Category: Legal

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition: Crowd-funding Campaign

October 24, 2013
ChicagoChicagolandCivil LibertiesCook CountyCrime and PunishmentDrugsLegal
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We are thrilled to announce the launch of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition’s crowdfunding campaign, “Cops Lead Drug War Victims on  Journey for Peace.” 

Making use of the footage shot during 2012’s Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity, LEAP is producing a documentary filmabout the law enforcers who led a caravan of drug war victims across the United States in a campaign to acknowledge the devastation created by Mexico’s war on drugs. 

LEAP’s mission was to supplement the victims’ testimony with law enforcement voices bearing personal witness to the harms and wasteful futility of the War on Drugs here in the United States.

LEAP journalists Dean Becker and Sam Sabzehzar joined with filmmakers from Mexico and around the world to document the emotional testimonies of the victims and police throughout the 27-city tour, shooting more than 500 hours of unedited video.

This moving story of law enforcement coming together with drug war survivors reveals a truth about the value of ending the violence generated by drug prohibition.

We write to request your help in two ways.

1. Would you make a gift of at least $25 today to support this film’s production?  

2. Would you invite at least 10 friends to join this effort with you and make a gift by sharing the link (www.tiny.cc/leap_film)? 

We have the film. We have the story. You have the funds to help us edit, translate, score and finish a documentary that will draw attention to the grief caused by the war on drugs around the world. 

As a LEAP supporter, your contributions are truly what sustain our efforts. Please help us to complete this film and educate the public on the dire need for an end to drug prohibition. 

Thank you, 

Major Neill Franklin (Ret.)
Executive Director
Law Enforcement Against Prohibtion

Video: Jacob Hemphill of SOJA Supports Marriage Equality

October 18, 2013
EthicsGLBTLegal
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Commentary

Straight ally Jacob Hemphill of reggae band SOJA voices his support for marriage equality. SOJA joins a growing list of musicians standing with the Human Rights Campaign on the right side of history. Equality Rocks!

Learn more at hrc.org/equalityrocks #EQUALITYROCKS

Fox News Contributor Sandy Rios Says Matthew Shepard Murder a ‘Fairy Tale…Total Fraud’

October 12, 2013
ConservativesGLBTLegal
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Never forget Matthew Shepard

Between the reality, above, and the madness, below, lie two simple truths: Matthew Shepard was viciously beaten, eventually dying on October 12, 1998.

And Fox Contributor Sandy Rios is incredibly, incredibly mean-spirited.

Here is what she said on October 11, one day before the anniversary of Matthew’s painful death:

At today’s conservative Values Voters Summit, hosted by the certified anti-gay hate group Family Research Council, Sandy Rios made the horrific claim that the story of the 1998 anti-gay hate-crime murder of Matthew Shepard “wasn’t true,” and is “a total fraud,” and a “fairy tale” used as “propaganda” by LGBT activists.

Unbelievably cruel.

If you can tolerate her unabashed lies, below is video of her comments, spoken, horribly, on the eve of the fifteenth anniversary of Shepard’s death.

He was attacked overnight on October 6–7, and taken off life support and died on October 12, 1998.

Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson murdered Matthew Shepard. This is a matter of fact. This is a matter of public record.

Sandy Rios’ claims are cruel, rubbing salt in wounds that will never heal.

Our condolences to the Shepard family for being put through these awful, hate-filled claims, all over again.

Obama Continues to Kick Ass as POTUS: U.S. Says Navy SEAL Team Captures Shabab Leader in Somalia

October 5, 2013
AmericaConstitutionCrime and PunishmentDemocratic NewsEthicsLegalPhilosophicalPovertyTerrorismWhite House
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From the NYTimes:

A Navy SEAL team targeted a senior leader of the Shabab militant group in a raid on his seaside villa in the Somali town of Baraawe on Saturday, American officials said, in response to a deadly attack on a Nairobi shopping mall for which the group had claimed responsibility.

The SEAL team stealthily approached the beachfront house by sea, firing on the unidentified target in a predawn gunbattle that was the most significant raid by American troops on Somali soil since commandos killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a Qaeda mastermind, near the same town four years ago.

The Shabab leader was believed to have been killed in the firefight, but the SEALS were forced to withdraw before that could be confirmed, a senior American official said. Such operations by American forces are rare because they carry a high risk, and indicate that the target was considered a high priority. Baraawe, a small port town south of Mogadishu, the Somali capital, is known as a gathering place for the Shabab’s foreign fighters.

Read more here.

Tea Partiers Behave Like Communists: Shut Out Media, Attack Media, Claiming Public State Property Is Private

September 9, 2013
AmericaFirst AmendmentJournalismLegalRepublicansStrangeTea Party
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This was filmed on the public lawn of the Arizona State Capitol on September 7, 2013 where the "We Are America Tour" added Arizona racist, former State Senate President President Russell Pearce. Pearce is famous for SB1070 and his association and endorsement of neo-Nazi JT Ready, who killed an entire family before killing himself in 2012. The local racists have worked closely with FAIR for years. I was there to film the speakers. It’s a safe guess that if Minute Man Founder Chris Simcox wasn’t sitting in jail for multiple counts of child molestation that he would’ve been a speaker at this event also. Is it any wonder why they didn’t want the "liberal Media" filming them? For my own safety, I refused to leave without a police escort. It took over 7 minutes for any law enforcement to arrive.

