COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Sunday, March 11, 2012

US Soldier in Afghan goes on a killing spree. Can it get any worse?



US soldier kills Afghan civilians in Kandahar
BBC  11 March 2012 Last updated at 07:14 ET

A US soldier in Afghanistan has killed 10 civilians and wounded five in Kandahar province after suffering a breakdown, officials say.


He left his military base in the early hours of the morning and opened fire after entering local homes; women and children are said to be among the dead.


Nato said it was investigating the "deeply regrettable incident".


Anti-US sentiment is already high in Afghanistan after US soldiers burnt copies of the Koran last month.


US officials have apologised repeatedly for the incident at a Nato base in Kabul, but they failed to quell a series of protests and attacks that killed at least 30 people and six US troops.


Local people have reportedly gathered near the base in Panjwai district to protest about Sunday's killings, and the US embassy is advising against travel to the area.


Investigation


The soldier has not been named, but is thought to be a staff sergeant.


He walked off his base at around 03:00 local time (22:30 GMT Saturday).


According to a resident quoted by Associated Press, he opened fire in three separate houses in the village of Alkozai.


"I heard gunshots and then silence and then gunshots again," Abdul Baqi said.


Local tribal leaders said women and children were among the dead.


The BBC's Quentin Somerville in Kabul says the death toll could rise as high as 17.


A delegation from the provincial governor's office has arrived in the village to determine what has happened, a spokesman said.


After carrying out the killings, the soldier reportedly handed himself over to the US military authorities.




The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said in a statement that US officials in Afghanistan would work with their Afghan counterparts to investigate what happened.


"This is a deeply regrettable incident and we extend our thoughts and concerns to the families involved," Isaf added.


Meanwhile, in Kabul, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said his government still expects to sign a strategic partnership with the United States in the next couple of months.


In a televised speech, he said discussions would continue on the precise role the US will play in Afghanistan after Nato hands over security responsibility to Kabul at the end of 2014.


On Friday, Kabul and Washington reached a deal to transfer US-run prisons in the country to Afghan control.









62 comments:

  1. Hey, this is nothing. Burning books, that is the big deal.,

    ReplyDelete
  2. How primitive the Afghans are! A New York Times account of faltering negotiations over a possible “strategic partnership” agreement to leave U.S. troops on bases in that country for years to come highlights just how far the Afghans have to go to become, like their U.S. mentor, a mature democracy. Take the dispute over prisons. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has been insisting that the U.S. turn over its prison facility at Bagram Air Base to his government. (The recently burned Korans came from that prison’s library.) The Obama administration initially refused and now has suggested a six-month timetable for such a turnover, an option Karzai has, in turn, rejected. No one, by the way, seems yet to be negotiating about a second $36-million prison at Bagram that, TomDispatch recently reported, the U.S. is now in the process of building.

    The Times’ Alissa Rubin suggests, however, that a major stumbling block remains to any such turnover. She writes: “The challenges to a transfer are enormous, presenting serious security risks both for the Afghan government and American troops. Many of the estimated 3,200 people being detained [in Bagram’s prison] cannot be tried under Afghan law because the evidence does not meet the legal standards required to be admitted in Afghan courts. Therefore, those people, including some suspected insurgents believed likely to return to the fight if released, would probably have to be released because Afghanistan has no law that allows for indefinite detention for national security reasons.”

    Honestly, what kind of a backward country doesn’t have a provision for the indefinite detention, on suspicion alone, of prisoners without charges or hope of trial? As a mature democracy, we now stand proudly for global indefinite detention, not to speak of the democratic right to send robot assassins to take out those suspected of evil deeds anywhere on Earth. As in any mature democracy, the White House has now taken on many of the traits of a legal system -- filling, that is, the roles of prosecutor, judge, jury, and executioner.

    Six months to learn all that (and how to burn Korans, too)? I don’t think so. Or how about a really mature plan that, according to an Associated Press report, top Pentagon officials are now mulling over: to put whatever U.S. elite special operations forces remain in Afghanistan after 2014 under CIA control. The reason? Once they are so lodged, even though their missions wouldn’t change, they would officially become “spies” and whoever’s running Washington then will be able to swear, with complete candor, that no U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan. Even better, the CIA is conveniently run by former Afghan War commander David Petraeus and the U.S. public would no longer have to be informed about “funding or operations” for those non-troops. Now, that’s how a mature democracy makes the trains run on time!

