This turned out to be an expensive leak. As for the baggie of crack, that reminds me of the time I was in on a San Bernardino Sheriff Department’s drug bust in Riverside County where the dealer had a bag of meth tied to his weenie.
WRONG PLACE AND TIME TO TAKE A WIZ
By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections Blog
May 22, 2010
Darrel Curry was minding his own business, taking a leak in the side yard of somebody elses house when an Oakland cop shot him. It’s costing the city $40,000.
There is, of course, more to the story than that. Curry matched the description of a wanted parolee who was allegedly armed. Officer Valle of the Oakland PD approached him and saw him making a motion consistent with reaching for a gun in his waistband, which is where the parolee was believed to be carrying his gat. Somebody yelled, “He’s got a gun.” So the cop shot him.
The cop said that he saw Curry pull something shiny out of his clothing and throw it in the air. They didn’t find a gun, but did find a baggie with 72 individually packaged rocks of cocaine. Curry denies the drugs were his. He denies throwing anything. And, of course, like any “innocent victim” Curry sued for federal civil rights violations.
The city attorney is recommending the city pay the $40K.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
HOW LONG ARE THEY GOING TO KEEP ON PAMPERING THIS PIECE OF HOLLYWOOD TRASH? (2)
Lindsay Lohan missed a mandatory probation progress court hearing in Los Angeles on Thursday. Where was she? In Cannes, France, probably partying into the wee hours of the morning. Her first excuse for not showing up? Her flight was delayed by the Iceland volcano’s ash cloud. When that excuse didn’t fly – pun intended – she claimed that her passport had been stolen. What a crock!
Lohan has had a history of missing scheduled court appearances. This time the judge got pissed off. She ordered Lohan’s arrest. But it didn’t take her long to revoke the arrest warrant when Lohan’s liar – oops I mean lawyer – came up with the stolen passport crap and put up a $100,000 bond for the spoiled 23-year-old brat.
Here we have yet another example of the favoritism shown Hollywood celebrities. You can bet your last dollar that the judge would not have revoked an arrest warrant for an ordinary citizen who failed to show up for a mandated court appearance. Instead the judge gave Lohan a pass for spitting in the face of the justice system once again.
Lohan is on probation stemming from two arrests in 2007 and, as I understand it, the terms of her probation prohibit her from drinking to excess. Yet Lohan has been videotaped staggering drunk on numerous occasions while leaving parties in the early hours of the morning. There’s been no action taken by the court or the district attorney’s office in response to the obvious drunkenness seen on the videotapes..
More videos showing Lohan partying during the Cannes Film Festival have shown up together with a photograph, believed to have been taken on a yacht in Cannes, which shows her sitting by a table with a white powder, cut into several lines, right in front of Lolhan. You can take this to the bank – that powder was not flour or baking soda. When confronted with the photo, Lohan claimed she “was set up” and insisted that she didn’t know the powder was on the table. Yeah, right.
Lohan is simply nothing more than a piece of trash. She needs to be locked to show those other Hollywood luminaries who keep ‘lighting up’ while on probation that they’re not going to be treated any differently than an ordinary citizen would be treated under the same circumstances. But that’s too much to expect in a society that keeps worshipping its celebrities.
Lohan has had a history of missing scheduled court appearances. This time the judge got pissed off. She ordered Lohan’s arrest. But it didn’t take her long to revoke the arrest warrant when Lohan’s liar – oops I mean lawyer – came up with the stolen passport crap and put up a $100,000 bond for the spoiled 23-year-old brat.
Here we have yet another example of the favoritism shown Hollywood celebrities. You can bet your last dollar that the judge would not have revoked an arrest warrant for an ordinary citizen who failed to show up for a mandated court appearance. Instead the judge gave Lohan a pass for spitting in the face of the justice system once again.
Lohan is on probation stemming from two arrests in 2007 and, as I understand it, the terms of her probation prohibit her from drinking to excess. Yet Lohan has been videotaped staggering drunk on numerous occasions while leaving parties in the early hours of the morning. There’s been no action taken by the court or the district attorney’s office in response to the obvious drunkenness seen on the videotapes..
More videos showing Lohan partying during the Cannes Film Festival have shown up together with a photograph, believed to have been taken on a yacht in Cannes, which shows her sitting by a table with a white powder, cut into several lines, right in front of Lolhan. You can take this to the bank – that powder was not flour or baking soda. When confronted with the photo, Lohan claimed she “was set up” and insisted that she didn’t know the powder was on the table. Yeah, right.
Lohan is simply nothing more than a piece of trash. She needs to be locked to show those other Hollywood luminaries who keep ‘lighting up’ while on probation that they’re not going to be treated any differently than an ordinary citizen would be treated under the same circumstances. But that’s too much to expect in a society that keeps worshipping its celebrities.
SHE'D RATHER BE READING A BOOK
MOST MARRIED WOMEN WOULD RATHER GO TO SLEEP, READ A BOOK OR WATCH A FILM THAN HAVE SEX
By Daniel Bates
Mail Online
May 22, 2010
If you have ever turned to your husband and said 'not tonight, darling' then fear not - you are definitely not alone.
Most married women would rather go to sleep, read a book or watch a film than have sex, a survey has found.
Sixty-three per cent said they would choose hitting the pillow straight away, putting on the TV or a opening a book over sex.
However, it was not all bad news with 37 per cent saying there was 'nothing else' they would rather do than make love to their husband.
Experts have blamed the lack of enthusiasm in most women on laziness from both partners and an increasing amount of distractions in the modern world.
Relationships therapist Ian Kerner said: 'You may say you're happy with your sex life, but in the end, if night after night you're consistently picking a book, TV, Facebook, digital networking, any distraction that's out there over intimacy with your partner, in the long run, your relationship could become vulnerable to things like infidelity.
'So you have to put sex at the centre of your relationship.'
The survey by American motherhood website iVillage also found that over-familiarity may play a part. Of the 2,000 women surveyed, more than 80 per cent described their sex lives as predictable.
Some 67 per cent said that the position was too repetitive, whilst 56 per cent said the time of day it happened was the same every time.
An alarming 45 per cent could only say at best they were 'somewhat happy' with their sex life and 62 per cent said they fantasise about having sex with somebody who is not their husband.
A third of married couples have not tried anything new in a year or more and just over half will have sex even if they don't want to out of a sense of marital obligation.
Mr Kerner added: 'I think your sex life is sort of like going to the gym. You got to get back into the routine and it's a little hard at the beginning, but once you do it, it's like try it, you'll like it. You'll want to keep going to the gym.'
Liz Zack, editor of pregnancy and parenting at iVillage, said the key was to 'know your spouse. You certainly have to know your spouse.'
But she added: 'Who can't relate to that state, when sometimes you and your partner, your bio rhythms are just a little bit off, and sometimes you would rather finish your book than get to it.'
Mr Kerner said a lot of women fantasise during sex about someone other than who they are having sex with.
'Fantasy is a taboo and in the privacy of your own imagination "everything goes",' he said.
'If you have that trust you can say, "Hey, I'm thinking about Brad Pitt". It all depends on the relationship.'
By Daniel Bates
Mail Online
May 22, 2010
If you have ever turned to your husband and said 'not tonight, darling' then fear not - you are definitely not alone.
Most married women would rather go to sleep, read a book or watch a film than have sex, a survey has found.
Sixty-three per cent said they would choose hitting the pillow straight away, putting on the TV or a opening a book over sex.
However, it was not all bad news with 37 per cent saying there was 'nothing else' they would rather do than make love to their husband.
Experts have blamed the lack of enthusiasm in most women on laziness from both partners and an increasing amount of distractions in the modern world.
Relationships therapist Ian Kerner said: 'You may say you're happy with your sex life, but in the end, if night after night you're consistently picking a book, TV, Facebook, digital networking, any distraction that's out there over intimacy with your partner, in the long run, your relationship could become vulnerable to things like infidelity.
'So you have to put sex at the centre of your relationship.'
The survey by American motherhood website iVillage also found that over-familiarity may play a part. Of the 2,000 women surveyed, more than 80 per cent described their sex lives as predictable.
Some 67 per cent said that the position was too repetitive, whilst 56 per cent said the time of day it happened was the same every time.
An alarming 45 per cent could only say at best they were 'somewhat happy' with their sex life and 62 per cent said they fantasise about having sex with somebody who is not their husband.
A third of married couples have not tried anything new in a year or more and just over half will have sex even if they don't want to out of a sense of marital obligation.
Mr Kerner added: 'I think your sex life is sort of like going to the gym. You got to get back into the routine and it's a little hard at the beginning, but once you do it, it's like try it, you'll like it. You'll want to keep going to the gym.'
Liz Zack, editor of pregnancy and parenting at iVillage, said the key was to 'know your spouse. You certainly have to know your spouse.'
But she added: 'Who can't relate to that state, when sometimes you and your partner, your bio rhythms are just a little bit off, and sometimes you would rather finish your book than get to it.'
Mr Kerner said a lot of women fantasise during sex about someone other than who they are having sex with.
'Fantasy is a taboo and in the privacy of your own imagination "everything goes",' he said.
'If you have that trust you can say, "Hey, I'm thinking about Brad Pitt". It all depends on the relationship.'
Saturday, May 22, 2010
POT ADDLED BRAINS (2)
More proof that pot addles one’s brains.
STONER FOLLIES: ADAN TOCA, APPARENT CHEECH AND CHONG FAN, IS A STONER’S FAVORITE ICE CREAM MAN
By John Nova Lomax
Houston Press Hair Balls
May 21, 2010
Whoever said life imitates art was no liar.
What's funny is how often life in Texas can imitate "high" art - namely Cheech and Chong movies.
Take this tale, from Mission in the Rio Grande Valley...
This Tuesday, a 34-year-old man named Adan Toca -- who even appears to try to cultivate a Cheech and Chong-ish appearance -- ambled into a post office carrying two ten-pound packages. He was alleged to have appeared to be intoxicated, so he was questioned before he could mail his packages, which were eventually each found to contain ten pounds of weed.
Which is kind of amusing, but it's even funnier when you learn how this allegedly sozzled drug courier arrived at the Post Office.
In an ice cream van. No word on whether it was the same one the stoner comedians used in Nice Dreams.
Mission police Sgt. Jody Tittle speculated that Toca might have been using the van -- which had no freezer -- to avoid attracting police attention. In which case we can only say: mission accomplished, but too bad about that whole being so wasted the cops pull you aside in the post office thing.
Toca, who claimed in court to be a native of Zacatecas, Mexico, is currently jailed in the Hidalgo County Detention Center on a felony pot possession charge. His bail was set at $50,000.
STONER FOLLIES: ADAN TOCA, APPARENT CHEECH AND CHONG FAN, IS A STONER’S FAVORITE ICE CREAM MAN
By John Nova Lomax
Houston Press Hair Balls
May 21, 2010
Whoever said life imitates art was no liar.
What's funny is how often life in Texas can imitate "high" art - namely Cheech and Chong movies.
Take this tale, from Mission in the Rio Grande Valley...
This Tuesday, a 34-year-old man named Adan Toca -- who even appears to try to cultivate a Cheech and Chong-ish appearance -- ambled into a post office carrying two ten-pound packages. He was alleged to have appeared to be intoxicated, so he was questioned before he could mail his packages, which were eventually each found to contain ten pounds of weed.
Which is kind of amusing, but it's even funnier when you learn how this allegedly sozzled drug courier arrived at the Post Office.
In an ice cream van. No word on whether it was the same one the stoner comedians used in Nice Dreams.
Mission police Sgt. Jody Tittle speculated that Toca might have been using the van -- which had no freezer -- to avoid attracting police attention. In which case we can only say: mission accomplished, but too bad about that whole being so wasted the cops pull you aside in the post office thing.
Toca, who claimed in court to be a native of Zacatecas, Mexico, is currently jailed in the Hidalgo County Detention Center on a felony pot possession charge. His bail was set at $50,000.
MUST HAVE BEEN A SLOW DAY OF REPORTED CRIMES
POLICE LAUNCH ‘BEER WAR’
Beachgoers have their beers spilled by police enforcing new public drinking law
By Eli Senyor
Ynetnews.com
May 21, 2010
Several youngsters at Tel Aviv's Jerusalem Beach were in for a surprise Friday when riot police forces arrived at the site and ordered them to spill their beers, as part of an effort to enforce the new public drinking law.
The drinking of alcohol in public has been traditionally allowed in Israel, but growing violence attributed to drinking prompted lawmakers to change the legislation.
