I always thought that the French were very tolerant of outside affairs by their partners in sex.
MEN, LOOK AWAY NOW: JILTED BOYFRIEND ‘CUT OFF LOVE RIVAL’S PENIS AND FLUSHED IT DOWN THE TOILET'
By Ian Sparks
Mail Online
March 8, 2012
A jilted boyfriend who sliced off his love rival's penis and flushed it down a toilet is to go on trial in France.
Blaise Fragione, 38, has confessed to knocking out his cheating girlfriend's lover then cutting off 'two thirds' of his manhood with a razor blade.
He then flushed the severed organ down a toilet at his home in Mediterranean city of Marseille.
The victim - named only as F - claims Fragione abducted him by force after learning his girlfriend and mother of their two children was having the affair.
He then knocked him unconscious with a blow to the head and tied him to a chair before carrying out the horrific attack in October 2008, it was reported.
The victim's lawyer Jorge Mendes Constante said: 'His life has been completely destroyed.
'He has suffered a total redefinition of his body image that has had a dramatic effect on his social and sexual life.'
Medical experts estimated he has lost around 70 per cent of his penis, leaving it only 3cm long when flaccid, and he was now awaiting surgical reconstruction, Mr Constante added.
Fragione's lawyer Marc Ceccadi denied the savage attack had been planned in advance.
He said: 'The sudden revelation of this infidelity made him lose control in the anguish of being abandoned by his girlfriend.
'He is well aware that he caused a significant trauma. He has now reunited with his original girlfriend and they plan to marry.'
The dockyard worker is due in court in the city of Aix-en-Provence on Thursday where he faces 15 years in prison if convicted of 'aggravated assault accompanied by mutilation'.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
ED THE CHICKEN
The Schalotte
March 9, 2012
Ed came home drunk one night, slid into bed beside his sleeping wife, and fell into a deep slumber.
He awoke before the Pearly Gates, where St. Peter said, 'You died in your sleep, Ed.'
Ed was stunned. 'I'm dead? No, I can't be! I've got too much to live for. Send me back!'
St. Peter said, 'I'm sorry, but there's only one way you can go back, and that is as a chicken.'
Ed was devastated, but begged St. Peter to send him to a farm near his home. The next thing he knew, he was covered with feathers, clucking and pecking the ground..
A rooster strolled past. 'So, you're the new hen, huh? How's your first day here?'
'Not bad,' replied Ed the hen, 'but I have this strange feeling inside. Like I'm gonna explode!'
'You're ovulating,' explained the rooster. 'Don't tell me you've never laid an egg before?'
'Never,' said Ed.
'Well, just relax and let it happen,' says the rooster. 'It's no big deal.'
He did, and a few uncomfortable seconds later, out popped an egg! He was overcome with emotion as he experienced motherhood. He soon laid another egg -- his joy was overwhelming..
As he was about to lay his third egg, he felt a smack on the back of his head, and heard.....
"Ed, wake up! You just shit in the bed!"
March 9, 2012
Ed came home drunk one night, slid into bed beside his sleeping wife, and fell into a deep slumber.
He awoke before the Pearly Gates, where St. Peter said, 'You died in your sleep, Ed.'
Ed was stunned. 'I'm dead? No, I can't be! I've got too much to live for. Send me back!'
St. Peter said, 'I'm sorry, but there's only one way you can go back, and that is as a chicken.'
Ed was devastated, but begged St. Peter to send him to a farm near his home. The next thing he knew, he was covered with feathers, clucking and pecking the ground..
A rooster strolled past. 'So, you're the new hen, huh? How's your first day here?'
'Not bad,' replied Ed the hen, 'but I have this strange feeling inside. Like I'm gonna explode!'
'You're ovulating,' explained the rooster. 'Don't tell me you've never laid an egg before?'
'Never,' said Ed.
'Well, just relax and let it happen,' says the rooster. 'It's no big deal.'
He did, and a few uncomfortable seconds later, out popped an egg! He was overcome with emotion as he experienced motherhood. He soon laid another egg -- his joy was overwhelming..
As he was about to lay his third egg, he felt a smack on the back of his head, and heard.....
"Ed, wake up! You just shit in the bed!"
Friday, March 09, 2012
A VERY BOLD, BRAVE AND CHRISTIAN-LIKE COP KILLER Sentenced to death again, his attorneys predict he will never be executed
After coldblooded cop killer Carl Wayne Buntion was sentenced to death again, the Houston Chronicle’s Brian Rogers reported the following reaction by his attorneys:
Defense attorneys argued Buntion has stayed out of trouble with no acts of violence toward guards or inmates since being arrested 22 years ago.
His lawyers also said they believe Texas will eventually end the death penalty, and Buntion may still be standing and may get yet another trial.
Attorney Casey Keirnan, 57, and Philip Scardino, 63, both said they expect to defend Buntion again, in about 10 years.
Scardino said Buntion, a born-again Christian, forgave the jurors for their verdict after hearing it.
"I thought that was a very bold, brave and Christian-like thing for him to do," Scardino said.
Defense attorneys argued Buntion has stayed out of trouble with no acts of violence toward guards or inmates since being arrested 22 years ago.
His lawyers also said they believe Texas will eventually end the death penalty, and Buntion may still be standing and may get yet another trial.
Attorney Casey Keirnan, 57, and Philip Scardino, 63, both said they expect to defend Buntion again, in about 10 years.
Scardino said Buntion, a born-again Christian, forgave the jurors for their verdict after hearing it.
"I thought that was a very bold, brave and Christian-like thing for him to do," Scardino said.
ETERNO AND SILVERMAN’S EXPOSE OF NYPD CRIME STATS MANIPULATION VALIDATED BY INTERNAL QUALITY ASSURANCE INVESTIGATION
Professors John Eterno and Eli Sivlerman’s findings of widespread crime stats manipulation have withstood blistering attacks by Mayor Bloomberg and the NYPD hierarchy. For the full story, buy their newly published book, “The CRIME NUMBERS GAME: Management by Manipulation” (CRC Press).
NYPD CRIME STATS MANIPULATION WIDESPREAD, MUST BE INVESTIGATED, CRIMINOLOGISTS SAY
By Graham Rayman
The Village Voice
March 7, 2012
Two criminologists offer their take on this week's Voice cover story about the secret NYPD investigation which confirmed allegations by Police Officer Adrian Schoolcraft of downgrading of crime reports in the 81st Precinct.
By John A. Eterno and Eli B. Silverman
Vindication! The newly exposed New York City Police Department's (NYPD) Quality Assurance Division Report indicating nearly all of our allegations are correct has been around since June 2010. Attacks against our research went on well into 2011 and continue until this day. How in good conscience NYPD could continue to attack Adrian Schoolcraft and our research is beyond shame; it is revolting.
Without question Graham Rayman's explosive exposé of the NYPD's internal Quality Assurance Division Report on downgrading crime is a rarity. It represents the city's investigative reporting at its best. Our book The Crime Numbers Game: Management by Manipulation unveils the mainstream media's sustained failure to pursue the NYPD's proclivity to manipulate crime reports to make them appear favorable.
Mr. Rayman and a previous Voice reporter, Paul Moses, are two critically important exceptions to the media's meekness in exploring the NYPD's statistical legerdemain. Moses exposed a skyrocketing rise in lost property complaints - a key indicator that fudging reports was taking place. Other media outlets would profit from this type of superb investigative reporting.
Without the Voice's exposé, the NYPD's internal report would likely never have seen the light of day. The Quality Assurance Division's two year investigation states the truth: The 81 precinct systematically fostered a culture finely attuned to the downgrading of crime. One might expect that based on this newly exposed report and mountains of other evidence, that the NYPD would now take seriously what we as social scientists have been saying for years - this is a problem throughout the NYPD and must be investigated in full. Unfortunately, given reaction to previous revelations, we are not hopeful.
What mountains of evidence are we referencing? Let's start with the NYPD's own officers and sergeants informing them for years that these behaviors were occurring throughout the city. Both the PBA and the SBA (the department's police officer's and sergeant's unions) have had press conferences indicating this truth. Response by NYPD- --to denigrate these accounts and those who reported them.
Our scientific study now published in the aforementioned book and in two scientific peer reviewed journals used both quantitative and qualitative data strongly buttressing the hypothesis that this is a citywide problem. Our quantitative study is based on a survey of hundreds of retirees in the ranks of captain and above. Using those who worked before the NYPD's performance management system (Compstat) was in place as a baseline; we compared responses of manager's perceptions about pressures from the upper echelon of the NYPD before and after the Compstat system was put in place.
We were stunned by the responses we received. Based on their personal experiences we found enormous pressures to decrease the numbers of index crimes (those reported to the FBI) and to downgrade index crimes into other non reported categories. Additionally, the perception of the demand for integrity in the crime reports was much less in the current era. Approximately 75 percent of our respondents who were aware of crime report manipulation indicated that the manipulation they experienced was unethical. We also collected qualitative data in the form of in-depth interviews with over 30 retired and some active officers of all ranks. They confirmed nearly every aspect of the previous results and then some. Importantly, they indicated that these practices are taking place citywide due to the pressures of Compstat. Current working personnel have confirmed that these practices are alive and well in today's NYPD.
Beyond this, crime victims have come forward. One was a victim of identity theft. When he went to the police to report the crime the victim was merely given a letter and told to leave the precinct. The letter, on NYPD stationary and reprinted in our book, states the NYPD "requires specific documentation be submitted before a police report for identity theft or fraud related crimes can be taken."
The letter informs the victim that such documentation includes a letter from the company with their letterhead giving specific information about you, who opened the account, and where merchandise was sent; a company affidavit that is notarized indicating the complainant has no prior knowledge or involvement among other items, copies of your credit report from three separate reporting bureaus; and other assorted documentation.
Surely the police can do better than hand victims of crimes letters ordering them to prove they are victims before taking reports. Such behavior is unconscionable. Unfortunately, our research indicates that the situation is even worse.
Attempted rape victim Debbie Nathan communicated with us soon after our report went public. She too indicated her horrid experiences in trying to report a sex crime to the NYPD. There are others as well. Graham Rayman revealed a detective's experience with a rape perpetrator. The detective apprehended a rapist who confessed to many other rapes. When the detective examined the complaint file to close out the cases, he found that all the previous rapes were listed as minor crimes, mostly criminal trespass. After being sued, the NYPD tardily released data on criminal trespasses. Low and behold, they are skyrocketing citywide.
There is much more. Hospital data is at complete variance with NYPD reports. Importantly, for example, firearms assaults at emergency rooms are dramatically increasing while the NYPD claims assaults are down tremendously. The City's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene shows drug use in the city increasing (as does hospital data) but NYPD complaint data are all down for use of drugs. All this does not include the data manipulation to which the NYPD has admitted..
Four precinct commanders and others have been disciplined in the past. All of this took place while the Compstat performance management system has been in place. There are also well-documented cases of crime report manipulation in other places that essentially copied the NYPD performance management system.
Other cities in the United States such as New Orleans, Washington D.C., and Philadelphia have admitted problems. Other countries including the United Kingdom, Australia, and France have admitted problems as well. Certainly, the track record of the NYPD system is problematic.
There are also the audiotapes in the 81 precinct in Brooklyn and the 41 in the Bronx. Now the allegations in the 81 precinct are confirmed by this NYPD report. This report unearthed by Mr. Rayman and not shared with the public is in stark contrast to the public images NYPD presents: constant denials and attacks of those who question them. Why must investigative reporters have to get these reports? The public is entitled to this.
The NYPD has a problem with its culture. The NYPD must be investigated immediately. How much evidence is needed? How many victims will go unheard? Do the words "transparency" and "community partnerships" mean anything? Apparently, the NYPD and Mayor Bloomberg are in complete denial. The NYPD needs a complete overhaul. Investigating Muslims with no suspicion, going to other states and counties with little or no permission, nearly 700,000 forcible stops of criminal suspects last year while at the same time claiming crime is at an all time low, summonses and arrest quotas, pressures on commanders for numbers, and much more. The evidence of a problem with NYPD culture is obvious to any person who looks at the mountains of evidence. A neutral outside investigative body with subpoena power and the ability to grant immunity is needed. Let's stop the charade and get it done.
NYPD CRIME STATS MANIPULATION WIDESPREAD, MUST BE INVESTIGATED, CRIMINOLOGISTS SAY
By Graham Rayman
The Village Voice
March 7, 2012
Two criminologists offer their take on this week's Voice cover story about the secret NYPD investigation which confirmed allegations by Police Officer Adrian Schoolcraft of downgrading of crime reports in the 81st Precinct.
By John A. Eterno and Eli B. Silverman
Vindication! The newly exposed New York City Police Department's (NYPD) Quality Assurance Division Report indicating nearly all of our allegations are correct has been around since June 2010. Attacks against our research went on well into 2011 and continue until this day. How in good conscience NYPD could continue to attack Adrian Schoolcraft and our research is beyond shame; it is revolting.
Without question Graham Rayman's explosive exposé of the NYPD's internal Quality Assurance Division Report on downgrading crime is a rarity. It represents the city's investigative reporting at its best. Our book The Crime Numbers Game: Management by Manipulation unveils the mainstream media's sustained failure to pursue the NYPD's proclivity to manipulate crime reports to make them appear favorable.
Mr. Rayman and a previous Voice reporter, Paul Moses, are two critically important exceptions to the media's meekness in exploring the NYPD's statistical legerdemain. Moses exposed a skyrocketing rise in lost property complaints - a key indicator that fudging reports was taking place. Other media outlets would profit from this type of superb investigative reporting.
Without the Voice's exposé, the NYPD's internal report would likely never have seen the light of day. The Quality Assurance Division's two year investigation states the truth: The 81 precinct systematically fostered a culture finely attuned to the downgrading of crime. One might expect that based on this newly exposed report and mountains of other evidence, that the NYPD would now take seriously what we as social scientists have been saying for years - this is a problem throughout the NYPD and must be investigated in full. Unfortunately, given reaction to previous revelations, we are not hopeful.
What mountains of evidence are we referencing? Let's start with the NYPD's own officers and sergeants informing them for years that these behaviors were occurring throughout the city. Both the PBA and the SBA (the department's police officer's and sergeant's unions) have had press conferences indicating this truth. Response by NYPD- --to denigrate these accounts and those who reported them.
Our scientific study now published in the aforementioned book and in two scientific peer reviewed journals used both quantitative and qualitative data strongly buttressing the hypothesis that this is a citywide problem. Our quantitative study is based on a survey of hundreds of retirees in the ranks of captain and above. Using those who worked before the NYPD's performance management system (Compstat) was in place as a baseline; we compared responses of manager's perceptions about pressures from the upper echelon of the NYPD before and after the Compstat system was put in place.
We were stunned by the responses we received. Based on their personal experiences we found enormous pressures to decrease the numbers of index crimes (those reported to the FBI) and to downgrade index crimes into other non reported categories. Additionally, the perception of the demand for integrity in the crime reports was much less in the current era. Approximately 75 percent of our respondents who were aware of crime report manipulation indicated that the manipulation they experienced was unethical. We also collected qualitative data in the form of in-depth interviews with over 30 retired and some active officers of all ranks. They confirmed nearly every aspect of the previous results and then some. Importantly, they indicated that these practices are taking place citywide due to the pressures of Compstat. Current working personnel have confirmed that these practices are alive and well in today's NYPD.
Beyond this, crime victims have come forward. One was a victim of identity theft. When he went to the police to report the crime the victim was merely given a letter and told to leave the precinct. The letter, on NYPD stationary and reprinted in our book, states the NYPD "requires specific documentation be submitted before a police report for identity theft or fraud related crimes can be taken."
The letter informs the victim that such documentation includes a letter from the company with their letterhead giving specific information about you, who opened the account, and where merchandise was sent; a company affidavit that is notarized indicating the complainant has no prior knowledge or involvement among other items, copies of your credit report from three separate reporting bureaus; and other assorted documentation.
Surely the police can do better than hand victims of crimes letters ordering them to prove they are victims before taking reports. Such behavior is unconscionable. Unfortunately, our research indicates that the situation is even worse.
Attempted rape victim Debbie Nathan communicated with us soon after our report went public. She too indicated her horrid experiences in trying to report a sex crime to the NYPD. There are others as well. Graham Rayman revealed a detective's experience with a rape perpetrator. The detective apprehended a rapist who confessed to many other rapes. When the detective examined the complaint file to close out the cases, he found that all the previous rapes were listed as minor crimes, mostly criminal trespass. After being sued, the NYPD tardily released data on criminal trespasses. Low and behold, they are skyrocketing citywide.
There is much more. Hospital data is at complete variance with NYPD reports. Importantly, for example, firearms assaults at emergency rooms are dramatically increasing while the NYPD claims assaults are down tremendously. The City's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene shows drug use in the city increasing (as does hospital data) but NYPD complaint data are all down for use of drugs. All this does not include the data manipulation to which the NYPD has admitted..
Four precinct commanders and others have been disciplined in the past. All of this took place while the Compstat performance management system has been in place. There are also well-documented cases of crime report manipulation in other places that essentially copied the NYPD performance management system.
Other cities in the United States such as New Orleans, Washington D.C., and Philadelphia have admitted problems. Other countries including the United Kingdom, Australia, and France have admitted problems as well. Certainly, the track record of the NYPD system is problematic.
There are also the audiotapes in the 81 precinct in Brooklyn and the 41 in the Bronx. Now the allegations in the 81 precinct are confirmed by this NYPD report. This report unearthed by Mr. Rayman and not shared with the public is in stark contrast to the public images NYPD presents: constant denials and attacks of those who question them. Why must investigative reporters have to get these reports? The public is entitled to this.
The NYPD has a problem with its culture. The NYPD must be investigated immediately. How much evidence is needed? How many victims will go unheard? Do the words "transparency" and "community partnerships" mean anything? Apparently, the NYPD and Mayor Bloomberg are in complete denial. The NYPD needs a complete overhaul. Investigating Muslims with no suspicion, going to other states and counties with little or no permission, nearly 700,000 forcible stops of criminal suspects last year while at the same time claiming crime is at an all time low, summonses and arrest quotas, pressures on commanders for numbers, and much more. The evidence of a problem with NYPD culture is obvious to any person who looks at the mountains of evidence. A neutral outside investigative body with subpoena power and the ability to grant immunity is needed. Let's stop the charade and get it done.
THIS SCHOOL PRINCIPAL WOULD MAKE A GOOD MARINE CORPS DRILL SERGEANT
If he didn’t motivate his students, at least he got their attention ….. and that of the parents, and that of the school board.
PORT ARTHUR SCHOOL DISTRICT: SORRY ONE OF OUR PRINCIPALS HIT YOUR FIFTH-GRADE CHILDREN
By Craig Malisow
Houston Press Hair Balls
March 8, 2012
Port Arthur police are investigating an elementary school principal who reportedly hit fifth-grade students who performed poorly on practice tests last week.
The Beaumont Enterprise reported that the Port Arthur Independent School District has apologized for the behavior of Travis Elementary School Principal Bessie Johnson, a 40-year district employee. One student and his mother told the Port Arthur News that Johnson had the entire fifth grade line up in the hall and point to their scores on the practice test for the über-important State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or "STAAR," which probably has a whole section devoted to acronyms.
