Robert "Bob" Lee Carlson Dies At Age 40 And Memorial Service January 4, 2010 At Travelodge Meeting Room 12-3pm

June 23, 1969 to January 4, 2010
Rest In Peace My Friend

Robert "Bob" Lee Carlson passed away peacefully at his home in Iowa City, on Monday, January 4, 2010, at the age of 40. He was buried at Riverside Cemetery, Spencer, Iowa on Friday, January 7, 2010. A Memorial Service Pot Luck will be held on Sunday, January 24, 2010, between 12-3 p.m., in the Meeting Room of the Travelodge Motel, where he was the Assistant Manager. A Memorial Fund has been set up to assist his wife and daughters. Please drop in the card box at the service, or send to Melissa Carlson, 1017 Dover Street, Iowa City, Iowa 52240. Thank you!

Fighting Pneumonia And It Wins A Round

I just wanted to apologize for not posting these past two days. I have been working open to close everyday (10am - 9pm) at the mall, and I have been fighting Bronchial Pneumonia for the last two weeks. Sunday evening after work, it finally caught up to me, and I collapsed. My Super Girlfriend made emergency arrangements for past and current employees to cover the Art Kiosk, including having the owner come over for two half days, and put me to bed, where I rested(died) until this afternoon. Obviously, two days is not enough to get better, but it is enough to give me a little strength back, and make some progress toward getting better. Take Care and Have A Great Day!!

**Wasn't the dust up between Hillary and Obama in the debate Awesome?!!! :)

Traditional Canon In D Major And Why

I seem to be in a very Canon In D Major Mood. For those who may not know it, Ronnie aka Princess Phoenix's, (on myspaces) father died during her visit to see him. It brought me back to my Father and Mother's deaths and this song has a very special connection between this world and the next. Thanks and I hope you do not mind this aside from the news of the world!!??!! Thanks!!


canon

Anna Nicoles Sons Inquest

What will this new story bring in the sad saga of Anna Nicole Smith bring?

The long-awaited inquest in the Bahamas into the death of the son of former Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith will begin on October 30, and could last two months, a senior judge in the Bahamas said on Monday. Bahamas Chief Magistrate Roger Gomez said at least 35 witnesses were expected to give evidence, including Smith's longtime lawyer and companion, Howard K. Stern. The inquest would be conducted by Magistrate William Campbell, he added.

Two people are dead and yet other than "strange" entertainment, there has been no resolution of this affair??!!Will we ever know the truth???



son

Hearings On Cpl. Tillman's Death

I was just reading a story about the hearings that are being held today by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee concerning the death of Corporal Pat Tillman. He is spotlighted, because he gave up a huge contract with the Arizona Cardinals after 9/11 and entered the United States Army to protect his country. His death at the hands of his fellow Rangers was concealed for 5 weeks, and everyone just assumed that he was killed by the enemy and that he was a heroic symbol. It is this focus on his death that has Washington in an uproar over when the White House knew the truth of his death, and if there was a cover-up by anyone in the Department of Defense or in the White House.

I think no matter the manner of his death, Corporal Pat Tillman is a heroic figure. In all wars the is often chaos and fellow soldiers kill each other by accident, it is inevitable, but the least that should be done is that when the truth is known, and it looks like they knew rather quickly, at least the family should be told. The Tillman's still do know the full truth of their son's death and that is not accetable. Anyone who has any knowledge of the Truth should willing come forward and tell it in the open, it does not make Cpl. Tillman any less heroic, just another tragic loss in a very real war.

Today Ex-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other top former Pentagon brass denied any cover-up and rejected personal responsibility Wednesday for the military's bungled response to Army Ranger Pat Tillman's friendly-fire death in Afghanistan.

Death

Two Extremes In Kids Deaths

This story is part of the earlier post concerning how sentencing varies in cases where a child has died from being left in a hot vehicle.

This story illustrates two extreme cases, one with no time and one with 20 years. It is very compelling.

SENTENCES

Sentences Vary When Kids Die In Hot Vehicles

I was just reading a very interesting story about children who are left in vehicles and die from heat exhaustion, not by design, but by neglect. It may be a parent, guardian, babysitter and often results in charges which may result in jail sentences for the person who neglected the child by forgetting that they were in the backseat of the vehicle.

I know you may be sitting there wondering how in the heck someone could forget that their child is in the vehicle, but as the cases show, it happens to people in all walks of life from derelicts to professionals.

The crux of the story is that there is a huge disparity in the sentences that are handed down in these cases. There is a wide range of penalties, which range from no time in jail to several years in prison, depending on many variables, such as whether you were the parent, what state you live in, and whether it was intentional or not.

Since the mid-1990s, the number of children who died of heat exhaustion while trapped inside vehicles has risen dramatically, totaling around 340 in the past 10 years. Ironically, one reason was a change parent-drivers made to protect their kids after juvenile air-bag deaths peaked in 1995, they put them in the back seat, where they are more easily forgotten.

Please check out the full story as it will really make you think. I know that whether someone goes to prison or not, they must forever be haunted by the knowledge that they caused the death of their child. I am usually a pretty hardcore law and order guy, but reading some of these cases makes me a little less inclined to "throw" the book at them. Obviously, that is a case by case basis, because I did believe that in some of the cases, prison was appropriate, in particular when it was intentional, such as when alcohol or drugs were involved. These were choices that were made by these people, who were supposed to take care of children, who had no choice in who their parents were, and died because of it.

KIDS

On Tillman's Death

This is such as sad story as it took a heroic volunteer in the war on terror and has turned him into a symbol for everything that is wrong with this same war. Mr. Tillman was killed from a mere 10 yards away, which only shows me how scared and touchy these first warriors were as they went to war. A very sad statement on our troops, their superiors, and our leaders.

