An old guy goes to his doctor for his physical and gets sent to the Urologist as a precaution. When he gets there, he discovers the Urologist is a very pretty female doctor.
The female doctor says, "I'm going to check your prostate today, but this new procedure is a little different from what you are probably used to. I want you to lie on your right side, bend your knees, then while I check your prostate, take a deep breath and say, 'Ninety-nine'."
The old guy obeys and says,"99."
The doctor says, "Great. Now turn over on your left side and again, while I repeat the check, take a deep breath and say, '99'."
Again, the old guy says, "99."
The doctor says, "Very good. Now then, I want you to lie on your back with your knees raised slightly. I'm going to check your prostate with this hand, and with the other hand I'm going to hold on to your penis to keep it out of the way. Now take a deep breath and say, '99'."
The old guy starts counting very, very slowly, "Ninety … Ninety-one ... Ninety-two ...Ninety-three ..."
Tuesday, November 02, 2010
WHAT'S IT LIKE TO BE OLD?
I would never trade my amazing friends, my wonderful life, my loving family for less gray hair or a flatter belly. As I've aged, I've become kinder to myself, and less critical of myself. I've become my own friend. I don't chide myself for eating that extra cookie, or for not making my bed, or for buying that silly cement gecko that I didn't need, but looks so avante garde on my patio. I am entitled to a treat, to be messy, to be extravagant.
I have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon; before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging.
Whose business is it if I choose to read or play on the computer until 4 AM and sleep until noon? I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 60 & 70's, and if I, at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love ..... I will.
I will walk the beach in a swim suit that is stretched over a bulging body, and will dive into the waves with abandon if I choose to, despite the pitying glances from the jet set. They, too, will get old.
I know I am sometimes forgetful. But there again, some of life is just as well forgotten. And I eventually remember the important things.
Sure, over the years my heart has been broken. How can your heart not break when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers, or even when somebody's beloved pet gets hit by a car? But broken hearts are what give us strength and understanding and compassion. A heart never broken is pristine and sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect.
I am so blessed to have lived long enough to have my hair turning gray, and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my face.
So many have never laughed, and so many have died before their hair could turn silver.
As you get older, it is easier to be positive. You care less about what other people think.. I don't question myself anymore. I've even earned the right to be wrong.
So, to answer your question, I like being old. It has set me free. I like the person I have become. I am not going to live forever, but while I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be. And I shall eat dessert every single day (if I feel like it).
EDITOR'S NOTE: This was sent to me by Jay Wall who has yet to get old.
I have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon; before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging.
Whose business is it if I choose to read or play on the computer until 4 AM and sleep until noon? I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 60 & 70's, and if I, at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love ..... I will.
I will walk the beach in a swim suit that is stretched over a bulging body, and will dive into the waves with abandon if I choose to, despite the pitying glances from the jet set. They, too, will get old.
I know I am sometimes forgetful. But there again, some of life is just as well forgotten. And I eventually remember the important things.
Sure, over the years my heart has been broken. How can your heart not break when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers, or even when somebody's beloved pet gets hit by a car? But broken hearts are what give us strength and understanding and compassion. A heart never broken is pristine and sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect.
I am so blessed to have lived long enough to have my hair turning gray, and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my face.
So many have never laughed, and so many have died before their hair could turn silver.
As you get older, it is easier to be positive. You care less about what other people think.. I don't question myself anymore. I've even earned the right to be wrong.
So, to answer your question, I like being old. It has set me free. I like the person I have become. I am not going to live forever, but while I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be. And I shall eat dessert every single day (if I feel like it).
EDITOR'S NOTE: This was sent to me by Jay Wall who has yet to get old.
10 BULLETS FOR ONE EGG
There are several morals to this story, the most important of which seems to be: Don’t piss off a Mercedes-Benz owner!
DAMN, THAT IS HARSH
By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
November 1, 2010
Tivarus King was a not atypical jerk teenager in Atlanta. He egged a Mercedes on Halloween. The driver was not appreciative and shot the young man twice. One shot killed him.
The 17-year old shooting victim was confronted by the driver at about 8:00 p.m. on Halloween who fired the ten rounds at him. The egg thrower was taken by ambulance to Grady Memorial Hospital but died in route.
The driver of a car matching the description was taken into custody shortly after the incident, but was later determined to have not been involved.
I grant you that egging a car is not nice and should not be tolerated. I don’t think, however, that it is a capital offense. Mercedes owners might disagree.
DAMN, THAT IS HARSH
By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
November 1, 2010
Tivarus King was a not atypical jerk teenager in Atlanta. He egged a Mercedes on Halloween. The driver was not appreciative and shot the young man twice. One shot killed him.
The 17-year old shooting victim was confronted by the driver at about 8:00 p.m. on Halloween who fired the ten rounds at him. The egg thrower was taken by ambulance to Grady Memorial Hospital but died in route.
The driver of a car matching the description was taken into custody shortly after the incident, but was later determined to have not been involved.
I grant you that egging a car is not nice and should not be tolerated. I don’t think, however, that it is a capital offense. Mercedes owners might disagree.
Monday, November 01, 2010
THERE ARE 14 BLACK REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATES
In Tuesday’s election, there are 14 black Republican candidates running for Congress. That’s right, 14 of the Republicans running for seats in Congress are African-Americans. And each one of them is expressing strong opposition to the policies of America’s first black president.
Here is a partial list of the black Republican congressional candidates:
Charlotte Bergmann: 9th Congressional District of Tennessee
Stephen Broden: 30th Congressional District of Texas
Ryan Frazier: 7th Congressional District of Colorado
Isaac Hayes: 2nd Congressional District of Illinois
Bill Marcy: 2nd Congressional District of Mississippi
Star Parker: 37th Congressional District of California
Bill Randall: 13th Congressional District of North Carolina
Tim Scott: 1st Congressional District of South Carolina
Chuck Smith: 3rd Congressional District of Virginia
Allen West: 22nd Congressional District of Florida
USMC Maj. Charles Lollar: 5th Congressional District of Maryland
Rev. Michel J. Faulkner: 15th Congressional District of New York
(I was unable to obtain the names of the remaining two black Republican candidates.)
Most of the 14 are running all-but-hopeless races against black Democratic incumbents in black majority districts. But Tim Scott of South Carolina, Allen West of Florida, and Ryan Frazier of Colorado are running in predominantly white districts and are expected to win their races.
Black Republican candidates? Sumbich, what this country isn’t coming to!
Here is a partial list of the black Republican congressional candidates:
Charlotte Bergmann: 9th Congressional District of Tennessee
Stephen Broden: 30th Congressional District of Texas
Ryan Frazier: 7th Congressional District of Colorado
Isaac Hayes: 2nd Congressional District of Illinois
Bill Marcy: 2nd Congressional District of Mississippi
Star Parker: 37th Congressional District of California
Bill Randall: 13th Congressional District of North Carolina
Tim Scott: 1st Congressional District of South Carolina
Chuck Smith: 3rd Congressional District of Virginia
Allen West: 22nd Congressional District of Florida
USMC Maj. Charles Lollar: 5th Congressional District of Maryland
Rev. Michel J. Faulkner: 15th Congressional District of New York
(I was unable to obtain the names of the remaining two black Republican candidates.)
Most of the 14 are running all-but-hopeless races against black Democratic incumbents in black majority districts. But Tim Scott of South Carolina, Allen West of Florida, and Ryan Frazier of Colorado are running in predominantly white districts and are expected to win their races.
Black Republican candidates? Sumbich, what this country isn’t coming to!
LOOK AT WHO GAVE $1 MILLION DOLLARS TO THE PROPONENTS OF PROPOSTION 19
Attention Kookfornians: Here is another very good reason to vote against Proposition 19, the legalization of pot for recreational use.
George Soreass – oops, I mean George Soros - has donated $1 million to the Proposition 19 backers. Almost everything Soreass is associated with turns out to be bad news.
In 1996, Soreass was one of the principal financial backers of the proposition that legalized ‘medical’ marijuana in Kookfornia. And everyone now knows how that law has been perverted by the medical profession. The ‘medical’ use of marijuana has turned out to be a de facto legalization of pot for recreational use.
You can bet that if Proposition 19 passes, Kookfornians will see a significant increase in the abuse of marijuana and an increase in the number of motor vehicle operators driving under the influence of pot. You can bet that with the passage of Proposition 19, the highway traffic death toll will rise dramatically.
George Soreass – oops, I mean George Soros - has donated $1 million to the Proposition 19 backers. Almost everything Soreass is associated with turns out to be bad news.
In 1996, Soreass was one of the principal financial backers of the proposition that legalized ‘medical’ marijuana in Kookfornia. And everyone now knows how that law has been perverted by the medical profession. The ‘medical’ use of marijuana has turned out to be a de facto legalization of pot for recreational use.
You can bet that if Proposition 19 passes, Kookfornians will see a significant increase in the abuse of marijuana and an increase in the number of motor vehicle operators driving under the influence of pot. You can bet that with the passage of Proposition 19, the highway traffic death toll will rise dramatically.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
DON'T MESS WITH THE ANGELS
There are four major outlaw motorcycle clubs in t he United States:
The Hell's Angels were formed in 1948 in San Bernardino, California and have chapters all over the Western World. The Bandidos are based in Texas and have chapters in the major cities of the Americas, Europe and Australia. The Outlaws were formed in 1935 just outside Chicago and are reputed to be the wealthiest of the outlaw biker gangs. The Pagans have 44 chapters strung down the East Coast between New York and Miami and have the fiercest reputation of all the biker gangs.
I am very familiar with the Angels because their headquarters were near where I spent most of my law enforcement career. I can tell you that those suckers were a bunch of tough and mean hombres. What made them so dangerous in any confrontation was that they were not afraid to die.
Many, although not all of the Hells Angels chapters are believed to derive much of their income from the manufacture and distribution of methamphetamines. As with the other biker gangs, many of their ‘old ladies’ worked as pole dancers in strip clubs.
When I was working the streets, the ball peen hammer was their favorite weapon and they would swing it with reckless abandonment during brawls with members of other biker gangs. You really didn’t want to mess with the Angels.
I once visited a parolee in Riverside General Hospital. His swollen head and busted-up face looked so grotesque that I hardly recognized him. He told me he was riding with the Devil’s Disciples, a small biker gang, when they came across a group of Angeles. That’s all it took for the fur to fly. And he wasn’t about to file a police complaint – ‘Holy fuck man, how long do you think I’d stay alive if I did that?’
In New York, the people living in neighborhoods frequented by the Angels considered them their heroes because those neighborhoods remained almost completely crime and gang free – no crook in his right mind and no competing gang would infringe on the territory of the Hells Angels.
And now the Angels have taken on legitimate businesses for infringing on their long-time logo, the winged death head.
