Every local political candidate in the United States runs on a crime fighting platform, promising to put more “boots on the ground” (more officers patrolling the streets). These promises are made even though the candidates know full well that there is no money available to carry them out. And that’s the case with the current city elections in Houston.
A frequent op-ed contributor to the Houston Chronicle wrote on Sunday that Houston needs to add many more investigators rather than to add more officers on the streets. I’m not sure that I can agree with him. Houston probably need both more investigators and more officers on the street.
Today, I spent some time at one of the Houston police stations visiting with some of my old friends. We discussed that op-ed piece. I told my friends that in order to reduce the city’s crime rate, Houston needed to adopt New York’s “Broken Windows” concept. (In Broken Windows, NYPD aggressively went after and arrested offenders for minor crimes such as vandalism [hence the term broken windows], petty thefts, public intoxication, simple assaults, graffiti, etc. By jailing these misdemeanants they were prevented from committing more serious crime. Broken Windows had a significant impact on the reduction of crime in New York City.)
The officers I talked with were familiar with Broken Windows. They said that while they agreed the concept was a very good one, it could not be used in Houston because the county jail is overcrowded. The sheriff’s department refuses to book anyone into their jail for any offense that is less than a Class A misdemeanor. (In Texas there are three classes of misdemeanors – A, B, and C – with A being the most serious.) The sheriff’s policy precludes the jailing of many Broken Windows offenders.
In my past blogs, I have written about studies showing that early releases from prison, whether to satisfy federal court orders about overcrowding or as the result of state budget cuts, put the public at great risk. According to independent research organizations, for every 5,000 felons who receive an early release, 45,500 new crimes will be committed over a three-year period, and 9,000 of those crimes will be violent felonies. And the overcrowding of county jails also contributes to the crime rate by keeping those arrested for minor offenses from being locked up at all. As a result many of those misdemeanants will end up committing crimes that are far more serious.
Monday, November 30, 2009
IT AIN'T LIKE CSI
“After sitting on that murder trial jury panel this summer, it is amazing that there are not more murders. Sadly enough our police force didn’t really care since it was one crack head shooting another and HPD did a very poor job investigating the crime scene to the point that we had to let a guilty man walk free. We found out later he had killed 7 people prior to the one he was on trial for. The police just looked at it as one less crack head on the street. Those people know that there is very little chance that they will get caught or serve time for murder. Chances are greater that they will get busted for dealing, prostitution or possession. So sad.”
A friend of mine who is actively engaged in trying to get Houston’s police to adopt the crime-fighting CompStat program received the above message from a lady who is obviously upset about HPD’s crime scene investigations.
What she perceived as a non-caring poor effort may have resulted from the fact that most people get their ideas of how the police investigate crimes from the CSI shows and other crime shows on television. Here is how I answered the lady’s comments:
I read your comments about when you were on a murder jury and found the defendant innocent because of what you and your fellow jurors considered a poor crime scene investigation.
As a former police investigator and retired professor of criminal justice, I feel that your accusation that HPD investigators don't care about investigating a crime between crackheads is an unfair one.
Crime scene investigations are simply not as cut and dried as those you see on TV in the CSI shows and other crime shows. And much of the equipment they show on TV is pure science fiction. I can assure you from my experience that crime scenes can be very complicated and difficult to process. At times in the end, what evidence we were able to gather did not help much in solving a crime. At other times evidence gathered led us straight to the perpetrator. Not finding enough evidence at the scene does not mean the investigators did not care.
I'm sorry your jury had to let some scumbag off who had killed seven victims before, but to condemn HPD for that is a bit farfetched.
A friend of mine who is actively engaged in trying to get Houston’s police to adopt the crime-fighting CompStat program received the above message from a lady who is obviously upset about HPD’s crime scene investigations.
What she perceived as a non-caring poor effort may have resulted from the fact that most people get their ideas of how the police investigate crimes from the CSI shows and other crime shows on television. Here is how I answered the lady’s comments:
I read your comments about when you were on a murder jury and found the defendant innocent because of what you and your fellow jurors considered a poor crime scene investigation.
As a former police investigator and retired professor of criminal justice, I feel that your accusation that HPD investigators don't care about investigating a crime between crackheads is an unfair one.
Crime scene investigations are simply not as cut and dried as those you see on TV in the CSI shows and other crime shows. And much of the equipment they show on TV is pure science fiction. I can assure you from my experience that crime scenes can be very complicated and difficult to process. At times in the end, what evidence we were able to gather did not help much in solving a crime. At other times evidence gathered led us straight to the perpetrator. Not finding enough evidence at the scene does not mean the investigators did not care.
I'm sorry your jury had to let some scumbag off who had killed seven victims before, but to condemn HPD for that is a bit farfetched.
INCORRIGIBLE SOCIOPATHS (5)
INFO ON SUSPECTED WASHINGTON COP KILLER
By Bob Walsh
PacoVilla’s Corrections blog
November 29, 2009
The police have named a "person of interest" in the murder of four Lakewood, Washington police officers this morning at a coffee shop near Tacoma.
Police are urgently seeking Maurice Clemmons, age 37. Clemmons spent some time in Arkansas as a guest of the state. At age 17 he was sentenced to 96 years in prison for robbery. His sentence was commuted by then-Governor Huckabee, citing Clemmons' age at the time of the offense. He was returned to custody once in Arkansas for violating parole.
He came to Washington State some time after his release on parole again in March of 2004. While in Washington he picked up a beef for 3rd degree assault on a peace officer and 2nd degree child rape. I have no information on the disposition of those charges.
The shooter came in to the Forza's Coffee Shop and walked up to the counter as if to place an order. The barista saw a gun under his coat and beat feet out the back door. The shooter then engaged the police officers who were at the time working with their lap tops. One of the officers grappled with the shooter and got some shots off at him. He may have been wounded.
Police are seeking Clemmons as he "may be able to provide information" in this case. The shooter is believed to be armed and extremely dangerous.
In the old days they would have issued an "extreme precaution apprehension" notice on this guy. That isn't done any more. You newbies should ask an old fart what that means if you don't know.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Here is another good example of why the Supreme Court should uphold the right of states to sentence juveniles to prison for life without possibility of parole in cases where no one was killed.
And here is another example of political correctness run amuck. “Person of Interest” my ass! Clemmons is a SUSPECT! Why can’t the police call him what he is? Heaven forbid the media from describing "a person of interest" by the color of his skin.
And finally, yup Bob, you can take it from this old fart that in the good old days of “extreme precaution apprehension” this cold blooded killer of four cops would never have lived to stand trial.
By Bob Walsh
PacoVilla’s Corrections blog
November 29, 2009
The police have named a "person of interest" in the murder of four Lakewood, Washington police officers this morning at a coffee shop near Tacoma.
Police are urgently seeking Maurice Clemmons, age 37. Clemmons spent some time in Arkansas as a guest of the state. At age 17 he was sentenced to 96 years in prison for robbery. His sentence was commuted by then-Governor Huckabee, citing Clemmons' age at the time of the offense. He was returned to custody once in Arkansas for violating parole.
He came to Washington State some time after his release on parole again in March of 2004. While in Washington he picked up a beef for 3rd degree assault on a peace officer and 2nd degree child rape. I have no information on the disposition of those charges.
The shooter came in to the Forza's Coffee Shop and walked up to the counter as if to place an order. The barista saw a gun under his coat and beat feet out the back door. The shooter then engaged the police officers who were at the time working with their lap tops. One of the officers grappled with the shooter and got some shots off at him. He may have been wounded.
Police are seeking Clemmons as he "may be able to provide information" in this case. The shooter is believed to be armed and extremely dangerous.
In the old days they would have issued an "extreme precaution apprehension" notice on this guy. That isn't done any more. You newbies should ask an old fart what that means if you don't know.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Here is another good example of why the Supreme Court should uphold the right of states to sentence juveniles to prison for life without possibility of parole in cases where no one was killed.
And here is another example of political correctness run amuck. “Person of Interest” my ass! Clemmons is a SUSPECT! Why can’t the police call him what he is? Heaven forbid the media from describing "a person of interest" by the color of his skin.
And finally, yup Bob, you can take it from this old fart that in the good old days of “extreme precaution apprehension” this cold blooded killer of four cops would never have lived to stand trial.
AN ISLAMIST TERRORIST, NOT A CRAZED GUNMAN! (4)
Here is a great editorial by Bill Cathcart, VP and General Manager of WTOC TV Savannah, Georgia.
PC’d To Death
WTOC TV
November 9, 2009
There are no words to ease the agony, outrage and senseless loss caused by the vicious rampage of that American-born Army officer, whose devout Muslim beliefs degenerated from religious faith to politically-based Islamic-fanaticism, leaving in its wake 13 Fort Hood patriots dead and many others wounded.
The President was quick to caution about jumping to conclusions, which is interesting since he, himself, jumped to an erroneous one with that outstanding police officer. Tell you what, when Swedes begin mass murdering Americans, we’ll wait, but given this tax-payer-educated ingrate’s alleged repeated utterances and actions, the conclusion is clear.
This demonic act was almost certainly a pre-meditated, treasonous, act of terrorism, personal or otherwise, against his own nation and military, both of which he betrayed in pursuit of his radicalized views. And who’s ultimately to blame? We are! We’ve become so ridiculous with our political-correctness; so afraid of offending, despite the truth; so overly-tolerant and self-effacing, pandering and apologizing to be liked; putting up with absurd challenges to our Constitution, laws, traditions and freedoms, that we’ve become a nation of enablers for those with evil intent. Case in point, failing to challenge or stop the open proselytizing, and statements against America’s military mission, by this officer, repeatedly uttered and witnessed.
The Army should’ve booted him long ago, but can’t be faulted, as we’ve all now been driven, by fear, to egg-shell sensitivity. Devout Muslim beliefs can’t be challenged, yet the devoted Jewish and Christian faithful remain a continuing target of offensive-actions, insults, mockery and marginalization. In more ways than all of this, we’ve reached the height of absurdity in America. It’s past time to knock-off the elite-ism and level the tolerance playing field. We must, however, pause to note with heartfelt thanks, the efforts of the Muslim faithful who, unseen, help maintain the security of our great nation, both in the community, and through their courageous FBI-work as interpreters, informants and terror-cell infiltrators, working at great risk, to prevent similar barbaric acts.
That said, with Veterans Day upon us, amidst the pain of Fort Hood, regardless of origin, race, or religion, this challenge to those in this magnificent nation, who refuse to accept, adopt and respect our traditions, laws, and freedoms. Either gain English-proficiency, fully-assimilate, contribute positively, and be ever- thankful for the incredible blessing it is to be here, or get the heck out!
PC’d To Death
WTOC TV
November 9, 2009
There are no words to ease the agony, outrage and senseless loss caused by the vicious rampage of that American-born Army officer, whose devout Muslim beliefs degenerated from religious faith to politically-based Islamic-fanaticism, leaving in its wake 13 Fort Hood patriots dead and many others wounded.
The President was quick to caution about jumping to conclusions, which is interesting since he, himself, jumped to an erroneous one with that outstanding police officer. Tell you what, when Swedes begin mass murdering Americans, we’ll wait, but given this tax-payer-educated ingrate’s alleged repeated utterances and actions, the conclusion is clear.
This demonic act was almost certainly a pre-meditated, treasonous, act of terrorism, personal or otherwise, against his own nation and military, both of which he betrayed in pursuit of his radicalized views. And who’s ultimately to blame? We are! We’ve become so ridiculous with our political-correctness; so afraid of offending, despite the truth; so overly-tolerant and self-effacing, pandering and apologizing to be liked; putting up with absurd challenges to our Constitution, laws, traditions and freedoms, that we’ve become a nation of enablers for those with evil intent. Case in point, failing to challenge or stop the open proselytizing, and statements against America’s military mission, by this officer, repeatedly uttered and witnessed.
The Army should’ve booted him long ago, but can’t be faulted, as we’ve all now been driven, by fear, to egg-shell sensitivity. Devout Muslim beliefs can’t be challenged, yet the devoted Jewish and Christian faithful remain a continuing target of offensive-actions, insults, mockery and marginalization. In more ways than all of this, we’ve reached the height of absurdity in America. It’s past time to knock-off the elite-ism and level the tolerance playing field. We must, however, pause to note with heartfelt thanks, the efforts of the Muslim faithful who, unseen, help maintain the security of our great nation, both in the community, and through their courageous FBI-work as interpreters, informants and terror-cell infiltrators, working at great risk, to prevent similar barbaric acts.
That said, with Veterans Day upon us, amidst the pain of Fort Hood, regardless of origin, race, or religion, this challenge to those in this magnificent nation, who refuse to accept, adopt and respect our traditions, laws, and freedoms. Either gain English-proficiency, fully-assimilate, contribute positively, and be ever- thankful for the incredible blessing it is to be here, or get the heck out!
Sunday, November 29, 2009
A GOOD FRIEND SPEAKS HIS MIND
‘Lee’, a former student of mine, is a Houston police SWAT team sergeant who recently served a tour of duty with the Army in Iraq. He made the following remarks in response to an e-mail about the Ft. Hood massacre and my comment that I suspect Obama would try to blame George Bush for those shootings.
To All:
Mr. Obama’s wife gave us all a shocking glimpse of his real agenda when she stood before campaign rallies in both Milwaukee and Madison, Wisconsin and stated, “For the first time in my adult life I am proud of my country.” As shocking and disgusting as that statement was at the time, I only now fully comprehend the motivation behind it. Virtually the entire agenda of this administration is to redeem the image of America in the eyes of the world, the image that has been so tarnished and denigrated by the previous administration. The whole sorry mess is about that – the terrorist show trial that is going to be an indictment of the American system of justice and yes, once again, the Bush administration, as well as our military and intelligence communities; the denial of the terrorist component of the Ft. Hood attack; the closing of Guantanamo; the foot-dragging and hand-wringing over the request for more troops in Afghanistan (while the best of our best continue to die, bleed and be maimed daily); the whirlwind, worldwide tour of groveling apologies; and the empty promises to stand firm with our Israeli allies in their struggle for the right to exists.
I wait anxiously to see how he will respond now to Iran’s latest announcement to build 10 new enrichment facilities and the revelation that they have sent $20 million to Hamas and Hezbollah.
As a soldier and police officer for nearly 30 years, it is difficult to keep my feelings from interfering with my objectivity. I can tell you this – I have a friend who is like a brother to me who is currently deployed to Afghanistan – his third in five years. By the way, he is self-employed and does well for himself here at home and in no way ‘needs’ anything from the military. They are halfway through this deployment and have already lost 4 men. We have let Iraq go – we are doing nothing more there now than maintaining our presence. In Iraq, we transported fuel and commodities from base to base there – logging over a million miles ‘outside the wire’ – going into harm’s way every time, hamstrung by highly restrictive rules of engagement that our enemy knew better than ourselves. The same thing will happen in Afghanistan if politicians continue to wage war.
I can’t wait to hear the speech Tuesday . . . I have said for months that he will grant some watered down version of General McChrystal’s request. And now he is going to announce “our timetable for victory.” Mr. Obama wants us to befriend our Muslim enemies. What he doesn’t realize is that statements such as these are windows into American arrogance and lack of commitment – two things that cause our Muslim neighbors to hold us in such contempt and to despise us so. I am a lowly E7 in the Army, but one thing I know - you don’t win wars this way, especially an insidious insurgency such as the one we are fighting across southwest Asia.
Lee
To All:
Mr. Obama’s wife gave us all a shocking glimpse of his real agenda when she stood before campaign rallies in both Milwaukee and Madison, Wisconsin and stated, “For the first time in my adult life I am proud of my country.” As shocking and disgusting as that statement was at the time, I only now fully comprehend the motivation behind it. Virtually the entire agenda of this administration is to redeem the image of America in the eyes of the world, the image that has been so tarnished and denigrated by the previous administration. The whole sorry mess is about that – the terrorist show trial that is going to be an indictment of the American system of justice and yes, once again, the Bush administration, as well as our military and intelligence communities; the denial of the terrorist component of the Ft. Hood attack; the closing of Guantanamo; the foot-dragging and hand-wringing over the request for more troops in Afghanistan (while the best of our best continue to die, bleed and be maimed daily); the whirlwind, worldwide tour of groveling apologies; and the empty promises to stand firm with our Israeli allies in their struggle for the right to exists.
I wait anxiously to see how he will respond now to Iran’s latest announcement to build 10 new enrichment facilities and the revelation that they have sent $20 million to Hamas and Hezbollah.
As a soldier and police officer for nearly 30 years, it is difficult to keep my feelings from interfering with my objectivity. I can tell you this – I have a friend who is like a brother to me who is currently deployed to Afghanistan – his third in five years. By the way, he is self-employed and does well for himself here at home and in no way ‘needs’ anything from the military. They are halfway through this deployment and have already lost 4 men. We have let Iraq go – we are doing nothing more there now than maintaining our presence. In Iraq, we transported fuel and commodities from base to base there – logging over a million miles ‘outside the wire’ – going into harm’s way every time, hamstrung by highly restrictive rules of engagement that our enemy knew better than ourselves. The same thing will happen in Afghanistan if politicians continue to wage war.
I can’t wait to hear the speech Tuesday . . . I have said for months that he will grant some watered down version of General McChrystal’s request. And now he is going to announce “our timetable for victory.” Mr. Obama wants us to befriend our Muslim enemies. What he doesn’t realize is that statements such as these are windows into American arrogance and lack of commitment – two things that cause our Muslim neighbors to hold us in such contempt and to despise us so. I am a lowly E7 in the Army, but one thing I know - you don’t win wars this way, especially an insidious insurgency such as the one we are fighting across southwest Asia.
Lee
LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA FROM A DISTINGUISHED WWII VET
Harold Estes, 95, served in the U.S. Navy for 23 years before he retired as a Master Chief Boatswains Mate. Disgusted with where Obama is taking our country, he wrote the following letter to the president:
Dear President Obama,
My name is Harold Estes, approaching 95 on December 13 of this year. People meeting me for the first time don't believe my age because I remain wrinkle free and pretty much mentally alert.
I enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1934 and served proudly before, during and after WW II retiring as a Master Chief Bos'n Mate. Now I live in a "rest home" located on the western end of Pearl Harbor , allowing me to keep alive the memories of 23 years of service to my country.
One of the benefits of my age, perhaps the only one, is to speak my mind, blunt and direct even to the head man.
So here goes.
I am amazed, angry and determined not to see my country die before I do, but you seem hell bent not to grant me that wish.
I can't figure out what country you are the president of.
You fly around the world telling our friends and enemies despicable lies like:
"We're no longer a Christian nation"
" America is arrogant" - (Your wife even announced to the world," America is mean-spirited. " Please tell her to try preaching that nonsense to 23 generations of our war dead buried all over the globe who died for no other reason than to free a whole lot of strangers from tyranny and hopelessness.)
I'd say shame on the both of you, but I don't think you like America, nor do I see an ounce of gratefulness in anything you do, for the obvious gifts this country has given you. To be without shame or gratefulness is a dangerous thing for a man sitting in the White House.
After 9/11 you said," America hasn't lived up to her ideals."
Which ones did you mean?
(1) Was it the notion of personal liberty that 11,000 farmers and shopkeepers died for to win independence from the British?
(2) Or maybe the ideal that no man should be a slave to another man, that 500,000 men died for in the Civil War?
(3) I hope you didn't mean the ideal 470,000 fathers, brothers, husbands, and a lot of fellas I knew personally died for in WWII, because we felt real strongly about not letting any nation push us around, because we stand for freedom.
(4) I don't think you mean the ideal that says equality is better than discrimination. You know the one that a whole lot of white people understood when they helped to get you elected.
Take a little advice from a very old geezer, young man.
Shape up and start acting like an American. If you don't, I'll do what I can to see you get shipped out of that fancy rental on Pennsylvania Avenue . You were elected to lead not to bow, apologize and kiss the hands of murderers and corrupt leaders who still treat their people like slaves.
And just who do you think you are telling the American people not to jump to conclusions and condemn that Muslim major who killed 13 of his fellow soldiers and wounded dozens more. You mean you don't want us to do what you did when that white cop used force to subdue that black college professor in Massachusetts , who was putting up a fight? You don't mind offending the police calling them stupid but you don't want us to offend Muslim fanatics by calling them what they are, terrorists.
One more thing. I realize you never served in the military and never had to defend your country with your life, but you're the Commander-in-Chief now, son. Do your job. When your battle-hardened field General asks you for 40,000 more troops to complete the mission, give them to him. But if you're not in this fight to win, then get out. The life of one American soldier is not worth the best political strategy you're thinking of.
You could be our greatest president because you face the greatest challenge ever presented to any president.
You're not going to restore American greatness by bringing back our bloated economy. That's not our greatest threat. Losing the heart and soul of who we are as Americans is our big fight now.
And I sure as hell don't want to think my president is the enemy in this final battle.
Sincerely,
Harold B. Estes
EDITOR’S NOTE: Snopes.com verified that Estes dictated this letter to a secretary and that he personally signed it.
Dear President Obama,
My name is Harold Estes, approaching 95 on December 13 of this year. People meeting me for the first time don't believe my age because I remain wrinkle free and pretty much mentally alert.
I enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1934 and served proudly before, during and after WW II retiring as a Master Chief Bos'n Mate. Now I live in a "rest home" located on the western end of Pearl Harbor , allowing me to keep alive the memories of 23 years of service to my country.
One of the benefits of my age, perhaps the only one, is to speak my mind, blunt and direct even to the head man.
So here goes.
I am amazed, angry and determined not to see my country die before I do, but you seem hell bent not to grant me that wish.
I can't figure out what country you are the president of.
You fly around the world telling our friends and enemies despicable lies like:
"We're no longer a Christian nation"
" America is arrogant" - (Your wife even announced to the world," America is mean-spirited. " Please tell her to try preaching that nonsense to 23 generations of our war dead buried all over the globe who died for no other reason than to free a whole lot of strangers from tyranny and hopelessness.)
I'd say shame on the both of you, but I don't think you like America, nor do I see an ounce of gratefulness in anything you do, for the obvious gifts this country has given you. To be without shame or gratefulness is a dangerous thing for a man sitting in the White House.
After 9/11 you said," America hasn't lived up to her ideals."
Which ones did you mean?
(1) Was it the notion of personal liberty that 11,000 farmers and shopkeepers died for to win independence from the British?
(2) Or maybe the ideal that no man should be a slave to another man, that 500,000 men died for in the Civil War?
(3) I hope you didn't mean the ideal 470,000 fathers, brothers, husbands, and a lot of fellas I knew personally died for in WWII, because we felt real strongly about not letting any nation push us around, because we stand for freedom.
(4) I don't think you mean the ideal that says equality is better than discrimination. You know the one that a whole lot of white people understood when they helped to get you elected.
Take a little advice from a very old geezer, young man.
Shape up and start acting like an American. If you don't, I'll do what I can to see you get shipped out of that fancy rental on Pennsylvania Avenue . You were elected to lead not to bow, apologize and kiss the hands of murderers and corrupt leaders who still treat their people like slaves.
And just who do you think you are telling the American people not to jump to conclusions and condemn that Muslim major who killed 13 of his fellow soldiers and wounded dozens more. You mean you don't want us to do what you did when that white cop used force to subdue that black college professor in Massachusetts , who was putting up a fight? You don't mind offending the police calling them stupid but you don't want us to offend Muslim fanatics by calling them what they are, terrorists.
One more thing. I realize you never served in the military and never had to defend your country with your life, but you're the Commander-in-Chief now, son. Do your job. When your battle-hardened field General asks you for 40,000 more troops to complete the mission, give them to him. But if you're not in this fight to win, then get out. The life of one American soldier is not worth the best political strategy you're thinking of.
You could be our greatest president because you face the greatest challenge ever presented to any president.
You're not going to restore American greatness by bringing back our bloated economy. That's not our greatest threat. Losing the heart and soul of who we are as Americans is our big fight now.
And I sure as hell don't want to think my president is the enemy in this final battle.
Sincerely,
Harold B. Estes
EDITOR’S NOTE: Snopes.com verified that Estes dictated this letter to a secretary and that he personally signed it.
BARACK OBAMA EDGES OUT JIMMY CARTER AS PUBLIC ENEMY NO. 1
‘OBAMA IS OUR ENEMY,’ SAY ISRAELI LAWMAKERS
Israel Today
November 29, 2009
A group of lawmakers and rank-and-file members from Israel's ruling Likud Party met on Saturday to publicly blast US President Barack Obama as an enemy of Israel and the Jews over his heavy-handed pressure to stop building homes for Jews in areas claimed by the Palestinian Arabs.
Organized by Likud MK Dani Danon, the meeting was a follow-up to remarks made last week by Culture and Sports Minister Limor Livnat, in which she called the Obama administration "terrible" for Israel.
Danon also laid into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for having implemented a partial settlement freeze in line with international demands, but noted the Livnat had correctly identified Obama as the main antagonist.
Yossi Naim, a regional council leader, summed up the feelings of those at the gathering:
"The Obama administration is an enemy of the Jews and the worst regime there ever was for the State of Israel."
Ron Nachman, mayor of the settler town of Ariel, concluded by announcing that he, for one, will not be complying with the government's decision to implement a 10-month freeze on all new building projects in the disputed territories.
Israel Today
November 29, 2009
A group of lawmakers and rank-and-file members from Israel's ruling Likud Party met on Saturday to publicly blast US President Barack Obama as an enemy of Israel and the Jews over his heavy-handed pressure to stop building homes for Jews in areas claimed by the Palestinian Arabs.
Organized by Likud MK Dani Danon, the meeting was a follow-up to remarks made last week by Culture and Sports Minister Limor Livnat, in which she called the Obama administration "terrible" for Israel.
Danon also laid into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for having implemented a partial settlement freeze in line with international demands, but noted the Livnat had correctly identified Obama as the main antagonist.
Yossi Naim, a regional council leader, summed up the feelings of those at the gathering:
"The Obama administration is an enemy of the Jews and the worst regime there ever was for the State of Israel."
Ron Nachman, mayor of the settler town of Ariel, concluded by announcing that he, for one, will not be complying with the government's decision to implement a 10-month freeze on all new building projects in the disputed territories.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
SCRATCH, WHACK, TAKE THAT YOU CHEATING ..........
The following TMZ report is rather at odds with what the local police chief had to say about Tiger Woods’ accident. The chief said Tiger’s wife used a golf club to break out the back window so she could get him out of his wrecked SUV and that the responding officers found him lying in the street with her hovering over him. She told the officers she was inside the house when she heard the crash.
I don’t know which version is correct, but I don’t think Tiger left his house around 2:30 a.m. to get a six pack at the nearest convenience store. And why would his wife run out of the house with a golf club? Sure looks like a spousal spat to me. And sports columnist Mike Lupica has said that it was incredulous to believe that Tiger's wife would use a golf club as the jaws of life.
TIGER WOODS: INJURIES CAUSED BY WIFE, NOT SUV
TMZ
November 28, 2009
Tiger Woods did not suffer facial lacerations from a car accident. They were inflicted by his wife, Elin Nordegren -- according to a conversation Woods had Friday after the accident.
Tiger has yet to be formally interviewed by the Florida Highway Patrol -- that should happen this afternoon. But we're told Tiger had a conversation Friday -- with a non-law enforcement type -- detailing what went down before his Escalade hit a fire hydrant.
We're told he said his wife had confronted him about reports that he was seeing another woman. The argument got heated and, according to our source, she scratched his face up. We're told it was then Woods beat a hasty retreat for his SUV -- but according to our source, Woods says his wife followed behind with a golf club. As Tiger drove away, she struck the vehicle several times with the club.
We're told Woods became "distracted," thought the vehicle was stopped, and looked to see what had happened. At that point the SUV hit the fire hydrant and then hit a tree.
We're also told Woods had said during the conversation Friday he had been taking prescription pain medication for an injury, which could explain why he seemed somewhat out of it at the scene.
I don’t know which version is correct, but I don’t think Tiger left his house around 2:30 a.m. to get a six pack at the nearest convenience store. And why would his wife run out of the house with a golf club? Sure looks like a spousal spat to me. And sports columnist Mike Lupica has said that it was incredulous to believe that Tiger's wife would use a golf club as the jaws of life.
TIGER WOODS: INJURIES CAUSED BY WIFE, NOT SUV
TMZ
November 28, 2009
Tiger Woods did not suffer facial lacerations from a car accident. They were inflicted by his wife, Elin Nordegren -- according to a conversation Woods had Friday after the accident.
Tiger has yet to be formally interviewed by the Florida Highway Patrol -- that should happen this afternoon. But we're told Tiger had a conversation Friday -- with a non-law enforcement type -- detailing what went down before his Escalade hit a fire hydrant.
We're told he said his wife had confronted him about reports that he was seeing another woman. The argument got heated and, according to our source, she scratched his face up. We're told it was then Woods beat a hasty retreat for his SUV -- but according to our source, Woods says his wife followed behind with a golf club. As Tiger drove away, she struck the vehicle several times with the club.
We're told Woods became "distracted," thought the vehicle was stopped, and looked to see what had happened. At that point the SUV hit the fire hydrant and then hit a tree.
We're also told Woods had said during the conversation Friday he had been taking prescription pain medication for an injury, which could explain why he seemed somewhat out of it at the scene.
Friday, November 27, 2009
NOT ONLY IN TEXAS
And I thought this sort of nonsense only happened in Texas where if you give anyone the finger, honk at them or just look at them, you’re liable to get shot.
SENSELESS MURDER IN HAYWARD
By Bob Walsh
PacoVilla’s Corrections blog
November 27, 2009
A man walking his dogs with his 13-year old daughter was shot down in the street for no obvious reason Tuesday night.
Thomas Cunningham, 38, died at Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley [California] after being shot in front of a liquor store. Cunningham was leaving the store where he had bought some ice cream for his daughter. The shooter asked Cunningham to hold his dogs back as he was leaving the store. One of the dogs, a German shepherd, sniffed at the shooters leg and the man then produced a gun and shot Cunningham.
The police have a good description of the shooter.
EDITOR’S NOTE: And I hope when they catch up to this scumbag, he gives the cops an excuse to shoot his worthless ass!
SENSELESS MURDER IN HAYWARD
By Bob Walsh
PacoVilla’s Corrections blog
November 27, 2009
A man walking his dogs with his 13-year old daughter was shot down in the street for no obvious reason Tuesday night.
Thomas Cunningham, 38, died at Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley [California] after being shot in front of a liquor store. Cunningham was leaving the store where he had bought some ice cream for his daughter. The shooter asked Cunningham to hold his dogs back as he was leaving the store. One of the dogs, a German shepherd, sniffed at the shooters leg and the man then produced a gun and shot Cunningham.
The police have a good description of the shooter.
EDITOR’S NOTE: And I hope when they catch up to this scumbag, he gives the cops an excuse to shoot his worthless ass!
Thursday, November 26, 2009
I STOPPED YOU FOR.......OH SHIT!
A classic traffic stop. Tsk, tsk, tsk, such language.
Driver of stopped car: "Hey officer, do I have to stay here, or can I leave now?"
As for me, I'd love to have beem a fly on the wall of the police station when this cop tried to explain how his patrol car got wrecked.
Driver of stopped car: "Hey officer, do I have to stay here, or can I leave now?"
As for me, I'd love to have beem a fly on the wall of the police station when this cop tried to explain how his patrol car got wrecked.
HIC, WHERSH MY HIC 18 WHEELER? HIC
Father and son getting an early start on the Thanksgiving celebration.
DAD LEAVES SON IN TRUCK WHILE GETTING DRUNK IN STRIP CLUB
The Associated Press
November 26, 2009
INDIANAPOLIS — Police say they've arrested an Indiana truck driver who went drinking at a strip club after leaving his 5-year-old son in his semitrailer watching cartoons.
An Indianapolis police report says 39-year-old Donald Crawford was arrested early Tuesday on child neglect and public intoxication charges after reporting his truck stolen and son missing. Police said he forgot where he parked.
The boy was found watching a television inside the truck's cab. Police said the keys were in the ignition and the doors were unlocked in a high-crime area of Indianapolis.
The man, from nearby Franklin, was taken to the Marion County jail. Jail records showed he wasn't being held early Thursday, and repeated calls to jail offices seeking details rang unanswered.
DAD LEAVES SON IN TRUCK WHILE GETTING DRUNK IN STRIP CLUB
The Associated Press
November 26, 2009
INDIANAPOLIS — Police say they've arrested an Indiana truck driver who went drinking at a strip club after leaving his 5-year-old son in his semitrailer watching cartoons.
An Indianapolis police report says 39-year-old Donald Crawford was arrested early Tuesday on child neglect and public intoxication charges after reporting his truck stolen and son missing. Police said he forgot where he parked.
The boy was found watching a television inside the truck's cab. Police said the keys were in the ignition and the doors were unlocked in a high-crime area of Indianapolis.
The man, from nearby Franklin, was taken to the Marion County jail. Jail records showed he wasn't being held early Thursday, and repeated calls to jail offices seeking details rang unanswered.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
FRED'S CAR BURGLARY GANG
South Africa may have to call for help from my friends at the Galveston County Auto Crimes Task Force to stop a brazen gang of car burglars. The GCACTF has been quite successful in reducing the thefts of automobiles, in recovering stolen cars, and in catching car burglars. But if they were to go and help the South Africans, they would have their hands full fighting a large highly organized car burglary gang.
Simon’s Town, a small coastal community, has long been a favorite holiday destination for visitors wanting to get away from Cape Town and other crime infested South African cities. Unfortunately many of the visitors are learning the hard way that they cannot escape South Africa’s rising crime wave. They are getting robbed by a bunch of “furry” felons.
Yesterday, a troop of 29 baboons burglarized a number of cars outside Simon’s town. The burglars were led by a baboon who has been named “Fred” by the locals. Fred and his gang opened unlocked car doors or jumped through open windows in search of food. While they’re at it, they do a pretty good job of ransacking through the cars’ contents.
Just like in New York, many witnesses looked on without lifting a hand to help any of the hapless victims as the criminals went about doing their dirty deeds. As a matter of fact, the onlookers seemed quite amused by what they saw, that is until they returned to their own cars only to find out they too had been robbed by Fred’s gang.
The South African police appear to be clueless about finding a way to stop Fred’s fearless gang of thieves. So, you guys in Galveston County start getting your passports in order just in case your may be called upon to show Fred and his gang of car burglars how we fight crime in Texas.
EDITOR’S NOTE – A member of GCACTF wrote: Fred's Gang seems like a slippery group of thieves. However, I believe the easiest solution would be to fill a bait van with bananas and when they are all inside, slam the doors shut. [A bait van or bait car is a vehicle containing what appear to be valuables that is strategically parked and kept under surveillance in a location where thieves have been stealing and burglarizing cars.]
Sounds good Trey, but I don’t think that will work. If I were a baboon (which I have been called on occasion) who was smart enough to open a car door from the outside, I’d be smart enough to open a door from the inside. And if that didn’t work, I’d just use my incredible strength to pop the windshield. Then all you’d be left with is a trashed van and a pile of banana peels.
Simon’s Town, a small coastal community, has long been a favorite holiday destination for visitors wanting to get away from Cape Town and other crime infested South African cities. Unfortunately many of the visitors are learning the hard way that they cannot escape South Africa’s rising crime wave. They are getting robbed by a bunch of “furry” felons.
Yesterday, a troop of 29 baboons burglarized a number of cars outside Simon’s town. The burglars were led by a baboon who has been named “Fred” by the locals. Fred and his gang opened unlocked car doors or jumped through open windows in search of food. While they’re at it, they do a pretty good job of ransacking through the cars’ contents.
Just like in New York, many witnesses looked on without lifting a hand to help any of the hapless victims as the criminals went about doing their dirty deeds. As a matter of fact, the onlookers seemed quite amused by what they saw, that is until they returned to their own cars only to find out they too had been robbed by Fred’s gang.
