musing minds

NY State Supreme Court Justice Michael Ambrecht dismissed charges against BASE (Building, Antenna, Span, Earth) Jumper Jebb Corliss.

Corliss was charged with reckless endangerment for trying to parachute from the 86th floor (observation floor) of the Empire State Building on April 27th, 2006. He snuck his equipment in the building and through security by hiding it under a fat suit.

The prosecution argued that Corliss was placing bystanders and Empire State Building personnel in danger with what he intended to do. The judge said he wouldn’t be putting others in danger.

The judge decided that Corliss has a constitutional right to free expression and that jumping off the Empire State Building was free expression. (Source)

My question is why wasn’t he charged with, say, tresspassing? The fact that he snuck in his equipment says that he knew that his actions wouldn’t be met with, shall we say, open arms.

The owners and management of the Empire State Building have property rights that should trump Mr. Corliss’ individual freedom of expression…

Via Fausta, The VA Mortgage center is having a contest for best Military Blog. Please vote for Sgt. Hook so he can travel to Washington D.C. and visit the hospitalized troops there and attend the Milblog conference!

A small plane landed in a tree in December in Colorado. The sign nearby directs one to a flight school. True picture.

Art Buchwald died today at 81. He was a Pulitzer Prize winning political humorist/columnist.

According to Fox News he was on dialysis last year and went into hospice and then he got better and got out of hospice and wrote a book about it.

His son said he went the way he would have wanted – on his own terms.

AP Story here.

Semi- livebogging…

Da Hotness – Not…

Darwin (Misha): That’s definitely her mother…

Tommy wants to ride the elevator to the top. Third audition. Doesn’t really stand out. But they liked him…

Melissa (Carlene) had a big voice…

Blake: what’s with the rap record skipping stuff? Paula likes him, Simon not as much, but he gets through.

David Mills: not quite William Hung… He said it was a definite wake up call. That’s good. He can get a life now.

Brother and Sister. They’re cute. Shyamali’s pretty good, Summertime… Sanjaya doing Stevie Wonder. He can sing too. Simon and Randy like him better. He’s going to Hollywood too!

Nicholas: He does instrumentals… He doesn’t know what makes him unique… Unchained Melody. Almost thought he sang “Lolita” in there… my ears hurt. Also bad, but no William Hung.
Sometimes he scares himself.

Rudy – Open Arms (Journey): The highs were a bit off, Simon doesn’t like him, Paula loves him, Randy says yes as well.

[House returns January 30th, yeah! and Prison Break before 24 on Monday!]

Kenneth: Little fella. He is very confident. Close to William Hung. Paula: I think you’re awesome. Like a firecracker.

Kenneth gives Jonathan good advice: Try your hardest and have fun with it. You’ll see my amazing personality if you get me through. God Bless America. Starts okay, then he can’t hit the notes. Kenneth has his arms crossed for Jonathan. Kenneth is a good friend even though they only just met.

They’re doing background on Eric. He must make it. That’s the way it worked last night. Maybe not. The consensus: he’s no Taylor Hicks.

Anna is TALL. Can she sing? Aretha Franklin Respect. She can belt. Glad she made it.

Jordin, another 16 year old. Celine Dion song. She can belt. Hit the high note right. She has control. She is good. Simon, too sugary? He likes her though. Golden ticket time.

Big Red – who is up next – looks like he is the star of those campfire stories about the axe murderer with the hook for a hand that kills the young couples in their cars…

After hearing him speak – that description seems even more true.

I’ve never liked Carrot Top.

My ears hurt before he sings Bohemian Rhapsody.

OMG! I can’t believe that they’re not actually on the floor.

Next week Memphis.

“Hillary Clinton is formidable. By all intents and purposes she’s been through four national campaigns. Two with President Bill Clinton, her two senate races are national. So she had the luxury of waiting and the bank account to go with it.” – Mary Anne Marsh on Fox in response to a question about Barack Obama getting the jump on her…

Watched [tag]American Idol[/tag] last night, Hubby watched for the first time. Lots of laughter…

Some thoughts…

Denise did a great job. She has a great voice and knows where it came from. She has overcome a lot of adversity in her short life as well.

Perla reminds me a bit of Charo – I can see her doing a Coochie-Coochie shimmy.

