Chinese report bird flu death near Hong Kong

People exposed to dead man had no symptoms

BEIJING — A man in southern China's Guangdong province died of bird flu on Saturday a week after being admitted to hospital with a fever, state media reported.

The 39-year-old bus driver living in Shenzhen, just across the border from Hong Kong, developed symptoms on Dec. 21 and was admitted to a hospital on Dec. 25 because of severe pneumonia, the official Xinhua news agency said.

He died in the early afternoon of multiple organ failure, having tested positive for the H5N1 virus, the report added.

He had no direct contact with poultry in the month prior to getting sick and had not left the city, Xinhua said.

Guangdong's official newspaper, the Southern Daily, said separately that 120 people who had contact with the man had developed no signs of sickness.

Anonymous releases more Stratfor data

Hackers plan multiple hits on law enforcement

(AFP) – 8 hours ago

WASHINGTON — Online "hacktivist" group Anonymous has released a trove of email addresses and credit card numbers stolen from the website of intelligence analysis firm Stratfor and promised further attacks.

In a statement on Pastebin.com late Thursday, members of Anonymous calling themselves "AntiSec" posted links to what the group said were 75,000 names, addresses, credit card numbers and passwords for Stratfor customers.

The group also posted links to what it said were 860,000 user names, email addresses and passwords for people who have registered on Stratfor's website, which remained offline on Friday nearly a week after coming under attack.

Anonymous said 50,000 of the email addresses ended in .mil and .gov used by the US government.

"We call upon all allied battleships, all armies from darkness, to use and abuse these password lists and credit card information to wreak unholy havok (sic) upon the systems and personal email accounts of these rich and powerful oppressors," Anonymous said.

Anonymous also warned in the statement on Pastebin that it will be "attacking multiple law enforcement targets from coast to coast" on New Year's Eve...

Stratfor is a private strategic intelligence analysis and forecasting service operating out of Austin, Texas. - The Legendary (click here for a sample of Stratfor's intelligence analysis)

(click here for the full story)
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5haJQYd9-txUkaofKLJ0_X_n2NoZA?docId=CNG.abd2d9a288a1831892829dfc484f077e.3b1

Government contractors hired to create phony faces

From Deep Cyberspace – He's usually a very engaging middle-aged man with a military or law enforcement background.

He retired early, works as a contractor, self-employed, consults on rather murky matters political, military, security or business logistics.

Pick one.

Savvy, well-groomed, dressed-down business casual in chinos and a pressed plaid or colorful business shirt and ball cap, our man usually carries a thin laptop in the ubiquitous and utilitarian black fabric attache case.

Apropos nothing in particular, he points out that someone has already established a Facebook or Twitter account for his – ah, well, you know – target. But – you see - there seems to be a glut of messages in the in-box.

Why aren't you responding to your messages? Don't you realize how much better connected you would be in your business, blog, merchandising, contracting, media relations – or – whatever?

Et cetera.

Don't understand how it works? Our man will be glad to assist. Just let me see – here we are – let's sit here in the Food Court, McDonald's, Starbucks, sidewalk bistro or gin mill. How about a glass of iced tea? We'll sit here and – there it is.

Your Facebook page.

Now, then...

It happens every day. Graham Greene would be proud of our man in Havana. He translates so well from the Oxonian dialect into techno-savvy American business school English.

Hard drives crash, databases disappear, security threats materialize and are resolved with only a few key strokes – and the mission is accomplished.

Our man just acquired an asset and all key surveillance and reporting capabilities, an automated and movable feast of information that will allow his employers to predict and surveil to their hearts' content on a 24/7 basis.

The beautiful part is that the targeted asset pays the bill through internet service, phone fees and service charges.

Read all about it.

- The Legendary

Demonstrative DA candidate lived down dark past

Mad dash in Austin traffic
= 1 year of probation

Austin – Be it remembered. Hamilton attorney Rickey Lee Bryan gave a female worker from the State Prosecuting Attorney's office an eyeful in Austin's congested morning commuter traffic on busy Hwy 290 East one morning back in 1993.

Mr. Bryan is a candidate for 220th Judicial District Attorney in the Republican primary. He opposes veteran prosecutor B.J. Shepherd, whose district comprises Bosque, Hamilton and Comanche counties.

According to a probable cause affidavit filed by Sergeant G. Elder of the Department of Public Safety, Mr. Bryan committed the Class B misdemeanor offense of indecent exposure when he paced a car driven by Sandra Lee Wachsmann in traffic, speeding up, slowing down and smiling at her as he masturbated in the driver's seat of his Buick “recklessly and in conscious disregard of whether another person present would be alarmed and offended by such an act...”

Ms. Wachsmann told the DPS officer that Mr. Bryan followed her at speeds approaching 75 miles per hour, then slowing to 35-40 mph.

“Victim attempted to slow down, to speeds of 35-40 miles per hour, to allow the white Buick to pass, but the white Buick would also slow down and driver, each time was observed to be masturbating and smiling at victim...”

She identified Mr. Bryan from a photo lineup after supplying officers with a description of his vehicle and license number.

He served a year's deferred adjudication, paid a bond of $400, court costs, and was ordered to submit to blood and breath tests as directed by probation officers.

According to Bosque County Republican Chairman Tom Bratcher, who turned the documentation of the case over to newsmen for their scrutiny, “I would do this even if he was running unopposed. I'm not taking sides. Whether that person is opposed or unopposed makes no difference.”

In taking his oath of office, he explained, “I promised Bosque County voters I would run people of high moral integrity...It's incumbent upon me to inform people when we have candidates of dubious background...”

In passing, he asked in wonder why no media outlets in the surrounding area would publicize the details of Mr. Bryan's 1994 court case.

Latina detainees were forced to walk in raw sewage

CEC lost ICE prisoners due to negligence


Waco – McLennan County Commissioners learned that Latina detainees held in a privately-operated lockup were forced to live in filthy conditions involving raw sewage from backed-up toilets.

As a result, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division of the Department of Homeland Security removed 80 of the prisoners and transferred them to a lockup operated at Taylor, Texas, by the Corrections Corporation of America, a Tennessee corporation.

Said former probation officer Robert Aguilar, “They had to walk in it in the day time and they had to smell it at night.” Mr. Augilar characterized the situation as one that “borders on criminal activity...negligence on medical care.”

He said that the female detainees were guilty only of entering the U.S. illegally.

“None of them had federal offenses against them. They came over here to work.”

According to Precinct 1 Commissioner Kelly Snell, “CEC didn't come to us with anything, but then, they don't have to. It's like renting a house. As long as you pay your rent, you don't have to worry about it...They've never been written up for anything else – to our knowledge.”

Waco jailers release felon by mistake – again

U.S. Marshals' Fugitive Task Force round him up

Waco – McLennan County jailers released a methamphetamine trafficker despite federal detainer status when the District Attorney declined prosecution for assault – family violence charges.

