11-06-14 Ministry of Truth // Ministerio de la Verdad // 真理部

Even Bill Clinton Knows It's Over!
By Butler Shaffer

The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth.  ~ H.L. Mencken

June 14, 2011 ----- Bill Clinton – the examplar of truth in modern America – has proposed the establishment of a government "ministry of truth" – to be run by either the United States government or the United Nations – that would supervise the content of the Internet, requiring individuals and websites to conform to agency factual standards. Such a proposal is consistent with Hillary Clinton’s long-standing interest in establishing a government "gatekeeper" for the Internet; one that would prevent just anyone from putting their opinions out into the world.

Apart from the obvious 1^st Amendment/fascist/1984 Orwellian/marketplace of ideas implications of such an offering – a discussion which, I trust, needs no explication on this website – I am partially encouraged by Clinton’s suggestion. It demonstrates just how desperately and feverishly the political Establishment must go in futilely trying to resist its own demise. Like the erstwhile USSR, the American Empire is in a terminal condition; some of its constituents actively considering secession and/or nullification alternatives to national (and even international) hegemony. It is not surprising, therefore, that Bill would propose a similar state-run system of mind-control with which Soviet officials sought refuge from the irresistible forces of change.

...

Bill might even go so far as to offer up a motto for his Ministry of Truth. Borrowed from Mark Twain, these words might be inscribed on its seal: "Truth is the most valuable thing we have. Let us economize it."

Butler Shaffer [send him e-mail] teaches at the Southwestern University School of Law. He is the author of the newly-released In Restraint of Trade: The Business Campaign Against Competition, 1918–1938 and of Calculated Chaos: Institutional Threats to Peace and Human Survival. His latest book is Boundaries of Order.

READ THE FULL STORY:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28326.htm

11-06-14 Slavery in the United States // La esclavitud en los Estados Unidos // 奴隶制在美国

Corruption of the Courts in the United States: Dred Scott redux?

In the years leading to the Civil War it was argued that the rights for life, liberty, and property were secured in the Fifth Amendment.  The US courts failed to protect such rights, as best documented in the Dred Scott Decision. Following the Civil War, the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted, to further secure these rights through 'equal protection.' Today, the US courts again fail to protect these Constitutional and Civil Rights, and the US government fails to perform its duties and obligations in protection of the Human Rights of the People pursuant to international law. The People are routinely deprived of Life, liberty, and property with no due process of law. The latter two - often to cater to large corporate interests. Corruption of the US courts has reached levels not seen for a century and is one of the fundamental causes of the current financial crisis. Unless reform of the US courts is initiated, civil society and socio-economic conditions in the US are unlikely to be restored, leaving other nations as unwitting collateral.

Dred Scott [[i]]


Of particular interest in Jacobus ten Broek's examination of the Abolitionists' arguments in the decades preceding the Civil War is the 1837 paper, A Constitutional Argument on the Subject of Slavery, by Alvan Stewart. [[i]] Stewart's major contribution was the argument that the US Congress had the power to abolish slavery in the United States, pursuant to the Fifth Amendment:

No person shall be... deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law. 

Stated briefly, the argument in brief was:

• "Person", as used in the Constitution, included slaves.
• "Due Process of Law," originating in the Magna Carta, as used by the Framers, referred to trial by jury.
• Slavery permitted the deprivation of life, liberty, and property with no due process of law.
• In the years that passed since the adoption of the Fifth Amendment, none of the slave-holding states had established due process of law pertaining to slavery.

The centrality of Stewart's arguments is evident in the eventual wording of the 13th and 14th Amendments:

• The 13th Amendment states:
  

  Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. [[ii]]




• The 14th  Amendment states:
  

  Section 1. ... nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Current Relevance

Equal Protection as to LifeUnder slavery, "...the same practice was continued, without any of the legal forms known and observed by the common law for the protection of life or the conviction of the guilty; and [that] men had been deprived of life by lynch law, 'without due process of law'." [[iii]] Therefore, slavery violated the Fifth Amendment.

• Today, there is abundant evidence of executions with no due process of law. Such conditions led some state governors to impose a moratorium on executions.  In Illinois, the death penalty was abolished in 2011, after the Governor declared it "fraught with errors" and "a broken system." [[iv],[v],[vi],[vii]]

Equal Protection as to Liberty

In 1837, Stewart argued that the minimal review standard by the US courts under habeas corpus, pertaining to the deprivation of liberty, required the master to 'produce[s] a record of the conviction of the slave, showing that he has been deprived of his liberty by an indictment, trial... and judgment of a court, or by "due process of law'." [[viii]] Since no slave master could produce these records, any slave who filed a habeas corpus petition against his master in a US court should have been freed.

