Profile in Courage Cowardice

After throwing a drink in the face of a sixteen year old and stealing his hat, Whattaburger bully Kino Jimenez, 30 year old part time bar bouncer (now unemployed), decided he needed a makeover. Why the sudden change of appearance? The beard and mustache were acceptable for his 2017 mugshot!

San Antonio police have given him a time out at the Graybar Hotel to contemplate his life's choices.

Innocent Until Proven Guilty?

"To those of you who wish to engage in brutality, misconduct, racism and corruption, let me be clear: There is no place in the Baltimore City Police Department for you."

-Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake

I don't know about you, but to me the implication is the six officers who were arrested, three white, three black, are guilty of brutality, misconduct, racism and corruption. Seems pretty obvious to her, I guess. But, don't police officers have the same right of presumption of innocence that the rest of us are supposed to enjoy?

You know what else there's no place in the Baltimore City Police Department? Cannibalism. Pedophilia. Usury. Lots of things. Other than pandering to the mob, what is the point in listing 'racism' as being unacceptable to the Baltimore PD, when three of the six officers in this incident are black?

To imply that any or all of these six officers are guilty of any brutality, misconduct, racism or corruption, before the first shred of evidence is presented against them is demagoguery.

Part of the problem of a big city like Baltimore is that their mayor is half-Blaked.

Hillary Clinton and the Emails of Doom

...or, No Sequel for Hillary!



My friend Adrienne, over at Adrienne's Corner, put up a post minimizing the importance of Hillary's email in flagrante delicto, characterizing it as a "tempest in a teapot". I'm sure that plenty on the Left would love for us to believe this, and have in the meantime, come up with some of the lamest excuses, defenses and doublespeak I have ever heard from a liberal, bar none.

Surprisingly, though a number of folks on the Left are outraged by her conduct as well. Let's examine (and shred) some of the arguments put forth on Hillary's behalf.

Her emails were public (because she sent them out publicly ) Lannie Davis, long time Clinton apologist, tried to make the argument that Hillary had made her emails public because she sent out so many of them publicly. Let's call this the "iceberg defense". As long as you can see part of it, just assume you've seen it all!

what she did was open. She sent these e-mails to thousands of people with that e-mail address. So there's no intent to hide...

This is absurd on the face. Any email she sent to you is not necessarily public to me. The fact that thousands of people may have received emails from Hillary's account, means the account may have been public, but not the emails. Apples and Orangemen. The fact that she sent out thousands of emails is irrelevant unless all of them are archived with the government so that they can be searched, and if need be, subpoenaed. If she sent 1,000 emails to Kim Kardashian and 20 to Vladimir Putin, turning over all the Kardashian emails doesn't mean her email was "public". They are public when the public has access to them all, according to prevailing law. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was passed because some government officials had to be forced by law to turn certain documents that should have been part of the public record, over to 'we the people'. But, FOIA doesn't give you access to Hillary's private server, therefore the original documents are in fact being hidden away from the public who owns them.

Any possibility that there are emails from Ambassador Chris Stevens to his boss and good friend Hillary Clinton, telling her of deteriorating conditions, requesting more protection for the compound at Benghazi? Emails from Hillary to Chris telling him to pound sand?? It would be most unusual if there weren't.

Any emails to Saudi Arabia around the time the Saudis gave $25 Million to the Clinton Foundation? From them? Any veiled (pun intended) hints of a quid pro quo?

No Independent Legal Authority This from former alleged conservative turned conservative inquisitioner David Brock. He says the NYT had 'no independent legal authority' to say that Hillary broke any law. This sounds a little bit like the Al Gore's fundraising excuse, back in 1996, when the Clintons were looking at a different controversy in accepting money from foreign governments. "There is no controlling legal authority",was what the vice president said. David Brock notwithstanding, there was a 2009 regulation

"agencies that allow employees to send and receive official electronic email messages using a system not operated by the agency, must ensure that federal records sent or received on such systems are preserved in the appropriate agency record keeping system."

Hillary's house is NOT in an appropriate agency record keeping system.

The State Dept manual on foreign affairs stated that employees "must use a secure, department approved computer system". Who, dear Hillary, aside from yourself, in your department approved your personal system? Craig Livingston*? Was there a tape back up run by Rose Mary Woods??**


False equivalence "Hillary did nothing wrong, everybody has a private email account!" Everyone may have a belly button, too, but that's equally irrelevant. Having an additional email account to one's government account is not unusual for public officials. In fact, Congressmen are forbidden by law to use their gov't email for fund raising or campaign events, so they use private accounts for those, as liberals are pointing out with glee. "See? See? Congressman Hornblatt has a private email and it's RIGHT ON HIS BUSINESS CARD!!!"***  However, not one of them uses a private account exclusively for conducting government business. That's a distinction that falls solely to Hillary Diane Rodham Milhous Clinton.

In fact, you do remember the faux outrage over the suggestion that a Republican governor may have conducted some government business on a private email account? Romney? Palin?? "What were they trying to hide???" What if they had conducted ALL of their communications on a private email server, say one called GOP.org? Would the lynching be public or would they be flayed and boiled in oil first? Can I get even a small fraction of the outrage there, for one of the highest office holders in the land, who used a private email account EXCLUSIVELY for all her government business, none of it properly archived in government agencies?

