Mississippi Execution Appeal Denied – Despite FBI Admission of Erroneous Testimony

“Interests far beyond Manning’s are at stake, and whatever the potential harm the denial seeks to assert is surely outweighed by the benefits of ensuring justice by the scientific analysis of all of the trace evidence that the authorities were able to collect from on or about the victims’ bodies. Unless and until that is done, the investigation of these horrible crimes will remain incomplete.” Justice James W. Kitchens

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A few years ago I would have opened this article by screaming about how unbelievable it is to me that states are still willing to murder people when there is a possibility of innocence …what a difference time can make because sadly, this isn’t at all unbelievable to me anymore. C’mon…we were all just witness to police hunting people in the street(s) and gunning them down or setting them on fire without so much as a trial so it really doesn’t bend the mind overly much to realize that the government is all too happy to murder citizens who’ve had the “benefit” of a trial *ahem* by their peers, now does it?

That officials would turn a blind-eye to science and/or scientific evidence is also not inconceivable…just ask Todd Willingham’s family how much science mattered before the state of Texas executed him. In this case, officials don’t even seem to care about the evidence – they deny tests on the grounds that they were not asked for soon enough…*snickers* because goodness knows, whenever a prisoner requests (expensive) testing that could prove guilt or innocence, the system jumps right on it to make it happen, right? 

I’ve long advocated against the death penalty but not for any overly compassionate reasons or desire to mend monsters with teddy bears; my concerns are more practical ones…today we kill people who kill people…the way our laws are expanding though, who is to say that in another decade or so, death will not be the sentence for say…water theft? My second objection has been that while I understand the death penalty in theory, I do not think it can work in reality. So long as human hands & minds are involved in the process, human mistakes will be made.

So long as mistakes are made, there is no justice…only a flawed & costly system of revenge that passes for justice as it appeases blood-thirsty masses all too eager to take an eye for an eye. That it is the guilty eye they are taking is of little concern as the murderous wheels keep on rollin’  (and ‘tough on crime officials keep on gettin’ elected) across the land… 

***

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Feds Acknowledge Scientific Errors in Testimony in Willie Manning Case

Judge Rules University Can Seize Local Business Via Eminent Domain

A judge in Indiana has ruled that BSU may proceed in (unlawfully) seizing a small business that has the misfortune of sitting on land that the university finds desirable. That the university would have the gall to even attempt such a move is bad enough; that a judge actually ruled in their favor is an outrage. This story should also serve as a warning to others…eminent domain is being exerted more and more often across the country. Combine eminent domain with civil forfeiture, police cash grabs…all of it is indicative of a future where none of us will have any individual or property rights whatsoever. 

“Condemnation and the seizure of private property is, as it should be, reserved for the most serious of circumstances for which there are no reasonable alternatives and is absolutely necessary for the overall general public welfare or good,” he said in a statement. “It is not a convenient vehicle for pseudo-government entities such as Ball State to use to seize private property for their own ‘capitalistic wish-lists’ for which there are many alternatives.”
Chris Hiatt, Owner Hiatt Printing
Quoted by Inside Higher Ed

Below is an article highlighting the ruling followed by an extremely well-written letter in the Muncie Free Press regarding this property theft. You can read more about the back history of this battle which started in 2012, Here

The Associated Press

Palm Beach Post

MUNCIE, Ind. — A judge has ruled Ball State University can proceed with its efforts to claim a family business near campus through eminent domain.

Ball State is seeking ownership of Hiatt Printing so it can build a hotel and conference center, student housing and commercial space. Attorneys for the Hiatt family contend Ball State’s plans for the property don’t constitute public use because all or part of it would be used for business.

The Star Press reports (http://tspne.ws/11S0Ulu ) Delaware Circuit Judge Thomas Cannon Jr. ruled Wednesday that with 93 percent of the building being dedicated to “educational, housing and support services needed by the university,” the paramount interest being served is the school’s educational mission.

The judge is now expected to appoint three appraisers to determine the property’s fair market value.” Palm Beach Post

Video Statement from BSU (Warning: May Require A Barf Bag)

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Letter: Ball State University and Eminent Domain

Submitted by kpaul.mallasch on Mon, 04/01/2013 – 2:49pm. 

By Rex Bell

“The Delaware County Circuit Court recently ruled that Ball State University could forcibly take private property to build a hotel. As if this decision wasn’t horrible enough, BSU is also insisting that the victims of the decision should be required to post a $1 million appeal bond before another court can re-hear the case.

As we continue our decline into a state of unlimited government, we all need to remember that under the court’s rationale, if a state college decided to open a satellite school anywhere, any neighboring property would be fair game for any reason.

If taking property to build a hotel because people visiting the university might stay in that hotel passes muster, it is hard to imagine a scenario where any taking couldn’t be justified by a court.

More and more, this old quote hits home:

“In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.”

…Martin Niemöller

We may not own a printing company, and we may not live in Muncie, but if we care at all about the right to own property, we need to speak up. Now.”

Rex Bell
Hagerstown

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A one-minute report by BSU student press -

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More Related Content:

Eminent Domain Being Abused?

