Two seconds after I commented on Nick's post about the hazards of getting romantically involved with murderers (including a reference to the exchange that must have made Dan Abrams' mamma proud), I heard a news update on the Latoyia Figueroa case."I accidentally let the temper get the best of me, resulting in La'Toyia's death. We had an argument, a couple of blows. I didn't hit her in the stomach, or that.You squeeze "a little too long" and the person passes out; you have to want to kill someone if you strangle them to death with your bare hands. Despite this, Poaches claims he is not a murderer
"She was hitting me on the shoulders and face. That's when I grabbed her neck to try and stop her from hitting me. I squeezed a little too long," Boyle said Poaches told him.
"La'Toyia hit me in the face and shoulder. I was surprised. I grabbed her with both hands around the neck and squeezed. I kind of freaked out when she stopped hitting.""I panicked. I was tapping her, calling her name. She was lying on the floor. . . . She's dead - that was it. . ." [Philadelphia Inquirer]
"I feel terrible for the act. I don't feel I am a murderer. This was not premeditated." [KYW News]He said he panicked and hid Figueroa's body under the bed because he was expecting company (his other girlfriend, who'd already given birth to his child). It was later that evening he wrapped Latoyia's body in garbage bags and called a friend who helped him dumped the body in nearby Chester, PA.
"As we mark this anniversary, we are again a nation at war. Once again war came to our shores with a surprise attack that killed thousands in cold blood," he said at a naval base here, referring to Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.Bushevikian freedom = Sharia law
He said that as in the time of World War II, the United States now faces "a ruthless enemy" and "once again we will not rest until victory is America's and our freedom is secure."
Bush invoked the memory of his father as a young Navy pilot shot down over the Pacific and of an optimistic Franklin Roosevelt calling on Americans to defend liberty. He portrayed Roosevelt's vision as similar to his own -- a commitment to spreading freedom even when U.S. allies were not convinced it was the best course.
"Franklin Roosevelt refused to accept that democracy was finished," Bush said. "His optimism reflected his belief that the enemy's will to power could not withstand our will to live in freedom."
This week, the administration also had to defend the proposed constitution produced in Iraq at US urging. Critics fear the impact of its rejection by many Sunnis, and say it fails to protect religious freedom and women's rights. [Boston Globe]Georgie also (kindasorta) admitted oil was a mitigating factor in this war too [emphasis & links added]
If Zarqawi and [Osama] bin Laden gain control of Iraq, they would create a new training ground for future terrorist attacks," Bush said. ''They'd seize oil fields to fund their ambitions. They could recruit more terrorists by claiming a historic victory over the United States and our coalition." [Boston Globe]
Tags: politics; The Iraq War "Viet Nam 2: Honoring Dead Soldiers With More Dead Soldiers"; The Bushevick Revolution; We're America dammit, we own the world; BBA; Downing Street Memorandum; terrorism; conservatism
I stayed out of the Katrina fray since the devastation received wall-to-wall coverage that left my stomach in knots. Diane & family are OK, Kate's keeping everyone as up-to-date as possible & Matt is compiling the rest of the information we need to know in a constantly updated post aptly called "Atlantis".
In addition to everything else these people have lost, they now face a lack of food, little if any sources for safe drinking water and water borne illnesses that can be deadly if left untreated. The hospitals are swamped - those that can operate are doing so under the harshest of conditions; those who can not are trying to find a way to transfer patients to facilities that can take them.PLEASE HELP HERE IF YOU CANThere are well over a 1200 people still in the Tenet Memorial Hospital on Napoleon in New Orleans. Predictions are that flood waters will continue to rise to another 9 feet tonight. Latest info is that they have started helicoptering out people, but verY small numbers, less than 100 since 1 pm. Giving you this update because we may have no electricity before long. Our phone numbers are 504.897.4531 and 504.897.4530, we cannot call out. Feel free to call us or give numbers to media to call us. They are estimating that it may take several days to evacuate these people - water electricity food security all will be gone by then.
