Michael Morton, 57, spent nearly 25 years in prison for murdering his wife before he was able to force Texas authorities to finally test DNA evidence that proved his innocence. Now he is demanding that the prosecutor be held accountable for withholding evidence. The problem is that the then-Williamson County District Attorney Ken Anderson, now a district judge in Georgetown (left).
Continue reading “Judge and Former Prosecutor of the Year Accused Of Withholding Evidence That Sent Innocent Man To Jail For 25 Years”
Month: December 2011
An unnamed Ohio man was cleaning his muzzle-loading rifle and decided to fire one round in the air. The round traveled over one mile and reportedly killed Rachel Yoder, 18, an Amish girl driving her horse-drawn buggy home after a Christmas party.
Continue reading “Ohio Man Shoots Gun In Air . . . Kills Amish Girl Over A Mile Away”
Deangelo Mitchell (right) is looking at a rather novel charge after he allegedly convinced his brother Wayne (left) to eat the one ounce of cocaine he had hidden in his rear end. Police say that Deangelo did not want the police to find the drugs after they took him into custody. Wayne died.
Continue reading “Man Dies After Eating Cocaine From Brother’s Derrière”
British Prime Minister David Cameron has declared Britain to be a Christian country — something that might be a bit unsettling for almost 30 percent of people who list themselves as either having no religion or being non-Christian. The actual number of non-religious appears much higher. Indeed, as noted earlier, a majority of English citizens polled stated that they have no religion in a recent study.
Continue reading “Cameron Declares England A Christian Country”
I have previously written and blogged on the criminalization of the American society. Now a study in the journal Pediatrics this week finds that, by age 23, almost a third of Americans have been arrested for a crime.
Continue reading “The Penal State: New Study Shows One-Third of Americans Have Been Arrested For A Crime By Age 23”
NYU Professor José Angel Santana says that he was doing what any responsible academic would do when faced with a student who missed 12 out of 14 assignments: he gave him a “D”. The problem, he alleges, was that the student was Hollywood hunk James Franco (left) from “127 Hours.” He says that he was ridiculed by the star and fired by the school over the decision. Franco gained fame portraying James Dean in Rebel Without A Cause.
Continue reading “Celebrity Curve? NYU Professor Sues After Being Fired Allegedly For Giving Star James Franco A Bad Grade”
Newt Gingrich this week unleashed a series of attacks on the judiciary, calling for abolishing judges, getting rid of lifetime tenure, and ignoring judicial rulings that he does not agree with. We discussed yesterday his suggestion that judges could be arrested by federal officers and forced to appear before Congress to answer for their unpopular decisions. However, last night on Hardball I took Gingrich to task for what I consider a misrepresentation of not just the law but history in his reference to Lincoln.
Continue reading “Gingrich: The Great Emancipator From History?”
It appears that scientists will not stop at anything to fabricate fossils older than 5,000 years old — the rough age established by the Bible according to some creationists. The scientists found the fossils in a quarry that date back to the Ordovician period. The range of the fossils is considerable from sponges and worms to nautiloids.
Continue reading “Another Darwinistic Plot? Scientists Find 450 Million Year Old Fossils in Quarry”
We have previously discussed attacks by orthodox Jews on women and others in Israel. The demand for segregation of the sexes however has triggered a national debate after accounts of women being asked to sit in the back of buses. There is also an outcry over Orthodox Jews ripping down any advertisements showing women in public areas.
I will be on C-Span’s Washington Journal this morning discussing privacy and other issues in a call-in program. Continue reading “Turley on C-Span”
Former House speaker Newt Gingrich appears to be running against the Constitution as much as against President Obama these days. Gingrich has been promising to round up judges who do not agree with him — statements that have even conservative figures like Michael Mukasey, former attorney general during the George W. Bush administration, denouncing him. Mukasey was the attorney general who blocked prosecutions into torture, but finds Gingrich truly scary. I am currently scheduled to be on Hardball tonight to discuss this latest attack on the judiciary.
Continue reading “Gingrich: I Will Arrest Federal Judges”
“A dingo took my baby” stands as one of the most famous lines from any criminal case in history — made so by the movie “A Cry in the Dark” starring Meryl Streep. Now, a coroner in Australia has reopened the case after a couple of proven dingo attacks on children.
Continue reading “A Dingo May Have Eaten Her Baby After All: Coroner Reopens Case of Famous Baby Murder Case”
Submitted by Gene Howington, Guest Blogger
Newt Gingrich made statements this weekend that leave little doubt he would drag the already overreaching Office of the President over the threshold of dictatorship. First, let us be clear about what a dictatorship is: a dictatorship is autocratic rule, control, or leadership; a form of government in which absolute power is concentrated in a dictator or a small clique; a government organization or group in which absolute power is so concentrated. Second, let us be clear that such a concentration of power in a single branch of government is clearly unconstitutional under the Separation of Powers doctrine.
Continue reading “Newt Gingrich Channels His Inner Dictator”
Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
Nomi Prins, a former investment banker who once worked for Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns, recently appeared on Democracy Now! Amy Goodman questioned Prins about the collapse of MF Global and John Corzine’s testimony before Congress.
Corzine has claimed that he never directed anyone at MF Global to misuse investors’ funds. A witness named Terry Duffy, however, has testified that “Corzine was aware of loans that may have used customer money.” Duffy is chairman of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
In her interview with Amy Goodman, Prins spoke about a clip of Corzine’s testimony that she and Goodman watched: “We’re listening to someone try and dodge his way out of responsibility and accountability, which is very much what all of the CEOs on Wall Street have done through the subprime crisis and through past crises.” Prins added, “And for him to sit there in front of Congress and talk about ‘not intending’ and ‘I didn’t know’ and ‘I didn’t instruct’ and ‘I didn’t misuse’ and all these sort of legal maneuvers around this issue really is deplorable.”
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
Sometimes a story comes around that writes itself and merely needs highlighting of certain facts to make its points. This link below will provide concrete data on why this country has become a corrupted corporatist state, along with why the federal budget deficit is so high. Its title is “For Hire: Lobbyists or the 99%? How Corporations Pay More for Lobbyists Than in Taxes”
http://publicampaign.org/sites/default/files/ReportTaxDodgerLobbyingDec6.pdf
What this document clearly shows, with highly readable charts is that 30 of the top US Corporations not only pay more for lobbying than in taxes, but in fact that they receive huge tax credits, although being highly profitable. Over a three year period 2008-2010 these companies had combined profits of $163.691 billion, received tax credits of $10.602 billion and spent $475.67 million on lobbying. Only one of these companies, FedEx, actually paid taxes. They paid $37 million in taxes, on a profit of $4.247 billion and spent $50.81 million for lobbying. As you might guess the most glaring example was General Electric whose profits were $10.460 billion, received tax credits of $4.737 billion and who spent $84.35 million in lobbying.
I could certainly provide you with commentary on this report, but the starkly written manner of the report and the easily read charts do a far better job of explanation, than would my rhetoric. The next time someone comments on the “theft” that is taxes and the need to defend the 1% and their corporations from government intrusion show them this. If they defend the inequity shown here then you will know they are either part of the 1%, brain-washed or brain dead. It isn’t of course that many of us haven’t known the state of things, or these facts, we have discussed them here repeatedly. Nevertheless, each time the message of the destruction of our Constitution, our America and our people in the service of greed and ego is shown to me, my blood boils. Please check out the link and share your thoughts.