Let's start with today's AP report on the abrupt "intermission" of the Trial of Major Nidal Hasan...
The standby attorney for the soldier charged in the 2009
Fort Hood shooting rampage accused Maj. Nidal Hasan on Wednesday of
deliberately charting a course toward a conviction and death sentence, abruptly
halting the trial after only one day.
* NIDAL ADMITS HE DID IT. WHAT'S GOING ON IS INSANITY.
Lt. Col. Kris Poppe, Hasan's lead court-appointed standby
attorney, said he is willing to step in and be Hasan's defense lawyer. But he
asked that his responsibilities as co-counsel be minimized if Hasan, who is
representing himself at trial, continues to work toward being executed.
* DID HASAN TRY TO PLED GUILTY? WASN'T HIS GUILTY PLEA
REFUSED? AGAIN... THIS IS INSANITY.
It is "clear his goal is to remove impediments or
obstacles to the death penalty and is working toward a death penalty,"
Poppe told the judge overseeing the case at the Texas military base.
Hasan responded: "I object. That's a twist of the
facts."
* IF HASAN CHOOSES TO PLED NOT GUILTY AND DEFEND HIMSELF
THAT'S HIS RIGHT. AGAIN... THIS TRIAL IS INSANITY ON DISPLAY!
Hasan is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder
and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder. If convicted, he would face the
death penalty.
* HASAN SHOULD HAVE BEEN CHARGED WITH TERRORISM AND TREASON;
INSTEAD THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION VIEWS HIS ACTIONS AS "WORKPLACE
VIOLENCE." (AND THIS IS AN ADMINISTRATION A MAJORITY OF THE AMERICAN
PEOPLE FOOLISHLY RE-ELECTED JUST LAST YEAR.)
Poppe said Hasan was acting as his own attorney in a way
that, "we believe is repugnant to defense counsel and contrary to our
professional obligations."
* THEN RELEASE POOPE FROM HIS APPOINTMENT AS STANDBY
DEFENSE COUNSEL. (SIMPLE, RIGHT?)
Hasan, an American-born Muslim who was paralyzed after
being shot by officers responding to the attack, said he was as a soldier who
switched sides in what he described as a war between America and his Islamic
faith. He then fell silent for most of the day.
* AGAIN, FOLKS... THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION REFUSES TO
INDICT HASAN ON TREASON. WHY?
Hasan wanted to plead guilty to murder and attempted
murder, but military rules forbid guilty pleas in death penalty cases.
* AGAIN... INSANITY! (AND FRANKLY I DON'T SEE HOW SUCH A
RULE PASSES CONSTITUTIONAL MUSTER.)
Hasan had also asked to argue that he carried out the
shooting in "defense of others," namely members of the Taliban
fighting in Afghanistan, but the judge denied that strategy.
* THIS JUDGE IS A TOTAL INCOMPETENT. THIS WHOLE MATTER IS
AN INDICTMENT OF 21ST CENTURY AMERICA! HOW CAN THIS BE HAPPENING...?!?!
No American soldier has been executed since 1961, and
military prosecutors showed that they would take no chance of fumbling details
that could jeopardize any conviction down the line.
* THESE PARTICULAR MILITARY PROSECUTORS ARE OBVIOUSLY
INCOMPETENT. I'D FEEL FAR SAFER IF THEY WERE CASHEERED.
The long-delayed trial was years in the making after
judges in the case had granted a series of delays.
* AND I PROVIDE THE ABOVE FACT AS EVIDENCE THAT THE
ENTIRE SYSTEM IS SCREWED SIX WAYS FROM SUNDAY!
A fight over Hasan's beard, which violates military
regulations, led to a stay shortly before his trial was expected to begin last
year and eventual replacement of the judge.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
The trial is playing out amid high security at Fort Hood,
where armed guards stood in doorways and 15-foot stacks of shock-absorbing
barriers obscured the view of the courthouse. Jurors were told to prepare for a
trial that could take months...
8 comments:
* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/06/us-usa-language-census-idUSBRE97514V20130806?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews
The number of people in the United States who speak a language other than English at home has nearly tripled over the past three decades, far outpacing the overall population growth, U.S. data released on Tuesday showed.
