Laissez-faire

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Boy, I’m sure glad that our “leaders” have decided NOT to deploy this weapon ………. or all the Iraqis and everyone else in the Mideast would no longer love us like they do now !!

– Smitty, 9-9-07

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Source: http://news.aol.com/story/ar/_a/pentagon-rejects-ray-gun-weapon-in-iraq/20070829173209990001

Pentagon Rejects Ray Gun Weapon in Iraq

By RICHARD LARDNER,AP
Posted: 2007-08-30 15:24:12
Filed Under: Iraq News, Nation News

WASHINGTON (Aug. 29) - Saddam Hussein had been gone just a few weeks, and U.S. forces in Fallujah, west of Baghdad, were already being called unwelcome invaders. One of the first big anti-American protests of the war escalated into shootouts that left 18 Iraqis dead and 78 wounded.

It would be a familiar scene in Iraq ’s next few years: Crowds gather, insurgents mingle with civilians. Troops open fire, and innocents die.

All the while, according to internal military correspondence obtained by The Associated Press, U.S. commanders were telling Washington that many civilian casualties could be avoided by using a new non-lethal weapon developed over the past decade.

Military leaders repeatedly and urgently requested — and were denied — the device, which uses energy beams instead of bullets and lets soldiers break up unruly crowds without firing a shot.

It’s a ray gun that neither kills nor maims, but the Pentagon has refused to deploy it out of concern that the weapon itself might be seen as a torture device.

Perched on a Humvee or a flatbed truck, the Active Denial System gives people hit by the invisible beam the sense that their skin is on fire. They move out of the way quickly and without injury.

On April 30, 2003, two days after the first Fallujah incident, Gene McCall, then the top scientist at Air Force Space Command in Colorado, typed out a two-sentence e-mail to Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“I am convinced that the tragedy at Fallujah would not have occurred if an Active Denial System had been there,” McCall told Myers, according to the e-mail obtained by AP. The system should become “an immediate priority,” McCall said.

Myers referred McCall’s message to his staff, according to the e-mail chain.

McCall, who retired from government in November 2003, remains convinced the system would have saved lives in Iraq.

“How this has been handled is kind of a national scandal,” McCall said by telephone from his home in Florida.

A few months after McCall’s message, in August 2003, Richard Natonski, a Marine Corps brigadier general who had just returned from Iraq, filed an “urgent” request with officials in Washington for the energy-beam device.

The device would minimize what Natonski described as the “CNN Effect” — the instantaneous relay of images depicting U.S. troops as aggressors.

A year later, Natonski, by then promoted to major general, again asked for the system, saying a compact and mobile version was “urgently needed,” particularly in urban settings.

Natonski, now a three-star general, is the Marine Corps’ deputy commandant for plans, policies and operations. He did not respond to an interview request.

In October 2004, the commander of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force “enthusiastically” endorsed Natonski’s request. Lt. Gen. James Amos said it was “critical” for Marines in Iraq to have the system.

Senior officers in Iraq have continued to make the case. One December 2006 request noted that as U.S. forces are drawn down, the non-lethal weapon “will provide excellent means for economy of force.”

The main reason the tool has been missing in action is public perception. With memories of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal still fresh, the Pentagon is reluctant to give troops a space-age device that could be misconstrued as a torture machine.

“We want to just make sure that all the conditions are right, so when it is able to be deployed the system performs as predicted — that there isn’t any negative fallout,” said Col. Kirk Hymes, head of the Defense Department’s Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate.

Reviews by military lawyers concluded it is a lawful weapon under current rules governing the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan , according to a Nov. 15 document prepared by Marine Corps officials in western Iraq.

Private organizations remain concerned, however, because documentation that supports the testing and legal reviews is classified. There’s no way to independently verify the Pentagon’s claims, said Stephen Goose of Human Rights Watch in Washington.

“We think that any time you have an emerging technology that’s based on novel physical principles, that this deserves the highest level of scrutiny,” Goose said. “And we really haven’t had that.”

Another issue for the weapon is cost.

The Pentagon has spent $62 million developing and testing the system over the past decade, a scant amount compared to other high-profile, multibillion-dollar military programs.

Still, officials say the technology is too expensive, although they won’t say what it costs to build. They cite engineering challenges as another obstacle, although one U.S. defense contractor says it has a model ready for production.

For now, there’s no firm schedule for when the system might be made and delivered to troops.

Commanders in Iraq say the go-slow approach has had devastating consequences.

There’s no way to calculate how many civilian deaths could have been avoided had the energy beam been available in Iraq. The bulk of the civilian casualties are due to sectarian warfare.

According to AP statistics, more than 27,400 Iraqi civilians have been killed and more than 31,000 wounded in war-related violence just since the new government took office in April 2005.

The Active Denial System is a directed-energy device, although it is not a laser or a microwave. It uses a large, dish-shaped antenna and a long, V-shaped arm to send an invisible beam of waves to a target as far away as 500 yards.

With the unit mounted on the back of a vehicle, U.S. troops can operate a safe distance from rocks, Molotov cocktails and small-arms fire.

The beam penetrates the skin slightly, just enough to cause intense pain. The beam goes through clothing as well as windows, but can be blocked by thicker materials, such as metal or concrete.

The system was developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory in New Mexico. During more than 12 years of testing, only two injuries requiring medical attention have been reported; both were second-degree burns, according to the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate Web site.

