Sunday, July 31, 2011

Sunday Globe Special: The Protocols of the Elders of Islam

And look who wrote 'em:

"It is the product of an orchestrated drive that began five years ago in Brooklyn, N.Y., in the office of a little known lawyer, David Yerushalmi, a 56-year-old Hasidic Jew.... Yerushalmi has come to exercise a striking influence over American public discourse.... Working with a cadre of conservative public-policy institutes and former military and intelligence officials, Yerushalmi has written privately financed reports, filed lawsuits against the government, and drafted the model legislation that recently swept through the country - all with the effect of casting Sharia as one of the greatest threats to American freedom since the Cold War. The message has caught on" 

But if you say Zionist Jews drive the agenda in this country somehow you are an anti-Semite.

And somehow HATE SPEECH is OKAY if your are of a certain supremacist religion.

"Organized effort paints Islamic law as threat to US freedoms" by Andrea Elliot,  New York Times / July 31, 2011

NASHVILLE - Tennessee’s latest woes include high unemployment, continuing foreclosures, and a battle over collective-bargaining rights for teachers. But when a Republican representative took the Statehouse floor during a recent hearing, he warned of a new threat to his constituents’ way of life: Islamic law.

The representative, a former fighter pilot named Rick Womick, said he had been studying the Koran. He declared that Sharia, the Islamic code that guides Muslim beliefs and actions, is not just an expression of faith but a political and legal system that seeks world domination....

Oh, like the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion?  

Hoax or not everything sure is following the script.

Similar warnings are being issued across the country as Republican presidential candidates, elected officials, and activists mobilize against what they describe as the menace of Islamic law in the United States.

Since last year, more than two dozen states have considered measures to restrict judges from consulting Sharia, or foreign laws more generally. The statutes have been enacted in three states so far.

Voters in Oklahoma overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment last November that bans the use of Islamic law in court. And in June, Tennessee passed an antiterrorism law that, in its original iteration, would have empowered the attorney general to designate Islamic groups suspected of terror activity as “Sharia organizations.’’

In the United States, Sharia, like Jewish law, most commonly surfaces in court through divorce and custody proceedings or in commercial litigation. Often these cases involve contracts that failed to be resolved in a religious setting.  

Related: It Couldn't Happen Here

A Tale of Two Jails  

They have their own vigilante militia and are given preferential treatment in prison?

Sharia can also figure in cases involving foreign laws, for example in tort claims against businesses in Muslim countries. It then falls to the American judge to examine the religious issues at hand before making a ruling based on federal or state law.

A confluence of factors has fueled the anti-Sharia movement, most notably the controversy over the proposed Islamic center near ground zero in New York, concerns about home-grown terrorism, and the rise of the Tea Party. But the campaign’s air of grass-roots spontaneity, which has been carefully promoted by advocates, shrouds its more deliberate origins.  

An AGENDA-PUSHING CAMPAIGN of HATE!

In fact, it is the product of an orchestrated drive that began five years ago in Brooklyn, N.Y., in the office of a little known lawyer, David Yerushalmi, a 56-year-old Hasidic Jew with a history of controversial statements about race, immigration, and Islam. Despite his lack of formal training in Islamic law, Yerushalmi has come to exercise a striking influence over American public discourse about Sharia.

Working with a cadre of conservative public-policy institutes and former military and intelligence officials, Yerushalmi has written privately financed reports, filed lawsuits against the government, and drafted the model legislation that recently swept through the country - all with the effect of casting Sharia as one of the greatest threats to American freedom since the Cold War.

The message has caught on. Among those now echoing Mr. Yerushalmi’s views are prominent Washington figures like R. James Woolsey, a former director of the C.I.A., and the Republican presidential candidates Newt Gingrich and Michele Bachmann, who this month signed a pledge to reject Islamic law, likening it to “totalitarian control.”

Wasn't former CIA spook Woolsey also a member of PNAC?

Yet, for all its fervor, the movement is arguably directed at a problem more imagined than real.  

Yes, thanks for waiting until HALF of the HATE PROMOTION before mentioning it is PURE PROPAGANDA!

Even its leaders concede that American Muslims are not coalescing en masse to advance Islamic law.

Instead, they say, Muslims could eventually gain the kind of foothold seen in Europe, where multicultural policies have allowed for what critics contend is an overaccommodation of Islamic law.... 

Un-flipping-real.

For Mr. Yerushalmi, the statutes themselves are a secondary concern. “If this thing passed in every state without any friction, it would have not served its purpose,” he said in one of several extensive interviews. “The purpose was heuristic — to get people asking this question, ‘What is Shariah?’ ”

The frequency of such cases is unknown. A recent report by the Center for Security Policy, a research institute based in Washington for which Mr. Yerushalmi is general counsel, identified 50 state appellate cases, mostly over the last three decades. 

That is like LESS than TWO a YEAR!!!

The report offers these cases as proof that the United States is vulnerable to the encroachment of Islamic law. But....

--more--"

Cutting room floor clips that did not even make my printed paper:

The more tangible effect of the movement, opponents say, is the spread of an alarmist messag about Islam — the same kind of rhetoric that appears to have influenced Anders Behring Breivik, the suspect in the deadly dual attacks in Norway on July 22.  

See: Norway's 911

The anti-Shariah campaign, they say, appears to be an end in itself, aimed at keeping Muslims on the margins of American life.

 “The fact is there is no Shariah takeover in America,” said Salam Al-Marayati, the president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, one of several Muslim organizations that have begun a counteroffensive. “It’s purely a political wedge to create fear and hysteria.”  

Pushed by a (rhymes with) YOU-KNOW-WHO!

Anti-Shariah organizers are pressing ahead with plans to introduce versions of Mr. Yerushalmi’s legislation in half a dozen new states, while reviving measures that were tabled in others....

While proponents of the legislation have seized on aspects of Shariah that are unfavorable to women, Mr. Yerushalmi’s focus is broader. His interest in Islamic law began with the Sept. 11 attacks, he said, when he was living in Ma’ale Adumim, a large Jewish settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

He's a dual national Zionist zettler, America!! 

WhenTF are youy all going to WAKE UP to these PARASITES?

At the time, Mr. Yerushalmi, a native of South Florida, divided his energies between a commercial litigation practice in the United States and a conservative research institute based in Jerusalem, where he worked to promote free-market reform in Israel.

After moving to Brooklyn the following year, Mr. Yerushalmi said he began studying Arabic and Shariah under two Islamic scholars, whom he declined to name.  

Pfffft! 

Then I DOUBT THEY EVEN EXIST!

He said his research made clear that militants had not “perverted” Islamic law, but were following an authoritative doctrine that sought global hegemony — a mission, he says, that is shared by Muslims around the world. To illustrate that point, Mr. Yerushalmi cites studies in which large percentages of Muslims overseas say they support Islamic rule.

Remember what I said about Israeli accusations at others actually being what they themselves are guilty? And here it is again.

In interviews, Islamic scholars disputed Mr. Yerushalmi’s claims. Although Islam, like some other faiths, aspires to be the world’s reigning religion, they said, the method for carrying out that goal, or even its relevance in everyday life, remains a far more complex subject than Mr. Yerushalmi suggests.

