So Many Jokes, So Little Time

McKinney Decries 'Inappropriate Touching' by Capitol Police

Friday, March 31, 2006

WASHINGTON — Rep. Cynthia McKinney accused a Capitol Police officer of "inappropriate touching" on Friday as rumors flew around Capitol Hill that the Georgia Democrat would be arrested for her role in a bizarre physical altercation.

"This whole incident was instigated by the inappropriate touching and stopping of me, a female black congresswoman. I deeply regret that this incident occurred and I am certain that after a full review of the facts, I will be exonerated," McKinney said at a press conference at Howard University.

While McKinney asserted her innocence, her lawyer said she was "just a victim of being in Congress while black.

"Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, like thousands of average Americans across this country, is, too, a victim of the excessive use of force by law enforcement officials because of how she looks and the color of her skin," James W. Myart Jr. said.

Myart planned to file charges against the officer for excessive use of force, Capitol Police said.

McKinney was flanked by leaders from civil rights organization and a couple dozen schoolchildren from her district who were coincidentally in the nation's capitol on a field trip, according to a spokesman. Several of the children, most of whom were black, held up signs reading "God Bless Cynthia."

Capping off the 35-minute press conference were celebrities Danny Glover and Harry Belafonte, both of whom are vocal civil rights supporters and critics of the Bush administration.

“We’re not here to judge the merits of the case, but here to support our sister,” said Glover, most famous for the "Lethal Weapon" movie franchise.

Belafonte said he and Glover would be watching the outcome.

"In America and Washington, D.C., issues of race have always been at play and have often been central to justice miscarried. ... We're here to be sure that this process is handled fairly and it is not rooted in a familiar racist behavior, that the outcome of this is going to be done on a very fair and a very square basis," the singer-activist said.

The incident occurred on Wednesday, when McKinney allegedly struck a Capitol Police officer after entering a House office building and refusing to stop at the request of the officer, who apparently did not recognize the congresswoman.

Congressional sources told FOX News that the officer, Paul McKenna, signed an affidavit swearing that McKinney responded to what he described as standard security procedures by punching him in the chest with a cell phone in her hand.

Howard Pressley, president of NAACP Georgia, called the incident a tragedy and use of excessive force.

"The mistreatment of Cynthia McKinney at the hands of Capitol Hill Police is a tragedy of major proportion and points to the vigor of outright disrespect for women and people of color," Pressley said.

Pressley and Myart also implied that McKinney's "progressive" politics may have made her a target for mistreatment.

An assistant to Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, R-Mich., witnessed the incident and gave a statement to Capitol Police, sources told FOX News. The witness, whose name is being withheld, told police that she saw McKinney hit a police officer. The witness was unaware that McKinney was a congresswoman.

McKinney was not wearing her congressional lapel pin during the altercation, which Capitol Police officers use to identify lawmakers and allow them to bypass security checks.

"I do wear the pin when I remember to wear the pin, but the pin is not the issue. If security is based on the pin, I've seen many, many members of Congress who don't have their pins on," McKinney said. "The issue is face recognition."

"Congresswoman McKinney, in a hurry, was essentially chased and grabbed by the officer," Myart said. "She reacted instinctively in an effort to defend herself."

While rumors flew that an arrest warrant would be issued for McKinney, two law enforcement officials said it was unlikely a warrant would be issued this week. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Several Capitol Police officials have said the officer involved asked McKinney three times to stop. When she did not, he placed a hand on her and she hit him, they said.

In a draft of a statement that McKinney did not release, she said the officer "bodyblocked" her during the incident, and she blamed his failure to recognize her on a recent makeover.

"It is ... a shame that while I conduct the country's business, I have to stop and call the police to tell them that I've changed my hairstyle so that I'm not harassed at work," McKinney said in the draft, which was obtained by WSB-TV of Atlanta and posted on its Web site.

An official close to McKinney said the statement was a "work product" never intended to be released.

Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers weighed in on the incident.

"Rep. McKinney appearing with the star of 'Lethal Weapon?' Not exactly the message you want to be sending," said Ron Bonjean, spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.

In January, during President Bush's State of the Union address, Capitol Police drew criticism for first kicking anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan out of the House gallery, and then for evicting the wife of Rep. Bill Young, R-Fla.

The department is tasked with protecting the 535 members of Congress and the vast Capitol complex in an atmosphere thick with politics and privilege.

The safety of its members became a sensitive issue after a gunman in 1998 killed two officers outside the office of then-Republican Whip Tom DeLay of Texas.

FOX News' James Rosen, Trish Turner and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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A few observations:

1. Belafonte and Glover have nothing else better to do? Oh, that's right, they're washed up. And besides, they share some of the same whacked-out theories with Cynthia.

