A young Italian student has a blog called "promoting ideas of democracy". It's pretty interesting and her blogroll is also interesting. And, man, does she have strong opinions......or what???!!!
Free Iran News update: Project: FREE IRAN![activistchat.com] :: View topic - Iranian Militia seize 14,000 Satellite Dishes
Where is the left when sleaze like this happens? Why isn't the left making any kinds of statement about this travesty of justice? The mullah theocracy is one of the most oppressive dictatorships in the world.
The Oregon Blog has some info here and here about Oregon's dismal financial picture. Maybe It's time to move to Panama
When I took my two daughters and their mother to Costa Rica we spent about three or four days in Panama. We all enjoyed it. Costa Rica and Panama have some of the biggest bugs in the world.
spite
n.
1. Malicious ill will prompting an urge to hurt or humiliate.
2. An instance of malicious feeling.
Spite - what the "pig family" does better than anybody. In fact, it's all they do.
Looks like New Jersey has finally figured out that before you can put a person in jail, that person has to be afforded the right to legal counsel.
I wonder what took New Jersey so long to figure that out. Maybe it has something to do with mindless, socialist administrators.
As Critical Mass states in this post, the adminstrators at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo are lying and they apparently think they can get away with their egregious behavior.
If the administrators had just stopped and took a moment to think about the situation instead of acting in a knee-jerk reactionary manner, maybe all this hoopla wouldn't have happened.
I like this post by Jack about the current sorry state of affairs in the Oregon Republican Party. As I've written before, the Oregon GOP was infiltrated by loonies, crazies, and Kevin Mannix and this made the Oregon GOP more representative of space aliens than regular Oregonians.
The Oregon GOP does have some bright spots, though, and Senator Gordon Smith is one of the brightest.
Well, Tim has a couple of interesting posts. I was in Australia in the early 1980's for a couple of weeks when I was in the Navy. We even held joint exercises with the British and the Australians in the Indian Ocean. Now on to the posts.
One is
Tim Blair: OBVIOUS, MOMENTOUS, AND UNDER-REPORTEDJulie Flint in the English-language Lebanese Daily Star states that which cannot be stated often enough:
The other great post is
Paul Sheehan on Australia and the US:
Now that you've read the posts, hightail it to Australia and drink some beer.
There's one thing I think should be abolished and President Bush brought up the subject during his UN speech. It's about time this one dirty secret was exposed to the general populaces of the world.
Donna M. Hughes has more here.
Sgt Stryker has a post about a couple of absurd comments by civilians made to him and some of his buddies and his reaction. In the comments there are also a lot of interesting observations.
When I was in the Navy you wouldn't believe some of the strange things that were said to me by American civilians. You also wouldn't believe some of the insults that were directed to me.
It's my opinion that the Navy is the service most misunderstood and hated by civilians.
By the way, when did Air Force guys start having to do pushups?
Talkleft has provided commentary and provided many links for anyone who wants to know why people are against the death penalty.
Link via Instapundit.
Check out E:M | The real Iran and remember, Free Iran.
For a chuckle read the following post by XRLQ.
damnum absque injuria: Do Not Call Update
I fail to understand why many people fail to realize that, as is stated in The oil oligarchy, OPEC is a conspiracy to fix prices. All indications are that OPEC is not for free markets and we shouldn't pretend that it is.
At the moment I'm watching the debate of the Democratic presidential hopefuls. When they are not discussing the Iraq situation, they sound reasonably coherent.
Since the Bush administration will not reign in that idiot, John Ashcroft, or the adminstration's proclivities for wanting to support every policy in favor of controlling every aspect of every moment of every American's private moments, there is no way I can ever vote for a republican.
Of course most of the time since I could vote I've voted for third party candidates, so you know I'm a loser. I did vote for Reagan once and while I disagreed with most of his policies, I thought at the time he was the best we had at the time and I think I was right.
I'll probably vote for the libertarian candidate the next time around. I've done that twice before so you know I really am an optimist.
In the meantime I've decided to ask a little, itty bitty question and the question is as follows:
Who assaulted a woman in the late 1980's?. Believe it or not it's not that difficult a question to answer. My relatives, John McClelland Hays, Neta Hays, and Chris Andrea Hays, and members of their fine upstanding church, the Church of Christ in Aloha, Oregon, know the answer.......but they're not talking.
Since they're not talking about something that needs to be talked about, do you think that fine, upstanding church has something to hide........or have they been afflicted with cowardice, political correctness, or something as simple as sleaziness? Is it possible that the fine, upstanding members of the fine upstanding Church of Christ in Aloha, Oregon have decided that what Jesus teaches is nothing but crap and that silence about sleaziness is the way to go?
Beats me.
But, hey, if these sleazy, lying, fine, upstanding members of society and hypocrisy want me to join their mindless cult, then shouldn't they offer a better reason other than, "If you don't do what we want you're going to hell!"?
By the way, when the Navy finds out that a JAG officer who graduated from Baylor University in the late 1970's committed all sorts of violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice( UCMJ), what do you think it does?
