Random Killing

PHOENIX - It has been about 24 hours since a nearly 50-year-old shopper was gunned down outside a Phoenix Kmart. 

That woman's killer is still on the loose. The killing happened Monday night in the 300 block of Baseline. Police released the victim's name as 48-year-old Luz Navarro. 

3TV talked to a family member who says they are obviously devastated. Police say the crime was completely random, probably a botched robbery. 

Word of the parking lot murder is rippling through the plaza and has left other shoppers stunned. One woman says, "Can't believe it." 

Witnesses say the attacker approached other people outside the Kmart asking for cigarettes. Police say the suspect lurked in the lot for half an hour before targeting the 48-year-old victim, who was alone and carrying bags. 

James Holmes, with Phoenix police, says, "It's absolutely terrible, tragic, and senseless." 

This is a tragic reminder that parking lot crime goes up during holiday shopping season. 

Holmes says, "The economy has nothing to do with it. It's the time of the year and predators know more people are out shopping right now." Their annual advice is to shop in groups, carry your keys in your hand and do not linger too long in your car. 

Now Phoenix police stand guard at the store doors as the hunt for the attacker continues. 

Police are looking for a black male in his 20s. He was wearing a black hoodie and jeans Monday night. He had been seen earlier in an old, grey Chevy pickup. Police are hoping tips from the public can help them solve this murder. 

Anybody with any information about the suspect or the person of interest in this deadly shooting should contact the police or Silent Witness at 480-WITNESS (480-TESTIGO).

The Wolves

 

I was discussing my fathers Alzheimer death with someone who was experiencing the same.  I said that knowing that there was Alzheimers in your genetics was like " knowing there are are wolves in the forest where you live."  They are there, they are killers, and they may or may not attack you.  It's not that I hate them, or they hate me: it's the impersonal nature of biology and life in general.  The wolves are there, whether or not you choose to acknowledge it.  One of them will get you eventually. 

I went in for my follow up EKG yesterday.  Again, anxious to the point of elevated blood pressure, but not too bad.  I was expecting/hoping that it would show nothing and I could get on with feeling normal again.  The whole reason for the first EKG turned out to be a toothache, so there was no reason to worry, right?  Let's just be done with this whole thing: confirm I am ok, and send me on my way.  Please?

No.

After discussing with the cardiologist all of the pertinent information (no symptoms, blood pressure is lowered, no events indicating an attack.)  He showed me the EKG.  Simple really: where this little line should lay flat, it actually dips down below the baseline of the graph.  What does it mean?  Can't say until we do more tests (stress test, ultrasound, nuclear imaging will be scheduled later).  The possibilities are:

a) Nothing wrong.  The EKG is not "way out of whack", so this might just be an electrical anomaly of my heart.

b) Minor blockage of an artery, causing an electrical anomaly.

c) Previous heart attack.

So I left their office with the same cloud over me that I went in with.  I feel fine.  I never had any events that stand out in my memory.  I feel fine on my bike or elliptical machine.  But there is no resolution for me yet.  I'm scaring myself in my quiet moments, and it's stressing me out.  "Is that a pain in my chest?  My arm?  Do I feel dizzy?  Am I going to die from this?  Soon?"  As much as logic says I am OK, there is no pain or symptoms, I may not be.  As much as Melissa and my friends say not to worry, how can I not?

I think I can hear him, out there.  Hidden in the trees.

Good Way to Get Dead

PHOENIX -- Police arrested a man Wednesday on aggravated assault charges after he allegedly brandished a weapon and threatened people at the Cobblestone Store in Surprise, authorities said.

According to a news release from the Surprise Police Department, William McDougle, 20, threatened several customers outside the store on West Bell Road and brandished a black pistol out the driver's side door as he drove off the property.

Officers stopped him several blocks away and discovered a black pellet gun disguised as a 9mm semiautomatic pistol in his car, police said.

McDougle was charged with aggravated assault, threatening and disorderly conduct.

 

 

 

Stay Classy, Mr. Ex-Presdent

 

Former President Bill Clinton told a room full of Democratic senators Tuesday that passing health care reform — which he failed to do 15 years ago — is not only a moral issue but also “an economic imperative.”

Clinton argued that even “the most cold-hearted person” ought to support health care reform simply from an economic standpoint. He reminded Democrats of the political momentum their failure to pass reform in 1993 delivered the House of Representatives to the Republicans the following year.

"The point I want to make is: Just pass the bill, even if it's not exactly what you want," Clinton told Democrats. "When you try and fail, the other guys write history.”

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said Clinton described the ongoing tea party protests against the Democratic agenda as a sign his party was making progress.

Whitehouse quoted Clinton arguing: "The reason the tea-baggers are so inflamed is because we are winning."

 

 

And he should know about tea-bagging.  Hillary subjects him to it regularly.

