Walter Haut Dies

from The Associated Press
December 19, 2005

ROSWELL — A U.S. Army lieutenant who issued a now-famous news release that sparked decades of speculation about whether aliens really crash-landed here in 1947 has died.

Walter Haut, a former spokesman for the now-defunct Roswell Army Air Field, died of natural causes Thursday in Roswell, his daughter Julie Shuster said Sunday. He was 83.

Haut listened closely on July 8, 1947, as base commander Col. William Blanchard dictated information about a recovered flying saucer and ordered Haut to issue it.

The Roswell Daily Record ran a bold headline July 9, 1947: “RAAF Captures Flying Saucer on Ranch in Roswell Region.” The same day, an Army statement was released saying the recovered wreckage was only a weather balloon. “I guess they changed their mind,” Haut told The Associated Press in 1997. Haut said he never was told where the flying disc reported in his news release was found. Though he never saw a UFO, he remained a believer. “There must have been something in the skies at that time,” he said in 1997. “There’s just too much evidence.” In 1991, Haut and two other men founded The International UFO Museum where he was president until 1996.

More than 2 1 /2 million people have visited the museum since it opened in 1992, Shuster said.

It wasn’t until the late 1980s that Shuster said she and her sister learned about the Roswell incident. But they didn’t hear it from their father; they read about it in a book.

“It was not a topic of conversation at the dinner table for anybody involved,” she said.

Haut, born June 3, 1922, in Chicago, is survived by his two daughters, Shuster and Marabeth Fields of Roswell, three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren .

A viewing is scheduled Monday in Roswell at the LaGrone Funeral Home. A funeral service is set for 11 a.m. Tuesday at Trinity United Methodist in Roswell.

Costa Mesa Retaliates against Illegal Immigration

Costa Mesa Retaliates against Illegal Immigration
By: Steven Foley cross-posted @ RedState.org

In a vote by the city council late Tuesday night Costa Mesa became the first city in America to enact a controversial program that would train Costa Mesa police officers to enforce federal immigration law.

The plan would mirror the one currently being devised to give immigration training to sheriff's officers. Sheriff Mike Carona's plan
This program is allowed under a 1996 federal immigration law

142. Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of September 30, 1996 (110 Statutes-at-Large 3009)
Provisions:
A. Established measures to control U.S. borders, protect legal workers through worksite enforcement, and remove criminal and other deportable aliens:

Increased border personnel, equipment, and technology as well as enforcement personnel at land and air ports of entry;

Authorized improvements in barriers along the Southwest border;

Increased anti-smuggling authority and penalties for alien smuggling;

Increased penalties for illegal entry, passport and visa fraud, and failure to depart;

Increased INS investigators for worksite enforcement, alien smuggling, and visa overstayers;

Established three voluntary pilot programs to confirm the employment eligibility of workers and reduced the number and types of documents that may be presented to employers for identity and eligibility to work;

Broadly reformed exclusion and deportation procedures, including consolidation into a single removal process as well as the institution of expedited removal to speed deportation and alien exclusion through more stringent grounds of admissibility;

Increased detention space for criminal and other deportable aliens;

Instituted 3- and 10-year bars to admissibility for aliens seeking to reenter after having been unlawfully present in the United States;

Barred re-entry of individuals who renounced their U.S. citizenship in order to avoid U.S. tax obligations.

B. Placed added restrictions on benefits for aliens:

Provided for a pilot program on limiting issuance of driver's licenses to illegal aliens;

Declared aliens not lawfully present ineligible for Social Security benefits;

Established procedures for requiring proof of citizenship for Federal public benefits;

Established limitations on eligibility for preferential treatment of aliens not lawfully present on the basis of residence for higher education benefits;

Provided for verification of immigration status for purposes of Social Security and higher educational assistance;

Tightened the requirement for an affidavit of support for sponsored immigrants, making the affidavit a legally binding contract to provide financial support;

provided authority of States and political subdivisions of States to limit assistance to aliens in providing general cash public assistance;

Increased maximum criminal penalties for forging or counterfeiting the seal of a Federal department or agency to facilitate benefit fraud by an unlawful alien.

C. Miscellaneous provisions:

Recodified existing INS regulations regarding asylum;

Provided that the Attorney General's parole authority may be exercised only on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public health.

Created new limits on the ability of F-1 students to attend public schools without reimbursing those institutions;

Established new mandates for educational institutions to collect information on foreign students' status and nationality and provide it to INS;

Tightened restrictions regarding foreign physicians' ability to work in the United States;

Added new consular processing provisions and revised the visa waiver program.

According to the Daily Pilot

The council voted, 3-2, to pursue a two-pronged plan to have some city police employees trained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Councilwomen Linda Dixon and Katrina Foley [no relation] voted against the plan. Mayor Allan Mansoor and Councilmen Eric Bever and Gary Monahan voted in favor.

supporters said this in the OC Register

Some supporters of the program echoed Mayor Allan Mansoor, who said: "Ultimately it's going to make the community safer for all of us, even those who are in the country illegally and are otherwise law-abiding."
Under another plan being considered, patrol officers could question and detain illegal immigrants first stopped on suspicion of another offense, such as speeding or soliciting a day- labor job. Police would not be allowed to conduct sweeps for undocumented immigrants.

