Amerika Today

Tour de France 2009 stage 7 results and standings put Contador ahead of Armstrong by 2 seconds

2009-07-11T12:06:00.000-07:00

Stage 7 was the first stage in the mountains, and the longest stage of the Tour de France, but when the riders had crossed the finish line seven time American champion Lance Armstrong was in third place just behind Alberto Contador and Italian rider Rinaldo Nocentini (team AG2R La Mondiale) who was in yellow and the lead.

Nocentini was part of an early breakaway and managed to stay in front long enough to win the yellow jersey.

Rockie Frenchman Brice Feillu (team Agritubel) won the stage on the power of his last 5K breakaway from the summit making him the star of the day and perhaps a new rising star in professional cycling.

It was the final 10 kilometer climb of stage 7 where team Astana stamped its authority on the race by controlling the stage as Alberto Contador broke free of the chase pack in the last kilometer to gain precious seconds on Armstrong who stayed back in the chase.

Top Stage 7 Results:

1 Brice Feillu (Agritubel)
2 Christophe Kern (Cofidis)
3 Johannes Fröhlinger (Milram)
4 Rinaldo Nocentini (AG2R La Mondiale)
Egoi Martínez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
Christophe Riblon (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Quick Step
Iván Gutiérrez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne
Alberto Contador (Spa) Astana 3:26
Cadel Evans (Aus) Silence-Lotto 3:48

GC Standings after Stage 7:

* 1. Rinaldo Nocentini Ag2r-La Mondiale in 25:44:32
* 2. Alberto Contador Astana in 25:44:38
* 3. Lance Armstrong Astana in 25:44:40 at 00:08
* 4. Levi Leipheimer Astana in 25:45:11 at 00:39
* 5. Bradley Wiggins Garmin - Slipstream in 25:45:18 at 00:46
* 6. Andréas KlÖden Astana in 25:45:26 at 00:54
* 7. Tony Martin Team Columbia - Htc in 25:45:32 at 01:00
* 8. Christian Vande Velde Garmin - Slipstream in 25:45:56 at 01:24
* 9. Andy Schleck Team Saxo Bank in 25:46:21 at 01:49
* 10. Vincenzo Nibali Liquigas in 25:46:26 at 01:54
* 11. Jérôme Pineau Quick Step in 25:46:42 at 02:10
* 12. Maxime Monfort Team Columbia - Htc in 25:46:53 at 02:21
* 13. Frank Schleck Team Saxo Bank in 25:46:57 at 02:25
* 14. Roman Kreuziger Liquigas in 25:47:12 at 02:40
* 15. Carlos Sastre Cervelo TestTeam in 25:47:24 at 02:52
* 16. Johannes FrÖhlinger Team Milram in 25:47:26 at 02:54
* 17. Franco Pellizotti Liquigas in 25:47:35 at 03:03
* 18. Cadel Evans Silence - Lotto in 25:47:39 at 03:07
* 19. Egoi Martinez Euskaltel - Euskadi in 25:47:42 at 03:10
* 20. Kim Kirchen Team Columbia - Htc in 25:47:48 at 03:16

Thunder announces Home Run Derby details

2009-07-11T12:02:00.000-07:00

(Trenton, NJ)- The Trenton Thunder, Double-A affiliate of the New York Yankees, announced the participants and other details for the Yankees-Steiner Collectibles Home Run Derby that will take place prior to the Eastern League All-Star Game on July 15th in Trenton, NJ.

The Home Run Derby will begin at approximately 4:45 PM and will feature Past, Present and Future sluggers. Participants will include Eastern League All-Stars, local High School All-Stars and a former Major Leaguer.

HR DERBY PARTICIPANTS

Brian Dopirak: Brian Dopirak leads the Eastern League in home runs with 19. The Crystal Beach, Florida native has appeared in 85 games for the Fisher Cats in 2009 and has a .313 batting average with 68 RBI which also leads the Eastern League. The first baseman was selected by the Chicago Cubs in the second round of the 2002 June draft. He was released by Chicago after the 2007 season and signed a free agent contract with the Toronto Blue Jays.

Jorge Vazquez: Jorge Vazquez is ranked 8th in the Eastern League with 12 home runs. The Culiacan, Mexico native has appeared in 52 games for the Trenton Thunder this season and has batted .332 with a team leading 51 RBI and a team high .584 slugging percentage. Vazquez also appeared in five games for Mexico in the 2009 World Baseball Classic and batted .294 with one home run and five RBI. Prior to the 2009 season, the first baseman spent 10 seasons in the Mexican League and sported a .321 career batting average in 627 games with 151 home runs and 491 RBI.

Rene Tosoni: Rene Tosoni is tied for 11th in the Eastern League with 10 home runs. The Toronto, Ontario native has appeared in 81 games for the New Britain Rock Cats and leads the team in home runs, games played, walks (36), runs scored (45), slugging percentage (.483), and RBI (49). Tosoni was drafted by the Twins in the 36th round of the 2005 June draft. The outfielder will also appear in the XM All Star Futures Game on July 13th at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

Michael Taylor: Michael Taylor is ranked 4th in the Eastern League with 15 home runs. The Apopka, Florida native is the No. 6 ranked prospect and "Best Power Hitter" in the Phillies Minor League System according to Baseball America. The outfielder has appeared in 82 games for Reading this season and he leads the team in batting average (.336), home runs, RBI (64) and hits (102). Taylor was selected by the Phillies in the 5th round of the 2007 draft out of Stanford University.

Brennan Boesch: Brennan Boesch is ranked 2nd in the Eastern League with 17 home runs. The Santa Monica, California native has appeared in 81 games for the Erie Sea Wolves this season and leads the team in home runs, RBI (56) and hits (83). The outfielder was selected by the Tigers in the 3rd Round of the 2006 June draft out of the University of California at Berkeley.

Nick Weglarz: Nick Weglarz is tied for 6th in the Eastern League with 13 home runs. The Stevensville, Ohio native has appeared in 82 games for the Akron Aeros this season and leads the team in RBI (58). The outfielder is the No. 3 ranked prospect in the Indians Minor League System according to Baseball America. He was selected by the Indians in the 3rd round of the 2005 June draft.

Frank Menechino: Frank Menechino is the Trenton Thunder hitting coach. He played in the majors from 1999-2005 for the Oakland Athletics and Toronto Blue Jays. He played second base, shortstop, third base and designated hitter. In his 7 year Major League career he hit a total of 36 HR and drove in 149 runs. Menechino played in the 1996 Double A All-Star game at Waterfront Park.

Mark Zagunis: Mark Zagunis just completed his sophomore season at Holy Cross High School in Delran, NJ. In 24 games this season, Mark batted .524 with 33 hits, 7 doubles, 2 triples, and 7 home runs (3rd in Burlington County Scholastic League). Zagunis homered at Waterfront Park on Sunday, May 17 in the Burlington County Scholastic League Championship against Delran High School.

Mike Fassl: Mike Fassl is a rising senior at New Egypt High School in New Eygpt, NJ. The catcher played in all 24 of his team's games during his freshman and sophomore years before being limited to just 9 games last season with an ACL injury. In his 57 game high school career, he has 5 HR, 49 RBI and a .344 batting average. He has participated in the Trenton Thunder Showcase and Blue Grey Classic at Waterfront Park.

Michael Jackson's Misery

2009-07-11T11:57:00.000-07:00

There is a belief around the world that rich and famous equals happiness. Unfortunately, in real life that is seldom the case. A case in point is Michael Jackson, who spent years and millions of dollars, running away from his pain of his father. By all accounts, his father was extremely abusive. He turned his family into a moneymaking proposition. Even after his son's death his father's main concern was to promote his new record label.

Michael Jackson spent his entire life trying to become the opposite of his father. His father was known to sleep with many different women; Michael Jackson became asexual. In an effort to avoid looking like his father he spent tens of thousands of dollars on cosmetic surgery. To run away from the blackness of his father he became white. He went so far as to have three children that had none of his father's blood inside of them.

In a sense, Michael Jackson was an incredibly lonely man still dealing with the scars of his growing up years, still trying to handle the internal pain of a young terrified child put in a place of being the breadwinner for the entire family. In the final analysis, Michael Jackson failed. He became rich and famous worldwide, but he never became whole. He never dealt with the pain given to him by his father.

Michael Jackson created a world of make-believe, filled with animals, strange behavior, dysfunctional friends and family in a place called Neverland ranch. He may have been the king of pop, but he was full of scars and pain. Any questions or comments email Dr H. Christian Gunderson at drgunderson@hotmail.com

Michael Jackson, the Memorial and the Aftermath

2009-07-09T11:40:00.000-07:00

Well, it's over, I think. I hope. Sort of. The memorial for Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, the man who beat a pedophilia rap, the androgynous Michael, is finally concluded as most of his body should be laid to rest at Forest Lawn Cemetery.

As grotesque as it sounds, MJ's brain will not yet be interred pending further examination by the L.A. coroner to determine the cause of death. Adding to the strangeness, there's a report as of this writing that the whereabouts of the rest of his body is unknown.

You couldn't make this stuff up if you tried.
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I caught a bit of Tuesday's festivities on the news since they were impossible to avoid. And it really did seem more a festival than a wake, except for the very touching, tearful remarks of his young daughter, Paris Michael Jackson.

The eleven year old was evidently heartbroken at her loss, yet braved the thousands at the Staples Center to express her sorrow. Some believe she was forced to speak at the end of the services, exploited as one more element of "a macabre circus. That British observation went on to add that the glitzy superficiality was all "a reminder of why Michael Jackson became [and died] a deeply unhappy, lonely man living an utterly bizarre existence," a comment few American media would dare make.

It also established a "world record . . . for the most people wearing sunglasses indoors."

Nevertheless, coerced or not, anyone not moved by the child's few words and sincere grief either has no soul or has no heart.

Neither Jackson's son, nor his dad or mom, spoke although a host of others-family, friends, and sycophantic, parasitic hangers on-did step to the stage to voice their feelings in speeches and songs over the passing of the King.

Included were, of all people, Al Sharpton, Magic Johnson, and one of the few Whites granted stage time, Jacko's former girl buddy, Brooke Shields.

It's a fine line treaded at times such as these when to criticize any newly deceased is deemed beneath low and rotten. However, to heap praise on a failed human being and pretend he was not deeply flawed is patently hypocritical and false.

Obviously, not all concur on that failure or his flaws and it was a memorial, after all, an occasion to laud the dead although some of the praise seemed just a tad excessive.

One of the bereaved toasted Wacko Jacko as "the greatest entertainer of all time," apparently forgetting Elvis, Sinatra, and the Beatles as well as what must have been awesome stars in ancient Babylonia and Sumeria.

However, that's quibbling for Michael Jackson was definitely the greatest entertainer of the last generation even if some would argue for Bart Simpson.

All that aside, did Jackson's obsequies really merit the worldwide attention and publicity it was accorded?

It has been called America's answer to Britain's reaction to the death of Lady Diana, another extreme over-reaction which occurred coincidentally with the passing of Mother Theresa, a true international heroine.

The latter was virtually ignored by the media and the world. There's just so much space in the print media and limited television time. Besides, Lady Di had a larger fan club.

For those thirsting for a play-by-play, almost minute-by-minute account of the Staples' event, immediately followed by the arrival of a literal circus, see this other Brit article: http://bit.ly/EBicN.

For those interested in reality, most Americans think the whole thing was farcically over the top.

One unofficial poll by the Washington Times, which tends to be more objective than those other Times in New York and Los Angeles, reported some 93% of respondents felt it was overdone while 1% thought it was underdone: http://bit.ly/13V0pR.

Over or under, I'd vote for unnecessary. Likewise unneeded and inappropriate is the proposal by Rep. Sheila Jackson- Lee (D. TX) for a congressional resolution honoring Michael Jackson "forever" as a world humanitarian. As silly as that suggestion is, it will probably be passed by politicians leery of black backlash.

Recall Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

To her credit, Jackson-Lee, in defense of the King, thought it worthwhile to remind the crowd at the Staples Center that the American Constitution holds everyone "innocent until proven guilty," alluding to the dark clouds of suspected child molestation that hung over Jackson's head for decades.

See previous articles on that topic.

In the interests of fairness on Jackson's coverage since his untimely, seemingly drug-induced death, I've attempted to provide a counterbalance, citing not just his transparent oddities but granting his achievements as an entertainer. To dismiss or forget those dark clouds is to overlook a major part of the essence of Michael Jackson.

I'm hardly alone in trying to forestall the canonization of Michael.

