Presidential approval rating map

Imperial overreach is accelerating the global decline of America

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1741148,00.html

When People Die

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/3/27/174250/231

Teacher's "blow-by-blow" testimony pays offAny other result would have been hard for her to swallow

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/local/14185772.htm

Ex-teacher acquitted in student sex case
By BILL TEETER and DOMINGO RAMIREZ JR.
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITERS

FORT WORTH -- After deliberating less than three hours, a Tarrant County jury found former Southlake elementary teacher Michelle Dawn Sewell not guilty Friday of charges of indecency and sexual assault of a 16-year-old family friend last March.

"For Michelle Dawn Sewell at long last it's over," defense attorney Bob Hinton said. "It's a tribute to our system. It's been a long year for Michelle, so now it's time for her to get on with her life."

Prosecutor Steven Jumes declined to speculate why the jury was swayed toward the defense.

"I felt confident with the case that we presented," Jumes said. "I think we presented enough to render a jury decision of guilty."

Sewell, 28, had faced up to 20 years in prison on each of three counts of indecency with a child by contact and one count of sexual assault. She quivered and cried as she leaned into her attorney's shoulder in the moments before the verdict was read.

When it became clear that she was acquitted on all charges, squeals of jubilation could be heard from her supporters. The boy and his relatives and friends sat stoically on the other side of the courtroom.

Sewell was accused of kissing and caressing the teen at her Grapevine apartment March 4, 2005, and then performing sex acts on him there two days later.

In closing arguments Friday afternoon in a packed courtroom, prosecutor Jumes said that no one would label Sewell a child molester, a felon or a criminal just by looking at her.

"To know Michelle Sewell is to like her," Jumes said. "But it was painfully clear that she couldn't be trusted."

"Why would he make this up?" Jumes asked jurors. "The defense has given you no explanation."

Hinton argued that Sewell and the teen had only a brother-sister relationship and that nothing happened between the two.

"He made an advance, and she said no," Hinton said referring to the night of March 4, 2005. "He said 'I have feelings for you,' and she said she didn't feel the same way. He asked her to kiss him to see if she had any feelings toward him. She did, but it was a quick kiss and she told him she didn't feel anything for him."

Hinton said that nothing happened at her apartment on the night of March 6, 2005.

Sewell met the Carroll student a few years ago when she taught his sister at Durham Elementary School in Southlake.

Sewell befriended the family, baby-sitting the teen and his sister for years and accompanied the family to church and on ski trips. During her trial, she testified that she also had been a baby sitter for about 50 other families in Southlake.

School officials and police began an investigation last March when one of Sewell's friends told another Durham teacher that Sewell had a relationship with the 16-year-old, including that the two had kissed. The boy is now 17 and a junior at Carroll Senior High School.

Sewell quit her teaching job shortly after her arrest in March 2005 and had been free on $10,000 bail.

Her teaching certificate has been inactive since April 30, according to the State Board of Certification's professional discipline unit.

The eight women and four men on the jury deliberated for two hours and 45 minutes before notifying the court just before 6 p.m. that they had a reached a verdict. Judge Scott Wisch, who on Thursday had cautioned the two hostile groups of supporters to behave, ordered them to maintain a calm demeanor after the verdict. Once the trial was over, Wisch asked bailiffs to escort the boy's supporters from the courtroom first, to minimize the possibility of confrontation.

Jurors declined to comment before leaving the courthouse.

I did NOT HAVE SEXUAL RELATIONS with that boy

"But, the Carroll junior testified, when he was at her apartment two days later, Sewell, then a third-grade teacher at Durham Elementary School in Southlake, performed a sex act on him."

Here's my interpretation of this matter. And isn't that an unflattering photo of her in the courtroom compared to the one just below? Just as "Reagan proved deficits don't matter" according to Dick Cheney, Bill Clinton proved blow jobs don't matter and fellatio is not "sexual relations" although it is still "sex" I suppose to some extent. Or not. I haven't gotten Bill to parse it down to that level yet.


Woman denies sex with youth
By DOMINGO RAMIREZ JR.
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER

FORT WORTH -- A former Southlake elementary teacher accused of having a sexual relationship with a teenager vehemently denied Thursday that she performed any sex acts on him last spring at her apartment.

Michelle Sewell, 28, told a Tarrant County jury that she thwarted the advances of the 16-year-old boy during one visit to her Grapevine apartment in March 2005, and she denied that anything happened during another visit a couple of days later.

"What would you have done differently if you had the chance?" asked her attorney, Bob Hinton of Dallas.

"I would never have allowed him in my apartment alone," Sewell said. "I would never have associated with that family."

For most of Thursday afternoon, Sewell repeatedly denied having a sexual relationship with the Carroll High School student, whom she met in 2000 when she taught his sister.

Under cross-examination by prosecutor Steve Jumes, Sewell admitted that she crossed the line when she gave the boy a quick kiss on the lips at her apartment March 4, 2005.

"In your mind, how could you allow a 16-year-old alone in your apartment?" Jumes asked.

"I was part of the family," Sewell said.