"Bush did it" in 2007, something something, missing emails, something something, Bush and Cheney did it, too! More false equivalence. Whatever Bush and Cheney did, you can be 100% certain that Bush did not exclusively conduct government business on private email, with some private server in Crawford, Texas.
You can also be 100% certain that Bush was not soliciting cash for any private eponymous foundation and arranging any quid pro quos for infusions of cash to foreign governments.

Hillary turned over 55,000 emails. That's a LOT! State Dept spokesperson Marie Harf may be easily impressed with large numbers. And shiny objects. Actually, it's 55,000 pages of documents. Out of how many emails? Ever get a highly detailed email or one with attachments that ran more than one page? Me too.

Even if that were 99.999% of the government documents generated, it would not be enough. If there were 55,002 emails she sent, and she conveniently neglected to hand over two incriminating ones, it circumvents both the spirit and the intention of the law, and the record is incomplete. Short of giving all the servers to the government for a forensic evaluation, there cannot be full compliance. The Clintons sending out copies of however many emails they want is not evidence that the email was totally or properly archived. The servers need to be turned over. Every document she authored as Secretary of State needs to be properly archived. This is part of the history of this country and this government. Those emails do not belong to Hillary.

The Clintons should turn over all the servers to an impartial third party or court, to separate the personal from the professional, so that the professional can be archived and searchable. Until then, one can never know if there has been a full compliance with the law.

"At that time, there was no time requirement. Now there is."  Again, the lovely Ms. Harf strains credulity. Even though there was not a 60 day requirement, as I believe is the case today, is it reasonable to assume that Hillary was in compliance if after two years, she only turns documents over after they were subpoenaed?
If a politician generates hard copy documents on their own stationery, are they entitled to store them in their garage until such time as someone compels them to be delivered?

"And she has given everything, according to her staff, to the State Dept." 

Key words being "according to her staff".

But! But! There's a lot of private information on them too! All of the Clintons' private emails! This is just a "fishing expedition" by Republicans! Gosh. Actions have consequences! Even Hillary's. No one made Hillary set up her own private email servers. If she had wanted to keep her personal email separate from those emails which properly are the property of the people of the United States, then the "smartest woman in the world" should have figured out to keep her personal emails on her private servers and emails dealing with the office of the Secretary of State should have been archived on government servers from the very beginning. Period.

National Security Risk We know that Hillary's email was hacked. What we don't know is how many times and by whom? A hacker who goes by the name of guccifer hacked Hillary's email and published a number of them. But, if a common everyday garden variety hacker could hack Hillary's email, how about teams of hackers from foreign governments? Could a foreign government or governments have hacked Hillary's email for confidential or even classified information? We don't know. That's one of the reason why the government needs to conduct a forensic search of her private servers.

The thought occurred to me, given the insecurity of Clintonemail, that if a foreign government or governments had hacked her account, they would have had the inside scoop, play by play of US foreign policy, for possibly as many years as she was Sec State. Imagine the foreign policy failures of the last six years. What if Barack Obama is not the bumbling, fumbling incompetent we've come to know and love. What if the reason he was so easily thwarted by Putin in the Ukraine, by Bashar al-Assad ignoring his red lines, by the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and the mad mullahs of Iran was not because he was a foreign policy noob, but because there was a gigantic hole in his secure communications, and nations unfriendly towards the US were listening in?

Did Hillary ever in her entire tenure as Secretary of State send a classified document via email? Not inconceivable, in fact, probable. That means at least for a time, that document was stored on whatever device she was using, her Blackberry, perhaps, desktop or laptop and a copy of it was created (illegally) on the server in her Chappaqua home. How is this any different than the felony that Gen. Petraeus was charged with in having classified documents in an unsecure location. Because Petraeus brought his in notebooks and Hillary brought hers in "1"s and "0"s?

But! But! Secret Service Agents surrounded the server in her house Physically, maybe. But secure against hacking? See: Guccifer. Oh, and did I mention it's against the law? Was the Secret Service even aware the servers were there, possibly with classified information on them, much less needing protection against intruders? Knowing the Clintons, I rather doubt it. Was her webmaster a frequent visitor at the house? Was it by any chance Craig Livingston??

The law changed after Hillary left office True. But that doesn't mean that many of the same requirements weren't in place before the law changed. The law became more specific, but the underlying principles of archiving official US mail in US government agencies, via whatever medium, did not change.

Questionable foreign contributions to the Clinton Foundation That's what put everyone onto the missing emails in the first place. It seems that the Clintons have been accepting tons and tons of money from foreign governments, laundering it, er benevolently distributing it, after passing through the sticky fingers of Bill and Hil, who spent about a million dollars just on transportation last year, even providing first class tickets for an actress and her dog to some such "charitable" event.  The Clintons continue to live like kings and queens, filtering millions through their charitable organization (charity apparently begins at home!), along with the millions of dollars of government pensions, presidential expenses and speaking fees.

