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SuperFemme · 09-08-2010, 06:28 PM

Where's the outrage over immigrant slayings in Mexico?

In the United States, their presumed destination, even immigrant rights groups have been oddly silent over the Aug. 23 massacre of 72 in a border state.

Hector Tobar
September 9, 2010

Six dozen defenseless men, women and teenagers were pushed up against a wall. A squad of professional killers opened fire on them with automatic weapons and then finished each victim off with a point-blank shot to the head.

They dreamed of joining us, here in this country of opportunity. Instead, their corpses, including that of a pregnant woman, were left to bloat in the open air, to be discovered later and photographed in a sickening heap.

For those of us who remember the tragedy of Latin America's recent past, seeing the images of last month's massacre of 72 immigrants in northern Mexico is like reentering an old and very familiar nightmare.

Not long ago, dictators ruled most of Latin America. They had large groups of people kidnapped, tortured and executed in secret. Their crimes against humanity hit nearly every corner of the region, from cosmopolitan Buenos Aires to provincial Guatemala City.

But this new act of mass murder was not the work of a military junta run by generals. It didn't take place in a tiny banana republic without a judicial system worthy of the name.

It happened in the proud, multiparty democracy called Mexico, a country with ample social freedoms, including a vibrant free press. And it wasn't an isolated occurrence. A report last year by Mexico's human rights ombudsman said at least 400 mass kidnappings are reported in Mexico every year, many involving the rape and murder of hostages.

Modern death squads are operating freely in northern Mexico, extorting those who wish to come here, where relatives and jobs await. The kidnappings and murders of immigrants carried out by these groups are a stain on Mexican democracy, and many commentators there recognize this.

"The abuse against migrants is an everyday embarrassment we don't want to talk about because it would rob us of all our moral authority before our neighbors to the north," columnist Alfonso Zarate wrote in response to the massacre in the newspaper El Universal.

"Mexico demands respect for the human rights of 'illegal' workers in the U.S.," Zarate continued, " … but is now itself under the microscope of the international community, which is rightly scandalized and indignant."

The victims found near San Fernando, Tamaulipas, were killed, according to media reports, after their smugglers-turned-captors demanded more money from the migrants' families. Some were pressured to work as drug couriers but refused.

As with the many killings of police officers and officials in Mexico, the San Fernando massacre was an act of psychological warfare. Such extreme violence is meant to spread fear and thus make it easier for the killers to impose their will on the living.

If we stay silent about their crime, if we treat it as just another episode in Mexico's unwinnable drug wars, then we'll allows the killers to win.

And yet, here in the United States, the expressions of outrage from the immigrant rights movement have been muted. You could say they are a mere whisper compared with the very loud campaign against Arizona's SB 1070, a law whose most controversial provisions will probably never go into effect.

We should see the killings as a blunt reminder of the reasons why people so desperately want to come here. And we should speak of San Fernando with the same horror as we do El Mozote and the Naval Mechanics School of Buenos Aires — sites of the most heinous crimes committed by the militaries of El Salvador and Argentina in the 1970s and '80s.

It's not just the killers who deserve our moral outrage, it's the failed judicial systems that allow them to thrive without fear of punishment.

In Latin America, the massacre has already provoked much reflection and protest. The government of Honduras, home to the largest number of its victims, announced it would take new steps to try to discourage illegal immigration to the U.S.

In Mexico, the northern city of Saltillo witnessed a rare event just days after the Aug. 23 massacre: a march by 200 undocumented immigrants, carrying the flags of El Salvador, Guatemala and other Central American countries.

"Our countries deny us the opportunity for economic development," the demonstrators said in a written statement, after marching through the city with covered faces. "But Mexico denies us the opportunity to live."

To stop SB 1070, we've seen Angelenos drive across the desert to Phoenix to march, to denounce both the governor of Arizona and the mad sheriff of Maricopa County, Joe Arpaio.

But I've yet to hear of any rallies at the Mexican consulate or anywhere else here in Los Angeles, demanding that the Mexican government prosecute those guilty of so many migrant killings and disappearances.

Most of the country's leading immigrant rights groups haven't even bothered to issue a news release.

That doesn't surprise me. Generally speaking, the U.S. immigrant rights movement doesn't have much to say about the social and political conditions that lead so many to leave their native countries and place themselves at the mercy of an increasingly violent smuggling industry.

This is wrong. We can't turn a blind eye to the deeper, seemingly intractable injustices that are the obvious root cause of the problem.

Simply put: It's wrong that people have to undertake the journey to the U.S. in the first place. People shouldn't have to leave the land of their ancestors, their extended families, their barrios and their farms.

They leave because the promise of democracy in Mexico and Central America remains unfulfilled.

The Tamaulipas murders are really just the most sickening expression of a vast system of inequality and corruption that still defines life for millions of people.

U.S. immigration reform, unfortunately, won't do anything to strengthen the rule of law in those countries that supply the greatest number of migrants. It won't stop the power of the criminal groups that infiltrate government and intimidate officials, not just in certain regions of Mexico but in much of Central America.

There's a movement for democracy and government accountability in those places. But it's often under threat.

One of the last interviews I did in Latin America before ending my stint as a foreign correspondent in 2008 was with the Guatemalan environmental rights attorney Yuri Melini, who was then denouncing the organized-crime groups operating in the Peten jungle.

A few months later, he was shot several times by a gunman. Miraculously, he survived — although, as with so many other notorious crimes in Guatemala, no one has been prosecuted.

"I'm like a tree," Melini told my colleague Ken Ellingwood a year later. "They chopped me down, but I'm bouncing back again."

A few loud but influential U.S. voices of protest help keep people like Melini alive and working in their native countries. But many more of us need to stand with those who work to keep the promise of democracy and justice alive in northern Mexico, Guatemala and other places.

It matters not just to them but to us.

And now, as in the age of the dictators, it's a matter of life and death.

hector.tobar@latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...3,print.column

Greyson · 09-08-2010, 07:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SuperFemme

Where's the outrage over immigrant slayings in Mexico?

In the United States, their presumed destination, even immigrant rights groups have been oddly silent over the Aug. 23 massacre of 72 in a border state.

Hector Tobar
September 9, 2010

Six dozen defenseless men, women and teenagers were pushed up against a wall. A squad of professional killers opened fire on them with automatic weapons and then finished each victim off with a point-blank shot to the head.

They dreamed of joining us, here in this country of opportunity. Instead, their corpses, including that of a pregnant woman, were left to bloat in the open air, to be discovered later and photographed in a sickening heap.

For those of us who remember the tragedy of Latin America's recent past, seeing the images of last month's massacre of 72 immigrants in northern Mexico is like reentering an old and very familiar nightmare.

Not long ago, dictators ruled most of Latin America. They had large groups of people kidnapped, tortured and executed in secret. Their crimes against humanity hit nearly every corner of the region, from cosmopolitan Buenos Aires to provincial Guatemala City.

