Rush Limbaugh Says Doctors Found "Nothing Wrong"

LOS ANGELES, Jan 2 - (Reuters) - Influential conservative U.S. radio host Rush Limbaugh said on Friday doctors had found nothing wrong with him after he was hospitalized this week in Hawaii with sharp chest pains.

Limbaugh, 58, underwent an angiogram, or an imaging of the arteries and heart, to determine what caused the pain "like I have never experienced before," he said.

"They found absolutely nothing wrong. It was a blessing. No arterial disease, no coronary disease whatsoever," Limbaugh told reporters at Honolulu's Queen's Medical Center, where he was rushed on Wednesday from a nearby resort.

It was unclear when Limbaugh would return to his top-rated radio show, with 20 million listeners weekly. But he did use the news conference to take a jab at Democrats and their top policy priority -- healthcare reform that aims to give coverage to 47 million uninsured Americans and lower costs.

"Based on what happened to me here, I don't think there is one thing wrong with the American healthcare system. It is working just fine," he said.

Limbaugh, a multimillionaire, said he got no special treatment, but the staff made his stay "almost like a hotel."

That settles it: I'm going back to my 3 cigar a day habit.

Police warn against vigilantism in wake of bow and arrow incident

By Leslie Slape / The Daily News | Posted: Tuesday, December 22, 2009 11:00 pm

The mother of a man shot with a bow and arrow by an apparent vigilante is angry at some of the public response to the Dec. 13 incident, deriding online story comments as "hero worship."

Jacquelyne Crayne of Longview said in an interview this week the man who allegedly shot her son in the left buttock "took matters into his own hands that belonged to the police."

According to a Kelso police report, Scott Schwingdorf saw Galen Crayne prowling around a neighbor's property in North Kelso, a house that was vacant due to a recent fire. Schwingdorf yelled, and Crayne ran. Schwingdorf chased him to Cliff's Hilltop Market and shot him in the buttock with a broadhead arrow, according to police

The incident sparked a volley of anonymous online praise for the alleged shooter, including "he should be given a medal" and predictions that the crime rate would plummet if "more burglars were met with this kind of action."

The incident — and the reaction to it — are prompting police to remind the public that vigilante justice can have dangerous consequences.

A citizen who takes the law into his or her own hands puts people in danger, police say. A gun could go off accidentally, shooting the citizen, a loved one, an innocent bystander or a responding police officer. A suspect, cornered, could strike back.

"Many years ago, an employee at Keil's on Ocean Beach Highway (where Safeway is today) tried to stop a shoplifter and his face was slashed," recalled Detective Sgt. Mike Hallowell of the Longview Police. "He came extremely close to his jugular being cut."

He said most civilians don't have police or self-defense training, and if they're armed they could have weapons "taken from you and turned on you."

Law enforcement's advice is that "you find a safe place and call 911, and wait for us to take action," he said. "Wait for us to take the danger."

Vigilantes risk felony charges of their own, though the law does allow citizens some room to defend themselves and their property. Washington law RCW 9A.16.020 allows use of force in these instances:

• When used to arrest someone who has committed a felony and deliver the suspect to a public officer.

• When used by a party about to be injured or about to suffer "malicious interference " to his own property. The force must be "not more than is necessary."

• When force is "reasonably" used by the owner of property to detain someone who unlawfully enters his property.

If a prosecutor determines a citizen has exceeded the boundaries of the law, charges may be filed. Some people have gone to prison for taking the law into their own hands.

However, a Toledo homeowner who shot and killed a nighttime intruder in his home Oct. 27 seems unlikely to face charges in Lewis County. Although the case remains open, Lewis County Sheriff's Patrol Commander Steve Aust said Tuesday that, unless new evidence arises unexpectedly, it looks like the shooter legitimately acted in self defense.

In the Dec. 13 Kelso case, a police report has been sent to the Cowlitz County Prosecutor's Office. Both Crayne and Schwingdorf could face charges — Crayne for burglary or criminal trespass, Schwingdorf for assault.

Charging decisions probably will be made in early January, said Chief Criminal Deputy Michelle Shaffer. Until a charging decision is made, the prosecutor's office will not comment.

Crayne's mother doesn't shield her son from blame, but she's angry at Schwingdorf for shooting him.

"The man had 3 1/2 blocks to think about what he was doing, and he didn't think," Jacquelyne Crayne said. She said there's no excuse for burglary, but "this takes it to a whole different level. Somebody's got to try to get through to people. Think this through before somebody's killed for stuff that doesn't even belong to you." 

"He wasn't protecting himself. He wasn't protecting his own property," she said. "It was somebody else's property he had deemed himself in control of."

