Outsider

Tornado Hits Toronto, Hurricane Bill To Follow

2009-08-22T21:31:00.000-07:00

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.

McCaughey “Death Panel” Myth Creator Resigns

2009-08-22T14:43:00.001-07:00

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.

Honduras Accuses Zelaya Of $2.7 Million Theft

2009-08-22T11:57:00.000-07:00

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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.

Suaad Hagi Files $2.5 Million Lawsuit Against Canada

2009-08-22T10:40:00.000-07:00

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.
　
　

Libya Celebrates Lockerbie Bomber

2009-08-21T15:35:00.000-07:00

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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.

UBS Banker Gets 40 Months

2009-08-21T15:32:00.000-07:00

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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.

China’s Military Deploy Throughout Country

2009-08-11T14:04:00.000-07:00

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.
　
　
　
　
　

Lead Poisoning Chinese Children

2009-08-11T13:31:00.001-07:00

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.

Charity Activists Murdered In Chechnya

2009-08-11T10:51:00.000-07:00

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.
　
　
　
　
　

Meteor Shower Peaks August 11-12th

2009-08-10T23:03:00.000-07:00

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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.

Whitehouse Lawyers Threaten Poster’s Rights

2009-08-10T22:14:00.000-07:00

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.

Tokyo Hit By 6.5 Earthquake

2009-08-10T20:56:00.000-07:00

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.

Death Penalty For Discussing Sex

2009-08-10T19:20:00.002-07:00

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.

Indian Ocean Hit by 7.6 Earthquake

2009-08-10T14:39:00.000-07:00

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.

China & India Border Dispute Escalates

2009-08-10T13:45:00.000-07:00

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.

Iran Threatens To Severely Punish US

2009-08-10T12:29:00.001-07:00

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.

Canada Extradites Schrieber To Germany

2009-08-09T18:11:00.000-07:00

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.

Japan Hit by 6.9 Earthquake

2009-08-09T13:51:00.000-07:00

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.

Chino California Prison Riot

2009-08-09T09:53:00.000-07:00

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.

Typhoon Morakot Heads For China

2009-08-09T00:11:00.000-07:00

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.

Haiti President Refuses Minimum Wage For Workers

2009-08-08T23:04:00.000-07:00

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.

Tehran Trials Anger Europe

2009-08-08T17:08:00.000-07:00

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.

DiPascali Deal Convicted Madoff

2009-08-08T13:32:00.000-07:00

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?

Warren Buffet’s $3 Billion Profit Sham

2009-08-07T17:39:00.000-07:00

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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.”
　

13% Unemployment By 2010

2009-08-07T05:29:00.000-07:00

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.
　
　
　

Sotomayor Confirmed Supreme Court Justice

2009-08-06T14:15:00.001-07:00

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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."

Russia & Turkey = Oil & Gas

2009-08-06T11:05:00.001-07:00

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.

Child Birth Is Pornography In Zambia

2009-08-05T22:25:00.001-07:00

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.

Obama Announces $2.4 Billion For Hybrid Technology

2009-08-05T15:11:00.000-07:00

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.

Bratton Resigns As LAPD Chief

2009-08-05T12:49:00.000-07:00

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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

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

2009-08-04T22:45:00.000-07:00

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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.

Blackwater: Must Be Charged With Murder & Fraud

2009-08-04T17:52:00.000-07:00

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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.

Kim Jong-Il Releases Ling & Lee To US

2009-08-04T14:30:00.000-07:00

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.

Marines Ban Facebook & All Social Networks

2009-08-04T14:27:00.000-07:00

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.
　
　
　

While Wall Street Burned = 5000 Made $1 Million Plus

2009-08-03T11:11:00.000-07:00

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.

$675,000 For File Sharing

2009-08-03T11:10:00.000-07:00

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.

Tweet On Your Landlord – Lawsuit To Follow

2009-08-03T11:07:00.000-07:00

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.”

Chavez Starts Revolutionary Book Club

2009-08-03T11:05:00.000-07:00

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.

Soldiers Kill Civilians In Cover-Up

2009-08-03T11:00:00.001-07:00

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.

Death By Vodka

2009-08-03T10:49:00.000-07:00

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.

Iran: Protestors Tried Without Prior Disclosure Of Charges

2009-08-03T10:45:00.000-07:00

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.

Israel Evicting Palestinian's From Jersalem

2009-08-03T10:35:00.000-07:00

The Two Palestinian families evicted from their homes today in East Jerusalem were accused of “harboring international activists”, a term which could be applied to anyone who is politically active or merely engaging in their profession, such as a journalist.

Palestinian’s claim that this is an effort by Israel to gradually remove each resident from the area and build a hotel on the site. Residents claim that the land was originally owned by Palestinian’s and therefore Israel cannot make a claim for the land.

Instead, Israel is finding legal grounds on which to remove the residents, including making ambigous allegations of alleged criminal or civil acts to justify the evictions.

Three Americans Arrested At Iran Border

2009-08-03T10:34:00.000-07:00

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Three US citizens, Sara Short, Joshua Steel, and Shane Bower were arrested as they inadvertently crossed over an unmarked border from Kurdistan into Iran.

Iran’s Al-Alam Television has confirmed the identity of the three hikers who were warned by local citizens not to descend the east side of the mountain range into Iranian territory.

The Iranian government has declared the crossing as a “threat to national security” despite the fact that the area is unmarked and generally unmanned.

Local residents state that they cannot determine exactly where the border is either since it is unmarked but they have also been warned not to cross into Iran. It appears that the actual border is an arbitrary line determined at the discretion of local Iranian troops.

The fourth member of the hiking group, US citizen Shaun Gabriel-Maxwell, stayed behind at their hotel due to illness. After calling Maxwell on their cell phone to tell him they had been arrested by the Iranians, Maxwell alerted the US Embassy in Iraq who then arranged to Maxwell away from the area.

A representative for the US embassy in Baghdad said; “We’ve seen the reports regarding this incident and are investigating but we can’t confirm anything at this time.”

25 Million Empty Shipping Containers

2009-08-01T22:20:00.001-07:00

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There are more shipping containers loaded and unloaded off the coasts and rivers of China, than travel to or from all other territories in the world put together.

It is in China that more than three-quarters of this activity takes place. The majority of China’s shipping by implication is ‘domestic’. The rest of the world put together only handles a third of what China handles.

Thus, at least half of all container shipping in the world involves China. The ships may bring goods to serve the domestic Chinese market, they may transport part-finished goods along the Chinese coast or down-river, or goods could simply be transferred between container ships in a Chinese port.

The rental of a shipping container from the eastern coast of China to the west coast of the United States was $1,420.00 for the three-week journey. That is only for the rental, not the cost of transportation. Today, that rental cost has dropped to $900.00 and continues to plummet monthly based on the fact that there are currently 25 Million empty shipping containers available for rent in China.

US wholesalers and importers are not maintaining inventories of imported goods and are simply refusing to reorder goods from China on the theory that the economy has not bottomed-out. Being stuck with unsaleable goods is an importer’s nightmare.

This has created a huge problem for US companies that relied on inexpensive industrial goods from China to maintain their business. Without those imports, they face increased costs of manufacturing which may result in the closure of their business.

The ramifications of a severe economic downturn are far more onerous than government might acknowledge. The likelihood of a short-term recovery is implausible when all of the small suppliers and manufacturers have ceased production in China creating a domino effect worldwide.

Venezuela: Chavez Closes 230 Radio Stations

2009-08-01T06:45:00.000-07:00

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In an unprecedented move to quash freedom of speech in Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez has revoked the permits of 230 radio stations in the nation, with more to follow.

This effectively eliminates any media opposition to Chavez’s method of governing Venezuela. Extending his actions to television stations, Chavez has begun harassing their managers, encouraging them to either change their editorial position or face closure.

Chavez is attempting to criminalize media editorial opposition by introducing an Emergency Bill Against Media Criminal Acts into the Venezuelan legislature, which will make contrarian media broadcasts an action against national security.

Berlusconi Denies Escort Deal

2009-07-31T20:45:00.000-07:00

Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi remains entangled in a controversy involving several call-girls who admit to entertaining Berlusconi in exchange for his assistance in resolving their business and legal problems.

Berlusconi denies any impropriety on his part and is adamant that the women involved are merely acquaintances and that his efforts in their behalf have nothing to do with his relationship with them.

