+ returning troops, journalists report boy rape pedophilia rampant in Afghanistan.
+ Ginsburg slams The Constitution she is charged with defending in egypt
-
The rise and fall of an anti-Second Amendment career dirtbag, Dennis Burke (featuring buddy Rahm Emanuel) [mollifies his post-career "conscience" with volunteering at a rape crisis center].

'loyal, to a fault' ..so were many nazis and communists.

'the most fulfilling portion of his career' ....obviously Bloomberg would concur w/ Burke's megalomania, we've just seen bloombug in an anti-gun Super Bowl commercial with Boston mayor Menino (Mayors against [illegal] guns MAIG) !

-

http://tucsoncitizen.com/arizona-news/2012/01/28/burke-of-fast-and-furious-had-anti-gun-history/

Burke of Fast and Furious had anti-gun history
by Dennis Wagner on Jan. 28, 2012, under Arizona Republic News

The career path of former U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke can be charted through an ascending string of jobs from Arizona’s Supreme Court to the U.S. Senate, White House, Department of Homeland Security and Justice Department.

It is a resume that spans more than two decades in three branches of government.

Then, suddenly, it nose-dives on Aug. 30, 2011, when Burke resigned as U.S. attorney amid a scandal over a gun-smuggling case known as Operation Fast and Furious.

Since that day, the gregarious public servant has gone silent, and nearly invisible, except that his name appears prominently in Justice Department documents, congressional hearings and news reports.

Burke’s political downfall may have been shocking, but an Arizona Republic analysis of his career suggests that the cause — firearm politics — has been a pet theme through most of his 23 years in government.

The end came after federal records and testimony revealed that Burke last year pressed colleagues and superiors to deny that the Justice Department knowingly allowed guns to be smuggled into Mexico under his watch, and that two of those weapons wound up at the murder scene of a U.S. Border Patrol agent.

In e-mail exchanges with DOJ officials, Burke incorrectly described allegations about Fast and Furious by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, as “categorically false.” He also reviled congressional investigators as “stooges” for gun-rights zealots.

Burke finally quit his post after testifying in secret to congressional investigators about the case.

He was not the only federal official to suffer fallout. At the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, national Director Kenneth Melson was reassigned and Arizona’s top agent, William Newell, was transferred. On Capitol Hill,

Grassley called for the removal of Lanny Breuer, second in command of the Justice Department, and many in Congress have said Attorney General Eric Holder should be fired.

But, of all the officials caught up in America’s so-called “gun-walking” scandal, Dennis Kiernan Burke is the only one to lose his job.

A resignation letter to President Barack Obama said simply, “It is the right time to move on to pursue other aspects of my career and my life.”

The question: Has he hit bottom yet, and can he rise again?
‘A stand-up guy’

Since leaving his skyscraper office in downtown Phoenix, Burke has turned down all interview requests, leaving his lawyers to describe him as a “stand-up guy” who didn’t intentionally mislead Congress or the public.

An inspector general probe is still under way, as well as congressional investigations.

Friends say Burke, who had been touted as a possible candidate for governor or Congress, is lying low, volunteering full time with a rape-crisis network and playing golf. All of them speak of him with glowing adjectives: articulate, positive, hardworking, decent, funny, loyal.

“He doesn’t have enemies,” said Robbie Aiken, a longtime friend and vice president for federal affairs with Pinnacle West Capital Corp. “All the things he’s done, yet I’ve never really heard anybody say anything negative about him.”

But there are critics, especially among staunch Second Amendment advocates, who paint Burke as a liberal apparatchik who was willing to let criminals move weapons to Mexican cartels if it would help justify new firearms restrictions.

“It’s no coincidence that Dennis Burke, a longtime anti-gun policy person, was made U.S. Attorney in mid-2009 … the same month (sic) that Fast and Furious begins,” said Mike Vanderboegh, a gun-rights blogger. “They picked precisely the right guy to run a clandestine program.” (The operation began a month after Burke’s appointment was confirmed.)

Curiously, the supporters and detractors agree on one point: They say Burke became a scapegoat to protect higher officials in the Justice Department or White House. Dave Workman, a gun-rights blogger, described Burke as “the chief sacrificial lamb.”

