By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
June 20, 2014
An internal report into the tracking of two high-risk sex offender parolees suspected in the rapes and murders of four women while on electronic monitoring praised the federal officers involved and put the blame of them being unaware of their activities on the “complex nature of human behavior.”
The two suspects, Franc Cano and Steven Dean Gordon, were both on federal probation while they were believed to have raped and murdered four women. Cano was also on state parole and both men wore monitors, one federal, one state, to monitor their whereabouts.
The federal internal review heaps major attaboys on the feds for, among other things, directing them into therapy and warning them not to spend time together (warning which went unheeded if anybody had bothered to check).
The feds have refused to discuss the case.
EDITOR’S NOTE: You cannot make lemons out of lemonade. Heaping praise on those fuck-ups is what’s known as chutzpah.
Saturday, June 21, 2014
DAILY MAIL COLUMNIST TOM LEONARD CHECKS OUT COLORADO, CONCLUDES LEGALPOT NOT FOR BRITAIN
Leonard discovered that the problems associated with the use of legal pot, especially with the use of marijuana edibles, far outweigh the tax bonanza reaped by Colorado
The liberal establishment that pushed for the legalization of pot ignored "growing evidence that the drug can damage the developing brain of adolescents, impairing learning, decreasing IQ and, in some cases, lead to schizophrenia." Denver City Councilman Charlie Parker admits there have been a “lot of unforeseen problems” with the use of legal pot and fears “that we could lose a generation of young people if we’re not careful.”
IS THIS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF CANNABIS WAS LEGAL IN BRITAIN? SUICIDES, KILLINGS AND TODDLERS IN HOSPITAL WITH OVERDOSES – TOM LEONARD VISITS COLORADO, WHERE MARIJUANA HAS JUST BEEN LEGALIZED
Pot grower Peter Williams, a former tile setter, says he can make $1 billion in three years and is trying to make his business into ‘McDonald’s of marijuana’
By Tom Leonard
Mail Online
June 19, 2014
Peter Williams waves a hand regally over a sea of dazzling green that seems to stretch off into infinity. These are the marijuana plants — room after brightly lit room of them — that have suddenly made him a very rich man.
I don’t need to inhale any of the stuff to get light-headed over the figures he quotes me.
Using high-pressure sodium lights to grow a more potent product, he produces some 6,000lb of ‘weed’ every year which he sells for anything between £1,770 and £3,000 a pound.
That’s potentially as much as £18 million a year . . . until he finishes a giant greenhouse which will produce an annual additional 20,000lb.
He and his partners — his brother and their mother — have just agreed contracts with businesses in Chicago and Las Vegas to export their production techniques there if and when cannabis legalization spreads.
‘A year from now, we’ll be worth $300 million, in three years, $1 billion,’ grins the former tile setter. It’s not often that a wildly successful drug baron offers to take you on a guided tour of his business but the co-proprietor of Medicine Man is out to establish his business as the ‘McDonald’s of marijuana’.
There may be an armed guard at the entrance, but this outfit, situated in a large warehouse on an industrial estate just 20 minutes from Denver Airport, is completely legitimate.
Since January 1, more than 200 licensed marijuana ‘dispensaries’ in Denver, Colorado’s biggest city — along with 100 more in other parts of the state — have been allowed to sell the drug to anyone aged 21 and over for purely ‘recreational’ rather than medicinal use.
The controversial change, the result of a referendum in the U.S. state, was driven through by younger, liberal-minded voters who shared a ‘live and let live’ mentality and a feeling that existing drug laws unfairly targeted black people.
It is a world first — even Amsterdam never actually legalised marijuana but simply decriminalised possessing a small amount. The rest of the globe — including Britain and many other U.S. states — is watching this experiment in the Rocky Mountains with keen interest.
Nick Clegg has backed moves to ‘partially decriminalise the sale of cannabis’ and he has plenty of supporters in the celebrity world, including Russell Brand, Richard Branson, Sting and Joan Bakewell.
In the U.S., Barack Obama — who liked to get stoned as a teenager — recently gave his support to the Colorado initiative even though it meant contradicting his own drugs advisers.
But as I discovered in Denver this week, five months in, this shoddily handled experiment should give serious pause for thought to those in Britain who want a cannabis joint to be as freely available as a pint of beer.
Mr Williams — who is both a licensed producer and dispenser — shows me his store where glass cases and racks are filled with pretty much every ingestible or smokeable form of marijuana you can think of.
As well as bags of some two dozen different varieties of dried marijuana buds with names such as Girl Scout Cookie and Alien Dawg, you can buy biscuits, chewy sweets, soft drinks and chocolate truffles — all laced with marijuana.
For around £14, you can buy more than enough to get high. A single chocolate chip cookie is so strong it comes with a warning to cut it into four parts before eating.
When I point out that the sweets and biscuits look and smell so identical to the ordinary variety that no adult or child could tell them apart, Williams gives me a weary shrug. ‘It all comes down to personal responsibility,’ he says.
That is typical of responses from those involved in this burgeoning sector, which has rapidly shown itself to be ruthlessly cynical and commercial, targeting teenagers and already responsible for a string of deaths.
Overawed by the millions of extra dollars in revenue — licensed dispensaries pay a hefty 36.2 per cent in tax — that Colorado receives from legal cannabis dealers, the state’s leaders appear to be turning a blind eye to the terrible repercussions of legalising the drug.
In March, a 19-year-old Congolese exchange student threw himself off a Denver hotel balcony as a result of the new policy. Levy Pongi — who had never taken the drug before — and three friends had eaten some legally bought marijuana-infused biscuits.
Mr Pongi started tearing around the room and pulling pictures off the wall. A coroner said the drug had made a ‘significant’ contribution to his tragic death.
In April, edible marijuana was again blamed for the murder of a middle-class Denver housewife. Kristine Kirk had rung the police emergency number in terror to say her husband, Richard, had been consuming ginger-flavoured cannabis candy. She said he was hallucinating and ‘talking like it was the end of the world’. As she spoke, her husband found his gun and shot her dead in front of their three children.
Ominously, federal drug agencies say Colombian drug cartels are now moving into Colorado’s marijuana business and using the legal trade as a front to sell cannabis to other states where it is still are banned, as well as other harder drugs.
On the roads, meanwhile, state police have noted a sharp increase in stoned drivers being stopped for dangerous driving.
Under Colorado law, anyone aged 21 and over can legally possess up to an ounce of marijuana and it can be sold only by the officially authorised dispensaries.
But, because of the 36.2 per cent tax levied by the state on cannabis sold through these dispensaries, it can be obtained cheaper on the black market, which some licensed producers are secretly supplying.
As Lieutenant Mark Comte of the narcotics enforcement unit in the city of Colorado Springs explains, legalisation has boosted illegal drug dealing: ‘If you can get it tax-free on the corner, you’re going to get it on the corner.’
At the same time, he says, police find it impossible to distinguish between legal and illegally produced marijuana, making it extremely hard to prosecute criminals. And when cases do manage to reach court, juries are ‘so confused by the law’ that they generally acquit anyone in the dock, he says.
Meanwhile, he adds, quality control on marijuana is non-existent. ‘Unlike, say, a bottle of liquor, there are no guarantees on production, growing and testing. You can’t believe anything you read on the labels.’
Indeed, the problem with not knowing what you’re taking has been highlighted in the past few days by Maureen Dowd, a liberal columnist at the New York Times.
Dowd revealed how she had tried a marijuana chocolate bar in her Denver hotel room. After taking just two nibbles, ‘I felt a scary shudder go through my body and brain,’ she wrote.
‘I barely made it from the desk to the bed, where I lay curled up in a hallucinatory state for the next eight hours.’ She added: ‘As my paranoia deepened, I had become convinced that I had died and no one was telling me.’
The following morning, a marijuana expert told her she had eaten far too much. Such chocolate bars are supposed to be divided into 16 tiny pieces for novice users — advice which hadn’t been on the label. It is these so-called ‘edibles’ that are causing the most serious problems in Colorado. One reason, say doctors, is that users fail to understand the drug takes several hours to take effect when eaten.
So they believe initially that the drug is having no effect, then consume more — and end up accidentally eating too much.
Yet because Colorado bans users from smoking marijuana in public, many eat it covertly — and these ‘edibles’ have become the marijuana stores’ best sellers.
When I visited the Native Roots Apothecary, a licensed supplier on Denver’s main shopping street, the assistant explained that an added advantage of its cannabis-laced wine gums, boiled sweets and sugar-coloured gummy bears was that I could easily smuggle them onto a plane to states where the drug is still illegal.
Inevitably, these highly dangerous sweets and biscuits have been falling into children’s hands. Medical centres have reported a surge in admissions for cannabis poisoning. Reports of people dying from a cannabis overdose are very rare, but you can become very ill.
So far this year, the Colorado Children’s Hospital in Denver has treated nine children who have eaten edible marijuana, six of whom became critically ill.
The young victims suffered symptoms including hallucinations, severe anxiety, dizziness and vomiting. One child, who had to be hospitalised after eating a pot cookie she found outside her home, was only two years old.
Another two-year-old, Levi Welton, died in a house fire allegedly caused by adults high on marijuana. Disturbingly, both Levi and his brother, Dean, five, tested positive for marijuana.
Schools report an explosion in children bringing marijuana into school. In March, two eight-year-olds and a nine-year-old were caught smoking pot in a school lavatory. Other children have even managed to do it in class, using £15 vapour pens — similar to e-cigarettes — that allow them to inhale the drug without creating any tell-tale smoke or smell.
In another case, a nine-year-old sold his grandmother’s marijuana to three classmates in the school playground. The following day, one of the trio brought in some edible marijuana he had pinched off his own granny.
Ben Cort, who works with alcohol and drug addicts at the University of Colorado Hospital, told me he warns his three young children not to eat sweets they find at friends’ houses. ‘The drug could be in anything, so I’m now having conversations about marijuana with a five-year-old. That’s nuts.’
With marijuana retailers using cartoon characters such as Fred Flintstone in their adverts and heavily marketing their sweets, Mr Cort is convinced they are targeting young people just as the drink and tobacco industries have done in the past. ‘They won’t make their money out of the casual, middle-aged puffer. The best way is to get them hooked when they’re young,’ he said.
The liberal establishment that rushes to believe scientists on climate change are happy to ignore the scientific experts when it comes to marijuana.
Doctors and psychiatrists say that’s certainly happened in Colorado where scant attention has been paid to growing evidence that the drug can damage the developing brain of adolescents, impairing learning, decreasing IQ and, in some cases, lead to schizophrenia.
But Colorado’s ‘green rush’ will not be stopped. Unlike Amsterdam, which has clamped down on tourists visiting just to get stoned, Colorado is welcoming marijuana users with open arms.
Colorado Symphony Orchestra recently teamed up with the marijuana industry for a series of ‘Classically Cannabis’ fundraisers at which music lovers can get stoned while listening to Bach and Puccini.
I was easily able to obtain a two-night marijuana-inclusive deal from one of America’s biggest hotel chains.
On checking into its central Denver hotel and proving I was 21, I was presented with my personal vaporiser (a device which allows you to inhale marijuana fumes without burning it) and a starter pack of weed.
Colorado’s politicians have reaped nearly £11 million in taxes and other fees from marijuana sales since January. In April alone, £13 million in ‘recreational’ pot was sold — and the total is rising every month.
This week, in a terrible irony, Denver councillors discussed whether to spend some of their marijuana tax millions on educating children about the dangers of the drug.
Councillor Charlie Parker, who headed the committee that implemented legalisation in Denver, admitted there had been a ‘lot of unforeseen problems’.
He told me: ‘It’s an industry that hires a lot of people and is bringing a lot of tax revenues, but one has to ask at what cost, especially to young people. And that’s going to take years to determine. My fear is that we could lose a generation of young people if we’re not careful.’
A chilling comment on the Colorado experiment. Yet he admits there are no plans to turn back the clock and make the drug illegal once again.
The liberal establishment that pushed for the legalization of pot ignored "growing evidence that the drug can damage the developing brain of adolescents, impairing learning, decreasing IQ and, in some cases, lead to schizophrenia." Denver City Councilman Charlie Parker admits there have been a “lot of unforeseen problems” with the use of legal pot and fears “that we could lose a generation of young people if we’re not careful.”
