Browsing the archives for the investigation tag.

19 year vet of the Air Force, Col. Fehrenbach, admits same-sex act to Idaho police, sues to stay in service

gays, hypocrisy, military

Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach was accused of sexual assault by a civilian in Idaho. Idaho law enforcement interviewed him, found him to be Lt. Colcredible and the claims to lack any merit, and they refused to act on the allegations.

Unfortunately, the military demanded to be privy to the interview record and took interest in the Colonel’s admitting to engaging in a same-sex sex act. Fehrenbach’s been under investigation ever since.

Short of his 20th year in the service, he’s not letting them try to take him out:

Officer Sues to Block His Discharge Under Gay Ban
By JAMES DAO | August 11, 2010

. . On Wednesday, Colonel Fehrenbach’s lawyers filed papers in Idaho federal court requesting a temporary order blocking his discharge. The petition contends that a discharge would violate Colonel Fehrenbach’s rights, cause him irreparable harm and fail to meet standards established in a 2008 federal court ruling on don’t ask, don’t tell.

Good for him. Nobody’s asked him, he’s never told anyone. That is, outside of Idaho police who, understandably, should be accommodated the truth given a sexual assault investigation.

Openly serving gay military people have rallied around the case because Col. Fehrenbach isn’t just hoping for the best — he’s attacking the military for their illegal and destructive behavior:

Under new regulations issued by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates this year, “don’t ask” investigations must be based on information from credible sources. Colonel Fehrenbach’s lawyers argue that the credibility of his accuser is clearly undermined by the dismissal of the sexual assault case.

His lawyers also assert that his case underscores the ways the ban hurts military readiness, the very thing it is supposed to protect. They say that Colonel Fehrenbach’s performance reviews were consistently glowing, including his most recent one, which says he was a “proven leader” who “raised morale” in his unit, according to papers filed by his lawyers.

Go awayIf Fehrenbach’s case is as it seems, it’s a good one. What do the government have to fall back upon? What have they ever really had to fall back upon, other than free-floating fear? Unease?

. . During his 19 years in the service, Colonel Fehrenbach says, he deployed six times as a weapons systems officer, in charge of finding targets and guiding bombs or missiles. He flew combat missions over Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan. “I would love to get back into the cockpit and deploy again,” he said.

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Video of Border Patrol shooting shows agent’s life in no jeopardy when he killed unarmed teen

controversy, immigration, killers, tragedy

For some background on the tragedy, click over to this previous post: El Paso Border Patrol agent fires into crowd of Juarez rock throwers, kills 14 year old

sergio adrian hernandez guerecaWell, the first lies have already been exposed in the tragic shooting and killing of Mexican teenager Sergio Adrian Hernandez Guereca. Stay tuned for more to follow.

Allegedly fearing for his life and surrounded by a “crowd” (as I wrote, above) of violent rock-throwers, the agent, patrolling in the culvert that forms the border between El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, fired in self-defense and hit the 14 15 year-old’s head. Or so they said.

“Another agent arrived on his bicycle along the cement apron that forms the riverbank on the U.S. side,” [FBI agent Andrea] Simmons said in a release. “That agent detained a second subject, Augustin Alcaraz Reyes, but other subjects ran into Mexico and began to throw rocks at the agent.

sergio guereca shot dead

“This agent, who had the second subject detained on the ground, gave verbal commands to the remaining subjects to stop and retreat,” Simmons said. “However, the subjects surrounded the agent and continued to throw rocks at him. The agent then fired his service weapon several times, striking one subject who later died.”

A Top 10 Rule for Post-Modern Life: Don’t foist a despicable lie upon the public that tomorrow’s cell phone clip will blow out of the water.

Looks like stone cold murder to me. Unless they suddenly want to add the boy, incidentally, had a bazooka in his hands.

That’s all I want to say about this today. One, it’s just too sad. Two, this is an international scandal worthy of weeks of discussion. Three, Americans don’t give a fuck. They are a hard-hearted people when it comes to the deaths and lives of Mexicans.

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El Paso Border Patrol agent fires into crowd of Juarez rock throwers, kills 14 year old

controversy, immigration, killers, tragedy

It’s not enough that we back the Israelis no matter what they do — now we’re gonna borrow their tactics, too?

