This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Breaking News

  • Chavez is dead

    No links, only this screen shot of Fox News website;

    Hugo Chavez is dead

    Excuse me while I do my happy dance, smoke a cigar and drink some rum.

    ADDED: the good communists at Venezelanalysis.com were preparing for this moment. If any of you think things will change overnight in Venezuela, well;

    Vice-president Nicolas Maduro today denounced destabilisation plans by the international and Venezuelan right wing, announcing the expulsion of two US officials for threatening military security. He also implied that Chavez’s cancer was “caused by enemies of Venezuela”.

    A link to the news of the death at BBC from ROS.

    Maduro made the announcement today just after midday, following a meeting this morning with Venezuela’s political military leadership.

    Maduro pronounced the expulsion of Air Attaché David Delmonaco, and assistant Air Attaché Devlin Costal of the US embassy in Caracas for being implicated in “conspiracy plans”.

    “They have 24 hours to pack their bags and leave,” Maduro said.

    He explained that Monaco had, for the last few weeks, been contacting members of the Venezuelan military in order to bring about a destabilisation plan in Venezuela.

    ROS sends us a link to the BBC which reports the death.

  • Senate confirms Hagel

    Yeah, who is surprised that Chuck Hagel was confirmed by the Senate for Secretary of Defense a few minutes ago? The Republicans make a lot of noise and then collapse every time. That’s why we can’t have nice things. From the Associated Press;

    The vote Tuesday was 58-41, with four Republicans joining Democrats in backing President Barack Obama’s nominee.

    The vote ended a contentious fight over the president’s choice for his second-term national security team.

    Republicans opposed the former two-term Republican senator from Nebraska, casting him as out of the mainstream and overly critical of Israel. But Democrats stood together for Hagel, a twice-wounded Vietnam combat veteran.

    So, I guess a bunch of VoteVets guys will be headed to Defense like when their guy Shinseki went to Veterans’ Affairs. I wonder if Hagel still thinks that the surge in Iraq was the biggest military blunder in American history.

  • Terry Achane Wins permanent custody of his Daughter.

    I know that I am late reporting this but I wanted to let everyone know who is not or not. On February 11th it was announced on Facebook that the Frei family has withdrawn their appeal to the Utah Supreme Court. This means that the legal battle is over and Terry Achane has permanent custody of his daughter.

    “After considerable thought and reflection under heart-wrenching circumstances, the Freis have decided not to pursue their appeal of this contested adoption. Although the Freis remain convinced that the district court committed significant legal errors in this case, they believe that it would be best for the child to drop their appeal now that she has been transferred into the custody of Mr. Achane. The Freis are committed to working with Mr. Achane to assist the child in making a successful transition. Because the Freis love the child deeply and want her to succeed in life, they are willing to put her needs before their own hopes and desires and would rather drop the appeal than risk the child suffering potential psychological and emotional consequences resulting from her either not making a successful transition or transitioning to caregivers multiple times in this critical stage of her development.”

    That is the good news. The bad news is that Terry Achane has a considerable legal bill. The Facebook page Support Terry Achane is requesting assistance in helping pay for his legal fees. The link for more information on how to help is provided here.

  • Dorner in shootout with cops

    The LA Times is reporting that the police are telling them that they’re locked in a gun battle with Dorner at Big Bear Lake;

    The six-day manhunt for accused killer Christopher Dorner took a dramatic turn Tuesday when the suspect got into a shootout with authorities, according to law enforcement sources.

    Details were sketchy. But the sources said that Dorner burglarized a home in the Big Bear area, tied up a couple and stole their car.

    During the gun battle, two police officers were wounded. Their conditions are unknown. A state fish and game official was shot at, sources said.

    It was published a few minutes ago so…

    An earlier article at LA Times said he’d burglarized and terrorized residents of Big Bear;

    The shooting occurred after Dorner burglarized a home, tied up a couple and stole their car, the source said.

    It was not immediately clear whether Dorner was in custody.

    A second source said there was an active crime scene but did not have details.

    Law enforcement officials were swarming the area.