Sen. Grassley, in an October statement, said: “Mr. Burke is to be commended, to some extent, for being the only person to resign and take responsibility for the failed operation. Of course, I do not believe he should feel obligated to be the only fall guy.”

Phoenix attorney Andy Gordon, a close friend for nearly two decades, said Burke may be loyal to a fault, protecting higher-ups in the Justice Department. “DOJ threw him under the bus. That’s my view,” Gordon said.

Another friend, attorney Tim Nelson, said: “I don’t know the workings of the Obama administration, whether they were looking for a fall guy or what. But it certainly looks that way.”

Whether those evaluations are valid or not, associates agree Burke was devastated to lose a dream job and see his reputation tainted by scandal.

Kevin Burke, an older brother who serves as a county judge in Minnesota, said Dennis is focused on defending himself as investigations continue.

“He’s certainly bummed,” Judge Burke said. “You want people to understand what you did and why you did it.” Asked if Dennis privately admits to making mistakes, Kevin answered, “I can categorically deny that. The idea that he is going around saying, ‘Boy, I really screwed up’? He’s never told me that.”

Strong work ethic and ambition

Since Dennis Burke got his law degree at the University of Arizona in 1988, he has flourished in high-profile government jobs, handling politicians, journalists, lobbyists and lawyers with aplomb.

Born in 1962 in Chicago, the last of five children in an Irish-Catholic home, Burke once credited his immigrant grandfather with instilling a work ethic to match ambitions. When Dennis was just a boy, the family moved to Phoenix, where he attended

Catholic schools. (As an adult, he once said his life motto was “Love your neighbor as you do yourself” because “several nuns beat that into my head in grade school.”)

After graduation from Brophy College Preparatory, Burke earned a bachelor’s degree at Georgetown University and got an early taste of national politics by serving as an intern for U.S. Rep. Martin Sabo, D-Minn.

“He was kind of bitten by the Hill bug,” said Kevin Burke, who is president of the American Judges Association.

Former Sen. Dennis DeConcini, D-Ariz., who hired Burke from law school as a congressional intern, said the student stood out for legal smarts and people skills. “Just really bright,” DeConcini said, “and he was good with Republicans.”

Fresh out of law school, Burke won a coveted position as clerk with the Arizona Supreme Court under Justice James Moeller.

Then, in 1989, he was hired as a low-level staff lawyer at the U.S. Senate. Within a year — at age 27 — Burke was assigned to the Judiciary Committee, eventually playing a behind-the-scenes role in confirmation proceedings for three Supreme Court justices.

And he began working on gun control. DeConcini said Burke helped draft the Anti-Drug Assault Weapons Limitation Act of 1989. A five-year battle ensued, ending with President Bill Clinton signing the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement

Act of 1994, which made it a federal offense to possess certain semiautomatic rifles manufactured after the law’s passage.

DeConcini said Burke fostered the measure in concert with a key figure in the White House, policy analyst Rahm Emanuel, who years later would become chief of staff for President Obama. Emanuel now is mayor of Chicago.

“Dennis was the one who worked with everyone on the Judiciary Committee to line up these members and votes,” DeConcini said. “Dennis had all these pictures of these guns — the Streetsweepers and the AK-47s. And it passed by one vote. A lot of it was not my eloquence on the bill, it was stuff that Dennis had done.”

The law was adopted shortly before Burke left his Senate job for a position in the Clinton White House as a senior policy analyst for law enforcement and drug issues, again working with Emanuel.

According to preserved e-mails, Burke continued handling firearm issues, discussing whether executive orders could be used to extend the Brady Handgun Violence Protection Act requirement for background checks.

In 1997, Burke became a federal prosecutor under U.S. Attorney Janet Napolitano, getting firsthand experience with Mexican syndicates that were smuggling narcotics and firearms. In an interview that year with the Arizona Business Gazette, he identified earlier gun-regulation efforts as the most fulfilling professional assignment he’d undertaken.