Corrections officers released Woodrow Shuler on Dec. 22. Mr. Shuler, who has been convicted of methamphetamine trafficking, had violated supervised release conditions on 7 counts. He was arrested by police on Nov. 26 for assaulting Ruby Williams. He allegedly choked her and hit her face, shoulder and back with his hands.

Supervised release is a hybrid of parole and probation. According to a clerk in the U.S. Magistrate's office, Ms. Williams is also a convicted methamphetamine trafficker.

Other violations include admitting the use of methamphetimines on two occasions, association with a known methamphetamine user, failing to submit to a drug test, and leaving the Salvation Army halfway house without permission on Nov. 23.

U.S. Marshals arrested another felon who had been released by the McLennan County Sheriff's Office by mistake on a similar family violence charge earlier this year. He was apprehended in Mexia where he had violated the terms of his probation by seeking out the company of an assault victim, a woman whom he had plead guilty to attacking in an earlier incident.

Young rounders on a tour, seeing the country from Tokio

Casey Kelley, David Doran and Dave Giddens playing Casey's original, "The Trip" at Tokio Store musicians' reunion. Next trip will be at 2:30 p.m. on 1/8/12 - The Legendary

This mighty young feller is named Miteral, singer-songwriter form Gholson who composed "Dance, Dance, Dance," a Spanish Flamenco-accented fandango. He gets an assist from his daddy, Jimbo Hutchison, who is noting on the steel-strung flat top.

Don Mescalito - come by here. You other folks, hold. On three. Jeff Warde reprises this caressive puntry classic, "The Free Mexican Air Force Is Flying Tonight." Keep Austin Weird, and other words to that effect, folks...

Release of accused murderer breaks up bail profits

Brief points out procedural errors

Reporting by R.S. Gates
Story by The Legendary Jim Parks

Waco – A Waco defense attorney broke up a long-standing illegal practice of courts and prosecutors that benefits bondsmen and their insurance carriers.

Here's how the event took place.

In the intense temperatures of this past August's heat wave, at least four shots rang out, leaving a young east Waco man dead.

Police jailed Steven Jay Peace, Jr., charging him with the murder of Emuel Bowers, III.

But more than 90 days later, the accused killer still languished in the McLennan County Jail – unindicted for the gunpoint robbery and slaying.

Under the terms of the procedural rules that govern criminal prosecutions in Texas, he was eligible to be released either on his personal recognizance, or on an amount of bond he could afford.

He made an application for a writ of habeas corpus under those rules on December 7.

A Grand Jury on December 9 indicted the 20-year-old accused murderer with the additional charge of aggravated robbery, an offense which could be used to enhance the charge of murder to that of capital murder, and defense attorney Alan Bennett filed a brief in 19th District Court seeking his release on two $50,000 personal recognizance bonds which require no fees.

In the annals of McLennan County justice, it's a first-ever occurrence of a trial court releasing an offender after an indictment through a personal recognizance bond, something two key subsections of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure allow, backed by numerous appeals court holdings.
When Mr. Peace filed his application for release on a Writ of Habeas Corpus on Dec. 7, he had been held for more than 90 days. He was entitled to be released, but following the indictment on Dec. 9 for robbery, he was held in lieu of a surety bond – something which is ordinarily secured by a cash fee.

According to Mr. Bennet's brief, a case decided by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals held that “a stratagem of serial charging...may not be used as a subterfuge to imprison a citizen who, though accused is still presumed innocent under law.”

Who benefits from requiring the post-indictment bonds? Bondsmen and insurance carriers derive non-refundable fees from such a practice.

“It has been the practice of the distict courts of mcLennan County for nearly a decade to require defendants who are released on a pre-indictment bond to post a new bond following indictment...” Mr. Bennett argued. “If the indictment was not presented during the term specified in the bond, then the bond was no longer enforceable.

“In petitioner's case, this concern is not warranted because his bond will be made after the indictment.”

Here is why.

According to the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, a bond posted during a criminal proceeding is sufficient during the life of the litigation.

“Moreover, two courts of appeals have held that a trial court may not require a defendant to post a new bond after being released on a PR bond under article 17.151 because the defendant was subsequently indicted,” Mr. Bennett wrote in his application for the writ.

Mr. Peace is presently living at home in Hewitt, his whereabouts monitored through an electronic bracelet, his compliance with a condition precluding any use of drugs ensured by random testing by court officials. He is strictly enjoined to not own or possess a firearm.

Montanans Launch Recall of Senators Who Approved NDAA

Ralph Lopez
Special to Salem-News.com

The issue of federal official recall has never reached the federal courts.

(HELENA) - Moving quickly on Christmas Day after the US Senate voted 86 - 14 to pass the National Defense Authorization Act of 2011 (NDAA) which allows for the indefinite military detention of American citizens without charge or trial, Montanans have announced the launch of recall campaigns against Senators Max Baucus and Jonathan Tester, who voted for the bill.

Montana is one of nine states with provisions that say that the right of recall extends to recalling members of its federal congressional delegation, pursuant to Montana Code 2-16-603, on the grounds of physical or mental lack of fitness, incompetence, violation of oath of office, official misconduct, or conviction of certain felony offenses.

Section 2 of Montana Code 2-16-603 reads:
"(2) A public officer holding an elective office may be recalled by the qualified electors entitled to vote for the elective officer's successor."

The website Ballotpedia.org cites eight other states which allow for the recall of elected federal officials: Arizona, Colorado, Louisiana, Michigan, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, and Wisconsin. New Jersey's federal recall law was struck down when a NJ state judge ruled that "the federal Constitution does not allow states the power to recall U.S. senators," despite the fact the Constitution explicitly allows, by not disallowing ("prohibited" in the Tenth Amendment,) the states the power to recall US senators and congressmen:

"The powers not...prohibited...are reserved to the States...or to the people." - Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The issue of federal official recall has never reached the federal courts.
Montana law requires grounds for recall to be stated which show conformity to the allowed grounds for recall. The draft language of the Montana petitions, "reason for recall" reads:

"The Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees all U.S citizens:
"a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed..."

The National Defense Authorization Act of 2011 (NDAA 2011) permanently abolishes the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial, "for the duration of hostilities" in the War on Terror, which was defined by President George W. Bush as "task which does not end" to a joint session of Congress on September 20, 2001.

Those who voted Aye on December 15th, 2011, Bill of Rights Day, for NDAA 2011 have attempted to grant powers which cannot be granted, which violate both the spirit and the letter of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

The Montana Recall Act stipulates that officials including US senators can only be recalled for physical or mental lack of fitness, incompetence, violation of the oath of office, official misconduct, or conviction of a felony offense. We the undersigned call for a recall election to be held for Senator Max S. Baucus [and Senator Jonathan Tester] and charge that he has violated his oath of office, to protect and defend the United States Constitution."

Montana residents William Crain and Stewart Rhodes are spearheading the drive. Mr. Crain is an artist. Mr. Rhodes is an attorney, Yale Law School graduate, and the national president of the organization Oath Keepers, who are military and law enforcement officers, both former and active duty, who vow to uphold their Oath to the US Constitution and to disobey illegal orders which constitute attacks on their fellow citizens. Rhodes said:

"These politicians from both parties betrayed our trust, and violated the oath they took to defend the Constitution. It's not about the left or right, it's about our Bill of Rights. Without the Bill of Rights, there is no America. It is the Crown Jewel of our Constitution, and the high-water mark of Western Civilization."

