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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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POPSNidal Hasan Terrorist Threat 'Not That Big a Deal'....Matthew Yglesias
I think a pretty good case can be made that this kind of situation actually is the main face of the terrorist threat. Not a big well-thought-out plot centrally directed from a “safe haven” in South Asia and undertaken by brilliant covert operatives, but the desperate violent act of a clearly disturbed individual. It’s going to be very hard to prevent this sort of thing. As long as the United States remains a country in which firearms are widely available"for the foreseeable future, in other words"we’re going to be unusually vulnerable to mentally ill spree killers of various kinds, including spree killers who nod in the direction of Islamist thinking. But the larger point is that while these incidents are serious crimes and major tragedies for the victims, they hardly rise to the level of a major macro-level social crisis. They’re certainly not a first-order national security threat. And even put in the lower-stakes context of violent crime in America
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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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POPSHow the Fort Hood Shooter Will be Judged to heal, to do no harm. If religion was Hasan’s motive, his was an extraordinarily promiscuous view of the meaning of one’s oath to God. No officer can be, or should be, forgiven for betraying and harming soldiers. The Army will want to exercise jurisdiction over Hasan’s crimes under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. It is the Army way, and it is consistent with the authority of Article 2 of the UCMJ to punish offenses by a man wearing its uniform, against its soldiers, within the boundaries of its largest post. The civilian system could try him, but it is Hasan’s good fortune " and I will soon explain why " that it probably won’t. For those of us who play no role in Hasan’s trial, no punishment but death seems appropriate, yet the obvious justice of such an outcome is far from assured. For one thing, President Obama will have to attend and speak at these soldiers’ funerals. Silence will not be an option. How can he console without appearing to prejudge ......
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POPSFlags Were Key Link to Cop Slaying, Bombings slaying last Saturday night A search of Monfort's apartment this morning turned up evidence that police say connects the man to the Oct. 22 bombing and arson of the maintenance yard, where three police cars and an RV used as a mobile precinct were damaged, according to Assistant Seattle Police Chief Jim Pugel. A note threatening to kill police officers was left at the bombing site, sources had said earlier. Pugel said an item found at the maintenance yard was similar to one found near the shooting scene. Law-enforcement sources said the item was an American flag. News reports at the time said fliers also were left at the maintenance yard referring to an anti-police-brutality rally and citing the case of a King County sheriff's deputy accused of assaulting a teenage girl in a SeaTac holding cell. An American flag left at the scene of Officer Timothy Brenton's slaying on Halloween and at a city maintenance yard where four police vehicles were torched on Oct. 22 gave
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POPSThe Slaughter of Kathryn, Connor and Cameron Maxwell You can prevent a tragedy if you are willing to acknowledge that family homicide and domestic violence are real crimes. Learn the signs of trouble, abuse, stalking, domestic violence, get involved by holding community informational gatherings, post the information in the schools, business and places of worship. If you begin a dialogue you just might be surprised at how many lives will be saved in the process.
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POPSU.N. on Israeli War Crimes
The Goldstone Report now has been approved overwhelmingly by the UN General Assembly. The report calls for Israel to investigate it's war crime accusations...and for the Palestinians to investiage theirs -- and says the slow starvation of over a million and half people in the Gaza Strip should stop. Now, it seems it goes to the Security Council. Which means, if things go as usual, the USA will veto it and it will end there. The USA has does similar actions at the UN for decades, protecting Israel, no matter what. The USA House of Congress has even gone on record, this week, opposing this war crimes report. Israel yesterday seized a ship with weapons and said they come from Iran and this was a war crime...also pointing out that Russia, the USA, China, etc. are all guility of war crimes. The conclusion appears to be that war is a war crime. Everybody's guilty. And let's just forget it. ...um, except when talking about the Nazi's of WWII or the Bosnian Serbs curre
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POPSvideo: Jasiri X - "Beware Young Girl" More lyrics: And to the shock of her family and the witnesses she was charged with assaulting police and resiting them the difference when you black just the claim that ya yellin can turn a preacher's daughter to a dangerous felon so I tell em Verse 2 So much fun she had at the homecoming dance 930 she got to leave to get a ride from her dad saw a friend runnin past he asked her come and grab a little something that would last the party's jumpin in the back she laughed this was her chance to hang with the cool kids the older guys ones she didn't even go to school with but the rule is to never drink with strangers I wish that I was there so I could tell her she's in danger that those who she thought were good fellas would sedate her beat her and gang rape her and they would forever change her with hatred and anger for 2 and a half hours they brutalized her worse than pouring acid on a flower Continued below.
