While President Obama continues to tell the public that there is no widespread domestic surveillance program and denies the violation of privacy rights, another report again contradicts those statements. According to the Washington Post, the National Security Agency broke privacy rules thousands of times every year under the warrantless surveillance program. Moreover, it is important to keep in mind that civil libertarians view the programs themselves to be violations of Constitution, but the Administration violated even those rules. Moreover, this information did not come from Congress or the White House. It came from Edward Snowden. You remember him. He is the guy Obama said is no patriot and could have taken a different course to address his concerns. The information reviewed by the Post is more than would have been shared with Congress under current rules.
Category: International
The Louhe City Zoo in People’s Park advertized a real African lion to pull in visitors. However, when the lion had to be sent off for breeding, the zoo was short an attraction. So, the operators went and got a large Tibetan mastiff and told people it was a lion. They did the same with wolf exhibit where a dog played the role of a white fox. In the leopard exhibit visitors were actually watching a common white fox. It all worked swimmingly well until the lion started to bark.
Surgeon Emmanuel Labram is facing misconduct charges this month after a woman came forward with an allegation that he told her that had successfully removed her brain tumor when he had not. Labram allegedly encouraged her not to seek further treatment after her surgery at the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary in Scotland. (picture shows brain scan from different case)
Buying vehicles at government auctions can come with obvious perils that range from past damage to poor maintenance to wear and tear. However, the Duarte family appears to have discovered another peril when they unwittingly smuggled drugs from the U.S. to Mexico. Sergio Torres Duarte, 18, and his 19-year-old friend Julio Cesar Moreno were arrested after being stopped on their way to a soccer match near the resort city of Mazatlan and police found 2.2 pounds of cocaine beneath the dashboard of their blue 2004 Toyota Sienna. While we do not see many cases of people smuggling drugs from the United States to Mexico, the teens were arrested despite their pleas of innocence. Torres Duarte’s father, also named Sergio Torres, did some research and found that the van was seized in a drug raid and police found drugs, but apparently missed some before sending the vehicle for auction. Nevertheless, the boys remain in a Mexican jail.
We have another story that reinforces the adage that you have to be careful what you wish, or pray, for. Hannah Gastonguay, 26, and her husband Sean, (and his father) took their two young children on a small boat to leave the United States to “see where God led us.” The family opposed what they viewed as the lack of religious freedom in the United States and set out to find a new home on the tiny island nation of Kiribati. Instead, they found themselves battered for weeks in powerful storms that left them adrift with little food or water. They were finally rescued, taken to Chile, and now plan to return to Arizona.
On the heels of President Barack Obama again assuring that public that there is no domestic surveillance programs on their communications, the New York Times is reporting even broader surveillance by the Administration than previously reported.
The only thing more surprising that the survival of Graham and Sheryl Anley in their shipwreck this week in South Africa is the survival of their marriage. According to this report, with their ship sinking, Graham spotted his wife caught on wreckage of the sinking ship and their dog. He rescued his dog Rosie, brought her to the shore, and then came back for his wife. I guess a really good sea dog is hard to find.
Continue reading “Shipwreck Throws Man, Wife and Dog Into Sea . . . Man Rescues Dog And Then Wife”
John Kerry seems to have put his unique mark on the State Department. Just last week, Secretary of State John Kerry seemed to say that he was for the coup in Egypt before he was not sure about it. Now, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki has declared that the U.S. had “determined that we do not need to make a determination” over whether the ousting of Mohamed Morsi in Egypt was a coup. The wonderful thing is that no one can oppose our foreign policy if no one understands it. Brilliant.
You may recall the global disgust over a Chinese tourist who wrote on an ancient Egyptian temple, now it will be Americans who hang their heads in shame. An unidentified 55-year-old man from Missouri snapped the finger off a 14th or 15th century marble masterpiece when he decided to measure it by grabbing the hand. It is something out of a Seinfeld episode but this represents a serious act of destruction of an ancient piece. Fortunately, it can be repaired.
Continue reading “American Snaps Finger Off 600 Year Old Masterpiece In Florence”
It is with great joy that I can report the decision of the Obama Administration to turn down the controversial permit application of the Georiga Aquarium to import 18 beluga whales captured and held in Russia. I have had the honor of serving as lead counsel with the J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Environmental Law Clinic of The George Washington University Law School in representing an international consortium of scientists, environmentalists, and organizations in challenging the permit application and preparing for litigation to block any permit issuance. My colleague GW Law Professor Joan Schaffner, Director of the GW Law Animal Welfare Project, has joined me in this representation with a team of GW law students, including Tyler Sniff, one of our Shapiro Fellows and a recent graduate. The Administration and specifically the National Marine Fisheries Service (“NMFS”) deserves to be commended for this decision to protect the whale population from continued depletion by these live capture operations. Here is the press release from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
We often discuss the strict liability rule governing wild animals in tort law. This morning Canada is dealing with a tragic and bizarre case in which two young boys — aged five and seven — were killed by a python that escaped a pet store and slithered through their ventilation system into their room. Reptile Ocean owner Jean-Claude Savoie lives above the store and was hosting the two boys for a sleepover with his own son who was unhurt.
Continue reading “Two Boys Strangled To Death In Their Sleep By Escaped Python”
As Afghanistan quickly unravels and the Taliban resume control over large areas of the country, the Obama Administration appears to be rushing to spend as much money as possible before we are kicked out. The latest example is the Pentagon moving forward with a $772 million purchase of aircraft that the Afghan army “cannot operate or maintain,” according to a Special Inspector report. It is understandable of course. We cannot wait any longer with the rise of anti-American sentiments. We need to get this equipment in place before the Taliban and their allies take over.
The desperate efforts of Congress to change the public view of Edward Snowden appears to be continuing. This week someone in the Senate attempted to change the description of Snowden as a “dissident” to a “traitor” on Wikipedia. The White House and congressional leaders are clearly alarmed that many view Snowden as a whistleblower. The media groups like NPR previously yielded to pressure not to call Snowden a whistleblower and instead use the less flattering term “leaker.” However, that is not enough because it does not seem to have helped.
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw)-Guest Blogger
It has not made a lot of noise in the main stream media, but recently, an important case filed jointly by the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights challenging the Department of Justice and the Obama Administration’s drone war was argued in front of Judge Rosemary Collyer. That case is Anwar Al-Aulaqi vs. Panetta, et al and it was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in 2012. You can find the filing here.
What makes this case so important is that it was filed on behalf of the estate of a 16-year-old American citizen who was killed by an American drone strike, along with other victims, in Yemen in 2011. Recently the United States Department of Justice presented a defense that is quite striking. Continue reading “The Most Important Court Case You May Never Have Heard Of”
Submitted By: Mike Spindell, Guest Blogger
As you know part of my contribution as a guest blogger has been the fact that I write much from personal experience. This particular blog is one that I’ve thought about for awhile and have had some trepidation in writing because as you will see it touches on a very sensitive topic for most males. As a boy coming of age in the 1950’s one of the unvoiced, but omnipresent topics was male homosexuality. For a male growing up in that period, among the most upsetting epithets you could be called was queer. This was especially disturbing for those entering puberty, which in the 50’s context was coming into the macho essence of your own self worth. If you were queer you were deemed to be less of a male, a wimp, a fag and most essentially a loathsome pervert who did disgusting things with other males. People were bullied and beaten at school while being called degrading names. Even though I was always big for my age, I was a gentle and sensitive boy and while when attacked I would always fight back, I would be throwing punches through tears of frustration and rage at the injustice of it all. As I cried and fought, all those demeaning epithets would be hurled at me by the jeering bystanders. If I had the temerity to be winning, then other boys would attack me from behind. Finally, a teacher or Administrator would break it up, many times though my rescuer would sneer at the fact that my crying was “unmanly”. Continue reading “Call Me Queer”