Website and automated forms processes, Copyright
2007, Matthew August LeFande.
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rights reserved. No claim to original government forms
Website and automated forms processes, Copyright
2007, Matthew August LeFande.
All
rights reserved. No claim to original government forms
Scottish Sobriety Test
http://www.zippyvideos.com/11446128568644.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 1:00 PM
matt@lefande.com
Researcher's observations point to young women who initiate domestic violence
A senior scientist at Eugene's Oregon Social Learning Center has spent hours watching young couples tackle problem-solving exercises in the center's lab assessment rooms. To the surprise of Deborah Capaldi and her colleagues, a partner would sometimes lash out in the midst of debating how to solve the problem.
Who were the primary initiators of such slaps, pokes and kicks? "The women," Capaldi says.
Capaldi's and her co-workers' research, slated for publication in the Journal of Family Violence, found that women age 18 were more than four times as likely as men to initiate physical aggression. The gap closed by age 26, when women were only slightly more likely than men to tee off.
The counterintuitive findings are among a growing body of research suggesting that women may play a larger role in domestic violence than commonly assumed. But the research is also controversial and subject to interpretation.
Capaldi contends that prevention and treatment programs for battered women often miss the mark because they fail to consider the realities of female aggression. Women need to know, for example, that if they assault their partner, they run a higher risk of severe injury themselves, she said.
"Women engage in aggression," she said, "and we're not doing them any favors by denying they have any part in it."
Most advocates for female victims of domestic violence acknowledge that some women are aggressors and some men are victims. But they caution that the dynamics are often very different, the options for escape much narrower, and the risk of physical injury or death far greater for women.
http://www.registerguard.com/news/2005/01/29/a1.dvresearch.0129.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 6:25 PM
matt@lefande.com
Houston legalizes carrying concealed weapons on city transit system
Houston's transit agency repealed its ban on carrying concealed handguns on buses and commuter trains Thursday.
The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Texas, known as Metro, had prohibited such weapons since 1995. But in 2003, the Texas state legislature passed a law that said cities cannot bar licensed gun owners from carrying concealed weapons in public buildings. Pro-gun organizations then sued Metro, contending the law applies to public transit, too.
"I think Metro was not enthusiastic about people carrying handguns on board but we cannot legally ban people who are legally carrying those handguns from being on Metro," said David Wolff, Metro's chairman, who called the change a "non-event."
Jerry Patterson, chairman of the Civil Liberties Defense Foundation, one of the groups that sued, said: "Metro is to be commended. They did the right thing."
"They did the lawful thing. They saved their ratepayers unnecessary funds to litigate it further."
Patterson said his organization has simply tried to make sure licensed and law-abiding citizens are allowed to carry concealed handguns on transit systems if they wish, he said.
Next on Patterson's list are transit systems in Austin and San Antonio, as well as other government entities that still have similar bans in place.
"This win gives us more leverage when we talk to them," he said.
http://travelcanada.sympatico.msn.ca/TravelNews/ContentPosting.aspx?contentid=7ea739d2281047e8a3d3331094bde570
posted by Matthew LeFande 6:11 PM
matt@lefande.com
Left wing profoundly annoyed by Iraqi election success.
All the media keeps talking about is how happy the Iraqis are, how high turnout was, and how "freedom" has spread to Iraq. I had to turn off CNN because they kept focusing on the so-called "voters" and barely mentioned the resistance movements at all. Where are the freedom fighters today? Are their voices silenced because some American puppets cast a few ballots?
I can't believe the Iraqis are buying into this "democracy" bullshit. They have to know that the Americans don't want them to have power, because they know that Bush is in this for the oil, and now that he finally has it he's not going to let it go. This election is a charade. The fact is that the Iraqis have suffered during the past two years more than any people on earth at the hands of the American gestapo. Maybe they're afraid and felt they had to vote. That's the only way I can explain it to myself.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3029263
posted by Matthew LeFande 6:05 PM
matt@lefande.com
McDonald's employee charged with assault after police officer finds glass in burger
A teenage McDonald's worker was arrested for assault after allegedly hiding bits of glass in a burger served to a police officer, authorities said Sunday.
The officer, who is assigned to the canine unit, suffered cuts to his throat and mouth while eating a Big Mac he bought from the McDonald's on Garrison Avenue in the Bronx late Saturday. He was treated at a hospital and released.
An investigation led police to Albert Garcia Jr., an 18-year-old Bronx man who works at the restaurant, according to Sgt. Mary Christine Doherty, a police department spokeswoman.
Police said they were charging Garcia with first-degree assault, reckless endangerment and criminal possession of a weapon. He was not immediately available for comment.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/N/NY_GLASS_IN_BURGER_BAOL-?SITE=NYNYD&SECTION=MIDEAST&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
posted by Matthew LeFande 5:41 PM
matt@lefande.com
Kofi Annan’s son admits oil dealing
THE son of the United Nations secretary-general has admitted he was involved in negotiations to sell millions of barrels of Iraqi oil under the auspices of Saddam Hussein.
Kojo Annan has told a close friend he became involved in negotiations to sell 2m barrels of Iraqi oil to a Moroccan company in 2001. He is understood to be co-operating with UN investigators probing the discredited oil for food programme.
The alleged admission will increase pressure on Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, who is already facing calls for his resignation over the management of the humanitarian programme.
The oil for food programme allowed Saddam to sell oil to buy humanitarian supplies under UN supervision. However, it has emerged that the programme was riddled with corruption as Saddam used it to buy influence around the world.
Several senior UN staff are alleged to have profited from the scheme, and the apparent connection between Kojo and the programme has become the subject of intense international scrutiny. Critics claim that Kofi faces a significant conflict of interest if Kojo sought to profit from the discredited scheme.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1462576,00.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 5:30 PM
matt@lefande.com
Armed Citizen(s) of the Week
When two men walked into a popular country store outside Atlanta, announced a holdup and fired a shot, owners Bobby and Gloria Doster never hesitated. The pair pulled out their own pistols and opened fire.