The opposition said: (Note the age of the two people questioned)

To pass a law such as this would create negative energy and negative tension and endanger the shaky bond between Latinos and the police force," Kristin Hoeffler, 20, of Costa Mesa, said before the discussion began. "There are illegal immigrants and children of illegal immigrants, and what will happen to those children if their parents are sent away?"
"I feel like (the council) never looks at what Latinos add to the community. They only look at the negative," said Mike Burns, 20, of Costa Mesa.

The city most in need of this kind of immigration reform is Los Angeles. With SPECIAL ORDER 40 tying the hands of police men and women and turning the city into a "sanctuary city" something has got to give..

Just the mere mention of illegal immigration often leads to statistics so here we go; the current estimate is 2- to 3-million illegal immigrants in California; at a cost of $10 billion they may cost the state annually, according to a study by the Federation for American Immigration Reform is way out of control our health care costs are through the roof, our schools are bursting at the seems, and you'd be lucky to buy a two bedroom house with a floor heater in Van Nuys for $900,000.00 (obvious exaggeration but you get the point)

I think this is a great first step locally. We always here (from local officials) it's a federal issue when it comes to immigration. Obviously the people of Costa Mesa felt differently. They spoke and their local officials listened. Hopefully other cities will take notice and follow Costa Mesa's lead.

The Strange Death of James Forrestal

This story has always puzzled me:

the following is taken from an article by PETER ROBBINS:

James Forrestal was a man whose influence, policies and presence dominated the news from 1940 until 1949. But ask the average American who he was, and they will draw a blank. Excluding a handful of exceptions, this former Secretary of the Navy, former Secretary of Defense, and key architect of America’s defense establishment has effectively been written out of the history books and our national consciousness, an Orwellian bit of historical revisionism.

How and why did this quiet purge occur, and how does it relate to the classified, UFO-related history of postwar America? Did the man who created our modern Department of Defense take his own life, or was it taken from him?


The official answer is suicide. Forrestal’s death, it is said, came from a sixteenth story fall from a window at the Bethesda Naval Hospital early on the morning of May 22, 1949, where he was being treated for depression. But this account does not hold up under study of the evidence at hand which, while circumstantial, points toward murder.


Forrestal’s death was precipitated by a nervous breakdown brought on by a combination of factors. He was a complex, driven individual who assumed tremendous responsibilities in his public life while his private life suffered. The central factor in his emotional collapse, however, was related to the unique gravity of the situation he inherited when he was sworn in as America’s first Secretary of Defense on September 17, 1947.


Forrestal’s career path was essentially Princeton, the Navy, and Wall Street. In 1940, he became Under Secretary of the Navy; then in 1944 Secretary of the Navy. He superbly directed the manufacture and flow of all the Navy’s war needs, even placing himself in harm’s way more than once.


After the war, Truman asked the Army and Navy to submit plans for unification of the armed forces. This was still under way when, on June 24, 1947, Kenneth Arnold’s UFO sighting became the subject of international press coverage. The modern age of UFOs began. Then, on or about the fourth of July, something, or things, crashed in the plains of New Mexico less than eighty miles from Roswell, home of the world’s only atomic bomb wing. Forty-eight hours later the story was international news.


The National Security Act was passed by Congress on July 26, and the President named Forrestal Secretary of Defense. Besides uniting the Army, Navy, and (newly independent) Air Force under a single office, the Act also created the National Security Council, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Central Intelligence Agency, and Research and Development Board.



Secretary of Defense


On September 17, 1947, en route from a state visit to Brazil, President Truman sent a message instructing that Forrestal be sworn in immediately. Why?


General Twining’s “Air Material Command Opinion Concerning Flying Discs,” is dated only six days later and stated “the phenomenon reported is something real and not visionary or fictitious.” That same day, September 23, Forrestal arrived at his new offices in the Pentagon.


The Eisenhower Briefing Document of November 18, 1952 is one of the controversial “MJ-12” documents, describing a crash of an alien vehicle at Roswell and an extraterrestrial presence on Earth. According to the document, the MJ-12 control group was created on September 24, 1947 as “a Top Secret Research and Development Intelligence operation responsible directly and only to the President of the United States.” James Forrestal is listed as number three of the twelve men named to this group. The Briefing Document came with a one page attachment that authorized the new Defense Secretary to proceed “with all due speed and caution upon your undertaking.”


During 1947 and 1948, there were several compelling UFO cases reported by the U.S. military. On January 7, 1948 Captain Thomas Mantell and two other Kentucky Air National Guard pilots were scrambled after a UFO “of tremendous size” was reported in the skies near Fort Knox. Mantell was killed when his plane exploded in an uncontrolled descent. During the summer of 1948, U.S. and Canadian military personnel faced a classified crisis in the form of a remarkable UFO encounter over Goose Bay, Labrador.


On December 10, 1948, a Top Secret “Analysis of Flying Object Incidents in the United States” was completed by Air Material Command. While the analysis stopped short of declaring the unknowns to be of unearthly origin, it did state that “the origin of the devices is not ascertainable.” Clearly, the U.S. military was talking about UFOs in a serious manner, at least at the classified level.


