Over the past couple of years, there has been a growing epidemic of taser-related deaths at the hands of the police. Unfortunately, an unsettling number of these deaths are Black men. As peace officers, the job of the police is to maintain order and enforce laws. Using their police powers to indict, convict, and execute innocent Americans has never been part of their job description. The only time that deadly force should be used is when their lives or the safety of the general public is threatened.
The taser is supposed to be a non-lethal way to subdue and apprehend those suspected by the police of crime or mayhem. Unfortunately, this tool has become as lethal as a bullet fired from an officer's service revolver.
CNN.com reports that Amnesty International has reported that, since June 2001, more than 150 people have died in the United States after being subdued with a stun gun. The organization has called for police departments to suspend use of the devices pending study of their possible risks. Few have done so, said Amnesty, which added that more than 7,000 of the nation's 18,000 law enforcement agencies use the devices.
Back in July 2008, plezWorld posted the sad story of Baron "Scooter" Pikes who was executed by the police after he was tasered NINE TIMES.
After wandering over to Electronic Village, you will notice that Scooter's sad story is far from being out of the ordinary:
plez sez: i am a proponent of the actions necessary to review the use of tasers. if they are no longer a non-lethal alternative, then maybe they should be banned.
it is my hope that by bringing this story to plezWorld on this day of blogging for justice, the injustice caused by the unlawful use of tasers by the nation's police will be addressed.
the UN has condemned the use of tasers as torture. in light of the ongoing discussion about the Bush policies of torturing prisoners of war, we have verifiable examples of US citizens being tortured to death by the very police who had sworn to protect them.
Back in December 2008, plezWorld took a peek into the shadowy and fetid world that is Blackwater International. Five of their mercenary murderers were actually accused of... yep, murder while "on duty" in Iraq. Their case is winding its way through a courtroom in Utah. Their shadowy and fearless leader, Erik Prince, has decided to drag his cash-laden luggage out the backdoor while no one was looking!
CNN.com reports that Prince, founder of the Blackwater Worldwide security firm, announced Monday he has resigned as head of the company, recently renamed Xe. Prince, in an e-mail to employees and independent contractors, said Danielle Esposito will become chief operating officer and executive vice president. Esposito has worked for the firm and its partners for nearly 10 years. Blackwater/Xe's president, Gary Jackson, is also retiring. And the position of CEO will remain open, the company said.
This wouldn't be such a big deal if not for the indictments for murder for five of his employees and the fact that Blackwater/Xe had the largest security contract in Iraq. Incidentally, the US State Department and the Iraqi government declined to renew Blackwater's very lucrative contract in light of the murder indictments. Losing the contract will be a huge blow to Blackwater, which was renamed Xe last month. While the company is privately held, the Iraq contract has been estimated to make up one-third to one-half of its business. Blackwater/Xe has about two dozen aircraft in Iraq, as well as 1,000 personnel.
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plez sez: a show of hands... who thinks their contract would've been renewed had john mccain been elected president? oh yeah, you too?!?
go back to my december post on these characters and see how cocky prince is in the interview with "60 Minutes." he is unrepentant as the blood of the iraqi people drip from his spindly fingers. another bush-cheney crony who is taking a hike with hundreds of millions of dollars to show for it... this is maddening!
A man apparently despondent about losing his job killed his wife and five children before turning the gun on himself. In one upstairs bedroom, the bodies of twin 2-year-old boys were found beside their dead mother. In another bedroom, 5-year-old twin girls and their 8-year-old sister lay next to their lifeless father.
The bodies of five children and two adults -- the children's mother and father -- were found Tuesday in a home in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Wilmington. Ervin Lupoe apparently called 911 and contacted a television station by fax before committing suicide, authorities said.
A suicide note found at the scene "indicated a business dispute" between Lupoe and Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles Medical Center. In the faxed note to KABC, the man said he was despondent over an employment situation, police said.
Kaiser Permanente said Lupoe and his wife, Ana, were both former employees of the medical center. Both had been terminated, with Lupoe's termination coming last week.
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plez sez: this story brought tears to my eyes. the loss of hope and the loss of life is tragic.
there is something terribly wrong with our society when our lives are so identified by how many zeros are on our w-2 forms or what kind of car is parked in the driveway or who is sending your paycheck. thousands more people are looking at job losses in the coming weeks and months... it pains me to think how many hundreds of unemployed people are looking at ending their life due to a job loss.
i believe before we'll fix this economy, something must be done to repair our country's fragile psyche.
On March 11, 2005, Brian Nichols was being transferred from the Fulton County lockup to the Fulton County Courthouse in downtown Atlanta to be arraigned on a rape case. The rape case was never heard.
While he was supposed to be changing out of the prison garb into a suit, Nichols overpowered the 51-year-old female sheriff's deputy, 5'1″ Cynthia Hall, took her service revolver and proceeded to the courtroom of Judge Rowland Barnes. According to hospital sources, the deputy sustained significant brain injury, facial fractures and a large laceration to her forehead. After the attack, her condition was reported as critical, but she survived. Deputy Hall's injuries were so severe that doctors at Grady Memorial Hospital initially believed that she had sustained a gunshot wound to the face.
Nichols shot and killed Judge Barnes and court reporter Julie Ann Brandau. He was chased outside by Sgt. Hoyt Teasley; Nichols got the drop on Teasley and shot him dead.
