Former San Diego Mayor: Public Schools Are Anti-American, Teach 'Hatred of White People'
"Based on the assertions of Roger Hedgecock a right-wing radio show host, the meme that the five worst recent mass shootings were committed by registered Democrats is making its way through e-mail chains and social media."
Submitted by Josh Glasstetter on Friday, 2/8/2013 12:21 pm
Roger Hedgecock is a syndicated right-wing talk show host based in San Diego. For years, he was a regular fill-in for Rush Limbaugh, and before that he was a Republican mayor of San Diego – briefly, that is. He was convicted of campaign finance violations and thrown out of office only two years into his first term.
Aurora theater shooting suspect James Holmes in the courtroom during his arraignment on Tuesday March 12, 2013. (RJ Sangosti, Denver Post file)
The debates about whether Colorado's laws for insanity pleas deny Aurora theater shooting suspect James Holmes his constitutional rights have been whittled to a single topic:
Does Colorado's requirement that defendants pleading not guilty by reason of insanity must cooperate in a court-ordered mental-health examination violate protections against self-incrimination?
In an order issued Thursday .. http://tiny.cc/h5vbxw , the judge in the theater shooting case told both sides to pick a date next week for a new hearing to argue that question. Previously, the next hearing in Holmes' murder case had been scheduled for May 31.
"The Court will make itself available whenever the parties are available," Arapahoe County District Court Judge Carlos Samour wrote in Thursday's order.
Holmes is charged with 166 counts of murder, attempted murder and other offenses in connection with the July 20 attack on the Century Aurora 16 movie theater. The attack killed 12 people. Fifty-eight more were wounded by gunfire.
The challenges will impact the advisement Samour gives to Holmes on May 31 before deciding whether to accept Holmes' offered plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. Until the questions around the advisement are resolved, Holmes' insanity plea is suspended in mid-air.
The question on self-incrimination is perhaps the most consequential of the challenges.
Colorado law requires judges to order independent mental-health evaluations for defendants pleading insanity. The law also says defendants must cooperate in those evaluations. If they do not, the law prohibits defense lawyers from calling experts at trial to testify about mental health, and it says prosecutors can use the defendants' non-cooperation against them.
Holmes' lawyers contend this violates constitutional protections against self-incrimination, as well as rights to due process.
In his order Thursday, Samour told the sides to pick a date for a hearing between Tuesday and Friday of next week. He also gave the defense a Monday deadline to file any other legal arguments on the issue.
John Ingold: 303-954-1068, jingold@denverpost.com or twitter.com/john_ingold
The quality of legal representation is related to the arbitrary application of the death penalty in that inadequate representation contributes to mistakes in capital sentencing. http://www.deathrow-texas.com/
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List of miscarriage of justice cases .. this is one which will never take leave of my reason ..
* Arthur Allan Thomas, a New Zealand farmer, was twice convicted of the murders of Harvey and Jeanette Crewe on June 17, 1970. He spent 9 years in prison but was given a Royal Pardon, and was released and awarded $1 million compensation for wrongful convictions. A Royal Commission in 1980 showed the prosecution cases were flawed, there was a high possibility police had deliberately planted a cartridge case in the Crewes' garden to use as evidence, and ignored evidence that pointed to another suspect. The prosecution had also denied alibi and witness information to the defense team. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_miscarriage_of_justice_cases#New_Zealand
Colorado GOPer Accused Of Storming Away From Aurora Victim’s Dad
Hunter Walker May 17, 2013, 6:36 PM 13070
Tom Sullivan said he was just trying to show someone a few photos of his son.
Alex Sullivan, 27, was one of the young men killed last year in the Aurora, Colo. movie theater shooting, and his father wanted a high-ranking Republican lawmaker to know what gun violence had taken away from him.
So this week, Tom Sullivan went to a forum being held by Denver Post. State Senate Minority Leader Bill Cadman was there answering questions about the recent legislative session in which several gun control measures were debated and passed.
Sullivan was allowed to ask the last question of the forum, and he confronted Cadman about the way a number of legislators conducted themselves during the session. Cadman’s defensive response was caught on video and later posted online. But Sullivan told TPM on Friday there was an even more uncomfortable interaction between the two men after the event.
Sullivan said he approached Cadman to give him a collage with pictures of Alex.
“I walked right up to him, and I handed him one of the pictures, and I said, ‘This is a picture of my son,’” Sullivan recounted. “He looked me right in the eyes and he said angrily to me, ‘I know what he looks like,’ and he walked away.”
Cadman’s chief of staff, Jesse Mallory, told TPM he was not there to witness the exchange and that the minority leader was unavailable to comment on Friday afternoon.
