| Another Reason To Take Defense Against The Boule Society | |
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| Topic Started: Feb 14 2013, 03:53 AM (486 Views) | |
| Magnetic720 | Feb 14 2013, 03:53 AM Post #1 |
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Many of the Boule Societies Members are Black Mayors all around America. THE BOULE...A SECRET SOCIETY OF UPPER CLASS BLACK MEN HISTORICALLY SELECTED AS A "BLACK LEADERSHIP" CLASS SERVES AS A BUFFER BETWEEN THE LOWER CLASS BLACKS AND THE WHITE LEADERSHIP. SELF-DESCRIBED AS SIMILAR TO SKULL & BONES http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kNlitalqlE&playnext=1&list=PL1D0D2C54CC42BAF1&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1 "The Boule' is a black GREEK secret society based on another secret society founded at Yale University called Skull & Bones. The Boule's primary founder was Dr. Henry Minton (along with Dr.'s Eugene T. Henson, Edwin Clarence Howard, Algernon Brashear Jackson, Robert Jones Abele and Richard John Warrick), of Philadelphia. The founding member of the New York City chapter, WEB DuBois, said the Boule' was created to "keep the black professional away from the ranks of Marcus Garvey." (One thing that needs to be pointed out is the time period. At the founding of the Boule', it was also a time Marcus Garvey's "Back to Afrika" movement was reaching a million plus people without tv or radio.). DuBois emphasized, as Cokely stated, "the importance to steal the black professional away from Garvey because an Afrocentric organization that articulated and captured the black professional would give YT no safe haven in the black community, so the Boule' -- the remaking of the house negro was necessary to build a group of negroes who had an investment in protecting the white system as produced by YT having stolen this land...This is post reconstruction. Taking away the articulate negro, now desiring to replace them with organized institutions to keep them away from self improvement. So we find in the same period, as the founding of the Boule', the founding of the 4 black male (Alpha Phi Alpha, Kappa Alpha Psi, Omega Psi Phi, and Phi Beta Sigma) and 4 black female (Alpha Kappa Alpha, Delta Sigma Theta, Zeta Phi Beta, and Sigma Gamma Rho) college-based fraternities and sororities...We also find the founding of the NAACP and Urban League." Elite Fraternity Widens Agenda for Black Men : Organizations: At the prompting of a younger generation, the prosperous and prominent members of the once-secret Boule are focusing more on social activism. July 18, 1990|KAREN GRIGSBY BATES When the NAACP's conference ended here last week, civil rights leaders left behind a portrait of black men in crisis. Too many young black men, said the civil rights group, are underemployed, alternately feared and reviled, and living at risk. Now come the men of Sigma Pi Phi, a once-secret black fraternity that celebrates the professional and material success of black men. Known as the Boule (pronounced boo-lay ), the group is here this week for its biennial meeting and its own look at "An Agenda for the Black Male in the '90s." Ads by Google It was an invitation-only, tuxedoed gathering of some of the most prominent and powerful black men in America, who say they are struggling to define their responsibility to other black men, the ones the NAACP calls "endangered." ( Boule is a Greek word, designating a council of community leaders who advised kings. The reference, members of the 3,000-man, worldwide fraternity, is highly intentional.) The roster of members here this week reads like a Who's Who among blacks: U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Louis W. Sullivan, Democratic National Committee Chairman Ron Brown, Mayor Tom Bradley, NAACP Executive Director Benjamin Hooks. Like Yale's Skull and Bones secret society to which George Bush belongs, the Boule has been criticized by some as a social anachronism, and has challenged members to change its image. Incoming president Dr. Benjamin Major, a retired San Francisco physician, said he is aware of charges that the group is more interested in socializing and congratulating itself on its enviable exclusivity than it is in making a substantial contribution to the rest of black America. "Until eight or 10 years ago, we were just what we were perceived to be," said Major, who wants to make the group's social action committee more aggressive. "We don't want to appear as if we were remaining above the problems of most black people. We know we didn't get here solely by the dint of our own hard work," he added. "We owe a lot of people, and we have to give back to our brothers and sisters." The ballroom of the Westin Bonaventure Hotel where the Boule opened its meeting last weekend may be only a freeway away from South-Central Los Angeles, but it was light-years away in mood. As 1,300 members and wives skirted the buffet tables to clasp hands and embrace, a black-tie band played jazz favorites from the 1940s and '50s. http://articles.latimes.com/19 90-07-18/news/vw-790_1_young-b lack-men FOREVER & EVER BABY...WE AINT GOIN NO PLACE http://daghettotymz.com/ http://daghettotymz.com/rkyvz/ articles/bouleseries/boule1-3r oster/shields/shields.html BOULE INVOLVEMENT IN COINTELPRO http://www.youtube.com/watch?v =sgpthdfuq_8&playnext=1&am p;list=PL7FD180584D7DDB05 CIA Supplied American Drug Dealers Thats right folks, the CIA and FBI supplies our youth with drugs so that they can make millions for them. They'll later arrest our brothers, take all their money and possessions, and then place them in federal prison where its almost impossible to be found wrongfully imprisoned. Just read yourself below: 1. CIA’s secret Operations Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) on of the most active and dynamic intelligence setups in the world needs massive amount of money to carry on its clandestine operations all over the world. It has happened when CIA used local sources to conduct a coups, assassinations, regime change, etc. As U.S. has a long history to support democracy