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Friday, September 20, 2013

Tom DeLay Conviction Overturned by Texas Court

Tom DeLay Conviction Overturned by Texas Court

By Ed O'Keefe, The Washington Post
19 September 13

Former U.S. House Majority Leader and GOP heavyweight Tom DeLay. (photo: AP)
Former U.S. House Majority Leader and GOP heavyweight Tom DeLay. (photo: AP)

 
exas appellate court has overturned the conviction of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) for allegedly scheming to influence Texas state elections with corporate money, his attorney told several news organizations early Thursday.

A three-judge panel voted 2-1 to overturn the conviction, calling the evidence "legally insufficient," according to the majority ruling. The decision formally acquits DeLay of all charges, but could still be appealed by the government.

DeLay, 66, was in Washington, meeting with prayer group at a Capitol Hill townhouse, when he heard the news.

"We were all basically on our knees praying and my lawyer calls and says you're a free man," he said.
DeLay was convicted in 2010 for allegedly trying to influence Texas elections by funneling corporate money to various candidates. Prosecutors said that the money helped the GOP win control of the Texas House and that the majority then pushed through a DeLay-organized congressional redistricting plan that sent more Republicans to Congress. Those maps have since been challenged by the Justice Department for unfairly drawing minority communities out of certain districts.  READ MORE

FBI calls half of populace with 9/11 doubts potential terrorists

The FBI is instructing local police departments and "communities against terrorism" to consider anyone who harbors "conspiracy theories" about 9/11 to be a potential terrorist, in a circular released to local police departments.
The memo thus adds 9/11-official-story skeptics to a growing list of targets described by federal law enforcement to be security threats, such as those who express "libertarian philosophies," "Second Amendment-oriented views," interest in "self-sufficiency," "fears of Big Brother or big government," and "Declarations of Constitutional rights and civil liberties." A newly released national poll shows that 48 percent of Americans either have some doubts about the official account of 9/11, or do not believe it at all. The FBI circular entitled "Potential Indicators of Terrorist Activities Related to Sleepers" says that people who should be 'considered suspicious' of possible involvement in "terrorist activity" include those who hold the "attitude" described as " Conspiracy theories about Westerners." The circular continues: "e.g. (sic) the CIA arranged for 9/11 to legitimize the invasion of foreign lands."
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New Poll Finds Most Americans Open to Alternative 9/11 Theories

Click one of the following boxes to select a section

    220+ Senior Military, Intelligence Service, Law Enforcement, and Government Officials
 1,500+ Engineers and Architects
    250+ Pilots and Aviation Professionals
    400+ Professors Question 9/11
    300+ 9/11 Survivors and Family Members
    200+ Artists, Entertainers, and Media Professionals
    400+ Medical Professionals

 

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Wattree’s Beneath the Spin: Bravo Mr. President!

IF BUSH COULD HAVE PULLED OFF IN IRAQ WHAT PRESIDENT OBAMA HAS DONE IN SYRIA, IT WOULD HAVE SAVED A MILLION LIVES AND OVER A TRILLION DOLLARS.
obama rushmoreThe exact same thing is true with respect to bringing Osama Bin Laden to justice.
While Bush spent seven years, a national fortune, and over four thousand American lives chasing Bin Laden, Obama brought him to justice with three helicopters and a handful of America's finest - and, while casually dragging Donald Trump through the mud at a dinner party in the process. READ MORE

Saturday, August 31, 2013

CORE: Making Children Stupider Around The World



Ok… Stupider is not really supposed to be a word. But with CORE, who needs proper grammar? Slang is the new English!!!
 I often tell people who want to research a company or government entity that they should seek out the audited “Annual Financial Report” for that corporation, association, etc. The fact is that all aggregate corporations, both public and private, are statutorily required to create, independently audit, and file with the U.S. Federal Government a Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) (AFR), and that includes all governments from cities and counties (municipal corporations) to districts to states.

Though I had heard about the many issues with what is called “Common CORE” from many concerned but ill-informed parents and activists, I had never actually spent the time to research exactly what this thing is and how large it has become. As a friend in Texas was speaking of how her son’s homework in the CORE system of Texas involved a lesson about George Orwell’s 1984 as an learning exercise, I realized it was time to have a look.

Thanks to the efforts of a concerned mother who brought this travesty to the awareness of the people, here’s what that homework assignment looked like:

1984 Experience

The first thing I usually look for when researching any corporation is its latest annual financial report (AFR). And so I did a simple search with the parameters of “Common CORE annual financial report”, and up came the following link:
http://www.core-edutech.com/investors/Financial-Reports.php

I instructed the finder to recover the “Annual Report 2011-12″, and up popped a (.pdf) file of that report.
It was so simple, and yet most people have no clue these reports even exist for their consumption…
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Saturday, August 24, 2013

They should probably use these people in movies


Rick Perry Under Investigation for Abuse of Texas Governor’s Office

governor-rick-perryAugust 17, 2013 By

Republicans are clearly no strangers to blackmail.  Heck, Congressional Republicans have been trying to blackmail President Obama since he took office.  So it should come as no surprise to see Texas Governor Rick Perry being investigated for possibly abusing his office when he tried to blackmail Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg after a DUI arrest this past April.

Lehmberg pled guilty and served half of a 45 day jail sentence, but refused to give in to calls from Republicans and Governor Perry to resign.

So what did Perry do?  Well, he threatened to cut funding for the state’s Public Integrity Unit, which Lehmberg resided over, if she didn’t step down from her position.

Not only did he threaten this, he did so publicly.

She didn’t step down, and in June Rick Perry vetoed $3.7 million in funding for the program.  As a result of the budget cuts, the office was then forced to layoff 10 employees and drop 54 of its 400 active cases.

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