A close member of my family is now suffering from Alzheimer’s. When my friend Jeff Doyle, publisher of PACOVILLA Corrections blog, learned about this sad turn of events, he sent me the following insightful story:
“I just wanted to share a quick anecdote about the disease that I found comfort in.
Three years ago my friend John Fratis, a retired Folsom Prison guard, died after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer’s. At the funeral, John's adult granddaughters told the congregation how, just three months prior to passing, John had a two-week "moment of clarity" in which he "came back" and began talking about all the things that had transpired while he was presumed to be a vegetable. He asked about his grandson and whether or not he was still stationed in Iraq--The kid enlisted after John was in bed and unresponsive. Yet, John was there the whole time. He later said he was at peace and lapsed back into a coma, dying weeks later.
So, if it gets to that point, remember she is still there, keep telling her what is going on and … you never know.”
Jeff’s story about John Fratis is well worth noting and that is why I am sharing it with you, especially those of you that have a member of your family or a good friend suffering from Alzheimer’s.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
CHILD MOLESTER TERMINALLY REHABILITATED AT FOLSOM SATURDAY MORNING
By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
February 26, 2012
A quasi-human lump of self-propelled pond scum was terminally rehabilitated at Folsom prison Saturday morning.
Richard Allen Leonard, 44, out of Orange County, was doing 25-to-life for sexual assault of a child up until about 8:01 a.m. Saturday when he was declared rehabilitated. Cause of rehabilitation was multiple stab and slice wounds administered by person or persons unknown.
Damn, I’m going to feel bad about that for 15 or 20 seconds.
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
February 26, 2012
A quasi-human lump of self-propelled pond scum was terminally rehabilitated at Folsom prison Saturday morning.
Richard Allen Leonard, 44, out of Orange County, was doing 25-to-life for sexual assault of a child up until about 8:01 a.m. Saturday when he was declared rehabilitated. Cause of rehabilitation was multiple stab and slice wounds administered by person or persons unknown.
Damn, I’m going to feel bad about that for 15 or 20 seconds.
THE OSCARS: HOW THE LOSERS REALLY FEEL
By Pamela Putz
The Schalotte
February 28, 2012
Every time a winner was announced, the losers in that category smiled and applauded along with the rest of the Oscar audience. Most of the losers’ smiles looked rather forced. The Schalotte was able to contact some of the leading actor and actress losers after a night of drinking their sorrows away at post-Oscar parties.
Here is what some of the losers told this reporter, sans phony smiles and applause:
LEADING ACTOR (Won by Jean Dujardin for The Artist)
George Clooney (The Descendants): I can’t believe they chose that Frog over me. And he didn’t even have to memorize one fucking line. I gave the best performance of my life and they gave that statue to a fucking Frog. Hey waiter, get me another drink. Shit, if they’re going to give the best actor award for someone in that film, they should have given it to the dog, not to that fucking Frog with his shit-eating grin.
Brad Pitt (Moneyball): How do I really feel? I’ll let Angie [Angelina Jolie] speak for me. Go ahead, Honey, tell this lady how I really feel.
Angelina Jolie: Brad feels like shit. You can see that, can’t you? Having to sit there and applaud when they gave the Oscar to that French guy, what’s his name. Brad was fucked from the start by the media, ‘cause they favored what’s his name and Pretty Boy [Clooney] over my Brad. Fuck em!
LEADING ACTRESS (Won by Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady)
Viola Davis (The Help): How do I feel? How do you think I feel? Everyone said I was favored to win and what do they do? They give the Oscar to that old woman. Shit, she’s already got two Oscars, wasn’t it twenty years ago that she won the second one? It’s because 94 percent of the Academy members who choose the winners are white. She’s white and I’m black. That’s why I lost. Shit!
Michelle Williams (My Week With Marilyn): Whops, I’m a little tipsy. And I’m pissed off too. Everybody says I looked exactly like Marilyn Monroe. I played her to the hilt. My acting was perfect in showing how Marilyn struggled with her fame, her beauty and her desire to be a great actress. And what do they do? They give that fucking Oscar to that old bitch. I need another drink. And make that a stiff one, Honey.
Glenn Close (Albert Nobbs): So what else is new? I’ve lost out on the Oscar five times before last night. But I’m still pissed off. I’ve tried to get this film made for 30 years and I finally raised the money to do it. It was torturous to be made up to look like a man for every shoot. Look, I love Meryl and she deserved to win, but she’s already gotten two Oscars. God damn it, it just struck me! The reason I must have lost again is because I looked so much like a man in my film, the academy couldn’t recognize me as a woman. Oh shit, I fucked myself, didn’t I?
The Schalotte
February 28, 2012
Every time a winner was announced, the losers in that category smiled and applauded along with the rest of the Oscar audience. Most of the losers’ smiles looked rather forced. The Schalotte was able to contact some of the leading actor and actress losers after a night of drinking their sorrows away at post-Oscar parties.
Here is what some of the losers told this reporter, sans phony smiles and applause:
LEADING ACTOR (Won by Jean Dujardin for The Artist)
George Clooney (The Descendants): I can’t believe they chose that Frog over me. And he didn’t even have to memorize one fucking line. I gave the best performance of my life and they gave that statue to a fucking Frog. Hey waiter, get me another drink. Shit, if they’re going to give the best actor award for someone in that film, they should have given it to the dog, not to that fucking Frog with his shit-eating grin.
Brad Pitt (Moneyball): How do I really feel? I’ll let Angie [Angelina Jolie] speak for me. Go ahead, Honey, tell this lady how I really feel.
Angelina Jolie: Brad feels like shit. You can see that, can’t you? Having to sit there and applaud when they gave the Oscar to that French guy, what’s his name. Brad was fucked from the start by the media, ‘cause they favored what’s his name and Pretty Boy [Clooney] over my Brad. Fuck em!
LEADING ACTRESS (Won by Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady)
Viola Davis (The Help): How do I feel? How do you think I feel? Everyone said I was favored to win and what do they do? They give the Oscar to that old woman. Shit, she’s already got two Oscars, wasn’t it twenty years ago that she won the second one? It’s because 94 percent of the Academy members who choose the winners are white. She’s white and I’m black. That’s why I lost. Shit!
Michelle Williams (My Week With Marilyn): Whops, I’m a little tipsy. And I’m pissed off too. Everybody says I looked exactly like Marilyn Monroe. I played her to the hilt. My acting was perfect in showing how Marilyn struggled with her fame, her beauty and her desire to be a great actress. And what do they do? They give that fucking Oscar to that old bitch. I need another drink. And make that a stiff one, Honey.
Glenn Close (Albert Nobbs): So what else is new? I’ve lost out on the Oscar five times before last night. But I’m still pissed off. I’ve tried to get this film made for 30 years and I finally raised the money to do it. It was torturous to be made up to look like a man for every shoot. Look, I love Meryl and she deserved to win, but she’s already gotten two Oscars. God damn it, it just struck me! The reason I must have lost again is because I looked so much like a man in my film, the academy couldn’t recognize me as a woman. Oh shit, I fucked myself, didn’t I?
MY GRANDPA GOT RETARDED
After Christmas, a teacher asked her young pupils how they spent their holiday away from school. One child wrote the following:
We always used to spend the holidays with Grandma and Grandpa. They used to live in a big brick house, but Grandpa got retarded and they moved to Arizona. Now they live in a tin box and have rocks painted green to look like grass.
They ride around on their bicycles, and wear name tags, because they don't know who they are anymore.
They go to a building called a wreck center, but they must have got it fixed because it is all okay now, they do exercises there, but they don't do them very well. There is a swimming pool too, but they all jump up and down in it with hats on.
At their gate, there is a doll house with a little old man sitting in it. He watches all day so nobody can escape. Sometimes they sneak out, and go cruising in their golf carts.
Nobody there cooks, they just eat out. And, they eat the same thing every night - early birds. Some of the people can't get out past the man in the doll house. The ones who do get out, bring food back to the wrecked center for pot luck.
My Grandma says that Grandpa worked all his life to earn his retardment and, says I should work hard so I can be retarded someday too. When I earn my retardment, I want to be the man in the doll house. Then I will let people out, so they can visit their grandchildren.
We always used to spend the holidays with Grandma and Grandpa. They used to live in a big brick house, but Grandpa got retarded and they moved to Arizona. Now they live in a tin box and have rocks painted green to look like grass.
They ride around on their bicycles, and wear name tags, because they don't know who they are anymore.
They go to a building called a wreck center, but they must have got it fixed because it is all okay now, they do exercises there, but they don't do them very well. There is a swimming pool too, but they all jump up and down in it with hats on.
At their gate, there is a doll house with a little old man sitting in it. He watches all day so nobody can escape. Sometimes they sneak out, and go cruising in their golf carts.
Nobody there cooks, they just eat out. And, they eat the same thing every night - early birds. Some of the people can't get out past the man in the doll house. The ones who do get out, bring food back to the wrecked center for pot luck.
My Grandma says that Grandpa worked all his life to earn his retardment and, says I should work hard so I can be retarded someday too. When I earn my retardment, I want to be the man in the doll house. Then I will let people out, so they can visit their grandchildren.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
THE CRIME NUMBERS GAME: RAPE REDUCED TO TRESPASSING IN NEW YORK, MURDERS REPORTED AS SUICIDES IN HOUSTON
Last week I read ‘The Crime Numbers Game: Management by Manipulation’, a new book by John Eterno and Eli Silverman. Professors Eterno and Silverman really made their case. The only problem I see is that they are up against the multimillion dollar propaganda machine of NY Mayor Bloomberg and NYPD.
Here is an article from The CHIEF on their book:
SAY NYPD NUMBERS GAME OVERWHELMS CRIME-FIGHTING
Authors say the increasing pressure on commanders to produce improved statistics has led to over-enforcement, particularly in the minority community, while at the other extreme muddying crime patterns through a downgrade of certain offenses so that in one case, a man was able to commit seven rapes before being caught because previous complaints were reduced to trespassing
By Mark Toor
The CHIEF
February 28, 2012
When Compstat is good, it is very, very good for the NYPD. But when it goes bad, it is horrid, encouraging falsification of crime stats, wrecking morale, poisoning relationships between bosses and subordinates, and pulling the department’s entire mission out of whack, according to a new book.
Two policing experts, John A. Eterno, a retired NYPD Captain who teaches criminal justice at Molloy College, and Eli B. Silverman, a Professor Emeritus at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice who has studied police departments around the world, outlined their findings in “The Crime Numbers Game: Management by Manipulation,” just published by CRC Press.
A WAY TO GAIN CONTROL
Compstat got its start in the Giuliani administration under Police Commissioner William J. Bratton, who blew into the NYPD in 1994 like a hurricane and was blown out two years later when he began to outshine his boss on the publicity front. Mr. Bratton, who previously ran the old Transit Police Department, was new to the NYPD, and Compstat was, as much as anything else, a way for him to get top commanders into a room and under his influence. It was also a way to focus the department on fighting crime.
At its simplest, Compstat is a way of making bosses accountable for combating crime in the areas they command. It has four principles: accurate and timely intelligence, effective tactics, rapid deployment, and relentless follow-up. When it works properly, commanders can identify, say, a burglary spike in a neighborhood, come up with a plan to end it and then send in the troops. The program has been copied by police departments around the country.
Unfortunately, write Mr. Eterno and Mr. Silverman, Compstat in the NYPD has gone awry. “While we fully support Compstat, it has well-developed side effects that can be harmful and even malignant,” they write. “...Compstat has morphed into a numbers game over the years.” An increasingly heavy emphasis has developed on summons, arrest and stop-and-frisk numbers “to demonstrate an appearance of heightened police activity linked to successful crime-fighting. Numbers, sometimes any numbers, rule the day.”
QUESTIONABLE TACTICS AND GOALS
Originally developed with the goal of allowing commanders to address crime creatively, the authors write, Compstat now forces the entire city into the same questionable tactics aimed at the same questionable goals: constant drops in crime (or at least the seven FBI index crimes counted for Compstat) and constant increases in summonses, arrests and other evidence of activity.
Officers are evaluated on how many summonses they write rather than the quality of their interactions with citizens or their problem-solving skills. Bosses telephone complainants not to solve the crime but to elicit information that will allow them to downgrade it to a lower classification. Officers responding to calls refuse to take complaints, and lower-level supervisors downgrade them—even rapes.
In Manhattan ’s 33rd Precinct, officers arrested a man seen pushing a woman into an apartment. The man told Det. Harold Hernandez that he had committed six rapes. Searching the complaint files, Detective Hernandez found that all the rape reports had been classified as lesser crimes, mostly forcible trespass. “Had the reports been properly taken,” the authors write, “a pattern could have been developed and a rapist stopped before he struck seven times.”
BULLYING FROM THE TOP
The importance of what the NYPD considers good numbers is reinforced at Compstat sessions by senior commanders who browbeat subordinates who don’t have them. One retired boss told the authors, “Compstat equals embarrassment in front of peers.” Another said, “People’s careers are made or broken at the podium.” They quote one visiting law-enforcement commander who had observed a Compstat meeting: “I don’t know how they could treat their own people like this.”
The result? “Unfortunately, actual crime has become a secondary issue,” the authors write. “As long as the numbers of crime reports appear to be decreasing, the upper echelon is kept satiated. Officers are keenly aware that they somehow have to keep those numbers down so the commander will not be exposed to the wrath of the high-ranking officials running Compstat meetings.”
The demand for numbers results in situations in which summonses are written in minority neighborhoods that the authors imply might not be given in well-off white areas. Summonses for women eating doughnuts in a park. Summonses for men playing chess near a playground. Police stopped an elderly couple in Queens for not wearing seat belts, then forced the man to walk home in the freezing cold to get identification. Shortly after he returned to the car, he died of a heart attack. “This lack of discretion is quite simply lunacy,” the authors write.
TURNED UP THE PRESSURE
With the help of the Captains Endowment Association, Mr. Eterno and Mr. Silverman conducted a survey in 2008 of hundreds of retired officers at the rank of Captain and above. Asked to rate pressure to show a decrease in index crimes on a scale of 1 to 10, commanders who worked in the pre-Compstat era gave an average rating of 5.7; those who worked under Compstat, 8.3.
Compstat-era commanders said there was less pressure to report crime statistics accurately. Three-quarters of the respondents said crime reports were changed in a way that was unethical.
When the survey, which is prominently featured in the book, was first publicized, the Bloomberg administration landed on the authors with both feet. Mayor Bloomberg derided the study as union-funded (in fact, it was paid for by Molloy College ), and a police official theorized that the Captains were remembering the same few incidents. Mr. Eterno and Mr. Silverman were pilloried as enemies of the Police Department. (They say they are enemies only of bad policing.)
STOP-AND-FRISK STATS 'ILLOGICAL'
On the ever-rising stop-and-frisk statistics, the authors say: “The NYPD has placed itself in a completely illogical position. Based on their official statistics, crime is down tremendously...Assuming their argument about crime is true, how can they possibly be finding suspects and lawfully stopping them on every corner?”
Mr. Eterno and Mr. Silverman recommend the use of integrity testing to cut down on falsification of crime numbers. An undercover officer, they write, can pretend to be a rape victim and the report—if any—followed through the system. Beyond this, they write, cultural change is necessary. Compstat commanders must stop bullying precinct commanders and work with them in developing specific approaches for problems in specific communities. If the department doesn’t change, they say, it should be investigated by a body with subpoena power, like the Knapp and Mollen commissions.
“Originally a revolutionary management system,” they write, “we are convinced that Compstat at the NYPD needs to regain its initial creativity.”
Here is an article from The CHIEF on their book:
SAY NYPD NUMBERS GAME OVERWHELMS CRIME-FIGHTING
Authors say the increasing pressure on commanders to produce improved statistics has led to over-enforcement, particularly in the minority community, while at the other extreme muddying crime patterns through a downgrade of certain offenses so that in one case, a man was able to commit seven rapes before being caught because previous complaints were reduced to trespassing
By Mark Toor
The CHIEF
February 28, 2012
When Compstat is good, it is very, very good for the NYPD. But when it goes bad, it is horrid, encouraging falsification of crime stats, wrecking morale, poisoning relationships between bosses and subordinates, and pulling the department’s entire mission out of whack, according to a new book.
Two policing experts, John A. Eterno, a retired NYPD Captain who teaches criminal justice at Molloy College, and Eli B. Silverman, a Professor Emeritus at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice who has studied police departments around the world, outlined their findings in “The Crime Numbers Game: Management by Manipulation,” just published by CRC Press.
A WAY TO GAIN CONTROL
Compstat got its start in the Giuliani administration under Police Commissioner William J. Bratton, who blew into the NYPD in 1994 like a hurricane and was blown out two years later when he began to outshine his boss on the publicity front. Mr. Bratton, who previously ran the old Transit Police Department, was new to the NYPD, and Compstat was, as much as anything else, a way for him to get top commanders into a room and under his influence. It was also a way to focus the department on fighting crime.
At its simplest, Compstat is a way of making bosses accountable for combating crime in the areas they command. It has four principles: accurate and timely intelligence, effective tactics, rapid deployment, and relentless follow-up. When it works properly, commanders can identify, say, a burglary spike in a neighborhood, come up with a plan to end it and then send in the troops. The program has been copied by police departments around the country.
Unfortunately, write Mr. Eterno and Mr. Silverman, Compstat in the NYPD has gone awry. “While we fully support Compstat, it has well-developed side effects that can be harmful and even malignant,” they write. “...Compstat has morphed into a numbers game over the years.” An increasingly heavy emphasis has developed on summons, arrest and stop-and-frisk numbers “to demonstrate an appearance of heightened police activity linked to successful crime-fighting. Numbers, sometimes any numbers, rule the day.”
QUESTIONABLE TACTICS AND GOALS
Originally developed with the goal of allowing commanders to address crime creatively, the authors write, Compstat now forces the entire city into the same questionable tactics aimed at the same questionable goals: constant drops in crime (or at least the seven FBI index crimes counted for Compstat) and constant increases in summonses, arrests and other evidence of activity.
Officers are evaluated on how many summonses they write rather than the quality of their interactions with citizens or their problem-solving skills. Bosses telephone complainants not to solve the crime but to elicit information that will allow them to downgrade it to a lower classification. Officers responding to calls refuse to take complaints, and lower-level supervisors downgrade them—even rapes.
In Manhattan ’s 33rd Precinct, officers arrested a man seen pushing a woman into an apartment. The man told Det. Harold Hernandez that he had committed six rapes. Searching the complaint files, Detective Hernandez found that all the rape reports had been classified as lesser crimes, mostly forcible trespass. “Had the reports been properly taken,” the authors write, “a pattern could have been developed and a rapist stopped before he struck seven times.”
BULLYING FROM THE TOP
The importance of what the NYPD considers good numbers is reinforced at Compstat sessions by senior commanders who browbeat subordinates who don’t have them. One retired boss told the authors, “Compstat equals embarrassment in front of peers.” Another said, “People’s careers are made or broken at the podium.” They quote one visiting law-enforcement commander who had observed a Compstat meeting: “I don’t know how they could treat their own people like this.”
The result? “Unfortunately, actual crime has become a secondary issue,” the authors write. “As long as the numbers of crime reports appear to be decreasing, the upper echelon is kept satiated. Officers are keenly aware that they somehow have to keep those numbers down so the commander will not be exposed to the wrath of the high-ranking officials running Compstat meetings.”
The demand for numbers results in situations in which summonses are written in minority neighborhoods that the authors imply might not be given in well-off white areas. Summonses for women eating doughnuts in a park. Summonses for men playing chess near a playground. Police stopped an elderly couple in Queens for not wearing seat belts, then forced the man to walk home in the freezing cold to get identification. Shortly after he returned to the car, he died of a heart attack. “This lack of discretion is quite simply lunacy,” the authors write.