by hook and crook until and unless a dictator is ready to serve U.S. interests to prolong its rule. Operations like the one completed in Iran in 1953 to remove Prime Minister Mussadaq and backing Shah’s regime by using assets in civil society, or in Iraq in 1975 to arm Iraqi Kurds to destabilize Pre-Saddam Iraq or more recently using its assets in Pakistan to pave the way of direct U.S. intervention in Pakistan under pretext of hunting Al-Qaeda. These kinds of operations need a lot of financial input. Usually CIA arranges revenue from its own means for this kind of operations where expenses can’t be predicted by any measure. Funds from Whitehouse always need a complete audit and detailed reports about usage of these funds. There are numerous occasions when CIA never shared details of operations with its own analytical wing nor with any other public office in Washington. Most of the time it is drug money that compensates these expenses. CIA operations are not only single expenditure fulfilled by drugs there are also other deficiencies which are compensated with this money like financial institutes and banks in current financial crisis. UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa based in Vienna revealed that drug money often became the only available capital when the crisis spiraled out of control last year. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime had found evidence that “inter bank loans were funded by money that originated from drug trade and other illegal activities,” Costa was quoted as saying. There were “signs that some banks were rescued in that way.” It is not only CIA anymore in trade for using it as gold mine to finance its illegal operations all over the world but U.S. economy also need some liquidity in its banks, it doesn’t matter if it is coming by drug trade. 2. Drug Production & Consumption Afghanistan is largest producer of heroin’s main ingredient; opium and opium is nothing new in this part of the world. In Afghanistan and FATA, Pakistan it is being produced since centuries; used as remedy for various diseases. Commercial production of opium began just during the Russian invasion in Afghanistan where it is estimated to produce some 8250 metric tons (Source: AmericanFreePress.net, November 24, 2008) of opium per year which makes 85% to 90% of the world’s supply of opium. This also contributes towards Afghan warlords’ wealth directly. This is what CIA brought to the region: Opium production without a brand name obviously. Today’s world opium production map is as under; Left: Demand and trafficking of drugs globally. U.S. is one of very high concentration drug trafficking territory thanks to Regan’s National Security Council who turned a blind eye towards South American cocaine socking into U.S. in 1980 when CIA was backing all the drug traffickers of Contra movements in Nicaragua. Markets for these drugs stretched world over from Western Europe to Far East, From Canada to Latin America and From China to Morocco, Africa. Profits related to this business also vary along with market’s location. This business enriches not only the United States-friendly Afghan warlords but also elements of the Northern Alliance, the U.S. key ally in the country. More disturbing is fact that this money also contributes in CIA’s operations against Pakistan as well. 3. Contra Movements (1980) In Asia demand for heroin is more than any other drug but it is not the case world over. Cocaine is favourite drug which is consumed the most. Cocaine was nothing new in South American countries but it was only during Nicaraguan contra movements against the then dictator it got shoot up. It was again CIA’s regime change operation to bring “democracy” in Nicaragua. It was during this period when the whole region saw an unprecedented surge in cocaine trafficking in 1980. This has been investigated none other than but by CIA’s inspector general in later years. Was CIA a part of this? Answer is not only CIA was aiding these cocaine traffickers and money-launderers but Ronald Reagon’s National Security Council also turned a blind eye towards these drug trades despite the fact that later these very drug traffickers brought cocaine to mainland U.S.. According to CIA’s inspector general report, published in online magazine The Consortium magazine, Oct. 15, 1998, it was Reagan’s National Security Council which cleared proven drug traffickers and CIA inspector general Frederick Hitz confirmed long standing allegations of cocaine traffickers. The NSC’s covert airline was the main transportation mean to do this trade in safest possible way. Figure 1: Armed men of Nicaragua insurgency during 1980s, armed with CIA weapons bought with drug money. Most stunning part of all this contra movements and CIA involvement is methods these movements used to dismantle the then Nicaraguan government including bombing and killing of civilians and CIA withheld all evidence of contra crimes from Justice Department, the Congress and even its own analytical division just to conceal its connection with drug traffickers. 4. Afghanistan As it is mentioned earlier that Afghanistan was not a hub of drug supply to world before Russian invasion in 1979. It was CIA once again to implement what it successfully implemented in Nicaragua in 1980. Now, Afghanistan is biggest contributor in drug production with its massive opium production. Russian Afghan War (1979-1989) CIA was not fully done with contra movements when Russia invaded Afghanistan in 1979 threatening the region with her expansionist design to gain control over Afghanistan and Baluchistan province of Pakistan to reach Arabian Sea. Pakistan decided to confront Russia inside Afghanistan to thwart communist designs. CIA found an opportunity in Afghanistan to settle its long standing duel with Russian for global dominion, after initial successes by Afghan fighters. CIA once again brought tested formula of drug to finance this war which it used in South America with only difference in prescription where cocaine was replaced with heroin. Poppy cultivation was nothing