By now everyone must know that the Los Angeles Unified School District has opened a new school building that cost $578 million. The district had already built several schools that exceeded well over $100 million each. All this by a school district that has a 50 percent dropout rate.
Now you know why I call it Kookfornia. The school officials behind this ‘Taj Mahal’ building spree have taken leave of their senses. Just another reason why the whole state is on the verge of bankruptcy. If you spend money like a drunken sailor, which is exactly what Kookfornia has done, you’re going to find it’s all gone when you sober up.
The LAUSD justifies the $578 million school by explaining that it was part of a bond measure approved by the voters. If any of you have ever read one of these bond measures in your school district you know that it can be quite confusing if not deliberately misleading.
Besides that, our country is full of stupid voters. Didn’t they elect Obama? They bought all that ‘hope and change’ shit, and what they got was a cat and dog fight between Democrats and Republicans, questionable health care reform, a dismal economy and a high unemployment rate.
Earlier this year I wrote WASTING OUR SCHOOL DOLLARS (2-18-10) about the building of extravagant school buildings. But the buildings I was complaining about did not cost anywhere near $100 million.
Whoa there. A light just clicked on in my head. It just occurred to me what those Los Angeles school officials were really thinking in building schools that cost several hundred million dollars each. It was their clever way of reducing that 50 percent dropout rate. By building those palaces with all their deluxe amenities, the students in those buildings will want to remain there instead of dropping out. And I thought those school officials were a bunch of educated idiots.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
CARMAX: AN HONEST-TO-GOODNESS HONEST USED CAR DEALERSHIP
One of my buddies just bought a new pick-up truck. Not a new-new truck, but a new used truck. His experience convinces me that he found the most hones used car dealership anywhere.
He walked into Carmax and told them he was looking for a nice Ford F-150. He told them he was not going to do any business with them unless they gave him $7,000 trade-in on his old truck. He found a clean, low-mileage F-150 that he wanted to buy. Guess what they gave him for his trade-in. You’ll find this hard to believe, but it’s true. They gave him $11,000. That’s right, $11,000.
After getting over the shock, he asked the salesman why they were giving him such a high trade-in. The salesman told him it was because the model he was trading-in is in hot demand.
What is so amazing here is that the salesman could easily have told my buddy that they would give him the $7,000 he wanted. That would have satisfied him and he would have been none the wiser. Instead they gave him $4,000 more than he asked for. There’s absolutely no way that you can beat that for honesty!
Three members of my family have gotten cars at Carmax. They enjoyed the no-pressure, hassle-free sales practices and have been very satisfied with their purchases.
I might point out that my buddy lucked out because he made a huge mistake. You never tell a new or used car salesman what you want for your trade-in until after they’ve made you their offer. In his case, the new truck could have cost him $4,000 more had Carmax not been so honest-to-goodness honest.
Let’s make no mistake about it – Carmax is in business to make money, not to give it away. I’m sure they made a handsome profit on the transaction with my buddy. Because of his mistake, they could have made even $4,000 more. To their credit, they chose not to do so.
He walked into Carmax and told them he was looking for a nice Ford F-150. He told them he was not going to do any business with them unless they gave him $7,000 trade-in on his old truck. He found a clean, low-mileage F-150 that he wanted to buy. Guess what they gave him for his trade-in. You’ll find this hard to believe, but it’s true. They gave him $11,000. That’s right, $11,000.
After getting over the shock, he asked the salesman why they were giving him such a high trade-in. The salesman told him it was because the model he was trading-in is in hot demand.
What is so amazing here is that the salesman could easily have told my buddy that they would give him the $7,000 he wanted. That would have satisfied him and he would have been none the wiser. Instead they gave him $4,000 more than he asked for. There’s absolutely no way that you can beat that for honesty!
Three members of my family have gotten cars at Carmax. They enjoyed the no-pressure, hassle-free sales practices and have been very satisfied with their purchases.
I might point out that my buddy lucked out because he made a huge mistake. You never tell a new or used car salesman what you want for your trade-in until after they’ve made you their offer. In his case, the new truck could have cost him $4,000 more had Carmax not been so honest-to-goodness honest.
Let’s make no mistake about it – Carmax is in business to make money, not to give it away. I’m sure they made a handsome profit on the transaction with my buddy. Because of his mistake, they could have made even $4,000 more. To their credit, they chose not to do so.
OBAMA, THE UN, THE EUROPEANS, ALL CALLING ON ISRAEL TO COMMIT SUICIDE
THE ‘TWO-STATE’ DELUSION
By George Will
Jewish World Review
August 19, 2010
JERUSALEM --'Twas a famous victory for diplomacy when, in 1991 in Madrid, Israelis and Palestinians, orchestrated by the United States, at last engaged in direct negotiations. Almost a generation later, U.S. policy has succeeded in prodding the Palestinians away from their recent insistence on "proximity talks" -- in which they have talked to the Israelis through American intermediaries -- and to direct negotiations. But negotiations about what?
Idle talk about a "binational state" has long since died. Even disregarding the recent fates of multinational states -- e.g., the former Soviet Union, the former Yugoslavia, the former Czechoslovakia -- binationalism is impossible if Israel is to be a Jewish state for the Jewish people. No significant Israeli constituency disagrees with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu: "The Palestinian refugee problem will be resolved outside Israel's borders."
Rhetoric about a "two-state solution" is de rigueur. It also is delusional, given two recent, searing experiences.
The only place for a Palestinian state is the West Bank, which Israel has occupied -- legally under international law -- since repelling the 1967 aggression launched from there. The West Bank remains an unallocated portion of the Palestine Mandate, the disposition of which is to be settled by negotiations. Michael Oren, now Israel's ambassador to the United States, said several years before becoming ambassador:
"There is no Israeli leadership that appears either willing or capable of removing 100,000 Israelis from their West Bank homes. . . . The evacuation of a mere 8,100 Israelis from Gaza in 2005 required 55,000 IDF [Israel Defense Forces] troops -- the largest Israeli military operation since the 1973 Yom Kippur War -- and was profoundly traumatic."
Twenty-one Israeli settlements were dismantled; even the bodies of Israelis buried in Gaza were removed. After a deeply flawed 2006 election encouraged by the United States, there was in 2007 essentially a coup in Gaza by the terrorist organization Hamas. So now Israel has on its western border, 44 miles from Tel Aviv, an entity dedicated to Israel's destruction, collaborative with Iran and possessing a huge arsenal of rockets.
Rocket attacks from Gaza increased dramatically after Israel withdrew. The number of U.N. resolutions deploring this? Zero.
The closest precedent for that bombardment was the Nazi rocket attacks on London, which were answered by the destruction of Hamburg, Dresden and other German cities. When Israel struck back at Hamas, the "international community" was theatrically appalled.
A senior cabinet member -- Moshe Yaalon, strategic affairs minister and possible future prime minister -- says "our withdrawals strengthened jihadist Islam," adding, "We have the second Islamic republic in the Middle East -- the first in Iran, the second in Gaza: Hamastan."
Israel's withdrawals include the one that strengthened the Iranian client on Israel's northern border, in southern Lebanon. Since the 2006 war provoked by Hezbollah's incessant rocketing of northern Israel, Hezbollah has rearmed and possesses as many as 60,000 rockets. Today, Netanyahu says, Israel's problem is less the Israel-Lebanon border than it is the Lebanon-Syria border: Hezbollah has received from Syria -- which gets them from Iran -- Scud missiles capable of striking Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. A leader of Hezbollah says, "If all the Jews gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide."
Because upward of a million immigrants have come from the former Soviet Union, today one-sixth of Israelis speak Russian. Israel has Russian-language newspapers and television. Russian Israelis are largely responsible for Avigdor Lieberman being foreign minister. Yoram Peri, professor of Israel studies at the University of Maryland, says these immigrants "don't understand how a state that can be crossed in half an hour by car would be willing to even talk about relinquishing territories to its seemingly perpetual enemies." These immigrants know that Russia's strategic depth -- space -- defeated Napoleon and Hitler.
Netanyahu, who is not the most conservative member of the coalition government he heads, endorses a two-state solution but says that any West Bank Palestinian state must be demilitarized and prevented from making agreements with the likes of Hezbollah and Iran. To prevent the importation of missiles and other arms, Israel would need, Netanyahu says, a military presence on the West Bank's eastern border with Jordan. Otherwise, there will be a third Islamic republic, and a second one contiguous to Israel.
So, again: Negotiations about what?
By George Will
Jewish World Review
August 19, 2010
JERUSALEM --'Twas a famous victory for diplomacy when, in 1991 in Madrid, Israelis and Palestinians, orchestrated by the United States, at last engaged in direct negotiations. Almost a generation later, U.S. policy has succeeded in prodding the Palestinians away from their recent insistence on "proximity talks" -- in which they have talked to the Israelis through American intermediaries -- and to direct negotiations. But negotiations about what?
Idle talk about a "binational state" has long since died. Even disregarding the recent fates of multinational states -- e.g., the former Soviet Union, the former Yugoslavia, the former Czechoslovakia -- binationalism is impossible if Israel is to be a Jewish state for the Jewish people. No significant Israeli constituency disagrees with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu: "The Palestinian refugee problem will be resolved outside Israel's borders."
Rhetoric about a "two-state solution" is de rigueur. It also is delusional, given two recent, searing experiences.
The only place for a Palestinian state is the West Bank, which Israel has occupied -- legally under international law -- since repelling the 1967 aggression launched from there. The West Bank remains an unallocated portion of the Palestine Mandate, the disposition of which is to be settled by negotiations. Michael Oren, now Israel's ambassador to the United States, said several years before becoming ambassador:
"There is no Israeli leadership that appears either willing or capable of removing 100,000 Israelis from their West Bank homes. . . . The evacuation of a mere 8,100 Israelis from Gaza in 2005 required 55,000 IDF [Israel Defense Forces] troops -- the largest Israeli military operation since the 1973 Yom Kippur War -- and was profoundly traumatic."
Twenty-one Israeli settlements were dismantled; even the bodies of Israelis buried in Gaza were removed. After a deeply flawed 2006 election encouraged by the United States, there was in 2007 essentially a coup in Gaza by the terrorist organization Hamas. So now Israel has on its western border, 44 miles from Tel Aviv, an entity dedicated to Israel's destruction, collaborative with Iran and possessing a huge arsenal of rockets.
Rocket attacks from Gaza increased dramatically after Israel withdrew. The number of U.N. resolutions deploring this? Zero.
The closest precedent for that bombardment was the Nazi rocket attacks on London, which were answered by the destruction of Hamburg, Dresden and other German cities. When Israel struck back at Hamas, the "international community" was theatrically appalled.
A senior cabinet member -- Moshe Yaalon, strategic affairs minister and possible future prime minister -- says "our withdrawals strengthened jihadist Islam," adding, "We have the second Islamic republic in the Middle East -- the first in Iran, the second in Gaza: Hamastan."
Israel's withdrawals include the one that strengthened the Iranian client on Israel's northern border, in southern Lebanon. Since the 2006 war provoked by Hezbollah's incessant rocketing of northern Israel, Hezbollah has rearmed and possesses as many as 60,000 rockets. Today, Netanyahu says, Israel's problem is less the Israel-Lebanon border than it is the Lebanon-Syria border: Hezbollah has received from Syria -- which gets them from Iran -- Scud missiles capable of striking Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. A leader of Hezbollah says, "If all the Jews gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide."
Because upward of a million immigrants have come from the former Soviet Union, today one-sixth of Israelis speak Russian. Israel has Russian-language newspapers and television. Russian Israelis are largely responsible for Avigdor Lieberman being foreign minister. Yoram Peri, professor of Israel studies at the University of Maryland, says these immigrants "don't understand how a state that can be crossed in half an hour by car would be willing to even talk about relinquishing territories to its seemingly perpetual enemies." These immigrants know that Russia's strategic depth -- space -- defeated Napoleon and Hitler.
Netanyahu, who is not the most conservative member of the coalition government he heads, endorses a two-state solution but says that any West Bank Palestinian state must be demilitarized and prevented from making agreements with the likes of Hezbollah and Iran. To prevent the importation of missiles and other arms, Israel would need, Netanyahu says, a military presence on the West Bank's eastern border with Jordan. Otherwise, there will be a third Islamic republic, and a second one contiguous to Israel.
So, again: Negotiations about what?
A HEADS-UP FOR LANDING MR. RIGHT
Hey Cydne, what about us lovable, cuddly Pit Bull owners?
WHAT A MAN’S DOG SAYS ABOUT HIM
A Man’s Best Friend Reveals Much About His Personality
By Cydne Washington
Click2Houston.com
August 23, 2010
What better way to gauge a man's suitability than by scrutinizing the type of dog he owns? Finding out whether or not you're compatible with a guy might just be as simple as looking at his dog.
Studying your potential mate's "best friend" can help you determine what type of man you are dealing with and whether or not he is your type.
Is the measure of your dog-loving man his willingness to take in a needy stray from the pound or is it more important to you that he insists on acquiring only the most prized or valuable breed?
Of course, it is not simply the dog that defines a man, but his choices and the reasons he makes them that are noteworthy when deciding to date him. But if you need emergency advice on what to look for, here are five dog breeds (and their men) that are easily analyzed for their date-ability.
GOLDENJ RETRIEVER BLISS
Settle Down With This Stable-Minded Guy
A guy who owns a golden retriever is guaranteed to be drama-free and stable.
This man is ready to settle down. He probably figures he's already got the family dog, so why not just add the family?
The man who chooses such a canine is likely pretty down to earth and calm. People with this type of dog usually enjoy a lifestyle that includes taking relaxed walks and just being active in the great outdoors.
These dogs are known to be lovable and warm-hearted, just like their owners. Guys with this breed value their devoted companions as much as they value the idea of a shared life. If you are lucky enough to find a guy with a Goldie, snatch him up quickly before someone else does.
PUGNACIOUS NOT
Pug Owners Are Playful, Fun-Loving Men
A man who owns a pug can usually be counted on to make a woman laugh.
These dogs and their men are usually very social even among strangers. They seem to do well when people are showing them love for all that they add to society with their mere presence.
All kidding aside though, men who have pugs are definitely not compensating for anything with the size of their dog -- usually quite the contrary as they have large abilities to bring a smile to their date's face with their playful antics.
Pug owners are super approachable and can have a good time all by themselves. A gal is just lucky to be invited along for the fun.
Go forth with a guy who owns a pug and you can count on light-hearted amusement and possibly sharing this happy-go-lucky approach to life.
BEAGLES AND BALD EAGLES
Say Hello To The Handy, All-American Male
The owner of a beagle can best be described as the all-American male. This man enjoys the simple things in life such as hunting, fishing and living the dream.
These men tend to have an upbeat approach to life and do not sweat the details. They can do things like create furniture from scratch and are also man enough to help you decorate the room containing that furniture.
They can do anything they set their minds to and if you end up with a man like this, you will always feel that life is satisfying simply because you're alive.
These men love their hobbies but are unafraid to shower you with the bounty that is their life. They can bake artisan bread and in the same day butcher a deer.
They love their loyal beagles and probably have the capacity to love you just as much.
WELSH CORGI GENTLEMAN
Refined Gentlemen Offer Charm, Distinction
The man who owns a Welsh corgi is typically a man of distinction. You will be mesmerized by their charm and their social ease.
They are gentlemen of the purest form and tend to have an interest in a wide variety of topics from artisan activities, to British Literature, to history, to dark humor, to gastronomical pursuits.
Yet never mistake their gentle breeding with weakness as this is simply not the case.
They are well respected among their male counterparts and prefer their women friends and companions to also hold themselves to of the highest standards. They give themselves a high bar by which to live and expect the same out of their mate.
If you win the heart of a man like this, you will be the queen of his world forever.
MIXED BREED MENSCH
Honorable Men Rescue ‘Mutts’ From Shelters
A man who intentionally chooses mutt ownership is likely to be a decent and sensible human being. "Mongrels" are statistically healthier, less expensive and can possess any combination of desirable breed traits.
It is honorable to rescue a shelter dog, most of which are of mixed breeds. The ideal dog-loving man is one who is willing to offer his home to an elderly dog or to one with chronic issues which cannot otherwise be adopted.
Plus, a guy who questions the mere perpetuation of intentional canine over-breeding may just have a James Dean-type rebel streak in his blood, which is always hot.
So if you can score a dude with an elderly mutt he's recently adopted, it's likely this man can be your moral compass throughout your life of good deeds together.
Do not let this man get away as he is by far a rare breed.
WHAT A MAN’S DOG SAYS ABOUT HIM
A Man’s Best Friend Reveals Much About His Personality
By Cydne Washington
Click2Houston.com
August 23, 2010
What better way to gauge a man's suitability than by scrutinizing the type of dog he owns? Finding out whether or not you're compatible with a guy might just be as simple as looking at his dog.
Studying your potential mate's "best friend" can help you determine what type of man you are dealing with and whether or not he is your type.
Is the measure of your dog-loving man his willingness to take in a needy stray from the pound or is it more important to you that he insists on acquiring only the most prized or valuable breed?
Of course, it is not simply the dog that defines a man, but his choices and the reasons he makes them that are noteworthy when deciding to date him. But if you need emergency advice on what to look for, here are five dog breeds (and their men) that are easily analyzed for their date-ability.
GOLDENJ RETRIEVER BLISS
Settle Down With This Stable-Minded Guy
A guy who owns a golden retriever is guaranteed to be drama-free and stable.
This man is ready to settle down. He probably figures he's already got the family dog, so why not just add the family?
The man who chooses such a canine is likely pretty down to earth and calm. People with this type of dog usually enjoy a lifestyle that includes taking relaxed walks and just being active in the great outdoors.
These dogs are known to be lovable and warm-hearted, just like their owners. Guys with this breed value their devoted companions as much as they value the idea of a shared life. If you are lucky enough to find a guy with a Goldie, snatch him up quickly before someone else does.
PUGNACIOUS NOT
Pug Owners Are Playful, Fun-Loving Men
A man who owns a pug can usually be counted on to make a woman laugh.
These dogs and their men are usually very social even among strangers. They seem to do well when people are showing them love for all that they add to society with their mere presence.
All kidding aside though, men who have pugs are definitely not compensating for anything with the size of their dog -- usually quite the contrary as they have large abilities to bring a smile to their date's face with their playful antics.
Pug owners are super approachable and can have a good time all by themselves. A gal is just lucky to be invited along for the fun.
Go forth with a guy who owns a pug and you can count on light-hearted amusement and possibly sharing this happy-go-lucky approach to life.
BEAGLES AND BALD EAGLES
Say Hello To The Handy, All-American Male
The owner of a beagle can best be described as the all-American male. This man enjoys the simple things in life such as hunting, fishing and living the dream.