But this new act of mass murder was not the work of a military junta run by generals. It didn't take place in a tiny banana republic without a judicial system worthy of the name.

It happened in the proud, multiparty democracy called Mexico, a country with ample social freedoms, including a vibrant free press. And it wasn't an isolated occurrence. A report last year by Mexico's human rights ombudsman said at least 400 mass kidnappings are reported in Mexico every year, many involving the rape and murder of hostages.

Modern death squads are operating freely in northern Mexico, extorting those who wish to come here, where relatives and jobs await. The kidnappings and murders of immigrants carried out by these groups are a stain on Mexican democracy, and many commentators there recognize this.

"The abuse against migrants is an everyday embarrassment we don't want to talk about because it would rob us of all our moral authority before our neighbors to the north," columnist Alfonso Zarate wrote in response to the massacre in the newspaper El Universal.

"Mexico demands respect for the human rights of 'illegal' workers in the U.S.," Zarate continued, " … but is now itself under the microscope of the international community, which is rightly scandalized and indignant."

The victims found near San Fernando, Tamaulipas, were killed, according to media reports, after their smugglers-turned-captors demanded more money from the migrants' families. Some were pressured to work as drug couriers but refused.

As with the many killings of police officers and officials in Mexico, the San Fernando massacre was an act of psychological warfare. Such extreme violence is meant to spread fear and thus make it easier for the killers to impose their will on the living.

If we stay silent about their crime, if we treat it as just another episode in Mexico's unwinnable drug wars, then we'll allows the killers to win.

And yet, here in the United States, the expressions of outrage from the immigrant rights movement have been muted. You could say they are a mere whisper compared with the very loud campaign against Arizona's SB 1070, a law whose most controversial provisions will probably never go into effect.

We should see the killings as a blunt reminder of the reasons why people so desperately want to come here. And we should speak of San Fernando with the same horror as we do El Mozote and the Naval Mechanics School of Buenos Aires — sites of the most heinous crimes committed by the militaries of El Salvador and Argentina in the 1970s and '80s.

It's not just the killers who deserve our moral outrage, it's the failed judicial systems that allow them to thrive without fear of punishment.

In Latin America, the massacre has already provoked much reflection and protest. The government of Honduras, home to the largest number of its victims, announced it would take new steps to try to discourage illegal immigration to the U.S.

In Mexico, the northern city of Saltillo witnessed a rare event just days after the Aug. 23 massacre: a march by 200 undocumented immigrants, carrying the flags of El Salvador, Guatemala and other Central American countries.

"Our countries deny us the opportunity for economic development," the demonstrators said in a written statement, after marching through the city with covered faces. "But Mexico denies us the opportunity to live."

To stop SB 1070, we've seen Angelenos drive across the desert to Phoenix to march, to denounce both the governor of Arizona and the mad sheriff of Maricopa County, Joe Arpaio.

But I've yet to hear of any rallies at the Mexican consulate or anywhere else here in Los Angeles, demanding that the Mexican government prosecute those guilty of so many migrant killings and disappearances.

Most of the country's leading immigrant rights groups haven't even bothered to issue a news release.

That doesn't surprise me. Generally speaking, the U.S. immigrant rights movement doesn't have much to say about the social and political conditions that lead so many to leave their native countries and place themselves at the mercy of an increasingly violent smuggling industry.

This is wrong. We can't turn a blind eye to the deeper, seemingly intractable injustices that are the obvious root cause of the problem.

Simply put: It's wrong that people have to undertake the journey to the U.S. in the first place. People shouldn't have to leave the land of their ancestors, their extended families, their barrios and their farms.

They leave because the promise of democracy in Mexico and Central America remains unfulfilled.

The Tamaulipas murders are really just the most sickening expression of a vast system of inequality and corruption that still defines life for millions of people.

U.S. immigration reform, unfortunately, won't do anything to strengthen the rule of law in those countries that supply the greatest number of migrants. It won't stop the power of the criminal groups that infiltrate government and intimidate officials, not just in certain regions of Mexico but in much of Central America.

There's a movement for democracy and government accountability in those places. But it's often under threat.

One of the last interviews I did in Latin America before ending my stint as a foreign correspondent in 2008 was with the Guatemalan environmental rights attorney Yuri Melini, who was then denouncing the organized-crime groups operating in the Peten jungle.

A few months later, he was shot several times by a gunman. Miraculously, he survived — although, as with so many other notorious crimes in Guatemala, no one has been prosecuted.

"I'm like a tree," Melini told my colleague Ken Ellingwood a year later. "They chopped me down, but I'm bouncing back again."

A few loud but influential U.S. voices of protest help keep people like Melini alive and working in their native countries. But many more of us need to stand with those who work to keep the promise of democracy and justice alive in northern Mexico, Guatemala and other places.

It matters not just to them but to us.

And now, as in the age of the dictators, it's a matter of life and death.hector.tobar@latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...3,print.column

Yes, I am very disturbed with the entire situation in Mexico and other parts of the Western Hemisphere. There is no easy answer. IMO, there is racism, greed, organized, institutional corruption, illegal Drug Use, in other words many different causes. This did not happen over night. It has been going on for at least a couple of generations but perhaps because of technology "news," information is much harder to keep from the masses.

I have highlighted much of the article. I think this is a balanced piece of journalism. It clearly names who and what the writer believes to be some of the causes of this. All of us have contributed to this. Choices we have made via our consumerism, turning a blind eye to blatant wrong doing and I could go on and on.

I have been struggling with questions about all of this for most of my lifetime. I do not think immigration reform will fix all of it. This is a situation that is not to be solved by the USA alone. It will take at a minimum the Western Hemisphere and for the Catholic Church to stop demonizing those countries that do not blindly follow the Church's "intervention."

AtLast · 09-08-2010, 07:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SuperFemme

Where's the outrage over immigrant slayings in Mexico?

In the United States, their presumed destination, even immigrant rights groups have been oddly silent over the Aug. 23 massacre of 72 in a border state.

Hector Tobar
September 9, 2010

Six dozen defenseless men, women and teenagers were pushed up against a wall. A squad of professional killers opened fire on them with automatic weapons and then finished each victim off with a point-blank shot to the head.

They dreamed of joining us, here in this country of opportunity. Instead, their corpses, including that of a pregnant woman, were left to bloat in the open air, to be discovered later and photographed in a sickening heap.

For those of us who remember the tragedy of Latin America's recent past, seeing the images of last month's massacre of 72 immigrants in northern Mexico is like reentering an old and very familiar nightmare.

Not long ago, dictators ruled most of Latin America. They had large groups of people kidnapped, tortured and executed in secret. Their crimes against humanity hit nearly every corner of the region, from cosmopolitan Buenos Aires to provincial Guatemala City.

But this new act of mass murder was not the work of a military junta run by generals. It didn't take place in a tiny banana republic without a judicial system worthy of the name.