IS THIS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF CANNABIS WAS LEGAL IN BRITAIN? SUICIDES, KILLINGS AND TODDLERS IN HOSPITAL WITH OVERDOSES – TOM LEONARD VISITS COLORADO, WHERE MARIJUANA HAS JUST BEEN LEGALIZED
Pot grower Peter Williams, a former tile setter, says he can make $1 billion in three years and is trying to make his business into ‘McDonald’s of marijuana’
By Tom Leonard
Mail Online
June 19, 2014
Peter Williams waves a hand regally over a sea of dazzling green that seems to stretch off into infinity. These are the marijuana plants — room after brightly lit room of them — that have suddenly made him a very rich man.
I don’t need to inhale any of the stuff to get light-headed over the figures he quotes me.
Using high-pressure sodium lights to grow a more potent product, he produces some 6,000lb of ‘weed’ every year which he sells for anything between £1,770 and £3,000 a pound.
That’s potentially as much as £18 million a year . . . until he finishes a giant greenhouse which will produce an annual additional 20,000lb.
He and his partners — his brother and their mother — have just agreed contracts with businesses in Chicago and Las Vegas to export their production techniques there if and when cannabis legalization spreads.
‘A year from now, we’ll be worth $300 million, in three years, $1 billion,’ grins the former tile setter. It’s not often that a wildly successful drug baron offers to take you on a guided tour of his business but the co-proprietor of Medicine Man is out to establish his business as the ‘McDonald’s of marijuana’.
There may be an armed guard at the entrance, but this outfit, situated in a large warehouse on an industrial estate just 20 minutes from Denver Airport, is completely legitimate.
Since January 1, more than 200 licensed marijuana ‘dispensaries’ in Denver, Colorado’s biggest city — along with 100 more in other parts of the state — have been allowed to sell the drug to anyone aged 21 and over for purely ‘recreational’ rather than medicinal use.
The controversial change, the result of a referendum in the U.S. state, was driven through by younger, liberal-minded voters who shared a ‘live and let live’ mentality and a feeling that existing drug laws unfairly targeted black people.
It is a world first — even Amsterdam never actually legalised marijuana but simply decriminalised possessing a small amount. The rest of the globe — including Britain and many other U.S. states — is watching this experiment in the Rocky Mountains with keen interest.
Nick Clegg has backed moves to ‘partially decriminalise the sale of cannabis’ and he has plenty of supporters in the celebrity world, including Russell Brand, Richard Branson, Sting and Joan Bakewell.
In the U.S., Barack Obama — who liked to get stoned as a teenager — recently gave his support to the Colorado initiative even though it meant contradicting his own drugs advisers.
But as I discovered in Denver this week, five months in, this shoddily handled experiment should give serious pause for thought to those in Britain who want a cannabis joint to be as freely available as a pint of beer.
Mr Williams — who is both a licensed producer and dispenser — shows me his store where glass cases and racks are filled with pretty much every ingestible or smokeable form of marijuana you can think of.
As well as bags of some two dozen different varieties of dried marijuana buds with names such as Girl Scout Cookie and Alien Dawg, you can buy biscuits, chewy sweets, soft drinks and chocolate truffles — all laced with marijuana.
For around £14, you can buy more than enough to get high. A single chocolate chip cookie is so strong it comes with a warning to cut it into four parts before eating.
When I point out that the sweets and biscuits look and smell so identical to the ordinary variety that no adult or child could tell them apart, Williams gives me a weary shrug. ‘It all comes down to personal responsibility,’ he says.
That is typical of responses from those involved in this burgeoning sector, which has rapidly shown itself to be ruthlessly cynical and commercial, targeting teenagers and already responsible for a string of deaths.
Overawed by the millions of extra dollars in revenue — licensed dispensaries pay a hefty 36.2 per cent in tax — that Colorado receives from legal cannabis dealers, the state’s leaders appear to be turning a blind eye to the terrible repercussions of legalising the drug.
In March, a 19-year-old Congolese exchange student threw himself off a Denver hotel balcony as a result of the new policy. Levy Pongi — who had never taken the drug before — and three friends had eaten some legally bought marijuana-infused biscuits.
Mr Pongi started tearing around the room and pulling pictures off the wall. A coroner said the drug had made a ‘significant’ contribution to his tragic death.
In April, edible marijuana was again blamed for the murder of a middle-class Denver housewife. Kristine Kirk had rung the police emergency number in terror to say her husband, Richard, had been consuming ginger-flavoured cannabis candy. She said he was hallucinating and ‘talking like it was the end of the world’. As she spoke, her husband found his gun and shot her dead in front of their three children.
Ominously, federal drug agencies say Colombian drug cartels are now moving into Colorado’s marijuana business and using the legal trade as a front to sell cannabis to other states where it is still are banned, as well as other harder drugs.
On the roads, meanwhile, state police have noted a sharp increase in stoned drivers being stopped for dangerous driving.
Under Colorado law, anyone aged 21 and over can legally possess up to an ounce of marijuana and it can be sold only by the officially authorised dispensaries.
But, because of the 36.2 per cent tax levied by the state on cannabis sold through these dispensaries, it can be obtained cheaper on the black market, which some licensed producers are secretly supplying.
As Lieutenant Mark Comte of the narcotics enforcement unit in the city of Colorado Springs explains, legalisation has boosted illegal drug dealing: ‘If you can get it tax-free on the corner, you’re going to get it on the corner.’
At the same time, he says, police find it impossible to distinguish between legal and illegally produced marijuana, making it extremely hard to prosecute criminals. And when cases do manage to reach court, juries are ‘so confused by the law’ that they generally acquit anyone in the dock, he says.
Meanwhile, he adds, quality control on marijuana is non-existent. ‘Unlike, say, a bottle of liquor, there are no guarantees on production, growing and testing. You can’t believe anything you read on the labels.’
Indeed, the problem with not knowing what you’re taking has been highlighted in the past few days by Maureen Dowd, a liberal columnist at the New York Times.
Dowd revealed how she had tried a marijuana chocolate bar in her Denver hotel room. After taking just two nibbles, ‘I felt a scary shudder go through my body and brain,’ she wrote.
‘I barely made it from the desk to the bed, where I lay curled up in a hallucinatory state for the next eight hours.’ She added: ‘As my paranoia deepened, I had become convinced that I had died and no one was telling me.’
The following morning, a marijuana expert told her she had eaten far too much. Such chocolate bars are supposed to be divided into 16 tiny pieces for novice users — advice which hadn’t been on the label. It is these so-called ‘edibles’ that are causing the most serious problems in Colorado. One reason, say doctors, is that users fail to understand the drug takes several hours to take effect when eaten.
So they believe initially that the drug is having no effect, then consume more — and end up accidentally eating too much.
Yet because Colorado bans users from smoking marijuana in public, many eat it covertly — and these ‘edibles’ have become the marijuana stores’ best sellers.
When I visited the Native Roots Apothecary, a licensed supplier on Denver’s main shopping street, the assistant explained that an added advantage of its cannabis-laced wine gums, boiled sweets and sugar-coloured gummy bears was that I could easily smuggle them onto a plane to states where the drug is still illegal.
Inevitably, these highly dangerous sweets and biscuits have been falling into children’s hands. Medical centres have reported a surge in admissions for cannabis poisoning. Reports of people dying from a cannabis overdose are very rare, but you can become very ill.
So far this year, the Colorado Children’s Hospital in Denver has treated nine children who have eaten edible marijuana, six of whom became critically ill.
The young victims suffered symptoms including hallucinations, severe anxiety, dizziness and vomiting. One child, who had to be hospitalised after eating a pot cookie she found outside her home, was only two years old.
Another two-year-old, Levi Welton, died in a house fire allegedly caused by adults high on marijuana. Disturbingly, both Levi and his brother, Dean, five, tested positive for marijuana.
Schools report an explosion in children bringing marijuana into school. In March, two eight-year-olds and a nine-year-old were caught smoking pot in a school lavatory. Other children have even managed to do it in class, using £15 vapour pens — similar to e-cigarettes — that allow them to inhale the drug without creating any tell-tale smoke or smell.
In another case, a nine-year-old sold his grandmother’s marijuana to three classmates in the school playground. The following day, one of the trio brought in some edible marijuana he had pinched off his own granny.
Ben Cort, who works with alcohol and drug addicts at the University of Colorado Hospital, told me he warns his three young children not to eat sweets they find at friends’ houses. ‘The drug could be in anything, so I’m now having conversations about marijuana with a five-year-old. That’s nuts.’
With marijuana retailers using cartoon characters such as Fred Flintstone in their adverts and heavily marketing their sweets, Mr Cort is convinced they are targeting young people just as the drink and tobacco industries have done in the past. ‘They won’t make their money out of the casual, middle-aged puffer. The best way is to get them hooked when they’re young,’ he said.
The liberal establishment that rushes to believe scientists on climate change are happy to ignore the scientific experts when it comes to marijuana.
Doctors and psychiatrists say that’s certainly happened in Colorado where scant attention has been paid to growing evidence that the drug can damage the developing brain of adolescents, impairing learning, decreasing IQ and, in some cases, lead to schizophrenia.
But Colorado’s ‘green rush’ will not be stopped. Unlike Amsterdam, which has clamped down on tourists visiting just to get stoned, Colorado is welcoming marijuana users with open arms.
Colorado Symphony Orchestra recently teamed up with the marijuana industry for a series of ‘Classically Cannabis’ fundraisers at which music lovers can get stoned while listening to Bach and Puccini.
I was easily able to obtain a two-night marijuana-inclusive deal from one of America’s biggest hotel chains.
On checking into its central Denver hotel and proving I was 21, I was presented with my personal vaporiser (a device which allows you to inhale marijuana fumes without burning it) and a starter pack of weed.
Colorado’s politicians have reaped nearly £11 million in taxes and other fees from marijuana sales since January. In April alone, £13 million in ‘recreational’ pot was sold — and the total is rising every month.
This week, in a terrible irony, Denver councillors discussed whether to spend some of their marijuana tax millions on educating children about the dangers of the drug.
Councillor Charlie Parker, who headed the committee that implemented legalisation in Denver, admitted there had been a ‘lot of unforeseen problems’.
He told me: ‘It’s an industry that hires a lot of people and is bringing a lot of tax revenues, but one has to ask at what cost, especially to young people. And that’s going to take years to determine. My fear is that we could lose a generation of young people if we’re not careful.’
A chilling comment on the Colorado experiment. Yet he admits there are no plans to turn back the clock and make the drug illegal once again.
LEADING CANDIDATE FOR STUPIDIST MOTHER OF THE YEAR
Drunk Texas woman drives off from swimming pool with six children on the hood and trunk of her Chevy Malibu because she did not want the seats to get wet and four of them were injured when they fell off onto the roadway
Kisha Young and her passenger, mothers of the children aged 8 to 14, are facing serious charges after four of the kids fell off the top of the car when she made a sharp turn too fast. All four were injured with one having to be life-flighted to a Fort Worth trauma center with severe head injuries.
Now if Kisha does not win the Stupidist Mother of the Year Award, she most certainly will be first runner-up.
CHILDREN IN WET BATHING SUITS INJURED AFTER FALLING OFF CAR IN CROWLEY
By Deanna Boyd
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
June 18, 2014
Four children were injured — one with a severe head injury — Tuesday night in Crowley after they fell from atop the trunk of a moving car, where they had been allowed to ride because their bathing suits were wet.
Kisha Young, the 38-year-old driver and mother to some of the children, was arrested on suspicion of intoxication assault, a third-degree felony.
Additional charges are expected to be sought against Young and the 31-year-old mother of the other children involved, who was a passenger in the front seat, said officer C.C. Meadows, a spokeswoman with the Crowley Police Department.
Emergency crews were dispatched to the 400 block of Angler Drive in Crowley, about 15 minutes from downtown Fort Worth, about 8:30 p.m.
Meadows said six children — ages 8 to 14 — had been riding on the Chevy Malibu’s trunk and hood after leaving the Creekside of Crowley community pool.
“Officers were advised that the driver and passenger of the vehicle [mothers of the children] allowed the children to ride outside the vehicle because their clothes were wet,” the department stated in a news release.
Meadows said that investigators were still looking into what caused the four children to fall from the trunk but that police suspect driver inattention and the influence of alcohol were possible factors.
Young was arrested after failing a field sobriety test. Blood was also drawn and police are still awaiting blood alcohol level results, Meadows said.
Three of the children were taken by ambulance to Cook Children’s Medical Center while the 12-year-old girl with the severe head injury — the daughter of the passenger — was transported by helicopter ambulance.
“It’s my understanding that all have been released with exception to the one who was CareFlited,” Meadows said.
She said the 12-year-old girl’s condition apparently remained “touch and go” Wednesday morning.
Young remained jailed Wednesday morning. Bail had not been set, Meadows said.
Child Protective Services is also investigating.