Meanwhile, throughout 1948, victory seemed all but assured for the Republican Presidential candidate, Thomas E. Dewey. By mid-October, Forrestal confided to a friend that he was deeply concerned that “since Dewey might be elected President, his representatives should be briefed in preparation for the possibility.” His proposal drew the resentment of Administration officials who equated it with disloyalty to the President. By late November, James Forrestal’s star was in decline at the White House.


Forrestal tendered his resignation on March 3 and met with Truman on the 10th. At that time the Secretary requested that White House personnel take possession of his multi-thousand page diary, given the amount of classified material it contained.


The Breakdown


On March 28, the day of his retirement, Forrestal joined Defense Department employees assembled to see his replacement sworn in. President Truman presented the retiring Secretary with the Distinguished Service Metal, the highest civilian decoration authorized by Congress. Unable to respond to the President’s words of praise, he was led speechless from the room.


Following the ceremonies, Air Force Secretary Stuart Symington, who had regularly challenged Forrestal’s authority, spoke with him privately. It is unknown what Symington said, but the effect on Forrestal was deeply upsetting. He was found at his desk several hours later, staring at the wall and repeating the phrase, “you are a loyal fellow.”


He was driven back to his Georgetown home where his friend Ferdinand Eberstadt soon arrived. Eberstadt was distressed by his old friend’s manner. Forrestal told him he was a total failure and was considering suicide. He was also convinced that certain persons in the White House had formed a conspiracy to “get him,” and had finally succeeded.


On April 2, Forrestal and Eberstadt flew to Florida, where their friend Robert Lovett had an estate. Over the next three days Forrestal is said to have attempted to take his life several times. The Navy sent Captain George M. Raines, Chief of Neuro Psychiatry at the Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland, to see him. But an examination had to wait. Forrestal’s family had asked Dr. William C. Menninger to be psychiatrist of record, and as such Raines was duty-bound to wait until Menninger arrived the next day.


Bethesda


The following afternoon the doctors examined the patient. They concluded the best course of action was confinement at Bethesda. Menninger, then flew back to his clinic and, while regularly briefed, never saw his patient again.


Raines accompanied Forrestal from Florida to Maryland. On the drive from the airfield to the hospital Forrestal had to be restrained from throwing himself out of the moving car. Once admitted and secured in a room on the sixteenth floor, a twenty-four hour Marine guard was put on his door. For much of the first month he was kept heavily sedated.


A week passed with no mention of Forrestal’s breakdown or hospitalization in the press or on the radio. The New York Times first ran the story on April 8 and noted that doctors were “very much encouraged by the former Defense Secretary’s response to care.”


One of the first people Forrestal called when he was allowed phone privileges was Monsignor Maurice J. Sheehy, a highly regarded prelate at the Catholic University in Washington. Forrestal asked the Monsignor to help him return to the church. Sheehy agreed and planned a visit to Bethesda.


Forrestal also phoned the White House, insisting that someone be sent over to check for a listening device in the wall of his room. The White House sent Sidney Souers, the first Secretary of the National Security Council and a former Director of the Central Intelligence Group (the direct precurser of the CIA). Admiral Souers was one of the Harry Truman’s closest friends.


Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson visited Forrestal on April 27. He reported that his predecessor looked fine and “should be out of the hospital in two to three weeks.” Also on April 27, the Air Force distributed copies of “Project Saucer” to the press, its sanitized civilian version of Project Sign.


On May 17, the New York Times reported that Forrestal had gained twelve pounds since being confined on April 2. Visitors and hospital personnel agreed that the Secretary’s condition was improving.


But Monsignor Sheehy could not get to see Forrestal. By mid-May, he had tried six times, each time being told that Forrestal was unable to see him. Frustrated, Sheehy met with Secretary of Navy John Sullivan on May 20. Sullivan contacted Bethesda and was assured that Sheehy would be able to see the patient in time. Not enough time as it turned out: James Forrestal had two days left to live.


Henry Forrestal was also concerned about his brother. He telephoned hospital administrators on May 20, telling them that he would be taking custody of his brother on Sunday, May 22, to enable him to complete his recovery privately in the countryside. He never got to see his brother, either.


Official accounts of James Forrestal’s death vary slightly, but follow this basic scenario:


At 1:45 a.m. on May 22, staff psychiatrist, Commander R. R. Deen, was asleep in the room next to Forrestal’s. An attendant, hospital apprentice R.W. Harrison, looked in on the Secretary, finding the patient awake and copying a Sophocles poem from a poetry anthology. Harrison asked Forrestal if he would like a sleeping pill. Forrestal said no. Harrison reported to Commander Deen’s room (though according to another account he reported to the hospital security station on another floor) and updated the officer on the patient’s condition. Harrison allegedly forgot to lock Forrestal’s door behind him. When he checked the room again at 1:50, it was empty and a search began.


The seventh floor duty nurse then reported hearing a loud sound from her window. This was the sound of Forrestal’s body hitting the third floor roof. Hospital authorities surmised that the patient, finding his door unlocked, walked across the hall to the efficiency kitchen, pushed open the unsecured screen window, knotted his bathrobe sash tightly around his neck, tied the free end to the radiator below the window, lowered himself out of the window, and was killed when the knot at the radiator end of the sash slipped its mooring.