* SOCIALIZATION IS JUST NOT WORKING AS IT USED TO, FOLKS. I COULD GO INTO A MYRIAD OF REASONS... BUT JUST ADSORB THE FACT AS A FACT. PLEASE.
While Spanish remains the most widely spoken language after English, other languages, particularly those from South Asia and Africa, have also soared in use, the U.S. Census Bureau said in a report.
Some 60.6 million people, or nearly one in five people in the United States aged 5 or older, spoke a language other than English at home in 2011, according to the report. That is up from 23 million in 1980, or almost one in 11.
Over the three decades, the number of people speaking a language other than English at home rose 158%, far faster than the overall U.S. population, which grew 38%.
Linguistics expert Peter Sayer said the findings highlight increasing "multilingualism" in the United States as a growing number of people speak at least one other language besides English.
* IF ONLY THIS WERE THE CASE!
* YES... TO A CERTAIN POINT IT ACTUALLY IS THE CASE - AND THAT'S GREAT - BUT THEN WE TURN TO THE STATS FOR HISPANIC STUDENTS... THEN WE TURN TO THE STATS FOR HISPANICS IN GENERAL...
* FOLKS. IT'S CALLED CONNECTING THE DOTS! WE'RE EXPERIENCING INTERGENERATIONAL PROBLEMS ACROSS THE ETHNIC GROUPS WHICH AREN'T ASSIMILATING! THESE PEOPLE AND THEIR FAMILIES ARE NOT GOING UP THE AMERICAN LADDER OF SUCCESS AS THEY SHOULD; INSTEAD FAR TOO MANY ARE STUCK INTO A PERMANENT UNDERCLASS. HOW IS THIS GOOD...???
* TO BE CONTINUED...
* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)
"Spanish is the main language, but there's an increasing amount of linguistic diversity," said Sayer, a professor at The University of Texas at San Antonio's Department of Bicultural-Bilingual Studies.
* AND AN INCREASING HIGH SCHOOL DROP-OUT RATE! "DIVERSITY" IS GREAT FOR A DINER... NOT SO GREAT FOR A NATION.
Among those who speak a language other than English at home, two-thirds speak Spanish. About 37.6 million people in the United States spoke Spanish at home in 2011, up from about 11 million in 1980, the Census report found.
* AND WHAT DO THE STATS SAY ABOUT THEIR ENGLISH PROFICIENCY? HOW'BOUT THEIR GENERAL EDUCATION LEVELS? INCOME LEVELS?
Chinese was the next most widely spoken language with nearly 2.9 million speakers in 2011.
* MOSTLY IN CHINATOWNS I'LL WAGER. (FOLKS... STOP THINKING FUN PLACES TO EAT AND INSTEAD THINK... WASN'T THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT PARTIALLY ABOUT DESEGREGATION? DO WE REALLY WANT CHINESE "GHETTOS" ANYMORE THAN WE WANT BLACK GHETTOS AND HISPANIC GHETTOS?
Those two languages, along with Vietnamese, Russian, Persian, Armenian, Korean and Tagalog have seen their use more than double in the United states over the last 30 years. Other Asian and African languages such as Hindi and Swahili have also seen significant growth, the Census report said.
Meanwhile, many European languages are fading in the United States.
* HEY... DIMWITS... SPANISH IS A EUROPEAN LANGUAGE!
There are now half as many Italian speakers in the United States as there were in 1980. German, Hungarian, French, Greek, Yiddish, and Polish also saw significant drop-offs, according to the Census Bureau. The United States has tracked language use since 1890.
The changes reflect a continuing shift in America's make-up amid the latest wave of immigration from Asia and other regions following influxes from Mexico and other Central and Latin American countries and, before that, Europe.
"While increased immigration led to gains for some language groups, other groups experienced aging populations and dwindling migrant flows into the United States," the report said.
"As people get older and spend time in the United States, they are increasingly likely to make English their main language," wrote Camille Ryan, the report's author and statistician at the agency.