HELLS ANGELS SUE ALEXANDER McQUEEN AND SAKS OVER WINGED DEATH HEAD TRADEMARK
By Tamara Abraham
Mail Online
October 27, 2010
The Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporation is suing Alexander McQueen for breach of trademark, after the fashion house featured motifs similar to its famous winged death head.
Lawyers for the motorcycle gang cited four products from the late designer's final collection, created shortly before his suicide in February this year.
They named the £895 'Hells Angels' jacquard box dress, and a £300 knuckle-duster ring in the complaint, as well as a scarf and a handbag.
It is also suing U.S. department store Saks Fifth Avenue and e-tailer Zappos.com for selling the products.
The complaint argues that the symbol has been used by the Hells Angels since at least 1948, and that it is protected by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
'From decades of notoriety, the HAMC marks have acquired very widespread public recognition, consequently they evoke strong and immediate reactions whenever used,' it reads.
'The impact of these marks is virtually incomparable, and as a result they have great commercial value.'
The lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles on Monday. HAMC lawyer Fritz Clapp explained: 'This isn't just about money, it's about membership.
'If you've got one of these rings on, a member might get really upset that you're an imposter.'
Representatives for Saks, Zappos.com and Alexander McQueen, which is owned by PPR's Gucci Group, have refused to comment.
Yesterday Harry Potter costume designer Jany Temime was accused of copying an Alexander McQueen dress after film stills were released from the first instalment of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
The Hell's Angels were formed in 1948 in San Bernardino, California and have chapters all over the Western World. The Bandidos are based in Texas and have chapters in the major cities of the Americas, Europe and Australia. The Outlaws were formed in 1935 just outside Chicago and are reputed to be the wealthiest of the outlaw biker gangs. The Pagans have 44 chapters strung down the East Coast between New York and Miami and have the fiercest reputation of all the biker gangs.
I am very familiar with the Angels because their headquarters were near where I spent most of my law enforcement career. I can tell you that those suckers were a bunch of tough and mean hombres. What made them so dangerous in any confrontation was that they were not afraid to die.
Many, although not all of the Hells Angels chapters are believed to derive much of their income from the manufacture and distribution of methamphetamines. As with the other biker gangs, many of their ‘old ladies’ worked as pole dancers in strip clubs.
When I was working the streets, the ball peen hammer was their favorite weapon and they would swing it with reckless abandonment during brawls with members of other biker gangs. You really didn’t want to mess with the Angels.
I once visited a parolee in Riverside General Hospital. His swollen head and busted-up face looked so grotesque that I hardly recognized him. He told me he was riding with the Devil’s Disciples, a small biker gang, when they came across a group of Angeles. That’s all it took for the fur to fly. And he wasn’t about to file a police complaint – ‘Holy fuck man, how long do you think I’d stay alive if I did that?’
In New York, the people living in neighborhoods frequented by the Angels considered them their heroes because those neighborhoods remained almost completely crime and gang free – no crook in his right mind and no competing gang would infringe on the territory of the Hells Angels.
And now the Angels have taken on legitimate businesses for infringing on their long-time logo, the winged death head.
HELLS ANGELS SUE ALEXANDER McQUEEN AND SAKS OVER WINGED DEATH HEAD TRADEMARK
By Tamara Abraham
Mail Online
October 27, 2010
The Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporation is suing Alexander McQueen for breach of trademark, after the fashion house featured motifs similar to its famous winged death head.
Lawyers for the motorcycle gang cited four products from the late designer's final collection, created shortly before his suicide in February this year.
They named the £895 'Hells Angels' jacquard box dress, and a £300 knuckle-duster ring in the complaint, as well as a scarf and a handbag.
It is also suing U.S. department store Saks Fifth Avenue and e-tailer Zappos.com for selling the products.
The complaint argues that the symbol has been used by the Hells Angels since at least 1948, and that it is protected by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
'From decades of notoriety, the HAMC marks have acquired very widespread public recognition, consequently they evoke strong and immediate reactions whenever used,' it reads.
'The impact of these marks is virtually incomparable, and as a result they have great commercial value.'
The lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles on Monday. HAMC lawyer Fritz Clapp explained: 'This isn't just about money, it's about membership.
'If you've got one of these rings on, a member might get really upset that you're an imposter.'
Representatives for Saks, Zappos.com and Alexander McQueen, which is owned by PPR's Gucci Group, have refused to comment.
Yesterday Harry Potter costume designer Jany Temime was accused of copying an Alexander McQueen dress after film stills were released from the first instalment of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
HIGH SCHOOL CHEERLEADER VICTIMIZED TWICE
First she was sexually assaulted and then she was kicked off the cheerleading squad for not cheering for her rapist. The rapist, on the other hand, gets rewarded for being a star football player by having his one-year jail sentence suspended so he could continue to play on his school’s athletic teams. Actually this is not surprising. After all, in Texas, King Football rules!
CHEERLEADER REQUIRED TO CHEER FOR MAN WHO ASSAULTED HER
by Caroline Heldman
Ms. Magazine
October 15, 2010
If someone assaulted you, would you want to then cheer for his performance on a basketball court? A 16-year-old Texas high school student sure didn’t.
High school football star Rakheem Bolton and two others were indicted for sexual assault of a child–identified only as H.S.–at a post-game party in 2008. According to H.S.–a fellow student and cheerleader at Silsbee High–Bolton, football player Christian Rountree and another juvenile male forced her into a room, locked the door, held her down and sexually assaulted her. When other party-goers tried to get into the room, two of the men fled through an open window, including Bolton, who left clothing behind. Bolton allegedly threatened to shoot the occupants of the house when the homeowner refused to return his clothes.
In September 2010, Bolton pled guilty to a lesser charge of Class A Assault and was sentenced to one year in prison, a sentence that was suspended by the judge in lieu of two years probation, a $2,500 fine, community service and an anger management course.
Silsbee school officials had two responses to the incident. First, they urged H.S. to keep a low profile, such as avoiding the school cafeteria and not taking part in homecoming activities. With the support of her family, she refused to do so, rejecting the notion that she had anything to be ashamed of. Secondly, school officials kicked her off the cheerleading squad for refusing to cheer for Bolton. No kidding.
Bolton had been allowed back on campus during a brief period when one grand jury withdrew the charges before another grand jury reinstated them. During a basketball game, H.S. cheered for the entire team but refused to cheer "Rakheem" during his free-throws, so she was off the squad.
H.S.’s parents sued the school for violating her right to free speech, but an appeals court dismissed her case earlier this month. The bizarre reasoning: "In her capacity as cheerleader, [she] served as a mouthpiece through which the school could disseminate speech–namely, support for its athletic teams." Not cheering for Bolton "constituted substantial interference with the work of the school because, as a cheerleader, [she] was at the basketball game for the purpose of cheering, a position she undertook voluntarily." In other words, the "work of the school" is basketball, and H.S. was obligated to put on a robotic smile and cheer for the man who had assaulted her.
Silsbee High School officials should be held accountable for their actions. Richard Bain, Jr., the superintendent of schools, allegedly ordered H.S. to cheer for her attacker.
CHEERLEADER REQUIRED TO CHEER FOR MAN WHO ASSAULTED HER
by Caroline Heldman
Ms. Magazine
October 15, 2010
If someone assaulted you, would you want to then cheer for his performance on a basketball court? A 16-year-old Texas high school student sure didn’t.
High school football star Rakheem Bolton and two others were indicted for sexual assault of a child–identified only as H.S.–at a post-game party in 2008. According to H.S.–a fellow student and cheerleader at Silsbee High–Bolton, football player Christian Rountree and another juvenile male forced her into a room, locked the door, held her down and sexually assaulted her. When other party-goers tried to get into the room, two of the men fled through an open window, including Bolton, who left clothing behind. Bolton allegedly threatened to shoot the occupants of the house when the homeowner refused to return his clothes.
In September 2010, Bolton pled guilty to a lesser charge of Class A Assault and was sentenced to one year in prison, a sentence that was suspended by the judge in lieu of two years probation, a $2,500 fine, community service and an anger management course.
Silsbee school officials had two responses to the incident. First, they urged H.S. to keep a low profile, such as avoiding the school cafeteria and not taking part in homecoming activities. With the support of her family, she refused to do so, rejecting the notion that she had anything to be ashamed of. Secondly, school officials kicked her off the cheerleading squad for refusing to cheer for Bolton. No kidding.
Bolton had been allowed back on campus during a brief period when one grand jury withdrew the charges before another grand jury reinstated them. During a basketball game, H.S. cheered for the entire team but refused to cheer "Rakheem" during his free-throws, so she was off the squad.
H.S.’s parents sued the school for violating her right to free speech, but an appeals court dismissed her case earlier this month. The bizarre reasoning: "In her capacity as cheerleader, [she] served as a mouthpiece through which the school could disseminate speech–namely, support for its athletic teams." Not cheering for Bolton "constituted substantial interference with the work of the school because, as a cheerleader, [she] was at the basketball game for the purpose of cheering, a position she undertook voluntarily." In other words, the "work of the school" is basketball, and H.S. was obligated to put on a robotic smile and cheer for the man who had assaulted her.
Silsbee High School officials should be held accountable for their actions. Richard Bain, Jr., the superintendent of schools, allegedly ordered H.S. to cheer for her attacker.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
HAVE A HAPPY HALLOWEEN
For all you grownup kids, Hair Balls has Richard Connelly’s good advise on how to get drunk at a Halloween party without ending up embarrassed.
DRUNK HALLOWEEN PARTIES: FIVE WAYS TO AVOID HUMILIATION
By Richard Connelly
Houston Press Hair Balls
October 29, 2010
Halloween is especially dangerous this year -- it's on a Sunday, and so that means it's perfectly reasonable to have parties not only on Friday, but on Saturday too.
And that means double the chances of getting drunk and doing something you'll regret very much in the days to come.
How best to avoid drunken embarrassment? Well, you could stay sober, but there's really no way to do that at a costume party, or you will start asking yourself uncomfortable questions about why you're dressed as you are.
Instead, take these five tips to heart:
5. THAT’S NOT REALLY CATWOMAN; ON MONDAY SHE WILL BE JANE FROM ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE
Yeah, yeah, a masked woman wielding a whip, tipsy on some appletinis, and you've had a few drinks yourself. This is not the time to bring up any long-hidden fantasies you may have been harboring involve leather and spanking. It will just make for a very, very awkward Monday staff meeting.
4. DON’T WEAR A COSTUME THAT INVOLVES AN ENGINEERING DEGREE TO TAKE A PISS
It may look great, but dude, remember this: You're not a woman, therefore you are not adept at dealing with complicated pieces of clothing while desperately needing to take a leak. No one-piece anything. Get a zipper, give yourself plenty of time.or go dressed as a baby, wearing adult diapers.