The boy's mother told the paper that "the students were told to sit on their knees if they had failed...and they remained on their knees for an extended period of time while the principal walked down the hall hitting them individually on the back, wrist and arms."
The school district has been mum on how, if at all, Johnson was disciplined, since that sort of thing is classified as a "personnel matter." However, Mark Porterie, the deputy superintendent, was quick to point out that "Mrs. Johnson runs a wonderful campus. The school is actually a recognized campus and never have we had a problem such as this from that campus." (The school's motto is "Committed to Excellence," but we think it should be changed to "Committed to Excellence -- Or Else!").
Porterie also told the Port Arthur News that "We agree there are numerous other ways to encourage students to do better in their academic classes."
Frankly, we tried to think of better motivational tools than hitting, but we came up empty-handed. So we called Porterie to brainstorm. He immediately referred us to the detective in charge of the investigation, but when we told him we wanted to get a more academic perspective on things, he was game. We asked for examples, besides hitting, that are a good way to encourage kids.
"There's always the fact that you talk to children, that you encourage them, and just overall, just love the students. And I'll leave it at that," he said, and added later, "There are...several ways to encourage children to do better. And that's what I meant with that statement."
HB: Would it help if [we] threw some suggestions out there?
MP: Okay.
HB: Tugging on their ears really, really hard. Is that a good way to encourage them?
MP: No, no, no.
HB: Kicking them in the shins.
MP: No, definitely not.
HB: Giving them a few sharp licks with a belt.
MP: Definitely not.
HB: What about just verbally mocking them? You know, maybe if there's some sort of handicap or noticeable physical defect?
MP: No, definitely not.
HB: Spitting on them?
MP: Oh God, no.
HB: What about, like, arming two of them with switchblades and having them do a battle?
MP: No, no, no, no -- definitely not....Let's hope our country never, ever gets to that point.
Well, there you have it. He shot down all our ideas on the best way to get kids to do better on tests. Guess we'll never be able to be a principal in Port Arthur.
PORT ARTHUR SCHOOL DISTRICT: SORRY ONE OF OUR PRINCIPALS HIT YOUR FIFTH-GRADE CHILDREN
By Craig Malisow
Houston Press Hair Balls
March 8, 2012
Port Arthur police are investigating an elementary school principal who reportedly hit fifth-grade students who performed poorly on practice tests last week.
The Beaumont Enterprise reported that the Port Arthur Independent School District has apologized for the behavior of Travis Elementary School Principal Bessie Johnson, a 40-year district employee. One student and his mother told the Port Arthur News that Johnson had the entire fifth grade line up in the hall and point to their scores on the practice test for the über-important State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or "STAAR," which probably has a whole section devoted to acronyms.
The boy's mother told the paper that "the students were told to sit on their knees if they had failed...and they remained on their knees for an extended period of time while the principal walked down the hall hitting them individually on the back, wrist and arms."
The school district has been mum on how, if at all, Johnson was disciplined, since that sort of thing is classified as a "personnel matter." However, Mark Porterie, the deputy superintendent, was quick to point out that "Mrs. Johnson runs a wonderful campus. The school is actually a recognized campus and never have we had a problem such as this from that campus." (The school's motto is "Committed to Excellence," but we think it should be changed to "Committed to Excellence -- Or Else!").
Porterie also told the Port Arthur News that "We agree there are numerous other ways to encourage students to do better in their academic classes."
Frankly, we tried to think of better motivational tools than hitting, but we came up empty-handed. So we called Porterie to brainstorm. He immediately referred us to the detective in charge of the investigation, but when we told him we wanted to get a more academic perspective on things, he was game. We asked for examples, besides hitting, that are a good way to encourage kids.
"There's always the fact that you talk to children, that you encourage them, and just overall, just love the students. And I'll leave it at that," he said, and added later, "There are...several ways to encourage children to do better. And that's what I meant with that statement."
HB: Would it help if [we] threw some suggestions out there?
MP: Okay.
HB: Tugging on their ears really, really hard. Is that a good way to encourage them?
MP: No, no, no.
HB: Kicking them in the shins.
MP: No, definitely not.
HB: Giving them a few sharp licks with a belt.
MP: Definitely not.
HB: What about just verbally mocking them? You know, maybe if there's some sort of handicap or noticeable physical defect?
MP: No, definitely not.
HB: Spitting on them?
MP: Oh God, no.
HB: What about, like, arming two of them with switchblades and having them do a battle?
MP: No, no, no, no -- definitely not....Let's hope our country never, ever gets to that point.
Well, there you have it. He shot down all our ideas on the best way to get kids to do better on tests. Guess we'll never be able to be a principal in Port Arthur.
HOMEMADE CANNON + INEBRIATED IDIOT = BAD NEWS
Guess who’s going to win the Idiot of the Month Award and who will also be a strong candidate for Idiot of the Year Award?
MAN ARRESTED AFTER HOMEMADE CANNON BLASTS THROUGH CALIFORNIA MOBILE HOME, KILLS HIS GIRLFRIEND
Associated Press
March 6, 2012
SAN DIEGO — A man was arrested Tuesday after a homemade cannon blasted through his mobile home, killing his girlfriend in a mountain community near San Diego, authorities said.
Richard Fox, 39, shot the cannon after loading it with fireworks powder, said San Diego County sheriff’s Sgt. David Martinez. His 38-year-old girlfriend was found dead from shrapnel wounds when authorities arrived at the home.
Fox was treated at a hospital for shrapnel wounds to his right leg and arrested for investigation of exploding a device resulting in death, Martinez said. Three other adults and a 4-year-old girl who were inside the home escaped injury.
Preliminary evidence suggested Fox was under the influence of alcohol, Martinez said. Investigators had not established a motive or determined if the blast was accidental.
Fox lived at the home with his girlfriend, whose name was not released, and the 4-year-old girl, who was to be placed with a relative. Martinez declined to identify the three other adults who were inside the home.
The blast occurred in Potrero, a community of about 700 people on the Mexican border, about 40 miles east of San Diego.
John Arnold, a neighbor, told U-T San Diego that Fox worked as a handyman and lived in the home for about six years.
“He liked experimenting with guns, and it looks like this experiment went bad,” he told the newspaper.
MAN ARRESTED AFTER HOMEMADE CANNON BLASTS THROUGH CALIFORNIA MOBILE HOME, KILLS HIS GIRLFRIEND
Associated Press
March 6, 2012
SAN DIEGO — A man was arrested Tuesday after a homemade cannon blasted through his mobile home, killing his girlfriend in a mountain community near San Diego, authorities said.
Richard Fox, 39, shot the cannon after loading it with fireworks powder, said San Diego County sheriff’s Sgt. David Martinez. His 38-year-old girlfriend was found dead from shrapnel wounds when authorities arrived at the home.
Fox was treated at a hospital for shrapnel wounds to his right leg and arrested for investigation of exploding a device resulting in death, Martinez said. Three other adults and a 4-year-old girl who were inside the home escaped injury.
Preliminary evidence suggested Fox was under the influence of alcohol, Martinez said. Investigators had not established a motive or determined if the blast was accidental.
Fox lived at the home with his girlfriend, whose name was not released, and the 4-year-old girl, who was to be placed with a relative. Martinez declined to identify the three other adults who were inside the home.
The blast occurred in Potrero, a community of about 700 people on the Mexican border, about 40 miles east of San Diego.
John Arnold, a neighbor, told U-T San Diego that Fox worked as a handyman and lived in the home for about six years.
“He liked experimenting with guns, and it looks like this experiment went bad,” he told the newspaper.
Thursday, March 08, 2012
EDWARD CANTRELL AND STEPHANIE DECKER: TRUE HEROES
On Tuesday, Edward Cantrell, 36, a decorated Green Beret home from his fifth deployment to Afghanistan, gave his life trying to save his young daughters, 6-year-old Isabella and 4-year-old Natalia, who were trapped in their burning house near Ft. Bragg, his home base. Cantrell and his wife had managed to escape from the house but the Chief Warrant Officer 2 went back into the burning structure when he realized his daughters were still inside. All three perished.
On Friday in Henryville, Indiana, Stephanie Decker, 36, lost one leg above the knee and the other above the ankle while acting as a human shield to protect her 8-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter from the ravages of a tornado. With the approaching storm, the mother hustled her two children into the basement of their home, wrapped them in a blanket and threw her body on top of them as the two-story brick house was completely destroyed. Both children survived without a scratch.
I have long been incensed over the loose way the word ‘hero’ is thrown around.
Muhammad Ali has been called a hero over and over again, but in 1967, during the Viet Nam War, he refused induction into the U.S. Armed Forces when he was drafted. Ali refused to serve in the military because of his ‘religious beliefs’ and his opposition to the war.
O. J. Simpson was recognized as a hero when he was playing football. He did not lose that title until after he stabbed his ex-wife Nicole and her friend Ronald Goldman to death. Wow, it must have taken a lot of courage for him to attack his two defenseless victims.
Even golfer Tiger woods is considered a hero by his fans. How can you be a hero for whacking a ball around with a club? Now for those guys who like to cheat on their wives, you could say Tiger was a hero – after all, he fucked at least 16 women while he was married until his beautiful Swedish blonde wife caught onto him.
To top it off, numerous Hollywood celebrities have been called heroes for the charitable work they have done or for any number of causes they have taken up.
Let’s get one thing straight!: A hero is someone who will risk his life for his country, his community or to save the life of another. Our combat troops are heroes. Our police officers and firefighters are heroes. People who risk their lives trying to save the lives of others are heroes, but not athletes or Hollywood celebrities, unless they did something truly heroic.
Yesterday on The Today Show, Matt Lauer called Stephanie Decker’s neighbor a hero for saving her life by tying a tourniquet around her severed leg, and he went even further by calling others heroes for coming to assist in her rescue. But her neighbor and the others were not risking their lives at the time.
Edward Cantrell gave his life trying to save his children. Stephanie Decker risked her life trying to save her children. Now, those two are TRUE heroes! Muhammad Ali, O.J. Simpson, Tiger Woods and Hollywood celebrities are NOT heroes.
On Friday in Henryville, Indiana, Stephanie Decker, 36, lost one leg above the knee and the other above the ankle while acting as a human shield to protect her 8-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter from the ravages of a tornado. With the approaching storm, the mother hustled her two children into the basement of their home, wrapped them in a blanket and threw her body on top of them as the two-story brick house was completely destroyed. Both children survived without a scratch.
I have long been incensed over the loose way the word ‘hero’ is thrown around.
Muhammad Ali has been called a hero over and over again, but in 1967, during the Viet Nam War, he refused induction into the U.S. Armed Forces when he was drafted. Ali refused to serve in the military because of his ‘religious beliefs’ and his opposition to the war.
O. J. Simpson was recognized as a hero when he was playing football. He did not lose that title until after he stabbed his ex-wife Nicole and her friend Ronald Goldman to death. Wow, it must have taken a lot of courage for him to attack his two defenseless victims.
Even golfer Tiger woods is considered a hero by his fans. How can you be a hero for whacking a ball around with a club? Now for those guys who like to cheat on their wives, you could say Tiger was a hero – after all, he fucked at least 16 women while he was married until his beautiful Swedish blonde wife caught onto him.
To top it off, numerous Hollywood celebrities have been called heroes for the charitable work they have done or for any number of causes they have taken up.
Let’s get one thing straight!: A hero is someone who will risk his life for his country, his community or to save the life of another. Our combat troops are heroes. Our police officers and firefighters are heroes. People who risk their lives trying to save the lives of others are heroes, but not athletes or Hollywood celebrities, unless they did something truly heroic.
Yesterday on The Today Show, Matt Lauer called Stephanie Decker’s neighbor a hero for saving her life by tying a tourniquet around her severed leg, and he went even further by calling others heroes for coming to assist in her rescue. But her neighbor and the others were not risking their lives at the time.
Edward Cantrell gave his life trying to save his children. Stephanie Decker risked her life trying to save her children. Now, those two are TRUE heroes! Muhammad Ali, O.J. Simpson, Tiger Woods and Hollywood celebrities are NOT heroes.
LAPTOP-SHOOTING DAD TELLS OFF DR. PHIL
Unless you live some place where there is no television, you’ve seen the You Tube video of Tommy Jordan shooting his 15-year-old daughter’s laptop computer with a .45 caliber automatic after she had written an expletive-filled Facebook rant accusing her parents of making her do too many chores.
Dr. Phil McGraw reacted to Jordan’s laptop-killing episode by saying, “You never, ever humiliate your child publically.”
Jordan shot back (verbally) at Dr. Phil by calling him a hypocrite and saying, “You do realize that, not all but a large majority of the premise of your show is you bringing troubled kids on and troubled teens, parents and all age groups and publically humiliating them in front of the entire world for profit, right?”
Someone - Tommy Jordan - has finally put Dr. Phil in his rightful place. Hallelujah!
Dr. Phil McGraw reacted to Jordan’s laptop-killing episode by saying, “You never, ever humiliate your child publically.”
Jordan shot back (verbally) at Dr. Phil by calling him a hypocrite and saying, “You do realize that, not all but a large majority of the premise of your show is you bringing troubled kids on and troubled teens, parents and all age groups and publically humiliating them in front of the entire world for profit, right?”
Someone - Tommy Jordan - has finally put Dr. Phil in his rightful place. Hallelujah!
JUST THE COST OF DOING BUSINESS
Those who would have us believe that the seizure of 750 pounds of meth worth over $34 million is “a crushing blow to the cartels that market the meth,” are either delusional or trying to fool us into believing that the drug trade has been deeply impacted. The truth is that this is just a temporary setback – it’s just the cost of doing business.
The three idiots looking after the meth stash might not have been caught had they not been stealing iPads on the side. Look for them to be terminally rehabilitated on orders of their cartel bosses.
From Borderland Beat:
MASSIVE (750 POUNDS) SAN JOSE METH BUST TIED TO MEXICAN CARTEL
KCBS
March 6, 2012
SAN JOSE – Three San Jose residents charged in connection with one of the largest methamphetamine seizures in U.S. history have ties to a Mexican drug trafficking organization, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Last week, the DEA confiscated more than 750 pounds of meth in a San Jose raid with a street value of over $34 million.
“It’s a crushing blow to the cartels that market the meth,” said George W. Grayson, author of, Mexico: Narco-Violence and a Failed State?
He said the cartels are increasingly enlarging their meth exports as they diversify their array of products.
Suspects Alberto Rodriguez, Carlos Aguilar, and Liliana Lopez were each being held on $2 million bail.
Their apartment off of Snell Ave. was actually found by Palo Alto Police detectives who had gone there as part of an investigation into stolen iPads.
The three idiots looking after the meth stash might not have been caught had they not been stealing iPads on the side. Look for them to be terminally rehabilitated on orders of their cartel bosses.
From Borderland Beat:
MASSIVE (750 POUNDS) SAN JOSE METH BUST TIED TO MEXICAN CARTEL
KCBS
March 6, 2012
SAN JOSE – Three San Jose residents charged in connection with one of the largest methamphetamine seizures in U.S. history have ties to a Mexican drug trafficking organization, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Last week, the DEA confiscated more than 750 pounds of meth in a San Jose raid with a street value of over $34 million.
“It’s a crushing blow to the cartels that market the meth,” said George W. Grayson, author of, Mexico: Narco-Violence and a Failed State?
He said the cartels are increasingly enlarging their meth exports as they diversify their array of products.
Suspects Alberto Rodriguez, Carlos Aguilar, and Liliana Lopez were each being held on $2 million bail.
Their apartment off of Snell Ave. was actually found by Palo Alto Police detectives who had gone there as part of an investigation into stolen iPads.
KELLY’S WAR DEFENDED
Civil libertarians have been excoriating NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly for his department’s antiterrorism tactics.
RAY KELLY ATTENDS CSP AWARD LUNCHEON, RECEIVES PRAISE FOR CONTROVERSIAL INTELLIGENCE GATHERING
By Heather Robinson
politicalmavens.com
March 7, 2012
Today the Washington DC-based think tank Center for Security Policy held its Mightier Pen Award in midtown Manhattan and yours truly was in attendance.
Also in attendance was NYPD Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who has been taking heat from critics following an associated press report that the NYPD conducted extensive surveillance of Muslim communities in New York city and beyond.
On WOR-AM radio on Monday, Kelly said, “People have short memories to what happened here in 2001.”
At the lunch today, Kelly stood and received a standing ovation from about 100 security-minded folk in attendance as well as TV journalist Lou Dobbs and former New York Times reporter Judith Miller.
Regarding the controversial intel-gathering, Kelly has refused to back down - a stance that garnered him praise from speaker Andy McCarthy, former chief assistant US attorney, and CSP Director Frank Gaffney.
McCarthy offered a rousing defense of the intelligence gathering, which included New Jersey mosques, pointing out that the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center was plotted by Muslim extremists in Jersey City mosques.
Americans, McCarthy said, “are more concerned with preventing attacks than … indicting terrorists after” Americans have been killed and added that New Yorkers will have to decide “whether we want our security managed by the Associated Press and CAIR [The Council on American Islamic Relations] or whether we want it managed by Ray Kelly.”
Gaffney stressed that New York City has been extremist Muslim terrorists’ number one target and told Kelly, “I hope your example will be an inspiration to the policing done across America.”
Roger Ailes, chairman and CEO of Fox News, won the Mightier Pen Award.
RAY KELLY ATTENDS CSP AWARD LUNCHEON, RECEIVES PRAISE FOR CONTROVERSIAL INTELLIGENCE GATHERING
By Heather Robinson
politicalmavens.com
March 7, 2012
Today the Washington DC-based think tank Center for Security Policy held its Mightier Pen Award in midtown Manhattan and yours truly was in attendance.
Also in attendance was NYPD Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who has been taking heat from critics following an associated press report that the NYPD conducted extensive surveillance of Muslim communities in New York city and beyond.
On WOR-AM radio on Monday, Kelly said, “People have short memories to what happened here in 2001.”
At the lunch today, Kelly stood and received a standing ovation from about 100 security-minded folk in attendance as well as TV journalist Lou Dobbs and former New York Times reporter Judith Miller.
Regarding the controversial intel-gathering, Kelly has refused to back down - a stance that garnered him praise from speaker Andy McCarthy, former chief assistant US attorney, and CSP Director Frank Gaffney.
McCarthy offered a rousing defense of the intelligence gathering, which included New Jersey mosques, pointing out that the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center was plotted by Muslim extremists in Jersey City mosques.
Americans, McCarthy said, “are more concerned with preventing attacks than … indicting terrorists after” Americans have been killed and added that New Yorkers will have to decide “whether we want our security managed by the Associated Press and CAIR [The Council on American Islamic Relations] or whether we want it managed by Ray Kelly.”
Gaffney stressed that New York City has been extremist Muslim terrorists’ number one target and told Kelly, “I hope your example will be an inspiration to the policing done across America.”
Roger Ailes, chairman and CEO of Fox News, won the Mightier Pen Award.
