Dad's attempt to share feelings with children and bond over opiates goes unappreciated by society. Looks like there really is such a thing as being criminally stupid:
A St. Louis area man who injected his young sons with heroin and cocaine was sentenced to ten years in prison.Court records say Stephen Pickle, 39, of Hazelwood said he gave the drugs to his sons -- aged 12 and 16 at the time -- so they'd understand how he felt when he took them.
Meanwhile, some Pennsylvania moms are being punished just for wanting a girls' night out:
The mothers of five children killed in a house fire were ordered Friday to stand trial on involuntary manslaughter and other charges for leaving the youngsters alone while they went to a bar.A judge found there was sufficient evidence against Shakita Mangham and Furaha Love, both 25, for them to be tried on five counts of involuntary manslaughter and one count of making false reports to police.
They also are charged with recklessly endangering firefighters who responded to the blaze and endangering the welfare of children.
Prosecutors said Mangham initially told police the children were left with a baby sitter the night of the June 12 fire. She later acknowledged she had given investigators false information to avoid getting into trouble and because she wanted to attend funeral services and remain available for her surviving son, according to a criminal complaint.
Love also said she knew there was no baby sitter, and that the children had been left in the care of two 8-year-olds, police said.
I feel for the two surviving boys. You know this is going to stay with them forever. I have an aunt who drowned in a pond as a toddler. The argument over which sibling left the gate open was still going strong six decades after her death.
With a red hat that doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And tell impoverished clown-car-vaginaed women down at the bus station to try some birth control
Because, you have to admit, you were thinking it:
A 76-year-old woman has been barred from the bus station after giving unwanted birth-control advice to mothers with large families. "I think it's wrong. It's a violation of my First Amendment rights," Laura Stevens said.She was arrested Tuesday for trespassing, a misdemeanor, according to police records.
"She's been making comments to some of the Hispanic passengers that they should be on the pill, that they're taking over our society," said Todd Beutler, general manager of the Cache Valley Transit District.
"The passengers have a right to ride and not be intimidated," he said.
Stevens said she recently noticed a mother struggling to control her six children.
"I felt sorry for her. Maybe she doesn't know that she could get a patch and not have a kid for five years," Stevens said.
Old folks don't give a rip what they say to people. That's why all they need to be walled off in N. Dakota -- the stockade in Montana is reserved for sneering teens.
Duane in the spotlight, playing before a paying audience.
Wail on, Skydog!
It's not too often you get to see a man have a nice faint. In this video, erstwhile New Mexico police officer Malcolm Martinez does an outstanding swoon, collapsing to the courtroom floor in a jail-clothes-clad heap upon a judge's announcing he'd be spending the next 36 years of his life in state prison for robbing stores while in full uniform. This was a plea deal though, so was Martinez: a.) stunned that he was being sentenced to the max, b.) overwhelmed that he'd ruined his life for $10,000 bucks and was going to spend the rest of his days with cop-hating convicts, c.) overwhelmed with self-loathing and remorse that he'd betrayed the public's trust, or d.) blood-sugar woozy from those syrupy pancakes he had at his pre-sentencing breakfast?
In any case, it's a very exciting moment and one I'm glad he shared with us.
Another pic of the misled cats known as the Hourglass.
Luckily its grooviest member (front row right) was already working on the slide-playing (mutton) chops that would make him a legend.
Wail on, Skydog!
I don't know which is funnier, the video or the comments complaining about the video.
(Via Gmac in e-mail.)
No permit required:
A 38-year-old Hudson man says he was kidnapped Saturday morning, dropped in the woods and then hunted by four men carrying a bow and arrows.The victim told Pasco County sheriff's deputies that he was at a BP gas station at 13703 U.S. 19 between 7 and 8 a.m., when he says he was approached by four males and forced into a vehicle. The man told deputies that he knows two of his attackers because they had previously sold him crack cocaine. The victim's assailants took him to the edge of the woods and let him out of the vehicle.
