LAS VEGAS (CBS 5) -- Officials at the Lovelock Correctional Center, 90 miles northeast of Reno in rural northern Nevada, said Simpson remained at the facility and maintained nothing had happened to him.
So he hasn't yet tripped and fallen down elebenteen flights of stairs ...
The popular online Drudge Report and celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton had quoted sources as saying that the 62-year-old Simpson was seriously beaten in what appeared to be a racially-motivated incident. Drudge later removed its posting about Simpson following the denials from corrections officials.
Perez Hilton was just jealous that OJ was getting the attention ...
Authorities at Lovelock have previously said that Simpson works as a gym janitor at the prison facility while serving a sentence for nine to 33 years for kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon in the gunpoint robbery of two sports memorabilia dealers in a Las Vegas hotel room in September 2007.
Simpson's lawyers are currently appealing his case to justices on the Nevada state Supreme Court and had sought his release from prison while the appeal was considered.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/08/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
I bet his bank balance is taking a beating, though.
#3
Personally, I admire OJ's dedication to hunting down his wife's killer. After exhaustively searching golf courses across America in vain, he must have found some tip that the perp is already incarcerated under some lesser charge, and he found an excuse to get imprisoned so he can continue the pursuit from within. Now that's dedication!
Posted by: Dar ||
12/08/2009 14:58 Comments ||
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#4
I know this sounds harsh, but quite frankly, if he were severly beaten every morning before breakfast and every evening before sundowners I'd be thoroughly delighted.
According to the prosecution's account of the murders, as Nicole Brown was lying face down, Simpson pulled her head back using her hair, put his foot on her back, and slit her throat, severing her carotid artery.[12] They then argued that Simpson left a "trail of blood" from the condo to his Bronco to his house on Rockingham Drive.
Here is the sole excerpt from the above statement chosen for the article:
The report is "a whitewashed 'internal investigation' by a Democrat Party hack from Massachusetts," said conservative columnist Andrew Breitbart, who is being sued by ACORN along with James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles, who played the prostitute and her boyfriend in the videos. Breitbart posted the videos on his Web site.
I wanted the BigGovernment.com readers to see that's it's not just the internal investigators who are whitewashing the magnitude of the ACORN scandal, it's the mainstream media writ large.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2009 00:00 ||
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Nelson then waffles on what happens next, thus showing that he was just voguing all along.
The Senate narrowly rejected an amendment that would have restricted abortion coverage in the pending health-care bill, leaving in question whether Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) has the 60 votes needed to move the bill toward final passage.
The measure, which failed 54-45, addressed the scope of restrictions on coverage of abortion services for people who receive subsidies to buy insurance. The outcome was expected, but could cost the support of Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), who has threatened to filibuster the $848 billion bill unless abortion restrictions are tightened.
Reid told reporters earlier Tuesday afternoon he would consider other language to allay Nelson's concerns. "If in fact he doesn't succeed here, we'll try something else," Reid said.
The vote came amid intense final negotiations on the bill, as Reid aims to wrap up debate on amendments and begin a long procedural stand-off with Republicans -- possibly extending 10 days -- before the bill can come to a final vote before Christmas.
Nelson also is participating in talks to establish an alternative to the public insurance option, and said he would continue to negotiate with Reid and his colleagues on the overall bill. "People are talking," he said before the abortion vote. "And that's usually a good thing."
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/08/2009 22:20 ||
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MORE SPOTTED OWL NEWS OR NOT. I posted the entire article because the link at times is difficult to use. Note that Harry Reid got a bundle for his state in a state that is not particularly known for logging. This is the kind of stuff that fuels movements like the Tea Party movement. It is amazing how much traction the Tea Party movement has gained in a short time. County payments' given to states without timber
RESERVE, N.M. -- A federal program that began as a safety net for Pacific Northwest logging communities hard-hit by battles over the spotted owl in the 1990s has morphed into a sprawling entitlement -- one that ships vast amounts of money to states with little or no historic connection to timber, an analysis by The Associated Press shows.
