A blog for all seasons; A blog for one; A blog for all. As the 11th most informative blog on the planet, I have a seared memory of throwing my Time 2006 Man of the Year Award over the railing at Time Warner Center.
Justice. Only Justice Shall Thou Pursue
Once again, Philadelphia fans show just how awful they are. Philly fans have been known to boo Santa Claus, Hall of Famers from other sports teams, and Philadelphia police have to maintain a jail at sports venues because the fans are known to get violent far too often for comfort or safety of everyone else.
This time, Philadelphia Flyer fans assaulted a pair of New York Ranger fans outside the famous Geno's Steaks after the NHL Winter Classic. It turns out that the victims were a Woodbridge New Jersey off-duty police officer (and former Marine) and his son.
And Philly cops caught a break when one of the attackers boasted about it on his Facebook page:
A group of Philadelphia Flyers fans brutally beat a New Jersey cop and his son - dressed in Rangers garb - outside a famous Philly cheesesteak shop Monday.
Three Broad Street bullies clad in Flyers jerseys sucker-punched the Woodbridge, N.J., officer before pummeling him and his son after they fell on the ground outside Geno’s Steaks.
NBCNewYork.com identified the cop on Wednesday night as Neal Auricchio, a former Marine.
"He got banged up pretty badly," his father Neal Auricchio, Sr., told NBCNewYork.com. "Stitches in the one eye, and the other eye is pretty puffed up. He went for a CAT scan today, and we're waiting for the results on that."
Cops may have caught a break Wednesday when one Philly knucklehead, Edward Neary, took to the Facebook page of the Broad Street Hockey blog and confessed.
“It was me and my friends, do something about it,” he bragged in the comments section of a graphic video of the fight, before adding a homophobic slur. “How dumb do I look knocking someone out pretty sure they look dumb eatin concrete,” he wrote.
Neary later backed off of his boast and blamed three pals for the attack.
How dumb does Neary look? Not nearly as dumb as he will when he's behind bars on multiple charges of assault along with the other goon squad that assaulted the Auricchios.
It's impossible to know what the hell Kermit Gosnell was thinking when he was carrying out his sick and twisted take on providing abortions to poor and immigrant women in a Philadelphia "family planning center", but his reaction to the death of one of his patients is startling in its audacity.
Physician Kermit Barron Gosnell had an unusual reaction to the death of Karnamaya Mongar in November 2009. The next day, he applied to join the National Abortion Federation, whose membership is often seen as a badge of quality.
To prepare for a site visit, Gosnell and his wife, Pearl, frantically cleaned the facility, replacing bloody recliners and temporarily hiring a professional the clinic had long lacked: a nurse.
His failed effort to bluff his way through the application appalled prosecutors. But worse, they said, "he made no effort to address the grave deficiencies in his practice that had caused Karnamaya Mongar's death."
Rather than try to clean up his practice and cease performing illegal late term abortions - those in the third trimester that were illegal under Pennsylvania law, he made an cursory effort to join a professional group that would give him credibility where none existed.
The NAF refused him entry citing irreparable errors and problems. That should have been a red flag for anyone involved, but Gosnell preyed on his patients - knowing that they weren't sophisticated enough to know whether Gosnell was skilled or licensed to perform abortions and whether he was engaging in proper sanitary conditions.
That it was abundantly clear to investigators when they raided his office on unrelated pill mill charges that Gosnell did not give a rat's ass about sanitary conditions, or patient health beyond collecting the fee for the abortion procedures is obvious. What isn't obvious is how Gosnell was able to get away with this for so long.
Gosnell had an earlier run-in with health officials after carrying out a test of a new abortion device in the early 1970s, but no charges were filed. And as the years went on, his reputation fell in proportion to his need to court out-of-state patients for his practice:
In 1972, he played a prominent role in a scandal over an experimental abortion tool called "the super coil," designed for use in the second trimester.
California psychologist and activist Harvey Karman had developed the coil. Gosnell tested it on 15 poor women who had taken a bus from Chicago on Mother's Day weekend because they couldn't get abortions elsewhere.
Federal and city health officials later found that nine of the women had suffered serious complications, including a punctured uterus. One needed a hysterectomy.
Gosnell was not charged, but Karman spent two years in court battles with Philadelphia District Attorney Arlen Specter before getting cleared.