new to Afghan but it was level of production and demand created by international traffickers in the world which shocked many in vicinity of these poppy fields. Profit gained by these drugs was main driving force behind all this trade and with heroin it was much more than what it was with cocaine. Ironically U.S. and Europe became biggest markets of heroin prepared produced in Afghanistan. Regan’s administration is also a common factor in both Afghan heroin trade and contra cocaine traffickers. Role of CIA in first Afghan war was not overt as it could provoke Russians in more direct retaliation albeit Cuban missile crisis of 1960s. To avoid that kind of hostility it was more suitable for CIA to have silent links with Afghan warlords and providing sources to grow poppy. “By the end of Russian invasion in 1989 Afghanistan was second largest opium production spot with 1350 Metric ton after notorious Golden Triangle including countries like Laos, Thailand, Burma and Vietnam which was producing 2645 Metric ton at that time leaving Latin America way behind with just 112 Metric ton”, as per U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Pre and Post Taliban Era (1994-2001) In 1994 unrest and lawlessness in Afghanistan gave rise to Taliban. Motivated with their strict religious background and education they put ban on all kinds of drugs in territory under their control but this was not the cure for chronically infected Afghan economy and society. Non availability of any job market and strong hold of Northern Alliance of Northern part of country remained biggest challenge to these efforts to cut down poppy cultivation in Afghanistan. But despite all the challenges Talibans were able to put a serious cut on opium production in Afghanistan by start of 2001 when they were about to capture Northern Alliance’s strong hold Mazar-e-Sharif but post 9/11 scenario not only changed the geopolitical dynamics of the whole world but also destroyed the efforts of Taliban to control opium production. Figure 2: Afghan opium sells in cheap at home, worth a fortune in U.S. market Left: In year 2001, just before U.S./NATO invasion into Afghanistan, Taliban were able to cut down opium production by a decisive margin. This was also one of core reasons against Taliban along with other excuses. After year 2002, when Taliban were removed from power there is a historical increase in opium production in Afghanistan, money is going to pentagon to carry on Afghan and Iraq war despite a historical recession in U.S.. Recent Afghan Conflict (2002 – To date) Afghanistan is leading opium production in world today but after the invasion of U.S. in 2002 Afghanistan is also attributed to have largest heroin production in the world as well. Without active support of Pentagon and CIA it is not possible to export drug prepared with more than 8000 metric tons of opium. U.S. relations with Northern Alliance in Afghanistan after Taliban have given a free license to drug producers, traffickers. CIA and Pentagon both have their links to all these criminals in order to get supplies of the drugs and export it in U.S. Army planes. It has been reported that CIA used U.S. Army planes leaving Afghanistan carrying coffins which were filled with drugs instead of bodies. To make sure undisturbed trade U.S. appointed all Northern Alliance drug lords at key posts in Afghanistan and most prominent appointment was none other than President Hamid Karzai. Karzai’s brother, head of Kandahar’s provincial council is proven drug trafficker facilitating the transportation of heroin from Kandahar eastward through Helmand and out across the Iranian border. There is no reason to believe that CIA is not aware of this but as it is all one big enterprise where Karzai is also a partner so no danger to his brother. Bush administration pushed the level of poppy cultivation to next level in Afghanistan just to keep Wall Streets alive in crisis. Many top Bush administration’s officials were worried about growing influence of countries in Golden Triangle (Loas, Thailand, Vietnam, Burma) in Russian and Chinese drug markets. Like Oil in Iraq this was just another opportunity for the Bush administration to have some quick bucks. Blames for using drugs to fight with NATO and U.S. forces is always put on Taliban. But looking at areas of Taliban’s active zones one can easily understand where all this poppy cultivation is taking place. Taliban put ban on poppy when they were incharge of majority of Afghan territories and Kabul, the capital. Afghanistan was suffering worst economic crisis at that time but Taliban never went to build their economy with heroin trade. Now it is just ridiculous to blame Taliban to have vast fields of poppy and having enough peace and time to grow and process it into heroin and then trade it in Pakistan and Iran to dens it to destinations in Eastern Europe. Below is map of Afghanistan indicating high poppy cultivation provinces and it is quite evident that Taliban dominant Left: Ahmed Wali Karzai, appointed by his brother, President Hamid Karzai, to represent Kandahar province in Kabul. According to media reports he is main player in exporting heroin and opium to European countries through Turkmenistan. Provinces like Kunar, Pektika,Paktya has low poppy cultivation and other provinces where all U.S./CIA supported warlords are holding key positions are growing most of opium crop. It was only after U.S. invasion there was a 4400% increase in opium production. U.S. role in Afghan social debacle will go in history as described The Huffington Post on October 15, 2008 “When the history of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan is written, Washington’s sordid involvement in the heroin trade and its alliance with drug lords and war criminals of the Afghan Communist Party will be one of the most shameful chapters.” 