2. What's up with the hair?

3. Where's Al and Jesse when you want some comic relief? I guess they had some corporate shakedowns to attend to.

4. Inappropriate touching? Who would want to touch that hag. If the cop has to lay his hands on that hideous woman, he should have bitch slapped her.

5. Don't want to have an altercation with the police? How about complying with their requests to go through the metal detector in the first place instead of acting like you are so above it all?!!! Remember Rodney King? I doubt he would have been beaten if he hadn't led the police on a drug-induced high speed chase and then assaulted the arresting officers. Ever wonder what that model citizen has done since his five minutes? I'll give you a hint; he has amassed a rap sheet longer than all of the lines of coke he has ever snorted placed end to end.

6. What's up with that hair? (That deserved a second mention.)

Would Libs Support This Free Speech?

So libs support free speech, huh? And one of their ultimate displays of free speech is the burning of the American flag, right? So would they support our right to burn the Mexican flag to show our support for the ILLEGAL imigration bill and to counter protest the madness we have witnessed over the past few days? I'm quite sure the sniveling libs will find this insensitive and racist. Oh the hypocrisy!

Burn baby burn!



STORY BELOW

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March 30, 2006, 7:39AM

Opinions split over red, white and green

Mexican flags divisive topic as principal shows his support for student protests

By JENNIFER RADCLIFFE
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

Reagan High School Principal Robert Pambello was ordered to remove a Mexican flag Wednesday morning that he had hoisted below the U.S. and Texas flags that typically fly in front of his school — a symbol he agreed to fly to show support for his predominantly Hispanic student body.

At nearby Hamilton Middle School, a child was asked to wipe off Mexican and U.S. flags painted on his face. Hundreds of other students carried Mexican flags during walkouts Wednesday — acts of protest that they vow to continue until Congress rejects legislation that would further restrict immigration.

"There's no other way to be heard ... It's not the best way or the right way, but it's our way," Reagan freshman Jose Lopez, 14, said of the effort.

The Mexican flag has become a lightning rod in the immigration debate that's consumed the city and the nation this week. Students say the flag represents their pride in the contributions Mexicans make to this country. Critics, though, said watching young Hispanics in the streets with the red, green and white flags is more than they can stand. These youngsters are in the United States and should — at the least — carry the U.S. flag, they argue.

"The whole thing just makes my blood boil," said Bruce R. Wing, a 52-year-old Missouri City resident. "I want them all out of here."

Wing said the Houston Independent School District should fire Pambello.

HISD leaders said no decision has been made about possible discipline against the principal, who declined interview requests Wednesday.

"It is appropriate to fly the flags of the United States and Texas over schools in the Houston Independent School District, since we are a public entity of the state," HISD spokesman Terry Abbott said. "It would not be appropriate for the school district to advocate allegiance to a country other than the United States. Therefore, it is not appropriate to permit use of school district flagpoles for the purpose of flying flags representing other countries."

Raul Ramos, a professor of Texas history at the University of Houston, said most Mexican-Americans see no contradiction in flying the Mexican flag alongside those of Texas and the United States.

"Most students at Reagan High School have relatives or ancestors from Mexico," said Ramos. "The flag represents Mexican heritage as much if not more than citizenship."

Historical research
Ramos noted that there is a long Texas history of both flags flying. He has found Mexican and Texas flags interwined during Mexican Independence Day parades in such cities as Laredo, El Paso and San Antonio dating to 1910.

Calling HISD's decision a reaction to cultural anxiety, he said, "it's important for the school to make efforts to identify with the student body," not vice versa. "The school, after all, reflects the ethnic identity of the students sitting in its classrooms."

Nearly 60 percent of HISD's 200,000-plus students are Hispanic.

Plan to raise flag today
Some Reagan students said they will try to raise a Mexican flag again today. They said they want it to fly at least above the Texas flag on the pole.

"Just because you're in the country doesn't mean you can't show your culture," said Lewis Ramirez, 16, a sophomore at Reagan High.

Carina Muriel, a junior at Channelview High School, said she doesn't think it's appropriate for her rallying classmates to carry Mexican flags.

"If they really want to show devotion, they should be carrying U.S. flags," she said.

Muriel said students at her school are walking out, wearing white shirts and carrying Mexican flags.

"More than half don't even know why they are doing it," she said. "It seems to me that they just want to be part of something big, but they don't know what it is. They've never before cared about politics, or what was going on with our government. The reason they care now is because it gives them a chance to cut class."

Read more

HERE

Crack Is Whack!?