3. DO NOT GO DRESSED AS A BABY, WEARING ADULT DIAPERS
No one wants to see that, take our word for it.
2. JUST BECAUSE HE’S DRESSED LIKE JACK SPARROW, IT WON’T BE LIKE SLEEPING WITH JOHNNY DEPP
Especially if you wake up next to him in the morning.
1. NO FOUR LOKO
Come on, you've been warned.
DRUNK HALLOWEEN PARTIES: FIVE WAYS TO AVOID HUMILIATION
By Richard Connelly
Houston Press Hair Balls
October 29, 2010
Halloween is especially dangerous this year -- it's on a Sunday, and so that means it's perfectly reasonable to have parties not only on Friday, but on Saturday too.
And that means double the chances of getting drunk and doing something you'll regret very much in the days to come.
How best to avoid drunken embarrassment? Well, you could stay sober, but there's really no way to do that at a costume party, or you will start asking yourself uncomfortable questions about why you're dressed as you are.
Instead, take these five tips to heart:
5. THAT’S NOT REALLY CATWOMAN; ON MONDAY SHE WILL BE JANE FROM ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE
Yeah, yeah, a masked woman wielding a whip, tipsy on some appletinis, and you've had a few drinks yourself. This is not the time to bring up any long-hidden fantasies you may have been harboring involve leather and spanking. It will just make for a very, very awkward Monday staff meeting.
4. DON’T WEAR A COSTUME THAT INVOLVES AN ENGINEERING DEGREE TO TAKE A PISS
It may look great, but dude, remember this: You're not a woman, therefore you are not adept at dealing with complicated pieces of clothing while desperately needing to take a leak. No one-piece anything. Get a zipper, give yourself plenty of time.or go dressed as a baby, wearing adult diapers.
3. DO NOT GO DRESSED AS A BABY, WEARING ADULT DIAPERS
No one wants to see that, take our word for it.
2. JUST BECAUSE HE’S DRESSED LIKE JACK SPARROW, IT WON’T BE LIKE SLEEPING WITH JOHNNY DEPP
Especially if you wake up next to him in the morning.
1. NO FOUR LOKO
Come on, you've been warned.
EX-DA SHOULD BE MADE TO SERVE 18 YEARS ON DEATH ROW
I am a very strong supporter of the death penalty because I am absolutely convinced that capital punishment is a deterrent to premeditated murder. I know it is quite possible that a few innocent people may have been executed but that is no reason to abolish the death penalty. It goes without saying that I certainly do not want to see any innocent person executed.
I have often railed against the endless appeals for death row inmates because almost all of them have involved cold blooded killers where the evidence was overwhelming that they committed the murders for which they were condemned. However, in the case of Anthony Graves, I must admit that were it not for the numerous appeals in his behalf, an innocent man could have been put to death.
Anthony Graves, the victim of a malicious prosecutor, was freed Wednesday after serving 18 years on death row for a crime he did not commit. Kelly Siegler, a prominent former hard-nosed prosecutor, has blasted the ex-DA who prosecuted Graves for having committed the ‘worst’ case of prosecutorial misconduct she had ever seen.
Charles Sebesta, the DA in the Graves case, makes Mike Nifong, the disbarred malicious rogue prosecutor in the Duke rape case, look like Mother Teresa. There is only way justice can be served in this case and that is for Sebesta to be disbarred and made to serve 18 years on death row. Unfortunately that’s not going to happen. At the very least though, Sebesta should be sued by the state to reimburse it for the amount of compensation Graves will receive.
TEAM OVERTURNING GRAVES CASE BLASTS EX-DA
His handling of 1994 capital murder trial is labeled ‘travesty’
By Brian Rogers
Houston Chronicle
October 28, 2010
BRENHAM — A day after prosecutors dismissed the capital murder charges that sent Anthony Graves to death row in 1994, they accused the district attorney who convicted him of prosecutorial misconduct.
"Charles Sebesta handled this case in a way that could best be described as a criminal justice system’s nightmare," Kelly Siegler declared. "It’s a travesty, what happened in Anthony Graves’ trial."
Graves, now 45, was released from jail Wednesday after spending 18 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit, according to Bill Parham, the current DA for Washington and Burleson counties.
Parham, Siegler and two investigators called a Thursday news conference at which they accused the former district attorney of hiding evidence and threatening witnesses.
Graves was convicted of capital murder in the 1992 deaths of a Somerville family: Bobbie Davis, 45, her 16-year-old daughter, and Davis’ four grandchildren, ages 4 to 9.
Sebesta on Thursday said the allegations of prosecutorial misconduct were "really stretching" and maintained that Graves is guilty. "Go back and look at the evidence," Sebesta said. "He was convicted by a jury."
Siegler said Sebesta indicted a woman without any evidence, fabricated evidence, manipulated witnesses and took advantage of victims. She said it "absolutely" was prosecutorial misconduct.
"The worst I’ve ever seen," Siegler said.
Asked if Sebesta should face criminal prosecution for his actions, Siegler said, "Well, the statute of limitations has run on all that." She also said Parham’s office has not discussed whether a complaint to the State Bar of Texas is appropriate.
Sebesta flatly denied any wrongdoing and responded to each allegation leveled at him by Siegler and Parham.
Graves was convicted of assisting Robert Earl Carter in the slayings, then helping set the family’s home on fire.
Carter was executed in 2000. Two weeks before his death, he provided a sworn statement saying that his naming of Graves as an accomplice was a lie.
He also said it minutes before his death sentence was carried out: "Anthony Graves had nothing to do with it. … I lied on him in court."
The most potentially damning allegation against Sebesta was that he threatened to pursue a conviction against Robert Carter’s wife if he did not testify against Graves, Siegler said.
Sebesta denied that he had a conversation with Carter like that. "We didn’t do that," he said.
KILLER CHANGED HIS STORY
Carter first named Graves as an accomplice days after the murders because he knew Graves was not there and thought he could easily provide an alibi for himself, Siegler said.
Two days later Carter recanted and said Graves was not involved, but months after that he told jurors in Graves’ trial that the two had worked together.
Siegler also said Sebesta threatened the woman with whom Graves was asleep with when the murder occurred by saying in open court that she was a suspect in the slayings.
Sebesta said it was hardly a threat when he alerted the court that she should be advised of her rights to not incriminate herself because she was a suspect.
Siegler said Sebesta indicted Carter’s wife, Theresa, without any evidence.
Sebesta said a grand jury returned the indictment after hearing evidence that included a burn on Theresa Carter’s shoulder. Robert Carter also had burns, which first led police to suspect him because the house had been torched.
Sebesta said he has never believed Carter’s recantations, which began two days after he first gave it to police. "I would not have tried him if I didn’t believe he was guilty," the former prosecutor insisted.
Parham said the case remains open because he believes there was a second man involved in the murder.
But, he said, Graves "unequivocally was not one of them."
Siegler noted that she and Parham could have dismissed the charges and said there simply was not enough evidence to convict again.
But it was important that the community and the victims’ family know that Graves did not "get away with murder," Siegler said.
"He’s an innocent man," she said.
Sebesta retired 12 years ago. In 2009, he took out ads in two Burleson County newspapers reiterating that he believed Graves was a killer, to dispute critical news media reports.
BAR COMPLAINT DISMISSED
In 2007, Houston attorney Robert Bennett filed a bar complaint saying Sebesta and two assistant district attorneys acted unethically in the prosecution.
The State Bar dismissed the complaint, and officials said Sebesta has no disciplinary record.
In 2006, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Graves’ conviction after ruling that prosecutors elicited false statements from two witnesses and withheld two statements that could have changed the outcome.
Since that ruling there were at least two special prosecutors before the case was handed to Parham, who hired Siegler, a former Harris County assistant district attorney, as a special prosecutor.
I have often railed against the endless appeals for death row inmates because almost all of them have involved cold blooded killers where the evidence was overwhelming that they committed the murders for which they were condemned. However, in the case of Anthony Graves, I must admit that were it not for the numerous appeals in his behalf, an innocent man could have been put to death.
Anthony Graves, the victim of a malicious prosecutor, was freed Wednesday after serving 18 years on death row for a crime he did not commit. Kelly Siegler, a prominent former hard-nosed prosecutor, has blasted the ex-DA who prosecuted Graves for having committed the ‘worst’ case of prosecutorial misconduct she had ever seen.
Charles Sebesta, the DA in the Graves case, makes Mike Nifong, the disbarred malicious rogue prosecutor in the Duke rape case, look like Mother Teresa. There is only way justice can be served in this case and that is for Sebesta to be disbarred and made to serve 18 years on death row. Unfortunately that’s not going to happen. At the very least though, Sebesta should be sued by the state to reimburse it for the amount of compensation Graves will receive.
TEAM OVERTURNING GRAVES CASE BLASTS EX-DA
His handling of 1994 capital murder trial is labeled ‘travesty’
By Brian Rogers
Houston Chronicle
October 28, 2010
BRENHAM — A day after prosecutors dismissed the capital murder charges that sent Anthony Graves to death row in 1994, they accused the district attorney who convicted him of prosecutorial misconduct.
"Charles Sebesta handled this case in a way that could best be described as a criminal justice system’s nightmare," Kelly Siegler declared. "It’s a travesty, what happened in Anthony Graves’ trial."
Graves, now 45, was released from jail Wednesday after spending 18 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit, according to Bill Parham, the current DA for Washington and Burleson counties.
Parham, Siegler and two investigators called a Thursday news conference at which they accused the former district attorney of hiding evidence and threatening witnesses.
Graves was convicted of capital murder in the 1992 deaths of a Somerville family: Bobbie Davis, 45, her 16-year-old daughter, and Davis’ four grandchildren, ages 4 to 9.
Sebesta on Thursday said the allegations of prosecutorial misconduct were "really stretching" and maintained that Graves is guilty. "Go back and look at the evidence," Sebesta said. "He was convicted by a jury."
Siegler said Sebesta indicted a woman without any evidence, fabricated evidence, manipulated witnesses and took advantage of victims. She said it "absolutely" was prosecutorial misconduct.
"The worst I’ve ever seen," Siegler said.
Asked if Sebesta should face criminal prosecution for his actions, Siegler said, "Well, the statute of limitations has run on all that." She also said Parham’s office has not discussed whether a complaint to the State Bar of Texas is appropriate.
Sebesta flatly denied any wrongdoing and responded to each allegation leveled at him by Siegler and Parham.
Graves was convicted of assisting Robert Earl Carter in the slayings, then helping set the family’s home on fire.
Carter was executed in 2000. Two weeks before his death, he provided a sworn statement saying that his naming of Graves as an accomplice was a lie.
He also said it minutes before his death sentence was carried out: "Anthony Graves had nothing to do with it. … I lied on him in court."
