PENNSYLVANIA JUDGES TO PLEAD GUILTY

This is an update from a previous post regarding the Pennsylvania Judges that were selling children to a jail company. The judges are pleading guilty according to the New York Times, read the story here. Some excerpts:

"At worst, Hillary Transue thought she might get a stern lecture when
she appeared before a judge for building a spoof MySpace page
mocking the assistant principal at her high school in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. She was a stellar student who had never been in trouble, and the page stated clearly at the bottom that it was just a joke.
Instead, the judge sentenced her to three months at a juvenile detentioncenter on a charge of harassment. She was handcuffed and taken away as her stunned parents stood by.
“I felt like I had been thrown into some surreal sort of
nightmare,” said Hillary, 17, who was sentenced in 2007. “All I wanted toknow was how this could be fair and why the judge would do such a thing.”
The answers became a bit clearer on Thursday as the judge,
Mark A. Ciavarella
Jr., and a colleague, Michael T. Conahan, appeared in federal court in Scranton, Pa., to plead guilty to wire fraud and income tax fraud for taking more than $2.6 million in kickbacks to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers run by PA Child Care and a sister company,Western PA Child Care.
If the court agrees to the plea agreement, both judges
will serve 87 months in federal prison and resign from the bench and bar. They are expected to be sentenced in the next several months. Lawyers for both men declined to comment."

Of course the worthless bastards declined to comment. 87 months sounds like a lot, it is only 7.25 years.

While I appreciate these judges pleading guilty to their crimes, there can be no redemption for them. People like these judges that are held with such a high public trust should be made into examples. There should be no plea agreement, and there should be no chance for parole when they are sent to prison. Let them be sent to prison and left for dead.
Violating the public trust has become the norm for politicians, police, judges, prosecutors. It is high time we as a people stand up and hold these people accountable for their actions. If you are charged with the responsibility of creating laws or enforcing laws, you had better make sure you acquiesce to those same laws. None of this bullshit about fucking things up and pretending you are above the law. Put these judges away for ever.

It is time to end the Reagan era of privatization. Operating prisons for profit only invites corruption. With privatization there is no accountability. We have a difficult time enough at this point holding our elected officials accountable as well as our news outlets, we do not have the time to regulate these privatization morons. Let's push the Republicans as well as the failed policies of Ronald Reagan into the sea.

Onward.

MCCAIN SUSPENDS HIS CAMPAIGN

I'm watching an Obama news conference...so far Obama is on the game. Clearly McCain is in a panic and is pulling anything out of his butt to slow down his decline and try to deflect criticsm regarding Sarah Palin.

I'll watch and post later.

Mike

LET'S PLAY 20 QUESTIONS!!!!

I came across this on AfterDowningStreet.org. It is an excellent tool to relate how fucked up the United States and its capitalistic greed is. Capitalism is a horrible route that the US has, by and large, embraced. Regarding all of these government bailout in the past few days, that ole pile of crap Milton Freidman must be spinning in his grave. Read and be outraged. Print it off and distribute it on the streets. This is the meaning of a Searcher: seek out truth and truth in history.


Twenty Questions: Social Justice Quiz 2008
by Bill Quigley / September 11th, 2008

1. How many deaths are there world-wide each year due to acts of terrorism?

2. How many deaths are there world-wide each day due to poverty and malnutrition?

3. 1n 1965, CEOs in major companies made 24 times more than the average worker. In 1980, CEOs made 40 times more than the average worker. In 2007, CEOs earned how many times more than the average worker?

4. In how many of the over 3000 cities and counties in the US can a full-time worker who earns minimum wage afford to pay rent and utilities on a one-bedroom apartment?
5. In 1968, the minimum wage was $1.65 per hour. How much would the minimum wage be
today if it had kept pace with inflation since 1968?

6. True or false? People in the United States spend nearly twice as much on pet food as the US government spends on aid to help foreign countries.

7. How many people in the world live on $2 a day or less?

8. How many people in the world do not have electricity?

9. People in the US consume 42 kilograms of meat per person per year. How much meat and grain do people in India and China eat?

