Friday, August 30, 2013

13-08-21 Texas Judge convicted and sentenced on racketeering charges...

US Judge Frank Montalvo - sealed all details about court rorruption in El Paso, TX

“Public corruption is prevalent in the United States… Public corruption also is a Texas tradition”
...
In denying on October 14, 2008 media’s second Motion to Intervene, Judge Montalvo provides the quote:

"[W]hile all deception requires secrecy, all secrecy is not meant to deceive."

Obviously, in the ongoing El Paso, Texas, sealed court corruption case, the public would not be able to discern which of the two it is.

LINKS:

[1] 11-01-20 Press Release: Corruption of the courts and the legal profession in El Paso – Sealed in the Heart of Texas

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Former South Texas Judge Sentenced to Prison

BROWNSVILLE, Texas August 21, 2013 (AP)
By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN Associated Press
Associated Press
A former judge who turned his South Texas courtroom into a money-making operation was sentenced Wednesday to six years in prison followed by three years of supervised release.
U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen sentenced former state district Judge Abel Limas, 59, on one count of racketeering in Brownsville, on the border with Mexico. He also ordered Limas to pay almost $6.8 million in restitution.
In a tearful statement Limas made to the court before he was sentenced, he said that he willingly had done everything the government asked of him because as a former police officer, lawyer and judge, he knew the "writing was on the wall."
"I believe, judge, that I righted this wrong," Limas said, while apologizing for the damage he had done to the justice system. "It wasn't a mistake. I knew what I was engaging in."
U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen's sentence exceeded the 4½ years requested by prosecutors.
Limas drew the FBI's attention in late 2007 as he neared the end of his second term in office. Investigators intercepted some 40,000 phone calls and collected surveillance photos documenting how Limas had converted his courtroom into a criminal enterprise, collecting bribes and kickbacks totaling $257,000.
Limas pleaded guilty in 2011 and became the government's star witness in four related trials that shook Cameron County's justice system. He could have faced up to 20 years in prison but received credit for cooperation.
Former Cameron County District Attorney Yolanda De Leon, who was prosecuted in Limas' court by her successor in the DA's office, made an emotional statement before Limas' sentence was handed down. The charges against De Leon were later dropped.
"Every single judge that sits in the state court now is suspect," De Leon said. "That is the legacy he has left."
After graduating high school, then college, where he majored in criminal justice, Limas followed his father — who became a top detective in his 40-year career — into the police force. Then he took his father's advice and aimed for something higher.
"Since I was a kid I wanted to be a judge," Limas testified at one trial.
He went to law school in Houston, returned to Brownsville and began practicing criminal defense.
In 2000, he ran for and won the election for the 404th District Court. He served two terms before losing in the 2008 Democratic primary.
By then the married father of four was in trouble. He was hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. He gambled — he estimated 30 trips to Las Vegas — he had kids in college and his $8,000-per-month judge's salary wasn't covering it. He had let it be known among his attorney friends that he needed money.
Racketeering is a charge typically associated with organized crime. But in Limas' case, prosecutors said his courtroom was the criminal enterprise where he generated cash.
Limas took kickbacks from friends, accepting thousands of dollars for favorable rulings. In one case, he accepted $5,000 in cash handed to him in a McDonald's bag by then Cameron County District Attorney Armando Villalobos, just to keep his mouth shut.
At some point, Limas testified, "I just felt like somebody was following me."
He was right. A tip in late 2007 had put the FBI on Limas' tail and they recorded his phone conversations for most of 2008.
In March 2010, Limas was summoned to by the FBI. A year later, he pleaded guilty to one count of racketeering and agreed to cooperate with authorities.
Limas talked to the FBI more than three-dozen times and became federal prosecutors' star witness at all four trials that followed. He helped take down the sitting district attorney and a former state lawmaker, and cast doubt on a large chunk of the Cameron County bar.
Even beyond the dozen people charged in the investigation, Limas implicated many more attorneys in his testimony for practices that were at a minimum unethical.
On Wednesday, Limas' attorney Chip Lewis told the court that since his arrest, Limas had moved in with his son's family in Katy, Texas, and was working dawn-to-dusk as a construction supervisor.
Limas, who relinquished his law license, told Hanen: "Never will I sit again. Never will I practice again."
LINK:

13-08-30 My Surprisingly Inspiring Trip to the West Bank: Echoes of Our Civil Rights Movement

By Jeff Cohen, AlterNet
Israel’s occupation has given rise in recent years to a nonviolent “popular resistance” movement that should be an inspiration to people across the globe. READ MORE»

13-08-30 US: "I have a dream" - MLK and FBI...

