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#1411 Re: The Garden » 480 pound woman dies after six years on couch » 910 weeks ago
Nip/Tuck did an episode about a lady who was attached to a couch. Jeeze, it still gives me the chills.
#1412 Re: Guns N' Roses » will gnr ever ..... ? » 910 weeks ago
Well last time they went on tour, the skipped Philly and just went to Baltimore.
#1413 Re: The Sunset Strip » Pick the next film in my queue... » 910 weeks ago
The Last Supper sounds pretty wicked.
#1414 Re: The Garden » South Carolina Dem. Primary » 910 weeks ago
Found this on Fox News...
It was not yet clear whether Clinton or John Edwards took second place in the state. With less than 1 percent of precincts reporting, early returns showed Obama with 70 percent, Clinton with 18 percent and Edwards with 12 percent.
I was never that good at math, but with only one percent reporting in, how in the hell can they project a winner?
#1415 Re: The Garden » South Carolina Dem. Primary » 910 weeks ago
Edwards should drop out. I know he wont because if there is no clear winner going into the convention, he can play a role with his delegates and help decide who the democratic nominee is.
At this point I think its safe to say he's running for VP. I dont care how optimistic the guy is, he must know theres no way in hell he'll get the actual nomination for president.
#1416 Re: The Garden » South Carolina Dem. Primary » 910 weeks ago
Barack Obama Wins South Carolina Primary
Record African-American Turnout Carries Sen. Barack Obama to Victory in S.C.
By JENNIFER PARKER
Jan. 26, 2008 '”
Sen. Barack Obama, vying to become the nation's first black president, has won the South Carolina primary today, ABC News projects, boosted by record turnout of African-American voters in a state whose electorate appears polarized along racial lines.
While the race for second-place is too close to call, Sen. Hillary Clinton appears to be leading former Sen. John Edwards in the race for second. This is the second win of the nomination battle for Obama, who won the Iowa caucuses earlier this month, but this is his first win in a state with a sizable African-American population.
Women and African Americans, courted heavily by the candidates, turned out in large numbers to vote in what became a bitter Democratic primary marked by rhetoric about race and gender.
Exit poll results indicate just over half of Democratic primary voters were black this year -- the highest turnout among African-Americans in any Democratic presidential primary at least since 1984, reports ABC News' Gary Langer. Women accounted for six in 10 voters, similar to their 57 percent turnout rate in 2004.
Obama went into the first Democratic Southern contest the clear favorite, buoyed by support from black voters.
African American Voters Boost Obama
Sen. Hillary Clinton started out strong in the state, but began to trail Obama in December. In recent weeks her campaign has tried to lower expectations, positioning her as the underdog in the race, and largely leaving her husband, former President Bill Clinton, to campaign in the Palmetto State.
Yet to win any primary contest so far, tonight's loss was another crushing blow to former Sen. John Edwards, who was born in South Carolina, and who won the state in 2004. Edwards suggested this week that even if he lost his home state, he intended to continue campaigning into Super-Duper Tuesday, Feb.5.
But in a campaign dominated by talk of race, South Carolinians went into the polls with the economy on their minds; just over half called it the most important issue in their vote. South Carolina has the fourth-highest unemployment rate in the nation, and has lost more than 90,000 manufacturing jobs over the last decade.
Obama greeted brunch-goers Saturday morning at Harper's Restaurant in Columbia, posing for photographs and thanking people for their vote.
Obama: Media Focused 'Maniacally' on Race
"Here in South Carolina there is a sizable African-American population. Not surprisingly, we're doing well there. I'm sure they're taking pride in my candidacy," Obama told ABC News' Kate Snow on Saturday's "Good Morning America Weekend" edition.
Early on, the Obama campaign sought out African-Americans, employing a large staff in the state and organizing in churches, beauty parlors and barber shops. The Clinton campaign, too, fought hard for black women voters, who tend to turn out reliably at the polls.
But Obama complained the media's focus on race has been excessive.
"The press has been very focused, almost maniacally, on the issue of race here in South Carolina," Obama told ABC News' Kate Snow. "But as we move forward after this contest, I'm very confident that we are going to continue to build the kind of coalitions that we've been seeing all across the country."
The junior senator from Illinois dismissed the notion he has been marginalized, in the words of Associated Press writer Ron Fournier, as "the black candidate, by the Clinton machine."
"I think it'd be hard to argue that I have been marginalized, when I won Iowa, which was 94 percent white. We were almost tied in New Hampshire, a state that has an all-white population. And in Nevada, I was able to win, actually, the biggest votes, uh, margins, in those northern areas ? that are predominantly white, rural, conservative areas," Obama said.
Former President Bill Clinton made headlines this week when he chastized CNN reporter Jessica Yellin for challenging him about comments he made about race and gender.
