CS85

The full name of the victim is out there, and I, out of morbid curiosity, searched twitter.

I regretted this immediately. Admiral is right - there's nothing good out there. It's honestly making me wonder if there's any good people in the world. People are treating this like a victory or something. It makes me feel sick.

Another press conference tonight from the victim's lawyer regarding the evidence bag. Should start in about 15 minutes.

I'm imagining it goes something like this:

edit:

Update:

• The lobby of whatever room it's being held in contains a huge wooden, overly ornate entertainment center, complete with terrible old television.
• The DA took the alleged evidence bag as part of their investigation.
• The attorney is stepping down.
• This thing is effectively over.
• The story regarding the discovery of the torn evidence bag was apparently falsified.
• The moronic attorney dropped her first name to the press. Moron.
• The mother of the accuser's version of events was apparently shaky enough for the goddamn lawyer to run like hell a day after going to the public with this.
• "I don't have confidence in the way that I was told the bag was found."
• He's effectively throwing his client under the bus.

THIS IS AMAZING

CLUSTER

Bingo!

Big difference in value to the team (in play and revenue) between Brandon Marshall and Patrick Kane. Of course, there's also a big difference between being a general moody nutjob and a plausible rapist, so I dunno. Team's probably done winning Stanley Cups for the time being, so I guess it doesn't matter too much if they trade him. I'd lean toward no, unless they plan on drafting first overall again soon.

Definitely. You couldn't ask for two more disparate franchises than the Bears and Blackhawks, so maybe I erred in that comparison of players, but I feel like if the return is even remotely approaching fair, you act.

What irritates me most, as concerns the Blackhawks only, is that they stupidly gave Kane to the press. They took a stance, of sorts. All I think anyone wanted was silence.

I dunno. I'm going to eat nachos until I feel better.

If Kane does not go to prison, and it seems like he won't, tell you what, he's gotta sell that mansion in Buffalo and NEVER GO BACK TO THAT AWFUL PLACE. He needs to be kept in Chicago all year for the duration of his contract and never let out of the sights of various WirtzCorp hired goons. Remember when Derrick Rose's brother made him live in a house in Deerfield and pretty much keep to himself so he'd stay out of trouble (which failed when he cut his hand slicing an apple because being poor he didn't know how to eat fresh fruit)? That has to happen again but with Kane. He shouldn't be able to take off his goddamn pants without an off-duty cop undoing his belt for him.

I'd say trading a literal prison for a virtual one sounds fairly likely. It sounds nice to prophesy him being in some sort of team-imposed house arrest, but he'll be on the road w/ the team and no doubt at some point he'll find the drugs and booze again. The guy is what he is, and there's no changing that. Best thing for everybody in the Blackhawks organization is to give him a half-season to play, stay healthy, and let the dust settle on the scandal. Once things are settled a bit, trade him away to some dumbass franchise as soon as humanly possible.

Then spend the next several months subtly distancing yourself from him and selling things to the press about how the locker room is healthier, leadership blahblahblah, and unified team mentality, etc. See Marshall, Brandon.

Here's the bag, also:

Something about this stuff being placed in a crappy paper bag seems really weird to me.

The more I look into this, the more I feel like Kane's going to walk and perhaps have his name cleared. Not because I want him to as a fan, not because the victim isn't telling the truth, and not because Kane is innocent. He's going to walk because either:

1. Kane's lawyer is a no-holds-barred brilliantly evil mastermind

2a. The alleged victim's attorney is a moron.

2b. The alleged victim's attorney wasn't nearly prepared to counter the depths his opponent was willing to sink.

Kane is "winning" this thing because it's been handled brilliantly. There's been no evidence whatsoever presented within a courtroom. None. Perhaps never will be. All we've had is abundant rumor:

• Kane's DNA found only under her fingernails and shoulders
• multiple counts of non-Kane semen inside/on victim
• tons of random & unproven reports of legal teams meeting to discuss settling

...all of which paint the portrait of Kane as a victimized millionaire being attacked by a slut who wants his money.

All of that evidence could be dissolved as total bullcrap if you simply kept your case & evidence under lock and key until trial. However what we've got now is bedlam.

The evidence bag being torn and placed at the home of the victim's mother suggests that the chain of custody is ruined, rendering any findings from the kit (be it for or against Kane's innocence) as questionable, if not outright inadmissible. By going to the media outright, the victim's attorney is calling the entirety of the Buffalo & Erie County justice system out as corrupt, while also leaking the name of his client. This whole thing used to be in shades of gray, but thanks to this thing it's black and white -- somebody is blatantly lying here.

And I'm guessing it's not the girl.

Should be interesting? We're long past interesting and at least thirty miles into the Twilight Zone.

been busy with a work and have not read a lot (other then what might have happened).

TL;DR

Ryan Braun but with rape and semen instead of steroids and home runs.

I used to think Buffalo was a major American metropolis the world's largest living room.

And you would be right, sir.