Kisha Young and her passenger, mothers of the children aged 8 to 14, are facing serious charges after four of the kids fell off the top of the car when she made a sharp turn too fast. All four were injured with one having to be life-flighted to a Fort Worth trauma center with severe head injuries.
Now if Kisha does not win the Stupidist Mother of the Year Award, she most certainly will be first runner-up.
CHILDREN IN WET BATHING SUITS INJURED AFTER FALLING OFF CAR IN CROWLEY
By Deanna Boyd
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
June 18, 2014
Four children were injured — one with a severe head injury — Tuesday night in Crowley after they fell from atop the trunk of a moving car, where they had been allowed to ride because their bathing suits were wet.
Kisha Young, the 38-year-old driver and mother to some of the children, was arrested on suspicion of intoxication assault, a third-degree felony.
Additional charges are expected to be sought against Young and the 31-year-old mother of the other children involved, who was a passenger in the front seat, said officer C.C. Meadows, a spokeswoman with the Crowley Police Department.
Emergency crews were dispatched to the 400 block of Angler Drive in Crowley, about 15 minutes from downtown Fort Worth, about 8:30 p.m.
Meadows said six children — ages 8 to 14 — had been riding on the Chevy Malibu’s trunk and hood after leaving the Creekside of Crowley community pool.
“Officers were advised that the driver and passenger of the vehicle [mothers of the children] allowed the children to ride outside the vehicle because their clothes were wet,” the department stated in a news release.
Meadows said that investigators were still looking into what caused the four children to fall from the trunk but that police suspect driver inattention and the influence of alcohol were possible factors.
Young was arrested after failing a field sobriety test. Blood was also drawn and police are still awaiting blood alcohol level results, Meadows said.
Three of the children were taken by ambulance to Cook Children’s Medical Center while the 12-year-old girl with the severe head injury — the daughter of the passenger — was transported by helicopter ambulance.
“It’s my understanding that all have been released with exception to the one who was CareFlited,” Meadows said.
She said the 12-year-old girl’s condition apparently remained “touch and go” Wednesday morning.
Young remained jailed Wednesday morning. Bail had not been set, Meadows said.
Child Protective Services is also investigating.
SECOND AMENDMENT
By Charlie Daniels
The Charlie Daniels Band
June 16. 2014
I've got a feeling that before the end of Obama's term there will be an all out, no holds barred, hook or crook attempt to separate Americans from their legally owned private fire arms. And it may well not come in the ordinary routine of legislation passed by both houses of Congress and signed into law by the president.
But, as America has found out the hard way, with this president there is more than one way to skin a cat, the Constitution and the will of the people be damned.
There is a very sinister United Nations document known as Agenda 21, which, if fully implemented, could deprive U.S. citizens of their property rights and allow for the confiscation of privately owned firearms.
This is just the tip of the iceberg with this devious treaty which includes the states right to regulate the private production of food for personal use, home gardens, meat and milk animals and so forth, plus population control and the reallocation of privately owned land to be set aside for government use.
I know some of the people reading this column doubt the validity and the scope of what I'm saying and I can't say I blame you because it sounds like the prelude to a Big Brother movie. So please don't take my word for it, get on your computer and look up United Nations Agenda 21 for yourself.
Now if some reporter in a press conference situation were to ask Obama if he was scheming to renounce the Second Amendment and turn America's sovereignty over to the UN he would probably laugh and say how ridiculous the question was.
But remember, "You can keep your doctor?"
Or, “You can keep your insurance plan, period."?
Or how about "the most transparent administration in history"?
And how about "I've got a pen and a phone."?
In order to be legally binding, Agenda 21 implementation would still need to be passed by Congress. So far nine states have passed anti-Agenda 21 legislation, but Democrats in Maine derailed a bill that would have prevented adoption in the state when they could have removed this shadow over our constitution forever and they chose to kill the bill in the state’s Judiciary Committee.
We have a lame duck president and probably will have some lame duck Senators and the same spirit of greed that got Obamacare through still exists in Washington and, at least in my mind, should there be a significant number of lame duck Senators who feel as if the only thing they have to lose is whatever minute scrap of honor they may have left they may well accept some conscience smothering bribe and live the rest of their lives in denial, and probably hiding, as this would be the most unpopular decision ever made on Capitol Hill, and that's saying something.
How would it work? Well, at least in my humble opinion the government would inform the public that the private ownership of certain types of guns was against the law, and very possibly that all handguns were outlawed and would have to be turned into some government agency to be destroyed by such and such a date and non compliance would constitute a felony and some serious jail time.
After removing most heavy caliber rifles and all handguns from the public, it’s a simple matter of drying up ammunition supplies or outlawing all guns a caliber at a time until there comes a time when it's against the law to own anything heavier than a Red Ryder air rifle.
Sound silly?
Well, let's hope and pray so, but think about this.
Everything Obama has touched since he came into office has turned to dust, he has lied to us repeatedly, his foreign policy is a total disaster, the economy is hanging by a twenty-seven billion dollar influx of cash the Federal Reserve prints and buys government bonds with every month, our southern border states are being flooded with dependent children which he will not deal with. Our military is being decimated and demoralized and he seems to think that releasing five of the most dangerous terrorists in the world is perfectly acceptable.
The confiscation of privately owned firearms could well be the pièce de résistance of Obama's presidency. Probably his most treasured legacy.
With what's going on in the world, an unarmed America is unthinkable.
__________
EDITOR’S NOTE: As I read Agenda 21, it really does not apply to individual gun owners, but rather to the international trafficking in firearms. Obviously, not everyone sees it the same way.
The Charlie Daniels Band
June 16. 2014
I've got a feeling that before the end of Obama's term there will be an all out, no holds barred, hook or crook attempt to separate Americans from their legally owned private fire arms. And it may well not come in the ordinary routine of legislation passed by both houses of Congress and signed into law by the president.
But, as America has found out the hard way, with this president there is more than one way to skin a cat, the Constitution and the will of the people be damned.
There is a very sinister United Nations document known as Agenda 21, which, if fully implemented, could deprive U.S. citizens of their property rights and allow for the confiscation of privately owned firearms.
This is just the tip of the iceberg with this devious treaty which includes the states right to regulate the private production of food for personal use, home gardens, meat and milk animals and so forth, plus population control and the reallocation of privately owned land to be set aside for government use.
I know some of the people reading this column doubt the validity and the scope of what I'm saying and I can't say I blame you because it sounds like the prelude to a Big Brother movie. So please don't take my word for it, get on your computer and look up United Nations Agenda 21 for yourself.
Now if some reporter in a press conference situation were to ask Obama if he was scheming to renounce the Second Amendment and turn America's sovereignty over to the UN he would probably laugh and say how ridiculous the question was.
But remember, "You can keep your doctor?"
Or, “You can keep your insurance plan, period."?
Or how about "the most transparent administration in history"?
And how about "I've got a pen and a phone."?
In order to be legally binding, Agenda 21 implementation would still need to be passed by Congress. So far nine states have passed anti-Agenda 21 legislation, but Democrats in Maine derailed a bill that would have prevented adoption in the state when they could have removed this shadow over our constitution forever and they chose to kill the bill in the state’s Judiciary Committee.
We have a lame duck president and probably will have some lame duck Senators and the same spirit of greed that got Obamacare through still exists in Washington and, at least in my mind, should there be a significant number of lame duck Senators who feel as if the only thing they have to lose is whatever minute scrap of honor they may have left they may well accept some conscience smothering bribe and live the rest of their lives in denial, and probably hiding, as this would be the most unpopular decision ever made on Capitol Hill, and that's saying something.
How would it work? Well, at least in my humble opinion the government would inform the public that the private ownership of certain types of guns was against the law, and very possibly that all handguns were outlawed and would have to be turned into some government agency to be destroyed by such and such a date and non compliance would constitute a felony and some serious jail time.
After removing most heavy caliber rifles and all handguns from the public, it’s a simple matter of drying up ammunition supplies or outlawing all guns a caliber at a time until there comes a time when it's against the law to own anything heavier than a Red Ryder air rifle.
Sound silly?
Well, let's hope and pray so, but think about this.
Everything Obama has touched since he came into office has turned to dust, he has lied to us repeatedly, his foreign policy is a total disaster, the economy is hanging by a twenty-seven billion dollar influx of cash the Federal Reserve prints and buys government bonds with every month, our southern border states are being flooded with dependent children which he will not deal with. Our military is being decimated and demoralized and he seems to think that releasing five of the most dangerous terrorists in the world is perfectly acceptable.
The confiscation of privately owned firearms could well be the pièce de résistance of Obama's presidency. Probably his most treasured legacy.
With what's going on in the world, an unarmed America is unthinkable.
__________
EDITOR’S NOTE: As I read Agenda 21, it really does not apply to individual gun owners, but rather to the international trafficking in firearms. Obviously, not everyone sees it the same way.
Friday, June 20, 2014
THE NATIONAL SHERIFFS ASSOCIATION’S 2001 TOP SHERIFF NOW AN INMATE IN JAIL NAMED AFTER HIM
Former Colorado sheriff Patrick Sullivan became addicted to meth and began selling meth for sex with young men
In 2001, the National Sheriffs Association chose Arapahoe County Sheriff Patrick Sullivan as its ‘Top Sheriff’ of the year. He resigned the following year to become a school district police chief. Arapahoe County then honored Sullivan by naming its county jail after him. On Thursday, Sullivan, 71, was led out of a courtroom in cuffs after having been sentenced to 30 days in jail and two-years of probation for possession of methamphetamine and solicitation of a prostitute.
Sullivan, recognized in the 1990s as an anti-drug crusader, became addicted to meth. He also sold meth in exchange for sex with younger men. He helped them get out of jail and find jobs, then gave them meth for sex.
30 days in jail and two-years of probation? The turd should have been sent to prison.
In 2001, the National Sheriffs Association chose Arapahoe County Sheriff Patrick Sullivan as its ‘Top Sheriff’ of the year. He resigned the following year to become a school district police chief. Arapahoe County then honored Sullivan by naming its county jail after him. On Thursday, Sullivan, 71, was led out of a courtroom in cuffs after having been sentenced to 30 days in jail and two-years of probation for possession of methamphetamine and solicitation of a prostitute.
Sullivan, recognized in the 1990s as an anti-drug crusader, became addicted to meth. He also sold meth in exchange for sex with younger men. He helped them get out of jail and find jobs, then gave them meth for sex.
30 days in jail and two-years of probation? The turd should have been sent to prison.
HOUSTON MAN BLINDED AFTER CVS PHARMACY MISTAKENLY FILLED EYE DROP PRESCRIPTION WITH EAR DROPS
Claudis Alston sues CVS CareMark, but Texas law limits any award to no more than $250,000
Claudis Alston, 65, was given an eye drop prescription by a doctor to treat a pink eye condition in June 2012. Alston, an ex-con under the care of a legal guardian, had the prescription filled at a Houston CVS pharmacy. When he got home, he applied the ‘eye drops’ to his left eye as directed by the prescription label. He immediately felt pain and lost his vision. He was taken to an emergency room where it was discovered that the pharmacist had mistakenly given him ear drops instead of eye drops.
Instead of the cortisporin ophthalmic suspension prescription, the pharmacist had given Alston a prescription of neomycin-polymyxin-HC, a medication for bacterial ear infections. The label identified the prescription as an “ear solin,” but the instructions said, “Instill 3 drips in each eye twice daily for 5 days.”
Alston had been under care for a number of conditions, including kidney failure. He is permanently blind in his left eye as a result of the pharmacist’s fuck-up. Jameena Crookshank, his legal guardian, says he continues to experience pain in his eye. “He used to be fully capable of operating day to day on his own. And now he looks to me to support him in everything that he does."
According to KPRC, Alston has spent most of his adult life in prison or on parole for theft or drug convictions going back to 1967.
On Tuesday, Alston filed a lawsuit against CVSCareMark Corporation, but Texas law limits the amount he can be awarded if the lawsuit is successful at no more than $250,000.
$250,000? If Alston prevails in his lawsuit, CVS will get off way, way too light for a monumental fuck-up!
Claudis Alston, 65, was given an eye drop prescription by a doctor to treat a pink eye condition in June 2012. Alston, an ex-con under the care of a legal guardian, had the prescription filled at a Houston CVS pharmacy. When he got home, he applied the ‘eye drops’ to his left eye as directed by the prescription label. He immediately felt pain and lost his vision. He was taken to an emergency room where it was discovered that the pharmacist had mistakenly given him ear drops instead of eye drops.
