Why is this organized destruction of the reputations of innocent people allowed to go on like this? The DA down there should be bringing all the powers of the justice system to bear on this group of jihadists like a ton of bricks.  Arrest Grisham immediately for libel, criminal harassment, and violating citizens’ constitutional rights of life and liberty under the law.

The first amendment shouldn’t protect this crap. They can spend the rest of their lives compensating their victims for the injury and suffering they’ve caused. Not another person should be terrorized by these law-breakers. I have two words for this so-called Army of God: David Koresh. It’s past time to line up the battle wagons against Grisham and his goons.

Wrong country, wrong century, wrong god. Unacceptable on every level. Only twisted religious freaks could believe Jesus would ever endorse this kind of hate and persecution. Oh, and Grisham is also a security guard at a nuclear weapons storage facility? Great. General Ripper meets Randall Flagg. No reason to be concerned about that.

Here’s what you do, Dave. Move your operation to a repressive place like Iran. You’d fit right in over there. Of course, you’d probably have to switch religions. Better yet, save yourself the inevitable court costs and legal fees and drink the Kool-Aid now.

It’s disgraceful that the City of Amarillo is evidently content to do nothing but watch this happen to their neighbors. And always shameful to see some employers in town piling on the people who were libeled instead of turning against the holier-than-thou inquisitors. That they still have a long way to go in Texas has sure become a tiresome observation.

Reverbo

Critic-At-Large

WHITE PLAINS — Bernard B. Kerik, a former New York police commissioner who rose to national prominence, was sentenced to four years in prison on Thursday after pleading guilty to eight felony charges, including tax fraud and lying to White House officials.

Under the terms of a plea agreement reached in November on the eve of his trial, the prosecution and the defense recommended that Judge Stephen C. Robinson sentence Mr. Kerik to 27 to 33 months in prison. But the judge departed from the sentencing recommendations, giving Mr. Kerik a longer sentence.

His performance during and after the 9/11 attacks turned him into a national figure, earning him the respect of President George W. Bush, who nominated him to lead the Department of Homeland Security. That bid quickly collapsed in scandal, marking the beginning of the end of Mr. Kerik’s career.

Read the rest of the article about this loser at The New York Times.

If you’ll recall, one of the criminals charged in the Louisiana Watergate scandal, Robert Flanagan,  has a daddy who is an acting U.S. attorney. Well, his lawyer has started plea bargaining talks with federal prosecutors. I find this interesting because until now, the story from their pimp, I mean, master Nazi leader, James O’Keefe, was that they had done nothing illegal, and that the “truth would set them free.”

But if they all make plea deals, how’s the truth ever going to come out? They also waived a preliminary hearing that was scheduled for today. Me thinks they’re not laughing anymore. And we’ve yet to hear a single reason why U.S. attorney Jim Letten removed himself from the case the day after their arrests. We have, however, received confirmation from Oklahoma repiglican representative Mary Fallin that Flanagan was once a paid intern in her office. Fallin is still a co-sponsor of a resolution to “honor” O’Keefe for his cleverly edited videos that have led to zero charges against anyone at ACORN (because nothing illegal occurred), but stopped short of showing the ACORN folks throwing pimpy O’Keefey out of their offices.

Gotta love the way repiglicans always honor their criminal heroes. You can bet your bippy that somewhere right at this very minute, one of them is singing the “praises” of Ronnie Raygun, and how we should overlook that whole Iran-Contra thing. The repiglicans introduce resolutions to praise the likes of O’Keefe, but about the time Dennis Kucinich ever introduced a resolution to honor Michael Moore (and he should, by the way) the repiglicans would scream and kick until hell wouldn’t have it anymore.

I shouldn’t be too hard on them, though. It’s gotta be tough looking at the world through teabag-colored glasses.

A US soldier has been charged with “waterboarding” his four-year-old daughter because she could not recite her ABCs, police in the state of Washington say.

In a fit of rage and under the influence of alcohol, 27-year-old Joshua Tabor and his girlfriend pushed his daughter’s head, face up, under a running tap in the kitchen sink, says Yelm police chief Todd Stancil.

“And to make it only worse, the daughter is afraid of water,” the police chief said.