According to the new law, minors must not be carrying alcoholic drinks in public, while police are allowed to prevent adults from drinking in public according to circumstances. Under the law, a police officer may determine that alcohol not be consumed in at a certain site as not to disturb the peace.
On Friday, riot police at the beach spotted a group of 20-something beer drinkers. The police asked the beachgoers to put away their drinks, even though they were not disturbing the peace and although other people were also drinking at the site. Eyewitnesses said the group may have been approached because of members were tattooed and their hair was braided.
‘I WAS SURE IT’S A JOKE’
Tel Aviv District Police officials confirmed the incident took place.
"The police officers initially warned these beachgoers," the district's spokesperson's office. "However, after they ignored the police, officers spilled the drinks, based on their judgment that the drinking could lead to disruption of public order."
"For several weeks now, police have been trying to uphold the law, while taking into consideration the various situations where people enjoy themselves," the police added.
Noa, a 27-year-old Tel Avivi resident, witnessed the incident.
"These people had no idea what the police want from them," she said. "I was sure it's a joke, but the police kept on lecturing to them, until they spilled the bottles."
"While it was happening, we realized we'll be next in line, so we finished our bottles" she added, stressing that there were no disturbances to public order. "They indeed turned to us and asked us to spill our beer. We said we just finished it. I'm stunned."
Another group member said he was very angry at the police.
"There is a small crowd who engages in drunk driving, stabs outside of nightclubs, and rapes, so the police bug an entire population…I'm certain that the police officer who came up to us sits outside with his friends after work and drinks beer on a bench."
(Liorn Sinai contributed to the story)
Beachgoers have their beers spilled by police enforcing new public drinking law
By Eli Senyor
Ynetnews.com
May 21, 2010
Several youngsters at Tel Aviv's Jerusalem Beach were in for a surprise Friday when riot police forces arrived at the site and ordered them to spill their beers, as part of an effort to enforce the new public drinking law.
The drinking of alcohol in public has been traditionally allowed in Israel, but growing violence attributed to drinking prompted lawmakers to change the legislation.
According to the new law, minors must not be carrying alcoholic drinks in public, while police are allowed to prevent adults from drinking in public according to circumstances. Under the law, a police officer may determine that alcohol not be consumed in at a certain site as not to disturb the peace.
On Friday, riot police at the beach spotted a group of 20-something beer drinkers. The police asked the beachgoers to put away their drinks, even though they were not disturbing the peace and although other people were also drinking at the site. Eyewitnesses said the group may have been approached because of members were tattooed and their hair was braided.
‘I WAS SURE IT’S A JOKE’
Tel Aviv District Police officials confirmed the incident took place.
"The police officers initially warned these beachgoers," the district's spokesperson's office. "However, after they ignored the police, officers spilled the drinks, based on their judgment that the drinking could lead to disruption of public order."
"For several weeks now, police have been trying to uphold the law, while taking into consideration the various situations where people enjoy themselves," the police added.
Noa, a 27-year-old Tel Avivi resident, witnessed the incident.
"These people had no idea what the police want from them," she said. "I was sure it's a joke, but the police kept on lecturing to them, until they spilled the bottles."
"While it was happening, we realized we'll be next in line, so we finished our bottles" she added, stressing that there were no disturbances to public order. "They indeed turned to us and asked us to spill our beer. We said we just finished it. I'm stunned."
Another group member said he was very angry at the police.
"There is a small crowd who engages in drunk driving, stabs outside of nightclubs, and rapes, so the police bug an entire population…I'm certain that the police officer who came up to us sits outside with his friends after work and drinks beer on a bench."
(Liorn Sinai contributed to the story)
COP KILLERS GIVEN THEIR JUST DESERVES
A severe tragedy ended in triumph with the deaths of two cop killers, Jerry Kane Jr., 45, and his son Joseph Kane, believed to be 16. Justice has been served and society has been spared the expense of a long trial and endless appeals for these two worthless pieces of shit!
While police work has been described as 95 percent utter boredom and five percent sheer terror, here is yet another example of how that terror can strike at any moment.
KILLING OF 2 ARK. OFFICERS LEADS TO SHOOTOUT IN WALMART PARKING LOT
Officers killed by AK-47s during traffic stop; suspects die in separate shootout in crowded lot
By Chuck Bartels
Associated Press
May 20, 2010
WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. — Two men armed with AK-47s ambushed and killed two officers who had stopped them on an Arkansas interstate, then died in a shootout with police who had tracked them to a Walmart parking lot, authorities say.
Sgt. Brandon Paudert, 39, and Bill Evans, 38, were killed Thursday while "running drug interdiction" on Interstate 40 in east Arkansas, West Memphis Police Inspector Bert Shelton said. The local sheriff and a deputy were shot and injured in the subsequent shootout, authorities said.
The events started when Evans stopped a minivan with Ohio plates, with Paudert arriving moments later as backup, Assistant Police Chief Mike Allen said. Two men got out of the van with the assault rifles and opened fire on the officers, Shelton said.
"In what was probably only a few minutes, Officer Evans was shoved to the ground and the men in the minivan started shooting at both officers," Allen said. Investigators believe the van then sped away, Allen said.
Paudert, the son of West Memphis' police chief, died at the scene and Evans died at a hospital, authorities said.
Authorities declined to say why Evans stopped the minivan or what was found inside.
Traffic stopped as authorities searched vehicles on I-40 looking for the suspects, who were spotted about 90 minutes later in the parking lot of a nearby Walmart, officials said.
Dozens of officers swarmed the vehicle after a wildlife officer rammed the minivan with his car, and both suspects were shot and killed, authorities said.
During that shootout, Crittenden County Sheriff Dick Busby was shot in the arm and his chief deputy, W.A. Wren, was shot in the abdomen, authorities said. Both were in serious condition Friday morning, a spokeswoman at the Regional Medical Center in Memphis said.
The two suspects haven't been identified. Arkansas State Police spokesman Bill Sadler declined to say whether investigators knew anything about the men, but said authorities don't believe others were involved in the shooting.
The shootout occurred not far from the Walmart, and Sadler said it was fortunate others weren't hurt.
"With this many people present, somebody was watching over them," Sadler said.
Johnna Long said she was inside the Walmart with her 14-year-old son when she hear some loud pops and people screaming. She said she had received a call a few minutes earlier about a police shooting, and made the connection.
"I couldn't see what was going on," Long said, adding that she and other shoppers were confused because no one knew if the shootings would move inside the store.
Stacy Gilchrist said the scene on I-40 was "chaos." She said she saw a police officer lying in the road when she pulled up.
"It was a disaster, cars were just going everywhere," Gilchrist told Memphis television station WMC.
Hours later at the Walmart, an unmarked, blue police car was parked near the white minivan. The car's doors were open, with blood on the bumper and the asphalt below and bullet holes in the windshield.
Outside the West Memphis Police Department station, officers went in and out, some hugging each other as they passed.
Shelton said the two slain officers were doing the "most dangerous job" in the department because they dealt with drug traffickers.
"They were both very friendly, outgoing, dependable people, and I was proud to call them friends," he said.
Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe said the killings were a reminder of the risks police face.
"I have reached out to express my condolences to the entire West Memphis Police Department, including Sergeant Paudert's father, Chief Bob Paudert," Beebe said in a statement. "This is a loss shared by all Arkansans."
While police work has been described as 95 percent utter boredom and five percent sheer terror, here is yet another example of how that terror can strike at any moment.
KILLING OF 2 ARK. OFFICERS LEADS TO SHOOTOUT IN WALMART PARKING LOT
Officers killed by AK-47s during traffic stop; suspects die in separate shootout in crowded lot
By Chuck Bartels
Associated Press
May 20, 2010
WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. — Two men armed with AK-47s ambushed and killed two officers who had stopped them on an Arkansas interstate, then died in a shootout with police who had tracked them to a Walmart parking lot, authorities say.
Sgt. Brandon Paudert, 39, and Bill Evans, 38, were killed Thursday while "running drug interdiction" on Interstate 40 in east Arkansas, West Memphis Police Inspector Bert Shelton said. The local sheriff and a deputy were shot and injured in the subsequent shootout, authorities said.
The events started when Evans stopped a minivan with Ohio plates, with Paudert arriving moments later as backup, Assistant Police Chief Mike Allen said. Two men got out of the van with the assault rifles and opened fire on the officers, Shelton said.
"In what was probably only a few minutes, Officer Evans was shoved to the ground and the men in the minivan started shooting at both officers," Allen said. Investigators believe the van then sped away, Allen said.
Paudert, the son of West Memphis' police chief, died at the scene and Evans died at a hospital, authorities said.
Authorities declined to say why Evans stopped the minivan or what was found inside.
Traffic stopped as authorities searched vehicles on I-40 looking for the suspects, who were spotted about 90 minutes later in the parking lot of a nearby Walmart, officials said.
Dozens of officers swarmed the vehicle after a wildlife officer rammed the minivan with his car, and both suspects were shot and killed, authorities said.
During that shootout, Crittenden County Sheriff Dick Busby was shot in the arm and his chief deputy, W.A. Wren, was shot in the abdomen, authorities said. Both were in serious condition Friday morning, a spokeswoman at the Regional Medical Center in Memphis said.
The two suspects haven't been identified. Arkansas State Police spokesman Bill Sadler declined to say whether investigators knew anything about the men, but said authorities don't believe others were involved in the shooting.
The shootout occurred not far from the Walmart, and Sadler said it was fortunate others weren't hurt.
"With this many people present, somebody was watching over them," Sadler said.
Johnna Long said she was inside the Walmart with her 14-year-old son when she hear some loud pops and people screaming. She said she had received a call a few minutes earlier about a police shooting, and made the connection.
"I couldn't see what was going on," Long said, adding that she and other shoppers were confused because no one knew if the shootings would move inside the store.
Stacy Gilchrist said the scene on I-40 was "chaos." She said she saw a police officer lying in the road when she pulled up.
"It was a disaster, cars were just going everywhere," Gilchrist told Memphis television station WMC.
Hours later at the Walmart, an unmarked, blue police car was parked near the white minivan. The car's doors were open, with blood on the bumper and the asphalt below and bullet holes in the windshield.
Outside the West Memphis Police Department station, officers went in and out, some hugging each other as they passed.
Shelton said the two slain officers were doing the "most dangerous job" in the department because they dealt with drug traffickers.
"They were both very friendly, outgoing, dependable people, and I was proud to call them friends," he said.
Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe said the killings were a reminder of the risks police face.
"I have reached out to express my condolences to the entire West Memphis Police Department, including Sergeant Paudert's father, Chief Bob Paudert," Beebe said in a statement. "This is a loss shared by all Arkansans."
Friday, May 21, 2010
THE NERVE OF MEXICO'S PRESIDENT
Mexico’s biggest export to the United States is a steady flow of illegal aliens. Many of Mexico’s exported illegals pay no taxes, overload our hospitals at the expense of American taxpayers, are granted welfare benefits, and fill up the public schools of California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and other states. A significant number end up committing crimes and too many of our police officers have been killed by these illegal aliens. While they are a drain on federal, state and local government budgets, they do, however, send tons of money back to Mexico.
Mexico’s president Felipe Calderon has just made an official visit to the United States. He started his trip out by complaining to President Obama about Arizona’s new anti-illegal immigrant law. Then he went before Congress where he repeated his beef with Arizona. But he went further than that. He asked Congress to reinstate the assault weapons ban, in effect blaming the drug cartel killings in Mexico on our Second Amendment rights. Calderon maintained that if we would only restrict the availability of guns in the U.S., Mexico’s government officials and cops would no longer be gunned down by the cartels.
Calderon has some nerve meddling in the business of Arizona, a sovereign state trying to cope with an unbearable illegal immigration problem. Our president did not have the guts to tell him where to get off, choosing instead to agree with him. Congressional Democrats gave him a standing ovation when he condemned Arizona. And Calderon has some nerve asking us to give up some of our gun rights and blaming us for the killings of his government officials and cops, who are among the most corrupt in the world.
Here is how Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, responded to Calderon’s remarks before Congress: “It is inappropriate for President Calderon to lecture Americans on our state and federal laws. Moreover, the Second Amendment is not a subject open for diplomatic negotiation, with Mexico or any other nation.”
Calderon should clean up his own act. While he is to be commended for his efforts in fighting the drug cartels, Mexico’s drug lords would not be able to survive without the cooperation of crooked government officials, members of the Mexican military, and federal, state and local police officials.
