Yes, here in Houston we are still paying for an empty rusting Astrodome. Voters here approved new sports palaces for the Houston Astros baseball team, the Houston Rockets basketball team, and the Houston Texans football team on the phony promise that the public share of funding would come out of the hotel tax and not out of property taxes.
Of course the truth is that tax payers do pay for these palaces because the billionaire sports franchise owners have been given sweetheart tax exemptions which are costing Houston and Harris County hundreds-of-millions of dollars, losses which have to be made up by property taxes.
I was among the minority of voters who opposed the sports venue proposals. The majority of voters were fooled into believing the sports palaces would not cost them anything. And the irony of it all is that only a tiny fraction of those voters would ever be able attend those baseball, basketball and football games – for the privilege of getting those high-dollar season tickets to watch the Texans play, they first had to pay for a seat license most could not afford. And that’s the way it’s been in the other cities too. Then to top it off, the taxpayers are stuck with paying off a debt on abandoned sports facilities.
THE PRICE OF PROFESSIONAL SPORTS THAT EVEN NONFANS PAY
By Mark Yost
The Wall Street Journal
February 3, 2011
Fans of the New York Jets would have liked nothing better than to be spending money to cheer on their team at Sunday's Super Bowl in Dallas. Unfortunately, their team was defeated by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC Championship game. But in an odd twist of league economics and political gamesmanship, even those New Jerseyans who didn't die with the Jets or stop watching when the Giants collapsed in December will be paying for football. That's because the state (i.e., the taxpayers) still owes about $110 million in debt on the old Giants Stadium.
New Jersey isn't alone.
Harris County, Texas, still owes about $32 million in debt on the Houston Astrodome, which opened in 1965 and was dubbed the "Eighth Wonder of the World." The RCA Dome in Indianapolis, which was demolished in 2008, still has about $60 million of outstanding debt and will not be paid off for at least 10 years. Even tiny Vero Beach, Fla., longtime home to Dodgers Spring Training, is on the hook for some $17 million in debt after the Dodgers moved to Glendale, Ariz., two years ago. Pima County, Ariz., taxpayers similarly still have to pay $21.3 million in stadium debt after the Chicago White Sox and Arizona Diamondbacks moved their training camps to Phoenix from Tucson.
Many in New Jersey applauded when the Jets and Giants opened the $1.6 billion New Meadowlands Stadium because it was financed with $1.3 billion in private debt and $300 million from the NFL's G3 fund for stadium construction, but the economics are still appalling.
Under the old Giants Stadium financing scheme, New Jersey took in about $20 million a year in tax revenues. Under the new deal, the Giants and Jets will pay about $6 million a year in taxes, or about 20% of what the property would generate if it were privately held and taxed at the rate that most other businesses pay.
"The problem with tearing down stadiums early isn't the debt," said Neil deMause, who co-wrote "Field of Schemes" (Bison) and blogs at a website with the same name. "It's the revenues that you're giving up by allowing teams to move into new buildings with sweetheart leases."
Indeed, the owners of New York's Madison Square Garden, prime real estate at the corner of 33rd Street and Eighth Avenue in Manhattan, have been exempted from paying property taxes since 1982, costing the city hundreds of millions of dollars in lost tax revenue. The $375 million used to build the Prudential Center, where the New Jersey Devils play hockey, was actually financed by the Newark Housing Authority. But the agency that looks after low-income housing claims the Devils owe it $10 million in back rent. The Devils have countersued, claiming construction delays and a failed parking deal cost the team $17 million. Never mind that Newark has laid off cops and firemen and, according to Mayor Corey Booker, is cutting back on "everything from toilet paper to printer paper."
The problem—in New York, New Jersey and elsewhere—is twofold.
First, politicians and fans alike have to stop thinking of these sports franchises as their beloved teams. They're businesses, operating to make money, and they all do quite well. The Giants and Yankees are two of the most profitable businesses in all of sports. The Yankees had the highest payroll in baseball in 2010, just over $200 million. But what's often forgotten is that the Yankees make $350 million a year on their TV contract alone. That's before they've sold a season of $1,200 tickets, $40 ball caps and $15 mixed drinks inside the stadium's Hard Rock Café.
Second, there was nothing functionally wrong with the old Yankee Stadium, the old Giants Stadium, or many other stadiums that have been replaced over the past decade. The problem was that the old stadiums didn't generate enough luxury revenue. So New Jersey, which is about $36 billion in debt at last count, gave up about $15 million in annual tax revenue so that the Giants and Jets could be more profitable. Similarly, New York City used its finite bonding authority to help the richest franchise in all of sports build a $1.5 billion luxury palace in the Bronx that's too expensive for the average taxpayer. If there was ever an issue for the Tea Party to glom onto, this is it.
"The only thing limiting how soon owners will ask for a new stadium is chutzpah," said Mr. deMause.
Indeed, the politicians deserve our scorn as much as the team owners do. The old Giants Stadium cost $78 million, yet the outstanding debt more than 30 years later is $110 million. How did this happen? Simple: The politicians spent the money that was originally intended to pay off the debt on other things. It's a common problem. Revenues get diverted to other programs and the stadium debt gets refinanced.
"If I buy a house with a 30-year-mortgage and 20 years later I refinance it so that I can buy a yacht, is that house debt or yacht debt?" asks Mr. deMause. "Cities are using these revenue streams to pay for all sorts of stuff, and playing bookkeeping games."
The other problem is that cities often overestimate how much revenue a stadium tax will generate—and they often do it to make the new tax and the new stadium more palatable to the citizenry. Hamilton County, Ohio, passed a special tax to pay for stadiums for the NFL's Cincinnati Bengals and baseball's Reds. As of last year, the fund was about $15 million in debt, a figure that the Bond Buyer estimates could balloon to $90 million by 2014.
So while Packers and Steelers fans are more than happy to pay to watch this year's Super Bowl in person, many fans stuck at home should remember: You're paying, too. You just don't know it.
__________
Mr. Yost is the author of "Tailgating, Sacks and Salary Caps: How the NFL Became the Most Successful Sports League in History."
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
EUROPEAN AND AUSTRALIAN TERRORIST THREAT LEVELS
Homeland Security has just changed its ridiculous color-coded terrorist threat levels. Here is British comedian and satirist John Cleese’s take on the terrorist threat levels in Europe and Australia.
From the BBC:
ANNOUNCEMENT
By John Cleese
The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent terrorist threats and have therefore raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved." Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross." The English have not been "A Bit Cross" since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies nearly ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from "Tiresome" to "A Bloody Nuisance." The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was in 1588, when threatened by the Spanish Armada.
The Scots have raised their threat level from "Pissed Off" to "Let's get the Bastards." They don't have any other levels. This is the reason they have been used on the front line of the British army for the last 300 years.
The French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from "Run" to "Hide." The only two higher levels in France are "Collaborate" and "Surrender." The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France 's white flag factory, effectively paralyzing the country's military capability.
Italy has increased the alert level from "Shout Loudly and Excitedly" to "Elaborate Military Posturing." Two more levels remain: "Ineffective Combat Operations" and "Change Sides."
The Germans have increased their alert state from "Disdainful Arrogance" to "Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs." They also have two higher levels: "Invade a Neighbour" and "Lose."
Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual; the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels .
The Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy. These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the new Spanish navy can get a really good look at the old Spanish navy.
Australia , meanwhile, has raised its security level from "No worries" to "She'll be alright, Mate." Three more escalation levels remain: "Crikey!","I think we'll need to cancel the barbie this weekend," and "The barbie is cancelled."
From the BBC:
ANNOUNCEMENT
By John Cleese
The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent terrorist threats and have therefore raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved." Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross." The English have not been "A Bit Cross" since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies nearly ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from "Tiresome" to "A Bloody Nuisance." The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was in 1588, when threatened by the Spanish Armada.
The Scots have raised their threat level from "Pissed Off" to "Let's get the Bastards." They don't have any other levels. This is the reason they have been used on the front line of the British army for the last 300 years.
The French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from "Run" to "Hide." The only two higher levels in France are "Collaborate" and "Surrender." The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France 's white flag factory, effectively paralyzing the country's military capability.
Italy has increased the alert level from "Shout Loudly and Excitedly" to "Elaborate Military Posturing." Two more levels remain: "Ineffective Combat Operations" and "Change Sides."
The Germans have increased their alert state from "Disdainful Arrogance" to "Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs." They also have two higher levels: "Invade a Neighbour" and "Lose."
Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual; the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels .
The Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy. These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the new Spanish navy can get a really good look at the old Spanish navy.
Australia , meanwhile, has raised its security level from "No worries" to "She'll be alright, Mate." Three more escalation levels remain: "Crikey!","I think we'll need to cancel the barbie this weekend," and "The barbie is cancelled."
Monday, February 07, 2011
DORINA LISSON'S LOONY 'VILE BILE' ABOUT MY GANG OF CRAZED SADIST BULLIES
Although Dorina Lisson submitted the following tripe as comments to ‘You Don’t Know What We Go Through,’ they deserve a posting of their own. The wrongdoing she writes about does occur, but only in isolated incidents. That is to be expected since there are more than 2,000,000 inmates in our state and federal prisons. With the daily abuse heaped on correctional personnel by inmates, it is a wonder that there are so few acts of wrongdoing.
There’s nothing like someone trying to dig them self out of a hole by digging them self deeper in it. The more Dorina writes, the more she makes herself look like a raving overzealous lunatic. You’ll get the idea by reading the following comments:
Obviously, I hit a raw nerve with some correctional officers who can't deal with the the truth, the facts.
If some correctional officers (only 20 percent are college graduates according to Centurion - only 20 percent - 20 percent only) don't like their job as correctional officers then they are free to quit, resign, retire, whatever. I suggest a job at McDonalds where frustrating abusive beef tactics can be released on the chicken burgers!
Me wasting your time? Ha!
BarkGrowlBite first writes a 'vile bile' about me and my work as a Human Rights activist, then he spreads his 'vile bile' with his gang of bullies who also insult me for stating the truth, the facts. This kind of emotional bullying is evidence of the type of crazed sadists that are being recruited to care and manage 'caged humans' - the abusive ways in which many prisoners are being treated as second class human beings.
I do have a 'right' of reply!
By the way, I have become immuned to abusive insults by crazed bullies who can't handle the truth. I am not afraid and I will never shut up stating the truth, the facts !!!
By Dorina Lisson on DORINA LISSON, YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT WE GO THROUGH on 2/6/11
USA prisons among worst places on Earth:
http://www.presstv.com/detail/162558.html
Official mega-referenced Internet articles (too many to list here - do the research yourselves) include:
Various reports of rogue correctional officers' violations, misconduct, rape, retaliatory acts, beatings, smuggling dangerous contrabands and illegal narcotics, harassment and other vindictive actions, verbal threats, emotional, physical and verbal abuses, mail tampering, illegal punishments, filing false disciplinary charges or negative documentation on prisoners, ignoring legally promulgated rules, policies and laws. There are cases where prisoners are placed in isolation cells in retaliation for reporting abuses by prison staff or for telling the public these abuses.
So ... I ask, are you all ignorant, stupid, in denial of factual information, or are you all playing the game of the three wise monkeys in an attempt to cover-up some rogue asses ???
By Dorina Lisson on DORINA LISSON, YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT WE GO THROUGH on 2/7/11
There’s nothing like someone trying to dig them self out of a hole by digging them self deeper in it. The more Dorina writes, the more she makes herself look like a raving overzealous lunatic. You’ll get the idea by reading the following comments:
Obviously, I hit a raw nerve with some correctional officers who can't deal with the the truth, the facts.
If some correctional officers (only 20 percent are college graduates according to Centurion - only 20 percent - 20 percent only) don't like their job as correctional officers then they are free to quit, resign, retire, whatever. I suggest a job at McDonalds where frustrating abusive beef tactics can be released on the chicken burgers!
Me wasting your time? Ha!
BarkGrowlBite first writes a 'vile bile' about me and my work as a Human Rights activist, then he spreads his 'vile bile' with his gang of bullies who also insult me for stating the truth, the facts. This kind of emotional bullying is evidence of the type of crazed sadists that are being recruited to care and manage 'caged humans' - the abusive ways in which many prisoners are being treated as second class human beings.
I do have a 'right' of reply!
By the way, I have become immuned to abusive insults by crazed bullies who can't handle the truth. I am not afraid and I will never shut up stating the truth, the facts !!!
By Dorina Lisson on DORINA LISSON, YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT WE GO THROUGH on 2/6/11
USA prisons among worst places on Earth:
http://www.presstv.com/detail/162558.html
Official mega-referenced Internet articles (too many to list here - do the research yourselves) include:
Various reports of rogue correctional officers' violations, misconduct, rape, retaliatory acts, beatings, smuggling dangerous contrabands and illegal narcotics, harassment and other vindictive actions, verbal threats, emotional, physical and verbal abuses, mail tampering, illegal punishments, filing false disciplinary charges or negative documentation on prisoners, ignoring legally promulgated rules, policies and laws. There are cases where prisoners are placed in isolation cells in retaliation for reporting abuses by prison staff or for telling the public these abuses.
So ... I ask, are you all ignorant, stupid, in denial of factual information, or are you all playing the game of the three wise monkeys in an attempt to cover-up some rogue asses ???
By Dorina Lisson on DORINA LISSON, YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT WE GO THROUGH on 2/7/11
IT'S NOT HEALTHY TO BE A CHRISTIAN IN THE MUSLIM WORLD
All the time we’ve been led to believe that our troops toppled the Taliban in Afghanistan. And Christians in Egypt are not faring any better either.
ONE-LEGGED AFGHAN RED CROSS WORKER SET TO BE HANGED AFTER CONVERTING TO CHRISTIANITY
Mail Online
February 6, 2011
An Afghan physiotherapist will be executed within three days for converting to Christianity.
Said Musa, 45, has been held for eight months in a Kabul prison were he claims he has been tortured and sexually abused by inmates and guards.
Mr Musa, who lost his left leg in a landmine explosion in the 1990s, has worked for the Red Cross for 15 years and helps to treat fellow amputees.
He was arrested in May last year as he attempted to seek asylum at the German embassy following a crackdown on Christians within Afghanistan.
He claims he was visited by a judge who told him he would be hanged within days unless he converted back to Islam.
But he remains defiant and said he would be willing to die for his faith.
He told the Sunday Times: 'My body is theirs to do what they want with.
'Only God can decide if my spirit goes to hell.'
Defence lawyers have refused to represent him, while others have dropped the case after receiving death threats.
Mr Musa was arrested after a TV station showed western men baptising Afghans during secret ceremonies.
CHRISTIANS SLAUGHTERED IN SOUTHERN EGYPT
By Ryan Jones
Israel Today
February 6, 2011
Last week, just days after the demonstrations to reform or overthrow the Egyptian government got underway, Muslims in the south of the country took advantage of the general chaos to break into two homes belonging to local Coptic Christians and butcher every man, woman and child they could find.
The Muslim assailants massacred eleven people and seriously wounded four others. Two whole families were destroyed.
According to survivors of the attack who spoke to AINA, the Assyrian International News Agency, the attackers were aided by the Christians’ Muslim neighbors. Killed in the attack were a 15-year-old girl, an 8-year-old boy, a 4-year-old boy and a little girl only three years old.
There is spreading fear that if Egypt falls into the hands of the radical Muslim Brotherhood, godfather of extremist groups across the region, the 10 million Coptic Christians in Egypt will face severe persecution, or worse.
There is already evidence that the Christians of Egypt are in for a very bumpy ride going forward. On Sunday, the Muslim Brotherhood-led opposition agreed to sit down and talk with newly-appointed Vice President Omar Suleiman. The Christians were not invited to the table, despite being part of the original demonstrations demanding reform.
ONE-LEGGED AFGHAN RED CROSS WORKER SET TO BE HANGED AFTER CONVERTING TO CHRISTIANITY
Mail Online
February 6, 2011
An Afghan physiotherapist will be executed within three days for converting to Christianity.
Said Musa, 45, has been held for eight months in a Kabul prison were he claims he has been tortured and sexually abused by inmates and guards.
Mr Musa, who lost his left leg in a landmine explosion in the 1990s, has worked for the Red Cross for 15 years and helps to treat fellow amputees.
He was arrested in May last year as he attempted to seek asylum at the German embassy following a crackdown on Christians within Afghanistan.
He claims he was visited by a judge who told him he would be hanged within days unless he converted back to Islam.
But he remains defiant and said he would be willing to die for his faith.
He told the Sunday Times: 'My body is theirs to do what they want with.
'Only God can decide if my spirit goes to hell.'
Defence lawyers have refused to represent him, while others have dropped the case after receiving death threats.
Mr Musa was arrested after a TV station showed western men baptising Afghans during secret ceremonies.
CHRISTIANS SLAUGHTERED IN SOUTHERN EGYPT
By Ryan Jones
Israel Today
February 6, 2011
Last week, just days after the demonstrations to reform or overthrow the Egyptian government got underway, Muslims in the south of the country took advantage of the general chaos to break into two homes belonging to local Coptic Christians and butcher every man, woman and child they could find.
The Muslim assailants massacred eleven people and seriously wounded four others. Two whole families were destroyed.
According to survivors of the attack who spoke to AINA, the Assyrian International News Agency, the attackers were aided by the Christians’ Muslim neighbors. Killed in the attack were a 15-year-old girl, an 8-year-old boy, a 4-year-old boy and a little girl only three years old.
There is spreading fear that if Egypt falls into the hands of the radical Muslim Brotherhood, godfather of extremist groups across the region, the 10 million Coptic Christians in Egypt will face severe persecution, or worse.
There is already evidence that the Christians of Egypt are in for a very bumpy ride going forward. On Sunday, the Muslim Brotherhood-led opposition agreed to sit down and talk with newly-appointed Vice President Omar Suleiman. The Christians were not invited to the table, despite being part of the original demonstrations demanding reform.
FUN AND GAMES AT THE COLLEGE WHERE I USED TO TEACH
So what else is new. College of the Mainland was originally designed by union boss Tiny Teague primarily to provide educational opportunities to the Galveston mainland’s black population. It’s first president, Herb Stallworth, suffered from a severe guilt complex and was determined to atone for the sins of his ancestors who had been slave owners in Alabama.
You might wonder why I am posting this story. Well, it’s because this is the dirty little secret of the preferential hiring that is going on at colleges and universities all over the country.
LAWSUIT: COLLEGE OF THE MAINLAND FAVORED AFRICAN-AMERICAN APPLICANTS
By Chris Paschenko
The Galveston County Daily News
February 6, 2011
TEXAS CITY — The former director of human resources at College of the Mainland claims he was fired because he refused to favor African-American applicants over other races.
The lawsuit filed in federal court against the Texas City college is one of seven brought since 2009 and shows a disturbing pattern of students and faculty claiming civil rights violations, the college’s union president said.