Newspapers worldwide headlined the tragedy on May 23. Two days later Josephine Forrestal returned to Washington from Paris where she had been for the duration of her husband’s illness. Her first public act was to absolve everyone of blame in her husband’s death, without benefit of even a cursory investigation. That afternoon, with six thousand in attendance, James Forrestal was buried at Arlington Cemetery with full military honors, including a nineteen Howitzer salute. He was fifty seven years old.


A special naval investigating board inquired into Forrestal’s death on May 23, and concluded a week later. Despite promises by Navy and National Military Establishment press sections to release the report, none was forthcoming. On July 19, the New York Times reported that “considerable mystery surrounds a delay in releasing the report.”


On September 23, the New York Times first reported the existence of Forrestal’s diary, and that it was being held at the White House. It was described as filling an entire filing cabinet, “accompanied by many documents that still are stamped top secret.” Interestingly, two years later, a massively edited version of the diaries was published by the Viking Press, which stated that its 581 pages were drawn from the over 2,800 pages alleged to be the full extent of Forrestal’s writings. This does not square with the facts reported in the New York Times article. After all, it takes a lot more than 2,800 pages to fill a standard four or five drawer filing cabinet -- 15,000 to 20,000 pages would be a more realistic estimate.


On October 11, 1949, the Navy finally released the investigating board’s report. The report said that Forrestal died of injuries sustained in the fall, that his behavior prior to death “was indicative of a mental depression,” and “that the treatment and precautions in the conduct of the case were in agreement with accepted psychiatric practice and commensurate with the evident status of the patient at all times.”


The report also absolved “all” of any blame in Forrestal’s death: “the death was not caused in any manner by the intent, fault, negligence or inefficiency of any person or persons in the naval service or connected therewith.”


Such language suggests the Navy was more concerned with protecting itself than pursuing the matter actually under investigation.


The Death: Murder or Suicide?


New York Times features reporter Walter H. Waggoner was the lead journalist assigned to the story immediately following the tragedy. Within hours of Forrestal’s plunge, Waggoner established the following:


1. “The sash of his dressing-gown was still knotted and wrapped tightly around his neck when he was found, but hospital officials would not speculate as to its purpose.”


2. “Mr. Forrestal had copied most of the Sophocles poem from the book, but he had apparently been interrupted in his efforts. His copying stopped after he had written night of the word nightingale.”


3. “…reports from his doctors and hospital authorities had indicated steady progress toward his recovery.”


4. “It had been accepted that continued treatment would have brought Mr. Forrestal to complete recovery in a matter of months.”


5. “On the window sill from which Mr. Forrestal jumped were marks suggesting he might have changed his mind and tried to climb back in the window.”


Why was hospital apprentice R.W. Harrison, who had never had any previous contact with Forrestal, assigned to him on this particular night? One account has it that the regularly assigned attendant did not appear for his shift due to drunkenness, something which had never happened before.


Then there is the matter of Monsignor Sheehy. Forrestal had expressed a desire to return to the Church, and by implication the sanctity of the confessional. From the point of view of anyone who considered Forrestal a security risk or potential security risk, Father Sheehy would have been the last person the Secretary should have been allowed to speak with. And in six attempts to see him, the Monsignor never got beyond the reception area.


Henry Forrestal, who never did get his brother out of the hospital, became convinced that his brother had been murdered. He wasn’t alone in this belief.


Arnold A. Rogow’s book, James Forrestal: A Study of Personality, Politics and Policy is a scholarly work for which the author interviewed many who were closest to Forrestal, including Dean Acheson, Clark Clfford, Louis Johnson, Robert Lovett, Arthur Krock, Henry Forrestal, Dr. William Menninger, Dr. George Raines, and Harry Truman. Rogow was anything but a conspiracist, but did write, “among those close to him, there are even a few that are certain he was murdered, or if not murdered, that his death was very much desired by individuals and groups who in 1949 held great power in the United States.”


Aftermath


Fifty-four years ago a dedicated public servant broke under the strain of combined factors, not the least of which was his first-hand knowledge that the most powerful nation on Earth was powerless in the face of an unknown threat. He died seven weeks after suffering a nervous breakdown, was buried, eulogized, and then essentially forgotten.


I think many of us imagine that for the sufferer, an emotional breakdown is marked by internal confusion and clouded thinking. In fact, the central experience of such a dysfunction may be a terrible sense of clarity, real or imagined, about the causal circumstances of one’s undoing.


I am convinced that once James Forrestal broke under the strain, he saw the writing on the wall and knew that if he did not ‘do the right thing’ -- that is, kill himself -- that others would certainly do it for him. But once his darkest days began to fall away, and the prescribed therapy actually began to produce results, the patient on the sixteenth floor grew stronger. He began to recover his sense of self, and his will to live. This turn of events seems to have sealed his fate.


To the select group who held power in the U.S. in the mid-twentieth century, James Forrestal’s mental collapse had to be treated as a priority national security matter: the man knew everything and might say anything. The decision to force him out of that window was in no way personal. The murder of James Forrestal was simply the only way to guarantee the resolution of what this group had come to perceive as a potential security risk of the first magnitude.