Alabama Brings Back Eminent Domain for Private Gain (reason.com)
Eminent Domain Bill Clears Senate Committee, Would Update Redevelopment Procedures (njtoday.net)
Eminent domain bill passes the N.C. House (blueridgenow.com)
Brockton to discuss eminent domain as foreclosure solution (enterprisenews.com)
Blight Brigade: CO cities still use power to claim property (watchdog.org)
Rockville Condemnation Lawyer Appointed to Represent Maryland in the Owners’ Counsel of America (prweb.com)

Proposal Would Allow Official State Religion In North Carolina

Oh sure, a state religion sounds like a grand idea…s’long as it is MY religion that is the *official* one…

“The North Carolina General Assembly does not recognize federal court rulings which prohibit and otherwise regulate the State of North Carolina, its public schools, or any political subdivisions of the State from making laws respecting an establishment of religion.” Section 2, HB 494

WRAL - “A bill filed by Republican lawmakers would allow North Carolina to declare an official religion, in violation of the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Bill of Rights, and seeks to nullify any federal ruling against Christian prayer by public bodies statewide.

The bill grew out of a federal lawsuit filed last month by the American Civil Liberties Union against the Rowan County Board of Commissioners. In the lawsuit, the ACLU says the board has opened 97 percent of its meetings since 2007 with explicitly Christian prayers.

Overtly Christian prayers at government meetings are not rare in North Carolina. Since the Republican takeover in 2011, the state Senate chaplain has offered an explicitly Christian invocation virtually every day of session, despite the fact that some senators are not Christian…

…House Bill 494, filed by Republican Rowan County Reps. Harry Warren and Carl Ford, would refuse to acknowledge the force of any judicial ruling on prayer in North Carolina – or indeed on any Constitutional topic. Eleven House Republicans have signed on to sponsor the resolution, including Majority Leader Edgar Starnes, R-Caldwell, and Budget Chairman Justin Burr, R-Stanly.” Full Story on WRAL

Duck Fathers A Chicken, Offering Hope For Extinct Species

Uhm…I…er…well now…I don’t even really know what to think about this. Good? Bad..? Jurassic Park careless, maybe?

Once again, I’m sitting here asking myself, “Just because we can, does it always mean that we should?”

—

From Treehugger – “A duck has fathered a chicken — seriously. Scientists from Dubai’s Central Veterinary Research Laboratory say they have succeeded in using one species to produce another, a new technique which could be used to bring extinct species back to life.

To achieve the interspecies-produced offspring, researchers injected a male duck embryo with chicken germ cells — those cells responsible for producing gametes (sperm or eggs). And as the duck grew into sexual maturity, its body began to produce reproductive cells belonging to the other species, allowing it to breed with a hen to create a chick.

Using this same technique, researchers believe that one day chickens could be modified with DNA from other bird types, like eagles or songbirds, to breed offspring belonging to a species not their own — including those previously wiped out of existence.

Mike McGrew, a scientist working with the team in Dubai, says that the hope is to one day ”use this system to propagate endangered species or potentially bring back an extinct one.”

Not long ago, the notion of reviving lost species from extinction seemed pure science fiction, but embryonic researchers are well on their way to doing just that.”

Original Source - Time

The “Justified” Shooting Of A Man Sleeping In His Bed

I guess I missed this at the time of the original shooting. Even though it’s slightly dated, I decided to share anyways just because it is so damned aggravating to see officers get away with carelessly breaking the law – and doing so without feeling any consequences for it. A man with no criminal history or background was shot by officers…while sleeping in his bed. Oopsy-daisy! They had the wrong person, it seems…and to pile insult atop injury, officers claim the shooting was “justified”… 

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Via Stop Police Brutality

“Only by sheer luck, the 29-year-old Dustin Theoharis from Auburn survived after being shot 16 times by two police officers who burst into his apartment without a warrant, looking for his arrested roommate’s gun.

Theoharis was crudely woken by two armed uniformed men who rushed into his room and started yelling out orders at him. He reacted in a way most people would, instinctively reaching for the flashlight by the bed. Detective Aaron Thompson and Corrections Officer Kris Rongen immediately responded by shooting the man 16 times.

Detective Benjamin Wheeler, one of four other officers present at the scene, came into the bedroom to find Theoharis in a pool of his blood and two baffled cops still in the state of shock. Luckily the man was rushed to the hospital fast enough for doctors to save his life.

Thompson and Rongen tried to justify their action by claiming that Theoharis reached for the gun, but no weapon was found in his room. The main reason this police action was organized was Theoharis’ roommate Nicholas Harrison, an ex-convict, failing to report for community supervision. Harrison was arrested before the raid and the police searched his place for weapons so they could charge him with parole violation.

The King County Prosecutor dropped all charges against the two officers, justifying the brutal shooting as a proper response to a “perceived risk” to their safety.”

 

Human Tissue Found in Meats

 - But Eating It Is “No Threat”

Yegads…is there ANYTHING left in our world that is safe to consume, I wonder? Most of our veggies are now genetically altered and filled with pesticides….milk is full of steroids and soon, aspertame…and almost all of our meat is either contaminated in one form or another…or on its way to being as genetically modified as our crops. What in the HELL are we doing to ourselves…to our children…to the entire planet???

“The horse meat fiasco in Europe has prodded scientists to look a bit deeper into what else we might be consuming. A team of South African scientists have just found traces of human tissue in meat meant for public consumption from 9 provinces.”

Activist Post - “The horse meat fiasco in Europe has prodded scientists to look a bit deeper into what else we might be consuming. A team of South African scientists have just found traces of human tissue in meat meant for public consumption from 9 provinces.

The issue was revealed to parliament, almost as a side note, during meat inspection briefings on Tuesday.