Army medical examiners were suspicious about the close proximity of the three bullet holes in Pat Tillman's forehead and tried without success to get authorities to investigate whether the former NFL player's death amounted to a crime, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

Tillman

Cruel Hospital Death

I was just reading the story of Edith Isabel Rodrguez, 43, who died of a perforated bowel on May 9th at Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital due to intentional neglect by the hospital staff in the emergency room.
It says that as she lay bleeding to death, dispatchers refused to contact paramedics or an ambulance to take her to another hospital, even as her boyfriend and others made repeated calls to 911 dispatchers who not only did not help, but argued with the callers.
Experts say that she would have lived if she had been treated promptly, instead of being left to lay on the cart for 45 minutes in what her relatives describe as excruciating pain. When police finally did arrive to transport her to another facility, they arrested her for a parole violation, instead of getting her help. She died as they were wheeling her out of the hospital under arrest.
My God can you believe the callous disregard for this poor woman's life. How can trained professionals who are supposed to be about caring for life, be so evil to another human being. Each and everyone of the people involved should be charged with manslaughter and face real time jail.
It sounds like this hospital has had problems for a long time, but my God, the simplest bit of attention to this woman and her family could have saved her life.
At the very least these dispatchers, emergency room staff, etc., should be fired and not be allowed to provide their shoddy treatment on anyone else.
There is a video of this story as well which can be viewed at the site of the story.
May this woman who died in such a painful and cruel way, Rest In Peace!
911

Sad News Of Kelsey Smith

I am just watching a very sad and grim news report about the discovery of a body by the Overland Park, Kansas, police on Wednesday. They believe it is that of a teenager who disappeared four days ago after she was apparently abducted from a department store parking lot.
Overland Park, Police Chief John Douglass said the body was found across the state line at a Grandview, Missouri., lake. Positive identification was pending, but authorities believed it was 18-year-old Kelsey Smith.
Officers had been searching woods at the lake since Tuesday after investigators isolated two signals from Smith’s cell phone to an area about 15 miles east of the Target store in suburban Kansas City.
Police have not identified a suspect or a motive in the slaying, Douglass said.
Authorities were still seeking information about a young man videotaped entering and leaving the Target store within moments of Smith. He said police still considered the unidentified man a “person of interest” and not a suspect.
Smith, who graduated from high school less than two weeks ago, left the store around 7:10 p.m. and put packages into her car when someone ran toward her, police said.
Investigators said they don’t know whether Smith was picked at random or abducted by someone she knew.
About two hours after Smith disappeared, her grandparents found her car in a parking lot at a mall in suburban Kansas City with her purse and packages still inside.
The Smith family increased the reward for information about Kelsey’s disappearance to $30,000. Greg Smith, who has been in law enforcement for 16 years, described his daughter as an outgoing young woman who planned to be a veterinarian.
I am so tired of watching these types of reports of murders of young people, children, innocents, by monsters. I hope that they catch this guy and that he tries to fight it out with the police and they blow him away. I do not want to see this man going to court where some slicky boy defense attorney can get him off or get him a reduced sentence, because he was "mentally" ill, or had a bad childhood or some other mumbo jumbo.
I am not usually for the death penalty, but I think that a message needs to go out to all child killers that you will die, no mercy in any child murder case, and at 18, she was still just a child, having just finished school two weeks ago.
The best that can be hoped for is this young lady, Kelsey Smith was killed quickly and not raped and brutalized before he killed her. My fear is that the news we will hear may say that she did not die quickly and the monster did do things too her. I will pray for the family and for her that his was not the case.
We need to put her killer down like a rabid animal, as we should to all child killers and she was still just a child who did not have time to enjoy her life.
May, this young lady, Kelsey Smith, Rest In Peace!
And May they find her murderer, may they kill him and, may he be allowed to Rest In Hell!!

Foiled Plot To Destroy JFK

In a story I have been reading rivals if not surpasses the World Trade Centers destruction. It said Federal authorities had broken up a suspected Muslim terrorist cell planning a “chilling” attack to destroy John F. Kennedy International Airport, kill thousands of people and trigger an economic catastrophe by blowing up a jet fuel artery that runs through populous residential neighborhoods.
Three men, one of them a former member of Guyana’s parliament, were arrested and one was being sought in Trinidad as part of a plot that authorities said they had been tracked for more than a year and was foiled in the planning stage.
In an indictment charging the four men, one of them is quoted as saying the foiled plot would “cause greater destruction than in the Sept. 11 attacks,” destroying the airport, killing several thousand people and destroying parts of New York’s borough of Queens, where the line runs underground.
One of the suspects, Russell Defreitas, a U.S. citizen native to Guyana and former JFK air cargo employee, said the airport named for the slain president was targeted because it is a symbol that would put “the whole country in mourning.”
Authorities said the men were motivated by hatred toward the U.S., Israel and the West. Defreitas was recorded saying he “wanted to do something to get those bastards” and he boasted that he had been taught to make bombs in Guyana.
Despite their efforts, the men never obtained any explosives, authorities said.
Federal officials told NBC News that Defreitas, the alleged mastermind of the plot, looked for others to work with him and that one of the first people he turned to, unbeknownst to him, was an FBI informant.
According to officials, the FBI tracked Defreitas when he went to Guyana to recruit help for his plot, meeting with radical Muslims there, including Abdul Kadir, a member of the Guyana parliament who is a former town mayor.
Investigators allege Defreitas was dispatched from Guyana to conduct video and photo surveillance of JFK four times in January. Investigators told NBC News they tracked Defreitas as he identified targets and escape routes and assessed airport security.
Richard Kuprewicz, a pipeline expert and president of Accufacts Inc., an energy consulting firm that focuses on pipelines and tank farms, said the force of explosion would depend on the amount of fuel under pressure, but it would not travel up and down the line.
He was arraigned Saturday in federal court in Brooklyn, where he was held pending a bail hearing Wednesday. His court-appointed lawyer told the judge that officials were not revealing the full story, according to reports.
Please follow the link below to get the full story.
Do we really need to worry about terrorists crossing our borders when we have so many homegrown crazies ready to harm us. Of course the answer is yes, we do need to worry about the borders, but my god, we really are lucky no further terrorist attacks have occurred with so many willing participants in our own country.
It angers me that these people live in the most privileged nation on earth and the only thing they can think about is destruction and death for their fellow citizens. Don't these people have cable t.v.? Isn't there something better they could be doing with their lives. People if you hate America that much, please just leave and let us be.
One last thing, how do you hatch a plot and the first person you talk to is an FBI informant. I read this in all of these stories and wonder is everyone but me an FBI informant?Obviously it was fortunate for the folks at JFK as it really would have been a disaster of monumental proportions.
Stay vigilant and keep "informing". Thanks!