Jason the Juggler was a bad sport. Sixteen and wants to start out famous. Doesn’t want to do any of the work involved…

The guy in the all American outfit with the boxing gloves… What can I say? His voice was okay. He was doing Josh Groban songs. If he’d dressed more appropriately to the music he may have gotten a Golden Ticket.

We have a soldier and a sailor. That’s great. Our soldier has been married two months longer than her husband has been in Baghdad. She’s ready to go if her unit is called. She joined to defend this country. Our prayers are with them and their families. Every service member and their family…

The little blonde was cute and has a voice that definitely has potential.

Trista, I think her name was, would be quite fine as the Cowardly Lion in a local production of The Wizard of Oz. Nothing else.

If the kid with the raspy singing voice had actually used his own voice instead of that forced voice he might have been good. Jewell was right in that he can really do damage to his vocal cords if he insists on continuing like that.

To most of the contestants: Don’t quit your day job.

Finally, the boy who broke my heart. I don’t know his name, but he did get to move on to the next round. He’s 16 and said his folks weren’t there with him for financial reasons. He said he’s in choir and other competitions and they can’t go to them all. Then he sang and won the opportunity to go on to the next round in Hollywood. He called his mom on his cell phone and he was so excited, telling her that he’s going to the next round. Then he said to the camera, “She’s proud of me!” and he fell to his knees. I had the feeling that he’d been trying to please her for years and felt he wasn’t quite up to par. Now she’s proud of him.

I hope he goes on successfully. I certainly hope he can avoid becoming Wilhelmina from Ugly Betty. Wilhelmina has never been able to please her father, the Senator. Nothing she’s achieved has been good enough for him. So now she’s a bitch.

Tonight: Seattle.

Discuss, discuss.

When last we saw Jack Bauer he was shanghaied on a slow boat to China named Shanghai…

Two hours tonight.

Two hours tomorrow night.

Go Jack, go!

Laura Lee has a great graphic up at her site. And she says that Lorie’s excited as well, as I thought she’d be.

Dave Barry‘s ready too.

Charles has the video. I had gone out to get my truck from the train station parking lot where my husband had left it this morning and when I got back this was on TV. I hit the TiVo record button so I could transcribe it. Luckily for me, Charles posted the video as well. I wasn’t able to finish transcribing this yesterday so I did today.

David Asman: The Council on American Islamic Relations, better known as CAIR, that’s the largest Muslim rights group in America and to hear my next guest tell it, it’s the largest terror organization in America as well. He’s Joe Kaufman, Chairman of Americans Against Hate and founder of CAIR Watch. And here to take him on is Arsalan Iftikhar he is national legal director for CAIR. So Mr. Kaufman, make your case.

Kaufman: In 1994 CAIR was created by a front for the terrorist organization Hamas. In fact, if it were not for Mousa Abu Marzouq, number two leader in Hamas today, CAIR would not be in existence. That is why our organization is calling for the United States government to take the initiative and place CAIR on the U.S. State Department list of terrorist organizations. We believe that if the U.S. Government is serious in the war on terrorism they will shut down this organization immediately.

Asman: Mr. Iftikhar, I take it you do not agree.

Iftikhar: Well, not only that but I think that Mr. Kaufman’s group should be called Americans For Hate because there is nothing that Mr. Kaufman has done over the last five years other than hate and being bigoted towards anything Islamic. First of all he speaks so self righteously about the State Department’s terrorism watch list and two of the groups on the State Department terrorism watch list have been praised by Mr. Kaufman and on his web site as well. This is the guy who took issue with a Muslim kid’s summer camp where kids wanted to go swimming because he thought there was some sort of nefarious plot. This guy would think that the next tornado in Oklahoma – would find a way to blame Muslims about it.

Asman: Which organization that is on the terrorist watch list do you say Mr. Kaufman supported?

Iftikhar: Kahane Kach and… Kahane Chai and Kach.

Asman: Okay. Let’s just stop with that and ask Mr. Kaufman. Is that true?

Kaufman: It is absolutely false. In fact a couple of nights ago…

Iftikhar: [interrupting] We have the have the website

Asman: Hold on, hold on. Let’s let him defend himself. Go ahead Mr. Kaufman.

Kaufman: This is entirely false. This is slanderous against me. I have never

Iftikhar: [interrupting] slander means it’s false. Joe, Joe,

Kaufman: had anything in favor of those organizations.

