Hillary Clinton

Save Samantha Power

Photo: Walter Chin

Everybody has now heard that Samantha Power, key foreign affairs advisor to Barack Obama, has resigned after referring to Hillary Clinton as a "monster" in an interview with The Scotsman. The intemperate remark was supposed to be off the record, but The Scotsman burned her publicly anyway. Here's what she said in the interview that led to the Hillary Clinton campaign's call for her head:

We fucked up in Ohio. In Ohio, they are obsessed and Hillary is going to town on it, because she knows Ohio's the only place they can win. She is a monster, too – that is off the record – she is stooping to anything... Here, it looks like desperation. I hope it looks like desperation there, too... You just look at her and think, 'Ergh'. But if you are poor and she is telling you some story about how Obama is going to take your job away, maybe it will be more effective. The amount of deceit she has put forward is really unattractive.

True. (And here she is, now playing the xenophobia card).

Opinions are flying around the internets regarding whether Power should have resigned. On one hand, of course, campaigns play dirty, period. Both certainly have nasty things to say about each other, but there's a difference between doing so in public, doing so in private, and doing so in public but in more veiled terms. The fact that Power said this in an interview - even if she tried to back out of the remark by calling it off the record - is a really politically unsavvy move. As a strong believer in the urgent rhetorical necessity of applying a hearty "fuck off!" on occasion, I understand. But I'm also from what Josh Marshall refers to as the academic/policy world rather than the political/policy world, the former in which he locates Power. Living in the latter world constrains one's public expressions to the head of a pin.

The Clinton campaign did what it must do as a political animal (or... monster?), and it leapt to the ramparts. Power may have done what she had to do by resigning. But here's the problem, summarized by Matthew Yglesias,

So thinking a bit more reflectively about this Samantha Power business, I'm pretty pissed off. Sure, you can rail against the perfidy of the Clintons, but this sort of ritualized calls for resignations is all in the game. Having her resign, by contrast, is just playing the game poorly. Remember when fresh strategic thinking and common sense were going to break with the conventional wisdom? I do. The "monster" business was a dumb thing to say, and certainly the kind of thing you apologize for, but no kind of indication that she was a bad person to get foreign policy advice from.

Power is a law professor at the Kennedy School, a Pulitzer Prize winner (for "A Problem from Hell": America and the Age of Genocide), and an active journalist. Plenty of plaudits. But she's also a serious advocate of human rights and eloquent activist against genocide. Her scholarly work is solid and it's driven by deeper moral sensibilities. In effect, she's exactly the kind of advisor we might hope a campaign would hire. Even Richard Holbrooke, advisor to Clinton, thinks so (from a June 2007 Vogue article speaking precisely to Power's attempts at dealing with Beltway politics),

Richard Holbrooke, Power's friend and rival of sorts—he has declared his support for Hillary Clinton for president—says that "Obama is very fortunate to have her." When Holbrooke was the U.S. special envoy to the Balkans and hashing out the Dayton peace accord in 1995, he received insistent messages from Power, then a first-year law student at Harvard. She was pleading for the release of David Rohde, a Christian Science Monitor correspondent who had gone on a solo border-crossing expedition into Bosnia and been arrested. "Here was this tall redhead of enormous passion," Holbrooke says of Power. "I can name you only a handful of journalists with that commitment: Newsday's Roy Gutman, who won the Pulitzer. He was the guy who really uncovered the genocide in Bosnia. Christiane Amanpour, when she was in the Balkans for CNN. David Halberstam in Vietnam. There are very few voices like that."

And then this, also from Holbrooke,

She will always face the risk that more bureaucratically minded players—I'm picking my way through this very carefully—will exploit her passions, which make her vulnerable to the charge that she's not 'careful enough.' But I admire these qualities in her. We need voices like Samantha Power. Whether she does this inside the government or as an outside writer is a story that's still unfolding.

We can't afford to continue to burn the decent people out of politics any more. I would think Obama understood this better than anyone. Hillary certainly doesn't.

There are worse things in life

What do these men have in common?



