If ever there was a person who qualifies for execution by the state...

Norway gunman declared insane: prosecutor

By Pierre-Henry Deshayes (AFP) – 5 hours ago

OSLO — Anders Behring Breivik was criminally insane when he killed 77 people in Norway and is likely to be sent to a psychiatric ward, possibly for the rest of his life, prosecutors said Tuesday on the basis of a forensic examination.

Two psychiatrists who have been examining the 32-year-old rightwing extremist since his twin attacks on July 22 concluded in the report they handed over to the Oslo district court Tuesday that he had over time developed "paranoid schizophrenia."

Prosecutors said that if the diagnosis is confirmed by a forensic medicine board, they would ask for him to be sentenced to "compulsory mental health care," possibly for life, instead of prison.

"The experts describe a person who finds himself in his own delusional universe, where all of his thoughts and acts are governed by these illusions," prosecutor Svein Holden told reporters in Oslo.

The two experts who conducted 13 interviews over 36 hours with the right-wing extremist described in their 243-page report a person who had "grandiose illusions whereby he believes he is to determine who is to live and who is to die," Holden said.

He "committed these executions out of love for his people as he describes it," Holden said.

On July 22, he first set off a car bomb outside government buildings in Oslo, killing eight people.

After that, he went to the island of Utoeya, some 40 kilometres (25 miles) northwest of Oslo, where, disguised as a police officer, he spent nearly an hour and a half methodically shooting and killing another 69 people attending a summer camp, most of them teenagers.

The killings were the deadliest attacks committed in Norway since World War II, and profoundly shocked the normally tranquil nation.

Although he has confessed to the facts, Behring Breivik has refused to plead guilty, claiming he was waging a war and that his actions were "atrocious but necessary."

The confessed killer, who previously said he was on a crusade against multi-culturalism and the "Muslim invasion" of Europe, predicted according to the psychiatric evaluation a scenario whereby his alleged organisation, "the Knights Templar, take over power in Europe and he puts himself forward tentatively as the future regent in Norway."

The populist rightwing and anti-immigration Progress Party, which once counted Behring Breivik as a member, demanded a new evaluation of the gunman.

"It is completely incomprehensible and surprising that an individual who has planned these acts in such detail and who has proven himself capable of carrying them out should be declared unaccountable," vice party chair Per Sandberg told the VG daily's online edition.

Among survivors of the island massacre, reactions varied.

"It feels good to hear that this man is crazy," Adrian Pracon, who was seriously injured on Utoeya, said on microblogging site Twitter.

"It was obvious that he was not normal, but you can have serious psychological symptoms and still be (criminally) responsible," another survivor, Torunn Kanutte Husvik, told the NTB news agency.

Jarl Robert Christensen, who lost his 15-year-old daughter on the island, hailed that the psychiatric conclusions were "the worst possible" for Behring Breivik, who considers himself a great thinker.

This "pulverises his whole ideology, and I feel good about that," he told the commercial TV2 News Channel.

"But for us, no punishment will ever be enough," he added.

The psychiatric evaluation will now be examined by a committee of forensic experts before the court, which usually follows expert recommendations, makes the final call on whether Behring Breivik should be considered criminally insane.

The final conclusion will only affect sentencing and should have no impact on the criminal trial to determine his guilt, scheduled to start on April 16, 2012 and to last about 10 weeks.

If he is declared criminally insane and sentenced to closed psychiatric care, a judge will review his sentence every three years.

If he recovers from his illness, he could theoretically be transferred to a prison if he were considered a threat to society. He could also be released if the opposite scenario were to present itself.

His release is however considered a very unlikely scenario, and several lawyers of survivors and family members of the victims have said they are confident he will remain locked up for the rest of his life.

What Makes 100%?

This comes from 2 math teachers with a combined total of 70 yrs. experience.
It has an indisputable mathematical logic. It also made me Laugh Out Loud.
This is a strictly mathematical viewpoint..it goes like this:

What Makes 100%?

What does it mean to give MORE than 100%?

Ever wonder about those people who say they are giving more than 100%? We have all been to those meetings where someone wants you to give over 100%.

How about achieving 103%?

What makes up 100% in life?

Here's a little mathematical formula that might help you answer these questions:

If:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

is represented as:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26.

Then:

H-A-R-D-W-O-R-K
8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%

and

K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E
11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 =96%

But ,

A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E
1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%

And,

B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T
2+21+12+12+19+8+9+20 = 103%

AND, look how far ass kissing will take you.