It happened in the proud, multiparty democracy called Mexico, a country with ample social freedoms, including a vibrant free press. And it wasn't an isolated occurrence. A report last year by Mexico's human rights ombudsman said at least 400 mass kidnappings are reported in Mexico every year, many involving the rape and murder of hostages.

Modern death squads are operating freely in northern Mexico, extorting those who wish to come here, where relatives and jobs await. The kidnappings and murders of immigrants carried out by these groups are a stain on Mexican democracy, and many commentators there recognize this.

"The abuse against migrants is an everyday embarrassment we don't want to talk about because it would rob us of all our moral authority before our neighbors to the north," columnist Alfonso Zarate wrote in response to the massacre in the newspaper El Universal.

"Mexico demands respect for the human rights of 'illegal' workers in the U.S.," Zarate continued, " … but is now itself under the microscope of the international community, which is rightly scandalized and indignant."

The victims found near San Fernando, Tamaulipas, were killed, according to media reports, after their smugglers-turned-captors demanded more money from the migrants' families. Some were pressured to work as drug couriers but refused.

As with the many killings of police officers and officials in Mexico, the San Fernando massacre was an act of psychological warfare. Such extreme violence is meant to spread fear and thus make it easier for the killers to impose their will on the living.

If we stay silent about their crime, if we treat it as just another episode in Mexico's unwinnable drug wars, then we'll allows the killers to win.

And yet, here in the United States, the expressions of outrage from the immigrant rights movement have been muted. You could say they are a mere whisper compared with the very loud campaign against Arizona's SB 1070, a law whose most controversial provisions will probably never go into effect.

We should see the killings as a blunt reminder of the reasons why people so desperately want to come here. And we should speak of San Fernando with the same horror as we do El Mozote and the Naval Mechanics School of Buenos Aires — sites of the most heinous crimes committed by the militaries of El Salvador and Argentina in the 1970s and '80s.

It's not just the killers who deserve our moral outrage, it's the failed judicial systems that allow them to thrive without fear of punishment.

In Latin America, the massacre has already provoked much reflection and protest. The government of Honduras, home to the largest number of its victims, announced it would take new steps to try to discourage illegal immigration to the U.S.

In Mexico, the northern city of Saltillo witnessed a rare event just days after the Aug. 23 massacre: a march by 200 undocumented immigrants, carrying the flags of El Salvador, Guatemala and other Central American countries.

"Our countries deny us the opportunity for economic development," the demonstrators said in a written statement, after marching through the city with covered faces. "But Mexico denies us the opportunity to live."

To stop SB 1070, we've seen Angelenos drive across the desert to Phoenix to march, to denounce both the governor of Arizona and the mad sheriff of Maricopa County, Joe Arpaio.

But I've yet to hear of any rallies at the Mexican consulate or anywhere else here in Los Angeles, demanding that the Mexican government prosecute those guilty of so many migrant killings and disappearances.

Most of the country's leading immigrant rights groups haven't even bothered to issue a news release.

That doesn't surprise me. Generally speaking, the U.S. immigrant rights movement doesn't have much to say about the social and political conditions that lead so many to leave their native countries and place themselves at the mercy of an increasingly violent smuggling industry.

This is wrong. We can't turn a blind eye to the deeper, seemingly intractable injustices that are the obvious root cause of the problem.

Simply put: It's wrong that people have to undertake the journey to the U.S. in the first place. People shouldn't have to leave the land of their ancestors, their extended families, their barrios and their farms.

They leave because the promise of democracy in Mexico and Central America remains unfulfilled.

The Tamaulipas murders are really just the most sickening expression of a vast system of inequality and corruption that still defines life for millions of people.

U.S. immigration reform, unfortunately, won't do anything to strengthen the rule of law in those countries that supply the greatest number of migrants. It won't stop the power of the criminal groups that infiltrate government and intimidate officials, not just in certain regions of Mexico but in much of Central America.

There's a movement for democracy and government accountability in those places. But it's often under threat.

One of the last interviews I did in Latin America before ending my stint as a foreign correspondent in 2008 was with the Guatemalan environmental rights attorney Yuri Melini, who was then denouncing the organized-crime groups operating in the Peten jungle.

A few months later, he was shot several times by a gunman. Miraculously, he survived — although, as with so many other notorious crimes in Guatemala, no one has been prosecuted.

"I'm like a tree," Melini told my colleague Ken Ellingwood a year later. "They chopped me down, but I'm bouncing back again."

A few loud but influential U.S. voices of protest help keep people like Melini alive and working in their native countries. But many more of us need to stand with those who work to keep the promise of democracy and justice alive in northern Mexico, Guatemala and other places.

It matters not just to them but to us.

And now, as in the age of the dictators, it's a matter of life and death.

hector.tobar@latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...3,print.column

One doesn't have to live in a border state to understand that Mexico is an important ally to the US, ALL of the US! Ferfucksakes, you would even think the capitalist right wingers would look at the trade situation between us and get with supporting what is needed for human rights! How long can people turn their heads? Makes me crazy.

Greyson · 09-09-2010, 10:09 AM

Yesterday I posted an article about the woman that had been sentenced to "Punishment of Death by Stoning." Today, I am posting a story about the same "system" Iran, announcing the release of an American hostage in recognition of the end of Ramadan. This could be a sign of human compassion and/or a sign of propaganda. Interesting, two very recent acts of showing some compassion by the very same people/system that some are quick to fear and judge harshly. No, I am not naieve nor stupid. But I do know that things usually are much more layered with shared blame and responsibility to go around for all.
______________________________________________

Iran to release 1 of 3 jailed Americans

Associated Press

Posted: 09/09/2010 08:37:26 AM PDT
Updated: 09/09/2010 08:46:39 AM PDT

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran announced today that one of the three Americans jailed for more than a year will be released Saturday to mark the end of Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Reporters were told by text message from the Culture Ministry to come to the same hotel where the Americans' parents were allowed to meet them recently to witness the release.

"Offering congratulations on Eid al-Fitr," the message said referring to the holiday marking the end of the fasting month. "The release of one of the detained Americans will be at Saturday, 9 a.m. at the Estaghlal hotel."

It is common in the Islamic world to mark the Eid al-Fitr holiday by showing clemency and releasing prisoners.

Ali Reza Shiravi, the head of the foreign media office at the ministry confirmed that he had sent the message summoning reports to the hotel.

The high-rise Estaghlal hotel near Evin prison is where the three Americans' mothers were allowed to visit them in May in a highly publicized trip.

The detained Americans -- Sarah Shourd, 31; her boyfriend, Shane Bauer, 27; and their friend Josh Fattal, 27 -- have been held in Iran since July 2009, when they were arrested along the Iraqi border.

Iran has accused them of espionage; their families say that the three were hiking in Iraq's largely peaceful mountainous northern Kurdish region and that if they crossed the border, it was accidental.

