California parole authorities recalled and purged ‘Parolee at Large’ warrant and discharged from sentence one of FBI’s 10 most wanted fugitives
Parole officials explained they "no longer had jurisdiction over Saenz." That lame excuse just does not fly! But you can bet that he’ll appear on the parole stats as having successfully completed parole.
‘MOST WANTED,’ BUT NOT BY PAROLE OFFICIALS
California dropped a ‘Parolee at Large’ warrant for alleged killer and drug cartel associate Jose Luis Saenz as he was being sought by the FBI
By Paige St. John
Los Angeles Times
November 29, 2012
SACRAMENTO — Jose Luis Saenz had been on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list since 2009, with a $100,000 bounty and his face in post offices across the United States before he was captured last week.
But amid the international hunt for Saenz — also known as "Peanut Joe Smiley," among other aliases, authorities say — California parole officials dropped their warrant for his arrest and dismissed the alleged killer and Mexican drug cartel associate from parole.
California "no longer had jurisdiction over Saenz," agency spokesman Luis Patino said Wednesday. He cited a 2009 state law, meant to reduce prison crowding, requiring nonviolent felons to be placed on unsupervised parole and not returned to jail unless convicted of a new crime.
The law says the Board of Parole Hearings should reserve such discharges for those who are unlikely to re-offend, are not proven members of a prison gang and have not refused to sign papers agreeing to police searches. Saenz was wanted for four gang- and drug-related killings and believed by the FBI to be working for a Mexican drug cartel.
The state already faces scrutiny of its ongoing effort to purge thousands more parole warrants as part of Gov. Jerry Brown's program to ease state prison crowding and cut spending. The corrections agency has been reviewing the cases of more than 9,200 parolees who long ago disappeared.
The FBI announced last week that Saenz had been captured in Mexico, living in an apartment above a beauty salon. He was taken to Los Angeles, where he is being held pending arraignment on charges of the killings as well as rape and kidnapping.
The agent who signed the original arrest warrant against Saenz for a parole violation said the state had bungled the matter. "There's no rhyme or reason for them to discharge him.… I knew he was dangerous," said the agent, Caroline Aguirre, who is now retired.
Aguirre said she had supervised Saenz for several months in early 1998, when he stopped meeting with her and she could not find him. In July of that year, authorities allege, he killed two rival gang members and, two weeks later, kidnapped, raped and executed his girlfriend out of fear that she would go to police. Prosecutors say it is Saenz who appears in an October 2008 surveillance video executing a Whittier man over a $500,000 drug debt.
Saenz was believed to be on the run in Mexico in mid-August when, according to case records obtained by The Times, the state Board of Parole Hearings discharged him. The documents include a notation that he remained at large and that he had been placed under "high control" supervision.
Asked if the FBI was concerned that the parole warrant for Saenz had been dropped, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller suggested it didn't really matter. "The murder warrant was good," she said.
Saenz had only been convicted of a minor narcotics charge. Patino said that "a careful legal review" left no choice but to consider him a low-level offender, regardless of the murder allegations.
Parole agents had participated in an international task force searching for the fugitive. Nevertheless, he was discharged from parole Aug. 17.
An official of the state parole officers' union said agents don't typically look for pending warrants.
"Normally we run a criminal rap sheet, but we don't do a warrant check," said Todd Gillam, a parole officer and vice president of the Parole Agent Assn. of California.
The state's reliance on criminal history checks, which are incomplete, was the subject of a critical report by the office of inspector general last year. Based on such checks, more than 1,450 violence- and drug-prone inmates had been mistakenly released as unsupervised parolees, the inspector general found.
Corrections officials blamed a computer glitch and said they would fix the program but would make no effort to return any of the released offenders to prison or put them on supervised parole.
Prison officials said California's 9,200 outstanding parole warrants clog court files and obscure the most serious cases. But agents said those warrants are valuable, allowing a prosecutor to hold a violator without bail while buying time to develop a case and press other charges.
The warrants are "a very effective criminal justice tool," Gillam said.
Friday, November 30, 2012
‘NEITHER HAMAS NOR THE PLO CAN AFFORD PEACE’
When, through a peace treaty with Israel, the Palestinians gain true statehood they will be equals as sovereign states. ‘And when an equal attacks another, we call that aggression. Aggressors are not "the victim". Israel will be free to do whatever it jolly well pleases — including annexing territory it cannot annex today — in a peace treaty between sovereigns, after it thumps Hamas and the PLO back into the Stone Age.’
THE CASE FOR PALESTINIAN INDEPENDENCE
By Rod D. Martin
Jewish World Review
November 29, 2012
Israel's case against a UN-sanctioned Palestinian independence isn't wrong. The initiative all but scuttles the Oslo peace process and, newly reinforced by a Muslim Brotherhood-dominated Egypt, very likely scuttles Camp David as well. It is not a two-state, but a one-state solution the Palestinians have in their sights.
Doubters need only listen to Palestinian Authority (PLO) President Mahmoud Abbas at the UN last fall: "They talk to us about the Jewish state, but I respond to them with a final answer: We shall not recognize a Jewish state."
Responding to Abbas, senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh (who rejects the UN process) doubled down: "[We] do not beg for a state. States are not built on UN resolutions. States liberate their land and establish their entities."
The Palestinian seal shows a Palestine that has completely obliterated Israel. The PLO, today's Palestinian Authority, was founded by the nephew of the Mufti of Jerusalem, a Nazi who collaborated with Hitler to carry out the "Final Solution". Hamas, which controls Gaza, split from the PLO on the "principle" that half a century of gunning down Jewish schoolgirls was too "moderate."
The charters of both organizations call for "the destruction of the Zionist entity" (Israel) and the death of every Jew. An average of five rocket or mortar attacks on Jewish homes per day — when supposedly at peace, as opposed to the recent short war — proves they're serious.
These are not the sort of people who should have their own country.
And yet…
Maybe the Palestinians have a point; or more precisely, maybe they haven't thought this through as well as they think.
Because the last thing Abbas and Haniyeh can afford is legal statehood. Indeed, maybe it's time for Israel to give them what they want.
Few Americans understand the geography of this. "Palestine", such as it is, consists in three very different places.
The first is the 80% of Palestine which we call Jordan, independent since 1922 and always home to the overwhelming majority of Palestinians. It not only never dreamed of creating a "Palestinian state" in the West Bank, which it ruled until 1967: it fought a civil war in 1970 to drive the PLO (today's Palestinian Authority) out of Jordan. No one speaks of this. Don't expect them to now.
The second and third parts are the West Bank and Gaza. Gaza is a city-state with no commerce or industry occupied by 1.5 million largely unemployed and unemployable people whose primary skill is firing mortars at Jewish subdivisions. Such real jobs as exist are in Israel. The largely rural West Bank is better, but not by much, and about as excited about being forced to share power and interests with Gaza as Mississippi is about being dictated to from New York City, though with the added "bonus" that the secessionists in Palestine won.
So there is no one "Palestine"; and if "it" were suddenly to become independent, its primary employers — the terrorist groups — would have to start laying people off. There would still be some jobs in Israel of course, but wait: Israelis do not need and no longer would have any obligation to hire Palestinians, who would suddenly be the dangerous citizens of a foreign country.
Yes, "independence" means Palestine would instantly become vastly more dependent on Israel, not less. And who will invest in a country almost completely cut off by sea and air, populated largely by otherwise skill-less murderers who will inevitably be at war again before you blink?
Why war? Because neither Hamas nor the PLO can afford peace. Their "state" is only viable if reattached to Jordan or if Israel is obliterated and annexed. The former option is unlikely, the latter option doesn't exist, but being a proxy army for Iran pays pretty well, and utilizes the population's sole skill set. It also maintains both the PA's and Hamas' claims to power.
So how could independence possibly help Israel?
For the Palestinian oligarchy to remain in power (and well-lubricated with U.S. aid dollars), it must, however implausibly, continue to be seen as the oppressed victim. Statehood strips that away. They will have independence. They will have the two-state solution they claim (in English, though never in Arabic) to embrace, the land they say they want, the Israeli Army back in Israel.
The only thing they won't have will be Jerusalem, and since their declaration of independence will be unilateral, they won't be able to claim it: not without war.
So when they inevitably keep firing mortar rounds into Jewish elementary schools, those acts will be acts of war. By a sovereign state, not an occupied territory: an equal of Israel, with a seat at the UN.
And when an equal attacks another, we call that aggression. Aggressors are not "the victim". Israel will be free to do whatever it jolly well pleases — including annexing territory it cannot annex today — in a peace treaty between sovereigns, after it thumps Hamas and the PLO back into the Stone Age.
Yes, it may just be time for an independent Palestine. Way past time.
THE CASE FOR PALESTINIAN INDEPENDENCE
By Rod D. Martin
Jewish World Review
November 29, 2012
Israel's case against a UN-sanctioned Palestinian independence isn't wrong. The initiative all but scuttles the Oslo peace process and, newly reinforced by a Muslim Brotherhood-dominated Egypt, very likely scuttles Camp David as well. It is not a two-state, but a one-state solution the Palestinians have in their sights.
Doubters need only listen to Palestinian Authority (PLO) President Mahmoud Abbas at the UN last fall: "They talk to us about the Jewish state, but I respond to them with a final answer: We shall not recognize a Jewish state."
Responding to Abbas, senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh (who rejects the UN process) doubled down: "[We] do not beg for a state. States are not built on UN resolutions. States liberate their land and establish their entities."
The Palestinian seal shows a Palestine that has completely obliterated Israel. The PLO, today's Palestinian Authority, was founded by the nephew of the Mufti of Jerusalem, a Nazi who collaborated with Hitler to carry out the "Final Solution". Hamas, which controls Gaza, split from the PLO on the "principle" that half a century of gunning down Jewish schoolgirls was too "moderate."
The charters of both organizations call for "the destruction of the Zionist entity" (Israel) and the death of every Jew. An average of five rocket or mortar attacks on Jewish homes per day — when supposedly at peace, as opposed to the recent short war — proves they're serious.
These are not the sort of people who should have their own country.
And yet…
Maybe the Palestinians have a point; or more precisely, maybe they haven't thought this through as well as they think.
Because the last thing Abbas and Haniyeh can afford is legal statehood. Indeed, maybe it's time for Israel to give them what they want.
Few Americans understand the geography of this. "Palestine", such as it is, consists in three very different places.
The first is the 80% of Palestine which we call Jordan, independent since 1922 and always home to the overwhelming majority of Palestinians. It not only never dreamed of creating a "Palestinian state" in the West Bank, which it ruled until 1967: it fought a civil war in 1970 to drive the PLO (today's Palestinian Authority) out of Jordan. No one speaks of this. Don't expect them to now.
The second and third parts are the West Bank and Gaza. Gaza is a city-state with no commerce or industry occupied by 1.5 million largely unemployed and unemployable people whose primary skill is firing mortars at Jewish subdivisions. Such real jobs as exist are in Israel. The largely rural West Bank is better, but not by much, and about as excited about being forced to share power and interests with Gaza as Mississippi is about being dictated to from New York City, though with the added "bonus" that the secessionists in Palestine won.
So there is no one "Palestine"; and if "it" were suddenly to become independent, its primary employers — the terrorist groups — would have to start laying people off. There would still be some jobs in Israel of course, but wait: Israelis do not need and no longer would have any obligation to hire Palestinians, who would suddenly be the dangerous citizens of a foreign country.
Yes, "independence" means Palestine would instantly become vastly more dependent on Israel, not less. And who will invest in a country almost completely cut off by sea and air, populated largely by otherwise skill-less murderers who will inevitably be at war again before you blink?
Why war? Because neither Hamas nor the PLO can afford peace. Their "state" is only viable if reattached to Jordan or if Israel is obliterated and annexed. The former option is unlikely, the latter option doesn't exist, but being a proxy army for Iran pays pretty well, and utilizes the population's sole skill set. It also maintains both the PA's and Hamas' claims to power.
So how could independence possibly help Israel?
For the Palestinian oligarchy to remain in power (and well-lubricated with U.S. aid dollars), it must, however implausibly, continue to be seen as the oppressed victim. Statehood strips that away. They will have independence. They will have the two-state solution they claim (in English, though never in Arabic) to embrace, the land they say they want, the Israeli Army back in Israel.
The only thing they won't have will be Jerusalem, and since their declaration of independence will be unilateral, they won't be able to claim it: not without war.
So when they inevitably keep firing mortar rounds into Jewish elementary schools, those acts will be acts of war. By a sovereign state, not an occupied territory: an equal of Israel, with a seat at the UN.
And when an equal attacks another, we call that aggression. Aggressors are not "the victim". Israel will be free to do whatever it jolly well pleases — including annexing territory it cannot annex today — in a peace treaty between sovereigns, after it thumps Hamas and the PLO back into the Stone Age.
Yes, it may just be time for an independent Palestine. Way past time.
ZURICH TO GIVE AMSTERDAM AND BANGKOK A RUN FOR THEIR MONEY
Drive in, pay for sex, get laid, drive out. As Jackie Gleason used to say, “How sweet it is.”
DRIVE-IN SEX BOOTHS TO BE BUILT IN ZURICH TO ‘HELP MAKE PROSTITUTION SAFER’
Prostitution will be confined to the booths and two other locations in the city
Mail Online
November 29, 2012
Drive-in sex booths will be launched in Zurich next year to get prostitutes off the streets and working in a safer environment, it has emerged.
Voters in Switzerland's biggest city gave their approval for the sex booth scheme in a referendum earlier this year.
Under the plan, potential clients will able to drive their car into the sex booths on a first come first served basis to meet prostitutes rather than picking them up off the street.
There will be enough booths constructed on the outskirts of the city to accommodate around 30 prostitutes.
City officials hope the booths, which will come with inbuilt panic alarms, will be ready for launch in August.
An on-site counsellor will also be provided in the taxpayer funded scheme.
It is hoped the move will help make the sex industry much safer and more regulated, ABC News reported.
Prostitution will be banned in certain parts of the city and confined to the booths and two other zones after they open in August.
Michael Herzig, spokesperson for Zurich Social Welfare Department, said: 'The big difference is that until now prostitution is in a public space.
'Now we are going to change this, transfer it from the street, from a public to a private space to an old industrial area which belongs to the city that give us the possibility to define the rules of prostitution in this space.
'The women will be better protected from attack, and it will also mean better business for them.
'With the women right by the sex boxes there is no "travel time" so they can deal with more customers. It's a better business model than standing on the street.'
Prostitutes will also have to apply for a £26 licence, register with a health insurer and buy a ticket each night for about £3 before they begin soliciting customers from January onwards.
Social Welfare Department officials said the plan is 'progressing' and is ready to enter into full-force in the New Year.
DRIVE-IN SEX BOOTHS TO BE BUILT IN ZURICH TO ‘HELP MAKE PROSTITUTION SAFER’
Prostitution will be confined to the booths and two other locations in the city
Mail Online
November 29, 2012
Drive-in sex booths will be launched in Zurich next year to get prostitutes off the streets and working in a safer environment, it has emerged.
Voters in Switzerland's biggest city gave their approval for the sex booth scheme in a referendum earlier this year.
Under the plan, potential clients will able to drive their car into the sex booths on a first come first served basis to meet prostitutes rather than picking them up off the street.
There will be enough booths constructed on the outskirts of the city to accommodate around 30 prostitutes.
City officials hope the booths, which will come with inbuilt panic alarms, will be ready for launch in August.
An on-site counsellor will also be provided in the taxpayer funded scheme.
It is hoped the move will help make the sex industry much safer and more regulated, ABC News reported.
Prostitution will be banned in certain parts of the city and confined to the booths and two other zones after they open in August.
Michael Herzig, spokesperson for Zurich Social Welfare Department, said: 'The big difference is that until now prostitution is in a public space.
'Now we are going to change this, transfer it from the street, from a public to a private space to an old industrial area which belongs to the city that give us the possibility to define the rules of prostitution in this space.
'The women will be better protected from attack, and it will also mean better business for them.
'With the women right by the sex boxes there is no "travel time" so they can deal with more customers. It's a better business model than standing on the street.'
Prostitutes will also have to apply for a £26 licence, register with a health insurer and buy a ticket each night for about £3 before they begin soliciting customers from January onwards.
Social Welfare Department officials said the plan is 'progressing' and is ready to enter into full-force in the New Year.
JUDGE BACKS HOPLOPHOBES IN THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF SAN FRANCISCO
By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
November 29, 2012
A federal judge has back the Peoples Republic of San Francisco and its largely hoplophobe population in a legal action with the NRA.
Hoplophobia is an unreasonable and unrealistic fear of weapons. Many people in positions of power and authority in SF appear to believe that firearms are likely to walk down the street under their own power and start shooting at random with no direction from an actual human. In 1994 SF banned possession of expanding (hollow point?) bullets by non-governmental employees. In 2008 they mandated that firearms within their jurisdiction be kept locked in the home.
On Monday Judge Richard Seeborg of the U.S. District Court ruled that these requirements do not conflict with the 2008 SCOTUS ruling on firearms for self-protection, according to a brief factoid in today’s Sacramento PRAVDA.
I guess now on the rare occasion when I venture into the wilds of SF I will have to try to remember to carry hardball in my .45.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Bob, if I read this correctly, according to the 2008 ordinance you can carry your .45 hardballs, but as long as you are inside the People’s Republic of San Fransicko, you better not have that pistola on your person or in your wheels.
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
November 29, 2012
A federal judge has back the Peoples Republic of San Francisco and its largely hoplophobe population in a legal action with the NRA.
Hoplophobia is an unreasonable and unrealistic fear of weapons. Many people in positions of power and authority in SF appear to believe that firearms are likely to walk down the street under their own power and start shooting at random with no direction from an actual human. In 1994 SF banned possession of expanding (hollow point?) bullets by non-governmental employees. In 2008 they mandated that firearms within their jurisdiction be kept locked in the home.
On Monday Judge Richard Seeborg of the U.S. District Court ruled that these requirements do not conflict with the 2008 SCOTUS ruling on firearms for self-protection, according to a brief factoid in today’s Sacramento PRAVDA.
I guess now on the rare occasion when I venture into the wilds of SF I will have to try to remember to carry hardball in my .45.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Bob, if I read this correctly, according to the 2008 ordinance you can carry your .45 hardballs, but as long as you are inside the People’s Republic of San Fransicko, you better not have that pistola on your person or in your wheels.
GOD TOLD WOMAN TO DRIVE 100MPH
God may indeed be the divine ruler of all creation. For now, police officers still make the rules on Florida’s roads
By Jerry Reynolds
Car Pro News
November 28, 2012
How else to explain why a Florida woman who claimed the Lord told her to drive 100 miles per hour through a 30-mph residential neighborhood was nonetheless arrested for reckless driving?