This brings me back to the flow of illegal immigrants. Calderon told Congress the problem of migration of workers to the United States is also a problem for Mexico – losing its most dynamic and hardest-working people. WHAT A LIAR! While the illegals who are not committing crimes are truly hardworking people, they are far from ‘dynamic’ – for the most part they are UNSKILLED LABORERS!
Calderon will do absolutely nothing to stop or even to slow down the illegal border crossings. Why not? Because of the tremendous sums of money - $21 billion a year by some estimates - the illegals send back to Mexico. Until Mexico does something to keep its people on their own side of the border, why should we do anything to help Calderon with his problems?
Mexico’s president Felipe Calderon has just made an official visit to the United States. He started his trip out by complaining to President Obama about Arizona’s new anti-illegal immigrant law. Then he went before Congress where he repeated his beef with Arizona. But he went further than that. He asked Congress to reinstate the assault weapons ban, in effect blaming the drug cartel killings in Mexico on our Second Amendment rights. Calderon maintained that if we would only restrict the availability of guns in the U.S., Mexico’s government officials and cops would no longer be gunned down by the cartels.
Calderon has some nerve meddling in the business of Arizona, a sovereign state trying to cope with an unbearable illegal immigration problem. Our president did not have the guts to tell him where to get off, choosing instead to agree with him. Congressional Democrats gave him a standing ovation when he condemned Arizona. And Calderon has some nerve asking us to give up some of our gun rights and blaming us for the killings of his government officials and cops, who are among the most corrupt in the world.
Here is how Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, responded to Calderon’s remarks before Congress: “It is inappropriate for President Calderon to lecture Americans on our state and federal laws. Moreover, the Second Amendment is not a subject open for diplomatic negotiation, with Mexico or any other nation.”
Calderon should clean up his own act. While he is to be commended for his efforts in fighting the drug cartels, Mexico’s drug lords would not be able to survive without the cooperation of crooked government officials, members of the Mexican military, and federal, state and local police officials.
This brings me back to the flow of illegal immigrants. Calderon told Congress the problem of migration of workers to the United States is also a problem for Mexico – losing its most dynamic and hardest-working people. WHAT A LIAR! While the illegals who are not committing crimes are truly hardworking people, they are far from ‘dynamic’ – for the most part they are UNSKILLED LABORERS!
Calderon will do absolutely nothing to stop or even to slow down the illegal border crossings. Why not? Because of the tremendous sums of money - $21 billion a year by some estimates - the illegals send back to Mexico. Until Mexico does something to keep its people on their own side of the border, why should we do anything to help Calderon with his problems?
HERE IS A SIMPLE AIRPORT SCREENING SOLUTION
[Sent to me by Audrey, one of my former students and a good friend for many years.]
It’s so simple, the US will never adopt this airport screening solution.
This solution will end all the controversy over full-body scanners at the airports. Have a bomb-proof containment booth that you can step into that will not X-ray you, but will detonate any explosive device you may have on you.
It would be a win-win for everyone. There would be none of this crap about racial profiling or invasion of privacy and this method would eliminate a long and expensive trial. Justice would be certain and swift. Case closed!
This is so simple that it's brilliant. I can see it now...You're in the airport terminal and you hear a muffled explosion. Shortly thereafter an announcement comes over the public address system: "Attention standby passengers we now have a seat available on flight number....."
The only drawback I can think of is a slight delay for those waiting in line while security personnel clean up the mess left in the containment booth.
It’s so simple, the US will never adopt this airport screening solution.
This solution will end all the controversy over full-body scanners at the airports. Have a bomb-proof containment booth that you can step into that will not X-ray you, but will detonate any explosive device you may have on you.
It would be a win-win for everyone. There would be none of this crap about racial profiling or invasion of privacy and this method would eliminate a long and expensive trial. Justice would be certain and swift. Case closed!
This is so simple that it's brilliant. I can see it now...You're in the airport terminal and you hear a muffled explosion. Shortly thereafter an announcement comes over the public address system: "Attention standby passengers we now have a seat available on flight number....."
The only drawback I can think of is a slight delay for those waiting in line while security personnel clean up the mess left in the containment booth.
PROUD TO BE DAVID'S UNCLE
It goes without saying that I have been blessed with a really great son. I also have an outstanding nephew. My sister and her husband did a great job of raising two fine sons. I am real proud to be David Bernard’s uncle and I am very proud of all he has accomplished. David is the Chief Meteorologist for Miami’s CBS television station.
From CBS4: ABOUT DAVID BERNARD
David Bernard is CBS4 News' Chief Meteorologist and Storm Specialist. He is seen on CBS4 News Monday through Friday at 5, 6, and 11 PM. He is a Certified Broadcast Meteorologist (CBM), an accreditation awarded by the American Meteorological Society. The CBM requires successful completion of a very comprehensive examination on theoretical meteorology, operational meteorology, forecasting, and general science.
Bernard joined the CBS4 News Team in August 2005, arriving from WWL/Channel 4 in New Orleans, just six weeks before Hurricane Katrina hit South Florida and devastated his former home in Louisiana.
He is no stranger to hurricanes having forecasted in one of the most active hurricane zones in the country for a decade. Widely heralded by the local press, he was called "… the welcome calm in the eye of this storm" by the Times-Picayune following New Orleans' close brush with Hurricane Ivan in September 2004. The paper went on to say, "Build a better New Orleans TV weatherman and he'll look a lot like David Bernard did during Ivan."
He brought that same steady voice to South Florida during the extremely active 2005 hurricane season that featured Katrina, Rita and Wilma.
Prior to New Orleans, he held meteorologist positions at KJRH in Tulsa, Oklahoma; KVII, Amarillo, Texas and KZTV, Corpus Christi, Texas.
Bernard is a former member of the American Meteorological Society's Board of Broadcast Meteorology. In addition, he retains the Society's AMS Seal of Approval. He also has the professional broadcasting certification from the National Weather Association.
Bernard holds a degree in Broadcast Meteorology from Mississippi State University. He graduated from the University of Texas with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and a concentration in Climatology and Broadcast Journalism. He was born and raised in Houston, Texas.
EDITOR’S NOTE: For some outstanding storm information, visit David’s blog by clicking on the link below:
http://pod08.prospero.com/n/blogs/blog.aspx?webtag=wfor_dbernard
From CBS4: ABOUT DAVID BERNARD
David Bernard is CBS4 News' Chief Meteorologist and Storm Specialist. He is seen on CBS4 News Monday through Friday at 5, 6, and 11 PM. He is a Certified Broadcast Meteorologist (CBM), an accreditation awarded by the American Meteorological Society. The CBM requires successful completion of a very comprehensive examination on theoretical meteorology, operational meteorology, forecasting, and general science.
Bernard joined the CBS4 News Team in August 2005, arriving from WWL/Channel 4 in New Orleans, just six weeks before Hurricane Katrina hit South Florida and devastated his former home in Louisiana.
He is no stranger to hurricanes having forecasted in one of the most active hurricane zones in the country for a decade. Widely heralded by the local press, he was called "… the welcome calm in the eye of this storm" by the Times-Picayune following New Orleans' close brush with Hurricane Ivan in September 2004. The paper went on to say, "Build a better New Orleans TV weatherman and he'll look a lot like David Bernard did during Ivan."
He brought that same steady voice to South Florida during the extremely active 2005 hurricane season that featured Katrina, Rita and Wilma.
Prior to New Orleans, he held meteorologist positions at KJRH in Tulsa, Oklahoma; KVII, Amarillo, Texas and KZTV, Corpus Christi, Texas.
Bernard is a former member of the American Meteorological Society's Board of Broadcast Meteorology. In addition, he retains the Society's AMS Seal of Approval. He also has the professional broadcasting certification from the National Weather Association.
Bernard holds a degree in Broadcast Meteorology from Mississippi State University. He graduated from the University of Texas with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and a concentration in Climatology and Broadcast Journalism. He was born and raised in Houston, Texas.
EDITOR’S NOTE: For some outstanding storm information, visit David’s blog by clicking on the link below:
http://pod08.prospero.com/n/blogs/blog.aspx?webtag=wfor_dbernard
MAKING WHOOPEE OR NOT
Richard Connelly’s column “The Five Best Houston Sex Scandals, Such As They Are” in Houston Press Hair Balls gave me some chuckles and the one involving Anna Ncole Smith broke me up. Here is what he wrote:
ANNA NICOLE SMITH
Is it a sex scandal when not only there might not have been sex, but you hope to Christ there wasn't? It is in Houston.
Unless the thought of picturing some blonde bimbo trying desperately to at least semi-engorge the 90some-year-old penis of a wheelchair-bound billionaire appeals to you, you don't want to think of the sex angle [between] Anna Nicole Smith and oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall.
Let's just imagine it was an entirely platonic sort of love, or gold-digging, whatever the case may be.
ANNA NICOLE SMITH
Is it a sex scandal when not only there might not have been sex, but you hope to Christ there wasn't? It is in Houston.
Unless the thought of picturing some blonde bimbo trying desperately to at least semi-engorge the 90some-year-old penis of a wheelchair-bound billionaire appeals to you, you don't want to think of the sex angle [between] Anna Nicole Smith and oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall.
Let's just imagine it was an entirely platonic sort of love, or gold-digging, whatever the case may be.
WE WERE LED TO BELIEVE THAT OBAMA WAS GOING TO REPAIR THE DAMAGE BUSH HAD DONE
Let’s see. In 2008, Obama electioneered under the slogan of ‘Hope and Change.’ The presidential campaign was about undoing the accusations of damage done by Bush, both at home and abroad. The Democrats and the Europeans complained that George ‘Blame’ Bush’s go-it-alone Iraq policy had damaged if not destroyed America’s relationship with France, Germany and other European countries. Here are a couple of changes Obama has brought about:
While France and Germany may think better of Obama than Bush, that is not the case with our close allies, the Brits. Our special relationship with Britain appears to be dissolving. And while Bush had established a special relationship with Israel, Obma reached out to the Muslim world at Israel’s expense. Today the Israelis, our closest allies in the Middle East, loathe Obama almost as much as they despise their enemies in the Arab world.
Here is the Daily Mail’s report on the British disillusionment with Obama:
IS BRITAIN FALLING OUT OF LOVE WITH AMERICA? THEIR ‘SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP’ SEEMS TO BE GOING THROUGH A ROCKY PATCH
Mail Online
May 20, 2010
The love affair between Britain and the U.S. is going through a rocky patch, according to a survey.
The two countries have long shared a 'special relationship', but Britons feel the U.S. is not showing the UK enough respect, the poll reveals.
An overwhelming 85 per cent of those questioned believe Britain has little or no influence on U.S. policies, and 62 per cent think America does not consider British interests.
When asked which country shared the UK's values, Australia came top, followed by Canada and the U.S. in third.
Just one third thought America would come to Britain's aid first if we were attacked.
The 'special relationship' between Britain and the U.S. was forged in the shared values of two nations which united to destroy the Nazis and the Soviet threat during the Cold War.
Winston Churchill famously said of Franklin D. Roosevelt: 'I have wooed President Roosevelt as a man might woo a maid.'
The YouGov poll showed that almost three-quarters of British people think that relations with America have worsened since President Barack Obama took office.
While France and Germany may think better of Obama than Bush, that is not the case with our close allies, the Brits. Our special relationship with Britain appears to be dissolving. And while Bush had established a special relationship with Israel, Obma reached out to the Muslim world at Israel’s expense. Today the Israelis, our closest allies in the Middle East, loathe Obama almost as much as they despise their enemies in the Arab world.
Here is the Daily Mail’s report on the British disillusionment with Obama:
IS BRITAIN FALLING OUT OF LOVE WITH AMERICA? THEIR ‘SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP’ SEEMS TO BE GOING THROUGH A ROCKY PATCH
Mail Online
May 20, 2010
The love affair between Britain and the U.S. is going through a rocky patch, according to a survey.
The two countries have long shared a 'special relationship', but Britons feel the U.S. is not showing the UK enough respect, the poll reveals.
An overwhelming 85 per cent of those questioned believe Britain has little or no influence on U.S. policies, and 62 per cent think America does not consider British interests.
When asked which country shared the UK's values, Australia came top, followed by Canada and the U.S. in third.
Just one third thought America would come to Britain's aid first if we were attacked.
The 'special relationship' between Britain and the U.S. was forged in the shared values of two nations which united to destroy the Nazis and the Soviet threat during the Cold War.
Winston Churchill famously said of Franklin D. Roosevelt: 'I have wooed President Roosevelt as a man might woo a maid.'