These men tend to have an upbeat approach to life and do not sweat the details. They can do things like create furniture from scratch and are also man enough to help you decorate the room containing that furniture.
They can do anything they set their minds to and if you end up with a man like this, you will always feel that life is satisfying simply because you're alive.
These men love their hobbies but are unafraid to shower you with the bounty that is their life. They can bake artisan bread and in the same day butcher a deer.
They love their loyal beagles and probably have the capacity to love you just as much.
WELSH CORGI GENTLEMAN
Refined Gentlemen Offer Charm, Distinction
The man who owns a Welsh corgi is typically a man of distinction. You will be mesmerized by their charm and their social ease.
They are gentlemen of the purest form and tend to have an interest in a wide variety of topics from artisan activities, to British Literature, to history, to dark humor, to gastronomical pursuits.
Yet never mistake their gentle breeding with weakness as this is simply not the case.
They are well respected among their male counterparts and prefer their women friends and companions to also hold themselves to of the highest standards. They give themselves a high bar by which to live and expect the same out of their mate.
If you win the heart of a man like this, you will be the queen of his world forever.
MIXED BREED MENSCH
Honorable Men Rescue ‘Mutts’ From Shelters
A man who intentionally chooses mutt ownership is likely to be a decent and sensible human being. "Mongrels" are statistically healthier, less expensive and can possess any combination of desirable breed traits.
It is honorable to rescue a shelter dog, most of which are of mixed breeds. The ideal dog-loving man is one who is willing to offer his home to an elderly dog or to one with chronic issues which cannot otherwise be adopted.
Plus, a guy who questions the mere perpetuation of intentional canine over-breeding may just have a James Dean-type rebel streak in his blood, which is always hot.
So if you can score a dude with an elderly mutt he's recently adopted, it's likely this man can be your moral compass throughout your life of good deeds together.
Do not let this man get away as he is by far a rare breed.
HOW NOT TO GET YOUR JOB BACK
After a Filipino cop got fired he boarded a tourist bus in Manila with an M-16 rifle and took 25 passengers hostage, demanding that he be reinstated to the police force.
During the standoff, he released 10 of the hostages. He announced that if he didn’t get his job back he would shoot the remaining hostages.
When a SWAT team finally stormed the bus, at least six passengers and the gunman died during the ensuing shootout.
Whatever possessed this idiot to believe that, by taking hostages and threatening to shoot them, he would get his job back? Stupid is as stupid does!
During the standoff, he released 10 of the hostages. He announced that if he didn’t get his job back he would shoot the remaining hostages.
When a SWAT team finally stormed the bus, at least six passengers and the gunman died during the ensuing shootout.
Whatever possessed this idiot to believe that, by taking hostages and threatening to shoot them, he would get his job back? Stupid is as stupid does!
Monday, August 23, 2010
BORED BECAUSE THE LIBRARY WAS CLOSED
I ADMIT THIS IS A NEW ONE ON ME
By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
August 23, 2010
A 50-year old man was walking down Magnolia Street in beautiful downtown Stockton yesterday when a 13-year old boy walked up to him, sprayed him with a fire extinguisher, and then ran off. The man pursued, then the youngster turned and pulled out a gat. The man backed off, but did call the cops.
The cops located him not far away and arrested him. He still had the gun on him.
Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t get the point of the whole exercise. Maybe the kid was just bored and it was Sunday afternoon and he didn’t have anything else to do because the library was closed.
By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
August 23, 2010
A 50-year old man was walking down Magnolia Street in beautiful downtown Stockton yesterday when a 13-year old boy walked up to him, sprayed him with a fire extinguisher, and then ran off. The man pursued, then the youngster turned and pulled out a gat. The man backed off, but did call the cops.
The cops located him not far away and arrested him. He still had the gun on him.
Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t get the point of the whole exercise. Maybe the kid was just bored and it was Sunday afternoon and he didn’t have anything else to do because the library was closed.
ILLEGALS FLOCK TO CANADA FROM SOUTH OF THE BORDER
Glenda sent me this priceless parody written by Tom Reynolds, a Canadian. Who says Canadians don’t have a sense of humor?
NEWS FLASH!!
The flood of American liberals sneaking across the border into Canada has intensified in the past week, sparking calls for increased patrols to stop the illegal immigration. The recent actions of the Tea Party are prompting an exodus among left-leaning citizens who fear they'll soon be required to hunt, pray, and to agree with Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck.
Canadian border farmers say it's not uncommon to see dozens of sociology professors, animal-rights activists and Unitarians crossing their fields at night. "I went out to milk the cows the other day, and there was a Hollywood producer huddled in the barn," said Manitoba farmer Red Greenfield, whose acreage borders North Dakota. The producer was cold, exhausted and hungry. He asked me if I could spare a latte and some free-range chicken. When I said I didn't have any, he left before I even got a chance to show him my screenplay, eh?" In an effort to stop the illegal aliens, Greenfield erected higher fences, but the liberals scaled them.
He then installed loudspeakers that blared Rush Limbaugh across the fields. "Not real a effective," he said. "The liberals still got through and Rush annoyed the cows so much that they wouldn't give any milk."
Officials are particularly concerned about smugglers who meet liberals near the Canadian border, pack them into Volvo station wagons and drive them across the border where they are simply left to fend for themselves.
"A lot of these people are not prepared for our rugged conditions," an Ontario border patrolman said. "I found one carload without a single bottle of imported drinking water. They did have a nice little Napa Valley Cabernet, though." When liberals are caught, they're sent back across the border, often wailing loudly that they fear retribution from conservatives.
Rumors have been circulating about plans being made to build re-education camps where liberals will be forced to drink domestic beer and watch NASCAR races. In recent days, liberals have turned to ingenious ways of crossing the border. Some have been disguised as senior citizens taking a bus trip to buy cheap Canadian prescription drugs.
After catching a half-dozen young vegans in powdered wig disguises, Canadian immigration authorities began stopping buses and quizzing the supposed senior-citizens about Perry Como and Rosemary Clooney to prove that they were alive in the '50s. "If they can't identify the accordion player on The Lawrence Welk Show, we become very suspicious about their age," an official said. Canadian citizens have complained that the illegal immigrants are creating an organic-broccoli shortage and are renting all the Michael Moore movies. "I really feel sorry for American liberals, but the Canadian economy just can't support them," an Ottawa resident said. "How many art-history majors does one country need?"
In an effort to ease tensions between the United States and Canada, Vice President Biden met with the Canadian ambassador and pledged that the administration would take steps to reassure liberals.
A source close to President Obama said, "We're going to have some Paul McCartney and Peter, Paul & Mary concerts. And we might even put some endangered species on postage stamps. The President is determined to reach out," he said. The Herald will be interested to see if Obama can actually raise Mary from the dead in time for the concert!
NEWS FLASH!!
The flood of American liberals sneaking across the border into Canada has intensified in the past week, sparking calls for increased patrols to stop the illegal immigration. The recent actions of the Tea Party are prompting an exodus among left-leaning citizens who fear they'll soon be required to hunt, pray, and to agree with Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck.
Canadian border farmers say it's not uncommon to see dozens of sociology professors, animal-rights activists and Unitarians crossing their fields at night. "I went out to milk the cows the other day, and there was a Hollywood producer huddled in the barn," said Manitoba farmer Red Greenfield, whose acreage borders North Dakota. The producer was cold, exhausted and hungry. He asked me if I could spare a latte and some free-range chicken. When I said I didn't have any, he left before I even got a chance to show him my screenplay, eh?" In an effort to stop the illegal aliens, Greenfield erected higher fences, but the liberals scaled them.
He then installed loudspeakers that blared Rush Limbaugh across the fields. "Not real a effective," he said. "The liberals still got through and Rush annoyed the cows so much that they wouldn't give any milk."
Officials are particularly concerned about smugglers who meet liberals near the Canadian border, pack them into Volvo station wagons and drive them across the border where they are simply left to fend for themselves.
"A lot of these people are not prepared for our rugged conditions," an Ontario border patrolman said. "I found one carload without a single bottle of imported drinking water. They did have a nice little Napa Valley Cabernet, though." When liberals are caught, they're sent back across the border, often wailing loudly that they fear retribution from conservatives.
Rumors have been circulating about plans being made to build re-education camps where liberals will be forced to drink domestic beer and watch NASCAR races. In recent days, liberals have turned to ingenious ways of crossing the border. Some have been disguised as senior citizens taking a bus trip to buy cheap Canadian prescription drugs.
After catching a half-dozen young vegans in powdered wig disguises, Canadian immigration authorities began stopping buses and quizzing the supposed senior-citizens about Perry Como and Rosemary Clooney to prove that they were alive in the '50s. "If they can't identify the accordion player on The Lawrence Welk Show, we become very suspicious about their age," an official said. Canadian citizens have complained that the illegal immigrants are creating an organic-broccoli shortage and are renting all the Michael Moore movies. "I really feel sorry for American liberals, but the Canadian economy just can't support them," an Ottawa resident said. "How many art-history majors does one country need?"
In an effort to ease tensions between the United States and Canada, Vice President Biden met with the Canadian ambassador and pledged that the administration would take steps to reassure liberals.
A source close to President Obama said, "We're going to have some Paul McCartney and Peter, Paul & Mary concerts. And we might even put some endangered species on postage stamps. The President is determined to reach out," he said. The Herald will be interested to see if Obama can actually raise Mary from the dead in time for the concert!
THE DEFENSE MUST BE TOLD OF ANY PAST MISCONDUCT BY OFFICERS TESTIFYING FOR THE PROSECUTION
I am sure that most people are not aware that the defense in a criminal trial must be told of any past misconduct by officers who will testify for the prosecution. Apparently a lot of police agencies are not aware of this requirement either or worse yet, chose to ignore it.
The San Francisco PD, like the Houston PD, has been embroiled in a scandal with its crime lab. That scandal has brought into question SFPD’s failure to notify prosecutors that officers who will testify for the prosecution had been involved in prior misconduct. Currently there are about 135 SFPD officers with a history of such misconduct.
Now 135 officers with a history of misconduct may seem like a lot, but it really isn’t for a large department. Hardly any officers ever go through their careers without being written up, and in some cases suspended, for one or more acts of misconduct. And while SFPD will not start making the required notifications, I wonder how many other police agencies are failing to do so?
From the August 21 issue of the San Francisco Chronicle:
A 1963 U.S. Supreme Court case requires that the defense be told about evidence that could cast doubt on a witness' credibility.
In March, Police Chief George Gascón ordered the [San Francisco PD] drug lab shut amid allegations that since-retired lab worker Deborah Madden had taken cocaine sent to the lab for testing.
Revelations that the department had failed to tell prosecutors about Madden's criminal record for domestic violence led to an internal review of police files. That review ultimately determined that as many as 135 police officers had misconduct histories that might be subject to disclosure to defense attorneys if they were summoned to the stand.
Prosecutors have been told that 10 police officers and employees recently summoned to testify in cases have questionable backgrounds.
The department has since created a panel to review the histories of officers going back 30 years. That panel includes retired judge Harry Low and will be tasked with determining whether prosecutors should be alerted to past cases.
So far, the panel has screened as many as 50 officers and found that prosecutors should be alerted to allegations of lying or other misconduct involving some of them.
The panel has met three times, reviewing personnel records of officers with an eye to determining who among them have problematic backgrounds.
It will also review new disciplinary cases as they arise and alert prosecutors even before misconduct cases are resolved before the Police Commission.
The names of those police officers with problematic backgrounds will automatically be given to prosecutors starting Monday. Prosecutors will then act to alert defense lawyers about the credibility issues involving those officers.
The San Francisco PD, like the Houston PD, has been embroiled in a scandal with its crime lab. That scandal has brought into question SFPD’s failure to notify prosecutors that officers who will testify for the prosecution had been involved in prior misconduct. Currently there are about 135 SFPD officers with a history of such misconduct.
Now 135 officers with a history of misconduct may seem like a lot, but it really isn’t for a large department. Hardly any officers ever go through their careers without being written up, and in some cases suspended, for one or more acts of misconduct. And while SFPD will not start making the required notifications, I wonder how many other police agencies are failing to do so?
From the August 21 issue of the San Francisco Chronicle:
A 1963 U.S. Supreme Court case requires that the defense be told about evidence that could cast doubt on a witness' credibility.
In March, Police Chief George Gascón ordered the [San Francisco PD] drug lab shut amid allegations that since-retired lab worker Deborah Madden had taken cocaine sent to the lab for testing.
Revelations that the department had failed to tell prosecutors about Madden's criminal record for domestic violence led to an internal review of police files. That review ultimately determined that as many as 135 police officers had misconduct histories that might be subject to disclosure to defense attorneys if they were summoned to the stand.
Prosecutors have been told that 10 police officers and employees recently summoned to testify in cases have questionable backgrounds.
The department has since created a panel to review the histories of officers going back 30 years. That panel includes retired judge Harry Low and will be tasked with determining whether prosecutors should be alerted to past cases.
So far, the panel has screened as many as 50 officers and found that prosecutors should be alerted to allegations of lying or other misconduct involving some of them.
The panel has met three times, reviewing personnel records of officers with an eye to determining who among them have problematic backgrounds.
It will also review new disciplinary cases as they arise and alert prosecutors even before misconduct cases are resolved before the Police Commission.
The names of those police officers with problematic backgrounds will automatically be given to prosecutors starting Monday. Prosecutors will then act to alert defense lawyers about the credibility issues involving those officers.
SUMBITCH, BAIL FOR A MURDERER OF FIVE TEENAGERS
I know the Constitution protects us against unreasonable bail, but give me a break – releasing the murderer of five teenagers is a bit too much. OK, so the killings took place over 30 years ago and Evans may have become a model citizen since then, but he’s been indicted for multiple murders. If convicted, he’s not going to get probation with community service. He should sit in jail with his cousin while awaiting trial.
NJ MAN ACCUSED IN TEENS’ 1978 DEATHS FREED ON BAIL
Prosecutors say the now-56-year-old Evans and his cousin killed the five teens in a dispute over missing drugs
Associated Press
August 21, 2010
NEWARK, NJ — A man charged with murdering five New Jersey teens who disappeared in 1978 has been freed from jail after relatives posted his reduced bail.
Lee Evans, of Irvington, left the Essex County jail Friday evening and had no comment as he got into a pickup truck driven by his son.
Prosecutors say the now-56-year-old Evans and his cousin killed the teens in a dispute over missing drugs. They say they herded them at gunpoint into a building and set it on fire.
Bail was set at $5 million but was lowered to $950,000 after Evans' relatives put up properties to spring him from jail as he awaits trial.
Evans faces five counts of murder and one count of arson and maintains his innocence. His cousin remains jailed on $5 million bail.
NJ MAN ACCUSED IN TEENS’ 1978 DEATHS FREED ON BAIL
Prosecutors say the now-56-year-old Evans and his cousin killed the five teens in a dispute over missing drugs
Associated Press
August 21, 2010
NEWARK, NJ — A man charged with murdering five New Jersey teens who disappeared in 1978 has been freed from jail after relatives posted his reduced bail.
Lee Evans, of Irvington, left the Essex County jail Friday evening and had no comment as he got into a pickup truck driven by his son.
Prosecutors say the now-56-year-old Evans and his cousin killed the teens in a dispute over missing drugs. They say they herded them at gunpoint into a building and set it on fire.
Bail was set at $5 million but was lowered to $950,000 after Evans' relatives put up properties to spring him from jail as he awaits trial.
Evans faces five counts of murder and one count of arson and maintains his innocence. His cousin remains jailed on $5 million bail.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
PHONY BALONEY
The Obama administration’s request for Libya to return the Lockerbie bomber to a Scottish prison is a lot of phony baloney. Libya is not about to return the bomber and Obama damn well knows it. This is just an exercise in futility designed to curry favor with the Flight 103 families and the American public.
OBAMA CALLS FOR LOCKERBIE BOMBER TO BE RETURNED TO JAIL IN SCOTLAND
Mail Online
August 21, 2010
The Obama administration has condemned the decision to release the Lockerbie bomber and called for him to be sent back to a Scottish jail.
The US president's office said it had advised Libyan officials of its view that Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi should not be free.
Barack Obama's counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan criticised the 'unfortunate and inappropriate and wrong decision' yesterday, the first anniversary of the bomber's release from Greenock prison on compassionate grounds.
He said: 'We've expressed our strong conviction that Al Megrahi should serve out the remainder - the entirety - of his sentence in a Scottish prison.'
The bomber returned to jubilant scenes in Libya on August 20 last year where he remains alive - despite being given three months to live at the time.
Megrahi is the only person convicted of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland, in which 270 people died - most of them Americans.
OBAMA CALLS FOR LOCKERBIE BOMBER TO BE RETURNED TO JAIL IN SCOTLAND
Mail Online
August 21, 2010
The Obama administration has condemned the decision to release the Lockerbie bomber and called for him to be sent back to a Scottish jail.
The US president's office said it had advised Libyan officials of its view that Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi should not be free.
Barack Obama's counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan criticised the 'unfortunate and inappropriate and wrong decision' yesterday, the first anniversary of the bomber's release from Greenock prison on compassionate grounds.
He said: 'We've expressed our strong conviction that Al Megrahi should serve out the remainder - the entirety - of his sentence in a Scottish prison.'
The bomber returned to jubilant scenes in Libya on August 20 last year where he remains alive - despite being given three months to live at the time.
Megrahi is the only person convicted of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland, in which 270 people died - most of them Americans.
OVERTRAINED ATHLETE SYNDROME
Narcotic officers know that THERE’S NOTHING MORE CONVINCING THAN A DRUG USER TRYING TO CONVINCE SOMEONE HE’S NOT USING DRUGS. That’s how druggies convince their parents they don’t do drugs. And that’s how athletes who took performance enhancing drugs convince their fans they didn’t do it.
Brian Cushing, the outside linebacker of the Houston Texans and last season’s NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year, has been suspended for four games by the league because he tested positive for hGC, a hormone that when used by athletes can mask the use of anabolic steroids.
Following in the footsteps of Roger Clemens, poor old Brian vehemently denies having used any illicit substances. He’s come up with a novel explanation for the positive test: OVERTRAINED ATHLETE SYNDROME. Cushing claims he trained so hard that the hGC was released naturally by his body. Overtrained Athlete Syndrome? Brian should be a shoo-in for the LIAR OF THE YEAR award with that one.
Texan’s owner Bob McNair rushed to New York two weeks ago to meet with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. McNair presented Goodell with ‘evidence’ that OAS was a real malady and begged the commissioner to overturn Cushing’s suspension or reduced it. Unfortunately for Bob and Brian, the commissioner checked with several outside medical experts who determined that OAS was a hoax. Goodell upheld the suspension.