• In 2010, the US courts failed to perform their duties, even by the minimal review standards deemed sufficient in the pre Civil War period. This was clearly documented in the case of the 70-year-old former US prosecutor Richard Fine. Richard Fine was held for 18 months under solitary confinement after protesting judicial corruption with no warrant, no conviction, and no judgment/sentencing ever entered in his case. [[ix]] 
• Large-scale false imprisonment is common in the United States.  At times, the role of large corporations as the beneficiaries was documented. [[x]]
• Since 1998, false imprisonment of historic proportion has continued in Los Angeles County, California, even after it had been established that the victims were falsely prosecuted, falsely convicted, and falsely sentenced. [[xi],[xii],[xiii]]

Equal Protection as to PropertyDeprivation of the right to own real property with no due process of law was inherent to slavery.

• By early 2011 it was estimated that in recent years some 3 million homes have already been foreclosed, and that in the next couple of years the number would reach 6 million. [[xiv]] Tens of millions of persons will have been deprived of their homes. [[xv]]  Many of these foreclosures in the "Foreclosure Crisis" have been documented to have been conducted in blatant violation of due process of law through foreclosure fraud, perpetrated by large financial institutions, and tolerated, or worse, by the state and US courts. [[xvi],[xvii],[xviii],[xix]]
• In response to the outcry, the US and state governments have entered "settlements" with the perpetrators, which amount to a state or Federal "Fraud Tax."  Such "settlements" have no lawful validity, and they fail to remedy the deprivation of rights of the People. [[xx]]

Causes and RemediesThe deprivation of the rights of the People of the United States today is of unprecedented proportions.  The US courts fail to perform their duties in protection of rights pursuant to the US Constitution and the Amendments, and the US government fails to perform its duties and obligations pertaining to Human Rights in ratified international law.

The current Foreclosure Crisis is far beyond an economic crisis, it is one of several manifestations of an integrity crisis of the US government and the US courts. It is systemic in nature.  [[xxi],[xxii],[xxiii],[xxiv]]