Wait, I take that back. The Israelis wised up long ago and learned to use rubber bullets in confrontations with rock throwers. Well . . at least some of the time. Not us, no sir. For us, teens throwing rocks across the border fence-line constitutes a “deadly force” incident. By all means, go shoot one of them in the head:

Mexico asks for probe into teen’s shooting death by U.S. border agent
By Arthur Brice, CNN
June 8, 2010 — Updated 2129 GMT (0529 HKT)

(CNN) — The Mexican government is requesting a quick and transparent investigation into the fatal shooting by a U.S. Border Patrol agent of a Mexican teen in Ciudad Juarez on Monday night, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

The teen was shot during a rock-throwing incident, Mexican and U.S. officials said.

juarez killing teen

Mexico “reiterates that the use of firearms to repel a rock attack represents a disproportionate use of force, particularly coming from authorities who receive specialized training on the matter,” the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday in a news release . .

Monday night’s incident started around 6:30 p.m. when Customs and Border Protection Border Patrol agents responded to a report of a group of suspected illegal immigrants being smuggled into the United States near the Paso del Norte port of entry, FBI Special Agent Andrea Simmons said.

A suspect identified as Oscar Ivan Pineda Ayala was initially detained on the Rio Grande levy, said the FBI, which is leading the investigation.

“Another agent arrived on his bicycle along the cement apron that forms the riverbank on the U.S. side,” Simmons said in a release. “That agent detained a second subject, Augustin Alcaraz Reyes, but other subjects ran into Mexico and began to throw rocks at the agent.

“This agent, who had the second subject detained on the ground, gave verbal commands to the remaining subjects to stop and retreat,” Simmons said. “However, the subjects surrounded the agent and continued to throw rocks at him. The agent then fired his service weapon several times, striking one subject who later died” . .

Mexico Border Patrol Shooting

Ciudad Juarez spokesman Sergio Belmonte identified the dead 14-year-old boy as secondary student Sergio Adrian Hernandez Huereca.

Belmonte said Hernandez was shot in the head.

“The young man was not armed,” Belmonte said. “He did not have the physical size to threaten anyone. The aggression (by the U.S. agent) is evident.”

Ugh. So, will Arizonans form massive support demonstrations for the brave Border Patrol agent defending himself against the violent Mexican thug? Will they go on and on about how impossible it is to routinely enforce immigration laws when the immigrants are universally angry, armed and anti-American? Free our border agentsWill they point out that even Mexican 14 year-olds are dangerous because that’s just the way those people are, y’know, down there?

Will the Israelis go out of their way to support the right of the United States and its Border Patrol agents to defend themselves? Especially in light of the well-known dangers being constantly smuggled into lands we’re obligated to provide security for? Will they see the teen’s rock-throwing as a shallow p.r. ploy to goad American agents into violence meant to embarrass the U.S.?

Will John McCain make a series of campaign commercials highlighting the incident, calling the courageous but overburdened Border Patrol “HEROES”, similar to our Iraqi soldiers? Will he then draw up a plan for a “SURGE” down at the border in order to get our people the personnel and support they need to “win” the immigration “war”? Will he ride the mess to victory in November and return to the Senate so we can see him on teevee every Sunday morning for another million years?

I dread the fall-out from this sad thing.

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Holy Flurking Shnit! Laurita Doan sighting.

bush league, good government, idiots

Politics first, last and always with the Bushies:

Monday, May 10, 2010

Overworked & Underpaid: The Myth of Public Service
by Lurita Doan

laurita doanPresident Obama said lots of nice things during Public Service Recognition week, and the press was full of predictable odes to federal workers. What a pity . .

The dedicated, overworked, underpaid public servant is a popular myth that the Obama Administration is keen to foster. What bunk. With annual compensation often as high as $230,000, in reality, public employees are some of the best-compensated, most enriched workers in America. Federal workers are eligible for generous, annual cash bonuses, sometimes as large as $70,000.00. The federal standard, 40 hour, work week is far less than the longer hours worked by those in the private sector. Furthermore, federal workers have the strongest job security and are rarely laid off, or removed for poor performance.

