Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

February 2006

Medics Delay Morales Execution

UPDATE (19:29): Back to the drawing board. Hopefully, the state will get this fixed. Unfortunately, they will now have to go back to the courts for another warrant.


Fox News reports (via AP):

Calif. Delays Execution of Killer Indefinitely

SAN QUENTIN, Calif. — The state on Tuesday postponed indefinitely the execution of a condemned killer amid a court battle over the state’s method of lethal injection and the role doctors may play in the death chamber.

State officials notified the federal courts they would be unable to comply with a judge’s order to have a medical professional administer a lethal dose of barbiturate to Michael Morales in the execution chamber, a court spokeswoman told The Associated Press.

[more]

Morales’ execution postponed until Tuesday night – sacbee.com

SAN QUENTIN — Questions over a physician’s role in the death chamber postponed the scheduled execution early Tuesday morning of Michael Angelo Morales, the man condemned for raping and killing a Lodi girl more than two decades ago. Just before 3 a.m. Tuesday, Vernell Crittendon, spokesman for San Quentin State Prison, said the execution was rescheduled for 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

In an unprecedented move in California since executions resumed in 1992, an anesthesiologist was to stay with Morales to make sure the 46-year-old man was rendered and remained unconscious after the first round of drugs entered his vein in a three-chemical lethal injection process. Another anesthesiologist was also to be present, but not in the execution chamber.

But anesthesiologists scheduled to monitor the Tuesday morning execution withdrew from the process in response to language in a district court order regarding their roles.

[more]

21 Feb 2006 by California Degenerates Judiciary Law and Order

SCOTUS Denies Morales Stay

I must say that I’m surprised that Justice Kennedy sent this up to the entire SCOTUS. The appeal had been shown to be without merit to several courts below. However, it now appears that Michael Morales final appeal has been denied and that justice will finally be done for his victim and her family.

Inset: Morales’ victim Terri Winchell.

From the Sacramento Bee:

U.S. high court denies killer’s bid for stay

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to stay the execution of convicted killer Michael Morales, ending his legal battle to avoid the execution planned for just after midnight.

Justice Anthony Kennedy reviewed the case, then sent it to the full court, which denied Morales’ final appeal at 6:29 p.m. EST, according to court spokesman Ed Turner.

“The court entered orders denying the request for stays of execution,” he said.

The Supreme Court was the only legal option left for Morales, 46, who is scheduled to die from lethal injection at 12:01 a.m. at San Quentin State Prison for killing teenager Terri Winchell, of Lodi.

20 Feb 2006 by California Degenerates Judiciary Law and Order

Ansel Adams’ Birthday

I’ve always admired the photographic works of legendary photographer Ansel Adams. Today is the 104th anniversary of his birthday.

From WikiPedia:

Ansel Easton Adams (February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984) was an American photographer, known for his black and white photographs of the California’s Yosemite Valley.

Left: Half Dome and Merced River, Winter (Yosemite Valley) by Ansel Adams – Credit Ansel Adams Gallery

Ansel Adams was born in San Francisco, California in an upper-class family. When he was four, he was tossed face-first into a garden wall in an aftershock from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, breaking his nose. His nose was never repaired and appeared crooked for his entire life.

He became interested in photography when his Aunt Mary gave him a copy of “In the Heart of the Sierras” while he was sick as a child. The photographs in the book by George Fiske piqued his interest enough to persuade his parents to vacation in Yosemite National Park in 1916, where he was given a camera as a gift.

Adams disliked the uniformity of the education system and left school in 1915 to educate himself. He originally trained himself as a pianist, but Yosemite and the camera diverted his interest toward photography. He later met his future wife, Virginia Best, in Yosemite. She was known to be particularly camera shy. Adams long alternated between a career as a concert pianist and one as a photographer.

[more]

20 Feb 2006 by Arts People Photography

Tick Tock Tick Tock

If SCOTUS refuses to hear this case, it’s a done deal . . .

