Well the great news was not so great.  Pakistan did not get Adam Gadahn the American al Qaeda spokesman.  See my post here about it:  Adam Gadahn

  Now if we would just listen to Glenn Beck he had the right idea.  He said that anytime we get our hands on someone like this that right away we should

SHOOT THEM IN THE HEAD
  He said to do it right away.. If we had followed his advice then this guy would be dead and in the ground and we would have him dead.  I am not sure what we should do when he turned up with new videos. 
  Now we got this guy who is some farmer or something and we need to listen to our ex-vice president and the Republicans.  We just water board the hell out of him.  Hell it is not our fault that he looks like Adam Gadahn.  It is his fault.  Plus he does not believe in Jesus Christ and has a towel on his head … So just water board him until he confesses and it is my understand that if you water board someone they will tell you anything and everything to get you to stop.  I know I would.. You even start to water board me and I will confess to being Adam Gadahn and sign or do anything you want. 
  So we can listen to Glenn Beck and shoot guys like this in the head RIGHT AWAY or we can listen to our ex-vice president and the Republicans and water board them and then ship there ass off to Gitmo. 
  So it is not big deal when we get the wrong guy. 

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  Very interesting article at Guardian.Co.UK called "Inside the world of Obama’s secret service bodyguards." 

"The Southern Poverty Law Center began life in 1971 as a tiny law firm specialising in civil rights cases. It took on the might of the Ku Klux Klan, and was duly  rewarded by having its offices razed  and its senior lawyers targeted for  assassination. But it kept on going and grew to be one of the most respected monitoring groups of rightwing  extremism in America today.
Recently it brought out a report called Terror From the Right [http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/publications/terror-from-the-right" title="Terror From the Right], which identifies, in chronological order, the serious home-grown plots, conspiracies and racist rampages that have  been cooked up in America since the Oklahoma City bomb in 1995. The list runs to 10 pages of closely printed type and itemises 75 domestic terrorism events, from plans to bomb government buildings to attempts to kill judges and politicians.
Each of the incidents aimed to change the political face of America through violence, courtesy of groups with such titles as Aryan People’s  Republic, The New Order and The Hated. But in the summer of 2008 the chronology takes on a sharp change of tack. Entries, which had been running at one or two per year, start coming faster. And instead of a variety of  different targets, one name crops up time and time again: Barack Obama.
The first such entry is for 8 June 2008. Six people, linked to a militia group in rural Pennsylvania, are arrested with stockpiles of assault rifles and homemade bombs. One of the six allegedly tells the authorities that he intended to shoot black people from a rooftop and predicts civil war should Obama, who five days previously had cleared the Democratic nomination for president,  be elected to the White House.
Next entry: 24 August 2008. The day before the opening of the Democratic convention in Denver at which  Obama was nominated, three  white supremacists are arrested  in possession of high-powered rifles and camouflage clothing. They are talking about assassinating Obama.
24 October 2008: Less than two weeks before the election, two white supremacists are arrested in Tennessee over a bizarre plan to kill more than 100 black people, including Obama.
21 January 2009: The day after Obama’s inauguration, a white man is arrested in  Massachusetts, having allegedly killed two black immigrants and injured a third. He says he was "fighting for a dying race".
10 June 2009: James von Brunn, aged 88, walks into the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington and shoots dead a security guard. Von Brunn, who died last month in jail awaiting trial, left a note that read: "Obama was created by Jews."
In the 13 months that Barack Obama has been the occupant of the Oval Office he has been the subject of an extraordinary outpouring of  emotion from the American electorate. At the start it was largely adulatory, though more recently the adoration has been drowned out by a cacophony of criticism from tea party activists, birthers, global-warming deniers and viewers of Fox News. At the same time, largely hidden from view, there has been a layer of antagonism towards Obama that lies well beyond the boundaries of reasonable political debate.
That has been a fact of life for Obama and his family since long before they took the keys to the White House. On 2 May 2007, fully 18 months before election day, he was assigned a secret service detail ? much earlier than any other presidential candidate in American history. The precise reasons for the move have never been disclosed, but there was certainly a mood in the air sufficiently palpable to disconcert Michelle Obama. A senior US official in the State Department has told the Guardian that before he decided to run for the presidency, Obama had actively to win Michelle over to the idea by  assuaging her fears about the potential of an attack on him, her and/or their two daughters.
Michelle would have been aware of the backstory here: that Colin Powell had declined to run for the 1996  Republican nomination partly because his wife Alma feared his assassination at the hands of white supremacists. Over the course of the long presidential race, Michelle spoke openly about her anxieties and how she had determined to overcome them, telling 60 Minutes that she had decided to fling herself into the race because "I am tired of  being afraid".
According to John Heilemann and Mark Halperin’s new account of the 2008 election, Game Change, she eventually felt relaxed enough to crack sardonic jokes about the subject. "I’ve already gone out and increased our life insurance on [Barack]," she quipped. "You just can’t be too careful!" But as the Southern Poverty Law Center survey shows, the issue of safety and the 44th president remains anything but a laughing matter. "Virtually every  domestic terrorist event we have identified since June 2008 ? when it became obvious that Obama was  going to win ? has been directly related to him," says the author of the report, Mark Potok…"