Wednesday, March 07, 2012
UPDATE: GROSS MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE
From my February 23 post: On June 27, 1990, Carl Wayne Buntion shot and killed Houston police officer James Irby during a routine traffic stop. Buntion, a career criminal with convictions dating back to 1961 and sentences totaling 105 years in prison, shot the motorcycle cop in the head, then stood over the fallen officer and shot him twice more in the back. Buntion had told people that, “If the police ever pull me over, I’m going to kill the officer because I’m not going back to prison.”
Buntion, who claimed that he shot Irby in self-defense because the officer had approached the car in which he had been riding with his service weapon drawn, was sentenced to death but an appellate court had ordered a retrial because the jury that sentenced Buntion to death did not consider the mitigating evidence of his difficult childhood with an abusive father.
Yesterday, some 22 years after the coldblooded murder of Officer James Irby, another jury sentenced Buntion to death again. Let’s hope and pray it won’t take another 10-20 years before this sorry piece of worthless shit is finally croaked by the great State of Texas!
Bob Walsh says Buntion “should be in the fast lane on the Highway to Hell.” And ‘kl2008a’, a PACOVILLA follower, says “Put him in the Express Line for 10 or less appeals and waste this piece of shit ASAP.” Now I really like that!
Buntion, who claimed that he shot Irby in self-defense because the officer had approached the car in which he had been riding with his service weapon drawn, was sentenced to death but an appellate court had ordered a retrial because the jury that sentenced Buntion to death did not consider the mitigating evidence of his difficult childhood with an abusive father.
Yesterday, some 22 years after the coldblooded murder of Officer James Irby, another jury sentenced Buntion to death again. Let’s hope and pray it won’t take another 10-20 years before this sorry piece of worthless shit is finally croaked by the great State of Texas!
Bob Walsh says Buntion “should be in the fast lane on the Highway to Hell.” And ‘kl2008a’, a PACOVILLA follower, says “Put him in the Express Line for 10 or less appeals and waste this piece of shit ASAP.” Now I really like that!
SO INNOCENT PEOPLE WILL NOT GET BLOWN UP
Civil libertarians are putting political correctness ahead of anti-terrorism.
RAY KELLY’S WAR
New York’s elite put the antiterror cops on trial
The Wall Street Journal
March 6, 2012
Imagine this scenario: A Columbia University graduate becomes alienated from U.S. society. He founds a website, Revolution Muslim, which publishes instructions on "How to Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of your Mom" from an al Qaeda publication. The man encourages others to kill the writers of "South Park" because they depicted the prophet Muhammad in a bear suit. Another man who visits the website decides to make pipebombs and plans attacks in New York City.
Far-fetched? Anti-Muslim, neocon propaganda?
No, the story is true, but the bombs never exploded and South Park's merry pranksters were never hurt because the New York Police Department stopped the alleged pipebomber, Jose Pimental, and the other man, Curtis Morton, before they could do any harm. The details were related on Sunday at Fordham Law School by Ray Kelly, the NYPD police commissioner, in a speech defending his department's antiterror surveillance in mosques, schools and Muslim neighborhoods.
My, how a decade without a terror attack can dull certain memories. Mr. Kelly began his second stint as Big Apple police chief in 2002, four months after 9/11. The city has since been the target of 14 terror plots, but not one has succeeded. You'd think this would be cause for thanks, if not praise. Yet Mr. Kelly is now under attack for having been too vigilant in trying to prevent attacks.
The Associated Press ignited the criticism with a series of dispatches reporting on police surveillance of Muslim groups, including students, some of them reaching all the way to . . . New Jersey and Yale. It seems one undercover cop even accompanied a group on a rafting trip—without having the courtesy of informing his fellow rafters that he was undercover.
Police practices shouldn't be immune to media scrutiny, but the AP reports have been amplified and used to suggest the NYPD is violating civil liberties and racially or religiously profiling some individuals. There's no proof of illegality, and infiltrating groups that are the most likely to produce terrorists is essential to preventing attacks.
But that hasn't stopped New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Newark Mayor Cory Booker from criticizing Mr. Kelly for his incursion into the nation-state of New Jersey. Attorney General Eric Holder also pronounced his concern about New York's methods and said his department will review it. Mayor Michael Bloomberg is taking abuse because he has dared to defend his police chief.
Mr. Kelly is the real stand-up guy here. As he made clear at Fordham, such targeted surveillance and undercover work is essential to preventing crime of all kinds, in particular terror attacks. If mosques or universities or other places are beyond scrutiny, terrorists will inevitably use them to conceal their plans.
"Since 9/11," said Mr. Kelly, "some of the most violent terrorists we've encountered were radicalized or recruited at universities." London's 2005 subway terror bombers belonged to Muslim student groups. The tragedy is that those students hadn't been surveilled or infiltrated.
Mr. Kelly also made clear that New York's finest subject their terror investigations to rules known as the Handschu Guidelines, which were developed under court supervision to protect political activity from police interference. Surveillance must be based on bona fide leads and be cleared at the highest levels of the NYPD.
These are more restrictive rules than other police departments abide by, but the Handschu Guidelines are not a suicide pact. They allow the NYPD to visit any event or place open to the public, to search online, and to map certain neighborhoods. Believe it or not, even such open-source surveillance has been criticized.
Part of the anti-Kelly campaign is probably political, an attempt to deter him from running for mayor to succeed Mr. Bloomberg. Some liberals also want to stigmatize him so the next President wouldn't consider him to run the FBI—though he would be an inspired choice.
More disconcerting is the mindset this episode reveals. Little more than a decade after 9/11, too many of America's political elites are putting political correctness and civil libertarian scare-mongering above public safety. That's how innocent people get blown up.
RAY KELLY’S WAR
New York’s elite put the antiterror cops on trial
The Wall Street Journal
March 6, 2012
Imagine this scenario: A Columbia University graduate becomes alienated from U.S. society. He founds a website, Revolution Muslim, which publishes instructions on "How to Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of your Mom" from an al Qaeda publication. The man encourages others to kill the writers of "South Park" because they depicted the prophet Muhammad in a bear suit. Another man who visits the website decides to make pipebombs and plans attacks in New York City.
Far-fetched? Anti-Muslim, neocon propaganda?
No, the story is true, but the bombs never exploded and South Park's merry pranksters were never hurt because the New York Police Department stopped the alleged pipebomber, Jose Pimental, and the other man, Curtis Morton, before they could do any harm. The details were related on Sunday at Fordham Law School by Ray Kelly, the NYPD police commissioner, in a speech defending his department's antiterror surveillance in mosques, schools and Muslim neighborhoods.
My, how a decade without a terror attack can dull certain memories. Mr. Kelly began his second stint as Big Apple police chief in 2002, four months after 9/11. The city has since been the target of 14 terror plots, but not one has succeeded. You'd think this would be cause for thanks, if not praise. Yet Mr. Kelly is now under attack for having been too vigilant in trying to prevent attacks.
The Associated Press ignited the criticism with a series of dispatches reporting on police surveillance of Muslim groups, including students, some of them reaching all the way to . . . New Jersey and Yale. It seems one undercover cop even accompanied a group on a rafting trip—without having the courtesy of informing his fellow rafters that he was undercover.
Police practices shouldn't be immune to media scrutiny, but the AP reports have been amplified and used to suggest the NYPD is violating civil liberties and racially or religiously profiling some individuals. There's no proof of illegality, and infiltrating groups that are the most likely to produce terrorists is essential to preventing attacks.
But that hasn't stopped New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Newark Mayor Cory Booker from criticizing Mr. Kelly for his incursion into the nation-state of New Jersey. Attorney General Eric Holder also pronounced his concern about New York's methods and said his department will review it. Mayor Michael Bloomberg is taking abuse because he has dared to defend his police chief.
Mr. Kelly is the real stand-up guy here. As he made clear at Fordham, such targeted surveillance and undercover work is essential to preventing crime of all kinds, in particular terror attacks. If mosques or universities or other places are beyond scrutiny, terrorists will inevitably use them to conceal their plans.
"Since 9/11," said Mr. Kelly, "some of the most violent terrorists we've encountered were radicalized or recruited at universities." London's 2005 subway terror bombers belonged to Muslim student groups. The tragedy is that those students hadn't been surveilled or infiltrated.
Mr. Kelly also made clear that New York's finest subject their terror investigations to rules known as the Handschu Guidelines, which were developed under court supervision to protect political activity from police interference. Surveillance must be based on bona fide leads and be cleared at the highest levels of the NYPD.
These are more restrictive rules than other police departments abide by, but the Handschu Guidelines are not a suicide pact. They allow the NYPD to visit any event or place open to the public, to search online, and to map certain neighborhoods. Believe it or not, even such open-source surveillance has been criticized.
Part of the anti-Kelly campaign is probably political, an attempt to deter him from running for mayor to succeed Mr. Bloomberg. Some liberals also want to stigmatize him so the next President wouldn't consider him to run the FBI—though he would be an inspired choice.
More disconcerting is the mindset this episode reveals. Little more than a decade after 9/11, too many of America's political elites are putting political correctness and civil libertarian scare-mongering above public safety. That's how innocent people get blown up.
KELLY’S WAR ATTACKED
While I hold John Eterno and Eli Silverman in the highest regard, I disagree with them on t his one.
EXPERTS POINT TO FLAWS IN NYPD TERROR EFFORT
Justice Department taking a look
By Mark Toor
The Chief
March 5, 2012
Two law-enforcement experts who have charged that the way the NYPD uses Compstat encourages officers to falsify crime statistics say the department’s controversial anti-terrorism program not only violates people’s constitutional rights, it’s also not good policing.
“It really reeks of racism,” said John A. Eterno, who retired from the department as a Captain and is now associate dean and director of graduate studies in criminal justice at Molloy College. He said the Police Department’s recently-reported investigations of out-of-town targets appear to be self-initiated rather than a response to actual evidence of possible terrorism. “Why focus just on Muslims?” he asked.
‘WE FOLLOW LEADS’
“We don’t target individuals based on race or religion. We follow leads,” Mayor Bloomberg said Feb. 24. He gave no further details of the leads.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said last week that the Department of Justice would begin reviewing complaints that the NYPD counter-terror efforts were violating Muslims’ rights. The review will help DOJ determine whether to open a civil-rights investigation, he said.
Mr. Holder said that police seeking to monitor activities by citizens “should only do so when there is a basis to believe that something inappropriate is occurring or potentially could occur.” Many in the city’s Muslim communities say the NYPD is looking at all Muslims as though they were terror threats.
Eli B. Silverman, a Professor Emeritus at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice who has consulted for and trained police departments around the world, said he saw parallels with the department’s stop-and-frisk initiative.
‘CAST A NET AND HOPE’
Stop-and-frisks pull in hundreds of thousands of people each year, about 12 percent of whom are summonsed or arrested. Similarly, Mr. Silverman said, NYPD surveillance activities in Newark, N.J. and on Long Island targeted entire communities. NYPD officers in those operations did a census of every Muslim-owned business and religious institution, even those owned by Jews, Turks, Indians and other groups that have never engaged in terrorism on U.S. soil. Mr. Silverman described the strategy as “Let’s throw a wide net and hope to pick things up.”
“The department is extending its reach beyond what’s considered reasonable,” Mr. Eterno said.
He and Mr. Silverman, who were asked by THE CHIEF-LEADER to comment on the anti-terrorism program, are the authors of a recently-published book about the problems that have developed with Compstat, “The Crime Numbers Game: Management by Manipulation.” The book says Compstat, which combines computer-generated crime patterns with a demand for accountability from police commanders, has been perverted from an important crime-fighting tool into a forum that encourages cops of all ranks to falsify crime numbers, downgrade felony reports and issue unnecessary summonses.
Mr. Eterno said the job of a government agency fighting terrorism is “to stop it while respecting basic rights...
It’s hard. It’s meant to be hard.”
He noted problems with sending officers undercover outside the city, as the NYPD did with a group of Muslims from Yale taking a rafting trip. Notifying local law-enforcement of such activities, he said, is a matter of “common courtesy and safety.” He said the undercovers “could be mistaken for perps.”
RISKS OVERSEAS
Sending officers overseas as observers, as the department does, is risky as well, he said. They’re not trained by the State Department, he noted, and working in a foreign country without training is dangerous. Further, he added, “If a cop gets into trouble they have no diplomatic immunity” and would be at the mercy of local authorities.
The two men noted that nobody’s reviewing NYPD policy, as opposed to Federal intelligence operations, which are subject to Congressional oversight and other checks and balances. “The NYPD is its own judge and jury,” Mr. Silverman said. “If there’s any criticism, they say you’re soft on terrorism, or pandering.”
Mr. Bloomberg responded to concerns expressed by Yale President Richard C. Levin by ridiculing the university, saying the NYPD’s goal is “to protect the very things that let Yale survive.” Mr. Kelly said politicians who criticize the stop-and-frisk program are “pandering” to win votes.
“Bloomberg is constantly backing up Kelly,” Mr. Eterno said. “We rarely if ever see him saying, ‘That’s a good point, I’m going to look into it’.”
‘STEPPING ON PEOPLE’S RIGHTS’
Mr. Eterno held out some hope that things could improve before the end of Mr. Bloomberg’s term as he considers his legacy. “Right now it’s not a very good one—just horrible, stepping all over people’s constitutional rights,” he said.
But Mr. Silverman said the chances of change are between “none and zero.” He said Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Kelly are “wedded to a narrative”—crime is down and there have been no successful terrorist attacks. “Constitutional rights and everything else is secondary,” he said. “They would feel they’d have egg on their faces if they reverse course.”
EXPERTS POINT TO FLAWS IN NYPD TERROR EFFORT
Justice Department taking a look
By Mark Toor
The Chief
March 5, 2012
Two law-enforcement experts who have charged that the way the NYPD uses Compstat encourages officers to falsify crime statistics say the department’s controversial anti-terrorism program not only violates people’s constitutional rights, it’s also not good policing.
“It really reeks of racism,” said John A. Eterno, who retired from the department as a Captain and is now associate dean and director of graduate studies in criminal justice at Molloy College. He said the Police Department’s recently-reported investigations of out-of-town targets appear to be self-initiated rather than a response to actual evidence of possible terrorism. “Why focus just on Muslims?” he asked.
‘WE FOLLOW LEADS’
“We don’t target individuals based on race or religion. We follow leads,” Mayor Bloomberg said Feb. 24. He gave no further details of the leads.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said last week that the Department of Justice would begin reviewing complaints that the NYPD counter-terror efforts were violating Muslims’ rights. The review will help DOJ determine whether to open a civil-rights investigation, he said.
Mr. Holder said that police seeking to monitor activities by citizens “should only do so when there is a basis to believe that something inappropriate is occurring or potentially could occur.” Many in the city’s Muslim communities say the NYPD is looking at all Muslims as though they were terror threats.
Eli B. Silverman, a Professor Emeritus at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice who has consulted for and trained police departments around the world, said he saw parallels with the department’s stop-and-frisk initiative.
‘CAST A NET AND HOPE’
Stop-and-frisks pull in hundreds of thousands of people each year, about 12 percent of whom are summonsed or arrested. Similarly, Mr. Silverman said, NYPD surveillance activities in Newark, N.J. and on Long Island targeted entire communities. NYPD officers in those operations did a census of every Muslim-owned business and religious institution, even those owned by Jews, Turks, Indians and other groups that have never engaged in terrorism on U.S. soil. Mr. Silverman described the strategy as “Let’s throw a wide net and hope to pick things up.”
“The department is extending its reach beyond what’s considered reasonable,” Mr. Eterno said.
He and Mr. Silverman, who were asked by THE CHIEF-LEADER to comment on the anti-terrorism program, are the authors of a recently-published book about the problems that have developed with Compstat, “The Crime Numbers Game: Management by Manipulation.” The book says Compstat, which combines computer-generated crime patterns with a demand for accountability from police commanders, has been perverted from an important crime-fighting tool into a forum that encourages cops of all ranks to falsify crime numbers, downgrade felony reports and issue unnecessary summonses.
Mr. Eterno said the job of a government agency fighting terrorism is “to stop it while respecting basic rights...
It’s hard. It’s meant to be hard.”
He noted problems with sending officers undercover outside the city, as the NYPD did with a group of Muslims from Yale taking a rafting trip. Notifying local law-enforcement of such activities, he said, is a matter of “common courtesy and safety.” He said the undercovers “could be mistaken for perps.”
RISKS OVERSEAS
Sending officers overseas as observers, as the department does, is risky as well, he said. They’re not trained by the State Department, he noted, and working in a foreign country without training is dangerous. Further, he added, “If a cop gets into trouble they have no diplomatic immunity” and would be at the mercy of local authorities.
The two men noted that nobody’s reviewing NYPD policy, as opposed to Federal intelligence operations, which are subject to Congressional oversight and other checks and balances. “The NYPD is its own judge and jury,” Mr. Silverman said. “If there’s any criticism, they say you’re soft on terrorism, or pandering.”
Mr. Bloomberg responded to concerns expressed by Yale President Richard C. Levin by ridiculing the university, saying the NYPD’s goal is “to protect the very things that let Yale survive.” Mr. Kelly said politicians who criticize the stop-and-frisk program are “pandering” to win votes.
“Bloomberg is constantly backing up Kelly,” Mr. Eterno said. “We rarely if ever see him saying, ‘That’s a good point, I’m going to look into it’.”
‘STEPPING ON PEOPLE’S RIGHTS’
Mr. Eterno held out some hope that things could improve before the end of Mr. Bloomberg’s term as he considers his legacy. “Right now it’s not a very good one—just horrible, stepping all over people’s constitutional rights,” he said.
But Mr. Silverman said the chances of change are between “none and zero.” He said Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Kelly are “wedded to a narrative”—crime is down and there have been no successful terrorist attacks. “Constitutional rights and everything else is secondary,” he said. “They would feel they’d have egg on their faces if they reverse course.”
WHO CARES AS LONG AS HE’S BEEN CROAKED?
What’s important here is that master terrorist Osama bin Laden’s life has been terminated.
BIN LADEN WAS NOT BURIED AT SEA, BUT FLOWN TO THE U.S.FOR CREMATION AT SECRET LOCATION, CLAIMS INTELLIGENCE BOSS IN LEAKED EMAIL
Believed to be part of 2.7 million emails obtained by hacker group Anonymous from intelligence analysis group Stratfor and shared with WikiLeaks
By Thomas Durante
Mail Online
March 6, 2012
The fate of Osama bin Laden's remains have been called into question after emails leaked from an intelligence analysis firm say the body of the terror leader was actually sent to the U.S. for cremation.
According to the emails, the Al Qaeda boss was shot and killed during the famous Navy SEAL Team Six raid on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, was transported back to the U.S. and cremated.
The emails were allegedly obtained by the hacker group Anonymous from Stratfor, an organisation dealing with analysis of intelligence and geopolitical analysis.
It's also known as the 'Shadow CIA'.
Last week, Anonymous announced that it had gotten access to 2.7million of the firm’s confidential correspondences, and said they could provide 'the smoking gun for a number of crimes'.
The hackers said Stratfor, based in Austin, Texas, were 'clueless' when it came to database security.
After bin Laden was killed in the famous raid in Pakistan on May 2 2011, the Obama administration said his body was buried at sea off the USS Carl Vinson - in accordance with Islamic tradition.
But in a particular set of emails given to WikiLeaks, the firm’s vice president for intelligence, Fred Burton, says he doubts the official White House version of what happened to bin Laden's body.
