An Oregon soldier whose case has caused a stir in anti-war groups nationwide has been sentenced to six months in jail, a loss of pay, a reduction of rank and a bad-conduct discharge for being absent without leave.
Pfc. James Burmeister, who was born in Portland and raised in the Eugene area, received the sentence Wednesday from a military judge at a court martial held at Fort Knox, Ky. Burmeister agreed to plead guilty to the charge in exchange for an agreement by military prosecutors not to seek more serious charges.
Anti-war activists from filmmaker Michael Moore to groups such as Veterans for Peace have called publicly for Burmeister to be released, arguing that he did the honorable thing by refusing to carry out unethical orders.
But Army Capt. Christopher Cross, a military prosecutor, told the Louisville Courier-Journal that "soldiers considering going AWOL... must know there are consequences for abandoning their comrades."
Burmeister said he left the Army without permission because he had become disturbed by a tactic known as "small kill teams," in which soldiers would plant U.S. government equipment in parts of Iraq in the hopes that insurgents would come to claim it. Army snipers would then have an opportunity to shoot the Iraqis before they could make off with anything.
Burmeister said he complained to superior officers that the snipers couldn't know for sure whether the people they shot were actually insurgents, or presented any threat to U.S. forces.
Eventually, the soldier from Cheshire, Ore., was injured by a roadside bomb and sent to Germany to recuperate. While there, he left his unit and went to Canada, where he campaigned against the use of "small kill teams."
Worth a look just for the mugshots.
WAYNESBORO Two armed robbers were beaten by a mob early Tuesday morning at the Mountain View Apartments after they broke into a womans residence for the second time in less than two hours, Waynesboro police said. Michael Seifert, 19, of Waynesboro, and Blake M. Via, 18, of Stuarts Draft, are each charged with armed robbery, abduction, malicious wounding and breaking and entering.
Police spokesman Sgt. Kelly Walker said authorities received an initial call at 3:11 a.m. from an 18-year-old woman who reported two unknown men had kicked in a door and entered her apartment. As the woman peeked around the corner, the men saw her and fled, driving away in a white car. Walker said police went to the apartment and took a report. About one hour and fifteen minutes later, police received a second call from the woman stating the two men had returned, this time armed with a long gun and two handguns that later were determined to be BB guns.
Walker said the men forced the woman into a back bedroom, where she was shot in the leg. The assailants then ordered the woman out of the apartment. Walker said after the woman called 911 again, she rounded up a group of four men from nearby apartments and the fracas was on." "Fracas"? From the looks of these two, it oughta be "major ass kicking".
When police arrived at the apartment complex, which sits across from Kate Collins Middle School, Via broke free from the mob but police tracked him down after a brief foot chase. We found the other one lying on the landing of the steps to the apartment, Walker said. Walker said the two robbers were carrying a computer and a Playstation 3 when ambushed. Both pieces of equipment, valued at about $1,400, were damaged during the ensuing melee.
Police also found suspected crack cocaine and powder cocaine on the men, Walker said. Drug charges against the pair are pending forensic testing.
Both suspects were treated at Augusta Medical Center in Fishersville for minor injuries and released. They are being held at Middle River Regional Jail in Verona without bond. ...and where they're now considered the new prom queens.
""Violent crime in the city of Chicago is out of control," Blagojevich said at the bill signing ceremony. "I'm offering resources of the state to the city to work in a constructive way with Mayor Daley to do everything we can possibly do to help stop this violence," said the governor."
Hey, I know! Maybe they can, y'know, outlaw guns or something....
#1
You can declare a state of emergency. My father was a policeman in CA when the earthquake hit the Bay Area in 89. They declared a state of emergency then, he said you don't have to file any reports, just get the shotgun out and start lighting em up.
That would prolly quiet things down in Chi-town fairly quick.
Thomas Hickman drove through New Mexico, police say, until his Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo ran out of gas. Then the 55-year-old North Richland Hills man walked into a field, tied helium balloons to a gun, covered his mouth with duct tape, and shot himself in the back of the head, according to New Mexico State Police.
