DON'T TREAD ON ME 1776!

GHOST OF CHRISTMAS-FUTURE TAKES US TO O'HARE AIRPORT DECEMBER 2015, 'REMEMBER BACK IN 2010 TSA WAS REASONABLE?'

2010-11-30T21:42:00.011-05:00

PLANNED TSA SCREENING GUIDANCE FOR 2015

1) The “eyeball bomber”. This psycho cyclops’ prosthetic eye is actually a bomb. T.S.A. requires that all passengers prove their eyeballs are real and, if not, remove them for inspection.

2) The “a-hole bomber”. This insidious terrorist goes a step further than 2009's notorious "underwear-bomber", the new and improved terrorist just sticks the bomb up his butt. T.S.A. requires rectal searches.

3) The “hair strangler”. This hip harbinger of death uses his hair to strangle other passengers. T.S.A. imposes a maximum hair length for all passengers.

4) The “fingernail stabber”. This unmanicured maniac stabs other passengers with his unusually long fingernail. T.S.A. inspects everybody’s fingernails to make sure they are neither too long nor too sharp.

5) The “chicken bone jabber”. This Colonel Sanders fan makes sure the chicken in his carry-on meal has sharp bones in it – which he uses to jab other passengers to death. T.S.A. bans chicken dinners on flights.

6) The “peanut butter poisoner”. This nutty nuisance sneaks small quantities of peanut butter into other passengers’ food – knowing that some of them will be allergic to peanuts. T.S.A. trains special teams of dogs to sniff out peanut products, which are now banned on all flights.

7) The “newspaper swatter”. This bookish bastard folds a newspaper in a certain way (note this link is highly classified) and uses it to dispatch other passengers. T.S.A. bans newspapers, magazines and books from all flights.

8) The “dangerous diabetic”. This terrorist may indeed be diabetic – and he’s got the papers to prove it – but the “insulin” he carries around is actually anthrax, which he injects into unsuspecting passengers. T.S.A. requires the testing of all medical substances and supplies at the security checkp0int – at a cost of billions of dollars.

9) The “wheelchair warrior”. This disabled devil removes a detachable component of his wheelchair and uses it as a weapon to slay fellow passengers. T.S.A. bans all outside wheelchairs from flights, instead providing their own “government-approved” Chertoff-U812 Model – at tremendous cost to public & huge profit to Chertoff.

NEWS BULLETIN, DECEMBER 25, 2015: GHOST OF CHRISTMAS-PAST DEDICATES THIS 1990s-ERA CHRISTMAS CAROL TO TSA SCREENERS WORKING ON CHRISTMAS

Hey Ghost-of-Christmas-Past..Come on dude, the TSA screeners working on Christmas are all Jewish, duh!!! Wait... some are Chinese though, let's try this multicultural season's favorite

MERRY X-MAS-HANU-KaWANZAA-HARI-KRISHNA

WHO ARE YOU,

2010-06-14T20:57:00.001-04:00

U.S. IS SPREADING DEMOCRACY IN AFGHANISTAN- minus the small detail called 'Habeus Corpus' - DON'T WORRY AFGHANS, IT'S NOT IMPORTANT!!!

2010-06-13T03:53:00.068-04:00

BORAT OBOMBA AND HIS HOPEY-CHANGEY CREW ARE considering using Afghanistan's U.S.-run Bagram Air Base prison to indefinitely detain terrorism suspects captured far from a battlefield and who have not been charged with a crime - without any judicial oversight. In other words, the U.S. is denying these detainees the fundamental human right of Habeus Corpus. Obomba wants to detain and interrogate non-Afghan terrorism suspects captured in countries outside Afghanistan in a section of the Bagram prison, even after it turns the prison over to Afghan control.

The U.S. government has stated its intention to turn over control of the Bagram detention facility to the Afghan government early next year. In May, a federal court ruled that unlike at Guantánamo, prisoners in U.S. custody at Bagram, including those who were captured far from any battlefield and brought to Afghanistan, cannot challenge their detention in U.S. courts. That decision paves the way for the U.S. government to use Bagram to detain terrorism suspects indefinitely. WHAT A SLICK IDEA, BORAT OBOMBA! NOW YOU CAN CLOSE GITMO AND ELIMINATE THE PESKY U.S. JUSTICE SYSTEM'S PRYING INTO DETAINEE TREATMENT!

BUT, WHAT GOOD IS DEMOCRACY (especially the thoroughly corrupt 'Afghan version' WITHOUT THE RIGHT OF HABEUS CORPUS? Some background on the concept: Habeas corpus is a term for a legal action, deriving its meaning from the Latin, “(We command) that you have the body”). The legal action, issued via 'writ', is the means by which a person can seek relief from unlawful detention by the State. Originally a feature of English law, the writ of habeas corpus has historically been an important legal instrument safeguarding individual freedom against arbitrary State action. The foundations for Habeas Corpus were established by the Magna Carta of 1215. English jurist Sir William Blackstone cites the first recorded usage of habeas corpus in 1305. Blackstone explained the basis of the writ, saying:

"The King is at all times entitled to have an account, why the liberty of any of his subjects is restrained, wherever that restraint may be inflicted.

The procedures for the issuing of writs of habeas corpus was first codified by the "Habeas Corpus Act 1679", following judicial rulings which had restricted the effectiveness of the writ. A habeas corpus petition could be made by the prisoner himself or by a third party on his behalf and, as a result of the Habeas Corpus Acts, could be made regardless of whether the court was in session, by presenting the petition to a judge.

The right to petition for a writ of habeas corpus is considered the most efficient safeguard of the liberty of a State's citizens!

The British jurist Albert Venn Dicey wrote that the Habeas Corpus Acts "declare no principle and define no rights, but they are for practical purposes worth a hundred constitutional articles guaranteeing individual liberty."

BACK TO THE STORY - IGNOBLE PEACE PRIZE WINNER OBOMBA IS TRAGICALLY CONTINUING THE FLAWED BUSH/NEO-CONMEN POLICY OF VIEWING THE WHOLE WORLD AS A BATTLEFIELD. But entire world is not a battlefield, and it's not America's job to be the global policeman/defender. We cannot just capture people far from any zone of armed conflict and lock up them up indefinitely without any access to the courts or due process. Such a policy not only flies in the face of our justice system, but opens up the possibility that mistakes will be made and the wrong people will be imprisoned - exactly what we have seen at Guantánamo.

The secret facility is reportedly run by either the Joint Special Operations Command or the Defense Intelligence Agency, and detainees maintain they have been abused there. It is unclear whether guards and interrogators at the secret facility are subject to the same rules that apply at the main Bagram detention facility. The possibility of continuing to hold and interrogate detainees at Bagram is even more disturbing given the lack of transparency about the facility. Plans to continue holding prisoners in U.S. custody at Bagram must be accompanied by the disclosure of key information about what currently goes on there.

Four Bagram detainees had their first pre-trial hearing last week. The detainees - three adult brothers and their elderly father - were brought before a panel of three Afghan judges on June 1. The proceeding was the first pre-trial hearing (in advance of the first trial ever) to be held at Bagram. Legal advocacy groups are expressing concern about the lack of transparency surrounding the trial procedures, the apparent failure to provide detainees with adequate access to their lawyers before the hearing, and lack of arrangements for appropriate translation services.

Attorneys for several detainees provided by the International Justice Network stated, "Once again the Obama administration has simply made a grand pronouncement of policy without any transparency or accountability. Given the failures of the Obama-Bush track record on Military Commissions, it's hard to imagine these would be anything other than Kangaroo court proceedings." The senior counsel at Human Rights First (HRF) said the group was "..dismayed that the proceeding so far has been chaotic and that so little information has been made available about how this trial will proceed and whether more such trials are planned."

Since the U.S. military first began detaining suspected insurgents at Bagram eight years ago, none have been accorded a trial by U.S. authorities. Some have been transferred to an Afghan-run detention facility and provided summary trials there. HRF has in the past criticised such trials for not meeting the minimum standards of due process.

In the past year, HRF states, the U.S. military has begun to provide more meaningful hearings for detainees at Bagram that allow the suspects to call "reasonably available" witnesses and to be represented by "personal representatives" chosen by the U.S. military. HRF points out that the detainees have no right legal representation, and in a Kafka-esque twist to the situation (click here for details) detainees have no right to see much of the evidence used against them, as it is classified. HRF has repeatedly asked to see the rules governing these new Detainee Review Board procedures, but the military has not responded.

News reports of the first hearing last week also revealed that the trial procedures are inadequately developed. One defense lawyer reportedly complained that he had not an opportunity even to meet his client or to review his client's file. And when the hearing began, it became clear that the government had failed to provide the necessary translators to make it comprehensible. The trial was being conducted in Dari, rather than in the detainees' native language, which is Pashto. Although there were translators available to translate to English, there were none who could translate the proceedings into Pashto.

HRF stated that, "We support the idea of trials being presided over by Afghan judges, (but) only if those trials are fair trials and if they're conducted in a language that the detainees understands, or at least with interpreters who can translate the proceedings into the detainee's language. Obviously, a trial held in Dari without interpreters available to translate to Pashto, when the detainees speak and understand Pashto and not Dari, won't be comprehensible to the detainees, and therefore by definition won't be fair."

JACK-BOOTED THUG PREVENTION!

2010-04-11T04:11:00.022-04:00

NOTE: CLICK ABOVE PHOTO FOR DETAILS ON THE "ENTRY ENFORCER"

In case no one has noticed, the nation's local police are becoming more militarized, in part due to the Pentagon's program to donate excess military equipment (one town got 100 free bayonets, ostensibly for riot control) as well as the Department of Homeland Stupidity stoking up the local yokels with their hype of domestic terrorism. So, now we have paramilitary goon squads terrorizing the local citizenry, most notoriously in the form of "no knock warrants."
The number of no-knock raids has increased from 3,000 in 1981 to more than 50,000 in 2005, according to Peter Kraska, a criminologist at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, Kentucky. Raids that lead to deaths of innocents are increasingly common, since the early 1980s, 40 bystanders have been killed, according to the Cato Institute in Washington, DC.

In several cases in the Atlanta Metro area, the police have "no knocked" at the wrong address. In one of the most infamous cases, in 2006 the Atlanta police kicked the door in of 92 year-old Kathryn Johnston, who, thinking the police were burglars fired one shot, and then was gunned down in a hail of bullets by the police, who fired 40 rounds at the elderly woman. Miss Johnston's one warning shot lodged in the roof of her porch, injuring no one. Police replied by firing 39 rounds at her, hitting her five times, and wounding each other with another five rounds – though they lied and said they’d been shot by Miss Johnston.

They then handcuffed the elderly woman as she bled to death on the floor, and searched her house. Finding no drugs, they planted three bags of marijuana. Fortunately the guilty cops in that case went to prison. But it speaks volumes of the criminal thug mentality of today's police. It also means the cops need to spend more time on the shooting range, as they seem to shoot each other more often than not.

The Atlanta Metro Area police are among the nation's worst, a dubious distinction as they beat out the New Orleans and LAPD for this particular dishonor. Atlanta is so crime ridden, the police ranks included, that in a recent case in McDonough, Georgia (click here for details), some thugs actually posed as cops, uniforms and all, and then proceeded to rob a family at gunpoint. As of yet the case is unsolved, but the criminals were dressed in all black, wearing tactical vests with "police" written on the back and police-style badges around their necks. One wonders where they obtained these accoutrements? A police insider? And what's a citizen to do in this terrible dilemma? Consider the adage that it's better to be judged by twelve than carried by six....

In another case, fifteen former Los Angeles Police Department officers have plead guilty to running a robbery ring, which used fake no-knock raids as a ruse to catch victims off guard. The defendants would then steal cash and drugs to sell on the street. This tactic led Radley Balko, editor of Reason Magazine, to complain "So not only can you not be sure the people banging down your door at night are the police, not only can you not be sure they’re the police even if they say they’re the police, you can’t even be sure it’s safe to let them in even if they are the police."

In another incident, Tracy Ingle was shot in his house five times during a no-knock raid in North Little Rock, Arkansas. After the police entered the house Tracy thought armed robbers had entered the house and intended to scare them away with a non-working gun. The police expected to find drugs, but none were found. He was brought to the intensive care, but police pulled him out of intensive care for questioning, after which they arrested him and charged him with assault on the officers who shot him.

One final example,(and sadly there are thousands of examples to choose from) Ismael Mena, a Mexican immigrant, was shot and killed by SWAT team officers in Denver, Colorado who were performing a no-knock raid that was approved by a judge acting on false information contained in a search warrant. The police believed there to be drugs in the house, but no drugs were found on the premises, and it was later revealed that the address given to the SWAT team by officer Joseph Bini was the wrong one. Jefferson County District Attorney Dave Thomas investigated the matter and cleared the officers involved with the raid on the grounds that Mena had pointed a gun and fired it at SWAT officers, although who fired first remains unknown. However, many have objected to the investigation's findings due to inconsistencies in the various officer's account of what happened.

This is probably due to the cops inability to coordinate their lies, as cops are also prone to falsifying their reports to cover for each other. (Note: cops routinely lie in court, it's a practice called "testilying" , a play on the word "testifying." Judges know it, so do prosecutors, including county attorneys in small Southern towns, and they all are just as guilty as the lying cops, if not more guilty. See this link for Alan Dershowitz's testimony before Congress on the epidemic of police perjury.

And the rampant dishonesty of police is a broken fundamental "social contract" which democratic, capitalistic nations require, because in such states, the power given police is fundamentally linked to those officers being rigorously honest. (Another example, to be discussed in a future post, is the "social contract" between the bourgeosie and proleteariat, whereby an unofficial rule of thumb is that the formers' annual income should be less than or equal to 20 times the latters' income. If you haven't noticed, this social contract is not only broken but obliterated in America, the salary ratio of the bourgeosie now on the order of about 100 to 1. In Europe and Japan, it's in the normal range of 20 to 1.)

BACK TO THE POINT: let's look at the very word "justice," in particular the etymology of the word. It made its way into the English lexicon as an old French word, "justise," which in turn was derived from the from the Latin word, "justitia", which meant "righteousness, equity," ultimately from the Latin word,"justus", meaning "upright, just". And looking at the American so-called "justice system", it's obvious that righteousness, equity, and being upright and just are not required to be a cop, prosecutor or judge in America. But that's the subject for another post...or better yet, for Judge Napolitano to lecture us on Youtube by clicking here, or Judge Napolitano's website by clicking here.

So, in the larger picture, one of the most fundamental rights of Americans, the right to be secure in their own homes, has eroded to the point where it's practically non-existent. This right actually originated in English common law, as codified in "Book 4, Chapter 16 of William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England":

"And the law of England has so particular and tender a regard
to the immunity of a man's house, that it stiles it his castle, and will
never suffer it to be violated with immunity: agreeing herein with the
sentiments of ancient Rome, as expressed in the works of Tully; quid enim
sanctius, quid omni religione munitius, quam domus unusquisque civium?"

You can read Blackstone's commentary by clicking here, but notice he mentions another great English jurist, Edmund Coke, who actually coined the legal dictum in a legal case known as "Semayne's case (1604)", in which Coke famously wrote that, "The house of every one is to him as his castle and fortress, as well for his defence against injury and violence as for his repose."

Actually, going back a bit further in history, the right to keep and bear arms was considered by the great English jurists as a natural, God-given right. They reasoned that without such weapons to protect themselves, their families, and homes, then eventually tyranny would prevail. The 2nd Amendment merely codified a pre-existing right.

Democracy - that of the police to lawfully conduct their business by respecting the aforementioned right of a homeowner to be secure in his domicile - is by and large a broken contract.

Louis Brandeis once said, "Our government... teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy."

LET US PRAY THAT ALL GOOD MEN STAND FIRM IN DEFENSE OF FREEDOM! WE NEED NO 'SUNSHINE PATRIOTS' OR TEA-PARTIERS. FOR THAT MATTER, THE COLONIAL ARMY LARGELY SUBSISTED ON DIRTY CREEK WATER AND HALF-COOKED GAME MEAT. THE BRITISH ARMY, BY CONTRAST, ENJOYED TEA AND CRUMPETS.

NEVER AGAIN! WILL WE ALLOW FBI SNIPERS TO SHOOT AN UNARMED WOMAN HOLDING HER BABY, AS FBI SNIPER LON HORIUCHI DID AT RUBY RIDGE. (HORIUCHI WAS ALSO AT WACO, AND THERE WAS MUCH CONTROVERSY OVER HORIUCHI'S SHOOTING AT THE UNARMED VICTIMS AT WACO PER THIS LINK.

NEVER AGAIN WILL WE STAND BY, GLUED TO OUR TV SETS WHILE THE U.S. THUG-GOVERNMENT INCINERATES A BUILDING FULL OF YOUNG CHILDREN, AS AT WACO!

AND, AS CHARLTON HESTON BEST SAID IT...THEY CAN TAKE OUR GUNS WHEN THEY PRY THEM OUT OF OUR COLD DEAD HANDS! Amen I say.

DEO VINDICE! and KEEP THE FAITH!

ANOTHER RELIGIOUS PEDOPHILE SCANDAL?! DURING PASSOVER?!

2010-03-30T03:55:00.070-04:00

THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS, PREPOSTEROUS! OY VEY! FAUX NEWS NETWORK MISSED THESE STORIES, CABAL NEWS NETWORK MISSED THEM!!! USA TODAY, NEW YORK TIMES, NEWSWEEK, TIME, WASHINGTON POST...NOT A WORD FROM THEM EITHER!

First, let's review the Mainstream Media's hysterically obsessive JIHAD against Christianity:

Attacking Christianity is practically an industry unto itself. Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins have become wealthy men attacking the Bible. Entire organizations like the ACLU and Americans United for the Separation of Church and state exist to sterilize the public sphere from any acknowledgment of Christianity. The entertainment industry generally portrays Christians as hypocrites, bigots, closet perverts, and idiots.

Certainly honor killings, stoning of adulterers, the brutal oppression of women, brutality against gays, and admonitions to murder those of other faiths would rouse the elites to outrage if they were a routine part of Christianity. But our scholars and our media masters are manifestly unwilling to confront these evils when they are a routine aspect of Islam. To illustrate complete reality inversion among elites, one TV show, NCIS, dealt with honor killing by turning the killers into Christians. The same television show decided to do an episode about a suicide bomber, who was also made into a Christian.

WITHIN THE ABOVE CONTEXT, WHY DO CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS GET DEFAMED, DEBASED, & DISRESPECTED, WHILE THE OTHER 'ABRAHAMIC RELIGION' GETS A FREE PASS? IF ANYONE DARES TO SPEAK THE TRUTH IN PUBLIC, THEY ARE QUICKLY POUNCED ON AND DENOUNCED WITH A HAILSTORM OF ANTI-SEMANTIC SLURS...OY VEY!

AND HAS ANYONE NOTICED THAT THE ANTI-CHRISTIAN ATTACKS FROM HOLLYWOOD AND THE NEWSMEDIA REACHES A CRESCENDO DURING HOLY WEEK? EVERY YEAR DURING CHRISTIANITY'S MOST SACRED HOLIDAYS, WE ARE TREATED TO SUCH PABLUM AS: "THE THORN BIRDS", ""THE LOST TOMB OF JESUS", "THE LOST GOSPEL OF JUDAS", AND THIS YEAR, A PARTICULARLY INSIDIOUS ATTACK ON POPE BENEDICT FOR THE CATHOLIC CHURCH'S HANDLING OF SO-CALLED 'PEDOPHILIA', WHICH BASED ON STUDIES OF PRIEST ABUSE IS MORE ACCURATELY LABELED 'HEBEPHILIA'. OF COURSE, THAT DOESN'T MAKE IT RIGHT, BUT FOR THE REAL DEAL ABUSE OF PREPUBESCENT CHILDREN, READ ON... (CAUTION, YOU MAY WANT TO WRETCH AT THE SICKNESS RAMPANT AMONG OUR FELLOW MONOTHEISTIC BRETHREN, AS WELL AS THE SHEER HYPOCRISY OF THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA'S IGNORING THE PROBLEM WHILE BASHING CATHOLICS AND MUSLIMS.)

PEDOPHILIA IN ISRAEL & JUDAISM

Click here to read about Israel's Pedophile Kibbutz Paradise City.

Click here to read about how Israel's highest Jewish court ignores rabbi pedophilia, refuses to hear cases.

Click here to read the doubts of prominent rabbi about relying on Jews to prevent rabbi pedophilia. One reason Rabbi cites is a Jewish religious law. Click here to read the Jewish religous commandment prohibiting Jews to inform on other Jews for being child molesters.

The group "Jewish Board of Advocates For Children" is made up of those affiliated with the Rabbinical Council of America, Agudath Israel of America and Ohel. All three are problematic organizations. If you are a parent or a survivor be aware that this new organization is more concerned with protecting the assets of various orthodox organizations then they are with advocating for those who have been abused and or protecting children. The video below shows a rabbi from Ohel posing as an child advocate to get info on the children alleging rabbi abuse and discourage reporting molesters.

Click here to read about child sex in Jerusalem.

Click here to read 497 MORE cases of Rabbi child molesting.

Child molesting Rabbi Shlomo Carlbach sings the classic Jewish religious song, "Lord Get Me High"

Read about Rabbi Shlomo's "Dark Side" here.

Rabbi Michael Ozair, Kabbala 'coach' convicted of molesting young girls flees the country to molesters' paradise - Thailand. He used his "facebook.com" account to meet young girls for sex.

HUNDREDS MORE CASES OF RABBI PEDOPHILE ABUSE LISTED BELOW. OF COURSE YOU WEREN'T AWARE OF THIS PROBLEM, AS YOU WERE DISTRACTED BY THIS YEAR'S ANNUAL ATTACK ON CATHOLICS DURING EASTER:
Case of Shlomo Aviner (Rosh Yeshiva, Ateret Cohanim, Yeshiva, Rabbi of Beit El, Israel)

Case of Rabbi Lewis Brenner (Convicted of child molestation. The original charges included 14 counts of sodomy, sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child. He agreed to plead guilty to one count of sodomy in the third degree, a Class E felony, in exchange for a sentence of five years' probation.)

Case of Rabbi Ephraim Bryks (Accusations about sexual inappropriate behavior with children started surfacing in the 1980's. Rabbi Bryks is currently a member of the Vaad Harabonim of Queens. The Vaad is a Rabbinical committee that makes important decisions within an orthodox community.)

Case Rabbi Perry Ian Cohen - Montreal and Toronto Canada (Accused of sexual abuse of a seventeen year old. Fired for sexual impropriety with congregants)

Case of Rabbi Yitzchak Cohen (Accused of sexually harassing students at Bar-Ilan University)

Case of Rabbi Ephraim Goldberg - Boca Raton, Flordia (Pled guilty to one misdemeanor count of exposure of sexual organs in a washroom at a Palm Beach Mall.)

Case of Rabbi/Cantor Sidney Goldenberg (Convicted of molesting children. The first complaints came in 1971. He was finally convicted in 1997.)

Case of Cantor Joel Gordon (Convicted of having keeping a house of prostitution and involvement in a prostitution ring.)

Case of Rabbi Israel Grunwald (Accused of molesting a 15 year old on a 1995 plane flight from Australia to LA. The charge against him were dropped after agreeing to perform 500 hours of community service and to seek counseling. Grunwald was the chief rabbi of an Hungarian Hasidic congregation in Brooklyn, known as the Pupas).

Case of The State of Israel Vs. Sex Offender (Convicted of repeated rape and forced molestation of his graddaughter.)

Case of Yehudah Friedlander - Rabbi 's Assistant (Accused of molesting a 15 year old on a 1995 plane flight from Australia to LA. Friedlander was the assistant to the chief rabbi of an Hungarian Hasidic congregation in Brooklyn, known as the Pupas)

Case of the Rabbi at Hillel Torah, Chicago, IL (A teacher at the Chicago school was accused of child molestation. His name was not released. The school did everything correctly in attempting to keep the children safe once accusations were made.)

Case of Rabbi Solomon Hafner (Accused of sexually abusing a developmentally disabled boy)

Case of Rabbi (Alan J.) Shneur Horowitz (Convicted and sentenced to 10 - 20 years in prison for sodomizing a nine-year-old psychiatric patient. Allegedly, he has assaulted a string of children from California to Israel to New York in the past twenty years. Alan J. Horowitz is an Orthodox rabbi, magna cum laude, M.D., Ph.D. A graduate of Duke University, and was a writer for NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love Association).

Case of Jacob Frank and the Frankist Movement (Accused of cultic type practices and sexual offenses)

Case of Rabbi Israel Kestenbaum (Accused of child pornography on the internet)

Case of Rabbi Robert Kirschner (Accused of sexually exploited or harassing three congregants and a synagogue employee)

Case of Rabbi Ze'ev Kopolevitch (Convicted of molesting students at Rosh Yeshiva, Netiv Meir yeshiva high school)

Case of Rabbi Baruch Lanner (Convicted - child molestation.)

Case of Rabbi Jerrold Martin Levy (Convicted of two counts of soliciting sex through the Internet and two counts of child pornography. He was sentenced to six years and sex in prison. He was caught in the "Candyman" year-long sting operation by the US government.)

Case of Rabbi Pinchas Lew (Accused of exposed himself to a woman.)

Case of Rabbi/Psychologist Mordecai Magencey (lost his license to practice in the State of Missouri because of his sexual misconduct with his patients.)