Residents reported a woman in a silver Toyota was racing down a residential street near U.S. 1 in Fort Pierce, Fla., on Nov. 20, and repeatedly honking her horn and frantically waving her arms and gesturing. Officers pursued her in a high-speed chase.
When Melissa Miller, 41, finally pulled over, she told officers that “I was letting the Lord spirit guide me,” according to a police report of the incident. She said she repeatedly honked loudly because “The Lord was telling me to do it.”
By Jerry Reynolds
Car Pro News
November 28, 2012
How else to explain why a Florida woman who claimed the Lord told her to drive 100 miles per hour through a 30-mph residential neighborhood was nonetheless arrested for reckless driving?
Residents reported a woman in a silver Toyota was racing down a residential street near U.S. 1 in Fort Pierce, Fla., on Nov. 20, and repeatedly honking her horn and frantically waving her arms and gesturing. Officers pursued her in a high-speed chase.
When Melissa Miller, 41, finally pulled over, she told officers that “I was letting the Lord spirit guide me,” according to a police report of the incident. She said she repeatedly honked loudly because “The Lord was telling me to do it.”
Thursday, November 29, 2012
KIM JONG-UN NAMED THE ONION’S SEXIEST MAN ALIVE FOR 2012
The Onion
November 14, 2012
The Onion is proud to announce that North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-un, 29, has officially been named the newspaper’s Sexiest Man Alive for the year 2012.
With his devastatingly handsome, round face, his boyish charm, and his strong, sturdy frame, this Pyongyang-bred heartthrob is every woman’s dream come true. Blessed with an air of power that masks an unmistakable cute, cuddly side, Kim made this newspaper’s editorial board swoon with his impeccable fashion sense, chic short hairstyle, and, of course, that famous smile.
“He has that rare ability to somehow be completely adorable and completely macho at the same time,” Onion Style and Entertainment editor Marissa Blake-Zweibel said. “And that’s the quality that makes him the sort of man women want, and men want to be. He’s a real hunk with real intensity who also knows how to cut loose and let his hair down.”
Added Blake-Zweibel, “Ri Sol-ju is one lucky lady, that’s for sure!”
With today’s announcement, Kim joins the ranks of The Onion’s prior “Sexiest Man Alive” winners, including:
2011: Bashar al-Assad
2010: Bernie Madoff
2009: Charles and David Koch (co-winners)
2008: Ted Kaczynski
2007: T. Herman Zweibel
The Onion’s commemorative “Sexiest Man Alive” issue will be available on newsstands everywhere this Friday and contains a full 16-page spread on Kim.
UPDATE 11-27-12: For more coverage on The Onion's Sexiest Man Alive 2012, Kim Jong-Un, please visit our friends at the People's Daily in China, a proud Communist subsidiary of The Onion, Inc. Exemplary reportage, comrades.
__________
EDITOR’S NOTE: The People's Daily, China’s official news agency, mistakenly believed the article from The Onion about the 2012 Sexiest Man Alive was for real.
THE ONION STRIKES AGAIN – CHINA CALLS KIM JUNG UN SEXIEST MAN ALIVE
By Michael Blaustein
New York Post
November 27, 2012
According to the official mouthpiece of China's Communist Party, North Korea's newest supreme leader, Kim Jung Un, is the sexiest man alive for 2012.
China's People Daily reached their oddball conclusion after taking an article from the satirical news Web site The Onion seriously.
"With his devastatingly handsome, round face, his boyish charm, and his strong, sturdy frame, this Pyongyang-bred heartthrob is every woman's dream come true," the People's Daily quoted from The Onion.
"Kim made this newspaper's editorial board swoon with his impeccable fashion sense, chic short hairstyle, and, of course, that famous smile," China's news agency continued in their quotation.
China is the second foreign power to take The Onion too seriously, earlier this year Iran's official news agency plagiarized The Onion's article, "Gallup Poll: Rural Whites Prefer Ahmadinejad To Obama."
In Iran's case, the Persian country simply lifted fake information from The Onion which said that rural white Americans would rather vote for their president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, than President Obama.
China, on the other hand, seemed to have simply missed the fact that The Onion's article was a joke, thus overlooking some obvious clues to the article's falsity.
For example, The Onion has a history of choosing clearly unsexy men for their award. In 2011 they chose Syria's despotic President Bashar al-Assad, in 2010 they went with ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff and in 2008 they picked Ted Kaczynski, The Unabomber.
November 14, 2012
The Onion is proud to announce that North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-un, 29, has officially been named the newspaper’s Sexiest Man Alive for the year 2012.
With his devastatingly handsome, round face, his boyish charm, and his strong, sturdy frame, this Pyongyang-bred heartthrob is every woman’s dream come true. Blessed with an air of power that masks an unmistakable cute, cuddly side, Kim made this newspaper’s editorial board swoon with his impeccable fashion sense, chic short hairstyle, and, of course, that famous smile.
“He has that rare ability to somehow be completely adorable and completely macho at the same time,” Onion Style and Entertainment editor Marissa Blake-Zweibel said. “And that’s the quality that makes him the sort of man women want, and men want to be. He’s a real hunk with real intensity who also knows how to cut loose and let his hair down.”
Added Blake-Zweibel, “Ri Sol-ju is one lucky lady, that’s for sure!”
With today’s announcement, Kim joins the ranks of The Onion’s prior “Sexiest Man Alive” winners, including:
2011: Bashar al-Assad
2010: Bernie Madoff
2009: Charles and David Koch (co-winners)
2008: Ted Kaczynski
2007: T. Herman Zweibel
The Onion’s commemorative “Sexiest Man Alive” issue will be available on newsstands everywhere this Friday and contains a full 16-page spread on Kim.
UPDATE 11-27-12: For more coverage on The Onion's Sexiest Man Alive 2012, Kim Jong-Un, please visit our friends at the People's Daily in China, a proud Communist subsidiary of The Onion, Inc. Exemplary reportage, comrades.
__________
EDITOR’S NOTE: The People's Daily, China’s official news agency, mistakenly believed the article from The Onion about the 2012 Sexiest Man Alive was for real.
THE ONION STRIKES AGAIN – CHINA CALLS KIM JUNG UN SEXIEST MAN ALIVE
By Michael Blaustein
New York Post
November 27, 2012
According to the official mouthpiece of China's Communist Party, North Korea's newest supreme leader, Kim Jung Un, is the sexiest man alive for 2012.
China's People Daily reached their oddball conclusion after taking an article from the satirical news Web site The Onion seriously.
"With his devastatingly handsome, round face, his boyish charm, and his strong, sturdy frame, this Pyongyang-bred heartthrob is every woman's dream come true," the People's Daily quoted from The Onion.
"Kim made this newspaper's editorial board swoon with his impeccable fashion sense, chic short hairstyle, and, of course, that famous smile," China's news agency continued in their quotation.
China is the second foreign power to take The Onion too seriously, earlier this year Iran's official news agency plagiarized The Onion's article, "Gallup Poll: Rural Whites Prefer Ahmadinejad To Obama."
In Iran's case, the Persian country simply lifted fake information from The Onion which said that rural white Americans would rather vote for their president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, than President Obama.
China, on the other hand, seemed to have simply missed the fact that The Onion's article was a joke, thus overlooking some obvious clues to the article's falsity.
For example, The Onion has a history of choosing clearly unsexy men for their award. In 2011 they chose Syria's despotic President Bashar al-Assad, in 2010 they went with ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff and in 2008 they picked Ted Kaczynski, The Unabomber.
U.S. AID MONEY FUNNELED TO PALESTINIAN TERRORIST GROUPS
Money intended to aid the Palestinian Authority ends up in the hands of Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and other individuals and groups barred from receiving federal funds by the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006.
CLINTON SUED OVER PALESTINIAN AID
AFP
November 27, 2012
WASHINGTON -- US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the State Department are being sued for allegedly allowing American aid money meant for the Palestinian Authority to be used by terror groups like Hamas.
The lawsuit was filed on Monday in Washington on behalf of 24 US citizens living in Israel by the Israel Law Center, a Tel Aviv-based legal group that specializes in fighting "terrorist organizations and the regimes that support them," according to its website.
The suit accuses the defendants of having "authorized, sanctioned, encouraged, and/or facilitated funding to the Palestinian Authority without imposing the controls and oversight mandated by federal statute," especially the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006.
This resulted in US taxpayers dollars ending up in the hands of terror groups like Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and other individuals and groups barred from federal funds, the lawsuit alleges.
The suit calls for the defendants, including Clinton, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the State Department, to be adjudged to have "violated federal statutes."
It also demands that all funds to the Palestinian Authority, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and other groups are stopped until the defendants "are ready and able to fully comply with federal prohibitions against support for terrorism."
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said she could not confirm that the lawsuit had been filed, adding that if it had it would be a matter for the Justice Department.
CLINTON SUED OVER PALESTINIAN AID
AFP
November 27, 2012
WASHINGTON -- US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the State Department are being sued for allegedly allowing American aid money meant for the Palestinian Authority to be used by terror groups like Hamas.
The lawsuit was filed on Monday in Washington on behalf of 24 US citizens living in Israel by the Israel Law Center, a Tel Aviv-based legal group that specializes in fighting "terrorist organizations and the regimes that support them," according to its website.
The suit accuses the defendants of having "authorized, sanctioned, encouraged, and/or facilitated funding to the Palestinian Authority without imposing the controls and oversight mandated by federal statute," especially the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006.
This resulted in US taxpayers dollars ending up in the hands of terror groups like Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and other individuals and groups barred from federal funds, the lawsuit alleges.
The suit calls for the defendants, including Clinton, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the State Department, to be adjudged to have "violated federal statutes."
It also demands that all funds to the Palestinian Authority, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and other groups are stopped until the defendants "are ready and able to fully comply with federal prohibitions against support for terrorism."
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said she could not confirm that the lawsuit had been filed, adding that if it had it would be a matter for the Justice Department.
ACT OF KINDNESS NOT APPRECIATED BY GREEDY RELATIVES
There’s nothing like a death in the family to bring out the worst in the dear departed’s relatives.
FAMILY’S FURY AFTER ELDERLY AUNT LEAVES ENTIRE $12.5 MILLION ESTATE TO NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBOR TO THANK HER FOR BUYING HER BREAD AND MILK
Will caused a bitter legal dispute as her family challenged it in court
By Richard Shears
Mail Online
November 28, 2012
It is often said that a small act of daily kindness goes a long way. But one lucky Australian could not have expected that her good deeds would land her a multi-million dollar cheque.
The next-door neighbour, who helped an elderly widow with her daily chores, was left with a ‘thank you’ gift of eight million pounds.
Sydney widow Betty Harris, who died at the age of 95, left her entire estate, worth $12.5 million to her neighbour Beatrice Gray.
Mrs Gray showed kindness to Mrs Harris in her later years in the wealthy harbourside suburb of Point Piper, buying her milk and bread and taking out her rubbish.
Mrs Gray told Sydney’s Daily Telegraph today that she was ‘extremely grateful to Betty Harris,’ but declined to comment further.
But Mrs Harris, widow of Keith Harris, a former horse breeder, spoke out strongly before her death against her relatives saying she wanted to leave her money to Mrs Gray and her husband because they were not expecting it and she trusted them.
‘The Grays would be surprised, while my family are waiting for me to die,’ she said. ‘I am determined that my relatives, after what they have put me through, will not get one cent.’
After the widow’s death a bitter legal battle erupted with Mrs Harris’ s niece challenging the gift in the New South Wales Supreme Court.
The niece, Caralie Hart, claimed that a will leaving the estate to Mrs Gray, was invalid because Mrs Harris was deluded at the time.
During one court hearing it was revealed that Mrs Harris had no children and was largely estranged from her nieces and nephews. She told hospital staff in 2005 that she had not spoken to them for 13 years.
Shortly after changing her will in favour of Mrs Gray, Mrs Harris complained that her niece and nephews ‘all want their bit of money.’
The court was told that she complained her nephews were ‘a pretty pathetic lot’ and called another niece, Anne Nickolls , a bitch.
Justice Richard White, ruling today that Mrs Gray - a wealthy Sydney University academic and barrister - was entitled to the estate, said there was no doubt that Mrs Harris had ‘some degree of cognitive impairment’ but she was still capable of signing a will.
An earlier will, written in 1996, had left the entire estate to niece Mrs Hart, but then Mrs Harris revoked it after learning Mrs Hart wanted to put her in a nursing home and appoint a legal guardian to take control of her finances.
Mrs Harris lost control of her money through a number of legal moves, resulting in her borrowing money from Mrs Gray.
Mrs Gray and her husband helped Mrs Harris pay her bills, organise her car registration, replace light bulbs and wheel out her recycling bin.
The neighbours also checked on Mrs Harris’s house to ensure she had not been robbed.
FAMILY’S FURY AFTER ELDERLY AUNT LEAVES ENTIRE $12.5 MILLION ESTATE TO NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBOR TO THANK HER FOR BUYING HER BREAD AND MILK
Will caused a bitter legal dispute as her family challenged it in court
By Richard Shears
Mail Online
November 28, 2012
It is often said that a small act of daily kindness goes a long way. But one lucky Australian could not have expected that her good deeds would land her a multi-million dollar cheque.
The next-door neighbour, who helped an elderly widow with her daily chores, was left with a ‘thank you’ gift of eight million pounds.
Sydney widow Betty Harris, who died at the age of 95, left her entire estate, worth $12.5 million to her neighbour Beatrice Gray.
Mrs Gray showed kindness to Mrs Harris in her later years in the wealthy harbourside suburb of Point Piper, buying her milk and bread and taking out her rubbish.
Mrs Gray told Sydney’s Daily Telegraph today that she was ‘extremely grateful to Betty Harris,’ but declined to comment further.
But Mrs Harris, widow of Keith Harris, a former horse breeder, spoke out strongly before her death against her relatives saying she wanted to leave her money to Mrs Gray and her husband because they were not expecting it and she trusted them.
‘The Grays would be surprised, while my family are waiting for me to die,’ she said. ‘I am determined that my relatives, after what they have put me through, will not get one cent.’
After the widow’s death a bitter legal battle erupted with Mrs Harris’ s niece challenging the gift in the New South Wales Supreme Court.
The niece, Caralie Hart, claimed that a will leaving the estate to Mrs Gray, was invalid because Mrs Harris was deluded at the time.
During one court hearing it was revealed that Mrs Harris had no children and was largely estranged from her nieces and nephews. She told hospital staff in 2005 that she had not spoken to them for 13 years.
Shortly after changing her will in favour of Mrs Gray, Mrs Harris complained that her niece and nephews ‘all want their bit of money.’
The court was told that she complained her nephews were ‘a pretty pathetic lot’ and called another niece, Anne Nickolls , a bitch.
Justice Richard White, ruling today that Mrs Gray - a wealthy Sydney University academic and barrister - was entitled to the estate, said there was no doubt that Mrs Harris had ‘some degree of cognitive impairment’ but she was still capable of signing a will.
An earlier will, written in 1996, had left the entire estate to niece Mrs Hart, but then Mrs Harris revoked it after learning Mrs Hart wanted to put her in a nursing home and appoint a legal guardian to take control of her finances.
Mrs Harris lost control of her money through a number of legal moves, resulting in her borrowing money from Mrs Gray.
Mrs Gray and her husband helped Mrs Harris pay her bills, organise her car registration, replace light bulbs and wheel out her recycling bin.
The neighbours also checked on Mrs Harris’s house to ensure she had not been robbed.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
OBAMA’S LEADING CHOICE FOR SECRETARY OF STATE MAY STILL RUN INTO SENATE ROADBLOCK
Susan Rice’s meeting with Senators McCain, Graham and Ayotte did not turn out all that well
I am sure that as ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice was privy to the classified CIA documents that concluded it was a planned terrorist attack on our consulate in Benghazi. If I am correct, she deliberately and knowingly lied when she said on TV that the attack was a ‘spontaneous reaction’ to a dumb video.
In the very unlikely event that Rice had not been privy to those CIA documents, even an imbecile would have recognized that an attack by about 150 men armed with rocket-propelled grenades, mortars, hand grenades and heavy machine guns - some mounted on gun trucks – was a well planned military assault, and not a ‘spontaneous reaction’ to a dumb You Tube video as repeatedly pronounced by Rice on five Sunday morning TV news shows five days after the attack had occurred.
Personally, I am primarily opposed to Rice’s appointment as Secretary of State because she has had a long history of hostility toward the State of Israel. We already have the most anti-Israel president ever and we do not need a Secretary of State with a proven track record of blaming Israel for all the turmoil in the Middle East.
GOP SENATORS MORE TROUBLED AFTER RICE MEETING
Associated Press
November 27, 2012
Emerging from a closed-door meeting, three Republican senators said Tuesday they are more troubled than ever with comments made days after the deadly Sept. 11 raid in Libya by Susan Rice, the U.N. ambassador and President Barack Obama's possible choice for secretary of state.
Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Kelly Ayotte met privately with Rice and acting CIA Director Michael Morell for more than an hour on her much-maligned explanations of the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.
Ayotte said Rice told the lawmakers that her comments in a series of national television interviews five days after the attack were wrong. However, that failed to mollify the three lawmakers, who have talked about blocking her nomination if the president taps her to succeed Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
"We are significantly troubled by many of the answers that we got and some that we didn't get concerning evidence that was leading up to the attack on the consulate and the tragic death of four brave Americans and whether Ambassador Rice was prepared, or informed sufficiently, to give the American people the correct depiction of the events that took place," McCain told reporters.
Said Graham: "Bottom line I'm more disturbed now than I was before that 16 September explanation."
The three insisted that they need more information about the Libyan raid before they even consider Rice as a possible replacement for Clinton.
"I'm more troubled today," said Ayotte, who argued that it was clear in the days after the attack that it was terrorism and not a spontaneous demonstration prompted by an anti-Muslim video.
Despite lingering questions over her public comments after the Benghazi attack, Rice has emerged as the front-runner on a short list of candidates to succeed Clinton, with Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., seen as her closest alternative.
The strong statements from the three senators clouded Rice's prospects only two days after Republican opposition seem to be softening. Rice planned meetings on Wednesday with Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, who is in line to become the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.
Corker said Tuesday that he had concerns with a possible nomination.
"When I hear Susan talk she seems to me like she'd be a great chairman of the Democratic National Committee," Corker said. "There is nobody who is more staff supportive of what the administration does. That concerns me in a secretary of state."
On talk shows the weekend following the attack, which took place on the 11th anniversary of 9/11, Rice was given talking points that described the attack as a spontaneous protest of the film, even though the Obama administration had known for days that it was a militant assault.
I am sure that as ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice was privy to the classified CIA documents that concluded it was a planned terrorist attack on our consulate in Benghazi. If I am correct, she deliberately and knowingly lied when she said on TV that the attack was a ‘spontaneous reaction’ to a dumb video.
