J

osua (which is pronounced like a prostitute dancing, “JO-sway”) Luna was arrested Friday afternoon when attempting to cross the US border into Mexico, bring a rather quick end to the on-the-lam life of one of America’s most scummy criminals.

(Allegedly), Luna was the front seat passenger in a 2000 Infiniti (allegedly) driven by his (probably drunk) wife, Claudia Cabrera, when they hit two pedestrians near USC on March 29.  Adrianna Bachan, 18, right, died at the scene, and Marcus Garfinkle, 19, was severely injured, with two broken legs and lung contusions.  Garfinkle  remains hospitalized.

Luna’s infamy immediately followed.  After driving 300 to 400 feet with Garfinkle stuck in the windshield of the car, Cabrera stopped and Luna got out and unceremoniously dumped Garfinkle’s body inthe street. The couple drove off, with their 7-month baby in the backseat.  Lovely family.  Allegedly.

Cabrera was arrested five days later, based on tips that flooded into the police department.  Luna took off, and managed to hide until today.

Now, ready for some more outrage.  Luna, who tried to jump the border to evade justice, posted $50,000 bond Saturday morning and walked out of jail.  Want to venture a guess as to the political affiliation of the judge who presided over that hearing?

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C

lick here to view the Environmental Protection Agency’s rogues gallery of fugitives from environmental justice.  Quite a seedy bunch they are, like:

Allessandra Giordano, right, who with poppa Carlos fled the country (hopefully in a bright red Ferrari) for importing cars what did not meet EPA’s air quality regulations.

Or

Wendell Baptiste, left, who I chose primarily because of the fascinating red tint on his mug shot.  Do you suppose he got that way by peddling plutonium on dark corners?  No, Baptiste is a wanted EPA fugitive because he went on the lam after illegally discharging a hazardous substance into waters of the United States.

That’s the most common crime of these losers – dumping oil, sewage or contaminated cargos off their third-world freighters and into our international waters.  That they’ve all fled seems to indicate that EPA Prison is not the most secure detention facility around.

EPA doesn’t want to judge the severity of these crimes.  There is no #1 worst felon among this felonious bunch – at least not one EPA cares to identify.  But the one who gets that dubious distinction is obvious.  It’s not Denis Feron, who fled to Belgium after the hidden pipe dumping gunk from his factory into a creek was discovered, although that’s a pretty heinous act.  Belgium apparently is tolerant of polluters.  And it’s not Albania Deleon, who had a pretty brisk little business going, in which she didn’t properly train asbestos removers, then licensed them and hired them out for a pretty penny. She’s disappeared like asbestos vapors in the wind.

Nope, the award for the #1 EPA fugitive from environmental justice goes hands down to this guy, Mauro Valenzuela.  Nice looking fella, eh?  Hint of a smile, whimsical tilt to the head.  Don’t you believe it. Here’s his write-up:

# Valenzuela was charged in the Southern District of Florida on a multiple count indictment.

# Alleged violations include:

* Illegal transportation of hazardous materials aboard a commercial aircraft
* Making false statements
* Conspiracy

# Valenzuela was a mechanic for SabreTech. He certified that all cabin oxygen generators had been properly removed and replaced on a ValuJet plane. Valenzuela caused these generators to be delivered and loaded on VALUJET flight 592 without proper markings, capping, packaging and other safety measures. The flight crashed into the Everglades shortly after take-off from Miami International Airport killing all 110 passengers and crew onboard.

# Valenzuela fled the country soon after his arraignment. Whereabouts unknown.

Now you’d think they might include murder in there, too, since the oxygen generators caused the fire that caused the horrific, nose-in crash, but that’s someone else’s bailiwick. To EPA Valenzuela is just a lying, conspiring transporter of improperly marked, capped and packaged oxygen generators.

I think there’s a lesson in there about the workings of the mind of the federal bureaucrat … you know, the ones that now run Wall Street and Detroit, and are coming soon to a business near you.

hat-tip to “Alphonse,” who is not too keen on bureaucrats trying to assess evil:

You bring up an inconvenient truth about ranking degree of evil. The criterion should be human life, reduced to cost per life directly or indirectly taken. Most agencies will not touch this. NRC (AEC) tried with one of its early reports, but there was a controversy because it appeared that some lives were deemed to be more valuable than others. [Can't have that, can we?]