Brian Nichols had the entire city of Atlanta gripped in fear as he seemingly vanished in a stolen car outside of the courthouse. Nichols reappeared briefly the next day when he killed off-duty U.S. Customs Agent David Wilhelm as he worked on a house in Buckhead. He was captured later that day after a standoff with police in the apartment of a woman he had taken hostage in Gwinnett County (just north of the city).
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Nichols held Ashley Smith hostage for seven hours prior to his capture by the police. What follows is the transcript of her statement a few days after his capture:
It was about 2 o'clock in the morning. I was at--I was leaving my apartment to go to the store. I noticed a blue truck in the parking lot with a man in it pulling up. And he parked in the parking space. And I really didn't think too much about it because I just moved into that apartment, you know, two days prior. So I thought maybe he was a neighbor coming home or something. So I left and went to the store. And I came back to my apartment about five minutes later. And the truck was still there. And he was still in it. . . . And I kind of got a little worried then. I thought there's somebody still in that truck. So I got my key to my house ready. And I opened up my car door, and I got out and shut it. And I heard his shut right behind me. I started walking to my door, and I felt really, you know, scared. . . .
I started to scream, and he put a gun to my side and he said, "Don't scream. If you don't scream I won't hurt you." He told me to go into the bathroom, so I went to the bathroom. And he followed into the bathroom and he said, "Do you know who I am?" and I said no because he had a hat on. And then he took his hat off, and he said, "Now do you know who I am?" And I said, "Yeah, I know who you are. Please don't hurt, just please don't hurt me. I have a 5-year-old little girl. Please don't hurt me."
He said, "I'm not going hurt you if you just do what I say." I said, "All right." So I got--he told me to get into the bathtub, so I got in the bathtub. And he said, "I really don't feel comfortable around here. I'm going to walk around your house for a few minutes just so I get the feel of it."
I said, "OK."
He said, "I don't want to hurt you. I don't want to hurt anybody else, so please don't do anything that's going to hurt you." He said, "You know, somebody could have heard your scream already. And if they did, the police are on the way. And I'm going to have to hold you hostage. And I'm going to have to kill you and probably myself and lots of other people. And I don't want that."
And I said, "OK. I will do what you say."
He looked around my house for a few minutes. I heard him opening up drawers and just going through my stuff. And he came back in. And he said, "I want to relax. And I don't feel comfortable with you right now. So I'm going to have to tie you up."
He brought some masking tape and an extension cord and a curtain in there. And I kind of thought he was going to strangle me. I was--I was really kind of scared. But he told me to turn around and put my hands behind my back. And he wrapped my hands in a prayer--in a praying position, so I did that. And he wrapped masking tape around my hands. And then he told me to go into my bedroom. And I sat down on the bed like he asked. And he wrapped my legs with masking tape and an extension cord. . . .
He said, "Can you walk?"
And I said, "No."
And so he picked me up and took me to the bathroom. And he put me on a stool that I have in my bathroom. He said he wanted to take a shower.
So I said, "OK. You take a shower."
He said, "Well, I'm going to put a towel over your head so you don't have to watch me take a shower."
So I said, "OK. All right."
He got in the shower. Took a shower. And then he got out of the shower. And he had the guns laying on the counter. But--I guess he really wasn't worried about me grabbing them because I was tied up.
He asked me if I had a T-shirt. I told him where to find one.
So he got dressed. He put on some clothes that I had in my house that were men's clothes. And then he came back in the bathroom.
He said, "Can you get up?"
So I got up.
He said, "Can you walk now?"
I said, "No, but I can hop."
So I hopped to my bedroom and sat on the bed. And he cut the tape off of me, unwrapped the extension cord and curtain. I guess, at that point, he kind of made me feel like he was comfortable enough with me that he untied me. So--we went back in the bathroom. That's where he felt more comfortable--in the bathroom away from the front of the house, I guess. And we just talked.
I asked him if--I told him that I was supposed to go see my little girl the next morning. And I asked him if I could go see her. And he told me no.
My husband died four years ago. And I told him that if he hurt me, my little girl wouldn't have a mommy or a daddy. And she was expecting to see me the next morning. That if he didn't let me go, she would be really upset.
He still told me no. But I could kind of feel that he started to--to know who I was. He said maybe. Maybe I'll let you go--just maybe. We'll see how things go.
We went to my room. And I asked him if I could read.
He said, "What do you want to read?"
Well, I have a book in my room." So I went and got it. I got my Bible. And I got a book called "The Purpose-Driven Life." I turned it to the chapter that I was on that day. It was Chapter 33. And I started to read the first paragraph of it. After I read it, he said, "Stop, will you read it again?
I said, "Yeah. I'll read it again." So I read it again to him.
It mentioned something about what you thought your purpose in life was. What were you--what talents were you given? What gifts were you given to use?
And I asked him what he thought. And he said, "I think it was to talk to people and tell them about you."
I basically just talked to him and tried to gain his trust. I wanted to leave to go see my daughter. That was really important. I didn't want him to hurt anybody else.
He came into my apartment telling me that he was a soldier. And that people--that his people needed him for a job to do. And he was doing it.
And--I didn't want him to hurt anybody else. He didn't want to hurt anybody else. He just told me that he wanted a place to stay to relax, to sit down and watch TV, to eat some real food.
I talked to him about my family. I told him about things that had happened in my life. I asked him about his family. I asked him why he did what he did.
And his reason was because he was a soldier.
I asked him why he chose me and why he chose Bridgewater Apartments. And he said he didn't know, just randomly.
But after we began to talk, he said he thought that I was an angel sent from God. And that I was his sister and he was my brother in Christ. And that he was lost and God led him right to me to tell him that he had hurt a lot of people. And the families--the people--to let him know how they felt, because I had gone through it myself.
