Judging by her high school yearbook photo, my guess was that Ann Coulter was voted Most Likely to Blow a Dead Elephant.

popseal Slidell, La.

If you liked the leftist assault against Palin, just wait. The yet to be exposed weakness of Romney is the touchy subject of religion. The left will turn over Mormon rocks and find a vast wasteland of doctrinal weeds. On the strength of logical gymnastics, Romney thinks he'll one day be a god on another planet ! Children of god grow up to be gods like Dad, don't they? Celestial marriage wil be a fun topic too. Unrequested baptim for your dead relatives is a nice touch. Do a search about what Mormons believe and your socks will be shocked off your feet. His "wierd cult" will be separated from Chrisitanity on the upside and "Bam will remain in office on the disasterous down side.

---

Response?

Jurassicpork59 Pottersville, USA

"If you liked the leftist assault against Palin..." Damn truth. Why does it have to have such a liberal bias? Why can't we all just convert to truthiness and immediately put all this Republican unpleasantness such as graft, corruption, ignorance and stupidity behind us so the right can get back to attacking people for their religion? The 1st Amendment be damned!

P. S. It's spelled "w-e-i-r-d", "C-h-r-i-s-t-i-a-n-i-t-y" and "d-i-s-a-s-t-r-o-u-s". I suppose correct spelling also has a liberal bias.

True, there are still a few Palin dead-enders who can't get it through their titanium skulls that Palin is simply more interested in making money than in being President and who don't want Mitt Romney in the Oval Office simply because of his ersatz, pod person version of Christianity.

But the NY Times is essentially calling it for Romney because he's poised to get only his second victory in this endless Republican primary season that's taken up only slightly less time than the Laurentide ice sheet that swept down North America.

Maybe the liberal Gray Lady hates the Democratic electoral process as much as the Republican Party or maybe they're as fed up as we with the endless miniseries of the DSM IV (aka the Republican debates). But while television still likes competitive horse races, they also want a clear-cut winner before the race is even over. It's like calling the winner of the Boston Marathon even before the runners get to Heartbreak Hill.

And that's not really surprising considering these post-Clinton United States have pushed the primary season almost back into non-election years to the point of violating state law (as in Florida in the 2008 elections). We're the kind of country that wants results now. Books are routinely pulled off the shelves and sent back to the publisher's shredders if they don't hit the ground running no matter how little publicity they get and the success of a movie is preordained even before its opening weekend is over. Yuppies play classical music to their fetuses, half expecting them to be born with a fucking conductor's baton in their hands.

And, by the dodgy wisdom of push and straw polls, we've decided, yet again, that Mitt Romney should be the Republican nominee. A Romneynation is a zombie narrative that simply will not die like the Spider Man musical that's the perfect delineation of Murphy's Law. But like Peter Parker's Broadway debut, never underestimate the stubborn power of a few rich people who pour millions into a campaign in our post-Citizen's United country.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

That's why we should pay as much attention to mob boss and casino mogul Sheldon Adelson as we do to the re-anointed Romney. As Rachel Maddow tells us, Adelson has such pull in the Nevada GOP that he actually got the state GOP to rewrite the laws for him and a few hundred Nevada Jews so they can still caucus in Clark County right after this Saturday's Sabbath and, even better, to do so in a center named after Adelson himself. And if that fact alone doesn't point to how much more corrupt campaign finance is thanks to Citizen's United, nothing does. The only way Romney could outdo that is by moving his national campaign headquarters to Paul Singer's boardroom.

Adelson has decided that Newt Gingrich would be friendlier to his gambling empire than Mitt Romney, a man who never met a person corporation he didn't love. That's why Adelson has been virtually Gingrich's only significant financial backer in Florida, essentially Gingrich's Paul Singer. But, unlike the open-air asylum known as South Carolina, Floridians seem to be turned off by Gingrich's Mickey Rooney attitude toward holy matrimony and Mickey Mouse take on the economy.

As of November last year, Florida's unemployment rate stood at exactly 10%, about one and a half percentage points higher than the then national rate of about 8.5%.

Maybe Florida Republicans are left cold by Gingrich wanting to turn their kids into janitors and maybe they've long since made the Adelson/Gingrich connection and have embraced Romney's stiff body as they try to struggle against already-charted waters as in 2008 (It's both amusing and troubling that for these past few years neither party has been able to field a candidate worth voting for for quite some time, as if, I dunno, shadowy money men have decided what's best for them and maybe, incidentally, us.).

Either way, the MSM, led by the NY Times have decided along with a reanimated Romney, that the caucus and primary season is over and that the vulture is in after the GOP took the enormous pains to extend it throughout almost all of this election year. It doesn't matter that Romney is 1-2 thus far. Paul Singer's own vulture bucks have spoken louder than Adelson's mob casino money.