Case of Rabbi Richard Marcovitz (Convicted of indecent or lewd acts with a child, and sexual battery)

Case of Rabbi Juda Mintz (Convicted - internet sting on child pornography)

Rabbi Yona Metzger (Accused of sexually misconduct with four men)

Case of Rabbi Avrohom Mondrowitz (Accused of two counts of sex abuse with boys at a special education school in New York)

Case of Cantor Howard Nevison (Accused of molesting his nephew)

Case of Rabbi Michael Ozair (Accused of sexual molestation of a then-14-year-old girl)

Case of Cantor Stanley Rosenfeld (Convicted of molesting a 12-year-old boy he was tutoring.)

Case of Rabbi Charles Shalman (Accused of sexual misconduct toward female congregational members)

Case of Cantor Robert Shapiro (Accused of three counts of rape and four counts of indecent assault and battery to a mentally retarded woman)

Case of Cantor Michael Segelstein (Accused of attempted rape; Chabad - Las Vegas, Nevada)

Case of Rabbi Ze'ev Sultanovitch (Accused of sexually molesting a number of adult yeshiva students at the Merkaz Harav Yeshiva)

Case of Rabbi Melvin Teitelbaum (Accused of three counts of sex crimes against two boys under the age of 14, and one count of assault with intent to commit rape against one boy's mother. The charges were dropped for lack of evidenced)

Case of Rabbi Isadore Trachtman (Accused of cultic type practices and sexual offenses)

Case of Rabbi Hirsch Travis (Rabbi in Monsey, accused of posing as a Brooklyn doctor specializing in infertility problems, and allegedly sexually abusing and assaulting a patient.)

Case of Rabbi Matis Weinberg (Accused of cultic type practices and sexual offenses)

Case of Rabbi Yaakov Weiner (Accused of molesting boy at Camp Mogen Avraham, New York)

Case of Rabbi Don Well

Case of Cantor Phillip Wittlin (Convicted of molesting two girls)

Case of Rabbi Mordechai Yomtov (Convicted of sexual abuse and committing lewd acts against three boys)

Case of Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman (Violated guidelines concerning "sexual ethics and sexual boundaries," )

Case of Rabbi Max Zucker (Accused by three women of improperly touching)

And Other Trusted Officals (Parents, Teachers, Camp Counselors, etc.)

Case of Arie Adler and Marisa Rimland, NY (Arie Adler was accused of molesting his daughter. Marisa Rimland murdered her daughter, and then committed suicide).

Case of Simcha Adler - Ohel Counselor, NY (Plea-bargained charges of sodomy, sexual abuse and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child down to attempted sodomy.)

Case of Eugene Loub Aronin - School Counselor, TX (Convicted in 1984 of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old boy)

Case of B'Nai Torah Congegation - Hillel Community Day School janitor, Boca Raton, FL (Accused of child molestation)

Case of Chaim Ciment (Accused and charged with first-degree sexual abuse, after allegations were made that he fondled a 17 year old girl in an elevator).

Case of James A. Cohen - Jewish Youth Group Leader (Convicted child molester, sentenced to 9 years for assaulting 4 boys)

Case of Larry Cohen - Soccer Coach, Lake Oswego, OR (Accused of molesting two individuals.)

Case of Lawrence Cohen - School Teacher, NJ (Convicted and sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for transmitting child pornography through his home computer).

Case of Phillip "Eli" Cohen, London, England (Accused of 13 charges of indecently assaulting a boy and four offences of indecently assaulting a girl)

Case of Stuart Cooperman, MD - Pediatrican, Merrick, New York (Accused of molesting six female patience).

Case of Delaware Family (Father accused of alleged child molestation)

Case of Mordechai (Morton) Ehrman - Simcha's Play Group, Brooklyn, NY (Accused of molesting dozens of students).

Case of Hbrandon Lee Flagner (Convicted of the kidnapping and aggravated murder of Tiffany Jennifer Papesh a 8-year-old girl. Flagner also claimed to have molested hundreds of girls during his life. While in prison, Flagner convert to Judaism by an Chasidic rabbi.)

Case of Arnold and Jesse Friedman (Capturing the Friedmans) (Convicted sex offender)

Case of Richard "Steve" Goldberg (Allegedly engaging in sex acts with several girls under 10 in California. He is on the FBI's ten most wanted fugitives list)

Case of Ross Goldstein (Convicting of sodomy in the first degree (three counts) and use of a child in a sexual performance. He was Sentenced to four concurrent indeterminated terms of 2 to 6 years imprisonment. Also see: Case of Arnold and Jesse Friedman)

Case of Several Child Sex Offenders in Har Nof 0 Jerusalem, Israel (Outlines several cases of alleged child sex offenders in the charedi town of Har Nof)

Case of David B. Harrington - School Principal / Big Brother, Rockville, MD (Convicted sex offender. Cases from the 1960's - 1980's.)

Case of State of Israel Vs. a Sex Offender (Convicted - 68 year old Israeli religious man pled guilty to repeated molestation of his granddaughter, was
sentenced to 19 years in jail.

Case of Eric Hindin - Jewish Big Brother Volunteer, Newton, MA (Convicted of 35 counts of child rape. He was sentenced to 20-22 years in prison).

Case of Judge Ronald Kline, CA (Accused of possessing child pornography and for allegedly molesting a neighborhood boy 25 years ago).

Case of the Kosher Butcher in Chicago (Accused of molesting children for over 30 years)

Case of Lawrence Nevison - (Convicted of molesting his nephew. He is the brother of Cantor Howard Nevison)

Case of Stuart Nevison - (Convicted of molesting his cousin. He is the brother of Cantor Howard Nevison)

The Case of the Students of Ner Israel Yeshiva in the 1950's (Students accused of sexually molesting a younger student)

Case of the New York Society for the Deaf's Home (Accused of treating disabled patients ``like animals,'' beaten, drugged and robbed of their government checks).

Case of Ozzie Orbach, M.D. (Accused of molesting his daughter)

Case of the Rogers Park JCC, Chicago Illinois (This was the first case of alleged mass molestation recorded in Illinois to involve accusations of sexual

abuse by a group of adults, consists of 246 allegations that staff members abused children enrolled at the center, according to the Illinois Department of children and Family Services).
Case of Jonathan Rosenthal - Community Police Liason, London, England (Acquitted of sexually assaulting a few children, after a jury used ancient common law right, deciding evidence wasn't strong enough.)

Case of Adam Theodore Rubin - Teacher, Coach and Girl Scout Coordinator (Accused of using a computer to solicit sex with a minor, possession of a controlled dangerous substance and possession of drug paraphernalia).

Case of Georges Schteinberg - Teacher, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (Accused of possession of child pornography. Charges dropped when Schteinberg fled the country).

Case of Aryeh Scher - Israeli vice-consul, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (Accused of possession of child pornography. Charges dropped when Scher fled the country).

Case of David Schwartz - Camp Counselor, Culver City, CA (Convicted and sentenced to one year in residential treatment and five years' probation for molesting a 4-year-old boy in his care at summer camp. A six-year prison sentence was suspended).

Case of Jerrold Schwartz - Scoutmaster, NY (Convicted and sentanced to 8 years in prison for multiple counts of sodomizing his former scout ).

Case of Irwin Silverman - Chief Counsel to U.S. secretary of interior 1933-53 (Accused of molesting his daughter Sue William Silverman. )

Case of Paul Slifer - Teacher (Accused of sexually assaulting a several students, and impersonating a doctor. )

Case of Ari Sorkin - Synagogue Youth Worker, Elkins Park, PA (Accused of molesting a 16 yr. old girl)

Case of Tel Aviv Arts School, Tel Aviv, Israel

Case of Dr. Saul and Judith Wasserman (Accused of molesting their daughter)

Case of David Douglas Webber - Mashgiach (Kashrut Supervisor), Canada (Convicted and sentenced to six years for possessing child pornography and molesting seven boys over the past eight years).

This ecumenical dialogue brought to you by Don't Tread On Me 1776 as a reminder that when your press isn't free, fair, and unbiased, you are merely sheep.

DEO VINDICE

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. - WHO KILLED HIM & WHY DID THEY KILL HIM? QUESTIONS RARELY ASKED...

2010-03-01T00:11:00.054-05:00

(Editors note: text in light blue italics takes you to a relevant link...and there are lots of good links in this post!)
The final day of Black History Month is here, and today's topic is the Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK) assassination.

Last month - January - we celebrated MLK Day, focusing on the man's life and the impact he made. In a little over a month, on April 4, on the 42nd anniversary of MLK's death, the media will inundate us with the story of how James Earl Ray shot King while King stood on the Lorraine Motel balcony in Memphis. (The wreath in the photo at left marks where King was shot.) Radio stations will play U2's "In the Name of Love," in King's honor ("...shot rings out in the Memphis sky...) And we'll go back to our 'Tea Parties', our inspirational words from Glenn Beck and Alex Jones, occasional stories from the ACLU congratulating themselves on another victory for free speech such as letting kids wear 'controversial message' t-shirts to school...

But, none of the mainstream media or even the so-called "indy" media will mention the unresolved questions behind MLK's assassination. There remain numerous problems with the "Official History" of King's assassination, the "manufactured truth" that the mainstream media and U.S. Government want the masses of American sheeple to believe.

And this is a problem - because we've named a Federal holiday for MLK, we've made a national historic site of his boyhood home and church, but we never question who killed MLK and why he was killed.

The U.S. Government did at least put on a show trial to find the truth behind the assassinations of both JFK and MLK. In this regard, the United States House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) was established in 1976 to investigate these two crimes. The Committee investigated until 1978, and in 1979 issued its final report. Regarding MLK's assassination, the Committee concluded in its report that he was killed by one rifle shot from James Earl Ray, that "there is a likelihood" that this was the result of a conspiracy, and that no U.S. government agency was part of this conspiracy probably between James Earl Ray and his brothers. The HSCA suffered from being conducted mostly in secret, and then issuing a public report with much of its evidence sealed for 50 years under Congressional rules. So the MLK files will not be released in full until 2028! Which should make us wonder, what's so secret 42 years after the fact that it must be kept secret for another 18 years?!?
Fortunaely, a few persistent researchers have doubted the "Official History", and continued pursuing leads pointing to U.S. Government involvment. Most notable of these researchers is William Pepper, the attorney for the now-deceased James Earl Ray, MLK's alleged killer. Ray died in prison in 1998. Pepper's first book on the King assassination was published in 1998, entitled "Orders to Kill," the result of 18 years of research. "Orders To Kill" includes disturbing revelations about the actions of the FBI, CIA, and U.S. Army. Pepper's book is right in line with the ideas of today's protesters of government coverups and lies related to the War on Terror, torture, and other outrages of officialdom. In a testament to Pepper's tenacity and skill as an investigative journalist - as well as an attorney - many of those responsible for King's assassination actually admitted their complicity in his book.
The key to Pepper's case is Loyd Jowers, owner of a bar near the Loraine Motel who claims to have disposed of the murder weapon at the request of a local mob figure. Partly due to revelations in Peppers' book, in 1999, King's widow and children hired Pepper to represent them in a wrongful death civil trial against Loyd Jowers and "other unknown co-conspirators."
Jowers claimed to have received $100,000 to arrange King's assassination. The jury of six whites and six blacks found Jowers liable and that "governmental agencies were parties" to the assassination plot. The trial was notable for its lack of mainstream media coverage (surprise!). However, a prominent author and activist, Jim Douglass, attended the entire trial and wrote an excellent summary with such revelations as:

"...Former CIA operative Jack Terrell, a whistle-blower in the Iran-Contra
scandal who is now dying in Florida, testified by videotape that his best
friend, J.D. Hill, had confessed shortly before his death to having been a
member of an Army sniper team assigned, in a contingency
plan, to shoot King on April 4 if the shooter in the bushes failed..."

James Earl Ray unfortunately was never granted the trial to which he was legally entitled. A few days after Ray was coerced into pleading guilty, he withdrew his guilty plea. Tennessee law afforded Ray the right to a trial, but his eight requests for a trial were denied. He did, however, receive a "mock trial" courtesy of HBO, in in a 1993 special, "Guilt or Innocence: The Trial of James Earl Ray." Presiding over the trial was Marvin E. Frankel, former U.S. District Court judge for New York. The prosecutor wass W. Hickman Ewing, former U.S. attorney for the Western District of Tennessee. Representing Ray was his actual attorney, William F. Pepper. The jurors were selected from three states. Some details from the "mock trial" included:

"The rifle that Ray admits he brought to Memphis in April, 1968
was never test-fired; its bullets were never compared to the bullet that killed
Martin Luther King, Jr. Although the FBI stated that the bullet was too damaged
to test, ballistics experts agree that newly developed technology, a scanning
electron microscope, can determine whether the rifle with Ray's fingerprints was
the weapon. The rifle with Ray's fingerprints on it was carefully left on Main
Street in Memphis in a box, along with Ray's prison radio. The radio had Ray's
identification number etched into it. Would an assassin take time to leave
incriminating evidence before fleeing the scene?"

VERDICT: The jury found Ray "not guilty!"

Pepper has written another book with, in part due to his disappointment by the mainstream media's refusal to honestly deal with the MLK assassination. His more recent book, published in 2003, is entitled, "An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King." This book discusses the evidence from the 1999 civil trial, the HBO-produced "mock trial," and the results of a two year "limited investigation" conducted after the King family met with then-President Clinton, who in turn directed Attorney General Janet Reno to look into new evidence related to MLK's death, including a former FBI agent who came forward in 1997 with some astounding documents critical to the MLK case, but instead was harassed and discredited by the government. The results of Janet Reno's "limited investigation" essentially rubber-stamped the findings of the HCSA report.
Another interesting book on the MLK assassination is by is by Philip H. Melanson, a political science professor and Chairman of the RFK Assassination Archives at Southeastern Massachusetts University. Melanson's book, published in 1989 is entitled, "The Murkin Conspiracy: An Investigation into the Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr." This book is an excellent companion to Pepper's two books. After following Melanson's meticulous pursuit of seemingly every lead in the case, including interviews with the men whose names were used as aliases for alleged killer James Earl Ray, the reader will have - beyond a reasonable doubt - that the "Official History" is not the whole truth.
Melanson debunks the theory that Ray was the lone killer. The second theory, propounded by the HCSA as described earlier, was that an ill-defined racist conspiracy - primarily James Earl Ray and his brothers - was behind the assassination. What seems improbable is how a petty criminal like Ray could have killed King unaided and then escaped through throngs of police. There are too many improbabilities--the source of his carefully chosen Canadian aliases, the identity of the man who brought him a "letter" in Toronto during his escape, the odd setup at the rooming house from which the shot was fired. Melanson's thesis echoes that of Pepper, that there was high-level intelligence involvement, probably by the CIA, which was hysterically alarmed by King's anti-Vietnam War stance.
After his rise to prominence in the early 1960s, King was the subject of a major FBI harassment campaign, mostly due to J.Edgar Hoover's personal hatred of King and what he stood for. Hoover's thugs collected at least 16,659 pages of 'intel' on King. During 1964, Hoover's hatred of King broke out into the open. King complained about the FBI's performance in civil rights cases, and Hoover responded with increasing fury, questioning King's facts and sincerity. Finally, at a press conference with the Washington women's press corps on November 18, Hoover called King 'the most notorious liar in the country,' rebuffing efforts by FBI publicity chief to have that phrase taken off the record. King responded with a press release that in effect called Hoover senile.
Over the last four years of King's life, Hoover directed his agents to use all means of dirty tricks to discredit King. These ranged from efforts to keep universities from awarding him honorary degrees, interfering with the publication of his writings, to attempting to disrupt his relationships with religious leaders, to leaking the tapes of some 16 microphone recordings of King's private activities in hotel and motel rooms to congressional figures and the media.
And even after King's death, Hoover's maniacal hatred of MLK led him to order the FBI to continue its assault on his name and memory. Whenever there were calls to honor the fallen civil rights leader, Hoover was sure to counter with an unsolicited missive alluding to King's character flaws and his associations with Communists.

In the end, MLK, Jr., ranks as the one of the most admired people of the 20th century. Thousands of schools, roads, buildings, libraries, etc. are named for Martin Luther King, Jr. His words resonate with patriotic calls for action: "Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think." (sounds like Congress...)
"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity" (sounds like the televizmerized masses...)
"The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people." (Don't be silent, we still have the First Amendment!!!)

As for J. Edgar Hoover, his only notable quote was,

"Just the minute the FBI begins making recommendations on what should be done with its information, it becomes a Gestapo."

As for Hoover's legacy, only one building, the FBI Headquarters, is named for him. And that's not a sure thing, due to occasional calls to rename the building. In 2001, Senator Harry Reid sponsored an amendment to strip Hoover's name from the building. "J. Edgar Hoover's name on the FBI building is a stain on the building", Reid said. Unfortunately the amendment did not pass.

Deo Vindice

U.S. FOREIGN AID: YOUR TAX DOLLARS DOWN THE TOILET - THE KENYA EXAMPLE

2010-02-23T23:23:00.018-05:00

(Editor's note: items in blue italicized text are links to other websites)

Failed states, corruption, dictatorships, civil wars, and famines are so commonplace in Sub-Saharan Africa that we hardly notice when yet another story like this one below hits the wires. The failed state of the week is Kenya, per this report from February 18, 2010 in the "South Africa Mercury":

"Kenyans protest as government falls apart
February 18, 2010 Edition 2
Nairobi: Kenyans yesterday marched to vent their anger at a coalition government slowly falling apart over graft allegations and its inability to further key reforms pledged two years ago. Thousands of people displaced by the violence that broke out after the disputed December 2007 elections had begun marching from the Rift Valley to Nairobi on Tuesday, but their 200km procession was aborted. Armed police blocked the protesters on the highway yesterday, and government trucks drove them back to their tents after officials promised to relay their concerns to State House. Anti-corruption activists also demonstrated in front of President Mwai Kibaki's office in Nairobi. "We want political accountability," shouted scores of demonstrators. About 1 500 people were killed and a quarter of a million were displaced in the days after the bungled presidential election, the worst unrest to rock a nation often described as a beacon of stability. Kenya's unwieldy unity government has been repeatedly criticised for failing to tackle the root causes of the post-poll violence, bring the perpetrators to justice and eradicate corruption and impunity. Tensions between the premier, Raila Odinga, and Kibaki boiled over at the weekend when Odinga sacked the education and agriculture ministers, who are accused of graft, before Kibaki vetoed the move. Kibaki argued that Odinga did not consult him and had no authority to fire ministers, prompting the premier's Orange Democratic Movement to threaten a boycott of cabinet meetings. A cabinet meeting scheduled for today was subsequently cancelled. Odinga's detractors charged that he was seeking to undermine Agriculture Minister William Ruto, who is likely to be one of Odinga's main rivals in the 2012 presidential elections. Kibaki's critics said the protecting of scandal-ridden officials was evidence the regime was corrupt. - Sapa-AFP"

The U.S. Ambassador to Kenya, Michael Ranneberger, offered this enlightened advice to the Kenyans, "It is important for everyone to avoid manipulating ethnic tensions." Duh? Ethnic tensions? Kenya's population is 99% black...

So, what's the big deal, you may wonder? Well, if you are an American taxpayer, then you got shafted for alot of money wasted on foreign aid.

The budget request amounts described below were taken from the Fiscal Year 2008 U.S. Foreign Aid Budget Request. The text of the document includes such upbeat predictions as, "...Budgets for Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria also increased, as progress in these countries will greatly impact progress and prosperity in the region. These eight countries make up over 56 percent of the FY 2008 budget [for Africa.]"
How about this progress? as reported by the BBC.
The budget requests for Kenya included progams such as:
* $17.0 million for tuberculosis, malaria, maternal and child health, family planning and reproductive health;
* $28.3 million for programs in democracy and governance, basic education, and economic growth; and
* $1.5 million "...to restart 'International Military Education and Training' programs in Kenya and South Africa, states critical to long term regional peace and stability..."

The specific line items for Kenya were:
- Child Survival and Health Programs Fund - $16,950,000
- Development Assistance - $28,300,000
- Foreign Military Financing - $800,000 (to buy U.S. weapons)
- Global HIV/AIDS Initiative - $481,000,000
- International Military Education and Training - $550,000
These aid requests for Kenya added up to - $499,300,000

Which is NEARLY HALF A BILLION DOLLAR$$$!!!

We have a 'child hunger epidemic' of our own, in America, not to mention the millions of Americans who cannot afford adequate healh care. That HALF A BILLION DOLLAR$$$!!! would have been better spent here at home, on America's hungry and sick.
And those weapons and military training, that's just like pouring gasoline on a fire, as they will most probably end up being used to kill other Africans in the incessant wars and political repression endemic to Sub-Saharan Afria.

THINK ABOUT THESE THINGS WHEN YOU FILL OUT YOUR TAX RETURNS THIS YEAR...DO YOU REALLY WANT TO PAY FOR THIS?
... And ask yourself, "What would Thoreau do?

Deo Vindice

BLACK HISTORY MONTH - DR. OSSIAN SWEET: A LESSON IN COURAGE & SELF DEFENSE

2010-02-22T01:45:00.021-05:00

Dr. Ossian H. Sweet was born in 1895, in Orlando, Florida, the son of Henry Sweet, a Methodist minister and farmer, and Dora DeVaughn. He was the second of nine children.

As a young black man, Sweet witnessed a savage, brutal act of racism while he was out walking and happened by chance upon the lynching and burning of a black man. Going down a dusty road one day near Bartow, Florida, on Peace River, Sweet saw a crowd of five thousand white people driving along a Black youth named Fred Rochelle. Sweet hid and watched as the crowd poured kerosene over Rochelle and set him on fire.

Hidden and frightened, he watched the crowd turn the whole occasion into a carnival. Many of the men were staggering around drunk, while others laughingly took pictures of the dead man’s body. Some even picked pieces of the burned bones and flesh to take away as souvenirs. Witnessing this sadistic orgy of violence made a profound impression on Sweet, which may have factored into his resolve not to be victimized later in life.

In 1910 he journeyed to Xenia, Ohio, to attend Wilberforce Academy and complete his schooling. He graduated with a college degree in 1917. That September he enrolled in the medical school at Howard University. In 1921 he received his medical degree and moved to Detroit, Michigan, then a booming city with plenty of opportunities for a new physician. Sweet worked long and hard to establish his fledgling medical practice.

In 1922 he married Gladys Mitchell, who was from an established family in Detroit. For their honeymoon the Sweets traveled to Europe for a year of study and touring. After taking graduate courses in pediatrics and gynecology at the University of Vienna during 1923, Sweet journeyed to Paris to study radiology at the Curie Institute. The next year, while in Paris, the Sweets' daughter Marguerite was born. In the fall of 1924 they returned to Detroit and moved in with Gladys's mother.

Ossian Sweet wanted a better house for his new family, and in the summer of 1925 purchased a house at 2905 Garland Avenue in a lower-middle-class white area in northeastern Detroit. Purchasing a house in a white neighborhood was a risky choice for a black man. Friction was steadily increasing between Detroit's white population and the black newcomers.

Detroit's black population had increased nearly 1000% over the previous 10 years,.spurred by wartime production and the new automobile industry. Many of Detroit's whites resented the burgeoning black population, and committed acts of harrassment and intimidation, in part due to goading by the Ku Klux Klan. Whites had already forced several African American families to leave homes in formerly white neighborhoods. Rocks had been thrown and shots were fired, but so far no one had died from these incidents. By the time Sweet moved into his home in early September, whites in the area had formed a "Waterworks Park Improvement Association" dedicated to blocking any African American encroachment into the Garland Avenue area.

Even worse for the new black Detroit residents was the police brutality against blacks. During the two years prior to the Sweet incident, fifty-five blacks in Detroit were killed by the arresting officers, and this in a state which didn't believe in capital. punishment. Not one of these policemen had to face trial. In a particularly egregious case, a black man named Sims was shot while complying with, the officer's demand that he raise his hands!

On September 8, 1925, Dr. Sweet, his wife Gladys, his two brothers - Henry, a law student, and Otis, a dentist - along with seven other friends moved the Sweets' few pieces of furniture into his new house on Garland Avenue. Along with the furniture, Sweet brought a supply of guns and ammunition to his new house. That night a crowd taunted the Sweets, but nothing much happened. The next morning, however, a crowd of whites began to congregate across the street from the house. The crowd may have been as large as five hundred.

As evening fell, rocks and stones struck the Sweets' house and broke several windows. Suddenly, several shots came from the Sweet house. Across the street Leon Breiner, a white man, fell dead with a bullet in his back. Another white man, Eric Houghberg, was shot in his leg.

The police, who had been watching the Sweets' house, (but curiously refrained from dispersing the unruly white crowd...) immediately arrested Sweet, his wife, and his companions. The polic denied them access to legal counsel, and locked them up in the city jail. They were all charged with assault, murder, and conspiracy to commit murder, and they were denied bail.

James Weldon Johnson, the executive secretary of the NAACP, quickly saw that the Sweet case had national implications for blacks' home-ownership rights. Johnson dispatched his assistant, Walter White, to convince the nationally renowned attorney Clarence Darrow to serve as lead defense attorney.

Darrow, who had made his fame fighting prominent civil liberties cases, readily took on this new assignment, although he was sixty-eight and still tired from the recent Scopes trial in Tennessee. He was assisted by Arthur Garfield Hays, another well-known civil rights attorney who had labored with Darrow in Tennessee, along with several African American lawyers from Detroit.
The prosecution was led by the district attorney, Robert M. Toms, and his assistant, Lester S. Moll. Although Toms was not a member of the KKK, in the months preceding the Sweet trial he hired two assistants who were openly KKK members.