He told me that he didn't--he didn't want to hurt the agent that he hurt. He begged and pleaded with him to do things his way, and he didn't. So he had to kill him. He said that he didn't shoot the deputy, that he hit her. And that he hoped she lived. He showed me a picture of the--the agent that he did kill. And I tried to explain to him that he killed a 40-year-old man that was probably a father, a husband, a friend.
And he really began to trust me, to feel my feelings. He looked at pictures of my family. He asked me to--if he could look at them and hold them. . . .
I really didn't keep track of time too much because I was really worried about just living. I didn't want to die. I didn't want him to hurt anybody else. And I really didn't want him to hurt himself or anyone else to hurt him. He's done enough--he had done enough. And he really, honestly when I looked at him, he looked like he didn't want to do it anymore.
He asked me what I thought he should do.
And I said, "I think you should turn yourself in. If you don't turn yourself in," this is what I said, "If you don't turn yourself in, lots more people are going to get hurt. And you're probably going to die."
And he said, "I don't want that to happen."
He said, "Can I stay here for a few days? I just want to eat some real food and watch some TV and sleep and just do normal things that normal people do."
So, of course, I said, "Sure. You can stay here." I didn't want--I wanted to gain his trust.
Most of my time was spent talking to this man about my life and experiences in my life, things that had happened to me.
He needed hope for his life. He told me that he was already dead. He said, "Look at me, look at my eyes. I am already dead."
And I said, "You are not dead. You are standing right in front of me. If you want to die, you can. It's your choice."
But after I started to read to him, he saw--I guess he saw my faith and what I really believed in. And I told him I was a child of God and that I wanted to do God's will. I guess he began to want to. That's what I think.
He got to know me. I got to know him. He talked about his family. How--he was wondering what they were thinking. He said, "They're probably--don't know what to think."
We watched the news. He looked at the TV and he just said, "I cannot believe that's me on there."
About 5:30, 6--well, 6, 6:30--he said, "I need to make a move." And I said, "A move?" He said, "I need to get rid of this car before daylight, this truck [the agent's]." I said, "OK."
I knew that if I didn't agree to go with him, follow him to get the truck--he'd just take the truck, then one thing--or two--one of two things. He would kill me right then, and say, "All right, well, if you're not going to help me, then I won't need you anymore." Or the police would never find him, or it would take longer. And someone else would get hurt, and I was trying to avoid that.
So I went . . . I said, "Can I take my cell phone?" He said, "Do you want to?" I said, "Yeah." I'm thinking, well, I might call the police then, and I might not. So I took it anyway. He didn't take any guns with him. The guns were laying around the house. Pretty much after he untied [me], they were just laying around the house.
And at one point, he said, "You know, I'd rather you shoot--the guns are laying in there--I'd rather you shoot me than them." I said, "I don't want anyone else to die, not even you."
So we went to take the truck, and I was behind him, following him. And I thought about calling the police, you know, I thought, he's about to be in the car with me right now. So I can call the police, and when he gets in the car, then they can surround me and him together, and I could possibly get hurt, or we can go back to my house.
And I really felt deep down inside that he was going to let me see my little girl. And I said--or then when I leave, he can be there by himself, or he--he finally agreed to let me go see my daughter. I had to leave at 9, 9:30. And I really believed that he was going to.
From the time he walked into my house until we were taking that truck, he was a totally different person to me. I felt very threatened, scared. I felt he was going to kill me when--when I first--when he first put the gun to my side. But when I followed him to pick--to take the truck, I felt he was going to--he was really going to turn himself in. So he took the truck.
He got in the car and I said, "Are you ready now?" And he said, "Give me a few days, please." I said, "Come on, you've got to turn yourself in now." I didn't feel like he might--I felt like he might change his mind, that he might not want to turn himself in the next day, or a few days after that, and that if he did feel that way, then he would need money, and the only way he could get money was if he hurt somebody and took it from them.
So we went back to my house and got in the house. And he was hungry, so I cooked him breakfast. He was overwhelmed with--"Wow," he said, "real butter, pancakes?"
And I just talked with him a little more, just about--about--we pretty much talked about God . . . what his reason was, why he made it out of there.
I said, "Do you believe in miracles? Because if you don't believe in miracles--you are here for a reason. You're here in my apartment for some reason. You got out of that courthouse with police everywhere, and you don't think that's a miracle? You don't think you're supposed to be sitting here right in front of me listening to me tell you, you know, your reason here?"
I said, "You know, your miracle could be that you need to--you need to be caught for this. You need to go to prison and you need to share the word of God with them, with all the prisoners there."
Then 9 came. He said, "What time do you have to leave?" I said, "I need to be there at 10, so I need to leave about 9:30." And I sat down and talked to him a little bit more. And he put the guns under the bed, like . . . I'm not going to mess around with them anymore.
He gave me some money when I was about to leave. Just kind of like he knew. I said, "You might need this money." And he said, "No, I don't need it. I'm going to be here for the next few days."
I basically said, keep the money. And he said, "No, I don't need it." He asked me if there was anything I could do--or he could do for me before I left, or while I was going. He says, "Is there anything I can do while you're gone?"
I know he was probably hoping deep down that I was going to come back, but I think he knew that I was going to--what I had to do, and I had to turn him in, and I gave him--I asked him several times, you know, "Come on, just go with me." He said, "I'll go with you in a few days."