Stratfor’s vice-president for intelligence, Fred Burton, says the body was 'bound for Dover, [Delaware] on [a] CIA plane' and 'onward to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Bethesda [Maryland]'.
The claims are sure to stoke conspiracy theorists, especially since the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology that Burton refers to closed its doors on September 15, 2011, four months after bin Laden's death.
In a February 27 statement, Stratfor said: In December, thieves compromised Stratfor's data systems and stole a large number of company emails, along with other private information of Stratfor readers, subscribers and employees. Those stolen emails apparently will be published by Wikileaks. This is a deplorable, unfortunate - and illegal - breach of privacy.
'Some of the emails may be forged or altered to include inaccuracies; some may be authentic. We will not validate either. Nor will we explain the thinking that went into them. Having had our property stolen, we will not be victimized twice by submitting to questioning about them.'
Stratfor, which is not affiliated with the U.S. government, would not comment further.
BIN LADEN WAS NOT BURIED AT SEA, BUT FLOWN TO THE U.S.FOR CREMATION AT SECRET LOCATION, CLAIMS INTELLIGENCE BOSS IN LEAKED EMAIL
Believed to be part of 2.7 million emails obtained by hacker group Anonymous from intelligence analysis group Stratfor and shared with WikiLeaks
By Thomas Durante
Mail Online
March 6, 2012
The fate of Osama bin Laden's remains have been called into question after emails leaked from an intelligence analysis firm say the body of the terror leader was actually sent to the U.S. for cremation.
According to the emails, the Al Qaeda boss was shot and killed during the famous Navy SEAL Team Six raid on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, was transported back to the U.S. and cremated.
The emails were allegedly obtained by the hacker group Anonymous from Stratfor, an organisation dealing with analysis of intelligence and geopolitical analysis.
It's also known as the 'Shadow CIA'.
Last week, Anonymous announced that it had gotten access to 2.7million of the firm’s confidential correspondences, and said they could provide 'the smoking gun for a number of crimes'.
The hackers said Stratfor, based in Austin, Texas, were 'clueless' when it came to database security.
After bin Laden was killed in the famous raid in Pakistan on May 2 2011, the Obama administration said his body was buried at sea off the USS Carl Vinson - in accordance with Islamic tradition.
But in a particular set of emails given to WikiLeaks, the firm’s vice president for intelligence, Fred Burton, says he doubts the official White House version of what happened to bin Laden's body.
Stratfor’s vice-president for intelligence, Fred Burton, says the body was 'bound for Dover, [Delaware] on [a] CIA plane' and 'onward to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Bethesda [Maryland]'.
The claims are sure to stoke conspiracy theorists, especially since the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology that Burton refers to closed its doors on September 15, 2011, four months after bin Laden's death.
In a February 27 statement, Stratfor said: In December, thieves compromised Stratfor's data systems and stole a large number of company emails, along with other private information of Stratfor readers, subscribers and employees. Those stolen emails apparently will be published by Wikileaks. This is a deplorable, unfortunate - and illegal - breach of privacy.
'Some of the emails may be forged or altered to include inaccuracies; some may be authentic. We will not validate either. Nor will we explain the thinking that went into them. Having had our property stolen, we will not be victimized twice by submitting to questioning about them.'
Stratfor, which is not affiliated with the U.S. government, would not comment further.
Tuesday, March 06, 2012
KILLER ATE PART OF VICTIM’S BRAIN AND AN EYEBALL
Sounds like a teen-scream horror flick, but it really happened.
DID SUSPECT IN CANNIBALISM CASE KNOW VICTIM?
By Frank Juliano
ctpost.com
March 6, 2012
BRIDGEPORT, Connecticut -- A city man accused of hacking another man to death with an ax and eating part of his brain and other body parts had threatened to kill his alleged victim a week earlier over a financial dispute, a relative of the alleged victim said Monday.
Tyree Smith, 35, pleaded not guilty Monday to a murder charge in the Dec. 15 death of Angel "Tun Tun" Gonzalez in Bridgeport. Talitha Frazier, Gonzalez's sister-in-law, said the two men knew each other and that the killing was premeditated.
"Angel told me that Tyree came to him a week before and threatened to kill him if he didn't pay Tyree the money he owed him," Frazier said outside the courtroom.
Gonzalez worked off and on as a mechanic and doing odd jobs like shoveling snow, family members said.
Frazier said she didn't know how much money, if any, the victim owed, "but it couldn't have been much. When I asked him about it, (Gonzalez) said `Don't worry about it. He's not going to do anything to me.' "
Smith confronted Gonzalez in a house on Pembroke Street, Frazier said. She said she didn't know why, or if, her brother-in-law owed his accused killer any money. "What I don't get is, if he is insane, how is he writing a book? If he's not insane, then I will push all the way for the death penalty.''
Smith waived his right to a probable cause hearing, answering Judge Robert Devlin's questions with a simple yes or no during the brief hearing in state Superior Court in Bridgeport. The Ansonia native, who has been in custody since his January arrest, appeared with his hands cuffed behind his back and wearing a dark green prison jumpsuit. The dark green suit denotes a potentially dangerous or high-risk defendant, a Corrections Department official said. Two marshals stood directly behind Smith at the defense table.
Smith is charged with killing Gonzalez in an abandoned house on Brooks Street in Bridgeport and eating one of Gonzalez's eyeballs and part of his brain. Devlin set the next hearing date in the case for April 16.
Upon hearing Smith's plea, the victim's stepdaughter, Odalys Gonzalez, stormed angrily from the courtroom, yelling, "This is bull...." She was wearing a T-shirt with Gonzalez's photo and the caption "R.I.P. Tun Tun" on it.
Smith's lawyer, Corrie-Ann L. Mainville, objected to the presence of a TV news crew in the courtroom, but Devlin overruled her motion.
"The court has to have a compelling reason not to allow a camera in the courtroom, and this is a case with significant public interest,'' the judge said.
Bridgeport police say Smith hacked Gonzalez to death with an ax, removed an eyeball and a portion of his brain, then carried it with him to Lakeview Cemetery.
Gonzalez's mutilated, decomposing body was found in the burnt-out Brooks Street apartment building by a city building inspector more than a month later.
Both Smith and Gonzalez once had lived in the Brooks Street house, in different apartments, Frazier said.
Smith moved from Ansonia to California after high school and then to Florida before eventually ending up homeless in Bridgeport early this year.
He is a single father, an unpublished writer and a former model who had sought help at mental health facilities.
Smith had made a series of increasingly bizarre entries on his Facebook page, culminating last July 3 when he wrote: "Devouring your flesh. Smelling your bodies burn in a heap. ... I hate the day they created you filthy humans. There. Thats whats been on my mind since a child. Happy?"
DID SUSPECT IN CANNIBALISM CASE KNOW VICTIM?
By Frank Juliano
ctpost.com
March 6, 2012
BRIDGEPORT, Connecticut -- A city man accused of hacking another man to death with an ax and eating part of his brain and other body parts had threatened to kill his alleged victim a week earlier over a financial dispute, a relative of the alleged victim said Monday.
Tyree Smith, 35, pleaded not guilty Monday to a murder charge in the Dec. 15 death of Angel "Tun Tun" Gonzalez in Bridgeport. Talitha Frazier, Gonzalez's sister-in-law, said the two men knew each other and that the killing was premeditated.
"Angel told me that Tyree came to him a week before and threatened to kill him if he didn't pay Tyree the money he owed him," Frazier said outside the courtroom.
Gonzalez worked off and on as a mechanic and doing odd jobs like shoveling snow, family members said.
Frazier said she didn't know how much money, if any, the victim owed, "but it couldn't have been much. When I asked him about it, (Gonzalez) said `Don't worry about it. He's not going to do anything to me.' "
Smith confronted Gonzalez in a house on Pembroke Street, Frazier said. She said she didn't know why, or if, her brother-in-law owed his accused killer any money. "What I don't get is, if he is insane, how is he writing a book? If he's not insane, then I will push all the way for the death penalty.''
Smith waived his right to a probable cause hearing, answering Judge Robert Devlin's questions with a simple yes or no during the brief hearing in state Superior Court in Bridgeport. The Ansonia native, who has been in custody since his January arrest, appeared with his hands cuffed behind his back and wearing a dark green prison jumpsuit. The dark green suit denotes a potentially dangerous or high-risk defendant, a Corrections Department official said. Two marshals stood directly behind Smith at the defense table.
Smith is charged with killing Gonzalez in an abandoned house on Brooks Street in Bridgeport and eating one of Gonzalez's eyeballs and part of his brain. Devlin set the next hearing date in the case for April 16.
Upon hearing Smith's plea, the victim's stepdaughter, Odalys Gonzalez, stormed angrily from the courtroom, yelling, "This is bull...." She was wearing a T-shirt with Gonzalez's photo and the caption "R.I.P. Tun Tun" on it.
Smith's lawyer, Corrie-Ann L. Mainville, objected to the presence of a TV news crew in the courtroom, but Devlin overruled her motion.
"The court has to have a compelling reason not to allow a camera in the courtroom, and this is a case with significant public interest,'' the judge said.
Bridgeport police say Smith hacked Gonzalez to death with an ax, removed an eyeball and a portion of his brain, then carried it with him to Lakeview Cemetery.
Gonzalez's mutilated, decomposing body was found in the burnt-out Brooks Street apartment building by a city building inspector more than a month later.
Both Smith and Gonzalez once had lived in the Brooks Street house, in different apartments, Frazier said.
Smith moved from Ansonia to California after high school and then to Florida before eventually ending up homeless in Bridgeport early this year.
He is a single father, an unpublished writer and a former model who had sought help at mental health facilities.
Smith had made a series of increasingly bizarre entries on his Facebook page, culminating last July 3 when he wrote: "Devouring your flesh. Smelling your bodies burn in a heap. ... I hate the day they created you filthy humans. There. Thats whats been on my mind since a child. Happy?"
AFTER 61 YEARS, JOE PATERNO DESERVED BETTER
The shameless way that the Penn State administration and Board of Trustees treated Joe Paterno in the wake of the Sandusky child molestation revelation is an action which will live in infamy.
ARE THEY HAPPY NOW?
By Curt Smith
politicalmavens.com
March 5, 2012
Are they happy now – ESPN and CNN and the New York Times – for treating Penn State University football coach Joe Paterno like day-old mashed potatoes?
Are they pleased as punch – the Penn State Board of Trustees whose cowardice left JoePa with nothing for which to live?
Do they regret a thing – bloggers, writers, and other commentators who blamed Paterno for a scandal in which, we now know, he was the one person who acted honorably?
To paraphrase Richard Nixon, they won’t have JoePa to kick around any more – dead recently, at 85, of lung cancer, climaxing a tragedy redolent of Dreiser or Dostoevsky.
Many words describe how sport’s greatest teacher was treated in the last winter of his life: hateful, incomprehensible, cruel. The truest word is shameful – something Paterno’s critics would never grasp, incapable of feeling it.
Last November 5, the scandal that helped end Paterno’s life wracked the school he helped build at State College — Happy Valley. A grand jury report charged then-aide
Jerry Sandusky with forty counts of childhood sex abuse, including a 2002 incident where another coach, Mike McQueary, allegedly saw Sandusky having anal intercourse with a young boy in the shower.
What did McQueary then tell Joe Pa? What did he do, in turn? Recently, Paterno told the Washington Post that he “didn’t know exactly how to handle it,” having “never heard of, rape and a man.” Even so, he promptly and properly told higher-ups what McQuerary told him – assuming that they, several now arrested, would do their job as well.
By November 9, television trashed a man who has never been charged with anything. Mocking fairness, it ignored how Paterno helped an astonishing major-sport 9 in 10 players graduate, changed thousands of lives, spurned N.C.A.A. violation, built a Penn State Library and Spiritual Center, became football’s all-time winningest coach, and embodied the “scholar-athlete.” The French Revolution had a fairer jury.
That night Penn State’s Board held a meeting to, as a member said, “try to end the controversy,” JoePa denied even a chance to speak. At 10 p.m., a flunky went to Paterno’s home carrying a piece of paper with only the trustee vice-chairman’s name and phone number. In night clothes, Paterno dialed the number, hearing, “In the best interests of the university, you are terminated.” Joe hung up, told wife Sue, and saw her redial the phone.
“After 61 years [as a Penn State coach],” she said, “he deserved better.” Seventy-four days later her husband of a half-century was gone. In between, JoePa was diagnosed with lung cancer, brooked chemotherapy and radiation, and entered the hospital from complications – to death the fall guy for what T.S. Eliot called “hollow men … stuff men … headpiece filled with straw.
Puzzlement shrouds JoePa’s vicious treatment. Media bile was explicable, if indefensible. Famously unhip, Paterno was old-school and old-world from an Italian Catholic family. To ESPN, that made Joe declasse. Decent people saw a hero. Trustees were as culpable: Having dishonored Joe in life, the Board now hopes to save itself by honoring him in death – penance on the cheap. It is untrue that trustees and the media killed Paterno – lung cancer did. It is almost surely sure that they lessened his will to live.
On the day of his funeral, thousands stood in the cold in college football’s once-Brigadoon. Millions said good-bye on television. Hundreds of ex-players returned to mourn. Under JoePa, a football throng would chant, “We are — Penn State.” Now, near the cortege, a mourner broke the silence: “You are – Penn State.” The crowd roared like an old Franco Harris run.
As the sky grayed and wind whispered and Paterno was buried, a novella read by the Brown ’49 English Literature major came to mind: Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Darkness can mean children wronged — and a man who unfairly paid the price. By contrast, heart lit Happy Valley – and that man’s incomparable life.
ARE THEY HAPPY NOW?
By Curt Smith
politicalmavens.com
March 5, 2012
Are they happy now – ESPN and CNN and the New York Times – for treating Penn State University football coach Joe Paterno like day-old mashed potatoes?
Are they pleased as punch – the Penn State Board of Trustees whose cowardice left JoePa with nothing for which to live?
Do they regret a thing – bloggers, writers, and other commentators who blamed Paterno for a scandal in which, we now know, he was the one person who acted honorably?
To paraphrase Richard Nixon, they won’t have JoePa to kick around any more – dead recently, at 85, of lung cancer, climaxing a tragedy redolent of Dreiser or Dostoevsky.
Many words describe how sport’s greatest teacher was treated in the last winter of his life: hateful, incomprehensible, cruel. The truest word is shameful – something Paterno’s critics would never grasp, incapable of feeling it.
Last November 5, the scandal that helped end Paterno’s life wracked the school he helped build at State College — Happy Valley. A grand jury report charged then-aide
Jerry Sandusky with forty counts of childhood sex abuse, including a 2002 incident where another coach, Mike McQueary, allegedly saw Sandusky having anal intercourse with a young boy in the shower.
What did McQueary then tell Joe Pa? What did he do, in turn? Recently, Paterno told the Washington Post that he “didn’t know exactly how to handle it,” having “never heard of, rape and a man.” Even so, he promptly and properly told higher-ups what McQuerary told him – assuming that they, several now arrested, would do their job as well.
By November 9, television trashed a man who has never been charged with anything. Mocking fairness, it ignored how Paterno helped an astonishing major-sport 9 in 10 players graduate, changed thousands of lives, spurned N.C.A.A. violation, built a Penn State Library and Spiritual Center, became football’s all-time winningest coach, and embodied the “scholar-athlete.” The French Revolution had a fairer jury.
That night Penn State’s Board held a meeting to, as a member said, “try to end the controversy,” JoePa denied even a chance to speak. At 10 p.m., a flunky went to Paterno’s home carrying a piece of paper with only the trustee vice-chairman’s name and phone number. In night clothes, Paterno dialed the number, hearing, “In the best interests of the university, you are terminated.” Joe hung up, told wife Sue, and saw her redial the phone.
“After 61 years [as a Penn State coach],” she said, “he deserved better.” Seventy-four days later her husband of a half-century was gone. In between, JoePa was diagnosed with lung cancer, brooked chemotherapy and radiation, and entered the hospital from complications – to death the fall guy for what T.S. Eliot called “hollow men … stuff men … headpiece filled with straw.
Puzzlement shrouds JoePa’s vicious treatment. Media bile was explicable, if indefensible. Famously unhip, Paterno was old-school and old-world from an Italian Catholic family. To ESPN, that made Joe declasse. Decent people saw a hero. Trustees were as culpable: Having dishonored Joe in life, the Board now hopes to save itself by honoring him in death – penance on the cheap. It is untrue that trustees and the media killed Paterno – lung cancer did. It is almost surely sure that they lessened his will to live.
On the day of his funeral, thousands stood in the cold in college football’s once-Brigadoon. Millions said good-bye on television. Hundreds of ex-players returned to mourn. Under JoePa, a football throng would chant, “We are — Penn State.” Now, near the cortege, a mourner broke the silence: “You are – Penn State.” The crowd roared like an old Franco Harris run.
As the sky grayed and wind whispered and Paterno was buried, a novella read by the Brown ’49 English Literature major came to mind: Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Darkness can mean children wronged — and a man who unfairly paid the price. By contrast, heart lit Happy Valley – and that man’s incomparable life.
$30,000 IN UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS BENEFIT L.A. COUNTY JAIL INMATE
Well, he was unemployed, wasn’t he?
KILLER COLLECTED UNEMPLOYMENT CHECKS WHILE IN JAIL, AUTHORITIES SAY
By Jack Dolan
Los Angeles Times
March 3, 2012
A convicted killer who got caught because he’d tattooed a graphic mural of the murder scene on his chest allegedly raked in more than $30,000 in unemployment benefits while he sat in the Los Angeles County jail system, a sheriff's spokesman said.
Anthony Garcia had family and friends cashing his $1,600-per-month government assistance checks while he served time, said Capt. Mike Parker, spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. His accomplices would then deposit a portion of the money into Garcia’s jail account. They also shared the cash with Garcia’s fellow incarcerated gang members.
Police arrested Garcia’s father, 47-year-old Juan Garcia, and girlfriends 45-year-old Sandra Jaimez and 25-year-old Cynthia Limas on unemployment fraud and related charges on Thursday, Parker said.
“It’s pretty appalling when you think about somebody sitting in jail collecting unemployment,” Parker said.
The Sheriff’s Department photographed Garcia’s tattoo after picking him up for a routine traffic stop. The measure is routine with suspected gang members. Later, a detective investigating a 2004 murder outside a Pico Rivera liquor store was flipping through photos when he was stunned to see the crime scene inked in precise detail across a young man’s pudgy chest.
Parker did not say whether Garcia would face additional charges.
KILLER COLLECTED UNEMPLOYMENT CHECKS WHILE IN JAIL, AUTHORITIES SAY
By Jack Dolan
Los Angeles Times
March 3, 2012
A convicted killer who got caught because he’d tattooed a graphic mural of the murder scene on his chest allegedly raked in more than $30,000 in unemployment benefits while he sat in the Los Angeles County jail system, a sheriff's spokesman said.
Anthony Garcia had family and friends cashing his $1,600-per-month government assistance checks while he served time, said Capt. Mike Parker, spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. His accomplices would then deposit a portion of the money into Garcia’s jail account. They also shared the cash with Garcia’s fellow incarcerated gang members.