Two Medals of Honor - Marine Gen. Smedley ButlerRhodes noted that:

"There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. Time to fight."

Butler famously ended his career as a Marine General by touring the country with his speech and book denouncing war, "War is a Racket."Butler confessed that he had spent most of his life as a "high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers...a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism..."

Eighteen states at present have recall laws, most of which do not apply to federal officials. For these and other states to recall federal officials, state legislatures would have to first pass or amend such laws.

Rising on the House floor to oppose the bill based on the military detention provisions for Americans, Rep. Tom McClintock said before the House vote:

" today, we who have sworn fealty to that Constitution sit to consider a bill that affirms a power contained in no law and that has the full potential to crack the very foundation of American liberty."

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders said in opposing the final NDAA:

”This bill also contains misguided provisions that in the name of fighting terrorism essentially authorize the indefinite imprisonment of American citizens without charges.”

And in a New York Times op-ed piece by two retired four-star U.S. Marine generals, Charles Krulak and Joseph Hoar, Krulak and Hoar said that "Due process would be a thing of the past."

Montana would be the first recall drive to be launched as a result of the vote for the NDAA military detentions provisions. A number of Facebook pages appeared after the passage of the bill from locations across the country.
References:

Facebook: "Recall Every Congressman Who Voted for the NDAA"

http://www.facebook.com/...

"Recalling Senators and Congressmen"
http://www.uscitizensassociation.com/...

"How to Recall US Senators and Congressmen"
http://recallthetraitors.blogspot.com/...

Special thanks to Daily Kos

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/25/1048711/-Montanans-Launch-Recalls-of-Senators-Who-Approved-NDAA-Military-Detention-Merry-Christmas-US-Senate

Waco attorney trying to unseat Falls County DA

True the vote, keep the faith, etc...

Marlin – Funny how the same names come up over and over when it comes to conservative politics.

It's a small world.

Take former Falls County Republican Chairman Robert Ford. So far, he's the chief contributor to the campaign of Denton Lessman for District Attorney. He has contributed $250, according to a campaign finance report filed July 15.

Mr. Ford figured in the news recently when State Republican District 22 Committeewoman Janet Jackson of Clifton tagged him with a quick jab after an altercation in which he grabbed her arm after an intense meeting held to appoint a replacement for the position.

When his wife was appointed, Mrs. Jackson and Committeeman Jimmie Kerr left the meeting, among others.

Both Mr. Ford and Mrs. Jackson were cited for disorderly conduct-fighting by Marlin police.

Mr. Lessman's campaign is one that is being carried out from his home and offices in Hewitt and Waco, it turns out.

He has a 5th wheel trailer parked on a 50-acre parcel he owns at 528 CR 121 in Marlin, right next door to his uncle's home at number 530. No improvements are listed on the property and no septic system permit has been obtained.

The Falls County Appraisal Office lists his home address as 920 Cheyenne Trail, Hewitt, where his wife and kids live.

Mr. Lessman registered to vote in Falls County in 2007, and has done so in elections held since then. He listed his uncle's address at 528 CR 121 when he did so. His wife continues to vote in McLennan County from their Hewitt address.

A phone number on his Campaign Treasurer's appointment document is listed as 254-883-3373, but it rings through to a Waco office number of 254-776-4544.

Mr. Lessman is opposing incumbent District Attorney Jody Morris, who prosecuted operators of an 8-liner betting parlor in 2009 and obtained a forfeiture order on buildings and the betting machines, only to see an intervenor obtain the Court's assent to take back the machines and sell them to satisfy liens on the buildings.

That intervenor is J.R. Hawkins, operator of J-Hawk 1, and a former principal in First city Financial Corporation of Waco. This real estate packager has bundled mortgages for both commercial and residential properties, traded them on the open market and obtained resolution on non-productive or troubled assets. The corporation is listed on the NASDAQ exchange. He has since retired from that business, but still operates J-Hawk 1 from an address on Lake Shore Drive in Waco.

Mr. Hawkins is the campaign treasurer for McLennan County Chief Deputy Randy Plemons, a candidate to succeed Sheriff Larry Lynch.

Non-agenda agenda item: hire new associate judge

Extend agreement to operate $50 million jail

First there is a mountain,
then there is no mountain,
then there is... - Donovan, ca. 1967

Six Shooter Junction – His name is Virgil Bain; he is closing his law practice in Waco; he is your new Associate Criminal Judge of McLennan County.

It is so ordered by Ralph T. Strother, 19th District Judge; Matt Johnson, 54th District Judge; Mike Freeman, Judge of County Court at Law No. 1; and T. Bradley Cates, Judge, County Court at Law No. 2.

The item was not on the agenda of the McLennan County Commissioners Court; there was no such agenda posted on-line, though Judge Jim Lewis' Administrative Assistant Lynne Lockwood insists there was such a posting.

First, you type in co.mclennan.tx.us/special_un.aspx; then you click on “Regular Supplemental Agenda,” and you get this:

At this time, no supplemental agenda/s have been
posted relative to the currently posted, next
regular Commissioners Court meeting.
Supplemental agendas must be posted
at least 72 hours before the meeting starts.


Judge Bain has been been hired, but his compensation has not been set.

He can hear pleadings in pre-trial hearings and docket calls, according to testimony in today's Court session.

The new judge replaced Jail Magistrate Raymond Britton, who served at the rate of compensation of $24,000 per year for four years while at the same time, he also served the municipalities of Bruceville-Eddy, Riesel and Moody as their city judge.

According to an opinion of Abel Reyna, the District Attorney, he resigned from the those judgeships effective his acceptance of the magistrate's position. That is the state of the law under the Texas Constitution and cases in which the holdings are still paramount, according to Mr. Reyna's research.

Mr. Britton was compelled to resign his post as Jail Magistrate when the Texas Legislature acted to require magistrates to hold a law degree and to be admitted to the bar to practice law, two requirements which Judge Britton does not have.

Knowledgeable observers estimate that District Judges are paid at the rate of about a yard and a half in six figures, Courts at law at nearly that with a top budget of $135,000.

T'is quite a jump from two bits on the dollar, methinks.

In other matters, the New Jersey-based corporation CEC (Civigenics) received a six-month extension on an agreement to operate two county-owned jail facilities, the old County Jail at the Courthouse Annex, which stands empty after the Court drained its prisoners to be housed in the new facility, the Jack Harwell Detention Facility next door to the County Jail on Highway 6.

Reportedly, the privately opeated jail was recently denuded of Latina inmates held by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) branch of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) due to insufficiencies in jail standards, health care, and other considerations such as a supreme reluctance to go along to get along with officials of Obama Administration.

About 90 of them were transferred to a facility operated by Corrections Corporation of America at Taylor in Williamson County.

