The Swine Flu May Have Stricken A White House Aide & His Family!

After going on a trip to Mexico with President Obama,a White House aide may have contracted the(H1N1) virus!Now,some folks on the internet have speculated on whether or not Obama got swine flu during his visit to Mexico.This was after President Obama shook hands with a man who died from symptoms that resembled the (H1N1)virus or swine flu.Read more about that here.

Well,it looks like they were partially right.President Obama didn't get the virus,but someone from his administration may have.Here's more from the NY Daily News:

"A security aide helping with arrangements during President Barack Obama's recent trip to Mexico became sick with flu-like symptoms and three members of his family later contracted probable swine flu, the White House said Thursday.

The disclosure from press secretary Robert Gibbs comes days after the White House played down risks to the U.S. delegation on the two-day trip that started April 16. Gibbs remained steadfast that the president was never at risk of contracting the flu, which has quickly spread across the globe.

The employee, who was not named by the White House, is an aide to Energy Secretary Steven Chu and helped plan security for part of the administration's Mexico trip.

"This individual never flew on Air Force One," Gibbs said. "He was asked specifically if he ever came within 6 feet of the president, and the answer to that was no."

The aide arrived in Mexico on April 13, Gibbs said, and became ill on April 16. He developed a fever on April 17, the day Obama left Mexico for the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago. The person in question flew back commercially to Dulles on a United flight on April 18; Gibbs had no details yet on whether people on that flight have been notified.

"Obviously we'll do everything in our power to ensure that what can be done to alert them will be done," he said.

The man visited his brother on April 19 and his nephew became ill. In the next two days, the aide's wife and son also became ill, Gibbs said.

Gibbs said the three members of the aide's family are being tested to see if they had the same strain of swine flu that is threatening to become a pandemic. More than 100 cases have been confirmed within the United States.

Gibbs said the aide is listed as a suspected case of the virus. He returned to work on Thursday." (END OF EXCERPT)Read more here.

A White Kenyan Aristocrat Has Stood Trial For Murdering A Black Trespasser & Is Awaiting His Fate!

There is a trial that has stirred up racial unease in Kenya again.A rich,white Kenyan aristocrat denies murdering a black Kenyan stonemason because he was poaching on his father's huge estate.He claims that he was really just shooting at the poacher's dogs.I don't buy it,but two civilian lay assessors did because they delivered a "non-binding verdict of not guilty." Thomas Cholmondeley better hope that the judge who is deciding his fate reaches the same conclusion.

Here's more on this story from the Telegraph:

"Thomas Cholmondeley, the Eton-educated aristocrat accused of murdering a Kenyan poacher, has described his three years behind bars in a grim maximum security prison.

In his first interview for more than a year, the sole heir of Kenya's most famous white settler family said he was "measuring my life in hours" as he runs down the days before his verdict, due next week.

The ruling was scheduled for Thursday, but was put back at the last minute.

It was the latest in a series of delays which mean that Mr Cholmondeley, the only white man held at Nairobi's Kamiti Maximum Security jail, is now its longest-serving remand prisoner.

"Since this whole thing started, I have spent something like six per cent of my time actually in court," he told The Daily Telegraph from behind bars at the 3,600-inmate facility.

"The worst part of it all has been the not knowing when it will finish. There have been so many possible endings, but it's all just dragged on and on.

"I have lost out on a third of my sons' lives. They were six and eight when I got here, now they have both shot up like beanstalks. Missing all that has been dreadfully difficult."

Mr Cholmondeley, 40, denies murdering Robert Njoya, 37, a Kenyan stonemason, after finding him poaching on the 48,000 acre Rift Valley estate owned by Mr Cholmondeley's father, the 5th Baron Delamere.

Mr Cholmondeley has admitted firing his Winchester rifle on May 10, 2006, but maintains that he aimed only at the poacher's dogs.

The trial has reopened racial tensions between Kenya's poor blacks and privileged whites descended from colonial-era British settlers, of which the Delameres are perhaps the most famous."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.

And,oh by the way,this is the second black man that Thomas Cholmondeley has killed! Here's more on that from buzzle.com:

"After the first killing, there was a great deal of sympathy for the Honourable Tom Cholmondeley among Kenya's disparate white population. The aristocrats who own vast tracts of land, the alcohol and drug-fuelled "Kenya cowboys" living the fast life in tourism and conservation, and the middle-class suburbanites who "love Africa" but despatch their children to school in England could all understand how the 38-year-old scion of the country's most prominent white settler family, and heir to the Delamere baronetcy, shot dead a black game warden who ventured on to his ranch last year. Old white families in Kenya's Great Rift valley are so besieged by poaching, murder and crime, his sympathisers said, that life has become very difficult for the haves. It was a mistake any one could have made. The authorities agreed, and let the Eton old-boy go.

The second time, even before the evidence was heard, sympathy was in short supply. This time Cholmondeley was accused of killing a black poacher. "The sense here among both communities [white and black] is nail him," says Michael Cunningham-Reid, a stepbrother to Cholmondeley's father. "Once is forgivable, twice is inexcusable."

Cholmondeley, who is now on trial for murder - which he denies - has become a liability for Kenya's 30,000-strong white community, which, through more than 40 years of black rule, has clung on to its privileged lifestyle - and in the case of 12 or so old settler families, great swathes of land - largely by keeping its collective head down. Cholmondeley, who can expect to inherit a 100,000-acre ranch along with the title of Lord Delamere, had committed the unforgivable sin of rocking the boat.

The white community had spent decades trying to shake off the image of Kenya's Rift Valley as the "Happy Valley" playground of decadent and racist toffs, a view shaped by wartime Britain's fascination with the salacious details of adultery, drugs and debauchery provided in the trial of Sir Jock Delves Broughton (who was eventually acquitted of murdering his wife's lover, Lord Erroll). Infuriatingly, the story was given new life in the 80s by the film White Mischief, starring Greta Scacchi and Charles Dance. Now Cholmondeley's killings have prompted wags to redub the place "Trigger Happy Valley".

The trial coincides with the latest wave of doubt among white people over their future in Kenya - people who have always wondered whether they truly belonged, and whether one day they might be expelled like the Asians from Uganda and white farmers from Zimbabwe - and growing insecurity after a spate of murders of white people.

Kenya's independence came in 1963. A majority of the 60,000 white settlers were gone by the end of the decade. Those who remained generally took out Kenyan citizenship (although many secretly, and illegally under Kenyan law, keep their British passports). One who stayed was Michael Cunningham-Reid, a nephew of the late Lord Mountbatten and part of the extended Delamere clan that forged the path for aristocratic settlers into East Africa with an energetic enthusiasm for hunting, drinking and sex. Cunningham-Reid's mother, Ruth Ashley, the daughter of Lord Mount Temple, was on to her third marriage by the time she wed the Fourth Baron Delamere, Thomas Cholmondeley, during the second world war. When they divorced in 1955, Cholmondeley went on to marry Diana Caldwell, the by-then famous widow of Sir Jock Delves Broughton.

Today, Cunningham-Reid, 78, lives in the heart of Happy Valley, the exclusive town of Karen (named after the author Karen Blixen, who memorialised her life in Kenya in Out of Africa). "When I came out of the army in 1948, my stepfather, Lord Delamere, said, 'You've only been in the army three years. You haven't learned to do anything. No one's going to employ you in the City because you've got no training. You'd better come to Kenya and work on my farms.' That was 1948. I'm still here," he says.