Nicknamed "county payments," the timber program was supposed to assist counties shortchanged when national forests limited logging to protect the northern spotted owl and other endangered species.
Since becoming law in 2000, the program has distributed more than $3 billion to 700 counties in 41 states with national forests -- including Tennessee -- and helped fund everything from schools to libraries to jails.
The federal largess initially focused on a handful of Western states, with Oregon alone receiving nearly $2 billion.
Continued on Page 49
Not long ago, Baltimore's tourism bureau invited public relations guru Richard Laermer to town for a pep talk. "I said 'good job,' " recalls Laermer, who was impressed with the group's effort to let the world know Baltimore had changed and that it was time to "Get in on it." Baltimore hasn't really changed. Don Schaefer rejuvenated it when he was mayor, and then things reverted to slightly worse than normal even though he favored the city as governor. It's a machine town, like most big cities: the purpose of power is to share the boodle with one's friends.
But when he heard Mayor Sheila Dixon was convicted of embezzling gift cards for the needy, his first thought was: Baltimore's back to square one. "I thought about all those people and how they must be sitting there going, 'What the hell?' All that work tossed away." Boodle's boodle. Snatch gift cards intended for the po' folks one supposedly looks out for, shake down a few small business men, maybe empty a few poor boxes, it's all the same thing.
Like many in the image-is-everything world of PR, marketing and branding, Laermer thinks Dixon - who early in her term made invigorating tourism a personal priority - has ended up harming Baltimore's national reputation. And lemme tell you, I was just so surprised..
News of her conviction landed last week in hundreds, if not thousands, of media outlets - grabbing headlines in everything from USA Today, the Christian Science Monitor and the Wall Street Journal to NPR and CNN. She even got a ribbing from Jay Leno. I haven't posted much on it. I've been ashamed for the city, which is apparently incapable of feeling shame itself.
"It's such a pathetic, petty crime and this is the mayor for crying out loud," says Ariel Ozick, CEO of Wired Rhino, a reputation management company. "If this was a city with a great reputation, it would be bad, but take a city like Baltimore that is already on the ropes, and it just makes the whole image of the city look a lot worse."
Back in the summer of 2007, the newly elected Dixon was traveling alongside executives of the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association, helping to wine, dine and otherwise charm decision-makers into choosing Baltimore for their lucrative annual meetings. Now, Laermer thinks the organization needs to immediately erase the mayor's welcome video from its Web site.
BACVA President Tom Noonan declined a request for an interview, except to say in an e-mail message, "Visit Baltimore will continue to sell our great city and the record pace that we have established over the last three years."
In the same breath, people are comparing Baltimore with tainted places such as Detroit, where Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was embroiled in a sex scandal, and Illinois, where Gov. Rod Blagojevich was forced out of office after accusations surfaced that he tried to sell President Barack Obama's former Senate seat.
"Baltimore is too small to weather this kind of scandal as well as, say, a New York or Chicago," says Scott Sobel, president of Media & Communications Strategies, in Washington. "This kind of conviction certainly hurts the city's reputation and its ability to be seen as a reliable business culture."
Don Miller, who heads the public affairs division of Harrison Leifer DiMarco Public Relations in New York, and who specializes in crisis management, says just one political scandal can wreak almost limitless damage.
And such negativity, when connected with a place, he says, has a way of working itself deep into the public mindset. He points to Brookhaven, N.Y., which after several scandals in the 1990s, can't seem to shake the nickname "Crookhaven." And he notes "Tammany Hall" and "Boss Tweed" from late-1800s New York, still conjure images of dirty politics.
But not everyone in public relations sees Dixon's transgression as a permanent black eye for Baltimore. In fact, because so many politicians are being caught philandering or stealing or bribing, she becomes only the latest entry on a growing list.