A-S-S-K-I-S-S-I-N-G
1+19+19+11+9+19+19+9+14+7 =118%

So, one can conclude with mathematical certainty, that whileHard work and Knowledge will get you close, and Attitude will get you there, its the Bullshit andAss Kissing that will put you over the top. Now you know why some people are where they are!

German Domination Of Europe Is The Plan By Bruno Waterfield, in Brussels Economically

By Bruno Waterfield, in Brussels

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, is today expected to tell David Cameron that Britain does not need a referendum on EU treaty changes, despite demands from senior Conservatives for more powers to be repatriated to Britain.

The leaked memo, written by the German foreign office, discloses radical plans for an intrusive new European body that will be able to take over the economies of beleaguered eurozone countries.

It discloses that the EU’s largest economy is also preparing for other European countries, which are too large to be bailed out, to default on their debts — effectively going bankrupt. It will prompt fears that German plans to deal with the eurozone crisis involve an erosion of national sovereignty that could pave the way for a European “super state” with its own tax and spending plans set in Brussels.

Britain would be relegated to a new outer group of EU members who are not in the single currency. Mr Cameron will today travel to Brussels and Berlin for tense negotiations with Mrs Merkel amid growing disagreement between the leaders over how to deal with the eurozone.

The Prime Minister is increasingly exasperated that Germany refuses to provide more financial help for Italy and other struggling countries amid concerns that the crisis is having a “chilling effect” on the British economy. Mrs Merkel yesterday said she expected Mr Cameron to “examine a stronger involvement with other countries” once the eurozone crisis had been resolved.

German memo shows secret slide towards a super-state 17 Nov 2011
Protests and violence on the streets in Italy and Greece 17 Nov 2011
Michael Burleigh: who voted for you, Mario Monti? 17 Nov 2011
Fitch: Italy 'already in recession' 17 Nov 2011

She said: “We’ve seen a sovereign debt crisis evolve in some states and particularly those in the eurozone find themselves in the international focus.

“It was right of David Cameron to concern himself with the UK’s debt issues when he became Prime Minister — that’s my firm conviction, and once the negative focus has moved away from Europe, he will examine a stronger involvement with other countries.”

The eurozone contagion is threatening to spread to Spain and France. Yesterday, the price of Spanish government borrowing reached the “brink” of crisis point.
The Spanish government sold 10-year bonds at a 6.975 per cent yield — just below the seven per cent level which has triggered international assistance elsewhere.

Amid protests in Milan and Turin, Mario Monti, Italy’s unelected “technocrat” prime minister unveiled sweeping austerity reforms. Mr Monti warned that a break-up of the single currency would take eurozone economies “back to the 1950s” in terms of wealth.

The six-page German foreign ministry paper sets out plans for the creation of a European Monetary Fund with a transfer of sovereignty away from member states.
The fund will have the power to take ailing countries into receivership and run their economies. Even more controversially, the document, entitled The future of the EU: required integration policy improvements for the creation of a Stability Union, declares that the treaty changes are a first stage “in which the EU will develop into a political union”.

“The debate on the way towards a political union must begin as soon as the course toward stability union is charted,” it concludes.

The negotiating document also explicitly examines ways to limit treaty changes to speed up the reforms. It indicates that Mrs Merkel will tell Mr Cameron to rule out a popular EU vote in Britain.
“Limiting the effect of the treaty changes to the eurozone states would make ratification easier, which would nevertheless be required by all EU member states (thereby less referenda could be necessary, which could also affect the UK),” read the paper.

Senior government officials confirmed that they had dropped a previous demand that EU powers should be “repatriated” to Britain in return for the treaty changes requested by Germany, a move that will anger Conservative MPs.

“I don’t think that anyone is seriously proposing going down that route,” a senior government source said.

Open Europe, a think tank, last night called for Mr Cameron to demand something in return from Mrs Merkel for her “far-reaching plan”, which requires the unanimous consent of all 27 EU countries, giving Britain a veto.

“It would be the first step towards a vision of 'political union’ that would have major consequences for the future of the entire EU, and therefore the UK’s place within it,” said Stephen Booth, the think tank's research director.

"Merkel is daring Cameron to call her bluff, but if the UK is serious about taking a leadership role in shaping the EU, Cameron will have to take a stand sooner rather than later."

