Mexicans Facing Drug War Violence Could Seek Political Asylum In The U.S.

The violent drug wars in Mexico could upend efforts to curb illegal immigrants.

The spreading violence of the drug wars along the Mexican border may have one unintended consequence. It could upend efforts to curb illegal immigrants by giving Mexican border-crossers a tool they never had before: a valid claim for political asylum.

For decades, immigrants coming from Mexico were denied asylum because Mexico was a stable and relatively peaceful democracy. But that is changing now.

Last week, at least 30 Mexicans from the town of El Porvenir walked to the border crossing post at Fort Hancock, Texas, and asked for political asylum. Ordinarily, their claim would be denied as groundless, and they would be turned back. Instead, they were taken to El Paso, where they expect to have their cases heard.

No one doubts that they have a strong claim. Their town on the Mexican side of the border is under siege by one or more drug cartels battling for control of the key border crossing. According to Mike Doyle, the chief deputy sheriff of Hudspeth County, Texas, one of the cartels has ordered all residents of the town of 10,000 to abandon the city within the next month…

Violent Offenders Being Released Early

A new study by the Associated Press indicates that California’s early release program is putting violent offenders back on the streets.

The A.P. review of three large California counties found that in the first month of the program more than 50 inmates with violent convictions were let out of jail early.

In Butte County 70 inmates have been let out as part of the early release program, but Sheriff Jerry Smith insists none of them had violent convictions.

“We do not release violent offenders, strikers, sexual offenders or otherwise prohibited people that meet certain criteria,” said Smith.

State guidelines list more than 150 violent offenses that make an inmate ineligible for early release, but critics say the program has loopholes. In one case a Sacramento inmate was let out early on a probation violation even though his underlying conviction was assault with a deadly weapon.

Smith believes the right rules are in place but it is up to each department to properly enforce them.

“To my knowledge nobody has slipped through the cracks, we’ve been very diligent about checking records before issuing a release,” explained Smith.

Smith says he is far more worried about the upcoming flood of inmates due to be released from state prisons. More than 6,000 state prisoners could be let out later this year as part of legislation designed to save the state more than $500 million.

“There’s a possibility that a good portion of those state inmates could be shoved down to the county level. That’s obviously a grave concern,” said Smith.

Disturbing Militia Wedding Photos Emerge

Members of a US Christian militia group linked to a murder plot celebrated a wedding by dressing in camouflage fatigues and posing with guns, newly discovered Facebook photos have revealed.

Nine members of the Michigan-based Hutaree militia group have been charged with seditious conspiracy and attempted use of weapons of mass destruction.

The Hutaree militia are alleged to have plotted to kill a police officer and attack his funeral with homemade bombs in hopes it would provoke an uprising against the government.

A day after members of the Christian militant outfit were arrested, wedding photos of two of the accused plotters have come to light.

Pictures of the nuptials of David and Tina Stone show the bridal party standing in front of a militia flag and brandishing assault rifles.

The photos were discovered on Tina Stone’s Facebook page by news website Talking Points Memo.

In the wedding pictures, believed to have been taken in December last year, Tina Stone is dressed in a black wedding dress with white stripes while David Stone and other male guests are dressed in camouflage fatigues.

Another disturbing photo shows a young boy pointing an assault rifle at the camera while Tina Stone stands beside him holding her bridal bouquet.

David Stone is accused of being the ringleader of the Hutaree group.

Two of his sons are among the nine militia members arrested.

Tina Stone with a small child.

David and Tina Stone at their wedding.

David and Tina Stone with other wedding guests.

Pill With Antenna Ensures Patients Take Meds

Emits signal when swallowed so MDs can track prescription compliance

If you’ve ever been plagued by temporary amnesia and forgotten whether or not you took your medication, take heart: U.S. researchers have engineered a pill that will jog your memory.

The pill, designed by engineers at the University of Florida, is embedded with a tiny, non-toxic microchip and antenna that can be digested. When it’s ingested, it emits a signal that is picked up by a small electronic device carried or worn by the patient. That device, in turn, signals a cell phone or laptop, letting a patient or medical professional know the pill has been taken…

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/03/31/pill-emitssignal.html#ixzz0jyguxJEl

Sharing Vs. Your Privacy On Facebook

(CNN) — Facebook is, by its nature, a social experience.

