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Law Abiding Citizen



According
to the Pennsylvania-based Patriot News publication, the state’s
Homeland Security office has been involved in surveillance of law
abiding citizen groups and may have overstepped the allowable bounds
authorized for US law enforcement and intelligence-gathering. Criticism
of the Pennsylvania Office of Homeland Security has been intensified by
the report that the government officials involved in this activity, as
well as their private-sector colleagues, had justified their activities
by comparing the environmental advocacy of law abiding citizen activists
to the terrorist attacks committed by Al Qaeda. This detail has been
used, both by news commentators and political figures, as a means for
questioning the overall basis of the Pennsylvania Office of Homeland
Security’s domestic surveillance program. As such, the State’s Governor,
Ed Rendell, has ordered an end to Department of Homeland monitoring of
the law abiding citizen populace of Pennsylvania.


Criticism
of how the State Department of Homeland Security watched and monitored
law abiding citizen activists within the state has also been fed to the
reports that the office had shared concerns with the private business
sector. According to documents released from internal Pennsylvania
Office of Homeland Security proceedings, the Office had a broad
definition of possible threats to the “critical infrastructure” of the
state, pertaining to all forms of political allegiance and activities.
Moreover, the Office was also noted for attempting to build up a “law
abiding citizen” informant network. In the future, the government has
announced that these activities will be relegated more to the
Pennsylvania State Police.

Gerard Butler



The film actor and star Gerard Butler, noted for his appearance in such films as 300 (2006) and Law Abiding Citizen (2009),
has attracted favorable media attention in the 2010 period for reasons
other than his film career, namely that of his work with the Global
Poverty Project. In order to launch his participation with the
initiative, Gerard Butler appeared at the premiere, held at NYC’s Museum
of Modern Art, of a movie about the project, entitled
1.4 Billion Reasons. In this project, Gerard Butler has had help from fellow film star Hugh Jackman, of the X-Men films, who together have pledged to devote time and resources to the alleviation of poverty throughout the world.

As
such, Jackman, as Butler’s partner in the initiative, pledged to
auction off a personal workout session as one of the times offered to
solicit financial contributions for help with the anti-poverty
initiative. Jackman also assisted Gerard Butler with the anti-poverty
effort by acting as host for the
1.4 Billion Reasons benefit,
together with his wife, Deborah-Lee Furness. A month before Gerard
Butler appeared at the October 20 film premiere, Jackman had also spoken
on behalf of the anti-poverty initiative at NYU. Gerard Butler came to
the
1.4 Billion Reasons premiere
after a previous personal appearance, this one at the kick-off for
Michigan State University’s Spartans basketball team. The impetus for
the
1.4 Billion Reasons project,
and for the involvement of celebrities such as Gerard Butler in it,
came from Australian anti-poverty activist Hugh Evans.

Arizona



Arizona
and its recent legislative history were cited in a recent report issued
under the aegis of the United Nations. According to Githu Mugai, who
had been specially appointed by the organization to study racial
discrimination throughout the world, much of the most serious
discrimination is lobbied against alien migrants. Mugai cited the
controversial Arizona state legislation of SB 1070 as an example of
governments overstepping the bounds of human rights as should be
extended to citizens and non-citizens alike.


Mugai’s
comments were reported as the latest example of the negative outside
attention which has been attached to the legislation. More seriously for
the law’s own chances of being implemented in Arizona, the federal
government has taken an interest, in a largely negative form, in the
legislation. The Justice Department, for example, is responsible for one
of the court cases pending against the SB 1070 Arizona legislation,
while a federal judge has barred some aspects of the law from being
enforced, even while the legislation as a whole has been in effect as of
July 29, 2010.


Mugai
voiced some of the complaints which have commonly been made about SB
1070 in the U.S., both at the community level within Arizona and
throughout the nation. He charged that the legislation “equips a
policeman…with such immense powers as to compromise in my point of view
the very, very fundamental human rights that ought to be enjoyed in such
an enlightened part of the world as Arizona,” placing the issue in an
international context.

Arizona Law



The
area of state Arizona law has enjoyed, or been burdened with, newly
intense scrutiny and comment since the legislation commonly referred to
as SB (State Bill) 1070 was first proposed as an overhaul for the
state’s immigration laws. The new Arizona law, formally referred to as
the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act, was
generally seen, both by opponents and proponents, as one of the
“toughest” laws to be passed against illegal immigration to the U.S. for
a long time. Most worrying to critics of the new Arizona law is the
place it reserves for ethnicity and race in empowering police officers
to act against people they suspect of being in the state illegally.
While supporters of the Arizona law point to this allegation as a
mischaracterization, citing the law’s requirement that this not be the
only criteria for enforcement, Arizona law opponents believe it will
lead to an increased degree of discrimination against the state’s Latino
residents, both legally resident and otherwise.