"Unfortunately, the mayor is not the first, or second, or 10th mayor, nationally, to be found guilty of committing a crime, and won't be the last," says communications strategist Matt Eventoff, with PPS Associates in Princeton, N.J.
Furthermore, in a 24-hour news cycle, where good and bad stories fly at people faster than balls from a batting machine, this particular item about Dixon probably won't stick in anyone's mind, says Bill Cowen, a professor and director of Villanova University's public relations program.
"Audiences are so message-saturated right now, it's sometimes questionable what is retained," Cowen says. "Baltimore had so many good things happening ... it takes more than one news piece to affect that."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2009 00:00 ||
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I haven't posted much on it. I've been ashamed for the city, which is apparently incapable of feeling shame itself.
I seriously doubt it could be any worse than Atlanta Fred.
#2
Let's not forget that Schaefer was preceded by The Hon. Tommy D'Alessandro whose most notable political achievement was siring Nancy Pelosi who got the hell out of Dodge as fast as she could. Baltimore's still the Land of Pleasant Living, but better appreciated from the County.
#3
All "cities" of over 30 people have a bad apple or three. We have our share here in Colorado Springs. Our "Mayor" recently made headlines because of the deals he made trying to keep the US Olympic Committee in Co Springs. It figuratively bankrupted the city, both cash-wise and legitimacy-wise. Factor in the city's constant fight with TABOR (Taxpayers Bill of Rights) and its founder, Doug Bruce, and you have a constantly running passion play.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/08/2009 18:06 Comments ||
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The notion that the Tea Party movement is a vocal minority in the Republican Party may have been put to rest today. A new three-way generic ballot from Rasmussen Reports finds that a Tea Party candidate would fare better than a Republican candidate, 23% to 18%, with the Democratic candidate coming out on top at 36%. The poll also found 22% remained undecided.
There is even better news for a Tea Party candidate when it comes to independents. They chose the Tea Party candidate (33%) over both the Democratic (25%) and Republican (12%) candidates. Nearly a third of independents were undecided at 30%.
The last generic congressional ballot poll from Rasmussen Reports on December 1 found Republicans edging in front of Democrats 44% to 37%.
For now, the leaders of the Tea Party Patriots want to remain a movement, not a third party. That's what Jenny Beth Martin, a national coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots, told us last week. 2010 mid term elections could be very interesting if coalitions develop such as the independents, Tea Party, and Republicans or any two combinations of these three. It would mean the Democrats in the House could be in for a rough time. However, I don't know that independents and Republicans are as unified as the Tea Partiers over issues
#1
The latest numbers on health care reform shows that public opposition remains stable. Just 41% favor the plan proposed by President Obama and Congressional Democrats. Just 23% are strongly in favor of it.
Ah, yes, but it's the important 23%!
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/08/2009 5:44 Comments ||
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23% of the men who work hard will eat better than the 41% who sit around and goof off.
And one man with a gun can tell 50 men with shovels to dig harder. Soda Jerks with good leadership can beat the whole NAZI army.
#4
Tea Party outpolls everyone because it is comprised of members of both parties that are pissed off at everyone.
The Republicans need to wake up and realize that people aren't only pissed at Democrats, they are pissed off and the ENTIRE GOVERNMENT AND BOTH PARTIES.
#7
Tea Parties != Republicans. Their appeal is much broader than that. Sadly for the Republicans, the Tea Party issues used to be theirs too. Having moved away from their core beliefs, Republicans are out of power and out of favor. Americans, on the other hand, continue to support the traditional message which the Tea Partiers picked up after the Republicans dropped it.
#8
I went to a tea party in Estes Park Co. Didn't know what to expect except rain. Some retired cop gave a rousing speech about the constitution, personel responsability, stupid spending, high taxes, and corruption in politics. So yea, I guess I could be a tea party person.
#9
I suppose unless the Republicans manage to produce a balanced budget in spite of their minority status in Congress they're finished....