The YouGov poll showed that almost three-quarters of British people think that relations with America have worsened since President Barack Obama took office.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
THE SHERIFF LIBERALS LOVE TO HATE
SHERIFF JOE IS AT IT AGAIN!
Many of you are familiar with Arizona's Sheriff Joe Arpaio because he painted the jail cells pink and made the inmates wear pink prison garb. Well.........there's MUCH more to know about Sheriff Joe!
Maricopa County was spending approx. $18 million dollars a year on stray animals, like cats and dogs. Sheriff Joe offered to take the department over, and the County Supervisors said okay.
The animal shelters are now all staffed and operated by prisoners. They feed and care for the strays. Every animal in his care is taken out and walked twice daily. He now has prisoners who are experts in animal nutrition and behavior. They give great classes for anyone who'd like to adopt an animal. He has literally taken stray dog s off the street, given them to the care of prisoners, and had them place in dog shows.
The best part? His budget for the entire [animal control] department is now under $3 million.
Animals adopted from the Maricopa County shelter have been neutered, are current on all shots, in great health, and will have a microchip inserted at the time of adoption. Total cost: $78.
The prisoners get the benefit of about $0.28 an hour for working, but most would work for free, just to be out of their cells for the day. Most of his budget is for utilities, building maintenance, etc. He pays the prisoners out of the fees collected for adopted animals.
His constituents have long wondered when the rest of the country would take a look at the way he runs the jail system and copy some of his ideas. He has a huge farm, donated to the county years ago, where inmates can work, and they grow most of their own fresh vegetables and food, doing all the work and harvesting by hand.
He has a pretty good sized hog farm, which provides meat and fertilizer. It fertilizes the Christmas tree nursery, where prisoners work, and you can buy a living Christmas tree for $6 - $8 for the holidays and plant it later. We have six trees in our yard from the prison.
And that is why Sheriff Joe keeps getting re-elected, the last time with 83 percent of the vote.
Now he's in trouble with the ACLU again. He painted all his buses and vehicles with a mural that has a special hotline phone number painted on it, where you can call and report suspected illegal aliens. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement wasn't doing enough in his eyes, so he had 40 deputies trained specifically for enforcing immigration laws, started up his hotline, and bought 4 new buses just for hauling folks back to the border. He's kind of a 'Git-R Dun' kind of Sheriff.
TO THOSE OF YOU NOT FAMILIAR WITH JOE ARPAIO..
He is the Sheriff of Maricopa County and he keeps getting elected over and over again. Here are some of the reasons why:
**He created the 'Tent City Jail.'
**He has jail meals down to 40 cents a serving and charges the inmates for them.
**He stopped smoking and porno magazines in the jails.
**Took away their weights.
**Cut off all but 'G' movies.
**He started chain gangs so the inmates could do free work on county and city projects.
**Then he started chain gangs for women so he wouldn't get sued for discrimination.
**He took away cable TV until he found out there was a federal court order that required cable TV for jails, so he hooked up the cable TV again.....BUT only let in the Disney channel and the Weather channel.
**When asked why the weather channel, he replied, "So they will know how hot it's
gonna be while they are working on my chain gangs."
**He cut off coffee since it has zero nutritional value.
**When the inmates complained, he told them, "This isn't The Ritz/Carlton......If you don't like it, don't come back."
Many of you are familiar with Arizona's Sheriff Joe Arpaio because he painted the jail cells pink and made the inmates wear pink prison garb. Well.........there's MUCH more to know about Sheriff Joe!
Maricopa County was spending approx. $18 million dollars a year on stray animals, like cats and dogs. Sheriff Joe offered to take the department over, and the County Supervisors said okay.
The animal shelters are now all staffed and operated by prisoners. They feed and care for the strays. Every animal in his care is taken out and walked twice daily. He now has prisoners who are experts in animal nutrition and behavior. They give great classes for anyone who'd like to adopt an animal. He has literally taken stray dog s off the street, given them to the care of prisoners, and had them place in dog shows.
The best part? His budget for the entire [animal control] department is now under $3 million.
Animals adopted from the Maricopa County shelter have been neutered, are current on all shots, in great health, and will have a microchip inserted at the time of adoption. Total cost: $78.
The prisoners get the benefit of about $0.28 an hour for working, but most would work for free, just to be out of their cells for the day. Most of his budget is for utilities, building maintenance, etc. He pays the prisoners out of the fees collected for adopted animals.
His constituents have long wondered when the rest of the country would take a look at the way he runs the jail system and copy some of his ideas. He has a huge farm, donated to the county years ago, where inmates can work, and they grow most of their own fresh vegetables and food, doing all the work and harvesting by hand.
He has a pretty good sized hog farm, which provides meat and fertilizer. It fertilizes the Christmas tree nursery, where prisoners work, and you can buy a living Christmas tree for $6 - $8 for the holidays and plant it later. We have six trees in our yard from the prison.
And that is why Sheriff Joe keeps getting re-elected, the last time with 83 percent of the vote.
Now he's in trouble with the ACLU again. He painted all his buses and vehicles with a mural that has a special hotline phone number painted on it, where you can call and report suspected illegal aliens. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement wasn't doing enough in his eyes, so he had 40 deputies trained specifically for enforcing immigration laws, started up his hotline, and bought 4 new buses just for hauling folks back to the border. He's kind of a 'Git-R Dun' kind of Sheriff.
TO THOSE OF YOU NOT FAMILIAR WITH JOE ARPAIO..
He is the Sheriff of Maricopa County and he keeps getting elected over and over again. Here are some of the reasons why:
**He created the 'Tent City Jail.'
**He has jail meals down to 40 cents a serving and charges the inmates for them.
**He stopped smoking and porno magazines in the jails.
**Took away their weights.
**Cut off all but 'G' movies.
**He started chain gangs so the inmates could do free work on county and city projects.
**Then he started chain gangs for women so he wouldn't get sued for discrimination.
**He took away cable TV until he found out there was a federal court order that required cable TV for jails, so he hooked up the cable TV again.....BUT only let in the Disney channel and the Weather channel.
**When asked why the weather channel, he replied, "So they will know how hot it's
gonna be while they are working on my chain gangs."
**He cut off coffee since it has zero nutritional value.
**When the inmates complained, he told them, "This isn't The Ritz/Carlton......If you don't like it, don't come back."
SCOTUS PLACES PUPLIC AT RISK
Thanks to the four liberal justices and Justice Kennedy, the Supreme Court has just given us another example of the court legislating law instead of interpreting the law.
Although there are only 129 juveniles serving life sentences in the U.S., with 77 of them in Florida, the court ruled that the states cannot sentence a juvenile to life in prison when he did not kill anyone. This case involved a Florida youth who, when he was 16 and 17-years-old, committed a string of beatings, armed robberies, home invasions, burglaries, probation violations and other crimes. While he may not have killed anyone, he was a murderer waiting to happen.
A lot has changed over the years since our juvenile laws were originally enacted. Children were deemed delinquents in need of supervision who were mischievous by shooting out windows or street lights with bb-guns, who were petty thieves and shoplifters, who hung around on the streets all hours of the night and who were truants or run-aways.
Many of today’s juveniles are vicious malicious gun-toting thugs who murder, rape, burglarize and commit armed robberies without regard to their victims. These juveniles are out-and-out dangerous criminals, not the wayward children or delinquent youths our juvenile laws were originally designed for.
The liberal justices and Kennedy did not have the good sense to recognize that some of our "juveniles" are not wayward children but simply incorrigible sociopaths who, for the sake of the public's welfare, should never again see the light of day outside the prison walls. By its ruling, SCOTUS has placed the public at risk.
COURT LIMITS HARSH TERMS FOR YOUTHS
By Joan Biskupic and Martha T. Moore
USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Monday that juveniles cannot be sentenced to life without parole for crimes other than murder, in a significant 5-4 decision that says imposing such sentences violates the Constitution's prohibition on "cruel and unusual" punishment.
The court's 5-4 decision — which says that an automatic life sentence for a young offender who has not committed murder violates the Constitution's ban on "cruel and unusual" punishment — wipes out laws in 37 states.
It means that the 129 juveniles now serving time under such laws will, at some point, have an opportunity to make a case for parole.
Most significantly, the decision — signed by the nine-member court's four more liberal justices and Anthony Kennedy, the conservative who votes with the liberals the most — emphasizes that young criminals are different from adults. And not just when it comes to the death penalty, which the court made off-limits for juveniles in 2005.
"A life without parole sentence improperly denies the juvenile offender a chance to demonstrate growth and maturity," Kennedy wrote for the majority in the decision that found life without parole disproportionally harsh.
The decision immediately generated debate over where the court would go in the future regarding juvenile rights, including the possibility that it could strike down life-without-parole for juvenile murderers.
Although there are only 129 juveniles serving life sentences in the U.S., with 77 of them in Florida, the court ruled that the states cannot sentence a juvenile to life in prison when he did not kill anyone. This case involved a Florida youth who, when he was 16 and 17-years-old, committed a string of beatings, armed robberies, home invasions, burglaries, probation violations and other crimes. While he may not have killed anyone, he was a murderer waiting to happen.
A lot has changed over the years since our juvenile laws were originally enacted. Children were deemed delinquents in need of supervision who were mischievous by shooting out windows or street lights with bb-guns, who were petty thieves and shoplifters, who hung around on the streets all hours of the night and who were truants or run-aways.
Many of today’s juveniles are vicious malicious gun-toting thugs who murder, rape, burglarize and commit armed robberies without regard to their victims. These juveniles are out-and-out dangerous criminals, not the wayward children or delinquent youths our juvenile laws were originally designed for.
The liberal justices and Kennedy did not have the good sense to recognize that some of our "juveniles" are not wayward children but simply incorrigible sociopaths who, for the sake of the public's welfare, should never again see the light of day outside the prison walls. By its ruling, SCOTUS has placed the public at risk.
COURT LIMITS HARSH TERMS FOR YOUTHS
By Joan Biskupic and Martha T. Moore
USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Monday that juveniles cannot be sentenced to life without parole for crimes other than murder, in a significant 5-4 decision that says imposing such sentences violates the Constitution's prohibition on "cruel and unusual" punishment.
The court's 5-4 decision — which says that an automatic life sentence for a young offender who has not committed murder violates the Constitution's ban on "cruel and unusual" punishment — wipes out laws in 37 states.
It means that the 129 juveniles now serving time under such laws will, at some point, have an opportunity to make a case for parole.
Most significantly, the decision — signed by the nine-member court's four more liberal justices and Anthony Kennedy, the conservative who votes with the liberals the most — emphasizes that young criminals are different from adults. And not just when it comes to the death penalty, which the court made off-limits for juveniles in 2005.
"A life without parole sentence improperly denies the juvenile offender a chance to demonstrate growth and maturity," Kennedy wrote for the majority in the decision that found life without parole disproportionally harsh.
The decision immediately generated debate over where the court would go in the future regarding juvenile rights, including the possibility that it could strike down life-without-parole for juvenile murderers.
POT ADDLED BRAINS
Who says that pot doesn’t addle your brains?
STONER FOLLIES: “DOROTHY PETITE BUD” FLUNKS GROWHOUSE 101; TWO MO CITY MEN LACK COP-HANDLING SKILLS
By John Nova Lomax
Houston Press Hair Balls
May 19, 2010
Those silly stoners are at it again, providing snarky bloggers with humorous true crime fodder.
Our first two cases take us down to Missouri City.
In the most recent incident, police pulled over 20-year-old Adam Hitchcock at around 3:40 p.m. on Monday afternoon for unspecified traffic violations. According to reports, the Mo City cop could smell burned marijuana coming from Hitchcock's ride. The cop asked Hitchcock if had been smoking, whereupon the young man is alleged to have responded "Not today, but I smoke it on a regular basis."
The cop asked him if there might be some in the car then anyway, and Hitchcock is alleged to have replied: "None that I know of, but there may be some small pieces on the floorboard."
Cops searched and found more than that -- there was a little bag of weed on the passenger side floorboard. Hitchcock was charged with Class B Misdemeanor pot possession.
Last Friday, another Mo Citian was having a wilder time of it...
Around midnight, police came upon an unnamed 30-year-old man staggering down McHard Road, a major street, reeking of booze and weed. The cop later said he appeared highly intoxicated and was a danger to himself.
After a search, he was found to have a little bag of pot in his possession and was taken to jail. While being booked, he asked the jailer for one kind favor: he wanted the desk cop to save him some of his weed for him to smoke after he got out.
"Needless to say, he did not and it was submitted into evidence," said Missouri City police captain John Bailey, in what we imagine are very Joe Friday-like tones.