The armed suspect and his partner were killed. The Dosters won't be charged, according to local officials, because they were acting in self-defense.
'I just started shooting,' said Gloria Doster, 56. 'I was trying to blow his brains out is what I was trying to do.'
She was rearranging boxes of soda by the store's front door when a man wearing a wig walked inside, the fake hair draped in front of his face.
"I asked him, 'Can you see to walk?'" Doster said. Then she noticed a second man behind him wearing a mask. He announced a holdup.
One man grabbed Gloria Doster and pushed her toward the register. She said the other kept his gun on her 62-year-old husband, who also goes by the name Shoats.
She tried to open the register, but one of the men told her she wasn't moving fast enough and tried to shoot her husband. He missed - and his gun jammed.
At that point, Bobby Doster pulled out a .380-caliber handgun and shot one of the suspects. Gloria Doster then went for a 9 mm pistol she keeps near the register.
"All hell broke loose," she said. "I was trying to shoot and dial 911 at the same time."
Both suspects took cover behind the store's meat counter as the Dosters opened fire. Gloria Doster said she doesn't know how many bullets were fired, or how many times the suspects were hit.
Police arrived about five minutes after receiving Gloria Doster's call; the suspects died a short time later at a hospital.
The bloodshed, nevertheless, startled Gloria Doster, who has been around guns all her life, and has used them for target shooting. "But I never figured I'd have to use them on anybody," she said.
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBR2OHEF4E.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:50 AM
matt@lefande.com
Less Kill Bill
A top North Wales cop last night blamed Hollywood for a 450% rise in violent deaths in the region.
Deputy chief constable Clive Wolfendale urged people to stop watching Quentin Tarantino and start reading Jane Austen.
He added: "We need more Persuasion and less Kill Bill."
Mr Wolfendale, left, was speaking out after new figures revealed that between April and November last year, North Wales Police investigated 11 killings compared with just two in the same period in 2003.
Attempted murders rose 50% from six to nine, while wounding offences rose nearly 30% from 89 to 115.
Yesterday's figures also revealed a rise in road deaths - despite the force's controversial anti-speeding campaign.
"In today's society, more people are likely to spend their evenings watching a Quentin Tarantino DVD than reading a Jane Austen novel.
"Perhaps we should not be surprised by the consequences."
http://icnorthwales.icnetwork.co.uk/news/regionalnews/tm_objectid=15117618&method=full&siteid=50142&headline=more-persuasion--less-kill-bill---wolfendale-name_page.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:39 AM
matt@lefande.com
No Relief in Sight for the Lincoln
It has been three weeks since my ship, the USS Abraham Lincoln, arrived off the Sumatran coast to aid the hundreds of thousands of victims of the Dec. 26 tsunami that ravaged their coastline. I’d like to say that this has been a rewarding experience for us, but it has not: Instead, it has been a frustrating and needlessly dangerous exercise made even more difficult by the Indonesian government and a traveling circus of so-called aid workers who have invaded our spaces.
What really irritated me was a scene I witnessed in the Lincoln’s wardroom a few days ago. I went in for breakfast as I usually do, expecting to see the usual crowd of ship’s company officers in khakis and air wing aviators in flight suits, drinking coffee and exchanging rumors about when our ongoing humanitarian mission in Sumatra is going to end.
What I saw instead was a mob of civilians sitting around like they owned the place. They wore various colored vests with logos on the back including Save The Children, World Health Organization and the dreaded baby blue vest of the United Nations. Mixed in with this crowd were a bunch of reporters, cameramen and Indonesian military officers in uniform. They all carried cameras, sunglasses and fanny packs like tourists on their way to Disneyland.
My warship had been transformed into a floating hotel for a bunch of trifling do-gooders overnight.
As I went through the breakfast line, I overheard one of the U.N. strap-hangers, a longhaired guy with a beard, make a sarcastic comment to one of our food servers. He said something along the lines of “Nice china, really makes me feel special,” in reference to the fact that we were eating off of paper plates that day. It was all I could do to keep from jerking him off his feet and choking him, because I knew that the reason we were eating off paper plates was to save dishwashing water so that we would have more water to send ashore and save lives. That plus the fact that he had no business being there in the first place.
My attitude towards these unwanted no-loads grew steadily worse that day as I learned more from one of our junior officers who was assigned to escort a group of them. It turns out that they had come to Indonesia to “assess the damage” from the Dec. 26 tsunami.
Well, they could have turned on any TV in the world and seen that the damage was total devastation. When they got to Sumatra with no plan, no logistics support and no five-star hotels to stay in, they threw themselves on the mercy of the U.S. Navy, which, unfortunately, took them in. I guess our senior brass was hoping for some good PR since this was about the time that the U.N. was calling the United States “stingy” with our relief donations.
As a result of having to host these people, our severely over-tasked SH-60 Seahawk helos, which were carrying tons of food and water every day to the most inaccessible places in and around Banda Aceh, are now used in great part to ferry these “relief workers” from place to place every day and bring them back to their guest bedrooms on the Lincoln at night. Despite their avowed dedication to helping the victims, these relief workers will not spend the night in-country, and have made us their guardians by default.
When our wardroom treasurer approached the leader of the relief group and asked him who was paying the mess bill for all the meals they ate, the fellow replied, “We aren’t paying, you can try to bill the U.N. if you want to.”
In addition to the relief workers, we routinely get tasked with hauling around reporters and various low-level “VIPs,” which further wastes valuable helo lift that could be used to carry supplies. We had to dedicate two helos and a C-2 cargo plane for America-hater Dan Rather and his entourage of door holders and briefcase carriers from CBS News. Another camera crew was from MTV. I doubt if we’ll get any good PR from them, since the cable channel is banned in Muslim countries. We also had to dedicate a helo and crew to fly around the vice mayor of Phoenix, Ariz., one day. Everyone wants in on the action.
As for the Indonesian officers, while their job is apparently to encourage our leaving as soon as possible, all they seem to do in the meantime is smoke cigarettes. They want our money and our help but they don’t want their population to see that Americans are doing far more for them in two weeks than their own government has ever done or will ever do for them.