The college’s board of trustees chairwoman and president deny the allegations, saying the educational institution fosters a professional and safe learning and working environment.
Union head David Michael Smith told The Daily News that problems related to the lawsuits began under former President Homer “Butch” Hayes but have grown since the April 2009 hiring of Michael A. Elam as president.
“We have more people alleging serious mistreatment and more people filing lawsuits,” Smith said. “Historically, COM has been a pretty good place to work, but in the last three or four years, it’s become pretty oppressive.”
Former HR Director’s Lawsuit
A November lawsuit filed by attorney Jeremy R. Stone on behalf of Eugene Connors, the former human resources director, is one of four brought in federal court against the college last year. Two of the three filed in 2009 were brought after Elam was hired.
Two lawsuits also are pending in state district courts. The college settled three other lawsuits since 2009, Smith said.
Connors began his career at the college in 2001 when he was hired to direct human resources. He was promoted to associate vice president and worked for a short time as interim vice president of the department.
Connors’ lawsuit names the college and trustees as defendants and claims he was wrongfully terminated in 2009, just shy of 10 years, which would have given him lifetime health benefits.
Connors claims he was fired for several reasons, including testimony he gave in a 2008 civil proceeding. That testimony didn’t favor the college.
The defendants engaged in fraud, oppression and malice, violating his freedom of speech, the lawsuit claims.
Connors also claims the college refused to renew his employment contract, because he didn’t follow its intent to hire African-American applicants over those of other races, who were better qualified, the lawsuit claims.
On several occasions, Bennie Matthews, chairwoman of the trustees, instructed Connors to favor African-American applicants by paying them more money than similarly qualified applicants of other races, the lawsuit claims.
“At times, these demands took place in public board meetings,” the lawsuit claims.
Connors demanded a jury trial and seeks, among other things, damages related to past and future wage losses.
Chairwoman Denies Claims
Matthews, who is African-American, said the claims against her are false. She declined to comment further on the lawsuit, referring The Daily News to the college’s contracted attorney. A message left with the attorney wasn’t returned.
Elam also declined to comment on the lawsuit but defended the college’s learning and working environment under his helm.
The college is in a transitional period with many changes taking place, going from a team approach to a more traditional hierarchy model of accountability.
“There are some people who don’t agree with my style of leadership, but the main thing is employees have to follow policies and procedures,” Elam said. “We’re an open and transparent institution.”
The institution also doesn’t engage in illegal practices, he said.
“I believe in what we’re doing, and many more employees are pleased at the college than disgruntled,” Elam said.
Smith has perpetuated lawsuits, Elam said.
“We’re moving forward and getting better at handling these issues to get them resolved before they get to a level of litigation,” Elam said.
$1.13 M In Legal Expenses
The college’s legal expenses totaled $1.13 million between 2007 and the middle of last year, Smith said.
Defending litigation represented the majority of expenses, Smith said.
The college has dozens, if not hundreds, of tax collection-related lawsuits against property owners during that time, according to state district clerk records.
Elam didn’t immediately know how much the tax lawsuits comprised of the legal expense total.
“More than a dozen employees and students have come forward saying their rights were violated,” Smith said. “People don’t sue at the drop of a hat. It’s stressful, time consuming, expensive, and people fear retaliation.”
Many of the lawsuits allege discrimination, harassment and other illegal practices, Smith said.
Smith brought a First Amendment lawsuit against the college in July 2009, which was settled last year. The other two lawsuits settled were brought by a student, who in May 2006 alleged sexual and racial discrimination, and by COM-Unity, an employee union, which alleged in November 2009 violations of state law on public employee grievances.
The college has about 400 full-time employees, of which 105 are members of COM-Unity, Smith said.
No Doom, Gloom
“It’s a sad day so many faculty and staff have to go through the legal system to have their rights protected,” Smith said.
The college isn’t perfect, he said.
“We always need to do a better job diversifying administration and faculty,” Smith said. “We had pretty good policies in place for faculty and staff. It was much more student centered, because faculty and staff were treated well with respect. That has changed, and it’s not a good change.”
There is no doom or gloom atmosphere at the college, Elam said.
“We have a lot of outstanding faculty and students,” Elam said. “Success is changing people’s lives. They enjoy the environment, and we have high participation rates for faculty and staff on campus.
“Are some people unhappy? Of course. We have 300 to 400 employees. We have some that are not enjoying their environment, but that’s not the rule. That’s going to be the exception.”
You might wonder why I am posting this story. Well, it’s because this is the dirty little secret of the preferential hiring that is going on at colleges and universities all over the country.
LAWSUIT: COLLEGE OF THE MAINLAND FAVORED AFRICAN-AMERICAN APPLICANTS
By Chris Paschenko
The Galveston County Daily News
February 6, 2011
TEXAS CITY — The former director of human resources at College of the Mainland claims he was fired because he refused to favor African-American applicants over other races.
The lawsuit filed in federal court against the Texas City college is one of seven brought since 2009 and shows a disturbing pattern of students and faculty claiming civil rights violations, the college’s union president said.
The college’s board of trustees chairwoman and president deny the allegations, saying the educational institution fosters a professional and safe learning and working environment.
Union head David Michael Smith told The Daily News that problems related to the lawsuits began under former President Homer “Butch” Hayes but have grown since the April 2009 hiring of Michael A. Elam as president.
“We have more people alleging serious mistreatment and more people filing lawsuits,” Smith said. “Historically, COM has been a pretty good place to work, but in the last three or four years, it’s become pretty oppressive.”
Former HR Director’s Lawsuit
A November lawsuit filed by attorney Jeremy R. Stone on behalf of Eugene Connors, the former human resources director, is one of four brought in federal court against the college last year. Two of the three filed in 2009 were brought after Elam was hired.
Two lawsuits also are pending in state district courts. The college settled three other lawsuits since 2009, Smith said.
Connors began his career at the college in 2001 when he was hired to direct human resources. He was promoted to associate vice president and worked for a short time as interim vice president of the department.
Connors’ lawsuit names the college and trustees as defendants and claims he was wrongfully terminated in 2009, just shy of 10 years, which would have given him lifetime health benefits.
Connors claims he was fired for several reasons, including testimony he gave in a 2008 civil proceeding. That testimony didn’t favor the college.
The defendants engaged in fraud, oppression and malice, violating his freedom of speech, the lawsuit claims.
Connors also claims the college refused to renew his employment contract, because he didn’t follow its intent to hire African-American applicants over those of other races, who were better qualified, the lawsuit claims.
On several occasions, Bennie Matthews, chairwoman of the trustees, instructed Connors to favor African-American applicants by paying them more money than similarly qualified applicants of other races, the lawsuit claims.
“At times, these demands took place in public board meetings,” the lawsuit claims.
Connors demanded a jury trial and seeks, among other things, damages related to past and future wage losses.
Chairwoman Denies Claims
Matthews, who is African-American, said the claims against her are false. She declined to comment further on the lawsuit, referring The Daily News to the college’s contracted attorney. A message left with the attorney wasn’t returned.
Elam also declined to comment on the lawsuit but defended the college’s learning and working environment under his helm.
The college is in a transitional period with many changes taking place, going from a team approach to a more traditional hierarchy model of accountability.
“There are some people who don’t agree with my style of leadership, but the main thing is employees have to follow policies and procedures,” Elam said. “We’re an open and transparent institution.”
The institution also doesn’t engage in illegal practices, he said.
“I believe in what we’re doing, and many more employees are pleased at the college than disgruntled,” Elam said.
Smith has perpetuated lawsuits, Elam said.
“We’re moving forward and getting better at handling these issues to get them resolved before they get to a level of litigation,” Elam said.
$1.13 M In Legal Expenses
The college’s legal expenses totaled $1.13 million between 2007 and the middle of last year, Smith said.
Defending litigation represented the majority of expenses, Smith said.
The college has dozens, if not hundreds, of tax collection-related lawsuits against property owners during that time, according to state district clerk records.
Elam didn’t immediately know how much the tax lawsuits comprised of the legal expense total.
“More than a dozen employees and students have come forward saying their rights were violated,” Smith said. “People don’t sue at the drop of a hat. It’s stressful, time consuming, expensive, and people fear retaliation.”
Many of the lawsuits allege discrimination, harassment and other illegal practices, Smith said.
Smith brought a First Amendment lawsuit against the college in July 2009, which was settled last year. The other two lawsuits settled were brought by a student, who in May 2006 alleged sexual and racial discrimination, and by COM-Unity, an employee union, which alleged in November 2009 violations of state law on public employee grievances.
The college has about 400 full-time employees, of which 105 are members of COM-Unity, Smith said.
No Doom, Gloom
“It’s a sad day so many faculty and staff have to go through the legal system to have their rights protected,” Smith said.
The college isn’t perfect, he said.
“We always need to do a better job diversifying administration and faculty,” Smith said. “We had pretty good policies in place for faculty and staff. It was much more student centered, because faculty and staff were treated well with respect. That has changed, and it’s not a good change.”
There is no doom or gloom atmosphere at the college, Elam said.
“We have a lot of outstanding faculty and students,” Elam said. “Success is changing people’s lives. They enjoy the environment, and we have high participation rates for faculty and staff on campus.
“Are some people unhappy? Of course. We have 300 to 400 employees. We have some that are not enjoying their environment, but that’s not the rule. That’s going to be the exception.”
SNAKES ON A TRAIN
Shades of the movie ‘Snakes On A Plane.’
I’ll bet that when this lady got on a jam-packed subway car, she had absolutely no trouble getting a seat.
SNAKE MISSING FOR A MONTH FOUND ON BOSTON SUBWAY
The Guardian
February 4, 2011
BOSTON (AP) — Transit officials say a 3-foot-long boa constrictor that slithered away from its owner on a Boston subway car a month ago was found on an adjoining car Thursday.
A commuter spotted Penelope the snake and alerted a train attendant at a Red Line station.
Transit authority officials took the train out of service to search it. Finally at 8:30 p.m., train attendant Sharon Lynch — a snake owner herself — caught the snake.
Penelope's owner, 30-year-old Melissa Moorhouse of Allston, had traveled around with the snake around her neck and lost it between two stations Jan. 6.
She's thrilled to have her pet back, and says she'll pay more attention the next time she takes Penelope out in public.
I’ll bet that when this lady got on a jam-packed subway car, she had absolutely no trouble getting a seat.
SNAKE MISSING FOR A MONTH FOUND ON BOSTON SUBWAY
The Guardian
February 4, 2011
BOSTON (AP) — Transit officials say a 3-foot-long boa constrictor that slithered away from its owner on a Boston subway car a month ago was found on an adjoining car Thursday.
A commuter spotted Penelope the snake and alerted a train attendant at a Red Line station.
Transit authority officials took the train out of service to search it. Finally at 8:30 p.m., train attendant Sharon Lynch — a snake owner herself — caught the snake.
Penelope's owner, 30-year-old Melissa Moorhouse of Allston, had traveled around with the snake around her neck and lost it between two stations Jan. 6.
She's thrilled to have her pet back, and says she'll pay more attention the next time she takes Penelope out in public.
Sunday, February 06, 2011
MR. GORBACHEV, TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!
On June 12, 1987, President Reagan stood before the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin and addressed a huge West German crowd, uttering these famous words: “Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
Today is Ronnie’s 100th birthday. While Republicans revere him and most Democrats revile him, we should all celebrate the life of Ronald Reagan and the contributions he made to this country.
Ronnie restored our military strength and pride in our country, both of which had been all but destroyed, first by the post-Vietnam era Democrats and then by Jimmy Carter.
Near the end of 1989, the wall dividing West and East Germany did come down, primarily because the leaders of the Soviet Union and East Germany recognized that with our restored military strength, they would never be able to defeat us.
Only one post-WWII Democratic president would have had the guts to challenge the Soviet Union the way Ronnie did. That Democrat was John F. Kennedy.
If you haven’t already done so, please join me in wishing Ronnie a Happy Birthday!
Today is Ronnie’s 100th birthday. While Republicans revere him and most Democrats revile him, we should all celebrate the life of Ronald Reagan and the contributions he made to this country.
Ronnie restored our military strength and pride in our country, both of which had been all but destroyed, first by the post-Vietnam era Democrats and then by Jimmy Carter.
Near the end of 1989, the wall dividing West and East Germany did come down, primarily because the leaders of the Soviet Union and East Germany recognized that with our restored military strength, they would never be able to defeat us.
Only one post-WWII Democratic president would have had the guts to challenge the Soviet Union the way Ronnie did. That Democrat was John F. Kennedy.
If you haven’t already done so, please join me in wishing Ronnie a Happy Birthday!
THE MOTHER OF ALL POLICE PURSUITS
One of the NASCAR teams should seek this lady out and sign her up as one of their drivers.
When I was a cop I was involved in some hair-raising pursuits and I've watched a lot of car chases on TV, but nothing ever came close to matching this one.
When I was a cop I was involved in some hair-raising pursuits and I've watched a lot of car chases on TV, but nothing ever came close to matching this one.
DORINA LISSON, YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT WE GO THROUGH
Dorina Lisson, the anti-death penalty zealot, accuses Correctional Officers of being abusive and brutal uneducated idiots. She claims to be an authority based on research she has done. Of course, that’s what you hear all the time form inmates, their family and friends, and from prisoner rights groups, all having an ox to gore. Dorina’s idiotic, unfounded and unwarranted put-downs have offended many correctional officers.
The vast majority of COs do not come anywhere close to fitting Dorina’s bill. They perform a very dangerous and thankless task under the most trying of circumstances. They are constantly abused by inmates who, by the way, are not in prison for singing off-key in the church choir. Hmm, besides visiting some creeps on death rows (assuming she’s done that), has Dorina ever done some actual and prolonged ‘research’ INSIDE any American prisons?
Dorina tells COs that ‘If you don’t like the job you are free to quit – try a job at McDonalds.’ Smart ass cracks like that make me wonder why she has such a hatred for correctional officers?
Dorina took offense to BarkGrowlBite and to Centurion by saying, “Who are you to judge me? You don't know me!” Now that works both ways. Who is Lisson to judge courageous correctional officers when she’s never walked in their shoes? How dare she malign COs based on isolated incidents of misconduct, on what she’s heard from inmates, their families and friends, and on the exaggerated allegations of prisoner rights groups.
Lisson also slammed BarkGrowlBite by saying, ‘Finally, I have better things to do with my time than reply to this 'bias' of a blog site (I note it doesn't attract many viewers nor comments). In Aussie slang we call it, a dead dingo's donger !!!’ Well, at the very least, this Dead Dingo did get her attention. ‘Bias’ – isn’t that the kettle calling the pot black? And all the stupid remarks Lisson has made on this Donger have also been posted on PACOVILLA Corrections blog, a blog that has very many viewers and generates a lot of comments.
Several PACOVILLA Correctional blog followers commented on Dorina’s wild accusations. One of them, ‘west40’ says:
Lady, you don’t know us, you don’t know what we go through during a shift either on death row or any regular yard or tier.
You don’t go home smelling of shit and piss because some jerk made a mess in his own bed and has to lie in it. Have you ever worked an Enhanced Outpatient (EOP) yard and had to run into a cell to hold up a [hanging] suicidal inmate or give him CPR? Have you ever stitched up an inmate who cut himself up or was cut up by others? Have you ever been socked in the face, or kicked, or spit on for no other reason than your uniform?
I have a Degree and a Nursing License and have worked the yards as an officer. I have experienced all of the above and have never abused an inmate. How dare you tell us what kind of people we are when you only come to do research and we’re there to pick up the pieces after you leave.
Put on a uniform and walk a tier, then give an unbiased opinion. or shut the hell up!!!!!
The vast majority of COs do not come anywhere close to fitting Dorina’s bill. They perform a very dangerous and thankless task under the most trying of circumstances. They are constantly abused by inmates who, by the way, are not in prison for singing off-key in the church choir. Hmm, besides visiting some creeps on death rows (assuming she’s done that), has Dorina ever done some actual and prolonged ‘research’ INSIDE any American prisons?
Dorina tells COs that ‘If you don’t like the job you are free to quit – try a job at McDonalds.’ Smart ass cracks like that make me wonder why she has such a hatred for correctional officers?
Dorina took offense to BarkGrowlBite and to Centurion by saying, “Who are you to judge me? You don't know me!” Now that works both ways. Who is Lisson to judge courageous correctional officers when she’s never walked in their shoes? How dare she malign COs based on isolated incidents of misconduct, on what she’s heard from inmates, their families and friends, and on the exaggerated allegations of prisoner rights groups.
Lisson also slammed BarkGrowlBite by saying, ‘Finally, I have better things to do with my time than reply to this 'bias' of a blog site (I note it doesn't attract many viewers nor comments). In Aussie slang we call it, a dead dingo's donger !!!’ Well, at the very least, this Dead Dingo did get her attention. ‘Bias’ – isn’t that the kettle calling the pot black? And all the stupid remarks Lisson has made on this Donger have also been posted on PACOVILLA Corrections blog, a blog that has very many viewers and generates a lot of comments.
Several PACOVILLA Correctional blog followers commented on Dorina’s wild accusations. One of them, ‘west40’ says:
Lady, you don’t know us, you don’t know what we go through during a shift either on death row or any regular yard or tier.
You don’t go home smelling of shit and piss because some jerk made a mess in his own bed and has to lie in it. Have you ever worked an Enhanced Outpatient (EOP) yard and had to run into a cell to hold up a [hanging] suicidal inmate or give him CPR? Have you ever stitched up an inmate who cut himself up or was cut up by others? Have you ever been socked in the face, or kicked, or spit on for no other reason than your uniform?
I have a Degree and a Nursing License and have worked the yards as an officer. I have experienced all of the above and have never abused an inmate. How dare you tell us what kind of people we are when you only come to do research and we’re there to pick up the pieces after you leave.
Put on a uniform and walk a tier, then give an unbiased opinion. or shut the hell up!!!!!
POLICE DOG PROTECTING HIS PARTNER BITES GOOD GUY
A lot of firefighters would rather be cops. The bitten firefighter, at least before this incident, must have been among those wanting to be cops.
K-9 BITES FIREFIGHTER AT TENNESSEE CRIME SCENE
The dog, which is trained to respond to the greatest threat, honed in on the firefighter
PoliceOne.com
February 4, 2011
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — A police dog bit a firefighter in Tennessee who was trying to help apprehend a burglary suspect Wednesday.
K-9 Officer Trey Mansfield released the dog when a suspect refused to stop at the scene of the burglary, according to the Daily News Journal.
The dog was running after the suspect when Murfreesboro Firefighter Lance Sutton appeared on the scene after a witness to the burglary called his firehouse.
"As the K-9 was running toward the burglar, an unidentified person (later identified as Sutton) came running out from between two houses toward the officer and dog at what appeared to be a full sprint," police spokesman Kyle Evans told the newspaper.