TURNED UP THE PRESSURE
With the help of the Captains Endowment Association, Mr. Eterno and Mr. Silverman conducted a survey in 2008 of hundreds of retired officers at the rank of Captain and above. Asked to rate pressure to show a decrease in index crimes on a scale of 1 to 10, commanders who worked in the pre-Compstat era gave an average rating of 5.7; those who worked under Compstat, 8.3.
Compstat-era commanders said there was less pressure to report crime statistics accurately. Three-quarters of the respondents said crime reports were changed in a way that was unethical.
When the survey, which is prominently featured in the book, was first publicized, the Bloomberg administration landed on the authors with both feet. Mayor Bloomberg derided the study as union-funded (in fact, it was paid for by Molloy College ), and a police official theorized that the Captains were remembering the same few incidents. Mr. Eterno and Mr. Silverman were pilloried as enemies of the Police Department. (They say they are enemies only of bad policing.)
STOP-AND-FRISK STATS 'ILLOGICAL'
On the ever-rising stop-and-frisk statistics, the authors say: “The NYPD has placed itself in a completely illogical position. Based on their official statistics, crime is down tremendously...Assuming their argument about crime is true, how can they possibly be finding suspects and lawfully stopping them on every corner?”
Mr. Eterno and Mr. Silverman recommend the use of integrity testing to cut down on falsification of crime numbers. An undercover officer, they write, can pretend to be a rape victim and the report—if any—followed through the system. Beyond this, they write, cultural change is necessary. Compstat commanders must stop bullying precinct commanders and work with them in developing specific approaches for problems in specific communities. If the department doesn’t change, they say, it should be investigated by a body with subpoena power, like the Knapp and Mollen commissions.
“Originally a revolutionary management system,” they write, “we are convinced that Compstat at the NYPD needs to regain its initial creativity.”
FARRAKHAN, AS USUAL
It’s the same old message, but updated.
OBAMA ASSASSINATED?: DON’T RULE IT OUT, RANTS FARRAKHAN
By Dan Hinkel
Jewish World Review
February 27, 2012
CHICAGO— In a fiery lecture to thousands of followers of the Nation of Islam on Sunday, Minister Louis Farrakhan warned that racial hatred could lead to attempts to assassinate President Barack Obama.
Farrakhan spent much of his oration decrying what he cast as Satan's influence over racist forces in politics and society before asking a pointed rhetorical question: "Do you think they're wicked enough to be plotting our brother's assassination as we speak?"
Farrakhan delivered his speech to an enthusiastic crowd of adherents packed loosely into the United Center for the Nation of Islam's annual observance of Saviours' Day, which celebrates the birth of the faith's founder, W. Fard Muhammad. This year's events marked the 82nd year of the religion's existence in North America.
With his finger jabbing at the air above him and his voice frequently raising to an indignant shout, Farrakhan, 78, delivered his message to a crowd of men in dark suits with bow ties and women in shimmering white gowns and scarves.
He spoke for well over three hours on a broad array of topics, excoriating U.S. foreign policy, suggesting that the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, were a government-planned pretext for war in the Middle East, lamenting recent extreme weather and attacking mothers for serving their children food from McDonald's. He also returned repeatedly to a topic that has attracted intense controversy in the past — the influence of Jews in politics and media.
Farrakhan drew a distinction between noble Jews and followers of "the synagogue of Satan," and he pointed to a recent incident in which the publisher of a Jewish magazine suggested Israeli security forces could help preserve Israel by killing Obama. He attacked Israeli policies, while also directing criticism at perceived Jewish influence in the U.S.
"Jewish people were not the origin of Hollywood, but they took it over," he said, blaming the entertainment industry for degrading the country's morality.
While Farrakhan called out conservatives for questioning Obama's citizenship and even criticizing the figure of first lady Michelle Obama, he also attacked the president for his support of efforts to remove Middle Eastern leaders and warned him against any potential military action in Iran. The crowd roared as he called on them to be "conscientious objectors" to any strike against Iran.
He again condemned the killing of late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. The Nation of Islam's headquarters was purchased 40 years ago with a $3 million loan from Gadhafi.
Farrakhan also suggested that Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces, instead of being detained for questioning, because the government might not have been able to prove all its accusations against him.
On domestic policy, Farrakhan said the national debt has reached unsustainable levels and he challenged Obama's assertion in his recent State of the Union speech that the country is not in decline.
"America is on her death bed. The vital signs of America are not good," he said.
As he spoke, Farrakhan was flanked by dozens of associates and dignitaries, including another controversial religious figure based in Chicago — the Rev. Michael Pfleger, who stood to receive praise from Farrakhan and applause from the crowd.
Near the close of his speech, Farrakhan spent several minutes comparing Obama's political situation to that of Abraham Lincoln, who was assassinated after winning a second term, and suggested an assassination plot against Obama might involve a "patsy," a person set up to take the blame for a broader conspiracy.
"I believe they want a Muslim to kill President Obama," he said.
OBAMA ASSASSINATED?: DON’T RULE IT OUT, RANTS FARRAKHAN
By Dan Hinkel
Jewish World Review
February 27, 2012
CHICAGO— In a fiery lecture to thousands of followers of the Nation of Islam on Sunday, Minister Louis Farrakhan warned that racial hatred could lead to attempts to assassinate President Barack Obama.
Farrakhan spent much of his oration decrying what he cast as Satan's influence over racist forces in politics and society before asking a pointed rhetorical question: "Do you think they're wicked enough to be plotting our brother's assassination as we speak?"
Farrakhan delivered his speech to an enthusiastic crowd of adherents packed loosely into the United Center for the Nation of Islam's annual observance of Saviours' Day, which celebrates the birth of the faith's founder, W. Fard Muhammad. This year's events marked the 82nd year of the religion's existence in North America.
With his finger jabbing at the air above him and his voice frequently raising to an indignant shout, Farrakhan, 78, delivered his message to a crowd of men in dark suits with bow ties and women in shimmering white gowns and scarves.
He spoke for well over three hours on a broad array of topics, excoriating U.S. foreign policy, suggesting that the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, were a government-planned pretext for war in the Middle East, lamenting recent extreme weather and attacking mothers for serving their children food from McDonald's. He also returned repeatedly to a topic that has attracted intense controversy in the past — the influence of Jews in politics and media.
Farrakhan drew a distinction between noble Jews and followers of "the synagogue of Satan," and he pointed to a recent incident in which the publisher of a Jewish magazine suggested Israeli security forces could help preserve Israel by killing Obama. He attacked Israeli policies, while also directing criticism at perceived Jewish influence in the U.S.
"Jewish people were not the origin of Hollywood, but they took it over," he said, blaming the entertainment industry for degrading the country's morality.
While Farrakhan called out conservatives for questioning Obama's citizenship and even criticizing the figure of first lady Michelle Obama, he also attacked the president for his support of efforts to remove Middle Eastern leaders and warned him against any potential military action in Iran. The crowd roared as he called on them to be "conscientious objectors" to any strike against Iran.
He again condemned the killing of late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. The Nation of Islam's headquarters was purchased 40 years ago with a $3 million loan from Gadhafi.
Farrakhan also suggested that Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces, instead of being detained for questioning, because the government might not have been able to prove all its accusations against him.
On domestic policy, Farrakhan said the national debt has reached unsustainable levels and he challenged Obama's assertion in his recent State of the Union speech that the country is not in decline.
"America is on her death bed. The vital signs of America are not good," he said.
As he spoke, Farrakhan was flanked by dozens of associates and dignitaries, including another controversial religious figure based in Chicago — the Rev. Michael Pfleger, who stood to receive praise from Farrakhan and applause from the crowd.
Near the close of his speech, Farrakhan spent several minutes comparing Obama's political situation to that of Abraham Lincoln, who was assassinated after winning a second term, and suggested an assassination plot against Obama might involve a "patsy," a person set up to take the blame for a broader conspiracy.
"I believe they want a Muslim to kill President Obama," he said.
A GOOD LAW ENFORCEMENT TOOL DOWN THE DRAIN THANKS TO COURT RULING
The Supreme Court has made it difficult to follow criminal or terrorist suspects as they move about in their cars.
FBI TURNS OFF THOUSANDS OF GPS DEVICES AFTER SUPREME COURT RULING
By Julia Angwin
The Wall Street Journal
February 25, 2012
The Supreme Court’s recent ruling overturning the warrantless use of GPS tracking devices has caused a “sea change” inside the U.S. Justice Department, according to FBI General Counsel Andrew Weissmann.
Mr. Weissmann, speaking at a University of San Francisco conference called “Big Brother in the 21st Century” on Friday, said that the court ruling prompted the FBI to turn off about 3,000 GPS tracking devices that were in use.
These devices were often stuck underneath cars to track the movements of the car owners. In U.S. v. Jones, the Supreme Court ruled that using a device to track a car owner without a search warrant violated the law.
After the ruling, the FBI had a problem collecting the devices that it had turned off, Mr. Weissmann said. In some cases, he said, the FBI sought court orders to obtain permission to turn the devices on briefly – only in order to locate and retrieve them.
Mr. Weissmann said that the FBI is now working to develop new guidelines for the use of GPS devices. He said the agency is also working on guidelines to cover the broader implications of the court decision beyond GPS devices.
For instance, he said, agency is now “wrestling” with the legality of whether agents can lift up the lid of a trash can without committing trespass. The majority opinion in U.S. v. Jones held that the agents had trespassed when placing the GPS device on a car without warrant.
He said the agency is also considering the implications of the concurring justices – whose arguments were largely based on the idea that a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy in the totality of their movements, even if those movements are in public.
“From a law enforcement perspective, even though its not technically holding, we have to anticipate how it’s going to go down the road,” Mr. Weissmann said.
FBI TURNS OFF THOUSANDS OF GPS DEVICES AFTER SUPREME COURT RULING
By Julia Angwin
The Wall Street Journal
February 25, 2012
The Supreme Court’s recent ruling overturning the warrantless use of GPS tracking devices has caused a “sea change” inside the U.S. Justice Department, according to FBI General Counsel Andrew Weissmann.
Mr. Weissmann, speaking at a University of San Francisco conference called “Big Brother in the 21st Century” on Friday, said that the court ruling prompted the FBI to turn off about 3,000 GPS tracking devices that were in use.
These devices were often stuck underneath cars to track the movements of the car owners. In U.S. v. Jones, the Supreme Court ruled that using a device to track a car owner without a search warrant violated the law.
After the ruling, the FBI had a problem collecting the devices that it had turned off, Mr. Weissmann said. In some cases, he said, the FBI sought court orders to obtain permission to turn the devices on briefly – only in order to locate and retrieve them.
Mr. Weissmann said that the FBI is now working to develop new guidelines for the use of GPS devices. He said the agency is also working on guidelines to cover the broader implications of the court decision beyond GPS devices.
For instance, he said, agency is now “wrestling” with the legality of whether agents can lift up the lid of a trash can without committing trespass. The majority opinion in U.S. v. Jones held that the agents had trespassed when placing the GPS device on a car without warrant.
He said the agency is also considering the implications of the concurring justices – whose arguments were largely based on the idea that a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy in the totality of their movements, even if those movements are in public.
“From a law enforcement perspective, even though its not technically holding, we have to anticipate how it’s going to go down the road,” Mr. Weissmann said.
CRIMES BY THE HOMELESS RISE IN L.A.
Do-gooders blew this one in their concern for the homeless.
LAPD CAPTAIN ON SKID ROW PROGRESS: ‘WE’RE REGRESSING’
By Haley Fox
blogdowntown
February 24, 2012
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Since the city banned the confiscating and destroying of property from Skid Row's homeless last year, crime rates in the area have shot up, said Central Division Los Angeles Police Department Capt. Horace Frank.
"We're regressing," Frank said, in regards to many health and safety issues in the Downtown area. "The environment allows it."
He said that many of the homeless people's "possessions" would be classified as trash under any other circumstances; items such as plastic bags and food wrappers. Many of the 1,373 people living on Skid Row are mentally ill, said Frank, and compulsively gather garbage and discards on the street.
By halting the city's removal of these items, the injunction essentially allows hoarding on public streets -- creating an environment that facilitates the spread of disease and crime.
"It is a public health hazard," said Councilwoman Jan Perry in an earlier interview with blogdowntown. "If we cannot reach some understanding with the court about having the ability to get people's personal articles off the sidewalk for a certain period of time so that we can sanitize the sidewalk, people are going to get sick."
It's not just the homeless who are getting sick either, said Capt. Frank. Just a few years ago there was a staph infection outbreak among his Downtown police officers - likely caused by merely walking through the Skid Row streets.
Nowhere else in the city would these sidewalk encampments ever be allowed, said Frank, and the injunction only applies to Skid Row -- the area designated as the blocks between 3rd and 8th, and Spring and Alameda.
Earlier this week a dead homeless man was discovered in a makeshift tent on E. 3rd Street and Crocker Avenue, in the latest of Skid Row deaths. Capt. Frank said that the piles of possessions that litter the sidewalks can conceal these bodies, making it difficult for police to locate people in need.
At last count, 43 percent of all thefts in the Central Division occurred on Skid Row, Frank said, and these incidents can easily escalate to robberies and assaults when confrontations ensue.
The injunction is a result of a case filed by eight homeless individuals who said the city took their belongings when they walked away for food, the bathroom or to appear in court. Their argument centers around Fourth and 14th Amendment claims that the pick-ups violate protections against unreasonable seizure and the deprivation of property without due process.
The injunction is currently under review at the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals but Frank is doubtful that the ruling will be overturned.
Molly Rysman, director of external affairs for the Skid Row Housing Trust, told blogdowntown last October that getting the injunction removed wouldn't solve the overarching issue of homelessness.
"You may be able to break up the encampment, but these folks are still homeless," she said. "We need to look at how to really solve this."
LAPD CAPTAIN ON SKID ROW PROGRESS: ‘WE’RE REGRESSING’
By Haley Fox
blogdowntown
February 24, 2012
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Since the city banned the confiscating and destroying of property from Skid Row's homeless last year, crime rates in the area have shot up, said Central Division Los Angeles Police Department Capt. Horace Frank.
"We're regressing," Frank said, in regards to many health and safety issues in the Downtown area. "The environment allows it."
He said that many of the homeless people's "possessions" would be classified as trash under any other circumstances; items such as plastic bags and food wrappers. Many of the 1,373 people living on Skid Row are mentally ill, said Frank, and compulsively gather garbage and discards on the street.
By halting the city's removal of these items, the injunction essentially allows hoarding on public streets -- creating an environment that facilitates the spread of disease and crime.
"It is a public health hazard," said Councilwoman Jan Perry in an earlier interview with blogdowntown. "If we cannot reach some understanding with the court about having the ability to get people's personal articles off the sidewalk for a certain period of time so that we can sanitize the sidewalk, people are going to get sick."
It's not just the homeless who are getting sick either, said Capt. Frank. Just a few years ago there was a staph infection outbreak among his Downtown police officers - likely caused by merely walking through the Skid Row streets.
Nowhere else in the city would these sidewalk encampments ever be allowed, said Frank, and the injunction only applies to Skid Row -- the area designated as the blocks between 3rd and 8th, and Spring and Alameda.
Earlier this week a dead homeless man was discovered in a makeshift tent on E. 3rd Street and Crocker Avenue, in the latest of Skid Row deaths. Capt. Frank said that the piles of possessions that litter the sidewalks can conceal these bodies, making it difficult for police to locate people in need.
At last count, 43 percent of all thefts in the Central Division occurred on Skid Row, Frank said, and these incidents can easily escalate to robberies and assaults when confrontations ensue.
The injunction is a result of a case filed by eight homeless individuals who said the city took their belongings when they walked away for food, the bathroom or to appear in court. Their argument centers around Fourth and 14th Amendment claims that the pick-ups violate protections against unreasonable seizure and the deprivation of property without due process.
The injunction is currently under review at the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals but Frank is doubtful that the ruling will be overturned.
Molly Rysman, director of external affairs for the Skid Row Housing Trust, told blogdowntown last October that getting the injunction removed wouldn't solve the overarching issue of homelessness.
"You may be able to break up the encampment, but these folks are still homeless," she said. "We need to look at how to really solve this."
POSITIVE RESULTS FROM COLLECTIVE BARGAINING RESTRICTIONS
Under Wisconsin’s new labor relations laws, public schools were able to save a significant amount of money once current collective bargaining agreements expired.
Although Byron York’s article was published almost eight months ago, it was just forwarded to me and I thought it was well worth posting on this blog.
WISCONSIN SCHOOLS BUCK UNION TO CUT HEALTH COSTS
By Byron York
Washington Examiner
July 7, 2011
The Hartland-Lakeside School District, about 30 miles west of Milwaukee in tiny Hartland, Wis., had a problem in its collective bargaining contract with the local teachers union.
The contract required the school district to purchase health insurance from a company called WEA Trust. The creation of Wisconsin's largest teachers union -- "WEA" stands for Wisconsin Education Association -- WEA Trust made money when union officials used collective bargaining agreements to steer profitable business its way.
The problem for Hartland-Lakeside was that WEA Trust was charging significantly higher rates than the school district could find on the open market. School officials knew that because they got a better deal from United HealthCare for coverage of nonunion employees. On more than one occasion, Superintendent Glenn Schilling asked WEA Trust why the rates were so high. "I could never get a definitive answer on that," says Schilling.
Changing to a different insurance company would save Hartland-Lakeside hundreds of thousands of dollars that could be spent on key educational priorities -- especially important since the cash-strapped state government was cutting back on education funding. But teachers union officials wouldn't allow it; the WEA Trust requirement was in the contract, and union leaders refused to let Hartland-Lakeside off the hook.
That's where Wisconsin's new budget law came in. The law, bitterly opposed by organized labor in the state and across the nation, limits the collective bargaining powers of some public employees. And it just happens that the Hartland-Lakeside teachers' collective bargaining agreement expired on June 30. So now, freed from the expensive WEA Trust deal, the school district has changed insurers.
"It's going to save us about $690,000 in 2011-2012," says Schilling. Insurance costs that had been about $2.5 million a year will now be around $1.8 million. What union leaders said would be a catastrophe will in fact be a boon to teachers and students.
But the effect of weakening collective bargaining goes beyond money. It also has the potential to reshape the adversarial culture that often afflicts public education. In Hartland-Lakeside, there's been no war between union-busting bureaucrats on one side and impassioned teachers on the other; Schilling speaks with great collegiality toward the teachers and says with pride that they've been able to work together on big issues. But there has been a deep division between the school district and top union executives.
In the health insurance talks, for example, Schilling last year began telling teachers about different insurance plans, some of which, like United HealthCare's, required a higher deductible. "We involved them, and they overwhelmingly endorsed the change to United HealthCare," he says. But even with the teachers on board, when school officials presented a change-in-coverage proposal to union officials, it was immediately rejected. The costly WEA Trust deal stayed in place.
Now, with the collective bargaining agreement gone, Schilling looks forward to working more closely with teachers. "I would say the biggest change is we have a lot more involvement with a wider scope of teachers," he says. When collective bargaining was in effect, "We dealt with a select team of teachers, a small group of three or four who were on the bargaining team, and then the union director. Any information that went to the teachers went through them. Now, we feel that we will have a direct dialogue."
It's not hard to see why union officials hate the new law so much. It not only breaks up cherished and lucrative union monopolies like high-cost health insurance; it also threatens to break through the union-built wall between teachers and administrators and allow the two sides to work together more closely. The old union go-betweens, who controlled what their members could and could not hear, will be left aside.