Please help by notifying the press and the government. People are hoping that friends around the country can help out. Thanks for giving people hope.
Peace, Bill Quigley
People in affected areas need help & need it badly: now to save lives and will need more to rebuild for the future. Disaster Recovery & Relief Effort Information:Scalia said he was saddened to see the Supreme Court deciding moral issues not addressed in the Constitution, such as abortion, gay rights and the death penalty. He said such questions should be settled by Congress or state legislatures beholden to the people."I am questioning the propriety -- indeed, the sanity -- of having a value-laden decision such as this made for the entire society ... by unelected judges," he said. [CNN]
"We're still hoping and praying," [grandmother] Dorothy Collie said Saturday. "I just don't know where this child's head was. I've never known her to do something so stupid.
Kimberly Baker, Jodie Collie's mother, said that her daughter met Denkler last year while visiting a relative. Denkler worked at a store near the relative's house, Baker said.
In the past week, Jodie spoke with Denkler over the phone almost every day, Baker said. Her family did not learn of the conversations until Friday, when they began inspecting phone records. Now, Baker thinks Jodie and Denkler planned their escape together. [The News & Observer]
Sigel, 31, continued following the Figueroa case in newspapers while finishing his one-year federal sentence in Fairton, N.J., for illegally carrying a loaded .45-caliber handgun and having drugs in a SUV."I just wanted to find the girl," he said."I have children. I have sisters."
Sigel is dismayed that more rich Philly Pholks (Philly entertainers & sports stars, in particular) didn't pitch in and help out. I'm dismayed that Sigel didn't take the opportunity to use this tragedy to pull a Kanye and tell his community to tone down the misogyny. While domestic abuse and murdering your baby mama is nothing new in American culture, the rap/Hip-Hop degradation of women as bitches and 'hos doesn't really help the community view women as worthy of respect/respectful treatment.
Come on Beanie, make your mama proud and pull a Kanye on this one. While you're at it, there are some other sisters who could use your help too.
Tags: Missing Persons; Latoyia Figueroa; Philadelphia; news; media; Beanie Sigel; Damon Dash; Hip Hop; Rap; misogyny; Kanye West
Sphere: Related ContentThe transcript of Santorum speaking last Sept. 21 at an impromptu news conference outside a private luncheon of GOP senators in Washington was overlooked during a search of an electronic database and office files, spokesman Robert Traynham said.
"There are concerns - I have concerns - about tactics and decisions that were made," Santorum said, according to the transcript, made bythe Federal News Service. "I think you'd find a lot of Republicans who are very willing to second-guess our tactics in Fallujah, for example."
At the time, during the heat of the presidential campaign, several GOP senators had criticized the military decision to turn over security in Fallujah to poorly trained Iraqi troops after a U.S. invasion of the city in April 2004.
The criticism - that lack of a strong U.S. presence in Fallujah had allowed insurgents to regroup - came after several grisly suicide bombings there.
"And in my opinion, it was not the right call, but you know what? That's not my decision," Santorum said in the Sept. 21 news conference. At another point, he told reporters that too much "Monday morning quarterbacking" of military commanders would not help the war effort.
"A lot of the conflicts that people on our advisory committees have are that they did trials for these people," he said, "I don't think that's such a bad thing. . . I don't think it necessarily conflicts you."Does he really think that some companies would refrain from paying significantly more to those physicians on the advisory board (and allow them greater latitude with protocol deviations/violations, etc.) if those same investigators were in a position to rip the data supporting their application? He must, because he also seems to think folks on advisory committees would look closely enough to question data that may be confounded by deviations they, themselves, committed (or ones similar to their own infractions) or admit that they agree a studythey willingly performed wasn't well designed and/or didn't have adequate safety protections built in.