Kenneth Stone


Corey Saunders


David Flavell

Before I answer that question, I'd like to go back a moment to the petition we talked about HERE. Alex Marbury and Paul Shannon want to reform sex offender laws. I'm sure you'll recall. Some of the things they called for was abolishment of age of consent laws and requiring children to be responsible for their own abuse. They also want to abolish the death penalty and life sentences. They want to abolish the sex offender registry and ban you from knowing if your neighbor is a convicted child molester under great penalties to you if you should find out. But they also want to abolish civil commitments. Because after all they've served their time. Haven't they? And according to Alex and Paul these changes are the only things that will keep people safe from sexual offenders.

Alex and Paul recently sponsored a rally to gain support for releasing violent sexual predators deemed at high risk to re-offend from their civil commitments. We didn't talk about this rally, because, well we wanted to see how it would go without our commentary. And one of the main speakers Tom Madison of SoClear Media Productions didn't want anyone to find out, which is comical really when you think about it. Have a rally to gain support but only let those who already support you know about it. Chalk one up for The Anti's.

If these people had a valid counter-argument for our opinions they would have WANTED us drawing attention to it. Nor would Alex and Paul make statements such as this

"Because a previous demonstraton in Ohio by sex offenders and their families was harrassed by bigots, you should be prepared for this possibility."

"Ask any friends you tell about this to keep the time and place of the rally confidential."

Hmmmm, harassment which consists of writing counter opinions and peacefully counter demonstrating. Seems to me these guys are flat out un-American. Not to mention whiney victim cryers. If we speak out about their rhetoric that makes us vigilantes. But of course we already knew this wasn't the brightest of the bright, eh? It's just merely another form of blame gaming which goes hand in hand with their distinct brand of mental illness.

Nevertheless, the rally went as planned. Very few people attended of course, mainly those who had a loved one confined at Coalinga State Hospital for violent sexual predators. And we didn't even have to hijack this rally for it to be an utter failure. Hey! Our strategy proved once again to be right on.

One of the attendees said that her loved one was confined there due to a sexual offense he committed while on parole for another sexual offense but then stated "He's no different than any other criminal, he's served his time". That's an example of an enabling apologist in denial.

These guys want out. They've tried lots of ways. They've held hunger strikes, seemingly oblivious to the obvious continued mentality of using manipulation as a tool. They refuse to accept treatment and they call the hospital a 'concentration camp'. I don't know about you, but if they want to hold a hunger strike I say more power to them. I'll put my support behind that, sure. Who do they think they are? What kind of sexual offenders would say "If you don't let me outta here I'm gonna quit eating"? My opinion is that it's the type of sex offenders who should be civilly committed to the Coalinga State Hospital for sexually violent offenders at a danger to re-offend. But, that's me.

Tom Madison disagrees however. From KMPH

But registered sex offender Tom Madison says, he doesn't think the extra treatment is worth the sex offender's time or the taxpayer's dollars.

"They simply want to get on with their lives, but the fear and hysteria is in the stratosphere today," said Madison.

Rather than talk about the predators that society is currently safe from - those being held at Coalinga. I think we should talk about violent sexual predators who were released from prison "after serving their time" - and despite evidence that they were still dangerous and likely to re-offend - were NOT civilly committed as requested. Let's talk about 3 of those. Released by the same judge. Judge Moses.

First up we have Corey Saunders, with previous convictions for rape of a child with force and assault and battery of a child, Judge Moses didn't believe the evidence that he was at a high risk of re-offending. No, he said, Corey hadn't re-offended in 7 years. Ignoring the fact that he was in prison during those 7 years. Corey raped a 6 year old boy in the library shortly after release.

Then we have David Flavell, who "had been arrested and convicted on a variety of sex offenses between 1996 and 2003, including masturbating in public, threatening children and brutally beating and attempting to rape a woman in Methuen. That 1996 attack took place just hours after he’d been arrested for masturbating in a department store." Judge Moses refused to commit him, he didn't believe he was dangerous. No, not David. He was arrested in January for peering into a womens restroom stall. "Flavell was carrying a backpack with three pairs of work gloves, a ski mask and a roll of duct tape and had put a magazine rack outside the ladies room to make it appear it was out of service"

How about the latest case of irresponsibility committed by Judge Moses. Kenneth Stone "In separate incidents in 1989, 1991 and 1995, Stone was convicted of indecent assault and battery on a person 14 or older and in May of 1991 and again in October of 1991 he was convicted of assault with intent to rape." Now in February, after Judge Moses ruled he was fit to be returned to society, Stone has been arrested for raping a man......less than three weeks after the Judge let him go free.