“Even in Muslim-majority countries, there is a huge debate about what it means to apply Islamic law in the modern world,” said Andrew F. March, an associate professor specializing in Islamic law at Yale University. The deeper flaw in Mr. Yerushalmi’s argument, Mr. March said, is that he characterizes the majority of Muslims who practice some version of Shariah — whether through prayer, charitable giving or other common rituals — as automatic adherents to Islam’s medieval rules of war and political domination.

It would be like me saying all Jews are assholes because of a supremacist sliver that is ruining things for everyone.

It is not the first time Mr. Yerushalmi has engaged in polemics. In a 2006 essay, he wrote that “most of the fundamental differences between the races are genetic,” and asked why “people find it so difficult to confront the facts that some races perform better in sports, some better in mathematical problem-solving, some better in language, some better in Western societies and some better in tribal ones?”  

Oh, is he ever a RACIST SUPREMACIST!!!!

He has also railed against what he sees as a politically correct culture that avoids open discussion of why “the founding fathers did not give women or black slaves the right to vote.”

On its Web site, the Anti-Defamation League, a prominent Jewish civil rights organization, describes Mr. Yerushalmi as having a record of “anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant and anti-black bigotry.”

He must be REALLY BAD if the ADL disses him!  

And yet HE IS WRITING YOUR LAWS, Americans!!

His legal clients have also drawn notoriety, among them Pamela Geller, an incendiary blogger who helped drive the fight against the Islamic community center and mosque near ground zero.   

And who the Norway nut referred to in his manifesto about 12 times.

A stout man who wears antique wire-rimmed glasses and a thick, white-streaked beard, Mr. Yerushalmi has a seemingly inexhaustible appetite for the arguments his work provokes. “It’s an absurdity to claim that I have ever uttered or taken a position on the side of racism or bigotry or misogyny,” he said.  

Great, a DELUSIONAL PROPAGANDIST that LOVES HIS JOB!

When pressed for evidence that American Muslims endorse the fundamentalist view of Shariah he warns against, Mr. Yerushalmi argues that the problem lies with America’s Muslim institutions and their link to Islamist groups overseas. As a primary example, he and others cite a memorandum that surfaced in the federal prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, a Muslim charity based in Texas whose leaders were convicted in 2008 of sending funds to Hamas.

FLASHBACKS:

"Hamas backers are jailed in Texas; Two get 65 years for funneling millions to group" by Danny Robbins, Associated Press | May 28, 2009

DALLAS - Two founding members of what was once the largest US Muslim charity were each sentenced to 65 years in prison yesterday for funneling millions of dollars to the Palestinian militant group Hamas....

Some cried after the guilty verdicts were announced yesterday at the Earle Cabell Federal Building in Dallas.
Some cried after the guilty verdicts were announced yesterday at the Earle Cabell Federal Building in Dallas. (Jim Mahoney/The Dallas Morning News/Associated Press).

The convictions followed a mistrial in which the government in 2007 failed to sway jurors that the now-defunct charity, based in the Dallas suburb of Richardson, was in fact aiding Hamas.  

Translation: It was a railroad job!

The two Holy Land leaders were convicted on charges ranging from supporting a terrorist organization to tax fraud. The group wasn't accused of violence but of bankrolling Hamas-controlled schools and programs....

A judgment of $12.4 million was assessed against four of the defendants because they were convicted of money laundering. "These sentences should serve as a strong warning to anyone who knowingly provides financial support to terrorists under the guise of humanitarian relief," said David Kris, assistant attorney general for national security, in a statement. 

Then ABOUT those BILLIONS we have given Iz-ray-HELL!!!!

Hamas was designated a terrorist organization by the United States in 1995, making it illegal to offer the group support. Hamas has taken credit for hundreds of suicide bombings targeting Israeli civilians.  

And the THOUSANDS of PALESTINIANS Israel has MURDERED?

As they stood before Solis, the defendants said they only fed the needy and gave aid to a volatile region, reiterating themes they made in mounting their defenses. Sentenced separately throughout the day, the men were both emotional and defiant as they addressed the judge.

"We are five innocent men," Odeh said, adding that the group's function had been "providing charity to all mankind."

Abu Baker said he was involved "because I cared, not at the behest of Hamas." But he was cut off by Solis, who told him: "You didn't tell the whole story. Palestinians were in a desperate situation, but that doesn't justify supporting Hamas."


And NOTHING justifies supporting that hellish little s***-stinking corpse of a state named Israel, either!


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"Holy Land supporters accuse government of preying on fear
by
TANYA EISERER and JASON TRAHAN / The Dallas Morning News

November 24, 2008


The verdicts came down slowly and cast a pall over an already somber courtroom. "Guilty" was heard over and over again.

Most family members and friends of the five defendants in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing trial remained stoic Monday as justice was meted out, but one person sobbed: "My dad is not a criminal. He's a human!"

For the roughly 150 supporters at the Earle Cabell Federal Building in downtown Dallas, that may best summarize their take on the outcome of one of the nation's biggest and most important terrorism financing trials.

Supporters say the government's case was built on fear-mongering, and they stand by long-held assertions that Holy Land was a legitimate charity concerned only with providing relief to Palestinians living in poverty and hardship under the decades-long Israeli occupation.

Some supporters cried quietly after the verdicts were read.

Some looked in shock, disbelief registering on their faces. Tension filled the air. As people began to quietly file out of the courtroom, many supporters shouted words of encouragement to the defendants. Some of the defendants defiantly flashed victory signs.

Defense attorneys did not talk to The Dallas Morning News, but are already discussing appeals.

The subdued reaction to the verdicts was in cold contrast to the jubilation they felt 13 months ago as the first Holy Land trial ended mostly in a mistrial when a confused and beleaguered jury deadlocked after 19 days of deliberations. The second jury wrestled just eight days with the massive and complex case.

The journey for supporters has been far longer: Holy Land and its leadership had been investigated since the early 1990s. President George W. Bush announced that the foundation had been shut down in 2001. Indictments came in 2004.

John Wolf, a friend and member of the Hungry for Justice coalition, said he'd known the defendants for 12 years.

"I'm not surprised," he said of the verdicts. "I think the government had their do-over and they learned from their mistakes. It's hard to accept because I don't believe the gentlemen are guilty. These guys are the sweetest, clean-hearted people." 

During the trial, defense attorneys accused the government of bending to Israeli pressure to prosecute the charity, and of relying on old evidence. But jurors agreed with the government's contention that at least $12 million raised in the U.S. had been illegally funneled to Hamas after that organization was banned as a terrorist group by the federal government in 1995.

In light of the crimes and the likely length of their sentences, which will come later, the judge ordered that all five defendants be immediately taken into custody. One, Ghassan Elashi, is already serving a 6 ½ -year sentence in federal prison for export law violations.

His daughter, an outspoken critic of the prosecution, read a statement calling the verdicts a low point for the United States of America.

"My dad is a law-abiding citizen," said Noor Elashi. "My dad was persecuted for his political beliefs and his humanitarian work in Palestine. ... He saved lives and now he's paying the price. I'm very proud of him."

Ms. Elashi, visibly angry, said she had not shed any tears over the verdicts because she knew that her father was being persecuted "because he saved lives." "I feel heartbroken that a group of my fellow Americans fell for the prosecution's fear-mongering," she said. "This is not over," she added.