"Some of the people on the COX-2 [committee] I think were people who were just doing the studies."He did, however, acknowledge that advisory committee members could be "biased by association" because they like and value the companies as well as the potential future rewards. This is all the more reason to keep them from conducting the trials (and to keep thought leaders, who've aided in development of a protocol or program from conducting those trials; they have their own agendas that can insert unnecessary bias and/or cause deviations that can cause confounding of the data).
"Corporations have deeper pockets and therefore more influence than individuals do," said Maureen Richardson, state director of Concerned Women for America of Washington.
"I think it's wiser for them to stay out of these issues so that they don't offend conservatives and people of faith."
To these companies, she says: "If you want my money, support some of my causes."
The latest research suggests the mechanics of sexual intercourse and the shape of the human penis evolved as a countermeasure to the infidelity of our female forebears. Men may not be aware of it, but during sex they may be instinctively using their penises as "sperm displacement devices," says evolutionary psychologist Todd Shackelford of Florida Atlantic University.Biologists have known for years this kind of thing happens in animals, says Shackelford. "It's only shocking when applied to humans."
The evolutionary advantage of male sluttishness is obvious - it spreads your genes around. But evolution also may favor females who cheat. Often such behavior helps her beget offspring with better genes.
That in turn creates a pressure unique to males: the threat of cuckoldry - evolutionary doom. He who fails to impregnate his mate or who inadvertently brings up another's brood won't pass on his genes.
"I have run into people who don't support the president's views on Iraq or our objectives, but I haven't run into a single person who said (he or she) doesn't support the troops," said Jason Crawford, a Purple Heart recipient who was shot in the face by opposition forces in December 2003 while in Iraq. "I think our society learned from Vietnam that it's not the men and women who sacrifice their lives and signed on the dotted lines who make up the plans and objectives. I think pretty much everyone supports the troops."Among the overwhelming majority of Americans who support the right of protesters to openly voice their dissent with government policies is Army National Guard Sgt. Shelton Johnson who spent nearly a year in Iraq in 2003 and 2004 [emphasis added][snip]
While many troops wish more Americans would support the war effort, some said it's heartening to know the folks back home wish them nothing but the best.
"They might not agree with (the war)," said Marine Corps Sgt. Ryan Bentele, 29, who returned from Iraq in May. "But they show us respect."
[snip]
Army Reserves Lt. Col. Alice Bell, 46, who spent 10 months in Kuwait in support of the Iraq invasion, said she has heard nothing but praise since returning home."It's not like in Vietnam, when they spat on troops coming back," she said. "Some people don't agree with the mission itself. But even if they're against the war effort, they're for the troops. They realize we're doing what we have to do, what we've been ordered to do, whether we agree with it or not."
"As long as they're not defiant against the troops or the president, then I think it's actually healthy for our society and government," he said.
Tags: politics; Iraq War; Bush Administration; Foreign Policy; BBA; Downing Street Memorandum; Honor; conservatism; Cindy Sheehan; Anti-War protest
Abramoff told associates that he believed Griles was "committed" to blocking an effort by the Gun Lake Indian tribe to build a casino near Grand Rapids, Mich., according to the content of e-mail messages reviewed by The Washington Post. Abramoff said the blocking would involve an environmental challenge to the project, a tactic also proposed by Michigan business leaders opposed to the casino. Abramoff fought the project because it would draw business from a casino operated by his clients, the Saginaw Chippewas.
Environmental concerns ended up delaying action on the Gun Lake casino. The project was cleared last May by the Interior Department.