But when he asked me, "Is there anything I can do while you're gone, like hang your curtains or something?" And I said, "Yeah, if you want to."
He just wanted some normalness to his life right then. He--I think he realized all this--all this that I've been through, this is not me. I don't know, that's my opinion of what he . . .
Then I left my house at 9:30. And I got in the car. And I immediately called 911. I told them that he was there, and she asked me where I was. I said, "Oh, I'm on my way to see my daughter." I felt glad to just really be on my way to see my daughter. She said, "You've got to turn around and go to the leasing office." So that's what I did.
Prosecutors said Nichols confessed to the shootings shortly after his arrest. His defense team did not dispute whether he was the gunman, focusing instead on his mental state and claiming he suffers from a disorder that "overmastered" his will to refrain from criminal acts.
The jury was made up of five Black women, two white women, three Black men, a white man and a man of Asian descent, court officials said. Their options were to convict Nichols, find him guilty but mentally ill, acquit him or find him not guilty by reason of insanity. They convicted Nichols after several weeks of testimony.
During the penalty phase of his trial, the jury was deadlocked for several days, finally voting 9-3 in favor of death; the death penalty requires a unanimous decision by the jury. On Saturday morning, Superior Court Judge James Bodiford sentenced Brian Nichols to seven life sentences and four sentences of life without parole plus 485 years for the crimes he committed on March 11, 2005. Judge James Bodiford made all the sentences consecutive — meaning each sentence starts after the prior one is completed — to make the point of the seriousness of Nichols crimes.
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plez sez: i remember being away on business but seeing the news reports about the grip of fear that brian nichols had on the city. the biggest fear was that he would go on a killing spree, especially after the off-duty customs agent was found dead.
nichols was on the loose for over 24 hours, spending 7 hours with ashley smith, the hostage who turned him in. she collected a reward of $70,000.
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the entire ordeal continues to be bizarre. how does an inmate mastermind such a bold daylight escape from custody only to be turned in by his hostage in gwinnett county a day later? brian nichols is a smart, college-educated man who comes from a good family (plezWife works for the same government agency where nichol's mother was employed, prior to her retirement). on the day of his murderous rampage, nichols was probably the smartest guy in the entire courthouse... but his anger and level of frustration with the system took him over the edge.
unfortunately, his rage cost four families the lives of their loved ones. it is an awesome responsibility for a citizen to determine that another human being no longer deserves to live and by and large, plezWorld is against the death penalty. but in a case like this where the convicted person is obviously the perpetrator in the wanton death of another, i don't see another alternative. i'd be interested in finding out the reasons why the three jurors voted against the death penalty for brian nichols.
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Read the Atlanta Journal-Constitution articles about the death penalty phase of the Nichols trial here and here.
On Monday, the Justice Department unsealed an indictment of five former Blackwater security guards on charges of voluntary manslaughter, attempt to commit manslaughter, and weapons violations.
On September 16, 2007, the Blackwater guards in the indictment we involved in a shooting in a Baghdad square that left 17 Iraqis dead. Blackwater International said its guards were protecting a U.S. diplomatic convoy when they came under attack from armed insurgents. The guards returned fire.
An Iraqi investigation called the killings "premeditated murder" and accused the guards of firing on civilians indiscriminately. The first U.S. soldiers to arrive on the scene told military investigators they found no evidence the contractors were fired upon.
Blackwater USA has been called the largest private army in the world but little is known about how it operates. The company has a thousand highly trained and well armed security specialists on the ground in Iraq alone, hired by the U.S. government to protect American officials.
Blackwater has maintained the innocence of its former employees:
"Based on the information available to us, we understand that these individuals acted within the rules set forth for them by the government and that no criminal violations occurred. [There have been a number of] misguided assumptions and generalizations that surrounded this unfortunate incident. ... [our] work has been mischaracterized and all of our personnel unfairly maligned."
Blackwater Founder Erik Prince on "60 Minutes"
A CNN.com report cites the complexity of this case for the Justice Department:
The complex legal case has been dogged by difficulties and may present a major challenge to federal prosecutors.
Among the potential problems is that the law under which the charges are expected to be brought covers contractors working for the U.S. military, but the Blackwater guards were contracted by the State Department. Some independent legal experts question whether U.S. courts have jurisdiction in this case.
Also muddying the waters are alleged assurances of immunity given to the guards by State Department diplomatic security agents investigating the incident before the FBI got involved.
The State Department said its agents did not offer blanket immunity from criminal prosecution but only promised that statements the guards made on the scene could not be used against them in any prosecution.
But when the investigation was turned over to the Justice Department to examine possible criminal activity, FBI agents discovered some guards believed they were immune from prosecution and therefore refused to be interviewed again, complicating the FBI probe.
The shooting heightened tensions between U.S. and Iraqi government officials and contributed to a protracted debate over the extent of immunity that U.S. military personnel and civilian contractors have from Iraqi laws.
Security contractors had immunity from Iraqi law under a provision put in place in the early days of the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq. But starting next year, under a U.S.-Iraq security agreement that Baghdad approved last week, Iraq will have the "primary right to exercise jurisdiction" over U.S. contractors and their employees.
The Blackwater Five, all decorated military veterans who had served the United States in trouble spots around the world and who were employed by Blackwater Worldwide, the largest security contractor in Iraq , surrendered together at a federal courthouse in Salt Lake City, Utah, where their lawyers accused the government of overstepping their authority and of tarnishing their clients’ records of honorable service.
Mark Hulkower, a lawyer for one of the defendants, said the men surrendered in Utah, a relatively conservative, pro-military area, because they hoped to find a jury pool where “people are more sympathetic to the experiences of coming under enemy fire.”
