Whenever Aaron Hernandez and Otis Lloyd got together, they smoked pot together
You don’t have to be a football fan to know that former New England Patriot’s star tight end Aaron Hernandez is on trial for the murder of Otis Lloyd.
Shaneah Jenkins had been Lloyd’s girlfriend for 18 months when he was shot multiple times. Shaneah also happens to be the older sister of Hernandez’s fiancée, Shayanna Jenkins.
Shaneah testified Friday in a Fall River, Massachusetts courtroom that whenever the couple got together, Hernandez and Lloyd would go into the football star’s ‘man cave’, as his basement was called, and smoke pot together.
And they keep saying smoking pot is harmless. Yeah, right. And pigs can fly.
Saturday, January 31, 2015
WOMEN TEACHERS SHALL WEAR PANTIES
In August 2013, the Little Rock school district mandated a new dress code which, among other clothing items, required women teachers to wear panties and bras every single day
On August 29, 2013, the Superintendent of the Little Rock, Arkansas school district sent a letter to all district employees mandating a new dress code.
Here are the dress requirements for female teachers:
Teachers shall wear panties and bras every single day. Foundational garments shall be worn and not visible with respect to color, style, and/or fabric. No see-through or sheer clothing shall be allowed, and no skin shall be visible between trousers, skirts, and blouses at any time. T-shirts, patches and other clothing containing slogans for beer, alcohol, drugs, gangs or sex will also be prohibited. No cut-off jeans with ragged edges, cut-out dresses and spaghetti-straps if teachers aren’t wearing at least two layers. No flip-flops. Tattoos must be covered if at all possible. No jogging suits, except for gym and dance teachers in the performing of their duties. No spandex.
I don’t know whether that draconian dress code is still in effect. I rather doubt it.
Now let’s pretend that I am a senior in a high school with such a teacher dress code in effect. Here are my reactions as a 17-year- old student:
Teachers shall wear panties. Fuck!
Teachers shall wear bras. Fuck, no more nipples poking through!
No see-through or sheer clothing. Shit!
No cut-off jeans with ragged edges. Damn it!
I want my parents to move to California ASAP! I hear that women teachers there are allowed to wear suggestive clothing with no panties, and best of all, a lot of them are fucking their students.
Seriously though, it’s hard for me to fathom such a draconian dress code in these days and times. Of course, that’s Arkansas! And then again, those are not Bill Clinton’s idea of dress codes. If the former President and Governor of Arkansas had his way, teachers would not be wearing panties and bras, but they would be wearing see-through and sheer clothing and those hot cut-off jeans with ragged edges.
It should be noted that on Wednesday (January 28) the Arkansas State Board of Education voted to take over the Little Rock district and dissolve the local school board. But that had nothing to do with that dress code. It had everything to do with the fact that six schools in the district were not academically up to snuff.
On August 29, 2013, the Superintendent of the Little Rock, Arkansas school district sent a letter to all district employees mandating a new dress code.
Here are the dress requirements for female teachers:
Teachers shall wear panties and bras every single day. Foundational garments shall be worn and not visible with respect to color, style, and/or fabric. No see-through or sheer clothing shall be allowed, and no skin shall be visible between trousers, skirts, and blouses at any time. T-shirts, patches and other clothing containing slogans for beer, alcohol, drugs, gangs or sex will also be prohibited. No cut-off jeans with ragged edges, cut-out dresses and spaghetti-straps if teachers aren’t wearing at least two layers. No flip-flops. Tattoos must be covered if at all possible. No jogging suits, except for gym and dance teachers in the performing of their duties. No spandex.
I don’t know whether that draconian dress code is still in effect. I rather doubt it.
Now let’s pretend that I am a senior in a high school with such a teacher dress code in effect. Here are my reactions as a 17-year- old student:
Teachers shall wear panties. Fuck!
Teachers shall wear bras. Fuck, no more nipples poking through!
No see-through or sheer clothing. Shit!
No cut-off jeans with ragged edges. Damn it!
I want my parents to move to California ASAP! I hear that women teachers there are allowed to wear suggestive clothing with no panties, and best of all, a lot of them are fucking their students.
Seriously though, it’s hard for me to fathom such a draconian dress code in these days and times. Of course, that’s Arkansas! And then again, those are not Bill Clinton’s idea of dress codes. If the former President and Governor of Arkansas had his way, teachers would not be wearing panties and bras, but they would be wearing see-through and sheer clothing and those hot cut-off jeans with ragged edges.
It should be noted that on Wednesday (January 28) the Arkansas State Board of Education voted to take over the Little Rock district and dissolve the local school board. But that had nothing to do with that dress code. It had everything to do with the fact that six schools in the district were not academically up to snuff.
INTELLECTUALLY DISABLED?
While in the Texas execution chamber, Robert Ladd addressed the sister of his murder victim
Moments before the State of Texas executed him on Thursday, Robert Ladd faced the sister of his victim and directly addressed her by name.
This is how the Associated Press described what Ladd said:
In his final statement, Ladd addressed the sister of his victim by name, telling her he was "really, really sorry."
"I really, really hope and pray you don't have hatred in your heart," he said, adding that he didn't think she could have closure but hoped she could find peace. "A revenge death won't get you anything," he said.
Ladd’s lawyers filed an appeal arguing that their client could not be executed because he was intellectually disabled. Now I ask, does Ladd’s final statement sound like what an intellectually disabled individual would be capable of saying? I don’t think so. Sounds to me like what an intelligent person would say.
Moments before the State of Texas executed him on Thursday, Robert Ladd faced the sister of his victim and directly addressed her by name.
This is how the Associated Press described what Ladd said:
In his final statement, Ladd addressed the sister of his victim by name, telling her he was "really, really sorry."
"I really, really hope and pray you don't have hatred in your heart," he said, adding that he didn't think she could have closure but hoped she could find peace. "A revenge death won't get you anything," he said.
Ladd’s lawyers filed an appeal arguing that their client could not be executed because he was intellectually disabled. Now I ask, does Ladd’s final statement sound like what an intellectually disabled individual would be capable of saying? I don’t think so. Sounds to me like what an intelligent person would say.
Friday, January 30, 2015
EXECUTION OF THE INTELLECTUALLY DISABLED
Georgia and Texas each executes a low-IQ killer
The U.S. Supreme Court would not stop the execution in Georgia Tuesday of double killer Warren Hill and the execution in Texas Thursday of quadruple murderer Robert Ladd. The appeals argued that both murderers were intellectually disabled.
On Tuesday, the State of Georgia executed Warren Hill, 54, for the 1990 murder of his prison cellmate. According to the Los Angeles Times: “In 1986, he was sentenced to life in prison after shooting and killing his 18-year-old girlfriend, Myra Wright. Four years later, he used a nail-studded plank to bludgeon to death his cellmate, Joseph Handspike. A jury then sentenced him to death.”
On Thursday, the State of Texas executed Robert Ladd, 57, for the 1996 rape and murder of a young woman. At the time of her murder, Ladd was on parole for the 1978 murders of a woman and her two children.
Opponents of the death penalty and lawyers for Hill and Ladd squealed like stuck pigs because the executions were carried out despite psychiatrists having declared both men as intellectually disabled.
Call me callous and cold-hearted, but in my opinion both of these multiple murderers earned the right to be executed. Good riddance to both.
The U.S. Supreme Court would not stop the execution in Georgia Tuesday of double killer Warren Hill and the execution in Texas Thursday of quadruple murderer Robert Ladd. The appeals argued that both murderers were intellectually disabled.
On Tuesday, the State of Georgia executed Warren Hill, 54, for the 1990 murder of his prison cellmate. According to the Los Angeles Times: “In 1986, he was sentenced to life in prison after shooting and killing his 18-year-old girlfriend, Myra Wright. Four years later, he used a nail-studded plank to bludgeon to death his cellmate, Joseph Handspike. A jury then sentenced him to death.”
On Thursday, the State of Texas executed Robert Ladd, 57, for the 1996 rape and murder of a young woman. At the time of her murder, Ladd was on parole for the 1978 murders of a woman and her two children.
Opponents of the death penalty and lawyers for Hill and Ladd squealed like stuck pigs because the executions were carried out despite psychiatrists having declared both men as intellectually disabled.
Call me callous and cold-hearted, but in my opinion both of these multiple murderers earned the right to be executed. Good riddance to both.
SEN. MCCAIN : ‘GET OUT OF HERE, YOU LOW-LIFE SCUM!’
Members of CodePink, a far-left peacenik organization, interrupted a Senate committee meeting by harassing Henry Kissinger until John McCain became really pissed off
Henry Kissinger, a WWII combat veteran and former Secretary of State and National Security Adviser, was awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam. But the far-left has always considered Kissinger a war criminal, accusing him of spreading the Vietnam War into Cambodia and Laos.
On Thursday, Kissinger appeared at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee. The hearing was attended by members of CodePink, a far-left peacenik organization. CodePink peace protesters have been attending and protesting at Congressional committee meetings dealing with the military.
When Kissinger entered the meeting room, he was greeted with shouts of ‘war criminal’ and ‘arrest Henry Kissinger for war crimes.’ Some of the protesters shook handcuffs in Kissinger’s face. The rabble also held up large banners which read, ‘Kissinger War Criminal’ and ‘Arrest Kissinger For War Crimes.’
Sen. McCain, who chairs the committee, was not only upset with the CodePink rabble, but he was also upset because there were no Capitol police officers present.
McCain: “Could I ask our Capitol Police to help instill order here? You know, someone find out where the Capitol Police is?” The senator then turned to the group and told them, “You know, you’re going to have to shut up, or I’m going to have you arrested.”
After the cops arrived, they removed several of the protesters. One of them shouted something at McCain. That did it! The senator shot back, “Get out of here, you low-life scum!.”
That retort earned McCain a loud and prolonged applause from the audience. After the audience quited down, McCain offered Kissinger a profuse apology:
“I've been a member of this committee for many years, and I have never seen anything as disgraceful and outrageous and despicable as the last demonstration that just took place. From all of my colleagues ... I'd like to apologize for allowing such disgraceful behavior towards a man who served his country with the greatest distinction. I apologize profusely.”
But when Kissinger began to testify, the rabble that had not been ejected, started shouting all over again.
Later CodePink tweeted: CODEPINK is proud to be called “low-life scum” by Sen. John McCain for protesting war criminal Henry Kissinger
From the pictures I have seen of the CodePink rabble, it looks like they are college types that have been indoctrinated by Marxist professors. Now here is what I would like to do to those despicable scumbags. Oops, I’d better not say it because I don’t want the FBI coming after my red ass.
Henry Kissinger, a WWII combat veteran and former Secretary of State and National Security Adviser, was awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam. But the far-left has always considered Kissinger a war criminal, accusing him of spreading the Vietnam War into Cambodia and Laos.
On Thursday, Kissinger appeared at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee. The hearing was attended by members of CodePink, a far-left peacenik organization. CodePink peace protesters have been attending and protesting at Congressional committee meetings dealing with the military.
When Kissinger entered the meeting room, he was greeted with shouts of ‘war criminal’ and ‘arrest Henry Kissinger for war crimes.’ Some of the protesters shook handcuffs in Kissinger’s face. The rabble also held up large banners which read, ‘Kissinger War Criminal’ and ‘Arrest Kissinger For War Crimes.’
Sen. McCain, who chairs the committee, was not only upset with the CodePink rabble, but he was also upset because there were no Capitol police officers present.
McCain: “Could I ask our Capitol Police to help instill order here? You know, someone find out where the Capitol Police is?” The senator then turned to the group and told them, “You know, you’re going to have to shut up, or I’m going to have you arrested.”
After the cops arrived, they removed several of the protesters. One of them shouted something at McCain. That did it! The senator shot back, “Get out of here, you low-life scum!.”
That retort earned McCain a loud and prolonged applause from the audience. After the audience quited down, McCain offered Kissinger a profuse apology:
“I've been a member of this committee for many years, and I have never seen anything as disgraceful and outrageous and despicable as the last demonstration that just took place. From all of my colleagues ... I'd like to apologize for allowing such disgraceful behavior towards a man who served his country with the greatest distinction. I apologize profusely.”
But when Kissinger began to testify, the rabble that had not been ejected, started shouting all over again.
Later CodePink tweeted: CODEPINK is proud to be called “low-life scum” by Sen. John McCain for protesting war criminal Henry Kissinger
From the pictures I have seen of the CodePink rabble, it looks like they are college types that have been indoctrinated by Marxist professors. Now here is what I would like to do to those despicable scumbags. Oops, I’d better not say it because I don’t want the FBI coming after my red ass.
STUPID FAT SLOB OF THE YEAR
A 625 pound slob claimed his weight made him a prisoner in his home, but attempt to avoid prison came to a screeching halt when he was stopped by cops while driving a car with a broken taillight
In 2012, Jeffery Klein of Jackson, Michigan pleaded guilty to calling in a bomb threat, a felony. In order to avoid a prison sentence, Klein claimed that his weight of 625 pounds made him a virtual prisoner in his home. The judge in his case has been seriously thinking about sentencing the fat slob to a term of home-based confinement.
Ah, but Klein sort of fucked up. On New Year’s Day, he decided to go for a little drive. He either failed to notice or disregarded a slight problem - his car had a broken tail light. But some cops noticed it and they didn’t disregard it. They pulled him over and – poof – Klein was no longer a prisoner in his home.
Klein has been roosting in jail since the cops pulled him over on New Year's Day. During his time in jail, Klein shed 65 pounds. Either he didn’t like what his jailers fed him or Weightwatchers must have prepared those meals.
When Klein appeared in court on Friday, his little joyride led the judge to sentence the ‘no longer a prisoner in his home’ to 18 months in the slammer.
Jeffery Klein has just been nominated for the prestigious ‘Stupid Fat Slob of the Year’ award.
Holy shit, just think that if Klein continues to lose 65 pounds a month, he will simply vanish before the end of the year.
In 2012, Jeffery Klein of Jackson, Michigan pleaded guilty to calling in a bomb threat, a felony. In order to avoid a prison sentence, Klein claimed that his weight of 625 pounds made him a virtual prisoner in his home. The judge in his case has been seriously thinking about sentencing the fat slob to a term of home-based confinement.
Ah, but Klein sort of fucked up. On New Year’s Day, he decided to go for a little drive. He either failed to notice or disregarded a slight problem - his car had a broken tail light. But some cops noticed it and they didn’t disregard it. They pulled him over and – poof – Klein was no longer a prisoner in his home.
Klein has been roosting in jail since the cops pulled him over on New Year's Day. During his time in jail, Klein shed 65 pounds. Either he didn’t like what his jailers fed him or Weightwatchers must have prepared those meals.
When Klein appeared in court on Friday, his little joyride led the judge to sentence the ‘no longer a prisoner in his home’ to 18 months in the slammer.
Jeffery Klein has just been nominated for the prestigious ‘Stupid Fat Slob of the Year’ award.
Holy shit, just think that if Klein continues to lose 65 pounds a month, he will simply vanish before the end of the year.
Thursday, January 29, 2015
FARCICAL JUSTICE
Florida teacher Christine Black is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for flinging her shoe in hubby Larry’s face when she catches him in their bed with another woman
Volusia County sheriff’s deputies turned Florida justice into a farce when they charged Christine Black, 46, with a felonious assault. The Florida teacher and mother of two, arrived at her Ormond Beach home Monday to find her loving hubby Larry, 48, in their bed with another woman.
Apparently Chris is not the swinger type. She seems to have gotten rather pissed off because she tossed one of her shoes right into Larry’s philandering face. Her lovey-dovey hubby sustained a small cut to the top of his noggin.
The sheriff’s deputies must have had a bad hair day because they busted Chris and hauled her unhappy ass off to the Volusia County Branch Jail where see was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a felony. She was being held without bond.
What kind of fucking justice is this? It’s farcical! Chris didn’t cut her cheating hubby’s wandering dick off, which she should have. Larry told the deputies that she was suicidal. If anything, the deputies could have taken Chris to a hospital, but locking her up for a felony … that’s incredulous!
What if those sheriff’s deputies handling this case had been women? Instead of busting Chris, they probably would have shot Larry.
Volusia County sheriff’s deputies turned Florida justice into a farce when they charged Christine Black, 46, with a felonious assault. The Florida teacher and mother of two, arrived at her Ormond Beach home Monday to find her loving hubby Larry, 48, in their bed with another woman.
Apparently Chris is not the swinger type. She seems to have gotten rather pissed off because she tossed one of her shoes right into Larry’s philandering face. Her lovey-dovey hubby sustained a small cut to the top of his noggin.
The sheriff’s deputies must have had a bad hair day because they busted Chris and hauled her unhappy ass off to the Volusia County Branch Jail where see was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a felony. She was being held without bond.
What kind of fucking justice is this? It’s farcical! Chris didn’t cut her cheating hubby’s wandering dick off, which she should have. Larry told the deputies that she was suicidal. If anything, the deputies could have taken Chris to a hospital, but locking her up for a felony … that’s incredulous!
What if those sheriff’s deputies handling this case had been women? Instead of busting Chris, they probably would have shot Larry.
IT’S A BITCH TO BE POOR IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
To get out of jail quicker, indigents often plead guilty even though they are innocent
Equal justice for all is a damn myth. There are two criminal justice systems – one for the well-off and one for the poor.
WHY DO PEOPLE PLEAD GUILTY TO DRUG CRIMES WHEN THEY DON’T HAVE DRUGS
By Michael Barajas
Houston Press
January 28, 2015
In its annual report released this week, the National Registry of Exonerations highlights a troubling oddity of the criminal justice system that's become more visible in Harris County than perhaps anywhere else in the country: People convicted of drug crimes in cases where there's no evidence of a controlled substance.
Back in October, the Houston Press received copies of hundreds of notices the Harris County District Attorney's Office sent out to defendants who'd pleaded guilty to drug offenses, telling them that forensic lab reports ultimately showed they were "convicted in error." In some of those cases, testing showed a lesser quantity of the drug than they were convicted for (the difference between, say, class A and class B misdemeanor possession). But in many of those cases lab reports simply showed there was no controlled substance whatsoever.
The report from the National Registry shows that in 2014, Texas recorded more exonerations than any other state because of these drug cases in Harris County. In all, Texas saw 39 exonerations last year, 29 of which were drug crime exonerations in Harris County (New York, the second on the list, saw 17 total exonerations last year). Those drug crime exonerations made 2014 a record-breaking year for the registry - it recorded 125 exonerations nationally for 2014, compared to 91 in 2013.
The Harris County DA's office says that in the past there was no central system or consistent protocol for handling such drug cases -- they'd essentially been divvied up to prosecutors who handled cases in the courts where the convictions took place, and most cases were never resolved. By the spring of 2014, however, the DA's office began to realize the full gravity of the problem, that hundreds of cases could be implicated by negative lab reports that were never sent to defendants or entered in court since prosecutors had already scored a guilty plea. The DA's post-conviction review section ultimately connected with the Harris County Public Defender's Office to "clean up the files," DA's spokesman Jeff McShan told us last year.
While high-profile DNA exonerations continue inspire gut-wrenching stories of murder defendants languishing in prison for years for crimes they didn't commit, these cases of drug convictions without drugs cast an uneasy shadow over a more routine part of the criminal justice system that touches a lot more people. Last year, the public defender's office told us they'd seen at least 350 of these cases, some of which stretch back to about 2004. Meaning that over the past decade, in just one county, hundreds of people were arrested and convicted who either had no drugs at all or were carrying such minuscule amounts that forensic lab testing couldn't even prove they had drugs.