Gun Lake was not the only casino that Abramoff tried to derail through his departmental contacts. The Post has reported on e-mails indicating the lobbyist enlisted Griles to stop a Louisiana tribe's proposed casino, which threatened another Abramoff client. [WaPo]
At the same time, Abramoff's firm, Greenberg Traurig LLP was in negotiations to hire a guy named J. Steven Griles who just happened to work as Deputy Secretary of the Interior at the time. [emphasis added]
A federal task force investigating Abramoff's activities has conducted interviews and obtained documents from Interior Department officials and Abramoff associates to determine whether conflict-of-interest laws were violated, according to people with knowledge of the probe. It can be a federal crime for government officials to negotiate for a job while being involved in decisions affecting the potential employer.Really? Someone ought to tell SCotUS nominee John Roberts about those conflict of interest laws. Oh wait he knew, he must have just forgotten he was involved in the Hamdan case at the time - it's not as though guys like Cheney, Gonzales, Card or Rove would have had any interest in the case or brought it up or anything.
Text of an email sent to Fox News
To: ontherecord@foxnews.com
; oreilly@foxnews.com ; Comments@foxnews.com ; Colmes@foxnews.com ; Foxnewsonline@foxnews.com ; Viewerservices@foxnews.com ; Myword@foxnews.com Subject: Please have Fox get on the ball and cover active AMBER ALERTS like the one right now!!!!!!!!
There is a current Amber Alert in NC, a registered sex offender that has a 12 year old girl Jodie Renee Collie. Every night Bill O’ Reilly talks about Jessica’s law and the outrage, and now the network you all are on doesn’t even report Amber Alerts as a Fox News Alert. We have breaking news all day about Natalee Holloway who’s seach has had millions in resources and even more in media exposure. At least cover the Amber Alerts.
M & A report receiving a read receipt from Alan Colmes (or someone on his staff) 15 minutes prior to his show, so they watched. . . and waited. . . and not a word.
There are 2 pictures available for Jodie Renee Collie. She's described as a green-eyed blonde, so I gather the picture on the left is the most current one (though, I would not put it past a kidnapper to dye her hair if everyone's looking for a blonde). She is 5'4" and 114 pounds.
Police say the abductor, Phillip Daniel Denkler, 27, is a registered sex offender. He is described as a white male with straight, short, black hair and brown eyes.
The two were last seen in a beige 2005 Hyundai Sonata with North Carolina license plate number NMN-2630. Anyone who has information about this case is asked to call the Rocky Mount Police Department at (252) 972-1411 or 911.
UPDATE: It seems as though Jodie received a phone call from Denkler early Friday morning to make arrangements to pick her up. The 12-year old left a note saying she “needed to spend some time away and to please not call police.”
[Kim] Baker [Collie's mother] said she believes Denkler and Collie met at a convenience store near Baker’s house earlier this year. “I think he remembered her from then, and he started calling her when he got out of jail,” Baker said. “He was under house arrest with the bracelet and everything, but apparently, that didn’t stop him.”
UPDATE 8/29/05: Alabama authorities have now joined in the search for Jodie. If they took a normal route from Rocky Mount, NC to Alabama, they probably would have driven SW through the Carolinas and west through GA into AL (depending on which part of AL they're heading to).
Tags: Missing Persons; news; bill o'reilly; alan colmes; media; Cable News; fox news; Jodie Renee Collie; North Carolina
Sphere: Related Content
Maker Barr Pharmaceuticals criticized the decision, questioning how the agency could agree that scientific evidence backed nonprescription sales and yet not allow those sales to begin.I guess they're waiting for the Repubevangelical counterpart to Sharia law to be implemented here.
Thanks to DeJuana, I've also received information about a missing Staten Island mom-to-be, Shameeka Dixon-Gordon, who disappeared April 21, 2004. The only information local press wanted from her family was a reaction to the discovery of a body in a landfill (that turned out not to be Shameeka).
Amanda Jones' disappearance has gotten some national attention this past week. She is the 26-year old Hillsboro, MO woman who was last seen 2 weeks ago en route to meet with the father of her unborn child (Tuesday was her due date). The very cynical part of me wonders if she gets a little less attention that the usual white damsel in distress because she's pregnant but not married - but that's neither here nor there.The story appeared in the Daily Egyptian on May 6, 2003, detailing an 8-year-old's struggles saying goodbye to her father, who was shipping off to Iraq with the 101st Airborne. Kodee, according to the story, had lost her mother years earlier, so Kennings was her only blood relative.
