I lead from the rear

News Flash!

Hillary also went to Cambodia on a top-secret mission to bring an end to the Vietnam War. The mission was led by then Lt. (jg) John Kerry.

"I risked my life then too!", she said. "I risk my life just being in Washington D.C.", she started to say when her handlers came up and escorted her away from the media.

Hillary says she risked life on White House trips

VINTON, Iowa - Ever since Barack Obama suggested Hillary Clinton's eight years as first lady were a glorified tea party a few days back, she's looked for an opening to strike back.On Saturday night in Dubuque she pounced, arguing she risked her life on White House missions in the 1990s, including a hair-raising flight into Bosnia that ended in a "corkscrew" landing and a sprint off the tarmac to dodge snipers."I don't remember anyone offering me tea," she quipped.

The dictum around the Oval Office in the '90s, she added, was: "If a place was too dangerous, too poor or too small, send the first lady."It turns out that Clinton wasn't quite flying solo into harm's way that day.She was, in fact, leading a goodwill entourage that included baggy-pants funnyman Sinbad, singer Sheryl Crow and Clinton's daughter, Chelsea, then 15, according to an account of the March 1995 trip in her autobiography "Living History."As the plane approached the runway, the pilot ordered the Clintons into the armored front of the plane, Clinton writes.What's not clear is whether Sinbad or Crow were invited to the cockpit or had to brave it out in the unprotected rear.

Thou may be speaking too loudeth

Oh boy, this will be a nasty bump in the news and courts I am sure.

I hope for the transit company's sake they have plenty of witnesses to her reading too loudly to her children.

I am also sure there is more to this story than meeteth the eye.

Woman Escorted Off Bus For Reading Bible Aloud

FORT WORTH (CBS 11 News) ― A passenger on a Fort Worth bus says the T. Bus Service discriminated against her religion.Christine Lutz says she was reading her Bible to her children when the bus driver asked her to stop or get off the bus.

Lutz, a Seventh Day Adventist, and her children were on their way to church. "She then said, 'Well I don't think this is the place or the time to do so.' And I said, 'Oh, but it's the perfect time and the perfect place since it is our Sabbath and it is the time with the Lord and therefore I'm going to continue.' And I continued," she explained. Then, a TRE supervisor came on board. Lutz also told him that she would not stop reading.

She and her family were escorted off the bus. "This was definitely a clear cut case of persecution," she said.

Or was it a clear cut case of policy? "Anyone who is loud will be asked to be quiet," said representative Joan Hunter. "That is a standard policy across country in the transit industry."It doesn't matter what is said, the T has a policy of no loud or abusive behavior. "It's only if the other passengers will complain, or it's obviously so loud it's distracting the operator, that we will ask them to stop," Hunter explained.

Life is not forever

Wonderful;

Go out and have a Happy New Year!

Don't try to assassinate another President again, okay?

Woman Who Tried to Kill Ford Freed

By PAUL ELIAS: Associated Press Writer

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Sara Jane Moore, who took a shot at President Ford in a 1975 assassination attempt, was released from prison Monday. Moore, 77, had served about 30 years of a life sentence when she was released from the federal prison in Dublin, east of San Francisco, the Federal Bureau of Prisons said.

She was 40 feet away from Ford outside a hotel in San Francisco when she fired a shot at him on Sept. 22, 1975. As she raised her .38- caliber revolver and pulled the trigger, Oliver Sipple, a disabled former Marine standing next to her, pushed up her arm. The bullet flew over Ford's head by several feet.

In recent interviews, Moore said she regretted her actions, saying she was blinded by her radical political views.

"I am very glad I did not succeed. I know now that I was wrong to try," Moore said a year ago in an interview with KGO-TV.

Just 17 days before Moore's attempt, Ford survived an attempt on his life in Sacramento by Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, a follower of Charles Manson.

Moore said that she was convinced at the time that the government had declared war on the left.

"I was functioning, I think, purely on adrenaline and not thinking clearly. I have often said that I had put blinders on and I was only listening to what I wanted to hear," she told KGO.
Moore's confusing background—which included five failed marriages, name changes and involvement with political groups like the Symbionese Liberation Army—baffled the public and even her own defense attorney during her trial.

"I never got a satisfactory answer from her as to why she did it," said retired federal public defender James F. Hewitt. "There was just bizarre stuff, and she would never tell anyone anything about her background."

Ford insisted the two attempts on his life shouldn't prevent him from having contact with the American people.

"If we can't have the opportunity of talking with one another, seeing one another, shaking hands with one another, something has gone wrong in our society. I think it's important that we as a people don't capitulate to the wrong element," he said.

Ford died just over a year ago.

Boyz will be Boyz

This was in Montana, I know a lot doesn't happen in Montana, generally speaking, so this must've been some pretty exciting stuff.

I hope no one else really needed any ambulances or help during the five (5!) hour period this took to sort out.

Note to Al-Queda, don't try to invade us through Montana please cause you might succeed.

Note to Homeland Security, fix this.

Search and rescue responds to rescue beacon - at hotel

A bit of hotel room fun brought a group of six college-aged students more attention than they bargained for Friday evening, the Gallatin County Sheriff's Office reported Saturday.

Around 6 p.m., the group activated a personal locator beacon at their hotel on North Seventh Avenue, possibly attempting to locate each other with the device, Undersheriff Jim Oberhofer said.

“They thought it interacted with their avalanche beacons. It did not,” he said. “They didn't realize it communicated with a satellite.”The beacon sends a signal to a government-controlled satellite that then pages local law enforcement and search and rescue teams.

But Oberhofer said the first set of coordinates received from the beacon were incorrect. As a result, a search and rescue team was dispatched to Castle Mountain to search for the beacon. A later message from the satellite, combined with tracking work done by local ham radio operators, located the beacon at the hotel, Oberhofer said.

The entire ordeal took about five hours, Oberhofer said. During that time, 22 volunteers, six deputies and an ambulance crew either responded to the beacon or were held on standby.

He said the Sheriff's Office did not issue any citations and chalked the incident up to a simple misunderstanding.Oberhofer said this was the first locator beacon activated in Gallatin County since the satellite-based system began operating in 2003.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the beacons led to the rescue of 59 people in 2007.

Legal, schmegal, just do it

Okay then.

They are some pretty dumb arguments on that I will agree.

Legal Fictions:

The Bush administration's dumbest legal arguments of the year.

By Dahlia Lithwick: Slate magazine

This time last year, I offered up a top 10 list of the most appalling civil-liberties violations by the Bush administration in 2006. The grim truth is, not much has changed. The Bush administration continues to limit our basic freedoms, conceal its own worst behavior, and insist that it does all this in order to make us more free. In that spirit, it seemed an opportune moment to commemorate the administration's worst legal justifications and arguments of the year. And so I humbly offer this new year's roundup:

The Bush Administration's Top 10 Stupidest Legal Arguments of 2007.