The issue

At issue is a state statute which allows the district attorney to petition to have sex offenders who’ve completed their criminal sentences declared sexually dangerous and civilly committed much the way a person deemed a danger to himself or others may be committed to a psychiatric hospital.

ABC Channel 6 news did an investigative report on Moses on Feb. 7, in which reporter Jim Hummel analyzed 42 sexually dangerous person petitions in Bristol County in the past seven years. Of those, judges granted the petitions half the time, Hummel reported.

Moses was the only judge who released every offender who came before him, a total of six, including Stone, Saunders and Flavell

THOSE are men who should have been civilly committed. Those are men just like those in Coalinga Hospital that Tom Madison feels we don't deserve protection from because

• A. It's not fair to the offender
• B. It costs too much money
  

Funny thing about that is, the only people complaining about how much it costs are sex offenders. Those of us who aren't sex offenders - 99.8% of the population....are more than willing to pay the price. Although, if they want to argue COST, I'd be more than happy to lobby for the death penalty for child molesters. Conviction.....appeal.....execution. That would certainly solve the problem of sexually violent deranged individuals. It'll save us money and they can't re-offend! I suppose one might say

"There are worse things in life than being on a sex offender registry"

or perhaps they might say

"There are worse things in life than being confined in Coalinga State Hospital for the sexually violent predator"

That logic is good enough for me because after all Jan Kruska says:

"While sexual abuse is despicable there are indeed things that are much worse in life"

Lester Street Tragedy: Police at Apartment of Victim's Sister

Reported by: Kevin Holmes
Email: kholmes@myeyewitnessnews.com
From : www.myeyewitnessnews.com

Memphis, TN - Police officers from the Organized Crime Unit have been in and out of the Goodwill Village Apartment complex in North Memphis since early Thursday afternoon, March 6, 2008. The sister of one of the victims, Cecil Dotson lives in that complex.

Memphis Police Officers (The Swat Team and Patrolmen) first swarmed the apartment around 11:00 a.m. Thursday. Investigators say Nicole Dotson wasn't home at the time, and that she was at the Criminal Justice Center. While talking to investigators Dotson received a call on her cell phone. The number on Dotson's Caller I.D. showed the call was coming from inside her apartment, but Nicole Dotson told Investigators no one should've been inside her apartment. When the Swat Team arrived, they found nothing.

Police have guns drawn as they prepare to enter the apartment of a sister of one of the victims of the Lester Street massacre.

Around 5:00 p.m., nearly a dozen members of the Organized Crime Unit stopped by the apartment. They canvassed the area and left ten minutes later with no one in custody. At 7:45p.m., three patrolmen rushed to the empty apartment but found nothing. The screen door to Nicole Dotson's apartment was busted open. It's unclear if that was done by officers or by someone else.

So far no one has been arrested in connection with the six murders on Lester Street. The Crime Stoppers reward is now at $81,000; $50,000 from the State, $30,000 from Memphis City Council and $1,000 from Crime Stoppers.

If you know anything about this mass murder, call Crime Stoppers at (901) 528-CASH.

Violated

Somethings been bothering me. However, in order to tell it, I have to go back a few years.

I was about 14 or 15 years old and my aunt donna was in an dout of the hospital, this is before she died, and sometimes, my Mom and I would have to rush her to the hospital because she couldn't breath or she was swelled up or something to that matter. Anyways, when I was about 15, there was this older black man, I would say around, early 30's, late 20's.. He lived and still lives, on the next street over from us. But we can see his house from ours, and he can see ours from his. Anyways, whenever my Mom would take me to school, he would always be out there, and he would always stare at me.. Watch me.. Move so he could see where I went and everything. And everytime, and I really mean everytime, he watched, when we got home, there would be a weird message on the answering machine that said, " The time your allowed to call has exceeded, please hang up and try your call again" Well no one was home, no one could have made that call for it to exceed. It didn't all add up.