Texan’s coach Gary Kubiac then sucked McNair’s royal ass with this jewel: "We understand the ruling and what we’re dealing with. I think it was more of an educational process on the part of Bob doing everything he could to educate us on Brian’s situation and try to make sure it never happens again." A TEACHABLE MOMENT, right boss? Kubiac definitely knows who signs his paycheck.
There is an upside to Cushing’s predicament. Poor old Brian can now go to Kookfornia or Colorado where he can obtain prescriptions for medical marijuana to alleviate all that pain and suffering associated with Overtrained Athlete Syndrome. And then if he should come up testing positive for pot, he can blame it on SECONDARY SMOKE SYNDROME by claiming that he was just an innocent bystander in a room where some jerk toked up a joint.
Brian Cushing, the outside linebacker of the Houston Texans and last season’s NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year, has been suspended for four games by the league because he tested positive for hGC, a hormone that when used by athletes can mask the use of anabolic steroids.
Following in the footsteps of Roger Clemens, poor old Brian vehemently denies having used any illicit substances. He’s come up with a novel explanation for the positive test: OVERTRAINED ATHLETE SYNDROME. Cushing claims he trained so hard that the hGC was released naturally by his body. Overtrained Athlete Syndrome? Brian should be a shoo-in for the LIAR OF THE YEAR award with that one.
Texan’s owner Bob McNair rushed to New York two weeks ago to meet with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. McNair presented Goodell with ‘evidence’ that OAS was a real malady and begged the commissioner to overturn Cushing’s suspension or reduced it. Unfortunately for Bob and Brian, the commissioner checked with several outside medical experts who determined that OAS was a hoax. Goodell upheld the suspension.
Texan’s coach Gary Kubiac then sucked McNair’s royal ass with this jewel: "We understand the ruling and what we’re dealing with. I think it was more of an educational process on the part of Bob doing everything he could to educate us on Brian’s situation and try to make sure it never happens again." A TEACHABLE MOMENT, right boss? Kubiac definitely knows who signs his paycheck.
There is an upside to Cushing’s predicament. Poor old Brian can now go to Kookfornia or Colorado where he can obtain prescriptions for medical marijuana to alleviate all that pain and suffering associated with Overtrained Athlete Syndrome. And then if he should come up testing positive for pot, he can blame it on SECONDARY SMOKE SYNDROME by claiming that he was just an innocent bystander in a room where some jerk toked up a joint.
NO REAL 'HE-MAN' WOULD BE CAUGHT DEAD WITH ONE OF THESE KITS
For sissies only!
SPARE A SQUARE: PUBLIC RESTROOM SURVIVAL KIT KILLS GERMS FOR UNDER 15 BUCKS
By Jeff Balke
Houston Press Hair Balls
August 20, 2010
When I was only a teenager, I went on a trip with my parents and one of the stops was in Ephesus, Turkey. As I was strolling the what some consider holy grounds, I felt the need to, you know, use the little boy's room.
I located a restroom and made my way inside only to find that the facilities consisted of a wall with the floor below it slanted toward a drain for a urinal - oddly like the old Astrodome bathrooms - and a series of rather small holes in the floor with footprints embedded in the concrete next to each of them demonstrating where you put your feet when you use this "toilet."
Needless to say, if I had the Public Restroom Survival Kit, well, I still would have been stuck with a hole in the ground for a toilet, but I would have had germ-free toilet paper!
The kit includes the following:
_Charmin® To Go Bathroom Tissue package
_Charmin® To Go Toilet Seat Covers package
_Charmin To Go® Fresh Mates Cloths Clorox Disinfecting Wipes To Go _Pack - Fresh Scent
_Lysol® Disinfectant Spray - Crisp Linen® scent
_Purell® Aloe Hand Sanitizer (2oz)
_Safe2Touch - On-The-Go Surface Cleaner
_(2) disposable Nitrile Gloves (powder free - size large)
If you are a germaphobe, you might want to buy a few hundred of these for your next trip to the gym or your favorite restaurant or your church. If you frequent airport bathrooms or Memorial Park, I'd just suggest stocking up on these as well, though you might want to include a condom or two with it, you know, just in case.
In fact, iff you are so concerned about such things, you are probably thinking to yourself right now, "God, I wish I'd had these kits for Y2K or H1N1. For only $15, I can fill up my whole bunker and be safe when the zombie apocalypse happens right after the Mayan disaster in 2012."
For the rest of us, the toilet paper - why do we insist on calling it bathroom tissue? - toilet seat covers, hand sanitizer and even the disinfecting wipes (ew!), in the Fresh Scent no less, make some degree of sense, but I can't seem to wrap my head around the other items.
Most of us would like a neat public bathroom, but I'm not going to bust out the disinfectant spray and surface cleaner at, for example, Numbers, and start wiping the place down. Nothing could remove the years of stains of varying origin delivered by goth kids and hipsters in there anyway. But, even if they could be removed with teeny tiny bottles of germ killer, what am I, a janitor?
But, most importantly, what in God's name are powder free (POWDER FREE!) nitrile gloves doing in there? I'm pretty sure those fit neatly into the BDSM Survival Kit or the Pretend You're a Proctologist Survival Kit, but does it really have a place alongside toilet paper and hand sanitizer (which seems irrelevant if you use the gloves) in the bathroom?
You know what, don't answer that.
Imagine the look on someone's face if I whipped out a pair of rubber gloves and snapped them into place right before setting up at the urinal beside them. Hopefully, that look would not include a knowing grin or my survival kit might require a few other supplies like nunchucks or a light saber.
SPARE A SQUARE: PUBLIC RESTROOM SURVIVAL KIT KILLS GERMS FOR UNDER 15 BUCKS
By Jeff Balke
Houston Press Hair Balls
August 20, 2010
When I was only a teenager, I went on a trip with my parents and one of the stops was in Ephesus, Turkey. As I was strolling the what some consider holy grounds, I felt the need to, you know, use the little boy's room.
I located a restroom and made my way inside only to find that the facilities consisted of a wall with the floor below it slanted toward a drain for a urinal - oddly like the old Astrodome bathrooms - and a series of rather small holes in the floor with footprints embedded in the concrete next to each of them demonstrating where you put your feet when you use this "toilet."
Needless to say, if I had the Public Restroom Survival Kit, well, I still would have been stuck with a hole in the ground for a toilet, but I would have had germ-free toilet paper!
The kit includes the following:
_Charmin® To Go Bathroom Tissue package
_Charmin® To Go Toilet Seat Covers package
_Charmin To Go® Fresh Mates Cloths Clorox Disinfecting Wipes To Go _Pack - Fresh Scent
_Lysol® Disinfectant Spray - Crisp Linen® scent
_Purell® Aloe Hand Sanitizer (2oz)
_Safe2Touch - On-The-Go Surface Cleaner
_(2) disposable Nitrile Gloves (powder free - size large)
If you are a germaphobe, you might want to buy a few hundred of these for your next trip to the gym or your favorite restaurant or your church. If you frequent airport bathrooms or Memorial Park, I'd just suggest stocking up on these as well, though you might want to include a condom or two with it, you know, just in case.
In fact, iff you are so concerned about such things, you are probably thinking to yourself right now, "God, I wish I'd had these kits for Y2K or H1N1. For only $15, I can fill up my whole bunker and be safe when the zombie apocalypse happens right after the Mayan disaster in 2012."
For the rest of us, the toilet paper - why do we insist on calling it bathroom tissue? - toilet seat covers, hand sanitizer and even the disinfecting wipes (ew!), in the Fresh Scent no less, make some degree of sense, but I can't seem to wrap my head around the other items.
Most of us would like a neat public bathroom, but I'm not going to bust out the disinfectant spray and surface cleaner at, for example, Numbers, and start wiping the place down. Nothing could remove the years of stains of varying origin delivered by goth kids and hipsters in there anyway. But, even if they could be removed with teeny tiny bottles of germ killer, what am I, a janitor?
But, most importantly, what in God's name are powder free (POWDER FREE!) nitrile gloves doing in there? I'm pretty sure those fit neatly into the BDSM Survival Kit or the Pretend You're a Proctologist Survival Kit, but does it really have a place alongside toilet paper and hand sanitizer (which seems irrelevant if you use the gloves) in the bathroom?
You know what, don't answer that.
Imagine the look on someone's face if I whipped out a pair of rubber gloves and snapped them into place right before setting up at the urinal beside them. Hopefully, that look would not include a knowing grin or my survival kit might require a few other supplies like nunchucks or a light saber.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
CONSEQUENCES OF AN ATTACK ON IRAN
A good friend e-mailed me this question: Do you think Iran can be stopped from nuclear weapon development?
This is how I answered him: I don't think the half-ass sanctions are going to work. My guess is that the only way to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons is by a massive pre-emptive bombing raid. Whether that will even work or not is questionable. And what will be the consequences of such an attack?
He responded: I worry greatly about the potential consequences of an attack.
And this was my reply: Me too. It could lead to another major war. If not that, it would result in an explosion of terrorism against the West.
And then another friend sent me this alarming report:
RUSSIAN S-300 MISSILES IN ABKHAZIA BLOCK POSSIBLE AIR STRIKES AGAINST IRAN
DEBKAfile
August 12, 2010
US and Israeli military sources told debkafile Thursday, Aug. 12, that a threat from Georgia was not the reason why Russian posted advanced S-300 interceptor batteries Russia in Abkhazia and air defense weapons in South Ossetia on the northern shore of the Black Sea -as Moscow officially maintained, but rather possible moves by the US and/or Israel against Iran and its nuclear facilities.
Georgia's armed forces do not run to the sophisticated warplanes, missiles or drones that would warrant establishing the high-powered S-300 interceptors for defending the breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia.Ordinary air defense batteries would do for deterrence.
Therefore, US military sources believe Moscow placed the sophisticated batteries on the Black Sea shore more as a counterweight for the US Sixth Fleet warships present in the Mediterranean and Black Seas and the two big American bases close to the latter waterway - the Mikhail Kogalniceanu Air Base near Constanta, Romania, and the Bezmer Air Base used by the US Air Force just 50 kilometers from the southern shore of the Black Sea.
Their location gives the US Air Force the freedom to operate over both the Mediterranean and Black Seas.
Our military sources disclose that attention was drawn in Moscow and Tehran to the exercises the Israeli Air Force has been conducting from the two American bases to simulate strikes against Iran's concealed nuclear sites.
They noticed in particular the Israeli Yasur CH-53 helicopter which crashed in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania on July 26, killing six Israeli airman and a Romanian flight captain. It was obvious to Russian and Iranian observers from the way the CH-53 crashed and the veil of secrecy clamped down by Israeli authorities that it had been engaged in practicing touch-and-go attacks on nuclear sites which the Iranians have holed up in tunnels burrowed in the sides of lofty mountain precipices.
DEBKfile's intelligence sources do not doubt that Russian placed the top-of-the line air defense systems in Abkhazia for intercepting flights taking off from the American bases in Bulgaria and Romania and heading east over Georgia and Azerbaijan and on to the Caspian and Black Seas to northern Iran.
Byt deploying the S-300s, Moscow has put paid to any plans Israel may have had for using this northern route for attacking Iran.
The deployment was also a message of reassurance from Moscow to Tehran: Although Russia is withholding the advanced S-300 interceptors from Iran it has its own methods for blocking an American or Israel raid on the Islamic Republic's nuclear facilities.
This is how I answered him: I don't think the half-ass sanctions are going to work. My guess is that the only way to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons is by a massive pre-emptive bombing raid. Whether that will even work or not is questionable. And what will be the consequences of such an attack?
He responded: I worry greatly about the potential consequences of an attack.
And this was my reply: Me too. It could lead to another major war. If not that, it would result in an explosion of terrorism against the West.
And then another friend sent me this alarming report:
RUSSIAN S-300 MISSILES IN ABKHAZIA BLOCK POSSIBLE AIR STRIKES AGAINST IRAN
DEBKAfile
August 12, 2010
US and Israeli military sources told debkafile Thursday, Aug. 12, that a threat from Georgia was not the reason why Russian posted advanced S-300 interceptor batteries Russia in Abkhazia and air defense weapons in South Ossetia on the northern shore of the Black Sea -as Moscow officially maintained, but rather possible moves by the US and/or Israel against Iran and its nuclear facilities.
Georgia's armed forces do not run to the sophisticated warplanes, missiles or drones that would warrant establishing the high-powered S-300 interceptors for defending the breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia.Ordinary air defense batteries would do for deterrence.
Therefore, US military sources believe Moscow placed the sophisticated batteries on the Black Sea shore more as a counterweight for the US Sixth Fleet warships present in the Mediterranean and Black Seas and the two big American bases close to the latter waterway - the Mikhail Kogalniceanu Air Base near Constanta, Romania, and the Bezmer Air Base used by the US Air Force just 50 kilometers from the southern shore of the Black Sea.
Their location gives the US Air Force the freedom to operate over both the Mediterranean and Black Seas.
Our military sources disclose that attention was drawn in Moscow and Tehran to the exercises the Israeli Air Force has been conducting from the two American bases to simulate strikes against Iran's concealed nuclear sites.
They noticed in particular the Israeli Yasur CH-53 helicopter which crashed in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania on July 26, killing six Israeli airman and a Romanian flight captain. It was obvious to Russian and Iranian observers from the way the CH-53 crashed and the veil of secrecy clamped down by Israeli authorities that it had been engaged in practicing touch-and-go attacks on nuclear sites which the Iranians have holed up in tunnels burrowed in the sides of lofty mountain precipices.
DEBKfile's intelligence sources do not doubt that Russian placed the top-of-the line air defense systems in Abkhazia for intercepting flights taking off from the American bases in Bulgaria and Romania and heading east over Georgia and Azerbaijan and on to the Caspian and Black Seas to northern Iran.
Byt deploying the S-300s, Moscow has put paid to any plans Israel may have had for using this northern route for attacking Iran.
The deployment was also a message of reassurance from Moscow to Tehran: Although Russia is withholding the advanced S-300 interceptors from Iran it has its own methods for blocking an American or Israel raid on the Islamic Republic's nuclear facilities.
AMERICA'S STRATEGIC BLINDNESS
Whether it develops nuclear weapons or not, Iran appears to be on the verge of victory in the Middle East and the Obama administration
is either clueless or just doesn’t care.
Below are some excerpts from ‘Dusk In Iraq’ by columnist Caroline B. Glick. This column appeared in the August 20 issue of Jewish World Review and was written in response to the withdrawal of American combat forces from Iraq. Here are those excerpts:
……….despite the US investment of more than a trillion dollars in Iraq, and despite the more than 4,400 US servicemen and women who lost their lives in the country, the future of Iraq remains uncertain at best. Certainly a coherent, moderate, US-allied, and democratic Iraq remains an elusive goal.
On a military level, the US's inconclusive campaign in Iraq bears striking similarities to Israel's departure from southern Lebanon ten years ago. In Lebanon as in Iraq, Iran and its proxies made it impossible for Israel and its allies in the South Lebanese Army to bring stability to the south. Hizbullah's constant, but low key assaults on Israel and IDF forces, punctuated by sporadic escalations eroded the Israeli ruling class's will to fight. So too, the elusive character of the asymmetric enemy made it easy for the same elites to ignore the nature of the adversarial forces arrayed against Israel and so paved the way for Israel's retreat. This in turn fomented Hizbullah's triumphant takeover of the south, and in due course, its takeover of the whole of Lebanon.
The second frustrating aspect of the state of Iraq today is what it says about the US's ability to acknowledge the realities of the region and fashion successful strategies for contending with its challenges. For the past seven years, advocates of the Iraq war and opponents of the war, Republicans and Democrats alike has consistently refused to understand the nature of the battlefield and what that meant about their prospects in Iraq and the region.
Both the Bush and Obama administrations wrongly characterized Iraq as a stand-alone war. But the fact is Iraq has always been a battleground of a regional war. And the main enemy in Iraq, the main obstacle to stability and victory is Iran. Just as Israel was unable to beat Iran in Lebanon, and so lost to its proxy Hizbullah, so the US has been and will remain unable to defeat Iran in Iraq. And if it maintains its current strategy, it will be defeated by Iran's proxies.
The only way to safeguard Iraq is to overthrow the regime in Iran. The only way to get the likes of [Prime Minister Saad] Hariri out from under the jackboots of Hizbullah and the Iranian-proxy regime in Damascus is to overthrow the regime in Iran.
If it were just a question of Iraq's wellbeing as a country, it would arguably make sense for the US to avoid escalation of the war and refuse to challenge the regime in Teheran. But Iran is not only fighting for Iraq and it is not only fighting in Iraq. Through its proxies, Iran is also fighting in Lebanon and is using its proxies to increase its influence throughout the Persian Gulf, the Levant and beyond. And with the regime just a short step or two away from nuclear capabilities it is clear that the US strategy in Iraq was wrong all along. It was wrong and dangerous.
The US strategy was to bring democracy to Iraq and by doing so, inspire democratic revolutions throughout the Arab world. Although inspiring, it was wrong first and foremost because it was predicated on ignoring one of the basic dictates of strategy. It failed to recognize that there were other forces in the region.
It failed to anticipate that every US move would be countered by an Iranian move. And in failing to recognize this basic strategic truth — even though it has been staring them in the face — the Americans aggressively pursued a strategy that became more and more irrelevant as time went by.
As the actions of the Hariris of Lebanon and their counterparts in Iraq show clearly, Iran's countermoves have always been more forthright and compelling than the US's moves have been.
In the September issue of Commentary, Arthur Herman depressingly sets out the Obama administration's declared plans and early moves to gut the US military. It is obvious that regardless of Obama's political position after the mid-term elections in November, he will not revisit the US's current Middle East strategy which is predicated on ignoring the Iranian nuclear elephant in the middle of the room. He will not work to overthrow the regime or support any forces that would overthrow the regime.
It is true that in the short term, the prospects for the region hinge on whether or not Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has the courage to order the IDF to attack Iran's nuclear installations. And it is also true that if an Israeli strike is sufficiently successful, it would empower many positive forces throughout the region — from Teheran Kurdistan to Ankara, Damascus and Beirut.
But in the medium and long-term, nothing can replace America. And as long as the US continues on its trajectory of strategic blindness, the Iraqis will be far from alone in their suffering.
is either clueless or just doesn’t care.
Below are some excerpts from ‘Dusk In Iraq’ by columnist Caroline B. Glick. This column appeared in the August 20 issue of Jewish World Review and was written in response to the withdrawal of American combat forces from Iraq. Here are those excerpts:
……….despite the US investment of more than a trillion dollars in Iraq, and despite the more than 4,400 US servicemen and women who lost their lives in the country, the future of Iraq remains uncertain at best. Certainly a coherent, moderate, US-allied, and democratic Iraq remains an elusive goal.