An Answer To Mccain's Comprehensive Amnesty Bill

I was just watching a newscast that said Manchurian Candidate Senator John Mccain had a town hall meeting in Le Mars, Iowa on Saturday. It sounds like it got pretty heated on the subject of immigration and the Comprehensive Amnesty Bill that Senator Mccain helped craft.
It mentions that he went back and forth with one gentlemen and it got heated with Mccain finally saying that if someone is a critic of his bill then they should step up with a proposal of their own. He states quite categorically that the status quo in not acceptable. Well fine Senator Mccain, but the Amnesty Bill you are trying to push down the American people's throat's is not workable either.
He says that the 1986 Immigration Amnesty Bill which was passed with support of Ronnie "Raygun" Reagan was the bill that legalized illegals without consequences and caused the influx of 12million more illegals, and that his bill will correct the problem.
Now I don't like Mccain, bill or no bill, I find him overbearing and he too often leans on the fact that he was a hero, I mean prisoner in Vietnam. I am still trying to figure out how you can be captured and say bad things about your country,(so Senator, does that mean torture does work), and just because you come back alive it somehow makes you a hero.
Personally, I think they brainwashed him and that is why he is the Manchurian Candidate in this election cycle with his evil overlords hoping he will gain office so they can control the United States government.
Senator Mccain has one new convert as Bill O'Reilly said the other night he thinks this bill is the best bill that can be passed at this time in our country. I completely disagree, because until something drastic is done to stop illegals from coming to this country we will be passing another comprehensive bill to "fix" the problem in 20 more years.
I have always believed it is not the fault of the illegals for coming here to work, it is the businesses who hire them and pretend that they do not know the documents they use are fraudulent who are to blame for all of this mess.
Just the other day we saw how easy it was for the TB traveler to get into this country, so we know Homeland Security is doing a "fine" job of keeping terrorists out. Right!
So they need to pass three separate bills otherwise the politicians will find that someone did not dot an i or cross a t and there will be millions more illegals crossing our unprotected borders after the Amnesty Bill passes.
The first bill would have mandatory punishments for any employer who employs an illegal. Now the current bill has "knowingly" in the wording as a precursor to any sort of employer sanction, mine would not. If you employ an illegal immigrant you will receive a $15,000 fine and spend 10 days in jail, a second offense would cost you $50,000 and 1 year in prison, with no discretion to plead to a lesser charge would be part of the bill as well. As a bonus any illegal who testifies against his or her employer would receive a green card as a gesture of our appreciation in adjudicating these crimes.
After all there will be no problems telling an illegal from a legal worker as part of the current Mccain Amnesty Bill there will be "tamper proof i.d.'s", so we will borrow that idea for our bill. This bill if enforced will stop a bunch of illegals from crossing the border as there will be fewer jobs waiting for them.
The second bill would provide for a border fence and would be manned with guards every 50 yards and would have to be fully funded and completed before the third bill kicks in.
The third bill would allow for a path to citizenship as there would be fewer illegals here with the employer's not hiring them, so a lot would have already gone home. Those that have committed felonies, would be picked up and deported, the other's particularly with children and families would be allowed to start toward a path to citizenship, but with a non-resident visa status first, until all of the people who applied to come here legally are moved through the system. Also they would be able to stay through a guest worker program for now.
I think this could be a set of bills that would set this country toward a workable plan. Maybe someone has something better, but our politicians in Washington do not have our best interests at heart, they are only in it for the bonus voters they hope to bring into their parties.
My earlier rant had me careening toward Buchanansim, and James Eaves-Johnson called me on it,and it set me to thinking. I managed people for over a year that are in the "illegal" category and they became good friends. They were the hardest working and nicest people I had working for me. Now they were already working there when I arrived, so someone in the company had verified their documents, but from getting to know them I came to the obvious conclusion that they were not supposed to be here. Now I believe there should be a path for them to stay, as they are the kind of people who do make a our country a better place. There should not be instant citizenship, but there should be a clear path, from working here as a guest worker to becoming citizens in the future if they choose to do so. I guess mine is an amnesty bill too, but if all items are done in the right order we will not be fixing immigration again in 20 years.
Anyway I have flipped and flopped big time on this emotional issue, because I would like my friends and others like them to able to stay and become Good Americans, just like our immigrant ancestors did.