It's unclear how some of these cases could ever be resolved and made right. Some of the no-controlled substance letters the DA's office sent out list local homeless shelters as a defendant's address. Given how old some of the convictions are, it's likely some defendants have since left the county or state.
All of this begs the question: why are people pleading guilty to drug crimes when they don't have drugs? Last year when we spoke with Nicolas Hughes, an assistant public defender who's been tasked with handling the Harris County cases, he offered up a couple of explanations. Some defendants probably thought they had drugs when they didn't. Others, even if they knew they were innocent, might have had criminal records and couldn't post the high bail, so they took a plea bargain that got them out of jail quickly, even with a drug conviction.
"A lot of the times the client is indigent, and the client's in jail, and they can't afford the bond," Hughes told us a couple of months ago. "So if you're sitting there in jail and they're making you a take-it-or-leave-it offer, some people might find that hard to turn down."
Hughes also offered this bit of insight:
"I can tell you I've had some cases where people have categorically denied that they had drugs, or at least that's what they told me. ... But I understand that there's a lot of pressure. Even a good trial lawyer could say, 'Look I believe you, but it's gonna have to go to trial, and it's going to take this amount of time to get there, and we're going to have to test the controlled substance and that's going to take time.' Sometimes you abandon the principle to get home to your family."
Last year when we talked to Hughes, he offered up a couple of ways to safeguard against these lesser-known types of wrongful convictions (admittedly long-shots, he says, because there's virtually no political will to protect drug defendants winding through the courts). If cops are going to make arrests for a simple drug crimes, like a trace cases, there should be some policy in place that police adequately test the substance before making an arrest. Hughes also said granting personal bond in more non-violent drug cases could reduce the pressure defendants feel to plead quickly, even if there are problems in the case or they swear their innocence.
"These are people clogging up the jails, needlessly in a lot of cases," Hughes told us. "They're people who shouldn't have been convicted."
And according to the folks at the National Registry of Exonerations, the Harris County drug cases might signal a deeper, festering problem within the system. Here's what they wrote in their report:
"There's a larger problem that's much less tractable: What about innocent defendants in non-drug cases who plead guilty to misdemeanors and comparatively light felonies - assault, shop lifting, breaking and entering - in order to avoid pretrial detention and the risk of long terms of imprisonment after trial? Or innocent drug defendants who plead guilty to possession of actual illegal drugs that belonged to someone else? There is no cheap, reliable test for guilt or innocence in those cases. Very few such convictions ever result in exoneration, but the number of false convictions involved could dwarf the total for serious felonies."
Equal justice for all is a damn myth. There are two criminal justice systems – one for the well-off and one for the poor.
WHY DO PEOPLE PLEAD GUILTY TO DRUG CRIMES WHEN THEY DON’T HAVE DRUGS
By Michael Barajas
Houston Press
January 28, 2015
In its annual report released this week, the National Registry of Exonerations highlights a troubling oddity of the criminal justice system that's become more visible in Harris County than perhaps anywhere else in the country: People convicted of drug crimes in cases where there's no evidence of a controlled substance.
Back in October, the Houston Press received copies of hundreds of notices the Harris County District Attorney's Office sent out to defendants who'd pleaded guilty to drug offenses, telling them that forensic lab reports ultimately showed they were "convicted in error." In some of those cases, testing showed a lesser quantity of the drug than they were convicted for (the difference between, say, class A and class B misdemeanor possession). But in many of those cases lab reports simply showed there was no controlled substance whatsoever.
The report from the National Registry shows that in 2014, Texas recorded more exonerations than any other state because of these drug cases in Harris County. In all, Texas saw 39 exonerations last year, 29 of which were drug crime exonerations in Harris County (New York, the second on the list, saw 17 total exonerations last year). Those drug crime exonerations made 2014 a record-breaking year for the registry - it recorded 125 exonerations nationally for 2014, compared to 91 in 2013.
The Harris County DA's office says that in the past there was no central system or consistent protocol for handling such drug cases -- they'd essentially been divvied up to prosecutors who handled cases in the courts where the convictions took place, and most cases were never resolved. By the spring of 2014, however, the DA's office began to realize the full gravity of the problem, that hundreds of cases could be implicated by negative lab reports that were never sent to defendants or entered in court since prosecutors had already scored a guilty plea. The DA's post-conviction review section ultimately connected with the Harris County Public Defender's Office to "clean up the files," DA's spokesman Jeff McShan told us last year.
While high-profile DNA exonerations continue inspire gut-wrenching stories of murder defendants languishing in prison for years for crimes they didn't commit, these cases of drug convictions without drugs cast an uneasy shadow over a more routine part of the criminal justice system that touches a lot more people. Last year, the public defender's office told us they'd seen at least 350 of these cases, some of which stretch back to about 2004. Meaning that over the past decade, in just one county, hundreds of people were arrested and convicted who either had no drugs at all or were carrying such minuscule amounts that forensic lab testing couldn't even prove they had drugs.
It's unclear how some of these cases could ever be resolved and made right. Some of the no-controlled substance letters the DA's office sent out list local homeless shelters as a defendant's address. Given how old some of the convictions are, it's likely some defendants have since left the county or state.
All of this begs the question: why are people pleading guilty to drug crimes when they don't have drugs? Last year when we spoke with Nicolas Hughes, an assistant public defender who's been tasked with handling the Harris County cases, he offered up a couple of explanations. Some defendants probably thought they had drugs when they didn't. Others, even if they knew they were innocent, might have had criminal records and couldn't post the high bail, so they took a plea bargain that got them out of jail quickly, even with a drug conviction.
"A lot of the times the client is indigent, and the client's in jail, and they can't afford the bond," Hughes told us a couple of months ago. "So if you're sitting there in jail and they're making you a take-it-or-leave-it offer, some people might find that hard to turn down."
Hughes also offered this bit of insight:
"I can tell you I've had some cases where people have categorically denied that they had drugs, or at least that's what they told me. ... But I understand that there's a lot of pressure. Even a good trial lawyer could say, 'Look I believe you, but it's gonna have to go to trial, and it's going to take this amount of time to get there, and we're going to have to test the controlled substance and that's going to take time.' Sometimes you abandon the principle to get home to your family."
Last year when we talked to Hughes, he offered up a couple of ways to safeguard against these lesser-known types of wrongful convictions (admittedly long-shots, he says, because there's virtually no political will to protect drug defendants winding through the courts). If cops are going to make arrests for a simple drug crimes, like a trace cases, there should be some policy in place that police adequately test the substance before making an arrest. Hughes also said granting personal bond in more non-violent drug cases could reduce the pressure defendants feel to plead quickly, even if there are problems in the case or they swear their innocence.
"These are people clogging up the jails, needlessly in a lot of cases," Hughes told us. "They're people who shouldn't have been convicted."
And according to the folks at the National Registry of Exonerations, the Harris County drug cases might signal a deeper, festering problem within the system. Here's what they wrote in their report:
"There's a larger problem that's much less tractable: What about innocent defendants in non-drug cases who plead guilty to misdemeanors and comparatively light felonies - assault, shop lifting, breaking and entering - in order to avoid pretrial detention and the risk of long terms of imprisonment after trial? Or innocent drug defendants who plead guilty to possession of actual illegal drugs that belonged to someone else? There is no cheap, reliable test for guilt or innocence in those cases. Very few such convictions ever result in exoneration, but the number of false convictions involved could dwarf the total for serious felonies."
MEXICAN MURDER VICTIM’S BODY FED TO CROCS
20-year-old Venancio Soberanis Pantoja was tortured to death before his body was disposed of by throwing it to crocodiles
Borderland Beat reports that some tourists and residents in the Mexican town of Lazaro Cardenas were standing on the bridge that crosses the Barra Santa Anna, a crocodile preserve, when they noticed a croc feasting on a human body. They notified the local authorities who with some soldiers took a rope and fashioned a noose with which they managed to snatch the body, minus one of its legs, from the croc’s grasp.
The body was later identifies as 20-year-old Venancio Soberanis Pantoja. Injuries to his head not believed to be inflicted by crocs, indicated that the youth had been tortured to death before being dumped into the preserve.
Lazaro Cardenas is located in the Mexican state of Michoacan, home to the Knights Templar drug cartel. The cartel has been known to throw its victims into the Barra Santa Anna. Feeding them to the crocs is a clever way of evidence disposal and sure beats having to dig graves.
In this case, some nosy tourists had to spoil a croc’s gourmet meal.
Borderland Beat reports that some tourists and residents in the Mexican town of Lazaro Cardenas were standing on the bridge that crosses the Barra Santa Anna, a crocodile preserve, when they noticed a croc feasting on a human body. They notified the local authorities who with some soldiers took a rope and fashioned a noose with which they managed to snatch the body, minus one of its legs, from the croc’s grasp.
The body was later identifies as 20-year-old Venancio Soberanis Pantoja. Injuries to his head not believed to be inflicted by crocs, indicated that the youth had been tortured to death before being dumped into the preserve.
Lazaro Cardenas is located in the Mexican state of Michoacan, home to the Knights Templar drug cartel. The cartel has been known to throw its victims into the Barra Santa Anna. Feeding them to the crocs is a clever way of evidence disposal and sure beats having to dig graves.
In this case, some nosy tourists had to spoil a croc’s gourmet meal.
U.S. CAN HAVE EL CHAPO IN 300 OR 400 YEARS
Mexico will not extradite Sinaloa drug cartel leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman to the U.S., at least not for several hundred years
Mexican Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam told the Associated Press that he expects to get a formal extradition request from the United States, but that the U.S. will have to wait until Sinaloa drug cartel leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman has finished serving his time for all the crimes he is charged with.
Murillo Karam expects that the sentences El Chapo receives may add up to 300 or 400 years. After that Washington is welcome to him.
It looks like El Chapo will enjoy a luxurious life style in a Mexican prison. He may even bribe his way out to freedom.
I herewith urge President Obama and Attorney General Holder to hold their collective breaths until Mexico extradites El Chapo.
Mexican Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam told the Associated Press that he expects to get a formal extradition request from the United States, but that the U.S. will have to wait until Sinaloa drug cartel leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman has finished serving his time for all the crimes he is charged with.
Murillo Karam expects that the sentences El Chapo receives may add up to 300 or 400 years. After that Washington is welcome to him.
It looks like El Chapo will enjoy a luxurious life style in a Mexican prison. He may even bribe his way out to freedom.
I herewith urge President Obama and Attorney General Holder to hold their collective breaths until Mexico extradites El Chapo.
OLFACTORY FINGERPRINTS FROM NOSEWITNESS IDENTIFICATION
Researchers find that the sense of smell is more reliable than eyewitness identification
In their study, Nosewitness Identification: Effects of Negative Emotion, the research team of Laura Alho, Sandra C. Soares, Jacqueline Ferreira, Marta Rocha, Carlos F. Silva and Mats J. Olsson found that every individual’s body odor is different so that BO is similar to a fingerprint. Their study concludes that nosewitness testimony is more reliable than eyewitness testimony.
The study was conducted using eighty students from the University of Aveiro, Portugal. Alho et al. admit they need further exploration of their findings.
The sense of smell may indeed be more reliable than eyewitness identification, but I don’t think the courts will buy nosewitness identification in my lifetime and probably not in yours either, if you are in your 60s.
SENSE OF SMELL PROVIDES ‘NOSEWITNESS’ TESTIMONY FOR VICTIMS USING OLFACTORY ‘FINGERPRINT’
Researchers are looking into using olfactory senses to identify criminals of violent crimes, according to a new study
By Lecia Bushak
Medical Daily
January 27, 2015
Currently, victims of violent crimes must use visual memories to identify the criminal (known as the eyewitness lineup), but studies have shown that eyewitnesses actually show a decreased accuracy in recognizing culprits visually, perhaps due to the trauma associated with the event. If there was another way that humans could identify perpetrators of crimes — relying on a deeply intuitive sense that is strongly linked to memory — it could possibly be a game changer in forensics.
In a new study published in the journal PLOS ONE, researchers examined how the sense of smell could aid victims in better identifying criminals of violent crime. Previously, using smell in forensics had been completely overlooked. But the fact is, no one smells exactly alike; our body odors are comprised of specific things like age, diet, hormonal status, and even what parasites are in our bodies. On top of that, our noses are quite smart — especially when it comes to triggering memories.
“Every individual has a unique body odor (BO), similar to a fingerprint,” the researchers wrote in their abstract. “In forensic research, identification of culprit BOs has been performed by trained dogs, but not by humans. We introduce the concept of nosewitness identification and present the first experimental results on BO memory in witness situations involving violent crimes.”
They found that smelling criminals’ odors helped people identify them 75 percent of the time, which is a significant increase from the 45 to 60 percent that people correctly identify criminals via the traditional eyewitness lineup.
“Our results suggest that humans are capable of identifying a culprit by way of odor,” the researchers added. “When the perpetrator and the victim are close to one another, as in crimes of sexual and physical assault, and especially under visually obscure conditions, an olfactory cue may be the prevailing detail.”
The researchers took body odor samples from the armpits of 20 healthy participants for the study. They then showed videos of violent crimes to 40 students, providing each with a specific odor sample. Afterward, the students were asked to sniff five different smelly glass jars, then told to identify which stench was associated with the criminal.
The authors aren’t entirely certain what made the participants associate the criminal strongly with smell, although they hypothesize that it might have to do with negative emotions during the encoding of the body odors. In a second experiment in the study, they found that associating odors with negative experiences actually enhanced participants’ ability to identify the odor again later, compared with people who had neutral experiences. This might have something to do with the fact that the sense of smell has been shown in previous research to be a strong trigger for memories — more so than any other sense. Taking a smell of a long-lost teen chapstick, for example, can take you back to a specific moment in your past — like sitting in your parents’ car as a 15-year-old on the way to summer school.
“Odors and faces are inherently different types of stimuli in several ways, and memory for odors may thus be differently influenced by emotion than memory for faces,” the authors concluded. “Although the relation between emotion and olfaction has gained considerable interest, the current study is the first, to our knowledge, indicating that negative emotion during encoding can enhance actual recognition. However, there is much to do in order to complete the picture, such as direct comparative studies of odor an visual stimuli.”
While this experiment wasn’t done in the real world, 75 percent accuracy is still pretty significant — and the researchers believe they need to explore it further.
Source: Alho L, Soares S, Ferreira J, Rocha M, Silva C, Olsson M. Nosewitness Identification: Effects of Negative Emotion. PLOS ONE. 2015.
In their study, Nosewitness Identification: Effects of Negative Emotion, the research team of Laura Alho, Sandra C. Soares, Jacqueline Ferreira, Marta Rocha, Carlos F. Silva and Mats J. Olsson found that every individual’s body odor is different so that BO is similar to a fingerprint. Their study concludes that nosewitness testimony is more reliable than eyewitness testimony.
The study was conducted using eighty students from the University of Aveiro, Portugal. Alho et al. admit they need further exploration of their findings.
The sense of smell may indeed be more reliable than eyewitness identification, but I don’t think the courts will buy nosewitness identification in my lifetime and probably not in yours either, if you are in your 60s.
SENSE OF SMELL PROVIDES ‘NOSEWITNESS’ TESTIMONY FOR VICTIMS USING OLFACTORY ‘FINGERPRINT’
Researchers are looking into using olfactory senses to identify criminals of violent crimes, according to a new study
By Lecia Bushak
Medical Daily
January 27, 2015
Currently, victims of violent crimes must use visual memories to identify the criminal (known as the eyewitness lineup), but studies have shown that eyewitnesses actually show a decreased accuracy in recognizing culprits visually, perhaps due to the trauma associated with the event. If there was another way that humans could identify perpetrators of crimes — relying on a deeply intuitive sense that is strongly linked to memory — it could possibly be a game changer in forensics.
In a new study published in the journal PLOS ONE, researchers examined how the sense of smell could aid victims in better identifying criminals of violent crime. Previously, using smell in forensics had been completely overlooked. But the fact is, no one smells exactly alike; our body odors are comprised of specific things like age, diet, hormonal status, and even what parasites are in our bodies. On top of that, our noses are quite smart — especially when it comes to triggering memories.
“Every individual has a unique body odor (BO), similar to a fingerprint,” the researchers wrote in their abstract. “In forensic research, identification of culprit BOs has been performed by trained dogs, but not by humans. We introduce the concept of nosewitness identification and present the first experimental results on BO memory in witness situations involving violent crimes.”
They found that smelling criminals’ odors helped people identify them 75 percent of the time, which is a significant increase from the 45 to 60 percent that people correctly identify criminals via the traditional eyewitness lineup.
“Our results suggest that humans are capable of identifying a culprit by way of odor,” the researchers added. “When the perpetrator and the victim are close to one another, as in crimes of sexual and physical assault, and especially under visually obscure conditions, an olfactory cue may be the prevailing detail.”
The researchers took body odor samples from the armpits of 20 healthy participants for the study. They then showed videos of violent crimes to 40 students, providing each with a specific odor sample. Afterward, the students were asked to sniff five different smelly glass jars, then told to identify which stench was associated with the criminal.
The authors aren’t entirely certain what made the participants associate the criminal strongly with smell, although they hypothesize that it might have to do with negative emotions during the encoding of the body odors. In a second experiment in the study, they found that associating odors with negative experiences actually enhanced participants’ ability to identify the odor again later, compared with people who had neutral experiences. This might have something to do with the fact that the sense of smell has been shown in previous research to be a strong trigger for memories — more so than any other sense. Taking a smell of a long-lost teen chapstick, for example, can take you back to a specific moment in your past — like sitting in your parents’ car as a 15-year-old on the way to summer school.
“Odors and faces are inherently different types of stimuli in several ways, and memory for odors may thus be differently influenced by emotion than memory for faces,” the authors concluded. “Although the relation between emotion and olfaction has gained considerable interest, the current study is the first, to our knowledge, indicating that negative emotion during encoding can enhance actual recognition. However, there is much to do in order to complete the picture, such as direct comparative studies of odor an visual stimuli.”
While this experiment wasn’t done in the real world, 75 percent accuracy is still pretty significant — and the researchers believe they need to explore it further.
Source: Alho L, Soares S, Ferreira J, Rocha M, Silva C, Olsson M. Nosewitness Identification: Effects of Negative Emotion. PLOS ONE. 2015.
MILK VERSUS WINE
The Unconventional Gazette
January 28, 2015
Health experts and dieticians say that drinking milk makes you stronger.
Drink 5 glasses of milk and try to move a wall. Can’t?
Now drink 5 glasses of wine.
After 5 glasses of wine, the wall moves all by itself!
January 28, 2015
Health experts and dieticians say that drinking milk makes you stronger.
Drink 5 glasses of milk and try to move a wall. Can’t?
Now drink 5 glasses of wine.
After 5 glasses of wine, the wall moves all by itself!
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
A BRIEF LOOK AT ISRAEL
The land that the Iranians and Palestinians want to obliterate and Europe loves to hate.
POT AND COKE MADE THE CONDEMNED A NUTCASE
Sentenced to death by a Texas jury, a last minute appeal by Garcia White argues that when he killed three women, he was suffering from severe mental illness brought on by his use of marijuana and cocaine
Death penalty appeals range from the routine to those last minute e appeals. The initial appeals usually argue that the defendant’s life should be spared because he had an inadequate defense by an incompetent lawyer, or that the judge erred in the jury instructions, or that he had a difficult childhood or was sexually abused, or that he had never been taught right from wrong, or that had been rehabilitated while roosting on death row, etc., etc.
