http://www.wesh.com/money/20000575/detail.html

Thrift Store Purchases Could Hurt Cardholders

Some Credit Card Companies Track Purchases At Thrift Stores

The investigation found credit companies may be looking at where a cardholder is shopping and determine an interest rate from there.

It's not just any day at the Salvation Army thrift store. It's Wacky Wednesday, which means all clothing and furniture is half price.

Something else that is wacky is that every time a customer pays in a thrift store or consignment shop or other discount store with a credit card, the credit card company may know about it, and some will use the information to punish the cardholder.

A government probe revealed some credit card companies have been tracking purchases in bargain stores to determine if customers may be in financial trouble and pose a credit risk.

That means shoppers like Kelly Mawhinney, who likes to pick up used clothing for her family, could have her credit limit capped, interest rate raised or suffer a bad credit score.

"I think that's ridiculous. I mean we're all just being conservative about our spending, and I'm being conservative in the sense that I like to buy used things and reused things instead of buying brand new," Mawhinney said.

A great deal on jeans didn't sit well with Alisha Sumner when she learned her credit card purchase could hurt her credit score.

"I should be able to buy whatever I want whenever I want, and nobody should track that. Nobody should track that but my husband and I," Sumner said.

"The demand is up, but the donations are down," Salvation Army Maj. Jim Smith said.

The Salvation Army said card issuers have no business preying on their customers.

"It's discriminatory to me ... These people are going to be suffering on both ends. Their dollar isn't going to be worth as much," Smith said.

"No. I don't think that's right," Rep. Suzanne Kosmas, D-Fla., said.

Kosmas said a new credit card law signed by President Barack Obama in May will help crack down on banks.

"Some of their practices were inappropriate, and now we've made them illegal," Kosmas said.

In the short term, consumer credit counselors said cardholders should ease up on credit purchases.

"Cash certainly is one way to get around having the eye of the creditor looking over your shoulder all the time," Consumer Credit Counseling Service spokesman Richard Schram said.

Mawhinney said she'll try to use case for bargain shopping to keep the bank off her back.

"I think they're penalizing the people who are working class, and that's not really fair," Mawhinney said.

If this doesn't make your your blood boil, I don't know what will.

http://www.twincities.com/ci_12033266

Lawsuit: Minneapolis cops planted pistol on teen after they gunned him down

....
The handgun found near a teenager shot and killed by a Minneapolis police
officer in 2006 could not have been carried by the teen, new court
documents allege: It had last been in possession of police before it
was found next to the body of Fong Lee.

The court filings in a lawsuit filed by Fong Lee's family
against Minneapolis police and the officer who fired the fatal shots,
along with a review of police reports, witness statements and other
documents, raise the possibility that Fong Lee was unarmed when an
officer shot him eight times — and that the pistol that officers said
they found near his body was placed there after the shooting.

The gun in question had been recovered earlier after a burglary
and turned over to police, who kept it as evidence and had never
returned it to its owner.

Moreover, Minneapolis police "may have tried to deliberately
alter history by writing new reports indicating the gun recovered near
Fong Lee's body was not the same gun" that had been recovered after the
burglary, according to Richard Hechter, a lawyer representing Fong
Lee's family, wrote in an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court on
Monday.

"The evidence supports a claim of planting a gun, especially
since irrefutable video evidence and eyewitness accounts establish Fong
Lee did not have a gun at the time he was killed."

The video evidence referred to by Hechter came from security cameras outside a school near the chase and shooting.
Attorney James Moore said he couldn't comment on a pending case, but police
spokesman Sgt. Jesse Garcia said the shooting was justified and the
officer, Jason Andersen, was cleared by a grand jury.

"As with all officer-involved shootings, it's a very unfortunate
incident, but being a police officer, there are times when deadly force
is justified in the protection of their life and the life of others,"
said Garcia.

He also denied any conspiracy in the police department to plant a gun or alter evidence.

"As for conspiracy, they might as well start that affidavit with the words, 'Once upon a time,' " Garcia said.

Andersen could not be reached for comment. Minneapolis Chief of
Police Timothy Dolan was out of town and also could not be reached for
comment, the spokesman said.

Hechter and law partner Michael Padden declined to discuss
details of the case, but they issued a statement saying that in light
of the evidence they've found in the case so far, the facts about the
gun "are not surprising at all."