Jack Is Back

On Friday Dr. Jack Kevorkian "Dr. Death" as the media dubbed him, was released from the state prison in Coldwater, Michigan, after serving eight years for a second degree murder conviction. Dr. Kevorkian had videotaped himself administering lethal drugs to a 52 year old man who was suffering from the debilitating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.
Dr. Kevorkian is now 79 and says he has assisted in some 130 deaths, but has said he will no longer assist in suicides as a condition of his parole.
He was escorted by police and did not say much to the media, except that he would soon begin a media blitz to support his cause.
The former pathologist, won international notoriety in the 1990s after presiding as a doctor in suicides and advocating the legalization of assisted suicide in the United States.
CBS reporter Mike Wallace, whose "60 Minutes" news show aired the death tape that became the central piece of evidence at Kevorkian's 1999 murder trial, was greeted by the newly released Kevorkian with a hug.
In an interview conducted on his way home to the Detroit area, Kevorkian told Wallace he would abide by the terms of his parole and limit his public speech about assisted suicide to an argument for its legalization.
He also said he promised his parole board he would turn away any terminally ill person seeking his advice on suicide.Kevorkian's release reignited a complicated debate involving medical ethics, religious views about the sanctity of life and the rights of suffering patients facing death.
About a dozen of his supporters lined a road to the prison under gray skies, holding hand-lettered signs, including, "Jack, Glad You're Back" and "Jack, We're Glad You're Out of the Box."
But the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit, where Kevorkian presided over suicides in hotel rooms and the back of his rusty van, issued a statement condemning him.
Kevorkian had thwarted four attempts by prosecutors to convict him and flouted a Michigan ban on assisted suicide aimed at him. State regulators revoked his medical license in 1991.
But other U.S. advocates for assisted suicide have sought to distance their cause from Kevorkian after a decade of stalemate as they tried to push state-by-state legal changes.
In 1997, Oregon became the only U.S. state to legalize physician-assisted suicide. Records show 292 such suicides under that law from 1998 through 2006.
Efforts to pass similar measures in other states including Michigan and Hawaii failed.
A bill modeled on the Oregon law is set to go to the California legislature next week in a move seen by all sides as the most important test of the issue in years.
I did not add any links as every news agency has either video of his release or full length stories, so I just tried to get the facts of his release and a few words about him.
I did not think that he should have been convicted for the second degree murder charge, but I think he brought on his troubles due to his "in your face" attitude. His may be the correct position, but there is also a question of "knowing" if an assisted suicide really wanted to die or someone just wanted them out of the way.
I think that there have been many cases of truly compassionate doctors giving their terminally ill patients a little too much medicine to allow them to slip away. There are some who want to leave this world with dignity by choosing when to go. I am not one of them, having been near death a few times. I know that even when the doctors say it is over that it may not always be the case, so the release of Dr. Kevorkian should at least get this issue out in the open once more.
Anyone who has ever had to make the choice of removing a close relative from intensive care machines knows how difficult it is to do and to live with later on.
There should be a good public debate on these life and death issues and hopefully we can find some compromise between keeping someone alive no matter what, or killing them because it is convenient.

8 Americans Added To Memorial Day Remembrances

This Memorial Day weekend is seeing the addition of 8 more fallen soldiers to the many being remembered at ceremonies around the nation. The figures will continue to rise as the surge and new strategy of getting out of the protected compounds and taking the fight to the insurgents escalates.
I saw General Petraeus on a news program yesterday and he acknowledged that it could be a bloody summer.
The news report included the following information about troop casualties:
Nearly a 1000 United States troop have been killed since last Memorial Day and in the period from Memorial Day 2006 through Saturday, 980 soldiers and Marines died in Iraq, compared to 807 deaths in the previous year. And with the Baghdad security operation now three and a half months old, even President Bush has predicted a difficult summer for U.S. forces.
As more American soldiers are patrolling the streets and living in isolated outposts across Baghdad, leaving them more vulnerable to attack. The increase in raids on extremist Shiite militiamen had brought a wave of retaliatory attacks.
It was further stated that by the end of Saturday at least 100 American troops had died in the first 26 days of May, an average of 3.85 deaths a day. At that deadly pace, 119 troops will have died by the end of the month, the most since 137 soldiers were killed in November 2004, when U.S. troops were fighting insurgents in Fallujah.
As of Saturday, May 26, 2007, at least 3,451 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians. At least 2,817 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military.
On Monday, Bush will mark his sixth Memorial Day as a wartime president with a visit to Arlington National Cemetery. He is to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns to honor those who have died in past and current conflicts.
In his weekly radio address he personalized the death of a young man from Ohio and his desire to not let his sister and brother grow up in fear. The link below will take you to the full story of Bush’s comments.
There are many moving ceremonies taking place to honor the sacrifices of those who paid the price of freedom with their lives. I hope that we demand of our politicians that these men and women did not die in vain.

Bush radio story

War Is For Revenge Not Oil

I know many people have expressed their opinion that this was a war for oil, but I think that is purely a dig at the President as he was an oilman and so it might make sense for him to wage a war to gain the oil under Iraq’s sands.
I still do not believe that is the case, I have always favored the view that it was a war of revenge for his father. Bush the senior screwed up and did not finish the job when we had the chance after we chased Iraq out of Kuwait. I believe that Bush lost the election because of that decision and I think his son was going to find a way to take care of Iraq when he came to office. The fact that many people still think that Iraq had anything to do with bin Laden’s bunch and the destruction of the Trade Centers is further proof as to how well the Bushies sold the idea that Iraq was behind the attacks. The supposed WMD’s were just icing on the cake, and voilà were defeating Saddam, taking control of the country and building a democracy in the middle east.
Mission accomplished! Well not quite accomplished as we are finding out with the insurgents,terrorists, sectarian violence, civil war, etc., this mission will not be accomplished for quite awhile. We own this war and need to see it through to completion or all hell will break loose in the region and probably around the world .
Have a safe Memorial Day weekend, with Respect and Honor to all who have died for our nation and to all our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines, who are still in harm’s way throughout the world.

