Blogs

by John Konopak, Ph.D. (LSU, 1989, Education) WWH/CJE
+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+

Supreme Court Rejects Lawsuit Challenging Warrantless Surveillance

WS – I had a dream that the Supreme Court Justices were arrested for stalking. Then I awoke to this…

Unless you can prove you’re being surveilled in a program the government keeps secret, you have no right to sue.
In a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court on Tuesday threw out a lawsuit challenging the US government’s warrantless surveillance powers on the grounds that the plaintiffs do not have “standing.”
Justices Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and Chief Justice John Roberts concluded that the plaintiffs cannot sue the government for the 2008 expansion of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) because they can’t prove the law directly effects them.

The FISA Amendments Act of 2008 authorized broad, warrantless surveillance of Americans’ international communications, checked only by a secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that doesn’t make it’s activities and procedures available to the public.

Even though the government has acknowledged that the secretive program has exceeded its legal limits, violating Americans’ Fourth Amendment constitutional rights, the majority decision on Tuesday rejected the notion that a group of American lawyers, journalists and rights organizations have any standing to challenge it. More…

Today is “Chase Your Tail Day” – Hint; They drive black SUV’s.

On February 22, 2013, Anonymous released a video message on Youtube.com under the hashtags #OpWeirton and #OpPedoHunt. In the video, an individual, wearing the now widely-recognized Guy Fawkes mask, expressed disgust over the recent alleged sexual assault of a two-year-old child from Hancock County, West Virginia and announced a rally at the Hancock County Courthouse in New Cumberland, WV on March 2^nd at 12:00 p.m. to recognize and support the 2-year-old Jane Doe.

Tyler Graham, 19, from Weirton, WV was arrested and faces one count of Sexual Abuse by a Parent, Guardian, Custodian or Person in Position of Trust to a Child. Graham was considered to be a person in position of trust because he was dating the child’s mother.  Graham was released on a $50,000.00 bail (5). More charges may be filed at a later time (4).

Graham is also accused of giving the toddler a sexually transmitted disease. Weirton Police Detective Gerard Spencer says this is “probably one of the worst cases,” he’s seen on the job. According to Spencer, relatives took the child to the doctor with what they thought was a case of severe diaper rash but were told by alarmed doctors that there was something seriously wrong.

“Weirton Medical Center called us to come up there. A 2-year-old baby had just had surgery for wounds relating to a sexual abuse case," Spencer told reporters (4).

Police and doctors aren’t the only ones who seem concerned. Many locals expressed outrage towards the alleged perpetrator and described graphic and violent ways to punish him almost as soon as the Anonymous video was uploaded to Youtube.  A few people, however, expressed concern that the video and the presence of Anonymous would trigger a witch hunt. Due to the graphic and sensitive nature of the crime, it is easy to understand that emotions are at an all-time high in Weirton.

Revisiting a dark chapter in Canada’s history-Our Men In Iran?-Man charged with disorderly conduct for whistling too loudly-Israel ‘secretly deports’ 1,000 Sudanese who may face persecution at home-Two fiery protests in as many days, Tibetan self-immolator passes away

Two fiery protests in as many days, Tibetan self-immolator passes away
WS – When compared to the Tibetan Monks; My activism is “no match”.
In more alarming reports coming out of Tibet, another Tibetan, who is a close relative of a Tibetan self-immolator, set himself on fire today protesting China’s continued occupation of Tibet.

Tsezung Kyab, 27, torched himself in front of the main prayer hall of the Shitsang Monastery in Luchu region of eastern Tibet at around 1:30 pm (local time). He passed away at his protest site, the same place where his cousin Pema Dorjee, 23, passed away in his self-immolation protest on December 8, 2012.

At the time of filing this report, additional details on today’s protest are awaited.

This is the second self-immolation protest in Tibet in as many days. Yesterday, Phagmo Dhondup, a Tibetan in his 20’s set himself ablaze near the Jhakhyung Monastery in Palung region of eastern Tibet. His condition and whereabouts are not known. More…

Today is “National Pistachio Day”  - What makes them more special than Cashews? This is just “Nuts”!