Considering the salary and perks of federal workers, it becomes rather clear that federal government workers are the new fat cats.


Do you remember this fool? She’s a legend:

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Neurobioligist / shooter Bishop punches IHOP customers

crime, killers

Previously: “U of A-Huntsville shooter Amy Bishop has a long history of violence when faced with conflict”

In March, 2002, Bishop walked into an International House of Pancakes in Peabody with her family, asked for a booster seat for one of her children, and learned the last seat had gone to another mother.

Bishop, according to a police report, strode over to the other woman, demanded the seat and launched into a profanity-laced rant.

When the woman would not give the seat up, Bishop punched her in the head, all the while yelling “I am Dr. Amy Bishop.”

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U of A-Huntsville shooter Amy Bishop has a long history of violence when faced with conflict

crime, dang, killers

The authorities really screwed this one up:

amy bishop. . Amy Bishop, a mother of four and a Harvard-educated neurobiologist who had been denied tenure, is accused of shooting six people at a faculty meeting Friday in a rare workplace shooting by a woman.

She was charged with one count of capital murder, Huntsville Police Sgt. Mark Roberts said. “There will be additional charges,” he said…

The tragedy took an even eerier turn Saturday when it was reported that Bishop had shot and killed her teenage brother, Seth Bishop, in 1986 in Braintree, Mass. And late Sunday, The Boston Globe reported that Bishop was a suspect in the attempted mail bombing of a Harvard Medical School professor, Paul Rosenberg, in 1993. No one was charged in the incident.


So, would you have charged her in the brother’s killing if you knew she tried to commandeer a car and flee?

Quincy man recalls Amy Bishop holdup
‘For the last 23 years, it was just a cool story I could tell.’
Monday, February 15, 2010 – Updated 41m ago

A former auto-body worker claims Amy Bishop put a gun to his chest and demanded a getaway car just minutes after she shot her brother to death 24 years ago in a controversial case that is now being reviewed…

[Tom] Pettigrew said he heard noise coming from where car keys are stored, so he went to investigate.

“I go over to the door and I can sense that she’s right near the door,” Pettigrew said. “I’m thinking it’s a BB gun. I open the door and she’s right there and we basically bumped into each other and I got a shotgun right in my chest!”

“And she’s like, ‘Hands up!’ and I’m like, ‘Yes ma’am’ ”

Bishop appeared agitated and nervous, Pettigrew said. The University of Alabama professor now accused of killing three colleagues Friday said she needed a car because, “I got into a fight with my husband and he’s going to kill me,” the worker recalled.

Pettigrew then watched as Bishop walked through the dealership looking at cars, all the while grasping the gun.


. . or charged the brother-killer with attempted murder when a professor of hers got pipe bombs in the mail?

Alleged Ala. killer was suspect in attempted bombing of Harvard professor

The professor who is accused of killing three colleagues at the University of Alabama on Friday was a suspect in the attempted mail bombing of a Harvard Medical School professor in 1993, a law enforcement official said today.

Amy Bishop and her husband, James Anderson, were questioned after a package containing two bombs was sent to the Newton home of Dr. Paul Rosenberg, a professor and doctor at Boston’s Children’s Hospital.

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Self-help guru James Arthur Ray got his steroids from an anti-aging website called All Things Male

*holes, drugs, phony, tragedy

As I blogged earlier, Ray is a pill and steroid junkie apparently obsessed with keeping up appearances for profit. Testosterone Cypionate, HCG, HGH, Arimidex, Finasteride, Anastrozole, Pregnenolone, Diovan, Genotropin, what a mess.

Turns out his ‘doctor’, his intimate friend who’d presumably be forced to detail the demi-god’s gripping battle with endemic shriveling gonads and male boobies only at the threat of death, is just an osteopath with a profitable website:

crisler site

And now, like me, you get to look at that symbol on the left of the “All Things Male” banner and burst out laughing. 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . (I haven’t named my nuts ‘Yin’ and ‘Yang’, but I imagine they, too, are comically unalike.)

