Senate panel votes to abolish death penalty

The state of New Jersey is set to become the first to abolish the death penalty since it was reinstated by the US Supreme Court in 1976.


Tuesday, December 4, 2007

By MICHAEL RISPOLI
Gannett State Bureau

TRENTON

A state Senate committee Monday advanced a proposal to eliminate the death penalty in New Jersey, moving the state one step closer to becoming the only one to legislatively eliminate the punishment since it was reinstated nationally in 1976.

In front of a room spilling over with members of the public, the Senate budget committee took an hour and half of testimony for and against the measure to replace capital punishment with life without parole before approving the measure 8-4.

Public support for the bill came from those morally against the penalty and some victims' families saying the unused law -- no one has been executed in the state since 1963 -- harms families seeking swift justice.

Joined by over a dozen victims' family members, Vicki Schieber, whose daughter Shannon was raped and murdered in Philadelphia in 1998, said the death penalty and its long legal process is "not an answer to many of us who have been through this pain."

"There is no such word as closure, and going through the long, difficult, painful process of a trial puts much more pain and victim in the murder victim's families," said Schieber, a member of the Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights.

Not all victims' families felt this way. Linda Rusconi, whose sister was murdered in 2005, said, "It just doesn't seem fair or just to me to have her killer in prison hurting other guards and people, getting visitors, getting to read books, get to exercise and watch TV while we, my mother, myself, my sister's children . . . have to go visit my sister in the cemetery," Rusconi said.

Opponents of the bill want to refine the law and save the death penalty for the "most vicious, serious, grievous of murders," said ex-state Sen. John Russo.

"Clean it up, make it better," urged Russo, a member of the state's Death Penalty Study Commission, who did not agree with the commission's suggestion to repeal the law.

Senate Minority Leader Leonard Lance, R-Hunterdon, tried to introduce an amendment to reserve the punishment for cop-killers, terrorists and those who rape and murder juveniles, but the amendment was not considered by the committee.

New Jersey has eight men on death row.

Some Democratic senators said although they previously favored the death penalty, they had changed their mind and voted in favor of the repeal.

Sen. Stephen M. Sweeney, D-Gloucester, said the current law gives victims' families "false hope."

"Families deserve closure. They deserve at least an attempt to move on with their lives. The death penalty doesn't give that to anyone," said Sweeney, who voted to abolish the death penalty.

The other tri-county senator on the panel, Martha Bark, R-Burlington, voted to keep the death penalty.

The budget committee took up the bill to review the potential savings the state could see as a result. Bill sponsor Sen. Raymond Lesniak, D-Union, called this "weakest reason to repeal the death penalty." While savings were brought up, the committee quarreled mostly over the principles of the bill and not its fiscal impact.

The Office of Legislative Services determined it could not accurately quantify the total costs or savings of the bill due to a number of variables. OLS did, however, find moving inmates from the Capital Sentence Unit to the general prison population generated an estimated $32,481 savings per inmate annually, and the state could save $1.46 million annually from Office of the Public Defender trial costs based on the average number of capital-punishment cases per year.

The measure now heads to the full Senate for a vote which could come as early as next Monday. Lesniak said he expects the bill to pass, but conceded "it'll be close."

Lance said the Senate Republicans' caucus will not take a party position and that each GOP lawmaker will be advised to vote their conscience.

Legislative leaders have pushed to have the measure voted on before the current legislative session expires Jan. 8. Along with the expected Senate vote, an Assembly committee is set to take up similar legislation next Monday, with a vote expected in the lower house Dec. 13.

Reach Michael Rispoli at mrispol@gannett.com

Courier Post Online

Who Is Paying Metodo 3?

I have just lifted this piece of information straight off the Daily Mirror forum. It's from an item on Spanish TV Channel Antena 3.

" They claimed to have permission from Metodo 3 to reveal:

*Who is paying M3? Brian Kennedy and no one else. BK is said to have no doubt whatever of the McCanns´ innocence. Certain "leaks" to the UK press have commented that the Fund is paying the bill, but this is untrue. CM was misquoted/misunderstood..

*M3 is charging 60,000 euros (plus expenses) for a contract of 6 months.

They also mentioned the following

*Yes the Fund will be paying 80,000 euros for a PR campaign in the Spanish province of Andalucia.

*the McCanns will be re interrogated by the PJ within 10 days.

*that 6 witnesses put RM on the scene that night (3 May)

*the odd coincidence of the British Ambassador´s visit to the PJ within minutes of their return from UK

*the Birmingham forensic tests are not completely finished

* there is a connection between JT and ROB and Murat (through a sister in Exeter)"

So, according to Antena 3, Brian Kennedy, "..and no one else," is paying Metodo 3? Strange! According to this extract from Gerry's blog, the fund is paying loads too!

" Day 210 - 29/11/2007

With this in mind, Madeleine’s fund has started the £80,000 advertising campaign in Southern Spain which will also target North Africa and Portugal. The fund is also contributing £50,000 per month to support the private investigation. We appeal to anyone who may have information to call confidentially our hotline number +34.902.300.213, e-mail investigation@findmadeleine.com or contact the police."

So, if Antena 3 is right and Brian Kennedy and no one else is paying Metodo 3, why is Gerry saying that the fund is contributing £50,000 per month? I did wonder if Brian Kennedy was not paying the full costs, but according to Antena 3, the TV channel has permission from Metodo 3 to say, amongst other things, that only Brian Kennedy is paying them.