In his early years, Gosnell had a good reputation in part because he made house calls.
But he was also known for pushing the limits. His methadone clinic once employed 25 people, Edmonds said, before it unraveled.
State tax liens piled up against the clinic through the 1980s and 1990s, and it folded.
Gosnell also became more reckless in his abortion practice, which was hit by a $41,000 federal tax lien.
He couldn't get doctors to refer patients because of his declining reputation. So he increasingly relied on attracting women from out of state. He even provided a bed in the clinic for overnight stays, the grand jury report said.
And when the State Health Department did receive complaints about Gosnell, they closed the files without so much as carrying out an investigation - even when the patient involved died.
Gosnell carried out abortions that other clinics wouldn't touch - primarily because they were illegal. His was a case of a licensed abortionist carrying out illegal late-term abortions in conditions no better than the back-room abortions that pro-choice advocates contend would occur should abortions become illegal.
Will anyone in Pennsylvania heed the lessons to be learned from this case and make sure that abortion/family planning centers are adhering to the law and providing proper care to their patients?
The sickening case of Kermit Gosnell just keeps getting worse. Every time you think this is as bad as it gets, some new revelation comes out that proves even worse. Not only did state regulators and investigators fail in their duty to protect women from this guy's sick actions, his house of horrors was discovered by accident. Investigators weren't looking into botched abortions when they finally visited his offices. They were looking into claims that he was running a "pill mill" there, giving out prescription medications to anyone who would pay. It's once they got inside that Gosnell's evil emerged:
Semiconscious, moaning women sat in dirty recliners and on bloodstained blankets. The air reeked of urine from the flea-infested cats permitted to roam the clinic. There was blood on the floor and cat feces on the stairs. One investigator likened the scene to "a bad gas-station restroom."
That was just the tip of the iceberg as the grand jury report notes as Gosnell allegedly murdered babies that were born alive during botched late term abortion procedures. Gosnell allegedly carried out abortions at all times during the pregnancy regardless of state law restrictions. He paid no attention to sanitary conditions and his patients suffered horribly and needlessly as unlicensed and unskilled assistants aided Gosnell in his his procedures.
State regulators failed to stop Gosnell for years. The grand jury report slams regulators across multiple state administrations and law enforcement agencies that should have done their due diligence to investigate multiple claims against Gosnell over the years.
Not only should the AMA and the individual specialty boards better police their own members, but the state department of healths/ licensing boards must do a better job weeding out the bad doctors.
They need to better investigate claims of malfeasance and take action in a prompt manner. Gosnell was able to practice for years on end without any state official reviewing his case files or even going to his offices to see the horrendous conditions for themselves. The state of Pennsylvania failed to protect these women from Gosnell botching abortion after abortion and putting lives in jeopardy - to say nothing of murdering those babies that were born alive after botched abortions.
Some states are moving ahead with online databases to review license statuses and disciplinary records, but that effort is limited should a doctor move around the country one step ahead of the regulatory agencies. A doctor in NJ could move over to PA or NY to continue practicing.
What's probably needed is a multistate compact that requires mandatory reporting and licensing issues to all states and allows states to coordinate their efforts to weed out bad doctors.
That would also help go to reduce the cost of health care since bad doctors are more likely to engage in medical malpractice and have complications arise from their procedures.
Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams charged Dr. Kermit Gosnell and nine associates with seven counts of murder involving babies, but said hundreds of others likely died in the squalid clinic that Gosnell ran from 1979 to 2010.
The defendants face first-degree murder in the cases of seven babies for which there is substantial evidence, Williams said. The babies were born alive and viable, he said.
"My comprehension of the English language can't adequately describe the barbaric nature of Dr. Gosnell," Williams said at a news conference.
Williams said he may seek the death penalty for Gosnell, 69, who with his associates was arrested on Wednesday.
Gosnell was charged with murder, infanticide, conspiracy, abortion at 24 or more weeks and other charges.
Pennsylvania law prohibits abortion after 24 weeks except to save the life of the mother or avoid serious health risk to her.