Police arrested Garcia’s father, 47-year-old Juan Garcia, and girlfriends 45-year-old Sandra Jaimez and 25-year-old Cynthia Limas on unemployment fraud and related charges on Thursday, Parker said.
“It’s pretty appalling when you think about somebody sitting in jail collecting unemployment,” Parker said.
The Sheriff’s Department photographed Garcia’s tattoo after picking him up for a routine traffic stop. The measure is routine with suspected gang members. Later, a detective investigating a 2004 murder outside a Pico Rivera liquor store was flipping through photos when he was stunned to see the crime scene inked in precise detail across a young man’s pudgy chest.
Parker did not say whether Garcia would face additional charges.
Monday, March 05, 2012
ROACH: DESTRUCTIVE TO GOP AND NOT ALL THAT INFLUENTIAL
On Sunday’s ABC This Week With George Stephanopoulos, Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan and ABC News political analyst Matthew Dowd commented on Roach Limburger's intemperate rant against Sandra Fluke. I think the two conservatives, Noonan and Dowd, hit the nail right on the head. While Roach has his legion of dodoheads salivating over everything the windbag says, the overwhelming majority of Americans, including Republicans, are not that gullible.
Peggy Noonan said:
“Look, what Rush Limbaugh said was crude, rude, even piggish, it was just unacceptable, he ought to be called on it. I'm glad he has apologized. I guess there will be a debate now about the nature of the apology. But what he said was also destructive. It confused the issue. It played into this trope that the Republicans have a war on women. No, they don't, but he made it look they that way. It confused the larger issue which is the real issue, which is "Obama-care," and its incursions against religious freedoms, which is a serious issue. It was not about this young lady at Georgetown. So what he said was deeply destructive and unhelpful and he ought to be called on it.”
Matthew Dowd said:
“Well, the first thing is I think he [Mitt Romney] -- anybody should have come out with some courage of their convictions and told Rush Limbaugh he was totally wrong to do this. I think the myth -- there's a myth around Rush Limbaugh. This idea that he influences a large number of Republican voters is a complete myth. Keep in mind, Rush Limbaugh attacked Newt Gingrich before the South Carolina Primary, and Newt Gingrich won South Carolina. And then Rush Limbaugh attacked Mitt Romney before the Florida Primary, and Mitt Romney wins Florida. I think the problem is the Republican leaders, Mitt Romney and the other candidates, don't have the courage to say what they say in quiet, which, they think Rush Limbaugh is a buffoon. They think Rush Limbaugh is a buffoon. They don't think he's helpful in this marketplace. They think he is like a clown coming out of a small car at a circus. It's great he is entertaining and all that. But nobody takes him seriously.”
Noonan and Dowd are not the only conservatives pooh-poohing Roach’s ability to influence voters. Republican strategist Mike Murphy says, “Rush can’t deliver a pizza let alone a nomination.”
Peggy Noonan said:
“Look, what Rush Limbaugh said was crude, rude, even piggish, it was just unacceptable, he ought to be called on it. I'm glad he has apologized. I guess there will be a debate now about the nature of the apology. But what he said was also destructive. It confused the issue. It played into this trope that the Republicans have a war on women. No, they don't, but he made it look they that way. It confused the larger issue which is the real issue, which is "Obama-care," and its incursions against religious freedoms, which is a serious issue. It was not about this young lady at Georgetown. So what he said was deeply destructive and unhelpful and he ought to be called on it.”
Matthew Dowd said:
“Well, the first thing is I think he [Mitt Romney] -- anybody should have come out with some courage of their convictions and told Rush Limbaugh he was totally wrong to do this. I think the myth -- there's a myth around Rush Limbaugh. This idea that he influences a large number of Republican voters is a complete myth. Keep in mind, Rush Limbaugh attacked Newt Gingrich before the South Carolina Primary, and Newt Gingrich won South Carolina. And then Rush Limbaugh attacked Mitt Romney before the Florida Primary, and Mitt Romney wins Florida. I think the problem is the Republican leaders, Mitt Romney and the other candidates, don't have the courage to say what they say in quiet, which, they think Rush Limbaugh is a buffoon. They think Rush Limbaugh is a buffoon. They don't think he's helpful in this marketplace. They think he is like a clown coming out of a small car at a circus. It's great he is entertaining and all that. But nobody takes him seriously.”
Noonan and Dowd are not the only conservatives pooh-poohing Roach’s ability to influence voters. Republican strategist Mike Murphy says, “Rush can’t deliver a pizza let alone a nomination.”
WHO PAYS FOR CONTRACEPTIVE COVERAGE IN HEALTH INSURANCE?
The Obama camp and leading Democrats have been jumping all over Roach Limburger for his intemperate rant against Sandra Fluke, not only excoriating him for calling her a slut, but also accusing him of lying when he said, “She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay” for her contraceptives.
Did ole Roach get it wrong? Well, yes and no. The contraception coverage will not be paid for with taxes. It will be paid for by individual health insurance policy holders. But did Roach lie when he said that Fluke wants you and me to pay for her contraception coverage? Not if you and I have health insurance policies.
Those health insurance rates are based on past and projected insurance payouts. Because contraceptives are being used by millions of women, they add up to a big insurance payout. Thus the cost of those payouts is factored into the insurance premiums that we have to pay. And that is why you and I, men and women alike, are paying for Fluke’s protected sex, and that of all other women who want to keep from getting pregnant, if our policies provide for free contraceptives.
So, did ole Roach lie? Not really, but what it boils down to is that it’s all in the eye of the beholder.
Did ole Roach get it wrong? Well, yes and no. The contraception coverage will not be paid for with taxes. It will be paid for by individual health insurance policy holders. But did Roach lie when he said that Fluke wants you and me to pay for her contraception coverage? Not if you and I have health insurance policies.
Those health insurance rates are based on past and projected insurance payouts. Because contraceptives are being used by millions of women, they add up to a big insurance payout. Thus the cost of those payouts is factored into the insurance premiums that we have to pay. And that is why you and I, men and women alike, are paying for Fluke’s protected sex, and that of all other women who want to keep from getting pregnant, if our policies provide for free contraceptives.
So, did ole Roach lie? Not really, but what it boils down to is that it’s all in the eye of the beholder.
Sunday, March 04, 2012
ROACH COULD NOT STAND THE HEAT, APOLOGIZES FOR CALLING A SLUT A SLUT
Ole Roach Limburger lost several sponsors on his radio show for calling Sandra Fluke a slut in his intemperate rant against the third year law student and her demand that women at Georgetown University be provided with free contraception. The loss of sponsors got his attention and so, unable to stand the heat, he issued the following apology:
__"My choice of words was not the best, and in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir. I sincerely apologize to Ms. Fluke for the insulting word choices."
I don’t know how sincere the Texas Blivot (10 pounds of shit in a 2 pound bag) is, but here is my take on the saga of Sandra Fluke.
Fluke, a ‘reproductive rights activist’, said her fellow students at Georgetown were forced to use their own money to pay up to $1,000 a year for birth control or more than $3,000 while they were in law school. She whined that she was on a ‘Public Interest scholarship’ and she was forced to spend an ‘entire summer’s salary’ on contraceptives.
Let me repeat something I posted yesterday. The American Heritage Dictionary defines slut as “a woman of loose morals.” And Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines slut as “a promiscuous woman.” Since every major religious faith considers sex outside of marriage to be immoral, both definitions pretty well describe Fluke, an unmarried woman who spends $1,000 a year on contraceptives.
Of course, I know that I am not with it because of a generation gap, but those of us from what Tom Brokaw called THE GREATEST GENERATION, as well as younger seniors, believe that a promiscuous single woman with a need for spending an ‘entire summer’s salary’ on contraceptives is simply put, a slut.
I really do not think ole Roach owed Fluke an apology. With an ‘entire summer’s salary’ spent on contraceptives, she obviously likes to fuck a lot. Fluke made her own bed and now she has to lie in it. But Roach does owe the Republican Party an apology because his stupid rant has energized and mobilized America’s women, thereby all but assuring the reelection of President Obama to a second term.
As I said yesterday, if I were the president, I would send ole Roach a very big thank you card.
__"My choice of words was not the best, and in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir. I sincerely apologize to Ms. Fluke for the insulting word choices."
I don’t know how sincere the Texas Blivot (10 pounds of shit in a 2 pound bag) is, but here is my take on the saga of Sandra Fluke.
Fluke, a ‘reproductive rights activist’, said her fellow students at Georgetown were forced to use their own money to pay up to $1,000 a year for birth control or more than $3,000 while they were in law school. She whined that she was on a ‘Public Interest scholarship’ and she was forced to spend an ‘entire summer’s salary’ on contraceptives.
Let me repeat something I posted yesterday. The American Heritage Dictionary defines slut as “a woman of loose morals.” And Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines slut as “a promiscuous woman.” Since every major religious faith considers sex outside of marriage to be immoral, both definitions pretty well describe Fluke, an unmarried woman who spends $1,000 a year on contraceptives.
Of course, I know that I am not with it because of a generation gap, but those of us from what Tom Brokaw called THE GREATEST GENERATION, as well as younger seniors, believe that a promiscuous single woman with a need for spending an ‘entire summer’s salary’ on contraceptives is simply put, a slut.
I really do not think ole Roach owed Fluke an apology. With an ‘entire summer’s salary’ spent on contraceptives, she obviously likes to fuck a lot. Fluke made her own bed and now she has to lie in it. But Roach does owe the Republican Party an apology because his stupid rant has energized and mobilized America’s women, thereby all but assuring the reelection of President Obama to a second term.
As I said yesterday, if I were the president, I would send ole Roach a very big thank you card.
A KEYSTONE MOMENT: COPS RAID COPS
While cops busting each other may seem like a scene from an old Keystone Kops movie, it is not all that uncommon when law enforcement agencies are conducting undercover operations, some of which may be outside of their own jurisdictions.
Andrew P. Napolitano, a former judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey, authored the following article. I believe that some of his assertions about the constitutional issues involved in the law enforcement surveillance operations he describes are wrong.
And Napolitano, now the senior judicial analyst at Fox News Channel, was absolutely wrong when he wrote, “That's how World War II got started: German police targeted Jews because they were Jews, and for no legitimate law enforcement purpose and without probable cause.” I can’t believe that anyone other than a moron would make an ignorant statement like that. WWII started in September 1939 with the invasion of Poland by Hitler’s Wehrmacht. The targeting of Jews without probable cause had absolutely nothing to do with it!
If Napolitano is so far off-base with his WWII history, does it not stand to reason that he could be wrong about his assertion that NYPD, New Brunswick PD, the FBI and the CIA are criminally liable for their warrantless surveillance operations?
CAN THE POLICE SPY ON US?
By Andrew P. Napolitano
FOXdfw.com
March 2, 2012
On June 2, 2009, a janitor in an office building in New Brunswick, N.J., noticed what he thought was terrorist-related literature and sophisticated surveillance equipment in an office he had been assigned to clean.
He told his boss, who called the local police, who notified the FBI.
Later in the day, the FBI and the New Brunswick police broke into the office and discovered five men busily operating the equipment. Four of the men were officers from the New York City Police Department, and the fifth was a CIA agent.
The conundrum faced by all of these public servants soon became apparent. Who should arrest whom?
Should the FBI agents and the local cops arrest the NYPD and the CIA agent for violating the U.S. and New Jersey constitutions, both of which prohibit searches and seizures without search warrants, and for violating federal and New Jersey laws against wiretapping and surveillance?
Should the NYPD and the CIA agent arrest the FBI agents and the local cops for breaking and entering and obstructing a governmental function without a search warrant?
Did the FBI and the local cops even have a search warrant? Was the NYPD/CIA surveillance a lawful governmental function?
No one at the scene of this unique encounter was arrested. In return for not becoming a defendant, everyone agreed not to become a complainant.
The FBI and the New Brunswick police went home, and the NYPD cops and their CIA mentor went back to their surveillance -- even though everyone in that office had sworn the same oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution and the laws written pursuant to it.
Among those laws are the state statutes that limit the authority and jurisdiction of local cops to the municipality that employs them, and the federal statutes that limit the legal ability of CIA agents to steal secrets only from foreigners outside the United States.
Stated differently, the NYPD has no authority or jurisdiction to engage in surveillance in New Jersey, and the CIA has no authority or jurisdiction to engage in surveillance in the U.S.
Nevertheless, we now know from the candid admissions last week of NYPD Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly that his department has been spying without search warrants on Muslim groups in New Jersey and elsewhere for 10 years.
Former New Jersey governor and current state Sen. Richard Codey recalls authorizing the NYPD -- and not the CIA -- to inspect railroads and ferries that travel back and forth between New Jersey and New York in 2005.
He says he never authorized surveillance.
No public official in New Jersey has come forward to acknowledge awareness of all this, and Mr. Kelly says the spying will continue. But he needs a search warrant.
Can the police spy on us? Only if they have probable cause to believe criminal behavior is taking place and a search warrant signed by a judge.
Short of probable cause about the very persons on whom they are spying, not about a group to which those persons belong by birth or by choice, the police may not lawfully spy, and judges will not sign search warrants without specific probable cause about specific persons.
The specificity is required by the language of the Fourth Amendment. That language also guarantees that quintessentially American right -- the right to be left alone -- by establishing articulable suspicion as the linchpin of all police pursuit of anyone for anything, and probable cause as the trigger for search warrants.
Can the police choose a target upon whom to spy based on the target's religion?
No.
The courts have been clear that under no circumstances may religion lawfully be the sole or even the principal basis for surveillance. That's how World War II got started: German police targeted Jews because they were Jews, and for no legitimate law enforcement purpose and without probable cause.
Was the New Brunswick operation criminal? Yes, it was.
It's not too late to charge the NYPD officers or the CIA agent in state or federal court for spying.
It's also not too late to charge the FBI agents and the New Brunswick cops in state or federal court for failing to obtain a search warrant (if they didn't have one), and for malfeasance in office by not arresting the spies.
The sacrifice of liberty for safety is illusory. The liberty lost does not return. The safety gained is not real.
Who in New Jersey voluntarily gave up his liberty?
Who can feel safe or free with government agents secretly and unlawfully monitoring them?
What is the reliability and vitality of constitutional guarantees if those in whose hands we repose them actively violate them?
What religious group might law enforcement target next?
How dangerous to personal freedom is a cabal of law enforcement when it looks the other way to avoid prosecuting its own?
Andrew P. Napolitano, a former judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey, authored the following article. I believe that some of his assertions about the constitutional issues involved in the law enforcement surveillance operations he describes are wrong.
And Napolitano, now the senior judicial analyst at Fox News Channel, was absolutely wrong when he wrote, “That's how World War II got started: German police targeted Jews because they were Jews, and for no legitimate law enforcement purpose and without probable cause.” I can’t believe that anyone other than a moron would make an ignorant statement like that. WWII started in September 1939 with the invasion of Poland by Hitler’s Wehrmacht. The targeting of Jews without probable cause had absolutely nothing to do with it!
If Napolitano is so far off-base with his WWII history, does it not stand to reason that he could be wrong about his assertion that NYPD, New Brunswick PD, the FBI and the CIA are criminally liable for their warrantless surveillance operations?
CAN THE POLICE SPY ON US?
By Andrew P. Napolitano
FOXdfw.com
March 2, 2012
On June 2, 2009, a janitor in an office building in New Brunswick, N.J., noticed what he thought was terrorist-related literature and sophisticated surveillance equipment in an office he had been assigned to clean.
He told his boss, who called the local police, who notified the FBI.
Later in the day, the FBI and the New Brunswick police broke into the office and discovered five men busily operating the equipment. Four of the men were officers from the New York City Police Department, and the fifth was a CIA agent.
The conundrum faced by all of these public servants soon became apparent. Who should arrest whom?
Should the FBI agents and the local cops arrest the NYPD and the CIA agent for violating the U.S. and New Jersey constitutions, both of which prohibit searches and seizures without search warrants, and for violating federal and New Jersey laws against wiretapping and surveillance?
Should the NYPD and the CIA agent arrest the FBI agents and the local cops for breaking and entering and obstructing a governmental function without a search warrant?
Did the FBI and the local cops even have a search warrant? Was the NYPD/CIA surveillance a lawful governmental function?
No one at the scene of this unique encounter was arrested. In return for not becoming a defendant, everyone agreed not to become a complainant.
The FBI and the New Brunswick police went home, and the NYPD cops and their CIA mentor went back to their surveillance -- even though everyone in that office had sworn the same oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution and the laws written pursuant to it.
Among those laws are the state statutes that limit the authority and jurisdiction of local cops to the municipality that employs them, and the federal statutes that limit the legal ability of CIA agents to steal secrets only from foreigners outside the United States.
Stated differently, the NYPD has no authority or jurisdiction to engage in surveillance in New Jersey, and the CIA has no authority or jurisdiction to engage in surveillance in the U.S.
Nevertheless, we now know from the candid admissions last week of NYPD Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly that his department has been spying without search warrants on Muslim groups in New Jersey and elsewhere for 10 years.
Former New Jersey governor and current state Sen. Richard Codey recalls authorizing the NYPD -- and not the CIA -- to inspect railroads and ferries that travel back and forth between New Jersey and New York in 2005.
He says he never authorized surveillance.
No public official in New Jersey has come forward to acknowledge awareness of all this, and Mr. Kelly says the spying will continue. But he needs a search warrant.
Can the police spy on us? Only if they have probable cause to believe criminal behavior is taking place and a search warrant signed by a judge.
Short of probable cause about the very persons on whom they are spying, not about a group to which those persons belong by birth or by choice, the police may not lawfully spy, and judges will not sign search warrants without specific probable cause about specific persons.
The specificity is required by the language of the Fourth Amendment. That language also guarantees that quintessentially American right -- the right to be left alone -- by establishing articulable suspicion as the linchpin of all police pursuit of anyone for anything, and probable cause as the trigger for search warrants.
Can the police choose a target upon whom to spy based on the target's religion?
No.
The courts have been clear that under no circumstances may religion lawfully be the sole or even the principal basis for surveillance. That's how World War II got started: German police targeted Jews because they were Jews, and for no legitimate law enforcement purpose and without probable cause.
Was the New Brunswick operation criminal? Yes, it was.
It's not too late to charge the NYPD officers or the CIA agent in state or federal court for spying.
It's also not too late to charge the FBI agents and the New Brunswick cops in state or federal court for failing to obtain a search warrant (if they didn't have one), and for malfeasance in office by not arresting the spies.
The sacrifice of liberty for safety is illusory. The liberty lost does not return. The safety gained is not real.
Who in New Jersey voluntarily gave up his liberty?
Who can feel safe or free with government agents secretly and unlawfully monitoring them?
What is the reliability and vitality of constitutional guarantees if those in whose hands we repose them actively violate them?
What religious group might law enforcement target next?
How dangerous to personal freedom is a cabal of law enforcement when it looks the other way to avoid prosecuting its own?
METH ADDICTS DEMAND GOVERNMENT ADDRESS NATION’S GROWING SPIDER MENACE
The Onion
January 30, 2007 (Reprinted March 3, 2012)
WASHINGTON, DC—Following the tragic falling death of 32-year-old methamphetamine addict Phillip Diggs, who was reportedly attacked by spiders while scaling a large construction crane near Palo Alto, CA, thousands of outraged and confused meth addicts marched frenetically on Washington as part of a week of activities urging the federal government to address the nation's growing spider epidemic.