If you guessed that the Navy would try to cover up this JAG officer's crimes you would be correct.
XRLQ has a point. I believe what he says about Less is More applies not only to the law, but to many other disciplines as well.
If the news The Agonist links to is true, then it is important that any Potential Threat to Reservists should be brought to the attention of as many people as possible.
The permalink won't work so I'm putting the whole post below.
Baghdad BurningWednesday, September 24, 2003
For Sale: Iraq
For Sale: A fertile, wealthy country with a population of around 25 million… plus around 150,000 foreign troops, and a handful of puppets. Conditions of sale: should be either an American or British corporation (forget it if you’re French)… preferably affiliated with Halliburton. Please contact one of the members of the Governing Council in Baghdad, Iraq for more information.To hear of the first of the economic reforms announced by Kamil Al-Gaylani, the new Iraqi Finance Minister, you’d think Iraq was a Utopia and the economy was perfect only lacking in… foreign investment. As the BBC so wonderfully summarized it: the sale of all state industries except for oil and other natural resources. Basically, that means the privatization of water, electricity, communications, transportation, health… The BBC calls it a ‘surprise’… why were we not surprised?
After all, the Puppets have been bought- why not buy the stage too? Iraq is being sold- piece by piece. People are outraged. The companies are going to start buying chunks of Iraq. Or, rather, they’re going to start buying the chunks the Governing Council and CPA don’t reward to the ‘Supporters of Freedom’.
The irony of the situation is that the oil industry, the one industry that is *not* going to be sold out, is actually being run by foreigners anyway.
The whole neighborhood knows about S. who lives exactly two streets away. He’s what is called a ‘merchant’ or ‘tajir’. He likes to call himself a ‘businessman’. For the last six years, S. has worked with the Ministry of Oil, importing spare parts for oil tankers under the surveillance and guidelines of the “Food for Oil Program”. In early March, all contracts were put ‘on hold’ in expectation of the war. Thousands of contracts with international companies were either cancelled or postponed.
S. was in a frenzy: he had a shipment of engines coming in from a certain country and they were ‘waiting on the border’. Everywhere he went, he chain-smoked one cigarette after another and talked of ‘letters of credit’, ‘comm. numbers’, and nasty truck drivers who were getting impatient.
After the war, the CPA decided that certain contracts would be approved. The contracts that had priority over the rest were the contracts that were going to get the oil pumping again. S. was lucky- his engines were going to find their way through… hopefully.
Unfortunately, every time he tried to get the go-ahead to bring in the engines, he was sent from person to person until he found himself, and his engines, tangled up in a bureaucratic mess in-between the CPA, the Ministry of Oil and the UNOPS. By the time things were somewhat sorted out, and he was communicating directly with the Ministry of Oil, he was given a ‘tip’. He was told that he shouldn’t bother doing anything if he wasn’t known to KBR. If KBR didn’t approve of him, or recommend him, he needn’t bother with anything.
For a week, the whole neighborhood was discussing the KBR. Who were they? What did they do? We all had our own speculations… E. said it was probably some sort of committee like the CPA, but in charge of the contracts or reconstruction of the oil infrastructure. I expected it was probably another company- but where was it from? Was it Russian? Was it French? It didn’t matter so long as it wasn’t Halliburton or Bechtel. It was a fresh new name or, at least, a fresh new set of initials. Well, it was ‘fresh’ for a whole half-hour until curiosity got the better of me and I looked it up on the internet.
KBR stands for Kellogg, Brown and Root, a subsidiary of… guess who?!... Halliburton. They handle ‘construction and engineering services for the energy community’, amongst other things. Apparently, KBR is famous for more than just its reconstruction efforts. In 1997, KBR was sued $6 million dollars for overcharging the American army on sheets of plywood! You can read something about the whole sordid affair here.
They are currently located in the ‘Conference Palace’. The Conference Palace is a series of large conference rooms, located in front of the Rashid Hotel and was reserved in the past for major international conferences. It is now the headquarters of KBR, or so they say. So foreign companies can’t completely own the oil industry, but they can run it… just like they’ll never own Iraq, but they can run the Governing Council.
Someone sent me an email a couple of weeks back praising Halliburton and Bechtel to the skies. The argument was that we should consider ourselves ‘lucky’ to have such prestigious corporations running the oil industry and heading the reconstruction efforts because a. they are efficient, and b. they employ the ‘locals’.
Ok. Fine. I’ll pretend I never read that article that said it would take at least two years to get the electricity back to pre-war levels. I’ll pretend that it hasn’t been 5 months since the ‘end of the war’ and the very efficient companies are terrified of beginning work because the security situation is so messed up.
As for employing the locals… things are becoming a little bit clearer. Major reconstruction contracts are being given to the huge companies, like Bechtel and Halliburton, for millions of dollars. These companies, in turn, employ the Iraqis in the following way: they first ask for bids on specific projects. The Iraqi company with the lowest bid is selected to do the work. The Iraqi company gets *exactly* what it bid from the huge conglomerate, which is usually only a fraction of the original contract price. Hence, projects that should cost $1,000,000 end up costing $50,000,000.
