Friday, April 20, 2007

Let's Make it So

News | Vermont Senate calls for impeachment of Bush, Cheney

By Shay Totten | Vermont Guardian

Posted April 20, 2007

Editor's Note: This story was updated at noon with comments from Senate Pres. Pro Tem Peter Shumlin.

MONTPELIER — The Vermont Senate this morning approved by a 16-9 margin a resolution calling on the U.S. House to launch impeachment proceedings of Pres. George W. Bush and Vice Pres. Dick Cheney.

The move comes just days after nearly 150 people from around Vermont converged on Montpelier to urge lawmakers to pass such a resolution out of the House and Senate. The emotionally-charged, 40-minute meeting left backers hopeful that something could happen this session.

Today’s resolution was introduced by Senate Pres. Pro Tem Peter Shumlin, D-Windham, and Sen. Jeannette White, D-Windham. The process began last night when Senate Majority Leader Dick McCormick, D-Windsor, introduced a resolution. However, his resolution did not include Cheney. The resolution by Shumlin and White did include Cheney.

The vote took place early in the morning and was over in less than a half hour.

Three Democrats — Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, Sen. Dick Mazza, D-Chittenden/Grand Isle, and Sen. Bill Carris, D-Rutland — joined six Republicans in voting against the resolution. One Republican — Sen. George Coppenrath, R-Caledonia, was absent at the time of the vote.

Shumlin told the Guardian that Tuesday's meeting left an impression upon him, and motivated him to respond.

“I was deeply moved by the meeting on Tuesday and I’ve been a supporter of this consistently from the beginning,” said Shumlin. “There hasn’t been a president of the United States of America who has worked harder for impeachment hearings than Pres. Bush, and Vice Pres. Cheney.”

[more]


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[click here] for

So, it's not about oil?



[click here] for

F the Connecticut State Police

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Who is the real threat, North Korea or Iran?

Top military commander implies 'deal with the devil'

Michael Roston
Published: Thursday April 19, 2007

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The Navy admiral overseeing United States Central Command, the military structure that is carrying out the war in Iraq and other military operations in its vicinity, appeared to imply in congressional testimony yesterday that the United States had made a "deal with the devil."

Adm. William Fallon, who assumed command of US Central Command in March, appeared before the House Armed Services Committee yesterday.

In the course of Wednesday's hearing, Adm. Fallon was asked by Rep. Ike Skelton (D-MA), the committee's chairman, about reports that Ethiopia had received a shipment of weapons from the North Korean government in January.

Before answering the question, Fallon first defended Ethiopia's cooperation in the U.S. war on terrorism.

"Of all the countries in the Horn of Africa, the Ethiopians at least appear to be playing the best shot at a constructive role in helping to deal with the instabilities in their region, particularly with Somalia," he said.

But while acknowledging that Ethiopia received the arms shipment, Fallon then suggested that there had been "deals with the devil."

"The extent to which they have received help from others is one that I'll be interested in. I suspect that there are probably deals with the devil here that -- that I need to check on and see exactly what's going on," the admiral noted.

It was unclear if Fallon was referring to the Ethiopians and North Koreans alone, or whether the US was a party to the "deal." However, the top military commander ultimately admitted he didn't have much information about the Ethiopian-North Korean trade.

"I don't have that information. I'll look at it," he said.

The New York Times reported on the deal between the Stalinist government and Ethiopia on April 8.

"American intelligence agencies reported in late January that an Ethiopian cargo ship that was probably carrying tank parts and other military equipment had left a North Korean port," wrote Michael R. Gordon and Mark Mazzetti. "The value of the shipment is unclear, but Ethiopia purchased $20 million worth of arms from North Korea in 2001, according to American estimates, a pattern that officials said had continued."

The Times also reported that the shipment violated United Nations sanctions against North Korea.

"Because the intelligence reports indicated that the cargo was likely to have included tank parts, some Pentagon officials described the shipment as an unambiguous Security Council violation," they wrote.

The shipment occurred at a time when the U.S. was helping Ethiopia fight the Islamic Courts Union, a Somali militia that has been accused of having links with al-Qaeda. American officials assented to it going forward, according to the Times, a decision which former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton slammed in the Times article.

"To make it clear to everyone how strongly we feel on this issue we should have gone to the Ethiopians and said they should send it back," he said, although he was apparently unaware of the deal and the time it occurred.

A full transcript of the exchange is presented below.

#

REP. SKELTON: Along that same line, there are reports that the U.S. and others allowed North Korea to ship some arms to Ethiopia. What steps are being taken to convince the Ethiopians to sever relationships, if any, with the North Koreans?

ADM. FALLON: What I believe I understand to date about Ethiopia is that of all the countries in the Horn of Africa, the Ethiopians at least appear to be playing the best shot at a constructive role in helping to deal with the instabilities in their region, particularly with Somalia. And the extent to which they have received help from others is one that I'll be interested in. I suspect that there are probably deals with the devil here that -- that I need to check on and see exactly what's going on. I don't have that information. I'll look at it.

What I do know is that Ethiopia has been attempting to help to stabilize this region, which we certainly support, and I'll have to get back to you and see just what's going on there.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Robert Johnson's Graves



Robert Johnson's graves - yes, two of them - in the Mississippi Delta.

Led Zeppelin before there was a Led Zeppelin

Page and Plant speak on Led Zeppelin

Robert Lockwood, Jr. - Sweet Home Chicago



Text with YouTube video:
91 Year Old Blues Legend and N.E.A. Recipient Robert Lockwood, Jr. plays live on stage at the Palace Theatre in Grapevine, Texas

About The Blue Shoe Project:

Students Should Experience the Blues - The Blue Shoe Project was founded to keep the blues alive by exposing students to the few blues legends still alive and able to pass on their legacy in person by teaching students about the profound impact of the blues on our music history.

The Legends of the Blues and those influenced by it are aging or passing and with it their rich history and culture. These legendary figures made a profound impact on American Music and our society and students at all levels should know it, be proud of it and experience it. One of the ways we accomplish this objective is to bring Artists into the classroom for students to experience living history. Whether an industry legend, or a practicing Artist of the Blues, our Education Programs provide students a true appreciation for and a valuable understanding of the history, style, and impact of the Blues, even an opportunity to "play the Blues".

The Blue Shoe Project tailors the delivery of blues education to elementary through college students. Programs feature professional, and in some cases "legendary" musicians who are passionate about sharing their extraordinary talent and telling their inspiring stories to students of all ages.

Blues is America's Gift to the World - As a country, there is one thing we have undeniably given the world that no other culture can lay claim to, our music. Blues music. Travel outside the US and its Blues they idolize. From the UK to Japan, to South America, Blues above all is the music of all music.

One of the reasons Blue Shoe is so passionate about educating Texas students about the blues is the role Texas played in the evolution of blues. Texas was the birthplace of some of the most legendary and influential figures in music history, let alone blues history, including Blind Lemon Jefferson ,T-Bone Walker, Lightnin' Hopkins and Freddie King, to name just a few from a very long list of Texan blues greats. Add the fact that a significant portion of rock-n-roll artists from the '50s through the '70s looked to Texas blues artists for their inspiration. Given this rich history, Blue Shoe believes that Texas should be taking its rightful place by promoting its blues heritage, starting in our schools.

