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Amanda Knox is driven into court at midnight in Perugia, Italy, to hear the verdict in her murder trial. - WKTV.com/AP

I really haven’t kept up with the Kercher murder case that much, but getting the message that Knox was convicted disturbed me. The few details I remember from the case were that Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito supposed had some type of sick and twisted sex murder thing, killing Meredith Kercher then trying to make it look like it had been an attempted robbery. Another guy, Rudy Guede, was also convicted of her murder. He was a known drifter from the Ivory Cost.

What concerns me is where most of the evidence came from. There’s strong evidence to show that Police botched up the sample collection, whether by not wearing gloves or hairnets, allowing evidence to sit for months in the open, even in one case smashing a window. This is obviously not America, since the prosecution’s response to that was that is wasn’t their job to prove the crime scene work was good enough. (Find out more info from CNN)

Since most of the evidence in this case is linked from the botched crime scene work, there isn’t any evidence really to show she did it. It’s all very suspect, and I surprised at how poorly the Italian justice system has handled it thus far, given the amount of international coverage this has received.

Is Knox guilty? I have no freaking clue. Her family has continued to stand by her (unlike my favorite murdering whore, Casey Anthony), and the evidence presented is unreliable, so at its current status, I’d have to say she is not-guilty (note: not-guilty and innocent are two COMPLETELY different things). There is not enough solid evidence to say she was there. The only bits of evidence that appear to be authentic, and they prove absolutely nothing. DNA evidence is harder to use in this case, given the mishandling of the crime scene and body, along with the fact that Knox lived in the same apartment.

At least Italy does have an appeal process, and her attorney has already stated they will be appealing. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like murderers, but I also don’t like people being convicted of murder when dipsh!ts from the police screw up the crime scene and make the evidence unreliable. They also used a old trick of defaming her character. Reminds me of the media sensation Cattle Kate from the Wyoming Ranch Wars. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out

Casey Anthony reppin her new colors

It’s been a while since I’ve had the opportunity to read up on the case, but something sparked my interest today, so I went to the Casey Anthony headquarters to find out what’s been going on.

So apparently Roy Kronk, the prosecutions star witness, may be a blessing for Casey. He supposedly has a shady past according to his ex-wife, including abuse and duct-taping. In a video interview, she believes that he murdered Caylee. She has also been unable t0 provide proof thus far that she’s telling the truth instead of attacking her ex-husband. It’s a point to consider, but there needs to be further investigation.

Casey’s attorney, Jose Baez, also says he’s found two searchers who claimed to have searched the place where the body was found, and didn’t find anything. This was prior to the body being discovered. Baez wants EquuSearch – the non-profit group who handled the massive search for Caylee – to turn over all of its records, since the people he found were not on the list EquuSearch gave him. We can see the wheels spinning in Baez’s head, trying to show that Kronk murdered Caylee, then planted the body after the area was searched and then tipped off the police.

Unfortunately for Anthony, that take in the story has Texas-sized loopholes. Just remember that Kronk is supposedly an individual with wild-lashes, not well planned schemes involving hiding a decomposing corpse for over 5 months, just to plant it. The pieces of the puzzle just don’t fit right.

Roy Kronk - the meter man who discovered Caylee's body

Baez has also requested that all video of Anthony at the jail be destroyed, and that further videotaping be disbarred. I’m unsure if those wishes have been granted.

Baez also now believes that Florida’s death penalty procedure is unconstitutional, and that Anthony should be exempted from that possible ruling because of that.

So what does everything boil down to? Take a look at the original story. Casey Anthony filed a missing persons report 31 DAYS (yes, days) after Caylee supposedly went missing. She said she returned home to find her nanny (who never existed) and daughter missing. The body shows up 5 months later in an overgrown lot, discovered by a man who is a possible woman beater. There is compelling forensic evidence in her trunk to show that Caylee’s body had been placed in it, taped and bagged.

Honestly though, you can throw all of the technical evidence out. All that was important was the 31 days she waited to file a missing persons report. Anybody with kids knows what I’m talking about. There is no way I would come home, find my daughter and the nanny missing, and not freak out. We’re looking at more like 31 minutes, not 31 days. Then again, I, like Casey Anthony, do not have a nanny, but at least I don’t blame things on mine.