"You better run, we're going to get you," the attackers reportedly said before aiming at the man. The victim told deputies that he could see arrows hitting the ground around him as he ran and that he was sure he was going to die. The men followed him throughout the day and night.
The victim finally found his way out of the woods Sunday around 5 p.m. and flagged someone down along Dixie Highway to ask for help, according to sheriff's deputies. The victim was taken to Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point. No arrests have been made.
You'd think four guys would have been able to bag that old buck crackhead, but maybe they were high.
It looks like our favorite opera-singing mobile phone salesman with the hang-dog look is getting to quit his day job. Welsh diamond in the rough Paul Potts, whom we talked about here, has flattened all comers in a British talent competition and wowed even the evil Simon Cowell, who told him "I'm so proud of you." Potts will be heading into the studio next week to record his first album and is planning a tour. He'll use his prize money to pay off debts, take a vacation with his wife, and get training for those golden pipes of his.
Bravo, Paul. It's been lovely seeing such an unassuming man, and a middle-aged one at that, finally get the recognition his talent deserves.
From Carole Malone's article in the UK's Sunday Mirror:
I was determined not to watch Britain's Got Talent because I'd decided it was just another tedious reality show full of no-hopers. But a colleague sat me down and forced me to watch Paul Potts singing Nessun Dorma. And my heart did a back-flip. Within five seconds I was blubbing like a baby, within 10 I was praying with every fibre of my being that he'd hit all the high notes and not give Simon Cowell the chance to say "Good effort but don't give up the day job."You just have to look at Paul Potts to know that life hasn't been easy. He's overweight, he's shy and he's got zero confidence because since he was a boy he's been bullied by people who didn't see his talent, just his bad teeth and his 40-inch waist. He has the look of a little lad who's been smacked once too often and who desperately needs approval. And then he opens that mouth full of broken teeth and out of it comes a voice so magnificent, so magical, it could melt ice. It's a voice that rips at your heart and reminds you that miracles really DO happen.
I'll show that audition video again, if you don't mind. I really can't help myself:
You go your whole life thinking you're down to the mud in the bottom of the well on a certain topic, then along comes someone to show you something new. Case in point, here is a video of a woman demonstrating how to cut and eat a mango in a fairly tidy fashion, "hedgehog" style. This knowledge might have slipped past me because hedgehogs aren't native to Florida, or even to N. America for that matter, and my only mango-eating example in the wild has been the raccoon, who only confused me by washing the peeling. Having grown up in a house with a mango tree outside and a mango aficionado inside, it had been demonstrated to me on countless occasions that the ladylike way to eat a mango was to cut off the peel, then sit down with a thick towel across your chest and chew and slurp until only the pit remained. Lacking the female's innate and delicate refinement, the native Florida man has been known to set aside such niceties:
First, select your mango and find a sharp knife. Carry them to the bathroom. Take off all your clothes. Then get into the shower with your mango and your knife.Slice the skin into four sections and peel it off. If, like me, you are a complete mango addict, then you will risk getting a little "poison" from the skin on your lips just so you can gnaw the fruit from the peel. Once the peel is dispatched, sit down in the shower. Hold the fruit in your hand and go at it.
A versatile fruit, that the mango consists of a sturdy peel wrapping, a bit of thick flesh, and a large, heavy pit also makes it an excellent projectile. Used with the correct amount of force and a good aim square between the shoulder blades, it can knock the air out of a fleeing enemy and take him to the ground.
Did little Hannah commit the perfect crime?
A 5-year-old girl who was feared drowned with her grandfather on a boating trip startled searchers Friday when she emerged from the woods - naked, scratched and holding mulberries.Crews had pulled her grandfather's body from the Kankakee River in eastern Illinois just hours earlier.
"People were like, 'Who's that little girl? That can't be her, can it?'" Kankakee Sheriff's Chief Deputy Ken McCabe said. "I went up to her (and) asked, 'How you doing? What's your name?'"
When authorities told Hannah Klamecki's family - already grieving the loss of her grandfather - that she was alive, the home erupted in screaming.