Outside
of the specter of potential human rights abuses, the Arizona law has
also received criticism, and in some cases legal challenges and
opposition, due to the claim that it has usurped the rightful place of
the federal government in enforcing illegal immigration laws. As such,
Arizona law opponents have argued that the federal government has
largely shirked its responsibilities for this matter, and that the
state’s intervention has been made available by the epidemic of violence
on the other side of the border.

Plan to Kill Obama Foiled

Plan to Kill Obama Foiled

A 21-year-old Uzbek man was indicted Tuesday (July 26th) and charged with threatening to kill President Barack Obama. Authorities state that Ulugbek Kodirov—who was illegally in the United States when his student visa was revoked—had obtained an M15 machine gun and one hand grenade to carry-out his plot of murdering the President.
Kodirov, along with counts of weapons and immigration violations , was charged with four counts of threatening the President of the United States. The young Uzbek man was arrested on July 13 in Leeds, Alabama after he purchased the machine gun from an undercover agent. 
The suspect entered the United States during the summer of 2009; Kodirov remained in the country after his student visa was revoked for not staying in school. 
For his assassination plot, Kodirov faces a maximum sentence of twenty years in prison (five years for each count) and a maximum of 10 years for the weapons charges. 
The plot was effectively foiled due to intelligence gathering and the seamless coordination between federal and local law enforcement agencies. 

Busted by the Geek Squad

Busted by the Geek Squad

Like so many Americans, 67-year-old David Allen Smith was aggravated when his family’s computer suddenly stopped working. In response to these nagging tech problems, Allen’s wife took the family device to the “Geek Squad” at their local “Best Buy” store. 
Police on location say the “Geek Squad” when reviewing Smith’s troubled machine, uncovered a vile stash of child pornography in the system’s hard drive. When the employees noticed the abundance of explicit and raunchy material on Allen’s computer they immediately notified patrolmen stationed near the store’s location. 
“Best Buy notified one of our patrolmen after seeing file names that indicated child pornography. This is the first time, since I’ve been here, in the cyber crimes divisions, that we’ve made an arrest in this way. Best Buy handled the situation perfectly”, said detective Otis Almond. 
According to various state and local authorities, Smith did not have a police record; officers are continuing their investigation, and when concluded, will charge Smith with a felony. Smith’s bail was set at $5,000, which he bonded out of Angelina County Jail earlier this week. 
Best Buy issued a company-wide statement citing that the Geek Squad does not routinely rummage through people’s personal devices, but for this request (Smith’s wife asked for a hard drive transfer) the technical support staff was required to view the computer’s files. The company stated that if they do discover suspicious or illegal materials in the natural order of satisfying requests, they deem it their responsibility to inform local authorities. 

Deutsche Bank faces Toxic Mess:

Deutsche Bank faces Toxic Mess:




On Tuesday, May 3rd of 2011, the United States
Federal Government formally issued a suit against Deutsche Bank, a financial
power based out of Germany. To date, the United States Federal Government has
brought few cases against Wall Street titans in response to the mortgage crisis
that nearly crippled the global financial markets in 2008. The unwillingness to
act on the mortgage crisis, in regards to government intervention; however,
seemingly did a 180, when the Justice Department filed an aggressive lawsuit
against the financial power for several hundreds of millions of dollars.

The United States Justice Department alleged that the
financial giant unjustly stuck taxpayers with enormous tabs for toxic home
loans it previously issued. The complaint, which was filed in the Federal
District Court in New York, formally accused Deutsche Bank of failing to
properly scrutinize potential borrowers, then subsequently lying to government
officials concerning administrative negligence.

According to U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, “Deutsche Bank
ignored every type of red flag and breached every duty of due diligence before
underwriting thousands of federally insured mortgages. While the homes the
defendants issued loans for may have been built on solid ground, the lending
practices were built on quicksand. Ultimately, prudence was trumped by profit,
and good faith took a back seat to good fees.”

The complaint states that MotgageIT, a powerful arm of
Deutsche Bank, issued roughly 39,000 toxic loans amassing over $5 billion,
between 1999 and 2009. As a result of the lenient mortgage laws and the fact
that such loans won government backing, the bank was then able to flip these
loans to investors. In order to legally re-package these loans, however, the
financial giant had to obtain certification from the FHA to affirm the lending
practice met the HUD’s standards.