That determination is a far leap from what authorities first suspected when Mr. Hickman's body was discovered March 15 near Santa Rosa, N.M., about 100 miles east of Albuquerque. Authorities initially thought the Red Lobster executive had been kidnapped and slain.
But investigators came to the conclusion that Mr. Hickman committed suicide. The first clue was the bundle of white helium balloons, with the gun still attached, found snagged on bushes and cactus near Mr. Hickman's body.
The grip of the Smith & Wesson Airweight had been removed and the trigger guard ground down, said Lt. Rick Anglada of New Mexico State Police. "He took as much weight off as he could to make it light as possible," Lt. Anglada said. The plan apparently was to have the gun float far away after being fired, but that didn't happen.
The gun and balloons led police from that field back to Mr. Hickman's house in North Richland Hills. "This was apparently an elaborate attempt to make it look like he was murdered," Lt. Anglada said. "Investigators were able to show that he purchased the balloons and purchased the gun. We also found shavings from the gun in his garage."
Partway through the investigation, one of the investigators recalled seeing a television show in which balloons were used in a suicide. The investigator obtained a copy of an October 2003 episode of the television drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and noticed that there were several similarities between that show and Mr. Hickman's case. But Lt. Anglada said New Mexico authorities are not sure if Mr. Hickman ever saw the program.
Detectives would not speculate about the motive for his suicide, the lieutenant said.
However, the investigation showed that at the time of his death, Mr. Hickman's life was in turmoil. Lisa Hickman, his wife of 29 years, was ill, and he had been caring for her for some time. Mr. Hickman had also recently lost some money in the stock market, Lt. Anglada said.
Mrs. Hickman could not be reached for comment Tuesday. But in March, she described her husband as a generous Christian man who "did not preach the word of God, but he walked the walk. He lived it."
The couple moved to Texas from Florida in 2003 and had one son.
Mr. Hickman worked for Red Lobster for 32 years and oversaw restaurants in the chain from North Richland Hills to West Texas. He started as a manager trainee, company officials said. In 1977, Mr. Hickman was promoted to general manager and headed operations at restaurants in Wisconsin, Illinois, North Carolina and Florida. He became director of operations in 2003 when he took over restaurants in parts of Texas. As the West Texas director of operations for Red Lobster, Mr. Hickman regularly traveled through the region where he died. He was last seen at a meeting in Abilene on March 13. The next day, he missed a meeting in Lubbock. On March 15, two motorists discovered his body in the field.
#1
Perhaps there is a difference in life insurence payouts between sucide and any other death. He couldn't cope with stress but wanted his wife to be finacially well provided for. That would make the bowl of nuts picture the only nuts in this case. Dang! I must be old, but early in the morning that nut bowl sure looks like eye candy to me.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
07/17/2008 8:33 Comments ||
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#2
I feel for the guy. When you 45 or 50 you are forced to accept that you are the man you are. NASA launches missions and the Rolling Stones go on tour and nobody calls you to join. If you aren't happy with where your life ended up, another 10 - 20 years dragging yourself to retirement looks bleak. I'm surprised that it doesn't happen more often.
Posted by: Formerly Dan ||
07/17/2008 13:26 Comments ||
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#3
The quote you're looking for is, "There comes a time when you look into the mirror, and you realize that what you see is all that you will ever be. Then you accept it, or you kill yourself. Or you stop looking into mirrors."
Posted by: bruce ||
07/17/2008 17:42 Comments ||
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#4
It helps immensely if you actually do the time in your youth to figure out who you are, what's it all about, and what are you going to do with your life rather than partying and waiting to 40+ and discovering its not what you were looking for or expecting out of life. A lot of 'kids' are coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan far wiser about their lives than most people 20+ years older who've avoided facing their mortality.
#1
Government wants to manage health care, when they can't even manage shiters.