But history has shown James Forrestal to have been a true patriot in word and deed, and when he was interred at Arlington National Cemetery, more than his body was laid to rest. UFO secrecy-related matters aside, his work in the Roosevelt Administration to help counter the effects of the Great Depression, his remarkable accomplishments as Secretary of the Navy and Secretary of Defense, not to mention the story of an extraordinary American life, are now all but unknown to most of us, and that is something that needs to be changed.

Clinton lied, people died!?!

Question: If Bush "lied," did former President Clinton "lie" about Kosovo?

In the past week or so the white house has begun to reply to the “Bush lied people died” accusation coming from the usual suspects. I feel the best question fro those who think President Bush lied our way into war is: If Bush lied, did Clinton lie about Kosovo?



Here are some facts about the former president and Kosovo:

In his Oval Office broadcast March 24th 1999

We act to prevent a wider war, to defuse a powder keg at the heart of Europe, that has exploded twice before in this century with catastrophic results ... By acting now, we are upholding our values, protecting our interests and advancing the cause of peace ... Ending this tragedy is a moral imperative. It is also important to America's national interests ... Do our interests in Kosovo justify the dangers to our armed forces?

I am convinced that the dangers of acting are far outweighed by the dangers of not acting – dangerous to defenseless people and to our national interests ... I have a responsibility as president to deal with problems such as this before they do permanent harm to our national interests. America has a responsibility to stand with our allies when they are trying to save innocent lives and preserve peace, freedom and stability in Europe. That is what we are doing in Kosovo.

Sound familiar? According to the New York Times April 19th 1999:

In San Francisco on Thursday, President Clinton said that the Serbs had displaced 'over a million Kosovars' and had killed and raped 'thousands upon thousands of them.' From interviews that journalists and relief workers have conducted with scores of refugees from Kosovo, there is no reason to doubt him. But at this point it is also impossible to prove that he is correct.

and the administration there were over a “million” Kosovars displaced according to USA Today July 1,1999:

Many of the figures used by the Clinton administration and NATO to describe the wartime plight of Albanians in Kosovo now appear greatly exaggerated as allied forces take control of the province ... Instead of 100,000 ethnic Albanian men feared murdered by rampaging Serbs, officials now estimate that about 10,000 were killed.

but is the 10,000 number accurate? The orange county Register in the Nov 22, 1999 edition, editorial said:

Months after the bombing has ceased, United Nations and European Union investigations have bolstered what critics had argued: NATO's estimates of Serbian genocide against the Kosovars were greatly overblown. Many observers now think the inflated numbers simply were part of the U.S.-led propaganda effort to build support for the war.

The latest evidence suggests that fewer than 3,000 Kosovars were murdered – horrifying, yes, but not many more than the number of Serbs who were killed by NATO bombing attacks on Yugoslavia, roughly estimated between 3,000 and 5,000 soldiers and civilians.

This to me says Clinton lied, people died! The intelligence turned out to be extremely wrong! I don’t remember a huge outcry for a serious investigation of intelligence failures.

The decision to go to war is a Herculean task I wouldn’t wish on anybody. Mistakes are going to be made, intelligence is not going to be 100%; 100% of the time, and inevitably someone will always look back and say I would have done it better.

I urge the left to drop the “Bush Lied” tag line. it’s simply ridiculous!

The Impending Death of STANLEY “TOOKIE” WILLIAMS

The U.S. Supreme Court, on October 11, 2005, ruled against Tookie on his final appeal and set his execution date for December 13.Stanley "Tookie" Williams, former head and co-founder of the LA Crips gang, has been on Death Row in San Quentin for more than 20 years and is scheduled for execution by lethal injection.

Here are the facts of the case:

"Stanley Tookie Williams and 3 companions began searching for a business to rob after finding themselves short of cash while driving to Pomona. They first entered an all-night market, but when one of the conspirators lost his nerve, the plan was abandoned. Williams then selected another target, the 7-11 on Whittier Blvd., where the night-clerk, Albert Lewis Owens, MW/26, was ordered into the cold box by Williams who was armed with a 12 gage shotgun. While Williams’ companions were helping themselves to the contents of the cash register (Approximately $60), Owens was heard begging for his life. Williams was shot twice in the back by Williams, who then fired a third shot into the video surveillance system. Owens’ body was found by customers who entered the store some time after the shooting.
Stanley Tookie Williams and 1 companion entered the motel, a small family-run business, and forced their way into the living quarters of Tsai-Shen Yang, FO/63, her husband Yen-Yi Yang, MO/63, and their daughter Ye-Chen Lin, FO/43. Armed with a 12 gage shotgun, Williams shot Tsai once in the upper body, and once in the base of her spine, killing her instantly. Yen-Yi was shot twice in the upper body, and Ye-Chin was shot once in the head. Both father and daughter died within hours at local hospitals. Williams and his companion took what cash they could find (Estimated at $50-$100) before fleeing.

