HOTT Newslinks December 23, 2008

This was the idea of Peter Gabriel.
http://www.theelders.org/
To hell with all of these communists!

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European Countries May Take Detainees
“…to resettle detainees from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as a significant overture to the incoming Obama administration…”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/22/AR2008122201749.html

A significant overture to the incoming Obama administration? I thought he was going to stop all of that.

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Obama issues new call for national service
http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-34341720080702

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A New Era of Service
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/07/a_new_era_of_service.html

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Training a Socialist Army of World Servers
http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/08/1-service.htm

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Catalist
Catalist is transforming the way progressive organizations communicate and campaign by creating a comprehensive, well-maintained national database of all voting-age individuals in the United States, along with the tools and expertise needed to make this database broadly accessible, at an affordable price.
To help progressive organizations realize measurable increases in civic participation and electoral success by building and operating a robust national voter database of every voting-age American; by offering tools and expertise that allow clients to use that data to improve fundraising, organizing and communications; and by updating and refining that data on a continuous basis.
http://catalist.us/
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Families Who Sued Libya See Their Victory Voided
U.S. Pact Nullifies $6 Billion Award in '89 Bombing Over Africa
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/22/AR2008122202050.html
“…and the U.S. government started setting up a process for reviewing survivor claims and distributing the money.”
This is so the U.S. government can begin skimming off the top!

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Rules for Radicals By Saul Alinsky – 1971
http://www.crossroad.to/Quotes/communism/alinsky.htm

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BOOKS by Dr. John Coleman
http://coleman300.com/books.htm

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BORDC
http://bordc.org/threats/legislation/index.php#FISA

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Homeland Security Authorizes Laptop Searches At U.S. Borders
http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/government/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=209903432

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H.R. 1955 – “Homegrown Terrorism Act”
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:HR01955:@@@L&summ2=m&

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Czarist America
http://www.lewrockwell.com/rozeff/rozeff217.html

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These programs aren’t about helping parents, they’re about tracking individuals:

All Track USA - Automobile blackbox - A system that allows parents to detect where their children drive, how long they park, how fast they drive, and whether they ever brake or accelerate suddenly.
http://www.alltrackusa.com/
Turn It In - A company that has parents check their children's work for plargarism.
http://www.turnitin.com/static/company.html
Meal Pay Plus - A system that allows parents to fund their children's school lunches and view their children's spending habits at school.
https://www10.mealpayplus.com/HowItWorks.aspx

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Europe Media Monitor - a web site to monitor and summarize the news found by 1,540 news sites worldwide.
http://emm.jrc.it/NewsBrief/clusteredition/en/latest.html
http://press.jrc.it/overview.html

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The Ammunition Accountability Act
http://www.ammunitionaccountability.org./Legislation.htm

Just remember to accurately check the status of states. This went around about two months ago in Arizona and we had to dispel this bill to a bunch of people who were frantic. The proposal by the out-of-state lobbyist was killed in March, but is simply still posted on the state website due to rules concerning how long any legislation is made available to read, no matter the outcome.

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War College warns military must prepare for unrest; IMF warns of economic riots
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11473

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The Federal Reserve Bank is the Reason for America's Downfall
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article7920.html

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Hillary Clinton plans a more powerful State Dept: NY Times
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081223/pl_afp/ustransitionpoliticsclintonobama_081223100103

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FBI taps cell phone mic as eavesdropping tool
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1035_22-150467.html

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America Facing a Judicial Meltdown
Supreme Chief Justice John Broderick of New Hampshire says, "I've never felt as insecure about the state courts in terms of operations and resources as I do now." "The court process is breaking down," says David Slawsky. "This is the worst I've ever seen it," says John Safford.
The United States, the prison capitol of the world, may have to cut back on its prison growth industry.
-Ron Branson
~ ~ ~
Los Angeles Times
Even jury hiring is frozen
To cut costs, New Hampshire courts won't hold criminal or civil jury trials for a month. At least 19 other states have slashed court budgets and other state services.

By Bob Drogin 
December 22, 2008
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-courts22-2008dec22,0,387609.story
Reporting from Brentwood, N.H. -- Come February, the red-brick Rockingham County Courthouse, one of New Hampshire's busiest, will arraign criminal suspects, process legal motions and otherwise deal with murders, mayhem and contract disputes. What it won't do is hold jury trials.

The economic storm has come to this: Justice is being delayed or disrupted in state courtrooms across the country.
Full coverage: Financial crisis
Financially strapped New Hampshire has become a poster child for the problem. Among other cost-cutting measures, state courts will halt for a month all civil and criminal jury trials early next year to save $73,000 in jurors' per diems. Officials warn they may add another four-week suspension.

"It brings our system almost to a screeching halt," said county prosecutor James M. Reams. His aides are scrambling to reschedule 77 criminal trials that were on the February docket.

