Year: 2007

Ryan Skipper Press: With Friends Like These…

Trish

One of the nation’s top gay focused web sites has smeared Ryan Skipper, a young Florida gay man recently murdered in what police labeled a hate crime. In fact, what queerty.com said makes the local sheriff and news media — blasted by us and many others for repeating the suspect’s version of events before investigating — look like paragons of open-mindedness and circumspection.

At no time does Pensito Review accept sources at face value and pass them along, unexamined. And if you ever catch us doing that, we’ll strap on some balls and admit it.

According to friends, Ryan Keith Skipper, 25, went cruising Wahneta, Florida, for some quick and easy sex when he came across 21-year old Joseph Bearden. Testing his luck, Skipper offered Bearden a ride, which Bearden accepted. Skipper then took him to his house, where they smoked a bit of ganj and, according to police reports, chatted about using Skipper’s computer expertise to copy checks.

Skipper and Bearden then apparently took Skipper’s laptop and headed off to meet Bearden’s friend, 20-year old William David Brown Jr. From what police gather, Bearden and Brown, nestled in Skipper’s car, then stabbed Skipper 20 times before tossing his body on the side of the road.

That would make a good movie but it bears little resemblance to what actually happened.

Not a single one of Ryan’s friends has said he was cruising that night. All have said they know of no time Ryan ever looked for sex with strangers.

Ryan’s brother, who is in the computer/internet/all that stuff business, was preparing a laptop to send him from his home in Las Vegas but had not yet shipped.

At the time of his murder, Ryan owned a desktop computer, but no printer and no scanner.

Ryan has no history of criminal activity beyond some underage personal consumption charges related to pot. He was a student at a technical college and held a steady job at Sunglass Hut.

Though they jumped to the conclusion expected by rabid anti-gay evangelicals, Queerty is refusing to apologize. They blame their sources and then, worse, their defenders hide behind the excuse they are a blog, not a legitimate news outlet.

In this story, we passed along the Associated Press story…

Skipper’s friends, meanwhile, wrote us an angry note insisting that not only do we have the story wrong, we’re defaming this boy’s name: a stunning allegation, if you ask us…

Rest assured…that was not our intent. We simply report the news as we find it. We’re sure Skipper would be pleased to know that you’re keeping his good name alive. We must say, however, that we find nothing wrong with cruising for sex and, thus, cannot agree that we assassinated anyone’s character. Regardless, we’re sorry for your loss. It’s always upsetting when people are murdered – especially when it’s a senseless a crime as the one that took Skipper. We’ll be sure to keep our virtual eyes on any and all developments in this convoluted and multi-faceted story.

The only convoluted stories are the ones coming from the suspects. But George Bush himself could not have sidestepped this any better. Next they’ll be saying, “mistakes were made.”

“It’s always upsetting when people are murdered.” Yeah, don’t you hate that? What a bother. It probably happens to them all the time, which is how they know it’s “always upsetting.” Sheesh.

That they find nothing wrong with cruising is not the point, SINCE RYAN WASN’T DOING THAT ANYWAY.

We didn’t know Ryan when we read the first reports of his death, but we have half a brain and could see that the suspects’ version wasn’t adding up. Since then, we have spoken to his brother, scoured the web for updates, and are in the process of speaking to his friends. At no time does Pensito Review accept sources at face value and pass them along, unexamined. And if you ever catch us doing that, we’ll strap on some balls and admit it.

Ryan’s family has been cautioned that capital murder trials can take up to two years to prepare. If this is the kind of support they can expect from the “good guys,” it’s going to be a very long 24 months.

Official Misstatements about Ryan Skipper’s Murder Have Been Propagated in the Media

Jon Ponder

One of the saddest aspects about the aftermath of Ryan Skipper’s murder is that no one outside his friends and family seems to care about the heinous manner in which he was killed.