"It was very emotional," Momence Fire Chief Dave Horn said.
Searchers gave Hannah - a little dirty but unhurt - a banana and water, but she asked for a chocolate cookie. She was taken to a hospital as a precaution, McCabe said.
"It's a tragedy that the gentleman drowned. It's a bittersweet moment that she was OK," he said.
Hannah and her grandfather, David Klamecki, 62, were last seen Wednesday evening on the river near Momence, about 45 miles south of Chicago.
Authorities believe the river current swept the girl away from a small island where she and her grandfather had stopped to swim and to the shore of the mainland where she eventually was found.
She told searchers she was wearing floats on her arms and pulled herself from the water with a branch.
Two people go into a river and only one comes out alive.
The way I see it, the girl had the opportunity, and buoyed by water wings, had a powerful advantage that gave her the means. The motive eluded me until I saw the update about the chocolate chip cookies. Notice how a banana just wasn't good enough for her? The supposedly starving girl refused it and instead demanded cookies from her "rescuers." Did grandpa have a sweet snack in his backpack that he wouldn't share? Some Del-Monte pudding perhaps? I bet when they find that backpack it won't be there.
So what does a guy whose streetfighting weapon of choice is a stiletto heel look like? About how you'd expect.
One good thing: if he gets community service the shoes would be great for spearing trash.
If you guessed he earned a merit badge for this, you'd be right. His next project: organizing a male breast milk bank for gay parents.
Not even when it's about INDC Bill. Or Tree-Hugging Sister for that matter.
I went to an opera once. We got there and I was like, "Excuse me? Are we not going to Nashville?"
But even though I'm more Opry than opera, when a sad-faced cellphone salesman named Paul Potts opened his mouth to sing Puccini, I heard a thing of beauty. I tell you, if this man were American, he'd be a policeman. All our non-professional singers with beautiful operatic voices are cops. It's just the way we do division of labor:
This is a disgrace:
Supporters of a Democratic congressman charged with bribery and money laundering harkened to their civil rights days on Wednesday as they denounced the allegations against U.S. Rep. William Jefferson.The group, including ministers and the president of the local chapter of the NAACP, alleged the 16-count corruption indictment was the work of a Republican White House and Justice Department scheming to target black Democratic leaders and shift attention from legal troubles of Republican congressmen.
"When it's all over, Bill Jefferson will stand up like Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver. He will stand up in the South and he will be victorious," said the Rev. Samson "Skip" Alexander.
The news conference attended by about 50 people was a sign Jefferson hasn't lost friends in New Orleans, which re-elected him to a ninth term from Louisiana's 2nd Congressional District in December 2006 despite an
FBI probe of his African business dealings.
Both Washington and Carver lived exemplary lives. Chilly Willy Jefferson and his cronies would have made them sick.
...
Previous posts:
Freezer Burns
Is it better for Broward residents to die in a hurricane rather than receive emergency broadcasts from a radio station that in normal times features Rush Limbaugh? The Broward County Commission thinks so:
Rush Limbaugh has long been a thorn in the side of liberals, but now, because of him, some Democratic politicians don't even want to join with a local radio station to broadcast hurricane information.Radio station WIOD, AM 610, has been the official channel for emergency information from Broward County government for the past year. The County Commission, all Democrats, balked at renewing the deal Tuesday, unable to stomach the station also being home to Limbaugh's talk show.
Commissioner Stacy Ritter said she did not want to support a station that's out of step with area politics. Ritter, a Democratic stalwart in the state Legislature before being elected to county office, cited talk shows hosted by Limbaugh and Sean Hannity and WIOD's partnership with Fox News.
"They have every right to speak, but we don't have to do business with them," she said.
Limbaugh has long been a fixture on WIOD, but no county official raised an issue about him or the other shows when the deal was approved for the first time a year ago.
The deal with WIOD would ensure that news conferences are broadcast start to finish live from the county Emergency Operations Center in Plantation. Emergency managers became concerned during hurricanes in 2004 and 2005 that radio and television stations preempted their announcements in favor of news out of Miami.