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The State Department, which employed Blackwater to protect U.S. diplomats and other employees, renewed Blackwater's contract this year over strong objections from the Iraqi government.
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plez sez: military stuff really isn't in the bailiwick of plezWorld, since i'm pretty much a pacifist when it comes to launching attacks on sovereign nations. i guess that's why this particular story has my interest.
i saw the "60 Minutes" story about blackwater in october 2007. i still don't understand why the us government is paying untold millions to some corporation to provide "soldiers" in combat when our us troops are underpaid, underfunded, under-equipped, and unappreciated. and then the part of the blackwater arrangement that really reeks was their immunity from iraqi laws while they were over there shooting at anything that moved.
so i have no doubt that these "goons" opened fire into a crowd of iraqis with their sub-machine guns, killing just about anything that moved... since they weren't accountable to any authority in iraq or in the us. hell, they weren't even contracted to work with the defense department, they were a shadow army for the state department!
One blogger wrote: "Blackwater is the new mercenary army accountable to nobody except the corporations and governments who hire them. Keep in mind that Blackwater is now training hundreds of police departments across the US including the Los Angeles Police Department."
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instead of utah, these guys should be sent back to the jurisdiction where the CRIME was committed. and let the iraqi government deal with them in a manner of their choosing ("an eye for an eye" sounds good to me!). there is a sliver of hope that justice is done and these five goons are relieved of their liberty... or more!
Since this day was first marked in 1988, people and organizations around the globe have worked to bring attention to the AIDS pandemic. The United Nations notes that in 2007, more than 33 million people worldwide were living with HIV or AIDS, and of this number, 2 million were children under the age of 15.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the annual event dedicated to remembering those who've been lost to the virus and to recommitting with vigor to the fight against AIDS. In the past two decades,the virus has claimed the lives of 20 million people.The deaths of people HIV/AIDS have grown to more than 2 million each year. It's only recently, thanks to the lifesaving antiretroviral drugs currently available to HIV-positive people, that the number of annual deaths caused by HIV has begun to decline.
According to the CDC, 33 million people worldwide are living with HIV with nearly 7,500 new infections occurring each day. An estimated 3 million people are now receiving antiretroviral treatment in low and middle-income countries. In the United States, CDC estimates that about 1.1 million people are living with HIV. These numbers will most likely increase over time, as antiretroviral drug treatments extend the lives of those with HIV and more people become HIV infected. As expected, as the number of people living with HIV grows, so does the opportunity for those with HIV to pass on the virus to others.
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plez sez: it's been over 20 years since HIV/AIDS entered into our lexicon. unfortunately, one of the most preventable of diseases has continued to grow and flourish throughout the world.
educate yourself on HIV and AIDS. get tested. and do what you can to prevent the spread of this deadly disease.
my brother is a doctor who works on the front lines in the fight against HIV and AIDS. he works with HIV-positive patients in the Georgia and Alabama and in the prison population. truly an honorable calling... indeed!
Sen. Barack Obama's grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, has died following a bout with cancer, Obama and his sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, said Monday.
Obama's grandparents raised him from the time he was 10 years old until he went to college.
A week ago, Obama took 2 days off of the campaign trail to visit her in Hawaii.
Dunham passed away peacefully at her home shortly before midnight Sunday night (5 a.m. ET), campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki told CNN. She said Obama learned of her death around 8 a.m.
Read the CNN.com article about Barack Obama's grandmother here.
Read the New York Times article about Barack Obama's grandmother here.
Read the Atlanta Journal-Constitution article about Barack Obama's grandmother here.
plez sez: a few weeks ago, Obama took a few days off to visit his ailing grandmother in Hawaii. plezWorld is sure that he is glad that he did. she raised a remarkable man... and our next President!
While meeting with the editorial board of the Sioux City Argus Leader (South Dakota) on Friday, Hillary Clinton was asked why she hasn't dropped out of the race; mathematically, she cannot secure enough pledged delegates to win the Democratic nomination. She said that the nomination process is a long one and who knows what will happen between now and Democratic National Convention in Denver.
Clinton's reply follows:
“People have been trying to push me out of this ever since Iowa... my husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don’t understand it."
As would be expected, her comments set off a barrage of criticism in response to her invoking Robert Kennedy's assassination in 1968, and within hours, she expressed regrets at a campaign stop:
“The Kennedys have been much on my mind the last days because of Senator Kennedy. And I regret that if my referencing that moment of trauma for our entire nation and particularly for the Kennedy family was in any way offensive.”
Read the New York Times article on Clinton's assassination gaffe here.
Clinton assassination comment and regrets:
plez sez: hmmmm... i guess she isn't holding out for an invitation to be Barack Obama's veep... sounds to me, like she's betting on an assassin's bullet to secure her the nomination!
is it me OR is hillary clinton out of her freakin' mind?!? two weeks from today marks the 40th anniversary of bobby kennedy's assassination by a bullet fired by sirhan sirhan! although, there has been little publicity about death threats, it is obvious that Obama has been the recipient of credible threats since he announced his candidacy; he's had around the clock secret service protection for close to a year! i don't like to bring up such a grim prospect, but this blog published a post that white supremacist groups have been organizing to prevent Obama from ever taking the oath of office.
how can hillary be so crass? so unfeeling? so politically incorrect?!? when backed into a corner, she will say ANYTHING... and i mean ANYTHING to justify her claim to the white house!