Italian model, Patrizia D'Addario, stated that she had been paid more than $1,000 to attend a party in Berlusconi’s residence in Rome. Ms D'Addario claims that she was asked to return and eventually spent the night with the prime minister.

In an interview with Chi, one of Italy's most popular gossip magazines, Mr Berlusconi said he had never paid for sex. He added, “I never understood where the satisfaction is when you’re missing the pleasure of conquest.”

He attacked Ms D'Addario, saying she had been "extremely well paid" by someone to produce false accusations against him, an accusation which she denies. The prime minister said he could not be blamed for the bad behavior of others and there was nothing in his private life he should be ashamed of or should apologize for.

Russia Drills For Oil Off Cuba

2009-07-31T20:42:00.000-07:00

The Russian Federation entered into a contract with the Republic of Cuba to explore for oil in the Gulf of Mexico where it is predicted there could be as much as 20 billion barrels.

A term of the contract provides Cuba with $150 Million worth of equipment and agricultural supplies, tying in nicely with Raul Castro’s demand last week that Cuban’s begin cultivating the agricultural land that has remained barren for so many years.

Barren simply because there was no machinery available in Cuba or the ancient equipment owned by Cuban farmers could no longer be repaired.

UBS Strikes Deal To Avoid Criminal Charges

2009-07-31T08:22:00.000-07:00

Swiss banking giant, UBS AG, today entered into an agreement with the US government in which UBS will disclose the names of 52,000 Americans who hold secret bank accounts at UBS in order to avoid criminal indictment.

While Switzerland maintains banking secrecy as a matter of law, UBS violated both Swiss and US law by engaging in the practice of establishing fraudulent offshore companies through which they transferred US client’s funds to their bank, a practice commonly known as money laundering.

UBS still faces very heavy fines, possibly totaling $1 Billion dollars or more to avoid the criminal prosecution. In addition, UBS handed over a short-list of 250 names of American account holders who have substantial sums on deposit with the bank. The US Department of Justice is investigating the individuals named for possible prosecution.

Insurance Industry Blocks Health Care Reform

2009-07-31T07:28:00.001-07:00

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has repeatedly made clear that the obstacle to providing health care for all Americans is the insurance industry itself.

Insurance companies have lobbied heavily to maintain the status quo, and deny health coverage for the majority of Americans, simply because it is hugely profitable to do so.

Insurance industry executives claim that the current system is the best despite the fact that health care is non-existent for most Americans. In essence, the industry would rather see most Americans in poor health in order to bolster the profits of insurance giants.

Pelosi is waging a war against the insurance industry and attempting to inform the American public of who the “real villains” are in the process of introducing public health care reform.
Pelosi stated that, “The current system works so well for insurers that they don't even want subsidies. They've had a good thing going for a long time at the expense of the American people and the health of our country," she said, adding that it will be tough to keep them from getting their way. "This is the fight of our lives."

"I am for the strongest possible public option," Pelosi said. The Senate health committee bill "is one that I think would be okay. It's not my preference. My preference is a stronger bill. But it meets the test of having an effective public option."

McKinnon Extradited To US For Hacking

2009-07-31T06:44:00.000-07:00

Gary McKinnon allegedly hacked into 100 US government computers during 2001 and 2002, looking for evidence that the government was hiding information regarding UFO’s.

Instead of thanking McKinnon for exposing the absurd vulnerabilities of the US government’s database, the government has spent the past seven years trying to extradite him from the UK for the purposes of trying him as a criminal in the US.

Apparently, the government had failed to employ firewalls on its computer systems and McKinnon, with a little skill, was able to open computer files that he thought would reveal the government’s knowledge regarding UFO’s.

The US government claims that McKinnon did $1 Million dollars worth of damage to the computer systems but fails to explain how that is possible.

Characterizing McKinnon’s actions as the greatest military computer hack of all time, apparently to cover-up or mitigate the government’s own negligence, the efforts to extradite him have been considerable.

Exhausting all appeals regarding jurisdiction, McKinnon is now likely to be transported to the US to face trial despite the fact that he suffers from a permanent disability.

Crowley Meets President Obama At The Whitehouse

2009-07-30T19:06:00.000-07:00

The ‘teachable moment’ finally arrived today when Sgt. James Crowley of the Cambridge Massachusetts police department met with President Barack Obama, Vice-President Joe Biden, and Harvard University Professor Henry Gates at the Whitehouse.
Crowley arrested Gates last week for “loud and tumultuous conduct in a public space”, a charge often called disorderly conduct.

Gates was lawfully in his home and was understandably annoyed at Crowley’s attitude, which Gates described as having racist overtones. Crowley had responded to a possible breaking and entering incident. When questioned about the event during a press conference, President Obama described the incident as “stupid” under the circumstances.

In fact, Professor Gates was right to question the violation of his 4th Amendment right to freedom from search and seizure and his 1st Amendment right to freedom of speech, constitutional rights which Crowley either did not understand or had not learned in the police academy.

In an effort to placate everyone involved, President Obama invited Crowley and Gates to meet with him at the Whitehouse for a beer. Joe Biden joined in at the last moment.

China Stops Enforcing Counterfeiting Laws

2009-07-29T21:36:00.000-07:00

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Almost 90% of all counterfeit consumer goods originate in China with
international brand names such as Prada, Gucci, Apple, Microsoft, Rolex and thousands of others.

The Chinese government passed laws to criminalize counterfeiting and that acted as a deterrent, for a while. Since the economic downturn began late last year, the Chinese government has made it clear that they will no longer prosecute counterfeiters with less than $7,000 worth of products in their possession.

This opened the floodgates for counterfeiters who simply limited the quantity of goods they offered for sale. Prosecutions have ended and counterfeiting is big business in China once again.

Counterfeiters usually rely on their friendships or associations with employees of major corporations to borrow the latest invention for a day or two and reverse engineer the product.

This results in $500 cell phones being reproduced and retailed for $75.00 but often without the same quality component parts as the original.

Since economic conditions are difficult worldwide, there is less resistance from the consumer for counterfeit goods. As long as it works, and it is inexpensive, and looks like the original it’s good enough to purchase.

More than $250 Million in counterfeit goods were confiscated and destroyed by US Customs last year and this year the total could be much higher. Regardless, tons of merchandise stills makes it through and finds its way to the sidewalk merchants, flea markets and yard sales throughout the United States.

As one merchant stated, “If it works fine then who cares if it’s a copy. If the price is low, no one complains and these products have s short shelf life anyway. Brand-new today and next week there is another new model to replace it so these products don’t have to last for years. Quality is not that important anymore.”

Microsoft & Yahoo = Google Competition

2009-07-29T12:33:00.000-07:00

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Microsoft and Yahoo have finally joined forces, after 18 months of neogiations, to form a formidable competitior to Google’s Search Engine capability.

Microsoft will provide the search platform through it’s newly launched “Bing” Search engine while Yahoo provides the user traffic and advertising.

Yahoo’s former CEO, Jerry Yang, stepped down late last year to allow new CEO Carol Bartz full reign in the neogiations with Microsoft. The deal will provide Yahoo with an additional $500 Million in annual revenue and $200 Million in savings based on the negotiated terms of the deal which include Yahoo’s retention of 88% of the collective advertising revenue stream.

Google has approximately 75% of the internet search traffic and the new joint venture between Microsoft and Yahoo will target those users and advertisers by offering lower priced and equally effective advertising through the colorful “Bing” portal.

Carl Icahn, a major shareholder in Yahoo, expressed his approval of the joint venture, stating; “It is about time. I wondered if this joint venture would ever materialize given the difficulty with former management. Carol Bartz is the right person at the right time. Congratulations to both Microsoft and Yahoo.”

China’s Stock Market Drops 8% Suddenly

2009-07-29T12:31:00.000-07:00

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The Chinese stock market has seen an overall 90% gain in the past eight months but today there was a glitch in this stellar performance when the Chinese government announced that it will begin tightening the money supply through the Chinese banking system.

On the news, the Chinese Stock Index, the SSEC, fell as much as 8% at one point and later recovered at least temporarily to a total decline of 5% for the day.

Chinese stock investors are likely to remain wary over the next few weeks as they watch events play out before returning to the market.

US Bank Failures Total 90 & Growing

2009-07-29T12:28:00.000-07:00

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One of the first indicators of major trouble in the US economy last year was the failure of Washington Mutual Bank which seemingly occurred overnight.