Now, call me naïve, or daft, or whatever you want, but wouldn’t it be a. more economical and b. more profitable to the Iraqis to hand the work over directly to experienced Iraqi companies? Why not work directly with one of the 87 companies and factories that once worked under the ‘Iraqi Military Council’ and made everything from missiles to electrical components? Why not work directly with one of the 158 factories and companies under the former Ministry of Industry and Minerals that produced everything from candy to steel girders? Why not work with the bridge, housing and building companies under the Ministry of Housing that have been heading the reconstruction efforts ever since 1991?
Some of the best engineers, scientists, architects and technicians are currently out of work because their companies have nothing to do and there are no funds to keep them functioning. The employees get together a couple of days a week and spend several hours brooding over ‘istikans’ of lukewarm tea and ‘finjans’ of Turkish coffee. Instead of spending the endless billions on multinational companies, why not spend only millions on importing spare parts and renovating factories and plants?
My father has a friend with a wife and 3 children who is currently working for an Italian internet company. He communicates online with his ‘boss’ who sits thousands of kilometers away, in Rome, safe and sure that there are people who need to feed their families doing the work in Baghdad. This friend, and a crew of male techies, work 10 hours a day, 6 days a week. They travel all over Baghdad, setting up networks. They travel in a beat-up SUV armed with cables, wires, pliers, network cards, installation CDs, and a Klashnikov for… you know… technical emergencies.
Each of the 20 guys who work with this company get $100/month. A hundred dollars for 260 hours a month comes to… $0.38/hour. My 16-year-old babysitter used to get more. The Italian company, like many other foreign companies, seems to think that $100 is appropriate for the present situation. One wonders the price of the original contract the Italian company got… how many countless millions are being spent so 20 guys can make $100/month to set up networks?
John Snow, US Treasury Secretary, claimed that the reforms were the “proposals, ideas, and concepts of the Governing Council" with no pressure from the American administration. If that’s true, then Bush can pull out the troops any time he wants because he’ll be leaving behind a Governing Council that is obviously more solicitous of Halliburton and Co. than he and Cheney can ever hope to be…
- posted by river @ 3:41 AM
Jeralyn Merritt is subbing for Eric Alterman and her column is up at Eric Alterman's Altercation.
She also has a post at TalkLeft worth reading. Actually, all of her posts are worth reading.
It's time to remind people that the American Family Rights Association is a front for some of the most violent, hatefilled white supremacists in America. Click on the preceding link for more information.
Remember, the American Family Rights Association, lead by psychos like Roger Weidner, Pamela Gaston, and Leonard Henderson, is not out to help anybody but themselves. They really want to set up a government where only members of the super-duper, superior, white Aryan race will have any kind of family rights. Don't be suckered by the lies and mindless propaganda of the liars and thieves of the Roger Weidner/Victor Oekerman cult.
The following is an excerpt of some of the shenanigans pulled by associates of the Roger Weidner/Victor oekerman gang:
[1] Assistant Attorney General Eileen J. O'Connor and United States Attorney Michael W. Mosman announced today that a federal jury in Portland, Oregon, convicted six defendants, Richard George Flowers, Dorothy Lenore Flowers, Jeffrey Allen Weakley, John David Anderson, Ronald William Stacey, and Dan Romaine Kirkham, of conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). All defendants were associated with the Christian Patriot Association, a warehouse bank located in Boring, Oregon, which provided anonymous banking for 900 members nationwide. According to proof at trial. this warehouse bank was operated for the purpose of impeding and impairing the Internal Revenue Service and bad deposits totaling $186 million during the 14-year span of the conspiracy. The jury also found Richard George Flowers guilty of failure to file federal income tax returns for 1995 and 1996 and found Anderson, Ronald and Elecia Stacey, and Dan Romaine Kirkham guilty of tax evasion.
[2] The indictment alleged a conspiracy that involved a nationwide web of financial transactions from March 1986 until July 2000. The scheme was designed to enable members to conduct banking transactions anonymously by using numbered accounts that were come singled in a single comercial bank account.
And let's not forget that two of the gang, Forrest Bateman and Fritz Springmeier, have been convicted of robbing a bank.
Roger Weidner even wrote a book. Well, actually Hedy Hammond wrote the book and Roger Weidner dictated it. It's called the "Weidner Method". The following is the preface:
PREFACE It is my hope that Americans in every county in the country will converge upon their courthouses and use The Weidner Method to fight any kind of case.The courts control the money and the judge controls the cops. Therefore, you have to neutralize that judge. -- Roger Weidner
Throughout my 20 years of research about government corruption The Weidner Method is the first solution I have ever encountered. If nothing else, it will expose duplicity and make the entire community aware of it, a necessary first step.