Clinton Camp Plays Expectations Game
Campaigning Saturday morning with her daughter, Chelsea, Hillary Clinton popped into a Shoney's restaurant in Columbia and urged people to vote.
"I am just hoping for a good day. I am just hoping for a big turn out," she said, reports ABC News' Eloise Harper.
Sitting down beside an 8-year-old boy named Messiah, who was playing a video game, Clinton leaned in and said, "So this guy, what's he doing?"
Looking at the game, he said, "Beatin' up the evil people." Clinton paused and said, "Can I have him come with me?"
Nearby, Bill Clinton ate grits and eggs with supporters of his wife at Bert's Grill and Diner, and visited a voting station down the road, reports ABC News' Sarah Amos.
Race Shifts to Florida
Behind the scenes, Clinton's campaign sent out a memo to reporters that attempted to minimize the impact of the South Carolina contest.
"Regardless of today's outcome, the race quickly shifts to Florida, where hundreds of thousands of Democrats will turn out to vote Tuesday," wrote Clinton Communications Director Howard Wolfson.
In a sign of how bad the blood is between the two campaigns, Obama's spokesman Bill Burton quickly sent a memo of his own.
"It should not be surprising given recent events that the Clinton campaign would in one breath say the election is about winning delegates and then tout their success in states that don't award any delegates in the next breath," Burton wrote.
That type of back-and-forth bickering between the Obama and Clinton campaigns has allowed Edwards, who has moved up in the polls in recent weeks, to argue that he is the only "grown-up" in the race, running ads showing his rivals attacking one another at Monday night's debate.
"Vote for somebody who's actually focused on the problems that you're faced with, from jobs to health care to ending the war in Iraq, as opposed to two candidates who are spending all their time and energy tearing each other down. I'm about building South Carolina up, not about tearing people down, not about tearing politicians down," Edwards said Saturday, campaigning in Charleston.
A loss in his home state could drive a stake through the former senator's presidential ambitions, but Edwards told ABC News' David Muir Friday he's going to continue to fight, even if he comes in third.
Edwards is expected to stay in the race at least until the Super-Duper Feb. 5 contests, because his advisers believe he could play kingmaker if his two rivals end up short on delegates.
On primary day the Clinton campaign launched a series of anti-Edwards robotic calls in S.C., reminding voters Edwards once worked for a hedge fund that, the call argued has been "profiting" from sub prime lending and home foreclosures.
"You should also know that John Edwards made nearly a half a million dollars working for a Wall Street investment fund. A fund that's been profiting on foreclosing on the homes of families; including 100 homes right here in South Carolina? Can you trust John Edwards? This call is paid for by the Hillary Clinton for President Campaign."
In a race that has increasingly become a delegate war leading up to the Super-Duper Feb.5 primaries and caucuses, 45 delegates were up for grabs in the state.
A win tonight gives Obama a boost, and some much needed momentum before Tuesday's Florida primary and before voters in more than 20 states have their say Feb. 5.
ABC News' Gary Langer, Kate Snow, David Muir, Eloise Harper, Sarah Amos, Sunlen Miller, Raelyn Johnson and Karen Travers contributed reporting.
Copyright © 2008 ABC News Internet Ventures
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008 … 240&page=1
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I think they might be talking out of their ass. I mean the polls just closed ten minutes ago
#1417 Re: The Sunset Strip » HEATH LEDGER DEAD » 910 weeks ago
Death could be from natural causes:
It sounds strange, but sources intimately connected with the Heath Ledger investigation tell TMZ it's possible the actor died of natural causes.
The reason they think that -- it's now appearing that the level of toxicity (from medication) in Ledger's system was low enough that it may not have caused his death. These sources say Heath's heart stopped. It could have been a heart attack but it's not certain, at least not yet. Although it's bizarre that a 28-year-old could die of natural causes, it happens.
We've also learned authorities do not believe the housekeeper heard Ledger snoring when she walked in his bedroom at around 1:00 PM. Sources tell us, a fireman observed rigor mortis in Ledger's jaw shortly after arriving on scene at around 3:30PM. Sources say they now believe Ledger was dead for around three hours prior to their arrival, so they don't believe the masseuse could have heard snoring.
Authorities are also annoyed at news reports that there may have been a sinister plot to remove illegal drugs from Ledger's apartment before cops and firemen arrived. There are reports out there that the masseuse called Mary Kate Olsen and a plot was hatched to have her bodyguard remove certain drugs. Authorities tell us that's impossible, because the cops were there the entire time the bodyguard was present and there would have been no opportunity to carry out such a plan. They say it's a made up story.
As we first reported, the masseuse contacted the bodyguard because she knew he was a licensed EMT.