The trial began on October 30, 1925, with thirty-five-year-old judge Frank Murphy presiding. Murphy would later serve as mayor of Detroit, governor of Michigan, and associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. As for Murphy, he was impeccably impartial during the trial. He had no patience for intolerance, and displayed a great degree of moral character by ignoring several letters warning him that being fair to the black defendants would jeopardize his future career.

The trial before an all-white jury lasted most of November 1925, with a parade of witnesses on both sides. The prosecution called over seventy individuals to the stand in an effort to argue that the crowd outside the house was small and peaceful. Darrow countered that if the legal definition of a mob was twenty-five people, the seventy witnesses clearly demonstrated that a much larger group was probably in attendance that night.

The crux of the issue centered on two basic questions:
1) Did Ossian Sweet and his companions fear for their lives? AND...
2) Does any man, white or black, have the right to defend his home from perceived attack?

The prosecution argued that, threatened or not, Sweet and his companions did not have the right to shoot unarmed people. As the trial approached its climax, Ossian Sweet was called to the stand, where his calm testimony proved crucial to the eventual outcome: Sweet testified, "When I opened the door and saw that mob, I realized in a way that it was that same mob that had hounded my people through its entire history. I realized my back was against the wall and I was filled with a peculiar type of fear--the fear of one who knows the history of my race."

After deliberating for forty-six hours, the jury could not agree on a verdict, so Judge Murphy declared a mistrial. Henry Sweet was subsequently tried separately and acquitted of all charges, and by May 1926 the charges against the rest of the defendants had been dropped. Although the Sweet trial ended in victory for Sweet, efforts to restrict black home ownership by various legal means continued unabated throughout the United States until the Supreme Court declared such practices illegal in Shelley v. Kraemer (1948) (click here for info on that case.)

For Dr. Ossian Sweet, his acquittal was bittersweet. He returned to his house on Garland Avenue, and continued his medical practice, However, he suffered the loss of his daughter in 1926 from tuberculosis. The same disease claimed his wife Gladys in 1928. Ossian later purchased a small drugstore and managed several small hospitals. He married twice more, but each one ended in divorce. Turning to politics, he unsuccessfully sought election to the state senate, and another time he tried - again without success - for a seat in the U.S. Congress. Finally, in ill health with acute arthritis and in debt from failed businesses, he took his own life in 1960.

For an in-depth study of this case, read Phyllis Vine's book entitled, "One Man's Castle: Clarence Darrow in Defense of the American Dream (2005)."

Click here to read Clarence Darrow's closing argument for the first trial.

Click here to read Darrow's closing argument for the second trial.
Click here to read more on Darrow's legal career, with advice on how to select a jury.

Another excellent book on the Ossian Sweet case is, "Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age." This book, authored by Kevin Boyle, a professor of history at Ohio State University, won the National Book Award for non-fiction and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Last but not least, a play entitled "Malice Aforethought: The Sweet Trials," was written by Arthur Beer, a professor and performing arts co-chair of the University of Detroit Mercy, which tells the story of Ossian Sweet and the murder trial he, his family, and friends faced, commonly known as the Sweet Trials back in 1924. This play serves an important historical role not only in the history of Detroit, where the incident and trials were held, but also in the History of the U.S., since it was the first trial where a black person was acquitted of murder. Initially performed in 1987, the play was recently brought back in 2007, for its 20 year anniversary. The play offers a truly unique experience allowing guests to observe and “re-live” a trial of tribulations in which the Sweets and friends faced over 80 years ago.

Some legal trivia: Sir Edward Coke was the English jurist whose 1604 ruling on a case called, "Semayne's Case" formed the basis of today's self-defense "castle laws." Coke wrote the famous words, "The house of every one is to him as his castle and fortress, as well for his defence against injury and violence as for his repose." Coke was an interesting character, For those interested in the history of law, click here to read some of his notable legal writings.

BUT GETTING BACK TO THE POINT: while Attorney Darrow's legal career is interesting, the main point of this post is to relate this story of courage in the face of adversity, as displayed by Dr. Ossian Sweet. Dr. Sweet could have simply moved to another house in an all black neighborhood, but then, that would be admitting defeat. Rather, Dr. Sweet stood his ground, and exercised his right to own firearms for self defense, AND he had the moral courage to actually use his firearms.

After that, there were no more 'incidents' outside his house...

BE FRUGAL WHEN USING GOOGLE - BIG BROTHER MAY BE WATCHING YOU! and also wants to listen...

2009-11-30T20:32:00.017-05:00

LIKE AN ORWELLIAN SET OF EYES watching society’s every move - Google - the world’s predominant search engine, is quickly becoming a modern-day Big Brother...

Robert Verkaik, law editor for The Independent, described their intent on May 24, 2007 as “setting out to create the most comprehensive database of personal information ever assembled, one with the ability to tell people how to run their lives.” Similarly, Clint Boulton of GoogleWatch described the corporation on September 9: “Google conjures an image of science fiction films such as "War of the Worlds." The servers are like alien ships covering all of humanity, though instead of harvesting food sources, they are harvesting our search data for better advertising opportunities. ”
But Google's motives aren’t simply financial. Andrew Keen, author of "Cult of the Amateur: How the Internet is Killing Our Culture," provided a glimpse into their larger agenda in a June 30 article for the Daily Telegraph. “Back in 2006, when asked where he wanted Google to be in five years time, company CEO Eric Schmidt confessed that he hoped his search engine would be so knowledgeable about all of us that it would know what we wanted to do tomorrow.” Check out Keen's technology blog by clicking here. Check out Keen's technology blog by clicking here.
If information is power, Michael Malone’s comments for ABC News on September 5, 2008 put this matter into perspective, “Google’s real business now is not providing a service to its users, but owning the world’s data.”
The Independent’s Robert Verkaik is even more blunt in his assessment, “Google wants to know everything —all the knowledge contained on the World Wide Web, and everything about you as a computer user, too.” Click here for advice from The Independent's Steve Connor on how to minimize Google's (and other search engines') ability to collect your personal information. When Neil Cavuto of Faux News asked, “How can the public be sure that Google is deleting their private information and not storing it?” CEO Eric Schmidt replied, “Because we say so.” Here is another report from Faux News on Google's 'omniescence', in particular Google's spying on users' Gmail messages.
Using technology called Deep Packet Inspection, Google can track not only our search histories, but also our very identity. In the Matrix-like world of these high-tech wizards, a new ‘morality’ emerges. ABC’s Malone pinpoints it, “The empiricism of science and technology supercedes messy human institutions . . . for these young techno-utopians, technology trumps all, even privacy.” Click here for a semi-technical article on avoiding Deep Packet Inspection when you use the internet.
In this context, is a dystopian universe of computer-generated artificial intelligence merely a pipedream, or an actual possibility? In May 2007, internet commentator Nick Douglas explained how a Google database could actually become ‘self-aware.’ “A computer doesn’t have to be conscious to be powerful. Just teach it relationships, feed it data, and tell it to make connections.” He adds, “This company has history’s finest catalog of human wants, habits and inquiries cataloged by user,” along with “earth satellite imagery, image-recognition technology and ambient-audio tech.”
Computer scientist Daniel Tunkelang wrote for The Noisy Channel on September 5, Google is “the primary gatekeeper to the Internet for a substantial majority of Americans.” In this capacity, their political views have a significant sway over what computer users see (and don’t see). For an example of Google's censorship of news article searches, the recent leaked emails on global warming, termed "Climate-Gate," by the media is a case in point. An article written by Christopher Brooker of the London Telegraph exposing the climate change fraud rocketed to the very top of a Google News search for “global warming,” only to disappear hours later.
As a final note of caution as to where your Google searches may end up, consider the non-so-startling news from ex-CIA clandestine services officer Robert David Steele, founder and CEO of intelligence research firm OSS.net. In October 2006, Steele publicly claimed that Google is “heavily in bed with the Central Intelligence Agency.”

In case all of this has you worried, well...worry some more!
Why?
Because Google also wants to listen in on you too!

SO THE MORAL OF THE STORY: avoid using your real name as is practical, use proxy servers or anonymizer sites to surf the web, and AVOID USING GOOGLE!

(Coming soon: Wikipedia, fiction not facts...)

FBI: The Falafel Bureau of Investigation or the Freaking Bunch of Idiots?

2009-11-06T21:18:00.017-05:00

What a Freaking Bunch of Idiots, the FBI, which I suppose also stands for the Falafel Bureau of Investigation.

(A "falafel" is a fried ball or patty made from spiced chickpeas and/or fava beans. The photo at the right shows a batch of freshly fried falafels. Originally from Egypt, falafel is a popular form of fast food in the Middle East. Falafel is usually served in a pita-like bread called lafa, either inside the bread, which acts as a pocket, or wrapped in a flat bread. In many countries falafel is a popular street food or fast food. Interestingly, falafel is also considered by Israelis to be Israel's national food 'icon' (click here for details), which shows how culturally stupid the FBI is.)

In 2005 and 2006, he FBI sifted through customer data collected by San Francisco-area grocery stores hoping that sales records of Middle Eastern food would lead to Iranian terrorists.

The idea was that a spike in, for example, falafel sales, combined with other data, would lead to Iranian secret agents in the south San Francisco-San Jose area.
The brainchild of top FBI counterterrorism officials Phil Mudd and Willie T. Hulon, according to well-informed sources, the project didn’t last long. It was torpedoed by the head of the FBI’s criminal investigations division, Michael A. Mason, who argued that putting somebody on a terrorist list for what they ate was ridiculous — and possibly illegal.

A check of federal court records in California did not reveal any prosecutions developed from falafel trails.

FBI spokesman Paul Bresson would neither confirm nor deny that the bureau ran such data mining, or forward-leaning “domain management,” experiments, but said he would continue to investigate. “It sounds pretty sensational to me,” he said, upon his initial review of the allegation. The techniques were briefly mentioned last year in a PBS Frontline special entitled, “The Enemy Within" (click here to watch it online.)

Mason, who is leaving the FBI to become security chief for Verizon, could not be reached for comment.

The FBI denies that sifting through consumer spending habits amounted to the kind of data mining that caused an uproar when the Pentagon was exposed doing it in 2002.

“Domain management has been portrayed by the bureau as a broad analytic approach, not specific data mining activities,” says Amy Zegart, author of the much-praised recent book, “Spying Blind: The CIA, the FBI and the Origins of 9/11.” “It is a methodology to determine what is known about a problem, develop indices to measure it, and take steps to close knowledge gaps.”

Zegart said her recent interviews with FBI officials “suggest that domain management has been implemented in a spotty fashion; L.A. and New York appear to be ahead of the curve, but some other field offices are not using it and at least one had never heard of it.”

As ridiculous as it sounds, the groceries counting scheme is a measure of how desperate the FBI is to disrupt domestic terrorism plots. It's also really an indicator of what kind of morons work out of the J.Edgar Hoover Building.

The possibility of Iranian-sponsored terrorism in the United States has drawn major attention from the FBI because of rising tensions between Washington and Tehran over Iran’s nuclear program.

“Because of the heightened difficulties surrounding U.S.-Iranian relations, the FBI has increased its focus on Hezbollah,” Bresson said 16 months ago. “Those investigations relate particularly to the potential presence of Hezbollah members on U.S. soil.” (Actually, Hezbollah has no bone to pick with the U.S. Hezbollah's main concerns are keeping Israel out of Lebanon and providing social services to impoverished Lebanese. The Lebanese are a naturally industrious people, as we've seen by the disproportionate success of Lebanese immigrants to America. The primary reason for those suffering in Lebanon is Israel's periodic invasions, during which the Israeli's use disproportionate force against the civilian population and then scurry back south of the border leaving behind thousands of cluster bombs (click here for details) )

Just this week, analyst Matthew Levitt wrote that “according to FBI officials here, some 50-100 Hamas and Hezbollah members with military training are present in the United States.” An FBI spokesman would not confirm that figure.

But others are far more circumspect, including U.S. intelligence.
Last July’s National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on terrorism trends addressed the potential for Iranian subversion here in such cautionary terms that it was rendered useless.

“We assess Iranian-supported Lebanese Hezbollah, which has conducted anti-U.S. attacks outside the United States in the past, may be more likely to consider attacking the Homeland over the next three years if it perceives the United States as posing a direct threat to the group or Iran,” the NIE said. (Italics added.)

In other words, who knows?
Probably not the Freaking Bunch of Idiots at the Falafel Bureau of Investigation...
In the meantime, terrorists have probably learned to forego falafels and instead eat Big Macs and pizza when in the U.S.

Deo Vindice

9-11-01: THE CONSPIRACY FILES

2009-09-20T02:50:00.039-04:00

THE FIRST THREE VIDEO CLIPS ARE FROM A 2001 FAUX NEWS REPORT BY REPORTER CARL CAMERON, CONCERNING ALLEGATIONS OF ISRAELI INTELLIGENCE CONNECTIONS TO THE 9/11 TERROR ATTACKS:

FAUX NEWS EPISODE 1

FAUX NEWS EPISODE 2

FAUX NEWS EPISODE 3

NOTE: This series, by Faux News reporter Carl Cameron, aired in December 2001. Less than a week later, Faux News pulled the videos from Carl Cameron's report from the Faux News website...what is Faux News' management trying to hide?

As for what happened to WTC Building 7, the U.S. Government's 'Official Story' was that the WTC 7 building collapsed due to internal stresses resulting from the two planes hitting the 'Twin Towers'.
BUT...
...that's not what WTC property manager Larry Silverstein said.. click here for Silverstein's explanation of the WTC 7 collapse...

WHAT IS REALLY STRANGE ABOUT THE 9/11/2001 TERRORIST ATTACKS:
On September 11, 2001, Dan Rather (CBS News), Peter Jennings (ABC News), & CNN - plus other major newsmedia broadcasters - REPORTED ON A VAN LOADED WITH EXPLOSIVES, SOMEWHERE AROUND THE NEW JERSEY TURNPIKE and/or GEORGE WASHINGTON BRIDGE, in the midst of the chaos going on at the WTC site and Pentagon.
Click here for a video clip of these original September 11, 2001 News reports.

(hmmm...I'm wondering why Dan Rather spent more effort looking into George W. Bush's National Guard records than this MAJOR NEWS EVENT!)

IN FACT...
NONE OF THE MAJOR NETWORKS EVER FOLLOWED UP ON THE 9/11/01 VAN-WITH-EXPLOSIVES STORY!

HOWEVER...
...astute observers have speculated that the explosives-carrying van was owned by a Mossad ('Mossad' is the Israeli intelligence agency) front company.

INTERESTINGLY...
...on September 11, 2001 the explosives-filled van wasn't the only mysterious Israeli (or Mossad) van in the New York City area with suspicious occupants...
ANOTHER 'mysterious van' was carrying five Mossad operatives. These jubilant Israelis parked their van in New Jersey for a panoramic view of the burning WTC Towers. Then the occupants exited the van and filmed the burning WTC towers while dancing the 'Hora'.
They were subsequently arrested for this suspicious activity, not charged with anything, and sent back to Israel, where some of them even did the 'talk show rounds' where they admitted they were Mossad operatives!

Click here for the story AND click here for the Youtube video of the Dancing Israelis. (Bonus info - click here for how to dance the Israeli 'hora' folk dance!)

BUT...
...the U.S. Government (i.e., the Homeland Security Department and the FBI) will neither confirm nor deny any allegations linking the explosives-filled van to Israelis.

Even Obama has tried to obfuscate legitimate questions. Click here for a video clip of Obama's desultory comments on questioning what really happened on September 11, 2001, with a guest appearance by 'W' to further obfuscate the subject.

Requests by media reporters for more details on the van are met with the standard Government 'spook' reply, "Sorry, that's classified information."

What the phrase "that's classified" really means - about 95 percent of the time - is that the Government doesn't want to tell the public what it has a right to know. Most of what the Government calls "classified information" is actually "fluff," which is why the Government relies so heavily on what is called 'Open Source Intelligence," abbreviated OSINT.

Click here for a general overview on OSINT.

For a more detailed discussion of OSINT actually being used click here.

To see how the CIA uses yours and my blogs (don't get paranoid, no one at the CIA can read Arabic, Farsi, Turkish, Urdu, Pashto, etc., those clowns only know Spanish from eating at Taco Bell and French from vacationing at EuroDisney, and besides half of the CIA cannot even understand plain Engrish, just look at the embarrassing quality of their annual terrorism reports) to obtain OSINT then click here.

In fact, most of the statistics for the annual U.S. Government reports on global terrorism are gleaned from OSINT, in large part because the U.S. has so few real spies, known as "human intelligence," or HUMINT. Sorry, I don't have any informative links on HUMINT due to the dearth of U.S. HUMINT. Instead of spies, we just a bunch of drones goofing off in cubicles at the CIA's Langley, Virginia Headquarters - a building more aptly called the CIA Hindquarters.

ANYWAY, THE QUESTION REMAINS...
...why is information on the George Washington Bridge explosives-filled van still classified eight years after the 9/11/01 terror attacks?

We could have gotten answers from the September 11 Commission Hearings, but they turned out to be a sham. As a truth-seeking venture, the September 11 Commission ranks somewhere down around the Warren Commission Investigation of the JFK assassination, if not lower.

Nevertheless, we've seen in America's past that when enough citizens raised enough enough hell with Congress, the resultant clamor from the American public about: 1) the half-assed efforts of the Warren Commission; 2) the abuses of power by the FBI and CIA during the COINTELPRO days of the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War opposition; and 3) the Watergate Scandal, led to the formation in 1975 of the Senate Church Committee Investigations. Click here for detailed reports from the Church Committee (very interesting reading on how corrupt the FBI and CIA can get when left unchecked! I'd recommend everyone scan through these documents to see how even in a democracy, tyranny can arise when the citizenry becomes complacent!) For a briefer summary of the Church Committee's activities click here.

NEEDLESS TO SAY, despite Obama's lame attempts to steer public questioning of the "Official 9/11 Version as Proclaimed by the U.S. Government™", there is a steadily rising outcry from the American citizenry for the U.S. Government to 'come clean with the facts'. For example, a search on Youtube.com for the phrase, "September 11 conspiracy" returns a total of 65,100 video clips, while the search phrase "9/11 conspiracies" gives a total of 2530 video clips.

Furthermore, if you add in all the forums, blogs, talk radio shows, books, and even respectable academic studies by civil engineers claiming the WTC towers could not have collapsed from the jets' impacts and resultant jet fuel fires, we see that clearly the public is not satisfied with the "Official 9/11 Version as Proclaimed by the U.S. Government™". Despite Obama's campaign rhetorical promises of change in the government, with free, open and truthful debates on controversial topics, he has turned out to be somewhat of a kinder, gentler version of Dick Cheney. Is anyone surprised though?

Meanwhile, if we keep up the pressure on Congress, then perhaps we'll see a new, improved version of the September 11 Commission. Only this time, no special rules for 'W', Cheney, Condi (especially Condi who got the kid gloves treatment when instead she should have been fired for incompetence), George Tenet, Ashcroft, FBI senior management, and Colin 'I Cannot Understand Basic Intelligence Analysis' Powell, plus a few others...

Take it from an insider, "Don't trust the U.S. Government..."
DEO VINDICE

ROGUE COPS HARASSING INNOCENT WOMEN VIDEOS - THE USUAL SUSPECTS, I.E. 'THUGS WITH BADGES'

2009-08-24T08:19:00.013-04:00

Sit back and enjoy watching these candy-ass cops "protect and serve" the citizens...

CASE 1: MOM TASERED IN FRONT OF KIDS FOR ASKING WHY COP STOPPED HER!

N.Y. MOM TASERED IN FRONT OF KIDS DURING TRAFFIC STOP

'FAUX NEWS' REPORTS ON MOM TASERED DURING TRAFFIC STOP
=================================================================

CASE 2: COP PULLS GUN ON WOMAN AFTER SHE IS IN A MINOR FENDER-BENDER WITH THE COP'S SON!

Cop pulls gun on woman in convenience store after woman is in fender-bender with the cop's son, and it was the cop's son's fault. Cop falsely arrests woman for assault, not knowing he's on hidden camera which proves the cop lied about the incident.

Kelly from Faux News discusses the "Cop Sticking Gun in Woman's Face" with her 'distinguished' legal panel of experts (a TV legal expert by definition is an idiot who can't make it doing 'real law' in a courtroom). =================================

Every community NEEDS TO start a "Cop-Watch Organization" to oversee the police and report on rogue cops. In fact I'd recommend starting a "Cop-Watch" before starting a "Neighborhood Watch" to guard against criminals, since the cops seem to be more dangerous...In 2007, DeKalb County, Georgia cops shot more unarmed suspects (13) than DeKalb County's murder rate!

Click here for the www.copwatch.com website.

Deo Vindice

CIA STANDS FOR "CLOWNS, IDIOTS & AIRHEADS"

2009-08-16T00:12:00.018-04:00

Never has there been an organization, in the history of mankind, so thoroughly inept as the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, or more apropos: the U.S. Clowns, Idiots & Airheads.

If you're thinking about an exciting career as the next 'James Bond', check out the Official CIA Entrance exam in the video clip below:

If you passed, then congratulations! (and tebrikler! and barekala!) But a word of caution, it is imperative that you have an Intelligence Quotient (IQ) of less than 80. But it's not too late to dumb yourself down for a CIA career! College students, you can start by doing beer-funnels at least three times daily. Then, to the extent possible, get into your dorm's janitor supplies closet and inhale as many solvents as you can get away with. Soon you'll lose most of your brain cells to be stupid, and thus qualified for an exciting career as maybe the next '007'!

Don't bother with the usual drugs like marijuana and the ubiquitous Ritalin, as common on today's university campuses as 'Airheads' candies...The key here is to get stupid and fast! You need to lose about 30 to 40 percent of your brain cells for a CIA career.

Then, someday, as you walk into your tiny cubicle, passing of course the (in)famous plaque at the CIA entry hall quoting the Biblical verse John 8:32, "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Someday you can think up an idiotic plot like "Operation Merlin," as described below:

OPERATION MERLIN: The CIA may have helped Iran to design a nuclear bomb through a botched attempt to channel flawed blueprints to Tehran's weapon designers, according to a new book on the US "war on terror".

The book's author and New York Times intelligence correspondent, James Risen, writes that the abortive operation misfired when a Russian defector on the CIA payroll, chosen to deliver the deliberately flawed nuclear warhead blueprints to Iranian officials in February 2000, tipped them off about the defects.

The operation, codenamed 'Merlin' and approved by the Clinton administration, was intended to send Iranian scientists down a technological dead end, according to this account. They would spend years building a warhead which would fail to detonate. Instead, Risen writes, the operation may have helped Iran to "accelerate its weapons development" by extracting important information from the blueprints and ignoring the flaws.

Asked for comment yesterday, a US intelligence official said the account was "inaccurate", but gave no more details. The CIA's public affairs director, Jennifer Millerwise Dyke, issued a written statement saying "every chapter of 'State of War' contains serious inaccuracies ... The author's reliance on anonymous sources begs the reader to trust that these are knowledgeable people. As this book demonstrates, anonymous sources are often unreliable". The statement added that the operational details revealed in the book showed "an unfathomable and sad disregard for US national security".

A former CIA official said there had been other attempts to set back Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program. "There were a number of occasions when Iran was found to be acquiring equipment for nuclear weapons and rather than stop it, they fiddled with the equipment, particularly computer equipment, before it got to Iran," said the former official who wished to remain anonymous (and stupid.)

Operation Merlin is not the only CIA gaffe recounted in State of War. In 2004, a CIA official sent an Iranian agent an encrypted electronic message, mistakenly including data that could potentially identify "virtually every spy the CIA had inside Iran". The Iranian was a double agent and handed over the information to Iranian intelligence. "Several of the Iranian agents were arrested and jailed, while the fates of some of the others is still unknown," Risen writes.

An intelligence official said the account of this gaffe was also inaccurate. Former intelligence officials quoted on CNN claimed that a subsequent damage assessment found no evidence that any US agents in Iran had been unmasked or endangered. Yeah right, remember, CIA 'knows the truth' and it sets them free, free of guilt that is, for being totally incompetent fuckups! (Notable exceptions to this are Bob Baer, Ray McGovern, Mike Scheuer and the late Freddie Woodruff.)
(Above book review article is from the British newspaper "The Guardian," which I compliment the British newsmedia from being free of censorship by the ADL, AIPAC, Knesset and Likud, unlike American news.)

ABOLISH THE CIA!

DEO VINDICE!

THOMAS JEFFERSON QUOTE: "...God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion..."

2009-07-22T12:17:00.012-04:00

Thomas Jefferson is famously quoted for saying, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants..."

99% of the time, the entirety of Jefferson's famous quote is truncated at that point, making his words seem vaguely innocuous, more of a noble idea than a radical course of action,

HOWEVER, Jefferson's quote continues with, "...God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion; what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms!"

To give an example of how America is really not America anymore - at least it's not what the Founding Fathers intended America to be - were Jefferson to utter those same words today, he'd be put on the Department of Homeland Security's "No-Fly List," at a minimum. Most likely he'd be visited by some FBI or ATF jack-booted thug who'd cordially invite Mr. Jefferson to explain just exactly what did he mean by those words click here.
While your at it, click here to see if your socio-political views are 'kosher' with the Department of Homeland Security.

ANYWAY, one of the inevitable consequences of the last 75 years of Democrat rule in Washington – augmented by a decade or more of gutless rule by Republican presidents and congressional majorities who thought they could win hearts and minds by imitating Democrats – is a quiet rebellion within that basic building block of our American republic: the state legislatures.