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  Great news, if it is true, Adam Gadahn the American spokesman for al Qaeda has been arrested in Pakistan.
  See CNN story
  We have stupid right wing Republicans toss around the word "treason" about Democrats, liberals and anyone they do not agree with … But here with this guy we have a real true case of treason in time of war.
  I do not believe in the death penalty but in this case I think hanging is what is called for and if they need someone to pull the rope I am willing.
  In 2008, he renounced his U.S. citizenship and destroyed his passport but I still think he is an American citizen and I think treason would fit his crimes. And he should be tried in our normal justice court system.

  Now something.. I wonder about with guys like this.. How many of these guys are in fact CIA agents? 

  If he is not a agent of the United States and is in fact a low life scum that would sell out his nation.. Then I want to see him get an American day in court with all the rights .. and then when found guilty I want to see him spend the rest of his life in jail or see him hanging from a rope.
 
 

"Adam Yahiye Gadahn (Arabic: آدم يحيى غدن‎, Ādam Yaḥyā Ghadan; born Adam Pearlman, September 1, 1978) is an American-born, senior operative, cultural interpreter, spokesman ^[2] and media advisor^[3] for the terrorist group Al-Qaeda. Since 2004, he appeared in a number of videos produced by Al-Qaeda as "Azzam the American" (‘Azzām al-Amrīki, عزام الأمريكي, sometimes transcribed as Ezzam Al-Amerikee). He is believed to have inspired bin Laden’s September 2007 video.^[3]

In 2004, he was added to the FBI Seeking Information – War on Terrorism list.^[4] On October 11, 2006 he was removed from that list, and placed on the Bureau of Diplomatic Security Rewards for Justice Program list of wanted criminals.^[5] On the same day, Gadahn was indicted based on the testimony of the FBI case agent E.J. Hilbert II, in the Southern Division of the United States District Court for the Central District of California by a federal grand jury for the capital crime of treason for aiding an enemy of the United States (i.e. Al-Qaeda). Gadahn is the first American charged with treason since Tomoya Kawakita in 1952.^[6]. On March 7, 2010, Pakistani intelligence officials announced that they had arrested a person name Adam Gadahn in the city of Karachi…"  Wikipedia

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"(CNN) — Should Ulysses S. Grant, the legendary Union general and 18th president of the United States, be bumped from his 96-year stint on the $50 bill?

Yes, according to one North Carolina Republican.

Rep. Patrick McHenry announced that he will introduce a measure that would replace Grant’s face with Ronald Reagan’s, just in time for the 40th president’s 100th birthday next February…"

  I did not hear anything about this… But I saw a poll on CNN.  The poll was do you think President Grant should be taken off the $50 bill and President Reagan put on the $50 bill.
  I was thinking OH NO.  Then I checked the voting and 78% said NO. 

  Now President Reagan was NO General Grant.  President Reagan may have played some part in a civil war movie but President Reagan was not in World War II.  He was a movie actor during WWII.
  Now President Reagan, I think, was a better president than President Grant but Reagan was NOT one of our greatest presidents.  No matte what the starry eyed Republicans want to believe.  Was he better than President Bush (II) oh my God yes.  Of course President Bush (II) was the worst president that the United States has ever had in the entire history of the the nation.
 