5. Pakistan: Indirect Victim of the CIA’s Drug business Almost the whole world is affected by this drug trade but countries which lie in routes of drug traffickers are worst effected after the original drug markets. Countries like Pakistan are paying a very high price for U.S./CIA drug trade as there is a constant increase in drug addiction in Pakistan. Iran is another country which happens to be in route of international drug traffickers so it is also facing problem of smuggling of heroin and morphine from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Turkey and Europe. After U.S. invasion of Afghanistan this route has become active manifold then it was previously. Effects of this trade are not limited to drug usage only but it destroys the social fabric in a society and gives rise to street crimes in order to get some cash to buy drugs from street market. A more horrible outcome is spread of HIV virus among addicted persons when they share the injection syringes. This threat is increasing with each passing day as number of HIV positive is increasing. Another disastrous effect it brought to Pakistan and Afghanistan other neighbors is serious law and order situation in bordering area of each country with Afghanistan. Combating this evil trade is not possible until a holistic effort is made by international community in this regards but its chances are bleak as this trade is needed by global imperialism (Israel, U.S., UK) more than ever before to give some support to their dying economies. Above: Pakistan has become main artery in heroin trafficking route and it has a lot of implication on Pakistani security. Level of drug addicted also increased over the year due to high availability of drugs in street market. Afghanistan is main producer but Pakistan us where most of drugs are seized. 6. Conclusion Under current situation it is very important for countries like Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan and Russia to think about how to put jinni of drug back to the bottle before international drug mafia takes over these countries by destroying their social norms and values. CIA not only has a long history of having links with traffickers but also encouraging the drug trade to get its own interests served. CIA always encourages this trade even if it affected its own citizens like in Contra movements of 1980. Afghanistan became leader in opium production and main hub for providing heroin and its main ingredient to whole world. All this happened under the control of champion of human rights U.S. and its intelligence setup mainly CIA. Situation is becoming more and bleaker unless Pakistan, China, Russia, Iran and Afghanistan governments start thinking about this trade and its far reaching affects on U.S. economy and CIA’s funding. It is time when the whole region should become equivocal against this trade and ask U.S. to leave the region for greater good of the billions of people in region. http://blog.al.com/breaking/2013/02/3_arrested_in_scottsboro_spice.html The Coming Derivatives Crisis That Will Destroy The Entire Global Financial System Most people have no idea that Wall Street has become a gigantic financial casino. The big Wall Street banks are making tens of billions of dollars a year in the derivatives market, and nobody in the financial community wants the party to end. The word “derivatives” sounds complicated and technical, but understanding them is really not that hard. A derivative is essentially a fancy way of saying that a bet has been made. Originally, these bets were designed to hedge risk, but today the derivatives market has mushroomed into a mountain of speculation unlike anything the world has ever seen before. Estimates of the notional value of the worldwide derivatives market go from $600 trillion all the way up to $1.5 quadrillion. Keep in mind that the GDP of the entire world is only somewhere in the neighborhood of $65 trillion. The danger to the global financial system posed by derivatives is so great that Warren Buffet once called them “financial weapons of mass destruction”. For now, the financial powers that be are trying to keep the casino rolling, but it is inevitable that at some point this entire mess is going to come crashing down. When it does, we are going to be facing a derivatives crisis that really could destroy the entire global financial system. Most people don’t talk much about derivatives because they simply do not understand them. Perhaps a couple of definitions would be helpful. The following is how a recent Bloomberg article defined derivatives…. Derivatives are financial instruments used to hedge risks or for speculation. They’re derived from stocks, bonds, loans, currencies and commodities, or linked to specific events such as changes in the weather or interest rates. The key word there is “speculation”. Today the folks down on Wall Street are speculating on just about anything that you can imagine. The following is how Investopedia defines derivatives…. A security whose price is dependent upon or derived from one or more underlying assets. The derivative itself is merely a contract between two or more parties. Its value is determined by fluctuations in the underlying asset. The most common underlying assets include stocks, bonds, commodities, currencies, interest rates and market indexes. Most derivatives are characterized by high leverage. A derivative has no underlying value of its own. A derivative is essentially a side bet. Usually these side bets are highly leveraged. At this point, making side bets has totally gotten out of control in the financial world. Side bets are being made on just about anything you can possibly imagine, and the major Wall Street banks are making a ton of money from it. This system is almost entirely unregulated and it is totally dominated by the big international banks. Over the past couple of decades, the derivatives market has multiplied in size. Everything is going to be fine as long as the system stays in balance. But once it gets out of balance we could witness a string of financial crashes that no government on earth will be able to fix. The amount of money that we are talking about is absolutely staggering. Graham Summers of Phoenix Capital Research estimates that the notional value of the global derivatives