To add a kick in the face to the USA and the Lincoln, the Indonesian government announced it would not allow us to use their airspace for routine training and flight proficiency operations while we are saving the lives of their people, some of whom are wearing Osama bin Ladin T-shirts as they grab at our food and water. The ship has to steam out into international waters to launch and recover jets, which makes our helos have to fly longer distances and burn more fuel.
I’m all for helping the less fortunate, but it is time to give this mission to somebody other than the U.S. Navy. Our ship was supposed to be home on Feb. 3 and now we have no idea how long we will be here. American taxpayers are spending millions per day to keep this ship at sea and getting no training value out of it. As a result, we will come home in a lower state of readiness than when we left due to the lack of flying while supporting the tsunami relief effort.
I hope we get some good PR in the Muslim world out of it. After all, this is Americans saving the lives of Muslims. I have my doubts.
http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=DefenseWatch.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=762&rnd=230.81425456182552
posted by Matthew LeFande 1:32 PM
matt@lefande.com
Detroit's mayor too wild for D.C. cops
Two Washington, D.C., police supervisors say their VIP security team stopped offering after-hours protection for Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick in 2002 because his frequent nightclub-hopping might result in injury or public embarrassment to their officers.
Washington Police Sgt. Tyrone Dodson, in an affidavit explained why police cut back their contact with Kilpatrick.
"We arrived at this decision because we felt that the late evening partying on the part of Mayor Kilpatrick would leave our officers stretched too thin and might result in an incident at one of the clubs," Dodson wrote. Such an outing could mean "injury to one of the members of our unit or result in embarrassing publicity for the Metropolitan Police Department."
Lt. Paul Charity, who was Dodson's boss in 2002 and now works in Washington's internal affairs unit, confirmed the decision when reached by phone Thursday. Washington police provide protection for VIPs as a professional courtesy, and said they continue to do so for Kilpatrick when he is on official business there.Charity and Dodson, who gave his deposition as part of the lawsuit, did not report ever seeing the mayor cheat on his wife, but both provided accounts of behavior they found troubling in the fall of 2002 when Kilpatrick was in town.
In his sworn testimony on Sept. 9, Dodson described one night in 2002 when he accompanied Kilpatrick and two Detroit police bodyguards to a Washington nightclub called Dream.
"The mayor filled the limousine with 10 or more people, mostly young women dressed in evening wear," Dodson wrote. "I did not recognize any of them as being part of the mayor's staff, which I had seen during the day."
The limo, Dodson wrote, was so full that he had to ride in an extra vehicle with one of the women and one of the mayor's police guards.
The group went to Dream, where Kilpatrick's bodyguards -- Officers Walt Harris and Mike Martin -- were told they had to check their weapons at the door, which is against department policy, Dodson wrote. Harris gave a similar account in interviews last year with the Free Press.
Harris and Dodson said they refused to give up their weapons and remained outside. Martin gave his gun to Harris and went inside with Kilpatrick, who accompanied at least one woman, Dodson wrote.
Charity said Thursday that Dodson called him from outside Dream and told him about the situation. Charity described Dodson as a "kind of a do-right guy. He immediately called me when they went to the club," saying of Kilpatrick "he's here. I think he wants to go in and party."
Charity said: "I think that's the last time the mayor visited that we provided security" after-hours.
In response, Sgt. Dwayne Love, commanding officer of Kilpatrick's security team, said in a statement: "I'm not aware of any issues with support and coordination."
Dodson also wrote in his affidavit that "other members of the Metropolitan EPU voiced concerns about being required to accompany Mayor Kilpatrick during his reported nonstop club-hopping when he was in town."
http://www.freep.com/news/locway/kilp21e_20050121.htm
posted by Matthew LeFande 11:00 AM
matt@lefande.com
Drunk Driver Asks Cops for Directions
A Roseville, California resident is being credited with getting a suspected drunken driver off the road - by tricking him into going to the police department.
Jay Desimone told the man he would lead him to the freeway, said Dee Dee Gunther, a Roseville police spokeswoman. "Instead, he led the suspect into our parking lot and called police on his cell phone," Gunther said.
When the two vehicles reached the police station, officers arrested the driver, who didn't have a clue to what was happening, Gunther said. "He asked the officers if they could direct him to the freeway," she said.
http://www.wokr.com/news/weird_news/story.aspx?content_id=F761C9F7-DB7B-4946-8CB4-1C3555783C63
posted by Matthew LeFande 10:37 AM
matt@lefande.com
Fired police officer awarded $1.6 million
A former Inglewood police officer who was fired for punching a black teenager and slamming him against a patrol car was awarded $1.6 million Tuesday by the jury in a discrimination lawsuit he and his partner brought against the city.
The jury voted 11-1 in favor of the verdict for Jeremy Morse, said defense attorney Gregory Smith. He said the jury was unanimous in awarding $810,000 to Morse's partner, Bijan Darvish, who had been disciplined in connection with the 2002 incident.
"This is not the first time police officers have been trapped in race situations where they suffered unfairly," Smith said in a phone interview after the verdict was read. "This will have an impact in police departments across the country."
Morse, 27, said he was very happy with the verdict.
He had previously faced a charge of assault, but a judge dismissed it in February 2004 after two juries deadlocked. A jury acquitted Darvish of filing a false report.
A bystander videotaped Morse in July 2002 punching handcuffed Donovan Jackson in the head and slamming him onto a patrol car in Inglewood, just south of Los Angeles.
Morse, who is white, said he reacted to Jackson grabbing his testicles. The videotape does not show whether the grabbing occurred.
Morse was fired two months later, and Darvish was suspended for 10 days for filing a police report that failed to mention his partner's conduct. The two filed the discrimination suit against Inglewood in February 2003, alleging reverse discrimination, Smith said.
