truesee's Blog

Birtherism: Where it all began

Ben Smith and Byron Tau - Apr. 22, 2011 12:38 PM
POLITICO.COM

 

Hillary and Obama

The answer lies in Democratic, not Republican politics, and in the bitter, exhausting spring of 2008. At the time, the Democratic presidential primary was slipping away from Hillary Clinton and some of her most passionate supporters grasped for something, anything that would deal a final reversal to Barack Obama.

The theory's proponents are a mix of hucksters and earnest conspiracy theorists, including prominently a lawyer who previously devoted himself to 'proving' that the Sept. 11 attacks were an inside job. Its believers are primarily people predisposed to dislike Obama. That willingness to believe the worst about officials of the opposite party is a common feature of presidential rumor-mongering: In 2006, an Ohio University/Scripps Howard poll found that slightly more than half of Democrats said they suspected the Bush Administration of complicity in the Sept. 11 attacks.

While there is no grain of truth to either fantasy, there's something else when it comes to Obama: A visceral reaction against him, a deep sense that the first black president, with liberal views and a Muslim name, must be--in some concrete, provable way--foreign.

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2011/04/22/20110422birtherism-where-it-all-began-obama-politico.html#ixzz1KJAGdyuz

She used 4 easy tips to lose weight

11:45 PM, Apr. 20, 2011 

 

Michael Armstrong

 

A City of Poughkeepsie man who took part in a robbery that netted him and his accomplice less than a dollar in change will spend up to seven years in state prison.

"You and your accomplice robbed this man, and he was shot, and all you got was 86 cents," Dutchess County Court Judge Stephen L. Greller told 22-year-old Michael Armstrong as he imposed the sentence Wednesday in the County Courthouse.

Armstrong admitted last month that he and 18-year-old Devonte Burks accosted a man Aug. 21 at Academy and Montgomery streets in the city and demanded money.

Burks acknowledged during his plea last month that he was holding a handgun that went off during the robbery, seriously injuring the victim.

He contended that the shooting had been accidental.

Burks faces an 11-year sentence for the crime, Senior Assistant District Attorney Robert Knapp said.

"And the whole thing was over some pocket change," Knapp said.

Both men entered guilty pleas to first-degree robbery, a felony.

As part of their plea agreements, Armstrong and Burks will be ordered to pay the victim $65,031 for his medical bills.

Knapp said the victim underwent surgery after he was shot in the stomach.

 

 

Gloria Borger

CNN Senior Political Analyst

April 22, 2011 6:02 a.m. EDT

 

