Football QB Steve McNair Found Shot to Death

As if there wasn't already enough sadness to go around, former NFL quarterback Steve McNair was found dead Saturday, shot in the head. He and a 20-year-old woman along side him were killed inside his downtown condo.

More after the jump.

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Holocaust Museum Shooter Expected to Live To See Trial

Jacqueline Carter 60, the mother of Stephen Johns who was murdered working as a security guard at the Holocaust Museum by James Von Brunn in Washington DC. (Source: NY Daily News/Theodorakis)I know there's supposed to be an "alleged" in there, but, yeah. I don't really care.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The man charged with killing a security officer at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is expected to survive his subsequent shooting by other security officers, the FBI said in a statement released Saturday.

More after the jump.

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Invest In Kevlar (We're All Gonna Die!)

So ... did you hear about all the wackdoodles finally going wacky?

They laughed at Attorney General Eric Holder when he said there was a storm brewing over in Right Wing Fringe Nutbar land. Now that someone has just shot up the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. and killed a security guard maybe it'll start to sink in.

More after the jump.

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Hot Topics: Ellen On Oprah, Kanyeisms and Texas Cage Fights

"50, look at me now, singing on the ground with my pink shirt on, does this look gay to you?" (VH1 Storytellers)

New topics on the Black Snob Hot Topics board:

Snob reader Sandy wonders what Ellen DeGeneres being on the second woman on the cover of O Magazine means.

AOL/Blackvoices gives us the unintentional wit of "i divo," Kayne West.

And a Texas school gets busted in the press for setting up cage fights for problem students nearly four years ago.

Hot Topics: Kanye, Love CNN Style, Crooked Cops and Some "Theatre"

Ah, Hot Topics! You know you wanna know!

If you're in DC and you like a good piece of relevant satire, check out Nia Orms' "Please Take A Number." Faithful Snob reader Dot has all the info. (Full disclosure: Faithful reader Dot is totally the one planning my upcoming East coast trip to Washington, D.C. and is the producer of a TV show we're both trying to develop. I wish I could go to Nia's show, which tackles -- quite humorously -- the very relevant stories of many different women standing in a welfare line, but I'm about 2,000 miles too far away. Please go and have a good time for me.)

My favorite "diva" Kanye West got hit with some misdemeanors for making that pap's camera go all "smashy-smashy."

There's love a brewin' at CNN and it's not just me and my sweet, sweet Prince of West Memphis.

If you're in east Texas you might want to avoid the long, sticky arm of the law in Tenaha. They seem to be more interested in breaking the law by jacking folks for their cash, jewels and cars than actually fighting crime. They're doubly interested in you if you happen to be black (or with a black person). And they will threaten to take your kids if you don't pay up as one couple learned. One eagle-eyed reader pointed out that the sticky cops in question may be black themselves, which, of course, doesn't make the story any better! Crooked cops of any color are bad and harm the reputation of good cops who are just trying to do their job! Thanks a lot, jerks! Hope the ACLU sues the shit out of you!

Hot Topics: The Yaki That Saves Your Life Could Be Your Own

Woman saved by bullet by super tight hair weave. Seriously. She was saved by her weave. All hail her weave. I have dubbed it "The Viper." Read more on the discussion page.

Dying For Dollars

There are jobs that people take on, like becoming a police officer, firefighter or soldier, where you know there's a good chance you could die while at work. You know this. Everyone knows this.

That's why there are fund raisers for the families of those who have lost husbands and wives in shootings, fires fights or in Iraq and Afghanistan. They were doing dangerous work that saves and protects people. You could say you can never pay someone enough for that.

Then there are the jobs that aren't worth dying over -- for anyone. Your minimum wage, "not my problem" jobs. Horrible, sometimes hard, sometimes mundane jobs that happen to many people at some point in their lives. There are no benefits. The hours can be brutal. But you need the cash for yourself or your families, so you put up with it. And if someone ever put a gun in your face for the register you give them the cash because -- seriously -- you're not dying for $7 an hour.

But the reality is many people working low paying service jobs do find themselves, unwillingly, in the line of fire and some do wind up dying for simply showing up at work that day. And it is in these tales of ordinary people who get killed working mundane jobs where you learn why and how corporations, and people serviced by them, get their reputations as being cold, soulless entities.

Take the case of Taneka Talley.

In March of 2006 she was stocking shelves at a Dollar Tree in Fairfield, Calif. when a man came into the store and shot and killed her. According to California law, businesses have to pay death benefits to the families of people who lose their lives while on the job, with an exception for employees killed by individuals they have a "personal" relationship with, i.e. spouses who kill their husbands or wives at work. But Dollar Tree contested paying Talley's 11-year-old son death benefits because Talley is black and was killed by a white man who said he was looking to kill a black person that day.