The family trustees bought him an 800-acre farm and, a couple of years after that, Cunningham-Reid was successful enough to buy a 6,000-acre ranch to farm sheep and wheat. In the 1950s, during the Kenya Emergency, when Mau Mau rebels rose up against the crown, Cunningham-Reid found himself back in the army and in charge of Kenyan soldiers loyal to the UK. His views of that time - and the language he uses, redolent of old-school racism - have not changed greatly despite the recognition today of the atrocities committed by British forces. "The atrocities of the Kenya regiment were there but not on the scale of the Mau Mau," he says. "The amazing thing about the Kenyan is you could find him in the forest, shoot two of his pals, capture him and he would be working for you two days later."

At independence, much of the white population weighed up the benefits of a glorious lifestyle against what they considered the nightmare of black rule - and decided to get out.

Cunningham-Reid took a gamble. He believed that the big issue was the land, and his best hope of remaining in Kenya would be to get rid of it. "All my friends were hooking it, saying, 'We can't live with a fucking black man telling us what to do,'" he says. "I farmed happily until independence in 1963. But the British government made £22m available to buy out farmers in the Rift Valley. I was the first in the queue. Although I intended to stay, I thought all the farms would be broken up into small plots and we'd be plagued by squatters and the land would be a big political issue."

He used the money to buy a mansion in Karen, a house that was being left behind by Lady Twining, wife of the former governor of Tanganyika. "I basically liked the African and I couldn't picture myself going back to England and buying a very small farm or something," he says. The money also extended to a house on the coast and a hotel next to Lake Naivasha, which was to become the crucible of the family's future in conservation.

The gamble paid off. More than four decades later he is still installed in Lady Twining's sprawling old house, with servants to hand and the chauffeur ever ready with the Mercedes for the swift drive to his club. He has no regrets about staying. "There were times when I had serious doubts: have I been a complete fool? Am I going to lose everything? There have been moments when I considered sending my family away. Not myself though. I'd stay and go down with the ship," he says. "The white community has survived by laying low, keeping their mouths shut. We stayed out of politics. That was the big taboo. We must be no challenge to the black man's political power."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.

Women's Activist Groups In Kenya Want To Abstain From Sex As A Form Of Protest!

Some Kenyan women have proposed the most unusual way to protest political infighting in their country.They have decided that a 7-day sex ban will drive their mates so mad that they will reconcile their differences.Here's more from BBC News:

"The Women's Development Organisation coalition said they would also pay prostitutes to join their strike.

The campaigners are asking the wives of the Kenyan president and the prime minister to join in the embargo.

They say they want to avoid a repeat of the violence which convulsed the country after the late-2007 elections.

Relations between Kenya's coalition partners, led by President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga, have become increasingly acrimonious.

Now the dispute has moved to the nation's bedrooms."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.

President Obama Firmly States That "Waterboarding Is Torture"!

President Obama says that he believes that "waterboarding was torture" & that "whatever legal rationales were used...it was a mistake." He believes that we should stick to what makes this country great.Because if we torture people in America,then we no longer can claim to have moral authority over the rest of the world.

And despite what some pundits claim,torturing human beings does not make us safer.It only adds more anti-American fuel to the fire that the terrorists have kept burning.Here's more from the The AP:

"President Barack Obama said Wednesday night that waterboarding authorized by former President George W. Bush was torture, and the information gained from terror suspects through its use could have been obtained by other means.

"In some cases it may be harder," he conceded at a White House news conference marking a whirlwind first 100 days in office.

Obama also expressed optimism that Chrysler could remain a "going concern," possibly without filing for bankruptcy. He said "unions and creditors have come up with a set of potential concessions that they can live with," adding, "All that promises the possibility that you can get a Chrysler-Fiat merger."

The prime-time news conference was the third of Obama's presidency, and the first not dominated by the economy that has thrown millions of Americans out of work.

At a town-hall style meeting in Missouri earlier in the day, as well as in the White House East Room, Obama said progress has been made in rebuilding the economy, yet more remains.

"And all of this means you can expect an unrelenting, unyielding effort from this administration to strengthen our prosperity and our security — in the second hundred days, and the third hundred days, and all the days after."

He called on Congress to enact his ambitious agenda, including health care legislation, a new energy policy and steps to impose new regulations on the financial industry to prevent a recurrence of the collapse that recently brought the economy to its knees.

Obama also said he was "absolutely convinced" he had acted correctly in banning waterboarding, an interrogation technique that simulates drowning, and approved making public the Bush administration memos detailing its use as well as other harsh methods used on terrorist suspects. "Not because there might not have been information that was yielded by these various detainees ... but because we could have gotten this information in other ways, in ways that were consistent with our values, in ways that were consistent with who we are."

Obama has come under heavy criticism from former Vice President Dick Cheney and other Republicans for his actions, who have questioned whether they have rendered the country less safe.

Cheney as well as some congressional Republicans have urged Obama to release memos they say will show waterboarding was successful in obtaining information. But the president, in a White House exchange with House Republican leader John Boehner last week, said the record was equivocal.

Obama told reporters he has read the documents Cheney and others are referring to."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.

Watching CNN "Assessing The Swagga" Of President Obama Was An Uncomfortable Moment For Me!

I know CNN anchors,Kyra Phillips & T.J. Holmes were attempting to do a cute,lighthearted story about President Obama,but one segment concerning his first 100 days was painful for me to watch.They decided to do a segment called "Assessing The Swagga".

I mean,Kyra Phillips even acknowledged that "they were not going to be politically correct" & boy was she right!The ridiculous story on President Obama's "swagga" was like watching a bad blaxploitaion movie with the typical black stereotypes in them.

And Ms. Phillips even said that they should have the "Shaft" theme playing in the background.The segment consisted of a round table type discussion with T.J. Holmes & some other black men who gave their expertise on the cultural identifiers that President Obama displays.

Even though she said that it was not "politically correct",it still was a very uncomfortable segment for me to look at.Because whenever people who are not black attempt to adapt some of our lingo,they appear to be mocking our expressions & culture.And the fact that Kyra Phillips asked T.J. Holmes if she was pronouncing "swagga" right is the perfect example of that!

It all just rubbed me the wrong way! Maybe I'm too sensitive when it comes to racial issues.But,I feel that this was one story that should never have been told.What was their point?!!

We All Better Brace Ourselves For An "Imminent Pandemic"

What is known as the swine flu outbreak or the(H1N1)virus is spreading like rapid fire all over the world.Because of this Dr. Margaret Chan of the World Health Organization has stopped just short of calling it a pandemic.But,that's what it appears to be.So,we all better prepare for what lies ahead.Limit contact with people & wash your hands repeatedly with either alcohol-based sanitizer or soap & water.

Here's more from ABC News:

"The World Health Organisation (WHO) has raised its pandemic flu alert level to five, signalling that a global swine flu pandemic is imminent.

WHO director-general Dr Margaret Chan urged all countries to take immediate action, saying a pandemic would put "all humanity under threat".

The WHO said the alert level hike was a signal to governments, pharmaceutical industry and the business community to take action.

