Discovering, archiving, and disseminating knowledge regarding abuse of the People by governments and corporations in the Medieval Digital Era//
גילוי, ארכיבאות, והפצת מידע על התעללות בציבור על ידי ממשלות ותאגידים בימי הביניים הדיגיטליים
The senators treated Dimon like a visiting dignitary and a teacher of great wisdom, not like a man who, after growing very rich off of public money, had put the whole economy at risk by engaging in wildly unsafe financial sex on a grand scale. Somebody has to remind these legislators who it is they work for, and it's not Jamie Dimon. Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, prepares to testify before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.
POSTED: JUNE 15, 12:40 PM ET I was unable to watch J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon’s Senate testimony live the other day, so I had to get up yesterday morning and check it out on the Banking Committee’s web site. I had an inkling, from the generally slavish news reports about the hearing that started to come out Wednesday night, that it would be a hard thing to watch.
But I wasn’t prepared for just how bad it was. If not for Oregon’s Jeff Merkley, who was the only senator who understood the importance of taking the right tone with Dimon, the hearing would have been a total fiasco. Most of the rest of the senators not only supplicated before the blowdried banker like love-struck schoolgirls or hotel bellhops, they also almost all revealed themselves to be total ignoramuses with no grasp of the material they were supposed to be investigating....
One of the greatest injustices at Guantánamo is that, of the 169 prisoners still held, over half 87 in total — were cleared for release by President Obama’s interagency Guantánamo Review Task Force. The Task Force involved around 60 career officials from various government departments and the intelligence agencies, who spent the first year of the Obama Presidency reviewing the cases of all the remaining prisoners in Guantánamo, to decide whether they should be tried, released, or, in some cases, held indefinitely without charge or trial. The Task Force’s final report is here (PDF).
Exactly who these 87 men are is a closely held secret on the part of the administration, which is unfortunate for those of us working towards the closure of Guantánamo, as it prevents us from campaigning as effectively as we would like for the majority of these men, given that we are not entirely sure of their status. Attorneys for the prisoners have been told about their clients’ status, but that information — as with so much involving Guantánamo — is classified.
Thanks to Senator Sanders (I-Vermont). JZ _________ Jamie Dimon Is Not Alone Fed Board Member Conflicts Detailed by GAO: Banks and Businesses Took $4 Trillion in Bailouts By Senator Bernie Sanders Senator Bernie Sanders
WASHINGTON, June 12 - More than $4 trillion in near zero-interest Federal Reserve loans and other financial assistance went to the banks and businesses of at least 18 current and former Federal Reserve regional bank directors in the aftermath of the 2008 financial collapse, according to Government Accountability Office records made public for the first time today by Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Mexican Police KIDNAPPING Caught On Video - Drug Cartels
Mexican police were caught on video performing a kidnap operation in conjunction with alleged drug cartel members of the Jalisco New Generation drug cartel. The video captured the acts of five Mexican police working in tandem with men in civilian garb. The kidnapping which occurred in January and was videotaped both inside and outside the hotel where the victims were staying, has stirred up the anti-corruption sentiment in Mexico. Although the video of the kidnapping was captured in January, it was released only yesterday by Jalisco State prosecutors. The victims had been detained by Lagos de Moreno city police earlier in the day and apparently were overheard bragging about belonging to a rival drug cartel. The motive for the bragging may have been to elicit a better chance of being released from the jail. It is possible though, that someone who heard the remarks called the local Jalisco New Generation drug cartel, which prompted a response with fatal consequences for the three victims. The video shows the five policemen, and several men in plain clothes giving the policemen orders. At one point in the video the police are clearly visible and easily identifiable while at the hotels front desk offering a list to the clerk. The police and officials in question, seven in all, were arrested in an operation by Mexican soldiers and state police on June 6 according to Fox News Latino The video found at CBS news provides the Mexican people a rare glimpse into the actuality of police corruption. "One assumes that in some cities ... the municipal police work for the drug cartels," said Jorge Chabat an expert on security and drug trafficking at the Center for Economic Research and Teaching. "But what is different here is that there is a video. It's not the same thing to imagine that this going on, and to see it."
The video shows the men being hustled out of the hotel, blindfolded and handcuffed with their hands behind their back. While two of the victims are being placed in a police patrol vehicle, one suspected drug cartel member brings out the last victim and puts him in the patrol vehicle also. When the drug cartel leave in the vehicle stolen from the victims, the police truck is seen leaving and following the stolen vehicle. The three victims were found only hours later, asphyxiated and beaten to death. The war against the drug cartels by Mexican President Felipe Calderón has reportedly resulted in the deaths of more than 47,000 people in the last five and a half years. The kidnapping and video are being used in the national elections, which occur in three weeks. Calderon's party has placed Josefina Vazquez as their candidate. Vazquez has suggested her opponents are prepared to try for a compromise with the drug cartels to reduce the violence. The four civilians seen in the video have been detained also, according to the state Attorney General Tomás Coronado, although they were arrested in separate cases.
Ponder the ongoing spectacle of thousands of unindicted bank fraudsters roaming free and enjoying the fruits of their crimes.
Former S&L investigator and prosecutor William K. Black testifies as follows in the video linked below:
By 2006 there were 2 million liar's loans being made every year, half of them by the nation's biggest banks, yet there have been very few attempts to prosecute any of the senior bank officers or mortgage loan officers who have been directly responsible for the origination of these millions of fraudulent loans. The S&L crisis of the 1980s was 1/70th as large, but there were 1000 felony convictions and a 90% conviction rate with regard to the prosecutions that were carried forward, after many thousands of criminal referrals were made by regulatory agencies which at that time were adequately staffed and not controlled by the institutions they were supposed to regulate. Yet following our recent mortgage and banking crisis, our nation's regulatory agencies have made zero criminal referrals. As a result, there has been no real investigation of any of these large entities (banks & mortgage companies) whose frauds drove and caused the crisis that this country has gone through and which has not yet finished taking its immense toll.
