endlesschatter

Sex offender law upheld in court | News-Leader.com | Springfield News-Leader

Sex offender law upheld in court

The Associated Press • April 15, 2009

Jefferson City — The state Supreme Court has upheld a 2005 law prohibiting child sex offenders from having unsupervised visits with their children.
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The unanimous ruling Tuesday reverses the decision of a Cole County judge who had struck down the law as it applied to a divorced sex offender seeking time alone with his two children.

Hard to believe that a finding that makes sense was passed!

April 15th, 2009 | Tags: Government and Politics, people | Category: Government and Politics, Open | Leave a comment

Although it isn’t pristine, at least the money isn’t going to the makers of kids wooden arrows this time.

Economic stimulus or just more pork?

Useful or wasteful?

Supporters say key provisions of the $825 billion economic stimulus bill will help create jobs and revive the U.S. economy, but critics see some of the spending as wasteful. Here’s a sampling of how some of the money would be used:

$44 million for repairs at the Agriculture Department headquarters in Washington.

$200 million to rehabilitate the National Mall.

$360 million for new child care centers at military bases.

$1.8 billion to repair National Park Service facilities.

$276 million to update technology at the State Department.

$500 million for the Transportation Security Administration to install bomb detectors at airports.

$600 million for General Services Administration to replace older vehicles with alternative fuel vehicles.

$2.5 billion to upgrade low-income housing.

$400 million for NASA scientists to conduct climate change research.

$426 million to construct facilities at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

$800 million to clean up Superfund sites.

$150 million for the Coast Guard to repair or remove bridges deemed a hazard to navigation.

$6.7 billion to renovate and improve energy efficiency at federal buildings.

$400 million to replace the Social Security Administration’s 30-year-old National Computer Center.

January 28th, 2009 | Tags: Government and Politics, money, politics | Category: Government and Politics, Open | Leave a comment

This is a pretty good read, but I do have a couple of questions.
First this is being reported from Kansas City (via St Louis). I don’t know if it was in Kansas Cities news papers or not but it wasn’t in Springfields papers and while that is interesting in it’s own right… wasn’t it interesting that a block of road was suddenly renamed after Rosa Parks? I mean to be realistic I thought it was kinda funny at first when I read that, but upon thinking about it for a second, I realized that someone went out of their way to push this regulation through to purposely discredit a legal organization and the city and state when along with it.
I think maybe a “Jim Crow Highway” needs to be instituted… maybe the group cleaning up the trash near Springfield will push for that name change.

01/22/2009 – Missouri neo-Nazi group adopts a highway – STLtoday.com

Missouri neo-Nazi group adopts a highway
By Margaret Stafford
ASSOCIATED PRESS
01/22/2009

KANSAS CITY, Mo. –A neo-Nazi group has adopted a half-mile section of highway in Springfield as part of the state’s litter prevention program.

The Springfield unit of the National Socialist Movement has committed to cleaning up trash along the section of Highway 160 near the city limits in west Springfield.

Two signs noting the group’s membership in the Adopt-A-Highway program went up last October but drew attention only recently when the group picked up litter as part of a gathering in Springfield.

The state says it had no way to reject the group’s application. A 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling arising from a similar effort by the Ku Klux Klan says membership in the Adopt-A-Highway program can’t be denied because of a group’s political beliefs.

“It’s a First Amendment thing, and we can’t discriminate as long as they pick up the trash,” said Bob Edwards, a spokesman for the transportation department’s office in Springfield.

The NSM Springfield unit decided to take part in the highway project because it wants to clean up the community, said Ariana Glass, a 16-year-old member of the youth division of the group.

“We wanted to prove that we’re not out here just to have fun, we want to make the community look good,” Glass said.

The group heard both honks of support and jeers when about 30 members and supporters picked up trash last Saturday. Greene County sheriff’s deputies ticketed one man who group members say became threatening but there were no other incidents, she said.

“As far as I could see we got as much support and honks, people waving,” Glass said.