He just happened to choose Talley.

In the eyes of the lawyers for Dollar Tree and their insurance company, that counted as a "personal relationship." That act of extreme racism that lead to murder was tantamount to an abusive spouse executing their not-so-loved one. Now facing a boycott, a court case that they stand a good chance at losing and some extremely ugly press, Dollar Tree is offering to pay the full benefits.

Of course they are. It only took them two years.

In a statement Monday, Dollar Tree said it was acting voluntarily because "we feel this is the right thing to do." But a lawyer for Talley's mother and guardian of her 11-year-old son said the company was clearly responding to the public anger that followed news coverage of the case.

"I think they would like this to be done with," attorney Moira Stagliano said. "The media helped settle this claim."

Stagliano said she's optimistic about resolving the case but isn't there yet. "What they have offered is not quite the full value," and negotiations are continuing, she said. (San Franscico Chronicle)

Then we have the more recent tragedy of Jdimytai Damour, the temporary worker trampled to death on "Black Friday" at a Long Island Wal-Mart.

The store was set to open early at 5 a.m. but not early enough for the shoppers who smashed the glass doors and ran right over Damour to get their discounted Nintendo Wiis and digital cameras.

His death was so profound for Wal-Mart that they had to close for a few hours, but somehow were able to put the grief aside and ... those brave little soldiers ... reopen the store when Damour's body wasn't even cold earlier that same afternoon. Who knows if the other employees working that day even got to grieve in those few hours the store was closed. Never mind the fact that some shoppers refused to stop shopping as Damour's body remained on the floor. Even when the cops asked them to leave they were indignant. They'd been waiting outside all night, after all, and needed to buy their cheap crap. Who cares if someone died in their pursuit of manufactured bliss? He was just a temporary worker with family and friends who loved him and affectionately called him "Jimbo" for short.

Obviously not human.

Or at least not deserving of any dignity and humanity in death. Not when the game of death for dollars is being played in America. Four other shoppers, including a pregnant woman, were also injured in the melee.

Damour's family is now suing Wal-Mart because ... well, who can blame them? They obviously weren't prepared to handle the 2,000 person mob that spelled Damour's demise. Many believe he was placed at the door because he was so big and tall (Damour was 6-foot-5 and weighed 270 pounds), and that his death was a combination of "mob mentality," poor crowd control and Wal-Mart's low, low prices.

(Terry) Hemeyer, who also teaches marketing, public relations and advertising at the University of Texas at Austin, places the onus on retailers to prevent such accidents. He said that throughout history, consumers have been attacking each other to get sale items that are in short supply, even when people are lined up waiting for the doors to open.

Hemeyer, who made a point not to attack Wal-Mart, said if store managers don't understand the "herd mentality," then they are not doing their jobs.

"In other words," he said, "if you do something that the doors open at 8 and that's when the sales start and it's a limited supply, I think that's a formula for a problem because everybody has to be there at the same time." (Houston Chronicle)

Pictures of Damour, a 34-year-old Jamaican, were rarely seen as this story was reported on in the press. Even online it's hard to find an article about him. Most stories focus on Wal-Mart or whether our society is decaying because people are dying for cheap Chinese-made goods at big box retailers. But people have always died working retail. It doesn't happen often, but ask anyone who works at a gas station, liquor store, late night diner or fast food restaurant or 7-11 how they feel about their safety and you'll know that you don't have to be a police officer to face death at work.

I just hope Wal-Mart, which doesn't have the best record on this, does the right thing in Damour's case. If not out of the goodness of the heart I know Wal-Mart doesn't have, out of the the good PR they would get in a time where Wal-Mart is blamed for pretty much ever evil in our society. It's true he was a temporary worker, but he died for their dollars.

Let them know why they should care.

To contact Dollar Tree, click here.
To contact Wal-Mart, click here.

He Makes Your Crappy Governor Look Good

Gov. Hot Rod goes down! ... And on the way out manages to poop on an otherwise wondrous Obama-riffic election.

CHICAGO — Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois was arrested by federal authorities on Tuesday morning on corruption charges, including an allegation that he conspired to effectively sell President-elect Barack Obama’s seat in the United States Senate to the highest bidder.

Mr. Blagojevich, a Democrat, called his sole authority to name Mr. Obama’s successor “golden,” and he sought to parlay it into a job as an ambassador or secretary of health and human services, or a high-paying position at a nonprofit or an organization connected to labor unions, prosecutors said in a 76-page affidavit by the United States Attorney’s office in the Northern District of Illinois.

He also suggested, the affidavit said, that in exchange for the Senate appointment, his wife could be placed on corporate boards where she might earn as much as $150,000 a year, and he tried to gain promises of money for his campaign fund.