market is $1.4 quadrillion, and in an article for Seeking Alpha he tried to put that number into perspective…. If you add up the value of every stock on the planet, the entire market capitalization would be about $36 trillion. If you do the same process for bonds, you’d get a market capitalization of roughly $72 trillion. The notional value of the derivative market is roughly $1.4 QUADRILLION. I realize that number sounds like something out of Looney tunes, so I’ll try to put it into perspective. $1.4 Quadrillion is roughly: -40 TIMES THE WORLD’S STOCK MARKET. -10 TIMES the value of EVERY STOCK & EVERY BOND ON THE PLANET. -23 TIMES WORLD GDP. It is hard to fathom how much money a quadrillion is. If you started counting right now at one dollar per second, it would take 32 million years to count to one quadrillion dollars. Yes, the boys and girls down on Wall Street have gotten completely and totally out of control. In an excellent article that he did on derivatives, Webster Tarpley described the pivotal role that derivatives now play in the global financial system…. Far from being some arcane or marginal activity, financial derivatives have come to represent the principal business of the financier oligarchy in Wall Street, the City of London, Frankfurt, and other money centers. A concerted effort has been made by politicians and the news media to hide and camouflage the central role played by derivative speculation in the economic disasters of recent years. Journalists and public relations types have done everything possible to avoid even mentioning derivatives, coining phrases like “toxic assets,” “exotic instruments,” and – most notably – “troubled assets,” as in Troubled Assets Relief Program or TARP, aka the monstrous $800 billion bailout of Wall Street speculators which was enacted in October 2008 with the support of Bush, Henry Paulson, John McCain, Sarah Palin, and the Obama Democrats. Most people do not realize this, but derivatives were at the center of the financial crisis of 2008. They will almost certainly be at the center of the next financial crisis as well. For many, alarm bells went off the other day when it was revealed that Bank of America has moved a big chunk of derivatives from its failing Merrill Lynch investment banking unit to its depository arm. So what does that mean? An article posted on The Daily Bail the other day explained that it means that U.S. taxpayers could end up holding the bag…. This means that the investment bank’s European derivatives exposure is now backstopped by U.S. taxpayers. Bank of America didn’t get regulatory approval to do this, they just did it at the request of frightened counterparties. Now the Fed and the FDIC are fighting as to whether this was sound. The Fed wants to “give relief” to the bank holding company, which is under heavy pressure. This is a direct transfer of risk to the taxpayer done by the bank without approval by regulators and without public input. So did you hear about this on the news? Probably not. Today, the notional value of all the derivatives held by Bank of America comes to approximately $75 trillion. JPMorgan Chase is holding derivatives with a notional value of about $79 trillion. It is hard to even conceive of such figures. Right now, the banks with the most exposure to derivatives are JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and HSBC Bank USA. Morgan Stanley also has tremendous exposure to derivatives. You may have noticed that these are some of the “too big to fail” banks. The biggest U.S. banks continue to grow and they continue to get even more power. Back in 2002, the top 10 U.S. banks controlled 55 percent of all U.S. banking assets. Today, the top 10 U.S. banks control 77 percent of all U.S. banking assets. These banks have gotten so big and so powerful that if they collapsed our entire financial system would implode. You would have thought that we would have learned our lesson back in 2008 and would have done something about this, but instead we have allowed the “too big to bail” banks to become bigger than ever. And they pretty much do whatever they want. A while back, the New York Times published an article entitled “A Secretive Banking Elite Rules Trading in Derivatives“. That article exposed the steel-fisted control that the “too big to fail” banks exert over the trading of derivatives. Just consider the following excerpt from the article…. On the third Wednesday of every month, the nine members of an elite Wall Street society gather in Midtown Manhattan. The men share a common goal: to protect the interests of big banks in the vast market for derivatives, one of the most profitable — and controversial — fields in finance. They also share a common secret: The details of their meetings, even their identities, have been strictly confidential. So what institutions are represented at these meetings? Well, according to the New York Times, the following banks are involved: JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Citigroup. Why do those same five names seem to keep popping up time after time? Sadly, these five banks keep pouring money into the campaigns of politicians that supported the bailouts in 2008 and that they know will bail them out again when the next financial crisis strikes. Those that defend the wild derivatives trading that is going on today claim that Wall Street has accounted for all of the risks and they assume that the issuing banks will always be able to cover all of the derivative contracts that they write. But that is a faulty assumption. Just look at AIG back in 2008. When the housing market collapsed AIG was on the wrong end of a massive number of derivative contracts and it would have gone “bust” without gigantic bailouts from the federal government. If the bailouts of AIG had not happened, Goldman Sachs and a whole lot of other people would have been left standing there with a whole bunch of worthless paper. It is inevitable that the same thing is going to happen again. Except next time it may be on a much grander scale. When “the house” goes “bust”, everybody loses. The governments of the world could step in and try to bail everyone out, but the reality is that when the derivatives market comes totally crashing down there won’t be any government on earth with enough money to put it back together again. A horrible derivatives crisis is coming. It is only a matter of time. Stay alert for any mention of the word “derivatives” or the term “derivatives crisis” in the news. When the derivatives crisis arrives, things will start falling apart very rapidly. South Carolina Oppose Biden & Obama Gun Control COLUMBIA — Congratulations, you are a member of South Carolina’s “unorganized militia.” Now that you know that, state Sen. Tom Corbin, R-Greenville, wants to make sure you have access to guns in case the governor ever calls on you to defend the state. Corbin has proposed a new state law — unanimously approved Wednesday by a Senate subcommittee — that would guarantee all members of the unorganized militia “shall have the right, at his own expense, to acquire, possess, keep, and bear all firearms that could be legally acquired or possessed by a citizen of South Carolina as of December 31, 2012.” Translated that means — barring an almost certain constitutional challenge if the proposal becomes law — you can buy an assault weapon, regardless of whether the federal government bans them, as President Barack Obama and others have proposed. The proposed law is based on a state law, dating back to 1881, that refers to an “unorganized militia” made up of “all able bodied persons over 17 years of age.” “All of us here can sit back and go, ‘Finally, I don’t have to worry about giving up my shotgun or giving up my Ruger pistol or whatever. It’s over,” Corbin said. “This bill just simply says it is now part of our unorganized militia’s weaponry, therefore it is protected. ... It can’t be changed by anyone outside of South Carolina.” Nice try, but it won’t work, said Thomas Crocker, an associate professor of law at the USC School of Law. It is true, Croker said, that South Carolina can specify weapons for its unorganized militia — a concept dating back to the 18th century, when states did not have modern police forces or National Guards. States then had laws requiring everyone to own a musket and be ready to fight against outlaws or attacking Native Americans. “The trick is if the federal government enacts an assault-weapons ban, making it illegal to have the AR-15, that will trump automatically any state law,” Crocker said. “It doesn’t matter if the state statute says that is an approved weapon. It is an illegal weapon under federal law and federal law trumps.” The country has been debating guns — which guns should be legal and who should have them — since the shooting deaths of 20 children and six adults at a Connecticut elementary school in December. In his State of the Union address Tuesday, President Barack Obama urged lawmakers to approve a ban of military-style assault weapons. In an interview after the hearing, Corbin said his proposal is not a reaction to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings or an attempt to preemptively nullify any changes in federal gun laws. But Corbin said he does disagree with people who blame guns for gun violence. “It’s not the gun’s fault. It’s never the gun’s fault. It’s the person,” he said. . “This bill is about defining our armament,” said Corbin. State Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, said he supports the constitutional right to own guns, adding that he owns gun. That’s also why, he said, he does not support Corbin’s bill. “Don’t think anybody is coming to take my guns away. I know the Second Amendment protects me. I don’t know what’s the worry,” he said. Read more here: http://www.heraldonline.com/2013/02/13/4618871/sc-bill-seeks-to-protect-owning.html#storylink=cpy COLUMBIA, S.C. — Senators advanced Wednesday a bill intended to let people with concealed weapon permits carry their gun into restaurants while cautioning gun rights advocates not to do "something stupid." The bill allows permit holders to carry their concealed weapon into places that serve alcohol, unless the business has posted signs against it. The measure will be on next week's agenda of the full Judiciary Committee. "It restores some rights to people who should have those rights and protects the rights of business owners," said Sen. Sean Bennett, R-Summerville, the bill's main sponsor. "It's a good balance." More than 187,000 South Carolinians hold concealed carry permits, according to the state Law Enforcement Division. The bill makes it illegal for people to drink alcohol while concealing a gun. Anyone caught could face up to two years in prison and a $2,000 fine. Several people asked legislators to change that, saying they should be able to have, for example, a glass of wine with their lasagna. "A CWP holder should be allowed to carry and consume in a restaurant as long as he doesn't come under the influence," said Robert Butler of South Carolina's GrassRoots GunRights. "We're only asking to come in, have a beer with pizza or a glass of wine with dinner." But Sen. Shane Massey, the panel's chairman, said that would doom the bill's chances. Anthony Roulette, a state liaison with the National Rifle Association, said 45 other states allow some form of concealed carry into restaurants. Patten Watson, treasurer for Mid Carolina Rifle Club, said armed robbers held up a Chinese restaurant in Columbia while he and his wife were dining there about 20 years ago. The robbers held a gun to a girl's head but didn't shoot until after they left and Watson followed. Watson said one fired at him seven times without hitting anything. "I would've loved to have been able to carry my handgun in that restaurant that night," he said, adding that the robbers were convicted and sent to federal prison. "A concealed weapon would've stopped everything, I believe." No one spoke against the concept. Reached after the meeting, John Durst, president of the South Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association, said his