Instead of the cortisporin ophthalmic suspension prescription, the pharmacist had given Alston a prescription of neomycin-polymyxin-HC, a medication for bacterial ear infections. The label identified the prescription as an “ear solin,” but the instructions said, “Instill 3 drips in each eye twice daily for 5 days.”
Alston had been under care for a number of conditions, including kidney failure. He is permanently blind in his left eye as a result of the pharmacist’s fuck-up. Jameena Crookshank, his legal guardian, says he continues to experience pain in his eye. “He used to be fully capable of operating day to day on his own. And now he looks to me to support him in everything that he does."
According to KPRC, Alston has spent most of his adult life in prison or on parole for theft or drug convictions going back to 1967.
On Tuesday, Alston filed a lawsuit against CVSCareMark Corporation, but Texas law limits the amount he can be awarded if the lawsuit is successful at no more than $250,000.
$250,000? If Alston prevails in his lawsuit, CVS will get off way, way too light for a monumental fuck-up!
EXPENSIVE COOKIES SEIZED AT NEW JERSEY AIRPORT
Cookies containing $50,000 worth of cocaine pellets have been seized at Newark Liberty International Airport
U.S. customs officials found cookies which had 118 pellets of cocaine baked into them.
$50K WORTH OF COCAINE COOKIES SEIZED AT NEWARK AIRPORT
Associated Press
June 19, 2014
NEWARK, N.J. -- Officials at Newark Liberty International Airport have confiscated a batch of cookies with a street value of more than $50,000.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection says that’s because the cookies had 118 pellets of cocaine baked into them.
A spokesman for the agency said Thursday that customs officers made the discovery June 5 during an examination of luggage from passengers arriving at the New Jersey airport on a flight from Guatemala City.
Customs officials say Guatemalan citizen Mauricio Isidro Rivera Hernandez was arrested after officers allegedly discovered the cookies in his three checked bags.
He was handed over to the police department of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and faces state charges of narcotics smuggling.
It is not immediately known if he has retained an attorney.
U.S. customs officials found cookies which had 118 pellets of cocaine baked into them.
$50K WORTH OF COCAINE COOKIES SEIZED AT NEWARK AIRPORT
Associated Press
June 19, 2014
NEWARK, N.J. -- Officials at Newark Liberty International Airport have confiscated a batch of cookies with a street value of more than $50,000.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection says that’s because the cookies had 118 pellets of cocaine baked into them.
A spokesman for the agency said Thursday that customs officers made the discovery June 5 during an examination of luggage from passengers arriving at the New Jersey airport on a flight from Guatemala City.
Customs officials say Guatemalan citizen Mauricio Isidro Rivera Hernandez was arrested after officers allegedly discovered the cookies in his three checked bags.
He was handed over to the police department of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and faces state charges of narcotics smuggling.
It is not immediately known if he has retained an attorney.
Thursday, June 19, 2014
MISLABELING OF PIZZLE MAKES TEXAS AG SIZZLE
Austin’s MT Supermarket is being sued by the Texas Attorney General’s Office for selling bull peckers for human consumption
KXAN reports the Texas Attorney General’s Office has filed a civil lawsuit against Austin’s MT Supermarket and some of its employees for mislabeling pizzle and selling it for human consumption. For the uninitiated, pizzle is the penis of an animal, in this case bull pecker.
In America, those bull peckers are usually used in chewable dog toys or in certain types of glue. According to KXAN:
The suit alleges a manager and employees at the supermarket took the pizzle from boxes “labeled inedible beef, not intended for use as human food and repackaged the pizzle in consumer size packages, then labeled the pizzle as human food.” The suit goes on to say the defendants labeled the packages to indicate the pizzle was inspected and from a registered source.
The managers and any of the MT Supermarket employees who had a hand in mislabeling the pizzle are subject to a $5,000 fine for duping customers into believing that them thar bull peckers are a delicacy for humans.
The Europeans use dried and ground beef pizzle in soups and drinks because it is thought to be an aphrodisiac. The Asians prize deer pizzle as a boost to stamina and performance – sort of a natural version of Cialis or Viagra. The Chinese fed their athletes deer peckers, believing they would boost the performance of their 2008 Olympics team. It must have worked, because they won 51 gold medals, 21 silver medals and 28 bronze medals, the 100 medals being the most any team won.
As for MT Supermarket “trying to pass off bull dick as notbull dick,” Hair Ball’s Craig Malisow wrote:
We wonder if any customers complained that the meat had an extra-nutty flavor. We wonder if any customers complained that the meat was too hard. We wonder if any customers complained that the meat got bigger in their mouths.
Sorry, but I can’t top that.
KXAN reports the Texas Attorney General’s Office has filed a civil lawsuit against Austin’s MT Supermarket and some of its employees for mislabeling pizzle and selling it for human consumption. For the uninitiated, pizzle is the penis of an animal, in this case bull pecker.
In America, those bull peckers are usually used in chewable dog toys or in certain types of glue. According to KXAN:
The suit alleges a manager and employees at the supermarket took the pizzle from boxes “labeled inedible beef, not intended for use as human food and repackaged the pizzle in consumer size packages, then labeled the pizzle as human food.” The suit goes on to say the defendants labeled the packages to indicate the pizzle was inspected and from a registered source.
The managers and any of the MT Supermarket employees who had a hand in mislabeling the pizzle are subject to a $5,000 fine for duping customers into believing that them thar bull peckers are a delicacy for humans.
The Europeans use dried and ground beef pizzle in soups and drinks because it is thought to be an aphrodisiac. The Asians prize deer pizzle as a boost to stamina and performance – sort of a natural version of Cialis or Viagra. The Chinese fed their athletes deer peckers, believing they would boost the performance of their 2008 Olympics team. It must have worked, because they won 51 gold medals, 21 silver medals and 28 bronze medals, the 100 medals being the most any team won.
As for MT Supermarket “trying to pass off bull dick as notbull dick,” Hair Ball’s Craig Malisow wrote:
We wonder if any customers complained that the meat had an extra-nutty flavor. We wonder if any customers complained that the meat was too hard. We wonder if any customers complained that the meat got bigger in their mouths.
Sorry, but I can’t top that.
TWO MURDERERS EXECUTED TUESDAY
Lethal injections by a single dose of pentobarbital were carried out in Georgia and Missouri without a hitch and another execution is scheduled Wednesday in Florida
After the Supreme Court turned down a last minute appeal, Marcus Wellons, 59, was executed Tuesday by the State of Georgia for the 1989 rape and murder of India Roberts, his 15-year-old neighbor in suburban Atlanta.
John Winfield, 46, was executed by the State of Missouri after the Supreme Court turned down his last minute appeal. According to the Associated Press, Winfield had been dating Carmelita Donald on and off for several years and fathered two of her children. She began dating another man. One night in 1996, in a jealous rage, Winfield showed up outside Donald's apartment in St. Louis County and confronted her, along with two friends of hers. He shot all three women in the head. Arthea Sanders and Shawnee Murphy died. Donald survived but was blinded.
John Ruthell Henry, 63, is scheduled to be executed Wednesday night by the State of Florida for the 1985 murder of his estranged wife and her five-year-old son from a previous marriage. Henry had previously pleaded no contest to second-degree murder for fatally stabbing his common-law wife, Patricia Roddy, in 1976, and was on parole when he killed his estranged wife and her son. His attorneys are appealing on grounds that Henry is mentally ill and intellectually disabled.
Florida uses a three-drug combination of midazolam, vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride. When asked if he was concerned about the execution in light of the botched execution by Oklahoma of Clayton Lockett, Gov. Rick Scott replied, "I focus on making sure that we do things the right way here."
UDATE: John Ruthell Henry was executed Wednesday after the Supreme Court turned down a last-second appeal in which his attorneys argued he was mentally incapable of understanding his death sentence.
After the Supreme Court turned down a last minute appeal, Marcus Wellons, 59, was executed Tuesday by the State of Georgia for the 1989 rape and murder of India Roberts, his 15-year-old neighbor in suburban Atlanta.
John Winfield, 46, was executed by the State of Missouri after the Supreme Court turned down his last minute appeal. According to the Associated Press, Winfield had been dating Carmelita Donald on and off for several years and fathered two of her children. She began dating another man. One night in 1996, in a jealous rage, Winfield showed up outside Donald's apartment in St. Louis County and confronted her, along with two friends of hers. He shot all three women in the head. Arthea Sanders and Shawnee Murphy died. Donald survived but was blinded.
John Ruthell Henry, 63, is scheduled to be executed Wednesday night by the State of Florida for the 1985 murder of his estranged wife and her five-year-old son from a previous marriage. Henry had previously pleaded no contest to second-degree murder for fatally stabbing his common-law wife, Patricia Roddy, in 1976, and was on parole when he killed his estranged wife and her son. His attorneys are appealing on grounds that Henry is mentally ill and intellectually disabled.
Florida uses a three-drug combination of midazolam, vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride. When asked if he was concerned about the execution in light of the botched execution by Oklahoma of Clayton Lockett, Gov. Rick Scott replied, "I focus on making sure that we do things the right way here."
UDATE: John Ruthell Henry was executed Wednesday after the Supreme Court turned down a last-second appeal in which his attorneys argued he was mentally incapable of understanding his death sentence.
WORLDWIDE MEDIA BLAMES THREE ISRAELI BOYS FOR THEIR KIDNAPPING
The media and the EU accuse Israel of harming the Palestinian unity government by its search for the three kidnapped teenagers
I will admit that it was pretty stupid of the boys to hitchhike within a Palestinian area, but to blame them for their kidnapping is to absolve the terrorists that abducted them.
OUR WORLD: IGNORING THE ELEPHANT
The boys deserve whatever they get, according to the media, because they are Jews
By Caroline Glick
The Jerusalem Post
June 17, 2014
Three Jewish boys were abducted by Palestinian terrorists while trying to catch a ride home from school Thursday night. And as far as the foreign press is concerned, it’s their own damned fault.
As Honest Reporting documented, everyone from The Guardian to CNN, to Sky News to the Christian Science Monitor blamed Eyal Yifrach, Gil-Ad Shaer and Naftali Frankel for their victimization.
The boys deserve whatever they get, according to the media, because they are Jews and Jews have no right to be located anywhere that the Palestinians demand be cleansed of Jewish presence. And the Palestinians demand that Gush Etzion be emptied of Jews. So the boys, who dared to be located in Gush Etzion, had it coming.
And the blame doesn’t end with the victims. In trying to rescue them, the Israeli government is also committing an unpardonable crime – against Palestinian unity, no less.
According to The New York Times’ Israel bureau chief Jodi Rudoren, by searching for the boys, Israel has “further destabilized Israeli-Palestinian relations, and challenged the new Palestinian government’s ability to hold together disparate political factions and reunite the West Bank and Gaza after a seven-year split.”
As Seth Mandel wrote in Commentary, “If the unity government can survive only by being permitted to carry out terrorism against Israel without response or consequences, it is not so much a government as a sadistic terrorist gang.”
Mandel understated the problem. There is no conditionality. The Palestinian government is “a sadistic terrorist gang.” “The disparate political factions,” Rudoren was referring to are Fatah and Hamas.
Hamas, as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said, kidnapped the teenagers. Hamas is a jihadist movement recognized by the US State Department and the EU as a foreign terrorist organization.
Its declared goal is the genocide of world Jewry. And to advance its aim, it has murdered Jews, and incited, trained and indoctrinated Palestinians to murder Jews every single day since it was founded in 1988.
As for Fatah, since Frankel, Shaer and Yifrach were taken on Thursday night, Fatah has glorified and celebrated their capture on its official Facebook page and its official newspaper. Fatah’s Facebook page depicted the boys as rats, reeled in by a fishing pole.
The Palestinian Authority’s daily newspaper Al Hayat al Jadida published a mock World Cup logo in which three hands held three people who held their hands up in surrender.
And Fatah activists posted a revealing directive on Facebook after the boys were abducted.
No, Abbas’s “moderate” faction of the Palestinian unity government, so energetically supported by the US, the EU and the western media, did not call for the public to quit celebrating the abduction. Nor did it condemn the brutal assault.
The Fatah activists called for shopkeepers in the vicinity of the kidnapping to destroy any footage their security cameras filmed in the 24 hours following the operation to prevent the IDF from seizing the footage and using it in its efforts to locate the boys.
That makes Fatah an accessory after the fact to the attack. And yes, that means that the PA – which is comprised of Fatah and Hamas – is in fact one great big terrorist organization.
When Rudoren and her colleagues in the media look in the mirror, they don’t see themselves as enablers of murderers and champions of terrorists.
They see themselves as right-minded people who seek peace.