The most potentially damning allegation against Sebesta was that he threatened to pursue a conviction against Robert Carter’s wife if he did not testify against Graves, Siegler said.
Sebesta denied that he had a conversation with Carter like that. "We didn’t do that," he said.
KILLER CHANGED HIS STORY
Carter first named Graves as an accomplice days after the murders because he knew Graves was not there and thought he could easily provide an alibi for himself, Siegler said.
Two days later Carter recanted and said Graves was not involved, but months after that he told jurors in Graves’ trial that the two had worked together.
Siegler also said Sebesta threatened the woman with whom Graves was asleep with when the murder occurred by saying in open court that she was a suspect in the slayings.
Sebesta said it was hardly a threat when he alerted the court that she should be advised of her rights to not incriminate herself because she was a suspect.
Siegler said Sebesta indicted Carter’s wife, Theresa, without any evidence.
Sebesta said a grand jury returned the indictment after hearing evidence that included a burn on Theresa Carter’s shoulder. Robert Carter also had burns, which first led police to suspect him because the house had been torched.
Sebesta said he has never believed Carter’s recantations, which began two days after he first gave it to police. "I would not have tried him if I didn’t believe he was guilty," the former prosecutor insisted.
Parham said the case remains open because he believes there was a second man involved in the murder.
But, he said, Graves "unequivocally was not one of them."
Siegler noted that she and Parham could have dismissed the charges and said there simply was not enough evidence to convict again.
But it was important that the community and the victims’ family know that Graves did not "get away with murder," Siegler said.
"He’s an innocent man," she said.
Sebesta retired 12 years ago. In 2009, he took out ads in two Burleson County newspapers reiterating that he believed Graves was a killer, to dispute critical news media reports.
BAR COMPLAINT DISMISSED
In 2007, Houston attorney Robert Bennett filed a bar complaint saying Sebesta and two assistant district attorneys acted unethically in the prosecution.
The State Bar dismissed the complaint, and officials said Sebesta has no disciplinary record.
In 2006, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Graves’ conviction after ruling that prosecutors elicited false statements from two witnesses and withheld two statements that could have changed the outcome.
Since that ruling there were at least two special prosecutors before the case was handed to Parham, who hired Siegler, a former Harris County assistant district attorney, as a special prosecutor.
ONE SMALL WAY TO REDUCE THE NUMBER OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
For all those folks who are upset by the number of illegal immigrants in the U.S., here is a suggestion how the Tea Party might help. It’s members could throw parties for illegals all over the country, get them drunk, give them a revolver if the guests don’t already have one, and get them to play Russian roulette. The odds will definitely be in favor of those wanting to reduce the number of those illegals.
MEXICAN SHOT DEAD BY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT AFTER REFUSING TO TAKE HIS TURN DURING GAME OF RUSSIAN ROULETTE
Mail Online
October 29, 2010
Two illegal Mexican immigrants have been charged with causing the death of a third man during a game of Russian roulette after he refused to take his turn.
Juan Tomas Chaves Robles, 30, also of Mexico, was shot in the head when one of the two men picked up the gun, pointed it at him and pulled the trigger.
In a scene that could have come straight from movie The Deer Hunter, the chamber of the revolver held a bullet and Robles was killed instantly.
Detectives arrested Antonio Vieyra, 31, and Cecilio Mendez-Ballesteros, 28, at separate addresses in Wilmington, Delaware.
Vieyra was charged with second degree murder and possession of a deadly weapon during a felony.
Mendez-Ballesteros, who shot Robles, was charged with first-degree murder and possession of a deadly weapon during a felony.
The two are being held without bail in Young Correctional Institution.
Master Sergeant Steven Barnes said that when officers were called to the home on Saturday afternoon, they found Robles in the living room with a gunshot wound to the head.
He had been at the home attending a party since Friday.
The three men were drinking with others when they began playing Russian roulette with a revolver brought to the party by Vieyra, Sgt. Barnes said.
Robles was shot after refusing to continue playing.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is investigating the immigration status of both suspects.
The Deer Hunter, which won five Oscars in 1978, stars Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, Meryl Streep and John Savage.
In it, captured U.S. soldiers were forced to play Russian roulette by their Vietcong guards as they bet on the outcome.
MEXICAN SHOT DEAD BY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT AFTER REFUSING TO TAKE HIS TURN DURING GAME OF RUSSIAN ROULETTE
Mail Online
October 29, 2010
Two illegal Mexican immigrants have been charged with causing the death of a third man during a game of Russian roulette after he refused to take his turn.
Juan Tomas Chaves Robles, 30, also of Mexico, was shot in the head when one of the two men picked up the gun, pointed it at him and pulled the trigger.
In a scene that could have come straight from movie The Deer Hunter, the chamber of the revolver held a bullet and Robles was killed instantly.
Detectives arrested Antonio Vieyra, 31, and Cecilio Mendez-Ballesteros, 28, at separate addresses in Wilmington, Delaware.
Vieyra was charged with second degree murder and possession of a deadly weapon during a felony.
Mendez-Ballesteros, who shot Robles, was charged with first-degree murder and possession of a deadly weapon during a felony.
The two are being held without bail in Young Correctional Institution.
Master Sergeant Steven Barnes said that when officers were called to the home on Saturday afternoon, they found Robles in the living room with a gunshot wound to the head.
He had been at the home attending a party since Friday.
The three men were drinking with others when they began playing Russian roulette with a revolver brought to the party by Vieyra, Sgt. Barnes said.
Robles was shot after refusing to continue playing.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is investigating the immigration status of both suspects.
The Deer Hunter, which won five Oscars in 1978, stars Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, Meryl Streep and John Savage.
In it, captured U.S. soldiers were forced to play Russian roulette by their Vietcong guards as they bet on the outcome.
Friday, October 29, 2010
KILL HER, WAIT FOR CURFEW TO END, THEN DELIVER HER BODY TO THE COPS
Another parole success story. After all, he did not break curfew.
SEX OFFENDER: WOMAN ‘HAD TO DIE’
By Sarah Burge
The Press-Enterprise
October 26, 2010
A sex offense parolee who drove his dead girlfriend to the Lake Elsinore [California] sheriff's station last week admitted in a jailhouse interview Monday to strangling the woman.
Jason Richard Budrow, 30, a registered sex offender who lives in the unincorporated Good Hope area near Lake Elsinore, said he feared the 48-year-old woman was a police informant.
"She had to die," Budrow said.
Budrow is jailed on suspicion of murder at the Southwest Detention Center in French Valley.
Resting his heavily tattooed arms on the counter in front of him and gazing through the glass divider into the visitors' room, Budrow spoke calmly as he described how he killed the woman.
She came over to his trailer behind a liquor store off Highway 74, he said. The woman, with whom he said he had a sexual relationship, got scared after realizing that he had "discovered her." She was on her way to her car when he strangled her about 2 or 3 a.m. last Friday, Budrow said.
"I desecrated her body," he said, declining to elaborate.
Budrow said he shoved her body into the trunk of her white Chrysler Sebring convertible, then napped until his "curfew" -- an apparent reference to a parole requirement -- expired at 5 a.m.
Budrow said he drove away in the Sebring and at some point cut off the GPS-monitoring ankle bracelet that he must wear as a registered sex offender on parole.
"I murdered her while I was wearing that bracelet," he said.
Budrow declined to say what else he did in the hours before he arrived at the sheriff's station. If he had access to a gun, he said, he would have killed several other people. He did not explain why.
After pulling into the station parking lot and flagging someone down about 7:25 a.m., Budrow said he knelt on the pavement and put his hands in the air.
"I told them I had a body in my trunk," he said.
At first, he said, sheriff's officials were incredulous and asked if he was "playing games." He said they thought the trunk might have been booby trapped.
Budrow said he believed undercover law enforcement officers had been watching his every move and that he turned himself in because he was convinced they would eventually catch him.
The woman, Budrow said, knew he was involved in drug dealing and pimping and he thought she was going to reveal the names of "important people."
Sheriff's officials have said Budrow showed up at the sheriff's station and told a sergeant there was a body in the trunk. They declined to comment Monday on Budrow's statements.
Coroner's officials have not released the woman's name. Sheriff's officials said only that she was dating Budrow.
Until Friday, sheriff's officials said Budrow had complied with his registration requirements. He had been checking in at the Lake Elsinore station since June 2006.
Riverside County court records show Budrow pleaded guilty in 2004 to sexual penetration by force and was sentenced to three years in prison.
A probation officer's report says Budrow was staying with his grandparents in 2003 at a property they managed in Lakeland Village, near Lake Elsinore. He slipped into the bedroom of a 14-year-old neighbor one night and performed sex acts on the girl, court records say. The girl said she told him to stop but did not yell or resist out of fear for her safety, the report says.
Budrow told authorities he had been intoxicated from beer and marijuana, that he thought the girl was 17 and the encounter was consensual.
"He said if he did not confess, he could not live with himself, or run from the truth," the report says.
SEX OFFENDER: WOMAN ‘HAD TO DIE’
By Sarah Burge
The Press-Enterprise
October 26, 2010
A sex offense parolee who drove his dead girlfriend to the Lake Elsinore [California] sheriff's station last week admitted in a jailhouse interview Monday to strangling the woman.
Jason Richard Budrow, 30, a registered sex offender who lives in the unincorporated Good Hope area near Lake Elsinore, said he feared the 48-year-old woman was a police informant.
"She had to die," Budrow said.
Budrow is jailed on suspicion of murder at the Southwest Detention Center in French Valley.
Resting his heavily tattooed arms on the counter in front of him and gazing through the glass divider into the visitors' room, Budrow spoke calmly as he described how he killed the woman.
She came over to his trailer behind a liquor store off Highway 74, he said. The woman, with whom he said he had a sexual relationship, got scared after realizing that he had "discovered her." She was on her way to her car when he strangled her about 2 or 3 a.m. last Friday, Budrow said.
"I desecrated her body," he said, declining to elaborate.
Budrow said he shoved her body into the trunk of her white Chrysler Sebring convertible, then napped until his "curfew" -- an apparent reference to a parole requirement -- expired at 5 a.m.
Budrow said he drove away in the Sebring and at some point cut off the GPS-monitoring ankle bracelet that he must wear as a registered sex offender on parole.
"I murdered her while I was wearing that bracelet," he said.
Budrow declined to say what else he did in the hours before he arrived at the sheriff's station. If he had access to a gun, he said, he would have killed several other people. He did not explain why.
After pulling into the station parking lot and flagging someone down about 7:25 a.m., Budrow said he knelt on the pavement and put his hands in the air.
"I told them I had a body in my trunk," he said.
At first, he said, sheriff's officials were incredulous and asked if he was "playing games." He said they thought the trunk might have been booby trapped.