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  Yahoo News has an AP story; "Buzz and bullets: Gun fans cheer Starbuck’s policy." 

"By GREG BLUESTEIN, Associated Press Writer – Sun Feb 28, 3:28 pm ET

Dale Welch recently walked into a Starbucks in Virginia, handgun strapped to his waist, and ordered a banana Frappuccino with a cinnamon bun. He says the firearm drew a double-take from at least one customer, but not a peep from the baristas.

Welch’s foray into the coffeehouse was part of an effort by some gun owners to exercise and advertise their rights in states that allow people to openly carry firearms.

Even in some "open carry" states, businesses are allowed to ban guns in their stores. And some have, creating political confrontations with gun owners. But Starbucks, the largest chain targeted, has refused to take the bait, saying in a statement this month that it follows state and local laws and has its own safety measures in its stores.

"Starbucks is a special target because it’s from the hippie West Coast, and a lot of dedicated consumers who pay $4 for coffee have expectations that Starbucks would ban guns. And here they aren’t," said John Bruce, a political science professor at the University of Mississippi who is an expert in gun policy…"

    I agree with the statement by Peter Hamm a spokesman for the Brady campaign.

"If you want to dress up and go out and make a little political theater by frightening children in the local Starbucks, if that’s what you want to spend your energy on, go right ahead," said Peter Hamm, a spokesman for the Brady campaign. "But going out and wearing a gun on your belt to show the world you’re allowed to is a little juvenile."

The coffeehouse debate has been particularly poignant for gun-control advocates in Washington state, where four uniformed police officers were shot and killed while working on their laptops at a suburban coffeehouse. The shooter later died in a gun battle with police…"

    The pro gun people do not like it that a hospital or shopping mall or some other place has a policy that no guns are allowed.
     I have been shot at… I have had a family member shot and killed.  I have had friends shot and killed. 
I was a member of the NRA for many years when I was very young.  I carried, in the line of duty, a handgun from 1971 to November of 1999. 
    I am not anti-gun but pro gun people would think that I was anti-gun big time.  I think that there should be a three day waiting period before a person can buy a handgun.  During that time the police should do a background check on the person.  I believe there should be some sort of limits on assault rifles.  I think that gun records should be on file with the FBI or ATF department and not removed after x number of day from the system.  I think there should be some sort of limit on high capacity clips.  Well you get the idea.   
   
   The gun nuts want not only the right to "open carry" a weapon they want the right to take it on private property.  They want their rights but they do not want you to have any rights.  If you own or manage some property or business they do not want you to post a sign saying no guns allowed.
  
  Now just why would you not want to allow someone to walk into your busy business with a gun or their hip?  I guess we could ask some banks why they have a sign on their door saying take off your hat and sun glasses before entering the bank.  Does the bank have that right?  Can they make a rule like that for their business?  Why can’t a business have the right to say no guns allowed?

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"Washington (CNN) — The Department of Homeland Security has more contractors working for it than full-time employees, a situation two members of Congress said Tuesday was "unacceptable, untenable and unsustainable."

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and ranking Republican Susan Collins said they were "astounded" to learn there are more than 200,000 contractor employees at the department.

The civilian work force of Homeland Security numbers 188,000, according to an estimate provided to the senators by Homeland Security.

In a letter sent Tuesday to the agency’s Secretary Janet Napolitano, Lieberman and Collins said the figure "raises the question of whether DHS itself is in charge of its programs and policies, or whether it inappropriately has ceded core decisions to contractors."