The South African police appear to be clueless about finding a way to stop Fred’s fearless gang of thieves. So, you guys in Galveston County start getting your passports in order just in case your may be called upon to show Fred and his gang of car burglars how we fight crime in Texas.
EDITOR’S NOTE – A member of GCACTF wrote: Fred's Gang seems like a slippery group of thieves. However, I believe the easiest solution would be to fill a bait van with bananas and when they are all inside, slam the doors shut. [A bait van or bait car is a vehicle containing what appear to be valuables that is strategically parked and kept under surveillance in a location where thieves have been stealing and burglarizing cars.]
Sounds good Trey, but I don’t think that will work. If I were a baboon (which I have been called on occasion) who was smart enough to open a car door from the outside, I’d be smart enough to open a door from the inside. And if that didn’t work, I’d just use my incredible strength to pop the windshield. Then all you’d be left with is a trashed van and a pile of banana peels.
OBAMA SUPPORTER WAKES UP IN REAL WORLD
EX-ENVOY: OBAMA’S APPROACH TO MIDEAST PEACE PROCESS IS ALL WRONG
Israel Today
November 25, 2009
Former US Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk on Tuesday said that President Barack Obama and his chief Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, have failed to grasp the realities of how peace is made in the region, and so have only exacerbated the conflict between Israel and the Arabs.
Indyk supported Obama for president, and originally believed he would do a much better job than past presidents at hammering out a lasting peace deal between Israel and its neighbors.
But at a political forum in Omaha, Nebraska, Indyk conceded that he had been wrong, and that Obama was flunking his foray into Middle East peacemaking.
Obama's first mistake, said Indyk, was putting so much stock in Saudi King Abdullah supporting his peace push by moderating the Arab-backed Saudi peace proposal, which offers Israel full diplomatic relations with its neighbors in return for surrendering all lands liberated in the 1967 Six Day War and opening its borders to millions of so-called "Palestinian refugees."
Obama believed that if he could just get the Arabs to drop their demand to flood what remained of the Jewish state with even more Arabs, then Israel could be compelled to accept the rest of the terms. But Abdullah was unwilling to budge.
Then, lamented Indyk, Obama made his second blunder by focusing nearly his entire peace policy on strong-arming Israel into halting all Jewish construction in Judea, Samaria and even much of Jerusalem.
Indyk insisted that in order to effectively broker peace in the Middle East, one must not get bogged down in details before a broad agreement has been reached. Indeed, the Palestinians have played off Obama's error by adopting a far more extreme set of demands regarding Jewish building - demands that no Israeli leader can now accept.
Israel Today
November 25, 2009
Former US Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk on Tuesday said that President Barack Obama and his chief Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, have failed to grasp the realities of how peace is made in the region, and so have only exacerbated the conflict between Israel and the Arabs.
Indyk supported Obama for president, and originally believed he would do a much better job than past presidents at hammering out a lasting peace deal between Israel and its neighbors.
But at a political forum in Omaha, Nebraska, Indyk conceded that he had been wrong, and that Obama was flunking his foray into Middle East peacemaking.
Obama's first mistake, said Indyk, was putting so much stock in Saudi King Abdullah supporting his peace push by moderating the Arab-backed Saudi peace proposal, which offers Israel full diplomatic relations with its neighbors in return for surrendering all lands liberated in the 1967 Six Day War and opening its borders to millions of so-called "Palestinian refugees."
Obama believed that if he could just get the Arabs to drop their demand to flood what remained of the Jewish state with even more Arabs, then Israel could be compelled to accept the rest of the terms. But Abdullah was unwilling to budge.
Then, lamented Indyk, Obama made his second blunder by focusing nearly his entire peace policy on strong-arming Israel into halting all Jewish construction in Judea, Samaria and even much of Jerusalem.
Indyk insisted that in order to effectively broker peace in the Middle East, one must not get bogged down in details before a broad agreement has been reached. Indeed, the Palestinians have played off Obama's error by adopting a far more extreme set of demands regarding Jewish building - demands that no Israeli leader can now accept.
POOR LITTLE ABUSED GIRL OR SEXUALLY MANIPULATIVE PSYCHOBITCH?
TYLER WITT TO FACE ADULT CHARGES
By Bob Walsh
PacoVilla’s Corrections blog
November 24, 2009
Tyler Witt will face an adult trial in El Dorado [California] County for murder in the death of her mother. The young woman is looking at the possibility of life without parole if convicted (unless of course the Supreme Court throws that penalty into the dustbin for crimes committed while under 18).
………. the now 15-year old Ms. Witt and her 19 year old boyfriend are believed to have murdered her allegedly abusive mother. There is actually damn little doubt that they did it. The only real question is what forum the young woman's trial would take place in.
There are few possibilities left. The trial could be moved due to extensive local publicity. They could be tried together, they could be tried separately, they could even be tried together but with separate juries (though that rarely happens).
For Ms. Witt then the question becomes can she make herself out to be the poor little abused girl, manipulated by a much older guy into setting her mother up for murder? The flip side is that she is a sexually manipulative psychobitch who tricked her boyfriend into helping off her mom because mommie didn't want her banging a 19 year old, or maybe anybody else for that matter.
We have one person dead, who maybe wasn't much of a mother but probably didn't deserve to die for that. We have two more people, obviously more than a little disturbed, looking at sucking up huge amounts of public resources for years and years and years. Sometimes there are no good answers and what you are left with just plain sucks.
By Bob Walsh
PacoVilla’s Corrections blog
November 24, 2009
Tyler Witt will face an adult trial in El Dorado [California] County for murder in the death of her mother. The young woman is looking at the possibility of life without parole if convicted (unless of course the Supreme Court throws that penalty into the dustbin for crimes committed while under 18).
………. the now 15-year old Ms. Witt and her 19 year old boyfriend are believed to have murdered her allegedly abusive mother. There is actually damn little doubt that they did it. The only real question is what forum the young woman's trial would take place in.
There are few possibilities left. The trial could be moved due to extensive local publicity. They could be tried together, they could be tried separately, they could even be tried together but with separate juries (though that rarely happens).
For Ms. Witt then the question becomes can she make herself out to be the poor little abused girl, manipulated by a much older guy into setting her mother up for murder? The flip side is that she is a sexually manipulative psychobitch who tricked her boyfriend into helping off her mom because mommie didn't want her banging a 19 year old, or maybe anybody else for that matter.
We have one person dead, who maybe wasn't much of a mother but probably didn't deserve to die for that. We have two more people, obviously more than a little disturbed, looking at sucking up huge amounts of public resources for years and years and years. Sometimes there are no good answers and what you are left with just plain sucks.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
TONY BENNETT SHOULD RETRIEVE HIS HEART FROM SAN FRANCISCO
Tony Bennett’s signature song, “I Left My Heart In San Francisco,” was about a city that sadly no longer is. The movie “Milk” may have won a slew of Oscars but, unfortunately, ever since Harvey Milk got elected mayor, the city has been on a downward spiral and has degenerated into what Bob Walsh calls a cesspool.
COPS SEEK MURDEROUS PACK IN S.F. KILLING
By Bob Walsh
PacoVilla’s Corrections blog
November 24, 2009
The San Francisco P.D. (which, by the way, has the worst homicide clearance rate of any major city in the country) is more or less in search of a group of 4 or 5 men who stabbed a man to death in the Mission District shortly after midnight on Sunday morning.
There are times when I feel that San Francisco is overrun with dangerous crazies and generic criminals. I have been there I think twice in the last ten years. Both times were in daylight and I was damn sure armed.
Unfortunately San Francisco's combination of political correctness, official tolerance of all forms of social deviance (including anti-social violence) and a police department whose leadership is chosen for their political sensitivity rather than their ability to to the job has turned that once fine city into a cesspool. Damn shame.
COPS SEEK MURDEROUS PACK IN S.F. KILLING
By Bob Walsh
PacoVilla’s Corrections blog
November 24, 2009
The San Francisco P.D. (which, by the way, has the worst homicide clearance rate of any major city in the country) is more or less in search of a group of 4 or 5 men who stabbed a man to death in the Mission District shortly after midnight on Sunday morning.
There are times when I feel that San Francisco is overrun with dangerous crazies and generic criminals. I have been there I think twice in the last ten years. Both times were in daylight and I was damn sure armed.
Unfortunately San Francisco's combination of political correctness, official tolerance of all forms of social deviance (including anti-social violence) and a police department whose leadership is chosen for their political sensitivity rather than their ability to to the job has turned that once fine city into a cesspool. Damn shame.
Monday, November 23, 2009
VOTING FOR OR AGAINST A CANDIDATE FOR ALL THE WRONG REASONS
On December 12, Houston will hold a hotly contested runoff election for mayor pitting Gene Locke, a black candidate, against Annise Parker, an openly gay white candidate. Just as in other parts of this country, you can bet that people from specific voting blocks will vote for or against these candidates for all the wrong reasons.
Locke served as Houston’s city attorney and claims to have been instrumental in getting some extravagant sports venues built. The Houston Astro’s Minute Maid Park, the Houston Rockets’ Toyota Center and the Houston Texans’ Reliant Stadium may end up costing the taxpayers a bundle of money, even though they were constructed with the promise that no tax funds would ever be used. Locke also supports building a new stadium for the Dynamo, Houston’s MLS soccer team.
Parker has served continuously in Houston’s government since 1997 when she was first elected to an at-large city council position. She is currently the city’s controller. She has been fiscally conservative and opposes the proposed Dynamo stadium.
Yesterday, the Houston Chronicle came out with a strong endorsement of Annise Parker. The endorsement editorial noted that, as city council member and as controller, she had served the city with distinction, and because she was far more experienced than Locke, she represented a clear choice to the voters in the election for mayor. The question is: How much will the Chronicle endorsement help Parker? To answer that question one needs to look at some of Houston’s voter blocks.
The Black Vote: Houston’s blacks will vote overwhelmingly for Locke simply because he is black. Most of these voters won’t have the foggiest notion of Parker’s experience and many accomplishments. He’s black, she’s white – that’s all that matters. Some blacks will vote against Parker because she is gay.
The Latino Vote: Latinos are not too fond of blacks because both groups compete against each other for the crumbs left over from America’s economic pie. Latino voters have not turned out in significant numbers. Those that do turn out would normally be expected to cast their vote for the white candidate. But not this time! Why? Because Parker is against the proposed Dynamo stadium which Locke supports.
The Social Conservative Vote: As soon as Parker made the mayoral runoff, the election campaign turned ugly. Parker is being smeared by the social conservatives because she is gay. They are trying to scare the voters by sending out slick mailers implying that if Parker is elected, homosexuals will take over the City of Houston. As proof, the mailers point out that Massachusetts congressman Barney Frank is holding fund raisers for Parker. The mailers are entitled IS THIS THE IMAGE HOUSTON WANTS TO PORTRAY? and show a picture of Parker being sworn in as Controller with her gay partner standing by her side.
The Police and Firefighter Vote. The police and firefighter unions are bitterly opposed to Parker. The Houston Police Officers Union president has gone on TV to declare that Locke answered every question they posed to him correctly while Parker’s answer to every question was wrong. The unions are trying to scare the public by claiming that Parker intends to make cuts in the Police and Fire Department budgets.
A good part of the police opposition to Parker is based on the fact that they identify her with former mayor Kathy Whitmire. Whitmire was city controller before serving as mayor from 1982 to 1991. Although she was not gay, Whitmire was elected mayor because the homosexual community turned out in large numbers to vote for her. Whitmire campaigned for mayor by charging that Houston police officers were racist and used excessive force against blacks. The police have never forgiven her for that. To add insult to injury, Whitmire did not rush home from a meeting in New York when a Houston police officer was killed in the line of duty shortly after she took office and she did not bother to attend his funeral.
So what are the chances of Parker getting elected, the Chronicle endorsement notwithstanding? The turnout for the election that has led to the runoff was pitifully small. This go-around blacks are likely to turn out in larger numbers not only because the mayor’s race pits white against black, but also because there are a couple of other blacks contending in runoffs. Latinos, who are as passionate about soccer as most Texans are about football, may turn out in larger numbers because of the stadium issue. The social conservatives can be expected to turn out in large numbers because of the phony homosexual issue. And the police and firefighters and their families and friends, a significant voting block, will turn out to stop Parker from becoming mayor.
Gay voters can be expected to turn out in large numbers, but they alone cannot elect Parker. The only way Parker can win is if she can turn out a significant number of white liberals and independents. She is clearly the most qualified of the two candidates but that doesn’t matter as long as voters keep voting for or against a candidate for all the wrong reasons. What’s so sad is that this sort of voter stupidity is prevalent throughout our great country.
Locke served as Houston’s city attorney and claims to have been instrumental in getting some extravagant sports venues built. The Houston Astro’s Minute Maid Park, the Houston Rockets’ Toyota Center and the Houston Texans’ Reliant Stadium may end up costing the taxpayers a bundle of money, even though they were constructed with the promise that no tax funds would ever be used. Locke also supports building a new stadium for the Dynamo, Houston’s MLS soccer team.
Parker has served continuously in Houston’s government since 1997 when she was first elected to an at-large city council position. She is currently the city’s controller. She has been fiscally conservative and opposes the proposed Dynamo stadium.
Yesterday, the Houston Chronicle came out with a strong endorsement of Annise Parker. The endorsement editorial noted that, as city council member and as controller, she had served the city with distinction, and because she was far more experienced than Locke, she represented a clear choice to the voters in the election for mayor. The question is: How much will the Chronicle endorsement help Parker? To answer that question one needs to look at some of Houston’s voter blocks.
The Black Vote: Houston’s blacks will vote overwhelmingly for Locke simply because he is black. Most of these voters won’t have the foggiest notion of Parker’s experience and many accomplishments. He’s black, she’s white – that’s all that matters. Some blacks will vote against Parker because she is gay.
The Latino Vote: Latinos are not too fond of blacks because both groups compete against each other for the crumbs left over from America’s economic pie. Latino voters have not turned out in significant numbers. Those that do turn out would normally be expected to cast their vote for the white candidate. But not this time! Why? Because Parker is against the proposed Dynamo stadium which Locke supports.
The Social Conservative Vote: As soon as Parker made the mayoral runoff, the election campaign turned ugly. Parker is being smeared by the social conservatives because she is gay. They are trying to scare the voters by sending out slick mailers implying that if Parker is elected, homosexuals will take over the City of Houston. As proof, the mailers point out that Massachusetts congressman Barney Frank is holding fund raisers for Parker. The mailers are entitled IS THIS THE IMAGE HOUSTON WANTS TO PORTRAY? and show a picture of Parker being sworn in as Controller with her gay partner standing by her side.
The Police and Firefighter Vote. The police and firefighter unions are bitterly opposed to Parker. The Houston Police Officers Union president has gone on TV to declare that Locke answered every question they posed to him correctly while Parker’s answer to every question was wrong. The unions are trying to scare the public by claiming that Parker intends to make cuts in the Police and Fire Department budgets.
A good part of the police opposition to Parker is based on the fact that they identify her with former mayor Kathy Whitmire. Whitmire was city controller before serving as mayor from 1982 to 1991. Although she was not gay, Whitmire was elected mayor because the homosexual community turned out in large numbers to vote for her. Whitmire campaigned for mayor by charging that Houston police officers were racist and used excessive force against blacks. The police have never forgiven her for that. To add insult to injury, Whitmire did not rush home from a meeting in New York when a Houston police officer was killed in the line of duty shortly after she took office and she did not bother to attend his funeral.
So what are the chances of Parker getting elected, the Chronicle endorsement notwithstanding? The turnout for the election that has led to the runoff was pitifully small. This go-around blacks are likely to turn out in larger numbers not only because the mayor’s race pits white against black, but also because there are a couple of other blacks contending in runoffs. Latinos, who are as passionate about soccer as most Texans are about football, may turn out in larger numbers because of the stadium issue. The social conservatives can be expected to turn out in large numbers because of the phony homosexual issue. And the police and firefighters and their families and friends, a significant voting block, will turn out to stop Parker from becoming mayor.
Gay voters can be expected to turn out in large numbers, but they alone cannot elect Parker. The only way Parker can win is if she can turn out a significant number of white liberals and independents. She is clearly the most qualified of the two candidates but that doesn’t matter as long as voters keep voting for or against a candidate for all the wrong reasons. What’s so sad is that this sort of voter stupidity is prevalent throughout our great country.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
AN ISLAMIST TERRORIST, NOT A CRAZED GUNMAN! (2)
IF YOU DON’T THINK THE FORT HOOD MASSACRE WAS A TERRORIST ATTACK THEN YOU’RE AN IDIOT
by Doug Giles
Townhall.com
November 22, 2009
I was sitting in the Greensboro airport Thursday morning after a speaking engagement at UNC-Greensboro when a TV blaring CNN caught my attention. The talking head was reading the results of a survey CNN had conducted (with the smattering of viewers that have yet to defect to FOX) regarding how many believed the November 5th Fort Hood massacre (y’all remember that, don’t ‘cha?) was a terrorist attack and how many did not.
Before the results rolled in, I was sitting there thinking, “Uh … it kinda looks like jihad to moi. It sure as heck wasn’t a tickle fight.” In addition I mused, “Hasan’s a Muslim, and he yelled ‘Allahu Akbar!’ as he strafed our unarmed troops. Hmmm. Maybe, oh maybe, this is an Islamic act of war. Sure as shizzle smells like it to me.” Yep, it’s pretty much along the lines of how these jihadists roll—namely, killing unarmed people—but then again, these assumptions that I bring to the table could just be me being “judgmental” again.
Anyway, of the few folks who still watch CNN, 47% of the respondents said “no, what Hasan the Dipstick did was not an act of terrorism,” while 45% of the CNN yodels said, “yes it was an act of terrorism,” which caused me to mutter over a mouthful of Dunkin Donuts, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Half of these dimwits don’t think it was jihad-related? What?!? Then I remembered I was watching CNN. They have “special” viewers, the kind who believe Bertha Lewis and the L. A. Times are a fount of truth.
