After Saturday's decision by the DNC to allow the Florida delegates to be seated at this summer's DNC convention but with only one-half a vote, the reaction of Democrats from the Sunshine State has been one of voters angry enough to contemplate staying away from the polls or possibly voting for John McCain, the Republican candidate.
Florida Senate Minority Leader Steve Geller, D- Cooper City, a super-delegate who hasn't endorsed either Clinton or Obama, felt that the decision by the DNC was "offensive". Geller sarcastically wondered whether Dem Floridians should "only raise 1/2 as much money as we normally raise" and whether Florida should "turn out half as many Democrats as usual".
Rep. Kelly Skidmore, D- Boca Raton, said that Democrats were "extraordinarily upset, beyond what words can describe".
U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, a national co-chairwoman of the Clinton campaign said that emails from constituents contained "pretty deep dissatisfaction" and that the decision made it harder to "motivate voters".
Clinton delegate and Broward County leader Jack Shifrel, was more succinct:
"You'd be an ostrich with your head in the sand if you didn't accept the reality that there are going to be Democrats that we're going to have to work very hard to convince," he said. "There are good decent Democrats that are very upset and it's going to take a lot of work to get them to vote at all."
A Floridian demonstrating in D.C. at the DNC meeting on Saturday gave this reaction when learning of the decision to allow only 1/2 a vote at the Democrat's convention:
A majority of the anger stems from the 1/2 vote decision. One unhappy Florida voter felt their their "civil rights and constitutional obligations" had been infringed upon:``It’s a slap in the face,’’ said Margaret Grostefon, 44, of Fort Lauderdale, who joined the demonstration. ``Fifty percent? It’s like saying we are half of a citizen.’’
``In the general election, I am debating whether to vote at all,’’ she said.
``I’m not going to make a decision on my vote today,’’ said Vanessa Alikhan, 31, of Fort Lauderdale. ``I’m going to fight for my civil rights and the constitutional obligations that the government has to the people of the United States and ask them to count 100 percent of our votes.’’A May 21st a Rasmussen poll showed Republican candidate John McCain with a double digit lead over Obama, 50 to 40%. Rasmussen also reported that phone surveys concluded that an estimated 57% would vote for Obama while 27% of Democrats said they planned to vote for John McCain.
According to Rasmussen, even before Saturday's decision, McCain has a 75% chance of winning Florida, a key state in the Presidential election.
While the DNC's decision centered on Florida scheduling its Democratic primary earlier than was allowed the DNC made a crucial error in its decision to penalize the delegates and their votes. The DNC could have looked at other measures, such as "probation". Instead they decided to penalize the very heart and soul of the party, the very people who should count, the voters who showed up for the Democratic primaries. Those voters were dissed by the DNC by declaring the delegates would be "allowed" to be seated at the convention, but would be considered 1/2 vote "outcasts", a ludicrous solution at best.
The attitude of the DNC further underscores the fact that, in the end, the voters were merely a means to more money in donations, that their votes were a sham and a mockery, that, all along, the superdelegates held the key to who will be declared the candidate on the top spot of the Dem's ticket in the 2008 Presidential election.
No one likes to be used and it looks like quite a few Floridians were merely pawns in the Democrat game of Stratego. Close to 1.4 million Democrats voted in the Florida primary. The DNC decision on Saturday has been called a "compromise". The only persons truly compromised were the electorate who cast their ballots believing they would have a voice in choosing the candidate for the Dem's top ticket.
By LBG
Source - Real Clear Politics
Source - Rasmussen Reports
Source - Sun-Sentinel - Many South Florida Democrats still unhappy about delegates
Source - Sun-Sentinel - Florida Democrats protest their own party
Image - Florida Democrats
In a scene straight out of a horror flick, Polk City, Florida resident Adrian Apgar nearly lost his life against a 12 ft. alligator back in November of 2006 until the police arrived and saved him.
So police were surprised early Thursday when they discovered the naked man they'd found in pond in Saddle Creek Park, who claimed he'd been bitten by a snake while looking for an alligator, was the very same naked man they rescued before, Adrian Apgar.
Adrian Apgar, ClothedIt was 3:45 on a November morning of 2006 when a resident of Polk City heard the faint sound of "someone screaming" from nearby Lake Parker.
Carlos Mayid grabbed a flashlight and cell phone and then called 911 while he tracked down the origin of screams.
Mayid called out when he got close to the shore and voice answered from the murky darkness and thicket of cattails that surrounded the lake .