This was Crisler’s letter, in Ray’s keeping in his accommodations in Sedona, that investigators found and photographed:

crisler px

Typos and all, it reads:

To Whom It May Concern:

Mr. James Arthur ray, DOB [XXXXX], is currently a patient under my care. As part of his treatment therapy, he has been prescribed the following medications:

Testosterone Cypionate
HCG
HGH
Arimidex
Finasteride

He also uses several OTC products, and must carry the syringes necessary for the administration for the above medications.

Qualified individuals with additional questions are free to call me.

Regards,

GIANT SIGNATURE

John Crisler, DO

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Self-help guru James Arthur Ray sold self-reliance to millions with an image created by multiple steroids and mountains of pills

*holes, drugs, phony, tragedy

The embattled self-help millionaire, under intense scrutiny for conducting a brutal sweat lodge at his ‘Spiritual Warrior’ retreat in Arizona that killed three and sickened dozens, wasn’t as self-reliant as he appeared to be.

Though projecting a physical image of youthful health and vigor, he apparently maintained that image through the use of injecting steroids and popping hundreds or thousands of pills.

Yavapai County investigators have revealed a veritable pharmacy of syringes, drugs and supplements in Ray’s possession at the time of the tragedy.

Police found pills inside Sedona sweat lodge leader’s suitcase
Posted: Jan 4, 2010 06:49 AM
Posted by: Dan Spindle

We have new information on the man who was in charge of a sweat lodge ceremony that led to the deaths of three people in Sedona. James Arthur Ray may have been using more than just “positive thinking” to maintain his youthful appearance..

james ray drugs

Police photos reveal a large number of dietary supplements, prescription drugs and anabolic steroids in Ray’s suitcase. Police also found human growth hormones. Doctors say the drugs can be very dangerous.

“It’s fairly well documented that testosterone alone can some how impair or alter your decision-making processes. He was injecting a testosterone form that lasts for a very long time in the body that could certainly contribute to steroid-induced behavior,” said Dr. David Kroll…


In a post detailing what investigators had found related to their investigation and to search warrants, prescottnews.com listed these drugs and supplements. I’ve provided links to a number of the most powerful drugs there, many of them steroid hormones, so that you can read for yourself what he was carrying around. Testosterone, HGH and hCG are a dead giveaway for chemical image enhancement–anti-aging effects, low fat and lean muscle. A number of the others are for long-term effects of steroid usage: testicular shrinkage and testosterone debt. Then you and your doctor can just claim you have natural testosterone and estrogen problems, and the cycle never ends.

In a letter from John Crisler, DO, PLLC he said he had prescribed the following medications to Ray:

* Testosterone Cypionate
* HCG
* HGH
* Arimidex
* Finasteride

Photos of other prescription bottles show the following:

* Anastrozole
* Pregnenolone (prescribed by Dr. Rothenberg)
* Propecia (Dr. Burger, Dr. Marc Dauer)
* Thyroid Armour
* Diovan
* Genotropin (Dr. Berger)
* Methylcobalamin
[B12]

james ray drugs2

And he also had over-the-counter medications and supplements, including but not limited to:

* Barlean’s Greens
* IsAGenix
* Fish Oil
* Corvalen (medical food, said to improve cardiac function and restore energy and chronic fatigue)
* ChlorOxygen
* Lean N’ Fit
* Ginko Biloba
* Athletic Dominance Power N = Speed
* Carb Watchers Lean Body
* Farmacy Pro Power
* Super Lysine
* TerrainZyme
* Vitamin C
* Protein Bars

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‘Heavyweight’ Missouri Republican Rod Jetton beats the crap out of his date, then kisses her and says “You should have said Green Balloons.”

ah romance, red state, republicans

Former Missouri Speaker of the House Rod Jetton, recently divorced, apparently met a woman from Sikeston, Missouri, and arranged to spend an evening with her. Among other things, he may have discussed over the phone the sort of sex he was into and the usage of something like a safe word during the date, the ‘word’ “Green Balloons.” Pre-date stuff.

Well, she ended up having a bad night. And even though she barely remembers what happened, she actually got him arrested. Even though she never once said “Green Balloons.”