America's largest banks issued millions of fraudulent mortgages many of which were then sold downstream to government-backed guarantor Fannie Mae. By 2006, 1/3rd of home loans made that year were liar loans. In liar loans, new evidence shows that the incidence of fraud by banking officers is 90%, which is to say that lenders and their agents were overwhelmingly the ones who put the lies into those liar loans. Fully 75% of nontraditional loans made by our biggest banks were liar's loans. Therefore hundreds of these banks and their senior officers should now be facing prosecution, yet none of these top officers at these banks have yet been indicted. Why is this? Could it have something to do with the fact that these banks are currently allowed to contribute many millions of dollars to the political campaign funds of our presidential and congressional candidates seeking re-election? You be the judge after watching the video linked here , which consists of an interview with former S&L investigator and prosecutor William K. Black.
Missing/murdered prosecutors in high profile cases provide another indicator of the level of corruption of the justice system in the United States "Slatest" update on the trial of Penn State coach Sandursky on pedophilia-related charges, [1] included a peculiar side comment:
The investigator who interviewed the boy at the time also testified that he felt the case was strong enough to file charges, but that then-District Attorney Ray Gricar disagreed. Gricar was pronounced dead after disappearing in 2005.
A Google search showed an interesting article, originally published in 2005, [2] which may provide additional perpectives into the specific story, and the level of corruption of the justice system:
Dead DAs Don't Lie: Ray Gricar, Drugs & Pedophilia (continued)
A grand jury had been investigating the drug ring. It's not known what information may have been on the DA's computer.
The missing laptop perhaps provides a motive for a possible abduction of the DA. It seems odd that Gricar would take his laptop from his car, but not take along his cell phone. It also seems unlikely that a man would jump to his death in the Susquehanna River carrying a laptop.
Shortly before his disappearance, Gricar's photograph was posted on the internet in a press release trumpeting the heroin arrests, and the grand jury investigation.
The March 31, 2005 press release from the office of State Attorney General Tom Corbett relates, "'This is the largest heroin operation that we have ever seen in Centre County,' Corbett said, 'feeding a drug trade that stretched throughout the region and allegedly resulted in at least one deadly overdose.'"
"Corbett identified the alleged leader of the drug organization as Taji 'Verbal' Lee, 24, originally from Newark, New Jersey. Lee is currently being held in the Centre County Jail on related drug charges....
"Corbett said narcotics investigators began probing Lee's activities in 2003. At that time, agents had begun getting reports of heroin, crack cocaine and powder cocaine being distributed in Centre County by an individual known as 'Verbal,' who was reportedly transporting large quantities of heroin and cocaine from New Jersey to Centre County....
"On Jan. 11, 2005, Lee was arrested by officers from the Centre County Drug Task Force shortly after he allegedly arranged to deliver 348 bags of heroin to an undercover agent.
"Corbett said that the grand jury also recommended that Lee be charged in connection with a fatal heroin overdose which occurred in State College. The grand jury found that Lee was the source of heroin involved in the Jan. 28, 2004 death of Boyd Francis.
"Lee allegedly delivered 30 packets of heroin to Francis the evening before Francis died. In addition, the grand jury found that Lee instructed associates to destroy the remaining heroin used to supply Francis, after police seized several packets of heroin while investigating the fatal overdose."
An April 1, 2005 article in the State College (Pa.) Collegian, reports, "Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar said heroin and cocaine are problems that have been increasing throughout Pennsylvania.
"'This was investigated by a statewide grand jury and as a result, drug charges being filed,' he said. 'It's a significant victory for combined law enforcement to deal with the drug problem.'
"Gricar said the Centre County Drug Task Force provided the initial information and as the investigation progressed, the Attorney General's Office began to investigate."
Five individuals were arrested, two others had already been detained, and a 25 year old was wanted on fugitive charges. Preliminary hearings were set to begin on April 6, the paper reports, the week before Gricar's disappearance.
The case would be prosecuted by Senior Deputy Attorney General Michael T. Madeira, of Cornett's Drug Strike Force Section, AG Corbett announced.
The Monday following his disappearance, Gricar missed a scheduled hearing for a pending drug case.
Gricar's car was found beside the Street of Shops antique market, on Water Street in Lewisburg, several hundred feet from the Susquehanna River and an abandoned railroad bridge leading across the river.
Lewisburg is also the home of the Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary and the Allenwood Federal Prison Camp.
Gricar was last heard from on Friday, April 15, at about 11:12am, when he called his girlfriend, Patty Fornicola (a clerk in the DA's office) on his cell phone, telling her he was taking a drive along Rt. 192 in the Penns Valley area. The road leads into Lewisburg.
Fornicola on April 29, 2005, would say their conversation had been brief, and Gricar had offered no explanation of where he was heading or when he might return. Earlier that morning, Fornicola would say, she and Gracor had gone through their normal morning routine; while she was preparing to go to work, she says, Gricar told her he was taking the day off. She says she left a note for him.
Police say there was no sign of struggle in Gricar's abandoned car. He liked to shop at the antiques mall, we're told.
Police say they found Gricar's cell phone in his car. The phone had been unused since he had called his girlfriend Friday at 11:12am. Reports say Gricar's girlfriend reported him missing that Friday evening at about 11:30pm.