group hasn't taken a position on the bill, though its board is set to discuss it at a meeting later this month. Jeff Moore of the South Carolina Sheriffs' Association wanted the bill tightened, and he succeeded on one request. As initially written, the measure didn't limit concealed carry in restaurants to CWP holders. "We support the general concept. We absolutely understand," Moore said. "I don't think someone who's gone through the process of getting a CWP is going to risk it by getting drunk at Applebee's. But if you allow anyone to carry a gun, I think it's problematic." The panel amended the bill, saying that was unintentional. Moore also asked senators to specify that concealed carry is permitted only in restaurants - and to define those - saying the bill otherwise allows guns in "juke joints" and strip clubs. "We'd like to see it truly aimed at legitimate restaurants," Moore said, "not in a place where we end up with shootings every night anyway." Asked by Bennett whether CWP holders were ever among those arrested at those locations, Moore replied, "Of course not." Massey, R-Edgefield, said he understands Moore's concern, but that issue has previously prevented the bill's passage, due to legislators unable to figure out how to define restaurants in a way that's enforceable. As for enforcing the bill's no-alcohol rule, he said, "These are the good guys. They're not going to jeopardize losing that permit or going to jail just to have a beer. That makes no sense." Massey then cautioned the audience. "If we pass this, if one CWP does something stupid, everybody's going to get blamed," he said. Noting he'd received several hundred emails from gun rights advocates, Massey told attendees to "educate people in your email network" so they understand the ramifications. Read more here: http://www.heraldonline.com/2013/02/13/4617244/bill-would-allow-guns-to-be-carried.html#storylink=cpy Hispanics Who Are Not Snitches Dianne Feinstein Is Going At You Hard Senator Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) latest attack on gun rights (unless she has attacked them again in the last few hours–a not at all implausible scenario) would impose a life sentence of state mandated defenselessness in the U.S. for “foreign felons.” What is a “foreign felon”? Someone convicted of a felony in a foreign country. Feinstein describes S. 261, the “No Firearms for Foreign Felons Act,” this way (emphasis in original): “Under current federal law, individuals convicted in the United States of violent felonies like rape, murder and terrorism are prohibited from possessing firearms,” said Senator Feinstein. “However, federal law does not bar criminals convicted of those same violent crimes in foreign courts from possessing guns. This legislation closes that loophole.” There are several concerns here. The most obvious, probably, is that many foreign courts do not afford the accused anything approaching the kinds of protections Americans generally take for granted. These protections include the presumption of innocence pending proof of guilt, an impartial jury, competent defense counsel even if the accused cannot afford an attorney on his/her own, etc. Another obvious concern is that many charges that are a “felony” in many countries would not be even a misdemeanor in the United States. Preaching Christianity in Saudi Arabia, for example, is a very serious crime. Granted, the text of the bill (pdf file) appears to address both of these concerns: . . . except that a foreign conviction shall not constitute a conviction of such a crime if the convicted person establishes that the foreign conviction resulted from a denial of fundamental fairness that would violate due process if committed in the United States or from conduct that would be legal if committed in the United States. Sure, that sounds good, but how many countries are there whose justice systems provide everyprotection that in the U.S. is considered necessary for a fair trial? In the U.S., convictions have been overturned because the accused was not read his or her rights at the time of arrest. It seems doubtful, though, that Feinstein intends to exempt every “foreign felon” convicted without getting his or her Miranda Act warning. A “jury of one’s peers” is another concern. In the U.S., trials have been moved to different counties, when the defense made a compelling case for the argument that an impartial jury would be impossible to assemble in the original county. In a foreign country (many of which have very little affection for this nation and its citizens), is it not fair to cast doubt that an impartial jury can be found anywhere? The bill also addresses the objection that many “felonies” in many foreign countries are not felonies here, with the language exempting ” . . . conduct that would be legal if committed in the United States.” Again, that sounds good, but how would that work when, say, an Iranian court convicts the person in question of “spying“? Spying is certainly a felony in the U.S., but, to be charitable, the Iranian “spy hikers” conviction falls rather short of looking very convincing, by U.S. standards. Also, that exemption says “legal,” not ”not a felony.” That would seem to imply that conviction of a foreign “felony,” for behavior that would be illegal, but only a misdemeanor (and not a domestic violence misdemeanor, which also carries the lifetime disarmament sentence), in the U.S., wouldstill carry the lifetime disarmament sentence. Finally, the accused is to bear the burden of establishing that either the trial was unfair, or that the conviction was for behavior that is legal in the U.S.–so much for the presumption of innocence. On top of that, the bill makes no effort to explain how the accused is to “establish” either of those exemptions–what the procedure is for doing so. Does it involve another trial (this one in the U.S.)