For years, Houston’s elite have tried to remake the city in their image.

The goal? Achieve world-class status.

• We needed light rail, for example, to be considered world-class. 
• We needed more sports stadiums to be world-class. 
• We needed…well, you get the idea. 

Now news has come to light that our city leaders have missed something that would give us that last touch of elegance needed to put the Bayou City over the top. You see, a small town in Oregon has something that we don’t: Fifty-two concrete phalluses.

No, this is no joke. The sex-obsessed residents of Keizer, Oregon are seeing male members made of stone wherever they look, and some of them are not happy about it.

Residents of Oregon town say shape of traffic posts is offensive

KEIZER, Ore. - The City of Keizer is taking heat for installing a group of cement posts designed to protect pedestrians from cars, but which some say is a phallic symbol.

 

Is that a traffic post or are you just happy to see me?

City managers have resorted to the “Wow, you look nothing like your MySpace photo” defense.

According to Eppley, the posts were ordered from a catalog and looked much different on paper.

Fortunately, relief is on the way for the hot-and-bothered residents. After thinking long and hard, the city has decided to stop beating around the bush and will go S&M on its prudish citizens.

The city is looking into retrofitting the posts with metal collars and chains that run between them, which they hope will change the look.

 

It’s just crazy enough to work.

Now let’s get on the world-class ball (and chain) Houston!

This is Brandon Elledge:

Take a good look.

This is unfortunately the only way you will see him because he is dead…

He was brutally murdered by two thugs/monsters/animals/vermin (take your pick). One of those thugs, Timothy Acklen, has a chance to get out of jail.

That’s right, this murderer has a chance to walk freely among decent people.

I want someone to explain to me why a cold hearted murderer gets out of jail after only 19 or so years? Don’t we have enough criminals on the street? Don’t we have enough trouble, every single DAY with murders, without adding to the problem??

Brandon’s father, Ben, is doing everything he can to stop this travesty from occurring. He wrote and sent this to us (LST):

The one with he and his girlfriend Kayla was taken the night before he was murdered. I took the picture and he took Kayla home and came back and sat in my office and said…”Dad I really care for this girl….but I am committed to my life goal to play middle linebacker for the Chicago bears…and well I want to make sure I have all my priorities all straight.”

I asked him…well are you guys breaking up? He said…Oh no…I just really need to really start working hard on the eights and its only a few weeks until two a days…and…well I know the rules…God first…school work second, life goals next and then football….well football is one of my life goals too but I want to get a PHD ….and that will hard with football…..but I’m going to play middle line backer for the Chicago Bears…you just wait and see!. I said to him…”As far as you have come with cripple legs and cripple lungs and being a 55 pounder when you were ten playing FUN Football….I would never bet against you…how much do you weigh?

He said…I’m not sure….over 240…but I have some summer fat that Coach Hernandez will run off me…I imagine I’ll play at 230 maybe 235.

The next afternoon he set the Clements High School Bench Press record at 375 pounds and he weighed 242 pounds.

Timothy Acklen “spotted” for him during his two hour record setting workout. Tim Acklen was 5′3″ and weighed 127 pounds.
Seems incredible that such a little rat could have destroyed something so beautiful…but he did…and now that monster is to be set free to live among decent and honest and caring people….what on Earth is the parole board thinking???

Ben

What is the Parole Board thinking???

This guy was good and decent and had goals and had his priorities straight. The vermin that murdered him did not.

Now the Parole Board is considering releasing one of them back on society.

We have to ask ourselves this:

• Do we need this?
• Is justice served by doing this?

Is this justice for Brandon?!!

If you have a moment, please consider contacting the Parole Board. If you want more information, please look at this previous post.

But mostly, don’t forget this:

 

Please contact:

Ravan Kazan
Director of Victim Services Division
7800 Shoal Creek Blvd. Suite # 230S
PO Box 13401
Austin, Texas 78711
Fax # 512 452-0825
E-Mail: victim.svc@tdcj.state.tx.us

Here is the murderer up for parole:

Reference : Timothy Acklen
ST ID # 04141843
TDCJ # 00512444

 

Thank you.

Little Green Footballs highlights some less-than-non-violent moonbattery by Nobel “Peace” Prize winner Betty Williams yesterday at an International Women’s Peace Conference taking place in Dallas.

In a keynote speech at the International Women’s Peace Conference on Wednesday night, Ms. Williams told a crowd of about 1,000 that the Bush administration has been treacherous and wrong and acted unconstitutionally.

“Right now, I could kill George Bush,” she said at the Adam’s Mark Hotel and Conference Center in Dallas. “No, I don’t mean that. How could you nonviolently kill somebody? I would love to be able to do that.”

[h/t Dallas Morning News]

If Ms. Williams feels like getting practical for a moment, perhaps she ought to sit down and talk with fellow conference speaker Merve Kavakci.