#1418 The Garden » Cop poses as girl, 13, snags mayor online » 910 weeks ago
- Tommie
- Replies: 0
Cop poses as girl, 13, snags mayor online
Story Highlights
Jim Murray, 69, poses online as "cindydiamond," a 13-year-old girl
Small town mayor allegedly solicits sex from "cindydiamond"
He has sent 10 online predators to prison
Slaying of girl seduced online motivates him, Murray says
DIAMOND, Missouri (AP) -- No one will ever confuse Jim Murray with a teenager. His tall frame, broad shoulders and clipped gray hair give him away for the grandfather he is.
But the 69-year-old retired police chief of this small Missouri town cuts a credible figure as a 13-year-old girl surfing the Web, looking for friends. He knows all the instant-messaging shorthand, the emoticons.
Murray's retirement job from a rural home office has netted 20 arrests since he started in 2002.
His latest catch was the biggest: four felony enticement charges against a town mayor, who after his arrest called Murray up and begged him to make the case go away.
Nineteen other defendants have included a Missouri furniture company executive, an Arkansas professor and a Tulsa, Oklahoma, school security guard. Ten of those men have been convicted and sent to prison. One was deported. The other cases are still pending.
The defendants ranged in age from 24 to 62, with an average age of 39.4 years, and mainly come from Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma, Diamond police said.
Internet child safety experts say police officers like Murray are heroes who do good work at the cost of wading through the muck of online pedophile fantasies.
"He's a trailblazer. 2002 was very early for smaller police departments to start doing this," said Parry Aftab, executive director of Wiredsafety.org, a children's Internet safety group.
Murray, who taught elementary school for 27 years before switching to police work, is more humble.
"This is really about the kids," he said.
The first thing he hands a reporter at the start of an interview is a neat packet of newspaper stories about Kacie Woody, a 13-year-old girl in neighboring Arkansas who was abducted, raped and killed by a man she met online. It's not a case Murray worked on. Instead, he said, it's "a motivator."
Murray said he manages to shake the online conversations out of his head after a while, but they can still make him angry.
"There'll be times when you just want to reach through the screen and choke them or slap them," he said. "To think they could talk that way to a girl."
The latest defendant is Allen Kauffman, 63, who resigned as mayor of Collins and pastor of Temple Lot Church after he was arrested January 11 at home in his small town about 110 miles southeast of Kansas City.
Kauffman declined Wednesday to discuss the specifics of his case, including how he plans to plea and his lawyer did not return a phone message.
Kauffman did not propose an actual meeting in any of the exchanges listed in the charging documents.
But according to court documents, prosecutors say Murray was logged into a Yahoo! chat room as a 13-year-old girl named "cindyndiamond" using the screen name "Cin" when he was first contacted November 15 by "duke dukead," who prosecutors allege was Kauffman.
Duke contacted Cindy again the next day and said he was 55 years old. The exchange included:
Cin: i like to french kiss ... senior boy taught me.
duke dukeadk: but it depends on where you want to be kissed at lol.
In at least five instant-message sessions through mid-December, Duke allegedly went on to tell Cindy he wanted to have sex with her, asked for nude photos of her and suggested Cindy have sex with another girl in front of a Webcam so that Duke could watch.
Murray has arrested other men arriving for trysts they believed they were setting up with the detective's teenage persona.
Murray was chief of police in the farm town of Diamond from 1995 to 2000. He got a personal computer after retiring and discovered chat rooms and was angered when he was offered pictures of young girls.
He contacted experts in the field of Internet sting operation and got training from the National White Collar Crime Center on basic computer data recovery.
Now, Murray patrols the Web from a cramped home office divided between his police computer and a personal computer ringed with photos of his six grandchildren and three adult kids.
Murray remains a detective on reserve status with the Diamond police but he donates his investigation time. He says he only spends about 30 minutes a week on average in chats but several hours more going over hard drives of arrested suspects looking for contacts with other potential victims.
"Several people have stopped me at Wal-Mart and the filling station and said they appreciate what we're doing on the Internet stuff. And that's a good feeling."
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
All AboutInternet '¢ Sexual Offenses
#1419 Re: The Garden » Who Gave Romney The Answer? » 910 weeks ago
That's fucked up. If it's not a fake.
That was my first thought. Did anyone watch this live that can confirm this? I mean I cant really see any of the candidates throwing him answers, but they're the only ones with a microphone that would pick it up.
I just watched it again. Now my thought is maybe one of the other candidates was basically talking to themselves and since they all have live microphones, it was just picked up.
#1420 Re: The Garden » Dozens in Texas Town report UFO sighting » 910 weeks ago
Maybe its because I just finished watching the x-files box set, but this sounds EXACTLY like an episode of that damn show.