10. The NSA's eavesdropping was limited in scope.

Not at all. Recent revelations suggest the program was launched earlier than we'd been led to believe, scooped up more information than we were led to believe, and was not at all narrowly tailored, as we'd been led to believe. Surprised? Me neither.

9. Scooter Libby's sentence was commuted because it was excessive.

Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, Scooter Libby, was found guilty of perjury and obstructing justice in connection with the outing of Valerie Plame. In July, before Libby had served out a day of his prison sentence, President Bush commuted his sentence, insisting the 30-month prison sentence was "excessive." In fact, under the federal sentencing guidelines, Libby's sentence was perfectly appropriate and consistent with positions advocated by Bush's own Justice Department earlier this year.

8. The vice president's office is not a part of the executive branch.

We also learned in July that over the repeated objections of the National Archives, Vice President Dick Cheney exempted his office from Executive Order 12958, designed to safeguard classified national security information. In declining such oversight in 2004, Cheney advanced the astounding legal proposition that the Office of the Vice President is not an "entity within the executive branch" and hence is not subject to presidential executive orders. When, in January 2007, the Information Security Oversight Office asked Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resolve the dispute, Cheney recommended the executive order be amended to abolish the Information Security Oversight Office altogether. In a new interview with Mike Isikoff at Newsweek, the director of the ISOO stated that his fight with Cheney's office was a "contributing" factor in his decision to quit after 34 years.

read more of the list: http://www.slate.com/id/2179934/pagenum/all/#page_start

Eeeuwwww! This bites.

Start spreading the news

I'm leaving todayI want to be a part of it, New York, New York

These vagabond shoes Are longing to stray

And make a brand new start of it New York, New York

I want to wake up in the city that never sleeps

To find I'm king of the hill, top of the heap

These little town blues

Are melting away

I'll make a brand new start of it

In old New York

If I can make it there I'll make it anywhere

It's up to you, New York, New York.

But NOT WITH BED BUGS!

Now I'm getting itchy all over! YIKES!

Bedbug epidemic attacks New York City

BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN: DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

A bedbug epidemic has exploded in every corner of New York City - striking even upper East Side luxury apartments owned by Gov. Spitzer's father, the Daily News has learned.
The blood-sucking nocturnal creatures have infested a Park Ave. penthouse, an artist's colony in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, a $25 million Central Park West duplex and a theater on Broadway, according to victims, exterminators and elected officials.

Once linked to flophouses and fleabags, bedbug outbreaks victimize the rich and poor alike and are spreading panic in some of the city's hottest neighborhoods.

"In the last six months, I've treated maternity wards, five-star hotels, movie theaters, taxi garages, investment banks, private schools, white-shoe law firms, Brooklyn apartments in Greenpoint, DUMBO and Cobble Hill, even the chambers of a federal judge," said Jeff Eisenberg, owner of Pest Away Exterminating on the upper West Side.

The numbers are off the charts: In 2004, New Yorkers placed 537 calls to 311 about bedbugs in their homes; the city slapped 82 landlords with bedbug violations, data show.

In the fiscal year that ended in June, 6,889 infestation complaints were logged and 2,008 building owners were hit with summonses.

They must get rid of the pests within 30 days or face possible action in Housing Court, the city Department of Housing, Preservation & Development says.

The scourge has left no section of the city untouched: Complaints and enforcement actions soared in 57 of the 59 community boards.

In the most bedbug-riddled district, Bushwick in Brooklyn, HPD issued 172 violations this year, up from four in 2004; it responded to 476 complaints, up from 47.

Central Harlem chalked up 269 complaints, up from nine. Williamsburg and Greenpoint, home to the city's hippest galleries, racked up 148, up from 11 in 2004. Astoria and Long Island City saw the tally climb to 345 from 41.

Bedbugs come out of the woodwork at night to feed on human blood, biting people in their sleep and leaving large, itchy skin welts that can be painful. They are not believed to carry or transmit diseases.

A surge in global travel and mobility in all socioeconomic classes, combined with less toxic urban pesticides and the banning of DDT created a perfect storm for reviving the critters, which had been virtually dormant since World War II, experts say.

Prolific reproducers and hardy survivors, they can thrive in penthouses, flophouses or any environment where they can locate warm-blooded hosts, said Louis Sorkin, an entomologist at the Museum of Natural History who keeps a colony of 1,000 bedbugs in his office and lets them feed on his arm.

Stop! Music Thief!

Pretty unbelievable position to take. I, along with how many millions of others put our Cd's on our computer and play them during the day at work. It's not illegal, I thought, to do that.

The record industry says it is and show that they are becoming very concerned about their becoming increasingly irrelevant.

Download Uproar: Record Industry Goes After Personal Use

By Marc Fisher: Washington Post Staff Writer

Despite more than 20,000 lawsuits filed against music fans in the years since they started finding free tunes online rather than buying CDs from record companies, the recording industry has utterly failed to halt the decline of the record album or the rise of digital music sharing.
Still, hardly a month goes by without a news release from the industry's lobby, the Recording Industry Association of America, touting a new wave of letters to college students and others demanding a settlement payment and threatening a legal battle.

Now, in an unusual case in which an Arizona recipient of an RIAA letter has fought back in court rather than write a check to avoid hefty legal fees, the industry is taking its argument against music sharing one step further: In legal documents in its federal case against Jeffrey Howell, a Scottsdale, Ariz., man who kept a collection of about 2,000 music recordings on his personal computer, the industry maintains that it is illegal for someone who has legally purchased a CD to transfer that music into his computer.

The industry's lawyer in the case, Ira Schwartz, argues in a brief filed earlier this month that the MP3 files Howell made on his computer from legally bought CDs are "unauthorized copies" of copyrighted recordings.

"I couldn't believe it when I read that," says Ray Beckerman, a New York lawyer who represents six clients who have been sued by the RIAA. "The basic principle in the law is that you have to distribute actual physical copies to be guilty of violating copyright. But recently, the industry has been going around saying that even a personal copy on your computer is a violation."

read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/28/AR2007122800693.html

I'll drive off that bridge when I get there.

Did they float? Did the new VW's float like the old VW Beetles did? Of course it doesn't say whether any of the various models were the new VW Beetles.

Then there were the old jokes about how if Ted Kennedy had driven a VW at Chappaquiddick he'd be the president.

The color photo is from a real VW ad, the black and white one is the infamous national Lampoon VW ad.