    Had enough? Then try finding your inner khan with the indefatigable Ann Jones, TomDispatch regular and author of War Is Not Over When It’s Over, who knows more about Afghanistan than any of us. - Tom

    ReplyDelete
  3. Our continued presence in Afghanistan is doing nothing for US security, which is the only reason to have been there in the first place. Leave them alone. Leave and let them deal with their own problems. The Chinese will set up factories, mines and wells, creating jobs and commerce. Given time, we will be forgotten. We will forget them even faster:

    In a nation called the world's superpower, only 17 percent of young adults in the United States could find Afghanistan on a map, according to a new worldwide survey released today.

    The young U.S. citizens received poor marks generally in geography. But then, as results showed, their counterparts in other countries were hardly star students.

    The National Geographic–Roper 2002 Global Geographic Literacy Survey polled more than 3,000 18- to 24-year-olds in Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Sweden and the United States.

    Sweden scored highest; Mexico, lowest. The U.S. was next to last.

    "The survey demonstrates the geographic illiteracy of the United States," said Robert Pastor, professor of International Relations at American University, in Washington, D.C. "The results are particularly appalling in light of September 11, which traumatized America and revealed that our destiny is connected to the rest of the world."

    About 11 percent of young citizens of the U.S. couldn't even locate the U.S. on a map. The Pacific Ocean's location was a mystery to 29 percent; Japan, to 58 percent; France, to 65 percent; and the United Kingdom, to 69 percent.


    That was nine years ago. I doubt there is more than a 3% change in the statistics after we blew $1T on a neocon brain fart.

    ReplyDelete
  4. We did manage to beat Mexico in the test.

    ReplyDelete
  5. We spend about $80 billion a year over at The Dept of Education. Obviously, we are superb at the inefficient use of money.

    Hoohrah.

    ReplyDelete
  6. 11% of US young adults could not find the US on a map. Think of the political possibilities of those demographics, but whatever you do, do not ask them to show an ID to vote.

    ReplyDelete
  7. PA has the state monopoly on selling wines and liquor. Every store and every employee in those stores work for the state. All the profits and taxes go to the state. Just to be fair the State of Pennsylvania also charges a 6% sales tax on the taxed wine and liquor. They accept credit cards, but you cannot use a credit card to buy a $7 bottle of wine without showing a government issued photo ID to prove that you are the holder of the credit card.

    Here is the good part:

    HARRISBURG - The state Senate, along nearly partisan lines, passed a bill Wednesday that would make Pennsylvania the 16th state to require its residents to show photo identification at the polls.

    After more than four hours of debate, senators voted, 26-23, to approve the so-called voter ID bill. Its Republican sponsors contend it is needed to protect the integrity of elections. Democrats counter that it is nothing more than a partisan attempt to suppress their side's votes in a presidential election year.

    The bill now heads for the House, which passed a stricter version last summer. If approved there - as is expected in that GOP-controlled chamber as early as next week - it would go to Gov. Corbett, who has said he supports the concept, and would take effect in time for the Nov. 6 election.


    You see, in Pennsylvania, the Democrats don’t want you to be forced to show an ID to vote, but buying cheap state supplied wine and using a credit card, that is quite another plate of scrapple.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Maybe we could compromise and increase state revenues by having every voter show up to a polling place with a bottle of wine.

    ReplyDelete
  9. This war was a misbegotten mess from the first. There was obviously no real long term planning, just like Iraq. George got us into this mess and Barrack is not doing anything to get us out.

    It should bring attention all gun control advocates who argue only the police and military should have guns. Does this news report plants the seeds of doubt on the fallacy of your argument? Had these civilian UNARMED citizens kept at least a revolver or single-shot black powder handgun, they could've protected themselves from a (mentally disturb) rogue police or militia individual who abuse their position of power.

    ReplyDelete
  10. y guy, McCain, is on Fox and when asked about the killings says the real problem in Afghanistan is corruption in the Karzai government. He is going on talking about US security interests in Syria. We need to subdue the Syrian military, because Syrian soldiers are massacring civilians. Without blinking he said we need US air power to stop Syrian soldiers from killing innocent civilians.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Not to worry, MSMBC is running a segment on the Non-violence of the Palestinians...


    message...

    arabs/islam good..


    the west? colonial evil powers.