If the fund is not paying that money to Metodo 3, it cannot be as cash-strapped as John McCann is saying. Or, if £50,000 is going out of the fund each month and not going to Metodo 3, where is it going?

Daily Mirror Forum

"Maddie's Uncle In Fund Fury"

Gerry McCann's brother John, who lives in Glasgow, has been sounding off about the lack of cash coming in for the Find Madeleine fund.

Scottish Sunday Mail

"THE uncle of missing Madeleine McCann has blamed negative stories about the family for the drop in donations to their fighting fund.

Around £700,000 of the £1.1million raised has been spent in the hunt for Maddie, who disappeared in Portugal on May 3.

Donations to the Find Madeleine Fund dropped following lurid stories after her parents Kate and Gerry were named as official suspects.

The fund brings in around £10,000 a month but the family are paying out £50,000 a month to private detectives.

Gerry's brother, John, of Glasgow, said: "The funds aren't anywhere near the level they were a few months ago thanks to a lot of the crap that's been written over here."

Meanwhile, Portuguese police are set to reinter view the McCanns and their friends, the so-called Tapas Seven."

You'd think there would be some gratitude for all the money that's rolled into that fund, for all the cash pouring in from, "Best Sellers," the wristbands, and from, "Don't You Forget About Me, T Shirts, All Sizes Available! Click Here." But not a bit of it! There was a child who sold her toys on E-bay and sent the cash to the fund, an older man who said that he had donated the money he had been saving for a new pair of shoes, but tell me John McCann, what have you given up? Have Kate and Gerry sold any of their belongings to help in the search for their daughter?

The arrogance of the McCanns really makes me shudder. They fully expect the public to cough up to support their lifestyle and to fund £50,000 a month for a bunch of Spanish anti-fraud detectives with no real experience of finding missing children. The fund has been financing the McCanns' living expenses and has made two mortgage payments for them. Is that what the child sold her toys on E-bay for?

John McCann's whinging about those nasty press stories and how they have reduced the cash flow just exposes that family for the money-grubbers they are. I just can't get over the expectation here that the public will keep giving money to them and the arrogance that accompanies that expectation. No wonder Michael Hitchen of ionglobaltrends calls them, "the Grubs." Dung beetles, I'd say, rolling up and protecting their little heaps!

Child Exploitation Online: Keep your children safe!

How safe are your children online? You don't know who they're talking to when they are in their own rooms, tapping away on the keyboard and the most worrying part is that neither do they. The online chat room is a honey pot for the pervert who wants to conceal his true nature, who grooms your child with sweet words and makes the child feel special. That pervert may be the one who stealthily lures your child into the honey trap, arranging to meet your child, who then feels that they have no control over what is happening with an adult male who turns up in the place of the teenager they thought they were meeting.

Keep your child safe and help to keep others safe. Children do not need to feel that they have let themselves in for whatever happens, as some children will feel. They can take control by being aware of how the pervert sets up his honey trap.

"The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre works across the UK and maximises international links to tackle child sex abuse wherever and whenever it happens."

For advice on how to stay safe online, parents and children can visit: Thinkuknow

Encourage your children to watch this video and circulate it to as many young people and their parents as possible.

CEOP-Think U Know

The internet has opened up a whole new world of opportunity for the pervert to exploit. Do all you can to make sure it's not your child who goes out to meet that stranger at the bus station or in the park. The internet is one of the best inventions ever for communication and immediate access to information, but it is also a route straight into the heart of our homes, where we think our children are safe, where our children should be safe.

Teach your children to be wary, cynical and above all safe, by giving them the information and the resources to stop the online pervert before he makes inroads into your home and your life and changes your family for ever.

http://www.ceop.gov.uk/

"Parents and adults can click here to download our new Strategic Overview which contains information on the key threats to children and young people online."

Make every child matter.....everywhere!

Dans Le Noir?

Well, I was saying to a friend the other day that my son does not, "do ordinary." He and his bunch of cronies seem to be constantly on the look-out for the most unusual eating places, for instance.

There was the Japanese place they all trooped off to that had cooking facilities in the middle of the tables and what you ordered got cooked right there.

Then there was the place with lights set into the floor and the venue with female wrestlers.

Now, for his birthday, my son and his new dining experience-seeking posse are going to, "Dans Le Noir?", where eating is undertaken in total darkness. I kid you not!

http://www.danslenoir.com/london/

"Dans le Noir ? is a restaurant offering the visitor a dining experience in complete darkness"

Dans le Noir ?... A unique human and sensory experience
of a dinner in the pitch dark…

Sensory experience

Dans le Noir? allows you to completely re-evaluate the notion of taste.
Without sight, other senses are offered a new sensation and emotions.
Darkness leads to truthfulness about taste, kills preconceptions and let you face the realities of ingredients and cuisine. Our chef elaborates a refined and sensorial cuisine with fresh ingredients to help our senses to enjoy the “truth” taste of food.

True conviviality

Dining in the total darkness represents a very unusual social experience. How many times have you ever had the chance to talk to people without any preconception that sight implies?
At Dans le Noir? there is no more pressure of other people’s visual judgment. You talk more freely and spontaneously. The absence of vision changes completely the way you act and react, both emotionally and socially. That’s why Dans le Noir? is far more than just a restaurant: it offers a social and convivial experience. Dans le Noir ? raises some questions such as the role of sight in the way we relate to others.

Empathy

In the dark room, you are guided and served by our blind staff.
A magic switch between sighted and blind people happens. For once, blind people actually become your eyes.
This reversal of roles implies a transfer of trust from the sighted person to the blind guide because without him we are just lost. Who actually feels the most Dans le Noir??
The experience is emotionally strong and this empathy really encourages mutual trust and respect.