"The dog, which is trained to respond to the greatest threat, honed in on (Sutton)."
While the dog "apprehended" Firefighter Sutton, the cop managed to catch up with the burglary suspect to arrest him.
Sutton needed hospital treatment for serious bite wounds in the incident.
K-9 BITES FIREFIGHTER AT TENNESSEE CRIME SCENE
The dog, which is trained to respond to the greatest threat, honed in on the firefighter
PoliceOne.com
February 4, 2011
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — A police dog bit a firefighter in Tennessee who was trying to help apprehend a burglary suspect Wednesday.
K-9 Officer Trey Mansfield released the dog when a suspect refused to stop at the scene of the burglary, according to the Daily News Journal.
The dog was running after the suspect when Murfreesboro Firefighter Lance Sutton appeared on the scene after a witness to the burglary called his firehouse.
"As the K-9 was running toward the burglar, an unidentified person (later identified as Sutton) came running out from between two houses toward the officer and dog at what appeared to be a full sprint," police spokesman Kyle Evans told the newspaper.
"The dog, which is trained to respond to the greatest threat, honed in on (Sutton)."
While the dog "apprehended" Firefighter Sutton, the cop managed to catch up with the burglary suspect to arrest him.
Sutton needed hospital treatment for serious bite wounds in the incident.
WE WERE PROMISED CHANGE AND CHANGE IS WHAT WE GOT
All this could change if the economy keeps improving and if there is a significant drop in the unemployment rate.
OBAMA DIVIDES U.S. MORE THANANY SECOND-YEAR PRESIDENT IN OVER HALF A CENTURY
By Davud Gardber
Mail Online
February 5, 2011
Barack Obama was swept into power on a wave of optimism over his promise to bring America together in a new spirit of unity.
But a new poll has revealed that he divided the country down the middle more than any other second-year US president in more than half a century.
Astonishingly, Mr Obama’s second year in office was even more polarising than his White House predecessor George Bush.
Critics blamed Mr Obama’s determination to push through healthcare reforms and his administration’s big spending attempts to dig the US out of the financial crisis as two of the biggest issues that have split American opinion.
According to figures released by Gallup, Mr Obama’s popularity in 2010 was even more polarised than they were during his first year, measuring a 68-point gap between the percentage of Democrats and Republicans that approve of the president.
An average of 81 per cent of Democrats approved of the job Mr Obama was doing last year, compared to just 13 per cent of Republicans.
The 68-point divide is up from a 65-point gap in 2009, which was also a record for a first- year president.
Despite all his talk of bringing America’s two main political parties closer together, Mr Obama’s rock bottom 13 per cent approval from Republicans is easily the lowest percentage of support from an opposing party for any president in his second year.
The next largest gap for a president in his sophomore year was in 1982, when Ronald Reagan had an approval rating of 79 per cent among Republicans and 23 per cent from Democrats, a divide of 56 points.
Although George Bush endured three years with larger gaps in party ratings - including 2004 when Gallup measured a 76-point gap - he was still more popular during the first two years, mainly because he won more support from both parties in the aftermath of 9/11.
But experts said the split isn’t necessarily a bad thing for Mr Obama heading into the elections in 2012.
Three former presidents - George Bush, Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan - all won re-election after having large gaps in party popularity ratings.
The president has redoubled his efforts in recent months to work with congressional Republicans, such as on the deal to extend the Bush-era income tax cuts.
These efforts are widely thought to have fuelled a rise in his approval ratings, from 44 per cent in mid-November to 50 per cent in the most recent weekly average.
But the rise in Mr Obama's public support has not necessarily meant a reduction in the polarisation of views about him, as there continues to be a nearly 70-point gap between his Democratic and Republican approval ratings.
OBAMA DIVIDES U.S. MORE THANANY SECOND-YEAR PRESIDENT IN OVER HALF A CENTURY
By Davud Gardber
Mail Online
February 5, 2011
Barack Obama was swept into power on a wave of optimism over his promise to bring America together in a new spirit of unity.
But a new poll has revealed that he divided the country down the middle more than any other second-year US president in more than half a century.
Astonishingly, Mr Obama’s second year in office was even more polarising than his White House predecessor George Bush.
Critics blamed Mr Obama’s determination to push through healthcare reforms and his administration’s big spending attempts to dig the US out of the financial crisis as two of the biggest issues that have split American opinion.
According to figures released by Gallup, Mr Obama’s popularity in 2010 was even more polarised than they were during his first year, measuring a 68-point gap between the percentage of Democrats and Republicans that approve of the president.
An average of 81 per cent of Democrats approved of the job Mr Obama was doing last year, compared to just 13 per cent of Republicans.
The 68-point divide is up from a 65-point gap in 2009, which was also a record for a first- year president.
Despite all his talk of bringing America’s two main political parties closer together, Mr Obama’s rock bottom 13 per cent approval from Republicans is easily the lowest percentage of support from an opposing party for any president in his second year.
The next largest gap for a president in his sophomore year was in 1982, when Ronald Reagan had an approval rating of 79 per cent among Republicans and 23 per cent from Democrats, a divide of 56 points.
Although George Bush endured three years with larger gaps in party ratings - including 2004 when Gallup measured a 76-point gap - he was still more popular during the first two years, mainly because he won more support from both parties in the aftermath of 9/11.
But experts said the split isn’t necessarily a bad thing for Mr Obama heading into the elections in 2012.
Three former presidents - George Bush, Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan - all won re-election after having large gaps in party popularity ratings.
The president has redoubled his efforts in recent months to work with congressional Republicans, such as on the deal to extend the Bush-era income tax cuts.
These efforts are widely thought to have fuelled a rise in his approval ratings, from 44 per cent in mid-November to 50 per cent in the most recent weekly average.
But the rise in Mr Obama's public support has not necessarily meant a reduction in the polarisation of views about him, as there continues to be a nearly 70-point gap between his Democratic and Republican approval ratings.
FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO LIKE BLOODCURDLING STORIES
What more can I say about this – ugh - Papuan papa?
FATHER ‘EATS BABY’ IN SORCERY RITUAL
The Straits Times
February 5, 2011
SYDNEY - A DRUG-CRAZED father in Papua New Guinea has been accused of trying to eat his newborn baby boy in a grisly witchcraft ceremony, a report said on Saturday.
Local residents awoke to the baby's screams and chased the man to the police station, where he was detained, Australia's AAP news agency said, quoting police. The baby died of his injuries.
'It is a very disturbing incident,' said Sergeant Demas Tapea, police commander in the Western Province town of Tabulil.
'The community is upset, angry but there is also a lot of fear and anxiety because there is a belief in sorcery or witchcraft.' Tapea said the suspect was known to police and had a history of drug problems.
'Locals are saying the man was carrying out a sorcery ritual, or initiation, to become part of some sort of special society,' he said.
'The suspect has a long history of drug abuse and we are not surprised something like this has happened. A few years ago, he went crazy in what we believe was due to the effects of drugs.' Belief in witchcraft and sorcery remains strong in the impoverished South Pacific nation, where a spate of murders have been linked to rituals. -- AFP
FATHER ‘EATS BABY’ IN SORCERY RITUAL
The Straits Times
February 5, 2011
SYDNEY - A DRUG-CRAZED father in Papua New Guinea has been accused of trying to eat his newborn baby boy in a grisly witchcraft ceremony, a report said on Saturday.
Local residents awoke to the baby's screams and chased the man to the police station, where he was detained, Australia's AAP news agency said, quoting police. The baby died of his injuries.
'It is a very disturbing incident,' said Sergeant Demas Tapea, police commander in the Western Province town of Tabulil.
'The community is upset, angry but there is also a lot of fear and anxiety because there is a belief in sorcery or witchcraft.' Tapea said the suspect was known to police and had a history of drug problems.
'Locals are saying the man was carrying out a sorcery ritual, or initiation, to become part of some sort of special society,' he said.
'The suspect has a long history of drug abuse and we are not surprised something like this has happened. A few years ago, he went crazy in what we believe was due to the effects of drugs.' Belief in witchcraft and sorcery remains strong in the impoverished South Pacific nation, where a spate of murders have been linked to rituals. -- AFP
NEVER FORGET YOUR CHOMPERS
Bad things can happen to you when you’re in such a rush that you’ll forget to look for your chompers.
FALSE TEETH LEAD TO ARREST
Police: Hit & Run Suspect Left Chompers In Vehicle
KCRA.com
February 4, 2011
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Police arrested a 53-year-old man who they said crashed his stolen car into two other vehicles in Sacramento on Friday.
Sacramento Police Department said it received a report of a man who crashed his car, hitting two vehicles, fences and landscaping of two homes in the area of 24th Street and John Still Drive. Witnesses told police the man, who was bloodied and injured from the incident, fled on foot.
Police said a man, identified as James Brown, was arrested in the 7700 block of 24th Street.
Investigators said the officers were able to identify Brown as the driver of the car because his false teeth, which were knocked out when the vehicle's airbag was released, was left sitting on the floorboard of the vehicle. The car was later found to be stolen, police said.
Police said Brown was arrested for possession of a stolen car and hit-and-run charges.
Investigators said Brown has a history of escaping from law enforcement custody.
The Sacramento Police Department said a record check revealed that Brown, who initially identified himself as James Hackett, had an outstanding escapee warrant out of Washington, D.C.
FALSE TEETH LEAD TO ARREST
Police: Hit & Run Suspect Left Chompers In Vehicle
KCRA.com
February 4, 2011
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Police arrested a 53-year-old man who they said crashed his stolen car into two other vehicles in Sacramento on Friday.
Sacramento Police Department said it received a report of a man who crashed his car, hitting two vehicles, fences and landscaping of two homes in the area of 24th Street and John Still Drive. Witnesses told police the man, who was bloodied and injured from the incident, fled on foot.
Police said a man, identified as James Brown, was arrested in the 7700 block of 24th Street.
Investigators said the officers were able to identify Brown as the driver of the car because his false teeth, which were knocked out when the vehicle's airbag was released, was left sitting on the floorboard of the vehicle. The car was later found to be stolen, police said.
Police said Brown was arrested for possession of a stolen car and hit-and-run charges.
Investigators said Brown has a history of escaping from law enforcement custody.
The Sacramento Police Department said a record check revealed that Brown, who initially identified himself as James Hackett, had an outstanding escapee warrant out of Washington, D.C.
WANTED: GYNECOLOGIST'S ASSISTANT
An unemployed man went into the Job Center in downtown Denver, and saw a card advertising for a Gynecologist's Assistant. Interested, he went in and asked the clerk for details. The clerk pulled up the file and read:
"The job entails getting the ladies ready for the gynecologist. You have to help the women out of their underwear, lay them down and carefully wash their private regions, then apply shaving foam and gently shave off the hair, then rub in soothing oils so they're ready for the gynecologist's examination. The annual salary is $65,000.”
When the man said he wanted to apply for the job the clerk told him, “You'll have to go to Billings , Montana ."
"Good grief . . . is that where the job is?"
"No sir . . . that's where the end of the line is right now."
"The job entails getting the ladies ready for the gynecologist. You have to help the women out of their underwear, lay them down and carefully wash their private regions, then apply shaving foam and gently shave off the hair, then rub in soothing oils so they're ready for the gynecologist's examination. The annual salary is $65,000.”
When the man said he wanted to apply for the job the clerk told him, “You'll have to go to Billings , Montana ."
"Good grief . . . is that where the job is?"
"No sir . . . that's where the end of the line is right now."
Saturday, February 05, 2011
WILL WE BE BLINDSIDED IN EGYPT LIKE WE WERE IN IRAN?
Will our intelligence agencies and the Obama administration be blindsided by events in Egypt the same way the Carter administration was hoodwinked in Iran? I know that our military and the Egyptian military have forged a close bond. But even though the army wields the real power in Egypt right now, will the Muslim Brotherhood end up in control when all is said and done?
INTELLIGENCE GUIDANCE: THE SITUATION IN EGYPT
InvestorsInsight.com
February 3, 2011
When protests started in Egypt last week, mainstream news outlets cried "democracy!" and compared the situation in Egypt to the Berlin Wall and Tienanmen Square. Meanwhile, STRATFOR (an intelligence company I've followed for years) spoke of a different possibility. At the time it may have been counter-intuitive for most institutions to draw parallels to 1979 Iran, but my friend and the company's founder George Friedman produced an internal document that raised that possibility. Days later, news outlets began asking questions about groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, and realizing there could be other forces behind the unrest than simple calls for Western-style democracy.
While the jury is still out on the Egypt situation, I have always found STRATFOR's analyses to be thought-provoking, unconventional and more often than not, spot on in the end. Included here is that first Intelligence Guidance on the budding unrest in Egypt. Originally meant as an internal guideline for their analysts to understand and evaluate events, it was made available to STRATFOR subscribers - and now you. It's an excellent example of how folks at this intelligence company begin thinking about a new event.
John Mauldin
INTELLIGENCE GUIDANCE: THE SITUATION IN EGYPT
January 27, 2011
Editor’s Note: The following is an internal STRATFOR document produced to provide high-level guidance to our analysts. This document is not a forecast, but rather a series of guidelines for understanding and evaluating events, as well as suggestions on areas for focus.
Let’s use the Iranian rising of 1979 as a model. It had many elements involved, from Communists, to liberals to moderate Muslims, and of course the radicals. All of them were united in hating the Shah, but not in anything else.
The Western press did not understand the mixture and had its closest ties with the liberals, for the simple reason that they were the most Western and spoke English. For a very long time they thought these liberals were in control of the revolution.
For its part, the intelligence community did not have good sources among the revolutionaries but relied on SAVAK, the Shah’s security service, for intelligence. SAVAK neither understood what was happening, nor was it prepared to tell the CIA. The CIA suspected the major agent was the small Communist Party, because that was the great fear at that time — namely, that the Soviets were engineering a plot to seize Iran and control the Persian Gulf.
Meanwhile, Western human rights groups painted the Shah as a monster and saw this as a popular democratic rising. Western human rights and democracy groups, funded by the U.S. government and others, were standing by to teach people like Bani Sadr to create a representative democracy.
Bani Sadr was the first post-Shah president. He was a moderate Islamist and democrat; he also had no power whatsoever. The people who were controlling the revolution were those around Ayatollah Khomeini, who were used by the liberals as a screen to keep the United States quiet until the final moment came and they seized control.
It is important to understand that the demonstrations were seen as spontaneous, but were actually being carefully orchestrated. It is also important to understand that the real power behind the movement remained opaque to the media and the CIA, because they didn’t speak English and the crowds they organized didn’t speak English, and none of the reporters spoke Farsi (nor did a lot of the intelligence agency people). So when the demonstrations surged, the interviews were with the liberals who were already their sources, and who made themselves appear far more powerful than they were — and who were encouraged to do so by Khomeini’s people. It was only at the end that Khomeini ran up the Jolly Roger to the West.
Nothing is identical to the past, but Iran taught me never to trust a revolutionary who spoke English; they will tend to be pro-Western. When the masses poured into the streets — and that hasn’t happened in Egypt yet — they were Khomeini supporters who spoke not a word of English. The media kept interviewing their English-speaking sources and the CIA kept up daily liaison meetings with SAVAK — until the day they all grabbed a plane and met up with their money in Europe and the United States. The liberals, those who weren’t executed, also wound up in the United States, teaching at Harvard or driving cabs.
Let’s be very careful on the taxonomy of this rising. The Western human rights groups will do what they can to emphasize its importance, and to build up their contacts with what they will claim are the real leaders of the revolution. The only language these groups share with the identified leaders is English, and the funding for these groups depends on producing these people. And these people really want to turn Egypt into Wisconsin. The one thing I can guarantee is that is not what is going on.
What we have to find out is who is behind this. It could be the military wanting to stage a coup to keep Gamal Mubarak out of power. They would be doing this to preserve the regime, not to overthrow it. They could be using the demonstrations to push their demands and perhaps pressure Hosni Mubarak to leave voluntarily.
The danger is that they would be playing with fire. The demonstrations open the door for the Muslim Brotherhood, which is stronger than others may believe. They might keep the demonstrations going after Hosni leaves, and radicalize the streets to force regime change. It could also be the Muslim Brotherhood organizing quietly. Whoever it is, they are lying low, trying to make themselves look weaker than they are — while letting the liberals undermine the regime, generate anti-Mubarak feeling in the West, and pave the way for whatever it is they are planning.
Our job now is to sort through all the claimants and wannabees of this revolution, and find out who the main powers are. These aren’t spontaneous risings and the ideology of the people in the streets has nothing to do with who will wind up in power. The one thing to be confident of is that liberal reformers are the stalking horse for something else, and that they are being used as always to take the heat and pave the way.
Now, figure out who is really behind the demonstrations and we have a game.
INTELLIGENCE GUIDANCE: THE SITUATION IN EGYPT
InvestorsInsight.com
February 3, 2011
When protests started in Egypt last week, mainstream news outlets cried "democracy!" and compared the situation in Egypt to the Berlin Wall and Tienanmen Square. Meanwhile, STRATFOR (an intelligence company I've followed for years) spoke of a different possibility. At the time it may have been counter-intuitive for most institutions to draw parallels to 1979 Iran, but my friend and the company's founder George Friedman produced an internal document that raised that possibility. Days later, news outlets began asking questions about groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, and realizing there could be other forces behind the unrest than simple calls for Western-style democracy.
While the jury is still out on the Egypt situation, I have always found STRATFOR's analyses to be thought-provoking, unconventional and more often than not, spot on in the end. Included here is that first Intelligence Guidance on the budding unrest in Egypt. Originally meant as an internal guideline for their analysts to understand and evaluate events, it was made available to STRATFOR subscribers - and now you. It's an excellent example of how folks at this intelligence company begin thinking about a new event.
John Mauldin
INTELLIGENCE GUIDANCE: THE SITUATION IN EGYPT
January 27, 2011
Editor’s Note: The following is an internal STRATFOR document produced to provide high-level guidance to our analysts. This document is not a forecast, but rather a series of guidelines for understanding and evaluating events, as well as suggestions on areas for focus.
Let’s use the Iranian rising of 1979 as a model. It had many elements involved, from Communists, to liberals to moderate Muslims, and of course the radicals. All of them were united in hating the Shah, but not in anything else.
The Western press did not understand the mixture and had its closest ties with the liberals, for the simple reason that they were the most Western and spoke English. For a very long time they thought these liberals were in control of the revolution.
For its part, the intelligence community did not have good sources among the revolutionaries but relied on SAVAK, the Shah’s security service, for intelligence. SAVAK neither understood what was happening, nor was it prepared to tell the CIA. The CIA suspected the major agent was the small Communist Party, because that was the great fear at that time — namely, that the Soviets were engineering a plot to seize Iran and control the Persian Gulf.
Meanwhile, Western human rights groups painted the Shah as a monster and saw this as a popular democratic rising. Western human rights and democracy groups, funded by the U.S. government and others, were standing by to teach people like Bani Sadr to create a representative democracy.