The same of course goes for the EU, which celebrated the formation of the Fatah-Hamas unity government, and has so far refused to condemn the kidnapping.
It also goes for the Obama administration which raced the EU to recognize the Fatah-Hamas government and promised that the US would continue funding the PA in breach of the letter of US law.
They all say they just want peace, for the betterment of all.
Taking them at their word, it is mystifying why they are so unconcerned with the behavior of Palestinian leaders.
All the two-state champions view PA President and Fatah chief Mahmoud Abbas as either the head of a state or as the head of a state-in-the-making. And as such, they perceive him as someone who represents the Palestinians, and as Rudoren wrote, someone who is unifying “disparate political factions and reunit[ing] the West Bank and Gaza after a seven-year split.”
Abbas himself encourages this view by among other things presenting himself as the “President of Palestine,” by signing international agreements for the “State of Palestine” and by demanding that the world community pressure Israel to submit to his territorial and political demands for the benefit of “Palestine.”
Yet when Israel does what he supposedly wants, and holds him responsible, as the head of the Palestinian government, for the abduction of its children by his coalition partner, Abbas cries foul and says Israel has no right to hold him responsible.
Rather than demand that Abbas take the responsibility he claims to carry, and convince his coalition partner to return the children they stole, the two-stater peaceniks blame Israel. And the kidnapped boys.
I will admit that it was pretty stupid of the boys to hitchhike within a Palestinian area, but to blame them for their kidnapping is to absolve the terrorists that abducted them.
OUR WORLD: IGNORING THE ELEPHANT
The boys deserve whatever they get, according to the media, because they are Jews
By Caroline Glick
The Jerusalem Post
June 17, 2014
Three Jewish boys were abducted by Palestinian terrorists while trying to catch a ride home from school Thursday night. And as far as the foreign press is concerned, it’s their own damned fault.
As Honest Reporting documented, everyone from The Guardian to CNN, to Sky News to the Christian Science Monitor blamed Eyal Yifrach, Gil-Ad Shaer and Naftali Frankel for their victimization.
The boys deserve whatever they get, according to the media, because they are Jews and Jews have no right to be located anywhere that the Palestinians demand be cleansed of Jewish presence. And the Palestinians demand that Gush Etzion be emptied of Jews. So the boys, who dared to be located in Gush Etzion, had it coming.
And the blame doesn’t end with the victims. In trying to rescue them, the Israeli government is also committing an unpardonable crime – against Palestinian unity, no less.
According to The New York Times’ Israel bureau chief Jodi Rudoren, by searching for the boys, Israel has “further destabilized Israeli-Palestinian relations, and challenged the new Palestinian government’s ability to hold together disparate political factions and reunite the West Bank and Gaza after a seven-year split.”
As Seth Mandel wrote in Commentary, “If the unity government can survive only by being permitted to carry out terrorism against Israel without response or consequences, it is not so much a government as a sadistic terrorist gang.”
Mandel understated the problem. There is no conditionality. The Palestinian government is “a sadistic terrorist gang.” “The disparate political factions,” Rudoren was referring to are Fatah and Hamas.
Hamas, as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said, kidnapped the teenagers. Hamas is a jihadist movement recognized by the US State Department and the EU as a foreign terrorist organization.
Its declared goal is the genocide of world Jewry. And to advance its aim, it has murdered Jews, and incited, trained and indoctrinated Palestinians to murder Jews every single day since it was founded in 1988.
As for Fatah, since Frankel, Shaer and Yifrach were taken on Thursday night, Fatah has glorified and celebrated their capture on its official Facebook page and its official newspaper. Fatah’s Facebook page depicted the boys as rats, reeled in by a fishing pole.
The Palestinian Authority’s daily newspaper Al Hayat al Jadida published a mock World Cup logo in which three hands held three people who held their hands up in surrender.
And Fatah activists posted a revealing directive on Facebook after the boys were abducted.
No, Abbas’s “moderate” faction of the Palestinian unity government, so energetically supported by the US, the EU and the western media, did not call for the public to quit celebrating the abduction. Nor did it condemn the brutal assault.
The Fatah activists called for shopkeepers in the vicinity of the kidnapping to destroy any footage their security cameras filmed in the 24 hours following the operation to prevent the IDF from seizing the footage and using it in its efforts to locate the boys.
That makes Fatah an accessory after the fact to the attack. And yes, that means that the PA – which is comprised of Fatah and Hamas – is in fact one great big terrorist organization.
When Rudoren and her colleagues in the media look in the mirror, they don’t see themselves as enablers of murderers and champions of terrorists.
They see themselves as right-minded people who seek peace.
The same of course goes for the EU, which celebrated the formation of the Fatah-Hamas unity government, and has so far refused to condemn the kidnapping.
It also goes for the Obama administration which raced the EU to recognize the Fatah-Hamas government and promised that the US would continue funding the PA in breach of the letter of US law.
They all say they just want peace, for the betterment of all.
Taking them at their word, it is mystifying why they are so unconcerned with the behavior of Palestinian leaders.
All the two-state champions view PA President and Fatah chief Mahmoud Abbas as either the head of a state or as the head of a state-in-the-making. And as such, they perceive him as someone who represents the Palestinians, and as Rudoren wrote, someone who is unifying “disparate political factions and reunit[ing] the West Bank and Gaza after a seven-year split.”
Abbas himself encourages this view by among other things presenting himself as the “President of Palestine,” by signing international agreements for the “State of Palestine” and by demanding that the world community pressure Israel to submit to his territorial and political demands for the benefit of “Palestine.”
Yet when Israel does what he supposedly wants, and holds him responsible, as the head of the Palestinian government, for the abduction of its children by his coalition partner, Abbas cries foul and says Israel has no right to hold him responsible.
Rather than demand that Abbas take the responsibility he claims to carry, and convince his coalition partner to return the children they stole, the two-stater peaceniks blame Israel. And the kidnapped boys.
A PROBLEM WITH VETERAN COPS TEACHING CLASSES
There is a propensity for veteran cops teaching a class to be sidetracked off the subject and turning into windbags telling war stories and sometimes making derogatory comments about other cops. Here is the case of LAPD detective Frank Lyga letting his mouth overload his ass. Lyga now finds himself in career ending deep shit because Jasmine Cannick, a black activist, released an audio recording of Lyga’s remarks and is demanding his white ass be fired.
Since he is 57 years old, Lyga is probably eligible for retirement and, if so, my advice is for him to take the money and run.
LAPD DETECTIVE IS SUSPECTED OF RACIAL, VULGAR COMMENTS
An inquiry has centered on an audio recording of an LAPD detective's allegedly racially charged comments
By Joel Rubin
Los Angeles Times
June 17, 2014
Los Angeles police officials are investigating allegations that a veteran detective made racially charged comments about shooting black men and disparaged several superiors with vulgar insults during a training lecture given to other cops.
Frank Lyga, a veteran investigator assigned to the LAPD's gang and narcotic division, has been removed from field duties pending the outcome of the investigation, said Cmdr. Andrew Smith, a department spokesman.
Internal affairs investigators opened an inquiry into Lyga, 57, after a fellow officer filed a complaint against him for the comments he allegedly made while teaching a class at the department's training academy, Smith said.
The investigation has centered on an audio recording allegedly capturing the comments.
Smith declined to comment on whether investigators have confirmed that the voice on the recording is Lyga's. However, a department source with close knowledge of the case said investigators believe it is Lyga speaking. The official spoke on the condition that his name not be used because internal investigations are confidential.
A copy of the recording was released publicly last week by Jasmyne Cannick, a political consultant and writer. The LAPD official confirmed to The Times that comments on the recording put out by Cannick are the same as those on the recording the department reviewed in its investigation.
Cannick said the recording was made by an African American officer who attended the class Lyga taught last November.
On the recording, a man gives a rambling, expletive-laden talk that revolves mostly around Lyga's 1997 shooting death of Kevin Gaines, an off-duty LAPD officer.
According to police accounts of the shooting, Lyga was working an undercover narcotics operation when he became involved in a traffic dispute with Gaines. Apparently, neither man knew the other was a police officer.
Gaines allegedly pulled a gun on Lyga to threaten him. Lyga, who said he feared for his life, fired twice at Gaines, killing him.
The shooting sparked racial tensions within the department because Gaines was black and Lyga is white.
In recounting the LAPD's investigation into the shooting and the lawsuit Gaines' family filed, the man on the recording complains repeatedly that he was unfairly labeled as "a racist killer."
At the end of the recording, which appears to capture the last half-hour of a longer talk, the man recalled a confrontation he had with Carl Douglas, a prominent attorney who helped represent Gaines' family in their lawsuit.
Douglas, the man said, asked him if he believed all "young black men" were gang members. And then shortly later asked if he regretted shooting Gaines.
"I said, 'No, I regret he was alone in the truck at the time,' " the man recalled. "I could have killed a whole truckload of them and I would have been happy doing so."
Earlier in the recording, the man fired off slurs aimed at a female LAPD captain, a lieutenant, and others including, Johnnie Cochran, the late attorney who also represented Gaines' family.
Using crass language, the man commented on the captain's attractiveness and insinuated she was sexually promiscuous.
He called the lieutenant, Paul Vernon, "an [expletive] moron."
"I said, 'No, I regret he was alone in the truck at the time,' " the man recalled. "I could have killed a whole truckload of them and I would have been happy doing so."
Earlier in the recording, the man fired off slurs aimed at a female LAPD captain, a lieutenant, and others including, Johnnie Cochran, the late attorney who also represented Gaines' family.
Using crass language, the man commented on the captain's attractiveness and insinuated she was sexually promiscuous.
He called the lieutenant, Paul Vernon, "a fucking moron."
"I've never met Frank Lyga in all these years, but have heard from others that he has some animus toward me," Vernon said. "I haven't lost any sleep over it yet and I won't now."
Lyga did not return repeated calls and emails for comment. The local NBC affiliate reported Tuesday that in a brief interview with Lyga, the detective acknowledged making the comments and expressed regret, but also claimed his words had been taken out of context.
Cannick said she released the recording, in part, to challenge the claim made often by top LAPD officials that the department has broken from past decades marked by racism and abuse in its ranks.
"I beg to differ when relics like this are still working in the LAPD," Cannick said. "It's scary to think the department has someone with that mentality training other officers."
The investigation into Lyga comes at a particularly sensitive time for LAPD Chief Charlie Beck, who is seeking a second five-year term as chief.
Beck has won wide praise for his management of the department during his first term, But he has been criticized in recent months for a decision he made in another case involving another officer caught on tape making racially disparaging remarks.
In that case, Beck overruled recommendations that Officer Shawn Hillmann be fired and instead gave him a lengthy suspension.
Beck would not comment on the ongoing investigation into Lyga, Smith said.
Since he is 57 years old, Lyga is probably eligible for retirement and, if so, my advice is for him to take the money and run.
LAPD DETECTIVE IS SUSPECTED OF RACIAL, VULGAR COMMENTS
An inquiry has centered on an audio recording of an LAPD detective's allegedly racially charged comments
By Joel Rubin
Los Angeles Times
June 17, 2014
Los Angeles police officials are investigating allegations that a veteran detective made racially charged comments about shooting black men and disparaged several superiors with vulgar insults during a training lecture given to other cops.
Frank Lyga, a veteran investigator assigned to the LAPD's gang and narcotic division, has been removed from field duties pending the outcome of the investigation, said Cmdr. Andrew Smith, a department spokesman.
Internal affairs investigators opened an inquiry into Lyga, 57, after a fellow officer filed a complaint against him for the comments he allegedly made while teaching a class at the department's training academy, Smith said.
The investigation has centered on an audio recording allegedly capturing the comments.
Smith declined to comment on whether investigators have confirmed that the voice on the recording is Lyga's. However, a department source with close knowledge of the case said investigators believe it is Lyga speaking. The official spoke on the condition that his name not be used because internal investigations are confidential.
A copy of the recording was released publicly last week by Jasmyne Cannick, a political consultant and writer. The LAPD official confirmed to The Times that comments on the recording put out by Cannick are the same as those on the recording the department reviewed in its investigation.
Cannick said the recording was made by an African American officer who attended the class Lyga taught last November.
On the recording, a man gives a rambling, expletive-laden talk that revolves mostly around Lyga's 1997 shooting death of Kevin Gaines, an off-duty LAPD officer.
According to police accounts of the shooting, Lyga was working an undercover narcotics operation when he became involved in a traffic dispute with Gaines. Apparently, neither man knew the other was a police officer.
Gaines allegedly pulled a gun on Lyga to threaten him. Lyga, who said he feared for his life, fired twice at Gaines, killing him.