Maybe next time I invite people for dinner I could introduce them to the wonderful sensory experience of dining in total darkness. My offerings would certainly be better appreciated, I reckon, if my guests did not actually have to look at them!

Good God In Heaven! What you can find on Bebo!

I must have led a very sheltered life! I would never have thought to find so many asterisks in a communication, which had been lifted from what is intended as an internet space for mostly young people to communicate with each other and make friends!

The following was lifted from a Bebo site, which has since been deleted. I have added +++ to distinguish where I have deleted names from the asterisks which will, of course, convey that rabid swearing has been censored.

"+++++++-+++++-++++++
Well well well if it isnt the dirty little slapper her self +++++!!!
What the **** you acusing me of???!!
Deleting that dirty little whores ++++s page???
Well it wasnt me and thats the truth so get your facts right you stupid little t*rt, your so ****** up upstairs that you cant even find out who it was, see ++++ shouldnt **** with people she dont know who shes ******* with, so im telling you this now, you stay away from +++++ right, go near her in school even right and i be waiting out side for you, what you going too do +++++, print this off again? your ******* so sad
Lisen, ++++ is a ****** up druggie who needs too go get help and stop ******** her dad and the ponys and you just need too stay away from my girlfriend before i ******* tell you too your pony ass face, so go back rubing your **** on ++++s face and sniff some glue your dirty trany.
Stay away from MY girlfriend and say anymore about her and there be BIG **** you DIRTY ******* *****, YOUR A *****! Report Spam34 weeks ago


message 2
+++++++-+++++-++++++
Be warned +++++ right, that sad wee ******* below is 16 years old i will ******* kill him, so if i was you i still wouldnt think you it, you ******* dirty little ****.
Go near +++++ anymore or say anything about her or too anyone then i be waiting outside the school right.

so **** off you ******* dirty little **** so hag ++++s pony you twisted *****!!! Report Spam33 weeks ago "

Well, I wonder what kind of person makes that kind of filthy threat? I hope the parents are thoroughly ashamed of whoever it is, if they know that he/she is writing such disgusting tripe on an internet site. Just as well it has been deleted. Bebo is used by many thousands of young people and I hate to think of the vulnerable ones who might come across such filth accidentally.

Be safe all you young people out there. If anyone posts comments like this on your Bebo site or responds to comments you make on other sites, report immediately to Bebo admin. Put a stop to the filth!

Edit: Will this remain anonymous or will someone claim it as theirs and threaten me with breach of copyright? You never know, they may well be that stupid!

SOS Maddie

SOS Maddie is a French language blog, which has published a great deal of information not available in the UK press. Actually, whether it is accurate information from reliable sources or simply speculation, presented as fact, I have no way of knowing.

Today SOS Maddie refers to the visit to the UK by the Portuguese police which took place this week. In addition to details about meetings with the Leicestershire police and with the forensic scientists at FSS, where samples collected from the McCanns rented car and from the holiday apartment have been analysed, there is also mention of records of telephone calls.

http://sosmaddie.dhblogs.be/

"De leur visite au Royaume-Uni, la Police Judiciaire à ramené des résultats, mais aussi des détails de plusieurs diligences effectués par leur collègues de Leicestershire, notamment les relevés des appels téléphoniques effectues par le groupe pendant leur séjour au Portugal."

Translation: As to their visit to the United Kingdom, the Portuguese Police gathered the results, but also the details of several observations by their Leicestershire colleagues, notably transcripts of phone calls made by the group during their holiday in Portugal.

If this is true, these transcripts may be very revealing about the events of the evening of May 3rd, when Madeleine disappeared from the holiday apartment. Perhaps this is another piece of the puzzle, which has encouraged the Public Prosecutor to give permission for the PJ to seek further interviews with the Tapas 9. It was previously reported that the Public Prosecutor would only give permission if significant new evidence were to emerge.

Kate and Gerry McCann May Face More Questions

"Portuguese police investigating Madeleine McCann’s disappearance are poised to return to England to re-interview members of the group who were on holiday with her parents when she went missing."

Daily Telegraph

Following a visit to the UK by a group of Portuguese police and forensic scientists, it is reported that the McCanns and the rest of their group, known collectively as, "The Tapas 9," may be re-interviewed by the police.

"Detectives have long believed the key to unravelling the mystery of the four-year-old’s disappearance could lie with the so-called Tapas Nine – the name given to the McCanns and the seven friends who dined with them on the night Madeleine vanished."

"Public prosecutor Jose Magalhaes e Menezes had refused to sanction further questioning of the group until the full forensic results were known.

It is thought that Paulo Rebelo, the head of the investigation, will now send a team accompanied by Mr Magalhaes e Menezes and the “letters of appeal” to British authorities to carry out the interviews."

Seems to me that if the public prosecutor is about to visit our shores to possibly assist the British police, there could be fairly important developments in this case in the next week or so. It has been suggested by some posters on public forums, particularly that of the Daily Mirror, that the Portuguese police may be returning simply to remove Kate and Gerry from their status as formal suspects, or arguidos, in the disappearance of their daughter. Could be, I suppose, but surely this information could be conveyed to the McCanns via the British police, who have been assisting the Portuguese police since Madeleine disappeared?

There are very few facts available to the public concerning the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. What has been printed in the mainstream media seems to be full of contradictions, especially concerning a timeline for the evening of May 3rd in Praia da Luz, and the various comings and goings of the Tapas 9, during their meal, when the McCanns say that they and their friends checked regularly on the children.