Prototype units have been assembled by the military, the most promising being a larger model that sits on the back of a flatbed truck. This single unit, known as System 2, could be sent to Iraq as early as next year, according to Hymes of the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate.

Hymes’ office, which nurtures promising technologies that can be used by the military branches, plans to spend $9 million over the next two years on the effort.

Money for additional systems isn’t likely to be available until 2010, when an Air Force command in Massachusetts is expected to take control of the program, he said.

Recognizing the potential market, defense contractor Raytheon has invested its own money to build a version that the company calls “Silent Guardian.” Although Hymes said the Raytheon product “is not ready yet,” company representatives say it is.

Mike Booen, Raytheon’s vice president for directed energy programs, said the company has produced one system that’s immediately available.

“We have the capacity to build additional systems as needed,” he said.

Raytheon has not sold any Silent Guardians to U.S. or foreign customers, and Booen would not discuss the product’s price.

American commanders in Iraq already have asked to buy Raytheon’s device.

A Dec. 1, 2006, urgent request signed by Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Robert Neller sought eight Silent Guardians.

Neller, then the deputy commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force in Iraq, called the lack of such a non-lethal weapon a “chronic deficiency” that “will continue to harm” efforts to resolve showdowns with as little firepower as possible.

Other requests from officers in Iraq asked for the system as part of a broader weapons package on wheels, one that could shoot bullets as well as the non-lethal beam.

Such a versatile system would let troops deal with “increasingly complex operational environments where combatants are routinely intermixed with noncombatants,” Army Brig. Gen. James Huggins said in an April 2005 memo to Pentagon officials.

Huggins, then chief of staff of the Multi-National Force in Iraq and now deputy commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, wanted 14 vehicles for missions ranging from raids to convoy escorts.

U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in Iraq from its base in Tampa, Fla., backed the request, saying it was “critical to build upon our success in the counterinsurgency battle,” according to its memo to the Pentagon.

The vehicles were not delivered, however. Robert Buhrkuhl, a senior Pentagon acquisition official, said during congressional testimony in January that combining the various fixtures on a single vehicle presented major technical challenges.

In an interview, Franz Gayl, who was Neller’s science adviser until the unit returned in February, blamed an entrenched, “risk-averse” military acquisition system for moving too slowly.

Gayl calls the system a “disruptive innovation” — an unconventional piece of equipment that breaks new ground and therefore is viewed skeptically by the offices that buy combat gear.

If the energy-beam weapon had been fielded when U.S. forces invaded Iraq, “many innocent Iraqi lives would have been spared,” Gayl said.

I have a bumper sticker that says, “Don’t honk if you can’t read this.” Everywhere I drive, I leave confused people in my wake !!

– Anonymous

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What’s the big deal ?? ………. “geo-political expert” John Edwards said it’s all just a bumper sticker. Not to worry ………

– Smitty, 8-26-07

Source: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RegulatoryPost/message/2348

Chemical plants warned about fake surveys

Chemical plants are being warned not to divulge security and safety procedures to a caller who claims to be conducting a survey for an industry trade group. The caller gave a false phone number and the group is not conducting a survey. At least three such calls were made this month to plants in the Midwest, but no information was divulged, according to the Center for Chemical Process Safety, an industry group based in New York that sent an alert. “There is concern, in light of recent terrorist activity, that this may be an attempt to determine security vulnerabilities in the chemical process,” said the letter sent Tuesday to 31,000 members of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the parent group of CCPS.

The calls raised concern in New Jersey, which has many plants, said Elvin Montero, a spokesman for the Chemistry Council of New Jersey. “It’s taken seriously. Companies know the procedures to take,” Montero said Friday. “Companies do not discuss their process safety or security measures over the phone, especially to someone they don’t know.” Montero declined to speculate on why such calls were made, but said the FBI and the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness had been informed. FBI spokesman Richard Kolko in Washington said the agency was aware of the report and is looking into it. A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Russ Knocke, said the matter had not yet been brought to his agency.

Thanks to Safetng.net

“Dieting makes you GAIN weight ………… because it takes a pound of Hershey bars and a quart of milk to wash the taste of a single Slim-Fast drink out of your mouth !!!!

- Anonymous

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Wow! Some Seattle residents (full article below) are embracing the “100 mile diet” in an effort to reduce fossil fuel use by buying foods that aren’t shipped cross-country or internationally.

Great idea!! But why only restrict it to food? If these environmental “warriors” want to “fight” global warming, they should get serious. Logically, the “100 mile diet” should be extended to other areas of their lives as well. EVERYTHING they own or use (including the raw materials used to make it) should have been created or manufactured locally.

For starters, how about “walking the walk” and apply the “100 mile diet” whenever purchasing, obtaining, using or doing any of the following:

- Vacations

- Clothing and their raw materials

- Newspapers and their raw materials

- Books

- Household appliances (e.g. washing machines) and gadgets (that big screen TV of yours)

- Copy paper and all other office supplies at the office

- The bifocals you need to read this

- Purchased automobiles and their raw materials (including the replacement set of lead-acid batteries your “green” hybrid will eventually need)

- Airports and air travel

- That bottle of tequila in your cabinet (grow your own agave cactus)

- All fuels: Gasoline, natural gas, propane, etc. - utilize that refinery next door to you

- All electrical generation capacity - utilize that power plant next door to you

- All components and raw materials of their homes

- Medical care

- The next “pro-terrorist”, er, ah, um, I mean “peace” rally you and your hippie friends are planning to attend

- Colleges and other post-secondary schools

- Spouses

- Etc. etc.