This story is wrong on several levels and indicates a failure of Pennsylvania medical officials and investigators to properly treat complaints about the doctor's malfeasance for years on end. If these claims are true, the doctor, Kermit Gosnell, should have been kicked out of the profession years ago before he could do any more harm to women. Prosecutors have finally indicted Gosnell on the murder of a female patient and seven babies that were born alive:
A Philadelphia abortion doctor has been charged with eight counts of murder in the deaths of a woman patient and seven babies that prosecutors say were born alive and then killed with scissors.
The charges against Dr. Kermit Gosnell follow a long grand jury investigation.
District Attorney Seth Williams said state regulators ignored complaints and failed to visit the clinic since 1993.
Williams said the women were subjected to squalid and barbaric conditions at Gosnell's Women's Medical Society, which was shut down last year.
Gosnell has been named in at least 10 malpractice suits, including one over the death of a woman who died of sepsis and a perforated uterus.
Pro life groups will cite this as a reason to make abortion illegal, and pro choice will cite this as a reason to keep it legal with better oversight - to prevent back room abortions that engage in unethical, illegal, or medical malpractice.
What this case seems to indicate is a state that was indifferent to complaints and that investigators/regulators did not even visit the clinic since 1993. This allowed the doctor to carry out abortions that put womens' lives at risk and carried out multiple botched abortions.
Making abortions illegal would increase the likelihood that women will visit doctors who botch abortions putting their lives in danger.
UPDATE:
The state's culpability in this case is startling in just how they failed the patients who were butchered by this doctor. The 281 page grand jury report is ghastly in its details and catalogs the state's failures nearly as much as Gosnell's physical acts. Ultimately, this case should lead to a major shift in the way the state oversees abortionists because Gosnell was butchering his patients:
Butcher of women
Dr. Gosnell didn’t just kill babies. He was also a deadly threat to mothers. Not every abortion could be completed by inducing labor and delivery. On these occasions, Gosnell would attempt to remove the fetus himself. The consequences were often calamitous – though that didn’t stop the doctor from trying to cover them up.
One woman, for example, was left lying in place for hours after Gosnell tore her cervix and colon while trying, unsuccessfully, to extract the fetus. Relatives who came to pick her up were refused entry into the building; they had to threaten to call the police.
They eventually found her inside, bleeding and incoherent, and transported her to the hospital, where doctors had to remove almost half a foot of her intestines.
On another occasion, Gosnell simply sent a patient home, after keeping her mother waiting for hours, without telling either of them that she still had fetal parts inside her. Gosnell insisted she was fine, even after signs of serious infection set in over the next several days. By the time her mother got her to the emergency room, she was unconscious and near death.
A nineteen-year-old girl was held for several hours after Gosnell punctured her uterus. As a result of the delay, she fell into shock from blood loss, and had to undergo a hysterectomy.
One patient went into convulsions during an abortion, fell off the procedure table, and hit her head on the floor. Gosnell wouldn’t call an ambulance, and wouldn’t let the woman’s companion leave the building so that he could call an ambulance.
Each one of those instances should have raised red flags with the authorities - at the hospitals that treated these patients after Gosnell's "procedures" and by law enforcement, but no steps were taken for years on end.
Thankfully someone finally did put Gosnell's bloody trail of malfeasance to an end by shutting down his clinic.
Getting back to the state's failures, the report sets out that the state purposefully turned a blind eye to Gosnell, because of decisions made by politicians going back to 1993:
Instead, the Pennsylvania
Department of Health abruptly decided, for political reasons, to stop inspecting abortion clinics at all. The politics in question were not anti-abortion, but pro. With the change of administration from Governor Casey to Governor Ridge, officials concluded that inspections would be “putting a barrier up to women” seeking abortions. Better to leave clinics to do as they pleased, even though, as Gosnell proved, that meant both women and babies would pay.
The only exception to this live-and-let-die policy was supposed to be for complaints dumped directly on the department’s doorstep. Those, at least, would be investigated. Except that there were complaints about Gosnell, repeatedly. Several different attorneys, representing women injured by Gosnell, contacted the department. A doctor from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia hand-delivered a complaint, advising the department that numerous patients he had referred for abortions came back from Gosnell with the same venereal disease. The medical examiner of Delaware County informed the department that Gosnell had performed an illegal abortion on a 14-year-old girl carrying a 30-week-old baby. And the department received official notice that a woman named Karnamaya Mongar had died at Gosnell’s hands.
