Four years ago, Barack Obama’s election campaign slogan was ‘Hope and Change’. He made dozens of promises, most of which he couldn’t or wouldn't keep.
Now we have his challenger, Mitt Romney, making a lot of promises. Although he does not use Obama’s 2008 slogan, the promises Romney has been making represent hope and change to his supporters.
Here are some of Romney’s promises:
__I will put the nation on a path to a balanced budget.
__I will cut an array of taxes.
__I will reduce tax loopholes.
__I will build up the Navy and Air Force.
__I will add 100,000 active-duty military personnel.
__I will slash domestic spending.
__I will get rid of Obamacare (The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act).
__ I will reduce the size of the government.
Wonderful! Of course, but there is just one problem – Romney has made these promises since the beginning of his campaign but has yet to spell out how he is going carry them out.
Where is he going to slash enough domestic spending to balance the budget while spending more money on the Navy and Air Force and on enlarging the military by 100,00 troops? The only place he can slash spending in any meaningful way is by slashing entitlement programs that benefit the elderly and poor. Good luck on getting Congress to go along with that.
Get rid of Obamacare? If the Supreme Court does not gut Obama’s health care program, how is Romney going to get that through Congress?
Cut taxes and reduce tax loopholes? Does Romney really expect to recoup the revenue lost through his promised tax cuts by reducing tax loopholes? Come on Mitt, get real! The tax loophole lobbyists will make sure that Congress keeps the most lucrative loopholes in place. And if somehow Romney did manage to reduce those loopholes, the revenue gained thereby would not come anywhere close to recouping the revenue lost by his tax cuts.
Reduce the size of government? Oh yeah! Every Republican presidential candidate since Reagan has promised to do that. And what happened while they were in office after they got elected? The size of the government always got larger.
In order for Romney to keep his promises, he needs to show us the money! He can’t do that because he’s full of bullshit.
When all is said and done, should Romney defeat Obama, he will end up breaking as many promises as his predecessor has broken.
Monday, April 30, 2012
SWIFT AND CERTAIN PUNISHMENT BEATS WARNINGS NOT TO VIOLATE PROBATION AGAIN
It has always amazed me how many probationers appear over and over again in court for violating their probation only to be released most of the time with a warning not to do it again. Lindsay Lohan is just one example. She finally got off probation, but I’ll bet she really hasn’t changed her ways – she just got better at hiding them.
‘SWIFT’ SANCTIONS CAN CHANGE ADULT PROBATION IN TARRANT COUNTY
By Vikrant P. Reddy
Fort Worth Star Telegram
April 11, 2012
Imagine a misbehaving child, one who has been sternly told not to do something but does it anyway.
A parent has two options: Give the child a swift and certain punishment, or warn the child a second time, and then a third, and then four or five more times until finally delivering sometimes brutally harsh punishment.
Judge Mollee Westfall of Tarrant County understands that the first option makes more sense.
"If your children thought they could get away with three or four things before they got punished," she says, "then they would do three or four things every time just to see where the line was."
Westfall believes this basic insight into human behavior can change adult probation in Tarrant County in a fundamental way. Last July, she helped establish an innovative new probation program in the 371st District Court called Supervision with Intensive enForcemenT (SWIFT).
SWIFT is modeled after the successful HOPE Court in Hawaii, which uses swift and certain sanctions to manage low-level drug offenders.
In the HOPE Court, a judge tells a probationer that instead of prison, he will be permitted to return home, where he can continue to work and provide for his family. The probationer also is told he will be called back frequently to the court without advance notice to determine whether he is complying with his probation terms. If he is not in compliance, he is placed immediately in county jail for the weekend.
There is no additional warning or protracted trial process -- only swift and certain consequences.
A HOPE probationer offered drugs at a party on a Thursday knows that if he is summoned for a random drug test the following morning and fails, he will lose the opportunity to relax with family and friends over the weekend.
The HOPE model understands that people respond to immediate and commensurate punishments like this better than to longer and more severe punishments that seem tenuous and remote.
After Hawaii introduced HOPE in 2004, the rate of missed and failed drug tests dropped by nearly 80 percent. A probationer in HOPE is 55 percent less likely to be arrested for a new crime than one who is not in HOPE. As a result, HOPE probationers are sentenced to about 50 percent fewer days of jail time.
Attorneys and probation officers were initially skeptical about being called into court for every minor probation violation, but the volume of work per offender has decreased over time.
Social scientists have long understood that people respond best to immediate punishments. Cesare Beccaria, an 18th-century thinker who is regarded as the founder of modern criminology, argued that swiftness and certainty in punishment are more important to deterrence than severity.
Beccaria, who was quoted by Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, was deeply influential at the time of the American founding. Modern research on human behavior has validated his time-honored criminological theory.
But it is worth setting aside all of the complex academic literature and realizing that SWIFT-style policies are just a return to common sense. Any parent could explain why HOPE works just as well as any professor.
Revoked felony probationers currently account for more than one-third of Texas' prison population and nearly half of the state jail population.
Texans pay approximately $600 million to incarcerate these individuals, but if probation were improved, the state would be able to reduce these costs and prioritize existing prison space for violent offenders who most need to be taken off the streets. Reform of this sort could also improve public safety and return low-level criminal offenders to productive, law-abiding lives.
Hawaii was a useful model for Tarrant County. It may soon be that Tarrant County is a useful model for the rest of Texas.
‘SWIFT’ SANCTIONS CAN CHANGE ADULT PROBATION IN TARRANT COUNTY
By Vikrant P. Reddy
Fort Worth Star Telegram
April 11, 2012
Imagine a misbehaving child, one who has been sternly told not to do something but does it anyway.
A parent has two options: Give the child a swift and certain punishment, or warn the child a second time, and then a third, and then four or five more times until finally delivering sometimes brutally harsh punishment.
Judge Mollee Westfall of Tarrant County understands that the first option makes more sense.
"If your children thought they could get away with three or four things before they got punished," she says, "then they would do three or four things every time just to see where the line was."
Westfall believes this basic insight into human behavior can change adult probation in Tarrant County in a fundamental way. Last July, she helped establish an innovative new probation program in the 371st District Court called Supervision with Intensive enForcemenT (SWIFT).
SWIFT is modeled after the successful HOPE Court in Hawaii, which uses swift and certain sanctions to manage low-level drug offenders.
In the HOPE Court, a judge tells a probationer that instead of prison, he will be permitted to return home, where he can continue to work and provide for his family. The probationer also is told he will be called back frequently to the court without advance notice to determine whether he is complying with his probation terms. If he is not in compliance, he is placed immediately in county jail for the weekend.
There is no additional warning or protracted trial process -- only swift and certain consequences.
A HOPE probationer offered drugs at a party on a Thursday knows that if he is summoned for a random drug test the following morning and fails, he will lose the opportunity to relax with family and friends over the weekend.
The HOPE model understands that people respond to immediate and commensurate punishments like this better than to longer and more severe punishments that seem tenuous and remote.
After Hawaii introduced HOPE in 2004, the rate of missed and failed drug tests dropped by nearly 80 percent. A probationer in HOPE is 55 percent less likely to be arrested for a new crime than one who is not in HOPE. As a result, HOPE probationers are sentenced to about 50 percent fewer days of jail time.
Attorneys and probation officers were initially skeptical about being called into court for every minor probation violation, but the volume of work per offender has decreased over time.
Social scientists have long understood that people respond best to immediate punishments. Cesare Beccaria, an 18th-century thinker who is regarded as the founder of modern criminology, argued that swiftness and certainty in punishment are more important to deterrence than severity.
Beccaria, who was quoted by Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, was deeply influential at the time of the American founding. Modern research on human behavior has validated his time-honored criminological theory.
But it is worth setting aside all of the complex academic literature and realizing that SWIFT-style policies are just a return to common sense. Any parent could explain why HOPE works just as well as any professor.
Revoked felony probationers currently account for more than one-third of Texas' prison population and nearly half of the state jail population.
Texans pay approximately $600 million to incarcerate these individuals, but if probation were improved, the state would be able to reduce these costs and prioritize existing prison space for violent offenders who most need to be taken off the streets. Reform of this sort could also improve public safety and return low-level criminal offenders to productive, law-abiding lives.
Hawaii was a useful model for Tarrant County. It may soon be that Tarrant County is a useful model for the rest of Texas.
BRITISH AND FRENCH MILITARY UNIFORMS
By Ima Schmuck
The Schalotte
April 29, 2012
After watching the TV broadcasts of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding, I called on Cecil Arnold, a military historian, and asked him to explain how the British came up with the colors of their military uniforms. He told me that it had to do with combat conditions during wars between the British and the French. Here is Arnold’s explanation:
During the recent royal wedding, the millions around the world saw that Prince William chose to wear a uniform that included the famous British "red coat." Many people have asked, "Why did the British wear red coats in battle?"
A long time ago, Britain and France were at war. During one battle, the French captured a British Colonel. They took him to their headquarters, and the French General began to question him. Finally, as an afterthought, the French General asked, "Why do you British officers all wear red coats? Don't you know the red material makes you easier targets for us to shoot at?"
In his casual, matter-of-fact, way, the officer informed the General that the reason British officers wear red coats is so that if they are wounded, the blood won't show, and the men they are leading won't panic. And that is why, from that day forward, all French Army officers wear brown trousers.
The Schalotte
April 29, 2012
After watching the TV broadcasts of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding, I called on Cecil Arnold, a military historian, and asked him to explain how the British came up with the colors of their military uniforms. He told me that it had to do with combat conditions during wars between the British and the French. Here is Arnold’s explanation:
During the recent royal wedding, the millions around the world saw that Prince William chose to wear a uniform that included the famous British "red coat." Many people have asked, "Why did the British wear red coats in battle?"
A long time ago, Britain and France were at war. During one battle, the French captured a British Colonel. They took him to their headquarters, and the French General began to question him. Finally, as an afterthought, the French General asked, "Why do you British officers all wear red coats? Don't you know the red material makes you easier targets for us to shoot at?"
In his casual, matter-of-fact, way, the officer informed the General that the reason British officers wear red coats is so that if they are wounded, the blood won't show, and the men they are leading won't panic. And that is why, from that day forward, all French Army officers wear brown trousers.
Sunday, April 29, 2012
THERE’S NOTHING WRONG WITH EXTRAVAGANT VACATIONS AS LONG AS THE EXTRAVAGANCE IS NOT PAID FOR BY THE TAXPAYERS
I have been highly critical of the petty demeaning attacks that have been made on Michelle Obama by Rush Limbaugh and a multitude of other Obama haters. But a $500,000 tab for the First Lady’s 2010 vacation in Spain is quite a bit too much!
If it’s OK for the First Lady to ring up such a huge tab, then why are we getting all exercised over that $800,000 GSA caper in Las Vegas?
MICHELLE OBAMA’S $500,000 SHOPPING TRIP: HUGE TAXPAYER BILL FOR FIRST LADY’S SPANISH BEACH GETAWAY REVEALED
New documents disclose $500,000 tab Michelle Obama left for taxpayers
Mail Online
April 26, 2012
The First Lady's whirlwind tour of Spain in 2010 better have been a once in a lifetime trip, because her getaway cost taxpayers nearly half a million dollars.
The highly controversial and lavish trip drew ire at the time, but the White House assured the public that the Obamas picked up the tab on their own.
But new information from Judicial Watch, a public interest group that investigates government corruption, detailed the extensive security costs to the United States Air Force and Secret Service.
The Obamas' highly publicized and polarizing vacations may cost the First Family even more, as voters appear to be disheartened by their extravagance.
'The American people can ill afford to keep sending the First Family on vacations around the globe,' Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said.
'There needs to be greater sensitivity to the costs borne by taxpayers for these personal trips.'
In 2010, Mrs Obama visited the Spain's picturesque coastal towns, shopped, toured and even had a lunch date with the country’s King and Queen.
Her every move was highly documented and scrutinized by the press, which called her trip 'tone-deaf' during tough economic times.
'It is hypocritical for President Obama to fire GSA officials for wasteful conference spending, while his family went on a luxury vacation in the Costa del Sol Spain that cost taxpayers nearly half a million dollars,' Fitton said.
The New York Times previously reported that Mrs. Obama brought along her daughter Sasha, 'two friends and four of their daughters, as well as a couple of aides and a couple of advance staff members.'
The five day trip cost at least $467,585, according to Judicial Watch.
The total cost of flying Michelle Obama from Camp Andrews to Malaga and then to Mallorca and back to the United States was $199,323.75.
That tab is based on just 17 hours and 15 minutes of total flying time.
The White House said that the First Lady would reimburse only the equivalent of first-class commercial tickets for herself and her daughter Sasha, since the rest of the seats were occupied by Secret Service.
Her friends flew on separate commercial flights, the New York Times reported.
The 15-member flight crew stayed at Tryp Guadalmar, a nearby motel where group's lodging cost was $10,290.60 and car rental costs were $2,633.50.
In addition, their food cost was $876.30, which included an American indulgence of $57.68 for four bottles of maple syrup and a package of pancake mix.
Secret Service records, meanwhile, show that the costs to the agency for the vacation were $254,461.20.
This total includes $26,670.61 for a chauffeur tour of Costa del Sol and $50,078.78 for a travel planning company SET P&V, S.L.
Though her trips may cost taxpayers money, they could also cost President Obama his job.
Top-tier Republican pollsters, organized by Resurgent Republic, traveled to 11 battleground states to host focus groups.
The spoke to independent and swing voters who were Obama supporters in 2008, but are now undecided.
'They don’t like Obama using their tax dollars to benefit himself,' pollster John McLaughlin said to the Washington Examiner.
The lesson from the sessions, McLaughlin said, is that the first family 'is out of touch' with working class voters.
If it’s OK for the First Lady to ring up such a huge tab, then why are we getting all exercised over that $800,000 GSA caper in Las Vegas?
MICHELLE OBAMA’S $500,000 SHOPPING TRIP: HUGE TAXPAYER BILL FOR FIRST LADY’S SPANISH BEACH GETAWAY REVEALED
New documents disclose $500,000 tab Michelle Obama left for taxpayers
Mail Online
April 26, 2012
The First Lady's whirlwind tour of Spain in 2010 better have been a once in a lifetime trip, because her getaway cost taxpayers nearly half a million dollars.
The highly controversial and lavish trip drew ire at the time, but the White House assured the public that the Obamas picked up the tab on their own.
But new information from Judicial Watch, a public interest group that investigates government corruption, detailed the extensive security costs to the United States Air Force and Secret Service.
The Obamas' highly publicized and polarizing vacations may cost the First Family even more, as voters appear to be disheartened by their extravagance.
'The American people can ill afford to keep sending the First Family on vacations around the globe,' Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said.
'There needs to be greater sensitivity to the costs borne by taxpayers for these personal trips.'
In 2010, Mrs Obama visited the Spain's picturesque coastal towns, shopped, toured and even had a lunch date with the country’s King and Queen.
Her every move was highly documented and scrutinized by the press, which called her trip 'tone-deaf' during tough economic times.
'It is hypocritical for President Obama to fire GSA officials for wasteful conference spending, while his family went on a luxury vacation in the Costa del Sol Spain that cost taxpayers nearly half a million dollars,' Fitton said.
The New York Times previously reported that Mrs. Obama brought along her daughter Sasha, 'two friends and four of their daughters, as well as a couple of aides and a couple of advance staff members.'
The five day trip cost at least $467,585, according to Judicial Watch.
The total cost of flying Michelle Obama from Camp Andrews to Malaga and then to Mallorca and back to the United States was $199,323.75.
That tab is based on just 17 hours and 15 minutes of total flying time.
The White House said that the First Lady would reimburse only the equivalent of first-class commercial tickets for herself and her daughter Sasha, since the rest of the seats were occupied by Secret Service.
Her friends flew on separate commercial flights, the New York Times reported.
The 15-member flight crew stayed at Tryp Guadalmar, a nearby motel where group's lodging cost was $10,290.60 and car rental costs were $2,633.50.
In addition, their food cost was $876.30, which included an American indulgence of $57.68 for four bottles of maple syrup and a package of pancake mix.
Secret Service records, meanwhile, show that the costs to the agency for the vacation were $254,461.20.
This total includes $26,670.61 for a chauffeur tour of Costa del Sol and $50,078.78 for a travel planning company SET P&V, S.L.
Though her trips may cost taxpayers money, they could also cost President Obama his job.
Top-tier Republican pollsters, organized by Resurgent Republic, traveled to 11 battleground states to host focus groups.
The spoke to independent and swing voters who were Obama supporters in 2008, but are now undecided.
'They don’t like Obama using their tax dollars to benefit himself,' pollster John McLaughlin said to the Washington Examiner.
The lesson from the sessions, McLaughlin said, is that the first family 'is out of touch' with working class voters.
SOAP OPERA-LIKE DRAMA AT EVIDENTIARY HEARING
A lawyer crying on the witness stand while admitting he screwed up – now that’s a new one. Another great plot for a soap opera.
ONE OF HANNAH OVERTON’S TRIAL ATTORNEYS BREAKS DOWN BREAKS DOWN IN TEARS ON THE WITNESS STAND
By Michelle Villarreal
Corpus Christi Caller Times
April 26, 2012
CORPUS CHRISTI — One of Hannah Overton's trial attorneys broke down in tears on the stand Thursday, saying he should have done more to prove her innocence.
David Jones said he regrets not putting Dr. Michael Moritz, a clinical director of pediatric nephrology in Pittsburgh, on the stand during Overton's trial. Moritz was deposed for several hours by attorneys.
"I failed miserably in not reviewing that video ... there is probably not a day since that trial ... that I don't regret not doing more ... I should've done more because of the expertise I had. I should've taken the time myself to watch that video and I failed ... and I'm so sorry," Jones said.
Jones then briefly left the witness stand to compose himself and hugged one of Overton's other attorneys as Overton wiped tears from her face with a white handkerchief.
Overton, 35, was convicted of capital murder in 2007 in connection with the death of her 4-year-old foster child, Andrew Burd. The boy died at a Corpus Christi hospital in 2006 of elevated sodium levels.
Moritz said he believed Andrew could not have been saved, no matter when Andrew arrived at the hospital. That testimony could have exonerated Overton of failing to seek medical attention for the boy in a timely manner, Jones said.
Jones said the most crucial piece of evidence that was not given to the defense was Andrew's vomit.
"It seems it was purposely withheld because we kept asking for it and they refused to give it to us," Jones said.
Overton's appeal for an overturned conviction includes two key claims: that her trial attorneys failed to properly represent her and that prosecutors withheld test results that showed low levels of sodium in the boy's stomach contents.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ordered Longoria in February to hold the evidentiary hearing to look into the merits of Overton's claims.
Longoria won't rule in the case but will make a recommendation and report his findings to the Court of Criminal Appeals. The court then will determine if the evidence are grounds to set Overton free, order a new trial for her or have no merit.Overton's defense long has argued that the boy had emotional and medical problems and would eat odd food, including the salty seasoning.