    ReplyDelete
  12. so you are sitting on your base, in your trench...

    you are shot at on a regular basis.

    you are not allowed to fire back at the group of houses 400 yards away.

    You are using 556 nato rounds, they are using 7.62

    they have an additional 100 yards

    if you wanted to use the 50 cal sniper? you have to call up the line to the company commander to get permission.

    you sit in you hole in the ground on a daily basis watch your friends get picked off, wounded...

    and you are not allow to fire back...

    now understand that that 19 year old is getting angry.

    angry that the government changed the rules of engagement angry that there is no clear mission, angry that the people you are there to save hate you and shoot at you.

    pressure..

    pressure

    I am surprised that this has not happened hundreds of times before.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I suspect that you could pick any topic and 11% of young adults would be clueless.

    I would consider voting for Obama if he would get us out of Afghanistan by November 1. (Not really)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Time to go, Joe.

    Later, alligator.

    Turn in the key, Lee.

    Time to leave this mother-lover.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Obama has created in afphac exactly what he wanted..

    a teaching moment.

    he will tell us that you cannot win a war against another people.

    there is no sense in having a strong military

    community organizers that represent the local people is the future.

    make us impodent

    make us cuckolded

    make us dhimmi


    or?

    simple.

    change the ROE

    allow the troops to kill the enemy

    do not hold back and defeat the enemy

    but that is now not allowed by the west...

    ReplyDelete
  16. WiO: allow the troops to kill the enemy

    do not hold back and defeat the enemy


    Nuke the rock.

    Bomb the SIGINT ship.

    Turn Gaza into a ghetto.

    Build settlements on captive land like maggots crawling into a wound.

    Get the US taxpayer to foot the bill.

    ReplyDelete
  17. All you have to do is use a little common sense. You don’t even need to know where you are on the map.

    The video on the town of Pashtunzargun could be any small rural village anywhere. AQ was our enemy and the Taliban were AQ’s hosts. We did our part to destabilize Afghanistan when the Russians were trying to maintain their authority and order. We should have killed the camps and their Taliban hosts in a few weeks and left. We should have sent the Saudis a bill for $500 billion and told them the next time we will not be so generous. That should have been it.

    Instead we went insane destroying more of our own freedoms and wealth on a mission to hell.



    These people don’t care if someone is from Moscow, Russia or Moscow, AL AR FL ID IL IA KS KY ME MD MI MN MO NY ND OH OK PA RI TN TX UT VT VA WA WV WI. They do not belong to the local tribe and are their fucking with them and nobody wants to be fucked with anywhere.

    We are creating more enemies than we are killing. Occupiers always do that. They are never loved for more than a couple of months.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Wasp said...
    WiO: allow the troops to kill the enemy

    do not hold back and defeat the enemy

    Nuke the rock.

    Bomb the SIGINT ship.

    Turn Gaza into a ghetto.

    Build settlements on captive land like maggots crawling into a wound.

    Get the US taxpayer to foot the bill.





    Wasp! Good morning!

    I see you are off your meds!

    It takes a special kind of cunt like you to lie, distort and defame others.

    Ask Bill Mahr, he has you pegged....

    But he would call you a twat.

    Back in your old lesbian days you used to tell us how proud you were of being called a cunt...

    So let me be the 1st of the morning...

    You are a cunt.

    No disrespect to women intended, it's just the meanest thing I could think of this morning.

    How is Jesus the Jew treating you this AM?

    How is that fake cancer going?

    Still now a straight woman or are back to being a lesbian.


    In future do not exaggerate my words.

    You lying sack of fish guts.

    Focus on instead your own people's murder of thousands of Americans your home nation...

    BTW, now that you are not going to retire with your female "partner" and live a life of luxury, does the so-called husband of yours actually support you are or are you not still sucking off the tit of the US military?

    ReplyDelete
  19. Dear Ms Asswipe (WASP)

    I thought you promised everyone here that you would ignore me...

    Do us all a favor?

    Do not post my words.

    Ignore me...

    You fucking scum.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Here is what insanity buys you today

    The Iron Dome system has intercepted 90 percent of missile attacks on urban centers during the latest rocket bombardment from Gaza.