Jetton went to the woman’s residence in Sikeston, Mo. with two bottles of wine, according to the report.

“(The woman) said she did not see him pour the wine because she did not follow him into the kitchen, but he returned to the living room and handed her a glass of wine. (The woman) remembers watching a football game and said once she finished the glass of wine, she began ‘fading’ in and out and remembered losing consciousness several times during the evening,” wrote Detective Bethany McDermott in her report.

McDermott reports that Jetton and the woman agreed on a safe word of “green balloons” to use as a stop word during intercourse.

“(The woman) recalls Jetton hitting her on the face very hard. She then remembers waking up, lying on the floor and Jetton was choking her. (The woman) said she did not know what happened with her memory because she had been drunk but had never had the blank spots in her memory,” McDermott reported.

“(The woman) said Jetton stayed the night with her and when he woke up he gave her a kiss and said, ‘You should have said green balloons.’ Jetton left the woman’s residence and had not returned,” McDermott added.

You gotta be kidding me. All you have to do is say “Green Balloons!” How hard could it be? “Green Balloons”, a perfectly good safe word. Coupla words. Well, phrase.

Actually, a ‘safe word’ should probably be a word. Maybe “Green.” Not a great choice, but at least it’s a word. “Balloons” too, also a word. Come to think of it, given the funky stuff that’s going on, the second and third syllables might be a tough call. With maybe your head hands upcrammed into a spiky contraption, can you even form syllables? “Gweee Bwooos.” Throw some of Rod’s Rohypnol in for good measure, and can you do better than vowels? “Aieeeeee Aaoooooooo…”

Y’know, maybe this guy knew exactly what he was doing, maybe he’s just a nasty piece of work. Me not knowing here, really, just thinking out loud, but if you’re going to get rough, blanching pain would probably be the thing. You’ve got to push your body pretty hard to get there, so the ‘word’ should probably be a short and simple one so there’s no mistake, never a risk that the damage could end up permanent. Right?

And the signal probably should dodge your ‘personal tastes’, so to speak. It matters just what your game is. If you’re into ball-gagging, the best safe word is every bit as good as a seance. If your lover, say, likes to cuff you to the headboard, he’s not going see you flip him the bird, even in stereo. Perhaps if your partner is the strangling kind, forget composing a Haiku to complain.

“Winter bark gun grey
Circl’d tin shiverrraackk…..”

And remember: some guys only like to smack you right in the mouth. I feel these people are un-date-able, but I’m not that hip any more. In the middle of an evening with someone like that, and your lips now nothing more than lopsided Dunkin’ Donuts, don’t count on freezing the action by whistling the Meow Mix song: “Hooh Hooh Hooh Hooh, Hooh Hooh Hooh Hooh…”

Come to think of it, after some Republican dirtbag you barely know tells you he wants to charmingly beat the sensible defense out of you, just forget the whole thing. And always think again when anybody tries to assign you a special ‘safe word’. Like “Sisiyphus Bleats Breep”. Or “Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!”. Better pause when you hear something like this: “It’s simple, all you have to say is ‘Coonskin Synechdoche.’” Or, “Honey, I find ‘FUCK! YES! KILL!’ works.” Yeah, but only when some off-duty cops next door hear it.

saturday night with rodUnless, of course you’re REALLY into a Sikeston bruising, hey, not judging. Then you might just want to rig up some closed circuit thingie to capture all the highlights your gray matter will be too ‘Missouried’ to recall.

Like, perhaps, when the sensuous choke-play, having gotten a little too intense for you, caused you to cry out “COCKTEASE CARDINAL RICHelllloooooerrk….” Or when the tender head-slaps left you a little raw, and you tried to yell “MAIDEN MILFING MASTODONS!”, only to get edited by an overhand right, *splagow*. In the real fight game, they’d say you were ‘telegraphing’, rookie. Too bad, now there’s nothing you can say, or see or think, for a while.

