Archive for June 2009

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
Syllabus
RICCI ET AL. v. DESTEFANO ET AL.
CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT
No. 07–1428. Argued April 22, 2009—Decided June 29, 2009*
New Haven, Conn. (City), uses objective examinations to identify those firefighters best qualified for promotion. When the results of such an exam to fill vacant lieutenant and captain positions showed thatwhite candidates had outperformed minority candidates, a rancorous public debate ensued. Confronted with arguments both for and against certifying the test results—and threats of a lawsuit eitherway—the City threw out the results based on the statistical racial disparity. Petitioners, white and Hispanic firefighters who passed the exams but were denied a chance at promotions by the City’s refusal to certify the test results, sued the City and respondent officials,alleging that discarding the test results discriminated against them based on their race in violation of, inter alia, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The defendants responded that had they certified the test results, they could have faced Title VII liability for adopting a practice having a disparate impact on minority firefighters. The District Court granted summary judgment for the defendants, and the Second Circuit affirmed.
Held: The City’s action in discarding the tests violated Title VII. Pp. 16–34.
(a) Title VII prohibits intentional acts of employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin, 42 U. S. C. §2000e–2(a)(1) (disparate treatment), as well as policies or practices that are not intended to discriminate but in fact have a disproportionately adverse effect on minorities, §2000e–2(k)(1)(A)(i) (disparate impact). Once a plaintiff has established a prima facie case of…
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*Together with No. 08–328, Ricci et al. v. DeStefano et al., also on certiorari to the same court.
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NEW YORK - Despite his claims of contrition, Bernard L. Madoff was sentenced yesterday to 150 years in prison for a crime a federal judge called an act of “extraordinary evil.’’

The lengthy sentence - ensuring Madoff will die behind bars - was the harshest possible punishment that US District Judge Denny Chin could impose.

In March, the former investment manager confessed to swindling some of the nation’s wealthiest families and prominent philanthropies out of their fortunes, along with cheating widows, retired teachers, tradesmen, and hundreds of other middle-class investors out of their life savings.

“The fraud here was staggering,’’ Chin said during the sentencing in a packed Manhattan courtroom. “This is not just a matter of money. The breach of trust was massive.’’

And yet investigators are still trying to determine its full scope.
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Muslims living in Britain are under orders from Sharia courts to regard “fighting with Britons and Americans as a religious duty” a shocking new report on Sharia courts in Britain has claimed.

Issued by independent think tank Civitas, the new report, called “Sharia Law or ‘One Law for All’?” and authored by Islamic specialist Denis MacEoin, also says that there are now around 85 Sharia courts in Britain.

The open declaration of war - Jihad - against ordinary British and American people by Islamic law courts is a damning indictment of the treason committed by the Tory and Labour parties in allowing millions of Muslims to settle in Britain.

In addition to the horrifying declaration of holy war against British and American people, the Sharia courts operating in Britain have also ordered that:

- Sharia law must override the judgements of British courts;

- Muslims living in this country are under orders to disobey Britain’s laws when it contradicts Islamic values;

- Muslims are forbidden to take out insurance, even if required by (UK) law.

- There is no requirement to register a marriage according to the law of the country;

- Polygamous marriage (that is, two to four wives) is legal; and

- A Muslim lawyer has to act contrary to UK law where it contradicts Sharia.

According to a press release issued today by Civitas, the courts operate inside the rapidly spreading network of mosques throughout Britain.

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Confidential documents released by intelligence agency PET indicate that left-wing radicals directly co-operated with former West German communist terrorist group Rote Armee Fraktion (RAF) in the 1980s.

The information was released in connection with a commission report on the intelligence agency’s activities since the 1940s.
One of post-war Germany’s most infamous terror groups RAF was responsible for the deaths of over 30 people, with many more injured in various shootings and bomb attacks from 1971-1993.

In 1968 PET received information, purportedly from West German intelligence, that Danish anarchists commonly known as BZ were sending money to RAF via contacts that moved in and out of Denmark.

Financial support was also traced to a house at Ryesgade 58, Copenhagen, a former BZ squat, through an issue of underground publication ‘Radical’, founded by German left-wing militant group the Revolutionary Cells.

Readers of the publication were urged to send money to an organisation called the ‘International Green’, whose address was at Ryesgade 58. The advertisement claimed the money would be sent on to West Germany to support the RAF.
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It has been far too long in coming but, yesterday, the Federal Prison Rape Elimination commission released its report on elimination and prevention efforts regarding the biggest social problem nobody wants to talk about: prison rape.