And we should thank whatever God we pray to for men like Sheldon Adelson. Because as long as Adelson looks upon Newt Gingrich as a made man, Gingrich will stay in the race and split the Republican vote in spite of the stupendously stupid NY Times holding up Romney's hand for the second time. As in South Carolina, the people, albeit Republican lunatics who boo war veterans and call for hypothetical sick people to die, will once again confound the media pundits who've already declared a winner for the sake of ratings and circulation. And, for me and even moreso than the avalanche of malapropisms, that's by far the most fun this GOP primary season holds.

Arrested?

Really?

Arrested, Arrested?

Wow!

Boy, 10, arrested in Burbank for pointing gun at woman

CBSLosAngeles -


BURBANK (CBS) — A 10-year-old boy was arrested Sunday after reportedly pointing a toy gun at a woman who believed it was a real weapon.

The boy knocked on the front door of the woman’s house and allegedly pointed the plastic gun at a 67-year-old woman who answered the door, according to the Burbank Leader. The boy picked the house because the woman’s grandson reportedly beat up his friend at school, Burbank police Lt. John Dilibert told the paper.

The boy yelled “you suck” at the woman while pointing the gun at her, then running away, Dilibert said.

The rest of the story:

Thanking him for his co-operation.

Cooperative defendant draws 15-year term

By Craig Kapitan - Express-News

A San Antonio man whose testimony at his two co-defendants' murder trials helped prosecutors obtain 144 years in combined sentences received his own punishment Monday.

Dominque Lenzy, 25, was ordered by state District Judge Juanita Vasquez-Gardner to serve 15 years in prison for a reduced charge of aggravated assault connected to the July 2009 shooting death of Jimmy Arizah Wilson, 33. He was killed outside a Northeast Side apartment complex.

It was the maximum sentence allowable under a plea agreement reached with prosecutors. Lenzy asked the judge for deferred adjudication probation.

 

 

The rest of the story:

He's lucky.

Mexico does not have the death penalty regardless of how many innocent folks he pulled off of buses and murdered, senselessly and cowardly.

Mexico cops nab suspect in 75 drug cartel killings

Porfirio Ibarra - Associated Press

MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) — Police in northern Mexico have captured an alleged member of the Zetas drug gang who confessed to killing at least 75 people, including many who were pulled off buses, authorities said Monday.

Enrique Elizondo Flores told investigators 36 of his victims were bus passengers traveling through the town of Cerralvo, near the border with Texas, said Nuevo Leon state security spokesman Jorge Domene.

Elizondo was detained Jan. 20 in the town of Salinas Victoria, but authorities delayed announcing his arrest so they could verify details of his confession, state Attorney General Adrian de la Garza said.

 

 

The rest of the story:

Ted?

Conflate your role much?

Woman gets probation for witness tampering
By Dalondo MoultrieNew Braunfels Herald-Zeitung


NEW BRAUNFELS — A Comal County judge on Monday gave a womanprobation instead of a possible two-year state jail term in hercase of tampering with a witness and endangering a child.

Judge Gary L. Steel sentenced Nancy Carolyn Knowles, 38, of NewBraunfels, to 75 days in Comal County Jail, and ordered that aslong as Knowles continues working her job at The Scooter Store, shecan serve the time on weekends only.

“I saved her from prison,” Knowles’ defense attorney Ted Wood saidoutside the court after the punishment hearing Mondayafternoon.

The rest of the story:

A grammar school boy disqualified on alleges of sex in a store room has had the conclusion toppled after the charges were censured on a Facebook spread campaign.

Trevor Evans, 17, was disqualified from West Kirby Grammar School, on the Wirral, in October last year accompanied reports that he and his then girlfriend had had sexual activity in a store cabinet and a school bathroom.

But an autonomous tribunal has thrown out the school’s verdict, ruling that it failed to examine the claims appropriately and took action without suitable facts.

Both, who were 16 at the time, were imposed to leave the school after the accusations, posted on Facebook, came to the notice of teachers.

They were primarily suspended, but just 48 hours later Trevor’s mother, Honora Evans, received a letter from the head teacher stating that he was being permanently expelled.

The girl, though, was "asked to leave" sooner than be officially excluded meaning that she had no permanent leaving out on her record, an appeal hearing was told.

Mrs. Evans requested against the conclusion to an autonomous panel of the local authority which restrained in clashes over issues such as school places and ruling out.

The mediation panel sits like a tribunal with a lay member chairing scheduling but with an ex-governor and head from away also hearing the proof.

They evaluated the school had not succeeded to put forward proof of the claimed sexual activity and said it had not followed appropriate methods by failing to take written declarations from the pair.

The panel also resulted that the school had not succeeded to treat both parties uniformly by ousting Trevor while the girl was only asked to leave.

They also noted that no accomplishment had been taken against the student who posted the initial comments on Facebook.

Trevor, an eager musician, sturdily rejected that they did anything immoral.

He has far ever asserted that he had gone into a compartment in a unisex bathroom area in the sixth form house to relieve her because she was weeping.

He said last night: "I merely want to get back to school and start again my studies."

Mrs Evans said: "This was a malicious campaign produced by some girls at the school who posted hateful rumors about him on Facebook." 