No matter what the bubble-headed brunette on CNN reported, no matter how the thought police explain this Muslim mook’s motives for mowing down our troops, no matter what some tweed jacket wearing, pipe smoking shrink says was rattlin’ around in Nidal’s noggin that caused him to snap like a weathered bungee cord with Rosie O’Donnell carabinered to the end, Hasan, for what it’s worth, said what he did was jihad.
Yes, one Nidal Malik Hasan was very loud and proud about the fact that he was cool with lighting up us infidels (I hope when he dies the 72 virgins awaiting him are all males who look like him, are hairier than Chewbacca, and sport violent, chronic halitosis).
Now, do you need a “for instance” that what Nidal did was ji-ji-jihad you deaf, dumb and blind CNN kids? You do? Well, yippee-ki-yay! Check this out, Spanky.
Islam expert Robert Spencer points out in a recent blog post—which the mange stream media is desperately trying to bury like a fresh ACORN video—that Hasan gave PowerPoint presentations during medical briefings in 2007 about how he wanted to kill Americans who wouldn’t bow and kiss Islam’s backside. In addition he threatened moderate Muslims who would not rain hellfire down upon us infidels with hell. Like I said, if you don’t believe it was jihad then you’re an idiot.
And what did we do about it? Nothing. Did Hasan’s higher ups warn us? Nope. What did Hasan do about it? Exactly what he said he would do. Should mute military officials who knew about this be in deep crap for saying nada? I kinda think so. But I digress.
My point for this column is this: We are so frickin’ gone as a country that an American Muslim major in our military can, during wartime, give PowerPoint presentations about how we need to die and then carry out his death threats. All the while jackasses on the left blame pre-traumatic, pre-tribulation, pre-menstrual low blood sugar syndrome as the root cause of why Hasan took his gun off safety and murdered our soldiers in the second biggest terrorist attack on our sacred soil since 9/11.
Hasan told us what he thought of Americans and why he did what he did. Why won’t we believe him? Could it mean that we can’t because if we did we’d have to out other Muslims in America? That we would have to look on radical profs in our universities with a fresh jaundiced eye? That perhaps, God forbid, we’d have to start profiling and monitoring mosques and—say it ain’t so—purge our military of Islamic sympathizers? Is the left’s silence on Hasan’s motives because they don’t want to eat a big ol’ chunk of crow pie regarding the Religion of Peace schlock they’ve been jamming up our tailpipe? Is that why we want Hasan’s motive to be anything other than that which he said it was—i.e. jihad?
by Doug Giles
Townhall.com
November 22, 2009
I was sitting in the Greensboro airport Thursday morning after a speaking engagement at UNC-Greensboro when a TV blaring CNN caught my attention. The talking head was reading the results of a survey CNN had conducted (with the smattering of viewers that have yet to defect to FOX) regarding how many believed the November 5th Fort Hood massacre (y’all remember that, don’t ‘cha?) was a terrorist attack and how many did not.
Before the results rolled in, I was sitting there thinking, “Uh … it kinda looks like jihad to moi. It sure as heck wasn’t a tickle fight.” In addition I mused, “Hasan’s a Muslim, and he yelled ‘Allahu Akbar!’ as he strafed our unarmed troops. Hmmm. Maybe, oh maybe, this is an Islamic act of war. Sure as shizzle smells like it to me.” Yep, it’s pretty much along the lines of how these jihadists roll—namely, killing unarmed people—but then again, these assumptions that I bring to the table could just be me being “judgmental” again.
Anyway, of the few folks who still watch CNN, 47% of the respondents said “no, what Hasan the Dipstick did was not an act of terrorism,” while 45% of the CNN yodels said, “yes it was an act of terrorism,” which caused me to mutter over a mouthful of Dunkin Donuts, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Half of these dimwits don’t think it was jihad-related? What?!? Then I remembered I was watching CNN. They have “special” viewers, the kind who believe Bertha Lewis and the L. A. Times are a fount of truth.
No matter what the bubble-headed brunette on CNN reported, no matter how the thought police explain this Muslim mook’s motives for mowing down our troops, no matter what some tweed jacket wearing, pipe smoking shrink says was rattlin’ around in Nidal’s noggin that caused him to snap like a weathered bungee cord with Rosie O’Donnell carabinered to the end, Hasan, for what it’s worth, said what he did was jihad.
Yes, one Nidal Malik Hasan was very loud and proud about the fact that he was cool with lighting up us infidels (I hope when he dies the 72 virgins awaiting him are all males who look like him, are hairier than Chewbacca, and sport violent, chronic halitosis).
Now, do you need a “for instance” that what Nidal did was ji-ji-jihad you deaf, dumb and blind CNN kids? You do? Well, yippee-ki-yay! Check this out, Spanky.
Islam expert Robert Spencer points out in a recent blog post—which the mange stream media is desperately trying to bury like a fresh ACORN video—that Hasan gave PowerPoint presentations during medical briefings in 2007 about how he wanted to kill Americans who wouldn’t bow and kiss Islam’s backside. In addition he threatened moderate Muslims who would not rain hellfire down upon us infidels with hell. Like I said, if you don’t believe it was jihad then you’re an idiot.
And what did we do about it? Nothing. Did Hasan’s higher ups warn us? Nope. What did Hasan do about it? Exactly what he said he would do. Should mute military officials who knew about this be in deep crap for saying nada? I kinda think so. But I digress.
My point for this column is this: We are so frickin’ gone as a country that an American Muslim major in our military can, during wartime, give PowerPoint presentations about how we need to die and then carry out his death threats. All the while jackasses on the left blame pre-traumatic, pre-tribulation, pre-menstrual low blood sugar syndrome as the root cause of why Hasan took his gun off safety and murdered our soldiers in the second biggest terrorist attack on our sacred soil since 9/11.
Hasan told us what he thought of Americans and why he did what he did. Why won’t we believe him? Could it mean that we can’t because if we did we’d have to out other Muslims in America? That we would have to look on radical profs in our universities with a fresh jaundiced eye? That perhaps, God forbid, we’d have to start profiling and monitoring mosques and—say it ain’t so—purge our military of Islamic sympathizers? Is the left’s silence on Hasan’s motives because they don’t want to eat a big ol’ chunk of crow pie regarding the Religion of Peace schlock they’ve been jamming up our tailpipe? Is that why we want Hasan’s motive to be anything other than that which he said it was—i.e. jihad?
KIDS LEGALLY GETTING STONED
As one retired law enforcement official put it, “Teens can now buy medical marijuana, but not alcohol!”
Here are some excerpts from a New York Times article:
MEDICAL MARIJUANA: NO LONGER JUST FOR ADULTS
By Katherine Ellison
The New York Times
November 21, 2009
At the Peace in Medicine Healing Center in Sebastopol [52 mi. north of San Francisco], the wares on display include dried marijuana — featuring brands like Kryptonite, Voodoo Daddy and Train Wreck — and medicinal cookies arrayed below a sign saying, “Keep Out of Reach of Your Mother.”
The warning tells a story of its own: some of the center’s clients are too young to buy themselves a beer.
Several Bay Area doctors who recommend medical marijuana for their patients said in recent interviews that their client base had expanded to include teenagers with psychiatric conditions including attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Because California does not require doctors to report cases involving medical marijuana, no reliable data exist for how many minors have been authorized to receive it.
“How many ways can one say ‘one of the worst ideas of all time?’ ” asked Stephen Hinshaw, the chairman of the psychology department at the University of California, Berkeley. He cited studies showing that tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the active ingredient in cannabis, disrupts attention, memory and concentration — functions already compromised in people with the attention-deficit disorder.
In 1996, voters approved a ballot proposition making California the first state to legalize medical marijuana. Twelve other states have followed suit — allowing cannabis for several specified, serious conditions including cancer and AIDS — but only California adds the grab-bag phrase “for any other illness for which marijuana provides relief.”
Advocates are just as adamant, though they are in a distinct minority. “It’s safer than aspirin,” Dr. [Jean] Talleyrand [founder of MediCann, a network in Oakland of 20 clinics that prescribe pot] said. He and other marijuana advocates maintain that it is also safer than methylphenidate (Ritalin), the stimulant prescription drug most often used to treat A.D.H.D. That drug has documented potential side effects including insomnia, depression, facial tics and stunted growth.
This has left those doctors willing to “recommend” cannabis — in the Alice-in-Wonderland world of medical marijuana, they cannot legally prescribe it — with leeway that some use to a daring degree. “You can get it for a backache,” said Keith Stroup, the founder of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
Marijuana is “a godsend” for some people with A.D.H.D., said Dr. Edward M. Hallowell, a psychiatrist who has written several books on the disorder. However, Dr. Hallowell said he discourages his patients from using it, both because it is — mostly — illegal, and because his observations show that “it can lead to a syndrome in which all the person wants to do all day is get stoned, and they do nothing else.”
Until the age of 18, patients requesting medical marijuana must be accompanied to the doctor’s appointment and to the dispensaries by a parent or authorized caregiver. Some doctors interviewed said they suspected that in at least some cases, parents were accompanying their children primarily with the hope that medical authorization would allow the adolescents to avoid buying drugs on the street.
………. a KGO-TV report detailed questionable practices at [Dr. Talleyrand's] MediCann clinics, which, the report said, had grossed at least $10 million in five years.
Here are some excerpts from a New York Times article:
MEDICAL MARIJUANA: NO LONGER JUST FOR ADULTS
By Katherine Ellison
The New York Times
November 21, 2009
At the Peace in Medicine Healing Center in Sebastopol [52 mi. north of San Francisco], the wares on display include dried marijuana — featuring brands like Kryptonite, Voodoo Daddy and Train Wreck — and medicinal cookies arrayed below a sign saying, “Keep Out of Reach of Your Mother.”
The warning tells a story of its own: some of the center’s clients are too young to buy themselves a beer.
Several Bay Area doctors who recommend medical marijuana for their patients said in recent interviews that their client base had expanded to include teenagers with psychiatric conditions including attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Because California does not require doctors to report cases involving medical marijuana, no reliable data exist for how many minors have been authorized to receive it.
“How many ways can one say ‘one of the worst ideas of all time?’ ” asked Stephen Hinshaw, the chairman of the psychology department at the University of California, Berkeley. He cited studies showing that tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the active ingredient in cannabis, disrupts attention, memory and concentration — functions already compromised in people with the attention-deficit disorder.
In 1996, voters approved a ballot proposition making California the first state to legalize medical marijuana. Twelve other states have followed suit — allowing cannabis for several specified, serious conditions including cancer and AIDS — but only California adds the grab-bag phrase “for any other illness for which marijuana provides relief.”
Advocates are just as adamant, though they are in a distinct minority. “It’s safer than aspirin,” Dr. [Jean] Talleyrand [founder of MediCann, a network in Oakland of 20 clinics that prescribe pot] said. He and other marijuana advocates maintain that it is also safer than methylphenidate (Ritalin), the stimulant prescription drug most often used to treat A.D.H.D. That drug has documented potential side effects including insomnia, depression, facial tics and stunted growth.
This has left those doctors willing to “recommend” cannabis — in the Alice-in-Wonderland world of medical marijuana, they cannot legally prescribe it — with leeway that some use to a daring degree. “You can get it for a backache,” said Keith Stroup, the founder of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
Marijuana is “a godsend” for some people with A.D.H.D., said Dr. Edward M. Hallowell, a psychiatrist who has written several books on the disorder. However, Dr. Hallowell said he discourages his patients from using it, both because it is — mostly — illegal, and because his observations show that “it can lead to a syndrome in which all the person wants to do all day is get stoned, and they do nothing else.”
Until the age of 18, patients requesting medical marijuana must be accompanied to the doctor’s appointment and to the dispensaries by a parent or authorized caregiver. Some doctors interviewed said they suspected that in at least some cases, parents were accompanying their children primarily with the hope that medical authorization would allow the adolescents to avoid buying drugs on the street.
………. a KGO-TV report detailed questionable practices at [Dr. Talleyrand's] MediCann clinics, which, the report said, had grossed at least $10 million in five years.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
HOMELAND SECURITY AT WORK
Federal undercover terrorism investigations at their finest. Hillarious in poking fun at the FBI, Immigration, the Secret Service and the CIA, but so true to life! Despite the best efforts by the Department of Homeland Security to the contrary, the left hand still doesn't know what the right hand is doing.
After viewing this video clip, a former undercover officer wrote:
This stuff happens!!!
I have seen DEA set up on a house only to have a couple of Customs Agents do a "knock and talk" at the location-----burned.....
I have seen a joint DEA and FBI investigation complete with telephone intercepts and "spike mikes" at a location only to have another FBI group do a "knock and talk" at that location. The only reason it was not burned was because of a very, very astute informant....
DEA was targeting a money courier organization, only to be burned by another " still unknown law enforcement" organization conducting surveillance and following the same vehicle. DEA had a tracker on the vehicle and was able to conduct "stand off surveillance". The money courier got "hinked up" by the " still unknown law enforcement" agency when they burned the surveillance (incompetent!!!!) The targets then ditched the vehicle in a large shopping center underground garage. With a handheld DF [Direction Finder] unit DEA was able to find the vehicle with several hundred thousand dollars in US currency still in it, but no Colombian couriers.
AND THE WINNER IS ..........
With the Nobel Peace Prize award behind us, don't bother watching the next Oscars. Barack Obama has already won it for Best Actor and Joe Biden for Best Supporting Actor. And the Best Picture has been won by BrokeBank Mountain.
Coming Soon
Coming Soon
PLEASE SHED NO TEARS!
The big bad State of Texas, World Capital of Capital Punishment, has just executed another poor soul because that bad ass, hard ass, heartless Gov. Rick Perry refused to go along with the Board of Pardons and Paroles’ recommendation that his life be spared.
In “Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, Click, Whack, Whack, Whack, Whack” (10-28-09), I wrote that Robert Lee Thompson is another poster boy for the death penalty. If you recall, during the 1996 robbery of a Houston convenience store, Thompson did not actually kill anyone while his crime partner received a life sentence, although he did kill one of the store clerks.
Thompson was tried for capital murder under Texas’ “Law of Parties” which holds all participants in such crimes equally responsible for any killing. Now that Thompson has been executed, the opponents of Capital Punishment are outraged at Gov. Perry and the do-gooders and bleeding hearts are weeping and wailing over a scumbag’s demise.
Let me remind everyone of just exactly what Thompson actually did during the robbery. Thompson approached the clerk at the checkout counter, pulled a pistol and demanded money. When the clerk opened the cash register, Thompson shot the complying clerk four times. He then spotted the other clerk at the rear of the store and fired two shots at him. Thompson, having missed the other clerk, returned his attention to the wounded clerk and attempted to shoot him a fifth time with his gun pointed at the victim’s neck. The gun did not fire because he was out of ammo. Thompson then pistol-whipped the badly wounded clerk and bashed him over the head with the register’s cash drawer.
The wounded clerk was lucky to survive. Thompson also tried to murder the other clerk who was killed by his crime partner as they were leaving the scene. His crime partner certainly deserved to be executed but, unfortunately, a jury did not see it that way.
So, all you weepers and wailers stop shedding those tears. I don’t care much for Gov. Perry, but in this case he was definitely right in not stopping Thompson’s execution.
In “Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, Click, Whack, Whack, Whack, Whack” (10-28-09), I wrote that Robert Lee Thompson is another poster boy for the death penalty. If you recall, during the 1996 robbery of a Houston convenience store, Thompson did not actually kill anyone while his crime partner received a life sentence, although he did kill one of the store clerks.
Thompson was tried for capital murder under Texas’ “Law of Parties” which holds all participants in such crimes equally responsible for any killing. Now that Thompson has been executed, the opponents of Capital Punishment are outraged at Gov. Perry and the do-gooders and bleeding hearts are weeping and wailing over a scumbag’s demise.
Let me remind everyone of just exactly what Thompson actually did during the robbery. Thompson approached the clerk at the checkout counter, pulled a pistol and demanded money. When the clerk opened the cash register, Thompson shot the complying clerk four times. He then spotted the other clerk at the rear of the store and fired two shots at him. Thompson, having missed the other clerk, returned his attention to the wounded clerk and attempted to shoot him a fifth time with his gun pointed at the victim’s neck. The gun did not fire because he was out of ammo. Thompson then pistol-whipped the badly wounded clerk and bashed him over the head with the register’s cash drawer.
The wounded clerk was lucky to survive. Thompson also tried to murder the other clerk who was killed by his crime partner as they were leaving the scene. His crime partner certainly deserved to be executed but, unfortunately, a jury did not see it that way.
So, all you weepers and wailers stop shedding those tears. I don’t care much for Gov. Perry, but in this case he was definitely right in not stopping Thompson’s execution.
AN ISLAMIST TERRORIST, NOT A CRAZED GUNMAN!
President Obama was quick to say that we should not jump to conclusions about Nidal Hasan’s motives in shooting up Ft. Hood lest his beloved Muslims would suffer a backlash from an outraged public. Well, the jumping to conclusions is long over. Since he exchanged at least 18 e-mails with Jihadist Yemenite cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, I think we can now say with some certainty that Major Hassan acted as an Islamist terrorist, not as a crazed gunman!
TERROR CONSPIRACY IN TEXAS?
Growing signs that shooting at Texas base a terror conspiracy rather than lone gunman attack
By Yitzhak Benhorin
Ynetnews.com
November 21, 2009
WASHINGTON - A massacre at a Texas army base that left 13 people dead is increasingly looking like part of a terror conspiracy rather than an act of a lone gunman.
The growing suspicious are related, among other things, to shooter Nidal Malik Hasan's connection to September 11 terrorists, the funds he is suspected of transferring to Pakistan, and his ties with radical Yemenite cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, associated with al-Qaeda.
By now, officials estimate that these ties were not confined to Hasan's participation in prayer sessions at Al-Awlaki's Virginia mosque and "spiritual advice". While emails exchanges between the two initially focused on religious matters, they later shifted to discussion of financial transfers for operational aims, the Washington Post reported Saturday.