Edwards said his department had received only one phone call asking why the group was allowed to adopt the highway. Louise Whall, spokeswoman for the city of Springfield, was not aware of the group’s action until contacted by the AP, but said the city had no jurisdiction because it’s a state program.

Members of the highway cleanup program are required to clean up trash at least four times a year. Edwards said about 600 groups pick up trash in the 12 counties surrounding Springfield.

In the early 2000s, Missouri went to the U.S. Supreme Court to fight efforts by the Ku Klux Klan to clean sections of state highways.

At the time, the state could reject applications for the Adopt-A-Highway program from groups that denied membership based on race or had a history of violence.

The Klan challenged those regulations and in 2000 the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the prohibitions.

The department adopted new highway cleanup rules, but a federal judge again ruled for the Klan in October 2003, saying the revised rules weren’t substantially different than those previously struck down.

The state appealed, but was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court in January 2005.

In general, the state can deny an organization’s application only if it has members who have been convicted of violent criminal activity within the past 10 years.

After the state dropped the Klan from cleaning up a section of Interstate 55 near St. Louis in 2001 for failing to pick up trash, the stretch of highway was renamed the “Rosa Parks Highway” in honor of the black woman arrested in 1955 when she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a city bus in Montgomery, Ala.

It also makes me wonder if the Klan did or didn’t pick up on the area they were suppose to. I mean if I didn’t like a group and that group was listed as the people whom were to pick up trash in a specif area… would I be too far off to give them some work?

———————
It turns out the Springfield paper (at least online) has a little article on the neo-Nazi’s of course it came a day later as if to say “we better print something if others know about it…”

January 24th, 2009 | Tags: Government and Politics, Open, stupid people | Category: Open | Leave a comment

If
you do not believe this is “real” I have provided the link for you to
SNOPES. In fact please go there and read some more about this guy.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/knox.asp

January 18th, 2009 | Tags: Government and Politics, politics | Category: Government and Politics, Open | Leave a comment

BBC NEWS | Americas | Did Bush cause the financial crisis?

Did Bush cause the financial crisis?

By Greg Wood
BBC North America Business Correspondent, New York

“Consider the terrible consequences of the ‘anything goes’ Bush Administration, whose irresponsible non-regulation of financial institutions has led to this crisis.”

Those words, from the Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, sum up the charge against George W Bush – that in the eight years of his presidency he actively pursued policies of deregulation which caused the biggest financial and economic meltdown since the Great Depression.

It is a grim legacy for President Bush to contemplate as he enters his final days in office – but is it true?

Market collapse

He certainly presided over a widespread failure of regulation.

On his watch, the US authorities did little to prevent the sale of millions of mortgages to people who could never afford them.

They failed to police the market in mortgage-backed securities which has now collapsed with such devastating consequences.

And credit default swaps, those multi-billion-dollar bets on other people going bust, went virtually unregulated.

In recent days, Congress has been holding hearings to determine how the regulators at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) missed numerous warning signs – “Red Flags” – about Bernard Madoff, the man accused of running a gigantic Ponzi scheme which has defrauded investors of at least $50bn.

January 9th, 2009 | Tags: Government and Politics | Category: Government and Politics | Leave a comment

I’m not saying there is anything wrong with this… but… if ya think about it, this wasn’t a spur of the moment thing, unless the CIA person just happens to carry his prescribed medication with him in the field… just in case he needed a hard on.
Little Blue Pills Among the Ways CIA Wins Friends in Afghanistan – washingtonpost.com

Little Blue Pills Among the Ways CIA Wins Friends in Afghanistan

By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 26, 2008; Page A01

The Afghan chieftain looked older than his 60-odd years, and his bearded face bore the creases of a man burdened with duties as tribal patriarch and husband to four younger women. His visitor, a CIA officer, saw an opportunity, and reached into his bag for a small gift.

Four blue pills. Viagra.

“Take one of these. You’ll love it,” the officer said. Compliments of Uncle Sam.