 

 

 

 

Obama Gives Shout Out to 'Congressional Medal of Honor Winner' Who Isn't

 

By Mike Bates November 6, 2009 - 01:18 ET

 

The Washington Post this afternoon reported "President Obama delivers remarks on Ft. Hood shooting at end of tribal leaders conference." The transcript begins:

SPEAKER: PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA

OBAMA: Please, everybody, have a seat. Let me first of all just thank Ken and the entire Department of the Interior staff for organizing just an extraordinary conference.  I want to thank my Cabinet members and senior administration officials who participated today. I hear that Dr. Joe Medicine Crow (ph) was around, and so I want to give a shout out to that Congressional Medal of Honor winner. It's good to see you.

Ah, the dangers of giving shout outs without a teleprompter.  Crow is not a Medal of Honor recipient.  As noted by the Congressional Medal of Honor Society:

The Medal of Honor is the highest award for valor in action against an enemy force which can be bestowed upon an individual serving in the Armed Services of the United States. Generally presented to its recipient by the President of the United States of America in the name of Congress, it is often called the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Crow's name is not included on the Society's Medal of Honor recipient list.  He was, however, awarded the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, in August.

Obama, often described as "cerebral" by the mainstream media, should know the difference between the Medal of Honor and the Medal of Freedom, especially since he personally awarded the latter to Crow.  Don't expect his blunder to receive wide coverage.  It's not something he can blame George Bush for.

 

This is the dumbest thing I have ever heard...

PELOSI: Buy a $15,000 Policy or Go to Jail

JCT Confirms Failure to Comply with Democrats' Mandate Can Lead to 5 Years in Jail

Friday, November 06, 2009

Today, Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee Dave Camp (R-MI) released a letter from the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) confirming that the failure to comply with the individual mandate to buy health insurance contained in the Pelosi health care bill (H.R. 3962, as amended) could land people in jail.  The JCT letter  makes clear that Americans who do not maintain "acceptable health insurance coverage" and who choose not to pay the bill's new individual mandate tax (generally 2.5% of income), are subject to numerous civil and criminal penalties, including criminal fines of up to $250,000 and imprisonment of up to five years.

In response to the JCT letter, Camp said:  "This is the ultimate example of the Democrats' command-and-control style of governing – buy what we tell you or go to jail.  It is outrageous and it should be stopped immediately."

Key excerpts from the JCT letter appear below:

"H.R. 3962 provides that an individual (or a husband and wife in the case of a joint return) who does not, at any time during the taxable year, maintain acceptable health insurance coverage for himself or herself and each of his or her qualifying children is subject to an additional tax." [page 1]

                                                         - - - - - - - - - -                                                   

"If the government determines that the taxpayer's unpaid tax liability results from willful behavior, the following penalties could apply…" [page 2]

                                                         - - - - - - - - - -    
                                                

"Criminal penalties

Prosecution is authorized under the Code for a variety of offenses.  Depending on the level of the noncompliance, the following penalties could apply to an individual:

• Section 7203 – misdemeanor willful failure to pay is punishable by a fine of up to $25,000 and/or imprisonment of up to one year.

• Section 7201 – felony willful evasion is punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and/or imprisonment of up to five years." [page 3]

When confronted with this same issue during its consideration of a similar individual mandate tax, the Senate Finance Committee worked on a bipartisan basis to include language in its bill that shielded Americans from civil and criminal penalties.  The Pelosi bill, however, contains no similar language protecting American citizens from civil and criminal tax penalties that could include a $250,000 fine and five years in jail.

"The Senate Finance Committee had the good sense to eliminate the extreme penalty of incarceration.  Speaker Pelosi's decision to leave in the jail time provision is a threat to every family who cannot afford the $15,000 premium her plan creates.  Fortunately, Republicans have an alternative that will lower health insurance costs without raising taxes or cutting Medicare," said Camp.

According to the Congressional Budget Office the lowest cost family non-group plan under the Speaker's bill would cost $15,000 in 2016.

If he's guilty, I don't really have aproblem with this....

 

Saudi court upholds child rapist crucifixion ruling

Tue Nov 3, 2009 2:22pm IST

 

RIYADH (Reuters) - A Saudi court of cassation upheld a ruling to behead and crucify a 22-year-old man convicted of raping five children and leaving one of them to die in the desert, newspapers reported on Tuesday.

The convict was arrested earlier this year after a seven-year old boy helped police in their investigation. The child left in the desert after the rape was three years old, Okaz newspaper said.

International rights groups have accused the kingdom, the birthplace of Islam, of applying draconian justice, beheading murderers, rapists and drug traffickers in public. So far this year about 40 people have been executed in Saudi Arabia.

In Saudi Arabia, crucifixion means tying the body of the convict to wooden beams to be displayed to the public after beheading.

(Reporting by Souhail Karam; editing by Inal Ersan)

 

 

We are governed at all levels by America's luckiest children, sons and daughters of the abundance, and they call themselves optimists but they're not optimists—they're unimaginative. They don't have faith, they've just never been foreclosed on. They are stupid and they are callous, and they don't mind it when people become disheartened. They don't even notice.

 

PEGGY NOONAN

George Bush liberates 50 million Muslims. Ronald Reagan liberates hundreds of millions of Europeans, saves parts of Latin America. Any awards? No. Just derision. Obama gives speeches trashing his own country and he gets a prize for it.