10. How many cars does China have for every 1000 drivers? India? The U.S.?

11. How much grain is needed to fill a SUV tank with ethanol?

12. According to the Wall Street Journal, the richest 1% of Americans earns what percent of the nation’s adjusted gross income? 5%? 10%? 15%? 20%?

13. How many people does our government say are homeless in the US on any given day?

14. What percentage of people in homeless shelters are children?

15. How many veterans are homeless on any given night?

16. The military budget of the United States in 2008 is the largest in the world at $623 billion per year. How much larger is the US military budget than that of China, the second largest in the world?

17. The US military budget is larger than how many of the countries of the rest of the world combined?

18. Over the 28 year history of the Berlin Wall, 287 people perished trying to cross it. How many people have died in the last 4 years trying to cross the border between Arizona and Mexico?

19. India is ranked second in the world in gun ownership with 4 guns per 100 people. China is third with 3 firearms per 100 people. Which country is first and how many guns do they own?

20. What country leads the world in the incarceration of its citizens?

Answers to Social Justice Quiz 2008

1. 22,000. The U.S. State Department reported there were more than 22,000 deaths from terrorism last year. Over half of those killed or injured were Muslims. Source: Voice of America, May 2, 2008. “Terrorism Deaths Rose in 2007.”

2. About 25,000 people die every day of hunger or hunger-related causes, according to the United Nations. Poverty.com – Hunger and World Poverty. Every day, almost 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes – one child every five seconds. Bread for the World. Hunger Facts: International.

3. Today’s average CEO from a Fortune 500 company makes 364 times an average worker’s pay and over 70 times the pay of a four-star Army general. Executive Excess 2007, page 7, jointly published by Institute for Policy Studies and United for Fair Economy, August 29, 2007. 1965 numbers from State of Working America 2004-2005, Economic Policy Institute.

4. In no city or county in the entire USA can a full-time worker who earns minimum wage afford even a one bedroom rental. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) urges renters not to pay more than 30% of their income in rent. HUD also reports the fair market rent for each of the counties and cities in the US. Nationally, in order to rent a 2 bedroom apartment, one full-time worker in 2008 must earn $17.32 per hour. In fact, 81% of renters live in cities where the Fair Market Rent for a two bedroom rental is not even affordable with two minimum wage jobs. Source: Out of Reach 2007-2008, April 7, 2008, National Low-Income Housing Coalition.

5. Calculated in real (inflation adjusted) dollars, the 1968 minimum wage would have been worth $9.83 in 2007 dollars. Andrew Tobias, January 16, 2008. The federal minimum wage is $6.55 per hour effective July 24, 2008 and $7.25 per hour effective July 24, 2009.

6. True. The USA spends $43.4 billion on pet food annually. Source: American Pet Products Manufacturers Association, Inc. The USA spent $23.5 billion in official foreign aid in 2006. The government of the USA gave the most of any country in the world in actual dollars. As a percentage of gross national income, the USA came in second to last among OECD donor countries and ranked number 20 at 0.18 percent behind Sweden at 1.02 percent and other countries such as Norway, Netherlands, Ireland, United Kingdom, Austria, France, Germany, Spain, Canada, New Zealand, Japan and others. This does not count private donations which, if included, may move the USA up as high as 6th. The Index of Global Philanthropy 2008, page 15, 19.

7. The World Bank reported in August 2008 that 2.6 billion people consume less than $2 a day.

8. World-wide, 1.6 billion people do not have electricity. 2.5 billion people use wood, charcoal or animal dung for cooking. United Nations Human Development Report 2007/2008, pages 44-45.

9. People in the US lead the world in meat consumption at 42 kg per person per year compared to 1.6 kg in India and 5.9 kg in China. People in the US consume five times the grain (wheat, rice, rye, barley, etc.) as people in India, three times as much as people in China, and twice as much as people in Europe. “THE BLAME GAME: Who is behind the world food price crisis,” Oakland Institute, July 2008.

10. China has 9 cars for every 1000 drivers. India has 11 cars for every 1000 drivers. The US has 1114 cars for every 1000 drivers. Iain Carson and Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran, Zoom: The Global Race to Fuel the Car of the Future (2007).

