A judge Friday sentenced four black teenagers to probation and 60 days of house arrest for their roles in the mob beatings of three white women on Halloween night, evoking tears of joy among the defendants and their relatives and gasps of indignation among the victims' families.
"Juvenile Court is a joke," said Barbara Schneider outside the Long Beach courthouse as her daughter Laura, who suffered a concussion during the attack, sobbed next to her.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Andrea Bouas had asked for nine months in probation camp for three of the teenagers. Her jaw dropped when Judge Gibson Lee gave the first defendant probation, and as the hearings went on, she choked up, wiping her eyes with tissue.
Despite testimony that their involvement in the beatings varied, Lee handed identical sentences of probation, house arrest and 250 hours of community service to Anthony and Antoinette Ross, twins who turned 18 during the trial; to their 16-year-old sister; and to another 16-year-old described during the trial as Anthony's girlfriend.
Not only did the punks show no remorse, they are still claiming innocence:
"The three months in Juvenile Hall were the hardest months of my life," said Antoinette Ross, who turned 18 in December. "It hurts to know my life is slowly going down the drain for a crime I did not commit."
This goes back in the archives a ways! Mahmdouh Habib, a former Gitmo detainee whose claims of torture included the rather bizarre one that his interrogators showed him pictures of Osama bin Laden having sex with his wife, is now running for a seat in the legislature of West South Wales, Australia.
He got his brief moment of fame in the US when Bob Herbert, the New York Times' worst regular columnist, picked up his story. Among other incredible tales of torture:
Mr. Habib said he was taken to a room with hooks on the wall and a barrel, set sideways like a roller, on the floor. His arms were stretched out, he said, and each wrist was handcuffed and fastened to a hook on the wall. By his description, the only way not to be left hanging was to stand on the barrel; an electric wire ran through it. Mr. Habib said he believed the interrogators in that room were Pakistani.
Those fiendish Pakistanis!
Anyway, you had to dig a little into the story to discover that miracle of miracles, Mahmdouh Habib had the signal honor of meeting both the Blind Sheikh who ordered the 1993 World Trade Center attack, and Osama bin Laden, who financed and provided the muscle for the 9-11 attacks. What a fortunate fellow, I'm sure he's no terrorist. And he can't be one, because there are no terrorists in Australia, according to him:
Mr Habib launched his campaign today for next month's state election on a human rights platform on which he opposes the country's anti-terror laws.
He said the laws were not necessary in a peaceful country like Australia.
"We have no terrorists in Australia," Mr Habib said in the Sydney electorate of Auburn.
"This country is a peaceful country, I believe Australia is the best country in the world.
"The terror laws are if you have terrorists, but we don't have terrorists, I believe."
John Edwards Hires Liberal Blogger Who Supports Duke Lacrosse Prosecution?
Been awhile since I've looked at the Duke Lacrosse case because it seems like such an obvious farce that I feel like I'm beating a dead horse's ass by taking on Nifong. But amazingly, there are still kooks out there who think that the young men were guilty. And John Edwards just hired one of them as his campaign's blogger!
“Left-wing blogger Amanda Marcotte of the vociferously anti-war web site Pandagon has been named by the John Edwards campaign as their new blogmaster.
“The extent of Ms. Marcotte’s responsibilities at the Edwards site, and the nature of the political operations she will be undertaking as a member of the Edwards campaign, have not yet been detailed publicly.”
Liestoppers, a blog that is apparently dedicated to the Duke case, points us to a post by Amanda that has now been taken down (oooh, the coverup is always worse than the crime), but here's a clip:
In the meantime, I’ve been sort of casually listening to CNN blaring throughout the waiting area and good f*cking god is that channel pure evil. For awhile, I had to listen to how the poor dear lacrosse players at Duke are being persecuted just because they held someone down and f*cked her against her will—not rape, of course, because the charges have been thrown out. "Can’t a few white boys sexually assault a black woman anymore without people getting all wound up about it? "So unfair.”
As you can see, not only is Amanda a kook, but a foul-mouthed kook as well. Here's the place where the original post was:
Since people are determined to make hay over this quick shot of a post, I’m deleting it and here’s my official stance. The prosecution in the Duke case fumbled the ball. The prosecutor was too eager to get a speedy case and make a name for himself. That is my final word.
So she still believes that the stripper was raped. Grade A kook. Great hire, John!
The peaceniks love to castigate those of us not in the service but who support the war as "chickenhawks", the theory being that if we really believe in the war, we should put our own rear ends on the line. Of course, this formulation essentially promotes the military as the only people who can express an opinion on the war, not that the antiwar types actually believe this, as Arkin's "apology" reveals:
I also reiterate my core point, which is that military attitudes should not serve as a censor of the civilian debate at home, either literally or through intimidation.
That was definitely one of the funniest pictures of Kerry in 2004, right up there with the sports photos. But it turns out that NASA was breaking the law that day:
NASA allowed Kerry to conduct a political stump speech and rally at the space center and broadcasted it to KSC employees, and the latter part violates the law, the Office of Special Counsel ruled, according to Local 6 News partner Florida Today.