Remedy for such conditions is unlikely to come by way of the US courts. However, reform of the US justice system must be of the highest priority. [[xxv]] Unless such reform is initiated, civil society and socio-economic development in the US are unlikely to be restored, leaving other nations as unwitting collateral. ____
LINKS:[i] Newart, Alvan: An Constitutional Argument on the Subject of Slavery, The Friend of Man, Vol II, No 18, reprinted in: ten Broek, Jacobus Equal Under Law (1951)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/57822496/
[ii] The 2010 UPR (Universal Periodic Review) of Human Rights in the United States by the Human Rights Council of the United Nations (Wg.6 9 l.9 USA) called upon the US to abolish slavery outright, where the Thirteenth Amendment left it lawful under due process of law.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/42218232/
http://www.scribd.com/doc/42157366/
[iii] See [ii], above.
[iv] 11-03-09 Illinois Abolishes the Death Penalty- Compilation of Media Reports
http://www.scribd.com/doc/50710751/
[v] The 2010 UPR (Universal Periodic Review) of Human Rights in the United States by the Human Rights Council of the United Nations called upon the US to abolish the death penalty. See [ii], above.
[vi] 11-03-13 Editorial_ Make Colorado Next to End Death Penalty - The Denver Post
http://www.scribd.com/doc/50710751/
[vii] Petition to end the Death Penalty in California
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/stop-cooper-execution-end-death-penalty-in-caifornia/
[viii] See [ii], above.
[ix] The habeas corpus of Richard Fine was subjected to simulated review by the US District Court, Los Angeles, US Court of Appeals, 9^th Circuit, and US Supreme Court:
10-04-15 Fine v Sheriff (09 A827) Press Release US Supreme Court Motion to Intervene and Support Requests s
http://www.scribd.com/doc/30000875/
[x] 11-02-18 Pennsylvania Judge Guilty Of Racketeering In Kickback Case (Kids for Cash Scandal)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/49134308/
[xi] 09-12-17-Rampart-FIPs (Falsely Imprisoned Persons) - Reviewhttp://www.scribd.com/doc/24729"...judges tried and sentenced a staggering number of people for crimes they did not commit." Prof David Burcham, Dean, Loyola Law School, LA (2001)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/29043589/
"This is conduct associated with the most repressive dictators and police states... and judges must share responsibility when innocent people are convicted."  Prof Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean, Irvine Law School (2001)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/27433920/"Innocent people remain in prison";  "...the LA Superior Court and the DA office, the two other parts of the justice system that the Blue Panel Report recommends must be investigated relative to the integrity of the system, have not produced any response that we know of..." LAPD Blue Ribbon Review Panel Report (2006)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/24902306 /"...corruption of the courts and the legal profession and discrimination by law enforcement in California." United Nations Human Rights Council Staff Report (2010)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/38566837/
[xii] In 2006, the Blue Ribbon Review Panel concluded upon review of the Rampart scandal "Innocent people remain in prison".  It documented that their release is prevented by judges of the Los Angeles Superior Court, who claim that release of the innocent would cause "collapse of the justice system".
http://www.scribd.com/doc/24902306/
[xiii] Of particular concern is the conduct of the US District Court, Los Angeles, pertaining to the Rampart Scandal.  The case, which originated in the scandal, US v City of Los Angeles et al (2:00-cv-11769) is opined as simulated litigation:  The Court denies access to the electronic authentication records (NEFs - Notices of Electronic Filing) in the case, and the purported "Consent Decree" was never entered in the Judgment Index of the Court.  The office of "Overseer of Civil Rights", which was established through such "Consent Decree", and which remained in operation for almost a decade, failed to bring about the release of the Rampart-FIPs.
[xiv] "About 3 million homes have been repossessed since the housing boom ended in 2006. That number could balloon to about 6 million by 2013", Bloomberg (January 2011)
[xv] Submission of Human Rights Alert (NGO), as part of the 2010 UPR (Universal Periodic Review) of Human Rights in the United States by the Human Rights Council of the United Nations, focused on false imprisonments and financial institution and housing fraud by the courts in California.  The submission was incorporated into the UPR staff report with reference to "corruption of the courts and the legal profession and discrimination by law enforcement in California".
http://www.scribd.com/doc/38566837/
[xvi] 11-04-02 Foreclosure Fraud Featured This Sunday on 60 Minutes
http://www.scribd.com/doc/52171300/
[xvii] The case of Susan Lamos in the Los Angeles Superior Court provided unique documentation of fraud on the court in foreclosure procedure through collusion of a California Judge and Bank of America, and refusal of FBI and the US Attorney Office to provide equal protection.
11-04-08 US Attorney Office and FBI Complaint against California Judge Peter Meeka, Clerk John Clarke, BofA and its President Brian Moynihan - Public Corruption and Racketeering in Lomas V Bank of America (KC059379)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/52601871