Government child-snatching, IRS extortion, voting fraud, government racketeering, health food laws, lawyer malpractice, property taxes, the necessity for citizen oversight of government agencies, unlawfully mandated 501(c)3 non-profit status for churches, the unlawfully mandated driver's license for sovereign citizens, lack of protective tariffs, overwhelming imports, mind control, national security abuses, land rights, heavy-handed cops, unlawful search and seizure, conflicts of interest, federal funding of abuses, Federal Reserve audit, violation of freedom of worship, poisoning of the air, land and water through chemicals in the water, chemical fertilizers and pesticides and chemtrails, multi-vitamin labeling that doesn't include absorption rate or info that nutrients are synthetic, issues concerning hybridized seeds, public schools, taxes, too much government, alloidal ownership of land, regulation of industry which should emanate from the people not the federal government, unlawful and unConstitutitonal laws and statutes, lawyers holding office (13th amendment), any and all ways in which our Constitutional rights are being denied-all these and countless other issues can be addressed in the courtroom using The Weidner Method.
The government should be formed from the bottom up in cells of 10 families as described in the writings of Kelly Hoskins, author of the Hoskins Report. Senators should again be elected by state Legislatures, no more foreign aid, fractional reserve banking should be outlawed, debtfree money should be issued by the Congress, solar technology, which was running factories 100 years ago, should be unsuppressed, natural healing should be unsuppressed, the truth should be unsuppressed, and countless other issues can be addressed in the courtroom using the The Weidner Method.
According to history, when a nation is in transition from one form of government to a different type of government, as we are now (making the transition from freedom to enslavement) there is a point in the struggle, a section of time, during which it could go either way. I believe we are presently teetering on that brink.
Hedy Hammond
As noted in the paragraph above, the cult wants to form society along the teachings of Kelly Hoskins. The following is an excerpt from an article by the Anti-Defamation League.
Although not as well known as white supremacists such as Matt Hale and the late William Pierce, Virginia financial advisor Richard Kelly Hoskins has promoted racism and anti-Semitism for more than forty years, and has considerably influenced the far right during the past two decades. His books, Christian Identity-based commentaries on history and economics, are among the most popular on the Identity circuit, and he has become a fixture at movement conferences and retreats. He is best known for introducing and advocating, in Vigilantes of Christendom (1990), the purportedly Biblical concept of the "Phineas Priesthood": white supremacist guerrillas who violently avenge "crimes" against the white race. Hoskins' idea, based on a passage from the Book of Numbers, has been adopted or popularized by some of the country's most radical racists and has provided a religious justification for acts of domestic terrorism.
Check out Stephen Baskerville, PhD - Fathers and Men's Rights Articles.
There was a story in the Washington Times concerning a new Welfare Reform bill.
The following is an excerpt from the Washington Times story:
The House as well as Senate chambers are paving the way to pass a sweeping welfare bill that would call for an increase in child-care spending and stringent child-support programs. The legislators are amending and reauthorizing the Welfare Reform Act of 1996.
The socialist propronents of the bill are saying this bill is the greatest thing since central planning but the truth is this bill is merely another attempt to control poor people and fathers and further add to the disintegration of the family unit.
The Welfare Reform bill is a great welfare bill for federal, state, and county bureaucracies, but not for ordinary, hardworking Americans near or below the poverty level.
Stephen Baskerville points out in an article entitled "Absurdistan in America" at LewRockwell.com some of the absurdites of laws already on the books and how the Welfare Reform bill is not only bad policy but bad law as well. Below are some excerpts from Dr. Baskerville's article:
In Iowa, the government has confiscated the savings of 11-year-old Rylan Nitzschke. Rylan saved $220 from chores and shoveling snow, but that now belongs to Iowa. Why? Rylan’s father allegedly owes child support (to Rylan), and his father’s name was on the boy’s bank account.OK, so this is a mistake, and Iowa will return the boy’s savings, right? Wrong. State officials have no intention of returning the money. After all, they receive federal funds for each dollar they collect (and for each father they incarcerate). Rylan’s piggy bank helps balance the budget.
West Virginia officials cleaned out the bank account of an 85-year-old grandmother whose son allegedly owed child support. The son paid in none of the $6,450 taken from the account, which comprised her life savings. She was also charged a $75 processing fee.
The elderly can also become targets of rape-for-profit. A disabled 85-year-old man, sexually assaulted by his housekeeper and awarded damages for the assault, was ordered to pay her child support, and his pension was garnished. The court denied him access to the child.
According to the Keystone Cops who enforce child support, a "child" is not a dependent minor but any recipient of their chivalry. "We've got some 40- to 45-year-old ‘kids’ running around who are owed child support," says Nick Young, enforcement director in Virginia. In Ohio, a 77-year-old great grandfather who had always paid on time was told he owed $45,000 in back child support and had his wages garnished, even though his youngest child was 46 years old.
It's time to let our senators and representatives know that pursuing absurd socialist policies and passing ridiculous laws are not helping Americans, only mindless bureaucrats.
I've heard through the years many reasons for banning various writings of Mark Twain. I'm not a great believer in banning books and banning books by Mark Twain is absurd. Cobb has an opinion about many things, maybe even about Mark Twain and Huckleberry Finn.
