The media hopped all over this tape, but it honestly shows little and supports the police account more then not. 

Surveillance Video: Gotbaum’s Last Moments At Phoenix Airport-  Attorney: Police Actions May Have Killed 45-Year-Old

CBS 2 HD has obtained surveillance video showing three different angles of last week’s arrest of Carol Anne Gotbaum at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix.

The video shows the daughter-in-law of New York City Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum reacting after learning she had missed her flight. It also shows Phoenix police officers move in on her, take her to the ground and arrest her.

Different angles show officers taking Gotbaum to a holding cell, where she later died mysteriously.

On the morning of Sept. 29, Gotbaum left her Upper West Side home, brought her children to school and flew off to Arizona. Plagued by a history of drinking and depression, she headed for an alcohol rehabilitation program in Tucson.

“I know when she landed in Phoenix, she was stone-cold sober,” said Gotbaum family attorney Michael Manning. “She got off the plane, called her husband, confident, committed, excited.”

I might accept that when the flight crew confirms she had no alcohol on her flight.  He cannot know anything for sure based on a phone call.

With 90 minutes to go for her connecting flight, Gotbaum went to eat lunch at the airport.

“We don’t know whether she was drinking at lunch. We’re going to find that out,” said Manning.

That is a good question, particularly since she apparently lost track of time.

Then she arrived for her connecting flight to Tucson. But she was too late. According to one witness who preferred to be unnamed, she became hysterical.

“She got her cell phone, broke it on a couple of customers, hit hem, threw it on her,” said the witness.

At 2:49 pm, Phoenix Police received got a radio call about a woman who was “loud and disturbing.” Within minutes, officers were struggling to subdue her.

You decide.

Mexico Dynamite Truck Explosion Kills 34

A dynamite-laden truck exploded after colliding with another vehicle on a busy highway in northern Mexico’s coal country, killing at least 34 people, including three reporters at the scene, state and federal officials said.

Authorities said the two vehicles crashed into each other Sunday evening, drawing a crowd of curious onlookers as well as a small army of police, soldiers, emergency officials and journalists.

Shortly after the crowd arrived, the wreckage caught fire, and the dynamite exploded, sending a ball of fire into the sky that consumed nearby cars and left a 10-by-40 foot crater in the concrete, said Maximo Alberto Neri Lopez, a federal police official.

The explosion raised further questions about the safety of Mexican trucks.

This weekend, Mexico began sending its first tractor-trailers across U.S. territory under a long-delayed, NAFTA-mandated program. Before, Mexican trucks were limited to 25-mile zone along the border.

Many in the U.S. fought the change, arguing that Mexican trucks are unsafe.

In the interest of full disclosure, bear this in mind.

Randy Grider, editor of Truckers News magazine, however, said Mexican trucks with hazardous materials aren’t included in the new program.

“I think it would be a very long time before the border would open to hazardous loads,” he said

Very likely true.  But still, I am not surprised people wonder….

No one can blame school administrators from being somewhat…err…well to pardon the expression, gun shy in the wake of the VT shooting. 

One of the dangers I blogged about earlier was the constant stream of experts all pointing to this or that as a warning sign of potential behavior so as to answer our burning need to know “why”, and who is to blame:

As soon as the news of the massacre had really sunk in, I waited for what I knew would inevitably happen.

The Blaming.

So far, we have the Devil, violent video games, Guns, hedonism, Guns, Al Qeada, Guns and occasionally Guns.

To me the whole concept of “why” is an exercise in futility.  As much as anyone could explain this, only the killer can come close, assuming he actually knew what drove him, and he took that with him to whatever awaited him in the afterlife.  All we get are speculations, theories, allegations, accusations and the like.

My conclusion?

We will never be able to answer the questions they insist we ask, and even if we could it wouldn’t matter as it would only apply to Cho, it wouldn’t be a recipe for the prevention of schools shootings.

All the psychoanalysis, explanations, precautions, laws and measures we find, create or enact will not stop the tide of senseless brutality. 

Close the doors and the evil creeps in the windows.  There are simply people that for some reason are wired to do bad.  The devil, genes or even the Twinkie defense, it matters not.  They exist, and they will continue to exist.

Some may see that as fatalistic, but I see it as calm reality.  We can do all we can to prevent these things from happening, but as soon as you identify a “factor” or a “trend”, an exception arises and you have to recalculate.

Here is a perfect example of a person meeting the “profile” of what they should be concerned about, and a school taking action preemptively to stop the violence, and apparently finding out that the threat was nonexistent.

As soon as the news of the massacre had really sunk in, I waited for what I knew would inevitably happen.

The Blaming.

