Black Activists, Queens DA To Blame For Sean Bell Cops Acquittal

On his wedding day in Manhattan last year, Sean Bell was gunned down by 50 police bullets. Three New York police officers have been on trial for the past 8 weeks for manslaughter. Today, the judge acquitted them of all charges.

[Michael]Oliver, who fired 31 times and reloaded once, and [Gescard]Isnora, who fired 11 times, had been charged with manslaughter, felony assault and reckless endangerment. They faced up to 25 years in prison if convicted on all charges.

[Marc]Cooper, who fired four times, faced up to a year in jail if convicted of reckless endangerment. None of the detectives testified, although their grand jury testimony was read out loud at the trial.

The case was tried before Queens Supreme Court Justice Arthur Cooperman (a former Lieutenant in the Army no less), who decided that the state didn't prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt. Of course, there's outrage within the Black community about yet another innocent black man getting killed by cops, but this case wasn't as black and white as the usual race baiters (led by Al Sharpton) would like you to believe.

First, there's the fact that two of the three cops who shot and killed Sean Bell were black. Then there's the fact that the prosecution in this case did a horrible job (not to mention that because of the close relationship between DA's and police, this case should've been handled by an independent prosecutor in the first place), relying on unreliable witnesses (like Sean Bell's friends) while using scrupulous tactics throughout the trial. I still think that the judge should've at least given a conviction or two on the reckless endangerment charges (after all some of the cops bullets did hit a few homes and a nearby train station), but having followed this case throughout, I didn't expect anything more because convicting police officers is so often difficult and the Queens DA let Sean Bell down with its utter incompetentcy in this trial.

Reverend Jeremiah Wright On Bill Moyers

Yes, Bill Moyers is a left-wing hack and I can understand the sentiment of some Obama supporters that he's better off saying nothing amidst all the controversy, Rev. Wright does make some good points about the power of the media to manipulate comments and the fact that at the end of the day Barack Obama is nothing more than a politician, something I've said earlier on this blog:

Star Jones Gets Divorced From Gay Al

Reuters.com:

Star Jones, whose elaborate, corporate-sponsored wedding won her the nickname "Bridezilla," has filed for a divorce from her husband of about three years, Al Reynolds, according to media reports.

Celebrity television show "Entertainment Tonight" said Jones issued a statement saying she had filed the papers a month ago.

"The dissolution of a marriage is a difficult time in anyone's life that requires privacy with one's thoughts," Jones said in the statement. "I have committed myself to handling this situation with dignity and grace and look forward to emerging from this period as a stronger and wiser woman."

Jones, 46, and Reynolds, 39, a banker, were married in 2004 in a lavish wedding in which supplies and services were donated by corporate "sponsors" in return for publicity. Tabloid newspapers referred to her as "Bridezilla."

I could care less about Star Jones, never liked her rude mouth anyhow and she looks real stupid getting divorced 3 years after the big hubbub/sponsorship that was her wedding. What I'm more concerned about is the current state of affairs of single, black women, esp. those in the public eye, knowingly marrying gay men. I mean Terry McMillan and now Star Jones? Two women one would normally associate with being intelligent, much less independent? Were they just ignorant to all the rumors of their men preferring to get hit from the back or just plain desperate? I don't know, but lets hope single ladies out there start paying more attention to the signs before this pitiful epidemic spreads.

Barack Obama Won Pennsylvania, Not Hillary

CNN:

Sen. Hillary Clinton claimed victory in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, beating out Sen. Barack Obama after a bruising seven-week campaign.

"It's a long road to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. and it runs right through the heart of Pennsylvania," she told supporters in Philadelphia.

"I'm in this race to fight for you ... You know you can count on me to stand up strong for you every single day in the White House."

Clinton commended Obama and his campaign, saying they are in many ways "on this journey together."

Tuesday's projected victory follows Clinton's wins in other big states such as Ohio, New York and California.

Forget the final votes tally, I'm seeing Barack's second-place finish last night as a victory. Why? Well, considering that Hillary was once leading PA by as many as 33 points in the polls, when all was said and done Barack proved his mettle by slashing two-thirds of her lead away. That alone should be noteworthy to superdelegates, esp. in a liberal-leaning state like PA that any Democrat would win versus a Republican. Consider too that its been a long six weeks since the last Democratic primary, that plus the fact that Hillary's vowed to stay in the race until the convention lets you know that the significance of the PA primary got way more play from the media than it should have--the only question here worth asking in the last six weeks not being if Hillary would win PA, but how much she would win by. So in the end a 10-point "victory" really comes off as a loss in my book.

Hillary Can Still Win . . . Here's How

This hilarious video has recently been circulating around the sphere:

Politiks As Usual: In The News 4/21/08

Barack Obama: McCain Would Be Better Than Bush

Pope Blesses Ground Zero, Departs U.S. With A Call For Peace

Hamas Explodes U.S. Vehicles In Massive Attack

Undecided Superdelegates Don't Feel Bound By Primaries

eHarmony Article Encourages One-Night Stands

Italian Man Jailed and Fined For Staring At Woman On Train

Iwo Jima Vets Blast TIME's 'Special Environmental Issue' Cover

Ben Stein Vs. Sputtering Atheists

New Evidence Frees Inmate After 26 Years

Bill Maher Apologizes For Calling Pope A Nazi

I refuse to believe that this apology is genuine because Maher's a slimeball and a Christophobic like that. Then too he could be saying sorry only because he's afraid of losing his show (not like that hasn't happened before thanks to Maher's stupidity) amidst the suits at HBO pressuring him to take back his hateful remarks. Either way, once an a-hole, always an a-hole:

Comedian Bill Maher apologized on his HBO show Friday night for accusing Pope Benedict XVI of being a Nazi. After some delay, the Catholic League reports, Maher acknowledged that Joseph Ratzinger as a young man was forced to join the Hitler Youth organization and was not sympathetic to the Nazi ideology.

Maher still insisted that if a CEO were in charge of an institution that housed child molesters, he would be fired.

Bill Donohue, President of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, responded to Maher’s broadcast apology. “We accept Maher's apology for accusing the pope of being a Nazi. Too bad he didn't stop there. For him to suggest that Pope Benedict XVI was in charge of policing molesters, and failed in doing so, is patently absurd,” Donohue said.