Inglewood Police Chief Ronald Banks, who is black, said in a phone interview Tuesday that race was not a factor in his decision to fire Morse and suspend Darvish, who still works as an Inglewood officer. The city has not decided whether to appeal the verdict.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/01/19/fired.officer.ap/index.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:19 AM
matt@lefande.com
Report Faults Md. Ballistics Database
A Maryland law requiring state police to collect ballistics data on every handgun sold in the state is ineffective and expensive and should be repealed, according to a report by the Maryland State Police.
Police have gathered information from more than 43,000 guns since the law was adopted in 2000, but the data have not significantly aided a single criminal investigation, according to the report. The study was compiled last year by the state police forensic sciences division and distributed to state legislators late last week.
"It's not yielding any results," said Sgt. Rob Moroney, a state police spokesman. "The program simply has not met expectations and does not aid in the mission statement of the department of police."
Maryland and New York are the only states with laws establishing a database on ballistics "fingerprints" -- the unique markings left on shell casings when a gun is fired. Those markings can then be traced to a single gun. The Maryland program has cost $2.6 million, according to the report.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16475-2005Jan17.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:23 AM
matt@lefande.com
Listerine Bottle Gets Driver In Trouble For 'Open Container'
Police in Adrian, Michigan say Carol Ries denied she'd been drinking alcohol, but she did admit to downing three glasses of Listerine mouthwash.
(WTF? She was drinking Listerine?)
She was busted in Michigan for drunken driving. Police said they tested Ries when she showed signs of intoxication after her car rear-ended another.
According to police, Ries' blood-alcohol level was more than three times the legal limit. Police said they'll also seek a warrant charging her with having open container of booze in the vehicle, the bottle of Listerine.
Original formula Listerine has nearly 27 percent alcohol, more than four times that of many malt liquors.
http://www.local10.com/news/4087783/detail.html: "
posted by Matthew LeFande 8:11 AM
matt@lefande.com
Alleged Drunk Lawyer Defends DUI Suspect
An attorney in McKean PA was arrested for drunken driving as he left a hearing for a client accused of the same thing, state police said.
During Wednesday's hearing in a McKean district justice's office, a state police trooper noticed attorney Wayne G. Johnson Sr. might be drunk, said Trooper Robert Thompson.
The trooper, who was testifying in the DUI case against Johnson's 20-year-old client, called a state police barracks. By the time backup arrived, Johnson was in his car, Thompson said.
Johnson failed field sobriety tests and was charged with drunken driving, Thompson said. His blood-alcohol level at the time of his arrest was not available Friday, state police said.
Johnson's receptionist said Friday he had no comment.
http://apnews.myway.com//article/20050114/D87K4B580.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 6:51 PM
matt@lefande.com
Supreme Court Says Federal Sentencing Guidelines Not Mandatory
The Supreme Court today declared unconstitutional a portion of the nation's federal sentencing law and said that federal judges are no longer obligated to follow the controversial system of sentencing guidelines established by Congress in 1984.
The long-awaited decision, one of the most significant rulings in a criminal case in years, effectively converted the guidelines from mandatory status to advisory status, meaning that judges must consider them rather than necessarily follow them.
The greatest uncertainty today was the extent to which the ruling will permit appeals by individuals already sentenced under the guidelines.
The justices were greatly divided in today's decision in United States v. Booker, over the constitutional argument as well as over the remedy.
One opinion was written by Justice John Paul Stevens and joined by Justices Antonin Scalia, David Souter, Clarence Thomas and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. All five agreed that the practice violated the Sixth Amendment.
All in the group but Ginsburg, however, said the remedy should be to let juries make the determination about enhancing a sentence.
Another group of five, led by Justice Stephen Breyer and joined by Ginsburg, among others, held that the only remedy was to invalidate part of the actual law.
"So modified," Breyer wrote, the guidelines become "effectively advisory." The holding permits a judge to "consider guidelines ranges" for sentencing but "permits the court to tailor the sentence in light of other statutory concerns as well."
Breyer, joined by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy, restated their view that the sentencing guideline system does not violate the constitution at all.
"The Court," Breyer wrote, "holds that the Sixth Amendment requires a jury, not a judge, to find sentencing facts -- facts about the way in which an offender committed the crime -- where those facts would move an offender from lower to higher Guidelines ranges. . . . I find nothing in the Sixth Amendment that forbids a sentencing judge to determine the manner or way in which the offender carried out the crime of which he was convicted."
"blank" >http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3336-2005Jan12.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:57 PM
matt@lefande.com
Inauguration Shutdown Of Downtown Extensive
Federal officials announced plans yesterday to close roughly 100 square blocks of downtown Washington to vehicles on Inauguration Day and to restrict traffic on another 100 square blocks.
Motorists should prepare for detours and delays even before President Bush is sworn in for a second term Jan. 20. Some streets will be closed Sunday for a dress rehearsal of the inaugural parade. Others will be closed from time to time starting Tuesday as Bush and other dignitaries head to concerts, receptions and other events.
Pennsylvania Avenue NW -- the parade route -- will be closed after 6 p.m. Jan. 19 for security, as workers remove streetlights and weld shut manhole covers, D.C. police said.
Bush is to take the oath of office in a noontime ceremony at the Capitol on Jan. 20. Throughout the day and into the night, much of downtown will be off-limits to motorists. The restrictions cover Second Street east of the Capitol to 23rd Street to the west, extending roughly between E Street south of the Capitol and K Street to the north, plus an area around the Washington Convention Center.
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge acknowledged yesterday that security plans go well beyond those undertaken in 2001 for Bush's first inauguration. This is the widest planned shutdown of the core business district in memory, and Ridge said authorities intend to be "as prepared as possible."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1946-2005Jan11.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 6:56 AM
matt@lefande.com
Mayor says traffic cameras needed for revenue
D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams cited the "urgent need" to collect revenue in his recent request to continue the city's automated traffic-enforcement program, which added four new cameras yesterday, despite previous assurances that use of the technology is driven by concerns for safety, not profits.
"There is an urgent need for the approval of this contract to ensure the continued processing of District tickets and the collection of District revenues," Mr. Williams wrote in a Dec. 16 letter to D.C. Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp.
