- Who knew? Apparently Houston is the new “go-to” place when you’re looking to score some illegal weapons for your friendly neighborhood drug cartel. That’s the word from federal law enforcement officials, who claim that Houston has become the primary firearms marketplace for Mexican drug cartels. These same officials say the Mexican gangsters have spent millions in Texas on military-style weapons and ammunition that are being now used in the cartels' ongoing clashes with Mexican police, government and citizens. “Our investigations show Houston is the top source for firearms going into Mexico, top source in the country,” said J. Dewey Webb, special agent in charge of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' Houston division. Why Houston? Clearly for these Mexican gangstas, the answer is why not. Houston is tailor-made for their needs, sporting scores of gun shops (gotta love Texans and their proclivity towards guns), its proximity to the border and the networks already in place for smuggling other illegal materials, namely narcotics, into the United States. To the end of stopping this gun market from further fueling these Mexican drug wars, the ATF is targeting at least three Houston groups it contends supply weapons to the Gulf Cartel, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court. This filing comes as part an investigation that was launched in 2007 after an audit of a gun store's sales records revealed suspicious transactions. Following up on those, ATF agents working with Mexican counterparts have traced at least 328 Houston-bought firearms to the cartels they are trying to take down. Mexican officials are right there fighting the battle alongside their American counterparts, mostly because they estimate that 90 percent of nearly 27,000 weapons seized from storage facilities or recovered from crime scenes in the past two years originated in the United States. In other words, if you are looking to stock up on illegal weapons for your own drug cartel or maybe looking to start one up with a few of your buddies, you had better get to Houston like yesterday and make your buys, because this market could be drying up….
- Well done America, well done. You all took a truly terrible holiday movie that doesn’t even last an hour and a half and you made it into the weekend’s top earner at the box office. Yes, leading the way at theaters over the Thanksgiving weekend was "Four Christmases," starring Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn. It was the top movie despite only bringing in $31.7 million. Adding that amount to what the film had already earned since opening Wednesday raises its total to $46.7 million. However, despite the mediocre numbers of the top film, it was still Hollywood's second-biggest Thanksgiving period ever in terms of revenue. Combined, the top 12 movies took in $223.7 million, trailing only the $232.2 million haul over the same weekend in 2000. Coming in second was Disney’s animated family movie “Bolt,” edging out the previous weekend’s top film, “Twilight.” Those two movies brought in $26.6 million and $26.4 million, respectively. The $24.4 million figure for “Twilight” represents a 62 percent decline from its $69.6 million debut, which has to be a discouraging sign for the film’s executives. If you’re looking out on the horizon for the next cheesy, lame, mindless holiday movie to come along and challenge “Four Christmases,” look no further than December 12, when the John Leguizamo tale "Nothing Like the Holidays” comes out. The other noteworthy movie opening over the weekend was the Nicole Kidman-Hugh Jackman epic "Australia," which opened at No. 5 with $14.8 million for the weekend and $20 million since its midweek opening. Here is how the top 10 shook down overall: 1.) "Four Christmases," $31.7 million, 2) "Bolt," $26.6 million, 3) "Twilight," $26.4 million, 4) "Quantum of Solace," $19.5 million, 5) "Australia," $14.8 million, 6) "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa," $14.5 million, 7) "Transporter 3," $12.3 million, 8) "Role Models," $5.3 million, 9) "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas," $1.7 million, 10) "Milk," $1.4 million. Not exactly the cadre of Oscar-worthy flicks you’d hope for at this, or any other, time of the year, but hten again, I’ve never put any stock in those lame awards shows anyhow……
- So much for just enjoying the fruits of being on the NFL’s best team, coming off a Super Bowl title just ten months ago and signing a monster contract in the offseason. Instead of flying high during what should be one of the most enjoyable times in his life, New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress is making a ginormous mess of things. The obvious meat of the story is that Burress accidentally shot himself in the thigh Friday night at a Manhattan night club. He did so after entering the Latin Quarter nightclub with a gun even though club security patted him down at the door, found the gun and initially refused to admit him with it. Somehow, Burress was able to talk club management into allowing him inside with his piece because he was wearing a lot of expensive jewelry and carrying a huge wad of cash, thus necessitating the gun for protection. Once inside, Burress was reportedly comped drinks the entire night and at some point during the evening, he jammed his gun into his waistband, where it slipped. When he went to grab it, the gun went off and shot Burress in the right thigh, causing a wound in the area of