Sheriff’s Homicide Detectives Jack Fueglein and Barry Jones were assigned the case in Pico Rivera, and Sergeant Gene Hetzel and Detective James Solar were assigned the triple-murder at the motel. The fact that Williams had killed 4 innocent people in 12 days apparently shocked even associates of the killer as numerous tips were received from the community. The shotgun was recovered and was matched ballistically to both murders. The detectives utilized their inter-personal skills to obtain information and cooperation from witnesses, including some of Williams’ co-conspirators, who stated that Williams told them that he never permitted robbery victims to live to become witnesses against him. Williams, who is the co-founder of the Crips Street Gang, was found guilty of the four murders, and lesser included offenses, and was given the death penalty. He is now in his early 50's, and resides on Death Row in San Quentin State Prison.

In the 26 years that have passed since Williams was sentenced to death, he has attained some fame as the author of a series of children’s books in which he advises against gangster-life. He authored an autobiography that has been made into a motion picture, and he has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.Tookie has become a “poster-boy” of sorts for activists who are opposed to the death penalty, and others who maintain that he has changed and is rehabilitated. On his webpage, Tookie offers apologies to the families of those who have followed the street-gang lifestyle, that he pioneered, and who have suffered the consequences. He does not apologize to the families of those who he slaughtered in February and March 1979, and he maintains that he had no involvement in their deaths. In early 2005, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, upheld his convictions and sentence. He has made further appeals to the United States Supreme Court."

The arguments over the impending death of Tookie are reaching a fever pitch.
The anti-death penalty crowd is making the case that this man has paid for his crimes and the work he’s done for kids and peace since he’s been incarcerated should trump said crimes. The point to his many children’s books telling kids not to join gangs and his nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize.

The other side sees a monster that brutally murdered four people and destroyed thousands of lives through his co-founding the crips gang and the more than 250 offshoot gangs. They also note that Tookie has never admitted his guilt or showed any kind of remorse for the murders.

We here in California have the death penalty for a reason. When put to a vote the citizens at the time thought it worked effectively as a deterrent to high crime. Now that point can be debated until the end of time but the fact remains in California if you murder you may face this punishment. Call me a an insensitive Neanderthal with a heart of stone but I for one don’t feel a bit sorry for you!

Djing In England

Looks like I will be going to England to Dj on Dec. 15 this will be my first time playing outside the US. Needless to say I'm very excited.... it's going to be a blast……

Al Qaeda in CYA mode

Looks like Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Al Qaeda are in cover you’re a** mode today with the release of an audiotape The tape said suicide bombers did not intend to bomb a Jordanian wedding party at an Amman hotel last week, it also had a warning for the King of Jordan-

Foxnews.com has the story here

“Your star is fading. You will not escape your fate, you descendant of traitors. We will be able to reach your head and chop it off," al-Zarqawi said, referring to the king.
Al-Zarqawi told Jordanians to stay away from bases used by U.S. forces in Jordan, hotels and tourist sites in Amman, the Dead Sea and the southern resort of Aqaba and embassies of governments participating in the war in Iraq, saying they would be targeted.
He underlined that Al Qaeda in Iraq is not targeting fellow Muslims. "We want to assure you that ... you are more beloved to us than ourselves," he said, addressing Jordanians.
The authenticity of the audiotape, posted on an Islamic militant Web forum, could not be confirmed independently, but the voice resembled that of al-Zarqawi on previous tapes.”

Now is the time to take advantage of this mistake (not so sure that’s what it was) and use it to rally support from people who are ethically or religiously connected to our enemy.
We cannot afford to waiver on this war! The cut-and-run crowd cannot be allowed to sway/move/nudge our support and determination to win the war against these islamo-fascists. Pulling out now is simply ridiculous!

The question I have to ask our liberal friends is “if we pull our troops from Iraq and move our attention to Iran, Syria, or North Korea that will be ok with you’? Because the war on terror or as I’d rather call it the war on islamo-fascists doesn’t end with Iraq we can expect your support, right?

Bob Woodward and the Libby case

For those that haven’t heard!

The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward was told Valerie Flame’s (Plame) name in mid June 2003 by an undisclosed Whitehouse official. Read more here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/15/AR2005111501857.html

How is it that apparently Bob Woodward, Andrea Mitchell, and a few others in the media knew this highly top secret supper undercover spy’s real name before it was disclosed? Seems like there just might be more than meets the eye in this case?....;0)

From the Washington Post:

"Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor Bob Woodward testified under oath Monday in the CIA leak case that a senior administration official told him about CIA operative Valerie Plame and her position at the agency nearly a month before her identity was disclosed.

In a more than two-hour deposition, Woodward told Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald that the official casually told him in mid-June 2003 that Plame worked as a CIA analyst on weapons of mass destruction, and that he did not believe the information to be classified or sensitive, according to a statement Woodward released yesterday.

Fitzgerald interviewed Woodward about the previously undisclosed conversation after the official alerted the prosecutor to it on Nov. 3 -- one week after Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was indicted in the investigation."

This indictment will prove to be exactly what the accusation proved to be in the first place… Ridiculous!

Wavering on the War

President Clinton the other day was extremely upset when a historian in the audience, where he was speaking, had the audacity to question him on his agreeing with the bush administration about the need to remove Saddam and his support for the war.

Together with a list of dems that have now “flip-flopped” on the war, our former prez and our current list of wobbly leaders need to be held to what they said and not be allowed to embolden our enemy with this spineless wavering!