and when she realizes how off base her comments were, she can't even muster the fortitude to properly apologize. she doesn't apologize to the kennedy family (she only expresses regret for her offensive remarks). she doesn't apologize to Barack Obama and his family for the implication that she's pinning her hopes of being the democratic nominee while dancing on Obama's grave prior the democratic national convention! if it was good enough for hubert humphrey in 1968, it's good enough for hillary clinton in 2008.
assassination of national figures is the ugliest of american history: lincoln, mckinley, harrison, kennedy, martin luther king, jr., robert kennedy, etc. a Black man is poised to ascend to the highest office in the land and hillary clinton doesn't want to get out of the race because the specter of him getting gunned down before the convention is too great!
some have decided to give her the benefit of the doubt... that could not be what she was thinking when she brought up kennedy's assassination. plezWorld is not so easily dissuaded and asks, if she wasn't implying that there is a good chance that Obama will get assassinated, what was she implying? and why did she bring it up?
keith olbermann commentary on hillary clinton - 10:42
some have called for Obama to offer the veep office to billary. how many weeks would it take for the clintons to plot his assassination? maybe i've watched too many seasons of "24", but something tells me that the clintons couldn't stomach being Obama's second banana for 8 years! something tells me that they couldn't stomach being his second banana more than a couple of weeks!
On the evening of November 25, 2006, Sean Bell went out with three friends (Joseph Guzman, Trent Benefield, and one other man) to a strip club in Jamaica, New York to celebrate his marriage that was scheduled for the next day.
A hail of gunfire (50 bullets fired by NYPD undercover officers - one officer reloaded his gun before resuming fire). Three of the men (Bell, Guzman, and Benefield) were dead, the other one seriously injured. No gun (which allegedly prompted this heavy handed action by the police) was ever found on a person or in the car with the shooting victims (think Iraq and WMD).
The police said that they thought the guys were going to the car to get a gun after an argument outside of the club. The car they were riding in was shot up as the four attempted to drive away in Bell's Nissan Altima.
Oh yeah... all four men were Black!
A judge in New York City has been hearing the seven-week trial (the officers waived their right for a jury trial) against the police. Today, Justice Cooperman in State Supreme Court in Queens entered a verdict of "Not Guilty" on all charges for the three police officers involved.
Before rendering his verdict, the judge said "the police response with respect to each defendant was not found to be criminal. The people have not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that each defendant was not justified in shooting." He found the three officers not guilty of all of the eight counts, five felonies and three misdemeanors, against them.
once again, justice peeked out from under the veil before rendering judgement in this case. the life of a Black man has no value when tossed into the balance of our current justice system.
i don't think the police were racist: one was latino, one was Black. but the justice system is racist, if it will allow police officers to gun down innocent people without reason or provocation.
the assumption by this ragtag group of officers was that the Bell party was going to get their guns, drive around the block, and then shoot up the club! isn't that the same rational used by bush administration for invading iraq - stop saddam hussein from using his weapons of mass destruction (WMD) against israel? i don't recall any WMD being found in iraq either!
predictive justice (especially, the use of deadly force) should be illegal. this verdict gives the police WIDE latitude in how they assess and act in any given situation, even a situation that they imagine. this verdict makes it even MORE DANGEROUS for a Black man to be in the presence of the police. a police officer can misconstrue any action as harmful to the public and using that as a basis for their actions, use deadly force to prevent you from doing something that they only imagined you would do!
this verdict gives the job of mind reader, police, judge, jury, and executioner to an officer who may have the training to do only one of those jobs! NOW THAT'S DEEP!
A number of news services are reporting that Eddie Levert, of the soul group The O'Jays, has lost a son, Sean, within two years of the other. Sean was serving time in jail for failure to pay child support, when he was rushed to the hospital after falling ill. He passed away less than two hours after being rushed there from the jail on Sunday. Sean was 39 years old.
Sean and his older brother Gerald were two-thirds of the 1980's soul group, Levert, who had moderate success on the charts: "(Pop, Pop, Pop, Pop) Goes My Mind" (1986, #1 R&B), "Casanova" (1987, #5 Pop, #1 R&B), "Pull Over Baby" (1988, #2 R&B), "Just Coolin" (1989, #1 R&B), "Baby I'm Ready" (1991, #1 R&B), and others.
You may recall that Eddie's oldest son, Gerald, passed away in November 2006 after succumbing to an accidental overdose of prescription drugs. Gerald Levert was 40 years old.
Eddie Levert was the lead singer of the soul supergroup The O'Jays. They were the standard bearers of the Philly Sound during the 1970's. You will recognize their top hits, such as: "Back Stabbers" (1972, #3 Pop, #1 R&B), "Love Train" (1973, #1 Pop, #1 R&B), "Put Your Hands Together" (1973, #10 Pop), "For the Love of Money" (1974, #9 Pop, Top 10 R&B), "I Love Music" (1975, #5 Pop), "Use Ta Be My Girl" (1978, #4 Pop, #1 R&B), and many more.
plez sez: keeping the Eddie Levert family in my thoughts and prayers with the loss of his second son in two years. i was a big fan of The O'Jays in the 1970's and to a lesser extent with Levert in the 1980's. the conditions surrounding sean's death are unknown at this time.