11. The grain needed to fill up a SUV tank with ethanol could feed a hungry person for a year. Lester Brown, CNN.Money.com, August 16, 2006


12. “According to the figures, the richest 1% reported 22% of the nation’s total adjusted gross income in 2006. That is up from 21.2% a year earlier, and is the highest in the 19 years that the IRS has kept strictly comparable figures. The 1988 level was 15.2%. Earlier IRS data show the last year the share of income belonging to the top 1% was at such a high level as it was in 2006 was in 1929, but changes in measuring income make a precise comparison difficult.” Jesse Drucker, “Richest Americans See Their Income Share Grow,” Wall Street Journal, July 23, 2008, page A3.

13. 754,000 are homeless. About 338,000 homeless people are not in shelters (live on the streets, in cars, or in abandoned buildings) and 415,000 are in shelters on any given night. 2007 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Annual Homeless Report to Congress, page iii and 23. The population of San Francisco is about 739,000.

14. HUD reports nearly 1 in 4 people in homeless shelters are children 17 or younger. Page iv – 2007 HUD Annual Homeless Report to Congress.

15. Over 100,000 veterans are homeless on any given night. About 18 percent of the adult homeless population is veterans. Page 32, 2007 HUD Homeless Report. This is about the same population as Green Bay Wisconsin.

16. Ten times. China’s military budget is $65 billion. The US military budget is nearly 10 times larger than the second leading military spender. GlobalSecurity.org

17. The US military budget of $623 billion is larger than the budgets of all the countries in the rest of the world put together. The total global military budget of the rest of the world is $500 billion. Russia’s military budget is $50 billion, South Korea’s is $21 billion, and Iran’s is $4.3 billion. GlobalSecurity.org

18. 1268. At least 1268 people have died along the border of Arizona and Mexico since 2004. The Arizona Daily Star keeps track of the reported deaths along the state border and reports 214 died in 2004, 241 in 2005, 216 in 2006, 237 in 2007, and 116 as of July 31, 2008. These numbers do not include the deaths along the California or Texas border. The Border Patrol reported that 400 people died in fiscal 2206-2007, 453 died in 2004-2005, and 494 died in 2004-2005. Source Associated Press, November 8, 2007.

19. The US is first in gun ownership world-wide with 90 guns for every 100 citizens. Laura MacInnis, “US most armed country with 90 guns per 100 people.” Reuters, August 28, 2007.

20. The US jails 751 inmates per 100,000 people, the highest rate in the world. Russia is second with 627 per 100,000. England’s rate is 151, Germany is 88, and Japan is 63. The US has 2.3 million people behind bars, more than any country in the world. Adam Liptak, “Inmate Count in US Dwarfs Other Nations,” NYT, April 23, 2008.


Thanks to Bill Quigley, a human rights lawyer and a Professor at Loyola University New Orleans...peace-

Mike

P.S. Reading this makesme just my shake my head in wonder...when will it end?

10 YEARS FOR A BLOW JOB WTF????

Prosecutors in the US have gotten out of control. This young man, Genarlow Wilson was 17 when he got a b.j. from a 15 y/o girl. She said it was consensual. Prosecutors didn't care, they went after this young man like bears. This is happening in Georgia. The outdated law was changed, Wilson wan an appeal when a higher court overturned his conviction, and the prosecutors appealed it. The case went to the state sup. crt, and he is being released. The Court ordered them to release him.

The problem is with the prosecutors. Overzealous, agenda driven prosecutors. I want to go after people like that. People like Mike Nifong the piece of shit loser from North Carolina. We have a pile of trash like that here in Multnomah County, Oregon. His name is Michael Schrunk, and according to his website has been the D.A. since 1981.

WHAT THE FUCK?!?

That is entirely too much time to spend in that position. As one Georgia lawmaker put it so well, "Sometimes we need to protect kids from District Attorneys." This is in reference to a proposed law putting some limitations on D.A's

I really want to make a difference and shut DA's sown that prove themselves to be overzealous. These people ruin others lives and fuck with ppl over the very same things they do. It is time for systemic change in this country it has gotten so damn corrupt.

Fortunately DA's are elected. unfortunately when you have ppl in office for 26 years they have an opportunity to build massive bank accounts, set up tons of perks, and generally become corrupt, self-serving and they begin to believe they are entitled to their position.I say fuck em all, throw all da bums out...