The Netherlands used human life valuation for its levee reconstruction: “The optimal failure probability shows a downward trend with increasing number of victims. With this addition, however, the problem of the value of a human life has been introduced. Numerous approximations for this are to be found in the literature. In the present study, it is proposed that the value of human life be equated to the cash value of the net national product per inhabitant of the Netherlands. The opinion is that in assessing acceptable levels of risk, it is advisable to take the possible loss of lives into account in economic terms.” [See, the government really does see you as just an economic entity.]

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A

s I reported this morning, the NY Times is not covering the beheading of an upstate NY Muslim woman by her husband – even though it’s a state story, even though he owns a TV network designed to overturn “stereotypes” of Islam … and even though IT’S A BEHEADING FOR GOODNESS SAKE!

My lib friend Dan Chmielewski chides me for chiding the NYT:

Being from Upstate NY, I hope you’ll give me some creds here. But unless is a major story, like the plane crash, the New York Times is not going to cover a local crime story which is what this is. Wonder why you didn’t blog on this story …

… and he links to a Fox News story on Jim Adkisson,a Tennessee truck driver who pled guilty last Monday to killing two people and wounding six others at a church because he considered the liberal church “a den of un-American vipers.”

Not wanting to disappoint Dan (who, I’m sorry, gets no cred for being from upstate), I am blogging on that story, but not as he would want me to.  I just re-checked the NYT, and it still has not posted a story on the upstate beheading murder, but lo and behold, it has run no fewer than three stories on Jim Adkisson’s case … way the heck out there in Tennessee:

• Hatred Said to Motivate Tenn. Shooter (July 28, 2008)

• Hate for Liberals and Gay People Drove Gunman, Police Say (July 29, 2008)

• National Briefing – South – Tennessee – Guilty Plea in Church (Feb. 10, 2009)

The July 28 article dedicated a full 28 paragraphs to the story, and the rehash on the 29th managed to come up with 16 more. Last week’s update on the guilty plea was just a paragraph.  Here’s the lead of the the first story:

A man who the police say entered a Unitarian church in Knoxville during Sunday services and shot 8 people, killing two, was motivated by a hatred for liberals and homosexuals, Chief Sterling P. Owen IV of the Knoxville Police Department said Monday.

“It appears that what brought him to this horrible event was his lack of being able to obtain a job, his frustration over that, and his stated hatred for the liberal movement,” Chief Owen said of the suspect, Jim D. Adkisson, 58. “We have recovered a four-page letter in which he describes his feelings and the reason that he claims he committed these offenses.”

The Chmielewski theory that the NYT doesn’t bother with local crime stories elsewhere falls apart here, since two killed with a shotgun, even in a church, isn’t as newsworthy as one person killed by beheading, Muslim or not.  No, what makes it newsworthy is that Adkisson had a “stated hatred for the liberal movement.”  Had a Unitarian shot up a Baptist church because of a “stated hatred of the conservative movement” – newsworthy as that would be on its face – rest assured the NYT wouldn’t have covered it.

The conclusion is irrefutable:  The NY Times will take any opportunity it can to discredit conservatives, particularly conservative Christians, and it will avoid any opportunity to paint Muslims in a negative light.

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Note: This story has been updated with Tuesday afternoon’s post for consideration by the Watcher’s Council

A

Muslim unhappy with his wife’s quest for independence has been charged with beheading her and dumping her body in his upstate New York television studio.

Aasiya Z. Hassan, 37, had filed for divorce from her husband, Muzzammil Hassan, 44, on grounds of cruel and unusual punishment, following a marriage of humiliation, beatings, calls to the police, restraining orders and death threats, according to the woman’s attorney.

Here’s the irony: Muzzammil Hassan founded his TV network, Bridges TV, four years ago “to counter anti-Islam stereotypes.”

“Every day on television we are barraged by stories of a ‘Muslim extremist, militant, terrorist, or insurgent,’” Hassan said in the 2004 release. “But the stories that are missing are the countless stories of Muslim tolerance, progress, diversity, service and excellence that Bridges TV hopes to tell.” (Fox)

No word yet if the Hassan story will headline – poor choice of words there – today’s news on Bridges TV.