As it turns out, Washington Mutual was only the first of many banks and thrift institutions to fail. The total now exceeds 90 banks and thrifts and is growing at a rapid rate with the potential to exceed 150 banks by the end of 2010.

This has placed an enormous strain on the cash reserves at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) whose balance sheet currently shows that they are operating with reserves 75% below the mandated minimum.

In response to this situation, the major surviving banks are viewing this as an opportunity to purchase failed or failing banks and thrifts at pennies on the dollar.

Structured properly, some of the banks can be purchased with no cash whatsoever simply to ensure to the FDIC that the bank’s customers see continuity in the daily operation of the institution. Nothing would be politically more damaging than to have the banks shut their doors and deny customers access to their accounts.

Iran Closes Prison After Official’s Son Murdered

2009-07-28T09:51:00.000-07:00

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The Iranian government has imprisoned over 1,500 protesters or demonstrators following the civil unrest which resulted from the circumstances surrounding the June 12, 2009 presidential election.

Many of the people arrested apparently vanished without trace. Those that were imprisoned at the Kahrizak facility included the 25-year-old son of an assistant to Iranian Minister Mohsen Rezai, who was later found murdered in his cell.

The public outcry for release of the prisoners has taken on a new urgency as a result of the media coverage of the incident and today Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, ordered the center at Kahrizak closed because it failed to "preserve the rights of detainees".

All of the prisoners were transferred to Tehran’s Evin Prison creating a huge increase in the already overcrowded conditions existing in the facility. The Iranian media reports that a death occurs every day in Evin Prison, many of which are murders.

The Iranian Parliament has ordered an investigation and Iranian Courts are ordering the immediate processing of the criminal cases which resulted from the arrests following the presidential election, presumably to expeditiously release the prisoners.

Each subsequent event tied to the June 12th election has underscored the government’s incredibly poor judgment in the handling of the public’s discontent over the election results.

Instead of recounting votes to assure the public of the validity of the election results, the government acted with arrogance and belligerence in denying the public’s right to accountability which fueled massive protests in the streets of Tehran.

SEC Files Suit: Defendant Commits Suicide

2009-07-26T09:37:00.000-07:00

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The US Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil lawsuit against Hazem Al-Braikan, a Kuwaiti citizen, who has at least twice this year engaged in the practice of announcing phony take-over bids for US companies causing the share prices to rise.

Al-Braikan would accumulate a companies stock and then send out a press-release indicating that the company was about to be purchased by an Arab consortium for twice the current value of its shares which would immediately cause the share price to increase on the New York Stock Exchange. Al-Braikan would then sell his shares at a substantial profit.

Today, Al-Braikan was found dead at his villa in Kuwait City, apparently a suicide with a single bullet to his head. Earlier in the day, Al-Braikan had announced that he had retained a law firm in New York to represent him in the litigation and would not comment further on the case.

The SEC motion to freeze Al-Braikan’s US bank accounts was granted by the District Court and it is unclear whether Al-Braikan had any other resources available to him to defend the lawsuit.

The Gulf region has had its share of financial disasters recently, all in the wake of the global economic meltdown. Many of the area’s financial institutions have failed and corporate leaders are being held responsible for the losses, which can dramatically affect their social standing. In a region known for its rigid social structure, the loss of face due to financial distress can have a devastating effect on individuals.
　
　

American Cops Lack Skills & Ability

2009-07-24T12:05:00.000-07:00

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The controversy over the arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Gates Jr. at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts has excited pundits and politicians alike.

Gates was arrested at his home on suspicion of breaking and entering but formally charged only with “loud and tumultuous conduct in a public space” when Gates insisted that he owned the house, was not engaged in breaking and entering and had provided identification to prove his statement.

The cop involved in the arrest, Sgt. James Crowley, refuses to apologize to Gates for his actions and claims that the manner of investigation and arrest were exactly as he was taught. Further, the Cambridge police chief backed-up Crowley’s claim and went on to state that their methods meet the national standard for police departments.

In essence, the police chief is stating that if there is a problem with their police methods then there is a problem with the national standard, as he interprets it.

Gates rightly questions whether his 4th Amendment right to be free from search and seizure was violated and whether the statements he made openly on the front porch of his house were protected by the 1st Amendment right to free speech.

Crowley used the statements made by Gates as the basis for the criminal charge in that the statements were “loud, tumultuous and made in a public space”.

Clearly, Gates had a right to be in his home, had a right to enter his home in any manner, had a right to refuse to leave his home, had a right to protest his arrest, and had a right to make any statement he wished. But all of those rights are meaningless to American cops who are not taught fundamental or constitutional rights of the citizen as part of their police academy curriculum.

In America, there are no fundamental or constitutional rights on the street. It appears those rights exist only in a courtroom and then only if a judge is willing to acknowledge the existence of those rights. Too frequently, the judge is actually the instrumentality of the wrongful police conduct, upholding arrests which are clearly in violation of the defendant’s constitutional rights.

Though the individual states have ratified the United States Constitution, and adopted it as their own state constitution, the states through their law enforcement agencies continually ignore the rights of their citizens.

Cops act with impunity to quash the ordinary conduct of citizens, all under the color of authority. Where is the support from the judiciary for the rights that apply to all Americans?

The cops claim that they cannot follow the rules and have to circumvent them in a slithering snake-like manner to accomplish their goals. The fact is that there is not one American cop who has any comprehension of the fundamental or constitutional rights that apply to citizens, simply because they have never been taught these rules.

They have never been taught these rules because they are viewed as incapable of understanding and applying them. In America, cops are not highly educated, often taking the job because they cannot qualify for anything else. They receive no training in the rights of citizens because that is deemed to be a lawyer’s job.

Additionally, cops are viewed as having limited skills and abilities and are not capable of applying constitutional rights correctly in confrontational situations. Or more specifically, not capable of good judgment under stress so why cloud their decision-making process with legal theory.

President Barack Obama correctly labeled the police action as stupid under the circumstances, however, that has raised the hackles of the racist majority who fail to understand that their rights were also violated that day in Cambridge. Every time a cop is allowed to exceed his constitutionally limited authority there is a domino effect that undermines the rights of all Americans.

While the Constitution forms the rules which apply to the government’s contract with Americans, there can be no easing of those rules for cops simply because they do not understand them. Raise the standard for cop’s education or accept that there will be instances of regrettable, even deadly, conduct by cops on a frequent basis.

If there was ever a time for reform in America, it is now. Now is the time to modify the conduct of America’s institutions including its criminal justice system.

While Professor Gates claims that he will not drop the matter, the fact is that he experienced the tip of the iceberg with regard to police conduct. Outraged as he is over the events occurring at his house, the fact is that thousands of Americans will be subjected to far worse police action today, and every day, in every city in America.
　
　
　
　

US Banks Walk Away From Foreclosed Homes

2009-07-19T15:23:00.001-07:00

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With over 20 million empty homes in the United States, the Banks that
foreclosed on these properties are overwhelmed with the additional costs associated with the re-sale of the properties and have chosen to walk-away from the properties altogether.

This leaves the foreclosed former homeowner liable for all property taxes and property upkeep even though they no longer live in the house. Because the banks will not conduct a sale of the property, the original borrower remains responsible for all of the costs associated with home-ownership though many have not lived in the house for several months.

Former owners are receiving payment demands from municipalities for property taxes, property repairs, and even demolition costs. These costs can amount to thousands of dollars and if unpaid will add another strike to the credit-record of the former homeowner.

The Banks are indifferent to the problems they have caused mortgage borrowers and homeowners and simply refuse to spend any funds whatsoever on the property once they have foreclosed. Entire neighborhoods have become dilapidated as a result of the Bank’s policies.

In response, some municipalities have taken to demolition of the empty houses, often a dozen at a time, and are attempting to cover the land with grass to improve the appearance

Alleged: Palestinian Authority Conspired With Israel To Murder Arafat

2009-07-19T14:52:00.000-07:00

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Al-Jazerra Television broadcast an interview with Farouk al-Kaddoumi, Secretary-General of Fatah’s Central Committee and the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s political department in Tunisia, in which al-Kaddoumi alleged that Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas had met with Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to orchestrate the assassination or murder of Yasser Arafat.

Al-Kaddoumi alleged that he was in possession of a transcript of a conversation between Sharon and Abbas in which the two leaders discussed the most efficient method of eliminating Arafat.

This followed Arafat’s complete indifference to the events of September 11, 2001 when it became obvious that Arafat had no interest in resolving conflicts between Israel and Palestine but instead sought to continue the war to his financial benefit.