Please visit The Blue Shoe Times Blog for posts about Robert: http://www.blueshoetimes.com

For more information on The Blue Shoe Project please visit our website at: http://www.blueshoeproject.org

http://www.myspace.com/theblueshoepro...

For more information on Robert Lockwood, Jr. Please visit the official Robert Lockwood, Jr. Myspace Page at" http://www.myspace.com/robertlockwoodjr

JOHN LEE HOOKER - BAD LIKE JESSE JAMES



Text with YouTube video:
Born near Clarksdale, Mississippi on August 22, 1917 to a sharecropping family, John Lee Hooker's earliest musical influence came from his stepfather, Will Moore. By the early 1940's Hooker had moved north to Detroit by way of Memphis and Cincinnati. Hooker found work as a janitor in the auto factories, and at night, like many other transplants from the rural Delta, he entertained friends and neighbors by playing at "house parties". He was "discovered" by record storeowner Elmer Barbee who took him to Bernard Besman, who was a producer, record distributor and owner of Sensation Records, Besman leased some of his early Hooker recordings to Modern Records. Among Hooker's first recordings in 1948, "Boogie Chillen" became a number one jukebox hit for Modern and his first million seller. This was soon followed by an even bigger hit with "I'm In The Mood" and other classic recordings including "Crawling Kingsnake" and "Hobo Blues." Another surge in his career took place with the release of more than 100 songs on Vee Jay Records during the 1950's and 1960's.

When the young bohemian audiences of the 1960's "discovered" Hooker along with other blues originators, he and various he and others made a brief return to folk blues. Young British artist such as the Animals, John Mayall, and the Yardbirds introduced Hooker's sound to the new and eager audiences whose admiration and influence helped build Hooker to superstar status in the mid - 60's England. By 1970 he had moved to California and worked on several projects with rock musicians, notably Van Morrison and Canned Heat. Canned Heat modeled their sound after Hooker's boggie and collaborated with him on several albums and tours.

During the late 1970's and much of the 1980's, Hooker toured the U.S. and Europe steadily but grew disenchanted with recording, through his appearance in the Blues Brothers movie resulted in a heightened profile. Then, in 1989, The Healer was released to critical acclaim and sales in excess of a million copies. Today the "The King Of The Boggie" is enjoying the most successful period of his extensive career. In the past ten years Hooker's influence has contributed to a booming interest in the blues and, notably, its acceptance by the music industry as a commercially viable entity.

Hooker's career has been a series a highlights and special events since the release of The Healer. In addition to recording his on albums Mr. Lucky, Boom Boom, Chill Out, and Don't Look Back for Pointblank / Virgin, he contributed to recordings by B.B. King, Branford Marsalis, Van Morrison, and Big Head Todd and the Monsters and portrayed the title role in Pete Townshend's 1989 epic, The Iron Man.

His influence on younger generations has been documented on television with features on Showtime and a special edition of the BBC's 'Late Show' as well as appearances on "The Tonight Show" and "Late Night With David Letterman" among many others. John Lee was invited to perform The Rolling Stones and guest Eric Clapton for their national television broadcast during The Stones' 1989 Steel Wheels tour. In 1990, many musical greats paid tribute to John Lee Hooker with a performance at Madison Square Garden. Joining him on some or all of these special occasions were artists such as Bonnie Raitt, Ry Cooder, Joe Cocker, Huey Newton, Carlos Santana, Robert Clay, Mick Fleetwood, Al Cooper, Johnny Winter, John Hammond, and the late Albert Collins and Willie Dixon.

Hooker's 1991 induction into the Rock n' Roll Hall Of Fame was fitting for the man who has influenced countless fans and musicians who have in turn influenced many more. Honors continue, with recent inductions into Los Angeles' Rock Walk, The Bammies Walk Of Fame in San Francisco, and, in 1997, a star in the Hollywood Walk Of Fame.

John Lee's style has always been unique, even among other performers of the real deep blues, few of whom remain with us today. While retaining that foundation he has simultaneously broken new ground musically and commercially. At the age of 80, John Lee Hooker received his third and fourth Grammy Awards, for Best Traditional Blues Recording (Don't Look Back) and for Best Pop Collaboration for the song "Don't Look Back" which Hooker recorded with his long time friend Van Morrison. This Friendship and others are celebrated on Hooker's newest Pointblank / Virgin album, The Best Of Friends. The album also celebrates a return, exactly 50 years later, to Hooker's first hit, Boogie Chillen and serves as a perfect bookend for Hooker's first fifty years in the business

The Immigration Debate

The below cartoon is actually pretty funny, no matter what side of the issue you are on. Native Americans have Pilgrims landing on their shores and they debate immigration around the campfire. The below YouTube.com video has received over 2 million hits.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

'Coordinates' The curious case of Jonathan James Jordan, MIA



Text with YouTube Video:
(The Trailer, Script and Budget is for sale. mrallums@comcast.net) Only in conspiracy books mouths, of radicals, myths and urban legends will you find the story of a man who was done wrong. He was a father, a scientist, a military man and an astronaut. He was Lieutenant Jonathan James Jordan, a proud man who loved his country and disappeared serving it decades ago, for so history claims. For it is told, on a colds winters day in November of 1998, Jonathan James Jordan came back; with no anger, mistrust or lust for revenge but with a calm demeanor centered on helping a world that had forgotten him.
The story begins in the early part of 1961. The space race is hitting full stride and America is losing in it's efforts to be the first country to put a man into space. In a desperate move, they come up with an ambitious plan; not to send a man up into space, but in space. This very unusual journey was based on two of Einstein's most interesting theories, "Relativity and "Unified Field". Theories that encompass many unorthodox ideas, including the transporting of objects and people in ways never thought to be plausible. A way of going from point A to point B with out using standard forms of combustion but a totally new way of transport. A theory made famous to most Americans in the film "Philadelphia Experiment" in which a ship disappears and reappears somewhere else, moments later. For the endeavor, they needed a man who is brilliant, loyal, dedicated yet dispensable; Jonathan James Jordan fit the bill perfectly. This brilliant yet cocky 21 year old receives a hero's send off including a parade, lavish dinner and a phone call from the president. One problem, it's all staged and the only truth involved is in everyone's goodbye, for Jonathan James Jordan won't be coming back anytime soon. Although the "Philadelphia Experiment" had limited success in the 40's, it was enough to convince the brass to attempt it in space, thus the need for a guinea pig, Jonathan James Jordan was to become the first man "in space".
Jonathan James Jordan did not return that day, and the myth of what happened to him has endured. On that cold winters day in November, Mr. Jordan was arrested then quickly taken to a special assembly meeting of congress where he gave a warning about the future and one whale of a story of what happened to him all these years. So ends the story of Jonathan James Jordan, who mysteriously disappeared again only 6 days after his return, as did the story. Jonathan James Jordan was a father, soldier, scientist and an astronaut who returned to save a world, friends and family, all who have again, forgotten him.

Coordinates (http://www.alluvon.com)
Contact: Staff@1976katrina.com

Cops working for our Tax Dollars

Three Officers, Sergeant Suspended

Actions Last Month Followed Probes By KATIE MELONE, Courant Staff Writer
AVON -- Three police officers were suspended last month after an investigation into claims that one of the men was sleeping on the job, and a sergeant was suspended days later after an unrelated internal investigation.