   
The Omnipotents: J Edgar Hoover, Robert Mueller III
Since before there was Robert Mueller III there was J Edgar Hoover, and US authorities involvement in MLK's killing was eventually documented in court papers about a decade ago... [1] But Hoover was primitive in comparison to Mueller's digital capabilities... jz
LINKS:
[1]  00-00-01 99-12-10 Dr King’s family civil trial verdict - US Government assassinated Martin
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Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech at the 1963 March on Washington--the 50th anniversary of which is being commemorated this week--marked a high point in US history. It was a soaring moment in which the the soul of the civil rights movement was bared to the nation, as King bravely recognized the daunting obstacles to progress but expressed unbound optimism that justice would ultimately reign. There was, though, a dark side to the event, for it triggered an ugly and brutal reaction within one of the most powerful offices of the land. In response to King's address, J. Edgar Hoover, the omnipotent FBI director, intensified the bureau's clandestine war against the heroic civil rights leader.

13-08-30 US: Misc News of the Abuse: West Virginia Woman Has Home Foreclosed On By Accident, All Furniture Trashed by Contractors

By Rod Bastanmehr, AlterNet
The bank sent repo man to the wrong house, at the wrong address 




http://act.alternet.org/go/37162?t=15&akid=10861.1117888.mnG4AK

13-08-30 US: Misc News of the Abuse: African American Amputee Assaulted and Mocked by Cops in Nebraska

Jodie Gummow, AlterNet
Police forced the man out of is car at gunpoint and assaulted him, he alleges in court. READ MORE»
http://act.alternet.org/go/37129?t=8&akid=10857.1117888.JHht0i

13-08-30 Hello world!

Recent:
8/30 @ 2:22 : Berlin, DE
8/30 @ 12:31 : Shanghai, CN
8/30 @ 11:50 : Yonkers, New York, US
8/30 @ 7:57 : Katy, Texas, US
8/30 @ 7:48 : Mountain View, California, US
8/30 @ 5:57 : Mountain View, California, US
8/30 @ 3:34 : Simi Valley, California, US
8/30 @ 1:06 : Vigo, ES
8/30 @ 12:51 : Redmond, Washington, US
8/29 @ 11:31 : Montréal, CA

13-08-30 Berlin - Have bike will travel!

Got a gift bike in a reasonable riding condition. Berlin is totally flat, and there are bike lanes everywhere, even bike traffic lights in some intersections. Car traffic is not heavy for a major city, since the S and U Bahn system is incredible.
The S/U Bahns are reasonably cheap (E 1.50 for a short ride, E 2.60 for a longer one, either is good for 2 hours with transfers). But I am tired of seeing the same ugly subway tunnel walls all the way. Going by bike let's you see the above ground world, and it is a good exercise as well. The weather is perfect - cool and dry. No rain since I got here last week.
Got the bike, my laptop, the large keyboard - ready for action!

 
Berlin Pirates is NOT a baseball team!

13-08-30 ISRAEL: Debkafile as a dubious information source and leading agitator for war on Syria

Like other similar stories (Benghazi is just one example), we will never likely know the whole truth.  No information about what is happening in Syria is reliable.  In the meanwhile, people in Israel are standing in lines to get their gas masks.  All issues, related to Israeli government corruption and robbing the people in Israel (forget about Palestine - that issue goes to the far back burner) are set aside, when war is imminent... jz

 
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According to Haaretz, average waiting time in lines for gas masks in the north, in extremely hot weather, was 5 hours! Various reports describe the situation among civilians in the north as "hysterical".
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US-Israeli False Flag Gas Attack Unravels 

Commit a war crime to cover up a war crime?

By William Bowles
August 29, 2013 "Information Clearing House - "williambowles" - This is where it all started: The Israeli intelligence front the Debkafile, which is the source of the story that implicated the Assad government and/or its military in the gas attack on East Ghouta and now forms the basis for the war on Syria.
DEBKAfile’s military sources affirm that, just as the Assad brothers orchestrated the chemical shell attack on Syrian civilians, so too did Hizballah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah set in motion the rocket attack on Israel. – ‘The sarin shells fired on Damascus – by Syrian 4th Division’s 155th Brigade – were followed by rockets on Israel and car bombings in Lebanon‘, Debkafile, 24 August 2013
READ MORE:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article36028.htm