Some supporters have said that the defendants, even if convicted, would be considered freedom fighters or folk heroes. Peter Margulies, a Roger Williams University law professor who studies terrorism financing cases, said the government has won the case, but has work to do for American Muslims.

"Going forward ... the government must be more pro-active about furnishing guidance to Muslim-Americans who merely wish to fulfill their religious obligations," he said. That may be too little, too late for some.

Mohammed Wafa Yaish, Holy Land's former accountant and a witness of the trial, said after the verdicts were read that he is angry that the prosecution brought up the Taliban and al-Qaeda during the trial. "What does giving charity to the Palestinians in the refugee camps have to do with this?" he said. "They scared the jurors. Fear is the No. 1 government tactic."

--MORE--" 
 

Appropriately enough back to the protocols:

The 1991 document outlined a strategy for the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States that involved “eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within.”   

Why should the Muslims bother? Our governments are doing a pretty good job on their own.

Critics emphasize a page listing 29 Muslim American groups as “our organizations and the organizations of our friends.” Skeptics point out that on the same page, the author wrote, imagine if “they all march according to one plan,” which suggests they were not working in tandem.

Nevertheless, a study by the Abu Dhabi Gallup Center to be released next week found that only a minority of American Muslims say that domestic Islamic groups represent them. It also concludes that American Muslims have as much confidence in the judicial system as members of other faiths and are more likely than the other groups to say that elections in the United States are “honest.” 

If Muslims think our elections are honest they are not as on the ball as I thought.

“There’s a conflation between the idea of Islam being a universalist, proselytizing religion and reducing it to a totalitarian movement,” said Mohammad Fadel, an associate professor specializing in Islamic law at the University of Toronto. “All good propaganda is based on half-truths.”  

I guess that's why newspapers are such shit now. They don't even give you half-truths; they give you no truths.

The movement took root in January 2006 when Mr. Yerushalmi started the Society of Americans for National Existence, a nonprofit organization that became his vehicle for opposing Shariah. On the group’s Web site, he proposed a law that would make observing Islamic law, which he likened to sedition, a felony punishable by 20 years in prison....   

Why don't we make it 40 for practicing Judaism?

The project, Mapping Shariah, led Mr. Yerushalmi to Frank Gaffney, a hawkish policy analyst and commentator who is the president of the Center for Security Policy in Washington.  

Another PNAC signer, who the Norway nut referred to hundreds of times.

Well connected in neoconservative circles, Mr. Gaffney has been known to take polarizing positions (he once argued that President Obama might secretly be Muslim).  

And he's advising Mad Michelle Bachmann now. 

 Mr. Gaffney would emerge as Mr. Yerushalmi’s primary link to a network of former and current government officials, security analysts and grass-roots political organizations.

Together, they set out to “engender a national debate about the nature of Shariah and the need to protect our Constitution and country from it,” Mr. Gaffney wrote in an e-mail to The New York Times.

The center contributed an unspecified amount to Mr. Yerushalmi’s study, which cost roughly $400,000 and involved surreptitiously sending researchers into 100 mosques.  

That means they SENT SPIES!

The study, which said that 82 percent of the mosques’ imams recommended texts that promote violence, has drawn sharp rebuke from Muslim leaders, who question its premise and findings.  

Oh, I QUESTION the WHOLE DAMN THING!

Mr. Yerushalmi also took aim at the industry of Islamic finance — specifically American banks offering funds that invest only in companies deemed permissible under Shariah, which would exclude, for example, those that deal in alcohol, pork or gambling....

Also see: The World's Best Banking System

Yeah, the ZIONIST JEWS don't like the idea of NO USURY!  

Maybe YOU Americans ought to GIVE MUSLIM BANKING a CHANCE!

With the advent of the Tea Party, Mr. Yerushalmi saw an opening....

Mr. Gaffney swiftly drummed up interest in the law, holding conference calls with activists and tapping a network of Tea Party and Christian groups as well as ACT for America, which has 170,000 members and describes itself as “opposed to the authoritarian values of radical Islam.” The group emerged as a “force multiplier,” Mr. Gaffney said, fanning out across the country to promote the law....

Also last fall, Mr. Gaffney’s organization released “Shariah: The Threat to America,” a 172-page report whose lead author was Mr. Yerushalmi and whose signatories included Mr. Woolsey and other former intelligence officials.

Mr. Yerushalmi’s legislation has drawn opposition from the American Civil Liberties Union as well as from Catholic bishops and Jewish groups. Mr. Yerushalmi said he did not believe that court cases involving Jewish or canon law would be affected by the statutes because they are unlikely to involve violations of constitutional rights.  

Yeah, there seems to be a special set of rules for Jews in AmeriKa's courts.  

Related: Mun Murder Cover-Up Complete

Business lobbyists have also expressed concern about the possible effect of the statutes, as corporations often favor foreign laws in contracts or tort disputes. This is perhaps the only constituency that has had an influence. The three state statutes that have passed — most recently in Arizona — make corporations exempt....

So ONLY BIG BUSINESS can stand against Zionism and its agenda?

--more--"   

Yup, all agenda-pushing fiction.

Sunday Globe Special: Because It's There

Only reason I'm reading these.

"Crossfire, and hints of compromise; Talks move to White House; critical vote comes today" by Donovan Slack and Theo Emery, Globe Staff / July 31, 2011

WASHINGTON - Facing an imminent deadline to raise the debt ceiling and avert throwing the nation into an unprecedented default, leaders of the opposing parties appeared to spend more time blasting each other yesterday than on working toward a deal, until late-night negotiations at the White House finally opened up the prospect of a bipartisan compromise.

“We are now fully engaged, the speaker and I, with the one person in America, out of 307 million people, who can sign a bill into law,’’ Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell said. “I’m confident and optimistic that we’re going to get an agreement in the very near future and resolve this crisis in the best interests of the American people.’’

******************

“I think we all know that if the president decides to reach an agreement with us, the Democrats - most of them - will fall in line,’’ said House Speaker John Boehner , Republican of Ohio. “He is the leader of the Democratic Party, he is the president of the United States.’’

****************************

But those hopes seemed dashed early yesterday evening as Reid, a Nevada Democrat, again accused Republicans of blocking progress on a deal and not negotiating in good faith.....

Then the wall went up again.

Grim-faced House Democrats filed into a meeting late yesterday morning to discuss their options....


--more--"

Here is the nuclear option:

"Law is murky on whether Obama can act on his own" by Globe Staff / July 31, 2011

With just days until the nation hits its debt limit, rattling the American economy, President Obama is under mounting pressure from some members of his own party to invoke an obscure Civil War-era constitutional provision that they say would allow him to unilaterally raise the debt limit.  

I am actually for it, too. I think this government should be made to behave just like dictatorship it is.

The notion that the president could cite Section 4 of the 14th Amendment to raise the debt ceiling without congressional approval seemed, just days ago, to be an academic debate, mostly among legal scholars. But now, with Congress deeply divided over a resolution, and the deadline alarmingly near, the idea has taken on a new life in the halls of the Capitol.

Steny H. Hoyer and James E. Clyburn, the second- and third-ranking Democrats in the House, and John Larson and Xavier Becerra, the chairman and cochairman of the House Democratic Caucus, have said they would back Obama if he uses the amendment to avoid a default.