SIMILARITIES TO LUNA CASE
DA Gricar's disappearance and its attendant press coverage bears striking resemblances to the equally mysterious fate of former Assisant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Luna, who was found dead after an inexplicable car ride in December 2003.
At the time of their disappearances, both prosecutors were involved in high-stakes heroin cases.
* The drug suppliers in both cases were from the New York city area. "Bricks and bricks from foreign dudes up top," as Luna's FBI informant, Warren Grace, explains.
* Both men disappeared on car rides, while they were alone.
* Both men vanished without their cell phones. Luna's cell phone was found on his desk, while Gricar's was in his car. This seems to indicate misplaced trust, or perhaps a sudden interruption that called them away from their routine or expected activites.
* Gricar's laptop, police say, is missing. Luna's laptop was found on his desk at work. At the time of Luna's death, Lancaster County, PA, coroner Barry Walp suggested that some of the 36 stab wounds inflicted on Luna's body appeared to have perhaps been intended to make him talk. "You would think they were perhaps after information from the guy when you see something like this," Coroner Walp told a local paper in December 2003. Gricar's disappearance follows on the heels of a widely distributed DVD titled, "Stop Snitching," in which retaliation is promised for those cooperating with drug prosecutions.
* Both Luna and Gricar seem to have set out, for reasons unknown, perhaps to predetermined, out-of-the-way destinations, as if on a rendezvous with someone they trusted. Phone records apparently offer no clues. Or, both men may have been waylaid by a stalker or stalkers; Luna, driving home, and Gricar, while shopping forantiques.
* The press coverage of both disappearances also bear striking similarities. Unreliable or illogical sightings may offer false clues. The Centre Daily Times, in an April 20, 2005 article, reports Gricar's car was seen by employees of the Street of Shops antique market between 5 and 6pm on Friday evening, the day of his disappearance. The paper then quotes mall owner Craig Bennett, 48, as telling police investigators he witnessed a man fitting Gricar's description, wearing a blue fleece jacket, waiting in front of an uncompleted mall storefront about noon the following day, Saturday. "It appeared as though he was waiting for seomeone," the CDT quotes Bennett as saying. "It had all the look as if he was waiting for someone."
It seems unlikely though that DA Gricar would leave his car overnight in the mall parking lot, not use his cell phone, and not check in when he was already reported missing on Saturday, April 16. Similar supposed sightings in the Luna case later failed to pan out.
* Both men were subjected to unlikely suicide theories in the press.
Suicide theories floated in Gricar case, and other cases
Gricar's disappearance is the latest in a long series of peculiar endings for prosecutors and prosecutor office employees in Pennsylvania.
Over the years, Pennsylvania law enforcement has had an equally bizarre history of attempting to classify these events as suicides.
In the Gricar case, the AP and the State College daily paper, the Centre Daily Times, have already begun floating suicide theories. Gricar's "late brother, Roy J. Gricar, of West Chester, Ohio, went missing for more than a week in May 1996 before his body was found in the Great Miami River. He was 53, according to the Dayton Daily News," the paper reports. Brother Roy Gricar, the paper relates, told his wife he was taking a walk, was was later found drowned in the river, his death ruled a suicidal drowning.
Three other curious cases where suicide theories were floated come to mind: Jonathan Luna, of course, in 2003; Allegheny County DA Robert Duggan in 1974; state attorney general aide Gaylor Dissinger in 1983.
Both Duggan and Dissinger were found shot to death under mysterious circumstances, even as controversies involving organized crime swirled around the offices of the deceased.
"Cops historically in Pennsylvania have floated suicide theories in cases they're unwilling or unable to crack. Particularly a case involving internal agency corruption," I point out in The Midnight Ride of Jonathan Luna.
"Suicide offers a convenient explanation that allows an expensive and embarrassed investigatory team to be broken up and sent home. Case closed. It also seeks to reassure people living around the death scene that a murderer isn't on the loose.... There are other benefits, sometimes involving cover-up of mob infiltration (or is that informant misbehavior?)."
In my 1991 book, Maybe Four Steps, I recount the mysterious fates of Duggan and Dissinger.
PITTSBURGH DA ROBERT DUGGAN
Robert W. Duggan was district attorney of Allegheny County, which includes Pittsburgh, from 1964 until his death in 1974. During Duggan's ten-year tenure as DA there were few prosecutions for gambling.
Republican Duggan however was hardly the first or last corrupt Pittsburgh official. Duggan's predecessor in the DA's office was Democrat Edward "Easy Going Eddie" Boyle. Boyle is said to have lost at the polls to Duggan because, during the election campaign, the Republicans under governor William Scranton sent state police on a much-publicized raid of previously untouched Pittsburgh whorehouses, arresting 70 people in vice raids, underscoring just how "easy going" DA Eddie Boyle had been.
Once in office, by most accounts, Duggan picked up where Easy Going Eddie left off. The main difference in both men's public service seems to be that Boyle's career was allowed to end at the polls, while Duggan's was terminated at the hands of a relentless prosecutor -- Richard Thornburgh.
Historically, as in most communities, Pittsburgh's politicians sent around collectors to the bookies and the prostitutes and the purveyors of vice, insisting on a piece of the sin money for the political machines.
It's the old protection racket. One observer told me that up into the 1950s, through the mayorship of David Lawrence (who later became governor of Pennsylvania), Pittsburgh's collectors turned the money over to the political parties.
But in the 1960s, with the advent of television, the party system began to break down and each politician became a free agent, each having to raise money for, among other things, expensive television commercials.
In the old days office holders were selected by party bosses. Television commercials suddenly provided the means of going over the heads of the bosses straight to the public. Television, the herald of democracy the world over, killed the political machines in the United States.