Although Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, and Collins of Maine noted that contractors can offer a variety of needed assets and skills to federal agencies, they called the current balance between federal employees and contractors at Homeland Security "unacceptable, untenable and unsustainable," according to the letter…" 

  I never was happy with President Bush’s idea of the DHS.  I also did not like the man he picked to run it.  I had no idea that the DHS had so few employees.  I should have known that they would want to contract out jobs to non-government out side contractors.
Remember the big fight over airport screeners.  The Republicans did not want them to be federal employees.  President Bush did not want more FAA ATC employees and put us all in danger by trying not to hire more of them. He did get their pay cut.  They did out source of the ATC jobs to a private company.
So the above finding will not set well with Republicans.  They say they are interested in protecting the United States but the truth is they are only interested in protecting their seats in congress.
  So I expect a fight over this issue…Glenn Beck, Faux News and the rest of them will say this is a Communist plot to set up a take over of the United States.  
  Contracting out jobs sounds like a good idea but I am not sure it ever turns out good.  You lose good paying government jobs for American citizens.  When you contract out the company bids the job and you take, most of the time, the company that bids the least.  The company then hires in people and pays them as little as they can and then look for every way they can to pay them less and operate with fewer employees.  Remember in this case we are talking about HOME LAND SECURITY.  Let us say the contract is for two years.  Well in two years you have other corporations, often non-US, that look at the people that got the last contract and they bid less to get the contract and it just keeps going down hill after that happens.  If a new company gets the contract it is often out with the people that just learned out to do that job and in with new employees.
  If you want to see how it works…Just take a look at the contract employees that did security at airports before 9/11.  Take a look at the contract employees that guard federal employees.  Many years ago their were bombings, remember the 60s, at federal buildings. So the federal government set up the Federal Protection Service.  They were federal police officers to guard federal buildings.  Well the Republicans had a fit over it.  The bombing and problems at the federal buildings came to an end and Republicans demanded an end to the FPS.  (There are still a few federal protection officers left over.) So they did away with the idea of federal officers protecting federal buildings and they have gone back to contract guards.
  So I think we are going to see the same thing from the Republicans and the right wing this time. Except now the Republicans are going to say that President Obama, because he is a Communist, is going to want to hire young black thugs and put them into a federal army so he can complete his Communist take over of the United States.

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  It is hard to believe that this is a real story.  This should be a movie.  I can not believe how stupid that school administration was about this entire matter.

By MARYCLAIRE DALE, Associated Press Writer – Sat Feb 20, 4:58 am ET

PHILADELPHIA – A Pennsylvania school district accused of secretly switching on laptop computer webcams inside students’ homes is under investigation by federal authorities, a law enforcement official with knowledge of the case told The Associated Press.

The FBI will look into whether any federal wiretap or computer-intrusion laws were violated by Lower Merion School District officials, the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the investigation, told the AP on Friday.

Days after a student filed suit over the practice, Lower Merion officials acknowledged Friday that they remotely activated webcams 42 times in the past 14 months, but only to find missing student laptops. They insist they never did so to spy on students, as the student’s family claimed in the federal lawsuit.

Families were not informed of the possibility the webcams might be activated in their homes without their permission in the paperwork students sign when they get the computers, district spokesman Doug Young said.

"It’s clear what was in place was insufficient, and that’s unacceptable," Young said.

The district has suspended the practice amid the lawsuit and the accompanying uproar from students, the community and privacy advocates. District officials hired outside counsel to review the past webcam activations and advise the district on related issues, Young said.

Remote-activation software can be used to capture keystrokes, send commands over the Internet or turn computers into listening devices by turning on built-in microphones. People often use it for legitimate purposes — to access computers from remote locations, for example. But hackers can use it to steal passwords and spouses to track the whereabouts of partners or lovers.

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  The man that crashed an airplane into a Texas office building that held the office of the IRS left a statement on his web site. 
  See The Smoking Gun
  See CNN story

   You can read his entire note in PDF format here. 
Here is just a bit of the statement:  “corrupt Catholic Church”, “mill management and corrupt union”, “incompetent cronies WITH MY MONEY”, “presidential puppet GW Bush” and here is his ending statement:

  “The communist creed:  From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.
    The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to hid greed.”

Details will come out I am sure about this entire story.  Reading between the lines it looks to me like this guy wanted to be a capitalist and was trying hard to get in there and be a deal maker and live the American dream and everything went wrong for me.  He is blaming others for all his problems.  I guess that is normal.

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  The following is from Texas Lawer, an ALM Publication, I found it in Tex Parte Blog.