Trucker Drives Off San Diego-Area Pier

NATIONAL CITY, Calif. (AP) - A trucker hauling a load of Volkswagen cars drove his cab and several cars into San Diego Bay after blacking out at a marine terminal, authorities said.
The unidentified driver suffered some kind of medical emergency and drove off a pier at the terminal Saturday afternoon, said fire department Capt. Sergio Mora.

Mora said the driver - believed to be in his 40s - regained consciousness underwater and swam about 13 feet to the surface, where dock workers helped him out of the water.
He was taken to a hospital in good condition.

The driver was bound for Los Angeles with his semitrailer load of 2008 Volkswagens of various models. Three of the VWs fell into the bay.

Helloooo, I'm Baaack.

Cindy Sheehan? Would someone please tell her that her 15 minutes of fame is up? I'm sorry that your son, Casey, died for his country in Iraq. I am pretty sure he might not appreciate the way you've been carrying on about his sacrifice.

Besides I thought she announced her formal resignation as the icon of the anti-war movement in The Daily Kos?

I am not being insensitive, her son knew full well the consequences of what he was getting into when he joined up. I hope time can bring her peace.

Protesters Could Disrupt Rose Parade

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - There could be some discord during the Tournament of Roses Parade as demonstrators promise to raise issues during the holiday spectacle that has been going on for more than a century. Human rights advocates plan to protest a float honoring the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and anti-war activists, including "Peace Mom" Cindy Sheehan, intend to rally for peace.

The theme of this year's New Year's Day parade is "Passport to the World's Celebrations." It will feature 46 floats, 21 marching bands and 18 equestrian units.
Volunteers have busy in Pasadena and nearby areas this past week decorating the floats with buckets of flowers and seeds.

"It's such a great feeling, to see the float on TV and have people say 'You worked on that float, that was so cool, that was so neat.' It makes all the hassle and everything we go through worthwhile," said Moreno Valley resident Linda Priest, 49, assistant crew chief on Honda's

"Passport to the Future" float.

The National Weather Service forecast no rain for Tuesday's parade, with highs in the low 70s and not much wind.

This won't be the first Rose parade touched by protest - in 1992, American Indians complained about the naming of a descendant of Christopher Columbus as grand marshal - but most problems have been mechanical.

"Honestly, in the past years, it's really been more about floats breaking down, delaying the parade, than other things, than protests," said Tournament of Roses President CL Keedy.
Yet some fear the protests could develop into an annual pattern that could tarnish the parade's shiny image.

"If controversy like this diminishes the positive impact of the Rose Parade, it would be of concern," Pasadena Mayor Bill Bogaard said.

read more: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20071230/D8TRFIGG3.html

Hello, Captain Obvious?

How is this news? I mean, after all, isn't this how gangs got their start? Young hoodlums getting together to protect their turf? Their turf being those in their neighborhood the same ethnicity, religion or nationality as they are?

Look to the "Jets" and the "Sharks" in West Side Story as an example. The Crips and the Bloods or the gangs in prisons.

LA Gang F13 Accused of Targeting Blacks

LOS ANGELES (AP) - In a murderous quest aimed at "cleansing" their turf of snitches and rival gangsters, members of one of Los Angeles County's most vicious Latino gangs sometimes killed people just because of their race, an investigation found.
There were even instances in which Florencia 13 leaders ordered killings of black gangsters and then, when the intended victim couldn't be located, said "Well, shoot any black you see," Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca said.
"In certain cases some murders were just purely motivated on killing a black person," Baca said.
Authorities say there were 20 murders among more than 80 shootings documented during the gang's rampage in the hardscrabble Florence-Firestone neighborhood, exceptional even in an area where gang violence has been commonplace for decades. They don't specify the time frame or how many of the killings were racial.
Los Angeles has struggled with gang violence for years, especially during the wars in the late 1980s and early '90s between the Crips and the Bloods - both black gangs. Latino gangs have gained influence since then as the Hispanic population surged.
Evidence of Florencia 13, or F13, is easy to find in Florence-Firestone. Arrows spray-painted on the wall of a liquor store mark the gang's boundary and graffiti warns rivals to steer clear.

read more: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20071230/D8TRULL80.html

Is Starbucks getting nervous?

Sure coulda used this when I was studying for the Bar exam. I am sure thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, nay, millions of interns, students and the like will be happy too.

Snorting a Brain Chemical Could Replace Sleep

A nasal spray of a key brain hormone cures sleepiness in sleep-deprived monkeys. With no apparent side effects, the hormone might be a promising sleep-replacement drug.

In what sounds like a dream for millions of tired coffee drinkers, Darpa-funded scientists might have found a drug that will eliminate sleepiness.

A nasal spray containing a naturally occurring brain hormone called orexin A reversed the effects of sleep deprivation in monkeys, allowing them to perform like well-rested monkeys on cognitive tests. The discovery's first application will probably be in treatment of the severe sleep disorder narcolepsy.

The treatment is "a totally new route for increasing arousal, and the new study shows it to be relatively benign," said Jerome Siegel, a professor of psychiatry at UCLA and a co-author of the paper. "It reduces sleepiness without causing edginess."
Orexin A is a promising candidate to become a "sleep replacement" drug. For decades, stimulants have been used to combat sleepiness, but they can be addictive and often have side effects, including raising blood pressure or causing mood swings. The military, for example, administers amphetamines to pilots flying long distances, and has funded research into new drugs like the stimulant modafinil (.pdf) and orexin A in an effort to help troops stay awake with the fewest side effects.

The monkeys were deprived of sleep for 30 to 36 hours and then given either orexin A or a saline placebo before taking standard cognitive tests. The monkeys given orexin A in a nasal spray scored about the same as alert monkeys, while the saline-control group was severely impaired.

The study, published in the Dec. 26 edition of The Journal of Neuroscience, found orexin A not only restored monkeys' cognitive abilities but made their brains look "awake" in PET scans.
Siegel said that orexin A is unique in that it only had an impact on sleepy monkeys, not alert ones, and that it is "specific in reversing the effects of sleepiness" without other impacts on the brain.

Such a product could be widely desired by the more than 70 percent of Americans who the National Sleep Foundation estimates get less than the generally recommended eight hours of sleep per night (.pdf).

The research follows the discovery by Siegel that the absence of orexin A appears to cause narcolepsy. That finding pointed to a major role for the peptide's absence in causing sleepiness. It stood to reason that if the deficit of orexin A makes people sleepy, adding it back into the brain would reduce the effects, said Siegel.

"What we've been doing so far is increasing arousal without dealing with the underlying problem," he said. "If the underlying deficit is a loss of orexin, and it clearly is, then the best treatment would be orexin."