Senator John F. Kerry and Bill Clinton, the former president, have also supported the idea, with Clinton saying he would invoke the amendment “without hesitation and force the courts to stop me.’’

Bill knows how to dicktate!

Others in the party, however, say the move would be politically and legally disastrous, because it could spark divisive court battles and even impeachment proceedings in the GOP-controlled House. Some legal scholars warn that it would be an abuse of power for the president to wield the provision as a means of raising the debt limit.

Ratified during Reconstruction to ensure that the North could overcome potential Southern opposition to paying down Union war debts, it has never been invoked by a president and has rarely been tested in court.

“We shouldn’t fool ourselves into thinking the 14th Amendment gives him this authority,’’ said Laurence H. Tribe, a Harvard Law School professor and Obama mentor who was until last year a White House adviser. Nothing in the amendment gives the president the power to trample Congress, which has the sole authority to borrow money, he said. “It’s just a fantasy.’’  

Related: Obama's Lost Tribe

Can you be a mentor if they don't listen?

On the other end of the ideological spectrum, John C. Yoo, a former legal adviser to President George W. Bush, agreed that Obama would be on shaky constitutional ground.

“The president doesn’t have the constitutional authority to unilaterally raise the debt limit, and I’m not a shrinking violet on executive power,’’ said Yoo, whose expansive views of presidential power informed controversial memorandums he wrote authorizing the harsh treatment of terrorism suspects.  

Yes, the guy who GAVE LEGAL COVER for the WAR CRIMINAL TORTURE is an EXPERT the newspaper turns to for analysis.

“The Framers wanted the president to exercise emergency power in response to national security threats, not over domestic affairs where Congress and the president have had plenty of time to deliberate and figure out a solution,’’ he wrote in an e-mail.

Section 4 of the 14th Amendment states that “the validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law . . . shall not be questioned.’’

With the wall up, f*** it.  Maybe you can scale it, readers.

--more--" 

As Obama boehner's the Democrats:

"President veers toward right in bid for debt compromise" by Jackie Calmes, New York Times / July 31, 2011

WASHINGTON - However the debt limit showdown ends, one thing is clear: under pressure from congressional Republicans, President Obama has moved rightward on budget policy, deepening a rift within his party heading into the next election.

Entering into a campaign that is shaping up as an epic clash concerning the parties’ divergent views on the size and role of the federal government, Republicans have changed the terms of the national debate.

Obama, seeking to appeal to the broad swath of independent voters, has adopted the Republicans’ language and in some cases their policies while signaling a willingness to break with liberals on some issues.

I'm sure liberals reading this would say SO WHAT ELSE IS NEW? 

And ALL HE CARES about is ANOTHER APPOINTMENT to SERVE as a FRONT MAN so he can continue to live the life of taxpayer-funded perk and privilege!

That has some progressive members of Congress and liberal groups arguing that by not fighting for more stimulus spending, Obama could be left with an economy still producing so few jobs by Election Day that his reelection could be threatened.  

Unless Repugs select Bachmann or Palin, then he wins again. Otherwise it's one-term Obama.

Not only would independents be turned off, but Obama risks alienating Democratic voters already disappointed by his escalation of the war in Afghanistan, and by his failure to close the Guantanamo Bay prison, end the Bush-era tax cuts, and enact a government-run health insurance system.

Those thing PISS OFF MORE than DEMOCRATS!

Oh, yeah, STARTING ANOTHER WAR in LIBYA didn't help!

“The activist liberal base will support Obama because they’re terrified of the right wing,’’ said Robert L. Borosage, codirector of the liberal group Campaign for America’s Future.  

I'm sick of the false paradigm of politics, sorry.

He added: “But I believe that the voting base of the Democratic Party - young people, single women, African-Americans, Latinos - are going to be so discouraged by this economy and so dismayed unless the president starts to champion a jobs program and take on the Republican Congress that the ability of labor to turn out its vote, the ability of activists to mobilize that vote, is going to be dramatically reduced.’’  

Welcome to the pool. It's boiling hot, so be careful.

Obama’s efforts at compromise have pushed the debate firmly to the right. In his failed effort to negotiate a broad budget deal with Republicans, Obama proposed far more in reductions for future years’ spending, including from Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, than he did new revenue from the wealthy and corporations. 

But he and his Democrap friends are protecting it for you.

He proposed fewer cuts in military spending and more in health care programs than a bipartisan Senate group that includes one of that chamber’s most conservative Republicans.  

That is YOUR DEMOCRAT PRESIDENT!

To win congressional approval of the essential increase in the nation’s borrowing ceiling, Obama sought more in deficit reduction than Republicans did....

And despite unemployment at its highest level in decades, Obama has not fought this year for a big jobs program with billions of dollars for public-works projects, which liberals in his party have sought.

Instead, he wants to extend a temporary payroll tax cut for everyone, since Republicans will support tax cuts, despite studies showing that spending programs are generally the more effective stimulus....

“He’s accommodated himself to the new reality in Washington,’’ said Tom Davis, a former House Republican leader from Virginia. “That’s what leaders do.’’   

Related: Bill Hicks on Presidential Agendas



The president’s advisers express confidence that voters will reward Obama....  

With a ticket out of town.

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Sunday Globe Special: South Dakota Delusion

"S.D. area residents believed safe swept by floods" by A.G. Sulzberger, New York Times / July 31, 2011

DAKOTA DUNES, S.D. - The homes on Spyglass Circle and Pebble Beach Drive have been evacuated and the 18th hole is under six feet of water, as miles of levees strain to keep this community from surrendering to a historic flood.

Many residents here at the southeastern tip of the state, where it borders Nebraska and Iowa, say they never imagined this chain of events....

As governor of South Dakota, Mike Rounds visited many flooded communities during his two terms. But when he left office this year, he moved into a house in Pierre, the state capital, on the Missouri River. He was forced to evacuate just months later.

Like many state residents, he thinks the flood is largely the result of mismanagement by the Army Corps of Engineers, which operates the dams. (The corps said the releases were forced by unprecedented snow and rains.)

“If I had to do it all over, I’d still purchase the same lot,’’ Rounds said. “I really do think it’s an aberration.’’

Most of the major cities of the region - including Sioux City, just across the way in Iowa, a few miles east of Dakota Dunes - were settled on riverbanks. But even as many experts warn that climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of flooding and other natural disasters, developers continue to build homes in flood-prone areas....

As the trailers, hot tubs, and decks that have bobbed down waterways in recent weeks suggest, there is also an element of willful disbelief behind the decision to move close to rivers.  

 That comes with the climate change cultists. 

The Dakota Dunes used the twin attractions of river views and low taxes to attract wealthy professionals from the three-state Sioux City metro area. Though developers initially urged residents to get insurance, they noted that the Missouri had been successfully controlled since the dam system was built.

As the years passed, those who dismissed a flood as unlikely started talking about it almost as an impossibility.... 

--more--"

Messing With Texas

Another Hoodie, America!!

Suspect in new Ft. Hood plot set off group’s warning bells (By Peter Finn and Alice Fordham, Washington Post)   

My printed paper carried AP, and you know what? To hell with it. To hell with the censorship shell game regarding false flags, psyop prop, and agenda-pushing diversions.

