STEVE JOBS IS NO EINSTEIN

The death of Steve Jobs is certainly sad. But, I think there is a lot of hyperbole swirling around the media and among the mourners. The latest is that Steve Jobs is an Einstein or an Edison which I think is a little over the top. He may have been a smart guy but, I don't think he was smarter than most of the engineers and programmers who worked at Apple. He may have been the guy who said yes or no on what products Apple would make. But, the programmers, mechanical and electrical engineers are the ones who made it happen. They are still here and they will still make it happen. Nobody is irreplaceable not even Steve Jobs. The world and we go on and there will be another person to replace Steve Jobs. There always is.

The Lying Liberal Lion Ted Kennedy Dies

I sometimes wonder if Barack Obama carries a big bundle of bad karma around with him. Considering all the people who have died that have be associated with him. There was his mother who died very young, his father in a car accident. The grandmother who raised him who died never knowing whether he ever became President. Now comes Ted Kennedy whose endorsement of Obama helped push him ahead of Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Presidential nomination.


I'm a registered Democrat but, I don't put Kennedy on a pedestal as Liberal Democrats do. He certainly was no profile in courage and his positions are often way off the mark as his comments on the illegal immigration through the years have shown:

1965: "The bill will not flood our cities with immigrants. It will not upset the ethnic mix of our society. It will not relax the standards of admission. It will not cause American workers to lose their jobs."-Senator Ted Kennedy


1986: "This amnesty will give citizenship to only 1.1 to 1.3 million illegal aliens. We will secure the borders henceforth. We will never again bring forward another amnesty bill like this." -Senator Ted Kennedy

2007: "Now it is time for action. 2007 is the year we must fix our broken system." -Senator Ted Kennedy

Then there was how he used his power to help kill the offshore windmill generation project off of Martha's Vineyard because it would ruin the views of he and his elitist neighbors. Then there was his behavior and complicity in the death of Mary Jo Kopeckne. If the Internet had been around when Kennedy drove his car off the bridge I doubt his political career would have survived as long as it did.

Death of two liberals

There was a double homicide that occurred just before Thanksgiving near the BCP Washington Bureau that I have been following. It is the the gruesome stabbing death of of Michael and Virginia Spevak. Their death was not on the front page of the liberal papers like the Washington Post and the story has pretty much faded from news coverage in DC. However, it is a cautionary tale of how being too liberal can get a person killed in today's world. Despite the best of intentions. The Spevaks were liberal "community activists" who opened their home to people. One of these people remembered their hospitality and help repay them by allegedly sending killers into their home. Here is the some of the details:


"A young woman who had once stayed overnight at the Chevy Chase home of a couple who were killed there last week led two fellow attackers to the house, according to police charging documents released yesterday after her initial court appearance.

Angela Hernandez, 20, told D.C. homicide detectives that she and two friends were riding in a white Toyota on Nov. 20 when she pointed out the home of Michael Spevak, 68, and his wife Virginia, 67, according to the charging papers. One of her companions said, "Let's rob it," the documents state."

Hernandez is charged with first-degree murder and felony murder, federal prosecutors said.

The Spevaks' bodies were found Saturday in their home in the 5300 block of Belt Road NW. Hernandez, arrested late Wednesday, is the second suspect charged in the killings. On Tuesday, police arrested Piero Fuentes Hernandez, 21, of Capitol Heights in connection with the case. He is not related to Angela Hernandez.

The Spevaks were well-regarded in their neighborhood. Michael Spevak, a psychiatrist, saw patients in the family home. Virginia Spevak devoted time to helping youths in the District's foster care system. It was the Spevaks' commitment to foster care that provided the nexus with their killers, the charging documents allege.

Initially, police said, Hernandez said she knew the names of the people who might have stolen the Toyota Scion but denied any knowledge of the killings. She then admitted that she knew the victims, had visited her friend "Anna," the couple's former foster child, at the Spevak home several times and had spent the night there, although she had not been at the home in two years, according to the charging document.

Eventually, the court document states, Hernandez admitting pointing out the home to her two companions, one of whom was armed with a metal "pole type weapon," the other a gun.

According to the account provided by the charging document, Hernandez said she told Fuentes Hernandez to ring the doorbell and ask for Anna. Hernandez said Michael Spevak opened the door, and her two companions forced their way in and dragged Spevak into the house. Hernandez said she left the house and waited in the Toyota. Minutes later, her two companions came out carrying computers, which they put in the trunk before driving away.

