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POPSMonster convicted , but the grief remains I will never forget this case. What Patti Cannady, (Anne's mother) witnessed when she found her daughter close to death that morning is unspeakable. RIP Anne Pressly, I pray her family and friends are able to find some solace in his sentence, be it death (well earned) or life in prison. Thank God it can be nothing else.
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POPS800,000 Americans Busted Annually for Pot
They argue the drug war “is doing far more harm than marijuana itself ever will,” because * it diverts hundreds of thousands of police agents from serious crimes “to the pursuit of harmless tokers”; * it costs taxpayers at minimum $10 billion a year to catch, prosecute, and incarcerate marijuana users and sellers; * it enables government to snatch the cars, money, computers and other properties of people caught up in drug raids even if they have had no charges filed against them; and * it allows “police agents at all levels to trample our Bill of Rights in their eagerness to nab pot consumers.” The drug war has also unleashed a torrent of racism in the form of unjust sentencing, which confines crack-cocaine users who are mostly black to prison for longer terms than powder snorters, who are mostly white. Hightower and Frazer say authorities have perverted the infamous “Patriot Act” of 2001 for use in non-terrorism cases, allowing “sneak-and-peak” search warra
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POPSNUKE GAZA: A WORLD GONE MAD "Not since 1948 has this enclave of extremists mounted such a public relations offensive. Christian Zionist President Harry Truman trusted Jewish Zionist lobbyists when he solicited assurances that they would not become what they immediately became: a racist theocratic state with an expansionist agenda destined to create serial crises in the region. The merciless global agenda pursued by Colonial Zionists is the single greatest threat to world peace, as confirmed yet again by Lieberman’s warning. As the primary remaining ally of these Jewish nationalists, the risks to the U.S. increase with each passing day as Tel Aviv works behind the scenes to catalyze yet another conflict. This entangled alliance was destined to provoke resentments that would eventually endanger their super power ally and foremost arms provider. "
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POPSDo svidania baryshnya Great site about this japanese soldier experience in soviet prison camps. Takes 45 min. to read through. You get to learn a lot of unknown details.
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POPSLife Prison Terms for Children? What are we thinking!? What we are thinking is that county prosecutors get elected in the counties they serve in and "being tough" is generally the only qualification people run on. Often the same distinction is used by state legislators to get elected and re-elected. News media outlets all compete for attention, to sell advertising and make a profit. "DA seeks life to teen rapist!" "DA may seek life for young sex criminal!" "Jury may sentence serial hoodlum to life in prison!" Here's the real question - is a particular case about the victim and perpetrator, or is it about someone seeking power and/or money at the expense of someone who may then spend life in prison whether it is really justified or equal justice.
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POPSCIA agents guilty of Italy kidnap Interesting. Of course I don't think we're going to extradite them. And the agents will have to delete Italy from their travel sites. The USA currently wants Sweden to extradite that perverted movie director....but thinks of itself as being above the law.
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POPSTwo California men get decades in prison for operating a marijuana dispensary "Luke Scarmazzo was sentenced to 21 years and 8 months in prison and Ricardo Ruiz Montes got 20 years for operating a marijuana dispensary in Modesto. Sentencing before Federal judge Oliver Wanger took place on November 21, 2008. Luke and Ricardo had a licence to run the dispensary and paid taxes. The conflict between state and federal laws are what led to their arrest and conviction. The case drew attention because of a controversial rap video titled "Business Man" that features a sneering, preening Scarmazzo who raises both middle fingers to the camera and says " the feds." Defense attorneys said the federal government went after Scarmazzo and Montes because the music video challenged law enforcement's authority
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POPSRussia Reconsiders "There's no question that Stalin is undergoing a sort of renaissance in Russia. Despite the many millions killed or sent to labor camps during his reign, many now view his rule with a sort of hazy nostalgia. "The cynical position of the Stalinphobes is that only innocent people were kept in the gulag," he said. "Criminals who violated the law were kept in the gulag. And let the Western reader ask himself, should criminals be kept in spas or resort hotels?" Meanwhile, Stalin's image and name, systematically bleached out as the waning Soviet empire began to grapple with its bloody past, are creeping back into Russian life. His name was restored this fall to a Moscow metro station. His unmistakable mustached face beams from the wall of Soviet Meatpies, a kitschy diner downtown."
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POPSThe terrorists at Club Gitmo don't want to leave Obvious. What else more could they want? They have personal chefs, TVs, remote controls, beach volleyball, a library overlooking the ocean, scenic views, free laundry service, new prayer rugs to pray to Allah.....and they're getting the H1N1 vaccine before you. The libs want them out of Cuban Clown College as long as they're nowhere near their Manhattan penthouses or vacation spots in the Vineyard. As if splashing water on their damn faces is going to scare them off.....PUH-LEASE. Gitmo should be rebranded so that liberals wouldn’t reflexively scream “TORTURE!” every time they heard it’s name. How about "Misfired Martyrs Motel" or "Viva la Incarceracion!"?
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POPSWhy Do Some Straights Fear Gays? Of course, this article is written in 2007, but I feel it addresses the fear I still see perpetuated about the recent Hate Crimes legislation that was signed by our President. We still have a long way to go as a society and I want to thank every person on CM who speaks out against hate.
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POPSPatriot-News investigative reporter Pete Shellem dies "He is a one-man Innocence Project,’’ Preate later told American Journalism Review for a 2007 story about Shellem. “The idea that a single, solitary newspaper reporter can accomplish all this is a remarkable story." additional info. @ http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4341 Pete Shellem of Harrisburg’s Patriot-News has freed four people from jail through dogged, old-fashioned reporting. Shellem lived in Gardners in Cumberland County. He is survived by his wife Joyce and two sons, Philip and Alek. investigative
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POPSSurprise spectator at Garrido hearing More: Hall was a blackjack dealer in South Lake Tahoe when Garrido kidnapped her in November 1976 and drove her to a storage unit in Reno that he had stocked with pornography, sex devices and a mattress. He raped her repeatedly over the course of several hours. He was convicted of federal kidnapping charges and of rape in Nevada. Under sentencing guidelines now in place, Garrido would have been behind bars for more than two decades - and wouldn't have been free in 1991 when Dugard was snatched off the street in South Lake Tahoe. But under 1970s-era sentencing laws, Garrido was eligible for federal parole after just 10 years, and he was set free in 1988. "I intend to be at as many (hearings) as I can," Hall said. "I'm not going to shut up and go away like the parole board told me to do 21 years ago. I have my own personal reasons for wanting to see him put away."
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POPSMichigan Raid Reveals a Mysterious Islamic Sect According to documents filed in U.S. District Court here earlier this week, Abdullah, 53, called his followers to an “offensive jihad,” rather than a “defensive jihad,” and urged them to carry, and use, firearms and swords. The documents note the group was evicted from its Detroit mosque earlier this year because it failed to pay property taxes. The precise origins of the Ummahs are unclear. Its national leader is Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, a militant former civil rights activist also known as H. Rap Brown. In 2002, he was convicted of fatally shooting two Georgia police officers. He is serving a life sentence at a federal prison. Read more: http://detroit.blogs.time.com/2009/10/29/michigan-raid-reveals-a-mysterious-islamic-sect/#ixzz0VNInOYMF