We do know that the State Dept. sent literally billions of dollars to the government of Haiti. And in 2012, the government of Haiti gave a gold mining permit to Hillary's brother, the first one coincidentally, issued in 50 years. Quid pro quo, anyone? Maybe having a record of correspondence between the Secretary of State, or the Clinton foundation (or both) and the government of Haiti might tell a tale!

How many other deals conducted by the State Dept may have been preceded or closely followed by "contributions" to the Clinton Foundation? Yet another reason, if not the primary reason, to keep their correspondence secret and unsearchable?

Put the shoe on the other foot Forget all of the arguments you've heard to date. Now suppose the identical circumstances exist, but the official in question was George Bush, Sarah Palin, or Dick Cheney, or even...Richard Nixon?  If they told you, "Look, I've given you all the pertinent emails, because I said I've given you all the emails. Trust me!" At this point, does anyone, however so gullible, say, "Oh, well! If you say so, it must be true. Nevermind!"

Guilt by association... What Charles Krauthammer refers to as "Early Onset Clinton Fatigue", is Hillary's close association with...Bill and Hillary! As bad as the 'dialing for dollars' of the Clinton Foundation, the apparent quid pro quos of Hillary's State Dept, with a strong suspicion of dialing for dollars for the Clinton Foundation, the missing emails and possible cover up of Benghazi, and perhaps even criminal enterprises, the longer Hillary's integrity stands in question, the more apparent it is, that she does not have any! This whole sordid affair has stirred up Clinton scandals long forgotten, but never resolved. Cattle futures? Rose Law firm records? Travelgate? Whitewater? FBI files?  Every shady deal that Hillary ever stuck her fingers into is now coming back to haunt her, like King Hamlet's ghost. "Out, out, damned servers!", she shrieks.

Speaking of self inflicted wounds, how does Hillary ever completely convince anyone, other than the Kool-Aid drenched, low information voters, that she has indeed turned over all official emails?  Having been the sole custodian of her emails, both good and bad for six years, how could any outsider know how many emails, or servers that might be incriminating that are not turned over? Do you ask the fox how many chickens were originally in the henhouse? Would you believe him? Exactly how many emails were there? How long is a rope?

Given the Clintons' long and checkered past, can anyone believe that they a) never did anything even questionably unethical, or b) they haven't tried to cover it up, ala the Rose Law firm billing records. Or Filegate or travelgate or who hired Craig Livingston...

Bottom Line for the Drama Queen of Chappaqua  Hillary is sticking to the typical Clinton playbook: dribble out a little information and then hunker down until things hopefully quiet down, then, it's "old news". But this is, I'm convinced, the beginning of the end of Hillary's political career. I'd been thinking for a little while now that Hillary was just being coy about running for President, because, if she's a potential or viable candidate, she's courted by media outlets, her speeches command more money, her influence carries more weight. All of this translates into cash. And then, there's her ego, but...follow the money!

After Hillary makes it clear she is not running, she's yesterday's news. Period.  Her influence shrinks, her speeches aren't as exciting (or expensive). No one is quite so eager to purchase access to citizen Clinton as they might to candidate Clinton, with a hope of being President Clinton. The media would turn its eye to actual candidates, leaving Hillary in the dustbin of history, to spend the rest of her life to knitting booties for the grandkids and making sweet, sweet love to Billy Jeff.****

Her emails regarding Benghazi have already been subpoenaed.  It's just a matter of time.

Stick a fork in her, she's done.


* Craig Livingston, employed by the Clintons at the time of the FBI file scandal, although no one would admit to having hired him

** Rose Mary Woods, Nixon's secretary, allegedly responsible for erasing 18 minutes of White House office recordings

***For brevity's sake, I did not use the prerequisite number of exclamation points generally used by the Left in such cases.

**** I know. Where's the mind bleach when you really need it?


Original art by John Cox. More at John Cox Art

Trouble in Marijuanaville?

It is a long and widely accepted theory that pot smokers, being the mellowed out folk that they are, are not likely to commit violent crimes as, say, a drunk might? Here is some anecdotal evidence to the contrary:

Pot-smoking jail escapee tries to grab officers' guns

Police used a safe-wrap restraint system and a spit mask to subdue a pot-smoking Honor Farm escapee who fought with officers and tried to take their guns Wednesday afternoon in downtown Stockton, authorities said.

A bicycle patrol officer approached a man who was smoking marijuana in the first block of North American Street shortly before 3 p.m., police said. The man lied about his identity and then attempted to run away, officers said.

Run away? I thought the mellowed out weed smoker was just supposed to sit there with a goofy grin on his face and say, "Gee, Officer! It crawled into my hand! Honest!!

The officer and two backup officers attempted to detain the man... At that point, the man, identified by police as 22-year-old Matthew Cook, punched one of the officers, a witness said.

“The guy started punching the officer and the officer started punching him back,” Ruben Mendoza, 30, said. “I think that guy must be on drugs or something because it took three officers to get one guy down. That was a strong guy.”

During the fight, Cook tried to grab three officers’ guns, but he was unable to unholster any of their weapons, police said.