Prosecutors say the defense's claims of Overton's wrongful conviction are unfounded.
ONE OF HANNAH OVERTON’S TRIAL ATTORNEYS BREAKS DOWN BREAKS DOWN IN TEARS ON THE WITNESS STAND
By Michelle Villarreal
Corpus Christi Caller Times
April 26, 2012
CORPUS CHRISTI — One of Hannah Overton's trial attorneys broke down in tears on the stand Thursday, saying he should have done more to prove her innocence.
David Jones said he regrets not putting Dr. Michael Moritz, a clinical director of pediatric nephrology in Pittsburgh, on the stand during Overton's trial. Moritz was deposed for several hours by attorneys.
"I failed miserably in not reviewing that video ... there is probably not a day since that trial ... that I don't regret not doing more ... I should've done more because of the expertise I had. I should've taken the time myself to watch that video and I failed ... and I'm so sorry," Jones said.
Jones then briefly left the witness stand to compose himself and hugged one of Overton's other attorneys as Overton wiped tears from her face with a white handkerchief.
Overton, 35, was convicted of capital murder in 2007 in connection with the death of her 4-year-old foster child, Andrew Burd. The boy died at a Corpus Christi hospital in 2006 of elevated sodium levels.
Moritz said he believed Andrew could not have been saved, no matter when Andrew arrived at the hospital. That testimony could have exonerated Overton of failing to seek medical attention for the boy in a timely manner, Jones said.
Jones said the most crucial piece of evidence that was not given to the defense was Andrew's vomit.
"It seems it was purposely withheld because we kept asking for it and they refused to give it to us," Jones said.
Overton's appeal for an overturned conviction includes two key claims: that her trial attorneys failed to properly represent her and that prosecutors withheld test results that showed low levels of sodium in the boy's stomach contents.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ordered Longoria in February to hold the evidentiary hearing to look into the merits of Overton's claims.
Longoria won't rule in the case but will make a recommendation and report his findings to the Court of Criminal Appeals. The court then will determine if the evidence are grounds to set Overton free, order a new trial for her or have no merit.Overton's defense long has argued that the boy had emotional and medical problems and would eat odd food, including the salty seasoning.
Prosecutors say the defense's claims of Overton's wrongful conviction are unfounded.
HOUSTON POLICE ‘DOING THE SAME THINGS THEY ARREST PEOPLE FOR’
There is absolutely no excuse for auctioning off property that was seized as evidence from people who are not criminals. There is also no excuse for not returning seized property to people acquitted of a crime unless that property is contraband. When the police lose or auction off people’s property, they should not be able to escape liability by invoking governmental immunity.
HPD TRACK RECORD WITH SEIZED PROPERTY TAKES ANOTHER HIT
Houston police have a long history of mishandling property in their control
By James Pinkerton
Houston Chronicle
April 28, 2012
Sharon Russell was grieving the death of a daughter when she was hit with another loss.
Russell called Houston police to retrieve rings, computers and other property belonging to her daughter, Tara Ann Sganga. Police seized them for use in the investigation of her daughter's boyfriend, a Brazoria County defense attorney charged with causing her drowning death in 2009 by injecting her with drugs.
The day after the trial ended in an acquittal in September 2010, Russell called Houston police officials who admitted they had disposed of her daughter's property long before.
"I was in shock. I was hung up on, and when I called back they told me they had auctioned her things off a year and a half before the trial was over," Russell said. "They gave me no explanation whatsoever. They stole from my deceased daughter. They're doing the same things they arrest people for."
Russell, on behalf of her daughter's estate, filed a $200,000 lawsuit against HPD this month, saying they not only sold her daughter's property but have refused to hand over any proceeds the department received from the auction.
The items included two family heirloom rings - one with a diamond - two Compaq computers, three cell phones, a CD player, more than 200 CDs and other electronic equipment.
Houston police have a long history of mishandling property in their control, including a case resulting in a landmark 1990 federal appeals court ruling that held lax HPD policies made it easy to violate a citizen's constitutional rights against unlawful seizure of their property.
The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a jury's award of $147,779 to a Houston couple whose stereo equipment, video recorder, cameras, jewels, gold coins, hunting rifles and other property had been seized by Houston police. When the couple obtained a court order for the property's return, they learned most of it had been sold in two auctions and the rest was converted to police use.
In 2007, two HPD property room supervisors were suspended after 35 firearms turned up missing from the property room, including two that had resurfaced in the possession of criminal suspects. In 2004, HPD acknowledged that evidence from 8,000 criminal cases, going back to the 1960s, had been found in 280 boxes that were improperly labeled and stored.
Houston Police Chief Charles McClelland, while declining to comment on Russell's lawsuit, said employees of the department's $13 million property room are not perfect. But he noted the 59,000-square-foot property room, which opened in June 2009, earned certification from the International Organization for Standardization in October, the only police property room given that certification.
"We have human beings working in the property room," McClellend said. "People make mistakes. People in your business make mistakes. No one's perfect, and when you're dealing with that type of inventory of property and evidence, something can go to the wrong place, get mislabeled."
Russell's attorney, Ernest M. Powell, said police should at least return proceeds of the sale to his client.
"They treat it like any other lawsuit," Powell said. "You would really expect they would have at least some compassion for a grieving mother. She's not just any crime victim. Her daughter was a victim. It's not as if her home had been burglarized. Her daughter has been killed, and she cannot grieve properly because she can't have her daughter's items."
A similar lawsuit Powell filed over the property disposition was dismissed in August after the city invoked governmental immunity.
Houston attorney Richard Kuniansky got a surprise in 2008 when he tried to retrieve 564 sex toys worth $50,000 from the police property room. They had been seized during a raid on Adult Video Megaplexxx, but an appeals court overturned the law prohibiting the sale of sex toys.
When he called the property room and explained the products were no longer contraband and his client wanted them back, he was told to come pick them up. But when he called back to arrange a time, police said the entire inventory of sex toys had been "lost."
"I think it's pretty obvious where the goods went," Kuniansky said.
The attorney said missing sex toys can be humorous, but few businesses could afford to lose $50,000 in inventory.
Capt. Charles Vazquez, who heads the HPD property room, said there are 380,000 separate items currently in storage, and employees know where the "overwhelming majority" are located. "I'm not saying we could get every single item," he said.
Last year, police checked in 65,000 items and disposed of another 24,000 items, including 8,200 returned to their owners. The other items were either auctioned off, donated to charity, converted to police use, destroyed or returned to the HPD division that checked them in.
"Although we strive for perfection ... sometimes we don't hit that mark," said Vazquez, adding he was not aware of any complaints from residents over lost property since he took over the facility last August.
HPD TRACK RECORD WITH SEIZED PROPERTY TAKES ANOTHER HIT
Houston police have a long history of mishandling property in their control
By James Pinkerton
Houston Chronicle
April 28, 2012
Sharon Russell was grieving the death of a daughter when she was hit with another loss.
Russell called Houston police to retrieve rings, computers and other property belonging to her daughter, Tara Ann Sganga. Police seized them for use in the investigation of her daughter's boyfriend, a Brazoria County defense attorney charged with causing her drowning death in 2009 by injecting her with drugs.
The day after the trial ended in an acquittal in September 2010, Russell called Houston police officials who admitted they had disposed of her daughter's property long before.
"I was in shock. I was hung up on, and when I called back they told me they had auctioned her things off a year and a half before the trial was over," Russell said. "They gave me no explanation whatsoever. They stole from my deceased daughter. They're doing the same things they arrest people for."
Russell, on behalf of her daughter's estate, filed a $200,000 lawsuit against HPD this month, saying they not only sold her daughter's property but have refused to hand over any proceeds the department received from the auction.
The items included two family heirloom rings - one with a diamond - two Compaq computers, three cell phones, a CD player, more than 200 CDs and other electronic equipment.
Houston police have a long history of mishandling property in their control, including a case resulting in a landmark 1990 federal appeals court ruling that held lax HPD policies made it easy to violate a citizen's constitutional rights against unlawful seizure of their property.
The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a jury's award of $147,779 to a Houston couple whose stereo equipment, video recorder, cameras, jewels, gold coins, hunting rifles and other property had been seized by Houston police. When the couple obtained a court order for the property's return, they learned most of it had been sold in two auctions and the rest was converted to police use.
In 2007, two HPD property room supervisors were suspended after 35 firearms turned up missing from the property room, including two that had resurfaced in the possession of criminal suspects. In 2004, HPD acknowledged that evidence from 8,000 criminal cases, going back to the 1960s, had been found in 280 boxes that were improperly labeled and stored.
Houston Police Chief Charles McClelland, while declining to comment on Russell's lawsuit, said employees of the department's $13 million property room are not perfect. But he noted the 59,000-square-foot property room, which opened in June 2009, earned certification from the International Organization for Standardization in October, the only police property room given that certification.
"We have human beings working in the property room," McClellend said. "People make mistakes. People in your business make mistakes. No one's perfect, and when you're dealing with that type of inventory of property and evidence, something can go to the wrong place, get mislabeled."
Russell's attorney, Ernest M. Powell, said police should at least return proceeds of the sale to his client.
"They treat it like any other lawsuit," Powell said. "You would really expect they would have at least some compassion for a grieving mother. She's not just any crime victim. Her daughter was a victim. It's not as if her home had been burglarized. Her daughter has been killed, and she cannot grieve properly because she can't have her daughter's items."
A similar lawsuit Powell filed over the property disposition was dismissed in August after the city invoked governmental immunity.
Houston attorney Richard Kuniansky got a surprise in 2008 when he tried to retrieve 564 sex toys worth $50,000 from the police property room. They had been seized during a raid on Adult Video Megaplexxx, but an appeals court overturned the law prohibiting the sale of sex toys.
When he called the property room and explained the products were no longer contraband and his client wanted them back, he was told to come pick them up. But when he called back to arrange a time, police said the entire inventory of sex toys had been "lost."
"I think it's pretty obvious where the goods went," Kuniansky said.
The attorney said missing sex toys can be humorous, but few businesses could afford to lose $50,000 in inventory.
Capt. Charles Vazquez, who heads the HPD property room, said there are 380,000 separate items currently in storage, and employees know where the "overwhelming majority" are located. "I'm not saying we could get every single item," he said.
Last year, police checked in 65,000 items and disposed of another 24,000 items, including 8,200 returned to their owners. The other items were either auctioned off, donated to charity, converted to police use, destroyed or returned to the HPD division that checked them in.
"Although we strive for perfection ... sometimes we don't hit that mark," said Vazquez, adding he was not aware of any complaints from residents over lost property since he took over the facility last August.
12 REASONS TO VOTE DEMOCRAT
The following item was forwarded to me by a former Marine:
When your family or friends cannot explain why they voted Democrat, give them this list. Then they can pick a reason from this "TOP 12".
1. I voted Democrat because I believe oil companies' profits of 4% on a gallon of gas are obscene, but the government taxing the same gallon of gas at 15% plus isn't.
2. I voted Democrat because I believe the government will do a better job of spending the money I earn than I would.
3. I voted Democrat because Freedom of Speech is fine as long as nobody is offended by it.
4. I voted Democrat because I'm way too irresponsible to own a gun, and I know that my local police are all I need to protect me from murderers and thieves.
5. I voted Democrat because I believe that people who can't tell us if it will rain on Friday can tell us that the polar ice caps will melt away in ten years if I don't start driving a Prius.
6. I voted Democrat because I'm not concerned about millions of babies being aborted so long as we keep all death row inmates alive.
7. I voted Democrat because I think illegal aliens have a right to free health care, education, and Social Security benefits, and we should take away the social security from those who paid into it and earned it, you know, our so called “entitlement”.
8. I voted Democrat because I believe that business should not be allowed to make profits for themselves. They need to break even and give the rest away to the government for redistribution as the Democrats see fit.
9. I voted Democrat because I believe liberal judges need to rewrite the Constitution every few days to suit some fringe kooks who would never get their agendas past the voters.
10. I voted Democrat because I think that it's better to pay billions for oil from people who hate us, but not drill our own because it might upset some endangered beetle, gopher or fish.
11. I voted Democrat because while we live in the greatest, most wonderful country in the world, I was promised "HOPE AND CHANGE".
12. I VOTED DEMOCRAT BECAUSE MY HEAD IS SO FIRMLY PLANTED UP MY ASS IT’S UNLIKELY THAT I’LL EVER HAVE ANOTHER POINT OF VIEW.
When your family or friends cannot explain why they voted Democrat, give them this list. Then they can pick a reason from this "TOP 12".
1. I voted Democrat because I believe oil companies' profits of 4% on a gallon of gas are obscene, but the government taxing the same gallon of gas at 15% plus isn't.
2. I voted Democrat because I believe the government will do a better job of spending the money I earn than I would.
3. I voted Democrat because Freedom of Speech is fine as long as nobody is offended by it.
4. I voted Democrat because I'm way too irresponsible to own a gun, and I know that my local police are all I need to protect me from murderers and thieves.
5. I voted Democrat because I believe that people who can't tell us if it will rain on Friday can tell us that the polar ice caps will melt away in ten years if I don't start driving a Prius.
6. I voted Democrat because I'm not concerned about millions of babies being aborted so long as we keep all death row inmates alive.
7. I voted Democrat because I think illegal aliens have a right to free health care, education, and Social Security benefits, and we should take away the social security from those who paid into it and earned it, you know, our so called “entitlement”.
8. I voted Democrat because I believe that business should not be allowed to make profits for themselves. They need to break even and give the rest away to the government for redistribution as the Democrats see fit.
9. I voted Democrat because I believe liberal judges need to rewrite the Constitution every few days to suit some fringe kooks who would never get their agendas past the voters.
10. I voted Democrat because I think that it's better to pay billions for oil from people who hate us, but not drill our own because it might upset some endangered beetle, gopher or fish.
11. I voted Democrat because while we live in the greatest, most wonderful country in the world, I was promised "HOPE AND CHANGE".
12. I VOTED DEMOCRAT BECAUSE MY HEAD IS SO FIRMLY PLANTED UP MY ASS IT’S UNLIKELY THAT I’LL EVER HAVE ANOTHER POINT OF VIEW.
Saturday, April 28, 2012
IGNORANCE OF SECRET SERVICE SEX SCANDALS BASED ON ABSENCE OF MISCONDUCT COMPLAINTS
Seattle television station KIRO-TV reported Wednesday that an incident similar to the Secret Service scandal in Columbia occurred in March of last year in El Salvador just prior to President Obama’s arrival in that Central American country. The station said it based its report on an unnamed government contractor and a San Salvador strip club owner. The strip club owner also told the station that his club routinely takes care of high-ranking employees of the U.S. embassy in San Salvador as well as visiting FBI and DEA agents.
Here is an excerpt from the KIRO-TV station’s report:
__This source witnessed the majority of the men drink heavily ("wasted," "heavily intoxicated") at the strip club. He says most of the Secret Service "advance-team" members also paid extra for access to the VIP section of the club where they were provided a number of sexual favors in return for their cash.
__Although our source says he told the agents it was a "really bad idea" to take the strippers back to their hotel rooms, several agents bragged that they "did this all the time" and "not to worry about it." Our source says at least two agents had escorts check into their rooms. It is unclear whether the escorts who returned to the hotels were some of the strippers from the same club.
And here are some of the brilliant reactions by some of our nation’s leaders:
__When asked what should be done about the association of federal agents with prostitutes, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid joined Sen. Collins and Rep. Maloney by saying, "Hire more females."
__On Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told the Senate Judiciary Committee that what happened in Colombia was an isolated incident and that if there were a broader problem, "that would be a surprise to me." She said that the Secret Service's Office of Professional Responsibility had received no complaints of misconduct similar to what happened in Cartagena in the past 2 ½ years, and officials are reviewing all records of complaints.
__Rep. Peter King, R-NY, responding to the El Salvador allegations, said there were no complaints of such misconduct in the Secret Service agency files.
__And President Obama reduced the scope of the scandal to “A couple of knuckleheads.”
Hire more females? Let me repeat that while boys will be boys, girls in law enforcement will be boys too. Women in law enforcement want to accepted as part of the team and they are neither likely to stop their male colleagues from cavorting around and they are not likely to rat them out either.
Broader misconduct would be a surprise to Napolitano? For someone who is responsible for all federal law enforcement officers, Napolitano, from her lofty perch at the top, seems to be totally ignorant of the downtime drinking and partying done by the rank-and-file.
No complaints of misconduct? Duh...Of course there are no complaints. These acts were committed in foreign countries where cavorting with prostitutes is a common practice. No Secret Service agent in his right mind would file a complaint citing that he and his comrades had hooked up with hookers. The only reason the Columbian scandal came to light was because one ‘knucklehead’ stiffed the prostitute he was with and she made a complaint to the authorities.
Finally, as to the president’s statement that only a couple of knuckleheads misbehaved, my thought is that only a knucklehead would turn a blind eye to the hard drinking and partying that is common to the law enforcement community.
Here is an excerpt from the KIRO-TV station’s report:
__This source witnessed the majority of the men drink heavily ("wasted," "heavily intoxicated") at the strip club. He says most of the Secret Service "advance-team" members also paid extra for access to the VIP section of the club where they were provided a number of sexual favors in return for their cash.
__Although our source says he told the agents it was a "really bad idea" to take the strippers back to their hotel rooms, several agents bragged that they "did this all the time" and "not to worry about it." Our source says at least two agents had escorts check into their rooms. It is unclear whether the escorts who returned to the hotels were some of the strippers from the same club.
And here are some of the brilliant reactions by some of our nation’s leaders:
__When asked what should be done about the association of federal agents with prostitutes, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid joined Sen. Collins and Rep. Maloney by saying, "Hire more females."
__On Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told the Senate Judiciary Committee that what happened in Colombia was an isolated incident and that if there were a broader problem, "that would be a surprise to me." She said that the Secret Service's Office of Professional Responsibility had received no complaints of misconduct similar to what happened in Cartagena in the past 2 ½ years, and officials are reviewing all records of complaints.
__Rep. Peter King, R-NY, responding to the El Salvador allegations, said there were no complaints of such misconduct in the Secret Service agency files.
__And President Obama reduced the scope of the scandal to “A couple of knuckleheads.”
Hire more females? Let me repeat that while boys will be boys, girls in law enforcement will be boys too. Women in law enforcement want to accepted as part of the team and they are neither likely to stop their male colleagues from cavorting around and they are not likely to rat them out either.
Broader misconduct would be a surprise to Napolitano? For someone who is responsible for all federal law enforcement officers, Napolitano, from her lofty perch at the top, seems to be totally ignorant of the downtime drinking and partying done by the rank-and-file.
No complaints of misconduct? Duh...Of course there are no complaints. These acts were committed in foreign countries where cavorting with prostitutes is a common practice. No Secret Service agent in his right mind would file a complaint citing that he and his comrades had hooked up with hookers. The only reason the Columbian scandal came to light was because one ‘knucklehead’ stiffed the prostitute he was with and she made a complaint to the authorities.