Bill Cash, chairman of the Commons European scrutiny committee, accused the Coalition of standing by in "no–man's land" while Germany shaped the EU to suit its own interests.
"We are going to get nothing significant in return for agreeing to this," he said.
Mr Cameron is today also expected to pressurise Mrs Merkel into lifting German opposition to the use of the European Central Bank to rescue the euro.

However, last night, Mrs Merkel said: "If politicians think the ECB can resolve the problem of the euro's weaknesses, then I think they are persuading themselves of something that won't happen.

Paterno, others who did too little should all be forced to resign

Paterno, others who did too little should all be forced to resign
By Bryan Burwell, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS - The adults who are deeply entwined in the Penn State scandal are lucky.

They are surrounded by grown-ups looking out for their best interests.

Legendary head football coach Joe Paterno is being carefully herded away from the media hordes who are roaming campus demanding to know what did he know and when did he know it. Attorneys are surrounding alleged pedophile and former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, harboring him from the outraged public that thinks he is the most despicable human being on the planet. And of course, there is plenty of circumstantial evidence mounting that for more than a decade, a lot of adults in Happy Valley have been far more interested in preserving images and institutions than in upholding the law.

What's pathetic is how none of these grown-ups invested nearly the same efforts to protect the eight children Sandusky is accused of abusing as they apparently have to cover their own rear ends.

If we're to believe what is detailed in the 23-page grand jury report, it's beyond disgusting what was allowed to happen for so long. There are no good guys in this story. The pages read like the worst nightmare you can imagine. I've been covering sports for nearly 40 years and can't recall a public scandal in college athletics as loathsome as this. Drugs? Sleazy agents? Free cars? Under-the-table money? Seedy boosters?

They all pale in comparison to the taint that has fallen on the Penn State football program. Sickening and despicable are some of the words that come to mind when trying to consider the charges that are contained in the grand jury report. There are other words I want to use, but this is a family newspaper, so I'm not allowed.

The details of the allegations from the grand jury are the kind that make the parent in me want to hurt somebody. As a parent, I have my own ideas about what should happen to a sexual predator. If Sandusky is guilty, I want Old Testament justice to be inflicted on him in the worst ways imaginable.

But if the details are true, a lot of people need to lose their jobs, not the least of them being the highly regarded legend himself, Paterno. "Success with honor" has been Paterno's mission statement in his 46 years as the head coach of the Nittany Lions. He built his football program on that core belief and lived up to that code almost every step of the way to his record 409 victories, five perfect seasons and two national championships.

Paterno is one of the two or three most honorable men I've ever covered in the vast culture of college athletics, and that's no easy thing to do. He did his job with honor and decency and integrity and without a hint of scandal until now. And it's because of those very standards that he helped create that he has no choice but to step aside now. He chose those words "success with honor" for a reason and proudly lived up to his code for a long time.

And it is because of those words that he has to go, because at the end of his time at Penn State, Paterno forgot his code, apparently choosing the preservation of his image and program over doing the right thing.

If everything in that report is true - or even half of it - I will not feel a hint of sorrow for Paterno if he is forced out of his job. When the allegations against Sandusky were brought to his attention in 2002 by a 28-year-old graduate assistant, who testified before the grand jury that he caught Sandusky naked in the shower in the football locker room sodomizing a 10-year-old boy, Paterno waited 24 hours before reporting the incident to director of athletics Tim Curley, who never reported it to the police.

By never doing more than reporting the alleged incident to his superiors, Paterno was covered legally. But once he realized that Curley was throwing the whole thing under a rug and Sandusky was still bringing young boys around the program, Paterno fell far short of his moral responsibilities.

Paterno should have confronted Curley and told him if he was too spineless to report Sandusky to the police, he was going to do it himself.

If the grand jury report is true, everyone in this story deserves whatever bad happens to them. Line them all up and hand them their walking papers. Scarlet letters for the entire lot. I also don't understand how the assistant coach who said he caught Sandusky, Mike McQueary, should get off easy in this either. He was 28, not 12, when he says he discovered Sandusky naked in the locker-room shower with a naked 10-year-old boy, apparently sexually abusing the boy.

So instead of cringing in disgust and quietly walking away, why didn't McQueary rush in, knock the crap out of Sandusky and immediately rescue the child?

Instead, he went home, called his father and then met with Paterno the next day. It took 48 hours from the time McQueary saw Sandusky until Paterno reported the incident to Curley. Paterno said McQueary told him he saw Sandusky "fondling or doing something of a sexual nature to a young boy."