 

She added: "The way the school dealt with this was a unthinking reaction and the right to education should be hold up, not taken away."

The head teacher Glenice Robinson said:”It would not be suitable to talk exact explanation but the school always does something in the best interests of students."

The girl was unavailable for comments last night.

Reba McEntire is the latest celebrity to fall victim to a death hoax that’s spreading like wildfire on the web. The alleged news of her death has circulated so quickly that ‘Reba McEntire’ became the No. 1 trending search topic on Google late Monday evening (Jan. 30). Her latest Facebook wall update has been flooded with desperate comments from fans hoping and praying that a report that the singer had fallen to her death while climbing a mountain on an Austrian movie set is untrue.

With a little further investigation, those claims of Reba McEntire being dead can seemingly be shot down.

The web posting that has been circulating about Reba’s “death” refers to her as an “actress,” when she is best known as a singer — which feels like the first sign that this news isn’t accurate. The fact that McEntire’s publicist, management team and record label haven’t issued a statement also arouses suspicion about the validity of the story. McEntire’s Facebook and Twitter accounts have both been active today, which wouldn’t be expected from someone who is, well, not alive.

The text of the alleged death report reads:

Actress Reba Mcentire died while filming a movie in Kitzbühel, Austria early this morning – January 30, 2012

Preliminary reports from Austrian Police officials indicate that the actress fell more than 100 feet to her death in a remote area of the Hahnenkamm mountains while on-set during the filming of a movie. Specific details are not yet available.

The accident occurred at approximately 4:30 a.m. (UTC/GMT +12).

Additional details and information will be forthcoming.

All one needs to do is scroll to the bottom of the website where this rumor is posted, where the fine print disclaimer reveals that the story is a complete and total fabrication.

The disclaimer on the website with the Reba McEntire death report states: about this web site. FAKE… THIS STORY IS 100% FAKE! this is an entertainment website, and this is a totally fake article based on zero truth and is a complete work of fiction for entertainment purposes! this story was dynamically generated using a generic ‘template’ and is not factual. Any reference to specific individuals has been 100% fabricated by web site visitors who have created fake stories by entering a name into a blank ‘non-specific’ template for the purpose of entertainment. For sub-domain info, name removal requests and additional use restrictions: FakeAWish.com

In other words, it seems that a death hoax about Reba McEntire was generated for entertainment purposes. It’s unfortunate that McEntire and her fans have had to deal with the malicious, false rumors.

It's obvious our entire national economy from top to bottom, from side to side and from inside and out is completely predicated on fraud and malfeasance that always pulls back just enough and just in time before the whole bloody pocket-picking machine completely breaks down. What follows below are my top ten reasons why every interested American in the 99% should be allowed to kidnap every lawmaker on Capitol Hill and Wall Street Chairman and CEO, line them up against their office doors and take turns publicly kicking them in the crotch with steel-toed boots.

---

10) Buttfucking the American consumer for decades, tanking our and the world's economy, then demanding that we, their victims, bail them out so they can continue business as usual and refuse to share that bailout money even in the form of loans at double digit interest rates.

9) Steal a $3 loaf of bread to feed your starving kids, you get your name and picture on a wanted poster. Steal trillions from the Treasury and the Fed, you get your name and picture on the cover of Forbes.

8) Outsourcing American jobs to Chinese, Indian and Mexican slave labor by making collusive trade agreements and offering tax deferments to Communist countries then force us to sell those goods that we used to make at or near minimum wage.

7) "Jobless recovery"? Really? Really?

6) Keeping HMOs almost completely unregulated under the guise of "reform" then mandating every American carry health insurance at their rates whether or not we can afford it.

5) When people like Barney Frank tout Dodd-Frank and Republicans and Wall Streeters condemn it when in reality it's more watered down than gin mill draft.

4) Through patient capital investment and focused strategizing in setting up a system whereby hundreds get obscenely richer when that patience, effort and diligence would've been better put to use in favor of the 99%.

3) In having the nerve to continue trying to sell the easily-proven fallacies in our post-Reagan and post-Glass Steagall nation that permanent tax cuts, Trickle Down economics and deregulation actually works and creates jobs.

2) Bankers arrested for tanking the nation's economy by stealing trillions, and costing millions of Americans their pensions, jobs and homes: 0. People imprisoned for protesting such theft: 6,436 and counting.

1) For deliberately setting up a system whereby degreed college graduates are expected to pay off ten of thousands of dollars in student loans with minimum wage temp jobs.

My friend and fellow aviation and travel writer Harriet Baskas reports on a survey that shows the majority of travelers think air travel is stressful. Not exactly surprising news, but the results of the HNTB study could help the aviation industry enhance how it interacts with its customers, which I suppose is the goal.

What ticks travelers off? Oh, you know, the obvious; invasive security, long lines to check bags, that sort of thing.
Here at FLYING LESSONS, I'm proposing that we take a glass-is-half-full approach to getting where we're going by concentrating on all the great experiences we have in transit because I know we have them. So, with this post, I'm asking you to contribute your stories of pleasant surprises you have experienced in your travels by air, which I will publish in a future post.