Beaming the presidential campaign rally to government employees all over the spaceport violates laws prohibiting electioneering using federal resources, according to the report.
We came out a little ahead on this deal. Yeah, Kerry probably picked up a few NASA votes, but he also gave us all a heck of a photograph!
Breaking At Screw Loose Change And New Times: 9-11 "Truther" Conference Hosted by Holocaust Denier!
Okay, I've been hinting about this for awhile, but today, Screw Loose Change teams up with the Phoenix New Times (an arts & entertainment weekly known for its excellent investigative journalism) to break the story of a 9-11 "Accountability" Conference. It turns out that the Conference Director is a Holocaust Denier.
This confab is scheduled to feature some of the biggest names in 9-11 tinfoil hattery, including Steven Jones, Kevin Barrett, the Loose Change boys, and Colonel Robert Bowman, the Democratic nominee last year for Florida's 15th Congressional District.
This comes fresh on the heels of last night's Paula Zahn segment (scroll down about 3/4 of the page) on the connections between the 9-11 "Truthers" and anti-Semitism.
In 2004, we were pleased at Kerry Haters to host Thursdays "R" for Thune, during which we exhorted our readers to support John Thune's campaign against Tom Daschle. We raised a couple of thousand dollars and would love to believe that we helped Thune eke out his narrow win over Mr Disappointed.
But Thune is now pushing a pork barrel project that we cannot support. Dick Armey explains:
Currently the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is considering a $2.3 billion loan to DM&E through the Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing Program.
This would represent the largest federal loan in history and put federal funds into competition with private capital. Furthermore, sweetheart provisions of the loan such as delayed repayment are suspect. The proposed loan is indicative of the significant expansion of the federal government’s role in the rail industry that was highlighted by an earmark in the 2005 Transportation Bill that expanded the FRA’s loan authority to $35 billion under this program—a tenfold increase.
The railroad seeks to serve the Powder River Basin, an energy-rich portion of the country that is also served by two major railroad lines. Given the current demand for energy, there are significant private sector incentives to develop rail access to the area, raising important concerns about the need for federal funding in the area. Indeed, the administration has proposed terminating the program to minimize taxpayer liabilities for any loan defaults under the program.
Or something. Some particularly addle-brained celebrities are hoping to get everybody to help save the planet:
Global Cool launched in London and LA today and is calling on one billion people to reduce their carbon emissions by just one tonne a year, for the next 10 years.
Boffins have found the climatic tipping point - when the climate becomes irreversibly damaged - can be turned back if global CO2 emissions are reduced by one billion tonnes a year.
Some interesting concrete suggestions:
A website has been set up, www.global-cool.com, with advice on how to go green by reducing energy consumption through doing simple things such as sharing a shower with a mate.
This may go over well in San Francisco. Josh Hartnett (who's an actor apparently) shows off his knowledge:
Josh said: “I grew up in Minnesota which is usually a cold place, but we’ve seen abnormally warm winters the last couple of years, which is unnerving.
“If water levels continue to rise at this rate, my house in New York will be underwater, and I’ll have to get a gondola to get around. It’s frightening.
Well, he’s trying. According to John Carrington of Carolina Online, the humble Edwards abode will have an indoor recreation building that contains a basketball court, a squash court, two stages, a bedroom, kitchen, bathrooms, swimming pool, a four-story tower, and a room designated “John’s Lounge.”
We spoke to the former Executive Director of the Holocaust Memorial Council, Monroe Freedman, who confirmed a WorldNetDaily report that he had received a note from Jimmy Carter complaining that there were "too many Jews" on the Holocaust Memorial Council. Professor Freedman also said that Carter's support for the Holocaust Memorial Council was "principally a political gimmick" based on getting political support from Jews.
No word from Carter on the obvious overrepresentation of Jews at Auschwitz.
As it was, the 9/11 Commission was not informed of any investigation of Mr. Berger's alleged tampering with documents until only two days before his testimony, and then in only the most vague terms. Not only were the 9/11 Commission not told that Mr. Berger had access to original documents; they were affirmatively led to believe that the commission got all the documents that Mr. Berger took. Both Mr. Zelikow and Mr. Marcus understood Justice to mean that there was no way Mr. Berger had taken any other documents. An investigator for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee bluntly told Fox News last week: "The Justice Department lied to the 9/11 Commission about Sandy Berger. That is a fact." A Justice Department spokesman still insists it "has no evidence that Sandy Berger's actions deprived the 9/11 Commission of documents." But that raises the question: How hard did Justice look for such evidence?
Newsweek has surveyed the contenders for the Republican field and determined the likely nominee, and determined that Chuck Hagel has the right stuff:
Meanwhile, the three leading contenders for the Republican nomination, John McCain, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani, are all vulnerable on the war—all three are in the minority of Americans who support the president's plan. Hagel may be the one Republican who can fully separate the party from the troubled legacy of George W. Bush as the GOP looks to 2008.
You know how it goes; Newsweek is only writing this story now because it will be a full year before we discover how poorly Hagel is going to do in the primaries.
