The Sniper

Gang members themselves are the latest to come out against police Supt. Jody Weis’ strategy to put pressure on them and curb gang violence.

At 10 a.m., gang members are expected to hold a news conference at the Columbus Park Refectory, at 5701 W. Jackson Blvd. on the city’s West Side.

Gang members are also expected to attend another news conference that is being held by local clergy at 11 a.m., at the New Life Christian Ministries of Greater Chicago, 8201 S. Jeffery Blvd.

They are taking issue with Weis’ strategy of meeting with gang leaders and warning them of serious consequences if violence continues.

First, why doesn’t the police set up a finger printing station at the two news conferences and these angelic gang members can be voluntarily finger printed so that their good name can be cleared of any suspected gang crimes?

Second, why would clergy be against gang members being caught? I guess it is better for someone’s grandma to get mugged as part of a gang initiation. Hopefully they will do it AFTER she left her offering in the plate.

Another person is swayed to violence by the VRWC and their minions on talk radio and rabid Bloggers.

SILVER SPRING, Md. — Police shot to death a man armed with several bombs who held three hostages Wednesday at the Discovery Communications building. Authorities said the hostages were safe.

At least one device on the man’s body went off when he was shot inside the building in suburban Washington, D.C., Montgomery County police Chief Thomas Manger said. Police were trying to determine whether two boxes and two backpacks the gunman had also contained explosives.

Right wing domestic terrorism.

Manger said SWAT officers shot the gunman about 4:50 p.m. ET because officials “believed the hostages were in danger.” The hostages — two Discovery Communications employees and a security guard — were unhurt after the four-hour standoff.

Thank goodness that this facist did not hurt civilians.

An NBC News producer who called the building to find out what was going on had a brief telephone conversation with the man when he came on the line unexpectedly. He identified himself as James J. Lee and said, “I have a gun and I have a bomb. … I have several bombs strapped to my body ready to go off.”

NBC News informed Montgomery County authorities of the conversation as the producer spoke to the man for about 10 minutes. NBC News did not report the conversation until the hostage situation had been resolved.

Speaking to reporters, Manger would not release the man’s identity, but numerous law enforcement authorities gave NBC News the same name — James J. Lee. Lee, 43, was a longtime protester at the building who was sentenced to six months of supervised probation for disorderly conduct in March 2008.

Manger said the suspect held the hostages in the lobby area of the first floor. He said police spent several hours negotiating with the armed man after he entered the suburban Washington building about 1 p.m.

The building in the close-in suburb of Washington was safely evacuated, including the Discovery Kids Place day care center, and none of the 1,900 people who work in the building were hurt.

I am sure that after hearing Rush talk about…

Lee appears to have posted environmental and population-control demands online, saying humans are ruining the planet and that Discovery should develop programs to sound the alarm.

… umm …

“I want Discovery Communications to broadcast on their channels to the world their new program lineup and I want proof they are doing so. I want the new shows started by asking the public for inventive solution ideas to save the planet and the remaining wildlife on it,” the alleged manifesto reads, adding:

“Nothing is more important than saving … the Lions, Tigers, Giraffes, Elephants, Froggies, Turtles, Apes, Raccoons, Beetles, Ants, Sharks, Bears, and, of course, the Squirrels. The humans? The planet does not need humans.”

…well…

Court records show that Lee was arrested Feb. 21, 2008, on the sixth day of a protest at the Discovery building. At the time of his conviction in March 2008, he was identified as being from San Diego.

Police were called to the scene when a crowd that had gathered began growing “unruly” as Lee threw thousands of dollars of cash into the air, some of it still in shrink-wrapped packages, police said at the time. (Lee was found not guilty of littering.)

Lee said at the time that he experienced an ‘‘awakening” when he watched former Vice President Al Gore’s environmental documentary ‘‘An Inconvenient Truth.”

Nothing to see here, please move along. 8 years of failed policy! We hate BUSH!!