What we do know is that, by their own admission, the McCanns left three small children on their own in a holiday apartment, night after night during their holiday in Portugal, and that one of those children, Madeleine disappeared from that apartment on the evening of May 3rd.

Hopefully the Portuguese police will now be interviewing all of the Tapas 9 re the apparent inconsistencies in their statements about the events of May 3rd in the Mark Warner holiday resort in Praia da Luz. We may yet find out what has happened to Madeleine, that little girl who was left by her parents while they dined at the Tapas Bar, 20/40/50/70/100/120 metres from the apartment! Apparently, if they could walk across the swimming pool, the distance between the Tapas Bar and the apartment was 50 metres! I am assuming that neither Gerry nor Kate could have accomplished this miraculous feat!

Anonymous Said.......

Copied from the comments section of this blog!

"Anonymous said...

Dear Anna Silvestro

I have just found your post on Samantha Osborn and I can tell you; after seeking legal advice from Google`s legal department you are in breach of data protection act and copyright; A notice of Copyright theft and data protection breach has been submitted to Google CA who will now be taking the matter forward with Police.
It is my understanding that Samantha herself has kindly requested that you remove this content about her, why have you not?? Is it because you want to make everyone know that she USE to be missing or the simply fact you are a sad loner that has nothing else to do than to put their nose into others private lives.
Wind your neck in, and respect Samantha`s wishes.
As regards Samantha`s boyfriend, her future plans what the hell has that got to do with you????????!!!!!
NOTHING.
As regards your silly little blogspot, shall I point something out that you might like to add to your blog about this case as you refuse that to remove this content, which will happen as there is now an investigation underway by Google CA and CA legal services, is that she has been found.
She is happy you fail to note, you fail to note that infact Samantha was being subject to violent abuse by her mother, serious violent abuse.
All of which is supported by medical evidence and witnesses.
Samantha is 16 years old, she can do as she pleases, make her own mind up on what she does in HER life, that is not for you to talk about on here on your sad low-life blog, your pathtic!!!!!!
But do you know what is really vile is that you have not respected Samantha`s personal request for this post to be removed, which means you dont give a single toss about her or her feelings; meaning to anyone with a brain reading this that your a sad low-life who just wants to TRY and not allow Samantha to move on from her past.
As for her parents being ashamed, yes I bet they are, for abusing a defenceless girl, why not pick on someone their own size???!!!
Maybe that poster infact is Samantha`s mother who has made mutiple false allegations against Samantha`s boyfriend and left many comments pretending to be another person.
I will end on a final note, being a friend of Samantha`s, I know that she is happier than ever and that the best thing she ever did was getting away from her vile mother who tried to murder her; with such medical evidence supporting such.
I also know one last thing, whatever you say on your silly little blog, whatever anyone says it will not break Samantha and her boyfriend up, it will not get Samantha down, Samantha is stronger than ever.
I wish you good day and happy receiving notice of legal action from Google in due course.


Roxcy

01 December 2007 05:59"

Now, Roxcy, why should Google take legal action against me for information which is available on a police web site? Do tell!

Disclaimer: please note, any allegations in the above comment by Roxcy are the sole responsibility of the poster, Roxcy, and are not the views of Anna Silvestro.

Published Information on Samantha Osborn

Someone posting comments on my Samantha Osborn posts has said that the Daily Mirror is under investigation, by whom he/she does not say. As a matter of interest, here are links to the two articles published by the Daily Mirror.

19/07/07

Vanished Without A Trace

"The police took away her computer to see if it held any clues. They discovered she'd been talking to people in the West Country, and soon all kinds of scenarios began playing over and over in my mind.

She didn't seem to have run away so we had to suppose she'd gone to meet someone - probably one of her internet friends. But that brings its own nightmares and soon we feared she was being held against her will."

6/11/07

Why won't My Little Girl Come Home?

Thames Valley Police, 26/4/07

Thames Valley Police

" It is believed that Samantha may be in the Bristol area, but she has been known to travel to Milton Keynes on occasion.

Samantha has asthma and family are worried whether she has appropriate medication, such as an inhaler, and any chemists who may have been approached by her are asked to please contact the police. Her family also do not believe she has access to money.

Detective Inspector Vince Grey from Thames Valley Police, who is leading the investigation, said: “We’ve exhausted our enquiries with her friends and contacts in Buckinghamshire and we are now extending our enquiries to other areas where she is known to have contacts – top of this list is Bristol.”

So, to the person who has posted comments, threatening to sue me for breach of copyright, whose copyright have I breached? Thames Valley Police? Or do you think the police have also breached someone's copyright?

So, as can be seen above, the Thames Valley police discovered that Samantha had been communicating with people in the West Country area, via the internet, and subsequently they made Bristol top of their list as a possible place that Samantha had gone to. So, my saying that Samantha was thought to have met someone on the internet and that she was believed to be in the Bristol area, is there a breach of copyright there? If so, whose?

Will someone please indicate where, in my initial post about Samantha Osborn, I referred to her boyfriend?

Someone thinking of threatening Thames Valley Police for breach of copyright? That should be very interesting. Perhaps they think that Thames Valley Police are, "low life," too for publishing these details?

Please note: I will remove the photo of Samantha Osborn when I have received a request from Samantha herself. To date, the email address I have requested has not been provided. So, I have no way of knowing if the person claiming to be Sammy Osborn is in fact Sammy.

I will not remove any text from this blog which is in the public domain, especially that which has been published by Thames Valley Police, unless requested to do so by the police.