So, he tried to take the officers' guns away because he must have wanted to stick daisies in the barrels?? Might he have been on other drugs in addition to marijuana? Sure. But what we do know is that he was smoking marijuana out on the street, in a state where it is not legal. (Which could support the claim that marijuana damages brain cells). He punched the officers who were trying to subdue him and he tried to take their guns away from them.

At this point, it's merely anecdotal, not necessarily indicative of any larger trend. But the next time one of your pro-pot buddies gives you the line about how mellow and nonviolent pot smokers are, tell them about Matthew Cook.

Oh, and Matthew: Didn't your momma ever teach you it was impolite to spit??

A Tale of Two Immigrants

One of the canards tossed about about Conservatives is that conservatives somehow oppose immigration and immigrants. Must be because we're bigots or something, according to the brain dead left (but I repeat myself!) So, a couple of things came together this AM. I happened to see the obituary of a man who had immigrated here in the fifties and a man who came more recently, in a story over at Maggie's Notebook. These two gentlemen here:

The man on the left (on the page, anyway) is Morris "Brocky" Brockman. On the right, Sergio Martinez-Perez. There is a disparity in their ages, race and probably religion. Brocky Brockman was Jewish, in case anyone cares. Another major difference, is that Brocky Brockman and his wife came to the States legally. And I shall use the less than politically correct terms to refer to young Sergio, because, he came here illegally.

I have a small confession to make. I Photoshopped Sergio's picture. I lightened it up a little, because it was dark, and therefore a little more sinister (think: George Zimmerman), and I shifted the color just a touch, to try to disguise the fact that he's wearing an orange jumpsuit. I wanted you to have an unbiased first impression. (I tried to get a photo of Sergio as a twelve year old, cherubic choir boy, but the MSM said they were all Trayvon'ed out.)

Morris Brockman was the kind of immigrant almost any country would love to have. (I had to add "almost" because some people have an irrational, knee jerk hatred of Jews). He was born in Britain. He served six years in the RAF during WWII. He joined in 1939 when Hitler invaded Poland. Brocky, we salute you for your service. His obituary is here. Brocky, along with a number of other senior citizen veterans, participated in an oral history project about his experiences in WWII. You can read about that here.

Morris moved to California in 1953, with his wife, Rene. They were married for 71 years. Remember 71. That comes up in Sergio's story, too. The sweet love story of Morris and Rene can be found here. Brocky and his family started their own businesses, so that they were gainfully employed, productive members of their community. Brocky was a credit to both his native and adopted countries. He will be sorely missed.

On the other hand, we turn to Sergio. He's nineteen, so, using the Trayvon Martin standard, he is a "teenager". A youth. A young man if you want to be perfectly honest. Old enough to fight for his country, or fight for this country, if he wanted to use that as a "path to citizenship". The story that brought him to my attention:

Louise Sollowin, 93 years old, died after illegal alien Sergio Martinez-Perez broke into her home where she had lived for 71 years, raped her and beat her to death... Martinez-Perez (is) being charged with first degree murder, first degree burglary and first degree assault.

Ninety three year old Louise Sollowin had lived in her home for as many years as Brocky and Rene had been married. There's a solid, quiet comfort in spending that much time in one place or with one person. Perhaps, even a sense of security, ripped away in a single night by a savage predator who had been in our country for only four months. But, because he'd crossed the border in advance of any Gang of Eight amnesty program, he would have been eligible for a "Don't ask, don't tell" jump up the ladder to legal citizenship. Sergio is one of the "Dreamers" that Obama and his friends are touting. Fresh young faces just looking for an education, or for a job, or for a better life. The very idea that a person's moral character might have been impaired by at least one illegal act in illegally crossing our border and not taking the legally proscribed methods, and that that compromised moral character might manifest itself in other ways deleterious to our society is simply not brought up in mixed company.

And there's a long list of crimes that will be or could be overlooked in considering the path to citizenship of any of these Dreamers, as Obama likes to dreamily call them. Did you know that under proposed "immigration bill", you can forge up to three passports and it won't be held against you? My friend, I suspect if you or I were to forge so much as a single passport, we would see the inside of a Graybar Hotel faster than you can say Homeland Security. And yet, why should we let a few felonies get in the way of their "dream"?

I'm tempted to mount a 14th Amendment objection to the proposed immigration act. It provides for separate treatment of two different groups of people based on race and nationality. If dreamers get a pass on all manner of legal trespass and even felony violations, based on their race and nationality, I'm sure it would violate the 14th Amendment. (Well, maybe not in the view of the currently constituted court!)

I'd like Sergio to become the poster boy for "Dreamers". A nation has the right to control its own borders, north, south, east and west. The problem isn't the color of his skin, it's the content of his character. A large number of my co-workers are Hispanic. At least one was born in Columbia. Nothing at all wrong with people who want to come to this country to work, to go to school, to improve their lives, so long as they do it legally. Period. It's not about race. It's about the Dreamers of any race not turning into nightmares.

Cross posted at LCR.

Language Tortured in Aftermath of Marathon Bombing

One of the casualties in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing and terror spree, is language, or at least common sense in regards to language. Rush Limbaugh today played a montage of news anchors and commentators referring to the Boston Marathon bombers as "kids". It was unreal. There must have been at least two dozen, if not more, newspeople and talking heads using the word "kids" to describe two cold blooded killers.