STATESVILLE, NC (WBTV) – A man who was with about a dozen people who were looking for a legendary “ghost train” in Iredell County was hit by a locomotive and killed early Friday morning.

The incident happened on a train trestle at 2:45 a.m. near the 900 block of Buffalo Shoals Road.

Robin Chapman, a spokesperson for Norfolk-Southern Railroad, said the eastbound train consisted of three locomotives and no freight cars.

The train was rounding a curve and approaching a trestle over Boston Creek just prior to Buffalo Shoals Road when it struck a man on the trestle, Chapman said.

Christopher Kaiser, 29, died at the scene and two more people were injured, according to Iredell County Sheriff Phillip Redmond. Kaiser’s body was found below the trestle down a steep incline, he said.

Everyone take a deep breath and put a low-dose aspirin under your tongue. Ok, now you may continue.

Last night President Obama and First Lady Obama dined at State Road Restaurant in West Tisbury on Martha’s Vineyard.

Their dinner companions were family friends Dr. Eric and Cheryl Whitaker, senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, and lawyer and business executive Vernon Jordan and wife Ann Dibble Jordan.

As they departed the restaurant at 9:55 pm ET, reporters asked the president if he was enjoying his vacation even with the rain.

“I’m having a great time,” the president said. “Doing a lot of reading”

Isn’t that great? Isn’t it? Let’s see, this week’s Number 1 priority is:

Eating out every night.

And before you libs get on here, I know what you were going to say, “He was just talking up the restaurant.” Save it.

Among the president’s reading materials is Jonathan Franzen’s “Freedom,” which is not yet on shelves. During a weekend visit to a local bookstore in Vineyard Haven the owner gifted the president with the store’s advanced reading copy.

Minutes after leaving the restaurant, Vernon Jordan appeared on a rerun of CBS’ The Good Wife, trying to purchase the fictitious Chicago law firm Stern, Lockhart & Gardner.(The episode originally aired in May.)

Jordan is a friend of the owner of State Road Restaurant – so much so that you can hear his voice on the restaurant’s phone message.

“He’s a friend of mine and I adore his voice,” owner Mary Kenworth told ABC News. The restaurant opened June 2009, but Kenworth and her husband were the original owners of The Sweet Life Café – where the president dined on Monday night and where Kenworth first met the Jordans.

Kenworth said she’d been asked not to talk about what the Obamas ordered,

gosh I wonder why

but “the whole table got lobster tempura with island corn succotash and lemon vinaigrette” in addition to their individual entrees.

It sure wouldn’t look good for Barack One-term Obama and his “Tho shall eat healthy” wife to be dining in some ritzy restaurant while Rome burns.

I can hear the press secretary now, “It should be ok to say to tell the serfs that they “split” the lobster tempura. Make sure you emphasize they split it.”

“It was very exciting for all of us, they were extremely lovely to everyone here,” she said.

Deb: What are you drawing?
Napoleon Dynamite: A liger.
Deb: What’s a liger?
Napoleon Dynamite: It’s pretty much my favorite animal. It’s like a lion and a tiger mixed… bred for its skills in magic.

ITN News reports from Taiwan, where a male lion and female tigress have produced rare offspring.

Only two of the cubs survived — known as ligers — and are being hand reared by zoo staff, as they have been rejected by their mother. The private zoo where they were born says that the lion and tigress have been mating for three years, though no pregnancy has ever resulted. The animals have lived together since becoming comfortable around each other at a young age.

Please read the below and then choose the correct title. Feel free to add your own.

1) We have found the enemy and he is us.

2) The enemy [Joe Arpaio] of my friend [Illegal Immigrants] is my [DOJ] enemy (The Axis/Allied syndrome).

3) He is guilty of something, now let’s figure out what we can convict him of.

4) Write in.