* UH-HUH... TELL THAT TO MY FRIEND ROSA'S MOTHER. TELL THAT TO MY FRIEND SALLY'S PARENTS!
The language trend does not appear to be hurting the use of English, which remains the most widely spoken language in U.S. homes, the findings showed.
* IT'S HURTING THE SKILLED USE OF PROPER ENGLISH! (EVER HEAR OF SPANGLISH...?)
Among those who speak another language, 78% said they speak English "well" or "very well," while 22% said they speak English "not well" or "not at all," the 2011 data showed.
* "THEY SAY." (*SHRUG*) I'LL TAKE THAT WITH A GRAIN OF SALT. HEY... I HOPE IT'S TRUE! MORE POWER TO 'EM! EVERYONE WOULD BENEFIT BY BEING ABLE TO SPEAK MORE THAN ONE LANGUAGE! BUT THE OVERALL SOCIETAL DATA I ROUTINELY COME ACROSS SAY'S ALL THIS "DIVERSITY" IS BREAKING THE COUNTRY APART AND DUMBING DOWN THE PEOPLE!
Sayer said the data dispels the notion that immigrants resist learning English. "We continue to be a country of immigrants, but that misconception of immigrants not learning English is not really true," he said.
* AGAIN... I SEE IT! AND THE EDUCATIONAL STATS DON'T LIE!
* THREE-PARTER... (Part 1 of 3)
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/08/07/uk-dea-irs-idUKBRE9761B620130807
* NOTE, FOLKS... REUTERS UK!
Details of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration program that feeds tips to federal agents and then instructs them to alter the investigative trail were published in a manual used by agents of the Internal Revenue Service for two years.
The practice of recreating the investigative trail, highly criticized by former prosecutors and defense lawyers after Reuters reported it this week, is now under review by the Justice Department.
* ONCE AGAIN... THE FOX GUARDING THE HEN HOUSE.
A 350-word entry in the Internal Revenue Manual instructed agents of the U.S. tax agency to omit any reference to tips supplied by the DEA's Special Operations Division, especially from affidavits, court proceedings or investigative files.
* "...OMIT..." WOW...
The entry was published and posted online in 2005 and 2006, and was removed in early 2007. The IRS is among two dozen arms of the government working with the Special Operations Division, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency.
An IRS spokesman had no comment on the entry or on why it was removed from the manual.
* UM... JUST GUESSING... BUT COULD IT BE BECAUSE THE MEDIA FOUND OUT ABOUT WHAT WAS GOING ON...???
* TO BE CONTINUED...
* CONTINUING... (*Part 2 of 3)
Reuters recovered the previous editions from the archives of the Westlaw legal database, which is owned by Thomson Reuters Corp, the parent of this news agency.
As Reuters reported Monday, the Special Operations Division of the DEA funnels information from overseas NSA intercepts, domestic wiretaps, informants and a large DEA database of telephone records to authorities nationwide to help them launch criminal investigations of Americans. The DEA phone database is distinct from a NSA database disclosed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
Monday's Reuters report cited internal government documents that show that law enforcement agents have been trained to conceal how such investigations truly begin - to "recreate" the investigative trail to effectively cover up the original source of the information.
* NO TREE... NO POISONOUS FRUIT, HUH? (IF YOU DON'T "GET" THE REFERENCE...) (*HEADACHE*)
DEA officials said the practice is legal...
* UMM... er... DOESN'T CONGRESS GET THE FIRST CRACK AT DECIDING WHAT'S LEGAL VIA CREATING THE LAW IN THE FIRST PLACE... WITH THE NEXT BRANCH TO "REVIEW" THE LAW (FOR CONSTITUTIONALITY) BEING THE JUDICIAL BRANCH? (I MISSED READING ABOUT DEA POWERS GRANTED BY THE CONSTITUTION...)
...and has been in near-daily use since the 1990s.
* UNDER WHOSE AUTHORITY...? UNDER WHAT AUTHORITY...??? DID CONGRESS PASS A LAW? HAVE THE COURTS RULED?
Defense attorneys and some former judges and prosecutors say that systematically hiding potential evidence from defendants violates the U.S. Constitution.