In the very unlikely event that Rice had not been privy to those CIA documents, even an imbecile would have recognized that an attack by about 150 men armed with rocket-propelled grenades, mortars, hand grenades and heavy machine guns - some mounted on gun trucks – was a well planned military assault, and not a ‘spontaneous reaction’ to a dumb You Tube video as repeatedly pronounced by Rice on five Sunday morning TV news shows five days after the attack had occurred.
Personally, I am primarily opposed to Rice’s appointment as Secretary of State because she has had a long history of hostility toward the State of Israel. We already have the most anti-Israel president ever and we do not need a Secretary of State with a proven track record of blaming Israel for all the turmoil in the Middle East.
GOP SENATORS MORE TROUBLED AFTER RICE MEETING
Associated Press
November 27, 2012
Emerging from a closed-door meeting, three Republican senators said Tuesday they are more troubled than ever with comments made days after the deadly Sept. 11 raid in Libya by Susan Rice, the U.N. ambassador and President Barack Obama's possible choice for secretary of state.
Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Kelly Ayotte met privately with Rice and acting CIA Director Michael Morell for more than an hour on her much-maligned explanations of the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.
Ayotte said Rice told the lawmakers that her comments in a series of national television interviews five days after the attack were wrong. However, that failed to mollify the three lawmakers, who have talked about blocking her nomination if the president taps her to succeed Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
"We are significantly troubled by many of the answers that we got and some that we didn't get concerning evidence that was leading up to the attack on the consulate and the tragic death of four brave Americans and whether Ambassador Rice was prepared, or informed sufficiently, to give the American people the correct depiction of the events that took place," McCain told reporters.
Said Graham: "Bottom line I'm more disturbed now than I was before that 16 September explanation."
The three insisted that they need more information about the Libyan raid before they even consider Rice as a possible replacement for Clinton.
"I'm more troubled today," said Ayotte, who argued that it was clear in the days after the attack that it was terrorism and not a spontaneous demonstration prompted by an anti-Muslim video.
Despite lingering questions over her public comments after the Benghazi attack, Rice has emerged as the front-runner on a short list of candidates to succeed Clinton, with Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., seen as her closest alternative.
The strong statements from the three senators clouded Rice's prospects only two days after Republican opposition seem to be softening. Rice planned meetings on Wednesday with Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, who is in line to become the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.
Corker said Tuesday that he had concerns with a possible nomination.
"When I hear Susan talk she seems to me like she'd be a great chairman of the Democratic National Committee," Corker said. "There is nobody who is more staff supportive of what the administration does. That concerns me in a secretary of state."
On talk shows the weekend following the attack, which took place on the 11th anniversary of 9/11, Rice was given talking points that described the attack as a spontaneous protest of the film, even though the Obama administration had known for days that it was a militant assault.
DETECTIVES OVERLOOKED CASEY ANTHONY’S ‘I KILLED MY DAUGHTER’ AMA ON REDDIT
The Onion
November 26, 2012
ORLANDO, FL—More than a year after Casey Anthony was acquitted of her daughter’s murder, the Florida sheriff’s office that investigated the case admitted Monday that it had overlooked a key piece of evidence: a discussion thread Anthony posted on the social news site Reddit titled “I killed my daughter AMA.”
“I am Casey Anthony, a 22-year-old mom who just murdered her 2-year-old daughter and hid her body in the woods. Ask me anything!” read an introductory bio at the top of the June 16, 2008 thread, in which Anthony responded in detail to users’ questions about how she knocked her child unconscious with chloroform before suffocating her with duct tape and attempting to cover up the incriminating evidence. “I’ll be on here for the next couple hours, happy to talk about any part of my experience and share tips, especially if you’re thinking about doing this yourself. I’m an open book!”
Investigators confirmed that Anthony’s post about how to properly stash your dead daughter’s corpse in a trash bag and store it in the trunk of your car received more than 500 up-votes.
November 26, 2012
ORLANDO, FL—More than a year after Casey Anthony was acquitted of her daughter’s murder, the Florida sheriff’s office that investigated the case admitted Monday that it had overlooked a key piece of evidence: a discussion thread Anthony posted on the social news site Reddit titled “I killed my daughter AMA.”
“I am Casey Anthony, a 22-year-old mom who just murdered her 2-year-old daughter and hid her body in the woods. Ask me anything!” read an introductory bio at the top of the June 16, 2008 thread, in which Anthony responded in detail to users’ questions about how she knocked her child unconscious with chloroform before suffocating her with duct tape and attempting to cover up the incriminating evidence. “I’ll be on here for the next couple hours, happy to talk about any part of my experience and share tips, especially if you’re thinking about doing this yourself. I’m an open book!”
Investigators confirmed that Anthony’s post about how to properly stash your dead daughter’s corpse in a trash bag and store it in the trunk of your car received more than 500 up-votes.
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
SUPREME COURT RULES THAT PEOPLE HAVE THE RIGHT TO VIDEOTAPE POLICE
If I were still a cop, I would not want some citizen to tape me doing my job. Having said that though, I think that people should have the right to videotape cops so long as they do not interfere with the officer in the performance of his duties.
U.S. COURT REJECTS PLEA TO BLOCK TAPING OF POLICE
Opponents of the law say the right to record police is vital to guard against abuses.
Associated Press
November 26, 2012
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected an Illinois prosecutor's plea to allow enforcement of a law aimed at stopping people from recording police officers on the job.
The justices on Monday left in place a lower court ruling that found that the state's anti-eavesdropping law violates free speech rights when used against people who tape law enforcement officers. The law sets out a maximum prison term of 15 years.
Opponents of the law say the right to record police is vital to guard against abuses.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit in 2010 against Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez to block prosecution of ACLU staff for recording police officers performing their duties in public places. It's one of the group's long-standing monitoring missions.
U.S. COURT REJECTS PLEA TO BLOCK TAPING OF POLICE
Opponents of the law say the right to record police is vital to guard against abuses.
Associated Press
November 26, 2012
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected an Illinois prosecutor's plea to allow enforcement of a law aimed at stopping people from recording police officers on the job.
The justices on Monday left in place a lower court ruling that found that the state's anti-eavesdropping law violates free speech rights when used against people who tape law enforcement officers. The law sets out a maximum prison term of 15 years.
Opponents of the law say the right to record police is vital to guard against abuses.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit in 2010 against Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez to block prosecution of ACLU staff for recording police officers performing their duties in public places. It's one of the group's long-standing monitoring missions.
COLORADO WORKPLACE MAY BE GOING TO POT
Court case to determine whether employers can enforce in-house policy prohibiting the use of marijuana
If the feds do not move against the states of Washington and Colorado, other states will soon follow and much of the country will then be going to pot.
COLORADO CASE COULD IMPACT EMPLOYER DRUG POLICIES
By Greg McDonald
Newsmax
November 26, 2012
The Colorado Court of Appeals is considering a case that could impact employer drug policies in the wake of the state's medical marijuana law and its new Amendment 64 initiative approved by voters legalizing small amounts of marijuana use for anyone age 21 and older.
According to the Denver Post. the case involves a Dish Network telephone operator who was fired after testing positive for marijuana even though there was no evidence of impairment. The employee happened to be a medical marijuana patient.
The employee sued the company, arguing that it's against state law for an employer to fire someone for doing something legal off-duty that does not affect work performance.
The challenge to the Colorado Lawful Off-Duty Activities statute is the first aimed at determining whether the protection extends to marijuana use that's legal in Colorado but illegal under federal law.
Some state employers worry the case could prevent them from enforcing drug policies prohibiting any use of marijuana.
"These are things that employers are definitely concerned about," Vance Knapp, a Denver attorney that specializes in employment law, told the Post. "For policy reasons, we want to make sure we have a safe workplace. And obviously, that has to be balanced against employees' rights in Amendment 64."
If the feds do not move against the states of Washington and Colorado, other states will soon follow and much of the country will then be going to pot.
COLORADO CASE COULD IMPACT EMPLOYER DRUG POLICIES
By Greg McDonald
Newsmax
November 26, 2012
The Colorado Court of Appeals is considering a case that could impact employer drug policies in the wake of the state's medical marijuana law and its new Amendment 64 initiative approved by voters legalizing small amounts of marijuana use for anyone age 21 and older.
According to the Denver Post. the case involves a Dish Network telephone operator who was fired after testing positive for marijuana even though there was no evidence of impairment. The employee happened to be a medical marijuana patient.
The employee sued the company, arguing that it's against state law for an employer to fire someone for doing something legal off-duty that does not affect work performance.
The challenge to the Colorado Lawful Off-Duty Activities statute is the first aimed at determining whether the protection extends to marijuana use that's legal in Colorado but illegal under federal law.
Some state employers worry the case could prevent them from enforcing drug policies prohibiting any use of marijuana.
"These are things that employers are definitely concerned about," Vance Knapp, a Denver attorney that specializes in employment law, told the Post. "For policy reasons, we want to make sure we have a safe workplace. And obviously, that has to be balanced against employees' rights in Amendment 64."
IS A CELL PHONE REALLY A PAIR OF TROUSERS?
That was the question before a Texas appellate court concerning a warrantless search of a cell phone
The phone belonged to a man who had been arrested for causing a disturbance. After he had been booked, an officer who had nothing to do with the arrest or the investigation of the disturbance, took the phone because someone had told him the arrestee had taken a picture the day before of a student peeing in a school urinal. He searched the phone, found the photo and charged the man with ‘Improper Photography or Visual Recording.’
AMARILLO APPEALS COURT: ‘A CELL PHONE IS NOT A PAIR OF PANTS’
Grits for Breakfast
November 26, 2012
The Seventh Court of Appeals in Amarillo in a recent opinion (pdf) addressed the question, "May an officer conduct a warrantless search of the contents or stored data in a cell phone when its owner was required to relinquish possession of the phone as part of the booking or jailing process?" They said "No," at least barring "exigent circumstances or other recognized exceptions to the warrant requirement." Here's how attorney-blogger Paul Kennedy described the gist of the ruling:
__In State v. Granville, No. 07-11-0415-CR (Tex.App.-- Amarillo 2012), the Amarillo Court of Appeals held that the warrantless search of a cell phone by a "stranger to an arrest" violates the Fourth Amendment. In its opinion, the court explained, in detail, why a cell phone is not a pair of pants.
__The court explained that a cell phone is more like a computer and that the information contained within the memory of a cell phone provides a glimpse into the private life of the owner and that the use of passwords, encrypted programs and other security measures gave the user a reasonable expectation of privacy.
__The court also took note that Mr. Granville's phone had to be turned on by the officer who decided he needed to snoop around and look at the photos stored on the phone. The fact that the phone had been turned off was another indication that Mr. Granville had a reasonable expectation of privacy.
__Finally the court addressed the issue of whether a pre-trial detainee (arrestee) has a privacy interest in his cell phone. Mr. Granville was arrested for a Class C misdemeanor (for those outside the Lone Star State, that is the equivalent of a traffic ticket). He was not going to be held in custody for long and he certainly wasn't the type of person that the ordinary citizen would think should be locked up. The court stated that, because a pre-trial detainee has the opportunity to post bond and get released that he has a greater privacy interest in his personal property than an inmate.
I leave y'all with this quote from the opinion:
__While assaults upon the Fourth Amendment and article I, § 9 of the United States and Texas Constitutions regularly occur, the one rebuffed by the trial court here is sustained. A cell phone is not a pair of pants.
The phone belonged to a man who had been arrested for causing a disturbance. After he had been booked, an officer who had nothing to do with the arrest or the investigation of the disturbance, took the phone because someone had told him the arrestee had taken a picture the day before of a student peeing in a school urinal. He searched the phone, found the photo and charged the man with ‘Improper Photography or Visual Recording.’
AMARILLO APPEALS COURT: ‘A CELL PHONE IS NOT A PAIR OF PANTS’
Grits for Breakfast
November 26, 2012
The Seventh Court of Appeals in Amarillo in a recent opinion (pdf) addressed the question, "May an officer conduct a warrantless search of the contents or stored data in a cell phone when its owner was required to relinquish possession of the phone as part of the booking or jailing process?" They said "No," at least barring "exigent circumstances or other recognized exceptions to the warrant requirement." Here's how attorney-blogger Paul Kennedy described the gist of the ruling:
__In State v. Granville, No. 07-11-0415-CR (Tex.App.-- Amarillo 2012), the Amarillo Court of Appeals held that the warrantless search of a cell phone by a "stranger to an arrest" violates the Fourth Amendment. In its opinion, the court explained, in detail, why a cell phone is not a pair of pants.
__The court explained that a cell phone is more like a computer and that the information contained within the memory of a cell phone provides a glimpse into the private life of the owner and that the use of passwords, encrypted programs and other security measures gave the user a reasonable expectation of privacy.
__The court also took note that Mr. Granville's phone had to be turned on by the officer who decided he needed to snoop around and look at the photos stored on the phone. The fact that the phone had been turned off was another indication that Mr. Granville had a reasonable expectation of privacy.
__Finally the court addressed the issue of whether a pre-trial detainee (arrestee) has a privacy interest in his cell phone. Mr. Granville was arrested for a Class C misdemeanor (for those outside the Lone Star State, that is the equivalent of a traffic ticket). He was not going to be held in custody for long and he certainly wasn't the type of person that the ordinary citizen would think should be locked up. The court stated that, because a pre-trial detainee has the opportunity to post bond and get released that he has a greater privacy interest in his personal property than an inmate.
I leave y'all with this quote from the opinion:
__While assaults upon the Fourth Amendment and article I, § 9 of the United States and Texas Constitutions regularly occur, the one rebuffed by the trial court here is sustained. A cell phone is not a pair of pants.
‘EROTIC ZOOS’ WHICH CAN GET YOUR GOAT
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Monday, November 26, 2012
AN INVESTIGATION PRESIDENT OBAMA SHOULD HAVE BEEIN IMMEDIATELY INFORMED ABOUT
The president was not informed for two months that his CIA director was under investigation
I don’t want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but it sure looks like there may have been an underhanded plot within the intelligence community to get rid of Gen. Petraeus.
SEN. HUTCHISON QUESTIONS LEGITIMACY OF PETRAEUS INVESTIGATION
By Amy Woods
Newsmax
November 25, 2012
Republican Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison sounded optimistic Sunday while talking about the fiscal cliff and pessimistic when discussing the email-related security breach within the U.S. intelligence community.
Hutchison, appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union,” said she believes Congress will move forward and devise a plan to prevent big tax increases and slashes in spending.
“I believe we will come up with a way forward,” the retiring legislator told host Candy Crowley. “I think we will not have a fiscal cliff. We will have a plan, hopefully, to go forward.”
Hutchison described herself as “very worried” about the developments surrounding CIA Director David Petraeus’ resignation following Petraeus’ revelation of an affair with his biographer.
The senator’s question: Why wasn’t the president told about the investigation of the affair until two months later?
“If anybody is investigating the director of the CIA, the president of the United States should know immediately,” Hutchison said, adding she has “great concerns about the legitimacy” of the investigation.
“A general who is very high in our military and the CIA director, to all of a sudden have this kind of upheaval . . . when it appears that the president didn’t know until two months later . . . I’m hinting at something out of control and not with the proper authority,” she said.
I don’t want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but it sure looks like there may have been an underhanded plot within the intelligence community to get rid of Gen. Petraeus.
SEN. HUTCHISON QUESTIONS LEGITIMACY OF PETRAEUS INVESTIGATION
By Amy Woods
Newsmax
November 25, 2012
Republican Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison sounded optimistic Sunday while talking about the fiscal cliff and pessimistic when discussing the email-related security breach within the U.S. intelligence community.
Hutchison, appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union,” said she believes Congress will move forward and devise a plan to prevent big tax increases and slashes in spending.
“I believe we will come up with a way forward,” the retiring legislator told host Candy Crowley. “I think we will not have a fiscal cliff. We will have a plan, hopefully, to go forward.”
Hutchison described herself as “very worried” about the developments surrounding CIA Director David Petraeus’ resignation following Petraeus’ revelation of an affair with his biographer.
The senator’s question: Why wasn’t the president told about the investigation of the affair until two months later?
“If anybody is investigating the director of the CIA, the president of the United States should know immediately,” Hutchison said, adding she has “great concerns about the legitimacy” of the investigation.
“A general who is very high in our military and the CIA director, to all of a sudden have this kind of upheaval . . . when it appears that the president didn’t know until two months later . . . I’m hinting at something out of control and not with the proper authority,” she said.
PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY PRESIDENT MAHMOUD ABBAS IS ‘A MEMBER OF HAMAS IN DISGUISE’
I have always maintained that Abbas speaks with a forked tongue. In English he tells the European and American governments what they want to hear from him - that he wants Israel and a Palestinian state to live side by side in peace. In Arabic Abbas tells the Muslim world there will be only one state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, and that will be a Palestinian state. That is exactly what Hamas wants – the eradication of the Jewish state.
‘PA BID AT UN MORE DANGEROUS THAN MISSILES FROM GAZA’
Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz says he has made it clear to senior Palestinian officials that Israel could cease its cooperation with the PA and block funds if it proceeds with its unilateral request to become a U.N. observer state
By Shlomo Cesana and Daniel Siryoti
Israel Hayom
November 25, 2012
The Palestinians will change the rules of the game and will lose if they proceed with their bid to become an observer state at the U.N., an Israeli diplomatic source suggested on Saturday.
In response to the possibility that the Palestinian Authority will submit a request to the U.N. to upgrade its status to that of a non-member observer state, the source said, "They will change the rules of the game and they will emerge with less." Israel has been working with the U.S. and Europe to convince the Palestinians no to pursue the initiative.
Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz (Likud) said recently in closed-door discussions that he had made it clear to PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and other senior Palestinian officials that Israel could cease its cooperation with the authority, and even block the transfer of funds to it, if it went ahead with its unilateral request.
"The Palestinian initiative at the U.N. is more dangerous than rocket attacks from Gaza," Steinitz remarked.
Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) also touched on the matter over the weekend, calling PA President Mahmoud Abbas a member of Hamas in disguise.
"His predecessor, [Yasser] Arafat, wore a uniform and didn't disguise himself in business suits," Erdan said. "Anyone who congratulates Hamas for shooting rockets at a civilian populations, encourages incitement within the PA and acts unilaterally in the international arena is a member of Hamas in disguise."
Israeli officials said Saturday that Abbas had apparently decided to ignore requests from the U.S. State Department, as well as from German, French and British foreign ministers, not to take his bid to the U.N.