Houston at her Whit's end

By VICTORIA NEWTON
Showbiz Editor

SUPERSTAR Whitney Houston has spiralled into a world of squalor and degradation on deadly crack — as the shocking pictures in today's Sun newspaper reveal. It shows the disgusting mess in the singer’s bathroom after a drug binge. Drug paraphernalia including a crack-smoking pipe, rolling papers, cocaine-caked spoons and cigarette ends are strewn across the surface tops.

But Whitney, 42, no longer cares.

She was one of the biggest female artists of her generation — with a string of ’80s and ’90s hit singles like I Wanna Dance With Somebody and more than 100million albums sold.

Now she is a paranoid wreck hopelessly hooked on crack.

WHITNEY burst into the charts in 1985 with her debut Saving All My Love For You. Chart toppers like I Wanna Dance With Somebody and One Moment In Time followed. I Will Always Love You, from the soundtrack of her hit 1992 movie The Bodyguard, sold an astonishing 37 million copies. She won 21 American Music Awards and six Grammys.

Now, she is haggard, with dark circles under her eyes and a deranged look on her face. She regularly disappears for days and weeks at a time — holed up in seedy crack dens in dangerous parts of town. And she has blown much of her multi-million pound showbiz fortune on her habit.

Now family and friends fear the addiction will end in her death unless she can beat it. The bathroom photo was taken by Whitney’s sister-in-law Tina Brown at the five-bedroom mansion the star shares with her drug-abusing hubby Bobby Brown in Atlanta, Georgia.

Tina, sister of Bobby, is herself a self-confessed former addict who once regularly took crack with mum-of-one Whitney. She is now clean. But she said: “The truth needs to come out. Whitney won’t stay off the drugs. It’s every single day. It’s so ugly. Everyone is so scared she is going to overdose.”

In a shocking interview, the mother of six told how Whitney spends days locked in her bedroom amid piles of rubbish. There the woman who co-starred with Kevin Costner in the 1992 hit movie The Bodyguard smokes crack, uses sex toys to satisfy herself and ignores personal hygiene. When high on drugs, she imagines she sees demons and is being beaten by them. The sad truth is that she bites and punches her own body without realising it.

Millions of fans will find it hard to believe that THIS was once the wholesome girl admired for her stunning looks and amazing voice. The artist who started out aged 11 in a church gospel choir, encouraged by a family of top singers like her mother Cissy Houston, first cousin Dionne Warwick and godmother Aretha Franklin. Tragically, drug-crazed Whitney has refused all offers of help to get clean and has had failed spells in rehab.

Tina, 42, said: “She’ll point to the floor and say, ‘See that demon. I’m telling you somebody’s messing with Bobby’. She always thinks it’s something to do with Bobby. But it’s her, hitting herself.” In her paranoia, Whitney made a hole in the bathroom wall so she could see who was in the house. Tina said: “She breaks everything — mirrors, phones, cabinets, appliances.”

She revealed Whitney’s 13-year-old daughter Bobbi Kristina was often frightened by her mum’s weird behaviour.

Tina also claimed Whitney was so wasted on drugs that she wet herself — then put on a baby’s nappy.

Read more

HERE

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I think everyone already knew that Whitney was a crack ho, for sho. My question is; "When did Whitney turn into Scatman Crothers with a wig?"

Where Is The INS When You Need Them?!!

Illegal Aliens: Just Mobbing the Streets Americans Won't Mob

by Mac Johnson
Posted Mar 27, 2006

To the astonishment and delight of the news media, Saturday saw an unprecedented protest by an estimated 500,000 illegal aliens and their advocates in Los Angeles. Smaller rallies were held in cities across the country, opposing efforts to secure the border and finally crack down on illegal entry into America by millions of unscreened foreigners. Apparently, the protests prove what a “divisive” issue illegal immigration is. To me, they simply prove that criminals dislike the prospect of increased law enforcement.

But that’s not all the protests prove. They also prove how ridiculously out of control our federal government has let the problem get. Which is worse -- that a half million immigration criminals and their descendants and sympathizers can be found in a single American city, or that the current immigration enforcement system is such a joke that the half million have nothing to fear from openly entering the public streets and arguing against legislation currently before Congress?

It’s as if thieves thought they could form a union to lobby for fewer cops....

Read more

HERE

Seeds of Discord? We Can Only Hope!