FYI, These are "kids":


Kids brainwashed and blinded by hatred, but kids, nonetheless. Nineteen and twenty-six year olds, who plot and plant bombs designed to maximize death and dismemberment, and get in shootouts with police are not "kids". Not sure what the endgame of this particular meme is here. Maybe to make Dzhokhar Tsarnaev more sympathetic to those who see him more as an enemy combatant, subject to interrogation, rather than a "first time offender" in the criminal justice system, entitled to full Miranda rights...

The second thing that bothered me was in today's news coverage, a statement by the surviving bomber about the motivation of his brother:

The surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect has told investigators that his brother orchestrated the attacks because he 'wanted to defend Islam from attack'...

"He 'wanted to defend Islam from attack'...". And the 30,000 runners, 8,500 volunteers, 1,100 media members and 500,000 spectators of the Boston Marathon were the primary enemies of Islam? What? Had they just run 26.2 miles to desecrate a mosque?? Passed out cartoons of Mohammed to wear in lieu of numbers???

This is not a reason. A rationalization, perhaps, but, this is only an excuse. Nothing more. Random murder to make a political statement is not a "defense" of anything. This seems to me to be the groundwork for a variation of SODDit. Some Other Dude Did it. My dead brother was the mastermind. He talked me into it. I was just some dumb "kid" who looked up to his big brother. Blame the dead guy, not me!

Kids a lot younger than 19 have been tried as adults. Kids who acted without as much premeditation or planning as this attack. I don't care if this guy wasn't the ringleader. He participated in a deadly bombing and shoot out which killed and maimed people, scarring them for life. He is clearly old enough to know the difference between right and wrong. His careless disregard of human life prior to the attack, through his attempt to escape, so that he could kill again, makes this guy a candidate for lethal injection. Whether or not the Obama justice department, which fumbled a case as simple as the New Black Panther voter intimidation case, can obtain justice for the victims of the Boston Marathon and its aftermath, remains to be seen.


Cross posted at LCR.

A Tale of Four Tax Cheats (Updated)

On Nov. 19, 2010, we noted that "one of these four men is going to jail for three years for not paying his taxes."

(The other three are politicians.)


Here's an update: Wesley Snipes has been released from jail, on April 2, 2013. He still remains under home confinement until July 19. The other three men are still politicians.

Former Obama Staffer Busted for Stealing Iowa Secretary of State's Identity

Some political tricks aren't merely dirty, they're filthy!

Barack Obama’s 2008 Iowa New Media Director was arrested Friday for attempting to use the identities of Secretary of State Matt Schultz, and/or his brother Thomas, with the intent to falsely implicate the Secretary Schultz in illegal or unethical behavior. Zach Edwards, 29, of Des Moines, currently works for Link Strategies, a Democrat-affiliated organization with ties to Iowa Senator Tom Harkin. Edwards is the Director of New Media for Link Strategies.

The Secretary of State’s office discovered the alleged crime and reported it to authorities. Edwards turned himself in to the Iowa DCI agents Friday afternoon. He was charged with identity theft, a misdemeanor, and booked into the Polk County jail. Edwards posted $2,000 bail and was released later on Friday. He faces up to two years in prison.

So, a former Obama staffer uses illegal or unethical behavior to try to smear a Republican with... charges of illegal or unethical behavior? Got it. Psychologists call that "Projection".

Stay classy, liberals!

H/T Memeorandum

Cross posted at LCR, Say Anything.

When "Occupy" Means "I Steal What's Yours"

William Teach over at Pirate's Cove, had this sickening piece of video, depicting the aftermath of the OWS occupation of a privately owned dwelling:



If I break into your house and trash it, and it costs you five thousand dollars to repair (and fumigate), how is that any different, morally, from someone who swindles or steals the same amount?

And if the "one percent" are evil for "tricking people" into mortgages they couldn't afford, and taking their money, then aren't the OWS thugs just as guilty for stealing someone else's wealth, too? (And I suspect whoever owned this house was NOT part of the 1%.)

Vandalism is a form of theft. Even if the home owner or business has insurance that would cover the vandalism, it still robs the owner of the cost of his deductible, plus the time and labor to make things right, and robs every one in the pool of insured who must pay the premiums to make this vandalism whole again.

IMHO, the homeowner should have pressed charges against these thugs. I would have loved to have heard the pony-tailed moron trying to justify his actions in a court of law.

Cross posted at LCR, Say Anything.

An Apple Store a Day Keeps the Muggers Away?

For those of you old enough to remember West Side Story, one of the gang members, in trying to understand why he ended up in a life of crime, came to the conclusion:

"We're depraved on account of we're deprived."

That may be true. And for all of you struggling to get by with just a PC, maybe it's your lack of a Mac that made you go bad...

STOCKTON, CA - Forbes Magazine, which earlier this year marked Stockton as the most miserable city in the country, has new data to share.

Forbes reports that eight of the "Top 10 Most Dangerous Cities" in the U.S., where Stockton is ranked 8, don't have Apple stores.