    The expensive systems were inaugurated last year amid controversy over its worth. A primitive Kassam rocket costs terrorists only a few hundred dollars while each Iron Dome anti-missile missile costs $50,000.

    Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu stated Saturday night, “We will continue to improve home front defense including by means of additional Iron Dome systems, the effectiveness of which was shown again over the weekend."

    The Iron Dome system intercepted about 90 percent of the rockets fired at Be’er Sheva, Ashdod and Ashkelon, including three on Sunday morning.

    Despite the rocket barrage, Israel kept open the Erez Crossing for passengers and employees of international organizations operating in Gaza. Kerem Shalom was open for the delivery of 200 truckloads to Gaza residents.

    Its deployment this past weekend appears to have defeated Hamas, at least for the time being. The terrorist organization has been talking with the new regime in Egypt for another ceasefire after failing to inflict mass casualties or property damage on Israel.

    The problem with the Iron Dome is its cost and the lack of enough systems to defend all of Israel. The United States is providing funds to Israel to buy more of the made-in-Israel systems, each one of which costs more than $100 million.



    Give Iran an incentive to build $500 rockets or $400 drones. Iran could build them in lots of five thousand and the arm them with nuclear waste in talcum power, packed in $10 canisters charged with $3 M80 firecrackers.

    They could be shot down with $50,000 rockets but shooting them down in such a fashion would spread the nuclear talcum powder than the $3 M-80.

    All wars end in negotiations. Anyone who thinks that the present plan is working or bringing Iran into the mix will make things better has more than a map reading problem.

    ReplyDelete
  21. deuce:
    All wars end in negotiations. Anyone who thinks that the present plan is working or bringing Iran into the mix will make things better has more than a map reading problem.


    True.

    But before that one side has to surrender.

    If Israel and America attempt to fight back against cheap rockets with expensive defenses it will fail.

    The destruction of the enemy must be done 1st.

    I suggest that maybe, in the end the ONLY way to negotiate with Iran will be after it's major cities are rumble.

    Until then israel will use stop gap measures to protect it's citizens from death.

    There will be a day when this will turn hot.

    Iran's call for negotiations will not occur until after it nukes Israel.

    So? the solution?

    real war.

    Because whether you like it or not. Negotiations take 2.

    Iran's position is that Israel and America must die.

    Israel and America's position is that Iran should not be allowed to nuke them.

    The starting points need to be changed.

    Iran seeks the genocide of Israel and America (and others)

    The West needs to restate it's opening position.

    It should now call for the public hanging of all Mullahs, the disarmament of it's nukes or they will have rubble

    ReplyDelete
  22. Fantasy and reality in Afghanistan by Fareed Zakaria:

    The United States tends to enter wars in developing countries with a simple idea — modernize the country, and you will solve the national security problem. An articulation of that American approach came from none other than Newt Gingrich during a 2010 speech at the American Enterprise Institute. We are failing in Afghanistan, Gingrich argued, because “we have not flooded the country with highways, we haven’t guaranteed that every Afghan has a cellphone, we haven’t undertaken the logical steps towards fundamentally modernizing their society, we haven’t developed a program to help farmers get off of growing drugs.”

    Now, assuming that every Afghan got a cellphone and could travel on great highways, here is what would not change: The Afghan national government does not have the support of a large segment of its population, the Pashtuns.

    ...

    And, simply put, Afghanistan’s economy cannot support a large national government with a huge army.

    ...

    Accepting reality in Afghanistan would not leave America without options. Even with a smaller troop presence, we can pursue robust counterterrorism operations. We will be able to prevent the Taliban from again taking over the country.

    [...end...]

    OTOH Zakaria also supports US military engagement against Iran.

    This country does not *do* foreign policy very well.

    ReplyDelete
  23. WiO: Do not post my words.

    Request denied. Because you wish it.

    Deuce: They could be shot down with $50,000 rockets but shooting them down in such a fashion would spread the nuclear talcum powder than the $3 M-80.

    More Muslim on Muslim violence, of course. Everyone forgets there are Arabs in the Holy Land too.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Wio, Israel cannot lay waste to every Iranian city. There is not enough political support in Israel to enter into such a preventative action against Iran. Israel cannot do it with conventional weapons. There is no point in discussing it with nuclear weapons. That is not going to happen.