On a military level, the US's inconclusive campaign in Iraq bears striking similarities to Israel's departure from southern Lebanon ten years ago. In Lebanon as in Iraq, Iran and its proxies made it impossible for Israel and its allies in the South Lebanese Army to bring stability to the south. Hizbullah's constant, but low key assaults on Israel and IDF forces, punctuated by sporadic escalations eroded the Israeli ruling class's will to fight. So too, the elusive character of the asymmetric enemy made it easy for the same elites to ignore the nature of the adversarial forces arrayed against Israel and so paved the way for Israel's retreat. This in turn fomented Hizbullah's triumphant takeover of the south, and in due course, its takeover of the whole of Lebanon.
The second frustrating aspect of the state of Iraq today is what it says about the US's ability to acknowledge the realities of the region and fashion successful strategies for contending with its challenges. For the past seven years, advocates of the Iraq war and opponents of the war, Republicans and Democrats alike has consistently refused to understand the nature of the battlefield and what that meant about their prospects in Iraq and the region.
Both the Bush and Obama administrations wrongly characterized Iraq as a stand-alone war. But the fact is Iraq has always been a battleground of a regional war. And the main enemy in Iraq, the main obstacle to stability and victory is Iran. Just as Israel was unable to beat Iran in Lebanon, and so lost to its proxy Hizbullah, so the US has been and will remain unable to defeat Iran in Iraq. And if it maintains its current strategy, it will be defeated by Iran's proxies.
The only way to safeguard Iraq is to overthrow the regime in Iran. The only way to get the likes of [Prime Minister Saad] Hariri out from under the jackboots of Hizbullah and the Iranian-proxy regime in Damascus is to overthrow the regime in Iran.
If it were just a question of Iraq's wellbeing as a country, it would arguably make sense for the US to avoid escalation of the war and refuse to challenge the regime in Teheran. But Iran is not only fighting for Iraq and it is not only fighting in Iraq. Through its proxies, Iran is also fighting in Lebanon and is using its proxies to increase its influence throughout the Persian Gulf, the Levant and beyond. And with the regime just a short step or two away from nuclear capabilities it is clear that the US strategy in Iraq was wrong all along. It was wrong and dangerous.
The US strategy was to bring democracy to Iraq and by doing so, inspire democratic revolutions throughout the Arab world. Although inspiring, it was wrong first and foremost because it was predicated on ignoring one of the basic dictates of strategy. It failed to recognize that there were other forces in the region.
It failed to anticipate that every US move would be countered by an Iranian move. And in failing to recognize this basic strategic truth — even though it has been staring them in the face — the Americans aggressively pursued a strategy that became more and more irrelevant as time went by.
As the actions of the Hariris of Lebanon and their counterparts in Iraq show clearly, Iran's countermoves have always been more forthright and compelling than the US's moves have been.
In the September issue of Commentary, Arthur Herman depressingly sets out the Obama administration's declared plans and early moves to gut the US military. It is obvious that regardless of Obama's political position after the mid-term elections in November, he will not revisit the US's current Middle East strategy which is predicated on ignoring the Iranian nuclear elephant in the middle of the room. He will not work to overthrow the regime or support any forces that would overthrow the regime.
It is true that in the short term, the prospects for the region hinge on whether or not Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has the courage to order the IDF to attack Iran's nuclear installations. And it is also true that if an Israeli strike is sufficiently successful, it would empower many positive forces throughout the region — from Teheran Kurdistan to Ankara, Damascus and Beirut.
But in the medium and long-term, nothing can replace America. And as long as the US continues on its trajectory of strategic blindness, the Iraqis will be far from alone in their suffering.
THE PALESTINIANS WEREN'T THERE THEN!
An ingenious example of speech and politics occurred recently in the United Nations Assembly which made the world community smile.
A representative from Israel began: "Before beginning my talk I want to tell you something about Moses. When he struck the rock and it brought forth water, he thought, 'What a good opportunity to have a bath! He removed his clothes, put them aside on the rock and entered the water. When he got out and wanted to dress, his clothes had vanished. A Palestinian had stolen them."
The Palestinian representative jumped up furiously and shouted, "What are you talking about? The Palestinians weren't there then!"
The Israeli representative smiled and said, "And now that we have made that clear, I will begin my speech."
A representative from Israel began: "Before beginning my talk I want to tell you something about Moses. When he struck the rock and it brought forth water, he thought, 'What a good opportunity to have a bath! He removed his clothes, put them aside on the rock and entered the water. When he got out and wanted to dress, his clothes had vanished. A Palestinian had stolen them."
The Palestinian representative jumped up furiously and shouted, "What are you talking about? The Palestinians weren't there then!"
The Israeli representative smiled and said, "And now that we have made that clear, I will begin my speech."
Friday, August 20, 2010
THE CASE AGAINST CONFINING DANGEROUS CRIMINALS IN PRIVATE PRISONS (3)
Trey wrote: This is an excerpt from the article about the capture of the murderers who escaped the private prison in northern AZ. If I was a the family of the [Oklahoma] couple that they killed while on the lam, I would seriously consider suing the private prison and the state.
Here is the excerpt Trey sent:
The prison has a badly defective alarm system, a perimeter post was unstaffed, an outside dormitory door had been propped open with a rock and the alarms went off so often that prison personnel often just ignored them, the report said. Also, operational practices often led to a gap of 15 minutes or longer during shift changes along the perimeter fence,
[Department of Corrections Director Charles L.] Ryan said.
Prison staff told a review team that the dormitory door was left open because of the heavy amount of foot traffic. That open door allowed the three inmates to reach a 10-foot chain-linked fence that hadn't been topped with razor wire. They scaled that fence and hid out for a time behind a building in an area that isn't visible to staff from the yard.
Using wire cutters, which [Casslyn] Welch [John McCluskey's fiancee and cousin] tossed into the prison yard shortly before the 9 p.m. shift change, the inmates [Daniel Renwick, Tracy Province, and McCluskey] cut a 30-by-22-inch hole and held the fence back with a dog leash.
___
Associated Press writers Walter Berry, Felicia Fonseca and Paul Davenport in Phoenix and Tim Korte and Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, N.M., contributed to this report.
Here is the excerpt Trey sent:
The prison has a badly defective alarm system, a perimeter post was unstaffed, an outside dormitory door had been propped open with a rock and the alarms went off so often that prison personnel often just ignored them, the report said. Also, operational practices often led to a gap of 15 minutes or longer during shift changes along the perimeter fence,
[Department of Corrections Director Charles L.] Ryan said.
Prison staff told a review team that the dormitory door was left open because of the heavy amount of foot traffic. That open door allowed the three inmates to reach a 10-foot chain-linked fence that hadn't been topped with razor wire. They scaled that fence and hid out for a time behind a building in an area that isn't visible to staff from the yard.
Using wire cutters, which [Casslyn] Welch [John McCluskey's fiancee and cousin] tossed into the prison yard shortly before the 9 p.m. shift change, the inmates [Daniel Renwick, Tracy Province, and McCluskey] cut a 30-by-22-inch hole and held the fence back with a dog leash.
___
Associated Press writers Walter Berry, Felicia Fonseca and Paul Davenport in Phoenix and Tim Korte and Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, N.M., contributed to this report.
NICE DOGGIE, HIC, OUCH!
PUPPY PATROL POUNCES ON PAROLEE
By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
August 18, 2010
Police in the teeming metropolis of Fairfield used a K-9 officer to extricate a drunk, uncooperative parolee from under a bed.
A woman called the local constabulary about 1:00 p.m. and told them her 33-year old boyfriend, Jeremy Ghent, and she had been involved in a domestic disturbance. (Meaning he got drunk and thumped her.) The two have a relationship and a couple of rugrats, but do not cohabitate.
When the cops learned that Ghent was a PAL they surrounded the house and the girlfriend came out. Ghent, on the other hand, acted like a drunk parolee, announcing that he was not going to go back to prison.
The cops went in and the dog found him under the bed. He wouldn’t come out. The dog helped him. Ghent was taken to the hospital, treated for "puncture wounds" and booked into the county hospitality center. (Well, he was right, he didn’t go back to prison …yet).
Clicking here will link to a North Bay News story on this subject.
By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
August 18, 2010
Police in the teeming metropolis of Fairfield used a K-9 officer to extricate a drunk, uncooperative parolee from under a bed.
A woman called the local constabulary about 1:00 p.m. and told them her 33-year old boyfriend, Jeremy Ghent, and she had been involved in a domestic disturbance. (Meaning he got drunk and thumped her.) The two have a relationship and a couple of rugrats, but do not cohabitate.
When the cops learned that Ghent was a PAL they surrounded the house and the girlfriend came out. Ghent, on the other hand, acted like a drunk parolee, announcing that he was not going to go back to prison.
The cops went in and the dog found him under the bed. He wouldn’t come out. The dog helped him. Ghent was taken to the hospital, treated for "puncture wounds" and booked into the county hospitality center. (Well, he was right, he didn’t go back to prison …yet).
Clicking here will link to a North Bay News story on this subject.
SOUTH TEXAS, THE WAY IT'S ALWAYS BEEN
RIO GRANDE MUD: COPS, MAYORS AND JUDGES BUSTED FOR CORRUPTION, DWI AND WHORING ALL OVER THE VALLEY
By John Nova Lomax
Houston Press Hair Balls
August 18, 2010
On moving to Miami during that city's Cocaine Cowboy heyday, a friend once described the place thusly: "You are nobody here until you are under indictment."
As the frontline for the drug war has shifted from Colombia and South Florida to Mexico and South Texas, it seems like that ethos has taken hold in the Valley.
Not that the area south of the Nueces was ever some paragon of tidy, efficient Scandinavian-style governance. It's always seemed to be like some unholy combination of Deep South Boss Hawg-style sheriff rule combined with Wild West cowboy six-shooter antics, all seasoned with plenty of machismo. To quote Los Lobos, "Alli siempre paso la vida, con la pistola y el corazon." Like Texas, only more so.
And while you can't really trace any of these sins and misdeeds directly to the drug war, things do seem to be reaching a fever pitch down there right now.
While protracted daytime gunfights rage just across the river, on this side, everyone seems to be busy driving drunk, shooting at romantic rivals, on the take or trading clout for blow jobs.
The sitting mayor of Brownsville was just arrested for DWI for the third time in his life, while judges were in hot water in Hidalgo County for crimes ranging from forgery to stealing traffic ticket money.
And then there's Brownsville Judge Phil Bellamy, who was arrested for verbally abusing Walmart staff and then likened his ensuing woes to the persecution of Star Trek's Spock and SpongeBob SquarePants. (His ensuing suit to countermand an order to have him committed to the loony bin was dismissed.)
And it's not just mayors and judges: Cops seem to have a penchant for racking up DWIs down there too.
The town of Sullivan City merits special mention. After the chief of police went down in a federal drug sweep a few weeks ago, it came to light that his replacement also has a record. Only seven years ago, back when he was a cop in the town of Edcouch, the new chief was busted for DWI and possession of coke. (The charges were later dismissed.)
And then, and then, and then....There's the town of La Villa, where all of these elements come together in one glorious case.
Mayor Hector Elizondo was just arrested for trading $10 crack rocks for blow jobs. Not that Eloy Cardenas, the guy who slapped on the cuffs, is a saint either. Cardenas, the chief of police of both La Villa and the neighboring town of Edcouch, is currently on trial for shooting Isidro Rodriguez, his wife's ex, with a shotgun packed with bean-bag shells and then burying the evidence in a chicken coop.
Cardenas's attorney Hector Villarreal does not deny his client shot at Rodriguez, but does say it was in self-defense, and that Rodriguez probably had it coming: "(My client is) a man of quality, integrity and good standing in his community. The alleged victim was so stoned and so drunk when he reported the shooting that he couldn't even walk."
Sounds like outstanding mayoral timber, or at the very least, a great candidate for the police academy.
By John Nova Lomax
Houston Press Hair Balls
August 18, 2010
On moving to Miami during that city's Cocaine Cowboy heyday, a friend once described the place thusly: "You are nobody here until you are under indictment."
As the frontline for the drug war has shifted from Colombia and South Florida to Mexico and South Texas, it seems like that ethos has taken hold in the Valley.
Not that the area south of the Nueces was ever some paragon of tidy, efficient Scandinavian-style governance. It's always seemed to be like some unholy combination of Deep South Boss Hawg-style sheriff rule combined with Wild West cowboy six-shooter antics, all seasoned with plenty of machismo. To quote Los Lobos, "Alli siempre paso la vida, con la pistola y el corazon." Like Texas, only more so.
And while you can't really trace any of these sins and misdeeds directly to the drug war, things do seem to be reaching a fever pitch down there right now.
While protracted daytime gunfights rage just across the river, on this side, everyone seems to be busy driving drunk, shooting at romantic rivals, on the take or trading clout for blow jobs.
The sitting mayor of Brownsville was just arrested for DWI for the third time in his life, while judges were in hot water in Hidalgo County for crimes ranging from forgery to stealing traffic ticket money.
And then there's Brownsville Judge Phil Bellamy, who was arrested for verbally abusing Walmart staff and then likened his ensuing woes to the persecution of Star Trek's Spock and SpongeBob SquarePants. (His ensuing suit to countermand an order to have him committed to the loony bin was dismissed.)
And it's not just mayors and judges: Cops seem to have a penchant for racking up DWIs down there too.
The town of Sullivan City merits special mention. After the chief of police went down in a federal drug sweep a few weeks ago, it came to light that his replacement also has a record. Only seven years ago, back when he was a cop in the town of Edcouch, the new chief was busted for DWI and possession of coke. (The charges were later dismissed.)
And then, and then, and then....There's the town of La Villa, where all of these elements come together in one glorious case.
Mayor Hector Elizondo was just arrested for trading $10 crack rocks for blow jobs. Not that Eloy Cardenas, the guy who slapped on the cuffs, is a saint either. Cardenas, the chief of police of both La Villa and the neighboring town of Edcouch, is currently on trial for shooting Isidro Rodriguez, his wife's ex, with a shotgun packed with bean-bag shells and then burying the evidence in a chicken coop.
Cardenas's attorney Hector Villarreal does not deny his client shot at Rodriguez, but does say it was in self-defense, and that Rodriguez probably had it coming: "(My client is) a man of quality, integrity and good standing in his community. The alleged victim was so stoned and so drunk when he reported the shooting that he couldn't even walk."
Sounds like outstanding mayoral timber, or at the very least, a great candidate for the police academy.
REUNION OF HIGH SCHOOL FRIENDS
Rachel, Clare and Samantha haven't seen each other since High School. They rediscover each other via a reunion website and arrange to meet for lunch in a wine bar.
Rachel arrives first, wearing beige Versace. She orders a bottle of Pinot Grigio. Clare arrives shortly afterward, in gray Chanel. After the required ritualized kisses she joins Rachel in a glass of wine. Then Samantha walks in, wearing a faded old tee-shirt, blue jeans and boots. She too shares the wine.
Rachel explains that after leaving high school and graduating from Princeton in Classics, she met and married Timothy, with whom she has a beautiful daughter. Timothy is a partner in one of New York 's leading law firms. They live in a 4000 sq ft co-op on Fifth Avenue , where Susanna, the daughter, attends drama school. They have a second home in Phoenix .
Clare relates that she graduated from Harvard Med School and became a surgeon. Her husband, Clive, is a leading Wall Street investment banker. They live in Southampton on Long Island and have a second home in Naples , Florida .
Samantha explains that she left school at 17 and ran off with her boyfriend, Ben. They run a tropical bird park in California and grow their own vegetables. Ben can stand five parrots, side by side, on his dick.
Halfway down the third bottle of wine and several hours later, Rachel blurts out that her husband is a cashier at Walmart. They live in a small apartment in Brooklyn and have a travel trailer parked at a nearby a storage facility.
Clare, chastened and encouraged by her old friend's honesty, explains that she and Clive are both nurses' aides in a retirement home. They live in Jersey City and take vacation camping trips to Alabama .
Samantha confessed that the fifth parrot has to stand on one leg.
Rachel arrives first, wearing beige Versace. She orders a bottle of Pinot Grigio. Clare arrives shortly afterward, in gray Chanel. After the required ritualized kisses she joins Rachel in a glass of wine. Then Samantha walks in, wearing a faded old tee-shirt, blue jeans and boots. She too shares the wine.
Rachel explains that after leaving high school and graduating from Princeton in Classics, she met and married Timothy, with whom she has a beautiful daughter. Timothy is a partner in one of New York 's leading law firms. They live in a 4000 sq ft co-op on Fifth Avenue , where Susanna, the daughter, attends drama school. They have a second home in Phoenix .
Clare relates that she graduated from Harvard Med School and became a surgeon. Her husband, Clive, is a leading Wall Street investment banker. They live in Southampton on Long Island and have a second home in Naples , Florida .
Samantha explains that she left school at 17 and ran off with her boyfriend, Ben. They run a tropical bird park in California and grow their own vegetables. Ben can stand five parrots, side by side, on his dick.
Halfway down the third bottle of wine and several hours later, Rachel blurts out that her husband is a cashier at Walmart. They live in a small apartment in Brooklyn and have a travel trailer parked at a nearby a storage facility.
Clare, chastened and encouraged by her old friend's honesty, explains that she and Clive are both nurses' aides in a retirement home. They live in Jersey City and take vacation camping trips to Alabama .
Samantha confessed that the fifth parrot has to stand on one leg.
ISRAELIS HAVE NEVER KNOWN AN HOUR OF REAL PEACE
And they still won't know any real peace even if they sign a Quartet brokered ‘peace’ agreement with the Palestinians.
George Will, who has been in Israel lately, says condescending remarks of tone-deaf American leaders - most notable, President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton - grate on the ears of a nation that faces a constant struggle for survival.
SKIP THE LECTURES ON ISRAEL’S ‘RISKS FOR PEACE’
By George Will
Jewish World Review
August 19, 2010
JERUSALEM ---In the intifada that began in 2000, Palestinian terrorism killed more than 1,000 Israelis. As a portion of U.S. population, that would be 42,000, approaching the toll of America's eight years in Vietnam. During the onslaught, which began 10 Septembers ago, Israeli parents sending two children to a school would put them on separate buses to decrease the chance that neither would return for dinner. Surely most Americans can imagine, even if their tone-deaf leaders cannot, how grating it is when those leaders lecture Israel on the need to take "risks for peace."
During Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's July visit to Washington, Barack Obama praised him as "willing to take risks for peace." There was a time when that meant swapping "land for peace" -- Israel sacrificing something tangible and irrecoverable, strategic depth, in exchange for something intangible and perishable, promises of diplomatic normality.
Strategic depth matters in a nation where almost everyone is or has been a soldier, so society cannot function for long with the nation fully mobilized. Also, before the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel within the borders established by the 1949 armistice was in one place just nine miles wide, a fact that moved George W. Bush to say: In Texas we have driveways that long. Israel exchanged a lot of land to achieve a chilly peace with Egypt, yielding the Sinai, which is almost three times larger than Israel and was 89 percent of the land captured in the process of repelling the 1967 aggression.