Leaving School and Getting a Job

This is in response to a comment on one of my posts. Please see comments on the Samantha Osborn posts.

Now to the question of school leaving age in the UK and whether someone who is 16 years old can do exactly as they please.

When can someone officially leave school and be free to do exactly as he/she pleases? This is an abstract from Section 8(4) of the Education Act 1996.


"A new single school leaving date has been set for 1998 and all subsequent years. This is the last Friday in June in the school year in which a child reaches age 16. In 1998 the date is 26 June. Until that date:

a. Parents and guardians must ensure their child's participation in education, at school or otherwise;

b. Local education authorities (and/or the Funding Agency for Schools) must secure the provision of suitable education;

c. Employers may not employ a child full-time;

d. Training providers may not provide full-time Government sponsored training."

So, let's say that a young person reached the age of 16 on 22nd September, 2007, when could that young person leave school, get a job and do exactly as she pleases? According to the legislation quoted above, since the birthday falls within the school year, the official school leaving date for that young person would be the last Friday in June, 2008.

So, until that date in June, 2008, someone whose 16th birthday was 22nd September, 2007, would not be able to get a full-time job, and would possibly be sought by a truancy officer, if not attending school full-time.

I hope this helps the person who submitted the rather long comment to the Samantha Osborn post. if you have any further doubts, I would advise you to contact your local education department where you are living, or your local Social Services Department, who will be very pleased to assist you.

Dfes.gov.uk

The Religion of Peace My A$$!!!

Well, the religion of peace does it yet again! Thousands of people were out on the streets of Khartoum following Friday prayers, (Amazing the kind of actions that are incited by those prayers!) demonstrating against what they see as a the lenient sentencing of Gillian Gibbons. Gillian is the British woman who has been working as a teacher in Sudan, who committed the heinous crime of allowing a class of small children to call a teddy, Muhammed.

"Gillian Gibbons, 54, from Liverpool, was jailed for 15 days on Thursday after allowing children in her class to name a teddy bear Muhammad."

BBC report

Yes, after Friday prayers, encouraged by their devotion to their faith, there were people out on the streets of Khartoum, burning effigies of Gillian Gibblons and calling for her to be executed!

According to Sky News:

"The perceived leniency incensed Sudan's hard-line Muslim clerics."

Indeed, the demonstration is said to have been orchestrated, rather than having been a spontaneous outburst of feeling.

"The crowd had been ferried in on pick-up trucks after Friday prayers. Riot police kept them away from the presidential palace.

Journalist Andrew Heavens told Sky News: "There were signs that this protest was highly orchestrated. This was not the spontaneous act of a mob."

Clearly the mob had been incited to action by the words of the clerics at Friday prayers. What kind of religion is that, where its preachers encourage people to violence and calling for a death penalty for something as trivial, in my opinion, as calling a teddy bear Muhammed? It's a religion that cannot cope with any kind of criticism. It's a religion whose followers take to the streets, facing contorted with hatred, inciting violence and calling for executions for anyone whom they see as offending their oh-so-delicate religion.

"During Friday sermons, the Muslim cleric at Khartoum's main Martyrs Mosque denounced Mrs Gibbons, saying she intentionally insulted Islam.

Ms Gibbons was jailed for 15 days

"Imprisoning this lady does not satisfy the thirst of Muslims in Sudan," said the cleric, Abdul-Jalil Nazeer al-Karouri, a well known hard-liner."

Sky News

Does not satisfy the thirst of Muslims in Sudan? What are they thirsting for? Answering yet another of my own questions, I guess it's blood they're thirsting for. What strange and inhuman people the religion of peace has created.

I simply do not understand a religion that incites its followers to violence and killing over slights and misdemeanors.
The Religion of Peace my a$$!!!!!!

Jilona

It is with deep sadness that I write about the death of Jilona. For those who have ever posted on the BBC message boards, or one of several other popular boards, the name will be familiar. Jilona died suddenly on November 12th.

Jilona was passionate in her beliefs and strong on her principles of justice. Her comments on message boards were well-researched and went straight to the heart of any issue being discussed. She was strident and clear in her opinions, ate trolls for breakfast, and was one of the most intelligent and articulate message boarders ever to grace the internet. And grace the internet, she did.

A very sad loss for good debate and online friendship and my thoughts are with her husband at this time of his very sad loss.

YouTube Video For Jilona

The Glasgow Story

A street in the Gorbals, circa 1950

I was born in Coatbridge, which is one of those towns you will miss on your way from Glasgow to Edinburgh. My father was born and raised in Glasgow, in that part which is probably synonymous with slum Glasgow, the Gorbals. Many of my father's family lived in the Gorbals throughout my childhood and we visited there often, walking from the bus stop in Duke Street, down through Glasgow Green and over the bridge into Florence Street to see my Auntie Minnie who had a shop in that street, and my Uncle William, who lived there.

Much has been written about the close-knit communities that existed in areas like the Gorbals, and that is the memory I retain from my visits. My Uncle William had a daughter, who was close to my age, and two sons. I was always sent out to play with my female cousin and this meant, usually, playing, "roon the middens." Behind the tenement buildings, there were areas, known as, "the middens," where there were brick-built sheds, housing the large bins that domestic refuse from the flats was thrown into. These sheds were dirty, offensively-smelling places, crawling with rats, but used by many kids as hiding places.

