Month: February 2014

Categories
Politics

Michael Dunn Compares Himself to a Rape Victim

It’s amazing that the two men who committed murder and got away with it, now consider themselves “victims.”

George Zimmerman went on CNN over the weekend, lamenting that he is homeless and broke since murdering Trayvon Martin, calling himself a victim. And now this: newly released audio from Michael Dunn – the man who was not convicted of murdering Jordan Davis – reveals the chilling voice of the cold blooded killer telling his fiancée Rhonda Rouer that he too is a victim.

I was the one that was being preyed upon and I fought back. It’s not quite the same but it made me think of like the old TV shows and movies where like how the police used to think when a chick got raped going, “Oh, it’s her fault because of the way she dressed.” I’m like, “So it’s my fault (laughing) because I asked them to turn their music down. I got attacked and I fought back because I didn’t want to be a victim and now I’m in trouble. I refused to be a victim and now I’m incarcerated.”

“I’m the f*** victim here,” he said, laughing, during one of the phone calls. “I was the one who was victimized … I’m the victor, but I was the victim too.”

Dunn was convicted over the weekend of three counts if attempted murder for the three guys he missed when he fired 10 rounds into their car. Three of those rounds hit and killed Jordan Davis, but apparently that was okay, because the jury couldn’t decide if the dead body meant a wrong act was done.

In previous releases, Dunn wrote that more people should do what he did, claiming that if more people killed blacks and Latinos, these two minority groups would change their ways for the positive.

“This jail is full of blacks and they all act like thugs,” read one such letter. “This may sound a bit radical, but if more people would arm themselves and kill these f**king idiots when they’re threatening you, eventually they may take the hint and change their behavior.”

Court hearings to determine Dunn’s sentencing for the attempted murder convictions will he held in March.

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Beauty Celebrities

Sports Illustrated 50th Anniversary Issue: Swimsuit Edition 2014

View Models

h/t – sportsillustrated

Categories
Politics

Joe The Plumber Is Now a Member Of A Union

What do you expect? When it is not affecting them, they’re against it. But when it is benefiting them, they’re all for it.

That is the awkward situation “Joe the Plumber” finds himself in, as he explains on his Facebook page that he, a proud union bashing Conservative, is now a member of the UAW Union.

“In order to work for Chrysler, you are required to join the Union, in this case UAW. There’s no choice – it’s a union shop – the employees voted to have it that way and in America that’s the way it is,” he wrote.

“I had three days of orientation, and now I’m “on the job” over here at Chrysler and on Day 4, I’m outside on a break smoking a cigarette and right on cue – some guy calls me a ‘teabagger,’” he said.

He said the man called himself a “journeyman,” and then quickly walked away.

“I asked him if he recognizes the training we receive in the military in the trades as legitimate, but he didn’t seem interested in a serious discussion and just rushed off…” Mr. Wurzelbacher said. Mr. Wurzelbacher has said that he learned plumbing in the Air Force.

Categories
Politics shooting

And Now This – Man Guns Down 15 Year Old Girl in Arkensas

Adrian Broadway

An Arkansas man is facing first degree murder charges after he allegedly shot a 15-year-old girl to death over the weekend because she was participating in a prank on his 16-year-old son.

Shortly before 1:00 a.m. on Saturday morning, Little Rock Police responded to the Kum & Go gas station after a call about a shooting, according to KARK. Officers found a white Hyundai Sonata with bullet holes, broken glass, and four teens between the ages of 14 and 18.

A 15-year-old girl who was inside the car was identified as Adrian Broadway. She later died from a gunshot wound after being taken to nearby hospital. The car’s 18-year-old driver, Dshone Nelson, suffered minor injuries from broken glass.

The surviving teen victims reportedly told police that they had attempted to prank 48-year-old Willie Noble’s son by covering his car in eggs and leaves, KTHV reported.