After many decades of uninterrupted drift toward a socialist state, and seeing a self-serving federal legislature and a bloated federal bureaucracy whose incompetence is exceeded only by its avarice, the legislatures of a number of states are beginning to take matters into their own hands. They rely on the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which proclaims that:

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

Accordingly, some eight states, including Arizona, Hawaii, Montana, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, and Washington, are now considering either legislation or resolutions designed to reassert powers usurped by a power hungry federal establishment over the past 222 years.

Typical of the proposals now under consideration is Oklahoma House Resolution 1003. Referring to the language of the 10th Amendment as its basis, the Resolution concludes:

“NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AND THE SENATE OF THE 1ST SESSION OF THE 52ND OKLAHOMA LEGISLATURE:

“THAT the State of Oklahoma hereby claims sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States.”

The resolution serves notice on the federal government that it is to “cease and desist” in the process of issuing mandates to the State of Oklahoma that exceed the powers granted to it by the U.S. Constitution, and it resolves that all compulsory federal legislation which directs the state to comply under threat of civil or criminal sanctions, or which requires the state to take certain actions or lose federal funding, shall be prohibited or repealed.

House Resolution 1003 is similar to a resolution filed last year which passed the Republican-controlled House by a vote of 92-3 but was stalled in an evenly-divided Senate. Republicans gained a clear Senate majority in November 2008

In New Hampshire, a resolution reasserting States’ rights reads, in part, as follows:

“Whereas the Constitution of the State of New Hampshire, Part 1, Article 7 declares that the people of this State have the sole and exclusive right of governing themselves as a free, sovereign, and independent State; and do, and forever hereafter shall, exercise and enjoy every power, jurisdiction, and right, pertaining thereto, which is not, or may not hereafter be, by them expressly delegated to the United States of America…”

Proving once again that the people of New Hampshire take seriously their state motto, Live Free of Die, the Resolution concludes with an ominous declaration, saying that any act of Congress, any executive order of the President of the United States, or any directive of the Federal Courts “which assumes a power not delegated to the government of United States of America by the Constitution… and which serves to diminish the liberty of the several States or their citizens, shall constitute a nullification of the Constitution of the United States of America…”

In Missouri, House Concurrent Resolution 0004 (2009) reasserts its sovereignty based on Barack Obama’s stated intention to sign into law a federal “Freedom of Choice Act.” The Missouri Resolution reads, in part:

“Whereas, Barack Obama, President of the United States, has promised that one of the top priorities of his new Administration is to sign into law the "Freedom of Choice Act" which purports to classify abortion as a "fundamental right" equal in stature to the right of free speech and the right to vote – rights that, unlike abortion, are specifically enumerated in the United States Constitution; and

“Whereas, the federal Freedom of Choice Act would nullify any federal or state law "enacted, adopted, or implemented before, on, or after the date of [its] enactment" and would effectively prevent the State of Missouri from enacting similar protective measures in the future…”

“Now, therefore, be it resolved that we, the members of the House of Representatives of the Ninety-fifth General Assembly, hereby declare our sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States…”

In Montana, the House of Representatives is considering a bill reasserting the state’s sovereignty, using as a basis the 2nd Amendment rights of the people of Montana. House Bill 246 reads, in part, as follows:

“AN ACT EXEMPTING FROM FEDERAL REGULATION UNDER THE COMMERCE CLAUSE OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES A FIREARM, A FIREARM ACCESSORY, OR AMMUNITION MANUFACTURED AND RETAINED IN MONTANA…

“The 10th amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees to the states and their people all powers not granted to the federal government elsewhere in the Constitution and reserves to the state and (the) people of Montana certain powers as they were understood at the time that Montana was admitted to statehood in 1889. The guaranty of those powers is a matter of contract between the state and people of Montana and the United States as of the time that the compact with the United States was agreed upon and adopted by Montana and the United States in 1889.”

In addition to bills and resolutions already introduced in these states and the legislatures of Arizona, Hawaii, Michigan, and Washington – telling the federal government to mind its own business, the business specifically assigned to it by the U.S. Constitution – similar proposals are under consideration in Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Nevada, Maine, and Pennsylvania. The 20 states already considering such proposals, or contemplating such action, contain 40.2% of the total U.S. population.

Clearly, any careful reading of the U.S. Constitution should convince the reader that the primary building block of the American republic is the state legislature. They are now drawing a line in the sand and are reminding the three branches of the federal government of their Constitutional limitations.

All too often in America's state legislatures and governorships, we see far too many people who entered politics for personal gains instead of public service. Just pick up any newspaper from any of the 50 states on any given day, and there will be at least one ethics or criminal scandal involving a state politician. For example: Sarah Palin and Rod Blagojevich. These stories are just the tip of the iceberg, which means that

AMERICA IS IN TROUBLE!

Remember, most of America's 'Founding Fathers' were fairly well off economically. They stood to lose everything by rebelling against the British, and not just their material possessions but their lives as well. Fortunately, there was no television back then to keep the Sons of Liberty and the general public distracted from British abuses.

Over the past few years, the 'usual suspects' in the mainstream media and Washington lobbying firms have been working overtime to portray Iranians as medieval Islamist barbarians. But as we've seen lately, the REAL TRUTH ABOUT IRAN is that the current election-related protests and uprisings there dramatically personify the spirit of Jefferson's "Tree of Liberty" quote. It's a sad day when Iranians are more committed to democracy and liberty than Americans.

I cannot see the average American today - the stereotypical 'Joe Plumber' or 'Soccer Mom' - as being capable of giving a damn what their elected officials do, and whether the Constitution and Bill of Rights are being trampled. Just as long as gas (for their SUV or minivan) costs less than $3.00/gallon and their favorite contestant doesn't get booted off "American Idol" or "Survivor", then they're 'living the American Dream."

My message is to WAKE UP! because in about 2 to 3 years this fucked up 3rd world shit-hole of a country is going to be owned by China click here. This is in addition to being largely owned now by Japan - have you noticed that while Ford, GM and Chrysler are bankrupt, there's a successful Japanese auto factory in nearly every state?

Someday, not too far off, Joe Plumber's children (who couldn't afford to go to college because Joe's been out of work for 3 years since his job was 'off-shored') are going to be making shoes for minimum wage in some Chinese-owned sweatshop. And thus, we will be living the inevitable "American Nightmare" Click here to entertain your kids while indoctrinating them for their future!

Zaijian! (that's the Chinese word for 'adios')

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF INJUSTICE INFORMATION ON HOW TO MAKE CRACK COCAINE!

2009-07-12T00:12:00.004-04:00

Information from the United States Department of Injustice which you amateur chemists may find useful!

Click this link ==> Appendix B: Production of Cocaine Hydrochloride and Cocaine Base

Here's the whole report, which I always thought was an urban legend: "THE CIA-CONTRA-CRACK COCAINE CONTROVERSY:A REVIEW OF THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT’S INVESTIGATIONS AND PROSECUTIONS (December, 1997)"

WHY IRAN IS MORE DEMOCRATIC THAN THE 'GREAT SATAN AMERICA' AKA 'SHATAN-E BORZORG-E OMRIKA'

2009-07-09T21:15:00.013-04:00

Iran is a better nation than the U.S.A., because the Iranians CARE about their country...

Just contrast the bullshit response by the typical Americans during the 2000 presidential election fiasco in Florida...what did we do? I drove by Al Gore's house in December 2000, there were maybe 30-40 protesting assholes jumping up and down by the VP's house at the Naval Observatory.

In 2004, Americans didn't even give that much of a damn, we just let the Ohio election results get swept under the rug, maybe a couple of Ohio politicians got indicted, so what?...?....?

FOUR MORE YEARS OF BUSHIT.

No big deal. We still have our Superbowl, our World Series, our college basketball March Madness, who gives a shit about democracy... except for Iranians, who our so-called politicians love to criticize...
Hey, don't blame me, I voted for Khameini and Ahmadinejad...and on that note, Ahmadinejad would probably have been a better U.S. president that Bush. Hey, do you see Iran going around the world bombing other 3rd world nations like Bush/Cheney/Obama?
And then who gets called 'terrorists'?

The following story illustrates why Iran is better than Shatan-e-bozorgistan:
"Thousands protest in Iran, defying crackdown vow
By NASSER KARIMI
Associated Press
TEHRAN, Iran – Thousands of protesters streamed down avenues of the capital Thursday, chanting "death to the dictator" and defying security forces who fired tear gas and charged with batons, witnesses said.
Turning garbage bins into burning barricades and darting through choking clouds of tear gas, the opposition made its first foray into the streets in nearly two weeks in an attempt to revive mass demonstrations that were crushed in Iran's postelection turmoil.
Iranian authorities had promised tough action to prevent the marches, which supporters of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi have been planning for days through the Internet. Heavy police forces deployed at key points in the city ahead of the marches, and Tehran's governor vowed to "smash" anyone who heeded the demonstration calls.
In some places, police struck hard. Security forces chased after protesters, beating them with clubs on Valiasr Street, Tehran's biggest north-south avenue, witnesses said.
Women in headscarves and young men dashed away, rubbing their eyes in pain as police fired tear gas, in footage aired on state-run Press TV. In a photo from Thursday's events in Tehran obtained by The Associated Press outside Iran, a woman with her black headscarf looped over her face thrust her fist into the air in front of a garbage bin that had been set on fire.
In another image, a man dropped to his knees, overcome by the effects of tear gas.
But the clampdown was not total. At Tehran University, a line of police blocked a crowd from reaching the gates of the campus, but then did not move to disperse them as the protesters chanted "Mir Hossein" and "death to the dictator" and waved their hands in the air, witnesses said. The crowd grew to nearly 1,000 people, the witnesses said.
"Police, protect us," some of the demonstrators chanted, asking the forces not to move against them.
The protesters appeared to reach several thousand, but their full numbers were difficult to determine, since marches took place in several parts of the city at once and mingled with passers-by. There was no immediate word on arrests or injuries.
It did not compare to the hundreds of thousands who joined the marches that erupted after the June 12 presidential election, protesting what the opposition said were fraudulent results. But it was a show of determination despite a crackdown that has cowed protesters, who have not held a significant rally for the past 11 days.
Onlookers and pedestrians often gave their support. In side streets near the university, police were chasing young activists, and when they caught one, passers-by chanted "let him go, let him go," until the policemen released him. Elsewhere, residents let fleeing demonstrators slip into their homes to elude police, witnesses said.
All witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisals. Iranian authorities have imposed restrictions that ban reporters from leaving their offices to cover demonstrations.
Many of the marchers were young men and women, some wearing green surgical masks, the color of Mousavi's movement, but older people joined them in some places. Vehicles caught in traffic honked their horns in support of the marchers, witnesses said. Police were seen with a pile of license plates, apparently pried off honking cars in order to investigate the drivers later, the witnesses said.
Soon after the confrontations began, mobile phone service was cut off in central Tehran, a step that was also taken during the height of the postelection protests to cut off communications. Mobile phone messaging has been off for the past three days, apparently to disrupt attempts at planning.
The calls for a new march have been circulating for days on social networking Web sites and pro-opposition Web sites. Opposition supporters planned the marches to coincide with the anniversary Thursday of a 1999 attack by Basij on a Tehran University dorm to stop protests in which one student was killed.
Demonstrators dispersed by nightfall. But after sunset, shouts of "death to the dictator" could be heard from rooftops around the city — a half-hour nightly ritual by Mousavi supporters that has continued even since the previous crackdown.
Mousavi and his pro-reform supporters say he won the election, which official results showed as a landslide victory for incumbent hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Days of massive demonstrations erupted, until supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared the results valid and warned that unrest would not be tolerated.
In the crackdown that followed, at least 20 protesters and seven Basijis were killed, according to police.
Police have said 1,000 people were arrested in the crackdown and that most have since been released. But prosecutor-general Qorban-Ali Dorri Najafabadi said Wednesday that 2,500 people were arrested and that 500 of them could face trial, Press TV reported. The remainder have been released, Najafabadi said.
Arrests have continued over the past week, with police rounding up dozens of activists, journalists and bloggers.
In the latest detentions, prominent human rights lawyer Mohammad Ali Dadkhah was taken away by security forces from his office Wednesday along with his daughter and three other members of his staff, the pro-opposition news Web site Norouz reported. A former deputy commerce minister in a previous pro-reform government, Feizollah Arab-Sorkhi, was also arrested at his Tehran home, the site reported.
A large number of top figures in Iran's reform movement, including a former vice president and former Cabinet members, have been held for weeks since the election.
Iranian authorities have depicted the postelection turmoil as instigated by enemy nations aiming to thwart Ahmadinejad's re-election, and officials say some of those detained confessed to fomenting the unrest. Opposition supporters say the confessions were forced under duress.
Ahead of the protests, Tehran's governor Morteza Tamaddon accused "foreign counterrevolutionary networks" of plotting new marches. "If some individuals plan to carry out any anti-security actions by listening to (protest) calls ... they will be smashed under the feet of our aware people," he said late Wednesday, according to the state news agency IRNA.
___ Associated Press Writer Lee Keath in Cairo contributed to this report"

DEO VINDICE...INSH'ALLAH!

2009 INDEPENDENCE DAY - MESSAGES FROM GENERALS

2009-07-05T01:04:00.008-04:00

Probably the worst message is from Gen. Petraeus, using hype, hyperbole, & exaggeration in calling today's U.S. armed forces 'the new greatest generation'. What have they done that's so great? Bombed a couple of 3rd world countries back to primitive conditions, our so-called 'brave American heroes' sit comfortably in hi-tech aircraft, or submarines, or well-fortified bunkers and push a few buttons - much like a video game - and 'pink mist' some opposing fighters trying to liberate Iraq and Afghanistan from yet another century of colonialist oppression. Then these great American heroes come home and claim they have post traumatic stress (PTSD). I've always wondered how many Taliban or Iraqi freedom fighters go whine about having PTSD?

Nevertheless, here is this year's 'Independence Day' message from gen. petraeus (click this link)

Hmmm.....does Petraeus realize the irony that American troops are suppressing the independence of Iraqis and Afghanis while delivering his 'Independence' bullshit speech?

INSTEAD, HERE ARE THREE SPEECHES AMERICANS SHOULD BE STUDYING THIS 'independence day':

1) EISENHOWER'S FAREWELL ADDRESS WARNING OF THE MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX E.G., THE BUSH FAMILY'S CARLYLE INVESTMENT GROUP AND CHENEY FAMILY'S HALLIBURTON CORPORATION (click here)

2) GENERAL SMEDLEY BUTLER'S 'WAR IS A RACKET' (click here) SPEECH, BECAUSE WAR REALLY IS A RACKET UNDER THE AMERICAN WARPED VERSION OF DEMOCRATIC-REPUBLICANISM CAPITALISTIC 'freedom'.

3) GEORGE WASHINGTON'S 'FAREWELL ADDRESS' (click here) WHEN HE RETIRED FROM THE U.S. PRESIDENCY IN 1796. IN PARTICULAR, WARNING FUTURE U.S. REGIMES FROM 'PASSIONATE ATTACHMENTS' TO DUBIOUS SO-CALLED 'allies'.

DON'T GET CAUGHT UP IN THIS PHONY PATRIOTISM, WHICH IS THE RICHEST ONE PERCENT'S 'HYPE' TO GET THE POOREST 25% TO FIGHT FOR THEIR 'AMERICAN EMPIRE'.
THE BRAVEST AMERICAN SOLDIERS ARE THE ONES WHO THROW DOWN THEIR M-4'S AND COME HOME TO THE U.S...WHERE THEY SHOULD BE.

As for true 'FREEDOM', I pray that the Republic of Lakotah (click here) succeeds in throwing off the shackles of the U.S. Department of Interior, the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, and especially the worst oppressors of Native Americans, as well as the worst entity to ever rear its ugly head on American soil:
the Federal Bureau of Investigation (founded by J.Edgar Hoover the homosexual cross-dresser), aka the FBI, aka the 'Fucking Bunch of Idiots'...

Deo Vindice!

FATHERS' DAY 2009

2009-06-21T06:31:00.038-04:00

This weekend brings another annual 'Father's Day'.

So we give a pat on the back - and probably a necktie from Walmart - to all who bear that title of 'father' in any sense, including grandfathers, stepfathers, fathers-in-law, Godfathers, and just regular dads.

In these times, largely in part due to the false morality vomited on America by the Hollywood moguls, the Eastern cultural 'elite', the secular humanist 'intelligentsia', and other un-American types, we have record numbers of single fathers and mothers. Middle class American men are the new 'stereotype' to be laughed at on TV sitcoms, a bunch of dumb, lovable guys heading up a dysfunctional TV family, like Al Bundy from the idiotic show, "Married..With Children."

American men used to be portrayed as upstanding, hard working and always willing to offer a moral lesson to their children, like John Walton, from the old TV show, "The Waltons,"

or even Charles 'Pa' Ingalls (played by Michael Landon) on the TV show, "Little House on the Prairie."

Further complicating matters are the insidious groups like the ADL, who worked very hard (unsuccessfully) to 'gay-ify' the Boy Scouts.
Pictured at right is Abraham Foxman ---------------->

ADL Director, expressing his dismay at the U.S. Supreme Court's affirming the Boy Scouts right to exclude gays
For info click => http://www.adl.org/PresRele/supremecourt_33/3639_33.asp

If you're fed up with America's cultural morass, you can always do like me and...

SHOOT YOUR TELEVISION!
That's one sure-fire way to force yourself to go outside and play sports with your kids! (as well as to ensure they don't stupidify themselves by watching 'Spongebob Squarepants' on a 24/7 basis.)

Anyway, as for the single parents, most do a good job. It is a particularly difficult job for them because it is - of course - difficult for one person of one gender to take on the task of two. Forty or fifty years ago, single parents were a rarity. Social change and very easy divorce and liberalization in legal matters has affected the traditional unit of two parents of different genders with consequences not even thought of a generation or two ago.

Who would have thought in the 1950s or 1960s that America would be a 3rd world toilet, which is my blunt way of telling it like it is. In science and technology, we're the laughing stock of the world.

America cannot even do democracy right anymore, just look at the 2000 and 2004 elections, and I cannot help but call out the hypocrisy of America's government criticizing Iran's recent elections. If anything, Ahmadinejad should send advisors over to the U.S. to help America get a valid voting process established. Even Fidel Castro offered to do that a few years back after the 2000 Florida 'hanging/dimpled/pregnant chad' fiasco.

With all due respect to those parents who undertake single custodial or shared custodial parent roles there is ample evidence from the behavioral sciences that not only mothers by also fathers present in a home make a huge difference in the necessary formation of children.

I read an article a while back in the news which stated that for every 15 minutes of conversation (a.k.a. 'quality time') that a father engages in with his child, there's a significant broadening of the child's vocabulary. The same article said that the average American father only spends 9 minutes of quality time each day with his children. Go figure?

Think about it...a mom talks to her children about routine matters, "How was school today?", "What did the cafeteria serve for lunch," and "Do you have homework to do for tomorrow?"
HOWEVER...
when I talk to my son, although he's only six years old, we discuss things like "legal evidence," "power transmission lines," "cheating," "auto body shops", "guns," "the solar system," etc. One of the most interesting topics we discussed was American foreign aid. He was flabbergasted by this concept, asking me, "Why would America give its money away to other countries?" The only answer I could give is, "Because our government is run by idiots."

But I hope I've made the point that it is important for dads to spend an hour or more each day with their kids, and no TV distractions (remember? I killed my TV...)
Fathers do more than contribute an X and Y chromosome. They do more than coach baseball or football. They do more than bring home a paycheck. There are plenty of male stereotypes, but the presence of a responsible, caring, and duty-conscious father in a home is critical and desirable, even if it's not always obtainable.

The following are the effects of the presence of a good father for a child:
1. Fathers instill a moral sense, especially in boys.
2. A religious (or spiritual) father matters when it comes to church or mosque
attendance.
3. Fathers help teenagers form their consciences in a positive way.
4. Fewer crimes are committed when a father is present in the home.
5. Girls need a father in order to help them understand males.
6. Wives/mothers need a reliable helper to do their various household jobs.
7. There are fewer pre-marital pregnancies in homes where a father is present.

These are generalizations, of course, and one can always find exceptions. To say such things about fathers is not necessarily to downplay the heroism of single moms.

The point of having a Father's Day is to admit that fathers are a lot more than people who carry luggage, change oil, pay bills, and drink beer while cooking on the grill.

Fathers are a vital component to a healthy society. It doesn't 'take a village' to raise children, but instead a father and mother working together synergistically to instill sound ethical and moral values in their kids, and then their kids will grow up to do the same...that's how a healthy society perpetuates itself.

DEO VINDICE & go fire up the grill Dads!

TWO DEAD IN MISSISSIPPI, WHILE THERE WERE FOUR DEAD IN OH-HI-O

2009-05-05T03:36:00.045-04:00

The Kent State shootings, in which Ohio National Guardsman opened fire on unarmed protesting students, is also known as the May 4 Massacre or Kent State Massacre. This blight on American history occurred at Kent State University, in the city of Kent, Ohio, on May 4, 1970. The killers were members of the Ohio National Guard, who opened fire on these defenseless students on Monday, May 4, 1970. The Kent State Massacre was the subject of a Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's 'folk song', written to memorialize this odious incident of the U.S. government murdering its own citizens - click here for the CSN&Y song/video.

I DEDICATE THIS blog post TO MY HIGH SCHOOL HISTORY TEACHER, MRS. PRAGER, AND MY COLLEGE ENGLISH TEACHER, MRS. EASTON, WITHOUT WHOM I'D NEVER KNOWN ABOUT THE 1960s PROTEST CULTURE AND THE RELEVANCE THAT 'DISSENT' HAS FOR TODAY's U.S. govt. war on the Bill of Rights. (ALSO, AN HONORABLE MENTION TO MY COUSIN, PROF. SHARP, WHO - AS A SUBSTITUTE TEACHER TAUGHT ME IN 10TH GRADE CIVICS THAT EVEN THE U.S. GOVT. ENGAGES IN PROPAGANDA click here! - A REAL EYE OPENER...I THOUGHT IT WAS ONLY THE U.S.S.R. WHICH DID THE 'AGITPROP' THING... )

At Kent State, four students were killed and nine others were wounded, one of whom suffered permanent paralysis. Some of the students who were shot had been protesting against the U.S. invasion of Cambodia, which President Richard Nixon announced in a television address on April 30, 1970. However, other students who were shot had merely been walking nearby or observing the protest from a distance.

BUT, WHEREAS THESE MOSTLY WHITE, MIDDLE CLASS, MASSACRED KIDS MADE THE NATIONAL NEWS, SOME OTHERS DID NOT. SO, LETS ALSO REMEMBER THE BLACK KIDS WHO WERE SHOT AT JACKSON STATE UNIVERSITY FOR PROTESTING THE SAME ISSUE. AND, OF COURSE, BEING BLACK, THEY DIDN'T GET ANY CSN&Y SONGS OR NATIONAL MEDIA - JUST A FOOTNOTE IN THE HISTORY BOOKS, ... EXCEPT FOR THIS LINK click here!

HOMOECIOUS ECONOMICS 101: TRICKLE UP TRUMPS TARP'S TRICKLE DOWN (TREASURY'S TRANSLATION FOR 'TRICKLED ON')

2009-04-26T11:35:00.023-04:00

For you non-Scrabble champs, homoecious refers to 'parasites', which is likewise an apt term for: Wall Street bankers as well as members of the U.S. Senate & Congress, Securities & Exchange Commission, Federal Reserve, etc.

The recently coined acronym 'TARP' we've heard so much of lately is the "Troubled Asset Relief Program," whereby the U.S. government intends to purchase assets and equity from financial institutions in order to strengthen its financial sector. It is the largest component of the government's measures in 2008 to address the subprime mortgage crisis.

TARP allows the United States Department of the Treasury to purchase or insure up to $700 billion of "troubled" assets. "Troubled assets" are defined as "(A) residential or commercial mortgages and any securities, obligations, or other instruments that are based on or related to such mortgages, that in each case was originated or issued on or before March 14, 2008, the purchase of which the Secretary determines promotes financial market stability; and (B) any other financial instrument that the Secretary, after consultation with the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, determines the purchase of which is necessary to promote financial market stability, but only upon transmittal of such determination, in writing, to the appropriate committees of Congress."

In short, this allows the Treasury to purchase illiquid, difficult-to-value assets from banks and other financial institutions. The targeted assets can be collateralized debt obligations, which were sold in a booming market until 2007 when they were hit by widespread foreclosures on the underlying loans, due to gross negligence by the SEC and Federal Reserve to foresee and prevent the current economic disaster. TARP is intended to improve the liquidity of these assets by purchasing them using secondary market mechanisms, thus allowing participating institutions to stabilize their balance sheets and avoid further losses.

The Act requires financial institutions selling assets to TARP to issue equity warrants (a type of security that entitles its holder to purchase shares in the company issuing the security for a specific price), or equity or senior debt securities (for non-publicly listed companies) to the Treasury. In the case of warrants, the Treasury will only receive warrants for non-voting shares, or will agree not to vote the stock. This measure is designed to protect taxpayers by giving the Treasury the possibility of profiting through its new ownership stakes in these institutions, which is an economic theory known as 'socialism.' Ideally, if the financial institutions benefit from government assistance and recover their former strength, the government will also be able to profit from their recovery. And then we'll have a government run economy like France's. (click here)

With regard to accounting standards, officials responsible for TARP are easily able to explain the average American's questions with a simple equation: "What is 1 + 1?, it's whatever our bosses tell us it should be."