'Significant evidence'
The paper based its report on FBI sources who estimate that the email exchanges point to a terror conspiracy. According to the sources, the ties between Hasan and Awlaki grew closer in recent months and involved discussions regarding the secret transfer of money and other means in order to translate plans into actions.
According to the report, Hasan asked for deliveries of less than $10,000, so he would not be obligated to report them to the army.
The massacre at the Fort Hood base increasingly looks like a terror attack, Senator Carl Levin, who heads the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Friday.
"There are some who are reluctant to call it terrorism but there is significant evidence that is. I'm not at all uneasy saying it sure looks like that," he said.
TERROR CONSPIRACY IN TEXAS?
Growing signs that shooting at Texas base a terror conspiracy rather than lone gunman attack
By Yitzhak Benhorin
Ynetnews.com
November 21, 2009
WASHINGTON - A massacre at a Texas army base that left 13 people dead is increasingly looking like part of a terror conspiracy rather than an act of a lone gunman.
The growing suspicious are related, among other things, to shooter Nidal Malik Hasan's connection to September 11 terrorists, the funds he is suspected of transferring to Pakistan, and his ties with radical Yemenite cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, associated with al-Qaeda.
By now, officials estimate that these ties were not confined to Hasan's participation in prayer sessions at Al-Awlaki's Virginia mosque and "spiritual advice". While emails exchanges between the two initially focused on religious matters, they later shifted to discussion of financial transfers for operational aims, the Washington Post reported Saturday.
'Significant evidence'
The paper based its report on FBI sources who estimate that the email exchanges point to a terror conspiracy. According to the sources, the ties between Hasan and Awlaki grew closer in recent months and involved discussions regarding the secret transfer of money and other means in order to translate plans into actions.
According to the report, Hasan asked for deliveries of less than $10,000, so he would not be obligated to report them to the army.
The massacre at the Fort Hood base increasingly looks like a terror attack, Senator Carl Levin, who heads the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Friday.
"There are some who are reluctant to call it terrorism but there is significant evidence that is. I'm not at all uneasy saying it sure looks like that," he said.
Friday, November 20, 2009
AMERICANS NO LONGER STOMACH MILITARY CASUALTIES
I have posted several blogs in which I pointed out that Americans have no stomach for the casualties of war. I have pointed out that our military casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan pale when compared to the terrible toll taken by our troops during WWII in just two tiny island battles – Tarawa and Iwo Jima.
This month, in a Veterans Day address at the University of Houston – Clear Lake, former Marine and Astronaut Walt Cunningham lamented the fact that Americans no longer tolerate the casualties that will be suffered by our military. Here are some excerpts from a report in The Citizen on his speech.
AMERICANS SHOULD TOUGHEN UP, CUNNINGHAM TELLS VETERANS DAY CROWD
By Dana Guthrie
The Citizen (Bay Area)
November 19, 2009
Less than 10 percent of Americans now have military experience, he [Cunningham] said, and less than 20 percent of Congressional leaders are veterans.
“Too many military leaders are influenced by politicians and social engineers.”
Cunningham lamented what he identifies as “the American way,” a policy of “zero casualties on our side, zero casualties on the enemy side if we can help it. That leads to some pretty bizarre rules of engagement,” including the philosophy that “we need to do it fast before public opinion collapses at home.”
Throughout history, Americans have made sacrifices and risked their lives in the interest of the nation as a whole, he said. Those who signed the Declaration of Independence knew the penalty was death.
It’s important that Americans be able to accept risk if they are to properly support the military, he said, adding that he believes the most important responsibility of the federal government is to provide for the common defense.
“It was the wretched and oppressed who accepted the risk of a new land,” Cunningham said. “It was the strong, not the weak...those who wanted to live, not simply to exist.”
This month, in a Veterans Day address at the University of Houston – Clear Lake, former Marine and Astronaut Walt Cunningham lamented the fact that Americans no longer tolerate the casualties that will be suffered by our military. Here are some excerpts from a report in The Citizen on his speech.
AMERICANS SHOULD TOUGHEN UP, CUNNINGHAM TELLS VETERANS DAY CROWD
By Dana Guthrie
The Citizen (Bay Area)
November 19, 2009
Less than 10 percent of Americans now have military experience, he [Cunningham] said, and less than 20 percent of Congressional leaders are veterans.
“Too many military leaders are influenced by politicians and social engineers.”
Cunningham lamented what he identifies as “the American way,” a policy of “zero casualties on our side, zero casualties on the enemy side if we can help it. That leads to some pretty bizarre rules of engagement,” including the philosophy that “we need to do it fast before public opinion collapses at home.”
Throughout history, Americans have made sacrifices and risked their lives in the interest of the nation as a whole, he said. Those who signed the Declaration of Independence knew the penalty was death.
It’s important that Americans be able to accept risk if they are to properly support the military, he said, adding that he believes the most important responsibility of the federal government is to provide for the common defense.
“It was the wretched and oppressed who accepted the risk of a new land,” Cunningham said. “It was the strong, not the weak...those who wanted to live, not simply to exist.”
Thursday, November 19, 2009
THE POWER OF A COP'S BADGE
A DEA officer stops at a ranch in Texas , and talks to an old rancher. He tells the rancher, "I need to inspect your ranch for illegally grown marijuana, peyote or psychedelic mushrooms." The rancher says, "Okay, but don't go in that field over there," as he points out the location.
The DEA officer verbally explodes saying, "Mister, I have the authority of the Federal Government with me!!"
Reaching into his rear pants pocket, he removes his DEA badge and proudly displays it to the rancher. "See this badge? This badge means I am allowed to go wherever I want!! On any land!! No questions asked or answers given!! Have I made myself clear?!! Do you understand what this badge means?!!"
The rancher nods politely, apologizes, and goes about his chores.
Naturally, the first place he headed for was the field the rancher told him not to go to. A short time later, the old rancher hears loud screams and sees the DEA officer running for his life chased close behind by the rancher's prize bull.
With every step the bull is gaining ground on the officer, and it seems likely he'll get "horned" before he reaches safety. The officer is clearly terrified!!
The rancher throws down his tools, runs to the fence and yells at the top of his lungs . . . . . . . .
“YOUR BADGE!! SHOW HIM YOUR BADGE!!!”
The DEA officer verbally explodes saying, "Mister, I have the authority of the Federal Government with me!!"
Reaching into his rear pants pocket, he removes his DEA badge and proudly displays it to the rancher. "See this badge? This badge means I am allowed to go wherever I want!! On any land!! No questions asked or answers given!! Have I made myself clear?!! Do you understand what this badge means?!!"
The rancher nods politely, apologizes, and goes about his chores.
Naturally, the first place he headed for was the field the rancher told him not to go to. A short time later, the old rancher hears loud screams and sees the DEA officer running for his life chased close behind by the rancher's prize bull.
With every step the bull is gaining ground on the officer, and it seems likely he'll get "horned" before he reaches safety. The officer is clearly terrified!!
The rancher throws down his tools, runs to the fence and yells at the top of his lungs . . . . . . . .
“YOUR BADGE!! SHOW HIM YOUR BADGE!!!”
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
INCORRIGIBLE SOCIOPATHS (4)
Curtis Martin III in all probability had an extensive arrest record for serious crimes when he was a juvenile. If that is correct, he is another example of why some juveniles should be locked up in prison for life.
CHILD KILLER DODGED PROSECUTIONS BEFORE
By Bob Walsh
PacoVilla’s Corrections blog
November 17, 2009
Curtis Martin III, 38, is an admitted child killer. He is also not a nice man in general terms.
He was arrested twice last year for violating a restraining order a prior girlfriend had against him. Just because he thumped her and threatened to kill her son, she thought he might be dangerous. He was pissed because he found a message from another guy when he searched her cell phone so he choked her out and stomped her. Sounds like a fun date.
Alameda County never prosecuted him for either of those violations. Unfortunately, the then girlfriend gave the cops a phony name for Martin and they didn't put a case together promptly. She said she did so because she was afraid of him. (I wonder how she got the restraining order. Something doesn't sound right here.)
That woman was the next door neighbor of Zoelina Williams. Williams is the woman who Martin is suspected of murdering, and whose child's body was found yesterday floating at the Berkeley Marina. Williams had been found the day before, shot dead nearby.
Martin served about 5 years of an 11 year sentence for beating his then girlfriend's 3 year old to death. He did so many parole violations off of that beef it is hard to count them.
Martin was arrested on September 11 for violating the restraining order. At that time he said to the woman, "I don't give a fuck about a restraining order. I'll get a chopper and turn you into a Swiss cheese." He bailed out in one day.
Martin was found after closing at the park in Berkeley where Williams body was found, about ten minutes before that discovery. The cop who spotted him got his ID, told him the park was closed, and ordered him to leave. As he was driving away his van drove over what the officer at first thought was a stick in the road. It turned out to be a rifle. Williams body was found shortly thereafter. Martin was located and arrested. With a bit of luck there won't be any more dead children in his wake of violence.
MORE ON CURTIS MARTIN
By Bob Walsh
PacoVilla’s Corrections blog
November 18, 2009
Curtis Martin III, 38, hailing from West Oakland, has achieved a significant notoriety. He murdered an 8 year old child, served 5 years for it, beat the crap out of a girlfriend, was not even arrested for that (because she deliberately misidentified him) and is now in jail on charges of murdering a 17 month old boy and killing his mother because she threatened to rat him out for killing her child.
The only good thing coming out of this mess is that he is facing a special circumstances prosecution, both for "multiple murders" and for "killing a witness", the latter for murder of the mother to protect him from prosecution for the murder of the son.
Martin beat and shot Zoelina Williams, with the beating apparently being the cause of death. He was apparently stopped by a local cop, shortly after dumping her body from his van. He was still wearing rubber gloves and crime-scene type booties over his shoes. The cop kicked him out of the then-closed park after identifying him. As he drove away in his van, he ran over what at first looked like a stick but turned out to be a rifle. The officer then noticed the drag marks made by Martin dragging Williams body away from the road.
Martin was then located in the vicinity of his residence and taken into custody. With any sort of luck he will have a short and miserable life and a painful and unpleasant death. It's not likely to go down that way, but it would be nice.
----------
EDKITOR’S NOTE: When I asked Bob Walsh if this piece of shit had a juvenile record of arrests for serious crimes, he replied: It seems likely. Very few violent adult assholes become that way instantly as adults. Unfortunately I have no actual information on that one way or the other.
CHILD KILLER DODGED PROSECUTIONS BEFORE
By Bob Walsh
PacoVilla’s Corrections blog
November 17, 2009
Curtis Martin III, 38, is an admitted child killer. He is also not a nice man in general terms.
He was arrested twice last year for violating a restraining order a prior girlfriend had against him. Just because he thumped her and threatened to kill her son, she thought he might be dangerous. He was pissed because he found a message from another guy when he searched her cell phone so he choked her out and stomped her. Sounds like a fun date.
Alameda County never prosecuted him for either of those violations. Unfortunately, the then girlfriend gave the cops a phony name for Martin and they didn't put a case together promptly. She said she did so because she was afraid of him. (I wonder how she got the restraining order. Something doesn't sound right here.)
That woman was the next door neighbor of Zoelina Williams. Williams is the woman who Martin is suspected of murdering, and whose child's body was found yesterday floating at the Berkeley Marina. Williams had been found the day before, shot dead nearby.
Martin served about 5 years of an 11 year sentence for beating his then girlfriend's 3 year old to death. He did so many parole violations off of that beef it is hard to count them.
Martin was arrested on September 11 for violating the restraining order. At that time he said to the woman, "I don't give a fuck about a restraining order. I'll get a chopper and turn you into a Swiss cheese." He bailed out in one day.
Martin was found after closing at the park in Berkeley where Williams body was found, about ten minutes before that discovery. The cop who spotted him got his ID, told him the park was closed, and ordered him to leave. As he was driving away his van drove over what the officer at first thought was a stick in the road. It turned out to be a rifle. Williams body was found shortly thereafter. Martin was located and arrested. With a bit of luck there won't be any more dead children in his wake of violence.
MORE ON CURTIS MARTIN
By Bob Walsh
PacoVilla’s Corrections blog
November 18, 2009
Curtis Martin III, 38, hailing from West Oakland, has achieved a significant notoriety. He murdered an 8 year old child, served 5 years for it, beat the crap out of a girlfriend, was not even arrested for that (because she deliberately misidentified him) and is now in jail on charges of murdering a 17 month old boy and killing his mother because she threatened to rat him out for killing her child.
The only good thing coming out of this mess is that he is facing a special circumstances prosecution, both for "multiple murders" and for "killing a witness", the latter for murder of the mother to protect him from prosecution for the murder of the son.
Martin beat and shot Zoelina Williams, with the beating apparently being the cause of death. He was apparently stopped by a local cop, shortly after dumping her body from his van. He was still wearing rubber gloves and crime-scene type booties over his shoes. The cop kicked him out of the then-closed park after identifying him. As he drove away in his van, he ran over what at first looked like a stick but turned out to be a rifle. The officer then noticed the drag marks made by Martin dragging Williams body away from the road.
Martin was then located in the vicinity of his residence and taken into custody. With any sort of luck he will have a short and miserable life and a painful and unpleasant death. It's not likely to go down that way, but it would be nice.
----------
EDKITOR’S NOTE: When I asked Bob Walsh if this piece of shit had a juvenile record of arrests for serious crimes, he replied: It seems likely. Very few violent adult assholes become that way instantly as adults. Unfortunately I have no actual information on that one way or the other.
HAPPY VALENTINE OSAMA
Little Melissa Goldberg comes home from 1st grade & tells her father that they learned about the history of Valentine's Day.
'Since Valentine's Day is for a Christian saint, and we're Jewish,' she asks, 'Will God get mad at me for giving someone a valentine?
Melissa's father thinks a bit, then says: 'No, I don't think God would get mad. Whom do you want to give a Valentine to?'
'Osama Bin Laden,' she says.
'Why Osama Bin Laden?' her father asks in shock.
'Well,' she says, 'I thought that if a little American Jewish girl could have enough love to give Osama a Valentine, he might start to think that maybe we're not all bad, and maybe start loving people a little bit.
And if other kids saw what I did and sent Valentines to Osama, he'd love everyone a lot. And then he'd start going all over the place to tell everyone how much he loved them, and how he didn't hate anyone anymore.'
Her father's heart swells and he looks at his daughter with new found pride. 'Melissa, that's the most wonderful thing I have ever heard.'
'I know, ' Melissa says, 'and once that gets him out in the open, the Marines could shoot the mother fucker!'
'Since Valentine's Day is for a Christian saint, and we're Jewish,' she asks, 'Will God get mad at me for giving someone a valentine?
Melissa's father thinks a bit, then says: 'No, I don't think God would get mad. Whom do you want to give a Valentine to?'
'Osama Bin Laden,' she says.
'Why Osama Bin Laden?' her father asks in shock.
'Well,' she says, 'I thought that if a little American Jewish girl could have enough love to give Osama a Valentine, he might start to think that maybe we're not all bad, and maybe start loving people a little bit.
And if other kids saw what I did and sent Valentines to Osama, he'd love everyone a lot. And then he'd start going all over the place to tell everyone how much he loved them, and how he didn't hate anyone anymore.'
Her father's heart swells and he looks at his daughter with new found pride. 'Melissa, that's the most wonderful thing I have ever heard.'
'I know, ' Melissa says, 'and once that gets him out in the open, the Marines could shoot the mother fucker!'
INCORRIGIBLE SOCIOPATHS (3)
Charles "Chuck" Colson, the Watergate crook who was the Special Counsel for President Richard Nixon, got religion in prison and founded the Prison Fellowship which is now lobbying hard against life prison terms for juvenile criminals.
Kathryn Wiley, a Prison Fellowship official, has been writing letters to the editors of newspapers that have had editorials or op-ed pieces relating to the U.S. Supreme Court’s deliberations as to whether life sentences for juveniles constitute cruel and unusual punishment.
In letters published several days ago by the Washington Times and the Houston Chronicle, Wiley wrote: Studies show that children are different from adults and therefore should not be treated the same as adult offenders. These same studies show that the overwhelming majority of them grow out of criminal activity and are amendable to rehabilitation. That's why the answer to crime isn't locking kids up, especially in adult prisons, for the rest of their natural lives.
In the Chronicle, Wiley wrote: Professor Ellen Marrus of the University of Houston Law Center is correct in stating that “the juvenile justice system was never intended to treat children as miniature adults.”
Wiley labeled the sentencing of juveniles "to 40, 50, 60 years behind bars" as cruel and unusual punishment. That assertion is absolutely absurd when one considers their extensive criminal history and the serious crimes those juveniles were convicted of.
Professor Marrus was right when she said that “the juvenile justice system was never intended to treat children as miniature adults,” but only because our juvenile laws were originally enacted for children who were deemed delinquents in need of supervision. Those juvenile laws were intended to deal with mischievous children who were shooting out windows or street lights with bb-guns, who were petty thieves and shoplifters, who hung around on the streets all hours of the night and who were truants or run-aways.
The juvenile laws were never intended to deal with “children” that are vicious malicious gun-toting thugs who murder, rape, burglarize and commit armed robberies without regard to their victims. Those youths are out-and-out dangerous criminals, not the delinquent children our juvenile laws were designed for.
Let’s put the issue of life prison terms for juveniles into its proper perspective, something Kathryn Wiley, Professor Marrus and the editors clamoring for a Supreme Court decision outlawing those sentences have failed to consider. There are a total of 109 inmates in America’s adult prisons who were sentenced to life terms when they were juveniles. Every year there are several hundred thousand juveniles in this country who are charged with committing crimes. 109 out of several hundred thousand doesn’t even register on the Richter Scale.
77 of those 109 life termers were sentenced by the State of Florida alone. Let’s put that in its proper perspective as well. With all the juveniles that get charged with crimes in Florida, that number is probably less than one percent of the total when one considers that the 77 were charged over a period of many years, not all at the same time.
So what are Wiley and all the other do-gooders getting all riled up about? We are not sending a bunch of kids to prison for life. We are sending a few incorrigible sociopaths to prison for life and that’s where these dangerous criminals belong. Public safety demands it!