Willie Noble

“Apparently Mr. Noble’s teenage son had done a prank on some of the kids that were inside the vehicle on Halloween Night,” Lieutenant Sidney Allen explained. “As a result they were doing a retaliation prank and it ultimately had deadly results.”

After the shooting, the driver attempted to flee the scene to get help.

“It was a joke. We was friends, we was gonna come over there and clean it up,” 16-year-old Kortazha Williams, who was in the car, told KTHV. “It was supposed to be a prank; we were supposed to get up right now, and we were supposed to laugh.”

Adrian Broadway’s family and friends gathered at for a candlelight vigil on Sunday night at Benny Craig Park.

Noble was charged first degree murder, committing a terrorist act, and five counts of aggravated assault.

Categories
Politics

Republicans Will Not Implement Big Policies This Year

As if they have implemented big policies before in recent memory.

After a tumultuous week of party infighting and leadership stumbles, congressional Republicans are focused on calming their divided ranks in the months ahead, mostly by touting proposals that have wide backing within the GOP and shelving any big-ticket legislation for the rest of the year.

Comprehensive immigration reform, tax reform, tweaks to the federal health-care law — bipartisan deals on each are probably dead in the water for the rest of this Congress.

“We don’t have 218 votes in the House for the big issues, so what else are we going to do?” said Rep. Devin Nunes (Calif.), an ally of House Speaker John A. Boehner (Ohio). “We can do a few things on immigration and work on our principles, but in terms of real legislating, we’re unable to get in a good negotiating position.”

Added Frank Luntz, a Republican pollster who works closely with party leaders: “It is an acknowledgment of where they stand, where nothing can happen in divided government so we may essentially have the status quo. Significant immigration reform and fundamental tax reform are probably not going to happen.”

Categories
Mitch McConnell Politics Texas

Republican Ad – Mitch McConnell “Looks and Fight Like a Turtle” – Video

What has the world come to when Republicans running for Congress compare their fearless leader in the Senate to a turtle? I’d say things are moving along just as plan, but, what do I know?

This Republican from Texas is mounting a challenge against Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn. His name is Dwyane Stovall and in an ad attacking Cornyn, Stovall also mentioned the man who would be his boss if he is successful in defeating Cornyn – Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. In a Texas county’s Tea Party Straw Poll, Stovall is presently leading Cornyn by a huge margin for the seat.

Now, this statement is usually made by a number of liberal comedians, but hearing Stovall compare Mitch McConnell to a turtle brings a warmth the heart.

It’s cold outside. Here’s a heart-warmer.

Categories
News

A Near Hit – Massive Asteroid Goes By Earth Tonight

An asteroid with an estimated diameter of three football fields is expected to zoom by Earth late Monday, missing our home by about that distance.

It’ll travel at some 27,000 miles per hour and make its closest approach starting at 9 p.m. ET.

Folks can watch the flyby on Slooh.com, which tracks potentially hazardous objects.

The asteroid comes just about a year after a relatively small asteroid blew up over Russia. The roughly 60-foot space rock plunged into Earth’s atmosphere and exploded over the city of Chelyabinsk with the force of about 30 early nuclear bombs.

The blast left more than 1,500 injured, mostly by glass from shattered windows, and raised concerns about humanity’s vulnerability to stray asteroids.

“On a practical level, a previously unknown, undiscovered asteroid seems to hit our planet and cause damage or injury once a century or so, as we witnessed on June 20, 1908, and February 15, 2013,” said Bob Berman, Slooh host and astronomer.

He added: “Every few centuries, an even more massive asteroid strikes us — fortunately usually impacting in an ocean or wasteland such as Antarctica.

“But the ongoing threat, and the fact that biosphere-altering events remain a real if small annual possibility, suggests that discovering and tracking all NEOs (near-Earth objects), as well as setting up contingency plans for deflecting them on short notice should the need arise, would be a wise use of resources

Categories
pat robertson Politics transsexual

Pat Robertson Advised Caller Not to Tell Wife about Past Transsexual Relationship

A caller had a problem and needed to talk to someone. He chose Pat Robertson and explained his problem when he was forwarded through to the man with all the answers.