Their detention has become entangled in the confrontation between the United States and Iran. Iranian leaders have repeatedly suggested a link between their jailing and that of a number of Iranians by the United States whose release Tehran demands.

Nora Shourd, the mother of Sarah Shourd, said this morning that the U.S.-based families of the hikers had seen the news reports out of Iran but had no idea if they were true or not.

"We don't know anything," Shourd told the AP. "We're trying like crazy to see what we can find out. I hope it's true -- that's all I can say for sure. But I don't know if it is."

Nora Shourd had the last contact with any of the three jailed Americans, when Sarah called her on Aug. 2 and the two spoke for three or four minutes.

http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_16031691

SuperFemme · 09-09-2010, 11:45 AM

Tempe man beaten to death after granddaughter's wedding

Friends and family continue to mourn a Tempe man who was beaten to death in Virginia earlier this week after he attended his granddaughter's wedding, police said.

Three teenagers attacked George Baker III, 81, on his walk to a restaurant following the wedding ceremony Sunday night.

"I will miss the phone calls the most," son Gregg Baker said at a press conference at his father's home on Wednesday.

Witnesses who heard and saw the attack from a nearby restaurant told police that three male teenagers beat Baker until he lay unconscious and then fled.

Baker sustained broken ribs and significant head injuries, police said. He was taken to a local hospital but died Monday morning.

"There was no motive," Lynchburg (Va.) Police Department Captain Todd Swisher said, "This should have been a joyful occasion but it has been marred by this tragedy."

Police said there were a few other teens walking with the suspects at the time of the attack. One of them told police that the suspects were trying to impress a girl they were with.

Two of the suspects are 16-years-old and one is 13. They were arrested on suspicion of murder, police said.

Baker was a widower who leaves behind three children. He had lived in the same Tempe home across from the Ken McDonald Golf Course since 1973. Baker even had his own chair at the course restaurant, the chef made him specialty meals to accommodate his celiac disease, his son said.

The younger Baker said it was hard to describe the emotions he went through on the day of both his daughter's wedding and his father's death.
He was informed by police that his father was critically injured as the wedding reception was coming to an end. As the newlyweds took off in their car, Gregg Baker's new son-in-law turned toward the hospital instead of the planed their honeymoon destination and said "family is important" before explaining Baker's condition to his new bride.

Baker was unresponsive at the scene and was put on life-support at the hospital, his son said. He stayed by his father's side until he died.

"I don't want retribution, I want redemption," Baker said of his father's killers. He added that the two 16- year-olds will be tried as adults.
Baker was a Christian man; his son said which was apparent by the bookmarked and clearly well-used Bible inscribed with his name which sat in his family room. His son said that Baker had previously spoken of looking forward to seeing his wife, who died of cancer six years ago.
He spoke of his father as "quick witted and mentally sharp."

Referring to a rocking chair and table filled with books as his father's "makeshift library." He said his father and sister would read novels and then switch with each other when they were finished.

A neighborhood child who had just heard of Baker's death stood with two of his friends outside of the home Wednesday and through tears and gasps for breath said, "He was my friend."

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/community/t...#ixzz0z3TdAc6F

SuperFemme · 09-09-2010, 11:57 AM

Fred Phelps' daughter: 'Westboro Church has already burned Qurans'

One of those angry at a Florida preacher's plans to mark Sept. 11 by setting fire to copies of the Quran is Shirley Phelps Roper, a leader of the Westboro Baptist Church.

While she joins Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Gen. David Petraeus, the White House, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and many more, Phelps-Roper, Fred Phelps' lawyer daughter, is hardly a voice for religious tolerance.
Her irritation Wednesday was not that the Rev. Terry Jones and his Dove World Outreach Center's planned bonfire would offend Muslims worldwide and probably increase the danger to American soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq.

It's that in 2008 she and her father's Topeka flock set fire to a Quran in plain view on a Washington, D.C., street and nobody seemed to care.
"We did it a long time before this guy," Phelps-Roper said by telephone from a street corner in downtown Chicago, scene of the latest Westboro picket — against Jews this time, not gays.

The difference could be that in 2008 many news media outlets had decided to ignore the group's routine of spewing hatred at funerals of fallen American soldiers.

So when Fred Phelps, calling Muhammad a "pedophilic gigolo," went online and invited people to attend the burning, most stayed away.

Because of the heightened media attention on the Florida demonstration, Christian Petersen of Blue Springs, a Marine veteran who helped train Iraqi security forces in 2009, speculated some Islamic extremists will seek "an eye for an eye" and retaliate. But U.S. troops probably won't change their activities.

"If an environment is hostile, one more piece of wood on the bonfire isn't going to make a difference," Petersen said.

"It's just like here in the United States. We watch the news and tend to generalize an entire culture based on the very worst elements," he said. But the Muslims he came to know "understood the difference between people in our country who are extreme in their views and those of us over there trying to help them."

To read the complete article, visit www.kansascity.com.

Nat · 09-09-2010, 04:12 PM

It's almost like the media is running the show, no?

waxnrope · 09-09-2010, 04:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nat

It's almost like the media is running the show, no?

Yes, and the next question is who owns the media and has the most to gain by running the shows, IMO.

The_Lady_Snow · 09-09-2010, 05:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nat

It's almost like the media is running the show, no?

The media feeds the masses, the more coverage and attention they get the happier they are.

Nat · 09-09-2010, 06:31 PM

US soldiers 'killed Afghan civilians for sport and collected fingers as trophies'

Soldiers face charges over secret 'kill team' which allegedly murdered at random and collected fingers as trophies of war

Andrew Holmes, Michael Wagnon, Jeremy Morlock and Adam Winfield are four of the five Stryker soldiers who face murder charges. Photograph: Public Domain

Twelve American soldiers face charges over a secret "kill team" that allegedly blew up and shot Afghan civilians at random and collected their fingers as trophies.

Five of the soldiers are charged with murdering three Afghan men who were allegedly killed for sport in separate attacks this year. Seven others are accused of covering up the killings and assaulting a recruit who exposed the murders when he reported other abuses, including members of the unit smoking hashish stolen from civilians.

In one of the most serious accusations of war crimes to emerge from the Afghan conflict, the killings are alleged to have been carried out by members of a Stryker infantry brigade based in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan.

According to investigators and legal documents, discussion of killing Afghan civilians began after the arrival of Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs at forward operating base Ramrod last November. Other soldiers told the army's criminal investigation command that Gibbs boasted of the things he got away with while serving in Iraq and said how easy it would be to "toss a grenade at someone and kill them".

One soldier said he believed Gibbs was "feeling out the platoon".

Investigators said Gibbs, 25, hatched a plan with another soldier, Jeremy Morlock, 22, and other members of the unit to form a "kill team". While on patrol over the following months they allegedly killed at least three Afghan civilians. According to the charge sheet, the first target was Gul Mudin, who was killed "by means of throwing a fragmentary grenade at him and shooting him with a rifle", when the patrol entered the village of La Mohammed Kalay in January.