Limbaugh, who lives in Palm Beach, could not be reached for comment. Ken Charles, WIOD's director of AM programming, said the station's talk show lineup has no relationship with its news coverage and that the county should focus on the benefits of teaming with the station.
"It's a shame that people would let politics get in the way of saving lives in a hurricane," Charles said.
[Emphasis added -FC.]
According to Judy Sarver, the county's public communications director, she and other emergency planners preferred WIOD "because of its signal strength, numerous FM sister stations and willingness to give Broward top play." In other words, emergency planners put logic, practicality, and keeping citizens of the second-largest county in Florida informed and safe ahead of their own personal politics. I don't imagine any of them are commissioner material.
I wonder what these leaders would think if conservative counterparts somewhere refused to partner in broadcasting emergency information on a station because it features "Air America"?
UPDATE:
After getting dogpiled for their idiocy, the commission backs off.
Legend says that the source of Duane's slide-playing prowess was in his muttonchops, which should never be cut.
Wail on, Skydog!
Sorry for the absence, but my notebook is having heat and fan issues and I'm in the process of getting a new one.
The only hot air and droning should be my own.
It wasn't Halloween and this was no trick-or-treater in a skeleton costume:
A 10-year-old boy reportedly weighing only 35 pounds was taken for medical treatment after being found knocking on doors Saturday evening asking for food.The boy's mother, 37-year-old Kelleen Deon Murray Auguste, of the 900 block of Southwest Versailles Avenue, was arrested on a charge of felony child neglect. The state Department of Children and Families took custody of the six other minor children in the home, according to Port St. Lucie police.
Auguste is being held at the St. Lucie County Jail on $150,000 bail.
The 10-year-old's weight is less than half the normal weight of a boy his age, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
None of the other children appeared to be malnourished, police spokesman Robert Vega said.
As is often the case with abused kids, he didn't want to spill the beans (he'd have tried to eat them in any case):
According to Vega, about 7:30 p.m. Saturday, a woman in the 900 block of Southwest Cornelia Avenue answered a knock on her door to find a young boy asking for food. The boy was filthy and disheveled, with matted hair. The woman started feeding the boy, then called 911.The boy allegedly climbed out of a window at Auguste's home and went through the neighborhood looking for food. Vega said when officers spoke to the boy, he started telling them different stories, including that he had been living in the woods and in a shed in his backyard and that his name was Mike Tyson.
Based on his dehydrated and malnourished condition, the officers called an ambulance and the boy was transported to the St. Lucie Medical Center, then later taken to Palms West Hospital in Palm Beach County.
Meanwhile, the Old Lady Who Lived In A Shoe called police to report the escaped boy missing. When arrested and questioned as to his state, she claimed he hadn't been able to keep any food down, a condition that seemed to have cured itself by the time he had his first meal at the neighbor's house. Whether his skin had also been rejecting soap and water the mother didn't say.
When Mr. Cracker reached behind some folded laundry to turn on the dryer he made a new friend! After the possum repaired to the top of the water heater, it posed for photographs and tried to bend our minds to its will, but we tricked it by thinking of a brick wall.
If the finale of The Sopranos had been a regular episode, its disjointedness, and for several stretches, pure tediousness, would have fixed it as one of the worst ever. That it was designed as a finale for a long-running series that has been a huge popular and critical favorite is incomprehensible.
I especially loved the dramatic arc for daughter Meadow ending with her successfully parallel parking the car after numerous failed attempts. I know we here were on the edge of our seats screaming "Turn the wheel away from the curb! Turn the wheel away from the curb!"
Maybe not.
Perhaps her frustration was meant to serve as a mirror to that of the audience.
I'll peg this as a cop out on the part of series creator David Chase -- the creative equivalent of giving a Christmas gift of a can of Pennzoil because only the convenience stores were still open by the time he went shopping.