"All the effort to subpoena witnesses and prepare for those trials is right out the window," Reams said, frustration in his voice. "Internally, it's a monumental waste of time. We'll have to redo everything."
At least 19 other states, including California, have slashed court budgets and other government services as their economies have tanked, said Daniel Hall, vice president of the National Center for State Courts, a nonprofit in Williamsburg, Va.

"Courts are there to provide a fair and impartial resolution of disputes," Hall said. "When you start affecting that, you affect who we are."

California cut its judicial branch budget by more than $200 million, or about 10%, in the current fiscal year, and further reductions are almost certain as the state grapples with a projected $40-billion deficit. A Republican proposal unveiled last week, for example, would trim a further $205 million from the judiciary.

H.D. Palmer, spokesman for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's finance department, said it was "not yet clear" whether the judiciary would be granted an exemption to the governor's order to reduce state payrolls by 10% through layoffs and unpaid furloughs.

Criminal defendants have a constitutional right to a speedy trial. Judges usually give such trials priority over civil cases involving broken sidewalks, medical malpractice and the like.

As a result, civil litigation and family law cases are bearing the brunt of the disruptions. And cascading bankruptcies, foreclosures and business disputes have only increased the backlog. 

After two rounds of budget cuts in Florida, courts have laid off 280 clerks, lawyers and other staff members, and cut funding for a judges' unit that helps resolve civil disputes. State legislators meeting next month are expected to demand more spending cuts.

An additional 10% reduction would mean "all civil cases in the state of Florida would virtually be suspended," Belvin Perry Jr., chief judge of Florida's 9th Judicial Circuit and chairman of a trial court budget commission, warned a legislative committee in Tallahassee this month.

In Vermont, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul L. Reiber recently proposed closing as many as seven county courts, as well as laying off employees, to help ease a budget deficit. The state already shuts district and family courts half a day each week to save money.

"None of our choices are good," Reiber conceded in a memo to court employees.

With rising joblessness and falling revenues, New Hampshire projects a budget deficit this year of $250 million. The crisis has forced Gov. John Lynch to seek spending cuts across state government, including the judicial system.

John T. Broderick, chief justice of the state Supreme Court, has carved $2.7 million from the judicial budget. In addition to the one-month halt in jury trials and trimming back courtroom security, seven of the state's 59 judgeships will be left vacant through June, when the fiscal year ends. Three of the empty slots are in trial courts. 

Worse, Broderick said, he may need to suspend jury trials for another month, and leave open a Supreme Court slot after one of the five justices retires in February. It is the state's only appellate court.

"In my 36 years here as a lawyer and judge, I've never felt as insecure about the state courts in terms of operations and resources as I do now," Broderick said.

Robert J. Lynn, chief justice of the superior courts, which conduct all New Hampshire jury trials, said he fears the delays inevitably will cause damage. "There is some element of 'justice delayed, justice denied,' no doubt about it," he said.
Christopher Keating, executive director of the New Hampshire Public Defender program, said his chief concern now is "people in custody who will endure delays in getting their day in court." 

The state Supreme Court threw out two criminal cases this year because trials did not begin within six months of arraignment, the legal limit. Prosecutors fear more cases may be dismissed.
Delays in jury trials in 2001 and 2002, during a previous budget crisis, caused less disruption because they involved fewer cases, said John Safford, Superior Court clerk in the Hillsborough County district that includes Manchester, the largest city. 

This time, he needs to reschedule up to 100 trials.

"I've been here 30 years," he said. "This is the worst I've ever seen it."
The delays may encourage some defendants to seek plea deals, or litigants to settle out of court. 

Some counties are advocating out-of-court mediation and conflict resolution. 

But other cases may face new hurdles as time passes. 

"Witnesses die, memories fade; things happen when trials are delayed," said John Hutson, dean of Franklin Pierce Law Center, the state's only law school. "Then you'll get a bow wave of cases, so they pile up the next month and it's hard to catch up."

The slowdown has unnerved many residents in the state, where granite-hewn courthouses often anchor Colonial-era town squares. 

"You're talking about erosion of our fundamental civic fabric," said Ellen J. Shemitz, executive director of the New Hampshire Assn. for Justice, which represents civil trial attorneys. 

James J. Tenn Jr., incoming president of the state's bar association, said that as the crisis has grown, New Hampshire courts have been slow to process orders, respond to lawyers' requests and "do the daily work." 

"We've just seen delay after delay after delay," said David Slawsky, a civil lawyer in Manchester. "The court process is breaking down."

Dennis Ducharme, a Manchester attorney, received cancellation notices last week for four personal injury cases scheduled for trial next year. He worries that a delay of six months, perhaps longer, will make witnesses less willing to testify.

"The longer you drag it out, the more reluctant people become to cooperate," he said.

In Newport, in the rural west, lawyer Lisa Wellman-Ally has seen a property rights trial postponed four times. Each time, she has prepared 100 exhibits, re-subpoenaed witnesses, refreshed her arguments and billed her client for the time.

"Then we would get bounced again," she said.

No new trial date has been scheduled.



bob.drogin@latimes.com