AP Puts Major Spin On Texas Murder Case

Ace notes major spin in an AP report on a man in Texas charged with murder for killing a teenager and her unborn child:

Texas Man Gets Death for Killing Fetus

By ELIZABETH WHITE
Associated Press Writer

SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- A former youth pastor was sentenced to death Wednesday for killing a teenager and her fetus in what is believed to be the first such order in Texas, the nation's busiest death penalty state.

Adrian Estrada, 23, was convicted Friday of one count of capital murder for the death of Stephanie Sanchez and the fetus, of which he was the father.

Although the headline reads "Texas Man Gets Death for Killing Fetus," the story clearly states that he was convicted of "one charge of capital murder for the death of Stephanie Sanchez and the fetus." If he was only convicted of one charge of murder, isn't it likely it was for killing the teenage woman? Why would prosecutors choose to charge the man with the murder of the unborn child, but not the teenage mother?

A good catch of blatant media dishonesty by Ace, who points out, "In any event, he wasn't "convicted" for killing the fetus, nor is he getting the death penalty "merely" for killing a fetus."

Evil Incarnate Convicted

A 24-year-old mother who claimed she was sacrificing her young sons for God by tossing them to their deaths in San Francisco Bay was convicted Tuesday of second-degree murder.

LaShuan Harris has claimed she was insane when she drowned 6-year-old Treyshun Harris, 2-year-old Taronta Greeley Jr. and 16-month-old Joshoa Greeley on Oct. 19, 2005.

Lawyers for Harris, who was previously acquitted of first-degree murder, will now present her insanity defense to a judge in a bid to spare her from a possible life sentence in prison.

The three second-degree murder convictions each carry mandatory sentences of 15 years to life in prison. Harris also faces sentences of 25 years to life after the San Francisco Superior Court jury convicted her last week of three counts of assault of a child causing death.

She won't be executed like she should in California (even toough they have the death penalty), but this woman had better spend the rest of her life in prison, hopefully being raped by big, hairy women.

NYT Editorial: "Who will hang George Bush?"

From Media Blog:

NYT Edits Out Op-Ed's Final Line: "Who Will Hang George W. Bush"

Michael Moynihan, a friend of mine who works at the Swedish think tank Timbro, sends along this item:

A story you might be interested in: The New York Times published an editorial a week or so ago by Slovenian Marxist Slavoj Zizek ostensibly on the Saddam execution. It was a typically muddled affair, pieced together from earlier Zizek screeds. But it seems that the Times (and the IHT, whose op-ed editor Serge Schmemann told me that he hadn’t seen the original) edited out Zizek’s final sentence, which was published unexpurgated in both Sweden (Aftonbladet) and Spain (El Pais). And what was the offending line? “Which is another reason to ask: Who will hang George Bush?”

You can find the El Pais version reprinted on a number of Spanish-language anti-war web sites. Just search Slavoj Zizek and "¿Quién ahorcará a George W. Bush?"

I like how the New York Times sees nothing wrong with publishing these nutty rants, so long as a generous dose of white-out is applied to anything that might tip off readers to their true nuttiness.

Congratulations, NYT, for only publishing news and opinions with "integrity."

Chuck Rangel - Saddam's Execution Was a Lynching

Oops. I almost forgot. Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day everyone. Of course, everyone in my state is pissed off that public schools have class today - the logical argument that the PSs are pressing here is that if kids have the day off they're not going to do anything to further their knowledge of King, whereas if they're in school they can be indoctrinated.

In honor of MLK, Chuck Rangel was on Fox News and called Saddam's hanging a lynching. Good form Chuck. The video and some good commentary can be found on Hot Air, here.

Heads Rolling in Iraq

Boy. You'd think a country run by Muslims would know a thing or two about killing people, but they sure are having trouble over there:

The official video of hanging of Saddam Hussein's co-defendants screened for reporters Monday showed the former leader's half brother lying headless below the gallows, his severed head several yards away. The video shows Barzan Ibrahim, Saddam's half brother and former intelligence chief, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court, being hanged side by side.

Oops. On the plus side, it may have hurt more.

Meanwhile, In Bahgdad

Two more bad guys, dead in Iraq:

Saddam's Half Brother and Revolutionary Court Chief Hanged

BAGHDAD, Iraq: Saddam Hussein's half brother and the former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court were hanged before dawn Monday, Prosecutor Munqith al-Faroon said, two weeks and two days after the former Iraqi dictator was executed in a chaotic scene that has drawn worldwide criticism.

Barzan Ibrahim, Saddam's half brother and former intelligence chief, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court, had been found guilty along with Saddam of in the killing of 148 Shiite Muslims after a 1982 assassination attempt on the former leader in the town of Dujail north of Baghdad.

"They (government) called us before dawn and told us to send someone. I sent a judge to witness the execution and it happened," al-Faroon said.

Two officials in Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information, confirmed that the hangings took place around 6 a.m. local time.

The executions reportedly occurred in the same Saddam-era military intelligence headquarters building in north Baghdad where the former leader was hanged two days before the end of 2006, according to an Iraqi general, who would not allow use of his name because he was not authorized to release the information. The building is located in the Shiite neighborhood of Kazimiyah.