The TARP will operate as a “revolving purchase facility.” The Treasury will have a set spending limit, $250 billion at the start of the program, with which it will purchase the assets and then either sell them or hold the assets and collect the 'coupons'. The money received from sales and coupons will go back into the pool, facilitating the purchase of more assets. The initial $250 billion can be increased to $350 billion upon the President’s certification to Congress that such an increase is necessary. The remaining $350 billion may be released to the Treasury upon a written report to Congress from the Treasury with details of its plan for the money. Congress then has 15 days to vote to disapprove the increase before the money will be automatically released. The first $350 billion was released on October 3, 2008, and Congress voted to approve the release of the second $350 billion on January 15, 2009.

One way that TARP money is being spent is to support the "Making Homes Affordable" plan, which was implemented on March 4, 2009, using TARP money by the Department of Treasury. Because "at risk" mortgages are defined as "troubled assets" under TARP, the Treasury has the power to implement the the plan. Generally, it provides refinancing for mortgages held by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Privately held mortgages will be eligible for other incentives, including a favorable loan modification for five years. The authority of the United States Department of the Treasury to establish and manage TARP under a newly created Office of Financial Stability became law October 3, 2008, the result of an initial proposal that ultimately was passed by Congress as H.R. 1424, enacting the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 and several other acts.

Disregard all the above numbers though. The REAL cost of TARP could be as high as $8.5 trillion dollars! (click here)

And we can be sure that the 'mom & pop' stores on Main Street, the small start-up entrepreneurs, and the average American won't see much, if any of this government largesse. Instead it will go to the very Wall Street bankers - the worshipers of Mammon from the cult of 'Greed is Good.' Obama's resurrection of 'Trickle Down Economics' will instead 'trickle on' the average American middle class citizens like piss from a Gucci loafer.

If anyone in the U.S. Government had a basic, working knowledge of fundamental economics, the TARP program would have instead invested the money in the beleaguered middle class. Think of the kickstart to the economy that a boost of $8.5 trillion dollars of tax rebates, small business grants, and other incentives at the ground level of the economy.

A prime example is America's financial aid and advice to the newly independent countries of Central and Eastern Europe soon after the Soviet Empire disintegrated. A classic textbook on that topic is a book by Galen S. Hull entitled, "Small Businesses Trickling Up in Central & Eastern Europe (Transnational Business and Corporate Culture : Problems and Opportunities)." (click here for book info) . The central thesis of this book was that - for America to get the most 'bang for its buck' out of its foreign aid investments in Central and Eastern Europe, it should invest in the traditional 'mom & pop' main street stores, in addition to of course the high-tech entrepreneurical businesses.

AND IT WORKED!!!

So why don't we see our own government investing in us? That is, the American 'mom & pop' farms and main street firms, and high tech entrepreneurical firms?

THAT'S THE BIG QUESTION!?!

In summary, the American Treasury is tossing aside a proven measure to kick-start our nation's business from the ground level. Instead, Geithner and his cronies in Congress would rather reward the incompetents and crooks who got us into this economic mess.

In the meantime, the middle class loses out more and more, in particular those who have to pay for their children's college tuitions, which have gone up 100% to 1000% more than the average workers' pay over the past generation...

AMERICA'S PRISON-STATE: 1 IN 13 GEORGIANS BEHIND BARS, ON PAROLE OR PROBATION!

2009-04-19T19:54:00.000-04:00

In March 2009, the Pew Research Center issued a report entitled, "One in 31: The Long Reach of American Corrections." The Pew Research Center is a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that provides information on the issues, attitudes, and trends shaping the United States and the world. For more info visit the Pew Research website here.

As of 2007, Georgia had 562,763 persons jailed, imprisoned, paroled and probationed. Breaking these numbers down per the Pew report:

PRISON - 49,337;
JAIL - 45,732;
PAROLE - 23,111;
PROBATION - 435,361;
FEDERAL PRISONERS & COMMUNITY-SUPERVISED OFFENDERS - 9,222.

(NOTE: I believe that Federal prisoners should have been omitted if they were not citizens of Georgia, also it doesen't make sense why the Pew Center combined Federal prisoners and community-supervised offenders into a single category.)

As far as the rest of the U.S., the only other comparable state was Idaho, with 1 in 18 of it's total state population under corrections system supervision. None of the other 48 states had rates in the teens. Using Georgia's neighboring states as reference points, the numbers were Alabama (1/32), Florida (1/31), Tennessee (1/40), South Carolina (1/38), and North Carolina (1/38).

Georgia also ranks 4th (behind DC, Louisiana & Mississippi) in adult incarceration rates, i.e., in jail or prison, at 1 in 70, or 1.42% of adults in Georgia. What is alarming about this statistic is the phenomenal increase: in 1982 Georgia's incarceration rate was 1 in 169, or 0.59% of the adult population. Thus, in the quarter century from 1982 to 2007, Georgia's adult incarceration rate has increased by about 2.5 times!

Georgia also leads the nation for the rate of adults on probation/parole at 1 in 15, or 6.5% of the adult population. This rate has more than tripled in the 25 years from 1982 to 2007. In 1982 Georgia's adult probation/parole rate was only 1 in 48, or 2.09%.

In terms of monetary costs, in fiscal year 2008 Georgia's taxpayers spent $1.1 million dollars, which is not the most in the nation, although it puts Georgia in an 'elite' group of 14 other states which spent over $1 million annually on corrections. This figure was 5.9% of Georgia's State Budget expenses. In terms of human costs? I'd say in this raw data, there are a whole lot of young black men behind bars or on probation/parole on trumped up convictions similar to Genarlow Wilson's case - which the New York Times editorialized as "Georgia's Shame."

Black church and community leaders should work to educate Metro Atlanta's young blacks on civil liberties & civil rights. This is especially important when when interacting with the local police departments, since another sad Georgia statistic is that one out of three (1/3) of Atlanta Metro area cops have prior criminal records. In my observations, a cop with a criminal past shows a critical defect in character, regardless of the circumstances of his/her crime and punishment. This character defect manifests itself in the criminal cop's anti-social attitude, meaning he/she doesn't really care if they lock up an innocent person, as long as they get their arrest quotas.

Although the Pew Report doesn't dwell much on the racial makeup of America's correction system population, it does state that black adults are four times as likely as whites and nearly 2.5 times as likely as Hispanics to be under correctional control. Nationwide, one in 11 black adults (9.2%) was under correctional supervision at year end 2007

So it is a reasonable assumption that a similar racial makeup exists for Georgians under correctional control. Personally, I place a large deal of the blame on Georgia's current black
'so-called' leaders, what a bunch of losers, sellouts who won't stand up for blacks and risk their cushy high paying jobs. I'm especially referring to the 'so-called' black leaders in the state's law enforcement and judiciary systems. Just look at the blatant non-chalance of 'so-called' black leaders Attorney General Thurbert Baker, Dept. of Corrections Commissioner James Donald, Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears, Supreme Court Justice Robert Benham, and Supreme Court Justice Harold Melton when Genarlow Wilson was being persecuted, and even worse, what have these 'so-called' champions of justice done for death row inmate Troy Davis whose case is so much worse than a 'mis-carriage of justice', the most fitting description can only be an abortion of justice!

And think of all the money which could have gone to educate young black people about civics and civil liberties, but instead was squandered on frivolous lawsuits filed by Clayton County ex-sheriff Victor Hill and DeKalb County ex-police chief Terrell Bolton. Bolton has spent more time and effort suing the Dallas, Texas and DeKalb County governments for 'wrongfully' firing him than he has as police chief. And then the list agonizingly goes on, DeKalb Superior Court Judge Linda Hunter acting like Judge Judy, bending the law to spring her husband from jail; former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney throwing her cell phone at a DC Capitol policeman merely because he asked her to display her Capitol I.D. pass; Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin's ex-husband (now deceased) recommended for disbarment by the DC Bar Association for unethical and financial misconduct; and Mayor Franklin's daughter pleading guilty to money laundering for her ex-husband, who is serving life in prison for drug dealing...and then there's Vernon Jones' plethora of ethics problems...

AND THUS, IN SUMMARY, GEORGIANS NEED TO ASK THEMSELVES, IN LIGHT OF THE ABOVE DATA, ARE THESE THE BEST ROLE MODELS FOR YOUNG BLACKS?!?

AND SO, WHILE THE GEORGIA STATE LEGISLATURE WASTED COUNTLESS HOURS OVER THE PAST 25 YEARS ON ASININE POINTLESS DEBATE ON WHETHER THE GEORGIA FLAG SHOULD INCORPORATE THE CONFEDERATE BATTLE FLAG, THE CORRECTIONS CONTROL POPULATION RATES DOUBLED AND TRIPLED.

WHAT'S WORSE, THE CURRENT GEORGIA FLAG HAS EMBLAZENED THE STATE'S MOTTO, "WISDOM, JUSTICE, MODERATION," GUARDED BY A DEPICTION OF AN AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIER, WITH A DRAWN SWORD REPRESENTING THE DEFENSE OF THE CONSTITUTION.

I'M SORRY TO SAY, THAT NEITHER WISDOM, NOR JUSTICE, NOR MODERATION, NOR DEFENSE OF THE CONSTITUTION EXISTS IN GEORGIA.

I THINK THE OTHER 49 STATES WOULD RATHER HAVE GEORGIA PUT THE CONFEDERATE BATTLE FLAG BACK ON ITS SORRY RAG, THEN SECEDE AGAIN, OR IN THE COMMON VERNACULAR, "JUST GET THE HELL OUT OF THESE UNITED STATES!"

...AND SADLY THE FINAL EPITAPH FOR THE HOME STATE OF MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., WILL BE WRITTEN, "THE DREAM DIED HERE..."

Deo Vindice

SIGMA Think Tank - Briefing on 21st Century Threat Appraisal, by David Brin - Part 1 of 2

2009-04-07T12:05:00.001-04:00

Check out David Brin's SlideShare Presentation from SIGMA, a futuristic think tank:

View more presentations from davidbrin.

SIGMA Think Tank - Briefing on 21st Century Threat Appraisal, by David Brin - Part 2

2009-04-07T12:04:00.001-04:00

The Second Part of David Brin's SlideShare Presentation from SIGMA, a futuristic think tank:

View more presentations from davidbrin.

DISMAL SCIENTISTS - THE FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD MEMBERS' ACADEMIC CREDENTIALS - NOT WORTH THE PAPER ON WHICH THEIR Ph.D.'S ARE PRINTED (Ph.Dunces?)

2009-03-27T03:48:00.000-04:00

The seven members of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. (Currently there are only five members as nobody wants the job because all the smart economists left to work for AIG.) A full term is fourteen years. The Chairman and the Vice Chairman of the Board are named by the President from among the members and are confirmed by the Senate. They serve a term of four years. A member's term on the Board is not affected by his or her status as Chairman or Vice Chairman.
Below are the names, photos, and academic qualifications of the 5 members, which should make us wonder...if they're so smart (at least on paper), and they meet every other Monday... then... WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY TALKING ABOUT IN THESE BI-WEEKLY MEETINGS?
For those in the Washington, DC area with an interest, the Board's meetings are are held at the Federal Reserve Building located at 20th & C Streets, NW, DC. The meetings are supposed to be open to the public, but apparently when the Fed Board members discuss serious matters relating to the economy they invoke an exemption to the 'Open Government Sunshine Act', like they did for the last meeting (click here) on March 17:

"Meeting date: March 17, 2009
Matters Considered: 1. Discussion on Financial Markets.
Exemption(s): 9(A)(i) Effective March 17, 2009, the meeting was closed to public observation by Order of the Board of Governors because the matters fall under exemption(s) 9(A)(i) of the Government in the Sunshine Act (5 U.S.C. Section 552b(c)), and it was determined that the public interest did not require opening the meeting. (Voting to exclude the public: Chairman Bernanke, Vice Chairman Kohn, and Governors Warsh, Duke and Tarullo.)"

(THINK!...about it! The Fed determined that American citizens - in the midst of the worst financial crisis in 80 years - had no need to observe the Fed's discussions on the ailing financial markets!) Anyway, we already knew the Fed modus operandi is secrecy & cronyism, so here's the gallery of fools in no particular order as they are all about equally useless:

KEVIN M. WARSH - A.B. in public policy (honors) from Stanford University in 1992 with significant course work in economics and statistics. Warsh studied law, economics, and regulatory policy at Harvard Law School, receiving a J.D. (cum laude) in 1995. He also completed course work in market economics and debt capital markets at Harvard Business School and MIT’s Sloan School of Management.

DONALD L. KOHN - Ph.D. in economics in 1971 from the University of Michigan. He was awarded the Distinguished Achievement Award from The Money Marketeers of New York University in 2002. Kohn is the Chairman of the Committee on the Global Financial System, a central bank panel that monitors & examines broad issues related to financial markets and systems.

ELIZABETH A. DUKE - M.B.A. from Old Dominion University. Graduate of the Stonier Graduate School of Banking and the Virginia Bankers School of Bank Management.

BEN S. BERNANKE - Chairman of Federal Reserve. Bernanke also serves as Chairman of the FOMC. B.A. in economics in 1975 from Harvard University (summa cum laude) and a Ph.D. in economics in 1979 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

DANIEL K. TARULLO - J.D. (summa cum laude) from the University of Michigan Law School (oh great, that's two lawyers on the Board...), where he served as Article and Book Review Editor of the Michigan Law Review. Tarullo was Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center, where he taught courses in international financial regulation, international law, and banking law.

<Click here for the Fun Federal Reserve Kids Page!

“When a government is dependent for money upon the bankers, they and not the government leaders control the nation. This is because the hand that gives is above the hand that takes. Financiers are without patriotism and without decency.” - Napoleon

"I sincerely believe the banking institutions having the issuing power of money, are more dangerous to liberty than standing armies. " - Thomas Jefferson

Aww, forget all the above, I wonder who's gonna win on 'Dancing With The Stars?'

WEEKLY ROGUE COPS REPORT - 3/22/09: ROBERT POWELL, DALLAS P.D. & PATRICK DOTSON, BALTIMORE P.D.

2009-03-26T21:49:00.001-04:00

1. Dallas Thug Cop Detained/Harassed NFL Player Rushing to Hospital As Player's Mother-in-Law Died - March 18, 2009
A rogue cop was placed on paid administrative leave Thursday over a traffic stop involving an NFL player whom he kept in a hospital parking lot and threatened to arrest while the player's mother-in-law died inside the building.
Punk cop Robert Powell also drew his gun during the March 18 incident involving Houston Texans running back Ryan Moats in the Dallas suburb of Plano, police said. “I can screw you over!” said the rogue cop Powell at one point in the videotaped incident. When another officer came with word that Moats’ mother-in-law was indeed dying, Powell’s response was: “All right. I’m almost done.”
Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle apologized to the family and announced that Powell would be on paid leave (i.e., a vacation!) pending an internal investigation. “When we at the command staff reviewed the tape, we were embarrassed, disappointed,” Kunkle said. “It’s hard to find the right word and still be professional in my role as the police chief. But the behavior was not appropriate.”
Powell, 25, a three-year member of the force, stopped Moats’ SUV outside Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano after Moats rolled through a red light. Police officials said Powell told his commanders he believed he was doing his job, and that he drew his gun but did not point it. (hmmm...wonder if Powell also smokes dope but doesn't inhale...)
Kunkle said Powell was not necessarily acting improperly when he pulled his weapon out, but that once he realized what was happening should have put the gun back, apologized and offered to help the family in any way. (outrageous...I've never heard of an Amerikan cop offering to help anyone...preposterous) “His behavior, in my opinion, did not exhibit the common sense, the discretion, the compassion that we expect our officers to exhibit,” Kunkle said.
Moats’ wife, who was in the car along with other relatives, said Powell pointed his weapon at her. “He was pointing a gun at me as soon as I got out of the car,” Tamishia Moats told The Dallas Morning News.
Video from a dashboard camera inside the officer’s vehicle, obtained by Dallas-Fort Worth station WFAA-TV, revealed an intense exchange in which the officer threatened to jail Moats.

He ordered Tamishia Moats, 27, to get back in the SUV, but after pausing for a few seconds, she and another woman rushed into the hospital. She was by the side of her mother, 45-year-old Jonetta Collinsworth, when she died a short time later from breast cancer.
“Get in there,” said Powell, yelling at Tamishia Moats as she exited the vehicle. “Let me see your hands!” “Excuse me, my mom is dying,” Tamishia Moats said. “Do you understand?”
Ryan Moats explained that he waited until there was no traffic before proceeding through the red light. As they argued, the officer got irritated. “Shut your mouth!” the asinine cop Powell yelled. “You can either settle down and cooperate or I can just take you to jail for running a red light.”
By the time the 26-year-old NFL player received a ticket and a lecture from Powell, about 13 minutes had passed. When he and Collinsworth’s father entered the hospital, they learned Collinsworth was dead.
Kunkle said the video showed that Moats and his wife “exercised extraordinary patience, restraint in dealing with the behavior of our officer.” “At no time did Mr. Moats identify himself as an NFL football player or expect any kind of special consideration,” Kunkle said. “He handled himself very, very well.”
When the exchange was at its most contentious, Powell said he could tow Moats’ SUV if he didn’t have insurance and that he could arrest him for fleeing because he didn’t immediately stop when Powell turned on his sirens. “I can screw you over,” Powell said. “I’d rather not do that. Your attitude will dictate everything that happens.” (What about the rogue cop Powell's attitude?)
The ticket issued to Moats was dismissed!

2) Baltimore Cop Out Drinking With Cop-Buddies GoesPsycho, Falsely Imprisons Bartender, Gets in Bar Fight, Then Shoots at Car in Parking Lot!
- March 26, 2009
On his sixth wedding anniversary and two days before he and his wife were due to close on their first home, Baltimore City thug cop Patrick A. Dotson was brought into a courtroom with his hands shackled after spending a night in Central Booking, accused of two counts of attempted murder.

As his sister spoke to retired District Court Judge Charlotte M. Cooksey about his military service in Afghanistan and his role as a father (yeah, so that excuses his crimes, Sis...), the weight of the circumstances appeared to catch up to him. Dotson's face turned red, and he fought to hold back tears. (Crybaby Cop - LMAO! - just wait 'til a fellow prison inmate makes Patrick 'Patsy' Dotson his 'prison-wife'...then he'll REALLY be crying!)

Crybaby 'Patsy' Dotson, 26, was released after posting $500,000 bond Wednesday. City police say he got into a fight at a Canton bar March 9 and fired his service weapon at a car as it drove away through a closing-time crowd. The bullet hit near the vehicle's gas tank. It took investigators two weeks to confirm that the suspect they were pursuing was one of their own.
Prosecutor David Chiu called Dotson an "extreme risk to the community" and said "if the allegations are true, he should not be a police officer."
"Many victims in this city are innocent bystanders who happen to be at the wrong place as someone is firing shots," Chiu said. "The bullet was fired at the gas tank, and had the car exploded, the result would have been catastrophic, not only for the two people in the car but anyone in the community."
Margaret Burns, a spokeswoman for the Baltimore state's attorney's office, said Wednesday that prosecutors will dismiss all misdemeanor cases (prosecutors should instead 'throw the book' at Dotson to keep this dangerous menace to society off the streets for the next 40 years) in which Dotson and fellow rogue cop Fontaine Smallwood - who was also at the bar and has been suspended - are the sole police witnesses. Felony cases will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, she said.
Dotson, who works on a special task force targeting drugs in the Pennsylvania Avenue corridor, is listed as a police witness on more than 30 cases filed this month alone, and dozens more have yet to be adjudicated. (I wouldn't be surprised if they let this nutcase out of prison (or the insane asylum) to testify in these cases - WE ALL KNOW that the police never lie in court testimony...)
A public defender, who acknowledged a conflict of interest in representing Dotson in lieu of an attorney from the Fraternal Order of Police, argued for a reasonable bail and had Dotson's sister address the judge. "He is a good citizen in the community," she said. (then why was he out shooting up the town?) "He is a good father, a good son, a good husband, and most importantly, he is a God-fearing man." (a good husband goes out with his buddies & gets drunk and rowdy on his wedding anniversary? - Hey, that means I'm a GREAT husband!)
The shooting occurred eight hours after a tavern owner said he was forced out of his establishment at gunpoint by Dotson and Smallwood. The owner held a news conference last week to air his allegations. Attorney Granville Templeton III said client Raymond Nelson has filed a notice of intention to sue the Police Department after he was taken from inside Chopper's Tavern and forced to sit on a curb while handcuffed for about an hour. Templeton said police had no reason to detain Nelson. Templeton said that he is also calling on the State's Attorney Office to file assault charges in connection with that incident, given that Dotson is now accused of shooting at someone later that night.

WHATCHA GONNA DO WHEN THEY COME FOR YOU? CITIZEN'S GUIDE TO POLICE ENCOUNTERS

2009-03-05T11:32:00.002-05:00

FIRST: Download THIS WALLET REFERENCE CARD (click here) from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), "What To Do If You're Stopped By The Police."

For more details see this ACLU Website link to their web page on "Police Practices."

SECOND: Watch this video, "Don't Talk to the Police, (click this link)" featuring Regent University Law Professor James Duane.

THIRD: Watch this video clip (click here) featuring smart-ass cop George Bruch from the Virginia Beach Police Department responding to Professor Duane's presentation on why innocent people should never talk to the police. (This jerk seems to think everyone but cops are stupid) Also, it's important to add here that Officer Bruch is exaggerating and/or lying about the Spanish and Italian police being thugs who detain people on a whim and deny them basic rights. The police across Europe, including Italy and Spain, are very polite and professional. I lived in Europe for three years, and my experiences with the European police (based on roughly 10 encounters - don't ask) are that they see their mission as "Protect and Serve." Contrast that to the American cops' cowboy attitude, "Shoot (or Taser) first, ask questions later".

FOURTH Check out this website - flexyourrights.org which has a lot of very useful information on dealing with police in various situations, in particular searches during traffic stops and random search requests on public transportation.

FIFTH Read the book entitled, "You and the Police," by Boston T. Party (an alias of course, we cannot be too careful criticizing THE STATE these days...)

Criminal defense attornies across the U.S.A. acclaim this small paperback as the best all-around book on the subject of dealing effectively and constructively with the police in an encounter situation. The book is easy to read, as the author is not an attorney but a 'regular citizen,' and it provides an excellent overview in plain language of what their citizens' rights are and how to keep them from being violated without resorting to an all-out confrontation. This is constructive and practical advice for uncertain times. For the unaware citizen who mistakenly believes every cop is there to 'protect and serve', this book could make the difference between leaving a random traffic stop problem-free.....or getting thrown in jail for something minor such as (forgetting to use your turn signal (click this link for example).
The book was revised in 2005, in the wake of the USA PATRIOT Act, and covers a dozen newer Supreme Court decisions, including important laws enacted since 9-11-2001. There is also a chapter regarding your 2nd Amendment Right to keep and bear arms for personal defense.

STOP!!! and think about it! If a cop pulls you over for a broken tail-light, and then the cop asked to search your trunk, what would you do? What should you say or not say? Where do your rights and his powers meet?

The book was reviewed by several practicing attorneys to ensure the reliability and quality of the information and ideas inside. It's a 'must read' for every American in the new AMERIKAN POLICE STATE.

If you know of anyone (of course you yourself aren't that dumb) who needlessly waived their rights during an encounter with the police, please get them this book. We still have a few Constitutional rights left, ....
if we will only learn and use them!

SIXTH: Read the book entitled, "Dial 911 and Die: The Shocking Truth About the Police Protection Myth."

This is a book that will open your eyes and possibly even save your life, or the life of a family member or friend. It should be required reading for anyone who doesn't realize that she/he has primary, if not sole, responsibility for protecting and defending herself/himself. And it's an excellent resource for those of us who have accepted that responsibility in the face of overwhelming hostility from the uninformed and politically correct.

Are the cops obligated to arrest someone who repeatedly violates a domestic violence protective order? NO!

Can the cops ignore an emergency call for assistance in order to do paperwork? YES!

Do the cops have the obligation to respond to a 911 call for help? NO!

What if the cops promise that "help is on the way", are they obligated to respond? NO!

If the police witness a crime in progress, must they intervene to protect the innocent? NO!

There are no guarantees the cops will not be overwhelmed, have 911 system technical malfuntions, be too remote to respond, be just plain lazy (click here) and/or irresponsible (click here) or otherwise be unable to come to the defense of a citizen in an emergency.

Like the book "You and the Police," this book is an easy read and very hard to put down. It will make you question the real agenda of politicians who are over-eager to pass anti-gun laws which essentially nothing to a determined criminal, yet disarm the honest, peaceable citizen. Those who think they are afforded blanket protection by dialing 911 if an emergency arises need to know it is at best a tattered security blanket.

The average American citizen has been conditioned by countless hours of watching TV cop dramas where the valiant men-in-blue arrive in the nick of time to rescue the hapless victims of violent thugs. These citizens believe the police should and will protect them and their families, but after reading "Dial 911 and Die," they will receive a sobering heads-up about how the law enforcemen emergency response system REALLY works.

This book speaks to the irrefutable truth: cops actually do very little to prevent violent crime. Instead, they investigate crimes after the fact. Americans need to know just how safe they really are in their homes in case violent criminals decide to target them. Many Americans believe the myth that they can simply "dial 911" and then just wait for the police to rescue them from danger. "Dial 911 and Die" explodes that myth with true stories from all over the country. This gist of the matter is: that, in most cases, the police do not have to protect ordinary private citizens from criminal attacks. The law and the courts shield the police departments and governments from liability. That means the citizens are left in the cold...without even knowing so!

