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-Lurid Crime Tales-
O.J. Simpson guilty of all 12 counts
2008-10-04
LAS VEGAS, Nevada (CNN) -- The jury has reached a verdict in O.J. Simpson's armed robbery and kidnapping trial in Las Vegas, Nevada, a defense lawyer and a court official said Friday. The jury reached the verdict 13 years to the day O.J. Simpson was acquitted of two murders.

Simpson arrived at the Clark County Justice Center at around 10:50 p.m. (1:50 a.m. Saturday ET). The verdicts were expected to be read once all of the lawyers and defendants arrived in the courtroom.

The jury of nine men and three women, none of them African-American, began deliberations Friday after hearing from 22 witnesses over 12 days of testimony. Chief among the witnesses were seven of the nine people inside Room 1203 of the Palace Station Hotel and Casino for the September 13, 2007 confrontation.
Posted by:GolfBravoUSMC

#43  Thanks, L1011.

I guess it's whatever one is used to. We think parlimentary systems are crazy, and everyone else thinks our system is nuts. (Probably we're both right.)

As Frank said, welcome. Good luck with your elections (and wish us good luck with ours, please!).

No thread "hijack" problem, tw - OJ's got plenty of time on his hands right about now; he can wait. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2008-10-04 23:47  

#42  Actually, I shouldn't have implied what I implied. Most people up here are against the bailout, it seems. It fits in neatly with their BDS. Too much to resist.
Posted by: L1011   2008-10-04 23:43  

#41  "I believe Harper is considered conservative. Is there anyone to the right of him?"

But to answer more directly, no. At least I can't think of anyone in the mainstream. He's from Alberta, the 51st state :) so that tells you pretty much everything.
His belief is that government should be at the optimal size of around 30% of GDP, and has been working toward that goal and has pretty much achieved it. Most reasonable Canadians agree that that is where things should be (we still want free health care and such).

The Liberals are on the decline partly due to their leadership. Stephane Dion just isn't connecting. It's for Harper to screw things up. If he does, Canada will swing towards the Liberals again. But until then...even the immigrants are moving towards Harper.

Thanks Frank...but I'm still Canadian! I'm for the bailout for Pete's sake :)
Posted by: L1011   2008-10-04 23:29  

#40  by the way, welcome L1011!
Posted by: Frank G   2008-10-04 23:13  

#39  From Left to Right:
NDP (New Democratic Party, Jack Layton),
Liberals (Stephane Dion, French dude from Quebec but a strong federalist, not a separatist),
and the Conservatives (Stephen Harper).

The Conservatives derive from the joining of the Reform Party (Alberta) and the Progressive Conservatives (estern Canada). They dropped the "Progressive", and as a result are as close to your Republicans as you're gonna get in Canada. Think of Stephen Harper (and Alberta for that matter) as Republican-lite, or Howard in Australia. As a member of The Reform Party, Harper wanted Canada to join the US & Australia in Iraq, something the Liberals recently reminded us of.

The Liberals are...well, liberals, but without the spending. They ran a surplus for a long time, but weren't keen on cutting taxes either. Interestingly, Harper destroyed the surplus (though it's still a surplus) and has been spending like a drunken liberal, but he also cut taxes...so make of it what you will.

The NDP probably wants to abolish NAFTA but they won't say it out loud. They say they're centre-left, but I'd call them communist-lite.

The Green Party is new, and I think they're of the same lineage as the Greens in Germany. They're left, but not sure how far left. They extol fiscal responsibility, balanced budgets etc. But they also want to legalize marijuana.

Add up the NDP & Liberal & Green votes and you get more than the Conservatives. But because the left is fractured like this, it meant the Conservatives became the government.

Interestingly there has been a move recently to change the election system in Canada, to prevent the so-called false majority, where a party can have a majority of seats in parliament with less than 50% of the popular vote. But this was defeated in a referendum. The proposed alternative seemed too convoluted, too gimmicky, imo.

This is the way I see it, at least. Mileage may vary.
Posted by: L1011   2008-10-04 23:03  

#38  L1011, could you give us a quick, simple rundown on Canadian political parties, from left (liberal) to right (conservative)?

I believe Harper is considered conservative. Is there anyone to the right of him? Thnx.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2008-10-04 22:13  

#37  The debate format was horrible and I doubt they'll do it again. It was the 5 of them plus the moderator sitting around a table. They had pre-recorded questions from the public.

It turned into a 4-against-Harper pay per view event (since we pay the taxes to see this), with no direct debating between the candidates. Occasionally they would attack someone else but mostly it was a bash Harper fest. Ridiculous format. Harper won simply by being able to withstand the attacks and not losing his cool.