"Something needs to be done and it needs to be done soon—these spiders are everywhere," said Rich Harlowe, event organizer and founder of Tweakers' Rights NowNowNowNowNowNowNowNowNow!, in testimony before a Senate committee Tuesday. "The government must address this problem before the situation gets out of hand and these poisonous, acid-shooting spiders develop the powers of mind control or—God forbid—flight."
"America cannot afford to ignore this any crisis any longer," Harlowe added.
The rally drew addicts from every part of the country, many traveling on foot through the night, trading sex with truck drivers for rides, or stealing their brothers-in-law's bicycles. At dozens of rambling public speeches, organizers decried the fact that it took the spider-related death of an innocent meth addict to raise awareness of the issue, while lauding the bravery of meth addicts, and methamphetamines themselves.
A 45,000-word proposal was drafted by members of TRN during a marathon, 72-hour meeting under the Roosevelt Bridge, and presented twice to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. The document, which includes schematics for the development of a giant "spider bomb" the size of Rhode Island, concludes repeatedly that the problem would best be combated with large quantities of methamphetamines and steel wool.
"This very morning, I saw a small child completely covered in hairy, bloodsucking, screaming tarantulas while his parents stood by and did nothing," said protester Joe Lopez, pausing to spit out a black and decayed tooth. "I was appalled. I shouted horrible profanities and incantations at them, but they ignored me."
"I, I, I don't—this is just, just, just—I, I, I—guh, ah," he added.
TRN activists claimed that they called for federal assistance only as a last resort, after months of trying to contain the problem with diplomacy, force, cathode rays, and methamphetamines.
"These spiders are unstoppable," meth addict and self-described spider-hater Christine Mitchell said. "We've tried everything from scrubbing ourselves raw with bleach, to burning them off with lit cigarettes, to scrubbing ourselves raw with bleach. We've even tried burning them off with lit cigarettes. We're out of options."
Mitchell urged senators to form an anti-spider task force, but cautioned that the creatures' ability to appear and disappear at will would rule out a bleach-related "quick fix" solution to the infestation.
Several other unnamed addicts who wandered in and out of the hearings described their efforts to establish "an open dialogue" with the spiders, but said the arachnids responded by growing dramatically in size and speaking with the voices of John Goodman, Gene Hackman, and Rosie Perez, bringing the first round of negotiations to an abrupt end.
"We tried talking to them, we tried screaming at them, we tried bursting into uncontrollable 2crying fits in front of them, but nothing seemed to work," said one witness, who refused to divulge his name, age, or "who sent [him] here." "Even with human heads, they would not listen to reason."
Though most committee members had left the hearings before Harlowe's closing remarks at 3:30 a.m. Wednesday, some indicated a willingness to investigate the addicts' claims more closely.
"I believe it is our duty and responsibility to act before we lose even more Americans of voting age," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D–CA), who noted that her home state had more meth addicts than any other in the country. "Pollsters tell us that one in five voters is, has been, or will be a meth addict at some point in their lifetimes. That's a voting bloc too big for us to ignore."
January 30, 2007 (Reprinted March 3, 2012)
WASHINGTON, DC—Following the tragic falling death of 32-year-old methamphetamine addict Phillip Diggs, who was reportedly attacked by spiders while scaling a large construction crane near Palo Alto, CA, thousands of outraged and confused meth addicts marched frenetically on Washington as part of a week of activities urging the federal government to address the nation's growing spider epidemic.
"Something needs to be done and it needs to be done soon—these spiders are everywhere," said Rich Harlowe, event organizer and founder of Tweakers' Rights NowNowNowNowNowNowNowNowNow!, in testimony before a Senate committee Tuesday. "The government must address this problem before the situation gets out of hand and these poisonous, acid-shooting spiders develop the powers of mind control or—God forbid—flight."
"America cannot afford to ignore this any crisis any longer," Harlowe added.
The rally drew addicts from every part of the country, many traveling on foot through the night, trading sex with truck drivers for rides, or stealing their brothers-in-law's bicycles. At dozens of rambling public speeches, organizers decried the fact that it took the spider-related death of an innocent meth addict to raise awareness of the issue, while lauding the bravery of meth addicts, and methamphetamines themselves.
A 45,000-word proposal was drafted by members of TRN during a marathon, 72-hour meeting under the Roosevelt Bridge, and presented twice to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. The document, which includes schematics for the development of a giant "spider bomb" the size of Rhode Island, concludes repeatedly that the problem would best be combated with large quantities of methamphetamines and steel wool.
"This very morning, I saw a small child completely covered in hairy, bloodsucking, screaming tarantulas while his parents stood by and did nothing," said protester Joe Lopez, pausing to spit out a black and decayed tooth. "I was appalled. I shouted horrible profanities and incantations at them, but they ignored me."
"I, I, I don't—this is just, just, just—I, I, I—guh, ah," he added.
TRN activists claimed that they called for federal assistance only as a last resort, after months of trying to contain the problem with diplomacy, force, cathode rays, and methamphetamines.
"These spiders are unstoppable," meth addict and self-described spider-hater Christine Mitchell said. "We've tried everything from scrubbing ourselves raw with bleach, to burning them off with lit cigarettes, to scrubbing ourselves raw with bleach. We've even tried burning them off with lit cigarettes. We're out of options."
Mitchell urged senators to form an anti-spider task force, but cautioned that the creatures' ability to appear and disappear at will would rule out a bleach-related "quick fix" solution to the infestation.
Several other unnamed addicts who wandered in and out of the hearings described their efforts to establish "an open dialogue" with the spiders, but said the arachnids responded by growing dramatically in size and speaking with the voices of John Goodman, Gene Hackman, and Rosie Perez, bringing the first round of negotiations to an abrupt end.
"We tried talking to them, we tried screaming at them, we tried bursting into uncontrollable 2crying fits in front of them, but nothing seemed to work," said one witness, who refused to divulge his name, age, or "who sent [him] here." "Even with human heads, they would not listen to reason."
Though most committee members had left the hearings before Harlowe's closing remarks at 3:30 a.m. Wednesday, some indicated a willingness to investigate the addicts' claims more closely.
"I believe it is our duty and responsibility to act before we lose even more Americans of voting age," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D–CA), who noted that her home state had more meth addicts than any other in the country. "Pollsters tell us that one in five voters is, has been, or will be a meth addict at some point in their lifetimes. That's a voting bloc too big for us to ignore."
Saturday, March 03, 2012
OBAMA: THANK YOU RUSH, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!
“What does it say about the college co-ed Sandra Fluke, who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex, what does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She’s having so much sex she can’t afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex.”
So spoke Rush Limbaugh in response to Sandra Fluke’s remarks during an unofficial congressional hearing called by Nancy Pelosi. Fluke, a ‘reproductive rights activist’ and third year law student at Georgetown University, complained that the Catholic university’s student health plans do not include coverage of contraceptives for women. Fluke said her fellow students at Georgetown were forced to use their own money to pay up to $1,000 a year for birth control or more than $3,000 while they were in law school.
Fluke whined that she was on a ‘Public Interest scholarship’ and she was forced to spend an ‘entire summer’s salary’ on contraceptives.
My heart really bleeds for poor Sandra Fluke. She has to spend an entire summer’s salary so she can have sex while in law school. The poor girl has no choice but to use her hard earned scholarship money to pay for having sex without getting pregnant. It’s that, or do without sex! Yes, my heart really goes out to all those poor sex-starved co-eds at Catholic universities.
Seriously though, while I rarely agree with Roach Limburger’s rants, this is one of the times I have to agree with his rebuke of Fluke’s demands. But Roach, that Texas Blivot (10 pounds of shit in a 2 pound bag), blew it big time! By his intemperate rant in calling Fluke a slut and a prostitute, Roach has helped to reelect Obama to a second term as president. He has energized the women’s vote. Among independents, women are now sure to vote for Obama and even a significant number of Republican women could vote for Obama in reaction to Roach’s stupid rant.
Obama couldn’t be happier. If I were the president, I would send ole Roach a very big thank you card.
So spoke Rush Limbaugh in response to Sandra Fluke’s remarks during an unofficial congressional hearing called by Nancy Pelosi. Fluke, a ‘reproductive rights activist’ and third year law student at Georgetown University, complained that the Catholic university’s student health plans do not include coverage of contraceptives for women. Fluke said her fellow students at Georgetown were forced to use their own money to pay up to $1,000 a year for birth control or more than $3,000 while they were in law school.
Fluke whined that she was on a ‘Public Interest scholarship’ and she was forced to spend an ‘entire summer’s salary’ on contraceptives.
My heart really bleeds for poor Sandra Fluke. She has to spend an entire summer’s salary so she can have sex while in law school. The poor girl has no choice but to use her hard earned scholarship money to pay for having sex without getting pregnant. It’s that, or do without sex! Yes, my heart really goes out to all those poor sex-starved co-eds at Catholic universities.
Seriously though, while I rarely agree with Roach Limburger’s rants, this is one of the times I have to agree with his rebuke of Fluke’s demands. But Roach, that Texas Blivot (10 pounds of shit in a 2 pound bag), blew it big time! By his intemperate rant in calling Fluke a slut and a prostitute, Roach has helped to reelect Obama to a second term as president. He has energized the women’s vote. Among independents, women are now sure to vote for Obama and even a significant number of Republican women could vote for Obama in reaction to Roach’s stupid rant.
Obama couldn’t be happier. If I were the president, I would send ole Roach a very big thank you card.
OBAMA TELLS SANDRA FLUKE HER PARENTS SHOULD BE PROUD THAT SHE’S A SLUT
In an interview with Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC, Sandra Fluke revealed that President Obama had called her following Roach Limburger’s intemperate rant in which the windbag referred to her as a slut and prostitute for complaining that, since Georgetown University’s student health plans do not include coverage of contraceptives for women, she had to spend an ‘entire summer’s salary’ so she could have sex without getting pregnant.
Here is what Fluke, a ‘reproductive rights activist,’ told Mitchell about the president’s call: "He encouraged me and supported me and thanked me for speaking out about the concerns of American women. What was really personal for me was that he said to tell my parents that they should be proud. And that meant a lot because Rush Limbaugh questioned whether or not my family would be proud of me. So I just appreciated that very much."
The American Heritage Dictionary defines slut as “a woman of loose morals.” And Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines slut as “a promiscuous woman.” Since every major religious faith considers sex outside of marriage to be immoral, both definitions pretty well describe Fluke, an unmarried woman who spends $1,000 a year on contraceptives.
So when Obama tells Fluke her parents should be proud, he is in effect saying that her parents should be proud that she’s a slut.
Roach reacted to Obama’s call by telling her parents over the air that, instead of being proud, "I'd be embarrassed. I'd disconnect the phone. I'd go into hiding."
From my point of view, both Limburger and Obama are wrong - Roach for his stupid rant and Obama for all but approving Fluke’s promiscuity. But then both are playing to their base, Limburger to the radical-right and Obama to the radical-left. And, of course, Obama was also playing to the women’s vote, something ole Roach really helped him with.
Here is what Fluke, a ‘reproductive rights activist,’ told Mitchell about the president’s call: "He encouraged me and supported me and thanked me for speaking out about the concerns of American women. What was really personal for me was that he said to tell my parents that they should be proud. And that meant a lot because Rush Limbaugh questioned whether or not my family would be proud of me. So I just appreciated that very much."
The American Heritage Dictionary defines slut as “a woman of loose morals.” And Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines slut as “a promiscuous woman.” Since every major religious faith considers sex outside of marriage to be immoral, both definitions pretty well describe Fluke, an unmarried woman who spends $1,000 a year on contraceptives.
So when Obama tells Fluke her parents should be proud, he is in effect saying that her parents should be proud that she’s a slut.
Roach reacted to Obama’s call by telling her parents over the air that, instead of being proud, "I'd be embarrassed. I'd disconnect the phone. I'd go into hiding."
From my point of view, both Limburger and Obama are wrong - Roach for his stupid rant and Obama for all but approving Fluke’s promiscuity. But then both are playing to their base, Limburger to the radical-right and Obama to the radical-left. And, of course, Obama was also playing to the women’s vote, something ole Roach really helped him with.
CURSE OF THE INTERNET
While I doubt the scumbag who place this ad was serious, his sorry-ass prank could easily have cost the lives of police officers.
AD: $1 MILLION ‘PER HEAD’ FOR DEAD COPS
Maplewood police are investigating an alarming ad posted to St. Louis Craiglist
PoliceOne.com
March 1, 2012
MAPLEWOOD, Mo. — A Craigslist ad offering $1 million to kill police officers is under investigation by the department it targeted.
"Wanted dead, all the Maplewood City police officers, paying one million per head," the ad, posted to the site Wednesday, begins. The note also specifies a $2 million reward for the murder of a specific detective.
Maplewood Police learned of the threat when an officer in a neighboring jurisdiction saw it online and printed it, according to Detective Sgt. Matt Nighbor. It has since been removed from Craigslist, which has agreed to work with the agency to determine an IP address, posting location or other possible origins.
The connection to the detective mentioned by name in the ad is unclear at this point, Nighbor said.
"We do a lot of investigations and put a lot of people in prison, so it could be any one of those cases," Nighbor said. "It specifically mentions the detective so we are retracking his cases."
The 31-officer department has dealt with animosity before, but that didn't make the ad less alarming.
"It's disconcerting," Nighbor said. "We are threatened by individual letters in the mail, but nothing where it's published like this."
AD: $1 MILLION ‘PER HEAD’ FOR DEAD COPS
Maplewood police are investigating an alarming ad posted to St. Louis Craiglist
PoliceOne.com
March 1, 2012
MAPLEWOOD, Mo. — A Craigslist ad offering $1 million to kill police officers is under investigation by the department it targeted.
"Wanted dead, all the Maplewood City police officers, paying one million per head," the ad, posted to the site Wednesday, begins. The note also specifies a $2 million reward for the murder of a specific detective.
Maplewood Police learned of the threat when an officer in a neighboring jurisdiction saw it online and printed it, according to Detective Sgt. Matt Nighbor. It has since been removed from Craigslist, which has agreed to work with the agency to determine an IP address, posting location or other possible origins.
The connection to the detective mentioned by name in the ad is unclear at this point, Nighbor said.
"We do a lot of investigations and put a lot of people in prison, so it could be any one of those cases," Nighbor said. "It specifically mentions the detective so we are retracking his cases."
The 31-officer department has dealt with animosity before, but that didn't make the ad less alarming.
"It's disconcerting," Nighbor said. "We are threatened by individual letters in the mail, but nothing where it's published like this."
SPANISH VILLAGE COUNCILLORS MUST THINK THEY'RE IN CALIFORNIA
These village idiots must have been stoned when they made this decision.
SPANISH VILLAGE LEASES LAND TO GROW MARIJUANA BECAUSE OF HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT
Controversial decision motivated by 20 percent unemployment
Mail Online
March 2, 2012
A Spanish village has voted to rent out land to grow marijuana as a source of desperately needed revenue.
Rasquera, a hamlet of 900 in Catalonia, said its councillors approved the plan by a 4-3 vote, despite the fact that it is not legal.
Councillors took the decision because of the high unemployment, which stands at over 20 per cent.
A government official with the National Drug Plan said such planting would in fact be against the law and that prosecutors would intervene as soon as the first pot seed was sown.
The town, which has a 12th century castle, was described by a local newspaper as ‘dying’ with its young people leaving for lack of work.
The idea is for private citizens to lease or lend land to town hall, which would then create a company to manage the land and lease it to an association of marijuana-smokers in Barcelona.
Under Spanish law, consumption in private of cannabis in small amounts is allowed. But growing it for sale, or advertising it or selling it, are illegal.
The group that wants to acquire the marijuana, called ABCDA, said on its website that it will make an initial investment of £20,000 but makes no mention of how much it will pay Rasquera per year.
ABCDA said the project would create 40 jobs in Rasquera - workers to grow, harvest and package the pot - and the marijuana produced would go to ABCDA members.
Many Spanish cities and towns are trying to cope by cutting spending on things like social services such as health care and education.
SPANISH VILLAGE LEASES LAND TO GROW MARIJUANA BECAUSE OF HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT
Controversial decision motivated by 20 percent unemployment
Mail Online
March 2, 2012
A Spanish village has voted to rent out land to grow marijuana as a source of desperately needed revenue.
Rasquera, a hamlet of 900 in Catalonia, said its councillors approved the plan by a 4-3 vote, despite the fact that it is not legal.
Councillors took the decision because of the high unemployment, which stands at over 20 per cent.
A government official with the National Drug Plan said such planting would in fact be against the law and that prosecutors would intervene as soon as the first pot seed was sown.
The town, which has a 12th century castle, was described by a local newspaper as ‘dying’ with its young people leaving for lack of work.
The idea is for private citizens to lease or lend land to town hall, which would then create a company to manage the land and lease it to an association of marijuana-smokers in Barcelona.
Under Spanish law, consumption in private of cannabis in small amounts is allowed. But growing it for sale, or advertising it or selling it, are illegal.
The group that wants to acquire the marijuana, called ABCDA, said on its website that it will make an initial investment of £20,000 but makes no mention of how much it will pay Rasquera per year.
ABCDA said the project would create 40 jobs in Rasquera - workers to grow, harvest and package the pot - and the marijuana produced would go to ABCDA members.
Many Spanish cities and towns are trying to cope by cutting spending on things like social services such as health care and education.
Friday, March 02, 2012
OBAMA’S BIRTH CERTIFICATE: HERE WE GO AGAIN
Like the mythical Phoenix, questions about Obama’s birthplace and birth certificate keep rising from the ashes.
SHERIFF ARPAIO: OBAMA BIRTH CERTIFICATE A ‘FORGERY’
By Stephen Dinan
The Washington Times
March 1, 2012
PHOENIX — Armed with a new 10-page report he commissioned, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said Thursday he suspects the birth certificate President Obama released last year is a “computer-generated forgery” — and also raised questions about the authenticity of the president’s selective service registration card.
In an extensive — and at times combative — press conference in Phoenix, Sheriff Arpaio repeatedly said he is not questioning the president’s legal status under the Constitution nor alleging fraud on Mr. Obama’s part, but did say there is evidence crimes have been committed by someone and his investigation continues.
“Based on all of the evidence presented and investigated, I cannot in good faith report to you that these documents are authentic,” Sheriff Arpaio said. “My investigators believe that the long-form birth certificate was manufactured electronically and that it did not originate in paper format as claimed by the White House.”
He said he would like Congress to investigate the matter, but short of that, he has an obligation to look into is because of potential violations of Arizona’s laws.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
Questions about Mr. Obama’s birth certificate have been a political sideshow for the past four years, and have persisted despite repeated denials by the White House and the release of evidence he was born in Honolulu on Aug. 4, 1961. That evidence included both a certificate of live birth released during the 2008 campaign and the long-form certificate last year.
Fact-checking organizations have concluded the certificates are authentic, and Mr. Obama has joked about those who questioned his birth. At last year’s White House Correspondents Association Dinner, soon after releasing his long-form certificate, he mocked Donald Trump, who had said his own investigators were looking into the matter.