Dr Chan said countries should immediately activate their pandemic preparation plans but said the world was better prepared than ever to deal with a flu pandemic.

"No matter what the situation is, the international community should treat this as a window of opportunity to ramp up ... response," Dr Chan said.

"It is really all of humanity that is under threat during a pandemic."

But she warned that current WHO antiviral stocks were too low and said the organisation needed more donations from companies and governments.

Phase five, one step short of a full pandemic on a six-point scale, is characterised as a "strong signal that a pandemic is imminent and that the time to finalise the planned mitigation measures is short," according to the WHO's global emergency planning.

A phase five alert means human-to-human transmission has happened in at least two countries."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.

The Homeland Security Secretary Says The Swine Flu Should Be Called The (H1N1) Virus Instead!

The Homeland Security Secretary,Janet Napolitano,wants the swine flu to be called the H1N1 virus.That's because several countries are beginning to ban meat imports.Especially pork products.Even though it has already been established that you can't get this virus from consuming pork.Here's more from The AFP:

"The United States Tuesday warned trade partners against erecting barriers to US products amid the spreading global swine flu outbreak, saying pork meat does not transmit the virus.

"The American food supply is safe," US Trade Representative Ron Kirk and the head of the Department of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, said in a statement.

"USTR and USDA are working closely with the Departments of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to monitor the situation carefully," they said.

Kirk and Vilsack pointed to statements by the World Health Organization and the CDC that there was no evidence of swine flu being transmitted by meat.

There have been no reports of the new deadly virus occurring in swine in the United States, they said.

"While there is no evidence at this time that swine has been infected with this virus, the science is clear that consuming or handling pork, consistent with safe handling practices, is of no risk to consumers," Agriculture Secretary Vilsack said.

Kirk, the top US trade negotiator, called on all trading partners to base any food safety measures taken to protect their populations on scientific evidence and urged them to keep their international obligations.

"Restrictions on US pork or pork products or any meat products from the United States resulting from the recent outbreak do not appear to be based on scientific evidence and may result in serious trade disruptions without cause," Kirk said.

Ecuador on Tuesday became the latest country to halt pork imports from Mexico and the United States amid the rapidly spreading human swine flu infections.

Russia on Tuesday widened its ban on imports of all meat products to five US states from three. It had already banned pork products from nine US states."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.

Sen. Arlen Specter's Switch From Republican To Democrat Is The Big News Of The Day!

Senator Arlen Specter has decided to switch parties.He is no longer a liberal Republican.The fact that he is now a Democrat is a dramatic political story.It is such huge news because this now bring the Democrats closer to the 60 seats that they need to control the Senate.Everyone is saying that Specter's move was motivated by political interests because he was the projected loser in the GOP primary.Running as a Democrat would greatly increase his chances of winning re-election next year.

Here's more from the NY Times:

"Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania said on Tuesday he would switch to the Democratic party, presenting Democrats with a possible 60th vote and the power to break Senate filibusters as they try to advance the Obama administration’s new agenda.

In a statement issued about noon as the Capitol was digesting the stunning turn of events, Mr. Specter said he had concluded that his party had moved too far to the right, a fact demonstrated by the migration of 200,000 Pennsylvania Republicans to the Democratic Party.

“I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans,” Mr. Specter said, acknowledging that his decision was certain to disappoint colleagues and supporters.

If Al Franken prevails in his ongoing court case in Minnesota and Mr. Specter begins caucusing with Democrats, Democrats would have 60 votes and the ability to deny Republicans the chance to stall legislation. Mr. Specter was one of only three Republicans to support President Obama’s economic recovery legislation.

The news shocked Senate Republicans, who had been hanging on to their ability to block legislation by a thread. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, called an emergency meeting of party leaders who had no forewarning of Mr. Specter’s plans."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.

The White House Apologized For The Panic They Caused With Their "Top-Secret " Photo Shoot!

I have to wonder if the head of the White House Military Office should be asked to resign for the panic that he caused.Louis Caldera authorized a photo shoot that involved a fighter jet & the president's plane flying low in the skies near the site of the World Trade Center.And he specifically instructed local officials not to alert the public.As a result,people panicked & buildings were hurriedly evacuated!

I guess Mr. Caldera forgot all about 9/11.But,New York residents & lawmakers didn't. And they are pissed over the stupidity & insensitivity that Mr. Caldera showed.Here's more on the chaos that he helped to orchestrate from CNN:

" A White House official apologized Monday after a low-flying Boeing 747 spotted above the Manhattan skyline frightened workers and residents into evacuating buildings.

The huge aircraft, which functions as Air Force One when the president is aboard, was taking part in a classified, government-sanctioned photo shoot, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

"Last week, I approved a mission over New York. I take responsibility for that decision," said Louis Caldera, director of the White House Military Office. "While federal authorities took the proper steps to notify state and local authorities in New York and New Jersey, it's clear that the mission created confusion and disruption."

Witnesses reported seeing the plane circle over the Upper New York Bay near the Statue of Liberty before flying up the Hudson River. It was accompanied by two F-16s.

Two officials told CNN the White House Military Office was trying to update its file photos of Air Force One. The officials said the president was angry when he learned Monday afternoon about the flight, which sparked fear in the New York-New Jersey area.

"The president was furious about it," one of the officials said. The incident outraged many New Yorkers, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

"First thing is, I'm annoyed -- furious is a better word -- that I wasn't told," he said, calling the aviation administration's decision to withhold details about the flight "ridiculous" and "poor judgment."

"Why the Defense Department wanted to do a photo op right around the site of the World Trade Center defies the imagination," he said. "Had we known, I would have asked them not to."

"I was here on 9/11," said iReporter Tom Kruk, who spotted the plane as he was getting coffee Monday morning and snapped a photo. Kruk called the sight of the aircraft low in the sky "unsettling."

Linda Garcia-Rose, a social worker who counsels post-traumatic stress disorder patients in an office just three blocks from where the World Trade Center towers once stood, called the flight an "absolute travesty."

"There was no warning. It looked like the plane was about to come into us," she said. "I'm a therapist, and I actually had a panic attack."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.

Did Mexican Authorities Try To Cover Up The Swine Flu Outbreak?

It appears that Mexican authorites did not want information to get out about the number of deaths from swine flu in their country.In the early stages of this outbreak,medical staff from Mexico City were asked not to put the real cause of death on death certificates.If that is true,it's outrageous!

Here's more from the Telegraph:

"Dr Antonio Chavez, a specialist in respiratory diseases at the Mexico National Institute of Health, said there was panic as medical staff in Mexico City struggled to deal with the problem.

Another doctor claimed that in the early stages, staff were asked not to place the reason for dying on the death certificates.

More than 100 deaths in Mexico have been connected to the swine flu, but only 18 cases have been definitively linked to the virus through laboratory testing.

A further 1,600 people have complained of flu-like symptoms since the authorities publicised their concern about the virus on April 23.

Mexico was not aware of the novel strain of swine flu until tests were carried out by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in America at the end of April.

It is thought the virus - which mainly strikes people in their 20s and 30s - had been prevalent in Mexico since the beginning of March.

Dr Chavez said: "There is a severe emergency over the swine flu here. More and more patients are being admitted to the intensive care unit. Despite the heroic efforts of all staff - doctors, nurses, specialists - patients continue to inevitably die."