Dr. Michael Twery, director of the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research, said that while research into drugs for sleepiness is "very interesting," he cautioned that the long-term consequences of not sleeping were not well-known.

Both Twery and Siegel noted that it is unclear whether or not treating the brain chemistry behind sleepiness would alleviate the other problems associated with sleep deprivation.
"New research indicates that not getting enough sleep is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders," said Twery.
Still, Siegel said that Americans already recognize that sleepiness is a problem and have long treated it with a variety of stimulants.

"We have to realize that we are already living in a society where we are already self-medicating with caffeine," he said.

He also said that modafinil, which is marketed as Provigil by Cephalon and Alertec in Canada, has become widely used by healthy individuals for managing sleepiness.
"We have these other precedents, and it's not clear that you can't use orexin A temporarily to reduce sleep," said Siegel. "On the other hand, you'd have to be a fool to advocate taking this and reducing sleep as much as possible."

Sleep advocates probably won't have to worry about orexin A reaching drugstore shelves for many years. Any commercial treatment using the substance would need approval from the Food and Drug Administration, which can take more than a decade.

Devil made me do it UPDATE!

Noooooooooooooooo!

Its like in the movies where the good guys can't really see what the demons are doing! They're out there laughing at us!

Then they'll possess Linda Blair all over again and eat baby brains for breakfast and puke up pea soup.

Look at the picture, its Linda Blair with the Devil, I swear!

OMG! WAKE UP!!

Vatican denies exorcist expansion

VATICAN CITY, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- The Vatican is denying reports it plans to install more exorcists around the world so possessed people can get help quickly."Pope Benedict XVI has no intention of ordering local bishops to bring in garrisons of exorcists to fight demonic possession,'' Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told reporters in Rome Friday.

On Thursday, the Roman Catholic Web site Petrus said the pope planned to install more exorcists in every diocese next year and reintroduce a prayer during mass to St. Michael the Archangel, believed to be the prime protector against evil, The Telegraph in Britain reported Saturday.

Paolo Scarafoni, a priest at Vatican University who teaches how to recognize and expel Satan, said exorcists increasingly are in demand because devil worship has become so common, reported ANSA, the Italian news agency. "Priests are being bombarded," Scarafoni told ANSA.

Bad cop

Great, wonderful!

A trusted adult figure and a policeman.

Revealed as a predatory pedophile. At least found out, even if too late for the young victim.

They say former police officers do not do well in prison. That, along with the fact that kiddie rapists and diddlers are at the bottom of the totem pole in prison and it won't go good for him.

Let justice take its course and we will see what happens.

NYPD Officer Told Teen Sex Was Part Of Obedience Oath, Police Say

MIDDLETOWN, N.Y. -- A New York City police officer has been arrested on charges of raping a 15-year-old girl, authorities said.

Trent Young, 39, of Middletown, N.Y., was arrested in his home Thursday morning, police said. He faces charges of second-degree and third-degree rape.

Young teaches karate at the Iron Tiger Martial Arts Center in West Milford, N.J., and at his home. The girl was his student, police said. Young allegedly abused her in his home and at the martial arts center.

Police said the abuse started when the victim earned her green belt in 2005. That day, Young had the girl sign an oath of obedience and then took her to another room, where he told her to remove her clothes until she was naked, police said.

Young then sexually abused her, police said. After she put her clothes back on, Young told her it was all part of a test, according to police.

In 2006, Young allegedly pressured the girl to have sex, continuing to say that doing so was part of the oath, police said. Young and his alleged victim had intercourse between 20 and 40 times until October of 2007, police said.

Young told another female student, also 15, to remove her clothes as part of an oath, but she refused, investigators said.

According to the Iron Tiger Martial Arts Center's Web site, Young taught in the New York City school system for seven years before joining the NYPD. The Web site also says he has trained thousands of students in martial arts.

Young was being held in Orange County jail.

The New York City Police Department declined comment Friday, but Middletown police said Young has been with the NYPD for nine years and worked in the 26th Precinct in upper Manhattan.

In New Jersey, Passaic County Prosecutor James Avigliano said his office had no information about the case.

The devil made me do it

Don't demons have the constitutional right of freedom of religion?

What about their due process rights? Their right to free speech? Where is the ACLU on this issue?

What do the candidates think regarding this issue?

What about the fact the Pope was a former member of the Hitler Youth and he also looks really evil in this picture too?

What? I'm just saying.

Pope's exorcist squads will wage war on Satan

Satanism on the rise: Pope Benedict has unveiled plans to set up specialist exorcism squads

The Pope has ordered his bishops to set up exorcism squads to tackle the rise of Satanism.
Vatican chiefs are concerned at what they see as an increased interest in the occult.

They have introduced courses for priests to combat what they call the most extreme form of "Godlessness."

Each bishop is to be told to have in his diocese a number of priests trained to fight demonic possession.

The initiative was revealed by 82-year-old Father Gabriele Amorth, the Vatican "exorcistinchief," to the online Catholic news service Petrus.

"Thanks be to God, we have a Pope who has decided to fight the Devil head-on," he said.

"Too many bishops are not taking this seriously and are not delegating their priests in the fight against the Devil. You have to hunt high and low for a properly trained exorcist.

"Thankfully, Benedict XVI believes in the existence and danger of evil - going back to the time he was in charge of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith." The CDF is the oldest

Vatican department and was headed by Benedict from 1982, when he was Cardinal Ratzinger, until he became Pope in 2005.

Father Amorth said that during his time at the department Benedict had not lost the chance to warn humanity of the risk from the Devil.

He said the Pope wants to restore a prayer seen as protection against evil that was traditionally recited at the end of Catholic Masses. The prayer, to St Michael the Archangel, was dropped in the 1960s by Pope John XXIII.

The 1973 film The Exorcist deals with the demonic possession of a young girl: Now the Pope wants specialist exorcism squads in every parish

"The prayer is useful not only for priests but also for lay people in helping to fight demons," he said.

Father Paolo Scarafoni, who lectures on the Vatican's exorcism course, said interest in Satanism and the occult has grown as people lost faith with the church.

He added: "People suffer and think that turning to the Devil can help solve their problems. We are being bombarded by requests for exorcisms."

The Vatican is particularly concerned that young people are being exposed to the influence of Satanic sects through rock music and the Internet.

In theory, under the Catholic Church's Canon Law 1172, all priests can perform exorcisms. But in reality only a select few are assigned the task.

Under the law, practitioners must have "piety, knowledge, prudence, and integrity of life."
The rite of exorcism involves a series of gestures and prayers to invoke the power of God and stop the "demon" influencing its victim.

Don't Taze me Bro, UPDATE

Holy Smokes!

No lawsuit, yet.