Meanwhile, knowing Rod, he’s come back with his word–“SHUTHEFUCKUPBITCH!”. And now he’s crushing your windpipe like a python and trying to bounce your head off the mattress like an angry kid with one of those comical inflatable hammers. You think “Jesus Christ, my head–it’s actually squeaking. I shouldn’t have bought the Tempur-Pedic.” Aw, but the fellas in the mattress store said it would be good for you, oops. All of the circumstances have got Romantic Rod in a very negative positive-feedback loop. Sikeston Sharon, meet Death. Death, yes, Sharon, hello, goodbye.

Ugh, don’t watch. Actually don’t die. Forget Rod Jetton and his erotic brand of naked rage Republicanism. And there, those are safe words for some of you who still think romance is about getting chocolates, and late night phone calls, and clouted.

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Kentucky investigators conclude Bill Sparkman killed himself, made it look like murder so son could collect insurance

apologies, tragedy, wingnuts

Hanged Census Worker Staged Suicide in Apparent Insurance Scam

The part-time census worker found naked, bound and hanging from a tree had staged his suicide to make it appear like murder, authorities said today.

When the body of Bill Sparkman, 51, was found near a rural Kentucky cemetery in September, he was gagged, had duct tape over his eyes and neck, his hands and feet were bound with tape, and he had “fed” scrawled on his chest.

Authorities initially investigated whether Sparkman had been a victim of anti-government sentiment, but today they said in a statement that he died during an “intentional, self-inflicted act that was staged to appear as a homicide.”

Two life insurance plans had also been taken out by Sparkman, a single father, right before the time of his death, but payment for suicide was precluded, said police…

I got it wrong. I called it ‘murder’, though I didn’t guess that I knew by whom. I couldn’t imagine how he could have died in the manner he did, with his feet found on the ground and his hands in front of him, without a second person being there. The guy who found the body thought the same thing: “The scene left Weaver without a doubt how Sparkman died. ‘He was murdered,’ he said. ‘There’s no doubt.’”

I’ve never heard of a person managing to kill themselves in a manner like that, very strange. Almost an act of sheer will. The only thing I’ve heard that’d be remotely like it is auto-erotic asphyxiation, and, with that, the victim’s bodies and brains are pre-occupied with another goal. Hopefully I’ll do some better analysis next time, I continue to live and learn.

Sparkman was apparently a troubled man who was battling cancer, and he may have just gotten too depressed. Though I doubt he could have known just how big a story his ‘killing’ would become, it still was a lurid and shocking public suicide that intended to implicate others. As a result, quite a few people ended up looking sideways at Kentucky for a couple weeks, and that wasn’t fair. Sparkman made a huge mistake ending his life that way, accusing the people of Kentucky of murder, and now that’s what we’ll remember him for. And our obliging his scam.

Btw, I can live with my Sparkman ‘murder’ gaffe over, say, Roger Hedgecock’s, who guessed he was killed by ‘open borders‘ and Mexican druggies, or Dan Riehl’s, who guessed he was killed because he was a child molester. Knowing Dan, he’ll say that he got it right.

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Greedy, callous self-help guru James Arthur Ray conducts “Spiritual Warrior” sweat lodge, kills three

*holes, tragedy

What makes people think that they can be Indians? Just because you know what a sweat lodge is, what makes you think you know how to run one? Desperate people looking for answers give up a pile of money and then end up in the hospital, or the morgue.

When you tell people that you have great wisdom, you tell them you know exactly what you’re doing, you tell them you know what’s wrong with them and can fix them, you tell them they need to challenge themselves and break out of their former personalities, make them fast and cram them into a plastic-coated sweat lodge, people will get hurt. Time for Ray to go to jail.

Sweat Lodge Death Investigation Turns to Self-Help Guru James Arthur Ray

PRESCOTT, Ariz. (CBS/AP) Police have now turned their attention to television self-help guru James Arthur Ray in their investigation of an Arizona sweat lodge ceremony that left two dead and 19 hospitalized.

Kirby Brown

Kirby Brown

Yavapai County Sheriff Steve Waugh said Saturday that his detectives were focusing on the self-help expert and his staff as they try to determine if criminal negligence played a role in the tragic deaths at the Angel Valley Retreat Center in Sedona, Ariz., on Oct. 9…

Waugh said Ray refused to speak with authorities and has since left the state…

Ray claims to help people achieve both spiritual and financial wealth. “The real key to creating the life of your dreams is achieving true Harmonic Wealth®,” he says on his Web site, trademark included.