If this thing could put up outdoor Christmas lights, I'd marry it:
It speaks kindly to you, it soothes you with music, it cleans up after you.It's not your mother. It's a restroom.
The automated public toilet that Fort Lauderdale plans to try out at the beach does the job of a whole crew of employees, but doesn't need health insurance. It locks up at night, and opens for your business in the morning.
It knows when you're inside. And if you're not moving, it worries that you might have fallen over dead. So it flings the door open and a siren screams.
It welcomes you when you walk in, and talks you through the experience, with soothing music adding to the ambience.
City commissioners voted Tuesday to pay $25,259 to an engineering firm to design the site and deal with state permits for a structure so close to the ocean. Only Vice Mayor Carlton Moore voted no.
Fort Lauderdale can expect to spend $250,000 to $350,000 for the robotic restroom with one commode, plus about $30,000 a year to service and maintain it. The city hasn't selected a manufacturer and will put out a request for bids. The commission then must vote to buy the restroom.
This part should should warm the dingleberries of Sheryl Crow's heart:
It's a little bit bossy. The robo-john gives you a prescribed number of toilet paper squares. Government officials will decide how many squares you get to start with, although if you insist, you can get more.
It should be two squares max, to be henceforth referred to by the collective noun a 'crow of toilet paper.'
Naturally there's some Uncle John bureaucrat who thinks it would just be another instance of flushing taxpayer money down the commode, but I think it makes a lot of sense. Hopefully they'll get an equine version for this lady.
A sad little girl on her way back to the pokey.
Pure comedy gold from Paris Hilton today in an L.A. court:
Screaming and crying, Paris Hilton was escorted out of a courtroom and back to jail Friday after a judge ruled that she must serve out her entire 45-day sentence behind bars rather than in her Hollywood Hills home."It's not right!" shouted the weeping Hilton, who violated her parole in a reckless driving case. "Mom!" she called out to her mother in the audience.
Hilton, who was brought to court in handcuffs in a sheriff's car, came into the courtroom disheveled and weeping, hair askew, sans makeup, wearing a gray fuzzy sweatshirt over slacks.
She cried throughout the hearing, her body shook constantly and she dabbed at her eyes. Several times she turned to her parents, seated behind her in the courtroom, and mouthed, "I love you."
Superior Court Judge Michael T. Sauer was calm but apparently irked by the morning's developments. He said he had left the courthouse Thursday night having signed an order for Hilton to appear for the hearing.
When he got in his car early Friday, he said, he heard a radio report that he had approved Hilton's participation in the hearing by telephone, but he had not.
"I at no time condoned the actions of the sheriff and at no time told him I approved the actions," he said of the decision to release Hilton from jail after three days.
"At no time did I approve the defendant being released from custody to her home on Kings Road," Sauer said.
You have to wonder what the sheriff was thinking by letting her go after three days. He'd have to know there'd be the appearance of impropriety.
Events are flying in all directions in the case of the missing Connecticut girl recovered from a locked crawlspace:
Two days after the startling discovery of a missing teen in a West Hartford house, authorities have widened their investigation to determine whether the man who police say kept her from her family may have preyed on young girls in other parts of the country.In Connecticut, police say they have evidence that Adam Gault, charged with unlawfully restraining 15-year-old Danielle Cramer of Bloomfield over the past year, operated a "flophouse," where he may have had sex with young girls and videotaped the encounters.
West Hartford police also say they're considering reopening a pair of cases involving possible sexual relationships between Gault, a dog groomer, and two teens in the late 1990s.
On a national level, the FBI has been called in to help handle an ever-increasing number of reports from people saying they had been victimized by Gault.
So much for those so quick to assume the parents were the bad guys (I've read quite a few comments of that nature). This man's no Mother Teresa, unless it's possible to be the Mother Teresa of porn.