his right quadriceps. So what did P. Burress do? You have to go to the hospital, right? Well….yes, but not immediately. After teammate Antonio Pierce, who was also at the club, tried to help Burress stop the bleeding and also chastised him for having the gun in a public place, Burress and his boys piled into their vehicle and left. Pierce helped dispose of the gun, as Burress had other concerns - namely finding a hospital that would treat him “discreetly.” in other words, he was concerned that people would hear about his bonehead move and it would become a big, embarrassing story and one he could be in big legal trouble for. So he called and called, clearly forgetting that finding a hospital that would treat him without also calling the cops was impossible, as hospitals are legally bound to call police any time a person comes in with a gunshot wound. So Burress went to New York’s Cornell Hospital where he further tried to obscure his identity by checking in under the alias Harris Smith. Ah, good one, P. No one is going to recognize a 6’5, 230-pound dude with corn rows who helped lead that city’s team to a world championship less than a year ago. For some reason, people did find out who he was and the police did get involved, which became a bigger problem for Burress when 1) he lied and said the shooting happened at an Applebee’s (yeah, because people are getting shot all the time at their local Applebee’s), and 2) it was discovered that he does not have a concealed weapons permit. He had one - for Florida, and it was expired anyhow - but New York doesn’t recognize out-of-state permits. So now, Burress faces two counts of felony possession of a weapon in the second degree and the Giants are weighing the option of putting him on the injured reserve/non-football list, which would end his season. But hey, at least he has a big shot, famous attorney to fight his case. Burress has hired Benjamin Brafman, who tried to put on a brave face and promise that his client will continue to “be a star for the rest of his career.” During his career, Brafman has represented several high-profile clients, including Sean "Diddy" Combs on a bribery and gun possession charge in 2001. However, no attorney on the face of this or any other planet can obscure one immutable fact that arises from this case already: Plaxico Burress is a moron. He thinks he’s smart, he thinks he’s clever and practical, but dude is a Grade-A moron……
- There was double crossing, triple crossing, and if I’m not mistaken, a little bit of quadruple crossing on Prison Break last night. With Michael and his crew having been set up by Don Self so Self could steal Scylla, the chase was on this week from a lot of different angles. Self ratcheted things up a notch by calling his boss at Homeland Security and staging a phone call that allegedly came after Michael, Linc and their group set him up, shot Self and partner Miriam Holtz and kept Scylla. The call was staged because it was Self who shot his partner and reneged on the deal Michael and his group were supposed to receive - immunity. But by framing them, Self sent the wrath of Homeland Security down on Michael and Co. while he was able to get away and find a new buyer for Scylla. That means Michael, Sarah, Linc, Sucre and Mahone must flee their warehouse home and watch as the feds invade looking for them. After that, they take up refuge in a local motel as they try to figure out their next move. To help with that, they try to anticipate Self’s next move, which they believe will involve contacting the one person who knows how to move Scylla on the open market - Gretchen. A call to Gretchen leads to a meeting being set up at a local park in an hour. However, as Michael’s crew prepares for that meeting, Gretchen gets a call from someone else - Self. Seems he and his new partner T-Bag, who was at the scene where Self shot Miriam and is of use to Self because he knows where Gretchen’s family lives, are at the home of Gretchen’s sister, who also serves as surrogate mom for Gretchen’s daughter Emily. Knowing her sister and daughter are in danger, Gretchen has no choice but to go to the house and follow Self’s orders. Those orders are to set up a meeting with the buyer for Scylla and leave her sister and daughter as prisoners in their own home under T-Bag’s care. As all of this unfolds, there is another player in the game - the Company. General Jonathan Krantz is hell-bent on retrieving Scylla and when one of his top advisers pressures him on losing it in the first place and his plan to get it back, Krantz shoots him in the chest right in the middle of the conference room. The General also reveals that the Company has total surveillance on Homeland Security and on all of the players currently involved with Scylla. One of those is Herb Stanton, Self’s boss, who is working with the Senator Dallo, the congressman overseeing the covert operation to steal Scylla. The two agree to keep the operation in the dark, meaning no one knows about it and the manhunt for Scofield and his crew stays secret. That search gets a boost when Self forces Gretchen to set them up and tell the feds about the location of her planned meeting with Michael. Because of that double cross, Michael and the group are ambushed by the feds and the only reason any of them escape is because Michael has dispersed them around the park in scattered locations. The only one to get caught by the feds is Linc, and he’s caught as he ambushes an agent who is trying to follow Michael. The