The press conference was replayed on the radio while I was driving home... the attorney seems really sure the bag is authentic. I dunno. He represented a real sleazeball in his last high-profile case with some questionable tactics, so I wouldn't put a hoax beneath him as a way to permanently cast doubt on however the case plays out from here. Even still, this is a bit much. Everyone they interview on the news-- former DA, defense attorneys, retired cop-- all say the same thing: "If this is true, this is crazy."

This all seems like a really sloppy way to go. The Braun case is the only thing I can think of that's comparable in this case, but I'm no expert on the matter.

All I'm aware of is that this has become a true circus if it wasn't already one before.

To clarify what I was trying to say:

Don't -storm on an athlete who may or may not have done something wrong. I hate it when that occurs, and then it's all taken out of proportion.

I would if that athlete hadn't already set a blatantly clear pattern of behavior and scandal that had been carefully branded as "fun-loving" and "party animal."

Blackhawks camp allows Patrick Kane to take 'mind off things'

Take a Me Day, Pat. You deserve it. You've been through a lot. Poor guy.

UPDATE: Erie County DA's office going beyond leaking; four sources gushing to The Buffalo News that Kane's DNA was found on the victim and under her fingernails, but not inside her. Call off the grand jury, bring on the lovely parting gifts for our victim, this is never going to trial.

I'm surprised Kane hasn't adopted a Jeter-esque gift basket method yet, honestly.

REPORTER: I have a question for Patrick Kane!

MCD: Um I think we've had about enough regarding the --

REPORTER: It's a hockey question!

MCD:...uh, alright go ahead.

REPORTER: So Patrick, we watched you take the ice today and from what we saw you were aggressively slamming the ice with your skates, penetrating the defense, and scoring against an unwilling defender. Would you say that you were sober when you did this, or were you so drunk you don't remember, or did you pay off an off-duty police officer to - hey, get off me! Get off, I'm asking *struggling* I'm asking questions here, dammit, augh!

Yeah - what's the issue with Photobucket? I often see/hear it scoffed at here, but haven't had an issue with it.

• PBs UI is just garbage.
• PB is comparable to MySpace, and this is in no way a compliment. They constantly try to change but the site simply refuses to admit defeat, getting worse and worse with each revision.
• PB is annoying as hell about embedding images, often redirecting you to the photobucket page of that image rather than simply the .jpg or .png image itself.

I mean it's not the worst thing in the world, but I personally despise it.

Use an image hosting site to post pictures, basically.

imgur is the best. Photobucket is the worst.

Well, I guess imageshack is the worst but I don't even know if it's still around. Tinypic also sucks.

Just use imgur.

Photobucket works fine for me.

I CAST YOU OUT, PHOTOBUCKET DEVILS, LEAVE THIS MAN'S BODY, BEGONE

Use an image hosting site to post pictures, basically.

imgur is the best. Photobucket is the worst.

Well, I guess imageshack is the worst but I don't even know if it's still around. Tinypic also sucks.

Just use imgur.

I think there's some problem with the forums everything is really zoomed out. I can't read anything or even tell whose posting

ctrl+0 or command+0 (mac)

The one in the forum doesn't work but if you're on the home page, click the icon next to the forum. That one works.

It works, but it's also unacceptable when I've used the alternative for many years. I'm not asking a lot. If you won't let standard users employ it, remove it from the page so I'm not tortured by its presence.

I'll say it again, the Mark This Forum As Read button not working is really starting to rustle my jimmies. Fix this, please.

Why can I not mark forums as read anymore?

edit: I can if I click the forum icon, but not through the Mark as Read button.

Oh Lord. Move the Coyotes to Vegas and they're staying there for 15-20 years.

15? I'll take the over. What are the odds on Vegas gold? Will there be a cow skull or playing cards in their branding? Let's put some money on this. Make it interesting.

It's not chriscreamerssportslogos.net, it's Chris Creamer's SportsLogos.net. It's his baby and he's obviously dedicated a great portion of his life to this endeavor, and I don't think a single person until now has ever said "Who does this guy think he is?!"

The photo editor isn't working right now

Until it's fixed, you can use the Import photo from URL function instead.

--

Also, I'm getting the "you do not have permission to use this feature" error message when I try to mark my notifications as read.

I had/have that problem. I just went through and deleted them all.

I'm trying to 'mark as read' my notifications, but I get this:

Sorry, but you do not have permission to use this feature. If you are not logged in, you may do so using the form below if available.

What the hell? I've been able to do this before, and the dynamic notification bubble never, ever, ever works.

Bears - they were on TV, so I started rooting for them during the last gasps of the Cade McNown era. It has rarely improved from there. I chose poorly.

Cubs - family team, so I started rooting for them around 1996. It has rarely improved from there. I chose poorly.

Blackhawks - uncle is a huge fan, so I started rooting for them. It has been weird, but obviously successful lately.

Pacers - huge Reggie Miller fan. Once he retired/Malice in the Palace/uniform change, I stopped caring completely and utterly checked out.

Bulls^† - not really a fan, per se, so much as a casual follower of the team that wouldn't mind see them be successful.

I dropped it, and apologize to the membership for wasting their time with my obvious bit of fishing.