Writing on BBC Online, he said many medical staff were scared of catching the virus: "The infection risk is very high among the doctors and health staff.

"There is a sense of chaos in the other hospitals and we do not know what to do. Staff are starting to leave and many are opting to retire or apply for holidays.

"The truth is that mortality is even higher than what is being reported by the authorities, at least in the hospital where I work.

"It is killing three to four patients daily, and it has been going on for more than three weeks." (END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.

With All The Uncertainty Surrounding The Swine Flu Outbreak,I Would Not Travel To Mexico!

Despite all of the uncertainty surrounding the rapidly spreading swine flu,people are making trips to Mexico anyway.Well,I would really air on the side of caution & cancel any plans that I had to go to Mexico.Right now,that's what the government is advising.They are suggesting that people put off all non-essential visits to Mexico.Here's an excerpt from an in-depth report on what could become a full-blown pandemic from Newsweek:

"An epidemic of swine flu has recently developed in Mexico and the United States, says the CDC. Swine flu has killed many people, and the outbreak has features that suggest it could become a global pandemic. A pandemic is an epidemic that spreads around the whole world. Pandemics also often cause more severe disease than epidemics.

As of Sunday, April 27, the United States has declared a public health emergency, and suspect or confirmed cases are being reported from many parts of the world. If a pandemic happens, it could be very serious for human health and the global economy (which definitely does not need any more bad news right now)."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.

Suicidal Ex-NBA Star,Jayson Williams, Was Stunned By A Taser Gun & Hospitalized!

Jayson William's life is apparently on a continuous downward spiral.His wife filed for divorce & he has an alleged drug problem. And after his legal woes in 2004,Jayson Williams is still not out of the woods yet!

Although he was acquitted of aggravated manslaughter,he is still facing a reckless manslaughter count.I guess all these legal & personal issues got the best of him because he tried to commit suicide.Hopefully,he Jayson Williams will get the treatment that he obviously needs.Here's more from the NY Daily News:

"Cops Tasered ex-NBA star Jayson Williams Monday after the troubled hoopster went nuts in his luxury Manhattan hotel room, police sources said.

The popular New Jersey Nets center, who beat the rap trial for shooting his chauffeur in 2002, was rushed to St. Vincent's Hospital in handcuffs after cops found suicide notes and empty bottles of pills in his room, sources said.

"He was barricaded, drinking, taking pills. He was overwhelmed," a police source said. "It all came crashing down."

Police were called to the Hilton Embassy Suites in Battery Park City at 4 a.m., after a female friend called security to report a disturbance in Williams' 15th-floor suite, the sources said.

Williams, 41, trashed his room, forcing Emergency Service Unit officers to subdue the former All-Star with a Taser gun, sources said. It took two sets of handcuffs to restrain the husky star, cops said.

Cops found several suicide notes, including a message scrawled on the wall. They said he was distraught over his divorce, his parents' illnesses and his impending retrial in the chauffeur-shooting case.

Guests arrived home to find the posh hotel transformed into a crime scene. "There were about cop cars and an ambulance outside," said Annette Peters, 29, of Minneapolis.

It was not immediately known if he injured himself or if he was armed.

A few hours later, Williams' manager insisted the troubled ex-athlete was on the mend."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.

Rev. Timothy Wright Was Known As The "Grandfather Of Gospel Music"! May God Rest His Soul Peacefully!!

The famed NY gospel singer,Rev.Timothy Wright has died less than a year after the fatal car crash that took both his wife & grandson.At the age of 61,Reverend Wright has departed this earth to join an angelic choir.We know that the "godfather of gospel music" will bring even more harmony to the other side than there already is.Here's more on the death of this gospel icon from The NY Daily News:

"Nine months after a devastating car crash left him paralyzed, the Rev. Timothy Wright - Brooklyn's Godfather of Gospel - has died.

"He will be tremendously missed, but his voice will be eternal," said the Rev. Al Sharpton, a decades-long friend of Wright.

The famed Brooklyn pastor blessed with a booming voice and an artistic genius died at the Bronx Veterans Affairs Medical Center Thursday. The Grammy-nominated singer was 61.

"He certainly changed the feel of gospel music, and children not born in his lifetime will hear his music," Sharpton said. "He has been a monumental figure in our community as a pastor."

Wright had been incapacitated since the July 4 accident that took the life of his wife, Betty, and his 14-year-old grandson, D.J.

The founder of Grace Tabernacle Christian Center in Crown Heights suffered a severe spinal cord injury, a broken jaw, broken ribs and multiple fractures in his legs in the crash.

Wright gradually regained the ability to speak before he suffered a heart attack three months ago, his son, David, said.

"I'm glad his suffering is over," David Wright, 30, added. "He was a great man of God and a great father."

The Wrights were returning to the city from a church conference in Detroit when a drunken driver going the wrong way on a Pennsylvania highway hit their car head-on.

The driver, John Pick, 44, was killed in the crash.

Despite his critical injuries, Wright regularly traveled from his New Jersey rehabilitation clinic to Crown Heights to attend services at the church he started 18 years ago.

"I lost my wife; I lost my grandson, and for some reason, God left me here," Wright told WCBS-TV last October. "So here I am."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.

Shane Murphy Is Tired Of Rush Limbaugh's Unpatriotic Hate Speech!

If you are a "dittohead",please do not respond to this post about Rush Limbaugh.I know that you will only rush to his defense in your comment,so don't waste both of our time.Let me just state upfront that I agree with Shane Murphy's assertions about the fat,drug addict.

Shane Murphy was the second-in-command aboard the American merchant ship seized by pirates.Rush Limbaugh called the Somali pirates "black muslim teenagers".He also implied that President Obama was reluctant to order them killed because of their race & religion.Those remarks were so despicable that it drove Shane Murphy to speak out!

"It feels great to be home.It feels like everyone around here has my back, with the exception of Rush Limbaugh, who is trying to make this into a race issue...that's disgusting.You gotta get with us or against us here, Rush.The president did the right thing...It's a war.... It's about good versus evil. And what you said is evil. It's hate speech. I won't tolerate it",Murphy says.

Shane Murphy realizes just how unpatriotic Rush Limbaugh really is! He spews a steady stream of hate speech on a daily basis!I would be in complete denial if I said otherwise.Rush Limbaugh uses words to incite hatred.Therefore,most of what he says is actually hate speech.And you have to be one evil,racist lunatic to be in sync with Rush Limbaugh.There is no defense for who Rush Limbaugh is & what he stands for,which is pure unadulterated evil!

Four "Good" Cops Got Canned For Falsifying Search Warrant Affidavits!

Four Oakland cops have been fired for falsifying search warrant affidavits in a drug warrant case.But,according to the president of the Oakland Police Officers Association,these are "four good cops" who should be given their jobs back until they are proven guilty.Here's more from the SF Gate:

"Earlier this month, the hearing officer recommended that seven other officers who had been facing possible firing be allowed to keep their jobs.

Oakland police Sgt. Dom Arotzarena, president of the Oakland Police Officers Association, said Friday that the hearing officer "changed the outcome of 7 of the 11, which is great. But what I'm not happy about is the other four."

Arotzarena expressed confidence that the four officers would be reinstated. But he was concerned about their finances in the interim, because they are no longer on paid administrative leave.