Tehran elite turning on extremist presidency

By John R. Bradley
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
March 14, 2006

TEHRAN -- Iran's clerical and business establishments, deeply concerned by what they see as reckless spending and needlessly aggressive foreign policies, are increasingly turning against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Within this context, many see the president's long-running confrontation with the United States and Europe over Tehran's nuclear program as an attempt to demonize the West and distract the Iranian public from pressing domestic problems.
A relatively small group of extremists "at the top of the government around the president" are seeking to benefit from a crisis with the West, because "that way they will be able once again to blame the West for all of their problems," said Mousa Ghaninejad, the editor of Iran's best-selling economics daily newspaper, Dunya Al-Eqtisad.
Millions of low-income Iranians voted for the new president last year, motivated by his firm stand against corruption and pledges to give financial priority to their needs.
"His appeal was to those for whom class discrimination is important, and his simple lifestyle gave an air of credibility to his claims," said Nasser Hadian, a political analyst at Tehran University who attended high school with Mr. Ahmadinejad.
Mr. Hadian predicted that senior Iranian clerics would continue to support Mr. Ahmadinejad -- or at least not move against him -- for about a year because of that popular support. But privately, he said, they feel he is isolating Iran internationally and putting its economy at risk.
Also at the back of their minds is the fear that his anti-corruption drive ultimately threatens their own considerable privileges.
Mr. Ghaninejad was one of 13 experts in economics who warned, in two petitions to the government just before Mr. Ahmadinejad was elected, that his populist, short-term policies would spell disaster for Iran in the long term.
"Now he's throwing money at complex problems and just doesn't care about the long term. He thinks he should help the poor today and leave everything else to the Hidden Imam," the newspaper editor said, referring to a character whom Shi'ites believe will one day emerge to bring justice to the world.
The critics say Mr. Ahmadinejad's budget, which has just been approved by parliament after prolonged wrangling, flouts economic doctrines sanctioned by the powerful Expediency Council, which is under the supervision of the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iran's long-term planning calls for vigorous efforts to reduce the size of government and to curb subsidies to state-owned entities, which account for an estimated 75 percent of the economy. But the Ahmadinejad budget boosts spending by 25 percent and envisions a 31 percent increase in spending on state enterprises.
The 2006 budget also calls on the government to use up to $40 billion of its foreign cash reserves -- generated from oil sales -- to meet the fiscal year's spending needs, in spite of long-term plans calling for restraint. The value of Tehran's stock market had fallen by $10 billion under Mr. Ahmadinejad as of February, the Los Angeles Times reported. Other recent Western news reports say that the nation's vibrant real-estate market has withered and that capital outflows are increasing.
Mr. Ahmadinejad's spending has pushed the inflation rate to an estimated 13.5 percent, and several estimates say it could go as high as 30 percent this year.
Economic analysts note that inflation will be felt most acutely by the poor, undermining the president's support among his most important constituency.
Parliament has challenged the president on other issues, most notably by rejecting three successive candidates for oil minister. Mr. Ahmadinejad declared angrily after the second rejection that "no other president has ever been subject to such negative propaganda and treatment."
Mr. Ahmadinejad's detractors say the broad coalition against him is attracting many of the regime's powerful personalities and may include even the supreme leader himself, despite his superficial statements in support of the president.
They point to a recent decree by Ayatollah Khamenei giving the Expediency Council, headed by former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, oversight of the presidency.
The clerical establishment has close ties with the capitalist class and is said to be appalled at the rapid slide of the economy since Mr. Ahmadinejad's inauguration. The clerics are also thought to be deeply apprehensive about the president's aggressive foreign policy.
Mr. Ghaninejad said that by confronting Iran over its nuclear program, the West was in fact throwing a lifeline to Mr. Ahmadinejad.
"If they keep piling on the pressure, Ahmadinejad will become a national hero," the newspaper editor said.
"Let the Iranians deal with him. If you leave him alone, he will become a bankrupt politician within a year. With greater pressure, only the extremists will benefit."

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With "friends" like Russia and China, the best option in dealing with this madman might just be to let forces inside of Iran run their course. We've known for a long time that there is a large contingent of pro-western, pro-democracy people in Iran. It might just be time for them to rear their head.

Goofy Vindicated

Investigators Clear Disney Employees Of Alleged Rape

ORLANDO, Fla. -- A woman who accused a group of young men in a Disney foreign employee program of rape appears to have been a willing participant, WESH NewsChannel 2 reported.

Orange County sheriff's investigators said that a videotape surfaced showing the woman having sex with at least four men at the Gables Commons Apartments.

The woman claimed she was walking home early Sunday morning when the men attacked her.

A source has told WESH NewsChannel 2 that one of the men involved in the incident apparently videotaped the encounter, which clearly showed the woman was an active participant.

No charges were filed in the case.

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"I'd like to thank all of those who believed in me and stood by me during my time of need, da'heel!"