Palestinian news outlets also reported that despite considerable outside pressure, Ramallah was determined to approach the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday (Nov. 29) with the demand to upgrade its status. The Palestinian initiative is expected to garner the required majority, 150 out of 193 member states, to approve the request. If the authority's status is upgraded it will have access to U.N. international legal bodies, through which it can petition for sanctions against Israel.
Palestinian sources reported that during U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to Ramallah last week, she placed significant pressure on Abbas to forgo the U.N. bid, even promising him a series of gestures from the U.S. and Israel. If Abbas goes ahead with the initiative at the U.N., the Palestinians can expect substantial punitive measures to be taken against them.
However, Abbas told Clinton and other recent visitors, including the French and German foreign ministers, that he was determined to move ahead.
Israel's Gaza offensive "actually pushed Abu Mazen [Abbas] to go to the U.N.," said chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat.
Erekat accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of systematically undermining the Palestinian Authority to keep his grip on the West Bank, while trying to push Gaza closer to Egypt. The West Bank and Gaza lie on opposite sides of Israel, and this has prevented virtually all travel and trade between the two territories.
"To stop this strategy, the only avenue is to go to the U.N., and place Palestine as a geographic entity, as a state," Erekat said.
‘PA BID AT UN MORE DANGEROUS THAN MISSILES FROM GAZA’
Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz says he has made it clear to senior Palestinian officials that Israel could cease its cooperation with the PA and block funds if it proceeds with its unilateral request to become a U.N. observer state
By Shlomo Cesana and Daniel Siryoti
Israel Hayom
November 25, 2012
The Palestinians will change the rules of the game and will lose if they proceed with their bid to become an observer state at the U.N., an Israeli diplomatic source suggested on Saturday.
In response to the possibility that the Palestinian Authority will submit a request to the U.N. to upgrade its status to that of a non-member observer state, the source said, "They will change the rules of the game and they will emerge with less." Israel has been working with the U.S. and Europe to convince the Palestinians no to pursue the initiative.
Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz (Likud) said recently in closed-door discussions that he had made it clear to PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and other senior Palestinian officials that Israel could cease its cooperation with the authority, and even block the transfer of funds to it, if it went ahead with its unilateral request.
"The Palestinian initiative at the U.N. is more dangerous than rocket attacks from Gaza," Steinitz remarked.
Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) also touched on the matter over the weekend, calling PA President Mahmoud Abbas a member of Hamas in disguise.
"His predecessor, [Yasser] Arafat, wore a uniform and didn't disguise himself in business suits," Erdan said. "Anyone who congratulates Hamas for shooting rockets at a civilian populations, encourages incitement within the PA and acts unilaterally in the international arena is a member of Hamas in disguise."
Israeli officials said Saturday that Abbas had apparently decided to ignore requests from the U.S. State Department, as well as from German, French and British foreign ministers, not to take his bid to the U.N.
Palestinian news outlets also reported that despite considerable outside pressure, Ramallah was determined to approach the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday (Nov. 29) with the demand to upgrade its status. The Palestinian initiative is expected to garner the required majority, 150 out of 193 member states, to approve the request. If the authority's status is upgraded it will have access to U.N. international legal bodies, through which it can petition for sanctions against Israel.
Palestinian sources reported that during U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to Ramallah last week, she placed significant pressure on Abbas to forgo the U.N. bid, even promising him a series of gestures from the U.S. and Israel. If Abbas goes ahead with the initiative at the U.N., the Palestinians can expect substantial punitive measures to be taken against them.
However, Abbas told Clinton and other recent visitors, including the French and German foreign ministers, that he was determined to move ahead.
Israel's Gaza offensive "actually pushed Abu Mazen [Abbas] to go to the U.N.," said chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat.
Erekat accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of systematically undermining the Palestinian Authority to keep his grip on the West Bank, while trying to push Gaza closer to Egypt. The West Bank and Gaza lie on opposite sides of Israel, and this has prevented virtually all travel and trade between the two territories.
"To stop this strategy, the only avenue is to go to the U.N., and place Palestine as a geographic entity, as a state," Erekat said.
PROJECT A119
A U.S. cold war project
This must have been where the term ‘Mad Scientist’ came from.
REVEALED: HOW THE U.S. PLANNED TO BLOW UP THE MOON WITH A NUCLEAR BOMB TO WIN COLD WAR BRAGGING RIGHTS OVER SOVIET UNION
Scientists were hoping for giant flash on the moon that would intimidate the Soviet Union
Mail Online
November 25, 2012
It may sound like a plot straight out of a science fiction novel, but a U.S. mission to blow up the moon with a nuke was very real in the 1950s.
At the height of the space race, the U.S. considered detonating an atom bomb on the moon as a display of America's Cold War muscle.
The secret project, innocuously titled 'A Study of Lunar Research Flights' and nicknamed 'Project A119,' was never carried out.
However, its planning included calculations by astronomer Carl Sagan, then a young graduate student, of the behavior of dust and gas generated by the blast.
Viewing the nuclear flash from Earth might have intimidated the Soviet Union and boosted U.S. confidence after the launch of Sputnik, physicist Leonard Reiffel told the AP in a 2000 interview.
Reiffel, now 85, directed the inquiry at the former Armour Research Foundation, now part of the Illinois Institute of Technology. He later served as a deputy director at NASA.
Sagan, who later became renowned for popularizing science on television, died in 1996.
The author of one of Sagan's biographies suggested that he may have committed a security breach in 1959 after revealing the classified project in an academic fellowship application. Reiffel concurred.
Under the scenario, a missile carrying a small nuclear device was to be launched from an undisclosed location and travel 238,000 miles to the moon, where it would be detonated upon impact.
The planners decided it would have to be an atom bomb because a hydrogen bomb would have been too heavy for the missile.
Reiffel said the nation’s young space program probably could have carried out the mission by 1959, when the Air Force deployed inter-continental ballistic missiles.
Military officials apparently abandoned the idea because of the danger to people on Earth in case the mission failed.
The scientists also registered concerns about contaminating the moon with radioactive material, Reiffel said.
When contacted by the AP, the U.S. Air Force declined to comment on the project.
This must have been where the term ‘Mad Scientist’ came from.
REVEALED: HOW THE U.S. PLANNED TO BLOW UP THE MOON WITH A NUCLEAR BOMB TO WIN COLD WAR BRAGGING RIGHTS OVER SOVIET UNION
Scientists were hoping for giant flash on the moon that would intimidate the Soviet Union
Mail Online
November 25, 2012
It may sound like a plot straight out of a science fiction novel, but a U.S. mission to blow up the moon with a nuke was very real in the 1950s.
At the height of the space race, the U.S. considered detonating an atom bomb on the moon as a display of America's Cold War muscle.
The secret project, innocuously titled 'A Study of Lunar Research Flights' and nicknamed 'Project A119,' was never carried out.
However, its planning included calculations by astronomer Carl Sagan, then a young graduate student, of the behavior of dust and gas generated by the blast.
Viewing the nuclear flash from Earth might have intimidated the Soviet Union and boosted U.S. confidence after the launch of Sputnik, physicist Leonard Reiffel told the AP in a 2000 interview.
Reiffel, now 85, directed the inquiry at the former Armour Research Foundation, now part of the Illinois Institute of Technology. He later served as a deputy director at NASA.
Sagan, who later became renowned for popularizing science on television, died in 1996.
The author of one of Sagan's biographies suggested that he may have committed a security breach in 1959 after revealing the classified project in an academic fellowship application. Reiffel concurred.
Under the scenario, a missile carrying a small nuclear device was to be launched from an undisclosed location and travel 238,000 miles to the moon, where it would be detonated upon impact.
The planners decided it would have to be an atom bomb because a hydrogen bomb would have been too heavy for the missile.
Reiffel said the nation’s young space program probably could have carried out the mission by 1959, when the Air Force deployed inter-continental ballistic missiles.
Military officials apparently abandoned the idea because of the danger to people on Earth in case the mission failed.
The scientists also registered concerns about contaminating the moon with radioactive material, Reiffel said.
When contacted by the AP, the U.S. Air Force declined to comment on the project.
Sunday, November 25, 2012
GO HOME, LOCK YOUR DOORS, AND LOAD YOUR GUN
For people concerned about unsavory characters in their neighborhood, the San Bernardino city attorney has some good advice: “Go home, lock your doors, and load your gun." It may not be politically correct, but that is some awfully good advice.
SAN BERNARDINO POLICE CHIEF ANSWERS QUESTIONS AT ARROWHEAD COUNTRY CLUB
Bt Ryan Hagen
The San Bernardino Sun
November 21, 2012
SAN BERNARDINO - Frustration seethed at a community meeting Wednesday night about panhandling and other recurring crimes, but Police Chief Robert Handy said much of the problem was out of the Police Department's hands.
Nearly 150 people came to the meeting at Arrowhead Country Club, which was called to in response to the slaying of a 76-year-old woman in a usually quiet neighborhood nearby but which focused largely on transients, marijuana dispensaries and other quality-of-life issues.
"We are trying to refocus and pay a little bit more attention to those (types of crimes) because honestly, those are the ones we get complaints on," Handy said, adding he's working on a longer-term fix for aggressive homeless people. "We may not come out immediately, but many of those transients have been arrested more than 50 times. There's no room for them in jail."
That's largely because of Assembly Bill 109 [Gov. Moonbeam’s Realignment], a law that attempts to ease crowded prisons by releasing prisoners whose last crime was nonviolent to county supervision, he said.
Handy recommended reporting crimes when people see them and to take basic precautions like locking their doors and keeping valuables out of sight - and especially to pay attention to neighbors and report suspicious activity - but he discouraged residents from confronting transients or others.
City Attorney James F. Penman also answered many questions, sometimes bluntly.
"I'm going to answer that question, and you're not going to like the answer but you know how I am," Penman said. "People have asked me what should we do? Go home, lock your doors, and load your gun."
Similarly, the city couldn't shut down marijuana dispensaries until the California Supreme Court decides whether they're legal, Penman said.
"Believe me, we want to," he said, but in the meantime the city is essentially limited to fining the dispensaries $1,000 a day and waiting.
While some questions were sharp, most residents said they were grateful for the meeting and the police.
SAN BERNARDINO POLICE CHIEF ANSWERS QUESTIONS AT ARROWHEAD COUNTRY CLUB
Bt Ryan Hagen
The San Bernardino Sun
November 21, 2012
SAN BERNARDINO - Frustration seethed at a community meeting Wednesday night about panhandling and other recurring crimes, but Police Chief Robert Handy said much of the problem was out of the Police Department's hands.
Nearly 150 people came to the meeting at Arrowhead Country Club, which was called to in response to the slaying of a 76-year-old woman in a usually quiet neighborhood nearby but which focused largely on transients, marijuana dispensaries and other quality-of-life issues.
"We are trying to refocus and pay a little bit more attention to those (types of crimes) because honestly, those are the ones we get complaints on," Handy said, adding he's working on a longer-term fix for aggressive homeless people. "We may not come out immediately, but many of those transients have been arrested more than 50 times. There's no room for them in jail."
That's largely because of Assembly Bill 109 [Gov. Moonbeam’s Realignment], a law that attempts to ease crowded prisons by releasing prisoners whose last crime was nonviolent to county supervision, he said.
Handy recommended reporting crimes when people see them and to take basic precautions like locking their doors and keeping valuables out of sight - and especially to pay attention to neighbors and report suspicious activity - but he discouraged residents from confronting transients or others.
City Attorney James F. Penman also answered many questions, sometimes bluntly.
"I'm going to answer that question, and you're not going to like the answer but you know how I am," Penman said. "People have asked me what should we do? Go home, lock your doors, and load your gun."
Similarly, the city couldn't shut down marijuana dispensaries until the California Supreme Court decides whether they're legal, Penman said.
"Believe me, we want to," he said, but in the meantime the city is essentially limited to fining the dispensaries $1,000 a day and waiting.
While some questions were sharp, most residents said they were grateful for the meeting and the police.
PENANCE INSTEAD OF PRISON
17-year-old convicted of manslaughter, sentenced to 10 years in church
The ACLU is planning to file a complaint with the Oklahoma Council on Judicial Complaints seeking an official reprimand or other sanctions against the judge for violating the separation of church and state. While its complaint seems to be correct, I believe the ACLU should leave well enough alone. In this case, where the drunk driving of a teenager killed his friend, the judge’s sentence serves the best interests of justice for everyone concerned.
TEEN GUILTY OF MANSLAUGHTER SENTENCED TO GO TO CHURCH FOR 10 YEARS
A drunken car crash led to the death of his friend. Although both families agreed to the sentence, the ACLU thinks it mixes church and state
By Michael Walsh
New York Daily News
November 21, 2012
An Oklahoma teen was sentenced to a decade of attending church for manslaughter.
Tyler Alred, 17, pleaded guilty Tuesday to first-degree manslaughter for a car accident that resulted in his friend’s death. John Dum, 16, was pronounced dead at the scene after Alred, who had been drinking, crashed his pickup truck into a tree last December, authorities said.
But Muskogee County Judge Mike Norman handed down a lighter sentence than expected: 10 years in the church pews rather a jail cell. This deferred sentence is contingent upon Alred also completing high school and welding school.
The victim’s family and Alred’s attorney agreed to these terms. Nevertheless, the sentence generated controversy for mixing church with state matters.
Ryan Kiesel, the executive director of the ACLU’s Oklahoma chapter, criticized the judge’s decision as unconstitutional, reported RNS.
“It’s my understanding that this judge has recommended church in previous sentences, and I believe that goes too far, as well,” said Kiesel. “This, however, actually making it a condition of a sentence, is a clear violation of the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.”
The sentence, on the other hand, has its supporters. Boulevard Christian Church Pastor James McCracken claims that the cross is, in his opinion, “the ultimate sign of hope,” according to Fox 23.
"I believe that being in a church situation puts you in an environment where you can hear things that will change your life,” said McCracken.
The ACLU is planning to file a complaint with the Oklahoma Council on Judicial Complaints seeking an official reprimand or other sanctions against the judge for violating the separation of church and state. While its complaint seems to be correct, I believe the ACLU should leave well enough alone. In this case, where the drunk driving of a teenager killed his friend, the judge’s sentence serves the best interests of justice for everyone concerned.
TEEN GUILTY OF MANSLAUGHTER SENTENCED TO GO TO CHURCH FOR 10 YEARS
A drunken car crash led to the death of his friend. Although both families agreed to the sentence, the ACLU thinks it mixes church and state
By Michael Walsh
New York Daily News
November 21, 2012
An Oklahoma teen was sentenced to a decade of attending church for manslaughter.
Tyler Alred, 17, pleaded guilty Tuesday to first-degree manslaughter for a car accident that resulted in his friend’s death. John Dum, 16, was pronounced dead at the scene after Alred, who had been drinking, crashed his pickup truck into a tree last December, authorities said.
But Muskogee County Judge Mike Norman handed down a lighter sentence than expected: 10 years in the church pews rather a jail cell. This deferred sentence is contingent upon Alred also completing high school and welding school.
The victim’s family and Alred’s attorney agreed to these terms. Nevertheless, the sentence generated controversy for mixing church with state matters.
Ryan Kiesel, the executive director of the ACLU’s Oklahoma chapter, criticized the judge’s decision as unconstitutional, reported RNS.
“It’s my understanding that this judge has recommended church in previous sentences, and I believe that goes too far, as well,” said Kiesel. “This, however, actually making it a condition of a sentence, is a clear violation of the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.”
The sentence, on the other hand, has its supporters. Boulevard Christian Church Pastor James McCracken claims that the cross is, in his opinion, “the ultimate sign of hope,” according to Fox 23.
"I believe that being in a church situation puts you in an environment where you can hear things that will change your life,” said McCracken.
OFFICER DUDLEY DOORITE PROTECTS PUBLIC BY THE BOOK (UPDATE OF 11-9-12 POST)
A leading candidate for Idiot Cop of the Year Award busts 3-year-old for taking a leak in his yard
The people of Piedmont, Oklahoma must have searched far and wide before they recruited this jerk for their police force. Now they’re going to have to search again because Dudley got fired.
OFFICER FIRED OVER TODDLER URINATION TICKET
Piedmont City Manager Jim Crosby said Tuesday Officer Ken Qualls was fired
UPI
November 23, 2012
PIEDMONT, Okla. — Officials in an Oklahoma city said they fired a police officer who wrote a $2,500 ticket to the mother of a 3-year-old who urinated in the family's front yard.
Piedmont City Manager Jim Crosby said Tuesday Officer Ken Qualls was fired Friday after a Nov. 14 hearing about the $2,500 public urination ticket he issued Nov. 4 to Ashley Warden after her 3-year-old son, Dillon, dropped his pants and urinated in his family's front yard, The (Oklahoma City) Oklahoman reported Wednesday.
Police Chief Alex Oblein said the charge was amended to contributing to the delinquency of a minor, but the Canadian County district attorney's office declined to pursue a case against Warden.
Oblein said the ticket was not appropriate for the situation.
Crosby said Qualls is planning to appeal the decision before a Piedmont personnel board.
A lawyer for Qualls did not return calls for comment, The Oklahoman said.
The people of Piedmont, Oklahoma must have searched far and wide before they recruited this jerk for their police force. Now they’re going to have to search again because Dudley got fired.
OFFICER FIRED OVER TODDLER URINATION TICKET
Piedmont City Manager Jim Crosby said Tuesday Officer Ken Qualls was fired
UPI
November 23, 2012
PIEDMONT, Okla. — Officials in an Oklahoma city said they fired a police officer who wrote a $2,500 ticket to the mother of a 3-year-old who urinated in the family's front yard.
Piedmont City Manager Jim Crosby said Tuesday Officer Ken Qualls was fired Friday after a Nov. 14 hearing about the $2,500 public urination ticket he issued Nov. 4 to Ashley Warden after her 3-year-old son, Dillon, dropped his pants and urinated in his family's front yard, The (Oklahoma City) Oklahoman reported Wednesday.
Police Chief Alex Oblein said the charge was amended to contributing to the delinquency of a minor, but the Canadian County district attorney's office declined to pursue a case against Warden.
Oblein said the ticket was not appropriate for the situation.
Crosby said Qualls is planning to appeal the decision before a Piedmont personnel board.
A lawyer for Qualls did not return calls for comment, The Oklahoman said.
Saturday, November 24, 2012
NEXT YEAR BLACK FRIDAY WILL START ON THE FIRST FRIDAY AFTER LABOR DAY
The Unconventional Gazette
November 23, 2012
Many of America’s retailers moved Black Friday ahead to 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. Seeking good bargains, millions of shoppers flooded stores all across the nation when the store doors were opened Thursday evening.
Matt Shay, President and CEO of the National Retail Federation (NRF), today announced that, because early Black Friday was such an overwhelming success, next year NRF members will move Black Friday ahead to the first Friday after Labor Day, with the doors to be opened one minute after midnight on September 6, 2013.