"I asked him what was wrong, and he said, 'A gator got me,'" Mayid said.Polk Sheriff's Deputy Billy Osborne arrived on the scene and charged staight through the cattails and muddy water to find Apgar fifteen to twenty foot from the shore, crouched down in chest deep water. Apgar called out that a gator had him pinned, that both his arms were broken, and that another gator was nearby.
Another Deputy, Michael Parker, waded into the water until the two deputies were within a couple of feet of Apgar where they could see the gator had him in its grip. The deputies thought about shooting it, but Apgar was also in the line of fire.
After the alligator let Apgar go, then lunged in and gripped him once again, it was then that the deputies grabbed Apgar's arms and began a tug-o-war with the monster in the dark murky lake.
"He was saying, 'He's gonna kill me!'" Parker said.After a third deputy arrived the alligator managed to pull Apgar under the water. The deputies feared the worst as they could hear Apgar's screams. At least, they thought to themselves, Apgar's still alive. Then it happened, the gator's grip loosened on Apgar and the deputies were able to pull the 250 pound man to safety.
Apgar suffered serious injuries, a nearly severed left arm, a broken right arm, lacerations to his buttocks and body.
Sheriff Grady Judd said the answer as to why Apgar was nude and in the gator infested lake on a November night was that Apgar had been smoking crack.
No word yet as to why Apgar was found Thursday by Polk County deputies in the early morning hours in yet another body of water, again nude, claiming he was bitten by a snake while looking for an alligator.
Last time, on crack, a gator found him, nearly costing him his life. This time he's being held under Florida's Baker Law, a law which allows "authorities to commit people for psychological evaluations if they appear to be a danger to themselves or others."
By LBG
Image - Alligator
Source - Palm Beach Post
Source - The Ledger
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When the ropes that babysitter Charles Osteen used to tie up his 7-year-old charge continued to fail, Osteen turned to duct tape, a reinforced vinyl adhesive tape known to withstand 250 mph winds, but not, to Osteen's chargin and subsequent felony child neglect charge, seven year old boys.
By the time the Port Richey, Florida, babysitter returned from an errand the boy had escaped and gone over to play with neighborhood friends. Someone called 911 after the boy let it slip that his babysitter had duct taped him to the bed, a piece of which still stuck to his tennis shoe.
Osteen arrived before the authorities and took the boy. Witnesses said Osteen had an infant with him inside his car. Police went to Osteen's residence at 9233 Dresden Lane and found no one home. They found a piece of duct tape in the front yard and contacted Child Protective Services.
This was Saturday. It wasn't until Sunday that the police came back and talked to Osteen and the kid.
At first the kid said that he and Osteen were "playing a game" but then told authorities that he had been told to tell them it was a game. The boy also said it was the first time he had been tied up by duct tape.
Osteen told the authorities the kid aggravated him with "obnoxious" noises. Osteen said he warned the kid if he didn't stop he'd tie him up. Osteen said he used "poor judgment". Osteen was charged with felony child neglect, released from the Land O Lakes Jail after posting $5,000 bail.
SPECIAL FARK BONUS: Top 10 Uses for Duct Tape (if you're going to the prom.) 10. Cheaper than renting a tux or gown. 9. Resistant to punch spills. 8. Prom decorations start falling down? Just peel off part of your outfit and repair 'em on the spot. 7. The gals' dads LOVE those hard-to-remove duct tape gowns. 6. As you grow, you don't have to buy a new gown or tux, you just add more duct tape. 5. With duct tape hosiery, there's no need to shave your legs for weeks after the prom. 4. The sauna-like nature of duct tape apparel allows you to loose up to 20 pounds in one night. 3. Blame your lack of dancing skills on the stiffness of your duct tape tux. 2. Rip your outfit? Get out your roll and patch it! 1. Couples wearing duct tape tend to "stick together". --source: Top 10 Reasons you should wear duct tape to the prom |
By LBG
Image - Duct Tape
Source - Tampa Bay Online
* Babysitter Charged With Tying Kid Up with Duct Tape
Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.
A fifteen year old girl, alone in her room, sees mysterious text appear across her computer screen. The messages are ominous. "Submit nude photos or your family will be harmed."
Reads like a cheesy teen horror flick but it was all too real.
A 33-year-old North Carolina man sentenced Friday to 110 years in prison used "tools of terror" to hack into the computers of Brevard County girls and extort nude pictures from them, an assistant U.S. attorney said.Dickerson had hacked into the girls MySpace profiles.