Red Staters nationwide have been so afflicted, some of them with federal litigation directed by the Department of Justice, such as Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona's Maricopa County, who was earlier this month similarly cited for depriving latinos of their civil rights.

Either way, corporate types who do business with Republican state and local governments find themselves increasingly unable to collect per diem fees for housing federal prisoners, detainees and deportees.

And the floggings will continue until morale improves!

How does one win this game? You don't play, that's how. You don't play.

Oh, Juanita,
Oh, Juanita,
Oh, Juanita,
I call your name...
(click the verse above for a minority report)

Has anyone checked that courthouse door?

Waco - Nothing is posted on-line as an agenda for the McLennan County Commissioners Court.

The agenda for the next regular Commissioners Court session
is not yet posted.  Agendas are normally posted on
Thursday afternoons or Friday mornings for
the coming Tuesday morning Court meeting - and
must be posted at least 72 hours before a meeting starts.

At this time, no supplemental agenda/s have been
posted relative to the currently posted, next
regular Commissioners Court meeting.
  Supplemental agendas must be posted
at least 72 hours before the meeting starts.

White, male, 35, married with kids, talks business

'Let me tell you about our border...'

Somewhere in a Central Texas storefront – This is an angry white man. He is controlled, his emotions are in check, but underneath his affect, there is burning anger.

He leans back in his swivel chair, puts his chin in his hands, and thinks for a moment.

“You want to solve the drug problem and fix the economy? Easy.

“Here's all you have to do. You impose a 10% government duty on every dollar you convert to pesos and send across the border. Okay?”

What about all those auto parts made in Mexico? No import duty on those coming back across the continent, en route to Canada for assembly?

“You don't need it. The manufacturer owns the factory, they employ the workers. They have to send money down there to pay them, pay expenses, okay? Ten percent. That's what it will cost you.”

Drugs? Seems there is way too much money in that stuff, no?

“There's too much money in it? Okay We can fix that. You sell the drugs here in the U.S. You want to send the money back across the border? Ten percent. That's the cost of doing business.”

What if the customers are willing to pay the cost of doing business in order to get their drugs?

“Then you legalize it. Every form of it. Grass, heroin, cocaine – the works. You make it legal.

“You have any idea what one Iowa farmer can do with 200 acres and the legal right to grow the stuff? Huh? He can put every drug dealer in his neighborhood – for miles around – out of business. The American farmer is your secret weapon. He is the most productive man in the world – bar none. Put him to work.”

That simple?

“Yeah, Mexico is just a packaging and transshipment point. They don't grow this stuff in Mexico. They grow it in Colombia and Bolivia and Peru and Argentina, man. John Deere and the government and folks, they went down there and showed those people how to get productive...

“You can see the result.”

What is that result, among others?

He uses a forefinger to unfold his fingers, ticks them off on the fingers of the other hand.

“You can't afford to own a place and live on it, farm it.

“The price of herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers, fuel – it's all sky high, so you can't make it on a place small enough to afford. It's all corporate, just like we always said it would be.”

Too many people are competing for too few resources in urban areas as a result.

A bystander interjects a comment:

“It's just like the outlaws have been saying for years; it's not a war on drugs; it's a war on the vote.”

Another moment passes, and the interlocutor adds, “You can't boogie down to Mexico, either. Those folks at the border, they...

“No, you sure don't go to Mexico," says the angry young white man. "A white man from America - speaks their language - There's something wrong...He won't live long.”

Racial agitation rampant amid state militia rumors

14 Governors have 'state defense forces' -
Civil war talk rumbles American heartland

The governors of Texas and Minnesota have voiced fears that the Obama Administration is appeasing America's enemies and shunning its allies.

Governor Tim Pawlenty of Mr. Obama includes his perception that the President is appeasing America's enemies by de-emphasizing a long-standing partnership with Israel.

Published reports have attributed statements to Governor Rick Perry that say he thinks the President is punishing Texas by dumping tens of thousands of illegal immigrants into Texas cities and small towns.

According to Dr. Lyle J. Rapacki, an intelligence analyst and consultant who receives and disseminates critical intelligence and policy information from and to law enforcement, intelligence operatives, homeland security officials, government and community leaders, the two governors have joined an additional dozen to form “State Defense Forces.”

These defense forces are described in this way.

“State Guards, State Military Reserves, State Militias in the United States are military units that operate under the sole authority of a state government; they are not regulated by the National Guard Bureau nor are they part of the Army National Guard. State Defense Forces are authorized by state and federal law and are under the command of the governor of each state. State Defense Forces are distinct from their state’s National Guard in that they cannot become federal entities.

“Mr. Obama is fearful of these State Defense Forces, in that he does not have control of said forces, and with the U.S. Military stretched to near breaking from multiple deployments and theatre actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, these State military forces would be under the direct command and authority of the Governors in which states have said forces. In essence, the Governors would have 'de facto control' of the United States..,” according to Dr. Rapacki.

Comet Lovejoy eastward leading in southern skies

Star of wonder appears for Christmas

Dig a groove - a percussion trench, man, and stay in it

When every sound and every tone in the world becomes an expression of percussive time, the world becomes kind of blue, and now you has jazz bleu, phantom bleu, bent, blasted on flattened third notes in all scales major, minor, augmented and what have you...“You dig a groove, a trench, man, and you stay in it” – Casey Kelley...Behold, the album Duane Allman called his favorite -
KINDA BLUE

Cowboy blues - pure blue and flickering like flames

Gonna find me a hole in the wall
Gonna crawl inside and die...

I feel free - I feel free

But when the tax man come to the door, ooh, the house...

Dig the white hot outrage in this jasper's voice...

Justice Department blocks SC photo ID voting law

Washington – Many minority voters do not have photo ID, according to a Justice Department ruling on South Carolina's voter identification requirement signed into law in May.

In noting the new requirement could harm the right to vote of tens of thousands of people, the department said just over a third of the state's minorities who are registered do not have the driver's license, passport or military ID needed to cast a ballot.

In the ruling, Thomas Perez, the civil rights division chief said, “The state's data demonstrate that non-white voters are both significantly burdened” by the new law, and added that minorities are “disproportionately unlikely to possess the most common types of photo identification.”

A provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the review is required in certain southern states once part of the Confederate States of America, which seceded from the United States in 1861 over the issues of states' rights, involuntary servitude, and Congressional representation, among others. Such states must first receive approval of the Justice Department for new boundaries proposed for congressional districts reapportioned due to population shifts.

Votes for Republican Senator John McCain in South Carolina surpassed the results for President Barack Hussein Obama by 9 points.

The states may appeal the Justice Department decisions, either directly or through the federal courts. A Texas Congressional and legislative district map met with disapproval by both the Justice Department and a Federal appeals court for the western District of Texas at San Antonio.

The ban on South Carolina's voter ID requirement is seen as part of a growing confrontation between states which overwhelmingly refused to grant President Barack Hussein Obama electoral votes in the general election of 2008. It brings into question voter ID laws in Texas, where a similar requirement has been passed by an overwhelmingly Republican legislature.