Though the police administration was unable to determine the validity of a complaint that Officer Todd Akerly slept during a training shift for a new officer, it found that he was "excessively idle while on duty."

"Akerly should have been more active in his shifts and not had such a large amount of time unaccounted for," Chief Mark Rinaldo wrote in a March 15 memo.

Akerly, 29, also was reprimanded for discussing the internal investigation with a dispatcher and Officer Jason Reid, 25, who was also suspended. The officers were instructed not to speak with anyone about the investigation.

Akerly was suspended for one day without pay. Reid was suspended for two days without pay, also for violating department orders when he discussed the investigation.

The third officer involved, Matthew Engel, 30, was suspended for four days without pay for withholding evidence that hampered the investigation, and for discussing the investigation with Reid. In deciding to suspend Engel, Rinaldo cited two previous reprimands and Engel's "past negative work performance," among other factors.

The investigation of Akerly was launched when Engel complained that Akerly, his field training officer, slept on duty during shifts between Nov. 18, 2005, and Dec. 3, 2005.

Engel had waited eight months to file his complaint, a decision Rinaldo chided him for in a memo, also dated March 15.

"More disturbing to me was the fact that during this investigation, you, as the complainant, withheld the fact that another officer had material evidence in the case," Rinaldo wrote. "In fact, you did not reveal this information until the final hour."

According to the memo, Engel withheld that Reid was present when Akerly was allegedly sleeping, and was, therefore, a potential witness.

Akerly and Engel could not be reached for comment for this story. Reid declined to comment.

Rinaldo said Reid and Akerly are outstanding officers.

"I think they just made a mistake," he said. "We saw some behavior that wasn't consistent with our polices and we corrected the behavior and we know that it won't happen again. We have a very young police department. This is almost a maturity thing. As time goes on, officers mature in the job. We're a paramilitary organization. It's an adjustment for some people."

In an unrelated investigation, Sgt. Brett Eisenlohr, 48, was suspended without pay for 14 days for failing to provide a medical note to explain his absence from a Nov. 3 emergency medical technician examination.

Such behavior constitutes a pattern for Eisenlohr, according to a March 22 memo by Rinaldo.

Eisenlohr, according to the chief, has avoided medical recertification training since 1991, when he was suspended for 10 days for failing to attend a medical response technician test.

"You have been previously counseled many times and in fact have been disciplined with regards to obedience to orders, yet you still fail to understand the impact of your actions on the efficiency, effectiveness and general good order of our organization," Rinaldo wrote.

Eisenlohr, who has worked for the department since July 1982, is grieving the discipline, which he has already served.

"There is information lacking from that report," he said, referring to Rinaldo's memo. "The only other thing I can say is that I've been advised not to make any other comment until we can go to the board with it."

Contact Katie Melone at kmelone@courant.com.

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[click here] for how the Connecticut State Police, the "Goon Squad" execute their agenda targeting individuals on their secret "Enemies List".

Richard Pryor:THE MAFIA

Monday, April 16, 2007

Film Strip Style with Text

Pictures, with facts presented. There is no pitchman talking.


9/11 - 'War on Terror' a Hoax

Text with YouTube.com video:
excellent video that describes why the war on terror is all a lie. and it has fooled you all. this video exposes that truth.
it is merely an excuse to go to war in the middle-east.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie




An Effective, Low-Cost Solution To Combating Mind-Control



The above two lines found here on a website about "Tinfoil Hat Technology" [click]

Excerpt from above link:

What Is An AFDB?

An Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie (AFDB) is a type of headwear that can shield your brain from most electromagnetic psychotronic mind control carriers. AFDBs are inexpensive (even free if you don't mind scrounging for thrown-out aluminium foil) and can be constructed by anyone with at least the dexterity of a chimp (maybe bonobo). This cheap and unobtrusive form of mind control protection offers real security to the masses. Not only do they protect against incoming signals, but they also block most forms of brain scanning and mind reading, keeping the secrets in your head truly secret. AFDBs are safe and operate automatically. All you do is make it and wear it and you're good to go! Plus, AFDBs are stylish and comfortable.

What are you waiting for? Make one today!



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I laughed my ass off about the above and decided to repost it here.

[click here] for the Stark Raving Viking blog

This blog accepts anonymous comments. To share this blog with a friend click on white envelope below.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Genocide and Gun Control- Brothers

If self-defense is illegal, genocide is possible. Taking away all citizens guns is a bad sign of things to come. History repeats itself. If the world took notice of the events depicted in this video of 1915 Armenian and Turkish history, Hitler probably would not have been so confident in his plan, "The Final Solution".



Text with video:
The Armenian Genocide or the Armenian Massacre — refers to the massacres and forcible removals of hundreds of thousands to over a million Armenians, during the government of the Young Turks from 1915 to 1917 in the Ottoman Empire.

Even today, the Republic of Turkey rejects the notion that the event constitutes genocide, claiming rather that the Armenian deaths were a result of inter-ethnic strife, disease and famine during the turmoil of World War I.

However, most Armenian, Russian, Western, and an increasing number of Turkish, scholars believe that it was indeed the first genocide of the 20th century, or a campaign of state-sponsored ethnic cleansing and mass extermination.

For example, some Western sources point to the sheer scale of the death toll as evidence for a systematic, organized plan to eliminate the Armenians. The event is also said to be the second-most studied case of genocide,[3] and often draws comparison with the Holocaust. As discussed below, to date twenty-one countries have officially recognized it as genocide.


One of the world's oldest
civilizations, Armenia once included Mount Ararat, which Biblical tradition identifies as the mountain that Noah's ark rested on after the flood. It was the first country in the world to officially embrace Christianity as its religion (c. 301).


this is a video that i dedicated for the armenian genocide 1915 by the horrible turks !

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Military Occupation of US by our own Troops



American military personnel are being trained to take over town halls, media, work with local police, and use children as informants to confiscate firearms. "Training" excercises can take place in "target areas" to acclimate residents to the "New America".

If local police are deemed to be "friendly", troops are trained to disarm and detain local police.

So, what is the current administration of the US planning for?

[click here] for http://starkravingviking.blogspot.com/

Monday, April 09, 2007

Is there more to the Anthrax Scare of 2001?

[click here] for a past post on the Anthrax Scare.

The below found here

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Keynote Speaker
Brian Donnelly, Ph.D.
Brian Donnelly,
Ph.D.

Brian Donnelly, Ph.D.
Director, Global Security, Pfizer Inc., Americas Region
Pharmacology and Forensic Toxicology
New York, USA

Brian Donnelly is Director of the Americas Region, Global Security, Pfizer Inc. in New York, New York. He is currently responsible for coordinating investigations of counterfeit Pfizer pharmaceutical products in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean.

Prior to joining Pfizer, Dr. Donnelly spent 21 years as a Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, during which time he was assigned to the FBI Laboratory and the New Haven Divisions. As a Special Agent Dr. Donnelly was responsible for the investigation of several high profile cases including: the Michael Swango, M.D. medical serial killer investigation, the Yale University bombing investigation and he was the Connecticut case agent for the Amerithrax (anthrax mailings) investigation. He has received several honors and awards from the FBI, the Department of Veterans Affairs and a number of United States Attorneys Offices.