"Fuentes Hernandez told police that he is a member of the MC Gang, or Master Criminals, which is an affiliate of STC, or Street Thug Criminals, according to the charging documents filed in support of his arrest. Hernandez told detectives that she has not been initiated into a gang but has friends who are with the MC Gang, STC, and MS-13, according to charging documents in her case."

Three days after the killings, Hernandez and Fuentes Hernandez posed for photographs in a photo booth, copies of which federal prosecutors attached to the Hernandez charging documents.

A legend above the series of photos proclaims "WANTED For Just About Everything." The two are kissing in one photo and sticking their tongues out in another."

How charming! I wonder if they used any of the money from the home of the Spevaks to take those pictures.

Black Friday turns red with blood.

I actually participated in some Black Friday shopping. I rise early and so I decided that I might as well head over to a nearby Office Depot store here in Washington D.C. that was opening at 6 AM. I need a new printer that would work with a new HP laptop I had purchased a few weeks ago. They had a great deal on one multifunction unit for twenty five bucks. I arrived at the store about five minutes before 6AM and there were about thirty people already on line. A store employee came out a few minutes before and handed out papers for some of the sale items like laptops etc. If he had one to give you were guaranteed the item when the store opened. I got my HP printer and was out of the store in about 45 minutes. It was nice and orderly.
Others where not so lucky:

"A stampede of shoppers in a Valley Stream Wal-Mart on Friday morning left one worker dead and at least three patrons injured after an impatient crowd broke down the store doors and trampled the seasonal employee, Nassau police said.
Jdimytai Damour of Jamaica, Queens, was pushed to the ground by the 2,000-plus crowd just before 5 a.m. as management was preparing to open the store, which is located across from the main Green Acres Mall building. Hundreds stepped over, around and on the 34-year-old worker as they rushed into the store."-Newsday

Even worse is what transpired in a Toys R Us store in Palm Desert California:

"Two men pulled guns and shot each other to death in a crowded toy store Friday after women they were with got into a bloody brawl for unknown reasons, witnesses said. Scared shoppers fled but no one else was hurt.
The violence erupted on Black Friday, the traditional post-Thanksgiving start of the holiday shopping surge, but authorities indicated the shooting shortly after 11:30 a.m. was not prompted by shopping frenzy.
Riverside County sheriff's Sgt. Dennis Gutierrez said the fight was not over a toy. He said handguns were found by the men's bodies. He would not answer a question about whether the shooting was gang-related."
The victims were identified as Alejandro Moreno, 39, of Desert Hot Springs, and Juan Meza, 28, of Cathedral City."

I wonder if we will ever get the full story of what happened here. At least these two only shot themselves. But, it gives new meaning to the term shop til you drop.

Remembering Russert

I was out working on my sailboat when I heard the news that Tim Russert had died. The local NPR station had just switched from it's classical music format to the nightly broadcast of All Things Considered. The headlines started with "one of Washington's most respected journalists had died". I thought immediately it must have been Helen Thomas the longtime elder icon of the Washington press corp. I was shocked that they started they mentioned Tim Russert.

What made Russert different from many of the other journalists in the mainstream media is his middle class background. There are far to few journalists today who have the sensitivity and common sense of the middle class. Tim because of his growing up in Buffalo the son of a hard working middle class sanitation truck driver understood what it meant to be middle class in America and never forgot it. He was more in tune with that segment of the American public than many of the others in the mainstream media. There are not many others in the media with the same sensibility. With Russert gone politics will not be the same, America will not be the same.

2007 Begins and ends with death.

I decided to spend some time this morning looking at some of my blog posts over the year and was struck that the year began and ended with deaths in the news. There is of course the death of Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto which is very much in the news. But, I also thought it interesting that one of my early blog post in January also concerned the deaths of some prominent people. There was Gerald Ford and some guy named Saddam Hussein who hanged remember him?

John McCain crys in the Sonara desert alone.

Those who are pro illegal immigrant apologists including the Washington Post and Republican Presidential candidate John McCain have only one argument to the American people in defense of illegal immigrants. That is the sympathy argument. The Washington Post tried to use it again yesterday. Here are the money quotes:

"It was the issue of immigration that hurt my campaign," he said. "I have not encountered a domestic issue that has provoked the emotional response that this issue does with a lot of Americans." -John McCain

Ya think Senator? Perhaps maybe people get emotional when they pay hard earned tax dollars to the Federal Government to "protect and defend" the country and it's borders. But, on the way to work in the morning to earn money to pay those taxes they see a hundred or so illegals standing on street corners in their community which is 1500 miles from the border.