"The Invisible Wounds of Exile": Stones in the Sun Haitian director Patricia Benoît: Interview

Liza Béar: I assume you have lived in Haiti at one point.

Patricia Benoît: I left as a child in the sixties.

LB: How old were you when you left?

PB: Six.

LB: Did you go back a lot?

PB: I’ve been back, yeah. My family was exiled, but then about…13 years  after leaving I went back for a first visit and  [since then] I’ve been back a lot. I’ve done a lot of work in Haiti. I’ve done documentation work with grassroots groups. I’ve done theater in a school with kids in a sort of very disadvantaged neighborhood, and kids who were not in school.

The story that I’m telling had been brewing in my mind for a very long time.  And it’s a story that I felt I could only tell through fiction, because I wanted to talk about something that was…very intimate. And I don’t think I could have done that in a documentary.

One of the things that I wanted to talk about was  the invisible wounds of exile. And that’s something that I’ve lived with ever since I was little. There’s  that initial trauma that sends people out of their countries of origin. And I wanted to look  at how that trauma, the pain of that trauma sort of radiates, in small and large ways. And how it affects people in their intimate lives.

LB: Pain is something that everyone wants to forget. They don’t want to keep it in the social and civil society.

By Sherry Pasquarello,CJE -

When I was a kid back in the 50s and early 60s going to ST. Scholastica grade school, getting a new pope and all the pomp and ritual surrounding it was something that defied description. It was a Holy and mystical event. The prayers of the faithful for the Cardinals choosing the new Holy Father albeit with the direct guidance of the Holy Spirit were heartfelt and an extremely serious matter.

I’ve been through a few popes in my lifetime but now I see the process of electing a new Pope with the eyes of a full on adult. A woman grounded in the way the world and the Vatican really works. Oh, I know that there are men that go into that room with the best of intentions but I also know that men are men and frankly even if the Holy Spirit gave them the name engraved onto a tungsten card they’d pocket it and vote for whoever had the most ideals and ideas as they have.

Make no mistake about the power held in that little city state. Vatican City and the Pope, along with the other Princes of the Church hold an amazing amount of financial and political power. Americans here, even most American Catholics don’t understand just how much. Now, no matter if you are a fan of the church or not it would be wise to watch the doings in Rome closely.

Here in America we have a lot of differing Christian sects, it boggles the mind. But in other countries there may only be two or three to be born into. These faiths plus the evangelicals here that travel to promote their beliefs are pretty hardcore. They affect day to day personal lives AND the political leanings of entire countries. Right now the Catholic Church has a pretty strong presence in Africa and is looking for more. Who they pick as the new Pope could really go a long way influencing converts. South America is another stronghold that could be locked up with a judicious pick.

WikiLeaks reveals imperialist plots against Venezuela-Major Banks Aid in Payday Loans Banned by State-House Republicans strip LGBT, Native American protections from Violence Against Women Act-U.S. Supreme Court to hear arguments over Md. DNA case-Karzai orders US Special Forces out of two provinces, citing torture and murder 

Today is “Pistol Patent Day (Samuel Colt)” Take an NRA member to lunch

Read Articles Here

Background Liz Babson, CJE -Lost in the larger concept of globalization is the impact on women and propagation of domestic violence

Globalization is the process of trading goods, services, capital, and information freely among nations. In theory this would open up the world population to opportunities to trade their countries products globally. The US, which is a north perspective, imposes policies that help to sustain their position of power globally.For example, currently the US is trying to weaken labor unions by positioning themselves in countries where labor is cheaper, thus exploiting their ability to produce goods at less cost. This phenomenon has changed the role for the government from protector of its citizens to assuring the free flow of capitalism.

In Latin America monies to develop the country’s industry are not as available as it is in the United States and as a result in order to keep up with globalization countries in Latin America have taken loans from the World Bank to develop programs to initiate trade. With the political system riddle with corruption and commonly referred to as regimes, the countries resources are being exploited and profits are being illegally hoarded by systems in power. This has left the people to repay the debt, putting them further in poverty and leaving them with little resources to promote social welfare and education.

....... [note] oops! I spelled Austerity  wrong in the video...... This vidoe is also posted on YouTube here: http://youtu.be/RLvJeU_V8ZI [20 minute video]

Unpermitted March does not mean the police can now hurt the people for public safety!?