Legal Theory Blog - En Banc Decision in Recall Case: The Recall Election Is Back On
It is incredible and outrageous that some employers are reorganizing in order to avoid having to save the job position held by a Guardsman or reservist called to active duty.
This is an example of extreme sleaze.
I've heard a lot of opinions since General Clark joined the Democratic fray and here is one by Col. Hackworth
Forfeiture Endangers American Rights Foundation (F.E.A.R.) Home Page
Check out internet statistics at Stats Toolbox: Statistics
The farcical nonsense known as the polygraph test is being exposed at Polygraph Litigation | AntiPolygraph.org
How Appealing has an excellent post about the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. I can't get the permalink to work so I'm putting the whole post below.
A report on today's Eleventh Circuit oral argument concerning the legality of Alabama's law prohibiting the distribution of sex toys: Today a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit heard oral argument in an appeal in which the State of Alabama, the losing party in the trial court, is seeking to have the appellate court reinstate a law prohibiting the distribution of "any device designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs."
You can access here the trial court's opinion, and you can access here my preview of today's oral argument, which includes the names of the judges on the appellate panel.
Lately it seems that an appellate courtroom that lacks a "How Appealing" reader is a rare occurrence, and today is no different. Via email, the following report from a courtroom observer entirely unconnected with this case has arrived:The state (Deputy S.G. somebody, with Attorney General Pryor nowhere to be seen) argued first. Though he had saved 5 or so minutes out of his 15 for rebuttal, his 10 minute opening was going strong at about 30 minutes when I finally had had enough.Thanks much to my correspondent for this very interesting description of today's oral argument.
Senior Judge Hill was funny as hell, and rather forceful in the view that this was an absurd law. Choice paraphrases of what he said:
"What exactly is it that you're trying to protect Alabamians from? What's the horror here?" "Next thing you know, you'll be banning bathing suits, and then on to burkas." "When I was young, condom packages said 'for medical use only.' Could a vendor lawfully sell these devices if they had a label that said 'only for the treatment of psychological needs within a marriage relationship'?"
Judge Hill also said that he thought the only interest that was sought to be served by this legislation was the desire of its sponsors to proudly tell some of their constituents that they voted for it. The attorney arguing for Alabama couldn't even bring himself to disagree very forcefully with that assessment.
The State argued that this law was directed against only the "prurient" use of vibrators. Judges Barkett and Hill wanted to know what "prurient" meant in this context. Judge Barkett suggested that it merely meant "pleasurable", Judge Hill suggested "fun," and the State went with "recreational." Who knew that recreation was ipso facto prurient, or that things could be banned on the grounds that they were fun?
Judge Barkett read lengthy passages from Lawrence v. Texas, challenging the state for some reason why the same reasoning wouldn't apply. Wasn't quite clear what the state's answer was -- seemed mostly to be the assertion that this law imposes criminal penalties only on the seller, not the user. But Judge Birch said words to the effect of, even if I wanted to agree with you on that, how do you get around Eisenstadt, which extended Griswold to a law that (like yours) merely prohibited sale rather than possession? The State had no good answer to that question.
Judge Birch was -- either as a Socratic exercise, or not -- suggesting that the State's legitimate interest was in keeping people from the horrible sight of people selling sex (toys) for profit -- the view being that it was the sight of this going on in public, with the motive of filthy lucre, that was the problem. Judge Barkett neatly parried that with an inquiry into the law's exceptions for those who need the devices for medical, psychological, academic, etc., reasons -- given those exceptions, some people will be able to buy, and so the public is still going to be subjected to the same harm that Judge Birch suggests this statute will avoid.
The State also relied on what I call the Brookstone defense, which was something like, "if you want to buy such a device, just buy one of the readily available things that is marketed for other purposes but easily adaptable to stimulation of the genitals." Somehow or another, in the State's view, this saves the constitutionality of the statute.
The courtroom, by the way, was full of high school students. Don't know if they knew what was on the docket and came on purpose in connection with some class, or if they just luckily stumbled in to a day full of cases that involved child porn, vibrators, and a high school principal seeking qualified immunity despite having severely beaten a student with a metal walking stick for no good reason.
Pontificating about leaves
I just cleaned out the gutters once again. We had a windstorm shortly afterwards. Now there's leaves in the gutters again. Damn leaves?
I've stumbled upon the problem. It seems there's lots of trees in Oregon (I'm not counting the ones that have burned down or been logged) and these trees have leaves. What we need to do is replace all the trees with peyote cactus.
I know, I know, call me a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.
September 22, 2003
More idiots exposed for false accusations about Satanic Ritual Abuse
Must have been some temporary insanity going around in Canada.
Sex case likened to witch trials Prosecutor thought case too weak to proceedJason Warick
Saskatchewan News NetworkThe Saskatoon Crown prosecutor first handed the Klassen sex abuse file more than a decade ago compared the children's claims to the complaints made during the Salem witchcraft trials.
"I was completely floored when I read the documents," prosecutor Terry Hinz testified Thursday at the malicious prosecution lawsuit filed by 12 people charged with ritual abuse of several foster children.
