Loss

When a parent loses a child, it is, from all I have ever read or heard, something one cannot ever overcome or get through, or feel better after any period of time.  The loss is deep.  I knew someone once who lost her son.  He wasn't lost, he was murdered at an ATM.  15 years later I met her, and the loss was as deep and painful.  It was evident on her face.

I don't think it matters why or how one loses a child.  Whether the child is 7 and dies from cancer or dies from a stray bullet intended for some gang banger ... loss is loss.  Whether your child is 20 or 40, if murdered, the loss is the same.

Whether it is losing a mother, father, son, daughter ... loss is unimaginable - even if they aren't a good mother or son or daughter or father ... they could very well be an asshole.  It is still a loss and it is immeasurable.

The loss isn't measured by whether the parent, child is or was a valuable member of society - it is family and as family we feel the loss.  We want a response, we want justice.  When 3000 people, many Americans were killed in New York, we wanted justice.  When 1 person is killed, we want justice.  It is the same feeling or need - justice.

Sometimes the person is a worthless parent and we wonder how they could have a child or children.  Sometimes we wonder and marvel that anyone could love them, but ... that isn't the point.  It is about our loss and our need for justice.

And we have a right to justice.  Not as Americans, but a basic human right - justice.

Fiat justitia ruat cælum

But there are times when our behavior contributes to what happens.

We are drinking, get in a car, driving along on freeway and another car swerves beside us and we go over the edge.  Did their action cause it, yes.  Did our being intoxicated play a roll - I believe it did.  Should they be punished in the pursuit of justice?  Yes, no matter who they may be.  But our responsibility cannot be ignored.

However, when a police officer tells you to stop - stop.  When they tell you to raise your hands - raise your hands.  Not raise them and then put them into your pockets.  Don't raise one while the other slides into your coat.  When told to stand still, raise your hands above your head - the physics of that seem simple.  STOP as in no further movement in any direction; raise your hands above your head means ... the hands must both be visible above the head.  Not at the shoulders, but above the head.  You should not be yelling at the police officer while he is instructing you to stop.  Your wife or girlfriend should not be adding her $3.00 to the conversation, nor should she be giving orders.

When you are told to stop.  Stop.  Do not move forward.  Do not lean into your car, do not put your hands into your coat .... just don't do that.  If you do, please be aware, whoever you are - you will be shot.  Why?  Because police officers want to go home.  They don't want to die because some fool reached for a gun and shot them, and they didn't act more quickly.  And why the hell should I listen to your wife/girlfriend about you not having a gun.  What retard am I suppose to be playing.  I will go home.  The question is, will you go to jail, or the morgue, or if a mistake, be on your way in a few minutes.

If I ask you to stop and you just walk away from me yelling epithets and telling me you ain't got time for my bullshit ... well, what should I do?  Pretend nothing happened.  It doesn't work that way and it never will.  It hasn't worked that way for the last couple years when black men get shot ... you think somehow you will get to just walk away and no one will notice? It can't work like that.  Not if you want justice. 

What I want if I am the cop is to have you stop, raise your hands above your head, NOT move, not twitch, not shuffle, not move as in IMMOBILE.  Stop.  Let me come up, handcuff you, check you for weapons or objects of any danger ... and at that point if you were to walk off, I would not feel a threat.  Nor would I be able to argue such.

When a police officer shoots someone, anyone without just cause, they should be terminated from the police department and prosecuted as anyone would be for negligence / manslaughter, or whatever the facts warrant.  We cannot know, but if everyone would have just stopped, raised their hands above their heads ... I don't believe most would have been shot.  Don't go rummaging around for weapons in the glove box.  Don't reach into a car and try to take the police officer's weapon.  Don't reach into your car rummaging around for a weapon.  In fact, if you are so law abiding and peaceful - why are you carrying a weapon in your car?  And yes, if a white guy had a gun in his car, he would be shot as well.  And when the police handcuff you, don't punch, spit, bite or resist ... deal with the discriminatory pattern after they are satisfied you are not a threat and you don't get to tell me the police officer you aren't a threat.  You don't decide that, neither does your wife or girlfriend.

Once all that occurs, let justice be done.  If it was racially discriminatory, the lawyers are available ... but you will live to see your children or parents again.  That's what we all want.  No one goes to work with the intention of shooting an innocent black man with children.  I can't say the same for the individuals who riot.

18 Headless Bodies in Mexico Tourist Area   By RANDY KREIDER May 10, 2012 —

go.com

Police found 18 mutilated, headless bodies near a lake popular with tourists and American retirees just outside Guadalajara, Mexico, a massacre that authorities blamed on the Zetas drug cartel.

A phone call alerted police to two vans on a dirt road near Lake Chapala early Wednesday morning. When police opened the van, they found 18 headless and dismembered bodies inside. Some were so badly mutilated that police have still not determined their gender. The bodies appear to have been refrigerated after death.

Handwritten messages were found in the van. "They are clearly messages between rival groups that are in conflict," said Tomas Coronado, prosecutor for the state of Jalisco. Officials said the notes were signed by the Zetas.

Los Zetas have been battling the Jalisco New Generation gang, a minor cartel allied with the Sinaloa cartel, which is the Zetas chief rival for dominance of the Mexican drug trade. The Zetas cartel, which was founded by ex-members of the Mexican military, controls most of eastern Mexico and much of the north.

