Amanda Knox's Long Nightmare Comes To An End

Amanda Knox is the college student who was wrongly convicted in Italy for the 2007 murder of her roommate, Meredith Kercher.  Having closely followed the case, the characters, the evidence and the facts, I became convinced early on that she was completely innocent of the crime.  That goes the same for her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, who was convicted along with Knox in 2009.

There was never any evidence of Knox and Sollecito's involvement.  No fingerprints, no DNA, no motive, no witnesses.  However, Giuliano Mignini, a prosecutor with a bad reputation for frivolous indictments dreamed up a "sex-game-gone-wrong" scenario in which Knox and Sollecito participated with one Rudy Guede to slash Meredith's throat.  The scenario's only basis was Mignini's dirty mind.

The real murderer-rapist-burglar was a black thug named Rudy Guede, whose DNA was all over the crime scene.  He received a sentence of only 16 years.  When he was being monitored on Skype, talking to a friend, he told that friend that Knox and Sollecito were not there.  He told other cell-mates the same thing:  the unlucky couple had nothing to do with the crime.  Mignini ignored it.  The two were convicted and sentenced to prison terms of around 25 years each.  They appealed.

In an appeals trial in 2011, forensic experts testified to the inadequacy of evidence to convict the two, and they were declared innocent and set free.  This didn't set well with a higher court in Rome, who ordered a third trial with a pre-selected verdict:  guilty as determined by the first trial.  Knox and Sollecito appealed to the Italian Supreme Court, who this week declared the two innocent, and even more, not only "not guilty by lack of evidence" but stated categorically that the two did not commit the crime.

Knox and Sollecito spent four years in prison for a crime they did not commit.  Knox was also convicted of defamation of her former barroom boss, Patrick Lumumba, for signing a statement that Lumumba killed Kercher.  However, she signed the statement, written not by her, but for her, by the Perugian police, after intense and abusive interrogation all night, without sleep or food.  She signed their statement under extreme duress, and repudiated it the next day after a few hours of sleep.  This unjust conviction was upheld by the Supreme Court, perhaps as insurance that she could not sue for the false imprisonment she was made to endure.  Because of that, she "owes" Lumumba around $54,000 in damages.  I hope she never pays a dime.

The players in this drama who deserve disgust and shame are as follows:

1.  Giuliano Mignini, the corrupt prosecutor who engineered the debacle in court.  May he suffer the shame and dishonor he richly deserves, for the rest of his miserable life.

2.  The fanatical "guilters," those people fanatically devoted to preserving the convictions, in spite of the total absence of evidence of guilt.  This includes a large number of Brits, who are incapable of logic or objective evaluation of the facts.  I suspect their anti-American prejudices are a large factor in their disgraceful attitudes.  I hope this final verdict sticks in their craws and gives them enormous amounts of stomach acid.

3.  The parents of Meredith Kercher, whose displaced anger and need for revenge has made them devoted to preserving the wrongful convictions.  Meredith Kercher was a fine, lovely young woman whose murder was a tragedy, and whose loss to the world is enormous.  However, her parents have covered themselves in shame, yearning as they did for a surrogate to punish for Meredith's death, while the real murderer was given a light sentence and soon will be free to walk the streets again.

4.  Ann Coulter, whose uninformed attacks on Knox displayed her considerable ignorance of the case and the facts.  She loved to label Knox as "convicted murderer Amanda Knox."  Now it is "acquitted innocent Amanda Knox."  Will Coulter apologize for her error?  Don't hold your breath.

Congratulations to Amanda Knox and Raffaele Solecito, two young college students whose lives were trashed by the corrupt, inefficient and deeply flawed Italian system of justice.  May their long-awaited healing begin, and may they get on with their lives and find peace.

Related Article:  Italian Court Throws Out Knox Conviction Once and for All.