Finally, as to the president’s statement that only a couple of knuckleheads misbehaved, my thought is that only a knucklehead would turn a blind eye to the hard drinking and partying that is common to the law enforcement community.
A GOOD CASE AGAINST THE ‘SAFE CALIFORNIA’ INITIATIVE TO ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY
Jan Scully is the Sacramento County district attorney and Phyllis Loya is the mother of a murdered Pittsburg police officer.
My only disagreement with Scully and Loya is that the ACLU is not the only group behind the SAFE California initiative. You have to include human rights groups, the Catholic church, and far-left fat-cats like George Soros who have been contributing millions of dollars to groups working to abolish the death penalty.
JUSTICE FOR CRIME VICTIMS DEMANDS DEATH PENALTY
By Jan Scully and Phyllis Loya
The Sacramento Bee
April 26, 2012
The American Civil Liberties Union has waged a relentless attack on public safety in California for decades. Their goal: overturn the death penalty. Their approach has been shameful and costly, in dollars and pain for victims.
We are writing as the Sacramento County district attorney and the mother of a Pittsburg police officer whose son Larry Lasater was killed by a vicious murderer. We want California to know who's behind the effort to abolish California's death penalty.
It's the ACLU. They are responsible for endless delays, frivolous appeals and a mountain of misinformation. Now, they claim capital punishment is broken and should be repealed.
This November, Californians will vote and hopefully reject the ACLU. The reason is that Californians don't want the most violent criminals to escape justice: 135 sexual assault murderers, 126 torture murderers, 135 child murderers and 41 cop-killers.
Lawrence Bittaker raped, tortured and killed five teenage girls. Richard "the Nightstalker" Ramirez murdered 13 innocent citizens in Los Angeles, sexually assaulting, torturing and mutilating many of his victims. Richard Allen Davis kidnapped, raped and strangled 12-year-old Polly Klaas. Serial killer Robert Rhoades kidnapped, raped, tortured and murdered 8-year-old Michael Lyons as he walked home from school. These are the criminals who earned a death sentence due to the most violent of crimes, with adjudicated special circumstances. They are the ones the ACLU wants you to save.
Sadly, death penalty opponents mask their intentions in a purported concern for the state budget. Don't be fooled.
The ACLU is responsible for the cost of capital punishment, and they're wrong on their promises of savings. Even with life without parole, taxpayers must still pay for appeals, a lifetime of confinement and skyrocketing health care costs to make sure criminals stay healthy in prison. A Rand Corp. study found there is no objective data to give a true estimate of the costs of the death penalty.
The suggestion that commuting death sentences keeps criminals in jail is false. Former Gov. Edmund "Pat" Brown commuted sentences of several death row inmates, including Norman Whitehorn and Eddie Wein, both of whom were later paroled, only to kill again.
That's not justice, it's criminal.
Voters know better. They support the death penalty and will not be fooled. Public safety leaders will never forget crime victims or dishonor their memory. We will continue demanding justice.
My only disagreement with Scully and Loya is that the ACLU is not the only group behind the SAFE California initiative. You have to include human rights groups, the Catholic church, and far-left fat-cats like George Soros who have been contributing millions of dollars to groups working to abolish the death penalty.
JUSTICE FOR CRIME VICTIMS DEMANDS DEATH PENALTY
By Jan Scully and Phyllis Loya
The Sacramento Bee
April 26, 2012
The American Civil Liberties Union has waged a relentless attack on public safety in California for decades. Their goal: overturn the death penalty. Their approach has been shameful and costly, in dollars and pain for victims.
We are writing as the Sacramento County district attorney and the mother of a Pittsburg police officer whose son Larry Lasater was killed by a vicious murderer. We want California to know who's behind the effort to abolish California's death penalty.
It's the ACLU. They are responsible for endless delays, frivolous appeals and a mountain of misinformation. Now, they claim capital punishment is broken and should be repealed.
This November, Californians will vote and hopefully reject the ACLU. The reason is that Californians don't want the most violent criminals to escape justice: 135 sexual assault murderers, 126 torture murderers, 135 child murderers and 41 cop-killers.
Lawrence Bittaker raped, tortured and killed five teenage girls. Richard "the Nightstalker" Ramirez murdered 13 innocent citizens in Los Angeles, sexually assaulting, torturing and mutilating many of his victims. Richard Allen Davis kidnapped, raped and strangled 12-year-old Polly Klaas. Serial killer Robert Rhoades kidnapped, raped, tortured and murdered 8-year-old Michael Lyons as he walked home from school. These are the criminals who earned a death sentence due to the most violent of crimes, with adjudicated special circumstances. They are the ones the ACLU wants you to save.
Sadly, death penalty opponents mask their intentions in a purported concern for the state budget. Don't be fooled.
The ACLU is responsible for the cost of capital punishment, and they're wrong on their promises of savings. Even with life without parole, taxpayers must still pay for appeals, a lifetime of confinement and skyrocketing health care costs to make sure criminals stay healthy in prison. A Rand Corp. study found there is no objective data to give a true estimate of the costs of the death penalty.
The suggestion that commuting death sentences keeps criminals in jail is false. Former Gov. Edmund "Pat" Brown commuted sentences of several death row inmates, including Norman Whitehorn and Eddie Wein, both of whom were later paroled, only to kill again.
That's not justice, it's criminal.
Voters know better. They support the death penalty and will not be fooled. Public safety leaders will never forget crime victims or dishonor their memory. We will continue demanding justice.
CHICAGO COPS DELIVERED WHITE BIPOLAR WOMAN TO CRUEL BLACK RAPISTS
What in the hell were the cops thinking? It looks to me like they must have thought what they were doing was funny.
WOMAN CAN SUE POLICE FOR RELEASING HER IN NEIGHBORHOOD WHERE SHE WAS ATTACKED, COURT SAYS
By David Heinzmann
Chicago Tribune
April 26, 2012
CHICAGO - More than two years after getting the case, a federal appeals court Thursday ruled that a mentally ill California woman can sue the Chicago Police Department for releasing her into a violent neighborhood where she was raped and nearly killed.
In its decision, the three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the city’s attempt to stop the case and said the only way to sort out whether officers violated Christina Eilman’s rights is to have a trial.
The appellate court took an usually long time to decide the appeal from city of Chicago lawyers, which was filed in February 2010. Eilman’s attorney had filed three motions over the last two years asking the appellate court to hurry up, and recently he asked the federal trial judge to move forward with another part of the case not on appeal.
The judge was still weighing whether to take the unusual step of splitting the case in two when the appellate ruling came down Thursday. The judge had indicated that if she did move forward, the case would go to trial by October.
In the appellate ruling, Chief Judge Frank Easterbrook wrote that police knew Eilman was suffering a bipolar breakdown and that responsibility for the sexual assault and injuries she suffered after police released her into a high-crime neighborhood the night of May 8, 2006 has to be decided in a trial.
The city’s appeal had asked the court to dismiss the case against 10 police officers accused of negligence, arguing the police had no responsibility to take care of Eilman, a 21-year-old former University of California, Los Angeles, student who had been arrested after creating a disturbance at Midway Airport.
The appellate ruling left most of the police defendants in the case, but the judges excused two officers whose role in the case didn’t involve responsibility for making decisions about whether Eilman needed care. Decisions about the status of two other officers were sent back to U.S. District Court Judge Virginia Kendall to evaluate.
In reciting the narrative of what happened that night, Easterbrook suggested the police showed little regard for the danger they were putting Eilman in when they released her.
"She was lost, unable to appreciate her danger, and dressed in a manner to attract attention," Easterbrook wrote. He added, "she is white and well off while the local population is predominantly black and not affluent, causing her to stand out as a person unfamiliar with the environment and thus a potential target for crime."
Eilman, who was thrown or fell from the seventh floor of a public housing building after being assaulted, requires around-the-clock care at her parents’ home in California and is dependent on state welfare because she has no health insurance.
WOMAN CAN SUE POLICE FOR RELEASING HER IN NEIGHBORHOOD WHERE SHE WAS ATTACKED, COURT SAYS
By David Heinzmann
Chicago Tribune
April 26, 2012
CHICAGO - More than two years after getting the case, a federal appeals court Thursday ruled that a mentally ill California woman can sue the Chicago Police Department for releasing her into a violent neighborhood where she was raped and nearly killed.
In its decision, the three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the city’s attempt to stop the case and said the only way to sort out whether officers violated Christina Eilman’s rights is to have a trial.
The appellate court took an usually long time to decide the appeal from city of Chicago lawyers, which was filed in February 2010. Eilman’s attorney had filed three motions over the last two years asking the appellate court to hurry up, and recently he asked the federal trial judge to move forward with another part of the case not on appeal.
The judge was still weighing whether to take the unusual step of splitting the case in two when the appellate ruling came down Thursday. The judge had indicated that if she did move forward, the case would go to trial by October.
In the appellate ruling, Chief Judge Frank Easterbrook wrote that police knew Eilman was suffering a bipolar breakdown and that responsibility for the sexual assault and injuries she suffered after police released her into a high-crime neighborhood the night of May 8, 2006 has to be decided in a trial.
The city’s appeal had asked the court to dismiss the case against 10 police officers accused of negligence, arguing the police had no responsibility to take care of Eilman, a 21-year-old former University of California, Los Angeles, student who had been arrested after creating a disturbance at Midway Airport.
The appellate ruling left most of the police defendants in the case, but the judges excused two officers whose role in the case didn’t involve responsibility for making decisions about whether Eilman needed care. Decisions about the status of two other officers were sent back to U.S. District Court Judge Virginia Kendall to evaluate.
In reciting the narrative of what happened that night, Easterbrook suggested the police showed little regard for the danger they were putting Eilman in when they released her.
"She was lost, unable to appreciate her danger, and dressed in a manner to attract attention," Easterbrook wrote. He added, "she is white and well off while the local population is predominantly black and not affluent, causing her to stand out as a person unfamiliar with the environment and thus a potential target for crime."
Eilman, who was thrown or fell from the seventh floor of a public housing building after being assaulted, requires around-the-clock care at her parents’ home in California and is dependent on state welfare because she has no health insurance.
NUTS TO NEUTICLES
Replacement nuts for dogs? A fashion accessory consisting of a pair of genuine Neuticles attached to a necklace? No wonder P.T. Barnum said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.”
ODD JOBS: PROSTHETIC DOG-TESTICLE MAKER
By Eric Spitznagel
Bloomberg Businessweek
April 25, 2012
Gregg Miller remembers the first time he realized just what an uphill battle he was facing with his new business. He was sitting backstage at the Pat Bullard Show in New York, waiting to introduce the world to Neuticles. He got into a conversation with comedian Joan Rivers, another guest on the show, and tried to explain to her exactly what he’d invented. “They’re testicular implants for pets,” he said. Rivers just stared at him blankly and asked, “What do they do?” Miller went into as much detail as he could, telling her how Neuticles help pets and their owners deal with the trauma of neutering. She just smirked at him, he says, and then repeated her question. “But what do they do?”
It’s difficult to quantify exactly what Neuticles do. Unlike the things they’re replacing —the actual scrotums that are removed during castration surgery—Neuticles don’t technically have a biological purpose. They’re an emotional Band-Aid for a procedure that Miller says “adds insult to injury.” He came up with the idea after noticing that his dog, a bloodhound named Buck, went through a long grieving process after being neutered. “Dogs aren’t stupid,” he says. “They would know if their eye was gouged out, or their foot was cut off. Why wouldn’t they know if their testicles are now missing?”
It’s that word—testicles—that makes his business especially difficult. It’s right there in the Neuticles name; “Neut-” stands for neutering and “-icles” for testicles. When he first launched the company, he hired a team of telemarketers to call pet owners and tell them about Neuticles. But describing the product was almost impossible without bringing up testicles. And testicles, even dog testicles, are not something most people want to discuss with a stranger who calls during dinner. It’s a subject that invariably leads to grimacing or giggling. Even Miller, who’ll be 59 years old this week, can’t avoid the puns. “When Neuticles were introduced commercially in 1995,” he says, “people thought I was nuts.”
Seventeen years later, Neuticles—still based in Miller’s hometown of Oak Grove, Mo., a suburb of Kansas City—have become a huge commercial success. Miller estimates that 517,223 neutered pets, living in all 50 states and 49 countries, are proudly (and unsuspectingly) wearing Neuticles. And they now come in a variety of styles and, yes, sizes. The less expensive option (priced from $119 to $149 for a set) is made out of rigid polypropylene and is, Miller believes, “easily detected” by discerning dogs, while the more expensive version (the UltraPLUS, which can cost up to $600) is made from silicone and, according to Miller, is “very lifelike.”
Neuticles also come in eight different sizes, ranging from XX-small to XX-large. There is always going to be the temptation to upgrade, but Miller says giving a dog bigger testicles than he lost is usually a bad idea. “Going larger can create short- and long-term complications and discomfort for the pet,” he warns. But that kind of logic doesn’t always convince customers worried about their dog’s genital self-esteem, living in a country where bigger is always better. To discourage super-sizing, all Neuticles orders must include the age, weight, and breed of the pet. “Some canines are more endowed or less endowed than other breeds,” he says. “After dealing with thousands of pets, we know our testicles.”
Miller is well aware that the giggle factor will never go away, especially among people who’ve never had to neuter a pet. “Generally pet owners think (Neuticles) are genius and non-pet owners think we’re insane,” he says. That opinion is unlikely to change thanks to the newest addition to the Neuticles website: Neuticle fashion accessories, or what Miller calls “NeuticleWEAR.” For just $79, you can buy a pair of genuine Neuticles attached to a necklace. “They’re very popular, especially at Christmas,” Miller says. “They make awesome stocking stuffers.”
ODD JOBS: PROSTHETIC DOG-TESTICLE MAKER
By Eric Spitznagel
Bloomberg Businessweek
April 25, 2012
Gregg Miller remembers the first time he realized just what an uphill battle he was facing with his new business. He was sitting backstage at the Pat Bullard Show in New York, waiting to introduce the world to Neuticles. He got into a conversation with comedian Joan Rivers, another guest on the show, and tried to explain to her exactly what he’d invented. “They’re testicular implants for pets,” he said. Rivers just stared at him blankly and asked, “What do they do?” Miller went into as much detail as he could, telling her how Neuticles help pets and their owners deal with the trauma of neutering. She just smirked at him, he says, and then repeated her question. “But what do they do?”
It’s difficult to quantify exactly what Neuticles do. Unlike the things they’re replacing —the actual scrotums that are removed during castration surgery—Neuticles don’t technically have a biological purpose. They’re an emotional Band-Aid for a procedure that Miller says “adds insult to injury.” He came up with the idea after noticing that his dog, a bloodhound named Buck, went through a long grieving process after being neutered. “Dogs aren’t stupid,” he says. “They would know if their eye was gouged out, or their foot was cut off. Why wouldn’t they know if their testicles are now missing?”
It’s that word—testicles—that makes his business especially difficult. It’s right there in the Neuticles name; “Neut-” stands for neutering and “-icles” for testicles. When he first launched the company, he hired a team of telemarketers to call pet owners and tell them about Neuticles. But describing the product was almost impossible without bringing up testicles. And testicles, even dog testicles, are not something most people want to discuss with a stranger who calls during dinner. It’s a subject that invariably leads to grimacing or giggling. Even Miller, who’ll be 59 years old this week, can’t avoid the puns. “When Neuticles were introduced commercially in 1995,” he says, “people thought I was nuts.”
Seventeen years later, Neuticles—still based in Miller’s hometown of Oak Grove, Mo., a suburb of Kansas City—have become a huge commercial success. Miller estimates that 517,223 neutered pets, living in all 50 states and 49 countries, are proudly (and unsuspectingly) wearing Neuticles. And they now come in a variety of styles and, yes, sizes. The less expensive option (priced from $119 to $149 for a set) is made out of rigid polypropylene and is, Miller believes, “easily detected” by discerning dogs, while the more expensive version (the UltraPLUS, which can cost up to $600) is made from silicone and, according to Miller, is “very lifelike.”
Neuticles also come in eight different sizes, ranging from XX-small to XX-large. There is always going to be the temptation to upgrade, but Miller says giving a dog bigger testicles than he lost is usually a bad idea. “Going larger can create short- and long-term complications and discomfort for the pet,” he warns. But that kind of logic doesn’t always convince customers worried about their dog’s genital self-esteem, living in a country where bigger is always better. To discourage super-sizing, all Neuticles orders must include the age, weight, and breed of the pet. “Some canines are more endowed or less endowed than other breeds,” he says. “After dealing with thousands of pets, we know our testicles.”
Miller is well aware that the giggle factor will never go away, especially among people who’ve never had to neuter a pet. “Generally pet owners think (Neuticles) are genius and non-pet owners think we’re insane,” he says. That opinion is unlikely to change thanks to the newest addition to the Neuticles website: Neuticle fashion accessories, or what Miller calls “NeuticleWEAR.” For just $79, you can buy a pair of genuine Neuticles attached to a necklace. “They’re very popular, especially at Christmas,” Miller says. “They make awesome stocking stuffers.”
Friday, April 27, 2012
IT MAKES ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE TO EXTRADITE JORAN VAN DER SLOOT AT THIS TIME
In 2005, Joran van der Sloot is believed to have killed 18-year-old Natalee Holloway in Aruba. In 2010, a federal grand jury in Alabama indicted him on charges of extortion and wire fraud. Van der Sloot attempted to extort $250,000 from Holloway’s mother for information on her whereabouts. She paid him $25,000, but the information he gave her turned out to be bogus.
Van der Sloot is currently serving a 28-year sentence in a Peruvian prison for the murder of 21-year-old Stephany Flores.
The Justice Department has made a formal extradition request to the Peruvian authorities and a judge in Peru has taken the request under advisement. He is expected to make a ruling shortly.
Have those people at the Justice Department taken leave of their senses? Van der Sloot is doing time under very harsh conditions in a Peruvian prison. The feds want to whisk him out of that prison to stand trial in the U.S. so that, if convicted, he will face five to 10 years in a federal prison where his living conditions, food and treatment by guards will be much, much better.
Van der Sloot will probably be released from his Peruvian hellhole well short of 28 years. It would make much more sense if the morons over at Justice would keep constant track of any developments in his Peruvian confinement and request extradition only shortly before he is about to be released.
Van der Sloot is currently serving a 28-year sentence in a Peruvian prison for the murder of 21-year-old Stephany Flores.
The Justice Department has made a formal extradition request to the Peruvian authorities and a judge in Peru has taken the request under advisement. He is expected to make a ruling shortly.
Have those people at the Justice Department taken leave of their senses? Van der Sloot is doing time under very harsh conditions in a Peruvian prison. The feds want to whisk him out of that prison to stand trial in the U.S. so that, if convicted, he will face five to 10 years in a federal prison where his living conditions, food and treatment by guards will be much, much better.
Van der Sloot will probably be released from his Peruvian hellhole well short of 28 years. It would make much more sense if the morons over at Justice would keep constant track of any developments in his Peruvian confinement and request extradition only shortly before he is about to be released.