The enticement worked. The officer, who described the encounter, returned four days later to an enthusiastic reception. The grinning chief offered up a bonanza of information about Taliban movements and supply routes — followed by a request for more pills.

For U.S. intelligence officials, this is how some crucial battles in Afghanistan are fought and won. While the CIA has a long history of buying information with cash, the growing Taliban insurgency has prompted the use of novel incentives and creative bargaining to gain support in some of the country’s roughest neighborhoods, according to officials directly involved in such operations.

In their efforts to win over notoriously fickle warlords and chieftains, the officials say, the agency’s operatives have used a variety of personal services. These include pocketknives and tools, medicine or surgeries for ailing family members, toys and school equipment, tooth extractions, travel visas, and, occasionally, pharmaceutical enhancements for aging patriarchs with slumping libidos, the officials said.

“Whatever it takes to make friends and influence people — whether it’s building a school or handing out Viagra,” said one longtime agency operative and veteran of several Afghanistan tours. Like other field officers interviewed for this article, he spoke on the condition of anonymity when describing tactics and operations that are largely classified.

On second thought was this a prescription drug that the CIA was giving out without a license? hmmmm… I wonder if the CIA could get sued if the old guy had a heart attack from excitement or if the wives could sue the US…? 4 wives… shouldn’t the religious right be up in arms about this? I mean WE CAN’T HAVE 4 WIVES…
Just think the more these tribal leaders become like the US the less freedoms they will have… I’m sure the number of wives they have will be outlawed… if not then why can’t we do the same?

December 26th, 2008 | Tags: Government and Politics, politics, stupid people | Category: Government and Politics, Open | Leave a comment

I’m just wondering if this is ever going to go away while he is in office.

Supreme Court Rejects Appeal Over Obama’s Citizenship – The Caucus Blog – NYTimes.com

Supreme Court Rejects Appeal Over Obama’s Citizenship
By Kate Phillips

Without any comment whatsoever, the Supreme Court today declined to take up an appeal by a New Jersey man who questioned President-elect Barack Obama’s eligibility for the presidency, based on his birth to a father from Kenya and a mother who was a United States citizen.

The case, brought by Leo Donofrio of East Brunswick, N.J., contended that Mr. Obama could not be considered a “natural-born citizen” — a constitutional ground for becoming president of the United States — because he had dual nationality at birth.

The state of Hawaii has declared that Mr. Obama was born there in August of 1961, and is a United States citizen, but that hasn’t stopped a small squall of Internet-fueled rumors from trying to debunk his citizenship. The issue of his birth certificate has long been the subject of rumors, to the point that Mr. Obama’s Web site posted a copy of it on its “fightthesmears” mini-site to try to stanch the innuendo during the campaign.

Last week, Top of the Ticket, the politics blog of The Los Angeles Times, noted that none other than Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was circulating Mr. Donofrio’s appeal for consideration among the members of the highest court. And because the state of Hawaii would not release the original birth certificate — birth certificates aren’t public record there (released only to the family) — various sites have pondered the veracity of the document published by the Obama campaign, even as the state’s officials themselves have declared it valid.

The Chicago Tribune has also followed the rumor mill relentlessly. And PolitiFact, one of the premier fact-checking sites during this election year, mined the issues of the embossed seal of verification, etc. endlessly.

There is still another case out there, challenging the president-elect’s right to assume the presidency based on his parentage and the years he spent overseas in Indonesia.

This is the kind of doubt-bending thing that lives independently online, but from the looks of today’s decision by the highest court in the land, the accusation isn’t gaining much ground in the realm of reality.

December 8th, 2008 | Tags: Government and Politics, politics | Category: Government and Politics | Leave a comment

A sad day for the world as a whole. Questions still rise as to if the attack was a pressing issue of Japans desperation for resources, made more so by Roosevelt’s knowledge of events or making the events happen on purpose.