A Stogie Update

I am busy working on taxes and I'll be glad when its April 16!  I've done a lot of corporate (both C Corps and S Corps), a trust, a couple of partnerships, and a number of individual tax returns.  My skills are sharper than ever before, and I have become quite familiar with the most popular tax software, Lacerte.

I used some of my pay to buy an Acoustic Image Contra bass amplifier for my string bass, and looking forward to trying it out with the band.

The weather here in Northern California is warm and sunny, bad for the drought, good for the morale.

Brett Kimberlin's Descent Into Litigation Madness

This week the federal court in Maryland finally got around to dismissing Brett Kimberlin's RICO lawsuit against all defendants.  A small portion of the suit remained, though it is no longer a RICO case.  Patrick Frey must still stand trial to discover if he violated Brett Kimberlin's civil rights by asking the FBI to investigate Kimberlin for his role in several swatting cases, including that of Patrick Frey.  Google it, if you want more info.

Since Frey is an assistant District Attorney, he may have been acting "under the color of law," which means he might have frightened Kimberlin into thinking he might be arrested for speaking out.  Obviously, assistant DA's are not able to request police investigation into a serious crime committed against them, because it might upset the suspected perpetrator, and that would violate the potential criminal's civil rights.  [Update:  Frey may not have to stand trial.  The case is moving into the discovery phase.  Based on the evidence that comes to light during discovery, Frey may be able to get a motion for summary judgment, which would end the case.]

Folks closer to the case think Frey will prevail, and I think so too.

Kimberlin is obsessed with William J.J. Hoge and intent on destroying the man through the court system.  The ink was hardly dry on the dismissal of Kimberlin's Peace Order petition against Hoge, when Kimberlin filed yet a SECOND RICO suit, naming all new defendants, with the exception of Hoge.  This absurd fantasy involves a big conspiracy by a firm of attorneys, H.B. Gary (a commercial business), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and a bunch of other folks who have never met Brett Kimberlin.  Kimberlin refers to them as "Team Themis."

I read the complaint.  It is totally unclear to me how Kimberlin could have any legal standing in this lawsuit.  There is no mention of how any of these defendants wronged Kimberlin personally, and he has no standing to sue on behalf of anyone else.  I doubt that this suit will survive as long as the first RICO suit.  It is nothing but great glaring generalities, making accusations of various wrong-doings without any specifics, or who did what to whom, when and why.  Reading it, I am struck with a strong impression that Brett Kimberlin has simply lost his mind.

However, litigious Brett wasn't finished.  In the same week he filed a million dollar lawsuit against Home Depot.  Home Depot was recently the victim of hackers, who broke into its computer system and stole credit card information, which they then sold on the black market.  Kimberlin claims that one of those credit cards was his.  Actual damages that he claimed were around $75,000, plus one million dollars for punitive damages.

The only good thing about these lawsuits is that they may hurry the day when Brett Kimberlin is finally adjudged a vexatious litigant, and unable to file more lawsuits on his own without advance permission from a court, and without posting bond for the benefit of the defendants.

Brett Kimberlin's Battle of the Bulge Moment

In late 1944, the allies were closing in on Berlin from all sides.  The war for Germany was lost.  However, the German high command launched a desperate counterattack that became known as the Battle of the Bulge.  Not expecting the attack, allied troops retreated and many were captured.  Hitler's desperation move eventually came to naught, as allied troops pushed back and regained the momentum.  Hitler's last major offensive of the war had failed, and he took refuge in his Berlin bunker to await the end.

This past week Kimberlin launched his own version of the Battle of the Bulge.  It was a desperation counter attack on his most effective critic, William J.J. Hoge of Hogewash.com.  Brett Kimberlin (BK) and his dubious associates appear to be feeling the heat, that is, expecting Brett's RICO lawsuit to be thrown out soon, and then face the legal ramifications of filing a false and vexatious lawsuit in federal court.