    Live video;

  • Fox News: Jimmy Lee Dykes is dead

    Fox News is reporting on their broadcast that Jimmy Lee Dykes has been killed “after some sort of explosion” (it sounds like a suicide) and the five-year-old that he’s been holding is safe. (No links anywhere yet)

    Fox also says that Jimmy Lee Dykes was a Navy veteran of the Vietnam era with a Vietnam service ribbin of some sort, so I may have been wrong. But he was a aviation mechanic, so I still don’t know how being a veteran had anything to do with this situation. Unless the ice cream machine on the mess deck had broken down for an entire day, or his hunt aboard ship for an ice cold Coke drove him to madness.

    Here’s an ABC link. They call him a “decorated Vietnam vet”. According to Fox, his highest award was a Good Conduct Medal – so yeah he was decorated, but barely.

  • Terry Achane reunited with daughter.

    Today SSG(Drill Sgt) Terry Achane was reunited with his daughter today.

    It was a happy ending to Achane’s lengthy court battle to gain custody of the girl, who was placed for adoption at birth without his knowledge.

    “I’m very happy,” a smiling Achane (pronounced A-chan) said Friday. “It’s 22 months too long — but the wait was worth it. I’ve got my daughter.”

    The father and daughter will leave for Fort Jackson in South Carolina on Saturday. Waiting for them is Achane’s extended family, who can’t wait to meet Teleah.

    So it looks like this is the conclusion to this who ordeal and that this case is bringing attention to the adoption laws in Utah that have some people caling Utah a place to “buy a baby”.

    Hutchins has served as the president of the Utah Adoption Council and says he wanted to investigate an unsettling hunch.

    He had employees from his law firm called adoption agencies at random. They posed as a woman asking about the process for an expectant mom from another state. The woman said her sister was unexpectedly pregnant, unmarried and wanted to place the child, but the birth father did not.

    Hutchins recorded those conversations.

    One agency said, “If he’s going to just be a total pain in the butt, then we can definitely just not have him involved at all.”

    Another said, “I’d say literally over 99 percent of the time the guys just get caught up in it and everything, and then they find out they’re gonna have to pay $30,000 in legal fees, they’re just like, ‘Whatever, never mind.‘”

    “Many adoption agency actually coach on what they should say and what they should do and what they shouldn’t say and what they shouldn’t do in order to keep birth fathers in the dark,” Hutchins said.

    On the recordings, a counselor said, “Well, [the birth mother] won’t have to worry about [the birth father]. Let’s just put it that way.”

    Another said, “You can tell the birth father anything after you give birth; might be easier to tell the birth father that you were in an accident, and the baby died.”

    Also there is more on this coaching business.

    Hutchins presented the transcripts to the Utah legislature saying the coaching from some adoption agencies is at the very least manipulative and wrong. He used them as evidence that the law in Utah needs to be changed.

    “For example, they’ll say, ‘Don’t tell the birth father that you are coming to Utah. Wait until just before you are ready to come, and then send him a little text message, make sure you keep a copy of it, that you are going to Utah temporarily, but you’ll be back,’” Hutchins said.

    Manzanares says that mirrors what happened to him.

    “I’ll be flying to Utah to visit my father in Feb. for a week maybe a little longer,” A message from Terry said, in part. “In April, I will be willing to sit down and talk with you.”

    On a final note.

    Manzanares is the first father to fight the Utah adoption system and win. His name is now on his daughter’s birth certificate, and he has earned custody rights

    Now it is at least two. Granted this is a win but with all the information coming from this case the people of Utah have some major issues to fix. Thank you to commenter JO for the link.

  • Good News Everybody.(Updated)

    A yesterday ago the Utah Supreme Court put a stay on the a ruling that would allowed Terry Achane to be reunited with his daughter. Well it seem that less then twenty four hours later that the hold has been removed.

    The Utah Supreme Court on Friday declined to stay a trial court judge’s order giving a married father custody of a child who was placed for adoption at birth without the father’s consent or knowledge. The court also set an expedited hearing for the appeal.

    While it is good news that the stay was removed. Also according to the court ruling that any further request for time extensions would be denied. However it does no explicitly say that Terry Achane will get his daughter back. Only that the hearing will be held on March of this year.

    “In plain English: Teleah is going home to her father,” said attorney Scott Wiser, who with his father, Mark, represents Achane, in a post on Facebook.