Rep. Peter King, a committed New York conservative who may run for Senator Kirstin Gillibrand's seat, courageously ventured into a political minefield by reflecting my viewpoints regarding MJ and his proclivities.

Rep. King called a spade a spade when he unflinchingly opined that Michael Jackson was not only a pedophile but a "lowlife" and "pervert" and contrasted his life with the lives of real American heroes, our soldiers, firemen, and cops. See the video here: http://bit.ly/pK7gL

Whether King's honesty will prove a negative for his future political success will be determined in the next election but his courage in speaking out against the tide of "glorification," as he called the Jackson phenomenon, can never be faulted.

Rep. King audaciously spoke the truth, which is something that wasn't heard above the din of the accolades at the Tuesday fete and won't be heard from other politicians. Unless they have a political death wish.

The truth shall set you free, we are told. If there's any truth to that, I sincerely hope that before he succumbed to his fame and drugs that Michael Joseph Jackson, the King of Pop, had at least a fleeting moment when he admitted and repented his sins to the King of Kings, his God.

He never admitted those sins to his hundreds of millions of fans.

For those who just couldn't get enough of the 24/7, all-Michael-Jackson coverage of the past 2 weeks, another tribute is planned for London in August. I wouldn't expect any further reference to Jackson's pedophilia, however.

LeBron Gets Dunked On, Nike Rep Allegedly Confiscates the Video

2009-07-09T10:11:00.000-07:00

By many eyewitness accounts, there was a major two-handed dunk thrown down by Xavier's Jordan Crawford on Monday, during a pickup game at the LeBron James Skills Academy in Akron, Ohio. Not a big deal, really, because highlight-worthy dunks happen in summer pickup games all the time, especially when there's nothing at stake and the defense can at times be non-existent.

This one, however, was a big deal. And not just because the dunk in question happened on the head of LeBron James himself, but because we will likely never be able to see it -- thanks to a rep from Nike allegedly confiscating video of the incident shortly after it took place.

Nike basketball senior director Lynn Merritt confiscated tapes from two photographers – one being freelancer Ryan Miller - filming Monday night's games in which James played with the college players for the LeBron James Skills Academy.

Miller had been filming for about 15 minutes - which included footage of the high school players - and was approached almost immediately after Crawford's dunk over The King.

Presumably, the decision was made that by allowing this video to get out and appear on YouTube, it would somehow be damaging to LeBron's reputation, which is obviously something that the people of Nike don't want to have happen. But by making sure no one will ever see the clip by confiscating tapes, they honestly could not have done a worse job of handling the situation.

First of all, who cares if someone gets dunked on in some summer pickup game, even if it is the reigning MVP of the league? It's not like everyone is going all out in these things, and while a dunk like that might hype up the reputation of a relative unknown like Crawford, it's going to have an effect of absolutely zero in the way people perceive LeBron James.

Second, and likely of more importance to the folks at Nike, is the fact that this story has spread like wildfire over the internet. It's already popped up on several major sports blogs, and Twitter is blowing up on the subject, with people sending around old video clips of LeBron getting dunked on, and even making their own Nike-themed posters of the now infamous event.

Bad move, Nike. And let's not forget, this comes after an unexpected playoff exit, and a controversy about sportsmanship when LeBron didn't shake hands with the Magic players or speak to the media until two days later.

Where is Michael Jackson's brain?

2009-07-09T09:50:00.000-07:00

WHAT killed Michael Jackson? Where's he's body being kept? And where's his brain? These are the key questions that still remain unanswered 24 hours after his moving memorial yesterday.
After the service, LAPD Chief William J. Bratton would say only, "We have to keep some secrets.”

Jackson truths emerge amid burial row

There are still so many lingering questions about Jackson's death.

What killed Michael?

Jackson's official death certificate (see it here) lists cause of death as "deferred."

Where is Michael Jackson’s body being kept?

Sources familiar with the case told the L.A. Times the singer's body was in safekeeping after being released to the family following the autopsy by the Los Angeles County coroner.

Where is Michael Jackson's brain?

Jackson's brain, or at least some of it, is still being held by investigators and would be returned to the family for burial after all the tests are completed.

“As soon as we are done with the brain, we will return it,” Ed Winter, the assistant chief coroner, said. “The last I heard, they are not burying the body yet.”

Where will he be buried?

It is still not known where Jackson will be buried. His body was transported to the memorial service on Tuesday from Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood’s “cemetery of the stars”.

Michael Jackson memorial service online full coverage

Special section: Michael Jackson Memorial Service

Photos: Stars, fans and family honour Michael Jackson at memorial service

Photos: Fans from around the world in tears as they farewell Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson children told: Nothing strange about your father

Join our Michael Jackson tribute blog

Paris and her moving tribute to daddy Michael

A-list stars farewell Michael Jackson: Full list of guests

Tribute quotes from world leaders, family, friends for Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson memorial service takes spiritual tone

How Sydney fans mourned Michael Jackson across the city

The absence of a burial has revived hopes by fans that Jackson will be laid to rest at his Neverland ranch, or be cremated and have his ashes sprinkled there.

“I have friends buried at Forest Lawn and it’s really, really peaceful, but Neverland is where he called home,” Vena Knipple, a book-keeper and fan, said.

Jackson's family may be waiting for Jackson’s brain to be released before burying him. They have reportedly filed for a burial permit with the vital records department in Los Angeles County, suggesting that the body will be interred in Los Angeles rather than Neverland, in Santa Barbara County.

Ken Ehrlich, who produced the Jackson memorial, said yesterday that the Jackson family had insisted on a church-style service - not a television show. “We were kind of mandated to bring Michael home in church,” Ehrlich said on The Early Show on CBS.

He said that he gulped when he learnt that the casket would be taken to the service. He said that Jackson’s physical presence “lifted everything” at the memorial.

The coroner is awaiting the result of toxicology tests amid reports that Jackson abused prescription drugs, including the anaesthetic propofol, which is marketed as Diprivan.

Michael Jackson to be buried brainless, coroners say brain must "harden" so tests can be completed.

2009-07-09T09:46:00.000-07:00

Pop star Michael Jackson will be laid to rest today in a Los Angeles cemetary without his brain. Doctors investigating the cause of his death are retaining it for an undetermined period of time so they can perform further tests.

mj.jpg[The] LA coroner's office has still not completed its tests on Jackson's brain, and the singer's family have been advised that unless they wish to wait, he must be buried without it.

Jackson died from an apparent cardiac arrest on 25 June. Though his body was released the next day to relatives, his brain was not. The pop star's inert brain must "harden" for at least two weeks before doctors can conduct their neuropathology tests.

Doctors will examine Jackson's brain to help determine the cause of death, suspected of being linked to painkillers. Such examinations can also reveal unknown diseases, evidence of alcohol abuse or whether Jackson has suffered overdoses in the past.

Removing the brain is the "only way to carry out the tests" according to a source for the Mirror. "The tissue has to be examined. I can't tell you how long that is going to take."

Michael Jackson’s brain was missing from coffin

2009-07-09T09:43:00.000-07:00

London, July 9 (ANI): Michael Jackson’s brain was not their when his body lay in the golden casket at his memorial service, it has been confirmed.

The late King of Pop’s brain has been kept for toxicology tests by experts who want to find out the singer’s fatal heart attack was caused by painkillers.

"As soon as we are done with the brain, we’ll return it. The last I heard, they are not burying the body yet," the Sun quoted assistant chief coroner Ed Winter as saying.

The ‘Thriller’ hitmaker’s death certificate - signed by sister La Toya - lists the cause of death as deferred.

Recently, Los Angeles Coroner’s spokesman Craig Harvey said that neuropathology tests are going to be conducted to see if the brain holds any clues to the exact cause of Jackson’s death.

However, the examination cannot start until at least two weeks after the death when the brain has hardened sufficiently to slice it open.

Sources at the coroner’s office revealed that his brain was removed before his body was released to relatives the next day. (ANI)

Serial Killer in Cherokee Country

2009-07-07T02:57:00.000-07:00

Does small town South Carolina have a serial killer on their hands? Five people have been killed in South Carolina. A teenage girl shot while helping her father in their family's small furniture and appliance store died Saturday, becoming the fifth victim of a suspected serial killer terrorizing a small South Carolina community, authorities said.

Abby Tyler, 15, died about 11:15 a.m. at a Spartanburg hospital after fighting for her life for two days, Cherokee County Coroner Dennis Fowler said.

Tyler was wounded and her father was killed Thursday as they worked to close the Tyler Home Center near downtown Gaffney.

County Sheriff Bill Blanton said investigators believe the killings are linked and the search is on for a suspected male serial killer. An 83-year-old mother and her daughter were shot to death Wednesday, and a 63-year-old peach farmer was found dead at his home a week ago.Blanton said all the victims were shot, but he would not say how the deaths were linked. The shootings all occurred within about 10 miles of each other in Cherokee County, a rural community of 54,000 people set amid peach orchards and farms some 50 miles west of Charlotte, N.C.

Suspected S.C. serial killer shot dead in N.C.

2009-07-07T02:49:00.000-07:00

Authorities are reporting that a burglary suspect slain in North Carolina was the man wanted as the serial killer in South Carolina.
As On Deadline reporter earlier police shot and killed a man suspected of trying to burglarize a home in Dallas, N.C.

Ballistics of the gun and bullets found on the still-unidentified man match those used to kill residents in and around Gaffney, S.C., about 30 miles away, said State Law Enforcement Deputy Director Neil Dolan. reporting A news conference will be held tonight. yesterday hundreds mourned an elderly woman and her daughter, two of the killer's five victims.

(Sketch of suspected serial killer by the Cherokee County Sheriff's Department via Spartanburg Herald Journal.)

Here's what the Associated Press is

Police Say South Carolina Spree Killer Had Long Rap Sheet

2009-07-07T02:43:00.000-07:00

GAFFNEY, S.C. — The serial killer who terrorized a South Carolina community by shooting five people to death before police killed him Monday was a career criminal paroled just two months ago, authorities said.

Patrick Burris, 41, was shot to death by officers investigating a burglary complaint at a home in Gastonia, N.C., 30 miles from where the killing spree started June 27. Bullets in his gun matched those that killed residents in and around Gaffney over six days last week, said State Law Enforcement Division Chief Reggie Lloyd.

Investigators did not have an address for Burris. While evidence left no doubt he was the killer, they still had no idea why he did it.

"He was unpredictable. He was scary. He was weird," said SLED Deputy Director Neil Dolan.

Burris had a long rap sheet filled with charges such as larceny, forgery and breaking and entering from states across the Southeast, including Florida, Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland. He had been paroled from a North Carolina prison in April after serving nearly eight years.

"Look at this," Lloyd said, waiving a stapled copy of Burris' criminal record. "This is like 25 pages. At some point the criminal justice system is going to need to explain why this suspect was out on the street."

Gaffney farmer Sam Howell, 61, was among dozens of people from Cherokee County who came to the news conference where authorities identified Burris.

"My prayers were answered. He got what he deserved," Howell said. "He scared the hell out of everyone. I guess we can feel better but we've lost some of our innocence."

The mystery ended in Gastonia early Monday after a couple called police to report a suspicious sport utility vehicle in their neighborhood.

Mike and Terri Valentine were on edge because the Gaffney serial killer was just a short drive away.

They watched two people who sometimes visit the neighboring home get out of the vehicle, followed by a third man who matched the description of the killer: tall, heavyset, unshaven and wearing a baseball cap. The man appeared to be very drunk, Mike Valentine said.When officers went inside, Terri Valentine said she heard someone yell "put it down" and heard a gunshot.

Then "bam, bam, bam, bam. Next thing I know, all of Gaston County was here," she said.

Gaston County police said the other two people were in custody, but did not indicate whether they were facing charges.

The Gaffney killings happened in a 10-mile area over six days. A peach farmer was killed June 27, an 83-year-old woman and her daughter were found bound and shot four days later, and the next day a father and his teen daughter were shot in their family's furniture store.

The investigation isn't over, and Cherokee County Sheriff Bill Blanton said investigators will trace the suspect's recent activities and trying to figure out if he has killed other people in other places.

"Now we have someone we can focus on," Blanton said.

He said he hopes the arrest calms the fears of 54,000 people in the county 50 miles west of Charlotte, N.C., known for its peach orchards and mills.

"We feel the victims' pain," Blanton said. "This isn't over. We're just changing gears."