In explaining why he didn't take the incident to the police when he realized nothing was being done by Curley, Paterno now says that there was not enough specifics told to him.

Really?

When I see the words "fondling or something of a sexual nature to a young boy" in a sentence, I think that's specific enough for me.

At least Curley and university vice president Gary Schultz had the good sense to step down as a result of their role in the cover-up.

Paterno and McQueary ought to be the next ones to go, but not before they both stand in front of a bank full of microphones and television cameras and take ownership of their culpability.

The university is trying to keep him away from a microphone now, no doubt to protect Penn State from lawsuits. The school is afraid he might say something that will make them liable. Too late for that. This grand jury report will be the blueprint for eight or nine civil suits.

But Paterno has a chance to go out the same way he came into Penn State, with his dignity intact, by stepping up to the microphones and in announcing his resignation, tell everyone that he could have and should have done more.

And then tell those young men he's sorry. That's the very least they deserve.

© Copyright (c) McClatchy-Tribune Information Services


Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/sports/Paterno+others+little+should+forced+resign/5680299/story.html#ixzz1dDCs501B

Republican Herman Cain faces harassment allegations by four women against

(Reuters) - Republican Herman Cain will try to move past an escalating sexual harassment controversy on Wednesday during a U.S. presidential debate on economic issues held in the hard-hit manufacturing state of Michigan.

The debate will be a homecoming for Cain's rival Mitt Romney, who was born in Michigan and hopes to consolidate his status as the candidate-to-beat in the Republican race to choose a 2012 challenger to President Barack Obama.

The economic focus is likely to limit discussion of the harassment allegations by four women against Cain, which threaten to derail the former pizza executive's White House campaign despite his denials.

But the controversy, which has lingered for more than a week, will be hard for voters to forget. Polls show it has eroded favorable voter perceptions of Cain without knocking him from his spot near the top of the pack with Romney so far.

"This debate is going to be about Herman Cain even if nothing is said about the harassment allegations all night," Republican strategist Ford O'Connell said.

Cain's rivals have tiptoed around the subject, trying to avoid looking like they are piling on. Romney and Newt Gingrich urged Cain on Tuesday to address the charges, which he did in a news conference where he repeated his denials and vowed they would not force him to withdraw.

Cain's difficulties could open the door for one of the handful of other candidates battling for the allegiance of conservatives in hopes of becoming the clear alternative to the more moderate Romney in the Republican race.

"The whole Cain saga creates a real opportunity for one of the other anti-Romney candidates, someone like Newt Gingrich or Rick Perry, to shine," O'Connell said.

So far conservatives have failed to coalesce around a single candidate. A series of conservative contenders -- first U.S. congresswoman Michele Bachmann, then Perry and now Cain -- has risen in polls to challenge Romney only to fall back.

GINGRICH ON THE RISE?

Gingrich, the former U.S. House speaker, has seen his poll numbers inch up and hopes to challenge for a spot in the top tier. Perry, the Texas governor, is still mired in the middle of the pack but has started to air campaign commercials in states with early nominating contests.

Support for Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, has held relatively steady in the mid-20s in polls for much of the year.

Eight candidates will participate in the 8 p.m. EST/0100 GMT debate at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, outside Detroit.

The economic struggles in the state, which has seen its manufacturing base hit hard by the economic downturn, will serve as a backdrop to the debate. The state unemployment rate of 11.1 percent in Michigan is the third-highest in the country and well above the 9 percent national rate.

Romney, whose father was a former Michigan governor and a former auto executive, is likely to be in the hot seat again as the rest of the Republican field races to catch up.

"Realistically, Romney is going to be a target, especially given the fact he is from Michigan and continues to be perceived as the guy to beat by a lot of folks," said Saul Anuzis, a former Michigan state party chairman and a Romney supporter.

Democrats got the ball rolling on Tuesday with an attack on Romney for opposing the 2009 auto industry bailout that helped revive Michigan-based General Motors and Chrysler. The web video featured a Romney column written in 2008 titled "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt."

Democrats hope the issue will be a potent one for Obama if he meets Romney in a 2012 general election match.

With the Republican campaign consumed for more than a week by the Cain scandal, Anuzis said he expected a concerted effort to focus on economic issues like the flat tax plans from Cain and Perry and to stay away from the Cain controversy.

"I think there will be pressure to ensure they stay on the issues and there is some substance to it," Anuzis said.