“She would not recite her ABCs, is what we gathered. So according to him (the father), that was a perfectly fine punishment,” he said.

Police found the girl hiding in a bathroom after responding to reports of a disturbance early on January 31.

“The suspect was intoxicated, walking around the neighbourhood with a kevlar helmet, threatening to break out windows in the neighbourhood,” he said.

Read this rest of this disgusting and disturbing tale here. (We taking bets on if the US media will pick this story up?)

Repiglican Senator David “Diaper Boy” Vitter has been blocking President Obama’s judicial nominations in Louisiana, to ensure his boy Jim Letten, a Bush appointee holdover, was guaranteed his job. While Attorney General Eric Holder never gave Vitter such assurances, Letten’s appointment by Holder to a policy committee is apparently all the proof Vitter needs. Vitter released a statement saying he will now stop blocking Obama’s nominees. You can read more about this here.

But here’s where it gets curiouser and curiouser.

Not even 24 hours after that article was published, Jim Letten, whose office should be actively prosecuting James O’Keefe and his band of merry criminals for tampering with a federal phone system, released a statement saying he had recused himself from the case last week.

So, let’s get this straight. A neocon Senator holds up the judicial system’s confirmation process, not because he feels the nominees aren’t qualified, but to strong arm a job guarantee for a fellow repiglican. Upon perceiving a sense of job security, the Senator stops blocking everything, and the person who enjoyed the Senator’s protection stops working on a case where he’d have to prosecute other repiglicans.

Is it just me, or does this stink to high heaven?

PS – ACORN has yet to be charged with ANY crime. Nothing. Nada. Zip. But can’t you imagine the hue and cry from the right wingers if Michael Moore ever concealed his cameras in the same manner O’Keefe does?

A conservative activist who has caused problems for the community organizing group ACORN and the son of a federal prosecutor were among four people arrested and accused of trying to interfere with phones at U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu’s office.

Activist James O’Keefe, 25, was already in Landrieu’s New Orleans office Monday when Robert Flanagan and Joseph Basel, both 24, showed up claiming to be telephone repairmen, according to U.S. Attorney Jim Letten’s office. Letten says O’Keefe recorded the two with his cell phone.

Federal officials did not say why the men wanted to interfere with Landrieu’s phones or whether they were successful. Landrieu, a moderate Democrat, declined comment Tuesday. She has been in the news recently because she negotiated an increase in Medicaid funds for her state before announcing her support for Senate health care legislation.

An FBI criminal complaint charging the men was unsealed Tuesday.

O’Keefe was the brains behind a series of undercover videos which have caused major problems for ACORN — the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now.

Read the rest of this article here.

As reported by Jon Fox filling in for Bob Kincaid last night, eight people were killed in Virginia yesterday, when a white American man went on a shooting spree. The question was posed – “Would he ever be called a ‘terrorist?’” Hell, we can’t even get the media to cover the story! It’s just another white guy killing people. Nothing to see here.

Suspect Surrenders in Virginia Killing of 8 People

A man suspected of shooting and killing eight people on Tuesday near a thickly wooded area of south-central Virginia surrendered Wednesday morning, a state police official said.

The police reassured the public after an all-night stand in which over a hundred officers surrounded the man, who the police said on Tuesday shot at several officers and hit a police helicopter, forcing it to make an emergency landing.

“The community can now know that they are safe,” said Sgt. Thomas Molnar, a spokesman for the Virginia State Police

Late Tuesday, Sergeant Molnar identified the man as Christopher B. Speight, 39, who was surrounded in the woods near his home.

The authorities said three bodies were found in a house possibly belonging to Mr. Speight, four bodies were found outside the house and an eighth victim was found by the side of the road and died on the way to the hospital.

A State Police official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the investigation, said two of the victims were thought to be the wife and the son of Mr. Speight. He would not give other details.

You can read the rest of this article at the New York Times. At least some of the print media is covering it!

Take a good look at those faces. Every single person you see was arrested in New York state this month. Yet only one of these six people is considered a terrorist. Can you guess which one? Here’s the background info to help you decide, focussing only on alleged physical evidence gathered by law enforcement.