Seriel Killer Patrick Tracy Burries Shot & Kill by Police in North Carolina

2009-07-07T02:35:00.000-07:00

The man suspected of being the South Carolina serial Killer who murdered 5 people was shot to death by police investigating a burglary in Gastonia, NC. 41 year old. Patrick Tracy Burries was shot and killed by police .He was identified as the same individual responsible for the murders of 5 people near Gaffney, South Caroline as police matched the bullets in the suspects gun to those used in the SC murders through balistics test Authorities did not immediately say where Burris was from.

“We have him. He’s our serial killer,” Dolan said Monday night.

Authorities said Burris has had several encounters with law enforcement over the years.

Dolan said the physical evidence leaves no doubt the slain suspect was the person who shot 5 people to death over six days.But investigators still have no idea why he started the killing spree June 27.The citizens of Gaffney, SC can sleep more sound tonight knowing that the man who terrorized their community by killing 5 unsuspecting victims is himself death toninght “We believe a killer is off the streets,” Lloyd said.

Burris was killed early Monday morning in Dallas, North Carolina, after police received a call about a possible burglary in progress, officers there said. At a news conference Monday evening, investigators described him as a “habitual felon” with a record in several states and who was on probation at the time he was killed.
South Carolina Serial Killer Suspect is death police says
The suspect was identified as Patrick Tracy Burris, 41, who was wanted for parole violations. The weapon he used last night in the North Carolina burglary matched the weapon used in the South Carolina shooting, said Gaffney County Sheriff Bill Blanton at a news conference Monday night. The suspect has numerous convictions for armed robbery, weapons possession, forgery and possessing stolen goods.

Michael Jackson: News Details Death

2009-07-05T12:45:00.000-07:00

Michael Jackson news is all over the place at the moment. There are some details coming to light about his death, but not much. One of the biggest mysteries surrounding it all is concerning his mystery doctor, who may have given him an injection of Demerol only hours before his fatal heart attack. What we do know is that the best Michael Jackson Videos will always stay with us as a tribute to the great performer known as the King of Pop.

Regardless of the Michael Jackson prescription drug abuse allegations and his former problems with child molestation or his addiction to plastic surgery, the problems faced by the once glorious singer have caused his inevitable death. No one can doubt that he was once the King of Pop, though those days of innocence and genius were well and truly over long before the events of the last few days.

I once had the privilege of going to one of Michael Jackson's thriller concerts. This was something really memorable and a highlight of my childhood musical experiences. It is just a shame that things started to go down hill for the singer soon after that. Who knows why? Maybe nobody. Maybe only Michael himself understood what was happening in his life. Maybe he didn't even know.

Certainly there is a question as to whether emotional or mental illness played a part in his falling into a tragic downward spiral. He was out of control financially and his personality was tainted at best with his seeming obsession with children and childishness. There are some who believe that he was reacting to the pressures of being a child star. And who could blame him. Such pressures are unknown to the majority of people.

But Michael Jackson lives on in the lives of his children and this can't be forgotten. Whatever our opinions about the man, his children are innocent players in the drama of his life and we can only hope that they get through their lives with less drama than their superstart dad. Hopefully they can find a good home and be brought up out of the spotlight, though this seems unlikely.

So lets return to the things we loved about the King of Pop, Michael Jackson. Let's remember the Jackson Five and the best selling Thriller album. Let's remember his contribution to world peace and fighting hunger and poverty. And lets remember his former innocence when the media circus finally leaves town.

Britney Spears is pregnant again for the third time

2009-07-05T12:42:00.000-07:00

Could Britney Spears really be pregnant again and for the third time? Britney Spears is four weeks pregnant with her third child. And no, thankfully the baby daddy is not the perpetually unemployed Kevin Federline.

This could be the shocker of '09 - is Britney Spears pregnant with baby number three. Ryan Seacrest talked about it on his KIIS FM radio show on Wednesday, claiming he heard the news from "a reliable source." Britney Spears' camp is squashing the latest round of rumors that the star is pregnant - ones circulated by Ryan Seacrest of all people on his radio show. Seacrest posted a message (on Twitter, natch) earlier in the day saying, "I heard a rumor about Brit that I want to investigate before I give more deets!!" Britney Spears spokesman Adam Leber released a statement denying it. "She's absolutely not pregnant," Leber said "I have no idea where this ridiculous rumor came from ... Ryan Seacrest has communication with our camp and could have checked this before saying it."With the amount of sex Britney Spears supposedly has according to celebrity gossip magazines - Chase Benz, K-Fed, etc. - it's only a matter of time before she ends up carrying baby #3. However, these stories may be a tad erroneous.

After all, since she's not allowed to say a word under the conservatorship, and doesn't know where she is half the time anyway, scheduling in sessions of unrequited boning with sundry characters may pose logistical difficulties.If Britney Spears is pregnant, who's the father? Before this alleged pregnancy was announced, Britney Spears was being linked to all kinds of men. There was one of her backing dancers, for instance, along with her tour manager, a member of Good Charlotte and her ex-husband Kevin Federline. A source close to the star told me: "She's very angry that it has come out like this. She's shocked because the pregnancy is the last thing she needs right now."She had a scan last month and only told close friends the result. Even her family were out of the loop."Britney had a fling after a wild night out in LA as her bitter divorce battle with K-FED dragged on.

A US magazine reported that her on-off boyfriend JR ROTEM had confirmed the baby rumours but Britney said the story was "bull****" and "completely fake". Contrary to the statement J.R. Rotem released on November 28, In Touch has documented proof that on Monday, November 26, the music producer did indeed confirm in these text messages that Britney is pregnant and that he is the father. When asked about rumors about Britney's pregnancy and whether he is the father, J.R. texted "It's true." And when questioned about Britney's intentions regarding her unborn baby, he responded, "No clue on what she will do. She is unpredictable."

Get more information visit, Latest Britney News

Britney Spears Diamond Ring Engagement Wedding

2009-07-05T12:41:00.001-07:00

Hollywood Jewelry News, Britney Spears, known as the princess of pop loves flashing her diamonds and exclusive jewelry. Britney Spears got married three times which must mean three beautiful extravagent rings. But unfortunately there were only two diamond rings involved.

Britney Spears was married to her backup dancer Kevin Federline on October 6, 2004. Kevin Federline gave Britney Spears a platinum ring band with a 5.5 carat round cut diamond solitaire, in a classic style. On September 14, 2005 Britney Spears gave birth to Sean Preston Federline. On September 12, 2006 Britney gave birth to another son Jayden James Federline.

On June 27, 2009 Britney Spears was seen flaunting a beautiful large diamond ring on her wedding finger given to her by fiance Jason Trawick. The two were first seen going to a party for a fashion designer, while all along Britney Spears was showing off her new diamond ring.

Britney Spears actually has two engagement rings: the first was a $40,000 platinum ring she purchased herself before wedding Kevin Federline. Nine months after they married, while she was pregnant with their first child, he found the means to present her with a second ring. Despite the scandal and heresy that has shadowed Spears' career, that nostalgic gesture clearly demonstrates the love between husband and wife and shows how they both value classic traditions. Article By dalesinc.com DALES Diamond Store

Michael Jackson, Yoga and Art of Sleeping

2009-07-05T12:39:00.000-07:00

nsomnia can be described as a symptom of a sleeping disorder, is an inability to sleep or chronic sleeplessness. According to one estimate, approximately 64 million Americans regularly suffer from insomnia each year.

As per recent news, Michael Jackson also suffered from insomnia. He was seeking drug to get some sleep. He requested for the powerful sedative Diprivan, despite warnings that it could be harmful to his health.

If you experience difficulty to sleep at night, incorporating yoga into the life can certainly help, especially if the reason for insomnia is stress-related.

You will wake up every morning completely fresh with full of energy instead of wishing you could stay in bed.

Yoga will certainly help in case of insomnia. With regular practice of yoga, the quality of sleep is bound to improve because of the stimulatory effect yoga has on the nervous system, and particularly on the brain. The practice of yoga postures such as Child's pose and Headstand can increase the blood circulation to the sleep centre in the brain, which can normalize the sleep.

One can have a more restful sleep because of the relaxing aspect of yoga and the subsequent relieving of stress and fatigue. Exercising Hatha Yoga at least four times a week is a good choice.

In addition to regular yoga, following are additional step one can take if suffering from Insomnia.

(a) It is best to avoid drinks such as coffee before sleeping. (b) The last meal should have been taken at least three hours before sleeping. (c) Regular practice of yoga relaxation techniques is good before sleeping.

If these recommendations are followed, one should have no problem getting a good night's sleep.

Yoga exercises can help to beat stress, which is a common factor in sleep disorders. In fact you can also do Yoga at night just before going to bed, if sleeping is difficult for you and you will be surprised to see the amazing benefits.

World Mourns Michael Jackson, Hails 'Heir To Elvis' by Rambo

2009-06-30T01:26:00.000-07:00

LOS ANGELES/LONDON: Michael Jackson's death dominated news bulletins, radio airwaves and social networking sites all over the world on Friday as tributes poured in for a man called the "King of Pop" and "natural heir to Elvis". The 50-year-old, whose towering musical legacy was tarnished by often bizarre behaviour and sex scandals, was pronounced dead at 2:26 p.m. PDT (2126 GMT) on Thursday after arriving at a Los Angeles hospital in full cardiac arrest.

"King of pop is dead. Black day for music," was the simple message on the Twitter messaging site left by johnyvergosa.Other contributors expressed disbelief at the suddenness of Jackson's death, which came less than three weeks before he was due to launch a series of comeback concerts in London. The singer's lasting appeal, despite life as a virtual recluse since his acquittal of child abuse charges at a sensational 2005 trial, was underlined when 750,000 fans of all ages snapped up tickets for the sellout gigs. From "Thriller" to "Billie Jean" and "Rock With You" to "The Way You Make Me Feel", Jackson's hits filled the airwaves. Local politics and global affairs were bumped off the front pages of newspapers, trading rooms across Asia were abuzz with the news and entertainment websites saw a surge in traffic. "The King of Pop is Dead" read the main headline of Britain's Independent newspaper, below a full-page portrait.Rina Masaoka, a 21-year-old college student in Japan, said: "This will probably be as shocking as Princess Diana's death." On Thursday, dozens of fans gathered near Jackson's modest boyhood home in Gary, to pay their respects to the entertainer who left the city long ago. Flawed Genius Commentators reflecting on Jackson's life focused on his flaws as well as his global fame and musical flare. "For all his tragic flaws as a human being, Jackson could legitimately be seen as the greatest entertainer of his generation, the natural successor to Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley," Richard Williams wrote in the Guardian newspaper.Jackson sold an estimated 750 million records, a figure that is likely to rise with the expected posthumous re-release of his hits. "Thriller", which came out in 1982, remains the best-selling album of all time.Jackson also won 13 Grammy Awards, made boundary-breaking music videos and his slick dance moves were imitated by legions of fans, and fellow pop stars, around the world. But his preference for the company of children, high-pitched voice, numerous plastic surgeries and life as a virtual recluse earned him many critics and the nickname "Wacko Jacko." When he came to London to announce his residency at the O2 Arena starting on July 13, bookmakers immediately took bets on whether he would turn up for the first show, amid concerns and rumours over his physical and mental health. His sudden death, nevertheless, came as a surprise. "I spoke to Michael only a few days ago and he was absolutely on top of everything, working hard and really excited about (the) forthcoming shows," said Mark Lester, a former child actor and godfather to Jackson's children. "It is just unbelievable," he told Sky News.Quincy Jones, who worked closely with Jackson on some of his most successful recordings, led tributes from the music world. "I am absolutely devastated at this tragic and unexpected news," he said of one of the first black entertainers of the MTV generation to gain a big crossover following. Pop star Madonna said: "I can't stop crying over the sad news ... I have always admired Michael Jackson. The world has lost one of the greats but his music will live on forever." Germany's Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, speaking in front of the Adlon Hotel where in 2002 Jackson caused a stir by dangling his baby from a top floor window in front of adoring fans, described Jackson as a truly great artist. "But his life was also rather tragic in the end...That's why I hope his whole life is taken into account when reflecting upon his death and not only the last few years."

Michael Jackson Dies At 50

2009-06-30T01:25:00.000-07:00

Pop star Michael Jackson, who bridged the gap between black soul and white pop music, has died in Los Angeles on Thursday, according to media reports. He was 50. Jackson had been rushed by ambulance to a Los Angeles-area hospital after suffering from cardiac arrest, according to a report from the Times. Capt. Steve Ruda, an official with the Los Angeles Fire Department, told the Times that Jackson was not breathing when paramedics responded to a call at his Los Angeles home about 12:30 p.m. The paramedics performed CPR and took him to UCLA Medical Center, Ruda told the newspaper. Police in Los Angeles have blockaded streets around Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Hundreds of fans and media gathered outside Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after reports began circulating that he had been transferred there. His family were also reported to be on their way to the hospital. There had been recent reports that Jackson was in poor health, and his London concert series, billed as a farewell to London, was postponed by a few days. However, the concerts quickly sold out, a testament to the enduring appeal of the singer, known as the "King of Pop."