Morlock and another soldier, Andrew Holmes, were on guard at the edge of a poppy field when Mudin emerged and stopped on the other side of a wall from the soldiers. Gibbs allegedly handed Morlock a grenade who armed it and dropped it over the wall next to the Afghan and dived for cover. Holmes, 19, then allegedly fired over the wall.

Later in the day, Morlock is alleged to have told Holmes that the killing was for fun and threatened him if he told anyone.

The second victim, Marach Agha, was shot and killed the following month. Gibbs is alleged to have shot him and placed a Kalashnikov next to the body to justify the killing. In May Mullah Adadhdad was killed after being shot and attacked with a grenade.

The Army Times reported that a least one of the soldiers collected the fingers of the victims as souvenirs and that some of them posed for photographs with the bodies.

Five soldiers – Gibbs, Morlock, Holmes, Michael Wagnon and Adam Winfield – are accused of murder and aggravated assault among other charges. All of the soldiers have denied the charges. They face the death penalty or life in prison if convicted.

The killings came to light in May after the army began investigating a brutal assault on a soldier who told superiors that members of his unit were smoking hashish. The Army Times reported that members of the unit regularly smoked the drug on duty and sometimes stole it from civilians.

The soldier, who was straight out of basic training and has not been named, said he witnessed the smoking of hashish and drinking of smuggled alcohol but initially did not report it out of loyalty to his comrades. But when he returned from an assignment at an army headquarters and discovered soldiers using the shipping container in which he was billeted to smoke hashish he reported it.

Two days later members of his platoon, including Gibbs and Morlock, accused him of "snitching", gave him a beating and told him to keep his mouth shut. The soldier reported the beating and threats to his officers and then told investigators what he knew of the "kill team".

Following the arrest of the original five accused in June, seven other soldiers were charged last month with attempting to cover up the killings and violent assault on the soldier who reported the smoking of hashish. The charges will be considered by a military grand jury later this month which will decide if there is enough evidence for a court martial. Army investigators say Morlock has admitted his involvement in the killings and given details about the role of others including Gibbs. But his lawyer, Michael Waddington, is seeking to have that confession suppressed because he says his client was interviewed while under the influence of prescription drugs taken for battlefield injuries and that he was also suffering from traumatic brain injury.

"Our position is that his statements were incoherent, and taken while he was under a cocktail of drugs that shouldn't have been mixed," Waddington told the Seattle Times.

Gayla · 09-09-2010, 06:54 PM

On again

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39074573...news-security/

MsMerrick · 09-09-2010, 07:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gayla

On again

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39074573...news-security/

Fucking whacko .... Why is no one just putting him in a mental institution, where he belongs..

Gayla · 09-09-2010, 07:32 PM

I reached a point last night, after reading about this crap for hours, where I wondered why someone just didn't shoot him.

After I got over being completely horrified at myself, I realized it was time to stop reading the news and start playing stupid FB games for awhile.

MsMerrick · 09-09-2010, 07:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gayla

I reached a point last night, after reading about this crap for hours, where I wondered why someone just didn't shoot him.

After I got over being completely horrified at myself, I realized it was time to stop reading the news and start playing stupid FB games for awhile.

4 hours killing Boss's in MW..but then I saw this on again thang ( on FB ) and lost it again ....
Going to bed..soon
reading science fiction.. no current events thank you very much...

SuperFemme · 09-09-2010, 08:19 PM

Melissa · 09-09-2010, 08:23 PM

some good news!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ca_gays_in_military

SuperFemme · 09-10-2010, 01:25 PM

SuperFemme · 09-10-2010, 01:30 PM

White couple won't sell home to African-American couple

The co-host of the Michael Baisden show filed for $100 million discrimination lawsuit against a white couple who won't sell their home to George Wilborn and his wife because they are African-American. Read more about it below.

George Wilborn, the famed co-host of the popular Michael Baisden Show, has filed a $100 million lawsuit against a Chicago couple who refused to sell him a home because of the color of his skin.

As previously reported, Wilborn and his wife were attempting to buy a $1.7 million home from Daniel and Adrienne Sabbia, a white couple.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development filed a complaint on behalf of Wilborn however after an investigator told them that Daniel Sabba declined to sign the contract because he'd "rather not sell to an African American."

Now Wilborn and his wife Peytyn have officially filed a $100 million lawsuit in federal court for the discrimination they faced trying to buy the five-bedroom home in the city's Bridgeport neighborhood.
Source

This is just disgusting to hear about. I can't believe stuff like this still happens in the year 2010.

SuperFemme · 09-10-2010, 01:34 PM

White cop punches black girl in face

Is this another incident of a white racist cop thinking he is above the law? Maybe it's just police brutality? Or was it just a police officer doing his job? A white Seattle cop punches a black woman, watch the video below. Apparently the two black women were stopped for jay walking.

SuperFemme · 09-10-2010, 01:36 PM

09-09-2010, 10:09 AM	#544
Greyson Infamous Member How Do You Identify?: Transmasculine/Non-Binary Preferred Pronoun?: Hy (Pronounced He) Relationship Status: Married Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: SF Bay Area Posts: 6,589 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 21,132 Thanked 8,153 Times in 2,006 Posts Rep Power: 21474858	Iran Yesterday I posted an article about the woman that had been sentenced to "Punishment of Death by Stoning." Today, I am posting a story about the same "system" Iran, announcing the release of an American hostage in recognition of the end of Ramadan. This could be a sign of human compassion and/or a sign of propaganda. Interesting, two very recent acts of showing some compassion by the very same people/system that some are quick to fear and judge harshly. No, I am not naieve nor stupid. But I do know that things usually are much more layered with shared blame and responsibility to go around for all. ______________________________________________ Iran to release 1 of 3 jailed Americans Associated Press Posted: 09/09/2010 08:37:26 AM PDT Updated: 09/09/2010 08:46:39 AM PDT TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran announced today that one of the three Americans jailed for more than a year will be released Saturday to mark the end of Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Reporters were told by text message from the Culture Ministry to come to the same hotel where the Americans' parents were allowed to meet them recently to witness the release. "Offering congratulations on Eid al-Fitr," the message said referring to the holiday marking the end of the fasting month. "The release of one of the detained Americans will be at Saturday, 9 a.m. at the Estaghlal hotel." It is common in the Islamic world to mark the Eid al-Fitr holiday by showing clemency and releasing prisoners. Ali Reza Shiravi, the head of the foreign media office at the ministry confirmed that he had sent the message summoning reports to the hotel. The high-rise Estaghlal hotel near Evin prison is where the three Americans' mothers were allowed to visit them in May in a highly publicized trip. The detained Americans -- Sarah Shourd, 31; her boyfriend, Shane Bauer, 27; and their friend Josh Fattal, 27 -- have been held in Iran since July 2009, when they were arrested along the Iraqi border. Iran has accused them of espionage; their families say that the three were hiking in Iraq's largely peaceful mountainous northern Kurdish region and that if they crossed the border, it was accidental. Their detention has become entangled in the confrontation between the United States and Iran. Iranian leaders have repeatedly suggested a link between their jailing and that of a number of Iranians by the United States whose release Tehran demands. Nora Shourd, the mother of Sarah Shourd, said this morning that the U.S.-based families of the hikers had seen the news reports out of Iran but had no idea if they were true or not. "We don't know anything," Shourd told the AP. "We're trying like crazy to see what we can find out. I hope it's true -- that's all I can say for sure. But I don't know if it is." Nora Shourd had the last contact with any of the three jailed Americans, when Sarah called her on Aug. 2 and the two spoke for three or four minutes. http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_16031691 __________________ Sometimes you don't realize your own strength until you come face to face with your greatest weakness. - Susan Gale