So far, we have the Devil, violent video games, Guns, hedonism, Guns, Al Qeada, Guns and occasionally Guns.

To me the whole concept of “why” is an exercise in futility.  As much as anyone could explain this, only the killer can come close, assuming he actually knew what drove him, and he took that with him to whatever awaited him in the afterlife.  All we get are speculations, theories, allegations, accusations and the like.

Even after hearing about and seeing his sick manifesto of dementia, there are no real answers.  He rambled on in such a bizarre fashion that the only reasonable conclusion is that he is crazy, a conclusion that was pretty much evident by him shooting up a college campus and killing 32 people.

And so the airwaves are crowded with competitive experts all presenting “the reason”, as well as a bevy of friends, and acquaintances who cannot make up their minds whether he was a quiet guy, a creepy guy, a bizarre guy or a quiet creepy bizarre guy.

We now find out that he actually didn’t buy his guns legally, he lied on his application.  For some reason he felt it necessary to omit the fact he had been committed to a mental hospital at one point.

Go figure.

NOTE:  A more recent news report contradicts that information.  Apparently Virginia law enforcement is claiming their Detention Order did not constitute a committment and his purchase was legal.  LSU

How did that get passed the background check you might ask?  Well being crazy is not a crime, it is a medical condition, and our society insists that medical records and issues are a matter of privacy, so the question was pointless in the most extreme.

I keep trying to tell the gun control crowd that gun control laws only affect honest people.  The dishonest ones snicker in their sleeves and game the system.

Just breaking now, former President Gerald Ford has died at 93.

Former President Gerald Ford dies at 93

Gerald R. Ford, who picked up the pieces of Richard Nixon’s scandal-shattered White House as the 38th president and the only one never elected to nationwide office, has died. He was 93.

"My family joins me in sharing the difficult news that Gerald Ford, our beloved husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather has passed away at 93 years of age," former first lady Betty Ford said in a brief statement issued from her husband’s office in Rancho Mirage. "His life was filled with love of God, his family and his country.

Ford was a very special president in many ways.  Entering the vice presidency as a replacement to Spiro Agnew, and then ascending to the presidency when President Nixon resigned, he is the only sitting president who was never elected.

He also stood in a strange dichotomy:  Being the last link to the Nixon era, by proxy anyway, he was both the symbol of the failures of corruption and a kind of healing to move forward.

He lost reelection (election really) to Jimmy Carter, so his presidency was short and to many uninspiring.  But in fairness, he was left in an unadmireable position.  Being appointed to replaced a resigned VP and then a resigned President, both under the shroud of scandal, he had large shoes to fill, and a lot of public opinion against him both by association and for his pardon of Nixon.  I think in retrospect he was never really given a chance to show us what he could do.  He was one of the good ones who we let slip away.

He was often mocked, particularly on SNL  by Chevy Chase, but despite that, he always impressed me with his dignity and sense of humor.

He will not be remembered as the greatest, the worst, the most inspiring or the most uninspiring, but despite his relative ambiguity, and almost obscurity, he will always be remembered, and that is a greater legacy in its own right.

via Drudge:

Rape Charges Dropped in Duke Case  

Prosecutors dropped rape charges Friday against three Duke University lacrosse players accused of attacking a stripper at a team party,

But… 

but the three still face kidnapping and sexual offense charges, a defense attorney said.

This whole case has never made sense.  Consider this:

Joseph Cheshire and attorneys for the other players have said for months the woman told several different versions of the alleged assault.

Cheshire said Friday that the accuser now says she does not know if she was penetrated, which he said led District Attorney Mike Nifong to dismiss the rape charges.

Nifong did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

The accuser, a 28-year-old student at North Carolina Central University, has said three men raped her in a bathroom at a March 13 team party where she was hired to perform as a stripper.

The players _ Dave Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann _ all say they are innocent. Their attorneys have consistently said no sex occurred at the party and have cited a lack of DNA evidence in the case as proof of their clients’ innocence.

Of course the big news was this:

"It’s highly coincidental," Cheshire said, that the charges are being dropped a week after the director of a private DNA testing lab acknowledged that he initially, with Nifong’s knowledge, withheld from the defense test results showing none of the players’ DNA was found on or in the accuser’s body.

Nifong seems like he has been driving this case for publicity all along and this just continues to show that.  The whole thing is getting silly. 

Allah Pundit Notes:

Have any of you followed this closely? All I know is that apparently DNA from a number of men was found inside the accuser after the attack; that none of it matches the defendants’; and that D.A. Nifong allegedly conspired to cover up that fact. Susan Estrich calls it an “extreme case of lawlessness by the prosecutors” that warrants Nifong being replaced by the court.