Bani Sadr was the first post-Shah president. He was a moderate Islamist and democrat; he also had no power whatsoever. The people who were controlling the revolution were those around Ayatollah Khomeini, who were used by the liberals as a screen to keep the United States quiet until the final moment came and they seized control.
It is important to understand that the demonstrations were seen as spontaneous, but were actually being carefully orchestrated. It is also important to understand that the real power behind the movement remained opaque to the media and the CIA, because they didn’t speak English and the crowds they organized didn’t speak English, and none of the reporters spoke Farsi (nor did a lot of the intelligence agency people). So when the demonstrations surged, the interviews were with the liberals who were already their sources, and who made themselves appear far more powerful than they were — and who were encouraged to do so by Khomeini’s people. It was only at the end that Khomeini ran up the Jolly Roger to the West.
Nothing is identical to the past, but Iran taught me never to trust a revolutionary who spoke English; they will tend to be pro-Western. When the masses poured into the streets — and that hasn’t happened in Egypt yet — they were Khomeini supporters who spoke not a word of English. The media kept interviewing their English-speaking sources and the CIA kept up daily liaison meetings with SAVAK — until the day they all grabbed a plane and met up with their money in Europe and the United States. The liberals, those who weren’t executed, also wound up in the United States, teaching at Harvard or driving cabs.
Let’s be very careful on the taxonomy of this rising. The Western human rights groups will do what they can to emphasize its importance, and to build up their contacts with what they will claim are the real leaders of the revolution. The only language these groups share with the identified leaders is English, and the funding for these groups depends on producing these people. And these people really want to turn Egypt into Wisconsin. The one thing I can guarantee is that is not what is going on.
What we have to find out is who is behind this. It could be the military wanting to stage a coup to keep Gamal Mubarak out of power. They would be doing this to preserve the regime, not to overthrow it. They could be using the demonstrations to push their demands and perhaps pressure Hosni Mubarak to leave voluntarily.
The danger is that they would be playing with fire. The demonstrations open the door for the Muslim Brotherhood, which is stronger than others may believe. They might keep the demonstrations going after Hosni leaves, and radicalize the streets to force regime change. It could also be the Muslim Brotherhood organizing quietly. Whoever it is, they are lying low, trying to make themselves look weaker than they are — while letting the liberals undermine the regime, generate anti-Mubarak feeling in the West, and pave the way for whatever it is they are planning.
Our job now is to sort through all the claimants and wannabees of this revolution, and find out who the main powers are. These aren’t spontaneous risings and the ideology of the people in the streets has nothing to do with who will wind up in power. The one thing to be confident of is that liberal reformers are the stalking horse for something else, and that they are being used as always to take the heat and pave the way.
Now, figure out who is really behind the demonstrations and we have a game.
OOPS, WRONG ROOM, SORRY ABOUT THAT
Is it possible that if he had not put killing her on his to-do list, he would have forgotten to go by his ex-wife’s place to axe her?
EX-BORDER PATROL AGENT FOUND GUILTY OF OFF-DUTY HATCHET ATTACK
By Tony Perry
Los Angeles Times
February 2, 2011
A former Border Patrol agent was found guilty Wednesday of an off-duty hatchet attack on a sleeping couple that he mistakenly thought were his estranged wife and her boyfriend.
A jury in San Diego County Superior Court in Vista found Gamalier Reyes Rivera, 34, guilty of attempted murder and related charges in the 2009 attack in Escondido. Rivera, a six-year veteran of the Border Patrol at the time of the attack, faces life in prison when sentenced.
Rivera sneaked into the house planning to kill his estranged wife and her boyfriend but went into the wrong bedroom and began using the hatchet, prosecutors said. Only when one of the victims turned on the bedroom light did Rivera realize his error.
The male victim was left blind and with brain damage. The female suffered deep cuts in her legs.
Among the evidence presented during the trial was a "to-do" list written by Rivera that included killing his wife.
EX-BORDER PATROL AGENT FOUND GUILTY OF OFF-DUTY HATCHET ATTACK
By Tony Perry
Los Angeles Times
February 2, 2011
A former Border Patrol agent was found guilty Wednesday of an off-duty hatchet attack on a sleeping couple that he mistakenly thought were his estranged wife and her boyfriend.
A jury in San Diego County Superior Court in Vista found Gamalier Reyes Rivera, 34, guilty of attempted murder and related charges in the 2009 attack in Escondido. Rivera, a six-year veteran of the Border Patrol at the time of the attack, faces life in prison when sentenced.
Rivera sneaked into the house planning to kill his estranged wife and her boyfriend but went into the wrong bedroom and began using the hatchet, prosecutors said. Only when one of the victims turned on the bedroom light did Rivera realize his error.
The male victim was left blind and with brain damage. The female suffered deep cuts in her legs.
Among the evidence presented during the trial was a "to-do" list written by Rivera that included killing his wife.
HE EITHER DID OR DID NOT ATTACK JUDGE WITH HIS CRUTCH
Whoever said that court trials were boring? And if you’re the defendant, you can usually count on friends and relatives to testify or act in your behalf.
COP SHOOTS DEFENDANT IN ALABAMA COURTROOM
The judge pulled a gun on a crutch-winging defendant who went wild after he was found guilty of harassment
Associated Press
February 3, 2011
GOODWATER, Ala. — A judge pulled a gun on a crutch-swinging defendant who went wild in a crowded rural courtroom after being found guilty of harassment Thursday, a witness said.
A police officer shot and wounded the man, who had a cast on his leg, after he lunged at the judge and tried to grab the weapon, authorities said. But some witnesses disputed the account, saying the man who was shot never threatened the judge.
Struck by at least one bullet, the man was taken by helicopter to the hospital at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, where he was in critical condition.
"The guy came over the bench at him trying to get it," said attorney Keith Warren, who was in court representing another person. "He just literally got in the judge's face, then backed off and started swinging the crutch at the judge."
Some of the 40 or so people who were in the courtroom disagreed, saying they did not see the man attack the judge, who was sitting behind a tall desk, or attempt to grab a gun.
Sara Williams said she was sitting in the front row when the man, whom she knew, got agitated after the judge fined him $800. He waved one of his crutches in the air.
"The police were hollering for him to get down" when an officer opened fire, she said.
Williams said she yelled "Don't shoot him no more!" right before the officer fired again.
Afterward, she and more than a dozen people stood across the street from City Hall chanting, "We want justice."
Witnesses identified the man who was shot as Bryant Keith Ford of Goodwater.
"This gentleman forced the police officer to shoot him. There was no reason for the guy to become as irate as he got. He went nuts," Warren said.
Anyone who claimed the man didn't attack the judge either was unable to see or was telling an "outright lie," Warren said.
Court records showed that Ford, 25, was due in court on a harassment charge filed by a neighbor who claimed he cursed at her in December after accusing her of talking to police about him. Teel heard the case without a jury and the trial lasted less than five minutes.
Teel's brother, Frank Teel, a lawyer in nearby Rockford, said the shooting happened at Goodwater City Hall, where district court proceedings are held once a month for people who can't get to the county seat.
"I've not talked to him, but I'm told he was OK," Frank Teel said of his brother. The judge's aide suffered powder burns, he said.
Goodwater is a town of 1,500 about 60 miles north of Montgomery.
COP SHOOTS DEFENDANT IN ALABAMA COURTROOM
The judge pulled a gun on a crutch-winging defendant who went wild after he was found guilty of harassment
Associated Press
February 3, 2011
GOODWATER, Ala. — A judge pulled a gun on a crutch-swinging defendant who went wild in a crowded rural courtroom after being found guilty of harassment Thursday, a witness said.
A police officer shot and wounded the man, who had a cast on his leg, after he lunged at the judge and tried to grab the weapon, authorities said. But some witnesses disputed the account, saying the man who was shot never threatened the judge.
Struck by at least one bullet, the man was taken by helicopter to the hospital at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, where he was in critical condition.
"The guy came over the bench at him trying to get it," said attorney Keith Warren, who was in court representing another person. "He just literally got in the judge's face, then backed off and started swinging the crutch at the judge."
Some of the 40 or so people who were in the courtroom disagreed, saying they did not see the man attack the judge, who was sitting behind a tall desk, or attempt to grab a gun.
Sara Williams said she was sitting in the front row when the man, whom she knew, got agitated after the judge fined him $800. He waved one of his crutches in the air.
"The police were hollering for him to get down" when an officer opened fire, she said.
Williams said she yelled "Don't shoot him no more!" right before the officer fired again.
Afterward, she and more than a dozen people stood across the street from City Hall chanting, "We want justice."
Witnesses identified the man who was shot as Bryant Keith Ford of Goodwater.
"This gentleman forced the police officer to shoot him. There was no reason for the guy to become as irate as he got. He went nuts," Warren said.
Anyone who claimed the man didn't attack the judge either was unable to see or was telling an "outright lie," Warren said.
Court records showed that Ford, 25, was due in court on a harassment charge filed by a neighbor who claimed he cursed at her in December after accusing her of talking to police about him. Teel heard the case without a jury and the trial lasted less than five minutes.
Teel's brother, Frank Teel, a lawyer in nearby Rockford, said the shooting happened at Goodwater City Hall, where district court proceedings are held once a month for people who can't get to the county seat.
"I've not talked to him, but I'm told he was OK," Frank Teel said of his brother. The judge's aide suffered powder burns, he said.
Goodwater is a town of 1,500 about 60 miles north of Montgomery.
HE MUST HAVE IMAGINED HIMSELF AS ROCKY BALBOA
Looks like he watched too many Rocky Balboa movies. And he only got 17 months in jail for using his girlfriend as a punching bag. It would seem that justice in Singapore may not be quite as harsh as we’ve been led to believe.
Add this one to a notable list of romantic Muslim relationships.
MAN JAILED FOR 6 ASSAULTS ON GIRLFRIEND IN JUST 2 DAYS
By Elena Chong
The Straits Times
January 28, 2011
HE THREW a stool at his girlfriend in a hotel room, kicked and punched her repeatedly.
Saifullizan Ali, 25, also grabbed hold of Ms Nur Faizah Mohamed's hair and used a lighter to burn her hair. Two days later, when the 19-year-old girl went to see a doctor, she was found to have five broken ribs and multiple bruises all over her body.
Saifullizan admitted causing grievous hurt and causing hurt by dangerous means to his girlfriend at Hotel 81 Star in Geylang at about 2am on Nov 21 2010.
About an hour earlier near Raffles Place MRT Station, he had beaten her by kicking, punching, banging her head against the wall, elbowing her back and choking her.
He also admitted to pulling her by the hair, choking her and punching her on the stomach, at the void deck of Block 620 Bukit Batok Central on Sept 16.
On Thursday, he was sentenced to a total of 17 months' jail for violence on the victim and stealing a $528 mobile phone from a Korean woman at Rock Shop in Hard Rock Hotel, Resorts World Sentosa, in March. Eight other charges were taken into consideration.
Add this one to a notable list of romantic Muslim relationships.
MAN JAILED FOR 6 ASSAULTS ON GIRLFRIEND IN JUST 2 DAYS
By Elena Chong
The Straits Times
January 28, 2011
HE THREW a stool at his girlfriend in a hotel room, kicked and punched her repeatedly.
Saifullizan Ali, 25, also grabbed hold of Ms Nur Faizah Mohamed's hair and used a lighter to burn her hair. Two days later, when the 19-year-old girl went to see a doctor, she was found to have five broken ribs and multiple bruises all over her body.
Saifullizan admitted causing grievous hurt and causing hurt by dangerous means to his girlfriend at Hotel 81 Star in Geylang at about 2am on Nov 21 2010.
About an hour earlier near Raffles Place MRT Station, he had beaten her by kicking, punching, banging her head against the wall, elbowing her back and choking her.
He also admitted to pulling her by the hair, choking her and punching her on the stomach, at the void deck of Block 620 Bukit Batok Central on Sept 16.
On Thursday, he was sentenced to a total of 17 months' jail for violence on the victim and stealing a $528 mobile phone from a Korean woman at Rock Shop in Hard Rock Hotel, Resorts World Sentosa, in March. Eight other charges were taken into consideration.
ROLEX REIGNS IN COMMUNIST-CAPITALIST BEHEMOTH
I bought my first Roles in Hong Kong in 1983. After she cussed me out, my wife wouldn’t speak to me for several days. Some years later, I bought another Rolex because there was not enough contrast between the hands and the face of the watch for me to read the time. Both watches have been sitting in a safe deposit box for several years since I found out that it would cost me $800 just to have the watches serviced by Rolex. Anyway, neither watch ever kept time as accurately as the Rolex ads claim they do.
WATCHES, NOT GOLD BARS, NOW HINT AT NEW STATUS IN CHINA
The Straits Times
February 4, 2011
HONG KONG - A MEASURE of any Asian businessman is the time he keeps and, far more importantly, the watch he wears to mark it.
A handshake can be soft or firm but will likely soon be followed by a glance to the wrist to see the watch wrapped around it, especially in China.
A heavy slab of gold could be a marker that the person is from an inland city. A more expensive, understated watch could be a sign that they're from the coastal cities of Shanghai, Shenzhen or Beijing.
New money, in Chinese terms, versus old. Around 10 or 15 years ago, the coastal cities would also just go for gold; a chunky watch with a meaty gold strap, says watch enthusiast Harry Qin. 'In Asia, probably more than in Europe or North America, a watch is something that can hint at the status,' the Shanghai private equity investor, who has a US$250,000 (S$318,462) collection of 18 timepieces, told AFP.
'But many businessmen just wear a gold Rolex. Especially in less developed cities inland, a gold Rolex is still a very easy way to show other people that you've got money.'
The main driver behind the market is simple: Hundreds of thousands of Chinese people now have serious money to spend. -- AFP
WATCHES, NOT GOLD BARS, NOW HINT AT NEW STATUS IN CHINA
The Straits Times
February 4, 2011
HONG KONG - A MEASURE of any Asian businessman is the time he keeps and, far more importantly, the watch he wears to mark it.
A handshake can be soft or firm but will likely soon be followed by a glance to the wrist to see the watch wrapped around it, especially in China.
A heavy slab of gold could be a marker that the person is from an inland city. A more expensive, understated watch could be a sign that they're from the coastal cities of Shanghai, Shenzhen or Beijing.
New money, in Chinese terms, versus old. Around 10 or 15 years ago, the coastal cities would also just go for gold; a chunky watch with a meaty gold strap, says watch enthusiast Harry Qin. 'In Asia, probably more than in Europe or North America, a watch is something that can hint at the status,' the Shanghai private equity investor, who has a US$250,000 (S$318,462) collection of 18 timepieces, told AFP.
'But many businessmen just wear a gold Rolex. Especially in less developed cities inland, a gold Rolex is still a very easy way to show other people that you've got money.'
The main driver behind the market is simple: Hundreds of thousands of Chinese people now have serious money to spend. -- AFP
Friday, February 04, 2011
THE GLUE THAT BINDS ARAB SOCIETIES IS HATRED OF JEWS
Here are some excerpts from ‘Celebrate Arab Democracy?’ by Caroline B. Glick which was published in today's issue of Jewish World Review:
……… whether under authoritarian rule or democracy, anti-Semitism is the unifying sentiment of the Arab world. Fractured along socioeconomic, tribal, religious, political, ethnic and other lines, the glue that binds Arab societies is hatred of Jews.
A Pew opinion survey of Arab attitudes towards Jews from June 2009 makes this clear. 95 percent of Egyptians, 97 percent of Jordanians and Palestinians and 98 percent of Lebanese expressed unfavorable opinions of Jews. Three-quarters of Turks, Pakistanis and Indonesians also expressed hostile views of Jews.
Throughout the Arab and Muslim world, genocidal anti-Semitic propaganda is all-pervasive. And as Prof. Robert Wistrich has written, "The ubiquity of the hate and prejudice exemplified by this hard-core anti-Semitism undoubtedly exceeds the demonization of earlier historical periods — whether the Christian Middle Ages, the Spanish Inquisition, the Dreyfus Affair in France, or the Judeophobia of Tsarist Russia. The only comparable example would be that of Nazi Germany in which we can also speak of an'eliminationist anti-Semitism' of genocidal dimensions, which ultimately culminated in the Holocaust."
What these [Pew opinion survey] numbers, and the anti-Semitic behavior of Arabs show Israelis is that it makes no difference which regime rules where. As long as the Arab peoples hate Jews, there will be no peace between their countries and Israel.
If the media reported on the overwhelming Jew hatred in the Arab world generally and in Egypt specifically, it would ruin the narrative of the Arab conflict with Israel. That narrative explains the roots of the conflict as frustrated Arab-Palestinian nationalism. It steadfastly denies any more deeply-seated antipathy of Jews that is projected onto the Jewish state. The fact that the one Jewish state stands alone against 23 Arab states and 57 Muslim states whose populations are united in their hatred of Jews necessarily requires a revision of the narrative. And so their hatred is ignored.
……… whether under authoritarian rule or democracy, anti-Semitism is the unifying sentiment of the Arab world. Fractured along socioeconomic, tribal, religious, political, ethnic and other lines, the glue that binds Arab societies is hatred of Jews.
A Pew opinion survey of Arab attitudes towards Jews from June 2009 makes this clear. 95 percent of Egyptians, 97 percent of Jordanians and Palestinians and 98 percent of Lebanese expressed unfavorable opinions of Jews. Three-quarters of Turks, Pakistanis and Indonesians also expressed hostile views of Jews.
Throughout the Arab and Muslim world, genocidal anti-Semitic propaganda is all-pervasive. And as Prof. Robert Wistrich has written, "The ubiquity of the hate and prejudice exemplified by this hard-core anti-Semitism undoubtedly exceeds the demonization of earlier historical periods — whether the Christian Middle Ages, the Spanish Inquisition, the Dreyfus Affair in France, or the Judeophobia of Tsarist Russia. The only comparable example would be that of Nazi Germany in which we can also speak of an'eliminationist anti-Semitism' of genocidal dimensions, which ultimately culminated in the Holocaust."
What these [Pew opinion survey] numbers, and the anti-Semitic behavior of Arabs show Israelis is that it makes no difference which regime rules where. As long as the Arab peoples hate Jews, there will be no peace between their countries and Israel.
If the media reported on the overwhelming Jew hatred in the Arab world generally and in Egypt specifically, it would ruin the narrative of the Arab conflict with Israel. That narrative explains the roots of the conflict as frustrated Arab-Palestinian nationalism. It steadfastly denies any more deeply-seated antipathy of Jews that is projected onto the Jewish state. The fact that the one Jewish state stands alone against 23 Arab states and 57 Muslim states whose populations are united in their hatred of Jews necessarily requires a revision of the narrative. And so their hatred is ignored.