A woman detained yesterday in connection with the separate kidnapping of 12 people in the same area told police that the abductions were connected to events in Tamaulipas state. Two dozen men and women were found decapitated or hanging from bridges in Nuevo Laredo, on the border with Texas, on Friday, where the Zetas are battling the Gulf cartel, another Sinaloa cartel ally.

mexico

Mexican Corruption

So the evidence was adequate to convict him, but then a panel of judges saw the light ... or were threatened and or bribed.  It isn't just the police, but the army, and the courts, and the government.

Mexican general once tied to cartels shot dead

Associated PressAssociated Press

Posted: 04/23/2012 07:41:11 AM MDT

MEXICO CITY (AP) - A retired general who was convicted and later cleared of aiding one of Mexico's most powerful drug lords was shot and killed Friday in the capital, authorities said.

Former Brig. Gen. Mario Arturo Acosta Chaparro was attacked while at an auto shop in the Anahuac neighborhood and died at a hospital, Mexico City Attorney General Jesus Rodriguez Almeida said.

Witnesses told police that Acosta had just arrived at the auto shop to drop off a car when a lone gunman approached him and shot him three times in the head, Rodriguez said.

The assailant used a 9 mm handgun and got away on a waiting motorcycle driven by an accomplice, the attorney general said.

The former soldier had survived a 2010 attack in the Mexico City neighborhood of La Roma where gunmen shot him in the abdomen.

Acosta was incarcerated in 2000 on charges of protecting Amado Carillo Fuentes, a leader of the Juarez drug cartel who had died three years earlier after botched plastic surgery.

But in 2007 a panel of judges overturned Acosta's drug-trafficking conviction and ordered him released, ruling that prosecutors failed to prove the alleged links to Carillo Fuentes.

In 2002, Acosta was accused of homicide in the disappearance of leftist activists and revolutionaries during the government's "dirty war" against dissent during the 1970s and 1980s. A judge determined Acosta was not responsible for the disappearances and the charges were dismissed.

mexico

Dear Mexico

A letter from a concerned neighbour:

When we moved in some time ago, we had our problems.  I think we resolved them when we paid you off, I mean, paid you for any inconvenience you felt over the discrepancy with property lines.  Yes, we had some difficult times, but we paid you off, I mean, paid for all your inconveniences.

We watched as our children grew up, and while some of your kids would sneak over the property line, we didn't pay a lot of attention - we were neighbours.  We even hired some of your kids to do some work for us, in an effort to benefit both of us - the customers we serve and your kids and their friends. 

Things started to get messy in the late 20th century when several of your family members started to rebel.  As I recall, it was Chiapas and Guerrero who were busy causing problems for the family.  I remember the difficult times and how many members of your family ended up leaving and spending time in our facilities.  I remember the police going to your house more times than I can count.  So many problems and it was unfortunate you lost several family members during the struggles with Chiapas and Guerrero.

Then the problem got worse and it wasn't just with my kids using a little drug now and again.  I admit, we had to send our kids to rehab a few times, but as I understand it, 25% of your family have been arrested for use of drugs, and we all know that in your house, the laws for drug use are much more lax!

Now people are being killed in the streets, hung from poles, and beheaded.  This is too much.  It is no longer a problem just for your family.  A solution however is available.

We have several thousands of unemployed former Marines and Army who would be willing to accept a stipend to help clean up your neighbourhood.  We will use our intelligence services to find out who is on the take in your police, army, and government agencies.  We will arrest them, with your permission, and we will end the control by the cartels of 2/3 of your neighbourhood.

We will do all this because we are good neighbours and cannot have the problems overflowing into our home.  We would accept whatever rate you would be willing to charge for increased oil production.  We have been trying for several decades to cut off our need for oil from outside the neighbourhood and you can help us with this project.  At the same time, we can help provide greater funding to help all your family members without the usual and normal amounts of money taken by the police, government, and other corrupt officials.

This offer is indefinite, but I would like to suggest we have only so much patience before we unilaterally assist you in cleaning out the sewer.

Signed,
Your Concerned Neighbours.








Mexico 

Obama Abuses the Supremes

Several years ago, Mr. Obama stood at a podium when he reported to Congress and the American people, and wagged a rhetorical finger at the Justices sitting below him to the side, and made it clear he did not approve of their ruling on a case involving political action committees.  The justices sitting on their hands could do nothing for they are not political and Obama was being very political.

More recently, Obama has made it clear to the Supreme Court that he would like to

"remind conservative commentators that, for years, what we have heard is, the biggest problem on the bench was judicial activism, or a lack of judicial restraint, that an unelected group of people would somehow overturn a duly constituted and passed law."

We are not commenting on Republicans Mr. Obama, we are commenting on what you have done, not what some hypothetical past congress did in your revised memory.  What we are talking about is your proposed healthcare (one which few members of congress read, which some of your own party told us we had to approve to find out what was in it) that was supported by one Republican with some Democrats crossing the aisle in opposition.  THAT Mr. Obama is a clear indication that it was not supported or approved by a majority and because you will raise the issue of a majority - a vast majority of Americans do not want your healthcare system.  They want it erased.

The Supreme Court is about to render parts of the plan unconstitutional.  You strike back that it was duly constitued and approved.  So was Plessy versus Ferguson.  So were the laws that enslaved.  So were many laws we now find repulsive and unconstitutional Mr. Obama.  Using your poor logic, those duly constituted and approved laws (separate but equal and enslaved) should be left alone.  The fact you think the law is constitutional doesn't mean anything except your opinion really does not matter on these issues.  What is clear is your opinion of yourself and the Imperial Presidency.

