LOTTOMIKE's Blog

do you think its best to bet a few numbers on three or four states online or bet a whole bunch of numbers on one state?

IT'S SO HARD TO SAY GOODBYE TO YESTERDAY

How do I say goodbye to what we had?
The good times that made us laugh
Outweigh the bad.

I thought we'd get to see forever
But forever's gone away
It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday.

I don't know where this road
Is going to lead
All I know is where we've been
And what we've been through.

If we get to see tomorrow
I hope it's worth all the wait
It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday.

And I'll take with me the memories
To be my sunshine after the rain
It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday.

And I'll take with me the memories
To be my sunshine after the rain
It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday

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China Makes Ultimate Punishment Mobile


(June 15) -- Zhang Shiqiang, known as the Nine-Fingered Devil, first tasted justice at 13. His father caught him stealing and cut off one of Zhang's fingers.

   

Jinguan Group
Makers of the death vans say the vehicles, which are used for lethal-injection executions, are a civilized alternative to the firing squad, the method used in most Chinese executions.
Death Van Specs

Cost

$37,500 to $75,000, depending on vehicle's size

1/6
Vote


   

Twenty-five years later, in 2004, Zhang met retribution once more, after his conviction for double murder and rape. He was one of the first people put to death in China's new fleet of mobile execution chambers.

The country that executed more than four times as many convicts as the rest of the world combined last year is slowly phasing out public executions by firing squad in favor of lethal injections. Unlike the United States and Singapore, the only two other countries where death is administered by injection, China metes out capital punishment from specially equipped "death vans" that shuttle from town to town.

Makers of the death vans say the vehicles and injections are a civilized alternative to the firing squad, ending the life of the condemned more quickly, clinically and safely. The switch from gunshots to injections is a sign that China "promotes human rights now," says Kang Zhongwen, who designed the Jinguan Automobile death van in which "Devil" Zhang took his final ride.

State Secret

   


   
For years, foreign human rights groups have accused China of arbitrary executions and cruelty in its use of capital punishment. The exact number of convicts put to death is a state secret. Amnesty International estimates there were at least 1,770 executions in China in 2005 - vs. 60 in the United States, but the group says on its website that the toll could be as high as 8,000 prisoners.

The "majority are still by gunshot," says Liu Renwen, death penalty researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a think tank in Beijing. "But the use of injections has grown in recent years, and may have reached 40%."

China's critics contend that the transition from firing squads to injections in death vans facilitates an illegal trade in prisoners' organs.

Injections leave the whole body intact and require participation of doctors. Organs can "be extracted in a speedier and more effective way than if the prisoner is shot," says Mark Allison, East Asia researcher at Amnesty International in Hong Kong. "We have gathered strong evidence suggesting the involvement of (Chinese) police, courts and hospitals in the organ trade."

Executions in death vans are recorded on video and audio that is played live to local law enforcement authorities - a measure intended to ensure they are carried out legally.

   



   
China's refusal to give outsiders access to the bodies of executed prisoners has added to suspicions about what happens afterward: Corpses are typically driven to a crematorium and burned before relatives or independent witnesses can view them.

Chinese authorities are sensitive to allegations that they are complicit in the organ trade. In March, the Ministry of Health issued regulations explicitly banning the sale of organs and tightening approval standards for transplants.

Even so, Amnesty International said in a report in April that huge profits from the sale of prisoners' organs might be part of why China refuses to consider doing away with the death penalty.

"Given the high commercial value of organs, it is doubtful the new regulations will have an effect," Allison says.

where is that 4856 straight in tennessee? hopefully it hits soon.....

skeeter my pet chihuahua thanks you all for your kind advice.i took him to the vet and they give him a shot and the frontline treatment.sevin dust was again suggested but when i told them about the children they suggested the same thing you all did in the blog earlier.try to get something safe that won't hurt kids.they suggested also bombing the room but its hard to get kids out in hot weather and i have no relatives near.my van needs freeon so i can get my cool air running again.lots of things to do on the agenda.....

i have three or four states in pick four that i pick numbers for and rotate and stop playing one and then play the other.every time i stop playing that state two or three days later my dang numbers hit and its happened three times since april.i think on the one hand it shows i'm getting pretty good at knowing whats coming but i give up too soon.i'll play a couple weeks and move to the next state.for better or worse i need to pick one state and stick with it.......

my chihuahua turned six on june 12,2006.i don't have any pets besides him.however i work at night at a lumber plant where there are several animals on the grounds.in the last three or four days my dog has been chewing on his tail and whimpering like crazy and going in cricles and won't sit still.i'm not sure but i think i might've brought some fleas home accidentally from the other animals at work.for those who have small dogs what is the safest and cheapest way for me to get rid of the problem without spending a fortune to get it done? any comments are greatly appreciated......

look for 8856 to hit in florida or tennessee soon.....