Budrow said he believed undercover law enforcement officers had been watching his every move and that he turned himself in because he was convinced they would eventually catch him.
The woman, Budrow said, knew he was involved in drug dealing and pimping and he thought she was going to reveal the names of "important people."
Sheriff's officials have said Budrow showed up at the sheriff's station and told a sergeant there was a body in the trunk. They declined to comment Monday on Budrow's statements.
Coroner's officials have not released the woman's name. Sheriff's officials said only that she was dating Budrow.
Until Friday, sheriff's officials said Budrow had complied with his registration requirements. He had been checking in at the Lake Elsinore station since June 2006.
Riverside County court records show Budrow pleaded guilty in 2004 to sexual penetration by force and was sentenced to three years in prison.
A probation officer's report says Budrow was staying with his grandparents in 2003 at a property they managed in Lakeland Village, near Lake Elsinore. He slipped into the bedroom of a 14-year-old neighbor one night and performed sex acts on the girl, court records say. The girl said she told him to stop but did not yell or resist out of fear for her safety, the report says.
Budrow told authorities he had been intoxicated from beer and marijuana, that he thought the girl was 17 and the encounter was consensual.
"He said if he did not confess, he could not live with himself, or run from the truth," the report says.
ETIQUETTE-CHALLENGED BANK ROBBER
Cutting in line. How rude! Didn’t his mother teach him any better?
FBI NOW CRITICIZING BANK ROBBERS FOR RUDENESS
By Richard Connelly
Houston Press Hair Balls
October 28, 2010
We've had the local FBI criticize bank robbers for a lack of fashion sense; they've ripped robbers for being somewhat portly and sloppy, but now they're really appalled.
Now the bank robbers are being rude.
"At approximately 10:15 a.m. [Wednesday], the man entered the Fiesta store and walked to the Chase bank located inside. Rudely, he cut in front of several customers to confront a teller," the agency reports in its latest release.
Robber, please. Decorum dictates that one wait for others to be served before requesting unmarked $20s and $100s.
The robbery occurred at a Fiesta on the northeast side of town. The robber made some moves that implied he had a weapon, the FBI says, but no weapon was seen. Perhaps the robber would have thought it rude to show.
The etiquette-challenged suspect is described as a "black male, early 40's, approximately 5'6" to 5'7" tall with a muscular build and a dark complexion. He was clean shaven and wore a red and white striped polo shirt, jeans and a light blue North Carolina Tar Heels baseball cap."
So, criticizing dress style? Check. Physical fitness or lack of it? Check. Manners? Check.
We're not sure what's left to carp about. Penmanship on the demand note?
FBI NOW CRITICIZING BANK ROBBERS FOR RUDENESS
By Richard Connelly
Houston Press Hair Balls
October 28, 2010
We've had the local FBI criticize bank robbers for a lack of fashion sense; they've ripped robbers for being somewhat portly and sloppy, but now they're really appalled.
Now the bank robbers are being rude.
"At approximately 10:15 a.m. [Wednesday], the man entered the Fiesta store and walked to the Chase bank located inside. Rudely, he cut in front of several customers to confront a teller," the agency reports in its latest release.
Robber, please. Decorum dictates that one wait for others to be served before requesting unmarked $20s and $100s.
The robbery occurred at a Fiesta on the northeast side of town. The robber made some moves that implied he had a weapon, the FBI says, but no weapon was seen. Perhaps the robber would have thought it rude to show.
The etiquette-challenged suspect is described as a "black male, early 40's, approximately 5'6" to 5'7" tall with a muscular build and a dark complexion. He was clean shaven and wore a red and white striped polo shirt, jeans and a light blue North Carolina Tar Heels baseball cap."
So, criticizing dress style? Check. Physical fitness or lack of it? Check. Manners? Check.
We're not sure what's left to carp about. Penmanship on the demand note?
WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU'RE BORED
I don’t know which of the six ‘Saw’ movies the killer was watching as he dispatched his victim, but guess what? ‘Saw 3D’, the seventh in the series, is opening in theaters today.
‘HE EXHALED AND THEN I TIGHTENED THE WIRE’: KILLER TELLS COURT HOW HE GARROTED SLEEPING HONOR STUDENT BECAUSE ‘HE WAS BORED’
Mail Online
October 28, 2010
The killer of a university student told a Manhattan court how he waited for his victim to take a last breath before brutally garroting him.
Jeromie Cancel, 24, made the sickening confession to police in a video interview and said he carried out the murder while watching horror movie Saw 'because he was bored'.
The body of honor student Kevin Pravia, 19, was found in his Manhattan apartment with an electrical cord wrapped around his neck in August 2008.
In the video confession, Cancel told officers: 'He exhaled and then I tightened the wire. And then he couldn't get no more breath.'
Cancel had told police he was invited up to Pravia's apartment in West 15th Street to sell the student $300 of cocaine.
In statements he made in 2008, the killer boasted of switching to a one-handed grip on the cord after Pravia had stopped struggling - so he could smoke a cigarette with his other hand and watch the film on DVD.
During the police interview he described how he took the cable from behind the TV and tied a large overhand knot as his victim was sleeping.
He then demonstrated how he lifted the student's head before slipping the cord around his neck.
'I just put my knee on him and pulled. As soon as he lifted his head - like, "wow! What's going on?" - I punched him in the side of his face,' the New York Post reported.
When Pravia fell asleep, Cancel wanted to steal his laptop and other items, but then decided to kill him.Cancel, who pleaded not guilty, will go on trial later this week. His lawyers are expected to argue that he was overcome by 'extreme emotional disturbance'.
If successful, he would be convicted of manslaughter and jailed for up to 25 years. Murder is punishable in New York by up to life in prison.
‘HE EXHALED AND THEN I TIGHTENED THE WIRE’: KILLER TELLS COURT HOW HE GARROTED SLEEPING HONOR STUDENT BECAUSE ‘HE WAS BORED’
Mail Online
October 28, 2010
The killer of a university student told a Manhattan court how he waited for his victim to take a last breath before brutally garroting him.
Jeromie Cancel, 24, made the sickening confession to police in a video interview and said he carried out the murder while watching horror movie Saw 'because he was bored'.
The body of honor student Kevin Pravia, 19, was found in his Manhattan apartment with an electrical cord wrapped around his neck in August 2008.
In the video confession, Cancel told officers: 'He exhaled and then I tightened the wire. And then he couldn't get no more breath.'
Cancel had told police he was invited up to Pravia's apartment in West 15th Street to sell the student $300 of cocaine.
In statements he made in 2008, the killer boasted of switching to a one-handed grip on the cord after Pravia had stopped struggling - so he could smoke a cigarette with his other hand and watch the film on DVD.
During the police interview he described how he took the cable from behind the TV and tied a large overhand knot as his victim was sleeping.
He then demonstrated how he lifted the student's head before slipping the cord around his neck.
'I just put my knee on him and pulled. As soon as he lifted his head - like, "wow! What's going on?" - I punched him in the side of his face,' the New York Post reported.
When Pravia fell asleep, Cancel wanted to steal his laptop and other items, but then decided to kill him.Cancel, who pleaded not guilty, will go on trial later this week. His lawyers are expected to argue that he was overcome by 'extreme emotional disturbance'.
If successful, he would be convicted of manslaughter and jailed for up to 25 years. Murder is punishable in New York by up to life in prison.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
THE TEA PARTY: OY VEY
Bible-believing Christians are Israel’s most sincere and stalwart friends. The Israeli left-wing is a pro-Palestinian fifth column that will undermine Israel’s security. American and European liberals have proven to be enemies of the Jewish state.
AMERICA’S ‘TEA PARTY’ TO EXPAND TO ISRAEL
By Ryan Jones
Israel Today
October 27, 2010
The growing grassroots conservative movement in the US known as the "Tea Party" is set to expand to Israel this coming Sunday.
The opening rally will be held at the Zionist Organization of America House in Tel Aviv under the banner of "Say No to Obama."
Israeli organizers behind the event said the Israeli branch of the Tea Party will be just as patriotic and provocatively conservative as its American counterparts. The first order of business for the new branch will be combatting US President Barack Obama’s efforts to reinstate a Jewish building freeze in Judea and Samaria.
Organizers noted that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under a tremendous amount of pressure from Obama and the American liberal elite, and so they want to counter that with pressure of their own.
The Tel Aviv Tea Party rally is expected to be attended by several high-ranking members of Netanyahu’s own Likud Party.
There was concern months ago that the Tea Party’s deep Christian connections would keep most conservative Jews from joining or backing the movement. But the launch of an Israel branch has clearly proved that fear unfounded. Most conservative Jews have realized, or are starting to realize, that Bible-believing Christians are their most sincere and stalwart friends.
AMERICA’S ‘TEA PARTY’ TO EXPAND TO ISRAEL
By Ryan Jones
Israel Today
October 27, 2010
The growing grassroots conservative movement in the US known as the "Tea Party" is set to expand to Israel this coming Sunday.
The opening rally will be held at the Zionist Organization of America House in Tel Aviv under the banner of "Say No to Obama."
Israeli organizers behind the event said the Israeli branch of the Tea Party will be just as patriotic and provocatively conservative as its American counterparts. The first order of business for the new branch will be combatting US President Barack Obama’s efforts to reinstate a Jewish building freeze in Judea and Samaria.
Organizers noted that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under a tremendous amount of pressure from Obama and the American liberal elite, and so they want to counter that with pressure of their own.
The Tel Aviv Tea Party rally is expected to be attended by several high-ranking members of Netanyahu’s own Likud Party.
There was concern months ago that the Tea Party’s deep Christian connections would keep most conservative Jews from joining or backing the movement. But the launch of an Israel branch has clearly proved that fear unfounded. Most conservative Jews have realized, or are starting to realize, that Bible-believing Christians are their most sincere and stalwart friends.
11TH HOUR APPEAL: NICE TRY AND GOOD RIDDANCE
After 20 years of endless appeals this scumbag was finally topped. His 11th hour appeal that one of the lethal injection drugs might not be safe – that’s a laugher – was turned down by a 5-4 vote of the Supreme Court. If Obama gets to appoint just one more justice the 5-4 conservative-liberal makeup of the court will shift to the liberals and we can probably kiss any further executions goodbye.
It is ironic that Arizona obtained its sodium thiopental from Britain which outlawed the death penalty in 1964.
ARISONA EXECUTES DEATH ROW INMATE AFTER BRITISH COMPANY SUPPLIES LETHAL INJECTION CHEMICAL
By Wil Longbottom
Mail Online
October 27, 2010
Arizona has executed a death row inmate after an unnamed British company supplied one of the chemicals used in lethal injections, it has been revealed.
Jeffrey Landrigan, 50, who was convicted of the murder of Chester Dean Dyer in 1989, had been granted a stay of execution over concerns about the legality of the substances used to kill him.