In the letter, Mr. Williams was seeking support for the District's $14.6 million contract with ACS State and Local Solutions, which the council later approved. ACS, a private company, handles fines for the city's automated traffic-enforcement program.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Williams yesterday said that the mayor's views about red light and speed cameras haven't changed and that he probably should have included "an extra sentence about public safety" in his letter to Mrs. Cropp.
Like the afterthought it is.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20050111-120538-9615r.htm
posted by Matthew LeFande 8:51 AM
matt@lefande.com
U.S. Tells D.C. to Pay Inaugural Expenses
Federal officials have told the District that it should cover the expenses by using some of the $240 million in federal homeland security grants it has received in the past three years -- money awarded to the city because it is among the places at highest risk of a terrorist attack.
But that grant money is earmarked for other security needs, Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) said in a Dec. 27 letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Joshua B. Bolten and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge. Williams's office released the letter yesterday.
Williams estimated that the city's costs for the inauguration will total $17.3 million, most of it related to security. City officials said they can use an unspent $5.4 million from an annual federal fund that reimburses the District for costs incurred because of its status as the capital. But that leaves $11.9 million not covered, they said.
"We want to make this the best possible event, but not at the expense of D.C. taxpayers and other homeland security priorities," said Gregory M. McCarthy, the mayor's deputy chief of staff. "This is the first time there hasn't been a direct appropriation for the inauguration."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63896-2005Jan10.html
Exactly how many citizens of the District of Columbia voted for the President? How many have had any support for his policies? How about the Mayor or Eleanor Holmes Norton? They weren't exactly big supporters of Bush's reelection. Does somebody need to remind them it was the Bush Administration which granted DC the $240 million in Homeland Security funds in the first place?
When you shit where you eat, this kind of treatment can't be completely unexpected.
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:40 AM
matt@lefande.com
Cocaine now cheaper than a cappuccino
The failure of the government's policy to stem drug imports is revealed today by research which shows that Britain is awash with cheap drugs, with a line of cocaine now costing less than a cappuccino.
The price of ecstasy, heroin, crack, cocaine and cannabis has tumbled to a record low in the last year, as dealers pumped ever greater quantities onto the market, encouraging hundreds of thousands of people to become regular users.
During last year the cost of a rock of crack fell by more than a fifth to £10, its largest annual fall since the drug reached Britain during the Eighties. Rocks, each about the size of a white, waxy pea, are effectively cocaine in smokeable form and typically give users one or two hits.
The statistics reveal the changing profile of drug- taking in Britain. Typical of the new breed of users are those who split a gram of cocaine with friends most weekends while experts also warn of clubbers who are increasingly spurning ecstasy in favour of crack.
Researchers found there were regional disparities in the cost of drugs. Cocaine, for example, is dearest in East Anglia, at £47 a gram, and cheapest in the north-east, at £39. Increasingly, users are paying under £40. Users can eke out up to 20 lines - each one giving a feeling of self-confidence and alertness for around 20 minutes - from one gram. This equates to about £2.25 a line, cheaper than a cappuccino in many cafes.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/drugs/Story/0,2763,1386240,00.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 8:13 AM
matt@lefande.com
The "Turd" World And The High Priest Vulture Elite
The local Guardian correspondent has called the Embassy; he is doing a negative story on the US relief effort based on 'information' provided by the UN at a press conference...
Many years ago, as we prepared our return to a tough posting in the Far Abroad after leave in the States, our son asked, "Do we have to go back to the 'turd' world?" That phrase, "redolent" with the wisdom possessed only by children, has stayed with me over these passing years. My son was right about the 'turd' world. What tips you off that you have arrived in a poor country, a truly, genuinely dirt-poor corner of the Far Abroad, is the smell. As you leave the airport, you notice a special "exotic" odor of rotting vegetation, garbage, and feces combined with a slight whiff of smoke. Once you're there a bit, you no longer notice. When you leave and come back, it slams you all over again. The kid was right: we had been and still do live in the "Turd World."
This Embassy has been running 24/7 since the December 26 earthquake and tsunami. Along with my colleagues, I've spent the past several days dealing non-stop with various aspects of the relief effort in this tsunami-affected country. That work, unfortunately, has brought ever-increasing contact with the growing UN presence in this capital; in fact, we've found that to avoid running into the UN, we must go out to where the quake and tsunami actually hit.
As we come up on two weeks since the disaster struck, the UN is still not to be seen where it counts -- except when holding well-staged press events. Ah, yes, but the luxury hotels are full of UN assessment teams and visiting big shots from New York, Geneva, and Vienna. The city sees a steady procession of UN Mercedes sedans and top-of-the-line SUV's -- a fully decked out Toyota Landcruiser is the UN vehicle of choice; it doesn't seem that concerns about "global warming" and preserving your tax dollars run too deep among the UNocrats.
Sitting VERY late for two consecutive nights in interminable meetings with UN reps, hearing them go on about "taking the lead coordination role," pledges, and the impending arrival of this or that UN big shot or assessment/coordination team, for the millionth time I realized that if not for Australia and America almost nobody in the tsunami-affected areas would have survived more than a few days.
If we had waited for the UNocrats to get their act coordinated, the already massive death toll would have become astronomical. But, fortunately, thanks to "retrograde racist war-mongers " such as John Howard and George W. Bush, as we sat in air conditioned meeting rooms with these UNocrats, young Australians and Americans were at that moment "coordinating" without the UN and saving the lives of tens-of-thousands of people.
Seeing these UNocrats perched at the table, whispering to each other, back-slapping, shaking hands, they seemed like a periodic reunion of old cynical Mafia chieftains or mercenaries who run into each other in different hot spots, as they move from one slaughter to another, "How are you? Haven't seen you since Bosnia . . .." They were akin to some sort of ancient mythical Greco-Roman-Aztec-Wes Craven-Egyptian-bird-god that demands constant sacrifice and feeding, and speaks in riddles which only it can solve.