    Israel has enough military power to maintain the status quo. When the Israeli people get sick of the sight of Netanyahu, they could do some serious economic deals, a la the Chinese with Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Iraq and eventually Syria.

    It does not have to be a love fest over anything except over money and no one loves money more than the Arabs. A serious two track approach of strong defense, economic cooperation, job creation and normal diplomatic relations will do more for Israeli security than Colonel Blunderbust could fantasize about.

    Increasing regional wealth would do more for long term security than delusional fantasies about military prowess and successful wars.

    ReplyDelete
  25. The most successful war we ever fought was against the Soviet Union. Not a shot fired; we won. It doen't get any better than that.

    ReplyDelete
  26. The absolute worst: Vietnam.

    All the rest, somewhere in the middle.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Vietnam was part of the war against the Soviet Union.

    ReplyDelete
  28. :)

    'at seems like a bit of a stretch, Darlink.

    I wuz over there 13 months, and I didn't see Russkie #1.

    ReplyDelete
  29. WiO: Do not post my words.

    Request denied. Because you wish it.



    I hope you are cancer free....

    ReplyDelete
  30. Deuce: Wio, Israel cannot lay waste to every Iranian city. There is not enough political support in Israel to enter into such a preventative action against Iran. Israel cannot do it with conventional weapons. There is no point in discussing it with nuclear weapons. That is not going to happen.


    If Iran is going to nuke Israel?

    One emp over Iran will do the trick, of course anything that lights up afterwards?

    Take out.

    If Iran seeks to cause genocide? Israel can lay waste Iran.


    Deuce: Israel has enough military power to maintain the status quo. When the Israeli people get sick of the sight of Netanyahu, they could do some serious economic deals, a la the Chinese with Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Iraq and eventually Syria.



    Israelis got sick of Bibi, they voted him out. The next guy did even more than the Dayton peace accords. The peace camp is Israel is destroyed not by Israel's rightwing, but by the islamic people themselves.

    Peace is only possible with the other side that has said "uncle" as of now? there is no reason for iran or the arabs to say uncle.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Making oil irrelevant is the best way to win the war over islam.

    that is and should be the west's strategy.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Wasp said...
    WiO: Do not post my words.

    Request denied. Because you wish it.




    I wish you peace and tranquility

    ReplyDelete
  33. Wasp said...
    WiO: Do not post my words.

    Request denied. Because you wish it.




    I wish you a long and healthy live.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Wasp said...
    WiO: Do not post my words.

    Request denied. Because you wish it.


    I wish you the serenity of love and happiness.

    ReplyDelete
  35. deuce:
    It does not have to be a love fest over anything except over money and no one loves money more than the Arabs. A serious two track approach of strong defense, economic cooperation, job creation and normal diplomatic relations will do more for Israeli security than Colonel Blunderbust could fantasize about.

    Increasing regional wealth would do more for long term security than delusional fantasies about military prowess and successful wars.


    On the reverse?

    destroy the value of oil..

    force the arabs and iranians to earn a living...

    ReplyDelete
  36. deuce

    it is a fantasy that you can simply get cooperation from the arabs and iranians simply by offering them the good life.

    fanatical islam must be brought to their knees.

    I advocate the destruction of the black rock of mecca to force that reformation.

    and before wasp responds? a simple fuck you to her/him or it.

    ReplyDelete
  37. WiO: I advocate the destruction of the black rock of mecca to force that reformation.

    Rome destroyed the Temple and that didn't reform the International Jew.

    ReplyDelete
  38. WiO: I advocate the destruction of the black rock of mecca to force that reformation.

    Rome destroyed the Temple and that didn't reform the International Jew.



    To any that read WASP's messages. She is a self admitted liar. She pretended, for years, to be a lesbian that had breast cancer only to find out by her own tongue that she was in fact lying the entire time.

    She has made thousands of anti-semitic statements.

    She trashed Israel, zionism and Jews on a daily basis.

    There is no sense in discussing anything with her as she lies, distorts and takes out of context anything said.

    She is a skank

    ReplyDelete
  39. Say this five times fast.

    I like the performance artistry - the way he purposefully drops his instrument in preparation for something serious.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Slowing it down for the old-timers.

    [I kid I kid I kid - get off that table. You know who I mean - you!!]

    More from the Fargo Kid. (Never heard this one.)