Then there are those Eighth Amendment appeals. It is cruel and unusual punishment to execute the defendant because he is mentally ill or who has a low IQ, or as in a California case and one in Texas, it is cruel and unusual punishment to execute the defendant after he has been lingering on death row for decades. Then there are the most recent last minute appeals arguing that the lethal drugs now in use will cause the defendant to experience an agonizing and painful death.
Now we have a new and different last minute appeal claiming that pot and coke made the condemned a nutcase.
Garcia Glen White, 51, is not a very nice man. He has murdered five people. In 1989, White went to Bonita Edwards’ Houston home to smoke some crack with her. During an argument with Bonita, he stabbed her to death. Then he stabbed her 16-year-old twin daughters, Annette and Bernette, to death as well. The not so nice man also raped Bernette while he was at it.
From The Austin Chronicle:
It took six years for Houston police to tie the murders back to White. In 1995, during questioning for a convenience store robbery that resulted in the death of shop owner Hai Pham, White's friend and accomplice Tecumseh Manuel told authorities that White was responsible for the Edwards' deaths (and had killed another woman, Greta Williams, in the weeks before that). White was brought in, and eventually confessed to all five killings.
In 1996, White was convicted and sentenced to death for the murders of Annette and Bernette Edwards. His initial and subsequent appeals argued unsuccessfully that his jury selection, jury instructions, his statements to police and the punishment charge were all improper. His latest date with death was scheduled for this evening.
In an effort to spare White’s life, his lawyers have come up with a new and different last minute appeal. The lawyers argue that when White killed the twins, he was suffering from severe mental illness brought on by his use of marijuana and cocaine.
And this should come as a real shock to the proponents of pot. White’s lawyers argue that scientific studies since 2002 reveal that “When someone builds a tolerance to marijuana, withdrawal may result in aggression. The unpleasant effects were generally unknown in the medical community until … 2013.” Me thinks this shoots down that harmless pot mantra.
The ‘pot and coke made me nuts’ appeal seems to have caught some traction. On Tuesday the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s highest criminal appellate court, called off White’s execution without an explanation. All I can say about the judges who voted to stop the execution of this killer of five is that something in the rarefied air of that high court must have made them nuts. I seriously doubt the U.S. Supreme Court would have spared the worthless life of this pot-head shitass.
It used to be that the devil made me do it. Now it’s the marijuana and cocaine that made me do it. What’s next – could it be the tooth fairy that made me do it?
Death penalty appeals range from the routine to those last minute e appeals. The initial appeals usually argue that the defendant’s life should be spared because he had an inadequate defense by an incompetent lawyer, or that the judge erred in the jury instructions, or that he had a difficult childhood or was sexually abused, or that he had never been taught right from wrong, or that had been rehabilitated while roosting on death row, etc., etc.
Then there are those Eighth Amendment appeals. It is cruel and unusual punishment to execute the defendant because he is mentally ill or who has a low IQ, or as in a California case and one in Texas, it is cruel and unusual punishment to execute the defendant after he has been lingering on death row for decades. Then there are the most recent last minute appeals arguing that the lethal drugs now in use will cause the defendant to experience an agonizing and painful death.
Now we have a new and different last minute appeal claiming that pot and coke made the condemned a nutcase.
Garcia Glen White, 51, is not a very nice man. He has murdered five people. In 1989, White went to Bonita Edwards’ Houston home to smoke some crack with her. During an argument with Bonita, he stabbed her to death. Then he stabbed her 16-year-old twin daughters, Annette and Bernette, to death as well. The not so nice man also raped Bernette while he was at it.
From The Austin Chronicle:
It took six years for Houston police to tie the murders back to White. In 1995, during questioning for a convenience store robbery that resulted in the death of shop owner Hai Pham, White's friend and accomplice Tecumseh Manuel told authorities that White was responsible for the Edwards' deaths (and had killed another woman, Greta Williams, in the weeks before that). White was brought in, and eventually confessed to all five killings.
In 1996, White was convicted and sentenced to death for the murders of Annette and Bernette Edwards. His initial and subsequent appeals argued unsuccessfully that his jury selection, jury instructions, his statements to police and the punishment charge were all improper. His latest date with death was scheduled for this evening.
In an effort to spare White’s life, his lawyers have come up with a new and different last minute appeal. The lawyers argue that when White killed the twins, he was suffering from severe mental illness brought on by his use of marijuana and cocaine.
And this should come as a real shock to the proponents of pot. White’s lawyers argue that scientific studies since 2002 reveal that “When someone builds a tolerance to marijuana, withdrawal may result in aggression. The unpleasant effects were generally unknown in the medical community until … 2013.” Me thinks this shoots down that harmless pot mantra.
The ‘pot and coke made me nuts’ appeal seems to have caught some traction. On Tuesday the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s highest criminal appellate court, called off White’s execution without an explanation. All I can say about the judges who voted to stop the execution of this killer of five is that something in the rarefied air of that high court must have made them nuts. I seriously doubt the U.S. Supreme Court would have spared the worthless life of this pot-head shitass.
It used to be that the devil made me do it. Now it’s the marijuana and cocaine that made me do it. What’s next – could it be the tooth fairy that made me do it?
GEORGEA EXECUTES ALLEGED DUMB-DUMB
Two-time murderer Warren Lee Hill was executed Tuesday despite pleas that he had the mental capacity of a 12-year-old
Just 30 minutes before his scheduled execution by the State of Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court turned down Warren Lee Hill’s appeal which argued that he could not be executed because he had the intellectual capacity of a 12-year-old.
The alleged dumb-dumb was executed Tuesday at the state prison in Jackson and pronounced dead at 7:55 p.m.
Hill had been sentenced to death for the August 1990 beating death of fellow Georgia prison inmate Joseph Handspike. At the time Hill was serving a life sentence for the 1985 murder of 18-year-old Myra Wright, his girlfriend at the time.
Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn, the ACLU, the NAACP, the European Union and the usual human rights organizations tried desperately to spare the life of this two-time killer.
The European Union? I thought the EU had plenty of serious problems of its own. What the hell is the EU doing sticking its nose into our business?
As for that alleged dumb-dumb, adios Warren and good riddance!
Just 30 minutes before his scheduled execution by the State of Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court turned down Warren Lee Hill’s appeal which argued that he could not be executed because he had the intellectual capacity of a 12-year-old.
The alleged dumb-dumb was executed Tuesday at the state prison in Jackson and pronounced dead at 7:55 p.m.
Hill had been sentenced to death for the August 1990 beating death of fellow Georgia prison inmate Joseph Handspike. At the time Hill was serving a life sentence for the 1985 murder of 18-year-old Myra Wright, his girlfriend at the time.
Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn, the ACLU, the NAACP, the European Union and the usual human rights organizations tried desperately to spare the life of this two-time killer.
The European Union? I thought the EU had plenty of serious problems of its own. What the hell is the EU doing sticking its nose into our business?
As for that alleged dumb-dumb, adios Warren and good riddance!
BERGDAHL TO BE CHARGED WITH DESERTION
Reports indicate that Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was exchanged for five Taliban leaders last year, is a about to be charged with desertion
In June 2009, Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl disappeared from his combat post in Afghanistan only to turn up as a prisoner of the Taliban. Last May, Bergdahl was released by his captors in exchange for five Taliban leaders being held in U.S. custody at Guantanamo.
Several of Bergdahl’s former platoon mates accused him of deserting his post. Sgt. Jordan Vaughn, a former member of the platoon, told the Daily Mail he had recently contacted other members of the platoon and that each of them agreed Bergdahl was a deserter who should be court martialed.
The army’s investigation of those charges apparently wrapped up awhile back and, according to a number of reports, Bergdahl will be charged with desertion.
Retired Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer told The O’Reilly Factor that the Pentagon is eager to court martial Bergdahl for desertion, but the Obama administration does not want the results of the investigation made public. The administration is still smarting over the criticism of the prisoner swap and does not want Obama to be further embarrassed for inviting Bergdahl’s parents to the White House after their son’s release by the Taliban.
If formally charged with desertion, Bergdahl will lose the $300,000 in back pay that he accumulated while a prisoner of the Taliban and he will be busted from sergeant back to his previous rank of PFC.
The Pentagon and the Obama administration should have conducted an investigation prior to the prisoner exchange instead of afterwards. Had they determined that Bergdahl deserted his post, they should have let the bastard rot as a prisoner of the Taliban. By any stretch of the imagination, Bergdahl was not anywhere near worth five Taliban leaders.
In June 2009, Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl disappeared from his combat post in Afghanistan only to turn up as a prisoner of the Taliban. Last May, Bergdahl was released by his captors in exchange for five Taliban leaders being held in U.S. custody at Guantanamo.
Several of Bergdahl’s former platoon mates accused him of deserting his post. Sgt. Jordan Vaughn, a former member of the platoon, told the Daily Mail he had recently contacted other members of the platoon and that each of them agreed Bergdahl was a deserter who should be court martialed.
The army’s investigation of those charges apparently wrapped up awhile back and, according to a number of reports, Bergdahl will be charged with desertion.
Retired Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer told The O’Reilly Factor that the Pentagon is eager to court martial Bergdahl for desertion, but the Obama administration does not want the results of the investigation made public. The administration is still smarting over the criticism of the prisoner swap and does not want Obama to be further embarrassed for inviting Bergdahl’s parents to the White House after their son’s release by the Taliban.
If formally charged with desertion, Bergdahl will lose the $300,000 in back pay that he accumulated while a prisoner of the Taliban and he will be busted from sergeant back to his previous rank of PFC.
The Pentagon and the Obama administration should have conducted an investigation prior to the prisoner exchange instead of afterwards. Had they determined that Bergdahl deserted his post, they should have let the bastard rot as a prisoner of the Taliban. By any stretch of the imagination, Bergdahl was not anywhere near worth five Taliban leaders.
TWIN CHICAGO RATS WILL FOREVER HAVE TO LOOK OVER THEIR SHOULDERS
Pedro and Margarito Flores ratted out El Chapo and other top leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel after the twins had helped smuggle 71 tons of cocaine and heroin to Chicago and $2 billion in cash to Mexico
The twins are due to get short prison sentences in return for ratting out El Chapo, the boss of the Sinaloa Cartel, and some of the cartel’s other top leaders. Pedro and Margarito Flores were facing life sentences for helping the cartel smuggle 71 tons of cocaine and heroin to Chicago and $2 billion in cash to Mexico. Their families have been placed in the federal witness protection program and the twins will forever have to look over their shoulders because Mexicans have a long memory when seeking revenge for a betrayal.
SENTENCING TODAY FOR TWINS WHO FLIPPED ON ‘EL CHAPO’
Pedro and Margarito Flores have been held in secret locations since working undercover for the last six years while helping to bring down El Chapo
By Jason Meisner
Chicago Tribune
January 27, 2015
For a couple of drug dealers from Chicago's West Side, twin brothers Pedro and Margarito Flores had hit the big time by November 2008, negotiating a heroin deal over the phone in Mexico with none other than Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the notorious Sinaloa cartel boss who at the time was the most wanted man in the world.
Pedro did the talking, convincing Guzman to drop the price on a freshly delivered shipment of heroin and also arranging a new deal that would bring about 40 kilograms a month of the cartel's narcotics into the Chicago area, court records show. Half an hour later, Flores' cellphone rang again. El Chapo handed his phone to an underling who gave instructions on how and where to make the $1 million cash payment.
What Guzman couldn't have fathomed was that U.S. federal agents were listening in on the calls that night. The heroin had been picked up in Chicago by an undercover officer posing as a courier. The Flores brothers had flipped.
Six years after they became arguably the most important informants in the U.S. government's decadeslong war on drugs, Pedro and Margarito Flores will make their first court appearance Tuesday for their sentencing at the federal courthouse in Chicago amid heightened security.
Prosecutors plan to ask U.S. District Chief Judge Ruben Castillo for as little as 10 years behind bars for the twins, who pleaded guilty to drug conspiracy in 2012 and have been in the witness protection program. It's an extraordinary break from what almost certainly would have been a life sentence given the staggering amount of drugs and money the Flores brothers helped smuggle — at least 71 tons of cocaine and heroin and nearly $2 billion in cash, according to one government estimate.
Prosecutors said in court papers the light sentence was earned because of the danger the twins put themselves in through undercover work that eventually led to indictments against Guzman, his top Sinaloa cartel leaders, and dozens of other drug wholesalers and middlemen from Chicago to Mexico.
Born and raised in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood, the 34-year-old twins have been held in secret locations for more than six years. Their immediate family members were given new identities and set up with $300,000 to pay for living expenses for the foreseeable future. Even when they are released from custody, the brothers' lives will never be the same, prosecutors said.
"As two of the most well-known cooperating witnesses in the country, the Flores brothers (and their families) will live the rest of their lives in danger of being killed in retribution," prosecutors wrote. "The barbarism of the cartels is legend, with a special place reserved for those who cooperate."
The concerns over possible attempts at retribution extend to the brothers' Chicago attorney, whose identity has been kept secret for safety reasons in an extraordinary step. It's unclear whether the attorney will even be in court Tuesday for the sentencing. Extra metal detectors and bomb-sniffing dogs are expected to add another layer of security at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse.
The Flores brothers' cooperation has already had real repercussions. Shortly after word got out that the brothers were in DEA custody, their father, Margarito Flores Sr., returned to Mexico against his sons' wishes and despite stern warnings from their government handlers, according to prosecutors.
Within days, the father was kidnapped and presumed to be murdered, the filing said. A note found at the scene of the kidnapping said his sons were next.
Some of the brothers' double-dealing was the stuff of movies. The Flores brothers met with cartel leaders in mountaintop compounds, captured conversations with Guzman's lieutenants with a voice recorder hidden in a coat pocket and even helped prosecutors by cutting deals with a rival faction of the cartel that would have meant certain death if discovered by either side, court records show.
"It was incredibly daring," said Joseph Lopez, a Chicago attorney who has represented many cartel clients. "These guys were allegedly able to get Chapo on tape talking about heroin. He trusted them that much."
The Flores brothers' sentencing marks the end of one of the more remarkable stories of Chicago's cut-throat drug underworld, where in a few short years the twins rose through the ranks of the Latin Kings street gang to eventually run a drug distribution ring that shipped thousands of pounds of narcotics to wholesale customers in New York, Washington, Cincinnati and other cities.
By the time they flipped in 2008 and agreed to dismantle their operation, the twins had reached "the highest echelons of the cartel world," prosecutors said.
They built their mini-empire using a system of couriers and henchmen whom they trusted to drive loads in vehicles outfitted with secret compartments and hydraulic trap doors, court records show. The drugs were often picked up in broad daylight, in supermarket parking lots and outside of South Loop dollar stores, and kept in innocuous-looking stash houses from Chicago to Aurora. Through it all, the Floreses kept a low profile. Their associates mostly had clean records, and they were not known for the rampant violence that many associate with street-level dealing.
Their main supplier was Guzman, whose vast operations included a fleet of 747 jets that had all the seats removed, the brothers said in sworn statements to a federal grand jury.
According to their statements, Guzman would load the planes with clothes and other goods and fly bogus "humanitarian" missions to South America. On the return trip to Mexico City, the brothers said, the planes would be packed with as much as 12,000 kilograms — about 14 tons — of cocaine that was unloaded and driven out of the airport with the help of corrupt officials.
The brothers said Guzman's various lieutenants helped the cartel coordinate shipments of cocaine from Colombia to Mexico using submarines, speedboats and amphibious vessels to avoid law enforcement at sea.
In 2007, the brothers agreed to invest $600,000 with Alfredo Vasquez-Hernandez, Guzman's boyhood friend, to open a furniture exporting company that would act as a front to ship cocaine by rail, with loads hidden behind false walls in the boxcars, according to the statements. Vasquez-Hernandez, a trusted lieutenant of El Chapo and one of the main contacts between the cartel and the Flores twins, pleaded guilty to drug conspiracy and was sentenced in November to 22 years in prison.
In all, the Flores twins pleaded guilty to distributing more than 64,500 kilograms of cocaine, an "almost incomprehensible quantity ... with resulting harm that is incalculable but without question horrific," prosecutors said.
Their testimony led to sweeping indictments in 2009 against 54 defendants, including Guzman, who remained a fugitive until his sensational arrest in Mexico last February. It's unclear whether he'll ever be extradited to face charges in the U.S., where he is also under indictment in New York and Texas.
The Floreses' cooperation also led to the flipping of another key witness, Sinaloa underboss Vincente Zambada-Niebla, who in 2013 secretly pleaded guilty to acting as the key coordinator of a billion-dollar cocaine and heroin operation on behalf of a faction of the cartel run by his father, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada. Zambada-Niebla is awaiting sentencing.
At the same time they were cooperating against the cartel, the Flores twins also assisted in the dismantling of their organization in 2009, creating a highly unusual situation where the bosses were cooperating against underlings. The arrests occurred after the Floreses were flown back to the U.S. by the Drug Enforcement Administration and instructed to set up a series of phony transactions to catch the couriers in the act.
"They set up their own customers," Lopez said.
As those cases moved forward, many defense attorneys questioned why the government allowed the twins to continue to import massive amounts of narcotics into the U.S. while their cooperation was ongoing.
At least one shipment — a 276-kilogram load of cocaine that was part of a deal with Vasquez-Hernandez — made it to Chicago and was distributed on the streets without the knowledge of federal investigators. The brothers later told prosecutors they needed the proceeds from the sale to avoid falling behind on payments to the cartel, which would have made their continued cooperation impossible, court records show.
There were also questions of whether the feds were willing to look the other way on alleged violence committed by the Flores brothers, including two killings.
One involved the cartel-related slaying of Guadalupe Ledesma in Mexico. A cooperating witness had told investigators the Flores brothers were "directly responsible" for the killing, prosecutors said. That information was never verified, however, and several others were eventually convicted of murder in Mexico without implicating the brothers.
Meanwhile, there were accusations that the Flores twins were still accumulating wealth while they were cooperating. In court papers, prosecutors acknowledged that some of their flamboyant purchases were "wholly inappropriate" for informants living in protective custody, including a Bentley that was given to Pedro Flores' wife as a gift. There were rumors the brothers had buried millions of dollars in drug proceeds in backyards in Chicago and other locations.
In all, the government seized more than $4 million in drug proceeds from the Flores twins, and prosecutors wrote in a court filing that after an exhaustive investigation they do "not believe that the Flores brothers are hiding assets."
The twins are due to get short prison sentences in return for ratting out El Chapo, the boss of the Sinaloa Cartel, and some of the cartel’s other top leaders. Pedro and Margarito Flores were facing life sentences for helping the cartel smuggle 71 tons of cocaine and heroin to Chicago and $2 billion in cash to Mexico. Their families have been placed in the federal witness protection program and the twins will forever have to look over their shoulders because Mexicans have a long memory when seeking revenge for a betrayal.
SENTENCING TODAY FOR TWINS WHO FLIPPED ON ‘EL CHAPO’
Pedro and Margarito Flores have been held in secret locations since working undercover for the last six years while helping to bring down El Chapo
By Jason Meisner
Chicago Tribune
January 27, 2015
For a couple of drug dealers from Chicago's West Side, twin brothers Pedro and Margarito Flores had hit the big time by November 2008, negotiating a heroin deal over the phone in Mexico with none other than Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the notorious Sinaloa cartel boss who at the time was the most wanted man in the world.