And no word on why the story does not appear on CNN, ABC, CBS – or even the home state paper, the NY Times.  (MSNBC does have the story.)

Update 1: As I reported this morning, the NY Times is not covering the beheading of an upstate NY Muslim woman by her husband – even though it’s a state story, even though he owns a TV network designed to overturn “stereotypes” of Islam … and even though IT’S A BEHEADING FOR GOODNESS SAKE!

My lib friend Dan Chmielewski chides me for chiding the NYT:

Being from Upstate NY, I hope you’ll give me some creds here. But unless is a major story, like the plane crash, the New York Times is not going to cover a local crime story which is what this is. Wonder why you didn’t blog on this story …

… and he links to a Fox News story on Jim Adkisson, a Tennessee truck driver who pled guilty last Monday to killing two people and wounding six others at a church because he considered the liberal church “a den of un-American vipers.”

Dan gets no cred for being from Upstate – although he could score some points by providing some Snappy Grillers or Riggies.  But I don’t want to disappoint the boy, so I am blogging on that story – just not as he would want me to.  I just re-checked the NYT, and it still has not posted a story on the upstate beheading murder, but lo and behold, it has run no fewer than three stories on Jim Adkisson’s case … way the heck out there in Tennessee:

• Hatred Said to Motivate Tenn. Shooter (July 28, 2008)

• Hate for Liberals and Gay People Drove Gunman, Police Say (July 29, 2008)

• National Briefing – South – Tennessee – Guilty Plea in Church (Feb. 10, 2009)

The July 28 article dedicated a full 28 paragraphs to the story, and the rehash on the 29th managed to come up with 16 more. Last week’s update on the guilty plea was just a paragraph.  Here’s the lead of the the first story:

A man who the police say entered a Unitarian church in Knoxville during Sunday services and shot 8 people, killing two, was motivated by a hatred for liberals and homosexuals, Chief Sterling P. Owen IV of the Knoxville Police Department said Monday.

“It appears that what brought him to this horrible event was his lack of being able to obtain a job, his frustration over that, and his stated hatred for the liberal movement,” Chief Owen said of the suspect, Jim D. Adkisson, 58. “We have recovered a four-page letter in which he describes his feelings and the reason that he claims he committed these offenses.”

The Chmielewski theory that the NYT doesn’t bother with local crime stories elsewhere falls apart here, since two killed with a shotgun, even in a church, isn’t as newsworthy as one person killed by beheading, Muslim or not.  No, what makes it newsworthy is that Adkisson had a “stated hatred for the liberal movement.”  Had a Unitarian shot up a Baptist church because of a “stated hatred of the conservative movement” – newsworthy as that would be on its face – rest assured the NYT wouldn’t have covered it.

The conclusion is irrefutable:  The NY Times will take any opportunity it can to discredit conservatives, particularly conservative Christians, and it will avoid any opportunity to paint Muslims in a negative light.

Update 2: As of 2:40 PST Tuesday, the NYT is still ignoring the story.

Update 3: The Bridges TV site tries valiently to keep probing eyes off the site.  The home page carries a brief statement of deep sorrrow and shock at the murder and arrest.  When I tried to go to the schedule page, it held for a bit, then flipped back to the  home page, so it took several attempts before I identified this “moderate” Muslim fare:

James Zogby, founder and president of the Arab American Institute, holds forth on Mondays and Saturdays from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.  Zogby may be a moderate in that he’s never actually killed a Jew, but …

Zogby has two goals: to make Arab Americans more powerful than Jewish Americans and to be their preeminent leader. Zogby’s engagement in American politics is motivated, in part, by his concern with what he views as the problem of non-Arabs-and specifically of American Jews-occupying key positions making U.S. policy toward the Middle East. Zogby insinuates that as a result of their background, these officials are incapable of being fair. …

Zogby has come to the defense of extremist Muslim groups such as the Muslim Brethren, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad, arguing that these groups are merely “politically” or “religiously” opposed to the peace process. He defends the American Muslim Council (AMC), a Muslim American organization based in Washington that forwards the cause of extremist Islamic organizations such as Hamas, as well as Islamic radical movements in Algeria, Sudan, and other countries. He also has the temerity to call upon Jewish organizations to follow his lead on these issues. ^…

Zogby also defends individual terrorists. When Arafat in 1995 appointed Ziad Abu Eain as the comptroller of the Palestinian Authority, Zogby publicly supported the appointment, still insisting that there had never been credible evidence against Abu Eain. When the U.S. government arrested Musa Abu Marzook, a Hamas leader, in July 1995 in New York on grounds of Israel’s warrant of arrest, Zogby characterized the arrest as “a huge mistake” and “not helpful to the peace process.”