She said Monday the arrow still is deeply embedded in her son's pelvis. A decision is pending whether he will undergo extensive surgery to remove it. Her son broke off the shaft the night of the shooting, according to police.

Schwingdorf has not responded to Daily News requests for interviews as recently as Tuesday.

Some previous local attempts at vigilantism have had fatal and near-fatal consequences and worked out badly for the vigilantes.

Earlier this year, for example, Ringo Joe Hubbard, Jennifer Lowe, Edward Pelton and Delayna Stanley were sentenced to prison for their roles in the near-fatal shooting of Emanuel "Wes" Wesley. They meted out vigilante justice after Longview police found no evidence to support Lowe's contention that Wesley deliberately broke a window. The glass caused minor cuts to her son's face.

In 2002, Phillip Butters-Perry, Dale Ziolkowski, Michael Chilson and Sandy Fehr went to prison for their roles in the near-fatal beating Scott Vanskike of Longview. They were punishing him for the theft of two leather coats.

Even though Oliver Hooker was acquitted, he suffered as much as if he were guilty. In 2002, Hooker, of Centralia, shot and killed a suspected burglar, David Cline of Longview. Hooker, who had been burglarized 10 times before the shooting, was charged with first-degree manslaughter. Although a Lewis County jury found him not guilty, Hooker said the ordeal left him bitter and broken.

The psychological burden of using deadly force is something average citizens have no concept of, said Hallowell of the Longview Police.

"You've taken a life or you've injured somebody and you're trying to live afterward," he said. "There are psychological aftereffects."

Even police officers, who have mandatory counseling after they take a life or discharge a weapon, have trouble with the burden of regret, he said. "There's a significant increase in those that leave law enforcement."

Mom is right.  The guy with the bow had no right to injure a fleeing criminal (especially after 3 1/2 blocks)  there was no threat to him or anyone else at that time, and you don't try to kill someone for "messing with my stuff".  And it wasn't even the bowmans property being burgled.  Even if he is not charged (he should be) the civil liability in this case is going to make him live in a world of hurt.

Ooooo mommy, look at the big stupid thugs....

There's nothing quite like having a crisis on your hands to start a new year and a new decade, but that's exactly what David Stern has with the revelation that two Washington Wizards players allegedly drew guns on each other before a recent practice.

If true, the dangerous and idiotic behavior by Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittendon should be used by Stern to set an example.

The problem is, this is not the aftermath of the riot at Auburn Hills when Stern wasted almost no time in handing out record suspensions to Ron Artest, among others, for running into the stands to exchange punches with unruly fans. In that case, albeit a very different case, Stern was right to rush to judgment. The entire episode was seen on TV by millions that very night and for days after, amounting to the worst night in NBA history. So Stern couldn't afford to wait when he knew his league would be flogged, publicly, if he did not take swift and appropriate action.

But in this case, Stern needs to treat this like other legal issues and wait to see what D.C. police and the U.S. Attorney's office find in their joint investigation. Gunplay goes beyond the basketball court and the NBA's jurisdiction.

Friday, the NBA said it was monitoring the police investigation while continuing to do its own, and Arenas denied the story to The Washington Post and to people who are acting as his advisers.

When you've got $80 million coming to you after this season, over the next four years, as Arenas does, and your contract could be voided in this kind of mess, it makes sense to tell the world that the allegations are false.

But if it turns out that Arenas and Crittenton did, in fact, draw weapons and are indicted on gun charges, then Stern should hope that the players are harshly penalized in local courts.

After that, Stern needs to follow up with additional penalties. They have to be severe. He has to turn this particular episode into a landmark case.

If the two drew guns, then Stern has to send a message that firearms will no longer be tolerated in the NBA.

No exceptions.

From here on out, players who don't abide by the rule should be banned from the league. For life.

Throw Arenas out. Throw Crittenton out. Consider what happened down in D.C. a warning to all players.

Harsh as it is, it's the only way to go, rather than to risk having players one day actually exchanging gunfire.

Does the NBA really need that? Just imagine the outcry, from coast to coast, if one player ever shot another. It would make Auburn Hills look like a minor fracas.

IF TRUE: What a pair of idiots. Never point a weapon at something you don't want to destroy. Guns are not used to impress people or threaten them, they are for defense and they are made to kill. PERIOD. If I pulled a gun on someone frivolously, I would lose my job and go to jail. They deserve the same.

Alleged Nigeria terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutall tries to explode Northwest Airlines 253 to Detroit

An Al Qaeda-linked terrorist attempted to blow up a packed commercial jet over Detroit on Friday, but was tackled by heroic passengers as he tried to explode the bomb, officials said.

Nigerian extremist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, was subdued immediately aboard Northwest Flight 253 - carrying 278 passengers and 11 crew members - minutes before the plane landed, officials said.