Kathryn Wiley, a Prison Fellowship official, has been writing letters to the editors of newspapers that have had editorials or op-ed pieces relating to the U.S. Supreme Court’s deliberations as to whether life sentences for juveniles constitute cruel and unusual punishment.
In letters published several days ago by the Washington Times and the Houston Chronicle, Wiley wrote: Studies show that children are different from adults and therefore should not be treated the same as adult offenders. These same studies show that the overwhelming majority of them grow out of criminal activity and are amendable to rehabilitation. That's why the answer to crime isn't locking kids up, especially in adult prisons, for the rest of their natural lives.
In the Chronicle, Wiley wrote: Professor Ellen Marrus of the University of Houston Law Center is correct in stating that “the juvenile justice system was never intended to treat children as miniature adults.”
Wiley labeled the sentencing of juveniles "to 40, 50, 60 years behind bars" as cruel and unusual punishment. That assertion is absolutely absurd when one considers their extensive criminal history and the serious crimes those juveniles were convicted of.
Professor Marrus was right when she said that “the juvenile justice system was never intended to treat children as miniature adults,” but only because our juvenile laws were originally enacted for children who were deemed delinquents in need of supervision. Those juvenile laws were intended to deal with mischievous children who were shooting out windows or street lights with bb-guns, who were petty thieves and shoplifters, who hung around on the streets all hours of the night and who were truants or run-aways.
The juvenile laws were never intended to deal with “children” that are vicious malicious gun-toting thugs who murder, rape, burglarize and commit armed robberies without regard to their victims. Those youths are out-and-out dangerous criminals, not the delinquent children our juvenile laws were designed for.
Let’s put the issue of life prison terms for juveniles into its proper perspective, something Kathryn Wiley, Professor Marrus and the editors clamoring for a Supreme Court decision outlawing those sentences have failed to consider. There are a total of 109 inmates in America’s adult prisons who were sentenced to life terms when they were juveniles. Every year there are several hundred thousand juveniles in this country who are charged with committing crimes. 109 out of several hundred thousand doesn’t even register on the Richter Scale.
77 of those 109 life termers were sentenced by the State of Florida alone. Let’s put that in its proper perspective as well. With all the juveniles that get charged with crimes in Florida, that number is probably less than one percent of the total when one considers that the 77 were charged over a period of many years, not all at the same time.
So what are Wiley and all the other do-gooders getting all riled up about? We are not sending a bunch of kids to prison for life. We are sending a few incorrigible sociopaths to prison for life and that’s where these dangerous criminals belong. Public safety demands it!
OBAMA'S 'DEVOUT' MUSLIM APPOINTMENTS IGNORE INTERNAL SECURITY THREATS
OBAMA ‘REACHES OUT’ BY NAMING ‘DEVOUT’ MUSLIMS TO SECURITY P0STS
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
IsraelNationalNews.com
November 17, 2009
U.S. President Barack Obama continues to “reach out to Muslims” by appointing them to key security posts amid charges he wrongly ignored internal Muslim terror. One recent appointee was harshly criticized for appearing on a British-based television station whose host is a member of a radical Muslim group.
President Obama has continued to “reach out Muslims,” as he said in his keynote speech in Cairo last June, and this past week he swore in a Muslim rights advocate to the Homeland Security Advisory Council, shortly after the Fort Hood massacre. HSAC members are involved in expertise on national security.
The new member is Syrian-born Kareem Shora, who was the national executive director of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination (ADC), which previously has called on the United States to stop providing Israel with weapons because of alleged “atrocities” against Arabs. Her background for her new security post is having been a legal counsel and advocate for Muslim civil rights.
She also has been a frequent guest on the pro-Hamas al-Jazeera satellite network.
Shora, who has been described as a “devout Muslim," joins another devout member of the faith, Arif Alikhan, who was appointed as Assistant Secretary for Policy Development in the Department of Homeland Security. His qualifications for the job were listed as having been in charge of public safety in Los Angeles during his term of deputy mayor. One of his actions was to remove the plan that tracked Muslims in the city who were suspected of terrorist activities.
Americans have been jolted by several lethal attacks and confrontations with Muslims over the past year, including a plot to attack synagogues and down U.S. military aircraft, the manufacture of bombs, an alleged attempt to explode a Texas skyscraper, a plot to blow up malls in Boston, and last month’s Fort Hood massacre by a Muslim psychiatrist who was an officer in the army.
A desire to avoid the appearance of labeling all Muslims as terrorists lunged out from the shadows last month after President Obama faced criticism for not taking seriously the threat of Muslim terrorism within American society as well as in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
Several months ago, President Obama appointed Dalia Mogahed, a “devout Muslim,” to his Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. She quickly came under fire for appearing in a telephone interview on a London-based Muslim television station, whose host is a member of an extreme Islamic group.
She said she was unaware of the affiliations of her host, whose program included questions and comments favoring the implementation of Islamic Law (“sharia”).
Mogahed explained that she did not hang up the phone in the middle of the interview because "I assumed that very few people would watch this show but that doing something more dramatic would bring more attention."
In the current issue of Newsweek, columnist Jacob Weisberg, citing former Secretary of State Colin Powell, wrote that “Obama's [Muslim] heritage feeds a broader suspicion that he is too casual about the threat from America's Islamist enemies.”
The journalist added, “With the massacre in Texas, Obama now confronts something that George W. Bush did not face in the years after September 11—not just a major act of domestic terrorism, but one struck from inside our security apparatus…. America does not face a threat from the perversion of faith in general. We face a threat from the perversion of one faith in particular.”
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
IsraelNationalNews.com
November 17, 2009
U.S. President Barack Obama continues to “reach out to Muslims” by appointing them to key security posts amid charges he wrongly ignored internal Muslim terror. One recent appointee was harshly criticized for appearing on a British-based television station whose host is a member of a radical Muslim group.
President Obama has continued to “reach out Muslims,” as he said in his keynote speech in Cairo last June, and this past week he swore in a Muslim rights advocate to the Homeland Security Advisory Council, shortly after the Fort Hood massacre. HSAC members are involved in expertise on national security.
The new member is Syrian-born Kareem Shora, who was the national executive director of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination (ADC), which previously has called on the United States to stop providing Israel with weapons because of alleged “atrocities” against Arabs. Her background for her new security post is having been a legal counsel and advocate for Muslim civil rights.
She also has been a frequent guest on the pro-Hamas al-Jazeera satellite network.
Shora, who has been described as a “devout Muslim," joins another devout member of the faith, Arif Alikhan, who was appointed as Assistant Secretary for Policy Development in the Department of Homeland Security. His qualifications for the job were listed as having been in charge of public safety in Los Angeles during his term of deputy mayor. One of his actions was to remove the plan that tracked Muslims in the city who were suspected of terrorist activities.
Americans have been jolted by several lethal attacks and confrontations with Muslims over the past year, including a plot to attack synagogues and down U.S. military aircraft, the manufacture of bombs, an alleged attempt to explode a Texas skyscraper, a plot to blow up malls in Boston, and last month’s Fort Hood massacre by a Muslim psychiatrist who was an officer in the army.
A desire to avoid the appearance of labeling all Muslims as terrorists lunged out from the shadows last month after President Obama faced criticism for not taking seriously the threat of Muslim terrorism within American society as well as in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
Several months ago, President Obama appointed Dalia Mogahed, a “devout Muslim,” to his Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. She quickly came under fire for appearing in a telephone interview on a London-based Muslim television station, whose host is a member of an extreme Islamic group.
She said she was unaware of the affiliations of her host, whose program included questions and comments favoring the implementation of Islamic Law (“sharia”).
Mogahed explained that she did not hang up the phone in the middle of the interview because "I assumed that very few people would watch this show but that doing something more dramatic would bring more attention."
In the current issue of Newsweek, columnist Jacob Weisberg, citing former Secretary of State Colin Powell, wrote that “Obama's [Muslim] heritage feeds a broader suspicion that he is too casual about the threat from America's Islamist enemies.”
The journalist added, “With the massacre in Texas, Obama now confronts something that George W. Bush did not face in the years after September 11—not just a major act of domestic terrorism, but one struck from inside our security apparatus…. America does not face a threat from the perversion of faith in general. We face a threat from the perversion of one faith in particular.”
Monday, November 16, 2009
SCREWED BY THE SCREW-UPS
The recidivism rate among parolees throughout the country generally ranges from 50-60 percent. But what about the 40-50 percent who don’t screw up? You never hear about them in the media. They just don’t sell news – only the screw-ups do.
Employment is the critical factor in parole success. That is not to say that parolees who are employed will not revert to criminal behavior. But you can take this to the bank – parolees who are unemployed will very likely end up in the recidivism stats. Employers would have a significant impact on lowering those high recidivism rates if they would just hire more parolees.
Parolees seeking employment are now faced with a triple whammy: (1) There is the reluctance by employers to hire parolees. (2) Now we are in an economic downturn with a jobless rate exceeding 10 percent. (3) All the publicity the screw-ups are getting makes it that much harder for parolees to obtain gainful employment.
Even in the best of times, parolees seeking to work for an established business or industry are immediately confronted with an application form asking them to list their employment history. How is a parolee going to describe his work history during the three, ten or twenty years he spent behind bars? "Unemployed” won’t do it. “Worked for the State” won’t do it either. He might get hired by listing a bogus job, but when the employer checks out the listed work history and finds that the parolee lied, his ass is gone in a New York minute.
Back in the 1960’s, when I was a parole agent, California’s Conditions of Parole required all parolees to inform their employers within 30 days that they were on parole. Most other states had the same parole conditions. If the parolee refused to inform an employer of his status, the parole agent was required to do so. I do not know whether those requirements are still in effect nowadays, but I firmly believe that an employer is entitled to know that one of his workers is on parole.
I would like to think that an employer would give a parolee the chance to become a contributing member of society, but with all the bad publicity parolees are getting, I can’t blame them for being reluctant to hire any ex-cons. The sad fact is that the parolees who really want to make it are getting screwed by the screw-ups.
Employment is the critical factor in parole success. That is not to say that parolees who are employed will not revert to criminal behavior. But you can take this to the bank – parolees who are unemployed will very likely end up in the recidivism stats. Employers would have a significant impact on lowering those high recidivism rates if they would just hire more parolees.
Parolees seeking employment are now faced with a triple whammy: (1) There is the reluctance by employers to hire parolees. (2) Now we are in an economic downturn with a jobless rate exceeding 10 percent. (3) All the publicity the screw-ups are getting makes it that much harder for parolees to obtain gainful employment.
Even in the best of times, parolees seeking to work for an established business or industry are immediately confronted with an application form asking them to list their employment history. How is a parolee going to describe his work history during the three, ten or twenty years he spent behind bars? "Unemployed” won’t do it. “Worked for the State” won’t do it either. He might get hired by listing a bogus job, but when the employer checks out the listed work history and finds that the parolee lied, his ass is gone in a New York minute.
Back in the 1960’s, when I was a parole agent, California’s Conditions of Parole required all parolees to inform their employers within 30 days that they were on parole. Most other states had the same parole conditions. If the parolee refused to inform an employer of his status, the parole agent was required to do so. I do not know whether those requirements are still in effect nowadays, but I firmly believe that an employer is entitled to know that one of his workers is on parole.
I would like to think that an employer would give a parolee the chance to become a contributing member of society, but with all the bad publicity parolees are getting, I can’t blame them for being reluctant to hire any ex-cons. The sad fact is that the parolees who really want to make it are getting screwed by the screw-ups.
200 ITALIAN HOTTIES EXPECTING TO PARTY, PROSELYTIZED BY GADDAFI
Party time the Gaddafi way.
ITALIAN WOMEN DISAPPOINTED BY GADDAFI
While in Italian capital for UN food summit, Libyan leader spends several hours in company of 200 women recruited by agency, tries to convert them to Islam
Ynetnews.com
November 16, 2009
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, in Rome for a UN food summit, spent several hours in the company of 200 Italian women recruited by an agency and tried to convert them to Islam, Italian media reported on Monday.
"Seeking 500 attractive girls between 18 and 35 years old, at least 1.70 meters (5 foot, 7 inches) tall, well-dressed but not in mini-skirts or low cut dresses," read the ad by the Hostessweb agency and quoted in Italy's Corriere dell Sera newspaper in its story.
Some 200 women showed up at a Rome villa, having been told they would receive 60 euros ($90) and "some Libyan gifts." Among them was an undercover reporter for Italian news agency ANSA, who took photos and described the evening's proceedings.
Most had expected to attend a party, according to ANSA, but instead were invited to wait in a large hall until the arrival of Gaddafi, who gave them a lesson on Libya and the role of women in Islam.
After around two hours the lesson, including questions and answers through an interpreter, concluded with an exhortation by Gaddafi to "convert to Islam" and with each woman given a copy of the Koran and a book of sayings by Gaddafi.
"It was anything but the VIP party we were expecting, they didn't even give us a glass of water," one woman told ANSA.
Others said they were offended by what they considered anti-Christian aspects of his lesson, including a claim that Jesus was not crucified but that "someone who looked like him" was put to death in his place.
The Libyan ambassador told ANSA that Gaddafi was planning other similar evenings during his three-day stay for the summit
ITALIAN WOMEN DISAPPOINTED BY GADDAFI
While in Italian capital for UN food summit, Libyan leader spends several hours in company of 200 women recruited by agency, tries to convert them to Islam
Ynetnews.com
November 16, 2009
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, in Rome for a UN food summit, spent several hours in the company of 200 Italian women recruited by an agency and tried to convert them to Islam, Italian media reported on Monday.
"Seeking 500 attractive girls between 18 and 35 years old, at least 1.70 meters (5 foot, 7 inches) tall, well-dressed but not in mini-skirts or low cut dresses," read the ad by the Hostessweb agency and quoted in Italy's Corriere dell Sera newspaper in its story.
Some 200 women showed up at a Rome villa, having been told they would receive 60 euros ($90) and "some Libyan gifts." Among them was an undercover reporter for Italian news agency ANSA, who took photos and described the evening's proceedings.
Most had expected to attend a party, according to ANSA, but instead were invited to wait in a large hall until the arrival of Gaddafi, who gave them a lesson on Libya and the role of women in Islam.
After around two hours the lesson, including questions and answers through an interpreter, concluded with an exhortation by Gaddafi to "convert to Islam" and with each woman given a copy of the Koran and a book of sayings by Gaddafi.
"It was anything but the VIP party we were expecting, they didn't even give us a glass of water," one woman told ANSA.
Others said they were offended by what they considered anti-Christian aspects of his lesson, including a claim that Jesus was not crucified but that "someone who looked like him" was put to death in his place.
The Libyan ambassador told ANSA that Gaddafi was planning other similar evenings during his three-day stay for the summit
EVIDENCE THAT JESUS COULD HAVE BEEN A WOMAN
For anyone who may be offended, please remember that even GOD ENJOYS A GOOD LAUGH!
There were 3 good arguments that Jesus was Black:
1. He called everyone brother
2. He liked Gospel
3. He didn't get a fair trial
But then there were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was Jewish:
1. He went into His Father's business
2. He lived at home until he was 33
3. He was sure his Mother was a virgin and his Mother was sure He was God
But then there were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was Italian:
1. He talked with His hands
2. He had wine with His meals
3. He used olive oil
But then there were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was a Californian:
1. He never cut His hair
2. He walked around barefoot all the time
3. He started a new religion
But then there were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was an American
Indian:
1. He was at peace with nature
2. He ate a lot of fish
3. He talked about the Great Spirit
But then there were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was Irish:
1. He never got married
2. He was always telling stories
3. He loved green pastures
But the most compelling evidence of all - 3 proofs that Jesus was a woman:
1. He fed a crowd at a moment's notice when there was virtually no food
2. He kept trying to get a message across to a bunch of men who just didn't get it
3. And even when He was dead, He had to get up because there was still work to do
There were 3 good arguments that Jesus was Black:
1. He called everyone brother
2. He liked Gospel
3. He didn't get a fair trial
But then there were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was Jewish:
1. He went into His Father's business
2. He lived at home until he was 33
3. He was sure his Mother was a virgin and his Mother was sure He was God
But then there were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was Italian:
1. He talked with His hands
2. He had wine with His meals
3. He used olive oil
But then there were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was a Californian:
1. He never cut His hair
2. He walked around barefoot all the time
3. He started a new religion
But then there were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was an American
Indian:
1. He was at peace with nature
2. He ate a lot of fish
3. He talked about the Great Spirit
But then there were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was Irish:
1. He never got married
2. He was always telling stories
3. He loved green pastures
But the most compelling evidence of all - 3 proofs that Jesus was a woman:
1. He fed a crowd at a moment's notice when there was virtually no food
2. He kept trying to get a message across to a bunch of men who just didn't get it
3. And even when He was dead, He had to get up because there was still work to do
Sunday, November 15, 2009
INCORRIGIBLE SOCIOPATHS (2)
Bob Walsh presents us with an excellent example of why the U.S. Supreme Court should uphold the right of Florida and other states to sentence some juveniles to prison for life without the possibility of parole.
JUVENILE DOUBLE MURDERER GOES FOR THE GOLD AGAIN
By Bob Walsh
PacoVilla’s Corrections blog
November 14, 2009
Moses Valdez is now 32 years old. He is in the slammer in Sacramento County, a place he is familiar with. While this is, in and of itself, perhaps not that big a deal what is interesting is that when he was 16 he murdered two men, plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter and got an 18 year sentence.
Valdez shot Christopher Dominguez, age 19, and Christopher Jiminez, age 24, while they sat in their car. That was in 1993. In October of 1995 he was sentenced for those killings, apparently as an adult though the details are a tad sketchy.
He is now back as a guest of the county on charges of reckless evasion and ADW [Assault With a Deadly Weapon] likely to cause GBI [Great Bodily Injury]. Sounds to me like maybe somebody is looking at a second strike.
Some people can get their mind right and their life turned around. Some people can't, or won't, or at least don't. Sounds to me like our man Moses may be one of those.