"These are four good cops," he said. "As far as they're concerned, they're not guilty until proven, and they still need to exhaust the (arbitration) process."

Police spokesman Officer Jeff Thomason has declined to comment on the matter, saying state law bars police from discussing personnel matters.

The city has not fired four officers at one time since 2000, when four officers lost their jobs because of the "Riders" misconduct scandal. The alleged ringleader remains at large, while another has been hired as an officer in Indio (Riverside County).

In January, City Attorney John Russo said the city intended to fire 11 officers because they had allegedly provided false information to judges to obtain search warrants targeting suspects in drug cases.

At least 12 defendants have already won dismissal of their criminal cases because of such problems with the warrants, according to their defense attorneys. Cases against dozens of other suspects are believed to be in jeopardy, their attorneys said.

The officers told judges that substances seized from drug suspects had been identified by the police crime lab as narcotics when, in fact, they had not, authorities said. Those false statements were used to persuade judges to issue warrants that police relied on to gather more evidence.

Arotzarena said the officers had never lied. Instead, they were simply following instructions on how to complete search warrant affidavits that had been provided by whoever trained them. "The city couldn't see through the fact that this entire thing is a training issue," he said.

The city is facing two federal civil-rights lawsuits in the case, which also led to a separate investigation involving a high-ranking department official."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.

If these cops made false statements just to get an arrest,then they are not "good cops"!Police officers need to be trustworthy individuals that will uphold the law at all costs.Even if it means not getting the bad guy until you get enough evidence against them.These "good" officers are accused of providing false information in order to obtain a search warrant.

It is a shame that the president of the Oakland Police Officers Association seems to think that good cops do not have to be honest ones.He should assert to the public that it is never okay for a police officer to lie.Instead,he insists that these officers did not lie.It was just a "training issue" that the department needs to address.He says the city just could not see through that fact.

And I guess that the very distrusting part of Oakland's black community have not been able to understand this "training issue" either.Because they have been saying that the cops have been falsifying information for years!Here's more on that from East Bay West Online:

"These officer-involved shootings and subsequent lawsuits has raised questions about the department’s training and oversight and damaged its strained relationship with minority communities. Oakland police have been under the supervision of a federal judge since 2003, after a settlement was reached in the “Rough Riders” lawsuit, in which a group of officers were accused of assaulting suspects, planting evidence and falsifying reports. A team of independent monitors created by the Negotiated Settlement Agreement is supervising an overhaul of departmental policies, from training procedures to internal affairs investigations.

Attorneys for all three families say that in the absence of effective, independent oversight, litigation is the only means to compel the department to change its policies.

“The most effective check on the Oakland Police has been civil rights lawsuits,” said attorney Michael Haddad of Haddad & Sherwin, who represents the King family.

“Whenever you have to go to the courts to fix your police department, that’s a problem,” said Eugene O’Donnell, a former New York Police Department officer and professor of criminology at the City University of New York-John Jay.

Litigation filed after Oakland police officers attacked antiwar protestors [see video of the incident] at a 2003 rally outside the Port of Oakland led to a new crowd control policy with stricter regulations on the use of non-lethal force. Earlier this year, Haddad’s firm also succeeded in getting a federal judge to strike down an departmental policy that allowed officers to conduct strip searches in public. The strip searches have been pilloried by members of Oakland’s African-American and Latino communities.

Oakland taxpayers foot the bill for police misconduct. According to the city attorney’s annual report, Oakland has paid an average of $2,403,877 per year since 2003 to settle suits against the police department, including $1,452,915 per year for alleged use of force claims.

Although the department has worked hard to change its internal culture and improve its fractious relationship with Oakland’s black and Latino communities, the killings of King, Moppin and Woodfox are a marked step backwards. Before an Oct. 21 City Council meeting, several citizens voiced their frustration with the department over a widening narcotics warrant scandal and officer-involved shootings.

“I want to have some kind of trust in the police, but right now I have none,” said Robyn Woodfox, Mack Woodfox’s aunt.

James B. Chanin and John Burris, who both brought the Riders suit against Oakland Police, currently represent the Moppin and Woodfox families. Chanin, who handled his first suit against the department in 1979, is troubled by the cases. “This is a very disappointing development,” he said. “We’re worried about it.”(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.

OMG!! There Is A Possible Swine Flu Outbreak At A NY Prep School!

Well,this swine flu outbreak may have now spread to New York!It is becoming quite clear that this is being spread by human to human transmission.This virus is composed of human,bird,& swine flu,so scientists are stumped!

Usually,swine flu is spread from pig to human.The World Health Organization is concerned about the possibility of a flu pandemic arising out of this new strain of swine flu.Take every precaution that you possibly can.Because it appears to be spreading rapidly.Check this out from wcbstv.com:

"New York City health officials say that about 75 students at a Queens high school have fallen ill with flu-like symptoms and testing is under way to rule out the strain of swine flu that has killed dozens in Mexico.

The Health Department's Dr. Don Weiss said Friday that a team of agency doctors and investigators were dispatched to the private St. Francis Preparatory School the previous day after students reported fever, sore throat, cough, aches and pains. No one has been hospitalized.
The handful of sick students who remained at the school were tested for a variety of flu strains. If they're found to have a known human strain that would rule out swine flu.

Results could take several days. In the meantime, the school says it's postponing an evening event and sanitizing the building over the weekend.

Mexican authorities said 60 people may have died from a swine flu virus in Mexico, and world health officials worry it could unleash a global flu epidemic.

Mexico City closed schools, museums, libraries and state-run theaters across the metropolis Friday in hopes of containing the outbreak that has sickened more than 900.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said tests show some of the Mexico victims died from the same new strain of swine flu that sickened eight people in Texas and California. It's a frightening new strain that combines genetic material from pigs, birds and humans.

The World Health Organization was looking closely at the 60 deaths - most of them in or near Mexico's capital. It wasn't yet clear what flu they died from, but spokesman Thomas Abraham said "We are very, very concerned."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.

The Myrtle Beach,South Carolina Fire Was Caused By A Man That Was Burning Yard Debris!

A man that was burning yard debris is responsible for the destruction of 70 homes & the displacement of scores of people.And,according to Fox News,this guy is only being given two fines for all the damage that he caused.The total of those fines is a measly $732 bucks.

Here's more from The Sun JournalMeanwhile, one man was ticketed Thursday in connection with a fire.

The man was ticketed for failure to notify the South Carolina Forestry Commission about an outdoor burn and letting the fire spread to another's property, said Hawkins.

"Were they the cause of the fire? We don't know that yet," Hawkins said.

"There is further investigation needed. Yes that burn caused a fire, but it doesn't mean it caused the (S.C.) 31 fire we are here to discuss today."

The man's name was not immediately available. Forestry Commission officials later said that the fire was a routine debris burn that was started over the weekend and was put out the same day. The commission said it rekindled on Wednesday."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.

There Is A New Strain Of Swine Flu That Can Attack Anyone!

I've never even heard of swine flu before.But,apparently there is a new strain of swine flu that has caused 60 deaths in Mexico.And it has spread from Mexico to California & Texas!No one has died in the United States from this outbreak,but it has sickened dozens of people.Here's more on swine flu from CTV.ca:

"What is swine flu?