Yet not one of these alarm bells – not even Mrs. Mongar’s death – prompted the department to look at Gosnell or the Women’s Medical Society. Only after the raid occurred, and the story hit the press, did the department choose to act. Suddenly there were no administrative, legal, or policy barriers; within weeks an order was issued to close the clinic. And as this grand jury investigation widened, department officials “lawyered up,” hiring a high-priced law firm to represent them at taxpayer expense. Had they spent as much effort on inspection as they did on attorneys, none of this would have happened to begin with.
But even this total abdication by the Department of Health might not have been fatal. Another agency with authority in the health field, the Pennsylvania Department of State, could have stopped Gosnell single-handedly. While the Department of Health regulates facilities, the Department of State, through its Board of Medicine, licenses and oversees individual physicians. Like their colleagues at Health, however, Department of State officials were repeatedly confronted with evidence about Gosnell, and repeatedly chose to do nothing.
Indeed, in many ways State had more damning information than anyone else.
As this case proceeds, the revelations about Gosnell's actions and the Pennsylvania's failure to act to stop him from butchering his patients are likely to become even more scandalous and heinous.
Plastic bags and mineral water bottles holding aborted fetuses were found stashed in Dr. Gosnell’s clinic. Jars containing the severed feet of babies lined a shelf, the Philadelphia district attorney, Seth Williams, said in a statement.
Dr. Gosnell, a family practitioner who was not certified in obstetrics, performed late-term abortions, after 24 weeks, which are illegal, and employed staff members who were not trained medical professionals, including a teenage girl, prosecutors said. Nine of his employees were also charged.
“It is very important to remember that Dr. Gosnell is presumed innocent,” a lawyer for Dr. Gosnell, William J. Brennan, said. “I would hope there is not a rush to judgment and that he has an opportunity to review this very lengthy charging document.”
In the grand jury document, prosecutors called Dr. Gosnell’s clinic “a baby charnel house,” riddled with fetal remains and reeking of cat urine, with furniture and blankets stained with blood. Medical equipment was broken and supplies were reused.
That's raising the ire of some folks, especially when the possibility of actually making money from the blogging is limited.
In May, the city sent Bess a letter demanding that she pay $300, the price of a business privilege license.
"The real kick in the pants is that I don't even have a full-time job, so for the city to tell me to pony up $300 for a business privilege license, pay wage tax, business privilege tax, net profits tax on a handful of money is outrageous," Bess says.
It would be one thing if Bess' website were, well, an actual business, or if the amount of money the city wanted didn't outpace her earnings six-fold. Sure, the city has its rules; and yes, cash-strapped cities can't very well ignore potential sources of income. But at the same time, there must be some room for discretion and common sense.
When Bess pressed her case to officials with the city's now-closed tax amnesty program, she says, "I was told to hire an accountant."
She's not alone. After dutifully reporting even the smallest profits on their tax filings this year, a number — though no one knows exactly what that number is — of Philadelphia bloggers were dispatched letters informing them that they owe $300 for a privilege license, plus taxes on any profits they made.
Even if, as with Sean Barry, that profit is $11 over two years.
Barry's music-oriented blog, Circle of Fits, is hosted on Blogspot; as of this writing, its home page has two ads on it, but because he gets only a fraction of the already low ad revenue — the rest goes to Blogspot — it's far from lucrative.
Curiously, the solution proffered by Andrea Mannino of the Philadelphia Department of Revenue is to consider the annual $50 fee option rather than the lifetime option. Yet, that actually becomes more expensive if you plan on blogging for more than six years. She believes that the mere act of putting an advertisement on the blog makes it a business.
The end result of this will less revenues for Philadelphia as people see the anti-business position and move outside Philadelphia to avoid the extraneous charges and harassment by tax officials for the possibility of income derived from advertising. Moreover, such income derived from blogging would be picked up on the personal income tax returns so it isn't like the Department of Revenue isn't getting money from those businesses actually deriving income from website operations like blogs.
Leave it to Phillies fans to do something stupid. Running on to the field at any ballpark means an automatic ejection from the ballpark, but in this idiot's case, he first got a taste of a taser.