In other words, they should personally embrace the high standard of living during the feudalism of medieval Europe when virtually no one ever traveled more than 10 miles from his place of birth during his/her life.

By “leading the way” in this manner, tree-huggers can proudly display their “superior” ideas to the rest of us as to how we should be living our lives. Then they can sit back (in their hemp furniture) and watch the mad rush for the rest of us to emulate their “wisdom.”

– Smitty, 8-11-07

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Source: http://www.twincities.com/ci_6564156

These dieters think globally, eat locally

BY LISA STIFFLER
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press
Article Last Updated:08/07/2007 10:35:31 AM CDT

Say goodbye to coffee. Adios to chocolate. Bananas, pine-apples and olives, too. Store-bought cookies, crackers and cereal. Frozen dinners.

Seattle residents committed to following the “100 Mile Diet” - an experiment in eating only what’s grown 100 miles from home - said sayonara to all of these items for the month of August.

For some, the proposition appeared deceptively simple.

“I’ll agree to anything,” said Scott Bilstad, whose wife, Dr. Melissa Larson, persuaded him to join the effort. “Then the first day comes, and I’m, like, ‘What am I going to eat for lunch?’ ”

The Green Lake neighborhood couple are beginning to figure out how to adhere to the monthlong diet along with about 80 local residents.

They all have their reasons for participating. They want to reduce the use of fossil fuels by buying foods that aren’t shipped cross-country or internationally. They’re supporting and getting to know local farmers and businesses. They want to eat food that is fresher, healthier and tastes better. And at a time when food safety feels uncertain thanks to contaminated fish from China or bacteria-tainted veggies from out-of-state, people can connect with where their food comes from.

“It makes us think so much more about where we’re getting everything,” Larson said as she chopped cucumbers and onions from Pike Place Market for a recent dinner.

The menu included a chicken grilled on the barbecue, apricots with cheese made from cows in Duvall, hazelnuts and a hulled wheat called farro or emmer. The vinaigrette for the salad was sweetened with honey instead of sugar. They sipped a white wine from Lopez Island Vineyards.

The Seattle project is modeled on an experiment by a Vancouver, B.C., couple who for a year ate food from no farther than 100 miles away. This spring, they published the book “Plenty” about their experiences and started the 100milediet.org Web site to support local eating.

Since then, about 10,000 people have pledged to do their own local-eating experiments, said James MacKinnon, who wrote “Plenty” with Alisa Smith. Washington state ranks third for participation behind California and New York.

MacKinnon and Smith set 100 miles as an arbitrary boundary, a distance they said was far enough to get outside the city but still felt close to home.

The grass-roots nonprofit Sustainable Ballard is coordinating the Seattle effort to follow the diet. During the month, the group is holding a canning and preserving class, and people are encouraged to meet for local-food potlucks.

There’s a Web site for sharing recipes and shops for hard-to-find ingredients such as nuts and grains. There’s a map showing Seattle’s 100-mile boundaries from Vancouver, B.C., nearly to Portland, east to Wenatchee and across the Olympic Peninsula (the 100 miles is as the crow flies, not as the roads go). It even lists local restaurants that have pledged to serve 100-mile-diet menu items.

It sounds strict, but the rules aren’t hard and fast.

Larson - who’s helping lead the experiment for Sustainable Ballard - is striving to eat locally at least 75 percent of the time. Her family is making allowances for items including salt, spices and - on occasion - bread from wheat flour.

Others are going with 150 miles, which reaches farther into the state’s agricultural lands, while some are doing a Washington-only diet.

“We want to make it really accessible,” Larson said.

The group chose August for the experiment as a time when a variety of produce is available, but the hope is people continue eating locally as much as possible beyond August.

People come to the locally grown movement different ways.

This spring, West Seattle resident Shannon Mullett-Bowlsby read “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” by Barbara Kingsolver, in which her family also ate locally for a year.

“I sat up most of the night reading,” Mullett-Bowlsby said. “I said, ‘We’ve got to do this.’ ”

A statistic regularly cited by local-dining adherents is that on average, U.S. food travels 1,500 miles from farm to dinner plate.

“I have problems with our reliance on foreign oil,” Mullett-Bowlsby said. Eating locally “just makes sense. I want to support the local people as much as we can. I remember what it was like growing up on the farm.”

Mullett-Bowlsby shops mostly at the Ballard Farmers Market. He and his partner, Jason, are growing their own tomatoes and sugar snap peas. They’re freezing, pickling and canning everything they can before facing winter’s slimmer pickings.

Like any successful diet, this one takes commitment.

It’s often more expensive to eat locally. It takes more planning. It can be tough to find certain ingredients, such as dried beans or butter. Even basic stuff, including soup stocks, have to be made from scratch. Depending on the level of adherence, eating out is largely taboo.

But there are some happy upsides as well.

Larson is excited to begin baking bread, an activity she’d dropped from her busy life as the mom of a toddler and naturopathic doctor.