11-04-12 PRESS RELEASE: Bribing of State and US Judges by Bank of America Must be a Serious Concern!
http://www.scribd.com/doc/528465
11-05-04 Lomas v Bank of America (B232086) Fraud and Extortion by Judge Peter Meeka and Bank of America in the Los Angeles Superior Court continue in the California Court of Appeal, 2nd District
http://www.scribd.com/doc/54612704/
[xviii] Unique evidence of the role of the US courts in the undermining US banking regulation in the current crisis is provided in the litigation of Securities and Exchange Commission v Bank of America Corporation in the US District Court, NYC:
Zernik, Joseph: Securities and Exchange Commission v Bank of America Corporation - Simulated Litigation and Simulated Banking Regulation in the United States
http://www.scribd.com/doc/44663232/
11-01-10 Request No 1 for investigation/impeachment proceedings, in re: US Judge JED RAKOFF and Clerk RUBY KRAJICK, US District Court, Southern District of New York, Conduct of Securities and Exchange Committee v Bank of America Corporation (1:09-cv-06829) s
http://www.scribd.com/doc/46616530/  
10-12-08 RE: Securities and Exchange Commission v Bank of America Corporation(1:09-cv-06829) - Request No 1 for Investigation, Impeachment of RUBY KRAJICK, Clerk of the Court, US District Court, Southern District of New York
http://www.scribd.com/doc/44908376/
Zernik, Joseph: Securities and Exchange Commission v Bank of America Corporation - Pretense Litigation and Pretense Banking Regulation in the United States (filed in support of Request No 1 for impeachment of US Judge JED RAKOFF and Clerk RUBY KRAJICK, US District Court, Southern District of New York)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/44663232/
10-12-19 RE: Securities and Exchange Commission v Bank of America Corporation (1:09-cv-06829) - Addendum to Request No 1 for Investigation-impeachment of Judge Rakoff and Clerk Krajick
http://www.scribd.com/doc/45644678/ 
[xix] Conduct of the US justice system pertaining to the "Foreclosure Crisis" has been repeatedly rebuked:
"Foreclosure fraud: The homeowner nightmares continue", CNN (April 7, 2011)
"...a system in which only the little people have to obey the law, while the rich, and bankers especially, can cheat and defraud without consequences."  Prof Paul Krugman, MIT (2011)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/50753639/
11-04-21 "In Financial Crisis, No Prosecutions of Top Figures" - Because of widespread corruption of the justice system, they are effectively immune...
http://www.scribd.com/doc/5352060 
[xx] 11-02-24 Foreclosure Fraud Settlements- Compilation of Media Reports
http://www.scribd.com/doc/57875616/
[xxi] Corruption of the state and US courts today, was opined by official reports as higher than that during the notorious Robber Baron Era, a century ago. Blue Ribbon, see [xiii], above.
[xxii] See for example: 11-01-07 Superior Court of Los Angeles County, California: Widespread Public Corruption and Refusal of US Department of Justice to Take Action
http://www.scribd.com/doc/46460640/
[xxiii]  Fraud opined in the electronic record systems of the US courts, PACER and CM/ECF, provides unique evidence of the systemic nature of corruption of the US courts: 11-06-02 PRESS RELEASE: Eric Holder, US Attorney General is requested to investigate the integrity, or lack thereof, of the electronic record systems of the US courts - draft published for comments
http://www.scribd.com/doc/56918693/
[xxiv] "On July 26, 2010, Laurence Tribe, Senior Counsel for the United States Department of Justice, Access to Justice Initiative, delivered an important speech to the Conference of Chief Justices, challenging them to halt the disintegration of our state justice systems before they become indistinguishable from courts of third world nations."  Prof Laurence Tribe, Harvard Law School (2010), per National Defender Leadership Institute (2010)
http://www.nlada.net/library/article/national_dojspeechto%20chiefjustice07-26-2010_gideonalert
"More than 100 law professors have signed on to a letter released today that proposes congressional hearings and legislation aimed at fashioning "mandatory and enforceable" ethics rules for Supreme Court justices for the first time. The effort, coordinated by the liberal Alliance for Justice, was triggered by "recent media reports," the letter said, apparently referring to stories of meetings and other potential conflicts of interest involving Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas among others." More than 100 law professors, as reported by the Blog of the Legal Times (February 2011)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/49586436/"The American legal system has been corrupted almost beyond recognition..." Chief Judge, US Court of Appeals, 5th Circuit, Edith Jones, speaking before the Federalist Society of Harvard Law School (February 2003)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/50137887/
[xxv] The urgent need for addressing corruption of the US justice system was recognized by no lesser than the chair of the US Senate Judiciary Committee: * In a speech in Georgetown University, Senator Leahy, Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee called for a "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" on the US Department of Justice.
Transcript of Senator Leahy speech (2009)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/38472251/ 