The intifada was launched by the late Yasser Arafat -- terrorist and Nobel Peace Prize winner -- after the July 2000 Camp David meeting, during which then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered to cede control of all of Gaza and more than 90 percent of the West Bank, with small swaps of land to accommodate the growth of Jerusalem suburbs just across the 1949 armistice line.
Israelis are famously fractious, but the intifada produced among them a consensus that the most any government of theirs could offer without forfeiting domestic support is less than any Palestinian interlocutor would demand. Furthermore, the intifada was part of a pattern. As in 1936 and 1947, talk about partition prompted Arab violence.
In 1936, when the British administered Palestine, the Peel Commission concluded that there was "an irrepressible conflict" -- a phrase coined by an American historian to describe the U.S. Civil War -- "between two national communities within the narrow bounds of one small country." And: "Neither of the two national ideals permits" a combination "in the service of a single state." The commission recommended "a surgical operation" -- partition. What followed was the Arab Revolt of 1936 to 1939.
On Nov. 29, 1947, the United Nations recommended a partition plan. Israel accepted the recommendation. On Nov. 30, Israel was attacked.
Palestine has a seemingly limitless capacity for eliciting nonsense from afar, as it did recently when British Prime Minister David Cameron referred to Gaza as a "prison camp." In a sense it is, but not in the sense Cameron intended. His implication was that Israel is the cruel imprisoner. Gaza's actual misfortune is to be under the iron fist of Hamas, a terrorist organization.
In May, a flotilla launched from Turkey approached Gaza in order to provoke a confrontation with Israel, which, like Egypt, administers a blockade to prevent arms from reaching Hamas. The flotilla's pretense was humanitarian relief for Gaza -- where the infant mortality rate is lower and life expectancy is higher than in Turkey.
Israelis younger than 50 have no memory of their nation within the 1967 borders set by the 1949 armistice that ended the War of Independence. The rest of the world seems to have no memory at all concerning the intersecting histories of Palestine and the Jewish people.
The creation of Israel did not involve the destruction of a Palestinian state, there having been no such state since the Romans arrived. And if the Jewish percentage of the world's population were today what it was when the Romans ruled Palestine, there would be 200 million Jews. After a uniquely hazardous passage through two millennia without a homeland, there are 13 million Jews.
In the 62 years since this homeland was founded on one-sixth of 1 percent of the land of what is carelessly and inaccurately called "the Arab world," Israelis have never known an hour of real peace. Patronizing American lectures on the reality of risks and the desirableness of peace, which once were merely fatuous, are now obscene.
George Will, who has been in Israel lately, says condescending remarks of tone-deaf American leaders - most notable, President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton - grate on the ears of a nation that faces a constant struggle for survival.
SKIP THE LECTURES ON ISRAEL’S ‘RISKS FOR PEACE’
By George Will
Jewish World Review
August 19, 2010
JERUSALEM ---In the intifada that began in 2000, Palestinian terrorism killed more than 1,000 Israelis. As a portion of U.S. population, that would be 42,000, approaching the toll of America's eight years in Vietnam. During the onslaught, which began 10 Septembers ago, Israeli parents sending two children to a school would put them on separate buses to decrease the chance that neither would return for dinner. Surely most Americans can imagine, even if their tone-deaf leaders cannot, how grating it is when those leaders lecture Israel on the need to take "risks for peace."
During Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's July visit to Washington, Barack Obama praised him as "willing to take risks for peace." There was a time when that meant swapping "land for peace" -- Israel sacrificing something tangible and irrecoverable, strategic depth, in exchange for something intangible and perishable, promises of diplomatic normality.
Strategic depth matters in a nation where almost everyone is or has been a soldier, so society cannot function for long with the nation fully mobilized. Also, before the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel within the borders established by the 1949 armistice was in one place just nine miles wide, a fact that moved George W. Bush to say: In Texas we have driveways that long. Israel exchanged a lot of land to achieve a chilly peace with Egypt, yielding the Sinai, which is almost three times larger than Israel and was 89 percent of the land captured in the process of repelling the 1967 aggression.
The intifada was launched by the late Yasser Arafat -- terrorist and Nobel Peace Prize winner -- after the July 2000 Camp David meeting, during which then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered to cede control of all of Gaza and more than 90 percent of the West Bank, with small swaps of land to accommodate the growth of Jerusalem suburbs just across the 1949 armistice line.
Israelis are famously fractious, but the intifada produced among them a consensus that the most any government of theirs could offer without forfeiting domestic support is less than any Palestinian interlocutor would demand. Furthermore, the intifada was part of a pattern. As in 1936 and 1947, talk about partition prompted Arab violence.
In 1936, when the British administered Palestine, the Peel Commission concluded that there was "an irrepressible conflict" -- a phrase coined by an American historian to describe the U.S. Civil War -- "between two national communities within the narrow bounds of one small country." And: "Neither of the two national ideals permits" a combination "in the service of a single state." The commission recommended "a surgical operation" -- partition. What followed was the Arab Revolt of 1936 to 1939.
On Nov. 29, 1947, the United Nations recommended a partition plan. Israel accepted the recommendation. On Nov. 30, Israel was attacked.
Palestine has a seemingly limitless capacity for eliciting nonsense from afar, as it did recently when British Prime Minister David Cameron referred to Gaza as a "prison camp." In a sense it is, but not in the sense Cameron intended. His implication was that Israel is the cruel imprisoner. Gaza's actual misfortune is to be under the iron fist of Hamas, a terrorist organization.
In May, a flotilla launched from Turkey approached Gaza in order to provoke a confrontation with Israel, which, like Egypt, administers a blockade to prevent arms from reaching Hamas. The flotilla's pretense was humanitarian relief for Gaza -- where the infant mortality rate is lower and life expectancy is higher than in Turkey.
Israelis younger than 50 have no memory of their nation within the 1967 borders set by the 1949 armistice that ended the War of Independence. The rest of the world seems to have no memory at all concerning the intersecting histories of Palestine and the Jewish people.
The creation of Israel did not involve the destruction of a Palestinian state, there having been no such state since the Romans arrived. And if the Jewish percentage of the world's population were today what it was when the Romans ruled Palestine, there would be 200 million Jews. After a uniquely hazardous passage through two millennia without a homeland, there are 13 million Jews.
In the 62 years since this homeland was founded on one-sixth of 1 percent of the land of what is carelessly and inaccurately called "the Arab world," Israelis have never known an hour of real peace. Patronizing American lectures on the reality of risks and the desirableness of peace, which once were merely fatuous, are now obscene.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
SHOW SOME SENSITIVITY TO THE WORLD TRADE CENTER FAMILIES (3)
Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani was interviewed about the proposed Ground Zero mosque by Matt Lauer on this morning's NBC Today show. Rudy cane out firmly against building the mosque on that site and questioned the purported intent of the mosque to heal wounds and bridge the divide between faiths. Here is what he said about that:
__The question here is a question of sensitivity, people's feelings. And, are you really what you pretend to be? As I understand this, this Cordoba House, the idea of it is to healing. To show that Muslims care about the same things as Christians and Jews do. That we're one people. That we should be one. Well, if you're going to, if you're going to so horribly offend the people that were most directly offended by this, most directly affected by this, the families of the September 11 victims -- who I happen to know and have gotten to know, you know, really well -- then how are you healing? I mean all this is doing is creating more division, more anger, more hatred.
Giuliani also questioned where the funding was going to come from. Here is what he said about that:
__He's [Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf] got $180,000 in the bank, he wants to raise $100 million. Ask me how he's going to do it. ….. I question whether they can raise the money. Every indication from the attorney general's reports of their charities are they have about $180,000. $100 million project. And then where is the money coming from?
I think I know where most of the $100 million is going to come from. It’s going to come from the Saudis and they are going to make sure the mosque will be staffed with puritanical Wahhabi imams and not with the 'moderate' types our politicians and Muslim apologists keep yacking about.
And when Lauer asked the former mayor if he thought union workers - plumbers, electricians, carpenters - will build the mosque on that site, Rudy replied:
__A couple of construction workers told me, in their typical New York accent, "We ain't working on that project. Let 'em see if they can go find somebody to work on that project."
Not all Muslims support the building of a mosque near the World Trade Center site. Neda Bolourchi, a Muslim from Los Angeles whose mother was on one of the planes that flew into the Twin Towers, wrote this in a Washington Post op-ed:
__I fear that over time, it [the mosque] will cultivate a fundamentalist version of the Muslim faith, embracing those who share such beliefs and hating those who do not. To the supporters of this new Islamic cultural center, I must say: Build your ideological monument somewhere else, far from my mother's grave, and let her rest.
__The question here is a question of sensitivity, people's feelings. And, are you really what you pretend to be? As I understand this, this Cordoba House, the idea of it is to healing. To show that Muslims care about the same things as Christians and Jews do. That we're one people. That we should be one. Well, if you're going to, if you're going to so horribly offend the people that were most directly offended by this, most directly affected by this, the families of the September 11 victims -- who I happen to know and have gotten to know, you know, really well -- then how are you healing? I mean all this is doing is creating more division, more anger, more hatred.
Giuliani also questioned where the funding was going to come from. Here is what he said about that:
__He's [Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf] got $180,000 in the bank, he wants to raise $100 million. Ask me how he's going to do it. ….. I question whether they can raise the money. Every indication from the attorney general's reports of their charities are they have about $180,000. $100 million project. And then where is the money coming from?
I think I know where most of the $100 million is going to come from. It’s going to come from the Saudis and they are going to make sure the mosque will be staffed with puritanical Wahhabi imams and not with the 'moderate' types our politicians and Muslim apologists keep yacking about.
And when Lauer asked the former mayor if he thought union workers - plumbers, electricians, carpenters - will build the mosque on that site, Rudy replied:
__A couple of construction workers told me, in their typical New York accent, "We ain't working on that project. Let 'em see if they can go find somebody to work on that project."
Not all Muslims support the building of a mosque near the World Trade Center site. Neda Bolourchi, a Muslim from Los Angeles whose mother was on one of the planes that flew into the Twin Towers, wrote this in a Washington Post op-ed:
__I fear that over time, it [the mosque] will cultivate a fundamentalist version of the Muslim faith, embracing those who share such beliefs and hating those who do not. To the supporters of this new Islamic cultural center, I must say: Build your ideological monument somewhere else, far from my mother's grave, and let her rest.
WHY OPPOSITION TO THE DEATH PENALTY IS SIMPLY INCREDULOUS
On Tuesday evening, Peter Cantu was executed for the horrific rape-murder of Jennifer Ertman, 14, and Elizabeth Peña, 16, after spending 17 years on death row. Cantu became the 16th person put to death in Texas this year and the 463rd since the death penalty was restored.
The Houston Chronicle described the crime for which Cantu was executed as the ‘Unfathomable Cruelty’:
__In June 1993, Ertman and Pena had left a Thursday night gathering of friends in a rush to be home before their curfew. A small gang known as the Black and Whites was conducting a fight-filled initiation ceremony for a prospective member across from Houston’s T.C. Jester Park when the girls crossed their paths while taking a shortcut home. The girls were hurrying along railroad tracks in the dark when they were spotted by the gang, pulled off the tracks and taken into nearby woods where they were repeatedly raped. When the attackers were finished, the girls were taken deeper into the woods where, at Cantu’s urging, they were beaten, strangled and stomped [beyond recognition] to death.
__Even the police were stunned. The attackers shouted obscenities at TV cameras when they were arrested and reportedly bragged of their crimes once in their jail cells. The killers didn't crumple or cry when recounting the bestiality of their acts to investigators. All of it - the entire ugly tableau of human destruction - was told as if it had been a TV rerun from a year ago.
Five other gang members were also tried and convicted in this case:
___Jose Medellin and Derrick O’Brien were both executed for their roles in the slayings. Medellin was executed on Aug. 5, 2008, and O’Brien was executed on July 11, 2006.
__Efrain Perez and Raul Villarreal had their death sentences commuted after the Supreme Court barred the death penalty for those who commit crimes under the age of 18.
__Venancio Medellin, who was 14 at the time of the attack, is serving a 40-year sentence.
It is simply incredulous that anyone could be opposed to the death penalty when horrific murders are committed by vermin like these six pieces of shit. Not only did they gang-rape, strangle, beat and stomp the two teenagers beyond recognition, but they also laughed, joked and bragged about what they had done. As Bob Walsh noted on PacoVilla Corrections blog, SOME PEOPLE JUST NEED KILLING.
Cantu was defiant until the moment of his death. He made no apology to the families of his victims and he made no statement in the death chamber when given the opportunity.
After witnessing Cantu’s execution, Adolfo Pena, Elizabeth’s father, spoke to the media: "We can say it’s the end, but it’s never going to be closure. Three of the animals that did this are gone. [The execution] doesn’t really make me feel any better, knowing that there are three guys [Efrain Perez, Raul Villarreal and Venancio Medellin] that got away with this. But I think I will probably sleep a little better."
There were only a few protesters against the death penalty outside the prison where Cantu was to be executed. Usually there is a good-sized turnout for every execution by those weeping and wailing against capital punishment. But for Cantu’s execution, it seems as though most abolitionists did not have the balls to show their shameless bleeding heart faces in public.
The Houston Chronicle described the crime for which Cantu was executed as the ‘Unfathomable Cruelty’:
__In June 1993, Ertman and Pena had left a Thursday night gathering of friends in a rush to be home before their curfew. A small gang known as the Black and Whites was conducting a fight-filled initiation ceremony for a prospective member across from Houston’s T.C. Jester Park when the girls crossed their paths while taking a shortcut home. The girls were hurrying along railroad tracks in the dark when they were spotted by the gang, pulled off the tracks and taken into nearby woods where they were repeatedly raped. When the attackers were finished, the girls were taken deeper into the woods where, at Cantu’s urging, they were beaten, strangled and stomped [beyond recognition] to death.
__Even the police were stunned. The attackers shouted obscenities at TV cameras when they were arrested and reportedly bragged of their crimes once in their jail cells. The killers didn't crumple or cry when recounting the bestiality of their acts to investigators. All of it - the entire ugly tableau of human destruction - was told as if it had been a TV rerun from a year ago.
Five other gang members were also tried and convicted in this case:
___Jose Medellin and Derrick O’Brien were both executed for their roles in the slayings. Medellin was executed on Aug. 5, 2008, and O’Brien was executed on July 11, 2006.
__Efrain Perez and Raul Villarreal had their death sentences commuted after the Supreme Court barred the death penalty for those who commit crimes under the age of 18.
__Venancio Medellin, who was 14 at the time of the attack, is serving a 40-year sentence.
It is simply incredulous that anyone could be opposed to the death penalty when horrific murders are committed by vermin like these six pieces of shit. Not only did they gang-rape, strangle, beat and stomp the two teenagers beyond recognition, but they also laughed, joked and bragged about what they had done. As Bob Walsh noted on PacoVilla Corrections blog, SOME PEOPLE JUST NEED KILLING.
Cantu was defiant until the moment of his death. He made no apology to the families of his victims and he made no statement in the death chamber when given the opportunity.
After witnessing Cantu’s execution, Adolfo Pena, Elizabeth’s father, spoke to the media: "We can say it’s the end, but it’s never going to be closure. Three of the animals that did this are gone. [The execution] doesn’t really make me feel any better, knowing that there are three guys [Efrain Perez, Raul Villarreal and Venancio Medellin] that got away with this. But I think I will probably sleep a little better."
There were only a few protesters against the death penalty outside the prison where Cantu was to be executed. Usually there is a good-sized turnout for every execution by those weeping and wailing against capital punishment. But for Cantu’s execution, it seems as though most abolitionists did not have the balls to show their shameless bleeding heart faces in public.
A COLLEGE DEGREE WILL BE WORTH NO MORE THAN A HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA
If everyone obtains a college education, as called for by President Obams, a college degree will be worth no more than a high school diploma. Why? Because the more there is of anything, the less its value. Besides that, the great majority of high school graduates are simply not capable of taking the kinds of college courses that will enable the United States to maintain a leadership position in the critical sciences and technologies.
The majority of high school graduates will seek business and financial degrees, social studies and political science degrees, education degrees, etc. rather than degrees in advanced physics, chemistry and math. Many students will seek degrees in African-American Studies, Gay, Lesbian and Transgender Studies, and other so-called cultural diversity degree programs which will be worthless to students when they leave the university for the real world and absolutely worthless to the future well-being of our nation.
You can bet that university students in Japan, Korea, China and India are not seeking a degree in Gay, Lesbian and Transgender Studies. In the first place, it is very hard to get into a university in those countries. Their high schools are really like junior colleges. After they graduate from high school, students who want to obtain a college degree will enroll in special advanced studies schools, hoping that this will enable them to do well on tough college entrance exams.
In order for our young people to obtain gainful employment in a good paying job, they must be able to read, write and do math well. If they can’t do that they won’t be able to hold down any job that requires acquiring the latest technological skills. That means that our high schools have to do a far, far better job than they are doing now. The current dumbed-down public school programs have led to dumbed-down college programs.
A college education for everyone? You gotta be kidding! Instead of getting everyone into college, we need to start off by kicking disruptive students out of our high schools. Put them in special vocational schools so they can learn to lay bricks, pour concrete, put up houses and do other kinds of manual labor.
Leave the high schools to those who want and have the ability to learn math and science. If that means leaving our high schools to the elite, so be it. At least that way a high school diploma will be as meaningful as those in Japan, Korea, China and India. Then our nation’s colleges will be freed from having to offer remedial courses.
Only then will our universities be able to turn out the engineers, scientists and mathematicians we need to maintain a leadership position in the critical sciences and technologies. And that will make a college degree really valuable..
The majority of high school graduates will seek business and financial degrees, social studies and political science degrees, education degrees, etc. rather than degrees in advanced physics, chemistry and math. Many students will seek degrees in African-American Studies, Gay, Lesbian and Transgender Studies, and other so-called cultural diversity degree programs which will be worthless to students when they leave the university for the real world and absolutely worthless to the future well-being of our nation.
You can bet that university students in Japan, Korea, China and India are not seeking a degree in Gay, Lesbian and Transgender Studies. In the first place, it is very hard to get into a university in those countries. Their high schools are really like junior colleges. After they graduate from high school, students who want to obtain a college degree will enroll in special advanced studies schools, hoping that this will enable them to do well on tough college entrance exams.
In order for our young people to obtain gainful employment in a good paying job, they must be able to read, write and do math well. If they can’t do that they won’t be able to hold down any job that requires acquiring the latest technological skills. That means that our high schools have to do a far, far better job than they are doing now. The current dumbed-down public school programs have led to dumbed-down college programs.