Pedro did the talking, convincing Guzman to drop the price on a freshly delivered shipment of heroin and also arranging a new deal that would bring about 40 kilograms a month of the cartel's narcotics into the Chicago area, court records show. Half an hour later, Flores' cellphone rang again. El Chapo handed his phone to an underling who gave instructions on how and where to make the $1 million cash payment.
What Guzman couldn't have fathomed was that U.S. federal agents were listening in on the calls that night. The heroin had been picked up in Chicago by an undercover officer posing as a courier. The Flores brothers had flipped.
Six years after they became arguably the most important informants in the U.S. government's decadeslong war on drugs, Pedro and Margarito Flores will make their first court appearance Tuesday for their sentencing at the federal courthouse in Chicago amid heightened security.
Prosecutors plan to ask U.S. District Chief Judge Ruben Castillo for as little as 10 years behind bars for the twins, who pleaded guilty to drug conspiracy in 2012 and have been in the witness protection program. It's an extraordinary break from what almost certainly would have been a life sentence given the staggering amount of drugs and money the Flores brothers helped smuggle — at least 71 tons of cocaine and heroin and nearly $2 billion in cash, according to one government estimate.
Prosecutors said in court papers the light sentence was earned because of the danger the twins put themselves in through undercover work that eventually led to indictments against Guzman, his top Sinaloa cartel leaders, and dozens of other drug wholesalers and middlemen from Chicago to Mexico.
Born and raised in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood, the 34-year-old twins have been held in secret locations for more than six years. Their immediate family members were given new identities and set up with $300,000 to pay for living expenses for the foreseeable future. Even when they are released from custody, the brothers' lives will never be the same, prosecutors said.
"As two of the most well-known cooperating witnesses in the country, the Flores brothers (and their families) will live the rest of their lives in danger of being killed in retribution," prosecutors wrote. "The barbarism of the cartels is legend, with a special place reserved for those who cooperate."
The concerns over possible attempts at retribution extend to the brothers' Chicago attorney, whose identity has been kept secret for safety reasons in an extraordinary step. It's unclear whether the attorney will even be in court Tuesday for the sentencing. Extra metal detectors and bomb-sniffing dogs are expected to add another layer of security at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse.
The Flores brothers' cooperation has already had real repercussions. Shortly after word got out that the brothers were in DEA custody, their father, Margarito Flores Sr., returned to Mexico against his sons' wishes and despite stern warnings from their government handlers, according to prosecutors.
Within days, the father was kidnapped and presumed to be murdered, the filing said. A note found at the scene of the kidnapping said his sons were next.
Some of the brothers' double-dealing was the stuff of movies. The Flores brothers met with cartel leaders in mountaintop compounds, captured conversations with Guzman's lieutenants with a voice recorder hidden in a coat pocket and even helped prosecutors by cutting deals with a rival faction of the cartel that would have meant certain death if discovered by either side, court records show.
"It was incredibly daring," said Joseph Lopez, a Chicago attorney who has represented many cartel clients. "These guys were allegedly able to get Chapo on tape talking about heroin. He trusted them that much."
The Flores brothers' sentencing marks the end of one of the more remarkable stories of Chicago's cut-throat drug underworld, where in a few short years the twins rose through the ranks of the Latin Kings street gang to eventually run a drug distribution ring that shipped thousands of pounds of narcotics to wholesale customers in New York, Washington, Cincinnati and other cities.
By the time they flipped in 2008 and agreed to dismantle their operation, the twins had reached "the highest echelons of the cartel world," prosecutors said.
They built their mini-empire using a system of couriers and henchmen whom they trusted to drive loads in vehicles outfitted with secret compartments and hydraulic trap doors, court records show. The drugs were often picked up in broad daylight, in supermarket parking lots and outside of South Loop dollar stores, and kept in innocuous-looking stash houses from Chicago to Aurora. Through it all, the Floreses kept a low profile. Their associates mostly had clean records, and they were not known for the rampant violence that many associate with street-level dealing.
Their main supplier was Guzman, whose vast operations included a fleet of 747 jets that had all the seats removed, the brothers said in sworn statements to a federal grand jury.
According to their statements, Guzman would load the planes with clothes and other goods and fly bogus "humanitarian" missions to South America. On the return trip to Mexico City, the brothers said, the planes would be packed with as much as 12,000 kilograms — about 14 tons — of cocaine that was unloaded and driven out of the airport with the help of corrupt officials.
The brothers said Guzman's various lieutenants helped the cartel coordinate shipments of cocaine from Colombia to Mexico using submarines, speedboats and amphibious vessels to avoid law enforcement at sea.
In 2007, the brothers agreed to invest $600,000 with Alfredo Vasquez-Hernandez, Guzman's boyhood friend, to open a furniture exporting company that would act as a front to ship cocaine by rail, with loads hidden behind false walls in the boxcars, according to the statements. Vasquez-Hernandez, a trusted lieutenant of El Chapo and one of the main contacts between the cartel and the Flores twins, pleaded guilty to drug conspiracy and was sentenced in November to 22 years in prison.
In all, the Flores twins pleaded guilty to distributing more than 64,500 kilograms of cocaine, an "almost incomprehensible quantity ... with resulting harm that is incalculable but without question horrific," prosecutors said.
Their testimony led to sweeping indictments in 2009 against 54 defendants, including Guzman, who remained a fugitive until his sensational arrest in Mexico last February. It's unclear whether he'll ever be extradited to face charges in the U.S., where he is also under indictment in New York and Texas.
The Floreses' cooperation also led to the flipping of another key witness, Sinaloa underboss Vincente Zambada-Niebla, who in 2013 secretly pleaded guilty to acting as the key coordinator of a billion-dollar cocaine and heroin operation on behalf of a faction of the cartel run by his father, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada. Zambada-Niebla is awaiting sentencing.
At the same time they were cooperating against the cartel, the Flores twins also assisted in the dismantling of their organization in 2009, creating a highly unusual situation where the bosses were cooperating against underlings. The arrests occurred after the Floreses were flown back to the U.S. by the Drug Enforcement Administration and instructed to set up a series of phony transactions to catch the couriers in the act.
"They set up their own customers," Lopez said.
As those cases moved forward, many defense attorneys questioned why the government allowed the twins to continue to import massive amounts of narcotics into the U.S. while their cooperation was ongoing.
At least one shipment — a 276-kilogram load of cocaine that was part of a deal with Vasquez-Hernandez — made it to Chicago and was distributed on the streets without the knowledge of federal investigators. The brothers later told prosecutors they needed the proceeds from the sale to avoid falling behind on payments to the cartel, which would have made their continued cooperation impossible, court records show.
There were also questions of whether the feds were willing to look the other way on alleged violence committed by the Flores brothers, including two killings.
One involved the cartel-related slaying of Guadalupe Ledesma in Mexico. A cooperating witness had told investigators the Flores brothers were "directly responsible" for the killing, prosecutors said. That information was never verified, however, and several others were eventually convicted of murder in Mexico without implicating the brothers.
Meanwhile, there were accusations that the Flores twins were still accumulating wealth while they were cooperating. In court papers, prosecutors acknowledged that some of their flamboyant purchases were "wholly inappropriate" for informants living in protective custody, including a Bentley that was given to Pedro Flores' wife as a gift. There were rumors the brothers had buried millions of dollars in drug proceeds in backyards in Chicago and other locations.
In all, the government seized more than $4 million in drug proceeds from the Flores twins, and prosecutors wrote in a court filing that after an exhaustive investigation they do "not believe that the Flores brothers are hiding assets."
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
LAPD CAUGHT CHEATING ON HOMICIDE CASE CLOSURES
Homicide cases were closed as solved even though the DA refused to accept any charges against the suspect, citing a lack of evidence
I’ve written about the manipulation of crime statistics in New York, Los Angeles, Houston and other cities, but here is an even more remarkable manipulation. LAPD has been caught closing cases as solved even though the DA refused to accept any charges against the suspect, citing a lack of evidence. 596 homicide cases were listed as solved from 2000-2010 even though no one was ever prosecuted for any of those murders.
LAPD CLOSED HOMICIDE CASES WITHOUT BRINGING KILLERS TO JUSTICE, ANALYSIS SHOWS
By Mike Reicher
Los Angeles Daily News
January 25, 2015
Officials in the Los Angeles Police Department’s San Fernando Valley Bureau reported they solved 63 percent of homicide cases over 11 years — a significantly better track record than the rest of the LAPD and many other law enforcement agencies reported.
But many of those cases were solved without a single arrest being made. In others, suspects were arrested but never faced a jury. Officials failed to bring the killers to justice.
Instead, 122 Valley murders — and 474 in the rest of the LAPD — were shelved, some using technicalities. Overall, LAPD detectives closed cases this way at a rate more than double that of the national average, according to a Los Angeles News Group analysis of 11 years of LAPD homicide case data and FBI statistics.
This book work left killers at large and families of murder victims without answers. Some in law enforcement call it “solving crimes by eraser.”
Ernesto Cardenas was 26 years old in 2008 when he was shot to death in Arleta. Police arrested three suspects, but the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute, citing a lack of evidence. After that, the LAPD closed the case and took credit for solving a homicide.
“How is it closed when there’s nobody in jail?” asked Jose Aguayo, 34, who tried to resuscitate Cardenas as he lay dying in his driveway. “My cousin is in a cemetery, but these guys are walking free.”
Cardenas’s murder was one of 596 homicide cases from 2000 through 2010 that the LAPD has classified as “cleared other” — cop speak for solving a crime without arresting and filing charges against a suspect. Unlike in the Cardenas case, many of the suspects were never even arrested.
The LAPD cleared some of these cases because the D.A. declined to prosecute, but when asked for the reason each case was cleared, police officials did not respond. The data excludes fatal shootings by officers.
Out of all homicides for which the LAPD provided the Los Angeles News Group a case status, 11.5 percent fell into this “cleared other” category. The national average was 4.9 percent, according to FBI statistics from 2011 through 2013, the only published years. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department didn’t classify any cases this way.
When agencies voluntarily report their crime-solving statistics to the FBI, they are supposed to only count a crime solved, or “cleared,” if they make an arrest, or if they have identified an offender and have enough evidence for an arrest but can’t for a reason outside their control. The classic example is a murder-suicide, in which the suspect is dead.
LAPD officials say they follow FBI guidelines when clearing cases. But others outside the agency say they are interpreting the FBI standards incorrectly.
“They should not let the prosecutors dictate if they solve a case,” said Cassia Spohn, professor and director of the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Arizona State University. “It really confuses the role of the police and the prosecutor.”
The LAPD Detective Operations Manual says that clearing a case, by arrest or by other methods, “means that the detective has solved the crime and has taken all possible, appropriate action against at least one suspect.”
The Sheriff’s Department keeps cases open unless someone is actually prosecuted, said Lt. Mike Rosson of the Homicide Bureau. He said his department strictly follows the FBI rules.
“If we can’t give a family closure through prosecution, why would we want to call it solved?” Rosson said.
In recent years, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck has hailed falling crime and high clearance stats. For example, in 2011 Beck lauded the department’s murder solve rate of 83 percent in 2009 but didn’t give any breakdown. However, according to the Los Angeles News Group analysis of LAPD case data, its 2009 solve rate was 49 percent. When asked, the LAPD would not account for the discrepancy.
I’ve written about the manipulation of crime statistics in New York, Los Angeles, Houston and other cities, but here is an even more remarkable manipulation. LAPD has been caught closing cases as solved even though the DA refused to accept any charges against the suspect, citing a lack of evidence. 596 homicide cases were listed as solved from 2000-2010 even though no one was ever prosecuted for any of those murders.
LAPD CLOSED HOMICIDE CASES WITHOUT BRINGING KILLERS TO JUSTICE, ANALYSIS SHOWS
By Mike Reicher
Los Angeles Daily News
January 25, 2015
Officials in the Los Angeles Police Department’s San Fernando Valley Bureau reported they solved 63 percent of homicide cases over 11 years — a significantly better track record than the rest of the LAPD and many other law enforcement agencies reported.
But many of those cases were solved without a single arrest being made. In others, suspects were arrested but never faced a jury. Officials failed to bring the killers to justice.
Instead, 122 Valley murders — and 474 in the rest of the LAPD — were shelved, some using technicalities. Overall, LAPD detectives closed cases this way at a rate more than double that of the national average, according to a Los Angeles News Group analysis of 11 years of LAPD homicide case data and FBI statistics.
This book work left killers at large and families of murder victims without answers. Some in law enforcement call it “solving crimes by eraser.”
Ernesto Cardenas was 26 years old in 2008 when he was shot to death in Arleta. Police arrested three suspects, but the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute, citing a lack of evidence. After that, the LAPD closed the case and took credit for solving a homicide.
“How is it closed when there’s nobody in jail?” asked Jose Aguayo, 34, who tried to resuscitate Cardenas as he lay dying in his driveway. “My cousin is in a cemetery, but these guys are walking free.”
Cardenas’s murder was one of 596 homicide cases from 2000 through 2010 that the LAPD has classified as “cleared other” — cop speak for solving a crime without arresting and filing charges against a suspect. Unlike in the Cardenas case, many of the suspects were never even arrested.
The LAPD cleared some of these cases because the D.A. declined to prosecute, but when asked for the reason each case was cleared, police officials did not respond. The data excludes fatal shootings by officers.
Out of all homicides for which the LAPD provided the Los Angeles News Group a case status, 11.5 percent fell into this “cleared other” category. The national average was 4.9 percent, according to FBI statistics from 2011 through 2013, the only published years. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department didn’t classify any cases this way.
When agencies voluntarily report their crime-solving statistics to the FBI, they are supposed to only count a crime solved, or “cleared,” if they make an arrest, or if they have identified an offender and have enough evidence for an arrest but can’t for a reason outside their control. The classic example is a murder-suicide, in which the suspect is dead.
LAPD officials say they follow FBI guidelines when clearing cases. But others outside the agency say they are interpreting the FBI standards incorrectly.
“They should not let the prosecutors dictate if they solve a case,” said Cassia Spohn, professor and director of the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Arizona State University. “It really confuses the role of the police and the prosecutor.”
The LAPD Detective Operations Manual says that clearing a case, by arrest or by other methods, “means that the detective has solved the crime and has taken all possible, appropriate action against at least one suspect.”
The Sheriff’s Department keeps cases open unless someone is actually prosecuted, said Lt. Mike Rosson of the Homicide Bureau. He said his department strictly follows the FBI rules.
“If we can’t give a family closure through prosecution, why would we want to call it solved?” Rosson said.
In recent years, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck has hailed falling crime and high clearance stats. For example, in 2011 Beck lauded the department’s murder solve rate of 83 percent in 2009 but didn’t give any breakdown. However, according to the Los Angeles News Group analysis of LAPD case data, its 2009 solve rate was 49 percent. When asked, the LAPD would not account for the discrepancy.
VISIT TO INDIA EXPOSES OBAMA’S LIE ABOUT BOWING DOWN TO KING ABDULLAH
Obama denied bowing down to King Abdullah, the White House saying he merely bent over because the monarch was shorter
President Obama received a shitstorm of criticism for bowing down to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia during the 2009 G20 Summit in London. At the time, the White House vehemently denied that Obama had bowed down to Abdullah, even though video and still pictures clearly showed our President bowing to the Saudi monarch like one of the king’s subjects.
Obama denied having bowed down to the king and the White House trumpeted the line that the President merely bent over because Abdullah was shorter.
Obama has just made a trip to India where he met with Narendra Modi, that nation’s prime minister. Video and still pictures show the President shaking hands with and embracing Modi, but none showed him bending over while greeting the prime minister.
Take a look at these vital statistics: Obama is 6’1” tall. Abdullah was 5’11”. Modi is 5’7” in height.
Whoa! Something doesn’t compute here. Obama had to bend over because Abdullah was two inches shorter, yet he stood straight as a ramrod when Modi was six inches shorter.
Let’s get real. What we have here is one more example of many, proving that Obama is our Liar-in-Chief.
President Obama received a shitstorm of criticism for bowing down to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia during the 2009 G20 Summit in London. At the time, the White House vehemently denied that Obama had bowed down to Abdullah, even though video and still pictures clearly showed our President bowing to the Saudi monarch like one of the king’s subjects.
Obama denied having bowed down to the king and the White House trumpeted the line that the President merely bent over because Abdullah was shorter.
Obama has just made a trip to India where he met with Narendra Modi, that nation’s prime minister. Video and still pictures show the President shaking hands with and embracing Modi, but none showed him bending over while greeting the prime minister.
Take a look at these vital statistics: Obama is 6’1” tall. Abdullah was 5’11”. Modi is 5’7” in height.
Whoa! Something doesn’t compute here. Obama had to bend over because Abdullah was two inches shorter, yet he stood straight as a ramrod when Modi was six inches shorter.
Let’s get real. What we have here is one more example of many, proving that Obama is our Liar-in-Chief.
OBAMA HAS CONSISTENTLY TILTED THE DIPLOMATIC PLAYING FIELD IN FAVOR OF THE PALESTINIANS
The President’s hatred of Netanyahu was clearly evident when a senior White House official called the Israeli prime minister a “coward” and “chickenshit”
Netanyahu’s acceptance of House Speaker John Boehner's invitation to address Congress without clearing it first with the White House or State Department gave Obama the excuse to lash out at the Israeli prime minister and to threaten the Jewish State. Nothing would give Obama and John Kerry greater pleasure than to see Netanyahu defeated in Israel’s coming election.
OBAMA’S HOLLOW THREATS OF REVENGE ON BIBI
By Jonathan S. Tobin
Commentary Magazine
January 23, 2016
The latest twist in the long-running feud between Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu has reached a new stage. After days of ill-concealed umbrage about the prime minister accepting an invitation to speech to a joint session of Congress about Iran sanctions without so much as a by your leave from the administration, the White House decided to fire its own shot across the bow of Israel’s government. A “senior U.S. official” told Haaretz that the president and his staff think Netanyahu “spat” in the president’s face with his actions and vowed “there would be a price” to be paid for his effrontery. But whatever one may think about the decision to accept the invitation — and I think it was a mistake — Obama’s threats shouldn’t impress anyone in either country. After six years of insults, provocations and staged spats aimed at Israel by the Obama administration that did nothing to advance U.S. interests or the cause of Middle East peace, it’s not clear that they can do much to hurt Netanyahu that would not hurt the president more.
Though his American fans are thrilled with the idea of Netanyahu addressing Congress and rallying it to the cause of stopping Iran, the prime minister did the White House a favor by accepting Boehner’s invitation without going through the normal protocol of consulting with the State Department and/or the White House. Instead of the focus being on Obama’s illogical opposition to any pressure on an Iranian regime that has been stonewalling him and running out the clock in nuclear negotiations, attention has been focused on the prime minister’s chutzpah. There is already a strong majority in both Houses of Congress for more sanctions on Iran, a step that would strengthen Obama’s hand in negotiations, and the controversy over Netanyahu’s appearance gives some weak-willed Democrats an excuse to do the president’s bidding and sink the proposed legislation.
Obama’s claim that he is willing to impose more sanctions if diplomacy fails, as he supposedly told Netanyahu, rings false. This administration opposed every major piece of sanctions legislation against Iran including the ones that it now boasts of having brought Iran to the table. Nor is there much chance that Obama would ever admit failure. The rumors that the current talks will be extended for a third time in June, despite the president’s promises a year ago that the negotiations would be finite in length so as to prevent the Iranians from playing their favorite delaying games, gives the lie to the administration’s credibility on this issue. Obama’s goal in the talks is not so much preventing the Islamist regime from becoming a threshold nuclear power — an objective that went out the window with the signing of the interim pact in November 2013 — as it is to create an entente with Tehran that would give a U.S. seal of approval to Iran’s ambition for regional hegemony while ending 35 years of confrontation between the two countries.