Anti-Netanyahu remark splashes back on Obama

Anti-Netanyahu remark splashes back on Obama

The Israeli prime minister is having the last laugh as the U.S. president is forced into damage control

By Alex Spillius and Adrian Blomfield And Jon Swaine, Daily Telegraph

Even before the latest accidental encounter between global leaders and an open microphone, we knew Benjamin Netanyahu was not popular among his peers.

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, let it be known earlier this year that she had chastised the Israeli prime minister for his weak commitment to peace in the Middle East.

Bill Clinton said Netanyahu's rightwing coalition was undermining the peace process that he had come so close to securing as U.S. president in 2000.

And even before U.S. President Barack Obama's unwitting confession to French President Nicolas Sarkozy last week that he rued the daily necessity of dealing with Netanyahu, we knew that relations between the White House and the Israeli prime minister's office were distinctly frosty.

The conversation went like this: "I cannot bear him, he's a liar," Sarkozy said of Netanyahu.

Damaging his pro-Israel credentials, the U.S. president did not demur.

Instead he exacerbated his sin in the eyes of pro-Israeli Americans by retorting: "You may be sick of him, but me, I have to deal with him every day."

Critics of Netanyahu will see the conversation as evidence of the true way in which he is regarded in the West, with many suspecting that greater blame for the stalemate in the peace process is attributed to Netanyahu than the Palestinians.

But the exchange looks to damage Obama far more than Netanyahu as it was gleefully seized on by Republicans.

"Israel is under more pressure and probably in more danger than they've been since the '67 war and that kind of comment is not only not helpful, but indicative of some of the policies towards Israel that this administration has been part of," John McCain, the Republican senator for Arizona, told Fox News.

Under pressure from Republicans and supporters of Israel in his own party, Obama has tried to strike a more conciliatory note, notably by his vocal opposition to Palestinian attempts to win statehood at the United Nations.

But his change of tone has largely been seen as born of domestic necessity and it is widely believed that he remains irritated by Netanyahu's obduracy over Jewish settlement building, an issue that has prevented the resumption of Middle East peace talks.

But from Netanyahu's viewpoint, it has been strictly business.

During his first stint as prime minister, he was forced by Clinton to accept the Wye River agreement - then seen as a significant step toward peace - and so contributed to his defeat in 1999 as Likud supporters rejected the concessions.

Upon taking office again in late 2008, Netanyahu seems to have determined that another Democratic president would not succeed in appealing over his head to his electorate.

When Obama demanded Israel stop building settlements in the Palestinian West Bank, Netanyahu refused, agreeing eventually to a partial 10-month moratorium.

The Israelis then chose to announce plans to build 1,600 settler homes while Joe Biden, the U.S. vice-president and a staunch supporter of Israel during his long Senate career, was visiting Israel.

Then Netanyahu had the nerve to contradict the leader of the free world in his own home. At a White House photo opportunity in May, he said Obama's call for a peace deal based on Israel's pre-1967 war borders was "indefensible," even though it had simply echoed every negotiating attempt for the past 20 years.

Obama simply sat there, apparently summoning every ounce of his famous self-control not to retaliate.

The truth is, Netanyahu can be as rude as he likes to Obama. He knows that Israeli public opinion has shifted to the right sufficiently since his first premiership to support his bold approach. He now knows that the young man in the White House does not relish a fight.

And with his acute insight into America's domestic politics, he knows that the Republicans who recaptured Congress a year ago will offer him their unyielding support.

Mitt Romney, the Republican most likely to face Obama in the 2012 election, is already deploying a stock phrase that the president is "throwing Israel under the bus."

Netanyahu knows that in election season Obama will not dare expose himself to charges that he is not fully behind Israel.

Despite the insults inadvertently cast his way, it is the Israeli prime minister who is having the last laugh.


Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Anti+Netanyahu+remark+splashes+back+Obama/5680061/story.html#ixzz1dDBE27Dh

Michael Jackson's doctor is found guilty- Dr. Murray

Jackson's doctor is found guilty

(UKPA) –

Michael Jackson's doctor has been convicted of involuntary manslaughter after he administered a lethal dose of a powerful anaesthetic that killed the pop star.

The verdict against Dr Conrad Murray marked the latest chapter in one of pop culture's most shocking tragedies - the death of the King of Pop on the eve of the singer's heavily promoted comeback concerts.

Members of Jackson's family, including his sister LaToya, wept quietly after the verdict was read at the Los Angeles court.