Posted by: From Dallas ||
07/17/2008 17:59 Comments ||
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#2
Im not going to lie: I used to smoke crack in there, said one homeless woman, Veronyka Cordner, nodding toward the toilet behind Pike Place Market. But I wont even go inside that thing now. Its disgusting.
California voters will have the chance to vote in November on whether to end gay marriage after the state's top court declined on Wednesday to remove an initiative on the issue from the ballot.
California, the U.S.'s most populous state, started marrying same-sex couples a month ago after the California Supreme Court ruled that limiting marriage to a man and a woman violated the state's constitution.
Opponents of gay marriage then placed an initiative to amend the constitution on the November ballot. "Proposition 8" declares that marriage will be limited to one man with one woman.
In the latest phase of a bitter legal battle, supporters of homosexual marriage asked the California Supreme Court to remove the issue from the ballot. The court unanimously denied the petition without detailed comment.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/17/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
They say
Teh Gay
Puts California in play
In 2008
#2
Gays had the support of most with the just Civil Unions. Pushing marriage down the public's throat via judicial fiat was too much. This will pass, and some of the black-robed f*ckers will not get re-elected. Watch the wailing and gnashing of teeth in November.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/17/2008 8:03 Comments ||
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#3
The problem is that the judges previously usurped the power of the people and thier legislators by arrogating to themselves the making of a law, essentially fabricating one that suited their liberal politics, not the constitution and laws of the state.
So the people are exerting their rights by makign a definite statement to the courts to stay the hell out of the way on this, by going over their heads in the only way possible: amending their constitution.
Had the judge left things alone, the civil unions would have been in place and this constitutional issue would not have had the success it appears to be having.
The funny thing is, in terms of legalities contract law, no laws are needed to achive the effects of "marraige" for any couple that wish to do so - excpeting possibly on taxes. Simply draw up the contract language in the civil law and both sign it.
The issue is that marriage has special connotations, and the homosexual activists wanted to force others to accept them on that basis as well, which is NOT possible, and is arguably an abuse of the law.
The ultimate solution will be to remove marriage from the laws completely, and make it a simple legal tax status issue (i.e. you get a tax break if your relationship is beneficial to society), with the rest covered by civil laws (health care eligibility, etc).
That leaves marriage to the Churches, which is where it belongs as an institution and moral issue. Seperation of Church and State should run both ways if people want to get picky about it.
But the homosexual activists and tier political cronies tried to bypas the lawmakers and the people they represent, and have created this backlash by their bypassing democracy. And thus they stand to lose everything they were trying for because they were anti-demoicratic and pro-judicial activist, thumbing their nose at representative government and constitutional law, to force their viewpoint on the majority, willing or unwilling. People have had enough of that crap.
#4
No problem, OS. The judges will just declare the constitutional amendment unconstitutional, under some legal principle they will pull out of their ass.
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
07/17/2008 11:02 Comments ||
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#5
The ultimate solution will be to remove marriage from the laws completely, and make it a simple legal tax status issue (i.e. you get a tax break if your relationship is beneficial to society), with the rest covered by civil laws (health care eligibility, etc).
Yeah. Focus the tax breaks on children [future tax revenue investments].
The radical gays really passed up a big opportunity. If you follow the InstaProf's wife's blog, you'd know how much 'traditional' marriage is in trouble because of legal inequities. She's been covering the evolution of the marriage boycott development for a while. The missed opportunity is that the gay community could have developed a model civil contract that met their need for ratification but was good enough for straight community to adopt as an alternative to the existing institution as well.
As I've posted, in the end, it wasn't about fair, or equal, or justice, it was about POWER.
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.
Thomas Hickman drove through New Mexico, police say, until his Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo ran out of gas. Then the 55-year-old North Richland Hills man walked into a field, tied helium balloons to a gun, covered his mouth with duct tape, and shot himself in the back of the head, according to New Mexico State Police.
California voters will have the chance to vote in November on whether to end gay marriage after the state's top court declined on Wednesday to remove an initiative on the issue from the ballot.