“Austin solo Adam Reposa, who made obscene gesture before judge, loses fight at CCA

Adam Reposa (pictured), the Austin criminal-defense solo who made a gesture simulating masturbation toward a prosecutor while standing before Travis County Court-at-Law No. 6 Judge Jan Breland, faces 90 days in jail. In an 8-1 decision today, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied Reposa’s application for a writ of habeas corpus in his contempt case. Judge Lawrence Meyers, the lone dissenter in Ex Parte Adam Reposa, did not write an opinion. The CCA’s unpublished opinion, written by Judge Paul Womack, presents the following summary of Breland’s testimony at Reposa’s contempt hearing: On March 11, 2008, Reposa appeared as counsel for a defendant in a criminal case in Breland’s court. Breland asked Reposa to stop whispering to his client while she was trying to explain a plea offer to the client. After the prosecutor, Assistant County Attorney Bill Swaim, protested about Reposa’s continued whispering, Reposa made the simulated masturbation gesture toward the prosecutor while looking at Breland. Acting on Swaim’s motion, Breland held Reposa in contempt. Senior Judge Paul Davis of Austin, sitting by assignment, subsequently found Reposa guilty of contempt and sentenced him to 90 days in jail. Reposa appealed to the CCA on June 2, 2008. The CCA had set bail for Reposa pending the disposition of his case. In its decision today, the CCA overruled Reposa’s five issues challenging the judgment of contempt and sentence. With regard to Reposa’s challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence, Womack wrote for the majority, “Regardless of the fact that the gesture was not directed at Judge Breland, it nevertheless was a purposeful act of disrespect and an affront to the dignity of the court. As such, it rises to the level of criminal contempt.” Swaim declines comment on the CCA’s decision. Travis County Attorney David Escamilla as well as Austin solo Karyl Krug, who represents Reposa in the habeas corpus writ application, each did not immediately return a telephone call. When told of the CCA’s decision, Reposa said, “Oh well.” When asked what happens next, Reposa says he doesn’t know. “I need to talk to my lawyer,” he says. But Reposa adds that he does not think he can file his writ application in another court.

– Mary Alice Robbins

UPDATE: Karyl Krug, who represents Reposa in the habeas corpus writ application, says she is surprised the CCA issued an unpublished opinion in a case involving issues of first impression. As noted in the CCA’s opinion, Reposa had argued that the case was one of first impression because of the “extreme ‘extraneousness’ ” of evidence presented at the contempt hearing, including the introduction of Whoopsy!, a magazine distributed in Austin night clubs that featured an apparently satirical ad by a lawyer identified as “Bulletproof, the DWI stud.” Reposa identifies himself as Adam “Bulletproof” Reposa on the State Bar of Texas Web site. Krug says Reposa can file a motion for rehearing with the CCA but that there has been no decision to do so. Travis County Attorney David Escamilla says, “The real take-away from this legal saga goes beyond what happens to this lawyer.  It’s a sobering reminder to our profession that the standards of decorum in our courts apply to everyone — defendants, victims, witnesses and lawyers.” 

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“Shockwaves hit a local high school campus this week as authorities revealed they know of 39 female students who had sexually explicit photos taken of them without their knowledge.”

  All I know is what is in this video from YouTube.  I have no other details.  But since when is “Improper Photography” a crime.  Keep in mind I have not seen the “explicit” photos.  But they say in the news cast that they were fellow high school students and they are not nude photos and they do not even appear to be undressed at all.
  It sounds to me like this high school boy was just a normal high school boy. 
 

  One person thinks he was a victim of temptation.  Here is the comment from YouTube.  

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  I do not have a problem with James O’Keefe saying he is proud of his son.  We all love our families and try and defend and protect them.  The longer this goes on the more politics is going to enter in to it.  Like I said before I wish they could just get them to plead guilty to one single simple charge and get it over with.  It does not look like that is going to happen.  So in that case then I hope they charge them all with everything they can charge them with and I hope they follow the money and charge anyone else if they had any part in it. 

  We already have the crime of conspiracy for sure.