But Obama’s dire threats of revenge on Israel are just as insubstantial as his promises about Iran.
The talk of Netanyahu and his country paying a “price” is mere administration bluster whose purpose is to cover up their own agenda of détente with a nation that has repeatedly threatened Israel with annihilation. As he has shown over the last six years, the White House has the power to poison relations with its sole democratic ally in the Middle East if it so chooses. This is the same White House, after all, that just a couple of months ago used journalist Jeffrey Goldberg to hurt insults like “coward” and “chickenshit” at Netanyahu. Obama has consistently tilted the diplomatic playing field in favor of the Palestinians (though without it being enough to get them to actually negotiate in good faith, let alone make peace), undermined Israel’s position in Jerusalem in a way no predecessor had dared, wrongly blamed Netanyahu for the collapse of peace talks although it was the Palestinian Authority that torpedoed them and even cut off the flow of ammunition resupply during the war with Hamas last summer.
It is true that the U.S. could do far worse than that. Obama could seek to hold up all military aid despite Congressional protests. It could also cease opposing Palestinian attempts to use the United Nations to make an end run around the peace process, further isolating the Israelis. Administration sources speak of Secretary of State John Kerry’s hurt feelings after doing so much to protect Israel’s interests around the world leaving open the possibility that he won’t be so eager to play that role in the future.
But as Obama has already concluded prior to the current Palestinian campaign at the United Nations, any abandonment of Israel in international forums will hurt the U.S. as much as the Jewish state. Obama and Kerry aren’t opposing the Palestinian attempt to gain UN recognition without first making with Israel to be nice to the Israelis. They’re doing it because they rightly concluded that ending the peace process would damage U.S. interests and prestige and lead to further instability and violence in the region. Obama would, in effect, be cutting off his nose to spite his face if he were to allow his feud with Netanyahu to go that far. Although his antipathy for Israel and its government is no secret, he has already shown that he’s not interested in going down that path.
So what can we expect over the next two years if Netanyahu is re-elected? It was already a given that there would be plenty of tension and conflict between the two allies. If, as is almost certain, Obama signs a weak nuclear deal with Iran or allows the talks to go on indefinitely, they were bound to be worse anyway. There will be more insults lobbed at Jerusalem and attempts will be made to squeeze the Israelis at every turn. But any revenge from Obama over Netanyahu’s speech will do more to create the impression that his foreign policy is a failure than real damage to Israel’s strategic position. The prime minister would do well to stay home and to lobby quietly and effectively for Congress to raise the pressure on Iran. But even if he does give the speech, the U.S.-Israel alliance is sufficiently strong to withstand Obama’s assault on it. Blowing smoke about revenge is as close to a real rupture in relations with Israel as Obama and his staff will get.
Netanyahu’s acceptance of House Speaker John Boehner's invitation to address Congress without clearing it first with the White House or State Department gave Obama the excuse to lash out at the Israeli prime minister and to threaten the Jewish State. Nothing would give Obama and John Kerry greater pleasure than to see Netanyahu defeated in Israel’s coming election.
OBAMA’S HOLLOW THREATS OF REVENGE ON BIBI
By Jonathan S. Tobin
Commentary Magazine
January 23, 2016
The latest twist in the long-running feud between Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu has reached a new stage. After days of ill-concealed umbrage about the prime minister accepting an invitation to speech to a joint session of Congress about Iran sanctions without so much as a by your leave from the administration, the White House decided to fire its own shot across the bow of Israel’s government. A “senior U.S. official” told Haaretz that the president and his staff think Netanyahu “spat” in the president’s face with his actions and vowed “there would be a price” to be paid for his effrontery. But whatever one may think about the decision to accept the invitation — and I think it was a mistake — Obama’s threats shouldn’t impress anyone in either country. After six years of insults, provocations and staged spats aimed at Israel by the Obama administration that did nothing to advance U.S. interests or the cause of Middle East peace, it’s not clear that they can do much to hurt Netanyahu that would not hurt the president more.
Though his American fans are thrilled with the idea of Netanyahu addressing Congress and rallying it to the cause of stopping Iran, the prime minister did the White House a favor by accepting Boehner’s invitation without going through the normal protocol of consulting with the State Department and/or the White House. Instead of the focus being on Obama’s illogical opposition to any pressure on an Iranian regime that has been stonewalling him and running out the clock in nuclear negotiations, attention has been focused on the prime minister’s chutzpah. There is already a strong majority in both Houses of Congress for more sanctions on Iran, a step that would strengthen Obama’s hand in negotiations, and the controversy over Netanyahu’s appearance gives some weak-willed Democrats an excuse to do the president’s bidding and sink the proposed legislation.
Obama’s claim that he is willing to impose more sanctions if diplomacy fails, as he supposedly told Netanyahu, rings false. This administration opposed every major piece of sanctions legislation against Iran including the ones that it now boasts of having brought Iran to the table. Nor is there much chance that Obama would ever admit failure. The rumors that the current talks will be extended for a third time in June, despite the president’s promises a year ago that the negotiations would be finite in length so as to prevent the Iranians from playing their favorite delaying games, gives the lie to the administration’s credibility on this issue. Obama’s goal in the talks is not so much preventing the Islamist regime from becoming a threshold nuclear power — an objective that went out the window with the signing of the interim pact in November 2013 — as it is to create an entente with Tehran that would give a U.S. seal of approval to Iran’s ambition for regional hegemony while ending 35 years of confrontation between the two countries.
But Obama’s dire threats of revenge on Israel are just as insubstantial as his promises about Iran.
The talk of Netanyahu and his country paying a “price” is mere administration bluster whose purpose is to cover up their own agenda of détente with a nation that has repeatedly threatened Israel with annihilation. As he has shown over the last six years, the White House has the power to poison relations with its sole democratic ally in the Middle East if it so chooses. This is the same White House, after all, that just a couple of months ago used journalist Jeffrey Goldberg to hurt insults like “coward” and “chickenshit” at Netanyahu. Obama has consistently tilted the diplomatic playing field in favor of the Palestinians (though without it being enough to get them to actually negotiate in good faith, let alone make peace), undermined Israel’s position in Jerusalem in a way no predecessor had dared, wrongly blamed Netanyahu for the collapse of peace talks although it was the Palestinian Authority that torpedoed them and even cut off the flow of ammunition resupply during the war with Hamas last summer.
It is true that the U.S. could do far worse than that. Obama could seek to hold up all military aid despite Congressional protests. It could also cease opposing Palestinian attempts to use the United Nations to make an end run around the peace process, further isolating the Israelis. Administration sources speak of Secretary of State John Kerry’s hurt feelings after doing so much to protect Israel’s interests around the world leaving open the possibility that he won’t be so eager to play that role in the future.
But as Obama has already concluded prior to the current Palestinian campaign at the United Nations, any abandonment of Israel in international forums will hurt the U.S. as much as the Jewish state. Obama and Kerry aren’t opposing the Palestinian attempt to gain UN recognition without first making with Israel to be nice to the Israelis. They’re doing it because they rightly concluded that ending the peace process would damage U.S. interests and prestige and lead to further instability and violence in the region. Obama would, in effect, be cutting off his nose to spite his face if he were to allow his feud with Netanyahu to go that far. Although his antipathy for Israel and its government is no secret, he has already shown that he’s not interested in going down that path.
So what can we expect over the next two years if Netanyahu is re-elected? It was already a given that there would be plenty of tension and conflict between the two allies. If, as is almost certain, Obama signs a weak nuclear deal with Iran or allows the talks to go on indefinitely, they were bound to be worse anyway. There will be more insults lobbed at Jerusalem and attempts will be made to squeeze the Israelis at every turn. But any revenge from Obama over Netanyahu’s speech will do more to create the impression that his foreign policy is a failure than real damage to Israel’s strategic position. The prime minister would do well to stay home and to lobby quietly and effectively for Congress to raise the pressure on Iran. But even if he does give the speech, the U.S.-Israel alliance is sufficiently strong to withstand Obama’s assault on it. Blowing smoke about revenge is as close to a real rupture in relations with Israel as Obama and his staff will get.
MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGH PROVIDES ELDERLY WOMAN WITH 2 EXTRA YEARS OF INCONVENIENCING FAMILY
The Onion
January 23, 2015
MUNCIE, IN—Saying that the experimental procedure was a complete success, doctors at Muncie’s Ball Memorial Hospital confirmed Friday that a recent medical breakthrough has provided 89-year-old Anna Goldman with an additional two years of inconveniencing her family.
“We’re pleased to report that Ms. Goldman’s operation went well, allowing her to continue saddling loved ones with $40,000 in hospice bills over each of the next two years,” said Dr. Jordan Burnet, adding that, thanks to the hard work of a dedicated team of physicians, Goldman should have no trouble burdening family members with not only the obligation to visit her on weekends and holidays, but also to deal with and compensate for her steadily declining mental faculties. “The risks associated with such a new surgery were high, but Ms. Goldman pulled through, and can now look forward to spending at least the next 24 months with her increasingly fatigued and exasperated children as they shuttle her around endlessly from one medical checkup to another. This truly has given her a new, and terribly high-maintenance, lease on life.”
When reached for comment, family members said they were overjoyed the surgery had slightly delayed the headache of arranging Goldman’s funeral.
January 23, 2015
MUNCIE, IN—Saying that the experimental procedure was a complete success, doctors at Muncie’s Ball Memorial Hospital confirmed Friday that a recent medical breakthrough has provided 89-year-old Anna Goldman with an additional two years of inconveniencing her family.
“We’re pleased to report that Ms. Goldman’s operation went well, allowing her to continue saddling loved ones with $40,000 in hospice bills over each of the next two years,” said Dr. Jordan Burnet, adding that, thanks to the hard work of a dedicated team of physicians, Goldman should have no trouble burdening family members with not only the obligation to visit her on weekends and holidays, but also to deal with and compensate for her steadily declining mental faculties. “The risks associated with such a new surgery were high, but Ms. Goldman pulled through, and can now look forward to spending at least the next 24 months with her increasingly fatigued and exasperated children as they shuttle her around endlessly from one medical checkup to another. This truly has given her a new, and terribly high-maintenance, lease on life.”
When reached for comment, family members said they were overjoyed the surgery had slightly delayed the headache of arranging Goldman’s funeral.
Monday, January 26, 2015
BILL BELICHICK BELIVES WE’RE ALL DUMB ASSES
The Boston Patriot’s coach claims that atmospheric conditions deflated his team’s footballs
Boston Patriots coach Bill Belichick says the deflation of the footballs is explained by science. When ‘Bill the Science Guy’ claims atmospheric conditions deflated his team’s footballs, he is blowing a cloud full of hot air at us. He must believe we’re all dumb asses to fall for his horse shit about atmospheric conditions deflating the team’s balls between the time they were inspected and game time.
Belichick defies logic. How can he explain that the balls used by the Indianapolis Colts were not deflated? Were the atmospheric conditions on the other side of the field so much different from those on his side of the field as to keep the Colts’ balls properly inflated? Was the elevation of his side of the field 1,000 feet lower than the elevation of the Colts sideline? Was the temperature on his side of the field 100 degrees different from the temperature on the other side?
I’m not the Science Guy, but my knowledge of science tells me that, while atmospheric conditions could alter the air pressure inside a football to some extent, the psi inside the balls that have been inspected will be the same on each side of the football field.
There can be only one logical explanation for Deflate-Gate: Someone in the Patriots organization deliberately deflated 11 out of the team’s 12 game balls.
Come to think of it though, Belichick has a good reason to believe we’re all dumb asses. Time after time voters across the country have approved the building of extravagant football stadiums and basketball arenas for billionaire team owners at taxpayer expense. And here’s why those voters are dumb asses: 95 percent of those who voted for the building of these sports facilities cannot afford to attend more than one or two games a season, and then only if they buy the cheapest seats way up in the nosebleed section. No wonder ‘Bill the Science Guy’ thinks he can get away with his atmospheric condition crap.
Boston Patriots coach Bill Belichick says the deflation of the footballs is explained by science. When ‘Bill the Science Guy’ claims atmospheric conditions deflated his team’s footballs, he is blowing a cloud full of hot air at us. He must believe we’re all dumb asses to fall for his horse shit about atmospheric conditions deflating the team’s balls between the time they were inspected and game time.
Belichick defies logic. How can he explain that the balls used by the Indianapolis Colts were not deflated? Were the atmospheric conditions on the other side of the field so much different from those on his side of the field as to keep the Colts’ balls properly inflated? Was the elevation of his side of the field 1,000 feet lower than the elevation of the Colts sideline? Was the temperature on his side of the field 100 degrees different from the temperature on the other side?
I’m not the Science Guy, but my knowledge of science tells me that, while atmospheric conditions could alter the air pressure inside a football to some extent, the psi inside the balls that have been inspected will be the same on each side of the football field.
There can be only one logical explanation for Deflate-Gate: Someone in the Patriots organization deliberately deflated 11 out of the team’s 12 game balls.
Come to think of it though, Belichick has a good reason to believe we’re all dumb asses. Time after time voters across the country have approved the building of extravagant football stadiums and basketball arenas for billionaire team owners at taxpayer expense. And here’s why those voters are dumb asses: 95 percent of those who voted for the building of these sports facilities cannot afford to attend more than one or two games a season, and then only if they buy the cheapest seats way up in the nosebleed section. No wonder ‘Bill the Science Guy’ thinks he can get away with his atmospheric condition crap.
THE WAR ON DRUGS IS MORE LIKE A SERIES OF SKIRMISHES
The only real solution is to declare a real war on the Cartels and seal our borders with U.S. Marines that use military tactics including shooting those who attempt to cross into the U.S.
By Trey Rusk
Just the fact that the U.S. Government calls it a war on drugs, doesn’t make it a war. More like a series of skirmishes. The border fence didn’t work. INS/Customs lost more employees for corruption in the last five years than ever before. U.S. drug task forces have had numerous members arrested. Just look at the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. The Sheriff of Hildago County and his son who was assigned to a task force were both arrested along with several other officers for protecting drug loads for money.
We already know that Mexico is corrupt from top to bottom. Many would be surprised to know that the corruption has readily spread to U.S. law enforcement. Houston officers have been arrested for protecting drug loads. Most recreational pot smokers don’t realize that people are dying getting the pot across the border and when it arrives then local distribution networks kill each other over territory, drugs and money.
There is a failure of the U.S. Government to enforce the pot laws but the cow is already out of the gate. Go to Mendocino County in California. The grow houses are like factories. The local economy depends of the production and sale of marijuana. It is a cash business and mercenaries are employed to transport the cash to the banks. I know this because one of them is a friend of my son from when they served in special forces together.
The ruthless cartels also kidnap, murder and smuggle aliens. Then when the smuggled illegal aliens are in place they force them into the drug business by threatening to kill their relatives in Mexico. Pot is really no longer the problem. We lost that war. Meth is the biggest problem because local cookers couldn’t compete with Mexican Cartels and now they have taken over smuggling a better quality product for less money.
Using Japan as an example is ridicules. Yes they have a good criminal justice system, but their demand for drugs is low. However, they are just as crooked when it comes to depleting the oceans of endangered wildlife for the insatiable demand of their citizens. Treaties have been broken over killing whales, sharks and tuna and it still continues. Once again, supply and demand.
The U.S. will never stop the demand. It can seal the borders and stop the smuggling. That will not happen because it would negatively effect the free trade and commerce between our countries and it would also stop the illegal money that has wormed it’s way into the legitimate economy.
The real culprit here is a failure of parental education. While many parents do the best they can, they can only hope for the best. And all the educational drug programs cannot stop teens from using drugs, tobacco and alcohol. In fact, nothing can stop it. The demand will always be there whether pot is legalized or not. It doesn't really make a difference. People are going to do what they want.
The only real solution is to declare a real war on the Cartels and seal our borders with U.S. Marines that use military tactics including shooting those who attempt to cross into the U.S. Until the U.S. does this, then street cops will continue to take down small dealers, correctional institutions will still have drugs smuggled in and teens will continue to get high.
__________
EDITOR’S NOTE: This op-ed was written in rebuttal to my post War on Drugs: Not Won, Not Lost Either (1-25-15)
By Trey Rusk
Just the fact that the U.S. Government calls it a war on drugs, doesn’t make it a war. More like a series of skirmishes. The border fence didn’t work. INS/Customs lost more employees for corruption in the last five years than ever before. U.S. drug task forces have had numerous members arrested. Just look at the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. The Sheriff of Hildago County and his son who was assigned to a task force were both arrested along with several other officers for protecting drug loads for money.
We already know that Mexico is corrupt from top to bottom. Many would be surprised to know that the corruption has readily spread to U.S. law enforcement. Houston officers have been arrested for protecting drug loads. Most recreational pot smokers don’t realize that people are dying getting the pot across the border and when it arrives then local distribution networks kill each other over territory, drugs and money.
There is a failure of the U.S. Government to enforce the pot laws but the cow is already out of the gate. Go to Mendocino County in California. The grow houses are like factories. The local economy depends of the production and sale of marijuana. It is a cash business and mercenaries are employed to transport the cash to the banks. I know this because one of them is a friend of my son from when they served in special forces together.
The ruthless cartels also kidnap, murder and smuggle aliens. Then when the smuggled illegal aliens are in place they force them into the drug business by threatening to kill their relatives in Mexico. Pot is really no longer the problem. We lost that war. Meth is the biggest problem because local cookers couldn’t compete with Mexican Cartels and now they have taken over smuggling a better quality product for less money.
Using Japan as an example is ridicules. Yes they have a good criminal justice system, but their demand for drugs is low. However, they are just as crooked when it comes to depleting the oceans of endangered wildlife for the insatiable demand of their citizens. Treaties have been broken over killing whales, sharks and tuna and it still continues. Once again, supply and demand.
The U.S. will never stop the demand. It can seal the borders and stop the smuggling. That will not happen because it would negatively effect the free trade and commerce between our countries and it would also stop the illegal money that has wormed it’s way into the legitimate economy.
The real culprit here is a failure of parental education. While many parents do the best they can, they can only hope for the best. And all the educational drug programs cannot stop teens from using drugs, tobacco and alcohol. In fact, nothing can stop it. The demand will always be there whether pot is legalized or not. It doesn't really make a difference. People are going to do what they want.
The only real solution is to declare a real war on the Cartels and seal our borders with U.S. Marines that use military tactics including shooting those who attempt to cross into the U.S. Until the U.S. does this, then street cops will continue to take down small dealers, correctional institutions will still have drugs smuggled in and teens will continue to get high.
__________
EDITOR’S NOTE: This op-ed was written in rebuttal to my post War on Drugs: Not Won, Not Lost Either (1-25-15)
MICHAEL MOORE CONTINUES TO ATTACK AMERICAN SNIPER
The far-left creep uses Jesus to justify his unjustifiable comment about military snipers
Michael Moore doesn’t seem to know when enough is enough. He couldn’t leave well enough alone after first tweeting that snipers are cowards who will shoot you in the back.
In a subsequent series of tweets, Moore uses Jesus to justify his unjustifiable comment on Twitter. Here are three of the far-left creep’s subsequent tweets:
Tomorrow’s Sunday School (1) What Would Jesus Do? Oh, I know what he’d do – hide on top of a roof and shoot people in the back!