Four men were indicted by a grand jury in Philadelphia for trying to obtain arms to deliver to Hizbullah. That's just the tip of the iceberg:
A grand jury in Philadelphia indicted four men Tuesday in connection with an alleged plot to support the Lebanon-based terror group Hezbollah through illegal schemes, including buying the group more than a thousand machine guns.
The indictment comes just a day after officials in Philadelphia said they disrupted a similar scheme to acquire anti-aircraft missiles and send them to Syria — though in that case, authorities have yet to accuse anyone of trying to help a specific terror group.
The indictment filed Tuesday says two suspects sought to provide roughly 1,200 Colt M4 machine guns to Hezbollah, but their efforts were thwarted by an undercover operative. The plotters allegedly sought to purchase the weapons in Philadelphia and ship them to a port in Syria where they would eventually be routed to Hezbollah.
The indictment charges eight others with lesser offenses related to schemes to traffic in stolen or counterfeit goods.
In total, authorities say 13 suspects are in custody and 11 more are being sought.
Hizbullah, a terror group on the State Department terror watch list, operates with impunity in Southern Lebanon and has even been given a seat at the table in the Lebanese government. It's mission is to secure the destruction of Israel by any means necessary, and it isn't above attacking the US either. Until the 9/11 attacks, the deadliest terror attack against the US and its overseas interests was the 1983 Marine Barracks bombing in Beirut, which was carried out by a Hizbullah suicide truck bomber. 243 Marines, sailors, and soldiers were killed in that attack.
The AP, curiously, notes that the group caters mostly to Shiites. It omits the part where it caters to the jihad and genocidal destruction of Israel. That's its ultimate goal, and it isn't shy about it either.
The indictments were against three Lebanese men and a US citizen. All four are currently outside the US, and likely in Lebanon or Syria. That's in addition to six others who were taken into custody selling illegal goods.
An additional six men also indicted in the latest case allegedly participated in the purchase and transportation of stolen cell phones, laptops, computer games, and automobiles. They are from Brooklyn; Staten Island, N.Y.; Michigan, and Plainsboro, N.J., and do not face charges that they acted to support Hezbollah.
Five of those men are in custody in Philadelphia.
On the charges of supporting Hezbollah, the indictment says Dib Hani Harb of Beirut e-mailed the "cooperating witness" and asked for photographs of firearms available. On June 20, the informant met with a Hezbollah official and discussed selling weapons.
Three days later, Harb and a second Lebanese national, Hassan Hodroj, allegedly said they would buy 1,200 M4s for $1,800 per weapon. The indictment does not allege that any weapons changed hands.
The informant also discussed the sale of counterfeit U.S. currency, and in April met in Florida with Harb, who allegedly told him Hezbollah worked "18 to 20 hours a day counterfeiting many currencies."
In September, about $9,200 in fake currency allegedly was mailed to the informant in Philadelphia.
The part about fake currency is particularly important given that both Iran and North Korea are known to counterfeit US currency so as to buy goods and services around the world, and therefore increase their buying capabilities even though the money is bogus. Hizbullah, as an Iranian proxy, is doing the same.
The union representing transit workers who are employed by SEPTA went on strike this morning, leaving nearly 1 million commuters stranded trying to figure out how to get to work this morning. At least the union didn't strike as the World Series was underway at Citizens Bank ballpark and allowed the fans to get to the games to see the Yankees take two of three. They waited until the fans got home to strike.
The walkout by Transport Workers Union Local 243, which began at 3 a.m. and caught commuters off guard, also affected Frontier Division buses in Bucks, Montgomery, and Chester counties.
But Regional Rail, Paratransit and other services outside the city continued to run.
Many riders turned to passenger Regional Rail trains, which were crowded and running about 30 minutes late during the morning rush hour.
With Philadelphia Public School students off today for a teachers' in-service, the city should be spared the full impact of the strike until tomorrow.
Still traffic appeared to be heavier than usual, especially on Broad Street, which was bumper to bumper in North Philadelphia.
As the first glimmer of dawn broke this morning, striking SEPTA workers huddled in small clusters around the Frankford Transportation Center as would-be passengers continued to arrive with no idea that nothing was operating.
Colleen Logan, 45, showed up at 5:20 a.m. to discover that she would not be able to ride the Market-Frankford El to her job as a waitress at Snow White Restaurant in Old City.