...The two cities on the top 10 list that do have Apple stores are Anchorage and Las Vegas.

Of course correlation does not equal causation. In this chicken and egg McMuffin comparison, it is likely that Apple simply tries not to locate their stores in higher crime areas.

Still, it is amusing to consider the possibility that PC users turn to crime for wont of an iPad!

Woman Caught, Arrested After Having Sex with 15-year-old... on Thanksgiving

This could take "kissin' cousins" to a whole new level! "Pass the white meat"?? "Auntie Knows Bust"???

A Texas woman was arrested after relatives said they caught her having sex with a 15-year-old boy on Thanksgiving Day. The scene unfolded at a family gathering held on the holiday at a house in Oakridge Forest Lane in Spring. Police arrested Amanda Billiris, 23, after relatives said they witnessed her having sexual intercourse with the boy, the arrest report states.

The avid motorcycle racer has been charged with sexual assault of a child, a second-degree felony, reports the Houston Courier. According to the Texas Penal Code, if convicted, she faces between two to 20 years in prison

And what is that thing hanging from her belt? A hamster? A rabbit? Maybe it wasn't sexual desire that motivated the fifteen year old, it may have been fear of becoming road kill!

H/T Support Your Local Gunfighter

Strippers Busted...Posing as Legal Aides

Could give a whole new meaning to "legal briefs"?

Miami's Federal Jail Overrun With Strippers Posing As Paralegals, Lawyers Say

Stripteases, sexual favors, booze, porn mags, and fat stacks of cash would be run-of-the-mill in many Miami strip clubs. But at downtown's maximum security Federal Detention Center?

Multiple attorneys interviewed by Riptide say the FDC visitor rooms have been taken over by South American pole dancers posing as paralegals for wealthy drug lords inside. Lawyers hired by the accused narco dons allegedly list the scantily clad women as "legal assistants," and the FDC lets them in. Meanwhile, attorneys who refuse to go along risk losing their clients to lawyers with busty beauties on staff.

Strippers in the Federal lockup? I guess they get a higher class of clientele in the Federal pen!

"They take off their tops and let the guys touch them," veteran defense attorney Hugo Rodriguez says. "The majority of these young, very attractive women are noncitizens brought in exclusively for the purposes of visiting the FDC. Any lawyer can sign a form and designate a legal assistant. There is no way of verifying it. The process is being abused."

The accusations are difficult to prove. An FDC spokeswoman declined to comment, and prison officials refused Riptide's requests for any incident reports on faux paralegals being tossed from the facility.

But attorneys swear the scam is ongoing. One "discovery room" normally used to discuss trial strategy was recently closed, they say, after guards caught an inmate and a paralegal "discovering" more than legal documents.

I guess the "Green Mile" is behind the "Green Door"? We had a story just a while back about a lady lawyer stripping to pay the bills, but this is going way beyond that. But, it is an abuse that is hard (no pun intended) to put a stop to, due to the privacy necessary for attorney/client privilege.

I would suggest that the prisons make available rooms with at least one large window of soundproof glass, and not station anyone outside the window, but let it be known that that hallway was subject to irregular patrol.

In fact, they could call them that...the Irregular Patrol. Any irregularities observed and bam, they've got their man...er, woman...er, couple!

Among the offenses allegedly committed by so-called paralegals: smuggling in a Playboy, feeding alcohol to an inmate by slipping a straw through a grate, and sneaking in $3,000 inside a purse.

In a scene straight out of a porno, one woman was caught on video stripping for an inmate in the jail's Special Housing Unit, attorneys say. The stripper was banned from the FDC.

Female lawyers say the phony paralegals are an embarrassment.

"I find it offensive," says an attorney who asked to remain anonymous. "This is still kind of a male-dominated profession. We try to be taken seriously, but these women aren't helping."

Contraband, cash and cuties...I guess if you have to be locked up, it's good to have all the comforts of home! Still, I kinda thought depriving wrongdoers of all the comforts of home was what incarceration was all about?

If the Feds in Miami want to clean up their holding facilities, I suggest they wear gloves!

(Please note that the lady in the above photo is, to our knowledge, not a stripper nor are we aware of anything she may have done illegal, immoral or wrong. Her parents, however, should be complimented for doing something right!)

H/T Mrs. C

Shots Fired at Occupy Oakland

Reports of as many as eight shots fired, one injured. Sad to say, if not for the occupiers, this probably wouldn't be newsworthy, beyond a small circle of friends...

At about 4:45pm Thursday evening, a crowd of thirty surrounded a man apparently shot in the leg at Frank Ogawa Plaza. He appeared unconscious when I arrived at the scene, a full ten minutes before the police and ambulance arrived. Women were screaming, and many in the crowd were moaning from the unexpected traumatic event. Several were shouting, “no pictures” and linking arms around the injured young man.

More details as they become available.

Update : It now appears the shooting was a fatality.

OAKLAND, Calif. - A man has died after being shot just outside the Oakland encampment that anti-Wall Street protesters have occupied for the last month.

Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan says the victim was pronounced dead at a local hospital Thursday evening, less than two hours after two groups of men got into a fight near the Occupy Oakland camp on a plaza near City Hall.