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This blogger's email: stevengerickson@yahoo.com

Is George W. Bush a more arrogant thumbing his nose

more so than Nixon ever was?



Beginning of the End

The Watergate scandal clip, June 19, 1972



Daniel Ellsberg Speech About "The Pentagon Papers"

Text with youtube.com video: Daniel Ellsberg leaked "The Pentagon Papers' in the '60s, which lead to massive public protest against the apparent plans of the Nixon administration to utilize nuclear weapons in the Vietnam War.



Daniel Ellsberg on the Impeachment of Bush-Cheney

Text with the Video: Daniel Ellsberg was one of the featured speakers at the "Voices for Impeachment" forum, held at the National Press Club. The program was sponsored by Worldcantwait.org. David Swanson served as the moderator of the event. Ellsberg, of the "Pentagon Papers" fame, fears that if there is another 9/11, that this country may begin to look like the police state of Germany in the summer of 1933.

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Modern War Video Clips

... with "Suicide is Painless", the M.A.S.H. theme played in the background.

Matchbox Twenty & Jerry Lee Lewis - Lonely Weekends


Text with YouTube.com video:
With the prominent help of The Killer Matchbox Twenty perform Charlie Rich's "Lonely Weekends", which they also did on their live shows. This is taken from the 1 hr 52 min documentary "Good Rockin' Tonight - The Legacy Of Sun Records" American Masters. It's an well done all-star tribute to Sun Records and all the great artists, interwoven with a little bit of background history. Well worth the money.
What's striking is that Jerry Lee Lewis indeed ist the sole survivor of those sun artists who went to great fame (and other labels)

Blogger freed after record contempt stint

From CNN

• Freelance journalist cuts deal with prosecutors, walks out of prison
• Joshua Wolf refuses to testify before grand jury about protest
• Under deal, Wolf agreed to provide uncut video.
• His spent 226 days behind bars -- a record for a journalist held in contempt

DUBLIN, Califiornia (AP) -- Video blogger Joshua Wolf, who spent a record-setting stint behind bars for refusing to turn over his footage of a chaotic 2005 street protest, walked out of prison after cutting a deal with prosecutors.

Wolf, 24, said Tuesday he was looking forward to "pizza and a beer" after having spent 226 days in prison -- more than any journalist who's refused to testify.

Under the deal with prosecutors, Wolf agreed to turn over the uncut video, which he also posted on his Web site Tuesday. But he refused to testify before the grand jury about the events at the protest or the identities of participants.

"I will not under any circumstances testify before a grand jury," Wolf said.

His prison time surpassed the previous record set by Vanessa Leggett, a Houston-based freelancer who served 168 days in 2001 and 2002 for declining to reveal unpublished material about a murder case.

Wolf had been found in contempt for refusing to obey a subpoena to turn over his video from a July 2005 protest during the G-8 economic summit where anarchists were suspected of vandalizing a San Francisco police car. One city officer was struck during the rally and his skull was fractured.

Wolf, a freelancer, sold some footage to San Francisco television stations and posted it on his Web site, but refused to turn over unpublished material.

The footage Wolf posted online Tuesday does not capture the alleged crimes authorities are investigating, defense lawyer David Greene said. Wolf's lawyers had argued that the First Amendment gave him the right to refuse the subpoena to turn over the rest of his tape.

"Now that the fences of the law and the tradition that has protected the press are broken down, the people are the victims. The First Amendment, as I read it, was designed precisely to prevent that tragedy," Wolf said in prepared statement he read Tuesday on the steps of San Francisco City Hall.

California's shield law allows reporters to keep sources and unpublished material secret. But there is no federal shield law protecting reporters from federal investigations.

The National Writer's Union, which represents freelance writers, said in a statement that Wolf should never have been jailed.

"The abuses visited on Josh and other journalists are part of an effort by governments at all levels to control the volume, flow and content of the information that reaches the public," the union said.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


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Excerpt: Using the U.S. Patriot Act the FBI had been following Mel Gibson’s illegal terrorist activities for months. [more]

Saturday, April 07, 2007

One of the funniest skits I have ever seen:

Drew Carry Show with Richard Simmons




Richard Simmons' Exploding Steamer

Bush's Illegal Regime Crumbling?

US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
Ms Goodling is a key aide of the embattled US attorney general
A top US justice department official who refused to testify before Congress about her role in the sacking of eight federal prosecutors has resigned.

Monica Goodling, who was senior counsel to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, gave no reason for her abrupt decision.

Last month she rejected an interview request from a congressional committee investigating the sackings, invoking her right not to incriminate herself.

Mr Gonzales denies the sackings last year were politically motivated.

The Democratic Party, which now controls Congress, is pushing to expand an investigation into the firings, which affected almost one in 10 federal prosecutors.

Mr Gonzales - who heads the justice department - says the attorneys were fired because of their job performance and that politics played no role.

US ATTORNEYS
93 nationwide
Serve at the discretion of the president, with the approval of the Senate
Prosecute criminal cases brought by the government
Prosecute or defend civil cases in which the government is a party
Collect debts owed to the government
Source: US Department of Justice

But critics says they were meant to halt investigations into Republican officials or punish the attorneys for failing to prosecute Democrats.

Ms Goodling, who submitted her resignation to Mr Gonzales in a brief three-sentence letter, served as the Justice Department's liaison with the White House.

Last month, a Senate committee voted to authorise legal orders compelling key White House aides to testify in the case, but President Bush has vowed to resist this.

Mr Gonzales, who faces calls to resign, is likely to testify before Congress later this month.



The above from the BBC found here

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[click here] for my letter to Bush

CIA tortured me, says Iran envoy

BBC piece below found here

Freed Iranian envoy Jalal Sharafi [L] with Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki
Mr Sharafi (L) with Foreign Minister Mottaki on arrival back in Iran
An Iranian diplomat freed last week after being abducted in Iraq in February has said he was tortured by his captors, including CIA agents.

Jalal Sharafi, the second secretary at Iran's embassy in Baghdad, told Iranian media the agents had interrogated him on his country's role in Iraq.

Mr Sharafi said he had been taken from his car by men in Iraqi army uniforms.

The US military in Iraq said the coalition forces had not been involved in the abduction or any torture.

Irbil detentions

Mr Sharafi told the Irna state news agency he was subjected to torture "day and night".

"I was kidnapped on a Baghdad street while shopping by officials who had Iraqi defence ministry ID cards and were riding in American forces vehicles," he said.

The Multi-National Force Iraq was not involved in his kidnapping or any kind of claims of torture
Lt-Col Christopher Garver,
US military

Mr Sharafi said he was taken from the Karrada district to a base near Baghdad airport and questioned in Arabic and English.

"The CIA officials' questions focused mainly on Iran's presence and influence in Iraq," he said.

"When faced with my responses on Iran's official ties with the Iraqi government they increased the torture."

Iran's Fars news agency said: "He showed reporters the marks left by torture on his body that are now being treated by doctors."

US military spokesman Lt-Col Christopher Garver denied any coalition role in the case.

