NOT GUILTY Of First-Degree Murder

After 33 days of testimony, 400 pieces of evidence and more than 90 witnesses, the jury in the Casey Anthony case has reached a verdict.
After just a day of deliberation, jurors informed the court at midday that they had reached a decision, and both sides in the case were ordered to assemble in the courtroom.
Anthony has been found not guilty of killing her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee. She was also found not guilty of aggravated child abuse and aggravated manslaughter of a child. But she was convicted on charges of misleading law enforcement.
The case against Anthony was mostly circumstantial, but as it unfolded she was portrayed in the trial as a promiscuous, self-centered woman who became a cold-blooded killer. The motive, prosecutors alleged, was to allow her to live a carefree life without her daughter.

The state's case theory was that a desperate Anthony used chloroform to subdue her daughter and then suffocated her with duct tape. Anthony then fabricated fantastic lies to cover up her deeds, they said.

Anthony's attorney Jose Baez told the jury his client was the victim of an abusive upbringing.

According to Baez, Casey Anthony and her father, George Anthony, were home alone on June 16, 2008, when they noticed Caylee was missing. They began a frantic search, looking under beds and in the garage. Then George Anthony took the search outside to the above-ground pool where they found a lifeless Caylee floating in the water, Baez said.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/05/casey-anthony-trial-verdict_n_890173.html#s303265&title=Casey_Anthony_Verdict

Well; what did we expect?  I think the tragedy here is that a little girl has died and the only thing we can focus on is our outrage with the jury’s decision.  Do I think Casey did it?  My opinion (from what little I know) is that she did.  Do I think the State was able to prove its case?  Yes; if you could see it through the fog the Defense used to obscure it.  The Defense team did its job!  With each bit of circumstantial evidence brought forth by the State of Florida, the Defense was able to plant a seed of doubt.  Doubt was the only thing Baez had in his toolbox and he used it like an artist uses the color fuchsia.  Fuchsia is an ugly color, but when used correctly it can bring a painting to life.  Don’t blame the jury.  Don’t you dare blame the jury!  They did their job.  They are a product of a world the Defense team and the Prosecutor created.  Their truth in this is the reality of everything they observed in the courtroom.  When all is said and done we cannot ask any more of them.  Everyone did their jobs; everyone, and yet nothing that happened in that courtroom will bring that little girl back.  We are a land of laws and whether we like it or not, today our laws worked.  You can’t have it both ways.  You can’t have “innocent until proven guilty” and then convict someone without proof.  This case was chalk full of evidence, but it was sorely lacking proof.  We will never know the whole story.  We will never have the confessions, the admissions or the proof we seek.  What we have left, as the jury files out and the books are finally closed on this case is our angst and frustration that a little girls death will never be vindicated.  Our only solace, our only relief comes from the knowledge that in the unlikely event that the tables were ever turned, we too might be granted the same benefits of the doubt and the same considerations, and the same opportunity for a defense team like Ms. Anthony’s. 

San Francisco Police Kill Man On Transit Platform

SAN FRANCISCO -- A man reportedly armed with a knife on a Bay Area Rapid Transit station platform in San Francisco was shot and killed by police, transit officials said Monday.
BART spokesman Linton Johnson said dispatchers received a call of a "wobbly drunk" on the platform of the Civic Center/UN Plaza station at around 9:30 p.m. Sunday. Two transit officers arrived and then reported shooting a man, who died about an hour later.
Investigators were trying to determine whether the man killed was the same person originally reported to be drunk. Investigators reported finding broken glass and knives at the scene
One BART officer suffered cuts and bruises on his arm. Both officers have been placed on administrative leave, as is standard policy.
Neither the shooting victim nor the officers involved have been identified, though BART officials said the dead man was white, as was one of the officers. The other officer was described by the agency as Asian.
BART is battling an image problem after a white officer shot and killed an unarmed black passenger on New Year's Day 2009 at a station in Oakland, a killing that sparked widespread debate and prompted racial unrest in that city.
Johannes Mehserle quit the police force shortly after the shooting and was later charged with murder for shooting Oscar Grant in the back while Grant was pinned face down on Oakland's Fruitvale station. Mehserle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter after testifying he meant to use his Taser rather than his gun. He recently was released from prison after serving half of a two-year sentence.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/04/bart-shooting-san-francisco-transit-
officers_n_889934.html