"People are continuing dying in the Sonoran desert, and it's just a very sad thing to see,"

And who exactly is to blame for that Senator McCain? The U.S. citizens who want our borders secure so that illegals can not start the trek across the desert some to die others to end up in our communities. Or people like you in Washington and those businesses that are hiring illegals that look the other way and ignore the laws that our Federal Government is supposed to enforce. Save your tears Senator McCain for when you look in the mirror to see who is really causing those deaths in the desert.

Leona Helmsley dies and makes one final trip.

I have often wondered if Leona Helmsley and Imelda Marcos were separated at birth. They both had the clueless outlook that comes with being a wealthy elitist. Take for example Helmsley's infamous comment about her and fellow wealthy elites:
"We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes"- Leona Helmsley

I am a big believer in Karma. If it is true than I suspect that on her death Leona Helmsley has gone to Hell and had to carry her own bags.

John McCain's death threats and the reality.

"It is unbelievable how this has inflamed the passions of the American people," the Arizona senator said in remarks at The Aspen Institute, a public policy forum. In an interview, he declined to elaborate on the threats he had received."-Associated Press

So here we have Senator John McCain trying to use the sympathy card and playing the victim just like the illegal immigrant advocates tend to do. He claims he has received death threats because of his position to give amnesty to the illegal immigrants. I certainly would never condone such threats. But, Senator McCain there are death threats and there is death. Perhaps you should talked to the husband of Adrienne Shelly about your death threats. Then ask about her death. Then go to the husband of Mary Nagle and ask about her death. And then go to the widow of Alan Broom and ask about his death. Keep on asking about deaths and the illegal immigrants you'll be asking about it for a long time. Maybe then you will understand the inflamed passions of the American citizens on the issue of illegal immigration.

Another death by illegal immigration.

I hope New Haven, Connecticut Mayor Destefano who just made New Haven a "Sanctuary City" for illegal immigrants read this story in the city's local paper. Here are the money quotes:

"New Haven man who may be an illegal immigrant is being held in lieu of $1 million bail for the vehicular death of West Haven minister Alan B. Broome, whom state police say he hit Feb. 5 while driving the wrong way on Interstate 91. "
Israel Quintero, 29, of 981 Ella Grasso Blvd., was released from Yale-New Haven Hospital Monday morning and was immediately arrested for second-degree manslaughter while intoxicated and a host of other charges, said state police Lt. J. Paul Vance.
"We believe he’s here improperly," Vance said."

Improperly? Lieutenant Vance! How about illegally! Or maybe that's offensive to the pro illegal advocates in New Haven and Mayor Destefano

"Alan Broome’s wife, Renee Broome of West Haven, became angry Monday when she heard the man who allegedly killed her husband of nine years may not be a legal citizen.
"I’m shocked. I’m really shocked. When I heard he was here illegally, it put more fuel on the fire. Everybody has the right to be here, but do it the legal way. He took my life from me, my livelihood, my spiritual partner," Renee Broome said of her husband."

I wonder if Mayor Destefano just looks upon the death Alan Broome as part of the cost of having illegal immigrants in New Haven. With his approval of the Sanctuary policy he will certainly being seeing more of them and maybe more deaths of legal Connecticut citizens.

A job to die for?

"In a largely invisible cost of the war in Iraq, nearly 800 civilians working under contract to the Pentagon have been killed and more than 3,300 hurt doing jobs normally handled by the U.S. military, according to figures gathered by The Associated Press. "

Death, lies and videotape.

"What madness is this, inviting sable Death by warfare?

It always hovers close and comes unforeseen on silent steps."

-Tibullis

The war in Iraq is not a video game. Mistakes on the battlefield are deadly and as many war widows and families know the government and officials involved will lie to you and not just the top guys like Bush and Cheney. I came across these riveting videos on You Tube. If you want to know how sh^t happens in a place like Iraq these videos show how it occurs. These videos show death and remorse from the cockpit view:

Death from above

The Long Ride Home

Then of course far away from battlefield there is:

The Widow

and now we are about add tens of thousands of additional troops into this Hell Hole that is Iraq today. No doubt Death is rubbing his hands in anticipation.