As is so often the case, our last and best Cheech and Chong-style tale takes us deep in the forests of East Texas.
Last Thursday in the Newton County town of Deweyville, a 58-year-old woman with the gloriously appropriate name of Dorothy Petite Bud was busted for growing weed in her home, and not trying very hard to hide it: when police came by to investigate a tip, they found that Petite Bud had a pair of two-foot pot plants basking in the sun in her windowsill. Based on their own recognition of the plants, police easily got a warrant and raided her house, in which they found another bag of dried weed and some unspecified paraphernalia.
STONER FOLLIES: “DOROTHY PETITE BUD” FLUNKS GROWHOUSE 101; TWO MO CITY MEN LACK COP-HANDLING SKILLS
By John Nova Lomax
Houston Press Hair Balls
May 19, 2010
Those silly stoners are at it again, providing snarky bloggers with humorous true crime fodder.
Our first two cases take us down to Missouri City.
In the most recent incident, police pulled over 20-year-old Adam Hitchcock at around 3:40 p.m. on Monday afternoon for unspecified traffic violations. According to reports, the Mo City cop could smell burned marijuana coming from Hitchcock's ride. The cop asked Hitchcock if had been smoking, whereupon the young man is alleged to have responded "Not today, but I smoke it on a regular basis."
The cop asked him if there might be some in the car then anyway, and Hitchcock is alleged to have replied: "None that I know of, but there may be some small pieces on the floorboard."
Cops searched and found more than that -- there was a little bag of weed on the passenger side floorboard. Hitchcock was charged with Class B Misdemeanor pot possession.
Last Friday, another Mo Citian was having a wilder time of it...
Around midnight, police came upon an unnamed 30-year-old man staggering down McHard Road, a major street, reeking of booze and weed. The cop later said he appeared highly intoxicated and was a danger to himself.
After a search, he was found to have a little bag of pot in his possession and was taken to jail. While being booked, he asked the jailer for one kind favor: he wanted the desk cop to save him some of his weed for him to smoke after he got out.
"Needless to say, he did not and it was submitted into evidence," said Missouri City police captain John Bailey, in what we imagine are very Joe Friday-like tones.
As is so often the case, our last and best Cheech and Chong-style tale takes us deep in the forests of East Texas.
Last Thursday in the Newton County town of Deweyville, a 58-year-old woman with the gloriously appropriate name of Dorothy Petite Bud was busted for growing weed in her home, and not trying very hard to hide it: when police came by to investigate a tip, they found that Petite Bud had a pair of two-foot pot plants basking in the sun in her windowsill. Based on their own recognition of the plants, police easily got a warrant and raided her house, in which they found another bag of dried weed and some unspecified paraphernalia.
10 ANTI-ISRAEL LIES
SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTER: 2010 TOP TEN ANTI-ISRAEL LIES
Israel is under assault! Here’s what you need to know.
LIE #1
ISRAEL WAS CRETATED BY EUROPEAN GUILT OVER THE NAZI HOLCAUST. WHY SHOULD PALESTINIANS PAY THE PRICE?
Three thousand years before the Holocaust, before there was a Roman Empire, Israel’s kings and prophets walked the streets of Jerusalem. The whole world knows that Isaiah did not speak his prophesies from Portugal, nor Jeremiah his lamentations from France. Revered by its people, Jerusalem is mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures 600 times - but not once in the Koran. Throughout its 2,000-year exile there was continuous Jewish presence in the Holy Land, with the modern rebirth of Israel beginning in the 1800s. Reclamation of the largely vacant land by pioneering Zionists blossomed into a Jewish majority long before the onset of Nazism.
After the Holocaust, nearly 200,000 Shoah survivors found haven in the Jewish State, created by a two-thirds vote of the UN in 1947. Soon 800,000 Jews fleeing persecution in Arab countries arrived. In ensuing decades, Israel absorbed a million immigrants from the Soviet Union and thousands of Ethiopian Jews. Today, far from being a vestige of European guilt or colonialism, Israel is a diverse, cosmopolitan society, fulfilling the age-old dream of a people’s journey and ‘Return to Zion’- their ancient homeland.
LIE #2
HAD ISRAEL WITHDRAWN TO ITS JUNE 1967 BORDERS, PEACE WOULD HAVE COME LONG AGO.
Since 1967, Israel has repeatedly conceded, “land for peace.” Following Egyptian President Sadat’s historic 1977 visit to Jerusalem and the Camp David Peace Accords, Israel withdrew from the vast Sinai Peninsula and has been at peace with Egypt ever since.
In 1995, Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel but neither the Palestinians nor 21 other Arab states have done so. In 1993, Israel signed the Oslo Accords ceding administrative control of the West Bank to the Palestinian Authority(formerly the PLO). The PA never fulfilled its promise to end propaganda attacks and drop the Palestinian National Charter’s call for Israel’s destruction.
In 2000, Prime Minister Barak offered Yasser Arafat full sovereignty over 97% of the West Bank, a corridor to Gaza, and a capitol in the Arab section of Jerusalem. Arafat said NO. In 2008, PA President Abbas nixed virtually the same offer from Prime Minister Olmert. In 2005, Prime Minister Sharon unilaterally withdrew from Gaza. Taken over by terrorist Hamas, they turned dismantled Jewish communities into launching sites for suicide bombers and 8,000+ rockets into Israel proper. In 2010, Prime Minister Netanyahu renewed offers of unconditional negotiations leading to a Palestinian State, but Palestinians refused, demanding more unilateral Israeli concessions, including a total freeze of all Israeli construction in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
LIE #3
ISRAEL IS THE MAIN STUMBLING BLOCK TO ACHIEVING A TWO-STATE SOLUTION.
The Palestinians themselves are the only stumbling block to achieving a Two-State solution. With whom should Israel negotiate? With President Abbas, who, for four years, has been barred by Hamas from visiting 1.5 million constituents in Gaza? With his Palestinian Authority, which continues to glorify terrorists and preaches hate in its educational system and the media? With Hamas, whose Iranianbacked leaders deny the Holocaust and use fanatical Jihadist rhetoric to call for Israel’s destruction?
Today, it is a simple fact that while the State of Israel is prepared to recognize all Arab States, secular or Muslim, these states adamantly refuse to recognize Israel as a Jewish State and demand “the right of return” of five million so-called Palestinian “refugees” – a sure guarantee for Israel’s demise.
LIE #4
NUCLEAR ISRAEL, NOT IRAN, IS THE GREATEST THREAT TO PEACE AND STABILITY.
Though never acknowledged by Jerusalem, it is generally assumed that Israel has nuclear weapons. But unlike Pakistan, India, and North Korea, Israel never conducted nuclear tests. In 1973, when its very survival was imperiled by the surprise Egyptian-Syrian Yom Kippur attack, many assumed Israel would use nuclear weapons--but it did not. Contrary to public condemnations, many Arab leaders privately express relief that Israeli nuclear deterrence exists. While Israel has never threatened anyone, Tehran’s mullahs daily threaten to “wipe Israel from the map.” The U.S. and Europe can afford to wait to see what the Iranian regime does with its nuclear ambitions. But Israel cannot. She is on the front lines and remembers every day the price the Jewish people paid for not taking Hitler at his word. Israel is not prepared to sacrifice another six million Jews on the altar of the world’s indifference.
LIE #5
ISRAEL IS AN APARTHEID STATE DESERVING OF INTERNATIONAL BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT AND SANCTION CAMPAIGNS.
On both sides of the Atlantic, church groups, academics and unions are leading deceitful and often anti-Semitic boycott campaigns demonizing what they call the Jewish “apartheid” State.
The truth is that unlike apartheid South Africa, Israel is a democratic state. Its 20% Arab minority enjoys all the political, economic and religious rights and freedoms of citizenship, including electing members of their choice to the Knesset (Parliament). Israeli Arabs and Palestinians have standing before Israel’s Supreme Court. In contrast, no Jew may own property in Jordan, no Christian or Jew can visit Islam’s holiest sites in Saudi Arabia.
LIE #6
PLANS TO BUILD 1,600 MORE HOMES IN EAST JERUSALEM PROVE ISRAEL IS ‘JUDAIZING’ THE HOLY CITY.
Enemies of Israel, exploit this phony issue. Jerusalem is holy to three great faiths. Its diverse population includes a Jewish majority with Muslim and Christian minorities. Since 1967, for the first time in history, there is full freedom of religion for all faiths in Jerusalem. Muslim and Christian religious bodies administer their own holy sites. Indeed, the Waqf is allowed to control Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, even though it rests on Solomon’s temple and is holy to BOTH Jews and Muslims.
Meanwhile, Jerusalem’s municipality must meet the needs of a growing modern city. The unfortunately-timed announcement during U.S. Vice President Biden’s visit of 1600 new apartments in Ramat Shlomo, was not about Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, but for a long established, heavily populated Jewish neighborhood in Northern Jerusalem, where 250,000 Jews live (about the same population as Newark, N.J.) -- an area that will never be relinquished by Israel.
LIE #7
ISRAELI POLICIES ENDANGER U.S. TROOPS IN AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ.
The charge that Israel endangers U.S. troops in Iraq or the AF-Pak region is an update of the old “stab in the back” lie that Jews always betray their own friends, and the libel spouted by Henry Ford and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion that “Jews are the father of all wars.”
U.S. General Petraeus has stated he considers Israel a great strategic asset for the U.S. and that his earlier remarks linking the safety of U.S. troops in the region to an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal (which 2/3 of Israelis want) were taken out of context. A resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict would benefit everyone, including the U.S. But an imposed return to what Abba Eban called “1967 Auschwitz borders” would endanger Israel’s survival and ultimately be disastrous for American interests and credibility in the world.
LIE #8
ISRAELI POLICIES ARE THE CAUSE OF WORLDWIDE ANTI-SEMITISM.
From the Inquisition to the pogroms, to the 6,000,000 Jews murdered by the Nazis, history proves that Jew-hatred existed on a global scale before the creation of the State of Israel. In 2010, it would still exist even if Israel had never been created. For example, one poll indicates 40% of Europeans blame the recent global economic crisis on “Jews having too much economic power,” a canard that has nothing to do with Israel.
The unsettled Palestinian-Israeli dispute aggravates Muslim-Jewish tensions, but it is not the root cause. During World War II, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, a notorious Jew-hater, helped the Nazis organize the 13th SS Division, made up of Muslims. Unfortunately, in addition to respectful references to Jewish patriarchs and prophets, the Koran also contains virulent anti-Semitic stereotypes that are widely invoked by Islamist extremists, including Hezbollah (whose agents blew up the Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires in 1994), to justify murdering Jews worldwide. The disappearance of Israel would only further embolden violent Jew-haters everywhere.
LIE #9
ISRAEL, NOT HAMAS, IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE “HUMANITARIAN CATASTROPHY” IN GAZA. GOLDSTONE WAS RIGHT WHEN HE CHARGED THAT ISRAEL WAS GUILTY OF WAR CRIMES AGAINST CIVILIANS.
The Goldstone Report on Israel’s defensive war against Hamas-controlled Gaza, from which 8,000 rockets were fired after Israel’s unilateral withdrawal in 2005, is a biased product of the UN’s misnamed Human Rights Council. The UNHRC is obsessed with false anti-Israel resolutions. It refuses to address grievous human rights abuses in Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Cuba and beyond.
Faced with similar attacks, every UN member-state including the U.S. and Canada would surely have acted more aggressively than the IDF did in Gaza.
Yet, Richard Goldstone, a South African Jewish jurist, signed a document prepared by investigators whose main qualification was rabid anti-Israel bias. He accepted every anonymous libel against the IDF. But he insisted that hearings in Gaza be televised, guaranteeing that fearful Palestinians would never testify about Hamas’ use of civilians as human shields and their hiding of weapons in mosques and hospitals. Harvard Professor Alan Dershowitz denounced Goldstone’s Report as a modern “blood libel” accusing Israeli soldiers of crimes they never committed.
LIE #10
THE ONLY HOPE FOR PEACE IS A SINGLE, BI-NATIONAL STATE, ELIMINATING THE JEWISH STATE OF ISRAEL.
The One-State solution, promoted by academics, is a non-starter because it would eliminate the Jewish homeland. However, the current pressures on Israel are equally dangerous. In effect, the world is demanding that Israel, the size of New Jersey, shrink further by accepting a Three-State solution: a PA state on the West Bank and a Hamas terrorist state controlling 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza. All this, as Hezbollah, Iran’s proxy in Lebanon, stockpiles 50,000 rockets, threatening northern and central Israel’s main population centers.