A college education for everyone? You gotta be kidding! Instead of getting everyone into college, we need to start off by kicking disruptive students out of our high schools. Put them in special vocational schools so they can learn to lay bricks, pour concrete, put up houses and do other kinds of manual labor.
Leave the high schools to those who want and have the ability to learn math and science. If that means leaving our high schools to the elite, so be it. At least that way a high school diploma will be as meaningful as those in Japan, Korea, China and India. Then our nation’s colleges will be freed from having to offer remedial courses.
Only then will our universities be able to turn out the engineers, scientists and mathematicians we need to maintain a leadership position in the critical sciences and technologies. And that will make a college degree really valuable..
HIGH SCHOOL QUIZ: WHAT CURVES TO THE LEFT AND HITS THE SWEET SPOT EVERY TIME?
Another educated idiot at work.
KELLY GENE PARKER: HS PRINCIPAL BRAGS ABOUT HIS PENIS TO 17-YEAR-OLD GIRL
By Richard Connelly
Houston Press Hair Balls
August 17, 2010
Kelly Gene Parker, the former principal of a Waco-area high school, wasn't against all that there "sexting" like some high school principals can be. Especially the ones from the Waco area.
A former Meridian High School student is suing the school district, claiming Parker sexually harassed her and that she was retaliated against for reporting it.
Parker, the suit says, pleaded guilty last year to having an inappropriate relationship with a student.
Inappropriate? Check out these five text messages included in the suit:
1. "I'm great in the sack ... i know how to please a woman and make her climax over and over... it may sound like im bragging but im not ... my dick curves to the left and hits the sweet spot every time."[Oh, what lady doesn't fall for the old curved-dick line? What -- most of them?]
2. "Just thinking how good u would look sittin there w/ no clothes on ... esp w/ ur legs spread"[So subtle...until you get to "w/ no clothes on"...and then the descent into utter pervdom picks up speed fast.]
3. Asking her the "color of ur pubic hair"[Really, it's all this paperwork the district makes us fill out. It's a hassle, but what are you gonna do?]
4. "... I'm not perverted, what do you think grown up couples talk about ... either ur grownup and mature to handle it or not."[Yeah, you silly high school junior. This is how sophisticated adult couples discuss issues of importance to them. Such as pubic-hair color.]
5. "i just wish you would think about me and my needs"[Oh God, he's not just a perv, he's a whiner. NEXT!!]
The plaintiff is suing the Meridian school district seeking "punitive damages for discrimination, sexual harassment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, assault, and constitutional violations," Courthouse News Service reports.
KELLY GENE PARKER: HS PRINCIPAL BRAGS ABOUT HIS PENIS TO 17-YEAR-OLD GIRL
By Richard Connelly
Houston Press Hair Balls
August 17, 2010
Kelly Gene Parker, the former principal of a Waco-area high school, wasn't against all that there "sexting" like some high school principals can be. Especially the ones from the Waco area.
A former Meridian High School student is suing the school district, claiming Parker sexually harassed her and that she was retaliated against for reporting it.
Parker, the suit says, pleaded guilty last year to having an inappropriate relationship with a student.
Inappropriate? Check out these five text messages included in the suit:
1. "I'm great in the sack ... i know how to please a woman and make her climax over and over... it may sound like im bragging but im not ... my dick curves to the left and hits the sweet spot every time."[Oh, what lady doesn't fall for the old curved-dick line? What -- most of them?]
2. "Just thinking how good u would look sittin there w/ no clothes on ... esp w/ ur legs spread"[So subtle...until you get to "w/ no clothes on"...and then the descent into utter pervdom picks up speed fast.]
3. Asking her the "color of ur pubic hair"[Really, it's all this paperwork the district makes us fill out. It's a hassle, but what are you gonna do?]
4. "... I'm not perverted, what do you think grown up couples talk about ... either ur grownup and mature to handle it or not."[Yeah, you silly high school junior. This is how sophisticated adult couples discuss issues of importance to them. Such as pubic-hair color.]
5. "i just wish you would think about me and my needs"[Oh God, he's not just a perv, he's a whiner. NEXT!!]
The plaintiff is suing the Meridian school district seeking "punitive damages for discrimination, sexual harassment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, assault, and constitutional violations," Courthouse News Service reports.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
A HITLER MYTH UNRAVELS: DER FUEHRER WAS JUST A 'REAR-AREA-PIG'
Quite long, but well worth the read, unless you’re a neo-Nazi.
A LONER, AN OBJECT OF RIDICULE AND A ‘REAR-AREA-PIG’: ADOLF HITLER ACCORDING TO HIS REGIMENT
By Dalya Alberge
Mail Online
August 17, 2010
Adolf Hitler's anti-Semitism was not sparked by his WWI experience and he was a 'rear-area pig' rather than a war hero, new research has revealed.
Previously unpublished letters from veterans of Hitler's regiment have challenged the Nazi portrayal which suggested his virulent nationalism was prompted by his experience on the western front.
They overturn his image of his unit, the List Regiment, as a band of brothers, intolerant and anti-Jewish with Hitler 'a hero at its heart'.
They confront long-held views on Hitler’s brave war record, revealing that front soldiers shunned him as a "rear area pig" several kilometers from danger.
The letters and a diary also disclose that List men regarded him as an impractical object of ridicule, joking about his starving in a canned food factory, unable to open a can with a bayonet.
He was viewed by his comrades in regimental HQ as a loner. He was neither popular nor unpopular.
They referred to him as the 'painter' or the 'artist' and noticed that he did not indulge in their favourite pastimes– letter-writing or drinking – but was often seen with a political book in his hand or painting. He was also particularly submissive to his superiors.
No individual has been more scrutinized than Hitler, but detective work into the List by Dr Thomas Weber, lecturer in modern history at Aberdeen University, unearthed new evidence.
Dr Weber said that previous biographies have had to rely on evidence from Hitler and Nazi propagandists: 'Since Hitler was an ordinary soldier in the First World War, there was not an easily available file on him. Biographers didn’t dig deep enough.''The myth of Hitler as a brave soldier and the camaraderie of the trenches was used by the Nazi party from the beginning in order to extend its appeal beyond the far right.
'They went to great lengths to protect this idea and through my research I discovered that a memoir written by one of his comrades was significantly altered between its first publication in 1933 and the outbreak of the Second World War.'
He added: 'The story was that World War One created Hitler and radicalised him and led to the birth of the Nazi movement.
'But his life in the war really was his Achilles heel and the story could collapse like a house of cards.
'I've been trying to show that this is a totally made-up story. Hitler was untypical of the regiment and he was not really radicalised in the war.'
Within the Bavarian War Archives, he discovered papers undisturbed for almost nine decades. Elsewhere, he found unpublished letters and Nazi Party membership files, and traced Jewish List veterans.
It was known that Hitler served as a runner but, armed with new evidence, Dr Weber realises that historians have not distinguished between regimental runners, a relatively safe job, and battalion or company runners, who had to brave machine-gun fire between trenches – Hitler was a runner at regimental HQ several kilometers from the front, and living in comfort in a room.
In unpublished letters, Alois Schnelldorfer, who also served at List HQ, told his parents that his task was 'to sit in an armchair and make calls like a postmistress'.
He also confirmed the front-line view of more generous provisions than the men in the trenches: 'I can drink a litre of beer under a shady walnut tree.'
Speaking of Hitler’s famous 1st Class Iron Cross - the 2nd Class was a relatively common award - Weber said that the 1st Class was often received by those in contact with higher-up officers rather than combat soldiers, typically those posted to regimental HQs.
The documents also make clear that virulent anti-Semitism did not exist, as an unpublished diary by a Jewish List soldier shows.
Also, although it was known that Hitler’s Iron Cross was recommended by Hugo Gutmann, a List Jewish adjutant, when Gutmann was incarcerated by the Gestapo in 1937, it was List veterans who enabled him to survive, Weber discovered.
Gutmann referred to a prison-guard who took risks to help him: 'As a good Catholic he despised the Nazis'.
Another List ex-comrade helped him to escape to America.
Dr Weber also unearthed evidence to show that the veterans of the List Regiment did not – as maintained by all Hitler biographies – unanimously support Hitler after the war.
An unpublished 1934 postcard by a Hitler admirer laments his being cold-shouldered by veterans in 1922. Dr Weber discovered that few front-line List soldiers became Nazis, whereas several regimental HQ staff were prominent in the party.
Dr Weber concludes that Hitler, who worked for a left-government after the war, became violently nationalist and anti-Semitic from the post-war and post-revolutionary economic and political crisis.
Dr Weber discovered that records had survived largely intact and were housed in the Bavarian War Archive, but that those pertaining to Hitler's battle group were filed not under the List Regiment, but under the higher division to which the regiment belonged. As a result, they had lain untouched for decades.
His research will be published in Hitler’s First War, by Oxford University Press next month.
A LONER, AN OBJECT OF RIDICULE AND A ‘REAR-AREA-PIG’: ADOLF HITLER ACCORDING TO HIS REGIMENT
By Dalya Alberge
Mail Online
August 17, 2010
Adolf Hitler's anti-Semitism was not sparked by his WWI experience and he was a 'rear-area pig' rather than a war hero, new research has revealed.
Previously unpublished letters from veterans of Hitler's regiment have challenged the Nazi portrayal which suggested his virulent nationalism was prompted by his experience on the western front.
They overturn his image of his unit, the List Regiment, as a band of brothers, intolerant and anti-Jewish with Hitler 'a hero at its heart'.
They confront long-held views on Hitler’s brave war record, revealing that front soldiers shunned him as a "rear area pig" several kilometers from danger.
The letters and a diary also disclose that List men regarded him as an impractical object of ridicule, joking about his starving in a canned food factory, unable to open a can with a bayonet.
He was viewed by his comrades in regimental HQ as a loner. He was neither popular nor unpopular.
They referred to him as the 'painter' or the 'artist' and noticed that he did not indulge in their favourite pastimes– letter-writing or drinking – but was often seen with a political book in his hand or painting. He was also particularly submissive to his superiors.
No individual has been more scrutinized than Hitler, but detective work into the List by Dr Thomas Weber, lecturer in modern history at Aberdeen University, unearthed new evidence.
Dr Weber said that previous biographies have had to rely on evidence from Hitler and Nazi propagandists: 'Since Hitler was an ordinary soldier in the First World War, there was not an easily available file on him. Biographers didn’t dig deep enough.''The myth of Hitler as a brave soldier and the camaraderie of the trenches was used by the Nazi party from the beginning in order to extend its appeal beyond the far right.
'They went to great lengths to protect this idea and through my research I discovered that a memoir written by one of his comrades was significantly altered between its first publication in 1933 and the outbreak of the Second World War.'
He added: 'The story was that World War One created Hitler and radicalised him and led to the birth of the Nazi movement.
'But his life in the war really was his Achilles heel and the story could collapse like a house of cards.
'I've been trying to show that this is a totally made-up story. Hitler was untypical of the regiment and he was not really radicalised in the war.'
Within the Bavarian War Archives, he discovered papers undisturbed for almost nine decades. Elsewhere, he found unpublished letters and Nazi Party membership files, and traced Jewish List veterans.
It was known that Hitler served as a runner but, armed with new evidence, Dr Weber realises that historians have not distinguished between regimental runners, a relatively safe job, and battalion or company runners, who had to brave machine-gun fire between trenches – Hitler was a runner at regimental HQ several kilometers from the front, and living in comfort in a room.
In unpublished letters, Alois Schnelldorfer, who also served at List HQ, told his parents that his task was 'to sit in an armchair and make calls like a postmistress'.
He also confirmed the front-line view of more generous provisions than the men in the trenches: 'I can drink a litre of beer under a shady walnut tree.'
Speaking of Hitler’s famous 1st Class Iron Cross - the 2nd Class was a relatively common award - Weber said that the 1st Class was often received by those in contact with higher-up officers rather than combat soldiers, typically those posted to regimental HQs.
The documents also make clear that virulent anti-Semitism did not exist, as an unpublished diary by a Jewish List soldier shows.
Also, although it was known that Hitler’s Iron Cross was recommended by Hugo Gutmann, a List Jewish adjutant, when Gutmann was incarcerated by the Gestapo in 1937, it was List veterans who enabled him to survive, Weber discovered.
Gutmann referred to a prison-guard who took risks to help him: 'As a good Catholic he despised the Nazis'.
Another List ex-comrade helped him to escape to America.
Dr Weber also unearthed evidence to show that the veterans of the List Regiment did not – as maintained by all Hitler biographies – unanimously support Hitler after the war.
An unpublished 1934 postcard by a Hitler admirer laments his being cold-shouldered by veterans in 1922. Dr Weber discovered that few front-line List soldiers became Nazis, whereas several regimental HQ staff were prominent in the party.
Dr Weber concludes that Hitler, who worked for a left-government after the war, became violently nationalist and anti-Semitic from the post-war and post-revolutionary economic and political crisis.
Dr Weber discovered that records had survived largely intact and were housed in the Bavarian War Archive, but that those pertaining to Hitler's battle group were filed not under the List Regiment, but under the higher division to which the regiment belonged. As a result, they had lain untouched for decades.
His research will be published in Hitler’s First War, by Oxford University Press next month.
PHONY PROVOCATIVE MISSION (9)
Here is some additional information proving that the Gaza Flotilla’s real mission was to force a violent confrontation with the Israelis.
TRUTH BEHIND THE HARM-ADA
by Steven Emerson
The New York Post
June 3, 2010
The "Free Gaza" flotilla was far more than a collection of innocent "peace activists" try ing to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza. Most passengers may have been nonviolent -- but a significant minority were anything but.
The passengers reportedly included 100-plus members of various Muslim Brotherhood chapters, at least 20 of whom taped al Qaeda-style "martyr" videos before embarking.
And the chief organizers clearly had more than "peaceful" intentions for the flotilla.
The Middle East Media Research Institute reports that a Gaza-based Hamas leader declared last Friday -- three days before the voyage started -- that the head of the Turkish ship had told him: "We will not allow the Zionists to come near us, and we will wage resistance against them."
The morning before the Israelis attempted to board, a Turkish passenger on the lead boat posted on Facebook, "The Turks are prepared with water canons [sic] and slingshots tonight I think all hell will break loose."
The radical Islamic Turkish "charity" Insani Yardim Vakfi (IHH) was the chief financier of the fleet. At an April press conference, its chairman, Bulent Yildirim, admitted the real goal: "We are embarking on our journey together with over 1,000 people to break the embargo."
The longtime organizer of the blockade-busting effort is a group called Free Gaza.
One of its leaders, Huwaida Arraf, made the flotilla's purpose plain at a June 19, 2009, press conference: "It is crucial that we continue sending boats to Gaza to challenge Israel's criminal closure of the strip. Gaza does not need our charity but needs us to stand up against the forces that continue to deliberately deny an entire people their human rights."
Arraf is long on record as supporting Palestinian terrorism. In a 2002 article, she urged the Palestinians to incorporate violence in their strategy.
The IHH is even less peaceful.
A US law-enforcement official stated in a 2003 affidavit that in the trial over the plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport, French counterterrorist Judge Jean Louis-Brugiere "testified that that the Turkish group IHH had played an 'important role' in the millennium bomb plot."
The French magistrate also testified that Yildirim aimed to "recruit veteran soldiers in anticipation of the coming holy war."
The IHH is banned in Israel for its association in a radical Islamic conglomerate called the Union of the Good, led by Muslim Brotherhood leader Yousef Al Qardawi, who has issued fatwas calling for the killing of Jews and Americans.
Turkey itself arrested members of the IHH in the late '90s for smuggling automatic weapons to terrorist groups. Today, the IHH works very closely with Hamas.
This is the true face of those that the world is now lionizing against the "murderous" Israelis.
TRUTH BEHIND THE HARM-ADA
by Steven Emerson
The New York Post
June 3, 2010
The "Free Gaza" flotilla was far more than a collection of innocent "peace activists" try ing to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza. Most passengers may have been nonviolent -- but a significant minority were anything but.
The passengers reportedly included 100-plus members of various Muslim Brotherhood chapters, at least 20 of whom taped al Qaeda-style "martyr" videos before embarking.
And the chief organizers clearly had more than "peaceful" intentions for the flotilla.
The Middle East Media Research Institute reports that a Gaza-based Hamas leader declared last Friday -- three days before the voyage started -- that the head of the Turkish ship had told him: "We will not allow the Zionists to come near us, and we will wage resistance against them."
The morning before the Israelis attempted to board, a Turkish passenger on the lead boat posted on Facebook, "The Turks are prepared with water canons [sic] and slingshots tonight I think all hell will break loose."
The radical Islamic Turkish "charity" Insani Yardim Vakfi (IHH) was the chief financier of the fleet. At an April press conference, its chairman, Bulent Yildirim, admitted the real goal: "We are embarking on our journey together with over 1,000 people to break the embargo."
The longtime organizer of the blockade-busting effort is a group called Free Gaza.
One of its leaders, Huwaida Arraf, made the flotilla's purpose plain at a June 19, 2009, press conference: "It is crucial that we continue sending boats to Gaza to challenge Israel's criminal closure of the strip. Gaza does not need our charity but needs us to stand up against the forces that continue to deliberately deny an entire people their human rights."
Arraf is long on record as supporting Palestinian terrorism. In a 2002 article, she urged the Palestinians to incorporate violence in their strategy.
The IHH is even less peaceful.
A US law-enforcement official stated in a 2003 affidavit that in the trial over the plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport, French counterterrorist Judge Jean Louis-Brugiere "testified that that the Turkish group IHH had played an 'important role' in the millennium bomb plot."
The French magistrate also testified that Yildirim aimed to "recruit veteran soldiers in anticipation of the coming holy war."
The IHH is banned in Israel for its association in a radical Islamic conglomerate called the Union of the Good, led by Muslim Brotherhood leader Yousef Al Qardawi, who has issued fatwas calling for the killing of Jews and Americans.
Turkey itself arrested members of the IHH in the late '90s for smuggling automatic weapons to terrorist groups. Today, the IHH works very closely with Hamas.
This is the true face of those that the world is now lionizing against the "murderous" Israelis.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
AWWWW, WHAT A SHAME: Three cheers for the Israeli cops
The same tired arguments used in the United States are also used in Israel. Overlooked by all pot heads is the fact that possession and use of marijuana is against the law. And when they get caught breaking the law they scream like stuck pigs.
POT SMOKERS SAY THEY ARE PERSECUTED, DEMAND INVESTIGATION
More than 50 citizens contacted State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss with a request that he look into 'waste of tax money' on police searches for them. 'Where were officers who caught groom smoking joint when Arik Karp was murdered?' Comptroller promises to check
By Aviel Magnezi
Ynet news.com
August 15, 2010
"Investigate the disproportionate investment of resources in going after marijuana consumers," asked dozens of Israelis of State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss on Sunday in a letter.