09-09-2010, 11:57 AM	#546
SuperFemme Timed Out How Do You Identify?: Permanently Banned 10/24/2010 Preferred Pronoun?: She. Relationship Status: Married (one of 18,000) Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Atascadero, CA Posts: 4,933 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 2,309 Thanked 7,108 Times in 2,327 Posts Rep Power: 0	Phelps hate machine angry that their Quran burning didn't garner same attention? Seriously? Fred Phelps' daughter: 'Westboro Church has already burned Qurans' One of those angry at a Florida preacher's plans to mark Sept. 11 by setting fire to copies of the Quran is Shirley Phelps Roper, a leader of the Westboro Baptist Church. While she joins Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Gen. David Petraeus, the White House, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and many more, Phelps-Roper, Fred Phelps' lawyer daughter, is hardly a voice for religious tolerance. Her irritation Wednesday was not that the Rev. Terry Jones and his Dove World Outreach Center's planned bonfire would offend Muslims worldwide and probably increase the danger to American soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq. It's that in 2008 she and her father's Topeka flock set fire to a Quran in plain view on a Washington, D.C., street and nobody seemed to care. "We did it a long time before this guy," Phelps-Roper said by telephone from a street corner in downtown Chicago, scene of the latest Westboro picket — against Jews this time, not gays. The difference could be that in 2008 many news media outlets had decided to ignore the group's routine of spewing hatred at funerals of fallen American soldiers. So when Fred Phelps, calling Muhammad a "pedophilic gigolo," went online and invited people to attend the burning, most stayed away. Because of the heightened media attention on the Florida demonstration, Christian Petersen of Blue Springs, a Marine veteran who helped train Iraqi security forces in 2009, speculated some Islamic extremists will seek "an eye for an eye" and retaliate. But U.S. troops probably won't change their activities. "If an environment is hostile, one more piece of wood on the bonfire isn't going to make a difference," Petersen said. "It's just like here in the United States. We watch the news and tend to generalize an entire culture based on the very worst elements," he said. But the Muslims he came to know "understood the difference between people in our country who are extreme in their views and those of us over there trying to help them." To read the complete article, visit www.kansascity.com.

09-09-2010, 04:12 PM	#547
Nat Senior Member How Do You Identify?: bigender (DID System) Preferred Pronoun?: he/him or alter-specific Relationship Status: Unavailable Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Central TX Posts: 3,537 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 11,047 Thanked 13,970 Times in 2,591 Posts Rep Power: 21474855	It's almost like the media is running the show, no? __________________ I'm a fountain of blood. In the shape of a girl. - Bjork What is to give light must endure burning. -Viktor Frankl

09-09-2010, 06:31 PM	#550
Nat Senior Member How Do You Identify?: bigender (DID System) Preferred Pronoun?: he/him or alter-specific Relationship Status: Unavailable Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Central TX Posts: 3,537 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 11,047 Thanked 13,970 Times in 2,591 Posts Rep Power: 21474855	US soldiers 'killed Afghan civilians for sport and collected fingers as trophies' Soldiers face charges over secret 'kill team' which allegedly murdered at random and collected fingers as trophies of war Andrew Holmes, Michael Wagnon, Jeremy Morlock and Adam Winfield are four of the five Stryker soldiers who face murder charges. Photograph: Public Domain Twelve American soldiers face charges over a secret "kill team" that allegedly blew up and shot Afghan civilians at random and collected their fingers as trophies. Five of the soldiers are charged with murdering three Afghan men who were allegedly killed for sport in separate attacks this year. Seven others are accused of covering up the killings and assaulting a recruit who exposed the murders when he reported other abuses, including members of the unit smoking hashish stolen from civilians. In one of the most serious accusations of war crimes to emerge from the Afghan conflict, the killings are alleged to have been carried out by members of a Stryker infantry brigade based in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan. According to investigators and legal documents, discussion of killing Afghan civilians began after the arrival of Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs at forward operating base Ramrod last November. Other soldiers told the army's criminal investigation command that Gibbs boasted of the things he got away with while serving in Iraq and said how easy it would be to "toss a grenade at someone and kill them". One soldier said he believed Gibbs was "feeling out the platoon". Investigators said Gibbs, 25, hatched a plan with another soldier, Jeremy Morlock, 22, and other members of the unit to form a "kill team". While on patrol over the following months they allegedly killed at least three Afghan civilians. According to the charge sheet, the first target was Gul Mudin, who was killed "by means of throwing a fragmentary grenade at him and shooting him with a rifle", when the patrol entered the village of La Mohammed Kalay in January. Morlock and another soldier, Andrew Holmes, were on guard at the edge of a poppy field when Mudin emerged and stopped on the other side of a wall from the soldiers. Gibbs allegedly handed Morlock a grenade who armed it and dropped it over the wall next to the Afghan and dived for cover. Holmes, 19, then allegedly fired over the wall. Later in the day, Morlock is alleged to have told Holmes that the killing was for fun and threatened him if he told anyone. The second victim, Marach Agha, was shot and killed the following month. Gibbs is alleged to have shot him and placed a Kalashnikov next to the body to justify the killing. In May Mullah Adadhdad was killed after being shot and attacked with a grenade. The Army Times reported that a least one of the soldiers collected the fingers of the victims as souvenirs and that some of them posed for photographs with the bodies. Five soldiers – Gibbs, Morlock, Holmes, Michael Wagnon and Adam Winfield – are accused of murder and aggravated assault among other charges. All of the soldiers have denied the charges. They face the death penalty or life in prison if convicted. The killings came to light in May after the army began investigating a brutal assault on a soldier who told superiors that members of his unit were smoking hashish. The Army Times reported that members of the unit regularly smoked the drug on duty and sometimes stole it from civilians. The soldier, who was straight out of basic training and has not been named, said he witnessed the smoking of hashish and drinking of smuggled alcohol but initially did not report it out of loyalty to his comrades. But when he returned from an assignment at an army headquarters and discovered soldiers using the shipping container in which he was billeted to smoke hashish he reported it. Two days later members of his platoon, including Gibbs and Morlock, accused him of "snitching", gave him a beating and told him to keep his mouth shut. The soldier reported the beating and threats to his officers and then told investigators what he knew of the "kill team". Following the arrest of the original five accused in June, seven other soldiers were charged last month with attempting to cover up the killings and violent assault on the soldier who reported the smoking of hashish. The charges will be considered by a military grand jury later this month which will decide if there is enough evidence for a court martial. Army investigators say Morlock has admitted his involvement in the killings and given details about the role of others including Gibbs. But his lawyer, Michael Waddington, is seeking to have that confession suppressed because he says his client was interviewed while under the influence of prescription drugs taken for battlefield injuries and that he was also suffering from traumatic brain injury. "Our position is that his statements were incoherent, and taken while he was under a cocktail of drugs that shouldn't have been mixed," Waddington told the Seattle Times. __________________ I'm a fountain of blood. In the shape of a girl. - Bjork What is to give light must endure burning. -Viktor Frankl