District attorney Duggan used two collectors to raise money -- Robert Butzler, the rackets squad chief at the county detective bureau and, later, Samuel Ferraro, who followed Butzler as rackets squad chief.
If you were a gambler and you wanted to avoid trouble with the law you paid the DA's rackets squad chief. If you didn't pay the rackets squad chief he'd arrest you and Duggan would prosecute, though this seldom happened, as the graft system by this time was so entrenched and well practiced.
In Pittsburgh it's widely held that Duggan's undoing wasn't dishonesty, but a falling out he had with wealthy Republican matron Elsie Hillman. She had married Henry Hillman, holder of one of the world's great fortunes, and her contributions and whims could sway the decisions of senators and presidents.
Duggan himself had been born into money, was comfortable among the country club set, controlled a family estate in nearby Ligonier Township, and enjoyed a long-standing relationship with Cordelia Scaife May, an heir to the Mellon fortune.
The precise nature of Duggan's supposed falling out with Hillman remains in dispute. One observer said Duggan wanted his cousin named as US attorney, while Hillman wanted Thornburgh. This dispute, said the observer, caused bad blood.
In the end, according to Pittsburgh political lore, Hillman offered Thornburgh the job only after he promised to go after Duggan.
The Pollyannas among us suggest that Hillman and the other party bosses ran out of patience with patrician Duggan, who hung out at the club, remained above the fray and refused to do the party bosses' bidding.
Some even suggest that Duggan didn't know what his collectors were up to, that he had money of his own and so didn't need graft, that Duggan was an innocent bystander who was persecuted for activities his party had sanctioned for more than one hundred years.
Others say Duggan certainly knew what his collectors were up to, that the money they skimmed went into his pocket (or at least was meant to meet campaign expenses, such as television time).
In any event, Thornburgh went after Duggan. What followed was a cat and mouse game between the two prosecutors, a relentless pursuit. Fearing that Thornburgh was about to come after collector Robert Butzler, Duggan moved Butzler out of the way to a police chief's job in the suburbs while shifting the collection duties to Samuel Ferraro.
As Thornburgh got closer, Duggan secretly married Cordelia Scaife May, whose wealth, observers say, was meant to mask the unaccountable graft money Duggan had been receiving for years. Thornburgh then subpoenaed records which he said proved Duggan's money was graft, and not May's.
Collector Samuel Ferraro then was threatened with prosecution, only to be released after he agreed to cooperate with Thornburgh's investigation. With Ferraro agreeing to talk against Duggan, finally the day came when Duggan was indicted for failing to report income of $137,416 from 1967 through 1970.
Thornburgh's victory was extremely short lived. Within hours of his indictment, on March 5, 1974, Duggan was found shot to death on his family estate in Ligonier, the victim of a shotgun blast. The body was found on the grounds of the estate; somehow the shotgun ended up seven to ten feet from the body.
Duggan, authorities said, apparently had been hunting before accidently or purposefully turning the shotgun on himself.
The Pittsburgh Press asked, "Was the law closing in on Robert W. Duggan so inexorably that his only escape was suicide?"
Upon hearing the news of Duggan's death Thornburgh told a reporter, "The terrible personal tragedy overshadows every aspect of this case. Anytime a guy perceives himself to be in a position that he thinks he has to take his own life, it's very sad. I've known tragedy in my own life. I know what it is."
Thornburgh's crocodile tears aside, it's not all that clear that Duggan took his own life.
For one thing, how had the shotgun ended up ten feet away from the body? For another, how had Duggan managed to shoot himself with the long-barrelled gun?
"You don't shoot yourself with a shotgun with your shoes on," one investigator told me, pointing out that the barrel was so long only a bare toe could have fired the trigger.
Speculation persists that Duggan had been murdered.
Who had a motive for killing the indicted DA? Perhaps mafia bookmakers who'd been paying off Duggan over the years feared he'd talk.
The suspects could even had included wealthy Pittsburghers, who'd been embarrassed by Duggan. We'll probably never know, as Thornburgh accepted Duggan's death as a suicide and closed the case. There was never a serious investigation of the supposed suicide, though such an investigation may have laid bare a century's practice of organized crime buying political protection.
The point is, Thornburgh obviously wasn't interested in exposing the historical involvement of organized crime in law enforcement. He was obviously only interested in getting Robert Duggan out of the way.
Gaylor Dissinger, aide and campaign treasurer to the state attorney general
In the 1980s, controversies surrounding Pennsylvania Attorney General LeRoy Zimmerman and his connections with bribery scandals and organized crime figures made Zimmerman's campaign contributions the subject of intense scrutiny.
The man responsible for Zimmerman's 1980 contribution reports, Attorney Gaylor Dissinger, died under mysterious circumstances.
The death of Gaylor Dissinger became one of the most enduring mysteries of Pennsylvania law enforcement. Dissinger worked for Zimmerman in various capacities, in the DA's office, in the campaign, in the AG's office.
Dissinger died on October 18, 1983, at the age of 36. He was found in his bed, shot to death by what one reporter calls "an out-of-state gun." The coroner ruled it a suicide. Yet no note was found, and the police report states, "there was no definite reason known at this time for the deceased to have taken his life."
Among the personal items found at the scene were two tickets to an upcoming Phillies baseball game. One neighbor, Kenneth Dickey, told police he'd last seen Dissinger that morning. Dickey "advised that the deceased had two tickets to the Phillies and had asked him to attend it with him, but that he had to decline."
Another neighbor, Mrs. Andrew Leh, said her husband had last seen Dissinger that morning when "they had discussed the Penn State game which was to be played that afternoon."