Sewell's testimony was a stark contrast to that of the teen, who was on the witness stand almost three hours Thursday morning telling jurors that he and Sewell kissed and caressed for hours March 4, 2005, at her apartment.

Before that happened, the teen told jurors, they had talked about teachers being arrested for having relationships with students, and that Sewell said it was wrong.

But, the Carroll junior testified, when he was at her apartment two days later, Sewell, then a third-grade teacher at Durham Elementary School in Southlake, performed a sex act on him.

Sewell is charged with one count of sexual assault of a child and three counts of indecency with a child. Each carries a maximum punishment of 20 years in prison.

The Star-Telegram is not identifying the boy because he is the alleged victim of sexual assault.

From the witness stand, the teen, now 17, rarely glanced at Sewell, who jotted down numerous notes. On several occasions, Sewell shook her head as the teen testified.

"I didn't tell my parents because I knew it meant I couldn't see her again," the teen testified Thursday.

The boy told the jury of eight women and four men that Sewell befriended him and his family, accompanying them on ski trips and to dinners at local restaurants. Sewell baby-sat for him and his sister, he testified.

But Sewell soon became more of a friend than a baby sitter, the teen told jurors.

"The conversations started to change," the teen said. "She talked about her sexual experiences. She also was upset because many of her friends were getting married. She called me crying from a wedding. We just shared each other's problems."

Under cross-examination by Hinton, the Carroll junior repeatedly answered, "I don't remember," when questioned about details of the sexual encounters and his statements to police and school officials.

"On the night of March 4, was your shirt off or on?" Hinton asked.

"I don't remember," the teen answered.

In his opening statements, Hinton told the jury that the teen is a liar who was having problems at home with his parents.

Testimony is scheduled to continue today in Criminal District Court 372.

Monument to Britney Spears giving birth

Is that the father? Why did they kill him and make him into a rug!?

"She felt her biological clock ticking"

Mine's digital. It never makes a sound nor do I feel it. I only feel SUVs impacting me at 40 mph. As for "filling that void," well, that's one way to put it.

Prosecutor: Teacher had sex with teen after befriending his family
By DOMINGO RAMIREZ JR.
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER

FORT WORTH — A former Southlake elementary school teacher repeatedly performed sex acts on a Carroll High School student last spring after she had befriended his family, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

The teacher, Michelle Sewell, even took ski trips with the family, went to restaurants and movies and attended church with the family before the assaults happened, Tarrant County Assistant District Attorney Steve Jumes said.

“She told a friend that, I don’t need a boyfriend, (the teen-ager) fills that void,” said Jumes in his opening statement to a Tarrant County jury Wednesday morning in the start of Sewell’s sexual assault trial.

Sewell, 28, is charged with one count of sexual assault of a child and three counts of indecency with a child which are all felony crimes. If convicted, the former Durham Elementary School teacher faces a maximum of 20 years in prison on each count.

Her attorney, Bob Hinton, entered a plea of not guilty on each of the counts Wednesday morning in Criminal District Court No. 372.

Sewell has denied any inappropriate relationships with the student, an arrest affidavit states.

But on Wednesday morning, Jumes told jurors that the relationship was more than what she called a brother-sister bond.

“She felt her biological clock ticking,” Jumes said. “He was filling that void.”

But Hinton called the boy a liar who Sewell was trying to counsel as a friend of the family.

“He hated his father, and he had an overbearing mother,” Hinton told jurors in his opening remarks. “He started this story about a relationship with a teacher he cares for, and he hasn’t been able to get out of it. My heart goes out to him because he’s confused young man.”

Sewell became acquainted with the boy’s family in 2000, joining them at church, on vacation and at dinners, Grapevine police said. She became acquainted with them because she was the elementary teacher for the sister of the boy, prosecutors said.

Her arrest affidavit gave this account:

Sewell told Carroll school officials that she and the boy had been to ballgames and movies alone. She gave the family a key to her Grapevine apartment, and the boy’s mother often called and asked Sewell to take him places. He often hugged her because they had a brother-sister relationship.

Sewell later denied to school officials that she gave the boy a key to her apartment, the affidavit states. But the boy’s father told police that he found that his son did have Sewell’s key.

School officials and later police began an investigation last March when a friend told another Durham teacher about the relationship Sewell was having with the 16-year-old.
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/14160754.htm

"Sorry 'bout that ... I'm ... bipolar"

Fortunately she didn't say "bisexual" or the wrath of the fundies would come down on her, even though it is rumored some of them "like to watch" (to steal a Peter Sellers line from the classic 1979 movie "Being There").

A Modest Economic Proposal: Sell Your Parents

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,187985,00.html

Why Isaac Hayes quit South Park

http://throwawayyourtv.com/2006/03/south-park-scientology-episode.html

Dear 33%

Dear 33%

I feel for you. I really do. I feel for anyone suffering from severe mental illness.

Now, now. Don't get testy. I don't mean it as snark. I mean it as fact. You truly are suffering from a mental illness -- post-traumatic stress disorder. Yes, the same disorder our soldiers get in the field. Somehow you got it on 9/11.