Name ring a bell? Merve is the daughter of Dallas-area Imam Yusuf Kavakci–the one who led the Texas Senate in prayer last April, has spoken at a conference in praise of Ayatollah Khomeini, has issued fatwas approving of the destruction of Israel, and appeared on stage just weeks ago with Jamal Badawi, an individual named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the upcoming Holy Land Foundation HAMAS fund-raising trial.

Ms. Kavakci also gave a speech in 2002 expressing sympathy for Palestinian Islamic Jihad agent Sami Al-Arian, who she felt was being “persecuted” by the American government. (starts on page 3 of this pdf)

These peace conferences sure do attract some interesting characters.

Ah, how wholesome. A model, public American elementary school in San Diego has gone out of it’s way to satisfy its students’ desires to pray - as long as they are Muslim.

But critics continue to assail Carver for providing a 15-minute break in the classroom each afternoon to accommodate Muslim students who wish to pray. (Those who don’t pray can read or write during that non-instructional time.)

This story came to light when a substitute teacher claimed that indoctrination was taking place in the newly-added Arabic classes at the school, and that a teacher’s aide had led Muslim students in prayer. Not surprisingly, an “investigation” by the school district (don’t you love organizations that investigate themselves and find nothing?) claims there is no evidence to support such charges. What they couldn’t deny, now that it has become common knowlege, is the policy passed in favor of Muslims.

Among the critics is Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel with the nonprofit, Michigan-based Thomas More Law Center devoted to “defending the religious freedom of Christians.”

He said he’s “against double standards being used,” such as when there is a specific period for Muslim students to pray and not a similar arrangement for Christians.

Of course, supporters of the program, including the terrorist apologist organization CAIR, essentially dismiss other religions by glibly arguing they don’t have a specific time required for prayer. Deliciously, that argument only proves that Islam is being singled out for special treatment.

But, more importantly, this is part of a continued nationwide effort by Muslims to impose their beliefs of American society. There is a line of thinking that this is all geared toward the utlimate establishment of an Islamic state in the U.S., and the more we watch, the more credible the theory becomes.

For example, the quoted story mentioned other recent controversies:

In recent weeks, the University of Michigan’s Dearborn campus has been divided over using student fees to install foot-washing stations on campus to make it easier for Muslim students to cleanse themselves before prayer.

[A Minneapolis public] school allows Muslim students to organize an hour of prayer on Fridays – Muslims typically have Friday congregational prayers – and make up class work they miss as a result.

And how about the cab drivers in Minneapolis who insisted on special treatment because they did not want to ferry “infidels” with dogs or - egad - liquor? Or the women in Florida and elsewhere who insisted they had a right to cover their faces for drivers license photos, despite the obvious public safety interests of the state in providing a picture that can actually identify the driver?

Perhaps the prayer program at the San Diego school will turn out to be Constitutional. I don’t know. What I do know is that a district lawyer didn’t seem too receptive to a proposed prayer program that might include Chrsitians or Jews.

In a letter, the religious-rights organization urged the district to broaden its accommodations to Christians and Jews by setting aside separate classrooms for daily prayer and to permit rabbis, priests and other religious figures to lead children in worship on campuses.

A lawyer representing the district said those ideas would violate the Constitution’s prohibition against government establishment of religion.

Wow. It didn’t take the district’s mouthpiece long to shoot down that idea. Of course, it involved Christians.

The district argues that it does not differentiate between religions when considering accomodations for things like prayer. However, history calls that claim into question. In the early 1990s, this same school district was sued after it refused to allow students to hold a Bible study during the lunch hour - ie, on their own time. The district lost that suit.

So look at the differences. A Christian group has to sue the school distsrict to be allowed to study the Bible on campus during their own time. But that same district leans over backward - no lawsuit reqauired here - to accomodate Muslims by permitting them classroom time to pray. Does that sound like evenhanded treatment?

In light of the current controversy, however, the district is reviewing its current policy. We’ll see what changes they make.

Perhaps they can add a provision permitting time off for the children from radical wing of Islam to engage in the required jihad.

Today’s New York Times reveals the bargain that is living in Houston.

In Houston, $225,000 will buy a three-bedroom house with a game room, den, in-ground pool and hot tub.

In Manhattan, it will buy a parking space. No windows, no view. No walls.

Plus, FREE humidity!

I haven’t commented on the Lewis Libby case in a while, but I heard some blowhard on NPR this morning that made my temper flare. Apparently in the Congressional hearings that the Democrats are currently holding into the President’s power to pardon (breaking news for Ms. Pelosi: the power is absolute), our own Shiela Jackson Lee brought up Clinton’s pardon of “Marvin Rich,” which of course was an improper reference to tax-dodgin’ fugitive financier MARK Rich.