To encourage you to sit down and send your favorite "It happened to me while flying" story, I will award a really great prize - a cherry red, Ethiopian Airways business class amenity kit - to the person who tells the very best tale. Send your story to me at flyingphotographs@gmail.com. (You are welcome to, but you don't need to send any photographs, your story will do.)

I'll start.

Several years ago my friend Darren Gaines was visiting in Connecticut and we were going to travel together to Washington to attend the ISASI annual dinner. Wanting to show him the beautiful beach in my community, I stopped by the inn where he was staying and took him for a walk along Long Island Sound. But I misjudged the time and as a result we were very late getting to the airport. Don't you know, we missed our flight.

Well, 99.9% of the time that means eating the ticket and buying a new one, but on this day in May, the sun was shining over the heads of both Darren and the Delta ticket agent who waited on us. With a drawl that cannot be native to the town in Ohio where Darren lives, he explained our situation to the woman behind the desk and she promptly booked us on the next flight to Dulles, no charge, no lecture, no problem.

Darren and I made our way to the gate, boarded the plane and were on our way as if I had not totally screwed up. An earth-shattering, life-altering experience? Nope, but the kind that can turn the sunshine on full blast for the rest of the day and serve as a reminder that an airline cannot exist without planes and airports and complex ticketing systems no more than it can exist without the traveler.

That ticket agent got that. And so too, did the airline that made it possible for her to push a few buttons and re-accommodate us hassle-free. For this, Delta deserves a prize, but they've already got amenity kits.

That's my story. What's yours?

Send it to flyingphotographs@gmail.com.

Michelle Obama purchases $50,000 in lingerie??

Normally I'd say big deal, but these days?

A little tone-deaf no?

Agent Provocateur sales boosted by US First Lady Michelle Obama

The Telegraph

Agent Provocateur saw sales jump by more than 12pc, helped by US First Lady Michelle Obama spending $50,000 (£31,794) in one shopping spree.

The First Lady – better known for shopping at more modestly-priced High Street stores – along with the Queen of Qatar, Sheikha Mozah, closed off part of Madison Avenue to spend time in the luxury lingerie shop.

Their purchases contributed to a market-spanking 12.5pc lift in sales.

Agent Provocateur, which is styled on vintage Hollywood glamour, sells handmade Calais lace corsets that sell for up to £900, which could ruffle the feathers of more than just President Barack Obama in an election year.

Gary Hogarth, Agent Provocateur's chief executive, refused to be drawn on the store's closely kept "secret client list". But he admitted the brand had attracted a high number of "unexpected famous names" – especially in the US, where sales have overtaken the UK.

The rest of the story:

Well that's all well and good, now can you cure him?

Researchers find cancer in ancient Egyptian mummy

Associated Press -


CAIRO (AP) — A professor from American University in Cairo says discovery of prostate cancer in a 2,200-year-old mummy indicates the disease was caused by genetics, not environment.

The genetics-environment question is key to understanding cancer.

AUC professor Salima Ikram, a member of the team that studied the mummy in Portugal for two years, said Sunday the mummy was of a man who died in his forties.

The rest of the story:

Wow Mr. Pearis you are just too pretty a fellow to go to prison.

There are gonna be a lot of happy inmates if and when you get convicted and show up at the prison. 

Good Luck with that Buddy!

Man accused in aggravated robbery fled to El Paso

By Eva Ruth Moravec - Express-News


A man accused of exchanging gunfire with people inside an apartment while he allegedly tried to rob them was arrested last week in El Paso, officials said.

Reese Pearis, 21, is being held in the El Paso County Jail without bail. He faces an aggravated robbery charge out of Bexar County and two charges — evading arrest and possession of marijuana — out of Guadalupe County, according to records.

According to the U.S. Marshals' Lone Star Fugitive Task Force, Pearis was wanted in connection with a home invasion and robbery that took place at an apartment complex last Monday. Pearis and two others reportedly broke into an apartment, a news release states, and Pearis exchanged gunfire with the apartment's occupants. He fled the scene, and the task force learned Pearis may have headed to El Paso.

The rest of the story:

The news on the radio this morning says the shooter was the ex-boyfriend of the girl who was dating the now deceased victim.

Another example of a macho asshole whose ego couldn't stand rejection.

Man shot, killed on West Side

By Michelle Mondo - Express-News


An argument about a woman reportedly led to a shooting Sunday night on the West Side that left one man dead, officials said.

The shooting happened around 8:45 p.m. near the H-E-B grocery story and bus stop at the intersection of West Commerce and South Calaveras streets.

San Antonio police Lt. Lee Rakun said the man killed apparently had argued with another man over a woman but early in the investigation information wasn't available on what the disagreement was about or why it started.

The rest of the story:

Jeeze Louise!

Folks will steal anything not nailed down, won't they?