In 2010, most Middle East experts believe that the only hope for enduring peace is two states with defined final borders. But too many diplomats, pundits, academics and church leaders ignore the fact that current polls show that while most Israelis favor a Two-State solution, most Palestinians continue to oppose it.
Israel is under assault! Here’s what you need to know.
LIE #1
ISRAEL WAS CRETATED BY EUROPEAN GUILT OVER THE NAZI HOLCAUST. WHY SHOULD PALESTINIANS PAY THE PRICE?
Three thousand years before the Holocaust, before there was a Roman Empire, Israel’s kings and prophets walked the streets of Jerusalem. The whole world knows that Isaiah did not speak his prophesies from Portugal, nor Jeremiah his lamentations from France. Revered by its people, Jerusalem is mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures 600 times - but not once in the Koran. Throughout its 2,000-year exile there was continuous Jewish presence in the Holy Land, with the modern rebirth of Israel beginning in the 1800s. Reclamation of the largely vacant land by pioneering Zionists blossomed into a Jewish majority long before the onset of Nazism.
After the Holocaust, nearly 200,000 Shoah survivors found haven in the Jewish State, created by a two-thirds vote of the UN in 1947. Soon 800,000 Jews fleeing persecution in Arab countries arrived. In ensuing decades, Israel absorbed a million immigrants from the Soviet Union and thousands of Ethiopian Jews. Today, far from being a vestige of European guilt or colonialism, Israel is a diverse, cosmopolitan society, fulfilling the age-old dream of a people’s journey and ‘Return to Zion’- their ancient homeland.
LIE #2
HAD ISRAEL WITHDRAWN TO ITS JUNE 1967 BORDERS, PEACE WOULD HAVE COME LONG AGO.
Since 1967, Israel has repeatedly conceded, “land for peace.” Following Egyptian President Sadat’s historic 1977 visit to Jerusalem and the Camp David Peace Accords, Israel withdrew from the vast Sinai Peninsula and has been at peace with Egypt ever since.
In 1995, Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel but neither the Palestinians nor 21 other Arab states have done so. In 1993, Israel signed the Oslo Accords ceding administrative control of the West Bank to the Palestinian Authority(formerly the PLO). The PA never fulfilled its promise to end propaganda attacks and drop the Palestinian National Charter’s call for Israel’s destruction.
In 2000, Prime Minister Barak offered Yasser Arafat full sovereignty over 97% of the West Bank, a corridor to Gaza, and a capitol in the Arab section of Jerusalem. Arafat said NO. In 2008, PA President Abbas nixed virtually the same offer from Prime Minister Olmert. In 2005, Prime Minister Sharon unilaterally withdrew from Gaza. Taken over by terrorist Hamas, they turned dismantled Jewish communities into launching sites for suicide bombers and 8,000+ rockets into Israel proper. In 2010, Prime Minister Netanyahu renewed offers of unconditional negotiations leading to a Palestinian State, but Palestinians refused, demanding more unilateral Israeli concessions, including a total freeze of all Israeli construction in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
LIE #3
ISRAEL IS THE MAIN STUMBLING BLOCK TO ACHIEVING A TWO-STATE SOLUTION.
The Palestinians themselves are the only stumbling block to achieving a Two-State solution. With whom should Israel negotiate? With President Abbas, who, for four years, has been barred by Hamas from visiting 1.5 million constituents in Gaza? With his Palestinian Authority, which continues to glorify terrorists and preaches hate in its educational system and the media? With Hamas, whose Iranianbacked leaders deny the Holocaust and use fanatical Jihadist rhetoric to call for Israel’s destruction?
Today, it is a simple fact that while the State of Israel is prepared to recognize all Arab States, secular or Muslim, these states adamantly refuse to recognize Israel as a Jewish State and demand “the right of return” of five million so-called Palestinian “refugees” – a sure guarantee for Israel’s demise.
LIE #4
NUCLEAR ISRAEL, NOT IRAN, IS THE GREATEST THREAT TO PEACE AND STABILITY.
Though never acknowledged by Jerusalem, it is generally assumed that Israel has nuclear weapons. But unlike Pakistan, India, and North Korea, Israel never conducted nuclear tests. In 1973, when its very survival was imperiled by the surprise Egyptian-Syrian Yom Kippur attack, many assumed Israel would use nuclear weapons--but it did not. Contrary to public condemnations, many Arab leaders privately express relief that Israeli nuclear deterrence exists. While Israel has never threatened anyone, Tehran’s mullahs daily threaten to “wipe Israel from the map.” The U.S. and Europe can afford to wait to see what the Iranian regime does with its nuclear ambitions. But Israel cannot. She is on the front lines and remembers every day the price the Jewish people paid for not taking Hitler at his word. Israel is not prepared to sacrifice another six million Jews on the altar of the world’s indifference.
LIE #5
ISRAEL IS AN APARTHEID STATE DESERVING OF INTERNATIONAL BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT AND SANCTION CAMPAIGNS.
On both sides of the Atlantic, church groups, academics and unions are leading deceitful and often anti-Semitic boycott campaigns demonizing what they call the Jewish “apartheid” State.
The truth is that unlike apartheid South Africa, Israel is a democratic state. Its 20% Arab minority enjoys all the political, economic and religious rights and freedoms of citizenship, including electing members of their choice to the Knesset (Parliament). Israeli Arabs and Palestinians have standing before Israel’s Supreme Court. In contrast, no Jew may own property in Jordan, no Christian or Jew can visit Islam’s holiest sites in Saudi Arabia.
LIE #6
PLANS TO BUILD 1,600 MORE HOMES IN EAST JERUSALEM PROVE ISRAEL IS ‘JUDAIZING’ THE HOLY CITY.
Enemies of Israel, exploit this phony issue. Jerusalem is holy to three great faiths. Its diverse population includes a Jewish majority with Muslim and Christian minorities. Since 1967, for the first time in history, there is full freedom of religion for all faiths in Jerusalem. Muslim and Christian religious bodies administer their own holy sites. Indeed, the Waqf is allowed to control Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, even though it rests on Solomon’s temple and is holy to BOTH Jews and Muslims.
Meanwhile, Jerusalem’s municipality must meet the needs of a growing modern city. The unfortunately-timed announcement during U.S. Vice President Biden’s visit of 1600 new apartments in Ramat Shlomo, was not about Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, but for a long established, heavily populated Jewish neighborhood in Northern Jerusalem, where 250,000 Jews live (about the same population as Newark, N.J.) -- an area that will never be relinquished by Israel.
LIE #7
ISRAELI POLICIES ENDANGER U.S. TROOPS IN AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ.
The charge that Israel endangers U.S. troops in Iraq or the AF-Pak region is an update of the old “stab in the back” lie that Jews always betray their own friends, and the libel spouted by Henry Ford and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion that “Jews are the father of all wars.”
U.S. General Petraeus has stated he considers Israel a great strategic asset for the U.S. and that his earlier remarks linking the safety of U.S. troops in the region to an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal (which 2/3 of Israelis want) were taken out of context. A resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict would benefit everyone, including the U.S. But an imposed return to what Abba Eban called “1967 Auschwitz borders” would endanger Israel’s survival and ultimately be disastrous for American interests and credibility in the world.
LIE #8
ISRAELI POLICIES ARE THE CAUSE OF WORLDWIDE ANTI-SEMITISM.
From the Inquisition to the pogroms, to the 6,000,000 Jews murdered by the Nazis, history proves that Jew-hatred existed on a global scale before the creation of the State of Israel. In 2010, it would still exist even if Israel had never been created. For example, one poll indicates 40% of Europeans blame the recent global economic crisis on “Jews having too much economic power,” a canard that has nothing to do with Israel.
The unsettled Palestinian-Israeli dispute aggravates Muslim-Jewish tensions, but it is not the root cause. During World War II, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, a notorious Jew-hater, helped the Nazis organize the 13th SS Division, made up of Muslims. Unfortunately, in addition to respectful references to Jewish patriarchs and prophets, the Koran also contains virulent anti-Semitic stereotypes that are widely invoked by Islamist extremists, including Hezbollah (whose agents blew up the Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires in 1994), to justify murdering Jews worldwide. The disappearance of Israel would only further embolden violent Jew-haters everywhere.
LIE #9
ISRAEL, NOT HAMAS, IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE “HUMANITARIAN CATASTROPHY” IN GAZA. GOLDSTONE WAS RIGHT WHEN HE CHARGED THAT ISRAEL WAS GUILTY OF WAR CRIMES AGAINST CIVILIANS.
The Goldstone Report on Israel’s defensive war against Hamas-controlled Gaza, from which 8,000 rockets were fired after Israel’s unilateral withdrawal in 2005, is a biased product of the UN’s misnamed Human Rights Council. The UNHRC is obsessed with false anti-Israel resolutions. It refuses to address grievous human rights abuses in Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Cuba and beyond.
Faced with similar attacks, every UN member-state including the U.S. and Canada would surely have acted more aggressively than the IDF did in Gaza.
Yet, Richard Goldstone, a South African Jewish jurist, signed a document prepared by investigators whose main qualification was rabid anti-Israel bias. He accepted every anonymous libel against the IDF. But he insisted that hearings in Gaza be televised, guaranteeing that fearful Palestinians would never testify about Hamas’ use of civilians as human shields and their hiding of weapons in mosques and hospitals. Harvard Professor Alan Dershowitz denounced Goldstone’s Report as a modern “blood libel” accusing Israeli soldiers of crimes they never committed.
LIE #10
THE ONLY HOPE FOR PEACE IS A SINGLE, BI-NATIONAL STATE, ELIMINATING THE JEWISH STATE OF ISRAEL.
The One-State solution, promoted by academics, is a non-starter because it would eliminate the Jewish homeland. However, the current pressures on Israel are equally dangerous. In effect, the world is demanding that Israel, the size of New Jersey, shrink further by accepting a Three-State solution: a PA state on the West Bank and a Hamas terrorist state controlling 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza. All this, as Hezbollah, Iran’s proxy in Lebanon, stockpiles 50,000 rockets, threatening northern and central Israel’s main population centers.
In 2010, most Middle East experts believe that the only hope for enduring peace is two states with defined final borders. But too many diplomats, pundits, academics and church leaders ignore the fact that current polls show that while most Israelis favor a Two-State solution, most Palestinians continue to oppose it.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
ALL FELONS RECEIVE LIFE SENTENCES
In the past I’ve written about the injustice of our sex offender registration laws that make it almost impossible for a sex offender to live anywhere within an urban area.
Harold Dutton is a very liberal member of the Texas House of Representatives and as such I often disagree with his views. But Rep. Dutton has is exactly right when he writes about the unjust problems ALL ex-convicts face the rest of their lives. And these problems are also faced by ex-cons in the other 49 states, not just in Texas.
EVERY FELON GETS A LIFE OF TROUBLE
By State Rep. Harold V. Dutton, Jr.
Houston Chronicle
May 17, 2010
In Texas, we give every felon a life sentence. Oh, I don't mean “we the jury.” It's more like “we the public.”
Take for example the recent experience of a really nice man who called my legislative office. All he wanted to do was to move his family into another apartment complex. In fact, his truck was loaded, he had notified his previous landlord, he had the utilities turned on at his new place, and he was ready to move in when he called me.
As he was leaving his old place with all of his belongings packed up for the short drive to the new apartment, his phone rang. The number on the cell phone indicated the call was from the manager at the new place. He didn't answer because he was already on the way over.
As the truck pulled up to the new place, the apartment manager came over and said, “I am so sorry, but we are not able to rent you this apartment.” Surprised, the man asked why. The apartment manager stated that the complex had a policy of absolutely never, ever renting to an ex-felon. You see, a background check indicated that the man had a felony conviction on his record.
This situation happens far too often these days. A person who has completed his felony sentence attempts to restart his life and no one will hire him and no one will rent him a place to live. In fact, this happens so often that if this was the end of this story, there simply would be no story.
The background check of this man showed he had a felony conviction in 1960, 50 years ago. And if that doesn't surprise you, this man was 80 years old and his wife, a recent cancer patient, was 65 years old.
I literally begged the owners of the apartment complex to add some common sense to their rule. “A rule is rule,” I was told, and “there are no exceptions.” I even suggested a change in the rule — exclude only those ex-felons who are at least 80 years old with a conviction at least 50 years old. Still, I was told, “A rule is a rule.” And no amount of common sense or anything else would change the apartment owner's mind and permit this family to move into this apartment complex.