Anywhow, they had this little liberal pissant academic answering questions, and he responded that the Mark Rich pardon was less damaging than the Libby commutation because in Libby’s case, he lied in an investigation that could have led to the conviction of high-ranking officials for revealing the name of a covert CIA agent, i.e. Valarie “desk jockey” Plame. At the very least, the pissant reasoned, Libby’s sentence could have been used as a bargaining chip to make him flip on some bigger fish in the Administration.

Now, we conservatives have been told for some time that the “no underlying offense” argument is irrelevant, because Libby wasn’t convicted of the underlying offense that was being investigated — that of releasing the name of a covert agent. However, this puts it in play, so allow me to demonstrate, clearly, how there could not have been any underlying offense here.

First, let’s look at the statute. It’s called the Covert Agent Identity Protection Act, and it seeks to penalize those who have access to classified information identifying a covert agent and disclose it to unauthorized persons “knowing that the information disclosed so identifies such covert agent and that the United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such covert agent’s intelligence relationship to the United States.”

The key here is the word “knowing,” which in criminal law essentially boils down to knowing the facts, but not necessarily the law. So if a law bans knowingly taking a pit bull into a china shop, I’d have to know 1) that the dog I’m lugging around is, in fact, a pit bull, and 2) that the location I am entering is, in fact, a china shop. I don’t have to know that this is illegal, nor do I need malice or otherwise a “bad mind.”

In order for there to have been an underlying crime in this case, then, the person being accused would have to know 1) that the information identified a covert agent, and 2) that the CIA was taking affirmative measures to conceal that agent’s identity. Needless to say, this is a REALLY tough nut for a prosecutor to crack.

Of course, with enough sleuthing, it might be that investigators could prove that somebody knew that the CIA was concealing Plame’s identity (although on the facts, it would appear to be iffy as to whether the CIA was actually making any serious effort to conceal her identity). The real problem arises with the phrase “covert agent.” The statute defines it thusly:

(4) The term “covert agent” means -

(A) a present or retired officer or employee of an intelligence agency or a present or retired member of the Armed Forces assigned to duty with an intelligence agency -

(i) whose identity as such an officer, employee, or member
is classified information, and

(ii) who is serving outside the United States or has within
the last five years served outside the United States; or

(B) [US citizens with classified identities residing abroad or US citizens who are agents or informants of FBI counterterrorism]

(C) [non-US citizens only]

I’ve left out (B) and (C) because, as you can see, they simply don’t fit here. So we are left with (A) which requires that the agent’s identity be classified and that the agent be serving outside the US or have served outside the US within the last five years. Now, let’s take it on faith that Plame’s identity was technically classified. The fact is that she stopped being on an overseas assignment six years before her identity was first leaked, although she did still go on overseas trips for the CIA.

Accordingly, the question becomes: What the heck does it mean to have “served outside the United States?”

Libby defenders have said that “served” implies an overseas assignment, and therefore Plame couldn’t have been a covert agent. People in the armed force don’t say that they “served” in Guam simply because they stayed there a few days on the way to an assignment in Okinawa. Liberals respond that “served” is satisfied simply by being on duty overseas, without regard to residing there. Now, one interpretation may be better than the other, and it is true that the drafters could have used the word “resided” if they wanted to. The problem is that the statute isn’t entirely clear. I’ve also checked caselaw, and for the life of my I can’t find any cases interpreting this phrase or anything similar in another statute.

So, what is the rule when a criminal statute is unclear or ambiguous? Answer: it’s the rule of lenity. This hoary old common law interpretive device is simple. Basically, if you have a penal statute, and there is some ambiguity, that ambiguity MUST be resolved in favor of the criminal defendant. The rule of lenity, then, would demand that we interpret “served outside the United States” as referring to sustained overseas duty. Because Plame stopped being on overseas assignment six years ago, she simply doesn’t qualify.

In any event, there’s still that “knowing” requirement. Accordingly, even if we were reckless and ignored the rule of lenity, and then ruled in favor of a more restrictive interpretation of an ambiguous statute, you’d have to believe that somebody in the administration knew that Plane had done overseas trips for the CIA during the past five years. Is that really possible to prove? Is it likely?

This entire investigation was a sham. Anybody with half a brain going in had to know that you can’t convict under this statute without very clear evidence, and anybody who read the language had to know that it couldn’t be applied to an agent who went off overseas assignment more than five years ago, and had been riding a desk ever since. The language was narrowly-tailored so it would only catch the truly guilty; revealing the name of somebody doing desk work at Langley and well-known to be a CIA agent (Plame was even telling her neighbors) simply isn’t going to satisfy the “knowing” requirement of the statute.

There. I’m done. So in conclusion: there was no underlying offense. To say Bush’s commutation was designed to avoid being implicated in this non-existent offense is therefore silly at best, partisan gutter-sniping at worst.

 

Hand Soap

So tell me.  If you meet an old friend exiting a restroom, would you shake their hand?  I wouldn’t.  Ummm Click the pic and you will know why.

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