If Mr. Blagojevich could not secure a deal to his liking, prosecutors said, he was willing to appoint himself.

“If I don’t get what I want and I’m not satisfied with it, then I’ll just take the Senate seat myself,” the governor said in recorded conversation, prosecutors said. (Source: New York Times)

Classy!

Our bi-state neighbor Illinois has always been the City Mouse to Missouri's Country Mouse. Largely because Illinois is home to Chicago, the third largest city in the United States. We in St. Louis could have been Chicago about 100 years ago when we were the fourth largest city in the US, but we got all protectionist about some damn ferry boat traffic and the railroads expanded rapidly and the rest is history.

It's not that we don't have corruption in Missouri. Heavens to Murgatroid, we do! It's just, our drama always looks so hokey by comparison. For instance, our dorkwad, asshat, boy wonder governor, Matt "Little Boy" Blunt, cut state medical benefits for thousands of Missourians and got caught up in a very Bush-lite email records scandal. He chose not to run for re-election this year, realizing he was going to get owned by the Democratic competitor, former attorney general Jay Nixon. Either that, or there was another scandal under his bed. He wasn't very specific when he declared that he accomplished all he set out to do in a turbulent, effed up three years. 

I don't know. It didn't matter. Nixon won anyway, calling his competition Nanny-Nanny-Blunt-Bush over and over.

Over in City Mouse country, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has a 76 page indictment that includes everything from shaking down the friggin' Chicago Tribune in a pay-for-play scheme/fire-your-reporters-because-I-hate-their-faces gambit with a little quid pro quo on the state helping out with the media company's sale of the Cubs ... to demanding between half-million to a million dollars in cash, plus an appointment or ambassadorship for President-Elect Barack Obama's vacated senate seat. You know? Because if he couldn't get some scratch he might as well appoint himself. Hint, hint. Wink, wink!

Prosecutors also alleged Blagojevich expressed feeling "stuck" as a sitting governor and spent a large amount of time weighing whether he should appoint himself to the vacancy--possibly to avoid impeachment and help remake his image for a potential 2016 run for the presidency. A recent Tribune poll found Blagojevich with a record low 13 percent job approval rating. (Chicago Tribune)

CNN (among others) are speculating that potential senate appointee who may have balked and tattled on the already embattled Blagojevich was none other than Obama adviser and long-time family friend, Valerie Jarrett. She withdrew her name from consideration and took a job in the White House. And considering the fact the FBI has been working on Blagojevich's brand of Chicago-land politics for some time, this must have been the turd cherry on the shit sundae the federal government has been making in hopes will take down (another) Illinois governor.

But who's surprised that Blagojevich is being accused of this? Illinois has a hit streak going of douchy governors not matter what party they come from, with one presently serving a six year prison sentence. So far Obama is not getting beat up over this. And I'd actually consider him among the "victims" if the tale about Blagojevich trying to get Jarrett to cough up cash for the seat is true. But this will certainly be entertaining. Perhaps Blagojevich didn't want the Republican governor to be in prison alone ... or, this may explain why he was lobbying on former Gov. Ryan's behalf to get a pardon from President George W. Bush. Perhaps Hot Rod knew what was coming down the pike and needed some karma on his side.

Hot Rod's karma came up all kinds of fail though. All kinds.

No Jail for Woman Who Cried Big, Black Obama Supporter Attacked Her

Black people, don't hold your breath waiting for explanations or apologies!

From MSNBC.com/The Associated Press:

PITTSBURGH - A McCain campaign volunteer accused of making up a story about being robbed and assaulted in Pittsburgh by a man who disliked her McCain bumper sticker will enter a program for first-time offenders.

Under the deal announced in court Thursday, 20-year-old Ashley Todd will be released from jail and required to undergo mental health treatment. Her record eventually will be expunged as long as she goes to treatment, stays out of trouble and keeps authorities apprised of her whereabouts.

Todd, of College Station, Texas, has been jailed since Oct. 24, when police say she admitted making up a story about being robbed near a Pittsburgh bank and then assaulted by a man who scraped a backward letter "B" into her cheek.

Once again, none of this is funny -- even if for the first time since never no black men were corralled off the street and roughed up in an effort to find Ms. Todd's phantom attacker. Anyone who is familiar with American history or just recent history knows Todd is not the first white woman to cry wolf and claim a black man assaulted her leading to the harassment, arrests and in many cases imprisonment or deaths of black men. And I'm not even going to get into the times when one false cry lead to black settlements and towns being burnt to the ground causing the murders of men, women and children. So if black people seem a little chippy about this and just can't find the funny anywhere go Google Susan Smith or check out a copy of 100 Years of Lynching and tell us where you find the funny. (Originally found via Gawker)