Sunday School (2) But What Would Jesus Do if he could be a sniper & and save soldiers lives by shooting “savages” in the back? ANSWER…
Sunday School (3) ANSWER: Jesus wouldn’t put any soldiers lives in harm’s way in the first place because he wouldn’t have sent them 2 Iraq
Does anyone have any idea of how to shut this fat slob up short of causing him any physical harm?
Michael Moore doesn’t seem to know when enough is enough. He couldn’t leave well enough alone after first tweeting that snipers are cowards who will shoot you in the back.
In a subsequent series of tweets, Moore uses Jesus to justify his unjustifiable comment on Twitter. Here are three of the far-left creep’s subsequent tweets:
Tomorrow’s Sunday School (1) What Would Jesus Do? Oh, I know what he’d do – hide on top of a roof and shoot people in the back!
Sunday School (2) But What Would Jesus Do if he could be a sniper & and save soldiers lives by shooting “savages” in the back? ANSWER…
Sunday School (3) ANSWER: Jesus wouldn’t put any soldiers lives in harm’s way in the first place because he wouldn’t have sent them 2 Iraq
Does anyone have any idea of how to shut this fat slob up short of causing him any physical harm?
REPUBLICAN TRUCK
The Unconventional Gazette
January 25, 2015
When Obama was running for reelection in 2012, I stopped by the Ford Dealership for a look at the new F 150 pickup. Just for fun, I took it out for a test drive. I wanted to sense that new "feel" before they become extinct.
The salesman, a black man wearing an Obama "Change" lapel pin, sat in the passenger seat describing the truck and all its "wonderful" options.
The seats were of particular interest. He explained that the seats directed warm air to your butt in the winter and directed cool air to your butt in the summer heat.
Feeling like messing with him, I mentioned that this must be a Republican truck.
Looking a bit angry, he asked why I thought it was a Republican truck.
I explained that if it were an Obama truck, the seats would just blow smoke up your ass year-round.
I had to walk back to the dealership. That black guy had no sense of humor.
January 25, 2015
When Obama was running for reelection in 2012, I stopped by the Ford Dealership for a look at the new F 150 pickup. Just for fun, I took it out for a test drive. I wanted to sense that new "feel" before they become extinct.
The salesman, a black man wearing an Obama "Change" lapel pin, sat in the passenger seat describing the truck and all its "wonderful" options.
The seats were of particular interest. He explained that the seats directed warm air to your butt in the winter and directed cool air to your butt in the summer heat.
Feeling like messing with him, I mentioned that this must be a Republican truck.
Looking a bit angry, he asked why I thought it was a Republican truck.
I explained that if it were an Obama truck, the seats would just blow smoke up your ass year-round.
I had to walk back to the dealership. That black guy had no sense of humor.
Sunday, January 25, 2015
AL SHARTON, THE ‘RACIAL RACKETEER’
Add ‘racial racketeer’ to ‘race pimp’ and ‘disgusting pig’ as appropriate descriptions of racial rabble rouser Al Sharpton
A month ago, actor James Woods referred to Al Sharpton as a ‘racist pimp’ and a ‘disgusting pig.’ His descriptions of Sharpton received considerable public attention. Around the same time, Louis Anemone, the former third-highest ranking official in the NYPD, had a descriptive term for Sharpton that received hardly any public notice.
“Heartbreak in Brooklyn” is an article by Anemone about 18 NYPD officers that have been murdered by black men because of, as he believes, the inflammatory anti-police rhetoric spouted forth by ‘community leaders’ and politicians. Anemone also referred to 1995’s Freddie Fashion Mart massacre, in which Roland Smith, a black man, murdered seven white store customers after becoming incensed by the “inflammatory rhetoric of a well-known racial racketeer” against a white store owner in Harlem.
Who was that ‘racial racketeer’? None other than Al Sharpton.
It seems to me that the terms racial racketeer, race pimp, and disgusting pig are much more accurate descriptions of Sharpton, than ‘civil rights activist’ and ‘trusted advisor’ to President Obama and to NY Mayor Bill de Blasio.
A month ago, actor James Woods referred to Al Sharpton as a ‘racist pimp’ and a ‘disgusting pig.’ His descriptions of Sharpton received considerable public attention. Around the same time, Louis Anemone, the former third-highest ranking official in the NYPD, had a descriptive term for Sharpton that received hardly any public notice.
“Heartbreak in Brooklyn” is an article by Anemone about 18 NYPD officers that have been murdered by black men because of, as he believes, the inflammatory anti-police rhetoric spouted forth by ‘community leaders’ and politicians. Anemone also referred to 1995’s Freddie Fashion Mart massacre, in which Roland Smith, a black man, murdered seven white store customers after becoming incensed by the “inflammatory rhetoric of a well-known racial racketeer” against a white store owner in Harlem.
Who was that ‘racial racketeer’? None other than Al Sharpton.
It seems to me that the terms racial racketeer, race pimp, and disgusting pig are much more accurate descriptions of Sharpton, than ‘civil rights activist’ and ‘trusted advisor’ to President Obama and to NY Mayor Bill de Blasio.
OUR PHONY-IN-CHIEF
President Obama couldn’t be bothered to attend a rally in Paris to honor 17 ordinary folks killed by Islamists, but he is going to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia so he can pay homage to his monarch, the late King Abdullah
You may or may not recall that President Obama bowed down to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia during the 2009 G20 Summit in London. But I am sure you are aware that Obama snubbed the massive unity rally attended by more than 40 world leaders in Paris on January 11. The rally was held to honor the 17 people killed during three days of deadly attacks by three Islamists.
President Obama couldn’t be bothered to attend the rally in Paris where 17 ordinary folks died at the hands of Islamists,, but he is cutting short his trip to India by one day for an unscheduled visit to Saudi Arabia so he can pay homage to his monarch, King Abdullah who died early Friday.
President Obama is not only our ‘Liar-in-Chief,’ but he is also our ‘Phony-in-Chief.’
EDITOR'S NOTE: Check out today's headline from Mail Online:
Snubbed for Saudi: Obama and First Lady arrive in India but cut special visit to Taj Mahal and waste efforts of hundreds of $5-a-day workers - so they can woo the new king of Saudi Arabia instead
You may or may not recall that President Obama bowed down to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia during the 2009 G20 Summit in London. But I am sure you are aware that Obama snubbed the massive unity rally attended by more than 40 world leaders in Paris on January 11. The rally was held to honor the 17 people killed during three days of deadly attacks by three Islamists.
President Obama couldn’t be bothered to attend the rally in Paris where 17 ordinary folks died at the hands of Islamists,, but he is cutting short his trip to India by one day for an unscheduled visit to Saudi Arabia so he can pay homage to his monarch, King Abdullah who died early Friday.
President Obama is not only our ‘Liar-in-Chief,’ but he is also our ‘Phony-in-Chief.’
EDITOR'S NOTE: Check out today's headline from Mail Online:
Snubbed for Saudi: Obama and First Lady arrive in India but cut special visit to Taj Mahal and waste efforts of hundreds of $5-a-day workers - so they can woo the new king of Saudi Arabia instead
WAR ON DRUGS: NOT WON, NOT LOST EITHER
While we cannot declare ‘mission accomplished,’ the claim that the war on drugs is a colossal failure is pure phony propaganda
The war on drugs, while not a complete success, is far from a complete failure. Just stop to think about how much more illicit dope would be available in the U.S. if it were not for the war on drugs.
There are four major factors standing in the way of victory in the war on drugs: (1) The insatiable hunger for drugs by many Americans; (2) the utter corruption at all levels of government, police and the military that is found throughout Mexico; (3) the disregard of the law by an overwhelming number of America’s pot smokers; and (4) a failure and unwillingness to vigorously enforce America’s laws against possession of illegal drugs.
Take Japan for instance. Laws against the illegal possession of drugs are vigorously enforced with a 95 percent conviction rate. Those convicted are either locked up in a drug treatment center or sent to serve time in prison. As a result, Japan does not have a drug problem on the magnitude of that in the United States.
The war on drugs is all about supply and demand. The mission can be accomplished, but only if we make the use of drugs unpleasant for the pleasure seekers. That will reduce the demand. And that will force the Mexican cartels to leave the illegal drug business for other criminal enterprises. The problem is that we do not have the political will to go after the users.
The war on drugs, while not a complete success, is far from a complete failure. Just stop to think about how much more illicit dope would be available in the U.S. if it were not for the war on drugs.
There are four major factors standing in the way of victory in the war on drugs: (1) The insatiable hunger for drugs by many Americans; (2) the utter corruption at all levels of government, police and the military that is found throughout Mexico; (3) the disregard of the law by an overwhelming number of America’s pot smokers; and (4) a failure and unwillingness to vigorously enforce America’s laws against possession of illegal drugs.
Take Japan for instance. Laws against the illegal possession of drugs are vigorously enforced with a 95 percent conviction rate. Those convicted are either locked up in a drug treatment center or sent to serve time in prison. As a result, Japan does not have a drug problem on the magnitude of that in the United States.
The war on drugs is all about supply and demand. The mission can be accomplished, but only if we make the use of drugs unpleasant for the pleasure seekers. That will reduce the demand. And that will force the Mexican cartels to leave the illegal drug business for other criminal enterprises. The problem is that we do not have the political will to go after the users.
IMPRISONMENT OF EL CHAPO FAILS TO IMPACT SINALOA CARTEL OPERATIONS
Despite the imprisonment of its leader, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the Sinaloa Cartel continues to operate unabated
Cut off the head of a snake and the body will die. Not so with Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel. According to Al Laurita, head of the DEA’s Tucson office, the imprisonment of top boss El Chapo a year ago has not impeded the operations of the notorious drug organization. Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada is now the cartel’s top boss.
Laurita told Mexico’s Proceso magazine:
“We have not seen any significant change in the Sinaloa Cartel. We continue to see the same ways of operation that they had before the capture of El Chapo, the same control of operations; keeps the same people in charge of drug trafficking departing for the United States and territorial control in Mexico. The only change we have seen is between people who controlled the Nogales (Sonora) plaza and whoever controlled the western part of the Sonoran desert, and who had a relationship with Indian Reservation of the Tohono O’odham Nation in southwestern and central Arizona.”
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto told anyone who would listen that the Sinaloa Cartel would “crumble” with the arrest of El Chapo. Was he ever wrong! The cartel goes merrily on its way shipping pot, meth, heroin and coke to Chicago and other American cities. And the Sinaloa Cartel continues to supply Colorado’s flourishing black market in pot, even though the state legalized marijuana a year ago.
Cut off the head of a snake and the body will die. Not so with Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel. According to Al Laurita, head of the DEA’s Tucson office, the imprisonment of top boss El Chapo a year ago has not impeded the operations of the notorious drug organization. Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada is now the cartel’s top boss.
Laurita told Mexico’s Proceso magazine:
“We have not seen any significant change in the Sinaloa Cartel. We continue to see the same ways of operation that they had before the capture of El Chapo, the same control of operations; keeps the same people in charge of drug trafficking departing for the United States and territorial control in Mexico. The only change we have seen is between people who controlled the Nogales (Sonora) plaza and whoever controlled the western part of the Sonoran desert, and who had a relationship with Indian Reservation of the Tohono O’odham Nation in southwestern and central Arizona.”
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto told anyone who would listen that the Sinaloa Cartel would “crumble” with the arrest of El Chapo. Was he ever wrong! The cartel goes merrily on its way shipping pot, meth, heroin and coke to Chicago and other American cities. And the Sinaloa Cartel continues to supply Colorado’s flourishing black market in pot, even though the state legalized marijuana a year ago.
Saturday, January 24, 2015
WORKPLACE SAFETY IS IMPORTANT IN EVERY LINE OF WORK
No matter what kind of work you do, always think safety first
By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
January 23, 2015
Donnello Knowles, 21, of Stockton, found out the hard way that workplace safety is serious business and can have significant down-stream importance.
Knowles has a fairly common job in the Stockton area. He is an armed robber. He is believed to have committed three armed robberies in less than three hours in Stockton. At about 10:00 pm Wednesday night he had a significant workplace accident which will make him unable to work for some time.
It seems that while Mr. Knowles was in the process of robbing someone he accidentally shot himself with his shotgun. He ran away but not very far or very well. The cops found him, still with the stolen money in his possession. They also found the shotgun with a fired shell in the chamber.
Knowles is now under arrest and under guard at a local hospital. This tragedy will certainly impact his ability to earn a living at his chosen trade. And this workplace accident will also add significant costs to local government.
By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
January 23, 2015
Donnello Knowles, 21, of Stockton, found out the hard way that workplace safety is serious business and can have significant down-stream importance.
Knowles has a fairly common job in the Stockton area. He is an armed robber. He is believed to have committed three armed robberies in less than three hours in Stockton. At about 10:00 pm Wednesday night he had a significant workplace accident which will make him unable to work for some time.
It seems that while Mr. Knowles was in the process of robbing someone he accidentally shot himself with his shotgun. He ran away but not very far or very well. The cops found him, still with the stolen money in his possession. They also found the shotgun with a fired shell in the chamber.
Knowles is now under arrest and under guard at a local hospital. This tragedy will certainly impact his ability to earn a living at his chosen trade. And this workplace accident will also add significant costs to local government.
92-YEAR-OLD CALIFORNIA MAN SUES HEALTH CARE PROVIDER FOR LOSS OF HIS MANHOOD, SEX LIFE
Kaiser Permanente repeatedly denied treatment that would have saved a 92-year-old man’s dick
Rupert Collins, 92, is seeking general, special and treble damages for loss of his dick in a lawsuit against health provider Kaiser Permanente. The health insurer denied repeated requests by nurses for treatments that could have prevented his dick from splitting in two and then completely eroding.
It looks like Kaiser Permanente really screwed up this 92-year-old geezer’s sex life.
MAN WHOSE ‘PENIS SPLIT IN TWO AND ERODED’ SUES HIS INSURANCE COMPANY FOR ‘IGNORING HIS INFECTED CATHETER’
Rupert Collins is suing Kaiser Foundation Health Plan for general, special and treble damages for his loss
By James Nye
Mail Online
January 23, 2015
A 92-year-old California man is suing his health care provider after he claims his penis completely split in half and eroded as a result of neglect.
Rupert Collins filed a lawsuit against Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. for elder abuse, negligence and unfair business practice stating a septic catheter caused the problem.
He alleges that despite repeated requests to remove the catheter over a period of almost two weeks, his penis became cut and swollen to the point it could not be saved.
Collins was a patient on July 21, 2013 at Napa Valley Care Center, which is not included in the lawsuit, when the problem first developed.
A nurse at the facility sent a fax to Kaiser, according to the complaint.
The fax said, 'that Rupert's penis was red and swollen with what was described as a cut. Rupert had a Foley catheter inserted into his penis.
'May we have a trial of no Foley to give the area a rest.'
According to the lawsuit Kaiser denied the request and there is no documentation that doctors or nurses from the insurer checked on Collin's penis.
The lawsuit states, 'As a direct result of this reckless neglect by Kaiser, the Foley was left in Rupert's red and swollen and cut penis, and his penis began to erode further and further each day.'
On July 23, 2013, there was a medical board care conference about Collins' care, however, the lawsuit states that no representative from Kaiser attended.
'As a direct result of Kaiser's failure to participate, there was no meaningful communication or ongoing assessment and the dire need to remove the catheter from Rupert's eroding penis continued to be ignored,' the complaint states according to the Courthouse News Service.
Another nurse sent another fax to Kaiser on July 30 asking to remove the catheter, but this was again denied, claims the lawsuit.
Then, the next day, Collins' daughter looked at her father's penis herself.
'When Diana examined Rupert's penis, she was horrified at what she saw. Rupert's penis was split completely in half from the tip of his penis all the way down to the scrotum sac,' the complaint states.
She got a third nurse to contact Kaiser, but they allegedly said, 'The penis erosion is normal and will heal on its own.'
However, she pushed for a urologist to see her father who stated, 'that if Rupert had been treated earlier, the penis could have been saved but that the penile erosion was now complete, Rupert's penis would never heal and that reconstructive surgery was not a viable option,' the complaint states.
'Rupert's penis and urethra is permanently eroded away and Rupert has suffered permanent genital mutilation,' it continues.'
Collins is currently seeking general, special and treble damages for his loss.
Rupert Collins, 92, is seeking general, special and treble damages for loss of his dick in a lawsuit against health provider Kaiser Permanente. The health insurer denied repeated requests by nurses for treatments that could have prevented his dick from splitting in two and then completely eroding.
It looks like Kaiser Permanente really screwed up this 92-year-old geezer’s sex life.
MAN WHOSE ‘PENIS SPLIT IN TWO AND ERODED’ SUES HIS INSURANCE COMPANY FOR ‘IGNORING HIS INFECTED CATHETER’
Rupert Collins is suing Kaiser Foundation Health Plan for general, special and treble damages for his loss
By James Nye
Mail Online
January 23, 2015
A 92-year-old California man is suing his health care provider after he claims his penis completely split in half and eroded as a result of neglect.
Rupert Collins filed a lawsuit against Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. for elder abuse, negligence and unfair business practice stating a septic catheter caused the problem.
He alleges that despite repeated requests to remove the catheter over a period of almost two weeks, his penis became cut and swollen to the point it could not be saved.
Collins was a patient on July 21, 2013 at Napa Valley Care Center, which is not included in the lawsuit, when the problem first developed.
A nurse at the facility sent a fax to Kaiser, according to the complaint.
The fax said, 'that Rupert's penis was red and swollen with what was described as a cut. Rupert had a Foley catheter inserted into his penis.
'May we have a trial of no Foley to give the area a rest.'
According to the lawsuit Kaiser denied the request and there is no documentation that doctors or nurses from the insurer checked on Collin's penis.
The lawsuit states, 'As a direct result of this reckless neglect by Kaiser, the Foley was left in Rupert's red and swollen and cut penis, and his penis began to erode further and further each day.'
On July 23, 2013, there was a medical board care conference about Collins' care, however, the lawsuit states that no representative from Kaiser attended.
'As a direct result of Kaiser's failure to participate, there was no meaningful communication or ongoing assessment and the dire need to remove the catheter from Rupert's eroding penis continued to be ignored,' the complaint states according to the Courthouse News Service.
Another nurse sent another fax to Kaiser on July 30 asking to remove the catheter, but this was again denied, claims the lawsuit.
Then, the next day, Collins' daughter looked at her father's penis herself.
'When Diana examined Rupert's penis, she was horrified at what she saw. Rupert's penis was split completely in half from the tip of his penis all the way down to the scrotum sac,' the complaint states.
She got a third nurse to contact Kaiser, but they allegedly said, 'The penis erosion is normal and will heal on its own.'
However, she pushed for a urologist to see her father who stated, 'that if Rupert had been treated earlier, the penis could have been saved but that the penile erosion was now complete, Rupert's penis would never heal and that reconstructive surgery was not a viable option,' the complaint states.
'Rupert's penis and urethra is permanently eroded away and Rupert has suffered permanent genital mutilation,' it continues.'
Collins is currently seeking general, special and treble damages for his loss.
WHITE HOUSE INTERVENES AGAINST NETANYAHU IN ISRAELI ELECTION
White House officials denounce Netanyahu to Israel’s left-wing newspaper Haaretz which has long opposed the Prime Minister
So much for all that bullshit about the White House not wanting to intervene in Israel’s election. Not only are Obama administration officials working behind the scene to defeat Netanyahu, but now they are doing it openly by going to Israel’s left-wing newspaper Haaretz to declare that Netanyahu “Spat in our face” by accepting House Speaker John Boehner’s invitation to address a joint session of Congress on February 11. Haaretz has long opposed Netanyahu.