DORINA LISSON'S LESSON
Dorina Lisson, the Aussie anti-death penalty zealot, thinks correctional officers are abusive and brutal uneducated idiots and those on the execution team are ‘crazed sadists.’ And since she’s a psychologist and researcher, there can be absolutely no doubt that she is correct.
Here in her own words, Dorina strikes back at her critics:
To Centurian, Stevo, Bob
It doesn't take a genius to do the job of a correctional officer. Even an uneducated idiot can apply and get a job as a correctional officer, as some indeed are. If you don't like the job you are free to quit - try a job at McDonalds.
I suggest you do your own research on prisoner abuse by correctional officers' - you will be amazed at the abundance of factual information. You all can read, right?
I am a psychologist and researcher. I have the qualifications and experience to accurately state that the death penalty (aka state-sanctioned violence) has a brutalizing effect on society. The evidence can be found in the USA, where crime rates and incarceration rates remain the highest per capita, than any other country in the world. Wow !!! So, keep paying your taxes because legally killing people is costing American taxpayers' millions of dollars each year, millions more than life in prison without parole. Your beloved taxes are actually supporting a death penalty system riddled with legal errors. Now that's highly intelligent !!!
No decent intellectual human being can dispute that the execution-team (aka correctional officers) who claim to be 'just doing their job' are in fact abusive and brutal people. Only 'crazed sadists' are able to perform this vile act of barbarism and still sleep peacefully at night.
In the meantime, the USA is keeping close company with some unruly bed mates ...[Lisson goes on to list dozens of death penalty nations, most of them third-world countries.] The USA is right up there with the best of the best, while the civilized nations of the world are laughing at you. Who's the idiot ???
God Bless America !!!
Dorina Lisson
CENTURION REPLIES:
Dorina…Dorina…Dorina…
So much anger. So much hatred and contempt for a group of people who only want to do an honest job and go home safe at night.
As for the abuse of inmates by correctional officers…yes, I am sure it occurs. But again…the abuse of inmates by other inmates is far more prevelant. It may suprise you to know that it is the correctional officers that protect inmates and staff members from the many predatory inmates.
That masters degree in psychology you claim to possess does not qualify you to pass judgement on thousands of people whom you have never met, who work in an environment that you have never experienced.
And for every pschologist who spews your brand hatred and contempt for the hard working officers working inside prisons, there are at least ten others who would disagree with you.
I have to wonder about someone who can make such judgements and determinations about others based soley on this one topic…especially when the death penalty has been consistantly upheld by our Supreme Court and is supported by the majority of the American people.
Try looking beyond your narrow preconceptions and the rhetoric of the prisoners rights groups. Do a little research on your own. Look at BOTH sides of this issue. There are reams material out there…both for and against the death penalty.
On one thing you and I agree. God Bless America!!!
Here in her own words, Dorina strikes back at her critics:
To Centurian, Stevo, Bob
It doesn't take a genius to do the job of a correctional officer. Even an uneducated idiot can apply and get a job as a correctional officer, as some indeed are. If you don't like the job you are free to quit - try a job at McDonalds.
I suggest you do your own research on prisoner abuse by correctional officers' - you will be amazed at the abundance of factual information. You all can read, right?
I am a psychologist and researcher. I have the qualifications and experience to accurately state that the death penalty (aka state-sanctioned violence) has a brutalizing effect on society. The evidence can be found in the USA, where crime rates and incarceration rates remain the highest per capita, than any other country in the world. Wow !!! So, keep paying your taxes because legally killing people is costing American taxpayers' millions of dollars each year, millions more than life in prison without parole. Your beloved taxes are actually supporting a death penalty system riddled with legal errors. Now that's highly intelligent !!!
No decent intellectual human being can dispute that the execution-team (aka correctional officers) who claim to be 'just doing their job' are in fact abusive and brutal people. Only 'crazed sadists' are able to perform this vile act of barbarism and still sleep peacefully at night.
In the meantime, the USA is keeping close company with some unruly bed mates ...[Lisson goes on to list dozens of death penalty nations, most of them third-world countries.] The USA is right up there with the best of the best, while the civilized nations of the world are laughing at you. Who's the idiot ???
God Bless America !!!
Dorina Lisson
CENTURION REPLIES:
Dorina…Dorina…Dorina…
So much anger. So much hatred and contempt for a group of people who only want to do an honest job and go home safe at night.
As for the abuse of inmates by correctional officers…yes, I am sure it occurs. But again…the abuse of inmates by other inmates is far more prevelant. It may suprise you to know that it is the correctional officers that protect inmates and staff members from the many predatory inmates.
That masters degree in psychology you claim to possess does not qualify you to pass judgement on thousands of people whom you have never met, who work in an environment that you have never experienced.
And for every pschologist who spews your brand hatred and contempt for the hard working officers working inside prisons, there are at least ten others who would disagree with you.
I have to wonder about someone who can make such judgements and determinations about others based soley on this one topic…especially when the death penalty has been consistantly upheld by our Supreme Court and is supported by the majority of the American people.
Try looking beyond your narrow preconceptions and the rhetoric of the prisoners rights groups. Do a little research on your own. Look at BOTH sides of this issue. There are reams material out there…both for and against the death penalty.
On one thing you and I agree. God Bless America!!!
'NON-VIOLENT' BURGLAR AND THIEF KILLS CORRECTIONAL OFFICER
In California, correctional authorities would have classified this cop killer as a ‘non-violent’ offender.
FLA. CORRECTIONS OFFICER KILLED IN GUN BATTLE
By Melissa Nelson
Associated Press
February 3, 2011
GRITNEY, Fla. -- A corrections officer and an ex-convict wanted for killing his parents died in a gun battle Wednesday, state officials said.
The shootout happened after a homeowner confronted Wade Andrew Williams in the woods. Authorities had been searching for the 35-year-old since his parents were found dead in their home in the Florida Panhandle last week.
Williams tried to shoot the homeowner, but missed. He fled, setting off a massive manhunt.
K-9 units tracked Williams through a remote wooded area where authorities believe he had been camping. He shot and killed Col. Greg Malloy, a K-9 officer who had been with department since 1988, Department of Corrections spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said.
Authorities said they believe that Williams killed his parents in Cottondale last week and then went to the Choctawhatchee River Management Area, where he burned his father's truck and then camped in the area.
Authorities say they don't know why Williams, who was released from the Tallahassee Work Release Center in August 2009, would have killed his parents. He was sentenced to three years in prison after being convicted of several burglary and grand theft charges in 2005 and 2006.
"The colonel and other officers put themselves in harm's way to apprehend this dangerous suspect," said Holmes County Sheriff Tim Brown in an e-mail statement. "My heart goes out to all his family, friends and fellow officers."
It has already been a deadly year for law enforcement officers around the country, particularly in Florida, where two St. Petersburg police officers and two Miami-Dade County detectives died in two separate shootings last month.
___
Associated Press writers Kelli Kennedy and Lisa Orkin Emmanuel in Miami and Brendan Farrington in Tallahassee contributed to this report.
FLA. CORRECTIONS OFFICER KILLED IN GUN BATTLE
By Melissa Nelson
Associated Press
February 3, 2011
GRITNEY, Fla. -- A corrections officer and an ex-convict wanted for killing his parents died in a gun battle Wednesday, state officials said.
The shootout happened after a homeowner confronted Wade Andrew Williams in the woods. Authorities had been searching for the 35-year-old since his parents were found dead in their home in the Florida Panhandle last week.
Williams tried to shoot the homeowner, but missed. He fled, setting off a massive manhunt.
K-9 units tracked Williams through a remote wooded area where authorities believe he had been camping. He shot and killed Col. Greg Malloy, a K-9 officer who had been with department since 1988, Department of Corrections spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said.
Authorities said they believe that Williams killed his parents in Cottondale last week and then went to the Choctawhatchee River Management Area, where he burned his father's truck and then camped in the area.
Authorities say they don't know why Williams, who was released from the Tallahassee Work Release Center in August 2009, would have killed his parents. He was sentenced to three years in prison after being convicted of several burglary and grand theft charges in 2005 and 2006.
"The colonel and other officers put themselves in harm's way to apprehend this dangerous suspect," said Holmes County Sheriff Tim Brown in an e-mail statement. "My heart goes out to all his family, friends and fellow officers."
It has already been a deadly year for law enforcement officers around the country, particularly in Florida, where two St. Petersburg police officers and two Miami-Dade County detectives died in two separate shootings last month.
___
Associated Press writers Kelli Kennedy and Lisa Orkin Emmanuel in Miami and Brendan Farrington in Tallahassee contributed to this report.
STICKY FINGER DOPER LI-LO
How many breaks is this Hollywood celebrity tramp going to get? In addition to her bouts with alcohol and drug abuse, Lohan has a history of being sticky fingered.
In 2008, Li-Lo walked out of a New York nightclub with an $11,000 mink coat belonging to a Russian student. Lohan was able to avoid arrest and prosecution by reaching a settlement with the victim. In 2009, she was suspected of stealing $45,000 worth of jewels in London by taking them from a photo shoot with Elle magazine.
Louis Vuitton stopped using Lohan after she repeatedly walked off with their goods from photo shoots.
From the New York Post: “Louis Vuitton had sent over some samples for her to wear in the shoot. Lindsay kept shoving the clothes into her bag, and a stylist’s assistant kept getting them out of the bag, only to have Lindsay keep trying to take them. She ended up walking off with a very expensive shirt and some other items – which screwed Louis Vuitton because they were set to go to Vogue, W, and Harper’s Bazaar for other shoots. They were furious and kept trying to get their clothes back, but . . . Lindsay walked out with them and never returned calls.”
The latest investigation involves a $2,500 necklace reported stolen on January 22 from a jewelry store in the Venice section of Los Angeles. Surveillance cameras spotted Li-Lo wearing the necklace in the store at the time it was stolen. And since then she has been photographed on the streets wearing the stolen necklace.
Former prosecutor Susan Filan said on yesterday’s NBC Today show that, because the stolen necklace was returned to the jewelry store shortly before the cops were about to conduct a search, someone must have tipped Lohan off that LAPD was going to serve her with a search warrant. Filan also said that since she's been given five breaks by the courts, it was time to pull the plug on Li-Lo.
LINDSAY LOHAN BEING INVESTIGATED FOR JEWELRY THEFT
Associated Press
February 2, 2011
LOS ANGELES — Lindsay Lohan is in the spotlight again for all the wrong reasons.
Police got a search warrant Tuesday to look for a $2,500 stolen necklace at the troubled actress' home near Venice Beach, a freewheeling boardwalk known for its mix of performers, tourist shops and seaside gym.
But before detectives could execute the warrant, someone — police wouldn't say who — turned in the necklace.
Now Lohan, who is still on probation for a 2007 drunken driving case, is being investigated for possible grand theft, said Officer Bruce Borihanh on Wednesday.
An e-mail message sent to Lohan's attorney, Shawn Chapman Holley, was not immediately returned.
The store in Venice reported the necklace stolen on Jan. 22, roughly three weeks after the Mean Girls star was released from three months of court-ordered rehab that came after she admitted failing a drug test shortly after being granted early release from another treatment program.
Lohan, 24, is due in court on Feb. 25 for a probation hearing.
Lohan's frequent legal troubles, including lawsuits and two rehab stints and two trips to jail in 2010 alone, have led to the actress appearing more in court than on the big screen in recent years.
Her role as porn star Linda Lovelace in a biopic was recast while Lohan was being treated at Betty Ford.
The case of the stolen necklace is the second active police investigation that could return the former Disney star to jail if a judge determines she has violated her probation. Prosecutors in Riverside County are considering whether to press battery charges against Lohan over a December altercation the actress had with a worker at a Betty Ford Center facility in Palm Desert.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Elden S. Fox warned Lohan at a hearing last year that he would send her back to jail if she violated the terms of her probation, which requires her to obey all laws and submit to frequent drug tests.
The investigation into the stolen necklace was first reported by celebrity website RadarOnline.com. Police would not release additional details about the item Wednesday morning.
In 2008, Li-Lo walked out of a New York nightclub with an $11,000 mink coat belonging to a Russian student. Lohan was able to avoid arrest and prosecution by reaching a settlement with the victim. In 2009, she was suspected of stealing $45,000 worth of jewels in London by taking them from a photo shoot with Elle magazine.
Louis Vuitton stopped using Lohan after she repeatedly walked off with their goods from photo shoots.
From the New York Post: “Louis Vuitton had sent over some samples for her to wear in the shoot. Lindsay kept shoving the clothes into her bag, and a stylist’s assistant kept getting them out of the bag, only to have Lindsay keep trying to take them. She ended up walking off with a very expensive shirt and some other items – which screwed Louis Vuitton because they were set to go to Vogue, W, and Harper’s Bazaar for other shoots. They were furious and kept trying to get their clothes back, but . . . Lindsay walked out with them and never returned calls.”
The latest investigation involves a $2,500 necklace reported stolen on January 22 from a jewelry store in the Venice section of Los Angeles. Surveillance cameras spotted Li-Lo wearing the necklace in the store at the time it was stolen. And since then she has been photographed on the streets wearing the stolen necklace.
Former prosecutor Susan Filan said on yesterday’s NBC Today show that, because the stolen necklace was returned to the jewelry store shortly before the cops were about to conduct a search, someone must have tipped Lohan off that LAPD was going to serve her with a search warrant. Filan also said that since she's been given five breaks by the courts, it was time to pull the plug on Li-Lo.
LINDSAY LOHAN BEING INVESTIGATED FOR JEWELRY THEFT
Associated Press
February 2, 2011
LOS ANGELES — Lindsay Lohan is in the spotlight again for all the wrong reasons.
Police got a search warrant Tuesday to look for a $2,500 stolen necklace at the troubled actress' home near Venice Beach, a freewheeling boardwalk known for its mix of performers, tourist shops and seaside gym.
But before detectives could execute the warrant, someone — police wouldn't say who — turned in the necklace.
Now Lohan, who is still on probation for a 2007 drunken driving case, is being investigated for possible grand theft, said Officer Bruce Borihanh on Wednesday.
An e-mail message sent to Lohan's attorney, Shawn Chapman Holley, was not immediately returned.
The store in Venice reported the necklace stolen on Jan. 22, roughly three weeks after the Mean Girls star was released from three months of court-ordered rehab that came after she admitted failing a drug test shortly after being granted early release from another treatment program.
Lohan, 24, is due in court on Feb. 25 for a probation hearing.
Lohan's frequent legal troubles, including lawsuits and two rehab stints and two trips to jail in 2010 alone, have led to the actress appearing more in court than on the big screen in recent years.
Her role as porn star Linda Lovelace in a biopic was recast while Lohan was being treated at Betty Ford.
The case of the stolen necklace is the second active police investigation that could return the former Disney star to jail if a judge determines she has violated her probation. Prosecutors in Riverside County are considering whether to press battery charges against Lohan over a December altercation the actress had with a worker at a Betty Ford Center facility in Palm Desert.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Elden S. Fox warned Lohan at a hearing last year that he would send her back to jail if she violated the terms of her probation, which requires her to obey all laws and submit to frequent drug tests.
The investigation into the stolen necklace was first reported by celebrity website RadarOnline.com. Police would not release additional details about the item Wednesday morning.
Thursday, February 03, 2011
GOALIES DUKE IT OUT AT CENTER ICE
Fights between hockey players are not infrequent but you rarely ever see the goalies get into a fight. Separated by 200 feet of ice, they usually remain by their goal cages, content to watch their teammates fight. Not so last night.
Rick DiPietro of the New York Islanders is one of the premier goalies in the National Hockey League. Brent Johnson of the Pittsburgh Penguins is no slouch either.
Last night, with the Pens leading 3-0 and only seconds left in the game, DiPietro took a run at Penguins forward Matt Cooke, earning Rick a penalty for interference. But the penalty was not enough for Johnson.
Brent skated across the ice past a referee who attempted to stop him and met Rick for some good old fisticuffs. As they squared off, Brent beat Rick to the punch with a powerful left that flattened the Islanders goalie. Poor DiPietro, he not only had three goals scored on him but, adding insult to injury, he also got clocked by the opposing goalie.
Both goalies were given game misconducts, as well as five-minute majors for fighting. Because Brent did not get to finish the game, he was deprived of earning the 15th shutout of his career. Marc-Andre Fleury, who congratulated Johnson as he left the ice, finished the game in goal. Since Fleury did not face a shot, the game officially became a ‘team shutout.’
Rick DiPietro of the New York Islanders is one of the premier goalies in the National Hockey League. Brent Johnson of the Pittsburgh Penguins is no slouch either.
Last night, with the Pens leading 3-0 and only seconds left in the game, DiPietro took a run at Penguins forward Matt Cooke, earning Rick a penalty for interference. But the penalty was not enough for Johnson.
Brent skated across the ice past a referee who attempted to stop him and met Rick for some good old fisticuffs. As they squared off, Brent beat Rick to the punch with a powerful left that flattened the Islanders goalie. Poor DiPietro, he not only had three goals scored on him but, adding insult to injury, he also got clocked by the opposing goalie.
Both goalies were given game misconducts, as well as five-minute majors for fighting. Because Brent did not get to finish the game, he was deprived of earning the 15th shutout of his career. Marc-Andre Fleury, who congratulated Johnson as he left the ice, finished the game in goal. Since Fleury did not face a shot, the game officially became a ‘team shutout.’
GOD BLESS MIKE HUCKABEE!
Mike Huckabee and other evangelical Christians have been among the strongest supporters of Israel. Unfortunately that cannot be said for many liberal Christian church leaders because thy have been siding with the Palestinians against the Jewish state.
HUCKABEE: YES TO A PALESTINIAN STATE, BUT NO IN ISRAEL
By Ryan Jones
Israel Today
February 2, 2011
Possible US presidential candidate and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee was in Israel this week to once again demonstrate strong support for Jewish rights to settle their biblical homeland.
Speaking to reporters in Jerusalem, Huckabee said the Palestinians have the right to self-determination, but not sovereignty over this land.
“I think there probably should be [a Palestinian state], but it doesn’t necessarily have to be on the tiny postage-stamp-size piece of land that is Israel,” he said. “I’m not against a Palestinian state. I am against, and not really against, but I’m just being realistic - I don’t see how it works to put two people and two governments right on top of each other.”
Huckabee went on to blast the Arab position - which has been adopted by the rest of the world - that the Jews must stop building in Judea and Samaria, lands claimed by the Palestinians, in order for peace to be achieved.
“To tell Jewish people, ‘You cannot live here, you cannot raise your children here,’ this is the true racism, this is apartheid,” said Huckabee. “I cannot imagine as an American being told that I could not live in certain places in America because I was Christian, or because I was white, or because I spoke English.”
During his first day in Jerusalem on Monday, Huckabee let his actions do the talking when he helped lay the cornerstone for a new Jewish neighborhood on the Mt. of Olives, which lies on the side of Jerusalem claimed by the Palestinians for their future capital. The Obama Administration has demanded that Israel stop letting Jews build in those parts of Jerusalem.