Even if she personally did not kill her child, she is just as responsible as the person who did. And yes, I do believe in the death penalty in the right cases. And she’s earned her trip to the chair. Unfathomable disregard for your own child’s safety, not to mention life…

Need anymore proof of her guilt. Even her family, the ardent supporters that they are, didn’t even come to visit her on Thanksgiving.

A reminder of the recent revolts against the current regime - Photo: AFP/GETTY

My favorite country in the whole wide world, Iran, is back at it, AGAIN! Favorite being the relative term, given that I if I were given control of the little red button, Iran would become the deepest geological pit on the planet. Yes, they are always at it, but of course, they made front page CNN.com again. It’s not enough that they are refining nuclear material for “peaceful energy purposes.” Peaceful energy being another relative term, since their 3/4 of a year supply incidicates that their idea of peaceful energy is harnessing a nuclear bomb to eliminate Israel off the map. Nor is it enough that Ahmadinejad and his cronies (including the “Supreme” Leader Khamenie, a position which sounds more like a member of Star War’s galactic empire than the ruler of a fundamental Islamic republic) rigged the recent election, and brought so much hell against the people that it suppressed their views. Never fear, that’s a pot that will probably boil over sooner than later. Its not enough to consider the treatment of the people who were arrested during those protests, including a journalist who was tortured and forced to give an old confession, and who was only recently released on a large sum of bail. He had a great quote too, “I knew I was in trouble, because the people who were in charge of my life were idiots.” Great stuff.

But nope, they done gone and done something else again. Now they are conducting military exercises, designed to protect their “peaceful energy” deposits. Read: Iran wants to try and make sure neither the Israelis nor the Westerners are able to destroy their weapons grade stash. According to CNN,

Iran’s regular military and its elite Revolutionary Guards were to participate in the exercise against aerial attacks, especially against Iran’s nuclear plants, according to Press TV.

The Iranians are also still up to their “honest truth” campaign. Iran has stated,” it intends to produce nuclear energy only for peaceful purposes, including civilian electricity and medical research.” Scouts honor dude, these Iranians would never lie to us. I think we should believe them. That’s why they only have 3/4 of a year’s worth of material, capability to enrich to weapon’s grade, and that used nuclear reactor fuel makes a good base stock for weapon’s grade enrichment, according to my sources.

The sooner we realize that we’ve just let a bunch of fundamentalists have control over a country, control over its military, and now has access to some of the most dangerous weapons material in existence, the sooner we can figure out a plan of action. They have absolutely no track record of truly caring for its citizenry. Iran has never demonstrated its interested in doing medical research and the like. Modern science slaps their form of Islam right in the face. They have presented their agenda, we know it clearly. They refuse to accept that Israel is even in existence. They have denied that the holocaust has even occurred. They refuse to embrace the rights of their citizenry, evident by the rigged election and the mistreatment and murder of many of its own people. They have continually accepted and embraced the evils of the world that keeps us at war.

We need to wake up and smell the bacon. Iran does not get solved by diplomacy. A crook will not relinquish his power because we ask him too. If Bernie Madoff had been caught before the recession, and the authorities asked him nicely to stop, do you think he would’ve? No! The only way to handle a crook is to take him down, whether by force or by pulling the rug right out from under him. The world and so many Persians know the truth about this regime, but knowing and doing are two completely different things. Are we just going to sit on the sidelines and wait until Ahmadinejad brings about WW3/Armageddon/etc., or are we going to stop him before he has a chance to make Adolf Hitler look like a sweet Annie Orphan?

The supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered the prison closed because it lagged below the required standards - whatever those are in Iran

In an odd move by the Iranian government, the authorities fired and arrested the warden and a security official at the Kahrizak prison facility that was closed late last month. They are purportedly being held for mistreatment of detainees, this coming in the wake of the death of two detainees that were being held for protesting the June 12th election there. The prison was ordered to be shut down by Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, amid reports that the prison did not meet the required standards. You can read the full story at CNN.