It seems obvious that Obama, our Liar-In-Chief, hates Israeli Prime Minister Binjamin Netanyahu. I suspect the feeling is mutual.
WH OFFICIALS: NETANYAHU ‘SPAT IN OUR FACE’ OVER BOEHNER INVITATION
By Joel Himelfarb
Newsmax
January 23, 2015
White House officials angrily denounced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for responding favorably to House Speaker John Boehner's invitation to speak before Congress in March, telling the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that the prime minister had "spat" in President Barack Obama’s face.
"There are things you simply don’t do. He spat in our face publicly and that’s no way to behave. Netanyahu ought to remember that President Obama has a year and a half left to his presidency, and that there will be a price," an unnamed senior U.S. official said.
U.S. officials said that the "chickens***" epithet that an anonymous administration official used to describe the Israeli leader several months ago was mild compared to the language used in the White House when officials learned of Netanyahu’s planned speech to Congress.
When he speaks before Congress in March, Netanyahu is expected to urge lawmakers to impose tougher sanctions on Iran in order to force it to stop its suspect nuclear program, The Times of Israel reported.
Haaretz reported that last week Obama personally demanded in a telephone conversation with Netanyahu that the Israeli leader tone down his support for new sanctions legislation — a measure Obama has promised to veto.
The Washington Post reported that Netanyahu’s apparent "disrespect" for the U.S. leadership was particularly offensive to Secretary of State John Kerry, who over the past month had made many efforts on Israel’s behalf on the world stage. This included dozens of calls to world leaders to convince them to oppose a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have set a time frame for establishment of a Palestinian state.
"The secretary’s patience is not infinite," a source close to Kerry told the Post. "The bilateral relationship is unshakable. But playing politics with that relationship could blunt Secretary Kerry’s enthusiasm for being Israel’s primary defender."
Meanwhile, Israel's intelligence chief has denied Kerry's claim that he contradicted Netanyahu, his boss, by criticizing new sanctions during a January meeting, saying that they would be akin to "throwing a grenade into the process."
Mossad chief Tamir Pardo denied saying any such thing during a Jan. 19 meeting with U.S. officials. Instead, the Mossad director said he reiterated that "firm pressure" was needed "to bring about meaningful compromises from the Iranian side."
So much for all that bullshit about the White House not wanting to intervene in Israel’s election. Not only are Obama administration officials working behind the scene to defeat Netanyahu, but now they are doing it openly by going to Israel’s left-wing newspaper Haaretz to declare that Netanyahu “Spat in our face” by accepting House Speaker John Boehner’s invitation to address a joint session of Congress on February 11. Haaretz has long opposed Netanyahu.
It seems obvious that Obama, our Liar-In-Chief, hates Israeli Prime Minister Binjamin Netanyahu. I suspect the feeling is mutual.
WH OFFICIALS: NETANYAHU ‘SPAT IN OUR FACE’ OVER BOEHNER INVITATION
By Joel Himelfarb
Newsmax
January 23, 2015
White House officials angrily denounced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for responding favorably to House Speaker John Boehner's invitation to speak before Congress in March, telling the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that the prime minister had "spat" in President Barack Obama’s face.
"There are things you simply don’t do. He spat in our face publicly and that’s no way to behave. Netanyahu ought to remember that President Obama has a year and a half left to his presidency, and that there will be a price," an unnamed senior U.S. official said.
U.S. officials said that the "chickens***" epithet that an anonymous administration official used to describe the Israeli leader several months ago was mild compared to the language used in the White House when officials learned of Netanyahu’s planned speech to Congress.
When he speaks before Congress in March, Netanyahu is expected to urge lawmakers to impose tougher sanctions on Iran in order to force it to stop its suspect nuclear program, The Times of Israel reported.
Haaretz reported that last week Obama personally demanded in a telephone conversation with Netanyahu that the Israeli leader tone down his support for new sanctions legislation — a measure Obama has promised to veto.
The Washington Post reported that Netanyahu’s apparent "disrespect" for the U.S. leadership was particularly offensive to Secretary of State John Kerry, who over the past month had made many efforts on Israel’s behalf on the world stage. This included dozens of calls to world leaders to convince them to oppose a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have set a time frame for establishment of a Palestinian state.
"The secretary’s patience is not infinite," a source close to Kerry told the Post. "The bilateral relationship is unshakable. But playing politics with that relationship could blunt Secretary Kerry’s enthusiasm for being Israel’s primary defender."
Meanwhile, Israel's intelligence chief has denied Kerry's claim that he contradicted Netanyahu, his boss, by criticizing new sanctions during a January meeting, saying that they would be akin to "throwing a grenade into the process."
Mossad chief Tamir Pardo denied saying any such thing during a Jan. 19 meeting with U.S. officials. Instead, the Mossad director said he reiterated that "firm pressure" was needed "to bring about meaningful compromises from the Iranian side."
SECOND THOUGHTS ABOUT POT LEGALIZATION
Colorado’s governor says that if he could, he would reverse the 2012 vote that legalized pot in his state
John Hickenlooper, the Democrat governor of Colorado says that if he could, he would reverse the 2012 vote that legalized marijuana in his state and warns the governors of other states to wait a few years before letting their states legalize pot.
COLORADO GOV. JOHN HICKENLOOPER SAYS LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA WAS ‘A BAD IDEA’
The Governor says that “If I could’ve waved a wand, I would have reversed the election”
By Fred Imbert
CNBC
January 23, 2015
States around the U.S. should be cautious when considering the legalization of marijuana, the governor of one of the first states to allow recreational use of cannabis told CNBC on Friday.
"We don't know what the unintended consequences are," Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper said in a "Squawk Box" interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "Can we keep it out of the hands of kids? All the top neuroscientists say this high-THC marijuana can diminish long-term memory in teenagers."
Hickenlooper, whose state became the first to allow regulated retail sales of cannabis for recreational use despite his opposition, said he believes the legal pot business needs additional government oversight.
“You don’t want to be the first person to do something like this,” he said. “There’s a whole regulatory environment by the [federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms] that really regulates alcohol. We’re starting from scratch and we don’t have a federal partner because [marijuana] is still illegal federally.”
The Democratic governor said he would reverse legal pot’s ballot box win if he could.
“If I could’ve waved a wand the day after the election, I would've reversed the election and said ‘this was a bad idea,’” he said.
He added that Colorado’s legal marijuana business model lends itself to corruption and fraud because it is a cash business. “We do have a credit union that’s trying to work its way through. It’s got approval of the state [and] we think it might get federal approval,” he said. “No one wants it to be a cash business.”
Hickenlooper also said there are some indications of pot smuggling across state lines, though not at a large scale. “The studies we've seen of the people in Colorado [show] the people who were smoking before it was legal are still doing it, and people that weren't smoking it still aren't.”
John Hickenlooper, the Democrat governor of Colorado says that if he could, he would reverse the 2012 vote that legalized marijuana in his state and warns the governors of other states to wait a few years before letting their states legalize pot.
COLORADO GOV. JOHN HICKENLOOPER SAYS LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA WAS ‘A BAD IDEA’
The Governor says that “If I could’ve waved a wand, I would have reversed the election”
By Fred Imbert
CNBC
January 23, 2015
States around the U.S. should be cautious when considering the legalization of marijuana, the governor of one of the first states to allow recreational use of cannabis told CNBC on Friday.
"We don't know what the unintended consequences are," Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper said in a "Squawk Box" interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "Can we keep it out of the hands of kids? All the top neuroscientists say this high-THC marijuana can diminish long-term memory in teenagers."
Hickenlooper, whose state became the first to allow regulated retail sales of cannabis for recreational use despite his opposition, said he believes the legal pot business needs additional government oversight.
“You don’t want to be the first person to do something like this,” he said. “There’s a whole regulatory environment by the [federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms] that really regulates alcohol. We’re starting from scratch and we don’t have a federal partner because [marijuana] is still illegal federally.”
The Democratic governor said he would reverse legal pot’s ballot box win if he could.
“If I could’ve waved a wand the day after the election, I would've reversed the election and said ‘this was a bad idea,’” he said.
He added that Colorado’s legal marijuana business model lends itself to corruption and fraud because it is a cash business. “We do have a credit union that’s trying to work its way through. It’s got approval of the state [and] we think it might get federal approval,” he said. “No one wants it to be a cash business.”
Hickenlooper also said there are some indications of pot smuggling across state lines, though not at a large scale. “The studies we've seen of the people in Colorado [show] the people who were smoking before it was legal are still doing it, and people that weren't smoking it still aren't.”
Friday, January 23, 2015
QUEEN BEES, WANNABEES AND MEAN GIRLS
Colorado College gives its students a wonderful opportunity to waste their time and their parents’ money
I have said on several occasions that American higher education has become the laughing stock of the world.
American universities offer such worthless majors as Women’s Studies; Gender Studies; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Studies; African-American Studies, etc. There are courses entitled “Queer Marriage, Hate Crimes, and Will and Grace: Contemporary Issues in LGBT Studies” (at Dartmouth), “Race, Gender, and Ethnicity in Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee” (at Harvard), “Politicizing Beyoncé” (at Rutgers) and "The Sociology of Miley Cyrus: Race, Class, Gender and Media" (at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.).
Arizona State University is offering extra credit to women enrolled in a gender studies course for not shaving their legs and armpits for 10 weeks and male students for shaving all their hair from the neck down, also for 10 weeks.
Now Colorado College in Colorado Springs is offering a course entitled “Queen Bees, WannaBees and Mean Girls" in its Comparative Literature Department. The course is taught by Professor Lisa Hughes and focuses among other things on Tina Fey’s hit 2004 movie “Mean Girls” starring Lindsay Lohan. Prof. Hughes designed the course to explore the “motives behind why women seek authority and the actions they are willing to take in order to hold onto it,” according to a course description.
Completion of that mean girls course is sure to help students land a really great job upon graduation from Colorado College ... Right?
The Chinese must be laughing their heads off that America’s colleges and universities are offering such worthless degree programs and courses. But parents will hardly be laughing when they realize they’ve been wasting their hard-earned money by paying for such worthless nonsense.
I have said on several occasions that American higher education has become the laughing stock of the world.
American universities offer such worthless majors as Women’s Studies; Gender Studies; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Studies; African-American Studies, etc. There are courses entitled “Queer Marriage, Hate Crimes, and Will and Grace: Contemporary Issues in LGBT Studies” (at Dartmouth), “Race, Gender, and Ethnicity in Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee” (at Harvard), “Politicizing Beyoncé” (at Rutgers) and "The Sociology of Miley Cyrus: Race, Class, Gender and Media" (at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.).
Arizona State University is offering extra credit to women enrolled in a gender studies course for not shaving their legs and armpits for 10 weeks and male students for shaving all their hair from the neck down, also for 10 weeks.
Now Colorado College in Colorado Springs is offering a course entitled “Queen Bees, WannaBees and Mean Girls" in its Comparative Literature Department. The course is taught by Professor Lisa Hughes and focuses among other things on Tina Fey’s hit 2004 movie “Mean Girls” starring Lindsay Lohan. Prof. Hughes designed the course to explore the “motives behind why women seek authority and the actions they are willing to take in order to hold onto it,” according to a course description.
Completion of that mean girls course is sure to help students land a really great job upon graduation from Colorado College ... Right?
The Chinese must be laughing their heads off that America’s colleges and universities are offering such worthless degree programs and courses. But parents will hardly be laughing when they realize they’ve been wasting their hard-earned money by paying for such worthless nonsense.
WISCONSIN SHERIFF SLAMS SHARPTON AND HOLDER
Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke slams Al Sharpton and Eric Holder for race-baiting and says Sharpton should ‘go back into the gutter’
Thursday morning on Fox & Friends, during a discussion of the events surrounding the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke slammed both Al Sharpton and Attorney General Eric Holder for the race-baiting comments they made about the shooting.
Sheriff Clarke made this comment about Sharpton:
"I don't expect anything intelligent to come out of the mouth of Al Sharpton, The next intelligent thing that comes out of his mouth will be the first. Al Sharpton ought to just shut up and go back into the gutter that he came from.”
And Clarke had this to say about Holder:
"Just take a look at the history here. This isn't the first time that he [Holder] has done this sort of thing. He sat up there for months just slandering law enforcement officers all across the nation. He's the one in Ferguson, Mo. that brought up the racial profiling term. That we were gonna end racial profiling once and for all. He invoked that into this thing, when that was never any part of what happened in the tragedy between officer Darren Wilson and Mike Brown. This is habit now for this Justice Department under Eric Holder, and I just think it's a shame."
Oops, I forgot to mention that Sheriff Clarke is a black man.
Thursday morning on Fox & Friends, during a discussion of the events surrounding the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke slammed both Al Sharpton and Attorney General Eric Holder for the race-baiting comments they made about the shooting.
Sheriff Clarke made this comment about Sharpton:
"I don't expect anything intelligent to come out of the mouth of Al Sharpton, The next intelligent thing that comes out of his mouth will be the first. Al Sharpton ought to just shut up and go back into the gutter that he came from.”
And Clarke had this to say about Holder:
"Just take a look at the history here. This isn't the first time that he [Holder] has done this sort of thing. He sat up there for months just slandering law enforcement officers all across the nation. He's the one in Ferguson, Mo. that brought up the racial profiling term. That we were gonna end racial profiling once and for all. He invoked that into this thing, when that was never any part of what happened in the tragedy between officer Darren Wilson and Mike Brown. This is habit now for this Justice Department under Eric Holder, and I just think it's a shame."
Oops, I forgot to mention that Sheriff Clarke is a black man.
KID ROCK SLINGS ROCKS AT MICHAEL MOORE AND SETH ROGEN
A patriotic Kid Rock blasts Michael Moore and Seth Rogen for their criticism of American Sniper
Kid Rock, the singer-songwriter, rapper, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and actor, became incensed when he learned that far-left filmmaker Michael Moore and actor Seth Rogen had criticized American Sniper, the Clint Eastwood film about Chris Kyle, the late Navy SEAL hero.
If you recall, Moore had said his uncle was killed by a sniper and that "We were taught snipers were cowards. Will shoot u in the back. Snipers aren't heroes."
Here is how Kid Rock responded on his website to the criticism of American Sniper by Moore and Rogen:
"Fuck you Michael Moore, you’re a piece of shit and your uncle would be ashamed of you. Seth Rogen, your uncle probably molested you. I hope both of you catch a fist to the face soon. God bless you Chris Kyle, Thank you for your service."
All I will say is Amen and God Bless Kid Rock!
Kid Rock, the singer-songwriter, rapper, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and actor, became incensed when he learned that far-left filmmaker Michael Moore and actor Seth Rogen had criticized American Sniper, the Clint Eastwood film about Chris Kyle, the late Navy SEAL hero.
If you recall, Moore had said his uncle was killed by a sniper and that "We were taught snipers were cowards. Will shoot u in the back. Snipers aren't heroes."
Here is how Kid Rock responded on his website to the criticism of American Sniper by Moore and Rogen:
"Fuck you Michael Moore, you’re a piece of shit and your uncle would be ashamed of you. Seth Rogen, your uncle probably molested you. I hope both of you catch a fist to the face soon. God bless you Chris Kyle, Thank you for your service."
All I will say is Amen and God Bless Kid Rock!
OBAMA USES LAME EXCUSE TO SNUB NETANYAHU
The White House says it does not want to influence the Israeli elections when it’s no secret that the Obama administration is working behind the scene to defeat Netanyahu
Obama and Netanyahu obviously cannot stand each other. The White House is pissed off that Netanyahu accepted an invitation by House Speaker John Boehner to address a joint session of Congress on February 11 without first clearing it with the president. The White House claims to have a long standing policy of not wanting to influence foreign elections through meetings with foreign leaders up for election. Obama believes that meeting with Netanyahu would influence the upcoming Israeli elections. It probably would help Netanyahu.
But here is just one more example of why Obama is our “Liar-in-Chief.” It’s no secret that the Administration is working behind the scene to defeat Obama's nemesis, Israeli Prime Minister Binjamin Netanyahu.
OBAMA WON’T MEET WITH NETANYAHU DURING CONTROVERSIAL U.S. VISIT
White House says it's too close to Israel's elections
By Oliver Knox
Yahoo News
January 22, 2015
President Barack Obama will not meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the latter's controversial March 3 visit to Washington, the White House announced Thursday, saying it risked looking like the Administration was trying to influence Israel's March 17 elections.
"The president will not be meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu because of the proximity to the Israeli election, which is just two weeks after his planned address to the U.S. Congress," National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said in a emailed statement.
“As a matter of long-standing practice and principle, we do not see heads of state or candidates in close proximity to their elections, so as to avoid the appearance of influencing a democratic election in a foreign country," she said.
Netanyahu's visit has further strained already difficult relations with Obama. Republican House Speaker John Boehner invited Netanyahu to address a joint meeting of Congress for the express purpose of challenging the president's approach to Islamist extremism and negotiations with Iran over that country's nuclear program. The White House, which found out about the visit from Boehner's office, accused Israel of breaching diplomatic protocol under which foreign leaders advise host leaders of pending visits.
Netanyahu has made no secret of his opposition to ongoing talks with Iran, saying that Tehran cannot be trusted to abandon its ability to build a nuclear weapon that could directly threaten Israel. His visit will come as the White House tries to tamp down a move in Congress to pass legislation that envisions new economic sanctions on Iran if no satisfactory comprehensive nuclear deal can be reached.
"The president has been clear about his opposition to Congress passing new legislation on Iran that could undermine our negotiations and divide the international community," said Meehan. "The president has had many conversations with the Prime Minister on this matter, and I am sure they will continue to be in contact on this and other important matters.”
Obama and Netanyahu obviously cannot stand each other. The White House is pissed off that Netanyahu accepted an invitation by House Speaker John Boehner to address a joint session of Congress on February 11 without first clearing it with the president. The White House claims to have a long standing policy of not wanting to influence foreign elections through meetings with foreign leaders up for election. Obama believes that meeting with Netanyahu would influence the upcoming Israeli elections. It probably would help Netanyahu.
But here is just one more example of why Obama is our “Liar-in-Chief.” It’s no secret that the Administration is working behind the scene to defeat Obama's nemesis, Israeli Prime Minister Binjamin Netanyahu.
OBAMA WON’T MEET WITH NETANYAHU DURING CONTROVERSIAL U.S. VISIT
White House says it's too close to Israel's elections
By Oliver Knox
Yahoo News
January 22, 2015
President Barack Obama will not meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the latter's controversial March 3 visit to Washington, the White House announced Thursday, saying it risked looking like the Administration was trying to influence Israel's March 17 elections.
"The president will not be meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu because of the proximity to the Israeli election, which is just two weeks after his planned address to the U.S. Congress," National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said in a emailed statement.
“As a matter of long-standing practice and principle, we do not see heads of state or candidates in close proximity to their elections, so as to avoid the appearance of influencing a democratic election in a foreign country," she said.
Netanyahu's visit has further strained already difficult relations with Obama. Republican House Speaker John Boehner invited Netanyahu to address a joint meeting of Congress for the express purpose of challenging the president's approach to Islamist extremism and negotiations with Iran over that country's nuclear program. The White House, which found out about the visit from Boehner's office, accused Israel of breaching diplomatic protocol under which foreign leaders advise host leaders of pending visits.