Probe Finds Bogus Hurricane Aid May Top $1.4 Billion
FEMA Relief Funds Paid for Football Tickets, a Caribbean Vacation and a Divorce Lawyer


WASHINGTON (June 14) - The government doled out as much as $1.4 billion in bogus assistance to victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, getting hoodwinked to pay for season football tickets, a tropical vacation and even a divorce lawyer, congressional investigators have found.

   


FEMA debit cards, such as this one, were sometimes used to pay for vacations, season football tickets and even a sex change operation, according to an audit.



   

Prison inmates, a supposed victim who used a New Orleans cemetery for a home address, and a person who spent 70 days at a Hawaiian hotel all were able to wrongly get taxpayer help, according to evidence that gives a new black eye to the nation's disaster relief agency.

Federal investigators even informed Congress that one man apparently used FEMA assistance money for a sex change operation.

Agents from the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, went undercover to expose the ease of receiving disaster expense checks from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The GAO concluded that as much as 16 percent of the billions of dollars in FEMA help to individuals after the two hurricanes was unwarranted.

   
"This is an assault on the American taxpayer. Prosecutors ... should be looking at prosecuting these crimes and putting the criminals who committed them in jail for a long time."
-Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas   
   
The findings are detailed in testimony, obtained by The Associated Press, that is to be delivered at a hearing Wednesday by the House Homeland Security subcommittee on investigations.

To dramatize the problem, GAO provided lawmakers with a copy of a $2,358 U.S. Treasury check for rental assistance that an undercover agent got using a bogus address. The money was paid even after FEMA learned from its inspector that the undercover applicant did not live at the address.

"This is an assault on the American taxpayer," said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the subcommittee that will conduct the hearing. "Prosecutors from the federal level down should be looking at prosecuting these crimes and putting the criminals who committed them in jail for a long time."

FEMA spokesman Aaron Walker said Tuesday that the agency, already criticized for a poor response to Katrina, makes its highest priority during a disaster "to get help quickly to those in desperate need of our assistance."

"Even as we put victims first, we take very seriously our responsibility to be outstanding stewards of taxpayer dollars, and we are careful to make sure that funds are distributed appropriately," he said.

FEMA said it has identified more than 1,500 cases of potential fraud after Katrina and Rita and has referred those cases to the Homeland Security inspector general. The agency said it has identified $16.8 million in improperly awarded disaster relief money and has started efforts to collect the money.

The GAO said it was 95 percent confident that improper and potentially fraudulent payments were much higher - between $600 million and $1.4 billion.

The investigative agency said it found people lodged in hotels often were paid twice, since FEMA gave them individual rental assistance and paid hotels directly. FEMA paid California hotels $8,000 to house one individual - the same person who received three rental assistance payments for both disasters.

In another instance, FEMA paid an individual $2,358 in rental assistance, while at the same time paying about $8,000 for the same person to stay 70 nights at more than $100 per night in a Hawaii hotel.

   


   
FEMA also could not establish that 750 debit cards worth $1.5 million even went to Katrina victims, the auditors said.

Among the items purchased with the cards:

· an all-inclusive, one-week Caribbean vacation in the Punta Cana resort in the Dominican Republic.

· five season tickets to New Orleans Saints professional football games.

· adult erotica products in Houston and "Girls Gone Wild" videos in Santa Monica, Calif.

· Dom Perignon champagne and other alcoholic beverages in San Antonio.

· a divorce lawyer's services in Houston.

"Our forensic audit and investigative work showed that improper and potentially fraudulent payments occurred mainly because FEMA did not validate the identity of the registrant, the physical location of the damaged address, and ownership and occupancy of all registrants at the time of registration," GAO officials said.

FEMA paid millions of dollars to more than 1,000 registrants who used names and Social Security numbers belonging to state and federal prisoners for expedited housing assistance. The inmates were in Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and Florida.

FEMA made about $5.3 million in payments to registrants who provided a post office box as their damaged residence, including one who got $2,748 for listing an Alabama post office box as the damaged property.

To demonstrate how easy it was to hoodwink FEMA, the GAO told of an individual who used 13 different Social Security numbers - including the person's own - to receive $139,000 in payments on 13 separate registrations for aid. All the payments were sent to a single address.