Another neighbor, Jan Peterson, told police she'd last seen Dissinger that morning "working in his yard," after which she's seen Dissinger go "over to the Borough Park to run on the track."
All of which is certainly odd for a man about to kill himself. He gets up, puts in some work in the yard so it looks neat, goes for a jog to keep fit and trim, asks a neighbor to attend a Phillies game with him, watches a football game, and then blows his head off.
The police reported Dissinger had last been seen alive at 3 pm, Saturday October 8, 1983. The body was found the following Tuesday under equally mysterious circumstances, and the coroner ruled "the time of death was anywhere in the last 30 to 40 hours."
The police report, filed by officer Donald L. Tappan, of Camp Hill, PA, reads, "On 11th October, 1983 at approximately 1155 hours, I received a phone call from the office to stop and pick up a message. Upon arrival at the station, officer William Donovan gave me a message that I was to meet Mr. LeRoy Zimmerman at 415 Parkside Road (Dissinger's houseEd.), in reference to Mr. Zimmerman not being able to make contact with the above mentioned (DissingerEd.) at that location. I went to the location along with chief Andrew C. Janssen and upon our arrival were met by Mr. Pete Kramer. Mr. Kramer advised us to go into the residence that the deceased was upstairs in the bedroom. Upon our arrival to the upstairs bedroom of the deceased, he was found lying on his right side covered with a blanket and some type of terry cloth piece of clothing over his head. A brief inspection of the body by the undersigned showed a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the left side of the head and a .38 cal Smith and Wesson hand gun partially in the victim's right hand. (In the police report the word "right" appears to be retyped over the partially whited-out word "left" handEd.) It appeared that the shot was fired by the victim using the thumb of his right hand (here again the word "right" appears to be retyped over the word "left"Ed.), in order to pull the trigger of the weapon...
"Mr. Kramer advised that he had spoken to the deceased on Saturday 8th October 1983 at approximately late morning hours. He advised that when Mr. Zimmerman could not make contact with him this date he was asked to go to the residence. Upon his arrival there he advised that the front door was locked and he went to the garage door and found that it was not locked. He then went to the back door after going through a screened-in back porch which was unlocked and found that the rear door was in the locked position but when he pushed on same it opened partially. He advised that he had looked for forced entry and found none and went to a neighbor's and called Mr. Zimmerman and after that entered the home via the garage door then through a basement door into a den. He then went to the bedroom and found the deceased lying on the bed. That time was 1150 hours.... Notification of the deceased's mother was made by Mr. Zimmerman and his personnel."
Unnamed "friends and co-workers" at the attorney general's office told police Dissinger had been "in a depressed state of mind for sometime" and so the incident was ruled a suicide.
The local police obviously deferred to the opinion of the attorney general's office that it was a suicide. But questions remain.
Why was Dissinger working in his yard and jogging if he intended to kill himself later in the day? Why did he ask a neighbor to attend a sporting event with him? Why, if he thought little of the future, was he looking forward to a Penn State game?
Why shoot himself in the left side of the head with his right hand, awkwardly crossing his arm before pulling the trigger with his thumb?
Why did police expect to meet Zimmerman at the scene? Who covered the head with terry cloth? If the house was unlocked, why wasn't foul play suspected? What was the origin of the gun? With all these questions, why didn't Zimmerman, the state's chief law enforcement officer, push for an investigation of the death of his aide, which he surely could have attained? Who killed Gaylor Dissinger?
Two facts survive: Very serious questions had been raised about Attorney General Zimmerman's election returns; Gaylor Dissinger, the man who signed those election returns, died a mysterious death.
Tony Blair Avoids Attempted Citizen's Arrest in Hong KongBritish activist interrupts former prime minister's speech with accusations of war crimes By Peter Walker June 14, 2012 "The Guardian" - - The list of places where Tony Blair must look over his shoulder for protesters during his endless carousel around the global lecture circuit now includes Hong Kong, after a speech on faith and globalisation was interrupted by an activist seeking to make a citizen's arrest on the former prime minister.
Tom Grundy, a Briton living in the Chinese territory, said he walked towards Blair a few minutes into the address at Hong Kong University (HKU) with the intention of apprehending him for alleged offences connected to the Iraq war.
On November 5th 2012 WE THE PEOPLE will march on Washington DC peacefully and unarmed to arrest all members of congress, the president, and all supreme court justices where they will be held without bond until a full independent investigation and trial have been completed. We must re-elect our government within 90 days in order to stave of unrest.
First of all please know that this is not a Protest but rather this is a Citizen Action. We need to organize a citizens arrest of all parties involved in the various criminal acts that have put our country as well as our world in jeopardy. This is going to be a lot of people but none the less it must be done. Hopefully there are some Sheriffs, US Marshals, and military personnel that will remember their oaths to this country upon the taking of this action by the people and lend their support and expertise in bringing known criminals to justice.
What we must do.
The time has come. There are many, many reasons as to why it has come to this but the most important ones are as follows:
First of all it should be perfectly clear that the voting system is not only rigged but also criminally negligent in the handling of our elections from at least 2000 if not further back.
Secondly it should be abundantly clear that the US government has declared war on the American people via such illegal acts as the Homeland Security, Patriot, and National Defense Authorization acts as ALL of the aforementioned acts violate the plain english of the Constitution in one way shape or form.
Third the Supreme Court has failed us in their duty to hear such Constitutional violations much less put a stop to them.
Fourth the President has made himself dictator through various presidential signing statements.
Pronouncements by California Governor Jerry Brown, regarding budget shortfall and the need for austerity measures, are contradicted by data from the California Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports (CA CAFR). Former Attorney General Jerry Brown cannot be trusted in view of widespread corruption of government in California.