A University of Stellenbosch scientist and his team conducted a microbial analysis that revealed traces of human elements, but said that slaughterhouse workers sometimes cut themselves . . . or other things . . . which could lead to the findings.

If I walked into a factory and the sample I randomly selected to test was a meat sample of which the person de-boning the meat had just picked his nose and then touched the meat, I would get a totally different microbial reading,” he said.

Delicious. Beyond the findings themselves, it brings up the global hot-button topic of the moment: food labeling. How much should we know about what we are consuming?

In addition to the troubling statements above, scientist Louw Hoffman noted that only 15% of the meat being sold in South Africa is correctly labeled, revealing other potentially harmful attributes of which consumers are currently unaware:

“In the labelling regulations it clearly states that allergens have to be mentioned and noted,” said Hoffman.

Allergens like . . . other people’s genetic signature?

Yet, Hoffman and his team of scientists concluded that the incorrect labeling poses “no threat” to the consumers who eat it, despite some more gems uncovered:

Meat Musical Chairs

Briefing parliament’s portfolio committee on agriculture, forestry and fisheries, University of Western Cape forensic scientist Dr Eugenia D’Amato said nearly 43% of samples she had tested which were labelled as game, were, in fact, beef. 

D’Amato said horse meat had also been used as a substitute for springbok in biltong, and pork was found in ostrich sausages. 

There was also a smaller proportion of kangaroo in samples.

Despite the overall findings that consumers have absolutely no idea what they are eating – including human remnants – in 85% of the products, SA’s Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries deputy director-general downplayed it by asserting that we are not becoming unwitting cannibals:

It is possible that (if tested) we could find traces of human DNA in meat. However, even if we do find human DNA, it does not mean we are eating human flesh.

Great. Unfortunately, we are evidently eliminating healthy microorganisms in the processing of foods, but since there is an acceptable standard of nasty foreign entities, thanks to our regulatory agencies – we have introduced a variety of contaminants into now weakened guts and immune systems.

We’d like to think that these food scandals are safe from us – overseas, it’s their problem. But, big problems are usually systemic and many of the developed nations are on the same platform. As with most food scandals, they go on for years unnoticed before the beans are spilled.

It doesn’t sound like anyone’s literally being run through the meat grinder just yet, but it’s a startling fact that we don’t know much about what our food comes into contact with. And we have scientists and regulatory agencies continually asserting how safe our food supply is.

Are you unsettled at the prospect of ingesting someone else’s particles and blood? Do you wonder what else will be found when the next scientific investigation is conducted in your country?

Perhaps we should be asking ourselves before each meal, “Hey, who’s in there? How’d they get in there? Anyone missing?”

Sources:
http://www.timeslive.co.za/thetimes/2013/03/27/human-tissue-in-my-beef-stew
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/387383/Could-HUMAN-DNA-be-in-our-food-Quite-likely-claim-experts
http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/525/91240.html

Director of Colorado’s DOC Murdered; Possible Saudi Arabian & Skinhead Connections

What a tragic, unpredictable and complicated case this has turned out to be. I’ve linked several different articles here together to try and outline more of the story and what may have happened – and why. Make of it all what you will…I have a hunch this is going to take quite awhile for investigators to sort it all out.

Tom Clements (Photo: Colorado Department of Corrections)

KWGN – “The Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Corrections, Tom Clements, was shot in the chest in his Monument home Tuesday night and now authorities are looking for a car that was spotted near the scene.

Clements was shot when he answered the door at his home on Colonial Park Drive in the wooded area of Black Forest. Someone shot him in the chest and then fled, said Lt. Jeff Kramer of the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies got a 911 call from a relative at 8:37 p.m. reporting the shooting. The relative has not been identified. Deputies said they were the only other person at the home with Clements.

Kramer said a resident saw a boxy-style, dark-colored, 2-door, 90s-model vehicle running unoccupied and parked at an intersection near the scene of the shooting.” Full Article

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KWGN “Investigators looking into the shooting death of the director of the Colorado Department of Corrections will look at the possibility that Tom Clements’ murder may be tied to the recent decision not to grant a transfer of a Saudi man in a Colorado prison.

Homaidan Al-Turki was convicted in 2006 of unlawful sexual contact by use of force and other charges. Prosecutors said he sexually assaulted a housekeeper and kept her as a virtual slave for four years.

His conviction angered Saudi officials. The U.S. State Department sent Colorado Attorney General John Suthers to Saudi Arabia to meet with King Abdullah, Crown Prince Sultan and Al-Turki’s family.

Last week, Colorado prison officials denied a request from the Saudi Arabian government to release Al-Turki to his home country to serve his life sentence.

Prosecutors opposed Al-Turki’s transfer fearing he would be released upon return to Saudi Arabia.

Celments was the one who decided to deny the transfer. He wrote in a letter to Al-Turki that because Al-Turki refused to undergo sex offender treatment in prison, “I have decided not to support your request for transfer to Saudi Arabia at this time,” reported the Associated Press.

Sources have told FOX31 Denver, Al-Turki has come from an influential Saudi family that has long pressured Colorado to release him.”

Full Article

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HOMAIDAN ALTURKI 

“…Saudi newspapers reported no less than the King Abdullah and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia were to bring up the case with President Bush as they met this week in Riyadh…”

Homaidan Al-Turki – President Bush heard a request to release a man in a Colorado prison during his visit to Saudi Arabia.

Homaidan Al-Turki is behind bars awaiting the outcome of an appeal. A court convicted him in 26 of sexually assaulting and enslaving his Indonesian maid in his Aurora home.