The shooting sparked racial tensions within the department because Gaines was black and Lyga is white.
In recounting the LAPD's investigation into the shooting and the lawsuit Gaines' family filed, the man on the recording complains repeatedly that he was unfairly labeled as "a racist killer."
At the end of the recording, which appears to capture the last half-hour of a longer talk, the man recalled a confrontation he had with Carl Douglas, a prominent attorney who helped represent Gaines' family in their lawsuit.
Douglas, the man said, asked him if he believed all "young black men" were gang members. And then shortly later asked if he regretted shooting Gaines.
"I said, 'No, I regret he was alone in the truck at the time,' " the man recalled. "I could have killed a whole truckload of them and I would have been happy doing so."
Earlier in the recording, the man fired off slurs aimed at a female LAPD captain, a lieutenant, and others including, Johnnie Cochran, the late attorney who also represented Gaines' family.
Using crass language, the man commented on the captain's attractiveness and insinuated she was sexually promiscuous.
He called the lieutenant, Paul Vernon, "an [expletive] moron."
"I said, 'No, I regret he was alone in the truck at the time,' " the man recalled. "I could have killed a whole truckload of them and I would have been happy doing so."
Earlier in the recording, the man fired off slurs aimed at a female LAPD captain, a lieutenant, and others including, Johnnie Cochran, the late attorney who also represented Gaines' family.
Using crass language, the man commented on the captain's attractiveness and insinuated she was sexually promiscuous.
He called the lieutenant, Paul Vernon, "a fucking moron."
"I've never met Frank Lyga in all these years, but have heard from others that he has some animus toward me," Vernon said. "I haven't lost any sleep over it yet and I won't now."
Lyga did not return repeated calls and emails for comment. The local NBC affiliate reported Tuesday that in a brief interview with Lyga, the detective acknowledged making the comments and expressed regret, but also claimed his words had been taken out of context.
Cannick said she released the recording, in part, to challenge the claim made often by top LAPD officials that the department has broken from past decades marked by racism and abuse in its ranks.
"I beg to differ when relics like this are still working in the LAPD," Cannick said. "It's scary to think the department has someone with that mentality training other officers."
The investigation into Lyga comes at a particularly sensitive time for LAPD Chief Charlie Beck, who is seeking a second five-year term as chief.
Beck has won wide praise for his management of the department during his first term, But he has been criticized in recent months for a decision he made in another case involving another officer caught on tape making racially disparaging remarks.
In that case, Beck overruled recommendations that Officer Shawn Hillmann be fired and instead gave him a lengthy suspension.
Beck would not comment on the ongoing investigation into Lyga, Smith said.
OBAMA ADMINISTRATION ATTEMPTS TO INVALIDATE PROPERTY RIGHTS BY FIAT
By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
June 18, 2014
I wish I could say this is a gross exaggeration. It isn’t. Acting today the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office has invalidated the trademark of the Washington Redskins, based on a complaint by five allegedly aggrieved Native Americans. Assuming the appeal is unsuccessful this would mean that anybody could use the logo of the team for any reason without compensation, as the team would no longer own the logo and trademark.
This really is a big deal. What if the government decides that COLT or SMITH AND WESSON are “disparaging or offensive?” It could then invalidate their ownership of their own names, and conceivably other intellectual property. What if they decide that FORD (who did not take bailout money from the government) is somehow offensive to someone and that their trademark and logo are therefore invalid?
If the government decides who has a right to not be offended, and then takes actions that have economic effect against those people who are alleged to be offensive, where does the ball stop rolling? Swastikas. White sheets and hoods? Pentagrams? If this stands do you really think it will end here?
The Redskins trademark invalidation is stayed, pending appeal.
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
June 18, 2014
I wish I could say this is a gross exaggeration. It isn’t. Acting today the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office has invalidated the trademark of the Washington Redskins, based on a complaint by five allegedly aggrieved Native Americans. Assuming the appeal is unsuccessful this would mean that anybody could use the logo of the team for any reason without compensation, as the team would no longer own the logo and trademark.
This really is a big deal. What if the government decides that COLT or SMITH AND WESSON are “disparaging or offensive?” It could then invalidate their ownership of their own names, and conceivably other intellectual property. What if they decide that FORD (who did not take bailout money from the government) is somehow offensive to someone and that their trademark and logo are therefore invalid?
If the government decides who has a right to not be offended, and then takes actions that have economic effect against those people who are alleged to be offensive, where does the ball stop rolling? Swastikas. White sheets and hoods? Pentagrams? If this stands do you really think it will end here?
The Redskins trademark invalidation is stayed, pending appeal.
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
OBAMA’S FOREIGN POLICY: CRAVENNESS THAT PASSES FOR CLEVERNESS
‘Mr. Obama's method [of dealing with a foreign crisis] is to ignore a crisis for as long as possible, give a speech, impose a sanction, and switch the subject to climate change or income inequality’
On June 15, I posted OBAMA’S FOREIGN POLICY MANUAL, a political cartoon that depicted President Obama thumbing through the Beginner’s Edition of “Foreign Policy For Dummies: A Reference For Fighting Terrorists.” Unfortunately, with all of the Obama Administration’s recent foreign policy fiascos, it would seem there is more truth than fiction in that cartoon.
THE PACE OF OBAMA’S DISASTERS
Bergdahl one week. Then Ukraine. Now Iraq. What could be next?
By Bret Stephens
The Wall Street Journal
June `6, 2014
Was it only 10 months ago that President Obama capitulated on Syria? And eight months ago that we learned he had no idea the U.S. eavesdropped on Angela Merkel ? And seven months ago that his administration struck its disastrous interim nuclear deal with Tehran? And four months ago that Chuck Hagel announced that the United States Army would be cut to numbers not seen since the 1930s? And three months ago that Russia seized Crimea? And two months ago that John Kerry's Israeli-Palestinian peace effort sputtered into the void? And last month that Mr. Obama announced a timetable for total withdrawal from Afghanistan—a strategy whose predictable effects can now be seen in Iraq?
Even the Bergdahl deal of yesterweek is starting to feel like ancient history. Like geese, Americans are being forced to swallow foreign-policy fiascoes at a rate faster than we can possibly chew, much less digest.
Consider the liver.
On Thursday, Russian tanks rolled across the border into eastern Ukraine. On Saturday, Russian separatists downed a Ukrainian transport jet, murdering 49 people. On Monday, Moscow stopped delivering gas to Kiev. All this is part of the Kremlin's ongoing stealth invasion and subjugation of its neighbor. And all of this barely made the news. John Kerry phoned Moscow to express his "strong concern." Concern, mind you, not condemnation.
If the president of the United States had any thoughts on the subject, he kept them to himself. His weekly radio address was devoted to wishing America's dads a happy Father's Day.
Also last week, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria seized Mosul. Then ISIS took Tikrit. Then it was Tal Afar. Mass executions of Shiites in each place. The administration is taking its time deciding what, if any, aid it will provide the government in Baghdad. But it is exploring the possibility of using Iraq's distress as an opportunity to open avenues of cooperation with Tehran.
So because the administration has a theological objection to using military force in Iraq to prevent it from being overrun by al Qaeda or dissolving into potentially genocidal civil war, it will now work with Tehran, a designated state sponsor of terrorism for 30 years and a regime that continues to arm Hezbollah in Lebanon, Islamic Jihad in Gaza and Bashar Assad in Syria, to help "stabilize" Iraq. At least the White House has ruled out military cooperation with Iran. But give it time.
Here, then, is the cravenness that now passes for cleverness in this administration: Make friends with a terrorist regime to deal with a terrorist organization. Deliver Iraq's Arab Shiites into the hands of their Persian coreligionists, who will waste no time turning southern Iraq into a satrapy modeled on present-day Lebanon.
Deal brusquely with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki —who, for all his manifest shortcomings as a leader nonetheless wishes to be our ally—and obsequiously with an Iranian regime that spent the better part of the last decade killing American soldiers. Further alienate panicky allies in Riyadh and Jerusalem for the sake of ingratiating ourselves with the mullahs.
Hand those mullahs some additional strategic leverage as they head into the next (supposedly final) round of nuclear negotiations.
"We are, I am afraid, drifting in a state of semi-animation, towards the rapids." Those where the words of Hugh Dalton, Clement Attlee's chancellor of the exchequer, describing the state of Britain in the winter of 1947, on the eve of the end of Empire.
Back then, the U.K. had spent a quarter of its national treasure fighting World War II. It was still spending 19% of its GDP on its military budget. The coldest winter in its history had frozen the country's stocks of coal, causing electricity blackouts and putting two million people out of work.
The U.S. faces no such crises today. Mr. Obama blew the $787 billion stimulus bill of 2009 which exceeded the estimated $770 billion appropriated by Congress for the war in Iraq. Defense spending in the U.S. amounts to 4% of GDP. Our economy is sluggish, but it isn't crumbling.
Yet when it comes to leadership, we have our very own Clement Attlee at the top, eager to subtract the burdens of international responsibility so he can get on with the only thing that really animates him, which is building social democracy at home. Actually, that's unfair to Attlee, who could count on a powerful ally to pick up England's dropped reins, rescue Europe, stop the Soviets. Mr. Obama's method is to ignore a crisis for as long as possible, give a speech, impose a sanction, and switch the subject to climate change or income inequality.
America's retreat needn't end in tragedy, and even the Obama presidency is a survivable event. But the strategic blunders and international disasters are accumulating at an unsustainable pace. This is what the real post-American world looks like.
On June 15, I posted OBAMA’S FOREIGN POLICY MANUAL, a political cartoon that depicted President Obama thumbing through the Beginner’s Edition of “Foreign Policy For Dummies: A Reference For Fighting Terrorists.” Unfortunately, with all of the Obama Administration’s recent foreign policy fiascos, it would seem there is more truth than fiction in that cartoon.
THE PACE OF OBAMA’S DISASTERS
Bergdahl one week. Then Ukraine. Now Iraq. What could be next?
By Bret Stephens
The Wall Street Journal
June `6, 2014
Was it only 10 months ago that President Obama capitulated on Syria? And eight months ago that we learned he had no idea the U.S. eavesdropped on Angela Merkel ? And seven months ago that his administration struck its disastrous interim nuclear deal with Tehran? And four months ago that Chuck Hagel announced that the United States Army would be cut to numbers not seen since the 1930s? And three months ago that Russia seized Crimea? And two months ago that John Kerry's Israeli-Palestinian peace effort sputtered into the void? And last month that Mr. Obama announced a timetable for total withdrawal from Afghanistan—a strategy whose predictable effects can now be seen in Iraq?
Even the Bergdahl deal of yesterweek is starting to feel like ancient history. Like geese, Americans are being forced to swallow foreign-policy fiascoes at a rate faster than we can possibly chew, much less digest.
Consider the liver.
On Thursday, Russian tanks rolled across the border into eastern Ukraine. On Saturday, Russian separatists downed a Ukrainian transport jet, murdering 49 people. On Monday, Moscow stopped delivering gas to Kiev. All this is part of the Kremlin's ongoing stealth invasion and subjugation of its neighbor. And all of this barely made the news. John Kerry phoned Moscow to express his "strong concern." Concern, mind you, not condemnation.
If the president of the United States had any thoughts on the subject, he kept them to himself. His weekly radio address was devoted to wishing America's dads a happy Father's Day.
Also last week, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria seized Mosul. Then ISIS took Tikrit. Then it was Tal Afar. Mass executions of Shiites in each place. The administration is taking its time deciding what, if any, aid it will provide the government in Baghdad. But it is exploring the possibility of using Iraq's distress as an opportunity to open avenues of cooperation with Tehran.
So because the administration has a theological objection to using military force in Iraq to prevent it from being overrun by al Qaeda or dissolving into potentially genocidal civil war, it will now work with Tehran, a designated state sponsor of terrorism for 30 years and a regime that continues to arm Hezbollah in Lebanon, Islamic Jihad in Gaza and Bashar Assad in Syria, to help "stabilize" Iraq. At least the White House has ruled out military cooperation with Iran. But give it time.
Here, then, is the cravenness that now passes for cleverness in this administration: Make friends with a terrorist regime to deal with a terrorist organization. Deliver Iraq's Arab Shiites into the hands of their Persian coreligionists, who will waste no time turning southern Iraq into a satrapy modeled on present-day Lebanon.
Deal brusquely with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki —who, for all his manifest shortcomings as a leader nonetheless wishes to be our ally—and obsequiously with an Iranian regime that spent the better part of the last decade killing American soldiers. Further alienate panicky allies in Riyadh and Jerusalem for the sake of ingratiating ourselves with the mullahs.