Loss of Good Neighbor

A very nice man died this week and it gives a person a different perspective on life. Our neighbor Gale D. Stone, of 1013 Dover Street, Iowa City, died suddenly at him home on Monday, May 14, 2007. He was just 62 years old and had retired in March of this year after having served in the Navy for twenty years as a cryptologist and twenty-two years as a supervisor at the Veteran’s Administration Medical Center in Iowa City.
I never knew that about him until after he died, because he was one of those people we know as acquaintances, but not in depth. I have lived next door to him and his wife Alice, for a few years, and have spoken to them briefly, but it is usually just a smile, a wave, a quick hello and then I am off, rushing, usually to work, but it could be anywhere.
In our times we do not usually take the time to know our neighbors like people did when I was growing up. Our lives get so cluttered with all sorts of minor things and we are so busy we can barely breath, let alone take the time to sit on the porch with the neighbors or anyone for that matter. Perhaps your lives are drastically different and you do know the neighbors well and they are like family too you. If that is the case I congratulate you and hope that after this week I can get to know the other neighbors better.
This nice man died just weeks after another nice neighbor down the street lost his wife; again just a wave and a hello kind of acquaintance, but the loss left this world a little darker. I knew him mostly through walking my friends dog as he was out walking his two dogs, but to see these people and the smile and wave was a nice way to start or end a long day.
So if your life sounds like mine and you are always rushing around and don’t know your neighbors, maybe grab a treat, stop by a neighbors place, knock on the door and say hello. Perhaps you’ll get to know them a little better than just a smile, a wave, and a hello.
The world is a little darker for the loss of these nice people, may they rest in peace.
I hope to get to know my other neighbors better.

Exotic Animals,PETA And Another Day In Iraq

I have just been reading the Iowa Press-Citizen story concerning an upcoming show at the Sycamore Mall which incorporates exotic animals in its’ show and the trouble that is being caused by People for The Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), who want the city council to intervene and stop the show.
According to the story a letter was sent to the council by Lisa Wathne, a captive exotic animal specialist who alleges that the show seriously mistreats the animals. She says in her letter that staffers with the show were untrained and intentionally cruel to several animals.
This from a group of well meaning whack jobs who believe that animals deserve not just equal treatment as humans, but better treatment than humans. They think that the major problem on this planet is the is the life form known as humans and that the planet would be better off without us. While that would indeed be a boon for the planet, but it would not be so hot for everyone of us. There is no logic in that form of thinking and that is why these people should be ignored.
I do not believe in being cruel to animals and believe everything should be done to make animals comfortable and respected, but the bottom line is that they are still animals. We use them for food sources, clothing, entertainment, companionship in some cases and that is the state of the world. PETA can do their boycotts, petitions, etc., but they are a crazy minority and should be treated accordingly.
There was a comment by Kevin Digmann, the Sycamore Mall Manager, that he had checked out this show which has performed at other malls across the country, and found no such abuses.
G.W. Exotic Animal Memorial Park, based in Wynnewood, Okla., is scheduled to produce its "Mystical Magic of the Endangered" show May 30 to June 3 at Sycamore Mall.
Jennifer Ross of Sycamore Mall's management said the show's feature act, Joe Exotic, will perform magic tricks to spread a message to school-age children about the dangers of drugs and drunken driving as well as the importance of saving the environment. The show features animals such as lions and tigers that people can pose with for photos for donations to benefit endangered animals.
The council will discuss the letter at its work session Monday and decide whether to discuss a new ordinance at later meetings, assistant city manager Dale Helling said.
I for one believe this is going to be a great show and plan to attend and support the people who care for such beautiful creatures, perhaps even get a photo with my astrological symbol; the Lion. How cool is that, I think way cool!! Let us all turn out and enjoy the show, and let PETA know that you can take care of animals and still enjoy them, without being a monster.
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In another story there have been more american deaths in Iraq. U.S. and Iraqi troops searched house-to-house and combed fields with their bare hands Saturday after American troops and their Iraqi interpreter came under attack in the notorious "triangle of death" south of Baghdad, leaving five dead and three missing.
The military said the patrol was struck in a pre-dawn explosion near Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad — an al-Qaeda area where two U.S. soldiers were found massacred after disappearing at a checkpoint nearly a year ago.
A nearby unit heard the blast and the search was launched after communication could not be established with the patrol, the military said. Shortly after the blast, a drone observed two burning vehicles.
An emergency response unit arrived at the scene and found five members of the team dead and three others missing.
Checkpoints were established throughout the area, while helicopters and jets buzzed overhead. AP Television News footage showed Iraqi soldiers picking through cattails and other weeds as they searched fields and canals for clues.
The military refused to specify whether the Iraqi interpreter was among those killed or missing and would not give more details about where the bodies were found.
One possible reason is that this interpreter could have been in collusion with the terrorists.
An Iraqi army officer who was familiar with the search said he saw five badly burned bodies inside a Humvee at the site, suggesting the remains may not have been recognizable. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose the information.
He also said joint U.S.-Iraqi forces had sealed off the area and were conducting house-to-house searches, rounding up dozens of suspects. The military declined to comment on detentions but said troops were looking for suspects.
The Iraqi officer said U.S. troops singled out seven suspects out of as many as 50, including a wounded man who was hiding in a house and confessed to participating in the attack. He said most of the houses searched near the attack contained only women and children because the men had fled, fearing arrest.
The attack occurred at 4:44 a.m. about 12 miles west of Mahmoudiya, a town of about 65,000 in a Sunni area dubbed the "triangle of death" for the frequent attacks against Shiite civilians and U.S. and Iraqi forces.
It has been quite awhile since american soldiers have been kidnapped rather than killed. On June 16, 2006, two American soldiers — Pfc. Kristian Menchaca of Houston and Pfc. Thomas Tucker of Madras, Ore. — went missing after their Humvee was ambushed at a checkpoint near Youssifiyah, north of Mahmoudiya.
Their bodies were found days later, tied together with a bomb between one of the victim's legs. But the remains were not recovered until the next morning, after an Iraqi civilian warned that bombs had been planted in the area.
A third soldier, David J. Babineau, 25, of Springfield, Massachusetts, was found dead at the scene of the attack.
Also Saturday, the military announced the death of an American soldier from a bomb attack Friday near Iskandariyah, 30 miles south of Baghdad.
At least 30 Iraqis were reported killed or found dead elsewhere in Iraq, including a Sunni physician shot to death on his way home from work in the northern city of Mosul.
The last U.S. soldier known to have been captured was Ahmed Qusai al-Taayie, whose name is also spelled Ahmed Kousay Altaie, an Iraqi-born reserve soldier from Ann Arbor, Mich., who was abducted while visiting his Iraqi wife on Oct. 23 in Baghdad.
Sgt. Keith M. Maupin of Batavia, Ohio, was taken on April 9, 2004, after insurgents ambushed a fuel convoy. Two months later, a tape on Al-Jazeera purported to show a captive U.S. soldier being shot, but the Army ruled it was inconclusive proof of Maupin's death.
Both are still listed as missing.
We have been told that as the “surge” takes place there will be an uptick in violence as we take the fight to the insurgent terrorists, so this attack should be no surprise. They are rooting the rats out of their hiding places and so do not listen to the nightly newscasters who will surely portray this attack as another sign that we are failing instead of showing that the plan is working. It is sad that our troops die, but if they can end this insurgency then their deaths will not have been in vain. They will be remembered as the heroes that they are for they defend our country by fighting in a distant land. May their families know how that we grieve with them and mourn the loss of these brave young men.