11-06-14 Welcome Russia! // Bienvenido Rusia! // 欢迎俄罗斯！

Last New Visitor Russia  Visited June 14, 2011

11-06-12 Dred Scott redux?

I came across "Equal Under Law"  by Jacobus tenBroek (a Berkeley law prof), published in 1951, in a used books store. Not being a lawyer, but having interest in the notion of Equal Protection, I decided to read it. 

Equal Protection as to liberty:
The book reviews Abolitionist Movement arguments and the debates on the 14th Amendment in the decades preceding the Civil War. Most of the book consists of appendices - reprints from pre Civil War publications.

There were several lines of entirely divergent arguments, but the most interesting one was based on the Magna Carta, as the "bedrock" of the US Constitution, and the Fifth Amendment:

No person shall be... deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.

The argument in brief was that:
a) "Person", as used in the language of the Constitution, included slaves.
b) "Due Process of Law" in the Magna Carta, and also during the time of writing the 5th Amendment referred to trial by jury.
c) Slavery is deprivation of liberty, and in the years that passed since the Revolutionary War, none of the slave holding states had established any due process of law to deprive persons of liberty and enter them into slavery.
d) Therefore, any slave that would file a habeas corpus against his master in a US court, is entitled to be freed.

The centrality of this line of argument is evident in what eventually was prescribed in the 13th Amendment:

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

The same argument is also the center point of the 14th Amendment:

Section 1. ... nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

In hindsight, the argument appears self-evident.

Equal Protection as to property:
Inherent to the condition of slavery was also the deprivation of right to own real estate, with no due process of law. 

That right too, goes back straight to the Magna Carta, and the restoration of that right, too, was central to the 14th Amendment.

Relevance:
The relevance of that debate is manifest today in the foreclosure crisis.

In recent years, some 3 million homes were foreclosed, and experts estimate that before the crisis is over, the number would reach 6 millions. If the average number of persons living in a house is guessed at 4, that means that by the crisis end, some 24 millions will have been deprived of their homes.

Many, or most of these foreclosures were knowingly conducted in blatant violation of due process of law.

The way the US government and US courts have handled the situation is by reaching "settlements" with the large financial institutions, who routinely conduct the fraud on homeowners in the courts.  Most of these "settlements" amount to a Federal "Fraud Tax" on the perpetrators.  Needless to say, I do not believe that such "Settlements" have any lawful validity.

Therefore, I also believe that conditions now prevailing in the United States amount to repeal of the 5th and the 14th Amendment, and rights that were fundamental to the Magna Carta.

Remedies
The lesson from the decades preceding the Civil War and Dred Scott, is that the US courts were not ready, willing, able to remedy the situation.

Other remedies would have to be sought for the restoration of fundamental rights.  Otherwise, the current Foreclosure Crisis is far beyond an economic crisis, it is a fundamental change in the legal framework of the United States, sending it not one hundred years back to the Robber Baron Era, and not two hundred years to the Revolutionary War, but almost 800 years back... 


LINKS:
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dred_Scott
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dred_Scott_v._Sandford

11-06-12 Please support the cause of Human Rights and Honest Courts in Los Angeles, California! // Por favor, apoye la causa de los Derechos Humanos y los tribunales honestos en Los Ángeles, California! // 请支持人权和诚实的洛杉矶，加州法院的事业！

Once there was a cat...

"Streamlining Mortgage and Foreclosure Fraud" - the YouTube animation!

Between all sites, the animation video got some 350 views in its first day.
Please support the cause by pressing "Like" in the YouTube site, linked below.
Thanks!
LINK:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-IXHL99zVY

11-06-11 Welcome United Kingdom! // Bienvenido Reino Unido! // 英国欢迎！

Last New Visitor United Kingdom  Visited June 11, 2011

11-06-11 Child Detainees in Guantanamo // Los Niños detenidos en Guantánamo // 在关塔那摩被拘留儿童

WikiLeaks cables reveal more juveniles detained at Guantanamo Bay than U.S. claimed

An investigation of Detainee Assessment Briefs (DAB) and other classified documents published by WikiLeaks reveals that fifteen juveniles were detained at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, three more than the U.S. State Department publicly acknowledged.

...
A 2008 study by Andy Worthington, which was drawn from the Pentagon’s own records, found that the total number of juveniles held in Guantanamo at one time was at least 22.
READ THE FULL STORY:
[1] http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/06/07/wikileaks-cables-reveal-more-juveniles-detained-at-guantanamo-bay-than-u-s-claimed/?utm_source=Raw+Story+Daily+Update&utm_campaign=46880e3f8e-6_8_116_8_2011&utm_medium=email
[2] http://humanrights.ucdavis.edu/reports/guantanamos-children-the-wikileaked-testimonies/guantanamos-children-the-wikileaked-testimonies

11-06-11 Welcome Russia! // Bienvenido Rusia! // 欢迎俄罗斯！

Last New Visitor Russia  Visited June 11, 2011

11-06-10 Financial Crisis - the movie... // Crisis financiera - la película ... // 金融危机 -电影...