Netanyahu has made no secret of his opposition to ongoing talks with Iran, saying that Tehran cannot be trusted to abandon its ability to build a nuclear weapon that could directly threaten Israel. His visit will come as the White House tries to tamp down a move in Congress to pass legislation that envisions new economic sanctions on Iran if no satisfactory comprehensive nuclear deal can be reached.
"The president has been clear about his opposition to Congress passing new legislation on Iran that could undermine our negotiations and divide the international community," said Meehan. "The president has had many conversations with the Prime Minister on this matter, and I am sure they will continue to be in contact on this and other important matters.”
DRUG TRAFFICKING: HERE COME THE DRONES
Mexican drug traffickers not connected to any cartel are turning to drones to deliver their goods to the UJ.S.
On Tuesday night, police in Tijuana were alerted to a drone crash in in a supermarket parking lot near the San Ysidro border crossing. The cops found that the drone, a $1,500 'Spreading Wings S900', had six packets of meth, each weighing over a pound, strapped to it. The drone, which has six propellers, appeared to have been heading for California and is believed to have crashed because the meth it was carrying was too heavy a load. The cops are investigating where the flight originated and who was controlling it.
Authorities say that drug traffickers in Mexico who are not connected to any of the cartels, are turning to the use of drones as a relatively inexpensive way to deliver their goods to the U.S. But Mexican drug traffickers are not the only ones using drones to deliver drugs. Last April, South Carolina prison authorities found a drone outside a prison fence that was carrying cellphones, marijuana and tobacco.
On Tuesday night, police in Tijuana were alerted to a drone crash in in a supermarket parking lot near the San Ysidro border crossing. The cops found that the drone, a $1,500 'Spreading Wings S900', had six packets of meth, each weighing over a pound, strapped to it. The drone, which has six propellers, appeared to have been heading for California and is believed to have crashed because the meth it was carrying was too heavy a load. The cops are investigating where the flight originated and who was controlling it.
Authorities say that drug traffickers in Mexico who are not connected to any of the cartels, are turning to the use of drones as a relatively inexpensive way to deliver their goods to the U.S. But Mexican drug traffickers are not the only ones using drones to deliver drugs. Last April, South Carolina prison authorities found a drone outside a prison fence that was carrying cellphones, marijuana and tobacco.
SHOULD CHILDREN WITNESS CHILDBIRTH?
The Unconventional Gazette
January 22, 2015
A paramedic responded to an emergency childbirth call. The house was very dark so the paramedic asked Kathleen, a 3-yr old girl, to hold a flashlight high over her mommy so he could see while he helped deliver the baby.
Very diligently, Kathleen did as she was asked. Heidi pushed and pushed and after a little while, Connor was born. The paramedic lifted him by his little feet and spanked him on his bottom.
Connor began to cry.
The paramedic then thanked Kathleen for her help and asked the wide-eyed 3-yr old what she thought about what she had just witnessed.
Kathleen quickly responded, 'He shouldn't have crawled in there in the first place......smack his ass again!'
January 22, 2015
A paramedic responded to an emergency childbirth call. The house was very dark so the paramedic asked Kathleen, a 3-yr old girl, to hold a flashlight high over her mommy so he could see while he helped deliver the baby.
Very diligently, Kathleen did as she was asked. Heidi pushed and pushed and after a little while, Connor was born. The paramedic lifted him by his little feet and spanked him on his bottom.
Connor began to cry.
The paramedic then thanked Kathleen for her help and asked the wide-eyed 3-yr old what she thought about what she had just witnessed.
Kathleen quickly responded, 'He shouldn't have crawled in there in the first place......smack his ass again!'
Thursday, January 22, 2015
AMERICAN SNIPER KILLS SELMA
Weekend box office totals show that American Sniper wiped out highly touted Selma
Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper grossed $93 million over the three day weekend while Oprah Winfrey’s Selma took in only $8.3 million. That humongous gap is somewhat surprising because the three day weekend included the Martin Luther King holiday.
It looks as if racial rabble rouser Al Sharpton, who threw an apoplectic fit because no black actors were nominated for this year’s Oscars, failed to turn out the troops at the theaters which showed the civil rights movie. Betcha more blacks went to see American Sniper on MLK day than went to see Selma.
On the other hand, anti-military, anti-gun and anti-capitalist filmmaker Michael Moore probably helped propel the attendance at American Sniper with his untoward blast at the film. Apparently Americans didn’t cotton up to the armchair sniper’s comments that military snipers are cowards who will shoot you in the back and that snipers aren’t heroes.
I think it’s fair to say that the reason Selma did so poorly is because a lot of people who went to see American Sniper would have gone to see Oprah’s film if Eastwood’s film had not been playing. Hence, American Sniper killed Selma.
Sharpton and Moore are licking their wounds as moviegoers continue to fill the theaters showing American Sniper. The Eastwood movie is breaking box office records while Oprah's Selma is playing to half-empty houses. Score a big one for the good guys. Fuck Al Sharpton and Michael Moore!
Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper grossed $93 million over the three day weekend while Oprah Winfrey’s Selma took in only $8.3 million. That humongous gap is somewhat surprising because the three day weekend included the Martin Luther King holiday.
It looks as if racial rabble rouser Al Sharpton, who threw an apoplectic fit because no black actors were nominated for this year’s Oscars, failed to turn out the troops at the theaters which showed the civil rights movie. Betcha more blacks went to see American Sniper on MLK day than went to see Selma.
On the other hand, anti-military, anti-gun and anti-capitalist filmmaker Michael Moore probably helped propel the attendance at American Sniper with his untoward blast at the film. Apparently Americans didn’t cotton up to the armchair sniper’s comments that military snipers are cowards who will shoot you in the back and that snipers aren’t heroes.
I think it’s fair to say that the reason Selma did so poorly is because a lot of people who went to see American Sniper would have gone to see Oprah’s film if Eastwood’s film had not been playing. Hence, American Sniper killed Selma.
Sharpton and Moore are licking their wounds as moviegoers continue to fill the theaters showing American Sniper. The Eastwood movie is breaking box office records while Oprah's Selma is playing to half-empty houses. Score a big one for the good guys. Fuck Al Sharpton and Michael Moore!
FIRST TEXAS EXECUTION OF 2015 GOES ON WITHOUT A HITCH
Arnold Prieto was put to death Wednesday for the 1993 stabbing deaths of three elderly San Antonio residents during a robbery
Arnold Pietro, 41, was put to death Wednesday by the State of Texas for the September 1993 fatal stabbings of Rodolfo Rodriguez, 72, his wife, Virginia, 62, and Paula Moran, their 90-year-old former nanny who lived with them in their San Antonio home. Pietro and two accomplices intended to rob the Rodriguezes, believing there was $10,000 in their home from which they ran a check cashing business.
The execution, which was carried out with a single dose of pentobarbital, went on without a hitch. The Associated Press reports that as the injection began, Pietro said he could smell it. He uttered “Whoa” before he began snoring, with each snore a bit more quiet. After the fifth snore he stopped moving. Pietro was pronounced dead 20 minutes after the execution began.
Pietro was not only a triple murderer, he was an idiot triple murderer. He was offered a plea deal of less than life in prison if he would testify against brothers Jesse and Guadalupe Hernandez, his crime partners in the murderous robbery. Pietro refused the plea deal and ended up as the only member of the trio to be sentenced to death.
Jesse, now 38, was 17 at the time of the murders, making him too young to be executed. He is serving life in prison. Guadalupe was never prosecuted because, without Pietro’s testimony against him, the state lacked sufficient evidence for a conviction.
Arnold Pietro, 41, was put to death Wednesday by the State of Texas for the September 1993 fatal stabbings of Rodolfo Rodriguez, 72, his wife, Virginia, 62, and Paula Moran, their 90-year-old former nanny who lived with them in their San Antonio home. Pietro and two accomplices intended to rob the Rodriguezes, believing there was $10,000 in their home from which they ran a check cashing business.
The execution, which was carried out with a single dose of pentobarbital, went on without a hitch. The Associated Press reports that as the injection began, Pietro said he could smell it. He uttered “Whoa” before he began snoring, with each snore a bit more quiet. After the fifth snore he stopped moving. Pietro was pronounced dead 20 minutes after the execution began.
Pietro was not only a triple murderer, he was an idiot triple murderer. He was offered a plea deal of less than life in prison if he would testify against brothers Jesse and Guadalupe Hernandez, his crime partners in the murderous robbery. Pietro refused the plea deal and ended up as the only member of the trio to be sentenced to death.
Jesse, now 38, was 17 at the time of the murders, making him too young to be executed. He is serving life in prison. Guadalupe was never prosecuted because, without Pietro’s testimony against him, the state lacked sufficient evidence for a conviction.
UH OH, HERE WE GO AGAIN
Two Bridgeton, New Jersey cops - one white, the other black - shoot an unarmed black man to death
On December 30, Bridgeton, New Jersey cops Braheme Days and Roger Worley pulled over a Jaguar for running a stop sign. What started out as a routine traffic stop ended up in the shooting death of Jerame Reid, 36, a passenger in the car. A dash cam on the cop car shows Reid, who is black, getting shot after he emerged from the car with his empty hands at shoulder level.
Here from the Daily Mail are the details of the latest controversial shooting:
The officers had pulled over the Jaguar for rolling through a stop sign, and the encounter starts friendly. But Days suddenly steps back, pulls his gun and tells the men, 'Show me your hands.'
Days tells his partner there is a gun in the glove compartment and then appears to reach in and remove a handgun.
The driver, Leroy Tutt, is seen showing his hands atop the open window on his side of the car. It's not clear what Reid is doing, though Days repeatedly warns him not to move during the standoff of less than two minutes.
'I'm going to shoot you!' Days shouts, referring to Reid at one point by his first name.
'You're going to be fucking dead! If you reach for something, you're going to be fucking dead!'
'I ain't got no reason to reach for nothing, bro. I ain't got no reason to reach for nothing,' Reid says as Days continues to yell to his partner that Reid is reaching for something.
Someone then says,'I'm getting out and getting on the ground,' but Days yells at Reid not to move.
The passenger door pops open and Reid emerges. His hands are at about shoulder height and appear to be empty. As he steps out, the officers fire at least six shots.
The shooting involved a salt-and-pepper pair of cop partners, with Days black and Worley white.
Reid was an ex-con, having served 13 years in prison for shooting at New Jersey State Police troopers when he was a teenager.
The shooting outraged the black community, and that was before release of the dash cam footage.
This incident shows that cops, including black ones, are very apprehensive in confrontations with black men. It also illustrates what can happen when someone refuses to obey an officer’s commands.
On December 30, Bridgeton, New Jersey cops Braheme Days and Roger Worley pulled over a Jaguar for running a stop sign. What started out as a routine traffic stop ended up in the shooting death of Jerame Reid, 36, a passenger in the car. A dash cam on the cop car shows Reid, who is black, getting shot after he emerged from the car with his empty hands at shoulder level.
Here from the Daily Mail are the details of the latest controversial shooting:
The officers had pulled over the Jaguar for rolling through a stop sign, and the encounter starts friendly. But Days suddenly steps back, pulls his gun and tells the men, 'Show me your hands.'
Days tells his partner there is a gun in the glove compartment and then appears to reach in and remove a handgun.
The driver, Leroy Tutt, is seen showing his hands atop the open window on his side of the car. It's not clear what Reid is doing, though Days repeatedly warns him not to move during the standoff of less than two minutes.
'I'm going to shoot you!' Days shouts, referring to Reid at one point by his first name.
'You're going to be fucking dead! If you reach for something, you're going to be fucking dead!'
'I ain't got no reason to reach for nothing, bro. I ain't got no reason to reach for nothing,' Reid says as Days continues to yell to his partner that Reid is reaching for something.
Someone then says,'I'm getting out and getting on the ground,' but Days yells at Reid not to move.
The passenger door pops open and Reid emerges. His hands are at about shoulder height and appear to be empty. As he steps out, the officers fire at least six shots.
The shooting involved a salt-and-pepper pair of cop partners, with Days black and Worley white.
Reid was an ex-con, having served 13 years in prison for shooting at New Jersey State Police troopers when he was a teenager.
The shooting outraged the black community, and that was before release of the dash cam footage.
This incident shows that cops, including black ones, are very apprehensive in confrontations with black men. It also illustrates what can happen when someone refuses to obey an officer’s commands.
LAWYER SUSPENDED FOR ONLY 18 MONTHS
If only half the complaints of his clients are true, Craig Washington should never be allowed to practice law again
The Texas Bar Association has received numerous complaints from clients of former Congressman Craig Washington. If only half of those complaints are true, then Washington is nothing but a low-down crook who should be in jail and never allowed to practice law again. As a former Congressman, Washington must have some powerful friends and it probably also helps him that he is black.
Washington gives a profession that already has a bad reputation, an even badder reputation.
CRAIG WASHINGTON’S LAW LICENSE SUSPENDED AMID CLAIMS HE SCREWED OVER CLIENTS
By Michael Barajas
Houston Press
January 21, 2015
To say that former Congressman Craig Washington has a checkered past would be an understatement.
In 2009, the dapper bow tie-sporting lawyer admitted in court to illegally shooting a couple of teenagers who were looking for a parking spot in his private Midtown lot (bullets hit the car but the boys were unharmed). Then, after being sentenced to two years of probation for the offense, Washington sued both teenagers in civil court for about $600,000 each. Right around that time, Washington just so happened to be fighting a lawsuit from the IRS seeking more than $600,000 in unpaid taxes.
All the while, Washington fought complaints by former clients and disciplinary filings by the State Bar of Texas alleging several instances of attorney misconduct. After fighting those allegations for many years, early this month Washington was finally suspended from practicing law for 18 months.
The case that ultimately got Washington suspended dates back to 2006. That year Michael Gobert hired Washington to represent him while he was fighting to keep his mother's house from being transferred to her live-in boyfriend in a Montgomery County court. According to court records, Gobert paid Washington $10,000 for his services. In return, Washington failed to tell Gobert about a pre-trial hearing the week before his case was set to go to court. When the case was called, neither Gobert nor Washington showed up, and Gobert's case was dismissed (Gobert's had no luck on appeal).
Last month Washington's disciplinary case, brought by the State Bar of Texas, went before a Bastrop County jury, which found that the former congressman had committed professional misconduct Gobert's case. The court also made Washington pay the state bar's attorneys fees, about $25,000.
Complaints that Washington screwed over clients led to at least two other public reprimands, according to state bar records. One reprimand stems from a 2004 case in Brazoria County involving Pamela Williams, who sued a department store and the College Station Police Department after she was wrongly arrested and accused of stealing. In 2007, Washington settled the case for $8,000 dollars. When Williams wanted records and accounting from Washington to make sure he withheld the correct amount in attorney's fees (seems even Washington's client didn't trust Washington), Washington refused to turn over any records, according to court documents. Washington then failed to respond to inquiries from the state bar's Client-Attorney Assistance Program after Williams filed a complaint.
State bar records show that Washington was also reprimanded for his work in the case of a man who was ultimately convicted of shooting a cop during the chaos of post-Katrina New Orleans. Around November 2005, months after Jamil Joyner and three others were arrested and charged with attempted murder of a police officer, Joyner's mother contacted and hired Washington to represent the group, court records show.
Despite being paid $40,000 to represent the four defendants, it's unclear what actual work Washington ever did on the case. Washington wasn't licensed to practice in Louisiana, so he told Joyner's family he'd hired a New Orleans attorney as co-counsel. When Joyner was eventually called into court hearings, none of his attorneys showed, according to disciplinary records filed in court. The state bar's complaint against Washington claims that Joyner, left without Washington's help, went almost a whole year in lockup without being arraigned. When Joyner ultimately hired another attorney to take his case, that attorney couldn't get Washington to turn over the files he'd kept on the defendants.
Washington has yet to respond to a request for comment left at his Houston law office. In his voice-mail greeting, Washington offers this bit of advice: "The key to success is to work like you don't need the money, dance like nobody's watching, love like you've never been hurt." Maybe he should add work like you've never been paid.
The Texas Bar Association has received numerous complaints from clients of former Congressman Craig Washington. If only half of those complaints are true, then Washington is nothing but a low-down crook who should be in jail and never allowed to practice law again. As a former Congressman, Washington must have some powerful friends and it probably also helps him that he is black.
Washington gives a profession that already has a bad reputation, an even badder reputation.
CRAIG WASHINGTON’S LAW LICENSE SUSPENDED AMID CLAIMS HE SCREWED OVER CLIENTS
By Michael Barajas
Houston Press
January 21, 2015
To say that former Congressman Craig Washington has a checkered past would be an understatement.
In 2009, the dapper bow tie-sporting lawyer admitted in court to illegally shooting a couple of teenagers who were looking for a parking spot in his private Midtown lot (bullets hit the car but the boys were unharmed). Then, after being sentenced to two years of probation for the offense, Washington sued both teenagers in civil court for about $600,000 each. Right around that time, Washington just so happened to be fighting a lawsuit from the IRS seeking more than $600,000 in unpaid taxes.
All the while, Washington fought complaints by former clients and disciplinary filings by the State Bar of Texas alleging several instances of attorney misconduct. After fighting those allegations for many years, early this month Washington was finally suspended from practicing law for 18 months.
The case that ultimately got Washington suspended dates back to 2006. That year Michael Gobert hired Washington to represent him while he was fighting to keep his mother's house from being transferred to her live-in boyfriend in a Montgomery County court. According to court records, Gobert paid Washington $10,000 for his services. In return, Washington failed to tell Gobert about a pre-trial hearing the week before his case was set to go to court. When the case was called, neither Gobert nor Washington showed up, and Gobert's case was dismissed (Gobert's had no luck on appeal).
Last month Washington's disciplinary case, brought by the State Bar of Texas, went before a Bastrop County jury, which found that the former congressman had committed professional misconduct Gobert's case. The court also made Washington pay the state bar's attorneys fees, about $25,000.
Complaints that Washington screwed over clients led to at least two other public reprimands, according to state bar records. One reprimand stems from a 2004 case in Brazoria County involving Pamela Williams, who sued a department store and the College Station Police Department after she was wrongly arrested and accused of stealing. In 2007, Washington settled the case for $8,000 dollars. When Williams wanted records and accounting from Washington to make sure he withheld the correct amount in attorney's fees (seems even Washington's client didn't trust Washington), Washington refused to turn over any records, according to court documents. Washington then failed to respond to inquiries from the state bar's Client-Attorney Assistance Program after Williams filed a complaint.
State bar records show that Washington was also reprimanded for his work in the case of a man who was ultimately convicted of shooting a cop during the chaos of post-Katrina New Orleans. Around November 2005, months after Jamil Joyner and three others were arrested and charged with attempted murder of a police officer, Joyner's mother contacted and hired Washington to represent the group, court records show.
Despite being paid $40,000 to represent the four defendants, it's unclear what actual work Washington ever did on the case. Washington wasn't licensed to practice in Louisiana, so he told Joyner's family he'd hired a New Orleans attorney as co-counsel. When Joyner was eventually called into court hearings, none of his attorneys showed, according to disciplinary records filed in court. The state bar's complaint against Washington claims that Joyner, left without Washington's help, went almost a whole year in lockup without being arraigned. When Joyner ultimately hired another attorney to take his case, that attorney couldn't get Washington to turn over the files he'd kept on the defendants.
Washington has yet to respond to a request for comment left at his Houston law office. In his voice-mail greeting, Washington offers this bit of advice: "The key to success is to work like you don't need the money, dance like nobody's watching, love like you've never been hurt." Maybe he should add work like you've never been paid.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)