[Read much more from this Middle East Forum article here.]

Zogby is a Maronite Christian, not a Muslim … but if his views represent moderate Islam, there are no moderate Muslims.

Every night from Tuesday to  Saturday, Democracy Now! [with an exclamation point, as if we don't have it now], the flagship news program from the radical Pacifica Network, gets the 9 to 10 pm prime time slot on Bridge TV.  You may recall this group from the news:  Founder/journo Amy Goodman, two producers and a videographer were arrested by police outside the 2008 Republican National Convention on charges of probable cause for riot.  Here’s typical Amy Goodwin-speak:

[Cherif] Bassiouni’s scathing 2005 U.N. report accused the U.S. military and private military contractors of “forced entry into homes, arrest and detention of nationals and foreigners without legal authority or judicial review, sometimes for extended periods of time, forced nudity, hooding and sensory deprivation, sleep and food deprivation, forced squatting and standing for long periods of time in stress positions, sexual abuse, beatings, torture, and use of force resulting in death.”

The piece lacks any mention of terrorist attrocities against the West (or other Muslims), but plenty of negative interpretations of the US response.

Bridges TV is no better a spokesperson for the chimera of the moderate Muslim than is its founder and chief beheader.

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D

avid Ogden, the porn-lovin’, baby-hatin’, Europe-fawnin’ Obama designee for #2 at Justice, is the kind of guy who would salivate at the opportunity to defend the villain in this case – and the fact that he would, and the fact that he would want to wouldn’t stop his nomination, and the fact that this happened in America in 2009 is a sign of our crumbling civilization:

Eighteen and pregnant, Sycloria Williams went to an abortion clinic outside Miami and paid $1,200 for Dr. Pierre Jean-Jacque Renelique to terminate her 23-week pregnancy.

Three days later, she sat in a reclining chair, medicated to dilate her cervix and otherwise get her ready for the procedure. (source)

Not that it really matters to me since it’s obvious that it’s a kid at conception, note that Williams is about as close as you can get to her third trimester, and her baby was on the cusp of viability outside the womb.

Only Renelique didn’t arrive in time. According to Williams and the Florida Department of Health, she went into labor and delivered a live baby girl.

What Williams and the Health Department say happened next has shocked people on both sides of the abortion debate: One of the clinic’s owners, who has no medical license, cut the infant’s umbilical cord. Williams says the woman placed the baby in a plastic biohazard bag and threw it out.

Police recovered the decomposing remains in a cardboard box a week later after getting anonymous tips.

Disgusting.  Shocking. But what actually happened was actually even more disgusting and shocking than this account, which, believe it or not, is sanitized. Here’s how events were described in the lawsuit Williams has filed:

The complaint says one of the clinic owners, Belkis Gonzalez came in and cut the umbilical cord with scissors, then placed the baby in a plastic bag, and the bag in a trash can.

Williams’ lawsuit offers a cruder account: She says Gonzalez knocked the baby off the recliner chair where she had given birth, onto the floor. The baby’s umbilical cord was not clamped, allowing her to bleed out. Gonzalez scooped the baby, placenta and afterbirth into a red plastic biohazard bag and threw it out.

It’s just another day at the office for Rodriquez.

As I said, Williams is now suing Renelique – something she has grounds to do, since I’m sure the whole ordeal was far more traumatizing than she anticipated. It’s something no woman should go through, especially an 18-year-old. But in a more cynical view, her lawsuit is just another sign of our crumbling civilization. One minute she was just fine with having Renelique abort and throw out her baby, and in the next moment she sees an opportunity to make some quick bucks through a lawsuit.

