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POPSRights Group Suing AT&T for Spying Will Sue Government Too "Cohn admits the government has many sovereign immunity defenses that can protect it from lawsuits, but says they aren't insurmountable and that the program clearly violates the Fourth Amendment. As for the unexpectedly long-lived suit against AT&T, the government and the EFF are discussing when and how the government will attempt to have the case dismissed using the amnesty provision. The EFF wants to challenge the legality of the amnesty before it is actually applied, while the government prefers to have the case dismissed first -- then have the EFF fight the dismissal. Lawyers for both sides will meet with the judge in the case in early September, setting a likely date for the next court appearance in December."
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POPSMost Ethical Destinations? Worried about your travel footprint? Want to support tourism in a developing country but don't want to support bad environmental practices or human rights abuses? Check out this list of "most ethical destinations" compiled by ethicaltraveler.org.
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POPSU.S. Military Frees 10,000 Detainees in Iraq Detainees are sometimes released for political purposes. For instance, the recent amnesty law which released thousands of suspected insurgents in an effort to bring certain Sunni groups back into the government. They are also released when it is determined they held no intelligence value, or posed no threat. In Iraq, the average time of detention is just under one year. Of those now in detention, 12 are women, more than 300 are juveniles, 200 are third country nationals and about 200 are over the age of 60, the US military statement said.
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POPSChina Using Olympics As ‘Pretext’ For Crackdown: Amnesty
“Authorities have used the Olympic Games as a pretext to continue and in some respects, intensify existing policies and practices that have led to serious and widespread violations of human rights,” the report added. It listed a series of recommendations urging China to: * release all prisoners of conscience; * stop police arbitrarily detaining activists and dissenters; * impose a moratorium on the death penalty; * allow complete media freedom; and * account for those killed or detained in Tibet. “It is very disturbing that Chinese authorities have indulged in such a big crackdown on the activists,” Mark Allison, China researcher for Amnesty, told AFP. “These are people who represent many many more people in China.” Officials were also extending the use of punitive administrative detention, notably of activists and petitioners as well as beggars and peddlers, Amnesty said. In January, Beijing police launched a campaign against “illegal activ
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POPSSay No to Olympic Coverage.... I don't have many friends here at Clipmarks anymore, but I do still have an opinion. China is like Wal-Mart. Too big to give a damn about other people. They have not improved their human rights or pollution policies. Empty Promises to all of us and their behavior is making the spirit of the Olympics into one BIG sham
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POPSFalun Gong Targeted Ahead Of Beijing Olympics authorities have instead been using the Olympics as a pretext to escalate persecutions of religious and political dissidents. Chinese authorities fear that Falun Gong, along with Tibetans, Uighurs, and other dissidents, may use the international media presence during the games to draw attention to their causes. "It is now imperative that the international community leverage real pressure and stop these deplorable actions, lest the legacy of the 2008 Olympics be hundreds of Beijing residents languishing in labor camps," Zhang said. The apparent animosity towards Falun Gong on the part of the Beijing Olympics organizer is hardly new. In 2004, the head of the Beijing Olympics Organizing Committee, Liu Qi, was found liable in a U.S. federal court for his role in the torture of Falun Gong practitioners while he was serving as mayor of Beijing.
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POPSBlackbeard (S9 Biography)
The Scourge of the Spanish Main and the last Great Pirate of the Age of Sail (Jean LaFitte was a smuggler) Blackbeard's life is shrouded in myth and legend and facts about him are verd hard to verify 300 years later. Edward Teach or possibly Thatch, was famous for several things that are documented and reek of the strange and as Kenneth Hite says, High Weirdness. He would drink a mixture of gunpowder and rum set aflame... Talk about a Belch you do not want to be around. He tied "slow matches" (used for lighting cannons) into his hair and beard so there would be a wreath of smoke around his head. He shot his best friend and first mate, Israel Hands in the knee, crippling him for life just a day before his death at Okecroake Island off NC. When Israel asked why, Teach said he was saving his life! (Knew about his own death? Planned it himself?) Weirdest Fact: Held Charleston, SC hostage for several weeks until his ransom was paid - a box of Native herbs and Tobacco... See what I
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POPSLwalessness In USA- Red Cross and Others... Lawlessness as the American way. No accountability, only protection of those who break the laws with a spineless democratic leadership paving the way. There is no turning back now. We are hopelessly sunk in the swamp of right wing garbage. They have tried for 100 years and finally succeeded. We have no more justice.