This is a video with clips taken from the recent 2.14.13 unpermitted One Billion Rising March, recently in Portland in which the police treated peacefully the unpermitted marchers *this time.

In contrast: There is out-takes added from May Day 2012 and from the N3 Austerity march in 2012 that were both unpermitted marches... where folks who were protesting were then pepersprayed, blocked and tackled by the police. [while in the street trying to march]

By Graham Watson | Dr. Saturday  -

There is no one to report it too! – Police in America are allowed and sometimes encouraged to terrorize the citizenry. Nothing will be done to those cops who broke the law in stopping these people. Nothing!

Apparently Ohio State – and college football in general – isn’t very popular in the state of Tennessee.

At least not with the police.

Bonnie Jonas-Boggioni, 65, and her husband were driving home to Plano, Texas from Columbus after attending her mother-in-law’s funeral when a pair of black police SUV’s stopped the couple a few miles outside of Memphis.

“Knowing I wasn’t speeding, I couldn’t imagine why,” Jonas-Boggioni told the Columbus Dispatch. “They were very serious. They had the body armor and the guns.”

On the back of Jonas-Boggioni’s car was a Buckeye leaf decal, similar to the one players’ have on their helmets, and cops mistakenly thought it was marijuana leaf.

Yes, really.

“What are you doing with a marijuana sticker on your bumper?” one of the cops asked Jonas-Boggioni.

After trying to explain that the sticker was not a marijuana leaf and that she and her husband were not trafficking drugs cross-country, the police advised Jonas-Boggioni to remove the sticker as to not cause any more confusion.

You know, just in case there were any other moronic drug cops out there that didn’t actually know what a marijuana leaf looked like.

From the Columbus-Dispatch:

Special Report: A newly discovered document reveals that President Reagan and his national security team in 1981 approved Guatemala’s extermination of both leftist guerrillas and their “civilian support mechanisms,” a green light that opened a path to genocide against hundreds of Mayan villages, reports Robert Parry

By Robert Parry

Soon after taking office in 1981, President Ronald Reagan’s national security team agreed to supply military aid to the brutal right-wing regime in Guatemala to pursue the goal of exterminating not only “Marxist guerrillas” but their “civilian support mechanisms,” according to a newly disclosed document from the National Archives.

Over the next several years, the military assistance from the Reagan administration helped the Guatemalan army do just that, engaging in the slaughter of some 100,000 people, including what a truth commission deemed genocide against the Mayan Indians in the northern highlands.

Recently discovered documents at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, also reveal that Reagan’s White House was reaching out to Israel in a scheme to circumvent congressional restrictions on military equipment for the Guatemalan military.

In 1983, national security aide Oliver North (who later became a central figure in the Iran-Contra scandal) reported in a memo that Reagan’s Deputy National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane (another key Iran-Contra figure) was approaching Israel over how to deliver 10 UH-1H helicopters to Guatemala to give the army greater mobility in its counterinsurgency war.

It's been 2 months since #Oprollredroll was engaged in the small town of Steubenville, Ohio by Anonymous.                                               

By Ars Moriendi,CJE - American double standards, the country seems full of them. I was browsing around online and
caught sight of a photo depicting middle eastern men wearing a shirt that celebrated the killing of
Americans and American troops. Naturally I was appalled as were the thousands of people who
commented on this photo. This is nothing new to us though, we react with bitterness anytime we
feel hostile opposition.

This morning I sit with my partner watching him play a video game online. I can’t help but notice
this very popular game, we’ll call it Mack Blops and say it comes with LOTS of maps, depicted
scenes of these very same middle eastern countries. My partner was gloriously shooting people
from said middle eastern country and thinking nothing of it.

Now, not unlike the military, which is the style of the game, people who play wear a headset and
speak to one another. Mostly this is to back each other while they make “kills” in the virtual world.
I decided to try this headset on and ask around about how these guys feel about playing a
videogame where they kill people in middle eastern countries. Mind you anyone who is online can
answer and the answers are usually not pretty. Something about playing war games must hype
these guys up. Read more...

