4.27.2009

Swine Flu spreads across North American Continent, New Zealand, Western Europe

The map below is constantly updated with new or suspected cases. It's the best I've found yet that makes the info easily obtainable.


View Swine Flu 2009 in a larger map

Swine flu at present is confirmed or suspected in the following places:


17 Mexican states including:

Mexico City
Veracruz - origin of current swine flu strain
Oaxaca
Baja California
San Luis Potosi
Mexico State
Mexicali

United States:
San Diego County, CA
Imperial County, CA
Cibolo, TX
San Antonio, TX
Queens, NY
Nassau, NY
Kansas
Lorain County, OH
Livingston County, MI
Newberry, SC


Internationally:
Auckland, NZ
Netanya, Israel
Bilbao, Spain
Albacete, Spain
Valencia, Spain
Nova Scotia
British Columbia
Lanarkshire, Scotland
France
Brazil

The general consensus of news items I've read seem to say that the lethal strain hasn't reached the United States yet, but that it will. The director of the CDC says that people will die with swine flu in the United States, and there's no way to contain it.

We'll continue to post updates here as there are significant developments.

UPDATE: Number and severity of Swine Flu cases in US to increase. Federal government will issue a travel advisory today declaring that Americans avoid non-essential travel to Mexico. Mercury News

4.26.2009

An enemy of my enemy is not my friend.

William Murtaugh for some reason thought that the revelations about Josh Melton meant that he had been exonerated for all the shit he's done in the past several years.

Not so fast, Murdiot.

Murt and monoxide are two peas in the same pod. Monoxide could learn a lot from Murt, as Murt has perfected his scam to the point that he doesn't have to work, and his pity stories always seem to result in women funneling the money to him.

From what I'm getting in my email in-box, Murt's most recent solicitation has something to do with shipping a server by freight. I don't understand the whole story, so anyone who knows what's going on feel free to comment.

I hadn't thought about Murt until he started appearing on my blog, commenting in his usual retarded way. Then I got several e-mails telling me that Murt is stealing my content and posting it as his own at his retardoblog.

One thing that pissed off a lot of people who used to follow Murt is that he let his chat room be used by a sex offender's sister to call the child witnesses liars. He let Tinker Bell go on a rant about the children who testified about her sister's inappropriate sexual conduct. For those of you who don't know about this, Tinker Bell is or was a mod at Murt's chat room. A couple months ago, her sister Wind Chime, a slovenly mod at Websleuths, was outted as having a criminal record for sexually abusing children. The case records state that she crawled her obese self up on a table, lay on her back, and spread her fat labia for the children to see. She also had sex in front of the kids. She pleaded GUILTY to these charges! In Murt's chat, Tinker Bell defended Wind Chime at the expense of the children who were victimized by Wind Chime. Murt, who supposedly cares about children, sure didn't care about them when he let the sex offender's sister call those kids liars in his chat room. Anyone who stayed in Murt's chat after that happened can't even pretend to care about children.

Murt's always given me the creepy vibe, though. So it's not surprising that sex offenders and their kin gravitate toward his chat room.

Honestly, he's yesterday's news. But it looks like he's still up to the same monkey business.

Anyone know of any cons that old Murt's been up to lately? Tell us about them here.

World readies for deadly Swine Flu pandemic.

If you haven't been reading about this and keeping up-to-date on it, you really should. The Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 only killed 3% of those it infected. So far, the current strain of Swine Flu is killing close to 10% of people reported infected with it.

What is particularly worrisome about the current strain of Swine Flu is that it's a combination of hog, avian, and human virii never seen before.

It's fast acting, too. On April 16th, President Barack Obama visited a museum in Mexico. The archaeologist who hosted him died the next day from a pneumonia-like illness now suspected to be the flu.

As of 2:30 AM, April 26, the flu is spreading throughout Mexico, and has been identified in the United States in four states: California, Kansas, New York, and Texas. It has also been identified in New Zealand and the UK.

World Health Officials believe it could reach pandemic status, and they also say that there's no way to contain it, because it's already spread so far. At least one author is saying that the outbreak is related to bioterrorism. That seems unlikely though, until proven othewise.

Fortunately, the flu responds well to Tamiflu and Relenza.

The map below shows the locations of current or suspected Swine Flu cases. This blog will have at least one update daily on this topic.



View Swine Flu 2009 in a larger map

4.24.2009

Tricia Griffith pretends she didn't know about the email campaign to the victims conference.

Here's her post scolding her members.

Yesterday, 12:00 AM
Tricia
Administrator Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Under that huge "house of cards" falling on me. Wow!
Posts: 6,007

To those who wish to vilify the Melanie Rieger Conference
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I received a call from Marc Klaas today. It seems members of Websleuths have been sending some angry emails to a wonderful organization based on what Marc said on Nancy the other night. I asked Marc to put his concerns in writing for me to post. Below is from Marc to us.

What bothers me is it seems some members took it upon themselves to use Websleuths to organize an actual email campaign against Sam and Wanda Rieger.

First, any email campaign, any petition, any sort of organized anything, has to be approved by me. That has always been a hard and fast rule here.

Of course what you do off the forum is none of my business but when an organization like the Melanie Rieger Conference receives emails from people saying they are from Websleuths then it becomes my business.

If the people who did this would have followed the rules and contacted me we could have avoided this embarrassing situation.