You got some splainin' to do:
According to the Farmington Police Department, an officer was called to a home on the south side of town at about 6 p.m. Wednesday. The homeowner said he had arrived home from work about an hour earlier. Just before 6 p.m. he went downstairs and heard a noise coming from a room. When he looked in the room he saw a woman he didn’t recognize. He told police he got the woman’s attention, at which time she ran out of the house.The responding police officer went to the room where the woman had been found. He found a working meth lab in operation. He immediately had the homeowner and some children in the home leave the residence until a police detective could be called. The detective, Sgt. Jeff Crites, arrived a few minutes later and shut down the lab so it was no longer volatile. He then called the Mineral Area Drug Task Force.
Police reports show Crites and task force members took samples from the lab for evidence, then dismantled the equipment per standard practice. While working in the room the officers found identification left behind by the mystery woman which gave more than one clue to her identity.
Officers then spoke with the homeowner’s wife. A short time into the interview she admitted to the agents and detective that she let the woman into the home.
The woman, not identified at this time pending formal charges, was arrested and processed.
He's lucky he didn't come home to a house in smoking ruins. I don't know if any of the children in the house were the wife's, but if they were, they aren't any longer.
Whoever wrote these tips for new cat owners must not live in a hot clime. There was no tip for keeping kitty cool.
UPDATE:
Fine, be that way. Watch the camera-collared Mr. Lee as he goes about his mysterious business then.
For the past few days I've been following the case of Kelsey Smith, the Kansas teen whose abduction from a Target parking lot was captured by surveillance camera. The good thing about the video is that it left no doubt as to what happened. That meant there'd be no hesitation by the police and public to get involved. The bad thing about the video is that it left no doubt as to what happened. It would allow for a quick resolution to the case, but like that of Carlie Brucia, you knew it was going to be a bad one -- because you'd seen it a dozen times before on Wild Kingdom when the leopard would take down the gazelle.
It's nice it was Tim Miller and his Texas EquuSearch that found her. That someone who felt guilt-ridden that he hadn't searched hard enough when his own daughter Laura went missing could turn that into a mission of helping other families search for their loved ones is a wonderful thing. I imagine all the searches he does are in some part for her.
UPDATE:
They have a suspect in custody.
According to a late press conference, the suspect is Edwin R. Hall, 26, of Olathe, Kansas, and he is the man who's been shown in the video leaving the store. Not surprisingly, they've also located that truck seen in the video as well.
They found him as a result of a single tip out of hundreds, so good job whoever phoned that one in.
UPDATE II:
Being these are modern times, here's his Myspace.
(I made a screencap, available here.)
UPDATE III:
The video (with audio) of his arraignment is here. He seems a little down in the dumps.
Puckerin' Duane in Central Park, 1971. That's a rawboned country boy.
Wail on, Skydog!
And since we already got the pucker, here comes the kiss:
(Kiss gif via skydogj.)
In the continuing tradition of old men kicking ass:
Shortly before landing, Bob Hayden and a flight attendant had agreed on a signal: When she waved the plastic handcuffs, he would discreetly leave his seat and restrain an unruly passenger who had frightened some of the 150 people on board a Minneapolis-to-Boston flight Saturday night with erratic behavior.Hayden, a 65-year-old former police commander, had enlisted a gray-haired gentleman sitting next to him to assist. The man turned out to be a former US Marine.
"I had looked around the plane for help, and all the younger guys had averted their eyes. When I asked the guy next to me if he was up to it, all he said was, 'Retired captain. USMC.' I said, 'You'll do,' " Hayden recalled. "So, basically, a couple of grandfathers took care of the situation."
No in-flight movie, but some in-flight drama:
Hayden said the unruly man's behavior upset some passengers. One told Hayden the man had said, "Your lives are going to change today forever," as he shouted and refused to take his seat before takeoff and at various times during the nearly three-hour flight. He said that at one point the man lay on his back and was screaming, moaning, and thrashing on the floor."Some people were crying," Hayden said. "I thought it might be a diversion. I kept scanning the back of the plane to see if anyone was going to rush forward. The flight attendants did a great job, literally surrounding the two guys who were making all the noise. I told one of the flight attendants I was a retired police officer and would be willing to assist, so we agreed on a signal."