09-10-2010, 01:36 PM	#560
SuperFemme Timed Out How Do You Identify?: Permanently Banned 10/24/2010 Preferred Pronoun?: She. Relationship Status: Married (one of 18,000) Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Atascadero, CA Posts: 4,933 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 2,309 Thanked 7,108 Times in 2,327 Posts Rep Power: 0	Seattle kind of scares me...

09-08-2010, 06:28 PM	#541
SuperFemme Timed Out How Do You Identify?: Permanently Banned 10/24/2010 Preferred Pronoun?: She. Relationship Status: Married (one of 18,000) Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Atascadero, CA Posts: 4,933 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 2,309 Thanked 7,108 Times in 2,327 Posts Rep Power: 0	Where's the outrage over immigrant slayings in Mexico? In the United States, their presumed destination, even immigrant rights groups have been oddly silent over the Aug. 23 massacre of 72 in a border state. Hector Tobar September 9, 2010 Six dozen defenseless men, women and teenagers were pushed up against a wall. A squad of professional killers opened fire on them with automatic weapons and then finished each victim off with a point-blank shot to the head. They dreamed of joining us, here in this country of opportunity. Instead, their corpses, including that of a pregnant woman, were left to bloat in the open air, to be discovered later and photographed in a sickening heap. For those of us who remember the tragedy of Latin America's recent past, seeing the images of last month's massacre of 72 immigrants in northern Mexico is like reentering an old and very familiar nightmare. Not long ago, dictators ruled most of Latin America. They had large groups of people kidnapped, tortured and executed in secret. Their crimes against humanity hit nearly every corner of the region, from cosmopolitan Buenos Aires to provincial Guatemala City. But this new act of mass murder was not the work of a military junta run by generals. It didn't take place in a tiny banana republic without a judicial system worthy of the name. It happened in the proud, multiparty democracy called Mexico, a country with ample social freedoms, including a vibrant free press. And it wasn't an isolated occurrence. A report last year by Mexico's human rights ombudsman said at least 400 mass kidnappings are reported in Mexico every year, many involving the rape and murder of hostages. Modern death squads are operating freely in northern Mexico, extorting those who wish to come here, where relatives and jobs await. The kidnappings and murders of immigrants carried out by these groups are a stain on Mexican democracy, and many commentators there recognize this. "The abuse against migrants is an everyday embarrassment we don't want to talk about because it would rob us of all our moral authority before our neighbors to the north," columnist Alfonso Zarate wrote in response to the massacre in the newspaper El Universal. "Mexico demands respect for the human rights of 'illegal' workers in the U.S.," Zarate continued, " … but is now itself under the microscope of the international community, which is rightly scandalized and indignant." The victims found near San Fernando, Tamaulipas, were killed, according to media reports, after their smugglers-turned-captors demanded more money from the migrants' families. Some were pressured to work as drug couriers but refused. As with the many killings of police officers and officials in Mexico, the San Fernando massacre was an act of psychological warfare. Such extreme violence is meant to spread fear and thus make it easier for the killers to impose their will on the living. If we stay silent about their crime, if we treat it as just another episode in Mexico's unwinnable drug wars, then we'll allows the killers to win. And yet, here in the United States, the expressions of outrage from the immigrant rights movement have been muted. You could say they are a mere whisper compared with the very loud campaign against Arizona's SB 1070, a law whose most controversial provisions will probably never go into effect. We should see the killings as a blunt reminder of the reasons why people so desperately want to come here. And we should speak of San Fernando with the same horror as we do El Mozote and the Naval Mechanics School of Buenos Aires — sites of the most heinous crimes committed by the militaries of El Salvador and Argentina in the 1970s and '80s. It's not just the killers who deserve our moral outrage, it's the failed judicial systems that allow them to thrive without fear of punishment. In Latin America, the massacre has already provoked much reflection and protest. The government of Honduras, home to the largest number of its victims, announced it would take new steps to try to discourage illegal immigration to the U.S. In Mexico, the northern city of Saltillo witnessed a rare event just days after the Aug. 23 massacre: a march by 200 undocumented immigrants, carrying the flags of El Salvador, Guatemala and other Central American countries. "Our countries deny us the opportunity for economic development," the demonstrators said in a written statement, after marching through the city with covered faces. "But Mexico denies us the opportunity to live." To stop SB 1070, we've seen Angelenos drive across the desert to Phoenix to march, to denounce both the governor of Arizona and the mad sheriff of Maricopa County, Joe Arpaio. But I've yet to hear of any rallies at the Mexican consulate or anywhere else here in Los Angeles, demanding that the Mexican government prosecute those guilty of so many migrant killings and disappearances. Most of the country's leading immigrant rights groups haven't even bothered to issue a news release. That doesn't surprise me. Generally speaking, the U.S. immigrant rights movement doesn't have much to say about the social and political conditions that lead so many to leave their native countries and place themselves at the mercy of an increasingly violent smuggling industry. This is wrong. We can't turn a blind eye to the deeper, seemingly intractable injustices that are the obvious root cause of the problem. Simply put: It's wrong that people have to undertake the journey to the U.S. in the first place. People shouldn't have to leave the land of their ancestors, their extended families, their barrios and their farms. They leave because the promise of democracy in Mexico and Central America remains unfulfilled. The Tamaulipas murders are really just the most sickening expression of a vast system of inequality and corruption that still defines life for millions of people. U.S. immigration reform, unfortunately, won't do anything to strengthen the rule of law in those countries that supply the greatest number of migrants. It won't stop the power of the criminal groups that infiltrate government and intimidate officials, not just in certain regions of Mexico but in much of Central America. There's a movement for democracy and government accountability in those places. But it's often under threat. One of the last interviews I did in Latin America before ending my stint as a foreign correspondent in 2008 was with the Guatemalan environmental rights attorney Yuri Melini, who was then denouncing the organized-crime groups operating in the Peten jungle. A few months later, he was shot several times by a gunman. Miraculously, he survived — although, as with so many other notorious crimes in Guatemala, no one has been prosecuted. "I'm like a tree," Melini told my colleague Ken Ellingwood a year later. "They chopped me down, but I'm bouncing back again." A few loud but influential U.S. voices of protest help keep people like Melini alive and working in their native countries. But many more of us need to stand with those who work to keep the promise of democracy and justice alive in northern Mexico, Guatemala and other places. It matters not just to them but to us. And now, as in the age of the dictators, it's a matter of life and death. hector.tobar@latimes.com http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...3,print.column