Anyone who looks at the problem can’t react with anything other than horror. According to the Bureau of Justice Statics, over 60,000 prisoners — the great bulk of them male — fall victim to sexual abuse in prison each year. A fair number of these men are “punks” who are subject to frequent, even daily, male-on-male rape for years on end.

The federal report’s conclusions — a zero-tolerance policy, more direct monitoring, and the like — almost are all common sense. State, local, and federal governments should take immediate legislative and administrative action to implement nearly everything in the report. (Most of the practices are already commonplace in the federal and better-run state systems.) Although giving trial lawyers more business rarely makes sense, Congress may also want to reconsider laws that make it very difficult for prisoners to sue prison authorities absent concrete evidence of physical harm. It’s quite possible that many legitimate prison-rape claims get thrown out of court under current laws. And prison rape needs to stop.
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LOS ANGELES — Federal agents announced criminal indictments for 24 high-ranking gang members, along with a prominent gang intervention specialist who associated with city politicians and routinely raised money from Hollywood’s elite.

The specialist, Alex Sanchez, director of Homies Unidos, a gang outreach organization in Los Angeles for more than a decade, was arrested and charged with a federal racketeering count for his alleged role in the assassination of a man in El Salvador in 2006.

The charges capped a three-year investigation into the Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, a transnational gang of Central American origin with branches throughout the United States. The government charged various “shot-callers,” or leaders, with murders, drug distribution, extortion and other crimes in the 16-count indictment. Federal officials also accused gang members of unsuccessfully conspiring to kill an antigang detective with the Los Angeles Police Department.

In addition to the gang members, many of whom are already in prison on other charges, the Los Angeles police said they had arrested 15 more people associated with MS-13 in the course of the investigation.

Daniel McMullen, a special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Los Angeles bureau said investigators had used a variety of techniques including wiretaps and confidential informants to build their case.

Conservative philosopher Roger Scruton has written that “ an ideology needs an enemy”. In the West that is us - “whites”. The chosen method is to dehumanise the enemy so that it can be persecuted or even assassinated without conscience. They think it will fool the public when they try to outlaw the BNP’s racial admission rules, despite leaving the various black and Asian groups to operate their own racial membership policies.

These comments show the Ideological Caste’s dehumanisation of its enemies in language they would otherwise eagerly attribute to Nazis:

Trevor Phillips: “The BNP should be treated as less than human”.
Nick Bourne - Welsh Tory MP: “The BNP are subhuman”

The voice of whites in Britain is the BNP and the whole establishment is conspiring to de-humanise them with a level of incitement that is unprecedented. If this type of hate campaign was against another ethnic group they would be facing a seven year jail sentence. The whole Establishment has shown itself to be the same type of hate-filled ideologues that dehumanised Jews in Nazi Germany. It is an ideology of hate like those in Soviet Russia, Mao’s China and Cambodia against a particular group.

After a recent article I received this observation from an NHS employee.

“It reminds me of anti-aggression training in the NHS. Things to watch for before you get thumped:

You nurses are all the same! All you nurses are *******s, you go from being an individual person (which it is not okay to hurt), to a group of people, to a non-human that it is okay to hurt. Once you are not human watch for the thump. It’s coming very soon. Changenursesto BNP and the swear words to thug, knuckle-dragger, Nazi and racist.”

If a BNPer does something wrong or says something naughty the Caste generalise, and the whole party is blamed. But the Caste present themselves as individuals when they are exposed for breaking the rules and thieving from the public.

It has been reported that the Met will question some MP’s and Peers about their expenses. But the newspapers, the Met and the government and most of the public all know it will be whitewashed. Even so, public opinion will be manipulated to deceive people into thinking our ruling elite are subject to the law.

The Establishment smear campaigns contain some ‘facts’ but are mainly half-truths and downright lies because, as have I said, they can not counter the new arguments. What they use to dehumanise their targets they ignore in their favoured groups.
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From: Paul (e-mail him)

Re: Henry McCulloch’s Column: Sonia Sotomayor’s Double Standards

Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s primary focus, once she is appointed to the court, will be continued advocacy of more special privileges for illegal aliens, a tragedy for working Americans.

As an example, let me tell you about what has happened to the meat packing industry as a result of illegal immigration. I worked at an Oscar Mayer plant when I returned from Vietnam and the wages I earned there helped to pay for my B.S. degree in economics at the University of Wisconsin.

My sister and brother-in-law worked at Oscar Mayer for many years. My brother- in-law was also a union steward at the plant, deeply involved in union politics.