* LET'S BRING IT BEFORE THE SURPREME COURT.
According to documents and interviews, agents use a procedure they call "parallel construction" to recreate the investigative trail, stating in affidavits or in court, for example, that an investigation began with a traffic infraction rather than an SOD tip.
The IRS document offers further detail on the parallel construction program: "Special Operations Division has the ability to collect, collate, analyze, evaluate, and disseminate information and intelligence derived from worldwide multi-agency sources, including classified projects," the IRS document says. "SOD converts extremely sensitive information into usable leads and tips which are then passed to the field offices for real-time enforcement activity against major international drug trafficking organizations."
* AND AT TIMES PRIVATE U.S. CITIZENS...???
* TO BE CONTINUED...
* CONCLUDING... (Part 3 of 3)
The 2005 IRS document focuses on SOD tips that are classified and notes that the Justice Department "closely guards the information provided by SOD with strict oversight." While the IRS document says that SOD information may only be used for drug investigations, DEA officials said the SOD role has recently expanded to organized crime and money laundering.
* I HAVE A TIP! BEN BERNANKE! THE FED!
According to the document, IRS agents are directed to use the tips to find new, "independent" evidence: "Usable information regarding these leads must be developed from such independent sources as investigative files, subscriber and toll requests, physical surveillance, wire intercepts, and confidential source information. Information obtained from SOD in response to a search or query request cannot be used directly in any investigation (i.e. cannot be used in affidavits, court proceedings or maintained in investigative files)." The IRS document makes no reference to SOD's sources of information, which include a large DEA telephone and Internet database.
* WOW...
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Michigan, expressed concern with the concept of parallel construction as a method to hide the origin of an investigation. His comments came on the Mike Huckabee Show radio program. "If they're recreating a trail, that's wrong and we're going to have to do something about it," said Rogers, a former FBI agent. "We're working with the DEA and intelligence organizations to try to find out exactly what that story is."
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, a member of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, said he was troubled that DEA agents have been "trying to cover up a program that investigates Americans." "National security is one of government's most important functions. So is protecting individual liberty," Paul said. "If the Constitution still has any sway, a government that is constantly overreaching on security while completely neglecting liberty is in grave violation of our founding doctrine."
* ANY DEMOCRATS SPEAKING UP...???
Spokespeople for the DEA and the Department of Justice declined to comment.
(*SMIRK*)
Officials have stressed that the NSA and DEA telephone databases are distinct. The NSA database, disclosed by Snowden, includes data about every telephone call placed inside the United States. An NSA official said that database is not used for domestic criminal law enforcement.
* YET...
* AND THAT'S ASSUMING THIS "NSA OFFICIAL" CAN BE BELIEVED IN THE FIRST PLACE!
The DEA database, called DICE, consists largely of phone log and Internet data gathered legally by the DEA through subpoenas, arrests and search warrants nationwide. DICE includes about 1 billion records, and they are kept for about a year and then purged, DEA officials said.
* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/07/usa-health-congress-idUSL1N0G820F20130807?feedType=RSS&feedName=rbssHealthcareNews&rpc=22
Congress has won some partial relief for lawmakers and their staffs from the "ObamaCare" health reforms that it passed and subjected itself to three years ago.
* IN ENGLISH: THEY LIED. PROMISED ONE THING... PASSED THE LAW... HAVE NOW GONE BACK AND UNDONE THE LAW AS IT WAS SET TO APPLY TO THEM.
In a ruling issued on Wednesday, U.S. lawmakers and their staffs will continue to receive a federal contribution toward the health insurance that they must purchase through soon-to-open exchanges created by President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law.
* IN A RULING...??? A RULING BY WHOM... BY WHAT...?
The decision by the Office of Personnel Management, with Obama's blessing, will prevent the largely unintended loss of healthcare benefits for 535 members of the Senate and House of Representatives and thousands of Capitol Hill staff.
* WHERE IN THE CONSTITUTION IS OBAMA - LET ALONE ONE OF HIS AGENCIES - EMPOWERED TO CHANGE LAWS...?!?!