Yes, I decided, the UNocrats are great hideous vultures, roused from their caves in the European Alps and in the cement canyons and peaks of Manhattan by the stench of death in the Turd World. They leisurely take flight toward the smell of death; circle, and then swoop down, screeching UNintelligble nonsense. They arrive and immediately force others, e.g., the American tax payer, to build them new exclusive nests in the midst of poverty, and make themselves fat on the flesh of the dead. My friends, allow The Diplomad to present to you The High Priest Vulture Elite (HPVE).
These genuinely repulsive, arrogant creatures survive only because the world's rich countries, the non-Turd World, allow them, too. We in the First World find it politically impossible to reveal their pronouncements as the cant they are. For many in Europe and among the New York Times crowd, helping maintain these mad vultures substitutes for genuine action, "The UN is on the job!" In addition, for many senior bureaucrats and minor politicians, there is always the hope that if they play the game right, they, too, can join the High Priest Vulture Elite: We see the ranks of the HPVE full of Scandinavians and leftist Americans, and the occasional pompous Euro-Brazilian, all of whom parlayed mediocre domestic careers of lip-biting humanitarian symbolism into well-paying tax-free sinecures in the HPVE.
Who are the victims? Well, of course, the tax payers of the First World come immediately to mind. But really, after all, for us it's just money. Money comes and goes. The big victims of the HPVE are the world's poor countries who pay with the lives of their children; who get diverted by HPVE mumbo jumbo and its promises of aid and technical assistance from taking actions to develop their own countries and fend off the HPVE.
http://diplomadic.blogspot.com/2005/01/turd-world-and-high-priest-vulture.html: "
posted by Matthew LeFande 2:30 PM
matt@lefande.com
Armed Citizen of the Week
The owner of a small city store had not heard about the rapist terrorizing downtown Camden before he used a single bullet to end the man's life.
When Ngoc Le saw a masked man holding his wife at knifepoint, the shopkeeper shot the man in the head, killing him instantly. Five days later, DNA tests showed Antonio Diaz Reyes was responsible for three sexual assaults in November and December.
Ngoc Le was in the bathroom and Kelly was alone behind the counter when Reyes, with a ski mask on his face, entered the shop.
Kelly Le said she was on guard because neighbors had been telling her about robberies committed at knifepoint in shops nearby. Police are trying to determine whether Reyes was also responsible for those crimes.
She said the man did not speak much and what he said was so soft she had trouble understanding him. He pointed to his belt to indicate he wanted a clip for his cell phone.
She turned her back to get one off the wall.
When she heard the man jump over the counter, Le screamed for her husband and Ngoc Le emerged with the pistol.
Reyes pushed Kelly Le into the office and into the entrance to the tidy living room behind it. Ngoc kept backing up with them. The couple's daughter and son, ages 6 and 4, often play in that room, but were elsewhere that day.
"When he saw my husband with the gun, I said this guy probably doesn't want no money," Kelly Le said. "He probably wants something other than money."
"My husband keeps telling him, 'Just take whatever you want and go,"' Kelly Le said. "He (Reyes) keeps saying, 'I'm going to kill you, I'm going to kill you."'
Ngoc Le, a slight man, stayed about five feet away, afraid the man might take his gun if he got any closer.
"I saw an open space and I just had to pull the trigger on him," Ngoc Le said.
"If it didn't turn out this way, it would probably have turned out the opposite way and we're not sitting here talking, I guess," Kelly Le said.
Both called police. While they waited, the dead man's cell phone rang constantly.
Police arrived within a few minutes and took Ngoc Le to the police station, but they did not put him in handcuffs. Because he used deadly force to protect his wife's life, rather than his property, Ngoc Le was not charged with a crime.
It was only that afternoon the businessman heard about the three rapes that had taken place a few miles away in a safer area of the city. The victims in those daytime, knifepoint attacks were a high school student, a college student and an employee at a shop. All three were close in age to Kelly Le.
Authorities told Ngoc Le they would compare Reyes' DNA to the samples from the three rapes.
http://www.wnbc.com/news/4054017/detail.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 8:16 AM
matt@lefande.com
Teen sentenced to life in cop shooting
The teenager who shot a Montgomery County police officer, confining him to a wheelchair for life, was sentenced yesterday to the maximum penalty of life in prison plus 20 years.
Terrence Green, 19, showed little emotion as Circuit Judge S. Michael Pincus read the sentence. His victim, Officer Kyle Olinger, 39, watched from his wheelchair.
"There are things worse than death in this world. For me, it's paralysis," Officer Olinger said before the sentence was read. "I hope he finds his fate to be worse than death."
Officer Olinger was shot Aug. 13, 2003, in Silver Spring after he had stopped a suspicious car for the second time in a matter of minutes.
During the trial, Officer Olinger testified that he ordered the driver out for questioning and noticed that Green was moving around in the front seat. Officer Olinger said he went to that side of the car, asked Green for identification, then saw a gun on the floor and ordered everyone to put their hands up.
When Green failed to fully comply, Officer Olinger pulled his service weapon and a struggle began. When it ended, Officer Olinger had been shot in the neck, leaving him paralyzed from the chest down.
Officer Olinger, who has a 14-year-old son, now works a desk job with the special investigations division.
"I still haven't given up on being able to walk again some day," he said. "I'll never give up on that."
http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20050107-120829-2532r.htm
Perhaps Mr. Schiraldi would suggest instead of locking up this predatory criminal for the next few decades, that society as a whole should accept responsibility for this misguided teen and we should help him get in touch with his feelings and let him go.
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:44 AM
matt@lefande.com
Used Body Armor Is Sought for U.S. Vehicles in Iraq
New Jersey is collecting used bulletproof vests for U.S. troops in Iraq to use as armor for their vehicles, following complaints that soldiers were underprotected.
Acting Gov. Richard Codey on Thursday asked all local, state and federal law enforcement agencies in New Jersey to donate used vests that could be used to strengthen armor on military vehicles.
"We are establishing regional drop-off points at our National Guard armories to collect used bulletproof vests to give our troops every possible protection," Codey said in a statement.