THE PEARL HARBOR DECEPTION

The Bombing of Pearl Harbor

On 7 December 1941 the greatest disaster in United States history occurred. Truly this was and is, “’A date which will live in infamy.’”, but not for the bombing of Pearl Harbor, rather for the deception and the mis-guidance used by the Government and Franklin D. Roosevelt. In a purely artificial chess game Roosevelt sacrificed over 2400 American Seamen’s lives, thanks to his power as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. By over-looking the obvious facts of an attack by Japan on Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt was able to control both the political and economic systems of the United States. Most of American society before the Pearl Harbor bombing believed in the idea of isolationism.

Franklin D. Roosevelt knew this, and knew the only way in which United States countrymen would take arms and fight in Europe’s War was to be an overt action against the United States by a member of the Axis Power. Roosevelt also believed Hitler would not declare war on the United States unless he knew they were beatable. There are numerous accounts of actions by Roosevelt and his top armed forces advisors, which reveal they were not only aware of an attack by Japan, but also they were planning on it, and instigating that attack. On 7 October 1940, Lieutenant Commander Arthur H. McCollum, head of the Far East desk of the Office of Naval Intelligence, wrote the eight-action memo.

This memo outlined eight different steps the United States could do that he predicted would lead to an attack by Japan on the United States. The day after this memo was giving to Franklin D. Roosevelt, he began to implement these steps. By the time that Japan finally attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, all eight steps had occurred. The eight steps consisted of two main subject areas; the first being a sign of United States military preparedness and threat of attack, the second being a forceful control on Japans trade and economy. The main subject area of the eight-action memo was the sign of United States military preparedness and threat of attack. McCollum called for the United States to make arrangements with both Britain (Action A) and Holland (Action B), for the use of military facilities and acquisition of supplies in both Singapore and Indonesia.

December 7th, 2008 | Tags: Government and Politics | Category: Government and Politics, Open, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

I’m a bit at a loss here, I guess what the Republican National Committee is saying is that the contributions or donations to the RNC are the ones buying her $150,000 dollars in clothing. Then it’s just going to give the clothing away?

McCain: ‘She needed clothes’ – Andy Barr – Politico.com

McCain: ‘She needed clothes’
By ANDY BARR | 10/23/08 3:59 PM EDT
John McCain and Sarah Palin in Ohio
According to financial disclosure forms, the RNC shelled out thousands of dollars in the days following the announcement that Palin would be McCain’s running mate.
Photo: AP

John McCain defended the Republican National Committee’s decision Thursday to spend more than $150,000 dollars on clothing and accessories for running mate Sarah Palin.

“She needed clothes at the time,” McCain told a group of Florida reporters.

The Arizona Republican said that the clothing will be donated to charity and that there was nothing unusual about spending the committee’s money on Palin’s look.

“They’ll be donated at end of this campaign. They’ll be donated to charity,” McCain said.

“It works by her getting some clothes when she was made the nominee of the party and it will be donated back to charity,” he added. “It works that the clothes will be donated to charity. Nothing surprises me.”

According to financial disclosure forms, the RNC shelled out thousands of dollars in the days following the announcement that Palin would be McCain’s running mate.

Since the news broke Tuesday, the RNC has taken heat for choosing to spend so much to clothe Palin during such a daunting year for GOP candidates across the country and in the midst of an economic meltdown.

While McCain defended the decision Thursday, he does not have Republican donors pay the tab for his shopping.

“I pay for my suits,” McCain said in an interview with WSLS, a Roanoke, Va. television station.

“I pay for all of my own clothing.”

What’s going to happen if she wins the Vice Presidency? Is there going to be a fundraiser of some sort to purchase her more clothing again? I’m really confused. Is this a normal thing for the RNC and other groups to do… purchase clothing, then give it away? I mean, I understand the purchasing part and wanting the candidates to look their best. But I don’t understand why the clothing would be given to charity afterwords. No wonder the US is in debt, we keep giving away all our things… I just hope some of the millions of illeagle aliens won’t get the clothes, that would be just be more of an insult to the injury.

October 24th, 2008 | Tags: Government and Politics | Category: Government and Politics | Leave a comment