? Will the accused be provided a court appointed attorney if he or she cannot afford one? Must the prosecution share its evidence with the defense? These details are kinda important. That a person cannot suffer a life sentence of disarmament, for a conviction won by foreign prosecutors without the accused having enjoyed every single protection demanded by the U.S. justice system, is not a “loophole,” as Feinstein calls it. It’s justice. Note: This is without even getting into the fact that the author very much agrees with National Gun Rights Examiner David Codrea’s oft-stated position that, “anyone who can’t be trusted with a gun can’t be trusted without a custodian.” Feinstein’s bill is utterly unacceptable even without agreeing with that position. Also, the intent here is not to imply that accused “criminals” are never railroaded into prison in the U.S. courts. That happens, too. Still, the accused in the U.S. has at leasttheoretical protection from being falsely convicted. http://www.examiner.com/article/s-261-conviction-foreign-kangaroo-court-to-mean-lifetime-disarmament-us Secret Society Members Fixing One Another's Tickets May Close Down Court Pa. Senate votes to abolish Phila.’s Traffic Court HARRISBURG - The state Senate unanimously voted to abolish Philadelphia's embattled Traffic Court, just weeks after nine of the court's former and current judges were charged in a sweeping federal probe into ticket-fixing. Without debate, the chamber on Wednesday passed two bills. The first would eliminate the seven-member court from the state constitution, which would require several years to accomplish. The second would hobble the court in the interim by transferring its responsibilities to Philadelphia Municipal Court. The bills now go to the state House, where their chances also appear strong. Though the Senate measures were sponsored by a suburban Republican, the city's top Democrat promptly called them "the right thing to do." Mayor Nutter, in Harrisburg on other business, told The Inquirer that the court was "an abominable mess." The bills' chief sponsor agreed. "After the most recent round of indictments, the situation in Philadelphia Traffic Court is so bad that only one judge out of seven is still serving on the court," Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R., Delaware) said after the bills were approved. "There is no good reason for taxpayers to continue footing the bill for a court that is unnecessary and has become an embarrassment to the state's judicial system." Pileggi noted that no other county in Pennsylvania has a separate traffic court, and that his chamber estimates that eliminating Philadelphia's could save the taxpayers up to $650,000 a year. Late last month, nine current and former Traffic Court judges were charged with dismissing or reducing citations for friends, family, business associates, and political allies. Two former judges - Kenneth Miller, 76, of Brookhaven, and H. Warren Hogeland, 75, of Richboro - pleaded guilty in the case this week. Pileggi's legislation grew out of a review last year of Traffic Court operations by the state Supreme Court, which revealed a litany of ethics problems. His proposal to strike the language authorizing Traffic Court from the state's 1968 constitution would require an amendment, which means legislators would have to approve the measure in two separate sessions before voters could decide its ultimate fate via a statewide referendum. Each session lasts two years, so the earliest the measure could be placed on the ballot would be the spring of 2015. Pileggi's second bill addresses that by requiring that the court's duties be transferred to Municipal Court and its complement of judges whittled down to two. It was not immediately clear who would decide the fate of the court's roughly 120 employees. But Pileggi's office expressed confidence that the measure hobbling the court would pass legal muster, noting among other things that the constitution does not say how many judges Traffic Court should have. Pileggi's bills seem to have support in both chambers and both parties. In the House, Majority Leader Mike Turzai (R., Allegheny) said he believed there was broad support for them in his caucus. And though many of the recent revelations about the court involve favors done for various ward leaders and other political figures, one longtime Democratic ward leader - Nutter - said he, too, was for abolishing the court. "It's an abominable mess, a total disgrace," said the mayor, who was in the Capitol on Wednesday to discuss issues such as gun violence, school funding, and tax-collection authority with members of the Philadelphia delegation. "People should have confidence they are getting true justice and that there is not something nefarious behind it." The court's uncertain future does not appear to have deterred potential candidates for Traffic Court judgeships. There are three vacancies on the court, and three of the four remaining judges have been suspended. So far, 25 individuals have picked up nominating petitions to be candidates in the May 21 primary, according to Timothy Dowling, acting supervisor of elections in the City Commissioners' Office. All it takes to run is 1,000 signatures from registered Philadelphia voters - no educational degrees or license to practice law are required to become a Traffic Court judge. Candidates will have three weeks to circulate their petitions, from Tuesday through March 12. Lynn A. Marks, executive director for the nonpartisan group Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts, applauded Wednesday's Senate votes. The two bills made "good sense," Marks said, but she also urged more action: comprehensive ethics training for judges and court staff, community education programs to teach Philadelphians about the role of judges, and increased transparency and accountability in the adjudication of traffic tickets. Her group has also called repeatedly for doing away with partisan elections of appellate court justices and judges, and replacing them with a so-called merit selection system. http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/state/20130213_Pa__Senate_votes_to_abolish_Phila_s_Traffic_Court.html |
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10:10 AM Jul 11