The vests are intended for vehicles and not for individual soldiers, who already have personal body armor, the statement said.
Codey's initiative was launched because he wanted to help an existing grass-roots appeal, said Sean Darcy, a spokesman for the acting governor. "This was something that was already going on, and he wanted to give it greater prominence," Darcy said.
The vest-collection effort could also give politically useful publicity to Codey, who took over as acting governor in November from the resigned Jim McGreevey. Codey is considering a run for a full term this year and would face a tough field of potential challengers.
Some vests are being collected by the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police, whose forces total some 25,000 officers. Even as the vests reach the end of their useful life for people, they can still help reinforce vehicles, said Mitchell Sklar, executive director of the organization.
"There are hundreds and hundreds of vests that we have no use for and, rather than dumping them, we feel that we are doing our bit," Sklar said.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=564&ncid=564&e=3&u=/nm/20050106/ts_nm/iraq_us_vests_dc
posted by Matthew LeFande 8:02 PM
matt@lefande.com
Constable keeps jail doors clanging in eastern Kentucky
John Herman Kirk had always dreamed of being a police officer, catching the bad guys and throwing them in the slammer.
After years working as a heavy equipment operator, Kirk had pretty much given up on the notion when fate came calling. Kirk was appointed constable, an unpaid position that offered one irresistible perk. He would get to arrest drug dealers, bootleggers, drunken drivers and the like.
"I'll be honest with you; I'm sick of the drug dealers," he said, a 10 mm Smith and Wesson holstered on his hip. "It has gotten to the point if you pass 10 cars on the road, five will be on the yellow line. The drivers high on something."
In the three months he has served as constable, Kirk has developed the reputation as a tough lawman, routinely making more arrests that any other law enforcement officer in Martin County, whether sheriff's deputies or state police troopers.
Kirk is an exception among constables in Kentucky. Most of the people who hold the position rarely make arrests. Some, like Kirk, do buy cruisers and hit the streets.
Gary Cordner, a professor of police studies at the Eastern Kentucky University College of Justice and Safety, said constables can be important in small rural Kentucky counties where sheriff's departments typically are short staffed.
The position is a holdover from an earlier legal system when justices of the peace or local magistrates held judicial authority in Kentucky counties.
"Its continuation probably reflects that constables still fill a gap in law enforcement in some counties," Cordner said.
Friends and foes have dubbed Kirk "The Herminator," blending his middle name with that of the Arnold Schwarzenegger character "The Terminator." Grinning, Kirk said he doesn't particularly like the nickname but that he has accepted it.
That nickname has appeared frequently in headlines in the local newspaper, the Mountain Citizen.
"The Herminator gets his man," one headline read after Kirk caught a drunken driving suspect who ditched his car and ran up the side of a mountain in an unsuccessful attempt to lose his pursuer.
"John 'The Herminator' Kirk says he's just doing his job," another declared, after a woman he arrested started a petition drive in an attempt to have him removed from office.
Martin County Judge-Executive Kelly Callaham appointed Kirk to the job in October after the incumbent resigned to become a sheriff's deputy. Callaham said people either love Kirk or hate him.
"He's like a two-edged sword," Callaham said. "He's causing me a political headache on one hand, but you've got a boy out there trying to make a difference. As long as he's out there trying to arrest drug dealers, I don't know how that can be bad."
http://www.wkyt.com/Global/story.asp?S=2776721
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:58 PM
matt@lefande.com
One in three US women own guns
A Gallup Poll released this morning reveals that the average American owns 1.7 guns, with the average gun owner possessing 4.4 of them. The press is quick to promote stereotypes of the average gun owner as a white male, most likely Republican, living in a rural area or the South. But how well does reality match the image? The new Gallup Poll shows that the stereotype is not that far off, but with several twists.
For one thing, one out of three American women say they own a gun. That's not much below the overall mark of 40% for all American adults.
As for other elements of the stereotype: More than half (53%) of Republicans own guns, compared with 36% of political independents and 31% of Democrats. Whites are more likely than nonwhites to own (44% and 24%, respectively), according to Gallup.
Residents of the South are significantly more likely than those living in other regions to report owning a gun. More than half of those living in rural areas (56%) own a gun, compared with 40% of suburbanites and 29% of those living in urban areas.
From 1959 through 1993, an average of 47% of Americans reported having a gun in their homes. Since that time, household gun ownership has dropped to an average of 40%.
Gallup also asked those with guns in their households about the total number of guns they have. A majority of gun owners (62%) have more than one gun on their properties, including 29% who say they have five or more guns.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000745373
posted by Matthew LeFande 10:40 AM
matt@lefande.com
Williams picks ultraliberal wonk for Juvenile Justice agency
Vincent Schiraldi, executive director of the liberal think tank Justice Policy Institute, has been nominated to lead the District's newly created juvenile justice agency.
Mayor Anthony A. Williams will forward Schiraldi's nomination to the D.C. Council in the next few weeks, said spokeswoman Sharon Gang. If the council confirms the nomination, Schiraldi would direct the city's long-troubled juvenile justice system, which is under court order and had been led by an interim director for a year.
The city's juvenile jail, Oak Hill Youth Center in Laurel, has been plagued by mismanagement for years, and the council approved legislation in November that would close it in four years and replace it with smaller facilities that meet national standards.
Schiraldi said he was not daunted by the problems.
"I want to do this job. It's an absolute dream," Schiraldi said. "I'm not here to fix [Oak Hill], I'm here to fix a system."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48674-2005Jan4.html
From the LA Times,
"But Schiraldi contends that if police wanted to arrest more white people, they could do it."