Despite repeated statements by Arafat that he wanted peace in the region, in fact he was capitalizing on the state of war and profiting enormously even going so far as to purchase a mansion in Paris, France. Arafat traveled between Paris and Palestine continuously to create the appearance that he lived in Palestine, but in fact as soon as media coverage ceased he would immediately leave Palestine for his home in Paris.

Arafat’s self-interest prevented any advancement in the peace process and it is entirely plausible that a conversation between Sharon and Abbas did occur in which they discussed efficient methods of terminating Arafat’s dominance over the Palestinian people.

Iran Imprisons Dozens Of Civil Rights Lawyers

2009-07-18T15:12:00.000-07:00

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In a continuing display of the Government’s utter stupidity, Iran has arrested at least two dozen, or more, prominent civil rights lawyers and incarcerated them at Evin Prison in Tehran.

In each case, the lawyers were kidnapped from their office, home, or in plain view on the street, and dragged into a waiting vehicle by undercover agents of Iran’s government security service.

Isolated pockets of protesters continue to assemble in Tehran and they are routinely subjected to beatings and kidnappings orchestrated by the police.

Some demonstrators have been locked into the trunks of unmarked cars and driven away with no information given as to their destination or whereabouts.

Iran’s government believes that if the instigators are removed from society that a forcibly subdued peace will return when in fact it is the demands of the citizens that spur the media and civil rights activists into action.

The Iranian government is apparently convinced that the actions they are taking are appropriate when in fact their actions continue to underscore, and demonstrate to the world, the lack of fundamental rights for all of its citizens.

A better course of action would have been to engage in recounts of votes and instigate measures to protect future elections from acts of fraud.

Quiet Crackdown Drains Iran Dissidents

2009-07-17T09:14:00.000-07:00

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Iranian authorities have barred journalists for international news organizations from reporting on the streets and ordered them to stay in their offices or face arrest. This report is based on the accounts of witnesses reached in Iran and official statements carried on Iranian media.

The Iranian government has seized and detained several hundred activists, journalists and students across the nation, in one of the most extensive crackdowns on key dissidents since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Even as unprecedented protests broke out on the streets after the June 12 disputed presidential election, the most stinging backlash from authorities has come through roundups and targeted arrests, according to witnesses and human rights organizations. They say plainclothes security agents have also put dozens of the country's most experienced pro-reform leaders behind bars and are harassing dissident politicians while they are at prayer services.

The purpose is to prevent dissidents and their factions from any type of peaceful assembly or communication. Merely meeting an alleged dissident for lunch is a sufficient basis for arrest or detention. The Iranian government continues to expound the belief that the protests and demonstrations were the product of foreign interference in Iranian affairs, apparently unwilling to admit that they made an enormous strategic error in denying the election recount.

All of the present turmoil in Iran could have been avoided simply by conducting a recount of the votes collected in the Presidential election. Even a quasi recount could have been sufficient to satisfy the citizens that their votes were not discarded or destroyed.

Instead Iranian authorities behaved with arrogance and belligerence in denying the Iranian citizens their fundamental right to fair elections and ignored the repeated requests for a recount.

Journalist, Lawyer, Activist: A Short Life In Russia

2009-07-15T13:00:00.000-07:00

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The most dangerous careers in Russia are Journalist, Lawyer, and Activist. Feared for the power of the pen, and the power to persuade and expose, Natalia Estemirova a Russian journalist and activist who managed the Chechen division of ‘Memorial’ a Russian human-rights group was kidnapped at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday morning as she left her home.

Her body was found several hours later in a forested area of the city of Nazran in Ingushetia. She had been shot at least twice in the head and chest.

Estemirova indicated that she was about to expose the criminal acts of the Chechen security services which included kidnapping, torture, murder and the deliberate arson of private homes.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev expressed "outrage" at the murder, and ordered an investigation, the common practice whenever an activist is murdered in Russia.

Medvedev’s “outrage” is the standard response from the Russian government and, thereafter, typically results in silence or a total black-out regarding information about the murder. Eventually, the incident is largely forgotten and the case buried away in a file.

Attorney Marc Dreier Sentenced 20 Years For Fraud

2009-07-13T17:58:00.000-07:00

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New York attorney Marc Dreier was sentenced today to 20 years in a federal penitentiary for the fraud he perpetrated by selling fictional promissory notes allegedly issued in behalf of two major corporations.

The losses to his investors exceeded $400 Million, a pittance compared to Bernie Madoff’s alleged $65 Billion swindle. Both schemes operated along the same lines although independently of each other. Dreier was not in business with Madoff but his investment scheme operated and unraveled in the same manner.

Dreier converted his clients funds to purchase lavish homes and rare oil paintings valued in excess of $700 Million which the U.S. Marshals have confiscated, or taken possession of, and which can be sold to reimburse investors, at least partially.

Dreier was the managing partner of Dreier LLP in Manhattan which employed in excess of 200 lawyers. The charges against Dreier included securities fraud, conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering.

In sentencing Dreier, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff stated "When you turn to the facts of the crime that Mr. Dreier committed, one must still be appalled, as it is a huge fraud by any standard, other than the Madoff standard."
　

Cheney’s Covert CIA Death Squad

2009-07-13T12:38:00.000-07:00

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Former Vice-President Dick Cheney allegedly attempted to create a covert group of CIA operatives, termed “The Crew”, responsible for the assassination of Al-Queda members, and others.

The CIA “Crew” would be invisible to Congress and all other branches of government and report through a senior CIA official directly to Cheney without supervision or external direction.

Funding would be clandestine with the monies diverted from other quasi-programs presently in the budget. The slush fund would be operated externally from the CIA itself so that no audits would uncover the operation.

This type of activity is not unique to CIA operations, however, for a vice-president to intentionally hide its creation from Congress poses substantial ethical and legal questions which may result in an action being taken against Cheney personally.

Cheney’s actions can be construed to be outside the scope or limits of his official responsibilities and thus expose him to personal liability.

In totality, Cheney’s actions while vice-president have accumulated in such a manner as to raise issues about his integrity and intent while in office.

While Cheney maintains that he acted in the best interests of the country it is the nature of the actions themselves which create a problem and underscore what may be construed as exceptionally poor judgment on his part.
　
　
　

Cheney Again Implicated In Falsifying Data

2009-07-11T19:32:00.000-07:00

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Former US Vice-President under the Bush Administration, Dick Cheney, is again implicated in the falsification of data, documents, and information with regard to the counter-terrorism programs instituted in the US following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

The New York Times today disclosed that their investigation had obtained information from two unidentified sources who disclosed that Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director Leon Panetta had revealed, in closed briefings to congressional intelligence committees late last month,
Cheney’s involvement in a secret counter-terrorist program that has been in operation for the past eight years in the US.

Leon Panetta was named by President Barack Obama to head the CIA earlier this year and has since investigated every aspect of the governments involvement in alleged counter-terrorist activities. Panetta terminated the secret program on June 23, 2009 immediately on learning of its existence.

Intelligence and congressional officials told the New York Times that the CIA began the program after the September 11, 2001 attacks and now claim that the program “…never became operational and did not involve CIA interrogation programs or domestic intelligence activities”.

CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said it was not the agency's practice to discuss classified briefings. "When a CIA unit brought this matter to Director Panetta's attention, it was with the recommendation that it be shared appropriately with Congress. That was also his view, and he took swift, decisive action to put it into effect," Gimigliano said, declining to comment further.
　

Standing Ovation For Obama In Ghana

2009-07-11T06:29:00.000-07:00

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Today in Accra Ghana, US President Barack Obama addressed the Parliament of Ghana and primarily spoke about the need for ethics and professional responsibility in government.

While inspirational, it was apparent from the smirks and smiles on the faces of many Parliamentarians that Obama's speech will do nothing to eradicate the graft and corruption which is endemic in Ghana's culture.

Obama drew a comparison between the opportunity for African-Americans in the United States and the potential for the same results in Africa if Ghana's government will support an open democracy and implement reforms.

Unquestionably motivational, Obama faces a larger obstacle in Africa than anywhere else on the globe simply because he cannot create a sufficient and ongoing basis for governments commitment to the change necessary to bring African business into the 21st century.

Tamil Death Toll ‘1,400 A Week’ At Manik Farm Camp In Sri Lanka

2009-07-10T06:06:00.000-07:00

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About 1,400 people are dying every week at the giant Manik Farm internment camp set up in Sri Lanka to detain Tamil refugees from the nation’s bloody civil war, senior international aid sources have told The Times.

The death toll will add to concerns that the Sri Lankan Government has failed to halt a humanitarian catastrophe after announcing victory over the Tamil Tiger terrorist organisation in May. It may also lend credence to allegations that the Government, which has termed the internment sites “welfare villages”, has actually constructed concentration camps to house 300,000 people.

Mangala Samaraweera, the former Foreign Minister and now an opposition MP, said: “There are allegations that the Government is attempting to change the ethnic balance of the area. Influential people close to the Government have argued for such a solution.”

News of the death rate came as the International Committee of the Red Cross revealed that it had been asked to scale down its operations by the Sri Lankan authorities, which insist that they "have the situation under control."- quoted from the Timeslonline news paper.

10,000 Homes Destroyed In Chinese Earthquake

2009-07-09T16:58:00.000-07:00

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At least 10,000 homes were destroyed today in China's Yunnan Province when a magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck at 7:17 P.M. local time.

An additional eight after-shocks caused damage to another 30,000 structures, injuring 500 and killing more than 50 people.

The Chinese government has ordered thousands of troops into the area with emergency supplies including food, medicine and tents.

The epicenter is thought to be in the mountains of Yaoan county in south-western China.

Russian Army Downs Russian Airforce Planes

2009-07-09T14:32:00.000-07:00

The current issue of the Moscow Defense Brief contains an article entitled
‘Russian Air Losses in the Five-Day War Against Georgia’ in which it is alleged that the Russian Airforce lost 6 aircraft in the war against Georgia last year and that at least 3 of the aircraft were shot down by the Russian Army.

Apparently, the problem arises from the rivalry between the Army and Airforce who staged entirely separate campaigns in Georgia without regard for the common objective. This resulted in the Russian Army shooting at everything in sight, including clearly marked Russian Airforce planes.

This begs the question as to whether the Russian armed forces can competently engage in any military action without committing self-destruction. Ordinarily, this concern is leveled against third-world nations whose military is largely untrained or unsupervised.

Europe Responds To Obama’s Intellectual Approach

2009-07-08T19:18:00.000-07:00

The G8 Leaders expressed their high regard for US President Barack Obama citing his “intelligence, openness, and vitality” and collectively suggested that dealing with President Obama is a refreshing change from the “typical politicians we receive from America”.

Encouraged by President Obama’s optimism and direction, the G8 Leaders mutually agreed to a 50% reduction in global emissions by 2050, and a potential reduction of up to 80% by the developed nations in the same period.

The G8 meeting is being held in the Italian town of L’Aquila which was devastated by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake last April. Joining President Obama are the leaders of Italy, Germany, France, Russia, Japan, Canada and Great Britain. Chinese President Hu Jintao attended the summit but returned home Wednesday to deal with the Uighur and Han ethnic clashes in China's western Xinjiang province.

California Banks Decline State IOU’s “Sell Them On Ebay”

2009-07-07T16:15:00.000-07:00

The three banks that advertised they would accept California IOU’s from their customers for deposit have indicated that their offer expires on July 10, 2009. No California IOU’s or warrants will be accepted after July 10th.

This leaves hundreds of thousands of State employees and suppliers without a means to convert the IOU’s to cash. In response, California suggests that employees try to “…cash them through Check-Cashing stores or offer them for sale on eBay.”

State employees were stunned by the news. Without a means of cashing the IOU’s they have no method of paying their rent or mortgage, or other expenses. Clearly, the State is unconcerned about their employees and the consequences those employees face in the coming weeks and months.

The hardship on State employees is further compounded by the three unpaid days that they are required to take off work each month. Meanwhile, California’s budget deficit continues to grow and without a quick resolution the State will require employees to take further unpaid leave each month.

As many employees’ state, “….there are no other jobs or we would have resigned last month. How long can we last without income? And why should we work at all if they can’t pay us with real money?”
　
　
　

Honduran Zelaya Demands US End Exile

2009-07-06T17:24:00.000-07:00

Image by ¡Que comunismo! via Flickr

Honduran exiled President Manuel Zelaya is expected to meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington tomorrow where he will demand that the United States assist in ending his exile and re-instating his Presidency.

Zelaya attempted to return by air to Honduras yesterday but military vehicles blocked the runway at the main airport preventing the aircraft from landing.

Although Zelaya has mustered the support of several nations in his bid to resume the Presidency, he requires the consent and assistance of the US to make it a reality.

Apparently, no Central American or South American nations are willing to test the sovereignty of Honduras by a military action and therefore Zelaya will have to rely on US monetary sanctions in an effort to coerce the Honduran government. Such a ploy is unlikely to be successful since new Presidential elections are due to be held in November 2009.

The shortness of time before the new elections works against Zelaya who is unlikely to accomplish much within the next few weeks.

LAPD Detective Pleads Not Guilty To Murder

2009-07-06T16:29:00.000-07:00

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At her arraignment today in Los Angeles Superior Court, Stephanie Lazarus, also known as Stephanie Young, pled not guilty to all charges stemming from the 1986 murder of her former boy-friend's new wife.

LAPD detectives discovered a match between the DNA found in the bite-marks on the victim and the DNA recovered from the styrofoam coffee cups that Lazarus discarded at LAPD headquarters.

Lazarus was not previously considered a suspect in the crime because a similar crime occurred in the area within three weeks of the murder and LAPD detectives assumed that the murder must have been committed by the same persons.

Lazarus was mentioned in the case file and LAPD detectives in the office across the hall from her decided to check out her DNA for the possibility of a match with the saliva found in bite marks on the murder victim.

Lazarus is married to Los Angeles police officer Scott Young who denies any knowledge of the events surrounding his wife's arrest.

Lazarus, who remains in custody, will return to court on July 21, 2009 for a hearing on the prosecution's motion to obtain dental impressions from Lazarus. In addition, Lazarus will appear for a preliminary hearing to determine whether there is enough evidence to bind her over for trial.

Riots Kill 155 in China

2009-07-06T05:37:00.000-07:00

Image by shapeshift via Flickr

155 people were killed, over 1000 injured, and hundreds more arrested in China’s far west Xinjiang region on Sunday.

The violence started as a peaceful Sunday protest by 1,000 to 3,000 Uighurs, who are ethnic Muslims, but there’s little indication of how things spiraled out of control. The protest was organized in response to the death of two Uighur factory workers during a fight with Han Chinese coworkers last month.

Initially, 20 female police officers were assigned to control the peaceful crowd but Chinese troops moved in shortly after and then the crowd, apparently provoked by the appearance and demeanor of the troops, began to respond with escalating violence resulting in serious injuries amongst the Uighurs.

In Chinese culture there is a hierarchy of ethnicity that places the Uighers at the low end of the scale. Often ridiculed for their religion and their culture, the Uigurs typically respond with peaceful protests but Sunday's actions proved their willingness to respond with violence if provoked.

Clearly, moving troops into the area was unwarranted and only served to create tension amongst the Uigurs. Subsequently, the Chinese government placed the blame for the resulting riots on "foreign influences" as though the entire event was orchestrated from outside China.

The actions and finger-pointing of the Chinese government eerily emulate those of the Iranian government in response to the brutality they reigned on the people of Tehran following the elections on June 12th.

Newsweek Journalist Forced To Confess Working Against Iran

2009-07-05T19:08:00.000-07:00

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Maziar Bahari, a 42 year old Canadian-Iranian reporter working for Newsweek Magazine, was forced by Iranian police to admit to a charge of "working for foreign governments while in Iran".

Bahari is one of the many journalists arrested in Iran while covering the election, and subsequent protests, and has confessed to "filing false reports for Newsweek Magazine" during the Iranian elections.

Bahari previously worked for the BBC and the ITN's 'Channel 4 News' in the UK and has gained a reputation for professionalism throughout his career.

In addition, the Iranian government is now proclaiming that anyone who is reporting for a satellite news service will be prosecuted for a criminal act. In an official statement printed in the pro-reform newspaper Hamshahri;

"The individuals, who in any way collaborate with these networks or are entrenched in the nucleus of organizations which are active through Internet sites, must be adequately and properly subject to legal actions. It is imperative that this phenomenon be seriously dealt with by all judicial authorities of the country as well as by provincial judicial authorities," Ayatollah Seyyed Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi said in his published order.

The ayatollah called on local judicial heads to work with investigators to determine "intentions, objectives and their sources of financial, political and intelligence support" of individuals who "operate against the system," according to the Hamshahri report.

In essence, the Iranian government is now at war with media throughout the world including internet news reporters. This action underscores the exceptionally poor judgment shown by the Iranian government following the June 12th election. Had they acted to recount ballots to satisfy the voters curiosity it is likely that none of the subsequent events would have occurred.

Every effort has been made by the Iranian government to place blame for their obstinate and unthinking response to citizens demands on numerous foreign states, foreign journalists, the CIA, and terrorists, amongst many others.

Dozens Killed In Vietnam Floods

2009-07-05T11:09:00.000-07:00

Image by Magalie L'Abbé via Flickr

At least 62 people in northern Vietnam have been killed by flash floods and landslides caused by a tropical storm.

Dozens of people are missing and entire villages have been cut off in Lao Cai, the worst-affected province.

A rescue effort led by the army is under way but is being hampered by the severe weather.

Tropical storm Kammuri, which came in from the Gulf of Tonkin and made landfall on Friday, hit China with rain and winds earlier in the week.

Officials in the mountainous province of Lao Cai, which borders China, told news agencies that tens of thousands of people had been stranded after roads were washed away.

Further landslides have been predicted, sparking fears that the death toll could rise.

Palestinian Journalist Arrested For Laughing At The Beach

2009-07-05T10:45:00.000-07:00

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Asma al-Ghul, a Palestinian journalist taking a day off at a beach in Gaza was arrested by Hamas policemen for laughing loudly and being dressed immodestly while at the beach.

Asma failed to wear a hijab headscarf while swimming and therefore violated the law according to the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice security forces who confiscated her passport and interrogated her as to the identities of the friends who were with her. Her friends were detained for three hours and beaten before being released.

The special security force reports directly to the Ministry of Waqf Affairs and is said to be a copy of units that have long been operating in Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan. The Hamas government, according to local reporters, has refrained from publicly admitting that the force exists out of fear of being branded fundamentalist.

The Hamas force consists of dozens of plainclothes police officers who patrol beaches, public gardens, restaurants, hair salons and coffee shops to make sure that males and females are not mixing together and that the women are dressed modestly.

Asma said that Hamas has banned men in the Gaza Strip from swimming topless. "And as in my case, Hamas has banned women from laughing while swimming," she added.

China: Torrential Rain Collapses 6000 Buildings, 150,000 Flee

2009-07-04T17:53:00.000-07:00

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In three days over 8 inches of rain accumulated on the flat roofs of buildings in Southern China's Jiangxi Province causing over 6,000 buildings and homes to collapse under the enormous weight.

Over 150,000 citizens have fled the area while troops struggled to contain a breach from a flood diversion tunnel at the base of the Kama Dam in Luocheng County, Guangxi. A 44 foot long section gave way under the weight of the water and a nearby hillside was also in danger of collapsing. Local officials ordered more than 7,500 locals living downstream to flee, fearing the dam might crack.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao issued orders to local authorities to "ensure the safety of the public", and by Saturday afternoon the danger was receding, but forecasters in Guangxi have said that torrential rain was likely to hit parts of the region again on Sunday.

Police Target 30 In Hunt For Michael Jackson’s Drug Suppliers

2009-07-04T17:14:00.000-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

Police want to question 30 Doctors, nurses and chemists who may have helped to supply Michael Jackson with prescription drugs as his family argue over the final details for his memorial service, which is to be held on Tuesday in Los Angeles.

The police taskforce, established as a “formality” when Jackson died 10 days ago, is snowballing into a widespread investigation checking prescriptions for painkillers found in his house under fictional names such as Jack London and Omar Arnold.

Omar was Jackson’s nickname for Lou Ferrigno, the 1970s Hulk actor who was training Jackson for his 50 London shows. Arnold is the first name of his dermatologist, Arnold Klein, who was reportedly preparing his skin for the same performances.

Others include Jackson’s live-in doctor, Conrad Murray, a cardiologist who has talked to the police twice, and Cheri-lyn Lee, his last nurse. She said Jackson had begged her for Diprivan, a milk-like anaesthetic also known as propofol and used to sedate horses. Klein, who denies any wrongdoing, is on a list of people who police and drug enforcement officials want to interview.

Africa’s Greatest War Criminal

2009-07-03T15:36:00.000-07:00

The African Union today announced that it will not cooperate with the International Criminal Court to arrest Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir for the egregious criminal acts he has committed against the people of the Darfur region.

Mercenaries under the President’s direction have engaged in wanton brutality against the people including chopping off the hands of women and children, cutting off their feet, chopping off their legs, raping the women, burning the children alive.

The unbelievable butchery, rapes, and murders committed against the citizens of Darfur are without modern parallel. The Presidents excuse is that the state has an obligation, and a right, to fight rebels.

The United Nations says 300,000 people have died in Sudan and more than two million have fled their homes since fighting erupted in 2003 between black-African rebel groups and the Khartoum government.

Iran Threatens Prison For Contacting Foreign Media

2009-07-03T13:38:00.000-07:00

Image by .faramarz via Flickr

The Iranian government has taken steps to threaten and intimidate anyone who attempts to contact the foreign media by using television commercials to encourage family members to report their husbands, brothers, and sons to police and to have them arrested.

Cellphone users receive this warning when they attempt to place a phone call:

"If you participate in any type of illegal gathering or have contact with foreign media, in accordance with parts of the Islamic Law of Punishment, you will be considered a criminal and you will be subjected to legal action."

Isolated passive protests against the June 12, 2009 election are still occurring daily in Tehran and the motorcycle police have increased their efforts to bludgeon citizens to force them to disperse. Police are engaging in attacks against citizens personal property by smashing their car windows and damaging their bicycles and motorcycles.

Police are searching the work-computers of companies to find out which employees have been in contact with foreigners and charging them with a criminal action. Employees are being locked-out of their offices while the premises are searched and alleged offenders are taken into custody immediately.

Michael Jackson's Strange Demise

2009-07-03T10:30:00.000-07:00

Michael Jackson via last.fm

Trying to find out the truth in the media surrounding Michael Jackson's death is like finding a needle in a hay stack.

His death will become another mystery like JFK and Marilyn Monroe.
Why was he paying a private Doctor $150,000.00 a month just to have a good night's sleep. How long had this been going on?

Apparently, his death was either an accident caused by too many drugs or an overdose which wouldn't necessarily cause a heart attack. Or it was deliberate. If it was murder, why would someone want to harm him?

Maybe the autopsy will enlighten the media? Or maybe not.

The irony in the situation is that the whole world has been able to watch clips from the rehearsals for his sell out concerts. The concerts would have been attended by mainly young well-to-do British folk. The boss at AEG said he released the film footage to prove Michael Jackson was certainly fit two days before he died.

Also ironic was the dance routine shown on CNN of the rehearsal which included symbolic events from the last century, the Nazi goose step, Martin Luther King and the Million Man March, the liberty of oppression and the dawn of a new era. Would the meaning have been lost on the crowd who bought the tickets at the O2 arena in London?

In any event, the world has lost a truly gifted performer.

Iran Cleric Says British Embassy Staff To Stand Trial

2009-07-03T06:48:00.000-07:00

Image by Amir Farshad Ebrahimi via Flickr

Brushing aside British and European efforts to seek the release of nine local British Embassy staff members held in Tehran, the Iranian authorities indicated today that they planned to put some of them on trial — a move that deepened a diplomatic crisis and could provoke the withdrawal of ambassadors.

In London, the Foreign Office said it was urgently checking reports that the Iranian authorities planned to put two of its local employees on trial. Nine staff members were seized after the unrest sparked by Iran’s disputed presidential elections on June 12.

California: Budget Deficit Now $27 Billion & Growing

2009-07-02T13:15:00.000-07:00

Image by ben_templesmith via Flickr

Seemingly the Governor with the greatest potential, if you believed his campaign promises, and yet the most ineffective in California history, Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted that California's budget is no longer $24 Billion but is in fact closer to $27 Billion and growing everyday.

California's Controller, John Chiang, is preparing to issue $3.5 Billion in IOU's to mail to creditors this month. In a desperate effort to prevent further negative ratings on California bonds the State will pay the interest due to bondholders in cash but will pay suppliers with an IOU.

This means that if you sell goods or services to the State of California you are not going to receive a check in payment, but instead an IOU will arrive in the mail. The IOU is good for 90 days and renewable at the State's discretion. It will pay interest at the rate of 3.75% and hopefully you will continue to accept renewals of the IOU every 90 days instead of cash.

Try to deposit an IOU at your bank, they'll chuckle and maybe call the police on the theory you're trying to commit a fraud. Try to pay your employees with the IOU and see if their landlord will accept it in payment of rent. Ask your local grocery store to accept the IOU instead of cash.

The long chain of unpaid vendors begins now. State employees are obviously looking for other jobs but as one executive stated "...this is it, there are no other jobs and this one may not pay the bills either."

UK Swine Flu Can No Longer Be Contained

2009-07-02T06:29:00.000-07:00

Image by Quiplash! via Flickr

Swine flu is spreading so rapidly across the UK that there could be 100,000 new cases a day by the end of next month the health secretary, Andy Burnham, said today.

The UK would immediately move to the "treatment phase" of its plan to combat swine flu, meaning doctors would no longer test for the H1N1 virus and urge anyone with symptoms to stay at home, Burnham told the House of Commons.

The first swine flu vaccine would be made available from August, with 60 million doses available by the end of the year, he added.

"We have reached the next stage in management of the disease," Burnham said. "The national focus will be on treating the increasing numbers affected by swine flu. We will move to this treatment phase across the UK with immediate effect."

The move does not mean the H1N1 virus, which was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation last month, is becoming more deadly, just that it can no longer be contained.

Burnham said there was a "considerable rise" in swine flu cases last week.

20 Million Empty Houses In The US

2009-07-01T22:50:00.000-07:00

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

The number of empty houses in the US is currently estimated at 20 million and growing. To that number you can add another 4 million foreclosures by the end of 2009.

10 million Americans are currently unemployed and that number is growing substantially and is expected to peak at around 15% by years end.

Seemingly totally removed from reality are the financial guru’s and pundits who proclaim that “the worst is over” and the economy is improving. If so, where are the new jobs for the 10 million unemployed Americans? Where are the new industries to employ these people?

Some forecasts indicate that it will take 20 years for the world economy to rebound to anything like it was prior to 2006. The damage is so severe that some economists claim the economy may never fully recover but instead simply accommodate current economic conditions, or find its own plateau.

Real estate agents are promoting the purchase of homes as a “great investment” at current price levels but since there are so many houses and so few buyers it’s not likely that home prices will increase in any measurable percentage over the next few years. In fact, it’s more likely that prices will continue to fall over the next 24 months. Waiting to make that purchase may be the “greatest investment” one can make in real estate today.

Manufacturers and retailers of consumer goods are the first to admit that they are suffering badly and don’t see a light at the end of the tunnel. There is no indication that things are improving, in fact the economy is deteriorating rapidly with retails sales declining as much as 50% in a month-to-month basis.

Discount stores are also suffering. Low prices are certainly no guarantee of retail sales these days. It doesn’t matter what they charge for goods if you don’t have the money to spend. The American consumer is rapidly becoming removed from the repetitive cycle of consumerism and is now forced to wait on the sidelines, denying themselves even the smallest of purchases either out of necessity or out of caution.
　
　
　
　
　

Pakistan: 2.5 Million People Displaced In One Month

2009-07-01T21:40:00.000-07:00

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Pakistan, the government offensive against militant groups has displaced more than 2.5 million people in a little over one month, a situation which the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is calling the most rapid large-scale displacement since the immediate aftermath of the Rwandan genocide.

The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmed the Obama administrations nomination of Eric Schwartz as the State Departments Assistant Secretary for Population, Refugees, and Migration. Schwartzs nomination and confirmation was long overdue.

The Refugee Bureau and the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance must ensure that U.S. funding is provided swiftly to organizations with the capacity to make an immediate difference in the lives of displaced people, most of whom are living with host families rather than in camps. It is especially important for Schwartz and his colleagues to ensure that UNHCR is able to respond on a scale commensurate with the need.

Hollywood Actor Karl Malden Dies At 97

2009-07-01T13:46:00.001-07:00

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Venerable Hollywood actor Karl Malden, born in 1912, has passed away in Los Angeles, California at the age of 97.

Malden appeared alongside Marlon Brando in two of director Elia Kazan's classic films of the 1950s; "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "On the Waterfront." He won the best supporting actor Oscar for "Streetcar" in 1952 and was nominated for his role as a priest crusading against crooked union bosses in "On the Waterfront."

His other well-known screen roles include his performances in "Patton," in which he played World War II Gen. Omar Bradley alongside George C. Scott's title character; the steamy "Baby Doll," another Elia Kazan-Tennessee Williams collaboration; and "Gypsy."

Malden was also famous for a series of television ads for the American Express card, in which he advised viewers, "Don't leave home without it."

Schwarzenegger Declares Fiscal Emergency In California

2009-07-01T13:24:00.000-07:00

Image by Thomas Hawk via Flickr

Not surprisingly, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today declared that California is in a fiscal emergency after the state legislature failed to pass a $24 billion budget by July 1st.

"Though the legislature failed to solve our budget problem yesterday, rest assured that solving the entire deficit remains my first and only priority, and I will not rest until we get it done. I will not be a part of pushing this crisis down the road -- the road stops here," Schwarzenegger said in a statement.

"We continue to watch the situation and we'll see as it develops," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said, when asked what action the federal government could take to help California, which will have to begin issuing "IOU" notes to the state's venders and local agencies starting today.

Survivor Speaks Of Yemenia Airbus A310 Air Crash

2009-07-01T12:37:00.000-07:00

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A 12-year-old girl thought to be the only survivor of the Yemenia Airbus A310 air crash has told how she was thrown into the ocean and watched her aircraft sink.

Baya Bakari told her father at a hospital in Yemen that she heard voices around her in the Indian Ocean, but could not see anyone.

She was found clinging to debris some two hours after the crash.

The plane, an Airbus A310, going to the Comoros Islands from Yemen's capital Sanaa, came down in bad weather with 153 on board. Many of the passengers were travelling to the Comoros Islands but had begun their journey in Paris or Marseille on another jet operated by Yemenia, the national airline of Yemen, before boarding flight IY626 in Sanaa.

Israel Defense Forces Evict Palestinians From Their Own Farms

2009-07-01T11:14:00.000-07:00

In a bizarre turn of events, ten members of the Israeli Defense Forces today forcibly removed several Palestinian farmers from their own land in Saffa near the Israeli town of Bat Ein. Over 20 Palestianian farmers were arrested by Israeli troops and taken into custody. No information has been released by Israeli authorities as to the charges or the probable cause for the arrests.

While this may be an error on the part of Israeli troops, it is unquestionably an error in judgment given the latest efforts to stabilize the area. The arrests were not without some degree of force as several Palestinians refused to leave their land and were physically dragged to a waiting Israeli military truck for transport to an undisclosed location.

This is an event that seems to occur each year in this general area and it is usually over an absurd accusation on the part of Israel that the Palestinians are destroying olive trees or other crops in the area regardless of the fact that this is unquestionably Palestinian land.

Russia Bans All Gambling And Shuts Casinos

2009-07-01T07:22:00.000-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

Russia closed down its casinos overnight as gambling was banned nationwide, a move the industry says could throw a third of a million people out of work.

The July 1 ban shut gaming halls, from gaudy casinos crowned by extravagant neon structures to dingy dwellings containing a handful of slot machines.

"I feel terrible. We just let 1,000 people go," said Yuri Boyev, general director at Metelitsa, an upmarket casino where billionaires rolled the dice and Russia's gas giant Gazprom held a lavish Christmas party.

Vladimir Putin, now prime minister, came up with the idea in 2006 when he was president after the Interior Ministry linked several gaming operations in Moscow to Georgian organised crime.

The Kremlin plans to restrict gambling to Las Vegas-style gaming zones in four rarely visited regions deemed to need investment, including one near the North Korea border, but nothing has been built and critics say the zones will fail.

Though gaming establishments knew the shutdown date for at least a year, few thought the government would go through with it, but officials moved in overnight to close them down.

The industry says the ban will axe at least 300,000 jobs but officials in Moscow put the national figure at only 11,500.

Will Someone Tell The Overgrown Teenagers Running The BBC That The Licence-Fee Party Is Over

2009-07-01T06:55:00.000-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

For weeks now, Britain has been consumed by a crisis over public sector excess.

Revelations of MPs flipping allowances and claiming for duck-houses have changed the course of politics. With forecasts of savage cuts ahead, an age of austerity has dawned.

Could someone please tell the BBC?

The five-day annual Glastonbury rock festival and mud-fest finished last night. The BBC sent more than 400 people to cover it at an estimated cost of £1.5 million. presenters, producers, directors or technical crew, plus about 130 short-term contractors hired by the BBC to provide rigging, security and other support.

To be fair, a huge outside broadcast event such as this can't be covered with a handful of staff. But 400-plus? Was there not inevitably a vast amount of duplication?

To which one can only ask - why? Glastonbury might be popular among the young, along with a bunch of superannuated hippies vicariously revisiting their lost adolescence, but it hardly caused the nation to cancel its social engagements en masse in order to sit at home glued to the television.

The BBC says that last year's festival broadcasts attracted 14 million TV viewers and six million radio listeners. But that was over several days. To put it into context, some 12 million people tuned into the Wimbledon men's final last year.

Honduran Zelaya To Address United Nations Today

2009-06-30T10:16:00.000-07:00

Image by Steve Rhodes via Flickr

Exiled Honduran President Manuel Zelaya is to address the United Nations in New York to win international support for his proposed return to power in Honduras.

Encouraged by the response at last night's meeting in Nicaragua, of the members of the Organization of American States, Zelaya believes that if he returns to Honduras with their support that he will be reinstated as President in spite of the imminent threat of imprisonment on return to Honduran soil.

In support of this proposition, various international entities have demonstrated to the current Honduran government that they do not accept a coup d'etat in any form as a defacto establishment of government. The World Bank has temporarily halted funding to Honduras and several Central American nations have recalled their ambassadors in protest.

Honduras has blocked pro-Zelaya media and replaced the news broadcasts on television with children's cartoons while police disperse Zelaya's supporters congregating in the streets. The Honduran trade unions have called for a general strike in support of Zelaya.

Airbus A310 Crashes In Comoros With 150 Passengers On Board

2009-06-29T18:27:00.000-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

An Airbus A310 jetliner belonging to Yemeni state carrier Yemenia Air has crashed in the Indian Ocean's Comoros archipelago with 150 people on board.

A senior government official said it was unclear whether there were any survivors. The plane is thought to have crashed in the early hours of this morning.

"We don't know if there are any survivors among the 150 people on the plane," Idi Nadhoim, the Comoros vice-president told Reuters from the airport at the main island's capital, Moroni.

The location was not immediately known, but a medical worker in the town of Mitsamiouli, on the main island Grande Comore, said he had been called in to its hospital.

"They have just called me to come to the hospital. They said a plane had crashed," he said.

The Comoros covers three small volcanic islands, Grande Comore, Anjouan and Moheli, in the Mozambique channel,190 miles northwest of Madagascar and a similar distance east of the African mainland.

US Beef Recall Tops 380,000 Lbs.

2009-06-29T17:41:00.000-07:00

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JBS Swift Beef Company, of Greeley, Colorado, has voluntarily expanded the recall of their beef products to include an additional 380,000 pounds of products, the USDA said.

The recall came as a result of "an ongoing investigation into 24 illnesses in multiple states, of which at least 18 appear to be associated," the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service said in a written statement.

Boxes of the recalled product bear the establishment number "EST. 969" inside the USDA mark of inspection, the identifying package date of "042109" and a time stamp ranging from "0618" to "1130," the statement said. It added that some of the beef products might have undergone further processing and might not have the "EST. 969" marking on products for sale directly to consumers.

The USDA urged any customers with concerns to contact the store where they bought the meat.
JBS spokesman Chandler Keys said his company's products may have had nothing to do with the outbreak. "It is important for consumers to note that the recalled product from the date in question was sold by JBS as whole muscle cuts, not as ground beef," Keys said on the company's Web site. "The ground beef that might have been associated with illness was produced by other companies who often do not use the antimicrobial intervention steps we employ in our facility to reduce the risk of the beef products."

Symptoms of infection with E.coli bacteria can include severe or bloody diarrhea, vomiting and severe abdominal cramping. The USDA urged consumers to cook all ground beef or ground beef patties to an internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit to kill any bacteria.

Central America Holds Its Breath

2009-06-29T16:39:00.000-07:00

Image by corazón girl via Flickr

On the order of the Honduras Supreme Court, the Honduras military removed President Manuel Zelaya from his residence before dawn yesterday and transported him in his pajamas by air to San Jose, Costa Rica where he was formally declared exiled from the nation of Honduras and warned that if he attempted to return he would be arrested and imprisoned.

Zelaya immediately requested political asylum in Costa Rica and claimed that he remained the President of Honduras while in exile.

This was a brilliantly executed maneuver by the Honduras military that has created panic amongst the leaders of all Central American nations, especially Hugo Chavez of Venezuela who can foresee the same action being taken against him.

While the presidents and dictators of Central America thought they were invulnerable it appears all that is necessary for their removal from office is an action taken by the military under the authority of the Supreme Court or other judicial tribunal.

Any military agency can now attempt the same action in Central America assuming they can gain the cooperation of the judiciary and justify their actions as taken under color of authority.

A bloodless, well executed coup d’etat is a thing of beauty especially given this regions history of brutality. Precision, coordination, and cooperation resulted in an efficient and effective change of power in an example that will be studied for years to come.

Bernie Madoff Sentenced To 150 Years In Prison

2009-06-29T08:50:00.000-07:00

Image by Chattanooga Endeavors, Inc. (CEi) via Flickr

Bernie Madoff's attorney thought that the court might be lenient in sentencing his client given Madoff's advanced years, instead Judge Denny Chin of U.S. District Court in New York announced the 150 year sentence just moments after Madoff apologized to his victims.

"I live in a tormented state for all the pain and suffering I created," Madoff said. "I left a legacy of shame. It is something I will live with for the rest of my life."

Turning to face some of his victims, he addressed them directly: "Saying I'm sorry is not enough. I turn to face you. I know it will not help. I'm sorry."

Madoff said he was not asking for forgiveness and not offering any excuses for his behavior.
"How can you excuse betraying thousands of investors?" he asked. "How can you excuse deceiving hundreds of employees? How can you excuse lying to and deceiving your wife who still stands by you?"

One of Madoff's former clients stated in a victim impact statement addressed to the court,"We implore you to give the maximum sentence at a maximum prison for this deplorable low life, this is a violent crime without a tangible weapon."

The 150-year sentence is the maximum that federal prosecutors in New York requested, based on the number of Madoff's victims, the amount of money he stole and the extent of the damage he caused. Judge Chin said that the Federal Department of Probation had recommended a 50-year sentence.

Madoff, who was stripped of his property in a legal action Friday, confessed on March 12 to running a massive Ponzi scheme. He pleaded guilty to 11 criminal counts, including fraud, money laundering, perjury, false filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and other crimes.

Honduras Military Forces President Into Exile

2009-06-28T15:02:00.000-07:00

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The Honduran army ousted and exiled leftist President Manuel Zelaya on Sunday in Central America's first military coup since the Cold War, triggered by his bid to make it legal to seek another term in office.

U.S. President Barack Obama and the European Union expressed deep concern after troops came for Zelaya, an ally of socialist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, around dawn and took him from his residence and exiled him to Costa Rica.

Zelaya, who took office in 2006 and is limited by the constitution to a four-year term that ends in early 2010, had angered the army, courts and Congress by pushing for an unofficial public vote on Sunday to gauge support for his plan to hold a November referendum on allowing presidential re-election in a manner similar to Hugo Chavez's efforts in Venezuela.

In a telephone call from San Jose, Costa Rica, Zelaya called the situation in Honduras as "...mafia politics and mafia economics" and declared that "I am still the President of Honduras and I will continue to act as the President from here in Costa Rica."

An opposition deputy said Congress would chose Roberto Micheletti, the head of Congress, as acting president later on Sunday, and Honduras' top electoral court said a presidential election would be held as planned on November 29.

The Supreme Court, which last week came out against Zelaya and ordered him to reinstate fired military chief Vasquez, said on Sunday it had told the army to remove the president.
"It acted to defend the rule of law," the court said in a statement read on Honduran radio.

The global economic crisis has curbed growth in Honduras, which is heavily dependent on remittances from Honduran workers abroad. Recent opinion polls indicate public support for Zelaya has fallen as low as 30 percent.