    One more. My personal favorite.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Nice selection ANON. Forgot how good that one by Hank Snow was. Very interesting combination. Takes me back to an AFRTS job I had as a fill-in DJ.

    ReplyDelete
  42. I almost posted that by Meir Dagan, but thought, why should I do Deuce's job for him.

    Besides he won't let me double post so my posts always disappear after while.

    Odysseus Goes Home, Once Again

    Are there any good Penelope's left, these days, or are they all named Cruz?

    ReplyDelete
  43. A few songs put a word, or a phrase into the lexicon, and this was one of them - The Wreck of Old 97

    ReplyDelete
  44. WiO: She pretended, for years, to be a lesbian that had breast cancer only to find out by her own tongue that she was in fact lying the entire time.

    Except for the breast cancer part.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Glad you enjoyed them Deuce. When all else fails I turn to music. And I can neither sing nor play an instrument. I was not a big Whitney fan but this was a finer moment.

    ReplyDelete
  46. I am really starting to become concerned with DR's disappearance. It is not like him to be away for more than a few days at a time.

    I am worried that my tour guide is disabled somewhere and I will be lost in unknown territories.

    :/

    ReplyDelete
  47. mel said...
    I am really starting to become concerned with DR's disappearance. It is not like him to be away for more than a few days at a time.




    Most likely?

    ATF got him...

    or maybe?

    He's in for a gender reassignment...

    no telling..

    ReplyDelete
  48. The combination that is.

    I have a bad feeling that 2012 isn't going to be a good year for combinations.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Q is right. It's inappropriate that I not provide a handle. Call me Ann.

    ReplyDelete
  50. He 'got religion' and is in Salt Lake City, studying for the Bishopric...

    Definition of BISHOPRIC
    1
    : diocese
    2
    : the office of bishop
    3
    : the administrative body of a Mormon ward consisting of a bishop and two high priests as counselors ....


    the prick.

    ReplyDelete
  51. Jesus only passes by once, but you can read Parley Pratt again and again.


    He 'got religion' and is in Salt Lake City, studying for the Bishopric...

    Definition of BISHOPRIC
    1
    : diocese
    2
    : the office of bishop
    3
    : the administrative body of a Mormon ward consisting of a bishop and two high priests as counselors ....

    the prick.

    ReplyDelete
  52. Time for a commercial break.

    Banned.

    Damned.

    ReplyDelete
  53. Pedro Rosado, 25, of Pennsauken, died after being shot leaving the VIP Latin Club in the city's Harrowgate section at 6 a.m. Sunday, Philadelphia police said.

    He was shot in the leg and prounounced dead at Temple University Hospital.

    Police said Rosado had been involved in a prior altercation at the club, but they reported no suspects.

    ReplyDelete
  54. The sun rose over the Delaware River Saturday as cops investigated an early morning double shooting on Columbus Boulevard that left a man dead in the front passenger seat of a bullet-riddled Infiniti and sent the driver to the hospital with a gunshot wound to his throat.

    Investigators at the scene said shots rang out in the northbound lanes of Columbus Boulevard at the intersection of Christian Street, in South Philadelphia, just before 4 a.m. Police identified the homicide victim Sunday as Adolf Bradford, 25, of Edgewater Park, N.J. His companion, an unidentified man in his 20s, was taken by police to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition Sunday.

    Cops said they did not have any witnesses to the shooting itself, but that two friends of the victims who’d been traveling in another car on Columbus Boulevard when gunfire erupted, as well as three men who were in a car behind the Infiniti and stopped to help, were taken to be interviewed by homicide detectives.

    Police said they believe the gunfire likely came from another car on the divided highway, but they did not have a description of that vehicle or any suspects.

    Investigators found at least seven shell casings on the sidewalk and in the road.

    Cops were unsure where on the body Bradford was shot, but they said he was bleeding into the seat. He was pronounced dead at 4:05 a.m. at the scene.

    Police had not made any arrests in the shooting as of Sunday.

    ReplyDelete
  55. Authorities have arrested a suspect in the home invasion in Strawberry Mansion that killed a 35-year-old man and injured his wife last week.
    Ali Marsh was arrested late Saturday by U.S. Marshals and officers from the Philadelphia and Plymouth Meeting police departments at a Marriott hotel in Plymouth Meeting, said Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal John Patrignani.

    A second suspect, Charles Davis, is still at large, according to media reports.