Mr. Perez said that the South Carolina law's attempt to block voter fraud did not offer any evidence of the problem that are not already addressed by the state's existing laws. Proposed exceptions to the new rule were too vague and offered no clear plan for voter edcuation or training materials, according to the ruling.

The King Street Patriots chapter of the TEA Party recently accused the Obama Administration and the NAACP of plotting to bring in election observers from the United Nations to challenge their “true the vote” program regarding photo ID and lists of approved voters.

Poll watchers in Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio, as well as Texas, insisted that elections officials turn voters away from the polls in 2008 and 2010, claiming their names were not on the rolls of approved voters due to felony records or probationary status in the courts for various criminal convictions.

Juarez cop kidnapped, burned alive in broad daylight

By Dave Gibson, Drug Cartel Examiner

Ciudad Juarez, Mexico - On Tuesday, kidnappers threw a policeman bound hand and foot from a vehicle in broad daylight. His assailants, who had kidnapped him the night before, then doused him with a flammable liquid and set his body ablaze.

The grisly scene took place at 8:30 a.m. in full view of many horrified witnesses who saw the officer writhe in pain until succumbing to his wounds.

According to the Chihuahua State Attorney General's Office, the officer was burned on over 50 percent of his body and had a plastic bag placed over his head.

A note with a warning for police was left at the scene...

Read more here - http://www.examiner.com/drug-cartel-in-national/juarez-police-officer-kidnapped-burned-alive

Major Hasan's Ft. Hood shooting rampage -

Terrorist attack, or 'workplace violence'?

Part of a three-pronged effort to detect and prevent Islamic theats, Rep. John Carter introduced a resolution to give recognition to the November, 2009, shooting attack on unarmed soldiers and civilians as a terrorist attack.

The Obama Administration last week wrote to the Senate Homeland Security Committee that "the Department (of Defense) has advanced several initiatives to deter, detect, and respond to violent extremism in the force. The documents attached illustrate how the Department is dealing with the threat of violent Islamist extremism in the context of a broader threat of workplace violence."

"This is a blatant case of political correctness denying reality to the detriment of the victims and families of those who were killed and wounded in the attack on Fort Hood," said Rep. Carter. "There is no justification for denying these casualties the same combat status as those at the Pentagon on 9-11, other than to deny that a radical Islamic terrorist with connections to Al Qaeda attacked our soldiers at Fort Hood." Mr. Carter represents the district that encompasses Killeen and the Ft. Hood area.

Mr. Carter also introduced amendments to the Defense Authorization Act to give added protection to whistle blowers who report violent activity or threats of violence by Islamic adherents and to provide an “Active Shooter” program for active duty personnel who may need to respond to a similar attack in the future.

Military personnel serve under general orders to carry no firearms, ammunition, or unauthorized weapons while on board military installations.

Attention, Army dudes and dudettes:

Want a quick transfer? Put on a funny hat!

A female member of the Junior ROTC obtained permission to wear her hijab while in uniform.

The commanding officer of the Tennessee junior training unit would not give her permission to wear the traditional Muslim head dress while marching in the high school homecoming parade, so she quit the program.

Army brass changed her CO's mind.

As it turns out, soldiers may wear turbans and hijabs while in uniform - on an individual case-by-case basis.

An Army spokesman explained it this way. While JROTC is affiliated with the Army, it is not actually a part of the Army. The new procedures will provide JROTC with a exemption method more similar to current Army procedure mandated through the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993.

That law allows soldiers on active duty to apply for religious accommodation if they want to alter their uniforms in accordance with their religious beliefs. The exemptions are applied on a case-by-case basis. Soldiers who are transferred must reapply.

Read more at: http://dailycaller.com/2011/12/22/army-to-allow-hijabs-turbans-in-junior-rotc/

Latest Border Narcotics Intelligence - Homeland Security

Official reaction to Ron Paul predictions of race war...

This morning, the Muslim Brotherhood warned the United States that if the United States continued meddling in Egypt, Libya, and other potential hot spots in the Middle East, they intend to cut off America's supply of 7-11 and Motel 6 managers.

If this action does not yield sufficient results, cab drivers will be next, followed by Dell, AT&T, and AOL customer service reps.

Finally, if all else fails, they have threatened not to send us any more presidents either. It's gonna get ugly, folks. - Shared by Clyde Beason

Sensible v. Silly Party election night results - Monty Python

Comet Lovejoy seen from the space station

If there is a bear...Is there a bear? Here? There?

Those friendly folks from Alaska need some spare change to run this ad in Iowa.
It's true; it's all true. I heard about in the back room at the Exxon station.

Anywhere? Everywhere. Nowhere? Feel free to join in any time as you gas up for the holidays. - The Legendary

This is a printing office

- Beatrice Ward, typographer

Legislators put teeth in Grand Jury secrecy

When true bills of indictment are returned to District Clerks, most of the alleged offenders have already been released on bond.

Their legal entanglements are already a known fact, so they are expected to appear at the Sheriff's Office to arrange a post-indictment bond.

Those who have been indicted in secret, however, are yet to be apprehended by lawmen.

The most recent session of the Texas Legislature made a move to make dead sure they don't find out they're wanted and get the foreknowledge to run from their troubles with the law.

Jurors, witnesses, lawmen, and prosecutors are sworn to secrecy in these matters, as well as court clerks.

On September 1, an amendment to Section 20.22 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure took effect. Where before the law read in this way, “If the defendant is not in custody or under bond at the time of presentment of indictment, the entry in the record of the court relating to indictment shall be delayed until the capias is served and the defendant is placed in custody or under bond,” the legislators tweaked the language slightly by passing HB 1573.

Now, it says “If the defendant is not in custody or under bond at the time of the presentment of indictment, the indictment may not be made public and the entry in the record of the court relating to the indictment must be delayed until the capias is served and defendant is placed in custody or under bond.”

A very fine distinction, but oh, so exacting, this means specifically that there will be woe unto he or she who lets it slip that an indictment has been returned and an unaided capias warrant of arrest is on file in the Sheriff's Office and on the NCIC computer hookup local, state and federal. Before, it was regarded as a matter of confidentiality, something that just wasn't done if you wanted to play nice.

Times, crimes and their consequences have changed.

According to McLennan County District Clerk Karen Matkin, “The change was that simply if the accused had not been arrested, the information could not be divulged that a capias was on file until the arrest was effected...However, there was no prohibition to making the accused offender aware the presentment had been recorded. Now, the information is delayed until the capias has been served.”

What violation of the law is involved?

Let's start with contempt of Court, since the Grand Jury has been convened by a District Court, the evidence presented to the Grand Jurors, and a minimum of 9 out of 12 having voted to present a true bill of indictment.

To forewarn and inform a defendant that he's hot as a ten dollar pistol and needs to get out of Dodge is a real no no in the eyes of the black-robed brethren of the law. Contempt citations are extremely costly to legal careers, political aspirations and pocketbooks. Balky witnesses may be ordered to sit out Grand Jury terms in the inhospitable atmosphere of the county lockup, the terms extended - and thereby doubled - while the errant party contemplates whether it's really worthwhile to shield which little bird told them all that stuff about who's hot and who's not.