Now, H/T to the WaPo

U.S. may sue Arizona’s Sheriff Arpaio for not cooperating in investigation

By Jerry Markon and Stephanie McCrummen
Wednesday, August 18, 2010; A01

A federal investigation of a controversial Arizona sheriff known for tough immigration enforcement has intensified in recent days, escalating the conflict between the Obama administration and officials in the border state.

Justice Department officials in Washington have issued a rare threat to sue Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio if he does not cooperate with their investigation of whether he discriminates against Hispanics. The civil rights inquiry is one of two that target the man who calls himself “America’s toughest sheriff.” A federal grand jury in Phoenix is examining whether Arpaio has used his power to investigate and intimidate political opponents and whether his office misappropriated government money, sources said.

The standoff comes just weeks after the Justice Department sued Arizona and Gov. Jan Brewer (R) because of the state’s new immigration law, heightening tensions over the issue ahead of November’s midterm elections. The renewed debate has focused attention on Arpaio, a former D.C. police officer who runs a 3,800-employee department, and a state at the epicenter of the controversy over the nation’s estimated 12 million illegal immigrants.

Once seen as a quirky figure who has inmates dress in pink underwear and forces them to work on chain gangs, Arpaio has in recent years become a kind of folk hero to those who favor his heavily publicized “crime sweeps,” conducted mostly in Hispanic neighborhoods. But civil rights groups accuse the 78-year-old lawman of racial profiling. And some Maricopa County officials say Arpaio has begun meritless corruption investigations of officials who have criticized his policies or opposed his requests.

Those allegations are at the core of the Justice Department investigations, according to documents, lawyers familiar with the inquiries, and people who have been questioned by FBI agents and the grand jury.

The investigations reflect the tangled politics surrounding the immigration debate. The criminal probe is led by Dennis K. Burke, the U.S. attorney in Phoenix who was a top aide to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

Two of Arpaio’s attorneys, Robert N. Driscoll and Asheesh Agarwal, were officials in the Justice Department’s civil rights division in the George W. Bush administration. They denied that the sheriff, a Republican who has been reelected four times since 1992, has been uncooperative or has engaged in racial profiling, misusing money or targeting political enemies.

“The sheriff’s office is cooperating fully with the grand jury investigation and has complete confidence that the inquiry will clear it of any wrongdoing,” Agarwal said. “The office has always fulfilled its responsibilities truthfully, honorably, and in full compliance with state and federal law.”

Arpaio’s attorneys contend that the investigations are politically motivated, citing a news conference in March at which Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. was quoted as saying he expects the inquiries to “produce results.”

“While we have no quarrel with the assistant U.S. attorneys handling the investigation, the attorney general’s comments appear to violate federal regulations, departmental policy and state ethical rules designed to ensure the fairness of criminal investigations,” Agarwal said.

“There is no question there is a concerted effort to make this [the NY mosque] a political issue by some. And I join those who have called for looking into how is this opposition to the mosque being funded,” Nancy Pelosi said [emphasis mine]. “How is this being ginned up that here we are talking about Treasure Island, something we’ve been working on for decades, something of great interest to our community as we go forward to an election about the future of our country and two of the first three questions are about a zoning issue in New York City.”

Well toots, you are the leader of the House. The leader of the country and the leader of the Senate have weighed in. The reason you are asked these questions is to determine where you stand. And your stand is to investigate how the people that are against the mosque are getting funded.

Calls to investigate the funding for those proposing the $100 million “Cordoba House” have fallen on deaf ears, though, as New York’s Mayor Mike Bloomberg has described such an investigation as “un-American.”

Meanwhile the Speaker of the House thinks it is “American” to investigate the people against the mosque.

Ms. Pelosi called the Ground Zero mosque an “urban development decision” for New Yorkers to work through.

Yeah, New Yorkers (and by extension the majority of the U.S. population) should “work through” it. As in get over it.

I would tell you what I think of her, but Mrs. BNG forbids me from using that term.

One of the headlines on Drudge today refering to Prop 8.

