Additionally the FISA court admits today it has to rely on the information presented to it when it determines legal authority. Also, the court has no mechanism to check the claims brought to it by the NSA or Justice Dept. One example is outlined in the Washington Post article.
(WASHINGTON POST)  The National Security Agency has broken privacy rules or overstepped its legal authority thousands of times each year since Congress granted the agency broad new powers in 2008, according to an internal audit and other top-secret documents.
Most of the infractions involve unauthorized surveillance of Americans or foreign intelligence targets in the United States, both of which are restricted by law and executive order. They range from significant violations of law to typographical errors that resulted in unintended interception of U.S. e-mails and telephone calls.
The documents, provided earlier this summer to The Washington Post by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, include a level of detail and analysis that is not routinely shared with Congress or the special court that oversees surveillance. In one of the documents, agency personnel are instructed to remove details and substitute more generic language in reports to the Justice Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. (more…)

Gloria Allred is on the case….

• Peggy Shannon, 67, [pictured above] works part-time at the Senior Citizens Service Desk in the lobby of the City Administration Building…
• Shannon claimed in a press conference Thursday that San Diego Mayor Bob Filner once grabbed her and kissed her…
• She says he also once told her he could ‘go eight hours’ in an apparent reference to sex…
• Shannon is the 16th woman to make sexual harassment claims against Filner, 70, in the last month…
(more…)

ROSE CITY, Mich. – When Rose City middle school teacher Neal Erickson pleaded guilty to molesting one of his students a while back, most observers expected an open-and-shut case with the school community rallying around the teenage victim.

And in some ways it was. Erickson was sentenced to 15-30 years in prison for carrying on a sexual relationship with a boy in his young teens between 2006 and 2009. That should have been the end of the horrific tale.
But seven teachers kept the controversy alive by rallying behind the rapist, going so far as to write letters to the sentencing judge, seeking leniency on his behalf. The letters were posted on a local blog, WBRC Teachers.
(more…)

First the FAIL –  TALLAHASSEE,  Fla. —Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature is coming out solidly  against a special session to repeal the state’s “stand your ground” law.
The Department of State on  Wednesday released a list that showed more than half of the state’s 160-member  Legislature has already voted against the idea.
The vote was triggered  earlier after 33 legislators asked for a special session in writing. They were  urged to do so by the Dream Defenders group, which is upset with the July  verdict in the George Zimmerman case.
Under an obscure state  law, the written requests required an official poll. A yes vote by three-fifths  of the Legislature would have resulted in a special session.  (more)
Then the RESULT….. (more…)

Shaknee Golay 19 –  Alicia Wilson 15 –  Keyon Black 16 –  Javontae Wilson 13 –  Demetrius Wilson 12

Four West Pensacola juveniles and a 19-year-old, attacked a 77-year-old man Monday night, according to an Escambia County Sheriff’s Office news release.  […]  The incident happened about 9 p.m. Monday when dispatchers received a report of several teenagers chasing a man with a stick, the news release said.
The victim, John Garland Redick, encountered the teens on a boardwalk near the Big Lots parking lot at the 400 block of North Navy Boulevard and was assaulted, according to an arrest report.  (link)

People all around are talking about some rodeo clown being in trouble for wearing a President Obama mask while redirecting rodeo bulls.   Really?…. R.E.A.L.L.Y ?

When was the last time a federal spending budget was signed by a chief executive?   Oh yeah,  SEPTEMBER 2007……  That would be, well, six years ago.
I think Rush Limbaugh accurately identifies the delicate sensibilities – CLICK HERE

Clowns ?

Interesting and VERY comprehensive construction of the George Zimmerman story by a South African Journalist –  James Myburgh.   A “mere snippet” reflects:

[…]  In the chapter on “national delusions” in his 1852 work Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, Charles MacKay noted how “In reading the history of nations, we find that, like individuals, they have their whims and their peculiarities; their seasons of excitement and recklessness, when they care not what they do. We find that whole communities suddenly fix their minds upon one object, and go mad in its pursuit; that millions of people become simultaneously impressed with one delusion, and run after it, till their attention is caught by some new folly more captivating than the first. “

The Trayvon Martin story is a case study in how, even in the modern day, an advanced industrialised democracy can completely lose its senses; and how difficult it is for it to then recover them. In this particular matter a whole society seemingly fixed its mind on the one object of having George Zimmerman arrested, convicted and sent to jail for life, in reckless disregard of the evidence and the law. The mainstream media, so-called civil rights organisations, the Democrat President of the US, the US Attorney General, the Republican Governor of Florida and his Attorney General, and State Attorney Angela Corey all combined forces in an effort to destroy a single, isolated individual. (more…)

This is a story that SCREAMS for attention.   In Michigan a family has been, and continues to be, brutalized by a systemic rot within the school system.   A rot that perpetrates, and unbelievably as it sounds, excuses CHILD RAPE – despite the community outrage.
This just came onto our radar screen.   However, a cursory review shows this storyline has a similar disposition to the Penn State, Sandusky scandal.    The Janczewski’s son was brutally raped over a period exceeding three years (2006-2009) by his middle school math teacher, Neal Erickson.
Years later, in 2012, an anonymous tipster alerted authorities to video and pictures on Child Porn websites of their son and his teacher engaged in oral sex, and worse.

The story is just horrific, vile and made all the more astounding because there is a community of teachers openly supporting the child rapist.   The repeated rape is not an allegation, it has been proven, Neal Erickson has admitted to it, and he has recently been sent to prison.
However, the rapist has supporters – Open and Public supporters.    Supporters who are teachers themselves and who are actively teaching in the same schools.   Supporters who are angry at the Janczewski family for assisting the authorities in filing charges.   And it gets worse – much worse.   The best identifiable summary of the backstory is available HERE.
Here are some of the issues we have identified as being sidelined by the media so far: (more…)

“My son ain’t never been no bad person, he just got mixed [up] with bad people, that’s all He’s sorry.”
– Julian McKnight (link)

(more…)

Just a side note of similar necessity – Last night I happened to catch a segment on the Fox Bill O’Reilly show.   As Mr. O’Reilly and James Carville were discussing the social implications of broken families, Carville stated “teen pregnancies are down” and pontificated all about it.
No.   That is wordsmithing.   Teen pregnancy rates are not down.  Teen pregnancy rates are up;  teen births, as in -a young woman actually giving birth- are down.   The reason for both valid statistics  is the growth of the abortion industry.
(Via Huffington Post)  Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis (D) has not yet decided whether she will run for governor in 2014, but the state’s Democratic Party is doing everything it can to make sure she does.

Texas Democrats kicked off their “I Want Wendy” campaign on Tuesday by asking state residents to sign a petition urging Davis to get into the race. The Fort Worth Democrat made a name for herself earlier this summer when she filibustered a sweeping anti-abortion bill for 11 straight hours. (more…)