Meh. The “I know who the Zodiac” movement was the pre-truther holding cell for crackpots of every conceivable stripe. But this guy’s story is compelling enough to supposedly have interested the F.B.I. and thus the local news. What do you guys think?
Monthly Archives: August 2008
That’s the Ticket! McCain/Palin Will Win in November
I have to admit the only reason I was going to vote McCain was because we can’t afford a radical leftist like Obama in the White House. Had the Democrats run someone without the cult-like devotion comrade Obama engenders in his bleating flock of neo-Marxist sheep I’d probably not have voted at all.
But the addition of Governor Sarah Palin to the ticket has made me more excited about voting. Palin deals with Russia as governor on territorial issues and like Reagan her executive position gives her the experience to lead that none of the other three people in the race have, including McCain.
Palin’s a real American. She finished second in the Miss Alaska pageant yet was referred to as “Sarah Barracuda” by her basketball teammates for her aggressive playing style. She’s a tough political reformer who challenged corruption in Alaska and a wife and mother of five children. She’s a life long hunter and sportswoman who represents the best of America and would make a great Vice President, or President for that matter.
She’s not hard on the eyes either:
Although that’s no reason to vote for her. Her integrity, experience and leadership is. While I myself am pro-choice, I admire her commitment to life and traditional values. I am much more comfortable voting for McCain now that he has selected a running mate with executive experience and a real understanding of American values and convictions.
Support the McCain/Palin ticket today and help the G.O.P. usher in a new era of strength and prosperity.
Gateway Pundit and Hot Air have analysis.
Filthy Pervert Bernie Ward Receives Light Sentence on Child Porn Charges
He should have got twenty years but instead got a little over seven. Hopefully it’ll be a miserable seven years, because he deserves to suffer for what he did, and tried to do:
With his sobbing family looking on in a San Francisco courtroom, former KGO radio host Bernie Ward today completed his tumble from one of the Bay Area’s most popular liberal voices on the local airwaves to a pariah caught up in the world of online child pornography.
Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker sentenced Ward to seven years and three months in federal prison, calling the disgraced celebrity a “troubled individual” whose downfall is a “personal tragedy.” Ward now must turn himself in to U.S. Marshals by noon Friday to begin his prison term.
Ward declined to comment after the hearing, where his family and friends sat in the gallery, his wife and son in the front row clutching each others’ hands. Ward hugged his family when he emerged from the courtroom and walked away with his lawyer. Before the sentence was handed down, Ward spoke briefly to the judge, saying, “I regret the harm this has caused my family, my friends, and this community.”
The 57-year-old Ward pleaded guilty earlier this year to one count of distributing child pornography, the result of an investigation that was triggered by his online chats with an online dominatrix who turned him in to police when she grew concerned about images he had of young children. The former Roman Catholic priest and father of four went into federal court in San Francisco knowing he would be headed to prison for a minimum of five years under strict federal sentencing guidelines for child porn cases.
Now get ready for the worst part. For all you people against sentencing guidelines for heinous crimes what do you say to this:
In fact, the hearing highlighted the harsh penalties defendants now face when convicted of downloading child porn onto their computers. Even Walker said he was “not at all convinced” that sending defendants such as Ward to prison is the best way to address the societal problem of child porn proliferating on the Internet. Ward is one of the mounting numbers of defendants in the Bay Area and across the country facing federal convictions for child porn. A recent Mercury News analysis found that child porn prosecutions in the federal courts have jumped from just a few dozen in the mid-1990s to thousands per year in the nation’s federal courts.
What? Sending people who trade images of children being tortured and raped to prison won’t solve child porn? Is that judge kidding? He clearly would have let Ward off the hook even through what he did was the very definition of degeneracy:
But federal prosecutors urged Walker to sentence Ward to nine years in prison, describing his conduct in recent court papers as “amoral, universally unacceptable and aberrant.” The government’s court documents alleged that Ward possessed images of sex acts on children as young as three years old, and revealed his online exchanges with the dominatrix in which he discussed his sexual attraction to children.
“These images depicted these minors suffering the most horrific torment,” Steve Grocki, a Justice Department lawyer who led the Ward prosecution, said to Walker. “He traded in the currency of human suffering.”
Supporters are still claiming he’s a good man, set up by the C.I.A. (!?!) even though he enjoyed looking at pictures of children as young as three being violently raped, even though he sent pictures to his Internet mistress of children being molested and spoke of fantasies involving his own children. The Smoking Gun has a full report if you have a strong constitution.
Let’s hope Ward’s next stop after prison is Hell.
Update: Crimeshadows-Bernie Ward’s Not a Victim, he’s a Monster. Well said. Bonnie’s blog of Crime and Cao’s Blog are also reporting.
Bomb Squad Detonates Suspicious Package in Denver, Terror Groups Converging?
