Psi Ops soldiers ordered to spy on Senators

Umm..I thought this was going to be a joke headline or a movie plot but apparently the army actually ordered Psi Ops soldiers to use their skills on Senators visiting Afghanistan.

Between this and the General that got fired for mouthing off about Obama in Rolling Stone..one wonders if we have any control over the military...

DCF workers unfirable

"In 1992, Fleary was given a written reprimand for punching a colleague in the face."

This person is on paid leave while Florida looks into the many many red flags that should have alerted her before 1 kid was killed and the other horribly burned with acid. In my opinion the fault lies with the unions. Punching people should be grounds for immediate termination.

US ranked 178th in world for parenting

In this case its 178th worst in rights for parents to take leave to be parents. And we wonder why our kids are shooting up malls and schools ?

DSHS protected by judge from lawsuits

Shocking! WA DSHS sued again !?!?! Oh wait no...according to a judge only the dead people could sue..siblings and family members dont count.

In this starvation case the adoptive "mother" who was vetted by DSHS only got 3 years in prison for torturing and killing a child.

American "police"

This story "feels" just like so many I've heard while working with family and law enforcement. The "crime" is often something small but just being processed and becoming involved with the "system" completely destroys peoples lives.

His mother says she begged police to let her drive her son to the police department and to let her stay with him through the booking process but they refused.At first school officials did not want to press charges, but changed their mind when police called them later that night."Tim" is on probation and if he completes that successfully, the criminal charges will be dropped. But his parents say it has cost them thousands of dollars so far.

Qaddafi

Those of us not familiar with the Libya leader's antics have been learning quite a bit lately about a certain Col. Qaddafi of late. Like that he built the worlds largest underground river. Or that he is guarded night and day by an all female bodyguard. Libya's system of direct democracy that he pioneered sounds really interesting too.

The key lies in Libya's system of popular committees, ostensibly 30,000 councils of 100 people each that guide the course of the nation. While it's difficult to find anyone outside Libya–or inside, for that matter–who really believes these committees drive policy, they may provide a channel through which real concerns at the bottom could reach the very few at the top.

Tunisia's most important issue moving forward

Via Fark and the NY times, apparently the Tunis people, after throwing out their dictator, now want to kick out the prostitutes.

Government knew and did nothing

Here about this story ? Apparently the FDA knew about a plant in Wisconsin producing bateria-filled sanitary wipes and did nothing about it until a kid died. This is typical reactive rather than proactive behavior I've seen over and over. Its all about the work ethics of the employees involved.

Geomagnetic Storm on Thursday

The sun apparently farted for the first time in 4 years, sending a solar flare right at us. Its expected to disrupt communications systems on the earth and create aurora effects where those are normally visible when it hits the Earth's magnetic field.

Solar flares and the huge amount of radiation they send out are one big reason living and traveling outside a planet's magnetosphere is still really a fantasy for living creatures.

Ripple

I heard a great quote from Robert Kennedy today in regards to the dictator standing down in Egypt. To those who say that one person cant change the system:

"It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is 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."

I may not succeed in changing the system..but perhaps in concert with 100s of others change can eventually occur.  

Waste on the Water

King 5, the channel that reports on the corruption in the foster care system, has put together a series on the corruption in the ferry system. Dori covered it on his show today and I'm going to share it with you. Check it out!

I paid a bribe

India is the largest democrcy in the world. Just like our much smaller democracy india is full of greedy government workers gaming the system in their favor. Some people are trying to fight the corruption with sites like I paid a bribe and 5th Pillars zero rupee note.

I wonder if a bribery system isnt something we should legalize here in the US. Politicians are already being bribed and courted by special interests and lobbyists. The justice system is neigh inaccessible without large amounts of money to pay lawyers. What gets left out is the individual. Since clean goverment is a total fantasy would it be so bad to give the individual a chance to offer an incentive to whomever they need help from? Bribes would give the individual the ability to immediately compete with the other long term forces influencing government employees by offering instant short term gain.

Teacher not yet fired after choking and beating students

Via Fark a story about a first grade teacher who is still on paid leave after punching choking and kicking 8 students in her class.

Fark

OMG I had forgotten about the great news site Fark. This guy and his buds basically do what I do - find links to interesting news story. Check them out and bookmark it!

Further lack of transparency from the Governor's office

Apparently Gregoire felt silly things like facts could be a "distraction" during her election bid so she had them suppressed. 

It will not be helpful if this election turns out to be a referendum on the tunnel," said Gregoire staffer Ron Judd in an e-mail to Hammond shortly after the primary. "So we need to work on ensuring as much as possible that does not happen."

The Tribes

"From a legal standpoint, it still boggles my mind -- that there would be no recourse to challenge illegal acts of Washington state officials because the matter touches in some fashion on Indian tribes," said Phil Talmadge, one of AUTO's attorneys and a former state Supreme Court justice. "That just doesn't make any sense."

I'm of the opinion that the so called Native American tribes in America are just a legalized form of organized crime. A way for a small number of wealthy families to avoid things like taxes, fair labor laws and law enforcement in general. 'Coarse the plight of children on or involved with native families isnt a good enough reason to challenge the absurd legal status of the tribes. No, it comes down to people looking to make money, since the successful amongst us already have money and thus dont care.

Police

If you think abuse by police only happens in Egypt check out this video. Police in any society is just a job program for jocks and thugs. And of course government tried to cover it up and not allow the people to know about this.

Free Clinics

Remote Area Medical is offering a free medical and dental clinic this weekend in Knoxville. Today so many people lined up that they closed admission at opening. Word is if you arnt in line by 3am for the sunday 6am clinic you wont get served. I encounted this same situation in Florida with the free clinics there. They had sick and elderly people camping outside the clinic with no security and half of them being turned away.

We need to reform the medical and legal services in this country.  

100 thousand sharks invade Palm Beach

I never saw a single shark while I was living there..

DSHS pays 6.5 million to another abused family

DSHS settles another case for failing to pay attention or listen to those who were. Honestly at this point we can not blame DSHS we must blame the neglectful self interested members of our society for not cleaning this agency up after so many failures.

Canada limits internet use to the wealthy

This is a slippery slope. Idle minds are the devils playground.