In any case, a violation of this type would definitely be viewed with a jaundiced eye as an example of moral turpitude classed with stealing.

The rest of the procedural code concerning the nature of the instrument remains the same. Each and every allegation of complaint must be enumerated and listed in the presentment so that prosecutors will be bound to prove up each and every element of the alleged felony crime. If the offense involves a degree of culpability based upon intent to act in a felonius manner, each particular must be listed, as well as all counts of the offense.

The law is very exacting because savvy defense attorneys know just how to persuade trial courts to suppress evidence that is based on faulty presentments of complaint, how to plead down offenses to lesser charges because of improper allegations of complaint, and how to get entire criminal cases dismissed without ever having to pick a jury or call witnesses.

In the opinion of a number of jurists who were good enough to answer a quiz by The Legendary, nothing is really changed. Ditto a number of District Clerks and Deputy District Clerks contacted, as well as investigators and harness bulls behind the badge.

What happens in the Grand Jury room stays in the Grand Jury room until the defendant has been served with a writ of capias – so called from the original Latin meaning “thou mayest take” a named individual under arrest.

Hunger Games foretells a bleak future for youth

In an undetermined time of the future, the nation of Panem, the once and future United States, has become 12 improverished administrative districts following a catastrophic civil war.

The people attempted to throw off the yoke of control exercised by the government, which is now known, simply, as “The Capitol.”

What they got for their efforts at revolt is hideous to behold.

In a world where people routinely starve to death, the authorities always attribute the cause of the demise to “flu” or “exposure.”

Katniss Everdeen, a teenage huntress who has supplied her family with a meager living by taking game using a bow and arrow, snares and knives, knows better.

They starved to death.

Each year, the districts choose by random and complicated formula two “tributes,” a boy and a girl between the ages of 12 and 18. The 24 candidates, whose names are chosen from a bowl of ballots in a public lottery requiring mandatory attendance, will fight to the death – on live television.

“Sponsors” bet on their chances for survival.

In a rare twist, Katniss volunteers to take her little sister's place as a tribute when the child's name is chosen out of thousands of possible candidates. A slight girl, malnourished throughout her lifetime, she has little chances of withstanding the savage fighting to come.

All the hot buttons are there – reality television, commercial exploitation of the brutality of survival itself in a world gone hostile and mad, the social breakdown caused by hard times and massive resentment over government mismanagement of economic conditions.

The wildly successful novel by Suzanne Collins has been adapted for the screen following massive appeal to young adults who have devoured its bleak snapshots of a very possible future reality for their generation.

Read it and weep, get fired up, be somebody – or go away. This is a call to action, people. Your kids believe in it. They spend their shekels on it, vote with their pocketbooks. - The Legendary

Microbiologists agree to censor bird flu research

In a radical departure from long-established scientific research methods, microbiologists in Europe and the U.S. have agreed to suppress information about their research into weaponizing the deadly H5N1 influenza strain known as “bird flu.”

Scientific research is capped with publishing positive findings so other researchers may replicate the findings.

Dutch scientists were able to pass the virus between ferrets in an aerosol application. The laboratory conditions could easily be adapted to a natural setting.

The National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity, which was created in the aftermath of the 2001 anthrax attacks and advises the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, requested that the information be released to other researchers only after they have signed an agreement to keep the findings confidential. The panel called for certain data to be kept secret after determining that the risks of publishing it outweigh the benefits, according to a press release issued by the Erasmus Medical Center.

“The researchers have reservations about this recommendation but will observe it,” the center said in the statement. The research data may be shared with the scientific community, subject to an obligation of confidentiality, it said.
The Dutch scientists, led by Ron Fouchier, passed the H5N1 strain between ferrets in a chain of transmission that enabled the virus to evolve and become better adapted to its mammalian hosts.

“We have discovered that this is indeed possible, and more easily than previously thought,” Fouchier said in a Nov. 27 press release. “In the laboratory, it was possible to change H5N1 into an aerosol transmissible virus that can easily be rapidly spread through the air. This process could also take place in a natural setting.”

An American scientist working at the University of Wisconsin has made a similar agreement with the government.

Avian flu is a serious public health concern with the potential to cause a deadly pandemic, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Since 2003, more than 500 people have been infected with the H5N1 strain and about 60 percent have died, according to the Atlanta-based agency.

Millions of birds, most of them raised for poultry, have perished in Asia, the bird disease spreading to Russia over the past years.

An influenza pandemic swept the globe in 1918, killing as many as 50 million people. Many historians have written the opinion that the deadly epidemic led to the armistice that ended World War One because, quite literally, there were few soldiers left alive to fight their enemies.

Epidemiologists traced the spread of the deadly flu virus of 1918 to a U.S. Army camp in the midwest where infected soldiers debarked for Europe through the ports of Philadelphia and Boston.

Fooled around and fell in love, dudes and dudettes

Dig the eye candy - they're everywhere!

'Misdemeanor' murderer released on $100K PR bond

Jail magistrate requesting back pay since 2007

BULLETIN: The McLennan County Commissioners' Court deferred payin Judge Raymond Britton back pay for sick leave, holiday and vacation since his appointment as Jail Magistrate in Nov. 2007. County Judge Jim Lewis said the Court needs more documentation before making such a decision. County Auditor Stan Chambers told the Court that the request is in line with personnel policy and procedures. Judge Britton's last day on the job will come on New Year's Eve, 2011.
(see story below)

Six Shooter Junction - Criminal defense attorney Alan Bennett explained to news outlets Monday afternoon that his client got the deal of a lifetime when a McLennan County Grand Jury failed to indict him for murder and aggravated robbery within the 90 days required by law.

Steven Jay Peace, Jr., 20, walked out of the county lockup on personal recognizance bonds totalling $100,000 after being jailed since August 25 on a murder charge stemming from the alleged aggravated robbery of Emuel Bowers, III.

Personal recognizance bonds require no placement of a cash bond fee. He will be required to remain under house arrest and will be monitored electronically while he awaits trial.

Aggravated robbery is a first degree felony when an offender commits a theft from a person who is in fear of their life, 65 years of age or older, or disabled and unable to defend themselves, according to the Texas Penal Code.

When a person dies during such an attack, a Grand Jury may opt to indict the alleged offender for the charge of capital murder, which carries a potential death penalty or a possiblity of imprisonment with no possiblity of parole.

Convicted murderers may become eligible for parole.

Jail magistrate requesting back pay since 2007

In other criminal justice news, Jail Magistrate Raymond Britton is requesting that the McLennan County Commissioners' Court pay him his accumulated vacation, holiday and sick leave retroactive to his appointment to the position on Nov. 6, 2007.

“I request that I be compensated for my unused vacation, holidays worked and unused sick leave, since my term of Jail Magistrate began,” Judge Britton wrote in a memo to County Judge Jim Lewis.