No offense to the people who were detained there (as Kahrizak may be home to more human rights violations than we’ll ever know about), but I find the matter rather amusing. After the recent display of self-destructive protests in Iran, the government is in a position where it needs to restore some faith from its people. The supreme leader has had a taste of how truly insignificant his position is in Iran. He is supposed to be a direct link to Allah himself, his word being final. Yet those protests of the (rigged) elections, which saw President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad being re-elected under “curious” circumstances, were condemned by the Ayatollah, yet continued on with full force. I hate to saw I’ve lost my best for now: I was betting on a civil war.

But this move shows just how fragile the power hold on the Iranians is right now. Most of the time, the regime would’ve swept this under the rug, even if it were students as in this case. Anyone who would have spoken out would have been foolish, like playing Russian roullete with a Colt 1911. Yet had this story had surfaced, and the regime behind the game on it, oh boy what a mess.

I believe that we will see even more divisive cracks like this in the coming months. The Islamic Iranian government had unwittingly provoked the Persian soul of its inhabitants, and has quickly learned to respect a culture that is older than Islam itself.

"Ahem, I would like to speak both to my people, and the infidel nation of the United States. This one's for you!"

So for those Americans (or anyone else for that matter) who are afraid that we are going to pick another fight and go to war with Iraq’s neighbor, I wouldn’t be too concerned. There will probably be a war there at some point, but we’ll probably be on the sidelines. This election may well be the straw that broke the Iranian camels back.

Akula class Russian submarine, like the two that were found off the East U.S. coast

Seems like Russia wants the world to know that it is supposedly back on top of its military game. The U.S. has been tracking two Russian submarines off the east coast of the U.S., hanging around in international waters. That’s comforting to know given that A) I don’t trust Russians and B) I live on the east coast. Of course, I’d be a maniacal conspiracy-theorist to believe that they are out there sitting for me, but it still isn’t comforting. Russia has been showing signs of wanting to reunite its former soviet states, and has been showing that this new “democratic” government – lead by Medvedev, prime minister Putin’s puppet – is still built a lot like it’s former socialist self. I’ll save my evidence for another day though, I’m sure I’ve pissed enough folks off saying I don’t trust Russians.

Aside from Russians, wtf is this about clunkers? If you guessed CARS – Cash for Clunkers – then you’d be absolutely right. This geniously little program, which is about to run about $3 billion once Obama signs the latest bill, has done more to stimulate than the $750 billion+ economic bailout/stimulus. They are estimating 750,000 cars sold. Even if half of the buyers were planning on buying anyways (according to economists), that’s still hundreds of thousands of new car buyers out there.  That’s billions of dollars worth of new loans flowing into the market place, hundreds of millions if not billions being pulled out of savings to pumped back into the economy. That’s salesmen who finally are getting a decent check, sales managers who have work to do. A definitely positive shot to the economy. So for all you naysayers, complain once you kiss your elbow.

So now what does the 1st part, and this last part, hackers, have in common? Is it that they are both listed using an odd number, or that putting the numbers together makes an unlucky American number (13) ? Well, its true and all, but the meaning is much deeper than that. Russians = hackers. Maybe. At least some who manage to stay away from the Vodka water fountains long enough =)

As I said, it could be. If you haven’t heard, someone or a group of someones led a distributed denial-of-service – DDoS – attack against twitter and some other services yesterday. Turns out that this attack was launched specifically at sites by a man named “George”, including his twitter page, livejournal, and facebook. As of this writing, his Livejournal and Facebook page is still down. But why him? To quote CNN:

His recent posts include: “How Russia was preparing military agression (sic) against Georgia, how they were training soldiers and mobilizing military equipment, what kind of provocations were carried out by the separatists prior to the war.”

“Seems somebody did not like such a chronicle of events,” he [ "George" ] told CNN.

So was it Russians? Was it someone in Georgia who is pro-Russian? Hopefully the world may end up finding out. Given that this dipshit(s) didn’t just take out one page, but knocked out Twitter, numerous groups are now involved with this, including the Georgian government. But I would be more concerned with the hackers that use Twitter.