A White House official called the incident "an attempted act of terrorism" and said President Obama was monitoring events.

"It was a fairly sophisticated device," Rep. Pete King (R-L.I.) told the Daily News after counterterrorism officials briefed him. "If it would have worked, he could have brought the plane down."

Obama immediately ordered security tightened at airports across the nation, raising travelers' fears on one of the busiest days of the year.

Abdulmutallab, who suffered third-degree burns, told authorities he got the explosives in Yemen and received orders from Al Qaeda operatives to detonate the device aboard a plane over U.S. soil, officials said.

The suspect, reportedly an engineering student at University College of London, said he had explosive powder taped to his leg.

He confessed to trying to use a chemical-filled syringe designed to ignite the powder, ABC News reported.

King called the explosive "a new device."

"The subject is claiming to have extremist affiliation and that the device was acquired in Yemen along with instructions as to when it should be used," a federal bulletin warned.

King said Abdulmutallab was not on a no-fly list, but was known to have terrorist connections in northern Africa - a hotbed of militant activity.

"He's part of a terrorist nexus," King said.

Officials said Abdulmutallab was traveling one way, without a return ticket. He boarded the Airbus 330 in Amsterdam after transferring from another flight out of Lagos, Nigeria. The flight then continued to Detroit.

Passengers said the frightening incident lasted only a few, chaotic minutes.

Several said they heard a loud popping noise, smelled smoke and then spotted flames leaping from the man's lap.

"It was higher than the seat," Stephanie van Herk, 22, told The Wall Street Journal.

Pandemonium ensued as crew members tried to douse the suspect with water.

Passenger Syed Jafry said that's when a burly man jumped over several seats and tackled the blood-thirsty extremist.

"He took him under his arm and got hold of his neck and then other people helped him," Jafry, who was sitting three rows behind the suspect, told Fox News. "He handled it very well."

"It was terrifying," Richelle Keepman told CNN. "We all thought we weren't going to land, we weren't going to make it."

Once the severely burned terrorist was subdued, he was dragged to the front of the plane and restrained there until the jet landed a few minutes later.

A passenger sitting nearby said the man, his legs charred and his pants cut off, appeared eerily calm.

"He didn't show any reaction to pain or to any feeling of shock or nervousness," said Melinda Dennis. "He just looked like a normal individual."

The heroic passenger was taken to the University of Michigan Medical Center and was still hospitalized Friday night. The extent of his injuries was not revealed. The suspect was being treated at the same hospital under heavy guard and was expected to survive, officials said.

Obama spoke by conference call with national security advisers and then he "instructed that all appropriate measures be taken to increase security for air travel," White House spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement.

Authorities on Friday night were investigating how Abdulmutallab got on the plane with explosives.

The Homeland Security Department said passengers may see additional screening measures on all flights because of the incident.

"We encourage those with future travel plans to stay in touch with their airline and to visit www.tsa.gov for updates," the department said.

"ALLEGED" terrorist?  You think it's possible we are misinterpreting this guys actions or motives at this point? 

 

Senate 'Liberal Fat Ass' Remembered in Health Debate

The memory of Sen. Drunk as a Skunk Kennedy loomed over the Senate Thursday (much as his bloated corpulent carcass did) when his weary colleagues moved his life's work, booze,broads, and healthcare to cure his various VD and liver ailments, to the brink of reality.

''He's having a Merry Christmas in the Cemetery,'' said an emotional Sen. Brownnose Kirk, D-Mass., who was appointed to fill the seat after Kennedy succumbed to brain cancer in August. Kirk said it was an honor to essentially cast Kennedy's vote as majority Democrats passed the Senate's version of a bill that would extend insurance to 30 million Americans. "If this was Chicago, he would still be voting." Kirk said.

The sunrise vote was a dramatic end to a tortured debate in which Majority Leader Harried struggled and ultimately succeeded to line up 60 votes to overcome a Republican half hearted effort to stop this travesty.

The pre-dawn procession to the Senate had the feel of a bittersweet, Christmas Eve memorial, with Kennedy's close friends and former staffers nearly filling the galleries, his name on the tips of everyone's tongues, and his fat, undead corpse roaming the halls looking for interns to bang, and then eat. With the dawn, he would return to his zombie lair in Hyannis Port.

''With Sen. Ted Kennedy's rasping voice in our ears, with his evil in our hearts, we say, as he said: The work goes on, the cause endures,'' said Reid, D-Nev. At that moment an intern reached over and pinched Senator Reids Depends Undergarment saying, "Did you poopie? Yes I think you did poopie! Let's get you kweaned up... such a big boy!"