Report: Former Trotwood officer improperly used stun gun on pregnant woman

TROTWOOD — An internal investigation of a former police officer's use of a stun gun on a pregnant woman found the officer improperly used the weapon on the woman's neck.
The investigation also found Michael Wilmer, 29, didn't know Valreca Redden, 33, was seven months pregnant Nov. 18 when he used a stun gun on her.

Wilmer was fired midway through the internal investigation for posting unauthorized photographs of police evidence on his MySpace account and operating a city-owned police cruiser at 120 mph.

Redden had been trying to turn her 1-year-old son over to police when Wilmer used the stun gun on her. She had refused to answer questions about herself and the 1-year-old, then tried to leave with the child and resisted arrest, according to the report.

"Video surveillance coverage ... shows Officer Wilmer was clearly in a position that he could have utilized his Taser on Ms. Redden's thighs and/or lower region, rather than her neck," the Dec. 24 report stated. "However, Officer Wilmer chose the neck region, even though Valreca Redden offered no violent resistance toward him or others."

The investigation also found Wilmer, a probationary employee with less than a year on the force, violated department policy by failing:
• to call a medic to check Redden after using a stun gun.
• to ensure photographs were taken of Redden's neck.
• to provide correct details in the stun-gun logbook.
• to provide accurate information about when he learned Redden was pregnant.
• to disseminate professional mobile-data terminal messages from his police cruiser.

Officer Roy McGill and Sgt. Fred Beck received lesser disciplinary action relating to the incident.

Another officer, Thomas Quigley, was disciplined for failing to write up a domestic violence incident between Redden and the biological father of her child just minutes before the stun-gun incident at the police station. During that incident, Redden allegedly tried to run over her child's father with her vehicle.

Sgt. Richard Wright, working as a supervisor at the time, was suspended for one day for the failure to call a medic and take photographs of Redden's neck.

The report found insufficient evidence to show whether Redden was verbally abused by police, as alleged by the National Action Network's Cleveland chapter. The NAN, affiliated with civil rights leader the Rev. Al Sharpton, could not be reached for comment Friday.

"We promised the community we would look into this and do a thorough investigation," said Mike Etter, Trotwood's public safety director. "We feel we've met that obligation."

Keep it zipped

Hmm. IMHO this case will come screaming back on appeal for lack of a jury instruction on entrapment.

I can't imagine that there wasn't some evidence presented at the trial to warrant such an instruction.

Lesson to all, keep it zipped in public.

Topless Woman Lured Perverts in Police Sting

Firefighter Busted for Exposing Himself to Sunbather Appeals 'Entrapment' Conviction

Law enforcement officials say that sting operations like these are an extremely effective means of lowering crime rates and stopping the criminally minded before they commit worse offenses. Opponents call it entrapment. (ABC News)

By MARCUS BARAM

Robin Garrison, an off-duty 42-year-old firefighter, was walking in Berliner Park in Columbus, Ohio, in May when he saw a woman sunbathing topless under a tree.

He approached her and they started talking and getting comfortable, the woman smiling and resting her foot on his shoulder at one point.

Eventually, she asked to see Garrison's penis; he unzipped his pants and complied.

Seconds later, undercover police officers pulled up in a van and arrested Garrison; he was later charged with public indecency, a misdemeanor, based on video footage taken by cops who were targeting men having sex or masturbating in the park. While topless sunbathing is legal in the city's parks, exposing more than that is against the law.

The case is just one of the more extreme examples of police stings aimed at luring people into committing crimes, a tactic that has resulted in hundreds of arrests, many convictions and plenty of controversy.

Law enforcement officials say that such sting operations are an extremely effective means of lowering crime rates and stopping the criminally minded before they commit worse offenses.

From early 2006 to the spring of 2007, there were 160 citations for public indecency in the city, according to an investigation by 10TV News. Among those who were caught in the stings: an Ohio State University doctor, government employees and a retired highway trooper.

But such operations veer dangerously close to entrapment, say lawyers, civil libertarians and defendants who've been caught in sting operations.

At Garrison's trial, his attorney argued that it was a case of entrapment. "Columbus police utilized this topless woman to snare this man," said Sam Shamansky. "He sees her day after day. He's not some seedy pervert."

The argument failed to sway a Franklin County Municipal Court jury that found Garrison guilty of public indecency last month. He was ordered to stay away from the park, placed on a year's probation and fined $250. Currently, Garrison remains on paid desk duty while the fire department conducts an internal investigation into his behavior.

"We want to be held to a higher standard, we are in the community every day and we put our best foot forward, but sometimes we stumble and make a mistake," said Columbus Fire Battalion Chief Doug Smith.

Garrison could not be reached for comment.

Shamansky plans to appeal the verdict on the grounds that the jury wasn't instructed on the definition of entrapment.

Brouhaha at the bottom of the World for Xmas

Wonderful! Makes me so proud!

Back in my Geology days at school I was a lab assistant for a professor who used to go to The Antarctic for research purposes and would regale us with stories of drunkenness because they would bring much more ethyl alcohol for preservative purposes than was needed.

Just wondering if this was more of the same.

Antarctic base staff evacuated after Christmas brawl

Two men, one with a suspected broken jaw, have been airlifted from the Antarctic's most remote research facility after an incident described as a "drunken Christmas punch-up".

The brawl happened at the US-operated Amundsen-Scott South Pole station, located at the heart of the frozen continent. The station, where staff carry out a range of scientific investigations from astrophysics to seismology, is currently being rebuilt in a £76m project.

After reports of the fight reached staff at McMurdo station, the headquarters of the US Antarctic Programme, which is located on Ross Island, a US Air Force Hercules was sent to pick up the injured man and the other worker.

They were flown back to McMurdo, but it was decided the man's injuries were too serious to be treated in Antarctica and he was taken on to Christchurch, New Zealand, accompanied by a nurse and a paramedic.

Many of the McMurdo staff had been expecting a day off for Christmas but support workers returned to work to deal with the rare emergency medical evacuation.

A spokeswoman at Christchurch Hospital said a man was admitted on Christmas Day and discharged the following day.

"There was an altercation between two people -- there's no indication of the cause or of the background between the two folks," said Peter West, spokesman for the National Science Foundation which manages the US Antarctic programme.

The injured man is an employee of Raytheon Polar Services, one of America's largest defence contractors. A company spokeswoman, Val Carroll, said an investigation into the incident would be held. She said it was company policy not to release names of the two men.

The other man involved in the incident has flown back to the United States.
Polar medivac flights are rare occurrences, one of the most dramatic being a midwinter flight in 1999 for a woman doctor who developed breast cancer and needed urgent treatment.

It is currently summer in Antarctica, with light snow falling and daytime temperatures hovering around freezing, making it relatively easy to fly back and forth to New Zealand.