Related:

MSM Covering Up Military Munity at Fort Hood

MSM Putting the Hood Over the American Public

Taking the Hood Off the AmeriKan MSM

The Fort Hood Purge

A Hooded Cover Story 

You are not falling for it again, are you?

"Gunman kills five at roller rink party

GRAND PRAIRIE - A gunman opened fire at a North Texas roller rink during a private birthday party, fatally shooting at least five people and wounding three others last night. The shooting happened just after 7 after an argument apparently got out of hand. A police spokesman said the gunman was one of the attendees and was shot, but he was not sure whether it was a self-inflicted wound."  

Related: Gunman kills self, 5 others at Texas rink

"400 attend funeral for 4 slain siblings

BARLING - Four siblings killed in a shooting rampage at a Texas roller rink were remembered yesterday as a part of a tight-knit family....

--more--"

"Phony Texas high school athlete sentenced" July 28, 2011|Associated Press

ODESSA, Texas - A former star athlete who posed as a teenager to play high school sports in West Texas was sentenced to three years in prison as part of a plea deal, a prosecutor said yesterday.  

I must admit it has been a dream of mine to help the local five; however, no plastic surgeon in the world could  disguise my age at this point.

Guerdwich Montimere, 23, pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault and three counts of tampering with government records, said Ector District Attorney Bobby Bland....

Officials say the naturalized US citizen from Haiti came to Odessa as a ninth-grader using the name Jerry Joseph. Montimere was 21 when he played one season of football at Odessa Permian High and helped lead the Panthers to the 2010 state playoffs. Permian’s football team and backers inspired the book “Friday Night Lights.’’  

Which was turned into a TV show.

******************************

The sexual assault charge stemmed from a relationship with a 15-year-old girl.


--more--"

"Teaching of evolution in Texas schools sparks controversy again" July 22, 2011|By Jim Vertuno, Associated Press

AUSTIN, Texas - The debate over teaching evolution in public schools flared up again at the Texas State Board of Education yesterday, with supporters and opponents of the approach sparring at a meeting over supplemental science materials for the upcoming school year and beyond....

The new teaching materials are necessary because the state could not afford to buy new textbooks this year, leaving students to use some that are several years old....  

Nothing wrong with an old book -- if it tells the truth.

--more--"


Related: Texas State Board of Education approves materials on evolution

Federal judge dismisses lawsuit against Texas prayer event

Praying for rain, aren't they?

"Parched Texas welcomes tropical storm" July 30, 2011|Associated Press

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas - As Tropical Storm Don crawled through the Gulf of Mexico, South Texas braced for long-awaited rain and what some saw as a practice run for storms to come.

Almost all of Texas is in extreme drought, and Don’s few inches of rain will not cure that, but at this point any moisture is appreciated....

--more--"  

Ever think the Lord is trying to tell you something, Amerikans?

"Tropical storm leaves little rain in parched Texas" by Associated Press / July 31, 2011

McALLEN, Texas - The storm that many had hoped would bring some relief to parched areas of South Texas passed yesterday after dropping less than an inch of rain - good news only for the cotton farmers who were ready to resume their harvest.  

You got fires, you got floods. Maybe invading the world over lies and dropping missiles on them was the wrong thing to do, huh?

The National Hurricane Center said the remnants of Tropical Storm Don passed into northern Mexico. Don had failed to live up to even low expectations by tropical storm standards and was downgraded earlier to a tropical depression.

“There’s really not much left of it,’’ said Barry Goldsmith, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Brownsville.

With dry air falling in behind Don, a hot and sunny weekend was forecast with only a chance of showers. “That great beach weather we had last week is coming right back,’’ Goldsmith said.

Most of Texas has been under an extreme drought, and Don was seen as South Texas’s best hope for widespread rain in months. But totals from various sites in the Rio Grande Valley and coastal Willacy County failed to rise to even an inch.

The storm was a disappointment for ranchers who have been selling off cattle at a rapid clip because their pastures are barren.

But it was a huge relief for cotton growers, who are in the middle of their harvest.

At least clothing should be less expensive, right? 

Double the amount of cotton was planted this year in the state’s four southernmost counties, and the fields along many rural roads are still dotted with white bolls. The area got the most rain from Don, but it still wasn’t much.

“I think it was pretty much a nonevent,’’ said Sally Ross at the Ross Gin Co. in Mercedes yesterday morning....

--more--"

Oregonian Dears

"Poachers get four deer seasons in jail" July 14, 2011|Associated Press

EUGENE, Ore. - An Oregon man and his son who pleaded guilty to poaching will spend the next four deer seasons in jail.

Investigators said the family hunted illegally for generations and all but wiped out the deer population in part of a wildlife area.

Under a plea deal, they will report to prison Oct. 1 - the first day of deer season - for 90-day terms each of the next four years. In addition, they have been stripped of their hunting privileges for life....

--more--"

"Pelosi seeks inquiry into Ore. legislator" July 25, 2011|Associated Press

 PORTLAND, Ore. - House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi yesterday called for an ethics panel investigation of Representative David Wu, following a published allegation that a young woman reported he’d engaged in “aggressive and unwanted sexual behavior.’’

The Oregon Democrat has been facing calls to resign but remained silent yesterday over the allegation.

In a statement last night, Pelosi asked the “Ethics Committee to initiate an investigation into the allegations against Congressman Wu.’’

--more--"

Related: The Massa Mess

The question needs to be asked: is Nancy Pelsoi anti-Asian? 

Oil Spill Cleanup Update

"Exxon cleans up 4 Mont. spill sites" July 23, 2011|Associated Press

BILLINGS, Mont. - ExxonMobil Pipeline Co. crews have finished initial cleanup work on four sites contaminated when a pipeline carrying crude oil broke underneath the Yellowstone River three weeks ago.

The Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Environmental Quality will assess whether the cleanup is adequate....  

Related: Slow Saturday Special: EPA and Exxon Unite

So far, 46 sites have been identified for cleanup after about 1,000 barrels of oil leaked into the river, starting on July 1.

Exxon brought in International Bird Rescue of California to clean wildlife affected by the spill. Jay Holcomb with the rescue group says they have only had to treat three birds. 

It's almost as if there never was an "accident."

--more--"  

Good thing EPA is on the job, huh?

"EPA says it knew about asbestos in wood chips" July 19, 2011|Associated Press

BILLINGS, Mont. - Federal regulators knew potentially contaminated bark and wood chips were being sold from a Superfund site in the asbestos-tainted town of Libby, Mont., for three years before they stopped the practice, according to a letter from the Environmental Protection Agency to Senator Max Baucus.

The Democrat asked for an investigation into the contaminated scrap piles at a defunct timber mill in response to an Associated Press story that detailed how the wood chips and bark had been widely used as landscaping material by residents and government officials.  

Oh, the irony of the wood chips in government lawns.  Say no to biomass, too!

Asbestos from a W.R. Grace mine in Libby has killed an estimated 400 people.

The EPA previously said it learned last fall that the wood chips and bark stockpiled at the former Stimson Lumber mill were being sold by a local economic development official. But in the July 14 letter to Baucus, the agency acknowledges it knew of the sales since at least October 2007.

The EPA found asbestos in samples it took from the piles in 2007 but never quantified how much.
The agency is now trying to gauge the health risk. Results from additional testing are expected this summer.

