David Drake

Labels: Ratty Rhodes

// posted by David Drake @ 5:01 PM 3 comments

A 21-year-old man has appeared in court charged with the murder of a teenage student on a train.

The 19-year-old died from a single stab wound to the heart near Oxenholme station in Cumbria on Saturday.

Members of the anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, KS, and members a conservative group supporting the U.S. troops called FreeRepublic.com both showed up on Monday about 300 feet away from the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery...

Kristinn Taylor, a spokesman for FreeRepublic.com, says they were aware protesters from the Westboro Baptist Church were coming, so they planned to stage a counter-demonstration.

"They're out of line," Taylor says. "Their hateful message isn't wanted here. Many of us have loved ones buried here."

Extreme actions by animal rights activists have backfired with more British voters supporting vivisection than before.

70% of those questioned by YouGov for the Daily Telegraph said that it was acceptable to test new medical treatments on animals...

...a large majority backed the 12-year sentences recently handed down to animal rights activists who carried out a lengthy campaign of intimidation...

An overwhelming 77% said it was right to term [animal rights activists as] "terrorists".

The survey conducted for the Independent on Sunday Newspaper by analysts Nielsen NetRatings found that more than nine million men - almost 40 per cent of the male population - used pornographic websites last year, compared with an estimated 2 million in 2000.

// posted by David Drake @ 5:01 AM 0 comments

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is a polarizing figure who's short on the crossover appeal needed to win the White House.

Patterson stated that Bill and Hillary Clinton would frequently argue with each other using the worst expletives known to mankind, sometimes in the presence of their daughter Chelsea. Some of the anti-Semitic slurs with which she commonly laced her tirades against Bill were "Jew motherfucker," "Jew Boy" and "Jew Bastard."

"If she disagreed with Bill Clinton or she disagreed with some of the Jewish community in Little Rock -- or some of the ethnic community -- she would often make these statements." "She would say ' Jew Bastard' or call her husband a 'Jew boy' or a 'motherfucking Jew'," Patterson told the WABC New York radio audience.

Patterson said he heard Hillary "utter anti-Jewish epithets between 10 and 20 times over the course of his six years at the Arkansas governor's mansion."

Patterson said Hillary was no stranger to the "N" word either. He heard her say "nigger" "probably six, eight, ten times. She would be upset with someone in the black community and she would use the 'N' word, like, you heard they've got the president's brother on tape using the 'N' word."

Jerry Oppenheimer's book State of the Union: Inside the Complex Marriage of Bill and Hillary Clinton (2000) quotes former campaign aide Mary Lee Fray, who says that Hillary exploded in a rage after Bill lost his first bid for elective office, a run for Congress in Arkansas's Third Congressional District against John Paul Hammerschmidt. Hillary blamed Fray's husband, Paul, for the campaign's bungled political strategy. The slur was uttered at a heated, finger-pointing session at Bill Clinton's Fayetteville, Ark., campaign headquarters on election night in 1974, following his defeat. "You fucking Jew bastard!" Hillary yelled at Paul, Mary Lee confirmed -- even though Paul Fray is not Jewish.

Mary Lee Fray said that Hillary not only used an anti-Semitic slur but she shouted it so loudly "it rattled the walls." "It was very clear," she said. "Bill Clinton's face became white as a ghost."

Former Clinton campaign aide Neill McDonald, who has always been a Clinton supporter [Jewish World Review, 19 July 2000], confirmed the story, according to the New York Daily News.

NBC-TV's Andrea Mitchell admitted that Fray recounted the incident, complete with Hillary's anti-Semitic slur, during an interview for the network's "Dateline NBC" program in 1999. But NBC News editors decided to kill the report on the sensational allegation because the story lacked corroboration, Mitchell said. [NewsMax, 18 July 2000]

The folks at NBC must not have tried too hard to substantiate Fray's account, since his wife, Mary Lee, was more than willing to corroborate the charge -- as she has for dozens of reporters since the story resurfaced. [NewsMax, 18 July 2000]

"I don't believe she said it, and if she said it 26 years ago, so what?" Ed Koch, who makes no secret of being a proud Jew, told the New York Post. "Did she say it yesterday? There must be a statute of limitations." [NewsMax, 15 July 2000]

Abe Foxman told the New York Post, "If in fact she said it, that does not make her an anti-Semite, because there is a public record of Hillary Rodham Clinton of the past 26 years which has no iota of anti-Semitism." [NewsMax, 15 July 2000]

// posted by David Drake @ 12:01 AM 2 comments

Labels: Memorial Day

// posted by David Drake @ 12:01 AM 0 comments

It's a dangerous thing for anyone to assume the motives of another person. No one can read another's mind or look into their heart.


For a journalist to do that and print the assumption without checking it out is beyond dangerous. It's unprofessional, risky behavior that can damage the newspaper's credibility.