Bloody 'bout time

*hic* No, I don't want another bloody mary ossifer *hic* I said i want a scotch on the rocks *hic*

Blood to be drawn from DWI suspects

By Daniel Borunda / El Paso Times

El Paso police will use search warrants to get blood samples from suspected drunken drivers who refuse breath tests in a controversial pilot program that begins tonight.

The temporary "no-refusal program" is patterned after similar efforts in a few other Texas cities, including Houston, where it has raised invasion-of-privacy issues. It has immediately compelled constitutional questions in El Paso.

"It's all about making our streets safer and holding the person who chooses to drink and drive accountable," El Paso District Attorney Jaime Esparza said Thursday afternoon at a news conference announcing the project.

The program will take place from 10 p.m. today to 4 a.m. Saturday, on Saturday night and on New Year's Eve,. It is designed to curb drunken driving during the holiday season.
Esparza was joined by Police Chief Richard Wiles and Virginia Gonzalez, executive director of the El Paso chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, who supported the program as a way to discourage intoxicated drivers.

Esparza estimated that the warrant process would take about 30 to 45 minutes with a judge and nurse on duty. Esparza described the procedure this way:

After a DWI arrest, the arrestee will be taken for a breath test at the police Central Regional Command Center. If the arrestee refuses to take the breath test in a videotaped statement, a prosecutor will request a search warrant for blood from a judge.

If the judge at the police station approves the warrant, a nurse paid for by the Police Department will draw a blood sample at Tillman Health Center, which is operated by the city and is behind the police station.

The blood will be sent to Texas Department of Public Safety lab for blood-alcohol results, which will arrive in around a month. The suspect would still be jailed on a DWI test-refusal charge.
Esparza and Wiles said the initiative is necessary because more than half of the 50 traffic deaths in El Paso this year involved drunken drivers. And about 50 percent of people arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated refuse to take the breath test, making prosecution more difficult.

El Paso police made 2,071 arrests for driving while intoxicated last year.

read more: http://www.tdcaa.com/node/1708

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Pending Lawsuit

Unbelievable that apparently the wall was 12 1/2 feet high rather than the recommended 16.4 feet.

Can you say lawsuit?

Can you say massive lawsuit with multiple defendants?

Zoo Director Says Tiger Wall Was Low

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The director of the zoo where a teenager was killed by an escaped tiger acknowledged Thursday that the wall around the animal's pen was just 12 1/2 feet high—well below the height recommended by the main accrediting agency for the nation's zoos.

According to the Association of Zoos & Aquariums, the minimum recommended height for tiger exhibit walls is 16.4 feet.

San Francisco Zoo Director Manuel A. Mollinedo said safety inspectors had examined the nearly 70-year-old wall and never raised red flags about its size.

"When the AZA came out and inspected our zoo three years ago, they never noted that as a deficiency," Mollinedo said. "Obviously now that something's happened, we're going to be revisiting the actual height."

On Wednesday, Mollinedo said that the wall was 18 feet high and that the moat around the tiger's pen was 20 feet wide. On Thursday, he said the moat was 33 feet wide.

Investigators have yet to say how the 300-pound Siberian tiger got out of the open-air enclosure. But based on the initial estimates of the height of the wall, animal experts expressed disbelief that a tiger in captivity could have made such a spectacular leap.

The accrediting association did not immediately return calls for comment Thursday about the height of the wall.

The animal went on a rampage near closing time on Christmas Day, mauling three visitors before it was shot to death by police. Carlso Sousa Jr., 17, died and two brothers, ages 19 and 23, suffered severe bite and claw wounds.

read more: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8TQ284G0&show_article=1

WWJD?

Sheesh!

This is just so wrong on so many levels.

Priests brawl at Bethlehem birthplace of Jesus

Seven people were injured on Thursday when Greek Orthodox and Armenian priests came to blows in a dispute over how to clean the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

Following the Christmas celebrations, Greek Orthodox priests set up ladders to clean the walls and ceilings of their part of the church, which is built over the site where Jesus Christ is believed to have been born.

But the ladders encroached on space controlled by Armenian priests, according to photographers who said angry words ensued and blows quickly followed.

For a quarter of an hour bearded and robed priests laid into each other with fists, brooms and iron rods while the photographers who had come to take pictures of the annual cleaning ceremony recorded the whole event.

A dozen unarmed Palestinian policemen were sent to try to separate the priests, but two of them were also injured in the unholy melee.

"As usual the cleaning of the church afer Christmas is a cause of problems," Bethlehem Mayor Victor Batarseh told AFP, adding that he has offered to help ease tensions.

"For the two years that I have been here everything went more or less calmly," he said. "It's all finished now."

The Church of the Nativity, like the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City, is shared by various branches of Christianity, each of which controls and jealously guards a part of the holy site.

The Church of the Nativity is built on the site where Christians believe Jesus was born in a stable more than 2,000 years ago after Mary and Joseph were turned away by an inn.

Public service message

The following is a message I received at my job at the prosecutor's office. I am posting this to warn you of this scam.

Jury Duty Scam

From: Officer Roger Zuniga #1498
Legal Liaison Officer
OFFICE OF THE CHIEF
214 W. Nueva St., San Antonio, Texas 78207

This has been verified by the FBI (their link is also included below).

Please pass this on. It is spreading fast so be prepared should you get this call. Most of us take those summonses for jury duty seriously, but enough people skip out on their civic duty, that a new and ominous kind of fraud has surfaced.

The caller claims to be a jury coordinator. If you protest that you never received a summons for jury duty, the scammer asks you for your Social Security number and date of birth so he or she can verify the information and cancel the arrest warrant. Give out any of this information and bingo; your identity was just stolen.

The fraud has been reported so far in 11 states, including Oklahoma , Illinois , and Colorado .

This (swindle) is particularly insidious because they use intimidation over the phone to try to bully people into giving information by pretending they are with the court system. The FBI and the federal court system have issued nationwide alerts on their web sites, warning consumers about the fraud.

Check it out here: http://www.fbi.gov/page2/june06/jury_scams060206.htm

Judge Gone Wild

I will not comment on this, other than to say it isn't just happening in Denver, I'm sure.

Ex-judge's law license suspended over affair
By Kirk Mitchell The Denver Post

A former Douglas County judge's law license has been suspended for three years after he had an affair with a deputy district attorney who appeared in his court.
Grafton Minot Biddle, 58, was suspended Monday by Colorado Supreme Court Presiding Disciplinary Judge William Lucero.

Six months before he can apply to have his law license reinstated, Biddle must attend an ethics class, Lucero ruled.