Hartland-Lakeside isn't the only school district that is pulling free from collective bargaining agreements that mandated WEA Trust coverage. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports the Pewaukee School District, not far from Hartland-Lakeside, will save $378,000 by next year by leaving WEA Trust. The Menomonee Falls School District, farther north, will reportedly save $1.3 million. Facing state cutbacks, the districts can't afford to overpay for union-affiliated coverage.
Look for the unions to fight back with everything they have. If the Wisconsin situation has shown anything, it is that organized labor views the collective bargaining fight as a life-or-death struggle. If the unions lose in Wisconsin, the clamor for change could spread to other states. What happened in Hartland-Lakeside could become a model for other schools looking for new and better ways to do business.
Although Byron York’s article was published almost eight months ago, it was just forwarded to me and I thought it was well worth posting on this blog.
WISCONSIN SCHOOLS BUCK UNION TO CUT HEALTH COSTS
By Byron York
Washington Examiner
July 7, 2011
The Hartland-Lakeside School District, about 30 miles west of Milwaukee in tiny Hartland, Wis., had a problem in its collective bargaining contract with the local teachers union.
The contract required the school district to purchase health insurance from a company called WEA Trust. The creation of Wisconsin's largest teachers union -- "WEA" stands for Wisconsin Education Association -- WEA Trust made money when union officials used collective bargaining agreements to steer profitable business its way.
The problem for Hartland-Lakeside was that WEA Trust was charging significantly higher rates than the school district could find on the open market. School officials knew that because they got a better deal from United HealthCare for coverage of nonunion employees. On more than one occasion, Superintendent Glenn Schilling asked WEA Trust why the rates were so high. "I could never get a definitive answer on that," says Schilling.
Changing to a different insurance company would save Hartland-Lakeside hundreds of thousands of dollars that could be spent on key educational priorities -- especially important since the cash-strapped state government was cutting back on education funding. But teachers union officials wouldn't allow it; the WEA Trust requirement was in the contract, and union leaders refused to let Hartland-Lakeside off the hook.
That's where Wisconsin's new budget law came in. The law, bitterly opposed by organized labor in the state and across the nation, limits the collective bargaining powers of some public employees. And it just happens that the Hartland-Lakeside teachers' collective bargaining agreement expired on June 30. So now, freed from the expensive WEA Trust deal, the school district has changed insurers.
"It's going to save us about $690,000 in 2011-2012," says Schilling. Insurance costs that had been about $2.5 million a year will now be around $1.8 million. What union leaders said would be a catastrophe will in fact be a boon to teachers and students.
But the effect of weakening collective bargaining goes beyond money. It also has the potential to reshape the adversarial culture that often afflicts public education. In Hartland-Lakeside, there's been no war between union-busting bureaucrats on one side and impassioned teachers on the other; Schilling speaks with great collegiality toward the teachers and says with pride that they've been able to work together on big issues. But there has been a deep division between the school district and top union executives.
In the health insurance talks, for example, Schilling last year began telling teachers about different insurance plans, some of which, like United HealthCare's, required a higher deductible. "We involved them, and they overwhelmingly endorsed the change to United HealthCare," he says. But even with the teachers on board, when school officials presented a change-in-coverage proposal to union officials, it was immediately rejected. The costly WEA Trust deal stayed in place.
Now, with the collective bargaining agreement gone, Schilling looks forward to working more closely with teachers. "I would say the biggest change is we have a lot more involvement with a wider scope of teachers," he says. When collective bargaining was in effect, "We dealt with a select team of teachers, a small group of three or four who were on the bargaining team, and then the union director. Any information that went to the teachers went through them. Now, we feel that we will have a direct dialogue."
It's not hard to see why union officials hate the new law so much. It not only breaks up cherished and lucrative union monopolies like high-cost health insurance; it also threatens to break through the union-built wall between teachers and administrators and allow the two sides to work together more closely. The old union go-betweens, who controlled what their members could and could not hear, will be left aside.
Hartland-Lakeside isn't the only school district that is pulling free from collective bargaining agreements that mandated WEA Trust coverage. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports the Pewaukee School District, not far from Hartland-Lakeside, will save $378,000 by next year by leaving WEA Trust. The Menomonee Falls School District, farther north, will reportedly save $1.3 million. Facing state cutbacks, the districts can't afford to overpay for union-affiliated coverage.
Look for the unions to fight back with everything they have. If the Wisconsin situation has shown anything, it is that organized labor views the collective bargaining fight as a life-or-death struggle. If the unions lose in Wisconsin, the clamor for change could spread to other states. What happened in Hartland-Lakeside could become a model for other schools looking for new and better ways to do business.
Monday, February 27, 2012
THE OSCARS ARE NOT POLITICALLY CORRECT
There has been a lot in the news lately about how blacks and women are underrepresented among the voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Complaints have come from certain quarters that the make-up of the voters is not diverse and does not represent the American people, one-third of which are people of color.
The Los Angeles Times reported earlier this month that of the 5,765 voting members of the Academy, 94 percent are white and 77 percent are male, with blacks at only two percent and Latinos at less than two percent. The report also indicated that besides the absence of racial and gender diversity, there was a lack of age diversity because the median age of the voters is 62, and only 14 percent are under the age of 50.
94 percent white? That’s not politically correct! I’m sure that even though black actress Octavia Spencer won the Best Supporting Actress award for her performance in The Help, the race card players will claim that the lack of black Academy voters led to Meryl Streep’s (The Iron Lady) win over black actress Viola Davis (The Help) for the Best Actress award.
While Viola Davis gave an Oscar winning performance in The Help, she did not lose because 94 percent of the Academy voters were white. She lost because Meryl Streep deserved to win the Best Actress award. The predominantly white makeup of the voters had nothing to do with it.
The Los Angeles Times reported earlier this month that of the 5,765 voting members of the Academy, 94 percent are white and 77 percent are male, with blacks at only two percent and Latinos at less than two percent. The report also indicated that besides the absence of racial and gender diversity, there was a lack of age diversity because the median age of the voters is 62, and only 14 percent are under the age of 50.
94 percent white? That’s not politically correct! I’m sure that even though black actress Octavia Spencer won the Best Supporting Actress award for her performance in The Help, the race card players will claim that the lack of black Academy voters led to Meryl Streep’s (The Iron Lady) win over black actress Viola Davis (The Help) for the Best Actress award.
While Viola Davis gave an Oscar winning performance in The Help, she did not lose because 94 percent of the Academy voters were white. She lost because Meryl Streep deserved to win the Best Actress award. The predominantly white makeup of the voters had nothing to do with it.
THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION HAS HITCHED ITS PEACE WAGON TO A HATE INCITER
Abbas has proved over and over again that he is not a partner in peace with Israel, yet President Obama and Secretary Hillary Clinton continue count on him as a peacemaker.
NETANYAHU: ABBAS SPEECH ON JERUSALEM WAS ‘INCITEMENT’
Speaking at a conference in Qatar, PA President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of trying to harm the al-Aqsa mosque and conducting ethnic cleansing in East Jerusalem
By Barak Ravid
Haaretz.com
February 27, 2012
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday harshly condemned Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for a speech given at a conference in Qatar in which Abbas claimed that Israel is "trying to erase the Arab, Muslim, and Christian nature of Jerusalem".
Netanyahu characterized Abbas' speech as "severe incitement".
"This was a speech of severe incitement coming from the mouth of someone who supposedly claims that he seeks peace," a statement from Netanyahu's office said. "The time has come for the Palestinian leadership to stop denying the past and distorting reality. Since thousands of years, Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish people. Under Israeli sovereignty, Jerusalem will continue to be open to members of all faiths. There is complete freedom of worship for everyone and Israel will continue to devotedly protect the holy places of all religions."
"Abbas knows well that there is no foundation for his allusions, including the baseless claims regarding the al-Aqsa mosque. Israel expects that someone who seemingly stands for peace will prepare his people for peace and coexistence and not spread lies and incitement."
In his speech, Abbas compared Israel's control of Jerusalem to the Roman and Crusader occupations of the city. Abbas cast doubt on the existence of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem and accused Israel of trying to harm the al-Aqsa mosque. He also called on Muslims from around the world to come to Jerusalem.
Abbas asserted that Israel is using various means to conduct ethnic cleansing against the Arab residents of East Jerusalem.
"[Israel's] goal to Judaize Jerusalem and position it as the capital of the occupation state," Abbas said.
NETANYAHU: ABBAS SPEECH ON JERUSALEM WAS ‘INCITEMENT’
Speaking at a conference in Qatar, PA President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of trying to harm the al-Aqsa mosque and conducting ethnic cleansing in East Jerusalem
By Barak Ravid
Haaretz.com
February 27, 2012
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday harshly condemned Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for a speech given at a conference in Qatar in which Abbas claimed that Israel is "trying to erase the Arab, Muslim, and Christian nature of Jerusalem".
Netanyahu characterized Abbas' speech as "severe incitement".
"This was a speech of severe incitement coming from the mouth of someone who supposedly claims that he seeks peace," a statement from Netanyahu's office said. "The time has come for the Palestinian leadership to stop denying the past and distorting reality. Since thousands of years, Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish people. Under Israeli sovereignty, Jerusalem will continue to be open to members of all faiths. There is complete freedom of worship for everyone and Israel will continue to devotedly protect the holy places of all religions."
"Abbas knows well that there is no foundation for his allusions, including the baseless claims regarding the al-Aqsa mosque. Israel expects that someone who seemingly stands for peace will prepare his people for peace and coexistence and not spread lies and incitement."
In his speech, Abbas compared Israel's control of Jerusalem to the Roman and Crusader occupations of the city. Abbas cast doubt on the existence of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem and accused Israel of trying to harm the al-Aqsa mosque. He also called on Muslims from around the world to come to Jerusalem.
Abbas asserted that Israel is using various means to conduct ethnic cleansing against the Arab residents of East Jerusalem.
"[Israel's] goal to Judaize Jerusalem and position it as the capital of the occupation state," Abbas said.
THE ZETAS: ‘YOU CAN’T DEFEAT US, NOT EVEN WITH THE SUPPORT OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES’
In Mexico week before last, 44 prisoners who belonged to the Gulf drug cartel were bludgeoned and stabbed to death by inmates from the rival Zetas cartel inside the Apodaca state prison and 30 Zetas escaped during the carnage.
According to Borderland Beat, thereupon the Zetas issued the following manta:
"GENERAL NOTICE TO THE PEOPLE OF MEXICO. NUEVO LEON IS ZETA TERRITORY AND WE DEMONSTRATE OUR POWER WITH FACTS, EVEN IF RODRIGO MEDINA DOESN'T LIKE IT, HE WILL HAVE TO OBEY BECAUSE WE SUPPORTED HIM TO BECAME A GOVERNOR. DID YOU THINK THAT THE 20 MILLION DOLLARS GIVING TO HIM BY LIC MANUEL QUINONES BROTHER IN LAW OF FACSI ZUAZUA FOR HIS CAMPAIGN WERE JUST FOR FREE?. DID YOU THINK WE WILL NOT GET SOMETHING IN RETURN FOR WHAT WE PAID TO RODRIGO THROUGH AGUSTÍN SERNA DE LA CROC?. THAT'S WHY I DO WHATEVER I WANT IN NUEVO LEON BECAUSE IT BELONG TO ME,
I RELEASE WHOEVER I WANT FROM PRISON AND THE SAME WAY I KILL THE ENEMY CDG. ACCEPT IT THE ONLY THING THAT THE GOVERNMENT OF CALDERON AND THE NEXT PRESIDENT CAN DO IS TO COME TO AN AGREEMENT WHIT US BECAUSE IF THEY DON'T WE WILL OVERTHROW THE GOVERNMENT AND WE WILL TAKE THE POWER BY FORCE THE SAME WAY WE HAVE BEEN DOING IT TILL NOW, HAVEN'T YOU PEOPLE NOTICED YOU CAN'T DEFEAT US, NOT EVEN WITH THE SUPPORT OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES (ICE, ATF, FBI, DEA) MUCH LESS WITH THE SUPPORT OF THE NAVY, ARMY, AFI, SIEDO, PGR, HERE THE ZETAS ARE THE ONES WITH THE POWER.
ATTE: HERIBERTO LAZCANO and MIGUEL TREVIÑO MORALES Z40”
Manta translation by Texcoco.
This manta shows how brazen the Zetas have become, and they are not even Mexico’s most powerful drug cartel. That honor belongs to the Sinaloa cartel.
According to Borderland Beat, thereupon the Zetas issued the following manta:
"GENERAL NOTICE TO THE PEOPLE OF MEXICO. NUEVO LEON IS ZETA TERRITORY AND WE DEMONSTRATE OUR POWER WITH FACTS, EVEN IF RODRIGO MEDINA DOESN'T LIKE IT, HE WILL HAVE TO OBEY BECAUSE WE SUPPORTED HIM TO BECAME A GOVERNOR. DID YOU THINK THAT THE 20 MILLION DOLLARS GIVING TO HIM BY LIC MANUEL QUINONES BROTHER IN LAW OF FACSI ZUAZUA FOR HIS CAMPAIGN WERE JUST FOR FREE?. DID YOU THINK WE WILL NOT GET SOMETHING IN RETURN FOR WHAT WE PAID TO RODRIGO THROUGH AGUSTÍN SERNA DE LA CROC?. THAT'S WHY I DO WHATEVER I WANT IN NUEVO LEON BECAUSE IT BELONG TO ME,
I RELEASE WHOEVER I WANT FROM PRISON AND THE SAME WAY I KILL THE ENEMY CDG. ACCEPT IT THE ONLY THING THAT THE GOVERNMENT OF CALDERON AND THE NEXT PRESIDENT CAN DO IS TO COME TO AN AGREEMENT WHIT US BECAUSE IF THEY DON'T WE WILL OVERTHROW THE GOVERNMENT AND WE WILL TAKE THE POWER BY FORCE THE SAME WAY WE HAVE BEEN DOING IT TILL NOW, HAVEN'T YOU PEOPLE NOTICED YOU CAN'T DEFEAT US, NOT EVEN WITH THE SUPPORT OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES (ICE, ATF, FBI, DEA) MUCH LESS WITH THE SUPPORT OF THE NAVY, ARMY, AFI, SIEDO, PGR, HERE THE ZETAS ARE THE ONES WITH THE POWER.
ATTE: HERIBERTO LAZCANO and MIGUEL TREVIÑO MORALES Z40”
Manta translation by Texcoco.
This manta shows how brazen the Zetas have become, and they are not even Mexico’s most powerful drug cartel. That honor belongs to the Sinaloa cartel.
QUADRUPLE LIMB TRANSPLANT
The question is, will both arms and both legs take hold and function normally over the long run?
TURKISH DOCTORS PERFORM WORLD’S FIRST QUADRUPLE LIMB TRANSPLANT TO ATTACH TWO ARMS AND LEGS TO A MAN
It took 50 doctors 20 hours to complete the transplant
By Suzannah Hills
Mail Online
February 26, 2012
The world's first ever quadruple limb transplant was carried out by surgeons at a Turkish hospital today who attached two arms and two legs to a young man.
The operation took 20 hours to complete and required 50 doctors to help attach the limbs.
Head physician Dr Murat Tuncer today appealed for blood donations to overcome possible complications following the surgery at Hacettepe University Hospital in the country's capital, Ankara.
But he did not provide any details about the patient.
The operation comes after a failed triple limb transplant two months ago at another hospital in the southern city of Antalya.
The doctors there were forced to remove a leg from a patient due to tissue incompatibility. The same patient also received two arms.
Although Dr Tuncer says his team also performed a separate face transplant on another patient yesterday - the second in Turkey this year.
The first in the country was performed on Turkish teenager Ugur Acar, who lost 70 per cent of his face when he was just two-years-old in a TV tube explosion, at Akdeniz University's School of Medicine in Antalya.
Doctors successfully transplanted tissue from the face of a 45-year-old donor to 19-year-old Mr Acar in January but doctors have said he will not be able to make facial expressions for another six months.
Connie Culp, from America, was the first ever successful recipient of a face transplant, performed at the Cleveland Clinic in December 2008,.
Ms Culp was shot in the face by her husband Thomas Culp in a failed murder-suicide in September 2004 outside a bar in Hopedale, Ohio.
He also survived and was convicted in 2005 of aggravated attempted murder with a seven-year prison sentence.
TURKISH DOCTORS PERFORM WORLD’S FIRST QUADRUPLE LIMB TRANSPLANT TO ATTACH TWO ARMS AND LEGS TO A MAN
It took 50 doctors 20 hours to complete the transplant
By Suzannah Hills
Mail Online
February 26, 2012
The world's first ever quadruple limb transplant was carried out by surgeons at a Turkish hospital today who attached two arms and two legs to a young man.
The operation took 20 hours to complete and required 50 doctors to help attach the limbs.
Head physician Dr Murat Tuncer today appealed for blood donations to overcome possible complications following the surgery at Hacettepe University Hospital in the country's capital, Ankara.
But he did not provide any details about the patient.
The operation comes after a failed triple limb transplant two months ago at another hospital in the southern city of Antalya.
The doctors there were forced to remove a leg from a patient due to tissue incompatibility. The same patient also received two arms.
Although Dr Tuncer says his team also performed a separate face transplant on another patient yesterday - the second in Turkey this year.
The first in the country was performed on Turkish teenager Ugur Acar, who lost 70 per cent of his face when he was just two-years-old in a TV tube explosion, at Akdeniz University's School of Medicine in Antalya.
Doctors successfully transplanted tissue from the face of a 45-year-old donor to 19-year-old Mr Acar in January but doctors have said he will not be able to make facial expressions for another six months.
Connie Culp, from America, was the first ever successful recipient of a face transplant, performed at the Cleveland Clinic in December 2008,.
Ms Culp was shot in the face by her husband Thomas Culp in a failed murder-suicide in September 2004 outside a bar in Hopedale, Ohio.
He also survived and was convicted in 2005 of aggravated attempted murder with a seven-year prison sentence.
POLICE REPORT: SEXUAL ASSAULT NUMBERS UNDER CONTROL, UNLESS YOU COUNT THE SUPER BRUTAL ONES
The Onion
February 24, 2012
LOS ANGELES—The Los Angeles Police Department confirmed Friday that incidences of sexual assault in 2010 have plummeted to record lows, that is, if one excludes the attacks that are just really awful and merciless. "Thanks to the tireless efforts of law enforcement, women are less likely to be mildly sexually assaulted than ever before," LAPD spokesman Jack Baker said. "Now, as far as women being raped and abused in the most horrifying circumstances imaginable, those numbers are of course way, way up. Almost astronomically so, really." As the odds of being inappropriately touched by a stranger on a bus continue to drop, Baker added that citizens can now rest easy as long as they're not worried about having their throat slashed after being raped by a partner or close friend.
February 24, 2012
LOS ANGELES—The Los Angeles Police Department confirmed Friday that incidences of sexual assault in 2010 have plummeted to record lows, that is, if one excludes the attacks that are just really awful and merciless. "Thanks to the tireless efforts of law enforcement, women are less likely to be mildly sexually assaulted than ever before," LAPD spokesman Jack Baker said. "Now, as far as women being raped and abused in the most horrifying circumstances imaginable, those numbers are of course way, way up. Almost astronomically so, really." As the odds of being inappropriately touched by a stranger on a bus continue to drop, Baker added that citizens can now rest easy as long as they're not worried about having their throat slashed after being raped by a partner or close friend.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
HAS THE CRIME RATE SHIFTED FROM OUR CITIES TO OUR PRISONS?