The main Liberal candidate turned out to be irrelevant in this debate (even though he came out on top in the french language version held earlier...mostly because he's a francophone). It was all about Harper, Jack Layton, and Elizabeth May.

The Liberals are proposing the so-called Green Shift, revenue neutral plan, which shifts taxes from income to things that pollute. Meaning it will cost more to heat your home, but you'll get an income tax reduction to compensate, and other promised goodies. But they sort of dropped the idea now in the latter stages of the campaign, given the current economic conditions. Most people see this as a tax increase anyway and the Liberals will probably pay for it at the polls. That's not to say Harper will gain, but the NDP is becoming more unhinged as we go, so who knows. The Green party (Ms. May) might actually get someone elected to parliament (and yes, they want to legalize marijuana).
Posted by: L1011   2008-10-04 22:08  

#36  One can always hope, at least until the count is declared final, L1011. What form did your debate take? A moderator asking questions, town hall -- where the audience gets to pose the questions, or a proper debate where the participants can challenge one another directly?

I hope nobody minds my hijacking the thread, but poor Mr. Simpson will wait for us,
Posted by: trailing wife    2008-10-04 21:25  

#35  Oh crap. Google Chrome is annoying.
Posted by: L1011   2008-10-04 20:17  

#34  Hey, looks aren't everything. Ms. May may not have the halo effect of Sarah Palin but she did very well in the debate, placing 3rd (out of 5) in an opinion poll. Harper originally refused to participate in the debate if May was allowed in, but caved after a heavy public outcry.
She "sort of" endorsed the Liberal candidate, agreeing that her party will not run against him in some areas, so Harper's argument was that there would really be two Liberal candidates at the debate.

It'll be status quo, meaning another minority government for Harper.
Here's a nice map of the official results from the last election:
www.elections.ca/pas/39ge/39official.pdf (it's a hefty pdf file)
Keep in mind the colours are reversed up here: blue = Conservative, red = Liberal. I suspect the map won't change at all after this election. Perhaps you'll see more orange (NDP) where red used to be, but that's about it. Also notice that the big bad south-eastern Ontario also has a large swath of blue, Toronto being the Liberal stronghold of course.
Posted by: L1011   2008-10-04 20:16  

#33  Hey, looks aren't everything. Ms. May may not have the halo effect of Sarah Palin but she did very well in the debate, placing 3rd (out of 5) in an opinion poll. Harper originally refused to participate in the debate if May was allowed in, but caved after a heavy public outcry.
She "sort of" endorsed the Liberal candidate, agreeing that her party will not run against him in some areas, so Harper's argument was that there would really be two Liberal candidates at the debate.

It'll be status quo, meaning another minority government for Harper.
Here's a nice map of the official results from the last election:
www.elections.ca/pas/39ge/39official.pdf (it's a hefty pdf file)
Keep in mind the colours are reversed up here: blue = Conservative, red = Liberal. I suspect the map won't change at all after this election. Perhaps you'll see more orange (NDP) where red used to be, but that's about it. Also notice that the big bad south-eastern Ontario also has a large swath of blue, Toronto being the Liberal stronghold of course.
Posted by: L1011   2008-10-04 20:03  

#32  Ms. May may be comforted that her glasses are stylish, and her earrings match her eyes.

Here's hoping PM Harper and the Conservatives win more than 155 seats this time round.
Posted by: trailing wife   2008-10-04 18:29  

#31  "Ito ... Relegated to traffic court and other lowly civic issues forver more"

I do hope that's true, Woozle. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2008-10-04 16:14  

#30  Nor as competent, nor as likely to win, nor as critical to the future of Canada.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2008-10-04 15:56  

#29  "What's been going on up north that triggered it, do you think?"

Election season in both countries, brings out the best in people, coupled with the potential for hard economic times.

We had our debate at the same time (literally) you had the VP debate. Guess which one my household watched? (Well, technically I had my own tv and kept flipping back and forth, then watched it in its entirety at midnight on CNN). We have our own woman candidate for PM, but Elizabeth May is simply not as good looking as Sarah Palin.
Posted by: L1011   2008-10-04 15:53  

#28  The difference this time: Smarter jury, cheaper lawyers.

The differnce is that this time he screwed up in my state, not California!
Posted by: Secret Master   2008-10-04 15:41  

#27  O.J. Simpson's attorney: This was payback

...and we all know what payback is.
Posted by: tu3031   2008-10-04 15:36  

#26  Everybody loves O.J. Simpson court cases. German and English television followed the first trial very closely.

