Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Fort Worth, TX —Author and filmmaker Michael Moore, remarked on Friday evening that the timing of Hurricane Gustav hitting New Orleans area on the first day of the 2008 Republican National Convention is “proof that there is a god in heaven,” according to a Dallas Morning News.com report.
The remark, made on MSNBC’s show Countdown, drew criticism from Louisiana Congressman Steve Scalise.
“I demand an immediate apology from Michael Moore to the people of south Louisiana for his offensive and inappropriate comments,” said Scalise, a Republican in a statement on Saturday. “People in Louisiana, regardless of political affiliation, are making plans to leave to protect their families from this serious storm, and the God I know would not share Michael Moore’s glee for our plight,” according to a FoxNews.com report.
Moore said later in the broadcast that he hopes no one gets hurt because of the storm.
In a related story, the former Chairman of the Democrat National Committee Don Fowler apologized for a similar remark he made while flying home to North Carolina, from Denver, after the 2008 Democrat National Convention.
According to an ABCnews.com article, the super delegate who endorsed Hillary Clinton in 2007 “was caught on tape saying: ‘The hurricane’s going to hit New Orleans about the time they (Republicans) start. The timing is — at least it appears now that it’ll be there Monday. That just demonstrates that God’s on our side. [Laughter] Everything’s cool.’”
After the video of the remarks appeared on RedState.com, Fowler apologized. “If it offended anybody. I’m sorry for that,” said Fowler. “I don’t think anybody in America wishes for something bad to happen to New Orleans. I certainly don’t.”
The Chair of the South Carolina Republican Party, Katon Dawson, lashed out at Fowler and Spratt. “The outrageous behavior of two of the Obama campaign’s highest profile supporters in the south is despicable, a cynical politicization of life and death. I call on Barack Obama to immediately denounce Fowler and Spratt and demand sincere apologies from these members of the Democratic leadership,” according to the ABCnews.com report.
A 3-year-old girl that authorities have been searching for since July is likely dead, the Orange County, Fla., sheriff's department told a Florida TV station over the weekend.
"We clearly have evidence that indicates there was a dead body in the trunk of Casey [Anthony's] car, and that body was Caylee [Anthony]," Orange County Sheriff's Sgt. John Allen told ABC News affiliate WFTV.
Authorities have been seaching for Caylee Anthony since she was reported missing in July, nearly a month after her disappearance in June.
A law enforcement source confirmed to ABC News last week that air sample tests taken from the car trunk of her mother, Casey Anthony, allegedly revealed evidence of human decomposition. Casey has given the police changing and inaccurate information about the case, according to investigators.
Police last month said hairs the same length and color as Caylee's were found in the trunk of the car, and Casey Anthony's mother, Cindy Anthony, said in a 911 call that the car smelled like there had been a dead body in it.
Cindy Anthony has since retracted those comments, saying the smell could easily have been from garbage in the car.
Over the weekend, Casey Anthony was sent back to jail on new charges, including petty theft and use of a forged check. The $500,000 bail posted by a California bondsman that released Anthony from jail was also rescinded.
At a court hearing that reportedly lasted a little over a minute over the weekend, Judge Mike Miller set Anthony's bail at $3,000 for the new charges.
She is now being held on a total of six charges, including the original charges of child neglect and lying to investigators. Her total bail is $503,200, according to a report by The Orlando Sentinel.
Last week, bounty hunter Leonard Padilla, who helped Anthony secure her bond, also said that, in light of preliminary air sample tests that reportedly indicate a decomposing body was in Anthony's trunk, he now believes that Anthony accidentally killed her daughter. 
"I think it was an accident," he said. "Her friends called and said she wouldn't have harmed her, but if she did, she would have freaked."
Padilla, a self-styled celebrity bounty hunter, a few weeks ago offered to bail 22-year-old Anthony out of jail, saying that he thought he could convince her to cooperate in the search for Caylee. Padilla has said Anthony has not cooperated since her release.
Casey Anthony has said her daughter has been missing since mid-June, but she didn't report it until more than a month later. She has not been charged with her daughter's disappearance, though police have said she is a "person of interest" in the case.
She faces charges of child neglect, making false statements and obstructing an investigation for allegedly lying to the police.
Last week, prosecutors released more than 400 pages of documents, including police reports and transcripts of interviews, that portray Anthony as troubled and a habitual liar. The documents also allege that Anthony wanted to give Caylee up for adoption before she was born, but that her mother dissuaded her.
According to the documents, Anthony told police that she left the child with her baby sitter, then couldn't find them when she returned from work. But, no one had lived for months at the address Anthony gave for the babysitter.
Anthony also claimed to work for an Orlando theme park, but investigators say she had not worked there in months. The documents include a poem Anthony wrote on July 7, eight days before she reported her daughter missing: "What is given, Can be taken away. Everyone lies. Everyone dies."
BANGKOK (AFP) — Thai police called in army reinforcements early Tuesday as violent clashes between protesters in Bangkok left one person dead and dozens injured, officials and local media said.
There were reports of gunshots being fired as thousands of baton-wielding pro- and anti-government protesters clashed in the capital Bangkok.
Thai television showed protesters wearing helmets and carrying batons running though the streets, fighting with each other and throwing rocks, as people lay bleeding on the street.
The violence took place not far from the site where about 15,000 demonstrators have been besieging the main government compound for a week, demanding that Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej step down.
"Thousands of protesters from Sanam Luang went to the scene and clashed," the police officer in charge of the area told AFP, referring to a plaza where protesters often gather.
"There were reports of gunfire, but police cannot confirm who fired or how many were injured," said the officer, who did not wish to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media.
Thailand's national police chief Patcharavat Wongsuwan said the army had been called in to help calm the situation, but that invoking a state of emergency was still not necessary.
"The number of police is still enough to take care of the situation but we have asked the assistance from the army," he told a local news channel.
Government-owned television station NBT said four units of unarmed soldiers -- about 320 troops -- had been deployed to maintain order.
Peeratong Saichoew, a doctor with the Bangkok administration's media reporting bureau, said early reports were that at least one person had died.
"Initial reports which need to be confirmed later are that one died and 38 were injured. There is a report that one person was injured from gun shots while the rest injured from fighting. Now they are being treated at six hospitals nearby," he said.
Supporters of the so-called People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) have been squatting at Government House since last Tuesday. Tensions flared when they briefly scuffled with police on Friday.
They are demanding that Samak step down, accusing him of running the country on behalf of ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
But Samak has refused to bow to their demands and has said he is determined to end the crisis facing his seven-month-old government without bloodshed.
The increasing tension over the past week has prompted the powerful army chief to twice deny that the military was planning to stage a coup to end the turmoil.
Thaksin was overthrown in a coup in September 2006 following a massive PAD campaign against him, and his ally Samak has accused the anti-government coalition of trying to spark another putsch.