Mother Katherine Jackson later said: "I feel better now." Asked if she was confident this would be the outcome, she replied: "Yes I was."

La Toya Jackson said she was overjoyed. "Michael was looking over us," she said on her way out of the courthouse.

Murray sat stone-faced during the verdict and was handcuffed and taken into custody without bail until sentencing on November 29.

A shriek broke the eerie silence in the packed courtroom when the verdict was read, and the crowd erupted outside the courthouse. Jubilant Jackson fans cheered and sang "Beat It" as they held signs that read "guilty" and "killer".

The jury deliberated for less than nine hours. Murray faces a sentence of up to four years in prison. He could also lose his medical licence.

Los Angeles Superior Court heard that Murray, 58, gave the anaesthetic propofol to the singer to help him overcome his chronic insomnia, but prosecutors said the use of the drug as a sleeping aid violated standards of care.

Murray, who was due to be paid £150,000 a month for his role as the singer's doctor, acted in a criminally negligent way by using propofol as an insomnia treatment without the proper staff or medical equipment, the court was told.

Joe Frazier A Former Heavy Weight Champion Down For The Final Count

PHILADELPHIA — He beat Muhammad Ali in the Fight of the Century, battled him nearly to the death in the Thrilla in Manila. Then Joe Frazier spent the rest of his life trying to fight his way out of Ali's shadow.

That was one fight Frazier never could win.

He was once a heavyweight champion, and a great one at that. Ali would say as much after Frazier knocked him down in the 15th round en route to becoming the first man to beat Ali at Madison Square Garden in March 1971.

But he bore the burden of being Ali's foil, and he paid the price. Bitter for years about the taunts his former nemesis once threw his way, Frazier only in recent times came to terms with what happened in the past and said he had forgiven Ali for everything he said.

Frazier, who died Monday night after a brief battle with liver cancer at the age of 67, will forever be linked to Ali. But no one in boxing would ever dream of anointing Ali as The Greatest unless he, too, was linked to Smokin' Joe.

"You can't mention Ali without mentioning Joe Frazier," said former AP boxing writer Ed Schuyler Jr. "He beat Ali, don't forget that."

They fought three times, twice in the heart of New York City and once in the morning in a steamy arena in the Philippines. They went 41 rounds together, with neither giving an inch and both giving it their all.

In their last fight in Manila in 1975, they traded punches with a fervor that seemed unimaginable among heavyweights. Frazier gave almost as good as he got for 14 rounds, then had to be held back by trainer Eddie Futch as he tried to go out for the final round, unable to see.

"Closest thing to dying that I know of," Ali said afterward.


Ali was as merciless with Frazier out of the ring as he was inside it. He called him a gorilla, and mocked him as an Uncle Tom. But he respected him as a fighter, especially after Frazier won a decision to defend his heavyweight title against the then-unbeaten Ali in a fight that was so big Frank Sinatra was shooting pictures at ringside and both fighters earned an astonishing $2.5 million.

The night at the Garden 40 years ago remained fresh in Frazier's mind as he talked about his life, career and relationship with Ali a few months before he died.

"I can't go nowhere where it's not mentioned," he told The Associated Press. "That was the greatest thing that ever happened in my life."

Bob Arum, who once promoted Ali, said he was saddened by Frazier's passing.

"He was such an inspirational guy. A decent guy. A man of his word," Arum said. "I'm torn up by Joe dying at this relatively young age. I can't say enought about Joe."

Frazier's death was announced in a statement by his family, who asked to be able to grieve privately and said they would announce "our father's homecoming celebration" as soon as possible.

Though slowed in his later years and his speech slurred by the toll of punches taken in the ring, Frazier was still active on the autograph circuit in the months before he died. In September he went to Las Vegas, where he signed autographs in the lobby of the MGM Grand hotel-casino shortly before Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s fight against Victor Ortiz.

An old friend, Gene Kilroy, visited with him and watched Frazier work the crowd.

"He was so nice to everybody," Kilroy said. "He would say to each of them, `Joe Frazier, sharp as a razor, what's your name?'"

Frazier was small for a heavyweight, weighing just 205 pounds when he won the title by stopping Jimmy Ellis in the fifth round of their 1970 fight at Madison Square Garden. But he fought every minute of every round going forward behind a vicious left hook, and there were few fighters who could withstand his constant pressure.