This is a totally different situation that (sic) Oprah. Even so, when someone posted about an "email campaign" Jbean pulled that thread until I approved it. I made the mistake of not posting a reminder about organizing email campaigns.

Websleuths is a very different forum in that it is privately owned by one person. I take a very active role in setting the rules for Websleuths. I am blessed with a great team of moderators who share my goals and make sure the forum runs smoothly.

I will be sending a letter to everyone involved in the Melanie Rieger Conference explaining that this was not endorsed by Websleuths in any way.

I don't know how many people were involved in this but apparently it was enough people from Websleuths writing some very angry and unfair emails to prompt Marc to contact me.

What I have found is Websleuths is a very respected forum. That has everything to do with you as the poster. With posters like you who post within reason and without name calling. When something like this happens it hurts all of us.

I'll leave the thread open if anyone has any questions or would like to comment.

Tricia

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Wait. Did readers catch that? It was ok for her readers to send harassing emails to Oprah, but not ok for them to do it to others? Anyone who was ever a member of Websleuths knows that these kind of email campaigns happen all the time. And they are organized openly at Websleuths.

I think that the only reason Tricia admonished her members is because Mark Klaas called her and bitched her out about it.

Websleuths has been on the decline for a year at least. Tricia Griffith was in no way qualified to own such a web site. Her own blog reveals an unintelligent, nutty (in a bad way) person who can't even string two sentences together, much less admin a web site.

At one time Websleuths mattered. The Caylee case dropped a huge opportunity into Tricia's huge lap. She blew it through bad decision after bad decision. The Klaas letter will, we hope, deter reasonable people from joining the forum.

Of course, anyone with any sense of integrity has already left Websleuths. The fact that the forum was being co-admined by a woman who was convicted for showing her nether regions to innocent children was enough justification for any reasonable person to leave.

We wonder what is wrong with the people who stay. Obviously - as indicated by the Klaas bitchslap - there's not much of substance left there.

The emperess of Websleuths has no clothes and the few people who are left there don't have the cajones to tell her that.

Mark Klaas disassociates himself from Websleuths

Recently Mark Klaas had become a friend to the website Websleuths, but he's disassociated himself from them with this letter.

The Anthonys were set to attend a homicide victims conference in Connecticut. Websleuths heard about this, and they made all kinds of irrational speculations about the conference's integrity. This pissed off Klaas enough to write an open letter to Websleuths.

Mark, we commend you. Websleuths at one point in time was a good site. Since Tricia Griffith became the owner, the place has declined terribly. The recent revelation that Tricia's chief moderator/co-admin Wind Chime has a criminal record for improper sexual behavior with children (she laid on a table, spread her cooch for children to see, and then had sex in front of those children according to the case records) was for many the death knell of the website. We are glad to see reputable people like Mark Klaas break his association with the site.

http://www.melanieriegerconference.com/pressrelease.php

Here is Mark's letter to Tricia and Websleuths:

Marc Klaas' Letter Sent to Websleuths

The other night you apparently heard, or somebody told you about, comments that I made on the Nancy Grace Show about George and Cindy Anthony’s scheduled appearance at the upcoming Melanie Ilene Rieger Memorial Conference. From those comments much has been imagined, speculated upon, and regurgitated in unfortunate ways. I would like to provide some context in hopes that you will modify your opinion and re-direct your anger.

Melanie Ilene Rieger, a college student, was murdered by her boyfriend on May 24, 1994. The conference was established by her parents Sam and Wanda, in her memory with the hope that others would avoid such tragedy. This year will mark my eleventh appearance at the conference. Not only am I honored and humbled by each and every invitation, but I consider my attendance as one of the high points of my year.

You see, the Melanie Rieger Conference is a serious forum that gathers amazing people with diverse perspectives about violent crime. Victims, service providers, law enforcement representatives, politicians and other advocates gather to find commonality, to discuss issues and to provide solutions to the myriad problems faced by crime victims. Over the course of my attendance I have met a diverse population of individuals who have educated and enlightened me, who have contributed to the body of literature and understanding, and have eased the burden of victimization. To malign these people and this conference based upon a few words or a single reference is unfair.

Anyone who has ever attended the Melanie Rieger Conference understands that it is a respectful forum that refuses to promote itself in an undignified way. The first mention that George and Cindy Anthony had been invited to attend was when I mentioned that fact on the Nancy Grace Show on April 20. Therefore, it is disingenuous to suggest that they are appearing as a way to drum up publicity for the conference. Anyone who would do so speaks from a lack of knowledge.

No single individual establishes the agenda or the guest list for the Melanie Rieger Conference, nor are these considerations made in a vacuum. The Conference Committee invites individual presenters months in advance, without foreknowledge of how events will affect those choices. Everyone invited to present at the Melanie Rieger Conference is considered carefully and chosen because they are either a member of the victim’s community or they are in a position to impact the community of victims. They are not chosen based on popularity or their contribution to pop culture.

I have known Sam and Wanda Rieger for more than a decade. They founded the Melanie Ilene Rieger Memorial Conference as a way to give meaning to their daughter’s murder. They are two of the finest people that I have ever met and two of the most steadfast and dedicated victim’s advocates in the United States.

Sincerely,


Marc Klaas
KlaasKids Foundation
P.O. Box 925
Sausalito, CA 94966
www.klaaskids.org