Well, maybe some will agree with this rule. Not me. Too many people seem to accept this ill treatment of ex-felons who have served the sentence the jury rendered. But the public jury stacks a life sentence onto all ex-felons, and the ex-felon serves it till death.
Forget double jeopardy, that's just plain illogical. And wrong. A life sentence should come from the court jury, not from the public jury.
Harold Dutton is a very liberal member of the Texas House of Representatives and as such I often disagree with his views. But Rep. Dutton has is exactly right when he writes about the unjust problems ALL ex-convicts face the rest of their lives. And these problems are also faced by ex-cons in the other 49 states, not just in Texas.
EVERY FELON GETS A LIFE OF TROUBLE
By State Rep. Harold V. Dutton, Jr.
Houston Chronicle
May 17, 2010
In Texas, we give every felon a life sentence. Oh, I don't mean “we the jury.” It's more like “we the public.”
Take for example the recent experience of a really nice man who called my legislative office. All he wanted to do was to move his family into another apartment complex. In fact, his truck was loaded, he had notified his previous landlord, he had the utilities turned on at his new place, and he was ready to move in when he called me.
As he was leaving his old place with all of his belongings packed up for the short drive to the new apartment, his phone rang. The number on the cell phone indicated the call was from the manager at the new place. He didn't answer because he was already on the way over.
As the truck pulled up to the new place, the apartment manager came over and said, “I am so sorry, but we are not able to rent you this apartment.” Surprised, the man asked why. The apartment manager stated that the complex had a policy of absolutely never, ever renting to an ex-felon. You see, a background check indicated that the man had a felony conviction on his record.
This situation happens far too often these days. A person who has completed his felony sentence attempts to restart his life and no one will hire him and no one will rent him a place to live. In fact, this happens so often that if this was the end of this story, there simply would be no story.
The background check of this man showed he had a felony conviction in 1960, 50 years ago. And if that doesn't surprise you, this man was 80 years old and his wife, a recent cancer patient, was 65 years old.
I literally begged the owners of the apartment complex to add some common sense to their rule. “A rule is rule,” I was told, and “there are no exceptions.” I even suggested a change in the rule — exclude only those ex-felons who are at least 80 years old with a conviction at least 50 years old. Still, I was told, “A rule is a rule.” And no amount of common sense or anything else would change the apartment owner's mind and permit this family to move into this apartment complex.
Well, maybe some will agree with this rule. Not me. Too many people seem to accept this ill treatment of ex-felons who have served the sentence the jury rendered. But the public jury stacks a life sentence onto all ex-felons, and the ex-felon serves it till death.
Forget double jeopardy, that's just plain illogical. And wrong. A life sentence should come from the court jury, not from the public jury.
RAPE, RAPE (5)
Two pukes in a pod
Woody Allen has joined those petitioning the Swiss government not to extradite Roman Polanski, that puke of pukes, to the U.S. This comes as no surprise since Allen’s morals are at about the same low level as those of Polanski.
Here is Pete Vonder Haar’s witty take on the efforts to keep puke Polanski from being extradited:
WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE
By Pete Vonder Haar
Houston Press Hair Balls
May 18, 2010
Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski remains under house arrest in Switzerland, awaiting possible extradition to the United States for fleeing sentencing after pleading guilty to "unlawful sex" with a 13-year old in 1977. His attorneys are, naturally, fighting this possibility, while a number of his fellow directors are petitioning the Swiss government to refuse the state of California's extradition request:
Bertrand Tavernier, Mathieu Amalric and Jean-Luc Godard -- all of whom have films at this year's Cannes Film Festival ("La Princesse de Montpensier," "Tournee" and "Socalisme," respectively) -- are among those who have signed a petition asking the Swiss government to refuse an extradition request from California, just a few days after a California judge denied Polanski's request to unseal testimony in the 33-year-old case.
The group wrote that it was aiming for "a gesture of solidarity accompanied by an appeal to Swiss justice" and was "signed by film makers, and only film makers, who have in common that, like Godard, their works have been named as Official Selections of this year's Cannes Film Festival." It seeks, the petition said, to free Polanski from "the Kafkaesque isolation that has been his lot for the past seven months."
They join an already lengthy list of Hollywood glitterati who publicly called for Polanski's release shortly after he was arrested last September, signing another petition which was widely mocked for presenting the argument that critically acclaimed filmmakers should apparently be given a pass for criminal behavior, because global art would suffer, or something.
The teeth gnashing and accusations from both sides subsided recently, eclipsed by a series of events (the Gulf of Mexico spill, Iceland's Eyjafjallajokulltheconqueror volcano) more suited to an Irwin Allen movie than a Polanski one. That is, until this Cannes Film Festival, when a very special friend of Polanski's decided to offer his support.
Considering the friend in question was Woody Allen, you can be forgiven for wondering just how grateful Polanski really is.
The basis of Allen's defense seems to follow the established trend, to wit:
"It's something that happened many years ago ... he has suffered, he has not been allowed to go to the United States. He was embarrassed by the whole thing," Allen, 74, said during an interview at the Cannes Film Festival, according to E! Online. "He has paid his dues, he has had a hard life. The girl involved doesn't want anything to happen to him."
"He's an artist, he's a nice person, he did something wrong and he paid for it. [The critics] are not happy unless he pays the rest of his life. They would be happy if they could execute him in a firing squad," Allen said.
One could point out that -- technically -- Polanski hasn't paid for it, having fled sentencing after serving 42 days of a court-ordered 90-day psychiatric evaluation, but we'll leave that alone for now.
In a way, you kind of have to admire the honesty of this approach. After all, while most Americans have a tacit understanding that wealth and/or fame often leads to better treatment at the hands of our justice system, these petitioners actually have the balls to articulate it.
I wasn't a math major, but the calculus they're using is pretty simple: a crime like the one Polanski committed is justified as long as you directed Chinatown, Rosemary's Baby, and The Pianist (though I assume penalties were assessed for Pirates and The Ninth Gate).
Now it occurs to me that if -- according to the petitioners -- artistic greatness forgives heinous acts, then the converse must also be true. That is, if you're a hack director, you should expect to suffer certain abuses, rather than be allowed to visit them upon someone else.
This being the case, some of these guys need to watch their asses. Sure, you've got names like Godard and Scorsese and Almodovar on the list, but there are also a few directors there whose output has been a little more deserving of...sanction.
As for who'll be responsible for meting out this punishment, I guess we'll just leave it up to the Swiss courts.
Woody Allen has joined those petitioning the Swiss government not to extradite Roman Polanski, that puke of pukes, to the U.S. This comes as no surprise since Allen’s morals are at about the same low level as those of Polanski.
Here is Pete Vonder Haar’s witty take on the efforts to keep puke Polanski from being extradited:
WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE
By Pete Vonder Haar
Houston Press Hair Balls
May 18, 2010
Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski remains under house arrest in Switzerland, awaiting possible extradition to the United States for fleeing sentencing after pleading guilty to "unlawful sex" with a 13-year old in 1977. His attorneys are, naturally, fighting this possibility, while a number of his fellow directors are petitioning the Swiss government to refuse the state of California's extradition request:
Bertrand Tavernier, Mathieu Amalric and Jean-Luc Godard -- all of whom have films at this year's Cannes Film Festival ("La Princesse de Montpensier," "Tournee" and "Socalisme," respectively) -- are among those who have signed a petition asking the Swiss government to refuse an extradition request from California, just a few days after a California judge denied Polanski's request to unseal testimony in the 33-year-old case.
The group wrote that it was aiming for "a gesture of solidarity accompanied by an appeal to Swiss justice" and was "signed by film makers, and only film makers, who have in common that, like Godard, their works have been named as Official Selections of this year's Cannes Film Festival." It seeks, the petition said, to free Polanski from "the Kafkaesque isolation that has been his lot for the past seven months."
They join an already lengthy list of Hollywood glitterati who publicly called for Polanski's release shortly after he was arrested last September, signing another petition which was widely mocked for presenting the argument that critically acclaimed filmmakers should apparently be given a pass for criminal behavior, because global art would suffer, or something.
The teeth gnashing and accusations from both sides subsided recently, eclipsed by a series of events (the Gulf of Mexico spill, Iceland's Eyjafjallajokulltheconqueror volcano) more suited to an Irwin Allen movie than a Polanski one. That is, until this Cannes Film Festival, when a very special friend of Polanski's decided to offer his support.
Considering the friend in question was Woody Allen, you can be forgiven for wondering just how grateful Polanski really is.
The basis of Allen's defense seems to follow the established trend, to wit:
"It's something that happened many years ago ... he has suffered, he has not been allowed to go to the United States. He was embarrassed by the whole thing," Allen, 74, said during an interview at the Cannes Film Festival, according to E! Online. "He has paid his dues, he has had a hard life. The girl involved doesn't want anything to happen to him."
"He's an artist, he's a nice person, he did something wrong and he paid for it. [The critics] are not happy unless he pays the rest of his life. They would be happy if they could execute him in a firing squad," Allen said.
One could point out that -- technically -- Polanski hasn't paid for it, having fled sentencing after serving 42 days of a court-ordered 90-day psychiatric evaluation, but we'll leave that alone for now.
In a way, you kind of have to admire the honesty of this approach. After all, while most Americans have a tacit understanding that wealth and/or fame often leads to better treatment at the hands of our justice system, these petitioners actually have the balls to articulate it.
I wasn't a math major, but the calculus they're using is pretty simple: a crime like the one Polanski committed is justified as long as you directed Chinatown, Rosemary's Baby, and The Pianist (though I assume penalties were assessed for Pirates and The Ninth Gate).
Now it occurs to me that if -- according to the petitioners -- artistic greatness forgives heinous acts, then the converse must also be true. That is, if you're a hack director, you should expect to suffer certain abuses, rather than be allowed to visit them upon someone else.
This being the case, some of these guys need to watch their asses. Sure, you've got names like Godard and Scorsese and Almodovar on the list, but there are also a few directors there whose output has been a little more deserving of...sanction.
As for who'll be responsible for meting out this punishment, I guess we'll just leave it up to the Swiss courts.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
CLUELESS POLICE CRITIC
Bellaire is a small mostly white middle-class city surrounded by the City of Houston. Late one night in 2008, Bellaire police officers were following an SUV driven by a black man. The officers ran a computer check and the license plate number came back as stolen. The SUV turned into a private driveway and the officers made the driver get down on the ground.
Sgt. Jeff Cotton, a 10-year veteran of the department, arrived at the scene. When the driver got up off the ground, Cotton saw him reach into the waistband of his trousers. Thinking he was reaching for a weapon and fearing for his life, Cotton shot the man. It turned out that the man, who survived, was unarmed. The driveway was at his parents’ house and the SUV as not stolen.
There was an immediate outcry by the wounded man’s parents and by ‘community activists’ that their son had been a victim of racial profiling and that the Ballaire PD regularly practiced racial profiling. Because of the uproar, the Harris County District Attorney’s office charged Cotton with Aggravated Assault by a Peace Officer, a serious felony.
Last week a jury acquitted Sgt. Cotton. This created the expected shit-storm of protests by black preachers and other ‘community activists.’ Several protest demonstrations were held and the outrage is still simmering. A bunch of letters to the Houston Chronicle condemned the verdict and Sgt. Cotton’s shooting of an unarmed black man. Here is what one letter writer wrote:
“The assertion that Bellaire police sergeant Jeff Cotton fired in self-defense is bull. One shot is self-defense. Not three. How long did it take him to unsnap his gun from his holster? By the time he got his gun out, Cotton should have known Robert Tolan wasn’t reaching for anything in his waistband.”
That letter writer is a clueless police critic. It is obvious that his only knowledge of police work comes from watching too many cop shows on TV and at the movies. It is absolutely absurd for this imbecile to think that by the time Cotton got his gun out, he should have known the man wasn’t reaching for anything in his waistband. The sequence of facing sudden death and drawing a weapon all takes place in just a split second.
You can be absolutely sure of one thing - if that letter writer had a gun while perceiving an immediate threat to his life, he would have shot at whoever presented that threat, and he would not have stopped shooting until his gun was empty. And any police officer, who believes that he is facing an immediate threat to his life while exposed out in the open, should keep on firing his weapon until he was damn sure his life was no longer in danger. Had he fired only one shot and missed ….. well, you get the idea.
I’m sure that Sgt. Cotton went to work every day hoping he would not have to shoot anybody, black, white or whatever color. And would he knowingly shoot an unarmed man? Of course not! Did the officers resort to racial profiling? Probably. But when they see a black man driving a car at 2:30 a.m. in an almost all-white neighborhood, it’s just plain good police work to run a check on the driver.