“In the criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to break the law at some time in the future, and, in some cases, with at least one overt act in furtherance of that agreement. There is no limit on the number participating in the conspiracy and, in most countries, no requirement that any steps have been taken to put the plan into effect (compare attempts which require proximity to the full offence). For the purposes of concurrence, the actus reus is a continuing one and parties may join the plot later and incur joint liability and conspiracy can be charged where the co-conspirators have been acquitted or cannot be traced. Finally, repentance by one or more parties does not affect liability but may reduce their sentence…”    Wikipedia

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        “(CNN) — Conservative activist James O’Keefe said Friday that the government had "confirmed" that he did not try to wiretap or bug the office of Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-Louisiana.

He offered no evidence to back his assertion.

O’Keefe, 25, Joseph Basel, 24, Robert Flanagan, 24, and Stan Dai, 24, were charged Tuesday with entering Landrieu’s New Orleans office — which is federal property — under "false pretenses for the purpose of committing a felony," according to a news release from the local U.S. attorney’s office…”

  Sure Sure it was all just some error… They had a team of four members.  One sitting in the waiting room of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-Louisiana) office.  They had one guy outside in a car with a radio and recording equipment and other hi-tech stuff.  They had two guys that were dressed as telephone repairmen.  Those two men told security at the front desk that they were telephone repairmen and then signed in on a form at the desk.  Then they went to the office of Sen. Landrieu and told staff they were telephone repairmen there to work on the phones.
  The two repairmen, in uniform, wanted to know the location of the telephone equipment room.  The staff suspected something was wrong when the men did not know the location of the telephone equipment room and asked for ID and the men did not have ID.  So the staff said we will show you the telephone equipment room and took them to the GSA/Security Office.  They end up being arrested by federal law enforcement and went to jail.
  Someone makes bail for them.  They are not saying who made bail for them.

  Wikipedia list a Joe Basel (Alumni ‘09 of University of Minnesota Morris ) as “Accused of felony wire tapping of a US Senator.”  If you look at the CNN story above you see Joseph Basel as one of the “kids” that was arrested.  I am not sure if the Joe is the same or not.  My guess is it is the same.
  I wonder if the CNN story did a typo and it should have said that the people arrested are connected to a guy name Andrew Breitbart. 

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“As if James O’Keefe hasn’t suffered enough indignity after botching an alleged phone tampering operation at a U.S. senator’s office, getting arrested, and being photographed leaving jail, the judge in the case has now ordered that he reside with his parents until the next hearing.

Magistrate Judge Louis Moore made the order Tuesday as part of the conditions of release for O’Keefe, 25. (Read them here)

The young conservative filmmaker is free on $10,000 bond. A preliminary hearing in the case is set for February 13.

It’s not clear where O’Keefe, who hasn’t said much publicly since getting out jail, is right now. But his father, the elder James O’Keefe, told the AP "I’m confident this was poor judgment … but not much more." James and Deborah O’Keefe live in New Jersey, the state where Moore ordered the younger O’Keefe to remain while out on bond.

It’s also unclear where O’Keefe lived before the arrest.”  TPM 

  James O’Keefe III, age 25, the hero of Fox News and the employee of  Andrew Breitbart must live with his mommy or daddy until his next court hearing. The right wing darling and the man who exposed ACORN is the face of conservative “journalism.”   
  A lawyer for one of the men arrested with James O’Keefe said “You’re dealing with kids.”  Attorney J. Garrison Jordan said his client, the 24 year old son of a federal prosecutor, did not mean to break a law.
 

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  When I heard about the crime that James O’Keefe and the other three guys committed…I said here that I bet Fox News was worrying that one of their  staff might have said something to O’Keefe that would come back and bite them in the ass over this deal.  I said I did not think they were that stupid at Fox however.
  I have never heard of Andrew Breitbard or his blogs until now…  I will go and look at his blog later today but from watching this video my gut feeling is that he looks like he is guilty of something. 
  Andrew Breitbard admits to paying “James” money.  I would be worrying if I were him. If I were Andrew Breitbard I would also be wondering just what tapes does James O’Keefe have of them talking in private.

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“By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Associated Press Writer Michael Kunzelman, Associated Press Writer – Tue Jan 26, 10:08 pm ET

NEW ORLEANS – A hero of conservatives who bruised the liberal group ACORN by posing as a pimp on hidden camera is now accused in an attempt to tamper with phone lines at Democratic U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu’s office inside a federal building.