Well one day, when we had to rush my aunt to the hospital, we had to rush so fast, that I had to lock the gate up while my Mom started the van.. I saw him walking towards me.. And I hurried and didn't look at him, but made sure that I knew where he was at all times.. He walked real close behind me, and I mean REAL close.. wispered something along the lines of.. ' I want some of that' and I hurried and got into the van, locked the doors, and told my Mom... My Dad is friends with the local cops, and talked with one of them, who said that they couldn't do anything because he didn't actually do anything. What the! I know he didn't do anything, but I felt scared. I was younger, scared, and just blah.

Well a few months after that, I realized he wasnt out there anymore.. And for about a year, I didn't see him at all. I felt safer and everything.

However, the other day, when my mom and I got home from the store.. I looked over, and there he was, staring again. He walked towards us, and I wispered to my mom 'hurry' and tried to get into the gate as fast as I could. Well, she had trouble getting the house door unlocked, and he was right behind us, on the outside in the street. And I heard him..whistle.. But, it sounded like he didn't have any teeth. I hurried and got in, and felt scared again. Like I was being watched. We don't have an answering machine right now, because our old one stopped working, so we don't know if we would be getting those messages again.

I saw him again today. I ran fast into the house. I don't really like this feeling. The other night I had a bad dream. I was searching on the internet, and went to www.meganslaw.com and I saw his picture there, and the right street address, and then the next thing I know he was breaking into my window. I woke up kinda all sweaty. I don't like this feeling. I feel traped, watched, violated.

What should I do? I am going to go see if I can find him on that site, but there are so many people, it's kinda hard. I don't know..

~jackie~

Michael Bay: An (Explosive) Argument

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Victim Of Lester Street Murder Dies A Painful Death

As you look at the picture of Shindri Roberson you can see the fright in her face as she died a tragic death. Seeing the expression on her face and after checking her body finding no other wounds than the 2 bullet wounds to the left knee. Its my belief that her killers shot her twice in the kneecap breaking her leg and then suffocated her. This happen to her while one of the babies was left with a knife stuck in it's skull and another child had it's fingers cut off.

No matter what her past was no one deserves to die in this manner. It is no doubt that this woman suffered a very painful death. There is total horror written across her face,can you imagine how she felt as she fought to catch her breath while being in severe pain from the gunshots? Can you imagine just visiting someone with the expectation of going home,and leave in a body bag? Can you imagine watching children killed and cut up,and then waiting your turn to die?

There is no doubt that the murders on Lester Street has closed a racial divide among many in this city as we all see that Memphis has become the most dangerous place in the country to live. This dead woman's picture should be etched on the walls of the memory of the mayor and the Police Director who have played this community with their stage show called "BLUE CRUSH". This sideshow of capturing a few small time drug dealers and street walkers in front of a camera has only served as an illusion as the crime problem in Memphis has continued to grow.

Some of you will be offended by the posting of these pictures, but remember the shocking expression of death on the face of Shindri Roberson could be on your face this time tomorrow on this site. Mr. Mayor we demand that you and your Director of Police come up with a real plan to save us all.

Simply Vera for Spring

Brushstroke Dress $58.50

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Hand-painted prints are definitely on trend for Spring 2008 and the venerable Vera Wang has updated her Simply Vera line at Kohls accordingly. I am definitely an art lover (thanks to my parents, who founded the premier African-American art show in New Jersey) so the idea of wearable art is absolutely appealing to my senses. This Spring, designers have brought paint from the canvas to the cloth. From watercolors to modern abstract, dresses, bags and blouses are splattered, smothered and covered in streaks of color.

You can get the look for less by picking up one of these Simply Vera pieces, which are conveniently on sale. Get inspired!

Lantern-Sleeve Leaf Top $40.50

Belted Dress $58.50

You can shop the entire Simply Vera Spring 2008 collection, here. But if possible, I would suggest checking out the line in-store, where you can get a better idea about the look, fit and feel.