Fortunately, our civilization hasn’t crumbled so much that Renelique isn’t at risk of losing his license and Gonzales can’t be charged with murder. The Haiti-trained doctor’s license is indeed at risk, and an autopsy showed there was air in the baby’s lungs, so it was born alive. That makes sticking it in a plastic back and throwing it inthe trash grounds for murder – even if abortion isn’t.

Hat-tip: Jim

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M

ike Carona, OC’s Sheriff who was tagged with the moniker “America’s Sheriff” by Larry King during the search for a kidnapped  5-year-old, Samantha Runyon, when he called out the unknown kidnapper, saying, “”Don’t sleep. Don’t eat. We’re coming after you,” has all but skated from the corruption charges against him.

(Phew, that was one heck of a sentence!  I plead guilty to public complexity.)

Carona was found guilty of witness tampering but not guilty of a half dozen pretty much bigger charges, like conspiring to use his office for personal gain and being a complete jerk who trashed the public trust because he was way too full of himself.  But that’s not to say the jurors thought Carona was a stand-up guy:

But they didn’t think Carona was innocent – just not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

“I thought he was absolutely guilty,” said juror Jim Ybarra, of Garden Grove. “I really did. But I had to follow the law.”

Another juror, Jerome Bell, 42, of Anaheim, said: “I think he had his hands in the cookie jar. He was just quick enough to wipe his hands of crumbs.” (OC Register)

Carona could get 10 years for the one guilty charge, although his miracle workers attorneys are asking for probation.  Sure, his career’s wrecked, but the jury’s ability to ignore hours of secretly recorded tapes in which he sounded a lot like Rod Blagojevich opened news doors for Carona:  I expect he’ll be suing OC soon for wrongful prosecution, so we, the taxpayers of OC and California, will be able to keep him in the good life.

Rod Blagojevich – sign up Carona’s legal team pronto. There might still be hope.

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P

erhaps you didn’t know that the two characters that designate “China” in the incredibly complex Chinese writing system mean “middle” and “kingdom,”  symbolic of the Chinese thought that they are the center of the world and all other peoples are outsiders – even when it comes to corruption.

We may have our Blogojevich, our Jefferson, our Dixon, but they’re pipsqueaks on the margins compared to how things are done in the Middle Kingdom:

Officials from China’s southern Guangdong province are reported to have gambled away more than $3m (£2m) of public money in recent years.
Chinese media reports said more than 50 officials had been investigated and six had been jailed or punished.

The officials lost the money gambling at casinos in Macau, on cruise ships off Hong Kong, and betting on football matches, reports said.

The heaviest sentence was given to Wu Xingkui, the Communist Party of China (CPC) number two in the town of Yunfu.

Mr Wu was handed a four-year jail term for embezzling large sums of public money to finance his gambling habit, the state-run China Daily newspaper reported.

The paper said he was found guilty of losing 520,000 yuan ($76,000) on soccer bets and 70,000 yuan playing mahjong, in addition to thousands of yuan of public money while on a cruise in Hong Kong on 1 January 2004. (BBC)

But look.  I’ve always felt the whole Middle Kingdom superiority thing to be a quaint and amusing historical hold-over.  After all, China may have its Wu Xingkui and other assorted small fry, but rowdy American capitalism gives us the likes of Bernard Madoff and Kenneth Lay.  USA!  USA!

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I

n an otherwise useless, GOP-slapping, Dem-loving bit of blathering reporting on the Blagojevich insanity, Salon’s Joan Walsh passed along this gem in her coverage of yesterday’s too-short press conference:

Obama looked like the happiest man in history ever to be called a “m—–f—–.”

But a more significant line might be this one from Capt. Ed, about the clip below, made even more significant now that Rahm Emanuel isn’t showing up for work because of “death threats.”

Emanuel has been acting like someone advised him to keep quiet to keep from making incriminating public statements, and this may be the reason why.

Here’s the clip – all about Emanuel’s many conversations with Blagojevich about filling Obama’s’ Senate seat.  Sure, Emanuel would be the point man on such a deal … but just as sure, he wasn’t forthcoming about it, and he’s just another Chicago pol who’s been swimming in the Chicago political cesspool throughout his career, and he’s next to the prez-elect.