Over the next decade, he served as a chief deputy to Napolitano as she became Arizona attorney general, governor and then director of Homeland Security, where he again dealt with gun-running into Mexico.

Fast and Furious launched

On July 10, 2009, President Obama named Burke as his nominee for U.S. attorney for Arizona. He was confirmed by unanimous consent in the Senate on Sept. 15 of that year.

From the beginning, there were huge controversies: Senate Bill 1070, Arizona’s anti-immigration law, was under challenge in court. The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office was being investigated for alleged civil-rights violations. Border security had become a political firefight, with Arizona as a funnel point for smuggling amid growing fear that Mexican violence would spill onto U.S. soil.

Authorities in both nations were blaming liberal U.S. gun laws for arming the cartels. The assault-weapons law had expired in 2004. Restoration of the statute had been on Obama’s platform, and Burke was among the public adherents.

During a news conference in 2010, Burke complained that scores of guns from Arizona were being recovered in Mexico. “We have a huge problem here. We have now become the gun locker of the Mexican drug cartels.” What Burke did not mention was that his prosecutors had allegedly instructed ATF agents to let some of those weapons “walk” across the border.

In fact, just one month after Burke’s appointment as U.S. attorney was confirmed by the Senate, Operation Fast and Furious was secretly launched in Arizona.

According to congressional testimony and DOJ records, the idea was to follow the firearms south so that drug lords who received them could be identified and prosecuted. Over a two-year period, smugglers moved as many as 1,400 weapons across the border. The problem: Those AK-47s and .50-caliber rifles were being used for mayhem in Mexico, and U.S. investigators had not devised a successful way to track them.
Agent Terry’s death

Burke’s supporters question whether he understood that the ATF strategy knowingly let guns into Mexico, but critics say e-mails and other Justice Department records indicate he knew exactly what was going on.

For example, an ATF memo in January 2010 says Burke was briefed in detail on Fast and Furious and expressed “full agreement” with a strategy allowing “the transfer of firearms to continue to take place … in order to further the investigation and allow for the identification of additional co-conspirators.”

In an April 2010 e-mail to a colleague, Burke predicted that the operation would have a huge public impact: “It’s going to bring a lot of attention to straw purchasers of assault weapons,” he wrote. “Some of these weapons bought by these clowns in

Arizona have been directly traced to murders of elected officials in Mexico by the cartels, so Katie-bar-the-door when we unveil this baby.”

However, available Justice Department documents do not include any record where Burke explicitly acknowledged an awareness of the gun-walking strategy, and it is unclear whether he believed a furor would result because of the investigative tactic, or because so many U.S. firearms were responsible for Mexico’s cartel bloodshed.

At least some ATF agents bristled at the ATF operation, warning of potentially fatal consequences. Those predictions proved true on Dec. 14, 2010, when Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed in a midnight shootout with bandits near Nogales.

Within hours, Burke was notified that two guns found at the scene were linked to Fast and Furious.

A man, who bought them 11 months earlier at a Glendale firearms store, was promptly arrested on suspicion of illegal-weapons purchases, along with other gun-buy suspects. Yet, at a news conference announcing the busts, federal officials failed to reveal the link with Terry’s death and denied that guns had been allowed to “walk” as part of the case.

ATF agents, horrified at what happened, became whistle-blowers, leaking information to Congress. Last January, Sen. Grassley sent letters to ATF, alleging that the bureau had knowingly allowed guns into the hands of Mexican criminals and that two of those weapons were tied to Terry’s murder. Burke reacted by sending e-mails to DOJ colleagues denouncing the senator’s assertions as “categorical falsehoods.”

In early messages to DOJ superiors, he incorrectly claimed weapons found at the murder scene were purchased before Fast and Furious started. Later, he clarified that although Fast and Furious was under way, the buyer was not being surveilled at the time he bought them.
Bitter denunciations

On Feb. 1,The Republic published the first mainstream news story on the gun-running scandal and about a congressional inquiry into Fast and Furious.

Burke e-mailed a top Justice Department official, complaining about the bad publicity and about Grassley’s letter. “They (ATF) got smoked today in the Arizona Republic. Just smoked,” he wrote. “They punted going on the record to deny completely fabricated assertions that cut at the heart of their agency and the mission of law enforcement.”