But Sheriff Arpaio, who first built his national profile by creating tent cities for jail inmates and later by taking a tough stance on illegal immigration, could reignite questions among those who continue to believe Mr. Obama was born outside the U.S. and is ineligible to be president under the Constitution’s provision that the officeholder be a natural-born citizen.
Last December, the Justice Department accused Sheriff Arpaio of civil rights abuses within his department, but he said he began his investigation before that — in August 2011 — after tea party members from Surprise, a town within Maricopa County, signed a petition challenging the certificate.
Activists protested outside of the auditorium where Sheriff Arpaio held his press conference, accusing him of running a corrupt department. A few miles away, outside the Phoenix main library branch, a man was collecting signatures to back Lt. Mike Stauffer, a Scottsdale police officer and a Republican who is challenging Sheriff Arpaio in the upcoming election.
“We hate him here,” the man gathering signatures said of Sheriff Arpaio.
Sheriff Arpaio said he went into the investigation with an open mind, and would have been happy to clear Mr. Obama.
Instead, he said the former law enforcement investigators he deployed from his “cold case posse” — at no taxpayer expense, he said — were unable to back up the White House’s story.
His investigators said the image of the birth certificate released by the White House appears to have been created originally on a computer, rather than having been originally made on paper and then scanned.
The investigators said they have identified “a person of interest” in the birth certificate matter.
Sheriff Arpaio’s chief investigator on the project said there are so many questions that he couldn’t have cleared Mr. Obama to be an employee of Maricopa County.
Pursuing questions about the birth certificate has been a thorny issue for the GOP. State lawmakers in several places, including Arizona, have pursued laws that would have imposed checks on any presidential candidate’s qualifications to get on their state ballots.
One such proposal in Arizona, which became known as the “birther” bill, was vetoed by Gov. Jan Brewer last year.
SHERIFF ARPAIO: OBAMA BIRTH CERTIFICATE A ‘FORGERY’
By Stephen Dinan
The Washington Times
March 1, 2012
PHOENIX — Armed with a new 10-page report he commissioned, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said Thursday he suspects the birth certificate President Obama released last year is a “computer-generated forgery” — and also raised questions about the authenticity of the president’s selective service registration card.
In an extensive — and at times combative — press conference in Phoenix, Sheriff Arpaio repeatedly said he is not questioning the president’s legal status under the Constitution nor alleging fraud on Mr. Obama’s part, but did say there is evidence crimes have been committed by someone and his investigation continues.
“Based on all of the evidence presented and investigated, I cannot in good faith report to you that these documents are authentic,” Sheriff Arpaio said. “My investigators believe that the long-form birth certificate was manufactured electronically and that it did not originate in paper format as claimed by the White House.”
He said he would like Congress to investigate the matter, but short of that, he has an obligation to look into is because of potential violations of Arizona’s laws.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
Questions about Mr. Obama’s birth certificate have been a political sideshow for the past four years, and have persisted despite repeated denials by the White House and the release of evidence he was born in Honolulu on Aug. 4, 1961. That evidence included both a certificate of live birth released during the 2008 campaign and the long-form certificate last year.
Fact-checking organizations have concluded the certificates are authentic, and Mr. Obama has joked about those who questioned his birth. At last year’s White House Correspondents Association Dinner, soon after releasing his long-form certificate, he mocked Donald Trump, who had said his own investigators were looking into the matter.
But Sheriff Arpaio, who first built his national profile by creating tent cities for jail inmates and later by taking a tough stance on illegal immigration, could reignite questions among those who continue to believe Mr. Obama was born outside the U.S. and is ineligible to be president under the Constitution’s provision that the officeholder be a natural-born citizen.
Last December, the Justice Department accused Sheriff Arpaio of civil rights abuses within his department, but he said he began his investigation before that — in August 2011 — after tea party members from Surprise, a town within Maricopa County, signed a petition challenging the certificate.
Activists protested outside of the auditorium where Sheriff Arpaio held his press conference, accusing him of running a corrupt department. A few miles away, outside the Phoenix main library branch, a man was collecting signatures to back Lt. Mike Stauffer, a Scottsdale police officer and a Republican who is challenging Sheriff Arpaio in the upcoming election.
“We hate him here,” the man gathering signatures said of Sheriff Arpaio.
Sheriff Arpaio said he went into the investigation with an open mind, and would have been happy to clear Mr. Obama.
Instead, he said the former law enforcement investigators he deployed from his “cold case posse” — at no taxpayer expense, he said — were unable to back up the White House’s story.
His investigators said the image of the birth certificate released by the White House appears to have been created originally on a computer, rather than having been originally made on paper and then scanned.
The investigators said they have identified “a person of interest” in the birth certificate matter.
Sheriff Arpaio’s chief investigator on the project said there are so many questions that he couldn’t have cleared Mr. Obama to be an employee of Maricopa County.
Pursuing questions about the birth certificate has been a thorny issue for the GOP. State lawmakers in several places, including Arizona, have pursued laws that would have imposed checks on any presidential candidate’s qualifications to get on their state ballots.
One such proposal in Arizona, which became known as the “birther” bill, was vetoed by Gov. Jan Brewer last year.
THE RUSSIANS ARE RIGHT TO CONDEMN GLORIFICATION OF THE WAFFEN SS
Despite denials by its veterans, the Latvian Waffen SS unit helped round up Jews for deportation to Nazi extermination camps.
‘YOU’RE TRYING TO JUSTIFY THE CRIMES OF THE NAZIS’: RUSSIA’S FURY AFTER NEIGHBOR LATVIA PLANS TO HOLD RALLY TO COMMEMORATE SS
By Will Stewart
Mail Online
March 1, 2012
MOSCOW -- Russia today accused its tiny neighbor Latvia of making 'attempts to whitewash Hitler’s flunkeys' by allowing a parade which honors the role of the Baltic state’s veterans who fought for the Nazis in the Second World War.
In a furious outburst, Moscow accused the country’s president of seeking to 'justify the crimes' committed by 'collaborators' in the Latvian legion of the Waffen SS, and warned of the risk of 'glorification of the Nazi movement'.
The blast from the Russian foreign ministry against the EU and NATO state came after the go-ahead for an annual rally on March 16 to commemorate the 140,000-strong Latvian unit of Germany’s Waffen SS.
Latvian President Andris Berzins claimed the veterans deserved respect not condemnation, arguing that the Second World War recruits fought on the Nazi side in a bid to regain independence for their own country, which had been overrun by Stalin’s USSR.
'They were conscripted into the fascist German Legion. They went with the ideal of defending Latvia. Latvians in the Legion were not war criminals,' he said.
'Remarks by Latvian President Andris Berzins expressing sympathy for Latvian Waffen-SS veterans are inconsistent with the status of the country as a democratic state,' said Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich.
He alleged the Latvian SS forces had committed atrocities on civilians in the ex-USSR while under Hitler’s command.
'Attempts to justify the crimes of the Latvian volunteer SS legion against the peaceful population of the Novgorod and Pskov regions and Belarus - and in the Riga ghetto - are sacrilegious and amoral and naturally cause profound indignation in Latvia and abroad,' he said.
He accused Latvia of flouting a UN resolution, and a European Commission demand 'which express serious concern over glorification of the Nazi movement, of former Waffen-SS members and local collaborationists'.
The Soviets seized Latvia in summer 1940 under a secret pact with Hitler. The deal broke down the following year when Germany invaded Soviet territory, with some Latvians hailing the Nazis as liberators.
Just a week earlier, Stalin had deported 15,000 Latvians to Siberia.
But the invading Nazis brought in their own reign of terror, killing 70,000 Jews, helped by local collaborators.
SS veterans insist they were not Nazis and that their legion was founded in 1943, after most of Latvia’s Jews were slaughtered.
As the Nazis were crushed, Stalin re-invaded Latvia, which remained in the Soviet Union until declaring independence in 1990.
‘YOU’RE TRYING TO JUSTIFY THE CRIMES OF THE NAZIS’: RUSSIA’S FURY AFTER NEIGHBOR LATVIA PLANS TO HOLD RALLY TO COMMEMORATE SS
By Will Stewart
Mail Online
March 1, 2012
MOSCOW -- Russia today accused its tiny neighbor Latvia of making 'attempts to whitewash Hitler’s flunkeys' by allowing a parade which honors the role of the Baltic state’s veterans who fought for the Nazis in the Second World War.
In a furious outburst, Moscow accused the country’s president of seeking to 'justify the crimes' committed by 'collaborators' in the Latvian legion of the Waffen SS, and warned of the risk of 'glorification of the Nazi movement'.
The blast from the Russian foreign ministry against the EU and NATO state came after the go-ahead for an annual rally on March 16 to commemorate the 140,000-strong Latvian unit of Germany’s Waffen SS.
Latvian President Andris Berzins claimed the veterans deserved respect not condemnation, arguing that the Second World War recruits fought on the Nazi side in a bid to regain independence for their own country, which had been overrun by Stalin’s USSR.
'They were conscripted into the fascist German Legion. They went with the ideal of defending Latvia. Latvians in the Legion were not war criminals,' he said.
'Remarks by Latvian President Andris Berzins expressing sympathy for Latvian Waffen-SS veterans are inconsistent with the status of the country as a democratic state,' said Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich.
He alleged the Latvian SS forces had committed atrocities on civilians in the ex-USSR while under Hitler’s command.
'Attempts to justify the crimes of the Latvian volunteer SS legion against the peaceful population of the Novgorod and Pskov regions and Belarus - and in the Riga ghetto - are sacrilegious and amoral and naturally cause profound indignation in Latvia and abroad,' he said.
He accused Latvia of flouting a UN resolution, and a European Commission demand 'which express serious concern over glorification of the Nazi movement, of former Waffen-SS members and local collaborationists'.
The Soviets seized Latvia in summer 1940 under a secret pact with Hitler. The deal broke down the following year when Germany invaded Soviet territory, with some Latvians hailing the Nazis as liberators.
Just a week earlier, Stalin had deported 15,000 Latvians to Siberia.
But the invading Nazis brought in their own reign of terror, killing 70,000 Jews, helped by local collaborators.
SS veterans insist they were not Nazis and that their legion was founded in 1943, after most of Latvia’s Jews were slaughtered.
As the Nazis were crushed, Stalin re-invaded Latvia, which remained in the Soviet Union until declaring independence in 1990.
A REALITY CHECK FOR ‘PEACE NOW’ The Arab world believes Jews have no rights in Jerusalem or any other part of Israel
Hmm, Friedman? I wonder if Lara Friedman is related to that Israel-bashing Jewish columnist Thomas Friedman? They sure seem like two peas in a pod. Neither Peace Now of the far-left nor Thomas Friedman of The New York Times can see that peace between Israel and the Palestinians is not possible.
And neither can Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and the Arab-groveling Europeans.
NOT A PARODY: PEACE NOW SHOCKED TO DISCOVER ABBAS DON’T WANT PEACE
By Jonathan Tobin
Jewish World Review
March 1, 2012
What will it take to convince supporters of Peace Now the imperative of their organization's name depends on the Arabs rather than the Jews? After 18+ years of Arab terrorism and rejection of peace offers since the Oslo Accords, it's hard to say whether anything the Palestinians could do or say would cause them to rethink their myopic view of the world.
But give Americans for Peace Now's Lara Friedman a little credit. After schlepping to an Arab League conference on Jerusalem, she at least had the wit to notice that just about everybody else there was focused on delegitimizing Israel, denouncing its existence within any borders and denying thousands of years of Jewish history.
However, it's hard not to chuckle a little bit at the indignant tone affected by Friedman in her op-ed published in the Forward as she conveys her shock and dismay to discover the Arab world believes Jews have no rights in Jerusalem or any other part of Israel. She and her group had so convinced themselves all it will take to create peace "now" was for Israelis to support a two-state solution and negotiate, it appears they never took the time or effort to realize the other side has little interest in peace, now or at any other time. This gives her piece the tone of a parody worthy of The Onion even though it was written in deadly earnest.
Indeed, it must be considered in writing such an article she has demonstrated the utter cluelessness of her group better than anything the group's critics could have come up with.
What is so touching (as well as more than a bit comical) about Friedman's piece is that much of what she says in it is true. For example:
If President Abbas cannot acknowledge Jewish claims in Jerusalem, even as he asserts Palestinian claims (a problem Yasser Arafat suffered from), he should not be surprised if it is more difficult for Israelis and Jews, wherever they are, to believe that he can be trusted in a peace agreement that leaves Jerusalem sites precious to Jews under Palestinian control.
If representatives of the organization that sponsored the Arab Peace Initiative cannot bring themselves to acknowledge the legitimacy of Jewish equities in Jerusalem, they should know that they discredit their own professed interest in peace. . . .
All throughout the day, it was unfortunately the same story. Participants talked about Jerusalem as if Jewish history did not exist or was a fraud — as if all Jewish claims in the city were just a tactic to dispossess Palestinians.
Friedman is quite right about all of this. But does it really need to be pointed out that she needn't have traveled to Doha to figure this out? The Palestinians and their cheerleaders have been making this clear for decades. That is why Peace Now in Israel has been discredited by the events that have transpired since the Oslo Accords were signed, and their political supporters in the Knesset have been trounced in election after election.
The traditional left in Israel, at least as far as the Palestinian issue is concerned, is barely alive, though you wouldn't know it from the way many on the Jewish left in the United States talk. The conceit of groups like Americans for Peace Now and J Street — that Israel must be pressured to make peace by the United States for its own good — makes no sense once you realize the Jewish state has repeatedly tried and failed to trade land for peace and the Palestinians have little interest in a two-state solution no matter where Israel's borders would be drawn.
Friedman archly compares the Arab hate fest she is attending to Jewish conclaves where only pro-Israel speakers participate. This is a bit much as is her insinuation no one who cares for Israel's future can possibly oppose a partition of Jerusalem that would place Jewish holy places in the tender care of Abbas and his Hamas allies. As she has discovered to her consternation, Palestinians don't care about Jewish sensibilities, let alone Jewish rights.
Her failure to draw any rational conclusions from what she has heard in Doha tells us all we need to know about the irrelevance of Peace Now to any serious discussion about the future of the Middle East.
And neither can Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and the Arab-groveling Europeans.
NOT A PARODY: PEACE NOW SHOCKED TO DISCOVER ABBAS DON’T WANT PEACE
By Jonathan Tobin
Jewish World Review
March 1, 2012
What will it take to convince supporters of Peace Now the imperative of their organization's name depends on the Arabs rather than the Jews? After 18+ years of Arab terrorism and rejection of peace offers since the Oslo Accords, it's hard to say whether anything the Palestinians could do or say would cause them to rethink their myopic view of the world.
But give Americans for Peace Now's Lara Friedman a little credit. After schlepping to an Arab League conference on Jerusalem, she at least had the wit to notice that just about everybody else there was focused on delegitimizing Israel, denouncing its existence within any borders and denying thousands of years of Jewish history.
However, it's hard not to chuckle a little bit at the indignant tone affected by Friedman in her op-ed published in the Forward as she conveys her shock and dismay to discover the Arab world believes Jews have no rights in Jerusalem or any other part of Israel. She and her group had so convinced themselves all it will take to create peace "now" was for Israelis to support a two-state solution and negotiate, it appears they never took the time or effort to realize the other side has little interest in peace, now or at any other time. This gives her piece the tone of a parody worthy of The Onion even though it was written in deadly earnest.
Indeed, it must be considered in writing such an article she has demonstrated the utter cluelessness of her group better than anything the group's critics could have come up with.
What is so touching (as well as more than a bit comical) about Friedman's piece is that much of what she says in it is true. For example:
If President Abbas cannot acknowledge Jewish claims in Jerusalem, even as he asserts Palestinian claims (a problem Yasser Arafat suffered from), he should not be surprised if it is more difficult for Israelis and Jews, wherever they are, to believe that he can be trusted in a peace agreement that leaves Jerusalem sites precious to Jews under Palestinian control.
If representatives of the organization that sponsored the Arab Peace Initiative cannot bring themselves to acknowledge the legitimacy of Jewish equities in Jerusalem, they should know that they discredit their own professed interest in peace. . . .
All throughout the day, it was unfortunately the same story. Participants talked about Jerusalem as if Jewish history did not exist or was a fraud — as if all Jewish claims in the city were just a tactic to dispossess Palestinians.
Friedman is quite right about all of this. But does it really need to be pointed out that she needn't have traveled to Doha to figure this out? The Palestinians and their cheerleaders have been making this clear for decades. That is why Peace Now in Israel has been discredited by the events that have transpired since the Oslo Accords were signed, and their political supporters in the Knesset have been trounced in election after election.
The traditional left in Israel, at least as far as the Palestinian issue is concerned, is barely alive, though you wouldn't know it from the way many on the Jewish left in the United States talk. The conceit of groups like Americans for Peace Now and J Street — that Israel must be pressured to make peace by the United States for its own good — makes no sense once you realize the Jewish state has repeatedly tried and failed to trade land for peace and the Palestinians have little interest in a two-state solution no matter where Israel's borders would be drawn.
Friedman archly compares the Arab hate fest she is attending to Jewish conclaves where only pro-Israel speakers participate. This is a bit much as is her insinuation no one who cares for Israel's future can possibly oppose a partition of Jerusalem that would place Jewish holy places in the tender care of Abbas and his Hamas allies. As she has discovered to her consternation, Palestinians don't care about Jewish sensibilities, let alone Jewish rights.
Her failure to draw any rational conclusions from what she has heard in Doha tells us all we need to know about the irrelevance of Peace Now to any serious discussion about the future of the Middle East.
A JAIL TO DIE FOR
The only problem with the porn movies was that it ‘made the showers hell.’
YOUR STAY IN THE LIBERTY COUNTY JAIL INCLUDES NIGHTLY PORN MOVIES
By Richard Connelly
Houston Press Hair Balls
March 1, 2012
Inmates at the Liberty County Jail finagled with the cable system and treated themselves to nightly viewings of a porn channel, KPRC reports.
Some jailers noticed and didn't care, other jailers noticed and reported it to supervisors who didn't care, the station said.
Another recent inmate, who also said he viewed the pornographic movies behind bars, said inmates would gather around and watch it for hours each night. He said it "made the showers hell" as inmates would act out from viewing the pornography.
Officials higher up the county chain of command were not pleased at the report and promised the practice would stop.
It had been going on since at least January, according to county e-mails obtained by the station. All the inmates did, it appears, was take the cable from the wall and attach it directly to the TV instead of going through the control box.
YOUR STAY IN THE LIBERTY COUNTY JAIL INCLUDES NIGHTLY PORN MOVIES
By Richard Connelly
Houston Press Hair Balls
March 1, 2012
Inmates at the Liberty County Jail finagled with the cable system and treated themselves to nightly viewings of a porn channel, KPRC reports.
Some jailers noticed and didn't care, other jailers noticed and reported it to supervisors who didn't care, the station said.
Another recent inmate, who also said he viewed the pornographic movies behind bars, said inmates would gather around and watch it for hours each night. He said it "made the showers hell" as inmates would act out from viewing the pornography.