Last Monday, in an ebullient column just after the Twins stadium bill passed, sports columnist Sid Hartman included this paragraph on Hennepin County senators who opposed it:

"Voting no [on the stadium bill] were Linda Berglin, Scott Dibble, Larry Pogemiller and Jane Ranum. Most of them don't know the difference between a baseball and a hockey stick. The heck with doing the right thing, they were only worried about being reelected."

The problem is, anyone who's spent much time at the Capitol this year knows Ranum sent her constituents and DFL colleagues a letter in January announcing she was not seeking reelection so she could care for her husband. Jim Ranum is ill with a degenerative brain disease.

So clearly Ranum wasn't worried about being reelected. Hartman made an assumption, didn't check it out and got it wrong. A correction ran on Wednesday.

Even after [being told he was wrong] Hartman was unapologetic. When I sought to interview him for this column, he would say only, "I was referring to the whole Legislature. I think I'm right. You write what you want." At that point, he cut off the interview. He later apologized for "being gruff," but stood his ground about [his] column.

I'll leave it to readers to look at that paragraph and decide whether they think it refers to the four legislators listed or the whole Legislature. My read is that it's about the four.

I didn't get a chance to ask Hartman if he checked about the other three legislators' motives before putting them in his column.

"Voting no [on the stadium bill] were Linda Berglin, Scott Dibble, Larry Pogemiller and Jane Ranum. Most of them don't know the difference between a baseball and a hockey stick. The heck with doing the right thing, they were only worried about being reelected."

[Hartman's statement on Ranum seeking reelection is what] I consider the most unequivocal error in Hartman's column. It's a study in how a careless assumption can result in inaccuracy and unfairness. In [Ranum's] case, this hit at a particularly difficult moment.

Eight years ago, her husband was diagnosed with Lewy body dementia, a rare disease often mistaken for Alzheimer's.

[This past January], Ranum sent [a letter to her constituents] explaining Jim's condition now required more time than the demand of the Legislature would allow.

The Twins stadium bill was one of her last vote. "I have consistently voted against it," Ranum said, "even though I'm a sports fan."

As for Hartman, Ranum offered this civil observation about his assumption of her motives: "Any good reporter needs to check out why they're saying what they're saying."

"We REGRET THE ERROR," managing editor Scott Gillespie said. "We expect columnists to be factually correct."

[With regard to Ranum], Hartman should own up to such an obvious error and apologize to her for assuming the lowest of motives and getting it wrong.

[That] if the Twins [could] get a roof on their stadium, it will mean [you won't need] as much security [downtown Minneapolis because big crowds help solve and prevent crimes from taking place].

If the Twins do get a roof on their stadium, it will mean the chance to bring various indoor events to downtown Minneapolis, and [Mayor] R.T. Rybak, you won't need as much security when there are a lot of people downtown.

I believe if you held a referendum on whether the new baseball stadium should have a roof or not, if the right questions were asked, it would be a winner.

Mr. Rybak, your do-nothing city council stood by and did nothing to save baseball in this area. It did make the Shubert Theater and an $11 million contribution from the Legislature its top priority. And before that, the do-nothing city council appropriated some $5 million to move the building.

Mr. Rybak, make sure you have enough security downtown to protect those people who will sit in the Shubert Theater, with a capacity of 1,000 seats.

"Voting no [on the stadium bill] were Linda Berglin, Scott Dibble, Larry Pogemiller and Jane Ranum. Most of them don't know the difference between a baseball and a hockey stick. The heck with doing the right thing, they were only worried about being reelected."

"I think I'm right."

"I think I'm right."

Labels: I Stadium, Kate Parry, Sid Hartman

// posted by David Drake @ 4:52 PM 2 comments

While there is plenty of praise for Clinton in the video, there is no mention of her past in the White House or 2008.

Then there is a shot of Sen. Clinton, laughing. And then one of Bill Clinton, smiling.

There are shots of crowds chanting "Go home, Hillary!" and Lazio physically looming over her during a debate encounter in Buffalo.

Over the next 15 minutes there is much talk of her work in the Senate - on health care, the Armed Services Committee, post-Sept. 11 efforts.

"I think of Hillary as a lioness protecting children," proclaims Linda Fairstein, a former New York City prosecutor.

US Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton proposed a series of measures on Tuesday to cut US consumption of foreign oil in half by 2025, including encouraging the development of alternative forms of energy.

"Our present system of energy is weakening our national security, hurting our pocketbooks, violating our common values and threatening our children's future," she said in a speech at the National Press Club. "Right now, instead of national security dictating our energy policy, our failed energy policy dictates our national security."

Republicans quickly criticized Clinton, seizing on one aspect of her proposal: a call for expanding the use of ethanol.

[Last] year Sen. Clinton joined 25 of her colleagues in voting against the GOP-sponsored energy bill, which mandated the use of billions of gallons of ethanol by 2012. The bill she tried to shoot down also included a 30% tax credit for installing ethanol pumps. In other words, she voted against everything she says we now desperately need.