Saudi newspapers reported no less than the King Abdullah and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia were to bring up the case with President Bush as they met this week in Riyadh.” Full Article

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Colorado Observer “A 2006 memo that became public as part of the WikiLeaks saga warned that “violence, even terrorism” against Americans could occur as a result of the conviction of Saudi sex offender Homaidan al-Turki.

The leaked 2006 cable from the State Department Deputy Chief of Mission in Riyadh, Michael Gfoeller, includes his remarks with a close and longtime friend of al-Turki’s.

At the time, al-Turki’s allies opposed his criminal conviction, seeing it as trumped up and another example of U.S. discrimination against Muslims.

In a revealing passage, Gfoeller writes of al-Turki’s friend, Taleb:

“He said that Saudis … have turned against the current Administration because of the treatment of Arabs and Muslims following September 11, especially Saudis studying and working in the U.S.; the perception that the (U.S. government) unconditionally supports the government of Israel, the invasion of Iraq, and (government) actions against the Palestinians and Lebanon. Taleb …  expressed concern that, if this conviction stands, animosity toward the USG could be inflamed to the point of acts of violence, even terrorism, in the U.S. or against Americans in the KSA or elsewhere.”

The memo has renewed significance after the murder of Colorado Department of Corrections chief Tom Clements, who had recently denied a request by al-Turki to serve out his sentence in his home country.” Full Article

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KTSM “Texas authorities say a man who led law enforcement on a high speed chase may be linked to the death of a Colorado state prison chief.

The scattered remains of a high speed chase ended in gun fire and a crash. Law enforcement suspects this incident could be connected to the murder investigation of prison Chief Tom Clements

Texas officials say the driver sped away from a traffic stop after shooting a deputy multiple times. Officers caught up to the car, where the driver was still firing, when the vehicle slammed into an 18-wheeler. After the collision, the suspect exited the car still shooting.

“When he came by me, 100 miles per hour, maybe, just shooting out the window, he didn’t want to be taken alive. It was obvious that he was trying to hurt someone or the police,” said Decatur Police Chief Rex Hoskins.

Police fired back at the man who is now brain dead and on life support for possible organ donation.

Authorities have identified the shooter as Evan Spencer Ebel, 28.” Full Article

Evan Spencer Ebel

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NBC ”Shell casings from the same type of ammunition that was used in the slaying of the top prisons official in Colorado were also found near the car of a paroled white supremacist who led Texas police on a wild chase and shootout, authorities said in court records filed Friday.

Investigators are looking into whether the parolee, Evan Spencer Ebel, 28 — who died Thursday after the chase and shootout in Texas — may also have killed a pizza delivery man and Colorado Corrections Director Tom Clements, who was shot to death at his front door Tuesday night in the Denver suburbs.

Authorities from Colorado were in Texas on Friday, examining the car for evidence that might tie Ebel to the Colorado killings.

In a search warrant (.pdf) seeking permission to search the car Ebel was driving, Texas Rangers told a Wise County judge that Hornady 9mm shell casings were recovered at the scene of the shootout in Decatur, which it said were the same brand and caliber used to kill Clements.

Authorities from both states offered few other details Friday about what evidence they have turned up and stressed that the investigation was still open.

…Sources told NBC station KUSA of Denver that Ebel had been recruited into a white supremacist gang called the 211 Crew…The gang is believed to have several hundred to 1,000 members, most of them in Colorado prisons. It gets its name from a section of the California penal code that deals with robbery. Potok said it wasn’t clear why the gang was named for that section.” Full Article

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A shooting at the Kaufman County Courthouse left a Assistant District Attorney, Mark Hasse, right, dead on Jan. 31, 2013.

Huffington Post – “Authorities are investigating whether the killing of a Texas county prosecutor earlier this year is linked to the slaying of Colorado’s prison director.

Kaufman police chief Chris Aulbaugh said Friday the FBI is checking to see if the January shooting death of Kaufman County Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse is connected to Tuesday’s killing of prison chief Tom Clements.

Hasse was killed about 100 miles away from where former Colorado inmate and white supremacist Evan Spencer Ebel died Thursday after a shootout with deputies. Investigators are trying to determine if Ebel is linked to Clements’ death.

Aulbaugh calls the investigation routine for attacks that appear similar. Both targeted law enforcement officials. Authorities have investigated whether Hasse’s death could be linked to a white supremacist gang.” Full Article

Woman Torches Snake; Burns Her House Down

I try to be a good person, honestly…I do. I try my best to not be petty, vindictive or mean-spirited.

Sometimes it’s a struggle though…

Someone’s house burned down and that is not at all a laughing matter. *Ahem* However…the owner caused her own house to burn down because she decided to douse a poor snake in gasoline and have her son set it on fire. I’d be a damned liar if I said that what seems to be instant karma didn’t make me bust a little chuckle in spite of myself…

NY Daily News “A Texas woman burned her own house down during a heated battle with a snake.

The serpent frightened the lady while cleaning outside her home Wednesday night. She doused the limbless reptile in gasoline and called over her son to set it ablaze.

The plan backfired.

Her son tossed a lit match at the creeping reptile but it slithered into a nearby brush pile, bringing the flames with it. The brush pile, too, caught fire and soon spread to the family’s home on Will Smith Rd. in Texarkana, Capt. David Grable of the Bowie County Sheriff’s Department confirmed to the Daily News.

“We were trying to kill a snake with fire,” the woman said during a 911 call. “It done caught the house.”