ATF and Justice officials spent three days arguing over language for a rebuttal to Grassley’s letter. Burke, who wanted a hard-line denial, complained bitterly to colleagues: “What is so offensive about this whole project is that Grassley’s staff, acting

as willing stooges for the Gun Lobby, have attempted to distract from the incredible success in dismantling SWB (Southwest Border) gun trafficking operations,” he wrote. “Not uttering one word of rightful praise or thanks to ATF — but, instead, lobbing this reckless, despicable accusation that ATF is complicit in the murder of a federal law enforcement officer.”

In another missive, Burke wrote, “I am so personally outraged by Senator Grassley’s falsehoods. It is one of the lowest acts I have ever seen in politics.”

DOJ eventually issued a letter denouncing Grassley’s allegations about Fast and Furious as “false.”

Holder has since acknowledged that the senator’s assertions were true, and that Fast and Furious was a flawed operation. Spurred by those admissions, congressional investigators redoubled their efforts, digging up more records and questioning witnesses under oath. This past summer, Burke was called before congressional investigators for two closed-door interviews.

According to subsequently released excerpts, Burke acknowledged mistakes and accepted blame. “It should not have been done the way it was done,” he said, “and I want to take responsibility for that. And I’m not falling on my sword or trying to cover for anyone else.”
Motives debated

Attorneys Lee Stein and Chuck Rosenberg,
who represent Burke, said their client did not intentionally provide false information to colleagues and superiors in the Justice Department.

“Dennis has cooperated with congressional investigators and the (Justice) Department’s inquiry into this matter,” Stein said. “He takes his public service seriously.”

Critics say the constellation of facts points to Burke as a ramrod behind Fast and Furious, working to provide political powder for more firearm regulations.

In a Dec. 18 post, Second Amendment blogger John Richardson wrote: “Looking at Burke’s background and his attitude towards gun rights and those who support them, I see this as even further confirmation that the intent of Operation Fast and

Furious from the very beginning was to build support for another so-called assault-weapons ban. I just don’t think it was coincidental that Operation Fast and Furious was centered in Arizona.”

DeConcini, who has sought to help Burke behind the scenes with members of Congress, said such inferences are “totally unfair,” and he insisted that Burke did not learn of the gun-walking strategy until after Brian Terry’s death.

Kevin Burke said it is absurd to suggest that his brother came up with some “Machiavellian plan” to justify gun-control measures. He said Dennis was dedicated to stopping firearm deaths — not adding to them — and he would never have risked lives or his career on such a gambit.

David Steele, a political consultant and friend, agreed: “The Dennis Burke I know doesn’t engage in that kind of political triangulation,” he said. “The whole notion that he did this as a conspiracy for gun control is laughable.”
Epilogue

Investigations by Congress and the inspector general are ongoing.

Guns from Fast and Furious continue to surface at crimes scenes in Mexico and the United States.

The case against those accused of killing Brian Terry is sealed in federal court.

And Dennis Burke remains under a cloud.

His attorney Stein said the experience has been “sobering,” but Burke keeps busy volunteering with a rape-crisis network. “He’s really been using this time to reconnect with family and friends, and to try to get through all this and decide what he’ll do with the rest of his life,” Stein said.

Other friends say he understands how scandals work in the nation’s capital. “It’s a tough town,” said Aiken, who worked in the Reagan administration. “Dennis knows that. He’s a tough guy. And I suspect he’ll come out of this A-OK. (But) I don’t think he was treated altogether fairly.”

-
http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-national/breaking-issa-subpoenas-az-us-attorney-criminal-division-chief

Breaking: Issa subpoenas AZ US Attorney Criminal Division Chief

"District of Arizona Criminal Division Chief Patrick Cunningham will resign from the US Attorney’s office effective January 27. He was Burke’s #1 guy,"

"Burke" is Dennis Burke, the former United States Attorney for the District of Arizona who resigned in the wake of revelations concerning his role in the Fast and Furious gunwalking scandal.