In the interim, the judge has served the municipal courts of Riesel, Moody and Bruceville-Eddy.

According to an opinion by District Attorney Abel Reyna, Judge Britton resigned from those judgeships effective the date he assumed the appointment as Jail Magistrate.

The judge resigned effective January 1 after the Texas Legislature imposed the requirement that a magistrate must have a law degree and be admitted to the State Bar. His appointment could have been grandfathered under the new legal requirement had he not chosen to do so.

A $24,000 a year job, the position was originally intended to involve office hours of a half-hour each morning five days a week between 7 and 7:30 a.m. to consider setting bail on those accused offenders “held over” from the day before after Justices of the Peace had gone home for the day, according to the Court's minutes.

To serve in more than one such position of emolument – whether one accepts the pay or not – is a violation of the Texas Constitution, according to Mr. Reyna's holding.

The matter is on the agenda of the Commissioners' Court this morning under the “consent agenda,” which gangs up many items for their consideration and requires only one vote to approve all, or only those not deferred for further study.

War Department speaks out on outing her bank records

Shelly Horn Cawthon stands up in the stirrups

Waco – When you buck the “G”, you're up against the best.

Ask any brat raised in a household ruled by an FBI Special Agent, Marshal, High Sheriff, CIA hand, or anyone else from the hot, steamy world of alphabet soup.

There is a woman behind the man, and there is a family behind her.

Any prudent kid knows to say, “My daddy works for the government.”

Nothing more, nothing less. It's just the way things are done.

What do they call the women behind the men?

Ask any old time lawman, spook, agent or Treasury man.

She's known universally in their circles as the “war department.”

If those men want to stay married, they soon learn that they are just boarding at her house, that lady who runs that war department.

It's what the wise and superior man knows as a mom and pop operation.

Sometimes, the woman behind the man has had enough, and then after years of sticking to her knitting and keeping her mouth shut, she will speak her mind.

Shelly Cawthon, the former Shelly Horn, reached her limit Monday afternoon. Here is what the lady said:

“Sheriff Lynch and Randy Plemons have known Matt for years, in his role as a Texas Ranger and as a Special Deputy U.S. Marshal. When Mr. Steakley came to them with documents about our lawsuit, they should have refused to accept it. I think they should have asked Mr. Steakley to leave and scolded him for trying to make this a political matter, if for no other reason than the fact that Matt is a government employee and this was a personal matter.”

I think I'm reading her literature. It was a personal matter, but now her bank statements, social security number, loan applications, cancelled checks and all that jazz are out there in the wind.

Mr. President Harry S. Truman once said, “If you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen.”

Hoo, boy. One can only wonder if President Harry S. Truman might have been repeating something he heard Mrs. Bess Truman say during their long years of marriage.

Hot, ain't it? And here you thought you crossed the Brazos at Waco. You just thought you did, hoss. Won't be safe 'til you reach San Antone.

Candidate denies having Ranger's money records

Deputy Randy Plemons subject to shield order

Bulletin: Ranger and Mrs. Cawthon respond to Deputy Plemons' denial of receiving information regarding their lawsuit with an area builder - The Legendary

Waco – Chief Deputy Randy Plemons denies he received information about retired Texas Ranger Matt Cawthon's financial affairs gleaned from the discovery motion in a lawsuit.

He is a candidate to succeed McLennan County Sheriff Larry Lynch.

Mr. Cawthon and his wife Shelly went to court on December 7 to seek a protective order shielding the information from disclosure by third parties or the opposing party to a civil action to settle disputed costs billed by a local builder.

In a hearing on that day in 74th District Court, the Cawthons' attorney Henry Wright told Judge Gary Coley, “There has been some concern about dissemination of certain information obtained as discovery in this matter outside the litigation. Some of the information has been disseminated outisde the litigation for criminal purposes...There are political agendas in this courtroom...The discovery was given to Sheriff Lynch and Deputy Plemons for political purposes.”

Deputy Plemons and Sheriff Lynch respond:

In a December 19 response to a public information act request made on December 9, Mr. Plemons said, “Mr. Parker (?): I have no such information.”

Later in the day, Sheriff Larry Lynch responded in similar fashion: "I have no correspondence with Mr. Steakley or his attorneys."

Judge Coley granted a protective order sealing the records for the life of the litigation.

They include the Cawthons' social security numbers, their telephone numbers, residence address, bank statements, cancelled checks, credit slips from relevant transactions, credit card information, loan and mortgage applications, and other banking records made even more sensitive than would be normal to an ordinary citizen due to the nature of Mr. Cawthon's past professional career as a lawman.

Ranger Cawthon told The Legendary he apprehended the fact that his financial information had been distributed outside the scope of interest of the lawsuit through the same channels he obtained information about criminals during his career as a lawman.

“A confidential informant came forward and told me,” he said. “Over the years, you arrest people and you treat them right. When you do, it comes back to you...Hey, all this is about is this guy and I are arguing over how much money I owe him. See? That's what it's about.”

Mr. Wright also submitted a motion to prove up a certain witness in the lawsuit as an expert in order to elicit his testimony as to the true cost of certain items used in the construction. The construction contract has been described in open court as a cost-plus arrangement.

Mr. and Mrs. Cawthon respond

Reached for comment by The Legendary, the Cawthons responded in this way.

"Yes. That is what we were told, too.," said Mrs. Cawthon. "He claims that only received the deposition from Mr. Steakley." Marvin Steakley is the party involved in the lawsuit, an executive of the home building company involved.

"The deposition is about our lawsuit with the builder. It has absolutely nothing to do with anything concerning the campaign for Mr. Plemons or Mr. McNamara. The question is, "Why would Mr. Steakley give ANY documents to anyone? Especially them."

Ladies love outlaws like babies love stray dogs...

War in Iraq is finally over - sort of

News service labels war “stunning ignorance”

This editorial was provided by Scripps Howard News Service.

In the months leading up to the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the George W. Bush administration assured Americans with absolute certitude that:

Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had vast hidden stocks of chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction;

He had a secret ongoing program to build or acquire nuclear weapons;

Saddam was in league with al-Qaida;

The Iraqi people would welcome us as liberators;

Iraqi oil revenues would pay for the war;

On May 1, 2003, it was "Mission Accomplished."

None of that turned out to be true. But leading up to the invasion, the Bush administration and its bellicose neo-con allies dismissed domestic opponents of the war as, at best, soft on terrorism and, at worst, unpatriotic. The swaggering Bush White House dismissed the failure of international arms inspectors to find any sign of weapons of mass destruction with, in essence, "What can you expect of wussy foreigners?"

The actual invasion went faster and better than anyone expected, and U.S. troops were in Baghdad and pulling down Saddam's statue seemingly in no time flat.

And then it all started to fall apart -- through an almost complete lack of post-invasion planning, a series of bad decisions and unfortunate incidents like Abu Ghraib and, for the most part, a stunning ignorance about the country we had invaded...