Potty-room pilfering:  Auto flushers stolen in Ohio

Associated Press -

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A restroom rip-off in central Ohio has automatic flushers disappearing from the bathrooms at restaurants and other businesses.

Police say it's been happening in at least a couple Columbus suburbs. Investigators don't know if the thefts are related.

Handyman John Hahn tells WBNS-TV (http://bit.ly/yGqJ3c ) the flushers are likely being stolen for scrap because they contain a metal called red brass that can bring $2.50 per pound.

The rest of the story:

It just blows my mind to realize that the IRS actually issued a refund check to him for $327,000 at one point!!

NY inmate guilty of seeking $890M in tax refunds
Associated Press -

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — A jury has convicted a New York prison inmate of falsely filing tax returns seeking $890 million in refunds.

Prosecutors say the man filed the bogus returns from 2006 to 2010 while at various state prisons. They say he even was issued a refund for $327,000 — but prison officials intercepted the check and returned it to the Internal Revenue Service, which led the investigation.

The man was convicted Thursday of 11 counts of filing false claims and one count of helping another inmate file bogus returns.

The rest of the story:

Well of course our ancestors did it.

How else did we get to be here?

Museum:  Rare coin may be Roman brothel token

Associated Press -


LONDON (AP) — The Museum of London is displaying a coin found by the River Thames that may have been used nearly 2,000 years ago as a "brothel token" in Roman London.

The bronze coin shows a man and woman in an intimate embrace.

Senior curator Caroline McDonald said Thursday it is impossible to determine precisely what the coin was used for.

The rest of the story:

Its a harsh lesson to learn but I hope it all works out for him in the long run.

I also hope it works as an object lesson to not be so quick on the Tweet trigger.

Players learn to be discreet with tweets

By Blake Hurtik - Express-News



Before last week, Yuri Wright was known as one of the top shutdown high school cornerbacks in the country.

The 6-foot 2, 180-pounder from Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, N.J., played in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl at the Alamodome. He had 19 scholarship offers, including ones from Michigan and Notre Dame.

But, after sending a series of sexually explicit and profanity-laced tweets, Wright learned the real-world consequences that can come from words said in the social media realm.

Don Bosco Prep, a Catholic school, expelled the star player. Michigan reportedly withdrew its offer.

The rest of the story:

The late former House Speaker Tip O'Neill once said that all politics is local. So are our priorities in crunch times but I'll get back to that later.

Today's my 7th anniversary as a blogger. I guess, in blogging years, that makes me something like a grand old man like IF Stone or Sy Hersh. Being a political blogger means exposing myself to tons of topical information and in the course of that exposure, certain erosions have taken hold. Among them are an encroaching paralyzation of how to approach, deal with, cogently define and eradicate racism and other forms of right wing stupidity.

Often I find myself tempted to publicly say, "We need to execute all Republicans, racists and evangelicals immediately if not sooner" when I read of the latest assault on humanity. Knowing that wouldn't fly, I then dial it down a notch and think, "OK, we need to vote out of office all Republicans on a local, state and federal level so the American people can finally advance back into the 21st century."

But I realize even that's far-fetched. Up to a point, you can judge a congressional district, state or even an entire nation by the lunatics it chooses to represent them. When, for instance, Tom Coburn and Jim Inhofe keep getting re-elected every six years, you know there's something seriously wrong with the state of Oklahoma. When Florida's 8th district voted out Alan Grayson after one memorable and fantastic two-year term while Minnesota's 6th district re-elected pie-eyed psychopath Michele Bachmann in the same election cycle, it understandably makes one wonder what's in the drinking water supply.

And when I look at the back-sliding this nation of ours has done just in the seven years that I've been blogging, it makes me wonder just what's the use of blogging? Even A list bloggers like Aravosis, Hamsher, Amato, Kos and Duncan Black reach no more than perhaps 1% of the nation. Bottom-of-the-rung bottom feeders like me have reached a tiny fraction of that 1% and even that's taken me years to accrue with much of that traffic coming from misguided perverts and racists.

What's the sense when not only have I not made a difference, my elders and betters have still not been able to keep the right wing from turning these United States into a Terminator-style wasteland in the blind pursuit of corporate profits and the eradication of people who do not think like them?

But the alternative is to give up and to not oppose these obvious sick and depraved people. And this former Navy SEAL is a fighter who knows that the worst possible time to give up is right before you get pulled over the edge of the cliff. Because that's what the cocksuckers want. They loath and fear the power of the First Amendment and only want it for themselves.

And while the jury's still out on the overall efficacy of citizen journalism, as pressing as these issues of the day are, financial worries as well as politics tend to turn parochial and personal during crunch time. Now is such a time.

If you wonder why this formerly prolific blogger goes for a whole week at a time these days without posting, the reasons are manifold. #1, remember what I said about the erosion that the cruel and stupid produces in even the strongest human minds. Sometimes I'm just so overwhelmed and paralyzed by the stupid that's better to not try to launch a coherent response to it.