But as the undisputed king of social networking expands ways for its users to interact, it’s raising more questions about how much of their information is made available to people they don’t know.

In some cases, users may not even realize it’s happening.

One example is the hundreds of thousands of developers approved by Facebook to create games, quizzes and other applications. Some of those developers are able to access basic information about users after a Facebook friend has started using their application.

Facebook provides pages of instructions on how people can tighten up their privacy settings to hide their personal information from other users and outside applications.

But some observers say that too many of the site’s estimated 400 million users don’t know how to do so…

The Strange Case Of Nancy Schaefer…

Deaths Of Former Ga. Lawmaker, Husband Probed As Murder-Suicide

Former Georgia state Sen. Nancy Schaefer and her husband were found dead in their home in north Georgia and it is being investigating it as a possible murder-suicide.

CLARKESVILLE, Ga. – Former state Sen. Nancy Schaefer and her husband were found dead in their home in north Georgia and it is being investigating it as a possible murder-suicide, authorities said Friday.

Six GBI agents were at the home investigating at the request of the Habersham County Sheriff’s department, GBI spokesman John Bankhead said.

The preliminary investigation is looking at the case as a murder-suicide, but he did not have further details.

Schaefer, 73, was a Republican who represented a north Georgia district for two terms. She was a prominent conservative known as a vocal opponent of abortion and same-sex marriage…

Hundreds Attend Schaefer Funeral

Businessman, church friend, lawmaker: They came to pay respects to former state Sen. Nancy Schaefer and her husband, Bruce Schaefer.

The couple’s lives ended suddenly last Friday, in a way no one expected. Police say Bruce Schaefer, 74, killed his wife of 52 years while she slept. Then after shooting his 73-year-old wife, he turned the gun on himself. Their daughter found the bodies at their Habersham County home…

Oddities In The Nancy Schaefer “Suicide” Case

Garland Favorito
Infowars.com
March 30, 2010

On Friday, former Senator Nancy Schaefer and her husband were found dead in their home in Habersham County. Even before a GBI investigation could be initiated, media outlets began pronouncing that their death was a “murder-suicide” and shut off most public comment posting on their web sites. The “murder suicide” theory implies that Sen. Schaefer’s husband shot her and then killed himself (or vice versa). Both Habersham County and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation began investigating the case as a “murder suicide” rather than the more obvious “murder made to look like suicide”. Like so many people, I have known former Sen. Nancy Schaefer for 15 years and spoken to several people who know her better than I do. They believe that the “murder suicide” theory is highly unlikely for any one of the following reasons:

1. It is totally against Nancy Schaefer’s consistently strong commitment to the sanctity of life principles that she has fought so valiantly to uphold;

2. Nancy and her husband, Bruce, have five children and more than a dozen grandchildren who they would not choose to leave behind so abruptly;

3. Bruce’s problem with cancer was corrected and under control so there was no reason to end his life as one senator tried to imply;

4. Nancy or Bruce would not likely agree to commit such an act that violates the fundamental principles of their Christian faith;

5. Bruce was retired and the couple did not appear to be in any type of dire financial crisis that would lead them to commit such acts;

6. Bruce and Nancy knew that her sister who had Alzheimer’s disease needed her to help take care of her;

7. Friends who knew the couple best state that Bruce would simply not have the capability to kill his wife;

8. Nancy was dedicated, as a national leader, to help needy people overcome abuse within Child Protective Services organizations;

9. Nancy was actively exposing corruption within the Department of Family & Child Services (DFCS) including actions by the DFCS director in the county where she lived.

10. Nancy knew that she was needed in the fight against child sex slave trafficking in Atlanta which has one of the highest activity rates in the country;

11. Bruce was highly supportive of Nancy’s work for decades and would have little or no reason to suddenly try to kill her at such a critical juncture in her career.

Specifically in Georgia, former Senator Nancy Schaefer had found during the last few years that:

– in Georgia housed children in a foster home with a known pedophile who molested the children.

– in Habersham County failed to remove six children from a home where they are being abused and tortured.

– in Georgia turned two girls over to a California father who had a pornographic video business.