When the thug breaks down your front door, ask yourself, is dialing 911 really your best defense?
Americans need to know the facts in order to take necessary precautions such as installing security systems and purchasing firearms. "Dial 911 and Die" gives them the answers. Don't become a victim to a false hope...read this book and get the facts.

Comments from the author, attorney Richard W. Stevens: "It was the most shocking thing I learned in law school. We had been studying how, under current law, you can sue for almost anything. You can sue a ladder manufacturer for failing to warn you that you might fall off. You can sue the phone company when a drunk driver crashes into a phone booth that you are using. You can sue your landlord for failing to take enough precautions to deter criminals from harming you on the property. A burglar can sue the homeowner when the crook trips and falls while burgling. In all these cases, the law courts said the product manufacturer, the phone company and the property owner "owed a legal duty" to prevent the accidents or protect
the citizen. Turn the page, and prepare for a jolt: you cannot sue the government or the police for failing to protect you from crime. Whether liberal or conservative, almost everybody agrees that if there is one thing the government should do for the people, it should protect people from violent crime. Yet the law in most localities says that the government and police owe no legal duty to protect individual citizens from criminal attack. You don't hear this fact from the media and political figures. So, I wanted to inform every American and Canadian about it. People are worried about violent crime, but the authorities just hand them a telephone number to call. After reading this book I hope people will understand that they have a right and duty to protect themselves from criminal attack, and that nobody else can really do it for them."

Some people won't believe this message until they read the book and see the law and the cases in black and white with footnotes. "Dial 911 and Die" tells the true stories, gives the law, and provides the legal references. Get one copy for yourself, and one extra copy to lend to skeptical friends and family members. It might just save a life!

Here are two real-life examples from the book, preventable tragedies where dialing 911 didn't help:

1) A woman had called the city police at least 20 times in a year, reporting her estranged husband's violent attacks on her and her two daughters. The husband had even been arrested once for an assault on her. One September day the husband called his wife and told her he was coming over to kill her. She called the police, but they refused to come. The cops (probably on their police union-mandated donut break) told her to call back when her husband had arrived. Meanwhile, within an hour the husband showed up and stabbed his wife to death. Was the city police department liable for failing to protect this woman? Check out the chapter on California.

2) Just before dawn two men broke down the back door of a three story home shared by three women and a child. On the second floor, one woman was sexually attacked. Her housemates heard her screams and called the police. Their first call to police got assigned a second-level priority and the responding officers did just a quick check and left. The women's second frantic call got a promise of help ... but no officers were even dispatched! The attackers kidnapped, robbed, raped, and beat all three women for 14 hours. When later the women sued the city for negligence, did they get their day in court? Check out the chapter on the District of Columbia.

In closing, perhaps we should all consider how "AMERICA'S LAWYER" weighed in on the issue of gun control, as illustrated in THIS VIDEO CLIP (click here)!

DEO VINDICE

ROGUE SEATTLE-AREA COP BEATS HELPLESS 15 YEAR OLD GIRL IN A HOLDING CELL - MISCREANT COP'S BRUTALITY CAUGHT ON VIDEO

2009-03-01T13:48:00.000-05:00

Thug Cop's Beating of Teenage Girl Caught on Police Video
Tape shows rogue cop kicking, striking 15 year old girl while she was in custody
By Scott Gutierrez
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
February 27, 2009

A VIDEO showing a King County, Washington (Seattle is the county seat of King County) sheriff's deputy pummeling a 15-year-old girl in a holding cell was released Friday over the strenuous objections of the officer's attorney. The case goes beyond police misconduct, County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg said in a prepared statement."It's about criminal misconduct. And that's why he needs to be prosecuted," he said.

The video of the November 29, 2008, incident was disclosed on February 27, one day after Deputy Paul Schene, 31, pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor assault in King County District Court. Schene, an eight-year veteran, works out of Precinct 4, which covers SeaTac, Burien and high crime areas in White Center and Skyway. He is the third King County sheriff's deputy since 2006 to face charges on allegations of excessive force. All three are from the Burien precinct.

A detective assigned to the girl's case discovered the video December 1, 2008, and immediately forwarded it to supervisors. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer requested a copy of the holding cell video and all reports from the incident under the state's open records law. A judge on Thursday denied a request from Schene's attorney to bar the video from public disclosure. "We take this very seriously and we're very concerned about this," sheriff's Sgt. Jim Laing said Friday. An internal investigation would begin after the criminal case is finished.

The girl was arrested after she was caught in her parents' car, which had been reported stolen from her parents' home. Deputy Travis Brunner spotted the car driving without headlights about 3:45 a.m. on 32nd Avenue South in SeaTac and pulled it over. She and another 15-yearold girl were arrested and taken to SeaTac City Hall to be fingerprinted befortele being transported to the youth detention center. The Post-Intelligencer is not naming the girl because she is a minor.

The deputies apparently didn't know until later that the girl, who was in the passenger seat, was related to the car's owner. "We had argued strenuously that the videotape released to the media this morning not be released because it does not tell the whole story of the incident," attorney Anne Bremner said in a statement."As we argued to the judge, it will inflame public opinion and will severely impact the deputy's right to a fair trial."

The video shows Schene and Brunner as they escorted the girl into the holding cell. Schene had asked her to remove her basketball shoes, and, as she slipped out of her left shoe, she appeared to kick it at Schene. Schene then lunged through the door and kicked her, striking either her stomach or upper thigh area, court documents say. He pushed her against a corner wall before flinging her to the floor by her hair. He then squatted down on her and made "two overhead strikes," although it's unclear where the blows landed.

The detective who reviewed the video said it appeared Schene and Brunner had the girl under control when Schene struck her. Schene, who is 6 feet 2 and weighs 195 pounds, did not explain his action to investigators, court documents say. He and the girl exchanged words. Brunner said she was "real lippy" after being informed she was under arrest and called them "fat pigs." The Sheriff's Office policy manual says deputies should use physical or deadly force only when "necessary to effect an arrest, to defend themselves or others from violence, or to otherwise accomplish police duties according to law."

Schene could face up to a year in jail if convicted. He has been on administrative leave since early December. The girl said that she couldn't breathe after the incident, prompting the deputies to call paramedics. Paramedics decided that she didn't require hospitalization. Felony charges require proof of serious injury.

"If the matter were to go to trial, he could face additional charges," said Ian Goodhew, deputy chief of staff in the Prosecutor's Office. In his own report from the incident, Schene wrote that the shoe hit him in the right shin, "causing injury and pain." (blogger's comment: 'what a panty-waist-wussy cop') He wrote that he "placed" her into handcuffs and that she needed medical attention for a "panic attack." He said a "blood filled pocket" formed on his shin, requiring treatment at Auburn General Hospital, according to his report. The video, however, appears to show his shin strike a metal toilet as he pushes the girl against the wall. (blogger's comment: he should be charged with filing a false police report for this...)

The girl told investigators that she didn't intend for the shoe to hit him, court documents say.

Schene had previously been in the news in 2006 after he fatally shot Pedro Jo, a mentally ill man, during a struggle after a traffic stop on Interstate 5. It was the second officer-involved shooting of his career. An inquest jury ruled the shooting was justified. Jo viciously attacked Schene, trying to strangle him with his own radio cord.Jo then ran back to his car and disobeyed Schene's orders to stop. Schene said he saw Jo reach for something in the seat, so Schene fired 11 times (blogger's comment: if these cops were competent and trained, then only 1-2 shots should suffice, 11 shots appears to be 'overkill') after Jo ran back to his car.

Shortly after the shooting while on administrative leave, Schene was stopped for driving under the influence. He had been drinking and taking prescription medication, according to court records. He received a deferred sentence and was placed on probation, records show.

Schene works in an urban precinct with higher rates of violent crime and gang activity than other precincts. Officers assigned there more often report having to use physical force in arrest situations, Laing said. Schene is the second officer from the precinct in three months to face charges.

In addition, a third deputy, Brian Bonnar, was acquitted in January of civil rights violations during a trial in U.S. District Court. Bonnar, who patrolled in the precinct, was accused by other deputies of using excessive force on a woman who'd been restrained after a high-speed pursuit. Legal costs for Bonnar's private attorneys, David Allen and Todd Maybrown, as well as lawyer costs for other deputies involved, cost the county's insurer $315,000, according to records the P-I obtained. Lastly, in December 2008, Deputy Don Griffee was charged with misdemeanor assault for punching a handcuffed male suspect. The state Attorney General's Office is prosecuting that case.

THIS JUST IN! MORE INFO & VIDEO OF BEFORE AND AFTER ROGUE COP'S BRUTAL ATTACK:

The King County Sheriff's Office released a series of videos to the media in the case against Deputy Paul Schene, who is accused of assaulting a 15-year-old girl at a police holding cell.

The first video, which you linked to above, was posted by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on February 27. This video received the most attention and scrutiny, as it showed the deputies pummeling the teenage girl. The girl had been busted for taking her mother's car without permission.

The Post-Intelligencer was able to convert these video files and stitch parts of them together to show the action leading up to the holding cell action leading up to the holding cell , as well as the action immediately following. You can follow the time stamp at the top of the frame. The videos come from separate security cameras inside SeaTac City (Seattle-Tacoma) Hall, from where the deputies operate.

Post-Intelligencer staff has also put together a video that covers a longer period after the incident, where medics are called to attend to the girl. The extra footage begins at about the 2-minute mark.

ROGUE COP OF THE WEEK, 2-17-2009, DRUNK MARYLAND STATE TROOPER KIDNAPS GUY THEN LEADS OTHER COPS ON WILD CHASE WHILE DRIVING HIS STATE TROOPER CAR!!!

2009-02-20T06:05:00.000-05:00

This is incredible! Where do the police recruit these maniacs from? I know police forces across the country may be short-staffed these days, but can't they recruit from somewhere besides the psych wards?!?!?

CLICK HERE FOR THE WACKY VIDEO!

Here's the full story:

A Maryland State Police trooper was fired after being charged with kidnapping a man in his marked police car during a chase in which the trooper was the one running from other officers.

Maryland State Police Officer Bruce Wrzosek, 22, had been suspended from duty earlier in the year after an incident in Baltimore city that was never prosecuted.

Wrzosek went back to work in October but allegedly got involved in a much more serious case early Saturday in Towson.

Baltimore County police were called to a fast food restaurant at Loch Raven and Taylor avenues at about 2:30 a.m. Saturday after getting calls that a state trooper who appeared to be drunk was using a marked police car -- lights and sirens blaring -- to pull people over at the drive through!

According to court documents, a witness reported that "a drunken state trooper grabbed (one man) out of his car and put him in the police car."

Investigators said county police approached the trooper, but as they did, he took off, racing east on Taylor Avenue at a high rate of speed. The court documents said when the trooper finally stopped, he provided his Maryland State Police identification.
Miller reported that the trooper had trouble with a field sobriety test, allegedly admitting, "That's great. I'm drunk."

According to court documents, the fast food customer in the trooper's car told police, "He thought they were doing around 95 mph while on Taylor Avenue, and that (the trooper) scared the life out of him."

"The allegations made against this individual are very serious," said State Police Spokesman Greg Shipley.

He said the department's response to the allegations was swift. Wrzosek was fired by noon on Monday.

Wrzosek was off duty at the time of the incident, Miller reported. He was authorized to have a take-home police car.

On Saturday, investigators said Wrzosek's blood-alcohol content was 0.20 -- more than twice the legal limit!

DANGER! POLICE IN THE AREA! TAKE COVER......!!!!

CRUEL & UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT - AMERIKAN STYLE

2009-02-15T21:57:00.000-05:00

Judges spend their lives consigning their fellow humans to prison; and when info reaches them that prisons are medievally cruel and destructive places, and that no creature fit to live should be sent there, they only remark calmly that prisons are not meant to be comfortable...

But first...let's not forget the Guantanamo detainees suffering from Amerikan cruel & unusual punishment..click here for Amnesty International report on the USA's hi-tech torture center

I. INTRODUCTION
The Security Housing Unit at Pelican Bay State Prison near Crescent City, California, is the last stop in California's penal system. It was in this unit that Vaughn Dortch, a prisoner with a life-long history of mental problems, was confined after a conviction for grand theft. There, the stark conditions of isolation caused his mental condition to dramatically deteriorate to the point that he smeared himself repeatedly with feces and urine.

Prison officials took Vaughn to the infirmary to bathe him and asked a medical technician, Irven McMillan, if he wanted a part of this bath. McMillan responded that he would take some of the `brush end, referring to a hard bristle brush which is wrapped in a towel and used to clean an inmate. McMillan asked a supervisor for help, but she refused. Ultimately, six guards wearing rubber gloves held Vaughn, with his hands cuffed behind his back, in a tub of scalding water. His attorney later estimated the temperature to be about 125 degrees.

McMillan proceeded with the bath while one officer pushed down on Vaughn's shoulder and held his arms in place. After about fifteen minutes, when Vaughn was finally allowed to stand, his skin peeled off in sheets, hanging in large clumps around his legs. Nurse Barbara Kuroda later testified without rebuttal that she heard a guard say about the black inmate that it "looks like we're going to have a white boy before this is through, his skin is so dirty and so rotten, it's all fallen off." Vaughn received no anesthetic for more than forty-five minutes, eventually collapsed from weakness, and was taken to the emergency room. There he went into shock and almost died.

Pelican Bay Warden Charles Marshall attributed the incident to an "inexperienced staff" and "the difficulties of opening a new prison."

Vaughn Dortch was almost burned to death by prison employees in a correctional facility which former California Governor George Deukmejian called "a model for the rest of the nation." Unfortunately, this may be true. More and more states are building "supermax" facilities like Pelican Bay, abandoning even the most cursory attempts at rehabilitating prisoners.

This Comment argues that, rather than being a model for the rest of the nation, as Governor Deukmejian and Warden Marshall would have us believe, Pelican Bay State Prison inflicts unacceptable psychological trauma on inmates confined in the virtually unrelieved isolation of the Security Housing and Violence Control Units. In some cases, the constant isolation deprives inmates of sanity itself. The severe sensory deprivation experienced by Pelican Bay inmates as a result of this isolation violates the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution in that it constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.

Part II provides a brief history of the American penitentiary as background for a critical examination of Pelican Bay State Prison. Part III describes the physical aspects of Pelican Bay and the general conditions of confinement within the Security Housing Unit (SHU) and the Violence Control Unit (VCU). Part IV discusses the history of the Pelican Bay inmate class action suit and the outcome of the suit. This Part argues that the decision does not go far enough because it fails to declare the SHU unconstitutional for all inmates. Part V describes the documented effects of extreme sensory deprivation on prisoners in solitary confinement, including the seminal study done by Stuart Grassian, M.D., at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Walpole. Part VI demonstrates that the particular effects of sensory deprivation on prisoners within the SHU, including both the psychological and psychiatric consequences, violate the Eighth Amendment. This Part includes documented incidents of inmate psychosis, suicidal ideation, self-mutilation, and delusions and argues that the conscious, wanton deprivation of inmate mental health in this environment constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. In support of this argument, this Part also sets out the legal predicates to a finding of constitutional liability for Pelican Bay prison officials. The Comment concludes with a summary of the argument and a discussion of the negative societal effects that result when psychologically damaged SHU inmates are released directly into our cities and towns.

II. HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES PENAL SYSTEM
A. The Birth of the American Penitentiary
1. The Pennsylvania System
Pelican Bay State Prison's direct ancestors can be found in the early Pennsylvania penitentiaries which, ironically, were the result of a prison reform movement led by American Quakers. The Quakers believed that the ideal way to reform criminals was to lock them in cells and leave them in total isolation. In forced isolation, prisoners would have nothing to do but consider the evil of their prior bad acts, repent, and reform themselves. The Quakers believed that if a prisoner were to receive "kindness and proper direction" during his period of confinement, he could begin the process of rehabilitation. The first complete penitentiary institutions to implement the Quaker ideals, then known as the "Pennsylvania System," were the Western Penitentiary near Pittsburgh, built in 1829, and the Eastern Penitentiary in Philadelphia, built in 1836. These two Pennsylvania prisons formed the "first planned sovereign system of penitentiaries in the world."

In a system that presaged Pelican Bay, the Pennsylvania prisons isolated each prisoner for his entire sentence. Convicts spent their sentences in total isolation, remaining confined in their cells at mealtimes and while working. They were permitted to speak with only a limited number of prison guards and a few preselected visitors. They did not know the identities of their fellow prisoners and extreme measures were taken to preserve this separate system. Rothman reports that "officials placed hoods over the head of a new prisoner when marching him to his cell so he would not see or be seen by other inmates."

In 1854, the Inspectors of the Western Penitentiary System gave this glowing report:
"Shut out from a tumultuous world, and separated from those equally guilty with himself the prisoner can indulge his remorse unseen, and find ample opportunity for reflection and reformation. His daily intercourse is with good men, who, in administering to his necessities, animate his crushed hopes, and pour into his ear the oil of joy and consolation."

Not all visitors to the Pennsylvania prisons were so favorably impressed. Charles Dickens, after a visit to Eastern in 1842, mentioned nothing of men animated by the "oil of joy and consolation." Indeed, he described a very different scene:
"The dull repose and quiet that prevails is awful. Over the head and face of every prisoner who comes into this melancholy house, a black hood is drawn; and in this dark shroud, an emblem of the curtain dropped between him and the living world, he is led to the cell from which he never again comes forth, until his whole term of imprisonment has expired. He is a man buried alive; to be dug out in the slow round of years; and in the meantime dead to everything but torturing anxieties and horrible despair."

The black hood has been abandoned, but Pelican Bay reminds us that the more things change, the more they stay the same...

2. The Auburn System
While the Pennsylvania system was being widely touted by pamphleteers, a public outcry was also heard in New York for a more humanitarian system of treating criminals. Auburn Prison was built in 1816 by New York officials who hoped to avoid the well-advertised failures of the Pennsylvania system. Nonetheless, Pennsylvania concepts were clearly manifested in the design of Auburn's solitary confinement wing. This unit was finished in 1821 and almost immediately became the primary model for American prisons.

Auburn officials implemented a classification system in which the most dangerous criminals were kept in solitary confinement for their entire sentence. Prisoners considered capable of being reformed were housed by the "congregate method." Congregate prisoners slept alone in a cell at night, but worked together in a workshop during the day. They were forbidden to speak to or even look at their fellow inmates while in their cells, at meals, or on the job.

Supporters of Auburn's congregate system emphasized the dreadful effects of the constant and unrelieved isolation of prisoners in the Pennsylvania system. New York reformers insisted that it was unnatural to keep men in solitary confinement, day after day, year after year; indeed, it was so unnatural that it bred insanity. Auburn officials had firsthand knowledge of the truth of this statement: in the first group of eighty-three hardened prisoners confined in solitary, five died and others went insane.

One can scarcely dispute that the motives of the Quaker reformers were humane. Nonetheless, instead of communing with God and becoming purified, the men they imprisoned went insane, committed suicide or died due to the extreme conditions. The progeny of the early prisons - Pelican Bay State Prison and countless others - survive and proliferate. Reliance upon solitary and harsh conditions of confinement is once again the order of the day. Despite the obvious lessons to be learned from the Pennsylvania and Auburn experiences, there is an accelerating movement to house prisoners classified as violent or disruptive in desolate, separate "supermax" facilities. There, as is shown below, many sink into despair and insanity.

III. PELICAN BAY STATE PRISON'S SECURITY HOUSING UNIT
"The system here is rigid, strict, and hopeless solitary confinement. I believe it, in its effects, to be cruel and wrong."
A. "Skeleton Bay"
In 1842, Charles Dickens denounced the Eastern Penitentiary in Pennsylvania as a remote prison which imposed "secret punishment which slumbering humanity is not roused up to stay." However, officials in the early systems earnestly believed their methods were effective tools of rehabilitation and reform. Today, prison administrators and legislators have lost patience with rehabilitation as a penological goal. The new mission is punishment. When prisoners are violent or difficult to manage, this means that they must be controlled in separate, rigid institutions like Pelican Bay - institutions which bear a striking similarity to the Pennsylvania prisons.

Pelican Bay is a modern prison and employs cutting-edge technology and security devices. There are no rat-infested cells or unsanitary supplies at Pelican Bay. But behind the newly-minted walls and shiny equipment lies a prison that is indifferent to the limited, but basic and elemental, rights that incarcerated persons - including "the worst of the worst" - retain under the Eighth Amendment to our Constitution.

"Pelican Bay" sounds as though it might be a picturesque tourist resort or a quaint fishing village surrounded by redwoods in Northern California. However, there is nothing picturesque or quaint about Pelican Bay. Barring execution, the worst punishment California imposes on its criminals is a sentence at the Security Housing Unit of Pelican Bay State Prison.

The x-shaped, two-story, reinforced concrete lockup, which sprawls over a remote 270-acre clearing of the Malarkey Forest, northeast of Crescent City, California, is reputed to be the most modern and secure penal facility in the country. Armed guards look down from vantage points above the yard and in control booths in each housing unit. The prison is part of the California Department of Corrections (CDC), which manages the nation's largest prison system. One out of every five CDC inmates suffers from mental problems or brain damage, and CDC lost preliminary rounds of two class action lawsuits over the care of mentally ill prisoners. Given these numbers, it seems incredible that Pelican Bay, where a fairly significant number of criminals are "sociopathic," was open for more than two and one-half years before it had a full-time psychiatrist.

Pelican Bay houses approximately 3,680 prisoners, a number which changes daily. Approximately 1,580 of these inmates are confined to the windowless cells of the SHU. The Security Housing Unit within Pelican Bay was ostensibly designed to house only the most difficult inmates. Inmates alleged to be gang members are confined to the SHU for their entire terms. Prison officials routinely tell prisoners accused of gang affiliation that the only way out of the SHU is to "snitch, parole or die." Within the SHU, there is an internal wing, known as the Violence Control Unit (VCU), which houses approximately forty to fifty prisoners. After months and years in solitary confinement within the SHU and the VCU, inmates deteriorate, just as inmates did in the antiquated Pennsylvania system.

B. General Conditions Within the SHU
From the outside, the SHU resembles a massive concrete bunker. From the inside, it is a windowless labyrinth of cells and halls, sealed off from the outside world by walls, gates, and guards. The overall effect of the SHU is one of stark sterility and unremitting monotony. The physical environment reinforces a sense of isolation and detachment from the outside world and, for custody personnel, creates a palpable distance from ordinary compunctions, inhibitions and community norms.

SHU prisoners are isolated in small cells for twenty-two and one-half hours a day, separated by three locked doors from an armed control booth officer. The inmates can see no other prisoners, nor can they see outdoors. They are watched on screens in a central control room. Their movements are monitored by video cameras. Cell doors open and close electronically. The ceiling is covered with heavy screening on one side and heavy plastic on the other. The filtered light that seeps through the screen is the closest the SHU prisoners ever get to feeling sunlight—no direct sunlight ever reaches these cells.

The National Prison Project describes the SHU as follows:
Each concrete cell contains a concrete stool, concrete bed, concrete writing table, and a toilet and sink made of heavy stainless steel. Nothing is allowed on the walls. The cells of SHU prisoners are lined with opaque materials, so that prisoners cannot see out. Prisoners never walk freely, they never emerge from their cells without being handcuffed and in chains. They shuffle to the law library single file, chained to each other at the ankles. Toothpaste is removed from the tube. There is no unread mail.

The design of the SHU's cell doors calls for their construction in heavy gauge perforated metal. Although the prison officials probably chose this material to prevent the inmates from throwing things through their cell doors, the heavy metal reinforces the isolative nature of the SHU by blocking any available light, as well as the inmate's vision. In fact, the SHU was purposefully designed to reduce visual stimulation.

The cells are contained in eight-cell units known as pods, with four 500-foot corridors that are also monitored by video. Each set of four corridors is viewed from a control room from which all video transmissions are monitored by control booth officers. In addition, the cells within the pods contain speakers and microphones which permit communications between control booth officers and inmates. Many prisoners believe that their conversations are monitored.

Unlike most prisoners, SHU inmates are fed in their cells on trays, twice a day. The meals are placed on tray slots in the cell doors to be eaten inside. When Dr. Craig Haney made his first visit to the prison, he was told by a guard that this was the only design flaw in the prison - that they had not figured out a way to automatically feed the prisoners, eliminating any need for contact with them whatsoever. SHU inmates are permitted to shower three times per week. The inmates are not allowed to take classes, do not work, and are not permitted to smoke.

SHU inmates may exercise unshackled outside their cells for a maximum of ninety minutes per day in an area known as the dog-walk. The exercise space measures twenty-eight by twelve feet and has twenty-foot walls. At any other time the prisoners leave their cells, they must be in waist restraints and handcuffs, and have an armed double escort. Before and after "exercise," an inmate must stand naked at the front of the control booth and undergo a visual strip search by a control booth officer, which may be seen by other officers, inmates, and whomever else happens to be in the open area around the outside of the control booth.

The term "exercise yard" is a euphemism. In reality, it is a small bare concrete room with high ceilings, which is attached to the end of each pod. The pens are more suggestive of satellite cells than areas for exercise or recreation. In the control booth, the televised images of several inmates, each in separate exercise cages, show them walking around and around the perimeter of their concrete yards, like laboratory animals engaged in mindless and repetitive activity." Chief U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson, who presided over Madrid v. Gomez, saw inmates simply pacing around the edges of the pen. He described the image as "hauntingly similar to that of caged felines pacing in a zoo."

