New York City violated the U.S. Constitution for more than two months in 2001 with a policy to detain arrested protesters overnight instead of giving them summonses to appear in court, a U.S. federal jury found on Monday.

The suit stemmed from the city’s handling of the mass protests and arrests in New York immediately after the 1999 killing by police of unarmed Guinean immigrant Amadou Diallo, who was hit by 19 shots.

An eight-person jury in Manhattan federal court found that the city’s police department violated the First Amendment right to free speech and the 14th Amendment right to due process between May 1, 2001, and July 13, 2001, by its policy of locking up protesters overnight in city jails. (more…)

“Red tape” is allegedly delaying money to a seriously ill Ground Zero volunteer, as Fox News’ Neil Cavuto reports.

Joe Piccuro, who now suffers from chronic bronchitis among other ailments, was among the many who arrived to help at the World Trade Center on September 11. His is not the first complaint about how the workers’ compensation system is not supporting Ground Zero workers who grew sick after 9/11. (more…)

I just returned from a week in Washington, D.C., with a group of concerned women where we learned about the Security and Prosperity Partnership, also known as “The North American Union.”

This partnership was agreed upon at a private meeting held in Waco, Texas, on March 23, 2005, among then-president of Mexico Vicente Fox, U.S. President George Bush and then-Prime Minister Paul Martin of Canada.

The SPP is an agreement to merge our United States of America with Mexico and Canada.

I am outraged about what the Bush administration is doing with this partnership behind Congress’ back. (more…)

Nude male described as aggressive, combative

Officials with the Lafayette Police Department stand by their use of a Taser gun during a Sunday morning altercation with a nude, and allegedly combative, 29-year-old Carencro man, who would later die at a local hospital from unknown complications.

Officials are waiting on an autopsy report to determine the exact cause of Terrill Enard’s death.

According to Lafayette police Sgt. Mark Francis, police believe Enard was under the influence of some type of unknown substance. Francis said Enard was strong, aggressive, combative and unresponsive. (more…)

Some support coach of Saint John Sea Dogs; others defend young Quebecer’s freedom of expression

A junior hockey player has been ousted from the Saint John Sea Dogs after he did not sign a Canadian flag that the team was sending to troops in Afghanistan.

Dave Bouchard — a 20-year-old from Jonquière, Que., who played left wing on the Quebec Major Junior team — said he thought someone else had already signed his name.

But Sea Dogs coach Jacques Beaulieu said he did not accept that explanation and cut him from the team after Saturday’s game.

“Morally, we have standards with this hockey team and that’s a standard that we believe in,” Beaulieu told CBC News Monday. (more…)

The United States will cease to be the lone superpower within thirteen years, and both the European Union and Britain will have to accept that the transatlantic strategic partnership will no longer work. This is the shock prediction of one of the top figures of the British foreign policy establishment.

In his farewell address as director of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, known as Chatham House after its prestigious address in London’s plush St. James district, Prof. Victor Bulmer-Thomas said that the swift emergence of China as the second megapower would transform the world’s strategic map.

“Just as the world is currently shaped to a large extent by the international priorities of the United States, so it will be shaped to a significant degree by the international priorities of the two megapowers in 2020,” he told a blue ribbon audience of British officials and politicians and international diplomats. (more…)

A December 17 Associated Press report falsely suggested that Congress would need to pass a law to prohibit the Bush administration from “eavesdrop[ping] on Americans’ electronic communications” without a warrant. In fact, such a law already exists — the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) — and the Bush administration’s apparent violation of FISA has given rise to bipartisan condemnation. The article, discussing what actions Congress could take in response to President Bush’s warrantless domestic wiretapping program, stated that “[t]he president … can veto legislation, including a law demanding the National Security Agency obtain warrants before monitoring communications.”

The AP report also stated that “[w]hen the Republican-controlled Congress adjourned last week, it left the spying program unchecked” and that “[t]he next move falls to the Democrats who take control in January and are considering a proposal to demands [sic] Bush get warrants and others lengthening the time between surveillance and when a warrant must be obtained.” But the article did not mention that FISA already “demands [that] Bush get warrants” and requires that “the National Security Agency obtain warrants before monitoring communications” of U.S. citizens and legal residents who are in the United States. (more…)

Today in a segment on Fox On Line with Bill Hemmer he had two guests on to talk about Joy Behar’s comparing Rumsfeld to Hitler. One of the guests pulled a Gestapo move on the conversation with his rounding up people to send to detention camps.