feds take Linc back to the warehouse and begin questioning him. He insists that Self is the real bad guy, and when the feds finally do bother to look into the allegations, they find a computer file on Self’s computer with a fake social security number, passport and plane ticket out of the country for the next day. They then lean on Linc to testify against Self and to also convince the rest of the crew to do the same. Michael agrees to testify and also to put off the necessary surgery he needs to remove the growth on his brain (have a feeling that may come back to bite him in the ass) and return to the warehouse to talk to Stanton, Dallo and their men. However, he’s also suspicious of the motive behind the meeting and to hedge his bets, Michael sends Sarah, Sucre and Mahone on an alleged recon mission to make sure the meeting is safe, but which is actually to keep them away from the warehouse and get them on a bus out of town. The reasoning for that becomes apparent when we see a flashback of a previous conversation between Dallo and Stanton in which they discuss not going after Self, but rather wiping the entire operation away and offing everyone involved. Thus, the meeting with Michael and Linc isn’t about getting them to testify, it’s about taking them out. When Michael figures it out, Stanton also demands to know where the rest of the team is and is prepared to kill Michael if he won't reveal that information. Just then, a shot rings out and Stanton is hit - by a man who has been posing as an internal investigator looking into the cover story that had been assigned to Linc, Michael and Co. of being in a federal supermax prison. It turns out the investigator was really a plant for the Company, looking to take custody of Michael and Linc and take them to see the General. However, those plans are also re-adjusted when Sarah and Sucre don’t leave town as Michael wanted them to and instead return to the warehouse. There, Sucre finds a gun hidden under a chair cushion and shoots the Company foot soldier trying to take the brothers Scofield in. That leaves only Michael, Linc, Sucre and the senator inside the warehouse. The senator tells them that the file with the only remaining information about their operation to steal Scylla is on the conference table in the next room and that by destroying it, then can destroy the last evidence linking them to the operation. He then walks away, leaving them on their own to figure out their next move. The group also appears to be without Mahone, who they believe has fled on his own. Meanwhile, Self and Gretchen are meeting with the buyer for Scylla in (of course) an alley under a freeway overpass, and all looks to be going according to plan until the buyer examines Scylla and tells Self they will be able to do business - once he has all of Scylla. See, Michael removed on small piece of the device, a node, and kept it in his possession, stashing it at the warehouse just in case. So when Self taunted Michael about being smarter than him, Michael knew that wasn’t true. Now, Michael has the last piece of Scylla and challenges Self to come get it from him, which judging by the preview for next week, Self tries to do with a full-scale assault. Will the assault work? What about Gretchen and the Company and their role in this? Stay tuned and some of those questions will undoubtedly be answered next week - as more are raised, of course……
- I’m not a believer in karma, mostly because people misuse the term and apply it to them getting revenge on someone who has hurt them, ignoring the actual meaning of the karma concept. However, this story is one that might actually show karma does exist, because how else can you describe an a-hole who is dumb enough and thoughtless enough to drive drunk ending his night by running over himself with his own vehicle? Yes, a 21-year-old ass hat in Santa Fe, N.M. has actually been accused of driving drunk and leading police on a chase that finally ended with him running over himself. Police were alerted to the presence of this tool on the roads when a tip was phoned in to the state's DrunkBuster hot line last Sunday afternoon. State Police Officer Grace Romero was the nearest officer and she spotted the man's pickup truck swerving across both lanes of a highway, driving at erratic speeds and refusing to stop when the officer attempted to pull him over. Instead, this a-hole kept on weaving along the road, narrowly missing other vehicles and ultimately driving through a ditch and a barbed-wire fence before stopping. At that point, some semblance of reality started to creep into his mind, because dude actually tried to put the truck into park. However, fortune was not on the side of the drunk driver who nearly killed or injured dozens of his fellow motorists, as the truck instead went into reverse. At that point, the man fell from his open door and both of his legs were run over by the front driver's side tire. Karma 1, Drunken Idiot 0. However, the a-hole in question did escape with only minor injuries and it will now be left to the oft-shaky wheels of justice to finish off his penance as he faces charges of aggravated driving while intoxicated, fleeing a police officer, careless driving and two other outstanding traffic warrants. But if nothing else, at least I got a laugh or fifty and some great mental images out of this. If only all drunk drivers could be run over by their own vehicles and be the only ones hurt by their thoughtless crimes…..
No comments:
Post a Comment