WILL SEN. COLLINS AND REP. MALONEY NOW CALL FOR MORE WOMEN MARINES?
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Main, and Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-NY, suggested that diversifying the male culture of the Secret Service with more female agents would probably discourage behaviors like the ones that led to the prostitution scandal in Columbia. Apparently they also should have included the U.S. Marine Corps in their gender agenda.
During a visit to Brasilia this week, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, in response to a reporter’s question, said the four embassy Marines in last November’s hushed-up Brazilian prostitute incident were demoted and severely punished.
BRAZILIAAN PROSTITUTE HAD COLLAR BONE BROKEN WHEN THREE U S MARINES THREW HER OUT OF A MOVING EMBASSY CAR IN FRESH EMBARRASSMENT FOR OBAMA
Probe found four Obama officials hired prostitutes in Brasilia nightclub
By Matt Roper
Mail Online
April 25, 2012
American marines injured a Brazilian prostitute after throwing her out of an official Embassy car, it was reported today.
Romilda Ferreira was left with a broken collar bone, two broken ribs and a punctured lung after the incident in Brazil's capital Brasilia.
The three marines on a U.S. Embassy security team, and an Embassy staff member, were pulled out of the country before police were able to press charges, according to Brazil's Jornal Nacional programme.
The revelation comes a week after ten American Secret Service agents were accused of hiring prostitutes in Colombia prior to president Barack Obama's visit to the Summit of Americas.
This latest incident, which happened in November last year, came to light after U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, in Brazil during a Latin American tour, was questioned about it by a Brazilian reporter during a press conference.
According to a Brazilian police investigation, the four U.S. Embassy officials had visited a nightclub in the centre of Brasilia where they had hired a group of prostitutes.
One of the Americans and at least one woman left the club by taxi, but Ms Ferreira and another women got into an official U.S. Embassy van with the other three men.
As they pulled away there was a discussion about how much the women were to be paid, and one of the marines pushed Ms Ferreira out of the car, where she ended up being run over by the vehicle.
Speaking to the Jornal Nacional news programme, Romilda said she tried to hold on to the door but was dragged under the wheels.
She said: 'I tried to get up and grabbed the doorknob. That was when they told the driver to go. Then I felt my leg burning. I let go and fell underneath the van. I hit my head and passed out.'
The Americans then allegedly drove away without offering assistance.
Police investigating the incident requested the arrest of the driver of the van and one of the marines for bodily injury and failure to rescue.
But U.S. authorities removed the four men from the country before they could be charged with the crimes.
Speaking to reporters in Brasilia, Mr Panetta said the men were pulled from the country, two of the marines had their ranks reduced and the embassy staff member was removed from his post.
He added that the embassy had tracked Ms Ferreira down and paid for her medical expenses.
He added: 'This incident was fully investigated and all those involved were punished. They are no longer in this country. This type of behaviour is unacceptable.'
He said he had 'no tolerance for that kind of conduct. Where it takes place you can be sure that we will act to make sure that they are punished.'
Ms Ferreira, who is still recovering from her injuries, said she now intends to sue the American embassy.
During a visit to Brasilia this week, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, in response to a reporter’s question, said the four embassy Marines in last November’s hushed-up Brazilian prostitute incident were demoted and severely punished.
BRAZILIAAN PROSTITUTE HAD COLLAR BONE BROKEN WHEN THREE U S MARINES THREW HER OUT OF A MOVING EMBASSY CAR IN FRESH EMBARRASSMENT FOR OBAMA
Probe found four Obama officials hired prostitutes in Brasilia nightclub
By Matt Roper
Mail Online
April 25, 2012
American marines injured a Brazilian prostitute after throwing her out of an official Embassy car, it was reported today.
Romilda Ferreira was left with a broken collar bone, two broken ribs and a punctured lung after the incident in Brazil's capital Brasilia.
The three marines on a U.S. Embassy security team, and an Embassy staff member, were pulled out of the country before police were able to press charges, according to Brazil's Jornal Nacional programme.
The revelation comes a week after ten American Secret Service agents were accused of hiring prostitutes in Colombia prior to president Barack Obama's visit to the Summit of Americas.
This latest incident, which happened in November last year, came to light after U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, in Brazil during a Latin American tour, was questioned about it by a Brazilian reporter during a press conference.
According to a Brazilian police investigation, the four U.S. Embassy officials had visited a nightclub in the centre of Brasilia where they had hired a group of prostitutes.
One of the Americans and at least one woman left the club by taxi, but Ms Ferreira and another women got into an official U.S. Embassy van with the other three men.
As they pulled away there was a discussion about how much the women were to be paid, and one of the marines pushed Ms Ferreira out of the car, where she ended up being run over by the vehicle.
Speaking to the Jornal Nacional news programme, Romilda said she tried to hold on to the door but was dragged under the wheels.
She said: 'I tried to get up and grabbed the doorknob. That was when they told the driver to go. Then I felt my leg burning. I let go and fell underneath the van. I hit my head and passed out.'
The Americans then allegedly drove away without offering assistance.
Police investigating the incident requested the arrest of the driver of the van and one of the marines for bodily injury and failure to rescue.
But U.S. authorities removed the four men from the country before they could be charged with the crimes.
Speaking to reporters in Brasilia, Mr Panetta said the men were pulled from the country, two of the marines had their ranks reduced and the embassy staff member was removed from his post.
He added that the embassy had tracked Ms Ferreira down and paid for her medical expenses.
He added: 'This incident was fully investigated and all those involved were punished. They are no longer in this country. This type of behaviour is unacceptable.'
He said he had 'no tolerance for that kind of conduct. Where it takes place you can be sure that we will act to make sure that they are punished.'
Ms Ferreira, who is still recovering from her injuries, said she now intends to sue the American embassy.
ASPIRING AUTHOR, A JAILER, WROTE PUBLISHED BOOK WHILE SITTING ON TOILET, BUSTED FOR HAVING SEX WITH INMATE
Will they ever learn? Female correctional officers and female correctional counselors who engage in sexual intercourse with male prisoners are bound to get caught. The lucky inmate is bound to brag about having laid a guard and the word will spread like wildfire.
KELLY WILSON: EAST TEXAS JAILER / AUTHOR CHARGED WITH INMATE SEX
By John Nova Lomax
Houston Press Hair Balls
April 25, 2012
Angelina County jailer and author Kelly Wilson has resigned her position and faces criminal charges after authorities in Lufkin alleged that she had a sexual relationship with a male inmate.
According to the Lufkin Daily News, the Angelina County Sheriff's Office got a tip that there was some illicit hanky-panky in their pokey on April 16.
According to KTRE, an internal investigation led to Wilson's resignation. The Daily News reported that a subsequent probe by Texas Ranger Steve Rayburn led to her arrest last night on a charge of improper sexual relationship with an inmate, a state-jail felony punishable by up to two years in jail. Perhaps owing to her former position at the Angelina County Jail, Wilson, a 40-year-old resident of Huntington, was taken to the Nacogdoches County lock-up just up the road.
Last year, Wilson published Confessions from the Loo, her first book.
Written mainly on a laptop while she was sitting on a toilet in a crowded home she shared with her then-husband and two children, the book is a compilation of columns she wrote for the Huntington Herald. Included are reminiscences of famous East Texas lawmen, a rumination on fallen cops brought on by a visit to the national police officers' memorial in Washington, and a salute to her brazenly unabashed redneck husband. Who now appears to be her brazenly unabashed redneck ex-husband.
In January of last year, to promote the book's release, Wilson/Whitehead gave an interview to the Daily News's Jessica Cooley. She was ecstatic to see her hitherto-scattered and ephemeral country newspaper work tucked between covers for posterity.
"I couldn't stop smiling," she told Cooley. "My daughter came in from work that night; she said, 'Let me see it.' I had to pull it out from under my pillow. It is the neatest thing. I had three goals growing up. I wanted to be a police officer, which I am. I wanted to be as good a mommy as my mommy. I'm not quite there, but I'm working on it. And I wanted to publish. I've accomplished all three of them. Now I just want to get more out there."
Oh, she got more out there all right...
Allegedly.
Wilson's arrest came the night before her 40th birthday.
She reportedly spent last Friday in Angelina County's criminal court, where she went to support the inmate with whom she was allegedly embroiled. Even as she was being investigated...Now that's what they call ride or die.
The Angelina County Sheriff's Office declined to release further information about the inmate.
KELLY WILSON: EAST TEXAS JAILER / AUTHOR CHARGED WITH INMATE SEX
By John Nova Lomax
Houston Press Hair Balls
April 25, 2012
Angelina County jailer and author Kelly Wilson has resigned her position and faces criminal charges after authorities in Lufkin alleged that she had a sexual relationship with a male inmate.
According to the Lufkin Daily News, the Angelina County Sheriff's Office got a tip that there was some illicit hanky-panky in their pokey on April 16.
According to KTRE, an internal investigation led to Wilson's resignation. The Daily News reported that a subsequent probe by Texas Ranger Steve Rayburn led to her arrest last night on a charge of improper sexual relationship with an inmate, a state-jail felony punishable by up to two years in jail. Perhaps owing to her former position at the Angelina County Jail, Wilson, a 40-year-old resident of Huntington, was taken to the Nacogdoches County lock-up just up the road.
Last year, Wilson published Confessions from the Loo, her first book.
Written mainly on a laptop while she was sitting on a toilet in a crowded home she shared with her then-husband and two children, the book is a compilation of columns she wrote for the Huntington Herald. Included are reminiscences of famous East Texas lawmen, a rumination on fallen cops brought on by a visit to the national police officers' memorial in Washington, and a salute to her brazenly unabashed redneck husband. Who now appears to be her brazenly unabashed redneck ex-husband.
In January of last year, to promote the book's release, Wilson/Whitehead gave an interview to the Daily News's Jessica Cooley. She was ecstatic to see her hitherto-scattered and ephemeral country newspaper work tucked between covers for posterity.
"I couldn't stop smiling," she told Cooley. "My daughter came in from work that night; she said, 'Let me see it.' I had to pull it out from under my pillow. It is the neatest thing. I had three goals growing up. I wanted to be a police officer, which I am. I wanted to be as good a mommy as my mommy. I'm not quite there, but I'm working on it. And I wanted to publish. I've accomplished all three of them. Now I just want to get more out there."
Oh, she got more out there all right...
Allegedly.
Wilson's arrest came the night before her 40th birthday.
She reportedly spent last Friday in Angelina County's criminal court, where she went to support the inmate with whom she was allegedly embroiled. Even as she was being investigated...Now that's what they call ride or die.
The Angelina County Sheriff's Office declined to release further information about the inmate.
THOSE PIGS WILL NEVER CATCH ME!!!... NEVER!!!
This college student learned too late that cops can’t take a joke.
MAHOGANY MASON-KELLY, FAMOUS LAST TWEETS: DON’T TAUNT COPS ABOUT YOUR OUTSTANDING WARRANTS
By Richard Connelly
Houston Press Hair Balls
April 24, 2012
Twitter giveth and Twitter taketh away. Especially when you're colossally stupid about it.
Lamar University student Mahogany Mason-Kelly, 20, learned that lesson when she tweeted: "I still gotta warrant in pearland..those pigs will NEVER catch me!!!...Never!!!"
(We immediately pictured "I'm Homer Simpson, the most powerful food critic in town, who will never get his comeuppance! You hear me? No comeuppance! [turns to the camera] We'll be right back.")
As reported in yourpearlandnews.com, Pearland police soon learned of the tweet even though Mason-Kelly didn't leave a hashtag, which we're sure she would have if she knew what the relevant one was.
Pearland contacted the Lamar University cops, who arrested her.
Some searches revealed she not only had the Pearland warrants but that she had given her sister's name when Houston cops stopped her last year.
Yeah, we're surprised @xoxo_mahogany didn't tweet about that at the time.
MAHOGANY MASON-KELLY, FAMOUS LAST TWEETS: DON’T TAUNT COPS ABOUT YOUR OUTSTANDING WARRANTS
By Richard Connelly
Houston Press Hair Balls
April 24, 2012
Twitter giveth and Twitter taketh away. Especially when you're colossally stupid about it.
Lamar University student Mahogany Mason-Kelly, 20, learned that lesson when she tweeted: "I still gotta warrant in pearland..those pigs will NEVER catch me!!!...Never!!!"
(We immediately pictured "I'm Homer Simpson, the most powerful food critic in town, who will never get his comeuppance! You hear me? No comeuppance! [turns to the camera] We'll be right back.")
As reported in yourpearlandnews.com, Pearland police soon learned of the tweet even though Mason-Kelly didn't leave a hashtag, which we're sure she would have if she knew what the relevant one was.
Pearland contacted the Lamar University cops, who arrested her.
Some searches revealed she not only had the Pearland warrants but that she had given her sister's name when Houston cops stopped her last year.
Yeah, we're surprised @xoxo_mahogany didn't tweet about that at the time.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
THE ‘SAFE CALIFORNIA ACT’ IS ONE GIGANTIC CON JOB
The ‘Savings, Accountability, and Full Enforcement for California Act’ (SAFE California Act) will be on the November ballot in California after supporters gathered more than 504,000 signatures of Kookfornians who favor abolishing the death penalty. The initiative would replace death sentences with life in prison with no chance of parole.
The death penalty abolitionists assert that enactment of the SAFE California Act will save California’s taxpayers millions of dollars every year. That assertion is patently false!
In addition to abolishing the death penalty, SAFE California would require those convicted of murder to work and pay restitution into a victim's compensation fund. And the act creates the SAFE California Fund, which takes $30 million a year for three years in budget savings to be used for the investigation of unsolved rape and murder cases.
Lifers working to pay restitution? What a joke! What kind of ‘high-paying’ jobs would be available to indigent lifers within the confines of a high security prison? None that would enable them to make any meaningful payments into the victim’s compensation fund. And what about those budget savings? They will turn out to be a pipe dream.
There is no question that capital puishment is costly. The biggest cost associated with the death penalty is what it costs to fight the endless appeals that are filed while a murderer sits on death row. The death row custodial costs are somewhat higher than those for the regular prison population. But as for those sentenced to life without parole, when you add up what it costs to keep them in prison for 20 or more years, it will cost more for a lifer than for an inmate awaiting execution. We’re still talking about millions of dollars to maintain those lifers.
The costs associated with the death penalty, when figured on a yearly basis for each individual person condemned to death, are a mere drop in the bucket of an annual state budget. Citing those costs as a good reason to abolish capital punishment is nothing more than one gigantic con job! Even the initiative title is a con job in and of itself. Unfortunately, the stupid voters are likely to pass the SAFE California Act initiative.
The death penalty abolitionists assert that enactment of the SAFE California Act will save California’s taxpayers millions of dollars every year. That assertion is patently false!
In addition to abolishing the death penalty, SAFE California would require those convicted of murder to work and pay restitution into a victim's compensation fund. And the act creates the SAFE California Fund, which takes $30 million a year for three years in budget savings to be used for the investigation of unsolved rape and murder cases.
Lifers working to pay restitution? What a joke! What kind of ‘high-paying’ jobs would be available to indigent lifers within the confines of a high security prison? None that would enable them to make any meaningful payments into the victim’s compensation fund. And what about those budget savings? They will turn out to be a pipe dream.
There is no question that capital puishment is costly. The biggest cost associated with the death penalty is what it costs to fight the endless appeals that are filed while a murderer sits on death row. The death row custodial costs are somewhat higher than those for the regular prison population. But as for those sentenced to life without parole, when you add up what it costs to keep them in prison for 20 or more years, it will cost more for a lifer than for an inmate awaiting execution. We’re still talking about millions of dollars to maintain those lifers.
The costs associated with the death penalty, when figured on a yearly basis for each individual person condemned to death, are a mere drop in the bucket of an annual state budget. Citing those costs as a good reason to abolish capital punishment is nothing more than one gigantic con job! Even the initiative title is a con job in and of itself. Unfortunately, the stupid voters are likely to pass the SAFE California Act initiative.
ISRAELI GOVERNMENT LEGALIZES LONGSTANDING SETTLEMENTS
The move will not only infuriate the Palestinians, but if will infuriate the Europeans and the Obama administration as well. That’s just too bad!
WEST BANK JEWISH COMMUNITIES IN EXISTENCE FOR TWO DECADES NOW LEGAL
By Edmund Sanders
Jewish World Review
April 25, 2012
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that his Cabinet has decided to retroactively legalize three West Bank outposts that previous governments had conceded were built without permission, marking the first step toward what critics fear will become Israel's first official new settlements since 1990.
Government officials said it was inaccurate to characterize the legalization process as establishing new settlements, noting that the three outposts were founded in the 1990s, reportedly with the government's blessing. Officials said the outposts only lack certain technical authorizations and planning permits, which now will be given.
"This decision does not change the reality on the ground whatsoever," said a government official who was not authorized to speak publicly on the issue. "It does not establish new settlements or expand existing ones."
The decision late Monday by a Cabinet committee begins a long administrative process to authorize the small settlements of Rehalim, Sansana and Bruchin.
Although most of the international community views all Israel settlements to be illegal, Israel makes a distinction between settlements it has authorized and the so-called outposts, most of which sprang up over the past 20 years. Although outposts have not been formally recognized by the government, they do receive substantial support in the form of security, roads and infrastructure.
The move infuriated Palestinians and frustrated the international community, which has been pushing Israel to freeze settlement construction in the West Bank and refrain from taking actions that might hinder efforts to restart peace talks.
Netanyahu's right-wing coalition government has been under pressure in recent weeks because of court-mandated deadlines to dismantle some outposts, such as Migron, now due to be evacuated by August, and Givat Haulpana, which is facing eviction by May 1.
The Cabinet also decided Monday to ask the court to delay the Givat Haulpana deadline in order to avoid the evacuation of 30 families living on land claimed by Palestinians. A year ago, the government had conceded that the homes should be dismantled and promised to do so by May.
A similar government request to delay until 2015 the evacuation of Migron was rejected by the court last month.
Some see the move to legalize the other three outposts as a way to appease conservative lawmakers and settlers' groups, who have accused Netanyahu of betraying them.
Over the weekend, Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon, who opposes dismantling the outposts, predicted the government might collapse if Givat Haulpana is evacuated. "If the demolition of Ulpana Hill (Givat Haulpana) requires the dissolution of the government, then so be it," Yaalon said.
Adding to the domestic tension over Israel's settlements, a Jerusalem court ruled last week that a building taken over by Jewish settlers in Hebron in 2005 was not legally purchased as claimed by the settlers and must be evacuated within four weeks.
The settlers had claimed that they purchased the building from a member of the Palestinian family that owned it, but the court found that the sale documents were invalid.
That decision comes just two weeks after Israel's military forcibly evicted another group of settlers who had taken possession of a vacant building in a Palestinian neighborhood of Hebron that they claimed to have purchased. The government removed the settlers pending verification of their sale documents, which Palestinian leaders in Hebron say may be forged.