His lawyers had argued that the drug - sodium thiopental - might not meet U.S. standards and his planned execution violated his constitutional rights to be free from cruel and unusual punishment.
But it was cleared to proceed after Supreme Court justices voted 5-4 in favor of overturning the federal judge's order postponing the execution.
Arizona officials said the sodium thiopental came from Britain, the first time a state has acknowledged obtaining the drug from outside the US since the shortage began slowing executions in the spring.
The sentence was carried out at 6.26am this morning.
In 1989, Landrigan escaped from an Oklahoma prison where he was serving time for second-degree murder.
He was convicted of strangling Chester Dyer in Arizona a year later during an armed burglary and was sentenced to death.
Judge Roslyn Silver blocked the execution 18 hours before it was due to take place after concluding that the state had not provided his legal team with enough information on the safety and legality of substances that would be used to kill him.
But the Supreme Court ruling overrides the lower court order, saying 'there is no evidence in the record to suggest that the drug obtained from a foreign source is unsafe'.
It added: 'There was no showing that the drug was unlawfully obtained, nor was there an offer of proof to that effect.'
The state of Arizona had turned to getting supplies of sodium thiopental - which renders inmates unconscious - from abroad, due to the nationwide shortage of the drug in the U.S.
Chief Deputy Attorney General Tim Nelson said: 'This drug came from a reputable place. There's all sorts of wild speculation that it came from a third-world country, and that's not accurate.'
Hospira Inc. of Lake Forest, Illinois, the sole U.S. manufacturer of the drug, has blamed the shortage on unspecified problems with its raw-material suppliers and said new batches will not be available until January at the earliest.
There are no FDA-approved overseas manufacturers of the drug.
The limited supply has also directly affected executions in California, Kentucky and Oklahoma, and may affect executions in Missouri, which says its supply of sodium thiopental expires in January.
Sodium thiopental is the first of a sequence of three drugs administered in lethal injections that paralyse breathing and stop the heart.
Landrigan was the 24th person executed in Arizona since the state resumed capital punishment in 1992. There are currently 132 inmates on the state's death row.
It is ironic that Arizona obtained its sodium thiopental from Britain which outlawed the death penalty in 1964.
ARISONA EXECUTES DEATH ROW INMATE AFTER BRITISH COMPANY SUPPLIES LETHAL INJECTION CHEMICAL
By Wil Longbottom
Mail Online
October 27, 2010
Arizona has executed a death row inmate after an unnamed British company supplied one of the chemicals used in lethal injections, it has been revealed.
Jeffrey Landrigan, 50, who was convicted of the murder of Chester Dean Dyer in 1989, had been granted a stay of execution over concerns about the legality of the substances used to kill him.
His lawyers had argued that the drug - sodium thiopental - might not meet U.S. standards and his planned execution violated his constitutional rights to be free from cruel and unusual punishment.
But it was cleared to proceed after Supreme Court justices voted 5-4 in favor of overturning the federal judge's order postponing the execution.
Arizona officials said the sodium thiopental came from Britain, the first time a state has acknowledged obtaining the drug from outside the US since the shortage began slowing executions in the spring.
The sentence was carried out at 6.26am this morning.
In 1989, Landrigan escaped from an Oklahoma prison where he was serving time for second-degree murder.
He was convicted of strangling Chester Dyer in Arizona a year later during an armed burglary and was sentenced to death.
Judge Roslyn Silver blocked the execution 18 hours before it was due to take place after concluding that the state had not provided his legal team with enough information on the safety and legality of substances that would be used to kill him.
But the Supreme Court ruling overrides the lower court order, saying 'there is no evidence in the record to suggest that the drug obtained from a foreign source is unsafe'.
It added: 'There was no showing that the drug was unlawfully obtained, nor was there an offer of proof to that effect.'
The state of Arizona had turned to getting supplies of sodium thiopental - which renders inmates unconscious - from abroad, due to the nationwide shortage of the drug in the U.S.
Chief Deputy Attorney General Tim Nelson said: 'This drug came from a reputable place. There's all sorts of wild speculation that it came from a third-world country, and that's not accurate.'
Hospira Inc. of Lake Forest, Illinois, the sole U.S. manufacturer of the drug, has blamed the shortage on unspecified problems with its raw-material suppliers and said new batches will not be available until January at the earliest.
There are no FDA-approved overseas manufacturers of the drug.
The limited supply has also directly affected executions in California, Kentucky and Oklahoma, and may affect executions in Missouri, which says its supply of sodium thiopental expires in January.
Sodium thiopental is the first of a sequence of three drugs administered in lethal injections that paralyse breathing and stop the heart.
Landrigan was the 24th person executed in Arizona since the state resumed capital punishment in 1992. There are currently 132 inmates on the state's death row.
PERKS OF THE JOB: TWO OUT OF THREE AIN'T BAD
Two out of three ain’t bad? That would be drinking and having sex!
DIANE BURNETTE’S JOB INCLUDED DRINKING, SMOKING WEED AND HAVING SEX, AND SHE’S SUING OVER IT
By Richard Connelly
Houston Press Hair Balls
October 26, 2010
Act now before this gets on Monster.com -- there's apparently a job out there that involves getting high, getting drunk and screwing.
That's if you believe the allegations of one Diane Burnett, and she's filed a suit, so there's at least a chance it's true.
Burnett said her boss at Mainland Tool -- there's got to be some punny reference there -- "forced [her] to drink alcoholic beverages, smoke marijuana and have a sexual relationship with [him]," according to the Southeast Texas Record.
Two out of three ain't bad?
No, no and no.
It would be very wrong to be forced to drink and get high to keep your job as office administrator, although knowing what we do of office-administrator jobs, it certainly would make the days pass quicker.
Burnett also alleges she was a whistleblower who was fired for reporting that the company was stealing from its customers; again, these are just allegations.
The suit was filed in Galveston County district court.
DIANE BURNETTE’S JOB INCLUDED DRINKING, SMOKING WEED AND HAVING SEX, AND SHE’S SUING OVER IT
By Richard Connelly
Houston Press Hair Balls
October 26, 2010
Act now before this gets on Monster.com -- there's apparently a job out there that involves getting high, getting drunk and screwing.
That's if you believe the allegations of one Diane Burnett, and she's filed a suit, so there's at least a chance it's true.
Burnett said her boss at Mainland Tool -- there's got to be some punny reference there -- "forced [her] to drink alcoholic beverages, smoke marijuana and have a sexual relationship with [him]," according to the Southeast Texas Record.
Two out of three ain't bad?
No, no and no.
It would be very wrong to be forced to drink and get high to keep your job as office administrator, although knowing what we do of office-administrator jobs, it certainly would make the days pass quicker.
Burnett also alleges she was a whistleblower who was fired for reporting that the company was stealing from its customers; again, these are just allegations.
The suit was filed in Galveston County district court.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
ONE VERY GOOD REASON
Do you need a good reason to vote the Democrats out of office? Well, here’s a very good one. In a desperate attempt to save his party's control of Congress, President Obama appeared on Al Sharpton’s radio show to plead for the vote of Sharpton’s followers in the coming election.
Sharpton, along with Jesse Jackson and their ilk, has been described as a RACIAL VULTURE. Sharpton had been an obscure black preacher until he gained national prominence by orchestrating the Tawana Brawley hoax. He is the fastest gun in the land whenever there is the slightest hint of racism by whites or the police against blacks, whether true or not. Sharpton is an out and out anti-Semite. In appearing on his radio show Obama was paying homage to a rabblerousing and race-baiting dangerous charlatan.
For being on Sharpton’s radio show, Obama has given us one very good reason to vote against Democrats. Please note that I said against Democrats, not for Republicans. Here are brief summaries of only three of many occasions when that racial vulture spewed his race-baiting venom with disastrous results:
On a Thanksgiving weekend in 1987, Tawana Brawley, a 15 year old black girl, was found curled up inside a garbage bag in a small Hudson Valley town. She was smeared with feces and the words "nigger," "KKK" and "bitch" were scrawled on her body. She claimed to have been abducted, beaten, and sexuallly assaulted for four days by six white law enforcement racists.
Needless to say, this case drew immediate world-wide media attention. Understandably, the black community throughout the United States was outraged. Sharpton and two black attorneys, Alton Maddox and Vernon Mason, assumed the mantle as Bawley's advisors. Sharpton orchestrated the whole sordid affair, thereby fanning the flames of black anger. Sharpton's role in this case made him an instant leader among black activists.
One cop and a prosecutor were identified as having participated in the abduction and sexual assault. So much abuse was heaped on the accused that it ruined the prosecutor's career and led the police officer to commit suicide. However, a lengthy grand jury investigation found all of the allegations to be a hoax. Subsequently, an in-depth investigation by six New York Times reporters also determined that the allegations were a hoax committed by Brawley to hide the fact from her mother that she had run off with a boyfriend.
The falsely accused prosecutor sued Sharpton, Maddox and Mason, winning a monetary judgement against all three. Maddox and Mason were eventually disbarred for unethical conduct. Sharpton has never apologized for his responsibility in the officer's suicide and in the porsecutor's ruined career. In fact, to this day Sharpton continues to insist that the Brawley scandal was not a hoax.
In 1991, Sharpton also helped fan the flames of black anger against Jews in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn. A Jewish driver in a police escorted procession, which was returning from a cemetary, collided with another vehicle at an intersection. His car veered onto the sidewalk where it struck two seven year old black children, one of whom died. Some bystanders charged that the driver was speeding and ran a red light. A private Jewish ambulance, which had arrived at the scene, was ordered by the police to take the Jewish driver away. The ambulance attendants were also ordered not to attend to the two injured black children because a city ambulance had already been summoned.
Blacks were outraged, feeling that a Jew had been afforded favorable treatment at the expense of the injured children. There had long been tensions between Jews and blacks in the Crown Heights neighborhood. Sharpton's rantings and ravings over the incident were instrumental in causing a riot which lasted for four days. The rallying cry of blacks was "Get the Jews" and a Jewish seminary student was stabbed to death. Because the rioting was mishandled by the police, Lee Brown, New York's black police commissioner, lost his job and David Dinkins, the city's first black mayor, was defeated by Rudy Giuliani in his bid for another term in office.
In 1995, a landlord in Harlem tried to evict one of his tenants, a black music store owner, in order to expand his adjoining business. Sharpton organized a demonstration against the landlord, denouncing him as a "white interloper." Sharpton's inflammatory race-baiting rhetoric provoked one of his followers to take a gun into Freddie's Fashion Mart and slaughter seven customers before committing suicide.
With Sharpton’s ugly history as a racial vulture, why does the media keep kowtowing down to this four-flushing phony? And how can the President of the United States disgrace himself by associating with someone who has such a dark history and who always has a race card up his sleeve?