Jackson left an indelible mark on pop music, largely on account of his 1980s hits such asBeat It and Billie Jean. His music set the world dancing, with a catchy beat and innocuous lyrics. He also set a new standard for music videos with the creative and gripping Thriller, a horror-film spoof that Jackson wrote and produced with John Landis in 1983. He won two Grammy Awards for the Thriller video, and MTV named it the best video ever made. In recent years, he was much in the news for his financial and legal troubles, including the auctioning of personal items and the battle over his Neverland ranch. His odd personal appearance and relationship with his children also detracted from his image. But he remained one of pop's most successful musicians, winning 13 Grammy Awards and selling 750 million albums worldwide. Thriller spent 37 weeks at top of pop charts Born in Gary, Ind., in 1958, Michael Jackson began his music career at the age of five, joining his brothers Jackie, Tito, Marlon and Jermaine as the lead singer of the family pop music group, the Jackson Five. The group played at nightclubs in the Gary area, and young Michael soon made a name for himself as a singer and dancer of exceptional ability. In 1968, the Jackson Five signed with Motown Records and moved to California. The group ruled the charts in the late 1960s and early '70s, and its first four singles, I Want You Back, ABC, The Love You Save and I'll Be There, all became No. 1 American hits. The Jackson Five recorded 14 albums and Michael Jackson recorded four solo albums with Motown. In 1978, Jackson made his film debut in The Wiz, playing the Scarecrow, with Diana Ross in the lead role of Dorothy. Jakson's first big solo success was the 1979 album Off the Wall, which spawned a record-breaking four No. 1 singles in the U.S. and earned Jackson his first American Music Award. His 1982 album Thriller made him a musical phenomenon. Produced by Quincy Jones, it spanned a number of pop genres and reigned for 37 weeks on top of the charts. It produced seven hit singles, and the videos that accompanied them made Jackson's signature moonwalk one of the best-known dance moves in the world. His Bad, Dangerousand HIStory albums also were bestsellers. In the 1980s, he racked up industry awards, honours from the United Negro College Fund and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, as well as a reputation as one of the world's most beloved entertainers. He was a key player in the all-star 1985 benefit single We Are the World, written by Jackson and Lionel Richie, which raised $60 million US for hunger relief in Africa. Survived by three children, two ex-wives But, in recent years, Jackson became better known for his troubled life, and his legal and financial problems, which included battling a variety of lawsuits from former business associates and creditors.In 2003, Britain's ITV network broadcast a documentary called Living with Michael Jackson for which British journalist Martin Bashir interviewed the controversial pop star over a period of eight months. ABC purchased the rights to broadcast it to American audiences on 20/20. Revelations about Jackson's personal life in the documentary were one of the factors that resulted in his trial on charges of child molestation. He was later acquitted of all charges. The months Jackson spent in court took their toll on him. He felt betrayed by Bashir, whom he had grown to trust, and he was forced to watch many former friends testify against him. In recent years, there were talks of a comeback tour and another album, but neither materialized. Jackson had two brief marriages - to Lisa Marie Presley, whom he married in 1994, and to Deborah Rowe, whom he married in 1996. Rowe is the mother of his son, Prince Michael Jackson Jr., and his daughter, Paris Michael Katherine. Jackson's second son, Prince Michael II, was born in 2001, to an anonymous surrogate mother.

Goodbye JACKO....

2009-06-26T13:51:00.000-07:00

Michael Jackson's life is a modern day tragedy.

A star at 11, a teen idol as an adolescent and the King of Pop before he hit 30, Jackson spent what should have been the best years of his life confused, hounded and haunted, an Alice in Wonderland creature in a world of pop culture that he helped to create.

We all must mourn twice today. First, the loss of a great musical and stage talent. But that person disappeared long ago.

Second, we mourn the arc of a life that should have been filled with the blessings of success as defined in our world: money, talent, fame and celebrity. But instead it descended into a hellish purgatory on earth -- damned by public opinion and tortured by demons only he understood.

It was a life left in ruins. His death is a shock, and we can only expect the unexpected in the coroner's report.

But it is not nearly as shocking as the events that led to an untimely demise we could only expect sooner rather than later.

A child prodigy. An adored adolescent. Then -- pop star bizarre. Accusations of pedophilia. Million dollar shopping sprees. A hyperbaric chamber. Evian water piped into the tap on tour. A fake marriage (to Lisa-Marie Presley) and sad surrogate parenting (with Deborah Rowe). Caucasian children who wore veils when in public, and two of whom were named -- who would do this to a child? -- Prince Michael.

The world will have a hard time writing Michael Jackson's epitaph. We see him, frozen forever in time, electric on stage, sliding his inimitable way through Thriller, a defining image in our collective memory.

We see him singing about racial harmony. We see him pleading for world peace. Singing of brotherly love with his friend Diana Ross. Begging for a cure for AIDS, with his pal Liz Taylor. Influencing music and fashion and dance for three decades., generations of fans.

We made names for him: the King of Pop. The Gloved One. Or he was just plain Michael.

And we see him creating the fantasy childhood world at Neverland, where he entertained children dying of cancer.

Then we see him accused of molesting children -- children he abused, or so it certainly seemed. But it got complicated; some were children who may well have used him for fame and fortune, for headlines and a book deal.

It was ugly. It felt dirty. We were learning, along the way, about the treacherous nature of celebrity in our modern age. He embodied the vice, and helped it morph into an epidemic.

We found new names for him: Whacko Jacko. My kids would ask: Mom, is Michael Jackson black or white? In Three Kings, an Iraqi torturer asks US soldier Mark Wahlberg: Hey man, what happened to Michael Jackson's face?

And yet his fans stuck by him. There were always those waiting outside the courtroom who screamed his name like a prayer, a mantra. Who would never believe the worst.

Because in fact, Michael Jackson always seemed harmless. More, he seemed like someone who needed our protection. And this much was true: he needed our love and approval. He lived for it, and the only place he ever got it was on stage.

That's where he was preparing to return, to the one place he could find the love and adulation that never seemed to register anywhere else.

Child of America was Gone

2009-06-26T13:50:00.000-07:00

"You and I must make a pact, we must bring salvation back, where there is love, I'll be there..."

"I'll Be There" was one of the first songs that introduced us to that legendary performing/recording act of five brothers, The Jackson 5, featuring the angelic voice of a small, skinny kid named Michael. Centered mostly around little brother's vocals, these Gary, Indiana, siblings further busted up the pop and r&b charts with such memorable Motown hits as "I Want You Back," "ABC," "The Love You Save," "Mama's Pearl," "Never Can Say Goodbye," "Sugar Daddy," and later, "Dancing Machine," and their music became the soundtrack of the early seventies, it being impossible to have not owned at least one of those infectious singles. A mere year or so later, the pre-teen Michael Jackson (marketed as being two years younger) became a solo artist, with his own run of child's view singles that included his first monster hit and release, "Got To Be There," followed by his cover of Bobby Day's "Rockin' Robin," "I Wanna Be Where You Are," and the theme song to the movie Ben starring Lee Montgomerey.

Some time between the brothers' hits "Enjoy Youself" and "Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground)" and right around the time Michael starred in The Wiz alongside the 5's Motown sponsor, Diana Ross, the first serious stories of The Jacksons' childhood surfaced, tales of intense rehearsals, parental abuse and emotional neglect; it was shocking since these boys appeared on every home's entertainment device for years, thus becoming somewhat extended family to many. That was the first controversial tabloid exposé the still rising star had to survive, but sympathies especially went out to Michael, his having been the most popular and familiar face of the act as well as one of his family's youngest children. After signing with Epic Records in 1979, the celebrity made a major "comeback" with what was the beginning of an endless stream of smashes, starting with "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough," "Rock With You," "Off The Wall" and "She's Out Of My Life." Under the supervision of Quincy Jones, the producer/architect behind an emerging late seventies/early eighties champagne r&b sound, the album Off The Wall and its associated hits established Jackson as a young African American icon.

The album's follow-up, the international sales phenomenon that was Thriller, gave Jackson seven more hugely successful hits in his duet with Paul McCartney, "The Girl Is Mine," "Billie Jean," "Beat It," "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'," "Human Nature," "P.Y.T.," and his Vincent Price duet, "Thriller" (an eighth, "The Lady Of My Life," was rumored to have been prepped before the government's crackdown on the music industry's promotions practices began). The LP soon displaced Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon, Carole King's Tapestry and Simon & Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Waters as the biggest selling album ever, and its relative videos cast Michael Jackson as an actor -- strutting down a boulevard on lit, multi-colored squares, assuming the role of mediator in a gang fight, and dancing with zombies in what became a world event for the debut of the mini-movie Thriller. At the top of his game as well as the world, Michael won eight Grammys for the hit-packed album, and he showcased his famous moonwalk dance moves on Motown's 25th Anniversary special. Virtually, the next day, every kid on the planet was trying to emulate his or her pop hero, and for many years, he really was the King of Pop, all due respect to The King.

It's after this point when things started reeling out, his Bad album having included many hits, though none that touched the heart as what came before. "Bad," "I Just Can't Stop Loving You," "The Way You Make Me Feel," "Dirty Diana," and "Smooth Criminal" all seemed forced, though "Man In The Mirror" with its honest, positive message of changing the world for the best from within each individual was one of his finest offerings. The whole idea of Michael Jackson now being "bad" in any sense of that word was ludicrous, as was the album cover that featured a thuggish, mysteriously lighter-skinned Jackson. His growing immodesty and contrived crotch-grabbing contradicted everything we knew about him, and that emerging, fabricated image probably was the first red flag that something was very wrong. Perhaps those around him did not re-orient him from fear of losing their jobs or offending, and probably, this was the last, best moment in time that some kind of intervention might have been effective.

From then on, though pretty good albums and decent singles were released such as the beautiful "You Are Not Alone" and "Heal The World" (after which he named and created a charitable foundation), Michael Jackson's career and personal life decisions did almost nothing more than provide fodder to the tabloids. The list they were able to choose from was long and disturbing: marrying then immediately divorcing Lisa Marie Presley; converting his home into Neverland; having numerous plastic surgeries that resulted in stranger physical appearances; acquiring a hyperbaric chamber and, apparently, the bones of the "elephant man," John Merrick; adopting Bubbles the chimp; securing an arranged marriage and pregnancies with Debbie Rowe; naming his son "Prince Michael"; arranging for interviews during which he asserted his heterosexual desires a little too insistently -- something we never really gave much though about until allegations of sexual abuse with children occurred, which brings us to those stories of Macaulay Culkin, Jesus Juice and sleepovers with children that takes us to the endless lawsuits and eventual loss of his millions and collapse of his career.

Today's death of Michael Jackson accompanies the death of a little more of this country's innocence. And it's symbolic that his heart finally just gave out. Ultimately, the adult Michael was responsible for his own actions and will be remembered for them accordingly. But due to his abusive upbringing and unimaginable, disorienting success as an artist, he probably just couldn't handle his life in any practical way. All we know now is that he suffered from something, and his passing is tragic because it happened at the bottom of a downward spiral, his never really being able to redeem himself in the eyes of the public -- something we seem to require before a forgiveness and acceptance back into the flock. Beyond the reams of his documented eccentricities, Michael Jackson was a huge talent who'll be missed, and he was one of our better, kinder kids whose life and story spun out of control, those seeds probably planted in his misplaced childhood. Just a thought -- shouldn't we have been our disturbed brother's keeper when it was obvious he really, really needed one?

Jacko "The King of POP" was Dies

2009-06-26T13:47:00.000-07:00

The public first knew him as a boy in the late 1960s, when he was the precocious, spinning lead singer of the Jackson 5, the singing group he formed with his four older brothers out of Gary, Ind. Among their No. 1 hits were "I Want You Back," "ABC" and "I'll Be There."

He was perhaps the most exciting performer of his generation, known for his backward-gliding moonwalk, his feverish, crotch-grabbing dance moves and his high-pitched singing, punctuated with squeals and titters. His single sequined glove, tight, military-style jacket and aviator sunglasses were trademarks, as was his ever-changing, surgically altered appearance.