Huckabee, an ordained Baptist preacher who takes a solid biblical view on Israel and the Middle East conflict, is widely expected to announce his candidacy for the presidency this summer. Recent polls have shown him to be an early frontrunner in the 2012 election.
Huckabee was joined on his trip by actor Jon Voight, who is also a staunch supporter of Israel.
HUCKABEE: YES TO A PALESTINIAN STATE, BUT NO IN ISRAEL
By Ryan Jones
Israel Today
February 2, 2011
Possible US presidential candidate and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee was in Israel this week to once again demonstrate strong support for Jewish rights to settle their biblical homeland.
Speaking to reporters in Jerusalem, Huckabee said the Palestinians have the right to self-determination, but not sovereignty over this land.
“I think there probably should be [a Palestinian state], but it doesn’t necessarily have to be on the tiny postage-stamp-size piece of land that is Israel,” he said. “I’m not against a Palestinian state. I am against, and not really against, but I’m just being realistic - I don’t see how it works to put two people and two governments right on top of each other.”
Huckabee went on to blast the Arab position - which has been adopted by the rest of the world - that the Jews must stop building in Judea and Samaria, lands claimed by the Palestinians, in order for peace to be achieved.
“To tell Jewish people, ‘You cannot live here, you cannot raise your children here,’ this is the true racism, this is apartheid,” said Huckabee. “I cannot imagine as an American being told that I could not live in certain places in America because I was Christian, or because I was white, or because I spoke English.”
During his first day in Jerusalem on Monday, Huckabee let his actions do the talking when he helped lay the cornerstone for a new Jewish neighborhood on the Mt. of Olives, which lies on the side of Jerusalem claimed by the Palestinians for their future capital. The Obama Administration has demanded that Israel stop letting Jews build in those parts of Jerusalem.
Huckabee, an ordained Baptist preacher who takes a solid biblical view on Israel and the Middle East conflict, is widely expected to announce his candidacy for the presidency this summer. Recent polls have shown him to be an early frontrunner in the 2012 election.
Huckabee was joined on his trip by actor Jon Voight, who is also a staunch supporter of Israel.
NEW YORK MAYOR STICKS NOSE WHERE IT DOES NOT BELONG
Some years ago, fool that I was, I thought that New York mayor Michael Bloomberg would make a good president. That was before I learned that Bloomberg is one of the foremost advocates of strict gun controls.
At a cost of about $100,000, Bloomberg has sent his investigators to gun shows all over the country to obtain evidence that guns can be easily purchased without any background checks being conducted. Shortly after the attempted assassination of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords his investigators showed up at an Arizona gun show and purchased three guns from private dealers without having their backgrounds checked. They also purchased extended magazines like the ones used by Jared Loughner, the Tucson shooter.
Because private dealers are exempt from having to run background checks, one sale was legal as the investigators simply purchased a gun. But the other two were illegal because the investigators informed the dealers that they would probably be unable to pass a background check.
Bloomberg said: “You can still walk into a gun show and buy a 9mm in the same time it would take to buy a hamburger and fries at McDonalds. We have demonstrated how easy it is for anyone to buy a semi-automatic handgun and a high-capacity magazine, no questions asked.”
Bloomberg is being disingenuous or else he is stupid and doesn’t know what he is talking about, and I don’t think he is stupid.
I frequently go to gun shows and from time to time I have purchased guns there. You will find three kinds of dealers at gun shows. There are well established licensed gun dealers who sell mostly brand new guns. There are private dealers who rent space at the show, put up a table, and sell their wares. If it’s guns they’re selling, almost all of those are used firearms. And there are the people who purchase tickets to attend the shows, many of them bringing their personal weapons to sell or trade.
Only the licensed dealers are required to run background checks. My observations over the years indicate that most guns purchased at gun shows are bought from those licensed dealers. And I can assure Mr. Bloomberg that, because of the background checks they run on each buyer, it takes a lot longer to buy a gun from those dealers than it does to buy a burger and fries at McDonalds. If you want to buy a gun, you have to fill out a two-page ATF questionnaire and wait as much as half-an-hour in line before it becomes your turn for the dealer to run that background check on you.
Bloomberg, Chicago’s Richard Daley, Boston's Thomas Menino and other big city mayors would like to eliminate the sale of handguns and military-style firearms to private citizens. A ban on the possession of firearms would only punish law abiding citizens who want to own guns for self-protection because they are not being protected by the mayors’ police forces. The criminal element will always be able to get their grimy hands on guns no matter what controls or restrictions are placed on the purchase or ownership of firearms.
Mr. Bloomberg, stop sticking your nose in the business of Arizona, Texas and other states you don’t like and save the taxpayers their money by keeping your investigators in New York where they belong!
At a cost of about $100,000, Bloomberg has sent his investigators to gun shows all over the country to obtain evidence that guns can be easily purchased without any background checks being conducted. Shortly after the attempted assassination of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords his investigators showed up at an Arizona gun show and purchased three guns from private dealers without having their backgrounds checked. They also purchased extended magazines like the ones used by Jared Loughner, the Tucson shooter.
Because private dealers are exempt from having to run background checks, one sale was legal as the investigators simply purchased a gun. But the other two were illegal because the investigators informed the dealers that they would probably be unable to pass a background check.
Bloomberg said: “You can still walk into a gun show and buy a 9mm in the same time it would take to buy a hamburger and fries at McDonalds. We have demonstrated how easy it is for anyone to buy a semi-automatic handgun and a high-capacity magazine, no questions asked.”
Bloomberg is being disingenuous or else he is stupid and doesn’t know what he is talking about, and I don’t think he is stupid.
I frequently go to gun shows and from time to time I have purchased guns there. You will find three kinds of dealers at gun shows. There are well established licensed gun dealers who sell mostly brand new guns. There are private dealers who rent space at the show, put up a table, and sell their wares. If it’s guns they’re selling, almost all of those are used firearms. And there are the people who purchase tickets to attend the shows, many of them bringing their personal weapons to sell or trade.
Only the licensed dealers are required to run background checks. My observations over the years indicate that most guns purchased at gun shows are bought from those licensed dealers. And I can assure Mr. Bloomberg that, because of the background checks they run on each buyer, it takes a lot longer to buy a gun from those dealers than it does to buy a burger and fries at McDonalds. If you want to buy a gun, you have to fill out a two-page ATF questionnaire and wait as much as half-an-hour in line before it becomes your turn for the dealer to run that background check on you.
Bloomberg, Chicago’s Richard Daley, Boston's Thomas Menino and other big city mayors would like to eliminate the sale of handguns and military-style firearms to private citizens. A ban on the possession of firearms would only punish law abiding citizens who want to own guns for self-protection because they are not being protected by the mayors’ police forces. The criminal element will always be able to get their grimy hands on guns no matter what controls or restrictions are placed on the purchase or ownership of firearms.
Mr. Bloomberg, stop sticking your nose in the business of Arizona, Texas and other states you don’t like and save the taxpayers their money by keeping your investigators in New York where they belong!
OUCH, DOUBLE OUCH! THAT MUST HAVE REALLY HURT
During my years in law enforcement I became acutely aware of the viciousness in quarrels and break-ups between homosexual lovers. I remember one case in which a murderer cut off the penis and testicles of his lover and stuffed them into the victim’s mouth.
‘CASTRATED WITH A CORKSCREW’: HORRIFIC LAST MOMENTS OF CELEBRITY JOURNALIST MURDERED IN NEW YORK HOTEL ROOM
'My son, being a golden boy, who is so good, he didn't do this,' accused killer’s mother said
Mail Online
February 2, 2011
A Portuguese model accused of killing a celebrity journalist in a New York hotel admitted brutally attacking him for more than an hour and castrating him with a corkscrew, prosecutors said.
It is also claimed Renato Seabra stabbed Carlos Castro in the face, slammed a computer monitor into his head and stamped on his face, Manhattan State Supreme Court was told.
Seabra, 21, remained silent in court and his lawyer entered a not-guilty plea to second-degree murder on his behalf.
Court papers presented by prosecutors described a statement police said Seabra gave after the January 7 death of Mr Castro, 65, a well-known Portuguese TV journalist, while the two were on holiday in Manhattan.
The account depicted an argument in a hotel room that turned vicious and escalated into a prolonged frenzy, with Seabra first choking his companion, then stabbing him with a corkscrew in his face and groin.
Seabra also admitted to hitting Mr Castro on the head with a computer monitor and stamping on his face while wearing shoes, the papers said.
After the attack Seabra told police, he showered, put on a suit and left.
The city medical examiner said Mr Castro died of head injuries and strangulation.
Defence lawyer David Touger said after the hearing that he and his client planned a 'vigorous defence' and hoped for a positive outcome.
Seabra will remain in custody at Bellevue Hospital until the parties return to court on March 4 for motions.
Friends in New York have said Mr Castro and Seabra were a couple. But Seabra's mother told Portugal's TVIndependente television network that her son was not gay and 'was not Carlos Castro's lover'.
Castro paid for the couple's trip to New York to celebrate the new year, but detectives are alleged to believe Seabra killed his grey-haired lover when he refused to take him on an expensive shopping trip.
Seabra's mother said her son - whom she described as shy and religious - wasn't capable of such horror.
'My son, being a golden boy, who is so good, he didn't do this,' she said.
Seabra has been charged with second degree murder.
‘CASTRATED WITH A CORKSCREW’: HORRIFIC LAST MOMENTS OF CELEBRITY JOURNALIST MURDERED IN NEW YORK HOTEL ROOM
'My son, being a golden boy, who is so good, he didn't do this,' accused killer’s mother said
Mail Online
February 2, 2011
A Portuguese model accused of killing a celebrity journalist in a New York hotel admitted brutally attacking him for more than an hour and castrating him with a corkscrew, prosecutors said.
It is also claimed Renato Seabra stabbed Carlos Castro in the face, slammed a computer monitor into his head and stamped on his face, Manhattan State Supreme Court was told.
Seabra, 21, remained silent in court and his lawyer entered a not-guilty plea to second-degree murder on his behalf.
Court papers presented by prosecutors described a statement police said Seabra gave after the January 7 death of Mr Castro, 65, a well-known Portuguese TV journalist, while the two were on holiday in Manhattan.
The account depicted an argument in a hotel room that turned vicious and escalated into a prolonged frenzy, with Seabra first choking his companion, then stabbing him with a corkscrew in his face and groin.
Seabra also admitted to hitting Mr Castro on the head with a computer monitor and stamping on his face while wearing shoes, the papers said.
After the attack Seabra told police, he showered, put on a suit and left.
The city medical examiner said Mr Castro died of head injuries and strangulation.
Defence lawyer David Touger said after the hearing that he and his client planned a 'vigorous defence' and hoped for a positive outcome.
Seabra will remain in custody at Bellevue Hospital until the parties return to court on March 4 for motions.
Friends in New York have said Mr Castro and Seabra were a couple. But Seabra's mother told Portugal's TVIndependente television network that her son was not gay and 'was not Carlos Castro's lover'.
Castro paid for the couple's trip to New York to celebrate the new year, but detectives are alleged to believe Seabra killed his grey-haired lover when he refused to take him on an expensive shopping trip.
Seabra's mother said her son - whom she described as shy and religious - wasn't capable of such horror.
'My son, being a golden boy, who is so good, he didn't do this,' she said.
Seabra has been charged with second degree murder.
KEEP WATCH FOR WANDERING EYES!
According to the astrologers, the coming year will see a lot of ‘extra-marital affairs and relationships with huge age differences.'
‘YEAR OF THE RABBIT’ COULD ALSO BE YEAR OF THE LOVE CHEAT
The Straits Times
February 2, 2011
HONG KONG - THE Chinese calendar may be set to welcome in the 'Year of the Rabbit' but the new year could be auspicious for love cheats, astrologers predict, and those who want a younger partner.
China celebrates the first day of the Lunar New Year on Thursday and many Chinese people are keen on using the occasion to get a glimpse of what might be in store next year.
'The 'Year of the Rabbit' will see a lot of unusual romantic relationships,' Hong Kong astrologer Anthony Cheng told AFP. 'Including extra-marital affairs and relationships with huge age differences.'
Mr Cheng said husbands and wives should keep watch for wandering eyes as their trusted partners look for stimulation elsewhere, although the coming year will also be lucky for couples planning to tie the knot.
'The Year of the Rabbit is an auspicious time for marriages, so I would expect to see a lot of people taking the plunge, including famous people,' he added.
'Those who are single are likely to find girlfriends or boyfriends, those who are in relationships are likely to get married, while those who are married are likely to have babies,' Mr Cheng predicted. -- AFP
‘YEAR OF THE RABBIT’ COULD ALSO BE YEAR OF THE LOVE CHEAT
The Straits Times
February 2, 2011
HONG KONG - THE Chinese calendar may be set to welcome in the 'Year of the Rabbit' but the new year could be auspicious for love cheats, astrologers predict, and those who want a younger partner.
China celebrates the first day of the Lunar New Year on Thursday and many Chinese people are keen on using the occasion to get a glimpse of what might be in store next year.
'The 'Year of the Rabbit' will see a lot of unusual romantic relationships,' Hong Kong astrologer Anthony Cheng told AFP. 'Including extra-marital affairs and relationships with huge age differences.'
Mr Cheng said husbands and wives should keep watch for wandering eyes as their trusted partners look for stimulation elsewhere, although the coming year will also be lucky for couples planning to tie the knot.
'The Year of the Rabbit is an auspicious time for marriages, so I would expect to see a lot of people taking the plunge, including famous people,' he added.
'Those who are single are likely to find girlfriends or boyfriends, those who are in relationships are likely to get married, while those who are married are likely to have babies,' Mr Cheng predicted. -- AFP
Wednesday, February 02, 2011
WHY HE WAS SPEEDING
A Florida man in his late 70s drove his brand new Corvette convertible out of the dealership.
Taking off down the road, he pushed it to 80 mph, enjoying the wind blowing through what little hair he had left. "Amazing," he thought as he flew down I-75, pushing the pedal even more.
Looking in his rear view mirror, he saw a Florida State Trooper, blue lights flashing and siren blaring. He floored it to 100 mph, then 110, then 120.
Suddenly he thought, “What am I doing? I’m to old for this!” and pulled over to await the trooper’s arrival.
Pulling in behind him, the trooper got out of his highway patrol car and walked up to the Corvette. He looked at his watch, then said, "Sir, my shift ends in 30 minutes. Today is Friday. If you can give me a new reason for speeding - an excuse I've never heard before - I'll let you go."
The old gentleman paused then said: "Three years ago, my wife ran off with a Florida State Trooper. I thought you were bringing her back."
"Have a good day, Sir," replied the trooper.
Taking off down the road, he pushed it to 80 mph, enjoying the wind blowing through what little hair he had left. "Amazing," he thought as he flew down I-75, pushing the pedal even more.
Looking in his rear view mirror, he saw a Florida State Trooper, blue lights flashing and siren blaring. He floored it to 100 mph, then 110, then 120.
Suddenly he thought, “What am I doing? I’m to old for this!” and pulled over to await the trooper’s arrival.
Pulling in behind him, the trooper got out of his highway patrol car and walked up to the Corvette. He looked at his watch, then said, "Sir, my shift ends in 30 minutes. Today is Friday. If you can give me a new reason for speeding - an excuse I've never heard before - I'll let you go."
The old gentleman paused then said: "Three years ago, my wife ran off with a Florida State Trooper. I thought you were bringing her back."
"Have a good day, Sir," replied the trooper.
BEAN COUNTERS TO BLAME FOR HORRIFIC ACT OF ANIMAL CRUELTY
Words cannot describe my revulsion over this senseless and horrific act of animal cruelty. Those responsible should be placed in a cage full of hungry wolves.
PACK OF 100 HUSKIES SHOT AND KNIFED TO DEATH BEFORE BEING TOSSED IN A MASS GRAVE BY TOUR OPERATOR TO SAVE MONEY
Mail Online
February 1, 2011
One hundred huskies were slaughtered by a tourism operator to save money after bookings dropped, it has emerged.
Some of the animals were shot while others had their throats cut before their bodies were thrown into a mass grave.
Experts say many of the animals would have died a long and painful death.
The Canadian company that owned the dogs reportedly ordered an employee to kill them after an expected boom following the 2010 Winter Olympics did not materialize.
Police are investigating Outdoor Adventures Whistler, based in the ski resort of the same name that hosted some events of the Vancouver Games last year.
The claims emerged in an employment tribunal case brought by the worker ordered to kill the dogs.
Marcie Moriarty, general manager of cruelty investigations for the B.C. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, told the Washington Post: 'There aren't words to really describe some of the ways these dogs died.'
'I think what gets to me, too, is that every other dog watched. And just the sheer number of dogs.'
'We don't put cows down like that. slaughterhouses have very strict rules for how supposed culling takes place. This violated every one of them,' she said.
The unnamed employee of Outdoor Adventures Whistler was reportedly told to slaughter the animals, part of a pack of 300, in April last year.
His lawyer told local radio station CKNW that the worker 'was told to find a way to make the business more cost effective'.
After failing to find new homes for the animals he took them out to be slaughtered, and was reportedly attacked at least twice by nearby dogs as the shootings took place. He is said to have slit the throat of one animal that jumped on top of him.
The man was awarded compensation by Worksafe BC, a Canadian employment tribunal, after Outdoor Adventures Whistler did not contest his claim.
The company could not be reached for comment. It earlier claimed that while it had a financial stake in the dog sledding company, 'operational control' rested with the employee.
Tim Tedford, a dog sled operator in British Columbia's Big White area told the Washington Post: 'That behaviour doesn't sound like a real musher.'
'Most mushers love their dogs. That sounds more like an accountant to me. Most mushers would starve themselves before they'd ever neglect their dogs,' he said.
PACK OF 100 HUSKIES SHOT AND KNIFED TO DEATH BEFORE BEING TOSSED IN A MASS GRAVE BY TOUR OPERATOR TO SAVE MONEY
Mail Online
February 1, 2011
One hundred huskies were slaughtered by a tourism operator to save money after bookings dropped, it has emerged.
Some of the animals were shot while others had their throats cut before their bodies were thrown into a mass grave.
Experts say many of the animals would have died a long and painful death.
The Canadian company that owned the dogs reportedly ordered an employee to kill them after an expected boom following the 2010 Winter Olympics did not materialize.
Police are investigating Outdoor Adventures Whistler, based in the ski resort of the same name that hosted some events of the Vancouver Games last year.
The claims emerged in an employment tribunal case brought by the worker ordered to kill the dogs.
Marcie Moriarty, general manager of cruelty investigations for the B.C. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, told the Washington Post: 'There aren't words to really describe some of the ways these dogs died.'
'I think what gets to me, too, is that every other dog watched. And just the sheer number of dogs.'
