This week, is the Grand Opening of our group - the WeeklyBug. Where we give a synopsis of the events of the week; what Bugs us, bad, ugly & good. Those things that make us mad, instill reflection; and hopefully, once in a while - warm our hearts.
The BAD
Officer Barks bites back; shoots barking Chihuahua dead!
Unfortunately, we have competing sagas - for this weeks BAD. Officer Kelly Barks in Marble Hill, Missouri achieved the inhumane award for hating barking so much she shot a little Chihuahua not once, not twice - but 3 times (the third time after the little dog climbed into its kennel) - to make sure it was dead. (See Jonathan Turley's blog story ( here)).
Dodge Stadium brutality puts Giants fan in coma!
No greater evil exists on the earth, than bullies who slaughter innocents. On baseball's opening day in Los Angeles Dodgers stadium; two men beat up Bryan Stow. The brutality is senseless, appalling and intolerable. (See CA Public Radio story ( here)).
You would think they were angry due to a loss; but such is not the case - the Dodgers won the game. As this Google link reveals - violence at Dodgers stadium is not unusual ( here); in 2003 a shooting transpired, in 2004 he was sentenced to 50 years. In 2009, a Giants fan was stabbed.
It all makes NO sense, in this modern camera and digital age, you would think the Dodgers owner would have enough cameras to capture any such events. Especially after such chaotic histories.
Bryan Stow's harm creates additional victims. He is a paramedic from Santa Cruz, a family man and father. His cousin John Stow, read a statement and asked for tips to bring the culprits to justice. There's a $100,000 (+) reward for information leading to the apprehension. One noble citizen did intervene and yelled at the bullies; thus others had to see as well. It is a shame we are so apathetic to the plights of our fellow man; that this event transpired - with no immediate arrests. Our prayers and well wishes go out to Bryan Stow.
The UGLY
GOP DOJ prosecutions of Democrats runs amuck and succeeds!
Alabama and New Jersey have something in common, that many Democrats have overlooked. Republican US Attorneys did massive prosecutions of mostly liberal candidates and public officials. NJ US Attorney Chris Christie began his rise to power by awarding former AG Ashcroft a purported $50 million No Bid Deferred Prosecution Agreement contract (see EthiSphere story ( here)).
Once Christie was placed on Bush's list of US Attorneys to be fired; for lack of loyalty to the Bush Administrations agenda; Christie responded appropriately. According to this Daily Censored story ( here); Christie responded with a campaign against Democrats en mass. The Daily Censored story denotes;
• Pre-election subpoenas tarnishing New Jersey’s Democratic Senate candidate Robert Menendez 61 days prior to election. The subpoenas never resulted in charges but prompted many headlines suggesting corruption by Menendez before he narrowly won reelection. Christie, not surprisingly, survived the political purge just after the election that cost eight of his peers nationally their jobs and sent a powerful message to all remaining prosecutors.
• No-bid contracts for tens of millions of dollars to prominent Republican former Justice Department officials to monitor settlement agreements with corporate criminal defendants. One contract valued at $28 million to $52 million went to former Republican U.S. Attorney Gen. John Ashcroft, Christie’s former boss, to monitor a kick-back scheme by Zimmer Holdings to induce surgeons to use its medical devices. A similar no-bid deal went to former New Jersey U.S. Attorney Herbert Stern, Christie’s mentor.
Governor Siegelman prosecution.
In a similar manner akin to the NJ GOP witch hunt against Democrats; Alabama Governor Siegelman was prosecuted out of office. It was such an outrageous veiled agenda prosecution on a totally fabricated and incongruous allegations; that over 90 former Attorney Generals petitioned the US Supreme Court to vindicate Siegelman.
What is amazing, is that the charge, brought upon Siegelman by AL US Attorney Canary; is that a campaign contribution was illegal. If such were true, Republicans would fill our prisons across America.
Not surprising, is that Karl Rove was involved. Many efforts to subpoena Rove transpired; resulting in little or no subsequent true fact finding. What was learned is the AL Judge over Gov Siegelman's trial actually was documented publicly hating Siegelman. It was also learned that the Judge was involved in the Airbus, McCain - take away $35 billion dollar annual contract from Boeing efforts. A case, believe it or not, that also involved Senator Stevens - who was prosecuted as well. If we do not pay attention and get the facts out about these political prosecutions; the GOP will only get more brazen and flagrant in such endeavors.
THE GOOD
Now we get to stories worth telling. Where we begin with a true heart-warmer;
10 year old boy spends college fund $ to buy Refrig's SB ring and gives it back!
Actually, the title says it all. A 10 year old from Pittsburgh-area boy, took $8,500 of his college savings and bought the Regrigerator's (William Perry) Super Bowl ring from an online auction. (see Yahoo Sport's story ( here)). As the Yahoo story denotes - the boy then tracked down Perry and returned the ring to him - once he learned the Refrigerator had a life illness;
Perry, a former Chicago Bears defensive lineman, had put his ring up for auction in 2007 for reasons unknown.
Soon after buying the ring, the younger Cliff heard about Perry's battle with Guillain-Barre syndrome, an autoimmune disease that can cause paralysis. Figuring the former football star would be happier with the ring, Cliff set out to return it.
"He only played in one Super Bowl," Cliff told "SportsCenter" during an interview earlier this week. "I thought he would want it more than I did."
WE Did or Did NOT - WIN - on more ways than 1
Unfortunately = now updated to include the devasting news Friday morn;
It cannot be said enough, celebrated enough and remembered enough. In the WI election, the GOP encumbant was smacked down (initially). Because unity against tyranny & corruption - Works! So celebrate and sing high praise for the galiant effort of our northern friends and fellow progressives.
Appropriately this SLATE story reflects, that we have more than one reason to celebrate. It denotes in advance - that it is a premature celebration of the possible win. At the same time, it gives pause to the premise that the win will possibly change the collective bargaining court battle; as the case is likely to be decided - before our official gets sworn in.
Does anyone Really believe that a batch of votes was mistakenly not counted?
Now a serious investigation must begin - it sures sounds like a rigg to me.
But it does denote a fantastic statistic - as remarked by WI Senator Miller (D);
Miller made one more point. According to his math, Kloppenburg won by a 60-40 margin in the district of Dan Kapanke, the first Republican that recall petitions were submitted against.
To top all that off - there is a rumor out there - that scheming, lying - rant/rave Glen Beck is on the slippery slope to the unemployment line. Hoo-rah!
Sorry that this very 1st WeeklyBUG - gets a bug in it due to voter obfuscation! But here is one thing to ponder (which should have been revealed previously to us) - County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus has a history of finding votes and making mistakes that always seem to benefit the GOP side.
According to the comment section of the WSJ Law Blog on this affair ( here)
Nickolaus was given immunity from prosecution in a 2002 criminal investigation into illegal activity by members of the Republican Assembly caucus where she worked as a data analyst and computer specialist. Prosser, who as speaker of the Assembly in 1995 and 1996 controlled the same caucus, was not part of the investigation. Nickolaus resigned from her state job in 2002 just before launching her county clerk campaign.
Another WSJ Law Blog comment poitns out that Nicholaus "Lost votes" before; as revealed in this Google News article story ( here)
Please take the comment section below and suggest - your best and worst ideas, where we might shove or climb our future WeeklyBUG reports to!