NRF is the leading organization of American retailers and counts Walmart, Target, Macy’s, Kohl’s, Sears, Best Buy, Toys Я Us, Home Depot, Lowe’s, Walgreens, and CVS Pharmacy among its many members.
Shay told The Unconventional Gazette that this year retailers moved Black Friday ahead because their customers wanted to start their Christmas shopping earlier.
“We took a survey of Thursday night’s shoppers and found that they want to move Black Friday ahead even further,” said Shay. “When we mentioned the first Friday after Labor Day, most of our respondents said they were very much in favor of such a move.”
While many NRF members are already planning to hold Black Friday on September 6 next year, Shay told The Unconventional Gazette that “I can foresee moving Black Friday as far ahead as Easter sometime within the next few years."
November 23, 2012
Many of America’s retailers moved Black Friday ahead to 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. Seeking good bargains, millions of shoppers flooded stores all across the nation when the store doors were opened Thursday evening.
Matt Shay, President and CEO of the National Retail Federation (NRF), today announced that, because early Black Friday was such an overwhelming success, next year NRF members will move Black Friday ahead to the first Friday after Labor Day, with the doors to be opened one minute after midnight on September 6, 2013.
NRF is the leading organization of American retailers and counts Walmart, Target, Macy’s, Kohl’s, Sears, Best Buy, Toys Я Us, Home Depot, Lowe’s, Walgreens, and CVS Pharmacy among its many members.
Shay told The Unconventional Gazette that this year retailers moved Black Friday ahead because their customers wanted to start their Christmas shopping earlier.
“We took a survey of Thursday night’s shoppers and found that they want to move Black Friday ahead even further,” said Shay. “When we mentioned the first Friday after Labor Day, most of our respondents said they were very much in favor of such a move.”
While many NRF members are already planning to hold Black Friday on September 6 next year, Shay told The Unconventional Gazette that “I can foresee moving Black Friday as far ahead as Easter sometime within the next few years."
CEASEFIRE IN GAZA NOT THE RESULT OF HILLARY CLINTON AND BARACK OBAMA’S DIPLOMATIC EFFORTS
The full credit belongs to Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi
In the midst of their Asian tour, President Obama dispatched Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the Middle East to broker a truce between Hamas and Israel. Shortly after her meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, a ceasefire was announced.
While President Obama made numerous phone calls to Netanyahu and Morsi, and while Clinton met personally with Netanyahu and Morsi, the ceasefire was not the result of their efforts. Even though Clinton managed to wiggle her way into a joint announcement of the ceasefire with Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr, she really had no impact on the negotiations.
The full credit belongs to the Egyptian president who started brokering a truce well before Obama dispatched Clinton to the Middle East. Morsi’s open negotiations with Hamas and secret negotiations with Israeli delegates led to the cessation of hostilities. The best than can be said for Obama’s efforts is that in his phone calls he pressured a reluctant Netanyahu to accept a deal that may, if the ceasefire holds, harm Israel in the long-run.
While the residents of Gaza celebrated the cessation of hostilities as a victory by Hamas over Israel, the ceasefire was not welcomed by the Muslim Brotherhood and by some Israeli soldiers.
Mohammed Badei, the top cleric of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, called for a holy war to liberate Palestinian territories. “Jihad is obligatory,” Badei said. He called the peace deals with Israel a ‘game of grand deception.’ “The enemy [Israel] knows nothing but the language of force.”
And 16 Israeli Defense Force soldiers had themselves photographed on the frontlines with their uniformed bodies arranged on the ground so as to spell out ‘Bibi loser’ in Hebrew.
In the midst of their Asian tour, President Obama dispatched Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the Middle East to broker a truce between Hamas and Israel. Shortly after her meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, a ceasefire was announced.
While President Obama made numerous phone calls to Netanyahu and Morsi, and while Clinton met personally with Netanyahu and Morsi, the ceasefire was not the result of their efforts. Even though Clinton managed to wiggle her way into a joint announcement of the ceasefire with Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr, she really had no impact on the negotiations.
The full credit belongs to the Egyptian president who started brokering a truce well before Obama dispatched Clinton to the Middle East. Morsi’s open negotiations with Hamas and secret negotiations with Israeli delegates led to the cessation of hostilities. The best than can be said for Obama’s efforts is that in his phone calls he pressured a reluctant Netanyahu to accept a deal that may, if the ceasefire holds, harm Israel in the long-run.
While the residents of Gaza celebrated the cessation of hostilities as a victory by Hamas over Israel, the ceasefire was not welcomed by the Muslim Brotherhood and by some Israeli soldiers.
Mohammed Badei, the top cleric of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, called for a holy war to liberate Palestinian territories. “Jihad is obligatory,” Badei said. He called the peace deals with Israel a ‘game of grand deception.’ “The enemy [Israel] knows nothing but the language of force.”
And 16 Israeli Defense Force soldiers had themselves photographed on the frontlines with their uniformed bodies arranged on the ground so as to spell out ‘Bibi loser’ in Hebrew.
AN EXAAMPLE OF WHY MANY JUVENILE PROBATIONERS END UP IN ADULT PRISONS
Armed 16-year-old thug on probation for burglary shoots dog while burglarizing another home
They end up in prison, not because they are so stupid as to commit another crime while wearing an ankle monitor, but because the juvenile justice system just doesn’t work all that well.
EX-POLICE DOG SHOT DEFENDING HOME FROM INTRUDERS
They thought they picked the perfect house to burglarize, instead the cowardly crooks found themselves face-to-face with a hero who refused to go down without a fight. And now this brave victim is fighting for his life
By Sonja Isger
Palm Beach Post
November 22, 2012
Drake, the former police dog clinging to life after being shot at least four times during an attempted burglary, may be flown to Gainesville for emergency surgery Friday morning, his veterinarian said Thursday.
A new complication arose today, possibly making the trip necessary, said Dr. Ken Simmons, owner of the suburban Lake Worth animal hospital where the 5-year-old German shepherd has been treated this week.
Fluid was discovered around the dog’s lung, indicating either a wound or an infection that hadn’t been detected before. Simmons said he suspects a bullet may have nicked his esophagus, creating the deposit of fluid.
“It could be a hole or a nick,” said Simmons, who operates Simmons Veterinary Hospital on Lake Worth Road. “If it just a nick, it could heal by itself, and if by tomorrow morning we see him improving, there may be no need to go to Gainesville.”
But if he feels it is necessary, Simmons — a private pilot with a Cessna 206 — says he plans to fly to University of Florida School of Veterinary Medicine, his alma mater, where a CAT scan and emergency surgery can be performed. Simmons has been in touch with authorities there about the case.
“Right now we feel we have a finger in the dike,” Simmons said. “but we want to do all we can to save the dog. He’s a fighter, an unbelievable fighter.”
Drake was shot late Sunday when three juveniles broke into the suburban West Palm Beach home of his owner, Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Bobby Boody.
Palm Beach County County sheriff’s investigators took a 16-year-old male into custody late Wednesday. The teen, whose name was not released because of his age, is facing charges of burglary while armed with a firearm and felony cruelty to animals. A sheriff’s spokesman said Thursday the other two juveniles involved were still at large.
Investigators tracked the teen down because he is wearing an ankle monitor. He is on probation through the Division of Juvenile Justice for burglary and grand theft. He confessed to being the shooter and told investigators his group knew the house belonged to a law-enforcement officer and targeted it because they believed there were guns and money inside.
“He had no remorse,” Detective Philip DiMola said. “I asked him, ‘Did you think about that dog today?’ He said no.”
Update 6:50 a.m.: The veterinarian caring for former police dog Drake will be flying the dog to Gainesville this morning. Dr. Ken Simmons reports that the dog is stable and “looks pretty good this morning” but continues to battle to stay well. He says Drake will get a cat scan to look investigate what could be a hole or tear in his esophagus. A team of surgeons is on standby at the University of Florida’s veterinary hospital to care for Drake should he need surgery, Simmons said. The vet said he’ll be flying the dog out of Lantana airport about 8 a.m. today.
Update 3 p.m.: Specialists at the University of Florida’s veterinary hospital are still trying to determine whether Drake the injured German shepherd needs yet another surgery to recover from one of several gun shot wounds.
“It’s all in their hands,” said his owner Florida Highway Patrol trooper Bobby Boody, who accompanied Drake and pilot veterinarian Dr. Ken Simmons to Gainesville. “There’s not much more I can say or do. It’s been a little stressful.”
Simmons and Boody flew back to West Palm Beach from Gainesville about 2 p.m.
Friday, leaving Drake in Gainesville, where the German shepherd is expected to spend more time recovering. “He may be staying up there for a while,” Boody said.
Friday afternoon, the doctors seemed to agree that in addition to all the other damage done by at least four bullets – two broken limbs, a puncture to his brow, a hole in his jaw – he may also have a tear in his esophagus that’s been preventing him from eating or drinking, Simmons said.
The question they faced Friday afternoon is whether the tear warranted surgical mending or would heal better on its own, Simmons said.
They end up in prison, not because they are so stupid as to commit another crime while wearing an ankle monitor, but because the juvenile justice system just doesn’t work all that well.
EX-POLICE DOG SHOT DEFENDING HOME FROM INTRUDERS
They thought they picked the perfect house to burglarize, instead the cowardly crooks found themselves face-to-face with a hero who refused to go down without a fight. And now this brave victim is fighting for his life
By Sonja Isger
Palm Beach Post
November 22, 2012
Drake, the former police dog clinging to life after being shot at least four times during an attempted burglary, may be flown to Gainesville for emergency surgery Friday morning, his veterinarian said Thursday.
A new complication arose today, possibly making the trip necessary, said Dr. Ken Simmons, owner of the suburban Lake Worth animal hospital where the 5-year-old German shepherd has been treated this week.
Fluid was discovered around the dog’s lung, indicating either a wound or an infection that hadn’t been detected before. Simmons said he suspects a bullet may have nicked his esophagus, creating the deposit of fluid.
“It could be a hole or a nick,” said Simmons, who operates Simmons Veterinary Hospital on Lake Worth Road. “If it just a nick, it could heal by itself, and if by tomorrow morning we see him improving, there may be no need to go to Gainesville.”
But if he feels it is necessary, Simmons — a private pilot with a Cessna 206 — says he plans to fly to University of Florida School of Veterinary Medicine, his alma mater, where a CAT scan and emergency surgery can be performed. Simmons has been in touch with authorities there about the case.
“Right now we feel we have a finger in the dike,” Simmons said. “but we want to do all we can to save the dog. He’s a fighter, an unbelievable fighter.”
Drake was shot late Sunday when three juveniles broke into the suburban West Palm Beach home of his owner, Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Bobby Boody.
Palm Beach County County sheriff’s investigators took a 16-year-old male into custody late Wednesday. The teen, whose name was not released because of his age, is facing charges of burglary while armed with a firearm and felony cruelty to animals. A sheriff’s spokesman said Thursday the other two juveniles involved were still at large.
Investigators tracked the teen down because he is wearing an ankle monitor. He is on probation through the Division of Juvenile Justice for burglary and grand theft. He confessed to being the shooter and told investigators his group knew the house belonged to a law-enforcement officer and targeted it because they believed there were guns and money inside.
“He had no remorse,” Detective Philip DiMola said. “I asked him, ‘Did you think about that dog today?’ He said no.”
Update 6:50 a.m.: The veterinarian caring for former police dog Drake will be flying the dog to Gainesville this morning. Dr. Ken Simmons reports that the dog is stable and “looks pretty good this morning” but continues to battle to stay well. He says Drake will get a cat scan to look investigate what could be a hole or tear in his esophagus. A team of surgeons is on standby at the University of Florida’s veterinary hospital to care for Drake should he need surgery, Simmons said. The vet said he’ll be flying the dog out of Lantana airport about 8 a.m. today.
Update 3 p.m.: Specialists at the University of Florida’s veterinary hospital are still trying to determine whether Drake the injured German shepherd needs yet another surgery to recover from one of several gun shot wounds.
“It’s all in their hands,” said his owner Florida Highway Patrol trooper Bobby Boody, who accompanied Drake and pilot veterinarian Dr. Ken Simmons to Gainesville. “There’s not much more I can say or do. It’s been a little stressful.”
Simmons and Boody flew back to West Palm Beach from Gainesville about 2 p.m.
Friday, leaving Drake in Gainesville, where the German shepherd is expected to spend more time recovering. “He may be staying up there for a while,” Boody said.
Friday afternoon, the doctors seemed to agree that in addition to all the other damage done by at least four bullets – two broken limbs, a puncture to his brow, a hole in his jaw – he may also have a tear in his esophagus that’s been preventing him from eating or drinking, Simmons said.
The question they faced Friday afternoon is whether the tear warranted surgical mending or would heal better on its own, Simmons said.
BUSINESSES SEEKING TO CASH IN ON THE LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA SEE THE PRICE OF THEIR SHARES SOAR
Investors rush in to capitalize on pot legalization votes in Washington and Colorado
Unless the Justice Department and the DEA step in to enforce the federal laws prohibiting the possession, distribution and manufacture of marijuana, you will see Medbox’s pot vending machines in Washington and Colorado’s convenience stores, gas stations, libraries, movie theaters and other locations where Coca Cola and candy dispensing machines are now placed.
MARIJUANA COMPANY MEDBOX FREAKS OUT AFTER STOCK GETS TOO HIGH
By Joe Van Brussel
The Huffington Post
November 19, 2012
Investors are still pretty high on the marijuana business -- even after getting warned away by one of the industry's hottest companies.
On Monday afternoon, Medbox Inc., a small company that makes pot-dispensing vending machines, stock was trading at $42 -- up from $6 last week, right before Marketwatch.com recommended investing in the firm as a proxy to getting into the marijuana business.
That story prompted a 3,000 percent share price spike -- Medbox stock touched $215 before closing at $205 on Thursday.
"I'm thinking pot smokers shouldn't trade stocks," wrote one former hedge fund manager on Sunday.
The dramatic rise prompted the company to issue a statement on Thursday warning that although the company's growth and revenues were improving, the share price was greatly exaggerated and "not based upon present business economics."
The release worked, to a point. On Friday Medbox closed at $20 a share. Still, that's more than three times what it had been trading for months prior--MedBox was lingering at $3 a share leading up to the election, when two states legalized marijuana for recreational use.
Other companies in the marijuana industry have also benefitted from the election's results, though none at the scale of MedBox.
SearchCore Inc., which operates media, technology and marketing companies -- including WeedMaps -- rose to 52 cents from 30 after the election and then jumped again, closing at 88 cents on Friday. Shares of hydroponics company GreenGro Technologies more than tripled, closing at eight cents on the Friday after the election. Cannabis Science's stock has nearly doubled since the election.
Unless the Justice Department and the DEA step in to enforce the federal laws prohibiting the possession, distribution and manufacture of marijuana, you will see Medbox’s pot vending machines in Washington and Colorado’s convenience stores, gas stations, libraries, movie theaters and other locations where Coca Cola and candy dispensing machines are now placed.
MARIJUANA COMPANY MEDBOX FREAKS OUT AFTER STOCK GETS TOO HIGH
By Joe Van Brussel
The Huffington Post
November 19, 2012
Investors are still pretty high on the marijuana business -- even after getting warned away by one of the industry's hottest companies.
On Monday afternoon, Medbox Inc., a small company that makes pot-dispensing vending machines, stock was trading at $42 -- up from $6 last week, right before Marketwatch.com recommended investing in the firm as a proxy to getting into the marijuana business.
That story prompted a 3,000 percent share price spike -- Medbox stock touched $215 before closing at $205 on Thursday.
"I'm thinking pot smokers shouldn't trade stocks," wrote one former hedge fund manager on Sunday.
The dramatic rise prompted the company to issue a statement on Thursday warning that although the company's growth and revenues were improving, the share price was greatly exaggerated and "not based upon present business economics."
The release worked, to a point. On Friday Medbox closed at $20 a share. Still, that's more than three times what it had been trading for months prior--MedBox was lingering at $3 a share leading up to the election, when two states legalized marijuana for recreational use.
Other companies in the marijuana industry have also benefitted from the election's results, though none at the scale of MedBox.
SearchCore Inc., which operates media, technology and marketing companies -- including WeedMaps -- rose to 52 cents from 30 after the election and then jumped again, closing at 88 cents on Friday. Shares of hydroponics company GreenGro Technologies more than tripled, closing at eight cents on the Friday after the election. Cannabis Science's stock has nearly doubled since the election.
NEAR-DEATH IN THE VALLEY OF TWIN PEAKS
German woman on trial for ‘attempted manslaughter with a weapon’ after failed attempt to smother boyfriend to death with her breasts
Sometimes a woman with big breasts may not be the wisest choice for a man.
GERMAN LAWYER CLAIMS 38DD GIRLFRIEND TRIED TO SMOTHER HIM TO DEATH WITH HER BREASTS
Boyfriend claims she admitted to the crime, telling him, ‘Treasure, I wanted your death to be as pleasurable as possible’
By Allan Hall
Mail Online
November 22, 2012
A buxom woman has been accused of trying to kill her lawyer boyfriend… with her 38DD breasts.
Franziska, 33 from Germany, who weighs nine stone is accused of ‘attempted manslaughter with a weapon’ after her 13-stone boyfriend claimed she tried to smother him with her breasts and pretend it was a sex game.
She denies the claim saying it was a sex game and he knew what it was all about.
Tim Schmidt told the German court that although they had had a difficult relationship, until then everything in the bedroom had been normal.
‘The incident happened in May – we were having sex,’ he said.
‘She was sitting on me naked and I was kissing her breasts. Suddenly she grabbed my head and pushed between her breasts with all of her force.
'I couldn't breathe any more, I must have turned blue. I couldn't tear myself free and I thought I was going to die.'
He said that with his last reserves of strength he had managed to extricate himself from the woman's vice-like grip and fled naked to a neighbour and demanded he called the police.
Mr Schmidt said when they met four years ago, the couple had been completely in love.
He said: ‘Everything was great between us – and I would have done everything for her. But it started to go wrong when I got my first job as a lawyer and we moved to Unna.
‘She could not hold down a job and just had one part-time job after the other. And the better my career went – the worst it seemed to be for her.’
He said Franziska tried to kill him after learning he was planning to leave her.
‘It is clear she wanted to kill me,’ he said. ‘She even admitted it to me on the telephone. I asked her why she wanted to smother me to death with her breasts and she told me: "Treasure – I wanted your death to be as pleasurable as possible."’
Sometimes a woman with big breasts may not be the wisest choice for a man.
GERMAN LAWYER CLAIMS 38DD GIRLFRIEND TRIED TO SMOTHER HIM TO DEATH WITH HER BREASTS
Boyfriend claims she admitted to the crime, telling him, ‘Treasure, I wanted your death to be as pleasurable as possible’
By Allan Hall
Mail Online
November 22, 2012
A buxom woman has been accused of trying to kill her lawyer boyfriend… with her 38DD breasts.