POLICE SAY SHOOTING WAS JUSTIFIED

The death of Fong Lee, 19, sparked outrage in the Hmong
community, but police said their own inquiry showed the shooting was
justified. Fong Lee's parents filed suit against the city and the trial
is to begin May 1 in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis. The family
claims new evidence raises questions about the city's claim that the
shooting was justified.

On July 22, 2006, Fong Lee was among a group of youths riding
their bicycles near Cityview Performing Arts magnet school in the 3300
block of North Fourth Street when Andersen and his partner, Minnesota
State Patrol Trooper Craig Benz, began following them in their patrol
car.

Andersen said that he saw one of the youths pass a gun to Fong
Lee (Benz said he couldn't tell what the object was) and when they sped
up to try and stop the bicyclists, the patrol car struck Fong Lee's
bicycle and he fell down and then took off running.

Andersen claimed that during the brief foot chase around the
school, Fong Lee was carrying a pistol in his right hand and refused
the officer's commands to drop the gun. Andersen said that when the
teen turned and raised his arm as if to fire the weapon, the officer
fired four shots; three struck Fong Lee.

The teen fell to the ground, but still refused to drop the gun,
Andersen said. Fong Lee raised his arm again and Andersen said he
feared for his life and shot him five more times.

When other officers arrived, they found Fong Lee dead, lying on
his back with his arms outstretched. A Russian-made Baikal .380-caliber
semi-automatic pistol lay about three feet beyond his left hand,
according to police reports.

No fingerprints or DNA evidence was found on the weapon, according to police reports.

In a press conference two days after the shooting, Dolan
displayed the gun and officials said the fact Fong Lee was armed —
along with claims he was a gang member with a criminal record — gave
credence to the officer's claim the shooting was justified.

Andersen was placed on administrative leave, routine in such
cases. Dolan reinstated him July 24, a day before the officer gave his
formal statement to the department's homicide detectives.

The case was later presented to a grand jury, which took no
action. On Monday, Hennepin County Attorney Michael Freeman declined
comment through a spokeswoman.


GUN'S OWNER SAYS COPS KEPT IT

But the affidavits raise new questions about the handgun
recovered from the scene. According to initial police records and
documents the city has turned over to lawyers for Fong Lee's parents,
the pistol had been in police custody since 2004 and had never been
returned to the man from whose home it was stolen in a burglary.

The gun was kept at the Fourth Precinct, the same precinct
Andersen was assigned to, the documents say. The officer who handled
the burglary call earlier was also the first officer to arrive on the
scene after Lee's shooting, according to police records.

When police traced the serial number of the weapon seized after
the shooting, they found it had been owned by a Minneapolis man named
Dang Her. Two police sergeants went to speak with Dang Her, but
according to an affidavit he filed Monday, he told them that police had
had the gun since February 2004.

That month, Dang Her reported that his home had been broken
into and that the gun had been stolen. A few days later, police were
called to the 2700 block of Russell Avenue North after some children
found a loaded handgun in a snowbank.

"While checking the serial number, Officer (Tony) Adams
discovered that the handgun was taken from a burglary" of Dang Her's
residence, according to a Minneapolis police report by then-Sgt.
Michael Fossum, who has since been promoted to lieutenant. Fossum said
that on Feb. 27, 2004, he called Dang Her and told him "that officers
had recovered his stolen handgun."

In his affidavit, Dang Her says that in that February 2004
call, Fossum told him they had identified the gun through its serial
number, and the sergeant told him the gun would be returned to him
after the criminal cases against the burglary suspects were concluded.

Both suspects pleaded guilty in plea bargains later that year, but Dang Her said he was never notified about it.

"Sgt. Fossum never returned the gun to me that year," Dang Her said in the affidavit. "The gun never was returned to me."

REPORT CITES DIFFERENT WEAPON

Two days after Fong Lee's death in 2006, Minneapolis police Sgt.
M. Keefe asked federal officials to trace "Fong Lee's Russian-made
Baikal .380 pistol, serial #BHE2281," and a report he wrote notes that
it had been stolen from Dang Her. Two days later, the sergeant and
another officer spoke to Dang Her, and he told them the police had
recovered the gun in February 2004.

The plaintiffs allege that a week after the Fong Lee shooting,
police realized they had a problem with the provenance of the gun.
On Aug. 1, 2006 — 10 days after the fatal shooting of Fong Lee
— Fossum wrote a supplemental report in which he claimed the gun found
in the snowbank was a Belgian-made FNH 7.65-caliber handgun and hadn't
belonged to Dang Her.