With the exception of those inmates who are double-celled, whenever SHU inmates are in the presence of another person, they are in chains at both the waist and ankles. They are even chained during their classification hearings.

Thus, with minor and insignificant exceptions, the life of a SHU inmate is lived within the confines of an eighty square foot cell, a space that may be shared with another prisoner whose life is similarly circumscribed. This degree of isolation and deprivation of virtually all meaningful human contact is degrading, dehumanizing, and results in a significant risk to inmate mental health. Simply put, these conditions drive men insane.

IV. THE PELICAN BAY LITIGATION
Since Pelican Bay State Prison opened in 1989, prisoners have flooded the courts with complaints, the most serious of which came from the SHU. Referring to the number of petitions filed, Judge Henderson said, "It was just very dramatic. There was a sense on the court that it required heightened scrutiny on our part." In July 1991, only two years after the prison opened, federal judges from the Northern District of California met with Charles Marshall, warden of Pelican Bay, and two attorneys from the California Attorney General's office. Judge Henderson appointed Wilson, Sonsini, a Palo Alto firm, to represent one inmate; the case was subsequently converted into a class action suit due to the "extreme conditions" at Pelican Bay.

In a complaint filed by Wilson, Sonsini and the Prison Law Office, the inmate plaintiffs alleged that deliberate use of excessive force, isolation, failure to provide medical care and meaningful access to the courts, and violations of due process in segregation assignments violated their rights under the First, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution. The isolation or sensory deprivation claim generated considerable attention, not only because of the seriousness of the issue, but also because the Pelican Bay SHU is considered a state-of-the-art facility and a potential model for other similar prisons around the country.

After a three-month bench trial, Judge Henderson found that the inmates were entitled to relief on a significant number of their claims. The court's decision was rendered in a thoughtful, well-reasoned, compassionate opinion and was probably more expansive than even the most optimistic inmate advocate would have believed possible. The court found that Pelican Bay officials failed to provide inmates with constitutionally adequate medical and mental health care. Pelican Bay officials were also found to have permitted and condoned a pattern of excessive force.

Additionally, the court found that, with respect to the SHU,
Pelican Bay officials cross the constitutional line when they force certain subgroups of the prison population, including the mentally ill, to endure the conditions in the SHU, despite knowing that the likely consequence for such inmates is serious injury to their mental health, and despite the fact that certain conditions in the SHU have a relationship to legitimate security interests that is tangential at best.

The court held that conditions in the SHU violate Eighth Amendment standards when those conditions are imposed on inmates who are already mentally ill, as well as persons with borderline personality disorders, brain damage or mental retardation, impulse-ridden personalities, or a history of prior psychiatric problems or chronic depression. Continued confinement in the SHU deprives these inmates of a "minimal civilized level of one of life's necessities."

It is indisputable that Judge Henderson's decision will prevent a great deal of suffering for a great many prisoners. If Vaughn Dortch were sentenced to Pelican Bay today, he could not be confined in the SHU. However, the opinion has one critical shortcoming: it fails to condemn the harsh conditions of confinement in the SHU for all inmates. Although Judge Henderson acknowledged that the extreme social isolation found in the Pelican Bay SHU will likely inflict some degree of psychological trauma upon most inmates confined there for more than brief periods, he nonetheless concluded that "for many inmates, it does not appear that the degree of mental injury suffered significantly exceeds the kind of generalized psychological pain that courts have found compatible with Eighth Amendment standards. "Consequently, the court refused to find that the current conditions in the SHU are per se violative of the Eighth Amendment with respect to all potential inmates.

Judge Henderson rightly realized that the specified inmates for whom the SHU violates the Eighth Amendment "are not required to endure the horrific suffering of a serious mental illness or major exacerbation of an existing mental illness before obtaining relief." However, he concluded that an adequate mental health care system, when implemented, will provide sufficient monitoring to alert Pelican Bay officials when a SHU inmate who is not in one of the enumerated categories develops a serious mental illness. This conclusion is suspect.

The Madrid court made two important mistakes in analyzing the sensory deprivation claim: (1) the court failed to assess correctly the magnitude of the risk to inmate mental health from confinement in the SHU; and (2) the court based its conclusion of the magnitude of the risk for unspecified inmates on a faulty medical premise. That faulty premise is "the somewhat simplistic assumption that there is one continuous spectrum between mental health and mental illness, and that the tolerance of sensory deprivation conditions correlates linearly with the continuum. "The risk to inmates outside the categories specified by Judge Henderson is substantiated by the Walpole study detailed in the following Part, by medical research, and by the observations of mental health experts who have interviewed Pelican Bay inmates. These materials offer compelling proof that conditions in the SHU are a per se violation of the Eighth Amendment.

In support of the argument that the SHU violates the Eighth Amendment, the following Part sets out the substantial risks inherent in profound, prolonged sensory deprivation for prisoners in general, and for SHU inmates in particular.

V. THE EFFECTS OF SENSORY DEPRIVATION ON PRISON INMATES IN SOLITARY CONFINEMENT
When Dr. Craig Haney reported the findings and conclusions from his interviews with SHU inmates, he observed that:
A century and a half ago, social commentators like Dickens and de Tocqueville marveled at the willingness of American society to incarcerate its least favored citizens in "despotic" places of solitary confinement. De Tocqueville understood that complete isolation from others "produces a deeper effect on the soul of the convict," an effect that he worried might prove disabling when the convict was released into free society.

De Tocqueville's concern once was shared by the United States Supreme Court, which, more than one hundred years ago, characterized solitary confinement as an "infamous punishment" because of its ill effects:
"A considerable number of the prisoners fell, after even a short confinement, into a semi-fatuous condition, from which it was next to impossible to arouse them, and others became violently insane; others, still, committed suicide; while those who stood the ordeal better were not generally reformed, and in most cases did not recover sufficient mental activity to be of any subsequent service. It is within the memory of many persons interested in prison discipline that . its main feature of solitary confinement was found to be too severe."

The medical studies detailed below show that the early indictments of solitary confinement by the Supreme Court, Dickens, and de Tocqueville were well founded.

A. Sensory Deprivation Studies
It is well established that sensory deprivation can produce major psychological effects on humans. In studies on sensory deprivation in the 1950s, now considered classic, subjects were placed in settings designed to reduce all external stimuli. For example, researchers frequently used lightproof, soundproof rooms, and surrounded the patients' arms and hands with cardboard tubes to reduce tactile sensation. Characteristic symptoms were exhibited in these settings: perceptual distortions; visual, auditory, and olfactory illusions; vivid fantasies often accompanied by strikingly valid hallucinations; derealization experiences; and hyper-responsitivity to external stimuli. Many subjects did not tolerate the experience well, and, in these subjects, researchers observed a characteristic syndrome that included these symptoms. However, the syndrome was also accompanied by symptoms of cognitive impairment, massive free-floating anxiety, extreme motor restlessness, emergence of primitive aggressive fantasies, often accompanied by fearful hallucinations, with decreasing capacity to maintain observing, reality-testing ego functions. In some cases, subjects also developed overt psychosis accompanied by persecutory delusions; in some, subjects suffered a marked dissociative catatonic-like stupor with mutism. There was little doubt that the symptoms were the product of sensory deprivation because, in most reported cases, they subsided with striking rapidity when the experiments were terminated. However, in a few cases, serious symptomatology remained after the experiments had ended.

This series of symptoms has been described in a number of ways. One common label is "Reduced Environmental Stimulation," or "RES." Significantly, the complex of symptoms associated with RES is rarely, if ever, observed in other psychotic syndromes or in human subject to RES, a point which prison officials did not refute with any specificity.

B. Sensory Deprivation in the Prison Environment
1. The Walpole Study
For persons in prolonged and profound solitary confinement within the prison environment, the symptoms associated with sensory deprivation are equally, if not more, destructive than the symptoms exhibited by patients in clinical settings. The damaging effects on prisoners are well documented.

As early as the nineteenth century, psychopathological reactions of prisoners in solitary confinement were described by German clinicians. In the 1830s, statistical evidence began to indicate an increased incidence of physical morbidity and mortality as well as of insanity, among prisoners exposed to especially rigid forms of solitary confinement. The German studies contributed altogether thousands of descriptions of psychosis associated with solitary confinement.

More recent literature also almost uniformly describes or speculates that solitary confinement has serious psychopathological consequences for inmates. Observations of U.S. prison inmates are consistent with the early German studies. In particular, an important clinical observation of fourteen inmates at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Walpole conducted by Stuart Grassian, M.D., revealed the serious psychiatric consequences of solitary confinement. The resulting clinical information indicated that inmates who were confined in profound isolation experienced hyper-responsitivity, perceptual distortions, hallucinations, massive free-floating anxiety, and difficulties with thinking, concentration, memory, and impulse control.

CLICK HERE FOR DR. GRASSIAN'S 32-PAGE REPORT ENTITLED "PSYCHIATRIC EFFECTS OF SOLITARY CONFINEMENT"

This practice was defended by Dr. Louis Beerman, chief psychologist for the prison system's mental health branch: "Suicide attempts can be looked at as an infraction. We have a lot of manipulation in the system for various reasons, and we don't want to encourage that manipulation."

Those prisoners who are merely contemplating suicide fare no better at Pelican Bay. One suicidal prisoner who is also deaf told Dr. Haney that he was cell-extracted because he could not hear the officers call count. This inmate now sleeps on the floor of his cell "so that the officers can see my skin." Paranoia and delusions are common: prisoners express concern that the guards are poisoning their food. Another prisoner, who reported that he heard voices and saw "little furry things," slashed his wrists more than once. Rather than transferring this inmate to a proper mental health facility where he could receive treatment - because obviously none is available at Pelican Bay - CDC officials shuttled him back and forth between the VCU and SHU units. In the VCU, he saw a demon who knew his name and frequently spoke to him. During the course of this inmate's interview, he reported that "voices were cursing at him" for talking with Dr. Haney.

The syndrome that Dr. Grassian first identified in Walpole inmates as a result of sensory deprivation has been renamed for the facility in which it most clearly manifests itself: it is now described as the "SHU Syndrome." At trial, Dr. Haney testified that pathological symptoms of SHU inmates caused by the severe prison environment are in some ways higher than those of psychiatric patients who were confined in an East German prison camp during World War II.

2. The SHU Poses a Substantial Risk of Injury to All Inmates
Both Dr. Haney and Dr. Grassian concluded that the profundity and duration of sensory deprivation and the resulting effects were a serious risk to inmate health. Of course, the effects will not be the same for every inmate. Not all inmates will reach the point of psychotic disorganization that is seen in some other prisoners. However, it is simplistic to assume that tolerance of sensory deprivation always correlates with mental health. The premise dictates that if marginally functional nonpsychotics tolerate sensory deprivation less well than more psychologically well-integrated persons, then by extrapolation, the more disturbed and psychotic inmate should be the least tolerant of all. One group of investigators has determined that this extrapolation is unreliable. In a study on sensory deprivation conducted by Drs. Grunebaum, Freedman and Greenblatt, the researchers prescreened forty-three subjects and found that seven were suffering from personality deviations. Three of the seven, diagnosed as schizoid, all tolerated the experiment well and generally found the experience pleasant and undisturbing. Another study found that normal subjects find great difficulty in adapting to or tolerating the stress of sensory isolation.

Drs. Grassian and Friedman concluded that basic and important trends emerge from the various studies. The profundity and duration of sensory deprivation are clearly important variables, which influence the response of an individual to sensory deprivation. The profundity and duration of confinement in the SHU is acute for all prisoners. Greater degrees of deprivation and longer deprivation seem to produce a characteristic response in nonpsychotic subjects. These responses include perceptual changes such as the loss of perceptual constancy, perceptual illusions, simple hallucinations, hyper-responsitivity, and the emergence of vivid fantasies. The development of other symptoms seems to depend significantly upon pre-existing personality organization.
These studies indicate that, at the very least, the healthiest SHU inmate runs a substantial risk of experiencing complex, formed hallucinations, developing hyper-responsitivity and vivid fantasies, and suffering massive free-floating anxiety. In Madrid, Judge Henderson ruled that these responses were not "extreme" enough to warrant a finding that the SHU is per se unconstitutional because of the significant level of sensory deprivation. In other words, for Judge Henderson, these risks are ones that society chooses to tolerate. That conclusion is suspect. It is questionable whether any responsible segment of our society would approve a prison that subjects inmates to the conditions in the SHU, knowing that such serious psychological consequences are likely to befall these inmates. If Judge Henderson is correct, our society tolerates prison conditions that are so severe that they may cause inmates to hear voices when there are no voices to be heard, to believe that they are losing their vision, to experience "frightening, visual hallucinations," or to develop a preoccupation with "entities" or "demons."

This cannot be the case in a society that calls itself "civilized."

C. Pelican Bay Officials Were Deliberately Indifferent to the Excessive Risk to Inmate Mental Health
"To violate the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause, a prison official must have a sufficiently culpable state of mind." No matter how reprehensible the conditions in the SHU may be, CDC officials cannot be found liable under the Eighth Amendment unless the officials knew of and disregarded an excessive risk to inmate health or safety.

Conditions of confinement in the "lockup" units in four of California's maximum security prisons have been the catalyst for a full twenty years of litigation. In an evidentiary hearing before Judge Stanley Weigel, who presided over both Wright v. Enomoto and Toussaint v. Rushen, litigated in 1976 and 1983 respectively, the state's attorneys and corrections officials were present during expert testimony from a number of witnesses about the harmful effects of the punitive solitary confinement imposed on prisoners in the challenged facilities. With the exception of some minor quibbling over data by CDC employees, this testimony went unanswered and unrebutted. Only a few years later, while a federal monitor was still in place to oversee conditions in these units, CDC began construction of Pelican Bay, a prison that was in many ways much worse than the other facilities. This construction was undertaken in deliberate indifference to the extensive record on the effects of solitary confinement known to officials from the prior litigation. Despite the radical plan for Pelican Bay, CDC did not seek any outside opinions on the psychological and psychiatric consequences of housing prisoners under the proposed system. Nor did they engage in any public debate.

Documents filed in the Pelican Bay litigation also indicate that prison officials had actual knowledge of the dangerous effects of RES prior to the opening of the prison. Warden Marshall, for example, knew before the SHU opened that RES was a potential risk for inmates and had some concerns that mental decompensation in the SHU was always a possibility. CDC's Mental Health Services Branch (MHSB) considered the potential effects of RES on prisoners confined in the Pelican Bay SHU in a September 26, 1989 memorandum entitled "Possible Effects of Reduced Environmental Stimulation on Inmates Confined to the Pelican Bay State Prison." The memorandum recommended ways to mitigate these known effects. Unfortunately, CDC officials essentially disregarded the recommendations of the MHSB.

At the trial of the Pelican Bay class action suit, testimony was given by a Mr. Park, a consultant to the California legislature on prisons. In 1987, when the plans for Pelican Bay were still on the drawing board, Mr. Park also warned CDC officials of the dangers of minimal psychiatric staffing in a high-security prison, especially in light of the "very well-known experience that mentally-ill prisoners tend to get placed into higher-security units," like the SHU. California officials ignored Mr. Park just as they had ignored the MHSB. This willful disregard led to tragic consequences.

The predictions of the MHSB and Mr. Park did, indeed, come to pass. There is no dispute that some prisoners in the SHU became overtly psychotic. As time progressed, prison officials were aware that some inmates were developing serious psychiatric problems or suffering a serious exacerbation of an existing mental illness after transfer to the SHU. Despite this experience and despite CDC's prior knowledge of the fact that RES conditions have the potential to adversely affect inmate mental health, officials made no effort to investigate whether SHU conditions were in fact affecting inmates adversely. Instead, most inmates who experienced severe effects from the conditions in the SHU were medicated with psychotropic drugs or ignored.

In sum, CDC officials deliberately failed to alleviate the harshness of the prison design, failed to provide an adequate screening system for inmate mental illness, failed to monitor inmate mental health, failed to establish a level system for classifying inmates by mental condition, and failed to implement any type of program that might alleviate the known risks, such as an anger management program. CDC officials did nothing to lessen or reduce the serious risks that may result from sensory deprivation, despite their actual knowledge of these risks. As a result, Pelican Bay is a very damaging, and constitutionally impermissible, place to live.

D. Screening Process Cannot Save the SHU
Judge Henderson's ruling in Madrid is troublesome in another aspect. He believes that an adequate screening process will ensure that mentally ill inmates who must remain in the SHU or who will be sentenced to the SHU in the future do not fall by the wayside. The findings in the order itself, however, indicate that Pelican Bay officials have consistently failed to recognize or admit that inmates were suffering serious mental problems. In fact, Judge Henderson ruled that the mental health care system at Pelican Bay was constitutionally inadequate.

In point of fact, SHU inmates who were mentally ill were repeatedly accused of malingering by officials. Indeed, the court expressly noted Dr. Grassian's finding that the staff had an almost "obsessive preoccupation with the possibility that an inmate might be manipulating, which significantly impairs their capacity to recognize severe mental illness."

Prisoners who do not engage in flagrant, aggressive, violent, or suicidal behavior may nevertheless be seriously ill. Testimony at trial revealed that absent some extreme behavior, inmates could stay in that cell for a long period of time, just nobody pays much attention to them, months maybe. These examples of willful ignorance by the prison officials do little to create confidence in any future screening process.

In addition to the fact that Judge Henderson's decision manifests an unreasonable reliance on prison custodial staff, the decision also reflects an unreasonable reliance on an inmate's ability to recognize and report a developing mental health problem:

While mentally competent inmates can be relied upon to self-report most medical ailments, mentally ill prisoners may not seek out help where the nature of their mental illness makes them unable to recognize their illness or ask for assistance. Nor are family or friends usually around to notice developing mental problems or help inmates seek treatment.

It is a fact of prison life that inmates struggle to conceal their weaknesses and rarely admit to psychic damage or pain. This behavior is part of a prisoner ethic in which preserving dignity and autonomy, and minimizing vulnerability, is highly valued. As a result, early manifestations of psychological effects of sensory deprivation upon prisoners may often be effectively concealed or ignored.

There is literally nothing in the history of CDC that merits the belief that prison officials can or will protect a SHU inmate from the deterioration and decompensation that almost inevitably occurs there. CDC failed to provide a system for adequate mental health care screening at Pelican Bay despite the department's prior litigation experience in which federal district courts had imposed similar measures at other CDC facilities. Nonetheless, Judge Henderson believes that the future will be different. In light of CDC's past performance, this belief can only be characterized as overly optimistic. Such misplaced optimism is cold comfort for the inmates left behind in the stark isolation of the SHU.

VII. CONCLUSION
When evaluating a claim that solitary confinement violates the Eighth Amendment, courts look to long-abiding standards and principles enunciated by the Supreme Court in cases such as Weems v. United States, Trop v. Dulles, and Gregg v. Georgia. They also must look to the recent pronouncements in Wilson v. Seiter and Farmer v. Brennan. Applying these standards to the conditions of confinement in the SHU, the inescapable conclusion is that these stark and desolate conditions violate both the spirit and the letter of the Eighth Amendment. They are barbarous by almost any lucid measure. Our system of justice gives the judiciary and the penal system the power to punish those persons convicted of a crime in a court of law; it does not give them the right to drive those persons insane.

At the trial of the Eighth Amendment claim, the primary defense offered by prison officials for housing inmates in this manner was the tired refrain that it is working. Not only is this argument undermined by statistics that show a decline in violence since 1984, five years prior to the opening of Pelican Bay, it is, more importantly, not a defense to an Eighth Amendment claim.

Admittedly, the mental impact of a challenged condition should be considered in conjunction with penological considerations. However, "a condition that is sufficiently harmful to inmates or otherwise reprehensible to civilized society will at some point yield to constitutional restraints, even if the condition has some penological justification." Thus, CDC's insistence that the SHU is "working" as a secure environment for disruptive prisoners "does not and cannot determine whether the SHU passes constitutional muster." Prison officials may not create
unconstitutional conditions that deprive inmates of a basic human need for the overall benefit to the prison system, even when those benefits are shown. Pelican Bay may intimidate and harm prisoners, but it cannot survive under the guise of the Eighth Amendment.

CLICK HERE FOR A 2004 PACE LAW REVIEW ARTICLE "The Common Law of Supermax Litigation"

In addition to the constitutional implications, confinement of inmates in this harsh and oppressive manner has dire ramifications for our communities. When prisoners who have been deprived of meaningful social contact begin to shun all forms of interaction, withdraw more deeply into themselves, and cease initiating social interaction, they require psychiatric attention. At Pelican Bay, they may get little or none. Realistically, these prisoners cannot be expected to adjust to confinement within the general prison population or in free society.

Nonetheless, these inmates may be coming soon to a neighborhood near you!

All current and future SHU inmates are entitled to injunctive relief to reduce the unreasonable risk of harm to their present and future health caused by the conditions of their existence. Their extreme isolation must be alleviated. Our courts have the authority and the duty to ensure that the Constitution does not stop at the prison gate, but inures to the benefit of all, even to those who must live behind prison walls. Abdication of this duty is not only reprehensible, but also ill advised. The deprivation of basic human needs is not merely unnecessarily cruel and unusual, it is calculated to retard, if not prevent, the process of a prisoner's rehabilitation.

So...coming soon maybe to YOUR hometown, a formerly dangerous criminal - not rehabilitated - but instead transformed into an inhuman killing machine...

AMERIKA, THE SHINING CITY ON THE HILL, LAND OF THE FREE...

REV. JOHN HAGEE: GREAT WHORE OF BABBLE-ON!

2008-11-07T10:34:00.000-05:00

SOMEBODY HELP!!!

STOP THIS (W)HOARY OLD FOOL

OR HE'S GONNA BABBLE ON & ON...

UNTIL WE ALL GET NUKED!!!

John HAGEE:

A Gentle, Gentile, Friend of Israel

Trolling for the Tribulation!

Escalating Eschatology!

Arming for Armageddon!

Rapporteur for the Rapture!

fleecing his flock...

condoning Israel's repression of Arab Christians...

"ON CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE" BY HENRY DAVID THOREAU - PART 1 - "THAT GOVERNMENT IS BEST WHICH GOVERNS LEAST"

2008-11-02T10:52:00.000-05:00

[1] I heartily accept the motto,
"That government is best which governs least";
and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe--"That government is best which governs not at all"; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which the will have. Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. The objections which have been brought against a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing government. The standing army is only an arm of the standing government. The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it. Witness the present Mexican war, the work of comparatively a few individuals using the standing government as their tool; for in the outset, the people would not have consented to this measure.

[2] This American government--what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity? It has not the vitality and force of a single living man; for a single man can bend it to his will. It is a sort of wooden gun to the people themselves. But it is not the less necessary for this; for the people must have some complicated machinery or other, and hear its din, to satisfy that idea of government which they have. Governments show thus how successfully men can be imposed upon, even impose on themselves, for their own advantage. It is excellent, we must all allow. Yet this government never of itself furthered any enterprise, but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way. It does not keep the country free. It does not settle the West. It does not educate. The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way. For government is an expedient, by which men would fain succeed in letting one another alone; and, as has been said, when it is most expedient, the governed are most let alone by it. Trade and commerce, if they were not made of india-rubber, would never manage to bounce over obstacles which legislators are continually putting in their way; and if one were to judge these men wholly by the effects of their actions and not partly by their intentions, they would deserve to be classed and punished with those mischievious persons who put obstructions on the railroads.

[3] But, to speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at one no government, but at once a better government. Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it.

[4] After all, the practical reason why, when the power is once in the hands of the people, a majority are permitted, and for a long period continue, to rule is not because they are most likely to be in the right, nor because this seems fairest to the minority, but because they are physically the strongest. But a government in which the majority rule in all cases can not be based on justice, even as far as men understand it. Can there not be a government in which the majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience?--in which majorities decide only those questions to which the rule of expediency is applicable? Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? WHy has every man a conscience then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right. It is truly enough said that a corporation has no conscience; but a corporation on conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience. Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents on injustice. A common and natural result of an undue respect for the law is, that you may see a file of soldiers, colonel, captain, corporal, privates, powder-monkeys, and all, marching in admirable order over hill and dale to the wars, against their wills, ay, against their common sense and consciences, which makes it very steep marching indeed, and produces a palpitation of the heart. They have no doubt that it is a damnable business in which they are concerned; they are all peaceably inclined. Now, what are they? Men at all? or small movable forts and magazines, at the service of some unscrupulous man in power? Visit the Navy Yard, and behold a marine, such a man as an American government can make, or such as it can make a man with its black arts--a mere shadow and reminiscence of humanity, a man laid out alive and standing, and already, as one may say, buried under arms with funeral accompaniment, though it may be,

[5] "Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note, As his corse to the rampart we hurried; Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot O'er the grave where out hero was buried."

[6] The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia, jailers, constables, posse comitatus, etc. In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgement or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of straw or a lump of dirt. They have the same sort of worth only as horses and dogs. Yet such as these even are commonly esteemed good citizens. Others--as most legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers, and office-holders--serve the state chiefly with their heads; and, as the rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as likely to serve the devil, without intending it, as God. A very few--as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men--serve the state with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and they are commonly treated as enemies by it. A wise man will only be useful as a man, and will not submit to be "clay," and "stop a hole to keep the wind away," but leave that office to his dust at least:

[7] "I am too high born to be propertied, To be a second at control, Or useful serving-man and instrument To any sovereign state throughout the world."

[8] He who gives himself entirely to his fellow men appears to them useless and selfish; but he who gives himself partially to them in pronounced a benefactor and philanthropist.