"I don't have a mom," Kodee was quoted saying in the newspaper story. "If he died, I don't have anywhere to go."
Upon Kennings' departure, Kodee came under the care of a young woman named Colleen Hastings, the wife of Kennings' adoptive brother. Outgoing and affable, she forged a friendship with Brenner and, he says, seemed to think the attention was helping keep Kodee's mind off her dad.
Brenner, then the editor of the paper, started publishing unedited notes that Kodee would write about her dad, or about things happening in her life.
Last week, the DE newsroom was crushed by news that Sgt. Dan Kennings has been killed in Iraq and the little girl they'd established personal bonds with was now an orphan. The Chicago Tribune was so interested in the story, they went to Carbondale to learn more
Over seven days of reporting, the Tribune learned the real story, one of elaborate fabrications and lies intricately spread out over two years. There is no soldier named Dan Kennings. The charming girl people came to know as Kodee Kennings is someone else entirely, a child from an out-of-state family led to believe she was playing a part in a documentary about a soldier.
Using role players, including an employee of a local Christian radio station, the woman at the center of the hoax spun a remarkable wartime tale so compelling it grabbed the hearts of young journalists, university faculty members and readers, and left them blind to the possibility it could all be a ruse. There appears never to have been a monetary motive. In fact, the reasons behind all the lies remain unclear.
"Mike is my best friend," she said. "In the last couple of years, he's had a hard time with his career. He asked me if I would help him out. I said I would. It just got a little bigger than he told me it would. I went with it because supposedly he was my best friend. This needs to be over with. I don't want to lie anymore. He just wouldn't let it go."
She also said she fell in love with Brenner, making it that much harder for her to stop the lie.
Brenner denied Reynolds' accusation and said her claims were outrageous.
"Jesus Christ, that is completely not true," Brenner said when he heard about the allegations. "Obviously she is making that up. I swear I'm telling the truth. The last two years of my life, I don't know what to believe. It's ridiculous. I feel stabbed in the back. They had an elaborate hoax. I'm telling the truth."
Tags: Iraq War; war protest; media
Hostettler, who spoke to an Indiana Family Institute program at Crossroads Christian Church in Evansville, also said religious faith needs to have a greater presence in public policy decisions.I guess Hostettler says this because religious faith can ensure the stability of marriage, just like it did for Christian music star Jaci Velasquez who married Darren Poteck 16 August 2003 [emphasis added]
When my husband and I started out as newlyweds, we were like all newlyweds, wanting that dream marriage," Velasquez said. "Somehow, things took a turn and we have ended up in divorce."For some reason, I can't help but disagree with Hostettler.
[snip]"I sought counseling," said the 25-year-old singer, "but the painful truth is that our marriage didn't work out. I've had such a difficult time with this. My heart hurt so badly that I felt like I wanted to crawl under a rock and just die. I can't say that I have ever felt such pain before. My heart literally felt like it was breaking in half."
Friends say Poaches may have killed Figueroa because he had also gotten another woman pregnant. However, the suspect told police he murdered Figueroa, who was five months pregnant at the time, because she wouldn't have an abortion.Poaches waited until the middle of the 2nd trimester to discuss abortion with Latoyia and then gets mad enough to kill her in a sudden fit of rage for refusing to terminate? It sounds to me like Poaches went to the pre-natal exam with Latoyia to intentionally make it appear as though he was supporting the pregnancy because he knew full well he'd be the primary person of interest if she met with foul play.