“Caught the house?” asked the dispatcher.

Yes, the house is on fire. Could you hurry up please?”

The Liberty Eylau Fire Department arrived at the scene to find the family’s home completed destroyed and a neighbors’ home significantly damaged…” Full Story & Video Here

A woman and her son in Texarkana, Texas set fire to a snake, which set fire to some brush, which set fire to their house, and the one next door.

 

Man Carrying Umbrella Triggers Manhunt, School Lockdowns

“Playful and theatrical by nature, Di Marzo gestured his umbrella toward the helicopter.

“I can’t believe I did that now,” Di Marzo said. “It really makes me shake every time I think about it.”

The Olympian – “A typical Tuesday morning for 42-year-old Michael Di Marzo quickly became a citywide multi-jurisdictional manhunt for him and what witnesses thought was a assault rifle in his hand.

Three schools were locked down and delayed as police scoured the area by ground and air, looking for a man described by a teenage tipster as wearing black clothes and a ski mask.

It wasn’t realized until hours later what was believed to be something along the lines of an AR-15 or AK-47 was more of a AU-15: a 15-inch compact “assault umbrella.”

The “ski mask” was a pulled-up black turtle neck sweater paired with a black watch cap.

Di Marzo had no idea he was at the center of the hunt as he continued about his day March 12, visiting his mother, who had been suffering from complications with diabetes, and doing errands around town.

He took his usual bus routes through town and returned home around 2 p.m., walking the rest of the way through his east Olympia neighborhood.

That’s when he noticed a helicopter overhead.

“I didn’t know what it was whether police or news or what, but it was circling a lot and seemed to be circling right over me a lot and it was shining this little green light,” Di Marzo said.

Playful and theatrical by nature, Di Marzo gestured his umbrella toward the helicopter.

“I can’t believe I did that now,” Di Marzo said. “It really makes me shake every time I think about it.

“I thought it was this oppressive thing; I don’t like how many helicopters fly over anyway.”

A neighbor shouted over to Di Marzo, telling him about the situation. He learned more after he got home and checked his message machine.

“The helicopter had followed me all the way down Quince to right above the house then flew off,” Di Marzo said.

It didn’t take long for police to come knocking at his door. Police had seen video footgage of Di Marzo riding the Transit City bus in the morning and had tracked him, Di Marzo said.

“That kind of freaked me out,” Di Marzo said…” Full Story

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Standard “Assault” Umbrella…

vs.

Standard “Assault” Rifle

Guess anyone could get confused, eh?

Feds Spend $384,949 to Study Duck Penises

I wasn’t upright and online for a full hour this morning when a friend dropped this link on me…I’m bleary still…I squint at the headline and think to myself, “Oh, this has GOT to be an Onion spoof!” Please let this be a spoof…but no, of course not. Only in a totally Downside-Up and Backasswards world does a country that is broke and up to its eyeballs in debt spend $384,949…to study duck-dicks.

Ya’ll can read it and weep…I’m going to go splash my coffee with some whiskey and hope this is the most insane thing I read all day…even though I know it likely won’t be…

Kinky Ducks! (Howard The Duck; Best “B” Movie Ever!)

IJ Review – “Most Americans don’t give a pluck about ducks. Yet, even while the White House is shutting down tours and threatening to cancel April Fool’s Day egg rolls, it is still spending major bling to study duck junk.

CNS News found the federal study and reported it on Tuesday:

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a $384,949 grant to Yale University for a study on “Sexual Conflict, Social Behavior and the Evolution of Waterfowl Genitalia”, according to the recovery.govwebsite.

The grant description says,“The project examines how reproductive morphology covaries with season, age, and social environment in a diverse sample of duck species that differ in ecology, territoriality and breeding system.”

Since the study was a part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, hot duck lovin’ may be the only real stimulus that came out of the $812 billion spending package.” Full Story

 

Texas Legislator Gets Applause For DUI Arrest

This story is so disturbing I am not sure where to even begin with tearing it apart…a Texas legislator went to a bar, got drunk, got in her vehicle and smashed it into another car and then a cyclist…according to police reports, she was so snockered that she was unable to count backwards from 100 and blew nearly twice the legal limit on the breathalyzer test.

And this woman is sniveling publicly and getting  standing ovations and roses from fellow lawmakers for it? Really?!

It’s very sweet that she promises that ‘nothing like this will ever happen again’ but I am sure there are plenty of folks – myself included – who really don’t believe her. What won’t happen again? She won’t drink and drive again…or she just won’t smash things up and get caught next time?

What if she had been driving stoned and wrecked? Would her fellow politricksters be so understanding and supportive?

What if she had waved a loaded gun around on the street and fired off a couple rounds in random directions? What would people say then..? How is using a loaded vehicle to randomly risk the lives of others any different from carelessly discharging a weapon? Does being drunk excuse the recklessness of the action be it drunk driving or drunk gun-waving?

Instead of apologizing and trying to gain public sympathy, resign and get your affairs in order, Ms. Gonzalez! Go serve your proper prison sentence, get treatment, pay restitution to the REAL victims…woman up, in other words. You nearly killed people…you’re lucky people are not putting flowers on the graves of innocent people instead of on your desk. You deserve punishment the same as anyone else who risks the lives of other people…and to the coworkers and cronies applauding the DUI?

Shame on you for effectively slapping the faces of all of those who have lost loved ones to intoxicated drivers and reckless fools.