Mullett-Bowlsby, an executive with Bellevue’s Arthur Murray Dance Studios, revels in the extra time he’s spending with friends and family while shopping and cooking.

“It’s more of our interaction time now. It gave us quality time to spend together,” he said. “That should be a big draw for people. There’s a huge benefit for the family.”

“Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river”

– Nikita Khrushchev

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I-35 is a couple hundred yards from near where I live (we can hear the traffic in the evening) and the I-35W bridge is a mere 25 miles directly north. It is right next to the U of MN that I attended in the 1970’s. I’ve been on that bridge probably dozens of times in my life (though not recently). My two nieces, however, were on that bridge the day before it collapsed. So like everyone I’ve gone through some “what if” thoughts.

And like so many others, what irks me is how quickly politics have entered the discussion. The recovered bodies are not yet cold and more are expected to be found, but the “blame game” has already begun.

Nick Coleman, a local, far-left columnist is lamenting the need for more taxes in MN so that we don’t have to “govern on the cheap.”
http://www.startribune.com/10204/story/1339911.html

A little clarification is in order and Neal Boortz does it brilliantly at: http://boortz.com/nuze/200708/08032007.html (half way down).

The State of MN currently has a $2.1 Billion budget surplus. Surpluses come from over, not under taxation (I’m aware that this is a difficult concept for liberals to understand). The problem is clearly not lack of money; it’s where the money is going. And as Neal points out, the Citizens for Government Waste’s “The Pig Booklet” for the state of Minnesota clarifies that:

http://www.taxpayersleague.org/pdf/2006PigletBook.pdf

So before we pick the MN Taxpayer’s pocket again (on top of the obscenity of a $2.1 Billion surplus), how about we scrutinize where our hard-earned $$$ is going and doing a little bit of (gasp) setting priorities. What a concept.

And at the federal level, and despite more liberal nonsense to the contrary, the taxpayers have been more than generous funding bridges and roads. Unfortunately, way too much of the $$$ in “transportation” bills gets earmarked (by both parties) for sexy pork projects instead of going to boring bridges and roads. The Wall Street Journal lays it out quite well at:

http://www.opinionjournal.com/weekend/hottopic/?id=110010425

So likewise, before we take the federal taxpayers to the cleaners (again), how about a bipartisan pledge to end all spending
earmarks on federal highway bills ???? Any chance of that ?????

And how about putting off the “blame game” entirely until we recover and bury our dead and get all the facts in? Is that too much to ask ??

– Smitty, 8-5-07

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Your DHS (Dept of Homeland Security) has decided to join the chemical regulation world (primarily inhabited by EPA, OSHA and DOT). DHS has proposed a new rule called the “Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards.”

There are 344 chemicals that DHS is proposing to regulate under this regulation. Info on this proposed regulation is here:
http://www.dhs.gov/xprevprot/laws/gc_1166796969417.shtm

The proposed list of 344 chemicals and their “screening” thresholds are here:
http://www.dhs.gov/xprevprot/laws/gc_1175537180929.shtm

The intent is noble enough (ID nasty chemicals stored anywhere in the US above certain amounts to ensure they’re kept away from terrorists). But the proposed regulation shows that this new agency is in way over their heads when it comes to writing chemical regulations.

The kicker is that over 100 of the 344 chemicals were given a screening threshold of “any amount.” When you use a threshold of “any amount” (one molecule) when regulating chemicals you run into all sorts of problems. That’s why established regulating agencies such as EPA, OSHA, DOT, etc. are smart enough to not write new rules that way.

Case in point: Among those chemicals with this “any amount” threshold is methyl mercaptan. That is the stinky chemical (odorant) intentionally added in tiny amounts to LPG and natural gas so that you can easily detect a gas leak.

So as currently written every business (and home?) in the US using natural gas or LPG would presumably fall under this DHS regulation. That’s probably not what they had in mind.

Methyl mercaptan is only one of many examples of problems that an “any amount” threshold can cause.

Methinks that maybe the DHS doesn’t have much experience writing chemical regulations?? That’s understandable given they’re a new agency. But perhaps they should have invited chemical regulation writers from established agencies (EPA, OSHA, DOT, etc.) in to assist them. I’m willing to be that they didn’t do that. It’s hard to image that ANY other agency would have given the OK to write a chemical rule that has an “any amount” threshold for over 100 chemicals.

It is my understanding that the proposed rule was swamped with thousands of negative comments; many due to the “any amount” thresholds. The final rule is expected out within a few months so presumably that will be one of the many things corrected.

I certainly hope so ……… living in MN my primary concern with natural gas is that it is always available to heat my home in January. I figure terrorists probably have bigger fish to fry.

– Smitty, 7-29-07

“If you take out the killings, Washington actually has a very very low crime rate.”

- Marion Barry, Former Mayor of Washington, DC

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Cory Mashburn, left, walks with his parents, Tracie and Scott Mashburn, from a juvenile detention facility. He and Ryan Cornelison were arrested in February after they were allegedly caught in the halls of their Oregon middle school slapping girls on the rear end.

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Source: http://news.aol.com/story/_a/boys-face-trial-over-slapping-charges/20070724153509990001

Finally my family and I can sleep peacefully at night. The “authorities” have removed a dangerous threat to our society !!

I’m sure glad that the “authorities” are spending alot of time and legal resources going after threats like this !! I mean it’s not like there are any offenders out there that pose a greater threat to us !!