1 Judge voids 7,000,000 voters.

I was thinking of another title, but “If loving you is wrong, I don’t wanna be right” didn’t seem to work.

PATERSON, N.J. – A man attending a block party as part of the National Night Out anti-crime initiative was shot and killed in Paterson, N.J.

Police say 39-year-old Robert Godfrey was shot in the head while arguing with another man Tuesday.

It happened in front of a crowd just before midnight at 74 Godwin Ave.

Paterson Police on Wednesday were searching for Marlon Rochester. The 30-year-old has been charged with Godfrey’s murder and weapons offenses.

Lt. Ron Humphrey says witnesses saw the two men arguing loudly when Rochester pulled a gun and shot Godfrey once in the head.

National Night Out is observed across the U.S. as an annual event meant to heighten drug and crime prevention awareness. The August 3rd event was the 27th annual night out against crime.

The following is a pure violation of their oath of office. If only the government employees had done their job…

The Virginia man suspected in a drunken-driving crash that killed a Catholic nun in Prince William County this weekend is an illegal immigrant and repeat offender who was awaiting deportation and who federal immigration authorities had released pending further proceedings, police said Monday.

Carlos Montano, a county resident, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and drunken driving. Mr. Montano had been arrested two other times on drunken-driving charges, and on at least one of those occasions county police reported him to federal authorities.

“We have determined that he is in the country illegally. He has been arrested by Prince William County Police in the past, said police spokesman Jonathan Perok.

He said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was notified at the time of one of those arrests. “At the time of this incident, the accident yesterday, he was in the deportation process and was out on his recognizance for court proceedings.”

The crash at around 8:30 Sunday morning killed Sister Denise Mosier and injured two other nuns as they were driving to a retreat at the Benedictine Monastery in Bristow, Va. The two injured nuns were in critical but stable condition late Monday, according to St. Gertrude High School in Richmond run by the Benedictine Sisters of Virginia.

Blood on the Government’s hands pure and simple.

PHOENIX – He’s been at the center of the discussions and controversies surrounding illegal immigration enforcement in Arizona for quite a while.

On the day parts of Arizona’s immigration law, SB 1070, went into effect, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is in the news for another reason: there’s a price on his head – allegedly offered by a Mexican drug cartel.

The audio message in Spanish is a bit garbled, but the text is clear.

“It’s offering a million dollars for Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s head and offering a thousand dollars for anyone who wants to join the Mexican cartel.”

A man who wants to remain anonymous says his wife received the text message Tuesday evening. It also included an international phone number and instructions to pass the message along.

“She showed it to me..I was kind of disgusted..I reported it to the Sheriff’s department yesterday..they said they were going to direct the threat squad on it.”

Lisa Allen of the Sheriff’s office says they believe the message originated in Mexico.

Although the Sheriff has received numerous death threats in the past, they believe this threat is credible because of its timing.

“Arpaio gets threats pretty routinely, but obviously with this heightened awareness of his role in the immigration issue we’ve got to take this one a little bit more seriously with a million dollar contract out on him,” said Allen.

But she says what really concerns investigators is how quickly the message may have been spread. “It’s going so many different places that our folks are looking at it and thinking well at any given point in time it could land in front of some crazy person who thinks I can do that.”

As for Arpaio’s reaction to the threat, “It’s a little bit like water off a duck’s back for him, but you never know if it’s that sense of false bravado with him..you just can’t read it, I’m sure he’s concerned, I’m sure he’s concerned for his family more than anything else,” said Allen.

The Sheriff’s office says investigators are trying to trace exactly where the text message came from, but because it did originate from an international number, that will be difficult too.

Don’t hold your breath for Mexico to help either.

“The Federal Government Can Do Most Anything in This Country’”

My biggest fear is that once November rolls around everyone will fall into the “congress stinks… except for my guy” trap that we have wallowed in for the last 30 years. We have no one to blame but ourselves for this. We allowed this monster to be created.