* I DON'T GIVE A DAMN IF THAT PORTION OF THE LAW WAS "LARGELY UNINTENDED!" THEN GO FORWARD WITH A FIX... A FIX THE MEMBERS MUST VOTE ON!
* FOLKS... OUR OWN GOVERNMENT HAS BASICALLY STAGED A COUP; THE CONSTITUTION AND "REGULAR" RULE OF LAW NOWADAYS MEANS NOTHING... ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.
When Congress passed the health reform law known as ObamaCare in 2010, an amendment required that lawmakers and their staff members purchase health insurance through the online exchanges that the law created. They would lose generous coverage under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program.
* THE THREE KEY WORDS UP ABOVE BEING "WHEN CONGRESS PASSED..."
The amendment's author, Republican Senator Charles Grassley, argued that if ObamaCare plans were good enough for the American public, they were good enough for Congress. Democrats, eager to pass the reforms, went along with it.
But it soon became apparent the provision contained no language that allowed federal contributions toward their health plans that cover about 75% of the premium costs.
* AND WHY SHOULD CONGRESSMEN AND SENATORS MAKING NEARLY $200,000.00 A YEAR HAVE TAXPAYERS EARNING FAR, FAR LESS THAN THAT HAVE TO SUBSIDIZE THEM AND THEIR HEALTH INSURANCE? HMM...???
* AS TO STAFF... THESE PEOPLE WORK DIRECTLY FOR THE MEMBERS AND SENATORS. WHY NOT LET THE MEMBERS AND SENATORS FUND THEIR EMPLOYEES' INSURANCE SUBSIDIES VIA CAMPAIGN DONATIONS OR SOME OTHER PRIVATE MECHANISM. (AGAIN... I'M NOT TALKING CIVIL SERVANTS... I'M TALKING POLITICAL APPOINTEES TO PRIVATE PERSONAGES!)
This caused fears that staff would suddenly face sharply higher healthcare costs and leave federal service, causing a "brain drain" on Capitol Hill.
* OH... HOW TERRIBLE... A BRAIN DRAIN TO THE PRIVATE SECTOR SO AS TO HELP THIS ECONOMY GROW INSTEAD OF HELPING DEVISE WAYS FOR GOVERNMENT - AND THUS DEFICITS AND DEBT - TO GROW!
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
(*SPITTING ON THE FLOOR*)
* TO BE CONTINUED...
* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)
But Wednesday's proposed rule from the OPM, the federal government's human resources agency, means that Congress will escape the most onerous impact of law as it was written.
* SURPRISE, SURPRISE...
The OPM said the federal contributions will be allowed to continue for exchange-purchased plans for lawmakers and their staffs, ensuring that those working on Capitol Hill will effectively get the same health contributions as millions of other federal workers who keep their current plan.
* BUT THEY'RE NOT LIKE OTHER WORKERS. THEIR ALLEGIANCE IS TO THEIR MEMBER OR SENATOR, NOT TO THEIR AGENCY/DEPARTMENT. THEY'RE NOT REALLY "GOVERNMENT" WORKERS. THEY'RE NOT "CIVIL SERVANTS."
The problem surrounding the ObamaCare language for Capitol Hill staff was the subject of intense negotiations in recent weeks between House and Senate leaders and the Obama administration.
* WITH OBAMA, THE DEMS, AND THE RINOs ALL BEING ON THE SAME SIDE NO DOUBT!
Some Republicans immediately slammed the OPM decision, using it as fuel for their campaign to turn public opinion against ObamaCare just as its core provisions are due to go into effect. "While the administration has handed out waiver after waiver and exemption after exemption for the well-connected in Washington, they have done nothing to lower health care costs for families in Michigan," said Dave Camp, chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee.
* AND THAT'S ABSOLUTELY TRUE! ABSOPOSITIVELY ACCURATE! MY INSURANCE GOES UP YEAR AFTER YEAR.
Camp said the OPM ruling is the "latest proof" of impending failure for the reforms and pledged that Republicans would keep trying to repeal them.