Vice President Joe Biden's motorcade lit up a nearly-empty Pennsylvania Avenue at 6:30 a.m. EST, Capitol Police bringing the mini-traffic jam near the Senate parking spaces to a halt as it passed. As his presence was not required in the Senate or the White House, no one is really sure why he did this, other than the fact that he could. And that spending taxpayer dollars on useless motorcades somehow "stimulates him". People in dark suits climbed the hill and lined up at the security entrances with their Neuralyzers at the ready.

Michigan Democrat John Dingell, at 83 the longest-serving member of the House, used two crutches to navigate the ice outside the Senate chamber as he made his way inside with his wife, Debbie, at his side. Debbie Dingell.... say it out loud. Poor woman.

The galleries quickly filled with the guests of senators, as the lawmakers themselves trickled into the chamber and took their seats under the baleful gaze of Kennedy's widow, Vicki.

''Mr. President, this is for my friend, Ted Kennedy,'' intoned Sen Robert Byrd D-W.Va., the longest-serving member of Congress in history, as he cast his vote for the bill. At that moment, Senator Byrd cackled aloud, threw back his head and crumbled to dust, his task of screwing American Taxpayers nearly completed. He was then sucked up by the Sergeant at Arms with a 15 gallon Shop-Vac, to be reconstituted at a future date with the blood of virgins in a secret ceremony held by his "former" fraternity, The Invisible Empire of the Ku Klux Klan.

The news as I see it...

The Magical Years

PHOENIX -- A man was hit and killed by a city of Phoenix bus Saturday night. It happened near the intersection of 27th Avenue and Maryland.

According to police, the 20-year-old man and his girlfriend were trying to make it to the bus stop and couldn't. They were on the west side of Maryland when the bus pulled out of the stop and started heading southbound.

That's when police said the man ran across the five lanes of traffic and jumped in front of the bus, trying to get it to stop. The bus driver didn't see him in time and couldn't stop. The bus ran him over and killed him.

Police said if there's one lesson to be learned tonight, it's the importance of properly crossing the street, especially at night.

Phoenix police Lt. Ben Leuschner said, "We'd like to have people use crosswalks, jaywalking is a minor offense but obviously in this case you can see how serious the consequences can be if you're not careful."

There were about six people left on the bus at the time of the accident. No one else was hurt. Police said the bus driver won't face any charges.

 

I remember when I thought I was the center of the Universe and had some sort of invulnerablity to harm; it lasted from about age 17 to 25.  What ran through this guys head (other than the bike rack on the front of the bus)?  Did he think he glowed in the dark?  That the power of Christ would compel the bus to stop?  Was he friggin drunk or trying to impress his girl?  She's impressed now... but not nearly as much as those tire imprints are impressed on his head.

911 Call Released From Home Invasion Shooting

   posted 5:56 pm Fri December 04, 2009 - Cushing

Officials have released the 911 tape from this morning's home invasion shooting that left an intruder dead from a shotgun blast.

It happened in Cushing, about 50 miles west of Tulsa in Lincoln County. Police say the female homeowner was awakened by her barking dog and called 911. While she was on the phone with dispatchers, police say she warned the intruder that she had a rifle.

Authorities say the intruder, identified as Billy Dean Riley, ignored the woman's warning and threw a chair through the window. That's when the woman opened fire.

The 911 call details the tense moments before the woman opened fire. It does not contain the actual shooting.

RESIDENT - "Oh crap he's coming around the front..."

911 -  "Is your front door locked?"

RESIDENT - "Yes ma'am but it's only got a lock on the handle."

911 - "Okay, do you have a place inside your house and lock yourself in a room?"

RESIDENT -  "Uh, not really."

911 - "He's trying to come through the front door."

RESIDENT - "i've got a big shotgun. I'm not going into a tiny bathroom..."

RESIDENT - "He's walking around the house trying to find a way in..."

RESIDENT - "Oh crap, he's at the back..."

911 - "Okay , (unintelligible) is advising that you can defend your property if you need to."

RESIDENT - "Alright he's at the garage."

911 - "He's at the garage? Is it attached to your house?"

RESIDENT - "Nope, he's at the patio door again."

911 - "I can hear him banging again."

RESIDENT - "I don't want to have to kill this man, but i'll kill him graveyard dead ma'am."

911 - "I understand."

RESIDENT - "Alright."

RESIDENT - Oh crap he's breaking in. he's breaking in now, he's breaking in now. He's breaking the window, i'm going to kill him. He's walking back and forth on the porch. He looks to be an older man, I don't want to kill him. He's kicking the door please hurry. He's going to make it in please hurry ma'am. I think he's drunk . He doesn't know where his pickup's at. God I don't want to kill this man."

RESIDENT - "I cant keep this gun and keep on the phone darling, it's a big shotgun, it will break my arm. As soon as  you tell me they're here im taking the safety, uh.. Im putting the safety back on this sucker."