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KVIA News “A Democratic state lawmaker arrested for drunken driving offered an emotional apology on the floor of the Texas House on Monday, drawing a standing ovation and flowers from her colleagues.

Naomi Gonzalez of El Paso crashed her BMW into another car, which then hit a bicyclist around 2 a.m. Thursday. Gonzalez, the other driver and the cyclist all went to the hospital with minor injuries. The 34-year-old was charged with driving while intoxicated.

Gonzalez sought special permission to address her colleagues and said she did so “with a heavy heart.” She explained that the crash occurred as she drove alone to her Austin apartment and, “I want to be clear about this: I made a mistake and I am deeply, deeply sorry for it.”

“I am sorry for the shame I have brought upon this House and my district,” Gonzalez said. She added that ongoing legal issues prevented her from saying much about the incident, but that she was glad no one was seriously injured.

“To them and to you, family, friends, colleagues and constituents, I ask for your understanding and I pledge that nothing like this will happen again,” Gonzalez said, her voice cracking. She also thanked constituents and lawmakers for their support and patience.

Lawmakers applauded loudly, eventually climbing to their feet. Some gave Gonzalez hugs and high-fives. Flowers were left on her desk in the chamber…” Full Story and Video

Erin Brockovich Talks Sinkhole With Bayou Corne Residents

WBRZ – “Erin Brockovich, the woman who became famous after a film profiled her life in the year 2000 starring Julia Roberts, visited with residents affected by the Bayou Corne sinkhole.

Brockovich helped get millions of dollars in settlement money from a company in California, after she helped prove the company contaminated the ground water. Dozens of residents were sickened by cancer.

Today, Brockovich told residents they needed to stick together as a community. She also said she believed that the residents needed to heed the officials advice to evacuate, considering the fact that the area remains under an evacuation order.

She met with them for two hours, after visiting the sinkhole site today.

Brockovich said no matter what, she has the residents’ back.” Source

More on the sinkhole…

Giant sinkhole to more than double in size?

“It’s probably going to take out Highway 70″

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The Crime of Laughter

Charged with a crime…*AHEM* for laughing too loudly…in your own damn apartment. Can you imagine??? I better start keep a rag handy to stuff in my mouth during moments of joy and humor because I have a ROARING laugh and gosh…I’d hate to be arrested for it should it ever offend the neighbors! 

WFSB – “A Long Island man says he didn’t know it was a crime to laugh.

Robert Schiavelli of Rockville Centre was slapped with two summonses for “disturbing the peace.”

Police responded to his home on Feb. 12 and Feb. 13 after receiving complaints from his next-door-neighbor that his loud laughs could be heard across the driveway.

The 42-year-old was charged with acting “in such a manner as to annoy, disturb, interfere with, obstruct, or be offensive to others.”

At his arraignment Tuesday, a judge declined to dismiss the charges.

Schiavelli told the New York Post his neighbor often taunts him due to his disability. He learned to deal with it by laughing him off.

Schiavelli suffers from seizures and neurological impairments.” Source

DHS Tanks In My Backyard

How nice to get a full video demonstration of the newly retrofitted ‘light armored’ tanks ready for deployment in New Mexico and W. Texas…yippeefreakingkayay!

Welcome to the Wild West, DHS style…

The Department of Homeland Security (through the U.S. Army Forces Command) recently retrofitted 2,717* of these ‘Mine Resistant Protected’ vehicles for service on the streets of the United States. *An earlier version of this post included a figure of over 2,700 vehicles, as cited from the original RT link. This figure likely comes from a press release from Navistar Defense, mentioning delivery of 2,717 to the U.S. Marine Corps. A DHS Spokesman confirmed with Business Insider that they have only 16 nationwide.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/homeland-security-serving-warrants-mrap-2013-3#ixzz2MpOHQ35e

For those of you who may be wondering…yes, I absolutely feel 100% safe and secure living here now that I know DHS is so well equipped as to be able to pluck us off the roadways (while not even having to worry about those pesky street mines!) as they drive…

…Oh…and if you actually believe me? Well…I’ve got some nice ocean front property for sale, too..!

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Related -

Homeland Security Is Serving Warrants Using Mine-Resistant Vehicles

Woman Stashed Gun & Meth In Her Private Parts

I do believe the question as to whether or not human intelligence is on the decline has now been settled once and for all…

WARNING: Content could be considered graphic to some audiences.

“…Court records state it was a “wooden and metal item sticking out from her (Harris’) vagina area.”

“It was a five shot,” Ross said. “It was loaded and as she turned around, she noticed more plastic baggies, larger plastic baggies wedged in the crack of her buttocks…Those baggies contained meth and were removed along with the gun.”

KFor-TV – “ADA, Okla. - An unusual and graphic case in Pontotoc County leads police to a bizarre find inside a female suspect.

It began at Dairy Lou Drive Inn in Ada.

The business sign states the place is known as “Home of the Hercules” but early Monday morning police in Ada made an unusual find in the parking lot, two women kicked back in a car.

One had a warrant our for her arrest; a drug dog let officers know the other woman needed to be searched.

Police took Jennifer Delancy and Christie Dawn Harris into custody.

“On the way there, one of them tells the officer she has another hypodermic needle in her shoe and they remove that,” Pontotoc County District Attorney Chris Ross said. “The other one said she had to go to the bathroom. She repeats it.”

Officers soon found out why she had to go so badly.

During book-in, a female officer noticed “something strange” during the search.

“The officer observed the handle of a revolver sticking out from inside her body,” Ross said.