The letter, which bore dozens of signatures, starts off with a personal appeal. "I am 32-years-old, a combat officer in reserves, a manager on a government network, hold a Bachelors Degree with honors from Hebrew University. In short, I am a normative person and a contributing and tax-paying citizen. Unfortunately, the taxes I pay are used to persecute me and make me into a criminal without me having harmed anyone."
The letter noted that "tens of hundreds of thousands of entirely normative people smoke marijuana" and that the police "are doing everything in their capacity to persecute them."
The letter's authors claimed that the persecution has intensified in recent weeks, with the police searching private homes.
Fifty-six citizens signed the letter, complaining of body searches on passersby. They also noted that a man was recently apprehended for smoking a joint by undercover policemen during his beach wedding. "Where were these policemen when Arik Karp was murdered on the beach?" wondered the letter's signatories, claiming that the war against them is coming at the expense of the war on gruesome crimes.
The letter also made note of marijuana's medical benefits, and gave the lenient enforcement policy towards marijuana smokers in Europe, Canada, and the US.
Omer, one of the letter's authors, explained in a conversation with Ynet, "A stigma has been created around marijuana consumers – druggies. I contribute to society and have never harmed anyone, but it's enough for me to smoke a joint and be caught, and I immediately have a criminal record."
The letter also claimed that the said persecution pushes marijuana smokers into the hands of drug dealers, where they are exposed to harder drugs.
The letter emphasized that it does not seek to change the laws against smoking marijuana, but rather to point out the waste of resources in enforcing it.
State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss' office responded, "The state comptroller received the letter and will examine it."
__Aviad Glickman contributed to this report
POT SMOKERS SAY THEY ARE PERSECUTED, DEMAND INVESTIGATION
More than 50 citizens contacted State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss with a request that he look into 'waste of tax money' on police searches for them. 'Where were officers who caught groom smoking joint when Arik Karp was murdered?' Comptroller promises to check
By Aviel Magnezi
Ynet news.com
August 15, 2010
"Investigate the disproportionate investment of resources in going after marijuana consumers," asked dozens of Israelis of State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss on Sunday in a letter.
The letter, which bore dozens of signatures, starts off with a personal appeal. "I am 32-years-old, a combat officer in reserves, a manager on a government network, hold a Bachelors Degree with honors from Hebrew University. In short, I am a normative person and a contributing and tax-paying citizen. Unfortunately, the taxes I pay are used to persecute me and make me into a criminal without me having harmed anyone."
The letter noted that "tens of hundreds of thousands of entirely normative people smoke marijuana" and that the police "are doing everything in their capacity to persecute them."
The letter's authors claimed that the persecution has intensified in recent weeks, with the police searching private homes.
Fifty-six citizens signed the letter, complaining of body searches on passersby. They also noted that a man was recently apprehended for smoking a joint by undercover policemen during his beach wedding. "Where were these policemen when Arik Karp was murdered on the beach?" wondered the letter's signatories, claiming that the war against them is coming at the expense of the war on gruesome crimes.
The letter also made note of marijuana's medical benefits, and gave the lenient enforcement policy towards marijuana smokers in Europe, Canada, and the US.
Omer, one of the letter's authors, explained in a conversation with Ynet, "A stigma has been created around marijuana consumers – druggies. I contribute to society and have never harmed anyone, but it's enough for me to smoke a joint and be caught, and I immediately have a criminal record."
The letter also claimed that the said persecution pushes marijuana smokers into the hands of drug dealers, where they are exposed to harder drugs.
The letter emphasized that it does not seek to change the laws against smoking marijuana, but rather to point out the waste of resources in enforcing it.
State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss' office responded, "The state comptroller received the letter and will examine it."
__Aviad Glickman contributed to this report
PHONY PROVOCATIVE MISSION (8)
Last May’s Israeli attack on the blockade running Gaza Flotilla was roundly condemned by the Europeans, the Muslim world, Canada, India and by many African and Latin American countries. If you listened to the worldwide diatribes you would think that Israel committed a monumental atrocity. As I have written before, the Israeli commandos who boarded the Mavi Marmara were immediately set upon by pipe and club wielding crewmembers.
Giora Eiland, who headed a military inquiry into the raid, has now shed some more light on the real mission of the Gaza Flotilla. Instead of delivering aid to the Palestinians in Gaza, the flotilla’s real mission was to force a violent confrontation with the Israelis. The mindset of the Mavi Marmara crew members is best described by the wife of Cevdet Kiliclar, one of nine ‘peace activists’ killed during the raid, when she told the gathering at his funeral that "He wanted to be a martyr there."
And now Turkey has put police investigators aboard the Mavi Marmara to look for evidence that will disprove Israel’s contention that its soldiers were attacked by crewmembers.
ISRAELI GENERAL: FLOTILLA CREW PLANNED TO KILL AND BE KILLED
by Eli Stutz
IsraelNationalNews.com
August 16, 2010
Ex-Israeli General Giora Eiland told BBC's Panorama Television program that Gaza-bound Flotilla crew members were deliberately planning violence. "They (the activists) were committed to kill and be killed," said Eiland.
Eiland led a military inquiry into the events surrounding the Mavi Marmara flotilla incident. Eiland said that the resistance of the flotilla crew was "huge" and that it was surprising that there weren't more people killed, especially in a complex area such as a ship.
Meanwhile, the BBC posted a video story on one flotilla crew member who was killed in the incident, Turkish citizen Cevdet Kiliclar. Kilicar was the website manager for the IHH, the organization behind the flotilla. Kilicar took video footage and photos during the voyage and subsequent incident, and he is seen in the video praying with the rest of the crew. He is also on tape saying about two Muslims killed in Afghanistan, "may they rest in peace," and wishing, "may Allah grant us the same fortunate ending as them."
During his funeral in Istanbul, Kilicar's wife said, "He was crying his eyes out over Gaza. He wanted to be a martyr there."
The IDF military inquiry last month concluded that while there may have been professional mistakes during the operation, the use of force was justified. Video evidence shows flotilla members attacking and beating Israeli soldiers, and Israel has reported that soldiers were fired on and possibly taken hostage briefly by the crew.
Currently, Israel is holding a second inquiry into the incident led by retired Supreme Court Judge Yaakov Terkel. The U.N. has also begun its own inquiry.
Giora Eiland, who headed a military inquiry into the raid, has now shed some more light on the real mission of the Gaza Flotilla. Instead of delivering aid to the Palestinians in Gaza, the flotilla’s real mission was to force a violent confrontation with the Israelis. The mindset of the Mavi Marmara crew members is best described by the wife of Cevdet Kiliclar, one of nine ‘peace activists’ killed during the raid, when she told the gathering at his funeral that "He wanted to be a martyr there."
And now Turkey has put police investigators aboard the Mavi Marmara to look for evidence that will disprove Israel’s contention that its soldiers were attacked by crewmembers.
ISRAELI GENERAL: FLOTILLA CREW PLANNED TO KILL AND BE KILLED
by Eli Stutz
IsraelNationalNews.com
August 16, 2010
Ex-Israeli General Giora Eiland told BBC's Panorama Television program that Gaza-bound Flotilla crew members were deliberately planning violence. "They (the activists) were committed to kill and be killed," said Eiland.
Eiland led a military inquiry into the events surrounding the Mavi Marmara flotilla incident. Eiland said that the resistance of the flotilla crew was "huge" and that it was surprising that there weren't more people killed, especially in a complex area such as a ship.
Meanwhile, the BBC posted a video story on one flotilla crew member who was killed in the incident, Turkish citizen Cevdet Kiliclar. Kilicar was the website manager for the IHH, the organization behind the flotilla. Kilicar took video footage and photos during the voyage and subsequent incident, and he is seen in the video praying with the rest of the crew. He is also on tape saying about two Muslims killed in Afghanistan, "may they rest in peace," and wishing, "may Allah grant us the same fortunate ending as them."
During his funeral in Istanbul, Kilicar's wife said, "He was crying his eyes out over Gaza. He wanted to be a martyr there."
The IDF military inquiry last month concluded that while there may have been professional mistakes during the operation, the use of force was justified. Video evidence shows flotilla members attacking and beating Israeli soldiers, and Israel has reported that soldiers were fired on and possibly taken hostage briefly by the crew.
Currently, Israel is holding a second inquiry into the incident led by retired Supreme Court Judge Yaakov Terkel. The U.N. has also begun its own inquiry.
'DINE AND DASH' SCHMUCK
It worked for a while. And you can be sure the ambulances and hospitals got stiffed too.
MAN WHO FAKED HAVING A SEIZURE TO AVOID PAYING HIS RESTAURANT BILLS IS JAILED IN U.S.
By Paul Thompsonj
Mail Online
August 16, 2010
A man who pretended to have a fit to avoid paying his restaurant bills has been jailed in the U.S.
Andrew Palmer would order an expensive meal - and, when presented with the bill, fake a seizure.
He would roll around on the floor as frantic restaurant staff called for an ambulance.
The 43-year-old conman would be carried out on a stretcher - without paying his bill.
Investigators believe he pulled the scam on at least a dozen restaurants in Baltimore, Maryland.
Once at the hospital he would discharge himself after treatment.
Police dubbed him the 'dine and dash' thief.
Palmer, who has a lengthy arrest record for theft, was caught after restaurants in Baltimore were warned to be on their guard against a diner who faked illness.
'In each case, when Palmer did not have funds to cover the restaurant bill, he feigned a seizure that required the presence of medical personnel,' said prosecutors in Baltimore.
In one incident other diners watched in horror as he 'rolled from side to side and spitting' while faking the seizure.
He had run up a £50 bar tab at the Schmuckers restaurant and went into his well-rehearsed routine when waitress handed him the bill.
Palmer was given the maximum sentence of 18 months by a court in Baltimore.
MAN WHO FAKED HAVING A SEIZURE TO AVOID PAYING HIS RESTAURANT BILLS IS JAILED IN U.S.
By Paul Thompsonj
Mail Online
August 16, 2010
A man who pretended to have a fit to avoid paying his restaurant bills has been jailed in the U.S.
Andrew Palmer would order an expensive meal - and, when presented with the bill, fake a seizure.
He would roll around on the floor as frantic restaurant staff called for an ambulance.
The 43-year-old conman would be carried out on a stretcher - without paying his bill.
Investigators believe he pulled the scam on at least a dozen restaurants in Baltimore, Maryland.
Once at the hospital he would discharge himself after treatment.
Police dubbed him the 'dine and dash' thief.
Palmer, who has a lengthy arrest record for theft, was caught after restaurants in Baltimore were warned to be on their guard against a diner who faked illness.
'In each case, when Palmer did not have funds to cover the restaurant bill, he feigned a seizure that required the presence of medical personnel,' said prosecutors in Baltimore.
In one incident other diners watched in horror as he 'rolled from side to side and spitting' while faking the seizure.
He had run up a £50 bar tab at the Schmuckers restaurant and went into his well-rehearsed routine when waitress handed him the bill.
Palmer was given the maximum sentence of 18 months by a court in Baltimore.
Monday, August 16, 2010
WOOF, WOOF, WOOF, I SHOULDA BIT THE PRICK'S DICK OFF!
PAROLEE BUSTED FOR SEXUAL ASSAULT ON DOG
By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
August 14, 2010
A Michigan parolee is now under custody after admitting to his parole agent that he sexually assaulted his pit bull.
Jose Antonio Sanchez, 58, the dog lover in question, is in the slammer in Muskegon, Michigan against a bail of $50,000. He was previously on parole for sexual assault of an under 13-year old victim.
A vet confirmed the sexual assault had taken place. (I’ll bet that was the first time the issue had come up in his/her practice.) He is facing a charge of sodomy, which could get him 15 years.
What do you want to bet people bark when they walk by his cell?
Clicking here will link to a brief AP story on this case.
By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
August 14, 2010
A Michigan parolee is now under custody after admitting to his parole agent that he sexually assaulted his pit bull.
Jose Antonio Sanchez, 58, the dog lover in question, is in the slammer in Muskegon, Michigan against a bail of $50,000. He was previously on parole for sexual assault of an under 13-year old victim.
A vet confirmed the sexual assault had taken place. (I’ll bet that was the first time the issue had come up in his/her practice.) He is facing a charge of sodomy, which could get him 15 years.
What do you want to bet people bark when they walk by his cell?
Clicking here will link to a brief AP story on this case.
FIRST GAS 'EM, THEN ROB 'EM
GASSED IN THEIR BEDS BY RIVIERA ROBBERS: Terrifying ordeal of the British tourists falling victim to Mediterranean gang crime wave
By Emily Andrews
Mail Online
August 14,2010
Britons on the French Riviera are being drugged and robbed by thieves who gas them as they sleep.
The gangs quietly break in or slip inside patio doors left open because of the heat.
They then crouch down and release the gas into air conditioning units or under the victims' bedroom doors.
After waiting outside for the gas to take effect, they creep back in and can take their time to ransack the rooms and steal cash, jewellery, credit cards, cameras and laptops.
The thieves wear masks to stop them succumbing themselves.
One victim, Lisa Smythe, was staying with her two sons in a four-bedroom house in Valbonne when they fell victim to an £80,000 robbery.
The family were gassed through the letter box, but when one of the sons woke up to find masked men in his room they injected him with something to knock him out.
Mrs Smythe, 38, woke up feeling groggy and struggled to wake her sons.
Her eight-year-old, Robbie, had a needle mark on his arm, and he had to be tested for HIV.
Jewellery, cash and computers worth £50,000 had been stolen, as well as a £30,000 Mercedes CLK Cabriolet.
French police suspect the involvement of Russian mafia and Romanian gangs who target English-speaking tourists and expats, believing them to be rich and owning expensive cars and yachts.
By Emily Andrews
Mail Online
August 14,2010
Britons on the French Riviera are being drugged and robbed by thieves who gas them as they sleep.
The gangs quietly break in or slip inside patio doors left open because of the heat.
They then crouch down and release the gas into air conditioning units or under the victims' bedroom doors.
After waiting outside for the gas to take effect, they creep back in and can take their time to ransack the rooms and steal cash, jewellery, credit cards, cameras and laptops.
The thieves wear masks to stop them succumbing themselves.
One victim, Lisa Smythe, was staying with her two sons in a four-bedroom house in Valbonne when they fell victim to an £80,000 robbery.
The family were gassed through the letter box, but when one of the sons woke up to find masked men in his room they injected him with something to knock him out.
Mrs Smythe, 38, woke up feeling groggy and struggled to wake her sons.
Her eight-year-old, Robbie, had a needle mark on his arm, and he had to be tested for HIV.
Jewellery, cash and computers worth £50,000 had been stolen, as well as a £30,000 Mercedes CLK Cabriolet.
French police suspect the involvement of Russian mafia and Romanian gangs who target English-speaking tourists and expats, believing them to be rich and owning expensive cars and yachts.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
SHOW SOME SENSITIVITY TO THE WORLD TRADE CENTER FAMILIES (2)
Even those who love to hate Newt Gingrich cannot deny that he presents a compelling case against building a mosque near Ground Zero. Here is what he wrote on his July 21 blog:
NO CORDOBA AT GROUND ZERO
By Newt Gingrich
There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia. The time for double standards that allow Islamists to behave aggressively toward us while they demand our weakness and submission is over.
The proposed "Cordoba House" overlooking the World Trade Center site – where a group of jihadists killed over 3000 Americans and destroyed one of our most famous landmarks - is a test of the timidity, passivity and historic ignorance of American elites. For example, most of them don’t understand that "Cordoba House" is a deliberately insulting term. It refers to Cordoba, Spain – the capital of Muslim conquerors who symbolized their victory over the Christian Spaniards by transforming a church there into the world’s third-largest mosque complex.
Today, some of the Mosque’s backers insist this term is being used to "symbolize interfaith cooperation" when, in fact, every Islamist in the world recognizes Cordoba as a symbol of Islamic conquest. It is a sign of their contempt for Americans and their confidence in our historic ignorance that they would deliberately insult us this way.
Those Islamists and their apologists who argue for "religious toleration" are arrogantly dishonest. They ignore the fact that more than 100 mosques already exist in New York City. Meanwhile, there are no churches or synagogues in all of Saudi Arabia. In fact no Christian or Jew can even enter Mecca.
And they lecture us about tolerance.
If the people behind the Cordoba House were serious about religious toleration, they would be imploring the Saudis, as fellow Muslims, to immediately open up Mecca to all and immediately announce their intention to allow non-Muslim houses of worship in the Kingdom. They should be asked by the news media if they would be willing to lead such a campaign.
We have not been able to rebuild the World Trade Center in nine years. Now we are being told a 13 story, $100 million megamosque will be built within a year overlooking the site of the most devastating surprise attack in American history.
Finally where is the money coming from? The people behind the Cordoba House refuse to reveal all their funding sources.
America is experiencing an Islamist cultural-political offensive designed to undermine and destroy our civilization. Sadly, too many of our elites are the willing apologists for those who would destroy them if they could.
No mosque.
No self deception.
No surrender.
The time to take a stand is now - at this site on this issue.
NO CORDOBA AT GROUND ZERO
By Newt Gingrich
There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia. The time for double standards that allow Islamists to behave aggressively toward us while they demand our weakness and submission is over.
The proposed "Cordoba House" overlooking the World Trade Center site – where a group of jihadists killed over 3000 Americans and destroyed one of our most famous landmarks - is a test of the timidity, passivity and historic ignorance of American elites. For example, most of them don’t understand that "Cordoba House" is a deliberately insulting term. It refers to Cordoba, Spain – the capital of Muslim conquerors who symbolized their victory over the Christian Spaniards by transforming a church there into the world’s third-largest mosque complex.
Today, some of the Mosque’s backers insist this term is being used to "symbolize interfaith cooperation" when, in fact, every Islamist in the world recognizes Cordoba as a symbol of Islamic conquest. It is a sign of their contempt for Americans and their confidence in our historic ignorance that they would deliberately insult us this way.
Those Islamists and their apologists who argue for "religious toleration" are arrogantly dishonest. They ignore the fact that more than 100 mosques already exist in New York City. Meanwhile, there are no churches or synagogues in all of Saudi Arabia. In fact no Christian or Jew can even enter Mecca.
And they lecture us about tolerance.
If the people behind the Cordoba House were serious about religious toleration, they would be imploring the Saudis, as fellow Muslims, to immediately open up Mecca to all and immediately announce their intention to allow non-Muslim houses of worship in the Kingdom. They should be asked by the news media if they would be willing to lead such a campaign.
We have not been able to rebuild the World Trade Center in nine years. Now we are being told a 13 story, $100 million megamosque will be built within a year overlooking the site of the most devastating surprise attack in American history.
Finally where is the money coming from? The people behind the Cordoba House refuse to reveal all their funding sources.