When the captain announced preparations for landing, the man jumped up shouting, the flight attendant held up the handcuffs, and Hayden and the Marine came bounding down the aisle. Hayden said he and the retired Marine, whose name he never got, received an ovation from fellow passengers, and "some free air miles."
One passenger found the whole situation fairly routine:
Hayden's wife of 42 years, Katie, who was also on the flight, was less impressed. Even as her husband struggled with the agitated passenger, she barely looked up from "The Richest Man in Babylon," the book she was reading."The woman sitting in front of us was very upset and asked me how I could just sit there reading," Katie Hayden said. "Bob's been shot at. He's been stabbed. He's taken knives away. He knows how to handle those situations. I figured he would go up there and step on somebody's neck, and that would be the end of it. I knew how that situation would end. I didn't know how the book would end."
Great work from a couple of elderly alphas. In olden times they'd have probably been chieftains.
How's Fred Thompson doing coming out of the gate? Mighty fine:
With former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson taking his first formal steps towards a Presidential run and the immigration debate creating challenges for Arizona Senator John McCain, the race for the Republican Presidential nomination has an entirely different look this week.Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) remains on top, but his support has slipped to 23%. That’s down two points from a week ago and is his lowest level of support all year. Earlier, Giuliani had consistently enjoyed support in the mid-30s. That was before Thompson’s name was added to the mix and before Giuliani stumbled on the abortion issue in the first GOP debate of the season.
Thompson, who just formed an exploratory committee and is the newest face in the race, immediately moved into second place. With 17% support, he is within six points of the frontrunner. That’s closer than anybody has been to Giuliani in 20 consecutive weekly polls. Thompson is also competitive in a variety of general election match-ups with potential Democratic nominees.
Among men, Thompson earns 21% support while Giuliani attracts 20%
Has Giuliani's presidential aspirations been punctured like a baby's skull during a partial-birth abortion? Has the ICE-y reception of McCain's view on illegal immigration scattered potential supporters like an INS raid on a Hormel plant? We shall see.
UPDATE:
A wonderful link via INDC Bill:
This latest video is from Salon where Travis and Jonathan now have a weekly gig. These guys are so talented; I'd love it if the Comedy Channel gave them a show.
When speeding along on your waverunner, if you come to a bridge, duck:
A man riding a personal watercraft was decapitated in an accident near Fort Myers Beach Sunday evening, according to Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission.Roy Brown’s body was found in Matanzas Pass around 9:30 p.m.
...
It’s believed the accident happened around 8:30 Sunday evening, but the FWC has not located the accident scene. They say Brown may have hit a low-lying bridge during high tide.
The body may have been found, but they're still looking for "Bob."
(Via Nancy in e-mail.)
Like ice cubes from an automatic icemaker, today the indictments thunked down on Rep. William "Chilly Willy" Jefferson one after another:
Rep. William Jefferson D-La., was indicted Monday on federal charges of racketeering, soliciting bribes and money-laundering in a long-running bribery investigation into business deals he tried to broker in Africa.The indictment handed up in federal court in Alexandria., Va., Monday is 94 pages long and lists 16 alleged violations of federal law that could keep Jefferson in prison for up to 235 years, according to a Justice Department official who has seen the document.
Among the charges listed in the indictment, said the official, are racketeering, soliciting bribes, wire fraud, money-laundering, obstruction of justice, conspiracy and violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case.
Jefferson is accused of soliciting bribes for himself and his family, and also for bribing a Nigerian official.
Will this get him another standing ovation from the Congressional Black Caucus? It's gone past meriting a mere standing O, I'd say. They should consider adding a "hurrah" for each indictment -- they wouldn't want him to think they don't support him.
Boy draining lizard gets drained by lizard:
A Komodo dragon attacked and killed an 8-year-old boy in eastern Indonesia, the first recorded deadly attack on a human by one of the giant lizards in 33 years, a national park spokesman said today.The boy was mauled when he went to go to the bathroom behind a bush Saturday on Komodo island, Heru Rudiharto said.