“I want to identify with the people that I serve. I want them to identify with me. And I want to be blatantly honest with them. I don’t intentionally say anything that will impugn anyone other than a real criminal, and then I’m not too concerned about that.”
— Sheriff Grady Judd, March 18, 2007

Neither the governor nor the attorney general in Florida — both of whom are Republicans — has expressed concern about the fact that Skipper’s murder has been labeled a hate crime. National gay organizations have been largely mute, and coverage in the local and national gay press has been very slim, especially considering the brutality of his murder.

Sheriff’s Assertions Were Based on Killers’ Statements

It is likely that the lack of outrage stems from a series of misstatements to the media at the outset of the investigation that have been attributed to Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd and others in his office. On the face of it, the motivation for making these statements appears to be bigotry toward gay people.

On Friday, March 16, two days after Skipper’s body was discovered, the local newspaper, The Ledger, reported:

Skipper, 25, was driving around Eloise late Tuesday night looking to pick up someone when he met [his all edged killer, Joseph] Bearden, whom he took back to his home in Winter Haven, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

The next day, the paper ran a quote from Sheriff Judd that sounded like it could have been the basis of the earlier reporting:

“What we do know is that Ryan was out looking to pick up someone that evening,” Judd said.

Elsewhere, the full quote has been given as:

“What we do know is that Ryan was looking for someone to pick up that evening. And unfortunately for Ryan, he picked up the wrong person.” [Emphasis added.]

In fact — and as we have said in other coverage of this story — Sheriff Judd did not “know” this. It was immediately obvious to my colleague Trish, who reported the story here on March 18, that, since the victim was dead and could not speak for himself, the only source for this information had to have been the alleged killers.

But the slander against Ryan Skipper did not stop there. In its coverage on March 17, The Ledger published the trawling-for-sex allegation as well as three additional completely unsubstantiated statements:

[…]

McCain Walks ‘Freely’ in Baghdad – With 100 Guards and Helicopters

Jon Ponder

The slo-mo wreckage of Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign continued this weekened when his surprise trip to Baghdad produced a horribly embarrassing spectacle.

It started last week when McCain told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that parts of Baghdad had been secured since the surge began, and were now safe enough for Westerners to walk around in freely. He was immediately contradicted on this by CNN reporter Michael Ware, who covers Baghdad,

Ostensibly to prove his point, McCain took a walk in an open air market just outside the Green Zone. He did move about “freely,” except that he had 100 soldiers with him who were armed to the teeth, as well as Blackhawk helicopters keeping watch overhead.

Offering an assist to the GOP from back home, Drudge reported falsely that at a news conference after McCain’s walkabout he was heckled by Michael Ware.

This morning on CNN, Ware denied the charge:

I did not heckle the senator. Indeed, I didn’t say a word. I didn’t even ask a question. In fact, when I raised my hand to ask a question the press conference abruptly ended. So, what I would suggest is that anyone who has any queries about whether I heckled, watch the videotape of the press conference — Soledad.

Movie in the Works on the Life of Whitewater’s Only Hero, Susan McDougal

Jon Ponder

Out of the morass of GOP dirty tricks in the 1990s variously known as the Whitewater scandal, the Arkansas Project and the Vast Rightwing Conspiracy, only one person was a true hero: Susan McDougal.

Remnants of the Gang of 500’s sneering tone about Whitewater and the Clintons are evident in the US News blurb, which referred to Susan McDougal, who is a true American patriot, as a “bit player” in the scandal.

To truly comprehend the skullduggery deployed by the Republicans to lay the way for saddling the nation and the world with the Worst President Ever, you have to understand what they were up to in the 1990s. McDougal’s autobiography, The Woman Who Wouldn’t Talk is one of the best primers around on the story. When it came out in paperback earlier this year, she was interviewed by Robert Scheer at Truthdig. The video is posted HERE.

US News is reporting that McDougal’s story is going to be made into a movie, with Paul Haggis — director of two Oscar winning movies, the horribly written “Crash” and “Million Dollar Baby” — and Charlize Theron in the lead role.

Remnants of the Gang of 500’s sneering tone about Whitewater and the Clintons are evident in the US News blurb, which referred to Susan McDougal, who is a true American patriot, as a “bit player” in the scandal.