"The Multi-National Force Iraq was not involved in his kidnapping or any kind of claims of torture that he is now stating that he was subjected to," Col Garver said.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said Baghdad did not know who had held him.

Diplomatic tension remains high between Washington and Tehran over the detention by US forces of five Iranians in the Iraqi city of Irbil in January.

The US suspects them of aiding the Iraqi insurgency. Tehran says they have diplomatic status.

Iran this week released 15 UK sailors it had held for 13 days.

Friday, April 06, 2007

Frank Zappa on Crossfire -=(1986)



Text with YouTube.com video
Zappa: The biggest threat to America today is not communism; it's moving America towards a fascist theocracy and everything that has happened during the Reagan administration. Is steering us right down that pipe

Frank Zappa on Crossfire (1987) - Part I


Text with YouTube.com video:
Most of us have seen the earlier one of Zappa on CNNs "Crossfire" from 1986. This is a follow up clip recorded sometime in July (I think) 1987.

This follow up video deals with the whole "ratings" system BS. This one is hosted by Peter Gemma & Michael Kinsley. Guests are Frank Zappa and the PMRC toadie Jeff Ling. Believe it or not, one of the BS questions was "Does rock music cause AIDS".

Frank Zappa's views on censorship weren't "ahead for his times" actually - but more in line with old "classic liberalism" [or what we in the late 20th century know it as: "libertarianism"].

I hope y'all enjoy this clip as much as I did. Don't forget to see Part - II as well -- I had to split the clip because YouTube only allows 10 minute clips

Frank Zappa on Crossfire (1987) - Part II


Text with the YouTube.com video:
Most of us have seen the earlier one of Zappa on CNNs "Crossfire" from 1986. This is a follow up clip recorded sometime in July (I think) 1987.

This follow up video deals with the whole "ratings" system BS. This one is hosted by Peter Gemma & Michael Kinsley. Guests are Frank Zappa and the PMRC toadie Jeff Ling. Believe it or not, one of the BS questions was "Does rock music cause AIDS".

Frank Zappa's views on censorship weren't "ahead for his times" actually - but more in line with old "classic liberalism" [or what we in the late 20th century know it as: "libertarianism"].

I hope y'all enjoy this clip as much as I did.

PMRC and Censorship of Music in America


Tipper Gore was offended by Prince's "Darling Nikki" song when viewing it with a younger viewer, and there it started, the PMRC movement began.

I like Prince's version of the below song, but I found the below rendition of the lyrics comical:


1920s style "Darling Nikki"


Frank Zappa - PMRC Senate Hearing 1of4


2 of 4


3 of 4


4 of 4

kurt cobain aneurysm

Oh yeah! Nirvana

Genetic Defects can cause Feuds?


The Hatfield clan poses in April 1897 at a logging camp in southern West Virginia. The most infamous feud in American folklore, the long-running battle between the Hatfields and McCoys, may be partly explained by a rare, disease inherited by the McCoy clan that can lead to hair-trigger rage and violent outbursts.(AP Photo)

Disease underlies Hatfield-McCoy feud



By MARILYNN MARCHIONE, AP Medical Writer Thu Apr 5, 6:18 PM ET

The most infamous feud in American folklore, the long-running battle between the Hatfields and McCoys, may be partly explained by a rare, inherited disease that can lead to hair-trigger rage and violent outbursts.

Dozens of McCoy descendants apparently have the disease, which causes high blood pressure, racing hearts, severe headaches and too much adrenaline and other "fight or flight" stress hormones.

No one blames the whole feud on this, but doctors say it could help explain some of the clan's notorious behavior.

"This condition can certainly make anybody short-tempered, and if they are prone because of their personality, it can add fuel to the fire," said Dr. Revi Mathew, a Vanderbilt University endocrinologist treating one of the family members.

The Hatfields and McCoys have a storied and deadly history dating to Civil War times. Their generations of fighting over land, timber rights and even a pig are the subject of dozens of books, songs and countless jokes. Unfortunately for Appalachia, the feud is one of its greatest sources of fame.

Several genetic experts have known about the disease plaguing some of the McCoys for decades, but kept it secret. The Associated Press learned of it after several family members revealed their history to Vanderbilt doctors, who are trying to find more McCoy relatives to warn them of the risk.

One doctor who had researched the family for decades called them the "McC kindred" in a 1998 medical journal article tracing the disease through four generations.

"He said something about us never being able to get insurance" if the full family name was used, said Rita Reynolds, a Bristol, Tenn., woman with the disease. She says she is a McCoy descendant and has documents from the doctor showing his work on her family.

She is speaking up now so distant relatives might realize their risk and get help before the condition proves fatal, as it did to many of her ancestors.

Back then, "we didn't even know this existed," she said. "They just up and died."

Von Hippel-Lindau disease, which afflicts many family members, can cause tumors in the eyes, ears, pancreas, kidney, brain and spine. Roughly three-fourths of the affected McCoys have pheochromocytomas — tumors of the adrenal gland.

The small, bubbly-looking orange adrenal gland sits atop each kidney and makes adrenaline and substances called catecholamines. Too much can cause high blood pressure, pounding headaches, heart palpitations, facial flushing, nausea and vomiting. There is no cure for the disease, but removing the tumors before they turn cancerous can improve survival.

Affected family members have long been known to be combative, even with their kin. Reynolds recalled her grandfather, "Smallwood" McCoy.

"When he would come to visit, everyone would run and hide. They acted like they were scared to death of him. He had a really bad temper," she said.

Her adopted daughter, another McCoy descendant, 11-year-old Winnter Reynolds, just had an adrenal tumor removed at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. Teachers thought the girl had ADHD — attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Now, Winnter says, "my parents are thinking it may be the tumor" that caused the behavior. "I've been feeling great since they took it out."

Her adoptive father, James Reynolds, said of the McCoys: "It don't take much to set them off. They've got a pretty good temper.

"Before the surgery, Winnter, when we would discipline her, she'd squeeze her fists together and get real angry and start hollering back at us, screaming and crying," he said.

As for the older McCoys, "they just started dropping dead of the tumors," he said. "They didn't know what it was. A name wasn't really put on the disease until 1968. That's when one of my brothers-in-law had to have surgery, to have some tumors removed in his brain. They started to notice tumors occurring in each of the family members."

Dr. Nuzhet Atuk at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and geneticists at the University of Pennsylvania studied the family for more than 30 years, Rita Reynolds said.

"They went back on the genealogy and all of that stuff," she said. "They called it madness disease. They said that it had to be coming from the VHL. Our family would just go off, even on the doctors."

Now 85 and retired, Atuk said he could not talk about his work because of medical confidentiality.

Rita Reynolds had two adrenal tumors removed a few years ago. Her mother and three brothers also had them. So do McCoy descendants in Oregon, Michigan and Indiana, she said.

"When you have these tumors, you're easy to get upset," said Rita's mother, Goldie Hankins, 76, of Big Rock, Va., near the Kentucky-West Virginia border. "When people get on your nerves, you just can't take it. You get angry because your blood pressure was so high."

Still, many are dubious that this condition had much of a role in the bitter feud with the Hatfields, which played out in the hill country of eastern Kentucky and West Virginia for decades.