#2, as with the post-adolescent Dylan Thomas, my writing suffers because of constant money worries. After nearly three years of being unemployed, I'm still stupefied that a man with my experience and skills who had relatively little problems finding a job now almost cannot even get a pre-interview. I and many like me are living but dying proof that there never was a recovery and certainly will not be one until every American who wants and needs a job gets one and to do so for a living wage.

Even when the president, Congress and our various state governments make blatant power grabs designed to undermine working conditions, wages, our Constitutional protections and civil liberties and environment all in the unholy name of corporate profits and power, more and more often I'm unable to concentrate on these things long enough because my landlord, utility companies, insurance brokerage and the city, state and federal governments to whom I owe bill money, premiums and income and excise taxes do not care to hear what my problems are and what problems in the system face us. Life, and bill and tax collection, go on, business as usual, as if nothing horrible and terrifying is happening to our nation.

If you are even remotely able, Mrs. JP and I would greatly appreciate a donation through Paypal (or through snailmail, if you email me for my street address). I know I've alienated many of my readers over the years with what seems to be constant pleas for help these past two and a half years. I even made an appeal on my 53rd birthday which resulted in next to nothing. And that's OK. No one owes me shit. At the end of the month, all the bills are still in my name and my creditors don't give a damn where the money comes from, only that it's there and on time.

So whatever you can do for us would be tremendously appreciated by the two and half members of our household. It's hard enough dealing with the right wing and its surrogates in the Obama administration but it's immeasurably more difficult to do while the wolves are baying outside our door and beneath our windows.

The girl is in the hospital with serious injury.

The mom is charged with failure to report a felony.

He is a cowardly bastard.

Man arrested in daughter's beating

By Jessica Kwong - Express-News

A man accused of severely beating his 4-year-old daughter before dropping her off at a family member's home was arrested Friday night.

The man, in his early 20s, was charged with injury to a child, police Detective John Zuniga said.

“We got a call for a child that had been beaten, and when we got there, we could not find the girl,” he said. “And (the) dad was not able to be located.”

 

The rest of the story:

Since Sarah Palin has now embarked on a literary career that seems bound and determined to supplant literacy itself and Schwarzenegger has left Sacramento and is depending on his old rival and fellow right winger Sylvester Stallone to get his deflated body back on the silver screen, it could be said that Jan Brewer is now the stupidest Governor alive today and quite possibly the most racist one since George Wallace. And after the tarmac incident in Phoenix a couple of days ago, Obama could easily be imagined kicking himself yet again for making her predecessor, Janet Napolitano, his Homeland Security Chief.

Jan Brewer is simply a superannuated version of Sarah Palin, a brain fart-prone grifter who sees absolutely no problem whatsoever in abusing her authority as the state's chief executive for the advantage of her relatives. Like Palin and so many other right wing racists (or am I being tautological?), the Governor who signed the most draconian anti-immigrant bill in modern times (SB 1070, which even many prominent Arizona law enforcement officials define as unconstitutional), showed her true colors by waggling her finger at the President of the United States. She then showed another true color (yellow) by trying to downplay the incident in much the same manner that Cheney's office downplayed the "Go fuck yourself" incident with Sen. Patrick Leahy ("...a frank exchange of views" is how Cheney's dungeon masters tried to sweep it under the rug).

Whatever his reasons for trying to keep the peace, Obama didn't exactly help his own cause by ordering his administration, led by Jim Carney, to chastise the press for paying attention to this virtually unprecedented show of disrespect to the office of the Presidency. As if the look on his face in the lead photo isn't enough ("Yassa, massa, my name be Toby"), it only gives Obama the appearance not of a statesman taking the high road but of a long-suffering black man explaining away the whip scars given to him by a plainly racist right wing by saying that he fell down the stairs.

Sorry, Mr. President, but you were too far away from Kansas for a house to drop on top of Jan Brewer at the right moment.

Moreso than the union busting Scott Walker and Chris Christie, the anti labor Paul LaPage and the stupendously corrupt Rick Scott, Jan Brewer is on all counts a national laughingstock as well as an embarrassment and it seems only a vengeful God Hell bound to show us some Dutch Uncle lessons in how not to self-govern is responsible for Brewer not getting recalled. Perhaps it's more of a reflection of the rabidly racist constituency of Arizona, a place where pasty old right wingers go not to die but to accrue more political power.

Brewer's tall tale of "the scary black man intimidated me" was largely unsupported by witnesses to the incident and Brewer being flustered afterwards was more cerebral flatulence after meeting someone with a superior intellect. The office of the presidency and any person holding it can certainly be intimidating but if you're a state governor and you've met the POTUS before, as Brewer has, then your given moment of being star struck has long since past. It should not be personally held against the President.

But being biracial has made Mr. Obama a huge target and the most hated African American since Nat Turner and Dred Scott. His reluctance to call out Republicans on their overt racism and confirming that racism does indeed still exist does not do anything for the ongoing struggle for civil rights for his people or the American people in general. In fact, while Obama could easily make a case that he's being singled out for his race, his tack seems to be to simply ignore the fact that racism still exists in our supposedly enlightened age. Pointing out racism is not the same thing as pulling the victim card as so many white Republicans do and it is not dividing a nation that's already divided by racial differences.