What this all boils down to is more Russians or pro-Russians afraid of the truth. They should’ve just stuck with the vodka.

Oh, and for one last jab. I just noticed that if you look at Medvedev and Putin side by side, Medvedev looks like 007, while Putin fits the bill for one of his Russian enemy masterminds.

I’ve been slacking off here! Sorry I’ve been ignoring this site, but life has been busy. In-laws in town, redoing the backside of my house (unfortunately with little help), and dealing with life in general.

And my god, so much has happened over these last couple of weeks. Michael Jackson dies, his mom aks for temporary custody, his dad puts his foot in his mouth and shows once again what an ass he is, Madoff get’s 150 years in prison, a plane crashed straight down into the indian ocean, with the only survivor a 15 year old who can’t swim. Oh, almost forgot about Billy Mays, my favorite TV commercial pitchman, dying. Then Sarah Palin, a wonderful MILF yet a hapless politician, has announced she’s resigning.

And Michael Jackson. I’ve never been a huge fan, although I did like his stuff. But he did, in many ways, shape our current pop culture. Even though I still thought he was a pedophile, I hated to hear that he passed away. I will say I am shocked with the numerous suicides that have been committed because he died. People get a little too caught up in things. It’s truly amazing that we idolize people who have more issues than we do.

And Joe Jackson. I’m kind of waiting for the bolt of lightning to strike him: I’m surprised the Rev. Al Sharpton would be willing to stand so close! Using his son’s death as an opportunity to market new material. I always heard he was a dick, but man, I think they were being nice calling him that. A monster is a better term. And with Al Sharpton tagging along for his few words, it lowers my stock in him as well, and I didn’t care much for him in the first place.

And Sarah Palin. Hah! She figured that her lame duck status would just make it “politics as usual.” What a load of crap. Palin said she planned to make a “positive change outside government,” without elaborating. Maybe she’s about to go visit Hugh Hefner, and become the first Governor/almost Vice President centerfold the magazine has ever had. That may be about the only positive change she could make outside of government. And before you feminists start blasting, I have nothing against a woman as governor, vp, president, secretary of state, etc. etc. I have a problem with a woman who lives in Alaska and believes she can see Russia outside of her window being in power. Or someone who has more political flip-flops than my wife owns! How she’s “Drill, baby, drill!” yet has fought hard against the big oil companies, when they are the ones that are needed to make the plans successful. The same Sarah Palin who gave $500 million to a CANADIAN company to do a feasibility study of the proposed new pipeline. That’s 1/2 a billion to a non-American company just to let us know if we should build it. All the while, big oil was running their own studies, at fractions of the cost, and keeping the work for AMERICAN workers. Imagine if she had gotten to be VP?!

As for Madoff, I hope they keep his body there for the full 150 years. When he dies, preserve it, and put it for public display. A warning to anyone else who wants to play his game. We won’t even give you a proper burial till you’ve served your bloody sentence. Son of a bitch.

Well, that’s about it for now. I’m redoing the whole backside of my house (new sheating, rigid foam insulation, fiber cement siding, energy star windows and doors, rebuilding the chimney chase, etc.), so I’m whooped, and not sure when I may get a chance to post some more. But in the words of General Douglas MacAuthor, “I shall return.”

David Carradine was found June 4th, victim of an "accidental" death.

If you haven’t heard already, David Carradine, Kwai Chang Caine from the Kung Fu movies, and Bill from Kill Bill 1 and 2, was found dead in his hotel room in Bangkok, Thailand. What’s interesting is the circumstances concerning his death.

To put it bluntly, they found in naked, in his closet, with a rope tied around his neck and penis. He was hanging from this rope. His death was ruled an “accidental” death by the Thai police.

Is it just me, or does that just sound a bit fishy? Interestingly enough, the did locate one footprint in the room that didn’t match up to his. We’ll see what they make of that.

Want my opinion? No? Here it is anyways I think he was murdered. I don’t know, maybe a hooker. Who knows. The sad truth of the matters is, his death of one of many mysterious deaths that occur in Bangkok every year. The police always have some sort of lame reasoning behind it, and never investigate further. Hopefully his family will hire their own investigators and look into the matter. Things don’t add up right, and if he were murdered, then whoever is responsible needs to be held accountable.