// posted by David Drake @ 5:29 PM 2 comments

Senators Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and John Kerry (D-MA) attempt to push a bill through the Senate that would restore voting rights for felons -- including killers, rapists and child predators -- such a law would receive a cold reception by most Americans, according to a just-released poll.

A new poll conducted by Zogby Interactive for Associated Television News and The O'Leary Report shows that a clear majority of Americans, including blacks and Hispanics, are opposed to the restoration of voting rights for former felons.

// posted by David Drake @ 7:03 PM 4 comments

The teacher gave the drugs to a school administrator, who called police. Before officers arrived, the boy's father showed up at school. The criminal complaint in the case said he took the backpack from his son and quickly walked away.

The man was later arrested and told investigators he hid the marijuana in the backpack, and left it in a bedroom closet. When he discovered the backpack was missing, he ran to his son's nearby school, but the boy had just discovered the drugs.

The man, Corey Randle, 29, was charged with a fifth-degree drug-sale charge.

Labels: 420

// posted by David Drake @ 5:43 PM 0 comments

Labels: Ed Schultz

// posted by David Drake @ 4:12 PM 0 comments

Jawad Akbar and Omar Khyam, both members of the group - which was allegedly linked to al-Qaida - considered the Ministry of Sound, which can hold up to 1,800 people, to be an easy target.

So far, cloaking has been confined to science fiction; in Star Trek it is used to render spacecraft invisible [but] researchers in the US and Britain have unveiled their blueprints for building a cloaking device.

Mr Jones, 34, told the court: "I was renovating the back of my home with a local builder when Miss Burgess appeared in her garden.

"She walked back and forth completely naked - I went to get my video camera to record the incident."

A U.S. study concludes there is no link between smoking marijuana and increased risk of lung cancer -- even among heavy, long-term users.

The California researchers also found that smoking marijuana does not appear to increase the risk of head and neck cancers, such as cancer of the tongue, mouth, throat or esophagus.

She'll portray a specific aspect of Dylan's personality, embodied by an androgynous singer-songwriter character named Jude.

Labels: Malloy The Rotting Corpse

// posted by David Drake @ 5:27 PM 0 comments

You surely know that hurricane experts have been warning congress for many years that the natural cycle in hurricanes would return some day, and that our built-up coastlines were ripe for a disaster (like Katrina, which you highlighted in the movie). And as long as snow continues to fall on glaciers, they will continue to flow downhill toward the sea. Yet you made it look like these things wouldn't happen if it weren't for global warming.

Why did you make it sound like all scientists agree that climate change is manmade and not natural?

It seems unlikely that CO2 variations have been the dominant cause of climate change for hundreds of thousands of years. And now that there is a new source of carbon dioxide emissions (people), those old relationships are probably not valid anymore. Why did you give no hint of these alternative views [in your movie]?

I assume you know that polar bears have always migrated to land in late summer when sea ice naturally melts back, and then return to the ice when it re-freezes. Also, if this was really happening, why did the movie have to use a computer generated animation of the poor polar bear swimming around looking for ice? Haven't there been any actual observations of this happening?

// posted by David Drake @ 4:12 PM 0 comments

"My amendment addresses one of the clearest examples of this neglect because our failed national immigration policy has left our state and local governments to bear the brunt of the costs of immigration. Our schools, our hospitals, our other state and local services are being strained."

The former first lady said her plan would direct funds to state criminal alien assistance programs to offset the costs of illegal aliens who continue to break the law after they enter the U.S. - and establish a program that provides financial assistance to state and local governments for the cost of health and educational services related to immigration.

"The 55-mile speed limit really does lower gas usage. And wherever it can be required, and the people will accept it, we ought to do it," Clinton said at the National Press Club.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday called for a two-year tax on oil company profits to help amass $50 billion for the creation of an energy research fund, saying dependence on foreign oil weakens national security.

"We need to reform our energy taxes so that large oil companies who reap huge benefits from unexpectedly high energy prices over the next two years will be required to pay a portion of their profits into the strategic energy fund,"[said MrsSatan].

The New York Democrat called for $1 billion for research on making ethanol from plant cellulose, the fibrous stuff found in everything from corn stalks to wheat straw, grass and wood. Ethanol is now made almost exclusively from grain.

"We have the capacity to make nearly 4.5 billion gallons of ethanol, but that is a long way from helping us deal with our gas problems," [said MrsSatan].

Cullen Sheehan, executive director of the Iowa Republican Party, accused Clinton of "transparent pandering" to Iowa, home of the caucuses that kick off the presidential nomination process.

"Iowans remember her anti-ethanol past and are looking for strong leaders who won't run from their record and change positions whenever it's politically expedient," he said.

// posted by David Drake @ 6:01 PM 0 comments

Labels: Carl Pohlad, I Stadium, Sid Hartman, Zygi Wilf

// posted by David Drake @ 4:13 PM 2 comments