Today it’s Gene Gebell’s Top Country Hits That He Despises Because He Was Too Dumb To Sign The Acts
Month: February 2016
This week’s Saturday Night Cinema with Phil is now available!
Tonight Phil watches and comments on the classic “Lady Frankenstein.”
BSP Only Show Log For Saturday, February 6, 2016
The BSP chat from Friday night with Allie, Bernie, Jeff (Herb Sewell), Jeff Baker from Bozeman, Paulie from NJ, Dean Freakin’ Wheeler, and others.
Phil’s Saturday Cinema Returns….Saturday!
Show Log For Friday, February 5, 2016
Brass Villenueva reports on the unfortunate accidental hanging of Italian actor Raphael Schumacher, Bob Green comes on the show to discuss the Zika virus outbreak in Florida, and Herb Sewell & Debbie Daly debate defunding Planned Parenthood.
BMX star Dave Mirra found dead at 41
BMX bike legend Dave Mirra — who once had the record for the most X Games medals — has died of an apparent suicide.
Cops say the 41 year old’s body was found in his truck in Greenville, North Carolina Thursday with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. We’re told he had been in the area visiting with friends. Mirra leaves a wife and two kids.
Earlier Thursday, a photo of Mirra and his wife together appeared on Dave’s Instagram account with the caption, “My Rock! Thank god.”
Mirra hosted 2 seasons of ‘Real World/Road Rules Challenge’ on MTV — and was the namesake of several BMX video games. Mirra also drove for Subaru rally car racing team.
[Source: TMZ Sports]
Show Log For Thursday, February 4, 2016
Bobbie Dooley is questioned by the panel over her planned phone dates with BSPs, and she winds up doing vile impressions of what she thinks Margaret would sound like working a sex line. Vernon Dozier’s feud with…
Show Log For Wednesday, February 3, 2016
Margaret attempts to sing “Oklahoma” while she’s getting over her (Phil’s) cold and it turns into a discussion of how badly Native Americans were treated in the former “Indian Territory.” Larry Grover spent last night…
Adnan Syed from ‘Serial’ Back in Court Wednesday in Bid for Retrial
The convicted killer at the center of the wildly popular investigative podcast “Serial,” finally gets his day in court Wednesday, after questions about his guilt and whether or not he had a fair trial 16 years ago have been raised.
Adnan Syed, now 35, is serving a life sentence for killing his high school girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, in 1999.
The podcast’s investigation raised doubts about the quality of Syed’s defense team as well as the reliability of key pieces of evidence used against him. The investigation also uncovered that his then-lawyer, the late Cristina Gutierrez, provided potentially disastrous counsel by not calling an alibi witness to the stand during his 2000 trial.
The Maryland Court of Special Appeals issued an order in May directing Syed’s case to a lower court so the testimony of the witness, Asia McClain, could be added to the record. After his conviction, McClain, another high school classmate, wrote him letters in jail, saying she had seen him in the library around the same time Lee was killed.
In November, Retired Circuit Court Judge Martin P. Welch granted Syed’s request to introduce the alibi witness testimony, as well as cell tower records that were later claimed to be unreliable, according to the carrier, saying it would “be in the interests of justice.” (It is not unusual for retired judges to hear cases).
“I don’t want to say it’s unusual, but he’s definitely beating the odds here,” said Becky Feldman, chief of the post-conviction defenders division at the Maryland Office of the Public Defender. “Filing motions to re-open a post-conviction are fairly common. We probably get hearings on motions to re-open on maybe 20 percent of the cases. Most of them are just denied.”
Syed’s attorney, Justin Brown, will argue that Gutierrez, who died in 2004, violated his Sixth Amendment right to due process by failing to call McClain to testify, according to court documents filed this past summer.
Brown is also expected to try and prove the cellphone records were not reliable and should never have been used as evidence against him. In a hearing last summer, Brown presented a memo that cellular carrier AT&T had sent to police during his trial, warning about the unreliability of cell tower data.
“Outgoing calls only are reliable for location status,” the memo read. “Any incoming calls will NOT be considered reliable information for location.”
Incoming calls were used as part of the evidence in trial.
A recent 34-page court document filed by the attorney general’s office shows the state plans to call in experts to rebut the defense’s claims of ineffective counsel and unreliable cellphone evidence. The state may also call former members of Syed’s defense team, as well as the original homicide detectives and the original prosecutor, Kevin Urick.
Syed and Lee were both students at Baltimore’s Woodlawn High School. Lee went missing in January 1999, and was found weeks later, strangled and buried in Leakin Park, located just a few miles from the school.