In the first months of his administration in early 2009, he stacked the Executive Office of the President with "Czars" who were not approved by the Senate, but were responsible to congress for the departments they oversaw.  This effort was, with very little question by reasonable people, an end-run around the requirement for Senatorial Advice and Consent.

It would seem you have little respect for the Constitution you swore to uphold Mr. Obama.

Just sayin'

obama

Iraqi Freedom: From Hell to Hell, again.

For this, we have given American lives - to give them the freedom to kill children.

Iraqi teenagers stoned to death for "emo" haircuts

Published Friday, March 9, 2012

At least 90 Iraqi teenagers with "emo" appearances have been stoned to death by religious extremists in Baghdad in the past month after an inflammatory interior ministry statement dubbed it "devil worshiping", activists said.

Iraq's Moral Police released a chilling statement on the interior ministry's website condemning the "emo phenomenon" among Iraqi youth, disturbingly declaring its intent to "eliminate" the trend.

"The 'Emo phenomenon' or devil worshiping is being followed by the Moral Police who have the approval to eliminate [the phenomenon] as soon as possible since it's detrimentally affecting the society and becoming a danger," the statement read.

"They wear strange, tight clothes that have pictures on them such as skulls and use stationary that are shaped as skulls. They also wear rings on their noses and tongues, and do other strange activities," it continued.

Religious extremists caught onto the interior ministry statement, and have been harassing and killing teenagers with "strange" or "emo" appearances.

A group of armed men dressed in civilian clothing led dozens of teenagers to secluded areas a few days ago, stoned them to death, and then disposed their bodies in garbage dumpsters across the capital, according to activists.

The armed men are said to belong to “one of the most extremist religious groups” in Iraq.

“First they throw concrete blocks at the boy's arms, then at his legs, then the final blow is to his head, and if he is not dead then, they start all over again,” one person who managed to escape told Al-Akhbar.

Iraq's moral police was granted approval by the Ministry of Education to enter Baghdad schools and pinpoint students with such appearances, according to the interior ministry's statement.

The exact death toll remains unclear, but Hana al-Bayaty of Brussels Tribunal, an NGO dealing with Iraqi issues, said the current figure ranges "between 90 and 100."

"What's most disturbing about this is that they're so young," she said.

Al-Bayaty said the killings appear to have been carried out by extremist Shia militias in mostly poor Shia neighborhoods and said she suspected "there's complicity of the Ministry of Interior in the killings."

Photos of the victims were released on Facebook, causing panic and fear among Iraqi students.

A young man with long hair expressed alarm at the government-ordained harassment of teenagers with Western appearances.

“I have long hair but that doesn't mean I'm an Emo. I'm not less of a man if I have long hair. Let's not say that if I have long hair, I'm a homosexual, but I have long hair because this is my style, this is me," he told Iraq's Al-Sharqiya television network.

Safiyyah al-Suhail, an MP, said on Thursday that "some students have been recently arrested because they were wearing American jeans or had Western haircuts."

The interior ministry has not disclosed the number of teenage victims, but released a follow-up statement on Thursday warning extremists "not to step on public freedom of Iraqis."

News of the gruesome deaths drew a stern reaction from Iraq's prominent Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who criticized the stoning of the young men as "an act of terrorism."

Below is the full English translation of the Iraqi interior ministry's inflammatory statement:

The Director of the Moral Police of the Interior Ministry released a statement, saying "The 'Emo phenomenon' or devil worshiping is being followed by the Moral Police who have the approval to eliminate [the phenomenon] as soon as possible since it's detrimentally affecting the society and becoming a danger."

'Emo' comes from the English word 'emotional' and the phenomenon is popular among teenagers not only in Iraq, but in most societies. They use their appearances and movements as a method to express their emotions and embody their will and their view of life in their behavior.

Colonel Mushtaq Taleb al-Mahemdawi said: "The Emo Phenomenon was discovered a while back by members of our force in Baghdad. A report has been made and given to the Ministry of Interior to receive an approval to carry on with the investigation and to know how to eliminate the phenomenon."

He added: "The Ministry of Interior took this situation very seriously and received an approval from the Ministry of Education to set a plan under my full supervision and to allow us to enter schools in the capital."

"There are some cases of the spread of this phenomenon specifically among schools in Baghdad, but we are facing great difficulty in the lack of women on the force who would allow us to carry the investigation more accurately since the phenomenon is more popular among girls between the ages of 14 and 18."

"They wear strange, tight clothes that have pictures on them such as skulls and use stationary that are shaped as skulls. They also wear rings on their noses and tongues, and do other strange activities."











iraq

Police Given Direct Line To Cell Phone Searches

March 6, 2012 10:02 PM

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – Think about all the personal information we keep in our cell phones: It’s something to consider after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit ruled it is now legal for police to search cell phones without a warrant.

Former Dallas FBI Agent Danny Defenbaugh said the ruling gives law enforcement a leg up. “I think not only will it help them, but it could be life saving,” said the former Special Agent, who was based in Dallas.

The decision stems from an Indiana case where police arrested a man for dealing drugs. An officer searched the suspect’s cell phone without warrant.

The judge in the appeal case, Judge Richard Posner, agreed that the officer had to search the phone immediately or risk losing valuable evidence. Judge Posner ruled it was a matter of urgency, arguing it was possible for an accomplice to wipe the phone clean using a computer or other remote device.