Good Samaritans, Bad Laws, And More

I was just reading the story of the good samaritans who helped after a roll-over accident on Interstate 80.
Julie and Brian Davie as well as their 4 children were traveling home in Normal, Illinois, after a camping trip in Lincoln, Nebraska, when the camper they were towing began to swerve and threw there Ford Expedition into the ditch. She said that a large highway sign stopped their towed camper from rolling over their vehicle after they went into the ditch.
She was so happy to see a young man’s face after the accident and commented how everyone remained calm as they did whatever it took to get her family out of the vehicle. She said “ It was an amazing chain of events that happened just the right way.” as reported in the Iowa Press-Citizen.
Davie said she and her husband always been sticklers for their children to wear their seatbelts. Everyone was buckled up when the crash took place, she said
A short time later, Davie said paramedics arrived and took the family to University Hospitals. Davie, who is six months pregnant, and her son, Alex, 9, stayed at the hospital overnight for observation. Alex had a slight concussion and some stiffness, but other than that, Davie said everyone escaped with a few scratches and bruises.
I believe the best in people until they prove otherwise, and I think that good samaritans are the rule, not the exception. We more often than not read or see the stories about the rude and bad people, because that is how news works. I have always thought that more news should be about the good and positive things which occur daily, but do not get reported on, so I was very happy to see such a good story when I checked the local news from the Iowa Press-Citizen today. This is good for us all.
One thing I wish we could have done in our community and in particular on Interstate 80 is to have much more law enforcement. This should be at the on ramps where truly rude, obnoxious driver’s, semi-trucks in particular almost always refuse to move into the left lane so that you can merge on the interstate. They fly past here in excess of 80 miles per hour and rarely is their a law enforcement presence. If they wish to enforce some laws it would be nice if they started there instead of giving tickets to people riding bikes on sidewalks, or young people skateboarding, which I have seen often when I lived downtown. In fact, one day when I was downtown, their was an officer ticketing two skateboards, while a person went the wrong way on washington street, went around the block and did it again, all the while the officer was writing the ticket and did nothing to stop the more dangerous person.
So please give us a little help and police the more important roads once in awhile.
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I just finished reading that nearly 4,300 people signed a petition seeking to set the age limit in Iowa City bars to 21, organizers said today.
Members of the Committee for Healthy Choices submitted 4,258 signatures to the City Clerk's office at 1 p.m. That's almost 28 percent more signatures than the 3,333 they need to force the City Council to act on the measure.
The group wants to make it illegal for people younger than 21 to be in Iowa City bars after 10 p.m. The current ordinance puts the age limit at 19.
The City Clerk's Office will take until the end of the month to verify the signatures. If the petition is deemed sufficient, the council would have 60 days to either enact an ordinance or send the decision to voters.
This is a perfect example of people who have too much time on their hands. I would like to see how old these people are as I would bet the majority of them were able to drink at age 18 and have now turned into everyone’s nanny’s as they get older and more bitter. It is insane that a young man or woman can go and fight for and possibly die for their country, but they cannot consume alcohol legally. If this is the law , which it is,then they should not be able to join the military until they are 21 and the people who pass these laws should be mandated by law to be in the military for at least two years, possibly more. This would insure that our politicians were in the pool of service members and perhaps there would be less conflicts if they were potentially being sent to fight and die.
If they can get a petition to stop anyone under 21 from entering bars, can we get a petition with more signatures and allow the existing law to continue without the city councils meddling. I don’t know, if you do please let me know.
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I am a committed supporter of the troops overseas and urge all citizens who feel this way to write your elected officials, because right now the only ones getting any voice our the anti-war nuts that think if we leave Iraq all will be right with the world. A view which will cause the deaths of thousands if not millions if their view is allowed to prevail.
Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama was saying yesterday that Senator Grassley needs to support withdrawing from the war in Iraq and called on Iowans to force Senator Grassley to help in Obama’s and other democrats efforts to help the Al-Queda terrorist’s and Iraqi insurgents in defeating our american troops.
Do you really want to listen to a defeatist like Obama or to anyone with Hussein as a middle name. Trying to help our nations enemies used to be called treason and if you took actions to insure that defeat it was sedition and now its’s called getting more seats in the next election. What nonsense how can anyone in Washington think that we will let them get away with not funding the troops and allowing the terrorist’s to not only win in Iraq, but cause the neighboring nations to be destroyed as they rush toward their ultimate aim of conquering all civilized nations and succeeding in restoring the Caliphate. The Caliphate is the one ruler over all Muslims and the last one was during the Ottoman Empire which ended after World War I and the broken into the nations which exist today. We do not want a world run my Islamic fascists which is what we will get if Obama and fellow traveler’s Senator Reid and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi are allowed to help the terrorist’s defeat our troops by bringing them home now. Wake up people we do not have much time to do the right thing, please do so today, and thank you in advance for being good americans.