'We don't put cows down like that. slaughterhouses have very strict rules for how supposed culling takes place. This violated every one of them,' she said.
The unnamed employee of Outdoor Adventures Whistler was reportedly told to slaughter the animals, part of a pack of 300, in April last year.
His lawyer told local radio station CKNW that the worker 'was told to find a way to make the business more cost effective'.
After failing to find new homes for the animals he took them out to be slaughtered, and was reportedly attacked at least twice by nearby dogs as the shootings took place. He is said to have slit the throat of one animal that jumped on top of him.
The man was awarded compensation by Worksafe BC, a Canadian employment tribunal, after Outdoor Adventures Whistler did not contest his claim.
The company could not be reached for comment. It earlier claimed that while it had a financial stake in the dog sledding company, 'operational control' rested with the employee.
Tim Tedford, a dog sled operator in British Columbia's Big White area told the Washington Post: 'That behaviour doesn't sound like a real musher.'
'Most mushers love their dogs. That sounds more like an accountant to me. Most mushers would starve themselves before they'd ever neglect their dogs,' he said.
DEBORAH GIBSON-TIFFANY 'CAT FIGHT' ECLIPSED BY CHARLIE SHEEN AND THE EGYPTIANS
I saw a cat fight of epic proportions between a very leggy Deborah Gibson and a very busty Tiffany on SyFy the other night and it was truly a sight to see. This story is an example of why I love the way Hair Balls reports the news that’s not fit to print in the ‘lamestream’ media.
I THINK WE’RE ALONE NOW, EXCEPT FOR THE MEGA PYTHONS
By Pete Vonder Haar
Houston Press Hair Balls
February 1, 2011
I realize Egypt is in chaos and everyone north of the Mason-Dixon line is going to be flash frozen like a bag of Birds Eye broccoli florets and Charlie Sheen is apparently the reincarnation of Grigori Rasputin, but that is no excuse, no excuse, for the criminal lack of attention paid by our "lamestream" media to last weekend's cultural watershed moment. An event which, if you saw it referred to at all, was only in passing, and possibly with heavy (and unwarranted) sarcasm, despite the fact it united two of the brightest stars in our entertainment firmament for the first time on film. Two performers of such -- dare I say, legendary -- talent and reputation their collaboration should have been emblazoned in headlines across the most august publications in the land (or at least announced on the Drudge Report with those little sirens).
Instead, the news was buried under stories of dubious newsworthiness like "Egypt protesters play down Islamist party's role" and "Dissident arrested in Moscow." So chances are you weren't even aware that Deborah Gibson and Tiffany joined forces for the epic Mega Python vs. Gatoroid on the Syfy Channel last Saturday night.
I have seen wonders, my friends. I have gazed upon the Eibsee in Bavaria from the top of the Zugspitze. I've beheld the raging Atlantic from the ruins of Dun Aengus and watched in awe as my roommate shotgunned a 12-pack of Milwaukee's Best in under three minutes, but I have never witnessed beauty like the sight of two '80s icons doing battle, first with each other, and then against the movie's eponymous megafauna.
The plot is deliciously convoluted, but I'll attempt to sum it up: Gibson plays animal rights activist Nikki, who sets illegally imported snakes free in the Everglades. You might think such a tactic would be cruel, akin to sentencing the poor reptiles to death, which just proves how much smarter the singer of "Electric Youth" is than you. The snakes positively thrive in the swamps, alarmingly so, forcing Park Ranger Terri (Tiffany) to counter the ecological crisis by feeding the local alligator population steroid-laden chickens. I won't say what happens next, but my Uncle Steve -- who is a Park Ranger in an undisclosed Midwestern state -- told me something very similar happened in 1983, but the government hushed it up.
Given that blockbuster story, it's hard to explain the shameful lack of attention paid to this movie. We have cruises featuring the likes of REO Speedwagon and Styx, while the TV show Glee milked Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" for an entire season, and yet we're somehow supposed to accept that America isn't ready for a reunion between two of the most beloved pop princesses of the latter 20th century.
After all, as a nation we're all about clashes of our most respected titans: Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe, Alexis Colby and Krystle Carrington. The inevitable conflict between these two forgotten heroes of a bygone decade (before they realize their common purpose, of course) is as American as manifest destiny and the McRib.
Don't believe that? Well, allow me to retort:
To paraphrase another -- lesser -- movie: Is this heaven? No, it's Miami.
Or Los Angeles standing in for Miami. Whatever, you get the idea.
Mega Python vs. Gatoroid premiered on the Syfy Channel last Saturday and will repeat ad nauseam for the next three months at least. You know you want to watch.
I THINK WE’RE ALONE NOW, EXCEPT FOR THE MEGA PYTHONS
By Pete Vonder Haar
Houston Press Hair Balls
February 1, 2011
I realize Egypt is in chaos and everyone north of the Mason-Dixon line is going to be flash frozen like a bag of Birds Eye broccoli florets and Charlie Sheen is apparently the reincarnation of Grigori Rasputin, but that is no excuse, no excuse, for the criminal lack of attention paid by our "lamestream" media to last weekend's cultural watershed moment. An event which, if you saw it referred to at all, was only in passing, and possibly with heavy (and unwarranted) sarcasm, despite the fact it united two of the brightest stars in our entertainment firmament for the first time on film. Two performers of such -- dare I say, legendary -- talent and reputation their collaboration should have been emblazoned in headlines across the most august publications in the land (or at least announced on the Drudge Report with those little sirens).
Instead, the news was buried under stories of dubious newsworthiness like "Egypt protesters play down Islamist party's role" and "Dissident arrested in Moscow." So chances are you weren't even aware that Deborah Gibson and Tiffany joined forces for the epic Mega Python vs. Gatoroid on the Syfy Channel last Saturday night.
I have seen wonders, my friends. I have gazed upon the Eibsee in Bavaria from the top of the Zugspitze. I've beheld the raging Atlantic from the ruins of Dun Aengus and watched in awe as my roommate shotgunned a 12-pack of Milwaukee's Best in under three minutes, but I have never witnessed beauty like the sight of two '80s icons doing battle, first with each other, and then against the movie's eponymous megafauna.
The plot is deliciously convoluted, but I'll attempt to sum it up: Gibson plays animal rights activist Nikki, who sets illegally imported snakes free in the Everglades. You might think such a tactic would be cruel, akin to sentencing the poor reptiles to death, which just proves how much smarter the singer of "Electric Youth" is than you. The snakes positively thrive in the swamps, alarmingly so, forcing Park Ranger Terri (Tiffany) to counter the ecological crisis by feeding the local alligator population steroid-laden chickens. I won't say what happens next, but my Uncle Steve -- who is a Park Ranger in an undisclosed Midwestern state -- told me something very similar happened in 1983, but the government hushed it up.
Given that blockbuster story, it's hard to explain the shameful lack of attention paid to this movie. We have cruises featuring the likes of REO Speedwagon and Styx, while the TV show Glee milked Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" for an entire season, and yet we're somehow supposed to accept that America isn't ready for a reunion between two of the most beloved pop princesses of the latter 20th century.
After all, as a nation we're all about clashes of our most respected titans: Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe, Alexis Colby and Krystle Carrington. The inevitable conflict between these two forgotten heroes of a bygone decade (before they realize their common purpose, of course) is as American as manifest destiny and the McRib.
Don't believe that? Well, allow me to retort:
To paraphrase another -- lesser -- movie: Is this heaven? No, it's Miami.
Or Los Angeles standing in for Miami. Whatever, you get the idea.
Mega Python vs. Gatoroid premiered on the Syfy Channel last Saturday and will repeat ad nauseam for the next three months at least. You know you want to watch.
TOMMY GUNS IN VIOLIN CASES
This reminds me of the old John Dillinger-Al Capone days when gangsters hid their Tommy Guns, then the equivalent to today’s assault rifles, in violin cases.
BRENTWOOD POLICE ARREST PAROLEE AFTER FINDING ASSAULT RIFLE IN GUITAR CASE
By Robert Salonga
Contra Costa Times
February 1, 2011
BRENTWOOD -- A parolee was revealed to be a "Desperado" when officers searching his car during a traffic stop Monday night found a guitar case concealing an assault rifle and ammunition, police said.
The discovery, reminiscent of the title character in the 1995 Robert Rodriguez action film who similarly carried weapons via musical storage, was made about 10:45 p.m. near the In-N-Out Burger in the 5500 block of Lone Tree Way when a patrol officer stopped a Buick Regal for a moving violation, said Sgt. Mark Misquez.
A background check showed the driver Andrew Pena, 21, of Brentwood, was on parole for robbery, so the officer called for backup and searched the car, Misquez said. That turned up the guitar case, which contained an assault rifle with a high-capacity magazine and several hundred rounds.
The assault rifle and magazine are illegal to own in California, Misquez said, and the driver's felon status already prohibited him from having firearms or ammunition. No one else was in the vehicle.
Pena was arrested and booked into County Jail on suspicion of weapons offenses. He is being held without bail for violating parole.
BRENTWOOD POLICE ARREST PAROLEE AFTER FINDING ASSAULT RIFLE IN GUITAR CASE
By Robert Salonga
Contra Costa Times
February 1, 2011
BRENTWOOD -- A parolee was revealed to be a "Desperado" when officers searching his car during a traffic stop Monday night found a guitar case concealing an assault rifle and ammunition, police said.
The discovery, reminiscent of the title character in the 1995 Robert Rodriguez action film who similarly carried weapons via musical storage, was made about 10:45 p.m. near the In-N-Out Burger in the 5500 block of Lone Tree Way when a patrol officer stopped a Buick Regal for a moving violation, said Sgt. Mark Misquez.
A background check showed the driver Andrew Pena, 21, of Brentwood, was on parole for robbery, so the officer called for backup and searched the car, Misquez said. That turned up the guitar case, which contained an assault rifle with a high-capacity magazine and several hundred rounds.
The assault rifle and magazine are illegal to own in California, Misquez said, and the driver's felon status already prohibited him from having firearms or ammunition. No one else was in the vehicle.
Pena was arrested and booked into County Jail on suspicion of weapons offenses. He is being held without bail for violating parole.
Tuesday, February 01, 2011
A LESSON FOR DORINA LISSON
Dorina Lisson, an Australian anti-death penalty zealot, says “People who support the brutality of state-sanctioned killing should not be employed in any capacity with caged human beings.” Lisson also says “Prisoner abuse by brutal inhumane correctional officers [in the U.S.] is rife.”
Centurion responded with the following lesson for Lisson:
When I was 16 I had a dog...half lab and half German shepherd, I called Duke. I was a track and cross country runner, and I used to take Duke with me on my five and six mile runs in the mornings. I loved that dog. One morning he chased a man and bit him. We had to put him down.
Dorina, do you see a difference between me and, say...Michael Vick? Are he and I the same? Should I never be allowed to own another animal?
I worked as a correctional officer for over 20 years. During that time I saved several inmates from being attacked by other inmates, saved an inmate from choking by performing a Heimlich Maneuver on him just outside our dining hall, rendered emergency intervention on suicidal inmates, and always endeavored to treat inmates under my supervision fairly and humanely.
Yet...because I feel the death penalty - which is the current law in my country - is a righteous penalty for those convicted of the most heinous crimes, you feel that I am somehow unfit to be a correctional officer? Do you also feel that a veterinarian...who euthanizes animals...is unfit to render care and treatment to animals? Should an animal control officer who euthanizes hundreds of animals a week be prohibited from providing shelter, food and protection to the animals housed in the shelter as well?
Now before you jump in and say that I am comparing human inmates to animals...I am not. The comparison I am making is a person's fitness or unfitness for a job based on his belief that some under his charge deserve to be killed...when proscribed by law...to protect others in our society.
Dorina, you seem to have some rather strong opinions about correctional officers. You should try to get to know a few. You would find that most of us aren't all that much different from anybody else. I mean...you say that prisoner abuse by brutal inhumane correctional officers is rife. What is your basis for making that statement?
California has over 150,000inmates incarcerated in it's prisons. We have the Prison Law Office, the ACLU, Prisoner's Union, and countless other activist groups who champion inmates rights in this state, yet the number of reported incidents is thankfully small.
I doubt that you could cite an unbiased authority for your assertions that prisoner abuse is rife. Why? Because after two decades of working in prisons, I have to tell ya....the only inhumane brutality against inmates I saw was meted out by other inmates.
EDITOR’S NOTE - Here is what a couple of PACOVILLA Correctional blog readers added:
‘steveo’ says: The worst, dirtiest depressing job out there !! Come walk with us Dorina….It truly sucks!!!
Bob Walsh says: The woman [Dorina Lisson] is a well intentioned idiot. Such fools are dangerous.
Centurion responded with the following lesson for Lisson:
When I was 16 I had a dog...half lab and half German shepherd, I called Duke. I was a track and cross country runner, and I used to take Duke with me on my five and six mile runs in the mornings. I loved that dog. One morning he chased a man and bit him. We had to put him down.
Dorina, do you see a difference between me and, say...Michael Vick? Are he and I the same? Should I never be allowed to own another animal?
I worked as a correctional officer for over 20 years. During that time I saved several inmates from being attacked by other inmates, saved an inmate from choking by performing a Heimlich Maneuver on him just outside our dining hall, rendered emergency intervention on suicidal inmates, and always endeavored to treat inmates under my supervision fairly and humanely.
Yet...because I feel the death penalty - which is the current law in my country - is a righteous penalty for those convicted of the most heinous crimes, you feel that I am somehow unfit to be a correctional officer? Do you also feel that a veterinarian...who euthanizes animals...is unfit to render care and treatment to animals? Should an animal control officer who euthanizes hundreds of animals a week be prohibited from providing shelter, food and protection to the animals housed in the shelter as well?
Now before you jump in and say that I am comparing human inmates to animals...I am not. The comparison I am making is a person's fitness or unfitness for a job based on his belief that some under his charge deserve to be killed...when proscribed by law...to protect others in our society.
Dorina, you seem to have some rather strong opinions about correctional officers. You should try to get to know a few. You would find that most of us aren't all that much different from anybody else. I mean...you say that prisoner abuse by brutal inhumane correctional officers is rife. What is your basis for making that statement?
California has over 150,000inmates incarcerated in it's prisons. We have the Prison Law Office, the ACLU, Prisoner's Union, and countless other activist groups who champion inmates rights in this state, yet the number of reported incidents is thankfully small.
I doubt that you could cite an unbiased authority for your assertions that prisoner abuse is rife. Why? Because after two decades of working in prisons, I have to tell ya....the only inhumane brutality against inmates I saw was meted out by other inmates.
EDITOR’S NOTE - Here is what a couple of PACOVILLA Correctional blog readers added:
‘steveo’ says: The worst, dirtiest depressing job out there !! Come walk with us Dorina….It truly sucks!!!
Bob Walsh says: The woman [Dorina Lisson] is a well intentioned idiot. Such fools are dangerous.
POSSIBLE OUTCOMES FROM THE EGYPTIAN REVOLUTION
The following analysis from the January 30 issue of STRATFOR Global Intelligence is part of George Friedman’s ‘The Egypt Crisis In A Global Context’:
There are four outcomes possible. First, the regime might survive. Mubarak might stabilize the situation, or more likely, another senior military official would replace him after a decent interval. Another possibility under the scenario of the regime's survival is that there may be a coup of the colonels. A second possibility is that the demonstrators might force elections in which ElBaradei or someone like him could be elected and Egypt might overthrow the statist model built by Nasser and proceed on the path of democracy. The third possibility is that the demonstrators force elections, which the Muslim Brotherhood could win and move forward with an Islamist-oriented agenda. The fourth possibility is that Egypt will sink into political chaos. The most likely path to this would be elections that result in political gridlock in which a viable candidate cannot be elected. If I were forced to choose, I would bet on the regime stabilizing itself and Mubarak leaving because of the relative weakness and division of the demonstrators. But that's a guess and not a forecast.
Whatever happens matters a great deal to Egyptians. But only some of these outcomes are significant to the world. Among radical Islamists, the prospect of a radicalized Egypt represents a new lease on life. For Iran, such an outcome would be less pleasing. Iran is now the emerging center of radical Islamism; it would not welcome competition from Egypt, though it may be content with an Islamist Egypt that acts as an Iranian ally (something that would not be easy to ensure).
For the United States, an Islamist Egypt would be a strategic catastrophe. Egypt is the center of gravity in the Arab world. This would not only change the dynamic of the Arab world, it would reverse U.S. strategy since the end of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. Sadat's decision to reverse his alliance with the Soviets and form an alliance with the United States undermined the Soviet position in the Mediterranean and in the Arab world and strengthened the United States immeasurably. The support of Egyptian intelligence after 9/11 was critical in blocking and undermining al Qaeda. Were Egypt to stop that cooperation or become hostile, the U.S. strategy would be severely undermined.
The great loser would be Israel. Israel's national security has rested on its treaty with Egypt, signed by Menachem Begin with much criticism by the Israeli right. The demilitarization of the Sinai Peninsula not only protected Israel's southern front, it meant that the survival of Israel was no longer at stake. Israel fought three wars (1948, 1967 and 1973) where its very existence was at issue. The threat was always from Egypt, and without Egypt in the mix, no coalition of powers could threaten Israel (excluding the now-distant possibility of Iranian nuclear weapons). In all of the wars Israel fought after its treaty with Egypt (the 1982 and 2006 wars in Lebanon) Israeli interests, but not survival, were at stake.
If Egypt were to abrogate the Camp David Accords and over time reconstruct its military into an effective force, the existential threat to Israel that existed before the treaty was signed would re-emerge. This would not happen quickly, but Israel would have to deal with two realities. The first is that the Israeli military is not nearly large enough or strong enough to occupy and control Egypt. The second is that the development of Egypt's military would impose substantial costs on Israel and limit its room for maneuver.
There is thus a scenario that would potentially strengthen the radical Islamists while putting the United States, Israel, and potentially even Iran at a disadvantage, all for different reasons. That scenario emerges only if two things happen. First, the Muslim Brotherhood must become a dominant political force in Egypt. Second, they must turn out to be more radical than most observers currently believe they are — or they must, with power, evolve into something more radical.
If the advocates for democracy win, and if they elect someone like ElBaradei, it is unlikely that this scenario would take place. The pro-Western democratic faction is primarily concerned with domestic issues, are themselves secular and would not want to return to the wartime state prior to Camp David, because that would simply strengthen the military. If they win power, the geopolitical arrangements would remain unchanged.
Similarly, the geopolitical arrangements would remain in place if the military regime retained power — save for one scenario. If it was decided that the regime's unpopularity could be mitigated by assuming a more anti-Western and anti-Israeli policy — in other words, if the regime decided to play the Islamist card, the situation could evolve as a Muslim Brotherhood government would. Indeed, as hard as it is to imagine, there could be an alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood designed to stabilize the regime. Stranger things have happened.