The truth is, McDougal is the only person in the scandal who stood up to evil “Judge Starr,” and for that service she should be applauded.

Gay GOP Ex-Porn Star Cpl. Matt Sanchez Accused of Conning Iraq Donors

Jon Ponder

A Marine judge advocate says Sanchez “wrongfully solicited funds to support [his] purported deployment to Iraq” by coordinating a $300 payment from [a veterans group] and $12,000 from U-Haul Corporation.

Former Marine Reserve Cpl. Matt Sanchez, the darling of this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) — who once worked as a gay prostitute and in male films under the porn name “Rod Majors” — has been accused by the Marine Corps of conning $12,300 from a business and a veterans group by falsely claiming he was being deployed to Iraq.

On March 22, a judge advocate informed Cpl. Sanchez that:

Sanchez’s participation in porn films was part of the investigation, but that two of the three allegations against him involved lying “to various people, including but not limited to, representatives of the New York City United War Veterans Council and U-Haul Corporation” about deploying to Iraq at the commandant’s request.

“Specifically, you wrongfully solicited funds to support your purported deployment to Iraq” by coordinating a $300 payment from the UWVC and $12,000 from U-Haul, Jones wrote.

In an interview Thursday with Marine Corps Times, Sanchez said the fund-raising allegations are “demonstrably false” and that he never collected money from either organization.

Sanchez recently caught the attention of rightwing media types by claiming he was publicly humiliated by an anti-war group at Columbia University. The incident was reportedly investigated by the university and found to be false. This finding was irrelevant, of course, to conservatives who showered Sanchez with attention. He appeared on “Hannity & Colmes” and “The O’Reilly Factor” on Fox News, and was awarded the Jeanne Kirkpatrick Academic Freedom Award at CPAC because of his alleged contretemps with the war protesters at Columbia.

It was at CPAC that Ann Coulter famously called presidential candidate John Edwards a “faggot.” This incendiary moment lends irony to the famous photo taken of Coulter with Matt Sanchez that day at the convention hotel.

Despite quite a large cache of filmed evidence otherwise, Sanchez claims that he is not gay.

When Man-Crushes Go Bad – Former Bushie Has a Change of Heart

Jon Ponder

Matthew Dowd switched parties in 1999 to work on George W. Bush’s presidential campaign. He says he believed candidate Bush’s pledge that he would bring a new spirit of cooperation to politics in Washington.

It is hard to feel sympathetic toward Matthew Dowd now that his eyes have been opened to his colossal self-delusion about George W. Bush.

I remember hearing then-Gov. Bush making those claims back then, and I didn’t buy it for a minute. Bush learned slasher style politics at the knee of his father’s dirty trickster, Lee Atwater. I expected the political divide to be as bad as it was in the Clinton era, although I could have never predicted that Bush would divide the country before sending it off to to war. (Who could have ever expected a president to do something so dastardly.)

Now Dowd has a come to Jesus on the true character of George W. Bush:

[…]

Speak Spanish? Newt Says You Probably Live in the Ghetto

Trish

Jeez Newt, ese danos! Desmadiado!

Newt Gingrich stood before an adoring crowd of Republican women and said Spanish is the “language of living in a ghetto.”

Gingrich: “We should replace bilingual education with immersion in English so people learn the common language of the country…not the language of living in a ghetto”

“The American people believe English should be the official language of the government. … We should replace bilingual education with immersion in English so people learn the common language of the country and they learn the language of prosperity, not the language of living in a ghetto,”

This will come as big news to all those Cubans down Buck’s way who live in waterfront mansions and could buy and sell Newt several times over without calling an accountant.

Peter Zamora, co-chair of the Washington-based Hispanic Education Coalition, which supports bilingual education, said, “The tone of his comments were very hateful. Spanish is spoken by many individuals who do not live in the ghetto.”

Hollywood Hills Blaze Caused by Kids Playing with Fire

Jon Ponder


On our way out of town to see friends up the coast in Ventura yesterday, Page and I were more than a little rattled when we saw what looked like a giant mushroom cloud rising 5,000 feet above Hollywood.