Sgt. Jeff Cotton, a 10-year veteran of the department, arrived at the scene. When the driver got up off the ground, Cotton saw him reach into the waistband of his trousers. Thinking he was reaching for a weapon and fearing for his life, Cotton shot the man. It turned out that the man, who survived, was unarmed. The driveway was at his parents’ house and the SUV as not stolen.
There was an immediate outcry by the wounded man’s parents and by ‘community activists’ that their son had been a victim of racial profiling and that the Ballaire PD regularly practiced racial profiling. Because of the uproar, the Harris County District Attorney’s office charged Cotton with Aggravated Assault by a Peace Officer, a serious felony.
Last week a jury acquitted Sgt. Cotton. This created the expected shit-storm of protests by black preachers and other ‘community activists.’ Several protest demonstrations were held and the outrage is still simmering. A bunch of letters to the Houston Chronicle condemned the verdict and Sgt. Cotton’s shooting of an unarmed black man. Here is what one letter writer wrote:
“The assertion that Bellaire police sergeant Jeff Cotton fired in self-defense is bull. One shot is self-defense. Not three. How long did it take him to unsnap his gun from his holster? By the time he got his gun out, Cotton should have known Robert Tolan wasn’t reaching for anything in his waistband.”
That letter writer is a clueless police critic. It is obvious that his only knowledge of police work comes from watching too many cop shows on TV and at the movies. It is absolutely absurd for this imbecile to think that by the time Cotton got his gun out, he should have known the man wasn’t reaching for anything in his waistband. The sequence of facing sudden death and drawing a weapon all takes place in just a split second.
You can be absolutely sure of one thing - if that letter writer had a gun while perceiving an immediate threat to his life, he would have shot at whoever presented that threat, and he would not have stopped shooting until his gun was empty. And any police officer, who believes that he is facing an immediate threat to his life while exposed out in the open, should keep on firing his weapon until he was damn sure his life was no longer in danger. Had he fired only one shot and missed ….. well, you get the idea.
I’m sure that Sgt. Cotton went to work every day hoping he would not have to shoot anybody, black, white or whatever color. And would he knowingly shoot an unarmed man? Of course not! Did the officers resort to racial profiling? Probably. But when they see a black man driving a car at 2:30 a.m. in an almost all-white neighborhood, it’s just plain good police work to run a check on the driver.
BY ALLAH, OBAMA BE PRAISED
Every fool knows that MUSLIM TERROISTS are waging Jihad in the cause of Islam. And every fool knows that all three - Major Nidal Hasan, the 'Christmas Day Bomber' and the ‘Underwear Bomber’ - were Muslim terrorists. But because he’s sucking up to the Muslim world, Obama wants us to believe otherwise.
ARAB MEDIA CHEER OBAMA FOR DE-LINKING MUSLIMS FROM TERROR
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
IsraelNationalNews.com
May 16, 2010
A leading international Arab newspaper has hailed U.S. President Barack Obama for officially removing the description “Muslim terrorist” as part of his campaign “to reach out to the Muslim world.” The op-ed did not note the radical Muslim bacgkround of the terrorists and reasoned they are equal to other terrorists whose religion is not connected with their acts.
Osman Mirghani, the deputy editor-in-chief of 'Al-Sharq Al-Awsat,' which is owned by a Saudi Arabian company and published in London, wrote an op-ed last week under the headline "Why Didn't Obama Mention Islam?." The Obama administration has broken from the Bush government’s policy of using the term “Islamic terrorism” in official documents and "no longer [is] responding to extremist voices" that call for targeting home countries of terrorists, he explained.
He said the president is carrying out his pledge in his “reaching out to Muslims speech” at Cairo University in June 2008. Regarding Obama's statements on the botched Times Square bombing, the editor praised President Obama for not once referring to prime suspect Faisal Shahzad’s being Muslim and for not “mentioning Islam in discussing the terrorist operation."
The same approach was taken after the failed Christmas Day bombing by Nigerian Muslim Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalib. “Obama spoke about the detained terrorist as a member of the Al-Qaeda organization but he did not speak about him being a Muslim,’ Mirghani wrote. “Even when he spoke about Al-Qaeda, Obama noted that it was not the first time that the network had targeted America, ignoring the links that were made in the past between the organization and Islam or when it was put in the context of 'Islamic extremism.'"
Similarly, after the Fort Hood, Texas attack by a Muslim terrorist who murdered 13 people last November, “President Obama 'cautioned against jumping to conclusions’” and did not refer to the terrorist's Arab origin or religion.
The article did not mention that most, if not all, Arab terrorists are indoctrinated by Muslim extremism. Instead, the editor argued that describing terrorists as Muslims actually provokes more terror. “There is recognition today of the fact that terrorists are benefiting from the creation of an anti-Islamic and anti-Muslim atmosphere after any terrorist operation, and that issuing statements or taking steps that target Muslims employed by extremist groups further spreads hostility against the U.S., the West, and even moderate Islamic states,” he reasoned.
“The new president has extended his hand to the Islamic world,… and the tendency to link every terrorist operation to the religion of the perpetrator has disappeared.”
ARAB MEDIA CHEER OBAMA FOR DE-LINKING MUSLIMS FROM TERROR
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
IsraelNationalNews.com
May 16, 2010
A leading international Arab newspaper has hailed U.S. President Barack Obama for officially removing the description “Muslim terrorist” as part of his campaign “to reach out to the Muslim world.” The op-ed did not note the radical Muslim bacgkround of the terrorists and reasoned they are equal to other terrorists whose religion is not connected with their acts.
Osman Mirghani, the deputy editor-in-chief of 'Al-Sharq Al-Awsat,' which is owned by a Saudi Arabian company and published in London, wrote an op-ed last week under the headline "Why Didn't Obama Mention Islam?." The Obama administration has broken from the Bush government’s policy of using the term “Islamic terrorism” in official documents and "no longer [is] responding to extremist voices" that call for targeting home countries of terrorists, he explained.
He said the president is carrying out his pledge in his “reaching out to Muslims speech” at Cairo University in June 2008. Regarding Obama's statements on the botched Times Square bombing, the editor praised President Obama for not once referring to prime suspect Faisal Shahzad’s being Muslim and for not “mentioning Islam in discussing the terrorist operation."
The same approach was taken after the failed Christmas Day bombing by Nigerian Muslim Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalib. “Obama spoke about the detained terrorist as a member of the Al-Qaeda organization but he did not speak about him being a Muslim,’ Mirghani wrote. “Even when he spoke about Al-Qaeda, Obama noted that it was not the first time that the network had targeted America, ignoring the links that were made in the past between the organization and Islam or when it was put in the context of 'Islamic extremism.'"
Similarly, after the Fort Hood, Texas attack by a Muslim terrorist who murdered 13 people last November, “President Obama 'cautioned against jumping to conclusions’” and did not refer to the terrorist's Arab origin or religion.
The article did not mention that most, if not all, Arab terrorists are indoctrinated by Muslim extremism. Instead, the editor argued that describing terrorists as Muslims actually provokes more terror. “There is recognition today of the fact that terrorists are benefiting from the creation of an anti-Islamic and anti-Muslim atmosphere after any terrorist operation, and that issuing statements or taking steps that target Muslims employed by extremist groups further spreads hostility against the U.S., the West, and even moderate Islamic states,” he reasoned.
“The new president has extended his hand to the Islamic world,… and the tendency to link every terrorist operation to the religion of the perpetrator has disappeared.”
TURKEY BUZZARD IN TRAINING TO REPLACE SEARCH DOGS
GERMAN POLICE FORCE REPLACES SNIFFER DOGS WITH VULTURE NAMED SHERLOCK TO SCENT OUT DEAD BODIES
By Allan Hall
Mail Online
May 17, 2010
Police sniffer dogs are facing fresh competition when it comes to tracking down dead bodies - from vultures.
Detectives in Germany hope one of the scavengers - called 'Sherlock' - could be the first of many to help with investigations.
They want to harness Sherlock's incredible sense of smell to locate corpses in remote areas.
A GPS tracking device is attached to his leg and off he goes.
The Turkey Vulture is a scavenger and feeds almost exclusively on carrion.
It finds its meals using its keen vision and sense of smell, flying low enough to detect the gasses produced by the beginnings of the process of decay in dead animals.
'It was a colleague of mine who got the idea from watching a nature programme,' policeman Rainer Herrmann said. 'If it works, time could be saved when looking for dead bodies because the birds can cover a much vaster area than sniffer dogs or humans.'
Birds generally rely mostly on sight to locate their supper. But vultures like Sherlock have a keen sense of smell and are able to detect the scent of rotting flesh from 3,000 feet up in the air.
He can even find remains in woodland or in thick undergrowth.
Unlike sniffer dogs, who need regular breaks, Sherlock is indefatigable and can cover vast tracts of land.
He is being readied for his new mission at Walsrode south of Hamburg, the largest bird park in the world with 650 different species from all corners and every different habitat of the globe spread over 60 acres.
The bird, whose is more at home soaring over South America's Andes or the Atacama Desert than northern Germany's Lueneburg Heath, is being taught by trainer German Alonso to love the putrid smell of dead human flesh.
Every day Alonso puts pieces of meat in small cups, on top of a strip of cloth - provided by the police - that has been used to cover a corpse. Sherlock's mission is to locate these tasty morsels.
If time allows, Sherlock is persuaded to perform this feat as part of the park's daily shows to its many visitors.
'Sherlock has become pretty well known in Germany. He has been in lots of television programmes and newspaper articles,' Alonso says.
'Sherlock now has a rough idea of what he has to do.'
But the project still has some way to go. Alonso says that it won't become reality until there is a whole squadron of trained vultures with Sherlock in charge ready to take to the skies as a team.
'But it's hard to get birds, particularly tame, young ones,' he said.
Turkey Vultures like Sherlock, also known as Turkey Buzzards, are rare in captivity. And they have to be tame in order to be trained so they have to be raised from chicks.
'What we need now to make progress is a group working together as a team,' he said. 'If we had a trio, led by Sherlock, then we could attempt more ambitious stuff,' he added.
By Allan Hall
Mail Online
May 17, 2010
Police sniffer dogs are facing fresh competition when it comes to tracking down dead bodies - from vultures.
Detectives in Germany hope one of the scavengers - called 'Sherlock' - could be the first of many to help with investigations.
They want to harness Sherlock's incredible sense of smell to locate corpses in remote areas.
A GPS tracking device is attached to his leg and off he goes.
The Turkey Vulture is a scavenger and feeds almost exclusively on carrion.
It finds its meals using its keen vision and sense of smell, flying low enough to detect the gasses produced by the beginnings of the process of decay in dead animals.
'It was a colleague of mine who got the idea from watching a nature programme,' policeman Rainer Herrmann said. 'If it works, time could be saved when looking for dead bodies because the birds can cover a much vaster area than sniffer dogs or humans.'
Birds generally rely mostly on sight to locate their supper. But vultures like Sherlock have a keen sense of smell and are able to detect the scent of rotting flesh from 3,000 feet up in the air.
He can even find remains in woodland or in thick undergrowth.
Unlike sniffer dogs, who need regular breaks, Sherlock is indefatigable and can cover vast tracts of land.
He is being readied for his new mission at Walsrode south of Hamburg, the largest bird park in the world with 650 different species from all corners and every different habitat of the globe spread over 60 acres.
The bird, whose is more at home soaring over South America's Andes or the Atacama Desert than northern Germany's Lueneburg Heath, is being taught by trainer German Alonso to love the putrid smell of dead human flesh.
Every day Alonso puts pieces of meat in small cups, on top of a strip of cloth - provided by the police - that has been used to cover a corpse. Sherlock's mission is to locate these tasty morsels.
If time allows, Sherlock is persuaded to perform this feat as part of the park's daily shows to its many visitors.
'Sherlock has become pretty well known in Germany. He has been in lots of television programmes and newspaper articles,' Alonso says.
'Sherlock now has a rough idea of what he has to do.'
But the project still has some way to go. Alonso says that it won't become reality until there is a whole squadron of trained vultures with Sherlock in charge ready to take to the skies as a team.
'But it's hard to get birds, particularly tame, young ones,' he said.
Turkey Vultures like Sherlock, also known as Turkey Buzzards, are rare in captivity. And they have to be tame in order to be trained so they have to be raised from chicks.
'What we need now to make progress is a group working together as a team,' he said. 'If we had a trio, led by Sherlock, then we could attempt more ambitious stuff,' he added.
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