My cousin would take me out, round the back of the tenement, where dozens of kids congregated, climbing over the high brick walls into the neighbouring midden area, which served another part of the street. These kids absolutely terrified me. They were foul-mouthed, brash and bossy and often made fun of me for being a wimp who was scared of walking along the tops of some of the high brick walls. To me, my cousin was every bit as street-smart as the rest of the Gorbals kids, and I felt like the small town ignorant relative in comparison.

The above is a photo of a Gorbals street from the 1950s. I don't know what street it was, but Florence Street was very like this at the time.

In the 1960s, the Glasgow Fathers decided, in their wisdom, to start knocking down the tenements, build high-rise flats and send thousands of displaced people out to new housing estates in places like Castlemilk and Easterhouse. The most famous, or rather, notorious, of these high-rise flats were those designed by Sir Basil Spence, 19 storey blocks on stilts, on the banks of the Clyde. Hailed at the time as brilliant architecture, the buildings were demolished in the 1980s; apart from being bleak boxes that no one, especially people with families, wanted to live in, they were sinking into the boggy land by the Clyde!

Gone were the close-knit communities. By the late 1960s, it had begun to dawn on the City Fathers, the Councilmen, that they might have made a few mistakes! There then began an experiment in which instead of knocking down the tenements, which were solid Victorian buildings, they renovated them. They knocked a few interior walls down and put in bathrooms and toilets and created more living space than there had been in the old, "Room and kitchen," and,"Single End," dwellings. A, "Room and kitchen," was a two-roomed flat, the room being the bedroom in which whole families slept; the kitchen being living-room, dining-room and kitchen all-in-one, where the whole family congregated, cooked and gathered to listen to the radio or watch TV. The facades of the tenements were cleaned, and the midden areas were turned into children's play areas and car parks. What were once slum dwellings are often now sold privately for a good market price.

The Glasgow Story web site:

The Glasgow Story

Here you will find fascinating insights into Glasgow's history from the Industrial Revolution right up to the 21st Century, how the city has undergone great upheaval and change, and has entered this new century as a bright, colourful city of culture.

For people who trace their family to Glasgow, there is a very useful link on The Glasgow Story site to, "Valuation Rolls." (Link top left) If you want to know where your relatives lived, you can search by street name or by ward.

"The Valuation Rolls contain information that includes descriptions of Glasgow properties; street number and street; the proprietor's name and address; name and occupation of tenant; occupier and "inhabitant occupier" and information relating to the value of the property for rating purposes. They are an invaluable source for family historians, and we have digitised a complete set of the Rolls for Glasgow for the year 1913-1914."

Not all of the changes to the city have been changes for the good of the communities who once lived in places like Florence Street. Where the old Victorian buildings stood, with the road leading to the river, there are now, blocks of flats and a Neighbourhood Centre. There are huge open spaces, which I am sure were intended to bring new amenities to the residents of the area, amenities which were thought to be lacking in the crowded-together tenement buildings. However, the wind that blows off the river is now tunneled between the high-rise blocks and blows unbuffeted across the huge open spaces.

Still, I love it. It's my kind of town, Glasgow is, my kind of town! I like Buchanan Street even better now that it has been pedestrianised and you can saunter through the small shopping arcades of little niche shops and wander up to the impressive shopping mall at the top.

It's a fine city and well worth a visit. If you do find yourself in the previously known, "NO Mean City," don't forget to include a trip to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum to view the city's most praised piece of art, the Salvador Dali, "Christ of St John of The Cross."

Go well, now! Be safe!

What Has Happened To Our Schools?

I was looking through stacks of books in a school library recently, books that were for sale and I found, "An Introduction To Botany," by Priestley, Scott, Harrison. There are nearly 700 pages of information-rich text, with mostly line drawings and a few photographs. When I did A Level Botany, this was the kind of textbook I used. I know! This sounds like, "In my day bla bla," but in comparison, the modern textbooks look like comic books, with bite-sized chunks of text and comic book type illustrations, looking like someone's idea of how to illustrate a textbook for, "cool," young people.

It seems to me that education is now delivered in packets, like cook-chill food, nicely packaged and presented in meal-sized portions, delivered in the ubiquitous hand-out.

And when did we stop asking kids to copy notes, and to read a few books and start handing out reams of paper? I asked a year 10 class (around age 15) to copy two, not very long, paragraphs recently. "Do I have to write all that? Why Can't I just stick that in my book?" Because, dear child, if you write it out, you might remember some of it!

Seems to me that the internet has brought a revolution in information into the classroom. Kids now have access to such a wealth of information, but they want to copy and paste it, without reading or understanding a lot of time. Here's a nice chunk of information, I'll have that! Looking over a year 9 student's shoulder, reading research he was doing on protein in the diet, I read about, "long chain molecules." and, "peptide bonds." So, I asked what a molecule was! Don't know! Well, what's a, "peptide bond?" Don't know!

Every school, secondary and primary, in the UK, now has a reprographics department. When I see the stacks of paper sitting there and the ream upon ream that gets printed on every day, I can see where a load of that money is going that the Labour government has poured into education. The plastic chairs may be falling apart and the formica-covered tables are wobbling, but look at the lovely hand-outs!

And will somebody please tell me when it became OK to swear at teachers and for there to be no consequences? I think this must have been around the same time that it became OK for girls to turn up at school in lycra skirts that just cover the gluteus muscles, carrying their make-up and mobile phone in a cute little pink handbag, with no room for useful stuff like pencils, pens and rulers!

Laptops in classrooms could be an absolutely briliant addition to the resources for learning that teachers have to offer. Unfortunately, they are also a brilliant way for many young people to update their, My Space, Bebo, or Face Book sites, and communicate with their mates in chatrooms. Jeez! These kids think I don't know what a minimised page looks like! I am so sick of spending so much time saying, "Close that page." There must be better ways to use my time.