From “What’s America’s Real Crime Rate?’ / The Economist / February 14, 2012:
“Statistics are notoriously slippery, but the figures that suggest that violence has been disappearing in the United States contain a blind spot so large that to cite them uncritically, as the major papers do, is to collude in an epic con. Uncounted in the official tallies are the hundreds of thousands of crimes that take place in the country’s prison system, a vast and growing residential network whose forsaken tenants increasingly bear the brunt of America’s propensity for anger and violence.
Crime has not fallen in the United States—it’s been shifted. Just as Wall Street connived with regulators to transfer financial risk from spendthrift banks to careless home buyers, so have federal, state, and local legislatures succeeded in rerouting criminal risk away from urban centers and concentrating it in a proliferating web of hyperhells. The statistics touting the country’s crime-reduction miracle, when juxtaposed with those documenting the quantity of rape and assault that takes place each year within the correctional system, are exposed as not merely a lie, or even a damn lie—but as the single most shameful lie in American life.
…[Prisoners] are the victims of an ideological system that dehumanizes an entire class of human being and permits nearly infinite violence against it. As much as a physical space, prisons denote an ethical space, or, more precisely, a space where ordinary ethics are suspended.
...[In prisons] anybody is free to commit rape and be reasonably assured that no state official will notice or care (barring those instances when the management knowingly encourages rape, unleashing favored inmates on troublemakers as a strategy for administrative control). The prison staff is above the law; the prison inmates, below it. Far from embodying the model of Bentham/Foucault’s panopticon— that is, one of total surveillance—America’s prisons are its blind spots, places where complaints cannot be heard and abuses cannot be seen. Though important symbols of bureaucratic authority, they are spaces that lie beyond our system of bureaucratic oversight. As far as the outside world is concerned, every American prison functions as a black site.” - Christopher Glazek
I wonder how much time Mr. Glazek has actually spent inside America’s prisons. Very little, I suspect. He sounds like some prison reform ideologue that has been watching way too many prison movies on TV while smoking some funny tobacco.
If even half of Glzek’s fantasy were true, then shame, shame on you dehumanizing ‘above the law’ correctional officers.
“Statistics are notoriously slippery, but the figures that suggest that violence has been disappearing in the United States contain a blind spot so large that to cite them uncritically, as the major papers do, is to collude in an epic con. Uncounted in the official tallies are the hundreds of thousands of crimes that take place in the country’s prison system, a vast and growing residential network whose forsaken tenants increasingly bear the brunt of America’s propensity for anger and violence.
Crime has not fallen in the United States—it’s been shifted. Just as Wall Street connived with regulators to transfer financial risk from spendthrift banks to careless home buyers, so have federal, state, and local legislatures succeeded in rerouting criminal risk away from urban centers and concentrating it in a proliferating web of hyperhells. The statistics touting the country’s crime-reduction miracle, when juxtaposed with those documenting the quantity of rape and assault that takes place each year within the correctional system, are exposed as not merely a lie, or even a damn lie—but as the single most shameful lie in American life.
…[Prisoners] are the victims of an ideological system that dehumanizes an entire class of human being and permits nearly infinite violence against it. As much as a physical space, prisons denote an ethical space, or, more precisely, a space where ordinary ethics are suspended.
...[In prisons] anybody is free to commit rape and be reasonably assured that no state official will notice or care (barring those instances when the management knowingly encourages rape, unleashing favored inmates on troublemakers as a strategy for administrative control). The prison staff is above the law; the prison inmates, below it. Far from embodying the model of Bentham/Foucault’s panopticon— that is, one of total surveillance—America’s prisons are its blind spots, places where complaints cannot be heard and abuses cannot be seen. Though important symbols of bureaucratic authority, they are spaces that lie beyond our system of bureaucratic oversight. As far as the outside world is concerned, every American prison functions as a black site.” - Christopher Glazek
I wonder how much time Mr. Glazek has actually spent inside America’s prisons. Very little, I suspect. He sounds like some prison reform ideologue that has been watching way too many prison movies on TV while smoking some funny tobacco.
If even half of Glzek’s fantasy were true, then shame, shame on you dehumanizing ‘above the law’ correctional officers.
REGARDLESS OF RACE, ETHNICITY OR SOCIOECONOMIC BACKGROUND, THE CONFINED ARE IN PRISON FOR BEING CRIMINALS
From “What’s America’s Real Crime Rate?’ / The Economist / February 14, 2012:
“For a great many poor people in America, particularly poor black men, prison is a destination that braids through an ordinary life, much as high school and college do for rich white ones. More than half of all black men without a high-school diploma go to prison at some time in their lives. Mass incarceration on a scale almost unexampled in human history is a fundamental fact of our country today—perhaps the fundamental fact, as slavery was the fundamental fact of 1850. In truth, there are more black men in the grip of the criminal-justice system—in prison, on probation, or on parole—than were in slavery then. Over all, there are now more people under “correctional supervision” in America—more than six million—than were in the Gulag Archipelago under Stalin at its height. That city of the confined and the controlled, Lockuptown, is now the second largest in the United States.” - Adam Gopnik
When Mr. Gopnik compares the imprisonment of blacks to slavery, he is obviously playing the race card. There is no doubt that blacks are disproportionately represented in the prison population, but then they are not confined for singing off-key in the church choir. It would be nice if we could just sprinkle fairy dust over the black community so that all black men would become instantly well-educated and prosperous. In the meantime, the police and corrections authorities will just have to deal with what it is.
“For a great many poor people in America, particularly poor black men, prison is a destination that braids through an ordinary life, much as high school and college do for rich white ones. More than half of all black men without a high-school diploma go to prison at some time in their lives. Mass incarceration on a scale almost unexampled in human history is a fundamental fact of our country today—perhaps the fundamental fact, as slavery was the fundamental fact of 1850. In truth, there are more black men in the grip of the criminal-justice system—in prison, on probation, or on parole—than were in slavery then. Over all, there are now more people under “correctional supervision” in America—more than six million—than were in the Gulag Archipelago under Stalin at its height. That city of the confined and the controlled, Lockuptown, is now the second largest in the United States.” - Adam Gopnik
When Mr. Gopnik compares the imprisonment of blacks to slavery, he is obviously playing the race card. There is no doubt that blacks are disproportionately represented in the prison population, but then they are not confined for singing off-key in the church choir. It would be nice if we could just sprinkle fairy dust over the black community so that all black men would become instantly well-educated and prosperous. In the meantime, the police and corrections authorities will just have to deal with what it is.
GOV. MOONBEAM’S REALIGNMENT AT WORK
Ole Moonbeam has been shifting the burden of California’s state prison population and parole supervision to the state’s counties. Here is how ‘GPS 3056’, a PACOVILLA follower sees it:
“Wow, look at what has happened just in 5 months of AB109 [the realignment bill]. Parole Agents getting shot and agents shooting perps.
Sorry to say, but crooks have less to lose and they’re doing the math and figuring DAPO [the parole division] doesn’t have much bite any longer.
Police are chopping at the bit to make the arrests, but as soon as sheriff Lee Baca’s hotel (LA County jail) reached full capacity, he is gonna have to let out the thieves and dopers. Oh great there goes my mail and property.
Probation is having its own problems, like taking on the parolee population. Now probationers are being neglected because probation officers are trying to deal with the active parolees.
Law enforcement is trying to keep a stiff upper lip and is just gonna have to arrest everyone. But the criminals aren’t serving any length of time.
Great job State of CA/GOV Brown for dumping this meatball of a mess [on the counties] to save a dollar. What will the total expense be?? Human life, property loss and fear!
I usually don’t pack [a gun] off duty, but I think I’m gonna change that tune.”
And another of Paco’s followers, ‘one parole agent’, said:
“I had a parolee just get 120 days from the BPH [Board of Parole Hearings] for a violation involving robbery and false imprisonment. That was automatically reduced to 60 days. But, due to jail capacity, the parolee was released in just 11 days. He was sitting in the lobby smiling at me. Wow, what a joke ……….”
“Wow, look at what has happened just in 5 months of AB109 [the realignment bill]. Parole Agents getting shot and agents shooting perps.
Sorry to say, but crooks have less to lose and they’re doing the math and figuring DAPO [the parole division] doesn’t have much bite any longer.
Police are chopping at the bit to make the arrests, but as soon as sheriff Lee Baca’s hotel (LA County jail) reached full capacity, he is gonna have to let out the thieves and dopers. Oh great there goes my mail and property.
Probation is having its own problems, like taking on the parolee population. Now probationers are being neglected because probation officers are trying to deal with the active parolees.
Law enforcement is trying to keep a stiff upper lip and is just gonna have to arrest everyone. But the criminals aren’t serving any length of time.
Great job State of CA/GOV Brown for dumping this meatball of a mess [on the counties] to save a dollar. What will the total expense be?? Human life, property loss and fear!
I usually don’t pack [a gun] off duty, but I think I’m gonna change that tune.”
And another of Paco’s followers, ‘one parole agent’, said:
“I had a parolee just get 120 days from the BPH [Board of Parole Hearings] for a violation involving robbery and false imprisonment. That was automatically reduced to 60 days. But, due to jail capacity, the parolee was released in just 11 days. He was sitting in the lobby smiling at me. Wow, what a joke ……….”
NEWT SAYS AFGHANS OWE U.S. APOLOGY FOR THE DEATHS OF FOUR AMERICAN SOLDIERS KILLED DURING ‘KORAN BURNING’ PROTESTS
Four American soldiers, including a colonel and a major, have been killed during the ‘Koran burning’ riots, as of this writing. I agree with Newt that we do not owe the Afghans any apologies for the inadvertent burning of their holy books.
‘THEY DON’T DESERVE AN APOLOGY’: GINGRICH SLAMS OBAMA FOR SAYING SORRY TO AFGHANS OVER KORAN BURNING AS DEATH TOLL RISES TO 23
Claims Afghanistan should apologize to U.S. after American soldiers are killed
By Mark Duell
Mail Online
February 25, 2012
Twelve people died today during the bloodiest day yet of protests in Afghanistan over the burning of Koran copies found in a rubbish pit at a NATO military base.
Back in the U.S., GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich lashed out at President Barack Obama for saying sorry after copies of the Muslim holy book were found burned earlier this week.
Riot police and soldiers are braced for more violence after the Bagram compound burning deepened mistrust of NATO as it struggles to stabilise the nation before foreign combat troops leave in 2014.
Hundreds of Afghans marched toward the palace of their country’s President Hamid Karzai in Kabul on Friday, while on the other side of the capital protesters hoisted the white flag of the Taliban.
Chanting ‘Death to America!’ and ‘Long live Islam!’, protesters also threw rocks at police in Kabul, while Afghan army helicopters circled above and mosques in the capital drew large crowds.
Armed protesters took refuge in shops in the eastern part of the city, where one was killed, police said. In another Kabul rally, police were unsure who fired the shots that killed a second protester.
Seven more protesters were killed in Herat, two in Khost and one in the relatively peaceful Baghlan province, health and local officials said. In Herat, around 500 men charged at the U.S. consulate.
President Obama's apology was announced on Thursday and a few hours later it was reported that an Afghan soldier killed two U.S. troops and wounded others in retaliation for the Koran burning.
Campaigning in Washington state, Mr Gingrich said President Karzai now owes the U.S. an apology.
‘There seems to be nothing that radical Islamists can do to get Barack Obama's attention in a negative way and he is consistently apologising to people who do not deserve the apology,’ he said.
‘Candidly, if Hamid Karzai, doesn't feel like apologising then we should say goodbye and good luck, we don't need to be here risking our lives and wasting our money on somebody who doesn't care.’
President Obama apologised to President Karzai for the unintentional burning of the Korans at NATO's main Bagram air base after Afghan labourers found charred copies while collecting rubbish.
White House spokesman Jay Carney sought to counter criticism, telling reporters on board Air Force One: ‘It is wholly appropriate, given the sensitivities to this issue, the understandable sensitivities.’
‘His primary concern as commander in chief is the safety of the American men and women in Afghanistan, of our military and civilian personnel there. And it was absolutely the right thing to do.’
‘THEY DON’T DESERVE AN APOLOGY’: GINGRICH SLAMS OBAMA FOR SAYING SORRY TO AFGHANS OVER KORAN BURNING AS DEATH TOLL RISES TO 23
Claims Afghanistan should apologize to U.S. after American soldiers are killed
By Mark Duell
Mail Online
February 25, 2012
Twelve people died today during the bloodiest day yet of protests in Afghanistan over the burning of Koran copies found in a rubbish pit at a NATO military base.
Back in the U.S., GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich lashed out at President Barack Obama for saying sorry after copies of the Muslim holy book were found burned earlier this week.
Riot police and soldiers are braced for more violence after the Bagram compound burning deepened mistrust of NATO as it struggles to stabilise the nation before foreign combat troops leave in 2014.
Hundreds of Afghans marched toward the palace of their country’s President Hamid Karzai in Kabul on Friday, while on the other side of the capital protesters hoisted the white flag of the Taliban.
Chanting ‘Death to America!’ and ‘Long live Islam!’, protesters also threw rocks at police in Kabul, while Afghan army helicopters circled above and mosques in the capital drew large crowds.
Armed protesters took refuge in shops in the eastern part of the city, where one was killed, police said. In another Kabul rally, police were unsure who fired the shots that killed a second protester.
Seven more protesters were killed in Herat, two in Khost and one in the relatively peaceful Baghlan province, health and local officials said. In Herat, around 500 men charged at the U.S. consulate.
President Obama's apology was announced on Thursday and a few hours later it was reported that an Afghan soldier killed two U.S. troops and wounded others in retaliation for the Koran burning.
Campaigning in Washington state, Mr Gingrich said President Karzai now owes the U.S. an apology.
‘There seems to be nothing that radical Islamists can do to get Barack Obama's attention in a negative way and he is consistently apologising to people who do not deserve the apology,’ he said.
‘Candidly, if Hamid Karzai, doesn't feel like apologising then we should say goodbye and good luck, we don't need to be here risking our lives and wasting our money on somebody who doesn't care.’
President Obama apologised to President Karzai for the unintentional burning of the Korans at NATO's main Bagram air base after Afghan labourers found charred copies while collecting rubbish.
White House spokesman Jay Carney sought to counter criticism, telling reporters on board Air Force One: ‘It is wholly appropriate, given the sensitivities to this issue, the understandable sensitivities.’
‘His primary concern as commander in chief is the safety of the American men and women in Afghanistan, of our military and civilian personnel there. And it was absolutely the right thing to do.’
AMATEUR TATTOO ARTIST’S WORK NOT APPRECIATED BY 15-YEAR-OLD GIRL’S MOTHER
The State of Texas didn’t appreciate it either.
RUDY GARAY: HOMEMADE “HELLO KITTY” STOMACH TATTOO ON 15-YEAR-OLD NEIGHBOR GIRL BRINGS CHARGES
By Richard Connelly
Houston Press Hair Balls
February 24, 2012
A Rio Grande Valley man is facing charges because he inked a free "Hello Kitty" tattoo on the stomach of the 15-year-old girl who lived next door.
Rudy Garay, 19, has been charged with various violations of state tattoo regulations, among them not getting permission from the minor's parents, Valleycentral.com reports.
Maybe Garay thought the girl would keep the tat hidden, but her mother noticed it on the right side of her stomach and -- we presume after some loud words -- contacted authorities in Olmito.
Garay was unlicensed and using homemade equipment, investigators say, which certainly inspires confidence in his services.
He remained in jail as of this morning, unable to make bond.
RUDY GARAY: HOMEMADE “HELLO KITTY” STOMACH TATTOO ON 15-YEAR-OLD NEIGHBOR GIRL BRINGS CHARGES
By Richard Connelly
Houston Press Hair Balls
February 24, 2012
A Rio Grande Valley man is facing charges because he inked a free "Hello Kitty" tattoo on the stomach of the 15-year-old girl who lived next door.
Rudy Garay, 19, has been charged with various violations of state tattoo regulations, among them not getting permission from the minor's parents, Valleycentral.com reports.
Maybe Garay thought the girl would keep the tat hidden, but her mother noticed it on the right side of her stomach and -- we presume after some loud words -- contacted authorities in Olmito.
Garay was unlicensed and using homemade equipment, investigators say, which certainly inspires confidence in his services.
He remained in jail as of this morning, unable to make bond.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
CALIFORNIA IS THE MOST HATED STATE IN THE UNION
Texas didn't fare too well either. I think the reason people in other parts of the country don’t like Texas is because they are simply jealous of our great state. The fact that Texans do a lot of bragging about their state doesn’t help either.
I suspect the reason they hate California – I call it Kookfornia – the most of all the states is because of the kooky ultra-liberal garbage it keeps trying to foster on the rest of the country. Houston Press Hair Balls has presented five ‘irrefutable arguments’ that aliens from outer space landed and settled in Hollywood 70 years ago, which would explain how Kookfornia keeps coming up with that kooky garbage.
Here is one of the five arguments presented by Hair Balls: Very, very strange people like Tom Cruise and Arnold Schwarzenegger have reached the pinnacle of Hollywood success. And let me add as further proof of the now settled aliens from outer space, the fact that Kookfornia voters elected as governors, Arnold the Terminator and Jerry ‘Moonbeam’ Brown.
WE CAN BE TEXAS PROUD THAT WE’RE NOT CALIFORNIA
By Emily Wilkins
Houston Chronicle
February 23, 2012
Texas is big, proud and … not really liked that much by people in other states, at least according to the results of a Public Policy Polling survey released Tuesday.
The state of Texas is many things, but when 1,200 Americans were asked for their opinion of Texas in the last several months, 31 percent responded unfavorably. The good news is that 40 percent responded favorably, but the difference in percentages wasn’t enough for the state to be viewed more positively than Hawaii. Or North Dakota. Or Rhode Island.
You get the idea.
The 9 percentage point difference in positive and negative opinions placed Texas at 38th most liked state among the 50 United States.
But however Texas is viewed, residents can take comfort in knowing Americans aren’t indifferent about its Lone Star. About forty to sixty percent of respondents answered “not sure” when asked about their opinions of most states. But only 29 percent were unsure whether they liked Texas or not – a credit to Texas’s distinct culture and style, said Mark P. Jones, chair of the Department of Political Science at Rice University.
“States like Texas, given that it’s a well known brand and elicits a lot of positive support, it also has high negatives,” Jones said.
The only state respondents had less of an opinion about was California with 28 percent – the most hated state on the list.
Some more findings from the survey: If you are black, you probably don’t like Texas as much as most other states, but it’s better than Mississippi or Alabama. If you are a Republican, you probably love Texas and hate California. (The reverse is true if you are a Democrat.)
Take heart, Texas – 25 million people can’t be wrong. You will always be the biggest (as long as you’re only counting the continental states because Alaska beats you by a lot.) You have a lot of oil and presidents and a really big water park. And people like you more than New Jersey.
I suspect the reason they hate California – I call it Kookfornia – the most of all the states is because of the kooky ultra-liberal garbage it keeps trying to foster on the rest of the country. Houston Press Hair Balls has presented five ‘irrefutable arguments’ that aliens from outer space landed and settled in Hollywood 70 years ago, which would explain how Kookfornia keeps coming up with that kooky garbage.
Here is one of the five arguments presented by Hair Balls: Very, very strange people like Tom Cruise and Arnold Schwarzenegger have reached the pinnacle of Hollywood success. And let me add as further proof of the now settled aliens from outer space, the fact that Kookfornia voters elected as governors, Arnold the Terminator and Jerry ‘Moonbeam’ Brown.
WE CAN BE TEXAS PROUD THAT WE’RE NOT CALIFORNIA
By Emily Wilkins
Houston Chronicle
February 23, 2012
Texas is big, proud and … not really liked that much by people in other states, at least according to the results of a Public Policy Polling survey released Tuesday.