The following is my transcription between Bill Hemmer, right wing radio host, Mike Gallagher and left wing radio host, Rob Thompson: (more…)

WASHINGTON — President Bush said on Tuesday he plans to expand the size of the U.S. military to deal with the long-term fight against terrorism, days after the Army said it needed to grow, The Washington Post reported on its Web site.

Bush, who gave an interview to the newspaper on Tuesday, said he had instructed new Defense Secretary Robert Gates to report back to him with a plan to increase ground forces, the Post said.

“I’m inclined to believe that we do need to increase our troops — the Army, the Marines,” Bush said according to the Post. “And I talked about this to Secretary Gates and he is going to spend some time talking to the folks in the building, come back with a recommendation to me about how to proceed forward on this idea.” (more…)

The crunch of Martian soil underfoot and the feel of Martian wind against your cheek could one day be experienced by anyone with an internet connection as a result of a new collaboration between NASA and internet titan Google.

Google has already produced interactive maps of Mars and the Moon by combining their own software with NASA imagery (see NASA and Google bring Mars to PCs everywhere).

Now, NASA and Google have signed a Space Act Agreement that will see the two organisations cooperating to make more NASA data accessible to anyone on the internet. (more…)

The U.S. military is “planning a major buildup” of its naval forces in the Persian Gulf region “as a warning to Iran,” reports CBS News, as quoted by Reuters.

A senior official in the Department of Defense said “the report was ‘premature’ and appeared to be drawing ‘conclusions from assumptions,’” according to Reuters. The Pentagon declined comment, but an additional Defense official described the report as “speculative.”

CBS said that “the buildup … was not aimed at an attack on Iran but to discourage what U.S. officials view as increasingly provocative acts by Tehran.” (more…)

WASHINGTON — Suicides among U.S. soldiers in Iraq doubled last year over the previous year to return to a level seen in 2003, U.S. Army medical experts said on Tuesday.

Twenty-two U.S. soldiers in Iraq took their own lives in 2005, a rate of 19.9 per 100,000 soldiers. In 2004, the rate was 10.5 per 100,000 and in 2003, the year of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the figure was 18.8 per 100,000.

The figures cover U.S. Army soldiers only. They do not include members of other U.S. military services in Iraq such as the Marine Corps. (more…)

Mount Saint Helens is emitting some steam and Fox News is reporting that Mt. Saint Helens in Washington state is ‘putting on a little show today.’ According to a report broadcast on FNC there has been low rates of seismic activity and low emissions of steam and volcanic activity and a minor production of ash was happening at 9:27am Pacific Time.

The vapor is seen rising out of the mountain from a live shot from the mountain and there was another slight earthquake over the weekend, according to the broadcast report. Is she ready to blow - likely not. But experts always warn that it is active. (more…)

Video Shows McVeigh was in military receiving instruction in “explosives and demolition” over a year after official story says he was discharged, whistleblower harassed for years while unknowingly in possession of bombshell tape

NEW COMPARISON PHOTOS

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A video that shows Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh at a U.S. military base that specializes in explosives and demolition training over a year after he supposedly left the army puts the official story of the April 19 1995 federal building bombing under serious doubt and mandates a re-opening of an investigation into the terror attack that killed 168 people. (more…)

NYPD refuses to return stolen property despite video documentation

In the latest attack on the first amendment, a shocking video has emerged of the NYPD attacking a protestor and stealing his camera and footage at a demonstration demanding justice for an independent video journalist who was shot and killed earlier this year.

The filmmaker, Flux Rostrum, was filming the interaction between protestors and police outside the Mexican Consulate in late October at a demonstration protesting the murder of journalist Brad Will, who was shot and killed on October 27, 2006 during the teachers’ strike in the Mexican city of Oaxaca. His murderers are believed to be local officials. (more…)