Likewise, another person used a damaged property address located within the grounds of Greenwood Cemetery in New Orleans to request disaster aid. Public records show no record of the registrant ever living in New Orleans.

Instead, records indicate that for the past five years, the registrant lived in West Virginia - at the address provided to FEMA, the GAO said.

don't you hate it when your numbers show up in the draw you did not play?

look for 8685 to hit in tennessee or virginia here soon......

Violent Crime Up for First Time in Five Years


PHILADELPHIA (June 12) - FBI statistics Monday confirmed what big cities like Philadelphia, Houston, Cleveland and Las Vegas have seen on the streets: Violent crime in the U.S. is on the rise, posting its biggest one-year increase since 1991.

   


Violent crime increased in all regions of the nation last year, with the Midwest experiencing the biggest jump.


By the Numbers

1.4 Million

Additional violent crimes committed in 2005 over the previous year


In Philadelphia, homicides jumped from 330 in 2004 to 377 in 2005, a 14 percent increase, according to the FBI. Murders climbed from 272 to 334 in Houston, a 23 percent rise, and from 131 to 144 in Las Vegas, a 10 percent increase.

Jeffrey Sedgwick, director of the U.S. Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics, cautioned that it is not yet clear whether the FBI numbers reflect a real increase, or the ordinary year-to-year variations that statisticians call "static noise."

Sedgwick said it is possible that crime rates in the U.S. are approaching a floor below which it may be difficult or even impossible to go. "I'm not sure it's reasonable to expect you can always drive the crime rate down," he said.

Some criminal justice experts said the statistics reflect the nation's complacency in fighting crime. Crime dropped dramatically during 1990s, and some cities have since abandoned effective programs that emphasized prevention, the putting of more cops on the street, and controls on the spread of guns.

"We see that budgets for policing are being slashed and the federal government has gotten out of that business," said James Alan Fox, a criminal justice professor at Northeastern University in Boston. Still, Fox said, "We're still far better off than we were during the double-digit crime inflation we saw in the 1970s."

In Philadelphia, which has had more than 160 murders this year, the police department has responded by creating a special unit charged with roaming the streets in the dangerous hours between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m. The program, which is expected to start soon, will shift 46 officers from other assignments.

   


   
Philadelphia police Capt. Benjamin Naish said more people appear to be settling disputes with guns.

"I think that everybody continues to be frustrated within the government, within the department," he said. Philadelphia police have stressed that the number of killings is still below the averages in the mid-1990s and far below the 525 homicides in 1990.

The overall national increase in violent crime was modest, 2.5 percent, which equates to more than 1.4 million crimes. Nevertheless, that was the largest percentage increase since 1991.

Nationally, murders rose 4.8 percent, meaning there were more than 16,900 victims in 2005. That would be the most since 1998 and the largest percentage increase in 15 years.

Some big cities felt the brunt.

Murders rose from 59 to 104 in Birmingham, Ala., up 76 percent; from 59 to 85 in Charlotte-Mecklenburg County, N.C., a 44 percent spike; from 89 to 126 in Kansas City, Mo., a 42 percent rise; from 87 to 122 in Milwaukee, a 40 percent jump; and from 79 to 109 in Cleveland, up 38 percent.

"The killings are going in spurts," said Judy Martin, a victims' advocate in Cleveland whose son was shot to death in a 1994 carjacking. "A number of the murders this year seem to come from a number of young men jumping on someone and killing them. We are going downhill."

Detroit, Los Angeles and New York were among several big cities that saw murder numbers drop.

Theories about New York's decline vary. Some experts point to favorable shifts in demographics and the economy, as well as the crash of a once-thriving crack market that fueled violence in the 1980s.

Officials in the 36,000-officer department, the nation's largest, credit their crime-fighting approach. They cite a tactic refined over the past decade in which commanders use computers to track crime patterns - particularly those involving guns and drugs - and deploy patrols where and when criminals are most active.

Police in Houston attributed some of their spike in violent crime to New Orleans gang members who evacuated there along with thousands of other victims of Hurricane Katrina last fall.

The FBI figures were released on the same day authorities announced the arrest in Louisiana of a Katrina evacuee considered one of the Houston area's most-wanted killers. Authorities said he robbed two other evacuees of their FEMA money and shot them, killing one.

look for 5649 today in tennessee or georgia.....

A Third Way In '08?



(June 8) - I am convinced that this country needs a serious third-party presidential candidacy in 2008. I have written a series of columns recently praying, cajoling, scheming, plotting and wishing for the third way to appear.

In response, I got a cyber-boatload of e-mails that said, "Where can I sign up?" My response has been, "I wish I knew."

Now I know!

You can sign up at http://www.unity08.com. Or call 1-877-UNITY08. That's 1-877-UNITY08. Operators are standing by (I hope; I didn't actually ask).

The idea of Unity08 is to have citizens enroll in the movement online and nominate a unity slate by Internet voting. The goal is for this to happen in the first part of 2008 so that the organization can be sure to get on all state ballots.

What makes a unity slate? The presidential and vice presidential nominees must be from different parties or be independent. The Web-enabled newly active citizens would provide the foot soldiers and dollars for the campaign. It's pretty simple.

Their goal, unlike mine, is not to create a third party. They want this unity ticket to run and win in 2008 to give electroshock therapy to a polarized, petty, ineffectual party duopoly incapable of addressing serious issues in effective ways. If the movement lasts beyond 2008, fine, but that's not their primary concern at all.

The driving forces of Unity08 are a group of consultants-emeritus, Gerald Rafshoon and Hamilton Jordan, who worked for Jimmy Carter, and Doug Bailey, who worked for Gerald Ford and then helped start online political news ventures. You may recall that Mr. Carter beat Mr. Ford in 1976; now these foes are friends. Get it? Unity.

They also have brought in some smart college students and one of the best direct mail fundraisers in politics, Angus King, a former independent governor of Maine (and my Independent Party's candidate for a Maine Senate seat in '08).

Another founder is a "serial entrepreneur" and Republican-flavored banker from Denver named David Maney. He has a great quote: "The biggest unserved consumer market in the U.S. is the political middle."

How true. This gang deeply understands the myth of polarization in America today. Political parties are polarized. Some citizens who are highly politically active or ideological are polarized and their bile is at record levels. American voters as a population are not polarized; but they are only offered polarized options in elections. This isn't a theory; it is the evidence found in virtually every poll you could drum up about the public's views on the most basic civic issues.

What bugs the Unity08 gang is how the polarization and small-mindedness of the political elites has consistently made solvable problems go unsolved. This is the same thing that motivated H. Ross Perot, Lead or Leave and the Concord Coalition, to name a few random examples over the years.

What the petty party duopoly has become skilled at is avoiding big issues and blowing hard on hot air issues. "Isn't it ironic that the week after we launch, the Gay Marriage Amendment to be followed by the Flag Burning Amendment takes up the time of the Senate," Rafshoon wrote to me. "Kind of makes our case."

Unity08 is primarily an effort to fix this problem, to help the government perform better. It is not, I think, a trendy attempt to revolutionize politics. It is not American Elections 3.0. It is not the kind of stuff the 2004 version of Howard Dean and hardcore Internet democracy advocates talk about.

   


   
Unity08 is not primarily an Internet story, though the media tends to paint it that way. The Internet is a tool for this project - and an entirely logical one. It is the most efficient and effective way to organize mass group communication. It is an absolutely viable way for people to be active and heard without joining political teams they don't believe in. Voting on the Internet can be safe and makes all the sense in the world; smart people have been pushing it for years. My strong sense is that if these guys get better ideas about how to proceed, they'll use them. And that is a very Webby thing to do.

Unity08 does not have an issues platform, which bugs some people. Not me. How could it? Is there any American who believes the parties' platforms have been important documents for government anytime in the past 30 years? Presumably, the candidates who compete for the Unity08 nomination will express their views, positions and basic worldviews and that's what people will vote for or against.

Will good candidates emerge? Will characters like Michael Bloomberg, Sam Nunn, Colin Powell, Bill Bradley or Warren Buffett be interested? Who knows? Could the movement get hijacked by a rabid right Nativist tsunami or a fringe left PC posse, thereby defeating the whole mission? Sure. If one party nominates a centrist, semi-maverick like Mark Warner or John McCain, is Unity08 a waste? Perhaps.

It's easy as pie to bite holes in this adventure. But I'm not going to do that. Of course, Unity08 isn't a completely flawless and realistic tactical masterpiece like my Independent Party's strategy of nominating Michael Bloomberg that would fund a huge movement, field a full slate of Senate candidates and then announce a full Cabinet in early 2008. But this group is onto a good thing.

Andrew Ferguson, a smart conservative, wrote that Unity08's attempt to break the two-party grip is just the latest "recurring fantasy of U.S. politics." Fine, there are worse things than fantasies. Besides, as the mid-20th century American philosophers E.Y. Harburg and Harold Arlen once said, "The dreams that you dare to dream really do come true." So there.

That number again, 1-877-UNITY08.

expect 8945 to hit soon in tennessee or georgia.....