The state of Texas is many things, but when 1,200 Americans were asked for their opinion of Texas in the last several months, 31 percent responded unfavorably. The good news is that 40 percent responded favorably, but the difference in percentages wasn’t enough for the state to be viewed more positively than Hawaii. Or North Dakota. Or Rhode Island.
You get the idea.
The 9 percentage point difference in positive and negative opinions placed Texas at 38th most liked state among the 50 United States.
But however Texas is viewed, residents can take comfort in knowing Americans aren’t indifferent about its Lone Star. About forty to sixty percent of respondents answered “not sure” when asked about their opinions of most states. But only 29 percent were unsure whether they liked Texas or not – a credit to Texas’s distinct culture and style, said Mark P. Jones, chair of the Department of Political Science at Rice University.
“States like Texas, given that it’s a well known brand and elicits a lot of positive support, it also has high negatives,” Jones said.
The only state respondents had less of an opinion about was California with 28 percent – the most hated state on the list.
Some more findings from the survey: If you are black, you probably don’t like Texas as much as most other states, but it’s better than Mississippi or Alabama. If you are a Republican, you probably love Texas and hate California. (The reverse is true if you are a Democrat.)
Take heart, Texas – 25 million people can’t be wrong. You will always be the biggest (as long as you’re only counting the continental states because Alaska beats you by a lot.) You have a lot of oil and presidents and a really big water park. And people like you more than New Jersey.
MORE THAN 100,000 AMERICANS HAVE ALIGNED THEMSELVES WITH THE ‘SOVEREIGN CITIZEN’ MOVEMENT
The Sovereign Citizens pose just as serious a threat to the police as do White Supremacists and Jihadist terrorists.
‘SOVEREIGN CITIZEN’ MOVEMENT NOW ON FBI’S RADAR
Homeland Security has ranked the movement as a major threat. Its members reject the law, and some kill cops
By Brian Bennett
Los Angeles Times
February 23, 2012
Reporting from Washington— With the FBI pounding on his door, and his wife and two children barely awake, Shawn Rice allegedly strapped on a bulletproof vest, grabbed a semiautomatic pistol and stepped out his back door on Dec. 22.
But dozens of FBI agents and local police had surrounded the ranch house in Seligman, Ariz., about 80 miles west of Flagstaff, and the only nearby cover was knee-high sagebrush. Rice ducked back inside, and warned the FBI to keep away.
After a tense 10-hour standoff, Rice, 49, was arrested. He now sits in a Las Vegas jail awaiting trial on federal money-laundering charges.
But it wasn't Rice's alleged offense alone that prompted the FBI's interest.
According to court papers, Rice was involved in the "sovereign citizen" movement, a group that has attracted little national media attention but which the FBI classifies as an "extremist antigovernment group." So-called sovereign citizens argue that they are not subject to local, state or federal laws, and some refuse to recognize the authority of courts or police.
Since 2000, members of the movement have killed six police officers, and clashes with law enforcement are on the rise, according to the FBI. The deadliest incident came in 2010, when a shootout with a member left four people dead, including two police officers, during what began as a routine traffic stop in West Memphis, Ark.
Since then, in a notable shift in policy, federal officials have stepped up their attention on sovereign citizens.
"We are focusing our efforts because of the threat of violence," said Stuart R. McArthur, a deputy assistant director in the FBI's Counterterrorism Division.
In two recent unpublished studies, the Homeland Security Department and the National Counterterrorism Center ranked the sovereign citizen movement as a major threat, along with Islamic extremists and white supremacists. The FBI assigned a supervisor to coordinate investigations of the movement last year.
"This is a movement that has absolutely exploded," said Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit organization based in Montgomery, Ala., that tracks domestic terrorists and hate groups. More than 100,000 Americans have aligned themselves with the sovereign citizens, the center said.
Adherents cite a patchwork of beliefs, including that the U.S. is essentially under martial law, that some U.S. constitutional amendments are invalid, and that dollars have been illegitimate since the U.S. Treasury went off the gold standard during the Great Depression.
Most important, some followers believe they are entitled to use armed force to resist arrest and fight police.
The FBI also is investigating followers for alleged mail fraud and harassment of federal officials through nuisance lawsuits and property liens. Such cases are clogging courts in every state, said Casey Carty, who heads the FBI's sovereign citizen unit.
Until recently, federal officials had steered clear of any extensive focus on right-wing extremist groups. In 2009, some members of Congress complained after a Homeland Security Department report warned that such groups might seek to recruit disaffected military veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as others. The report highlighted several groups, including the sovereign citizen movement.
Bowing to the criticism, Homeland Security officials gutted the office that had focused on right-wing extremism. They also canceled planned presentations and shelved a reference guide that the office had produced to inform local police about the movement.
"The topic had become too politically charged," said Daryl Johnson, who headed the team that wrote the 2009 report.
That changed after the West Memphis shootout with Jerry Kane Jr., a sovereign citizen proponent who had traveled the country offering $100-a-head seminars that taught spurious ways to avoid paying taxes, among other movement tactics.
Kane and his 16-year-old son, Joseph, were killed in the shootout. Also killed was Police Sgt. Brandon Paudert, son of the local police chief, Bob Paudert.
Paudert had never heard of the sovereign citizen movement until that day. Now retired, he has spoken to more than 75 law enforcement groups around the country warning of its danger.
Paudert remains angry that Kane wasn't identified as potentially armed and dangerous in the FBI-run database that local police normally access for warrants and other data when they stop a vehicle. He wants the FBI to change the database to flag known sovereign citizen adherents.
"If we had that, [my son] would have immediately called for backup," Paudert said. "He would be alive today."
‘SOVEREIGN CITIZEN’ MOVEMENT NOW ON FBI’S RADAR
Homeland Security has ranked the movement as a major threat. Its members reject the law, and some kill cops
By Brian Bennett
Los Angeles Times
February 23, 2012
Reporting from Washington— With the FBI pounding on his door, and his wife and two children barely awake, Shawn Rice allegedly strapped on a bulletproof vest, grabbed a semiautomatic pistol and stepped out his back door on Dec. 22.
But dozens of FBI agents and local police had surrounded the ranch house in Seligman, Ariz., about 80 miles west of Flagstaff, and the only nearby cover was knee-high sagebrush. Rice ducked back inside, and warned the FBI to keep away.
After a tense 10-hour standoff, Rice, 49, was arrested. He now sits in a Las Vegas jail awaiting trial on federal money-laundering charges.
But it wasn't Rice's alleged offense alone that prompted the FBI's interest.
According to court papers, Rice was involved in the "sovereign citizen" movement, a group that has attracted little national media attention but which the FBI classifies as an "extremist antigovernment group." So-called sovereign citizens argue that they are not subject to local, state or federal laws, and some refuse to recognize the authority of courts or police.
Since 2000, members of the movement have killed six police officers, and clashes with law enforcement are on the rise, according to the FBI. The deadliest incident came in 2010, when a shootout with a member left four people dead, including two police officers, during what began as a routine traffic stop in West Memphis, Ark.
Since then, in a notable shift in policy, federal officials have stepped up their attention on sovereign citizens.
"We are focusing our efforts because of the threat of violence," said Stuart R. McArthur, a deputy assistant director in the FBI's Counterterrorism Division.
In two recent unpublished studies, the Homeland Security Department and the National Counterterrorism Center ranked the sovereign citizen movement as a major threat, along with Islamic extremists and white supremacists. The FBI assigned a supervisor to coordinate investigations of the movement last year.
"This is a movement that has absolutely exploded," said Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit organization based in Montgomery, Ala., that tracks domestic terrorists and hate groups. More than 100,000 Americans have aligned themselves with the sovereign citizens, the center said.
Adherents cite a patchwork of beliefs, including that the U.S. is essentially under martial law, that some U.S. constitutional amendments are invalid, and that dollars have been illegitimate since the U.S. Treasury went off the gold standard during the Great Depression.
Most important, some followers believe they are entitled to use armed force to resist arrest and fight police.
The FBI also is investigating followers for alleged mail fraud and harassment of federal officials through nuisance lawsuits and property liens. Such cases are clogging courts in every state, said Casey Carty, who heads the FBI's sovereign citizen unit.
Until recently, federal officials had steered clear of any extensive focus on right-wing extremist groups. In 2009, some members of Congress complained after a Homeland Security Department report warned that such groups might seek to recruit disaffected military veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as others. The report highlighted several groups, including the sovereign citizen movement.
Bowing to the criticism, Homeland Security officials gutted the office that had focused on right-wing extremism. They also canceled planned presentations and shelved a reference guide that the office had produced to inform local police about the movement.
"The topic had become too politically charged," said Daryl Johnson, who headed the team that wrote the 2009 report.
That changed after the West Memphis shootout with Jerry Kane Jr., a sovereign citizen proponent who had traveled the country offering $100-a-head seminars that taught spurious ways to avoid paying taxes, among other movement tactics.
Kane and his 16-year-old son, Joseph, were killed in the shootout. Also killed was Police Sgt. Brandon Paudert, son of the local police chief, Bob Paudert.
Paudert had never heard of the sovereign citizen movement until that day. Now retired, he has spoken to more than 75 law enforcement groups around the country warning of its danger.
Paudert remains angry that Kane wasn't identified as potentially armed and dangerous in the FBI-run database that local police normally access for warrants and other data when they stop a vehicle. He wants the FBI to change the database to flag known sovereign citizen adherents.
"If we had that, [my son] would have immediately called for backup," Paudert said. "He would be alive today."
LISHA SHOULD HAVE STUCK TO PUBLIC-LEWDNESS
I wasn’t aware that gas stations were in the habit of cashing very large checks.
LISHA UNDERWOOD: CRIMINAL GENIUS CHANGES STOLEN #25,439.26 CHECK TO $8,439.26, CAUGHT ANYWAY
By Richard Connelly
Houston Press Hair Balls
February 24, 2012
What is the downfall of every criminal mastermind? Hubris, often, sure. But also greed. They just decide to go too far, and get caught.
Lisha Underwood wasn't going to fall into that trap, if what court documents say is true.
Last October, a local company cut a $25,439.26 check to another business and put it in the mail.
Somehow the check didn't make it to the second company but instead ended up in the hands of Underwood, 37.
She took it to a North Freeway gas station and cashed it, but she wasn't going to make it easy on the cops. Or maybe she was trying to keep the check under the station's check-cashing limit, since ensuing events sorta detract from any criminal-genius assessments.
Usherwood changed the "25" in $25,439.26 to "8," as in $8,439.26.
She must have done it well, for the check went through and she got her money. In the course of the transaction, though, she handed over her driver's license, which the station made a copy of.
So when the check finished its way through the banking process and ended up back at the company that wrote it, investigating the forgery was a pretty simple affair.
Usherwood faces a felony forgery charge. Court records, by the way, show she pleaded nolo contendere to a public-lewdness charge in 1993.
LISHA UNDERWOOD: CRIMINAL GENIUS CHANGES STOLEN #25,439.26 CHECK TO $8,439.26, CAUGHT ANYWAY
By Richard Connelly
Houston Press Hair Balls
February 24, 2012
What is the downfall of every criminal mastermind? Hubris, often, sure. But also greed. They just decide to go too far, and get caught.
Lisha Underwood wasn't going to fall into that trap, if what court documents say is true.
Last October, a local company cut a $25,439.26 check to another business and put it in the mail.
Somehow the check didn't make it to the second company but instead ended up in the hands of Underwood, 37.
She took it to a North Freeway gas station and cashed it, but she wasn't going to make it easy on the cops. Or maybe she was trying to keep the check under the station's check-cashing limit, since ensuing events sorta detract from any criminal-genius assessments.
Usherwood changed the "25" in $25,439.26 to "8," as in $8,439.26.
She must have done it well, for the check went through and she got her money. In the course of the transaction, though, she handed over her driver's license, which the station made a copy of.
So when the check finished its way through the banking process and ended up back at the company that wrote it, investigating the forgery was a pretty simple affair.
Usherwood faces a felony forgery charge. Court records, by the way, show she pleaded nolo contendere to a public-lewdness charge in 1993.
VERY EXPENSIVE T-SHIRT
They say the truth hurts!
SPANISH WOMAN FINED 1,000 EUROS FOR WEARING T-SHIRT SAYING ‘MY EX-HUSBAND IS AN ASSHOLE’
Ironically the t-shirt was a present to the woman by her new-found love
By Paul Milligan
Mail Online
February 23, 2012
A divorcée in Spain has been ordered to pay €1,000 damages to her ex-husband after she posted photos on Facebook wearing a t-shirt with a rude message about him.
The 40-year-old woman posted the image back in 2010. In December that year, her former husband saw the offending images and filed for damages.
The couple divorced in 2005, reports the Register website.
A court in Madrid sided with the ex-husband and agreed that the phrase 'Mi exmarido es gilipollas' which roughly translates as 'my ex-husband is an asshole' was an attack on the victim's dignity and damaged his reputation.
He ordered the woman to pay her ex €2,000, and a €240 fine.
These were reduced on appeal to €1,000 damages and eight days' house arrest in lieu of the fine.
To make matters worse, the woman had to ask the judge to pay the damages in installments as she doesn’t earn enough money to pay the fine in one go.
Telling the judge she only earned €700 a month, she responded to the verdict by saying: ‘I started crying because I couldn't believe it. I don't understand how the complaint could have ended in court. It's only a t-shirt.’
Apparently, this now very expensive t-shirt, was bought by the woman's current partner as a joke present for her on holiday in 2009.
SPANISH WOMAN FINED 1,000 EUROS FOR WEARING T-SHIRT SAYING ‘MY EX-HUSBAND IS AN ASSHOLE’
Ironically the t-shirt was a present to the woman by her new-found love
By Paul Milligan
Mail Online
February 23, 2012
A divorcée in Spain has been ordered to pay €1,000 damages to her ex-husband after she posted photos on Facebook wearing a t-shirt with a rude message about him.
The 40-year-old woman posted the image back in 2010. In December that year, her former husband saw the offending images and filed for damages.
The couple divorced in 2005, reports the Register website.
A court in Madrid sided with the ex-husband and agreed that the phrase 'Mi exmarido es gilipollas' which roughly translates as 'my ex-husband is an asshole' was an attack on the victim's dignity and damaged his reputation.
He ordered the woman to pay her ex €2,000, and a €240 fine.
These were reduced on appeal to €1,000 damages and eight days' house arrest in lieu of the fine.
To make matters worse, the woman had to ask the judge to pay the damages in installments as she doesn’t earn enough money to pay the fine in one go.
Telling the judge she only earned €700 a month, she responded to the verdict by saying: ‘I started crying because I couldn't believe it. I don't understand how the complaint could have ended in court. It's only a t-shirt.’
Apparently, this now very expensive t-shirt, was bought by the woman's current partner as a joke present for her on holiday in 2009.
Friday, February 24, 2012
THE CASE FOR A CONCEALED WEAPONS CARRY PERMIT
PACOVILLA follower Steelheader says, “It is always better to have a gun in the hand than a cop on the phone. Another avoidable tragic death.”
COPS DIDN’T COME, HOMEOWNER DIED
By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
February 22, 2012
Peter Cukor, 67, was by all accounts a good guy. He was beaten to death at his Berkeley home Saturday night when the cops didn’t come. They were only responding to “real emergencies” at the time because they were on standby for an Occupy Oakland response.
Cukor first called the cops about 8:45 p.m. on the non-emergency line to report a suspicious person hanging around his property. After that call Cukor walked 160 feet to the nearby fire station to request assistance. The firefighters were out on a call. When he returned home he was confronted by the suspicious person, Daniel Jordan DeWitt, 23, who is something of a nutter. DeWitt picked up a large ceramic pot and beat Cukor to death with it.
At that time Cukor’s wife called the cops. They responded in less than five minutes and arrested DeWitt, who was still in the area.
It turns out there was an available cop nearby when the first call came in. That cop volunteered to respond but was reminded by dispatch that they were only responding to emergency calls at that time. On that particular evening the Occupy mob was quite and numbered only about 40. No arrests were made.
DeWitt also has a charge pending from an assault on a nurse at a psych facility in San Leandro.
COPS DIDN’T COME, HOMEOWNER DIED
By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
February 22, 2012
Peter Cukor, 67, was by all accounts a good guy. He was beaten to death at his Berkeley home Saturday night when the cops didn’t come. They were only responding to “real emergencies” at the time because they were on standby for an Occupy Oakland response.
Cukor first called the cops about 8:45 p.m. on the non-emergency line to report a suspicious person hanging around his property. After that call Cukor walked 160 feet to the nearby fire station to request assistance. The firefighters were out on a call. When he returned home he was confronted by the suspicious person, Daniel Jordan DeWitt, 23, who is something of a nutter. DeWitt picked up a large ceramic pot and beat Cukor to death with it.
At that time Cukor’s wife called the cops. They responded in less than five minutes and arrested DeWitt, who was still in the area.
It turns out there was an available cop nearby when the first call came in. That cop volunteered to respond but was reminded by dispatch that they were only responding to emergency calls at that time. On that particular evening the Occupy mob was quite and numbered only about 40. No arrests were made.
DeWitt also has a charge pending from an assault on a nurse at a psych facility in San Leandro.
‘ALL OUR TROUBLES ARE DUE TO IRAEL’
So said the chief strategist of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. And members of Hillary Clinton’s State Department and Leon Panetta’s Defense Department have also said this when discussing our troubled relations with the Muslim world.
MORE EVIDENCE IRAN’S NUCLAR PROGRAM IS NOT PEACEFUL
By Ryan Jones
Israel Today
February 23, 2012
Iran continues to insist its secretive nuclear program is peaceful in nature, and Western leaders remain eager to at least partially take Tehran at its word in order to avoid a military conflict. But an interview with the wife of a slain Iranian nuclear scientist further suggested that the international community is sticking its head in the sand, to the detriment of Israel.
Speaking to Iran's Fars News Agency, Fatemeh Bolouri Kashani, the wife of recently assassinated nuclear scientist, Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan Behdast, said her husband's "ultimate goal was the annihilation of Israel."
Roshan was a director and lead chemist at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility, one of the most important facilities in Iran's nuclear program, and perhaps the most important if Iran is planning building atomic bombs.
Iranian officials and media have accused Israel's Mossad spy agency of being behind the car bomb that killed Roshan as he drove to work last month. Israeli President Shimon Peres denied that his nation was involved.
On Wednesday, Israeli army chief Gen. Benny Gantz reiterated that a nuclear-armed Iran poses an unacceptable existential threat to the Jewish state. And Balouri Kashani's revelation of what her husband was working toward is only the latest vindication of the Israeli assessment.
A document recently published by the chief strategist of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Alireza Forghani, argued that "in the name of Allah, Iran must attack Israel by 2014. All our troubles are due to Israel!"
Khamenei and especially Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have repeatedly referred to Israel as a cancer that must be removed from the Middle East.
Despite this evidence to the contrary, Israel's critics continue to accuse the Jewish state of manipulating the situation for the sake of starting what they call another pointless war.
MORE EVIDENCE IRAN’S NUCLAR PROGRAM IS NOT PEACEFUL
By Ryan Jones
Israel Today
February 23, 2012
Iran continues to insist its secretive nuclear program is peaceful in nature, and Western leaders remain eager to at least partially take Tehran at its word in order to avoid a military conflict. But an interview with the wife of a slain Iranian nuclear scientist further suggested that the international community is sticking its head in the sand, to the detriment of Israel.
Speaking to Iran's Fars News Agency, Fatemeh Bolouri Kashani, the wife of recently assassinated nuclear scientist, Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan Behdast, said her husband's "ultimate goal was the annihilation of Israel."
Roshan was a director and lead chemist at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility, one of the most important facilities in Iran's nuclear program, and perhaps the most important if Iran is planning building atomic bombs.