Of course back when I was in junior high school (during the Pleistocene Epoch), I seem to recall that school principals, superintendents and other local school administrators (making alot less than the 6-figure salaries of such officials now) were able to handle problems like this on their own without bringing in a battery of lawyers and bureaucrats on the taxpayers dime.

– Smitty, 7-25-07

**********************

Boys Face Trial Over Slapping Charges

By SCOTT MICHELS,ABC News
Posted: 2007-07-25 00:47:22
Filed Under: Crime News

NEW YORK (July 25) — Two middle-school students in Oregon are facing possible time in a juvenile jail and could have to register as sex offenders for smacking girls on the rear end at school.

Cory Mashburn and Ryan Cornelison, both 13, were arrested in February after they were caught in the halls of Patton Middle School, in McMinnville, Ore., slapping girls on the rear end. Mashburn told ABC News in a phone interview that this was a common way of saying hello practiced by lots of kids at the school, akin to a secret handshake.

The boys spent five days in a juvenile detention facility and were charged with several counts of felony sex abuse for what they and their parents said was merely inappropriate but not criminal behavior.

The local district attorney has since backed off — the felony charges have been dropped and the district attorney said probation would be an appropriate punishment. The Mashburns’ lawyer said prosecutors offered Cory a plea bargain that would not require him to register as a sex offender, which the family plans to reject.

But the boys, if convicted at an Aug. 20 trial, still face the possibility of some jail time or registering for life as sex offenders.

The boys’ families and lawyers said even sentencing them to probation would turn admittedly inappropriate but not uncommon juvenile rowdiness into a crime. If they are convicted of any of the misdemeanor charges against them, they would have to register as sex offenders.

“It’s devastating,” said Mark Lawrence, Cory Mashburn’s lawyer. “To be a registered sex offender is to be designated as the most loathed in our society. These are young boys with bright futures, and the brightness of those futures would be over.”

‘Lots of Kids Do It’ Cory Mashburn said he and Ryan Cornelison slapped each others’ and other kids’ bottoms every Friday. “Lots of kids at school do that,” he said.

Cory and Ryan were brought to the principal’s office Feb. 22, where they were questioned by school officials and a police officer. They were arrested that day and taken in handcuffs to a juvenile detention facility.

Court papers said the boys touched the buttocks of several girls, some of whom said this made them uncomfortable. The papers also said Cory touched a girl’s breasts. But police reports filed with the court said other students, both boys and girls, slapped each other on the bottom.

“It’s like a handshake we do,” one girl said, according to the police report.

The boys were initially charged with five counts of felony sexual abuse. At a court hearing, two of the girls recanted, saying they never felt threatened or inappropriately touched by the boys. The judge released the boys but barred them from returning to school and required that they be under constant adult supervision.

District Attorney Bradley Berry has since dismissed the felony counts. The boys face 10 misdemeanor charges of harassment and sexual abuse. They face a maximum of up to one year in a juvenile jail on each count, though Berry said there was no way the boys would ever serve that much time.

“An appropriate sentence would be probation,” he said. “These are minor misdemeanor charges that reflect repeated contact against multiple victims. We never intended for them to get a long time in detention.”

“We’re not seeking major penalties,” he said. “We’re seeking change in conduct.”

‘We Just Want This to Be Over’ Tracie Mashburn, Cory’s mother, said they will not accept plea and plan to fight the charges.

The arrests, critics said, reflect a trend toward criminalizing adolescent sexual behavior. Between 1998 and 2002, juvenile arrests for sex offenses other than rape or prostitution rose 9 percent — the only kind of juvenile arrests that rose during that time, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

“More and more, they are criminalizing normal adolescent or preadolescent behavior,” said Chuck Aron, co-chairman of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers juvenile justice committee.

Even probation, the Mashburns and their attorney said, would be too severe a punishment.

Julie McFarlane, a supervising attorney at the Juvenile Rights Project in Portland, Ore., said, “Probation for a sex offense is very difficult thing, and there’s a pretty high failure rate.” Failing to meet the terms of probation could mean the boys would be sent to jail.

Depending on the terms of probation, it’s likely that the boys would not be allowed to have sexual contact with anyone or any contact with younger children, McFarlane said. For Cory Mashburn, that would mean he couldn’t be left alone with his younger siblings.

“It’s been awful,” said Cory’s mother. “We just want this to all be over. But it will never go away. We’ll always remember it.”

Berry, the district attorney, said the victims — the girls who were touched — were being overlooked. “What’s been lost in this whole thing are the victims, who have been pressured enormously by these boys’ friends,” he said.

Cory, who said he now realizes what he did was inappropriate, spends his days playing video games and basketball. He said he’s scared. “I could go to jail. I could be registered as a sex offender,” he said. “I think it’s all crazy.”

“Mr. Kroger: two C’s, two D’s and an F. That’s a 1.2 grade average. Congratulations, Kroger. You’re at the top of the Delta pledge class.”

– Dean Vernon Wormer

It always gives me such a nice warm feeling in my heart to read about the exploits of my alma mater’s football team ……….. especially considering that the school frequently calls me and other alumni for donations ………….