A Case for Condi?

Today Condoleezza Rice brokered a border crossing deal between Israel and the Palestinians.

Fox new reports:

“Tuesday on a detailed arrangement for opening the borders of the Gaza Strip and allowing freer movement for Palestinians elsewhere, a significant step toward an eventual peace deal between historic enemies.”

Secretary Rice said "I have to say as a football fan, sometimes the last yard is the hardest, and I think we experienced that today,"

The article went on to say:

"Rice oversaw the marathon negotiations in a Jerusalem hotel, huddling alternately with Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in her suite. She had postponed a planned departure for Asia by a day to shepherd the deal to a conclusion.
On Tuesday morning, she met with Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz to finalize the details.
The agreement gives the Palestinians control over a border for the first time and provides a much-needed boost to the shattered Gaza economy. The deal also strengthens Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas ahead of Jan. 25 parliament elections and could help him fend off a strong challenge by the Islamic militant group Hamas."


I have to say she is doing an excellent job and this brings me to another train of thought.
As a strategy, would it be complete fantasy to believe that Secretary Rice could be the next President of the United States? Here’s how I would suggest this be done.

Vice President Chaney would, toward the end of ’06, step down due to (health Reasons) in favor of Secretary Rice. This would give an incumbent two years to win the nomination and hopefully the Whitehouse.

Being that Hillary will most likely be the Democrats nominee this, IMO, would be a fight we can win!

Questions:

1) Could Condi get the nomination?
2) Could she beat Hillary one on one?
3) If we are going to elect a woman Prez. Shouldn’t she be a Republican?

MSM EUPHEMISM OF THE DAY

I saw this great post over on Michelle Malkin's site link on the right ->

CNN anchor Carol Lin referring to the two French teenagers of Tunisian descent whose death sparked the Paris riots as "African-American."
Too Funny!!!

Too Funny!!!

Companies fleeing California!

Well it sure didn't take long, now did it? We here in California have known for over a decade that corporations are fleeing our state. After the recent defeat of the governors reform initiatives we can expect the flood gates to open widely.


Cross-poted here: Redstate.org Nov 11th, 2005: 11:54:58


On November 9 2005 the day after the special election the Nissan Corporation announced its moving its north American headquarters from Los Angeles (Gardena) to Tennessee. Although these plans have been in the works at Nissan for some time, the timing I'm sure was specific. The writing on the wall couldn't be clearer, and a possible trigger or professional nod to other companies who were for a time holding off moving to see if our governor could turn the state around might be at hand.

Jane Larson of the Arizona Republic writes:

Other California companies such as Google and eBay are expanding into Arizona, seeking a haven from the high costs of doing business. And economic development leaders say the trend can only grow as the two states' economies become more joined at the hip.

Google, the Internet search giant, is scouting the Valley for a location for about 600 engineers and software developers. Ebay, the online auction and payment service, is building a data center in Phoenix and hiring top technical talent to run it.

In their march to Arizona, these companies are following other big names, including:
DHL Systems, the package delivery giant that consolidated data centers from the Bay area and other locations in Scottsdale in 2002 and has continued to add offices and hundreds of employees.

Countrywide Financial Corp., the Calabasas, Calif.-based mortgage lender, opened a campus in Chandler and expects to have 4,000 customer-service representatives, information-technology workers and other employees here by the end of 2006.
Intel Corp., the Santa Clara, Calif.-based chipmaker, has begun building a third plant in Chandler.

what, if anything, would keep companies and for that matter people from moving to cheaper more business friendly states?

Since the labor unions operate more like a political entity than an organizational entity and clearly own the California legislature our prospects for fiscal discipline in this sate is dismal at best. Now that the people have told the governor they want "business as usual" and the "status quo" I expect to see every tax imaginable thrown our way.

Starting with the car tax, expanded corporate taxes, "the your too rich tax" and ending somewhere just short of total socialism this State is trouble with an 8 million dollar deficit, continued deficit spending, and not a penny more to borrow Nevada is looking more and more promising by the minute.

Knowing Californians to be reactionary other than pro active it will take the coming financial meltdown and bankruptcy before the voters will do anything about it. Until then my advise would be find a nice RED STATE, move in, buy a big screen TV, pop some popcorn, and enjoy the show!

Iran & Syria: Keeping our eye on the ball

In the middle of the leak case and the Alito nomination it's easy to take our eyes off the serious problems developing in the Middle East.


Originally posted here: Redstate.org Nov 1st, 2005: 14:57:28


In the last week the leader of Iran has called for the extermination of Israel and the UN has issued a Security Council resolution demanding greater cooperation in the probe of the assassination of a former Lebanese prime minister.

Syria obviously feeling some pressure yesterday called for an Arab summit to rally support from its neighbors. From what I can gather it looks more and more likely that President Bashar Assad's Brother Maher Assad, and his brother-in-law, Assef Shawkat, the chief of military intelligence may have been directly involved in the assassination of a former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Just today Syrians are protesting outside our embassy! Story Here

From foxnews.com-"Anti-Syrian Lebanese political leader Walid Jumblatt, meanwhile, warned Damascus could face chaos and instability like that roiling Iraq should President Bashar Assad fail to cooperate with the U.N. probe into the Feb. 14 bombing in Beirut that killed Rafik Hariri and 20 other people.""If (he) acts like Saddam did, yes, we are heading to a situation similar to what happened in Iraq," Jumblatt said in an interview with the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya satellite television channel late Sunday. "But if he acts in order to preserve Syria's national unity and Syria's interest before (serving) the brother-in-law, a brother or anyone, he can save Syria."