Bet Tzedek’s Justice Ball – the YouTube video – “Streamlining Mortgage and Foreclosure Fraud…” 

“The animation video, which details racketeering by Bet Tzedek’s current and former leaders, should be considered ADL-Kosher”…  The content and the evidence have been repeatedly forwarded to ADL’s National Director Abraham Foxman.  ADL refuses to comment…

 

Los Angeles, June 11 -  for the upcoming Bet Tzedek’s “Justice Ball”, Joseph Zernik, PhD, of Human Rights Alert (NGO) released a YouTube animated video, [1] describing racketeering by Sandor Samuels – Bet Tzedek’s President, former Chief Legal Officer of Countrywide, and former Associate General Counsel of Bank of America.

“The animation video, which details racketeering by Bet Tzedek’s current and former leaders, should be considered ADL-Kosher”, says Dr Zernik.

The content and the evidence have been repeatedly forwarded to the Anti Defamation League (ADL) National Director Abraham Foxman.

ADL refuses to comment…
___
LINKS:[1] Streamlining Mortgage Fraud and Foreclosures (~4 min animated clip)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-IXHL99zVY  (YouTube Animation video)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/57485006/ (PDF)
______
EXCERPTSStreamlining Mortgage and Foreclosure Fraud…How Countrywide�s Sandy Samuels became ‘Mr Jewish Justice’�

Once upon a time there was a cat.  His name was Sandor Samuels.  Everybody called him ‘Sandy’.
He was Chief Legal Officer of Countrywide� His specialty was streamlining regulators and judges�
…
And so it came to be that Sandy Samuels, former Chief Legal Officer of Countrywide and former Associate General Counsel of Bank of America, central figure in one of the biggest heists in history, emerged as:
* President � Bet Tzedek, the Los Angeles Jewish �House of Justice,
* Member of the Board � American Jewish University, Los Angeles
* Member of the Board � Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies
* Member of the Board � Shalhevet School

___

Joseph Zernik, PhD
Human Rights Alert (NGO)
Human Rights Alert is dedicated to discovering, archiving, and disseminating evidence of Human Rights violations by the justice systems of the State of California and the United States in Los Angeles County, California, and beyond. Human Rights Alert focuses on the unique role of computerized case management systems in the precipitous deterioration of the integrity of the justice system in the United States._______

11-06-09 Penis Pump Judge // El juez de la bomba del pene // 阴茎泵法官

Comment:

What is missing from the report below, is any discussion of reversing any of Judge Thompson's rulings, orders, judgments, made under the influence of the pump :).
JZ

Penis Pump Judge Tin Anniversary

23-year Creek County Oklahoma judge and former state legislator Donald William Thompson, 59, showed no reaction when the court sentenced him to four years in prison in 2006 on jury convictions of four felonies for autoerotic bench activities – indecent exposure.  Court Reporter Lisa Foster testified that he had exposed his genitalia at least 15 times during trial between 2001 and 2003.  So this season constitutes Thompson’s 10^th (Tin) anniversary of Lisa’s first shocking observation of the judge hard at work – on himself.  According to prosecutors, he used a penis pump in at least four of those episodes. 

Thompson took a cue from Bill Clinton in the “Did you ever smoke marijuana” question (“yes, but I didn’t inhale”).  He claimed he had never used the penis pump on himself to masturbate, but may have merely squeezed the handle a few times, absentmindedly of course.  Officers had photographed the pump under Thompson’s bench desk in 2003 during a recess after seeing plastic tubing disappear under his robe during court.  They also found semen on the judge’s robes, chair, or carpet under the bench.

I only want to know:

·         … how did the semen manage to escape from the pump when…?

·         … and how can a judge keep track of a proceeding in the throes of heightened sexual arousal, orgasm, and ejaculation?  Imagine the mess in that robe when…

Never mind the speculative questions.  And I apologize for the mental pictures they evoked.  I don’t know how you’ll ever get those lurid images out of your thoughts. Can you ever forgive me, that is, can you forgive Judge Thompson?

Back to the point, now.  Clearly, Thompson felt bored with his work, and he may have yearned for some risk and excitement that he couldn’t get otherwise in his home or career.  Oops, more speculation. 

Back to the facts.  He said a friend had given him the pump as a joke.  And he refused psychosexual testing. 

The jury recommended a year in jail and $1000 fine.  Judge C. Allen McCall gave Thompson four years and a $40,000 fine.  I guess Allen felt punitive for Thompson’s making the judiciary a public laughing stock. Thompson had to register as a sex offender, a certain embarrassment to his wife and three grown children.  And he may have forfeited his $80K annual pension.

At least now the public now know another way those voluminous robes serve judges – to hide autoerotic paraphernalia, like penis pumps.

Some people insist Thompson did nothing wrong; others say he got what he deserved.  http://www.danzfamily.com/archives/2006/08/judge_donald_th.php

I called the Creek County Oklahoma jail today.  The officer on duty told me the jail released Thompson on 7 June 2010, and that officers arrested him and took him to jail again, this time for stalking, on 3 March 2011, and released him the same day.  Ex-judge Donald Thompson has had a hard time living a righteous life.

***

Bob Hurt    bh Blog•Email  f 2460 Persian Drive #70 Clearwater, FL 33763 (727) 669-5511 Law:  Study • Subscribe • Donate Learn to Litigate with Jurisdictionary

11-06-08 Welcome Netherlands! // Bienvenido Países Bajos! // 荷兰欢迎您！

Last New Visitor Netherlands  Visited June 8, 2011

11-06-08 Welcome the Philippines! // Bienvenido Filipinas! // 欢迎菲律宾！

Last New Visitor Philippines  Visited June 8, 2011

11-06-07 Alternet: Top 5 Wikileaks under-reported disclosures // Top 5 Wikileaks revelaciones subestimada // 前5 Wikileaks的少报披露

5 WikiLeaks Hits of 2011 That Are Turning the World on Its Head -- And That the Media Are Ignoring

Is 2011 capable of exceeding 2010's revelations? And what discoveries in 2011 has WikiLeaks unearthed thus far?
June 7, 2011  | 



Between Collateral Murder, the Iraq War Logs, the Afghan War Diary, and Cablegate, it appeared as though 2010 would go down in history as the most shocking year in WikiLeaks revelations. Americans discovered that trigger-happy soldiers who have been trained to kill are likely to shoot innocent civilians, including journalists and children. They learned that the US military handed over detainees they knew would be tortured to the Iraqis, and as a matter of policy, failed to investigate the hundreds of reported torture and abuse by Iraqi police and military. The Afghanistan logs showed many more civilians killed than previously known, along with once-secret US assassination missions against insurgents. And Cablegate shed light on a US foreign policy that values self-interest over democracy and human rights at all costs, perpetuating anti-American sentiment in the process.

Is 2011 capable of exceeding 2010's revelations? And what discoveries in 2011 has WikiLeaks unearthed thus far?

1) The Arab Spring: Information is power.
...
Amnesty International recently drew a link between the protests in the Arab world and the release by WikiLeaks of thousands of secret U.S. diplomatic documents. In fact, the United Nations recently declared Internet access a basic human right in a report that cites WikiLeaks and the Arab Spring as driving factors.

2) The 'worst of the worst' [in Guantanamo] included children, the elderly, the mentally ill, and journalists.
These files paint a stunning picture of an oppressive detention system riddled with incoherence and cruelty at every stage
...
Despite President Obama's promise to close it, the shameful, legal black hole that is Guantanamo is still open for business: 172 detainees remain imprisoned at Guantanamo, about 50 of whom are being subjected to indefinite detention.

3) US allies are among the leading funders of international terrorism.
...
Therefore, the US government, well aware for years of Saudi Arabia's disgusting exploitation of children, has remained a steadfast ally of the world's biggest financier of terrorism.

4) World leaders are practically lighting a fire under the Arctic.
...

Greenpeace oil campaigner Ben Ayliffe underscores the danger of this mentality:

These latest Wikileaks revelations expose something profoundly concerning. Instead of seeing the melting of the Arctic ice cap as a spur to action on climate change, the leaders of the Arctic nations are instead investing in military hardware to fight for the oil beneath it. They're preparing to fight to extract the very fossil fuels that caused the melting in the first place. It's like pouring gasoline on a fire.

5) Washington would let them starve to protect US corporate interests. The Nation has teamed up with the Haitian weekly newspaper Haiti Libert�, to analyze some 2,000 Haiti-related diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks.
...
In a clear symbol of who it serves, the US State Department stepped in to exert pressure on Haiti's president, who duly carved out a $3 a day minimum wage for textile companies. But, according to the Nation's expose, that was still too much: "Still the US Embassy wasn't pleased. A deputy chief of mission, David E. Lindwall, said the $5 per day minimum "did not take economic reality into account" but was a populist measure aimed at appealing to "the unemployed and underpaid masses."
...
To understand the barbarity of this behavior, consider that a Haitian family of three (two kids) needed $12.50 a day in 2008 to make ends meet.

READ THE FULL STORY:
http://www.alternet.org/story/151232/5_wikileaks_hits_of_2011_that_are_turning_the_world_on_its_head_--_and_that_the_media_are_ignoring?page=1

11-06-06 US holds two in solitary confinement for 40 years // EE.UU. celebra dos en régimen de aislamiento durante 40 años // 在美国拥有两个单独监禁40年

 

USA URGED TO END INMATES' 40 YEAR-LONG SOLITARY CONFINEMENT

Amnesty International
6 June 2011

The US state of Louisiana must immediately remove two inmates from the solitary confinement they were placed in almost 40 years ago, Amnesty International said today.

Albert Woodfox, 64, and Herman Wallace, 69, were placed in "Closed Cell Restriction (CCR)" in Louisiana State Penitentiary - known as Angola Prison - since they were convicted of the murder of a prison guard in 1972.

Apart from very brief periods, they have been held in isolation ever since.

"The treatment to which Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace have been subjected for the past four decades is cruel and inhumane and a violation of the US�s obligations under international law," said Guadalupe Marengo, Americas Deputy Director at Amnesty International.

"We are not aware of any other case in the USA where individuals have been subjected to such restricted human contact for such a prolonged period of time."

Over the course of decades there has been no meaningful review of the men�s designation to CCR. The only reason given for maintaining the men under these conditions has been due to the "nature of the original reason for lockdown."

Both men were originally arrested for armed robbery.

The men are confined to their cells, which measure 2 x 3 metres, for 23 hours a day. When the weather permits, they are allowed outside three times a week for an hour of solitary recreation in a small outdoor cage.

For four hours a week, they are allowed to leave their cells to shower or walk, alone, along the cell unit corridor.

They have restricted access to books, newspapers and television. For the past four decades they have never been allowed to work or to have access to education. Social interaction has been restricted to occasional visits from friends and family and limited telephone calls.  

They have also been denied any meaningful review of the reasons for their isolation.

The men�s lawyers have told Amnesty International that both are suffering from serious health problems caused or exacerbated by their years of solitary confinement.
 
Amnesty International has also raised questions about the legal aspects of the case against the two men.

No physical evidence linking the men to the guard�s murder has ever been found; potentially exculpatory DNA evidence has been lost; and the convictions were based on questionable inmate testimony.

Over the years of litigation on the cases, documents have emerged suggesting that the main eyewitness was bribed by prison officials into giving statements against the men and that the state withheld evidence about the perjured testimony of another inmate witness. A further witness later retracted his testimony.

Apart from ongoing legal challenges to their murder convictions, Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace are suing the Louisiana authorities claiming that their prolonged isolation is "cruel and unusual punishment" and so violates the US Constitution.

"The treatment of these men by the state of Louisiana is a clear breach of US commitment to human rights," said Guadalupe Marengo.

"Their cases should be reviewed as a matter of urgency, and while that takes place authorities must ensure that their treatment complies with international standards for the humane treatment of prisoners."

READ MORE
USA: 100 years in solitary: The 'Angola 3' and their fight for justice (Document, 7 June 2011)
Justice for Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace: Decades of isolation in Louisiana state prisons must end (Take action, 7 June 2011)
USA: The Cruel and Inhumane treatment of Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace(Public Statement, 5 April 2011)
USA: Amnesty International calls for immediate end to nearly 73 years of solitary confinement endured by Louisiana prisoners, Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox (Public Statement, 30 March 2010)

USA: 100 years in solitary: The 'Angola 3' and their fight for justice

Download:  PDF
Index Number: AMR 51/041/2011
Date Published: 7 June 2011
Categories: USA

39 years ago, three young black men were put in solitary confinement; two are still in isolation. In total, the three men have spent more than 100 years in solitary, mostly in the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, USA. But the �Angola 3� have refused to be silenced; their fight for justice continues. In this document Amnesty International is again calling on the Louisiana authorities to end the cruel, inhuman and degrading conditions in which they are held by immediately removing the men from solitary confinement.


Source: http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/report/usa-urged-end-inmates%E2%80%99-40-year-long-solitary-confinement-2011-06-06

11-06-07 Tarot reading of the day // Tarot lectura del día // 塔罗读一天

11-06-07 Welcome India! // Bienvenido India! // 欢迎印度！

Last New Visitor India  Visited June 7, 2011