In his affidavit, Hechter claims the evidence shows
"intentional and separate widespread and high-level constitutional
violations."

"The evidence is supportive of the fact that the defendants had
the alleged second (stolen) gun in their possession since 2004, never
disclosed this information and, following the shooting, may have tried
to deliberately alter history by writing new reports indicating that
the gun recovered near Fong's body was not the same gun recovered and
allegedly traced (by serial number) to Dang Her in 2004," Hechter
wrote.

David Hanners can be reached at 612-338-6516.

I got this bee as a dedication to my daughter Melissa, whose name means "bee" or "honey bee" in ancient Greek.

And they believe that all Palestinian lands are a gift from God to the Jews.


http://www.newsobserver.com/nation_world/story/1452049.html

http://rhr.israel.net/vayyaqhel-pequde-a-necessary-first-step-for-human-rights

Vayyaqhel-Pequde: A Necessary First Step for Human Rights

By
Rabbi Jeremy Milgrom on
March 20, 2009 - כ"ד אדר תשס"ט



“So you’re traveling to Germany; I knew some Germans in Uzbekistan —
Stalin ‘transfered’ them to there — why is it that everyone can do a
‘transfer’ except for us?”
Judaism can — if we so desire– come up with an answer to this sad
sentiment, even in this weekend’s liturgical cycle, which mostly deals
with ritual matters — the construction of the mishkan, the portable
desert tabernacle (Vayakhel-Pikudei, Exodus 35-40) and the Passover
cult (Exodus 12: 1-20 and Ezekiel 45:16 - 46:18).
The last line — the bottom line — of the haftarah, suddenly departs from ritual to morality:
“The prince may not defraud the people of their land and cause them
to be dispersed, cast off from their heritage; if he wants to gift land
to his sons, he must do so from his own holdings (Ezekiel 46:18)”
Like many of the readers of this commentary, I was raised with the
belief that the land of Israel is in some way mine, but I never
imagined that my Jewish attachment would come at anyone else’s expense.
One would have to be totally detached from reality to claim that the
Palestinian people have not paid an awful price for our return to Zion;
as the years pass, I find it harder and harder to celebrate our
ingathering, when it is used to justify their dispersion. What would it
take to bring us to overcome our greed and callousness and to follow
Ezekiel’s unequivoal directive?
A favorite passage of mine from the Talmud includes the following personal prayer of Rabbi Alexandroni:
“Master of the Universe, it should be totally clear to You that we
want to do Your will, but two things stop us: the yeast in the dough
and the oppression of the nations; may you desire to save us from them,
and we will go back to serving you full-heartedly (Berachot 17a).”
There’s something so naive, but also so hutzpadik, in this
statement: is our desire to do God’s will really so strong that it
should be clear to God? Isn’t it rather cheeky to suggest what should
be clear to God? Can Jews today, living in unprecedented prosperity and
security, really claim that removing the yoke of the nations will take
away the yeast in the dough (a leavening agent, a symbol of
haughtiness), that keeps us from serving God as we should? What exactly
is the secret ingredient that makes matza so spiritually superior to
regular bread?
As Yeshayahu Leibovitz constantly reminded us, we cannot celebrate
our freedom until we understand our slavery; from the viewpoint of an
ancient midrash, just as only 2 out of 600,000 made it out of the
desert into the Land, so too, did only 2 out of 600,000 leave Egypt
(cf. Rabbi Simai in Sanhedrin 111a). We are free when we dream, and
enslaved when we despair. The real miracle in Rabbi Alexandroni is the
preservation of will, and beseeching the divine will is his way of
identifying the source of hope.
I don’t think any single prayer or pious thought will bring us to
the Land of Promise (meaning, a land that Jews and Palestinians share
willingly and not begrudged). But a necessary first step is recognizing
what is hopeless, and what will reclaim our faith.

http://ga3.org/campaign/btcpetition?qp_source=btc_dk

We'll miss you, Lux.  Condolences to Poison Ivy.

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1604336/20090204/story.jhtml

Feb 4 2009 7:59 PM EST

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=5670682

You sure we're not living in a police state?