WEST BANK JEWISH COMMUNITIES IN EXISTENCE FOR TWO DECADES NOW LEGAL
By Edmund Sanders
Jewish World Review
April 25, 2012
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that his Cabinet has decided to retroactively legalize three West Bank outposts that previous governments had conceded were built without permission, marking the first step toward what critics fear will become Israel's first official new settlements since 1990.
Government officials said it was inaccurate to characterize the legalization process as establishing new settlements, noting that the three outposts were founded in the 1990s, reportedly with the government's blessing. Officials said the outposts only lack certain technical authorizations and planning permits, which now will be given.
"This decision does not change the reality on the ground whatsoever," said a government official who was not authorized to speak publicly on the issue. "It does not establish new settlements or expand existing ones."
The decision late Monday by a Cabinet committee begins a long administrative process to authorize the small settlements of Rehalim, Sansana and Bruchin.
Although most of the international community views all Israel settlements to be illegal, Israel makes a distinction between settlements it has authorized and the so-called outposts, most of which sprang up over the past 20 years. Although outposts have not been formally recognized by the government, they do receive substantial support in the form of security, roads and infrastructure.
The move infuriated Palestinians and frustrated the international community, which has been pushing Israel to freeze settlement construction in the West Bank and refrain from taking actions that might hinder efforts to restart peace talks.
Netanyahu's right-wing coalition government has been under pressure in recent weeks because of court-mandated deadlines to dismantle some outposts, such as Migron, now due to be evacuated by August, and Givat Haulpana, which is facing eviction by May 1.
The Cabinet also decided Monday to ask the court to delay the Givat Haulpana deadline in order to avoid the evacuation of 30 families living on land claimed by Palestinians. A year ago, the government had conceded that the homes should be dismantled and promised to do so by May.
A similar government request to delay until 2015 the evacuation of Migron was rejected by the court last month.
Some see the move to legalize the other three outposts as a way to appease conservative lawmakers and settlers' groups, who have accused Netanyahu of betraying them.
Over the weekend, Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon, who opposes dismantling the outposts, predicted the government might collapse if Givat Haulpana is evacuated. "If the demolition of Ulpana Hill (Givat Haulpana) requires the dissolution of the government, then so be it," Yaalon said.
Adding to the domestic tension over Israel's settlements, a Jerusalem court ruled last week that a building taken over by Jewish settlers in Hebron in 2005 was not legally purchased as claimed by the settlers and must be evacuated within four weeks.
The settlers had claimed that they purchased the building from a member of the Palestinian family that owned it, but the court found that the sale documents were invalid.
That decision comes just two weeks after Israel's military forcibly evicted another group of settlers who had taken possession of a vacant building in a Palestinian neighborhood of Hebron that they claimed to have purchased. The government removed the settlers pending verification of their sale documents, which Palestinian leaders in Hebron say may be forged.
NITROUS OXIDE HIGH LEAVES TWO INNOCENT VICTIMS DEAD
It sure looks like the best part of Michael Sharp’s brain ran down his daddy’s leg.
IRRESPONSIBLE ASS TO FACE CHARGES IN NITROUS OXIDE TRAFFIC DEATHS
By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
April 25, 2012
A young man who sucked up the contents of a nitrous oxide balloon shortly before driving his SUV into the side of another car, injuring one man seriously and killing two others in Sacramento county. He is facing trial for his actions.
Michael Dean Sharp, 22, is facing gross vehicular manslaughter charges in the deaths of Christopher Ohlander Martel, 37, and Robert Ohlander, 32, as well as the serious injury of Bronson Chapman, also a passenger in the car he plowed into.
Sharp bought 50 canisters of the gas and while driving away from the shop he filled a balloon with one and inhaled the contents. He wrecked about one minute later.
Sharp is still being held against a $2 million bail. He could become a guest of the state for 15 years if convicted.
IRRESPONSIBLE ASS TO FACE CHARGES IN NITROUS OXIDE TRAFFIC DEATHS
By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
April 25, 2012
A young man who sucked up the contents of a nitrous oxide balloon shortly before driving his SUV into the side of another car, injuring one man seriously and killing two others in Sacramento county. He is facing trial for his actions.
Michael Dean Sharp, 22, is facing gross vehicular manslaughter charges in the deaths of Christopher Ohlander Martel, 37, and Robert Ohlander, 32, as well as the serious injury of Bronson Chapman, also a passenger in the car he plowed into.
Sharp bought 50 canisters of the gas and while driving away from the shop he filled a balloon with one and inhaled the contents. He wrecked about one minute later.
Sharp is still being held against a $2 million bail. He could become a guest of the state for 15 years if convicted.
AMENDMENT TO OKLAHOMA SENATE BILL WOULD HAVE PROHIBITED MEN FROM TAKING MATTERS IN THEIR HANDS
The Schalotte
April 25, 2012
The Schalotte was just now made aware of this report from the Huffington Post:
OKLAHOMA STATE SENATOR WRITES AMENDMENT BANNING NON-PROCREATIVE EJACULATION
Huffington Post
February 10, 2012
Sen. Constance Johnson, a Democratic state senator in Oklahoma, has proven that the legislative process does allow for some terrific satire -- even intentionally. To undercut the message of a controversial "personhood bill" brought forth in the state, which would give zygotes the same rights as adults, Johnson added a provision that would treat any sperm not intended to fertilize an egg as an "an action against an unborn child."
Johnson's amendment (which she later withdrew) read:
HOWEVER, ANY ACTION IN WHICH A MAN EJACULATES OR OTHERWISE DEPOSITS SEMEN ANYWHERE BUT IN A WOMAN’S VAGINA SHALL BE INTERPRETED AND CONSTRUED AS AN ACTION AGAINST AN UNBORN CHILD.
In the spirit of Monty Python's "Every Sperm is Sacred" song, Johnson made clear that she added the provision to protest her view that the "personhood" bill, which takes cues from similar laws brought forth in several other states, is inherently a sexist one. Her provision sends a signal that although men and women are equally responsible for the conception of a child, a woman is the only party whose body and life is affected by the pregnancy. Under Johnson's amendment, it would be illegal for a man to eject sperm in any manner except during condomless, heterosexual intercourse, in order to protect families.
On Thursday, Johnson explained the bill in a column for The Guardian. Recognizing that she intended to "draw humorous attention to the hypocrisy and inconsistency of this proposal," she explained in part that she wanted to point out the "absurdity, duplicity and lack of balance inherent in the policies of this state in regard to women."
Johnson is not the first legislator to protest bills that target the right to an abortion by introducing humorous legislation to equalize the sacrifice made by men and women. To protest a bill that would force women to undergo an ultrasound before getting an abortion, Virginia State Senator Janet Howell introduced a bill that would have forced men to receive a rectal exam to receive erectile dysfunction medication.
April 25, 2012
The Schalotte was just now made aware of this report from the Huffington Post:
OKLAHOMA STATE SENATOR WRITES AMENDMENT BANNING NON-PROCREATIVE EJACULATION
Huffington Post
February 10, 2012
Sen. Constance Johnson, a Democratic state senator in Oklahoma, has proven that the legislative process does allow for some terrific satire -- even intentionally. To undercut the message of a controversial "personhood bill" brought forth in the state, which would give zygotes the same rights as adults, Johnson added a provision that would treat any sperm not intended to fertilize an egg as an "an action against an unborn child."
Johnson's amendment (which she later withdrew) read:
HOWEVER, ANY ACTION IN WHICH A MAN EJACULATES OR OTHERWISE DEPOSITS SEMEN ANYWHERE BUT IN A WOMAN’S VAGINA SHALL BE INTERPRETED AND CONSTRUED AS AN ACTION AGAINST AN UNBORN CHILD.
In the spirit of Monty Python's "Every Sperm is Sacred" song, Johnson made clear that she added the provision to protest her view that the "personhood" bill, which takes cues from similar laws brought forth in several other states, is inherently a sexist one. Her provision sends a signal that although men and women are equally responsible for the conception of a child, a woman is the only party whose body and life is affected by the pregnancy. Under Johnson's amendment, it would be illegal for a man to eject sperm in any manner except during condomless, heterosexual intercourse, in order to protect families.
On Thursday, Johnson explained the bill in a column for The Guardian. Recognizing that she intended to "draw humorous attention to the hypocrisy and inconsistency of this proposal," she explained in part that she wanted to point out the "absurdity, duplicity and lack of balance inherent in the policies of this state in regard to women."
Johnson is not the first legislator to protest bills that target the right to an abortion by introducing humorous legislation to equalize the sacrifice made by men and women. To protest a bill that would force women to undergo an ultrasound before getting an abortion, Virginia State Senator Janet Howell introduced a bill that would have forced men to receive a rectal exam to receive erectile dysfunction medication.
BURGLARY PREVENTION DEMONSTRATED
By Adolf der Schweinehund
The Schalotte
April 25, 2012
Here is my neighbor’s experience with his personal burglary prevention system as he related it to me:
We have the standard 6 ft. fence in the backyard, and a few months ago, I heard about burglaries increasing dramatically in the entire city. To make sure this never happened to me, I got an electric fence and ran a single wire along the top of the fence.
Actually, I got the biggest cattle charger Tractor Supply had, made for 26 miles of fence. I then used an 8 ft. long ground rod, and drove it 7.5 feet into the ground. The ground rod is the key, with the more you have in the ground, the better the fence works.
One day I'm mowing the back yard with my cheapo Wal-Mart 6 hp big wheel push mower. The hot wire is broken and laying out in the yard. I knew for a fact that I unplugged the charger. I pushed the mower around the wire and reached down to grab it, to throw it out of the way.
It seems as though I hadn't remembered to unplug it after all.
Now I'm standing there, I've got the running lawnmower in my right hand and the 1.7 giga-volt fence wire in the other hand. Keep in mind the charger is about the size of a marine battery and has a picture of an upside down cow on fire on the cover.
Time stood still.
The first thing I notice is my pecker trying to climb up the front side of my body. My ears curled downwards and I could feel the lawnmower ignition firing in the backside of my brain. Every time that Briggs & Stratton rolled over, I could feel the spark in my head. I was literally at one with the engine.
It seems as though the fence charger and the piece of shit lawnmower were fighting over who would control my electrical impulses.
Science says you cannot crap, pee, and vomit at the same time. I beg to differ. Not only did I do all three at once, but my bowels emptied 3 different times in less than half of a second. It was a Matrix kind of bowel movement, where time is creeping along and you're all leaned back and BAM BAM BAM you just crap your pants 3 times. It seemed like there were minutes in between but in reality it was so close together, it was like exhaust pulses from a big block Chevy turning 8 grand.
At this point I'm about 30 minutes (maybe 2 seconds) into holding onto the fence wire. My hand is wrapped around the wire palm down so I can't let go. I grew up on a farm so I know all about electric fences ... but Dad always had those piece of shit chargers made by International or whoever that were like 9 volts and just kinda tickled.
This one I could not let go of. The 8 foot long ground rod is now accepting signals from me through the permadamp Ark-La-Tex river bottom soil. At this point I'm thinking I'm going to have to just man up and take it, until the lawnmower runs out of gas.
'Damn!,' I think, as I remember I just filled the tank!
Now the lawnmower is starting to run rough. It has settled into a loping run pattern as if it had some kind of big lawnmower race cam in it. Covered in poop, pee, and with my vomit on my chest I think 'Oh God please die .... Pleeeeaze die'. But nooooo, it settles into the rough lumpy cam idle nicely and remains there, like a big bore roller cam EFI motor waiting for the go command from its owner's right foot.
So here I am in the middle of July, 104 degrees, 80% humidity, standing in my own backyard, begging God to kill me. God did not take me that day.... he left me there covered in my own fluids to writhe in the misery my own stupidity had created.
I honestly don't know how I got loose from the wire ....
I woke up laying on the ground hours later. The lawnmower was beside me, out of gas. It was later on in the day and I was sunburned.
There were two large dead grass spots where I had been standing, and then another long skinny dead spot where the wire had laid while I was on the ground still holding on to it. I assume I finally had a seizure and in the resulting thrashing had somehow let go of the wire.
Upon waking from my electrically induced sleep I realized a few things:
1 - Three of the fillings in my teeth have melted.
2 - I now have cramps in the bottoms of my feet and my right butt cheek (not the left, just the right).
3 - Poop, pee, and vomit when all mixed together, do not smell as bad as you might think.
4 - My left eye will not open.
5 - My right eye will not close.
6 - The lawnmower runs like a sumbitch now. Seriously! I think our little session cleared out some carbon fouling or something, because it was better than new after that.
7 - My nuts are still smaller than average yet they are almost a foot long.
8 - I can turn on the TV in the game room by farting while thinking of the number 4 (still don't understand this???).
That day changed my life. I now have a newfound respect for things. I appreciate the little things more, and now I always triple check to make sure the fence is unplugged before I mow.
The good news, is that if a burglar does try to come over the fence, I can clearly visualize what my security system will do to him, and THAT gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling all over, which also reminds me to triple check before I mow.
The Schalotte
April 25, 2012
Here is my neighbor’s experience with his personal burglary prevention system as he related it to me:
We have the standard 6 ft. fence in the backyard, and a few months ago, I heard about burglaries increasing dramatically in the entire city. To make sure this never happened to me, I got an electric fence and ran a single wire along the top of the fence.
Actually, I got the biggest cattle charger Tractor Supply had, made for 26 miles of fence. I then used an 8 ft. long ground rod, and drove it 7.5 feet into the ground. The ground rod is the key, with the more you have in the ground, the better the fence works.
One day I'm mowing the back yard with my cheapo Wal-Mart 6 hp big wheel push mower. The hot wire is broken and laying out in the yard. I knew for a fact that I unplugged the charger. I pushed the mower around the wire and reached down to grab it, to throw it out of the way.
It seems as though I hadn't remembered to unplug it after all.
Now I'm standing there, I've got the running lawnmower in my right hand and the 1.7 giga-volt fence wire in the other hand. Keep in mind the charger is about the size of a marine battery and has a picture of an upside down cow on fire on the cover.
Time stood still.
The first thing I notice is my pecker trying to climb up the front side of my body. My ears curled downwards and I could feel the lawnmower ignition firing in the backside of my brain. Every time that Briggs & Stratton rolled over, I could feel the spark in my head. I was literally at one with the engine.
It seems as though the fence charger and the piece of shit lawnmower were fighting over who would control my electrical impulses.
Science says you cannot crap, pee, and vomit at the same time. I beg to differ. Not only did I do all three at once, but my bowels emptied 3 different times in less than half of a second. It was a Matrix kind of bowel movement, where time is creeping along and you're all leaned back and BAM BAM BAM you just crap your pants 3 times. It seemed like there were minutes in between but in reality it was so close together, it was like exhaust pulses from a big block Chevy turning 8 grand.
At this point I'm about 30 minutes (maybe 2 seconds) into holding onto the fence wire. My hand is wrapped around the wire palm down so I can't let go. I grew up on a farm so I know all about electric fences ... but Dad always had those piece of shit chargers made by International or whoever that were like 9 volts and just kinda tickled.
This one I could not let go of. The 8 foot long ground rod is now accepting signals from me through the permadamp Ark-La-Tex river bottom soil. At this point I'm thinking I'm going to have to just man up and take it, until the lawnmower runs out of gas.
'Damn!,' I think, as I remember I just filled the tank!
Now the lawnmower is starting to run rough. It has settled into a loping run pattern as if it had some kind of big lawnmower race cam in it. Covered in poop, pee, and with my vomit on my chest I think 'Oh God please die .... Pleeeeaze die'. But nooooo, it settles into the rough lumpy cam idle nicely and remains there, like a big bore roller cam EFI motor waiting for the go command from its owner's right foot.
So here I am in the middle of July, 104 degrees, 80% humidity, standing in my own backyard, begging God to kill me. God did not take me that day.... he left me there covered in my own fluids to writhe in the misery my own stupidity had created.
I honestly don't know how I got loose from the wire ....
I woke up laying on the ground hours later. The lawnmower was beside me, out of gas. It was later on in the day and I was sunburned.
There were two large dead grass spots where I had been standing, and then another long skinny dead spot where the wire had laid while I was on the ground still holding on to it. I assume I finally had a seizure and in the resulting thrashing had somehow let go of the wire.
Upon waking from my electrically induced sleep I realized a few things:
1 - Three of the fillings in my teeth have melted.
2 - I now have cramps in the bottoms of my feet and my right butt cheek (not the left, just the right).
3 - Poop, pee, and vomit when all mixed together, do not smell as bad as you might think.
4 - My left eye will not open.
5 - My right eye will not close.
6 - The lawnmower runs like a sumbitch now. Seriously! I think our little session cleared out some carbon fouling or something, because it was better than new after that.
7 - My nuts are still smaller than average yet they are almost a foot long.
8 - I can turn on the TV in the game room by farting while thinking of the number 4 (still don't understand this???).
That day changed my life. I now have a newfound respect for things. I appreciate the little things more, and now I always triple check to make sure the fence is unplugged before I mow.
The good news, is that if a burglar does try to come over the fence, I can clearly visualize what my security system will do to him, and THAT gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling all over, which also reminds me to triple check before I mow.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
WOULD THE PRESENCE OF WOMEN AGENTS HAVE CHANGED THE MALE SECRET SERVICE AGENTS’ BEHAVIOR IN COLUMBIA?
On Sunday’s ABC This Week, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Main, and Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-NY, suggested that diversifying the male culture of the Secret Service with more female agents would probably discourage behaviors like the ones that led to the prostitution scandal in Columbia. And on Tuesday’s NBC Today, Rosie O’Donnell agreed, saying that men use prostitutes and women don’t.
Sen. Collins and Rep. Maloney are deluding themselves if they believe that more women in the Secret Service (or law enforcement as a whole) would change the male culture of carousing around while off-duty. Women cops, in order to prove themselves to their fellow male officers, will often try to out-man the men they work with.
One of my students, a beautiful young lady, would come to class every couple of weeks or so, sporting a black eye or other visible bruises. She always said, “Yeah, but the asshole looks a lot worse than I do.” She would go out of her way to get down and dirty with her fellow cops anytime a physical confrontation occurred and she continued to do so long after having gained the respect and admiration of her fellow officers. And she usually joined them at their favorite bar after her shift was over.
And what’s this crap about the male culture? I’ve got news for Collins and Maloney. If they believe that carousing around is primarily a male thing, have I got news for them. Apparently they’ve never attended an out-of-town convention of policewomen, teachers or nurses.
I used to attend the annual conferences of the California Peace Officers Association. CPOA would hold its conference in the same location and at the same time as the annual conference of the Women Peace Officers’ Association of California. And, man-oh-man, many of those women, including married ones, ran around like a bunch of dogs in heat. Talk about carousing around - they were masters at it.
As a former educator, I also attended a number of teachers conferences. Same thing! Get the women teachers out of town and they get all boozed up and hooked up. And my doctor friends tell me it’s the same with nurses at their annual conferences.
