This video of a San Bernardino police officer circling and confronting a woman hiking in the desert has raised the anger of many about the increasing intrusion of police surveillance and operations. The officer lands his helicopter and confronts the woman without any evidence of reasonable suspicion, let alone probable cause.
Continue reading “Video: Police Officer Lands Helicopter To Confront And Search Hiker”
By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
Author’s note: This is the sixth installment in a series about the child sexual abuse scandal at The Pennsylvania State University that helped bring down iconic football coach Joe Paterno and three top officials at the premier public college in Pennsylvania.
The Paterno family has released their long unawaited report critiquing the Freeh report entitled appropriately, CRITIQUE OF THE FREEH REPORT: THE RUSH TO INJUSTICE REGARDING JOE PATERNO. Commissioned by the family through the mega-law firm of King & Spalding, the report on”The Freeh Report” (sometimes called the Special Investigative Counsel’s (SIC) report) predictably castigates Former FBI Director Louie Freeh for using “Rank speculation. Innuendo. [and] Subjective opinions.” to form the basis of his conclusion that Papa Bear Paterno knew quite a bit more about Jerry Sandusky’s sexual proclivities than he let on and actively participated in a cover up of monumental proportions. In contrast, Joe Paterno is pictured as a fine man undone by an unfair, inaccurate report that read more like “an indictment” cooked up with the “unchecked power of a prosecutor, and [that] delivered unsupported but headline grabbing theories as fact.”
The wake from the scandal has toppled one university president, the athletic director, and an athletic department that rode football like a bucking horse. The key points made by the Paterno family lawyers are that:
Continue reading “Down In The Valley VI: The Paterno Family’s Report On The Freeh Report [UPDATED]”
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw)- Guest Blogger
It was big news this past week when the United States Postmaster General Patrick Donahue announced that the Post Office was planning to end Saturday mail delivery starting in August, 2013. In light of the large deficits that the Post Office is experiencing, the news is not surprising. What may surprise you is the real reason for the Post Office deficits. Continue reading “United States Postal Service..We Hardly Knew Ye!”
By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
Bill Maher’s caustic but hilarious shtick may have landed him $5 million dollars worth of trouble. Appearing on Jay Leno’s The Tonight Show, the comic best known for his HBO series, Real Time With Bill Maher, laughingly “offered” a cool 5 extra-large to charity if perpetually hair-challenged, right-wing real estate mogul, Donald Trump, publicly coughed up his birth certificate. Saying he was reasonably sure that Trump was the “spawn of his mother having sex with orangutan,” Maher asked to see the document then pledged to pay five charities of The Donald’s choosing. Trump, who is no stranger to “birther” strategies, had famously offered to pay the exact sum to charity if President Obama produced his college records and passport application.
Continue reading “Bill Maher’s Gambit Or Why Donald Trump Loves Lucy”
by Gene Howington, Guest Blogger
We are all aware of and concerned about the steady erosion of our civil rights at the hands of ever overreaching Federal government. It is a topic that brought many of us to this blog and a topic that draws more audience every day. The latest victim of tyranny is the 4th Amendment. The 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
Seems pretty straight forward. However, the DHS has apparently decided to void the Constitution if you live within 100 miles of the U.S. border. Your electronics may be seized and your data searched if you live or are travelling within 100 miles of the border. This is not a new story. This policy has been known since 2008. From the beginning there were calls for Congress to reign in the overreach of the the Department for Reich, er, Homeland Security that went unheeded. Most of the calls were for residential traveller exemptions. However, there are new developments. This draconian policy, neglected by Congress, has been unilaterally declared just fine and dandy by the DHS itself in yet another example of the Executive unilaterally claiming unconstitutional powers over citizens with their only check being their own rubber stamp. This policy not only vitiates the 4th Amendment, but has implications for the 1st and 14th as well.
Continue reading “Your Rights Under Attack: What A Difference 100 Miles Makes”
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
Sometimes an idea hits me leading to an epiphany. Epiphanies for me usually take the shape of the realization that a 
belief I’ve held for a long time, is actually more important in the scheme of things than I had previously thought about. This happened with me some few years ago when the opposition to gay marriage defeated a voter initiative. I had been a believer in the need for equality for Gay men and women since I was a teenager. After all the bullies who were beating me up kept calling me a “fag, or “queer” and while I wasn’t, I got insight into what it must be like to be homosexual. In life you have the choice of identifying with the bully, or those who are bullied. I’ve always chosen the latter. So as a young adult I cried tears of joy when “Stonewall” happened and the police found that Gays would no longer be easy targets. Working for NYC’s Human Rights Administration and then living in Manhattan gave me the privilege of meeting and befriending Gay people of both sexes. When AIDS hit the scene I had many friends die and I worked to help the Division of Aids Services as a Budget Director. Yet while I always completely supported LGBT rights, for a while I believed the focus on Gay Marriage, shouldn’t be in the forefront of the movement. The argument over Proposition 8 in California http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proposition_8 gave me an epiphany that led me to see that not only was the right to marriage an essential part of ensuring the Constitutional Rights of Gay people, but it was the key element. Being unable to assist in the health care choices of long term partners, in some cases even being barred from the funerals, or participating in ones’ partners Health Plan are important Constitutional issues and the essence of the battle. Continue reading “The Most Important Human Rights Issue: Women”
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
This week I read a story at my favorite investigative journalistic website http://whowhatwhy.com . It concerned the back story about the abrupt fall from grace of CIA Director General David Petraeus, which occurred when it was discovered that his biographer was also his mistress. I’ll provide a link to the story below and a brief synopsis of its conclusions, but it is less the reality of Petraeus’ fall, than the rise of military “heroes” that interests me. A theme that is closely woven into human history since the beginnings of civilization is the myth of the great military leader who rises up to gain command and “saves” the country from evil, external enemies. As the Iraq and Afghanistan wars became a harsh reality of our existence after the trauma of 9/11, one military figure appeared to capture our attention and become invested with the intelligence and the courage to fight our “enemies” and protect the American Way of Life. David Petraeus became that “hero”, was generally given bi-partisan deference and credited with wisdom and talents far beyond his peers. While our governmental system is based on civilian leadership of our military, in the person of the President and his appointees, it seemed that throughout the prosecution of these two ill-starred conflicts the Bush and then Obama administrations deferred to a position of “what would Petraeus do?” Continue reading “Petraeus: The Problem with Heroic Hagiography”
Laura Murphy wants people to know that she is no book burner . . . just a book banner. The Fairfax County mother of four has been campaigning to ban the Pulitzer-prize-winning American novel “Beloved” from the school system due to its depictions of bestiality, rape, and murder. She says that her teenage son read the book as a senior in his Advanced Placement English class and was traumatized with nightmares as a result. Now she wants to ban the book for any child to read.
This happy mugshot shows Jeanette Holt, 25, after her arrest. If the criminal allegation against her is the truth, she is truly a piece of work. Chicago police accuse Holt of lying to police that her baby was taken when her car was stolen on Chicago’s South Side. Police launched a major hunt for the baby only to find out later that Hold allegedly lied because she wanted her car found.
Many citizens have said that they have been raped by the IRS, but Vincent Burroughs, of Fall Creek, Ore., means it a bit more literally. He insists that he was coerced into sex against his will by IRS agent Dora Abrahamson, who allegedly threatened him with heaving tax fines unless he slept with her.
We have periodically discussed cases involving employees who have objected on religious grounds to documents, badges, or other material showing the number “666” — considered by some to be the sign of the beast. We can now add the case of Walter Slonopas, a Tennessee maintenance worker, says he quit his job because his W-2 tax form was stamped with the number 666.
Continue reading “Deep Sixed: Worker Quits After Receiving W-2 Form Bearing The Number 666”
U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly appears to be pushing the limits of judicial notice this week. Kennelly found a defendant guilty after dressing up like a nun to see if her theory held water about determining the race of a bank robber in such an outfit.
This may be the most bizarre party of all time. The former local officials and prison wardens at the notorious Usolsky prison camp in the Urals held a 75th anniversary celebration of their gulag and the “traditions in the camp that still hold value today.” We have previously seen efforts to rehabilitate Josef Stalin but the reunion of gulag guards is a bit much to take.
Continue reading “Stalin’s Camp Guards Throw Anniversary Party To Celebrate Gulag Pride”
One could think of a variety of pressing issues for the Prime Minister of Egypt Hisham Qandil from civil unrest to the loss of religious freedom to regional instability. Prime Minister Hisham Qandil however took last week to address what he considered the growing problem of women not washing their breasts. Qandil, a hydrology expert with a degree from North Carolina State, blamed dirty breasts for a diarrhea epidemic in the latest example of a country that seems to be de-evolving in front of our eyes.
Continue reading “Egyptian Prime Minister Blames Unclean Women For Diarrhea Epidemic”
District judge Ken Anderson of Williamson County, Texas is now formally under investigation for his alleged role in a gross injustice as a prosecutor. It is an all-too-rare case where a former prosecutor is actually called to account for an injustice. In this case, an innocent man, Michael Morton (shown here), now 58, was wrongly convicted in 1987 for the murder of his wife. Prosecutors failed to turn over key evidence showing that his son clearly stated that it was not his father. Instead, they took a tragic murder of a mother and magnified it by incarcerating the grieving father. Anderson was later selected as “Prosecutor of the Year.” We previously discussed the case.