It’s not clear what James O’Keefe, 25, and three other young conservatives were trying to accomplish Monday at the New Orleans office of Landrieu, who has been criticized for securing more Medicaid benefits for her state in exchange for her support on health care legislation.

State Democrats quickly called the alleged plot a "Louisiana Watergate," but federal officials have not yet said why the men wanted to interfere with Landrieu’s phones, whether they were successful, or even if the goal was political espionage.

A staff member in the office told the FBI that two of the suspects, including the son of an acting U.S. Attorney, wore white hard harts, tool belts and flourescent vests and said they needed to fix a problem with the phone system.

According to an FBI affidavit, O’Keefe was already sitting in the waiting area and recorded the men on his cell phone when they walked in…”

  I had cable TV when James O’Keefe went into an ACORN pretending to be a pimp with his ho and video taped a couple of dumb ACORN employees.
  I remember Fox News raving about how great this guy was and what a great reporter he was and how he should do more things like this … And now…

  It sounds like these guys are in deep shit.  Entering a federal building to wire tap a United States (Democratic) member of congress.  
  It is going to be an interesting case.  I think these guys are super stupid.  I do not think Fox News is so stupid that they would say something to them to get them to do it.  I am sure Fox News did not say go and commit a felony but it is possible that someone with Fox News said great work.. See if you can get more stories like this and we will hire you or pay you or something.. I bet they are a bit scared that some Fox employee might have just said something like that.. I do not think they did.. But it could get interesting.
  The way our legal system works … My recommendation would be to hit them with a lot of charges and try and get them to plead guilty to one and serve a very short time in jail.  My fear would be … that if the case goes to a jury that if there is one person on the jury that is a Fox News fan and if he thinks that the charge was political to get this guy then the guy might walk on the charge.  So I would try and scare the hell out of them with a lot of charges and pray they plead guilty one them.
  I do not care if they go to jail.  They are just a bunch of smart ass stupid right wing fools.  We might be better off with them out running around doing stupid things like this.

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  The Turk who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981 has been released from prison.  He spent 29 years behind bars.  He has been saying he is a messenger of God and that the world is going to end in this century. 
  It looks like he has a few mental problems. 
  I think 29 years is a long time for someone to stay in jail in Italy or many nations in Europe.
 
  For this nation I think anyone that attempts to kill a elected federal office holder should spend life in jail and never get out. There should not even be any question of them getting out. 
  Now some people are going to say why should the federal office holder be special?  My thinking is that it is because of the harm the attack does on the nation and on our system of government.  I was alive when President Kennedy was killed.  I never want to have something like that happen again.  Plus I feel like I was a victim of the killing of JFK.  I never got over it and I think it did some sort of harm to me that still lives with me after all these years.

  
  My feeling is that if you kill anyone you should spend life in jail.  But that is up to each state to decide and for the courts to decide.  I do not agree with what many people want to do and that is take the decision away from the judge. 

Popularity: 2% [?]

“(CNN) — Pennsylvania authorities say they arrested a former United Nations weapons inspector after he allegedly exchanged sexually explicit online messages with a police officer who was pretending to be a 15-year-old girl.

Scott Ritter, the former top U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq, was arrested in November, months after police said he sent sexual messages to a police officer posing as a 15-year-old girl named Emily, the Barrett Township, Pennsylvania, Police Department said in a news release Thursday.

Ritter’s lawyer, Todd Henry, did not immediately respond to CNN’s requests for comment about the arrest, which The Pocono Record first reported on Thursday.

According to an affidavit of probable cause, "delmar4fun" contacted Barrett Township Detective Ryan Venneman — who was posing as "Emily," from Poconos, Pennsylvania — in an online chat room on February 7, 2009, saying he was a 44-year-old man from Albany, New York…” 

  I remember Scott Ritter.  He was big news on TV and was interviewed often on shows like The News Hour and the Charlie Rose show and other news media sites.  He said that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction and became a popular anti-war figure.
 