And what about Rosie O’Donnell and her dumbass statement that men use prostitutes and women don’t? Duh, of course women don’t use prostitutes – they don’t need to! If they want to get laid, all they have to do is wink at some guy and they’ll be in the sack in a hot New York minute. It doesn’t work that way with men though.
There is no doubt in my mind that this is not the first instance in which Secret Service agents have caroused around. What was different this time is that one stupid jerk of an agent refused to pay the prostitute that serviced him – and the rest is history.
I seriously doubt that the carousing around in Columbia would not have occurred had there been women on that Secret Service detail. A few of the women agents would probably have hooked up with some of the male agents. And because they would want to be accepted as part of the team, the women would not have tried to stop any of the male agents from hooking up with prostitutes.
Sen. Collins and Rep. Maloney should abandon their gender agenda and accept the fact that while boys will be boys, girls in law enforcement will be boys too.
Sen. Collins and Rep. Maloney are deluding themselves if they believe that more women in the Secret Service (or law enforcement as a whole) would change the male culture of carousing around while off-duty. Women cops, in order to prove themselves to their fellow male officers, will often try to out-man the men they work with.
One of my students, a beautiful young lady, would come to class every couple of weeks or so, sporting a black eye or other visible bruises. She always said, “Yeah, but the asshole looks a lot worse than I do.” She would go out of her way to get down and dirty with her fellow cops anytime a physical confrontation occurred and she continued to do so long after having gained the respect and admiration of her fellow officers. And she usually joined them at their favorite bar after her shift was over.
And what’s this crap about the male culture? I’ve got news for Collins and Maloney. If they believe that carousing around is primarily a male thing, have I got news for them. Apparently they’ve never attended an out-of-town convention of policewomen, teachers or nurses.
I used to attend the annual conferences of the California Peace Officers Association. CPOA would hold its conference in the same location and at the same time as the annual conference of the Women Peace Officers’ Association of California. And, man-oh-man, many of those women, including married ones, ran around like a bunch of dogs in heat. Talk about carousing around - they were masters at it.
As a former educator, I also attended a number of teachers conferences. Same thing! Get the women teachers out of town and they get all boozed up and hooked up. And my doctor friends tell me it’s the same with nurses at their annual conferences.
And what about Rosie O’Donnell and her dumbass statement that men use prostitutes and women don’t? Duh, of course women don’t use prostitutes – they don’t need to! If they want to get laid, all they have to do is wink at some guy and they’ll be in the sack in a hot New York minute. It doesn’t work that way with men though.
There is no doubt in my mind that this is not the first instance in which Secret Service agents have caroused around. What was different this time is that one stupid jerk of an agent refused to pay the prostitute that serviced him – and the rest is history.
I seriously doubt that the carousing around in Columbia would not have occurred had there been women on that Secret Service detail. A few of the women agents would probably have hooked up with some of the male agents. And because they would want to be accepted as part of the team, the women would not have tried to stop any of the male agents from hooking up with prostitutes.
Sen. Collins and Rep. Maloney should abandon their gender agenda and accept the fact that while boys will be boys, girls in law enforcement will be boys too.
PRESIDENT OBAMA, WERE THESE YOUR SONS AND DAUGHTERS?
Shortly after Trayvon Martin was killed, President Obama said that if he had a son he would have been Trayvon Martin. Now that a black mob has attacked and critically injured a white man, I wonder if the members of that mob would also have been Obama’s sons and daughters.
More important though, let’s not forget Al Sharpton’s contribution to this outpouring of hatred.
‘JUSTICE FOR TRAYVON’: WHITE MAN BEATEN BY BLACK MOB IN CRITICAL CONDITION
By Joe Newby
Spokane Conservative Examiner
April 24, 2012
Late Saturday night, Matthew Owens, of Mobile, AL, was beaten so badly by a mob that he was left in critical condition with severe head wounds.
According to WKRG, police said Owens "fussed at some kids playing basketball in the middle of Delmar Drive about 8:30 Saturday night."
The kids left, and a larger group returned, reportedly armed with a variety of weapons, including bricks, chains, brass knuckles and paint cans.
WKRG added: Owens' sister, Ashley Parker, saw the attack. "It was the scariest thing I have ever witnessed." Parker says 20 people, all African American, attacked her brother on the front porch of his home, using "brass buckles, paint cans and anything they could get their hands on."
WPMI said another witness who wished to remain anonymous, thought that when he heard Owens at the door, it was a joke.
"Then I saw about 10 to 15 people from little kids and women with dresses to adult men, just flooding onto the property, surrounding the car, hollering and screaming," he said.
"And then I heard Matthew saying, ' I'm sorry, man, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.' And then, the next thing, before I could get to the door, because we have it all deadbolted and everything, and before I could get it open, I heard all the beating and banging."
"He was laying on the ground full of blood. I mean, it was horrible. His head, everything. Blood was pouring from his head, both sides. And his whole body was drenched in blood."
After the beating, Parker said she overheard one of the attackers say: “Now that's justice for Trayvon.”
According to WPMI, there were already tensions on the street, due largely to local kids who, according to Owen's friends and family, block the street playing basketball. Relatives told WPMI it's led to some confrontations.
Local police would only say "multiple people" were involved in the assault, and so far, they have not found any suspects.
More important though, let’s not forget Al Sharpton’s contribution to this outpouring of hatred.
‘JUSTICE FOR TRAYVON’: WHITE MAN BEATEN BY BLACK MOB IN CRITICAL CONDITION
By Joe Newby
Spokane Conservative Examiner
April 24, 2012
Late Saturday night, Matthew Owens, of Mobile, AL, was beaten so badly by a mob that he was left in critical condition with severe head wounds.
According to WKRG, police said Owens "fussed at some kids playing basketball in the middle of Delmar Drive about 8:30 Saturday night."
The kids left, and a larger group returned, reportedly armed with a variety of weapons, including bricks, chains, brass knuckles and paint cans.
WKRG added: Owens' sister, Ashley Parker, saw the attack. "It was the scariest thing I have ever witnessed." Parker says 20 people, all African American, attacked her brother on the front porch of his home, using "brass buckles, paint cans and anything they could get their hands on."
WPMI said another witness who wished to remain anonymous, thought that when he heard Owens at the door, it was a joke.
"Then I saw about 10 to 15 people from little kids and women with dresses to adult men, just flooding onto the property, surrounding the car, hollering and screaming," he said.
"And then I heard Matthew saying, ' I'm sorry, man, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.' And then, the next thing, before I could get to the door, because we have it all deadbolted and everything, and before I could get it open, I heard all the beating and banging."
"He was laying on the ground full of blood. I mean, it was horrible. His head, everything. Blood was pouring from his head, both sides. And his whole body was drenched in blood."
After the beating, Parker said she overheard one of the attackers say: “Now that's justice for Trayvon.”
According to WPMI, there were already tensions on the street, due largely to local kids who, according to Owen's friends and family, block the street playing basketball. Relatives told WPMI it's led to some confrontations.
Local police would only say "multiple people" were involved in the assault, and so far, they have not found any suspects.
ROMNEY IS A TAKE-CHARGE GUY
The following story about Mitt Romney was forwarded to me by Jay Wall. I checked it out with Snopes, as well as PolitiFact, and it turns out to be true.
It is obvious that Romney is a take-charge guy. He’s not only proved that with this story about the disappearance of Melissa Gay, but he also proved it by saving the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. When it appeared that the Olympics were doomed to fail, Romney was called on to take over from the inept organizers and he was instrumental in making the games a success.
If Romney wins the presidential race, there can be no doubt that he will be a strong take-charge chief executive.
Here is the story of how Romney was instrumental in finding one of his business partners' missing young daughter:
Sometimes, this facet of Romney’s personality isn’t so subtle. In July 1996, the 14-year-old daughter of Robert Gay, a partner at Bain Capital, had disappeared. She had attended a rave party in New York City and gotten high on ecstasy.
Three days later, her distraught father had no idea where she was. Romney took immediate action. He closed down the entire firm and asked all 30 partners and employees to fly to New York to help find Gay’s daughter. Romney set up a command center at the LaGuardia Marriott and hired a private detective firm to assist with the search. He established a toll-free number for tips, coordinating the effort with the NYPD, and went through his Rolodex and called everyone Bain did business with in New York, and asked them to help find his friend’s missing daughter. Romney’s accountants at Price Waterhouse Cooper put up posters on street poles, while cashiers at a pharmacy owned by Bain put fliers in the bag of every shopper. Romney and the other Bain employees scoured every part of New York and talked with everyone they could – prostitutes, drug addicts – anyone.
That day, their hunt made the evening news, which featured photos of the girl and the Bain employees searching for her. As a result, a teenage boy phoned in, asked if there was a reward, and then hung up abruptly. The NYPD traced the call to a home in New Jersey, where they found the girl in the basement, shivering and experiencing withdrawal symptoms from a massive ecstasy dose. Doctors later said the girl might not have survived another day. Romney’s former partner credits Mitt Romney with saving his daughter’s life, saying, “It was the most amazing thing, and I’ll never forget this to the day I die.”
__________
EDITOR’S NOTE: Lt. David Peterson of the Montville Township Police told PolitiFact four years ago that police reports do not mention Romney personally. But Peterson, as well as reports at the time, agreed that the Bain Capital search generated important attention to the case of the missing girl.
It is obvious that Romney is a take-charge guy. He’s not only proved that with this story about the disappearance of Melissa Gay, but he also proved it by saving the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. When it appeared that the Olympics were doomed to fail, Romney was called on to take over from the inept organizers and he was instrumental in making the games a success.
If Romney wins the presidential race, there can be no doubt that he will be a strong take-charge chief executive.
Here is the story of how Romney was instrumental in finding one of his business partners' missing young daughter:
Sometimes, this facet of Romney’s personality isn’t so subtle. In July 1996, the 14-year-old daughter of Robert Gay, a partner at Bain Capital, had disappeared. She had attended a rave party in New York City and gotten high on ecstasy.
Three days later, her distraught father had no idea where she was. Romney took immediate action. He closed down the entire firm and asked all 30 partners and employees to fly to New York to help find Gay’s daughter. Romney set up a command center at the LaGuardia Marriott and hired a private detective firm to assist with the search. He established a toll-free number for tips, coordinating the effort with the NYPD, and went through his Rolodex and called everyone Bain did business with in New York, and asked them to help find his friend’s missing daughter. Romney’s accountants at Price Waterhouse Cooper put up posters on street poles, while cashiers at a pharmacy owned by Bain put fliers in the bag of every shopper. Romney and the other Bain employees scoured every part of New York and talked with everyone they could – prostitutes, drug addicts – anyone.
That day, their hunt made the evening news, which featured photos of the girl and the Bain employees searching for her. As a result, a teenage boy phoned in, asked if there was a reward, and then hung up abruptly. The NYPD traced the call to a home in New Jersey, where they found the girl in the basement, shivering and experiencing withdrawal symptoms from a massive ecstasy dose. Doctors later said the girl might not have survived another day. Romney’s former partner credits Mitt Romney with saving his daughter’s life, saying, “It was the most amazing thing, and I’ll never forget this to the day I die.”
__________
EDITOR’S NOTE: Lt. David Peterson of the Montville Township Police told PolitiFact four years ago that police reports do not mention Romney personally. But Peterson, as well as reports at the time, agreed that the Bain Capital search generated important attention to the case of the missing girl.
16-YEAR-OLD TWINS MADE MORE THAN $3 MILLION FROM INVESTMENT SCAM
The twins not only scammed investors out of $1.2 million, but they also collected another $1.9 million from companies that paid to appear in their newsletter and software program. These boys would have made P.T. ‘There’s a sucker born every minute’ Barnum proud.
U.S. CHARGES BRITISH TWINS OVER $1.2M ‘STOCK ROBOT’ FRAUD
Twin brothers from England face U.S. civil charges for allegedly defrauding investors out of $1.2m through a bogus stock picking robot
BBC News
April 20, 2012
Alexander and Thomas Hunter, of Whitley Bay, North Tyneside, were aged 16 when, in 2007, they devised the scheme of the robot, dubbed Marl, say US officials.
The Securities and Exchange Commission said the stocks "picked" were actually firms that paid the twins hefty fees.
The Hunters allegedly snared about 75,000 investors, mostly in the US.
In November, Newcastle Crown Court ordered Alexander Hunter to pay back nearly $1m after he admitted providing unregulated financial advice. He was given a suspended 12-month prison sentence.
According to an affadavit filed in a New York federal court on Friday, investors paid $47 for newsletters listing Marl's stock picks and $97 for a "home version" of the software.
"The longer Marl is allowed to run on a computer... The More Advanced He Becomes!" one of the brothers' websites said.
The home version was simply a program that grabbed ticker symbols fed in by the Hunters, who reportedly live with their parents in Whitley Bay.
The twins collected an additional $1.9m from companies that paid to appear in the newsletters and in the software program, according to the US court document.
In one example given by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Marl picked stock in 2008 for a music publishing company called UOMO Media, doubling its share price to 69 cents, and then again a year later, driving it to $1.06. UOMO has not traded above a penny since September 2010.
The twins claimed Marl had a track record of detecting cheap stocks whose prices were on the verge of soaring by 200-400%.
Marl was a supposed combination of the names of its phoney creators, Michael Cohen and Carl Williamson. The Hunters claimed that "Michael Cohen" had developed a Goldman Sachs trading algorithm that reaped billions in profits.
Officials are asking the court to block the Hunters, now 20 or 21, from the securities industry and return money to investors. They are also seeking further financial penalties.
U.S. CHARGES BRITISH TWINS OVER $1.2M ‘STOCK ROBOT’ FRAUD
Twin brothers from England face U.S. civil charges for allegedly defrauding investors out of $1.2m through a bogus stock picking robot
BBC News
April 20, 2012
Alexander and Thomas Hunter, of Whitley Bay, North Tyneside, were aged 16 when, in 2007, they devised the scheme of the robot, dubbed Marl, say US officials.
The Securities and Exchange Commission said the stocks "picked" were actually firms that paid the twins hefty fees.
The Hunters allegedly snared about 75,000 investors, mostly in the US.
In November, Newcastle Crown Court ordered Alexander Hunter to pay back nearly $1m after he admitted providing unregulated financial advice. He was given a suspended 12-month prison sentence.
According to an affadavit filed in a New York federal court on Friday, investors paid $47 for newsletters listing Marl's stock picks and $97 for a "home version" of the software.
"The longer Marl is allowed to run on a computer... The More Advanced He Becomes!" one of the brothers' websites said.
The home version was simply a program that grabbed ticker symbols fed in by the Hunters, who reportedly live with their parents in Whitley Bay.
The twins collected an additional $1.9m from companies that paid to appear in the newsletters and in the software program, according to the US court document.
In one example given by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Marl picked stock in 2008 for a music publishing company called UOMO Media, doubling its share price to 69 cents, and then again a year later, driving it to $1.06. UOMO has not traded above a penny since September 2010.
The twins claimed Marl had a track record of detecting cheap stocks whose prices were on the verge of soaring by 200-400%.
Marl was a supposed combination of the names of its phoney creators, Michael Cohen and Carl Williamson. The Hunters claimed that "Michael Cohen" had developed a Goldman Sachs trading algorithm that reaped billions in profits.
Officials are asking the court to block the Hunters, now 20 or 21, from the securities industry and return money to investors. They are also seeking further financial penalties.
SMART DOG, STUPID BITCH
The car chase lasted an hour and when through the parolee’s neighborhood where he slowed down to let his girlfriend jump on the van. A PIT maneuver is one in which a police car taps the back corner of a fleeing motor vehicle, causing it to lose control.
Hey, this would make a good movie starring a couple of dipshits, with Mel Gibson playing the parolee and Lindsay Lohan as his girlfriend.
PAROLEE BANK ROBBER TAKES GIRLFRIEND ON A WILD RIDE
By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
April 24, 2012
A former guest of the state robbed the First Financial Credit Union in Whittier this morning and lead the cops on a chase.
The real interesting part is his girlfriend got on board for the ride about half-way through the chase, hanging onto the outside of the minivan on the freeway and crawling in through a window while the vehicle was moving. She was hanging on the outside when the cops pitted the van.
The van eventually stopped and the woman got out but the man refused to. He had already ditched his gun so the cops sent Rambo, a K-9 officer, into the van to persuade him. It worked.
Police dog 1, parolee zero, girlfriend 1/2 point for tenacity but -1 point for stupidity.
Hey, this would make a good movie starring a couple of dipshits, with Mel Gibson playing the parolee and Lindsay Lohan as his girlfriend.
PAROLEE BANK ROBBER TAKES GIRLFRIEND ON A WILD RIDE
By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
April 24, 2012
A former guest of the state robbed the First Financial Credit Union in Whittier this morning and lead the cops on a chase.
The real interesting part is his girlfriend got on board for the ride about half-way through the chase, hanging onto the outside of the minivan on the freeway and crawling in through a window while the vehicle was moving. She was hanging on the outside when the cops pitted the van.
The van eventually stopped and the woman got out but the man refused to. He had already ditched his gun so the cops sent Rambo, a K-9 officer, into the van to persuade him. It worked.
Police dog 1, parolee zero, girlfriend 1/2 point for tenacity but -1 point for stupidity.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
HAS YOUR COMPUTER BEEN TAKEN OVER BY HACKERS? (2)
Here's how the FBI says you can check to see if your computer has been infected:
IS YOUR COMPUTER INFECTED? HERE’S A FIX
By Lolita C. Baldor
Associated Press
April 20, 2012
WASHINGTON — Hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide may have been infected by hackers in an online advertising scam and may lose their ability to connect to the Internet on July 9.
Here's how the FBI says you can check your computer:
Go to http://www.dcwg.org
Click on "Detect" in the upper left corner, or on the Green Button next to it.
You will be directed to a new page. Pick your language from the list and click on the link next to it.
If your computer is not infected, you will see a green logo with the message: "DNS Resolution(equals)Green. Your computer appears to be looking up IP addresses correctly!"
If you see that message, you don't need to do anything more.
If you see a message with a red logo saying your computer appears to be infected, you will be directed to a new page. You will be directed to websites that will provide antivirus tools that cybersecurity experts have identified as being effective in removing the malware.
The website also provides information on the case and the malware.
IS YOUR COMPUTER INFECTED? HERE’S A FIX
By Lolita C. Baldor
Associated Press
April 20, 2012
WASHINGTON — Hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide may have been infected by hackers in an online advertising scam and may lose their ability to connect to the Internet on July 9.
Here's how the FBI says you can check your computer:
Go to http://www.dcwg.org
Click on "Detect" in the upper left corner, or on the Green Button next to it.
You will be directed to a new page. Pick your language from the list and click on the link next to it.
If your computer is not infected, you will see a green logo with the message: "DNS Resolution(equals)Green. Your computer appears to be looking up IP addresses correctly!"
If you see that message, you don't need to do anything more.