“The Komodo bit him on his waist and tossed him viciously from side to side,” Rudiharto said.
“A fishermen, who just happened to be the boy’s uncle, threw rocks at the lizard until it let the boy go and fled,” he said. “The boy died from massive bleeding half an hour later.”
Rudiharto suspects the Komodo, whose species can weigh up to 365 pounds, couldn't find a deer to eat.
Although it's claimed there's never been an attack on humans, for some reason tour guides carry large, forked sticks to ward off the beasts.
The mayor of the island issued a statement saying that while he's pleased a large predator who supposedly injured someone was caught, it's a beautiful day, the beaches are open and people are having a wonderful time. Also that Komodo means "friendship."
Like peanut butter and jelly, the pairing of gorgeous and talented Gram Parsons with excellent pedal steel is a tasty combination:
My hometown's toothy predators used to have a lot to smile about. They were happy, healthy, and up until now, blissfully unaware of the right-wing paternalistic theocracy:
Sharks in one Florida river are getting a dose of human medicine, and now scientists want to know if it's a prescription for trouble. Scientists recently found traces of prescription antidepressants, cholesterol-lowering drugs and synthetic estrogens in the blood of young bull sharks in the Caloosahatchee River on Florida's southwest Gulf Coast.
The serpent has entered the garden in the form of agenda-driven powers-that-be and their decision to stick their noses in somebody else's bedroom and "monitor" the chemical intake, particularly prescription birth control, of these free-spirited creatures.
The war for reproductive freedom is never really over, is it?
Travis and Jonathan are there when theories of Earth's origin collide. Love that little monkey:
You can check out CNN's report of their own visit here.
Looks like we're at war with... Guyana:
According to NewsChannel4's Jonathan Dienst, sources said federal investigators have made arrests in an alleged terror plot on Kennedy Airport.Four people have been charged. One is in custody in New York. Three suspects are thought to be overseas.
Sources said one suspect is thought to be a former parliament or government official in Guyana.
Sources said the plot involved a plan to blow up a jet-fuel pipeline at JFK setting off a potential massive explosion.
Law enforcement officials said the plot may involve a former airport worker.
A press conference is scheduled for 1 p.m. this afternoon.
I don't see what the beef could be, but I imagine we'll find out shortly. According to MSNBC, three people have now been arrested.
Guyana, if we shortchanged you on bauxite, sorry; an idiot nephew dropped the scale last week and we haven't had time to get it recalibrated.
UPDATE:
Oh dear, "a very angry Muslim extremist" and "al Qaeda wannabes." Shocking.
It's a little self-serving, but that's to be expected. The interview is quite good. I wish politicians and celebrities routinely got asked to-the-point questions like the reporter asks in this interview, instead of making us sort through proctosculations:
Andrew Speaker, the 31-year-old personal injury lawyer from Atlanta, wants the world to know he’s being unfairly criticized for eluding health and security officials and putting planeloads of people at risk when he flew to Europe to get married last month-despite being told he carried an often deadly, drug-resistant form of tuberculosis. No longer America’s top medical fugitive, Speaker, who is now being treated under guard in a Denver hospital, is the first person to be quarantined by the federal government since 1963. On Friday evening, he spoke to NEWSWEEK’s Eve Conant.
Have a read and tell me what you think of the interview and his and the CDC's actions.
Via Gmac, a recommended serialized novella about life on an aircraft carrier for all you swabbies out there.
My only knowledge of aircraft carriers is that my swabbie progenitor hated them because of bulkheads that sealed to prevent the spread of fire. Prefacing by saying that it's not water that sailors fear but fire, he told me that the dead he helped carry off one carrier in the Philippines after a fire had been trapped behind automatic airtight doors with no override. There were no marks upon them except for their fingertips -- where they'd frantically clawed the searing metal walls until they literally wore their fingers to the bone.
Then again, maybe he was just trying to entertain a small child.