Iranian officials and media have accused Israel's Mossad spy agency of being behind the car bomb that killed Roshan as he drove to work last month. Israeli President Shimon Peres denied that his nation was involved.
On Wednesday, Israeli army chief Gen. Benny Gantz reiterated that a nuclear-armed Iran poses an unacceptable existential threat to the Jewish state. And Balouri Kashani's revelation of what her husband was working toward is only the latest vindication of the Israeli assessment.
A document recently published by the chief strategist of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Alireza Forghani, argued that "in the name of Allah, Iran must attack Israel by 2014. All our troubles are due to Israel!"
Khamenei and especially Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have repeatedly referred to Israel as a cancer that must be removed from the Middle East.
Despite this evidence to the contrary, Israel's critics continue to accuse the Jewish state of manipulating the situation for the sake of starting what they call another pointless war.
THE GOVERNMENT DOES NOT WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT ALIENS FROM OUTER SPACE LANDED AND SETTLED IN HOLLYWOOD
Hair Balls exposes a government coverup.
THE “BATTLE OF LA,” 70 YEARS AGO TODAY: 5 IRREFUTABLE ARGUMENTS WHY IT WAS ACTUALLY A UFO ATTACK
By Richard Connelly
Houston Press Hair Balls
February 23, 2012
Seventy years ago today, the Battle of Los Angeles occurred, a vicious fight that resulted in three civilian deaths.
Haven't heard of it? We're not surprised.
The U.S. government said what happened was nighttime antiaircraft crews protecting Los Angeles got nervous -- it was just two months after Pearl Harbor -- and opened fire on a weather balloon.
The crews also set off flares, and all the confusion just built on itself. So we're told.
Others say the night featured an attempted UFO landing, in which the valiant gun crews fought aliens trying to land.
It's pretty obvious the latter is true.
Obviously the aliens not only attempted to land, they succeeded. Just look at what's happened in Hollywood since then. The logic becomes inescapable.
5. THE QUANTITY OF UFO/ALIEN MOVIES HAS INCREASED DRAMATICALLY
Between 1911 and 1941, UFOs and flying saucers were occasionally a subject for films. Since then -- especially since the 1950s, after a necessary period of time to learn the equipment and infiltrate studio management -- movies about UFOs exploded. Coincidence? who's being naive, Kay?
4. THE QUALITY OF UFO/ALIEN MOVIES HAS INCREASED DRAMATICALLY
In the 1930s, UFOs were laughably portrayed on screen, obvious frauds. While it understandably took a decade or two to import the necessary technology from the home planet to Earth, all of a sudden you got Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Independence Day and the Transformers series. The aliens' unstinting desire for complete accuracy in movies is inspiring
3. VERY, VERY STRANGE PEOPLE LIKE TOM CRUISE AND ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER HAVE REACHED THE PINNACLE OF HOLLYWOOD SUCCESS
One fiercely believes in aliens and Xenu as if he knows it was true and the other became an influential box-office legend despite documentaries that proved a) he could barely speak English, and b) he was a cyborg sent from the future to kill a specific human. Luckily for the U.S. -- and the world -- the aliens overreached when they had him elected California governor as a first step towards getting his finger on the nuclear button (Yes, their plans included overturning the "natural born citizen" section of the Constitution.)
2. THE ATTACKS SUDDENLY STOPPED
If it was a case of "itchy trigger fingers," why weren't there countless more up and down the coast? Answer: Because the aliens had succeeded in landing and needed no more attempts. Sherlock Holmes's "dog that didn't bark" theorem FTW, bitchaz.
1. THEY NEVER FOUND THE “WEATHER BALLOON” THAT STARTED IT ALL
The feds would have you believe the following:
1) A weather balloon was shot at by a lot of antiaircraft guns
2) It, or its pieces, fell to the Pacific Ocean.
If that's true, why couldn't they produce the balloon? Surely the balloon (or the pieces thereof) would have floated in the Pacific for some time, and the Pacific is known by oceanologists to be, as they say, "not very big."
So why couldn't the government find this alleged "balloon"?
Think, people. And vote Ron Paul!!!
THE “BATTLE OF LA,” 70 YEARS AGO TODAY: 5 IRREFUTABLE ARGUMENTS WHY IT WAS ACTUALLY A UFO ATTACK
By Richard Connelly
Houston Press Hair Balls
February 23, 2012
Seventy years ago today, the Battle of Los Angeles occurred, a vicious fight that resulted in three civilian deaths.
Haven't heard of it? We're not surprised.
The U.S. government said what happened was nighttime antiaircraft crews protecting Los Angeles got nervous -- it was just two months after Pearl Harbor -- and opened fire on a weather balloon.
The crews also set off flares, and all the confusion just built on itself. So we're told.
Others say the night featured an attempted UFO landing, in which the valiant gun crews fought aliens trying to land.
It's pretty obvious the latter is true.
Obviously the aliens not only attempted to land, they succeeded. Just look at what's happened in Hollywood since then. The logic becomes inescapable.
5. THE QUANTITY OF UFO/ALIEN MOVIES HAS INCREASED DRAMATICALLY
Between 1911 and 1941, UFOs and flying saucers were occasionally a subject for films. Since then -- especially since the 1950s, after a necessary period of time to learn the equipment and infiltrate studio management -- movies about UFOs exploded. Coincidence? who's being naive, Kay?
4. THE QUALITY OF UFO/ALIEN MOVIES HAS INCREASED DRAMATICALLY
In the 1930s, UFOs were laughably portrayed on screen, obvious frauds. While it understandably took a decade or two to import the necessary technology from the home planet to Earth, all of a sudden you got Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Independence Day and the Transformers series. The aliens' unstinting desire for complete accuracy in movies is inspiring
3. VERY, VERY STRANGE PEOPLE LIKE TOM CRUISE AND ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER HAVE REACHED THE PINNACLE OF HOLLYWOOD SUCCESS
One fiercely believes in aliens and Xenu as if he knows it was true and the other became an influential box-office legend despite documentaries that proved a) he could barely speak English, and b) he was a cyborg sent from the future to kill a specific human. Luckily for the U.S. -- and the world -- the aliens overreached when they had him elected California governor as a first step towards getting his finger on the nuclear button (Yes, their plans included overturning the "natural born citizen" section of the Constitution.)
2. THE ATTACKS SUDDENLY STOPPED
If it was a case of "itchy trigger fingers," why weren't there countless more up and down the coast? Answer: Because the aliens had succeeded in landing and needed no more attempts. Sherlock Holmes's "dog that didn't bark" theorem FTW, bitchaz.
1. THEY NEVER FOUND THE “WEATHER BALLOON” THAT STARTED IT ALL
The feds would have you believe the following:
1) A weather balloon was shot at by a lot of antiaircraft guns
2) It, or its pieces, fell to the Pacific Ocean.
If that's true, why couldn't they produce the balloon? Surely the balloon (or the pieces thereof) would have floated in the Pacific for some time, and the Pacific is known by oceanologists to be, as they say, "not very big."
So why couldn't the government find this alleged "balloon"?
Think, people. And vote Ron Paul!!!
WHERE ARE THE JOBS, MR. PRESIDENT?
The unemployment rate went down only because millions of people simply gave up looking for work and dropped out of the workforce all together.
JOBS, JOBS, JOBS
By Monica Crowley
politicalmavens.com
February 23, 2012\
“Where are the jobs, Mr. President?” So wailed then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi when the unemployment rate was about 6 percent toward the end of President Bush’s term.
Different president, same question. Only in Obama’s case, staggeringly high unemployment, routinely over 9 percent, for years on end. And when the rate did drop, it was only because millions of people simply gave up looking for work and dropped out of the workforce all together.
Today, Gallup reports its latest unemployment findings:
“The U.S. unemployment rate, as measured by Gallup without seasonal adjustment, is 9.0% in mid-February,” Gallup said in its mid-month unemployment survey, released on February 17. “The mid-month reading normally reflects what the U.S. government reports for the entire month, and is up from 8.3% in mid-January.
“Gallup said the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) would likely report a rise in the official unemployment rate in early March, when it publishes its February figures.
“Gallup’s mid-month figures are not seasonally adjusted, and so may not predict the official unemployment rate precisely. However, because Gallup and BLS both conduct their unemployment surveys at the same time - in the middle of the month - Gallup’s early figures can provide a barometer of where the official rate is likely headed.
“The survey also found that “underemployment” - those unemployed and those working part-time because full-time jobs are unavailable - rose to 19 percent, up from the 18.7 percent Gallup found in January.
“Gallup said its report reflected a continuing trend of weakness in U.S. labor markets, marking a “sharp deterioration” in job market conditions.”
In other words, the jobs picture is not improving, 13 million people remain out of work, and Obama’s policies are as destructive as ever.
Where are the jobs, Mr. President?
JOBS, JOBS, JOBS
By Monica Crowley
politicalmavens.com
February 23, 2012\
“Where are the jobs, Mr. President?” So wailed then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi when the unemployment rate was about 6 percent toward the end of President Bush’s term.
Different president, same question. Only in Obama’s case, staggeringly high unemployment, routinely over 9 percent, for years on end. And when the rate did drop, it was only because millions of people simply gave up looking for work and dropped out of the workforce all together.
Today, Gallup reports its latest unemployment findings:
“The U.S. unemployment rate, as measured by Gallup without seasonal adjustment, is 9.0% in mid-February,” Gallup said in its mid-month unemployment survey, released on February 17. “The mid-month reading normally reflects what the U.S. government reports for the entire month, and is up from 8.3% in mid-January.
“Gallup said the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) would likely report a rise in the official unemployment rate in early March, when it publishes its February figures.
“Gallup’s mid-month figures are not seasonally adjusted, and so may not predict the official unemployment rate precisely. However, because Gallup and BLS both conduct their unemployment surveys at the same time - in the middle of the month - Gallup’s early figures can provide a barometer of where the official rate is likely headed.
“The survey also found that “underemployment” - those unemployed and those working part-time because full-time jobs are unavailable - rose to 19 percent, up from the 18.7 percent Gallup found in January.
“Gallup said its report reflected a continuing trend of weakness in U.S. labor markets, marking a “sharp deterioration” in job market conditions.”
In other words, the jobs picture is not improving, 13 million people remain out of work, and Obama’s policies are as destructive as ever.
Where are the jobs, Mr. President?
WARREN BUFFETT SHOULD JUST CUT A CHECK EVERY YEAR
Since Buffett complains that he’s not paying enough in taxes, why doesn’t he just cut a check and send it to the IRS?
THE REAL STORY ON TAXES THE RICH PAY
By Scott Burns
Houston Chronicle
February 22, 2012
Warren Buffett and Mitt Romney have something in common beyond wealth. Both pay federal income taxes at a 45 percent rate. That's three times the 15 percent rate mentioned by Buffett and reported in the press. That rate is also higher than the 30 percent "Buffett Rule" that President Barack Obama is touting in the name of fairness.
How can this be? How can Buffett and Romney pay so much more in taxes than we see discussed in the press? Doesn't everyone know that the very rich have the advantage of being able to rent representatives and senators to write the best tax code money can buy?
The answer lies in understanding what economists call "tax incidence" - knowing who really pays a tax.
If you have a lemonade stand, it is considered a "proprietorship." You're the owner, operator and the person who earns income selling the lemonade. You subtract the costs of doing business from the sales of lemonade, and that becomes your earned income. Since it is labor income, it is subject to employment taxes. It is also subject to the federal income tax.
MORE TAXES
But you have a vision. You want to become the Starbucks of lemonade. You open multiple stands. The net income of the business soars. Your new CPA says you need to turn your proprietorship into a corporation. Since you enjoy having a big income, you make it an "S" corporation, a form that allows you to, for tax purposes, pass all net income through to yourself and, perhaps, a few other shareholders.
That income, like the proprietorship income, will be subject to the employment tax and the federal income tax. You'll pay at a 12.4 percent rate on the first $110,100 you earn for the employment tax. (The Medicare tax is an additional 2.9 percent.) As a practical matter, you're earning so much that you leave the employment tax far behind. The only tax that matters is the federal income tax. On that, you pay at a rate as high as 35 percent.
BIGGER AND BIGGER
Now suppose Ubiquitous Lemonade grows even larger. What do you do?
You become a "C" corporation, one that is a taxable entity unto itself. As a consequence, you now have to pay the corporate income tax. Whatever your corporation earns, it may be taxed at a rate up to 35 percent. For each $1 of earnings, the corporation can retain 65 cents after taxes. The corporation can then pay you a dividend out of those 65 cents.
When you get that dividend, it will be subject to a federal income tax rate of 15 percent. Since you are paying a 15 percent tax on 65 cents, $1 of what used to be your earnings is now down to 55 cents after taxes.
One of the reasons the tax rate on dividends is so low is that economists see this as double taxation. However you look at it, your effective tax rate is 45 percent because that's how much of each earned dollar goes to the government. If Obama gets his Buffett Rule, with a minimum tax rate of 30 percent for millionaires, the effective tax rate won't be 30 percent. It will be 55 percent.
Would that kill the economy? Maybe. Maybe not. It certainly wouldn't be friendly to income from capital, so we can expect to see yet more money being invested in other countries.
We can also expect more wealthy Americans deciding that Australia, New Zealand or Brazil are better places to live, work and collect dividends.
HIGH TAXES FOR ALL
The reality here is that the U.S. is a high-tax land for everybody.
If you are a typical worker, you probably pay a top income tax rate of 15 percent. You also pay the 15.3 percent employment tax. (If you think you only pay half of that tax, you've been snookered by a politician. Stop working, and your employer stops paying its "share" of the tax.) So your real but disguised tax burden is about 30 percent.
That's two-thirds of what Buffett and Romney pay.
What should our tax rate be? I don't know. But it would help if the politicians started with the right numbers.
THE REAL STORY ON TAXES THE RICH PAY
By Scott Burns
Houston Chronicle
February 22, 2012
Warren Buffett and Mitt Romney have something in common beyond wealth. Both pay federal income taxes at a 45 percent rate. That's three times the 15 percent rate mentioned by Buffett and reported in the press. That rate is also higher than the 30 percent "Buffett Rule" that President Barack Obama is touting in the name of fairness.
How can this be? How can Buffett and Romney pay so much more in taxes than we see discussed in the press? Doesn't everyone know that the very rich have the advantage of being able to rent representatives and senators to write the best tax code money can buy?
The answer lies in understanding what economists call "tax incidence" - knowing who really pays a tax.
If you have a lemonade stand, it is considered a "proprietorship." You're the owner, operator and the person who earns income selling the lemonade. You subtract the costs of doing business from the sales of lemonade, and that becomes your earned income. Since it is labor income, it is subject to employment taxes. It is also subject to the federal income tax.
MORE TAXES
But you have a vision. You want to become the Starbucks of lemonade. You open multiple stands. The net income of the business soars. Your new CPA says you need to turn your proprietorship into a corporation. Since you enjoy having a big income, you make it an "S" corporation, a form that allows you to, for tax purposes, pass all net income through to yourself and, perhaps, a few other shareholders.
That income, like the proprietorship income, will be subject to the employment tax and the federal income tax. You'll pay at a 12.4 percent rate on the first $110,100 you earn for the employment tax. (The Medicare tax is an additional 2.9 percent.) As a practical matter, you're earning so much that you leave the employment tax far behind. The only tax that matters is the federal income tax. On that, you pay at a rate as high as 35 percent.
BIGGER AND BIGGER
Now suppose Ubiquitous Lemonade grows even larger. What do you do?
You become a "C" corporation, one that is a taxable entity unto itself. As a consequence, you now have to pay the corporate income tax. Whatever your corporation earns, it may be taxed at a rate up to 35 percent. For each $1 of earnings, the corporation can retain 65 cents after taxes. The corporation can then pay you a dividend out of those 65 cents.
When you get that dividend, it will be subject to a federal income tax rate of 15 percent. Since you are paying a 15 percent tax on 65 cents, $1 of what used to be your earnings is now down to 55 cents after taxes.
One of the reasons the tax rate on dividends is so low is that economists see this as double taxation. However you look at it, your effective tax rate is 45 percent because that's how much of each earned dollar goes to the government. If Obama gets his Buffett Rule, with a minimum tax rate of 30 percent for millionaires, the effective tax rate won't be 30 percent. It will be 55 percent.
Would that kill the economy? Maybe. Maybe not. It certainly wouldn't be friendly to income from capital, so we can expect to see yet more money being invested in other countries.
We can also expect more wealthy Americans deciding that Australia, New Zealand or Brazil are better places to live, work and collect dividends.
HIGH TAXES FOR ALL
The reality here is that the U.S. is a high-tax land for everybody.
If you are a typical worker, you probably pay a top income tax rate of 15 percent. You also pay the 15.3 percent employment tax. (If you think you only pay half of that tax, you've been snookered by a politician. Stop working, and your employer stops paying its "share" of the tax.) So your real but disguised tax burden is about 30 percent.
That's two-thirds of what Buffett and Romney pay.
What should our tax rate be? I don't know. But it would help if the politicians started with the right numbers.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
GROSS MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE
On June 27, 1990, Carl Wayne Buntion shot and killed Houston police officer James Irby during a routine traffic stop. Buntion, a career criminal with convictions dating back to 1961 and sentences totaling 105 years in prison, shot the motorcycle cop in the head, then stood over the fallen officer and shot him twice more in the back. Buntion had told people that, “If the police ever pull me over, I’m going to kill the officer because I’m not going back to prison.”
During the original trial in which Buntion was sentenced to death, this sorry piece of worthless shit claimed he shot Irby in self-defense because the officer had approached the car in which he had been riding with his service weapon drawn.
Now, some 22 years after the coldblooded murder of Officer James Irby, the punishment phase for Buntion, 68, is being retried. An appellate court had ordered the retrial because the jury that sentenced Buntion to death did not consider the mitigating evidence of his difficult childhood with an abusive father. His attorneys are arguing that his life should be spared because he has been a model prisoner while roosting on death row for over 20 years.
Buntion’s record of convictions for assaults, burglaries, a sexual assault and Irby’s murder were the result of an abusive childhood? Come on, give us a break! And he deserves to have his life spared because he has been a model prisoner on death row? What a crock of shit!
If his current jury resentences him to death, Buntion will probably roost another 10 years on death row pending resolution of the appeals that are sure to be filed in his behalf.
What we have here is a gross miscarriage of justice. Buntion, this sorry piece of worthless shit, should have been executed years ago, no ifs ands or buts about it!
During the original trial in which Buntion was sentenced to death, this sorry piece of worthless shit claimed he shot Irby in self-defense because the officer had approached the car in which he had been riding with his service weapon drawn.
Now, some 22 years after the coldblooded murder of Officer James Irby, the punishment phase for Buntion, 68, is being retried. An appellate court had ordered the retrial because the jury that sentenced Buntion to death did not consider the mitigating evidence of his difficult childhood with an abusive father. His attorneys are arguing that his life should be spared because he has been a model prisoner while roosting on death row for over 20 years.
Buntion’s record of convictions for assaults, burglaries, a sexual assault and Irby’s murder were the result of an abusive childhood? Come on, give us a break! And he deserves to have his life spared because he has been a model prisoner on death row? What a crock of shit!
If his current jury resentences him to death, Buntion will probably roost another 10 years on death row pending resolution of the appeals that are sure to be filed in his behalf.
What we have here is a gross miscarriage of justice. Buntion, this sorry piece of worthless shit, should have been executed years ago, no ifs ands or buts about it!
A NEW TWIST ON THE N-WORD
In the context of which the teacher used the forbidden N-word, I think he may have a winnable case.