--more--"  

Yup, good thing there is an EPA:

"BP adopts new safety standards for Gulf drilling" July 15, 2011|Harry R. Weber, Associated Press

A year after it capped its out-of-control well in the Gulf of Mexico, oil giant BP PLC said Friday it is taking new steps to improve the reliability of the cement used to seal its wells and the fail-safe devices used to prevent blowouts.  

The fish are still oil- and dispersant-soaked, and there is muck at the bottom, but other than that....

The U.S. government welcomed the voluntary measures announced by the British firm — which seemed to target shortcomings addressed in several investigations of the disaster — but also noted that it has already established what it believes are strong safety and environmental standards that all operators are required to meet in order to operate in deep waters.

Eleven men were killed when the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded off Louisiana on April 20, 2010, leading to the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history. The well was capped on July 15, 2010, and permanently sealed from the bottom two months after that. The government estimates that some 206 million gallons of oil were released by BP’s Macondo well a mile beneath the sea. Tens of billions of dollars have been spent or committed by BP on cleaning up the devastation and compensating victims....

But industry experts have said that despite the extra measures taken by government and industry since the Deepwater Horizon explosion, they believe another disaster could happen again.

They have noted that the effectiveness of the much-touted containment system has been questioned, and a design flaw in the blowout preventers widely used across the industry has been identified but not corrected.

In Washington, U.S. Rep. Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat and ranking member of the House Committee on Natural Resources, said that if BP can adopt voluntary safety standards that go above what is required by regulators, the rest of the oil and gas industry can, too.

--more--"

The Massa Mess

"House ethics panel will continue harassment inquiry" July 16, 2011


WASHINGTON - The House ethics panel has decided to continue its inquiry into whether top Democrats covered up information that former representative Eric Massa sexually harassed male staffers.

The committee said yesterday that it had voted to reauthorize an investigative subcommittee for the investigation, which began in April 2010.

The New York congressman resigned in March 2010 after the sexual harassment allegations surfaced.

Republicans eager to make ethical misdeeds a campaign issue have pressed for information about what Democratic leaders knew about the allegations against Massa and what actions they took.

The ethics panel cannot investigate former members, but it can look into what others did - or did not do - with knowledge of Massa’s conduct.

--more--"

Related: 

Massa Probe Touches Pelosi

AmeriKan media minimizing gay sex scandal? 

Also see: Massa of the House


Massa Makes Me Sick

Kennedy Family Feud

Survey said....

"Library could lose RFK papers; Family wants legacy honored" by Adam Clymer and Don Van Natta Jr., New York Times / July 12, 2011

WASHINGTON - As archivists prepare to make public 63 boxes of Robert F. Kennedy’s papers at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, his family members are considering moving them elsewhere because they believe that the presidential library has not done enough to honor the younger brother’s legacy. 

It's very possible.

Many of the papers, dealing with Cuba, Vietnam, and civil rights, are classified as secret or top secret. There are also an additional 2,300 boxes covering every stage of Robert Kennedy’s life, including his years as a US senator and attorney general, most of which have been opened for research.

But....

“There is a very large building, and there is a remembrance of President Kennedy and there’s one for Senator Edward Kennedy,’’ said former representative Joseph P. Kennedy II, a son of Robert Kennedy, describing the presidential library that opened in 1979 and an adjacent construction site for the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the US Senate. “But there is nothing out there for Robert Kennedy.’’

***************************

Though some historians are eager to see the new documents, Thomas J. Putnam, the library director, sought to dim speculation that they contained historical bombshells. “I think they are going to be of high interest to researchers,’’ Putnam said, “but I don’t think that there is going to be anything that will completely change the stories that have been written by other historians.’’  

And the narratives of conventional myth will continue and continue and continue....

--more--"

Related: Kennedy family at odds over Hyannis Port property

Compound fracture

Globe Spits on Kennedy Graves

What do expect, flowers?  

For my part I see Bobby's death as the last of the three '60s killings as the end of hope in so many ways.  The pain the man went through at the brutal loss of his beloved brother, and the things he saw in America as he traveled during the campaign connected that man to the average, ordinary citizen (unlike so many elites). The threat to the establishment that -- let's face it -- murdered his brother was immense, whether it be the threat to the Zionist lobby or an internal investigation into his brother's death.  

"Fear not the path of truth for the lack of people walking on it." -- Robert F. Kennedy, June 5, 1968

Is it possible Bobby foresaw blogs?  

"Few will have the greatness to bend history; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation ... It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is thus shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."  

He said that in South Africa at the height of apartheid.

Massachusetts Boozing It Up

At guess-whos expense, taxpayers?

"Review ordered of liquor agency; Mass. treasurer seeks audit after state pays $1.7m to settle cases" July 18, 2011|By Todd Wallack, Globe Staff

The Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission has spent an amount nearly equal to its annual budget in the past two years to resolve a trio of employment cases involving harassment, discrimination, and retaliation, according to interviews and documents obtained by the Globe through public records requests.  

Did they use the "Hey, I was drunk excuse?"

The cases - two settlements and a court judgment - stem from complaints filed by former workers and a prospective employee over the past decade.
In one case, settled in 2009, the agency presented a novel defense to accusations it had unfairly denied a 57-year-old veteran a job. The defense: The two available slots had to go to relatives of lawmakers, or the Legislature would not fund the positions, according to legal documents....  

Oh, isn't that JUST PRICELESS!!! 

I was told that was EXTORTION!

The patronage case began after Ronald Bridges, a 57-year-old former Marine, complained he was repeatedly passed over for investigator jobs at the liquor commission in 2001 and 2002, arguing it might have been because he was black or over 40. In addition to his military service, which gives him preference in civil service hiring, Bridges has a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Northeastern University and worked in corrections.

He filed a case with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination in 2002. The MCAD ruled against the liquor commission, prompting the agency to settle two years ago with Bridges for $324,000, according to the agency.

In the other cases, a Suffolk Superior Court judge in 2009 ordered the commission to pay more than $1 million in court costs, legal fees, and damages to Janet DeCarlo-Staples, a former assistant secretary, after a jury found she lost her job in retaliation for filing a sex-discrimination complaint with the MCAD in 2000.

And in the third case, the liquor agency agreed last summer to pay $360,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by the agency’s former executive director, Cheryl Marshall, who alleged she was forced to resign in 2007 after being subjected to racial harassment, sex discrimination, and retaliation for reporting misconduct within the agency. Marshall is black.

Well, you are up to about $1.7 million there. I wonder how many teachers, cops, and firefighters that would buy, 'er, pay for.  All so nephew Johnny the family idiot could get cut a taxpayer-funded check (with generous Massachusetts state benefits including pension and health).

The agency said in court documents at the time that the allegations were unfounded, but later agreed to the settlement.  

Why not?  It is NOT THERE MONEY they are FORKING OVER to "settle"; it is TAXPAYER DIME, folks!!!!!!! For MISMANAGEMENT -- and WORSE!!!! By the VERY SAME STATE that LECTURES YOU in MORALITY all the time! Gotta take away your kids, etc, etc.

“A business decision was made that it was in the best interests of the Commonwealth to settle the lawsuit,’’ said Kim Gainsboro, who chairs the commission.  