Jerry Brown - California Governor is "appalled by corruption"Large-scale financial fraud by government on the People in California is not unprecedented, particularly in Los Angeles County:
a) Secret, unlawful funding of Los Angeles judge's extra benefits by Los Angeles County ($50,000 per judge per year x 600 judges and commissioners x 10 years = $300,000,000), called by court "not permitted payments" and called by media "bribes", was the subject matter of the false imprisonment of former US Prosecutor Richard Fine for 18 months by the Los Angeles Sheriff.
b) Evidence was previously produced of high-level financial management fraud in both the Los Angeles Superior Court and the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department.
During his tenure as California Attorney General, Jerry Brown was repeatedly noticed of widespread corruption of State and County government in California. Jerry Brown consistently refused to provide equal protection under the law.LINKS:[1] 11-04-23 Habeas Corpus in the United States - the case of Richard Isaac Fine http://www.scribd.com/doc/24729084/[2] 10-02-19 California Attorney General Jerry Brown Refuses to Enforce the Law http://www.scribd.com/doc/27886893/[4] 10-12-21 Brown to Eliminate State Office of Inspector General - Los Angeles Times http://www.scribd.com/doc/46694664/[5] 10-10-13 Evidence of high level financial management fraud at the Los Angeles Superior Court, Sheriff's Department - A call for action by US law enforcementhttp://www.scribd.com/doc/39218147/
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) California Gov. Jerry Brown called on state lawmakers to embrace austere cuts and urged voters to approve tax hikes in outlining a revised budget Monday.
Brown proposed $8.3 billion in cuts across education, health care and welfare programs in laying out a plan to address the state's $15.7 billion shortfall, an amount equal to 17 percent of the state's discretionary fund. He warned that additional cuts are ahead if voters reject his tax-hike initiative in November.
"Cutting alone really doesn't do it," Brown told reporters in releasing his $91 billion general fund budget plan. "And that's why I'm linking the serious budget reductions real increase to austerity with a plea to the voters: Please increase taxes temporarily on the most affluent and everyone else with a quarter of a cent sales tax."
Brown, a Democrat, also is asking state workers to share the pain by taking a 5 percent pay cut, most likely by reducing their work hours. The pay reduction would be handled in contract negotiations with the state's public employee unions.
In addition to the cuts, Brown hopes to close the deficit with $5.9 billion in new revenue from the tax initiative he proposed earlier this year that would temporarily add a quarter cent in the state sales tax and collect higher income taxes on those who make $250,000 a year or more.
If voters reject the tax increases in the fall, Brown is proposing $6 billion in additional automatic spending cuts, almost all of which would fall on K-12 schools. The so-called trigger cuts could mean that some districts would have to cut the school year by up to three weeks.
Brown said the cuts are real and will impact every school in the state. He likened California's fiscal challenge to the federal government and European nations, including Greece and Spain.
"Given the decade of fiscal disconnect, I've committed to righting the ship of state and getting it into balance," Brown said. "What that means is that things that are good in and of themselves have got to be stopped or curtailed if we are going to have balance. Otherwise we borrow and sink deeper into debt."
Brown said California's sputtering economic recovery is putting a heavier-than-expected drag on state tax revenue. The state has been blocked from making cuts to Medi-Cal and In-Home Supportive Services in court and by federal requirements.
The revised budget deficit is $6.5 billion more than the $9.2 billion gap Brown anticipated in January.
Brown called for cuts that would reduce child care for mothers trying to get off welfare, in-home supportive services for the needy and health care for the poor, as well as cut funding to courts and postpone payments to schools. Those reductions come on top of tens of billions of dollars in state budget cuts implemented since the recession started in late 2007.
Another $2.5 billion would involve delaying paying debt and other internal borrowing.
Democrats who control the Legislature said they would cut as much as they can while trying to preserve what they deem essential services. Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said Democrats are not looking for a public fight with the governor.
Republicans said the majority party has refused to enact reforms such as public worker pension and teacher accountability.
"When you have unsustainable policies, you have unsustainable budgets," said Republican Senate leader Bob Huff of Diamond Bar.
Brown said his balanced approach was a fair and reasonable way to balance the budget. The sales tax increase would last four years while the income taxes on the wealthy would be raised for seven.
Public schools, which account for about 40 percent of state spending, would see a funding increase of 16 percent if voters approve Brown's tax initiative. More money also would flow to the state's three higher education systems, which have been the subject of student and faculty protests as courses have been cut and tuition has soared in recent years.
The LA Times, when searched for "CAFR", or "Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports" showed only the below, from 2009:
Craig Rubin: L.A. mayoral candidate
February 11, 2009 ... 2) Los Angeles likely will face a deficit of $400 million to $500 million in the 2009-2010 fiscal year, as well as steep shortfalls in the years that follow. If elected, how would you balance the city budget? Specifically, what programs or services would you cut, what taxes or fees would you increase, and what other measures would you take?Los Angeles doesn't have to face that sort of deficit if it were not for the mayor's lack of management skill. According to the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for the city of Los Angeles year end June 30, 2007, the mayor had left the city's "contingency reserve" at $0 right when the financial crisis hit. The contingency reserve is used for unanticipated expenditures and budget shortfalls for already approved programs.
In that same CAFR report it says that our city's assets exceed our liabilities by billions of dollars -- in fact the report says that Los Angeles owns $12.2 billion in capital investments. I think if that money is being properly managed we should have no problem coming up with half a billion dollars. My concern is that the mayor is sleeping while technocrats may be running a Bernie Madoff-type scam with our city's assets. I think that a lot of government money is wasted because it can be wasted. I think sometimes people who work for government spend money as if they didn't earn it because they didn't. I would cut budgets of all city services excluding vital ones for a short time while we analyze what is actually there, and then I would begin to keep what is working and cutting what is not. I am for smaller government as a general principle.