Throughout his trial, questions of religious and ethnic bias were also raised, as Syed is the son of Pakistani immigrants.
So what happens next?
“I would be shocked if we get a ruling on Friday,” Feldman said. “There’s no time requirement on when a court must issue a post-conviction ruling.”
Syed’s fate rests in the hands of Welch, who could issue an oral ruling on Friday, determining if Syed will get a new trial or not. The likelihood is that he will issue a written decision at a later time, which could take weeks to months. If Syed is granted a new trial, the state will likely appeal, Feldman says. Syed could be stuck in this process for months – even years, should the court take its time.
Last week, Syed’s lawyer tweeted about the upcoming hearing.
Rand Paul suspends presidential campaign
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) announced Wednesday that he is suspending his presidential campaign, bringing an end to a bid that began with aspirations of expanding the libertarian base that his father, Ron Paul, built into a powerful national coalition.
“It’s been an incredible honor to run a principled campaign for the White House,” Paul said in a statement. “Today, I will end where I began, ready and willing to fight for the cause of Liberty.”
The low-key, philosopher-quoting senator struggled in a year dominated by hard-line outsiders such as Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) and businessman Donald Trump to get attention, and his non-interventionist views on foreign policy were not embraced by Republicans as terrorism and unrest raged abroad.
Paul, a first-time candidate for national office, also found it difficult to persuade the supporters of his father — a former congressman from Texas who sought the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 and 2012 — to back him with enthusiasm. Although popular among libertarians, purists in that wing of the conservative movement questioned whether Paul was too mainstream.
“His decision to move to the middle and support a number of moderate Republicans in the 2014 elections, that sent us a real signal about the application of his ideology,” said Drew Ivers, Ron Paul’s 2012 Iowa chairman, who did not endorse Rand Paul.
“He muddled on his message, tried to get the left, and I told him it would backfire. … I just saw someone trying to do too much and be too many things to too many people. His name is Paul, I told him. You can’t defy gravity,” Ivers said.
Paul, 53, was elected to the Senate in 2010 as part of the GOP’s tea party wave. He will return to his work in the chamber and to his Senate reelection campaign, where he remains a top target of Democrats as they try to retake the majority this year.
According to Paul’s campaign aides, the candidate decided to drop out after a disappointing finish in Monday’s Iowa caucuses, where his father had placed a strong third in 2012.
Over the past day, Paul began to inform his key aides and donors that he would leave the race.
In his statement, Paul expressed confidence that his campaign, while unsuccessful, offered Republicans an alternative by focusing on issues he thinks are crucial to attracting minorities and young people to the party.
“Across the country thousands upon thousands of young people flocked to our message of limited government, privacy, criminal justice reform and a reasonable foreign policy,” he said. “Brushfires of Liberty were ignited, and those will carry on, as will I.
“Although, today I will suspend my campaign for President, the fight is far from over,” he added. “I will continue to carry the torch for Liberty in the United States Senate and I look forward to earning the privilege to represent the people of Kentucky for another term.”
A campaign adviser said the senator would not make an endorsement Wednesday. Paul, the adviser said, was at the Capitol for Senate votes.
Longtime associates of Ron Paul framed Rand Paul’s departure from the race as a stumble rather than a crippling defeat in the younger Paul’s career — and for their movement. Paul ally Trygve Olson said that libertarians and other conservatives probably would consider Paul in a future presidential cycle that was less crowded and driven by a celebrity front-runner.
“Rand Paul remains the best advocate those conservative have in the United States Senate,” Olson said. “Even if he didn’t have the kind of success he wanted, he’s an important voice on a whole set of issues. Assuming he’s reelected, he will continue to be that voice and be the person putting them at the center of the radar.”
Olson said Ron Paul’s star turn in the 2008 race was driven as much by the national political environment as it was by the candidate’s performance. “When Ron ran then, he was able to tap into the angst that was out there about the war and foreign policy,” he said.
Speaking to reporters in New Hampshire, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a staunch critic of Paul’s foreign policy positions, commended his Senate colleague for running “a good race” and wished him luck in his reelection bid.
“Rand is someone I disagree with on a lot of issues, but as I said the other night at the debate … he believes strongly in what he stands for, and I respect that,” said Rubio. “He’s a true believer on issues of limited government and the liberty issues and I respect it for him for it.”
Asked if he planned to ask Paul for his endorsement, Rubio replied: “Sure. I mean, I’d love to have Rand’s support.”
Sean Sullivan contributed to this post, which has been updated.