(click link for full text)
http://www.newschief.com/article/20111219/NEWS/112195011

Wikileaks traitor accused of having a female alter ego

Fort Meade – A picture is emerging of an accused traitor as a sexually confused, harrassed loner at odds with the other soldiers who manned a forward intelligence center near Baghdad.

Bradley Manning is portrayed as an unstable personality who had a female alter ego named “Rhianna,” according to witnesses.

His emotional outbursts and tantrums led his supervising officer, Captain Casey Fulton, to recommend that his weapon be taken away from him following a fight with a fellow soldier that occurred in the computer room.

A non-commissioned officer testified he once saw a photo of the 24-year-old private dressed as a woman.

He stands accused of releasing hundreds of thousands of sensitive documents purloined from his computer terminal in the Iraq war zone through the intelligence website Wikileaks. A computer expert testified that there were more than 100 entries on Private Manning's terminal seeking information on Wikileaks and its founder, Julian Assange.

Article 32 hearings will continue this morning following closed-door proceedings that are classified. The procedure is so named because of the article of the Uniform Code of Military Justice that addresses preliminary hearings into allegations of complaint to determine if there is enough evidence to convene a court martial.

Among the sensitive documents allegedly leaked by Private Manning are State Department cables regarding estimations of foreign officials,
secret documents concerning the conduct of the war, and even a video depicting a rocket attack by an Apache helicopter that left two foreign journalists dead.

If convicted, the accused traitor could receive a death sentence, though military prosecutors have indicated they are not seeking the ultimate penalty.

Musicians' Reunion at Al's-Tokio Store - 2:30 p.m.

Come on in, people. We're here to tell you about sweet dreams
and things to make you happy...

U.S. - Nato forces massing at Syrian border

From “Boiling Frogs Post”

“Some of the US forces that left the Ain al-Assad Air base in Iraq last Thursday, did not come back to the USA or its base in Germany, but were transferred to Jordan during the evening hours.”

According to first-hand accounts and reports provided to Boiling Frogs Post by several sources in Jordan, during the last few hours foreign military groups, estimated at hundreds of individuals, began to spread near the villages of the north-Jordan city of “Al-Mafraq”, which is adjacent to the Jordanian and Syrian border.

According to one Jordanian military officer who asked to remain anonymous, hundreds of soldiers who speak languages other than Arabic were seen during the past two days in those areas moving back and forth in military vehicles between the King Hussein Air Base of al-Mafraq (10 km from the Syrian border), and the vicinity of Jordanian villages adjacent to the Syrian border, such as village Albaej (5 km from the border), the area around the dam of Sarhan, the villages of Zubaydiah and al-Nahdah adjacent to the Syrian border.

Another report received from our source in Amman identified an additional US-NATO Command Center in “al-Houshah,’ a village near Mafraq...

http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2011/12/11/bfp-exclusive-developing-story-hundreds-of-us-nato-soldiers-arrive-begin-operations-on-the-jordan-syria-border/

(click on the above paragraph to read the rest of the Boiling Frogs Post)

Unlimited military detention of American citizens...

By Gary D. Barnett

I recently wrote an article about this atrocious piece of legislation, (S-1867) but at that time, it had not made it through the House of Representatives, and Obama had pledged to veto it upon its arrival to his desk. It is no surprise that the dishonest Obama lied again, but it is telling that both the House of Representatives and the Senate passed this overwhelmingly. These are the same "representatives" that most of the lemmings in this country believe protect their interests, but the opposite of course is the case.

It is difficult to put into words just how absolutely obnoxious this anti-freedom monstrosity is, and it is even more difficult to imagine the future consequences of this heinous law. How on earth can this be allowed to happen? If this stands, we can openly admit that we are now in an executive dictatorship.

When any American can be "legally" apprehended by the military, held indefinitely without the benefit of any due process, be shipped off to hidden prisons or concentration camps, and tortured or worse, what have we become? What have the people become when they sit idly by and let this go forward without complete and total resistance? They have become slaves to the state, and they have become slaves voluntarily!

There are many attempting to refute the fact that the military has the authorization to indefinitely hold American citizens, but it is very clear that under this piece of legislation, the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012, the military can do just that. While the bill is filled with many deplorable aspects, mostly ignored I might add, the detention language is clear. Glenn Greenwald of Salon explains the myths concerning the detention portion of this bill in his brilliant article: "Three myths about the detention bill."

There is not a lot more that one can say about this new law, because it is the finishing nail in the proverbial coffin of totalitarianism. When any American on the say so of the executive branch of government can be "legally" captured by the military and held indefinitely, and without charge or trial, then the state has won.

Who will the government thugs target first? They will target those who are willing to stand up to them. They will target those who expose the corruption and lies that are ever present in the political arena. They will target writers of truth. They will target protesters, and all those who actively dissent. They will target those who expose the state propaganda for what it truly is...

(click the paragraph above to read the rest of the story)

'Come and take it' – U.S. = 90 guns per 100 people

(Reuters) - The United States has 90 guns for every 100 citizens, making it the most heavily armed society in the world, a report released on Tuesday said.

U.S. citizens own 270 million of the world's 875 million known firearms, according to the Small Arms Survey 2007 by the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International Studies.

About 4.5 million of the 8 million new guns manufactured worldwide each year are purchased in the United States, it said.

"There is roughly one firearm for every seven people worldwide. Without the United States, though, this drops to about one firearm per 10 people," it said.

India had the world's second-largest civilian gun arsenal, with an estimated 46 million firearms outside law enforcement and the military, though this represented just four guns per 100 people there. China, ranked third with 40 million privately held guns, had 3 firearms per 100 people.

Germany, France, Pakistan, Mexico, Brazil and Russia were next in the ranking of country's overall civilian gun arsenals.
On a per-capita basis, Yemen had the second most heavily armed citizenry behind the United States, with 61 guns per 100 people, followed by Finland with 56, Switzerland with 46, Iraq with 39 and Serbia with 38...

Musicians' Reunion at Al's-Tokio Store - 2:30 P.M.

No telling who will show up - good music, y'all


Ride your hawgs, hawg-ridin' fools!

Newt's ties to Freddie on Wall Street Journal op-ed page

WSJ: "The real history lesson here may be what the Freddie episode reveals about Mr. Gingrich's political philosophy. To wit, he has a soft spot for big government when he can use it for his own political ends...Mr. Gingrich would help his candidacy if he stopped defending his Freddie payday, admitted his mistake, and promised to atone as President by shrinking Fannie and Freddie and ultimately putting them out of business."
Read more: http://thepage.time.com/2011/12/17/wall-street-journal-hits-newt-freddie-ties/#ixzz1goMjM5RF

It all reminds The Legendary of the laughable conundrum Mr. Gingrich faced upon his election to the post of Speaker of the House of Representatives. He had accepted a massive advance of several million dollars on a book he was to author about the Contract On America. What to do?

He returned the dough to the publisher.

At the time, I and my colleagues of the spit and whittle club crowed - calling for Newtie to resign his post, tell the publisher thanks a lot, and strut away in a posture of great moral courage. - The Legendary