Court records state it was a “wooden and metal item sticking out from her (Harris’) vagina area.”

“It was a five shot,” Ross said. “It was loaded and as she turned around, she noticed more plastic baggies, larger plastic baggies wedged in the crack of her buttocks.”

Those baggies contained meth and were removed along with the gun.

“It would seem to be a very dangerous place to carry a loaded firearm,” Ross said. “If it goes off it’s only going one place.”

Both women have long criminal records already and this time around will be charged with possession of drugs.

Full Story And Video Here

 

Australia Pushes Cervical Cancer Vaccine – For Boys

WHAT??

Not sure how I missed this info when it was announced a couple of weeks ago but I’m guessing I’m not the only one who missed the story so I decided to go ahead and share it. After reading about some of the reactions and horrific side effects to this *latest and greatest* vaccine, I’d never allow my daughter – much less my son – to get this. No way can I see this as anything other than more of Big Pharma’s way of experimenting on humans and raking in a profit while they screw with our bodies and lives.

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The Telegraph – “Boys aged 12-13 will be vaccinated with Gardasil at schools around the country and in coming months boys aged 14-15 will get the jab as part of a catch up program.

More than one million teenage girls aged 12-16 have already been vaccinated under the free program that is expected to reduce the 700 new cases of cervical cancer diagnosed each year.

The vaccine fights off 70 per cent of cervical cancers caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV) and although boys can’t develop the cancer they still carry the virus and can infect female sexual partners.

Health Minister Tanya Plibersek, who will launch the free vaccination program for boys at Newtown High School of Performing Arts in Sydney, said vaccinating boys will improve herd immunity.

“We know that vaccinating boys will protect them from cancer and genital warts.. and reduce the rates of cervical cancer among women,” she says.

Full Story Here

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Related articles

• Cervical cancer drug trials risky, says plea in court (thehindu.com)
• Vaccine group funds cervical cancer immunizations for poor (news.yahoo.com)
• The Dangers of the HPV vaccines Gardasil & Cervarix (HPV Vaccination Side Effects Cervical Cancer) [VIDEO] (secretsofthefed.com)
• Boys to be given Gardasil vaccine (dailytelegraph.com.au)

FL Man Faces 5 Years In Prison For Releasing A Balloon Bouquet

As I put my fingers to keyboard to type out an intro to this article, I took a long, deep breath & sighed…then I realized that act is almost a pre-post ritual for me these days. Either I am getting particularly ornery and snarky in my middle-young age or else the world around me is getting to be more insane by the minute…or both?

A man is facing a possible FIVE YEAR PRISON TERM…for releasing a bundle of balloons…tell me that doesn’t spin your head around backwards at least once…?!

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From the Sun Sentinel – “Anthony Brasfield saw romance when he released a dozen heart-shaped balloons into the sky over Dania Beach with his sweetie. A Florida Highway Patrol trooper saw a felony.

Brasfield, 40, and his girlfriend, Shaquina Baxter, were in the parking lot of the Motel 6 on Dania Beach Boulevard when he released the shiny red and silver mylar balloons and watched them float away Sunday morning.

Also watching the romantic gesture: an FHP trooper, who instead noted probable cause for an environmental crime.

Brasfield was charged with polluting to harm humans, animals, plants, etc. under the Florida Air and Water Pollution Control Act.

Endangered marine turtle species and birds, such as wood storks and brown pelicans, seek refuge in John U. Lloyd State Park, about 1.5 miles east of the motel.

Between 2008 and 2012, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said there were 21 arrests statewide under the rarely used environmental crime statute. The third-degree felony is punishable by up to five years in prison.”  Source: Sun Sentinel

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That Florida would be the state to charge a man with a felony for releasing a batch o’ love balloons for his girlfriend on Valentine’s Day really isn’t all that shocking if you consider that this is the same state about to name a college stadium after a private prison corporation. I wonder if GEOGroup is really getting hard up for new clients, er, customers…uh…prisoners..! and is applying pressure on state officials to provide more  ’criminals’ for them…or if this officer is really such an ignorant hardass as to see no other possible choice (outrageous things like oh..a warning ticket, a few minutes of environmental education…) but to slap someone making a romantic (tho careless/stupid) gesture with a full out FELONY charge which will cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in the end?

Is the New Madrid Mega Quake Being Engineered?

“With a looming economic collapse, constant threat of false flag events and World War III, and myriad seasonal viruses to call upon to keep the fear machine working overtime, we would be unwise to assume that TPTB will show unending restraint. Nevertheless, if one is prepared for these eventualities, then it becomes less about fear and more about self-empowerment to make personal changes and ensure that we can survive and thrive no matter what they throw at us.”

Nicholas West and Zen Gardner
Activist Post 

Excerpts: “The Powers-That-Be seem to be making a continuous effort to drive a stake right into America’s heart(land). Natural disasters are on the rise, and an increasing amount of evidence is leading to the conclusion that these natural disasters might not be completely natural.

Some already have speculated that we are entering a time of weather and earthquake wars, as the incidence of mega disasters has risen across the world. Is government experimentation simply going awry, or is it being orchestrated on purpose? Are they hiding behind or even amplifying current natural earth changes such as the strong solar cycle and the ongoing magnetic pole shift to accomplish some furtive plot?The hidden hand has always cloaked itself using a wide array of techniques to conceal its divide-and-conquer agenda. By owning the ultimate weapon — the very climate upon which we all depend — entire regions can now be put under a full spectrum of remote control already served up through climate change, economic instability, and the military-surveillance complex brought in under the false threat of terrorism.