Just because you can, does that mean you should?  OK; I wasn’t there, but this guy was drunk and he had a knife.  I know a knife can kill a person, but the man welding it was drunk.  The BART officers carry a Taser.  Was it just easier to shoot this drunk passenger or did you really feel your life and the lives of others was in danger?  I hope you pulled the trigger for all the right reasons. 

Top San Francisco Attorney Questions Proposed Circumcision Ban

(RNS) In a potential blow to the proposed San Francisco circumcision ban, the city's top lawyer has concluded it is unconstitutional to ban the practice as a religious ritual, but allow it as a medical procedure.

The measure, now headed toward the Nov. 8 ballot, would ban nearly all infant circumcisions.

A lawsuit arguing that no California city can regulate a medical procedure that is allowed by the state will be heard on July 15. The plaintiffs are a group of Jews and Muslims, groups that practice ritual circumcision.

Should they win, a narrower ban exempting medical circumcision could apply only to circumcision as a religious practice. And that would defy the First Amendment, according to a brief recently filed by the city attorney.

"San Franciscans cannot be asked to vote on whether to prohibit religious minorities from engaging in a particular religious practice, when the same practice may be performed under nonreligious auspices," wrote Chief Deputy City Attorney Therese Stewart.

The proposed ban, sponsored by groups who are opposed to what they consider the genital mutilation of boys, has angered Jews, Muslims and others who consider circumcision to be a parent's choice.

"The city's response was completely political," said Georganne Chapin, executive director of Intact America, an anti-circumcision group that did not sponsor the proposed ban, but supports its intent.

"It is not aimed at Jewish circumcision," Chapin said. "It's aimed at the involuntary circumcision of all minors, irrespective of religion."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/05/top-sf-attorney-questions_n_890687.html

Some things are better left alone.  There is a lot of baggage attached to this issue.  It is a matter of cultural and religious beliefs.  In my opinion this issue is not up to the state and it is not up for debate.  Leave it alone! 

Jail Inmate Files Pornography Case

MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. -- A Michigan jail inmate says he's being subjected to cruel and unusual punishment because he can't have pornography.
In a handwritten lawsuit, 21-year-old Kyle Richards claims his civil rights are being violated at the Macomb County Jail. Richards says denying his request for erotic material subjects him to a "poor standard of living" and "sexual and sensory deprivation."
The Michigan Department of Corrections tells The Detroit News that prisons allow some pornographic material, though it's banned at the jail. The American Civil Liberties Union says prisons have a lot of leeway.
Richards was charged with bank robbery after police followed a trail of snowy footprints and dropped money to his apartment from a bank robbery scene in January in Fraser, north of Detroit.
Richards pleaded guilty. Sentencing is Aug. 2.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/04/jail-pornography-case-lawsuit-porn_n_889597.html

And if there was porn, you would be complaining that you're being subjected to porn against your will.  Shut-up and do your time.  Do you really want to look at government issued porn? 

Motorcyclist Dies On Ride Protesting Helmet Law

ONONDAGA, N.Y. -- Police say a motorcyclist participating in a protest ride against helmet laws in upstate New York died after he flipped over the bike's handlebars and hit his head on the pavement.
The accident happened Saturday afternoon in the town of Onondaga, in central New York near Syracuse.
State troopers tell The Post-Standard of Syracuse that 55-year-old Philip A. Contos of Parish, N.Y., was driving a 1983 Harley Davidson with a group of bikers who were protesting helmet laws by not wearing helmets.
Troopers say Contos hit his brakes and the motorcycle fishtailed. The bike spun out of control, and Contos toppled over the handlebars. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Troopers say Contos would have likely survived if he had been wearing a helmet.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/03/motorcyclist-dies-helmet-protest_n_889427.html

The universe has a way of adding an exclamation mark to irony.  I feel bad for this man and his family.  I also believe it is a riders right to choose.  My choice; a helmet every time, but others do not believe as I do, and that’s fine. Think of the lives this accident has changed and think about the fact that a helmet could have prevented the chain of events that will now follow.