Ummm, WHOSE BEST INTEREST? 

Certainly NOT the TAXPAYERS!!! 

It was in the BEST INTERE$T$ of the $TATE AGENCY to KEEP IT QUIET and OUT OF COURT where the PRESS likes to HANG OUT!

--more--"  

Related: Treasurer says patronage hires at liquor agency to get 'fair shot 

Better off making your own with a long, tall, front-page pitcher:

"Region awash in new wave of niche breweries" July 22, 2011|By Joseph P. Kahn, Globe Staff

“It’s almost like the recession caused a wave of Yankee ingenuity,’’ says Bryan Greenhagen, founder of Mystic Brewery in Chelsea, yet another start-up coming online soon....

You wanna give that guy a breathalyzer. 

Yup, the still-ongoing Grand Depression was a good thing. 

If you got lemons make.... BEER?

To beer specialist Andrew Crouch, author of “Great American Craft Beer,’’ New England is merely catching up with California and other parts of the country already experiencing their own craft beer boomlets. “These aren’t accountants looking for a second career,’’ Crouch says. “They’re social-media savvy, entrepreneurially minded people who are willing to take risks - and who tend to brew more eclectic, experimental beers’’ of limited appeal to mass-market tastes.  

They sound like a band of Wall Street brokers, only a lot more fun.

This new wave of niche breweries is the most noteworthy since the mid-1990s....

How many will survive the long haul? No one knows. Greenhagen estimates it takes sales of 2,000 to 5,000 barrels a year to become profitable, a number Ipswich Brewery’s Rob Martin, who heads the Massachusetts Brewers Guild, questions. He says it’s more like 10,000 barrels annually before the necessary economies of scale are realized and profitability reliably flows.

Nothing but air left in the keg.

“Brand building takes at least a few years,’’ says Martin. “This is a big boys’ business, and in the end you’re working against some of the biggest breweries in the country.’’ 

I'm sorry, I've had enough Globe rot gut for one day. 

Help yourself if you like the glug-glug of pure sh.... (gurgle, gurgle, gurgle)

--more--"    

Related: Police say Marshfield boater told them he drank 10 beers

No, that's not me. I pilot this blog 100% sober -- a real bummer when you think about it. 

:-(

Holden Header

I'm sorry I didn't cover the women as much as the men; however, I have far less time to blog these days and that is one of the topics that didn't make the cut.

Fans are good sports despite loss by US

Soccer grumps

Also see: Boy, 12, dies after collapsing during soccer camp in Holden

Players help Medford coach get another year 

Sunday Globe Special: Gambling On a Sure Thing

I'm going to stop blogging for a while and go over to the cafe.

"Bill would ban cybercafes’ online slots; House speaker says Internet parlors are not playing fair" July 16, 2011|By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff

House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo, while he seeks to legalize slot machines at the state’s horse tracks, is trying to cut off a burgeoning black market of Internet slot parlors.  

Yeah, the LOOTERS of the LEGISLATURE HATE COMPETITION and MONEY they CAN'T GET THEIR HANDS INTO!

DeLeo said yesterday that he is filing legislation to ban so-called cybercafes, storefront operations where gamblers play online slots and other games. Gamblers win points in the games that can be redeemed for cash at the cybercafe.

Several of the venues, which resemble traditional Internet cafes, have cropped up in Springfield, Fall River, New Bedford, and other cities in recent months.

DeLeo’s bill would prohibit the establishments by making it a crime to conduct or promote a sweepstakes with an electronic machine. Offenders would be fined up to $250,000 per machine or could spend up to 15 years in state prison.

“Owners of these establishments are taking advantage of their patrons and scamming them out of money,’’ DeLeo said in a statement. “This is unacceptable, and I look forward to seeing this legislation passed into law.’’

What do you think a CASINO and LOTTERY ARE?

Attorney General Martha Coakley, who has spent several months trying to stop the cafes from proliferating, praised DeLeo’s efforts.

“These cybercafes are really cyber scams with no posted odds, minimum odds, or guarantee of payouts for patrons,’’ she said in a statement. “This bill makes certain that companies cannot skirt our laws.’’  

As opposed to the casino scam.

The legislation exempts the state lottery, as well as betting on horse races, bingo, and charitable gambling events.  

Un-flipping-real!

While DeLeo is attempting to ban the cybercafes, he is also working behind the scenes with Senate President Therese Murray and Governor Deval Patrick on legislation to legalize casino gambling in Massachusetts....   

Why did the word HYPOCRITE just come to mind?

The Legislature plans to debate gambling bills in September, after Labor Day. 

Massachusetts debate usually means vote for it or else leadership will punish you.

--more--"

"State cracking down on cybercafe gambling; Businesses are legal, owners say" July 22, 2011|By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff

WORCESTER - Authorities, who have begun cracking down on these so-called cybercafes, calling them little more than thinly veiled gambling operations that exploit patrons and run the risk of laundering money.

The State Police have raided three cybercafes this year and are conducting criminal investigations into their owners, one of whom is a longtime Fall River city councilor, Leo O. Pelletier, a retired jailhouse chef and 27-year veteran of the Fall River City Council whose cybercafes in Fall River and Fairhaven were raided by the State Police and shut down.  

The police don't have better things to do, huh? 

Yeah, I guess too many banks are laundering government's drug-dealing loot.

The cafes - which have proliferated in Florida, Virginia, and other states - began cropping up in Massachusetts about two years ago. At least a dozen have opened in the state, often in strip malls in blue-collar communities. Since the raids in March, several have closed down on their own. At least four are still operating.

Attorney General Martha Coakley says they violate the state’s existing ban on gambling, and issued regulations in June, saying she needed to make that prohibition explicit.

Last week, House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo, the state’s foremost proponent of expanded gambling, introduced legislation that would subject anyone running a cybercafe to a fine of $250,000 per computer terminal or a prison term of 15 years.

“This kind of activity, gambling, is not allowed under Massachusetts law,’’ Coakley said Wednesday. “They are totally unregulated, there’s no oversight, and there is no protection for the consumer.’’

The cafes sell patrons Internet time on cards, which they can swipe to gain access to the Web. Most, however, use the cards to play casino-style games with names such as “Trick or Treat’’ and “Irish Luck.’’ Patrons win points on the cards and then redeem them for cash, up to $5,000, according to one cafe owner.

The owners insist that the businesses are legal, but they are under mounting pressure from law enforcement officials in this and other states. Many say their days in business may be numbered....

Gee, government can sure be effective when it wants.

Called “convenience casinos’’ by critics, the cafes have taken advantage of demand for casino-like action close to home. They found a niche in Massachusetts, as the Legislature failed several times to legalize full-scale casinos in recent years.

“Once that is addressed, I imagine these cybercafes will dry up,’’ said Timothy J. Rooke, a Springfield city councilor who has been trying to license one in his city. “But up unto the point where they do take some action, they’re going to be popping up.’’

Earlier this year, another type of questionably legal gambling took hold when several poker rooms opened across the state. They tried to operate under a law that allows charities to hold casino nights up to three times a year. But they shut down in April, after Coakley said they were pushing legal boundaries. 

See: Boston Globe Back Room

What do you mean state closed it down?

DeLeo said he is concerned that cybercafes may threaten his attempts to attract full-scale casinos and slot parlors to the state’s race tracks, two of which are in his district. The Legislature plans to debate casino legislation in September.  