If you see a message with a red logo saying your computer appears to be infected, you will be directed to a new page. You will be directed to websites that will provide antivirus tools that cybersecurity experts have identified as being effective in removing the malware.
The website also provides information on the case and the malware.
BLOOMBERG’S DIRTY COPS
Mayor Bloomberg, the anti-gun and anti-‘Stand Your Ground’ crusader needs to spend his time cleaning up the corruption in his police department.
CORRUPTION CASE SHINES LIGHT ON NYPD
$1 million warehouse robbery among cases examined
By Tom Hays
Associated Press
April 23, 2012
NEW YORK — NYPD badges out, Kelvin Jones and the other armed men turned up out of nowhere at a New Jersey warehouse and began barking orders.
Jones told startled workers that the New York Police Department had sent the team there to inspect for counterfeit goods — even though the wholesale dealer of Prada, Versace and other fragrances was legitimate.
The men herded about a dozen employees into a tiny back office and tied them up. By then, it was obvious something was amiss.
"We were kind of shocked," one worker recalled. "We were like, why is the NYPD coming in here like this?"
Another blurted: "You're not cops."
But Jones was indeed an NYPD officer. In fact, he had held an elite undercover position.
Two with him were also part of the NYPD. A third was a former officer. But these were hardly "New York's Finest."
What they'd set up to look like a police raid was instead a brazen, $1 million robbery.
Eventually, the 30-year-old Jones would face trial. And his case, though largely overlooked, isn't isolated. In the past two years, prosecutors have accused officers of planting evidence in drug investigations, of running illegal guns, of robbing drug dealers, of routinely fixing traffic tickets as favors.
Still, Jones stands out because of his background as an undercover operative for the NYPD's Intelligence Division. The department credits the unit with thwarting numerous terror and other threats against New Yorkers.
Recent stories by The Associated Press have detailed how the unit also sought to infiltrate and monitor mosques, Muslim student organizations and left-wing political organizations — even beyond city limits — using methods that critics say infringe on civil rights, though the department denies it.
Jones was convicted at a federal trial in Newark in December 2010.
At sentencing, he claimed, "I was framed," but the judge was unmoved.
The former NYPD undercover is serving a 16-year sentence in an Ohio prison.
CORRUPTION CASE SHINES LIGHT ON NYPD
$1 million warehouse robbery among cases examined
By Tom Hays
Associated Press
April 23, 2012
NEW YORK — NYPD badges out, Kelvin Jones and the other armed men turned up out of nowhere at a New Jersey warehouse and began barking orders.
Jones told startled workers that the New York Police Department had sent the team there to inspect for counterfeit goods — even though the wholesale dealer of Prada, Versace and other fragrances was legitimate.
The men herded about a dozen employees into a tiny back office and tied them up. By then, it was obvious something was amiss.
"We were kind of shocked," one worker recalled. "We were like, why is the NYPD coming in here like this?"
Another blurted: "You're not cops."
But Jones was indeed an NYPD officer. In fact, he had held an elite undercover position.
Two with him were also part of the NYPD. A third was a former officer. But these were hardly "New York's Finest."
What they'd set up to look like a police raid was instead a brazen, $1 million robbery.
Eventually, the 30-year-old Jones would face trial. And his case, though largely overlooked, isn't isolated. In the past two years, prosecutors have accused officers of planting evidence in drug investigations, of running illegal guns, of robbing drug dealers, of routinely fixing traffic tickets as favors.
Still, Jones stands out because of his background as an undercover operative for the NYPD's Intelligence Division. The department credits the unit with thwarting numerous terror and other threats against New Yorkers.
Recent stories by The Associated Press have detailed how the unit also sought to infiltrate and monitor mosques, Muslim student organizations and left-wing political organizations — even beyond city limits — using methods that critics say infringe on civil rights, though the department denies it.
Jones was convicted at a federal trial in Newark in December 2010.
At sentencing, he claimed, "I was framed," but the judge was unmoved.
The former NYPD undercover is serving a 16-year sentence in an Ohio prison.
ILLEGAL BUSTED 35 TIMES WITH 4 FELONY CONVICTIONS AND ONE PRISON TERM, BUT CANNOT BE DEPORTED
In Zadvydas v. Davis, 533 U.S. 678 (2001), the Supreme Court ruled indefinite detention of illegal immigrants who have been ordered deported but have nowhere to go was subject to constitutional limitations. To justify a detention of more than six months, the government has to show special circumstances like terrorism charges.
Hopefully, this criminal’s latest beef will result in a long prison term. But don’t hold your breath.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ARRESTED 35TIMES CAN’T BE DEPORTED AS U.S. WON’T RECOGNIZE HIS HOMELAND PALESTINE AS A COUNTRY
Mail Online
April 22, 2012
An illegal immigrant with a 12-year criminal history and 35 arrests under his belt cannot be deported back to Palestine because the U.S. will not recognise his homeland as a country.
Sofyan Eldani, who lives in Alabama, was arrested earlier this week after police discovered crack cocaine in his vehicle.
When officers reviewed the 45-year-old’s criminal record, they were shocked to discover that he had been arrested 35 times over a period of 12 years.
Eldani has at least nine convictions, including four felonies, and has served six months in an Alabama prison for receiving stolen property, according to the Birmingham News.
His long list of arrests includes assault, fraudulent checks, criminal mischief, resisting arrests, reckless endangerment, shoplifting, burglary, drug possession, failure to appear, probation violation, possession of a drug paraphernalia and DUI.
But when Hueytown Police Chief Chuck Hagler contacted Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials they said the convicted felon could not be deported because the U.S. does not recognise Palestine – his homeland – as a country.
They added that other countries had also refused to take Eldani, who holds an Egyptian passport.
‘Sofyan Eldani was previously detained by ICE and ordered removed to Egypt. ICE made a travel document request to Egypt. Mr. Eldani made travel document requests to Egypt, Israel and Kuwait,' the ICE said in a statement to the newspaper.
‘When authorities in those countries declined to provide the appropriate travel documents to facilitate Mr. Eldani's removal, he was released from ICE custody due to the Supreme Court's ruling in Zadvydas v. Davis.’
Hagler is outraged by the decision. 'I understand what they're saying, but it's not a satisfactory answer,' he said.
'It doesn't seem fair to us that if they refuse to take their problem child back, we are stuck with him. If an American gets convicted of being a serial child rapist in France, do we refuse to take him back? I doubt it. Am I the only one who thinks this is insane?'
‘It's not a matter of he came over here, there was a misunderstanding of our laws, or he was at the wrong place at the wrong time,’ he added to FOX6.
'There are a lot of reasons you could legitimately say somebody might have a brush with the law. There's a reason somebody may have one or two brushes with the law. When you start getting into the double digit arrests, you are dealing with a criminal.'
Eldani is currently in jail on a $200,000 bond for his most recent drug trafficking charges.
Hopefully, this criminal’s latest beef will result in a long prison term. But don’t hold your breath.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ARRESTED 35TIMES CAN’T BE DEPORTED AS U.S. WON’T RECOGNIZE HIS HOMELAND PALESTINE AS A COUNTRY
Mail Online
April 22, 2012
An illegal immigrant with a 12-year criminal history and 35 arrests under his belt cannot be deported back to Palestine because the U.S. will not recognise his homeland as a country.
Sofyan Eldani, who lives in Alabama, was arrested earlier this week after police discovered crack cocaine in his vehicle.
When officers reviewed the 45-year-old’s criminal record, they were shocked to discover that he had been arrested 35 times over a period of 12 years.
Eldani has at least nine convictions, including four felonies, and has served six months in an Alabama prison for receiving stolen property, according to the Birmingham News.
His long list of arrests includes assault, fraudulent checks, criminal mischief, resisting arrests, reckless endangerment, shoplifting, burglary, drug possession, failure to appear, probation violation, possession of a drug paraphernalia and DUI.
But when Hueytown Police Chief Chuck Hagler contacted Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials they said the convicted felon could not be deported because the U.S. does not recognise Palestine – his homeland – as a country.
They added that other countries had also refused to take Eldani, who holds an Egyptian passport.
‘Sofyan Eldani was previously detained by ICE and ordered removed to Egypt. ICE made a travel document request to Egypt. Mr. Eldani made travel document requests to Egypt, Israel and Kuwait,' the ICE said in a statement to the newspaper.
‘When authorities in those countries declined to provide the appropriate travel documents to facilitate Mr. Eldani's removal, he was released from ICE custody due to the Supreme Court's ruling in Zadvydas v. Davis.’
Hagler is outraged by the decision. 'I understand what they're saying, but it's not a satisfactory answer,' he said.
'It doesn't seem fair to us that if they refuse to take their problem child back, we are stuck with him. If an American gets convicted of being a serial child rapist in France, do we refuse to take him back? I doubt it. Am I the only one who thinks this is insane?'
‘It's not a matter of he came over here, there was a misunderstanding of our laws, or he was at the wrong place at the wrong time,’ he added to FOX6.
'There are a lot of reasons you could legitimately say somebody might have a brush with the law. There's a reason somebody may have one or two brushes with the law. When you start getting into the double digit arrests, you are dealing with a criminal.'
Eldani is currently in jail on a $200,000 bond for his most recent drug trafficking charges.
NICE TRY, IT WORKED WITH THE VICTIM BUT NOT THE COPS
Parolee conned family into helping him and stole their rental car in return. Faked heart attack upon arrest went down the tubes at the hospital.
PAROLEE CAR THIEF IS ALSO A LIAR
By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
April 22, 2012
A former guest of the state attempted to fake a heart attack to avoid being sent back to the slammer for stealing a car. He was less than successful.
Thomas Baker, 56, was spotted driving recklessly on Hwy 92 near Half Moon Bay on Wednesday. A motorist called the cops to report a possible DUI and the cops stopped the car. As it turns out the car was a rental stolen two weeks before. Baker had pretended to be wheel-chair bound and befriended a family on vacation who gave him a lift to Sea World. He then told them he left his meds in their car and asked for the keys. He then got into their car and drove away.
Baker gave a false name and claimed to be having chest pains when arrested and asked to be taken to a hospital. Once he got to the hospital he was uncooperative with the medical staff who eventually determined he had no health emergency. While all that was going on the local cops also discovered Baker’s correct name and that he had an outstanding warrant.
He is now a guest of the county at the McGuire Correctional Facility.
PAROLEE CAR THIEF IS ALSO A LIAR
By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
April 22, 2012
A former guest of the state attempted to fake a heart attack to avoid being sent back to the slammer for stealing a car. He was less than successful.
Thomas Baker, 56, was spotted driving recklessly on Hwy 92 near Half Moon Bay on Wednesday. A motorist called the cops to report a possible DUI and the cops stopped the car. As it turns out the car was a rental stolen two weeks before. Baker had pretended to be wheel-chair bound and befriended a family on vacation who gave him a lift to Sea World. He then told them he left his meds in their car and asked for the keys. He then got into their car and drove away.
Baker gave a false name and claimed to be having chest pains when arrested and asked to be taken to a hospital. Once he got to the hospital he was uncooperative with the medical staff who eventually determined he had no health emergency. While all that was going on the local cops also discovered Baker’s correct name and that he had an outstanding warrant.
He is now a guest of the county at the McGuire Correctional Facility.
TAX TIME: WHAT IS YOUR OCCUPATION?
The Schalotte
April 23, 2012
A woman walked into a tax accountant’s office on the 9th of April and told him that she needed to file her taxes.
The accountant said, “Before we begin, I’ll need to ask you a few questions.” He got her name, address, social security number, etc. and then asked, “What’s your occupation?”
“I’m a prostitute,” she said.
The accountant is somewhat taken aback and said, ” Let’s try to rephrase that.”
The woman said, “OK, I’m a high-end call girl.”
“No, that still won’t work. Try again,” the accountant said.
They both thought for a minute. Then the woman said, “I’m an elite chicken farmer.”
The accountant asked, “What does chicken farming have to do with being a prostitute?”
The prostitute said, “Well, I raised a thousand cocks last year.”
“Chicken Farmer it is,” said the accountant.
April 23, 2012
A woman walked into a tax accountant’s office on the 9th of April and told him that she needed to file her taxes.
The accountant said, “Before we begin, I’ll need to ask you a few questions.” He got her name, address, social security number, etc. and then asked, “What’s your occupation?”
“I’m a prostitute,” she said.
The accountant is somewhat taken aback and said, ” Let’s try to rephrase that.”
The woman said, “OK, I’m a high-end call girl.”
“No, that still won’t work. Try again,” the accountant said.
They both thought for a minute. Then the woman said, “I’m an elite chicken farmer.”
The accountant asked, “What does chicken farming have to do with being a prostitute?”
The prostitute said, “Well, I raised a thousand cocks last year.”
“Chicken Farmer it is,” said the accountant.
Monday, April 23, 2012
HAS YOUR COMPUTER BEEN TAKEN OVER BY HACKERS?
You may not be aware that your computer has been taken over by hackers. If it is infected, you may lose your Internet connections this summer.
HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS MAY LOSE INTERNET IN JULY
By Lolita C. Baldor
Associated Press
April 20, 2012
WASHINGTON (AP) — For computer users, a few mouse clicks could mean the difference between staying online and losing Internet connections this summer.
Unknown to most of them, their problem began when international hackers ran an online advertising scam to take control of infected computers around the world. In a highly unusual response, the FBI set up a safety net months ago using government computers to prevent Internet disruptions for those infected users. But that system is to be shut down.
The FBI is encouraging users to visit a website run by its security partner, http://www.dcwg.org , that will inform them whether they're infected and explain how to fix the problem. After July 9, infected users won't be able to connect to the Internet.
Most victims don't even know their computers have been infected, although the malicious software probably has slowed their web surfing and disabled their antivirus software, making their machines more vulnerable to other problems.
Last November, the FBI and other authorities were preparing to take down a hacker ring that had been running an Internet ad scam on a massive network of infected computers.
"We started to realize that we might have a little bit of a problem on our hands because ... if we just pulled the plug on their criminal infrastructure and threw everybody in jail, the victims of this were going to be without Internet service," said Tom Grasso, an FBI supervisory special agent. "The average user would open up Internet Explorer and get 'page not found' and think the Internet is broken."
On the night of the arrests, the agency brought in Paul Vixie, chairman and founder of Internet Systems Consortium, to install two Internet servers to take the place of the truckload of impounded rogue servers that infected computers were using. Federal officials planned to keep their servers online until March, giving everyone opportunity to clean their computers. But it wasn't enough time. A federal judge in New York extended the deadline until July.
Now, said Grasso, "the full court press is on to get people to address this problem." And it's up to computer users to check their PCs.
This is what happened:
Hackers infected a network of probably more than 570,000 computers worldwide. They took advantage of vulnerabilities in the Microsoft Windows operating system to install malicious software on the victim computers. This turned off antivirus updates and changed the way the computers reconcile website addresses behind the scenes on the Internet's domain name system.
The DNS system is a network of servers that translates a web address — such as www.ap.org — into the numerical addresses that computers use. Victim computers were reprogrammed to use rogue DNS servers owned by the attackers. This allowed the attackers to redirect computers to fraudulent versions of any website.
The hackers earned profits from advertisements that appeared on websites that victims were tricked into visiting. The scam netted the hackers at least $14 million, according to the FBI. It also made thousands of computers reliant on the rogue servers for their Internet browsing.
When the FBI and others arrested six Estonians last November, the agency replaced the rogue servers with Vixie's clean ones. Installing and running the two substitute servers for eight months is costing the federal government about $87,000.
The number of victims is hard to pinpoint, but the FBI believes that on the day of the arrests, at least 568,000 unique Internet addresses were using the rogue servers. Five months later, FBI estimates that the number is down to at least 360,000. The U.S. has the most, about 85,000, federal authorities said. Other countries with more than 20,000 each include Italy, India, England and Germany. Smaller numbers are online in Spain, France, Canada, China and Mexico.
Vixie said most of the victims are probably individual home users, rather than corporations that have technology staffs who routinely check the computers.
HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS MAY LOSE INTERNET IN JULY
By Lolita C. Baldor
Associated Press
April 20, 2012
WASHINGTON (AP) — For computer users, a few mouse clicks could mean the difference between staying online and losing Internet connections this summer.
Unknown to most of them, their problem began when international hackers ran an online advertising scam to take control of infected computers around the world. In a highly unusual response, the FBI set up a safety net months ago using government computers to prevent Internet disruptions for those infected users. But that system is to be shut down.
The FBI is encouraging users to visit a website run by its security partner, http://www.dcwg.org , that will inform them whether they're infected and explain how to fix the problem. After July 9, infected users won't be able to connect to the Internet.
Most victims don't even know their computers have been infected, although the malicious software probably has slowed their web surfing and disabled their antivirus software, making their machines more vulnerable to other problems.
Last November, the FBI and other authorities were preparing to take down a hacker ring that had been running an Internet ad scam on a massive network of infected computers.
"We started to realize that we might have a little bit of a problem on our hands because ... if we just pulled the plug on their criminal infrastructure and threw everybody in jail, the victims of this were going to be without Internet service," said Tom Grasso, an FBI supervisory special agent. "The average user would open up Internet Explorer and get 'page not found' and think the Internet is broken."
On the night of the arrests, the agency brought in Paul Vixie, chairman and founder of Internet Systems Consortium, to install two Internet servers to take the place of the truckload of impounded rogue servers that infected computers were using. Federal officials planned to keep their servers online until March, giving everyone opportunity to clean their computers. But it wasn't enough time. A federal judge in New York extended the deadline until July.
Now, said Grasso, "the full court press is on to get people to address this problem." And it's up to computer users to check their PCs.
This is what happened:
Hackers infected a network of probably more than 570,000 computers worldwide. They took advantage of vulnerabilities in the Microsoft Windows operating system to install malicious software on the victim computers. This turned off antivirus updates and changed the way the computers reconcile website addresses behind the scenes on the Internet's domain name system.
The DNS system is a network of servers that translates a web address — such as www.ap.org — into the numerical addresses that computers use. Victim computers were reprogrammed to use rogue DNS servers owned by the attackers. This allowed the attackers to redirect computers to fraudulent versions of any website.
The hackers earned profits from advertisements that appeared on websites that victims were tricked into visiting. The scam netted the hackers at least $14 million, according to the FBI. It also made thousands of computers reliant on the rogue servers for their Internet browsing.
When the FBI and others arrested six Estonians last November, the agency replaced the rogue servers with Vixie's clean ones. Installing and running the two substitute servers for eight months is costing the federal government about $87,000.
The number of victims is hard to pinpoint, but the FBI believes that on the day of the arrests, at least 568,000 unique Internet addresses were using the rogue servers. Five months later, FBI estimates that the number is down to at least 360,000. The U.S. has the most, about 85,000, federal authorities said. Other countries with more than 20,000 each include Italy, India, England and Germany. Smaller numbers are online in Spain, France, Canada, China and Mexico.
Vixie said most of the victims are probably individual home users, rather than corporations that have technology staffs who routinely check the computers.