The self-styled success guru says people are ready for his wisdom if “You simply (and deeply) want to make more money and become more successful” and “want to double, triple, even multiply by ten the size of your business.”…

Ray and his staff constructed the temporary sweat lodge with a wood frame and covered it with layers of tarps and blankets, Waugh said. The sweat lodge — a structure commonly used by American Indian tribes to cleanse the body and prepare for hunts, ceremonies and other events — was 53 inches high at the center and about 30 inches high around the outer edges.

Between 55 and 65 people were crowded into the 415-square-foot space during a two-hour period that included various spiritual exercises led by Ray, Waugh said. Every 15 minutes, a flap was raised to allow more volcanic rocks the size of cantaloupes to be brought inside…

Joseph Bruchac, author of “The Native American Sweat Lodge: History and Legends,” called the number of participants in the lodge “appalling.”

“If you put people in a restrictive, airtight structure, you are going to use up all oxygen,” he said by phone Saturday from his home in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. “And if you’re doing a sweat, you’re going to use it up that much faster.”

American Indian sweat lodges typically hold about 12 people and are covered with blankets made of natural materials, such as cotton or wool, and the air flow isn’t restricted, he said.

“I don’t see how the person running that lodge could have been aware of the health and well-being of that many people,” he said.

The participants had fasted for 36 hours as part of a personal and spiritual quest in the wilderness, then ate a breakfast buffet Thursday morning. After various seminars, they entered the sweat lodge lightly dressed at 3 p.m.

Two hours later, a woman dialed 911 to say that two people, whom Waugh identified as 38-year old New Yorker Kirby Brown and 40-year-old James Shore of Milwaukee, did not have a pulse and weren’t breathing.


Liz Neuman: Third Person Dies In Arizona Sweat Lodge Case

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Hopeless stupidity of Conservatives 2: ACORN staff ‘homicidal prostitute’ punks Fox, headlines Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck

controversy, flat out dumb, wingnuts

This one almost defies description–it is just awesome in its brazen stupidity, shocking obliviousness to real life and naked lust to equate the community organizing group ACORN to the ethnic Satan-dong-smooching baby-pinchers Conservatives are sure they really are.

Internet douche and domestic-terrorist apologist Andrew Breitbart (previously hammered, here) has made himself a 'Til death, which will be soon.legend this week by running video ‘sting operations’ on ACORN staffers, getting them to say stupid things, tolerant of perhaps criminal activities, that get the group into hot water.

The gambit: two extremely white people come in and pretend to be a pimp and prostitute. Why the ACORN folks ever fell for this pathetic crap, we’ll never know, but the actors pretend to need help, and by-the-way they know of some underage El Salvador kidnapped sex slaves. Hey–isn’t that cool? So goes the sophisticated ‘sting’ script.

It’s had some success in getting staffers to play along a little too ‘live-and-let-live’ for even ACORN executives to be comfortable with: firings have followed, funding has been whacked.

But now, Breitbart, doing the same schtick and with Fox in tow, just hit the Conservative Media JACKPOT. An ACORN staffer professes to have been a hooker!! And to have murdered her husband!! And she says…‘good for you, you, and all your new sex slaves b-movie cracker pimp and prostitute!!’

DEAR ME. This certainly brings up a number of questions, doesn’t it? Like, how ever did the largest name in cable television news so easily fall for it? Why wouldn’t they even begin to vet a lurid story from a dubious internet douche like Breitbart? Why are Conservatives utterly immune to real comedy?

Turns out not all ACORN staffers are dumb, this one smelled a rat from the beginning. Playing along with these weirdos in her office, not knowing how bottomlessly stupid Conservatives are, she made the headlines of all of megacorporation Fox News’ biggest hitters.

When the actors approached Ms. Kaelke with their provocative costuming and outlandish scenario, she could not take them seriously. So she met their outrageousness with her own personal style of outrageousness. She matched their false scenario with her own false scenarios.

“They were not believable”, said Ms. Kaelke of the two actors.

Continue Reading »

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