Defenbaugh says the ruling takes into account exigent or time-sensitive circumstances that could be life saving in more urgent cases, such as child abduction. ”If the child is alive and you’re only minutes behind, that could be critical to recovering that child alive,” added Defenbaugh.

Paul Coggins is the former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas. Coggins says the court’s ruling pushes the envelope on privacy issues. Judge Posner ruled that the search was legal because the officer conducted a limited search and only looked for a phone number associated with the alleged drug deal.

However, Coggins wonders if it opens the door to more extensive searches down the road. “Does that mean officers now have the right to search through your phone, search through your search history, your photographs, your e-mails and the rest, because it could all be wiped clean,” Coggins asked.

Many critics are asking the same question. They call the ruling an invasion of privacy that far outweighs the needs of law enforcement.

Both Defenbaugh and Coggins agree that the case is likely to go to the U.S. Supreme court.

privacy

US to reduce troop levels on Mexico border

Dec 20 12:54 PM US/Eastern

Agence France Presse

The United States will cut the number of national guard troops patrolling the border with Mexico as it steps up other surveillance on the porous southern border, officials said Tuesday.

The effort reflects "a new strategic approach," that includes "a number of new multi-purpose aerial assets equipped with the latest surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities," according to a statement from the departments of Homeland Security and Defense.

Homeland Security will have additional civilian personnel on the border enabling the Defense Department "to reduce the number of national guard troops at the southwest border while enhancing border security," the statement said.

President Barack Obama's administration had deployed around 1,200 troops, having been pressed by governors of border states who fear an influx of crime and a spillover of drug-related violence from Mexico.

But the statement said security would be boosted by more air surveillance, leaving fewer personnel on the ground.

The change in strategy will begin in January, with aircraft in place by March 1, the statement said.

"The air assets will reduce enforcement response time, enabling Border Patrol officers to quickly move from one location to another on short notice to meet emerging threats of illegal activity or incursion," said the statement.

In the fiscal year ended September 30, the number of border apprehensions was 340,252, down 53 percent from three years earlier and one-fifth of what they were at their peak a decade ago.

mexico

Cucumbers too sexy! What about melons?

Muslim Cleric's Warning: Cucumbers Too Sexy for Women

Published December 08, 2011

 FoxNews.com

An Islamic cleric living in Europe reportedly has warned Muslim women not to get too close to bananas, cucumbers or other produce -- to avoid having “sexual thoughts.”

The unnamed cleric, whose directive was featured in an article in el-Senousa, a religious publication, purportedly said that if women wanted to eat these foods, a third party -- preferably a male related to them, such as their father or husband -- should cut the items into small pieces before serving, the Egyptian website Bikya Masr reported.

Carrots and zucchini also were added to the alleged cleric's list of forbidden foods for women.

News of the statement quickly spread online, leaving many liberal Muslims embarrassed and angry, evoking a flurry of mockery in online forums.

"Many of the commentators are Muslims themselves, who have expressed their anger against the cleric for making Islamic religious practices appear unreasonable," The International Business Times reported.

BikyaMasr.com said the cleric, identified only as a sheikh, was asked in the interview how to “control” women when they are shopping for groceries, and whether holding these items at the market would be bad, to which he replied that the matter was between them and God.

Questions also arose about the validity of the original published interview. An online search for the el-Senousa article, for instance, yields only results linking to the Bikya Masr report.

But the mere suggestion of a strict order for Muslim women handling food has been enough to send people to website forums and Twitter to air their indignation.

Danish/Lebanese journalist Helen Hajjij tweeted on Wednesday: “So if Muslim women should stay away from cucumbers and bananas, should men stay away from melons?”

islam

Saudi Arabia Executes Woman Convicted of 'Sorcery'

Published December 12, 2011

Associated Press

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Saudi authorities have executed a woman convicted of practicing magic and sorcery.

The Saudi Interior Ministry says in a statement the execution took place Monday, but gave no details on the woman's crime.

The London-based al-Hayat daily, however, quoted Abdullah al-Mohsen, chief of the religious police who arrested the woman, as saying she had tricked people into thinking she could treat illnesses, charging them $800 per session.

The paper said a female investigator followed up, and the woman was arrested in April, 2009, and later convicted in a Saudi court.

It did not give the woman's name, but said she was in her 60s.

The execution brings the total to 76 this year in Saudi Arabia, according to an Associated Press count. At least three have been women.

saudi

Saudi Cleric Claims Allowing Ladies To Drive Will Lead To End of Virgins

By Erin Gloria Ryan
Dec 2, 2011

A Saudi Arabian cleric has warned his fellow countrymen against lifting the country's ban on allowing women to drive, asserting that letting ladies take the wheel will lead to a complete extinction of virgins within 10 years. Because everyone knows that ladies will only use their newfound freedom to cars to drive directly to a dick.
Bikya Masr reports that clerics from the Majlis al-Ifta al-Aala council, the highest religious council in the Kingdom of Saud, have rejected the idea of women driving on the grounds that it will endanger the morality of the entire country. A statement issued by the council states that lady drivers would lead to an upsurge in prostitution, pornography, homosexuality, and divorce in addition to the imminent decline in collective hymen integrity. In other words, all ladyroads in Saudi Arabia lead to genitals, or pictures of genitals. That's just the way it is.
The council was responding to a recent push from some Saudi activists to lift the ban, which opponents say endangers women who may need to drive themselves or an ailing family member to the hospital, or themselves to a job. The push to allow women to drive was emboldened by a widely ridiculed fatwa issued in 2010 that suggested women feed their breast milk to adult men who are not family members in order to promote bonding.
Saudi women are already required to wear long, loose fitting garments and cover their hair. Due to an unfortunate husband hand stabbing incident last month, they may soon have to cover their eyes, lest they tempt the men with their eyefucking.
Continuing to uphold the ban on women driving is based on well-founded logic, considering that in places where women are allowed to drive— every single other country in the world, for example— there are no virgins. Even the babies are whores.







Saudsi

Could it be true? Those we believe are protecting us from the heartless Republicans are themselves selling us out?

Senate Moves To Allow Military To Intern Americans Without Trial

NDAA detention provision would turn America into a “battlefield”

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
Monday, November 28, 2011

The Senate is set to vote on a bill today that would define the whole of the United States as a “battlefield” and allow the U.S. Military to arrest American citizens in their own back yard without charge or trial.

“The Senate is going to vote on whether Congress will give this president—and every future president — the power to order the military to pick up and imprison without charge or trial civilians anywhere in the world. The power is so broad that even U.S. citizens could be swept up by the military and the military could be used far from any battlefield, even within the United States itself,” writes Chris Anders of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office.

Under the ‘worldwide indefinite detention without charge or trial’ provision of S.1867, the National Defense Authorization Act bill, which is set to be up for a vote on the Senate floor this week, the legislation will “basically say in law for the first time that the homeland is part of the battlefield,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who supports the bill.

The bill was drafted in secret by Senators Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), before being passed in a closed-door committee meeting without any kind of hearing. The language appears in sections 1031 and 1032 of the NDAA bill.

“I would also point out that these provisions raise serious questions as to who we are as a society and what our Constitution seeks to protect,” Colorado Senator Mark Udall said in a speech last week. One section of these provisions, section 1031, would be interpreted as allowing the military to capture and indefinitely detain American citizens on U.S. soil. Section 1031 essentially repeals the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 by authorizing the U.S. military to perform law enforcement functions on American soil. That alone should alarm my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, but there are other problems with these provisions that must be resolved.”

dems

California: Laws to Make you Safer

California bans use of tanning beds by minors



Sun, Oct 9 2011

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Minors in the state of California will no longer be allowed to use tanning beds after Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill on Sunday prohibiting anyone under the age of 18 from using ultraviolet tanning devices.

California is the first state in the nation to ban minors from using tanning beds, legislators said.

Previously, California had banned minors under the age of 14 from using tanning beds, but allowed those between 14 and 18 years of age to use tanning beds with parental consent.

The bill was part of a cluster of legislation signed on Sunday designed to "improve the health and well-being of Calfornians," according to a statement from the Governor's office.

"I praise Gov. Brown for his courage in taking this much-needed step to protect some of California's most vulnerable residents -- our kids -- from what the 'House of Medicine' has conclusively shown is lethally dangerous: ultraviolet-emitting radiation from tanning beds," the bill's sponsor, state Senator Ted Lieu, said in a statement.

"If everyone knew the true dangers of tanning beds, they'd be shocked. Skin cancer is a rising epidemic and the leading cause of cancer death for women between 25 and 29."

The law will go into effect on January 1, 2012, according to Lieu's office.





 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
dipshits on parade

California Laws: Monnbeam away

Consider this new law, signed by Moonbeam, with the next post - also a new law signed by Moonbeam.



New law lets 12-year-olds consent to preventive care for STDs


October 9, 2011
1:26 pm

California Gov. Jerry Brown stepped into the middle of a debate over parental rights Sunday by signing legislation giving children 12 or older the power to consent to medical care involving the prevention of sexually transmitted disease.

Asssemblywoman Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) sponsored AB 499 with the aim of providing young people with timely preventative treatment, including the human papillomavirus [HPV] vaccine that proponents say can reduce the risk of certain cancers, precancerous cervical cell changes and genital warts.

The measure was backed by groups including the California STD Controllers Assn., the Health Officers Assn. of California, ACT for Women and Girls and the American Civil Liberties Union.

The bill was opposed by the California Catholic Conference, which opposed previous measures that allow minors to consent to certain treatments without the involvement of parents.

That group wrote to legislators that "this bill is dangerous because it expands a faulty law which assumes that children know better than their parents and because it will allow minors access to HPV vaccines which may cause them permanent harm."





 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
liberal crap

The Funny French

Only in France - where leaders as soon as they leave office face criminal charges for all types of crimes.  Also quite funny that Chirac spoke of the crimes committed by former president -  Valery Giscard d'Estaing, while he is investigated for similar crimes.  It seems the requirement for the French presidency is that you are a criminal.

Funny - the French people elect them knowing all this.




French court allows Chirac being tried in default




English.news.cn
2011-09-06 03:38:01




PARIS, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Former French President Jacques Chirac would be tried in default due to his deteriorating health situation, a Paris court ruled on Monday, letting the trial move on with the 78-year-old represented by his lawyers.

"The personal appearance is not ordered," Judge Dominique Pauthe in charge of the case announced as response to the medical report submitted by Chirac's lawyers.

As the first former French president to be tried on corruption allegations, Chirac faces charges of abusing the public funds to pay aides and counsellors who were actually his partisans during his mandate of Paris mayor from 1977 to 1995.

The trial has been delayed several times with judges ruled the trial should be opened in May, but his lawyers have submitted a medical report to the court diagnosing the ex-president with "anosognosia", a brain disorder making people suffering memory loss.

After 12 years as head of state, two terms as prime minister and 18 years as mayor of Paris, Chirac is dogged by a corruption-related allegation dated back to 2007. The trial starting Monday afternoon would last to Sept. 23.

Chirac has said he wanted the trial to proceed to its end and hoped himself to be tried like any other French citizen.

If found guilty, the ex-president faces up to 10 years in jail and a fine of 150,000 euros (about 212,000 U.S. dollars) on charges including embezzlement and breach of trust.

The case also involves nine other defendants. The current French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, who received a suspended prison sentence in 2004 over the case, agreed to appear as a witness.

French public opinion is divided on Chirac's role in the case, according to local survey. Some said they feel for the old ex-president who is aged and fragile while others said his influence and health state should not spare him from justice in front of which everybody should be treated equal.

















france

Pakistani laws

It is quite simple.  In some countries, the idea of justice is justice.  In the US - carrying out justice is justice.

Mocking justice does not make it so.

12 August 2011

BBC

 

Pakistani shooting film paramilitary sentenced to death

A Pakistani paramilitary soldier has been sentenced to death for killing an unarmed man in an incident caught on videotape and broadcast on TV.

Sarfaraz Shah, 22, was shot at point-blank range in Karachi in June.

The anti-terrorism court in Karachi found Shahid Zafar guilty of the killing and sentenced six other men to life imprisonment.

The killing sparked public anger and increased complaints of brutality by the security forces.

Judge Bashir Ahmed Khoso also fined Shahid Zafar 200,000 rupees ($2,300).

The judge ordered each of the other defendants - five paramilitaries and a civilian - to pay 100,000 rupees in compensation to Sarfaraz Shah's family.

[Which would bring the total value of this man's life to less than $3,500.  Interestingly, about the cost of a couple camels.]


The Sindh branch of the Pakistan Rangers paramilitary force had argued that he was caught trying to rob someone, a charge his family denied.



Prosecutor Muhammad Khan Buriro said: "We have found justice. The court has given the right decision."

A lawyer for the defendants said there would be an appeal.

Death sentences are rarely carried out in Pakistan.

Sarfaraz Shah's brother, Salik, said: "We are satisfied with the punishment and we hope that the higher courts will also keep them and overturn the appeals of the accused."

Officials removed

The disturbing video shows a young man in a black T-shirt being dragged by his hair in a public park by a man in plain clothes.

Sarfaraz Shah's brother consoles his mother at an earlier hearing in Karachi He is pushed towards a group of Sindh Rangers, who are in uniform and armed. The young man pleads for his life as one of the Rangers points a gun at his neck.

A little later, a Ranger shoots him twice at close range, hitting him in the thigh. The young man is seen writhing on the ground, bleeding heavily and begging for help.

The paramilitaries remain close to the injured man but do nothing to help him. Sarfaraz Shah died from his injuries.

The public outcry led to the removal of the Sindh police chief and the director-general of the Sindh branch of the Rangers.

The Rangers are a paramilitary force under the interior ministry.

There are about 10,000 Rangers in Karachi but rights groups say they are not sufficiently trained to deal with keeping civilian order.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
pakistan

Mr. Obama makes his plea based upon international law.  We cannot execute a man when we have violated his rights as a citizen of another country (in this case to allow a consular representative speak to him).

Ok.

Then Mr. Obama, explain how you can hold a Somali for two months without charges, in a secret prison (you said you would do away with because it violated American values) that violates international law.

Don't bother trying.




Barack Obama asks for Texas and Rick Perry to spare Mexican the death penalty


Texas is preparing to execute a Mexican citizen for a gruesome 1994 murder on Thursday despite an appeal by Barack Obama to spare him because he was not granted the consular help required by international law.


05 Jul 2011
By Toby Harnden, Washington
The Telegraph


Humberto Leal, 38, a native of Monterrey, Mexico was convicted of the 1994 rape and murder of Adria Sauceda, 16, whose naked body was found with a large stick protruding from her. She had been bitten and her head crushed by a lump of asphalt.

The United States Supreme Court is due to decide whether to issue a stay of execution, which Texas state lawyers insist should go ahead.

If the Supreme Court does not intervene, Leal's fate will lie in the hands of Governor Rick Perry of Texas, who is currently pondering whether to join the 2012 presidential race.

Texas executes more prisoners than any other US state. In his 10 years in office Mr Perry has refused clemency in 230 executions, almost half the 470 executions in Texas since the death penalty was reinstated in 1974.

Among other evidence against Leal, a bite mark was matched to him and the victim's bloody blouse was found at his home. Leal told police that she had attacked him and had fallen and lost consciousness.

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Even Leal's lawyers concede that it was "plausible" he was responsible for Miss Sauceda's death. But they contend that if he had been given consular assistance rather than a state-appointed defence lawyer he would probably have been convicted of manslaughter.

The Obama administration, adopting a similar stance to the one taken by President George W Bush's, believes executing Leal could endanger Americans abroad who are also entitled to consular assistance under the Vienna Convention.

"This case implicates United States foreign-policy interests of the highest order," said Donald Verrilli, Mr Obama's Solicitor General in an amicus brief filed in the Supreme Court case.

"The imminent execution of petitioner would place the United States in irreparable breach of its international law obligation."

Executing him, he said, "would have serious repercussions for United States foreign relations, law enforcement and other co-operation with Mexico, and the ability of American citizens travelling abroad to have the benefits of consular assistance in the event of detention".

There is legislation pending in the US Senate would allow federal courts to review cases of condemned foreign nationals to determine whether the lack of consular help made a significant difference in the outcome of their cases.

The United Nations, Amnesty International and a number of former diplomats and military officers have requested that the sentence be commuted to life.

Mr Perry has commuted the death sentences of 31 inmates. Of these, 28 involved cases in which the defendant was a juvenile at the time of the crime and Mr Perry acted after a Supreme Court ruling on the issue.

Polls show that about 65 per cent of Americans favour the death penalty. Mr Perry's enthusiastic backing for the death penalty would be unlikely to be an issue that could harm him in the Republican primaries. It could, however, became an issue in a general election against Mr Obama, who supports the death penalty but is much more willing to consider exclusions.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Obama and Immigration

Someone says the President said water was bad for you.  The someone was a bartender who has a serious drug problem and sold the story to a newspaper owned by Coca-Cola ... make sense.  Follow the interests / money.  However, if the source claims something that is not far off from what is standard officialese ... one should consider the possibility of accuracy.


EXCLUSIVE: Federal Agents Told to Reduce Border Arrests, Arizona Sheriff Says



By Jana Winter
AP
Published April 01, 2011
FoxNews.com

Nov. 1, 2010: Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever, left, speaks about illegal immigration at an event in Arizona also attended by Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu.

An Arizona sheriff says U.S. Border Patrol officials have repeatedly told him they have been ordered to reduce -- at times even stop -- arrests of illegal immigrants caught trying to cross the U.S. border.

Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever told FoxNews.com that a supervisor with the U.S. Border Patrol told him as recently as this month that the federal agency’s office on Arizona's southern border was under orders to keep apprehension numbers down during specific reporting time periods.

“The senior supervisor agent is telling me about how their mission is now to scare people back,” Dever said in an interview with FoxNews.com. “He said, ‘I had to go back to my guys and tell them not to catch anybody, that their job is to chase people away. … They were not to catch anyone, arrest anyone. Their job was to set up posture, to intimidate people, to get them to go back.”

Dever said his recent conversation with the Border Patrol supervisor was the latest in a series of communications on the subject that he has had with various federal agents over the last two years. Dever said he plans to relay the substance of these conversations when he testifies under oath next month before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

“I will raise my hand to tell the truth and swear to God, and nothing is more serious or important than that,” he said. “I’m going to tell them that, here’s what I hear and see every day: I had conversation with agent A, B, C, D and this is what they told me.”

Dever’s charges were vigorously denied by a commander with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

“The claim that Border Patrol supervisors have been instructed to underreport or manipulate our statistics is unequivocally false,” Jeffery Self, commander of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Joint Field Command in Arizona, said in a written statement.

“I took an oath that I take very seriously, and I find it insulting that anyone, especially a fellow law enforcement officer, would imply that we would put the protection of the American public and security of our nation’s borders in danger just for a numbers game," he said. "Our mission does not waiver based on political climate, and it never will. To suggest that we are ambiguous in enforcing our laws belittles the work of more than 6,000 CBP employees in Arizona who dedicate their lives to protect our borders every day.”

In recent days, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has said the U.S.-Mexican border is more secure than ever, and Homeland Security officials have used recent statistics to support those claims.

"There is a perception that the border is worse now than it ever has been," Napolitano said at the El Paso border crossing last week. "That is wrong. The border is better now than it ever has been."

Dever doesn’t agree.

“Janet Napolitano says the border is more secure than it’s ever been. I’ve been here for 60 years, and I’m telling you that’s not true,” he said.

The sheriff of Santa Cruz County, which borders Dever’s Cochise County to the west, said, “This is news to me,” when asked about reports that border agents were being told to turn illegal immigrants back to Mexico rather than arrest them.

“It comes as a complete surprise that that would be something that’s going around,” Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada said. “I meet with Dever all the time and I have great respect for him, so I expect he’d come forward and say what he knows and give the source.

“Not knowing who the source is, how reliable that source is, I really don’t have much of a position,” Estrada said. “I’ve been around a real long time and haven’t heard anything like this. By the same token, you learn new things every day.”

Both sheriffs are elected officials. Dever is a Republican, Estrada, a Democrat.

Others have questioned the methodology and conclusions of the Homeland Security numbers showing the border is more secure.

Mark Hanna, CEO of Real Life Enterprises, a Phoenix-based technology integration and security company, has testified before the Arizona Senate about what he called Homeland Security’s flawed methodology used to compile border security statistics. Hanna maintains the numbers are dangerously misleading.

Hanna, who is currently working on a private/public partnership pilot program along the Arizona border, said he attended a February conference at which Michael Fisher, chief of the United States Border Patrol, and Mark S. Borkowski, assistant commissioner for technology and innovation acquisition, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, showed off charts indicating arrests were decreasing and argued the border was more secure. The charts also showed an increase in marijuana seizures along the border and an increase in Border Patrol agents.

But those charts left out crucial data, Hanna said.

“Since we don't know how many illegal crossings are occurring, then a decrease in apprehensions might mean that there are fewer illegal crossings, and the border is more secure. But it could also just as easily mean that more illegal border crossings are occurring, and we're just not catching as many. In order to know how secure the border is, you need to know how many are crossing and the threat level of those who are crossing illegally," he said.

“It is a very dangerous condition for the secretary of Homeland Security to be using incomplete data to form such a conclusion, and then repeatedly announce these conclusions as fact,” he said.

The Department of Homeland Security did not return repeated requests for comment on Hanna’s specific challenges to the agency’s methodology.

Whatever the methodology, Dever said the numbers don’t accurately describe what’s happening on the ground.

“We do not know who’s crossing that border, but that anyone who wants to can. That’s the message our nation needs to hear, that anyone who wants to can, and is. And our own Department of Homeland Security does not have clear definition of what securing the border even means," Dever said.

“People are disgusted, the smiles are gone off their face, their general sense of welfare been taken away from them and until that’s returned you can throw all the numbers on the board. … I’ll tell Napolitano, in spite of all of your declarations and efforts to the contrary, things are not safe. No, they are not secure.

“You can use your numbers to say it’s more secure, but it does not define a sense of safety or well-being. You can say it’s more secure, but it’s more dangerous than ever.”

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
immigration

In Illinois - Don't stop and take a picture of an accident

Who could possibly disagree.  This not only interferes with the process but slows traffic or causes congestion where none need exist.

On the other hand ...




Bill Would Ban Photos At Accident Scenes


March 4, 2011 6:42 AM


SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WBBM) – A state lawmaker doesn’t want drivers to stop and take pictures or videos of vehicle accidents.


As WBBM Newsradio 780’s Alex Degman reports, a measure to ban that practice has passed an Illinois House committee.

The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Tom Holbrook (D-Belleville), says amateur photographers often get in the way of emergency personnel.

“Putting your cell phone over the firemen’s shoulders as he’s using the jaws of life, maybe to get your grandmother of the front seat of her car while she’s bleeding,” Holbrook said. “You never know with these things. These are horrendous situations for individuals.”

Holbrook says accident victims would still be able to take pictures for insurance purposes.

But the bill says no person may use a wireless device within 500 feet of an accident, except for specified purposes.





 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
photo

Pakistan: Our Friend and Ally, Part 2

Rape as Punishment


Washington Post
By Mona Eltahawy
Editorial
Pg B07
July 28, 2002



A Pakistan tribal council's horrific "punishment" by gang rape of a young woman last month was just the tip of a very ugly iceberg called honor.

In the name of that most elusive of concepts, women are shot, beheaded, burned, stoned and beaten. And, in the case of Saleema, raped.

Four men raped Saleema (not her real name) for more than an hour to ruin her honor and avenge that of another woman. (Saleema's 12-year-old brother had been in the company of a woman from a more powerful tribal family, apparently not by his own choice, and been summarily accused of having an affair with her). Hence the tribal council's "verdict" on his sister.

The Pakistan Human Rights Commission estimates that at least eight women, five of them minors, are reported raped every day; more than two-thirds of them are gang-raped.

In Pakistan rape is often used for revenge or punishment against an enemy. A woman is "defiled" to taint her family. What irony that a woman as powerless as Saleema carries the whole family's honor on her shoulders -- a heavy burden indeed.

It is one that is carried by women in countless Muslim countries, yet there is not a single word in the Koran that calls for death in the name of honor. Virginity before marriage and chastity afterward are the bulwarks of honor in societies where such killings prevail.

The mere suspicion that she has jeopardized that honor -- talking to a neighbor, being seen with a strange man, or even asking for a divorce -- can earn a woman a death sentence.

Some conservative Muslim clerics shamefully support honor killings. They accuse activists who fight to eradicate such crimes, often at risk of their own lives, of seeking to impose Western values upon their traditional societies.

What is so Western about wanting to end a barbaric cultural practice that leaves a woman damned if she does and damned if she doesn't?

In Yemen a few years ago, a man shot his daughter dead on her wedding night after her husband claimed she was not a virgin. At the mother's insistence, a doctor examined the young woman's body and found her to have been a virgin. Her husband was impotent and lied to protect his honor because he knew he would not be able to display a bloodied rag as proof of his bride's virginity.

According to UNICEF and Amnesty International statistics, more than 1,000 women were victims of honor killings in Pakistan in 1999. There were up to 400 honor killings in Yemen in 1997. The United Nations says such killings have also occurred in Britain, Norway, Italy, Brazil, Peru and Venezuela. At least one case has been reported in the United States.

One particularly gruesome killing had us dumbfounded as word of what happened came into the Cairo newsroom where I was working at the time. A young woman named Nora Ahmed had eloped. Her father had not approved of her choice of husband. When she returned to Cairo to try to change her father's mind he asked to speak with her privately. He then cut off her head and paraded it down a Cairo street, shouting "Now my family has regained its honor."

In 1997 some 52 honor killings were reported in Egypt. The actual figures in all of the countries I've cited are probably much higher because most honor killings go unreported.

What to do if clerics remain perversely silent about an ancient practice that is rooted in culture rather than religion? What to do when men who kill female relatives in the name of honor too often escape punishment or receive atrociously short sentences?

We must acknowledge the brave few who speak out. A village imam courageously condemned Saleema's rape in a Friday sermon, drawing journalists' attention.

A particularly useful weapon is embarrassment. In Saleema's case, local and international outcries led Pakistani authorities to arrest and charge all four suspected rapists. Several other people -- including a police officer -- are also in custody for allegedly failing to prevent the attack or hiding the suspects.

Two of the most courageous activists fighting honor killings are sisters Asma Jehangir and Hina Jilani. They are both lawyers and human rights activists who tirelessly champion women's rights despite death threats and a largely unsympathetic government.

Let's embarrass that government into prosecuting more of those who kill in the name of honor. Let's shame it into doing the honorable thing.





 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
pakistan