Open Trackback Friday

Leave a trackback of your best post for others to read.   Also, look at the trackbacks below to see what others are saying. 

Here are a few things that caught my eye:

The Washington State Supreme Court tells a family that they had no right to be warned a sex predator was moving into their community- the same one who later killed their daughter.

A Virgina couple was arrested in Baltimore for asking directions

English is now our National Language-not quite the same as official, but it’s close- Until the lawsuits of course.  And Harry Reid says that makes us racists. 

Question to readers-  Can a National Identity be racists?  Discuss.

And the FBI is still trying to find Jimmy Hoffa’s body.

Finally, a Friday funny

Leave a trackback of your best post for others to read.   Also, look at the trackbacks below to see what others are saying. 

And for my non-bloggin friends…feel free to look around and put your 2 cents in my comments…or if the mood strikes, cue up the band and give us a showtune.

For an explanation of a trackback, go here or here.

If your blog does not support Trackbacks (blogger is still in the dark ages in this regard), check out Haloscan, which I used to use on my old blogGER site, or you may ALSO JUST use The Wizbang Standalone Pinger to do so.

Just include this post’s permalink (right the post title and copy the short cut) in your post and use the Trackback URL at the end of the post for your trackback.

Thanks, and TGIF!!

Open tracked to:  Woman Honor Thyself, Stray Dog, Mac Bros

I am trying hard not to laugh, because on the surface this just seemed like it had to be a joke. 

Patrick Kennedy-make that Rep Patrick Kennedy, the son of Sen Ted "can’t swim" Kennedy was involved in a car crash and is reputed to have gotten preferential treatment by the Capital Police.  And he may have been drunk.

Police: Kennedy Appeared Intoxicated At Car Crash

Rep. Patrick Kennedy crashed his car near the Capitol early Thursday, and a police official said he appeared intoxicated. Kennedy said he had had no alcohol before the accident.

Of course. 

Kennedy was reportedly behind the wheel of a green Ford Mustang when it crashed into a security barrier at 1st and "C" streets Southeast.

Observation:  He drives a cooler car then his dad did. (1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88)

No one was hurt, but there are reports that the car nearly struck a Capitol police cruiser and that it had been swerving, as if trying to make a U-turn.

Dad claimed he made a wrong turn too…Like Father Like Son.

So far, Kennedy HAS NOT been charged.

Easily the most shocking aspect.  What a surprise!!    That never happens.

"I was involved in a traffic accident last night at … the U.S. Capitol. I consumed no alcohol prior to the incident and I will fully cooperate with Capitol Police in whatever investigation they choose to undertake," he said.

The Capitol Hill Fraternal Order of Police is calling for higher-ups in the department to allow patrol officers to complete their investigation.

The head of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 1, Lou Cannon, told W*USA 9 News Reporter Stacey Cohan that he’s concerned that Kennedy may have received special treatment and this could be a case where “rank has its privilege.”

Capitol police Officer Greg Baird wrote a letter to acting Chief Christopher McGaffin saying how the investigation was handled calls the department’s integrity into question.

The call has been issued for Diane Sawyers resignation over a Primetime special that aired last Friday.  This is a case that illustrates the cold hearted callous disregard for people that the news sometimes exhibits in order to get a "good story."  And their actions have ensured a child abuser gets to go unpunished.

During the filming of a story on dysfunctional step families, ABC cameras caught a beating of a teenage girl by her father on video tape…and did nothing about it….for 4 years

Calls for Sawyer to Resign After Teen Beating Report

The shocking beating of a teenage girl by her father that aired during a Diane Sawyer report about dysfunctional stepfamilies has set off a firestorm.

State police officials in upstate Lake Placid say they are going over the tape of last Friday’s "Primetime" news magazine to determine if charges can be brought against the natural father, a Iraq War military reservist, and the teen’s stepmother.

The investigation — which includes the local Franklin County DAs office, police said — was only part of the fallout from the broadcast.

Outraged viewers have filled up the ABC News Web site’s message board with more that 1,400 messages in the first 36 hours after the broadcast — many calling for Sawyer and the program’s producers to be fired for not going to the authorities immediately.

The beating was caught on videotape recorders that the family — identified as Lynn and Joe Nelson — had allowed ABC News to install in their home for a program on the difficulties stepfamilies have getting along.

This is sickening.  They taped it, saw it and just decided not to do anything about it.  They could have called social services, or the police, but didn’t. 

Are your ratings so much more important then a child’s pain?  Was it worth it to the girl?  Did you pay perhaps her by the bruise?  Or were you secretly hoping for a broken bone maybe?  A little more screaming and blood perhaps?  "Grimace for the camera sweetheart, and make sure the fear looks real….and ACTION!"