Like humans, pigs get the flu. They develop a sudden fever, a barking cough, sneezing, lethargy and typically lose their appetite.

Pigs usually don't die from swine flu; their flu viruses cause high levels of illness but low death rates.

Swine influenza viruses circulate among pigs throughout the year, but most outbreaks occur during the late fall and winter, just like with outbreaks in humans.

Most swine flu viruses belong to the Influenza A H1N1 and H3N2 subtypes.

Can humans catch swine flu?

Normally, swine flu bugs don't infect people. When they do, it's in people who have direct contact with pigs. Historically, there's such a case every year or two in the U.S.

There have been seven human cases of swine flu identified so far in San Diego County and Imperial County, California as well as in San Antonio, Texas. All seven patients have recovered.

Even before these clusters, there had been a surge in cases in recent years. Since December 2005, there have been 12 human swine flu infections - about four a year.

It's possible this uptick was due to improved reporting systems, but the U.S. Centers for Disease Control says "genetic changes in swine flu viruses and other factors might also be a factor."

Can humans pass swine flu?

Usually no. But what makes this new outbreak in California and Texas worrisome is that in all seven cases, none had any direct contact with pigs.

Two of the new cases were among 16-year-olds at the same school in San Antonio and there's a father-daughter pair in California, said CDC's Dr. Anne Schuchat."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.

Shepard Smith Drops A Four Letter Word On The Air Over The Use Of Torture!

I'm not the only one who is deeply disturbed by the fact that America was engaged in war crimes.And,yes,torture is a war crime.Check the Geneva Convention if you don't believe me.Those laws were put in place to limit the barbarity of war.

Shepard Smith of Fox News got so enraged by the reality that people were tortured by Americans that he cursed on the air.Finally,I'm seeing the outrage that should be felt by us all being demonstrated where I had least expected it.And that's on the very unfair & extremely unbalanced Fox News.What took place under the Bush administration was outrageous!As Shepard Smith so eloquently put it:

" We Are America! I don't give a rat's ass if it works! WE ARE AMERICA!We Don't FUCKING TORTURE!"

The Torture Issue: The Debate Over The "Enhanced Interrogation Methods" That George Bush Authorized!

Why is there a debate over what constitutes torture? Since these "enhanced interrogation techniques" included waterboarding,doesn't that classify these "techniques" as being nothing short of torture? Why are we redefining torture now?

Do not tell me it is because George Bush had to do anything that he could to protect Americans after 9/11!!What the hell was President Bush doing before 9/11? How come Bush & Cheney did not do all that they could to protect us before the terrorists struck those towers with planes?

They had been warned by the Clinton administration & the information was available to them.Everyone that pats Bush & Cheney on the back because there have been no terror attacks since 9/11 never seem to care about what they did before 9/11. Here's more from a 2005 NY Times article:

"The White House said tonight that President Bush had been warned by American intelligence agencies in early August that Osama bin Laden was seeking to hijack aircraft but that the warnings did not contemplate the possibility that the hijackers would turn the planes into guided missiles for a terrorist attack.

''It is widely known that we had information that bin Laden wanted to attack the United States or United States interests abroad,'' Ari Fleischer, the president's press secretary, said this evening. ''The president was also provided information about bin Laden wanting to engage in hijacking in the traditional pre-9/11 sense, not for the use of suicide bombing, not for the use of an airplane as a missile.''

Nonetheless the revelation by the White House, made in response to a report about the intelligence warning this evening on CBS News, is bound to fuel Congressional demands for a deeper investigation into why American intelligence agencies and the Federal Bureau of Investigation had failed to put together individual pieces of evidence that, in retrospect, now seem to suggest what was coming.

In the past few days, government officials have acknowledged for the first time that an F.B.I. agent in Phoenix had urged the F.B.I. headquarters to investigate Middle Eastern men enrolled in American flight schools. That memorandum also cited Mr. bin Laden by name and suggested that his followers could use the schools to train for terror operations, officials who have seen the memorandum said.

Administration officials reached this evening said the warning given to Mr. Bush did not come from the F.B.I. or from the information developed by the Phoenix agent. Instead, it was provided as part of the C.I.A. briefing he is given each morning, suggesting that it was probably based on evidence gathered abroad.

The C.I.A. had been listening intently over the July 4 holiday last year, after what one investigator called ''a lot of static in the system suggesting something was coming.'' But then the evidence disappeared as quickly as it had arisen, and by August, officials have said, little was heard from Al Qaeda.

The warning of the hijacking was given to the president at his ranch in Crawford, Tex., where he was on vacation.

Taken together, the news of the C.I.A. warning and the information developed separately by the F.B.I. explains Mr. Bush's anger after Sept. 11 that intelligence gathered on American soil and abroad was not being centrally analyzed and that the agencies were not working well together.

Several times he has told audiences that he is working on solving that problem, and these days he is briefed jointly by the F.B.I and the C.I.A., ensuring that each hears information from the other agency.

It was not clear this evening why the White House waited eight months after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington to reveal what Mr. Bush had been told.

But Mr. Fleischer noted that in the daily flow of intelligence information the president receives, the warning of what appeared to be the threat of a conventional hijacking was not as serious as it appears in retrospect. ''We were a peacetime society, and the F.B.I. had a different mission,'' he said."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.

So,after 9/11 happened,President Bush decided to get serious about the terrorist threats.People seem to want to excuse the fact that intelligence information about hijackings was disregarded.But,we rush to congratulate the very same folks for keeping our country safe after it had already been attacked.Instead of being angry that the intelligence that President Bush was given had been set to the side because it didn't seem that "serious."

Even more on why we should be mad about the terrorist attacks that caused the Bush administration to authorize torture from a 2002 USA Today article:

"The uproar over how much President Bush knew before Sept. 11 about the threat of terrorist hijackings seemed to have eased Sunday, but some of his advisers worry that the furor could cause long-term damage to a vital Bush asset: trust. Americans have shown a high level of trust in Bush, and his job-approval ratings have made some Democrats think twice about challenging his policies.

In a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll this month, 77% said Bush is honest and trustworthy, including some who praised his character although they disagreed with his policies. Nearly three-quarters of those polled said he puts the country's interests ahead of his own.

That reservoir of trust has sustained Bush through setbacks in the war on terrorism and the recent crisis in the Middle East. Aides hope it will sustain him through the current controversy.

But if Americans are left with the impression that Bush was warned about Osama bin Laden's plans and failed to take action, advisers say privately, his credibility could suffer. That could drive down his approval ratings and make it more difficult for him to win support for the war, a future attack on Iraq and his domestic agenda.

That's one reason Bush and his advisers reacted swiftly and vociferously last week when news broke that the president had been told in an intelligence briefing on Aug. 6, 2001, that terrorists were considering hijackings. The Bush team was determined to depict Democrats' demands for explanations as politically motivated.

Bush and his aides were also angry about some Democrats' harsh criticism. They decided to publicly display their anger in part to reinforce the idea that Bush is too honest to even consider misleading the nation.

Vice President Cheney made that point again Sunday. He said on NBC's Meet the Press that he has "a deep sense of anger that anyone would suggest that the president of the United States had advance knowledge that he failed to act on. I thought it was beyond the pale."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.