Another report of possible terrorist activity during the DNC that seems to have gone unnoticed. This time what must have been a bomb was found and quietly disposed of by authorities:
A loud bang was heard along the 16th Street Mall in downtown Denver this evening after police found and detonated a suspicious package near Union Station.
A spokesman for the Joint Information Center said there were no injuries. It was not immediately clear what the package contained before police used explosives to “render it safe,” in the spokesman’s words.
I’ve argued before that Denver authorities are trying hard to keep a lid on incidents to avoid embarrassment. Even Hillary-supporting die-hard Canonfire isn’t buying the authorities’ claim that White Supremacist tweakers caught planning to kill Obama was not a serious incident and certainly wasn’t terrorism. It seems that more and more non-terror related incidents that look like attempted terror attacks are taking place in Denver during the Democratic National Convention.
Lucky it’s all coincidence, huh?
Speaking of strange coincidences isn’t it odd that Alex Jones, who takes money from White Power organizations to advertise on his loathsome radio show, was in Denver just as some White Supremacists were planning on killing Obama?
Isn’t it odd that Alex Jones confronted Michelle Malkin with many of the same charges that Anisa Abd El Fattah, a black Muslim convert who has advocated an alliance with White Nationalists and even filed a complaint with the DOJ against the “Jewish lobby” on their behalf, made about Malkin in an editorial just days before the Jones incident?
Isn’t it odd that Saleman Abdirahman Dirie is being defended by an Islamic group with ties to Al-Qaeda? It should be noted Al-Qeada has reached out to White Supremacist organizations before:
Al Qaeda, she said, has shifted its mission, even aligning itself with neo-Nazis and white supremacists who are sympathetic to its new focus of fighting a “new world order.”
“We know that Al Qaeda is very, very good at finding people who have the right passport and speak the right language” to facilitate a terrorist attack, she said. “They are finding new allies and new sources of recruits.”
“New World Order.” Where have I heard that before?
And what’s odder is that the the convergence on Denver of this colorful cast of characters with recognizable ties to each other, all intent it seems on causing mayhem, is being swept under the rug by anxious authorities more interested in laying a heavy hand on reporters than ensuring the public is informed of the potential for catastrophe? It almost like the authorities don’t want the public to contemplate the possibility of Dirie, the tweakers and the more fringe visitors to the city being part of an ad hoc hit team sent to cause strife by killing some politicians.
I’ve blogged about the alliance between Islamists, White Supremacists and Communists before and with these incidents the danger of such disparate violent groups coming together becomes all the more obvious.
Who left this “suspicious device” in Denver and was it a bomb? It looks like we’ll never know for sure if the Denver cops have anything to say about it, but I’m willing to bet it was either a neo-Nazi or Islamist looking to cause chaos during the DNC convention.
Communist Cuba Arrests Punk Rocker
Yet there have been very few protests from the left about this clear example of the Castro regime’s fascism. I guess they’re too busy fighting the “real enemy” here. From KSL.com:
HAVANA (AP) – Cuba has ordered jailed punk rocker Gorki Aguila, an outspoken critic of Fidel Castro and the communist government, to stand trial on Friday for “social dangerousness,” a charge that could carry up to four years in prison.
Authorities arrested the 39-year-old lead singer of Porno para Ricardo at his Havana home on Monday, shortly after the band had completed work on a new album. Cuban law defines “social dangerousness” as behavior contrary to “communist morality,” and police use it to detain offenders before they have a chance to commit a crime.
Performing songs with angry lyrics that poke fun at or openly insult Fidel Castro and his brother Raul, who became Cuba’s president in February, Porno para Ricardo is banned from official Cuban airwaves.
The government often applies the “social dangerousness” charge in cases of public drunkenness or as a way to keep large groups of unemployed Cubans _ or those simply skipping work _ from congregating on city streets during business hours. It is also applied to cases of drug addiction and “anti-social behavior.”
But Aguila works for Cuba’s film institute and was doing nothing out of the ordinary when police came and took him away, his father Luis said Wednesday.
The arrest has touched off an avalanche of criticism on blogs in Cuba and the United States. Musicians on and off the island also sent e-mails decrying the case. Aguila remains in police custody but has been well-treated and is in good spirits, his father said.
Elizardo Sanchez, head of the independent Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, released a statement Wednesday saying legal protocols should mean the trial will be held in public. He said Aguila has asked “diplomatic observers” to attend, apparently hoping they will be allowed to get a glimpse of a legal system seldom seen by foreigners in this closed society.
Sanchez’s statement said that after investigating, the commission determined that “Gorki Aguila has not committed any specific crime as defined by the current criminal code.”
The Cuban government has not commented.
There’s a campaign to collect money for his legal defense. Give if you can. Babalu blog has several posts up and will be keeping abreast of the situation. Let’s do what we can to help this brave freedom fighter escape Castro’s gulag.