Franziska, 33 from Germany, who weighs nine stone is accused of ‘attempted manslaughter with a weapon’ after her 13-stone boyfriend claimed she tried to smother him with her breasts and pretend it was a sex game.
She denies the claim saying it was a sex game and he knew what it was all about.
Tim Schmidt told the German court that although they had had a difficult relationship, until then everything in the bedroom had been normal.
‘The incident happened in May – we were having sex,’ he said.
‘She was sitting on me naked and I was kissing her breasts. Suddenly she grabbed my head and pushed between her breasts with all of her force.
'I couldn't breathe any more, I must have turned blue. I couldn't tear myself free and I thought I was going to die.'
He said that with his last reserves of strength he had managed to extricate himself from the woman's vice-like grip and fled naked to a neighbour and demanded he called the police.
Mr Schmidt said when they met four years ago, the couple had been completely in love.
He said: ‘Everything was great between us – and I would have done everything for her. But it started to go wrong when I got my first job as a lawyer and we moved to Unna.
‘She could not hold down a job and just had one part-time job after the other. And the better my career went – the worst it seemed to be for her.’
He said Franziska tried to kill him after learning he was planning to leave her.
‘It is clear she wanted to kill me,’ he said. ‘She even admitted it to me on the telephone. I asked her why she wanted to smother me to death with her breasts and she told me: "Treasure – I wanted your death to be as pleasurable as possible."’
Friday, November 23, 2012
HAMAS, FATAH, HEZBOLLAH AND IRAN DO NOT BELIEVE ISRAEL IS DOMINANT IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Despite Fareed Zakaria’s op-ed in The Washington Post, Hamas, Fatah, Hezbollah and Iran do not believe that Israel is the dominant power in the Middle East. Right now the people in Gaza are celebrating what they believe to be Hamas’ victory over Israel. Hezbollah still remembers that in 2006 it fought Israel’s armed forces to a standstill, and today they are more heavily armed. And Iran has dared Israel to attack its nuclear facilities.
While what Zakaria says about Israel may be true, it really doesn’t matter all that much if the Palestinians, Hezbollah and Iran don’t believe it.
ISRAEL DOMINATES THE NEW MIDDLE EAST
By Fareed Zakaria
The Washington Post
November 21, 2012
As missiles and rockets exploded in Israel and Gaza, television news was dominated by the tragic violence, and we were warned that the battle between Israel and the Palestinians might spread because we are in a new and much more dangerous Middle East. Islamists are in power, democracies will listen to their people. In fact, as the relatively quick cease-fire between the parties shows, there is a very low likelihood of a broader regional conflict. It’s true that we’re in a new Middle East, but it’s one in which Israel has become the region’s superpower.
In a thorough 2010 study, “The Arab-Israeli Military Balance,” Anthony Cordesman and Aram Nerguizian document how over the past decade Israel has outstripped its neighbors in every dimension of warfare. The authors attribute this to Israel’s “combination of national expenditures, massive external funding, national industrial capacity and effective strategy and force planning.” Israel’s military expenditures in 2009 were about $10 billion, which is three times Egypt’s military spending and larger than the combined defense expenditures of all its neighbors — Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. (This advantage is helped by the fact that Israel receives $3 billion in military assistance from Washington.)
But money doesn’t begin to describe Israel’s real advantages, which are in the quality and effectiveness of its military, in terms of both weapons and people. Despite being dwarfed by the Arab population, Israel’s army plus its high-quality reservists vastly outnumber those of the Arab nations. Its weapons are far more sophisticated, often a generation ahead of those used by its adversaries. Israel’s technology advantage has profound implications on the modern battlefield.
The most powerful Arab military, and the one against which Israel is often judged in scholarly studies, is Syria’s. But of course the Syrian army is now in turmoil as it battles its own people and Bashar al-Assad hangs on to power.
Then there are the asymmetrical threats from groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas. The study takes a look at them and analyzes Hezbollah’s huge arsenal of missiles. The authors conclude that these pose no real threat to Israel because the missiles are largely unguided and thus ineffective. Hamas’s rockets are even more crude and ineffective. Israel’s response, its “Iron Dome” defense system, has worked better than expected.
As for terrorism, the other asymmetrical strategy against Israel: Despite Wednesday’s attack on a bus in Tel Aviv, Israel is largely protected from terrorists because of the wall it built in 2003.
As for larger threats, the study points out that Israel is the only country in the region with a sophisticated nuclear arsenal — estimated to be between 100 and 500 weapons, many of them on submarines — and advanced ballistic missiles.
This is why Egypt, despite being under a new Islamist government, is not going to risk war with Israel. Nor are the other Arab states. They will make fiery speeches and offer humanitarian assistance. But they will not fight alongside the Palestinians in Gaza or do anything that could trigger a wider war.
Turkey, another powerful regional player, has a government that has weakened its ties with Israel and clashed with it repeatedly over its treatment of the Palestinians. But these are verbal clashes, unlikely to amount to much more. In fact, Turkey is now facing a situation in which its efforts to become a regional power have backfired. It gambled that it would be able to dislodge the regime in Syria, which has not yet happened. Its relations with Iraq have deteriorated as it shields the Sunni vice president from Baghdad’s Shiite-led government, which wants to arrest him. And since Turkey has frosty relations with Israel, it can only watch from afar as Egypt becomes the bridge between Israel and Hamas. The only real outside broker in the region is, of course, the United States, Israel’s closest ally.
These are the realities of the Middle East today. Israel’s astonishing economic growth, its technological prowess, its military preparedness and its tight relationship with the United States have set it a league apart from its Arab adversaries. Peace between the Palestinians and Israelis will come only when Israel decides that it wants to make peace. Wise Israeli politicians, from Ariel Sharon to Ehud Olmert to Ehud Barak, have wanted to take risks to make that peace because they have worried about Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state. This is what is in danger, not Israel’s existence.
While what Zakaria says about Israel may be true, it really doesn’t matter all that much if the Palestinians, Hezbollah and Iran don’t believe it.
ISRAEL DOMINATES THE NEW MIDDLE EAST
By Fareed Zakaria
The Washington Post
November 21, 2012
As missiles and rockets exploded in Israel and Gaza, television news was dominated by the tragic violence, and we were warned that the battle between Israel and the Palestinians might spread because we are in a new and much more dangerous Middle East. Islamists are in power, democracies will listen to their people. In fact, as the relatively quick cease-fire between the parties shows, there is a very low likelihood of a broader regional conflict. It’s true that we’re in a new Middle East, but it’s one in which Israel has become the region’s superpower.
In a thorough 2010 study, “The Arab-Israeli Military Balance,” Anthony Cordesman and Aram Nerguizian document how over the past decade Israel has outstripped its neighbors in every dimension of warfare. The authors attribute this to Israel’s “combination of national expenditures, massive external funding, national industrial capacity and effective strategy and force planning.” Israel’s military expenditures in 2009 were about $10 billion, which is three times Egypt’s military spending and larger than the combined defense expenditures of all its neighbors — Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. (This advantage is helped by the fact that Israel receives $3 billion in military assistance from Washington.)
But money doesn’t begin to describe Israel’s real advantages, which are in the quality and effectiveness of its military, in terms of both weapons and people. Despite being dwarfed by the Arab population, Israel’s army plus its high-quality reservists vastly outnumber those of the Arab nations. Its weapons are far more sophisticated, often a generation ahead of those used by its adversaries. Israel’s technology advantage has profound implications on the modern battlefield.
The most powerful Arab military, and the one against which Israel is often judged in scholarly studies, is Syria’s. But of course the Syrian army is now in turmoil as it battles its own people and Bashar al-Assad hangs on to power.
Then there are the asymmetrical threats from groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas. The study takes a look at them and analyzes Hezbollah’s huge arsenal of missiles. The authors conclude that these pose no real threat to Israel because the missiles are largely unguided and thus ineffective. Hamas’s rockets are even more crude and ineffective. Israel’s response, its “Iron Dome” defense system, has worked better than expected.
As for terrorism, the other asymmetrical strategy against Israel: Despite Wednesday’s attack on a bus in Tel Aviv, Israel is largely protected from terrorists because of the wall it built in 2003.
As for larger threats, the study points out that Israel is the only country in the region with a sophisticated nuclear arsenal — estimated to be between 100 and 500 weapons, many of them on submarines — and advanced ballistic missiles.
This is why Egypt, despite being under a new Islamist government, is not going to risk war with Israel. Nor are the other Arab states. They will make fiery speeches and offer humanitarian assistance. But they will not fight alongside the Palestinians in Gaza or do anything that could trigger a wider war.
Turkey, another powerful regional player, has a government that has weakened its ties with Israel and clashed with it repeatedly over its treatment of the Palestinians. But these are verbal clashes, unlikely to amount to much more. In fact, Turkey is now facing a situation in which its efforts to become a regional power have backfired. It gambled that it would be able to dislodge the regime in Syria, which has not yet happened. Its relations with Iraq have deteriorated as it shields the Sunni vice president from Baghdad’s Shiite-led government, which wants to arrest him. And since Turkey has frosty relations with Israel, it can only watch from afar as Egypt becomes the bridge between Israel and Hamas. The only real outside broker in the region is, of course, the United States, Israel’s closest ally.
These are the realities of the Middle East today. Israel’s astonishing economic growth, its technological prowess, its military preparedness and its tight relationship with the United States have set it a league apart from its Arab adversaries. Peace between the Palestinians and Israelis will come only when Israel decides that it wants to make peace. Wise Israeli politicians, from Ariel Sharon to Ehud Olmert to Ehud Barak, have wanted to take risks to make that peace because they have worried about Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state. This is what is in danger, not Israel’s existence.
ISRAEL DESTROYED MOST OF HAMAS’ FAJR-5 ROCKETS IN MINUTES
The Israeli air force was able to destroy most of Hamas’ stockpile of Fajr-5 rockets because Israeli intelligence had pinpointed their location. And Israeli intelligence also located the rocket smuggling route way station between Iran and Gaza that enabled the IAF in October to destroy the Sudanese military base Yarmouk on the outskirts of the capital, Khartoum.
IDF TRACKED ROCKETS FROM IRAN TO HAMAS
By Akhikam Moshe David
Al-Monitor
November 16, 2012
The smuggling operation was highly complex. The Fajr-5 rockets made in Iran, each six meters long, were transported all the way from their country of origin — dismantled and re-assembled along the way, smuggled via the Gaza Strip tunnels and then hoisted out using cranes — until they were positioned at their launching sites in Gaza.
However, the smugglers were unaware that all that time, for over a year, IDF intelligence, headed by Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, was after them, tracking them down from the moment they left Iran, targeting and destroying the rockets in a matter of minutes.
While Operation Pillar of Defense started with the targeting and killing of Hamas’ military chief in Gaza Ahmed Jabari, the terror organizations in the Gaza Strip were in for an even bigger shock when they realized that virtually the entire lineup of Fajr-5 rockets was eliminated in the space of a few minutes. The Fajr-5 rockets were the most potent weapons in the arsenal of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad. The rockets have a potential range of up to 75 km (47 miles), and they thus may threaten Israel's central Dan district.
The terror organizations had been stockpiling the Fajr-5 rockets in hidden storage sites over a long period of time, intending to use them on the "day of judgment” as a “tie-breaker” weapon.
The smuggling of rockets into the Gaza Strip was foiled, in part, far away from Gaza. According to reports by foreign sources, it was Israel that bombed the weapon-carrying convoys that left Iran on their way to Gaza.
The long rockets were dismantled into several parts by the smugglers before moving them through the tunnels, while storage sites were prepared for them in Gaza. Israeli intelligence operatives detected excavations in various places across the Gaza Strip, mainly near civilian population centers. These column-like holes were dug out, and the rockets transferred through the tunnels and hoisted out by cranes, which then hid the rockets deep down in the holes, ready for launching in their pre-planned directions. To each launching site, a special operator was assigned so that each knew where “his" rocket, the one he was to fire when the day came, was located.
All through that time, IDF intelligence analyzed the data collected and charted the map of rocket deployment, detailing the exact location of each one, its type, where it was pointed and the nature of its immediate surroundings. Once the intelligence elements identified each rocket and its surrounding area, the information was passed on to the Israel air force.
In this way, an accurate bank of targets was prepared in the course of over a year. The innocent-looking launching sites, covered by soil, were supposed to go into action when the time came. However, the IDF was ahead of them: Just a few minutes following the targeting and killing of Jabari, the second wave of air strikes was already underway and within a quarter of an hour, virtually the entire lineup of Fajr-5 rockets was eliminated.
IDF TRACKED ROCKETS FROM IRAN TO HAMAS
By Akhikam Moshe David
Al-Monitor
November 16, 2012
The smuggling operation was highly complex. The Fajr-5 rockets made in Iran, each six meters long, were transported all the way from their country of origin — dismantled and re-assembled along the way, smuggled via the Gaza Strip tunnels and then hoisted out using cranes — until they were positioned at their launching sites in Gaza.
However, the smugglers were unaware that all that time, for over a year, IDF intelligence, headed by Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, was after them, tracking them down from the moment they left Iran, targeting and destroying the rockets in a matter of minutes.
While Operation Pillar of Defense started with the targeting and killing of Hamas’ military chief in Gaza Ahmed Jabari, the terror organizations in the Gaza Strip were in for an even bigger shock when they realized that virtually the entire lineup of Fajr-5 rockets was eliminated in the space of a few minutes. The Fajr-5 rockets were the most potent weapons in the arsenal of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad. The rockets have a potential range of up to 75 km (47 miles), and they thus may threaten Israel's central Dan district.
The terror organizations had been stockpiling the Fajr-5 rockets in hidden storage sites over a long period of time, intending to use them on the "day of judgment” as a “tie-breaker” weapon.
The smuggling of rockets into the Gaza Strip was foiled, in part, far away from Gaza. According to reports by foreign sources, it was Israel that bombed the weapon-carrying convoys that left Iran on their way to Gaza.
The long rockets were dismantled into several parts by the smugglers before moving them through the tunnels, while storage sites were prepared for them in Gaza. Israeli intelligence operatives detected excavations in various places across the Gaza Strip, mainly near civilian population centers. These column-like holes were dug out, and the rockets transferred through the tunnels and hoisted out by cranes, which then hid the rockets deep down in the holes, ready for launching in their pre-planned directions. To each launching site, a special operator was assigned so that each knew where “his" rocket, the one he was to fire when the day came, was located.
All through that time, IDF intelligence analyzed the data collected and charted the map of rocket deployment, detailing the exact location of each one, its type, where it was pointed and the nature of its immediate surroundings. Once the intelligence elements identified each rocket and its surrounding area, the information was passed on to the Israel air force.
In this way, an accurate bank of targets was prepared in the course of over a year. The innocent-looking launching sites, covered by soil, were supposed to go into action when the time came. However, the IDF was ahead of them: Just a few minutes following the targeting and killing of Jabari, the second wave of air strikes was already underway and within a quarter of an hour, virtually the entire lineup of Fajr-5 rockets was eliminated.
SWEDISH WOMAN CHARGED WITH VIOLATING THE PEACE OF THE DECEASED
‘I want my man like he is, whether he is dead or alive. He allows me to find sexual happiness on the side’
As a former cop, I know about necrophiliacs having sex with corpses. In Riverside, California we had a funeral home owner and his son getting their jollies off by screwing corpses they were preparing for funeral services. But screwing a skeleton … now that’s really cold!
ALL TUCKED UP AND READY FOR A DEAD-TIME STORY: PHOTOS ‘TAKEN BY GIRL ACCUSED OF HAVING SEX WITH SKELETON’ SHOW WOMAN KISSING AND HUGGING SKULLS
Gothenburg woman, 37, suspected of using 100 skeleton parts in ‘sexual situations’
By Mark Duell
Mail Online
November 21, 2012
Astonishing photos of a woman kissing and hugging skulls, were found by police inside the flat of a 37-year-old who allegedly kept skeleton parts in her flat so she could have sex with them.
The Swedish woman is suspected of using 100 parts, which included six skulls and one backbone, in ‘sexual situations’ and was charged with violating the peace of the deceased, prosecutors said.
Police also allegedly found CDs titled ‘My Necrophilia’ and ‘My first experience’ as well as the photos in which a woman is seen getting close to the skulls, reported Swedish news agency TT.
The woman, who comes from south-western Sweden, was charged at Gothenburg District Court yesterday, but has denied the allegations - claiming she collected the bones out of historical interest.
The Goeteborgsposten newspaper alleged that she wrote on an internet forum a few years ago: ‘My morals set my limits and I'm prepared to take the punishment if something should happen.
'It's worth it. I want my man like he is, whether he is dead or alive. He allows me to find sexual happiness on the side.’
Photos from a morgue were found hidden in the woman's home, as well as a drill and body bags, reported French news agency AFP. But police have found no proof that she was a grave-digger.
The woman, who has admitted that the items were kept in her apartment but denies doing anything wrong, was arrested in September and faces up to two years in jail if found guilty.
'Some of the photos show a woman licking a skull,' prosecutor Kristina Ehrenborg-Staffas told The Local newspaper in Sweden. 'We claim it’s her, but she claims it's someone else and she found the pictures on the internet.'
She sold three skulls and a spine to a person in Uppsala earlier this year, prosecutors said.
An access code to a morgue was also said to have been found in her apartment by detectives.
As a former cop, I know about necrophiliacs having sex with corpses. In Riverside, California we had a funeral home owner and his son getting their jollies off by screwing corpses they were preparing for funeral services. But screwing a skeleton … now that’s really cold!
ALL TUCKED UP AND READY FOR A DEAD-TIME STORY: PHOTOS ‘TAKEN BY GIRL ACCUSED OF HAVING SEX WITH SKELETON’ SHOW WOMAN KISSING AND HUGGING SKULLS
Gothenburg woman, 37, suspected of using 100 skeleton parts in ‘sexual situations’
By Mark Duell
Mail Online
November 21, 2012
Astonishing photos of a woman kissing and hugging skulls, were found by police inside the flat of a 37-year-old who allegedly kept skeleton parts in her flat so she could have sex with them.
The Swedish woman is suspected of using 100 parts, which included six skulls and one backbone, in ‘sexual situations’ and was charged with violating the peace of the deceased, prosecutors said.
Police also allegedly found CDs titled ‘My Necrophilia’ and ‘My first experience’ as well as the photos in which a woman is seen getting close to the skulls, reported Swedish news agency TT.
The woman, who comes from south-western Sweden, was charged at Gothenburg District Court yesterday, but has denied the allegations - claiming she collected the bones out of historical interest.