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T

he Mainly Marginalized Media are hesitantly stepping up to the plate on the B-Rod scandal, noting the depth of B-Rod’s depravity, the longstanding, close-enough relationship between Obama and the scum-gov of Illinois, and the crossed messages within Camp Obama.  Just witness this morning’s headlines, courtesy of memeorandum:

• Obama tries to stay out of Blagojevich Fray – WaPo
• Obama:  Steered clear of scandal – ChiTrib
• Questions arise about the Obama/Blagojevich scandal – ABC

But the NY Times, for lack of a better expression, is busy this morning putting lipstick on a pig, proclaiming in its lead headline that Obama is really the hero of the story! Oh joy! Oh stretch!

Obama’s Effort on Ethics Bill Had Role in Governor’s Fall

In a sequence of events that neatly captures the contradictions of Barack Obama’s rise through Illinois politics, a phone call he made three months ago to urge passage of a state ethics bill indirectly contributed to the downfall of a fellow Democrat he twice supported, Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich.

Mr. Obama placed the call to his political mentor, Emil Jones Jr., president of the Illinois Senate. Mr. Jones was a critic of the legislation, which sought to curb the influence of money in politics, as was Mr. Blagojevich, who had vetoed it.

I know, I know. It was a federal prosecutor and the FBI that busted B-Rod, not some state guys enforcing a state ethics law. Heck, there were enough federal laws violated to ensure headlines and punditry around the globe. So what’s with claiming a role for the Prez-O?  The NYT, which has sold the Brooklyn Bridge a few times in support of Obama’s cause has it covered: B-Rod sped up  his scamming in order to rake in as much cash as possible before the new Illinois ethics law went into effect Jan. 1.

But shucks, folks, with Congress starting up shortly after the first, the assumption was that B-Rod would fill the seat by the end of the year all along, ethics law or no ethics law, take or no take.  No problem; if there’s a positive point to make about Obama – no matter how obscure – the NYT stands ready to make it.

Providing nifty cover for its hero seems to be what the NYT is all about nowdays, and it’s better at it than any other news outlet. So in a way, it is still the leader in journalism.

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From a media tactics standpoint, you can debate endlessly whether it was wise, naive or stupid for Obama to take just one media question regarding Illinois Gov. B-Rod’s effort to sell the Pres-Elect’s still warm Senate seat, but  one thing is above debate:  Obama and campaign chieftan David Axelrod should have first gotten their stories straight.

You know this by now, so let’s get through it quickly.  Here’s Axelrod a couple weeks back on Fox’s Chicago affiliate:

I know he’s talked to the governor and he’s … um … and there is a whole range of names, many of which have surfaced, and he’s … uh … I think he has a fondness for a lot of them.

Here’s Obama’s one answer to the one question he allowed today:

“I had no contact with the governor or his office and so I was not aware of what was happening.  It’s a sad day for Illinois. Beyond that, I don’t think it’s appropriate to comment.”

Axelrod has since said he Bidened the comment, and since the FBI has tapes and the Obama campaign knows the FBI has tapes, we’ll take him at his word.  For now.  Who knows what will surface as this case unfolds?

Moving on to what’s more significant, saying that Dec. 9, 2008 is a sad day for Illinois is like saying that Dec. 7, 1941 was a sad day for Hawaii or Nov. 22, 1963 was a sad day for Texas.  It is most definitely inappropriate to not comment beyond that.

For starters, it’s Obama’s senate seat, for crying out loud!  They both supported each other on numerous campaign trails.  They are both products of the Chicago political machine and the Rezko fund-o-matic.

And more than that, Obama is the prez-elect, the tone-setter in chief of the entire planet, yet when he was asked to comment on this heinous scandal of shocking corruption and malfeasance, all he says that it makes him is “sad?”  Will he be “sad” if/when corruption hits his administration head-on?  Will he be “sad” if Iran nukes Israel?  Will he be “sad” if the jihadists finally succeed in pulling off another mass murder on US soil?

Today’s announcement of the B-Rod indictment was such an affront to our democratic principles, such an attack on the foundation of trust on which our government depends, that it demanded an emotional, severe and powerful response from the president elect.

But he’s just sad.  How sad is that?

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