Louisiana Sink Hole – Will This Trigger the Big One?

As you peruse the points below and the accompanying illustrations, you’ll see a very clear, seriously dangerous weak spot.

The recent developments with the growing Louisiana sinkhole caving into a potentially massively explosive gas repository also used for nuclear waste storage is something to keep a close eye on and take very seriously.

Will A New Madrid Quake Be Natural, Manipulated, or Both? The Sordid Lead Up To NowLet’s first look at the evidence for the manipulation of natural disasters and the proposed government solutions, then move to the massive preparation undertaken by FEMA indicating that something big is on the way for the area of the New Madrid Fault.

The Evidence of a Plan

Predictive Programming – This is where the groundwork is laid for directing people toward an imagined future. Through books, video games, movies, propaganda placement, and education, the passive receiving of orchestrated information can literally change the future. Elites have always been obsessed with mind control . . . and the best form is that which is the least obvious. The unaware are manipulated and controlled without a single shot being fired, or a single piece of legislation written. However, once one becomes attuned to their methods, it becomes incredibly obvious. Besides the constant bombardment of mega-disaster and end-of-the-world scenarios, including the new madrid mega quake, one prime current example is geoengineering (aka chemtrails). This chemical spraying has now wormed into movies and public places as an example for children toembrace the new normal of planes laying down a tic-tac-toe murky gloom across our skies.

Accept the new manipulated reality and the rest will follow.

Groups Pressure FDA To Allow Aspartame In Milk…”For The Children”

Not only is it likely that the FDA will approve of adding aspartame to milk; they’ll say it just grand for it to be done without labeling it or notifying consumers…

A bottle of green-top (raw, unpasturised) milk, showing the required health label: “this milk has not been heat-treated and may contain organisms harmful to health”. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Natural News – “You probably already know that the FDA has declared war on raw milk and even helped fund and coordinate armed government raids against raw milk farmers and distributors. Yes, it’s insane. This brand of tyranny is unique to the USA and isn’t even conducted in China, North Korea or Cuba.

Only in the USA are raw milk farmers treated like terrorists.

But now the situation is getting even more insane than you could have imagined: the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) and the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) have filed a petition with the FDA asking the FDA to alter the definition of “milk” to secretly include chemical sweeteners such as aspartame and sucralose.

Importantly, none of these additives need to be listed on the label. They will simply be swept under the definition of “milk,” so that when a company lists “milk” on the label, it automatically includes aspartame or sucralose. And if you’re trying to avoid aspartame, you’ll have no way of doing so because it won’t be listed on the label.

This isn’t only for milk, either: It’s also for yogurt, cream, sour cream, eggnog, whipping cream and a total of 17 products, all of which are listed in the petition at FDA.gov.

As the petition states:

IDFA and NMPF request their proposed amendments to the milk standard of identity to allow optional characterizing flavoring ingredients used in milk (e.g., chocolate flavoring added to milk) to be sweetened with any safe and suitable sweetener — including non-nutritive sweeteners such as aspartame.

This is all being done to “save the children,” we’re told, because the use of aspartame in milk products would reduce calories.

Milk industry specifically asks to HIDE aspartame from consumers

Astonishingly, the dairy industry is engaged in extreme doublespeak logic and actually arguing that aspartame should be hidden from consumers by not listing it on the label. Here’s what the petition says:

IDFA and NMPF argue that nutrient content claims such as “reduced calorie” are not attractive to children, and maintain that consumers can more easily identify the overall nutritional value of milk products that are flavored with non-nutritive sweeteners if the labels do not include such claims. Further, the petitioners assert that consumers do not recognize milk — including flavored milk — as necessarily containing sugar. Accordingly, the petitioners state that milk flavored with non-nutritive sweeteners should be labeled as milk without further claims so that consumers can “more easily identify its overall nutritional value.”

In other words, hiding aspartame from consumers by not including it on the label actually helps consumers, according to the IDFA and NMPF!

Full Article on Natural News

Hundreds of Children Detained, Tortured

I swear…the whole fucking world has gone insane…absotively, posolutely, infuckingsane.

Why do we hate children so much? (Or hate each other so much, for that matter?)

Torture? Imprison? Hang? Electrocute?

CHILDREN??

Here, there and everywhere – humans seem to have lost all ability to reason or feel compassion.

Why…just…why?!

There is no reason for this; no reason for so much of what is going on in this world that rattles my brain so hard I swear it is going to scrape it’s way out of my skull and run away screaming…Ugh.

Here’s the story from The Independent

“Almost all the children I know of who were arrested after 25 January have been tortured…”

“Hundreds of children – some as young as nine – have been illegally detained and in many cases tortured by the Egyptian police following the protests which erupted after the second anniversary of the 2011 uprising.

In what lawyers and activists say is a retrenchment of state brutality akin to the worst abuses of power during Hosni Mubarak’s regime, large numbers of children have been unlawfully imprisoned in camps used by Egypt’s central security forces.

Rights groups say that many of those detained have been subjected to cruel mistreatment, including beatings, electrocution and “hanging” torture. Others were forced by their tormentors to strip naked before being drenched with cold water.

One lawyer said he believed that up to 400 children, many of them barely teenagers, may have been rounded up during police operations following the outbreak of street clashes on 25 January, the anniversary of Egypt’s rebellion two years ago.”

If you can stomach it, the full story can be found Here.