Visitors to California over the next six months need to know that if they toss a cigarette out of a car, or hike up a hill perhaps to smoke pot, they could easily start a fire that could cause major damage, maybe even loss of life.

We found an AM all-news station where we learned that an empty lot behind the Oakwood Apartments on Barham Avenue was on fire. Oakwood is a 1970s-style apartment complex that offers temporary long-term housing. It is famous in town because its proximity to Burbank and Hollywood makes it a frequent short-term home for entertainment types. If you know LA, it is sited on a west-facing hillside within a mile or so west of Griffith Park and the Hollywood Sign.

Famous Oakwood residents have included the Jose Menendez family, who lived there when they moved here from New Jersey, five years or so before Jose’s sons, Lyle and Erik, murdered him and their mother, Kitty, in their Beverly Hills mansion in 1989. Funk superstar Rick James died here on August 6, 2004.

Today we learned that a couple of teenaged boys from Illinois who were staying at Oakwood set the fire. They were reportedly in the field behind the complex playing with lighters — a game I remember well from my misspent youth. Back then, we called it “Fire Up That Doobie, Man.”

What these boys did not know is that the Los Angeles area received less rain this winter than in any other year on record — under two inches the last time I checked. There is a miniscule chance we’ll get more rain before the season ends in a few weeks. Otherwise, it won’t rain again until Halloween.

By September, this place is going to be one giant tinderbox. The Barham fire yesterday is a just a precursor. The last time the scrub on that hill burned was 1961. The 41-year-old kindling erupted in seconds and burned for hours. Thanks to the property owner’s adherence to strict fire-management rules, however, the fire department quickly got things under control.

Here’s the point: Visitors to California over the next six months need to know that if they toss a cigarette out of a car, or hike up a hill perhaps to smoke pot, they could easily start a fire that could cause major damage, maybe even loss of life.

And like these teenagers, they could very well face time in jail.

War Funding Bill Benchmark Helps Big Oil Companies Gain Control of Iraq’s Reserves

Jon Ponder

The emergency war funding bills passed by the Democrats in the House and the Senate could pave the way to handing over Iraq’s oil reserves to big oil companies. Bush took us to war to gain control of the oil. Will he veto the bill anyway?

The supplemental appropriation package requires the Iraqi government to meet a series of “benchmarks” President Bush established in his speech to the nation on January 10 (in which he made his case for the “surge”). Most of Mr. Bush’s benchmarks are designed to blame the victim, forcing the Iraqis to solve the problems George Bush himself created.

One of the President’s benchmarks, however, stands apart. This is how the President described it: “To give every Iraqi citizen a stake in the country’s economy, Iraq will pass legislation to share oil revenues among all Iraqis.” A seemingly decent, even noble concession. That’s all Mr. Bush said about that benchmark, but his brevity was gravely misleading, and it had to be intentional.

The Iraqi Parliament has before it today, in fact, a bill called the hydrocarbon law, and it does call for revenue sharing among Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds. For President Bush, this is a must-have law, and it is the only “benchmark” that truly matters to his Administration.

Yes, revenue sharing is there-essentially in fine print, essentially trivial. The bill is long and complex, it has been years in the making, and its primary purpose is transformational in scope: a radical and wholesale reconstruction-virtual privatization-of the currently nationalized Iraqi oil industry.

If passed, the law will make available to Exxon/Mobil, Chevron/Texaco, BP/Amoco, and Royal Dutch/Shell about 4/5’s of the stupendous petroleum reserves in Iraq. That is the wretched goal of the Bush Administration, and in his speech setting the revenue-sharing “benchmark” Mr. Bush consciously avoided any hint of it.

The legislation pending now in Washington requires the President to certify to Congress by next October that the benchmarks have been met-specifically that the Iraqi hydrocarbon law has been passed. That’s the land mine: he will certify the American and British oil companies have access to Iraqi oil. This is not likely what Congress intended, but it is precisely what Mr. Bush has sought for the better part of six years.

It is why we went to war.