Is Donald Trump bankrupting the GOP?   Washington (CNN)-- At this stage in a presidential campaign, there's always someone -- and sometimes it's more than one -- who flirts with running and thinks a few things, as in: Why not me? (I'm smarter than the rest of those clowns!) What's the worst that could happen? (I'll be in demand on the lecture circuit!) My fill-in-the-blank (book, TV show) will be assured of take-your-pick (readers, ratings) and I will be rich. Or, in Donald Trump's case, richer. Usually, these candidates are, er, interesting to watch. GOPer Alan Keyes comes to mind, a conservative presidential wannabe in 2000 who once jumped into a mosh pit during the Iowa caucuses. Then there's Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a liberal Democrat who ran in 2004 and 2008, and who was once a wunderkind known as "the boy mayor" of Cleveland. (That would not be enough, however, to win Ohio.) Or Ron Paul (father and now roommate of son, Sen. Rand Paul), who caught on last time around as the antiwar Republican and who was, always, eminently quotable and good TV. Speaking of TV, there's Trump. At least these other men had things to say. Trump just seems to have things to sell. Actually, one thing to sell: himself. It would all be very amusing (especially the parts where he has easy solutions to all of our problems, such as: What to do with Libya? Take their oil!) if he weren't so, well, Trumpish. By that I mean insufferable -- and not just because he's always the biggest bloviator -- but because he sized up a political situation and figured out how to exploit it. Like a business deal. The reasoning is as follows: I need to run for president. I need to find a way to get my numbers up in the polls. (Immediately!) So I need to find an instant base of support. And where is that? Among the anti-establishment GOP wing, some of whom are Obama haters, willing to believe just about anything, but most of whom just want to stick it to the regular GOP folks who have betrayed the cause. So how does a once-liberal (abortion rights? Nevermind) GOPer do that? He tells the world he can fix the deficit problem pronto, calls Obama the worst president ever and becomes a "birther." Deal done! Take it to the bank! How sad for serious Republicans with real ideas. Just as party regulars were fretting over Sarah Palin and Rep. Michele Bachmann, now they've got Trump the birther. Just as the congressional Republicans were getting up a head of steam as seriously intentioned budget cutters, in walks the carnival barker sending detectives to look for Obama's birth certificate. "Trump is desperately clawing to the ideological right and using his issue to define himself and his ideology," moans one GOP strategist. "It makes this birther thing a real issue, and that's not what we need." But alas, it's what Republicans now have. In a way, they have only themselves to blame: While Republicans should have put an end to the birther nonsense at the very start, they stoked it. While a few (like Tim Pawlenty) have called it nonsense, others (Palin) have refused to let it die. Just as with the "debate" about whether Obama is a Christian, they instead are happy to chant the mantra "I take the president at his word." That's keeping it alive, while trying to sound reasonable. And that's double talk that no one should accept from any politician. It's gives "cynical" new meaning. Even so, there are some Republicans out there who would like to have a real debate with Obama about things called issues. And, for them, the Trump birther nonsense is worrisome for the party's prospects. Why? Because this is a conversation Republicans are having with each other, not the country. "Anybody who believes the guy (Obama) wasn't born in this country is already voting for us," says another GOP strategist. "This takes the whole Republican discussion out of the mainstream." Karl Rove, who knows how to win elections, is clearly miffed, calling Trump's bid a "joke." "If he wants to base his entire campaign upon whether or not Barack Obama was really born in the United States, that's his privilege. I just think that's a losing strategy." Indeed, recent CNN polling shows that 74 percent of independent voters believe that Obama was born in the United States. Presumably, the birther issue is not among their top concerns. In the meantime, the president gets to spend the next 18 months talking to independent voters -- which is where the election will be won or lost. And instead of focusing on jobs and the economy, Republicans are sadly engaged in a circular and distracting rant, speaking to no one but themselves. No matter how this all turns out, Trump will hit the big casino. But he could bankrupt the GOP first. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Gloria Borger.

Sloppy criminal left behind note with name, police say

 

Heist suspect's post: 'IM RICH'

Boasts on Facebook lead feds to the arrest of 4 in Houston bank robbery

SUSAN CARROLL
HOUSTON CHRONICLE

April 21, 2011, 9:26PM

Two days before a west Houston bank heist, a 19-year-old bank teller named Estefany Martinez posted a cryptic status update on her Facebook page: "Get $$$."

It would take a little over a week and a Crime Stoppers tip before investigators unraveled the plot twist behind the March 23 robbery of the International Bank of Commerce on Eldridge Parkway.

What looked on surveillance video to be a classic bank robbery — with armed, masked suspects and terrorized bank tellers — turned out to be an amateurish inside job, allegedly orchestrated by two 19-year-old tellers with the help of a boyfriend and an older brother.

Using an incriminating trail of Facebook posts left by Martinez and her 18-year-old boyfriend, Ricky "Ricko Gee" Gonzalez, detectives arrested four suspects this week on bank theft charges, alleging they made off with $62,000.

Their Facebook pages held not-so-subtle clues: Two days after the robbery, Martinez posted: "IM RICH …" followed by a rhyming expletive.

"WIPE MY TEETH WITH HUNDEREDS …" her boyfriend allegedly posted the day after the heist. He also boasted of wiping another part of his anatomy with $50 bills.

A lesson to be learned

An attorney for Martinez, Richard Kuniansky, described his client as "young and immature," suggesting there is a lesson in her current predicament.

"I've always heard that you shouldn't post pictures of yourself on Facebook smoking pot or drinking because employers are now looking at Facebook pages," he said. "But I never knew there should be a warning not to post about a bank robbery that's been committed."

The Facebook posts by Martinez and Gonzalez about the bank heist were part of a criminal complaint unsealed in Houston federal court this week.

Authorities allege Martinez and teller Anna Margarita Rivera started planning the bank heist at 1545 Eldridge Parkway about a month in advance. Rivera told investigators that she was working at the same bank during a robbery on Nov. 17 and "believed staging the robbery would be easy" since she'd never heard of anyone being arrested in connection with that theft.

