A very disturbing case has emerged from Florida where police entrapped Frank Milio, a 94-year-old man suffering from dementia. What is remarkable is that prosecutors did not drop these charges. It took a judge to throw them out — allowing Milio to move into an assisted care facility. He is not the only geriatric scooped up by the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, which seems to developing a reputation for entrapping the elderly. Frank Underhill, 93 (pictured here), was arrested in the same operation.
Category: Politics
No this is not a story out of Tehran. In Georgia, a federal court is considering an interesting challenge to the state’s sex offender laws. Wendy Whitaker, 28, has had enough. She was put on the sex offender list after being found guilty of having oral sex at 17 with a 15-year-old boy. She has now had to move twice because she is not allowed to live within 1,000 feet of places where children congregate. She has been told that her new home is also off limits because it is near a church.
Continue reading “Wendy Whitaker: Another Outrage Emerges From Georgia’s Statutory Rape Law”
In a long-delayed action, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has filed genocide charges against Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for a five-year campaign of violence in Darfur. It is a great moment for the rule of law and justice.
Continue reading “Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir Charged with Genocide”
In Winnipeg, a white nationalist mother thought it was fun to draw a swastika on the arm of her seven-year-old daughter. When a teacher rubbed off the mark, the mother drew it back on. The second time, the school reported the incident and child welfare officials took both the daughter and a two-year-old boy away from the mother. It is a case that raises very serious questions of free speech balanced against child welfare.
Continue reading “Children Taken Away From Nazi Mother in Canada”
A prior entry discussed the refusal of Disney and Universal Studios to comply with a new Florida law allowing citizens to bring guns to work. (SeaWorld is allowing armed employees). Now, Edwin Sotomayer has sued Disney after he was fired for packing at the Animal Kingdom and the matter will move to the courts.
Continue reading “Disney Sued Over Gun Ban at Animal Kingdom”
In yet another confrontation between France and the Muslim community, the government has refused to give a woman citizenship because she is too submissive to Islam and to men. In a June ruling, the Council of State found that the Moroccan woman’s religious beliefs are incompatible with French citizenship. Notably, the woman speaks good French, is married to a French national, has lived in the country since 2000, has three children born in France, and has never been arrested for a crime.
Continue reading “Muslim Woman Denied French Citizenship for Being Too Submissive”
An explosive new book will disclose a Red Cross report that found that the Bush Administration committed clear acts of torture and that Bush Administration officials could be charged with war crimes. The book The book, “The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals,” by New Yorker writer Jane Mayer, gives details of the confidential report. I will be discussing its implications on MSNBC’s Countdown tonight. For the video, click here.
Continue reading “Book: Red Cross Informed Administration that Officials Could Be Tried for War Crimes”
As shocking as it may seem, the evidence appears to confirm that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard altered the recent missile launch pictures to increase the number of missiles in a show of strength. This form of missile envy was uncovered after Agence France-Presse (AFP) ran the picture.
Continue reading “Iran Threatens to Photoshop Israel Out of Existence”
In what is now an almost mocking level of contempt, Karl Rove has refused to appear before Congress despite a subpoena to do so. While claiming executive privilege, there is no justification for the failure to appear and to answer any questions on the firing of U.S. attorneys. The question is what will the Democratic Congress do beyond expressions of outrage. It is a question that I will discuss on the Dan Abrams show tonight.
Continue reading “Rove Again Refuses to Testify Under Subpoena”
It appears that Iran will never have our freedom, but it can buy our bull semen at a gross discount. A recent study has shown that exports to the third leg of the axis of Evil has increased 10 fold under Bush from bras to cosmetics to cigarettes to bull semen.
Continue reading “Outfitting the Axis of Evil: Exports to Iran Increase 10 Fold Under Bush”
In a curious move, the Bush Administration is now refusing a demand from the duly elected Iraqi government for a date of withdrawal. It appears that we are not done rescuing the Iraqis — no matter what the Iraqis may think. So it appears that a continued open-ended occupation now opposed by a majority of voters, a majority in Congress, and a majority of Iraqis will continue until the White House is satisfied. It appears that all that business about the freely elected government was simply aspirational.
It appears that mere blogging with flogging is not enough. Beheading bloggers will now be the new rage in Persia. In its race back to the Dark Ages, Iran and its Mullahs have written a new law that would put bloggers to death for any writing that is viewed as advocating corruption, prostitution, or desertion of Islam. Such bloggers would be deemed mohareb (an enemy of God) and “corrupt of the earth.” This category of criminals allows the Iranian “courts” to inflict a range of punishment that includes amputations and execution.
Continue reading “Post and Perish: Iran Set to Make Offensive Blogging a Death Penalty Offense”
President Bush has been unsuccessful lately in abridging the Constitution with stinging loses in the last month before the Supreme Court and lower courts. He appears now to be attacking the problem at its source: the Founders. In a July 4th speech at Monticello, Bush cleaned up a famous quote by Jefferson by deleting a line that is viewed as critical of religious superstitions and ignorance. The video of the event and the original quote are below.
A new study concludes that the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law does little in terms of actual military readiness and that openly gay soldiers would not significantly diminish morale or fighting capability in the U.S. military. If raised by reporters, the study could put pressure on Barack Obama, who is trying to move to the right in preparation for the general election. John McCain is expected to support the continuation of the current law.
It is unclear whether it is a demonstration of his own disregard for human rights or the new power China holds on the world, but President George Bush has decided that he will go to the opening of the Olympics. Various human rights groups encouraged Bush not to attend — a modest show of opposition to China’s crackdown on Tibet and a wide array of dissidents.