Source: http://www.twincities.com/newsletter-morning/ci_6391298

Football Gopher charged with rape
Cell phone video allegedly ties cornerback Dominic Jones to intoxicated victim

BY EMILY GURNON
Pioneer Press
TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press
Article Launched:07/17/2007 12:01:00 AM CDT

A University of Minnesota football player was charged Monday with third-degree criminal sexual assault for allegedly having sex with a young woman at his apartment complex when she was so drunk that she was “physically helpless.”

A cell phone video clip of cornerback Dominic Lee Jones, 20, allegedly assaulting the woman is a key piece of evidence in the case, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said.

The clip had been erased but was partially recovered by forensic experts, Freeman said.

Dominic Jones, who was arrested Sunday night, was one of several Gophers players in the Minneapolis apartment where the 18-year-old victim and some friends were having a “drinking contest” in April, according to the criminal complaint.

The others present included cornerback Keith Massey, defensive end Alex Daniels and running back E.J. Jones, who were arrested shortly after the woman went to police but were released without being charged.

They also had sex with the victim after she had been drinking, and they remain suspects, Freeman said.

Dominic Jones and E.J. Jones are not related; Dominic Jones is the half-brother of Keith Massey.

“Today’s charge represents a significant next step in this case,” Freeman said. “We are going to continue to review each of the cases, each on its own proof.”

It was not clear late Monday whether Dominic Jones had hired an attorney. He was being held at the Hennepin County Jail on $50,000 bail.

Jeff DeGree, the attorney for E.J. Jones, said he was disappointed to hear his client was still a suspect.

“It seems pretty clear that any contact that he had with this girl occurred several hours earlier in the night,” he said. “We’re still confident he won’t be charged and will be back on the football field in the fall.”

Mike Colich, the attorney for Alex Daniels, said: “We are frustrated that for three months they keep telling us there is an investigation going on. In this particular case, Alex Daniels didn’t commit any crime.'’

What happened the night of April 3 and early morning of April 4 was this, according to the criminal complaint:

The victim had gone with friends to a University Village apartment on University Avenue shared by Massey, Daniels, E.J. Jones and a fourth man. Dominic Jones lived in another apartment in the complex.

The fourth man, identified by his mother as former Gophers defensive end Robert McField, challenged the woman to a drinking contest and proceeded to give her eight shots of Karkov vodka, “filled to the brim,” according to the complaint. The football players did not drink. McField and the victim’s female friend then left the room, according to the complaint.

Sometime after that, Massey, Daniels and E.J. Jones took the victim to a bedroom and took turns having sex with her. She was so drunk that she later fell off the toilet seat and hit her head on the bathtub.

McField’s mother, Denise McField, of suburban St. Louis, said her son went to McDonald’s while the sex took place. McField was a member of the Gophers team until last October, when U officials learned he had been charged in two armed robberies. McField pleaded guilty in June to two counts of robbery and one count of armed criminal action and is serving a 12-year sentence in Missouri.

Denise McField said her son told her the sex involving the four was consensual. McField and E.J. Jones have known each other since receiving a local athletics award together their senior year in high school.

“He said, ‘Mama, that girl was just intoxicated.’ Robert lives around women … he has too much respect for that,” Denise McField said.

Massey, Daniels and E.J. Jones are identified only by their initials in the complaint, but “you can figure out from the initials who they are,” Freeman said.

According to the complaint, McField and the victim’s female friend helped her back to the living room. They tried to put her in a chair, but she kept falling out of it. They decided to take her home but realized she could not walk, so they laid her on the couch, where she passed out.

McField later went into Daniels’ bedroom to find Dominic Jones allegedly sexually assaulting the woman while Daniels recorded it on his cell phone, Freeman said.

Dominic Jones then asked McField if he “wants a hit,” according to the complaint.

Denise McField said her son never told her about Dominic Jones. “That’s real hard to believe,” she said. “I’m going to ask him about that.”

The deleted cell phone video that forensic experts were able to recover showed the time as 2:50 a.m. April 4, according to the complaint. The unresponsive female in the video was identified as the victim who reported the rape, the complaint said. It was unclear if the taping of the assault could result in charges against Daniels. Prosecutors said the taping of a crime isn’t a crime unless there is evidence of participation by the camera operator.

The woman told her dorm roommates, as well as two of her co-workers, that she believed she had been raped, according to the complaint. The co-workers urged her to go to hospital for a sexual assault exam, which she did, the complaint said.

Dr. Stephen Smith, an expert on sexual assaults facilitated by drugs and alcohol, told investigators that, given the amount of vodka and the victim’s size and weight, she would have had a blood alcohol level of at least 0.30 percent. That translates, he said, to a “stupor,” according to the complaint.

Now in his junior year, Dominic Jones is a cornerback from Columbus, Ohio, who was second on the team in tackles last season. He also was the team’s primary kick returner, running back 32 kickoffs and 19 punts. He appeared in all 13 games.

A university spokesman said the four men have been suspended from the football team, but they remain students at the U.

The charge against Dominic Jones was “disappointing news for our entire team,” U football coach Tim Brewster said in a written statement.

“The conduct alleged in this case does not reflect the expectations and aspirations that the University has for its student-athletes or any of its students,” said Joel Maturi, director of athletics, in a written statement. “Accordingly, appropriate disciplinary action will be considered as we gain more information.”

University Village is a privately owned complex partially leased by the university. The apartment where the assault allegedly occurred was in the university-leased section.

Massey, Daniels and E.J. Jones were moved to other housing after the incident.