Martinez enlisted Gonzalez, and Rivera recruited her brother, 22-year-old Arturo Solano, according to the complaint.

The tellers told investigators that they made sure they were the only ones working during the robbery. Wearing plastic masks purchased from a dollar store, Gonzalez and Solano entered the bank about 5:45 p.m. and jumped over the teller counter, demanding money, according to investigators. While one suspect cleaned out the cash drawers, the other took Martinez and Rivera to the vault.

Martinez and Rivera took steps to make the robbery look legitimate. They included tracking devices in the money bags, instructing Gonzalez and Solano to ditch them right away, investigators said. One of the suspects left behind his gun, which turned out to be plastic.

'Trying to be funny'

The celebratory Facebook posts started shortly after they divided the loot at Rivera's apartment, officials say.

"U HAVE TO PAST THE LINE SOMETIMES!! TO GET DIS MONEY!!" Gonzalez posted on his Facebook page the day after the theft.

Lance Craig Hamm, an attorney for Gonzalez, said his client was not talking about the robbery on his Facebook page. "He literally was just talking, trying to have fun, trying to be funny," Hamm said.

Two days after the heist, Martinez posted about being "RICH." Kuniansky said Martinez is a single mother and had plans to go to college. Now she faces up to 10 years in prison, he said.

An attorney for Rivera could not be reached for comment. No attorney was listed in federal court records for Solano.

A Facebook page for "Ricko Gee" Gonzalez of Houston was still up as of Thursday evening. Under employer, it read: "Make money both ways Dirty and Clean!!

Law enforcement tool

It's not just tech-savvy, big-city types like the FBI-led Houston Area Bank Robbery Task Force that use Facebook as a law enforcement tool. In March, Texas Parks and Wildlife Game wardens used it to track down the killer of an 11½-foot alligator in Bastrop County.

Andy Kahan, the city of Houston's crime victim advocate, said he was tipped off about a Facebook page on which a probationer, who wasn't supposed to be drinking, posted photos of himself holding bottles of liquor and beer and an open invitation to a party featuring "trash can punch."

One post read: "Probation on the 23rd - party's gotta be moved - sorry folks. On the upside, that just means more time to plan."

Kahan said he contacted the probation department and said: "I've got a gift-wrapped delivery for you."

Iowa professor, Ellen Lewin, under fire for vulgar email telling college Republicans: 'F--- YOU!'

Philip Caulfield
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Thursday, April 21st 2011, 1:16 PM

12:28 p.m. EDT, April 21, 2011

Six years after her arrest for disorderly conduct, Sherrie Sandau can still remember the coldness of the police car seat against her skin as she sat handcuffed and half-naked in the back of the car.

She was wearing only a long tank top and a short undershirt -- the clothes she wore to bed the previous night, she told jurors in a quavering voice Wednesday. She was disoriented after having fallen from a ladder the previous day and she was confused why Portland police officers had pulled her out of her home and arrested her.

But she recalled asking the police officer for clothing to cover her lower half. The officer said no, she testified. "So I asked him again with 'please.'" The answer did not change and she was taken to the jail without any pants or underwear.

Although Sandau said she could not recall several aspects of the July 2005 encounter with police, she related the humiliation she felt. The incident was so painful she has difficulty leaving her home, she said.

Sandau is pressing a federal civil rights lawsuit seeking $750,000 in damages against the two men, current Portland Officer Christopher Cass and former Portland officer John A. Wood, who resigned in 2006 after two official misconduct convictions. She also is suing the city over Wood's entering her home without a warrant.

Sandau, who is now 53, trembled throughout her testimony. Her hand shook violently as she raised it to be sworn in and she sniffled repeatedly during her testimony.

Dr. Saskia Hostetler Lippy, Sandau's psychiatrist, testified earlier that Sandau has post-traumatic stress disorder. She listed the criteria, noting how Sandau exhibits many symptoms -- uncontrollable shaking, nightmares and fear of leaving the house.

Even a car door slamming causes her to run to a window, fearing that the police are coming for her again, Hostetler Lippy said.

Sandau also said she won't sleep in her own bed, opting instead for the living room couch where she can "guard" the front door.

Attorneys for the two men and the city contend that the officers did not immediately realize she was not wearing underwear and that their actions were reasonable. They were responding to a neighbor's complaint over noise and Sandau was belligerent, they said.