Kimberlin sought to launch a counterpunch that might turn the tide in his favor:  he filed yet another vexatious action against Hoge, seeking a Maryland Peace Order, claiming that Hoge was obsessed with BK's teenage daughter.  The Peace Order demanded that Hoge stop harassing and stalking his daughter, and implied that Hoge was seeking Kimberlin's arrest in order to "save" Kimberlin's daughter.  Kimberlin presented some two-year old tweets, allegedly sent by Hoge, discussing BK's daughter as evidence that his claims were true.

However, they were not true.  In my opinion, this Peace Order petition was most likely a lame attempt to denigrate the credibility and reputation of William Hoge, to be cited and used as a counterclaim in any future legal actions against BK for malicious prosecution and forged documents presented to a court.

The Peace Order claim was a huge lie from beginning to end.  Hoge had done none of the things BK claimed, said none of the things BK claimed.  The tweets presented were innocuous, briefly discussing an online Gazette article about the daughter's musical pursuits, and Kimberlin's alleged attempt to insinuate himself into the story.  The tweets were not originated by Hoge, who had simply retweeted what others had previously tweeted.  When asked in court if these tweets were authored by him, Hoge stated truthfully that they were not.

Further, a Maryland Peace Order requires evidence that is not older than thirty days, and so the two-year old tweets were inadmissible, even if relevant, which they were not.  The Peace Order petition was denied.

Kimberlin's claims in the Peace Order were highly fictitious, and could conceivably be construed as perjury.  Nevertheless, there are some mutterings from a BK support site, Breitbart Unmasked, that say BK will seek to have Hoge prosecuted for perjury, that is, for denying that the irrelevant tweets were authored by him.  Hoge has presented clear evidence on his blog that prove he is correct:  the tweets were penned by Lee Stranahan.  So before BK attempts any actions to prosecute Hoge for non-existent perjury, he should consider that it is he who may be prosecuted for perjury, by making fictitious and frivolous claims in a Peace Order hearing.

Now that BK's "Battle of the Bulge" moment has passed, perhaps it is time for him and his associates to retire to their bunker and await the inevitable day of reckoning for the wicked.

Note:  I believe the facts as stated above are true; however, readers are invited to submit corrections to any inadvertent misstatements of fact.

See also Hoge's post about the case here, and Aaron Walker's detailed account here.

Jayzoo Cree, as the French Say: the Hijinks of Obama and Hillary

I am appalled at our Democrats-in-power.  Barack Obama entertaining the notion of raising taxes by Executive Order.  Obama trying to hatch a secret deal with the Iranians, which some say will grease the skids to their nuclear bomb -- and without the advice and consent of Congress.

Now Hillary has been called on the carpet for running her own email server and doing state business on it rather than on the official email server.  That's against the law, so why did  she do it?

She claims that she would have to have two iPhones or Blackberries to use two different email addresses, and opted for using just one, for convenience sake.  Horse puckey.  You can put several email addresses on a single iPhone, so that explanation is lame and doesn't wash.

The truth, I suspect, is that she was doing unethical things with Obama, things related to Benghazi and other scandals.  Her and Barack's plot to lie about the terrorist attack on Benghazi and pretend it was just a protest against an inflammatory video that got out of hand.  Yeah, that's the ticket.  It certainly wasn't because Obama and Hillary are incompetent boobs who didn't take security threats seriously -- especially with Obama up for reelection.

Christians Burned Alive In Nigeria? The New Holocaust Ignored by the World (WARNING: Grisly Photo)

My friend Rick Darby of Reflecting Light sent me a photo he obtained from a French friend.  It shows a multitude of people who have been incinerated.  The source says these are Christians who were burned alive in their church by Muslims in Nigeria.

The French text reads: THIS IS WHAT THE ENTIRE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY SUPPRESSES ... it is absoutely necessary to know.
Media scandal / It is politically incorrect to show the fate dealt by the Islamists to Christians who refuse to submit ...

Christians burned alive in a church in Nigeria: a monstrous holocaust before international indifference.