A report that Nancy Schaefer produced on these remarkable cases can be found here:

http://fightcps.com/2008/02/29/report-of-georgia-senator-nancy-schaefer-on-cps-corruption/

Nancy Schaefer was also interviewed extensively by talk show host Alex Jones about corruption in Child Protection Services nationally. A multi-part series of her interview and an Eagle Forum presentation can be found on You Tube here:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=nancy+schaefer&search_type=&aq=f

In addition, Senator Schaefer led opposition to HB582 and SB304, two bills introduced by fellow Republicans that would have likely resulted in increasing child sex slave trafficking. These bills would have made it legal for teenagers to participate in certain illicit acts. The bills effectively removed the legal authority that police now have to pick teenagers up and get them into protective custody so that they can no longer be pimped for those acts.

As President of Georgia Eagle Forum, Nancy Schaefer planned to be in Alabama this weekend for an Eagle Forum convention. Instead she chose to stay in Georgia to develop new information that would have further exposed corruption in DFCS and beyond. Many Eagle forum members who were close to Sen. Schaefer were aware of her courageous efforts. None of them believe that either she or her husband was involved in any type of suicide.

It is particularly ironic that the Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC) chose to quote State Sen. Don Thomas in their March 26 article about Sen. Schaefer’s death. The AJC portrayed him as a friend of the couple even though he lives on the other side of the state from the Schaefer family and was diametrically opposed to many of their core beliefs. Sen. Thomas, the Chairman of the Health and Human Services Committee, immediately propagated and expanded the “murder-suicide” theory without any first-hand knowledge or evidence. That is very disturbing considering it is his committee that should have been helping to clean up the corruption at DFCS. Activists supporting Sen. Schaefer explained that he constantly advocated increased power and authority for DFCS in spite of the evidence showing the organization was misusing that authority.

With Nancy Schaefer no longer on the scene the question may be raised as to how best to continue her legacy. I believe that she would want conservatives, progressives, libertarians, constitutionalists as well as grass roots Democrats and Republicans throughout Georgia to unite and work to rectify the corruption in DFCS and eliminate child sex slave trafficking in Georgia.

Mumbai Terrorist Was US Agent

After terrorist conspirator and “former” U.S. government agent David Coleman Headley received promises of leniency and extradition protection from American prosecutors for his role in the 2008 Mumbai massacre, speculation about his true masters was set ablaze as outrage erupted across India.

Headley — a former Drug Enforcement Administration agent and the son of a Pakistani diplomat — pled guilty to various criminal charges on March 18 in connection with his terrorist activities in India, Pakistan and Denmark. He is reportedly “cooperating” with investigators…

FAA Ends Ban On Depressed Pilots In Cockpits

Pilots taking medication for mild or moderate depression will soon be allowed in the cockpit under new Federal Aviation Administration guidelines that reverse a nearly 70-year ban. Clinically depressed pilots, including those undergoing therapy or prescription treatment, are currently prohibited from flying.

The policy change, which takes effect Monday, was sparked by reduced risk of antidepressant side effects, such as drowsiness, and a need to “change the culture and remove the stigma” associated with the illness, said FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt.

It’s also an attempt to get active pilots who need treatment or are already using antidepressants in violation of FAA rules to come clean, making the skies safer in the process…

U.S. Changing The Way Air Travelers Are Screened

The Obama administration is abandoning its policy of using nationality alone to determine which U.S.-bound international air travelers should be subject to additional screening and will instead select passengers based on possible matches to intelligence information, including physical descriptions or a particular travel pattern, senior officials said Thursday.

After the attempted bombing of an Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight on Christmas Day, U.S. officials hastily decided that passengers from or traveling through 14 specified countries would be subjected to secondary searches. Critics have since called the measures discriminatory and overly burdensome, and the administration has faced pressure to refine its approach.

Under the new system, screeners will stop passengers for additional security if they match certain pieces of known intelligence. The system will be “much more intel-based,” a senior administration official said, “as opposed to blunt force.”…

End Times Militia Hearing: Feds Say Ward Is Mentally Unstable

Eight suspected members of a Midwest Christian militia charged with conspiring to overthrow the government will have to wait until Friday to learn whether they’ll be released before their trial.

Two local men, Kristopher Sickles, 27, of Sandusky and Jacob Ward, 33, of Huron, are among those facing charges.

While a U.S. attorney portrayed Sickles as a militia leader who expressed a desire to blow up the Huron Police Department, local police records involving Ward paint a picture of an increasingly paranoid man preoccupied with weapons…