From the Sacramento Bee: 9th Circuit refuses stay of Morales execution

On Sunday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to stay the execution [of Michael Angelo Morales], turning down defense arguments that Morales was framed and that California’s lethal injection procedure would subject him to an unconstitutional and excruciating level of pain.

The judges ruled that purported new evidence of innocence was presented too late. They also said a lower court had assured that Morales will be unconscious before and during the administration of lethal drugs.

[more]

20 Feb 2006 by California Degenerates Judiciary Law and Order

Damsel Sends You Santa Barbara Island

Today, we took a drive to the top of the Peninsula, since I had a hunch it would be very clear after the rain passed through the area overnight – Bingo! Right again! I took this shot of Santa Barbara Island, about 40 miles in the distance. Seldom seen due to coastal haze and fog, it was a rare treat to see St. Babs Island from the mainland. There were also breathtakingly clear views of Catalina and points up and down the coastline.

Santa Barbara Island is part of the Channel Islands National Park – From NPS:

Santa Barbara Island (639 acres), 38 miles west of San Pedro, is the smallest of the California Channel Islands. Formed by underwater volcanic activity, Santa Barbara is roughly triangular in outline and emerges from the ocean as a giant twin-peaked mesa with steep cliffs. Even though small in size, Santa Barbara Island boasts diversity in its habitats, with a few narrow rocky beaches, six canyons, and badlands area. It is much like Anacapa Island in its being a haven for sea birds. The steep cliffs and isolation from mainland predators provide safe breeding sites for thousands of sea birds

19 Feb 2006 by California Environment Photography

Earth’s Oceans – A Mesozoic Hot Tub

Attention alarmists! Here is more evidence that Global Warming is not an artifact of mankind contaminating the environment:

From the Science Blog:

Ancient Oceans Warmer than a Hot Tub

Scientists have found evidence that tropical Atlantic Ocean temperatures may have once reached 107°F (42°C) – about 25°F (14°C) higher than ocean temperatures today and warmer than a hot tub. The surprisingly high ocean temperatures, the warmest estimates to date for any place on Earth, occurred millions of year ago when carbon dioxide levels in Earth’s atmosphere were also high, but researchers say they may be an indication that greenhouse gases could heat the oceans in the future much more than currently anticipated. The study suggests that climate models underestimate future warming.

Right: a rendition of a super-croc that thrived in very warm waters near land masses during the Mesozoic (Picture credit: Walking With Dinosaurs, BBC)

“These temperatures are off the charts from what we’ve seen before,” said Karen Bice, a paleo climatologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). Bice reported the findings Feb. 17, 2006, at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in St. Louis and is also lead author of a study to be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Paleoceanography, published by the American Geophysical Union.

Bice and a multi-institutional team of scientists studied three long columns of sediment cored from the seafloor in 2003 off Suriname, on the northeast coast of South America, by the drillship JOIDES Resolution, operated by the international Ocean Drilling Program.

The sediments contained an unusually rich and well-preserved accumulation of both carbon-rich organic matter and the fossilized shells of microscopic marine organisms that had settled and piled up on the seafloor over tens of millions of years. The deeper down in the core the scientists analyzed, the further back in time they went.

The team analyzed the shells isotopic and trace element chemistry, which changes along with temperature changes in the surface waters where they lived. They determined that ocean temperatures in the region ranged between 91° and 107°F (33° and 42°C) between 84 million and 100 million years ago in an era when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. Temperatures range between 75° and 82°F (24° and 28°C) in the same region now. The approximate uncertainty in the paleotemperature estimates is ~2°C.

Using organic matter from the sediments, the group also estimated atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations during the same time span. They were 1,300 to 2,300 parts per million (ppm), compared with 380 ppm today.

Notice that last little tidbit about carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. How could the levels possibly be 4 to 8 times greater than their present values? Natural phenomena is the correct answer: Solar x-ray flares, magnetic storms, mass coronal ejections, lightning, forest fires, volcanic eruptions, earth impactors, whatever . . . and certainly not anything from humans since we weren’t invented then.

19 Feb 2006 by Environment Global Warming Whacko Politics

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