The woman, 18, was a college student but did not attend the University of Minnesota, Freeman said.

Tad Vezner and Ray Richardson contributed to this story.

Emily Gurnon can be reached at egurnon@pioneerpress.com or 612-338-6516.

– Smitty, 7-19-07

“We are not without accomplishment. We have managed to distribute poverty equally.”

– Nguyen Co Thatch, Vietnamese foreign minister

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MY “TONGUE-IN-CHEEK” COLLECTION OF “LITTLE-KNOWN” QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS POSED TO AND ABOUT THE CURRENT CROP OF DEM CANDIDATES AND “LEADERS” OVER THE YEARS !!

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Hillary’s Personality: An assessment from a close friend
Well, let’s face it, she’s not Mother Teresa. Gandhi would have strangled her.

– Ken Kessler (Ruthless People, 1986)
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Question posed to Joe Biden at a rally
Are you crazy or just plain stupid?

– Mrs. Blue, Bubba’s Mother (Forrest Gump, 1994)
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Overheard at a Christopher Dodd Press Conference:
Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking… don’t they?

– The Scarecrow (Wizard of Oz, 1939)
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Hillary as President - Experts discuss the impact:
Dr. Peter Venkman: This city is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions.
Mayor: What do you mean, “biblical”?
Dr Ray Stantz: What he means is Old Testament, Mr. Mayor, real wrath-of-God type stuff.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Exactly.
Dr Ray Stantz: Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies. Rivers and seas boiling.
Dr. Egon Spengler: Forty years of darkness. Earthquakes, volcanoes…
Winston Zeddemore: The dead rising from the grave.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together - mass hysteria.

– Ghostbusters, 1984
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First impressions of the entire Dem lineup during the 1st Dem Debate:
They’re desperate. This is less exciting than a “CHIPs” reunion.

– Triumph The Insult Comic Dog
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Question posed to Al Gore at a press conference:
You behave as if stupidity were a virtue. Why is that ??

– Heinrich Dorfmann (The Flight of the Phoenix, 1965)
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John Edwards, lectured on his fading political prospects:
Truth hurts. Maybe not as much as jumping on a bicycle with a seat missing, but it hurts.

– Lt. Frank Drebbin (Naked Gun 2 1/2, 1991)
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Question posed to Dennis “Moonbeam” Kucinich from a very concerned psychiatrist:
What color is the sky in your world?

– Dr. Frasier Crane (Cheers)
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Question posed to John Kerry:
Do you have the slightest idea what a moral and ethical principle is? Do you?

– Jack Torrance (The Shining, 1980)
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Debate question posed to Howard Dean:
Can I borrow your doctor’s diploma? They are a little short in the latrine.

– Hawkeye (MASH)
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A Recollection of the 2004 Democratic Convention:
It was a rough place - the seediest dive on the wharf. Populated with every reject and cutthroat from Bombay to Calcutta. It’s worse than Detroit.

– Ted Striker (Airplane, 1980)
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Advice given to Bill Richardson:
Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son.

– Dean Vernon Wormer (Animal House, 1978)
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Comment to Barack Obama from an old girlfriend:
It only took me one night to realize if brains were dynamite you couldn’t blow your nose.

– Debbie Medway (American Graffiti, 1973)
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Overheard by 2 friends about to read the 2008 Dem Party Platform:
I won’t go schizo, will I? — Pinto
It’s a distinct possibility. — Jennings
(Animal House, 1978)
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Hillary, told while attempting to kiss a baby at a Political Rally:
Get away from her, you bitch!

– Ripley (Aliens, 1986)
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Question posed to Hillary at a campaign stop:
You ever seen a grown man naked?

– Captain Oveur (Airplane, 1980)
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Rebuttal from Hillary insisting her marriage is sincere and natural:
So is throwing up but I don’t want to look at it.

- Archie Bunker (All in the Family)
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Comment regarding Obama’s Health Care Proposal:
It’s like eating a spoonful of Drano: Sure, it’ll clean you out, but it’ll leave you hollow inside.”

– Lt. Frank Drebin (Naked Gun, 1988)
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Statement to John Edwards regarding his far left views:
You’re part of a dying breed, like people who can name all fifty states!

– Lt. Frank Drebin (Naked Gun, 1988)
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Overheard by 4 spectators during the 1st Dem debate:
Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit drinking
Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit smoking
Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue
Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit amphetamines

— Steve McCroskey (Airplane, 1980)
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Exasperated audience member in tears after the final Dem debate:
I weep for the future

– Maitre D’ (Ferris Bueller, 1986)
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Best Advice I’ve heard for getting through the Dem primary process:
My advice to you is to start drinking heavily.

– Bluto (Animal House, 1978)
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– Smitty, 7-4-07

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Source: http://tinyurl.com/37polq

I don’t think that Ann’s comments help the conservative cause. But having said that, it takes a nauseating level of chutzpuh for the far left “Breck Girl” to have his cancer-stricken wife “complain” about political discourse in America today. Does anyone remember who started this filth 20 years ago ?? Remember ???

“Robert Bork’s America is a land in which women would be forced into back alley abortions, blacks would sit in segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens’ doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of government, and the doors of the federal courts would be shut on the fingers of million of citizens.”–Ted Kennedy, July 1, 1987

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It escapes me ……….. when did John and others in the far-left demand that their buddy Ted Kennedy resign (or at least apologize) for smearing and literally DESTROYING the career of Robert Bork ???