______________________________________________________________

http://www.austinsound.net/2008/08/21/boxing-lessons-jake-mitchell-sentenced-as-narco-terrorist-under-patriot-act/

Boxing Lesson's Jake Mitchell Sentenced As Narco-Terrorist Under Patriot Act

By Austin Sound • Aug 21st, 2008 • Category: News •

Putin accuses U.S. of orchestrating Georgian war

SOCHI, Russia (CNN) -- Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has accused the United States of orchestrating the conflict in Georgia to benefit one of its presidential election candidates.

In an exclusive interview with CNN's Matthew Chance in the Black Sea city of Sochi Thursday, Putin said the U.S. had encouraged Georgia to attack the autonomous region of South Ossetia.

Putin told CNN his defense officials had told him it was done to benefit a presidential candidate -- Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama are competing to succeed George W. Bush -- although he presented no evidence to back it up.

"U.S. citizens were indeed in the area in conflict," Putin said. "They were acting in implementing those orders doing as they were ordered, and the only one who can give such orders is their leader." Watch Putin accuse the United States »

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino blasted Putin's statements, saying they were "patently false."

"To suggest that the United States orchestrated this on behalf of a political candidate just sounds not rational," she said.

U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood concurred, and labeled Putin's statements as "ludicrous."

"Russia is responsible for the crisis," Wood said in an off-camera meeting with reporters in Washington on Thursday. "For the Russians to say they are not responsible for what happened in Georgia is ludicrous. ... Russia is to blame for this crisis and the world is responding to what Russia has done."

When told that many diplomats in the United States and Europe blame Russia for provoking the conflict and for invading Georgia, Putin said Russia had no choice but to invade Georgia after dozens of its peacekeepers in South Ossetia were killed. He told Chance it was to avert a human calamity. iReport.com: First-person accounts from the center of the conflict

The former Russian president, still considered the most powerful man in the country, said he was disappointed the U.S. had not done more to stop Georgia's attack.

Putin recalled he was watching the situation in Georgia and South Ossetia unfold when he was at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games on August 8.

He said he spoke to U.S. President George W. Bush, also attending, who told the Russian prime minister he didn't want war -- but Putin spoke to CNN of his disappointment that the U.S. administration didn't do more to stop Georgia early in the conflict.

Also Thursday Putin announced economic measures which he said were unrelated to the fighting with Georgia. Nineteen U.S. poultry meat companies would be banned from exporting their products to Russia because they had failed health and safety tests, and 29 other companies had been warned to improve their standards or face the same ban, Putin said.

Putin said Russia's health and agricultural ministries had randomly tested the poultry products and found them to be full of antibiotics and arsenic.

While Putin repeated that the bans were not related to the Georgian conflict, they indicate the measures some Western countries -- particularly in Europe -- fear if Russia goes on a diplomatic offensive.

Russia is trying to counterbalance mounting pressure from the West over its military action in Georgia and its recognition of the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

But Russia's hopes of winning international support for its actions in Georgia were dashed Thursday, when China and other Asian nations expressed concern about tension in the region.

The joint declaration from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which includes China, Russia, Tajikistan, Kyrgystan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan, said the countries hoped any further conflict could be resolved peacefully.

"The presidents reaffirmed their commitment to the principles of respect for historic and cultural traditions of every country and efforts aimed at preserving the unity of a state and its territorial integrity," the declaration said, The Associated Press reported.

"Placing the emphasis exclusively on the use of force has no prospects and hinders a comprehensive settlement of local conflicts," AP reported the group as saying.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had appealed to the SCO at a summit in Tajikistan Thursday to support its actions, saying it would serve as a "serious signal for those who are trying to justify the aggression."

On Wednesday a U.S. ship carrying aid docked in Georgia, while Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband traveled to the Ukraine, which is worried about Russia's intentions in the region, to offer the UK's support.

Miliband equated Moscow's offensive in Georgia with the Soviet tanks that invaded Czechoslovakia to crush the Prague Spring democratic reforms in 1968, and demanded Russia "change course," AP reported.

Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

_____________________________________________________________

So, this reads to me like Putin is saying the US orchestrated the Georgia - Ossetia conflict in order for the current administration to garner support for McCain.  Or, is Putin just making shit up to help garner support in the US for Obama?  It's truly an interesting political piece.  Or does Obama have something going on with Putin that none of us are aware of.  At any rate, I have never seen a high ranking foreign government official get this involved in the election of a US president.

Discuss.