Tainted Tin: The Deadly Cost of Smart Phones-For the Many Women Who Have Lost So Much-As the Competition Heats Up, So Does a Fight Over Homegrown Peppers-‘Zombie cell’ mates biology and chemistry at nano-scale-Army general facing sex charges adding lawyers-Tuna caught near California still have traces of Fukushima radiation-Mother admits leaving infant daughter on roadside to die in freezing temperatures… but escapes prosecution for two other dead babies found in her trunk-Mission to transport 23,000 liters of bomb-grade uranium from Canada to US

Read Here

https://www.facebook.com/InterstellarTransmissions
there's a much better video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PtXKY5Ppj4
The Band Interstellar Transmissions from Austin routinely cruise the streets of New Orleans at Mardi Gras providing a bus load of fun.  
Sorry for the bad audio.  it's a new manual setting camera and I was drunk.  ;~)

By Sherry Pasquarello,CJE -

Yes, little bits of thought. There is nothing that I feel up to a full on rant about. It is, after all, the end of February and I’m worn down from this bizarre winter we’ve had here in the Burgh.

First off, there’s the horrendously inadequate help available for the mentally ill. We have had way too many incidences of murder and assault here by family on family members due to those inadequacies in the system. We just has a grandson stab his grandmother to death at her own kitchen table because he said the Archangel Michael told him that his Gramma was a witch and he needed to kill her. The family knew he was mentally ill and according to reports had sought help for the young man and that the grandmother was afraid of him. We have another infamous case here which is now in the penalty phase for the “ringleader” of a group convicted of the torture ( over a period of several days ) and murder of a mentally challenged young girl. Now, the victim was fine living on her own and with family nearby but I’m focused on the ringleader. It has come out during his penalty phase that he was terribly abused as a child and labeled unadoptable by experts, one said that he was, ” too broken to be fixed”. Why, WHY, was he, as an adult out on the streets? Can we hit a balance in the treatment of mental illness between letting dangerously ill people free to hurt themselves or others and just jailing anyone in institutions for an illness that can be treated, as the patient leads a normal life? I hope so, though I fear that big business will find it as lucrative to lock anyone that even asked for treatment for a phobia, like a fear of flying, just as big business has for it so very profitable to run prisons. We’ve seen what that can lead to. I do know that something has to be done soon.

Click to view Slide Shows

US sees ‘biggest-ever’ climate protest over Keystone XL pipeline
Tens of thousands of protesters marched through the streets of Washington, DC, on Sunday to protest the controversial Keystone XL project, which would see an oil pipeline run across the US Midwest.

­The march’s organizers, environmental movement 350.org, estimated that 40,000 people from 30 states took part in the ‘Forward on Climate’ rally, described as the biggest climate march in US history; police have not yet provided an official estimate.

Protesters chanted "Keystone pipeline? Shut it down," as they marched around the White House, calling on President Obama to reject the Keystone proposal and follow through on climate pledges made during his inaugural

Incubus and Succubus[/caption] White House Tactic for C.I.A. Bid Holds Back Drone WS - When you read this; You will understand how a frog feels after being hit in the head with a stick! The White House is refusing to share fully with Congress the legal opinions that justify targeted killings, while maneuvering to make sure its stance does not do anything to endanger the confirmation of John O. Brennan as C.I.A. director. Rather than agreeing to some Democratic senators’ demands for full access to the classified legal memos on the targeted killing program, Obama administration officials are negotiating with Republicans to provide more information on the lethal attack last year on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, according to three Congressional staff members. The strategy is intended to produce a bipartisan majority vote for Mr. Brennan in the Senate Intelligence Committee without giving its members seven additional legal opinions on targeted killing sought by senators and while protecting what the White House views as the confidentiality of the Justice Department’s legal advice to the president. It would allow Mr. Brennan’s nomination to go to the Senate floor even if one or two Democrats vote no to protest the refusal to share more legal memos. More...

Today is "Card Reading Day" or "Maids Day Off"

Allegheny County Council approves fracking at the Pittsburgh International Airport in a move that will bring in $500 million dollars to the county.

"We're sitting on the Saudi Arabia of America!" one councilman exclaimed during his speech on why he's voting yes.