OBAMA ADMINISTRATION’S BACKING OF THE EGYPTIAN REVOLUTION MAY LEAD TO WAR BETWEEN EGYPT AND ISRAEL
The Muslim Brotherhood, which controls the new Egyptian parliament and is expected to win the presidency, is very much like Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.
When speaking in English to the Europeans and Americans, Abbas declares his support for two states , Palestine and Israel, living side by side in peace. But when Abbas speaks in Arabic, he vows to destroy the Zionist entity, declaring that “There will be only one state from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea.”
When the Muslim Brotherhood addresses the Europeans, Americans and Egypt’s secular voters, it assures them that it has moderated its hardline Islamic views. But once in office, you can bet their policies will follow the Islamist hardline on Israel, which is exactly the same as Abbas’ vow to destroy the Zionist entity. And this is what the Obama administration has reaped for throwing America’s longtime ally, Hosni Mubarak, under the bus.
FOR ISRAEL, EGYPT SEEN AS MORE DANGEROUS THAN IRAN
By Ryan Jones
Israel Today
April 22, 2012
Following the recent disqualification of Egypt's first batch of presidential hopefuls, the Muslim Brotherhood on Sunday announced its new candidate, while Israel's foreign minister warned that Egypt is quickly becoming a bigger threat to Israel than even Iran.
Last week, Egypt's Presidential Elections Commission barred on technicalities the three frontrunners for presidency, including the Muslim Brotherhood's Khairat al-Shater. Both Jerusalem and Washington were concerned that al-Shater would become Egypt's president, considering his hardline politics. But his replacement might not be any better.
The Muslim Brotherhood's new presidential candidate is Mohammed Mursi, who told a press conference on Saturday that if elected his government's top priority will be strong-arming Israel into accepting Palestinian land demands. When asked if he would honor Egypt's peace treaty with Israel, Mursi vaguely responded that he would abide by all international agreements, but would not be coerced by "externally-dictated policies."
While the Muslim Brotherhood already controls Egypt's parliament, Mursi faces a stiff challenge from former Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa for the presidency. But Moussa, too, is likely to be openly hostile toward Israel.
While touring southern Egypt on Saturday, Moussa told reporters that if elected, he will work to make the Middle East a nuclear weapons-free zone, starting with Israel. He had previously stated that Egypt's peace treaty with Israel needs to be revised.
Before being disqualified from the presidential race, former intelligence chief Omar Suleiman reportedly told an Egyptian newspaper that Muslim Brotherhood control of the presidency would lead to war with Israel.
"I fear that incorrect judgments will push us into confrontations with Israel. The Sinai may become an area from which rockets are fired into Israel and the parties may be drawn into war," Suleiman was quoted as saying by Israel's Army Radio.
Earlier this month, the director of Policy and Political-Military Affairs at Israel's Defense Ministry, Maj.-Gen. Amos Gilad, said that while the Palestinian, Iranian and Syrian threats are subdued at the moment, Israel's military remains wary of the direction in which Egypt is heading.
"The leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood keep declaring, 'We are committed to this peace.' I am not so sure," Gilad told a gathering at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. He estimates that the Muslim Brotherhood is still engaged in an international charm offensive, but that after coming to power, the group's true Islamist agenda will take over.
Gilad noted that as Islamists, the Muslim Brotherhood ultimately sees the Israel as an Islamic "Waqf," a "holy trust" that must be returned one way or another to Muslim control.
While Gilad tried to maintain a diplomatic tone, Israel's outspoken Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, was pulling no punches in a recent discussion with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during which Lieberman labeled Egypt a great threat than even Iran's defiant nuclear program.
"The Egyptian situation is much more disturbring," Lieberman was quoted as saying by the Israeli newspaper Maariv.
According to the report, Lieberman has advised significantly bolstering Israel's southern defenses ahead of the Egyptian presidential election.
When speaking in English to the Europeans and Americans, Abbas declares his support for two states , Palestine and Israel, living side by side in peace. But when Abbas speaks in Arabic, he vows to destroy the Zionist entity, declaring that “There will be only one state from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea.”
When the Muslim Brotherhood addresses the Europeans, Americans and Egypt’s secular voters, it assures them that it has moderated its hardline Islamic views. But once in office, you can bet their policies will follow the Islamist hardline on Israel, which is exactly the same as Abbas’ vow to destroy the Zionist entity. And this is what the Obama administration has reaped for throwing America’s longtime ally, Hosni Mubarak, under the bus.
FOR ISRAEL, EGYPT SEEN AS MORE DANGEROUS THAN IRAN
By Ryan Jones
Israel Today
April 22, 2012
Following the recent disqualification of Egypt's first batch of presidential hopefuls, the Muslim Brotherhood on Sunday announced its new candidate, while Israel's foreign minister warned that Egypt is quickly becoming a bigger threat to Israel than even Iran.
Last week, Egypt's Presidential Elections Commission barred on technicalities the three frontrunners for presidency, including the Muslim Brotherhood's Khairat al-Shater. Both Jerusalem and Washington were concerned that al-Shater would become Egypt's president, considering his hardline politics. But his replacement might not be any better.
The Muslim Brotherhood's new presidential candidate is Mohammed Mursi, who told a press conference on Saturday that if elected his government's top priority will be strong-arming Israel into accepting Palestinian land demands. When asked if he would honor Egypt's peace treaty with Israel, Mursi vaguely responded that he would abide by all international agreements, but would not be coerced by "externally-dictated policies."
While the Muslim Brotherhood already controls Egypt's parliament, Mursi faces a stiff challenge from former Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa for the presidency. But Moussa, too, is likely to be openly hostile toward Israel.
While touring southern Egypt on Saturday, Moussa told reporters that if elected, he will work to make the Middle East a nuclear weapons-free zone, starting with Israel. He had previously stated that Egypt's peace treaty with Israel needs to be revised.
Before being disqualified from the presidential race, former intelligence chief Omar Suleiman reportedly told an Egyptian newspaper that Muslim Brotherhood control of the presidency would lead to war with Israel.
"I fear that incorrect judgments will push us into confrontations with Israel. The Sinai may become an area from which rockets are fired into Israel and the parties may be drawn into war," Suleiman was quoted as saying by Israel's Army Radio.
Earlier this month, the director of Policy and Political-Military Affairs at Israel's Defense Ministry, Maj.-Gen. Amos Gilad, said that while the Palestinian, Iranian and Syrian threats are subdued at the moment, Israel's military remains wary of the direction in which Egypt is heading.
"The leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood keep declaring, 'We are committed to this peace.' I am not so sure," Gilad told a gathering at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. He estimates that the Muslim Brotherhood is still engaged in an international charm offensive, but that after coming to power, the group's true Islamist agenda will take over.
Gilad noted that as Islamists, the Muslim Brotherhood ultimately sees the Israel as an Islamic "Waqf," a "holy trust" that must be returned one way or another to Muslim control.
While Gilad tried to maintain a diplomatic tone, Israel's outspoken Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, was pulling no punches in a recent discussion with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during which Lieberman labeled Egypt a great threat than even Iran's defiant nuclear program.
"The Egyptian situation is much more disturbring," Lieberman was quoted as saying by the Israeli newspaper Maariv.
According to the report, Lieberman has advised significantly bolstering Israel's southern defenses ahead of the Egyptian presidential election.
CALDERON’S WAR AGAINST THE CARTELS
Here is a good analysis of Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s war against the cartels:
FIVE YEARS OF WAR: WHAT HAS CHANGED?
Borderland Beat
April 21, 2012
It’s been five years since President Felipe Calderon began a clampdown on the Mexican drug cartels that have been tearing the country apart. Troops have been sent into a variety of different Mexican states, and bloody battles have become commonplace in many parts of the country. The government that took power in 2006 vowed to take the cartels apart, and bring an end to the bribery and corruption within the police and government. As it stands now, the cartels are still getting drugs into America, and murder victims are being found every day. They are taking advantage of every possible way to keep their businesses running, and deadly violence is a daily part of their lives.
MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR INDUSTRY
It’s estimated that around $40 billion dollars a year is spent on drugs by Americans, and all the cartels want a piece of it. The National Drug Threat Assessment (NDTA) 2011 revealed that: ‘Mexican Based TCOs were operating in more than a thousand U.S cities during 2009 and 2010.’ It’s one thing getting the drugs into the United States, but they also need to bring the money back. Moving the money back into Mexico is not always easy, because trying to send hundreds of thousands of dollars through a money transfer would arouse suspicion. Instead the cartels are coming up with all sorts of new ways to outsmart the authorities. Large amounts of bulk cash are smuggled from the US back in to Mexico, and while some does get seized, it is only a fraction of the total amount of drug money destined to the cartels that supply the US illicit drug markets. The NDTA 2011 stated that ‘bulk cash seizures totaled $798 million from January 2008 through August 2010.’
INCREASE IN DRUG RLEATED DEATHS
The fight back against the drug cartels in Mexico was supposed to bring an end of gang violence and crime, but since 2006 the number of drug-related murders has just kept rising. The national figures for murders linked to organized crime shed some light on how ineffective Mexican police and troops have been in preventing the rise in violence. In 2006, murders linked to organized crime throughout Mexico were estimated to be just below 3,000, and by 2010 almost 3,000 murders were committed in the City of Ciudad Juarez alone. From 2009 to 2010, the total number of cartel-related murders in Mexico rose a staggering 60%, from just below 10,000 to over 15,000. 2011 saw a much smaller rise, but the latest figures released by Mexican officials estimate that 16,700 deaths occurred due to the Mexico drug war last year. On average, that’s 1392 a month, 348 a week, or 50 a day.
THE RISE OF EXSTORTION RACKETS
One surprising and scary result of the on-going drug war in Mexico is a rise in extortion rackets. This might seem less important than the thousands of people being killed every year, but it poses a great risk to the general public in Mexico. Over the last five years smaller drug cartels have been squeezed out of the business and now it seems there are only two that can successfully operate large drug-trafficking operations into the Unites States. The Pacific Cartel and Los Zetas are now the big two, and so smaller cartels and other criminal cells have changed tactics. Instead of trying to compete with the big two in terms of drug smuggling, they have looked inwards to see where they can generate an income. In an ironic situation, the increase in violence and arrest of cartel leaders has led to domestic mafias specializing solely in extortion. The climate of unpredictable violence between cartels, and the inability of local law enforcement to protect the public has led to people in Mexico paying gangs regular protection money in the hope of staying safe.
WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS
The current state of Mexico suggests that the drug war is not stopping the cartels. Recently the US Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, went on the record to defend the American policy that supports the Mexican drug war. Insisting that is was not a failure, she was quizzed by the Mexican Interior Minister, Alejandro Poire, about why Joaquin “Shorty” Guzman, the leader of one of Mexico’s largest and most powerful cartels had not been captured yet. He was arrested and incarcerated in 1993, but 8 years later he managed to escape, and now the US are offering a $5 million bounty for his capture. Her reply was: 'It took us 10 years to find Osama Bin Laden and we found him.' With the Mexican presidential elections coming up in July, President Felipe Calderon does not have years, but only months, to achieve a break through that will boost his plummeting popularity ratings.
FIVE YEARS OF WAR: WHAT HAS CHANGED?
Borderland Beat
April 21, 2012
It’s been five years since President Felipe Calderon began a clampdown on the Mexican drug cartels that have been tearing the country apart. Troops have been sent into a variety of different Mexican states, and bloody battles have become commonplace in many parts of the country. The government that took power in 2006 vowed to take the cartels apart, and bring an end to the bribery and corruption within the police and government. As it stands now, the cartels are still getting drugs into America, and murder victims are being found every day. They are taking advantage of every possible way to keep their businesses running, and deadly violence is a daily part of their lives.
MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR INDUSTRY
It’s estimated that around $40 billion dollars a year is spent on drugs by Americans, and all the cartels want a piece of it. The National Drug Threat Assessment (NDTA) 2011 revealed that: ‘Mexican Based TCOs were operating in more than a thousand U.S cities during 2009 and 2010.’ It’s one thing getting the drugs into the United States, but they also need to bring the money back. Moving the money back into Mexico is not always easy, because trying to send hundreds of thousands of dollars through a money transfer would arouse suspicion. Instead the cartels are coming up with all sorts of new ways to outsmart the authorities. Large amounts of bulk cash are smuggled from the US back in to Mexico, and while some does get seized, it is only a fraction of the total amount of drug money destined to the cartels that supply the US illicit drug markets. The NDTA 2011 stated that ‘bulk cash seizures totaled $798 million from January 2008 through August 2010.’
INCREASE IN DRUG RLEATED DEATHS
The fight back against the drug cartels in Mexico was supposed to bring an end of gang violence and crime, but since 2006 the number of drug-related murders has just kept rising. The national figures for murders linked to organized crime shed some light on how ineffective Mexican police and troops have been in preventing the rise in violence. In 2006, murders linked to organized crime throughout Mexico were estimated to be just below 3,000, and by 2010 almost 3,000 murders were committed in the City of Ciudad Juarez alone. From 2009 to 2010, the total number of cartel-related murders in Mexico rose a staggering 60%, from just below 10,000 to over 15,000. 2011 saw a much smaller rise, but the latest figures released by Mexican officials estimate that 16,700 deaths occurred due to the Mexico drug war last year. On average, that’s 1392 a month, 348 a week, or 50 a day.
THE RISE OF EXSTORTION RACKETS
One surprising and scary result of the on-going drug war in Mexico is a rise in extortion rackets. This might seem less important than the thousands of people being killed every year, but it poses a great risk to the general public in Mexico. Over the last five years smaller drug cartels have been squeezed out of the business and now it seems there are only two that can successfully operate large drug-trafficking operations into the Unites States. The Pacific Cartel and Los Zetas are now the big two, and so smaller cartels and other criminal cells have changed tactics. Instead of trying to compete with the big two in terms of drug smuggling, they have looked inwards to see where they can generate an income. In an ironic situation, the increase in violence and arrest of cartel leaders has led to domestic mafias specializing solely in extortion. The climate of unpredictable violence between cartels, and the inability of local law enforcement to protect the public has led to people in Mexico paying gangs regular protection money in the hope of staying safe.
WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS
The current state of Mexico suggests that the drug war is not stopping the cartels. Recently the US Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, went on the record to defend the American policy that supports the Mexican drug war. Insisting that is was not a failure, she was quizzed by the Mexican Interior Minister, Alejandro Poire, about why Joaquin “Shorty” Guzman, the leader of one of Mexico’s largest and most powerful cartels had not been captured yet. He was arrested and incarcerated in 1993, but 8 years later he managed to escape, and now the US are offering a $5 million bounty for his capture. Her reply was: 'It took us 10 years to find Osama Bin Laden and we found him.' With the Mexican presidential elections coming up in July, President Felipe Calderon does not have years, but only months, to achieve a break through that will boost his plummeting popularity ratings.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
COULD EL CHAPO ALREADY BE IN CUSTODY?
Some sources claim that Mexico’s most wanted cartel leader has actually been in custody since last month and the official announcement is being withheld for political gain.
From Borderland Beat:
THE CAPTURE OF EL CHAPO COULD GIVE A BIG BOOST TO JOSEPHINA VAZQUEZ MOTA IN THE RACE FOR THE PRESIDENCY
Vanguardia
April 20, 2012
With a little over two months until the presidential elections in Mexico, the capture of drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman could be a historic achievement for President Felipe Calderon, and consequently, a huge boost for candidate Josefina Vazquez Mota.
The world's most wanted drug lord who escaped from the Mexican authorities in January 2001, could return to prison "soon," according to press statements from Attorney General Cuitlahuac Salinas who heads the organization Specialized Investigation of Organized Crime, who said that a few weeks ago “El Chapo” almost got caught.
If the arrest of the capo is realized during this electoral process, the political party of Calderon could get a "sweet trophy," contrary to the negative publicity that has been seen since the begin he took office in 2006 when he declared war on organized crime gangs.
This triumph for Calderon could also benefit PAN candidate Josefina Vazquez Mota who could garnish support from the Mexican people, and thus help improve her rankings among the polls in the elections coming up on July 1.
Currently Vazquez Mota is not well positioned in the national polls and public opinion, but an event of this magnitude before the election could change the scenario that currently places the PRI candidate Enrique Peña Nieto as the leading candidate to occupy the presidential seat.
The Mexican prosecutor said authorities in the country are focused in capturing the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, and produce good results to the public.
According to a column in El Financiero "El Chapo" Guzman is already being held as a protected witness and soon will be presented to the media. There are unconfirmed reports that authorities managed to arrest El Chapo in the middle of March during a raid in Los Cabos.
But as we know, different versions come and different versions go, but a return to prison for the capo would weigh too much for the Mexican country and abroad, mainly the United States where authorities seek his capture and have the checkbook ready to pay whatever cost.
Some government analysts predict that the arrest of Guzman could unleash a wave of bloody violence between lieutenants and allied groups for control of the Sinaloa cartel and could be the reason for the hesitation to announce a possible arrest, that is, if it did happen at all.
From Borderland Beat:
THE CAPTURE OF EL CHAPO COULD GIVE A BIG BOOST TO JOSEPHINA VAZQUEZ MOTA IN THE RACE FOR THE PRESIDENCY
Vanguardia
April 20, 2012
With a little over two months until the presidential elections in Mexico, the capture of drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman could be a historic achievement for President Felipe Calderon, and consequently, a huge boost for candidate Josefina Vazquez Mota.
The world's most wanted drug lord who escaped from the Mexican authorities in January 2001, could return to prison "soon," according to press statements from Attorney General Cuitlahuac Salinas who heads the organization Specialized Investigation of Organized Crime, who said that a few weeks ago “El Chapo” almost got caught.
If the arrest of the capo is realized during this electoral process, the political party of Calderon could get a "sweet trophy," contrary to the negative publicity that has been seen since the begin he took office in 2006 when he declared war on organized crime gangs.
This triumph for Calderon could also benefit PAN candidate Josefina Vazquez Mota who could garnish support from the Mexican people, and thus help improve her rankings among the polls in the elections coming up on July 1.
Currently Vazquez Mota is not well positioned in the national polls and public opinion, but an event of this magnitude before the election could change the scenario that currently places the PRI candidate Enrique Peña Nieto as the leading candidate to occupy the presidential seat.
The Mexican prosecutor said authorities in the country are focused in capturing the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, and produce good results to the public.
According to a column in El Financiero "El Chapo" Guzman is already being held as a protected witness and soon will be presented to the media. There are unconfirmed reports that authorities managed to arrest El Chapo in the middle of March during a raid in Los Cabos.
But as we know, different versions come and different versions go, but a return to prison for the capo would weigh too much for the Mexican country and abroad, mainly the United States where authorities seek his capture and have the checkbook ready to pay whatever cost.
Some government analysts predict that the arrest of Guzman could unleash a wave of bloody violence between lieutenants and allied groups for control of the Sinaloa cartel and could be the reason for the hesitation to announce a possible arrest, that is, if it did happen at all.
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