Some say the feud dates to Civil War days, when some members of the families took opposite sides. It grew into disputes over timber rights and land in the 1870s, and gained more notoriety in 1878, when Randolph or "Old Randal" McCoy accused a Hatfield of stealing one of his pigs. The hostilities left at least a dozen dead.

"The McCoy temperament is legendary. Whether or not we can blame it on genes, I don't know," said Ron McCoy, 43, of Durham, N.C., one of the organizers of the annual Hatfield-McCoy reunion. "There are a lot of underpinnings that are probably a more legitimate source of conflict."

"There was a lot of inter-marrying" that could have played havoc with the gene pool, he conceded.

Another relative, Bo McCoy, of Waverly, Ohio, said he had never heard talk of the disease although he has been diagnosed with a different adrenal gland problem — Cushing's syndrome.

Even Reo Hatfield, who drafted the "truce" the two families famously signed in 2003 to officially end hostilities, doubted the role of the McCoys' disease in the feud.

"I would be shocked" if doctors blamed it on illness, he said.

Altina Waller, a professor of history at the University of Connecticut and author of a book about the feud, agreed.

"Medical folks like to find these kinds of explanations. Like the Salem witchcraft thing. That book came out about how that was caused by wheat that was grown that had this parasite or mold or fungus or something that caused everybody in Salem to go nuts," she said.

"How does it explain the other dozen or so feuds that I've looked at in other places?" she asked, citing disputes over coal and other issues. "The rage and violence as such was not confined to McCoys."

She acknowledges that an argument could be made for seeing the McCoys as the more aggressive of the clans.

"One of the reasons the McCoys don't like me as much in the Tug Valley as the Hatfields do is that I seem to suggest that Randal McCoy, the patriarch of the family, was sort of irrational and flamboyant and did jump to, into wanting violence more than, say, Anderson Hatfield," Waller said.

These days, the "feud" has taken a far more civil tone and all but disappeared, members of both families say. The last time it surfaced was in January 2003. McCoy descendants sued Hatfield descendants over visitation rights to a small cemetery on an Appalachian hillside in eastern Kentucky. It holds the remains of six McCoys, some allegedly killed by the Hatfields.

___

Associated Press National Writer Allen G. Breed in Raleigh, N.C., contributed to this report.

___

On the Net:

VHL Family Alliance: http://www.vhl.org

NIH: http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/von_hippel_lindau/von_hippel_lindau.htm

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000340.htm

(An earlier version of the story misidentified Ron McCoy of Durham, N.C., as 'Randy')

The above found here on the net

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I wonder if George W. Bush should be tested for the genetic defect.

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Beyond Ridiculous

From CTnewsjunkie.com:

Clergy Asks Congress to Reinstate Habeas Corpus

by Christine Stuart | April 5, 2007 6:50 PM
Posted to Courts

Christine Stuart photo

Christine Stuart photo


An interfaith coalition, Proclaiming the Prophetic Voice, spoke truth to power Thursday when it asked Connecticut’s Congressional delegation to support giving back the writ of Habeas Corpus to prisoners being held in President George W. Bush’s War on Terror.

“We stand before you to demand leadership from Congress to restore the right of habeas corpus and to reinstate our nation’s commitment to the full Geneva Conventions,” Rev. Davida Foy Crabtree (pictured) said in her opening remarks. “We believe that the passage last fall of the Military Commissions Act imperils the soul and the moral condition of our nation.”

The Military Commissions Act labeled the estimated 400 prisoners currently being held at Guantanamo Bay as enemy combatants and as such they are unable to challenge their imprisonment through a writ of habeas corpus. A writ of habeas corpus would force the United States government to tell the prisoners what charges they’re being held on.

Elizabeth Gilson, an attorney for two of the men being held in Guantanamo, said military statistics show that only 8 percent of the men in prison are actual terror suspects. The remainder, which includes her clients—two Chinese Muslims fleeing persecution in China—were turned in for the U.S. government’s $5,000 reward. Gilson said a majority of the estimated 400 prisoners are shepherds, drivers, and 90-year-old men.

“My clients are not the exception, they’re the rule,” she said.

U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd introduced legislation that would reinstate habeas rights and prohibit the federal government from making up its own rules on torture and abuse.

Dodd unable to attend Thursday’s event at the Hartford Seminary sent a representative who read a letter that said, “The Military Commissions Act of 2006 has severely weakened our nation’s standing throughout the world and place the system designed to prosecute enemy combatants under a cloud of legal uncertainty.” He said his legislation will remedy much of the damage done by the “ill-considered and dangerous Military Commissions Act.”

A handful of Connecticut’s Congressional delegation joined Dodd in his attempt overturn the legislation, but Rev. Allie Perry (pictured) pointed out there were at least two members that did not participate in Thursday’s event.

Christine Stuart photo

Christine Stuart photo

The first was Congressman Chris Shays, R-4. Perry said the group did not receive a formal response from Shay’s office even after numerous phone calls. She said the informal answer they received from one of the women who answered the phone was, “I don’t think this legislation sounds like something he would support.”

Perry said U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman’s office said he was “not yet ready to decide whether he will support it.”

Perry said she was “baffled by what Lieberman needs in order to decide.”

“Is he against the use of torture or not? Will he support a writ of Habeas Corpus or not?” Perry asked rhetorically.

“We must take back the rule of law because nothing less than the nation’s soul is at stake,” Perry said.

She said winning Lieberman’s support is essential because it’s the Senate Armed Services Committee that is scheduled to vote on this bill April 26.

Comments (2)

Posted by: matt w | April 5, 2007 7:34 PM

Quick correction - Shays is from the 4th CD, and Lieberman doesn't chair Armed Services (he chairs Homeland Security and Government Reform).

Posted by: christine | April 6, 2007 12:22 AM

Thanks for the correction on Shays' district, I must have been sleeping. As for Lieberman, he is a member of the Armed Services Committee, but he doesn't chair it.

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Aren't Police supposed to be Law Enforcement?

Monday, April 02, 2007

From the Uncommon Sense Blog:

Sunday, April 01, 2007

If Cuba is bad, it must be America's fault

Beware! The Castro apologists are out in force this morning.

Nitwits like labor union leader Steve Thornton, writing in the Hartford (Conn.) Courant:

Before Fidel Castro's revolution took hold in 1959, Cuba was America's brothel, a place where, as Arthur Schlesinger wrote, "my fellow countrymen reeled through the streets, picking up 14-year-old Cuban girls and tossing coins to make men scramble in the gutter." Fidel and his barbudos delivered their country from organized crime, official corruption and U.S. domination. They were determined to disprove President William Howard Taft's prediction that "the whole hemisphere will be ours in fact as, by virtue of our superiority of race, it already is ours morally."

For 45 years, the United States has maintained an economic embargo on Cuba in an attempt to destabilize Fidel's government by strangling its people. But several have condemned this brutal tactic, including the United Nations and the late Pope Paul II. The U.S. blockade mentality has failed, as have assassination attempts, sabotage and invasion.

It may be time to engage this small island nation, whose leader has already outlasted nine U.S. presidents. One way is to recognize what we have in common, both the good and the bad. In Connecticut, that means politics, commerce and baseball.

(Note to Thornton and others who use that tired line: Fidel Castro has survived nine U.S. presidents because since he took power in 1959, there have been 12 presidential elections in the United States. In Cuba, there have been zero.)

