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A week after being roasted for tweeting a fake conversation between Republican senators, CNN political commentator and former Clinton White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart claimed Wednesday night during the Senate trial’s dinner break that an argument used by Trump legal team member Alan Dershowitz was “un-American” and akin to those used by “authoritarian people” to justify “genocide.” OutFront host Erin Burnett asked Lockhart what he made of Dershowitz’s claim that a presidential action done “in the national interest...cannot be a quid pro quo that results in impeachment.” Without hesitation, Lockhart stated that while he’s “worked on about a dozen...

An affidavit we obtained describes the day a man on the Northeast side shot and killed a cat on an apartment balcony. A witness provided a statement of the event, accusing Donald Martin, 77, of animal cruelty. The statement says the witness saw the cat eating out of a bowl on the morning of Nov. 12 before hearing a loud noise. After the witness looked up, she saw Martin holding something in his hand as the cat seized up. Animal Care Services investigators said he shot at a group of cats, which residents at the complex typically help caring for......

If convicted on all counts, Robert Farmer can now spend up to 16 years in prison.bert Farmer, of San Jose, faces 21 felony animal abuse charges in Santa Clara County. A San Jose man on Tuesday pleaded guilty to 21 counts of torturing and killing cats. Robert Farmer originally faced up to 16 years in prison. Details of his plea agreement weren't immediately known. Investigators said Farmer was caught on surveillance cameras last year trying to round up on of his alleged victims. The cats were sometimes mutilated and abused, according to investigators. When police arrested Farmer, they said there...

A Miami-Dade teenager accused of killing and mutilating nearly two dozen cats last year in Palmetto Bay and Cutler Bay made an appearance in court Friday. During the hearing for Tyler Weinman, the judge ordered all lab tests in the case, including DNA tests, to be completed by June 18th. Weinman's attorney also gave a preview of what his defense might be. He revealed that he may argue the cats that Weinman is accused of killing were actually victims of a pair of wild pit bulls in the area. His trial is scheduled to begin on October 25th.

A Melbourne teenager who senselessly killed a beloved family cat has been sentenced to youth detention. The boy was one of two 15-year-olds who tied a rope around the cat's neck and hung it from a bridge in Melbourne's outer north in April 2008. A children's court magistrate said on Tuesday he was outraged, mortified and sickened by the attack. He said the killing was one of the most shocking things he had experienced in his 20 years on the bench. A sentencing report had recommended the boy not be detained, but the magistrate said the community was concerned and...

A cold-hearted animal killer stabbed his mother-in-law's feline to death with an umbrella, and then told relatives: "It was only a cat, who cares?" lawyers said Friday. Lordtyshon Garrett, 31, terrorized the 9-pound pussycat by poking and beating her, leaving the pet with injuries as severe as if she had fallen off a high-rise building or been hit by a car, animal experts said. In a futile attempt to fight back, the 4-year-old feline, Madea, bit and scratched the plastic umbrella. The ASPCA found the cat's DNA on the umbrella and used it to pin the crime on Garrett, whose...

It’s the digital age, the age where every move we make is virtually tracked through Twitter, Facebook, Myspace and more. We have cameras set up on nearly every corner, video clips are as easy to access as your cell phone, and yet somehow, animal cruelty still exists with over 5,000 cases being reported each month. Now a person has managed to slice 14 cats down their spine. Another 20 cats were poisoned and dumped into a Phoenix canal. And at least another 24 cats have been reported burned and/or drowned with threatening notes left next to their mutilated bodies in...

A wealthy woman who poisoned her neighbour's Abyssinian cats with tuna laced with anti-freeze has been ordered to pay £1,500 in compensation to the distraught owner. Katherine Hall, 57, put the deadly tins of tuna in her garden to stop Nush and Mr Baz urinating on her strawberries. The court heard that the five-and-a-half year old cats died in agony a few days later. When police searched Hall's garden they found remnants of the deadly meal, and a cat-scaring machine. Owner Andrew Boyd said it was a 'disgrace' that Hall did not receive a harsher punishment. 'I don't want to...

MIAMI — Police say a Florida teenager who is accused of killing more than a dozen cats in two south Miami neighborhoods fits the profile of a sociopath. In the 10-page arrest affidavit for Tyler Hayes Weinman, police said they tracked the 18-year-old’s car electronically and traced his cell phone before charging him with the crimes. The affidavit was unsealed today, the same day Weinman was formally arraigned in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court.

A teenager accused of killing of more than a dozen cats in South Florida does not pose a danger to himself or the community and can be released from jail on bond, a judge ruled Wednesday.

snip -"The former Miami Palmetto Senior High School student split his time between divorced parents who lived in Palmetto Bay and Cutler Bay, the communities where the killings took place." - snip

Frist's Cat Problem Tennessean columnist Gail Kerr notes that Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN) "fessed up in his 1989 book, Transplant, to adopting cats from shelters when he was in medical school, treating them like pets for a while, and then using them in his research experiments." The subject also came up in the 1994 Senate GOP primary. "It was a short-lived local story that briefly flared in the national press. Yes, what Frist did was odd and rather icky, but he also saved a lot of lives as a heart surgeon. The kitty killer charges were widely dismissed, and Frist...

We heard some buzz about this last night, but this morning's front-page story in the Tennessean about the hometown boy's big win, also includes some interesting nuggets on how MA Gov. Mitt Romney was able to score his impressive second-place finish. Romney, very quietly, worked with some Volunteer state supporters to bring in some college students from Union University. The school, which, btw, is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, is in Jackson, TN, in between Memphis and Nashville. Also note in the story, the efforts of Romney's Southern backers to cast him as the best candidate in the field...

McCain Holds the Cards Paul Weyrich Saturday, Feb. 25, 2006 It is always difficult to handicap the next presidential election before the midterm elections. So I will not go through the litany of the half-dozen Democrats, including Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who may contest for the nomination. The views range from "Hillary has got it in the bag" to "Hillary won't run." Democratic Party sentiment is said to range from "ready for another Clinton Era" to "fear of another Clinton Era"; from "the Party wants a familiar face" (Hillary) to "the Party seeks a totally new face" (former Governor Mark...

"No wonder they call us the Stupid Party," said a disgusted Republican operative in Washington. "You've got to wonder what these guys were thinking." At issue was the publication of a report by David Barrett, an independent counsel who has spent the better part of a decade looking into some of the most hair-raising allegations of presidential malfeasance in American history. Like most independent counsels, Barrett didn't set out on such a mission. He was assigned the duty of looking into whether former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros committed tax fraud in trying to cover up payments to...

Unlikely political allies, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., left, join forces to push for a new medical records bill which will allow...

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said today he hasn't ruled out a run for the presidency in 2008 but stressed that he hasn't given the matter much thought. Frist, who was the keynote speaker at a Leadership Knoxville Alumni Luncheon, said he is concentrating on his role in the Senate and will put off any decisions on future political moves until after he steps down in 2006. "I'm going to come right back home to Tennessee," the Nashville Republican said. Frist said he might ponder a presidential bid "if that were an option" after he leaves the Senate but...

If Frist wants the presidency, he should push Bush’s agenda through the Senate. The politics of 2005-6 and the politics of 2008 are about to collide. It is no secret that Tennessee senator Bill Frist wants to be president in 2008 and that many of the Bush folks want the Senate Majority Leader to be president. Frist is a compelling future candidate with a medical background that could give him significant general-election appeal. But, it is time to call things as they are. The next two years in the Senate are going to be rough. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid...