Carry Out Luggage: Man Uses Plane Bathroom To Rob Brink’s of Almost $240,000

Now this is a daring crime. A passenger on a flight on Air Antilles to Guadeloupe reportedly complained that he was having stomach issues and stayed in the bathroom for almost the entire flight. After the plane landed, a Brink’s security employee discovered that the $238,000 left with luggage in the hold had been taken.
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Virgin Blue Fires Flight Attendant For Putting 17-Month-Old Son In Overhead Compartment

Virgin Blue has fired a male flight attendant after a mother, Natalie Williamson, complained that her 17-month-old son, Riley, was put in an overhead compartment on a flight from Fij to Sydney. There is more, however, to this story than the headline.
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Saudi Interior Ministry: Free Speech Is Offense Against God

We have seen how Sharia law has been used to justify child rape, stonings, and a wide array of abuses. Now the Interior Ministry of Saudi Arabia has issued a statement that protests for greater freedom and democratic reforms is also an offense against God.
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Sarah Palin: The Rosa Parks of Guns?

Folks at the National Rifle Association are celebrating what some are calling the “Palin effect” — a sharp rise in female membership in the NRA and gun ownership generally due to the rise of Sarah Palin. According to the article below, the Palin effect has encouraged new design and marketing efforts by gun manufacturers vis-a-vis women customers.
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Ashcroft v. al-Kidd

Submitted by Lawrence Rafferty, (rafflaw), Guest Blogger

I have been concerned lately about the Constitutional attacks that we have discussed here on Prof. Turley’s blog. One case that I have noticed lately received very minimal main stream media attention and it concerns a vitally important issue. This past week the ACLU argued a case in the Supreme Court that challenges the government’s use of the Federal material witness statute to pick-up and hold in detention an American citizen named al-Kidd who was arrested by Federal authorities in 2003 and detained for over two weeks without a charge. Continue reading “Ashcroft v. al-Kidd”

Promises, Promises: Is the Obama DOJ Going after Whistleblowers?

Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger

From Change.gov (The Office of the President-Elect Barack Obama):
“Often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government is an existing government employee committed to public integrity and willing to speak out. Such acts of courage and patriotism, which can sometimes save lives and often save taxpayer dollars, should be encouraged rather than stifled. We need to empower federal employees as watchdogs of wrongdoing and partners in performance. Barack Obama will strengthen whistleblower laws to protect federal workers who expose waste, fraud, and abuse of authority in government. Obama will ensure that federal agencies expedite the process for reviewing whistleblower claims and whistleblowers have full access to courts and due process.”

Is President Obama following through on his promise to protect whistleblowers? It doesn’t appear so. One has only to look at the case of Jeffrey Sterling to see that our President has definitely not been working to strengthen laws that would protect them. Sterling, an alleged whistleblower, was arrested in early January on charges that he leaked national defense information to the media and revealed the identity of a “human asset.”

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Criminalizing Prank Calls

-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger

Recently, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was the recipient of an embarrassing prank call from a blogger Ian Murphy posing as Republican billionaire David Koch. Instead of waiting until the incident blew over, two Republican Wisconsin legislators have decided now’s the time to reintroduce legislation that would make the prank call illegal.

Sen. Mary Lazich, R-Waukesha, and Rep. Mark Honadel, R-Milwaukee, are reintroducing a bill that would:

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Stop The Torture of Pvt. Bradley Manning

 

Submitted by Lawrence Rafferty, (rafflaw), Guest Blogger

 

The nightmare started back in July of 2010.  Pvt. Bradley Manning was arrested and detained in the Brig at the Quantico Marine Base on allegations that he stole and then leaked classified documents to Wikileaks.  The conditions that Pvt. Manning has been held under have been outrageous from the start. He has suffered shackling, solitary confinement and he has not been allowed normal contact with visitors and the outside world.  His visitors have been denied access to him and now the latest humiliating tactic being used by the Department of Defense is to force Pvt. Manning to strip naked in his cell for hours!  Continue reading “Stop The Torture of Pvt. Bradley Manning”

Wisconsin, Scott Walker, and Protesting Workers: The Story Continues

Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger

There have been some new developments in the Wisconsin story since my last post on the subject, Is the Scott Walker Story Just the Tip of the Koch Brothers Political Iceberg?. More than six hundred comments have been left at that post—and it takes a long time to load the page. I thought it best to write up a new post for people who would like to continue the discussion on the subject of Governor Scott Walker, the protesting workers in Wisconsin, Walker’s anti-union budget repair bill, the AWOL Democratic state senators, and various and sundry other things related to the subject.

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Plyler v. Doe (1982) and Jurisdiction

-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger

Plyler v. Doe was a case in which the Supreme Court decided that, under the Equal Protection Clause, Texas could not deny the children of undocumented aliens access to public schools.

The vote was 5-4. More interestingly, by a vote of 9-0, the court addressed the meaning of “jurisdiction” as found in the Fourteenth Amendment.

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No, No, No, You Silly Drunk: Drink First Then Take Field Test

Submitted By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger

Stephen Supers of  Elyria, Ohio can’t seem to get anything straight. Pulled for speeding, the 25-year-old gave the arresting officer the distinct impression  he was DUI. After failing several field sobriety tests, the alleged offender confirmed the officer’s suspicion and calmed his nerves by slamming back a beer he conveniently had stashed in his car. A subsequent search of the car revealed some other goodies like marijuana. (Quite the mobile pharmacy, you have there, Stephen– allegedly) 

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Alister McGrath Escapes Rationality

-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger

Gnu Atheist

Alister McGarth is a Christian theologian and apologist, and Professor of Theology, Ministry, and Education at King’s College, London.

In his latest article, he chides the New Atheists for their adherence to the prison of mere rationality. He argues that reason and science are not enough to discover the depths of reality.

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Wanted: Red Or Restrained

Submitted by Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger

Wisconsin Republican leaders are law and order types indeed. Unhappy that fourteen Democratic state senators are boycotting Governor Scott Walker’s union busting party, they have authorized the Senate Sergeant at Arms to round-up the legislative desperadoes “with or without force.” The Gang of 14, of course, are holed up in the neighboring Illinois badlands but Sheriff Walker wants to get his men (and his agenda railroaded through) so niceties like democracy and respect for the rights of the opposition need  not be  observed.

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