Back in the 1970s, the Oscar Mayer plant employed several thousand people on all three shifts, many of whom were black Americans. In fact, I worked with and became friends with several University of Wisconsin football players who went to the NFL but never made it past their team’s final cut of the season.

The Oscar Mayer plant provided jobs that paid well. The work was hard, but a person could earn a comfortable middle-class income working at the plant.

This is no longer the case. What remains of the plant is now almost exclusively staffed with immigrants from Mexico and Central America who will work for a fraction of what American citizens were being paid, and who are also afraid to stand up for their rights when fair labor or safety standards are violated.

What has happened to Oscar Mayer is common across the country. Was the Civil Rights revolution of the 1960s fought so that the advances for black Americans that were made could be undercut by corporate and political pandering to the illegal alien lobby?

Working class Americans like my old Oscar Mayer colleagues and myself suffer the most from illegal immigration. American citizens, both black and white, should receive priority over non-citizens in employment, education and all the other avenues that lead to success.

In closing I should point out that I am not a right-wing xenophobe. My Democratic family has strong union ties. My father was butcher and also a union steward who eventually became a union business agent.

Although I have earned a degree in economics with graduate credits and now work for an insurance company, I still have my union card with the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of the AFL-CIO and continue to follow union politics closely.

Paul’s previous letter about worthless Republican presidential candidates is here.

Early this morning I attended First Baptist Church on Second Avenue in Natchitoches, Louisiana. As a reporter/editor for one of the town newspapers, I cover both secular and non secular events. The church has put in a new gymnasium and some of the announcements and review of church activities takes place during church services. It is also the church attended by virtually all the political leaders of Natchitoches including the Mayor, members of the city council, the State Representative, State Senator as well as the President of the University, who told me once his was a very political job.

I listened to the sermon today. The pastor warned members to be cautious about other churches in the area because some were non Biblical. I heard these messages before at the church and have seen the minister at political rallies in support of Republican candidates, like Gerald Long, who is now the State Senator for the District.

South Carolina news headlines the fact that Southern Baptists have a mixed view of Obama. Whereas they praise the way he functions as a family man, they stress their concerns about certain social issues, like abortion, embryonic stem-cell research and the reduction of funding for abstinence education. Daniel Akin, president of the Southeastern Baptist Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., at the annual convention on June 24 spoke of Southern Baptists’ opposition to the President’s policies while at the same time praising the fact the nation had elected its first African American President. Obama was not asked to speak at the conference, as Bush had done before.

The history of the Southern Baptist denomination goes back to the time of the Reformation in England which occurred during the sixteenth century. These reformists called for a return to New Testament teachings and examples of purity. They taught strict obedience to God’s covenant and the message that God’s saving grace is not just for those predestined to be saved but for everyone. As the church grew, there were issues that divided the church, one of which was slavery. Baptists from the North opposed slavery, maintaining God would not condone separation of the races. The Home Mission Society agreed with this and declared missionaries could not own slaves. After this some Baptists met in the South to organize their own group within the denomination, at what was called the Southern Baptist Convention.

The Southern Baptist Convention believes men and women are equal but pastoral leadership is assigned to men. Laypersons can communicate with God and minister, but not all views are equally valid. Each person is accountable to God, and the Bible is the final word in any discussion of creed or convention. It believes in a “free church in a free state” but acknowledges the “legitimate interplay of these two spheres.” Marriage is seen as God’s plan, one man and one woman, for life, and the Bible condemns homosexuality as sin. Procreation is considered God’s gift, reserved for marrage; and life begins at the moment of conception. Protection should be given that life regardless of the circumstances of conception. [Read more]

Some residents along Moneta Avenue in Carson are bewildered by the identity of the man whose name soon appear on their mail, drivers license and official identity, it was reported Sunday.

A Carson city councilman wants to honor Jose Rizal, a freedom-fighter executed ion Manila in 1896, by renaming Moneta Avenue. But the Daily Breeze reports that nearly everyone on the street says they have never heard of the Philippine liberation hero.

Moneta Avenue would become Jose Rizal Avenue under a proposal by councilman Elito Santarina, a Filipino-American. Many persons living along Moneta Venie say they have never heard of Rizal and have no desire to change their address, their identification, and identity to honor the hero of another nation.

The proposal threatens to open ugly racial rifts in Carson, a South Bay city where no racial or ethnic group has a majority, the Daily Breeze reported.

“Moneta is a good name,” said Mickey Abraham, who lives in one of the 183 houses along the street.

A Filipino who lives on the street agreed: “It’s not fair for everybody,” Manny Flores told the newspaper. “It doesn’t make sense. Everybody knows we live on Moneta.”

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