The fruits of a society in which a small ultra-rich class feeds off the poverty-stricken masses. The Mexican military is barely able to cope with the drug cartel warfare. Can you imagine what would happen to Mexico if those cartels stopped fighting each other?
THE SECOND MEXICAN REVOLUTION
Borderland Beat
December 6, 2010
Voces Del Periodista #247
10,000 muertos y no se inmutan
RAMI SCHWART
http://www.vocesdelperiodista.com.mx/index.php/component/content/article/1249.html
Not since the Mexican Revolution 100 years ago has Mexcio suffered violence like that which is sweeping the country in 2010. According to the newspaper Reforma, 10,000 men, women and children have been executed from January through the end of October in 2010, more than in all six years of the Vicente Fox administration and almost as many as in 2008 and 2009 together.
If we continue at this rate we will end this year with over 12,000 executions linked to organized crime and that does not include the thousands of missing whose bodies will never be found.
Forty Five percent of these murders occurred in two states: Chihuahua, with 2,797 executions, and Sinaloa with 1,795. Guerrero followed with 786 executions, Durango with 700, and Tamaulipas with 653 dead, all of these linked to organized crime.
Many cities and states are breaking all records of violence. Such is the case of Nuevo Leon, Tijuana and Mexico City.
Only one state has been spared, Yucatan, and even states that in previous years were free of this violence are now engulfed. Such is the case of Tlaxcala, Baja California Sur, Campeche and Aguascalientes. Although officials deny it and say that violence is concentrated in a few areas, the reality is that it has reached all corners of the country.
In Chihuahua, where the Army has replaced the police in anti-organized crime operations within most of the state, there have been 2,800 excutions recorded so far this year. The state will end the year with more than 3,000 executions.
In 2007, Chihuahua reported 148 executions, an average of one every two and half days. This year, the rate of killings in the state has grown to almost ten per day.
Nuevo León, once a symbol of progress and tranquility, has suffered 524 executions through the end of October, double the number of those recorded in the previous three years combined(2007 thru 2009).
In Tamaulipas the figure for 2010 is three times higher than in the previous three years combined.
Sinaloa, traditionally the bloodiest state in Mexico, will likely end the year with more than 2,000 executions, almost as much as the three previous years combined.
And so on and on. Sonora, Baja California Sur, Coahuila, San Luis Potosi, Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima, State of Mexico, Morelos, Puebla, Queretaro, Oaxaca, Chiapas and Quintana Roo have all broken records for executions in the first 10 months of 2010.
Mexico City, Veracruz, Hidalgo and Campeche will beat their records by the end of the year.
The Reforma newspaper said that for the first ten months of 2010 52 of those executed are military, 637 were federal, state and municipal police, 798 people were tortured, decapitaded and/or dismembered. 674 executions were accompanied by “narco” banners containing threats or claims by rival criminal groups.
And there have been at least 25 mass murders with more than ten victims.
The violence has victimized hundreds of innocent women and children. So far this year nearly 700 women have died as a result of the rampant violence in our country. And there are also hundreds of deaths of those the government calls "collateral damage" ranging from children on holiday to patients in drug rehabilitation centers and innocent civilians killed at military checkpoints, and even some killed by stray bullets.
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
WHY CHINA IS BOUND TO SURPASS US
Our student test scores are lower than those of students from other countries because our average score is dragged down by the poor performance of our minority students and because we have dumbed down our public education system in the cause of politically correct cultural diversity.
While our public education system has been dumbed down, China and other Asian countries have been smartening up their students in math, science and literacy. Out of 65 countries, the U.S. ranked 25th in math, 17th in science and 14th in reading. That’s why China is bound to surpass us and become the most powerful and most influential nation in the world.
This was the first time students in Shanghai have ever taken the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) test which is given every three years. But what really surprised me was that Israel ranked no higher than 41st in both math and science and 36th in reading.
Haaretz.com reports that since the previous ranking, Israel climbed four places in reading, and jumped 16 places in the sciences, from 57th to 41st. Education minister Gideon Saar said in response to the survey results that Israel has made a huge leap in its accomplishments, but the gaps between the Jewish and Arab demographics cannot be ignored.
The gap between the scores of Israel’s Jewish and Arab students was about 100 points. Apparently, Israel’s minority (Arab) students are doing even worse than our minority (black and Latino) students.
SHANGHAI TEENS WORLD’S SMARTEST
The Straits Times
December 7, 2010
PARIS - TEENAGERS from the Chinese city of Shanghai have the best education in the world, according to a major international study of standards in math, science and literacy released on Tuesday.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's PISA report, released every three years, studied 470,000 15-year-old pupils in 65 countries around the more developed parts of the world.
South Korea and Finland topped the country rankings in the survey but, taken separately from China, the huge city of Shanghai - taking part in the survey for the first time - came top in all three of the disciplines.
'More than one-quarter of Shanghai's 15-year-olds demonstrated advanced mathematical thinking skills to solve complex problems, compared to an OECD average of just three percent,' the OECD said.
Other Asian countries and regions also scored particularly well, and OECD education expert Eric Charbonnier said the continent's success was a result of educational values that favor equality as well as quality.
'In Shanghai, a city of 20 million, they followed policies to fight against social inequality, to target the schools that were in most difficulty and send them the best performing heads and most experienced teachers,' he said. -- AFP
While our public education system has been dumbed down, China and other Asian countries have been smartening up their students in math, science and literacy. Out of 65 countries, the U.S. ranked 25th in math, 17th in science and 14th in reading. That’s why China is bound to surpass us and become the most powerful and most influential nation in the world.
This was the first time students in Shanghai have ever taken the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) test which is given every three years. But what really surprised me was that Israel ranked no higher than 41st in both math and science and 36th in reading.
Haaretz.com reports that since the previous ranking, Israel climbed four places in reading, and jumped 16 places in the sciences, from 57th to 41st. Education minister Gideon Saar said in response to the survey results that Israel has made a huge leap in its accomplishments, but the gaps between the Jewish and Arab demographics cannot be ignored.
The gap between the scores of Israel’s Jewish and Arab students was about 100 points. Apparently, Israel’s minority (Arab) students are doing even worse than our minority (black and Latino) students.
SHANGHAI TEENS WORLD’S SMARTEST
The Straits Times
December 7, 2010
PARIS - TEENAGERS from the Chinese city of Shanghai have the best education in the world, according to a major international study of standards in math, science and literacy released on Tuesday.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's PISA report, released every three years, studied 470,000 15-year-old pupils in 65 countries around the more developed parts of the world.
South Korea and Finland topped the country rankings in the survey but, taken separately from China, the huge city of Shanghai - taking part in the survey for the first time - came top in all three of the disciplines.
'More than one-quarter of Shanghai's 15-year-olds demonstrated advanced mathematical thinking skills to solve complex problems, compared to an OECD average of just three percent,' the OECD said.
Other Asian countries and regions also scored particularly well, and OECD education expert Eric Charbonnier said the continent's success was a result of educational values that favor equality as well as quality.
'In Shanghai, a city of 20 million, they followed policies to fight against social inequality, to target the schools that were in most difficulty and send them the best performing heads and most experienced teachers,' he said. -- AFP
CHURCH BLAMES VICTIMS
‘Convict Blames Victims’ (11-16-10) was about David Weaving, who is serving a manslaughter sentence in Connecticut for striking and killing a 14-year-old boy with his car, suing the victim's parents, accusing them of being responsible for their son's death because they allowed the boy to ride his bike in the street without a helmet.
Now a Missouri church is suing the parents of a girl who was sexually abused by its youth pastor, accusing them of being negligent for placing her in the perpetrator’s care. Since the parents are also victims, I don’t see much difference between the church and the Connecticut convict in this lawsuit.
CHURCH SUED IN SEX-ABUSE CASE SUES VICTIM’S PARENTS
By Judy L. Thomas
The Kansas City Star
December 1, 2010
First, a youth leader in a western Missouri church pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a minor.
Then the victim sued the church, New Life Bible Church of Easton, and its former youth leader, Michael J. Landy.
And now the church is suing the victim’s parents, saying they were negligent for placing her in Landy’s care. The action contends the parents — who are missionaries for the church — “breached their duty to provide for the proper care, custody and control of their daughter.”
Rebecca Randles, the Kansas City attorney representing the victim, called the church’s strategy bizarre.
“The parents traveled a great deal as missionaries for the church,” Randles said. “They would leave their son and daughter with the youth leader for the church, and he molested their daughter. “And now the church is claiming that the parents were somehow responsible. They’re saying the parents should have known.”
Patrick McGrath, an Overland Park attorney representing New Life Bible Church, said the church denied any negligence or fault in the sexual abuse.
“No one at New Life Bible Church had any idea that Landy was engaged in these crimes,” McGrath said in an e-mail. “None of Landy’s criminal conduct occurred during any church activities or on church property.”
He added that the victim’s “bravery in coming forward put Landy behind bars.”
Asked to explain the church’s action against the parents, McGrath responded: “I see no civil liability against New Life Bible Church” nor against the parents. “Under Missouri law, one has to be a named party before anyone’s fault can be compared.”
A trial has been scheduled for next year.
The church, which is in St. Joseph, also is suing the victim’s father-in-law, a former board member of the church.
The suit says that as a board member he should have known that the victim was being molested and that he violated his fiduciary duties by failing to tell church officials.
Randles, who also represents the victim’s father-in-law, said the victim married the man’s son years after the abuse occurred and the father-in-law had no knowledge of the abuse. She said the reason the church is suing was “so they’ll end up paying less if there is a judgment.”
“They want the parents to pay part of it,” she said.
The victim reported the abuse to St. Joseph police last year, saying it began in 1995 when she was 13 and lasted four years. Often she and her younger brother were left with Landy.
“My parents were on short overnight mission trips and they trusted him because he was the youth pastor so they left us there,” she said in her statement to police. “Sometimes we were there overnight and sometimes for a couple of nights or so.”
She said the sexual abuse occurred at Landy’s house, her house and at Landy’s office at OATS Inc., a nonprofit organization based in Columbia, Mo., that provides transportation for the elderly and people with disabilities. Landy was a regional director for the agency.
The victim told police that she remained silent about the abuse for years “because I was scared and I thought that everyone would think something bad about me because he was the youth pastor and everyone loved him.”
Landy, now 58, was charged with second-degree statutory sodomy of a child under age 17, a felony. He pleaded guilty in Buchanan County Circuit Court last fall and was sentenced to seven years in prison, but that was reduced to 120 days of shock detention followed by five years’ probation.
In February, the victim and her husband filed a civil suit against Landy, the church and OATS Inc. The suit alleges that Landy wasn’t adequately supervised and asks for damages. The church responded by asking the judge to add the victim’s parents and father-in-law as third-party defendants, and the judge let them do so.
Both Landy and OATS have settled with the victim. Landy, who had worked at OATS since 1975, is no longer an employee, the agency’s attorney said.
Legal scholar Jonathan Turley, a law professor at Georgetown University, called the case “curious.”
“What it suggests is a scorched earth policy, to aggressively pursue these parents,” Turley said. “This sort of falls into the strategy of ‘sue them all, let God sort them out.’
Now a Missouri church is suing the parents of a girl who was sexually abused by its youth pastor, accusing them of being negligent for placing her in the perpetrator’s care. Since the parents are also victims, I don’t see much difference between the church and the Connecticut convict in this lawsuit.
CHURCH SUED IN SEX-ABUSE CASE SUES VICTIM’S PARENTS
By Judy L. Thomas
The Kansas City Star
December 1, 2010
First, a youth leader in a western Missouri church pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a minor.
Then the victim sued the church, New Life Bible Church of Easton, and its former youth leader, Michael J. Landy.
And now the church is suing the victim’s parents, saying they were negligent for placing her in Landy’s care. The action contends the parents — who are missionaries for the church — “breached their duty to provide for the proper care, custody and control of their daughter.”
Rebecca Randles, the Kansas City attorney representing the victim, called the church’s strategy bizarre.
“The parents traveled a great deal as missionaries for the church,” Randles said. “They would leave their son and daughter with the youth leader for the church, and he molested their daughter. “And now the church is claiming that the parents were somehow responsible. They’re saying the parents should have known.”
Patrick McGrath, an Overland Park attorney representing New Life Bible Church, said the church denied any negligence or fault in the sexual abuse.
“No one at New Life Bible Church had any idea that Landy was engaged in these crimes,” McGrath said in an e-mail. “None of Landy’s criminal conduct occurred during any church activities or on church property.”
He added that the victim’s “bravery in coming forward put Landy behind bars.”
Asked to explain the church’s action against the parents, McGrath responded: “I see no civil liability against New Life Bible Church” nor against the parents. “Under Missouri law, one has to be a named party before anyone’s fault can be compared.”
A trial has been scheduled for next year.
The church, which is in St. Joseph, also is suing the victim’s father-in-law, a former board member of the church.
The suit says that as a board member he should have known that the victim was being molested and that he violated his fiduciary duties by failing to tell church officials.
Randles, who also represents the victim’s father-in-law, said the victim married the man’s son years after the abuse occurred and the father-in-law had no knowledge of the abuse. She said the reason the church is suing was “so they’ll end up paying less if there is a judgment.”
“They want the parents to pay part of it,” she said.
The victim reported the abuse to St. Joseph police last year, saying it began in 1995 when she was 13 and lasted four years. Often she and her younger brother were left with Landy.
“My parents were on short overnight mission trips and they trusted him because he was the youth pastor so they left us there,” she said in her statement to police. “Sometimes we were there overnight and sometimes for a couple of nights or so.”
She said the sexual abuse occurred at Landy’s house, her house and at Landy’s office at OATS Inc., a nonprofit organization based in Columbia, Mo., that provides transportation for the elderly and people with disabilities. Landy was a regional director for the agency.
The victim told police that she remained silent about the abuse for years “because I was scared and I thought that everyone would think something bad about me because he was the youth pastor and everyone loved him.”
Landy, now 58, was charged with second-degree statutory sodomy of a child under age 17, a felony. He pleaded guilty in Buchanan County Circuit Court last fall and was sentenced to seven years in prison, but that was reduced to 120 days of shock detention followed by five years’ probation.
In February, the victim and her husband filed a civil suit against Landy, the church and OATS Inc. The suit alleges that Landy wasn’t adequately supervised and asks for damages. The church responded by asking the judge to add the victim’s parents and father-in-law as third-party defendants, and the judge let them do so.
Both Landy and OATS have settled with the victim. Landy, who had worked at OATS since 1975, is no longer an employee, the agency’s attorney said.
Legal scholar Jonathan Turley, a law professor at Georgetown University, called the case “curious.”
“What it suggests is a scorched earth policy, to aggressively pursue these parents,” Turley said. “This sort of falls into the strategy of ‘sue them all, let God sort them out.’
Tuesday, December 07, 2010
MOSSAD FEEDING EGYPTIAN TOURISTS TO THE SHARKS
Those damn Jews are at it again. What will they think of next?
EGYPTIAN OFFICIAL BLAMES MOSSAD FOR SINAI SHARK ATTACKS
by Gil Ronen
IsraelNationalNews.com
December 6, 2010
Egypt's Governor of southern Sinai lays the blame for recent shark attacks on Israel's foreign intelligence agency, the Mossad. Southern Sinai Governor Abed Al-Fadij said: “We must not discount the possibility that Mossad threw the shark into the sea, in order to attack tourists who are having fun in Sharm al-Sheikh.”
"Mossad is trying to hurt Egyptian tourism in any way possible, and the shark is one way for it to realize its plan,” he explained.
Last Thursday, Egyptians killed two sharks that were suspected in a series of attacks on bathers. One of the sharks was 2.1 meters long and weighed 150 kg. The other was 30 cm longer and weighed 250 kg.
In the last few days, Egypt has lifted the ban on bathing that was issued after four Russian tourists were attacked by sharks.
EGYPTIAN OFFICIAL BLAMES MOSSAD FOR SINAI SHARK ATTACKS
by Gil Ronen
IsraelNationalNews.com
December 6, 2010
Egypt's Governor of southern Sinai lays the blame for recent shark attacks on Israel's foreign intelligence agency, the Mossad. Southern Sinai Governor Abed Al-Fadij said: “We must not discount the possibility that Mossad threw the shark into the sea, in order to attack tourists who are having fun in Sharm al-Sheikh.”
"Mossad is trying to hurt Egyptian tourism in any way possible, and the shark is one way for it to realize its plan,” he explained.
Last Thursday, Egyptians killed two sharks that were suspected in a series of attacks on bathers. One of the sharks was 2.1 meters long and weighed 150 kg. The other was 30 cm longer and weighed 250 kg.
In the last few days, Egypt has lifted the ban on bathing that was issued after four Russian tourists were attacked by sharks.
YOU CAN'T TRUST ANY OF THOSE ROSY CRIME STATS
Over the years I’ve come to distrust those crime statistics released by cities showing a reduction in their crime rate. I’m convinced that those stats are manipulated to make a city and its police department look better than they deserve. In Houston several obvious murders have been classified as ‘suicide’ even though the deceased had been shot multiple times in each case. However, most of the manipulation involves classifying cases as misdemeanors that should have been reported as felonies.
Last month, The New York Times reported ‘a dip in crime’ based on stats released by NYPD. John Eterno, a former NYPD captain and now associate dean at Molloy College, and Eli Silverman, professor emeritus at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, responded to the Times with the following letter:
LETTER
New York Crime Statistics
The New York Times
December 3, 2010
To the Editor:
As the authors of the academic survey referred to in “As Police Point to a Dip in Crime, Murders and Robberies Are Up” (news article, Nov. 26), we applaud the article’s attempt to bring crime statistics to the forefront. Our published peer-reviewed journal articles clearly demonstrate the manipulation of crime statistics by New York Police Department.
Audiotapes made by Police Department officers document police instructions to downgrade major crimes to the lesser charge of misdemeanor crimes (which are not part of the public crime count), for the purpose of lowering official crime statistics.
According to the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, New York City’s misdemeanor crimes skyrocketed from 1996 to 2001 — further evidence of pushing major crimes into the misdemeanor crime category. This revelation confirms our research as well as the Police Department’s failure to report these misdemeanor crimes since 2002, the first year of Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly’s return to office.
On top of this, hospital admissions data for assaults show a trend completely at variance with the Police Department’s public data. They indicate that firearms assaults more than doubled from 1999 to 2005.
Your article says, “Without a substantial decrease in grand larcenies this year, however, the city would show an increase in overall crime.” Since grand larcenies are among the easiest crimes to downgrade to a misdemeanor, this suggests further confirmation of manipulation by the Police Department.
One way to conclusively resolve this issue is for the Police Department to allow scrutiny from outside agencies. The time is ripe for Police Department transparency.
John A. Eterno
Eli B. Silverman
Rockville Centre, N.Y., Nov. 26, 2010
Last month, The New York Times reported ‘a dip in crime’ based on stats released by NYPD. John Eterno, a former NYPD captain and now associate dean at Molloy College, and Eli Silverman, professor emeritus at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, responded to the Times with the following letter:
LETTER
New York Crime Statistics
The New York Times
December 3, 2010
To the Editor:
As the authors of the academic survey referred to in “As Police Point to a Dip in Crime, Murders and Robberies Are Up” (news article, Nov. 26), we applaud the article’s attempt to bring crime statistics to the forefront. Our published peer-reviewed journal articles clearly demonstrate the manipulation of crime statistics by New York Police Department.
Audiotapes made by Police Department officers document police instructions to downgrade major crimes to the lesser charge of misdemeanor crimes (which are not part of the public crime count), for the purpose of lowering official crime statistics.
According to the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, New York City’s misdemeanor crimes skyrocketed from 1996 to 2001 — further evidence of pushing major crimes into the misdemeanor crime category. This revelation confirms our research as well as the Police Department’s failure to report these misdemeanor crimes since 2002, the first year of Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly’s return to office.
On top of this, hospital admissions data for assaults show a trend completely at variance with the Police Department’s public data. They indicate that firearms assaults more than doubled from 1999 to 2005.
Your article says, “Without a substantial decrease in grand larcenies this year, however, the city would show an increase in overall crime.” Since grand larcenies are among the easiest crimes to downgrade to a misdemeanor, this suggests further confirmation of manipulation by the Police Department.
One way to conclusively resolve this issue is for the Police Department to allow scrutiny from outside agencies. The time is ripe for Police Department transparency.
John A. Eterno
Eli B. Silverman
Rockville Centre, N.Y., Nov. 26, 2010
THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING POLICE FORCE
Unlike in ‘The Incredible Shrinking Man’ movie, the Oakland Police Department is not shrinking because of exposure to a combination of radiation and insecticide. The Oakland Police Department is the victim of the city’s financial crisis. Other police agencies throughout the U.S. could find themselves suffering the same fate.
OAKLAND POLICE DEPARTMENT SHRINKING FAST
By Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross
San Francisco Chronicle
December 6, 2010
Sound the alarm - Oakland's Police Department is shrinking so fast that it doesn't have enough officers to cover some patrols and many of its investigative units have been stripped to the bone.
Everyone knows about the 80 officers the city laid off in July to save money. But since then, 21 more have retired, 12 have decamped for other police departments, five have simply quit and one has been fired - dropping the total number of officers to 670.
Meanwhile, 30 more officers are undergoing background checks by other departments seeking to hire them. And another 40 will be eligible to retire by year's end.
Even that doesn't tell the whole story.
Another 77 cops - or more than 10 percent of the entire force - are on the shelf because of injuries. That's about double the usual rate. Twenty will be going back to work in the next two weeks, but only for "light duty."
And thanks to a provision in a parcel tax that city voters passed in 2004, 63 cops have to be assigned as community problem-solving officers who ferret out trouble spots and crime trends in designated districts. That means they can't be assigned to investigations or to work in other neighborhoods.
Put it all together, and you have investigative units such as the burglary and robbery details being raided to fill patrol beats.
There are now just five cops investigating everything from auto thefts to burglaries to identity theft.
But even so, street coverage is becoming a challenge. On an average day, six of the city's 33 patrol car beats go uncovered for lack of officers.
Chief Anthony Batts - who estimated the city needs at least 925 cops to get the job done - is trying to make up for the loss by partnering up with federal, state and county law enforcement units.
"We're going to keep trying," he said. "We are not going to give up."
The fight isn't getting any easier.
After voters rejected a measure last month that would have helped hire back cops, City Administrator Dan Lindheim said Oakland could afford only 637 officers next year.
Considering the exodus under way, the city is likely to hit the 637 level - or even go lower - without the political embarrassment of more layoffs.
Mayor-elect Jean Quan has said she wants to hire more cops, but can do so only if officers agree to kick in 9 percent of their pay to help cover their pensions.
"The trouble is, the cops don't trust City Hall," said police union head Dom Arotzarena.
"There's no guarantee they won't just take the money and spend it elsewhere."
OAKLAND POLICE DEPARTMENT SHRINKING FAST
By Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross
San Francisco Chronicle
December 6, 2010
Sound the alarm - Oakland's Police Department is shrinking so fast that it doesn't have enough officers to cover some patrols and many of its investigative units have been stripped to the bone.
Everyone knows about the 80 officers the city laid off in July to save money. But since then, 21 more have retired, 12 have decamped for other police departments, five have simply quit and one has been fired - dropping the total number of officers to 670.
Meanwhile, 30 more officers are undergoing background checks by other departments seeking to hire them. And another 40 will be eligible to retire by year's end.
Even that doesn't tell the whole story.
Another 77 cops - or more than 10 percent of the entire force - are on the shelf because of injuries. That's about double the usual rate. Twenty will be going back to work in the next two weeks, but only for "light duty."
And thanks to a provision in a parcel tax that city voters passed in 2004, 63 cops have to be assigned as community problem-solving officers who ferret out trouble spots and crime trends in designated districts. That means they can't be assigned to investigations or to work in other neighborhoods.
Put it all together, and you have investigative units such as the burglary and robbery details being raided to fill patrol beats.
There are now just five cops investigating everything from auto thefts to burglaries to identity theft.
But even so, street coverage is becoming a challenge. On an average day, six of the city's 33 patrol car beats go uncovered for lack of officers.
Chief Anthony Batts - who estimated the city needs at least 925 cops to get the job done - is trying to make up for the loss by partnering up with federal, state and county law enforcement units.
"We're going to keep trying," he said. "We are not going to give up."
The fight isn't getting any easier.
After voters rejected a measure last month that would have helped hire back cops, City Administrator Dan Lindheim said Oakland could afford only 637 officers next year.
Considering the exodus under way, the city is likely to hit the 637 level - or even go lower - without the political embarrassment of more layoffs.
Mayor-elect Jean Quan has said she wants to hire more cops, but can do so only if officers agree to kick in 9 percent of their pay to help cover their pensions.
"The trouble is, the cops don't trust City Hall," said police union head Dom Arotzarena.
"There's no guarantee they won't just take the money and spend it elsewhere."
FOR THOSE WHO BELIEVE THAT POT IS LESS DANGEROUS THAN ALCOHOL
The legalization of pot will put more stoned drivers on the road. And that applies to the legalization of medical marijuana as well.
By the way, in ‘Mexican Version of Boy Scouts’ (12-6-10) I should have mentioned that 14-year-old ‘El Ponchis’ was stoned on marijuana when he beheaded his victims and strung their headless bodies from highway overpasses. Pot – harmless indeed.
POLICE: DRIVER STONED IN CRASH KILLING 8 ITALIAN CYCLISTS
By Nicole Winfield
The Associated Press
December 5, 2010
ROME — A speeding car plowed head-on into a group of cyclists in southern Italy on Sunday morning, killing eight of them, officials said. The driver had been smoking marijuana, police said.
Bent, mangled bikes were strewn about the scene, and the sheet-draped corpses dotted the two-lane road near Lamezia Terme, in the Calabrian "toe" of boot-shaped Italy where the accident occurred.
In addition to the eight cyclists killed, four people were injured: two cyclists and the driver and a young boy in the car with him, said Maria Dolores Rucci, commander of the road police in nearby Catanzaro.
The ANSA news agency said the driver, who was only slightly injured, was placed under arrest on charges of multiple homicide. A police spokesman who declined to give his name said the man, a Moroccan national, had tested positive for marijuana.
A preliminary investigation showed the speeding car ran headfirst into the group of 10 cyclists who were riding in the opposite direction on state road 18, according to Italy's highway authority.
ANSA said the driver was trying to pass another car when he hit the group. Visibility was good at the time, reports said.
The road, closed by authorities for most of the day, reopened Sunday evening.
It is common in Italy to see groups of amateur cyclists taking to small state roads on weekends, and ANSA said the group hit Sunday was affiliated with a local Lamezia Terme gym.
As a result of the crash, Italian cycling officials complained about safety problems for cyclists who have to share roads with cars.
The head of Italy's cycling federation, Renato Di Rocco, denounced the violent "massacre" of the cyclists and sent his condolences to their families.
The mayor of Lamezia Terme, Gianni Speranza, announced a day of mourning for the dead, ANSA said.
By the way, in ‘Mexican Version of Boy Scouts’ (12-6-10) I should have mentioned that 14-year-old ‘El Ponchis’ was stoned on marijuana when he beheaded his victims and strung their headless bodies from highway overpasses. Pot – harmless indeed.
POLICE: DRIVER STONED IN CRASH KILLING 8 ITALIAN CYCLISTS
By Nicole Winfield
The Associated Press
December 5, 2010
ROME — A speeding car plowed head-on into a group of cyclists in southern Italy on Sunday morning, killing eight of them, officials said. The driver had been smoking marijuana, police said.
Bent, mangled bikes were strewn about the scene, and the sheet-draped corpses dotted the two-lane road near Lamezia Terme, in the Calabrian "toe" of boot-shaped Italy where the accident occurred.
In addition to the eight cyclists killed, four people were injured: two cyclists and the driver and a young boy in the car with him, said Maria Dolores Rucci, commander of the road police in nearby Catanzaro.
The ANSA news agency said the driver, who was only slightly injured, was placed under arrest on charges of multiple homicide. A police spokesman who declined to give his name said the man, a Moroccan national, had tested positive for marijuana.
A preliminary investigation showed the speeding car ran headfirst into the group of 10 cyclists who were riding in the opposite direction on state road 18, according to Italy's highway authority.
ANSA said the driver was trying to pass another car when he hit the group. Visibility was good at the time, reports said.
The road, closed by authorities for most of the day, reopened Sunday evening.
It is common in Italy to see groups of amateur cyclists taking to small state roads on weekends, and ANSA said the group hit Sunday was affiliated with a local Lamezia Terme gym.
As a result of the crash, Italian cycling officials complained about safety problems for cyclists who have to share roads with cars.
The head of Italy's cycling federation, Renato Di Rocco, denounced the violent "massacre" of the cyclists and sent his condolences to their families.
The mayor of Lamezia Terme, Gianni Speranza, announced a day of mourning for the dead, ANSA said.
MOTHER FROM HELL (2)
First it was the mother who plunged her three-year-old boy into boiling water and now this:
MOTHER ‘ALLOWED THREE TEENS TO HANG HER 18-MONTH-OLD SON UPSIDE DOWN AND USE HIM AS HUMAN PUNCHING BAG’
By Paul Thompson
Mail Online
December 6, 2010
A mother has been charged with allowing her 18-month-old son to be hung upside down and used as a human punching bag by three teenagers.
Toddler Louis Wright is fighting for his life after suffering multiple injuries, including lacerations on his spleen, liver and pancreas.
He also suffered five fractured ribs and was covered in bruises from head to toe from the severe beating at a flat in North Charleston, South Carolina.
Police said a belt had been tied around the boy's ankles and he had strapped from a coat rail inside a closet like a boxer's punch bag.
Three teens took it in turn to pummel the boy until the beating was stopped by his 18-year-old mother Shakera Wright.
She rushed her son to hospital after his eyes rolled back into his head and he became unresponsive.
Doctors told police the baby had swelling to his face, five fractured ribs, bruises on his back and his left and right torso, as well as lacerations to his spleen, liver and pancreas.
They also discovered an old skull fracture that had healed.
Wright claimed that the teens, aged 14,15 and 16 had been play wrestling with her son and had stepped in to save her son when it became too rough.
But doctors treating the boy said his injuries were consistent with being repeatedly punched.
According to arrest warrants, the 16-year-old named as Tyrek Varnes admitted that he repeatedly hit Louis while wrestling with him.
He also said he punched him with a closed fist, hung him upside-down in a closet by strapping a belt around his ankles, dropped him on the ground and lifted the boy above his head and slammed him onto a bed.
Varnes has been charged with greater bodily injury to a child. The other teens, whose names were not released, are also in the custody.
The boy's mother is being held in jail on charges of allowing greater bodily injury to a child.
MOTHER ‘ALLOWED THREE TEENS TO HANG HER 18-MONTH-OLD SON UPSIDE DOWN AND USE HIM AS HUMAN PUNCHING BAG’
By Paul Thompson
Mail Online
December 6, 2010
A mother has been charged with allowing her 18-month-old son to be hung upside down and used as a human punching bag by three teenagers.
Toddler Louis Wright is fighting for his life after suffering multiple injuries, including lacerations on his spleen, liver and pancreas.
He also suffered five fractured ribs and was covered in bruises from head to toe from the severe beating at a flat in North Charleston, South Carolina.
Police said a belt had been tied around the boy's ankles and he had strapped from a coat rail inside a closet like a boxer's punch bag.
Three teens took it in turn to pummel the boy until the beating was stopped by his 18-year-old mother Shakera Wright.
She rushed her son to hospital after his eyes rolled back into his head and he became unresponsive.
Doctors told police the baby had swelling to his face, five fractured ribs, bruises on his back and his left and right torso, as well as lacerations to his spleen, liver and pancreas.
They also discovered an old skull fracture that had healed.
Wright claimed that the teens, aged 14,15 and 16 had been play wrestling with her son and had stepped in to save her son when it became too rough.
But doctors treating the boy said his injuries were consistent with being repeatedly punched.
According to arrest warrants, the 16-year-old named as Tyrek Varnes admitted that he repeatedly hit Louis while wrestling with him.
He also said he punched him with a closed fist, hung him upside-down in a closet by strapping a belt around his ankles, dropped him on the ground and lifted the boy above his head and slammed him onto a bed.
Varnes has been charged with greater bodily injury to a child. The other teens, whose names were not released, are also in the custody.
The boy's mother is being held in jail on charges of allowing greater bodily injury to a child.
Monday, December 06, 2010
CHARLIE'S NOT THE ONLY ONE (3)
Centurion has been on my case for the kid glove treatment I gave Charlie Rangel. Well, here is the other side of the coin that Ben Stein and I obviously did not take into consideration.
CHARLEY’S WRANGLES
By Marilyn Penn
Political Mavens.com
December 6, 2010
In the real world, if you or I were to get caught by the IRS for any sort of cheating, we could not use as defense the fact that some of our best friends had gotten away with similar behavior. In the hallowed halls of congress, Charley Rangel wants a pass because he didn’t commit the same sins as previous recipients of censure and by his measure, he is not a corrupt man. The facts argue otherwise.
In representing one of the poorest constituencies in New York, Charley greedily occupied four rent stabilized apartments at under-market value, basically stealing them from people who were entitled to and desperately needy of such limited housing. Should people who occupy even one subsidized apartment also own a Caribbean vacation retreat?
In not paying taxes on his villa and not disclosing hundreds of thousands of dollars of assets on various financial forms, the Chairman of our Ways & Means Committee made a mockery of his imposing status while flaunting his disregard for the rules of the game. If you’re competent enough to hold that privileged position, you can’t maintain credibility by blaming your tax evasion on your accountant.
And when you raise money for a self-aggrandizing center named for you at a public university by soliciting people for whom your congressional committee has provided tax loopholes worth hundreds of millions of dollars, can you keep a straight face while stating that you did nothing to enrich yourself?
Charley Rangel has led a charmed life, serving as a congressman for 40 years, collecting all the financial, political and social benefits that accrue to that position, much of that time knowing that he was living on the public’s dime and stealing from taxpayers. He will continue at his congressional job, newly re-elected by 80 percent of the voters despite his serious wrong-doing.
Not content with that boon for an 80 year old hypocrite, he wants credit for not having been a sexual predator or someone who cursed the Speaker of the House. How low can Charley set the bar?
His investigation alone has been a preposterous waste of our money, drawn out for years during which Charley stonewalled and held on to his chairmanship of Ways & Means, protected by Speaker Pelosi until even she had to acknowledge how that farce besmirched their party.
There is no need to feel sorry for Charley Rangel - his small disgrace of congressional censure is entirely self-inflicted and a mere slap on the wrist for the man who forgot to include that he was also not a bank robber though his hand was assuredly in the till. He will continue to live as he always has - collecting his superior health insurance and pension, hobnobbing with his usual political cronies and basking in the reflected glory of the Charles Rangel Center while laughing at the symbolic penalty he must accept as quid pro quo for his ill-gotten good fortune.
CHARLEY’S WRANGLES
By Marilyn Penn
Political Mavens.com
December 6, 2010
In the real world, if you or I were to get caught by the IRS for any sort of cheating, we could not use as defense the fact that some of our best friends had gotten away with similar behavior. In the hallowed halls of congress, Charley Rangel wants a pass because he didn’t commit the same sins as previous recipients of censure and by his measure, he is not a corrupt man. The facts argue otherwise.
In representing one of the poorest constituencies in New York, Charley greedily occupied four rent stabilized apartments at under-market value, basically stealing them from people who were entitled to and desperately needy of such limited housing. Should people who occupy even one subsidized apartment also own a Caribbean vacation retreat?
In not paying taxes on his villa and not disclosing hundreds of thousands of dollars of assets on various financial forms, the Chairman of our Ways & Means Committee made a mockery of his imposing status while flaunting his disregard for the rules of the game. If you’re competent enough to hold that privileged position, you can’t maintain credibility by blaming your tax evasion on your accountant.
And when you raise money for a self-aggrandizing center named for you at a public university by soliciting people for whom your congressional committee has provided tax loopholes worth hundreds of millions of dollars, can you keep a straight face while stating that you did nothing to enrich yourself?
Charley Rangel has led a charmed life, serving as a congressman for 40 years, collecting all the financial, political and social benefits that accrue to that position, much of that time knowing that he was living on the public’s dime and stealing from taxpayers. He will continue at his congressional job, newly re-elected by 80 percent of the voters despite his serious wrong-doing.
Not content with that boon for an 80 year old hypocrite, he wants credit for not having been a sexual predator or someone who cursed the Speaker of the House. How low can Charley set the bar?
His investigation alone has been a preposterous waste of our money, drawn out for years during which Charley stonewalled and held on to his chairmanship of Ways & Means, protected by Speaker Pelosi until even she had to acknowledge how that farce besmirched their party.
There is no need to feel sorry for Charley Rangel - his small disgrace of congressional censure is entirely self-inflicted and a mere slap on the wrist for the man who forgot to include that he was also not a bank robber though his hand was assuredly in the till. He will continue to live as he always has - collecting his superior health insurance and pension, hobnobbing with his usual political cronies and basking in the reflected glory of the Charles Rangel Center while laughing at the symbolic penalty he must accept as quid pro quo for his ill-gotten good fortune.
MEXICAN VERSION OF BOY SCOUTS
I wonder if they give merit badges for torturing? For stabbing? For shooting? For hanging? For beheading? For dismembering?
THE INCREASE OF YOUNG FOOT SOLDIERS IS A THREAT TO MEXICAN SOCIETY
Borderland Beat
December 4, 2010
It may seem impossible to believed that a child of 14 years could be so cold blooded and have the mentality to be a leader, since he was 11 years old, of an organized crime gang, who were responsible for abducting, torturing, executing, dismembering and even hanging the bodies of their victims from bridges, while getting paid in dollars per head.
In total disbelief, Edgar Jimenez Lugo, better known as "El Ponchis," was finally arrested after military intelligence authorities followed closely his path as a hired assassin, who would ultimately be linked to more than 300 executions in Morelos.
It is a network of young people causing terror and misery among the population.
"When we don't find the rivals, we kill innocent people - maybe a taxi driver or a construction worker - so that we can get paid," Jimenez said, adding that he earned $3,000 per hit. He said he had personally killed four people.
The criminal group of the CPS (South Pacific Cartel) was young heirs of the Beltran Leyva cartel in the state of Morelos, uploaded and documented their atrocities on the internet. In late October a video was posted on the Internet of the boy, sporting a mop of frizzy hair, holding an AK-47 assault weapon and posing with other gang members. One image showed Jimenez with an apparent victim whose eyes and mouth were taped shut.
On the video, Jimenez casually says that he didn't care whether he and his fellow gunmen got the right targets, just as long as they killed someone.
It was also revealed that the child, a murderer for hire, was an accomplice in the crimes with his sisters, young women that were known as "Las Chavelas" and who were also captured along with his brother, while pretending to flee from justice. In news reports said that one of them, 19-year-old Elizabeth, was a girlfriend of Hector Beltran Leyva, the leader of a splinter faction of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel that operates out of Morelos state.
News reports also reported that the elder sister led the gang "Las Chavelas" that took slain rivals of the Beltran Leyva group and dumped them on city streets.
News reports said Jimenez was a U.S. citizen, although U.S. Embassy spokesman Alex Featherstone said, "We have not confirmed this boy's citizenship."
Mexican journalists who were present when soldiers turned the youth over to prosecutors in Morelos state Friday morning peppered the boy with questions. He said that the headless corpses of his gang's victims were strung up from an overpass on a main highway leading to the capital.
"Why did you kill them?" a reporter asked, according to a transcript on the website of the respected newspaper El Universal.
"'El Negro' ordered me to. I got high on weed and didn't know what I was doing," Jimenez responded.
"Why did you get into this?"
"I didn't get into it. They pulled me in," the boy responded.
"Are you sorry you did?"
"Yes, I'm sorry I got involved with all this," he responded.
President Felipe Calderon has pointed to the ever-younger ages of gunmen for the drug syndicates, especially in the northeastern border region, as a sign that cartels are facing problems recruiting foot soldiers.
Yet Mexico has an estimated 7 million young people who neither can find jobs nor attend school, and many of them are tempted by easy money or motivated to join gangs out of anger over the killing of a friend or a parent.
"We count some 20,000 orphans who have the choice of either being forgotten about or looking for some activity to help them survive," sociologist Luis Gomez Sanchez told the Milenio television network. "These youngsters are cannon fodder for drug traffickers and their illegal activities."
The case of "El Ponchis" highlights concern about the falling ages of foot soldiers in Mexico's ongoing drug violence, which has left more than 30,000 people dead since late 2006.
Experts say that cases like this, are signs of high concern in the Mexican society, showing a sign of decomposition affecting the very core of the Mexican structure by the brutal and increase violence that is prevailing the country as a whole.
THE INCREASE OF YOUNG FOOT SOLDIERS IS A THREAT TO MEXICAN SOCIETY
Borderland Beat
December 4, 2010
It may seem impossible to believed that a child of 14 years could be so cold blooded and have the mentality to be a leader, since he was 11 years old, of an organized crime gang, who were responsible for abducting, torturing, executing, dismembering and even hanging the bodies of their victims from bridges, while getting paid in dollars per head.
In total disbelief, Edgar Jimenez Lugo, better known as "El Ponchis," was finally arrested after military intelligence authorities followed closely his path as a hired assassin, who would ultimately be linked to more than 300 executions in Morelos.
It is a network of young people causing terror and misery among the population.
"When we don't find the rivals, we kill innocent people - maybe a taxi driver or a construction worker - so that we can get paid," Jimenez said, adding that he earned $3,000 per hit. He said he had personally killed four people.
The criminal group of the CPS (South Pacific Cartel) was young heirs of the Beltran Leyva cartel in the state of Morelos, uploaded and documented their atrocities on the internet. In late October a video was posted on the Internet of the boy, sporting a mop of frizzy hair, holding an AK-47 assault weapon and posing with other gang members. One image showed Jimenez with an apparent victim whose eyes and mouth were taped shut.
On the video, Jimenez casually says that he didn't care whether he and his fellow gunmen got the right targets, just as long as they killed someone.
It was also revealed that the child, a murderer for hire, was an accomplice in the crimes with his sisters, young women that were known as "Las Chavelas" and who were also captured along with his brother, while pretending to flee from justice. In news reports said that one of them, 19-year-old Elizabeth, was a girlfriend of Hector Beltran Leyva, the leader of a splinter faction of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel that operates out of Morelos state.
News reports also reported that the elder sister led the gang "Las Chavelas" that took slain rivals of the Beltran Leyva group and dumped them on city streets.
News reports said Jimenez was a U.S. citizen, although U.S. Embassy spokesman Alex Featherstone said, "We have not confirmed this boy's citizenship."
Mexican journalists who were present when soldiers turned the youth over to prosecutors in Morelos state Friday morning peppered the boy with questions. He said that the headless corpses of his gang's victims were strung up from an overpass on a main highway leading to the capital.
"Why did you kill them?" a reporter asked, according to a transcript on the website of the respected newspaper El Universal.
"'El Negro' ordered me to. I got high on weed and didn't know what I was doing," Jimenez responded.
"Why did you get into this?"
"I didn't get into it. They pulled me in," the boy responded.
"Are you sorry you did?"
"Yes, I'm sorry I got involved with all this," he responded.
President Felipe Calderon has pointed to the ever-younger ages of gunmen for the drug syndicates, especially in the northeastern border region, as a sign that cartels are facing problems recruiting foot soldiers.
Yet Mexico has an estimated 7 million young people who neither can find jobs nor attend school, and many of them are tempted by easy money or motivated to join gangs out of anger over the killing of a friend or a parent.
"We count some 20,000 orphans who have the choice of either being forgotten about or looking for some activity to help them survive," sociologist Luis Gomez Sanchez told the Milenio television network. "These youngsters are cannon fodder for drug traffickers and their illegal activities."
The case of "El Ponchis" highlights concern about the falling ages of foot soldiers in Mexico's ongoing drug violence, which has left more than 30,000 people dead since late 2006.
Experts say that cases like this, are signs of high concern in the Mexican society, showing a sign of decomposition affecting the very core of the Mexican structure by the brutal and increase violence that is prevailing the country as a whole.
WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE .....
Although the Saudis claim to be disrupting the flow of money to al-Qaeda, there is little evidence that they have been successful. That leads me to believe they are really not being too serious in those efforts.
SAUDI ‘CRITICAL’ FINANCE FOR AL-QAEDA
The Straits Times
December 5, 2010
RIYADH - SAUDI Arabia is the key source of funding for radical Islamist groups including Al-Qaeda, the Taleban, Hamas and Lashkar-e- e-Taiba, according to a US diplomatic cable leaked by WikiLeaks on Sunday.
'Donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide,' said the document, an assessment from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton dated Dec 30, 2009.
'Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for Al-Qaeda, the Taleban, LeT (Lashkar-e-Taiba), and other terrorist groups, including Hamas, which probably raise millions of dollars annually from Saudi sources, often during Hajj and Ramadan,' the cable said.
It said that the Saudis had made 'significant progress' under US pressure to deal with the issue, especially disrupting Al-Qaeda's sources of money in Saudi Arabia.
However, it added, 'Riyadh has taken only limited action' to interrupt the flow of money to Taleban and LeT-associated groups which have launched attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.
The same memo said Gulf states remain important sources of financing for Islamist militant groups, singling out Qatar as 'the worst in the region' in its overall level of cooperation with Washington in 'counter-terror' issues. -- AFP
SAUDI ‘CRITICAL’ FINANCE FOR AL-QAEDA
The Straits Times
December 5, 2010
RIYADH - SAUDI Arabia is the key source of funding for radical Islamist groups including Al-Qaeda, the Taleban, Hamas and Lashkar-e- e-Taiba, according to a US diplomatic cable leaked by WikiLeaks on Sunday.
'Donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide,' said the document, an assessment from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton dated Dec 30, 2009.
'Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for Al-Qaeda, the Taleban, LeT (Lashkar-e-Taiba), and other terrorist groups, including Hamas, which probably raise millions of dollars annually from Saudi sources, often during Hajj and Ramadan,' the cable said.
It said that the Saudis had made 'significant progress' under US pressure to deal with the issue, especially disrupting Al-Qaeda's sources of money in Saudi Arabia.
However, it added, 'Riyadh has taken only limited action' to interrupt the flow of money to Taleban and LeT-associated groups which have launched attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.
The same memo said Gulf states remain important sources of financing for Islamist militant groups, singling out Qatar as 'the worst in the region' in its overall level of cooperation with Washington in 'counter-terror' issues. -- AFP
MESHUGGENEH MIDDLE EAST
Israel’s catastrophic forest fire claimed at least 41 lives, devastated one of Israel’s few forests and caused an enormous amount of damage to that tiny nation before the flames were finally brought under control.
While the Arab street celebrated the death and destruction, Egypt, Jordan and some other Arab governments offered to aid in fighting the fire. Jordan sent some of their firefighters and equipment.
Turkey has bombarded the world with a constant barrage of anti-Israel rhetoric ever since the botched boarding of the Gaza blockade runner Marmara at the end of last May. Nevertheless, Turkey still saw fit to dispatch some fire fighting helicopters to Israel.
Even the Palestinians, who hate Israel with a purple passion, sent a contingent of firefighters to help fight the fire. One has to ask the question: Was this a genuine gesture of goodwill or was it just a ploy to gain an advantage in the ‘peace’ process?
The Middle East is truly meshuggeneh (yiddish for crazy)!
While the Arab street celebrated the death and destruction, Egypt, Jordan and some other Arab governments offered to aid in fighting the fire. Jordan sent some of their firefighters and equipment.
Turkey has bombarded the world with a constant barrage of anti-Israel rhetoric ever since the botched boarding of the Gaza blockade runner Marmara at the end of last May. Nevertheless, Turkey still saw fit to dispatch some fire fighting helicopters to Israel.
Even the Palestinians, who hate Israel with a purple passion, sent a contingent of firefighters to help fight the fire. One has to ask the question: Was this a genuine gesture of goodwill or was it just a ploy to gain an advantage in the ‘peace’ process?
The Middle East is truly meshuggeneh (yiddish for crazy)!
Sunday, December 05, 2010
A PRO-GUN FAIRY TALE
Every couple of months or so for the past several years, I’ve received pro-gun messages, many of which included the following untrue statement:
“During WWII the Japanese decided not to invade America because they knew most Americans were ARMED!”
Nothing could be further from the truth. The Japanese knew that they did not have the logistical capability to sustain an invasion of the U.S. and never planned to do so. They attacked Pearl Harbor hoping to destroy our Pacific fleet so that we would not be able to interfere with their plans for the "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere," the conquest of China and Southeast Asia coupled with the installation of puppet governments led by the Japanese.
The most the Japanese could do to attack our mainland was to have their submarines shell the Ellwood Oil Field near Santa Barbara, the Estevan Point lighthouse on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, and Fort Stevens at the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon. The Japanese tried to start a forest fire by sending a seaplane to drop two incendiary bombs over Oregon’s Mount Emily. And they launched over 9,000 firebomb balloons toward North America of which only about 300 reached their destination. All of the attacks caused only minor damage.
Some pro-gun jerk inserted this 'Japanese fear' fairy tale trying to oversell the case for our Second Amendment rights. The trouble is that the statement has been passed on an on so many times by well meaning pro-gunners that they’ve come to really believe the Japanese were afraid to invade America.
How can anyone with half-a-brain actually believe that a citizenry armed with pistols, rifles and shotguns could stop a highly trained army with its sophisticated modern weapons? World War II was not the American Revolutionary War. Nor was it the American Civil War. The partisan groups that fought the German army with their pistols, rifles and shotguns during WWII were never able to do more than harass the invading and occupying Nazi military forces.
Yesterday I received a pro-gun set of posters accompanied by that bogus statement. There are so many legitimate reasons why Americans should have the right to bear arms, that those of us who believe in the Second Amendment do not need to resort to fairy tales to make our case.
“During WWII the Japanese decided not to invade America because they knew most Americans were ARMED!”
Nothing could be further from the truth. The Japanese knew that they did not have the logistical capability to sustain an invasion of the U.S. and never planned to do so. They attacked Pearl Harbor hoping to destroy our Pacific fleet so that we would not be able to interfere with their plans for the "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere," the conquest of China and Southeast Asia coupled with the installation of puppet governments led by the Japanese.
The most the Japanese could do to attack our mainland was to have their submarines shell the Ellwood Oil Field near Santa Barbara, the Estevan Point lighthouse on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, and Fort Stevens at the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon. The Japanese tried to start a forest fire by sending a seaplane to drop two incendiary bombs over Oregon’s Mount Emily. And they launched over 9,000 firebomb balloons toward North America of which only about 300 reached their destination. All of the attacks caused only minor damage.
Some pro-gun jerk inserted this 'Japanese fear' fairy tale trying to oversell the case for our Second Amendment rights. The trouble is that the statement has been passed on an on so many times by well meaning pro-gunners that they’ve come to really believe the Japanese were afraid to invade America.
How can anyone with half-a-brain actually believe that a citizenry armed with pistols, rifles and shotguns could stop a highly trained army with its sophisticated modern weapons? World War II was not the American Revolutionary War. Nor was it the American Civil War. The partisan groups that fought the German army with their pistols, rifles and shotguns during WWII were never able to do more than harass the invading and occupying Nazi military forces.
Yesterday I received a pro-gun set of posters accompanied by that bogus statement. There are so many legitimate reasons why Americans should have the right to bear arms, that those of us who believe in the Second Amendment do not need to resort to fairy tales to make our case.
'THANK GOD FOR BURNING THE JEWS'
The forest fire in northern Israel has taken at least 41 lives. Egypt and Jordan have offered to help fight the fires. That has enraged the ‘Arab street’ which is overjoyed that Jews are being burned to death.
‘FIRE IS GOD PUNISHING ISRAEL FOR OCCUPYING ARAB LANDS’
Many Arabs also strongly condemned Egypt and Jordan for agreeing to help in extinguishing the blaze, according to Arab media outlets
By Khaled Abu Toameh
The Jerusalem Post
December 4, 2010
Many in the Arab world seem to be happy with the big fire that has been raging in northern Israel over the past few days.
Judging from comments of readers in response to the blaze in several leading Arab media outlets and websites, a majority believe that God is “punishing” Israel for occupying Arab lands and killing Palestinians, especially during Operation cast Lead in the Gaza Strip.
Many Arabs also strongly condemned Egypt and Jordan for agreeing to help in extinguishing the blaze.
Others called on Israel’s enemies, particularly Iran, Hamas and Hizbullah to seize the opportunity and try to wipe Israel off the face of earth. Only a few readers and viewers expressed sympathy with Israel over the tragedy and the loss of many lives.
Following is a sample of the comments that appeared in the past few days in the Arab media:
“May Allah punish all Arabs who helped put down the fire. We pray to Allah that the fire will grow and spread to oil wells in the Arab world.”
“O’ Allah, burn them [Jews] before the Day of Judgement. O’ Allah, destroy them and all the enemies of Islam.”
“May Allah take revenge against them and displace them together with our corrupt [Arab] governments.”
“This is the right time for Iran. If one fire has caused panic in the Zionist entity, where are Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hassan Nasrallah? And where is Syria? One rocket could set thousands of fires.”
“Allah gives time, but never neglects. The Israelis are being punished for their deeds. We hope their end is nearing.”
“Sounds strange that Arabs are sending aid to our enemies. Allah is punishing the Jews by making with the fire. No military force or US veto can stop the fire.”
“Thank God for this new Holocaust and shame on the Egyptian authorities who rushed to save the Zionists while continuing to lay siege against our brothers in the Gaza Strip.”
“Thank God for burning the Jews the same way they burned our Muslim brothers in Palestine.”
“To Hizbullah, Hamas and all Arabs: this is a golden opportunity to get rid of Israel. The sea and fire are in front of the Jews and weapons are behind them.”
“This fire is the result of prayers from our prisoners held in occupation jails. The fire of Hell will be even stronger. May those Arabs who are helping the Jews burn with them in Hell.”
“Allahu Akbar! This is an effective weapon. We call on our Palestinian brothers to set fire to all forests.”
“How many prisoners did the wardens torture? Allah has answered the prayers of the oppressed.”
‘FIRE IS GOD PUNISHING ISRAEL FOR OCCUPYING ARAB LANDS’
Many Arabs also strongly condemned Egypt and Jordan for agreeing to help in extinguishing the blaze, according to Arab media outlets
By Khaled Abu Toameh
The Jerusalem Post
December 4, 2010
Many in the Arab world seem to be happy with the big fire that has been raging in northern Israel over the past few days.
Judging from comments of readers in response to the blaze in several leading Arab media outlets and websites, a majority believe that God is “punishing” Israel for occupying Arab lands and killing Palestinians, especially during Operation cast Lead in the Gaza Strip.
Many Arabs also strongly condemned Egypt and Jordan for agreeing to help in extinguishing the blaze.
Others called on Israel’s enemies, particularly Iran, Hamas and Hizbullah to seize the opportunity and try to wipe Israel off the face of earth. Only a few readers and viewers expressed sympathy with Israel over the tragedy and the loss of many lives.
Following is a sample of the comments that appeared in the past few days in the Arab media:
“May Allah punish all Arabs who helped put down the fire. We pray to Allah that the fire will grow and spread to oil wells in the Arab world.”
“O’ Allah, burn them [Jews] before the Day of Judgement. O’ Allah, destroy them and all the enemies of Islam.”
“May Allah take revenge against them and displace them together with our corrupt [Arab] governments.”
“This is the right time for Iran. If one fire has caused panic in the Zionist entity, where are Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hassan Nasrallah? And where is Syria? One rocket could set thousands of fires.”
“Allah gives time, but never neglects. The Israelis are being punished for their deeds. We hope their end is nearing.”
“Sounds strange that Arabs are sending aid to our enemies. Allah is punishing the Jews by making with the fire. No military force or US veto can stop the fire.”
“Thank God for this new Holocaust and shame on the Egyptian authorities who rushed to save the Zionists while continuing to lay siege against our brothers in the Gaza Strip.”
“Thank God for burning the Jews the same way they burned our Muslim brothers in Palestine.”
“To Hizbullah, Hamas and all Arabs: this is a golden opportunity to get rid of Israel. The sea and fire are in front of the Jews and weapons are behind them.”
“This fire is the result of prayers from our prisoners held in occupation jails. The fire of Hell will be even stronger. May those Arabs who are helping the Jews burn with them in Hell.”
“Allahu Akbar! This is an effective weapon. We call on our Palestinian brothers to set fire to all forests.”
“How many prisoners did the wardens torture? Allah has answered the prayers of the oppressed.”
PLOT FOR THE OPENING EPISODE OF A RESURRECTED TV SERIES
Hollywood could resurrect the old ‘All In The Family’ TV series, but with a 2010 twist. Here is a plot for the opening episode:
GRANDMA, GRANDSON, GRANDDAUGHTER AND DADDY OF GRANDDAUGHTER’S BABY ALL BUSTED
The Police News
December 3, 2010
SAN LEON - Galveston County Sheriff's Detectives investigating narcotics activity at 1029 25th St in San Leon Thursday morning arrested four persons on a variety of charges.
Yolanda Anne Forest, 58, Shawn Matthew Armentor, 18, , Christine Ann Forest , 21 and Calvin Richard Hulsey, 20 all of San Leon, were taken into custody after deputies executed a search warrant at the address.
Yolanda Forest is the grandmother of Shawn Armentor and Christie Forest. Hulsey is the daddy of Christine's baby.
Shawn Matthew Armentor was charged with Possession of Marijuana. Yolanda Anne Forest was charged with Manufacture and Delivery of Drugs, a 2nd degree felony, and three counts of Possession of Drugs, all Class A misdemeanors. Christine Ann Forest was charged with Possession of Marijuana and Possession of Narcotics Paraphernalia. Calvin Richard Hulsey was charged with Possession of Narcotics Paraphernalia.
Deputies seized over 2 pounds of Marijuana, 96 grams of Hydrocodone and various other drugs and $957.00 in cash.
GRANDMA, GRANDSON, GRANDDAUGHTER AND DADDY OF GRANDDAUGHTER’S BABY ALL BUSTED
The Police News
December 3, 2010
SAN LEON - Galveston County Sheriff's Detectives investigating narcotics activity at 1029 25th St in San Leon Thursday morning arrested four persons on a variety of charges.
Yolanda Anne Forest, 58, Shawn Matthew Armentor, 18, , Christine Ann Forest , 21 and Calvin Richard Hulsey, 20 all of San Leon, were taken into custody after deputies executed a search warrant at the address.
Yolanda Forest is the grandmother of Shawn Armentor and Christie Forest. Hulsey is the daddy of Christine's baby.
Shawn Matthew Armentor was charged with Possession of Marijuana. Yolanda Anne Forest was charged with Manufacture and Delivery of Drugs, a 2nd degree felony, and three counts of Possession of Drugs, all Class A misdemeanors. Christine Ann Forest was charged with Possession of Marijuana and Possession of Narcotics Paraphernalia. Calvin Richard Hulsey was charged with Possession of Narcotics Paraphernalia.
Deputies seized over 2 pounds of Marijuana, 96 grams of Hydrocodone and various other drugs and $957.00 in cash.
Saturday, December 04, 2010
BEAR WARNING IN BRITISH COLUMBIA
Want to know whether it’s black bears or grizzlies that are close-by? Just read the honest-to-goodness warning sign at a Canadian campground:
WARNING
Due to the frequency of human-bear encounters, the B.C. Fish and Wildlife Branch is advising hikers, hunters, fishermen and any persons that use the out of doors in a recreational or work related function to take extra precautions while in the field.
We advise the outdoorsman to wear little noisy bells on clothing so as to give advance warning to any bears that might be close by so you don’t take them by surprise.
We also advise anyone using the out-of-doors to carry "Pepper Spray" with him in case of an encounter with a bear.
Outdoorsmen should also be on the watch for fresh bear activity, and be able to tell the difference between black bear feces and grizzly bear feces. Black bear feces is smaller and contains lots of berries and squirrel fur. Grizzly bear shit has bells in it and smells like pepper.
WARNING
Due to the frequency of human-bear encounters, the B.C. Fish and Wildlife Branch is advising hikers, hunters, fishermen and any persons that use the out of doors in a recreational or work related function to take extra precautions while in the field.
We advise the outdoorsman to wear little noisy bells on clothing so as to give advance warning to any bears that might be close by so you don’t take them by surprise.
We also advise anyone using the out-of-doors to carry "Pepper Spray" with him in case of an encounter with a bear.
Outdoorsmen should also be on the watch for fresh bear activity, and be able to tell the difference between black bear feces and grizzly bear feces. Black bear feces is smaller and contains lots of berries and squirrel fur. Grizzly bear shit has bells in it and smells like pepper.
HI GOOD BUDDY, SURPRISE, THIS IS CHARLIE CALLING FROM CORCORAN
Listen to me sing, “I’ve seen the world spinning on fire, I’ve danced and sang in the devil’s choir.”
The smuggling of cell phones to convicts is not just a problem in California. It’s a big problem in Texas, in the other states and in federal prisons as well. And it’s a problem that can have serious consequences.
With a high-profile inmate like Charles Manson, I would like to believe that his visitors are thoroughly searched when they enter the prison and that Charlie will be strip searched immediately after the visit is concluded, including the ‘bend over and spread your cheeks’ part. This case leads me to believe that Charlie got his phone from a low-profile inmate who had a visitor smuggle it to him or from a crooked correctional officer.
In 1989, Manson was transferred from San Quentin to California State Prison, Corcoran where he is confined in the prison’s high security Protective Housing Unit.
LG FLIP PHONE FOUND IN MANSON’S PRISON BED
By Jack Dolan
Los Angeles Times
December 2, 2010
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Contraband cell phones are becoming so prevalent in California prisons that guards can't keep them out of the hands of the most notorious and violent inmates: Even Charles Manson, orchestrator of one of the most notorious killing rampages in U.S. history, was caught with an LG flip phone under his prison mattress.
Manson made calls and sent text messages to people in California, New Jersey, Florida and British Columbia before officers discovered the phone, said Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections.
Asked whether Manson had used the device to direct anyone to commit a crime or to leave a threatening message, Thornton said, "I don't know, but it's troubling that he had a cell phone since he's a person who got other people to murder on his behalf."
Although officials say inmates use smuggled cell phones for all manner of criminal activity, including running drug rings from behind bars, intimidating witnesses and planning escapes, it is not a crime to possess one in a California prison.
In August, President Barack Obama signed a bill banning cell phones from federal prisons and making it a crime, punishable by up to a year in jail, to smuggle one in. That law does not apply to state institutions.
The proliferation of cell phones in California prisons has been exponential in recent years, authorities say. Guards found 1,400 in 2007, when the department began to keep records of confiscations. The number jumped to 6,995 in 2009 and stands at 8,675 so far this year.
The phones show up in minimum security work camps as well as in the most heavily guarded administrative segregation units — whose residents include gang leaders confined to their cells around the clock except for brief stints when they're allowed to pace around metal cages in the prison yards.
Prisoners and supplies coming into those units are searched, but inmates sometimes hide devices in their body cavities, officials said.
There have also been state-documented cases of guards bringing phones into prisons. An inspector general's report last year noted that the phones fetch up to $1,000 each and highlighted the case of a corrections officer who made $150,000 in a single year by supplying the devices to inmates. He was fired, the report said. Criminal charges were not an option.
Prison officials would not release the identities of any of the people Manson contacted. But the entertainment news show Inside Edition broadcast recordings of a voice, identified as Manson's, on March 23, 2009. Four days later, guards found a phone during a search of Manson's cell.
One of the clips features Manson's raspy, high-pitched voice singing, "I've seen the world spinning on fire, I've danced and sang in the devil's choir."
Manson, 76, who is technically eligible for parole but will almost certainly die in prison for ordering the ritualistic murders of actress Sharon Tate and six others in 1969, had 30 days added to his sentence after his phone was discovered. He was also counseled and reprimanded.
The smuggling of cell phones to convicts is not just a problem in California. It’s a big problem in Texas, in the other states and in federal prisons as well. And it’s a problem that can have serious consequences.
With a high-profile inmate like Charles Manson, I would like to believe that his visitors are thoroughly searched when they enter the prison and that Charlie will be strip searched immediately after the visit is concluded, including the ‘bend over and spread your cheeks’ part. This case leads me to believe that Charlie got his phone from a low-profile inmate who had a visitor smuggle it to him or from a crooked correctional officer.
In 1989, Manson was transferred from San Quentin to California State Prison, Corcoran where he is confined in the prison’s high security Protective Housing Unit.
LG FLIP PHONE FOUND IN MANSON’S PRISON BED
By Jack Dolan
Los Angeles Times
December 2, 2010
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Contraband cell phones are becoming so prevalent in California prisons that guards can't keep them out of the hands of the most notorious and violent inmates: Even Charles Manson, orchestrator of one of the most notorious killing rampages in U.S. history, was caught with an LG flip phone under his prison mattress.
Manson made calls and sent text messages to people in California, New Jersey, Florida and British Columbia before officers discovered the phone, said Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections.
Asked whether Manson had used the device to direct anyone to commit a crime or to leave a threatening message, Thornton said, "I don't know, but it's troubling that he had a cell phone since he's a person who got other people to murder on his behalf."
Although officials say inmates use smuggled cell phones for all manner of criminal activity, including running drug rings from behind bars, intimidating witnesses and planning escapes, it is not a crime to possess one in a California prison.
In August, President Barack Obama signed a bill banning cell phones from federal prisons and making it a crime, punishable by up to a year in jail, to smuggle one in. That law does not apply to state institutions.
The proliferation of cell phones in California prisons has been exponential in recent years, authorities say. Guards found 1,400 in 2007, when the department began to keep records of confiscations. The number jumped to 6,995 in 2009 and stands at 8,675 so far this year.
The phones show up in minimum security work camps as well as in the most heavily guarded administrative segregation units — whose residents include gang leaders confined to their cells around the clock except for brief stints when they're allowed to pace around metal cages in the prison yards.
Prisoners and supplies coming into those units are searched, but inmates sometimes hide devices in their body cavities, officials said.
There have also been state-documented cases of guards bringing phones into prisons. An inspector general's report last year noted that the phones fetch up to $1,000 each and highlighted the case of a corrections officer who made $150,000 in a single year by supplying the devices to inmates. He was fired, the report said. Criminal charges were not an option.
Prison officials would not release the identities of any of the people Manson contacted. But the entertainment news show Inside Edition broadcast recordings of a voice, identified as Manson's, on March 23, 2009. Four days later, guards found a phone during a search of Manson's cell.
One of the clips features Manson's raspy, high-pitched voice singing, "I've seen the world spinning on fire, I've danced and sang in the devil's choir."
Manson, 76, who is technically eligible for parole but will almost certainly die in prison for ordering the ritualistic murders of actress Sharon Tate and six others in 1969, had 30 days added to his sentence after his phone was discovered. He was also counseled and reprimanded.
IN THE PRE-CONFESSIONAL BOOTH
Richard Connelly and his ilk don’t seem to have a clue about what some of the adult ‘bookstore’ clients do to innocent victims once they leave those joints. While public lewdness and prostitution may be innocuous in and of themselves, they are often accompanied or followed up by serious criminal offenses, often of a violent nature. The time spent by police vice squads is time well spent!
As to Father Maullon, one of my law enforcement buddies said that at least he wasn’t molesting boys. Or could he have been doing that too?
Houston’s Channel 2 reported that the poor priest got caught ‘with his pants down inappropriately touching himself.’ By the way, Father Maullon wasn’t just beating his meat all by himself – he did so only after going into a private viewing booth with an undercover Houston police officer. And Connelly calls that ‘Doing What Comes Naturally.’
And the archdiocese said it was "saddened" by the arrest. I’m sure it was.
I have some advise for those of you who want to do a handjob on your shortarm. Do it in the privacy of your home, not in a public place, and you won’t have to worry about the cops taking the time to bust your ass.
FR. ALBERTO MAULLON: PRIEST GETS NABBED AT ADULT BOOKSTORE, DOING WHAT COMES NATRUALLY
By Richard Connelly
Houston Press Hair Balls
December 3, 2010
The Houston Police Department, having dealt efficiently with drugs and violent crimes, has once again made time to tackle the huge, outrageous problem of guys doing it behind locked doors at adult bookstores.
We hope you all feel safer.
This week they nabbed a Catholic priest who was tending his flock in front of an undercover vice officer. Court documents show Fr. Alberto Maullon was masturbating "in a public place," meaning a Gulf Freeway adult bookstore.
KPRC has more details, and they indicate events conspired behind a locked booth door, which hardly seems too public.
__An undercover officer approached and exchanged a nod with him, followed by the locked door being opened for the undercover officer.
__One officer involved in the sting said, at that point "he whipped his junk out" and started masturbating for the undercover officer.
The heinous crime took place at the Big City Adult Bookstore (Motto: "Our motto is as geenric as our name") in the 10100 block of the Gulf Freeway Wednesday night.
Maullon, 52, heads St. Paul the Apostle in Nassau Bay. KPRC says the archdiocese issued a statement saying it was "saddened" but withheld further comment.
As to Father Maullon, one of my law enforcement buddies said that at least he wasn’t molesting boys. Or could he have been doing that too?
Houston’s Channel 2 reported that the poor priest got caught ‘with his pants down inappropriately touching himself.’ By the way, Father Maullon wasn’t just beating his meat all by himself – he did so only after going into a private viewing booth with an undercover Houston police officer. And Connelly calls that ‘Doing What Comes Naturally.’
And the archdiocese said it was "saddened" by the arrest. I’m sure it was.
I have some advise for those of you who want to do a handjob on your shortarm. Do it in the privacy of your home, not in a public place, and you won’t have to worry about the cops taking the time to bust your ass.
FR. ALBERTO MAULLON: PRIEST GETS NABBED AT ADULT BOOKSTORE, DOING WHAT COMES NATRUALLY
By Richard Connelly
Houston Press Hair Balls
December 3, 2010
The Houston Police Department, having dealt efficiently with drugs and violent crimes, has once again made time to tackle the huge, outrageous problem of guys doing it behind locked doors at adult bookstores.
We hope you all feel safer.
This week they nabbed a Catholic priest who was tending his flock in front of an undercover vice officer. Court documents show Fr. Alberto Maullon was masturbating "in a public place," meaning a Gulf Freeway adult bookstore.
KPRC has more details, and they indicate events conspired behind a locked booth door, which hardly seems too public.
__An undercover officer approached and exchanged a nod with him, followed by the locked door being opened for the undercover officer.
__One officer involved in the sting said, at that point "he whipped his junk out" and started masturbating for the undercover officer.
The heinous crime took place at the Big City Adult Bookstore (Motto: "Our motto is as geenric as our name") in the 10100 block of the Gulf Freeway Wednesday night.
Maullon, 52, heads St. Paul the Apostle in Nassau Bay. KPRC says the archdiocese issued a statement saying it was "saddened" but withheld further comment.
WHO IS PROTECTING THE ENDANGERED ORANGUTANS?
I am outraged at the Indonesian government. The magnificent orangutans are about to become extinct because the palm oil and logging industries and farmers are destroying their habitat. Orangutans dwell only in the rainforests of the Indonesian island of Borneo and in parts of Malaysia. Neither government is doing much to protect the habitat of these great apes. The clear cutting of the rainforest by palm oil crop growers, loggers and farmers, if left unchecked, will ensure the extinction of man’s closest living relative.
I am especially incensed because for eight years I worked as a volunteer in the primate section of the Houston zoo. I often cleaned up the yard and cages of the zoo’s orangutans. I provided them with many moments of enjoyment as they entertained themselves by spitting on me. The two males could spit for a distance of about 20 feet and do so with considerable accuracy. I sort of miss those days.
BRUISED, TIED UP AND CAGED: THE DESPERATE PLIGHT OF STARVING ORANGUTANS FORCED INTO VILLAGES TO LOOK FOR FOOD AS THEIR RAINFOREST HOME IS DESTROYED
By Wil Longbottom
Mail Online
December 3, 2010
Arms wrapped dejectedly around his mother, this baby orangutan can only cling on to her for comfort after she was beaten, tied up and shut in a tiny cage.
The pitiful creatures were captured after going into a village in Sungai Pinyuh, Indonesia, in a desperate search for food.
They were then beaten by villagers so badly one of the primates died before being locked in the tiny cage without food or water.
Rainforests cover 60 per cent of Indonesia, but orangutans - which means man of the forest - have seen their habitat cut down at an alarming rate, often to fuel the need for space to grow palm oil crops.
Many adult orangutans are killed by farmers in Indonesia and Borneo to prevent them eating crops as their natural food disappears, leaving helpless orphans to die in the wild.
I am especially incensed because for eight years I worked as a volunteer in the primate section of the Houston zoo. I often cleaned up the yard and cages of the zoo’s orangutans. I provided them with many moments of enjoyment as they entertained themselves by spitting on me. The two males could spit for a distance of about 20 feet and do so with considerable accuracy. I sort of miss those days.
BRUISED, TIED UP AND CAGED: THE DESPERATE PLIGHT OF STARVING ORANGUTANS FORCED INTO VILLAGES TO LOOK FOR FOOD AS THEIR RAINFOREST HOME IS DESTROYED
By Wil Longbottom
Mail Online
December 3, 2010
Arms wrapped dejectedly around his mother, this baby orangutan can only cling on to her for comfort after she was beaten, tied up and shut in a tiny cage.
The pitiful creatures were captured after going into a village in Sungai Pinyuh, Indonesia, in a desperate search for food.
They were then beaten by villagers so badly one of the primates died before being locked in the tiny cage without food or water.
Rainforests cover 60 per cent of Indonesia, but orangutans - which means man of the forest - have seen their habitat cut down at an alarming rate, often to fuel the need for space to grow palm oil crops.
Many adult orangutans are killed by farmers in Indonesia and Borneo to prevent them eating crops as their natural food disappears, leaving helpless orphans to die in the wild.
Friday, December 03, 2010
THAT'S WHY THEY'RE CALLED 'CONS'
‘253,929 or 88% of all 287,918 tax returns filed by prison inmates were never screened or flagged by the IRS.’ No wonder the country is in debt. The cons are getting away with conning Uncle Sam out of piles of money. I wonder how many of those fraudulent tax returns were filed by those California inmates that Justices Sotomayor and Ginsburg are so concerned about?
This report of an investigation by Stephen Stock of the I-Team at Miami’s TV Channel 4 is rather long but every word about this scam is well worth reading. Stephen tells me that "the story has been done before. In fact I first did it when I was at WESH in Orlando in 2004. That story prompted Congressional hearings on Caipitol Hill. The story now is - as you well know - that despite all this the IRS continues to do little to nothing to stop it!"
I-TEAM: AUDIT SHOWS EXTENT OF INMATE IRS SCAM
by Stephen Stock
cbs4.com
December 1, 2010
MIAMI (CBS4) – A US government’s audit report due to be released on tomorrow shows the Federal Internal Revenue Service ignores hundreds of thousands of potentially fraudulent tax returns filed by prison inmates serving time for other crimes.
The report, by the US Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), was obtained exclusively by the CBS4 I-Team and CBS News and follows an I-Team investigation into the prison tax fraud scam that costs taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in fraudulent tax refunds every year.
Prison inmates and IRS investigators alike say this tax refund scam has been going on for decades. But the full extent of the fraud is only now coming to light.
"They'll file 10 or 20 of them (false tax returns) at a time," said one anonymous Florida prison inmate who witnessed and participated in the scam.
A Florida inmate who asked that the CBS4 I-Team hide his identity for fear he would be hurt exposing this scam, says that inmates simply file numerous 1040, 1040 short and 1040 E-Z tax forms with real names and real social security numbers but false employers, false income and often no W-2 forms attached.
The CBS4 I-Team examined more than a dozen of these fraudulent forms and saw those examples in each case. The inmates would explain on the 1040 tax form that they had simply lost their W-2 form.
The inmates claimed to have earned income ranging from $40,000 to $65,000. All of the employers listed on the tax forms the I-Team reviewed did not exist.
Ultimately, the anonymous inmate said, the inmates who perpetrate this fraud receive fraudulent tax refunds ranging anywhere between $3500 and $6500 per inmate per fraudulent tax return.
I-Team investigator Stephen Stock asked the anonymous inmate: "How much money are we talking about?"
"Millions. Millions (of dollars)" replied the inmate.
According to a new report put together in September, 2010 by the US Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, or TIGTA, the inmate actually appeared to underestimate the extent of this fraud.
You can review a copy of that report by clicking here.
According to the TIGTA audit report 253,929 or 88% of all 287,918 tax returns filed by prison inmates were never screened or flagged by the IRS.
The report also shows that 48,887 of those returns had no W-2 or other wage information filed with the returns.
The report shows that means the IRS likely paid out more than $130 million dollars in questionable refunds to those inmates who included no W-2 or other wage information with their "returns".
For another comparison: the report also shows that 249,185 fraudulent tax returns that were filed by people (other than inmates) and actually caught and stopped by the IRS prevented $1.48 billion in fraudulent refunds from being issued. The TIGTA audit shows that is a 50% increase in the number of fraudulent returns caught by the IRS in 2009.
However, when you compare the number of fraudulent returns caught by the IRS and the amount that represents ($1.48 Billion) one also sees the potential amount of fraud represented by prison inmate tax refund theft.
The IRS declined to go on camera to answer questions about why prison inmates continue to receive tax refund checks.
So for perspective, the CBS4 I-Team went to former IRS criminal investigators to see how and why this continues to happen.
"There's a lot more fraud even in the refund crimes area there's much more than just the prison schemes," said Ronald "Ron" Wise, a 33 veteran of and former supervisor in the IRS criminal investigative services.
Wise, along with his business partners Jose Marrero and Luis Rivera spent a combined 89 years as IRS special criminal fraud investigators before retiring and establishing MRW Consulting in Fort Lauderdale.
"The Internal Revenue has no way to compare the W-2 that's on that tax return with any source information until the end of March at the very earliest," said Wise. "And in most of these instances these returns are filed very early in the year."
Wise and his partners agree that the IRS should do more to stop this scam. But they also say the agency is hamstrung by competing priorities and federal rules.
"You would think that creating a funnel (for tax returns from prisoners to go through) would be the type of thing that you can (do to stop this fraud)," said Luis Rivera. "But you do (as an IRS investigator) have limitations. For instance 6103 (Federal tax law), which is where the disclosure provisions of the Internal Revenue Code are found, limit who has access to that information. So that's a possible area (of reform) to look into (to stop this fraud.)"
"So it really makes it difficult to catch," said Rivera.
"You do have the ability to maybe add additional pieces to the disclosure provisions (within the IRS) to maybe make the Bureau of Prisons able to screen more in detail the kind of information that goes out of prisons," said Rivera who retired in October, 2007, after 28 years as a special investigator with the IRS. "So if you know that create funnels there and allow (the law) to give access to the information to the people maybe on the first line and maybe do something on the first line. Additionally, you're going to have to prosecute some people."
And they say that Congress, prison officials and the U.S. Attorneys around the country also must do more to stop this prison tax scam.
"It's not just the IRS that's being schemed," said 28-year-veteran IRS investigator Jose Marrero. "So if you could somehow funnel the information and change some of the laws as it relates to prisoners then maybe you can at least stop it even if you can't prosecute it."
The TIGTA audit report found the IRS actually paid out a total of at least $112 million in fraudulent refunds to prison inmates. Other federal programs caught and stopped $18 million in fraud.
TIGTA's audit report confirms that this prison tax scam, while decades in the making, has become more widespread and serious in recent years.
The report calls on Congress to change law to enable the IRS better access to wage and withholding information.
The IRS formally agreed to much of what is in this report. But the IRS hasn't said what, if anything, it will do to stop or even slow down this type of theft of your tax dollars by inmates already serving time for other crime.
This report of an investigation by Stephen Stock of the I-Team at Miami’s TV Channel 4 is rather long but every word about this scam is well worth reading. Stephen tells me that "the story has been done before. In fact I first did it when I was at WESH in Orlando in 2004. That story prompted Congressional hearings on Caipitol Hill. The story now is - as you well know - that despite all this the IRS continues to do little to nothing to stop it!"
I-TEAM: AUDIT SHOWS EXTENT OF INMATE IRS SCAM
by Stephen Stock
cbs4.com
December 1, 2010
MIAMI (CBS4) – A US government’s audit report due to be released on tomorrow shows the Federal Internal Revenue Service ignores hundreds of thousands of potentially fraudulent tax returns filed by prison inmates serving time for other crimes.
The report, by the US Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), was obtained exclusively by the CBS4 I-Team and CBS News and follows an I-Team investigation into the prison tax fraud scam that costs taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in fraudulent tax refunds every year.
Prison inmates and IRS investigators alike say this tax refund scam has been going on for decades. But the full extent of the fraud is only now coming to light.
"They'll file 10 or 20 of them (false tax returns) at a time," said one anonymous Florida prison inmate who witnessed and participated in the scam.
A Florida inmate who asked that the CBS4 I-Team hide his identity for fear he would be hurt exposing this scam, says that inmates simply file numerous 1040, 1040 short and 1040 E-Z tax forms with real names and real social security numbers but false employers, false income and often no W-2 forms attached.
The CBS4 I-Team examined more than a dozen of these fraudulent forms and saw those examples in each case. The inmates would explain on the 1040 tax form that they had simply lost their W-2 form.
The inmates claimed to have earned income ranging from $40,000 to $65,000. All of the employers listed on the tax forms the I-Team reviewed did not exist.
Ultimately, the anonymous inmate said, the inmates who perpetrate this fraud receive fraudulent tax refunds ranging anywhere between $3500 and $6500 per inmate per fraudulent tax return.
I-Team investigator Stephen Stock asked the anonymous inmate: "How much money are we talking about?"
"Millions. Millions (of dollars)" replied the inmate.
According to a new report put together in September, 2010 by the US Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, or TIGTA, the inmate actually appeared to underestimate the extent of this fraud.
You can review a copy of that report by clicking here.
According to the TIGTA audit report 253,929 or 88% of all 287,918 tax returns filed by prison inmates were never screened or flagged by the IRS.
The report also shows that 48,887 of those returns had no W-2 or other wage information filed with the returns.
The report shows that means the IRS likely paid out more than $130 million dollars in questionable refunds to those inmates who included no W-2 or other wage information with their "returns".
For another comparison: the report also shows that 249,185 fraudulent tax returns that were filed by people (other than inmates) and actually caught and stopped by the IRS prevented $1.48 billion in fraudulent refunds from being issued. The TIGTA audit shows that is a 50% increase in the number of fraudulent returns caught by the IRS in 2009.
However, when you compare the number of fraudulent returns caught by the IRS and the amount that represents ($1.48 Billion) one also sees the potential amount of fraud represented by prison inmate tax refund theft.
The IRS declined to go on camera to answer questions about why prison inmates continue to receive tax refund checks.
So for perspective, the CBS4 I-Team went to former IRS criminal investigators to see how and why this continues to happen.
"There's a lot more fraud even in the refund crimes area there's much more than just the prison schemes," said Ronald "Ron" Wise, a 33 veteran of and former supervisor in the IRS criminal investigative services.
Wise, along with his business partners Jose Marrero and Luis Rivera spent a combined 89 years as IRS special criminal fraud investigators before retiring and establishing MRW Consulting in Fort Lauderdale.
"The Internal Revenue has no way to compare the W-2 that's on that tax return with any source information until the end of March at the very earliest," said Wise. "And in most of these instances these returns are filed very early in the year."
Wise and his partners agree that the IRS should do more to stop this scam. But they also say the agency is hamstrung by competing priorities and federal rules.
"You would think that creating a funnel (for tax returns from prisoners to go through) would be the type of thing that you can (do to stop this fraud)," said Luis Rivera. "But you do (as an IRS investigator) have limitations. For instance 6103 (Federal tax law), which is where the disclosure provisions of the Internal Revenue Code are found, limit who has access to that information. So that's a possible area (of reform) to look into (to stop this fraud.)"
"So it really makes it difficult to catch," said Rivera.
"You do have the ability to maybe add additional pieces to the disclosure provisions (within the IRS) to maybe make the Bureau of Prisons able to screen more in detail the kind of information that goes out of prisons," said Rivera who retired in October, 2007, after 28 years as a special investigator with the IRS. "So if you know that create funnels there and allow (the law) to give access to the information to the people maybe on the first line and maybe do something on the first line. Additionally, you're going to have to prosecute some people."
And they say that Congress, prison officials and the U.S. Attorneys around the country also must do more to stop this prison tax scam.
"It's not just the IRS that's being schemed," said 28-year-veteran IRS investigator Jose Marrero. "So if you could somehow funnel the information and change some of the laws as it relates to prisoners then maybe you can at least stop it even if you can't prosecute it."
The TIGTA audit report found the IRS actually paid out a total of at least $112 million in fraudulent refunds to prison inmates. Other federal programs caught and stopped $18 million in fraud.
TIGTA's audit report confirms that this prison tax scam, while decades in the making, has become more widespread and serious in recent years.
The report calls on Congress to change law to enable the IRS better access to wage and withholding information.
The IRS formally agreed to much of what is in this report. But the IRS hasn't said what, if anything, it will do to stop or even slow down this type of theft of your tax dollars by inmates already serving time for other crime.
HAPPY HANNUKAH?
I have the perfect gift for these skinheads. Menorahs with sticks of dynamite disguised as menorah candles.
WORST HANNUKAH EVER: GIFTS FROM ANTI-SEMITIC HATE WEBSITES
By Craig Malisow
Houston Press Hair Balls
December 2, 2010
If you spent Black Friday fighting for Hanukkah gifts for your Jewish friends, chances are you completely forgot about the people who feel especially left out during the Festival of Lights: anti-Semites.
While Jews everywhere spin the dreidel and light the menorah, neo-Nazis and white supremacists will be left out in the cold. Sure, they can always chant hateful slogans outside a synagogue, but even that gets old after a while. So Hair Balls combed countless hate-sites to find the best tsotchkes for that special Aryan in your life. Now you can help make it a very special HanuKKKa celebration!
Tightrope.cc -- where "It's not illegal to be white...yet!" -- has a bevy of inexpensive options that should put a smile on the face of most every Jew-hater out there. Perhaps our favorite is the 20-pack of stickers featuring Jesus Christ flipping the bird while flanked by the words "Fuck Jews." (We're not sure, but we think J.C. said that somewhere in Corinthians). Of course, you can never go wrong with an "I Hate Jews" tank-top (100 percent cotton). If you have any problems placing your order, be sure to contact Tightrope Records founder Byron Calvert of Melbourne, Arkansas, at byron@tightrope.cc or 870.368.7990.
Being alone during the holiday can be especially depressing, and anti-Semites are no exception. Everyone needs a partner in life -- someone to talk grossly exaggerated "Holocaust" numbers with; a special white guy or girl you can wear matching "I Hate Jews" tanktops with.
Unfortunately, there are virtually no whites-only dating sites out there, but why not set up a profile for your racist buddy on Stormfront.org's dating forum, where your single, hateful bud can "meet other White Nationalists for romance or friendship." (Just remember, don't post any pics with nudity, because "this is a family site." Oh, and "no photos with non-whites" either.)
Your single gal pal can meet guys like Legionario88, whose hatred of mongrel races can't keep him from looking pensive; or you can hook a dude up with a gal like the rifle-totin' WarMaiden (below), who looks like she'd a good person to have on hand when the Elders of Zion come bursting through your door.
Hurst, Texas-based AryanWear.com is virtually a one-stop-shopping affair for all your white pride gift-giving needs. We really like the "Nazi Soap," embossed with an iron eagle symbol. It's "highly moisturizing, creamy white, with a calming scent," which is just how we imagine most Aryans smell. (And don't worry; the site states that "No Jews were hurt during the creation of this soap!"). Or what about an adorable SS onesie for the li'l one? And remember, purchases of $75 or more will get you a sweet "Achtung Panzer" car decal, so your friend can spew hatred even while stuck in traffic.
For something different, why not make a donation to Jewwatch.com in your friend's name? After all, Jews don't watch themselves, right? And someone needs to keep an eye on 'em, don't they, what with "6 Jewish companies" owning "96 percent of the world's media"? That someone is site founder/head Jew-watcher James Stenzel of Ferguson, Missouri, who is eagerly awaiting your non-tax-deductible gift. Or if you just want to talk about the "Treblinka Death Camp Hoax" or Zionist Occupied Governments, give him a ring at 314.524.2157.
Whether you give a little gift on each of the eight days, or make it one big gift, we hope these suggestions will help you put an extra spring in your pal's goose-step. Shalom!
WORST HANNUKAH EVER: GIFTS FROM ANTI-SEMITIC HATE WEBSITES
By Craig Malisow
Houston Press Hair Balls
December 2, 2010
If you spent Black Friday fighting for Hanukkah gifts for your Jewish friends, chances are you completely forgot about the people who feel especially left out during the Festival of Lights: anti-Semites.
While Jews everywhere spin the dreidel and light the menorah, neo-Nazis and white supremacists will be left out in the cold. Sure, they can always chant hateful slogans outside a synagogue, but even that gets old after a while. So Hair Balls combed countless hate-sites to find the best tsotchkes for that special Aryan in your life. Now you can help make it a very special HanuKKKa celebration!
Tightrope.cc -- where "It's not illegal to be white...yet!" -- has a bevy of inexpensive options that should put a smile on the face of most every Jew-hater out there. Perhaps our favorite is the 20-pack of stickers featuring Jesus Christ flipping the bird while flanked by the words "Fuck Jews." (We're not sure, but we think J.C. said that somewhere in Corinthians). Of course, you can never go wrong with an "I Hate Jews" tank-top (100 percent cotton). If you have any problems placing your order, be sure to contact Tightrope Records founder Byron Calvert of Melbourne, Arkansas, at byron@tightrope.cc or 870.368.7990.
Being alone during the holiday can be especially depressing, and anti-Semites are no exception. Everyone needs a partner in life -- someone to talk grossly exaggerated "Holocaust" numbers with; a special white guy or girl you can wear matching "I Hate Jews" tanktops with.
Unfortunately, there are virtually no whites-only dating sites out there, but why not set up a profile for your racist buddy on Stormfront.org's dating forum, where your single, hateful bud can "meet other White Nationalists for romance or friendship." (Just remember, don't post any pics with nudity, because "this is a family site." Oh, and "no photos with non-whites" either.)
Your single gal pal can meet guys like Legionario88, whose hatred of mongrel races can't keep him from looking pensive; or you can hook a dude up with a gal like the rifle-totin' WarMaiden (below), who looks like she'd a good person to have on hand when the Elders of Zion come bursting through your door.
Hurst, Texas-based AryanWear.com is virtually a one-stop-shopping affair for all your white pride gift-giving needs. We really like the "Nazi Soap," embossed with an iron eagle symbol. It's "highly moisturizing, creamy white, with a calming scent," which is just how we imagine most Aryans smell. (And don't worry; the site states that "No Jews were hurt during the creation of this soap!"). Or what about an adorable SS onesie for the li'l one? And remember, purchases of $75 or more will get you a sweet "Achtung Panzer" car decal, so your friend can spew hatred even while stuck in traffic.
For something different, why not make a donation to Jewwatch.com in your friend's name? After all, Jews don't watch themselves, right? And someone needs to keep an eye on 'em, don't they, what with "6 Jewish companies" owning "96 percent of the world's media"? That someone is site founder/head Jew-watcher James Stenzel of Ferguson, Missouri, who is eagerly awaiting your non-tax-deductible gift. Or if you just want to talk about the "Treblinka Death Camp Hoax" or Zionist Occupied Governments, give him a ring at 314.524.2157.
Whether you give a little gift on each of the eight days, or make it one big gift, we hope these suggestions will help you put an extra spring in your pal's goose-step. Shalom!
TRILLIONS: THAT'S WHY THEY CALL US UNCLE SAM
Some say it should be Uncle Sucker.
FEDERAL RESERVE REVEALS TRILLIONS DISHED OUT TO WORLD BANKS TO AID FINACIAL CRISIS…. INCLUDING $1.5 TRILLION TO BRITISH BANKS
$3.3trillion handed to financial institutions, $1.25trillion given to help housing market
Mail Online
December 2, 2010
The Federal Reserve has revealed details of the trillions of dollars it gave in emergency aid to U.S. and foreign banks during the financial crisis.
New documents show it paid out a staggering $1.5trillion (almost £1trillion) to British banks - over a third of the total money lent - in an effort to prop up the financial sector.
The Fed dished out $2.2trillion to banking giant Citigroup, $2.1trillion to Merrill Lynch and $2trillion to Morgan Stanley.
In addition, payments have also be made to Bear Stearns ($960billion), Bank of America ($887billion), Goldman Sachs ($615billion), JPMorgan Chase ($178billion) and Wells Fargo ($154billion).
And foreign banks who benefited from the Fed's aid included European Central Bank, Bank of England and the Bank of Japan as well as Swiss bank UBS, which borrowed more than $165billion, Deutsche Bank ($97billion) and the Royal Bank of Scotland ($92billion).
The documents serve as a reminder of how crippled the financial system had become during the crisis and how much it's recovered since.
Banks earned $14billion from July through to September this year, showing that the green shoots are definitely showing.
Large non-banking U.S. companies which borrowed from the Federal Reserve included General Electric, who used a total of more than $16billion, Harley-Davidson $2.3billion and a group of independent Caterpillar dealers $733million.
In all the Fed disclosed more than 21,000 transactions, totalling $3.3trillion to financial institutions, which was required under the new financial laws.
'The system basically failed because banks stopped lending to each other,' said Paul Miller, a banking analyst at FBR Capital Markets.
'After Lehman failed ... the Fed essentially opened the floodgates and pushed as much liquidity into the system as possible. And it worked. It helped stabilize the system.'
The Fed also detailed the $1.25trillion in mortgage securities it bought from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to help drive down mortgage rates, ease credit and provide some support to the crippled housing market.
'There's very much a sense from the data that the Federal Reserve was not just providing liquidity to U.S. banks but was creating stability for the entire world's financial system,' said Linus Wilson, assistant professor of finance at the University of Louisiana, who has studied the financial crisis.
FEDERAL RESERVE REVEALS TRILLIONS DISHED OUT TO WORLD BANKS TO AID FINACIAL CRISIS…. INCLUDING $1.5 TRILLION TO BRITISH BANKS
$3.3trillion handed to financial institutions, $1.25trillion given to help housing market
Mail Online
December 2, 2010
The Federal Reserve has revealed details of the trillions of dollars it gave in emergency aid to U.S. and foreign banks during the financial crisis.
New documents show it paid out a staggering $1.5trillion (almost £1trillion) to British banks - over a third of the total money lent - in an effort to prop up the financial sector.
The Fed dished out $2.2trillion to banking giant Citigroup, $2.1trillion to Merrill Lynch and $2trillion to Morgan Stanley.
In addition, payments have also be made to Bear Stearns ($960billion), Bank of America ($887billion), Goldman Sachs ($615billion), JPMorgan Chase ($178billion) and Wells Fargo ($154billion).
And foreign banks who benefited from the Fed's aid included European Central Bank, Bank of England and the Bank of Japan as well as Swiss bank UBS, which borrowed more than $165billion, Deutsche Bank ($97billion) and the Royal Bank of Scotland ($92billion).
The documents serve as a reminder of how crippled the financial system had become during the crisis and how much it's recovered since.
Banks earned $14billion from July through to September this year, showing that the green shoots are definitely showing.
Large non-banking U.S. companies which borrowed from the Federal Reserve included General Electric, who used a total of more than $16billion, Harley-Davidson $2.3billion and a group of independent Caterpillar dealers $733million.
In all the Fed disclosed more than 21,000 transactions, totalling $3.3trillion to financial institutions, which was required under the new financial laws.
'The system basically failed because banks stopped lending to each other,' said Paul Miller, a banking analyst at FBR Capital Markets.
'After Lehman failed ... the Fed essentially opened the floodgates and pushed as much liquidity into the system as possible. And it worked. It helped stabilize the system.'
The Fed also detailed the $1.25trillion in mortgage securities it bought from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to help drive down mortgage rates, ease credit and provide some support to the crippled housing market.
'There's very much a sense from the data that the Federal Reserve was not just providing liquidity to U.S. banks but was creating stability for the entire world's financial system,' said Linus Wilson, assistant professor of finance at the University of Louisiana, who has studied the financial crisis.
Thursday, December 02, 2010
JUSTICE SONIA SOTOMAYOR SHOWS SHE IS AN IDIOT
"When are you going to avoid the needless deaths? When are you going to avoid or get around people sitting in their own feces for days in a dazed state?" These are questions Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked during the Supreme Court’s hearing on the California prison overcrowding case. Needless deaths? She must believe that thousands of those poor prison inmates are dying needless deaths because they don’t have the comforts of a middle class home. Sitting in their own feces for days in a dazed state? Obama has APPOINTED AN IDIOT to the Supreme Court!
Responding to Sotomayor’s idiotic concerns on PACOVILLA Corrections blog, ‘kl2008a’ wrote, ‘She should be asked the question in return: "When will the needless deaths end in convalescent homes and hospitals?" Fact of the matter is, people are dying everyday, more out of prison than in.’
And ‘stone cold’ wrote, ‘These Judges need to tour Ca. state prisons. Prison is heaven compared to what the homeless are going through, sleeping in the outdoors and getting food out of dumpsters! These criminals see doctors within 24 hours, get good food, have a roof over their heads, and a very easy life. Maybe that’s the reason they keep coming back! Sad that these judges believe all this garbage about these poor little criminals! What about all the innocent people that are going to be RAPED, MURDERED AND VICTIMIZED by these turds when they get released? SAD!’
Of course, none of that ever occurred to the liberal justices Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Ginsburg asked, "How much longer do we have to wait (for improvements)? Another 20 years?" For the public’s sake, I certainly hope so! The safety of the general public should trump the discomfort of turds who, after all, are not in prison for singing off-key in the church choir. And you can bet that neither Sotomayor nor Ginsburg have ever set foot inside a California prison.
U.S. SUPREME COURT WADES INTO CALIFORNIA PRISON OVERCROWDING ISSUE
By Michael Doyle
The Sacramento Bee
December 1, 2010
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday waded into the thorny and long-standing debate over California prison overcrowding: should thousands of prisoners be released to alleviate horrific penal conditions for those who remain?
In a closely watched case, Republican appointees challenged the proposed prisoner-release plan as a threat to public safety while Democratic appointees suggested it was necessary to comply with the Constitution.
The ideological divisions in evidence during an unusually long oral argument probably foreshadow another difficult decision for a court that frequently splits along 5-4 lines. The argument also underscores the high stakes and heated emotions in a pair of long-running prison overcrowding cases.
"When are you going to avoid the needless deaths?" Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked Carter G. Phillips, the attorney for California.
"When are you going to avoid or get around people sitting in their own feces for days in a dazed state?"
Justice Stephen Breyer noted that the pictures of California prison conditions "are pretty horrendous," while Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg stressed that one of the overcrowding cases considered Tuesday began in 1990.
"How much longer do we have to wait (for improvements)?" Ginsburg pressed Phillips. "Another 20 years?"
But while at least three justices seemingly endorsed a lower court's order to cut California's prison population, three others raised alarms. State officials have said the lower court's order would require reducing the prison population by 38,000 to 46,000 inmates.
"If I were a citizen of California, I would be concerned about the release of 40,000 prisoners," Justice Samuel Alito said.
Alito further pressed attorney Donald Specter, of the Prison Law Office in Berkeley, to acknowledge that the recidivism rate for California prisoners released on parole is 70 percent.
"Seven zero," Justice Antonin Scalia reiterated, driving the point home.
Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. added his own concern about activist judges taking over jobs that elected officials could do best.
"The point is, this is a budget prioritization that the state has to go through every day, and now it's being transferred from the state Legislature to federal district courts throughout the state," Roberts said skeptically.
Last January, a three-judge panel ordered California to reduce its inmate population to 137.5 percent of its design capacity within two years – to roughly 110,000 inmates. California's 33 state prisons hold roughly 147,000 inmates, Phillips told justices Tuesday. This is down from a high of 160,000 previously cited in legal filings.
As often happens, the prison overcrowding decision could rest with Justice Anthony Kennedy. The California native cited "massive expert testimony" about dangerous overcrowding, and said that "at some point, the court has to say, 'You've been given enough time.' "
Eighteen states – including Texas, Alaska and South Carolina – joined an amicus brief that supports California's appeal. These states worry that they, too, might face court orders to release inmates.
Responding to Sotomayor’s idiotic concerns on PACOVILLA Corrections blog, ‘kl2008a’ wrote, ‘She should be asked the question in return: "When will the needless deaths end in convalescent homes and hospitals?" Fact of the matter is, people are dying everyday, more out of prison than in.’
And ‘stone cold’ wrote, ‘These Judges need to tour Ca. state prisons. Prison is heaven compared to what the homeless are going through, sleeping in the outdoors and getting food out of dumpsters! These criminals see doctors within 24 hours, get good food, have a roof over their heads, and a very easy life. Maybe that’s the reason they keep coming back! Sad that these judges believe all this garbage about these poor little criminals! What about all the innocent people that are going to be RAPED, MURDERED AND VICTIMIZED by these turds when they get released? SAD!’
Of course, none of that ever occurred to the liberal justices Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Ginsburg asked, "How much longer do we have to wait (for improvements)? Another 20 years?" For the public’s sake, I certainly hope so! The safety of the general public should trump the discomfort of turds who, after all, are not in prison for singing off-key in the church choir. And you can bet that neither Sotomayor nor Ginsburg have ever set foot inside a California prison.
U.S. SUPREME COURT WADES INTO CALIFORNIA PRISON OVERCROWDING ISSUE
By Michael Doyle
The Sacramento Bee
December 1, 2010
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday waded into the thorny and long-standing debate over California prison overcrowding: should thousands of prisoners be released to alleviate horrific penal conditions for those who remain?
In a closely watched case, Republican appointees challenged the proposed prisoner-release plan as a threat to public safety while Democratic appointees suggested it was necessary to comply with the Constitution.
The ideological divisions in evidence during an unusually long oral argument probably foreshadow another difficult decision for a court that frequently splits along 5-4 lines. The argument also underscores the high stakes and heated emotions in a pair of long-running prison overcrowding cases.
"When are you going to avoid the needless deaths?" Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked Carter G. Phillips, the attorney for California.
"When are you going to avoid or get around people sitting in their own feces for days in a dazed state?"
Justice Stephen Breyer noted that the pictures of California prison conditions "are pretty horrendous," while Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg stressed that one of the overcrowding cases considered Tuesday began in 1990.
"How much longer do we have to wait (for improvements)?" Ginsburg pressed Phillips. "Another 20 years?"
But while at least three justices seemingly endorsed a lower court's order to cut California's prison population, three others raised alarms. State officials have said the lower court's order would require reducing the prison population by 38,000 to 46,000 inmates.
"If I were a citizen of California, I would be concerned about the release of 40,000 prisoners," Justice Samuel Alito said.
Alito further pressed attorney Donald Specter, of the Prison Law Office in Berkeley, to acknowledge that the recidivism rate for California prisoners released on parole is 70 percent.
"Seven zero," Justice Antonin Scalia reiterated, driving the point home.
Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. added his own concern about activist judges taking over jobs that elected officials could do best.
"The point is, this is a budget prioritization that the state has to go through every day, and now it's being transferred from the state Legislature to federal district courts throughout the state," Roberts said skeptically.
Last January, a three-judge panel ordered California to reduce its inmate population to 137.5 percent of its design capacity within two years – to roughly 110,000 inmates. California's 33 state prisons hold roughly 147,000 inmates, Phillips told justices Tuesday. This is down from a high of 160,000 previously cited in legal filings.
As often happens, the prison overcrowding decision could rest with Justice Anthony Kennedy. The California native cited "massive expert testimony" about dangerous overcrowding, and said that "at some point, the court has to say, 'You've been given enough time.' "
Eighteen states – including Texas, Alaska and South Carolina – joined an amicus brief that supports California's appeal. These states worry that they, too, might face court orders to release inmates.
DO I HEAR $2,000.....$1,500.....$1,250.....
No media outlet can describe a story like this better than the Houston Press:
LEE HARVEY OSWALD’S COFFIN FOR SALE: CHRISTMAS SHOPPING DONE!
By Richard Connelly
Houston Press Hair Balls
December 1, 2010
Forget trying to fight the crowds at Ikea or Toys R Us. Lee Harvey Oswald's coffin is for sale!!
No, don't be so ghoulish -- you don't get the one he's buried in now. This coffin is the utterly unghoulish one he was buried in from 1963 to 1981, when he was exhumed to see if the coffin actually held the body of a Russian spy. (It didn't, so you have cetrtifiable proof Lee slept eternal sleep here!)
Nate D. Sanders Auctions is the place to go for all your Lee Harvey Oswald coffin needs.
Buyer beware: This coffin is sold as is:
__As Lee Harvey Oswald's coffin was lifted, evidence of extensive water damage to the casket was apparent -- the cover was weak in many areas and in one place had caved in partially exposing the remains. The coffin's wood exterior was very soft from moisture damage, and had dark areas of discoloration. Visible along the sides were the tarnished original metallic ornamentation. The interior of the casket also showed splotchy dark discoloration and moisture-softening of the wood. A portion of the original fabric that lined the top of the casket had fallen upon the decomposed remains.
So if you're thinking of using it for Grandma, you probably should think again.
The current bid is $1,000, which doesn't meet the reserve price, so get in there and start shopping!!
Does not include: "Free Cuba" pamphlets, shiny shoes once worn by "hobos," and "I'm a patsy!" buttons, or receipts for payment from Sam Giancana.
LEE HARVEY OSWALD’S COFFIN FOR SALE: CHRISTMAS SHOPPING DONE!
By Richard Connelly
Houston Press Hair Balls
December 1, 2010
Forget trying to fight the crowds at Ikea or Toys R Us. Lee Harvey Oswald's coffin is for sale!!
No, don't be so ghoulish -- you don't get the one he's buried in now. This coffin is the utterly unghoulish one he was buried in from 1963 to 1981, when he was exhumed to see if the coffin actually held the body of a Russian spy. (It didn't, so you have cetrtifiable proof Lee slept eternal sleep here!)
Nate D. Sanders Auctions is the place to go for all your Lee Harvey Oswald coffin needs.
Buyer beware: This coffin is sold as is:
__As Lee Harvey Oswald's coffin was lifted, evidence of extensive water damage to the casket was apparent -- the cover was weak in many areas and in one place had caved in partially exposing the remains. The coffin's wood exterior was very soft from moisture damage, and had dark areas of discoloration. Visible along the sides were the tarnished original metallic ornamentation. The interior of the casket also showed splotchy dark discoloration and moisture-softening of the wood. A portion of the original fabric that lined the top of the casket had fallen upon the decomposed remains.
So if you're thinking of using it for Grandma, you probably should think again.
The current bid is $1,000, which doesn't meet the reserve price, so get in there and start shopping!!
Does not include: "Free Cuba" pamphlets, shiny shoes once worn by "hobos," and "I'm a patsy!" buttons, or receipts for payment from Sam Giancana.
GUN CONTROL: WILL NAIL GUNS BE NEXT?
Will the "Brady Bunch", my term for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, now take aim at nail guns? And will they call for restrictions on the size and types of nails that can be used with those guns?
A MILLIMETER FROM DEATH: BUILDER’S MIRACLE ESCAPE AS HE ACCIDENTALLY SHOOTS NAIL GUN THROUGH ROOF OF HIS MOUTH
Mail Online
December 1, 2010
A builder miraculously survived when a nail gun went off in his face, shooting the pin through the top of his mouth and behind his eye socket.
Los Angeles resident Victor Benavidez failed to realize he had a 3.5 inch metal pin lodged a millimeter from his brain until he felt blood running from his mouth.
He described today how he was sent flying through the air by the unexpected shot.
He said: 'I'm not sure what happened but as a I fell backwards the gun flipped and must have gone off again and fired a nail straight into my mouth. 'It was all very quick, I just heard "bang, bang, bang".
'It didn't hurt at all but I knew something was wrong. Then I felt something with my tongue.'
He couldn't speak so he had to throw his hard hat at his brother to call for help.
He added in The Sun: 'When I got to the hospital and the doctors saw the X-ray they actually thought I'd tried to kill myself by firing a nail into my head. It was a total freak accident and I'm very luck to be alive.'
Doctors said if it had traveled any further it would have left him permanently brain damaged, blind or dead.
Dr Kimberly Lee, a reconstructive surgeon at Cedars-Sinai hospital in LA, also told the newspaper: 'We used a dental extractor - there are no instruments made to take out nails. There are also no lectures given at medical school on how to remove nails.
'We removed it in one piece along the same path as it went in. Victor is extremely lucky - he is just as healthy as he was before the accident and the hole has healed perfectly.'
And has the accident put Victor off? No, he is now back at work at using the very same gun. 'It was a freak accident. I'm lucky to be alive,' he added.
A MILLIMETER FROM DEATH: BUILDER’S MIRACLE ESCAPE AS HE ACCIDENTALLY SHOOTS NAIL GUN THROUGH ROOF OF HIS MOUTH
Mail Online
December 1, 2010
A builder miraculously survived when a nail gun went off in his face, shooting the pin through the top of his mouth and behind his eye socket.
Los Angeles resident Victor Benavidez failed to realize he had a 3.5 inch metal pin lodged a millimeter from his brain until he felt blood running from his mouth.
He described today how he was sent flying through the air by the unexpected shot.
He said: 'I'm not sure what happened but as a I fell backwards the gun flipped and must have gone off again and fired a nail straight into my mouth. 'It was all very quick, I just heard "bang, bang, bang".
'It didn't hurt at all but I knew something was wrong. Then I felt something with my tongue.'
He couldn't speak so he had to throw his hard hat at his brother to call for help.
He added in The Sun: 'When I got to the hospital and the doctors saw the X-ray they actually thought I'd tried to kill myself by firing a nail into my head. It was a total freak accident and I'm very luck to be alive.'
Doctors said if it had traveled any further it would have left him permanently brain damaged, blind or dead.
Dr Kimberly Lee, a reconstructive surgeon at Cedars-Sinai hospital in LA, also told the newspaper: 'We used a dental extractor - there are no instruments made to take out nails. There are also no lectures given at medical school on how to remove nails.
'We removed it in one piece along the same path as it went in. Victor is extremely lucky - he is just as healthy as he was before the accident and the hole has healed perfectly.'
And has the accident put Victor off? No, he is now back at work at using the very same gun. 'It was a freak accident. I'm lucky to be alive,' he added.
LADIES, BEFORE YOU ACCEPT THAT JOB MAKE SURE YOUR INSURANCE IS IN ORDER
And after you’ve accepted that Police Chief’s job, be sure you are accompanied by heavily armed bodyguards at all times!
WOMAN POLICE CHIEF SLAIN IN MEOQUI
Borderland Beat
November 30, 2010
The woman leading the police department in the northern Mexican town of Meoqui was slain while driving to work, the Chihuahua state Attorney General’s Office said Monday.
Hermila Garcia was named last month as chief of the 90-strong police force in Meoqui, located 70 kilometers (43 miles) from Chihuahua city, the state capital. In recent months, Meoqui had started to see some of this violence. A once peaceful town, the drug violence-related death tally has shot up to 40 deaths so far this year. Normally that death count would account for homicides over seven years.
Garcia was found fatally shot in her car at a spot near her home about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the town center, the AG’s office said.
Authorities suspect the police chief, whose prior experience included working as an investigator for the federal AG’s office, was murdered by gunmen working for drug traffickers or other organized crime elements.
"La Jefa," as she was known to her police agents, didn't carry weapons or have bodyguards.
"If you don't owe anything, you don't fear anything," she was fond of saying when asked why she didn't have security.
Mexican media reported that Garcia was single and lived with her parents, whom she supported financially.
Silvia Molina, the top administrative official of the police department in Ciudad Juarez, the state’s largest city, was murdered in 2008.
Policing has become a job so dangerous that men are now shying away from such posts. The state of Chihuahua, which borders Texas, has three other female police chiefs. Just last month 20-year-old criminology student Marisol Valles was appointed chief of police in Praxedis, in the Juarez valley, a key drug smuggling route just across the border from Texas also in Chihuahua state. Why did a 20-year-old mother accept the position? No one else would. Her predecessor was kidnapped more than a year ago. His head was deposited outside the police station a few days after he disappeared. After that, no one came forward to fill the police chief vacancy for more than a year -- until Valles was appointed top cop by the town's mayor.
Other women who have taken top policing jobs because no men would include two housewives: Verenica Rios Ontiveros and Olga Herrera Castillo, who took over policing jobs in El Vergel and Villa de Luz, both in Juarez, now known as the "murder capital" of the world due to its high murder rate. The Juarez valley has had more than 2,700 drug violence-related deaths this year.
Juarez, just across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas, is Mexico’s murder capital, with more than 2,700 homicides so far this year and roughly 8,000 slain since the beginning of 2008.
The carnage is blamed on a bitter turf battle between rival drug cartels, itself part of a wider conflict involving the gangs and the Mexican security forces that has claimed nearly 30,000 lives nationwide over the past four years.
Chihuahua has accounted for around a third of all the drug war fatalities.
WOMAN POLICE CHIEF SLAIN IN MEOQUI
Borderland Beat
November 30, 2010
The woman leading the police department in the northern Mexican town of Meoqui was slain while driving to work, the Chihuahua state Attorney General’s Office said Monday.
Hermila Garcia was named last month as chief of the 90-strong police force in Meoqui, located 70 kilometers (43 miles) from Chihuahua city, the state capital. In recent months, Meoqui had started to see some of this violence. A once peaceful town, the drug violence-related death tally has shot up to 40 deaths so far this year. Normally that death count would account for homicides over seven years.
Garcia was found fatally shot in her car at a spot near her home about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the town center, the AG’s office said.
Authorities suspect the police chief, whose prior experience included working as an investigator for the federal AG’s office, was murdered by gunmen working for drug traffickers or other organized crime elements.
"La Jefa," as she was known to her police agents, didn't carry weapons or have bodyguards.
"If you don't owe anything, you don't fear anything," she was fond of saying when asked why she didn't have security.
Mexican media reported that Garcia was single and lived with her parents, whom she supported financially.
Silvia Molina, the top administrative official of the police department in Ciudad Juarez, the state’s largest city, was murdered in 2008.
Policing has become a job so dangerous that men are now shying away from such posts. The state of Chihuahua, which borders Texas, has three other female police chiefs. Just last month 20-year-old criminology student Marisol Valles was appointed chief of police in Praxedis, in the Juarez valley, a key drug smuggling route just across the border from Texas also in Chihuahua state. Why did a 20-year-old mother accept the position? No one else would. Her predecessor was kidnapped more than a year ago. His head was deposited outside the police station a few days after he disappeared. After that, no one came forward to fill the police chief vacancy for more than a year -- until Valles was appointed top cop by the town's mayor.
Other women who have taken top policing jobs because no men would include two housewives: Verenica Rios Ontiveros and Olga Herrera Castillo, who took over policing jobs in El Vergel and Villa de Luz, both in Juarez, now known as the "murder capital" of the world due to its high murder rate. The Juarez valley has had more than 2,700 drug violence-related deaths this year.
Juarez, just across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas, is Mexico’s murder capital, with more than 2,700 homicides so far this year and roughly 8,000 slain since the beginning of 2008.
The carnage is blamed on a bitter turf battle between rival drug cartels, itself part of a wider conflict involving the gangs and the Mexican security forces that has claimed nearly 30,000 lives nationwide over the past four years.
Chihuahua has accounted for around a third of all the drug war fatalities.
WHEN A MUSLIM SHOUTS 'ALLAHU AKBAR,' EVERYBODY DUCKS
‘When a Christian says "Praise God," people nod politely or in agreement. When a Muslim shouts "Allahu Akbar," everybody ducks.’
ANOTHER MYSTERIOUSLY MOTIVATED ATTACK
By Mona Charen
Jewish World Review
November 30, 2010
A couple of weeks ago, on the occasion of the annual hajj, in which 2.5 million Muslim pilgrims fulfill their obligation to travel to Mecca, prominent Muslim clerics from Asia, Africa, and Europe, along with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan, Indonesia, Turkey, Afghanistan, and Iraq denounced violence in the name of Islam and issued a manifesto, signed by all, declaring that "murder of innocents is never justified and violates the teachings of Islam."
If you haven't heard about this, it's because it never happened. I conjured it to clarify the nature of the problem. Well-intentioned non-Muslims never tire of asserting that Islam is a religion of peace. Muslims themselves are a lot less forthright. (The Council on American-Islamic Relations has issued formal denunciations of terrorism, but coming from an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror financing case, such pious declarations are worthless.)
Still, before considering the response to the latest outrage perpetrated by a jihadi convinced that mass murdering Americans gathered to light the Portland, Ore., Christmas tree would land him in Paradise, it's important to pause and notice that while Muslim leaders leave a lot to be desired, average Muslims are heroes in this story.
The LA Times reports that the FBI was alerted to 19-year-old Somali-born Mohamed Osman Mohamud's increasing radicalization by someone who knew him well. Other sources suggest that Mohamud had quarreled with his family and felt "betrayed" that they did not support his violent ambitions. Reading between the lines, it seems likely that one or both parents (both of whom, by the way, are described as loving America) alerted the FBI.
Further, the elaborate sting orchestrated by the FBI had to involve agents posing as Islamic radicals. I'm guessing here, but it seems unlikely that the agents were non-Muslims. There are probably too many subtle things a non-Muslim would get wrong. So kudos to whoever tipped the FBI to the danger, and to the (presumably) Muslim agents who saw the thing to fruition and arrest.
On the other hand, those Americans who think that respecting the majority of non-violent Muslims requires a mealy-mouthed denial of reality are doing no one any favors.
Some criminal lit a fire at a Corvallis, Ore., mosque a day or so after Mohamud's arrest. This elicited a scolding declaration from the U.S. Attorney, Dwight Holton. Did he denounce the resort to violence by anyone? No. He intoned, "The fact is that violent extremists come from all religions and no religion at all. For one person to blame a group, if that's what happened here, is uniquely anti-American and will be pursued with the full force of the Justice Department."
Of course whole groups should not be blamed for the actions of individuals. Yes, the Justice Department should pursue the arsonist. And, yes, violent extremists can be motivated by all sorts of things. But it is fatuous to pretend that Islam is no more likely than Buddhism, Christianity or Judaism to produce mass killers. When a Christian says "Praise God," people nod politely or in agreement. When a Muslim shouts "Allahu Akbar," everybody ducks.
If a Christian or a Jew suddenly becomes more devout, there is very little chance that he or she will become violent. Quite the contrary. By contrast, religious zeal among Muslims is often expressed with bombs and the blood of innocents. Thousands of imams worldwide preach violent jihad, Islamic schools instill contempt for other faiths, and terrorists actively recruit killers willing to commit massacres for Allah.
Yet Attorney General Eric Holder cannot bring himself to say, under questioning before Congress, that terrorists might be motivated by "radical Islam." The State Department and the Department of Homeland Security banned the words "jihad" and "mujahadeen" from official statements about terrorism. And the president removed the term "Islamic extremism" from the National Security Strategy.
Why is it so hard to tell the truth? The truth is that while the vast majority of Muslims are peaceful and law-abiding, there is a powerful strain within the religion that encourages murder and mayhem. Muslims, sooner or later, must deal with this, along with the rest of the world. But to suggest that acknowledging Muslim extremism amounts to bigotry, as this administration seems to, is both dishonest and cowardly.
ANOTHER MYSTERIOUSLY MOTIVATED ATTACK
By Mona Charen
Jewish World Review
November 30, 2010
A couple of weeks ago, on the occasion of the annual hajj, in which 2.5 million Muslim pilgrims fulfill their obligation to travel to Mecca, prominent Muslim clerics from Asia, Africa, and Europe, along with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan, Indonesia, Turkey, Afghanistan, and Iraq denounced violence in the name of Islam and issued a manifesto, signed by all, declaring that "murder of innocents is never justified and violates the teachings of Islam."
If you haven't heard about this, it's because it never happened. I conjured it to clarify the nature of the problem. Well-intentioned non-Muslims never tire of asserting that Islam is a religion of peace. Muslims themselves are a lot less forthright. (The Council on American-Islamic Relations has issued formal denunciations of terrorism, but coming from an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror financing case, such pious declarations are worthless.)
Still, before considering the response to the latest outrage perpetrated by a jihadi convinced that mass murdering Americans gathered to light the Portland, Ore., Christmas tree would land him in Paradise, it's important to pause and notice that while Muslim leaders leave a lot to be desired, average Muslims are heroes in this story.
The LA Times reports that the FBI was alerted to 19-year-old Somali-born Mohamed Osman Mohamud's increasing radicalization by someone who knew him well. Other sources suggest that Mohamud had quarreled with his family and felt "betrayed" that they did not support his violent ambitions. Reading between the lines, it seems likely that one or both parents (both of whom, by the way, are described as loving America) alerted the FBI.
Further, the elaborate sting orchestrated by the FBI had to involve agents posing as Islamic radicals. I'm guessing here, but it seems unlikely that the agents were non-Muslims. There are probably too many subtle things a non-Muslim would get wrong. So kudos to whoever tipped the FBI to the danger, and to the (presumably) Muslim agents who saw the thing to fruition and arrest.
On the other hand, those Americans who think that respecting the majority of non-violent Muslims requires a mealy-mouthed denial of reality are doing no one any favors.
Some criminal lit a fire at a Corvallis, Ore., mosque a day or so after Mohamud's arrest. This elicited a scolding declaration from the U.S. Attorney, Dwight Holton. Did he denounce the resort to violence by anyone? No. He intoned, "The fact is that violent extremists come from all religions and no religion at all. For one person to blame a group, if that's what happened here, is uniquely anti-American and will be pursued with the full force of the Justice Department."
Of course whole groups should not be blamed for the actions of individuals. Yes, the Justice Department should pursue the arsonist. And, yes, violent extremists can be motivated by all sorts of things. But it is fatuous to pretend that Islam is no more likely than Buddhism, Christianity or Judaism to produce mass killers. When a Christian says "Praise God," people nod politely or in agreement. When a Muslim shouts "Allahu Akbar," everybody ducks.
If a Christian or a Jew suddenly becomes more devout, there is very little chance that he or she will become violent. Quite the contrary. By contrast, religious zeal among Muslims is often expressed with bombs and the blood of innocents. Thousands of imams worldwide preach violent jihad, Islamic schools instill contempt for other faiths, and terrorists actively recruit killers willing to commit massacres for Allah.
Yet Attorney General Eric Holder cannot bring himself to say, under questioning before Congress, that terrorists might be motivated by "radical Islam." The State Department and the Department of Homeland Security banned the words "jihad" and "mujahadeen" from official statements about terrorism. And the president removed the term "Islamic extremism" from the National Security Strategy.
Why is it so hard to tell the truth? The truth is that while the vast majority of Muslims are peaceful and law-abiding, there is a powerful strain within the religion that encourages murder and mayhem. Muslims, sooner or later, must deal with this, along with the rest of the world. But to suggest that acknowledging Muslim extremism amounts to bigotry, as this administration seems to, is both dishonest and cowardly.
Wednesday, December 01, 2010
THE COST OF FIGHTING POLLUTION AND WASTE
Environmentalism comes at a high price for everybody. If left unchecked, it will drive more jobs overseas.
FT: TRUCKS SHOW ENVIRONMETALISM HAMPERS MANUFACTURING & JOB GROWTH
By Judith A. Klinghoffer
politicalmavens.com
December 1, 2010
Normally a surge in the price of used equipment relative to new signals a robust order book. Not for truck manufacturers. A series of US and EU standards for diesel engine emissions has added 7 to 10 per cent so far to the cost of a typical heavy duty model while increasing fuel costs by nearly a quarter.
reports The pro-environmentalist Financial Times. Indeed, this morning we heard that Durable Goods Orders Miss Expectations By A Mile. "Transportation equipment," reports the Census bureau, "also down two of the last three months, had the largest decrease, $2.9 billion or 5.2 percent to $52.3 billion."
Not good news especially if we note President Obama’s emphasis on manufacturing and his goal of doubling US exports in five years. Such an initiative was designed to create (or save?) 2 million jobs and help rebalance the global economy. QE2 is designed to weaken the US dollar thereby making US exports more competitive. The problem: Legislative environmental mandates undermine the US ability to achieve this commendably goal:
__Engineers at General Electric, which has developed technology to remove emissions more economically, reckon that the average efficiency of a heavy truck fell from eight to six miles per gallon in 2007 as a result of the new standards and has since crept back by around half a mile per gallon. The next set of regulations, which also are expected to add to prices, seeks to make engines more efficient by 2014. The end result will be a truck less efficient than one that could have been bought for less money in 2006.All of which means higher costs and lower volumes for manufacturers like Navistar. When new standards were adopted in 2007, its engine sales fell by 23 per cent year-on-year as buyers stocked up on older models before the changeover. The combination of more expensive trucks and the recession led 2009 sales to be some 42 per cent lower than in 2006.
Trucks are but one example of the price of an environmentalism unrestrained by cost considerations, the belief that innovation can be forced and lower growth in developed countries is beneficial. Inevitably, the working poor pay the highest price for elite folly and manufacturing has been the source of employment for the less educated. Hence, it is them that the environmentalist hurt the most. Thus, the unemployment rate of those without high school diploma 15.3%, for those with high school diploma 10.1% and for college graduates, 4.7%.
Luckily, a few environmentalists are having second thoughts and are recommending including a cost benefit analysis in environmental legislation. That is the message of Bjørn Lomborg’s book and documentary COOL IT. It is also the message of LEX:
__Everything has costs, and this includes fighting pollution and waste. But regulations can be written in a way that at least tries to mitigates them. That has not been the case for the new emissions and efficiency standards. By gradually raising excise taxes on fuel and taxing polluting engines, for example, truckers would have an incentive to trade in older models for cleaner, more efficient ones. This would be cheaper, less disruptive and probably more effective than forcing manufacturers to make a product customers would prefer not to buy.
Let’s hope the new Congress includes such a policy in its upcoming reform agenda.
FT: TRUCKS SHOW ENVIRONMETALISM HAMPERS MANUFACTURING & JOB GROWTH
By Judith A. Klinghoffer
politicalmavens.com
December 1, 2010
Normally a surge in the price of used equipment relative to new signals a robust order book. Not for truck manufacturers. A series of US and EU standards for diesel engine emissions has added 7 to 10 per cent so far to the cost of a typical heavy duty model while increasing fuel costs by nearly a quarter.
reports The pro-environmentalist Financial Times. Indeed, this morning we heard that Durable Goods Orders Miss Expectations By A Mile. "Transportation equipment," reports the Census bureau, "also down two of the last three months, had the largest decrease, $2.9 billion or 5.2 percent to $52.3 billion."
Not good news especially if we note President Obama’s emphasis on manufacturing and his goal of doubling US exports in five years. Such an initiative was designed to create (or save?) 2 million jobs and help rebalance the global economy. QE2 is designed to weaken the US dollar thereby making US exports more competitive. The problem: Legislative environmental mandates undermine the US ability to achieve this commendably goal:
__Engineers at General Electric, which has developed technology to remove emissions more economically, reckon that the average efficiency of a heavy truck fell from eight to six miles per gallon in 2007 as a result of the new standards and has since crept back by around half a mile per gallon. The next set of regulations, which also are expected to add to prices, seeks to make engines more efficient by 2014. The end result will be a truck less efficient than one that could have been bought for less money in 2006.All of which means higher costs and lower volumes for manufacturers like Navistar. When new standards were adopted in 2007, its engine sales fell by 23 per cent year-on-year as buyers stocked up on older models before the changeover. The combination of more expensive trucks and the recession led 2009 sales to be some 42 per cent lower than in 2006.
Trucks are but one example of the price of an environmentalism unrestrained by cost considerations, the belief that innovation can be forced and lower growth in developed countries is beneficial. Inevitably, the working poor pay the highest price for elite folly and manufacturing has been the source of employment for the less educated. Hence, it is them that the environmentalist hurt the most. Thus, the unemployment rate of those without high school diploma 15.3%, for those with high school diploma 10.1% and for college graduates, 4.7%.
Luckily, a few environmentalists are having second thoughts and are recommending including a cost benefit analysis in environmental legislation. That is the message of Bjørn Lomborg’s book and documentary COOL IT. It is also the message of LEX:
__Everything has costs, and this includes fighting pollution and waste. But regulations can be written in a way that at least tries to mitigates them. That has not been the case for the new emissions and efficiency standards. By gradually raising excise taxes on fuel and taxing polluting engines, for example, truckers would have an incentive to trade in older models for cleaner, more efficient ones. This would be cheaper, less disruptive and probably more effective than forcing manufacturers to make a product customers would prefer not to buy.
Let’s hope the new Congress includes such a policy in its upcoming reform agenda.
IF YOU DON'T DO DRUGS BUT FAVOR LEGALIZING POT, YOU ARE NUTS!
Legalize pot and you can bet there will be a significant increase in the number of highway deaths.
Since the data reported by the states varies ‘widely in how often they test for drugs,’ the drug use among killed drivers is probably far in excess of 33%.
DRUG USE FOUND IN 33% OF KILLED DRIVERS
USA TODAY
December 1, 2010
According to a National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) report released Tuesday, one-third of all drug tests on drivers killed in motor vehicle accidents came back positive for drugs ranging from hallucinogens to prescription painkillers last year.
The report, the agency's first analysis of drug use in traffic crashes, showed a 5-percentage-point increase in the number of tested drivers found to have drugs in their systems since 2005. The increase coincided with more drivers being tested for drugs, the report shows.
Gil Kerlikowske, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said the numbers are "alarmingly high" and called for more states to address the problem of driving and drug use.
Seventeen states have some form of such laws, according to NHTSA: Arizona, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin.
Although much research has been done on alcohol's effects on driving, little has been done on the impact of drugs on driving, researchers say. The NHTSA analysis doesn't address whether the drugs were at levels that would impair driving. Plus, the data are reported by the states, which vary widely in how often they test for drugs, the report notes.
Since the data reported by the states varies ‘widely in how often they test for drugs,’ the drug use among killed drivers is probably far in excess of 33%.
DRUG USE FOUND IN 33% OF KILLED DRIVERS
USA TODAY
December 1, 2010
According to a National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) report released Tuesday, one-third of all drug tests on drivers killed in motor vehicle accidents came back positive for drugs ranging from hallucinogens to prescription painkillers last year.
The report, the agency's first analysis of drug use in traffic crashes, showed a 5-percentage-point increase in the number of tested drivers found to have drugs in their systems since 2005. The increase coincided with more drivers being tested for drugs, the report shows.
Gil Kerlikowske, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said the numbers are "alarmingly high" and called for more states to address the problem of driving and drug use.
Seventeen states have some form of such laws, according to NHTSA: Arizona, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin.
Although much research has been done on alcohol's effects on driving, little has been done on the impact of drugs on driving, researchers say. The NHTSA analysis doesn't address whether the drugs were at levels that would impair driving. Plus, the data are reported by the states, which vary widely in how often they test for drugs, the report notes.
IS WIKILEAKS A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION?
Several windbags in Congress want to have WikiLeaks declared a terrorist organization. I don’t think that turkey will fly. WikiLeaks has certainly terrorized our intelligence community, the Pentagon and especially Hillary Clinton and the State Department, but a terrorist organization? I don’t think so.
START II: WILL HISTORY REPEAT ITSELF?
There are several versions of an old saying: Those who ignore history are bound to repeat it. Those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) was an agreement between the old Soviet Union and the U.S. to implement a reduction and limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms. The treaty was signed by the US and the USSR, and barred each nation from deploying more than 6,000 nuclear warheads atop a total of 1,600 ICBMs, submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and bombers. The treaty also limited each nation to no more than 6,000 warplanes, 10,000 tanks, 20,000 artillery pieces and 2,000 military helicopters.
The START I treaty was signed on 7-31-91and expired on 12-5-09. On 4-8-10. A new treaty, START II, that calls for further arms reductions was signed in Prague by President Obama and Russian President Medvedev. For the US, the treaty requires ratification by the Senate. Obama has made ratification by the current lame duck Senate as his highest priority because he knows the next Senate will have more Republicans and fewer Democrats which will make ratification more difficult.
Before we rush into ratification of START II, we should ask ourselves this question: Will history repeat itself?
The Treaty of Versailles (1919) that ended WWI imposed the following disarmament conditions on Germany: (1) It’s army was reduced to 100,000 men. (2) The army was not allowed any tanks. (3) She was not allowed an airforce. (4) She was allowed only 6 capital naval ships and no submarines.
The Washington Naval Treaty (1922), an agreement worked out between the US, Britain and Japan and refined by the London Naval Treaty (1930), scrapped 38 existing capital ships (Britain 8, U.S. 7, Japan 2) and cancelled 31being constructed (Britain 8, U.S. 13, Japan 10) or converted them to aircraft carriers (2 each for the U.S. and Japan). In addition, restrictions were imposed on the replacement of existing vessels, and on the displacement (35,000 tons standard) and size of guns (16 inch) that future battleships could carry.
We all know what happened. Germany secretly rearmed by enlarging its army, building thousands of tanks, accumulating a large airforce and building a number of battleships and many submarines. When in 1931 Japan invaded Manchuria it was condemned by the League of Nations. Japan promptly left the league and ignored the terms of the naval treaties. Those naval treaties ended up weakening the US and Britain while Germany and Japan were able to strengthen their armed forces.
Obama says ratification of the new treaty is ‘essential’ for our national security. Is it really, or could it actually be detrimental? Before the Senate ratifies START II, it should take a very careful look to make sure the treaty will not weaken our defense capabilities. The ratification process should be delayed until the opening of the next Congress and not rushed through the few remaining days of a lame duck Senate. We don’t need a repeat of history.
The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) was an agreement between the old Soviet Union and the U.S. to implement a reduction and limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms. The treaty was signed by the US and the USSR, and barred each nation from deploying more than 6,000 nuclear warheads atop a total of 1,600 ICBMs, submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and bombers. The treaty also limited each nation to no more than 6,000 warplanes, 10,000 tanks, 20,000 artillery pieces and 2,000 military helicopters.
The START I treaty was signed on 7-31-91and expired on 12-5-09. On 4-8-10. A new treaty, START II, that calls for further arms reductions was signed in Prague by President Obama and Russian President Medvedev. For the US, the treaty requires ratification by the Senate. Obama has made ratification by the current lame duck Senate as his highest priority because he knows the next Senate will have more Republicans and fewer Democrats which will make ratification more difficult.
Before we rush into ratification of START II, we should ask ourselves this question: Will history repeat itself?
The Treaty of Versailles (1919) that ended WWI imposed the following disarmament conditions on Germany: (1) It’s army was reduced to 100,000 men. (2) The army was not allowed any tanks. (3) She was not allowed an airforce. (4) She was allowed only 6 capital naval ships and no submarines.
The Washington Naval Treaty (1922), an agreement worked out between the US, Britain and Japan and refined by the London Naval Treaty (1930), scrapped 38 existing capital ships (Britain 8, U.S. 7, Japan 2) and cancelled 31being constructed (Britain 8, U.S. 13, Japan 10) or converted them to aircraft carriers (2 each for the U.S. and Japan). In addition, restrictions were imposed on the replacement of existing vessels, and on the displacement (35,000 tons standard) and size of guns (16 inch) that future battleships could carry.
We all know what happened. Germany secretly rearmed by enlarging its army, building thousands of tanks, accumulating a large airforce and building a number of battleships and many submarines. When in 1931 Japan invaded Manchuria it was condemned by the League of Nations. Japan promptly left the league and ignored the terms of the naval treaties. Those naval treaties ended up weakening the US and Britain while Germany and Japan were able to strengthen their armed forces.
Obama says ratification of the new treaty is ‘essential’ for our national security. Is it really, or could it actually be detrimental? Before the Senate ratifies START II, it should take a very careful look to make sure the treaty will not weaken our defense capabilities. The ratification process should be delayed until the opening of the next Congress and not rushed through the few remaining days of a lame duck Senate. We don’t need a repeat of history.
STOREOWNERS NOT THE ONLY ONES UNABLE TO OPERATE EQUIPMENT THEY'VE ACQUIRED
No surprise here. For some 50 years now, police agencies across the country have acquired the latest high-tech equipment with funds provided by federal government grants. And in many local police departments, much of that equipment ends stacked up in some remote storage closet, never to be used, because no one ever learned how to operate it. Why should some storeowners be any different?
FLOYD BERNARD PAYNE: STEALING AN ATM IS EASIER WHEN THE STOREOWNER DOESN’T TURN ON THE SECURITY CAMERA
By Randall Patterson
Houston Press Hair Balls
November 30, 2010
There is breaking and entering, and then, as Humble police say happened last week, there is backing your truck through the wall of a convenience store after hours, attaching chains to the ATM and -- whee! -- racing off into the glory of the night.
How anyone expected to get away with that is beyond us -- it's not exactly cat burglary, you know. Roused by the sound of collapsing wall, the inevitable witness spotted not one but four people who thought they could get away with this. And the really amazing thing? According to Humble police detective David Scott, three of them have gotten away.
Two were in the lookout car, Scott tells Hair Balls, and looked out for themselves. A third, police lost after chasing the truck to a hotel near Greens Road.
The one they caught, Floyd Bernard Payne, is a 32-year-old man with 25 small-time drug and theft convictions already behind him. Payne is really bad at getting away, and really good at refusing to help police catch his friends.
But Scott believes he would have them, even without Payne, even without his witness who couldn't see clearly in the dark. He'd probably have them all, he says, if the storeowner just knew how to operate his security camera. Yeah, the camera was staring down on the whole crime scene, and from it, Scott has not an inch of footage.
"These storeowners will buy these high-dollar video systems," he explains, " and then they don't know how to work them -- and of course, we can't force them to learn how to work them. It's highly frustrating for police officers."
And super lucky for the bad guys.
FLOYD BERNARD PAYNE: STEALING AN ATM IS EASIER WHEN THE STOREOWNER DOESN’T TURN ON THE SECURITY CAMERA
By Randall Patterson
Houston Press Hair Balls
November 30, 2010
There is breaking and entering, and then, as Humble police say happened last week, there is backing your truck through the wall of a convenience store after hours, attaching chains to the ATM and -- whee! -- racing off into the glory of the night.
How anyone expected to get away with that is beyond us -- it's not exactly cat burglary, you know. Roused by the sound of collapsing wall, the inevitable witness spotted not one but four people who thought they could get away with this. And the really amazing thing? According to Humble police detective David Scott, three of them have gotten away.
Two were in the lookout car, Scott tells Hair Balls, and looked out for themselves. A third, police lost after chasing the truck to a hotel near Greens Road.
The one they caught, Floyd Bernard Payne, is a 32-year-old man with 25 small-time drug and theft convictions already behind him. Payne is really bad at getting away, and really good at refusing to help police catch his friends.
But Scott believes he would have them, even without Payne, even without his witness who couldn't see clearly in the dark. He'd probably have them all, he says, if the storeowner just knew how to operate his security camera. Yeah, the camera was staring down on the whole crime scene, and from it, Scott has not an inch of footage.
"These storeowners will buy these high-dollar video systems," he explains, " and then they don't know how to work them -- and of course, we can't force them to learn how to work them. It's highly frustrating for police officers."
And super lucky for the bad guys.
DETECTING DRUG TUNNELS
So easy, even a 12-year-old can do it (Cosmic Rays). From Borderland Beat:
HIGH-TECH BORDER PATROL: 5 NEW TRICKIS TO FIND SMUGGLER TUNNELS
By Joe Pappalardo
Popular Mechanics
The Department of Homeland Security says tunnels under the U.S.-Mexico border are proliferating as security is tightened aboveground. The solution? A sensor network that peers through dirt and rock. The technologies to build it are being developed with funding from the department’s advanced research wing. Here are the most promising contenders.
GROUND PENETRATING RADAR
__How It's Done: GPR uses pulses of radio-frequency energy to see beneath the surface. In commercial use since the 1970s, it is today's standard for detecting voids such as caves and tunnels.
__Who's Working on It: GPR is widely used in quality-testing roads, and to find unmarked graves, locate utility lines, trace subsurface geology, sweep for mines and search archaeological sites.
__What the Limits Are: This method does not work well in moist mediums like clay and rarely penetrates deeper than 40 ft. Officials say that false alarms even at shallow depths waste time and money.
SEISMIC WAVES
__How It's Done: The way that vibrations just under the surface change as they pass through rock and dirt provides details about what's below, and can show the presence of a tunnel.
__Who's Working on It: Researchers from the U.S. Army and Kansas Geological Survey in 2006 analyzed tunnel detection methods using seismic sensors in Kansas and along the U.S.-Mexico border in California.
__What the Limits Are: To create real-time detectors, more powerful imaging software must be developed to filter out the waves' reactions to natural and man-made noises, such as wind and highway traffic.
ELECTRICAL RESISTIVITY
__How It's Done: Electrical currents can't leap across empty space at low voltages. Metal electrodes staked in the ground could form a remotely monitored system that would tell solid rock from a void.
__Who's Working on It: While refusing to disclose its customers, Advanced Geosciences staff say the company has been approached by governments, including the U.S., to learn more.
__What the Limits Are: A wide-ranging network would be expensive and would have to be hidden or disguised to avoid tampering.
MICROGRAVITY
__How It's Done: When underground soil is removed, it causes very subtle changes in the Earth's gravitational field. Lower gravity readings can indicate a tunnel.
__Who's Working on It: In 2006 Western Kentucky University researchers field-tested robots in Texas studded with microgravity sensors to promote the concept of a mobile, deployable system.
__What the Limits Are: Very high precision is required. The gravity differential for smuggling tunnels can be as slight as 10 microgals--measured against the Earth's field of 100 million microgals.
COSMIC RAYS
__How It's Done: Muons are subatomic particles created by cosmic rays hitting the Earth's atmosphere. The number of them detected underground varies with the mass above: If there's a tunnel, more muons are found.
__Who's Working on It: Aside from a 1990 study by the U.S. Army, little research has been focused on this method. However, in 2006 a 12-year-old in San Diego converted two Geiger counters into a weak tunnel detector.
__What the Limits Are: A large number of costly detectors, buried beneath the probable paths of illicit tunnels, would be needed. (Small detectors find few muons and therefore have low resolutions.)
HIGH-TECH BORDER PATROL: 5 NEW TRICKIS TO FIND SMUGGLER TUNNELS
By Joe Pappalardo
Popular Mechanics
The Department of Homeland Security says tunnels under the U.S.-Mexico border are proliferating as security is tightened aboveground. The solution? A sensor network that peers through dirt and rock. The technologies to build it are being developed with funding from the department’s advanced research wing. Here are the most promising contenders.
GROUND PENETRATING RADAR
__How It's Done: GPR uses pulses of radio-frequency energy to see beneath the surface. In commercial use since the 1970s, it is today's standard for detecting voids such as caves and tunnels.
__Who's Working on It: GPR is widely used in quality-testing roads, and to find unmarked graves, locate utility lines, trace subsurface geology, sweep for mines and search archaeological sites.
__What the Limits Are: This method does not work well in moist mediums like clay and rarely penetrates deeper than 40 ft. Officials say that false alarms even at shallow depths waste time and money.
SEISMIC WAVES
__How It's Done: The way that vibrations just under the surface change as they pass through rock and dirt provides details about what's below, and can show the presence of a tunnel.
__Who's Working on It: Researchers from the U.S. Army and Kansas Geological Survey in 2006 analyzed tunnel detection methods using seismic sensors in Kansas and along the U.S.-Mexico border in California.
__What the Limits Are: To create real-time detectors, more powerful imaging software must be developed to filter out the waves' reactions to natural and man-made noises, such as wind and highway traffic.
ELECTRICAL RESISTIVITY
__How It's Done: Electrical currents can't leap across empty space at low voltages. Metal electrodes staked in the ground could form a remotely monitored system that would tell solid rock from a void.
__Who's Working on It: While refusing to disclose its customers, Advanced Geosciences staff say the company has been approached by governments, including the U.S., to learn more.
__What the Limits Are: A wide-ranging network would be expensive and would have to be hidden or disguised to avoid tampering.
MICROGRAVITY
__How It's Done: When underground soil is removed, it causes very subtle changes in the Earth's gravitational field. Lower gravity readings can indicate a tunnel.
__Who's Working on It: In 2006 Western Kentucky University researchers field-tested robots in Texas studded with microgravity sensors to promote the concept of a mobile, deployable system.
__What the Limits Are: Very high precision is required. The gravity differential for smuggling tunnels can be as slight as 10 microgals--measured against the Earth's field of 100 million microgals.
COSMIC RAYS
__How It's Done: Muons are subatomic particles created by cosmic rays hitting the Earth's atmosphere. The number of them detected underground varies with the mass above: If there's a tunnel, more muons are found.
__Who's Working on It: Aside from a 1990 study by the U.S. Army, little research has been focused on this method. However, in 2006 a 12-year-old in San Diego converted two Geiger counters into a weak tunnel detector.
__What the Limits Are: A large number of costly detectors, buried beneath the probable paths of illicit tunnels, would be needed. (Small detectors find few muons and therefore have low resolutions.)
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