I suspect that treating the R's and D's as equal when they aren't, in spite of the R's not being perfect, is a recipie for eternal trillion dollar deficits and the hyperinflation hitting inside a couple years.
#11
I suspect that treating the R's and D's as equal when they aren't...
When professionals of both parties treat the people as small children, those who should be seen but not heard, just what are the differences really? When both professional organizations believe they know better than the little people at the same time just demand more and more of the productivity of the people's labor for their own, just what are the differences? There's something about just letting it all fail sooner rather than later to speed up the process of cleaning the foundation now and start from scratch.
#14
When professionals of both parties treat the people as small children, those who should be seen but not heard, just what are the differences really?
You can find jerks in both parties, but there seem to be _more_ of them in the democrat party than in the republican party.
To more fully quantify the difference...
1Q 2007 is when the Democrats took over Congress. Since then unemployment's gone from 4 1/2% to 10%. So I guess you could call the difference 5 1/2 %, so far.
Also, The EPA has on its own decided to implement some sort of CO2 regulations, whether Congress acts or not. This didn't happen during the previous administration. It might be a small difference to you, but it's a big one to me. It'll probably kick that 10% unemployment rate up another 8 or so percent, IF we're lucky. If we're unlucky, it'll be worse.
There are other metrics you could use to see the change between the parties; here's money supply:
Finally, we could look at deficits:
When both professional organizations believe they know better than the little people at the ame time just demand more and more of the productivity of the people's labor for their own, just what are the differences? There's something about just letting it all fail sooner rather than later to speed up the process of cleaning the foundation now and start from scratch.
Maybe you have the savings to put into hard assets and ride out the weimar-style hyperinflation collapse, but I don't and neither do most people.
If you don't see more than the proverbial dime's worth of difference from the above charts, you're straining at gnats and swallowing camels. Which is your opinion, but you're talking about destroying other people's livelihoods in the process, in the hopes that you'll be getting a system that's closer to your ideas of perfection... and you would be starting a process you can't control. After all, I missed the part in history class where the Germans got sick of the hyperinflation and elected chicago-school libertarians; in our dimension, at least, they eventally put the Nazis in power.
On a normal day, Majken Friss Jorgensen, managing director of Copenhagen's biggest limousine company, says her firm has twelve vehicles on the road. During the "summit to save the world", which opens here tomorrow, she will have 200. "We thought they were not going to have many cars, due to it being a climate convention," she says. "But it seems that somebody last week looked at the weather report."
Ms Jorgensen reckons that between her and her rivals the total number of limos in Copenhagen next week has already broken the 1,200 barrier. The French alone rang up on Thursday and ordered another 42. "We haven't got enough limos in the country to fulfil the demand," she says. "We're having to drive them in hundreds of miles from Germany and Sweden."
And the total number of electric cars or hybrids among that number? "Five," says Ms Jorgensen. "The government has some alternative fuel cars but the rest will be petrol or diesel. We don't have any hybrids in Denmark, unfortunately, due to the extreme taxes on those cars. It makes no sense at all, but it's very Danish."
The airport says it is expecting up to 140 extra private jets during the peak period alone, so far over its capacity that the planes will have to fly off to regional airports -- or to Sweden -- to park, returning to Copenhagen to pick up their VIP passengers.
As well 15,000 delegates and officials, 5,000 journalists and 98 world leaders, the Danish capital will be blessed by the presence of Leonardo DiCaprio, Daryl Hannah, Helena Christensen, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Prince Charles.
Denmark has taken delivery of its first-ever water-cannon -- one of the newspapers is running a competition to suggest names for it -- plus sweeping new police powers. The authorities have been proudly showing us their new temporary prison, 360 cages in a disused brewery, housing 4,000 detainees.