The post-forum encounter was the unseen finale of a confrontation that had begun earlier at the Wednesday forum in front of an audience of spectators and journalists. His first part captured on video .. http://coloradopols.com/diary/43047/video-gop-legislative-leaders-meet-aurora-shooting-father , and has been pointed to by gun control advocates as a sign of how Republicans see the issue. Sullivan rambled a little, and never actually got a question out. But he wanted to let the legislative big know what was on his mind.
“Gentlemen, this is my first time down at the—up in the Gallery, to watch you guys work,” Sullivan said. “And I have to tell you, I was kind of appalled at with what, with some of the things that I saw down there, the levity in which our elected officials conduct themselves down on the floor.”
Sullivan went on to criticize Cadman for comments made earlier at the forum, accusing Democrats of overreaching in plans to expand background checks for gun purchases. To prove his point, Cadman had outlined two hypothetical situations where well-meaning individuals would find themselves in violation of requirements on firearms transfers: Boy Scouts who carry weapons owned by family members on group outings, and Cadman’s family members who have him store their weapons on periodic vacations to Canada.
“I sat up there and listened to the stories about, you know the fictitious stories about Boy Scouts, and Canadian missionaries, moving around,” Sullivan said at the event.
Cadman cut him off.
“You know what, he’s trying to accuse me of lying, I think we’re done,” he said. “It’s people, and constitutional rights, over an elite government elected and run by a very progressive-progressive special interest group, that’s not even from Colorado. So did you have a question? Or do you just want to continue to throw insults at us?”
Sullivan continued and revealed he was the father of a victim of the Aurora shooting. Upon hearing this, Cadman seemingly began to listen attentively and take notes as Sullivan asked him to “imagine what that was like, having to go around to the hospitals here in town, looking for my son, and then finding out that he was lying in that theater, dead from a single gunshot wound to his heart.”
“What I will tell you sir is that my son was murdered in the Aurora theater by a man who had bought a 100-round drum and murdered my son,” Sullivan said.
While he was making the emotional speech, Sullivan later told TPM, Cadman appeared to only be pretending to take notes.
“When I told him who I was, then all of a sudden, he opened up his notebook again. But while I was talking to him, he wasn’t taking notes, he was doodling,” Sullivan said. “It was right in front of me.”
Sullivan said he couldn’t make out what Cadman was drawing, but he is certain the lawmaker was not writing. Cadman’s chief of staff disputed the accusation, however, and said the senator was “absolutely” taking notes.
After Sullivan finished speaking, the event concluded.
Though he was dismissed by Cadman after the event, Sullivan said he was “not upset” about the encounter.
“I’m not looking for a free pass from anybody. I don’t want anybody’s sympathy, or anybody’s pity, or anything like that,” said Sullivan. “If that’s how he feels, then that’s how he feels. That’s the way it is. … I’m not upset, now we know. I mean, I’m trying to figure out where these people stand on these issues.”
Watch the video of the initial interaction between Sullivan and Cadman at the forum:
Surprised this seems to be Cadman's first appearance here. Notice his hard and, to my mind, defensive posture and attitude in the video. Creep came to mind. Idiot he comes over as.
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Firefighter Unions Bill Passes Preliminary Senate Vote
[Feb 4, 2013] The effort to give Colorado firefighters more power to unionize took a crucial step Monday, passing a preliminary vote by the full state Senate.
But the measure has divided the chamber, with Democrats supporting it and Republicans voting against.
“We certainly don’t need a few folks telling us how many trucks to have, how many people to sit on those trucks, how many people have to respond to an event,” Senate minority leader Bill Cadman told his colleagues, saying department managers are already doing a good job of protecting public safety in jurisdictions that aren’t unionized.
Cadman said firefighters unions are “not collective bargaining. It’s coercive bargaining.”
Voters in Cadman’s home city of Colorado Springs have rejected unionization requests from firefighters several times in the past. But another Colorado Springs lawmaker, Senate President John Morse, argues this bill is just a way to support important public workers.
“Which we’ve claimed to do all last summer as our city was on fire,” Morse said, referring to last July’s deadly Waldo Canyon Fire. “Now we’re just putting our money where our mouth is.”
The bill would do away with a requirement that firefighters get voter approval before they organize. An amendment broadened its powers considerably, making the new policy apply to all departments with two or more professional firefighters on staff.
Local governments are fighting the measure, which they see as an infringement on their local control.
Morse says he’s open to talking with teachers and police officers if they want to seek increased organizing powers as well.
“Come and have a conversation and let’s see where it leads.”
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