And then there is Florida academic Paolo Spadoni, who argues in the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel that it's too much to ask for Cuba to release political prisoners and hold free elections:

Washington would be willing to lift the embargo and pursue re-engagement with Havana only if the latter were prepared to hold free and fair elections, respect human rights, release political prisoners, permit the creation of independent organizations, and embrace a market-oriented economic system. In other words, all Cuba has to change is everything it is today.

What are the chances that such a dramatic transformation will happen anytime soon?

Virtually zero.

But Cuba has not remained exactly the same over the past decade and a half. The Castro regime promoted some significant liberalizing economic reforms around the mid-1990s, and its attitude toward internal dissent has alternated between periods of harsh crackdowns to others of greater tolerance. And since Raul Castro became acting president last July, a debate has been taking place at different levels of Havana's government over potential economic changes to the island's socialist system. Last December, Raul even went so far as to propose negotiations with Washington for a normalization of relations.

Not surprisingly, the United States rejected the offer by reiterating that it will consider negotiations only when the Cuban regime opens democratically. Yet, for a country that has severed almost all ties with Cuba and has practically no leverage over developments on the island, putting forward the same rigid conditions for rapprochement that could never be met in the past is not a very effective approach.

To sum up, apologists like Spadoni and Thornton argue it's all America's fault that Cuba has a gulag, the people are hungry and the opposition is repressed. By trying to change all that, we only make it worse.

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Comments

The problem with these idiots (the ones that are idiots not the ones that are mouthpieces for the regime) is that they claim our policy is irrational because it has not worked. No, what would be irrational is to expect a totalitarian dictatorship to respond rationally to the carrot or the stick. By their nature such regimes are capricious and irrational. Having a policy that seeks to limit such a regime's cash flow is the most rational thing to do.

Arthur Schlesinger died in early March of this year. He was greatest maligner of the Cuban people, the inventor of the myth of pre-revolutionary Cuba as as an economically and socially backward country deserving of a Communist Revolution. Arthur Schlesinger was also Kennedy's lapdog for more than 50 years, in life as in death. This "esteemed historian" wrote the infamous "White Paper" on Cuba of April 3, 1961. The so-called "White Paper" was issued two weeks before the Bay of Pigs invasion and may have convinced Kennedy that Cubans deserved nothing better than betrayal as they were the world's most barbaric, immoral and despicable people, fully deserving of whatever fate befell them. According to The New York Times (April 4, 1961): "President Kennedy devoted many hours to the pamphlet, personally going over it with Mr. Schlesinger."

Former U.S. ambassador to Cuba Spruille Braden characterized the "White Paper" on Cuba as "calumny, cheap demagoguery and a despicable act, unworthy of a responsible government and foreign office. The White Paper's direct and implied animadversions as to the poverty and bad economic conditions of Cuba, prior to the coming of Castro, are inaccurate and evidence the socialistic preferences of its drafters."

"This document begins by giving approval, i.e. encouraging what it calls the 'authentic and autonomous revolution of the Americas,' that is, to promote more fidelismo but without Fidel. For my part, I prefer to see the sound evolution of the Americas without the violence, abuse and waste inherent in all revolutions. Nor do I consider it wise or proper for my government to advocate "authentic and autonomous revolutions" all over the American continents."

Schlesinger was the man that Kennedy chose as his conduit to Cuban exiles before the invasion. While he lied to the Cubans about his own and Kennedy's support, Schlesinger literally poisoned the well for them.

In a memorandum to Kennedy, dated April 5, 1961, Schlesinger advised him to abandon the freedom fighters at the Bay of Pigs:

"On balance, I think that the risks of the operation slightly outweigh the risks of abandonment. These latter risks would be mitigated somewhat if we could manage a partial rather than a total abandonment (i.e., if we could put the men into Cuba quietly).

We might also be able to make some diplomatic capital out of the abandonment. We might have Thompson say to Khrushchev, for example, that we have discouraged an invasion of Cuba; that this shows our genuine desire to compose differences; but that K. should tell his friend to behave, because our patience is not inexhaustible and we cannot hope to restrain the Cuban patriots indefinitely. Conceivably we might be able to turn abandonment to some diplomatic advantage within the hemisphere too."

Schlesinger spent the rest of his long deceitful life defending Kennedy's "indiscretions" and blackening the name and past of the Cuban people.


http://www.fas.org/irp/ops/policy/docs/frusX/76_90.html

Bush Co., Crime Inc.

One-third of US attorney jobs went to Bush insiders

RAW STORY
Published: Sunday April 1, 2007

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"About one-third of the nearly four dozen U.S. attorney's jobs that have changed hands since President Bush began his second term have been filled by the White House and the Justice Department with trusted administration insiders," writes the Washington Post.

Experts tell the Post that no other administration in recent history has had such a penchant for filling prosecutor jobs with political friends.

James Eisenstein, a Penn State political scientist and expert on US attorneys, calls the Bush administration appointment pattern "very unusual."

Excerpts from the article follow:

#

The pattern from Bush's second term suggests that the dismissals were half of a two-pronged approach: While getting rid of prosecutors who did not adhere closely to administration priorities, such as rigorous pursuit of immigration violations and GOP allegations of voter fraud, White House and Justice officials have seeded federal prosecutors' offices with people on whom they can depend to carry out the administration's agenda

...

Justice officials defend their record of U.S. attorney selections, saying that among Bush's choices since the start of his first term, a larger share have had experience as federal prosecutors than those of President Bill Clinton. One Justice official acknowledged that a number of administration insiders have been chosen but said there was no concerted effort to do so.

...

"If we have eight U.S. attorneys dismissed because they were not 'loyal Bushies,' then how many of the remaining U.S. attorneys are?" asked Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), borrowing a phrase that Gonzales's former chief of staff, D. Kyle Sampson, used in an internal e-mail to describe criteria by which prosecutors were chosen to be fired.

#

READ THE FULL WASHINGTON POST REPORT HERE

Random Photo Search


I did a search on "2003 Film Festival" and this image popped up

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[click here] for:

Aren't Police supposed to be Law Enforcement?

From Brian's 1st Amendment blog:

Criminals You Are Paying...

New Jersey State Policemen’s Benevolent Association Holding Parties At Country Club And Holiday Inn To Benefit State Trooper Who Ran Stop Sign And Killed Teen Sisters

NEW JERSEY – The New Jersey State Policemen’s Benevolent Association is holding parties at the Frog Rock County Club, Hammonton, New Jersey and Stafford Township Holiday Inn (aka: Manahawkin/Long Beach Island Holiday Inn), Manahawkin, New Jersey. The parties are to benefit State Trooper Robert Higbee, who ran a stop sign, killing two teen sisters.

TEEN SISTERS KILLED BY STATE TROOPER RUNNING STOP SIGN

STATE TROOPERS HOLDING PARTIES TO BENEFIT TEEN’S KILLER

The two teen sisters left home to buy milk. An eye-witness to the killing stated that Robert Higbee accelerated towards the intersection instead of breaking for the stop sign.

Robert_higbee_killer

STATE TROOPER ROBERT HIGBEE – TEEN’S KILLER

Bad Cop News readers are encouraged to call the Frog Rock County Club (609) 561-1876 and Stafford Township Holiday Inn/Manahawkin/Long Beach Island Holiday Inn

( 609) 481-6100, asking for management, and tell them what they are actually supporting.