And we all know how trustworthy they are now.Bush & Cheney weren't honest about what they knew before 9/11.The information was there to prevent those attacks before the terrorist flew those planes into the Twin Towers.It just was not taken seriously.So,did we really need to resort to torture in order to gather the intelligence to prevent future attacks?

The CIA & the FBI were perfectly capable of gathering intelligence before 9/11 without torturing anyone.Both agencies warned President Bush about these terrorist attacks.So,again,there was no reason to resort to torture to gather information.It's just further proof of how badly President Bush handled his time in office.He did not do everything that he could to protect the American people before 9/11.And that's not hindsight.It is the cold,hard truth that most folks don't like to admit.George Bush was not a good president from the start.Shame on us for giving him two terms!

He destroyed America's status in the world with his lies about weapons of mass destruction & torture.Remember,George Bush claimed that America does not torture. And what angers me most is that we never had to do that in the first place.No matter how you gain the intelligence,your administration has to be astute enough to use it.

Waterboarding is illegal & inhumane.If we care about the treatment of animals,then why aren't we concerned about the torture of human beings?!!Even if it supposedly worked!Although I'm not convinced that it did.And neither was the author of this Jan. 2009 New American article:

"Former Justice Department lawyer John Yoo castigated President Obama’s decision to ban torture and close Guantanamo in a January 29 Wall Street Journal opinion column that somehow avoided the use of the word "torture." As we shall see, his column was a dance of obviously false assumptions and false conclusions designed to justify the Bush policy of torture (in his column Woo calls it "tough interrogation") and endless detention without trial.

Yoo was the primary author of what was popularly called the “torture memo,” which was issued under the byline of his Justice Department boss Jay S. Bybee, so his column in the Wall Street Journal was perhaps not surprising. The torture memo purported to give legal cover for the Bush administration to engage in practices universally regarded before September 11 as torture while at the same time denying it was torture.

In his column, Yoo criticized Obama’s decision to close Guantanamo, claiming that “the civilian law-enforcement system cannot prevent terrorist attacks.” He implied: 1. Bush stopped all terrorist attacks; and 2. Obama would rely exclusively upon local police and Miranda rights for international terrorist networks.

It should be stressed that the Bush military enforcement system hasn’t prevented attacks on Americans. American soldiers have suffered thousands of deaths and tens of thousands of injuries from thousands of terrorist attacks under the Bush policy, resulting in far more than the deaths from September 11. But Yoo doesn’t count terror attacks against our soldiers, implying that their lives do not mean as much as other people's lives."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.

And,remember the attack that torture supposedly prevented.Well,here's more on that falsehood from The Daily KOS:

"First of all, the background: No, Karl Rove, Marc Thiessen, and Fox News are not telling the truth when they claim that U.S. torture techniques prevented a 'west coast 9/11.'

Rove et al. claim that after CIA waterboarding, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed gave authorities information used to foil a plot to hijack an airplane with a shoe bomb and fly it into the tallest building in Los Angeles, the Library Tower (now known as the U.S. Bank Building).

In other words, Rove and his crew say torture saved America from another 9/11.

As Timothy Noah and Daily Kos TV have documented, however, the Rove timetable just doesn't add up. While KSM was arrested in March 2003, the plot was stopped in February 2002 -- more than a year earlier. Rove's tale could not possibly be true.

But like any pathological liar, Rove is pushing a lie containing threads of truth."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.

While everyone disputes what torture is,I remain astonished about the fact that our country is even having this conversation in the first place!We knew what the dangers were before 9/11.George Bush & Dick Cheney just didn't do enough to protect us.

I refuse to give them credit for torturing people & invading the privacy of every American after they failed to avert the terrorist hijackings that they were forewarned about.We don't know why we weren't attacked after 9/11.I'm going to thank God for that.Not George Bush & Dick Cheney.

Human Error May Have Caused The Death Of 21 Polo Horses!

Well,it looks like the pharmacy that made a supplement for 21 polo horses that mysteriously died may have been responsible for their deaths!Apparently,the drug compound that they were given had too much of one ingredient in it.So,it appears that human error is behind the mystery of the 21 dead polo horses.Here's more from The Guardian:

"Twenty-one prized polo horses that crumpled before a crowd of shocked spectators on Sunday and died soon after they were given an improperly mixed dietary supplement while preparing for a match in Florida.

The horses belonging to the Venezuelan Lechuza team were injected with a compound prepared by Franck's Pharmacy that included the wrong amount of an ingredient. The pharmacy did not specify which ingredient was improperly measured.

The team was set to compete in the semifinal of the US Open, the most high-profile event on the US competition calendar and a highlight of international competition.

"On an order from a veterinarian, Franck's Pharmacy prepared medication that was used to treat the 21 horses on the Lechuza Polo team," the pharmacy said in a statement. "As soon as we learned of the tragic incident, we conducted an internal investigation that was led by an outside lawyer and, upon its conclusion, we immediately alerted the state department of health and board of pharmacy. The report, which we are furnishing to these agencies, concluded that the strength of an ingredient in the medication was incorrect. We will cooperate fully with the authorities as they continue their investigations."

The Ocala, Florida-based pharmacy prepared a vitamin-and-mineral supplement for the horses after receiving a prescription calling for a compound equivalent for the French-made Biodyl, a drug to help the horses recover from exhaustion.

The drug is not approved for use in the US and is illegal. Lechuza said in a statement that every horse that received the drug died, and that horses who were not treated remained healthy."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.

Songbird Jill Scott Now Has A Son To Sing Lullabies To!

Congratulations to Jill Scott on the birth of her son.I know that she will create some of the most beautiful memories that a child could have.Because she has already done that for a whole host of people that have heard her sing.Here's more on the birth of her first child from UPI.com:

"U.S. singer and actress Jill Scott has given birth to a son, her representatives said.

Baby Jett Hamilton Roberts was born Monday afternoon, E! News reported.

The child is the first for Scott and her drummer fiance Lil' John Roberts, who announced in June 2008 they were engaged."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.

Is Phil Markoff Really The Craigslist Killer?

Can you believe that this young,attractive med student is suspected of being the Craigslist killer? Apparently,Phil Markoff gave no signs through his behavior that he had such a diabolical nature.If he actually turns out to be guilty of these crimes,then it will just show everyone that you can't judge a book by its cover.

From all appearances,Phil Markoff had everything going for him.His friends & family members cannot fathom the thought that their loved one is actually a murderer.I know that his poor fiancee must be heartbroken & in a state of total disbelief.

Everyone that knew Mr. Markoff insists that there is not even the remotest possibility that Mr. Markoff could be the Craigslist killer.Even though it is obvious that the Boston police really believe they have got their man.

Here's more on this story from True Crime Report:

"The Boston Globe states that the suspect is a Boston University med student named Philip Markoff, age 22. Thanks to the commenter who provided this Facebook link for Markoff:

http://www.facebook.com/people/Phil-Markoff/16105103

Markoff was engaged and he and his fiancee had a website together: www.megan-philip.com.

Phil Markoff and his fiancee met in undergrad at the University of Albany in New York. According to their site, she was a senior at the time and Markoff was a sophomore. The couple volunteered together at a nearby medical center, doing scut work in the Emergency Room. Their first date was on November 11, 2005. They were engaged in May, 2008 and were set to be married on August 14 this year on the beach next to McLoone's Pier House in Long Branch, NJ."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.