As for Iran, This is the most dangerous situation IMHO the world is facing today. We all know that Iran is continuing its nuclear program and aiding the insurgency in Iraq. Iran has a vested interest in a US failure in Iraq hoping they can move in and take over which is something they've wanted for decades, a Shiite majority with control of vast amounts of oil.

In 1981, Israel bombed Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor when it believed Saddam Hussein was close to producing a nuclear bomb. Now in the wake of this most recent threat I'm of the mind that Israel might feel the need to once again strike to defend its right to exist.

President Bush, Ben Bernanke, and the Harriet Miers nomination

With the naming of Ben Bernanke to the fed chair I have to ask, what were you thinking with the Miers nomination Mr. President?


Originally posted here: Redstate.org Oct 25th, 2005: 11:29:18


It's obvious to me Mr. Bernanke is extremely qualified for his new position. With a 1590 SAT score and teaching himself calculus to get into Harvard (his high school didn't offer the course at the time) I think you'll agree this wasn't your ordinary high school student. Graduated summa cum laude in 1975 and most recently served as a board member for the fed & was nominated head of the president's economics team. Clearly the most qualified and "next in line" at least to this observer.

Which brings me to Harriet Miers and again the question I have is what were you thinking with this nomination? The president's picks so far have been exceptional with the exception of maybe Mike Brown and Harriet Miers. So why go with someone who, from what I gather so far, is not even close to being the most qualified or "the next in line". For the record my pick would have been Janice Rodgers Brown but thankfully no one elected me president!
Do you think this woman is going to completely WOW us at her hearing?
Is the charge of cronyism legitimate?

The "Establishment" & the Cheney/Rumsfeld Cabal

The latest example of beltway establishment pinheads showing there true colors: Col. Lawrence Wilkerson. Wilkerson said "I wish I had not been involved in it," believe me Col. We wish you wouldn't have been involved either!


Originally posted here: Redstate.org Oct 21st, 2005: 13:02:12


It seems to me Secretary Rice was sent to her position to weed out and clean house on these hangers on. We have a bunch on left over bureaucrats from a leftist administration looking to keep some power and a paycheck. Col. Wilkerson showed his colors by bring up Kyoto, WMD and the rest of the liberal playbook accusations and opinions which at this point just sounds like blah blah blah to me.

Wilkerson (I'm sure unintentionally) reduced President Bush and Secretary Rice to mindless puppets to be pushed and pulled around by this Cabal with his comments/attack.


The following is from Foxnews.com:

-Colin Powell's former chief of staff Lawrence Wilkerson, a longtime foe of the Bush foreign policy, is blaming what he calls a cabal for hijacking the decision making process inside the administration. In a speech in Washington, Wilkerson said there was "a cabal between Vice President Cheney and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld on critical decisions that the bureaucracy did not know were being made."
-Wilkerson said then National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice was part of the problem because she never crossed the cabal, preferring instead to build her intimacy with the president, who, by the way, Wilkerson says was unable to control Cheney and Rumsfeld because he's "not versed in international relations and not too interested in them either."

After reading col. Wilkerson's remarks it's clear he's a standard product of the left. All accusations and attacks, whining and crying and absolutely no ideas or solutions.

My plan for illegal immigration reform

My plan includes securing the borders, getting rid of sanctuary cities, creating a gust worker program that does not include amnesty, and eliminating the welfare state


Originaly posted here
Redstate.org Oct 20th, 2005: 14:41:19


The first thing we must do is secure our borders. There have been many suggestions on how best to get this job done. I think the two best ideas I've heard are 1. militarize the borders (National Guard). 2. Privatize a border control agency. I believe either one would be a great step in the right direction. I tend to lean more towards privatization, being a capitalist, but have heard compelling augments for the National Guard as well

The second would be repealing the sanctuary city status of all major cities (special order 40 and such) I'm not saying our police departments should go out and round up illegal aliens but should have the power to ask for citizenship status with any interaction with citizens.
Lastly and only after the first two items have been fully implanted should we consider any kind of guest worker program? This program should not be an amnesty! Everyone who participates must go back to their country of origin to obtain such status. Along with this program must be stiff fines for employers who continue to hire illegal aliens.

To accompany this immigration reform we must tear down and dismantle the welfare state. I would like to start with getting government out of Education & Health Care! Private Education and Health Care would not only drive down costs and prices for the consumers but would eliminate wasteful taxes and abuse by illegal immigrants
Now that i think of it passing the fair tax bill (HR25) would be a great addition to my plan.

Welcome

to my new Blog. This is my first so bare with me as I get my feet wet. This will be a place to talk about politics, world views, music, and whatever else is on my mind.
Thanks for stopping by feel free to participate. I look forward to hearing from and debating with you!