A lot of the time I feel like I'm doing crowd control, rather than what I trained to do, teach! If I have the same number of kids in the room at the end of a lesson as I had at the start, that's some kind of success! I haven't sent any to, "Isolation," and I haven't lost a few to join the so-called, "tourists," who roam the corridors.

I am having a jolly good rant today about this, but this is what working in a secondary school is like for many of us in the UK now. A colleague commented the other day that the only skill needed to work in many schools is the ability to cope with verbal abuse. If I was a waitress I'd have more rights! Anyone who came into my cafe and called me a, "stupid f*****g bitch," would be banned, yet, as a teacher, that's one of the milder insults!

And then there's the league tables! Exam results are shown to have been improving year-on-year! So, how come kids who can hardly string a sentence together in meaningful English are achieving a few GCSEs? I shall leave that question until another time.

Any sensible job offers that would take me away from all this are very welcome.

Please bear with me, dear readers!

Dear Readers,

It sometimes takes a long long time for me to draft a post and publish it because of the difficulty in editing. I set the font type and size, then preview and I find that the font has changed into something pretty weird-looking. This morning, I have spent around an hour attempting to persuade the software not to make..........

......this phrase look large and squashed up.

From an article in New College Clarion by Jessica Ablamsky, reported May 2007 in:

So, apologies, dear reader. The software is making its own decisions about this.

New Jersey And The Death Penalty

There are currently eight men, their ages ranging from 30 to 70 years old, on New Jersey's Capital Crimes wing and it is said they have more chance of dying of old age than they have of being executed. Their ages range from 30 to 70 years old.
New Jersey has not executed a single person since the United States Supreme Court permitted executions to resume in 1976. The last execution in NJ was in 1963. New Jersey is now on track to become the first state to repeal the death penalty. A bill that would abolish New Jersey’s death penalty was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee this spring and is now on a fast track to be considered by both houses within weeks. Senator Richard J Codey, Senate President said he plans to bring the bill to a vote by the full chamber by the end of the year. Gov. Jon S. Corzine has said that he will sign the measure into law if it reaches his desk.

Recently the Supreme Court of the United States placed all executions across all states on hold, pending an enquiry on whether death by lethal injection breached the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution, which states that punishment should not be, "Cruel and unusual."

Execution by lethal injection. A look at some of the published articles.

Elizabeth Wrigley-Field (ewriglyfield@...) is a graduate student in sociology and a member of the International Socialist Organization.

Badger Herald

“Thursday, November 15, 2007
Last month, without much fanfare, it became clear that there is a de facto moratorium on executions in the United States. The Supreme Court indicated it will put all executions on hold while it evaluates the constitutionality of the lethal injection procedure used across the United States.

From an article in New College Clarion by Jessica Ablamsky, reported May 2007 in:

Yahoo Group CEDP

Writing about execution by lethal injection in an article titled, “Behind the Curtain - How Modern Day Executioners Botch Their Job”

Protocol

"Lethal injection protocols vary from state to state, but generally the condemned
is strapped to a gurney. Two needles are then inserted into usable veins. The
needles are connected to long tubes that run through a hole into another room,
where one or more executioners release the lethal drugs. After a signal from the
warden, the curtain is raised and the inmate is exposed to the witnesses who
watch from another room. After the inmate makes his final statement, the lethal
drugs are injected.

The first drug is a fast acting barbiturate that ideally renders the inmate
unconscious. The second drug paralyzes the inmate and stops the lungs. The third
drug, the killing drug, stops the heart. A lot of the current controversy
surrounding the lethal injection has come from doctors who have testified in
court that if the fast acting barbiturate wears off before the inmate dies, then
he will feel the pain of suffocation during the execution but be unable to cry
out because of the paralytic drug.”

Those who administer the drugs.

"And the guys who do that, they're not doctors. They weren't during Willet's
tenure at least. No one was. Not the people who tied the restraints, not people
who inserted the IV, not the executioner. "The only place a doctor comes in� he
comes in and does all the things a doctor does to pronounce death," said Willet.( Former warden of the Huntsville Unit, the prison where
Texas' death row population goes to die.)"

Behind the scenes

"But, before the curtain that veils witnesses from the death chamber opens,
technicians sometimes struggle for up to an hour to insert the IVs into an
inmate's veins so that the lethal drugs can flow. The serenity of the lethal
injection, that just going to sleep, is due to a paralytic drug that is
administered as part of the lethal injection process. This drug that saves
witnesses from having to view involuntary spasms as the inmate dies, and saves
the public from having to hear about them, prevents the inmate from crying out
if the painkiller wears off before their heart stops."

Botched executions

Bennie Demps: June 2000

"On June 8, 2000, Bennie Demps was executed by lethal injection by the state of
Florida. Technicians struggled for 33 minutes to insert two IVs into Demp's
veins. When the curtain opened, Demps was already strapped down, with needles
inserted. During his final statement he said, "They butchered me back there. I
was in a lot of pain. They cut me in the groin, they cut me in the leg� This is
not an execution, this is murder," according to the Miami Herald. Demps said the
medical examiner would find a wound on his leg that technicians sutured back up.
"I was bleeding profusely," Demps said.

When Demps was killed, the lethal injection was new to Florida. Florida had
switched from electrocution to the lethal injection only months before. "This
being a fairly new procedure at the time, I did not have any expectations," said
George Schafer, Demps' lawyer, who witnessed the execution.