Sharpton, along with Jesse Jackson and their ilk, has been described as a RACIAL VULTURE. Sharpton had been an obscure black preacher until he gained national prominence by orchestrating the Tawana Brawley hoax. He is the fastest gun in the land whenever there is the slightest hint of racism by whites or the police against blacks, whether true or not. Sharpton is an out and out anti-Semite. In appearing on his radio show Obama was paying homage to a rabblerousing and race-baiting dangerous charlatan.
For being on Sharpton’s radio show, Obama has given us one very good reason to vote against Democrats. Please note that I said against Democrats, not for Republicans. Here are brief summaries of only three of many occasions when that racial vulture spewed his race-baiting venom with disastrous results:
On a Thanksgiving weekend in 1987, Tawana Brawley, a 15 year old black girl, was found curled up inside a garbage bag in a small Hudson Valley town. She was smeared with feces and the words "nigger," "KKK" and "bitch" were scrawled on her body. She claimed to have been abducted, beaten, and sexuallly assaulted for four days by six white law enforcement racists.
Needless to say, this case drew immediate world-wide media attention. Understandably, the black community throughout the United States was outraged. Sharpton and two black attorneys, Alton Maddox and Vernon Mason, assumed the mantle as Bawley's advisors. Sharpton orchestrated the whole sordid affair, thereby fanning the flames of black anger. Sharpton's role in this case made him an instant leader among black activists.
One cop and a prosecutor were identified as having participated in the abduction and sexual assault. So much abuse was heaped on the accused that it ruined the prosecutor's career and led the police officer to commit suicide. However, a lengthy grand jury investigation found all of the allegations to be a hoax. Subsequently, an in-depth investigation by six New York Times reporters also determined that the allegations were a hoax committed by Brawley to hide the fact from her mother that she had run off with a boyfriend.
The falsely accused prosecutor sued Sharpton, Maddox and Mason, winning a monetary judgement against all three. Maddox and Mason were eventually disbarred for unethical conduct. Sharpton has never apologized for his responsibility in the officer's suicide and in the porsecutor's ruined career. In fact, to this day Sharpton continues to insist that the Brawley scandal was not a hoax.
In 1991, Sharpton also helped fan the flames of black anger against Jews in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn. A Jewish driver in a police escorted procession, which was returning from a cemetary, collided with another vehicle at an intersection. His car veered onto the sidewalk where it struck two seven year old black children, one of whom died. Some bystanders charged that the driver was speeding and ran a red light. A private Jewish ambulance, which had arrived at the scene, was ordered by the police to take the Jewish driver away. The ambulance attendants were also ordered not to attend to the two injured black children because a city ambulance had already been summoned.
Blacks were outraged, feeling that a Jew had been afforded favorable treatment at the expense of the injured children. There had long been tensions between Jews and blacks in the Crown Heights neighborhood. Sharpton's rantings and ravings over the incident were instrumental in causing a riot which lasted for four days. The rallying cry of blacks was "Get the Jews" and a Jewish seminary student was stabbed to death. Because the rioting was mishandled by the police, Lee Brown, New York's black police commissioner, lost his job and David Dinkins, the city's first black mayor, was defeated by Rudy Giuliani in his bid for another term in office.
In 1995, a landlord in Harlem tried to evict one of his tenants, a black music store owner, in order to expand his adjoining business. Sharpton organized a demonstration against the landlord, denouncing him as a "white interloper." Sharpton's inflammatory race-baiting rhetoric provoked one of his followers to take a gun into Freddie's Fashion Mart and slaughter seven customers before committing suicide.
With Sharpton’s ugly history as a racial vulture, why does the media keep kowtowing down to this four-flushing phony? And how can the President of the United States disgrace himself by associating with someone who has such a dark history and who always has a race card up his sleeve?
FIRING OF JUAN WILLIAMS BY NPR
Lee Lawrence is a former student of mine who has made me really proud. He is a SWAT team sergeant with the Houston Police Department. Lee is a long-time army paratrooper - and now a Green Beret - who recently served a tour of duty in Iraq. He is a true hero in every sense of the word.
Here are Lee’s thoughts on the recent firing of Juan Williams by NPR:
TRUTH: GOOD FOR THE GOOSE, BUT NOT GOOD FOR THE GANDER?
By H. Lee Lawrence
Fear is, with a few exceptions, largely a learned response. Although a few species exhibit fear from the moment of birth, an instinctive response bestowed upon them by a higher intelligence to ensure their survival in a predatory environment, most humans come to fear things based on experience – mostly bad experience. We learn that although we would like to think we are at the top of the food chain, we are not. If we are camping or hiking and encounter a bear, a reasonable person experiences a varying level of fear based on what they have learned about bears. We know that our childish notions of all bears being cute, cuddly and harmless are ill-conceived and foolish and truthfully, most bears are large, predatory and potentially dangerous, capable of inflicting serious bodily injury or death. Sane persons experience some level of fear and take appropriate action.
The firing of Juan Williams by NPR is disturbing on several levels. Not only did Mr. Williams exercise free speech, he also exercised free thought and, more importantly, spoke the truth. He was very candid and truthful about his thoughts and feelings – yes, thoughts and feelings. Those of us who generally believe ourselves to be sane are constantly criticized and sometimes, not unlike Juan Williams, even ostracized for not only speaking our minds, but for the very thought processes and feelings that spring from our minds based on our experiences. We are incessantly reminded that not only is our speech politically incorrect, but our very thought processes are wrong and unacceptable. Mr. Williams truthfully admitted that he experiences fear when he finds himself on a plane with Muslims. The left would have us believe that not only was it outrageous and indefensible to say such a horrible thing, but he and any of us who might also feel likewise under similar circumstances are dead wrong for feeling that way and maybe even mentally disturbed. Similarly, any of us who speak out against a mosque at Ground Zero because we feel it to be hurtful, insulting and inappropriate are also wrong, intolerant and clearly not engaging in sound, reasonable and sane thought.
It seems to me that truth, tolerance and free speech are only good for the goose, but not for the gander. The left can freely and openly rant on at us, admonishing us not only to be silent and not speak the truth about our thoughts and feelings, but insisting that we are fundamentally wrong for thinking the way we think or feeling the way we feel, blaming our fear, intolerance and warped thought processes on our own dysfunctional, even possibly pathological mental state. Sounds suspiciously like groupthink to me. More disturbing is that the real victims in this sad state of double standard intolerance are those priceless, splendid and uniquely American ideals of free speech, free thought and, most frightening of all - truth.
EDITOR’S NOTE: After Bob Walsh read this he wrote: It’s pretty obvious the problem was not what he [Williams] said, but where he said it. Fox is the anti-christ to liberals. Can't consort with the enemy or you will be destroyed. So much for open exchange of ideas.
Here are Lee’s thoughts on the recent firing of Juan Williams by NPR:
TRUTH: GOOD FOR THE GOOSE, BUT NOT GOOD FOR THE GANDER?
By H. Lee Lawrence
Fear is, with a few exceptions, largely a learned response. Although a few species exhibit fear from the moment of birth, an instinctive response bestowed upon them by a higher intelligence to ensure their survival in a predatory environment, most humans come to fear things based on experience – mostly bad experience. We learn that although we would like to think we are at the top of the food chain, we are not. If we are camping or hiking and encounter a bear, a reasonable person experiences a varying level of fear based on what they have learned about bears. We know that our childish notions of all bears being cute, cuddly and harmless are ill-conceived and foolish and truthfully, most bears are large, predatory and potentially dangerous, capable of inflicting serious bodily injury or death. Sane persons experience some level of fear and take appropriate action.
The firing of Juan Williams by NPR is disturbing on several levels. Not only did Mr. Williams exercise free speech, he also exercised free thought and, more importantly, spoke the truth. He was very candid and truthful about his thoughts and feelings – yes, thoughts and feelings. Those of us who generally believe ourselves to be sane are constantly criticized and sometimes, not unlike Juan Williams, even ostracized for not only speaking our minds, but for the very thought processes and feelings that spring from our minds based on our experiences. We are incessantly reminded that not only is our speech politically incorrect, but our very thought processes are wrong and unacceptable. Mr. Williams truthfully admitted that he experiences fear when he finds himself on a plane with Muslims. The left would have us believe that not only was it outrageous and indefensible to say such a horrible thing, but he and any of us who might also feel likewise under similar circumstances are dead wrong for feeling that way and maybe even mentally disturbed. Similarly, any of us who speak out against a mosque at Ground Zero because we feel it to be hurtful, insulting and inappropriate are also wrong, intolerant and clearly not engaging in sound, reasonable and sane thought.
It seems to me that truth, tolerance and free speech are only good for the goose, but not for the gander. The left can freely and openly rant on at us, admonishing us not only to be silent and not speak the truth about our thoughts and feelings, but insisting that we are fundamentally wrong for thinking the way we think or feeling the way we feel, blaming our fear, intolerance and warped thought processes on our own dysfunctional, even possibly pathological mental state. Sounds suspiciously like groupthink to me. More disturbing is that the real victims in this sad state of double standard intolerance are those priceless, splendid and uniquely American ideals of free speech, free thought and, most frightening of all - truth.
EDITOR’S NOTE: After Bob Walsh read this he wrote: It’s pretty obvious the problem was not what he [Williams] said, but where he said it. Fox is the anti-christ to liberals. Can't consort with the enemy or you will be destroyed. So much for open exchange of ideas.
HAVEN'T WE SEEN THIS BEFORE IN ONE OF THOSE VACATION MOVIE COMEDIES?
I love living in Houston, but why in the hell anyone would want to vacation in this city is beyond comprehension. After you’ve seen the rusting Astrodome and gone to the Space Center, there’s nothing worth seeing or doing within 50 miles. You’ve got to go to Galveston if you want to vacation in these here parts.
This woefully hilarious tale reminds me of one of those vacation movie comedies.
HOUSTON VACATION EVEN MORE HELLISH THAN EXPECTED, DETROIT COUPLE CLAIMS IN LAWSUIT
By Chris Vogel
Houston Press Hair Balls
October 26, 2010
Rude hotel workers, racist motorists and rotten cops.
For Russell Jarrett and his friend Helena Haggins of Detroit, a visit to Houston was the holiday from hell.
So much so, in fact, that the two are now suing their hotel, several HPD officers and the City of Houston in federal court.
According to Jarrett, 27, and Haggins, 22, the trouble started shortly after flying to Houston in April 2009 for a week of vacation and checking into a Marriott Courtyard hotel in northwest Houston just outside the 610 Loop. Jarrett used a debit card to pay for the room, knowing the hotel would immediately take out the entire amount owed plus place a hold on an additional amount to cover "incidentals." However, says Jarrett, the clerk overcharged Jarrett twice the total amount, plus additional charges for using the Internet.