So what are the issues that forced the union to strike? Well, they didn't like the last deal on the table, which would have given a 11% salary increase over five years, 11% increase in pension contributions, an no increases in workers' contribution for health care.
Those are figures that quite a few unemployed folks would love to get. In fact, while Pennsylvania has a lower than the national unemployment rate of 8.3%, it has spiked from 5.9% in November 2008. The rate is much higher in Philadelphia, where the rate is 10.7%.
I'm sure that lots of those unemployed would love to have a job where they have benefits that outstrip anything seen in the private sector, and which offers job protections that add to the cost of doing business.
Union workers, who earn an average $52,000 a year, are seeking an annual 4 percent wage hike and want to keep the current 1 percent contribution they make toward the cost of their health care coverage.
Maloney said SEPTA was offering an 11.5 percent wage increase over 5 years, with no raise in the first year, and increases in workers' pensions.
A 2005 SEPTA strike lasted seven days, while a 1998 transit strike lasted for 40 days.
Frank Brinkman, a union member who does electronic work on an elevated SEPTA train, was out on the picket line early Tuesday. He said he was concerned about pension issues and changes to work rules.
The union shouldn't expect to get much sympathy from commuters or those who are struggling to find jobs, and the timing doesn't help their cause either.
Ah, the fresh smell of another ACORN office whose moral and ethical flexibility are on full display. This time, it's the ACORN office in Philadelphia.
I can't wait to hear Bertha Lewis try to explain this latest video away, claiming that this is yet another isolated incident and that it doesn't reflect on the organization as a whole.
UPDATE: Bob Owens notes that the video has been marked private, which suggests that Andrew Breitbart may have accidentally released the video early. Bob also notes the following:
ACORN Philadelphia Office Director Katherine Conway-Russell flat-out lied on camera to the media. ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis continues to lie to the media, claiming that these incidents are isolated. The media repeated their claims unquestioningly.
Now that ACORN has been exposed—yet again—as lying about their willingness to support the creation of brothels for the purpose of juvenile prostitution, will the media outlets that repeated those falsehoods decide to re-report on the truth of this story? Will they issue corrections?
Hannah Giles and James O'Keefe have shown the unedited footage from every ACORN visit they've made, from Baltimore, Washington DC, New York, San Bernardino, San Diego, and the unedited video from Philadelphia will soon be released. Other videos from other ACORN sting operations are rumored to be lurking in the wings.
Also, recall that ACORN has a spinoff political group the WFP, which has engaged in documented voter fraud in New York. This is a group that stinks to the core.
UPDATE: The video link has been updated as it is now operable, via Big Government.
UPDATE: Don't hold your breath to wait for Media Matters or other media outlets to issue corrections and retractions of their claims that this was merely an isolated incident and in particular, how the Philadelphia office managers lied about their activities and conduct, particularly in light of the video released today showing their complicity.
By now, you've heard that the Philadelphia Phillies have won the World Series, defeating the Tampa Bay Rays 4 games to 1 after winning a delayed fifth game 4-3 last night. Congratulations to the team. Your city doesn't deserve it.
Because nothing says World Series champions like overturned cars:
But one fan may have taken his devotion a bit too far when police say he robbed a bank and later allegedly funded a shopping spree for Phillies gear with the stolen cash.
About 10 a.m. yesterday, a man, who police did not identify, entered a PNC Bank on Welsh Road near Roosevelt Boulevard and slipped the teller a demand note.
Shortly after, the man, wearing a red and gray hat pulled down over his face and a beige hoodie, fled westbound on Welsh with an undisclosed amount of cash, said a detective from Northeast Detectives.
About 20 minutes later, cops found the suspect, who police have not identified, a few miles away coming out of the Modell's Sporting Goods store at the Roosevelt Mall, Cottman and Bustleton avenues.
Police did not confirm whether the man was wearing Phillies gear or not. But authorities said they later recovered cash in a nearby trash bin.
Witnesses positively identified the suspect and police carted the robber off, assuring that the ardent fan would miss watching the Phillies duke it out against the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 5.
Still more Philly fans decided to trash the city; overturning cars, setting fires, rioting, and doing what Philly fans are best known for - acting like a bunch of unruly surly people.
UPDATE: Michelle Malkin links. Thanks! She also has video of the car torching sessions.