JUVENILE DOUBLE MURDERER GOES FOR THE GOLD AGAIN
By Bob Walsh
PacoVilla’s Corrections blog
November 14, 2009
Moses Valdez is now 32 years old. He is in the slammer in Sacramento County, a place he is familiar with. While this is, in and of itself, perhaps not that big a deal what is interesting is that when he was 16 he murdered two men, plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter and got an 18 year sentence.
Valdez shot Christopher Dominguez, age 19, and Christopher Jiminez, age 24, while they sat in their car. That was in 1993. In October of 1995 he was sentenced for those killings, apparently as an adult though the details are a tad sketchy.
He is now back as a guest of the county on charges of reckless evasion and ADW [Assault With a Deadly Weapon] likely to cause GBI [Great Bodily Injury]. Sounds to me like maybe somebody is looking at a second strike.
Some people can get their mind right and their life turned around. Some people can't, or won't, or at least don't. Sounds to me like our man Moses may be one of those.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
CARRIE PREJEAN 'EXPOSES' HERSELF AS A FOUR-FLUSHING PHONY (2)
Blogger Centurion blasted me for my treatment of Carrie Prejean in yesterday’s posting and suggested “we just leave the girl alone.” Why should we? She is the one who touted her Christian faith to the Miss USA pageant, to the pageant’s television audience and during numerous television interviews afterwards.
Prejean sued the officials of the Miss California pageant after they stripped her of the title she had won. The explicit “solo sex tape” she had made of herself surfaced during the trial and effectively ended her case against the officials. She got nothing out of a settlement, other than to get stuck with bills from her lawyers
Because of publicity about the sex tape(s), Prejean has now cancelled her book tour, her keynote speech to the New Jersey Family Policy Council, her appearance in an invitation-only event at the National Republican Club of Capitol Hill, and numerous radio interviews.
In Prejean’s just released book "Still Standing: The Untold Story of My Fight Against Gossip, Hate, and Political Attacks,” she writes about pornography and her feelings on the tape that surfaced during the lawsuit. "Our bodies are temples of the Lord. We should earn respect and admiration for our hearts, not for showing skin to look sexy ... I have since learned that your outer beauty can only get you so far in life,” she wrote.
It’s too bad Prejean only learned that lesson when the raunchy sex tape she made of herself cost her any chance of winning that lawsuit against the Miss California pageant officials.
Prejean sued the officials of the Miss California pageant after they stripped her of the title she had won. The explicit “solo sex tape” she had made of herself surfaced during the trial and effectively ended her case against the officials. She got nothing out of a settlement, other than to get stuck with bills from her lawyers
Because of publicity about the sex tape(s), Prejean has now cancelled her book tour, her keynote speech to the New Jersey Family Policy Council, her appearance in an invitation-only event at the National Republican Club of Capitol Hill, and numerous radio interviews.
In Prejean’s just released book "Still Standing: The Untold Story of My Fight Against Gossip, Hate, and Political Attacks,” she writes about pornography and her feelings on the tape that surfaced during the lawsuit. "Our bodies are temples of the Lord. We should earn respect and admiration for our hearts, not for showing skin to look sexy ... I have since learned that your outer beauty can only get you so far in life,” she wrote.
It’s too bad Prejean only learned that lesson when the raunchy sex tape she made of herself cost her any chance of winning that lawsuit against the Miss California pageant officials.
Friday, November 13, 2009
ISRAELIS CAN'T FIGURE OUT AMERICA'S DUMB JEWISH VOTERS
DEAF EARS, DUMB VOTERS
by Suzanne Fields
Townhall.com
November 13, 2009
If a photograph is worth a thousand words, a sharp newspaper cartoon is often worth the book. One Israeli cartoonist depicts Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the missus arriving at the White House to meet with Barack Obama. Mrs. Netanyahu knocks at the front door with the explanation, "We just happened to be in the neighborhood." Another cartoon depicts the prime minister pulling up at the White House, and telling the driver to wait: "I'm not sure they're at home."
With a few strokes of pen and brush, the cartoonists capture the prevailing Israeli dismay, frustration and controlled fury at President Obama's reluctance to meet the prime minister, who was in Washington this week. The administration wanted to punish Israel by setting "pre-conditions" for talks and for not having a more "conciliatory" attitude toward those who vow to "wipe the Jewish nation off the map."
On the street and at higher levels, Israelis look back in anger, observing that the president set no "pre-conditions" before meeting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, who is on the way to building a nuclear weapon to put Israel in mortal danger. The Israelis say Obama wants to extract an opening promise to freeze settlements on the West Bank and East Jerusalem, something that's never been a pre-condition for starting talks.
The prime minister was eventually invited into the Oval Office for a brief "low-key" exchange, but without the customary photo op afterward. This president does not offer the strong handshake of friendship that Bill Clinton and George W. extended to previous Israeli prime ministers. President Obama says "America's bond with our Israeli allies is unbreakable," but it sounds more like the lip service paid by Jimmy Carter.
President Obama shows none of the instinctive affection for Israel or understanding of the history of the Jewish state. This is not lost on the Israelis, who have to cultivate long memories as a survival strategy. They're not as sanguine as American Jews who voted in enormous numbers for Obama despite his long associations with those who wish Israel only ill.
They remember how Obama apparently slept through two decades of Sunday morning rants by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, citing chapter and verse of his accusations that Israel committed "genocide" against the Palestinians. They remember that the president once cited as his "mentor" Rashid Khalidi, the professor at Columbia University who frequently denounces Israel as "a racist state" and defends Palestinian suicide bombers.
Many Israelis are puzzled by how American Jews give the president a passing grade on the kishke test, using the Yiddish word for "gut." Zbigniew Brzezinski, who worked as a senior campaign adviser to Obama, even urged the president to shoot down Israeli planes if they fly over Iraq on their way to bomb the Iranian nuclear sites. John McCain, on the other hand, said "the only thing worse than bombing Iran is letting Iran get the bomb." Obama defeated McCain by 57 points among Jewish voters.
A growing number of Jewish voices are asking how, if Jews are so smart, can this be? Norman Podhoretz, one of the most prominent Jewish voices in America, talked about his new book, "Why Are Jews Liberal?" the other day at the Hudson Institute in Washington. The question is especially timely against the backdrop of the '08 campaign, given that Obama captured 78 percent of the Jewish vote, and continues to espouse positions, sometimes subtly and sometimes not so subtly, which conflict sharply with what most American Jews say they want for Israel.
I asked Podhoretz what the Israeli prime minister might say to the president about the unchecked threat by Iran. "The Jewish people have existed for 3,500 years, a long rich history, and only yesterday overcame a very serious, determined threat to end its existence," he replied, as if channeling Benjamin Netanyahu speaking to Barack Obama. "Now we have another very serious threat to annihilate (the Jews) by a country that is rapidly acquiring the means to make good on that threat. I, as prime minister of Israel, have accepted the intolerably heavy burden of deciding whether I will preside over the end of the Jewish people, the end of this 3,500 year history, and I will take admittedly dangerous and risky steps in order to prevent this. I ask you not to try to prevent me from making this effort if I have to make it, which I fear I might."
Does he think such words, if spoken by the prime minister to the president, would be persuasive? No, he said. Not really. Such words would fall on "deaf ears." And he still wouldn't get his Oval Office photo-op, either.
by Suzanne Fields
Townhall.com
November 13, 2009
If a photograph is worth a thousand words, a sharp newspaper cartoon is often worth the book. One Israeli cartoonist depicts Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the missus arriving at the White House to meet with Barack Obama. Mrs. Netanyahu knocks at the front door with the explanation, "We just happened to be in the neighborhood." Another cartoon depicts the prime minister pulling up at the White House, and telling the driver to wait: "I'm not sure they're at home."
With a few strokes of pen and brush, the cartoonists capture the prevailing Israeli dismay, frustration and controlled fury at President Obama's reluctance to meet the prime minister, who was in Washington this week. The administration wanted to punish Israel by setting "pre-conditions" for talks and for not having a more "conciliatory" attitude toward those who vow to "wipe the Jewish nation off the map."
On the street and at higher levels, Israelis look back in anger, observing that the president set no "pre-conditions" before meeting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, who is on the way to building a nuclear weapon to put Israel in mortal danger. The Israelis say Obama wants to extract an opening promise to freeze settlements on the West Bank and East Jerusalem, something that's never been a pre-condition for starting talks.
The prime minister was eventually invited into the Oval Office for a brief "low-key" exchange, but without the customary photo op afterward. This president does not offer the strong handshake of friendship that Bill Clinton and George W. extended to previous Israeli prime ministers. President Obama says "America's bond with our Israeli allies is unbreakable," but it sounds more like the lip service paid by Jimmy Carter.
President Obama shows none of the instinctive affection for Israel or understanding of the history of the Jewish state. This is not lost on the Israelis, who have to cultivate long memories as a survival strategy. They're not as sanguine as American Jews who voted in enormous numbers for Obama despite his long associations with those who wish Israel only ill.
They remember how Obama apparently slept through two decades of Sunday morning rants by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, citing chapter and verse of his accusations that Israel committed "genocide" against the Palestinians. They remember that the president once cited as his "mentor" Rashid Khalidi, the professor at Columbia University who frequently denounces Israel as "a racist state" and defends Palestinian suicide bombers.
Many Israelis are puzzled by how American Jews give the president a passing grade on the kishke test, using the Yiddish word for "gut." Zbigniew Brzezinski, who worked as a senior campaign adviser to Obama, even urged the president to shoot down Israeli planes if they fly over Iraq on their way to bomb the Iranian nuclear sites. John McCain, on the other hand, said "the only thing worse than bombing Iran is letting Iran get the bomb." Obama defeated McCain by 57 points among Jewish voters.
A growing number of Jewish voices are asking how, if Jews are so smart, can this be? Norman Podhoretz, one of the most prominent Jewish voices in America, talked about his new book, "Why Are Jews Liberal?" the other day at the Hudson Institute in Washington. The question is especially timely against the backdrop of the '08 campaign, given that Obama captured 78 percent of the Jewish vote, and continues to espouse positions, sometimes subtly and sometimes not so subtly, which conflict sharply with what most American Jews say they want for Israel.
I asked Podhoretz what the Israeli prime minister might say to the president about the unchecked threat by Iran. "The Jewish people have existed for 3,500 years, a long rich history, and only yesterday overcame a very serious, determined threat to end its existence," he replied, as if channeling Benjamin Netanyahu speaking to Barack Obama. "Now we have another very serious threat to annihilate (the Jews) by a country that is rapidly acquiring the means to make good on that threat. I, as prime minister of Israel, have accepted the intolerably heavy burden of deciding whether I will preside over the end of the Jewish people, the end of this 3,500 year history, and I will take admittedly dangerous and risky steps in order to prevent this. I ask you not to try to prevent me from making this effort if I have to make it, which I fear I might."
Does he think such words, if spoken by the prime minister to the president, would be persuasive? No, he said. Not really. Such words would fall on "deaf ears." And he still wouldn't get his Oval Office photo-op, either.
CARRIE PREJEAN 'EXPOSES' HERSELF AS A FOUR-FLUSHING PHONY
Carrie Prejean is back in the news again. I’m sure that you remember when the former Miss California lost her bid to become Miss USA after she stated that because of her religious faith she believed that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. Although that remark cost her the Miss USA crown, it made her the darling of the religious right.
Initially I was a strong supporter of Prejean, condemning the vicious attacks that were heaped against her by the far-left and the gay-lesbian community. But that was before that “good Christian girl” turned out to be a four-flushing phony. I’m not talking about her boob-jobs – I’m betting that all of the contestants were posing with breast implants. I’m talking about the provocative semi-nude photos of her that showed up all over the Internet and the big lie she told when she said they were taken while she was posing for a professional modeling job.
Now, in the midst of promoting her new book, “Still Standing”, it has been revealed that Prejean made a raunchy sex tape of herself which she sent to a former boyfriend. Earlier this week she told Meredith Viera on the NBC Today Show that she made her "solo sex tape" when she was only seventeen years old. Said Prejean of her then boyfriend “I trusted him”.
The former boyfriend said Prejean lied when she claimed she was only seventeen at the time she made the sex tape. He said Prejean made it in 2007 when she was 20-years-old and that she had made several other “solo sex tapes” as well. He claims that Prejean asked him to lie about how old she was when she made the tapes.
What ever happened to those Christian values Prejean was brought up to believe in? In her quest for fame and in her crude way of trying to impress a boyfriend (or boyfriends), Prejean lost her moral compass. This phony dumb blond doesn’t deserve anyone’s sympathy.
Initially I was a strong supporter of Prejean, condemning the vicious attacks that were heaped against her by the far-left and the gay-lesbian community. But that was before that “good Christian girl” turned out to be a four-flushing phony. I’m not talking about her boob-jobs – I’m betting that all of the contestants were posing with breast implants. I’m talking about the provocative semi-nude photos of her that showed up all over the Internet and the big lie she told when she said they were taken while she was posing for a professional modeling job.
Now, in the midst of promoting her new book, “Still Standing”, it has been revealed that Prejean made a raunchy sex tape of herself which she sent to a former boyfriend. Earlier this week she told Meredith Viera on the NBC Today Show that she made her "solo sex tape" when she was only seventeen years old. Said Prejean of her then boyfriend “I trusted him”.
The former boyfriend said Prejean lied when she claimed she was only seventeen at the time she made the sex tape. He said Prejean made it in 2007 when she was 20-years-old and that she had made several other “solo sex tapes” as well. He claims that Prejean asked him to lie about how old she was when she made the tapes.
What ever happened to those Christian values Prejean was brought up to believe in? In her quest for fame and in her crude way of trying to impress a boyfriend (or boyfriends), Prejean lost her moral compass. This phony dumb blond doesn’t deserve anyone’s sympathy.
FT. HOOD TERRORIST PARALYZED
It has just been reported by his lawyer that Maj. Nidal Hasan, the Isllamist terrorist who murdered 12 soldiers and one civilian at Ft. Hood, is paralyzed.
If Hasan is not paralyzed or if he recovers from his paralysis, my reaction will be: Shit!
If the report of Hasan’s paralysis is true and he remains permanently paralyzed, my reaction will be: Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar!
If Hasan is not paralyzed or if he recovers from his paralysis, my reaction will be: Shit!
If the report of Hasan’s paralysis is true and he remains permanently paralyzed, my reaction will be: Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar!
Thursday, November 12, 2009
MEMORIAL TO ALL 9/11 VICTIMS DEDICATED IN ISRAEL
In contrast to the Palestinians who celebrated the 9/11 attacks by cheering and dancing in the streets, the Israelis constructed an impressive 'Flag of Fire' memorial in Jerusalem for all of the 2,980 victims, with each of their names engraved on the monument.
MONUMENT TO 9/11 VICTIMS UNVEILED IN JERUSALEM
by Hana Levi Julian
IsraelNationalNews.com
November 12, 2009
A bright blue sky could not hide the gray shadows of pain that marked the eyes of the families of the victims of the "9/11" terrorist attack that found themselves in Arazim Park in Jerusalem on Thursday. They had gathered together with international dignitaries and Israeli leaders to dedicate a new monument to the their loved ones, who lost their lives in the senseless 2001 attack on America by the Al Qaeda terrorist organization.
Designed by award-winning Israeli artist Eliezer Weishoff and commissioned by the Jewish National Fund-USA/Keren Kayemet L'Israel (JNF-USA/KKL), the memorial depicts the World Trade Center and Pentagon through sculpture and landscape architecture.
The 30-foot high bronze sculpture commemorating the event and honoring the memories of the victims is composed of a waving American flag transformed into a memorial flame. The monument rests on a base of gray granite, part of which comes from the original Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in downtown Manhattan, destroyed in the mammoth airliner attack eight years ago. The sculpture, which was funded by the Bronka Stavsky Rabin Weintraub Trust, is surrounded by a circular, crater-like plaza and reflection area tiled in stone.
The Jerusalem monument is one of the first major international memorials to mark the terrible event and honor the memory of its victims -- and the only site outside of New York to recognize the names of every victim of the attack.
MONUMENT TO 9/11 VICTIMS UNVEILED IN JERUSALEM
by Hana Levi Julian
IsraelNationalNews.com
November 12, 2009
A bright blue sky could not hide the gray shadows of pain that marked the eyes of the families of the victims of the "9/11" terrorist attack that found themselves in Arazim Park in Jerusalem on Thursday. They had gathered together with international dignitaries and Israeli leaders to dedicate a new monument to the their loved ones, who lost their lives in the senseless 2001 attack on America by the Al Qaeda terrorist organization.
Designed by award-winning Israeli artist Eliezer Weishoff and commissioned by the Jewish National Fund-USA/Keren Kayemet L'Israel (JNF-USA/KKL), the memorial depicts the World Trade Center and Pentagon through sculpture and landscape architecture.
The 30-foot high bronze sculpture commemorating the event and honoring the memories of the victims is composed of a waving American flag transformed into a memorial flame. The monument rests on a base of gray granite, part of which comes from the original Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in downtown Manhattan, destroyed in the mammoth airliner attack eight years ago. The sculpture, which was funded by the Bronka Stavsky Rabin Weintraub Trust, is surrounded by a circular, crater-like plaza and reflection area tiled in stone.
The Jerusalem monument is one of the first major international memorials to mark the terrible event and honor the memory of its victims -- and the only site outside of New York to recognize the names of every victim of the attack.
WHERE WERE YOUR BELOVED MUSLIMS, MR. PRESIDENT?
As part of his love affair with the Muslim world, President Obama said in his Cairo speech: “I know, too, that Islam has always been a part of America's story.”
Dear Mr. Obama:
Were those Muslims that were in America when the Pilgrims first landed? Funny, I thought they were Native American Indians.
Were those Muslims that celebrated the first Thanksgiving day? Sorry again, those were Pilgrims and Native American Indians.
Can you show me one Muslim signature on the United States Constitution? Declaration of Independence? Bill of Rights? Didn't think so.
Did Muslims fight for this country's freedom from England? No.