The Goeteborgsposten newspaper alleged that she wrote on an internet forum a few years ago: ‘My morals set my limits and I'm prepared to take the punishment if something should happen.
'It's worth it. I want my man like he is, whether he is dead or alive. He allows me to find sexual happiness on the side.’
Photos from a morgue were found hidden in the woman's home, as well as a drill and body bags, reported French news agency AFP. But police have found no proof that she was a grave-digger.
The woman, who has admitted that the items were kept in her apartment but denies doing anything wrong, was arrested in September and faces up to two years in jail if found guilty.
'Some of the photos show a woman licking a skull,' prosecutor Kristina Ehrenborg-Staffas told The Local newspaper in Sweden. 'We claim it’s her, but she claims it's someone else and she found the pictures on the internet.'
She sold three skulls and a spine to a person in Uppsala earlier this year, prosecutors said.
An access code to a morgue was also said to have been found in her apartment by detectives.
Thursday, November 22, 2012
THANKFUL ON THANKSGIVING
I want to wish all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving!
As for me, I am thankful to be living in a country where we are free to elect our leaders even though we sometimes make the wrong choice. I am thankful to be living in a country where we are free to express ourselves and free to criticize our government without fear of imprisonment. I am thankful to live in a country where Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and members of other faiths are free to practice their religion of choice, and where people are free to be atheists if they so choose. I am especially thankful to be living in a country where the poor are wealthy when compared to the poor of our neighbor to the south, Mexico. And while there are some serious health issues in my family, I am still thankful that matters are not as bad as they could be. Best of all, I am thankful that when I woke up this morning, I did not smell any fresh dirt.
I am thankful on this Thanksgiving Day for all those reasons and all of you should be thankful for them too.
As for me, I am thankful to be living in a country where we are free to elect our leaders even though we sometimes make the wrong choice. I am thankful to be living in a country where we are free to express ourselves and free to criticize our government without fear of imprisonment. I am thankful to live in a country where Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and members of other faiths are free to practice their religion of choice, and where people are free to be atheists if they so choose. I am especially thankful to be living in a country where the poor are wealthy when compared to the poor of our neighbor to the south, Mexico. And while there are some serious health issues in my family, I am still thankful that matters are not as bad as they could be. Best of all, I am thankful that when I woke up this morning, I did not smell any fresh dirt.
I am thankful on this Thanksgiving Day for all those reasons and all of you should be thankful for them too.
EDUCATED IDIOT CRIES FOUL AFTER HE GOT BUSTED WITH 2 KILOS OF COCAINE (UPDATE OF 7-24-12 POST)
68-year-old fool actually believed glamorous 32-year-old lingerie model, who he met only on the internet, wanted to live with him as his loving mate
As the saying goes, ‘There’s no fool like an old fool.’ Unless this old fart has never set foot outside the cloistered halls of ivy, he should have known that when a stranger gives him a suitcase to deliver elsewhere, it would be packed with illegal drugs. This leads me to pen a new saying: There’s no idiot like an educated idiot.
BRITISH SCIENTIST JAILED FOR FOUR YEARS FOR SMUGGLING COCAINE ‘AFTER BEING STUNG BY HONEYTRAP’
Paul Frampton, 68, claimed he had been duped into carrying 4.4 lbs. of cocaine by gangsters who posed on the internet as a former Miss Bikini World
By Tom Worden
Mail Online
November 21, 2012
An acclaimed British scientist caught smuggling 4.4lbs of cocaine at a South American airport has been jailed for nearly five years.
Professor Paul Frampton, 68, claimed he was duped into carrying the drugs in a ‘honeytrap sting’ involving a bikini model.
But the Oxford-educated academic was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison after being convicted of drug trafficking at a court in Argentina.
Mr Frampton, originally from Kidderminster, Worcestershire, was arrested in January after being stopped at Ezeiza International Airport in Buenos Aires as he tried to board a plane to Peru with the large quantity of drugs in his luggage.
The cocaine was found wrapped in gift paper hidden inside the lining of his suitcase.
The divorced physicist told police he had been tricked into carrying the drugs by gangsters who posed on the internet as 32-year-old glamour model Denise Milani.
She had nothing to do with the drug smuggling.
He said in a newspaper interview after his arrest: ‘Perhaps I should have realised earlier but the fraudster was very good and very intelligent.
‘For 11 weeks I thought I was chatting with an attractive woman.’
Mr Frampton, who was teaching at the University of North Carolina, had first travelled to La Paz, Bolivia, where he thought he was going to meet Miss Milani, a former Miss Bikini World, for the first time.
He mistakenly believed he had been chatting regularly with her over the internet after allegedly meeting on dating website mate1.com and had planned to start a new life with her.
In La Paz he met a middle-aged man in a hotel who gave him the suitcase, saying it belonged to Miss Milani.
The following day he travelled to Buenos Aires and was instructed to fly to Brussels where he believed he would finally meet his ‘girlfriend’.
But after waiting 36 hours at the airport for ‘her’ to send him an electronic ticket, he changed his mind and decided to return to the U.S. via Peru.
Professor Frampton was convicted after prosecutor Mario Villar read the court emails and text messages the professor sent his ‘girlfriend’ and a friend in America while waiting at the airport.
According to newspaper Clarin, they included ‘I'm worried about the sniffer dogs’, ‘I'm looking after your special little suitcase’ and ‘In Bolivia this is worth nothing, in Europe it's worth millions’.
The prosecutor also showed the court a note written by the scientist reading ‘1grm/200U$S. 2000grms/400000 U$S’.
A source told the newspaper: ‘At the trial he said he had written it after being arrested, but the arrest witnesses were asked to come back to court and they denied that.’
Model Miss Milani, who was completely unaware she was being used as a honeytrap, has since spoken of her shock at being dragged into the sting.
The scientist's ex-wife, Anne-Marie Frampton, 71, has described him as being ‘a naive fool’.
They divorced four years ago after 15 years of marriage but remain close friends.
Prof Frampton, who graduated with a double first from Brasenose College, Oxford, is expected to serve his sentence at Villa Devoto Prison in Buenos Aires.
The jail was the scene of some of the worst riots in Argentine history in 1978 which left 62 people dead.
The scientist was originally held there on remand but had been released and under house arrest for health reasons. He suffers from high blood pressure and lung problems.
He had been facing up to 16 years behind bars.
His defence lawyer Eduardo Oderigo said: ‘There were many good reasons to have acquitted him.
‘I set them out in his defence. I am convinced of his innocence.’
As the saying goes, ‘There’s no fool like an old fool.’ Unless this old fart has never set foot outside the cloistered halls of ivy, he should have known that when a stranger gives him a suitcase to deliver elsewhere, it would be packed with illegal drugs. This leads me to pen a new saying: There’s no idiot like an educated idiot.
BRITISH SCIENTIST JAILED FOR FOUR YEARS FOR SMUGGLING COCAINE ‘AFTER BEING STUNG BY HONEYTRAP’
Paul Frampton, 68, claimed he had been duped into carrying 4.4 lbs. of cocaine by gangsters who posed on the internet as a former Miss Bikini World
By Tom Worden
Mail Online
November 21, 2012
An acclaimed British scientist caught smuggling 4.4lbs of cocaine at a South American airport has been jailed for nearly five years.
Professor Paul Frampton, 68, claimed he was duped into carrying the drugs in a ‘honeytrap sting’ involving a bikini model.
But the Oxford-educated academic was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison after being convicted of drug trafficking at a court in Argentina.
Mr Frampton, originally from Kidderminster, Worcestershire, was arrested in January after being stopped at Ezeiza International Airport in Buenos Aires as he tried to board a plane to Peru with the large quantity of drugs in his luggage.
The cocaine was found wrapped in gift paper hidden inside the lining of his suitcase.
The divorced physicist told police he had been tricked into carrying the drugs by gangsters who posed on the internet as 32-year-old glamour model Denise Milani.
She had nothing to do with the drug smuggling.
He said in a newspaper interview after his arrest: ‘Perhaps I should have realised earlier but the fraudster was very good and very intelligent.
‘For 11 weeks I thought I was chatting with an attractive woman.’
Mr Frampton, who was teaching at the University of North Carolina, had first travelled to La Paz, Bolivia, where he thought he was going to meet Miss Milani, a former Miss Bikini World, for the first time.
He mistakenly believed he had been chatting regularly with her over the internet after allegedly meeting on dating website mate1.com and had planned to start a new life with her.
In La Paz he met a middle-aged man in a hotel who gave him the suitcase, saying it belonged to Miss Milani.
The following day he travelled to Buenos Aires and was instructed to fly to Brussels where he believed he would finally meet his ‘girlfriend’.
But after waiting 36 hours at the airport for ‘her’ to send him an electronic ticket, he changed his mind and decided to return to the U.S. via Peru.
Professor Frampton was convicted after prosecutor Mario Villar read the court emails and text messages the professor sent his ‘girlfriend’ and a friend in America while waiting at the airport.
According to newspaper Clarin, they included ‘I'm worried about the sniffer dogs’, ‘I'm looking after your special little suitcase’ and ‘In Bolivia this is worth nothing, in Europe it's worth millions’.
The prosecutor also showed the court a note written by the scientist reading ‘1grm/200U$S. 2000grms/400000 U$S’.
A source told the newspaper: ‘At the trial he said he had written it after being arrested, but the arrest witnesses were asked to come back to court and they denied that.’
Model Miss Milani, who was completely unaware she was being used as a honeytrap, has since spoken of her shock at being dragged into the sting.
The scientist's ex-wife, Anne-Marie Frampton, 71, has described him as being ‘a naive fool’.
They divorced four years ago after 15 years of marriage but remain close friends.
Prof Frampton, who graduated with a double first from Brasenose College, Oxford, is expected to serve his sentence at Villa Devoto Prison in Buenos Aires.
The jail was the scene of some of the worst riots in Argentine history in 1978 which left 62 people dead.
The scientist was originally held there on remand but had been released and under house arrest for health reasons. He suffers from high blood pressure and lung problems.
He had been facing up to 16 years behind bars.
His defence lawyer Eduardo Oderigo said: ‘There were many good reasons to have acquitted him.
‘I set them out in his defence. I am convinced of his innocence.’
SECRET EXECUTION PRCLUDES PROTESTS BY AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND OTHER ANTI-DEATH PEANALTY GROUPS
India kept execution of Pakistani terrorist secret to keep tensions with Pakistan in check
Once a person has been convicted and condemned to death in a public trial, it would be nice if media coverage of the appeals process would be toned down. And then, if Texas could carry out its executions in secret we would be spared having Amnesty International, the Catholic Church and other anti-death penalty groups sticking their noses where they don’t belong.
INDIA EXECUTES ONLY SURVIVING TERRORIST FROM MUMBAI ATTACKS
By Dashiell Bennett
The Atlantic Wire
November 21, 2012
India has hanged Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the only survivor among the group of ten terrorists who attacked the city of Mumbai in 2008, killing 166 people. The attack on a major hotel, a train station, and a Jewish community center last three days, and Kasab was the only one to be arrested and not killed by Indian security forces. It was the first use of capital punishment in India in eight years.
Kasab was a member of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a militant group that is based in Pakista, where the attack was launched from (even though it is officially banned there.) The execution was held in secret earlier in the week, but thousands of Indians took the streets in celebration upon hearing the news, burning Kasab in effigy and stomping on his picture. One of the reasons the hanging was kept secret was to avoid inflaming relations between Pakistan and India, which have improved in recent months despite lingering anger over the attack adding to decades of animosity between the two nations. Seven other members of Lashkar are on trial in Pakistan for organizing the attack, though the trial is proceeding slowly.
Once a person has been convicted and condemned to death in a public trial, it would be nice if media coverage of the appeals process would be toned down. And then, if Texas could carry out its executions in secret we would be spared having Amnesty International, the Catholic Church and other anti-death penalty groups sticking their noses where they don’t belong.
INDIA EXECUTES ONLY SURVIVING TERRORIST FROM MUMBAI ATTACKS
By Dashiell Bennett
The Atlantic Wire
November 21, 2012
India has hanged Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the only survivor among the group of ten terrorists who attacked the city of Mumbai in 2008, killing 166 people. The attack on a major hotel, a train station, and a Jewish community center last three days, and Kasab was the only one to be arrested and not killed by Indian security forces. It was the first use of capital punishment in India in eight years.
Kasab was a member of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a militant group that is based in Pakista, where the attack was launched from (even though it is officially banned there.) The execution was held in secret earlier in the week, but thousands of Indians took the streets in celebration upon hearing the news, burning Kasab in effigy and stomping on his picture. One of the reasons the hanging was kept secret was to avoid inflaming relations between Pakistan and India, which have improved in recent months despite lingering anger over the attack adding to decades of animosity between the two nations. Seven other members of Lashkar are on trial in Pakistan for organizing the attack, though the trial is proceeding slowly.
BACK TO SWORDS AND BATTLE AXES
Human rights groups are worried about robotic weapons causing civilian casualties. Have they forgotten the hundreds of thousands of civilians killed when British and U.S. air forces carpet bombed Dresden, Hamburg, Cologne, Bremen and other German cities and Tokyo during WWII? I suppose if the human rights groups had their way, we would go back to fighting wars with swords and battle axes.
BAN ‘KILLER ROBOTS,’ RIGHTS GROUP URGES
AFP
November 19, 2012
NEW YORK -- Hollywood-style robots able to shoot people without permission from their human handlers are a real possibility and must be banned before governments start deploying them, campaigners warned Monday.
The report "Losing Humanity" -- issued by Human Rights Watch and Harvard Law School's International Human Rights Clinic -- raised the alarm over the ethics of the looming technology.
Calling them "killer robots," the report urged "an international treaty that would absolutely prohibit the development, production, and use of fully autonomous weapons."
The US military already leads the way in military robots, notably the unmanned aircraft or drones used for surveillance or attacks over Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen and elsewhere. But these are controlled by human operators in ground bases and are not able to kill without authorization.
Fully autonomous robots that decide for themselves when to fire could be developed within 20 to 30 years, or "even sooner," the 50-page report said, adding that weapon systems that require little human intervention already exist.
Raytheon's Phalanx gun system, deployed on US Navy ships, can search for enemy fire and destroy incoming projectiles all by itself. The X47B is a plane-sized drone able to take off and land on aircraft carriers without a pilot and even refuel in the air.
Perhaps closest to the Terminator-type killing machine portrayed in Arnold Schwarzenegger's action films is a Samsung sentry robot already being used in South Korea, with the ability to spot unusual activity, talk to intruders and, when authorized by a human controller, shoot them.
Fully autonomous fighting machines would spare human troops from dangerous situations. The downside, though, is that robots would then be left to make nuanced decisions on their own, the most fraught being the need to distinguish between civilians and combatants in a war zone.
"A number of governments, including the United States, are very excited about moving in this direction, very excited about taking the soldier off the battlefield and putting machines on the battlefield and thereby lowering casualties," said Steve Goose, arms division director at Human Rights Watch.
While Goose said "killer robots" do not exist as yet, he warned of precursors and added that the best way to forestall an ethical nightmare is a "preemptive, comprehensive prohibition on the development or production of these systems."
Jody Williams, the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, said in Washington that the prospect of killer robots "totally freaked me out."
"I had visions of the Terminator," she said. "The thought that this development was proceeding without any public discussion I found more reprehensible than most military R&D because I really believe that this would... totally transform the face of warfare."
The problem with handing over decision-making power to even the most sophisticated robots is that there would be no clear way of making anyone answer for the inevitable mistakes, said Noel Sharkey, professor of robotics at University of Sheffield.
"If a robot goes wrong, who's accountable? It certainly won't be the robot," he said.
"The robot could take a bullet in its computer and go berserk. So there's no way of really determining who's accountable and that's very important for the laws of war."
BAN ‘KILLER ROBOTS,’ RIGHTS GROUP URGES
AFP
November 19, 2012
NEW YORK -- Hollywood-style robots able to shoot people without permission from their human handlers are a real possibility and must be banned before governments start deploying them, campaigners warned Monday.
The report "Losing Humanity" -- issued by Human Rights Watch and Harvard Law School's International Human Rights Clinic -- raised the alarm over the ethics of the looming technology.
Calling them "killer robots," the report urged "an international treaty that would absolutely prohibit the development, production, and use of fully autonomous weapons."
The US military already leads the way in military robots, notably the unmanned aircraft or drones used for surveillance or attacks over Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen and elsewhere. But these are controlled by human operators in ground bases and are not able to kill without authorization.
Fully autonomous robots that decide for themselves when to fire could be developed within 20 to 30 years, or "even sooner," the 50-page report said, adding that weapon systems that require little human intervention already exist.
Raytheon's Phalanx gun system, deployed on US Navy ships, can search for enemy fire and destroy incoming projectiles all by itself. The X47B is a plane-sized drone able to take off and land on aircraft carriers without a pilot and even refuel in the air.
Perhaps closest to the Terminator-type killing machine portrayed in Arnold Schwarzenegger's action films is a Samsung sentry robot already being used in South Korea, with the ability to spot unusual activity, talk to intruders and, when authorized by a human controller, shoot them.
Fully autonomous fighting machines would spare human troops from dangerous situations. The downside, though, is that robots would then be left to make nuanced decisions on their own, the most fraught being the need to distinguish between civilians and combatants in a war zone.
"A number of governments, including the United States, are very excited about moving in this direction, very excited about taking the soldier off the battlefield and putting machines on the battlefield and thereby lowering casualties," said Steve Goose, arms division director at Human Rights Watch.
While Goose said "killer robots" do not exist as yet, he warned of precursors and added that the best way to forestall an ethical nightmare is a "preemptive, comprehensive prohibition on the development or production of these systems."
Jody Williams, the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, said in Washington that the prospect of killer robots "totally freaked me out."
"I had visions of the Terminator," she said. "The thought that this development was proceeding without any public discussion I found more reprehensible than most military R&D because I really believe that this would... totally transform the face of warfare."
The problem with handing over decision-making power to even the most sophisticated robots is that there would be no clear way of making anyone answer for the inevitable mistakes, said Noel Sharkey, professor of robotics at University of Sheffield.
"If a robot goes wrong, who's accountable? It certainly won't be the robot," he said.
"The robot could take a bullet in its computer and go berserk. So there's no way of really determining who's accountable and that's very important for the laws of war."
PIGS CAN FLY IF SOMEONE OTHER THAN O.J. SIMPSON KILLED HIS WIFE
Apparently the people in charge of the Investigation Discovery channel have not shame. I don’t blame the Goldman family for being incensed by this exploitation film in light of the overwhelming evidence that Simpson killed his wife and their son Ron.