Investigators have told reporters that Poaches admitted he strangled the young woman in rage when she told him she didn't agree with having an abortion. [LifeNews.com]
"The U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, who is third in the leadership, says one of the reasons people should vote for him is because he is in leadership," Casey said in an interview Thursday. "But he is not asking the tough questions."Santorum quickly disputed Casey's allegations that he is capable of acting independently, but instead of giving accurate examples of where he differs with the WH in public (I don't recall even W making statements indicating a return to the 1830s would be ideal), he claimed he has questioned some tactics in public and private.
"I have a very clear track record of being supportive of the policy, but not necessarily all of the tactics," the two-term senator said. "That shows a level of involvement and sophistication that my opponent has not grasped... . I still have concerns about our level of activity with respect to fighting the insurgency, and the number of former Baathists who are put in positions of power in the country and their relationships with Iran. I have expressed those concerns publicly and privately."Today, Santorum's people had to admit that even they have no record of Santorum making any public statements questioning the Iraq War as claimed by little Ricky. In true Santorum fashion, he used the old playground response of "have too!" to support his claim (this is the converse to yesterday's pre-apology "Nuh uh" issued by Pat Robertson).
"I do a lot of interviews on TV, on radio, with print reporters who don't happen to write everything I say," Santorum said yesterday. "The fact that it hasn't turned up in print doesn't mean I haven't said it."It seems as though the (not so) Honorable Senator Rick Santorum has failed graps a few things about the media such as, the most important thing to them is the bottom line met by ratings/readership and the best way to attract these numbers is by sensational items such as the #3 guy in the senate dissenting with the rest of the Bushevicks. Radio and TV interviews are recorded, so if any exist to support his claim of dissent they could easily be located. As for reporters not writing down everything he says (which is a shame, because his statements provide so many of us with the best comedy routines not to use foul language since Bill Cosby's story about the Great Snowball War), it's hard to believe any reporter would deem any statement from Santorum that did not support BushCo policy 100% unworthy of documentation and reporting.
The attorney general of Kansas filed a lawsuit last week against Governor Kathleen Sebelius, arguing that use of state money to finance abortions violates the state constitution. Medicaid currently pays for abortions resulting from rape, incest, or when the pregnancy poses a threat to the mother's life. Kansas' constitution, however, protects individuals' "inalienable natural rights," among which are "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." In his lawsuit, AG Phill Kline says using Medicaid to pay for abortions is contrary to those protections, and he also requests that the court agree that life begins at conception. A spokesperson for the Kansas attorney general says Kline is simply doing what the state legislature instructed him to do in 2002 when the State House voted to ask the courts to determine the legality of state funding for abortions. Kline's lawsuit has the backing of pro-life state representative Lance Kinzer and the group Kansas Right to Life. [Jody Brown]In all fairness, I thought it best to read the Constitution of the State of Kansas and noticed something about the rights in Section 1 referenced by Kline
All men are possessed of equal and inalienable natural rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.By men, is the constitution stating only male human beings or using the term to refer to the generic man as meaning person? This can actually get quite complex because nowhere in Kansas' Constitution does it refer to life during gestation. When determining the age of a citizen for the purposes establishing rights and privileges determined by age, we calculate that age from date of birth (and for someone to achieve that age, the birth would have to be a live birth), not date of conception, implantation or any other period during gestation. The constitution was amended in 1975, shortly after the controversial Roe v Wade decision. Considering the debate at that time, why did they not add a caveat to define a zygote as a human being from the moment of conception then?
There shall be no slavery in this state; and no involuntary servitude, except for the punishment of crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convictedI guess the taxpayers of Kansas don't mind paying for Kline to continue in his political grandstanding (or, as Blue suggests, his early campaigning for the next Governor's race). Of course based on King George's assertion that women are assured rights under a new Iraqi Constitution that derives civil law from Sharia, we can put what the Bushevicks consider rights for women to be in perspective. Yes women will have some rights in Iraq but they will not even be close to equal those of men; why anyone is suprised that's OK by BushCo is beyond me - women's rights under Sharia are exactly what the Repubevangelicals are trying to ensure for women here in the US.