Hand those mullahs some additional strategic leverage as they head into the next (supposedly final) round of nuclear negotiations.
"We are, I am afraid, drifting in a state of semi-animation, towards the rapids." Those where the words of Hugh Dalton, Clement Attlee's chancellor of the exchequer, describing the state of Britain in the winter of 1947, on the eve of the end of Empire.
Back then, the U.K. had spent a quarter of its national treasure fighting World War II. It was still spending 19% of its GDP on its military budget. The coldest winter in its history had frozen the country's stocks of coal, causing electricity blackouts and putting two million people out of work.
The U.S. faces no such crises today. Mr. Obama blew the $787 billion stimulus bill of 2009 which exceeded the estimated $770 billion appropriated by Congress for the war in Iraq. Defense spending in the U.S. amounts to 4% of GDP. Our economy is sluggish, but it isn't crumbling.
Yet when it comes to leadership, we have our very own Clement Attlee at the top, eager to subtract the burdens of international responsibility so he can get on with the only thing that really animates him, which is building social democracy at home. Actually, that's unfair to Attlee, who could count on a powerful ally to pick up England's dropped reins, rescue Europe, stop the Soviets. Mr. Obama's method is to ignore a crisis for as long as possible, give a speech, impose a sanction, and switch the subject to climate change or income inequality.
America's retreat needn't end in tragedy, and even the Obama presidency is a survivable event. But the strategic blunders and international disasters are accumulating at an unsustainable pace. This is what the real post-American world looks like.
THIS GUY’S FATHER’S DAY SUCKED
By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
June 16, 2014
Bounmy Rajsombath, 69, was over at his daughter’s place for father’s day in Riverside yesterday. Things were not going smoothly. The daughter, Soukvilay Barton, 37, was being unpleasant with her family members and was more than a little bit sloshed. She attempted to drive away from her house. Her father, who was concerned about her driving drunk, attempted to stop her. She ran over him. He died. She is under arrest.
I hope your Father’s Day was better than his.
__________
‘JC’ commented: And I thought mine sucked. Now I feel a bit better about mine. All I got was yelled at.
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
June 16, 2014
Bounmy Rajsombath, 69, was over at his daughter’s place for father’s day in Riverside yesterday. Things were not going smoothly. The daughter, Soukvilay Barton, 37, was being unpleasant with her family members and was more than a little bit sloshed. She attempted to drive away from her house. Her father, who was concerned about her driving drunk, attempted to stop her. She ran over him. He died. She is under arrest.
I hope your Father’s Day was better than his.
__________
‘JC’ commented: And I thought mine sucked. Now I feel a bit better about mine. All I got was yelled at.
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
5TH CIRCUIT RULES AGAINST FEDERAL JUDGE’S APPROVAL OF ‘CRUSH’ VIDEOS
U.S. District Judge Sim Lake had ruled that videos showing animals being tortured and killed with meat cleavers and knives for the sexual gratification of viewers were not legally obscene and were protected free speech
On August 23, 2012, I posted 'THE LOWEST OF THE LOW: Why humans are the cruelest of all living things; what kind of sickos get their sexual gratification by watching animals being tortured to death?’ about two scumbags who produced ‘crush’ videos showing unspeakable cruelties to innocent animals for the sexual gratification of sicko perverts who get their jollies watching such horrors.
In April 2013, Ashley Nicole Richards, 21, and Brent Wayne Justice, 51, were tried in a Houston federal court for violating the federal "animal crush video" statute by producing videos of Richards torturing and killing cats and dogs with meat cleavers and knives, all for the sexual gratification of viewers. U.S. District Judge Sim Lake threw the case out of court, ruling that the videos were not legally obscene and that they were protected free speech.
By his ruling, Judge Lake demonstrated that he is unfit to sit on the bench because he is as sick as the sickos who get their sexual gratification watching the mutilation of helpless little animals. Fortunately, the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals overturned Lake’s sicko ruling and ordered that Richards and Justice be retried.
Richards was sentenced to 10 years by a state court after pleading guilty to three counts of animal cruelty, enhanced from a misdemeanor to a felony because of the use of a deadly weapon. Justice is awaiting trial on the same charges. As for the sicko perverts who get their jollies by watching animals tortured to death, they should have their peckers or clits, whichever is applicable, torn from their sorry worthless bodies.
APPELLATE COURT REVERSES ‘CRUSH’ VIDEO DECISION
By Craig Malisow
Houston Press Hair Balls
June 13, 2014
A federal appeals court has reversed a lower court's decision that a law banning the production and sale of animal "crush" videos is unconstitutional, allowing prosecutors to refile charges against a Houston duo accused of recording the torturing of dogs and cats.
The decision revives the federal case against Ashley Nicole Richards and Brent Wayne Justice, believed to be the first defendants charged under a 2010 federal statute banning crush videos. But U.S. District Court Judge Sim Lake dismissed those charges in 2013, ruling that the statute was overbroad and that the content of the videos was not legally obscene. Under the statute, Richards and Justice had each faced up to 50 years in prison.
In the ruling issued Friday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals found that the Animal Crush Video Prohibition Act is "narrow and tailored to target unprotected speech that requires the wanton torture and killing of animals."
In the videos, which Justice allegedly recorded, Richards slowly and methodically uses knives and other tools to slowly mutilate and kill animals. In a video excerpt viewed by the Houston Press, -- which only include the prelude to actual cutting -- Richards, clad in black bra, short-shorts, and heels, talks in a domineering tone and brushes the flat side of a knife blade against a cat whose paws have been duct-taped.
An animal cruelty investigator with the Houston Police Department testified in a 2012 detention hearing to the contents of another video, which showed Richards burning a dog with a cigarette, taping its mouth shut, binding its paws with rope, and hacking the dog with a meat cleaver -- ultimately beheading it -- and then urinating on the corpse.
In addressing the defendants' arguments that the Act unconstitutionally targeted the content of speech, Judge Stephen Higginson wrote that "the plain language and the history and revisions of [the Act] suggest there is no realistic possibility that official suppression of ideas is afoot."
Hair Balls appreciates Higginson's dash of cheekiness: "Even assuming, for the sake of argument, that the creators and distributors of animal crush videos, like Richards and Justice, intend to advance a distinct message, perhaps about barbarism, [the Act] is justified with reference not to the content of such a message but rather to its secondary effects -- wanton torture and killing that, as demonstrated by federal and state animal-cruelty laws, society has deemed worthy of criminal sanction."
Higginson also wrote that the Court agreed with the legislative intent behind the Act: "Congress found that the clandestine manner in which animal crush videos are made makes it difficult for states to enforce laws that criminalize the underlying conduct. We conclude similarly that Congress has a significant interest in preventing the secondary effects of animal crush videos, which promote and require violence and criminal activity."
The Harris County District Attorney's Office had also charged Richards and Justice with animal cruelty, enhanced from a misdemeanor to a felony because of the use of a deadly weapon. Richards pleaded guilty to three counts and was sentenced in May 2014 to ten years in prison. Two additional counts are pending. (Prosecutors sought to have the sentences run consecutively, which would have made it 30 years).
Justice pleaded not guilty to one count and is facing trial later this year.Richards is expected to testify against him. (Both Richards and Justice remain in Harris County Jail, in lieu of bond).
This has been quite a saga, and we're sure to have more soon.
On August 23, 2012, I posted 'THE LOWEST OF THE LOW: Why humans are the cruelest of all living things; what kind of sickos get their sexual gratification by watching animals being tortured to death?’ about two scumbags who produced ‘crush’ videos showing unspeakable cruelties to innocent animals for the sexual gratification of sicko perverts who get their jollies watching such horrors.
In April 2013, Ashley Nicole Richards, 21, and Brent Wayne Justice, 51, were tried in a Houston federal court for violating the federal "animal crush video" statute by producing videos of Richards torturing and killing cats and dogs with meat cleavers and knives, all for the sexual gratification of viewers. U.S. District Judge Sim Lake threw the case out of court, ruling that the videos were not legally obscene and that they were protected free speech.
By his ruling, Judge Lake demonstrated that he is unfit to sit on the bench because he is as sick as the sickos who get their sexual gratification watching the mutilation of helpless little animals. Fortunately, the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals overturned Lake’s sicko ruling and ordered that Richards and Justice be retried.
Richards was sentenced to 10 years by a state court after pleading guilty to three counts of animal cruelty, enhanced from a misdemeanor to a felony because of the use of a deadly weapon. Justice is awaiting trial on the same charges. As for the sicko perverts who get their jollies by watching animals tortured to death, they should have their peckers or clits, whichever is applicable, torn from their sorry worthless bodies.
APPELLATE COURT REVERSES ‘CRUSH’ VIDEO DECISION
By Craig Malisow
Houston Press Hair Balls
June 13, 2014
A federal appeals court has reversed a lower court's decision that a law banning the production and sale of animal "crush" videos is unconstitutional, allowing prosecutors to refile charges against a Houston duo accused of recording the torturing of dogs and cats.
The decision revives the federal case against Ashley Nicole Richards and Brent Wayne Justice, believed to be the first defendants charged under a 2010 federal statute banning crush videos. But U.S. District Court Judge Sim Lake dismissed those charges in 2013, ruling that the statute was overbroad and that the content of the videos was not legally obscene. Under the statute, Richards and Justice had each faced up to 50 years in prison.
In the ruling issued Friday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals found that the Animal Crush Video Prohibition Act is "narrow and tailored to target unprotected speech that requires the wanton torture and killing of animals."
In the videos, which Justice allegedly recorded, Richards slowly and methodically uses knives and other tools to slowly mutilate and kill animals. In a video excerpt viewed by the Houston Press, -- which only include the prelude to actual cutting -- Richards, clad in black bra, short-shorts, and heels, talks in a domineering tone and brushes the flat side of a knife blade against a cat whose paws have been duct-taped.
An animal cruelty investigator with the Houston Police Department testified in a 2012 detention hearing to the contents of another video, which showed Richards burning a dog with a cigarette, taping its mouth shut, binding its paws with rope, and hacking the dog with a meat cleaver -- ultimately beheading it -- and then urinating on the corpse.
In addressing the defendants' arguments that the Act unconstitutionally targeted the content of speech, Judge Stephen Higginson wrote that "the plain language and the history and revisions of [the Act] suggest there is no realistic possibility that official suppression of ideas is afoot."
Hair Balls appreciates Higginson's dash of cheekiness: "Even assuming, for the sake of argument, that the creators and distributors of animal crush videos, like Richards and Justice, intend to advance a distinct message, perhaps about barbarism, [the Act] is justified with reference not to the content of such a message but rather to its secondary effects -- wanton torture and killing that, as demonstrated by federal and state animal-cruelty laws, society has deemed worthy of criminal sanction."
Higginson also wrote that the Court agreed with the legislative intent behind the Act: "Congress found that the clandestine manner in which animal crush videos are made makes it difficult for states to enforce laws that criminalize the underlying conduct. We conclude similarly that Congress has a significant interest in preventing the secondary effects of animal crush videos, which promote and require violence and criminal activity."
The Harris County District Attorney's Office had also charged Richards and Justice with animal cruelty, enhanced from a misdemeanor to a felony because of the use of a deadly weapon. Richards pleaded guilty to three counts and was sentenced in May 2014 to ten years in prison. Two additional counts are pending. (Prosecutors sought to have the sentences run consecutively, which would have made it 30 years).
Justice pleaded not guilty to one count and is facing trial later this year.Richards is expected to testify against him. (Both Richards and Justice remain in Harris County Jail, in lieu of bond).
This has been quite a saga, and we're sure to have more soon.
ARE THOSE WHO DO NOT ACCEPT JESUS CHRIST AS OUR LORD AND SAVIOR DOOMED TO GO TO HELL?
Back in the ’60s, Ben Clark, the late, longtime Sheriff of Riverside County, and I were pallbearers at the funeral of our friend Stan Everett’s father. His dad was a hardshell Baptist. The Baptist preacher who conducted the funeral service gave a bible-thumping sermon which ended with him shouting, “If you don’t accept Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, you are going straight to Hell.” Ben nudged me in the side with his elbow, turned to me and whispered, “It looks like you’re going to Hell.”
Worldwide, Christians are in a minority. There are many more Muslims. There are a lot of Hindus and Buddhists. There are some Jews like me. There is a scattering of other non-Christian faiths. My question is, are all of us who do not accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior really going to Hell? If so, it sure is going to get crowded down there.