Jordan says no suspects have been identified. He asked members of the public participating in the protest who may have taken photographs or video that captured the shooting to contact authorities.

More at Memeorandum

"Michael Jackson for the Prosecution"

The trial of Conrad Murray, doctor to the self proclaimed "King of Pop", has not interested me all that much. I did happened, by chance, to hear part of the defense's closing argument this morning:

"If this had been anyone other than Michael Jackson, would the doctor be here today?"

He's just lucky I'm not on the jury. I couldn't help but turn it around and ask myself,

If his doctor had been anyone other than Conrad Murray, would Michael Jackson be here today?

#OccupyAnarchy: What Lawlessness Breeds

Wall Street protesters in Zuccotti Park battened down the hatches yesterday as the early October snow turned their tents into igloos, but the close quarters also made easy pickings for one predator. A sex fiend barged into a woman’s tent and sexually assaulted her at around 6 a.m., said protesters, who chased him from the park.

“Pervert! Pervert! Get the f--k out!” said vigilante Occupiers, who never bothered to call the cops. “They were shining flashlights in his face and yelling at him to leave,” said a woman who called herself Leslie, but refused to give her real name.

She said that weeks earlier another woman was raped. “We don’t tell anyone,” she said. “We handle it internally. I said too much already.”

With all the free loaders, free lovers, free Mumia's, free lunchers and free thinkers populating the OccupyAnarchy movement, which many on the Left hope to be the anti-Tea Party, one gets the impression that one thing the ReOccupyTheWhiteHouse movement doesn't need is more bad press, so there seems to be a conscious effort to keep these kinds of attacks quiet and sweep them under a rug.

Granted, the Occupy movement has spawned a "volunteer" security force of dubious origin and efficacy: part mob, part vigilante justice. But they have neither police powers or training. And, rather than pursuing a sexual predator until he is caught and deterred from repeating his offense, he is merely chased off to continue his perverse felonies again, either at another "occupied" area of the park or in society at large.

First, I think this sends a bad message about the OccupyAnarchy view of women. "Ladies: Lay back and enjoy it. Women who are assaulted or raped should be seen and not heard." In a rational world (not the protesters' strong suit), how would it not benefit everyone for every woman raped or assaulted to give a statement to the police and a description of the perpetrator so that the criminal can be apprehended? Is the movement so inured and enamored of breaking whatever laws they choose, that they empathize with other lawbreakers, no matter how odious?

We have seen the Occupy Anarchists disrespect the police, one man infamously defecating on a patrol car, and attacking the police and even rioting in some places. Compare and contrast with the Tea Party rallies. There was a police presence there, but the only incidents I observed or am aware of, involving the police at a Tea Party rally, was when a small element of miscreants from the Left showed up to protest against the Tea Partiers, to shout them down, or damage property.

There were no tents, no soup lines and above all, no rapes, sexual assaults, refusals to obey police orders or assaults on police officers.

Is OccupyAnarchy the Left's version of the Tea Party? It's looking like it. Will OccupyAnarchy motivate anyone to vote Democrat next Fall? Well, I think they can count on the rapist and sexual predator vote!


H/T Memeorandum

Cross posted at LCR, Lady Cincinnatus , Say Anything.

"Gumby" in the "Pokey"?

Did you hear about Gumby trying to stick up a 7-11 recently?



It turns out now, that "Gumby" has turned himself in.

SAN DIEGO -- A man who attempted to rob a Rancho Penasquitos convenience store while dressed in a "Gumby" costume last week turned himself in to police Tuesday, authorities said.

The would-be thief disguised as the famed green claymation character entered the 7-Eleven in the 9700 block of Carmel Mountain Road along with an accomplice in street clothes shortly after midnight on Sept. 5, SDPD Detective Gary Hassen said.

A surveillance camera captured the entire odd episode on video, providing fairly clear images of the disguised man's outfit and the appearance of his friend. No weapon was seen during the alleged holdup attempt, and no money was taken.

The clerk at the 7-Eleven didn’t take the pair seriously when they said they were robbing the store, according to Hassen. The would-be bandit fumbled with his outfit as if to pull a gun from a pocket, but only managed to drop 26 cents in change, which he left on the floor.

You know you're not cut out for a life of crime when you try to stick up a convenience store and you leave twenty six cents poorer than when you went in! Time to consider a career change!

Guess old Gumby's in the pokey now!

Crime Doesn't Pay: California Edition

Some days it's hard to make a dishonest buck!

San Jose police say a truck illegally carrying marijuana crashed and ended up on its side near Oakridge Mall early Wednesday, sending large bags of pot throughout the intersection as the frightened driver ran away. Several motorists and pedestrians who happened to be passing through the area ran out and grabbed most of the marijuana bags and took off before police arrived.

Okay. You lost your truck and you lost your payload of illegal drugs. What could possibly be worse?

Officers eventually collected the remaining bags of weed left at the scene and also found a loaded handgun inside the white truck. They're still looking for the driver and all the people who snatched up the loose bags of pot and don't have any suspect descriptions.