"For Michael to be taken away from us so suddenly at such a young age, I just don't have the words," said Quincy Jones, who produced "Thriller." "He was the consummate entertainer and his contributions and legacy will be felt upon the world forever. I've lost my little brother today, and part of my soul has gone with him."

Jackson ranked alongside Elvis Presley and the Beatles as the biggest pop sensations of all time. He united two of music's biggest names when he was briefly married to Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie, and Jackson's death immediately evoked comparisons to that of Presley himself, who died at age 42 in 1977.

As years went by, Jackson became an increasingly freakish figure _ a middle-aged man-child weirdly out of touch with grown-up life. His skin became lighter, his nose narrower, and he spoke in a breathy, girlish voice. He often wore a germ mask while traveling, kept a pet chimpanzee named Bubbles as one of his closest companions, and surrounded himself with children at his Neverland ranch, a storybook playland filled with toys, rides and animals. The tabloids dubbed him "Wacko Jacko."

"It seemed to me that his internal essence was at war with the norms of the world. It's as if he was trying to defy gravity," said Michael Levine, a Hollywood publicist who represented Jackson in the early 1990s. He called Jackson a "disciple of P.T. Barnum" and said the star appeared fragile at the time but was "much more cunning and shrewd about the industry than anyone knew."

Jackson caused a furor in 2002 when he playfully dangled his infant son, Prince Michael II, over a hotel balcony in Berlin while a throng of fans watched from below.

In 2005, he was cleared of charges he molested a 13-year-old cancer survivor at Neverland in 2003. He had been accused of plying the boy with alcohol and groping him, and of engaging in strange and inappropriate behavior with other children.

The case followed years of rumors about Jackson and young boys. In a TV documentary, he acknowledged sharing his bed with children, a practice he described as sweet and not at all sexual.

Despite the acquittal, the lurid allegations that came out in court took a fearsome toll on his career and image, and he fell into serious financial trouble.

Michael Joseph Jackson was born Aug. 29, 1958, in Gary. He was 4 years old when he began singing with his brothers _ Marlon, Jermaine, Jackie and Tito _ in the Jackson 5. After his early success with bubblegum soul, he struck out on his own, generating innovative, explosive, unstoppable music.

The album "Thriller" alone mixed the dark, serpentine bass and drums and synthesizer approach of "Billie Jean," the grinding Eddie Van Halen solo on "Beat It," and the hiccups and falsettos on "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'."

The peak may have come in 1983, when Motown celebrated its 25th anniversary with an all-star televised concert and Jackson moonwalked off with the show, joining his brothers for a medley of old hits and then leaving them behind with a pointing, crouching, high-kicking, splay-footed, crotch-grabbing run through "Billie Jean."

The audience stood and roared. Jackson raised his fist.

By then he had cemented his place in pop culture. He got the plum Scarecrow role in the 1978 movie musical "The Wiz," a pop-R&B version of "The Wizard of Oz," that starred Diana Ross as Dorothy.

During production of a 1984 Pepsi commercial, Jackson's scalp sustains burns when an explosion sets his hair on fire.

He had strong follow-up albums with 1987's "Bad" and 1991's "Dangerous," but his career began to collapse in 1993 after he was accused of molesting a boy who often stayed at his home. The singer denied any wrongdoing, reached a settlement with the boy's family, reported to be $20 million, and criminal charges were never filed.

Jackson's expressed anger over the allegations on the 1995 album "HIStory," which sold more than 2.4 million copies, but by then, the popularity of Jackson's music was clearly waning, even as public fascination with his increasingly erratic behavior was growing.

Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley in 1994, and they divorced in 1996. Later that year, Jackson married Deborah Rowe, a former nurse for his dermatologist. They had two children together: Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., known as Prince Michael, and Paris Michael Katherine Jackson. Rowe filed for divorce in 1999.

Cardiac arrest is an abnormal heart rhythm that stops the heart from pumping blood to the body. It can occur after a heart attack or be caused by other heart problems.

Billboard magazine editorial director Bill Werde said Jackson's star power was unmatched. "The world just lost the biggest pop star in history, no matter how you cut it," Werde said. "He's literally the king of pop."

Jackson's 13 No. 1 one hits on the Billboard charts put him behind only Presley, the Beatles and Mariah Carey, Werde said.

"He was on the eve of potentially redeeming his career a little bit," he said. "People might have started to think of him again in a different light."

___

Associated Press Writers Derrik J. Lang, Solvej Schou and Thomas Watkins in Los Angeles and Virginia Byrne, Hillel Italie, Nekesa Mumbi Moody and Jocelyn Noveck in New York contributed to

Michael Jackson Dies

2009-06-26T13:45:00.000-07:00

LOS ANGELES — Michael Jackson, the "King of Pop" who once moonwalked above the music world, died Thursday as he prepared for a comeback bid to vanquish nightmare years of sexual scandal and financial calamity. He was 50.

Jackson died at UCLA Medical Center after being stricken at his rented home in Holmby Hills. Paramedics tried to resuscitate him at his home for nearly three-quarters of an hour, then rushed him to the hospital, where doctors continued to work on him.

"It is believed he suffered cardiac arrest in his home. However, the cause of his death is unknown until results of the autopsy are known," his brother Jermaine said. Police said they were investigating, standard procedure in high-profile cases.

Jackson's death brought a tragic end to a long, bizarre, sometimes farcical decline from his peak in the 1980s, when he was popular music's premier all-around performer, a uniter of black and white music who shattered the race barrier on MTV, dominated the charts and dazzled even more on stage.

His 1982 album "Thriller" _ which included the blockbuster hits "Beat It," "Billie Jean" and "Thriller" _ is the best-selling album of all time, with an estimated 50 million copies sold worldwide.

At the time of his death, Jackson was rehearsing hard for what was to be his greatest comeback: He was scheduled for an unprecedented 50 shows at a London arena, with the first set for July 13.

As word of his death spread, MTV switched its programming to play videos from Jackson's heyday. Radio stations began playing marathons of his hits. Hundreds of people gathered outside the hospital. In New York's Times Square, a low groan went up in the crowd when a screen flashed that Jackson had died, and people began relaying the news to friends by cell phone.

"No joke. King of Pop is no more. Wow," Michael Harris, 36, of New York City, read from a text message a friend had sent him. "It's like when Kennedy was assassinated. I will always remember being in Times Square when Michael Jackson died."

Neverland Ranch Investigators Discover Corpse Of Real Michael Jackson

2009-06-26T13:40:00.000-07:00

SANTA BARBARA, CA—During a search for evidence at the Neverland Valley Ranch, investigators discovered a corpse that has been identified as that of Michael Jackson, Santa Barbara police officials announced Tuesday.

"Coroners have officially pronounced Michael Jackson dead. From what we can tell, he died between 18 and 20 years ago," forensic investigator Tim Holbrooke said. "We are not certain, at this time, who—or what—has been standing trial in that Santa Maria courthouse."

According to Holbrooke, Jackson's corpse was buried just inches below a stretch of the miniature-train tracks that run throughout Neverland. The largely desiccated corpse wore the remains of a red, zipper-covered leather jacket and a single glove.

"We positively identified the body as Jackson by his dental records and DNA," Holbrooke said. "But even before we conducted a single forensic test, we began to suspect that that we'd uncovered the real Michael, and that the disturbing figure claiming to be Jackson was a fake."

Holbrooke said that, although the corpse was in an advanced stage of decomposition, when investigators compared the body to early-career publicity photos of Jackson, they saw a striking resemblance in bone structure and facial features. But when they compared the body to photos taken after 1987, the resemblance was negligible.

"This discovery raises a lot of questions, but it also sheds light on a number of disturbing incidents," Holbrooke said. "Frankly, Jackson had been acting pretty strange."

Enlarge Image Neverland

Investigators move Jackson's body, found buried at Neverland Ranch (above).

Forensic experts and music critics are postulating that Jackson was dead before the release of the multi-platinum album Bad. Detectives are currently analyzing the lyrics to "Man In The Mirror" for any clues relating to a look-alike entity that many suspect murdered the youngest member of the Jackson 5 and assumed his identity.

"We believe that Neverland served as some sort of freakishly whimsical tomb constructed by Jackson's killer," Holbrooke said. "We also suspect that all of the iniquities that occurred on that ranch were the work of the imposter. I wouldn't have ever thought it possible, but we are looking at a situation where the sexual abuse of a 13-year-old cancer patient is the tip of the iceberg."

Holbrooke said that, while the living Jackson is the leading suspect in the murder investigation, he "could be another victim of some sort."

"Basically, we have no idea what type of creature we are dealing with," Holbrooke said.

A member of the investigative team that discovered Jackson's body described the experience as "otherworldly."

"As we neared the perimeter of Neverland, the dogs started whining and howling like crazy," Santa Barbara County detective Frank Poeller said. "We had to pull them into the house. When we got to Jackson's bedroom, one of them almost choked himself to death on his leash trying to get out through the window. Minutes later, the same dog led us to the corpse."

A representative from Jackson's self-created label, MJJ Productions, said he was not surprised to find out that the current Jackson is an imposter.

"When we were recording 'Heal The World' for Dangerous, I could tell something was terribly, terribly wrong," MJJ manager Luke Allard said. "Michael didn't seem like himself anymore. He'd demand bizarre food and sit for hours in a hyperbaric chamber. His appearance began to become more and more peculiar. Soon afterwards, he started wearing a mask and confiding in a chimpanzee."

"I remember thinking, 'This man has become a monster,'" Allard said. "If only I'd known how right I was."

Enlarge Image Neverland Jump 2

The creature that claims to be Michael Jackson.

Allard said he thinks that the imposter broke ties with Jackson's former friends and surrounded himself with children who were too young to notice the radical change.

Vanity Fair reporter Beth Pither visited Neverland in 1994.

"A strangely fearful staff member led me to Jackson, but ran off before I opened the door," Pither said. "Standing there with my hand on an ice-cold doorknob, I heard strange, unnatural sounds—leathery wings flapping, a sorrowful wail, and loud hissing. A wave of dread passed through me as I opened the door, but all I found was Michael and some kids in pajamas eating ice cream and watching 101 Dalmatians."

While their claims have not been corroborated, other Neverland visitors have reported that when when Jackson entered a room, lights flickered, faucets ran blood-red, and screams escaped from the walls.

To aid in the investigation, the FBI enlisted Dr. Richard Weingarden, a noted expert on the paranormal from UC Santa Barbara. After only two hours, Weingarden abandoned the project.

"The smell of sulfur, the decaying facial features, the bizarrely high-pitched voice—it sounds exactly like..." Weingarden said, trailing off. "I'm sure it's nothing. Not a big deal. Nothing to be terrified about, certainly. I have to go. I've got a family."

Thomas Sneddon, the prosecutor in Jackson's child-molestation lawsuit, said it remains to be seen how the shocking discovery will affect the trial.

Megan Gustafson, who left her post as president of the Akron, OH Michael Jackson Fan Club after the singer was accused of molestation, offered a positive view of the grisly revelation.

"This is very disturbing news," Gustafson said. "But to be honest, it's kind of a relief too. Thriller and Off The Wall are really amazing records. Now I can pull them out of my 'ruined by child abuse' storage bin and start listening to them again."

GC Rules Out Vote Cancellation

2009-06-26T11:20:00.000-07:00

By WILLIAM J. KOLE, Associated Press Writer William J. Kole, Associated Press Writer – Tue Jun 23, 7:59 pm ET

CAIRO – Overwhelmed by police and left with limited alternatives, Iranian demonstrators resorted Tuesday to more subtle ways of challenging the outcome of the presidential election: holding up posters, shouting from rooftops and turning on car headlights.

But the restrained expressions of discontent appeared to be scattered as Iran's ruling clerics dealt the opposition new setbacks, making clear they have no intention of holding a new vote and setting up a special court to deal with hundreds of protesters arrested in more than a week of unrest.

Iran also expelled two diplomats from Britain — a nation it bitterly accuses of meddling and spying — and Britain in turn sent two Iranian envoys home.

The latest moves, and a fresh deployment of riot police and militia to break up any street gatherings, signaled the regime's determination to squelch dissent and mute the voices of those whose protests have been the largest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

"People are calmly protesting, more symbolically than with their voices," a Tehran resident said in a telephone interview, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of government retribution.

No rallies were reported Tuesday. Many in Tehran seemed hesitant to confront the feared Revolutionary Guard and members of the Basij militia, suggesting the harsh response wrought by hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to large and boisterous demonstrations may have weakened the opposition's resolve.

In Tehran's sprawling Grand Bazaar market, shopkeepers said customers frightened away by the violent crackdown were venturing back outdoors.