Ivory Dickerson, a civil engineer, gained remote access to their computers, giving him the ability to type words onto their screens. He was arrested last December after girls at Rockledge High School told authorities their MySpace profiles had been hacked into and the person on the other end was demanding revealing and pornographic images.
He threatened to harm their family members, post nude pictures of them on the Web and, in one case, make a 17-year-old "the most well known girl at school" if they didn't do what he said, according to court records. [1]
One victim, who was 15 at the time of the incident, told U.S. District Court Judge Anne Conway during Friday's sentencing hearing that she felt as though the computer intruder was watching her every move.No word yet on the steps the cyber-site MySpace has taken to ensure member's profiles are hacker proof.
"I was afraid to walk outside because I didn't know if it was the neighbor," the girl said.
MySpace was involved in another high profile story, that of Megan Meiers, a fragile thirteen-year-old Missouri girl who took her life over a cyberbully incident.[2]
This predator's method of hacking into the girl's own computers and typing messages onto their screens is flat out creepy. Dickerson was sentenced to over 100 years in prison. His skills would have been better served in international espionage instead of stalking and terrorizing girls online.
Source - Orlando Sentinel
Source - 2- MySpace Cruel Prank Leads To Teen's Suicide
By LBG
Image [gamesforfree.net]
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The Tale Of Two Alleged Predators Posing As Prosecutors
Last October Assistant Federal Prosecutor John Atkinson killed himself after he was caught in a child sex sting.
In today's Houston Chronicle it was reported that child porn was found in a former District Attorney in Texas's home. Fifty seven year-old Louis “Bill” Conradt Jr., caught up in an internet child sex solicitation sting, shot himself last year when the cops showed up at his door.
Atchison’s perverse background was exposed when he was arrested and then arraigned September 17th in U.S. District Court in Detroit. The irony was that Atchison was an assistant U.S. Attorney from the northern district court of Florida.
According to the police Atchison solicited an undercover officer posing as a mother for the opportunity to have “sex” with her five-year-old daughter.
Atchison was arrested at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport and charged with “enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity.”
In deposition, detectives said Atchison suggested the mother tell her daughter that "you found her a sweet boyfriend who will bring her presents."Conradt, former Kaufman County District Attorney, was caught in an internet sting put together by the NBC show Dateline and the group, Perverted Justice. Conradt was accused of chatting online in a sexual manner with underage kids. A house was set up where those chatting online with the undercover adults were told they could meet the child. When Conradt failed to show up the cops went to his house armed with a search warrant and a Dateline camera crew.
The undercover detective expressed concern about physical injury to the 5-year-old girl as a result of the sexual activity. Detectives said Atchison responded, " I am always gentle and loving; not to worry, no damage ever, no rough stuff ever. I only like it soft and nice."
The undercover detective asked how Atchison can be certain of no injury. He responded, "Just gotta go slow and very easy. I've done it plenty," according to detectives. Click On Detroit
The state investigation into Conradt's death found evidence of the online graphic chats, according to a Texas Department of Public Safety report released to The Dallas Morning News. The chat logs covered topics such as sex, erections and masturbation, according to the investigation.
Also, three laptops, a cell phone and several computer disks found in the home "all contained pornographic material (and) some included child pornography," according to the state's investigation.
The Texas Department of Public Safety asked the state attorney general to allow it to withhold some of the report's contents because it "contains images the Department believes may constitute child pornography."
The attorney general's office granted the request, saying: "The submitted documents consist of photographs of unidentified males who generally appear to be juveniles.
Houston Chronicle
Atchison hanged himself in prison on October 5th. He wrapped a bedsheet around the showerhead of his cell. He was 54 years old. Conradt shot himself in his home. He was 57.
Because they chose suicide neither man had a trial nor conviction, left in the land of the "alleged." This raises a point, both these men were prosecutors. If they were, in fact, pedophiles, what about the cases they prosecuted? Did any those cases involve child sex and/or child pornography cases?
Some might claim that these men were "unjustly" accused and therefore felt killing themselves was their only way out.
Others might have the opinion that these two men, when caught, took the only way they knew out. The fate of child molesters in prison is not a pretty one.
These two cases highlight the fact that predators can be found anywhere in our society. If these two men had been convicted then we would have had known predators in charge of prosecuting their fellow child molesters and pornographers.
As for Achison and Conradt, they chose a different route. Why did they choose suicide instead of trusting the legal system, their own profession? Why didn't they feel they could trust the courts where a man is innocent until proven guilty?
By LBG
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