In all my years of driving, I have never experienced this first-hand

I am proud to say that I have never received a parking citation in all my years of driving. Well, at least I know that. Park It! Charlotte and Law Enforcement Systems apparently have a different opinions. Yet what it comes down to is incompetence – and potentially illegal behavior – by the very people who are paid by our taxes.

So a little history. In November, 2006, my wife totaled her car. Yes it was her fault, no she wasn’t hurt, and yes I believe the other person was.  She ran a red light and T-boned a minivan at 50 MPH. Her Camry was totaled, although behind the front fenders you would never know. The minivan’s frame was literally bent in. So piece of advice, forget the Dodge Grand Caravan, but the Toyota Camry.

Insurance handled most of everything, but we had to turn in the tag prior to getting our payout. Which we did, at the DMV Tag location on Independence Blvd. in Charlotte, NC. The one beside BJ’s for those who know it. Got our receipt, got our check from the insurance company, then went on about our business.

So why is a totaled car from 2006 relevant mid-2009. Apparently the tag was “improperly” handled after turning it in. In March of this year, I received a letter from the Charlotte parking authority, affectionately known as Park It!, stating I was past due on a parking citation, and that I owed $35. Seemed suspect, so I checked all of the tags at my house. Nothing matched. Checked all of my parents tags, nothing much. Even glanced at the ones in the neighborhood, yet none even matched the first two letters.

So I called a family friend who is a Deputy Sheriff and asked her to run the tag. It was for a 2005 Camry, and listed as being owned by State Farm. Interesting that it would be the car that was totaled and owned by our insurance company. So I called Park It!, told them I wanted to appeal. At first she said that it was too late to appeal since it was past due, but after I explained the situation, she agreed and said that they were going to take care of it on their side, especially after she ran the tag, and sure enough, it was listed as State Farm as the owner. Ironically, the vehicle was a Nissan, not a Camry. Is this suspect?

So I thanked the lady and began to worry about why that tag was floating around still. So I put it on my to do list to find that tag receipt and contact the NC DMV License and Theft Bureau. Well, I forgot. Or should I say it moved lower and lower on the list. Until today.

Today I got a letter from Law Enforcement Services, stating that I owed $35 for that citation, and failure to either pay or contact them by 5/11 could result in one of the following:

• Having my vehicle towed
• Having wheel-locks installed on my wheels
• Taken to court

Although personally I would love to see the car get towed, the agency is potentially screwing around with my credit. But I’m now fuming because this supposed “taken care of” situation is now being taken care of by a collection agency. I contacted them, explained the situation, but now they need paperwork. Apparently collection services aren’t paid to do their homework, only to collect. So now I was forced to find that damned receipt, which I have. I’m faxing it in the morning. If they try to collect again then we may be seeing each other in court – maybe someone will let me borrow some Armani vampire fangs

NC DMV License and Theft Bureau will also be hearing from me tomorrow, as I try to get some investigation as to why in the hell a tag that was legally turned in 2 years ago is being used. Park It! is also getting a copy of the receipt as well and a stern warning not to contact me again regarding this tag. I will not respond to any requests for payment, they have their sufficient proof. I’m also going to be sending in a complaint on the unprofessional methods by which this is handled. Once I had provided enough proof that the ticket was not supposed to be for me, and I was told that they were going to take care of it on their end, I should have NEVER received that letter from the collection agency.

And finally, I still want to know how in the hell they got my name in the first place. The tag was registered to State Farm, yet I’m the one who has had the headache.

So a word of advice to anyone turning in your tag. Hold on to that receipt for a long long time. You never know when some crook in the DMV is going to ensure your old tag ends up on the back of another car.

Andrea Phillips holds up a picture of her husband Richard, the U.S. Captain who was freed Sunday after the Navy SEALS made three perfect shots

Wow, a finish straight out of the movies. Three shots ended the hostage situation off the coast of Somalia. Sure, we see it in the movies all the time. But in real life, the stakes are real, and the challenges tremendous. Just imagine hitting a moving  target 75 feet away at night, while you are moving too. Sure, a number of people might be able to hit the broad side of  a barn in those conditions. But three one-shot kills, each to the head? Big round of applause is due to those SEALS. Watch out for this hostage situation on the next release of SOCOM!