The suit filed against Deutsche Bank revolves around this
certification process; federal prosecutors allege that when the bank applied
for certification, it “repeatedly lied to H.U.D. to obtain and maintain legal
certification.” The foundation of these claims centers on the accusation that
the bank did not properly monitor the default rate of these risky loans, even
though it definitively claimed to do so.

Although Deutsche Bank claimed these charges to be
“unreasonable and unfair” the extent to which this suit establishes whether
such neglectful lending practices are criminal will yield far-reaching
ramifications for the prominent players in the controversial mortgage market. 

Osama’s Sons Threatening Lawsuit to Obama?

Osama's Sons Threatening Lawsuit to Obama?




The sons of recently slain international terrorist Osama Bin
Laden have threatened to sue United States President Barack Obama over what
they see as a savage and disgraceful treatment of their father’s dead body.

 

Osama Bin Laden’s son, Omar, recently issued a statement to
an Internet site on behalf of his brothers, saying that Obama is responsible
for his father’s death and for what they see as the deplorable acts, which
followed the Navy SEAL operation to kill their father.

 

Omar stated that throwing his father’s dead body in the sea
is not only “unacceptable,” but “humiliating” to the Bin Laden family.

 

Omar went onto to say in his statement, “From a human point
of view it is impermissible to treat the body of a person in that manner, which
as a matter of fact hurts the feelings of hundreds of millions of Muslims
around the world.”

 

The burial Omar is referring is in response to the United
States’ efforts to give Bin Laden a proper Muslim burial by placing his corpse
in the sea. As it turns out, however, Muslim custom states that only people who
have died at sea can be buried in the sea.

 

Omar bin Laden and a number of his brothers have stated that
the family is determined to resolve what they see as a desecration by any means
of the American and international justice system. 

$8.5 Billion Shopping Spree

$8.5 Billion Shopping Spree




On May 10th, 2011, the Microsoft company
purchased Skype for an estimated $8.5 billion; Skype – a video communication
system allowing users to converse via virtual ‘face to face’ interaction – is
utilized by almost 700 million people worldwide. As a result, what happens when
one of the biggest computer software companies purchases one of the biggest and
most upcoming telecommunications company – and what does it mean for you?

 

First off – if you’re a PC user – you may still be able to
hold out on crossing over to Apple; although Microsoft offers a smart phone
option in the new Windows phone, but it has not reached the acclaim and
popularity of the iPhone – the smart phone offered by the Apple Company.
However, with the integrated technology from Skype – in addition to its massive
user base – both Microsoft’s network, as well as its communications technology
is expected to bring a multitude of surprises to consumers later in 2011.

 

Secondly, video game enthusiasts may see their individual
gaming experiences propelled into a realm of technology never thought possible;
Xbox – Microsoft’s video gaming system boasting hundreds of millions of users –
allows gamers to connect with fellow gamers through audio chat, which is called
‘Xbox Live’. However, the purchase of Skype may allow for video gamers residing
all over the globe to ‘video chat’ with each other during game play – this
would be an industry first. 

A Sex Dungeon Education

A Sex Dungeon Education

The for-profit education system in America has somewhat of a controversial reputation. David Lee, the chancellor of the University of Northern Virginia, has not helped quell this sentiment.
Last week, Lee’s alleged university was raided by federal immigration agents on information that the chancellor was using his institution as a means to illegally funnel Indian men and women into the country without visas. The school was used as a guise; Lee would take-in the individuals under a falsified student visa and they would stay in America (without studying) after paying the chancellor an undisclosed sum.   
While the agents were investigating Lee’s mansion, a war-chest of indecent and perverse materials were found.  In addition to numerous pornographic materials retrieved from his computer, Lee who has made a fortune off scamming the student visa “business”, was found to be running a sex dungeon in his $800,000 home’s basement.
The 64-year-old Lee and his girlfriend were found to have visited the exhibitionist website, collarme.com, where they posted adds imploring women to come to their homes to partake in obscene and perverse sex games. 
When they found women to play their “sex slave” role, the couple foolishly posted pictures online. After being caught, Lee and his girlfriend brushed-off their perversions by claiming they provide “a safe and sane home with a good balance of love and discipline.” The oddballs went onto say, “we are very serious about finding a permanent addition to our poly family.”
The investigation is still pending, but it can be assumed that Lee will, at the very least, be relieved of his role as Chancellor of the University of Northern Virginia.