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POPSIdentity Theft Resource Center Victims of identity theft usually do not know how their identity was stolen. All that they will really know is the fact that they have been a victim of it. When this happens, the damage has already been done. The damage in these cases is can be prevented by identity theft prevention. Effective identity theft prevention measures are the only way to prevent it from happening. Protecting your identity is the only way to protect yourself from these kinds of crimes.
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POPSUS House: UN report on Gaza 'war crimes' is biased The Goldstone report lambasted both sides in the war, which killed up to 1,387 Palestinians and 13 Israelis, but was harsher toward Israel. It gave Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants six months to mount credible investigations or face possible prosecution in the Hague. Both Israel and Hamas have denied committing any war crimes. Israel has criticized the report as unbalanced and says the 47-nation Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council, which commissioned the report, is biased against the Jewish state. (Additional reporting by Louis Charbonneau in New York; editing by Todd Eastham)
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POPSOpium, Rape and the American Way
Truth from the women in Afghanistan: (read the whole article for the real story) "In eight years less than 2,000 Talib have been killed and more than 8,000 innocent civilians has been killed," she went on. "We believe that this is not war on terror. This is war on innocent civilians. Look at the massacres carried out by NATO forces in Afghanistan. Look what they did in May in the Farah province, where more than 150 civilians were killed, most of them women and children. They used white phosphorus and cluster bombs. There were 200 civilians on 9th of September killed in the Kunduz province, again most of them women and children. You can see the Web site of professor Marc Herold, this democratic man, to know better the war crimes in Afghanistan imposed on our people. The United States and NATO eight years ago occupied my country under the banner of woman's rights and democracy. But they have only pushed us from the frying pan into the fire. They put into power men who are photocopies o
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POPSGrading Obama "After U.S. President Barack Obama's first 100 days in office, Foreign Policy asked a group of experts to grade him on everything from North Korea to nukes. On the anniversary of his historic election, we've reprised the experiment -- and found out that the White House isn't doing so well." - FP
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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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POPSEmergency! Congress Debates Burying the Goldstone Report! "TELL CONGRESS TO RESPECT US AND INTERNATIONAL LAW!" "What message are we sending to the rest of the world when we grant Israel complete impunity? This legislation has very important implications beyond the war crimes committed in Gaza. Israel has responded to the report by demanding the Western powers rewrite international and US law, warning that acceptance of the Goldstone report will mean that the US’ military campaigns in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan will be subject to similar scrutiny. (Judge Goldstone has drawn a distinction – stating that his report finds that Israel deliberately targeted civilians). This legislation also ignores serious allegations that Israel has violated the US Arms Export Control Act."
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POPSPsychic 'mind-reading' computer Although the results were crude, the technique was able to reproduce the rough shape of a man in a white shirt and the image of a city skyline. Prof Jack Gallant, who carried out the experiment at the University of California, Berkeley, said: 'At the moment when you see something and want to describe it to someone you have to use words or draw it and it doesn't work very well. 'You could use this technology to transmit the image to someone. It might be useful for artists or to allow you to recover an eyewitnesses memory of a crime.' The experiment is the latest in a series of studies designed to show how brain scans can reveal our innermost thoughts.
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POPSSorry Ass News For A Sunday Morning Did you ever pick up a newspaper and wished you hadn't? Well that's what happened to me this morning. It wasn't an actual real time Newspaper but in today's world it was a Newsdig but I still wished that I hadn't clicked! First it was a, Health Care {NO} Reform won by the Health Care and insurance Industry. Then the gloom and doom news from Afghanistan. It's enough to make you put on a pair of rose colored glasses or stick your head in the sand. But alas, I can't do that, because then I would become part of the (Sarah Palin - Michele Bachmann et al ) crazy lunatic fringe mob on the right! :eek:
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