His reign as heavyweight champion lasted only four fights – including the win over Ali – before he ran into an even more fearsome slugger than himself. George Foreman responded to Frazier's constant attack by dropping him three times in the first round and three more in the second before their 1973 fight in Jamaica was waved to a close and the world had a new heavyweight champion.

Two fights later, he met Ali in a rematch of their first fight, only this time the outcome was different. Ali won a 12-round decision, and later that year stopped George Foreman in the Rumble in the Jungle in Zaire.

There had to be a third fight, though, and what a fight it was. With Ali's heavyweight title at stake, the two met in Manila in a fight that will long be seared in boxing history.

Frazier went after Ali round after round, landing his left hook with regularity as he made Ali backpedal around the ring. But Ali responded with left jabs and right hands that found their mark again and again. Even the intense heat inside the arena couldn't stop the two as they fought every minute of every round with neither willing to concede the other one second of the round.

"They told me Joe Frazier was through," Ali told Frazier at one point during the fight.

"They lied," Frazier said, before hitting Ali with a left hook.

Finally, though, Frazier simply couldn't see and Futch would not let him go out for the 15th round. Ali won the fight while on his stool, exhausted and contemplating himself whether to go on.

It was one of the greatest fights ever, but it took a toll. Frazier would fight only two more times, getting knocked out in a rematch with Foreman eight months later before coming back in 1981 for an ill advised fight with Jumbo Cummings.

"They should have both retired after the Manila fight," Schuyler said. "They left every bit of talent they had in the ring that day."

Born in Beaufort, S.C., on Jan 12, 1944, Frazier took up boxing early after watching weekly fights on the black and white television on his family's small farm. He was a top amateur for several years, and became the only American fighter to win a gold medal in the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo despite fighting in the final bout with an injured left thumb.

"Joe Frazier should be remembered as one of the greatest fighters of all time and a real man," Arum told the AP in a telephone interview Monday night. "He's a guy that stood up for himself. He didn't compromise and always gave 100 percent in the ring. There was never a fight in the ring where Joe didn't give 100 percent."

After turning pro in 1965, Frazier quickly became known for his punching power, stopping his first 11 opponents. Within three years he was fighting world-class opposition and, in 1970, beat Ellis to win the heavyweight title that he would hold for more than two years.

It was his fights with Ali, though, that would define Frazier. Though Ali was gracious in defeat in the first fight, he was as vicious with his words as he was with his punches in promoting all three fights – and he never missed a chance to get a jab in at Frazier.

Frazier, who in his later years would have financial trouble and end up running a gym in his adopted hometown of Philadelphia, took the jabs personally. He felt Ali made fun of him by calling him names and said things that were not true just to get under his skin. Those feelings were only magnified as Ali went from being an icon in the ring to one of the most beloved people in the world.

After a trembling Ali it the Olympic torch in 1996 in Atlanta, Frazier was asked by a reporter what he thought about it.

"They should have thrown him in," Frazier responded.

He mellowed, though, in recent years, preferring to remember the good from his fights with Ali rather than the bad. Just before the 40th anniversary of his win over Ali earlier this year – a day Frazier celebrated with parties in New York – he said he no longer felt any bitterness toward Ali.

"I forgive him," Frazier said. "He's in a bad way."

Andy Rooney Dies at 92 years of age...

(CBS News) Andy Rooney, the "60 Minutes" commentator known to generations for his wry, humorous and contentious television essays - a unique genre he is credited with inventing - died Friday night in a hospital in New York City of complications following minor surgery. He was 92, and had homes in New York City, Rensselaerville, N.Y. and Rowayton, Conn.
"It's a sad day at '60 Minutes' and for everybody here at CBS News," said Jeff Fager, chairman of CBS News and the executive producer of "60 Minutes." "It's hard to imagine not having Andy around. He loved his life and he lived it on his own terms. We will miss him very much."

Rooney had announced on Oct. 2, 2011 in his 1,097th essay for "60 Minutes" that he would no longer appear regularly.

Rooney wrote for television since its birth, spending more than 60 years at CBS, 30 of them behind the camera as a writer and producer, first for entertainment and then news programming, before becoming a television personality - a role he said he was never comfortable in. He preferred to be known as a writer and was the author of best-selling books and a national newspaper column, in addition to his "60 Minutes" essays.
Source
This is the official CBS andy Rooney Page Filled With Him Doing His Andy Rooney Commentary
http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/60minutes/rooney/main3419.shtml