America is experiencing an Islamist cultural-political offensive designed to undermine and destroy our civilization. Sadly, too many of our elites are the willing apologists for those who would destroy them if they could.
No mosque.
No self deception.
No surrender.
The time to take a stand is now - at this site on this issue.
SHOW SOME SENSITIVITY TO THE WORLD TRADE CENTER FAMILIES
I happen to agree with President Obama that Muslims have the right to build a mosque on private property just as any other faith has the right to build a house of worship so long as they comply with all local regulations. But does that make it right for the Muslims to build a mosque near Ground Zero?
What Obama failed to tell his audience was that along with that right, Muslims must be sensitive to the feelings of those who lost loved ones in an attack carried out in the name of Islam. The 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center took the lives of nearly 3,000 innocent people. Almost all of their families and friends see Ground Zero as a shrine to their lost loved ones, hallowed ground that is not to be desecrated by the presence of a nearby mosque.
I do not for one minute believe the intent of this mosque is to promote understanding between Muslims and other faiths, as clamed by those who want to build the mosque at that particular location. I believe the proposed mosque is a deliberate ‘in-your-face’ provocation that has nothing to do with America’s cherished right to freedom of religion. Why else would they turn down New York Governor David Paterson’s offer of some state land for a different mosque site.
To New York’s Muslims I say, show some sensitivity to the World Trade Center families and build your mosque at a different location! And that’s what Mayor Bloomberg and President Obama should have told them too!
What Obama failed to tell his audience was that along with that right, Muslims must be sensitive to the feelings of those who lost loved ones in an attack carried out in the name of Islam. The 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center took the lives of nearly 3,000 innocent people. Almost all of their families and friends see Ground Zero as a shrine to their lost loved ones, hallowed ground that is not to be desecrated by the presence of a nearby mosque.
I do not for one minute believe the intent of this mosque is to promote understanding between Muslims and other faiths, as clamed by those who want to build the mosque at that particular location. I believe the proposed mosque is a deliberate ‘in-your-face’ provocation that has nothing to do with America’s cherished right to freedom of religion. Why else would they turn down New York Governor David Paterson’s offer of some state land for a different mosque site.
To New York’s Muslims I say, show some sensitivity to the World Trade Center families and build your mosque at a different location! And that’s what Mayor Bloomberg and President Obama should have told them too!
SHE PLAYED HARDBALL, WENT OVERBOARD AND WENT AGAINST THE DA
Who is she? According to Lindsay Lohan’s mother Dina, it’s Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Marsha Revel. During an interview by Matt Lauer on NBC-Today, Lohan’s mother blamed the judge for all of Linsay’s troubles, accusing the judge over and over again of "playing hardball," "going overboard" and going "against the district attorney." And when Lauer didn’t buy that, dear old mom then blamed the tabloids for painting a wrong picture of her angelic daughter.
Dina told Lauer that Judge Revel had been removed from the case and that Lindsay was about to be released from rehab, well short of the 90 day stay the judge had ordered. Dearest mommy even went so far as to say that Lindsay really did not have a drug or alcohol problem. According to her, that was all overblown by the media.
Mommy also insisted that Lindsay never violated her probation because she was working when she missed some court mandated alcohol education classes and because she was working at the Cannes Film Festival when she failed to appear for a court hearing. Thus, for the Lohans work is defined as PARTYING UNTIL THE WEE HOURS OF THE MORNING.
Shortly after the interview Dina announced that Linsay would be moving to New York to get away from the Hollywood scene. Yeah, like there's no night life in the Big Apple.
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Linday appears to have inherited her trashiness from dear old mom. Dina Lohan is the perfect example of an enabler. She even went out partying all night with Lindsay several times while her daughter was on probation for DUI and drug charges.
Now I ask you, whose to blame for Lindsay’s troubles – the judge or her mother? I say neither. Lindsay brought her troubles on herself, albeit with some help from her trashy mother.
Dina told Lauer that Judge Revel had been removed from the case and that Lindsay was about to be released from rehab, well short of the 90 day stay the judge had ordered. Dearest mommy even went so far as to say that Lindsay really did not have a drug or alcohol problem. According to her, that was all overblown by the media.
Mommy also insisted that Lindsay never violated her probation because she was working when she missed some court mandated alcohol education classes and because she was working at the Cannes Film Festival when she failed to appear for a court hearing. Thus, for the Lohans work is defined as PARTYING UNTIL THE WEE HOURS OF THE MORNING.
Shortly after the interview Dina announced that Linsay would be moving to New York to get away from the Hollywood scene. Yeah, like there's no night life in the Big Apple.
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Linday appears to have inherited her trashiness from dear old mom. Dina Lohan is the perfect example of an enabler. She even went out partying all night with Lindsay several times while her daughter was on probation for DUI and drug charges.
Now I ask you, whose to blame for Lindsay’s troubles – the judge or her mother? I say neither. Lindsay brought her troubles on herself, albeit with some help from her trashy mother.
HOW ARE THEY GOING TO DETERMINE WHO'S THE GOOD GUYS AND THE BAD GUYS?
This incident took place only for or five miles from where I live. The fact that the officers missed, shows that shooting in a real ‘life-or-death’ situation is a lot different than shooting at the police firing range. And that is why officers, when they perceive an immediate threat to their lives, often don’t stop shooting until their guns are empty. Fortunately for the bar owners, that Friday the 13th did not turn out to be an unlucky tragedy.
POLICE MISTAKE BAR OWNERS FOR BURGLARS, OPEN FIRE
By Miya Shay
KTRK-TV
August 13, 2010
Houston police thought they were preventing a break-in, but instead they fired their weapons at the owner of a southeast Houston restaurant.
It happened around 5am Friday morning in the 500 block of Dixie Farm Road near Ellington Field.
Break-ins have been a problem in the area, but so far they haven't had any shootings. That is, until the Houston Police Department opened fire this morning.
Bartender Michelle Larrison has seen her share of break-ins at the Smokin' J's Sports Bar. The latest was just last week.
"Last Tuesday, they shattered the front glass door, which is why we now have the bars across the front door," said Larrison.
The break-ins are so prevalent, that an officer from Houston Police Department's Crime Reduction Unit was actually watching the bar from the outside early this morning. When the officer saw something unusual, backup was called. But what they didn't realize was that the bar owners were inside monitoring security cameras and when they heard a commotion, they headed out the back door.
"As he came out of the office, the cops heard the gun go 'click, click' and when they heard that 'click, click,' that's when they fired," said Larrison. "But I'm very glad to know that the police are watching this place."
Police say when one of the owners went outside with his weapon and two officers fired, thinking he was a suspect. They both missed.
At the convenience store next door, security cameras captured some of the officers involved in the investigation of just how HPD officers can mistake a bar owner for a burglary suspect.
"It creates the problem. He could be dead, he could be killed. It's too bad for the police department and the people. It's scary," said Abraham Tamang.
Neither of the bar owners wanted to talk on camera, but for people who live nearby this near miss by officers is worrisome.
"They shot at the wrong people, obviously, if it was the owner in his own establishment. And that's a little unsettling. How are they going to determine who's the good guys and the bad guys?" said neighbor Kristen Crow.
We talked to some other businesses in the area who said that the burglaries are nothing new. They also said they are relieved the bar owner was not hurt in this incident.
POLICE MISTAKE BAR OWNERS FOR BURGLARS, OPEN FIRE
By Miya Shay
KTRK-TV
August 13, 2010
Houston police thought they were preventing a break-in, but instead they fired their weapons at the owner of a southeast Houston restaurant.
It happened around 5am Friday morning in the 500 block of Dixie Farm Road near Ellington Field.
Break-ins have been a problem in the area, but so far they haven't had any shootings. That is, until the Houston Police Department opened fire this morning.
Bartender Michelle Larrison has seen her share of break-ins at the Smokin' J's Sports Bar. The latest was just last week.
"Last Tuesday, they shattered the front glass door, which is why we now have the bars across the front door," said Larrison.
The break-ins are so prevalent, that an officer from Houston Police Department's Crime Reduction Unit was actually watching the bar from the outside early this morning. When the officer saw something unusual, backup was called. But what they didn't realize was that the bar owners were inside monitoring security cameras and when they heard a commotion, they headed out the back door.
"As he came out of the office, the cops heard the gun go 'click, click' and when they heard that 'click, click,' that's when they fired," said Larrison. "But I'm very glad to know that the police are watching this place."
Police say when one of the owners went outside with his weapon and two officers fired, thinking he was a suspect. They both missed.
At the convenience store next door, security cameras captured some of the officers involved in the investigation of just how HPD officers can mistake a bar owner for a burglary suspect.
"It creates the problem. He could be dead, he could be killed. It's too bad for the police department and the people. It's scary," said Abraham Tamang.
Neither of the bar owners wanted to talk on camera, but for people who live nearby this near miss by officers is worrisome.
"They shot at the wrong people, obviously, if it was the owner in his own establishment. And that's a little unsettling. How are they going to determine who's the good guys and the bad guys?" said neighbor Kristen Crow.
We talked to some other businesses in the area who said that the burglaries are nothing new. They also said they are relieved the bar owner was not hurt in this incident.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
YOU'RE RACIST
ALL RACISM ALL THE TIME
By Doug Gamble
PoliticalMavens.com
August 13, 2010
Liberals have made it clear that if you oppose any of President Barack Obama’s policies, you’re racist. And if you oppose illegal immigration, you’re racist. But it doesn’t stop there. With new guidelines being issued minute by minute making it hard to keep track of what’s racist, here’s an update:
If you want the white pitcher of the baseball team you’re cheering for to strike out a black batter on the opposing team, you’re racist.
If you cheer for a football team with a white quarterback and you want your team to beat a team with a black quarterback, you’re racist.
If the children you gave birth to are white, you’re racist.
If you watch the George Lopez show but don’t laugh at all his monologue jokes, you’re racist.
If you put cream or milk in your coffee because you don’t like it black, you’re racist.
If you watch "Cops" but don’t change the channel in outrage when a black man is arrested, you’re racist.
If you go to Las Vegas and choose the slots over blackjack, you’re racist.
If you’re a Cleveland Cavaliers fan and you’re upset at Lebron James because he abandoned your team for Miami, you’re racist.
If you’re on any flight that passes through Phoenix on the way to your destination, you’re racist.
If you supported Holland over Spain in the World Cup final, you’re racist.
If you’re so old you remember the last time two white guys fought each other for the heavyweight championship and you enjoyed that fight, you’re racist.
If you prefer McDonald’s to El Pollo Loco, you’re racist.
If you don’t buy the books recommended by Oprah Winfrey, you’re racist.
If you hope not to develop black lung disease, you’re racist.
If you dress your bed in white sheets, you’re racist.
And by the way, if you’re a male who disagrees with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, you’re also sexist.
By Doug Gamble
PoliticalMavens.com
August 13, 2010
Liberals have made it clear that if you oppose any of President Barack Obama’s policies, you’re racist. And if you oppose illegal immigration, you’re racist. But it doesn’t stop there. With new guidelines being issued minute by minute making it hard to keep track of what’s racist, here’s an update:
If you want the white pitcher of the baseball team you’re cheering for to strike out a black batter on the opposing team, you’re racist.
If you cheer for a football team with a white quarterback and you want your team to beat a team with a black quarterback, you’re racist.
If the children you gave birth to are white, you’re racist.
If you watch the George Lopez show but don’t laugh at all his monologue jokes, you’re racist.
If you put cream or milk in your coffee because you don’t like it black, you’re racist.
If you watch "Cops" but don’t change the channel in outrage when a black man is arrested, you’re racist.
If you go to Las Vegas and choose the slots over blackjack, you’re racist.
If you’re a Cleveland Cavaliers fan and you’re upset at Lebron James because he abandoned your team for Miami, you’re racist.
If you’re on any flight that passes through Phoenix on the way to your destination, you’re racist.
If you supported Holland over Spain in the World Cup final, you’re racist.
If you’re so old you remember the last time two white guys fought each other for the heavyweight championship and you enjoyed that fight, you’re racist.
If you prefer McDonald’s to El Pollo Loco, you’re racist.
If you don’t buy the books recommended by Oprah Winfrey, you’re racist.
If you hope not to develop black lung disease, you’re racist.
If you dress your bed in white sheets, you’re racist.
And by the way, if you’re a male who disagrees with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, you’re also sexist.
AFTER MONTHS OF GOING THROUGH HELL, FALSELY ACCUSED OFFICERS CLEARED BY DNA
Paco noted that a single inmate’s false allegation of staff gang rape placed a Sheriff’s agency and jail in turmoil, disrupting the lives of several innocent staff for over a year and a half.
Of course, the ordeal these officers went through pales when compared to the ordeal of those who were convicted of rape only to be cleared by DNA after spending years in prison.
MURDERER FATHERED BABY IN JAIL
DNA shows mother was not raped by prison staff
By Denise A. Raymo
Press Republican
August 13, 2010
MALONE, NY -- Killer Rhonda Amber Dufoe was impregnated by her boyfriend, murderer Richard "Dickie" Oakes, while they were inmates at Franklin County Jail.
Dufoe, who is to be sentenced Sept. 20 for her role in the 2008 shooting death of Thomas J. Hathaway Sr., gave birth to a boy, Xavier Tallman Warren Oakes, on July 28 at Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead, Suffolk County.
DNA tests revealed a 99.99-percent likelihood that Oakes is the baby's father, Maj. Richard Smith, commander of Troop B State Police, said Thursday.
It matched all 13 characteristics routinely used in DNA identification, making the odds that Oakes is not the father 1 in 90 million.
DENYING SEX
Smith, along with Franklin County Sheriff Jack Pelkey and County District Attorney Derek Champagne, made the announcement at a news conference Thursday afternoon.
They cannot say for certain how Dufoe got pregnant because both she and Oakes have repeatedly denied they had sexual relations in jail.
But, the DA said female inmates in other correctional facilities have used "a number of creative ways" to become pregnant, including a rubber glove with semen inside.
Dufoe, who is being held in St. Lawrence County Jail in Canton, has now been charged with second-degree obstruction of governmental administration and issuing a false statement for filing, both misdemeanors.
CLAIMED RAPE
After more than 18 months in County Jail, Dufoe told a female correction officer in April that she has been raped by as many as three correction officers during her time there and was pregnant.
Tests determined she was about six months along, but paternity could not be established until the baby was born.
She was re-interviewed at the Clinton County Jail a few weeks later and again denied she had sex with Oakes and said she did not impregnate herself with his sperm.
Dufoe was arraigned in Malone Town Court before Judge John Marsden and returned to the custody of St. Lawrence County Sheriff's deputies on $2,000 cash bail or $4,000 insurance bond.
She signed paperwork giving guardianship of the baby to Oakes's sister, Nancy Oakes.
OFFICERS CLEARED
Thursday's announcement ends months of speculation about the baby's paternity and controversy at the jail, which has been battered by harsh criticism of its staff and administration.
Two officers had been suspended with pay because of the accusations, but both are returning to work Friday, Sheriff Jack Pelkey said.
"I'm just glad this investigation can finally be put to rest," he said, adding that he always believed his employees when they said they were not the baby's father.
He called the two men to share the paternity results, "and they said, 'I told you so,' and I told them, "I knew.' They are relieved."
THOROUGH PROBE
Smith said the State Police had put in more than 1,000 man hours on the "extensive and expensive case.
"It took a lot of people a lot of hours to pull this together and exonerate the two officers," he said.
And it was that effort that Champagne praised.
He said similar claims by female inmates incarcerated in other facilities would likely be ignored and not taken seriously. But the 20 or so Troop B officers took the task very seriously and did a thorough and professional job.
"It's very easy not to look into something like this," the DA said, adding that Pelkey also deserved credit for his agency's cooperation with state investigators.
Of course, the ordeal these officers went through pales when compared to the ordeal of those who were convicted of rape only to be cleared by DNA after spending years in prison.
MURDERER FATHERED BABY IN JAIL
DNA shows mother was not raped by prison staff
By Denise A. Raymo
Press Republican
August 13, 2010
MALONE, NY -- Killer Rhonda Amber Dufoe was impregnated by her boyfriend, murderer Richard "Dickie" Oakes, while they were inmates at Franklin County Jail.
Dufoe, who is to be sentenced Sept. 20 for her role in the 2008 shooting death of Thomas J. Hathaway Sr., gave birth to a boy, Xavier Tallman Warren Oakes, on July 28 at Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead, Suffolk County.
DNA tests revealed a 99.99-percent likelihood that Oakes is the baby's father, Maj. Richard Smith, commander of Troop B State Police, said Thursday.
It matched all 13 characteristics routinely used in DNA identification, making the odds that Oakes is not the father 1 in 90 million.
DENYING SEX
Smith, along with Franklin County Sheriff Jack Pelkey and County District Attorney Derek Champagne, made the announcement at a news conference Thursday afternoon.
They cannot say for certain how Dufoe got pregnant because both she and Oakes have repeatedly denied they had sexual relations in jail.
But, the DA said female inmates in other correctional facilities have used "a number of creative ways" to become pregnant, including a rubber glove with semen inside.
Dufoe, who is being held in St. Lawrence County Jail in Canton, has now been charged with second-degree obstruction of governmental administration and issuing a false statement for filing, both misdemeanors.
CLAIMED RAPE
After more than 18 months in County Jail, Dufoe told a female correction officer in April that she has been raped by as many as three correction officers during her time there and was pregnant.
Tests determined she was about six months along, but paternity could not be established until the baby was born.
She was re-interviewed at the Clinton County Jail a few weeks later and again denied she had sex with Oakes and said she did not impregnate herself with his sperm.
Dufoe was arraigned in Malone Town Court before Judge John Marsden and returned to the custody of St. Lawrence County Sheriff's deputies on $2,000 cash bail or $4,000 insurance bond.
She signed paperwork giving guardianship of the baby to Oakes's sister, Nancy Oakes.
OFFICERS CLEARED
Thursday's announcement ends months of speculation about the baby's paternity and controversy at the jail, which has been battered by harsh criticism of its staff and administration.
Two officers had been suspended with pay because of the accusations, but both are returning to work Friday, Sheriff Jack Pelkey said.
"I'm just glad this investigation can finally be put to rest," he said, adding that he always believed his employees when they said they were not the baby's father.
He called the two men to share the paternity results, "and they said, 'I told you so,' and I told them, "I knew.' They are relieved."
THOROUGH PROBE
Smith said the State Police had put in more than 1,000 man hours on the "extensive and expensive case.
"It took a lot of people a lot of hours to pull this together and exonerate the two officers," he said.
And it was that effort that Champagne praised.
He said similar claims by female inmates incarcerated in other facilities would likely be ignored and not taken seriously. But the 20 or so Troop B officers took the task very seriously and did a thorough and professional job.
"It's very easy not to look into something like this," the DA said, adding that Pelkey also deserved credit for his agency's cooperation with state investigators.
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