The two men were to have been hanged along with Saddam on Dec. 30, but Iraqi authorities decided to execute Saddam alone on what National Security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie called a "special day."

Last week, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani urged the government to delay the executions.

"In my opinion we should wait," Talabani said Wednesday at a news conference with U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad. "We should examine the situation," he said without elaborating.

Saddam's execution became an unruly scene that brought worldwide criticism of the Iraqi government. Video of the execution, recorded on a cell phone camera, showed the former dictator being taunted on the gallows.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said that Khalilzad asked him to delay Saddam's execution for 10 days to two weeks, but added that Iraqi officials rejected the demand.

A lawyer for the two men told The Associated Press recently that they were taken from their cells and told they were going to be hanged on the same day Saddam was executed.

Issam Ghazawi, a member of Saddam's defense team for the past two years, said he met individually with Ibrahim and al-Bandar recently, and that Ibrahim told him they were escorted from their cells and told they were also going to be executed.

"The Americans took me and al-Bandar from our cells on the same day of Saddam's execution to an office inside the prison at 1 a.m. They asked us to collect our belongings because they intend to execute us at dawn," Ibrahim reportedly said.

He said the two men were also told to write their wills.

Al-Bandar and Ibrahim were taken back to their prison cells nearly nine hours later, according to Ghazawi.

"Their execution should be commuted under such circumstances because of the psychological pain they endured as they waited to hang," he said.

Ghazawi quoted as Al-Bandar as saying he "wished to have been executed with President Saddam." Ibrahim, the lawyer said, "was in the worst condition. He kept crying over the death of his brother and said it was a great loss for the family and the Arab world."

After Saddam's execution but before Ibrahim and al-Bandar's, Human Rights Watch released a report calling the speedy trial and subsequent hanging of Saddam proof of the new Iraqi government's disregard for human rights.

"The tribunal repeatedly showed its disregard for the fundamental due process rights of all of the defendants," said Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch's International Justice Program.

I still can't believe that they mocked Saddam before hanging him. What barbarians. Someone should ask this guy what he thinks about the brutality of making fun of Saddam before his execution (I don't want to call this video graphic, but horrible comes to mind):



*** Update - Jan. 15, 9:54 am ***

For idiots out there, that video is a man being tortured by Saddam's thugs back during his reign. I didn't think I had to label it.

Hanged in a "more dignified way"

Reports al-Reuters:

President Bush said Saddam Hussein could have been hanged in a "more dignified way" and one his closest Arab allies said on Friday a video of Shi'ite officials taunting him on the gallows was "barbaric".

Apparently killing someone in a "dignified way" without being "barbaric" looks like this:















In case your curious that's a dead Kurdish woman and her dead baby after Saddam had them gassed.

Saddam's hanging could have been more "dignified," but seeing as he's now in eternal Hell, I think being taunted by his executioners is the least of his worries.

Obama on Life and Crime

Barack Obama has been the media's cause célèbre lately because he's the biggest liberal with what they perceive to be the best shot of winning the presidential election in 2008.

This post focuses on Obama's pitiful record on abortion, capital punishment and punishing sex offenders.

Abortion:

Barack Obama is actually against the " Born Alive Infant Protection Act" (having failed to support it on four occasions) which states, in part:

... the term ''born alive'', with respect to a member of the species homo sapiens, means the complete expulsion or extraction from his or her mother of that member, at any stage of development, who after such expulsion or extraction breathes or has a beating heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord, or definite movement of voluntary muscles, regardless of whether the umbilical cord has been cut, and regardless of whether the expulsion or extraction occurs as a result of natural or induced labor, cesarean section, or induced abortion.

In other words, not only does Barack Hussein Obama believe that an unborn child is not a living thing, he believes that until you cut the umbilical cord that thing that just came out of that woman has absolutely no rights - including a right to life. This law passed the U.S. Senate 98-0 (before Obama was a senator).

Death Penalty:

Being the hypocritical liberal that Obama is, he protects the life of murderous gang members more than those of newly-born infants. He voted against that " Severo Anti-Gang Amendments of 2001" in the IL State House. The bill sought to qualify gang members that murdered first responders for the death penalty (Obama was one of only nine to vote against the bill).

Punishing Sexual Predators:

No other group of criminals have proven themselves to be more vial and un-reformable as sexual predators. It stands to reason that the representatives of the American people have enacted tough laws to not only keep them off of our streets, but to punish them for the heinous things they've done. That's why it's so outrageous that Barack Obama was the only senator in Illinois to vote against SB 485, a bill that sought to deny sexual predators early release for "good behavior".

The summary of SB 485 reads:

Amend the County Jail Good Behavior Allowance Act. Provides that a person in a county jail may not receive a good behavior allowance if he or she is convicted of criminal sexual assault in which the victim was under 18 years of age at the time of the offense and he or she was a family member or if he or she is convicted of criminal sexual abuse or aggravated criminal sexual abuse. Effective immediately.

No wonder Obama supports abortions-in-the-case-of

-incest-and-rape*, he has to fix the damage from when he votes against the laws that prevent incest and rape.

*(you'll only hear a liberal say the word "abortion" if "in-the-case-of-incest-and-rape" is attached. Otherwise they use the term "choice," usually connected to the word "right.")