DOCUMENTARY: FORMER VAN NUYS RESIDENT GLEN ROGERS MAY BE INVOLVED IN O.J. SIMPSON CASE
By Tamara Lush
Associated Press
November 20, 2012
TAMPA, Fla. - A documentary says a Florida death row inmate might have been involved in the murder of O.J. Simpson's ex-wife and her friend, a claim being criticized by one victim's family and being looked at skeptically by a detective who has dealt with the convict.
The Investigation Discovery show, "My Brother the Serial Killer," will air Wednesday. The film is a look at Glen Rogers, a carnival worker who had lived in Van Nuys and was convicted in Florida in 1997 for killing a woman in a Tampa motel room.
Rogers, who is now 50, was also convicted of murdering Sandra Gallagher after meeting her in a Van Nuys bar. He is a suspect in homicides in Mississippi, Louisiana and Kentucky - and possibly several other states.
Most of his victims were women he had met in bars while drifting across the country. All of his victims were stabbed to death. With blazing blue eyes, a scraggly beard and long, blond hair, Rogers was arrested in November 1995, near Waco, Ky., after a nationwide manhunt for the so-called "Cross-Country Killer" and a 100 mph chase.
Rogers, who is from Hamilton, Ohio, met Nicole Brown Simpson in 1994 when he was living in Southern California, his family says in the documentary.
A criminal profiler in the film says he received paintings by Rogers with clues possibly linking him to the 1994 murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman. The profiler says that Rogers sent him a painting of the murder weapon used in the slayings.
"I believe that Glen believes he killed them," said Anthony Meoli, an Atlanta criminal profiler who has received more than 1,000 letters from Rogers and has interviewed him in prison.
Simpson was accused in those killings but the so-called "trial of the century" in Los Angeles ended with his acquittal in 1995.
Simpson never testified at the criminal trial, but memorably demonstrated in court that a glove found near the slaying scene did not fit his hand. He testified at length in a wrongful death trial that led a Los Angeles civil court jury in 1997 to find him liable for damages in the case. Simpson is serving a prison sentence in Nevada after being convicted in 2008 of leading five men, including two with guns, in a September 2007 confrontation with two sports memorabilia dealers and a middleman at a Las Vegas casino-hotel.
Los Angeles police, whose investigation of the Simpson case drew international scrutiny, did not appear to take the claims in the film seriously.
"Nothing's been reopened," Officer Norma Eisenman, an LAPD spokeswoman, said Tuesday.
She said detectives in the Robbery-Homicide Division declined to respond at all to the film.
Eisenman said she was not aware of any similar claims in the past about the Simpson-Brown slayings.
Much of the film is narrated by Rogers' brother, Clay Rogers, who used to rob homes with Glen Rogers as a teen but in 1993, called police on his brother after finding a body at the family's Kentucky cabin.
Clay Rogers said that in 1994, weeks before the infamous murders, his brother told him about meeting Nicole Simpson.
"They've got money, they're well off and I'm taking her down," Clay Rogers recalls Glen Rogers saying.
Other family members also said Glen Rogers talked about meeting Simpson's ex-wife.
In a statement, Goldman's sister criticized the documentary.
"I am appalled at the level of irresponsibility demonstrated by the network and the producers of this so-called documentary," Kim Goldman said. "This is the first time we are hearing about this story, and considering that their `main character,' Glen Rogers, confessed to stabbing my brother and Nicole to death, you would think we would be in the loop."
Meoli said Rogers told him that OJ Simpson paid him to break into Nicole Brown Simpson's house to steal a pair of $20,000 earrings. Other clues, Meoli said, were that Rogers drove a white pickup for his construction job - a white pickup was seen near the Simpson house on the day of the murders - and that a second bloody footprint at the scene was never identified.
"All those things put together a plausible alternative theory," Meoli said.
The film's director, David Monaghan, said Tuesday that he feels investigators should look into Rogers' claims of killing Simpson and Goldman - and the inmate should be held accountable for several other murders around the country as well.
Los Angeles County Assistant District Attorney Pat Dixon, who prosecuted Rogers for the 1995 murder of Sandra Gallagher, said his crimes didn't fit the Simpson-Brown killings at all.
"It seems bizarre to me and highly unlikely," Dixon said Tuesday.
He said Rogers was linked to at least five murders across the country. And in every one, he first met a woman at a bar and convinced her to come home with him.
That would begin a whirlwind romance lasting a few weeks. In some cases, the women and Rogers even lived together - until one day he'd snap and stab them to death.
In the Van Nuys case, Rogers killed Gallagher, a 33-year-old mother of three, then burned her body. He hadn't known Gallagher as long as some of the other victims, Dixon said.
Rogers killed three other women after that before being caught in Kentucky following a national manhunt.
DOCUMENTARY: FORMER VAN NUYS RESIDENT GLEN ROGERS MAY BE INVOLVED IN O.J. SIMPSON CASE
By Tamara Lush
Associated Press
November 20, 2012
TAMPA, Fla. - A documentary says a Florida death row inmate might have been involved in the murder of O.J. Simpson's ex-wife and her friend, a claim being criticized by one victim's family and being looked at skeptically by a detective who has dealt with the convict.
The Investigation Discovery show, "My Brother the Serial Killer," will air Wednesday. The film is a look at Glen Rogers, a carnival worker who had lived in Van Nuys and was convicted in Florida in 1997 for killing a woman in a Tampa motel room.
Rogers, who is now 50, was also convicted of murdering Sandra Gallagher after meeting her in a Van Nuys bar. He is a suspect in homicides in Mississippi, Louisiana and Kentucky - and possibly several other states.
Most of his victims were women he had met in bars while drifting across the country. All of his victims were stabbed to death. With blazing blue eyes, a scraggly beard and long, blond hair, Rogers was arrested in November 1995, near Waco, Ky., after a nationwide manhunt for the so-called "Cross-Country Killer" and a 100 mph chase.
Rogers, who is from Hamilton, Ohio, met Nicole Brown Simpson in 1994 when he was living in Southern California, his family says in the documentary.
A criminal profiler in the film says he received paintings by Rogers with clues possibly linking him to the 1994 murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman. The profiler says that Rogers sent him a painting of the murder weapon used in the slayings.
"I believe that Glen believes he killed them," said Anthony Meoli, an Atlanta criminal profiler who has received more than 1,000 letters from Rogers and has interviewed him in prison.
Simpson was accused in those killings but the so-called "trial of the century" in Los Angeles ended with his acquittal in 1995.
Simpson never testified at the criminal trial, but memorably demonstrated in court that a glove found near the slaying scene did not fit his hand. He testified at length in a wrongful death trial that led a Los Angeles civil court jury in 1997 to find him liable for damages in the case. Simpson is serving a prison sentence in Nevada after being convicted in 2008 of leading five men, including two with guns, in a September 2007 confrontation with two sports memorabilia dealers and a middleman at a Las Vegas casino-hotel.
Los Angeles police, whose investigation of the Simpson case drew international scrutiny, did not appear to take the claims in the film seriously.
"Nothing's been reopened," Officer Norma Eisenman, an LAPD spokeswoman, said Tuesday.
She said detectives in the Robbery-Homicide Division declined to respond at all to the film.
Eisenman said she was not aware of any similar claims in the past about the Simpson-Brown slayings.
Much of the film is narrated by Rogers' brother, Clay Rogers, who used to rob homes with Glen Rogers as a teen but in 1993, called police on his brother after finding a body at the family's Kentucky cabin.
Clay Rogers said that in 1994, weeks before the infamous murders, his brother told him about meeting Nicole Simpson.
"They've got money, they're well off and I'm taking her down," Clay Rogers recalls Glen Rogers saying.
Other family members also said Glen Rogers talked about meeting Simpson's ex-wife.
In a statement, Goldman's sister criticized the documentary.
"I am appalled at the level of irresponsibility demonstrated by the network and the producers of this so-called documentary," Kim Goldman said. "This is the first time we are hearing about this story, and considering that their `main character,' Glen Rogers, confessed to stabbing my brother and Nicole to death, you would think we would be in the loop."
Meoli said Rogers told him that OJ Simpson paid him to break into Nicole Brown Simpson's house to steal a pair of $20,000 earrings. Other clues, Meoli said, were that Rogers drove a white pickup for his construction job - a white pickup was seen near the Simpson house on the day of the murders - and that a second bloody footprint at the scene was never identified.
"All those things put together a plausible alternative theory," Meoli said.
The film's director, David Monaghan, said Tuesday that he feels investigators should look into Rogers' claims of killing Simpson and Goldman - and the inmate should be held accountable for several other murders around the country as well.
Los Angeles County Assistant District Attorney Pat Dixon, who prosecuted Rogers for the 1995 murder of Sandra Gallagher, said his crimes didn't fit the Simpson-Brown killings at all.
"It seems bizarre to me and highly unlikely," Dixon said Tuesday.
He said Rogers was linked to at least five murders across the country. And in every one, he first met a woman at a bar and convinced her to come home with him.
That would begin a whirlwind romance lasting a few weeks. In some cases, the women and Rogers even lived together - until one day he'd snap and stab them to death.
In the Van Nuys case, Rogers killed Gallagher, a 33-year-old mother of three, then burned her body. He hadn't known Gallagher as long as some of the other victims, Dixon said.
Rogers killed three other women after that before being caught in Kentucky following a national manhunt.
NAKED WOMAN JUMPS INTO TAXI
The Unconventional Gazette
November 21, 2012
A clearly inebriated woman, stark naked, jumped into a taxi in New York City and laid down on the back seat.
The cab driver, an old Jewish gentleman, opened his eyes wide and stared at the woman. He made no attempt to start the cab.
The woman glared back at him and said, "What's wrong with you, honey? Haven't you ever seen a naked woman before?"
The old Jewish driver answered, "Let me tell you sumsing, lady – I vasn't staring at you like you tink; det vould not be proper vair I come from."
The drunk woman giggled and responded, "Well, if you're not staring at my boobs, my twat or my ass, sweetie, what are you doing then?"
He paused a moment, then told her ..."Vell, M'am, I am looking and I am looking, and I am tinking to myself, vair in da hell is dis lady keeping de money to pay for dis ride?”
November 21, 2012
A clearly inebriated woman, stark naked, jumped into a taxi in New York City and laid down on the back seat.
The cab driver, an old Jewish gentleman, opened his eyes wide and stared at the woman. He made no attempt to start the cab.
The woman glared back at him and said, "What's wrong with you, honey? Haven't you ever seen a naked woman before?"
The old Jewish driver answered, "Let me tell you sumsing, lady – I vasn't staring at you like you tink; det vould not be proper vair I come from."
The drunk woman giggled and responded, "Well, if you're not staring at my boobs, my twat or my ass, sweetie, what are you doing then?"
He paused a moment, then told her ..."Vell, M'am, I am looking and I am looking, and I am tinking to myself, vair in da hell is dis lady keeping de money to pay for dis ride?”
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
‘EVERY JEW IN THE WORLD HAS A RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT ISRAEL’
It’s a dirty shame that George Soros and America’s liberal Jews are not concerned about Israel’s survival as a Jewish state. America’s Jews have not experienced the virulent anti-Semitism that Jews in many parts of the world are subjected to. So they do not appreciate the fact that Israel is the only place of refuge for Jews that are not wanted in countries where they live.
SOLDIERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD ENLIST TO HELP ISRAEL
Lone Soldier Center, which supports soldiers from abroad, receives more than 100 inquiries from young people who served in the Israel Defense Forces, seeking to join in the fight against Gaza terrorists • "Every Jew in the world has a responsibility to protect Israel. I didn't have to come back to Israel, but nothing stopped me from coming," says one American soldier
By Danny Brenner
Israel Hayom
November 20, 2012
Young people from all over the world who served in the Israeli army and have since returned to their home countries have contacted the Israel Defense Forces asking if they can return to Israel to join in the fight against Gaza terrorists.
Tziki Aud, 59, founder of the Lone Soldier Center in Memory of Sgt. Michael Levin (who was killed in the 2006 Second Lebanon War), which supports soldiers from abroad, said on Sunday that he had received more than 100 inquiries from former soldiers seeking to assist their comrades in Israel. Fourteen have already arrived in Israel at their own expense to join their combat units, Aud said.
On Monday, Aud went to the airport with Yoav Ziskind, a member of the Lone Soldier Center's management, to greet two more soldiers who flew in from New York: Sgt. Shmulik Lazarov, 24, and Staff Sgt. Shalom Leikin, 21.
"I heard what was happening and decided to come here,” Lazarov said. “I feel a sense of belonging here, a responsibility and a desire to contribute to the war effort."
And Leikin said, "Every Jew in the world has a responsibility to protect Israel. I didn't have to come back to Israel, but there's nothing that would stop me from coming."
SOLDIERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD ENLIST TO HELP ISRAEL
Lone Soldier Center, which supports soldiers from abroad, receives more than 100 inquiries from young people who served in the Israel Defense Forces, seeking to join in the fight against Gaza terrorists • "Every Jew in the world has a responsibility to protect Israel. I didn't have to come back to Israel, but nothing stopped me from coming," says one American soldier
By Danny Brenner
Israel Hayom
November 20, 2012
Young people from all over the world who served in the Israeli army and have since returned to their home countries have contacted the Israel Defense Forces asking if they can return to Israel to join in the fight against Gaza terrorists.
Tziki Aud, 59, founder of the Lone Soldier Center in Memory of Sgt. Michael Levin (who was killed in the 2006 Second Lebanon War), which supports soldiers from abroad, said on Sunday that he had received more than 100 inquiries from former soldiers seeking to assist their comrades in Israel. Fourteen have already arrived in Israel at their own expense to join their combat units, Aud said.
On Monday, Aud went to the airport with Yoav Ziskind, a member of the Lone Soldier Center's management, to greet two more soldiers who flew in from New York: Sgt. Shmulik Lazarov, 24, and Staff Sgt. Shalom Leikin, 21.
"I heard what was happening and decided to come here,” Lazarov said. “I feel a sense of belonging here, a responsibility and a desire to contribute to the war effort."
And Leikin said, "Every Jew in the world has a responsibility to protect Israel. I didn't have to come back to Israel, but there's nothing that would stop me from coming."
14-YEAR-OLD BOY RAPES 65-YEAR-OLD WOMAN HE KIDNAPPED FOR RANSOM
Bob Walsh says: “The fool returned to the scene of the kidnapping in possession of property belonging to his victim and the toy pistol he used in the kidnapping. He was still in the car he stole from her when he was spotted and arrested. I guess you can call him felony stupid among other things.”
Look for the do-gooders and bleeding hearts to side with this sorry-ass thug.
VALLEJO 14-YEAR-OLD APPEARS IN ADULT COURT IN KIDNAPPING, RAPE CASE
By Tony Burchyns
Times-Herald
November 19, 2012
FAIRFIELD, Calif. -- The 14-year-old boy charged as an adult in the alleged kidnapping and sexual assault of a 65-year-old woman in Vallejo appeared in court Monday.
Wearing a blue juvenile hall jumpsuit, Kaviar King was ushered into adult court with his hands shackled at his waist. Charged with 10 felony counts, he looked straight ahead as his public defender asked for his arraignment to be postponed a week to allow the defense more time to prepare before possibly entering a plea.
Solano County Superior Court Judge Wendy Getty rescheduled the arraignment for 8:30 a.m. Monday in Vallejo.
King faces charges including attempted murder, torture, kidnapping, carjacking and a range of sex offenses.
His bail was set at $4.5 million, a figure that reflects six felonies that carry potential life sentences. He is being held at Solano County Juvenile Hall, where he will remain pending the outcome of his case unless he is bailed out.
King's attorney, Solano County Deputy Public Defender John Mendenhall, declined to talk to reporters afterward.
King was arrested Thursday night for allegedly kidnapping the victim at gunpoint in the parking lot of the Gateway Plaza shopping center in Vallejo. He allegedly forced the victim to drive to a location within several miles where he sexually assaulted her.
Passersby discovered the victim duct taped in a ditch near Hiddenbrooke Parkway and Interstate 80. They called police and gave police information that helped them develop leads in the case.
King was arrested after returning to the parking lot where the initial abduction took place. Vallejo detectives were there investigating when they spotted King and arrested him, according to police. He was found in possession of the victim's property, a replica handgun and her minivan.
During the abduction, which lasted more than an hour, police said a family member of the victim received a phone call from someone demanding money in exchange for the victim's safe return. The family member reported the ransom demand to police.
Police said the ransom was not paid.
Deputy District Attorney Karen Jensen said prosecutors decided to charge King as an adult because of the "serious nature of the crime."
In California, 14 is the minimum age for a minor to be charged as an adult. King turned 14 on Sept. 3, according to information released during Monday's hearing.
Look for the do-gooders and bleeding hearts to side with this sorry-ass thug.
VALLEJO 14-YEAR-OLD APPEARS IN ADULT COURT IN KIDNAPPING, RAPE CASE
By Tony Burchyns
Times-Herald
November 19, 2012
FAIRFIELD, Calif. -- The 14-year-old boy charged as an adult in the alleged kidnapping and sexual assault of a 65-year-old woman in Vallejo appeared in court Monday.
Wearing a blue juvenile hall jumpsuit, Kaviar King was ushered into adult court with his hands shackled at his waist. Charged with 10 felony counts, he looked straight ahead as his public defender asked for his arraignment to be postponed a week to allow the defense more time to prepare before possibly entering a plea.
Solano County Superior Court Judge Wendy Getty rescheduled the arraignment for 8:30 a.m. Monday in Vallejo.
King faces charges including attempted murder, torture, kidnapping, carjacking and a range of sex offenses.
His bail was set at $4.5 million, a figure that reflects six felonies that carry potential life sentences. He is being held at Solano County Juvenile Hall, where he will remain pending the outcome of his case unless he is bailed out.
King's attorney, Solano County Deputy Public Defender John Mendenhall, declined to talk to reporters afterward.
King was arrested Thursday night for allegedly kidnapping the victim at gunpoint in the parking lot of the Gateway Plaza shopping center in Vallejo. He allegedly forced the victim to drive to a location within several miles where he sexually assaulted her.
Passersby discovered the victim duct taped in a ditch near Hiddenbrooke Parkway and Interstate 80. They called police and gave police information that helped them develop leads in the case.
King was arrested after returning to the parking lot where the initial abduction took place. Vallejo detectives were there investigating when they spotted King and arrested him, according to police. He was found in possession of the victim's property, a replica handgun and her minivan.
During the abduction, which lasted more than an hour, police said a family member of the victim received a phone call from someone demanding money in exchange for the victim's safe return. The family member reported the ransom demand to police.
Police said the ransom was not paid.
Deputy District Attorney Karen Jensen said prosecutors decided to charge King as an adult because of the "serious nature of the crime."
In California, 14 is the minimum age for a minor to be charged as an adult. King turned 14 on Sept. 3, according to information released during Monday's hearing.
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