10 year old charged for wildfires?

Filed under:Controversial — posted by Tom on November 7, 2007 @ 2:21 pm

When you look at all of the devastation in California its hard to believe that all of this destruction was caused by a child playing with matches. Eight hundred miles, and over two thousand homes were destroyed. The articles I’ve read about it vary from trying him as an adult, to getting him counsellings.

All of these things revolve around the determination of whether or not the boy knew what he was doing was wrong. I’m sure the child new playing with matches was wrong, but did he know that his own house could catch fire? Did he know his neighborhood could catch fire?

Police Kill Man

Filed under:Controversial, Opinions, Ethics — posted by Tom on October 22, 2007 @ 7:36 pm


Kind of an old story, but depending on your view of it, a very disturbing one. I am bothered by it, but I just found out about this recently. Maybe if enough people learn and understand, and are as deeply bothered as the rest of us, maybe then justice may occur. Someone needs to be held accountable for this. Thats my opinion and it cannot be changed. That was completely wrong. the officer could have owned up, and it would have made it easier to handle, but he lied and the police department lied with him. thats the most disturbing thing. It could happen to you.

Gitmo Underwear

Filed under:Controversial — posted by Tom on October 20, 2007 @ 8:45 am

If you have been following the news, you will recall the underwear that was smuggled into the Gitmo jail in Cuba, the famous military prison where they keep terror suspects.

The military had suspected the British human rights lawyers for brining in the clothing. The british referred to the accusation as “patently absurd”.

The military has told reporters, the case is closed.  Yet, there is no resolution. to me is sounds like a political “Back off!”. Someone sniffed around, and was too close to something and so was told to knock it off, and close the case, but that is just my guess work.

US military says the underwear case sounds funny, but that the material was strong and someone could hang themselves, and thats not funny.

A General Speaks

Filed under:Controversial — posted by Tom on October 13, 2007 @ 6:10 pm

Retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez who commanded the coaltion forces in Iraq in 2003 and 2004, calls the war in Iraq a nightmare and says that American politicians cost the lives of soldiers in Iraq.

He says that as an officer he had the duty to not question order but to simply perform them and now that he is retired he feels it is his duty to speak out and inform others.

He notes that we are forgetting a big lesson we learned in World War 2 and that is victory can not be had by pure military power. He said, that if officers of the military conducted their business like American politicians they would be court martialed.

He pointed out that we have been fighting for more than 4 years and that even now we are no closer to ending the conflict.

NSA wiretapping

Filed under:Controversial — posted by Tom on October 9, 2007 @ 5:50 pm

It is believed that the Democrats will back a law to extend the NSA wiretapping privileges. The reason they will do that is because they do not want to appear soft on terrorism.

The law allows the NSA to eavesdrop on emails and phones calls to or from another country. This is supposed to stop terrorism even if one or both parties is a US citizen.

Civil liberties groups say this gives too much power to the government and leaves it open to be abused. I agree, where is the system of checks and balances here?

This is an important law to be paying attention to.

Man on Trial for Helping Poor

Filed under:Controversial — posted by Tom on October 8, 2007 @ 5:41 pm

Heres soemthing that should shock you. A man is on trial for feeding homeless people. When I saw the headline I figured he has fed them rat poison. This is not the case. A man is in trouble for helping those less fortunate.

Evidentially, there is a ban in Orlando that wont allow for feeding of the homeless in a public place. Would you like some discrimination with your soup?

And the prosecution has videotape evidence of an Eric Montanez giving food to people without homes! Eric! The audacity!!

Eric argues that being poor shouldnt be criminalized, and local folks say the cops should do things more productive than harass good hearted people.

The ACLU says  That this is outrageous.

And they are right.

WOW

Filed under:Controversial — posted by Tom on October 6, 2007 @ 8:11 pm

Something tells me if I pulled a stunt like this I would be in big trouble.

But wait, aren’t my taxes paying the salaries of the people who cant perform the singular function they were elected to perform, which is show up and represent me.

Whats more is their absence is blatantly abused.

Bell Released on Bond

Filed under:Controversial — posted by Tom on October 1, 2007 @ 5:08 pm

A doctor who had never met Mychael Bell posted his bond to get him out of jail. Bell is just 17 years old. Bell’s lawyer says a few other had offered to pay the bail as well. Bell returned home to Jena, La.

So now because a strnger paid his bail he was able to return home for the first time in over 10 months. He is a defendant, along with 5 others in a brutal attack on a white child.

The person who paid his bail was a 42 year old doctor named Stephen Ayers. Dr Ayers paid 10% of the 45,000 dollar bond. The doctor, also black, says he is nt motivated by race, but only in the interest of fair play.

Dr. Ayers thinks the District Attorney is too harsh, and that its overkill.

The case is quite controversial, and seen as symbolic of the “racist justice system” and has generated civil rights protest and of course the “white backlash”.

Judge Removed

Filed under:Controversial — posted by Tom on September 30, 2007 @ 5:19 pm

A federal appeals court has once again removed a judge from a case. They did  so for failing to state why he gave a pair of brothers a lower than recommended sentence.

This is the third time this has happened to this judge in the last couple of years. He has failed to explain why he deviated from US sentencing guidelines.

(Uh oh! Someone is thinking independently!!!)

The appeals court has referred to this as “disturbing evidence of willfulness”. The appeals court ordered the judge to reconsider his sentence, and again he did not explain himself. The appeals court reassigned the case to another judge.

The defense counsel tried to help the judge by writing up a reason for him, but the appellate court knew it wasn’t the judges reasoning.

Mexicans Raped by Soldiers.

Filed under:Controversial — posted by Tom on September 22, 2007 @ 5:56 pm

A council formed by the Mexican government has found that Mexico’s own soldiers have raped and tortured their own citizens. The council is asking for the discontinuation of using  the army to fight the drug cartels. Its their hope this will remove the army from the citizenry.

The investigation centered around evidence and testimony given by victims, because the army refused to cooperate.

The soldiers are workign to retake large portions of the country that have fallen under the complete control of  the drug cartels. It is believed that they hold such sway because they are less corrupt than the national police.

The haed of the human rights council demands that the soldiers  that have committed these atrocities be punished and that the soldiers be put back in their barracks instead of being sent on missions they clearly cannot handle.


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image: detail of installation by Bronwyn Lace