"These past few days the situation was not good," said a vendor who gave his name only as Ali because he feared retaliation. "People were scared because there was not any security and people didn't come out. But thank God, in the past two or three days the situation has gotten much better and business is good."

Severe restrictions on reporters have made it almost impossible to independently verify reports on demonstrations, clashes and casualties. Iran has ordered journalists for international news agencies to stay in their offices, barring them from reporting on the streets.

President Barack Obama said the world was "appalled and outraged" at Tehran's use of violence, and other nations expressed grave concerns as the standoff fueled an increasingly acrimonious international dispute on how to engage Iran — a country the U.S. and its allies have accused of covertly trying to build a nuclear weapon.

"I have made it clear that the United States respects the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and is not interfering in Iran's affairs," Obama said. "But we must also bear witness to the courage and dignity of the Iranian people, and to a remarkable opening within Iranian society. And we deplore violence against innocent civilians anywhere that it takes place."

Iran's Foreign Ministry said it expelled the two Britons for "unconventional behavior," state television reported without elaborating. Tensions between Iran and Britain, which has urged the Islamic regime to respect human rights, have soared in recent days.

During Friday prayers at Tehran University, Khamenei lashed out against Western countries he said were displaying their "enmity" against the Islamic state, "and the most evil of them is the British government." Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has accused Britain of sending spies to manipulate the June 12 election.

Iran's expulsions came a day after Britain sent home a dozen dependents of diplomatic staff because of the unrest.

"I am disappointed that Iran has placed us in this position but we will continue to seek good relations with Iran and to call for the regime to respect the human rights and democratic freedoms of the Iranian people," said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

About 100 hard-line students protested outside the British Embassy in Tehran, where they burned U.S., British and Israeli flags, pelted the building with tomatoes, and chanted: "Down with Britain!" and "Down with USA!" state TV reported.

Iran also accused U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of interfering in its domestic affairs after he demanded an immediate end to "arrests, threats and use of force."

Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi says he was the true winner of the election. Iran's electoral commission declared Ahmadinejad the winner by a landslide, ignoring Mousavi's claims of widespread and systematic vote fraud. Mousavi has been out of sight in recent days, but a short message posted on his Web site asserted that "all the reports of violations in the elections will be published soon."

State TV reported that Ahmadinejad would be sworn in sometime between July 26 and Aug. 19.

Another opposition figure, reformist presidential candidate Mahdi Karroubi, called for a day of mourning for at least 17 people killed in protests since the election. Some social networking sites suggested that the mourning would take place Thursday.

Amid the crackdown, there was one small concession Tuesday from Khamenei, whose word is law in the Islamic Republic. State TV said he agreed to extend by five days a deadline for registering complaints about the election.

Yet the regime made it clear that it stood by the results and there would be no rerun of the disputed vote.

State-run Press TV quoted Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei, the spokesman for Iran's top electoral body, the Guardian Council, as saying it found "no major fraud or breach in the election."

"Therefore, there is no possibility of an annulment taking place," he was quoted as saying.

On Monday, the council had acknowledged in a rare step that it found voting irregularities in 50 of 170 districts, including ballot counts that exceeded the number of eligible voters. Still, it said the discrepancies, involving some 3 million votes, were not widespread enough to affect the outcome.

Iran has 46.2 million eligible voters, one-third of them under 30. The final tally gave 62.6 percent of the vote to Ahmadinejad and 33.75 percent to Mousavi, a landslide victory in a race that was perceived to be much closer. The huge margin went against the expectation that the record 85 percent turnout would help Mousavi.

In a boost for the regime, Russia said Tuesday it respects the outcome. Russia, a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, has longtime political and economic ties with Iran, where it is helping build a nuclear power plan at Bushehr. In his only trip abroad since the vote, Ahmadinejad went to Russia last week for a conference, where he met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Meanwhile, Ebrahim Raisi, a top judicial official, said a special court has been set up to deal with detained protesters.

"Elements of riots must be dealt with to set an example. The judiciary will do that," he was quoted as saying by state-run radio. The judiciary is controlled by Iran's ruling clerics.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, visiting Rome, praised the courage of Iranian protesters "in facing bullets in the streets."

Two prominent Iranian opposition figures took their case to Europe on Tuesday.

Iranian Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi asked European Union officials in Brussels not to negotiate or hold meetings with Iranian leaders until the crackdown stops.

In Rome, Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf said he had been asked by Mousavi aides to spread the word on what is happening in Iran. Makhmalbaf said that even if Ahmadinejad manages to govern for the next four years, "he will not have one day of quietness," with protesters resorting to general strikes and civil resistance.

A number of journalists have been detained since the protests began, although there have been conflicting accounts. The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders put the figure of reporters detained at 34.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said 13 were in custody, including Newsweek correspondent Maziar Bahari. State-run TV confirmed the arrest of Iason Athanasiadis, a Greek national reporting for the Washington Times.

GC Rules Out Vote Cancellation

2009-06-26T11:17:00.000-07:00

The Guardian Council ruled out the possibility of nullifying the June 12 presidential elections and insisted that it had found no major irregularity in the vote.

Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei, the Council’s spokesman said late Monday that most of the complaints pertained to issues before the election, and not during or after the vote. The Council is not the body authorized to look into such complaints, Press TV reported him as saying.
The oversight body is in charge of supervising the electoral process and must approve the outcome of the vote before official results are declared.
“If a major breach occurs, the Council may annul the ballots in a particular affected ballot box, polling station, district, or city as was done in the parliamentary elections,“ Kadkhodaei noted.
“Fortunately, in this presidential election we found nothing that may imply a major fraud or breachÉThus, there is no possibility of an annulment,“ he added.
Iran’s Interior Ministry declared President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the winner of the election with almost two-thirds of the vote.
The defeated candidates, Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi and Mohsen Rezaei, cried foul after the results were announced and reported over 600 irregularities in the electoral process.
Kadkhodaei denied charges that several polling stations had closed before all voters could cast their ballots.
153315.jpg
Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei
He said in some polling stations balloting had continued up to three-and-a-half-hours past the official 10 p.m. deadline.
“We had polling stations in Golestan province that were open until 2 a.m. Although 10 p.m. was announced as the closing time, polling stations were told to allow people to vote as long as there were queues,“ he said.
The Council had agreed to randomly re-count 10% of the ballots. However, Mousavi and Karroubi rejected the measure and have demanded fresh elections.
The spokesman said the Guardians have received reports from relevant provincial boards that were assigned to look into complaints regarding illegal campaigning on election day, expelling the representatives of the candidates from polling centers and paying for votes. Kadkhodaei concluded that initial reports show “no series of violations had occurred.“

Box-by-Box Count
Amid claims of a ’rigged election’ by some defeated presidential candidates, a top election official said the box-by-box details of the vote will be released.
“During previous elections data on individual ballot boxes were considered confidential information É this kind of information was only available to a small group of (senior) officials,“ deputy head of the Interior Ministry’s election headquarters Ali-Asghar Sharifi-Rad said Sunday.
The ministry, however, has decided to publish the results “box by box,“ to resolve ambiguities about the disputed election, ILNA reported.
His comments came after the country’s highest electoral authority, the Guardian Council, said, “Ballots counted in 50 cities are more than the number of people eligible to cast ballots in those areas.“
The extra votes are said to be in the range of three million ballots.

Social Media - The Iranian Voters Secret Weapon by TJ Philpott

2009-06-26T11:14:00.000-07:00

Online social media has played a major role in allowing the Iranian public to inform the world of the ongoing events within Iran after their recent voting scandal. Much attention has been paid blog posts, tweets on Twitter and other forms of communication received from Iranian citizens since the voting scandal unfolded. In fact the only real means citizens had to effectively oppose the political repression was toturn to their blogs and social networking sites to keep the world informed.

The effectiveness of bloggers to be able to accurately report the facts behind the scenes culminated in their being targeted by Iranian authorities for arrest. Twitter, the rapidly growing social networking site had been repeatedly lauded as the communication channel of choice by Iranian citizens.

What led Iranian citizens to choose online social networking sites as their primary method of communication to the world of the injustices that were occurring?

Here are the 3 main reasons:

Accessibility

Although Iran is not generally regarded as highly sophisticated recent findings indicate more than 70 percent of the population has access to the internet. With this availability citizens have at their disposal a means to communicate with others in a reasonably undetected and otherwisesafe manner. In fact with the portability of laptop computers bloggers can continue composing and posting without having to be anchored to a single location.

Ease of Use

The choice of social networking sites such as Twitter as a primary channel of communication by disgruntled Iranian voters was based upon ease of use. These sites do not require any type structure or formatting when sending a messagemaking them ideal choices for quick and detailed reporting of the ongoing events.

Global Audience

Obviously the internet is hooked into a global audience and this allowed any messages sent from Iran to be seen or heard round the world. The word of mouth effect this had enabled these messages to be quickly spread putting more pressure on the Iranian government to take corrective actions. Even as many blogs continue to be updated out of Iran with new information civil unrest still continues. Hopefully as these messages are spread by word of mouth through the international blogging community world opinion may pressure the Iranian officials into an equitable resolution.

Obviously the influence of effectiveness of online social media sites has made a huge impact on the Iranian voting scandal. The ability to report events as they occurred thru blog posts and other online social networking sites allowed Iranian citizens to spread the word rapidly to a concerned world. The ease of use, accessibility, and the global audience were the 3 main reasons behind theselection of social sites as the primary communication tool utilized. For world news or simple marketing purposes, both blogging and online social communities continue to prove how rapidly and effectively they can spread the word.

Resiliency Testing Critical to U.S. Cyber Infrastructure by Kyle Flaherty

2009-06-26T11:06:00.000-07:00

It appears that talk about the United State's plans for beefing up our country's cyber infrastructure is finally turning into action with new details emerging about government plans to create U.S. Cyber Command. Just this week, Defense Secretary Gates approved the creation of US cyber command (or "Cybercom)Jakumar Vijayan wrote the story for computer world and explained:

"The proposal to create the new command has been expected for some time and is part of an effort to address growing threats to Defense Department and Pentagon networks from foreign and domestic threats."

Those of you in security research have seen much of this coming. The threats have always been out there, but they are now becoming more sophisticated and more frequent. Security attackers are also becoming more creative. Witness the DDOS atacck orchestrated by iranian protesters via social networks this month.
In the testing world we understand that no matter the initiative or the person heading it up, there are going to be challenges for the government agencies, contractors and research organizations tasked with implementing and ensuring the resiliency of mission-critical networks, as well as the devices and the services they deliver.

"Resiliency" is a word that perfectly describes what people are looking to test when it comes to U.S. cyber infrastructure. Resiliency encapsulates both security and performance of the network and the devices that serve as it's infrastructure. If you want to test the resiliency of a device, you have to do it with real-world network scenarios and network simulations. All of this sounds familar to anyone who has been reading this blog since BreakingPoint excels at testing with realistic app traffic, security strikes, line-rate throughput and more."Resiliency testing is clearly critical to identifying and eliminating threats to the security and performance of our nation's cyber infrastructure. And the definition of resiliency testing remains simple; test the network and network devices using blended application traffic mixed with live security strikes at line-rate speeds originating from the same address space. However, until today, the government agencies and organizations tasked to optimize and defend the cyber infrastructure did not have these capabilities. BreakingPoint Elite is the only testing tool architected to simulate the conditions of an actual network, providing the resiliency testing capabilities that helpmake it the only effective defense against net-centric threats and performance issues."

How do you define resiliency testing?

Iran's Critter Brain is Eating its Young by Dr. H. Christian Gunderson

2009-06-26T11:03:00.000-07:00

The critter or limbic system is the earliest developed part of our brain. Its main question is, "Am I alive?" Think of a small salamander. Its job and life is to stay alive. It does not care whether or not, it loses its tail or arm. Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is the head critter in the body called Iran, whose main question in life is "Am I alive?" No other question is important. Iran will have no issues of being in pain or eating its young. The only question is, am I alive. It does not care if it inflicts pain upon someone else. It does not care about the quality of life. It only cares that it is alive, and the Ayatollah will do whatever it takes to stay that way.

The cerebellum is the animal/herd part of our brain. Its main question is how I belong or how do I stay safe? It is them vs. us. An example is when you see a Highway Patrol speed trap; your first thought is to become like everyone else, not to be seen, to be safe, not to be different, and hopefully the Highway Patrol will attack someone else for speeding. In Iran, the people who voted for President Ahmadinejad are in this category. They may not like what is going on, but they want to be safe, to belong to what they know. The last part of the brain is the cerebral cortex or the human brain. Its main question is, what do I want, how can I be more? Many of the people and students born since the Iranian revolution fall in this category. They have no reference of what it was like when the Shah ruled. The slogan "Death to America", holds the same importance as other slogans like "Coke, the real thing".