Luck Foils Terrorist Attack

To the Hollywood elite and the politicians who think we are safe, pay attention to the story out of New Jersey, with the 6 would be islamic terrorists and their plot to kill soldiers at Fort Dix.
If this does make you morons see the dangerous world that still exists then there is no hope for any of you. Now couple this plot with the idea of pulling out of Iraq and surely you can see what would happen. If we were not fighting them in Iraq, there would not be 6 terrorists here, there would be thousands upon thousands here all wanting to kill americans for Allah.
Six foreign-born Muslims were arrested and accused Tuesday of plotting to attack Fort Dix and slaughter scores of U.S. soldiers — a scheme the FBI says was foiled when the men asked a store clerk to copy a video of them firing assault weapons and screaming about jihad.
The defendants, all men in their 20s from the former Yugoslavia and the Middle East, include a pizza deliveryman suspected of using his job to scout out the military base.
Their goal was "to kill as many American soldiers as possible" with mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and guns, prosecutors said.
"Today we dodged a bullet. In fact, when you look at the type of weapons that this group was trying to purchase, we may have dodged a lot of bullets," said FBI agent J.P. Weis.
"We had a group that was forming a platoon to take on an army. They identified their target, they did their reconnaissance. They had maps. And they were in the process of buying weapons. Luckily, we were able to stop that."
Authorities said there was no direct evidence connecting the men to any international terror organizations such as al-Qaida. But several of them said they were ready to kill and die "in the name of Allah," according to court papers.
Investigators said they infiltrated the group with two informants well over a year ago and bided their time while they secretly recorded the defendants, five of whom lived in Cherry Hill, a Philadelphia suburb about 20 miles from Fort Dix.
"This is what law enforcement is supposed to do in the post-9/11 era — stay one step ahead of those who are attempting to cause harm to innocent American citizens," U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie said.
Weis saluted the unidentified New Jersey store clerk who noticed the suspicious video as the "unsung hero" of the case. "That's why we're here today — because of the courage and heroism of that individual," the FBI agent said.
In addition to plotting the attack on Fort Dix, the defendants spoke of assaulting a Navy installation in Philadelphia during the annual Army-Navy football game and conducted surveillance at other military installations in the region, prosecutors said.
One defendant, Eljvir Duka, was recorded as saying: "In the end, when it comes to defending your religion, when someone ... attacks your religion, your way of life, then you go jihad."
The six were arrested Monday night trying to buy AK-47 assault weapons, M-16s and other weapons from an FBI informant, authorities said.
They appeared in federal court Tuesday in Camden and were ordered held without bail for a hearing Friday. Five were charged with conspiracy to kill U.S. military personnel; the sixth was charged with aiding and abetting illegal immigrants in obtaining weapons.
Four of the men were born in the former Yugoslavia, one was born in Jordan and one came from Turkey, authorities said. All had lived in the United States for years. Three were in the United States illegally; two had green cards allowing them to stay in this country permanently; and the sixth is a U.S. citizen.
One defendant, Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, spoke of using rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons to kill at least 100 soldiers, according to court documents.
"My intent is to hit a heavy concentration of soldiers," he was quoted as saying. "You hit four, five or six Humvees and light the whole place (up) and retreat completely without any losses."
"It doesn't matter to me whether I get locked up, arrested or get taken away," another defendant, Serdar Tatar, was alleged to have said. "Or I die, it doesn't matter. I'm doing it in the name of Allah."
The men trained by playing paintball in the woods in New Jersey and taking target practice at a firing range in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains, where they had rented a house, authorities said.
They often watched terror training videos, clips featuring Osama bin Laden, a tape containing the last will and testament of some of the Sept. 11 hijackers, and tapes of armed attacks on U.S. military personnel, erupting in laughter when one plotter noted that a Marine's arm was blown off in an ambush, authorities said.
Asked if those arrested had any links to al-Qaida, White House spokesman Tony Snow said it appears "there is no direct evidence of a foreign terrorist tie."
The FBI's Weis said the U.S. is seeing a "brand-new form of terrorism," involving smaller, more loosely defined groups that may not be connected to al-Qaida but are inspired by its ideology.
"These homegrown terrorists can prove to be as dangerous as any known group, if not more so. They operate under the radar," Weis said.
In court documents, prosecutors said the suspects came to the attention of authorities in January 2006 when a Mount Laurel, N.J., shopkeeper alerted the FBI to a "disturbing" video he had been asked to copy onto a DVD.
The video showed 10 young men "shooting assault weapons at a firing range ... while calling for jihad and shouting in Arabic 'Allah Akbar' (God is great)," the complaint said. The 10 included six of those arrested, authorities said.
Within months, the FBI had managed to infiltrate the group with two informants, according to court documents.
One of the suspects, Tatar, worked at his father's pizzeria and made deliveries to the base, using the opportunity to scout out Fort Dix for an attack, authorities said. "Clearly, one of the guys had an intimate knowledge of the base from having been there delivering pizzas," Christie said.
The men also allegedly conducted surveillance at other area military installations, including Fort Monmouth in New Jersey, Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, and a Philadelphia Coast Guard station.
Besides Shnewer, Tatar and Duka, the other three men were identified in court papers as Dritan Duka, Shain Duka and Agron Abdullahu.
Fort Dix is used to train soldiers, particularly reservists. It also housed refugees from Kosovo in 1999.
The arrests renewed worries among New Jersey's Muslim community. Hundreds of Muslim men from New Jersey were rounded up and detained in the months after the Sept. 11 attacks, but none were connected to that plot.
"If these people did something, then they deserve to be punished to the fullest extent of the law," said Sohail Mohammed, a lawyer who represented scores of detainees after the 2001 attacks. "But when the government says `Islamic militants,' it sends a message to the public that Islam and militancy are synonymous."
"Don't equate actions with religion," he said.
This has got to be paid attention too, we were so lucky that these idiots decided to dub a video and a great american chose to put his life on the line, otherwise their could be scores of dead soldiers right now. This man will now have to fear for his life as the terrorists know who he is and I am sure some moronic media elite type will leak his name as quickly as they find out who he is, for the do not care anymore about this country then do the hollywood elite and the politicians who choose surrender and retreat over victory.
This is life or death, and words and nonsense that you people spout will not save you anymore. The terrorists want all of us dead, we need to understand that, and know it is true, because they pray to Allah for that to be the case everyday. The next time they may be smarter and then we will have another bunch of dead americans.