  From Wikipedia: 
“…Ritter was arrested in April 2001^[32] and again in June 2001^[33][34] in connection with police stings in which officers posed as under-aged girls to arrange meetings of a sexual nature. The first incident did not lead to any charges.^[32] He was charged with a misdemeanor crime of "attempted endangerment of the welfare of a child" after the second, but charges were dropped and the record was sealed on condition that he avoid further trouble for a period of time.^[32][35] News of the arrests became public after sealed court records were provided anonymously to the press. Ritter claimed that the timing of the leak was a politically motivated effort to distract attention from his statements about Iraq.^[33][34][36]

Ritter was arrested again in November 2009^[37] over communications with a police decoy he met on an Internet chat site. Police claim that he showed himself masturbating via a web camera after the officer said she was a 15-year-old girl. The next month, he waived his right to a preliminary hearing and was released on $25,000 unsecured bail.^[38] Charges included "unlawful contact with a minor, criminal use of a communications facility, corruption of minors, indecent exposure, possessing instruments of crime, criminal attempt and criminal solicitation".^[39] Ritter faces up to seven years in prison. ^[40]..”

Popularity: 3% [?]

“Los Angeles, California (CNN) — A grandson of former President Reagan was arrested early Thursday in Los Angeles, California, police said.

Cameron Reagan, 31, was taken into custody by police responding to a house alarm at 12:20 a.m. (3:20 a.m. ET), said Officer Gregory Baek of the Los Angeles Police Department.

There was a minor amount of force used, Baek said. Reagan was detained for resisting arrest and is being held on $10,000 bail. Resisting arrest is a misdemeanor…”

  I know the story above is not “news” – not something that matters or is important.  I saw the story and I remember that Fox “news” not only reports but they make a big deal out of any family member of a Democrat that is arrested. 
  So my standard is what would Fox “news” do about a story like this if it was the grandson of any Democrat? 
  I went to the Fox “news” web site and they all sorts of “news” items. Nude homeless man running near the white house.. They have lots of “news” but not one word yet about the grandson of former President Reagan.  The son of Michael Reagan a right wing conservative commentator.

“Michael Edward Reagan (born March 18, 1945) is an American radio host and Republican strategist. His nationally-syndicated radio show, The Michael Reagan Talk Show, airs on stations throughout the United States on American Family Radio, after a long stint on Radio America. Despite his successful media career, Reagan is perhaps best known as the adopted son of the late President Ronald Reagan. As of Spring 2008, Talkers Magazine estimates Reagan’s audience at one million listeners…”

Popularity: 7% [?]

“(CNN) — A man who pleaded guilty to perpetrating a hoax by falsely reporting that his son was drifting over eastern Colorado in a balloon maintains the incident was not part of a plan for fame in an interview with CNN's "Larry King Live."

Richard Heene pleaded guilty in November to a felony count of attempting to influence a public servant, and was sentenced last month to 90 days in custody, to begin January 11. He also must serve four years on probation and complete 100 hours of community service each year…”

  I guess it is news that Richard Heene says it was no hoax but I hate to see him being interviewed and getting PR. 
  The judge ruled that the Heene family could not make money from this hoax for four years and that their accounts would be monitored etc.  I think if he gets PR out of it that works out to money for him at some point.  If CNN paid for Richard Heene to fly to where ever in the hell Larry King is to do the show and paid for a limo, hotel and food I wonder if the judge can just toss his ass in jail.
  I do not like Richard Heene and I think there was a survey done that showed that a lot of people do not like him.  He should just shut his mouth but I do not think he can do it.

Popularity: 6% [?]

“(CNN) – James von Brunn, who was accused of killing a security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in June, died Wednesday morning at a hospital in North Carolina, his attorney said.

"He was just very sick," public defender A.J. Kramer said. "It is a sad end to a very sad occurrence."

Von Brunn, 89, a self-avowed white supremacist, was a known Holocaust denier who created an anti-Semitic Web site called "The Holy Western Empire."

Kramer said officials from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons transferred von Brunn to an undisclosed hospital, apparently realizing his condition was worsening. Before being moved, von Brunn was undergoing mental competency tests at a prison facility in Butner, North Carolina.

The cause of death wasn’t immediately known…”

  It might have been a good thing to find out just how crazy this guy was….But on the other hand… We do not have to listen now to his hate filled speech in court.  I do not believe in hell so I do wish he could have suffered in jail for a few years to pay for his sins.

Popularity: 4% [?]