These people are looking for change, for betterment, to be more, to have more. They still love their country, but they look around the world and want the possibilities that the world can provide.

In a fight between the critter brain and the human brain the critter brain often wins because its need for survival is so much more basic. In Iran, I would expect to see much more repression, and violence. Now and after this current phase of protests.

The two choices in Iran are wait until the death of the head critter so change can happen, or have enough humans ignore the head critter through benign neglect. Then no energy is given to the head critter by actions or deeds, which would force it to change in order to survive until tomorrow.

The problem for the United States is that it must walk the middle ground, to give a sense of hope and support for the human side of Iran, but not be so frightening as to stampede the herd and put the critter brain into fight mode for its very life.

Hillary Clinton Keeps Her Promise To Champion Women's Rights by Hillarysvillage

2009-06-26T11:01:00.000-07:00

For the first time in our nation's history, we have an impassioned feminist at the helm of United States Foreign Policy. Her name is Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Following her confirmation hearing today for the post of Secretary of State, Clinton's thoughtful and comprehensive approach to global conflict resolution is already being hailed as "Smart Power". That comes as no surprise to those who have been following this superwoman's career and have long admired her brilliance.

Hillary Clinton doesn't just have a head for leadership, she has the heart for it, too. In describing her approach to foreign policy, she is inspired by the ancientRoman poet Terence who, though born a slave, rose to become one of the great voices of his time. He said, "In every endeavor, the seemly course for wise men is to try persuasion first". Hillary reflected, "The same truth binds wise women as well".

While some foreign policy conflicts might be open to negotiation, Hillary's view of the crimes against women around the world is uncompromising. Unlike predecessors who might have delicately avoided or even accommodated such traditions as ones we should not presume to judge, Hillary's condemnation is bold and clear. She decries the practice of acid burnings in Pakistan and the punishment of women for divorce. She promises that under her watch, The Office of Human Trafficking and the Women's Office will have a place of special emphasis and the mistreatment of women will not be relegated to "auxiliary" status in her State Department.

She said of the Taliban fighters who targeted girls for attending school: "This is not a culture. This is not a custom. This is criminal." She denounces those who commit the atrocities and says "They want to maintain an attitude that keeps women unhealthy, unfed, uneducated." Clinton says their actions "result all too often in violence against these young women."

Hillary Clinton vows that protecting women and their human rights will not be an adjunct, but central to her foreign policy. As Secretary of State, she hopes to persuade other governments that "we cannot have a free, prosperous, peaceful, progressive world if women are treated in such a discriminatory and violent way". She embraces it as a "pledge" and considers it a matter of national security.

In 1995 in China, Hillary Clinton said the famous words, "Women's Rights are Human Rights". Now, as Secretary of State, she will be able to make her vision of a better world for women part of America's 21st Century global initiative.

"Our foreign policy must reflect our deep commitment to the cause of making human rights a reality for millions of oppressed people around the world. Of particular concern to me is the plight of women and girls, who comprise the majority of the world's unhealthy, unschooled, unfed, and unpaid. If half of the world's population remains vulnerable to economic, political, legal, and social marginalization, our hope of advancing democracy and prosperity will remain in serious jeopardy. We still have a long way to go, and the United States must remain an unambiguous and unequivocal voice in support of women's rights in every country, every region, on every continent."

~Hillary Rodham Clinton Testimony at Her Confirmation Hearing for Secretary of State~

One Child Policy Has Nasty Kick Back Effect

2009-06-19T11:11:00.001-07:00

by: Wendy Stenberg-Tendys

China's 30 year-old population planning of only one child, has led to an established preference for boys, as they are more productive on the farm, able to care for their parents in their old age and entitled to receive an inheritance. One 38 year- old China man said, "It doesn't matter how much money you have. If you don't have a son, you are not as good as other people who have one".

Girl children remain unwanted and regularly disposed of, or abandoned. Enforced abortion and sterilization became a normal part of living.

800,000 baby girls were abandoned or killed, in just one region, from 1971-80 alone. These numbers need to be multiplied by a further two generations, plus a dozen or more areas, taking the figure of missing girls into the tens of millions. The population planning is said to have decreased the population growth by 250 million, but it comes at an horrific price.

Now China has one of the biggest male-to-female ratios in the world. The 2005 census revealed an over supply of 32 million males under the age of 25. That’s approximately the entire population of Canada.

This has led to intense competition for the few females that are available, particularly in rural areas, where it is looked upon as being a thing of disgrace if a man is left unmarried after the age of 24. The situation has created a sharp increase in the price of brides. This has in turn led to a phenomenon known as the 'Runaway Brides', or 'Bride Scam', which is believed to be part of a wider criminal ring.

Prospective brides suddenly appear in mainly rural areas (visiting friends) where there aren’t any unmarried females. The girls go through the process of getting married and receiving the bride price, which can be as high as 38,000 yuan, (around $5,500), or approximately five years of income off a farm.

The girls' identity and residential papers usually prove to be authentic. Within a couple of days a marriage union is registered with the local registrar's office. Within a week there is a wedding feast and the groom’s mother officially hands across the bride price. Frequently the money has been loaned and scraped up from other family members.

The new bride then moves into the in-laws home and it would seem as if 'happy families' are about to commence. In a very short time however, the bride disappears – taking the money with her. Often several 'brides' become available in one region, only to all disappear at exactly the same time – with their dowries, leaving the briefly married grooms to pine away, in their loveless rural life.

Girls as young as ten years of age are trafficked across the Burma/China border as child brides. Many of the girls are sold, into an uncertain future, by either their brother, or father.

President Obama Made a Moral Mistake by Honoring Confederate Soldiers

2009-06-19T11:08:00.000-07:00

by: Robert Taylor

This past Memorial Day President Barack Obama - the nation’s first African American head of state - made a serious racial, moral and historical mistake. In an apparent attempt to avoid angering many Southern whites, he perpetuated a fraudulent 95-year-old tradition by sending a wreath of flowers to the Confederate Memorial at Arlington Cemetery near Washington, D.C.

By continuing a practice started by President Woodrow Wilson in 1914, Obama was, in effect, honoring and paying homage to the racists who instigated the Civil War for the sole purpose of keeping Blacks in slavery. These men do not deserve to be honored. They should be despised. As the nation’s first Black president Obama should have broken with this tradition and helped to set the historical record straight.

Instead Obama tried to soften the blow of his action by also sending a wreath of flowers to the African American Civil War Memorial located in the historically Black U Street area of Washington, D.C. (I say “historically Black” because gentrification is beginning to “whiten” that entire area.) Regardless, sending wreaths to both memorial sites was tantamount to honoring the slave and the slave master. It was tantamount to honoring the Nazis who exterminated six million Jews and the Jews who fought against them.

Further, the entire tradition of honoring the fallen Confederate soldiers is based on a gigantic racist fraud. The foundation of the fraud is the completely bogus idea that the eleven Southern states which tried to secede from the Union and form a racist Republic which would have kept Blacks in perpetual slavery were fighting for something other than slavery.

In the early years of the 20th Century, a revisionist historical movement began to portray the Southern whites as fighting for more noble goals such as “states rights” in order to keep the federal government from growing too powerful. This fraudulent distortion of history even began to make its way into our history books. It also helped pave the way for President Wilson in 1914 to actually dedicate a large bronze memorial to the Confederate war dead in a special section of Arlington National Cemetery.

The revisionist historical movement relegated the centrality of slavery to the Civil War and began to portray it as a battle of (white) “brother against brother” or “North against South” in a dispute over how much power would go to the states and how much would go to the federal government. But the only “states’ rights” the Confederacy was seeking was the right to enslave Blacks forever.

As University of Pittsburgh Professor Kirk Savage points out in an excellent Washington Post article (5-23-’09) all one has to do in order to determine what the Confederates were fighting for is read the articles of secession written in 1860-1861. He concludes “The historical evidence [that the South was principally concerned with maintaining slavery] is so overwhelming that, on this point, revisionism should no longer be possible.”

It is time for the fraud to end.

Confederate soldiers were attempting to break up the United States of America, establish a racist republic which would keep Blacks in perpetual servitude and in the process they started a Civil War which led to the deaths of over 600,000 Americans. There is no way historically, racially or morally that these men should be honored in any way, shape of form.

President Obama you have at least three more memorial days to celebrate. Do not honor these racist Confederates again. It is time for the fraud to end.

Linux, Libertarianism and America

2009-06-19T11:06:00.000-07:00

by: Drew Brumbaugh

Roughly ten years ago I obtained and installed my first copy of Red Hat Fedora Linux. It was during that same time-frame that I officially became a Libertarian. Since then I have read many opinion pieces comparing Linux to both Libertarianism and Communism. In a way, I think it is both.

First let’s consider the origins of Linux. Back in the early 1980’s a long-time Unix programmer named Richard Stallman left MIT and began the GNU project and later the Free Software Foundation. He and his team began compiling (pun intended) the various software components of an operating system. The impetus behind their work was the belief that software source code should be freely available to all users so that they may make alterations to suit their specific needs. These changes would then be freely published so that others could benefit and possibly further refine the system.

In the early 1990’s, a Finnish graduate student named Linus Torvalds decided that he wanted to program a Unix/Minix like operating system for his Intel based 386 IBM PC. By this time, the aforementioned GNU project had assembled many of the components necessary, however, they were still lacking a working kernel. Torvalds set about this programing task. He plopped his kernel in the midst of the GNU components, and voila. Linux was born.

Since then, both Stallman and Torvalds have remained active in the development community as many, many others have joined as well. Today, we have many different distributions (i.e. flavors) of Linux from which to choose. Distributions that run on everything from personal computers and servers, to cellphones, routers and just about everything in between. On top of Linux has sprouted hundreds of software projects aimed at providing applications to users that follow these same principles. FOSS, or Free & Open Source Software is the acronym used to describe this model of development and distribution.

So what revelations regarding Libertarianism and Communism can be gleaned from the examination of the Linux community?

Before we can proceed with that analysis, there is one entrenched political teaching of which we must dispose. This is the notion that the political spectrum is a straight line with reactionary fascism on the right and radical communism on the left. Using this school of thought, there should be dramatic differences between the likes of Josef Stalin and Adolf Hitler. However, I think most people would agree that the two were essentially totalitarian dictators that tended to have more in common than not.

If the traditional left/right spectrum is a flawed, then what is a better representation? I think a circle is better suited to political analysis. The top of the circle being a state of highly decentralized government and the bottom being one of highly centralized government.

The very top of the circle is the embodiment of what people like Thomas Jefferson envisioned for the United States. Like a circus elephant balancing itself on top of a giant ball, this approach takes great individual effort keep from losing ones balance and falling off, or in this case, sliding down to the bottom. The trip to the bottom of the circle is easy. There will always be people looking to grab your rights and property in exchange for the security or service they are offering. It doesn’t matter if these people are from the right or left or whether they’re Communist, Fascist or Socialist. The end result is always the same. Residence at the bottom of the circle under a highly centralized, oppressive totalitarian regime.

Now as we consider the nature of Linux, I think it is fairly easy to see that it is a highly decentralized approach to a common goal. But how can it have communist tendencies at the same time? I found the answer in a statement made by Walter Block of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. Dr. Block recalled meeting a young lady who proudly announced to him that she was a Socialist. He responded to her statement with a simple question. “Are you a coercive or voluntary socialist?”

In that answer lies the explanation of Linux’s communist roots. All of the various software projects being developed within the FOSS movement are being done so in voluntary communities. Think of the the old notion of northern California hippie communes as opposed to the traditional coercive Soviet style regime. Any developer of a given application (commune) is not only free to leave a project, they are also free to “fork” a project. This is where they use the same code being developed by the first project to form their own second project and take it in another direction. Every person has the freedom to move from commune to commune, or even start their own, since no one person or group owns the source code.

This is what we should be pursuing as a political philosophy in the United States. Instead of putting all of our eggs into the single basket of the federal government and hoping that it has the smartest people in the world who are capable of running entire economies; we should be putting our hopes in the American people scattered all over the nation. Let state and local governments experiment with what’s best for them in their specific circumstances. I can guarantee you that what works best in Manhattan, NY will not work best in Manhattan, MT.