Iftikhar: [interrupting] Joe, we have your website

Asman: Hold on, hold on. One at a time gentlemen. One at a time. Mr. Iftikhar, we’ll give you chance. Wait. Mr. Kaufman, Mr. Kaufman just a second. Now how is it that this information got out? That you, in fact, are supporting two organizations that are on the terrorist watch list?

Kaufman: Because years back, I had a link on my personal website which is no longer in existence to a group that was linked to a group that sounded like one of these organizations but never, in fact, did I ever support these organizations.

Asman: Now hold on, hold on. Mr. Iftikhar, isn’t it true, Mr. Iftikhar isn’t it true that occasionally CAIR has come out and defended organizations that later on have turned out to be either terrorist, directly terrorist related or giving help to help to the terrorists?

Iftikhar: Never. Not even once.

Asman: Never? Not once?

Iftikhar: CAIR was, first of all CAIR was founded in 1994. Hamas wasn’t designated a terrorist organization until January 24th, 1995. Using Mr. Kaufman’s own flawed logic, he would be guilty of being a terrorist too because he had a link on his website that was…

Asman: I understand, but what I’m saying Mr. Iftikhar is didn’t CAIR make that same error in judgment of putting on your website support for Hamas or support for other organizations that had supported Hamas? Or support for other organizations that have supported Hamas?

Iftikhar: No. Go to www.CAIR.com and tell me anywhere after the designation of any of these groups as a terrorist organization where CAIR has taken any stand in support of …

Asman: Mr. Kaufman?

Kaufman: In fact, the executive director of CAIR, Nihad Alwad, who was part of this front for Hamas, The Islamic Association for Palestine, that created CAIR has stated that he supports the Hamas movement. In fact, this organization has not condemned Hamas or Hezb’allah.

Iftikhar: [interrupting] First of all if you’re going to take things out of context… Hold on a second Joe, Joe…

Kaufman: Will you let me speak?

Iftikhar: No, listen. No…

Kaufman: This organization will not condemn Hamas or Hezb’allah as terrorist organizations.

Iftikhar: We issued numerous condemnations including the Passover bombing. Not once have we ever…

Kaufman: Have you issued condemnation of these terrorist organizations?

Asman: Wait a minute Mr. Kaufman, I’ll ask the questions. Go ahead Mr. Iftikhar.

Iftikhar: Listen, this is a one man show who operates out of a P.O. Box and is enjoying his 15 seconds of fame who is nothing more than a….

Asman: All right. Mr. Iftikhar. Let me ask you the question. Is Hamas a terrorist organization?

Iftikhar: Go to the State Department website. They’re designated…

Asman: I’m asking you. Is it a terrorist organization?

Iftikhar: Yes. Hamas is a terrorist organization.

Asman: And Hezb’allah? Is it a terrorist organization?

Iftikhar: Hezb’allah is also a terrorist organization.

Asman: According to you. According to CAIR.

Iftikhar: As designated by the State Department…

Asman: As designated by CAIR…

Kaufman: As designated…

Iftikhar: No. What are you talking? I am saying…

Asman: I know that State Department designates it as terrorist, do you?

Iftikhar: Listen David, if you want to hear an answer then hear the answer.

Kaufman: He will not answer.

Iftikhar: We have condemned Hamas and Hezb’allah. We accept the fact that they’re designated…

Kaufman: You have never condemned…

Asman: Wait a minute, Mr. Kaufman, I can’t hear Mr. Iftikhar. Please be quiet. Mr. Iftikhar, go ahead.

Iftikhar: Mr. Kaufman has never once condemned the organizations that he supported that were on the terrorist watch list.

{crosstalk}

Asman: Mr. Iftikhar, let me just ask one more time. Do you, personally, consider Hamas or Hezb’allah terrorist organizations?

Iftikhar: I personally accept the fact that Hamas and Hezb’allah have been designated as terrorist organizations and, and… let me finish.

Asman: No I can’t because you aren’t answering the question directly. We’ve got to leave it at that. Joe Kaufman…

Iftikhar: I’m not giving the answer that you want to hear…

Asman: No, I’m just asking you simply: Do you think it’s a terrorist organization and you’re not saying yes or no. We’ve got to leave it at that. Arsalan Iftikhar, Joe Kaufman, thank you both. I appreciate it.