"It made me feel I was transported back into the 17th century reading about the Salem witchcraft complaints."
The children detailed stories of baby killings, drinking blood and eating eyeballs, Hinz said, who reviewed the file in the early months of 1991.
"I had a file with inconsistencies, bizarre allegations and no corroboration," he said.
Hinz had read the file over the weekend at home. The following week, he gave the file back to Saskatoon police Cpl. Brian Dueck, who had interviewed the children and compiled the file.
Hinz said he told Dueck, "Where are the bodies? Find me the bodies."
He said Dueck replied that "these cultists are too clever" and would have long ago disposed of the bodies of the babies.
Hinz recalls asking Dueck if he would go through various records to see if any neighbourhood children had died or gone missing.
Dueck told Hinz that people like this work with "brood mares" -- women who breed children specifically to sacrifice them. These children are never registered with any agencies and are impossible to trace, Hinz told the court.
Hinz said he couldn't prosecute without more information. The conversation ended cordially, and Hinz never talked to Dueck about the case again.
In July of 1991, Hinz was at the courthouse on another matter, and heard that the Klassens and their relatives had been charged with more than 70 counts of sexual assault, incest, and gross indecency.
Hinz went into the court office and looked at the file to see if there was any new information, but there wasn't, he said.
"There was really nothing new in there," Hinz said.
Hinz, who retired last year after 25 years as a prosecutor, said the ritual sacrifice allegations "coloured" all the other allegations, calling the entire case into question.
The prosecution went ahead, led by prosecutors Matt Miazga and Sonia Hansen.
The Klassens and their relatives were committed to stand trial. On the eve of the trial in 1993, a controversial plea bargain was reached.
Peter Klassen pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault in exchange for staying the remaining charges.
The case began when three children, Michael, Michelle and Kathy Ross, began to fabricate fantastic stories of ritual abuse against their former foster parents, Anita and Dale Klassen, and 14 other adults.
The Ross children were living with a new foster family, the Thompsons, at the time that many of the allegations were recorded by foster mother Marilyn Thompson.
Dueck and therapist Carol Bunko-Ruys questioned the children and the adults extensively.
The children have all since admitted to lying, including the allegation about Peter Klassen.
Twelve of those charged are now suing Dueck, Bunko-Ruys and prosecutors for $10 million, alleging malicious prosecution.
During the lawsuit's pretrial questioning known as "examinations for discovery," Dueck's lawyer, David Gerrand, successfully argued that Hinz would not be able to testify about any conversations he had with Dueck.
Justice Mona Dovell agreed that these conversations were covered by the solicitor-client confidentiality rule.
Richard Klassen was prepared to argue this point again at the trial, but Gerrand stood and told court last week that they have removed their objections.
That cleared the way for Hinz to answer any queries about his involvement with Dueck.
Under cross-examination by Gerrand, Hinz was shown to have confused details about a previous case involving Peter Klassen.
"And that's one of the firm recollections you have?" asked Gerrand.
Hinz also said he had no doubts about the integrity of Dueck, Miazga or Hanson.
Also Thursday, there were some emotional moments when Richard Klassen questioned his niece, Jackie Klassen.
Jackie, now 21 years old, recounted being questioned at her elementary school by police and a social worker about abuse. She denied ever being abused or seeing her parents abuse anyone.
She and her brother were taken for medical examinations.
She was again questioned about the same matters after the family moved to Red Deer, and was taken "kicking and screaming" to the doctor for another medical exam.
When she began to discuss being taken from her parents and placed in foster care, both she and Richard Klassen broke down and a five-minute recess was called.
The third Ross sibling, Kathy, finished her testimony Thursday afternoon.
Like her brother and sister, she admitted to lying about being abused by the Klassens and their extended family members.
The case is expected to run at least another week.
Klassen Lawsuit
© Copyright 2003 The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon)
KOIN of Portland, OR uncovers extreme sleaze
KOIN TV of Portland, OR has done some great investigative reporting and has uncovered extreme sleaze in Goodwill Industries, a non-profit. Hmmm.....well, it's not a "non-profit" for some people.
Goodwill of the Columbia-Willamette pays the highest top-level salaries of all Northwest charities.
The company also pays no corporate federal income tax, state income tax or Multnomah County property taxes.
Here are the top dozen salary and benefit packages for fiscal year 2002:
Michael Miller, President
Salary: $484,348
Benefits: $51,229
Total: $535,647Click on the link above to read the whole thing. It will amaze you.
Is this judge too stupid to know about the War?
Nevada probably has the world's stupidest judge. If this judge would take her head out of her ass and look around, she might see that the U. S. is involved in some sort of war over in the Middle East.
Las Vegas SUN: Southern Nevada judge terminates soldier's child custody rightsLAS VEGAS (AP) - A Southern Nevada judge has been criticized for terminating a Las Vegas man's child custody rights while he was deployed overseas during the buildup for Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Family Court Judge Cheryl Moss terminated James Denson II's joint custody rights to his 8-year-old daughter after Denson failed to show up for a Dec. 18 court hearing, according to court records.