Here is how Jeff ‘Paco’ Doyle, the founder and publisher of PACOVILLA Corrections blog, answered my question:
I have always believed Salvation is attainable post-mortem. Beyond that, as my Mom always told me, God has a documented record of giving His chosen people second chances. She is something of an eclectic, and taught me Christians ARE de facto Jews as the faith was born of Judaism and our Lord was a Rabbi. She believes, as do I, the fate of Jews and Christians are one and the same. Certainly, the followers of that other large faith believe we are one and the same.
Parenthetically, most Christians fail to realize the refusal of the Sanhedrin (and hence that of their flock) to accept Christ is CRITICAL to the concept of salvation.
The New Testament is unequivocal: Jesus had to die—His blood sacrifice is the only way to wash us of sin and make us suitable to be with God.
In that context, I am amazed by ignorant Jew Hating "Christians" who blame Jews for "killing our Lord." I mean, the New Testament clearly says what happened HAD to happen and had been predicted by the Prophet Isaiah. So, Judas did what he was ordained to do, as did the Sanhedrin, as did the Romans...
I only came to accept Christ a few years ago. He was one fine Jew and I am proud to follow him...I was even before Dad recently found out about the 2 Doyle brothers who married twin Jewish immigrant fillies around 1820.
I always suspected I had Jewish blood because I have guilt and angst down to a science! Unfortunately, if there is anything genetic to the vaunted Jewish business-sense, that gene slipped by.
Now I feel much relieved. From what Paco said, I would have to conclude that the Baptist preacher who said I was going straight to hell was just full of shit when he shouted that at the funeral. I may yet go to Hell, but it won’t be because I don’t accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior.
Worldwide, Christians are in a minority. There are many more Muslims. There are a lot of Hindus and Buddhists. There are some Jews like me. There is a scattering of other non-Christian faiths. My question is, are all of us who do not accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior really going to Hell? If so, it sure is going to get crowded down there.
Here is how Jeff ‘Paco’ Doyle, the founder and publisher of PACOVILLA Corrections blog, answered my question:
I have always believed Salvation is attainable post-mortem. Beyond that, as my Mom always told me, God has a documented record of giving His chosen people second chances. She is something of an eclectic, and taught me Christians ARE de facto Jews as the faith was born of Judaism and our Lord was a Rabbi. She believes, as do I, the fate of Jews and Christians are one and the same. Certainly, the followers of that other large faith believe we are one and the same.
Parenthetically, most Christians fail to realize the refusal of the Sanhedrin (and hence that of their flock) to accept Christ is CRITICAL to the concept of salvation.
The New Testament is unequivocal: Jesus had to die—His blood sacrifice is the only way to wash us of sin and make us suitable to be with God.
In that context, I am amazed by ignorant Jew Hating "Christians" who blame Jews for "killing our Lord." I mean, the New Testament clearly says what happened HAD to happen and had been predicted by the Prophet Isaiah. So, Judas did what he was ordained to do, as did the Sanhedrin, as did the Romans...
I only came to accept Christ a few years ago. He was one fine Jew and I am proud to follow him...I was even before Dad recently found out about the 2 Doyle brothers who married twin Jewish immigrant fillies around 1820.
I always suspected I had Jewish blood because I have guilt and angst down to a science! Unfortunately, if there is anything genetic to the vaunted Jewish business-sense, that gene slipped by.
Now I feel much relieved. From what Paco said, I would have to conclude that the Baptist preacher who said I was going straight to hell was just full of shit when he shouted that at the funeral. I may yet go to Hell, but it won’t be because I don’t accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior.
THE HIGH SCHOOL REUNION THEY WILL NEVER FORGET
An Illinois class reunion was interrupted by gunfire that took the lives of a woman, her new boyfriend and her ex-husband
The East Peoria Community High School Class of 1999 was holding its reunion Saturday at the Fifth Quarter Sports Bar and Pizzeria in East Peoria, Illinois. Lori Moore, 33, and her new boyfriend Lance Griffel, 36, were among the 100 people on the premises when around 8 p.m. in walks Jason Moore, 40, Lori’s ex-husband.
Jason calmly walked up to Lori and Lance, whipped out a gun, and shot them both in the head. Then an unidentified off-duty FBI agent, who happened to be there, whipped out his gun and shot Jason to death.
Now that’s a high school reunion the Class of 1999 will never forget.
The East Peoria Community High School Class of 1999 was holding its reunion Saturday at the Fifth Quarter Sports Bar and Pizzeria in East Peoria, Illinois. Lori Moore, 33, and her new boyfriend Lance Griffel, 36, were among the 100 people on the premises when around 8 p.m. in walks Jason Moore, 40, Lori’s ex-husband.
Jason calmly walked up to Lori and Lance, whipped out a gun, and shot them both in the head. Then an unidentified off-duty FBI agent, who happened to be there, whipped out his gun and shot Jason to death.
Now that’s a high school reunion the Class of 1999 will never forget.
A FRIENDLY BET BETWEEN TWO POLICE CHIEFS
When the LA Kings beat the NY Rangers for the Stanley Cup, NY Police Commissioner Bill Bratton lost a bet with LA Police Chief Charlie Beck
Bratton owes Beck a lunch at Katz’s Deli in New York City. There’s nothing like a real Jewish delicatessen. Beck is sure to enjoy his corned beef or pastrami sandwich.
I’m glad Beck won the bet because I was pulling for the Kings.
HOLD THE MUSTARD! BRATTON LOSES STANLEY CUP FINALS BET WITH LAPD CHIEF CHARLIE BECK
By Thomas Tracy
New York Daily News
June 14, 2014
There's a trip to Katz's Deli in Police Commissioner Bill Bratton's future -- but he won't be happy about it.
The NYPD's top cop promised to treat LAPD Police Chief Charlie Beck to lunch at Katz's if the Rangers lost to the LA Kings during the Stanley Cup Finals.
With the Kings' nail-biting 3-2 overtime victory on Friday, Bratton will have to live up to the gentleman's bet that now comes with a side of mustard.
The bet was made before the Stanley Cup Finals kicked off. If the Rangers were victorious, Beck would have treated Bratton to lunch at Langers, a pastrami mainstay in the city of angels.
Of course, the cross-country agreement was amped up on Twitter.
"Looking forward to@commissBratton buying lunch at Katz's Deli in New York when #Kings beat #Rangers in #StanleyCupFinal. #GoKingsGo!" Beck wrote.
Bratton quickly fired back, writing, "@Lapdchiefbeck Glad you like pastrami at Langers in LA. That way you won't mind losing as much. Place my corned beef order now, please."
Bratton was LAPD chief from 2002 to 2009.
Bratton owes Beck a lunch at Katz’s Deli in New York City. There’s nothing like a real Jewish delicatessen. Beck is sure to enjoy his corned beef or pastrami sandwich.
I’m glad Beck won the bet because I was pulling for the Kings.
HOLD THE MUSTARD! BRATTON LOSES STANLEY CUP FINALS BET WITH LAPD CHIEF CHARLIE BECK
By Thomas Tracy
New York Daily News
June 14, 2014
There's a trip to Katz's Deli in Police Commissioner Bill Bratton's future -- but he won't be happy about it.
The NYPD's top cop promised to treat LAPD Police Chief Charlie Beck to lunch at Katz's if the Rangers lost to the LA Kings during the Stanley Cup Finals.
With the Kings' nail-biting 3-2 overtime victory on Friday, Bratton will have to live up to the gentleman's bet that now comes with a side of mustard.
The bet was made before the Stanley Cup Finals kicked off. If the Rangers were victorious, Beck would have treated Bratton to lunch at Langers, a pastrami mainstay in the city of angels.
Of course, the cross-country agreement was amped up on Twitter.
"Looking forward to@commissBratton buying lunch at Katz's Deli in New York when #Kings beat #Rangers in #StanleyCupFinal. #GoKingsGo!" Beck wrote.
Bratton quickly fired back, writing, "@Lapdchiefbeck Glad you like pastrami at Langers in LA. That way you won't mind losing as much. Place my corned beef order now, please."
Bratton was LAPD chief from 2002 to 2009.
ANOTHER ‘SUCCESSFUL’ CALIFORNIA PAROLEE
64-year-old entrepreneurial parolee, who resided in a senior citizen village, went into the business of manufacturing and selling meth
Robert Short, 64, was stopped Saturday evening by Fresno cops for a traffic violation. A records check revealed that Short was on parole for selling meth. Since state law allowed them to make a warrantless search of a parolee’s car, the officers conducted a search in which they found and seized four ounces of meth, an electronic scale and plastic baggies. The seizures indicated that Robert was once again in the business of selling meth.
The cops took the entrepreneurial parolee in tow and proceeded to Short’s apartment which was located in the California League Village, a senior citizen community, where they found and seized a half pound of meth, some heroin, and the ingredients and equipment for a small meth lab.
The door to Short’s apartment was plastered with signs warning people to go away and to grant him privacy. The seniors of the California League Village were shocked that one of their own was operating a meth lab within their midst. And so were the cops.
Robert Short, 64, was stopped Saturday evening by Fresno cops for a traffic violation. A records check revealed that Short was on parole for selling meth. Since state law allowed them to make a warrantless search of a parolee’s car, the officers conducted a search in which they found and seized four ounces of meth, an electronic scale and plastic baggies. The seizures indicated that Robert was once again in the business of selling meth.
The cops took the entrepreneurial parolee in tow and proceeded to Short’s apartment which was located in the California League Village, a senior citizen community, where they found and seized a half pound of meth, some heroin, and the ingredients and equipment for a small meth lab.
The door to Short’s apartment was plastered with signs warning people to go away and to grant him privacy. The seniors of the California League Village were shocked that one of their own was operating a meth lab within their midst. And so were the cops.
Monday, June 16, 2014
WHAT WE GOT FOR 25 BILLION DOLLARS
800 Islamist fighters ran off 30,000 American trained Iraqi army soldiers
The U.S. Army spent several years training, equipping and building up a new Iraqi army at a cost of $25 billion. As we were preparing to leave Iraq, our military leaders assured us that the new one million-man Iraqi army was capable of taking over for the departing American troops.
It is estimated that only 800 Sunni Islamists attacked Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city. Mosul was defended by 30,000 troops equipped by us with modern weapons, Humvees and Stryker armored fighting vehicles. The Islamists arrived in small Toyota, Nissan and Mazda pickup trucks, some of which had heavy caliber machine guns mounted in the truck beds.
The battle for Mosul lasted only a few minutes. The Iraqi soldiers quickly shed their uniforms and abandoned their weapons, with many of them surrendering in civilian clothing. The rest evaporated into thin air.
What’s left of the Iraqi army is being bolstered in Baghdad by thousands of fanatical Shiite militant volunteers who, although not trained or equipped by us, will prove to be a formidable foe for the Sunni militants. Those fanatical Shiites are led by Muqtada al-Sadr, a powerful anti-American cleric.
800 militants armed with AK-47s, rocket propelled grenades, and driving pickup trucks with mounted machine guns vs. 30,000 regular army troops armed with modern weapons and Stryker armored vehicles. It almost seems like we trained and equipped an army to collapse at the first sign of enemy fire.
That’s $25 billion thrown down a shithole ... and now the Obama administration is considering sending the Iraqi army additional military supplies that will cost us another load of money and may end up in enemy hands.
The U.S. Army spent several years training, equipping and building up a new Iraqi army at a cost of $25 billion. As we were preparing to leave Iraq, our military leaders assured us that the new one million-man Iraqi army was capable of taking over for the departing American troops.
It is estimated that only 800 Sunni Islamists attacked Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city. Mosul was defended by 30,000 troops equipped by us with modern weapons, Humvees and Stryker armored fighting vehicles. The Islamists arrived in small Toyota, Nissan and Mazda pickup trucks, some of which had heavy caliber machine guns mounted in the truck beds.
The battle for Mosul lasted only a few minutes. The Iraqi soldiers quickly shed their uniforms and abandoned their weapons, with many of them surrendering in civilian clothing. The rest evaporated into thin air.
What’s left of the Iraqi army is being bolstered in Baghdad by thousands of fanatical Shiite militant volunteers who, although not trained or equipped by us, will prove to be a formidable foe for the Sunni militants. Those fanatical Shiites are led by Muqtada al-Sadr, a powerful anti-American cleric.
800 militants armed with AK-47s, rocket propelled grenades, and driving pickup trucks with mounted machine guns vs. 30,000 regular army troops armed with modern weapons and Stryker armored vehicles. It almost seems like we trained and equipped an army to collapse at the first sign of enemy fire.
That’s $25 billion thrown down a shithole ... and now the Obama administration is considering sending the Iraqi army additional military supplies that will cost us another load of money and may end up in enemy hands.
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