The former deputy district attorney, Laurie Hurst, had already agreed to a three-year suspension of her law license.
Hurst, 30, previously known as Laurie Steinman, was fired on Dec. 22, 2006. Biddle resigned his position after Hurst was fired.

Hurst declined to comment today. Biddle also could not be reached for comment.

He did not appear in court for proceedings against his law license, Lucero's report and ruling says.

A complaint filed in April claimed the two had sex in the judge's chambers and that on a number of occasions, Biddle would "sneak" into the women's shower facilities in the courthouse early in the morning, Lucero's report says.

The affair began in the spring of 2006, as Hurst occasionally appeared in Biddle's courtroom when he was a magistrate in the First Arraignment Center. She appeared before the judge after plea agreements and to make sentencing recommendations, the judge's report says.

The affair ceased for a period of time and then resumed in the summer, when Biddle became a county court judge. Hurst again appeared before him during two trials, Lucero's report says. The judge and the prosecutor had trysts both inside and outside the court, it says.

Hurst attempted to destroy e-mails that revealed the nature of her relationship with the judge, according to the complaint, Lucero's report says.

When confronted about the affair by the court's presiding judge, Biddle denied the affair, it says. But after Biddle's wife submitted a letter to the presiding judge describing the affair, Biddle resigned immediately, Lucero's ruling says.

Lucero's ruling says that Hurst did not obtain any benefit because of the affair in the cases she presented before Biddle. However, he said the affair did harm the court.

"The facts established in the complaint reveal the danger the respondent poses to the public by way of his brazen disregard of his ethical duties, both as a lawyer and a public official," Lucero's report says.

Although Biddle's suspension lasts three years, there is no guarantee that he will be allowed to resume practicing law at the end of the term, Lucero said.

Biddle must prove his fitness to practice law at a hearing before he will be reinstated, he wrote.

Lucy! You got some 'splaining to do!

Geeze! You know, I believe this happens more frequently than anyone would care to admit.

A case in my court, back when I was a judge, occurred when a prisoner, who had a hold on him for a "blue" warrant (a warrant for a parole violation) was inadvertently let out of the Bexar County jail. About 48 hours later, drunk as a skunk, he plowed into a vehicle on New years Eve, killing an 18 year old girl and severely injuring her fiance.

Prison's error led to wanted man's release
By SCOTT DAUGHERTY/ Staff Writers

A clerical error by state prison officials led to the inadvertent release last month of a man who is a suspect in a brutal 1999 sexual assault in Glen Burnie.
Prison administrators admitted yesterday that a staffer overlooked a court order to hold 40-year-old Ronald Lee Moore when they released him on Nov. 21 from the Baltimore City Correctional Center.

Mark Vernarelli, a spokesman for the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services that runs the Baltimore prison, said the order "was not noticed due to human error."
"The commitment office handles well over 100,000 cases annually, keeping track of 14,000 intakes and releases every year; overseeing nearly 7,000 case reviews ... and monitoring the status of 24,000 incarcerated men and women on a daily basis," Mr. Vernarelli said "The job is very, very difficult."

Moore, of 3712 Lamberton Square, Silver Spring, is charged with first- and second-degree sex offense, unnatural or perverted practice, second degree assault, reckless endangerment, possession of a deadly weapon, and first-degree burglary. The charges stem from a cold case involving an October 1999 sexual assault during a Glen Burnie home invasion.

Police linked Moore to the home invasion in July 2006, after matching his DNA to semen left behind at the scene of the attack. State prison officials collected his DNA while he was serving time for a 2000 burglary conviction and inputted it into the FBI's Combined DNA Index.
According to charging documents, Moore broke into a Glen Burnie apartment on Green Bud Lane at about 1:45 a.m. Oct. 23, 1999, and sexually assaulted a woman inside.

Police said he was wearing a mask and gloves when he entered the apartment, moved the victim's two-year-old child from the master bedroom and told the woman if she made a noise he would kill her. Police said that while he sexually assaulted the woman, he punched her in the head several times and shocked her with a "cow prod."

At the time of the assault, police had no suspects and eventually suspended their investigation.
County police reopened the investigation after getting the DNA match and obtained a District Court arrest warrant on May 22 of this year. County sheriff's deputies sent a "detainer" to the Maryland Division of Corrections the following day in order to make sure prison officials didn't release Mr. Moore to the street.

That District Court detainer was recalled after Moore was indicted June 15 in Circuit Court - as is standard procedure.

Circuit Court Judge William C. Mulford issued a separate commitment order Oct. 9.
"It's unusual that he was released ... but I don't think anything was done out of the norm in Annapolis," said Maj. Rick Tabor of the county Sheriff's Department.

Police and prosecutors learned of Moore's release Friday, leading Assistant State's Attorney Kathleen Rogers to immediately seek another warrant. Judge Mulford issued a "no bond" bench warrant Friday.

Mr. Vernarelli said the state Division of Correction also sought an escape retake warrant Friday.
Clerk of the Circuit Court Robert P. Duckworth said prison officials usually abide by commitment orders. He said he doesn't think Moore was released on purpose, but "it just shows lack of concern on their part. ... They, I guess, just didn't pay attention."

Moore served seven years in prison on a separate 2000 burglary conviction before he was released. According to online state court records, he pleaded guilty to two counts of felony burglary, one count of second-degree assault and one count of possession of a deadly weapon September 20, 2000, in Baltimore County Circuit Court.

Moore is supposed to be on supervised probation for about six years for the 2000 burglary conviction. But while he showed up for his initial intake meeting in November with the Division of Parole and Probation, Moore has not met with a probation agent since then, Mr. Vernarelli said.

Moore is scheduled to go before a jury Feb. 5 for the Glen Burnie sexual assault case, but he currently does not have an attorney, according to Circuit Court records. Clark Ahlers of Columbia, Moore's private attorney, withdrew himself from the case Nov. 27, citing an "irreparable conflict of interest" that had arisen the day before. It is unclear how or where Mr. Ahlers met with Moore Nov. 26 since he was already released from prison at that point.

Moore has appeared in county courtrooms at least twice in regards to the sex offense case. He was arraigned July 2 in Circuit Court and appeared for a status conference Aug. 31, according to court records.

With Moore free, police are asking for citizens' help in locating him.
Sgt. Sara Schriver, county police spokesman, said the department's fugitive team is looking for him. She hopes media attention to the case will lead members of the community to call detectives and turn him over to police.

Sgt. Schriver described Moore as white, 6 feet 2 inches tall, and 260 pounds. He has blue eyes.
Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Tracy Morgan at 410-222-3466 or 410-222-8610.

The Jungle Book

Who would be stupid enough to either taunt a tiger and/or possibly aid it in escaping its enclosure?