Let’s identify everyone first. The 5 men pictured together are (starting at the top left) James Pincher, Jeffrey Robert, Michael Robert, Seth Pincher and Tyson Pincher. We’ll call them the Gang of 5 for the purpose of this article. The man pictured by himself is Najibullah Zazi. The for-profit media is having a field day showing Zazi’s picture, and reciting the phrase “terrorist plot” for the last few days.

Zazi has been accused by law enforcement of possessing bomb-making instructions. Authorities also claim to have a confession from Zazi, stating that he had attended an al Qaeda training facility in Pakistan. They also claim that Zazi has a band of conspirators that wanted to detonate bombs inside the United States. The U.S. government wants Zazi held without bail until trial, based solely on those three pieces of preliminary evidence. That makes him a terrorist, right? Correct.

Similarly, the Gang of 5 have been accused by law enforcement of possessing bomb-making instructions. They also claim to have a video tape, shot by the Gang of 5 themselves, that shows them — well — DETONATING A BOMB INSIDE THE  UNITED STATES. That makes them terrorists, right? Not so fast.

Bomb-making instructions and video tape weren’t the only things the cop seized from the Gang of 5’s possession. They confiscated actual PIPE BOMBS. That’s right! Fully functional pipe bombs. Improvised explosive devices. IED’s. One just doesn’t have those sorts of things hanging around by accident, ya know. Does that make them terrorists? Not quite.

Also taken were an illegal handgun and a sawed-off shotgun. which are illegal as well. Now being in possession of such things doesn’t make one a terrorist, but when coupled with the other items seized, there must certainly be enough preliminary evidence to warrant a charge of domestic terrorism, right?? Nnnope.

Then how about this – Law enforcement also took bottles of chloroform from the Gang of 5’s premises. Yep, you heard me right. CHLOROFORM. Now who the hell has bottles of chloroform just lying around? Surely THAT along with everything else would bring a charge of domestic terrorism, riiiight?! No, no, no.

Alright, then what was on the video tape you ask? The video gleefully shows the Gang of 5 strapping one of their improvised explosive devices onto a large snapping turtle, and blowing it up. There’s no clearer example that the Gang of 5 harbored the intent to do actual physical harm with their organized activities, than the evidence contained on that video tape. So, of course, they were charged with domestic terrorism, right? Um, no. (And, yes, I do have the video, and, no, don’t even bother asking me to post it.)

What WERE they charged with, then? Criminal possession of a weapon, conspiracy, and torturing an animal. No, I’m not kidding. Now you must be thinking that since there’s a heck of a lot more physical evidence associated with the Gang of 5 than there is with Zazi, that the Gang of 5 is being held without bail just like Zazi, right?? Wrong. Bail was set between $25,000 to $50,000. If they can cough it up, they’re free to go.

So what’s the difference between these two groups? Their race. Plain and simple. The non-white, non-Christian, non-American born group is classified as terrorists, and the pale white, American-born twits engaging in terror tactics are classified as criminals.

That’s it. Just your garden variety criminal. Nothing to see here. And as long as there are brown people from other countries to vilify, that’s the way it will remain. We now return you to your regularly scheduled stereotypes.

-Sue and the Ranting Keyboard

*UPDATE: 9 hours after deciding to write about this, I finally tracked down a source that has some actually backstory on the Gang of 5. Yeah, that’s just how little media coverage this is getting. Turns out the police became aware of the video during the search of Jeffrey Robert’s computer, while investigating him on a $1 million internet scam. They’ve all pleaded not guilty, in spite of the video tape evidence. Ya can’t fix stupid.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Judge Sonia Sotomayor won U.S. Senate approval on Thursday to become the first Hispanic on the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Democratic-led Senate voted largely along party lines, 68-31, to approve President Barack Obama’s nomination of Sotomayor for the lifetime appointment on the highest U.S. court.

The large number of Republican “no” votes reflected the party’s resistance to the Democratic president on several fronts including his bid to overhaul healthcare.

When sworn in, Sotomayor, 55, a federal appeals judge in New York since 1998, will be the first Hispanic and the third woman to serve on the 220-year-old Supreme Court.

Read the rest of this great news here!

Congratulations, Judge Sotomayor!

YouTube Link

Here’s one for the neocons who, no doubt, will be crying about “activist judges”.

Congratulations, Senator Al Franken!