The Captured Teen Somali Pirate Will Be Tried As An Adult In A NY Court!

There has been a lot of mystery surrounding the true age of captured Somali teen pirate,Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse.Well,prosecutors have decided that he will stand trial as an adult.Here's more on that from KMTR:

" A federal judge in New York has determined that the sole survivor of a pirate attack on an American cargo ship off the Somali coast is an adult.

On Tuesday, prosecutors and defense attorneys argued in a New York courtroom over whether Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse is a juvenile or an adult. Muse's age has been reported to be 15 or 18.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew Peck closed the hearing for a time for fear that Muse is a juvenile. He later allowed reporters back in and told them he had decided Muse wasn't under 18.

Instead of handing him over to Kenyan authorities, the U.S. decided to bring Abduhl Wali-i-Muse to New York. He could face charges carrying a life sentence if convicted.

He smiled for photographers and reporters as federal agents led him into custody. He said nothing."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.

Hey,he might be smiling because he came from a penniless family.At least he knows for sure where his next meal will be coming from.

But,some folks are wondering why he was brought to America instead of Kenya.There is a great piece in Time magazine that talks about why New York is the last place to bring Somali pirates to justice.It might make Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse a martyr in the eyes of some Somalians.

Here is an excerpt from the aforementioned article:

"The reason Abdulwali Muse will stand trial in New York's Southern District Court, we are told, is that the court has a lot of experience in trying those who have attacked U.S. targets abroad. The 19-year-old Somali is accused of being the ringleader of a group of pirates who seized the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama cargo ship in the waters off East Africa, before a dramatic U.S. military rescue operation. Unlike previous pirate suspects who have been handed over for trial in Kenya, Muse was brought to New York Monday night, and is expected to be arraigned in Manhattan soon.

But even if the young Somali broke the law and kidnapped Americans, putting him on trial in New York will do nothing to stamp out the piracy plaguing the Somali coastline. If anything, it will turn Muse into a martyr, prompting an escalation of violence on the high seas by his peers, rallying more Somalis to their cause (which is already pretty popular in the long-suffering nation) and jeopardizing U.S. national security interests in East Africa.

The competence of the Southern District Court is not in question. But the guiding principle in dealing with the Muse case ought to be enhancing the effort to stamp out piracy and stabilizing the failed state in which it has festered. From that perspective, bringing Muse to stand trial in New York is a terrible idea.

Somalia's pirates are not viewed as criminals by their own communities. They're a symptom of a unique set of local problems: the collapse of the Somali state and the absence of the rule of law and government authority, which leaves the country's territorial waters open to exploitation and abuse by foreigners; and also the absence of any prospect of making an honest living. Even if he is guilty as charged, Abdulwali Muse is not some pathological individual who has transgressed his community's norms.

There are hundreds of young men just like him all along the Somali coastline, calling themselves "coastguards" who protect Somali waters and "tax" foreign shipping to compensate for the fact that foreign fishing fleets, unmolested by any Somali state authority, annually plunder hundreds of millions of dollars of fish from Somali waters — and also for the fact that unscrupulous foreigners have used the coast to dump toxic waste.

None of this excuses piracy, of course, and many of the claims are spurious, since the prime beneficiaries of booty extracted by the pirates are land-based warlords, many of them associated with the now-deposed U.S.-backed government. Still, the plight of Somalia's coastline certainly helps explain why the phenomenon is so widespread — and why the pirates are viewed by many Somalis as folk heroes. Putting Muse on trial in New York won't change that; it will simply reinforce an already negative prevailing view of the United States."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.

I Feel Sympathy For The Woman Who Has Been Mistaken For Accused Killer Melissa Huckaby

Poor Melissa Huckaby!And no,I'm not talking about the accused Sunday school teacher from Tracy,CA.The Melissa Huckaby I'm referring to is a Sunday school teacher from the very close by Manteca,CA.Isn't it kind of freakish that there are two Sunday school teachers from the San Joaquin area named Melissa Huckaby?

But,bearing the same name as an accused killer has been more than freaky for Melissa Huckaby.This is one case of mistaken identity that has folks freaking out on a woman who had nothing to do with Sandra Cantu's murder.And that's why this Melissa Huckaby has my sympathy!


Here's more on how the confusion began from SF Gate:

"Both are single moms, and both around the same age. One key difference is that the Melissa on the left, although publicly accused of the same crime as the Melissa on the right, is the victim of mistaken identity.

Herein lies a multi-layered problem in journalism, one that could have led to a rush to judgment. But the person writing this now has watched this metastasizing and malignant metamorphosis first hand and learned -- never rush to judgment in the rush to air.

Melissa Huckaby on the left was mistakenly identified as the suspect by a local Bay Area television station. An employee in a television newsroom got the name of the suspect and then, apparently, found a picture of a woman with the same name living close to where the killing took place. Proximity her only crime, the Melissa Huckaby on the left used the social networking site - MySpace. Her picture was found there, then put on the air.

The falsely identified woman's MySpace account is now closed, and she and her family no doubt wonder if or when they can walk Manteca streets safely again.

What the free and likely disillusioned Melissa Huckaby learned in this cruelest of ways is when journalists don't do their jobs well, lives get broken and innocents harmed. What she likely does not understand is how endemic this problem is in newsrooms across the country, where life altering mistakes happen every day - mistakes that often damage much more than reputations. Some "mistakes" have the power to bring democracy to its knees, leaving citizens without access to diligently checked, thoroughly vetted information from various sources - so they can decide for themselves what to believe."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.

Iran Needs To Free Roxanna Saberi!

An Iranian-American journalist has been sentenced to 8 yrs in an Iranian prison.Roxanna Saberi was accused of being a spy,but President Obama has said that, "she is an Iranian American who was interested in the country which her family came from." Since I believe that is the case,I sincerely join the chorus of people that say:
"FREE ROXANNA SABERI"!

Here's more from mediabistro:

"Over the weekend American journalist Roxanna Saberi was sentenced, behind closed doors, to eight years in an Iranian prison. Saberi was rushed to trial last week under charges of espionage (she was initially arrested for working without credentials).

News of the arrest elicited an immediate response from a number of news organizations Saberi had worked for here, including NPR and ABC News (in full after the jump), while the White House initially used "cautious language" when addressing the situation. On Sunday President Obama followed up saying: "She is an American citizen, and I have complete confidence that she was not engaging in any sort of espionage," Obama said. "She is an Iranian American who was interested in the country which her family came from. And it is appropriate for her to be treated as such and to be released."

Also on Sunday Iranian president Ahmadinejad publicly stated that Sabieri should be allowed to fully defend herself on appeal.

Meanwhile, a Free Roxana twitter feed has been started, and is carrying all the latest updates."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.

Why Did 21 Horses Die At A Florida Polo Match?

Why did 21 horses from the same polo team die at a Florida match?Veterinarians are saying that it was probably a toxin that caused this terrible tragedy.They are still working to solve this mystery.Here's more from ABC News:

"At least 21 horses have died after coming down with a mysterious ailment moments before they were scheduled to compete in the prestigious U.S. Open polo tournament.

Though the Florida Department of Agriculture was conducting lab tests to determine the cause of death, veterinarians said they suspected the horses were probably killed by some sort of poison."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.