    Shortly before 4 a.m. Monday, two masked gunmen entered the the home of John and Sherrell Paul, on the 3200 block of Cecil B. Moore Avenue, while the Pauls and their two young children slept. Paul confronted the intruders and was shot several times. He died at the scene.

    His wife, Sherrell, 39, was shot eight to 10 times. The couple's young sons, who were awakened by gunfire, were unharmed. They called 911 after discovering their parents in the hallway outside their bedroom.

    Police do not believe the Pauls knew the intruders, but there was no sign of forced entry into the house. Authorities said it is possible that the gunmen had the wrong house, and that the couple was attacked because of a case of mistaken identity.

    ReplyDelete
  56. PHILADELPHIA - Police have released the identities of three men killed in shootings in north and south Philadelphia that also wounded a fourth person.

    Investigators say 46-year-old Michael Butler and 39-year-old Robert Alvin were shot to death shortly after midnight a few blocks from Temple University. Both were pronounced dead at the scene just after 12:30 a.m. Saturday.

    In south Philadelphia, police say, 25-year-old Adolf Bradford of Edgewater Park, N.J., was shot and killed just before 4 a.m. Saturday. Another man in his 20s was shot in the throat and taken to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.

    Police said Sunday that no arrests have been made in either case.

    ReplyDelete
  57. Parley Pratt was Mitten's great great great grandfather.

    That's a really great grandfather.

    A vote for Mittens is a vote for Parley.

    He was a farmer, was Parley.

    His folks raised barley.

    ReplyDelete
  58. We have spent $1 trillion in Afghanistan to stop the violence of the Taliban. Philadelphia begins another normal week.

    ReplyDelete
  59. Parley, whose middle initial was P, making him Parley P Pratt, was 'unhorsed' so to speak, from this life, by a man whose wife Parley had taken unto his 'celestial life' - wife number 12, celestial.

    The 'unhorsing' of Parley P Pratt -

    Death and legacy
    Parley P. Pratt's grave

    While returning from a horseback missionary trip to the southern United States in 1857, Pratt was being tracked by Hector McLean. McLean was the legal husband of one of Pratt's plural wives, Eleanor McLean. Pratt had met Eleanor McLean in San Francisco, California, where Pratt was presiding over a church mission. In San Francisco, Eleanor had joined the LDS Church and had also had her oldest sons baptized. Hector rejected Mormonism and opposed his wife's membership in the church. The dispute over the church led to the collapse of the marriage.[3] Fearing that Eleanor would abscond to Utah Territory with their children, Hector sent his sons and his daughter to New Orleans to live with their grandparents.[4] Eleanor followed the children to New Orleans, where she lived with them for three months at her parents' house. Eventually, she and the children left for Utah Territory; she arrived in Salt Lake City on September 11, 1855.[4] Eleanor McLean was employed in Pratt's home as a schoolteacher, and on November 14, 1855, she and Pratt underwent a "celestial marriage" sealing ceremony in the Endowment House.[4] She was the twelfth woman to be sealed to Pratt. Though for religious reasons Eleanor considered herself "unmarried", she was not legally divorced from Hector at the time of her "celestial marriage" to Pratt.[5][6][7]

    Upon learning of his wife's actions, Hector McLean pressed criminal charges, accusing Pratt of assisting in the kidnapping of his children.[8] Pratt managed to evade him and the legal charges, but was finally arrested in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) in May 1857.[9] Pratt and Eleanor were charged with theft of the clothing of McLean's children.[10] (The laws of that time did not recognize the kidnapping of children by a parent as a crime.) Tried before Judge John B. Ogden, Pratt was acquitted of the charges because of a lack of evidence.[10] However, shortly after being secretly released, on May 13, 1857, Pratt was shot and stabbed by Hector McLean on a farm northeast of Van Buren, Arkansas.[10] As a result of the attack, Pratt died two and a half hours later from loss of blood.[10] As he was bleeding to death, a farmer asked what he had done to provoke the attack. Pratt responded, "He accused me of taking his wife and children. I did not do it. They were oppressed, and I did for them what I would do for the oppressed any where."[10] Pratt was buried near Alma, Arkansas, despite his personal desire to be buried in Utah.

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  60. Jesus said US can kill any life as it like.

    God bless you to hell!

    Evil Bush

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