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Elizabeth Edwards Confronts Ann Coulter

By MIKE BAKER,
AP
Posted: 2007-06-27 03:48:00

RALEIGH, N.C. (June 27) - Elizabeth Edwards pleaded Tuesday with Ann Coulter to “stop the personal attacks,” a day after the conservative commentator said she wished Edwards’ husband, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, had been killed by terrorists.

“The things she has said over the years, not just about John but about other candidates, lowers the political dialogue at precisely the time we need to raise it,” Edwards said by phone on MSNBC’s “Hardball” program, where Coulter was a guest.

Elizabeth Edwards said she did not consult her husband before confronting Coulter on the air, adding that she felt the pundit’s remarks were “a dialogue on hatefulness and ugliness.”

“It debases political dialogue,” Edwards said. “It drives people away from the process. We can’t have a debate about issues if you’re using this kind of language.”

Coulter responded with a laugh and charged that Edwards was calling on her to stop speaking altogether. She questioned why Elizabeth Edwards was making a phone call on behalf of her husband, and she criticized John Edwards for “stealing doctors’ money” during his successful career as a trial lawyer.

“I don’t think I need to be told to stop writing by Elizabeth Edwards, thank you,” Coulter said.

On ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Monday, Coulter was asked about a March speech in which she used a gay slur to refer to Edwards.

“If I’m going to say anything about John Edwards in the future, I’ll just wish he had been killed in a terrorist assassination plot,” Coulter said Monday, picking up on remarks made by HBO’s Bill Maher. Maher suggested in March that “people wouldn’t be dying needlessly” if Vice President Dick Cheney had been killed in an insurgent attack in Afghanistan.

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– Smitty, 6-27-07

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Tell me again why the Stupid Party decided to have their 2008 convention in the People’s Republic of MN ??

Who do suppose will be picking up the tab to pay for babysitting 100,000 children ?? I mean it’s not like the police have anything better to do with their time and resources (such as prevent the chance of a terrorist attack).

If these children are REALLY interested in improving this country, is there any chance that at least some of them could instead go out and get a job or start a business, get off the dole ?? Instead of mindless chanting and protesting, that would be something that would REALLY improve their lives (and the country).

Source: http://www.twincities.com/ci_6220493

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Activists hope for 100,000 to march on GOP convention
It could be a wild weekend in fall 2008, with protests starting as the State Fair wraps up

BY JASON HOPPIN
Pioneer Press
TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press

ROSEMONT, Ill. - Leslie Cagan, co-founder of the nation’s largest anti-war coalition, thinks the Republican Party chose St. Paul for its 2008 convention in part to reduce the number of expected protesters.

The protesters say it doesn’t matter.

Attendees at United for Peace and Justice’s Third National Assembly over the weekend near Chicago, as well as those who will attend another massive meeting of left-leaning groups this week in Atlanta, say the number of demonstrators in St. Paul next year will be at least double the 45,000 delegates, volunteers and media members expected to descend on the convention, scheduled for Sept. 1-4.

“We’re thinking 50,000 to 100,000,” said Jess Sundin, of the Minneapolis-based Anti-War Committee.

Sundin will travel this week to Atlanta for the U.S. Social Forum, which bills itself as a coalition of community organizers, union representatives, students and others to “unite the struggle of oppressed people,” according to its Web site.

The group will hold a conference this week, which, coupled with the United for Peace and Justice assembly, demonstrates that planning for protesting at the 2008 Republican and Democratic national conventions is getting under way in earnest.

“We’re going to do a workshop on the RNC while we’re there. It should be a good opportunity to meet people and get them to Minnesota next year,” said Sundin, whose group already has applied for permits to protest the St. Paul convention.

Those applications were returned, with St. Paul officials explaining they won’t consider protest permits until six months before the event.

An unprecedented weekend in Minnesota’s capital city could be in order, with tens of thousands of convention attendees, possibly an equal number of protesters - at least - and the tail end of the Minnesota State Fair, which drew more than 160,000 people on its final day in 2006.

Since Cagan’s group was founded in 2002, it has demonstrated an ability to turn out hundreds of thousands of people, including half a million on the eve of the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City and 300,000 in January for an anti-war rally in Washington, D.C.

Cagan said the nominating conventions are a prime-time opportunity for her group.

“We want to get in on the media attention. We want to put our agenda out, also,” Cagan said. “It’s an opportunity to put pressure on the people who want to be the leadership of this country. I can’t predict numbers, but we’re going to do our best to turn out large numbers of people.”

That could strain St. Paul’s resources, which will be bolstered by a $50 million federal grant earmarked for convention security.

Dave Titus, head of the St. Paul Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers, said he is concerned about staffing during that weekend. Titus will meet with members of the New York City Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association this week to research the 2004 Republican National Convention.

“Tens of thousands of peaceful protesters, that’s fine. They’re not going to cause major issues,” Titus said, pointing out that the department still needs to patrol the rest of the city. “St. Paul cops are going to treat people fairly and professionally.”

But, he added, “How many are going to show up that want to cause chaos and commit crimes just to make a statement?”

Jason Hoppin can be reached at jhoppin@pioneerpress.com or 651-292-1892

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– Smitty, 6-26-07