Oh. You lost your truck, your pot AND your gun? Bummer, dude! You'd better hope that's not your name on the registration, or that's not all you'll lose!

It's unclear how the truck crashed at Blossom Hill Road and Playa Del Rey in South San Jose at 12:50 a.m. But there were no other vehicles involved in the crash, which ended with the truck landing on its side in the middle of the intersection.

Driver sampling his own merchandise, perhaps? H/T Memeorandum

Man Arrested for Building Nuclear Device in Kitchen

First it was lemonade stands, now the government doesn't want you building your own nuke reactor, either!

A Swedish man who kept a blog chronicling his attempts to build a homemade nuclear reactor in his apartment has shut down the project after being arrested by police and held under suspicion of breaching radioactive material safety laws. If convicted of an offence, he faces heavy fines or up to two years in jail.

Richard Handl, of rural Ängelholm, had quantities of radioactive radium and uranium, and was attempting to create a self-sustaining fission reaction similar to a nuclear power station, although on a vastly smaller scale.

In his apartment??? How would you like to be this guy's downstairs neighbor? You thought the upstairs neighbor leaving the tub running was bad? Apparently one of his earlier efforts caused a "meltdown" on his kitchen stove!

Got any neighbors who keep to themselves...maybe with a "hobby"? Any of 'em glow in the dark???

Cross posted at LCR, Say Anything.

Flotsam and Jetsam

"Random thoughts", as a franchise, has already been taken by Thomas Sowell and Frank over at IMAO, so what's a fella to do? I reconnected with the phrase flotsam and jetsam describing Obama's appearance, recently, at yet another presser where nothing of any substance was discussed.

Here then, are bits of debris, not substantive enough perhaps, for an entire post, but whatever "washed up on the beach":

Back in March the police busted a pair of Romanian nationals in the country on journalism visas for hacking Dunkin' Donuts gift cards into ATM cards...The magnetic strips on the gift cards had been re-encoded with stolen account info belonging to myriad banks (including Chase, Bank of America, Citibank, and HSBC), where that bank info came from is still unclear. At the time of their arrest the pair had $17,703 in stolen cash on them and 66 Dunkin' Donut gift cards which had been tampered with.

Insert gratuitous cops and doughnut shop remark here:___________________

Back in July,

On the same day that California State University trustees are expected to boost tuition by 12 percent, they are also set to make San Diego State University’s new president the highest paid in the system...“At the same time they’re telling us they’re losing millions, at the same time they’re voting to hike tuition,” said Peter C. Herman, a professor of English at SDSU, “they’re voting to give the new guy 33.3 percent more than the previous guy. That sends the wrong message.”

The trustees are expected to approve a salary of $350,000 in state funds for Elliot Hirshman, who took over as SDSU’s president July 5. Hirshman also will receive $50,000 annually from the university’s nonprofit fundraising arm. He will live in university housing and receive a $1,000 monthly car allowance. The pay package puts Hirshman slightly ahead of Jeffrey Armstrong, who became president of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in December, as the highest paid president in the 23-campus system. Hirshman’s predecessor, Stephen Weber, earned just under $300,000, lived in university housing and received the same car allowance.

C'mon! The guy has to run the entire university all by himself! Surely that kind of talent is worth more than a mere US senator ($170,000), or the California state Governor who has to scrape by on $175,000 (which, to his credit, the Governator did not accept), and the President of the entire United States, who might have a couple of more responsibilities than a UC president, does get more: $400,000.

In all fairness to the UC president, Joe Biden gets $230,700, and a UC president is worth way more than Joe!

I have often looked upon the state university system as a microcosm of the Healthcare debacle being forced upon us. Under the wise and benevolent rule of government, (stop laughing!) the UC system serves fewer and fewer students each year, rationing education, if you will, while the costs to the participants continue to go up.

"Pay more, get less." There's the slogan Obama should run on in 2012!

Update : I apologize. In saying that the President of the United States made more than this guy, I was looking at straight salary, I wasn't looking at the extra fifty grand the university's "nonprofit fundraising arm" was kicking in. That means that California taxpayers, primarily, are paying this guy as much as we do the President of the United States, to oversee one (1) university of California campus. That doesn't sound unreasonable at all! /sarc

Prison Doc Highest Paid California Employee - Does Next to Nothing

They'd really rather he do nothing, but I guess there's a law against that!

The highest-paid state employee in California last year, a prison surgeon who took home $777,423, has a history of mental illness, was fired once for alleged incompetence and has not been allowed to treat an inmate for six years because medical supervisors don't trust his clinical skills.

Since July 2005, Dr. Jeffrey Rohlfing has mostly been locked out of his job — on paid leave or fired or fighting his termination — at High Desert State Prison in Susanville, state records show. When he has been allowed inside the facility, he has been relegated to reviewing paper medical histories, what prison doctors call "mailroom" duty.

Just recently, the state was ordered by a judge to reduce the prison population because of "inadequate medical care". Here's a thought: Fire the guy taking home a quarter of a million dollars a year, for doing nothing more than busywork and hire someone in his place who might actually treat the inmates.

I know. That's why I'll never be in politics!

H/T Memeorandum