“Before I met my wife, I fell in love with a beautiful woman and had a relationship for six months. We broke up after she told me she was transsexual.”

“What should I do?”

What should I do. A question from a caller to the Pat Robertson program on the 700 Club. The caller was apparently so bothered by his past deed and needed to know if he should tell his wife.  What would be the advice from the great Pat Robertson?

“What you should do is keep your mouth shut! That’s real simple. You know, all of us did stuff before we were married, but you don’t parade out all your girlfriends or your boyfriends or your sexual encounters or whatever you did. You just don’t do it.”

“You come to Jesus, he had forgiven you. That’s the old life, now you’ve turned the page.”

Categories
Featured

Snake Handling Pastor Killed By… Snake

A “snake-handling preacher” who believed that he was following a Biblical command by picking up snakes has died after being bitten.

Jamie Coots, star of an American reality television show Snake Salvation, which profiled Pentecostal snake-handling pastors, died at his home in Kentucky after refusing to go to hospital.

Coots had been bitten nine times before, losing part of his finger in the process.

“It’s a victory to God’s people that the Lord seen fit to bring me through it,” he said the day after a previous bite, in 1998.

Coots was killed by a rattlesnake, dying less than an hour after he ordered doctors away from his home. Followers of his sect frequently refuse mainstream medical care.

And his church was the site of a previous fatal snake bite in August 1995.

Melinda Brown, 28, from Tennessee, died after she was bitten on the arm by a large rattlesnake.

After her death, police considered charging Coots with violating Kentucky’s law against handling snakes in church, but a judge said Coots should not be prosecuted for practicing his faith. Kentucky banned handing poisonous snakes in religious services in 1940, but serious attempts to enforce the law ended decades ago because of reluctance by authorities to prosecute people for their religious beliefs.

Brown’s husband, John Wayne “Punkin” Brown, 34, later died after being bitten by another rattlesnake in church in Alabama.

Followers of the Pentecostal sect – the majority of whom live in the Appalachian states of Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama and Georgia.

In a practice begun around 1910, they say they are compelled by Scripture, particularly Mark 16:17-18 in the King James Version, to pick up serpents.

In this Gospel account, it reads: “In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”

Followers of the strict interpretation will adhere to rigid dress codes – ankle-length dresses and uncut hair for women, short hair and long-sleeved shirts for the men – and occasionally drink poisons.

Last year Coots explained how snakes were the cornerstone of his faith.

“We use them in religious ceremonies and I believe as for me, if I don’t have them there to use I’m not obeying the word of God,” Coots said.

He described himself as a third-generation snake handler, and said he hoped to pass the church on to his son, Cody.

Categories
Politics

Jennifer Rubin Claims George Bush is Saving The Economy – Video

So, according to this right winged talking head, Bush and his disastrous policies didn’t contribute to the massive economic crisis we’re now getting out of, Rubin in this Fox News interview actually think and was brave enough to say that Bush saved us from the second great depression.

RUBIN: Well, I think we were, but I don’t think it was the stimulus that did it. The measures taken by President Bush and Chairman Bernanke and our then Treasury Secretary Paulson, which put together a series of banking measures to keep the economy liquid. There’s a very good argument that those measures saved us.

There’s virtually no argument that says that the stimulus worked and frankly the idea that the stimulus would have a lasting impact if counter to the usual Keynesian arguments, which is the impact is right then and there. That was why we were supposed to have a recovery, because you get “shovel ready” jobs. That didn’t work out and now they have a new explanation that they’ll pay off sometime in the future. That’s a new one.

Categories
Politics shooting

Stand Your Ground Responsible for Mistrial in Jordan Davis’ Murder Trial

In failing to acquit or convict Michael Dunn on the most significant charge — the premeditated murder of a teenager in a dispute over loud music — a jury on Saturday may have run headlong into the breadth and reach of Florida’s contentious self-defense law.