The good news is that there are only a bunch of heroes in this story, and the only fatalities were to the bad guys. First, hats off to that captain. If anyone deserved to be saved, it was him. Giving himself up to the pirates to protect everyone else was a huge gamble. But it paid off in freeing his men, even though he made the risk for himself that much worse. Want a hero? That’s a hero.

But he wasn’t his only one. Hats off to the Navy for keeping the pirates in check and doing everything in their power to keep the Captain, Richard Phillips, alive, and to keep the pirates from taking him into Somalia. And those SEALS who fired those 3 shots? Just amazing.

But now that we are beyond this situation, we need to start finding ways of preventing it. Sure, we could TRY and patrol every square inch of sea out there, but that is impossible. All that leads to is having the Navy show up AFTER a ship has been taken. No, we need a better alternative. So let’s take a page out of history here.

The Marine Corps was founded to serve as an infantry unit aboard naval vessels and was responsible for the security of the ship and her crew by conducting offensive and defensive combat during boarding actions… (Wikipedia)

That’s right, we need to bring in the Marines. Or at least a civilian form of them. If the ship is a part of the Merchant Marines, give ‘em the Marines. If it is a ship who transports goods between the U.S. and other nations, make it a requirement that in order to transport goods to the U.S., it must be guarded by a well-trained security group that has been given the OK from the U.S. government.

If we are going to protect our cargo ships from pirates, then we need men on board who are trained to detect and repel such an attack.

And maybe we need to consider some form of joint UN action in Somalia to alter the landscape of a country that breeds the need of bold pirates to get by.

All I know is that Captain Jack Sparrow must be disappointed in these Somali pirates. He would’ve gotten away.

It about floored me. Looking through the guide, I saw Gangland: Hidden Valley… I knew what it was immediately. HVK, Hidden Valley Kings. The dark reality for thousands of people living in the Hidden Valley community. I cannot claim to be expert on them. But it was a daily part of life, especially during high school. My high school was about 1 or 2 miles away from the Valley, and we did have members there. As for the community? I’ve never come closer than passing by it on Sugarcreek or playing tennis at the Sugarcreek Rec Center. I know better than to get myself shot. Yet it was a man in a motel right behind a Valley that nearly cost it for me 9 years ago. Piece of advice: Never have a dad of  friend (who you’ve never met) of a friend ride with you so you can go buy booze. Especially if they are living out of a cheap motel in the ghetto. You might end up like me, feeling a glock in your side and being told to drive into some bad spots in North Charlotte so he can collect his funds, one way or another.

For those of us here in Charlotte, we know who the Hidden Valley Kings are. We can remember the gun play at Eastland Mall back in 2005, which tipped the scales on the mall’s demise. We remember hearing the next day about the retaliation down N Tryon, with guys shooting at each other in cars. Hell, I remember my boss, Tony, told his wife to go to the Dillard’s at Eastland instead of driving all the way out to Carolina Place. She was at the mall entrance to Dillard’s when the shooting started. I also remember she waited until she drove up to our work before she reamed him a new one.

And then I kept seeing this cat Lil’ Sweet. Back when I still had a job, I kept seeing him uptown by the bus station, trying to hustle CD’s with the “Rude Boyz.” I’ve listened to some of his stuff on YouTube, not my style but at least we know what he’s rappin about. I ain’t gonna knock him for credibility.

I really did enjoy watching this episode. Not that I like my city and my old stompin grounds being smeared in blood on national tv. I’m glad to see that the gang problem here is getting the attention it deserves. We watched for years as the cops denied there was even a gang problem, even though I knew a lot people who were in gangs. If the HVK hadn’t stepped outside the Valley with reckless violence, we probably would’ve been caught sleeping with the MS-13 came into town. So at least those murders weren’t in vain.

I am also glad to hear that Hidden Valley has slowly been working itself back to being a relatively safer community than it was. You can read up on the update at the charlotteobserver.com.