Nevermind, I am sure there are plenty of folks who'll fit the bill, including members of PETA.

Zoo Officials Probe Killing by Tiger

By JORDAN ROBERTSON/Associated Press Writer

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The big cat exhibit at the San Francisco Zoo was cordoned off as a crime scene Wednesday as investigators tried to determine whether a Siberian tiger that killed a visitor escaped from its high-walled pen on its own or got help from someone, inadvertent or otherwise.

Police shot the 300-pound animal to death after a Christmas Day rampage that began when the tiger escaped from an enclosure surrounded by what zoo officials said are an 18-foot wall and a 20-foot moat. Two brothers who also were visiting the zoo were severely mauled.

Police Chief Heather Fong said the department has opened a criminal investigation to "determine if there was human involvement in the tiger getting out or if the tiger was able to get out on its own."

Police said they have not ruled anything out, including whether the escape was the result of carelessness or a deliberate act.

Fong said officers were gathering evidence from the tiger's enclosure as well as accounts from witnesses and others.

One zoo official insisted the tiger did not get out through an open door and must have climbed or leaped out. But Jack Hanna, former director of the Columbus Zoo and a frequent guest on TV, said such a leap would be an unbelievable feat, and "virtually impossible."

"There's something going on here. It just doesn't feel right to me," he said. "It just doesn't add up to me."

Instead, he speculated that visitors might have been fooling around and might have taunted the animal and perhaps even helped it get out by, say, putting a board in the moat.

read more: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8TPI9Q82&show_article=1

More Christmas Woe

I guess the Grinch stole this Christmas after all, or I haven't noticed all of these crimes in the past.

What an evil Merry Christmas season this has turned out to be.

The bad part of all this is there was a 911 hang-up call, two call backs resulted in the phone going to voicemail and two deputies sent out found the gate locked and apparently left. I presume there will be some changes to police procedures as a result of this matter.

Victims' daughter arrested in Christmas Eve killings

By JANE McCARTHY / KING 5 News and Associated Press

CARNATION, Wash. - Two people were arrested Wednesday evening after the bodies of six people were found earlier in the day at a rural property east of Seattle, a sheriff's sergeant said.
One of two suspects in the slayings of six people near Carnation that occurred in the afternoon of Christmas Eve is the daughter of the oldest victims, police said.

Family members said the six victims are Wayne and Judy Anderson, who own the property, their adult son Scott Anderson and his wife Erica of Black Diamond, and their 6-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son.

The two suspects under arrest are Wayne and Judy's youngest daughter, 29-year-old Michelle Anderson, and her boyfriend who live on the property.
The pair came to the crime scene after investigators arrived there this morning, were questioned by investigators, then arrested shortly after 4 p.m.

Both were booked into the King County Jail Wednesday evening. Sources said both suspects admitted to the murders independently. There is no indication of drug or alcohol use and so far, the murder weapon has not been found.

Investigators had not determined a motive for the deaths, but a family member said there had been tension between Michelle and the family for years.

Mark Bennett, who identified himself as a family friend, said Wayne Anderson was a Boeing Co. engineer and Judy Anderson worked for the Post Office in Carnation.
Bennett said he used to run a coffee shop with another daughter, Mary, who lives in nearby North Bend. A son also lives in the area, he said.

Autopsies have not been performed on the bodies, but the cause of death was most likely gunshots, Urquhart said.
"All died from homicidal violence, most likely from gunshots," Urquhart said.

Sgt. Jim Laing says the bodies were discovered in the home about 8 a.m. by a co-worker of the eldest female victim, who worked at a post office. The co-worker went to the home when the usually reliable postal employee failed to show up for work.

Police say the bodies were discovered about 8 a.m. in a home in the 1800 block of 346th Avenue N.E.

The home is a large, older house on isolated property in the mostly rural area, located at the end of a dirt road. A mobile home is also located on the property.
Detectives searched outbuildings as well as the home. They towed away a black pickup truck sealed with evidence tape.

Urquhart said the bodies would likely remain at the crime scene until Thursday or Friday.
"Now we have to process the scene," he said.

Now there are serious questions about why police did not go into the house after a 911 hangup call was placed the night of the murders.

Police made two calls back to the residence, but both went to voicemail. When deputies arrived at the scene, the gate was locked. When deputies were unable to gain access, they left.

News of the killings spread quickly through Carnation, a small dairy farming community.
The property where the crime was committed is located in a rural development southeast of town.

Friends say the homeowners had been married for 38 years. The woman worked at the Carnation post office. She's known around town as a friendly mail carrier who goes the extra mile for customers.

"She's a real sweet gal – she always has a smile on her fact," said Carleen Doneen.
"She was a very good friend," said Carolyn Durand.

The man is a Boeing engineer who was looking forward to retirement.

More Merry E'ffing Xmas, now die, scum!

Boy, am I glad I don't live up there anymore.

Christmas Shootings in Brooklyn, Bronx Leave 4 Dead

A Violent Night in New York

Four people are dead and five others wounded in separate shootings on Christmas Eve and early Christmas morning.
->By Arun Kristian Das: MyFox New York

NEW YORK -- Nine people were shot in separate incidents in New York on Monday and early Tuesday, police said. Four of the victims died and five others are wounded. Detectives are investigating.

In the first incident, four masked men confronted a 20-year-old man in the lobby of a building in Co-Op City in the Bronx. A fight broke out and spilled into the street, where someone shot the victim in the chest. The masked men ran away. The victim was listed in critical condition.

Around 8 p.m. in Brooklyn, police officers responded to an emergency call near Euclid and Sutter Avenues in East New York. They found a 26-year-old man shot in the head. He was pronounced dead at Brookdale Hospital.

A few minutes later in the Baychester Section of the Bronx, a gunman fired several shots into a car stopped in a driveway on Fenton Avenue, hitting and killing Orlando Clarke, 26. He had pulled into his neighbor's driveway when the shooting happened, police said.

Later, around 9:44 p.m. in Brooklyn, police found two teenagers shot in the head in front of 121 Lefferts Place, along the border between Clinton Hill and Bedford-Stuyvesant. They were pronounced dead at the scene. Police identified the victims as Robert Grant, 19, and Oliver Maitland, 16.

Hours later in Bedford-Stuyvesant, four people were shot outside the Seabreeze Manor nightclub on Nostrand Avenue. Two victims were taken to Kings County Hospital and two others to New York Methodist. None of their injuries is considered life-threatening, officials said.

The shooting happened around 4 a.m.

As of Tuesday evening, police have not made any arrests in these shootings. Anyone with information about these crimes can call the Crime Stoppers hotline at 800-577-TIPS or 888-57-PISTA for Spanish speakers. Callers can remain anonymous.