Good morning,







Quote of the day:


“A recent study has revealed that you are more likely to get shot by a fat cop if you run.”


                               Dennis Miller






I read about an unusual situation up in Charlotte, NC. About fourteen years ago a man was shot by his girlfriend’s ex-husband. It was not a fatal would and the shooter was tried and convicted of assault with a deadly weapon. He did eight year in the joint and was paroled in 2008. Just recently the man that was shot died with the effect of the gunshot wound being the proximate cause of death. What happens to the shooter if anything? What about double jeopardy? According to North Carolina law, and nearly every other state, there is no statute of limitations on murder. Does this law have more weight that the US Constitutional provision that a person cannot be tried more than once for the same crime (double jeopardy). If you split hairs you could say that he was not tried for murder, he was tried for assault with a deadly weapon. It is over my head but I will keep an eye out for what happens in this case.






Down in Pensacola, Florida a man walked into a Wells Fargo band and handed a teller a note demanding money. The teller complied and the thief ran outside and left in red Chevy Aveo. Six minutes later that car was spotted and stopped by a city cop and the money was in the back seat. The thief was arrested and in the joint within 15 minutes of the robbery. I like it.






A boy was kicked out of the Gulf Breeze, Florida High School a few weeks ago. This past Monday he had his mother drive by the school and he jumped out and headed toward the school. The school “Resource” officer saw him and headed that way to arrest him for trespassing. The boy started running away with the officer in close pursuit. Eventually more cops showed up and the boy was spread-eagled but not before putting up a viscous fight and the torrent of profanity. He was handcuffed and shackled and thrown into the back of a cruiser where he kicked out one of the windows. He is now cooling his heels in the joint. I wonder why he got kicked out of school.






37 year old Robert Thayer has been indicted for wire fraud for filing a Federal claim stating that he had lost his job for a Destin, Florida developer because of the oil spill. He really lost his job as a pool cleaner because he was caught high as a Georgia pine on marijuana while working and fired.






Back in October two women boarded the cruise ship Carnival Fantasy in Charleston, SC bound for Bermuda. The customs office in Charleston found out that these two women were part of a well known drug ring and was probably smuggling drugs but the ship had already sailed and was in international waters. The customs office notified the Bermuda customs office who was waiting for the two women when they left the ship. The Bermuda customs found cannabis resin (hashish) strapped to the women's legs and had a value of $406,000. They were tried and convicted and will spend six year in a Bermuda prison.






       This date in history February 16






1862 US General U.S. Grant completed a brilliant campaign in the western theater with the capture of Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River in Tennessee. Just 10 days before he had captured Fort Henry on the Tennessee River which severely damaged the Confederate supply routes. The Confederate troops at Fort Donelson were led by General Gideon Pillow. Fort Donelson was well defended by seasoned troops. Grant chose to attack from two directions and was initially successful but General Pillow ordered a counter-attack and drove the US army back making an escape possible, but Pillow got greedy. He thought he would win and continued the attack rather than ordering an escape. Included in those that chose to escape were CSA General Nathan Bedford Forrest and 500 cavalrymen that proved to be a thorn in the side of the Union army for the entire war. Eventually Grant was able to flank Pillows troops and they were forced to surrender. When Pillow asked Grant for surrender terms the answer was “nothing but total and unconditional surrender will be accepted”. Grants troops joked around saying that the U.S. in Grant’s name meant “Unconditional Surrender”.






1803 The fledgling United States merchant fleet had been under attack by pirates in North Africa while the ships were in the Mediterranean Sea. President Thomas Jefferson got fed up and sent our Navy there to counteract the pirates. One of the US warships, the Philadelphia, ran aground near Tripoli and was captured. The US Navy felt that they had to prevent the pirates from adding to their fleet with a ship the caliber of the Philadelphia. On this date, Lieutenant Stephan Decatur and 73 sailors and Marines sailed into Tripoli harbor disguised as Maltese fishermen. They boarded the Philadelphia, killed the crew and set fire to the ship and it burned down to the waterline. Decatur and his crew escaped with no casualties. Decatur became an icon in the history of the United States Navy. There are several towns named for him.






1894 For reasons known only to the Texas Prison System, on this date they pardoned one of the most bloodthirsty gunfighters in the history of the American west, John Wesley Hardin. Hardin killed his first man at the age of 15 and at least 40 more followed. On his 21st birthday he got into an altercation with another man. The other guy drew and fired first but missed, Hardin didn’t. Even though he shot in self defense, Hardin did not want to be arrested so he hit the road. He was tracked down and captured by the Texas Rangers on a train in Pensacola, Florida. He was brought back and was given a trial, convicted and sentenced to life. While in prison he got an education and became a lawyer. After he was pardoned he began a law practice in Gonzales, Texas but this small town did not have enough excitement so he moved to El Paso. Soon after moving he was standing at a bar when someone walked up behind him and shot him in the back of the head killing him instantly. The killer was a relative of someone that Hardin had killed. Hardin had been in prison for 17 years but was killed for his past bad acts. Beware; your past will catch up with you.


1968 On January 31 the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army combined with the most coordinated attack of that unfortunate war, it was the beginning of the Tet Offensive. They were successful in capturing seven of the largest South Vietnam cities and 30 provincial capitals. They even sent a squad of shock troops that captured and occupied the US embassy in Saigon (now Ho Chi Mein city) for six hours. A platoon of US paratrooper was dropped on the roof and the invaders were routed or killed. There were 1,000 Viet Cong guerillas that hid out in Saigon and it took 11,000 American and South Vietnamese troops 10 days to find and kill or capture them. On this date, the US State Department announced that the Tet Offensive resulted in 350,000 refugees in addition to the 800,000 that were there already. What a freaking nightmare.






      Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.