WHITE CHICAGO TEACHER SUES TO USE N-WORD IN CLASS
By Jay Scott Smith
the grio
February 20, 2012
CHICAGO - A 48-year-old Chicago public school teacher used the "n-word" as part of a lesson on the perils and pitfalls of racism, and it landed him a five-day suspension from his job. Now the teacher is fighting back, filing a federal lawsuit against the district and claiming that his civil rights have been violated.
Lincoln Brown, a 21-year veteran teacher and native of Chicago's Hyde Park, used the word in his sixth grade classroom at Murray Language Academy on Oct. 4, 2011 after discovering a note that a female student was passing, which had the slur written on it citing some rap lyrics. Brown, who is white, used the note as an opportunity to teach a lesson about racism in the context of Huckleberry Finn.
In almost impeccable timing, as soon as Brown said the "n-word," the school's principal, George Mason, walked into the room, and the trouble started.
"This cannot be a part of who I am," Brown said, during a press conference with his attorney, "My character has been assassinated."
Mason gave a different account of the incident, and charged Brown with "using verbally abusive language to or in front of students" and "cruel, immoral, negligent or criminal conduct or communication to a student, that causes psychological or physical harm" which is in violation of the Chicago Public Schools policy. Mason disputed the context in which Brown used the n-word.
"We've talked about racial stereotyping and how words really shape people's ideas of who you are," Brown said, "I cannot tell you how much it hurts me to say that word."
Following a disciplinary hearing, Brown was suspended for five days without pay. CPS denied Brown's appeal of the suspension on grounds that he "engaged in inappropriate discussions with sixth-grade students during instructional time."
"If we can't discuss these issues, we'll never be able to resolve them," Brown said to the Chicago Sun-Times.
In the suit, he names Mason, CPS CEO Jean-Claude Brizard, and the Chicago Board of Education, saying his first and fifth amendment rights were violated.
Brown told the Sun-Times that he had previously used materials from the Southern Poverty Law Center that advised teachers on how to approach the subject of the "n-word" with students. He also insists that he thought Mason was supporting him when he stayed to watch the discussion with "engaged, excited" students.
"It's ridiculous to believe that sixth-graders aren't exposed to this language, not only in music but in their everyday lives," Brown said. He also claims that the stress has caused him to have high blood pressure and sleepless nights. Brown has gotten support from parents of current and former students, but that has not convinced the school district to reconsider on its decision.
"The principal determined that the way the teacher used the word was improper and imposed a short suspension," CPS Director of Communications Robyn Ziegler said in a prepared statement. "The teacher has received sufficient due process. In our opinion, his federal lawsuit is without merit."
This is just the example of a teacher employing questionable tactics to inject race into lesson plans in school. Last month, a teacher in suburban Detroit came under fire for a lesson she asked students to participate in slavery role-playing.
In December, a teacher in Atlanta resigned after attempting to correlate a math lesson with slavery. That lesson included questions such as: If Frederick (Douglass) got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in one week?
There was no word on when Brown's suit would be heard in federal court. Brown, who is expected to serve his suspension this week, hopes that this will lead to a more open discussion over the usage of the "n-word" in schools.
"It goes to the heart of the first amendment," William Spielberger, Brown's attorney, said. "We want the board of education to change their policy to allow this type of discussion to occur."
WHITE CHICAGO TEACHER SUES TO USE N-WORD IN CLASS
By Jay Scott Smith
the grio
February 20, 2012
CHICAGO - A 48-year-old Chicago public school teacher used the "n-word" as part of a lesson on the perils and pitfalls of racism, and it landed him a five-day suspension from his job. Now the teacher is fighting back, filing a federal lawsuit against the district and claiming that his civil rights have been violated.
Lincoln Brown, a 21-year veteran teacher and native of Chicago's Hyde Park, used the word in his sixth grade classroom at Murray Language Academy on Oct. 4, 2011 after discovering a note that a female student was passing, which had the slur written on it citing some rap lyrics. Brown, who is white, used the note as an opportunity to teach a lesson about racism in the context of Huckleberry Finn.
In almost impeccable timing, as soon as Brown said the "n-word," the school's principal, George Mason, walked into the room, and the trouble started.
"This cannot be a part of who I am," Brown said, during a press conference with his attorney, "My character has been assassinated."
Mason gave a different account of the incident, and charged Brown with "using verbally abusive language to or in front of students" and "cruel, immoral, negligent or criminal conduct or communication to a student, that causes psychological or physical harm" which is in violation of the Chicago Public Schools policy. Mason disputed the context in which Brown used the n-word.
"We've talked about racial stereotyping and how words really shape people's ideas of who you are," Brown said, "I cannot tell you how much it hurts me to say that word."
Following a disciplinary hearing, Brown was suspended for five days without pay. CPS denied Brown's appeal of the suspension on grounds that he "engaged in inappropriate discussions with sixth-grade students during instructional time."
"If we can't discuss these issues, we'll never be able to resolve them," Brown said to the Chicago Sun-Times.
In the suit, he names Mason, CPS CEO Jean-Claude Brizard, and the Chicago Board of Education, saying his first and fifth amendment rights were violated.
Brown told the Sun-Times that he had previously used materials from the Southern Poverty Law Center that advised teachers on how to approach the subject of the "n-word" with students. He also insists that he thought Mason was supporting him when he stayed to watch the discussion with "engaged, excited" students.
"It's ridiculous to believe that sixth-graders aren't exposed to this language, not only in music but in their everyday lives," Brown said. He also claims that the stress has caused him to have high blood pressure and sleepless nights. Brown has gotten support from parents of current and former students, but that has not convinced the school district to reconsider on its decision.
"The principal determined that the way the teacher used the word was improper and imposed a short suspension," CPS Director of Communications Robyn Ziegler said in a prepared statement. "The teacher has received sufficient due process. In our opinion, his federal lawsuit is without merit."
This is just the example of a teacher employing questionable tactics to inject race into lesson plans in school. Last month, a teacher in suburban Detroit came under fire for a lesson she asked students to participate in slavery role-playing.
In December, a teacher in Atlanta resigned after attempting to correlate a math lesson with slavery. That lesson included questions such as: If Frederick (Douglass) got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in one week?
There was no word on when Brown's suit would be heard in federal court. Brown, who is expected to serve his suspension this week, hopes that this will lead to a more open discussion over the usage of the "n-word" in schools.
"It goes to the heart of the first amendment," William Spielberger, Brown's attorney, said. "We want the board of education to change their policy to allow this type of discussion to occur."
NOW I KNOW WHY I'VE REACHED THE AGE OF 85
It’s the booze I’ve consumed during my lifetime.
SAY CHEERS! TO DRINKING
By Victoria Shanta Retelny, R.D., L.D.N.
Jewish World Review
February 22, 2012
Alcohol may make you happy, but can it really keep you healthy? The good news is that moderate alcohol intake can fit into a healthy lifestyle and even offer some benefits — welcome tidings for the estimated 100 million American adults who drink alcohol responsibly.
Alcohol's potentially positive effects on health and quality of life have been on the public health radar screen for decades, dating to 1979, when one of the first research papers was published on the topic.
While there are positive health effects documented with moderate alcohol intake, drinking too much clearly wipes away any potential benefits. Consider alcohol a double-edged sword with the shiny side holding the promise of improved health and the lackluster side leading to health risks. Experts contend that garnering the health benefits (or not) of alcohol depends on the amount consumed, drinking environment, age, and other unique characteristics of the drinker. Here are a few interesting areas of research on alcohol and health.
The heart: One of the most publicized benefits of drinking alcohol is heart health; research has linked moderate drinking to a 25 to 40 percent reduction in risk of coronary heart disease. What is it about alcohol that makes it heart healthy? "The ethanol in any alcoholic beverage — beer, wine and liquor — imparts benefits to counter atherosclerosis or hardening of the arteries," explains Andrea N. Giancoli, M.P.H., R.D., a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. "Alcohol is one of the only dietary practices that increases the 'good' high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and lowers the 'bad' low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, as well as lowers the risk of blood clots."
Research in the British Medical Journal showed convincing evidence that one to two alcoholic drinks per day increased HDL cholesterol by as much as 15 to 20 percent. This, in turn, reduced narrowing of the arteries caused by plaque and decreased the propensity for blood clotting, a common cause of heart attacks. It didn't take long to see positive results; this study showed that within two weeks of regular, moderate imbibing the HDL cholesterol was affected for the better. In addition, the cardio-protective benefit was found to compound with regular exercise. People who worked out for 30 to 60 minutes four to five times a week experienced even greater increases in HDL cholesterol when combined with moderate alcoholic intake.
Diabetes defense: While you do not want to drink alcohol solely to manage blood sugar levels, it may be another added benefit of moderate consumption. According to Giancoli, "Drinking alcohol in moderation also has been found to improve insulin sensitivity, which controls blood sugar levels and staves off Type 2 diabetes, a risk factor for heart disease and premature death." Research in the Journal of the American Medical Association published in 2002 examined whether daily consumption of none to moderate amounts of alcohol (0, 15, or 30 grams/day) influenced fasting insulin, glucose concentrations and insulin sensitivity in 51 nondiabetic postmenopausal women. After eight weeks, the greatest impact was observed in the group that drank 30 grams of alcohol (about two drinks) a day; fasting insulin levels decreased and insulin sensitivity improved as a result of regular, moderate alcohol consumption compared with those who didn't drink at all.
Longevity: According to the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, people who have one to two drinks a day live longer due to lower rates of all-cause mortality found among moderate drinkers.
The lowest incidence of deaths due to diseases like heart disease and Type 2 diabetes occurs in moderate alcohol drinkers. In a literature review published in 2008 in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, moderate drinking was found to consistently reduce mortality rates and disease risk among middle-aged (45-65 years) and older adults.
Cancer: No cause for celebrating alcohol. On the other side of the coin, studies show that even one drink a day can pose an increased risk for certain cancers, such as breast cancer. Experts caution women with a family history of breast cancer to monitor alcohol intake and abstain, if possible. And in a new meta-analysis published September 2011 in the Annals of Oncology, researchers identified a 21 percent increase in colorectal cancer risk associated with moderate alcohol consumption.
The American Heart Association's Diet and Lifestyle Recommendations, published in 2006, specifically suggests moderation for people who drink, with cautionary advice against taking up drinking just for the sake of health.
The AHA guidelines, as well as the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, recommend no more than one drink a day for women and two drinks a day for men due to men's larger size. Experts recommend that you drink alcohol with meals because food slows down the absorption rate of alcohol in your blood stream and eating will enable you to savor your drinks with food more mindfully.
SAY CHEERS! TO DRINKING
By Victoria Shanta Retelny, R.D., L.D.N.
Jewish World Review
February 22, 2012
Alcohol may make you happy, but can it really keep you healthy? The good news is that moderate alcohol intake can fit into a healthy lifestyle and even offer some benefits — welcome tidings for the estimated 100 million American adults who drink alcohol responsibly.
Alcohol's potentially positive effects on health and quality of life have been on the public health radar screen for decades, dating to 1979, when one of the first research papers was published on the topic.
While there are positive health effects documented with moderate alcohol intake, drinking too much clearly wipes away any potential benefits. Consider alcohol a double-edged sword with the shiny side holding the promise of improved health and the lackluster side leading to health risks. Experts contend that garnering the health benefits (or not) of alcohol depends on the amount consumed, drinking environment, age, and other unique characteristics of the drinker. Here are a few interesting areas of research on alcohol and health.
The heart: One of the most publicized benefits of drinking alcohol is heart health; research has linked moderate drinking to a 25 to 40 percent reduction in risk of coronary heart disease. What is it about alcohol that makes it heart healthy? "The ethanol in any alcoholic beverage — beer, wine and liquor — imparts benefits to counter atherosclerosis or hardening of the arteries," explains Andrea N. Giancoli, M.P.H., R.D., a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. "Alcohol is one of the only dietary practices that increases the 'good' high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and lowers the 'bad' low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, as well as lowers the risk of blood clots."
Research in the British Medical Journal showed convincing evidence that one to two alcoholic drinks per day increased HDL cholesterol by as much as 15 to 20 percent. This, in turn, reduced narrowing of the arteries caused by plaque and decreased the propensity for blood clotting, a common cause of heart attacks. It didn't take long to see positive results; this study showed that within two weeks of regular, moderate imbibing the HDL cholesterol was affected for the better. In addition, the cardio-protective benefit was found to compound with regular exercise. People who worked out for 30 to 60 minutes four to five times a week experienced even greater increases in HDL cholesterol when combined with moderate alcoholic intake.
Diabetes defense: While you do not want to drink alcohol solely to manage blood sugar levels, it may be another added benefit of moderate consumption. According to Giancoli, "Drinking alcohol in moderation also has been found to improve insulin sensitivity, which controls blood sugar levels and staves off Type 2 diabetes, a risk factor for heart disease and premature death." Research in the Journal of the American Medical Association published in 2002 examined whether daily consumption of none to moderate amounts of alcohol (0, 15, or 30 grams/day) influenced fasting insulin, glucose concentrations and insulin sensitivity in 51 nondiabetic postmenopausal women. After eight weeks, the greatest impact was observed in the group that drank 30 grams of alcohol (about two drinks) a day; fasting insulin levels decreased and insulin sensitivity improved as a result of regular, moderate alcohol consumption compared with those who didn't drink at all.
Longevity: According to the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, people who have one to two drinks a day live longer due to lower rates of all-cause mortality found among moderate drinkers.
The lowest incidence of deaths due to diseases like heart disease and Type 2 diabetes occurs in moderate alcohol drinkers. In a literature review published in 2008 in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, moderate drinking was found to consistently reduce mortality rates and disease risk among middle-aged (45-65 years) and older adults.
Cancer: No cause for celebrating alcohol. On the other side of the coin, studies show that even one drink a day can pose an increased risk for certain cancers, such as breast cancer. Experts caution women with a family history of breast cancer to monitor alcohol intake and abstain, if possible. And in a new meta-analysis published September 2011 in the Annals of Oncology, researchers identified a 21 percent increase in colorectal cancer risk associated with moderate alcohol consumption.
The American Heart Association's Diet and Lifestyle Recommendations, published in 2006, specifically suggests moderation for people who drink, with cautionary advice against taking up drinking just for the sake of health.
The AHA guidelines, as well as the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, recommend no more than one drink a day for women and two drinks a day for men due to men's larger size. Experts recommend that you drink alcohol with meals because food slows down the absorption rate of alcohol in your blood stream and eating will enable you to savor your drinks with food more mindfully.
THE FAMILY THAT PREYS TOGETHER STAYS TOGETHER
Bob Walsh says: What do you do when you want to go out and thump and slice some gang rivals but you are not old enough to have a license? It’s pretty simple, you get mommy to drive you. The family that preys together stays together.
POLICE: SAN JOSE MOM DROVE GETAWAY CAR IN STABBING OF 13-YEAR-OLD
By Mark Gomez
MercuryNews.com
February 21, 2012
A San Jose mother accused of driving the getaway vehicle after the stabbing of a 13-year-old boy has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, according to police.
Margaret Juanita Suazo, 42, was arrested by San Jose police in connection with the midday stabbing Thursday of a teenager in a residential neighborhood near Mabury Road and North Capitol Avenue, according to San Jose police Sgt. Jason Dwyer.
Dwyer described the stabbing as a gang-related attack.
The Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office is reviewing the case.
Police arrested the woman's son and are looking for a second juvenile suspect who may have been involved, Dwyer said.
About noon Thursday, Suazo was driving the two teens, one of whom was her son, when they encountered the 13-year-old victim, Dwyer said.
Some gang-related words were exchanged, and at some point Suazo's son, 15, allegedly jumped out of the car and chased the 13-year-old boy.
The juvenile stabbed the boy, got back into the car and the group fled, Dwyer said.
"When they are done, Mom makes the getaway," Dwyer said.
After calls to 911, officers rushed to the 2700 block of Glen Firth Drive and found the 13-year-old boy leaning against a car with stab wounds. He was rushed to a hospital with non-life-threatening wounds, Dwyer said.
The 15-year-old was taken into custody as a juvenile.
POLICE: SAN JOSE MOM DROVE GETAWAY CAR IN STABBING OF 13-YEAR-OLD
By Mark Gomez
MercuryNews.com
February 21, 2012
A San Jose mother accused of driving the getaway vehicle after the stabbing of a 13-year-old boy has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, according to police.
Margaret Juanita Suazo, 42, was arrested by San Jose police in connection with the midday stabbing Thursday of a teenager in a residential neighborhood near Mabury Road and North Capitol Avenue, according to San Jose police Sgt. Jason Dwyer.
Dwyer described the stabbing as a gang-related attack.
The Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office is reviewing the case.
Police arrested the woman's son and are looking for a second juvenile suspect who may have been involved, Dwyer said.
About noon Thursday, Suazo was driving the two teens, one of whom was her son, when they encountered the 13-year-old victim, Dwyer said.
Some gang-related words were exchanged, and at some point Suazo's son, 15, allegedly jumped out of the car and chased the 13-year-old boy.
The juvenile stabbed the boy, got back into the car and the group fled, Dwyer said.
"When they are done, Mom makes the getaway," Dwyer said.
After calls to 911, officers rushed to the 2700 block of Glen Firth Drive and found the 13-year-old boy leaning against a car with stab wounds. He was rushed to a hospital with non-life-threatening wounds, Dwyer said.
The 15-year-old was taken into custody as a juvenile.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
HOW THE INTERNET GOT STARTED
The Schalotte
February 22, 2012
In ancient Israel, it came to pass that a trader by the name of Abraham Com did take unto himself a young wife by the name of Dot. And Dot Com was a comely woman, broad of shoulder and long of leg. Indeed, she was often called Amazon Dot Com.
And she said unto Abraham, her husband, "Why dost thou travel so far from town to town with thy goods when thou canst trade without ever leaving thy tent?
And Abraham did look at her as though she were several saddle bags short of a camel load, but simply said, "How, dear?"
And Dot replied, "I will place drums in all the towns and drums in between to send messages saying what you have for sale, and they will reply telling you who hath the best price. And the sale can be made on the drums and delivery made by Uriah's Pony Stable (UPS)."
Abraham thought long and decided he would let Dot have her way with the drums. And the drums rang out and were an immediate success. Abraham sold all the goods he had at the top price, without ever having to move from his tent.
To prevent neighboring countries from overhearing what the drums were saying, Dot devised a system that only she and the drummers knew. It was known as Must Send Drum Over Sound (MSDOS), and she also developed a language to transmit ideas and pictures - Hebrew To The People (HTTP).
And the young men did take to Dot Com's trading as doth the greedy horsefly take to camel dung. They were called Nomadic Ecclesiastical Rich Dominican Sybarites, or NERDS.
And lo, the land was so feverish with joy at the new riches and the deafening sound of drums that no one noticed that the real riches were going to that enterprising drum dealer, Brother William of Gates, who bought off every drum maker in the land. And indeed did insist on drums to be made that would work only with Brother Gates' drumheads and drumsticks.
And Dot did say, "Oh, Abraham, what we have started is being taken over by others." And Abraham looked out over the Bay of Ezekiel, or eBay as it came to be known. He said, "We need a name that reflects what we are."
And Dot replied, "Young Ambitious Hebrew Owner Operators."
"YAHOO," said Abraham. And because it was Dot's idea, they named it YAHOO Dot Com.
Abraham's cousin, Joshua, being the young Gregarious Energetic Educated Kid (GEEK) that he was, soon started using Dot's drums to locate things around the countryside. It soon became known as God's Own Official Guide to Locating Everything (GOOGLE).
That is how it all began. And now you know the truth – Al Gore did not invent the internet.
February 22, 2012
In ancient Israel, it came to pass that a trader by the name of Abraham Com did take unto himself a young wife by the name of Dot. And Dot Com was a comely woman, broad of shoulder and long of leg. Indeed, she was often called Amazon Dot Com.