Accident Not Terrorism This Time And More Killings

It has been a long weekend of nice weather and not much business. The events in San Francisco involving the accident and subsequent fire that caused an important part of their bridge overpass system to collapse should be a reminder of what a terrorist could do with a tanker truck.
Just think of the carnage they could create if their were dozens or hundreds of such tanker trucks taken at the same time around the country and then if they use the vehicles as suicide trucks to hit overpasses, bridges, buildings, malls, etc., they could cause as much or more death and destruction than they did at the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon with airplanes. We should not underestimate the ideas that they might get by seeing what this fire has done to the Bay Area. I am thankful that they have not thought of this so far or if they have they have,they have not acted upon it. There are thousands of tanker trucks on the road each day and each one is a potential fiery bomb.
I am sure or should I say I am hopeful that our counterterrorist units are looking over every conceivable scenario that the terrorists will employ once the Al-Queda Democratic Party forces our troops home and the terrorists follow us home, with even more fervor than before as they shall see the retreat as merely the end of one battle and the beginning of the ultimate war to destroy civilization. With there allies in the House of Representatives and the Senate, they will have every reason to believe that coming to the United States of America to finish us off shall be far easier than if they had to fight without their Al-Queda Democratic party friends assisting them by demoralizing the troops and the citizens to just accept all forms of defeat. I know I should not taken it personally, but everytime the mullahs Reid and Pelosi do their cheshire cat smiles as they gloat over our impending defeat, I wish someone would just slap that smile of their faces. How does every citizen that cares about this country not see that they are committing treason with their actions. Bringing the troops home sounds so nice, but when the terrorists hit us again it will all too apparent what a stupid idea it was to accept defeat and leave Iraq, it will also be too late to stop the destruction that it will bring to our country.
Well enough fun bashing of the Al-Queda Democratic Party for today. I shall slam them more tomorrow or later in the week, whenever they say or do something stupid and treasonous which is nearly everyday.
I noticed that just a short while ago the Virginia Governor closed the loophole that all Cho to purchase the guns which he used to kill 32 students at Virginia Tech. This is good on his part, but we should forget that these disturbed people always seem to find a way to obtain the weapons that they use for their. It would have been better if more of the students at the school would have been carrying guns, so that they could have responded and fought back, perhaps killing him before he killed so many of them. I also think it is imperative to allow campus security to carry weapons and to do so as soon as possible. It would have made it less likely that Cho would have killed all of those students if the campus security had guns to respond to the unfolding nightmare on campus. In addition, all campuses should have cameras and security watching those cameras every minute of every day. This may take little freedom away from the students, but isn’t it better to lose a little freedom then to lose your life.
As I write this there is news of another crop of killings, this time in Kansas City, Kansas where a gunman killed a young woman, took her automobile, then shot a policeman at a gas station who confronted him about driving a stolen vehicle. This man then raced to a Mall with a Target, where he was employed, killed people in vehicles on either side of his now parked vehicle. He then fled into the mall shooting people as he went and finally when confronted by police, resisted arrest and was pleasantly shot and killed by police. It is shame that innocent people were killed, but thank goodness that this situation ended the way all such events should end, with the death of the assailant, so that some smart ass defense attorney cannot later get him off or get a reduced sentence, by someway making it the victims fault that they were killed. This is the all killers should be dealt with and in my opinion all pedophiles should also be dealt with, quickly and deadly force should be used in all instances so that they cannot hurt anyone in the future. I am not just an advocate of the death penalty, but the street justice that was given out today. The police that killed him will go through more pain than he did as they must live with the death. This citizen hopes you see the good that was done by stopping him and know that he caused his death not you. You are the good guys and do not listen to the do not kill in any circumstance, for it is their fault that creeps like the killer can do what they do. May he rest in Hell!!