Everyone assumed that when the method of execution changed from electrocution
to lethal injection that it would be more humane, and that assumption needs to
be reexamined," Schafer said."

Joseph L. Clark: May 2006

"On May 2, 2006, Joseph L. Clark was executed by the state of Ohio using the
lethal injection, the sole method available in that state. After the curtain
opened, with the IV already in place, Clark raised his head and body and said,
"It don't work. It don't work," five times, according to an article in the
Canton Repository by Paul Kostyu. The curtain was closed, and witnesses heard,
"moaning, crying out and guttural noises," according to the Columbus Dispatch.
The curtain did not reopen for another 30 minutes. It took the state an hour and
a half to kill Joseph Clark."

Is there a Doctor in the Room?

"Clearly this whole lethal injection procedure is borrowed from the medical
profession," said Richard Dieter, Director of the Death Penalty Information
Center, an anti-death penalty group. "Now you have prison guards and non medical
personnel performing medical procedures," he said. To conduct the lethal
injection without an unnecessary amount of pain, a doctor would needs to oversee
the procedure. "They'd have to be willing to step in if necessary and
intervene," said Dieter, "I don't think that doctors are willing to do that."

Thirty five botched executions

"There have been at least 35 botched executions in 13 states, according to
information compiled by Michael Radelet, a professor at the University of
Colorado who studies the death penalty, and Deborah Denno, a lawyer and
professor at Fordham University who is an expert in death penalty law. Of those
botched executions, 14 were in Texas, which does the most executions each year.
Illinois, Missouri, Ohio, and Oklahoma each had 3 botched executions, Arkansas
had 2, while Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Nevada, South Carolina, and
Virginia each had 1 botched execution."

Doctors in the USA are very reluctant to become the State's executioners.
First of all, do no harm. It is not within the principles of a doctor's professional ethics to become a killer for the state. So, medically unqualified personnel have been administering what amounts to complex medical procedures. Time for this to be be stopped and I applaud the Supreme Court for taking up this issue and putting all executions on hold.

Baby Grace

The strange case of Baby Grace has not managed to find its way into the mainstream media in the UK with any great alacrity. Why not? The case of the small boy, whose body was found in a suitcase in a pond in Australia, was reported widely. So, why not Baby Grace?

The body of a small child, who has been given the name Baby Grace by the police in Galveston, Texas, was found in a storage box on an island in Galveston Bay.

There has been much speculation about how much the sketches by a forensic artist look like Madeleine McCann. Sketches can be seen here.

Galveston Local News

“Based on the totality of the circumstances, we do not believe it’s her (Madeleine),” Tuttoilmondo said and added that his office is working with the FBI to completely rule out the possibility."

Today there is news that the child is most likely to be Riley Sawyers, who has been missing since the summer of this year. Riley's mother, 19-year-old Kimberly Trenor, moved from Mentor, Ohio, to live with her new partner. In June, Riley's grandmother tried to find out where Riley was.

" Trenor’s family members in Ohio told Sawyers that sometime in late July, someone claiming to be a social worker came to Texas and took the girl, Sawyers said."

Photographs of Riley compared with that of Baby Grace, lifted from the Daily Mirror forum and with nodding thanks to MulderScully....and grovelling appreciation!

MulderScully's photos

DNA results are expected soon in an attempt to establish the identity of this little girl.

Click2Houston

"Detectives have gathered a total of 11 DNA samples to try to find her identity. Officials requested nine of them and two were given voluntarily, sources told KPRC Local 2.

The samples include the parents of 4-year-old Madeleine McCann from Great Britain, who disappeared May 3 while the family was on vacation in Portugal.

Seven others are from around the United States and three are from Texas."

This little girl needs a name. She is somebody's daughter, somebody's grandchild, and somebody in her own right. I hope that she will be identified soon and laid to rest in peace. God bless you Baby Grace.

Samantha Osborn Is Safe and Well and Suing Me!

Please read the comments on the previous post about Samantha Osborn. Sammy, or someone representing Sammy, has threatened legal action if I do not remove the photo AND THE BLOG! Since all the details of Sammy's being missing are in the public domain, am I breaching copyright? What copyright is there on reporting that a young person is missing? Perhaps Sammy will sue all of the newspapers who still have the story available in their search facility?

The photo of which Sammy speaks is, in fact, in the public domain.

Daily Mirror

Jailhouse Lawyer!

I have just come across an absolutely brilliant blog!

prisonersvoice blogspot

John Hirst, the blog's author, says this about himself:

"John Hirst Hull, East Yorkshire, GB "Who is John Hirst?" the Sun online questioned the day after the UK lost its appeal to the Grand Chamber of the ECHR in the prisoners votes case. The profile was not very informative nor flattering. But, I don't like the Sun either so we are quits. I was born, at 2 I was put into Dr Barnardo's Homes. What they called care, we refer to it as physical and sexual abuse. I drifted into crime, and spent 35 years in prison. In spite of the system, I reformed and rehabilitated myself with the support of some within and outside of the system. I was transformed from a law breaker into a law-maker. I am firmly committed to prisoners rights, and am a campaigner for penal reform. I live in a 3 bedroom terrace house within a cul-de-sac, and have a dog as a companion. My Latvian friend keeps invading my space and telling me I need a wife. She does keep the house clean and tidy, but loves my dog and calls him her boyfriend..."

A brilliant blog!So many subject areas covered! Go have a look! His latest posts on the subject of the Madeleine McCann investigation are particularly worth reading.