DENOUNCED BY SPANISH PRIEST JUAN CARLOS MARCOS

Can anyone shed more light on this photo and the story behind it?

Blog Break

I am unusually busy this tax season, and the extra money is nice.  I have to figure out how to squirrel some of it away for fun stuff before my wife spends it all on bills.

I need a good case for my string bass.  They are not easy to find.

Obama's Dangerous Delusions Regarding Islam

Barack Obama is dangerously deluded.  At his big conference the other day to discuss dealing with extremism, he repeated one meme over and over:  the West is not at war with Islam.  Terrorists are not Islamic.  The day before, some woman in the State Department made the asinine observation that the root cause of terrorism is poverty and frustration over non-responsive governments.  "We can't kill our way out of this war," she opined.  Yep, just like we couldn't drill our way out of high gas prices, but we did anyway.

Here's a big tablespoon of reality, Barack.  Yes, we are at war with Islam -- their choice, not ours.  Terrorism is indeed Islamic.  All of these Muslims in ISIS, Al Qada, the Taliban and Boko Haram are merely obeying their holy scriptures.  They are literally carrying out the dictates of their prophet and following his example.  Muhammad too, was a terrorist and mass-murderer.  Obama is following the progressive dictum that says reality can be changed by refusing to acknowledge it.

As for the airhead in the State Department, Muslims don't cut off people's heads and burn them alive because they seek a new vocation.  Leave it to a bureaucrat to see every problem solvable by applying their favorite panacea.  Remember the huge tsunami of 2004 that savaged Indonesia Sri Lanka?  Some absurd progressive sent a large shipment of condoms to assist the victims.  Yes, when one has been trashed by a tsunami, one tends to get a bit randy.  His panacea to every problem:  free birth control.

An old saying applies here:  When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.

Busy Me

The tax season has grabbed me.  That's why posting is light right now.

Defending ISIS: Obama's Assault on Moral Clarity at the Prayer Breakfast #ISIS, #prayerbreakfast #Obama

The Cowardly King

Everyone has now heard about Obama's defense of ISIS's evil at the prayer breakfast in Washington two days ago.  Obama sought to create "moral equivalence" between mass murder committed by Islamists and that allegedly created by Christians during the Crusades and the Inquisition.

In a nutshell:  Per Obama, Christian civilization is no more moral than Islamic civilization [this is pure horse puckey, but let's assume for the sake of argument that Obama is right].  Other religions besides Islam have brutalized people in past times.  Therefore, we shouldn't get up on our "high horse."

Let's see if we can come up with some logical extensions of Obama's thinking:

1.  Since other religions have also done evil things in the past, we should feel no moral outrage against ISIS for mass murdering Christians, Kurds, Shiites, beheading helpless captives, and burning a captured pilot alive.

2.  We have inherited the ancient sins and the guilt of our ancestors, and because of this, are unworthy of moral outrage.  Therefore, we cannot take any actions to stop Islamic barbarism in the here and now.  We must accept our deaths, because it is ISIS's turn to murder people; it's only fair, after all.  With any luck we will meditate on our shameful guilt before the scimitar separates our heads from our necks.

3.  Because of point #2, Obama is off the hook for doing nothing substantive to stop ISIS, and may not be criticized for the failure, nor for cuddling up to the Muslim Brotherhood and other radical Islamic groups.

The fact is, Obama seeks to obliterate any sense of moral clarity in defeating Islamic extremism.  Without the clear sense that one's enemy is evil and his own cause is just, victory becomes more difficult to attain.  So, Obama hopes, we will do nothing instead.  The legendary "Fifth Column" is not only in our gates, but is occupying the White House.

Obama did not invent the leftist "moral equivalence" meme, but his words at the prayer breakfast last week were the epitome of this strategy, in all its disgusting falsity and destructiveness.  The left seeks to substitute moral ambivalence for moral clarity.  In the process, they weaken our will to survive evil.