The judge found Denson in contempt of court for unpaid child support and issued a warrant for his arrest. She also awarded custody of the girl to his ex-wife and gave permission to garnishee paychecks from his military and civilian jobs.
But Denson was called to active duty for the Navy and was in the Persian Gulf at the time of the hearing.
Navy Lt. Charlie Brown told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that Denson was deployed to Kuwait five days before the hearing and remained there until mid-January. Brown has since sent a letter to Moss confirming Denson's whereabouts.
Who the hell did this judge screw in order to get her judgeship?
Time to Review the life of Bill Porter
The Oregonian should have won some sort of award for the story of Bill Porter - Life of a salesman - Betrayed by a crippled body that leaves him in continual pain, betrayed by a changing world that no longer needs him, Bill Porter each day trudges his door-to-door sales territory, set on making his way in the world.
Mindless social engineering is no substitute for education
We need to get back to the idea that education has something to do with educating and not with mindless, Marxist social engineering.
Convicted Murderess Can Get Custody but Decent Fathers Can't
It's damn shame there's so much hatred of men in family courts.
glennsacks.com | Convicted Murderess Can Get Custody but Decent Fathers Can't
Oregon and Oregon State are doing their job
The Oregon Ducks and Oregon State Beavers both won and are doing their job of beating non-conference opponents.
Portland State Vikings lost. We wish them well in the next game.
Porphyrogenitus and USS Clueless have cleared some things ups
Porphyrogenitus brings up a good point and links to Steven Den Beste. Together they both point out some skewed reporting by the BBC. It seems the BBC is deteriorating to the level of some of the worst tabloids.
The kids, their mother and I in Costa Rica
Some years back I took my two daughters and their mother to Costa Rica for four or five months.
We rented an apartment in Alajuela, Costa Rica. It was more rectangular than square. We had electricity for a few hours a day and occasionally clean water. The water we drank and used for cleaning dishes was purified water in plastic gallon bottles. Since we only had electricity a few hours a day we had to buy food on a daily basis. There was a huge farmers' market about a mile or two away from where we lived and we would go there to buy meat, fish, tons of fruits, and other food items.
There was a huge playground a block away from where we lived and we would take the two daughters there to play on the playground equipment and, also, to play with the other kids. Even though my two daughters spoke only bits of Spanish, they still managed to communicate while playing with the Costa Rican kids.
About five days a week for a couple of hours the two daughters would be taught math, English, Spanish, spelling, and a simple science course.
Since I'm eligible to join the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars, I joined an American Legion Post and a Veterans of Foreign Wars Post in San Jose. Both groups share the same post, the same area, and the same bar. I would take the whole family there and enjoy a few hours of relaxation. They had a library there and a huge outdoor area for the kids to run around.
We got around by using taxicabs within whichever city we were visiting and when going from city to city or village to village we used public buses. Costa Rica has only about 3 cities and the rest are villages. Sometimes we found ourselves riding with livestock that the local people would bring on the buses. If you think TRI-MET buses are crowded at rush hour, you should just try to get on one of Costa Rica's buses during the day.
We went to the Atlantic beaches and the Pacific beaches. The Pacific Beaches were the best. We also went to the Caribbean side of Panama for three days. That was an adventure.
Before we went down to Costa Rica we got passports for the daughters' mother and for the daughters. We also got about a million shots for almost every disease you could think of. We needed, and took, our yellow World Health Organization cards certifying all the vaccinations and other medical precautions were up to snuff.
All in all, it was an interesting four or five months.
Yea, they both have nukes, so...????
They both have nukes and they both have radicals and they both have radicals that kill lots of civilians and it's possible they are fighting over a piece of land that some people want to be independent.
Who are they? What are they? Maybe they're the Ninth Circuit. I don't know. It certainly beats me and since it beats me, check out PakistanNews.net and The Times of India.
I've been told Americans should be more aware of what's happening in other parts of the world, and I am. I linked to a post about the Ninth Circuit, didn't I?
September 21, 2003
The internet is a scary place
I can't believe it. I was innocently surfing the web looking for research papers by Margaret Mead concerning her study of the sex lives of bugs when all of a sudden I ran into a website called discriminations and learned, much to my chagrin, that discriminations is censored by a public library.
My gosh, why is this stuff allowed on the internet? Where's our national censors when we need them? You don't see these kinds of things in Saudia Arabia.
This is about misdirected cops
We have a crazy cop in Washington County, Oregon who is not only corrupt, but also misdirected.
Misdirected CopsThere has always been a great deal of interest in the law enforcement community in the subject of "occult crime". It is a subject surrounded by mystery and sensationalism, which gives it an enticing image. Some of those in law enforcement have pursued their interest and have produced manuals on investigating occult crime. Wittingly or unwittingly, these manuals are another factor leading creation of Satanic hysteria.