I never realized how terrified that day made you, 33%. Yes, it was a horrible, scary day. I remember. But obviously much more frightening for you than for me. It scared you so much, your mind simply gave up rationality. We 67%ers know -- we've listened to you. We've listened to you in one breath say that Saddam was a butcher and that this is a war to save innocent lives, and then just a few seconds later say Islam is inherently violent and all Muslims need to be targeted, surveilled, and destroyed. We've listened with pity as you described in ever more complete detail the architecture of your delusion, the monsters you fear will kill you. You tell us we have to fight them over there, so we don't have to fight them over here, but then you tell us we must surrender all our rights because we are surrounded by your demons.

These are not the workings of a rational mind. Can you see that?

33%, you are sick. You need help.

You need treatment. A good liberal psychologist could help you work through your PTSD. Failing that, a good liberal friend. If you can't find treatment on your own, let us know. Just ask 3 people for help -- we'll be two of them.

Love and hope for your recovery,
67%

Mr. 33 Percent Approval Rating gives his viewpoint on Constitution

Visiting Baghdad woman decries Iraq's fall into 'state of terror'

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/03/15/Tampabay/Visiting_Baghdad_woma.shtml

We must continually remind ourselves how "successful" the Iraqi venture has been. This article is not "helpful" as Mafia Don Rumsfeld would say.

The fatal divide at the heart of the Coalition

"I've had conversations with many [US security contractors] and regular US soldiers who are evangelical Christians," writes John Geddes, the ex-SAS soldier quoted above, "who see themselves in a crusade against the Muslim hordes. In my view, they're not much different to the Iraqi militiamen and foreign fighters who see themselves at the heart of a jihad against the Christian crusaders."

Winter warmest ever on record in Canada

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1101AP_Canada_Warmest_Winter.html

President's nephew on Today Show

Campbell Brown is interviewing Pierce Bush. Maybe one of these days we can come up with a first name, but not this time.

I don't think Pierce should pay for the sins of either his father, Neil, or his uncle, Chimpy. But he did himself no favors in this appearance. I should cut him some slack since he said he was weighing in from Amarillo, where he had driven through the night from Austin.

Can't you just picture ol' Pierce in his cowboy boots singin' this golden oldie from George Strait? Neither can I.

Amarillo by morning, up from san antone.
Everything that I’ve got is just what I’ve got on.
When that sun is high in that texas sky
I’ll be bucking it to county fair.
Amarillo by morning, amarillo I’ll be there.

They took my saddle in houston, broke my leg in santa fe.
Lost my wife and a girlfriend somewhere along the way.
Well I’ll be looking for eight when they pull that gate,
And I’m hoping that judge ain’t blind.
Amarillo by morning, amarillo’s on my mind.

Amarillo by morning, up from san antone.
Everything that I’ve got is just what I’ve got on.
I ain’t got a dime, but what I got is mine.
I ain’t rich, but lord I’m free.
Amarillo by morning, amarillo’s where I’ll be.
Amarillo by morning, amarillo’s where I’ll be.

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/g/george-strait/59460.html

Omigod! I found her as she looks today

I know we all get older, but I am devastated to see the "Whipped Cream Lady" looking like this.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Herb

I was searching for the identity of this lady and the first search took me to this site. Unlike these commentators, I really liked Herb Alpert's music as well. Not surprisingly, though, he is Jewish and not Mexican. He hired some Mexicans to be his band, the Tijuana Brass.

I think he's worth about 300 gazillion dollars from his sale of A&M Records some years ago.

This is the dawning of the age of 'Bernankius'

People experience a premonition of their own death

Iran is The Next Battle Field

http://www.amin.org/eng/uncat/2006/mar/mar5-0.html

Loremo: The Ultra Efficient Car - 157MPG!

Doonesbury: "Stewie gets it now, folks. Do you?"

Uday Hussein's double visits Israel

The stress of marriage shortens your life by a year (if you're the wife)

http://www.ezilon.com/information/article_16163.shtml

Maybe the rapid increase of single mothers grew out of a self-preservation instinct.

UNC graduate charged with attempted murder in campus crash

I have actually been to this campus. Also I have actually been hit by an SUV. These people were fortunate not to have been killed or at least critically injured as I was.

Republican Congressman Predicts Bush Impeachment

Obviously, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Surfside), whom I admire greatly as he is one of the only representatives of either party who adheres to the U.S. Constitution, has not come to terms with the Diebold issue. That is why his party need never fear justice at the polls or anywhere else. They can operate dictatorially with impunity ... from now until the end of the age, which may not be that far off.

Party Hacks

http://context.themoscowtimes.com/story/166395/

Peanut kiss did not kill Quebec teen: coroner

I used to hear growing up that it was more sanitary to kiss a dog than a human.

Madonna eyes Israel house to await Messiah

Some things just leave me speechless.

The New Nihilism

'Impeach him and let the Senate hear the evidence'

http://www.wonkette.com/politics/iraq/were-bringing-the-war-back-home-157660.php

http://www.wonkette.com/politics/iraq/were-bringing-the-war-back-home-157660.php