3) To cut costs, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is considering layoffs or offering early retirement to city employees. Do you support either or both of those alternatives? Given the increased need for government assistance in these bad economic times, is now the right time to reduce the number of city employees or cut hours at libraries and city parks?Personally, I don't think the mayor spends enough in the city to know what we need. I think his agenda is handed down to him from the national party and he just goes along with whatever they tell him to do. I think he is willing to be a happy puppet and climb the political ladder rather than deal with the real business of running L.A. I don't think cutting parks or library hours is the way to go, as I stated from my analysis of the CAFR, we are not as bad off as the mayor is making us out to be. I think this is all part of a pitch to get federal funds and commit Los Angeles to federal projects and federal strings that are always attached to money. ...
Walter Burien is the pioneer for communicating that government claimed budget deficits are criminal lies of omission when compared with colossal tax surpluses revealed in their Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports (CAFR).
For example, California Governor Brown claims the state budget deficit of $16 billion requires austerity, when the state CAFR reveals $600 billion in cash and investments. The crime of economic fraud is a state governor with fiduciary responsibility failing to clearly communicate this tax surplus over 35 times the claimed deficit, and to submit this data for independent economic cost-benefit analyses for public consideration of all our options.
The criminal fraud expands with Governor Brown vetoing a bill that would document the state’s ability to create at-cost credit through a state bank, and failing to communicate the success of North Dakota’s state-owned bank producing increasing budget surpluses.
Most Americans are unaware that this is really how the “1%” play the game of power and control. My 18 years’ experience working with both parties’ “leadership” in attempt to end domestic and global poverty proved that they will break every promise (public and private), and lie through corporatemedia control.
The objective and independently verifiable facts disclosed in public CAFRs require no belief, just verification of the data. The endgame of this massive manipulation of the 1% is the 99%’s recognition that the facts prove the 1%’s crimes, demanding their arrests, and then having good-faith public consideration how we can best build a brighter future.
Walter explains the purpose of this “game” (slightly edited), with a proposed solution that can, and should, be considered by independent cost-benefit analyses to fully understand our options (10-minute video here):
Diversification and achieving the highest rates of return has always been the-name-of-the-game for the inside players.
History has proven time and time again that wars, recessions, depressions, boom or gloom has always been very profitable for the select gang of controllers calling the shots and orchestrating events.
The off-shore game of taking advantage of 3rd World cheap labor started into full swing back in 1982 with CALPERS going into CALPERS International.
I note that all local government fund managers coast to coast were sent a communication recommendation back in 1982/3 to participate with CALPERS International with it noted they could bypass their own local government fund management restrictions per participation in derivatives and foreign investments by doing so.
From the get-go taking advantage of cheap foreign labor and manipulating of foreign governments through what I call massive Global Management Funds was VERY profitable. Trade policy such as NAFTA, GATT, etc. were designed specifically to accentuate those profits. Mexico was the first target at the end of the 80's, then the Soviet block countries in the 90's, and then the big cherry China starting in 2000.
It all boils down to "Greed" and "Opportunity" "Unrestrained."
No ifs, ands, or buts involved; only closed door discussions on the next acquisition takeover for massive profit. Appeasing, entertaining, misdirecting, and distracting the population from viewing or having any basic cognitive thinking per the wealth amassing within government on all levels was worked into a fine-tuned Stradivarius violin concerto.
The public has always been the mark for the last 10,000-years. The how and method by the financial / industrial complex in cooperation with government controllers has just been refined as the ticking of the clock continues. The public has not stood an ice-cube's chance in hell with the financial/industrial complex teamed up with government to utilize the public as a productivity resource to be drained and managed. Social engineering has been designed to facilitate the conditioning of the public to shut-up, follow instructions, and do what they are told.
The problem with you, I, and all the rest is having been conditioned to not cutting-out the clutter and distractions where our focus is broken from the fundamental basics of allowing government operatives, others to build their fortunes from within government to the population's severe disadvantage.
A basic example is in California: The "County" of LA had a budgetary basis in 2007 of 17.5 billion dollars. From 2008 to 2011 the county of LA promoted how they were pulling-in the belt and cutting back expenses. Stories of lack of funds flew through the news and political party streams. The realty of the situation was from 2007 to 2012 (five-years) LA County as seen in their CAFR increased their budgetary income from 17.5 billion to 25.8 billion dollars, an increase of 8.3 billion or a 47% increase as they promoted to the population they were in dire-straits and cutting-back.It does not take a genius to see the basics at work here per the local government of LA County's wealth-base increase of annual income as the population is driven further into poverty. To allow the public to be distracted or misdirected away from such an overwhelming basic fundamental is unacceptable in any light.
We are all working on trying to bring the "basics" of the wealth involved ever building within government into view. We all have done our part as megaphones attempting to kick the public in the ass to wake-up and look.
Looking is one thing. Comprehending is another. With that next step being the hardest of all: Correcting the situation in the "Public's" behalf.
I know all too well that it will NEVER happen as long as the financial/industrial complex is teamed up with government to utilize the public as a productivity resource to be drained and managed.
The ONLY way the force necessary to modify the situation is accomplished is to put the public, the financial/industrial complex, and government all on the same page with the same common objective. That scenario has not existed from the get-go.
The common denominator that makes it happen is by making the population the "First-Line-Beneficiary" of the investment arena returns through and by utilizing that massive and ever-growing government investment return as a "written in stone" objective to meet governments’ general purpose operating budgets as ALL taxation is incrementally and systematically phased out. Government has its own management teams in place today to make this happen tomorrow.
