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So Much For “Jury Of Their Peers” January 26, 2008

Posted by Webmaster in Black Extremism, Black Racism & Bigotry, Police & Law Enforcement.
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Reuters:

NY police face judge, not jury, in groom shooting

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Three New York City police officers charged in the 2006 shooting death of an unarmed black man hours before his wedding waived their right to a jury trial on Friday, saying any local jury would be biased against them.

Lawyers for the white, Hispanic and black detectives who fired 50 bullets at the groom and his friends have argued that intense media coverage of the death of Sean Bell, 23, had made it impossible to find a neutral jury in New York.

(snip)

The policemen appeared determined to avoid facing a jury in the New York City borough of Queens, where Bell was killed and his two friends were wounded around 4 a.m. on November 25, 2006.

“The potential jury pool was poisoned right from the start,” said Michael Paladino, president of the Detectives Endowment Association. “It has nothing to do with the good people of Queens. They were hit with an avalanche of negative publicity.”

(snip)

The venue dispute mirrors a similar case nearly a decade ago, when four police officers charged in the fatal shooting of an unarmed West African man, Amadou Diallo, were tried — and later acquitted — in Albany, the mostly white state capital.

That shooting took place in the Bronx, which, like Queens, has a large minority population.

I agree that “the potential jury pool was poisoned right from the start,” but I don’t think “an avalanche of negative publicity” is to blame.  It’s all race, and racial jealousy, and the hatred to cops and authority in general that festers in black America.  These cops made the right call.

One Step Forward and Ten Steps Back January 26, 2008

Posted by Webmaster in Welfare, Social Insurance and Transfer Payments.
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The 1996 Welfare Reform Act has turned out to be an abject failure.  Between the time when its provisions took effect and 9/11, SSI was the fastest-growing line item in the Federal budget.  What this meant is that former AFDC recipients who would have received TANF switched over to SSI, based on the presumption that they and/or their children were crazy or retarded.

Now, for the relatively few TANF recipients left, one of its “reforms” has been weakened.

AP:

Welfare recipients who go to college will be able to use up to a year of classwork to meet the program’s work requirements and will no longer need to have their homework supervised to have some of that time count as well.

The unsupervised homework provision, which also applies to vocational school and other educational activities, represents a change from rules put into place in 2006 for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program. A copy of the final rule was obtained by The Associated Press. It will be published in the Federal Register next week.

The nation’s governors had sought the changes, arguing the requirement that homework be supervised would increase state costs. The Bush administration had wanted as much supervision as possible, but eventually it conceded that most students aren’t monitored as they do their homework.

What will probably happen is that many TANF recipients will appear to register for classes at a junior college or technical school.  Based on the fact that they have low incomes, Federal grants will pay the tuition.  However, they won’t actually attend the classes, and since there’s no homework check anymore, they have no incentive to do so.

So combine that with the increased recipient rolls of SSI, and the 1996 Welfare Reform did nothing.  In fact, the Federal government would probably be spending less without it.

Egypt: More Sane Than America In One Way January 26, 2008

Posted by Webmaster in Immigration, Terrorism.
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AP:

Egypt tries to control chaotic border

RAFAH, Gaza Strip - Egyptian riot police and armored vehicles restricted Gaza motorists to a small border area of Egypt on Saturday, in the second attempt in two days to restore control over the chaotic frontier breached by Hamas militants.

At least 38 members of the Egyptian security forces have been hospitalized, some in critical condition, because of cross-border confrontations, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said. The minister complained of “provocations” at the border, a thinly veiled reprimand of Hamas, and said that while Egypt is ready to ease the suffering of Gazans, this should not endanger Egyptian lives.

(snip)

On the Gaza-Egypt border, traffic of cars and pedestrians remained heavy Saturday, four days after Hamas militants blew down the border wall, sending hundreds of thousands of Gazans rushing into Egypt.

In an attempt to restore some control, Egyptian armored vehicles blocked the main street of the Egyptian border town of Rafah, causing a traffic jam of honking cars filled with Gazans shopping for fuel, food and consumer products.

Earlier Saturday, dozens of riot police formed human chains to block the two passages cut through the breached border, before once again giving up and allowing the cars to cross into the Egyptian side of the divided town. Authorities were making renewed efforts, however, to keep them out of the rest of the country.

And they’re acting more sane than America in two ways:  First, that there was a border wall in the first place, and second, when Hamas blows a hole in it, the Egyptian government takes relatively proactive and drastic action to seal it.  Somehow, if two Egyptian border guards shoot a fleeing Hamas dope dealer in the rump, there will be no equivalent to Johnny Suttonfong sending them to prison.