In their 30 hours of deliberation, the 12-member panel wrangled with a question that cuts to the heart of all self-defense claims: How does a juror know when using lethal force is justified, where nothing is straightforward, memories are hazy or contradictory and perception counts as much as fact?

Even as the jury agreed to convict Mr. Dunn of attempted murder, it found no consensus on murder.

In the courtroom, Mr. Dunn told the jury he shot Jordan Davis, 17, after the teenager pointed a shotgun at him from the window of a sport utility vehicle, threatened him and then got out of the truck. The two cars were parked side by side in front of a gas station convenience store

But the prosecution said there was no shotgun: No witness saw one, the three teenagers who were in the vehicle with Mr. Davis said they did not have a shotgun, and the police never found one. While Mr. Dunn fired 10 rounds at the teenagers on Nov. 23, 2012, no one ever shot back.

Rather, the prosecution argued, Mr. Dunn shot Mr. Davis because he became enraged after the teenager disregarded his request to turn down the loud rap music blasting from the vehicle and then “mouthed off,” hurling expletives at him. He fabricated a story about the shotgun to bolster his self-defense claim, they added.

But the state failed to persuade everyone on the jury — four white men, four white women, one Hispanic man, two black women and an Asian-American woman — of their version of events. As a result, the judge was forced to declare a mistrial Saturday on the charge of first-degree murder. A new trial on that count is expected to take place later this year.

 

Categories
Education New Jersey News Politics

The Tide’s Coming In But the Cerf’s Out

Christopher Cerf

Anyone who’s been paying attention to New Jersey politics and education should have seen this one coming from a mile away: the resignation of Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf. What makes it even more predictable is that he’s taking a job with his good buddy, and former Education Chancellor of New York City, Joel Klein. Those two might be the only people currently working in education today who are making big time money. There’s a reason for that, and it has nothing to do with improving schools.

Governor Christie is talking a good game about extending the school day and year and is making noise about having public workers contribute more to their pensions and benefits than they are now, but those proposals won’t become law as long as the focus is on Sandy funds and the George Washington Bridge. The same is true of a new Charter Schools bill, vouchers and weakening employee sick day policies. Done. Over. Not going to happen. The new teacher evaluation system is up and running and is working just as poorly as those who know about the teaching profession said it was going to work, so there’s not much more a Commissioner can do. Cerf is smart enough to see this, so it’s goodbye for him. And I can’t really blame him.

My interaction with Commissioner Cerf came last January, and I wrote about it at length here and here. In short, I was not impressed with either his answers to my questions or his attitude towards education. His main point throughout our discussion was that the state Board of Education supported him, and as long as that was the case there wasn’t anything he needed to change. He had little to say about the mechanics of teaching, because he never was a teacher, so the subject was foreign to him, and he seemed to be a completely political animal, which didn’t surprise me. So when the Christie Administration scandals began piling up, I figured he would be one of the first to leave because, really, there isn’t going to be much else to do on education.

Whoever becomes the new chief will essentially be a caretaker for the rest of Christie’s term. They’ll get to oversee the implementation of the Common Core Curriculum Standards and the PARCC tests and all of the mischief that those will bring. The test scores will ruin some teachers’ careers and of course there’s all that Facebook money to spend in Newark, but otherwise, I don’t see the Democrats caving the way they did in 2011. It will be up to the next administration, presumably, OK, hopefully, a Democratic one, to undo some of the damage. By that time, Cerf will be on to a new adventure.

Meanwhile, education professionals will be left to comply with rules that don’t make sense, that don’t contribute to the education of children, that saddle districts with unfunded costs associated with unproven and dangerous policies, and that reflect an attitude that doesn’t trust educators to, you know, educate. That’s hardly a legacy to be proud of.

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