L1011, I think it's a moderator thing; I didn't know where you were from. Of course, I'm pretty hopeless at that kind of thing. The site statistics are interesting though -- people come here from all over the world. The link is in the right column of the main page. For some reason there have been a number of really obnoxiously anti-American Canadians posting here recently, which makes the moderators a bit touchy. What's been going on up north that triggered it, do you think?
Posted by: trailing wife   2008-10-04 15:34  

#25  "And who can argue with his logic..."

I can do even better: This is a time for reflection and repentenance before Yom Kippur. He's gonna have lots of time to reflect now.
Posted by: L1011   2008-10-04 15:26  

#24  "Amazing how interested our Canadian visitor is in a fairly routine US court case"

That and your fairly routine election is killing my time. But hey, I like it.
Btw, Do you always look up posters' IPs in comments you disagree with? How do you do that? I'd like to learn that trick.
Posted by: L1011   2008-10-04 15:23  

#23  Well, hockey season hasn't started yet.
And who can argue with his logic...
Posted by: tu3031   2008-10-04 14:50  

#22  Amazing how interested our Canadian visitor is in a fairly routine US court case, no?
Posted by: lotp   2008-10-04 14:42  

#21  Glass, a former television news reporter

Clearly, Judge Glass learnt something useful in her previous profession.
Posted by: trailing wife   2008-10-04 14:24  

#20  The irony of this is that he had a better case for innocence in L.V. than he had in L.A.
Posted by: L1011   2008-10-04 14:11  

#19  Oct 3rd....10th month, 3rd day- in numerology add together- and you get 13 convicted 13 years to the day after Nicole & Ron's murders the jury took 13 hours to deliberate & return the guilty verdict convicted of 12 crimes (and will pay in many minds for a 13th as well)
convicted on friday.

Friday the 13th

I rest my case
Posted by: L1011   2008-10-04 14:10  

#18  "The jury of nine men and three women, none of them African-American"

oops
Posted by: L1011   2008-10-04 13:57  

#17  This could work for him. He could get his second career back. Longest Yard III. Him, Mike Vick, Rae Carruth, Lawrence Phillips, Maurice Claret, Art Schlichter...
Posted by: tu3031   2008-10-04 12:32  

#16  Also had a no nonsense judge who was allowing no lawdog shit. She just told the fools to sit down and shut up. Trial complete in seven days. F**king Ito screwed the pooch big time because he loved the publicity. Ruined his career and his public image. Relegated to traffic court and other lowly civic issues forver more.
Posted by: Woozle Elmeter 2700   2008-10-04 11:45  

#15  The difference this time: Smarter jury, cheaper lawyers.
Racial issues that sprung OJ in L.A. were absent in Vegas trial.
Posted by: JohnQC   2008-10-04 10:22  

#14  CF's right: I'm convinced the real killer is incarcerated in the Nevada Corrections system and not out on the golf courses of America. Thank God that with OJ's clever plan to get on the inside, he will now be free to hunt for him. He's getting closer. The tension is palpable
Posted by: Frank G   2008-10-04 10:11  

#13  The doors have clanged behind him.

No pictures on a poster
No reward
And no bail
Posted by: .5MT   2008-10-04 09:54  

#12  Well, let's see what happens on appeal.

Appeals take a long time. He won't have bail, my schadenfreude is nearly terminal.
Posted by: Beldar Sneling8427   2008-10-04 09:24  

#11  Well, let's see what happens on appeal.  I'll celebrate when the doors clang behind him.
Posted by: lotp   2008-10-04 08:54  

#10  Glad the police and prosecutors didn't screw it up this time.
Posted by: DarthVader   2008-10-04 08:50  

#9  The mills of God grind slowly but they grind exceeding small...
Posted by: Jolutch Mussolini7800   2008-10-04 08:24  

#8  ...Karma's a bit@h.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski   2008-10-04 07:36  

#7  The difference this time: Smarter jury, cheaper lawyers.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy   2008-10-04 06:55  

#6  FINALLY! this b**** bastard gets what's comming to him!i hope the goldman family goes out and throws a party.
Posted by: sean   2008-10-04 06:53  

#5  The mills of the Gods...
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2008-10-04 06:13  

#4  Now he gets to look for Nicole's killer from the inside. Hope he enjoy's it.
Posted by: CrazyFool   2008-10-04 05:10  

#3  Put this man away where no one will hear his insanity. Let him be fed by a deaf-mute but feed him well.

-Alexandre Dumas, "The Man in the Iron Mask "
Posted by: BigEd   2008-10-04 05:05  

#2  wo0T !
Posted by: Oztralian   2008-10-04 04:46  

#1  Oh, Hell Yeah!!
Off to prison with this demented asshole!
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy   2008-10-04 03:44  

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