    The Utah Supreme Court denied the stay. This means the district court’s ruling is back in effect. The district court has to schedule a new hearing (the 16th was canceled due to the provisional stay) which will hopefully be next week. Teleah will go home with Terry at that time and will remain with her through the appeals.

    But as optimistic I would like to be, I will not be confident that he will get his daughter back until it actually happens. I mean this was suppose to have happened on January 16th.

    There is a good statement made on Terry Achane’s Facebook.

    One thing I have an extremely hard time understanding is how the Frei family has repeatedly stated and written in their blog that Terry abandoned Tira. How is changing a duty assignment abandonment?

    I think the Frei’s should take an extremely close look at themselves and what they truly believe. I think they should ask themselves, “Did our nephews, that are currently in Afghanistan, abandon their children? Would we approve what we are doing to Terry to their children?”

    The military does not give you much of an option. You go or you get in trouble. Does this make the nephews of the Frei’s horrible parents? They are currently in Afghanistan after all. Isn’t this why they claim Terry is an unfit parent?

    New updates can be found here.

    Updated: The Statement provided by Jared and Kristi Frei to KUTV. I am posting the statement here just in case it is deleted later.

    Twenty-one months ago the birth mother made the decision to give her child up for adoption because she had been abandoned by her husband when she was seven months pregnant. He cut her off from all financial, physical and emotional support, leaving the mother with the sole burden of determining what was in the child’s best interests. The birth father took almost no efforts to determine the whereabouts of his child after her birth until the mother informed him of the adoption several months after birth.

    Upon being notified of the adoption, he took the step of hiring an attorney to oppose the adoption, but has taken no steps, other than one 3 hour visit with the child when he came to Utah for his deposition, to form any bond or relationship with the child. Despite the parties being in frequent contact with each other over the last 15 months during the adoption process, the father has never sent the child a letter or gift, even on her birthday and at Christmas. He has never requested any update on her health and well-being. He never tried to call her on the phone or video conference with her. The law requires a father to at least attempt to form a relationship with his child to show he is not disregarding his parental obligations. If he fails in this regard over an extended period of time, it is considered abandonment, regardless of the fact that he has hired an attorney to object to the adoption.

    The court’s ruling relies heavily on the determination that the adoptive parents were required to return the child immediately when the father requested. However, the Utah Adoption Act clearly states that once a child is placed with an adoption agency or adoptive parents, they shall have custody pending further order from the court. The father never sought custody during the adoption process so there was never a court order requiring either the agency or adoptive parents to relinquish custody. See UCA 78B-6-134.

    We are deeply saddened by the court’s decision in the case to give the child back to a father she does not know at all. We believe the court made serious legal errors in his decision and will address these concerns with the Utah Court of Appeals.

  • Tim Scott named to replace DeMint

    So, South Carolina governor, Nikki Haley has named a replacement for Jim DeMint as a US Senator for the state. It’s Tim Scott, according to the New York Times;

    Mr. Scott, 47, also offers a unique story and background, one that is in scant supply in the Republican Party right now. Raised by a single mother, he was, by his account, a lost child who struggled with school and with life until a Chick-fil-A franchise owner took him on as a protégé and schooled him in conservative principles.

    “Coming from a single-parent household and almost flunking out of high school,” Mr. Scott said in 2010, during his bid for the House, “my hope is I will take that experience and help people bring out the best that they can be.”

    Of course, Tim Scott is Black, and since the Republicans are supposed to be racists, Democrats and Liberals have been Tweeting racist shit about Scott all day, according to Twitchy.

    Now, I’m just guessing, but I think the reason that there are so few blacks who are Republicans because of the way they’re treated by the Democrat Party. Who wants to be treated in their neighborhood like Michael Steele, Herman Cain, Clarence Thomas, Allen West and Condoleezza Rice?

    I’ve seen some of them get worked over verbally by their peers and it’s not a pretty sight. Conservatives, on principle, don’t do well reaching out to minorities because we see everyone as equal regardless of superficial things like skin color. But since Liberals are all about superficial and irrelevant differences and completely emotional with no real principles beyond undermining the principles that built this country, somehow they attract people who see their superficial differences as the main thing that defines them as people and voters.