CNN reports that four U.S. soldiers died last night in a roadside bombing in Iraq. That brings the American toll in the 5-year-old war to 4,000 deaths. This number does not count the tens of thousands who have been maimed and seriously injured in combat. It does not count the tens of thousands who will suffer from their injuries for the rest of their lives.
plez sez: five years after invading a sovereign country that posed no threat to the united states, we have now lost more americans in battle than were lost in the september 11th attack (which incidently involved no iraqis terrorists). this is now the third longest war in the history of the united states behind the revolutionary war and the vietnam war. it is now known that cause for the war - weapons of mass destruction - do not exist, and never existed. it is now known that the bush administration knew that they would never find WMD.
al-qaeda took responsibility for the 9/11 attacks. when the war started, al-qaeda was operating in afghanistan and pakistan, yet we invaded iraq.
bill clinton was impeached for lying to congress about an illicit sexual encounter with a white house groupie. george w. bush has not even been investigated for lying to congress about the reasons why the united states invaded iraq... something is wrong with this picture.
The New York City Medical Examiner's office states that Heath Ledger died from an accidental overdose of prescription medications including painkillers, anti-anxiety drugs and sleeping pills. A deadly cocktail of drugs were found in his body at the time of his death:
plez sez: i feel sorry for his family & friends, the glare of the hollywood scene can be a bit much for celebrities. couple that with a mysterious death of an otherwise healthy individual and you have fodder for 2 months of teasers on Entertainment Tonight.
but how is injesting SIX different powerful narcotics accidental? i've had vicodin after a minor surgery and that *ISH* will knock you the F**K OUT! after taking one, i was out within minutes and i would be asleep for 3 to 4 hours.
i don't know heath ledger, except for what i've seen on the nightly news: i haven't seen any of his movies, and i imagine he was an alright fellow... but this story doesn't jive with me. to my way of thinking, if you take a lethal dose of SIX powerful narcotics and anti-depressants, you ain't expecting to wake up - that is no accident. and i should know, i have a good friend who attempted suicide when we were in college - he didn't take the whole bottle, he took enough to where he thought that he wouldn't wake up... and he was SHOCKED when he woke up the next day! to me, it looks like ledger had a more successful go at it.
The New York Times reports that Daniel Kibigo said he was there, hiding in the burned cornfields nearby, as the mob gleefully stuffed mattresses in front of the church’s doors and set them on fire. The women inside tried to claw their way out of the church windows as the building burned all the way down, killing up to 50 people inside. This is the state of Kenya as it teeters on the brink of anarchy on the heels of presidential elections last week.
Kenya’s president, Mwai Kibaki, declared victory by a narrow margin on Sunday despite widespread evidence of ballot rigging.
“Are we in a civil war? Is this Somalia? Is this Darfur?” said Alfred Mutua, Mr. Kibaki’s spokesman. “Our problem is with some hooligans. And we can take care of it.”
As for the opposition, its most recent proposal was a joint government for three months and then a new election, which the government roundly rejected.
Adding to the incendiary atmosphere, Raila Odinga, the opposition figure who said he was robbed of the presidency, has vowed to go ahead with a million-person rally in the capital, Nairobi, on Thursday. The government has said the rally is illegal, and busloads of police officers in helmets and padded suits have begun to muster downtown.
“We want to appeal directly to the people,” Mr. Odinga said on Wednesday. Many Kenyans are worried the rally will turn into an enormous brawl.
The Bush administration said that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was calling both sides to urge them to do everything they could to end the violence, and the United Nations issued a statement on Wednesday saying that Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general, was “concerned with the deteriorating humanitarian situation, as large numbers of people have been displaced by the violence.”
Reuters reports that Attorney General Amos Wako called for an independent probe into Kenya's election after a day of battles between police and protesters disputing the re-election of President Mwai Kibaki.
What follows is a chronology of Kibaki's 5 year presidency:
Dec. 27, 2002 - Former Vice President Kibaki, candidate of the opposition National Rainbow Coalition, wins a presidential election on pledges to deliver a new constitution in 100 days. The victory ends Daniel arap Moi's 24-year rule and the Kenya African National Union's (KANU) four decades in power.
Nov. 22, 2003 - International Monetary Fund (IMF) resumes lending after three-year gap, saying the new government has shown commitment to end corruption.
Dec. 21 - Moi is granted immunity from prosecution on corruption charges.
March 15, 2004 - Government withdraws from a conference convened to write a new constitution after most delegates vote to trim presidential powers.
Feb. 7, 2005 - John Githongo quits as Kenya's first anti-corruption adviser, a blow to the fight against graft.
July 22 - Parliament votes to keep a strong presidency in a proposed new constitution. The vote leads to deepening divisions in the ruling coalition and triggers rioting in the capital.
Nov. 22 - Kibaki suffers humiliating defeat when voters reject the new constitution in a referendum; he fires his government the next day.
Dec. 9 - Twenty-six of 29 ministers are finally sworn in after Kibaki's struggle to form a new cabinet. Three refuse to appear although two of them later reverse that decision.
Feb. 1, 2006 - Finance Minister David Mwiraria resigns over a multi-million dollar corruption scandal, says he is innocent.
June 3 - Key ministers from the ruling coalition break away to form a new party, the National Rainbow Coalition-Kenya.
Aug. 22 - Government agrees to opposition calls for parts of the constitution to be amended ahead of 2007 elections.
Sept. 16, 2007 - Kibaki announces candidacy on the ticket of Party of National Unity, created as his re-election vehicle.
Dec. 27 - Voters elect a new president and parliament. Most opinion polls give a lead to Kibaki's opposition rival Raila Odinga of the Orange Democratic Movement.
Dec. 30 - Kibaki wins close-run election by the narrow margin of 230,000 votes and is hurriedly sworn in.