With this being done, all three power structures are now on the same page, with the same common objective being a prosperous economy for one-and-all.
Government's intent in relative transition changes towards the population from one of: Draining and managing, to one of wanting to see the population as wealthy and prosperous as they can be. In doing so, all prosper and not just the financial/industrial complex in joint partnership with government.With the population as the first-line-beneficiary with the set objective being the elimination of taxation through investment return / enterprise contribution, the "playing field" is leveled for the first time in history, of which in most probabilities will lead to a thousand-years of prosperity for one-and-all.
The end of 2012 will be the beginning of a new world with the first local government venues establishing the principle of eliminating taxation through what I have called the TRF (Tax Retirement Funds). The TRF prospectuses will have what I call the twelve-points that will be in effect written in stone as core principles not to be deviated from. The basics of the first four-points simplified are:
1. Systematically within set parameters meeting operating costs for a local government from the returns generated from the TRF management teams assigned. (One revenue source taxation is replaced in its entirety with another revenue source investment return combined with a percentage contributed from Enterprise income)
2. Non-Tax fees; fines; service charges are capped and then targeted for reduction by being supplemented with revenue generated from TRF operation.
3. A local government's operating financial annual growth shall not exceed the financial growth of the local venue's population.
4. Financial penalties and sanctions will be levied against a local government operating under the TRF funding principle if governmental authority is utilized to take revenue from the public that violates the principle of the public being the "first-line-beneficiary" from wealth being generated by that local venue.
- - - -
What the country faces under the last several decades’ course within government is economic collapse. TRFs bursting forward coast-to-coast building what would be virtual unlimited capital reinvestment under sound principles opens the door for true growth and "stable" economic prosperity.
Sent FYI and for your positive thinking: thinking poised to give birth for the millennium promised to one-and-all from across the land.
_________ Anonymous recommends flying the flag upside down, a traditional signal of distress...Boycott the US presidential vote! It only legitimizes the illegitimate... 12-04-15 2012 Presidential election votes will be counted in Spain http://www.scribd.com/doc/89464081/Occupy! 11-12-10 Where should Occupy go next? Civil Disobedience in the footsteps of Thoreau and Gandhi! http://www.scribd.com/doc/75348301/ 12-06-08 Courts and Judges as racketeering enterprises under RICO (the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) - key element in the current financial crisis http://www.scribd.com/doc/96504009/Secede! The US in its current form is simply unmanageable...12-01-01 Secession - A Smart Business Move! http://www.scribd.com/doc/76877453/Wake Up! Your are not free... _______ Joseph Zernik, PhDHuman Rights Alert (NGO) The 2010 submission of Human Rights Alert to the Human Rights Council (HRC) of the United Nations was reviewed by the HRC professional staff and incorporated in the official HRC Professional Staff Report with a note referring to “corruption of the courts and the legal profession and discrimination by law enforcement in California.”Human Rights Alert onlineFlag Counter:140http://inproperinla.blogspot.com/ http://inproperinla.wordpress.com/ http://human-rights-alert.blogspot.com/Total Reads: 880,060 Followers: 1,464http://www.scribd.com/Human_Rights_Alerthttp://www.scribd.com/SeyagLizhuyotHaadamTotal Reads: 43,547http://twitter.com/inproperinla http://www.liveleak.com/user/jz12345Total Item Views:664,803+211,012 http://www.examiner.com/x-38742-LA-Business-Headlines-Examinerhttp://www.facebook.com/joseph.zernikFacebook Friends: 2,211_____________________________Take away justice, then, and what are governments but great bandit bands?Saint Augustine, Civitas Dei (City of God,4.4) _____________________________WHAT DID THE EXPERT SAY ABOUT THE CURRENT FINANCIAL CRISIS? * "I think it's difficult to find a fraud of this size on the U.S. court system in U.S. history," said Raymond Brescia, a visiting professor at Yale Law School who has written articles analyzing the role of courts in the financial crisis. "I can't think of one where you have literally tens of thousands of fraudulent documents filed in tens of thousands of cases." Reuters (Jan 22, 2012) http://www.scribd.com/doc/79572282/* Foreclosure fraud: The homeowner nightmares continueCNN (April 7, 2011) * About 3 million homes have been repossessed since the housing boom ended in 2006… That number could balloon to about 6 million by 2013Bloomberg (January 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."http://www.scribd.com/doc/50753639/Prof Paul Krugman, MIT (2011) _____________________________ WHAT DID THE EXPERTS SAY ABOUT THE JUSTICE SYSTEM IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY, CALIFORNIA?* "...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/_____________________________ WHAT DID THE EXPERTS SAY ABOUT THE JUSTICE SYSTEM IN CALIFORNIA?* "...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/_____________________________ WHAT DID THE EXPERTS SAY ABOUT THE STATE COURTS IN THE UNITED STATES? * "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 _____________________________ WHAT DID THE EXPERTS SAY ABOUT THE CONDITIONS IN THE PRISON IN MONROE COUNTY, TENESSEE?* "What goes on there is more like gulags of centuries ago."ACLUhttp://www.scribd.com/doc/72546279/_____________________________ WHAT DID THE EXPERTS SAY ABOUT THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES?* "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/_____________________________ WHAT DID CHIEF JUDGE OF THE US COURT OF APPEALS, 5TH CIRCUIT, SAY ABOUT THE US JUSTICE SYSTEM? * "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/_____________________________ WHAT DID THE CHAIR OF THE SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE SAY ABOUT THE US JUSTICE SYSTEM?* 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/____________________________
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