When Jarrett complained, he says the clerk was rude but did agree to correct the charges. However, it would take nearly a week for the money to be placed back in Jarrett's debit account. Jarrett says he needed the money during his vacation and that Haggins asked the clerk to call the corporate offices to get the issue straightened out. In response, Jarrett claims, the clerk threw a book of matches at them.
Before retiring to their room for the night, Haggins says she told the clerk that she was going to complain.
The next day, Jarrett and Haggins rented a car, but they soon became lost just outside of Houston. That's when, according to the lawsuit, they ran into a truckload of racists.
"Before reentering the city limits," the lawsuit states, Jarrett and Haggins, both of whom are African-American, "were subjected to the racially motivated taunts and harassment, by a truck full of young white males."
Unnerved, Jarrett says he called the hotel asking if someone could direct him to the nearest police station, or if someone at the hotel could call the cops and tell them where Jarrett was located. The person working the desk allegedly told Jarrett that the hotel could not get involved. Jarrett then called the police and was told to meet up with officers at the hotel. After filling out a police report, Jarrett says he began to feel ill, so he and Haggins went to their room and watched TV until falling asleep.
The next morning, Jarrett and Haggins were awakened by the sound of fists pounding on their hotel room door. Wearing his boxers, Jarrett cracked the door open. It was the police, allegedly demanding that Jarrett and Haggins gather their belongings and leave at once. A hotel staff member was also there, supposedly telling the two vacationers they had been loud for two nights in a row, causing other customers to complain, that they had made and received "excessive" phone calls, and that they had threatened and harassed the hotel staff.
Jarrett and Haggins say all three accusations were completely untrue.
Jarrett says that when he asked for a few minutes of privacy to get dressed, the officers refused, repeatedly threatening to arrest them if they did not get out. That's when Jarrett says he called his dad, a lawyer in Detroit, to try to reason with the police.
At one point, according to the lawsuit, an officer began to "taunt and mock" Jarrett, saying, "Still need your Daddy to take care of your business - huh?" and "you go on back to Dee-troit and don't come back to Texas until you're a grown man."
In the end, claims Jarrett, he and Haggins were removed from the hotel, and "with limited cash on hand, improperly depleted funds available on debit cards, Jarrett's illness, and in an unfamiliar city, both [Jarrett and Haggins] experienced severe emotional distress and anxiety ...."
Much to the chagrin of the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau, we suspect the only way Jarrett and Haggins will be coming back to Houston is to collect a check if they win in court.
This woefully hilarious tale reminds me of one of those vacation movie comedies.
HOUSTON VACATION EVEN MORE HELLISH THAN EXPECTED, DETROIT COUPLE CLAIMS IN LAWSUIT
By Chris Vogel
Houston Press Hair Balls
October 26, 2010
Rude hotel workers, racist motorists and rotten cops.
For Russell Jarrett and his friend Helena Haggins of Detroit, a visit to Houston was the holiday from hell.
So much so, in fact, that the two are now suing their hotel, several HPD officers and the City of Houston in federal court.
According to Jarrett, 27, and Haggins, 22, the trouble started shortly after flying to Houston in April 2009 for a week of vacation and checking into a Marriott Courtyard hotel in northwest Houston just outside the 610 Loop. Jarrett used a debit card to pay for the room, knowing the hotel would immediately take out the entire amount owed plus place a hold on an additional amount to cover "incidentals." However, says Jarrett, the clerk overcharged Jarrett twice the total amount, plus additional charges for using the Internet.
When Jarrett complained, he says the clerk was rude but did agree to correct the charges. However, it would take nearly a week for the money to be placed back in Jarrett's debit account. Jarrett says he needed the money during his vacation and that Haggins asked the clerk to call the corporate offices to get the issue straightened out. In response, Jarrett claims, the clerk threw a book of matches at them.
Before retiring to their room for the night, Haggins says she told the clerk that she was going to complain.
The next day, Jarrett and Haggins rented a car, but they soon became lost just outside of Houston. That's when, according to the lawsuit, they ran into a truckload of racists.
"Before reentering the city limits," the lawsuit states, Jarrett and Haggins, both of whom are African-American, "were subjected to the racially motivated taunts and harassment, by a truck full of young white males."
Unnerved, Jarrett says he called the hotel asking if someone could direct him to the nearest police station, or if someone at the hotel could call the cops and tell them where Jarrett was located. The person working the desk allegedly told Jarrett that the hotel could not get involved. Jarrett then called the police and was told to meet up with officers at the hotel. After filling out a police report, Jarrett says he began to feel ill, so he and Haggins went to their room and watched TV until falling asleep.
The next morning, Jarrett and Haggins were awakened by the sound of fists pounding on their hotel room door. Wearing his boxers, Jarrett cracked the door open. It was the police, allegedly demanding that Jarrett and Haggins gather their belongings and leave at once. A hotel staff member was also there, supposedly telling the two vacationers they had been loud for two nights in a row, causing other customers to complain, that they had made and received "excessive" phone calls, and that they had threatened and harassed the hotel staff.
Jarrett and Haggins say all three accusations were completely untrue.
Jarrett says that when he asked for a few minutes of privacy to get dressed, the officers refused, repeatedly threatening to arrest them if they did not get out. That's when Jarrett says he called his dad, a lawyer in Detroit, to try to reason with the police.
At one point, according to the lawsuit, an officer began to "taunt and mock" Jarrett, saying, "Still need your Daddy to take care of your business - huh?" and "you go on back to Dee-troit and don't come back to Texas until you're a grown man."
In the end, claims Jarrett, he and Haggins were removed from the hotel, and "with limited cash on hand, improperly depleted funds available on debit cards, Jarrett's illness, and in an unfamiliar city, both [Jarrett and Haggins] experienced severe emotional distress and anxiety ...."
Much to the chagrin of the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau, we suspect the only way Jarrett and Haggins will be coming back to Houston is to collect a check if they win in court.
LOCO ON LOKO
It’s the Four Loko users that Obama has been wooing on college campuses and is counting on to help save the Democrats in next week’s election.
‘BLACKOUT IN A CAN’: CALLS FOR DANGEROUS ALCO-POP ‘FOUR LOKO’ TO BE BANNED AFTER NINE STUDENTS ARE HOSPITALIZED
Mail Online
October 26, 2010
A high-alcohol caffeinated drink nicknamed ‘blackout in a can' hospitalized nine underage university students in Washington earlier this month, a police investigation has found.
The undergraduates from Central Washington University were partying off campus when police found them passed out and ‘very intoxicated’, having drunk a controversial drink called Four Loko, among other spirits.
It was the second incident in October which has brought the drink to the attention of authorities following Ramapo College of New Jersey's campus ban after 17 students and six visitors fell ill.
Made up of caffeine, taurine, guarana, and alcohol, the drink is dangerous as it is both a stimulant and a depressant – when combined one does not necessarily feel the effects of the alcohol as the caffeine keeps one awake.
This often causes the consumer to drink more of the Four Loko, which is 12 per cent proof and produced by Phusion Projects LLC of Chicago, than they normally would because of the delayed 'drunk' feeling.
Originally some of the students thought that they had been drugged, but the latest findings convinced Central Washington University President James Gaudino to ban 'alcohol energy drinks' from his campus.
'We need to make sure that we're sending a strong message to students about the dangers of alcohol energy drinks and we need to know more about the way it affects health and behavior,' he said.
Professor Ken Briggs, head of the physical education department, added: '[The drinks are] a binge-drinker's dream because the caffeine and other stimulants allow a drinker to ingest larger volumes of alcohol without passing out.
'Being able to feel the effects of tiredness, loss of coordination and even passing out or vomiting are the body's defenses against consuming doses of alcohol that will kill you.
'Regardless, once the blood alcohol level reaches a certain level, you can drop like a box of rocks.'
Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna is calling for federal food regulators to ban the beverages.
He said: 'They're marketed to kids by using fruit flavors that mask the taste of alcohol and they have such high levels of stimulants that people have no idea how inebriated they really are.
'They're packaged just like non-alcoholic drinks, but include a dangerous dose of malt liquor.'
Phusion Projects told CNN that they are doing 'all we can to ensure that our products are consumed safely and responsibly'.
'The unacceptable incident at Central Washington University, which appears to have involved hard liquor, such as vodka and rum, beer, our products, and possibly illicit substances, is precisely why we go to great lengths to ensure our products are not sold to underage consumers and are not abused,' a company statement said.
‘BLACKOUT IN A CAN’: CALLS FOR DANGEROUS ALCO-POP ‘FOUR LOKO’ TO BE BANNED AFTER NINE STUDENTS ARE HOSPITALIZED
Mail Online
October 26, 2010
A high-alcohol caffeinated drink nicknamed ‘blackout in a can' hospitalized nine underage university students in Washington earlier this month, a police investigation has found.
The undergraduates from Central Washington University were partying off campus when police found them passed out and ‘very intoxicated’, having drunk a controversial drink called Four Loko, among other spirits.
It was the second incident in October which has brought the drink to the attention of authorities following Ramapo College of New Jersey's campus ban after 17 students and six visitors fell ill.
Made up of caffeine, taurine, guarana, and alcohol, the drink is dangerous as it is both a stimulant and a depressant – when combined one does not necessarily feel the effects of the alcohol as the caffeine keeps one awake.
This often causes the consumer to drink more of the Four Loko, which is 12 per cent proof and produced by Phusion Projects LLC of Chicago, than they normally would because of the delayed 'drunk' feeling.
Originally some of the students thought that they had been drugged, but the latest findings convinced Central Washington University President James Gaudino to ban 'alcohol energy drinks' from his campus.
'We need to make sure that we're sending a strong message to students about the dangers of alcohol energy drinks and we need to know more about the way it affects health and behavior,' he said.
Professor Ken Briggs, head of the physical education department, added: '[The drinks are] a binge-drinker's dream because the caffeine and other stimulants allow a drinker to ingest larger volumes of alcohol without passing out.
'Being able to feel the effects of tiredness, loss of coordination and even passing out or vomiting are the body's defenses against consuming doses of alcohol that will kill you.
'Regardless, once the blood alcohol level reaches a certain level, you can drop like a box of rocks.'
Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna is calling for federal food regulators to ban the beverages.
He said: 'They're marketed to kids by using fruit flavors that mask the taste of alcohol and they have such high levels of stimulants that people have no idea how inebriated they really are.
'They're packaged just like non-alcoholic drinks, but include a dangerous dose of malt liquor.'
Phusion Projects told CNN that they are doing 'all we can to ensure that our products are consumed safely and responsibly'.
'The unacceptable incident at Central Washington University, which appears to have involved hard liquor, such as vodka and rum, beer, our products, and possibly illicit substances, is precisely why we go to great lengths to ensure our products are not sold to underage consumers and are not abused,' a company statement said.
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