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POPSCrazy Indonesian man kills 42, but a human rights agency tries to save him from the death penalty.
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POPSThe Political Establishment and Telecom Immunity — Why It Matters The Senate is dragging its feet because the compromise bill’s opponents — mostly Democrats — want also to punish the telecommunications companies that answered President Bush’s order for help with his illegal, warrantless wiretapping program. That is the wrong target. In the aftermath of Sept. 11, the White House directed telecommunications carriers to cooperate with its efforts to bolster intelligence gathering and surveillance — the administration’s effort to do a better job of “connecting the dots” to prevent terrorist attacks. In its review of the effort, the Senate Intelligence Committee concluded that the administration’s written requests and directives indicated that such assistance “had been authorized by the president” and that the “activities had been determined to be lawful.” We now know that they were not lawful. But the companies that followed those directives are not the ones to blame for that abuse of presidential power. Contrary to what the Nancy Soderbergs
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POPSChild Detainees Battle System Alone
Eight immigrant youths suing the Abraxas Hector Garza Treatment Center in San Antonio describe being beaten repeatedly, so severely that several required hospitalization. The abuse continued even after it was reported to their caretakers' supervisors. In Nixon, Texas, ten detained young people filing a Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid lawsuit allege repeated assault and retaliation upon reporting the abuse. Of course, most abused detainees do not have access to pro bono lawyers and cannot hope to sue; much more often than not, their stories go untold. For the most part, however, the facilities' violations are kept from the public eye - and the eye of the federal government doesn't see much of them either, according to a recent OIG report noting that "interviews with Department of Unaccompanied Children's Services central office officials indicate that little oversight of facilities occurs." Federal officials aren't required to meet with children when they visit the facilities.
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POPSEveryone Caves in to the Fascists (almost) WTF is going down? The USA...Even The Miracle Man Obama is comfortable with the corporations being given immunity....The very definition of fascism...reminiscent of the Nazis defending Krupp and other German industries. "MURRIKA UBER ALLES!!!!"
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POPSBut, Bush is a "Fascist"..... Pot calling kettle... We should face the fact that the Progressive movement of the early 21st century has reverted to it ways of the 1920s, 30s, and 40s.
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POPSThe Myth of Hispanic Family Values Exposes a key facet of liberal racism, one used (designed?) to make us happy to see Jewish and other European-Americans being phased out and replaced by Third Worlders, many of whom are antisemitic, anti-American, anti-Israel and "racist" against whites in general, and often against blacks too.
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POPSIrishman Angry at the Bush Junket Disruption! Willie has 'balls'. Few would publicly crisis the disruptive Bush. Doesn't he know that the grinning George is responsible for the torture of more humans than all Americans to date? Does he think that being Irish makes him immune to waterboarding. Surely as a aircraft man he knows of 'extraordinary rendition' where you are on permanent tour of the best torture prisons on earth. Even Shannon seems to be on the CIA itinerary according to Amnesty. And your personal politics or none is no disbarment. From Israel, to Egypt, to Iran, to Russia, to Africa, to Cuba, to Abu Ghraib, to Bagram, all are catered for. Fear of flying is sorted with drugs and huds, in best gangster fashion. There are no numbers yet on 'lost in flight' customers, but getting there. After all, this was a favourite method of disposal for the US trained South American juntas. "Lost at sea" is permanent and 'clean'.
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POPSDemocrats give Bush the powers of a King. The country I live in is not the one I grew up in. The country I was raised to cherish is in the past. These are the proverbial Chinese' "interesting times" we now live in. There was no fight, we gave it away and now must make sense of this strange new frontier.
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POPSDems Agree to Expand Domestic Spying, Grant Telecoms Amnesty This is the "chilling effect". Once people know they are being spied on, they can no longer speak freely. This is the most unconstitutional thing our government has done, or so I currently believe. Look at that smug s.o.b. That's the grin of a man who just sold his country to the interests of corporate entities. His constituents are the megacorps and not the US public as this move clearly shows.
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