09-09-2010, 11:45 AM	#545
SuperFemme Timed Out How Do You Identify?: Permanently Banned 10/24/2010 Preferred Pronoun?: She. Relationship Status: Married (one of 18,000) Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Atascadero, CA Posts: 4,933 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 2,309 Thanked 7,108 Times in 2,327 Posts Rep Power: 0	Tempe man beaten to death after granddaughter's wedding Friends and family continue to mourn a Tempe man who was beaten to death in Virginia earlier this week after he attended his granddaughter's wedding, police said. Three teenagers attacked George Baker III, 81, on his walk to a restaurant following the wedding ceremony Sunday night. "I will miss the phone calls the most," son Gregg Baker said at a press conference at his father's home on Wednesday. Witnesses who heard and saw the attack from a nearby restaurant told police that three male teenagers beat Baker until he lay unconscious and then fled. Baker sustained broken ribs and significant head injuries, police said. He was taken to a local hospital but died Monday morning. "There was no motive," Lynchburg (Va.) Police Department Captain Todd Swisher said, "This should have been a joyful occasion but it has been marred by this tragedy." Police said there were a few other teens walking with the suspects at the time of the attack. One of them told police that the suspects were trying to impress a girl they were with. Two of the suspects are 16-years-old and one is 13. They were arrested on suspicion of murder, police said. Baker was a widower who leaves behind three children. He had lived in the same Tempe home across from the Ken McDonald Golf Course since 1973. Baker even had his own chair at the course restaurant, the chef made him specialty meals to accommodate his celiac disease, his son said. The younger Baker said it was hard to describe the emotions he went through on the day of both his daughter's wedding and his father's death. He was informed by police that his father was critically injured as the wedding reception was coming to an end. As the newlyweds took off in their car, Gregg Baker's new son-in-law turned toward the hospital instead of the planed their honeymoon destination and said "family is important" before explaining Baker's condition to his new bride. Baker was unresponsive at the scene and was put on life-support at the hospital, his son said. He stayed by his father's side until he died. "I don't want retribution, I want redemption," Baker said of his father's killers. He added that the two 16- year-olds will be tried as adults. Baker was a Christian man; his son said which was apparent by the bookmarked and clearly well-used Bible inscribed with his name which sat in his family room. His son said that Baker had previously spoken of looking forward to seeing his wife, who died of cancer six years ago. He spoke of his father as "quick witted and mentally sharp." Referring to a rocking chair and table filled with books as his father's "makeshift library." He said his father and sister would read novels and then switch with each other when they were finished. A neighborhood child who had just heard of Baker's death stood with two of his friends outside of the home Wednesday and through tears and gasps for breath said, "He was my friend." Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/community/t...#ixzz0z3TdAc6F

09-09-2010, 06:54 PM	#551
Gayla Timed Out How Do You Identify?: Kinky Butch Top Preferred Pronoun?: I'm not picky Relationship Status: She makes me dance like a fool and forget how to breathe. Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: SF CA Posts: 3,229 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 877 Thanked 7,077 Times in 1,966 Posts Rep Power: 0	On again http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39074573...news-security/

09-09-2010, 07:32 PM	#553
Gayla Timed Out How Do You Identify?: Kinky Butch Top Preferred Pronoun?: I'm not picky Relationship Status: She makes me dance like a fool and forget how to breathe. Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: SF CA Posts: 3,229 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 877 Thanked 7,077 Times in 1,966 Posts Rep Power: 0	I reached a point last night, after reading about this crap for hours, where I wondered why someone just didn't shoot him. After I got over being completely horrified at myself, I realized it was time to stop reading the news and start playing stupid FB games for awhile.

09-09-2010, 08:19 PM	#555
SuperFemme Timed Out How Do You Identify?: Permanently Banned 10/24/2010 Preferred Pronoun?: She. Relationship Status: Married (one of 18,000) Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Atascadero, CA Posts: 4,933 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 2,309 Thanked 7,108 Times in 2,327 Posts Rep Power: 0

09-09-2010, 08:23 PM	#556
Melissa Member How Do You Identify?: Femme Preferred Pronoun?: she Relationship Status: married Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Texas Posts: 269 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 262 Thanked 587 Times in 195 Posts Rep Power: 2134101	some good news! http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ca_gays_in_military

09-10-2010, 01:25 PM	#557
SuperFemme Timed Out How Do You Identify?: Permanently Banned 10/24/2010 Preferred Pronoun?: She. Relationship Status: Married (one of 18,000) Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Atascadero, CA Posts: 4,933 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 2,309 Thanked 7,108 Times in 2,327 Posts Rep Power: 0

09-10-2010, 01:30 PM	#558
SuperFemme Timed Out How Do You Identify?: Permanently Banned 10/24/2010 Preferred Pronoun?: She. Relationship Status: Married (one of 18,000) Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Atascadero, CA Posts: 4,933 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 2,309 Thanked 7,108 Times in 2,327 Posts Rep Power: 0	White couple won't sell home to African-American couple The co-host of the Michael Baisden show filed for $100 million discrimination lawsuit against a white couple who won't sell their home to George Wilborn and his wife because they are African-American. Read more about it below. George Wilborn, the famed co-host of the popular Michael Baisden Show, has filed a $100 million lawsuit against a Chicago couple who refused to sell him a home because of the color of his skin. As previously reported, Wilborn and his wife were attempting to buy a $1.7 million home from Daniel and Adrienne Sabbia, a white couple. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development filed a complaint on behalf of Wilborn however after an investigator told them that Daniel Sabba declined to sign the contract because he'd "rather not sell to an African American." Now Wilborn and his wife Peytyn have officially filed a $100 million lawsuit in federal court for the discrimination they faced trying to buy the five-bedroom home in the city's Bridgeport neighborhood. Source This is just disgusting to hear about. I can't believe stuff like this still happens in the year 2010.

09-10-2010, 01:34 PM	#559
SuperFemme Timed Out How Do You Identify?: Permanently Banned 10/24/2010 Preferred Pronoun?: She. Relationship Status: Married (one of 18,000) Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Atascadero, CA Posts: 4,933 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 2,309 Thanked 7,108 Times in 2,327 Posts Rep Power: 0	White cop punches black girl in face Is this another incident of a white racist cop thinking he is above the law? Maybe it's just police brutality? Or was it just a police officer doing his job? A white Seattle cop punches a black woman, watch the video below. Apparently the two black women were stopped for jay walking.