They also noted that Sandau had been diagnosed and treated for panic attacks and depression four years before the arrest. She also suffered an aneurysm about 20 years ago and continues to deal with related issues that a psychiatrist said under cross-examination might cause some behavior changes.

 

Philemon Ofosu (Colonie Police Department)

 

COLONIE -- A Watervliet man was arrested after he picked up a $1,900 flat-screen TV off the shelf at Wal-Mart and took it straight to the returns counter, police said.

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Man-accused-of-taking-TV-asking-for-his-money-1343798.php#ixzz1K9xppuY5

Special-ed student Joseph Anderson, 7, handcuffed by cops at Queens school after Easter egg tantrum

Meredith Kolodner
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Thursday, April 21st 2011, 4:00 AM

Cops handcuffed a 7-year-old at a Queens school after he became upset while decorating an Easter egg, his mom said.

Say goodbye to so-called fake pot.

The countdown has begun for an all-out ban on synthetic marijuana products in Texas. On Friday, products like K2 and spice are being outlawed. It will be illegal to manufacture, distribute, sell, or even possess these substances, which are often marked as herbal incense.   

Substance abuse counselor Linda James says make no mistake-- it is very similar to marijuana.

"This is a mood altering chemical. This is another drug, another way that people have found to change reality and get high," said James. "If it didn't alter the way you felt they wouldn't use it and there wouldn't have been such a demand for the product and an outcry."

James works at the Lufkin Alcohol Drug Abuse Council where she says she's treated several clients who have used K2.

"They have been under the influence. Their behavior has become unmanageable. There were several incidents of family violence with youth under the influence," said James. "One female indicated it as addictive and used it. It lead her back to marijuana really quickly she said and then almost back to a couple of other drugs."

Since January of 2010 about 600 calls were made to the Texas Poison Center Network related to K2 exposure. The Texas Department of State Health Services is following several other states in outlawing synthetic marijuana products.

"This is just a step in the right direction that our country and our nation and our people that we realize that addiction is a problem and we're trying to do something about it," said James.

James says the ban will help protect young people while lowering the crime rate.

"Our community will be safer," she said.

Legal penalties include up to a $4,000 fine and jail time.

Again, the ban takes effect Friday. It follows a temporary ban in March making "fake pot" products illegal for at least a year.   

 

(News Release) - The Texas Department of State Health Services is outlawing marijuana-like substances that are commonly found in K2, Spice and other synthetic marijuana products. The ban will become effective April 22.

DSHS placed five synthetic cannabinoid substances in Schedule I of the Texas Schedules of Controlled Substances, making it illegal to manufacture, distribute, possess and sell the substances. Penalties for the manufacture, sale or possession of K2 are Class A or B misdemeanors.

K2 or Spice, often marketed as herbal incense, contain substances that produce psychoactive effects similar to those from smoking marijuana. These marijuana-like substances are readily available through smoke shops, gas stations and the Internet.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration used its emergency scheduling authority to temporarily ban synthetic marijuana or similar "fake pot" products that mimic the effects of marijuana. The DEA action March 2 made it illegal to manufacture, sell or possess these products for at least one year.

Following the DEA's action, DSHS is required by state law to place the substances on the Texas Schedules of Controlled Substances unless the commissioner objects.Schedule I, the most restrictive category on the Texas Schedules of Controlled Substances, is reserved for unsafe, highly abused substances with no accepted medical use. Five chemicals, JWH -018, JWH-073, JWH-200, CP-47,497, and cannabicyclohexanol that are found in K2 were placed on the Schedule.

Penalties for the manufacture, sale or possession of K2 are outlined in Section 481.119 of the Texas Controlled Substances Act. The penalties remain in effect unless the Texas Legislature determines a different penalty group for the substances.

Persons found guilty of a Class A misdemeanor are subject to a fine not to exceed $4,000 and/or confinement in jail for a term not to exceed one year. Persons found guilty of a Class B misdemeanor are subject to a fine not to exceed $2,000 and/or confinement in jail for a term not to exceed 180 days.

Since January 2010, approximately 600 calls were made to the Texas Poison Center Network related to K2 exposure. Reported adverse effects associated with use of these marijuana-like substances include chest pain, heart palpitations, agitation, drowsiness, hallucinations, nausea, vomiting, dizziness and confusion.

--DSHS Press Office