Yeah, the SELF-SERVING SHIT is ONLY CONCERNED about HIMSELF!

I hope he follows in the steps of his predecessors.

Related: Casino bill to be debated in September

“If we’re asking people to invest millions of dollars [on casinos],’’ DeLeo said, “and you’ve got 10 or 20 of these rogue gambling places out there, they’re going to say, ‘Why are we going to invest that much money if they’re going to be taking money away from us?’ ’’

From WHO?

The State Police raided Pelletier’s cafes and another cybercafe, Cafeno’s in Chicopee, in March. The troopers seized hard drives from Pelletier’s computers and his business records and froze bank accounts worth about $109,000. But no charges have been filed....   

Did you just catch a whiff of fascism?

The longest-serving councilor in Fall River history and often the top vote-getter in city elections, Pelletier was charged in 1983 with operating illegal poker machines in the restaurant he was running, the Rockland Diner. He said he resolved that case by paying a fine and completing a year of unsupervised probation.

He said he is not worried about the possibility of being charged again. Chatting about his cafes during a tour of Fall River this week, he enthusiastically greeted workmen on the street and stopped into a bar for a shot of Canadian Club whiskey and a beer chaser.

“We ran a good, clean place,’’ he said. “We didn’t rip anybody off.’’  

Unlike the state.

--more--"

"Most legislators do not have racetracks in or near their districts and exhibit little interest in the regular debates over simulcasting, but the tracks are central to the larger, ongoing debate over expanded gambling....

--more--" 

Maybe I'll just play me a ticket:

"A game with a windfall for a knowing few; High-rolling gamblers are exploiting a quirk in Cash WinFall, raking in huge profits every 3 months as the Lottery looks on" by Andrea Estes and Scott Allen, Globe Staff / July 31, 2011

SUNDERLAND - Billy’s Beer and Wine sold exactly $47 worth of lottery tickets the day before Marjorie Selbee arrived, just another sleepy day for the liquor store in this tiny Western Massachusetts town. But from the moment the 70-something woman from Michigan entered the store early July 12, Billy’s wasn’t sleepy anymore.  

Just down the road, and I've been by there many times.

Over the next three days, Selbee bought $307,000 worth of $2 tickets for a relatively obscure game called Cash WinFall, tying up the machine that spits out the pink tickets for hours at a time. Down the road at Jerry’s Place, a coffee shop in South Deerfield, Selbee’s husband, Gerald, was also spending $307,000 on Cash WinFall. Together, the couple bought more than 300,000 tickets for a game whose biggest prize - about $2 million - has been claimed exactly once in the game’s seven-year history.

I know just where it is, dear readers.

But the Selbees, who run a gambling company called GS Investment Strategies, know a secret about the Massachusetts State Lottery: For a few days about every three months, Cash WinFall may be the most reliably lucrative lottery game in the country. Because of a quirk in the rules, when the jackpot reaches roughly $2 million and no one wins, payoffs for smaller prizes swell dramatically, which statisticians say practically assures a profit to anyone who buys at least $100,000 worth of tickets.

The state is lucky if I buy one.

During these brief periods - “rolldown weeks’’ in gambling parlance - a tiny group of savvy bettors, among them highly trained computer scientists from MIT and Northeastern University, virtually take over the game....  

Sounds like the BANKS of WALL STREET!!

“Cash WinFall isn’t being played as a game of chance. Some smart people have figured out how to get rich while everyone else funds their winnings,’’ said Mohan Srivastava, an MIT-educated statistician who gained fame in gambling circles when he found a flaw in a Canadian scratch ticket game that allowed him to pick the winners more than 90 percent of the time.  

Yup, it's a STATE GOVERNMENT operation.

It is hard to say precisely how much each gambler has won because they have a year to claim prizes and the lottery does not track winning tickets of less than $600. But the Selbees have already claimed nearly $1 million in prize money this year, entirely in tickets valued at $802 to $24,821. Their final haul will undoubtedly be considerably larger.

Srivastava calculated that a gambler who bought 200,000 Cash WinFall tickets during four rolldown weeks in a year would win enough to cover the $1.6 million investment and earn a profit of $240,000 to $1.4 million - without ever winning the jackpot. Srivistava’s calculations suggest that the top five groups and individuals playing Cash WinFall collectively win back the cost of their tickets plus $1 million to $6 million in profits each year from about 12 days of gambling. 

If only I had the cash reserves like a bank.

On the other 350-plus days of the year, less-sophisticated Cash WinFall players generally lose money, their losses building up the multimillion dollar pool that is ultimately paid out during the rolldowns. 

But THAT is OKAY because SUCKERS like them are responsible for the GOBS of STATE AID you get!

The high-stakes players’ dominance of Cash WinFall is putting an uncomfortable spotlight on the state lottery, which has known about the phenomenon for years but only recently started to police the game under new state Treasurer Steven Grossman.  

Meaning Cahill the Corrupt was asleep at the switch.

Cash WinFall is so lucrative to stores that sell the tickets - which get a commission equal to 5 percent of the sales - that some are tempted to break the rules to accommodate the high rollers’ needs.

Behaving just like Wall Street!

A Globe reporter saw Marjorie Selbee behind the counter at Billy’s, apparently operating the Cash WinFall machine in violation of a lottery rule that store employees alone can work the ticket dispenser.

I'm so glad those crack Globe reporters are out investigating things, aren't you?

Within days, the lottery suspended ticket-selling privileges at Billy’s, Jerry’s, and five other stores after agency inspectors discovered violations, such as printing out Cash WinFall tickets for bettors who were not there.

So the GLOBE REPORTER is a SNITCH, huh?

However, lottery officials stressed that stores did not tamper with the machines that generate the tickets or otherwise aid the gamblers.

“It is very important to note that their actions in no way compromised the operation or integrity of the game,’’ said lottery officials in a statement.

Pfffft! 

More broadly, some question why the state would sponsor a game that is vulnerable to betting tactics that funnel most of the prize money to just a few....   

That is the way the RUN FISCAL POLICY for EVERYTHING!

But lottery officials say the game is successful, generating a respectable $11.8 million in profits in 2011 even though the agency sometimes pays out more money than it takes in during the rolldown weeks. Lottery officials say they more than offset the cost of rolldown weeks over the rest of the year.

That is why they DON'T CARE about the FIX!

“It’s a niche game for a different audience,’’ explained Paul Sternburg, the lottery’s executive director. “You want to bring in as many players as possible. Some people chase a huge jackpot. Others are looking at odds.’’  

You mean, like a CYBERCAFE?

One thing is certain, however: The players who invest big money in Cash WinFall do not want to talk about it, refusing to discuss the game or explain the secret of their success. Mark Fettig of Tennessee, one of the top 10 winners during the May rolldown week, urged the Globe not to write a story at all, saying “it would be immoral’’ to attract more people to Cash WinFall and potentially dilute the winnings of current players....

--more--" 

I NEVER SAW a WORD of CONCERN about GAMBLING ADDICTS and the DESTROYED FAMILIES and COMMUNITIES! 

That is ALSO A SURE THING to be found WHEREVER is a CASINO!  

Also see: Saturday Night Drawing

No need for me to check if I won.