"'If you sent the police into white neighborhoods with the same [concentration], you would draw a much different conclusion' about who commits crimes, he said."
http://pdxnorml.org/LAT_Racial_Fairness_021396.html
Schiraldi's anti-prosecution position:
http://www.treatnotjail.org/news_2003-11-30_finally.asp
No crime problem in schools, according to Schiraldi:
http://www.wealth4freedom.com/truth/ZERO_tolerance.htm
Release DC Prisoners because jails are unhealthy:
http://www.aidsinfobbs.org/library/cdcsums/1996/0915
Against juvenille curfews:
http://www.pacificnews.org/jinn/stories/2.03/960201-juvenile.html
Juveniles are incapable of same moral reasoning as adults:
http://home.earthlink.net/~mmales/chap-5.htm
The liberal failures of the 1970-1990's are lessons lost on the Williams' administration. As the majority of the United States moves forward, DC takes yet another willing step backward.
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:57 AM
matt@lefande.com
Texas cop on reserve duty credited with longest confirmed kill in Iraq
Seen through a twenty-power spot scope, terrorists scrambled to deliver another mortar round into the tube. Across the Euphrates River from a concealed rooftop, the Marine sniper breathed gently and then squeezed a few pounds of pressure to the delicate trigger of the M40A3 sniper rifle in his grasp.
The rifle's crack froze the booming Fallujah battle like a photograph. As he moved the bolt back to load another round of 7.62mm ammunition, the sniper's spotter confirmed the terrorist went down from the shot mere seconds before the next crack of the rifle dropped another.
It wasn't the sniper's first kill in Iraq, but it was one for the history books.
On Nov. 11, 2004, while coalition forces fought to wrest control of Fallujah from a terrorist insurgency, Marine scout snipers with Company B, 1st Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment, 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, applied their basic infantry skills and took them to a higher level.
"From the information we have, our chief scout sniper has the longest confirmed kill in Iraq so far," said Capt. Shayne McGinty, weapons platoon commander for "Bravo" Co. "In Fallujah there were some bad guys firing mortars at us and he took them out from more than 1,000 yards."
During the battle for the war-torn city, 1/23 Marine scout snipers demonstrated with patience, fearless initiative and wits that well-trained Marines could be some of the deadliest weapons in the world.
"You really don't have a threat here until it presents itself," said Sgt. Herbert B. Hancock, chief scout sniper, 1/23, and a 35-year-old police officer from Bryan, Texas, whose specialized training and skill helped save the lives of his fellow Marines during the battle. "In Fallujah we really didn't have that problem because it seemed like everybody was shooting at us. If they fired at us we just dropped them."
http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/81846E3645B6298285256F7D006744CD?OpenDocument
posted by Matthew LeFande 9:26 PM
matt@lefande.com
Home Made Tank Video
A couple of guys actually build a home-made tank and cruise around some field. Huge amount of horsepower. Check out how fast this thing moves!
http://www.big-boys.com/articles/homemadetank.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 5:47 PM
matt@lefande.com
Metropolitan Police Department among worst in the world, says report
Britian has one of the world’s most ineffective police forces and highest crime rates, according to an authoritative report to be published this week.
It says the police spend too much time behind desks instead of tackling and preventing crime. The result, it says, is that crime is “a very low-risk activity for the criminal”.
America, France and Germany have suffered similar sharp rises in crime to Britain since the 1960s but have tackled them more effectively, the report says. British police have failed to focus on prevention of crime and zero tolerance of low-level disorder and antisocial behaviour, it claims.
The rise in crime in the UK is “so spectacular” it is “difficult to comprehend”, the report argues. Home Office claims that crime in Britain is falling and at “historically low levels” are false: the country is now “a seriously crime-afflicted and disintegrating society”.
The damning and controversial study from Civitas, the right-of-centre think tank, is bound to provoke criticism from British police forces.
It cites official figures that show crime rising steadily over 40 years. The report says:
-Burglaries have increased more than fivefold from 72,000 in 1964 to 402,000 last year.
-There are 33 robberies of personal property for every one 40 years ago: a rise from 3,000 in 1964 to 101,000 in 2003-04.
The report concludes: “The attitude of the police towards crime and antisocial behaviour has changed radically from the principles which were laid down by the founders of the Metropolitan police in the early 19th century.
“The Peelite principles of policing put the prevention of crime as the highest priority . . . The hostility of the law enforcement establishment to the old beat policing model is a significant factor in the police force’s inability to get to grips with rising crime.”
It adds: “England, from being a society remarkably free of crime and disorder, especially from the middle of the 19th to the middle of the 20th century, by the late 1990s had a worse record than either France, Germany or the United States.”
Sounds all too familar.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1423380,00.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 5:28 PM
matt@lefande.com
Fundies demand US relief workers abide by Islamic dress code
American navy helicopters and transport planes have begun ferrying aid supplies to Aceh province six days after a tsunami slammed into the coast killing tens of thousands of people.
In a groundbreaking piece of diplomacy, US soldiers will for the first time touch down on Indonesian soil in an operational capacity.
The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln is off the north shore of Sumatra where upwards of 80,000 people are believed to have died.
"I can confirm that 10 US navy Seahawk helicopters will begin humanitarian operations in Aceh province today," said USAid's Michael Bok.
"The helicopters were in Medan on Friday. A joint coordinating meeting between American, Australian and Indonesian military organisations was held at that time to coordinate our efforts."
US helicopters will ferry desperately needed aid supplies to the west coast of the province which was the worst hit, Bok said. Four Australian defence force helicopters will do the same along the east coast.
Reaction was generally positive to the news of an American presence.
"Praise God, they are coming to help us," said Munajar, a Banda Aceh clerk who like many Indonesians uses only one name. "We have been waiting for the international community to assist us and now they have come."
Not everyone was so enthusiastic.
"The Americans have to understand our culture here," said Hilmy Bakar Almascaty, vice-chairman of the Jakarta-based Islamic Defenders Front, which is mobilising relief efforts of its own.
"If they are not sensitive to local issues then there will be problems. If American women come to Aceh, they must wear dilbab for example. There is Sharia law in Aceh and that is what is dictated."
USAid's Bok said it was unlikely US service personnel would adhere to a Muslim dresscode.
These fundies need to learn to say "thank you" and then STFU.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/4A0A0C42-C6C4-42A8-8B5D-5BAC00C99BA2.htm
posted by Matthew LeFande 5:03 PM
matt@lefande.com
