The Year's Most Disgusting Book
Former top cop Bernard Kerik's bleeding-heart prison memoir is a Matterhorn of hypocrisy
By Matt Taibbi April 7, 2015



http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-years-most-disgusting-book-20150407

Enter Bernie Kerik, who with this month's publication of Holy Shit: I Was Wrong About Everything For Like Thirty Straight Years (it's actually called From Jailer to Jailed: My Journey From Correction and Police Commissioner to Inmate #8488-054) will now go down as the most fugazi tough guy in the history of New York.

Kerik, who throughout his public life affected the look of a preposterous caricature of a political strongman, with a shaved-skull-and-mustache combo that came across as a goofball mix of Mussolini and Anton LaVey, was the guy we sent to rebuild the police forces in occupied Iraq. The Iraqis must have thought we were nuts. It's a surprise he didn't force the IPs to wear leather jerkins.

When he returned, George Bush nominated him to head the Homeland Security department. But Kerik suddenly withdrew from consideration under an avalanche of corruption charges.

It was the usual stuff for a corrupt city hack – ties to organized crime, contractors working on the house in exchange for handouts, affairs, tax evasion, etc. Kerik denied it all, vowing to "battle" the accusations the way he'd fought the terrorists on 9/11.

Who Is Rand Paul?

http://www.theonion.com/articles/who-is-rand-paul,38391/



Kentucky senator Rand Paul announced Tuesday his plans to run for president in 2016, with the libertarian becoming the second Republican to officially declare his candidacy. Here are some key facts to know about the first-term senator:

Political Vision: Supports bipartisanship between the Tea Party and GOP

Campaign Strategy: Hoping college-aged white males come to comprise over half of U.S. population

Effect Of Campaign Bumper Sticker On Car’s Resale Value: -11.5%

Piercings: 12

Mr. Joe Willett of Pahrump Nevada. Drummer, friend, an example of a gentleman and a person who made everyone feel good just by being in his presence.



I just got back to Nevada from Colorado after 9 months. I knew Joe had been having health scares off and on over the last year but he faced everything with strength and courage and humor.

Joe had cancer in his lymph nodes that spread to his lungs. He was prepared to battle it. He checked into the hospital in Summerlin but in relatively short order was sent home for hospice care.

I drove 60 miles into the desert yesterday, to the spot where my girlfriend was killed in a rollover accident this past August. I sat on the shoulder of the highway, the wild winds and passing traffic rocking my car. I looked out over the terrain and said a prayer and told her once again how much I missed her and I cried.

I drove home, went to Sunday services at church, and prayed for peace and comfort for my friend Joe.

Today, approximately 24 hours later, Joe's friends and family started posting eulogies on his Facebook page. He died at home, peacefully, earlier today. I cried again. The night before I left for Colorado I went into the club where Joe played regularly and I was DJ for several months. I went in for one last beer before leaving town. I didn't even notice him sitting there. It was such a joy to see him...we slung the bull for about an hour before I shook his hand and left.

I wanted to have another beer with him when I returned. When i knew that wasn't going to be possible, I wanted to visit my friend one last time. Turns out that also was not possible.

Realize this is a guy who toured with Hank Williams Jr. LONG before he became a joke during the McCain/Palin campaign, when he was dangerous, when he was straight-no-chaser outlaw country. Joe was there on the drum kit. Did he have stories? Are you kidding me?

But the biggest thing to know is how much musicians...myself included...admired and respected this man. I know a few people whose egos are beyond massive, but when Joe was in the room, they showed respect, they KNEW who was the boss.

This is the part where I tell you to let the people in your life who you love know what they mean to you before you no longer have that opportunity.

My girlfriend knew I loved her more than life.

Joe knew he was my friend because virtually EVERY time we would have some form of exchange it was bracketed with the words "my friend" from each of us.

It's a big world.

Joe was just one guy, doing the best he could.

But DAMN, did he leave this big chasm that has turned into a lake today, filled with the tears of the men and women who realized that they had the honor of knowing this man.

Rest in peace, my friend. We will meet again.

http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/las-vegas/suicide-m-resort-blamed-loss-free-buffet-life

The day before he put a gun to his head and killed himself at an M Resort buffet on Easter Sunday, a Las Vegas man filled a box with his complaints against the resort and its employees and mailed it to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

In his final, angry message to the world, delivered to the newspaper Monday, John Noble blamed his suicide on depression caused after the resort awarded him free meals at the buffet for life then banned him from the property for harassing some of the women working there.

“Today, I end my life due to the M Resort Spa Casino and its employees,” Noble wrote in one of two suicide notes he included with an obsessively detailed dossier on the people he blamed for destroying his life.

Noble’s hand-bound stack of notes and documents stretches on for more than 270 pages and includes a table of contents, photographs and a DVD.

Chris Christie To Embark On First Major 2016 Tour In New Hampshire

Christie is set to begin his longest campaign-style sojourn this year when he sets out April 14 on a four-day swing through the first primary state in the nation, The Huffington Post has learned.

Christie’s brain trust views his rare ability to connect with voters viscerally in face-to-face settings as his trump card for regaining the momentum he has lost on the national stage over the last year amid continued fallout from the "Bridgegate" scandal and New Jersey’s muddled state of affairs.

Though he is no longer spoken of as a top-tier candidate in most circles, Christie has by all accounts not been dissuaded from a trajectory that would have him officially jump into the race later this spring.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/06/chris-christie-2016_n_7008532.html