Michele Bachmann: As President, I'll Create 'Real Jobs' For Obama

MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa — Republican candidate Michele Bachmann spent Saturday shaking hands in Iowa diners and strolling through a bustling farmers market as she tried to capitalize on her early popularity in the state that kicks off the presidential campaign season.
An Iowa native, the tea party favorite ranked nearly even with GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney in a recent poll of Republicans likely to participate in the state's lead off caucuses next year. But just six weeks before the state's closely-watched straw poll, the Minnesota congresswoman has done little to campaign or set up an organization here.
Beginning her first sustained campaign trip to Iowa as an announced candidate, Bachmann introduced herself to audiences from Iowa City to Des Moines in a new campaign bus emblazoned with her name. She spent much of Saturday posing for pictures and signing autographs rather than in meetings with key GOP activists.
"I have every confidence our team is going to deliver," Bachmann told The Associated Press after meeting about 100 supporters and politically curious Iowans at a stop in Marshalltown. "I am going to be here in Iowa campaigning all through July."
Proof that her Iowa campaign was still coming together met Bachmann in Iowa City, where she met about 100 weekend breakfast regulars and Republican activists at the Bluebird Diner near the University of Iowa. Local resident Sheila Reiland told Bachmann's campaign chairman in the crowded diner that she signed up last week on Bachmann's website to volunteer but had heard nothing from any campaign staff.
"She is my candidate, and I want to do what I can to help her," said Reiland, a registered nurse who went to Washington, D.C., this year to attend a health care rally Bachmann headlined. "But I haven't heard anything back."
Bachmann's Iowa campaign chairman, state Sen. Kent Sorenson, acknowledged having a lot to do in a short time since the Iowa Legislature was in session until Thursday. But he told Reiland: "You will be hearing from us."

Story continues below

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/03/michele-bachmann-obama-jobs_n_889554.html

I don’t think this is the time to be smug.  I wish you luck, but I’m afraid you will turn out to be a non-issue.  Wing nuts and loony tunes tend to find their way to the back of the line as we get closer to election time.  You will say or do something very stupid and before it’s over you will find yourself living in Alaska next door to that other wing nut.  At least on a clear day you’ll be able to see Russia from your front yard. 

Hugo Chavez Undergoes Surgery To Remove Tumor

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez told his countrymen Thursday night that he underwent a second surgery in Cuba for the removal of a cancerous growth.
Chavez said in a televised talk that the operation took out a tumor in which there were "cancerous cells." He said the second surgery was done after an initial June 10 operation in which a pelvic abscess was removed.
He called his situation "this new battle that life has placed before us."
It was unclear what type of cancer is involved or what Chavez's treatment will be. He said it had been a "fundamental error" to not have taken better care of his health through medical checks.
"What a fundamental error," Chavez said.
Chavez did not say how much longer he expected to remain in Cuba recovering.
He said the first surgery was for a "strange formation in the pelvic region that required an emergency operation due to the imminent risk of a generalized infection."
After that first surgery, Chavez said, doctors began to suspect other problems. A series of tests "confirmed the presenced of an abscessed tumor with the presence of cancerous cells, which made necessary a second operation that allowed for the complete extraction of the tumor," he said.
Chavez said his condition has been "evolving satisfactorily while I receive a complementary treatment to combat the different types of cells found, and thereby continue on the path to my complete recovery."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/30/hugo-chavez-cancer-tumor_n_888382.html

Wow!  A tumor; really?  To my untrained eye that looks an awfully lot like a microphone. . . . .