And Jan Brewer's Phoenix had risen once again from the ashes of the civil war and the civil rights movement to rear its ugly hooded head.

Jan Brewer represents much of what is wrong with America and its politics today. She had abused her power while still a state legislator to lobby for more state hospital money "to prescribe a new drug for the treatment of schizophrenia. The drug, Risperdal, was later used to treat her son’s illness, according to court and medical records."

Ronald Brewer, as many of us know, is a mentally ill criminal who remains unconvicted only by reason of insanity after being charged with sexual assault and kidnapping. While that shouldn't be held against Jan Brewer, what more people should pay attention to is Brewer's conduct once it became clear that she was to move from Arizona's Office of the Secretary of State to the Governor's mansion. Even before taking the oath of office, one of her first thoughts was to appoint several high-ranking members of her transition team to seal her son's criminal and medical records, a highly unprecedented move. It had all the appearance of Sarah Palin sweeping under the rug her daughter Willow's own burglary and B&E past.

Then, after lobbying for that extra money for state hospitals, such as the one in which Ronald Brewer has been locked up since 1990, Brewer then decided to deny patients live-saving allocations from Mr. Obama's stimulus that would've offset Brewer's own cuts, a move that has resulted in the deaths of at least three Arizonans waiting for organ transplants.

Brewer's claim of beheaded bodies in the desert and trying to spin it as a rationale for SB 1070, which essentially allows law enforcement to racially profile and harass even legal Mexican Americans, was so over the top that even the perennially supine MSM pressed her on it, making her double down and then, finally, say that it wasn't true.

This is just a short, abbreviated list of Jan Brewer's crimes against the people of Arizona and the Office of the Presidency. If any Democratic Governor had ever waggled their finger in George Bush's face during his alleged presidency, the right wing would've called for that Chief Executive to be publicly drawn and quartered. But IOKIYAR, EITVIB (Especially if the Victim is Black).

Jan Brewer is the poster child for most everything that's wrong with America, with its politics, with the moribund and virtually dead civil rights movement and with the right wing. The shriveled Red Queen of Arizona, with her inexplicable book deal and incumbency, is in itself a damnation of the stupendous danger of stupid people working together in concert in large numbers.

Newt's statements about ignoring Judge's rulings or subpoenaing them to answer questions about their rulings, that he disagrees with, is exactly why this man should not be the Republican Presidential nominee or get within sight of the Oval Office.

Either he's an idiot, which I do not believe or he is pandering to the basest instincts of those in the Republican Party who have an almost reflexive distrust of Federal Judges.

He knows better than to do this but is unconstrained.  Just imagine him as President, go on just try.

Biery's the man Gingrinch just loves to hate

Local federal judge is the target of Newt's ire.
By Tracy Idell Hamilton - Express-News


When former House Speaker Newt Gingrich calls out activist judges on the campaign trail, the name he mentions most often is Fred Biery.

Biery, the chief federal judge for the Western District of Texas, emerged as a target for conservative criticism after he ruled last summer that Medina Valley High School couldn't officially sanction prayer at its graduation ceremony.

Now the San Antonio-based judge has found himself the target of vitriolic attacks by a leading contender for the White House.

The rest of the story:

This predatory behavior should not be tolerated.

Lackland trainer to face trial in sex cases

By Sig Christenson - Express-News

A trial was ordered Friday for Staff Sgt. Luis A. Walker, a Lackland AFB instructor charged with having sexual contact with 10 recruits.

The action punctuated Air Force statements condemning such behavior, but whether the military has taken the problem seriously enough is a matter of some debate.

Since 2001, 10 instructors at Lackland, home of Air Force boot camp, have been convicted of having sex with trainees. All were sentenced to 12 months or less in jail.

The rest of the story:

Well, there you have it.

Apparently, New England Patriots, you will have a long climb to get over the hump to win.

Of course it is a New Jersey camel, and the Giants play in New Jersey, so perhaps the fix is in!


NJ camel predicts Giants will win the Super Bowl
Associated Press -

LACEY TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) — People use all sorts of ways to try to predict the winner of the Super Bowl: comparing regular season records, judging who looked stronger in the post-season run-up to the big game, or watching the betting lines from Las Vegas oddsmakers.

But the closest thing to a sure thing may come from a camel in New Jersey.

Princess, the star of New Jersey's Popcorn Park Zoo, has correctly picked the winner of five of the last six Super Bowls. She went 14 and 6 predicting regular season and playoff games this year, and has a lifetime record of 88-51.

Her pick this year: The New York Giants.

The rest of the story:

Find him and lock him away, then throw the key away.

Cowardly POS.

If you have any information on the suspect please call Crime Stoppers at 210-224-STOP.