The video is edited only for length.

For the most accurate info on these groups like BALA or We Are America or tea party, racists and others part of this event, read here: http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com

Video: Former President Bill Clinton Explains the Affordable Care Act

September 5, 2013
AmericaConstitutionHealth CareLegal
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On Wednesday, September 4, President Clinton delivered remarks from the Clinton Presidential Center on the critical role a high quality, affordable and accessible health care system plays in the United States and any country’s economic and social well being. Throughout his public career and now through the work of the Clinton Foundation, President Clinton has championed increasing access to health care and improving health systems for everyone.

I Don’t Trust the Government with All This

September 5, 2013
AmericaBad PoliticsCivil LibertiesConstitutionEthicsLegal
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Wow.

This has been going on for quite some time.

I don’t trust the government with all this.

Not. At. All.

From the New York Times:

The National Security Agency is winning its long-running secret war on encryption, using supercomputers, technical trickery, court orders and behind-the-scenes persuasion to undermine the major tools protecting the privacy of everyday communications in the Internet age, according to newly disclosed documents.

The agency has circumvented or cracked much of the encryption, or digital scrambling, that guards global commerce and banking systems, protects sensitive data like trade secrets and medical records, and automatically secures the e-mails, Web searches, Internet chats and phone calls of Americans and others around the world, the documents show.

Read more here.

Is the United States in Good Company on the Death Penalty?

August 28, 2013
AfghanistanAmericaBad PoliticsCivil RightsConstitutionCrime and PunishmentLegalPovertyRace
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Is the United States in good company?

These are the countries that permit the death penalty:

Death Penalty Permitted

  • Afghanistan
  • Antigua and Barbuda
  • Bahamas
  • Bahrain
  • Bangladesh
  • Barbados
  • Belarus
  • Belize
  • Botswana
  • Chad
  • China (People’s Republic)
  • Comoros
  • Congo (Democratic Republic)
  • Cuba
  • Dominica
  • Egypt
  • Equatorial Guinea
  • Ethiopia
  • Guatemala
  • Guinea
  • Guyana
  • India
  • Indonesia
  • Iran
  • Iraq
  • Jamaica
  • Japan
  • Jordan
  • Kuwait
  • Lebanon
  • Lesotho
  • Libya
  • Malaysia
  • Mongolia
  • Nigeria
  • North Korea
  • Oman
  • Pakistan
  • Palestinian Authority
  • Qatar
  • St. Kitts and Nevis
  • St. Lucia
  • St. Vincent and the Grenadines
  • Saudi Arabia
  • Singapore
  • Somalia
  • South Sudan
  • Sudan
  • Syria
  • Taiwan
  • Thailand
  • Trinidad and Tobago
  • Uganda
  • United Arab Emirates
  • United States
  • Vietnam
  • Yemen
  • Zimbabwe

Read more: The Death Penalty Worldwide | Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0777460.html#ixzz2dJ2nEMbb

Suit Says Obama Can’t Run In Alaska Because He’s of the “Mulatto” Race

February 22, 2012
Barack ObamaCivil RightsConservativesDemocratic NewsElectionsLegalRepublicans
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A man from Juneau, Alaska, has filed suit with the state’s Division of Elections to bar President Obama from appearing on that state’s ballot on the basis that the President is a “Mulatto“, and “Before the [purported] ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, the race of ‘Negro‘ or ‘Mulatto‘ had no standing to be citizens of the United States under the United States Constitution,” according to the lawsuit.

This is not a joke.

According to a lawsuit filed February 21, 2012 by a Mr. Gordon Warren Epperly, who lists his address as a P.O. Box:

Barack Hussein Obama II, Aka Barack Hussein Obama, Aka Barack H. Obama has the race status of being a “Mulatto.” Barack Obama’s father (Barack Hussein Obama I) was a full blood Negro being born Nyang’oma Kogelo, Nyanza Province, Kenya and raised in the Colony of Kenya. Barack Obama’s mother (Stanley Ann Dunham) was a white Caucasian woman being born in Wichita, Kansas on November 29, 1942 and raised in the state of Washington and in the State of Hawaii.

Therefore:

As stated above, for an Individual to be a Candidate for the Office of President of the United States, the Candidate must meet the qualifications set forth in the United States Constitution and one of those qualifications is that the Candidate shall be a “natural born Citizen” of the United States. As Barack Hussein Obama II is of the “Mulatto” race, his status of citizenship is founded upon the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Before the [purported] ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, the race of “Negro” or “Mulatto” had no standing to be citizens of the United States under the United States Constitution.

View the entire complaint here. (PDF)

Ron Paul’s Strategy To Stuff the GOP Delegate Box (Video)

February 11, 2012
ConservativesElectionsLegalRepublicans
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Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Doug Wead, Ron Paul campaign senior advisor, talks with Rachel Maddow about how the Paul campaign is taking advantage of the peculiar rules of assigning delegates within the Republican Party.

Is it right to ignore the will of the people?

Nod to Robert Marchini for this one.