[9] How does it become a man to behave toward the American government today? I answer, that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it. I cannot for an instant recognize that political organization as my government which is the slave's government also.

DEO VINDICE!

DANGEROUS BOOKS! SELL THEM TO HOMELAND SECURITY AND THE FBI...BEFORE JACK-BOOTED THUGS COME TO STEAL THEM FROM YOU!

2008-10-27T20:51:00.000-04:00

!!! A WARNING TO AMERICANS!!! CHERTOFF SAYS
"BOOKS ARE DANGEROUS!"
SO BE A RESPONSIBLE CITIZEN
SELL YOUR BOOKS TO THE GOVERNMENT!
....or else... THE JACK-BOOTED THUGS
FROM CHERTOFF'S THOUGHT-POLICE
MAY VISIT YOU!

"Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries," by Naomi Wolf
As the practice of democracy becomes a forgotten concept, Americans are increasingly desperate for a restored nation. Virtually the entire American citizenry (other than those in THE GOVERNMENT) have a general sense that the "system" is in disorder -- if not on the road to functional collapse. But though it is easy to identify our political problems, the solutions are not always as clear. In "Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries," bestselling author Naomi Wolf illustrates the breathtaking changes that can take place when ordinary citizens engage in the democratic system the way the founders intended. Among other outrageous ideas, Ms. Wolf writes, "We Have a Duty to Rebel Continually Against Injustice and Oppression!" and that "We Are Required to Speak Freely!" The book contains instructions for ordinary citizens how to use the democratic system as established by the Founding Fathers such as Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Madison, Mason, Franklin, etc. It informs citizens that of the urgency of immediate use of the American democratic system (BEFORE THE GOVERNMENT ALTERS OUR DEMOCRATIC SYSTEM FURTHER BY ERODING AMERICANS' FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS!) now, to change our lives, our towns, communities, cities, and TO CHANGE THE AMERICAN NATION!

The Revolution: A Manifesto" by Ron Paul THE GOVERNMENT hates it when we use the word "Revolution," which THE GOVERNMENT interprets as regime-change for themselves, that is they lose power and are once again subject to the laws they broke with impunity while in power. But the REVOLUTION described in this book is nothing new. It is a peaceful continuation of the American Revolution and the principles of our Founding Fathers: liberty, self-government, the Constitution, and a noninterventionist foreign policy. That is what the Founding Fathers bequeathed us, and that is what we now need to vigorously defend. Paul's message is one of freedom and individual rights. Americans have a right to life and liberty!
THE GOVERNMENT'S physical aggression, by taser-wielding thug-police as well as the American Armed Forces, should be used only defensively. We should respect each other as rational beings by trying to achieve our goals through reason and persuasion rather than the current means THE GOVERNMENT uses such as threats, coercion, detainment, deprivation of property without due process, and sadly, in far too many instances, the un-Constitutional taking of Americans' liberty (by illegal imprisonmnet) and lives (by rogue police shooting citizens without just cause.) That, and not a desire for "economic efficiency," is the primary moral reason for opposing government intrusions into our lives.

THE GOVERNMENT NOW RELIES ON FORCE, NOT REASON!

The book contains these dangerous ideas on LIBERTY:
Liberty means the freedom to think our own thoughts and live our lives as we desire!
Liberty means families are entitled to decide how they wish to live!
Liberty means we can develop new ideas!
Liberty means every local community can decide how its children shall be educated, how its local services shall be run, and who its local leaders shall be!
Liberty means we can run our own businesses as we think they ought to be run, as long as we do not interfere with the right of other people to do the same thing!
And liberty means we are free to criticize openly without fear from THE GOVERNMENT the un-Constitutional expansion of the 'American Empire' and the associated unnecessary wars brought about by un-Constitutional presidential war-making!

"A Nation Of Sheep," by Judge Andrew P. Napolitano - THE GOVERNMENT has circumvented the Constitution and is systematically dismantling the rights and freedoms that are the foundation of American democracy. He challenges Americans to recognize that they are being led down a very dangerous path and that the cost of following without challenge is the loss of the basic freedoms that facilitate our pursuit of happiness and that define us as a nation.
Judge Napolitano reminds readers what America is all about, that the purpose of government is to protect freedom, and freedom is the ability to follow your own free will and not the will of government bureaucrats. He asks the simple question, which are YOU, a sheep or a wolf? Do you blindly follow behind where you are led, or do you challenge the government at every pass, forcing it to make decisions that will protect our freedoms?
Judge Napolitano asks the questions that no one else will, challenging readers to rethink why they are blindly following a government that has only its own interests in mind. He asks:
Why is the government using the war on terror as an excuse to sidestep the Constitution? Why are Americans not challenging and questioning the government as it continues to limit more and more of our freedoms? What part of "Congress shall make no law..." does the government not understand when it criminalizes speech? Whatever happened to our inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that are proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence, guaranteed by the Constitution, yet ignored by the governments elected toprotect them? Why does every public office holder swear allegiance to the Constitution, yet very few follow it? WE HAVE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS THAT CAN ONLY BE TAKEN IF WE DON'T ACT!

Revolution Now!

WELCOME TO THE AMERICAN POLICE STATE!!!

2008-10-14T22:46:00.002-04:00

HEY MOM & DAD, DOES YOUR TEENAGER WORK IN A FAST FOOD RESTAURANT?IF SO,BETTER KEEP BAIL MONEY HANDY! TOO MUCH SALT IS A CRIME IN GEORGIA! Click this link for details --> Asshole Cop Wendell Adams of Union City, Georgia P.D. Arrests teenage McDonald's burger-flipper for 'Felonious Oversalting of a Big Mac'

In another case of rogue law enforcement, one that makes you scratch your head and say, "What the .....?"... in Galveston Texas, a fire marshall - who apparently watches too much Mayberry RFD down at the station, overheard a woman say the 'F-word' at Wal-Mart, where she was attempting to buy batteries in preparation for a hurricane but got there after the batteries were sold the out. Click here to read this story about the asshole fire marshall who should quit his job and go work in a monastery!

Part 1: Why are these male Stark County, Ohio, (near Canton) sheriff's deputies holding this woman down and ripping off her clothes in jail when SHE'S IS THE ALLEGED VICITM OF A CRIME AND CALLED '911' FOR HELP?!? (looks like the only help she got from the cops was their stripping her clothes off...)

PART 2: Stark County, Ohio deputies forcibly strip-searching a woman in jail:

YES! IT'S TRUE! The molested woman called the Stark County Police for help! This brutal act of gestapo thuggery took place in 2007. OUTRAGEOUSLY, thit brutal sexual assault was actually condoned by the deputies' boss - STARK COUNTY SHERIFF TIMOTHY A. SWANSON.

So did Sheriff Timmy Swanson or his badged molesters get in trouble?!? NO!!!

PREPOSTEROUSLY, not only did Sheriff Timmy or his depraved nazis NOT get any reprimands, but INSTEAD...Sheriff Timmy was elected president of the Ohio Sheriff's association, despite condoning and covering up his deputies' brutal jailhouse sexual assault! (click here for the announcement)

Here's the official announcement:
"The Stark County Sheriff’s Office is proud to announce that Sheriff Tim Swanson has been elected as the President of the Buckeye State Sheriffs’ Association for the year 2008. The previous Sheriffs from Stark County to be honored with this Office were Sheriff George Papadopulos in 1973 and Sheriff Harry Grossglaus in 1954. The executive board of the association consists of nineteen (19) representatives through out the State of Ohio, fifteen (15) our County Sheriffs and four are Deputies representing the four- (4) districts in Ohio. The state-wide Sheriffs' Association is a coordinating group that helps to keep the individual county Sheriff abreast of the latest advancement in law enforcement techniques, technology, legal precedent, legislative action, training and act as an information exchange between the 88 diverse Sheriffs throughout the State. Ohio Sheriffs are a full service law enforcement agency."

HERE IS A PICTURE OF SHINING EXAMPLE OF LAW ENFORCEMENT, SHERIFF TIMOTHY A. SWANSON OF STARK COUNTY, OHIO:

SO, DO YOU THINK YOU'RE PROTECTED AND SERVED BY YOUR FRIENDLY LOCAL POLICEMAN?

THINK AGAIN...

AMERICA DROPS BOMBS ON CHILDREN!!! as if you didn't already know....

2008-10-14T22:38:00.000-04:00

Tearful Karzai says Afghan children dying from NATO/U.S. bombs
The Associated Press12/20/2006 By Jason Straziuso
KABUL - With his lips quivering and voice breaking, a tearful President Hamid Karzai lamented Sunday that Afghan children were being killed by NATO and U.S. bombs and by terrorists from Pakistan - a portrait of helplessness in the face of spiralling chaos.
In a heartfelt speech that brought audience members to tears, Karzai said the cruelty imposed on his people "is too much" and that Afghanistan cannot stop "the coalition from killing our children."
"We can't prevent the terrorists from coming from Pakistan, and we can't prevent the coalition from bombing the terrorists, and our children are dying because of this," he said.
The president, who turned tearful after relating stories of children maimed by bombings, took long pauses between sentences and at one point covered both eyes with a white handkerchief.
"Cruelty at the highest level," he said, his lower lip quivering. "The cruelty is too much."
The taped speech was shown later on state TV, although that broadcast and other news shows did not show Karzai crying.
Karzai's spokesman, Khaleeq Ahmed, said the president was saddened over the deaths of a two-year-old child and two Afghan teachers on Saturday - "and it really got to him." Ahmed said Karzai was not trying to send any larger message to NATO about being in the country.
"I think what he was trying to say is that our country, 30 years of war has made us so weak that we don't have the institutions to control these types of things," Ahmed said.
Afghanistan has seen more than 100 suicide attacks this year, and close to 4,000 people have died in insurgency-related violence.
On Sunday, insurgents ambushed NATO troops in southern Zabul province with a roadside bomb and gunfire, wounding two soldiers, said Capt. Andre Salloum, a spokesman for NATO's troops in the south.
A day earlier, a roadside bomb exploded next to an Afghan army vehicle in eastern Paktia province, killing all six soldiers on board, police said Sunday.
NATO, meanwhile, sharply reduced the number of Taliban militants it said were killed in fighting on Dec. 2 in the Musa Qala district of southern Helmand province. NATO officials originally said some 70 to 80 militants were killed, but revised the figure to about seven or eight, saying there could have been an internal reporting error.
Speaking on the 58th anniversary of the UN's universal declaration on human rights, Karzai said Afghanistan has a decades-long history of limited rights, from the time of the Soviet invasion to civil war and the Taliban's rule. Thousands of Afghans fled the country as refugees, and women were "humiliated" by the Taliban, he said.
The ultra-conservative Taliban regime during its rule from 1996 to 2001 banned girls from schools and did not allow women to leave the house without a male escort or without wearing an all-covering burka.
The president also announced a reconciliation plan that could be a first step toward bringing the perpetrators of human-rights violations during Afghanistan's past wars to account, a measure hailed by the United Nations.
Karzai turned emotional about 10 minutes into the speech, after talking about an Afghan boy left paralyzed by a NATO air strike in the Panjwaii district of Kandahar province.
A spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force declined immediate comment.
"Every day our children are dying," Karzai said, noting that two children were killed in Musa Qala recently. He said girls are afraid to go to school and that NATO bombs have killed entire families. He noted that two teachers were killed by Taliban militants in the eastern province of Kunar on Saturday.
"Our life is living with suffering," he said.
Karzai composed himself a bit by the end of the 15-minute speech, thanking the international community for coming to Afghanistan and asking for Afghans to unite.
Tom Koenigs, the UN's special representative to Afghanistan, said the newly launched Action Plan on Peace, Reconciliation and Justice was a first step in coming to terms with decades of human-rights violations.
UN spokesman Aleem Siddique said that countries in post-conflict situations need to document the past "and acknowledge the suffering of people."
"It's just looking back at who did what and holding people accountable and giving the people of past abuses the recognition they deserve," he said.
Siddique said perpetrators of abuses would "eventually be held to account,"although it was too early to say how that would play out.

PHOTO OF THE REAL AXIS OF EVIL

THE KING GEORGE PHOTO ALBUM

2008-10-14T22:36:00.000-04:00

SHOULD WE LAUGH OR CRY?

THREE BOOKS FOR REVOLUTIONARIES!!!

2008-10-14T22:33:00.000-04:00

BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU!!! The Government uses a national tragedy to justify eliminating civil liberties for the citizens' "personal protection." SOUND FAMILIAR?!?!?! This isn't America under the PATRIOT Act- it's the world as described in George Orwell's classic dystopian science fiction novel. Written in 1949, "1984's" title seems to have been 20 years too soon. The world is overseen by Big Brother and his invisible band of Thought Police, where citizens' have no right to habeus corpus and can become political prisoners for (even the appearance of) politically incorrect thoughts, words, writings, and actions. (Sort of like an Arab-American in today's U.S. may be detained by simply taking a photo of a National Monument or attending a mosque where the Imam criticizes the shooting of children in Gaza.) The hero is Winston, employed at the Records Department of The Ministry of Truth. As he becomes steadily discontent, his mind begins resisting the dystopian society, and he starts doubting the "news" as sanctioned by Big Brother. Winston enters into a relationship, finds himself contacted by an underground resistance, and in a chilling conclusion realizes the all-encompassing dangerous power of Big Brother and The Party. "1984" was the first book I studied in college, in Freshman Composition back in 1982. Our professor was a former 60's dissenter and protester, and she taught me the most important lesson I learned in college: That just because a 'fact' is presented in the news media or written in a history book, does not necessarily make that 'fact' true, and to always question the accuracy of such 'facts'!!!!!

Surprisingly, Sinclair Lewis' darkly humorous tale of a fascist takeover in the US, "It Can't Happen Here," is not merely out-of-print, but also hard to find. As dated as it is (1935), its themes will be quite familiar to Americans today. It starts with the highly contested election of an oafish yet strangely charismatic president. SOUND FAMILIAR?!?!?!. He talks like a "reformer" but is really in the pocket of Big Business. He appeals to religious extremists, and speaks of "liberating" women and minorities, as he gradually strips them of all their rights. After he becomes elected, he puts the media under the supervision of the military. William Randolph Hearst, the Rupert Murdoch of his times, directs his newspapers to heap unqualified praise upon the president and his policies, and gradually comes to develop a special relationship with the government. The president, taking advantage of an economic crisis, strong-arms Congress into signing blank checks over to the military and passing stringent and possibly unconstitutional laws, e.g. punishing universities when they don't permit military recruiting or are not vociferous enough in their approval of his policies. Eventually, he takes advantage of the crisis to convene military tribunals for civilians, and denounce all of his detractors as unpatriotic and possibly treasonous. Another eerily prescient book for it's times.

Sinclair Lewis's 1935 novel, "It Can't Happen Here," envisaged a right-wing populist president, advised by a cunning political strategist and backed by a cynical alliance of religious fundamentalists and corporations, who uses security threats to consolidate dictatorial powers, destroy civil liberties and establish folksy fascism. This is a virtual blueprint for the current Bush administration, a "corrupt and authoritarian ruling clique" that accords the president "the prerogatives of a king," argues political columnist Conason (Big Lies). He surveys a long list of what he sees as Bush administration affronts to freedom and democracy: military tribunals, torture, warrantless wiretapping, politically motivated terrorism alerts, a war based on fraudulent pretexts, the Abramoff scandals, the handover of policy making to business interests and Christian zealots, tight secrecy coupled with a dissemination of propaganda through the right-wing media, and a lawless contempt for constitutional constraints on the presidency.

BUY THEM NOW, BEFORE THEY'RE BANNED!!!

DEO VINDICE

ANOTHER REPUBLIVERT REARS HIS HEAD! DON'T 'LECHER' GUARD DOWN!

2008-06-21T17:26:00.000-04:00

REPUBLIVERTS bray all day about family values and conservative issues, but the conservative freakshow rears its head at night! ('scuse the puns in headline and italicized words...)

Former GOP Chief Pleads Guilty To Deviant Conduct!
Glenn Murphy, Jr. Faces Jail Time, Sex Offender Status
WLKY CHANNEL 32 NEWS - LOUISVILLE
June 12, 2008
JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. -- The former chairman of the Clark County Republican Party has pleaded guilty to criminal deviate conduct. Glenn Murphy Jr. had a top spot in local Republican politics and was making a name for himself as president of the Young Republicans National Federation. But after a Young Republicans get-together last July, a young man claimed Murphy made a bold sexual advance on him.
Click here to watch the WLKY Channel 32 story on Glenn Murphy, Jr.
Police reports said Murphy shared a bunk bed with his victim, a 22-year-old who had had too much to drink, and the next morning the victim said he awoke to find Murphy performing a sex act on him. The victim said he told Murphy to stop and pushed him away.
Prosecutor Stanley Levco said other incidents involving Murphy would have been presented as evidence had the case gone to trial. A Clarksville police report shows Murphy was involved in a similar incident in 1988, but no charges were filed. Levco said he thinks that may have been another reason Murphy pleaded guilty as charged. Criminal deviate conduct is a Class B felony in Indiana. If the judge accepts his plea, Murphy will have to register as a sex offender. Sentencing is set for June 30. Murphy resigned his political posts when the allegations surfaced.

Here's the story from last August, 2007, when the news first broke:
Young Republican official leaves post Criminal investigation under way THE EVENING NEWS AND THE TRIBUNE (JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind.) August 8, 2007
By Larry Thomas
JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. — The chairman of the Clark County (Ind.) Republican Party — who last month was elected president of the Young Republican National Federation — has resigned both posts, apparently in the wake of a criminal investigation.Tuesday, Glenn Murphy Jr. e-mailed media outlets a letter announcing his resignation from both positions, citing an unexpected business opportunity that would prohibit him from holding a partisan political office.However, the Clark County Sheriff’s Department on Friday began investigating Murphy for alleged criminal deviate conduct — potentially a class B felony — after speaking with a 22-year-old man who claimed that on July 31, Murphy performed an unwanted sex act on him while the man slept in a relative’s Jeffersonville home.Murphy, a 33-year-old Utica resident, has not been arrested nor has he been charged with a crime. A copy of the police report has been posted on a politically focused Internet site and another was provided to a reporter with The Evening News and The Tribune on Tuesday evening.Larry Wilder, Murphy’s attorney, said Murphy is cooperating with police and Prosecutor Steve Stewart. Wilder said Murphy contends the sex act was consensual.A reporter was unable to reach Stewart on Tuesday evening.In 1998, a 21-year-old male filed a similar report with Clarksville police claiming Murphy attempted to perform a sex act on him while he was sleeping. Charges were never filed in that case.In the letter he e-mailed to a reporter on Tuesday, Murphy says that on Friday he learned that he had been awarded a contract he had bid on more than a year ago, and that one of the stipulations of the deal is that Murphy could not hold a partisan political office.In the letter, Murphy wrote: “My company (Utica-based December Media) bid on a very large project more than a year ago. It was a job that I thought I would never get in a million years — one that could transform my company and do in one year what I could ordinarily do in five. Well, I got the job Friday“... It was perfect timing for the county chairmanship that I was transitioning out of anyway, but terrible timing for my volunteer Young Republican position that I had just worked so hard to achieve. “My family sat down with me Saturday evening to look at things from every angle. We determined that if I didn’t take the job, there could potentially never be that type of opportunity again and I would be shorting the security of my future and the future of my family. I prayed with my family, and we determined that I have to take this opportunity for my long-term security.”Murphy spoke with a reporter via telephone only briefly after sending the e-mail. The conversation occurred before The Evening News and The Tribune obtained copies of the police reports from last week and 1998.During the conversation, Murphy seemed optimistic about the business opportunity and said he believes his resignation will have little negative impact on local Republicans, because he has been planning on leaving the county post since being elected president of the Young Republican National Federation last month.Clark County Republican Vice Chairwoman Connie Sellers will serve as the party’s interim chair until a caucus takes place in about two weeks, Murphy’s letter indicates. Jessica Colon, of Texas, will replace Murphy with the National Young Republican Federation. Murphy was elected to the national post last month during a convention in Miami.Sellers said Tuesday she is still working with state GOP leaders to coordinate the caucus and that no time, date or place have been set. Murphy has served as a local GOP officer for 10 years, including seven as chairman.Wilder expressed concern that the investigation into the most recent allegation against Murphy would be tainted, given that the police report was made public, which Wilder claims is a violation of state law.“The police report was disseminated on the Internet before I had my copy of it. I actually had to get my copy of it off the Internet,” Wilder said.“I don't know how that happened,” Sheriff Dan Rodden said. “There’s a multitude of ways it could have gotten out. I don’t know how I’ll pin it down.”Rodden declined comment on the allegations against Murphy, referring a reporter’s questions to Stewart.Wilder said that Murphy met with the alleged victim and the alleged victim’s sister after the incident occurred. Wilder said that conversation was taped without Murphy’s knowledge. The attorney said he has already listened to the tape and that Murphy contends throughout it his belief that the sex act of which he has been accused was consensual.According to a pair of police reports, the alleged victim and his sister claim Murphy contacted them several times after the alleged incident occurred to inquire as to whether they were going to file a report with police.

This story gives a new meaning to the term "sleepy head"

DON'T TREAD ON ME 1776!

GHOST OF CHRISTMAS-FUTURE TAKES US TO O'HARE AIRPORT DECEMBER 2015, 'REMEMBER BACK IN 2010 TSA WAS REASONABLE?'

WHO ARE YOU,

U.S. IS SPREADING DEMOCRACY IN AFGHANISTAN- minus the small detail called 'Habeus Corpus' - DON'T WORRY AFGHANS, IT'S NOT IMPORTANT!!!

JACK-BOOTED THUG PREVENTION!

ANOTHER RELIGIOUS PEDOPHILE SCANDAL?! DURING PASSOVER?!

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. - WHO KILLED HIM & WHY DID THEY KILL HIM? QUESTIONS RARELY ASKED...

U.S. FOREIGN AID: YOUR TAX DOLLARS DOWN THE TOILET - THE KENYA EXAMPLE

BLACK HISTORY MONTH - DR. OSSIAN SWEET: A LESSON IN COURAGE & SELF DEFENSE

BE FRUGAL WHEN USING GOOGLE - BIG BROTHER MAY BE WATCHING YOU! and also wants to listen...

FBI: The Falafel Bureau of Investigation or the Freaking Bunch of Idiots?

9-11-01: THE CONSPIRACY FILES

ROGUE COPS HARASSING INNOCENT WOMEN VIDEOS - THE USUAL SUSPECTS, I.E. 'THUGS WITH BADGES'

CIA STANDS FOR "CLOWNS, IDIOTS & AIRHEADS"

THOMAS JEFFERSON QUOTE: "...God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion..."

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF INJUSTICE INFORMATION ON HOW TO MAKE CRACK COCAINE!

WHY IRAN IS MORE DEMOCRATIC THAN THE 'GREAT SATAN AMERICA' AKA 'SHATAN-E BORZORG-E OMRIKA'

2009 INDEPENDENCE DAY - MESSAGES FROM GENERALS

FATHERS' DAY 2009

TWO DEAD IN MISSISSIPPI, WHILE THERE WERE FOUR DEAD IN OH-HI-O

HOMOECIOUS ECONOMICS 101: TRICKLE UP TRUMPS TARP'S TRICKLE DOWN (TREASURY'S TRANSLATION FOR 'TRICKLED ON')

AMERICA'S PRISON-STATE: 1 IN 13 GEORGIANS BEHIND BARS, ON PAROLE OR PROBATION!

SIGMA Think Tank - Briefing on 21st Century Threat Appraisal, by David Brin - Part 1 of 2

SIGMA Think Tank - Briefing on 21st Century Threat Appraisal, by David Brin - Part 2

DISMAL SCIENTISTS - THE FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD MEMBERS' ACADEMIC CREDENTIALS - NOT WORTH THE PAPER ON WHICH THEIR Ph.D.'S ARE PRINTED (Ph.Dunces?)

WEEKLY ROGUE COPS REPORT - 3/22/09: ROBERT POWELL, DALLAS P.D. & PATRICK DOTSON, BALTIMORE P.D.

WHATCHA GONNA DO WHEN THEY COME FOR YOU? CITIZEN'S GUIDE TO POLICE ENCOUNTERS

MORE ROGUE COPS - A FEW STORIES FROM THE 2008 ARCHIVES

ROGUE SEATTLE-AREA COP BEATS HELPLESS 15 YEAR OLD GIRL IN A HOLDING CELL - MISCREANT COP'S BRUTALITY CAUGHT ON VIDEO

ROGUE COP OF THE WEEK, 2-17-2009, DRUNK MARYLAND STATE TROOPER KIDNAPS GUY THEN LEADS OTHER COPS ON WILD CHASE WHILE DRIVING HIS STATE TROOPER CAR!!!

CRUEL & UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT - AMERIKAN STYLE

REV. JOHN HAGEE: GREAT WHORE OF BABBLE-ON!

"ON CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE" BY HENRY DAVID THOREAU - PART 1 - "THAT GOVERNMENT IS BEST WHICH GOVERNS LEAST"

DANGEROUS BOOKS! SELL THEM TO HOMELAND SECURITY AND THE FBI...BEFORE JACK-BOOTED THUGS COME TO STEAL THEM FROM YOU!

WELCOME TO THE AMERICAN POLICE STATE!!!

AMERICA DROPS BOMBS ON CHILDREN!!! as if you didn't already know....

THE KING GEORGE PHOTO ALBUM

THREE BOOKS FOR REVOLUTIONARIES!!!

ANOTHER REPUBLIVERT REARS HIS HEAD! DON'T 'LECHER' GUARD DOWN!