I have collected many such manuals over the years I have spent in police work. Most of them are appallingly inaccurate and the few that have any factual basis are so short that they are virtually useless. As we saw in the previous chapter, much of the information being presented to the sincere and unsuspecting officers writing such manuals is inadequate and inaccurate.
Ultimately other investigators take these inadequate manuals and waste a great deal of their time on unproductive wild goose chases trying to put the "information" in them to use. As a result, expensive investigative hours are wasted, innocent people are falsely accused and investigators are embarrassed. To give you a better idea of the kind of misinformation available, lets look at a few examples:
We also have an update to the case of former sheriff's deputy, Paul Ingram. When you read this you might ask yourself, "How on earth did idiots like Gary Edwards, Neil McClanahan, Tom Lynch, Detective Vukich and Gary Tabor ever manage to get into any area of law enforcement?" or, "How on earth did an idiot like John Bratun ever became a Pastor?"
The following is an excerpt from TheLocalPlanet.com
How invented memories and a modern-day witch hunt landed one Spokane man in prisonNotice has already gone out to a neighborhood on Spokane’s South Hill because a level-three sex offender is returning to his family home. The fearful effect of that notice became apparent when a passerby yelled “molester” at a relative of the inmate who was working in the yard. TV crews have already been caught traipsing into the home’s back yard, shooting video for the day later this month when the inmate is released.
The trouble is: this inmate is innocent.
Let me say that again.
This inmate is innocent. There has never been any credible evidence that he led a satanic cult that murdered 25 babies. There has never been any credible evidence that he abused his children. Paul Ingram is simply the victim of Washington State’s most successful witch-hunt.
It's rather surprising to me that the Governor of Washington state stood idly by while an innocent man was in prison. Must be interesting to live in a state where the governor and the parole board have no guts. It's a good thing these guys weren't in charge of the country when Al-Qaeda struck, otherwise Al-Qaeda might still be flying planes into buildings.
If it's Sunday, it must be time for the cult to give God orders
Update: After I posted the original post immediately below, the psychopaths in the cult made some phone calls. It seems one of the cult's worst fears is for people to find out just what liars and thieves they are. Intelligent people are starting to realize that the diehard members of the cult are incapable of recognizing reality or telling the truth.
I have received news that my a couple of my relatives (Chris Andrea Hays and Neta Hays) were bribed to lie for the Victor Oekerman clan. I'm not surprised. The psychopaths in the Oekerman clan tried to bribe me not to leave Victor's psycho daughter, but like a couple of Portland cops told me after they found out she tried to run me over in a park in Northeast Portland, "Stay with her and she'll end up killing you. She should be in prison."
For the last year or so I have been in communication with various cult experts and mental health experts and their general consensus is that members of the cult are acting like mindless members of the most destructive cults usually do. According to the experts, the members of the cult will continue to bug anybody I associate with, any girl I go out with, and neighbors. Members of the cult will continue trying to get people in various positions of authority to lean on me in order to get me to acquiesce to the wishes of the leaders of the cult.
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ORIGINAL POSTWell, it seems to be Sunday. Time for the the lying, thieving hypocrites in the psycho cult and their allies in a certain, unnamed Aloha, Oregon church to don their dandiest duds, hightail it to church and order God to let them into heaven because, after all, they are members of the super-duper, superior, white, master Aryan race.
Then it's back to the daily chores of assaulting, ripping off, cheating, lying to, falsely accusing and hating their fellow Amercans and anybody else they come into contact with.
Of course, they also have really, really important work to do such as destroying Care Bears, the Smurf toys, G.I Joe and other Satanic toys. Check out the following:
Phillip's MinistriesI mentioned in Part I of this article that one of Pulling's resources was Phil Phillips, who makes similar claims to Pulling regarding Fantasy Role Playing Games. Phil, like his father, is a fundamentalist Christian minister from the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Phillips has a bachelor's degree in Bible studies from "Christ for the Nation" college in Dallas. He is another of those "spiritual warfare" supporters whose writings are full of battle terms and references to spiritual armour.
Phillips is most well known for his anti cartoon and toy stance. Phillips believes that toys, games and cartoons such as "Care Bears'" "Smurfs," "My Little Pony," "Rainbow Bright," "Gummie Bears," "G. I. Joe," "Crystlar," "Power Lords," "He Man and the Masters of the Universe," "Dungeons and Dragons," "Black Star," "Ghost Busters," and others are Satanic. Phiilips has written a much quoted book on this subject entitled Turmoil in the Toybox. He has also organized toy burnings in the past. Not all of these went as planned.
Many people have also expressed astonishment that Victor Oekerman would tell my son that I was dead when in reality I was out on an aircraft carrier serving my country. Like people have told me, "That sort of gives you an idea of what kind of a sick, perverted, hatefilled family my ex-wife was born into". Of course, it doesn't explain why my relatives went along with the insanity.
I guess that's an indication that getting dandied up and going to church every Sunday like my relatives do doesn't mean a person knows the difference between right and wrong. Then again, the parents of the mother (not the ex-wife) of my two daughters go to a Catholic church every Sunday and they have an excellent sense of right and wrong, and they're intelligent to boot.