Jennifer's Law: California Sex offender battle

In November 2006, California voters passed legislation to protect children against sex offenders. The action of "Jennifer's Law" has been morphing for years. In a nutshell on the most recent incarnation: No registered sex offender can live within 2000 feet of any school, playground, park, daycare facility and other places where children may go. Good in theory, but challenging in application. The hang up now is all about timing: When does it take effect? Effective immediately and forward, OR retroactively. There's the rub. Retroactive. If that was passed, then anyone registered as a sex offender and lives within 2000 feet of the aforementioned would have to move way. Also, Good in theroy, but difficult in application. There are many people with S.O. records from eons ago that was in no way a violent act or would even be prosocuted today, but it's on their records. Now, they have to move to the sticks. Then someone decides to build a park in their neighborhood and they have to move again. They can't live next to a national park. Where will they go? Who will enforce it? Will they be forced to sell their homes and at what loss and who will be sued for loss of equity in a forced sale? It's a messy scenario meant to protect children with too broad of a brush. Probably going to end up being unconstitutional. Find out more about your neighborhood, state and beyond:
http://www.FreeCaliforniaSexOffendersList.org
http://www.NationalAlertRegistry.com (aka http://www.MegansLaw.com)
http://childsafenetwork.org
You'll also note the total LACK of coverage on this issue. It's really being swept under the rug to try and get silent passage. I smell a conspiracy theory. Need disclosure when buying or selling a a home and a comprehensive neighborhood analysis? Pat Townsley, Serving California: www.ExcellenceInRealEstateFinancing.com

White Killer Whale Spotted Picture

Researchers in Alaska have managed to spot a white killer whale and have managed to to take a picture of the white orca. The sighting has made big news because very little is known about pure white orca and how they actually occur in nature.

A blogger was quick to upload one of the pictures of the white killer whale which was taken by one of the researchers. You can find the white killer whale picture here. The researcher who spotted the white killer whale stated that seeing something like this is equivalent to finding a needle in a haystack.

Apparently this specific white killer whale is not a complete albino because it still contains some dark marks on it's body, but from what I can see in the picture it looks pure white. The researchers only saw the spotting as a bonus and did not conduct any research on the specific white killer whale.

MEGAN'S LAW LOOPHOLE....UPDATE....

For the last several months, I've been working with Assemblyman Mark DeSaulnier's office to get a law created that makes it so sex offenders have to register if they're convicted, released on bail and awaiting sentencing for their crime.

After months of combing through Megan's Law with the California Attorney General's office, I received a call from Lucas Frerichs with DeSaulnier's office in Sacramento. He told me that they've researched this high and low, and both them and the Attorney General's office say this is something that's already written into Megan's Law, but isn't being enforced.

According to the Megan's Law website, when a sex offender is convicted, he or she normally goes directly to jail, prison or a mental hospital, and they have to register once they're released from custody. In the case of Roger Deaver, that wasn't what happened. Deaver made a deal with the Alameda County DA. The deal said he would plead guilty, and go home until he was sentenced a few months later. Well, all that time, the people in the neighborhood were living near a convicted sex offender and they didn't even know it because he wasn't forced to register. This rarely happens, but when it does, the consequences could be tragic.

So that's why I was motivated to do something about this, and try to change things a little. Both MD's and the AG's office have spent hours researching this, and they both agree that this is an enforcement issue and something that's already written into Megan's Law. Once convicted, if a sex offender is out on bail awaiting sentencing, judges need to make them register.

Lucas Frerichs told me today that they're working with Jerry Brown's office to make sure this doesn't happen in the future, and another man like Deaver isn't out, living close to an elementary school, around kids and lurking in the shadows.

I was happy to hear from DeSaulnier's office, and happy with the response I got. I wasn't trying to make a law just to "make a law", I was trying to change things, and make people aware of this issue. I know Jerry Brown, his office and the office of Assemblyman Mark DeSaulnier are taking this seriously, and I'll follow up with them to see how things are going. Of course, if a case like Roger Deaver's ever happens again, you better believe I'll be making sure that the judge enforces this issue, and makes the scumball register before he leaves the courthouse!

Thanks to Lucas Frerichs, Assemblyman Mark DeSaulnier and the rest of his office, as well as Attorney General Jerry Brown and his office for taking my request seriously. If we can't keep these losers off the streets, then knowing where they live and who to watch out for is the next best thing.

For all the background of this story, click HERE. (start from the bottom).