Did Muslims fight during the Civil War to free the slaves in America? No, they did not. In fact, Arab slave traders were the ones who shipped black slaves over here in the first place. And to this day Muslims are still the largest traffickers in human slavery.Is that the "rich Islamic heritage" you are so proud of, Mr.Obama?
Where were Muslims during the Civil Rights era of this country? Not present. There are no pictures or media accounts of Muslims walking side by side with Martin Luther King Jr.. or helping to advance the cause of Civil Rights. Mr. Obama, those were Christians and Jews.
Where were Muslims during this country's Woman's Suffrage era? Again, not present. In fact, devout Muslims demand that women are subservient to men in the Islamic culture. So much so that often they are beaten for not wearing the 'hajib' or for talking to a man that is not a direct family member or their husband. Yep, the Muslims are all for women's rights aren't they?
Where were Muslims during World War II? They were aligned with Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. The Muslim grand mufti himself met with Adolf Hitler, reviewed the troops and accepted support from the Nazi's in killing Jews.
Mr. Obama, where were Muslims on Sept. 11th, 2001? If they weren't flying planes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon or a field in Pennsylvania killing nearly 3,000 people on our own soil, they were rejoicing in the Middle East. No one can dispute the pictures from all over the Muslim world of crowds celebrating and dancing in the streets as shown that day on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News and other television networks. And no Muslim group celebrated more than the Palestinians you now side with against the Israelis. Strangely, the very "moderate" Muslims who's asses you bent over backwards to kiss in Cairo, Egypt on June 4th were stone cold silent post 9-11. To many Americans, their silence has meant approval for the acts of that day.
And now we can add November 5, 2009-- the slaughter of American soldiers in the name of Allah at Fort Hood by a devout Muslim army major, a psychiatrist who was supposed to be counseling soldiers returning from battle in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mr. Obama, that Islamic heritage you are so proud of turned an American Muslim into a homegrown Islamist terrorist.
And put it all together Mr. Obama, that is the "rich heritage" of Islam here in America.
Signed: A Politically Incorrect American
Dear Mr. Obama:
Were those Muslims that were in America when the Pilgrims first landed? Funny, I thought they were Native American Indians.
Were those Muslims that celebrated the first Thanksgiving day? Sorry again, those were Pilgrims and Native American Indians.
Can you show me one Muslim signature on the United States Constitution? Declaration of Independence? Bill of Rights? Didn't think so.
Did Muslims fight for this country's freedom from England? No.
Did Muslims fight during the Civil War to free the slaves in America? No, they did not. In fact, Arab slave traders were the ones who shipped black slaves over here in the first place. And to this day Muslims are still the largest traffickers in human slavery.Is that the "rich Islamic heritage" you are so proud of, Mr.Obama?
Where were Muslims during the Civil Rights era of this country? Not present. There are no pictures or media accounts of Muslims walking side by side with Martin Luther King Jr.. or helping to advance the cause of Civil Rights. Mr. Obama, those were Christians and Jews.
Where were Muslims during this country's Woman's Suffrage era? Again, not present. In fact, devout Muslims demand that women are subservient to men in the Islamic culture. So much so that often they are beaten for not wearing the 'hajib' or for talking to a man that is not a direct family member or their husband. Yep, the Muslims are all for women's rights aren't they?
Where were Muslims during World War II? They were aligned with Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. The Muslim grand mufti himself met with Adolf Hitler, reviewed the troops and accepted support from the Nazi's in killing Jews.
Mr. Obama, where were Muslims on Sept. 11th, 2001? If they weren't flying planes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon or a field in Pennsylvania killing nearly 3,000 people on our own soil, they were rejoicing in the Middle East. No one can dispute the pictures from all over the Muslim world of crowds celebrating and dancing in the streets as shown that day on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News and other television networks. And no Muslim group celebrated more than the Palestinians you now side with against the Israelis. Strangely, the very "moderate" Muslims who's asses you bent over backwards to kiss in Cairo, Egypt on June 4th were stone cold silent post 9-11. To many Americans, their silence has meant approval for the acts of that day.
And now we can add November 5, 2009-- the slaughter of American soldiers in the name of Allah at Fort Hood by a devout Muslim army major, a psychiatrist who was supposed to be counseling soldiers returning from battle in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mr. Obama, that Islamic heritage you are so proud of turned an American Muslim into a homegrown Islamist terrorist.
And put it all together Mr. Obama, that is the "rich heritage" of Islam here in America.
Signed: A Politically Incorrect American
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
FRANK BUCKLES, LAST OF THE 'MOHICANS'
Excerpts from Fox News on this Veterans Day:
For 90 years, the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month has been a remembrance of those who served America in time of war.
But the Nov. 11 Veterans Day commemoration began as a day to celebrate peace — the silencing of the guns of World War I, "The Great War," which claimed the lives of more than 15 million soldiers and civilians.
On that day in 1918, at the 11th hour, Germany signed an armistice with the Allied Powers — including the U.S., France, Britain, Japan and Italy — ending major hostilities in a war that nearly wiped out a generation of men.
A full peace was concluded the next year in France at the Palace of Versailles, and the first Armistice Day was proclaimed and celebrated by President Woodrow Wilson on the anniversary of the ceasefire: Nov. 11, 1919.
Just one American veteran who served in World War I is still alive: 108-year-old Frank Buckles, who drove ambulances in England and France after enlisting at the age of 16. Buckles also fought in World War II and was taken prisoner by the Japanese.
For 90 years, the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month has been a remembrance of those who served America in time of war.
But the Nov. 11 Veterans Day commemoration began as a day to celebrate peace — the silencing of the guns of World War I, "The Great War," which claimed the lives of more than 15 million soldiers and civilians.
On that day in 1918, at the 11th hour, Germany signed an armistice with the Allied Powers — including the U.S., France, Britain, Japan and Italy — ending major hostilities in a war that nearly wiped out a generation of men.
A full peace was concluded the next year in France at the Palace of Versailles, and the first Armistice Day was proclaimed and celebrated by President Woodrow Wilson on the anniversary of the ceasefire: Nov. 11, 1919.
Just one American veteran who served in World War I is still alive: 108-year-old Frank Buckles, who drove ambulances in England and France after enlisting at the age of 16. Buckles also fought in World War II and was taken prisoner by the Japanese.
A POLITICALLY INCORRECT TAKE ON THE FT. HOOD KILLINGS (2)
The following comments were made by a former student of mine who is an Army paratrooper serving in Iraq while on military leave from the Houston Police Department where he serves as a sergeant on HPD’s SWAT team:
We can’t be silent and let “our government” write the massacre at Ft. Hood off as a criminal act and not an act of terror, or, more correctly, an act of war, which it really is. I am sick and tired of hearing about the “silent majority.” When is the silent majority going to stop being silent?? We better start speaking up now and take our country back. This is the very reason that Nidal Hassan was STILL in the Army after all the red flags that he ran up – everyone was afraid to speak up and be accused of being insensitive, intolerant, politically incorrect, a bigot, prejudiced, a Muslim hater, a religious zealot, or a right wing extremist and have it negatively affect their careers or their private lives. We MUST find some courage!!
Even before all the facts were known and erroneous reports ran rampant in the media on the events at Hood, the FBI said this WAS NOT a terrorist act! After all the effort and good will expended by Obama trying to convince the Muslim world that we are their friends, the administration obviously does not want this to create further tension or to shed any bad light on Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Amen!!! I am extremely proud of this true patriot!
We can’t be silent and let “our government” write the massacre at Ft. Hood off as a criminal act and not an act of terror, or, more correctly, an act of war, which it really is. I am sick and tired of hearing about the “silent majority.” When is the silent majority going to stop being silent?? We better start speaking up now and take our country back. This is the very reason that Nidal Hassan was STILL in the Army after all the red flags that he ran up – everyone was afraid to speak up and be accused of being insensitive, intolerant, politically incorrect, a bigot, prejudiced, a Muslim hater, a religious zealot, or a right wing extremist and have it negatively affect their careers or their private lives. We MUST find some courage!!
Even before all the facts were known and erroneous reports ran rampant in the media on the events at Hood, the FBI said this WAS NOT a terrorist act! After all the effort and good will expended by Obama trying to convince the Muslim world that we are their friends, the administration obviously does not want this to create further tension or to shed any bad light on Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Amen!!! I am extremely proud of this true patriot!
FURTHER PROOF THAT OBAMA HAS SIDED WITH THE PALESTINIANS AGAINST ISRAEL
Obama's policy reminds me of a sign in front of a NYC apartment building: NO JEWS OR DOGS ALLOWED
STATE DEPT: U.S. WANTS ALL JEWS OUT OF ‘WEST BANK’
Israel Today
November 11, 2009
One of the top US State Department officials on Tuesday acknowledged that the ultimate goal of US Middle East policy is to cleanse all of Judea and Samaria of Jews and hand that territory in its entirety over to the Palestinian Arabs.
Speaking at the Middle East Institute, Under Secretary for Political Affairs William J. Burns stated:
"Our goal in the region is clear: two states living side by side in peace and security; a Jewish state of Israel, with which America retains unbreakable bonds, and with true security for all Israelis; and a viable, independent Palestinian state with contiguous territory that ends the occupation that began in 1967, that ends the daily humiliations of Palestinians under occupation, and that realizes the full and remarkable potential of the Palestinian people."
Burns added that while the Obama Administration appreciates Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's partial settlement freeze, it does not go nearly far enough. Burns was certainly aware that to the Palestinians, his words would be interpreted to mean that Israel must expel all 250,000 Jews living in Judea and Samaria, as well as the tens of thousands of Jews who live on the eastern side of Jerusalem.
Burns' remarks came just a day after Obama and Netanyahu met at the White House in what has now been revealed to be a less than friendly encounter.
Israel was fully expecting a fresh wave of American pressure following Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' threat to quit if he doesn't get what he wants.
STATE DEPT: U.S. WANTS ALL JEWS OUT OF ‘WEST BANK’
Israel Today
November 11, 2009
One of the top US State Department officials on Tuesday acknowledged that the ultimate goal of US Middle East policy is to cleanse all of Judea and Samaria of Jews and hand that territory in its entirety over to the Palestinian Arabs.
Speaking at the Middle East Institute, Under Secretary for Political Affairs William J. Burns stated:
"Our goal in the region is clear: two states living side by side in peace and security; a Jewish state of Israel, with which America retains unbreakable bonds, and with true security for all Israelis; and a viable, independent Palestinian state with contiguous territory that ends the occupation that began in 1967, that ends the daily humiliations of Palestinians under occupation, and that realizes the full and remarkable potential of the Palestinian people."
Burns added that while the Obama Administration appreciates Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's partial settlement freeze, it does not go nearly far enough. Burns was certainly aware that to the Palestinians, his words would be interpreted to mean that Israel must expel all 250,000 Jews living in Judea and Samaria, as well as the tens of thousands of Jews who live on the eastern side of Jerusalem.
Burns' remarks came just a day after Obama and Netanyahu met at the White House in what has now been revealed to be a less than friendly encounter.
Israel was fully expecting a fresh wave of American pressure following Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' threat to quit if he doesn't get what he wants.
A BLISTERING EVALUATION OF THE GARRIDO PAROLE AND THE CALIFORNIA PAROLE SYSTEM (3)
In today’s PacoVilla’s Corrections blog, Bob Walsh said “………it's obvious that CDCR screwed the pooch on the Garrido case from start to finish. The minor save at the very end, when another agency dropped it in their lap, does not excuse them. I am, however, confident that CDCR in general and DAPO [the parole division] in particular will continue to tap dance, dodge and obfuscate until everybody involved in the case dies, promotes or retires.
They may decide to throw some poor schmuck to the wolves if they can find a suitable candidate, just to show they can. Expecting a mea culpa from DAPO, however, is like expecting the Pope to convert to Judaism. It's just not in their genetic makeup to admit fault, even when that fault is so obvious it is intellectually painful to ignore it.”
Let me [BarkGrowlBite] continue to emphasize that the California parole supervision failures are far from unique to the Golden State.
EDITORIAL: CALIFORNIA PAROLE OFFICIALS SHOULD STOP BUREAUCRATIC DANCE ON PHILLIP GARRIDO CASE
The Oakland Tribune
November 9, 2009
AT A CERTAIN point, the bureaucratic response of public officials is simply not enough. Unless and until our government leaders own up to their mistakes and accept responsibility, they are destined to repeat them. Sometimes that's just unacceptable.
Such is the case of state parole officers' failure to unmask that sex offender Phillip Garrido and his wife were hiding kidnap victim Jaycee Dugard in their backyard near Antioch for 18 years. For the last 11 of those years, state parole officers were responsible for monitoring Garrido.
They visited him at least 60 times, yet they never noticed that something was amiss. They never bothered to read the previous federal parole file on Garrido. They never noticed the compound at the back of the property where Dugard and her two children fathered by Garrido were being held. They never saw utility wires that had been strung to the hideout. They failed to talk to neighbors or local law enforcement. They ignored information from the GPS monitor on Garrido that showed him straying too far from his home. They failed to act on information showing Garrido had violated the terms of his parole.
It was just a combination of Garrido's own stupidity and an alert police officer at UC Berkeley that eventually led to his capture. In the end, Garrido's parole officer played a role in his arrest. But that doesn't excuse the complete breakdown up to that point in the supervision of Garrido.
As we now know, thanks to an in-depth review released last week by the state Office of the Inspector General, parole agents in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation completely bungled the Garrido case.
It's appalling that soon after Garrido's arrest in August, Corrections spokesman Gordon Hinkle was bragging about the parole agent's role. "We're very proud of the work he did in uncovering this mystery," Hinkle said at the time, adding that the agent had operated "by the book."
We might be inclined to cut the department some slack now if it was showing signs of acknowledging fault in the face of the new information about its conduct — and recognizing that the case suggests widespread systemic problems in the organization. Instead, the response by Corrections Secretary Matthew Cate smacks of bureaucratize and denial. While acknowledging in his official response to the report that "further improvements in our system of parole supervision are needed," Cate then goes on to talk about the need for more money to supervise parolees.
Secretary Cate, your folks messed up — and no amount of extra money would have changed that. They visited the site 60 times. If they didn't notice something was amiss after that, they should be fired. And if you don't recognize the need to shake things up, Gov. Schwarzenegger should fire you. At a certain point, lack of money is not an excuse.
Consider, in contrast, the tone of the response by Contra Costa Sheriff Warren Rupf, whose deputies in 2006 failed to properly follow a tip that could have led to finding Dugard nearly three years ago.
"We should have been inquisitive, more curious, and turned over a rock or two. There are no excuses," Rupf said soon after Dugard was found. "... I can't change the course of events, but we are beating ourselves up over this and are the first to do so."
Whether its curing an addiction or fixing a bureaucracy, the first step to healing is admitting responsibility. Cate would do well to learn from the sheriff.
They may decide to throw some poor schmuck to the wolves if they can find a suitable candidate, just to show they can. Expecting a mea culpa from DAPO, however, is like expecting the Pope to convert to Judaism. It's just not in their genetic makeup to admit fault, even when that fault is so obvious it is intellectually painful to ignore it.”
Let me [BarkGrowlBite] continue to emphasize that the California parole supervision failures are far from unique to the Golden State.
EDITORIAL: CALIFORNIA PAROLE OFFICIALS SHOULD STOP BUREAUCRATIC DANCE ON PHILLIP GARRIDO CASE
The Oakland Tribune
November 9, 2009
AT A CERTAIN point, the bureaucratic response of public officials is simply not enough. Unless and until our government leaders own up to their mistakes and accept responsibility, they are destined to repeat them. Sometimes that's just unacceptable.
Such is the case of state parole officers' failure to unmask that sex offender Phillip Garrido and his wife were hiding kidnap victim Jaycee Dugard in their backyard near Antioch for 18 years. For the last 11 of those years, state parole officers were responsible for monitoring Garrido.
They visited him at least 60 times, yet they never noticed that something was amiss. They never bothered to read the previous federal parole file on Garrido. They never noticed the compound at the back of the property where Dugard and her two children fathered by Garrido were being held. They never saw utility wires that had been strung to the hideout. They failed to talk to neighbors or local law enforcement. They ignored information from the GPS monitor on Garrido that showed him straying too far from his home. They failed to act on information showing Garrido had violated the terms of his parole.
It was just a combination of Garrido's own stupidity and an alert police officer at UC Berkeley that eventually led to his capture. In the end, Garrido's parole officer played a role in his arrest. But that doesn't excuse the complete breakdown up to that point in the supervision of Garrido.
As we now know, thanks to an in-depth review released last week by the state Office of the Inspector General, parole agents in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation completely bungled the Garrido case.
It's appalling that soon after Garrido's arrest in August, Corrections spokesman Gordon Hinkle was bragging about the parole agent's role. "We're very proud of the work he did in uncovering this mystery," Hinkle said at the time, adding that the agent had operated "by the book."
We might be inclined to cut the department some slack now if it was showing signs of acknowledging fault in the face of the new information about its conduct — and recognizing that the case suggests widespread systemic problems in the organization. Instead, the response by Corrections Secretary Matthew Cate smacks of bureaucratize and denial. While acknowledging in his official response to the report that "further improvements in our system of parole supervision are needed," Cate then goes on to talk about the need for more money to supervise parolees.
Secretary Cate, your folks messed up — and no amount of extra money would have changed that. They visited the site 60 times. If they didn't notice something was amiss after that, they should be fired. And if you don't recognize the need to shake things up, Gov. Schwarzenegger should fire you. At a certain point, lack of money is not an excuse.
Consider, in contrast, the tone of the response by Contra Costa Sheriff Warren Rupf, whose deputies in 2006 failed to properly follow a tip that could have led to finding Dugard nearly three years ago.
"We should have been inquisitive, more curious, and turned over a rock or two. There are no excuses," Rupf said soon after Dugard was found. "... I can't change the course of events, but we are beating ourselves up over this and are the first to do so."
Whether its curing an addiction or fixing a bureaucracy, the first step to healing is admitting responsibility. Cate would do well to learn from the sheriff.
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