Anyone with balls can call the New Jersey State Policemen’s Benevolent Association: In NJ: (888)4NJ-SPBA, (732) 636-8860 or fax (732) 636-0172. The Assoc’s president is Michael J. Madonna, vice president is Anthony F. Wieners.

The association’s appears to be “helping those who help others!” – Now they are supporting a killer…

Higbee_benefits

APPEARED HERE

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31
Mar

Featured On 20/20: ‘High-Speed Chase’ Leads to Tragedy - Sisters Killed By New Jersey State Trooper Robert Higbee Running Stop Sign - Cop Says He Was Chasing Someone, Witness At Scene Says Higbee Wasn’t, ‘He Puts His Foot To The Floor, And He Just Accelerates’ Before Running Stop Sign…

Christina_and_Jacqueline_BeckerCAPE MAY, NEW JERSEY – Their names were Christina and Jacqueline Becker. Their lives were just beginning — and then they were over in an instant.

Christina and Jacqueline were the only two children of Maria Caiafa, and the youngest of four generations of women in a close-knit, big hearted Italian family from Cape May County, N.J. Jacqueline was 17, a senior in high school, and 19-year-old Christina was a junior in college. But their lives came to a tragic end on Sept. 27, 2006.

The girls were staying with their grandparents, Geraldine and Cesar Caiafa. Around 10 p.m., they went to pick up milk at the local convenience store. Jacqueline and Christina were driving a half-mile back to their grandparents’ house, when another driver was tearing down the road, traveling at least 60 miles an hour, nearly double the speed limit.

Robert Taylor, who was stopped on the other side of the road with his son Michael witnessed what happened next. “I saw a car coming at extreme speed,” he said. “And I was just thinking to myself, ‘When is he going to slow down?’ And he gets 20 yards from the intersection, and he puts his foot to the floor, and he just accelerates.”

The car sped through the stop sign and exploded into the driver’s side of Jacqueline and Christina’s minivan. The minivan was hit with such force it was pushed at least 130 feet up the road. The Taylor’s car was also destroyed, but somehow they were barely hurt.

‘I Think It’s My Van’

In a bizarre coincidence, Cesar and Geraldine Caiafa drove by the accident scene, and when they arrived home, their minivan wasn’t in the driveway. Cesar suspected that something was wrong, so the Caiafa’s decided to call their daughter Maria — the girls’ mother. She rushed to the scene, and all three of them stood waiting.

“I looked at the cop. I said, ‘That van that’s up the road there, I think it’s my van. Can I just go look at it?’” Cesar said.

The family said they were left to wait for three hours, and weren’t given any information about their girls. There were two bodies covered by sheets, laying next to the mangled minivan. In their hearts, the Caiafa’s knew the tragic truth.

Maria’s world was instantly shattered. “I want to actually just curl up in a ball and die,” she said. “But I can’t, because I feel like every minute I have to speak out and fight for my children.” Her only two children were gone, and the family had no idea who had been driving the car that killed them, until they picked up the newspaper the next morning.

Police Pursuits

The family said they were shocked to find out that the man who ran the stop sign was a New Jersey state trooper named Robert Higbee. Higbee claims he was going after another driver who was speeding.

The trooper was given a ticket for running a stop sign and assigned to desk duty pending a state criminal investigation. But from the beginning this case has been more than just a tragic accident. The sisters’ deaths have raised questions about the broader issues of high-speed police pursuits.

“The issue is that when you are driving in a car, you have to abide by the laws,” said Maria. “We have to act with caution and concern for the people that are on the road.”

More that 300 people a year in the United States are killed in high-speed police chases. One third of them are innocent bystanders. But cops involved in high-speed chases are rarely criminally charged.

Maria said that months passed by, and she was kept in the dark about the investigation. “To sit back and try to cover it up and make it go away is astounding,” she said.

Desperate for answers, Maria hired an attorney to take legal action against Higbee and the state of New Jersey. The Taylors — the other victims in the accident — say they too plan to sue.

The Scene of the Crime

To try to understand what happened that night, “20/20″ went back to the scene.

Four eyewitnesses to the accident raise a lot of troubling questions about what happened that night. All four say that Higbee was not using his siren or his flashers, and question whether he was really going after a speeding driver.

Anthony Cingaglio was in a parking lot across the street from the accident. “When the trooper went by, it was like a white flash,” he said. Cingaglio said the only speeding car he saw that night was the trooper’s.

The state of New Jersey insists there was a speeding driver whom they questioned, but the driver turned down our request for an interview. “20/20″ also wanted to get some answers from Higbee, but he too declined to go on camera because of the ongoing investigation.

Justifiable Risks?

“We believe that the risks of speeding in this case were justifiable risks,” said Bill Subin, Higbee’s attorney. “We haven’t concealed any fact,” he said. “My client cooperated fully with the state police and the county prosecutor’s office in the investigation.”

David Jones, the president of the New Jersey State Troopers’ Fraternal Association, is also speaking out on Higbee’s behalf. “Because this involves a trooper, people are reading between the lines that there’s something going on here,” he said. “All these people, the attorneys and everybody else who are putting forward this position that there is a cold-hearted conspiracy out there, there’s no validity whatsoever to it.”

But why wasn’t state trooper Higbee using his lights and siren? Jones said he was “closing the distance” with the speeder — which he said is one step before activating an official police pursuit.

“There isn’t a single thing going on outside of the protocols or outside the standards,” Subin said. “Nor is there anything criminal here.”

But that’s not the way the grand jury saw things. On February 27 of this year, five months to the day since Christina and Jacqueline were killed, Higbee was indicted on two counts of vehicular homicide. He was suspended without pay, and if convicted, he faces 20 years in prison.

Higbee pleaded not guilty at his arraignment, and while in the court, he asked if he could speak to Maria. The two hugged each other and talked briefly. Higbee has since rejected a plea agreement, insisting that he will prove his innocence.

‘I Lost My Life That Night’

Maria hasn’t gone back to the house she shared with her two daughters. “I tried once or twice, going back, but I get hysterical. I can’t deal with it. It represents everything that I lost. And I lost my life that night,” she said.

Cesar Caiafa also said the family is having a hard time dealing with the tragic loss of his granddaughters. “It’s not easy at all,” he said. “We sit down at the table, and we don’t see the kids. And before you know it, everybody starts crying.”

Nothing will bring her daughters back, but Maria and her family believe that if Higbee is found guilty, cops might think twice before they speed on civilian roads.

And that, said the family, might spell justice for Christina and Jacqueline.

Appeared Here

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31
Mar

Six Monroe County Pennsylvania Corrections Officers, Cook Charged In Bizarre Prison Sex Scandal

SNYDERSVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA — Six Monroe County Correctional Facility employees were charged Friday with having illegal sexual contact with inmates, and a seventh will be charged Monday.

Yvonne_Lockard

Former corrections officer Yvonne Lockard arrives at district court in Snydersville Friday morning. Police said that Lockard, 33, had convicted murderer Aaron Tyson ejaculate into a container and then inserted his semen into herself in an effort to get pregnant.

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