And this being Scandinavia, even the prostitutes are doing their bit for the planet. Outraged by a council postcard urging delegates to "be sustainable, don't buy sex," the local sex workers' union -- they have unions here -- has announced that all its 1,400 members will give free intercourse to anyone with a climate conference delegate's pass. The term "carbon dating" just took on an entirely new meaning.
At least the sex will be C02-neutral. According to the organisers, the eleven-day conference, including the participants' travel, will create a total of 41,000 tonnes of "carbon dioxide equivalent", equal to the amount produced over the same period by a city the size of Middlesbrough.
The temptation, then, is to dismiss the whole thing as a ridiculous circus. That's a temptation?
Many of the participants do not really need to be here. And far from "saving the world," the world's leaders have already agreed that this conference will not produce any kind of binding deal, merely an interim statement of intent.
Instead of swift and modest reductions in carbon -- say, two per cent a year, starting next year -- for which they could possibly be held accountable, the politicians will bandy around grandiose targets of 80-per-cent-plus by 2050, by which time few of the leaders at Copenhagen will even be alive, let alone still in office. Politicians. Says it all. What happened to leaders?
Even if they had agreed anything binding, past experience suggests that the participants would not, in fact, feel bound by it. Most countries -- Britain excepted -- are on course to break the modest pledges they made at the last major climate summit, in Kyoto.
And as the delegates meet, they do so under a shadow. For the first time, not just the methods but the entire purpose of the climate change agenda is being questioned. Leaked emails showing key scientists conspiring to fix data that undermined their case have boosted the sceptic lobby. Australia has voted down climate change laws. Last week's unusually strident attack by the Energy Secretary, Ed Miliband, on climate change "saboteurs" reflected real fear in government that momentum is slipping away from the cause. And more government control. And taxes.
In Copenhagen there was a humbler note among some delegates. "If we fail, one reason could be our overconfidence," said Simron Jit Singh, of the Institute of Social Ecology. "Because we are here, talking in a group of people who probably agree with each other, we can be blinded to the challenges of the other side. We feel that we are the good guys, the selfless saviours, and they are the bad guys."
As Mr Singh suggests, the interesting question is perhaps not whether the climate changers have got the science right -- they probably have -- but whether they have got the pitch right. Some campaigners' apocalyptic predictions and religious righteousness -- funeral ceremonies for economic growth and the like -- can be alienating, and may help explain why the wider public does not seem to share the urgency felt by those in Copenhagen this week.
In a rather perceptive recent comment, Mr Miliband said it was vital to give people a positive vision of a low-carbon future. "If Martin Luther King had come along and said 'I have a nightmare,' people would not have followed him," he said.
Over the next two weeks, that positive vision may come not from the overheated rhetoric in the conference centre, but from Copenhagen itself. Limos apart, it is a city filled entirely with bicycles, stuffed with retrofitted, energy-efficient old buildings, and seems to embody the civilised pleasures of low-carbon living without any of the puritanism so beloved of British greens.
The US, which rejected Kyoto, is on board now, albeit too tentatively for most delegates. President Obama's decision to stay later in Copenhagen may signal some sort of agreement between America and China: a necessity for any real global action, and something that could be presented as a "victory" for the talks. The One badly needs a victory.
The hot air this week will be massive, the whole proceedings eminently mockable, but it would be far too early to write off this conference as a failure.
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/08/2009 06:03 ||
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"but it would be far too early to write off this conference as a failure."
Define failure. I think that the fact the conference is taking place at all represents a failure. See Jerry Pournelle's book 'Fallen Angels'. Eco-zealots; so 'well-intentioned', so grindingly fascist.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
12/08/2009 6:39 Comments ||
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Hasn't everyone heard? Eco-zealotry is the new socialism. Product packaging and the add campaign are everything.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Not long ago, Baltimore's tourism bureau invited public relations guru Richard Laermer to town for a pep talk. "I said 'good job,' " recalls Laermer, who was impressed with the group's effort to let the world know Baltimore had changed and that it was time to "Get in on it."