Officials higher up the county chain of command were not pleased at the report and promised the practice would stop.
It had been going on since at least January, according to county e-mails obtained by the station. All the inmates did, it appears, was take the cable from the wall and attach it directly to the TV instead of going through the control box.
TOOL PRIMER
The Schalotte
March 1, 2012
DRILL PRESS: A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and flings your beer across the room, denting the freshly-painted project which you had carefully set in the corner where nothing could get to it.
WIRE WHEEL: Cleans paint off bolts and then throws them somewhere under the workbench with the speed of light . Also removes fingerprints and hard-earned calluses from fingers in about the time it takes you to say, 'Oh shit!'
SKIL SAW: A portable cutting tool used to make studs too short.
PLIERS: Used to round off bolt heads. Sometimes used in the creation of blood-blisters.
BELT SANDER: An electric sanding tool commonly used to convert minor touch-up jobs into major refinishing jobs.
HACKSAW: One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board principle... It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more dismal your future becomes.
VISE-GRIPS: Generally used after pliers to completely round off bolt heads. If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.
OXYACETYLENE TORCH: Used almost entirely for lighting various flammable objects in your shop on fire. Also handy for igniting the grease inside the wheel hub out of which you want to remove a bearing race.
TABLE SAW: A large stationary power tool commonly used to launch wood projectiles for testing wall integrity.
HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK: Used for lowering an automobile to the ground after you have installed your new brake shoes , trapping the jack handle firmly under the bumper.
BAND SAW: A large stationary power saw primarily used by most shops to cut good aluminum sheet into smaller pieces that more easily fit into the trash can after you cut on the inside of the line instead of the outside edge.
TWO-TON ENGINE HOIST: A tool for testing the maximum tensile strength of everything you forgot to disconnect.
PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER: Normally used to stab the vacuum seals under lids or for opening old-style paper-and-tin oil cans and splashing oil on your shirt; but can also be used, as the name implies, to strip out Phillips screw heads.
STRAIGHT SCREWDRIVER: A tool for opening paint cans. Sometimes used to convert common slotted screws into non-removable screws and butchering your palms.
PRY BAR: A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that clip or bracket you needed to remove in order to replace a 50 cent part.
HOSE CUTTER: A tool used to make hoses too short.
HAMMER: Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts adjacent to the object we are trying to hit. It is especially valuable at being able to find the EXACT location of the thumb or index finger of the other hand.
UTILITY KNIFE: Used to open and slice through the contents of cardboard cartons delivered to your front door; works particularly well on contents such as seats, vinyl records, liquids in plastic bottles, collector magazines, refund checks, and rubber or plastic parts. Especially useful for slicing work clothes, but only while in use.
FUCKIT: (The first known and still most common tool used by mankind) Any handy tool that you grab and throw across the garage while yelling 'FUCK IT' at the top of your lungs. It is also, most often, the next tool that you will need.
March 1, 2012
DRILL PRESS: A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and flings your beer across the room, denting the freshly-painted project which you had carefully set in the corner where nothing could get to it.
WIRE WHEEL: Cleans paint off bolts and then throws them somewhere under the workbench with the speed of light . Also removes fingerprints and hard-earned calluses from fingers in about the time it takes you to say, 'Oh shit!'
SKIL SAW: A portable cutting tool used to make studs too short.
PLIERS: Used to round off bolt heads. Sometimes used in the creation of blood-blisters.
BELT SANDER: An electric sanding tool commonly used to convert minor touch-up jobs into major refinishing jobs.
HACKSAW: One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board principle... It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more dismal your future becomes.
VISE-GRIPS: Generally used after pliers to completely round off bolt heads. If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.
OXYACETYLENE TORCH: Used almost entirely for lighting various flammable objects in your shop on fire. Also handy for igniting the grease inside the wheel hub out of which you want to remove a bearing race.
TABLE SAW: A large stationary power tool commonly used to launch wood projectiles for testing wall integrity.
HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK: Used for lowering an automobile to the ground after you have installed your new brake shoes , trapping the jack handle firmly under the bumper.
BAND SAW: A large stationary power saw primarily used by most shops to cut good aluminum sheet into smaller pieces that more easily fit into the trash can after you cut on the inside of the line instead of the outside edge.
TWO-TON ENGINE HOIST: A tool for testing the maximum tensile strength of everything you forgot to disconnect.
PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER: Normally used to stab the vacuum seals under lids or for opening old-style paper-and-tin oil cans and splashing oil on your shirt; but can also be used, as the name implies, to strip out Phillips screw heads.
STRAIGHT SCREWDRIVER: A tool for opening paint cans. Sometimes used to convert common slotted screws into non-removable screws and butchering your palms.
PRY BAR: A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that clip or bracket you needed to remove in order to replace a 50 cent part.
HOSE CUTTER: A tool used to make hoses too short.
HAMMER: Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts adjacent to the object we are trying to hit. It is especially valuable at being able to find the EXACT location of the thumb or index finger of the other hand.
UTILITY KNIFE: Used to open and slice through the contents of cardboard cartons delivered to your front door; works particularly well on contents such as seats, vinyl records, liquids in plastic bottles, collector magazines, refund checks, and rubber or plastic parts. Especially useful for slicing work clothes, but only while in use.
FUCKIT: (The first known and still most common tool used by mankind) Any handy tool that you grab and throw across the garage while yelling 'FUCK IT' at the top of your lungs. It is also, most often, the next tool that you will need.
Thursday, March 01, 2012
DOGGONE THOSE PHONE-SNIFFING DOGS
When I was a parole agent, I often visited inmates at the California Rehabilitation Center. The prison grounds originally housed a resort hotel which, after it folded, was turned into a U.S. Navy hospital. The government gave the property to the state which converted it into a prison, with the first inmates arriving in January 1963. Last year about 1,500 cell phones were confiscated just at CRC. And no wonder when inmates who get caught with those contraband phones get only 90 days added to their sentences.
MORE INMATES USING INTERNET ON CELL PHONES TO ORCHESTRATE CRIMES
CBS2
February 24, 2012
NORCO — More than 700 million people use Facebook – among them are some of California’s most-hardened prisoners.
“For the guys that we catch, it’s one of the most popular things they use in here,” said Sgt. Anthony Roman of the increasing number of inmates getting caught with cells phones.
Under state law, prisoners are forbidden to use mobile phones.
CBS2’s Jeff Nguyen recently visited the California Rehabilitation Center in Norco and Chino State Prison to see how inmates are accessing the internet and social networking sites from cell phones.
Last year, about 1,500 cell phones were confiscated at the Norco facility.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation uses a team of Belgian Shepherds to sniff out phones that are smuggled in.
The dogs’ ability to track a cell phone is so keen they’re able to separate a phone from other electronic devices.
“These probably go for about a thousand bucks,” Roman said, as he rummaged through some contraband.
Authorities say felons are accessing the internet to run organized crime rings, to set up murderous hits and, in the case of sex offenders, to stalk their victims.
“On a couple of occasions we’ve had to talk to a couple of inmates because they have been bothering the victims of the crimes,” Roman said.
Inmates caught with a cell phone could have 90 days added to their sentence.
Some are so bold that they’ve taken pictures of themselves in prison and posted them to Facebook.
CDCR recently reached an agreement with Facebook that makes it easier to shut down pages actively used by inmates.
During one visit, Nguyen saw correctional officers find eight phones at the Norco facility – one of them was tucked in a shoe. It was originally hidden in a deodorant container in an attempt to throw off the dogs’ scent.
The canines are able to sniff through that. Inmates have tried to mask the scent of their phone with coffee, spices – even peanut butter – but the dogs keep finding their cell phones.
MORE INMATES USING INTERNET ON CELL PHONES TO ORCHESTRATE CRIMES
CBS2
February 24, 2012
NORCO — More than 700 million people use Facebook – among them are some of California’s most-hardened prisoners.
“For the guys that we catch, it’s one of the most popular things they use in here,” said Sgt. Anthony Roman of the increasing number of inmates getting caught with cells phones.
Under state law, prisoners are forbidden to use mobile phones.
CBS2’s Jeff Nguyen recently visited the California Rehabilitation Center in Norco and Chino State Prison to see how inmates are accessing the internet and social networking sites from cell phones.
Last year, about 1,500 cell phones were confiscated at the Norco facility.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation uses a team of Belgian Shepherds to sniff out phones that are smuggled in.
The dogs’ ability to track a cell phone is so keen they’re able to separate a phone from other electronic devices.
“These probably go for about a thousand bucks,” Roman said, as he rummaged through some contraband.
Authorities say felons are accessing the internet to run organized crime rings, to set up murderous hits and, in the case of sex offenders, to stalk their victims.
“On a couple of occasions we’ve had to talk to a couple of inmates because they have been bothering the victims of the crimes,” Roman said.
Inmates caught with a cell phone could have 90 days added to their sentence.
Some are so bold that they’ve taken pictures of themselves in prison and posted them to Facebook.
CDCR recently reached an agreement with Facebook that makes it easier to shut down pages actively used by inmates.
During one visit, Nguyen saw correctional officers find eight phones at the Norco facility – one of them was tucked in a shoe. It was originally hidden in a deodorant container in an attempt to throw off the dogs’ scent.
The canines are able to sniff through that. Inmates have tried to mask the scent of their phone with coffee, spices – even peanut butter – but the dogs keep finding their cell phones.
DRIVING WHILE SPACED OUT ON POT
Ever since California’s medical cannabis law went into effect in 1996, and especially since that law has been perverted to the extent that almost anyone can get a prescription for marijuana, I have predicted there would be a significant rise in traffic accidents caused by drivers under the influence of pot.
While some of the drugged drivers are under the influence of legal prescription drugs, and others are driving while high on coke, meth or other illicit drugs, you can bet that a good majority of those involved in drugged driving accidents were spaced out on pot.
DRUGGED –- NOT DRUNK -– DRIVING STEADILY RISING IN CALIFORNIA
By Ari Bloomekatz
Los Angeles Times
February 28, 2012
While drunk driving fatalities are on the decline, a state agency this week warned that the number of deadly crashes involving drugged California motorists has been steadily increasing over at least four years.
Officials with the California Office of Traffic Safety said 30% of drivers killed in car accidents in 2010 tested positive for legal and/or illegal drugs.
“You can be as deadly behind the wheel with marijuana or prescription drugs as you can with over-the-limit alcohol,” said Christopher J. Murphy of the Office of Traffic Safety.
The agency said drug-impaired driving often goes unreported or undetected, partly because of costly toxicology tests, according to a news release.
The Office of Traffic Safety has teamed up with the California Highway Patrol to give training on how to better spot drugged drivers and apprehend them. Police departments across the state are also being urged to send officers to get training on the issue and become Drug Recognition Experts.
The training “for law enforcement is the key to successfully removing drug-impaired drivers from the road,” said CHP Commissioner Joe Farrow.
Chris Cochran, spokesman for the Office of Traffic Safety, said the agency has not yet determined why there has been such an increase in drugged driving fatalities, but he speculated that increases in legal marijuana use and in prescription drug impairment could be contributing factors.
“We’re sort of where we were with drunk driving in 1950,” Cochran said, “we’re just getting a handle on it.”
While some of the drugged drivers are under the influence of legal prescription drugs, and others are driving while high on coke, meth or other illicit drugs, you can bet that a good majority of those involved in drugged driving accidents were spaced out on pot.
DRUGGED –- NOT DRUNK -– DRIVING STEADILY RISING IN CALIFORNIA
By Ari Bloomekatz
Los Angeles Times
February 28, 2012
While drunk driving fatalities are on the decline, a state agency this week warned that the number of deadly crashes involving drugged California motorists has been steadily increasing over at least four years.
Officials with the California Office of Traffic Safety said 30% of drivers killed in car accidents in 2010 tested positive for legal and/or illegal drugs.
“You can be as deadly behind the wheel with marijuana or prescription drugs as you can with over-the-limit alcohol,” said Christopher J. Murphy of the Office of Traffic Safety.
The agency said drug-impaired driving often goes unreported or undetected, partly because of costly toxicology tests, according to a news release.
The Office of Traffic Safety has teamed up with the California Highway Patrol to give training on how to better spot drugged drivers and apprehend them. Police departments across the state are also being urged to send officers to get training on the issue and become Drug Recognition Experts.
The training “for law enforcement is the key to successfully removing drug-impaired drivers from the road,” said CHP Commissioner Joe Farrow.
Chris Cochran, spokesman for the Office of Traffic Safety, said the agency has not yet determined why there has been such an increase in drugged driving fatalities, but he speculated that increases in legal marijuana use and in prescription drug impairment could be contributing factors.
“We’re sort of where we were with drunk driving in 1950,” Cochran said, “we’re just getting a handle on it.”
WAS THE HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY MEETING IN A FUNNY TOBACCO SMOKE FILLED ROOM?
Somebody must have been smoking some funny tobacco, and she must have gotten a good whiff of it, when Napolitano said the way to stop drug trafficking is “to go after the supply of illegal narcotics." I say the only way to stop drug trafficking is to drastically reduce, if not eliminate, the demand for illegal drugs. It’s all about the law of supply and demand, Madam Secretary!
The Mexican drug war may not be a failure – yet - but it’s awfully hard to see it as a success.
From Borderland Beat:
NAPOLITANO: MEXICAN DRUG WAR ‘NOT A FAILURE’
By Rafael Romo
CNN
February 28, 2012
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said Monday that the war on drugs in Mexico "is not a failure."
At a press conference in Mexico City after meeting Mexican Interior Minister Alejandro Poire, Napolitano called the drug policies of both Mexico and the United States "a continuing effort to keep our peoples from becoming addicted to dangerous drugs."
Napolitano also said that among the things discussed at the meeting with Poire was how to have a more regional approach to a number of security issues threatening the United States, Mexico and Central America.
Asked why, in spite of efforts by both Mexico and the United States, the leader Mexico's most powerful criminal organization -- the Sinaloa drug cartel -- remains at large, Napolitano implied it's only a matter of time before Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman falls.
"It took us 10 years to find Osama bin Laden and we found him," Napolitano said.
"And you know what happened there. I'm not suggesting the same thing would happen with Guzman but I am suggesting that we are persistent when it comes to wrongdoers and those who do harm in both of our countries."
Guzman escaped from a Mexican prison in 2001, and both Mexican and U.S. authorities are offering multimillion-dollar rewards for information leading to his capture.
Mexican reporters also asked whether the U.S. Homeland Security secretary still considers Mexico a safe destination. Twenty-two Carnival Cruise Lines passengers were robbed of valuables and their passports Saturday while they were traveling by bus in the middle of a shore excursion near the beach resort of Puerto Vallarta.
Napolitano didn't specifically address that incident, but suggested she doesn't believe there is a generalized security problem.
"I think Americans come and go freely to Mexico all the time and I expect that to continue. It's a wonderful country. There are many, many places to go and to see. And obviously we also do a tremendous amount of commerce," Napolitano said.
The meeting with Poire was Napolitano's first stop of a five-day regional tour that will also take her to Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Panama.
Napoliticano was specifically asked whether the U.S. government is as concerned about the power of criminal organizations in Latin America as it is about terrorism. She called both terrorism and drug trafficking a global scourge, but pointed out there are important distinctions between the two.
"(Drug trafficking) has to be handled in a somewhat different way. It's a different type of crime and it's a different type of plague, but that's also why it is so important that we act not only bi-nationally, but in a regional way, to go after the supply of illegal narcotics," Napolitano said.
The Mexican drug war may not be a failure – yet - but it’s awfully hard to see it as a success.
From Borderland Beat:
NAPOLITANO: MEXICAN DRUG WAR ‘NOT A FAILURE’
By Rafael Romo
CNN
February 28, 2012
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said Monday that the war on drugs in Mexico "is not a failure."
At a press conference in Mexico City after meeting Mexican Interior Minister Alejandro Poire, Napolitano called the drug policies of both Mexico and the United States "a continuing effort to keep our peoples from becoming addicted to dangerous drugs."
Napolitano also said that among the things discussed at the meeting with Poire was how to have a more regional approach to a number of security issues threatening the United States, Mexico and Central America.
Asked why, in spite of efforts by both Mexico and the United States, the leader Mexico's most powerful criminal organization -- the Sinaloa drug cartel -- remains at large, Napolitano implied it's only a matter of time before Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman falls.
"It took us 10 years to find Osama bin Laden and we found him," Napolitano said.
"And you know what happened there. I'm not suggesting the same thing would happen with Guzman but I am suggesting that we are persistent when it comes to wrongdoers and those who do harm in both of our countries."
Guzman escaped from a Mexican prison in 2001, and both Mexican and U.S. authorities are offering multimillion-dollar rewards for information leading to his capture.
Mexican reporters also asked whether the U.S. Homeland Security secretary still considers Mexico a safe destination. Twenty-two Carnival Cruise Lines passengers were robbed of valuables and their passports Saturday while they were traveling by bus in the middle of a shore excursion near the beach resort of Puerto Vallarta.
Napolitano didn't specifically address that incident, but suggested she doesn't believe there is a generalized security problem.
"I think Americans come and go freely to Mexico all the time and I expect that to continue. It's a wonderful country. There are many, many places to go and to see. And obviously we also do a tremendous amount of commerce," Napolitano said.
The meeting with Poire was Napolitano's first stop of a five-day regional tour that will also take her to Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Panama.
Napoliticano was specifically asked whether the U.S. government is as concerned about the power of criminal organizations in Latin America as it is about terrorism. She called both terrorism and drug trafficking a global scourge, but pointed out there are important distinctions between the two.
"(Drug trafficking) has to be handled in a somewhat different way. It's a different type of crime and it's a different type of plague, but that's also why it is so important that we act not only bi-nationally, but in a regional way, to go after the supply of illegal narcotics," Napolitano said.
‘COMPUTER’ IN SPANISH: A MASCULINE OR FEMININE NOUN?
A Spanish Teacher was explaining to her class that in Spanish, unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine.
'House' for instance, is feminine: 'la casa.' 'Pencil,' however, is masculine: 'el lapiz.'
A student asked, “What gender is ‘computer’?”
Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into two groups, male and female, and asked them to decide for themselves whether ‘computer’ should be a masculine or a feminine noun. Each group was asked to give four reasons for its recommendation.
The men's group decided that 'computer' should definitely be of the feminine gender - 'la computadora' - because:
1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic;
2.The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else;
3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for possible later retrieval; and
4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheck on accessories for it.
The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be masculine - 'el computador' - because:
1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on;
2. They have a lot of data but still can't think for themselves;
3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they ARE the problem; and
4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you had waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model.
The women won.
'House' for instance, is feminine: 'la casa.' 'Pencil,' however, is masculine: 'el lapiz.'
A student asked, “What gender is ‘computer’?”
Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into two groups, male and female, and asked them to decide for themselves whether ‘computer’ should be a masculine or a feminine noun. Each group was asked to give four reasons for its recommendation.
The men's group decided that 'computer' should definitely be of the feminine gender - 'la computadora' - because:
1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic;
2.The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else;
3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for possible later retrieval; and
4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheck on accessories for it.
The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be masculine - 'el computador' - because:
1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on;
2. They have a lot of data but still can't think for themselves;
3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they ARE the problem; and
4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you had waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model.
The women won.
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