douchebags, but New Jersey douchebags looks at Atlantic City and say “What a bunch of douchebags!”

Case in point:

A hooker and a Baptist minister having sex in a seedy motel room, where a camera was hidden in a clock radio. A videotape delivered to a radio talk show host by someone wearing oversized glasses, a fake beard and surgical gloves.

Even by the flamboyant corruption standards set by Atlantic City’s government over the decades, this was one for the books.

Former City Council President Craig Callaway (above) was sentenced Thursday to three years in prison for his role in setting up council rival Eugene Robinson (below) with a prostitute in a motel room and secretly videotaping the encounter.

So…in Atlantic City, even the victims of douchebags are…douchebags.

Nicholas Vrettos: Douchebag Firefighter

When budget cuts meant that his station would close overnight, Nicholas Vrettos leapt into action.  Unfortunately, that action was calling in false claims that there was a fire in a nearby school cafeteria.

Fire officials said that on Dec. 4, about 11:30 a.m., a fire was reported — but not found — in the cafeteria of Public School 175 on City Island Avenue. The 911 call followed an announcement by Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta that Ladder Company 53 on City Island, where Firefighter Vrettos worked, was one of four firehouses that would be partly closed at night, fire officials said.

The Department of Investigation, which was notified by the Fire Department that a firefighter was implicated in the false alarms, traced the 911 call to a City Island auto body shop that Firefighter Vrettos operates.

Apparently, this is not the correct action to voice a grievance against FDNY policy.

“Calling in a false alarm to 911 is not the way to protest a budget cut that prompted a partial closure,” Rose Gill Hearn, commissioner of the Department of Investigation, said in a statement released on Thursday. “The timing of the calls suggests a deliberate attempt to tax the Fire Department’s ability to respond.”

The timing of the calls was suspicious.

Nicholas Vrettos, 30, a six-year veteran of Ladder 53, made about a dozen false reports of fires on City Island, sources said.

All came within a 45-minute span on Dec. 4, the day FDNY Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta announced $9 million in cutbacks.

One is forced to wonder why making false alarms would do much to support Vrettos’s efforts to keep his station open…and why he would make the calls from a location which could be traced back to him.

Vrettos earns $85,000 a year, which he’s going to need, considering that his union won’t provide a lawyer for him.

A firefighters’ union spokesman said that because Firefighter Vrettos was not on duty at the time of the call, he would not be represented by a union lawyer.

Of course, Vrettos is, in a way, rather selfless.  For being a douchebag, this firefighter will be fired and help the FDNY deal with its budget woes.

What’s Wrong With Rahm?

Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s White House Chief-of-Staff, has been maintaining a low profile since the Blagojevich scandal broke. He refused to answer questions as to whether he was the Obama “advisor” in the criminal complaint against Governor Rod Blagojevich.

Emanuel was uncharacteristically absent from Obama’s news conference this morning. He was spotted two hours later in the lobby of Chicago’s City Hall. He was there to listen to his two children performing in a concert with their school, Anshe Emet.

A Sun-Times reporter pressed him to comment about whether he was the emissary named in the criminal complaint.

“You’re wasting your time,” Emanuel said. “I’m not going to say a word to you. I’m going to do this with my children. Dont do that. I’m a father. I have two kids. I’m not going to do it.”

Asked, “Can’t you do both?” Emanuel replied, “I’m not as capable as you. I’m going to be a father. I’m allowed to be a father,” and he pushed the reporter’s digital recorder away.

There is some evidence pointing to Emanuel as the Obama advisor who Blagojevich was talking to in regards to the Governor’s Senate appointment.

Blagojevch was caught on tape saying that he wanted the Obama advisor in question to know what Blagojevich wanted in exchange for the Jarrett appointment.

Blagojevich said, “He asks me for the fifth CD thing, I want it to be in his head.” Emanuel represents the 5th Congressional District in Illinois.

If this is what it’s like when Chicago comes to DC, it’s going to be a long four years.

Jackson: “Five” in Federal Investigation

Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. was “Senate Candidate 5″ in the 76-page federal complaint against Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.

A lawyer for Jackson acknowledged that the Illinois Democrat is “Senate Candidate 5″ in the 76-page federal complaint filed against Blagojevich, who was arrested Tuesday. Wiretapped conversations suggest Blagojevich felt the candidate would raise campaign money for him in exchange for being appointed to the Senate seat vacated by the president-elect.

At this time, Jackson is yet not accused of any wrongdoing.

Jackson, a seven-term House member and son of civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, told reporters in Washington that he spoke with the U.S. attorney’s office Tuesday.

“They shared with me that I am not a target of the investigation and that I am not accused of any misconduct,” said Jackson, who left the crowded session without taking questions.

U.S. attorney’s spokesman Randall Samborn would not confirm or deny Jackson’s assertions.

There may be some rough waters ahead for the Congressman as this scandal continues.

Blagojevich, a second-term Democrat, is accused of scheming to enrich himself by selling Obama’s open seat for cash or a lucrative job for himself or his wife. The federal complaint says that in a wiretapped conversation on Oct. 31, Blagojevich described an approach “by an associate of Senate Candidate 5.”

The governor was quoted as saying the person made a “pay to play” proposal, a term for a payment in exchange for a political favor. “That, you know, he’d raise me 500 grand” for future political campaigns, the governor said in the wiretapped conversation.

Blagojevich went on to say, “An emissary came. Then the other guy would raise a million, if I made” Jackson a senator. The complaint did not specify whether the $500,000 and $1 million would have been raised by the same person.

Jackson said Wednesday: “I did not initiate nor authorize anyone, at any time, to promise anything to Gov. Blagojevich on my behalf. I never sent a message or an emissary to the governor to make an offer or to propose a deal about the U.S. Senate seat.”

He said he would fully cooperate with the investigation.

Jackson’s Chicago-based lawyer, James D. Montgomery Sr., said, “Politicians and fundraisers do some very strange things from time to time. I wouldn’t put it past someone to be purporting to represent Jesse without authority.”

Or strange things like purport to represent Jesse with authority…and offer a sitting governor a bag of goodies in exchange for a US Senate seat.

The H is for HUSSEIN

After it became the biggest taboo of the 2008 Presidential Election, Barack Obama is reclaiming his middle name.

US President-elect Barack Obama will try to “reboot America’s image” among the world’s Muslims and will follow tradition by using his entire name, Barack Hussein Obama, in his swearing-in ceremony, he was quoted as saying in an interview published Wednesday in the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times.

Douchebag Report readers probably remember the controversy that was aroused early in the campaign when John McCain immediately apologized for Bill Cunninghan referring to Barack Obama by his full name.

Asked afterwards if it was appropriate to use the Senator’s middle name, McCain said, “No, it is not. Any comment that is disparaging of either Senator Clinton or Senator Obama is totally inappropriate.”

That’s right.  John McCain considered Obama’s middle name to be disparaging of Obama, much like the term “gook” is offensive to the Vietnamese.

Now Obama thinks his middle name is actually a secret weapon in the fight for Muslim hearts.

Obama promised during his campaign that one of his priorities would be to work to repair America’s reputation worldwide, and that one element of that effort would be a speech delivered in a Muslim capital.

If only George W Bush had changed his middle name to Hussein and given a speech from a Muslim capital.  That would have fixed everything.

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