Eric Raymond is an open source developer who wrote an essay in the late 1990’s entitled, “The Cathedral and the Bazaar.” In that treatise he coined what he calls “Linus’ Law.” It states: “Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.” This is the true power behind Linux and FOSS. But in government today we have a mere 600 representatives cloistered in the “closed” cathedrals of Washington writing and interpreting verbose unintelligible laws that are fraught with unintended consequences and corruption. Our only hope is to open up the system and decentralize the solutions.

Richard Stallman is famous for describing free software as being “free as in freedom, not free as in beer.” In a time when our government is fiscally broke and rapidly becoming more centralized, we could all do with a little more free as freedom and a little less free as in handouts, bailouts and benefits.

Moves to Disqualify Obama as President

2009-06-19T11:03:00.000-07:00

Executive Summary – There have been issues regarding where Obama was born. When asked Obama says he was born in Hawaii but cites two different hospitals. He presents a certificate of live birth form which is not an actual birth certificate signed by a doctor from the hospital where the birth took place. This is some document that one was able to obtain in Hawaii as sort of an after the fact birth document. It does not necessarily mean that the person was born there. The one that Obama presented has no mention of any other former name, which is in great conflict with his other records.

Hawaii became a state in 1959 and these certificates were available to document islanders and others who were in Hawaii without documents so they could get into the system and pay taxes, go to schools, healthcare, passports etc. Hawaii was in transition and things regarding records were sloppy for some years after their statehood. Obama’s grandmother says she attended his birth in Kenya. The Kenyan government claims they have the birthing records of Obama and the birthing delivery records of his mother. They did however seal these records due to the election.

Perhaps when they released these records they were zealous and proud of a Kenyan Becoming president of the USA and also ignorant of the prohibitions against a naturalized citizen becoming president. One must be a natural born citizen, not naturalized. After they let the cat out of the bag they probably got under severe pressure to shut it down so they sealed the records. People have been filing lawsuits to get Obama to release his birth records. The courts generally throw the cases out of court. There are some cases on appeal to the Supreme Court and other cases still pending. It is most odd that as the President of the USA he will not release his birth records.

Latest Smoking Gun – A group called Americans for Freedom of Information has released copies of Obama’s college transcripts from Occidental College. This was pursuant to a suit brought by the group in California. The transcript shows that Obama (Barry Sotero) got a fellowship for foreign students from the Fulbright Scholarship program. To get this a person must have a non-USA citizenship. This is the smoking gun according to many showing Obama is not qualified to the President of the USA by reason of birth.

When this exploded Obama was in London meeting with Brown, and refused comment. Britain Daily Mail Newspaper (a big one) carried this story on their front page. Of course if Obama lied in writing on official college financial documents this too is a grave matter unbecoming for a President. It also appears that Obama is not a natural born citizen and thus not eligible to be President. This should not make Biden the President but should result in a new election. Biden was elected on a ticket with Obama who was ineligible to serve thus negating the election. People voted for an ineligible candidate thus there was election fraud.

This gives Hillary another shot at the office as well as Ron Paul. Interesting. Maybe this will wake the people up enough to depart from the republicans and democrats altogether but I doubt it. It also could nullify any bill that Congress passed that Obama signed into law. Thus the entire economic stimulus package would be illegal. Most of it has not gone into effect anyway. Another consideration is that Obama will have to be brought to trial on criminal charges – election fraud, perjury amongst others.

Criminal cases are public record. Obama may be mad if he gets kicked out of office even though he may have done these things. He could start giving all sorts of interesting testimony on the witness stand implicating many others in his election fraud including his financial backers. In the event Obama gets the boot the media will do their thing, block out any libertarian candidate and put another stooge for the banks into office. It would be fun to see Obama get booted but I am not expecting much change with or without him unless the states secede.

The US Supreme Court – They have decided to hear arguments concerning Obama's eligibility. This is based on a lawsuit filed by a Leo Donofrio. They did not give a date. One would think if they really cared they would hear this in a few days so an ineligible President does not start a nuclear war or declare martial law. So it looks like they are trying to find an answer acceptable to them and the people who put this junior senator into office. The country may need to brace for street demonstrations from people who supported Obama. They also need to get ready to put an interim government in place while a new election is held to preserve order.

So the act of delay can have several interpretations, some indicating Obama is as good as gone; others can say that they may keep trying to keep the cat in the bag. Of course the most make sense way to deal with it is to have Obama come clean with some sort of an admission, resign and then there is an orderly new election with no prosecution. Obama goes off into the sunset and is not in the public eye anymore.

The US Attorney General – Gary Kreep of the United States Justice Foundation has released the results of their investigation on Obama campaign spending. They claim Obama has spent over $950,000 with eleven law firms in 12 states to block disclosure of any of his personal records. Kreep said he will release the finds to the US Attorney General, Eric Holder. Mr. Holder has refused to comment on the matter, which is the correct answer at this point in the situation.

Discussion – I think the Obama mess is no longer to be kept swept under the rug. The 800-pound gorilla has become a 2400-pound gorilla and there might not be a rug big enough to contain it. Court cases will continue to pour in. More and more people will be afraid to partake in the cover-up. There will be too many court orders sealing this and that to make it look real. It appears that someone did a bad job packaging Obama and now it is unraveling. If they stonewall everyone it will look funnier yet. So they may just decide to put a new stooge in play, no big deal.

I do think Obama was the absolutely perfect President to provoke states rights to the point where states seceded from the union. Shame he may not be with us long enough for this to happen. As I understand the election fraud situation, a new election should be required which means forget about Biden. Biden was voted in along with a fraudulent candidate, thus his whole party ticket was a fraud including Biden. Forget the Democratic Party going to jail too. Biden will also fall under suspicion due to association with Obama. They may try to have Obama resign for other reasons like health and then it goes to Biden.

This way they do not have to nullify all the bills Obama signed including the financial stimulus package and since he is no longer president the embarrassing court cases would be dismissed as moot. They would not be moot since some bills he signed became law, but this is how I expect they would play it. I would not expect much from Biden if he gets it. He would be a more experienced player than Obama and may not run down the socialism trail as much as Obama but don’t expect any change.

Biden is not going to audit and tax the Federal reserve Bank like Ron Paul would. So we wait and watch this show with zeal and enthusiasm while Obama walks around the White House thinking how much more time do I have left and where do I go. If he goes away in the manner prescribed by his handlers he will have sufficient funds to retire comfortably forever and never see a single day in prison.

Obama To Close Atlantic And Pacific Oceans?

2009-06-19T11:01:00.000-07:00

In an effort to exert total control over all aspects of American life, high ranking far-left liberal members of the Obama administration and Congress are rumored to be holding secret talks among themselves regarding closing the oceans bordering the U.S., i.e. the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean.

Secret political discussions are reported to be under way, often held on private government jets, as to viable reasons far-left politicians might put forth to convince the American public that closing the oceans would be a good thing for the country and a good thing for U.S. residents, legal and otherwise. Possible political reasons under consideration by the government to close the oceans include …

"Extreme liberal environmental scientists say that closing the oceans will help reduce global warming."

"The oceans bordering America need to be protected from man-made pollution, including peeing in the ocean."

"Oceans cost too much to maintain."

"The oceans are deep and thus pose a potential drowning hazard for every minority who can’t swim."

"The oceans are a playground for the rich, with their fancy, huge, million-dollar yachts, and the rich need to be punished."

"Closing the oceans would protect the taxpayer. There are sharks in those waters, sharks which can eat taxpayers who swim in the ocean, and we need all the taxpayers we can get."

Closing America’s 2 oceans. Ridiculous? Far-fetched? Under the Obama administration and its socialist agenda nothing is too ridiculous or far-fetched!

The Statue of Liberty wears a robe

2009-06-16T11:25:00.000-07:00

The Statue of Liberty wears a robe. its a robe of Roman woman used to wear in ancient time called of stola.
Design the statue of liberty wears a robe, can be inspirated of many designer on the world to make design wear in 2009.

David Letterman responds to flap over Sarah Palin jokes

2009-06-12T09:57:00.000-07:00

Taping tonight's episode of The Late Show, David Letterman took a few minutes to respond to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who called him "pathetic" in a radio interview after he made her and her family the butt of a recent Top 10 list. The late-night host had drawn particular fire from Palin and some pundits for a joke about one of Palin's daughters being impregnated by New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez during a trip to Yankee Stadium. Camp Palin apparently took the joke to be a crack against Palin's 14-year-old daughter Willow, who had recently attended a Yankees game, but Letterman insisted today that the real target was 18-year-old daughter Bristol.

“We were, as we often do, making jokes about people in the news and we made some jokes about Sarah Palin and her daughter [Bristol]... and now they’re upset with me…” Letterman says on tonight's show. "These are not jokes made about her 14-year-old daughter. I would never, never make jokes about raping or having sex of any description with a 14-year-old girl.... Am I guilty of poor taste? Yes. Did I suggest that it was okay for her 14-year-old daughter to be having promiscuous sex? No." Saying he hopes he's "cleared part of this up," Letterman extended an invitation to Palin to come on the show as a guest.

Letterman's Palin jokes slammed by conservative women's group

2009-06-12T09:54:00.000-07:00

David Letterman was sharply criticized for the jokes he told about Sarah Palin and her daughter earlier this week by a conservative public policy group which promotes "biblical values and family traditions," according to its website. Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America, told Fox News that the talk show host's jokes about the former Vice Presidential candidate were "reprehensible" and "a pretty ugly reflection of who Letterman may be."

Palin Alleges Media Double Standard in Letterman Spat

2009-06-12T09:50:00.000-07:00

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin says late-night talk show host David Letterman owes all young American women an apology for his joke about one of her daughters getting "knocked up" by baseball star Alex Rodriquez. She also said the media has largely heeded President Obama's plea to keep his family off limits, while continuing to attack hers.

"They did leave his family alone," Palin said, appearing on NBC's "Today Show" this morning. "They haven't done that on the other side of the ticket... So that is a political double standard."

Palin reiterated that she believes Letterman's joke was directed at her 14-year-old, Willow. She told host Matt Lauer that he is "extremely naive" if he believes Letterman's "convenient excuse" that his joke was directed instead at 18-year-old Bristol Palin, an unwed mother.

Asked if she felt Letterman owes her an apology, Palin said, "He doesn't have to apologize to me. I would like to see him apologize to young women across the country." (Her comments about Willow come around 3:40 into the video above.)

On his show Monday night, Letterman lampooned the Palin family's visit to a New York Yankees game this way: "There was one awkward moment during the seventh inning stretch. Her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez."

Palin had suggested Letterman is a pervert who cannot be trusted around teenage girls, saying in a statement issued by her office, "It would be wise to keep Willow away from David Letterman."

Lauer asked the governor if that was a fair comment in retrospect. She replied, "Willow no doubt would want to stay away from David Letterman after he made such a comment."

Palin also criticized a celebrity like Letterman "being able to get away with a disparaging comment that does erode a young girl's self-esteem and does contribute to some of the problems we have in society."

Letterman has apologized -- somewhat -- for his joke. But the feud continues, as conservative women's groups jump on the Letterman-bashing bandwagon with Palin and Letterman soaks up the attention -- and, he hopes, possibly boosts his ratings.
By Mary Ann Akers | June 12, 2009; 10:39 AM ET

Punishment of U.S. Journalists In North Korea A ‘National Crisis’

2009-06-12T05:24:00.000-07:00

Did you know?

Count Ashton Kuchter among those who are outraged over two American journalists being sentenced to 12 years of hard labor in North Korea on Monday.

After news broke that Laura Ling and Euna Lee, reporters for former Vice President Al Gore’s San Francisco-based Current TV Media venture, were found guilty of committing a “grave crime” against North Korea and illegally entering the country, Ashton took to his Twitter page to rally support for the women.

“This should be a national crisis… We have to demand that something be done. This is our country, it’s our military,” he Tweeted. “I say it’s special ops time… If we can save that Captain from pirates we can save these journalist .”

North Korean guards arrested Ling (the sister of TV journalist Lisa Ling) and Lee near the China-North Korean border on March 17. The two were reporting about the trafficking of North Korean women at the time of their arrest, and it’s unclear if they strayed into the North or were grabbed by aggressive border guards who crossed into China. A cameraman and their local guide escaped.

As a result, the two women were sentenced to 12 years of “reform through labor” in a North Korean prison.

In drumming up support for Ling and Lee, Ashton suggested using the power of the Internet abroad to help out.

“we should find out what the largest social network site in china is and run a campaign to encourage the people there 2 help,” he continued. “Bottom line, China needs to step up!”

On Monday, White House deputy spokesman William Burton released a statement, saying President Barack Obama was exploring “all possible channels to secure their release.”