Suspect sought in aggravated robbery of elderly woman

By Jessica Kwong - Express-News

Police are seeking the public's help finding a suspect involved in the aggravated robbery of an elderly woman on the Northeast Side.

When Marolyn Charles, 80, parked her vehicle in a lot in the 3600 block of Hidden Drive around 5:15 p.m. on New Year's Day, she didn't see anyone around her. Then as she was walking up steps, a man in his early to mid-20s approached and tried to grab her handbag off her shoulder, police said.

The handbag did not come loose, so the suspect “intentionally pulled down ... making (Charles) fall forward to the ground,” a police report states. He fled on foot, and a short time later, her credit card was charged at a local store.

The rest of the story:

Well we are no longer having to share the air we breathe with him.

I think we, as a society, are a little better off because of it.

Rapist executed for 1994 S.A. murder

By Eva Ruth Moravec


Rodrigo Hernandez, 38, was executed Thursday evening for raping and strangling single mother Susan Verstegen behind a grocery store in San Antonio in 1994 before dumping her body in a 55-gallon barrel at a nearby church.

Hernandez said little in the moments before he died.

“I want to tell everybody that I love everybody,” he said. “We are all family, people of God almighty. We're all good. I'm ready.”

The rest of the story:

While 6 years may not seem like much I am gratified to see that the jury didn't buy into his "I did missionary work so don't punish me" meme.

He was at a strip club and had 8 to 9 beers got into his car and killed someone.

I think that Bexar County juries are waking up and smelling the coffee regarding DWI's and the dangers out there because of it.

Also I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the hard work of Bexar County DA Susan Reed and her staff in vigorously prosecuting DWI offenders.

After tears, apologies, driver gets 6 years for DWI death

By Craig Kapitan - Express-News

Intoxication manslaughter defendant Robert Gabriel Maycott and his family offered tears, apologies and photographs from past missionary trips to Mexico before asking jurors Thursday to consider probation for causing the death of a fellow motorist four years ago.

Jurors instead ordered a six-year prison sentence and a $10,000 fine.

Maycott, 25, had a blood alcohol level of at least .15 — nearly twice the legal limit — when he swerved his pickup into oncoming traffic along Loop 1604 in South Bexar County in December 2007. The truck hit another vehicle head-on, killing motorist Manuel Trujillo, 66.

The rest of the story:

Twitter has pronounced that it now has the technology to discriminately jam tweets on a country by country basis.  

 

In its blog, Twitter said it could "immediately hold back content from users in a particular country". But it said the eliminated content would be accessible to the rest of the world. Earlier when Twitter removed a tweet, it would evaporate internationally.

The decision comes at a time when the firm is in the procedure of increasing its business internationally. In its blog post, Twitter described that its worldwide expansion meant inflowing countries "that have special ideas about the contours of freedom of expression", quoting France or Germany which prohibit pro-Nazi content as examples.

"Beginning today, we give ourselves the capability to reactively hold back content from users in a particular country - while keeping it accessible in the rest of the world," the firm said in a blog post titled Tweets Must Flow.

"We haven't until now utilize this talent, but if and when we are need to keep back a tweet in a specific country, we will try to let the user know, and we will straight forwardly  mark when the content has been withheld," it added.

A large numbers of Twitter users have showed disappointment over the move, with some indicating the harmful impact it would have on free speech, particularly outside the US.

Twitter, including other social networking sites like Facebook, has played a crucial - if undecided- role in sorting out everything from the Arab Spring to the London riots in 2011, according to the BBC's technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones.

Though, the micro-blogging service - which said it had in excess of 100 million operating users as of September 2011 - has also had to poise local laws with free speech in the process.

The blog statement agreed that Twitter would not be proficient to operate in all countries, saying: "Some differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to survive there."

Twitter is opposed in China, where micro-blogging substitutes recognize as Weibo have rushed in recognition in the past year.

God Bless you Cindy Hudson.

You are in our prayers.

Attorney fights for clients as she battles cancer

By Darlene Dosey - WOAI

SAN ANTONIO - A local attorney known for fighting for the rights of her clients now fights a battle of her own. Cindy Hudson has a rare form of cancer called adenocarcinoma.

Even with the cancer diagnosis Hudson continues defending her clients, many with no money to pay her. She lost her office because she couldn't afford the rent with her mounting medical bills

Amazed by her friend's ability to fight the odds, Jeanie Cupit lets Hudson use her office to complete calls and paperwork.

“Through all of this, I have never heard her complain one time," Cupit told News 4 WOAI.

The rest of the story:

And that's a long time!

Teen girls calls cops on mom for having sex

NBCMiami -

A North Florida teen who "felt disrespected" by her mother after she heard her having sex in an adjoining bedroom called 911 to report the lovemaking, according to a police report. 

The 15-year-old called 911 last Thursday around 4 a.m. after she heard her mother and her boyfriend in the act and got upset, according to the Panama City Police report obtained by theSmokingGun.com. 

An officer who responded reported that the mother and daughter had "been involved in a verbal altercation" when he arrived. 

The rest of the story: