Tornado Hits Toronto, Hurricane Bill To Follow

A rare event in Southern Ontario, but devastating to endure, a tornado or tornado’s struck the northern part of the city causing widespread damage to property and leaving over 50,000 residents without electricity.

Hurricane Bill is sweeping in from the Atlantic Ocean and it is feared that it will cause severe damage again in the north-eastern U.S. and southern Canada.

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McCaughey “Death Panel” Myth Creator Resigns

Cantel Medical Corporation, in a corporate press release dated August 20, 2009, stated that Betsy McCaughey, a corporate director who created the myth that U.S. healthcare reform would lead to the formation of “Death Panels“, allowing doctors to decide who would live and who would die based on the cost of end-of-life care, had resigned effective immediately from Cantel’s board of directors.

McCaughey insists that health-care reform is bad for Americans generally and will severely impact the elderly and of course limit the amount of funds a doctor can expect to be reimbursed, which would directly impact Cantel’s profitability.

McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York State and has weighed in heavily against health-care for Americans, creating the conflict of interest with her employer who wishes to create the appearance of neutrality.

In fact, Cantel bills itself as a “leading provider of infection prevention and control products in the healthcare market” and has an urgent corporate need to prevent health-care reform from occurring in the U.S.

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Honduras Accuses Zelaya Of $2.7 Million Theft

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Former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya has been accused by the Government of Honduras of the theft of over $2.7 Million in cash from the Central Bank of Honduras prior to his enforced exile from Honduras.


Zelaya apparently ordered the cash to be delivered on June 24, 2009 to the office of Mr. Zelaya's chief of staff, Enrique Flores Lanza, according to depositions by three witnesses for the Honduran prosecutors.

The Honduran military removed Mr. Zelaya from his home early on the morning of June 28 and transported him by air to Costa Rica declaring that if he returned to Honduras he would be arrested. However knowledge of the theft of the $2.7 Million in cash was not discovered until a month after Zelaya’s exile.


The Interim President, Roberto Micheletti, was advised by the Central Bank that funds delivered to Zelaya were not accounted for as government expenditures, and exceeded the government’s budget, and that the cash should be returned immediately.

Security video at the Central Bank showed the removal of the cash by Zelaya’s officials and in an effort to identify the individuals involved Honduras TV broadcast the video tape repeatedly. Sphere: Related Content

Suaad Hagi Files $2.5 Million Lawsuit Against Canada

Suaad Hagi Mohamud has filed a $2.5 Million lawsuit against the government of Canada for the wrongful rejection of her Canadian Citizenship while she was traveling in Kenya to visit her mother.

Suaad Hagi was questioned by a KLM airline employee in Kenya who disputed her contention that her Canadian Passport was in fact hers based on the shape of her lips and the style of her eyeglasses in the photo.

In Africa, when confronted by airline employees most travelers pay a bribe to be allowed on to their scheduled flight. Suaad Hagi did not have the money to pay a bribe and was therefore detained in a jail cell at the Kenyan airport for four days before being transported to a jail and then prison.

Despite her efforts to have the Canadian Consulate in Kenya support her claim of Canadian citizenship, the Consulate instead agreed to assist the Kenyan government in the prosecution of Suaad Hagi as an imposter.

DNA from Suaad Hagi’s son in Toronto, Canada proved that she was who she claimed to be. In addition, Suaad Hagi had several other photo identification’s in her possession which also stated that she was a resident of Canada.

Suaad Hagi was finally allowed to return to Canada ninety days after her detention, arrest, and imprisonment and returned to Toronto to an enthusiastic and supportive crowd. She said she blames the Canadian government, saying they "let me down, big time. No matter where we are, where we go, we're all citizens and I believe that we don't have a different level, we're all Canadian citizens. I'm just asking the government to get up and back up their people wherever they are." she said.

Suaad Hagi also has lawsuits against KLM Airlines and the government of Kenya planned.
　
　

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Libya Celebrates Lockerbie Bomber

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Abdel Basset al-Megrahi landed in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, on Thursday, hours after being freed from prison on the orders of Scotland’s justice minister Kenny MacAskill.


MacAskill made the decision to release the 57-year-old Libyan agent, who is dying of prostate cancer, on compassionate grounds. He had served eight years of a minimum 27-year sentence.

“It is my decision that Mr al-Megrahi … be released on compassionate grounds and be returned to Libya to die,” MacAskill said.

Al-Megrahi is a former Libyan agent who was imprisoned for the 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 bombing over the Scottish town of Lockerbie.

The decision to release al-Megrahi was criticised by the US government and some victims’ families, who believe al-Megrahi, held responsible for the 270 deaths in the Lockerbie bombing, should remain behind bars for life.


U.S. President barack Obama, described the release as a “mistake” and said that al-Megrahi should be placed under house arrest on his return, not simply released from custody.

But MacAskill told reporters on Thursday: “Mr. al-Megrahi is a dying man; he is terminally ill with prostate cancer and my decision is that he returns home to die.” Al-Megrahi was released from Greenock prison in Scotland and escorted by a police convoy to Prestwick airport in Glasgow on Thursday afternoon for a direct flight to Libya.


In a statement following his release, al-Megrahi said: “I am obviously very relieved to be leaving my prison cell at last and returning to Libya, my homeland. The remaining days of my life are being lived under the shadow of the wrongness of my conviction. I have been faced with an appalling choice: to risk dying in prison in the hope that my name is cleared posthumously or to return home still carrying the weight of the guilty verdict, which will never now be lifted. The choice which I made is a matter of sorrow, disappointment and anger, which I fear I will never overcome.”

Al-Megrahi’s was freed days after he dropped his second appeal against his conviction, a condition necessary for the early release application to be considered.

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UBS Banker Gets 40 Months

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Bradley Birkenfeld, a U.S. citizen residing in Florida, was sentenced today to 40 months in a federal penitentiary for his role as an agent of Swiss banking giant UBS AG.


UBS signed a “Qualified Intermediary” agreement with the IRS in which UBS was required to disclose the identity of any UBS clients who were U.S. citizens investing in U.S. securities.

Instead, UBS counseled U.S. citizens on a variety of methods to avoid disclosure to the IRS of their assets on deposit at UBS in Switzerland.


Birkenfeld was sentenced by District Court Judge William Zloch in Fort Lauderdale, Florida for conspiring to defraud the United States by helping a billionaire U.S. real estate developer create sham corporations and entities to hide $200 million in assets from the IRS.

Birkenfeld was credited with providing information in a sweeping U.S. investigation of UBS over its private banking business which involved American citizens who used their Swiss bank accounts to hide money overseas to evade U.S. taxes.


Birkenfeld’s sentencing has been delayed four times since it was originally set for August last year and was finally handed down two days after U.S. and Swiss authorities signed a pact in which Switzerland agreed to reveal the names of about 4,450 wealthy American clients of UBS to the IRS.

"To those taxpayers who have illegally hidden their income in foreign bank accounts and to those who have illegally helped clients hide income and assets, today's sentencing serves as notice: come in and completely come clean," said John A. DiCicco, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department's Tax Division.


Kevin Downing, a senior attorney with the Department of Justice tax division, said an additional sentence reduction may be requested by the government based on Birkenfeld's continuing cooperation in the UBS tax fraud probe over the next 90 days. Taking this into account, Judge Zloch deferred the date for Birkenfeld to report to prison until January 8, 2010. Sphere: Related Content

China’s Military Deploy Throughout Country

China is in the midst of a country-wide military exercise named “STRIDE- 2009” which is intended to increase the flexibility and experience of The People’s Liberation Army troops in all forms of civil unrest and military deployment.

Troops have commandeered civilian aircraft, trains, trucks, and automobiles in order to replicate the actual conditions that might occur in an emergency.

50,000 heavily armed troops have spread throughout the country. According to the PLA General Staff Headquarters, in charge of organizing "STRIDE-2009," one army division from each of the military commands of Shenyang, Lanzhou, Jinan and Guangzhou province, will participate in a series of live-ammunition drills lasting for two months.

Unlike previous annual tactical exercises, the army divisions and their air units will be deployed in unfamiliar areas far from their garrison training bases by civilian rail and air transport. The division from northeast Shenyang Military Command will be transported to northwest Lanzhou Military Command. Troops from east Jinan Military Command and south Guangzhou Military Command will be exchanged.

In the unprecedented exercise, one of the PLA's major objectives will be to improve its capacity of long-range projection. The General Staff Headquarters, which have been preparing for the exercise for three months, will coordinate with China's civilian airlines to use passenger and cargo flights to compliment Air Force transport.

All heavy weapon systems, such as tanks and infantry fighting vehicles, will be carried by rail, and lightly armored troops deployed to Jinan Military Command will go by China Railway High-speed (CRH) trains traveling at up to 220 miles per hour.
　
　
　
　
　

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Lead Poisoning Chinese Children

After 300 parents complained that their children were becoming ill from the emissions at the Shaanxi Dongling Lead and Zinc Smelting Factory located in the Changqing Industrial Park in Fengxiang County, doctors at the Xi'an Central Hospital diagnosed lead poisoning at levels three times the maximum safe level.

In 2006, the factory was ordered to help relocate the nearby villagers because the lead from their production could harm people's health, but so far only 100 of 581 households have been moved.

The villagers said they were willing to move to another location but could not afford new houses. The only thing they can do is to transfer their children to another school to avoid further poisoning.

About half of the parents in Maodaokou Village have decided to transfer children to another school next semester, but others do not have enough money, so their children must remain in the polluted environment.

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Charity Activists Murdered In Chechnya

The bodies of Zarema Sadulayeva and Alik Dzhabrailov, her husband, were found in Grozny, the Chechen capital, on Tuesday in the trunk of their car, shot to death.

They had been kidnapped a day earlier by five armed masked men from the offices of the “Save the Generation” charity, which provides medical and psychological help to young people who have suffered as a result of the violence in Chechnya.

The murders come less than one month after Natalya Estemirova, one of the best known activists in Chechnya and head of the rights group “Memorial“, was killed in similar circumstances.

Tatiana Lokshina, the deputy head of “Human Rights Watch” in Moscow and someone who worked closely with Estemirova, said; "Unless this new double murder and the killing of Estemirova are properly and fully investigated, unless the perpetrators are brought to justice, one really cannot do independent reporting of human rights work in the region on the ground.
It's incredibly important that the investigation into these killings is controlled by the Kremlin, done by investigators from the federal government and not done by local officials, because the possibility of involvement of the local police in the killing cannot be excluded."

Sadulayeva's husband had previously been jailed for four years for links to banned armed groups and had married the charity head two months after leaving prison.

"This is just unimaginable. They killed a young woman, she was probably 25, and her husband, who was about the same age. They had just gotten married," said rights activist Ludmila Alexeyeva, of the Moscow Helsinki group.

Human rights activists have blamed the forces of Ramzan Kadyrove, the Kremlin-backed Chechen president, for the killing of Estemirova.

Natalia Estemirova had been threatened by Kadyrov in the past and he was unhappy about the reporting she was doing exposing human rights abuses in Chechyna. "These are just outrageous crimes, the abduction and killing of Natalia Estemirova in a country that aspires to democratic standards is just appalling." Kadyrov, condemned the killings as an "inhuman crime" and said he would take the investigation under his personal control. "The person who committed this crime wanted to split our society, to destabilize the Chechen Republic," he said.

Chechnya and other parts of the Russian Caucasus remain the site of a deadly insurgency led by Muslim fighters against the pro-Kremlin local authorities, who in turn have been accused of human rights abuses.

The reports of the killings came as a journalist for a local newspaper in Dagestan, a province in Russia's volatile south, was found dead on the outskirts of Makhachkala, the capital, according to Russian news agencies.

Malik Akhmedilov, who worked for “Khakikat” newspaper, was found with gun shot wounds to the stomach, a local interior ministry source said.

The murders come amid growing international pressure on Russia to end the culture of impunity in which its activists are being murdered after the unsolved killing of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya in 2006.
　
　
　
　
　

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Meteor Shower Peaks August 11-12th

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The annual Perseid meteor shower, which peaks August 11-12th, 2009, can appear in any part of the night sky, but the tails of the meteors all point back to their origin in the constellation Perseus.


This impressive spectacle appears to originate from a point called a "radiant" in the constellation of Perseus - hence the name Perseid.

"Earth passes through the densest part of the debris stream sometime between the 11th or 12th of August. Then, you could see dozens of meteors per hour streaking through the night sky," said Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office.


The rock and dust fragments which cause the shower were left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle when it was last near our Sun. The comet orbits the Sun once every 130 years and last swept through our inner Solar System in 1992. Sphere: Related Content

Whitehouse Lawyers Threaten Poster’s Rights

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) has posted 14 large size posters in Washington D.C.’s Union Station in order to attract the attention of Congressional Staffers who walk through the station every day.

The message is clear and well presented yet some Whitehouse staff members are concerned that the ad copy references the President’s children.

In an effort to intimidate the PCRM, two Whitehouse lawyers contacted the organization and suggested that not only would the First Family be annoyed over the posters but that the PCRM might end up defending a lawsuit over the posters.

The PCRM has made it clear that it will not remove the posters until the last day of the contracted display period, which is August 31, 2009 and in the interim is certainly willing to fight for its right to display the posters.

The posters went up yesterday and the First Family is out of town so it’s clear that the Whitehouse lawyers are not in fact speaking for the Obama’s who may in fact approve of the posters once they see them.

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Tokyo Hit By 6.5 Earthquake

Downtown Tokyo shook in the 6.5 magnitude earthquake that hit early Tuesday morning, buckling roadways, toppling small buildings and causing low level damage throughout the city.

50 people reportedly were injured in early estimates, however no fatalities have been reported. This is the third major earthquake to hit the region from the Pacific Ocean to the Indian Ocean in the past 24 hours.

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Death Penalty For Discussing Sex

Saudi Arabia’s arcane, even bizarre, quasi-pious belief that sex should never
be discussed openly in any forum, on penalty of death, is the driving force behind the closure of the Lebanese broadcast television channel in Saudi Arabia.

Shocking television viewers with accounts of foreplay and casual sex, Mazen Abdul-Jawad was arrested immediately following his television interview in Jeddah. Mazen explained to viewers that it all happens in his bedroom, on television show “Ahmar Bilkhat al-Areed” (Wide Red Lines).

LBC, which is owned by billionaire Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, reports that other LBC offices have also been shutdown by Saudi authorities following the broadcast.

Mazen has been charged with publicizing vice and his lawyers say he may face the death penalty. Like many Arab countries, Saudi Arabia prohibits sexually explicit content on television and in newspapers, magazines and books.

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Indian Ocean Hit by 7.6 Earthquake

An earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale rocked India’s Andaman Islands on Monday, triggering a tsunami watch for all coastal regions in the Indian Ocean.

The quake's epicenter is located 160 miles north of Port Blair in the Andaman Islands and 20 miles deep in the Indian Ocean but there were no initial reports of damage or casualties. This follows a 5.2 earthquake earlier today in Indonesia.

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China & India Border Dispute Escalates

China and India have disputed the 2000 mile border between the two countries for 50 years and this weeks meeting to resolve the issue appears to be simply a rehash of old demands.

India refuses to give China the Arunachal Pradesh area because it is inhabited by Indian nationals, and always has been. China demands that this eastern area of the Himalayan Mountains be turned over or at least the Tawang part of Arunachal Pradesh. India restates that this area is fully inhabited by Indian citizens and therefore cannot be part of any negotiated settlement.

In fact, the whole Himalyan Mountain range is under dispute as a delineated border between the two countries. In 1962, India attempted to secure this region but were easily refuted by Chinese troops.

Today, India is transferring army troops to this area in an apparent effort to defend an anticipated Chinese transgression. The Asian Development Bank authorized the installation of an irrigation system in Arunachal Prudesh last June but China quashed the measure by claiming that they own the territory and India cannot develop it.

The disagreement between the two countries is having an adverse affect on the local population who cannot make regional progress without some form of negotiated settlement. China’s response is to increase military presence in the area. Both sides seem to think that war will break out or that their respective military presence will act as a deterrent to conflict.

China’s Ambassador to India Zhang Yan, stated; "Despite the twists and turns in China-India ties and border disputes, the two countries share the same historical responsibilities of developing economies, improving people's lives and safeguarding world peace and development, which requires them to properly handle existing problems with the utmost political wisdom."

Zang called on both sides to use the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries, in 2010, to cement bilateral links and contribute to world peace and development.

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Iran Threatens To Severely Punish US

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today threatened to “severely punish” the United States for its role in attempting a “velvet coup” following the June 12, 2009 presidential elections.

“The new government will slam those bullying powers, which fanned the flames of Iran's post-election unrest. The West irresponsibly interfered in Iran's internal affairs in an attempt to implement a "velvet coup" against the country's religious system”, IRNA quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

Representatives of U.S. President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said respectively their leaders would not congratulate the Iranian president on his victory.

“No one is waiting for congratulatory messages from the Western leaders," Ahmadinejad responded to the explanations during his swearing-in ceremony for his second term as President.

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Canada Extradites Schrieber To Germany

Karlheinz Schreiber was extradited today from Canada to Germany to face criminal charges of tax evasion, bribery, and fraud in his dealings with former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl which involved illegal political financing.

Schreiber was also implicated in a political corruption scheme in Canada involving former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. Hearings on Schreiber’s dealings with Mulroney ended last week and Schreiber was then immediately extradited to Germany, arriving in Munich this morning and transported to a jail in Augsburg.

Both of the corruption scandals revolve around the sale and distribution of Fuchs military light armored vehicles to Saudi Arabia. Schreiber claims that both of the attempted prosecutions are politically driven and that he is not guilty of the alleged crimes.

Schreiber, who is 75, is a dual citizen of Germany and Canada and therefore could not defend against extradition based on jurisdiction.

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Japan Hit by 6.9 Earthquake

Striking 200 miles south of Tokyo in the Pacific Ocean, the 6.9 Earthquake caused buildings to sway and roads to buckle as residents sought cover throughout Eastern Japan.

No immediate reports of injuries were received and the extent of the damage is unknown. No tsunami warnings were issued as the epicenter was thought to be approximately 190 miles under the ocean floor.

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Chino California Prison Riot

Thousands of prison inmates are held at a prison compound in Chino California, packed together in some of the worst overcrowding you can imagine. 60 inmates packed into a space built for 15. No air conditioning. No ice. Dilapidated buildings, broken glass and trash everywhere.

Not damage caused by inmates, but gradually decaying structures built in 1939 in battleship, art-deco style. The old glass cracks in the heat of the sun and falls out of the window frames. Toilets and sinks from 1939, cracked and leaking. No hot water because the miles of pipes have rusted through.

The kind of uncomfortable conditions that create tension amongst people, whether in prison or not. Last night at 8:30 P.M. prisoners began a riot at Chino which ended in 40 inmates being hospitalized and dozens more being treated for superficial injuries.

Inmates set a Reception Center Housing Unit on fire, 200 inmates live in the unit, all of them in immediate danger with flames billowing around. Inmates were slashed with broken glass, stabbed with shanks, beaten to near-death.

Eighty guards slowly responded to the fire and riot. Guards will run in the opposite direction if inmates begin a riot. There are not enough guards on duty to physically subdue the inmates, and inmates are not going to be easily calmed when they know that they are in a life or death situation.

Guards take the job for the high pay and informal and relaxed working conditions, not to risk their lives. Many guards dread the possibility of a confrontation with inmates and a riot is not where they want to be.

Guards watched the riot unfold and the fire begin. Watched, backing-off to a safe distance and watching, calling each other on their radios, not attempting to stop anything from occurring. There are no massive units of guards armed and waiting for an incident to occur.

They have to assemble after leaving other housing units after being called to respond and they have to wait for riot gear to be issued, shields, helmets, batons and guns. All of this takes time. There is no sense of urgency. No one wants to hurry into battle with the inmates and risk their own lives. Wait, and maybe the riot will stop. Maybe the inmates will have killed each other or they will die in the fire. The job is about accountability. A dead body is as good as a live one. As long as the correct number of inmates are counted, dead or alive, it makes no difference. They have done their job of keeping the correct number of bodies in custody.

The large number of inmates hospitalized is a direct result of this unspoken policy of waiting for the incident to end before taking any action. No intervention by guards equals deadly results amongst inmates.

“We are prison guards, not riot cops. We don’t go to work expecting a riot to occur. Inmates don’t want riots to occur because there is no protection for them. They are stuck in the middle of a riot and can’t leave the building. They are locked in. They can’t get away from it all.” stated a Chino prison guard.

Overcrowding in the California prison system is a direct cause of riots like the one in Chino. There is a limit to what human beings can accept in housing conditions. 200 inmates packed together. It’s around 100 F, no air circulating. It’s classified as a Reception Center therefore canteen access is denied, phone calls are denied, exercise facilities are denied, television access is limited.

Another example of the unsuccessful oppression of the human spirit through incarceration in the California prison system. Denial, not opportunity. Repression, not support. It is California’s inhumane answer to those who either dare to violate, or inadvertently violate, one of the 2,000 or more rules that delineate criminal activity from ordinary activity.

In California people can go to prison for things that should be classified as infractions of the law. Conduct not punishable elsewhere by imprisonment is sufficient for a lengthy sentence in the Golden State.

Prisoners whose crime might be eating food on a municipal bus are suddenly fighting for their life in a riot. Matthew Cates, Secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) held a press conference this week, immediately following receipt of the Federal Court Order which mandates that 40,000 prisoners be released, in which Cates shows his determination to fight the Order, not because it is incorrect in any manner but because he doesn’t want the Federal Courts telling him what to do. The vanity of exclusive jurisdiction. Cates is in California, operating California prisons, incarcerating California citizens. Why should he have to comply with a Federal Court Order? Who gives the Fed’s the right to tell Cates what to do?

California operates as though it is not part of the United States. While not declaring itself a secessionist state, it acts as one. California routinely denies fundamental and constitutional rights to its citizens and has done so for more than 50 years on the theory that Federal rules do not apply to California courts.

Although judges, deputy district attorneys, and public officials sign an Oath of Office in which they are mandated to uphold the Constitution of The United States of America, few if any actually do. Ignoring or denying a citizen’s Constitutional rights is a felony under California’s Government Code but there is no one enforcing that law. If they were, the majority of California’s judges and prosecutors would be imprisoned.

Imprisoned perhaps in Chino, perhaps finding themselves in the middle of a riot, in the midst of swirling flames, trying to survive while people around them are slashed and bleeding. In the middle of an unconstitutionally overcrowded prison facility demanding that the Fed’s back-off from supervision, that California knows what it’s doing.

See, the rest of the world, see how California runs. See Schwarzenegger run, see Cates run, see the people die.

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Typhoon Morakot Heads For China

In preparation for what is described as the worst typhoon in 50 years, over one million Chinese citizens have been evacuated from the southern coast of China to inland towns.

In an effort to prevent the destruction of their fishing boats locals have transported over 40,000 boats to inland shelters.

China's provincial government has sent more than 8 million text messages to residents with cell phones warning them of the typhoon's approach.

So far, Typhoon Morakot has also contributed to heavy rains in the Philippines, where at least 15 people were killed in flooding and landslides in the northern counties.

Taiwan was severely hit as Morkot crossed the island. The flooding in Taiwan was the worst to hit some of the southern counties in more than 50 years. More than 40 people were reported missing and one person killed.

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Haiti President Refuses Minimum Wage For Workers

Despite the efforts of the Parliament of Haiti to increase the minimum wage for workers to $6.00 per day, Haiti’s President Rene Preval has refused to permit the wage increase on the basis that garment workers should not receive more than $3.00 per day maximum.

Preval says that this will ensure garment factories operate profitably regardless of the workers inability to survive on such wages. Even though the United States permits the duty-free import of Haitian garments to support the industry, Preval wants to maintain local profitability for the factories, which employ about 200,000 Haitians in total.

Thousands of workers have formed massive protests outside the Parliament building and local police have staged defensive lines to maintain crowd control. Workers complain that they cannot survive on the $2.00 per day salary allowed garment workers and that their families are suffering as a result.

“We cannot feed our children for $2.00 per day, we cannot buy them school supplies, we cannot even pay the school fees. This prevents us from sending our children to school. What are we to do, allow our children to be ignorant and oppressed?”

The standard of education for those children that are able to attend school is very high by any measure. In fact, Haitian children are better educated than American children despite Haiti’s unrelenting poverty. To Haitian parents the thought that their children will be denied an education because President Preval prefers profits is abhorrent. While the protests are without violence thus far it is likely that will change soon.

The problem for President Preval is the probability that the garment manufacturers will organize political opposition against him if he allows the wage increase; a similar event caused the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004.

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Tehran Trials Anger Europe

The Iranian government has prosecuted every lawyer, journalist, teacher, professor, activist, embassy employee, media employee and corporate employee that it can all on the theory that one or more of them conspired to cause the protests following the June 12th presidential elections.

Every one is at fault, but not government employees nor government policies, despite the fact that the exceptionally poor judgment demonstrated by the Iranian government immediately following the broadcast of the fabricated election results is directly responsible for the people’s reaction.

The Iranian government blamed the world for their own utter insensibility, and combined with the unbelievable arrogance and belligerence directed towards the citizens of Iran, it was enough to fuel the fire that resulted in dozens of protests in Tehran and throughout Iran.

In response to the protests, Iran has prosecuted thousands of its citizens and foreigners alike, claiming that it is the foreigners who created the problem as though no Iranian would have the intellect or audacity to question the absurdly bogus election results published by the media.

The European Union is engaging in another protest against Iran for prosecuting Europeans as criminals or for criminal acts such as providing foreigners with information about the protests in Iran, which Iran now describes as “acts against national security.”

It does not bode well for those on trial, most of whom learn of the criminal charges against them only at the last moment and thus are denied the ability to gather evidence or witnesses in their defense. As a result, the European Union threatens increased sanctions against Iran if Europeans are imprisoned for the ordinary actions of engaging in their employment.

Many prisoners are being advised to agree that they have acted against Iran’s national security in order to receive the lowest sentence possible, which at this point is undetermined in length or severity.

The conduct of government’s is an issue in itself. So many nations are forced to suffer under the rule of unqualified dictators or leaders, many with a bizarre or distorted sense of what constitutes good government, all of which results in oppression of its citizens. Elected officials and government officers should be required to pass academic and psychological tests before they can hold office. Too often, the citizens of a nation are held to extremist insensibilities or individual sociopathic tendencies exhibited by government officials.

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DiPascali Deal Convicted Madoff

Frank DiPascali was the Chief Financial Officer at Bernard Madoff Securities and essentially ran the business on a daily basis. Seemingly untouched by the Madoff criminal investigation, DiPascali provided the information prosecutors needed to generate the evidence of Madoff’s fraud.

Whatever assistance DiPascali provided it was not without the prospect of being charged with a criminal act. Unable to avoid the consequences of his association with Madoff, DiPascali is to be arraigned on criminal charges next week in U.S. District Court in New York.

The best DiPascali can hope for is a prison term not exceeding 20 years and the forfeiture of his property and other assets. Having worked with Madoff continuously for 34 years it would extremely difficult to argue in his defense that he was unaware of the fraud Madoff committed.

More than assisting in the operation of the business, there is the issue of whether DiPascali was in fact a co-conspirator to the Madoff swindle. Since the likelihood of being charged as such is greater than not, it would benefit DiPascali to enter into a plea agreement with prosecutors for a shortened prison term.

DiPascali is one of the actors in the Madoff scam and there are many others whose indictments are to follow. This is more of the fall-out from the egregious misconduct of the SEC in failing to identify Madoff’s fraud, which in itself may rise to the level of criminal negligence.

Who will prosecute the SEC for their criminal act?

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Warren Buffet’s $3 Billion Profit Sham

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Warren Buffett’s investment firm, Berkshire Hathaway, reports a profit of $3.3 Billion for the months of April through June 2009. That so called “profit” is actually the result of U.S. government bailouts of every company that Buffett had invested in. Without the government bailouts Buffett would be bankrupt today.


But the aura of business acumen survives as the media continues to promote Buffett as the epitome of brilliant investment management. In fact, Buffett has lobbied heavily for bailouts for the companies he invested in and were it not for those government handouts Buffett would be as broke as Bernie Madoff, and maybe about as popular.

Buffett has continuously touted his skill at evaluating business management as the reason for his success. Some management. Some skill. As the market toppled and the economy surged to its lowest level since the Great Depression, Buffett scurried around lobbying everyone he could find to bailout the companies he had invested in, and only those companies.


The fact is that Buffett sought high performance and turned a blind-eye to the risk involved. When the derivatives market nose-dived, every one of Buffetts investments nose-dived too. Buffett was in a panic. How could he possibly fail now when he was at the peak of his investment prowess?

Simple. Buffett never fully understood how those derivates worked, what they were actually based on, whether there were any tangible assets to substantiate their value, how the leverage involved could totally wipe -out his investment capital in a heartbeat.

Undeterred, and to prove himself to be the shrewdest investor ever, Buffett sunk all of his investors money into the riskiest investment possible without the slightest idea of the extent of the risk involved. Some management. Some skill.


Buffett has previously proved to all that he is not the icon of American investment management with the Coca-Cola charade years ago. That cost his investors $1 Billion, but how soon we forget and how soon the media put him back on a pedestal.

Investing your money with Buffett is tantamount to investing with the used-car dealer down the street, and about as risky.


If there is one thing that we should learn from this economic disaster it is that the corporate brand names and the icons of industry are nothing more than hype. When the ship is sinking the rats are running for their lives.

Were it not for the government using taxpayer’s money to save Buffett the headlines would likely read; “Buffett & Madoff: Cut From The Same Cloth.”
　

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13% Unemployment By 2010

The highest unemployment rate in the United States is in one state, and that is California. Currently topping 11.5%, higher than anywhere else in the nation, California’s economic outlook remains bleak with no new start-up technologies, factories, or industrial developments to lead the way.

The largest growing demographic segment of the population are the homeless. The unemployed and the evicted are evident in city centers throughout the State.

Los Angeles’s efforts to clean-up the streets includes providing homeless citizens with an army-green module about six feet long by three feet wide. Just enough to keep a roof over head and belongings out of view.

The sidewalks of Los Angeles had recently begun overflowing with homeless people pushing shopping carts filled with possessions. Old chairs, a boom-box, assorted clothing and some food were the most common contents of the hundreds of shopping carts on the streets of LA.

The army-green module is intended to hide the homeless from those who are still employed and who complain about having to negotiate the roadways with “slow moving carts of junk”.

There is no sense of urgency amongst the homeless. There are no meetings or shopping excursions, no weddings or birthday parties. They have nothing much at all, just the grinding poverty of a circumstance they did not create.
　
　
　

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Sotomayor Confirmed Supreme Court Justice

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The U.S. Senate confirmed Judge Sonia Sotomayor, in a 68-31 vote, as the first Hispanic justice on the Supreme Court. Nine Republicans backed her nomination. The 55-year-old federal appeals court judge becomes the 111th person to sit on the high court, and the third female justice.

President Obama welcomed the vote, saying he has "great confidence" in Sotomayor.
She will be sworn in at the Supreme Court by Chief Justice John Roberts on Saturday. Sotomayor was confirmed after senators spent a final day of debate rehashing the main arguments for and against her.

President Obama, who selected Sotomayor on May 26, said he was "deeply gratified" by the Senate vote. "This is a wonderful day for Judge Sotomayor and her family, but I also think it's a wonderful day for America," Obama said at the White House.

Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, helped close the debate by stressing the historic nature of the nomination. "It is distinctively American to continually refine our union, moving us closer to our ideals. Our union is not yet perfected, but with this confirmation, we will be making progress," Leahy said on the Senate floor.

"Years from now, we will remember this time, when we crossed paths with the quintessentially American journey of Sonia Sotomayor, and when our nation took another step forward through this historic confirmation process." Sphere: Related Content

Russia & Turkey = Oil & Gas

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin today signed numerous agreements with Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for construction of a pipeline through Turkish waters in the Black Sea and for the construction of Turkey’s first nuclear power plant.

The South Stream Pipeline, which will run from Russia to Bulgaria, will transport natural gas to Europe in a reliable and continuous volume, something Russia has not been able to accomplish over the recent disputes with the Ukraine regarding the supply and use of natural gas.

Putin said the negotiations would "open the road to new major projects in the energy sector. Such strategic projects as South Stream... and the construction of Turkey's first nuclear power plant can play a key role in promoting co-operation in this sphere. It is very important for the reliable supply of gas to the whole of Europe and for the further development of our co-operation with Turkey." he was quoted as saying by Russia's Itar-Tass news agency.

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Child Birth Is Pornography In Zambia

In a case which some might consider extraordinary, even bizarre, in the 21st century, Zambia is in the process of prosecuting Chansa Kabwela, the editor of Zambia’s influential ‘The Post’ newspaper for “pornography”.

Kabwela distributed three photographs of women giving birth in the parking lot of the main Lusaka hospital after being refused admission due to a doctor’s strike over wages and work conditions.

The point of the photos was to illustrate the absurdity of refusing women health care at the time of child-birth, and the conditions that these women were subjected to as a result of the lack of care.

Kabwela thought that she could encourage an end to the doctor’s strike by publishing the photos but instead Zambian President Rupiah Banda declared the photos as “pornographic”, stating that in his “entire life he had never seen any photos like these”, and ordered Kabwela arrested and prosecuted.

Apparently, Zambian men have never witnessed a child-birth and photographs of this natural process are “pornographic” in their view. As a result Kabwela is at trial charged with one count of distributing obscene material.

Two of the photos show a child exiting the birth canal of a woman lying in the hospital parking lot. The child is in a breach position with the legs emerging first. The child later died. The other photo shows a woman removing her clothes to give birth in the parking lot. The photos were taken by family members and given to Kabwela.

While many Zambian intellectuals are shocked at the charges made against Kabwela, and have openly stated their support for her and her efforts, the government continues on the path to imprison Kabwela and have thwarted every effort to have the case dismissed.

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Obama Announces $2.4 Billion For Hybrid Technology

U.S. President Barack Obama today announced the US Government will invest $2.4 Billion in developing hybrid and electric fuel-source vehicles.

The investment into new technology is aimed at rebuilding the US economy and protecting jobs, Barack Obama told employees on the factory floor of a vehicle builder in Wakarusa, Indiana on Wednesday.

"For far too long we've failed to invest in this kind of innovative work, even as countries like China and Japan were racing ahead," Obama said.

"That's why this announcement is so important. This represents the largest investment in this kind of technology in American history." The grants will also cover the manufacture of batteries and components.

"I don't want to have to import a hybrid car, I want to build a hybrid car right here," he said. "I don't want to have to import a hybrid truck, I want to build a hybrid truck here. I don't want to have to import a windmill from someplace else, I want to build a windmill right here in Indiana."

The grants that President Obama announced on Wednesday will be distributed across nearly 50 projects in 25 states. The largest amount of grant money will be received by businesses in Indiana and Michigan, the heartland of the US vehicle industry.

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Bratton Resigns As LAPD Chief

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Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton announced today that he will resign as Chief of Police, effective immediately, to join an international security firm called “Altegrity” located in Falls Church, Virginia where he will take the position of Chief Executive Officer consulting with police departments worldwide.


Bratton leaves with more than three years remaining in his second term. He’s said to be leaving the Los Angeles area in the next three months and wants to spend more time with his family on the east coast

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California: Fed’s Order Release of 40,000 Prisoners

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The State of California has been playing Russian roulette for decades with its prison system. Filling the prisons to double their intended capacity with citizens who have committed the most heinous of crimes, such as eating food on the bus, and jaywalking.


Thirty-seven percent (37%) of California’s prison inmates are non-serious, non-violent offenders who are forced to serve their sentences as the “workers” in the prison system. Without these inmates the prisons could not operate. They do the maintenance and repairs, sanitation, auto repair, landscaping, construction and a myriad of other jobs that allow prison facilities to function.

It is no wonder California does not want to release these inmates. With this slave labor, California can operate a prison for less than $5,000 a month, by paying the inmates .10 cents to .35 cents an hour. Every prison in California has a facility especially for working inmates.


The federal government became involved in the overcrowding of California’s prisons when hundreds of lawsuits were filed by inmates alleging that they were being subjected to cruel and unusual punishment, in violation of their constitutional rights, by being incarcerated without access to qualified and competent medical care.

A federal investigation followed which indicated that inmates were not only being denied adequate medical care but that they were dying because of the lack of care. An inmate could get a foot infection, be denied proper care and antibiotics, and ultimately have his foot amputated. Dental patients were prescribed incorrect medications and died in their cells. Prison doctors would change the inmate’s medical charts because they could not treat the patient for his real ailments. Heart patients were routinely denied housing in prisons with emergency room facilities. The list is endless.


Not to despair, Federal judges ordered that a Federal Receiver be appointed to oversee the prison medical system. This alone quickly changed the way in which inmates were given access to competent medical care.

Still, the issue of overcrowding was a serious one. California’s judges and Deputy District Attorney’s advocated longer prison terms and defendants were sentenced accordingly. Every available area of a prison facility was used for housing. Food halls, corridors, gyms, all became inmate housing areas. Sanitation systems broke down under the stress and highly contaminated water was being piped back into housing areas for drinking water and showers causing the municipalities to deny the circulation of prison waste through their municipal waste treatment systems.


Inmates were being issued toothpaste made in China which contained the same poisonous ingredients as anti-freeze . Inmates became ill and started suffering kidney damage requiring sophisticated treatment outside the abilities of prison medical systems.

The same federal judges warned California that they must reduce the prison inmate population by up to 40% but the ever powerful California Correctional Peace Officers Association, commonly referred to as the prison guard’s union, would intimidate anyone who challenged their control over the prisons with a form of political suicide; appear soft on crime by letting inmates out and be branded by the union, thus ending any chance of re-election.


California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is a good example of a tough-talking, swashbuckler of a politician who was crushed by the prison guard’s union. When they made it clear that Schwarzenegger would be branded as soft on crime if he messed with the prison’s, not only did Schwarzenegger back down but he also endorsed bond legislation to raise another $8 Billion to build more prisons to ensure job security for union members.

Finally, the federal court has today ordered that California release inmates to bring the prison population down to 137% of capacity. This does not eliminate overcrowding entirely but it does address the problem on an interim basis.


The order requires that California release 40,000 inmates to comply. California has 45 days to file a plan to meet the terms of the order. In response, California says that it will file an appeal of any release order. Keep the inmates incarcerated as long as possible because every day they earn the guards union another huge chunk of the taxpayers money.

The California prison system costs taxpayers approximately $11 Billion dollars a year. Release non-serious, non-violent inmates and save $4 Billion a year? No, not if you are a guard union member. Their philosophy is get defendants into prisons as fast as possible and keep them there as long as possible. It’s all about job security which is a serious issue for the guards.


Six thousand California prison guards earn over $100,000 per year. They drive Mercedes and Hummers and certainly don’t want anything to impair their overtime earnings. These are guards who work about 3 hours out of an 8 hour shift and receive time-and-a-half for overtime. That‘s $25 to $37 an hour while playing chess and poker.

California’s prison system is a political football but the cost of maintaining it is real, given that 50% of taxes go to fund the justice system in California. This includes prisons, courts, police, etc. California has never been closer to bankruptcy. It is insolvent, so bankruptcy would simply be a legal formality.


Instead of celebrating the prison reduction as a very real and necessary cost-saving solution for California, the guards union will advertise that these ruthless criminals are going to be released into your community.

But these criminals are your sons, brothers, uncles, husbands and fathers. Yes, they do return to the neighborhood where they lived and resume their ordinary lives hopefully not to be arrested again for operating a hot-dog stand, or failing to pay their parking tickets, or one of the other 2,000 crimes one can commit on a daily basis in California. Given there are at least ten different ways that a crime can be committed then there are potentially 20,000 opportunities every day in California to be charged with a criminal act.


The odds are high that California will find a way to incarcerate 40,000 more citizens to replace the ones that are released, and that should put a smile on the face of every prison guard in California.

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Blackwater: Must Be Charged With Murder & Fraud

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Erik Prince, the owner of Blackwater which is now known as Xe Services LLC, is accused of murder, fraud, and illegal arms smuggling, all while engaged in providing protective services in Iraq.

Blackwater contracted with the US State Department to provide protection for US employees in Iraq. Not only did Blackwater provide those services but they openly engaged in the wanton murder of innocent Iraqi citizens on a daily basis and under the cover of “essential protective operations.”

Prince and Blackwater are alleged to have planned the murder of Iraqi’s because “they are Muslims and Muslims should be exterminated” and applied this philosophy to all of their deployed personnel in Iraq.

Blackwater personnel video taped the daily executions of innocent Iraqi’s and held a “hot wash” session at the end of the day for personnel to view the murders that had been carried out and then each video tape was erased to destroy the evidence.

Prince allegedly considers himself a “Christian crusader” with a self-declared mission to kill all Muslims. In addition, Prince is alleged to have orchestrated the murder of US government personnel who were investigating the allegations made against him.

In five separate lawsuits filed in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Virginia, by the Center for Constitutional Rights in behalf of Iraqi citizens, former and current employees of Prince have provided affidavits under penalty of perjury in support of the litigation.

U.S. Congressman Dennis Kucinich has received copies of the lawsuits and in response stated, "If these allegations are true, Blackwater has been a criminal enterprise defrauding taxpayers and murdering innocent civilians from the very beginning."

"Blackwater is a law unto itself, acting above the law both internationally and domestically. The question is how they could operate with impunity? In addition to Blackwater, we should be questioning their patrons in the previous administration who funded and employed this organization. Blackwater wouldn't exist without federal patronage; these allegations must be thoroughly investigated," Kucinich said.

Kucinich is on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and has been investigating Erik Prince and the Blackwater organization since 2004.

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Kim Jong-Il Releases Ling & Lee To US

Former US President Bill Clinton met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il in Pyongyang, North Korea on Tuesday, North Korea’s state-run news agency KCNA reported.

Clinton arrived in Korea earlier in the day on a mission to negotiate the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, both reporters for California-based Current TV, a media venture launched by former Vice President Al Gore.

North Korean President Kim Jong Il has pardoned and ordered the release of the two U.S. journalists, state-run news agency KCNA said Wednesday.

Lee and Ling were arrested while reporting on the border between North Korea and China and sentenced in June to 12 years in prison on charges of entering the country illegally to conduct a smear campaign. The two American journalists who have been held in the reclusive communist nation since March 2009, the White House confirmed.

“Clinton expressed words of sincere apology to Kim Jong-Il for the hostile acts committed by the two American journalists against the DPRK after illegally intruding into our territory,” the news agency reported.Kim and Clinton had “an exhaustive conversation” that included “a wide-ranging exchange of views on the matters of common concern,” KCNA reported.

“Clinton courteously conveyed to Kim Jong-Il an earnest request of the U.S. government to leniently pardon Ling and Lee and send them back home from a humanitarian point of view.”

“The meetings had candid and in-depth discussions on the pending issues between the DPRK and the U.S. in a sincere atmosphere and reached a consensus of views on seeking a negotiated settlement of them.”

Yang Hyong Sop, the vice president of North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly, and Kim Kye Gwan, the vice foreign minister, met Clinton on his arrival, KCNA reported.

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Marines Ban Facebook & All Social Networks

Effective immediately, the United States Marine Corp is prohibiting the use of internet social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace.

"These internet sites in general are a proven haven for malicious actors and content and are particularly high risk due to information exposure, user generated content and targeting by adversaries," reads the Marine Corps order issued August 3, 2009.

"The very nature of SNS (social network sites) creates a larger attack and exploitation window, exposes unnecessary information to adversaries and provides an easy conduit for information leakage that puts OPSEC [operational security], COMSEC [communications security], [and] personnel... at an elevated risk of compromise."

"OPSEC is paramount. We will have procedures in place to deal with that," Price Floyd, the Pentagon's newly-appointed social media czar, said.

"What we can't do is let security concerns trump doing business. We have to do business... We need to be everywhere men and women in uniform are and the public is. If that's MySpace and YouTube, that's where we need to be, too," Floyd said.

The Marines say they will issue waivers to the Web 2.0 blockade, if a "mission critical need" can be proven. And they will continue to allow access to the military's internal "SNS-like services." But for most members of the Corps, access to the real, public social networks is now shut off for the next year.
　
　
　

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While Wall Street Burned = 5000 Made $1 Million Plus

The Attorney General for the State of New York published at 22-page report entitled “No Rhyme Or Reason: The Heads I Win, Tales You Lose Bank Bonus Culture”.

While some might argue that the purpose of the report is to shift the burden for regulatory failure from the State to the Federal Government, the named author Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo suggests that the major banks would pay a huge bonus to select employees regardless of economic conditions.

In fact, US banks paid 5,000 employees over $1 Million each despite having to borrow money from the Federal Government through the TARP bailout program.

As the dust clears, it is evident that US banks are wholly unconcerned about serving a capitalist democracy or being good citizens in our society. The banks exist for a single purpose and that is to make as much profit as they can from every segment of this industrial nation, and the rest of us can burn in hell.

The Federal Government initiated a bailout program in February for US small business owners to assist them in getting through this economic downturn. The program guaranteed the banks 2.75% interest on each loan and guaranteed the loan itself so the banks would be free of all risk.
Instead of assisting, the banks refused to participate leaving hundreds of thousands of small business owners stranded. The banks cut-off credit to most US small business owners, closed credit-card accounts, and denied personal loans regardless of the financial ability of the borrower.

In short, US banks are not truly part of our industrial democracy. They act as foreign enterprises observing our marketplace but unwilling to assist in our development. They are willing to take our money from us, and from the Federal Government if they are imprudent in the conduct of their business, but they should not be considered business partners nor trusted to act in your best interest.

While the banks tout their exclusive private banking services, the client is in fact at great risk both from the kind of investments the bank offers and their inclination to work against a client’s financial interest.

American’s used to love their banks and relied on them to be there through thick and thin. As Cuomo infers, the banks exist for the banks benefit, not America’s. They are no longer part of what makes America great.

The banks are a huge albatross on the shoulders of American citizens and Federal Government. Perhaps it’s time to break-up the monopoly of the major banks and encourage the development of community-based banking once again.

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$675,000 For File Sharing

A federal judge has ruled that a Boston University student violated copyright infringement laws when he swapped music online.

Joel Tenenbaum, of Providence, R.I., admitted on the witness stand Thursday that he downloaded and distributed 30 songs.

U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner ruled late Thursday that the only issue for the jury is whether his infringement was willful, and how much in damage to award four record labels that sued him over the illegal file-sharing.

The jury began deliberating the case late Friday. The case in Boston is only the nation’s second music downloading case against an individual to go to trial. The jury returned a verdict and awarded the plaintiffs the amount of $675,000. Tenebaum said that he has no choice but to declare bankruptcy.

Last month, a federal jury in Minneapolis ruled a Minnesota woman must pay $1.9 million for a similar copy right infringement case.

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Tweet On Your Landlord – Lawsuit To Follow

An apartment management company in Illinois has sued a tenant for libel over a “malicious and defamatory” tweet about the state of her apartment to her 20 followers on Twitter.

The Horizon Group Management filed a lawsuit against Amanda Bonnen, who was a tenant in one of its Chicago buildings. The complaint notes that the @abonnen account named in the complaint had only 20 followers (the account appears to no longer be live). The blog also has a screen shot of @abonnen’s May 12 tweet reply:

“You should just come anyway. Who said sleeping in a moldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon realty thinks it’s OK.”

The Cook County Circuit Court complaint includes @abonnen’s entire Twitter feed between April 27 and July 13 as Exhibit A, and it notes that because the @abonnen account was public, “anybody in the world can view the account holder’s tweets.” The complaint contends that because the “statement damaged the plaintiff’s reputation in its business, the statement is libel per se.”

Horizon Realty Group issued a press release on July 28 in which general counsel Jeff Michael stated that Bonnen had filed suit against Horizon on July 24, and that Horizon had discovered the tweet while conducting due diligence in response to that suit.

The complaint seeks a jurisdictional amount of damages and contends that because Bonnen’s tweet is defamatory per se damages to the plaintiff’s reputation “are presumed.”

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Chavez Starts Revolutionary Book Club

Venezuela’s president Hugo Chavez has made a list of mandatory reading for all Venezuelan’s and to ensure the books are being read the government is providing them free of charge.

The list includes;
Karl Marx’s “The Communist Manifesto”,
Hugo Chavez’s “Selected Speeches”,
Hugo Chavez’s “State Terrorism in Columbia”.
Cervantes “Don Quijote”,
Victor Hugo’s “Les Miserables”

“There are lots of accusations that we’re somehow indoctrinating people into socialism which I think is completely false,” says Edgar Roa, who organized the book event in the main square of Caracas.

“What we’re doing is putting books within everybody’s reach, including children’s literature, with absolutely no political content. Or Les Miserables by Victor Hugo which can be interpreted in many different ways depending on your political colors.”

The coordinator of the Revolutionary Reading Plan is a young Venezuelan named Carlos Duque, who stated, “When Fidel launched the literacy plan in Cuba in 1961, he told the people of Cuba the plan’s slogan was ‘We don’t tell the people to believe, we tell them to read’ and that’s kind of the idea here too,” he says.

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Soldiers Kill Civilians In Cover-Up

The Columbian Army turned 15 soldiers over to civilian courts for prosecution for the murder of two civilian restaurant workers in Medellin in 2006.

Finally, the case has come to trial and the court has sentenced each of the soldiers to terms of from 4 to 30 years for murder.

The soldiers killed the two young workers and then claimed that they were “rebels” killed in combat by an infantry battalion.

An officer, three of his subordinates and six rank-and-file troops were found to have masterminded or taken part in the plot to kill the two young men and were sentenced to 30 years. Five other troops were found to have covered up details related to the case and were sentenced to four years in prison.

The case was one of a series of scandals in which authorities were accused of carrying out extrajudicial killings to claim successes in their fight against rebels. The Colombian authorities are investigating more than a thousand such murders.

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Death By Vodka

Russian’s preoccupation with drinking their favorite domestic beverage, vodka, results in some of the highest drunk-driving statistics in the world.

This week alone over 100 Russian’s died in collisions caused by drunk drivers. So far this year over 10,000 Russian’s have died on Russia’s highways.

Russia’s Interior Minister, Rashid Nurgaliev, blamed criminal negligence and a road culture lacking basic driving skills. He admitted Russian roads are bad, infrastructure is weak and drivers often chat on their mobile phones at high speed or drive while drunk.

The Russian government has made earnest attempts to combat bad driving including employing thousands of traffic police with stop and search powers.

However, Mr. Nurgaliev admitted that despite their best efforts most drivers in Russia still think they can break the law and get away with it.

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Iran: Protestors Tried Without Prior Disclosure Of Charges

The actions taken by the Iranian government to prosecute 100 protestorsarrested during the demonstrations following the June 12, 2009 presidential election have taken a bizarre turn, unusual even for the arcane judicial system employed in Iran.

All 100 defendants and their lawyers have been denied any opportunity toreview the criminal charges made against their clients. This is in direct violation of Iran’s constitution but has not affected the court’s willingness to proceed with the trial. Forcing people to go to trial without knowing the charges made against them deprives them of the opportunity to prepare, to find witnesses, to engage in discovery, to review evidence, all of the things which defendants ordinarily rely on for their defense.

In addition, the protestors were tortured into making confessions and the court’s have agreed to admit the “confessions” into evidence regardless of how they were obtained.

Among those on trial are figures from Iran’s reformist movement, including Behzad Nabavi, a former industry minister and deputy speaker of parliament, Abdollah Ramazanzadeh, a former government spokesman and Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a former vice-president.

The accused appeared in court on Saturday to face allegations that, among other things, they attacked security forces and destroyed property following the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s president, on June 12.

The opposition denounced the election as fraudulent, saying it was stolen from Mir Hossein Mousavi, Ahmadinejad’s main rival.

In the days following the vote about 2,000 protesters, reformists, political activists and journalists were detained amid widespread clashes with police.
A prosecutor in the trial said at Saturday’s hearing said the opposition was a “tool of foreign enemies“.He accused the three biggest opposition parties of receiving money from foreign non-governmental organizations as they plotted an overthrow of the government.

The charges, read out in court by the prosecutor from a 15-page indictment, included attacking military and government buildings, having links with armed opposition groups and conspiring against the ruling system, IRNA, Iran’s official news agency, reported.

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