Dec. 31 - The government floods the streets with security forces and keeps a ban on live TV broadcasts after riots convulse the nation.
Jan. 1, 2008 - A mob torches a church, killing about 30 villagers.
Jan. 2 - President Kibaki's government accuses rival Raila Odinga's backers of "ethnic cleansing" as the death toll from tribal violence reaches some 300.
Jan. 3 - Attorney General Amos Wako calls for an independent probe into the election. After hours of police clashes with thousands of protesters, the opposition call off a planned demonstration.
plez sez: over 300 people have died as a result of violence in formerly peaceful country of Kenya. i learned about this country on the African continent as a youngster in the 3rd grade; i remember that we learned a few phrases in Swahili and found the country on the map. since i was the only Black kid in my class, to this day, i feel that my teacher, ms. karpinsky, took great pride in teaching the class (and me) positive lessons about the people of Africa.
fast forward close to 40 years and the country is on the brink of civil war and genocide. Kenya boasts of being a democracy with an executive, legislative, and judicial branch of a national government; a few archaic presidential election rules aside, this election cycle seems to hinge on accusations of corruption of the electoral process and sour grapes. the loser in the election, Raila Odinga, had a hand in making proposed changes to the constitution that would weaken the office of the president. after Odinga lost the election last week, the country erupted in violence and bloodshed.
there was outrage and indignation when george bush made off with TWO presidential elections - in 2000 in florida and in 2004 in ohio - but we never gravitated to such depths of violence... we expressed our outrage via talk radio and blogs! in light of Barack Obama's win in Iowa on yesterday, i wonder if violence will be used to derail his ascent to the white house (a la Robert Kennedy)? like Kenya, when rioting and violence erupts in the US, it is usually confined to areas of the country which are ill-equipped to recover from it: poor, Black communities (recent memory brings los angeles (watts), detroit, and newark to mind)!
plezWorld hopes that the United Nations will do its job and finally intervene in a crisis situation before more bloodshed. it is probably too late to "fix" the damage done by this election, but it is obvious that Kenya would benefit from some assistance from the world community in correcting its voting irregularities and finally creating a constitution that will work for the betterment of this once peaceful country.
“The child that you send over is nothing like the child that comes back to you." - The mother of a soldier who was wounded in Iraq.
One day removed from Veterans Day, the New York Times runs a piece on the devastation that the War in Iraq lays on a family in Staten Island, NY. This mother speaks of mental and emotional damage that this war has brought to her family. Her son was badly injured (and received a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart) when a roadside explosion ripped his Humvee apart and rattled his brain, damaged nerves and hurled shrapnel into his spine, thigh and abdominal wall. Some of the shrapnel still remains embedded in his body.
Her son doesn't allow her to attend his Veterans Affairs doctor visits with him, but when he gets home, he cannot remember what the doctors told him. And they will not give her any information about his condition. Her son decided to join the Army soon after the 9/11 attacks that killed a firefighter neighbor of his.
plez sez: i want to say "Thank you" to all of the men and women who are giving their lives for the War in Iraq. 'tis such a noble deed to give one's life for his country.
i do not agree with the war; i have never been a supporter of our country (or any country for that matter) that will attack a sovereign nation without provocation or cause. the evidence is in and the justification for this war was manufactured to ensure a Declaration of War from Congress. 60 Minutes ran a story on "Curve Ball" no less than 3 weeks ago, which detailed how the story of weapons of mass destruction (wmd) was created on a pack of lies by an Iraqi informant who had no such knowledge. after US officials visited the so-called manufacturing plant, nothing was found and there was no evidence that any weapons (big or small) had ever been manufactured in the plant.
then there's the tall tale about al-Qaeda in Iraq... if they were there before the blew the place up, they sure were pretty quiet with Hussein in power. and NO ONE ever wants to talk about why we haven't bombed Afghanistan into the rubble that we did in Iraq, since that's where Al-Qaeda has been holed up since before 9/11!
how the current Congress does not find one impeachable offense by the current Bush Administration is beyond me. the current administration orchestrated a WAR - yeah, the thing that kills and maims thousands of people - without any evidence to support the war. this war was a personal vendetta by bush against Saddam hussein... nothing more... nothing less! thousands have lost their lives and thousands more are being "maintained" due to their massive injuries. i am not voting for any candidate who does not support an end to the War in Iraq.
my heart goes out to all of the families who have been adversely impacted by this illegal war. yesterday, i was sick: so, happy belated veterans day!
~ husband ~ father ~ son ~ brother ~ mentor ~ subdivision dweller ~ northern by birth ~ southern by choice ~ raised a black baptist, now guided by the spiritual ~ raised a kennedy democrat, now politically dead center (moderate) ~ raised in a Cadillac Coupe Deville, now hooked on an SUV ~ college educated and still a student of life ~ wild college frat boy and now a settled alumnus ~ intellectual yet fun-loving geek ~ technical and leading edge ~ corporate cog ~ consultant ~ college football saturday devotee ~ and a ramblin' gamblin' helluva engineer (GO JACKETS!) ~
This is my personal blog. The views expressed on these pages are mine; and they are in no way associated with the views of my employer, family, friends, or associates.
Over the past couple of years, there has been a growing epidemic of taser-related deaths at the hands of the police. Unfortunately, an unsettling number of these deaths are Black men. As peace officers, the job of the police is to maintain order and enforce laws. Using their police powers to indict, convict, and execute innocent Americans has never been part of their job description. The only time that deadly force should be used is when their lives or the safety of the general public is threatened.
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