* UNFORTUNATELY I FEAR THE FIX IS IN... THAT THERE SIMPLY AREN'T ENOUGH REAL REPUBLICANS TO FORCE THE RINOs TO GO ALONG WITH DEFUNDING OBAMACARE.
Last week, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said the language problem would have caused unintended "collateral damage" on congressional staff, causing many to leave for the private sector.
* GOOD!
"They are a tremendous intellectual resource, people who could, shall we say, be better compensated financially outside" of government, said Pelosi, who spearheaded passage of the health care law in 2010 as House Speaker.
* THEY'RE ALSO BUTT-LICKERS AND SYCOPHANTS! THEY'RE THE KIND OF PEOPLE WHO ASPIRE TO ONE DAY BE WALL STREETERS WITHOUT HAVING TO DO ANY OF THE GRUNT WORK! GEEZUS... I KNOW THESE PEOPLE!
Lawmakers and staff still must purchase plans on the exchanges for coverage that starts in January, OPM said, and they will not be eligible for tax credits to offset premium payments. These credits are the main federal subsidy mechanism for all other health plans purchased through ObamaCare exchanges due to open in October. These tax subsidies fall off quickly as income rises.
Republican Senator David Vitter vowed to reverse the OPM ruling to ensure that no members of Congress, Capitol Hill staff nor Obama administration appointees get any federal subsidies for health insurance purchased on ObamaCare health exchanges.
* APPLAUD THE SENTIMENT... DOUBT THE VOW.
"These recent maneuverings inside the beltway are precisely why the American people rightly despise Congress," said Vitter, of Louisiana. "Perhaps if White House appointees and Congress have to live under these same ObamaCare rules, things would be changed quickly for the better."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2386372/Cory-Bookers-video-start-CNN-president-Jeff-Zuckers-14-year-old-son-companys-advisory-board-gave-stock-options.html
The 15-year-old son of CNN president Jeff Zucker has resigned from his position on the advisory board of Cory Booker's start-up after it was revealed that the teenager had a leadership role in the company and receiving stock options for his work.
(*SNORT*)
* FOLKS... JUST GET A LOAD OF THE NAMES CONNECTED TO THIS:
Cory Booker, the current mayor of Newark, New Jersey who is now running for Senate, is the founder of a video aggregation start up and he stands to make $1 million to $ 5million out of the company.
(*CLAP...CLAP...CLAP*)
* GET THIS:
The financial disclosure indicates that his ownership stake could earn him anywhere between $1 million and $5 million, but the company does not appear anywhere near ready to turn over such a profit.
* RICHES JUST SEEM TO FLOW TO THE ALREADY RICH AND CONNECTED, HUH?
Google's Eric Schmidt was the first one to invest money in Waywire, and Booker's close friend Oprah Winfrey followed shortly after.
* NICE...
Unlike many of the other boldface names connected to Waywire (like Winfrey and Schmidt) it does not seem as if the elder Zucker actually has any financial stake in the company.
Hours after the news broke that Zucker's teenage son Andrew was listed as a member of the video aggregation start-up, a CNN spokesman said that he resigned from the company. The spokesperson also made a concerted effort to distance Booker, the current Newark mayor who is running for the open New Jersey Senate seat, from the decision to bring the younger Zucker on board. Sarah Ross, a tech executive with close ties to Silicon Valley, is said to be the one who approached Jeff Zucker's son Andrew (because the teenager is apparently known for his insight into popular trends among teens) to be a member of the advisory board of Cory Booker's start-up Waywire.
CNN Money reported on Wednesday that Andrew's name was suggested to Ms Ross by another Waywire board member after they heard that the teen had been helping his dad when it came to tech branding issues for the cable news giant.
* FOLKS... IF IT WEREN'T SO INCESTUOUS... SO FIXED... SO SHODDY... SO TRANSPARENTLY CORRUPT...
(*SHRUG*)
* FOLKS... THIS AIN'T A SOAP! THIS AIN'T CABLE "REALITY" TRASH. THIS IS HOW BUSINESS IS DONE WITHIN THE LIBERAL DEMOCRAT MEDIA-POLITICAL NEXUS.
* ANYWAY... READ THE FULL ARTICLE FOR YOURSELVES.
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