And she said unto Abraham, her husband, "Why dost thou travel so far from town to town with thy goods when thou canst trade without ever leaving thy tent?
And Abraham did look at her as though she were several saddle bags short of a camel load, but simply said, "How, dear?"
And Dot replied, "I will place drums in all the towns and drums in between to send messages saying what you have for sale, and they will reply telling you who hath the best price. And the sale can be made on the drums and delivery made by Uriah's Pony Stable (UPS)."
Abraham thought long and decided he would let Dot have her way with the drums. And the drums rang out and were an immediate success. Abraham sold all the goods he had at the top price, without ever having to move from his tent.
To prevent neighboring countries from overhearing what the drums were saying, Dot devised a system that only she and the drummers knew. It was known as Must Send Drum Over Sound (MSDOS), and she also developed a language to transmit ideas and pictures - Hebrew To The People (HTTP).
And the young men did take to Dot Com's trading as doth the greedy horsefly take to camel dung. They were called Nomadic Ecclesiastical Rich Dominican Sybarites, or NERDS.
And lo, the land was so feverish with joy at the new riches and the deafening sound of drums that no one noticed that the real riches were going to that enterprising drum dealer, Brother William of Gates, who bought off every drum maker in the land. And indeed did insist on drums to be made that would work only with Brother Gates' drumheads and drumsticks.
And Dot did say, "Oh, Abraham, what we have started is being taken over by others." And Abraham looked out over the Bay of Ezekiel, or eBay as it came to be known. He said, "We need a name that reflects what we are."
And Dot replied, "Young Ambitious Hebrew Owner Operators."
"YAHOO," said Abraham. And because it was Dot's idea, they named it YAHOO Dot Com.
Abraham's cousin, Joshua, being the young Gregarious Energetic Educated Kid (GEEK) that he was, soon started using Dot's drums to locate things around the countryside. It soon became known as God's Own Official Guide to Locating Everything (GOOGLE).
That is how it all began. And now you know the truth – Al Gore did not invent the internet.
TEXAS BLIVOT RANTS THAT A MEDICAL CATASTROPHE WOULD NOT BANKRUPT ANYONE
A Texas Blivot is 10 pounds of shit in a two pound bag. That is a perfect description of Roach Limburger - oops, I mean Rush Limbaugh.
Yesterday I happened to be listening to Roach – there I go again – rattling off his daily rants about Obama ‘betraying’ our country. When he ranted about Obama’s health care law, he flat-out said that no one has been bankrupted due to a medical catastrophe. He also said that no one in this country is struggling to make ends meet.
I thought good old Roach had gotten over his drug addiction problem but what I heard him say makes me think he was spaced out on something. Millionaire Roach may not be struggling to make ends meet, but millions of poor and lower middle-class American’s are having a hard time keeping their heads above water. Roach says that people who are struggling financially have no one but themselves to blame because they’re simply not putting forth the effort it takes to achieve the American dream.
Will someone please give Roach a drug antidote. Of course, he probably has the best health insurance that money can buy so he could have a heart, kidney, liver and double lung transplant all at the same time without going bankrupt. But most people cannot afford that type of insurance. Those who cannot afford Roach’s platinum policies could easily find themselves wiped out financially in a hot New York minute. And those without any health insurance would be wiped out even quicker than that.
What’s so sad is not that the Texas Blivot comes up with some really stupid statements almost every day, but that his legion of dodoheads – oops, I mean dittoheads – salivate over every word that spews out of his big fat mouth. I keep wondering under what rocks all those dodoheads keep crawling out from?
Yesterday I happened to be listening to Roach – there I go again – rattling off his daily rants about Obama ‘betraying’ our country. When he ranted about Obama’s health care law, he flat-out said that no one has been bankrupted due to a medical catastrophe. He also said that no one in this country is struggling to make ends meet.
I thought good old Roach had gotten over his drug addiction problem but what I heard him say makes me think he was spaced out on something. Millionaire Roach may not be struggling to make ends meet, but millions of poor and lower middle-class American’s are having a hard time keeping their heads above water. Roach says that people who are struggling financially have no one but themselves to blame because they’re simply not putting forth the effort it takes to achieve the American dream.
Will someone please give Roach a drug antidote. Of course, he probably has the best health insurance that money can buy so he could have a heart, kidney, liver and double lung transplant all at the same time without going bankrupt. But most people cannot afford that type of insurance. Those who cannot afford Roach’s platinum policies could easily find themselves wiped out financially in a hot New York minute. And those without any health insurance would be wiped out even quicker than that.
What’s so sad is not that the Texas Blivot comes up with some really stupid statements almost every day, but that his legion of dodoheads – oops, I mean dittoheads – salivate over every word that spews out of his big fat mouth. I keep wondering under what rocks all those dodoheads keep crawling out from?
PCP STILL PROMINENT IN THE RECREATIONAL DRUG MARKETPLACE
The size of the PCP seizure indicates that there is still a substantial demand for this dangerous hallucinogen. For the police, this is an exceptionally dangerous drug because PCP users feel no pain. It requires the use of considerable force to subdue some jerk high on PCP and that can lead to the injury of arresting officers. Furthermore, there have been a number of instances in which PCP users have charged cops with a dangerous weapon and, feeling no pain, they had to be shot numerous times before they were brought down.
$100 MILLION IN PCP SEIZED
Stunned officials find 130 gallons of the dangerous drug in Los Angeles and Culver City – enough for 10 million doses
By Sam Allen
Los Angeles Times
February 17, 2012
About $100 million worth of PCP was seized this week in Los Angeles and Culver City in what authorities described as a major bust of a national drug-trafficking organization.
Officials said they found huge amounts of PCP — totaling roughly 10 million individual doses, which in the Los Angeles area sell for between $10 and $20 each — at two local storage facilities and several other locations. Authorities also recovered nearly $400,000 in cash.
Authorities believe the trafficking organization included at least 10 individuals locally and that it was distributing to Texas, New York and Washington, D.C., and other U.S. cities.
"They were shipping and moving and dealing a huge amount of product," said Lt. Scott Fairfield of the Los Angeles Interagency Metropolitan Police Apprehension Crime Task Force, known as L.A. IMPACT. "It's the largest PCP seizure I've ever heard of."
Two suspects, Darryl Dwayne Burton and Lagina Bell Huckaby, were arrested Wednesday at a UPS store in Culver City where they were allegedly trying to ship narcotics, Fairfield said. L.A. IMPACT investigators had been trailing the suspects for about a month in response to a tip from the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Search warrants were subsequently issued for several locations where a drug ring was believed to be operating, Fairfield said. In the sweep, authorities discovered approximately 130 gallons of phencyclidine, the chemical name for PCP, along with $389,000 in cash, two assault weapons and enough chemicals to produce 500 additional gallons of the narcotic.
Fairfield said Burton is believed to be associated with the Bounty Hunter Bloods, a street gang active in Los Angeles. He described Burton as a "major player" in the trafficking organization, but said investigators are still trying to determine what relationship, if any, existed between the drug operation and the gang.
The search warrants covered two residences in South Los Angeles as well as two large storage facilities, Fairfield said. Authorities found cash and an active drug lab at the homes, and most of the PCP and "precursor ingredients" were found at the storage facilities, he added.
Burton and Huckaby both pleaded not guilty to felony drug charges on Friday. They are being held in lieu of $3 million and $2 million bail, respectively.
Burton, 55, has two convictions for drug offenses, including one for possession of PCP, according to the criminal complaint filed against him. No prior convictions were listed for Huckaby, who is 31.
Experts said the quantity of drugs seized indicates a potentially sizable network involved in the manufacturing and distribution of the PCP.
"You know for sure it's not somebody cooking down in his basement," said John Sullivan, a former chief of detectives for the Las Vegas Police Department. "It must be on a grand scale."
Fairfield said there were "definitely more than two" individuals involved in the operation. "We're still working this," he said. "We're hoping it leads to more and we believe that it will."
Another law enforcement expert, Stan Kephart, said it was difficult to asses the exact value of such a large quantity of PCP because street prices can vary substantially throughout the country. But he expressed shock at the total volume seized.
"PCP is a very scary drug — basically what it does is take people on trips where they don't feel any pain," he said. "I can't even get my head around 130 gallons."
$100 MILLION IN PCP SEIZED
Stunned officials find 130 gallons of the dangerous drug in Los Angeles and Culver City – enough for 10 million doses
By Sam Allen
Los Angeles Times
February 17, 2012
About $100 million worth of PCP was seized this week in Los Angeles and Culver City in what authorities described as a major bust of a national drug-trafficking organization.
Officials said they found huge amounts of PCP — totaling roughly 10 million individual doses, which in the Los Angeles area sell for between $10 and $20 each — at two local storage facilities and several other locations. Authorities also recovered nearly $400,000 in cash.
Authorities believe the trafficking organization included at least 10 individuals locally and that it was distributing to Texas, New York and Washington, D.C., and other U.S. cities.
"They were shipping and moving and dealing a huge amount of product," said Lt. Scott Fairfield of the Los Angeles Interagency Metropolitan Police Apprehension Crime Task Force, known as L.A. IMPACT. "It's the largest PCP seizure I've ever heard of."
Two suspects, Darryl Dwayne Burton and Lagina Bell Huckaby, were arrested Wednesday at a UPS store in Culver City where they were allegedly trying to ship narcotics, Fairfield said. L.A. IMPACT investigators had been trailing the suspects for about a month in response to a tip from the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Search warrants were subsequently issued for several locations where a drug ring was believed to be operating, Fairfield said. In the sweep, authorities discovered approximately 130 gallons of phencyclidine, the chemical name for PCP, along with $389,000 in cash, two assault weapons and enough chemicals to produce 500 additional gallons of the narcotic.
Fairfield said Burton is believed to be associated with the Bounty Hunter Bloods, a street gang active in Los Angeles. He described Burton as a "major player" in the trafficking organization, but said investigators are still trying to determine what relationship, if any, existed between the drug operation and the gang.
The search warrants covered two residences in South Los Angeles as well as two large storage facilities, Fairfield said. Authorities found cash and an active drug lab at the homes, and most of the PCP and "precursor ingredients" were found at the storage facilities, he added.
Burton and Huckaby both pleaded not guilty to felony drug charges on Friday. They are being held in lieu of $3 million and $2 million bail, respectively.
Burton, 55, has two convictions for drug offenses, including one for possession of PCP, according to the criminal complaint filed against him. No prior convictions were listed for Huckaby, who is 31.
Experts said the quantity of drugs seized indicates a potentially sizable network involved in the manufacturing and distribution of the PCP.
"You know for sure it's not somebody cooking down in his basement," said John Sullivan, a former chief of detectives for the Las Vegas Police Department. "It must be on a grand scale."
Fairfield said there were "definitely more than two" individuals involved in the operation. "We're still working this," he said. "We're hoping it leads to more and we believe that it will."
Another law enforcement expert, Stan Kephart, said it was difficult to asses the exact value of such a large quantity of PCP because street prices can vary substantially throughout the country. But he expressed shock at the total volume seized.
"PCP is a very scary drug — basically what it does is take people on trips where they don't feel any pain," he said. "I can't even get my head around 130 gallons."
IN THE INTEREST OF PUBLIC SAFETY OR IN THE INTEREST OF THE CHILD?
Considering that this boy has had serious behavioral problems since the age of 5, I would say that the safety of the public trumps the interests of the child. Since he has already committed a murder, it is likely that somewhere down the road he will kill again. Keep him locked up until he is too feeble to harm anyone else!
HOW WILL ‘THE SYSTEM’ DEAL WITH 10-YEAR-OLD MURDER SUSPECT?
By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
February 20, 2012
A ten-year old boy is accused in San Diego Juvenile Court of murdering a young friend by stabbing him to death with a kitchen knife. As you might expect, the system has some problems dealing with serious very young offenders.
Right now there is only one person under the age of 14 in the state system. The average age of wards held by the state is 19. Most of them have already been through county programs, some of them repeatedly. It is unknown right now if the state system will even exist when this young man’s case is adjudicated. Right now the state spends about $179,000 per year per ward. The counties spend about $2,400 per year per juvenile detainee.
The young man is question is the adopted child of a school teacher. His birth mother was a junkie and he started having significant behavior problems at age five or so. There seems to be little doubt that he actually committed the act of which he is accused, though that does not mean he will be found to be responsible.
HOW WILL ‘THE SYSTEM’ DEAL WITH 10-YEAR-OLD MURDER SUSPECT?
By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
February 20, 2012
A ten-year old boy is accused in San Diego Juvenile Court of murdering a young friend by stabbing him to death with a kitchen knife. As you might expect, the system has some problems dealing with serious very young offenders.
Right now there is only one person under the age of 14 in the state system. The average age of wards held by the state is 19. Most of them have already been through county programs, some of them repeatedly. It is unknown right now if the state system will even exist when this young man’s case is adjudicated. Right now the state spends about $179,000 per year per ward. The counties spend about $2,400 per year per juvenile detainee.
The young man is question is the adopted child of a school teacher. His birth mother was a junkie and he started having significant behavior problems at age five or so. There seems to be little doubt that he actually committed the act of which he is accused, though that does not mean he will be found to be responsible.
STOLEN VALOR ACT UNDER ATTACK
Americans have never had the right of unrestricted free speech – one cannot yell fire in a theater if there is no fire and one cannot incite others to riot - and they should not have the right to lie about their military service or the award of any military decorations.
SUPREME COURT TO HEAR ARGUMENTS ON WHETHER A LIE IS PROTECTED SPEECH
Believe it or not, it has come to this
By Michael Doyle
Jewish World Review
February 21, 2012
WASHINGTON— (MCT) Fake hero Xavier Alvarez lied to his fellow Californians.
He never rescued an American ambassador. He was never a Marine. Most definitely, contrary to what he told a Southern California audience, Alvarez was never awarded the Medal of Honor.
He lied, until he was caught. Now, the Supreme Court must decide whether the First Amendment protects Alvarez and other wannabes from prosecution. The consequences could stretch well beyond what lawmakers and veterans call stolen valor.
"If false factual statements are unprotected, then the government can prosecute not only the man who tells tall tales of winning the Congressional Medal of Honor, but also the JDater who falsely claims he's Jewish or the dentist who assures you it won't hurt a bit," Judge Alex Kozinski of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals warned in a ruling that overturned Alvarez's conviction under the Stolen Valor Act, which criminalizes false claims to military honors.
But Congress, the Obama administration and veterans organizations all consider false military claims uniquely harmful. Just ask George Washington, they say.
"Should any who are not entitled to the honors, have the insolence to assume the badges of them, they shall be severely punished," Washington stated in a 1782 military order, according to a legal brief filed by the American Legion.
In oral arguments Wednesday, the Supreme Court will start sorting this all out.
A former elected board member of the Three Valleys Water District in Claremont, Calif., Alvarez spoke of his spurious Marine exploits in a September 2007 hearing. Even his own lawyer admits Alvarez's sometimes tenuous hold on the truth.
"He lied when he claimed to have played professional hockey for the Detroit Red Wings," federal public defender Jonathan D. Libby acknowledged. "He lied when he claimed to be married to a Mexican starlet whose appearance in public caused paparazzi to swoon."
Unlike those other falsehoods, though, Alvarez's claim to military honors ran afoul of federal law.
The Stolen Valor Act imposes prison sentences of up to six months on those who "falsely represent" that they have received any military "decoration or medal." For certain elite medals, the penalty increases to a year in prison.
Backed by politically powerful veterans organizations, the legislation had raced through Congress in 2006 without hearings. The House debated it for about 20 minutes.
"These frauds and these phonies have diminished the meaning and the honor of the recognitions received by our military heroes," bill author Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., declared during the brief House debate.
Subsequently, federal charges were filed in 2008 against Rick Strandlof, a Colorado resident who raised funds while falsely claiming to be a wounded Marine with a metal plate in his head.
"Strandlof stated that he did not wear his Purple Heart medal or his Silver Star medal because it would appear egotistical," FBI Special Agent Gregg Slater declared in a 2009 affidavit filed in federal court.
The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the federal law. In California, the 9th Circuit struck it down.
This split means residents of a 10th Circuit state like Kansas and Colorado face Stolen Valor Act prosecution while residents of a 9th Circuit state like Washington, Idaho and California do not. The Supreme Court picks cases to resolve such circuit splits.
Constitutionally, the question comes down to whether false heroism claims resemble the other types of speech considered unworthy of First Amendment protection, such as obscenity or defamation. Some further liken the Stolen Valor Act to laws making it illegal to impersonate a police officer.
SUPREME COURT TO HEAR ARGUMENTS ON WHETHER A LIE IS PROTECTED SPEECH
Believe it or not, it has come to this
By Michael Doyle
Jewish World Review
February 21, 2012
WASHINGTON— (MCT) Fake hero Xavier Alvarez lied to his fellow Californians.
He never rescued an American ambassador. He was never a Marine. Most definitely, contrary to what he told a Southern California audience, Alvarez was never awarded the Medal of Honor.
He lied, until he was caught. Now, the Supreme Court must decide whether the First Amendment protects Alvarez and other wannabes from prosecution. The consequences could stretch well beyond what lawmakers and veterans call stolen valor.
"If false factual statements are unprotected, then the government can prosecute not only the man who tells tall tales of winning the Congressional Medal of Honor, but also the JDater who falsely claims he's Jewish or the dentist who assures you it won't hurt a bit," Judge Alex Kozinski of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals warned in a ruling that overturned Alvarez's conviction under the Stolen Valor Act, which criminalizes false claims to military honors.
But Congress, the Obama administration and veterans organizations all consider false military claims uniquely harmful. Just ask George Washington, they say.
"Should any who are not entitled to the honors, have the insolence to assume the badges of them, they shall be severely punished," Washington stated in a 1782 military order, according to a legal brief filed by the American Legion.
In oral arguments Wednesday, the Supreme Court will start sorting this all out.
A former elected board member of the Three Valleys Water District in Claremont, Calif., Alvarez spoke of his spurious Marine exploits in a September 2007 hearing. Even his own lawyer admits Alvarez's sometimes tenuous hold on the truth.
"He lied when he claimed to have played professional hockey for the Detroit Red Wings," federal public defender Jonathan D. Libby acknowledged. "He lied when he claimed to be married to a Mexican starlet whose appearance in public caused paparazzi to swoon."
Unlike those other falsehoods, though, Alvarez's claim to military honors ran afoul of federal law.
The Stolen Valor Act imposes prison sentences of up to six months on those who "falsely represent" that they have received any military "decoration or medal." For certain elite medals, the penalty increases to a year in prison.
Backed by politically powerful veterans organizations, the legislation had raced through Congress in 2006 without hearings. The House debated it for about 20 minutes.
"These frauds and these phonies have diminished the meaning and the honor of the recognitions received by our military heroes," bill author Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., declared during the brief House debate.
Subsequently, federal charges were filed in 2008 against Rick Strandlof, a Colorado resident who raised funds while falsely claiming to be a wounded Marine with a metal plate in his head.
"Strandlof stated that he did not wear his Purple Heart medal or his Silver Star medal because it would appear egotistical," FBI Special Agent Gregg Slater declared in a 2009 affidavit filed in federal court.
The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the federal law. In California, the 9th Circuit struck it down.
This split means residents of a 10th Circuit state like Kansas and Colorado face Stolen Valor Act prosecution while residents of a 9th Circuit state like Washington, Idaho and California do not. The Supreme Court picks cases to resolve such circuit splits.
Constitutionally, the question comes down to whether false heroism claims resemble the other types of speech considered unworthy of First Amendment protection, such as obscenity or defamation. Some further liken the Stolen Valor Act to laws making it illegal to impersonate a police officer.
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