When we look at the political dynamic of Egypt, and try to imagine its connection to the international system, we can see that there are several scenarios under which certain political outcomes would have profound effects on the way the world works. That should not be surprising. When Egypt was a pro-Soviet Nasserite state, the world was a very different place than it had been before Nasser. When Sadat changed his foreign policy the world changed with it. If Sadat's foreign policy changes, the world changes again. Egypt is one of those countries whose internal politics matter to more than its own citizens.
Most of the outcomes I envision leave Egypt pretty much where it is. But not all. The situation is, as they say, in doubt, and the outcome is not trivial.
There are four outcomes possible. First, the regime might survive. Mubarak might stabilize the situation, or more likely, another senior military official would replace him after a decent interval. Another possibility under the scenario of the regime's survival is that there may be a coup of the colonels. A second possibility is that the demonstrators might force elections in which ElBaradei or someone like him could be elected and Egypt might overthrow the statist model built by Nasser and proceed on the path of democracy. The third possibility is that the demonstrators force elections, which the Muslim Brotherhood could win and move forward with an Islamist-oriented agenda. The fourth possibility is that Egypt will sink into political chaos. The most likely path to this would be elections that result in political gridlock in which a viable candidate cannot be elected. If I were forced to choose, I would bet on the regime stabilizing itself and Mubarak leaving because of the relative weakness and division of the demonstrators. But that's a guess and not a forecast.
Whatever happens matters a great deal to Egyptians. But only some of these outcomes are significant to the world. Among radical Islamists, the prospect of a radicalized Egypt represents a new lease on life. For Iran, such an outcome would be less pleasing. Iran is now the emerging center of radical Islamism; it would not welcome competition from Egypt, though it may be content with an Islamist Egypt that acts as an Iranian ally (something that would not be easy to ensure).
For the United States, an Islamist Egypt would be a strategic catastrophe. Egypt is the center of gravity in the Arab world. This would not only change the dynamic of the Arab world, it would reverse U.S. strategy since the end of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. Sadat's decision to reverse his alliance with the Soviets and form an alliance with the United States undermined the Soviet position in the Mediterranean and in the Arab world and strengthened the United States immeasurably. The support of Egyptian intelligence after 9/11 was critical in blocking and undermining al Qaeda. Were Egypt to stop that cooperation or become hostile, the U.S. strategy would be severely undermined.
The great loser would be Israel. Israel's national security has rested on its treaty with Egypt, signed by Menachem Begin with much criticism by the Israeli right. The demilitarization of the Sinai Peninsula not only protected Israel's southern front, it meant that the survival of Israel was no longer at stake. Israel fought three wars (1948, 1967 and 1973) where its very existence was at issue. The threat was always from Egypt, and without Egypt in the mix, no coalition of powers could threaten Israel (excluding the now-distant possibility of Iranian nuclear weapons). In all of the wars Israel fought after its treaty with Egypt (the 1982 and 2006 wars in Lebanon) Israeli interests, but not survival, were at stake.
If Egypt were to abrogate the Camp David Accords and over time reconstruct its military into an effective force, the existential threat to Israel that existed before the treaty was signed would re-emerge. This would not happen quickly, but Israel would have to deal with two realities. The first is that the Israeli military is not nearly large enough or strong enough to occupy and control Egypt. The second is that the development of Egypt's military would impose substantial costs on Israel and limit its room for maneuver.
There is thus a scenario that would potentially strengthen the radical Islamists while putting the United States, Israel, and potentially even Iran at a disadvantage, all for different reasons. That scenario emerges only if two things happen. First, the Muslim Brotherhood must become a dominant political force in Egypt. Second, they must turn out to be more radical than most observers currently believe they are — or they must, with power, evolve into something more radical.
If the advocates for democracy win, and if they elect someone like ElBaradei, it is unlikely that this scenario would take place. The pro-Western democratic faction is primarily concerned with domestic issues, are themselves secular and would not want to return to the wartime state prior to Camp David, because that would simply strengthen the military. If they win power, the geopolitical arrangements would remain unchanged.
Similarly, the geopolitical arrangements would remain in place if the military regime retained power — save for one scenario. If it was decided that the regime's unpopularity could be mitigated by assuming a more anti-Western and anti-Israeli policy — in other words, if the regime decided to play the Islamist card, the situation could evolve as a Muslim Brotherhood government would. Indeed, as hard as it is to imagine, there could be an alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood designed to stabilize the regime. Stranger things have happened.
When we look at the political dynamic of Egypt, and try to imagine its connection to the international system, we can see that there are several scenarios under which certain political outcomes would have profound effects on the way the world works. That should not be surprising. When Egypt was a pro-Soviet Nasserite state, the world was a very different place than it had been before Nasser. When Sadat changed his foreign policy the world changed with it. If Sadat's foreign policy changes, the world changes again. Egypt is one of those countries whose internal politics matter to more than its own citizens.
Most of the outcomes I envision leave Egypt pretty much where it is. But not all. The situation is, as they say, in doubt, and the outcome is not trivial.
BUREAUCRATIC PAPERWORK REQUIREMENTS MAY HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO CORRECTIONAL OFFICER'S SLAYING
Saturday night, Jayme Lee Biendl, a 34-year-old female correctional officer with eight years on the job, was killed by an inmate at the Washington state prison in Monroe. Her tragic death might have been prevented were it not for the ‘petty bureaucratic book keeping requirements’ of the Washington Department of Corrections.
Here is what Centurion wrote after I gave him a heads-up on her slaying:
I probably told you Howie....after I retired from California I went to work for a short time for Washington DOC. I didn't like it much. In fact....I quit after only six months. Those poor bastards have no gun coverage for the most part, no batons, no OC...no nuthin. They are so burdened with meaningless repetitive documentation, that they have little time to focus on personal safety awareness in the moment.
Shit...I was running my ass off all night in a first watch (10 pm to 6 am) job just trying to keep on top of all their petty bureaucratic book keeping requirements. One count every hour in a dorm consisting of four wings, outside exterior building checks required of dorm officers...mandatory documented searches in the middle of the damn night. Stupid shit.
So I am not surprised that a female was working alone with violent male felons in an isolated area. Their focus is all on the paperwork showing that they are doing the jobs. So much so that it's very difficult to actually do their jobs.
Centurion went on to add:
My Washington experience was short lived Howie. Their system was designed with input from inmates. This is one reason the officers have very little real power. There is a sergeant supervisor for every 5 or 6 officers, and they have a myriad of bureaucrats - counselors, program administrators, and social workers - running the units. Everybody is a friggin expert. One of my assignments was in our 100 cell ad seg building. It took two full time officers just to run the control booth...ten corridors with ten cells each. Four floor cops...total six cops. One sergeant for each and every shift. Two counselors, and one program administrator JUST FOR A FRIGGEN 100 man Ad Seg building.
There were eleven...and I counted them ELEVEN locked doors between an ad seg inmate and the outside world. Each and every one of these doors had to be opened by some guy viewing you through a camera. (This institution was big on cameras. All the "experts" figured they could run the place from behind their computer screen. Anyway, you would push a little button on a panel next to the door and some poor clown sitting at a console with a camera would identify you and electronically open the door for you to pass.
When we did our outer security checks we had a twenty item check off list. We were to initial each item we checked (ie..a valve...a valve cap...the lock on a fire door)...and note the actual time we checked and initialed each and every item.
Howie....I worked at night and sometimes we were doing these checks in two foot deep snow drifts in the middle of a storm.
Requiring that we initial besides each item and enter a precise time encouraged officers to fudge their entries. I mean...who in their right mind is going to take a paper worksheet out into a snow or a rain storm and write all these times down.
Nobody would, and nobody did. This taught people something that carried over into other activities and other forms of documentation. It taught people to forge paperwork....to give it a Wild Ass Guess and write it down on an official document. A document that could end up in court and testified to.
This adds to the mindset that... the documentation is more important than the activity being documented. That's a dangerous mindset in our profession Howie....and a whole generation of correctional officers in the state of Washington are being taught that.
I could go on and on all night....but you get the picture I think.
Here is what Centurion wrote after I gave him a heads-up on her slaying:
I probably told you Howie....after I retired from California I went to work for a short time for Washington DOC. I didn't like it much. In fact....I quit after only six months. Those poor bastards have no gun coverage for the most part, no batons, no OC...no nuthin. They are so burdened with meaningless repetitive documentation, that they have little time to focus on personal safety awareness in the moment.
Shit...I was running my ass off all night in a first watch (10 pm to 6 am) job just trying to keep on top of all their petty bureaucratic book keeping requirements. One count every hour in a dorm consisting of four wings, outside exterior building checks required of dorm officers...mandatory documented searches in the middle of the damn night. Stupid shit.
So I am not surprised that a female was working alone with violent male felons in an isolated area. Their focus is all on the paperwork showing that they are doing the jobs. So much so that it's very difficult to actually do their jobs.
Centurion went on to add:
My Washington experience was short lived Howie. Their system was designed with input from inmates. This is one reason the officers have very little real power. There is a sergeant supervisor for every 5 or 6 officers, and they have a myriad of bureaucrats - counselors, program administrators, and social workers - running the units. Everybody is a friggin expert. One of my assignments was in our 100 cell ad seg building. It took two full time officers just to run the control booth...ten corridors with ten cells each. Four floor cops...total six cops. One sergeant for each and every shift. Two counselors, and one program administrator JUST FOR A FRIGGEN 100 man Ad Seg building.
There were eleven...and I counted them ELEVEN locked doors between an ad seg inmate and the outside world. Each and every one of these doors had to be opened by some guy viewing you through a camera. (This institution was big on cameras. All the "experts" figured they could run the place from behind their computer screen. Anyway, you would push a little button on a panel next to the door and some poor clown sitting at a console with a camera would identify you and electronically open the door for you to pass.
When we did our outer security checks we had a twenty item check off list. We were to initial each item we checked (ie..a valve...a valve cap...the lock on a fire door)...and note the actual time we checked and initialed each and every item.
Howie....I worked at night and sometimes we were doing these checks in two foot deep snow drifts in the middle of a storm.
Requiring that we initial besides each item and enter a precise time encouraged officers to fudge their entries. I mean...who in their right mind is going to take a paper worksheet out into a snow or a rain storm and write all these times down.
Nobody would, and nobody did. This taught people something that carried over into other activities and other forms of documentation. It taught people to forge paperwork....to give it a Wild Ass Guess and write it down on an official document. A document that could end up in court and testified to.
This adds to the mindset that... the documentation is more important than the activity being documented. That's a dangerous mindset in our profession Howie....and a whole generation of correctional officers in the state of Washington are being taught that.
I could go on and on all night....but you get the picture I think.
A TEXTBOOK EXAMPLE OF HOW JUDGES SHOULD NOT BEHAVE
In keeping with the region has jurisdiction over, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is the most liberal and activist court in the federal judiciary. That is evident when even the liberal justices of the Supreme Court agree that the judges of the Ninth Circuit have gone too far.
WHERE JUDICIAL ACTIVISM MORPHS INTO DISREGARD
By Debra J. Saunders
San Francisco Chronicle
January 30, 2011
Four times this month the U.S. Supreme Court has slapped down the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Four times the Big Bench unanimously reversed Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decisions. Unanimous is a big deal. It means that there's no left-right political divide in the Big Bench's findings - just right on the law and wrong on the law.
I take unanimous seriously. When the California Supreme Court issued a ruling last year that stayed a scheduled execution, I feared yet another overreaching judicial fiat. But then I saw that all the justices were on board. The law had to be unambiguous.
In the instances of the three criminal reversals this month, the Big Bench clearly was sending a message to the Ninth Circuit - particularly to Judge Stephen Reinhardt, who had written the opinions. And the message is: Show some respect for the law.
Followers of the Ninth Circuit are painfully aware of its reputation as an activist court that flouts laws it doesn't like and bulldozes rulings that defy its left-leaning politics. The San Francisco-based judicial district serves as a textbook example of how judges should not behave.
Start with Randy Moore's case. In a plea bargain, Moore pleaded "no contest" to the 1995 Oregon murder of Kenneth Rogers, whom Moore and two confederates had kidnapped and Moore had shot in the head. Moore was facing a possible death sentence. Thanks to the plea deal, he got 25 years and the possibility of parole.
Now this is a sore spot for me, because I don't think courts should even consider the appeal of any plea bargain unless the defendant was severely mistreated. But Moore appealed and the Ninth seized on Moore's plea bargain as proof that he was represented by ineffective counsel.
The court's logic was deficient. As Criminal Justice Legal Foundation President Michael Rushford observed, Moore "got a good deal."
But the court was flouting federal law. Congress passed and President Bill Clinton signed the 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act precisely to prevent federal judges from issuing niggling orders that disregard court convictions and upend state appellate rulings.
In reversing Moore, Justice Anthony Kennedy had to remind the Ninth that its mandate is to follow the law.
Ditto the case of Joshua Richter, who was found guilty in a 1994 murder committed while he and an accomplice robbed a drug dealer. Once again the Ninth found ineffective counsel.
In affirming the Richter conviction, Justice Kennedy wrote that the writ of habeas corpus stands as a safeguard against wrongful imprisonment. But the law is undermined "if there is judicial disregard for the sound and established principles that inform its proper issuance. That judicial disregard is inherent in" the Ninth's Richter decision.
Rushford of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation found the unsigned decision of the court most damning because the Big Bench thought that the Ninth Circuit was so wrong that it "didn't even allow oral arguments."
Reinhardt and the majority had ordered the parole of Damon Cooke, who was convicted of attempted first-degree murder after he shot a friend in the head in 1991. The Ninth found that the parole board was wrong to consider the "cruel and callous" nature of the crime and wrong to ignore claims that Cooke was "an exemplary inmate." The court also ordered the release of Elijah Clay, who was convicted of first-degree murder in 1978, because then-Gov. Gray Davis' refusal to heed a parole board recommendation for release was unreasonable.
Again, the Supremes ruled that federal judges have no dog in this fight: "There is no right under the federal Constitution to be conditionally released before the expiration of a valid sentence, and the states are under no duty to offer parole to prisoners."
In a fourth reversal, this one written by Justice Sonya Sotomayor, the Supreme Court unanimously overturned a ruling involving a banking regulation.
There are judges in the Ninth who see the bench as a portfolio to overturn any policy they don't like - and jurisdiction be damned.
In 2009, a three-judge (including Reinhardt) Ninth Circuit panel ordered the release of 40,000 California inmates. Not only did the three seem to think they had authority reserved for state lawmakers, but they also issued the pronouncement that the state could release 1 in 4 inmates "without a meaningful adverse impact on public safety." As if saying so makes it so.
It's odd. When there is an opening on the Supreme Court, the Senate examines in detail whether nominees have the proper respect for past Supreme Court rulings. Sen. Dianne Feinstein is quite particular on that score. But in San Francisco, the Ninth Circuit doesn't seem to care what the U.S. Supreme Court writes.
WHERE JUDICIAL ACTIVISM MORPHS INTO DISREGARD
By Debra J. Saunders
San Francisco Chronicle
January 30, 2011
Four times this month the U.S. Supreme Court has slapped down the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Four times the Big Bench unanimously reversed Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decisions. Unanimous is a big deal. It means that there's no left-right political divide in the Big Bench's findings - just right on the law and wrong on the law.
I take unanimous seriously. When the California Supreme Court issued a ruling last year that stayed a scheduled execution, I feared yet another overreaching judicial fiat. But then I saw that all the justices were on board. The law had to be unambiguous.
In the instances of the three criminal reversals this month, the Big Bench clearly was sending a message to the Ninth Circuit - particularly to Judge Stephen Reinhardt, who had written the opinions. And the message is: Show some respect for the law.
Followers of the Ninth Circuit are painfully aware of its reputation as an activist court that flouts laws it doesn't like and bulldozes rulings that defy its left-leaning politics. The San Francisco-based judicial district serves as a textbook example of how judges should not behave.
Start with Randy Moore's case. In a plea bargain, Moore pleaded "no contest" to the 1995 Oregon murder of Kenneth Rogers, whom Moore and two confederates had kidnapped and Moore had shot in the head. Moore was facing a possible death sentence. Thanks to the plea deal, he got 25 years and the possibility of parole.
Now this is a sore spot for me, because I don't think courts should even consider the appeal of any plea bargain unless the defendant was severely mistreated. But Moore appealed and the Ninth seized on Moore's plea bargain as proof that he was represented by ineffective counsel.
The court's logic was deficient. As Criminal Justice Legal Foundation President Michael Rushford observed, Moore "got a good deal."
But the court was flouting federal law. Congress passed and President Bill Clinton signed the 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act precisely to prevent federal judges from issuing niggling orders that disregard court convictions and upend state appellate rulings.
In reversing Moore, Justice Anthony Kennedy had to remind the Ninth that its mandate is to follow the law.
Ditto the case of Joshua Richter, who was found guilty in a 1994 murder committed while he and an accomplice robbed a drug dealer. Once again the Ninth found ineffective counsel.
In affirming the Richter conviction, Justice Kennedy wrote that the writ of habeas corpus stands as a safeguard against wrongful imprisonment. But the law is undermined "if there is judicial disregard for the sound and established principles that inform its proper issuance. That judicial disregard is inherent in" the Ninth's Richter decision.
Rushford of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation found the unsigned decision of the court most damning because the Big Bench thought that the Ninth Circuit was so wrong that it "didn't even allow oral arguments."
Reinhardt and the majority had ordered the parole of Damon Cooke, who was convicted of attempted first-degree murder after he shot a friend in the head in 1991. The Ninth found that the parole board was wrong to consider the "cruel and callous" nature of the crime and wrong to ignore claims that Cooke was "an exemplary inmate." The court also ordered the release of Elijah Clay, who was convicted of first-degree murder in 1978, because then-Gov. Gray Davis' refusal to heed a parole board recommendation for release was unreasonable.
Again, the Supremes ruled that federal judges have no dog in this fight: "There is no right under the federal Constitution to be conditionally released before the expiration of a valid sentence, and the states are under no duty to offer parole to prisoners."
In a fourth reversal, this one written by Justice Sonya Sotomayor, the Supreme Court unanimously overturned a ruling involving a banking regulation.
There are judges in the Ninth who see the bench as a portfolio to overturn any policy they don't like - and jurisdiction be damned.
In 2009, a three-judge (including Reinhardt) Ninth Circuit panel ordered the release of 40,000 California inmates. Not only did the three seem to think they had authority reserved for state lawmakers, but they also issued the pronouncement that the state could release 1 in 4 inmates "without a meaningful adverse impact on public safety." As if saying so makes it so.
It's odd. When there is an opening on the Supreme Court, the Senate examines in detail whether nominees have the proper respect for past Supreme Court rulings. Sen. Dianne Feinstein is quite particular on that score. But in San Francisco, the Ninth Circuit doesn't seem to care what the U.S. Supreme Court writes.
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