Now from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform comes this bombshell, giving further details on what's going on with Cunningham:

Issa Subpoenas Criminal Division Chief from Arizona U.S. Attorney’s Office

WASHINGTON, DC – House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) today announced the issuance of a subpoena to Patrick J. Cunningham, Chief of the Criminal Division in the U.S. Attorney’s Office

for the District of Arizona. Mr. Cunningham’s repeated refusals to testify voluntarily have forced the Committee to use compulsory process.

“During the course of our investigation, the Committee has learned of the outsized role played by the Arizona U.S. Attorney’s Office – and you specifically – in approving the unacceptable tactics used in Fast and Furious,” Chairman Issa wrote to

Cunningham in a letter informing him of the subpoena. “Senior Justice Department officials have recently told the Committee that you relayed inaccurate and misleading information to the Department in preparation for its initial response to Congress.

“These officials told us that even after Congress began investigating Fast and Furious, you continued to insist that no unacceptable tactics were used. In fact, documents obtained confidentially just last week appear to confirm that you remained

steadfast in your belief that no unacceptable tactics were used, even after the Department’s initial response to the congressional inquiry. Given that the Attorney General has labeled these tactics as unacceptable and Fast and Furious as

‘fundamentally flawed,’ this position is startling.”

The subpoena requires Cunningham to appear on Tuesday, January 24, 2012 for a deposition.

Read Issa’s letter to Cunningham here.

-

http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-st-louis/resist-the-ever-louder-siren-song-of-holder-must-resign-demands

Resist the ever-louder siren song of 'Holder must resign' demands

"The email messages show the former top federal prosecutor in Arizona, Dennis Burke, notifying an aide to Holder via email on Dec. 15, 2010 that agent Brian Terry had been wounded and died. "Tragic," responds the aide, Monty Wilkinson.

"I've alerted the AG, the acting Deputy Attorney General..."

Within hours, Burke emailed Wilkinson again, and told him that guns found at the scene were from an "ongoing Phoenix ATF inv." (Operation Fast and Furious), and that Wilkinson would "probably get a call from Bill Newell." Wilkinson emailed

back that he would call the next day."

-


http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-seattle/issa-subpoenas-phoenix-doj-official-over-fast-furious

Issa subpoenas Phoenix DOJ official over Fast & Furious

-

http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-national/documents-say-doj-knew-of-fast-and-furious-connection-day-after-terry-murder

Documents say DOJ knew of Fast and Furious connection day after* Terry murder

-

http://www.rocklandcountytimes.com/?p=984

multi billion dollar failure, just like Canada long gun registry...

-

http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-national/oig-sharing-information-with-doj-over-wide-receiver-ci-s-objections

OIG sharing information with DOJ over Wide Receiver CI's objections

" You may remember that, when we met in November, we discussed the disclosure of the FFL recordings in Fast & Furious and the possibility that the materials you gave us in Wide Receiver also would have to be turned over to prosecutors. As

you may recall, the government has the obligation to disclose information in its possession that may exculpate a defendant or impeach the credibility of a witness. Failure to do so may lead to charges of prosecutorial misconduct. We have since

reviewed the materials on the CD you gave us and determined that we need to give the recordings and manuscripts to Laura – this does not mean that everything will be handed over to the defense, but simply that Laura will have to evaluate them to

see what information, if any, has to be disclosed.

I understand the sensitivity of this issue and that you are likely to have concerns."

-
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2012/01/31/democrats_fully_engaged_in_fast_and_furious_coverup

Democrats Fully Engaged in Fast and Furious Coverup

-

http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-seattle/saf-wins-big-over-chicago-loses-1st-round-appeals-another-il-case

SAF wins big over Chicago, appeals in another IL case

The Bellevue-based Second Amendment Foundation on Monday was a pretty happy camp, despite last Friday’s “first-round” loss in an Illinois court case that – if it advances all the way to the Supreme Court – could put an end to judicial semantics games over the right to keep and bear arms.

That ruling is being appealed, and one might almost be compelled to thank the City of Chicago for paying its court-mandated legal reimbursement to SAF for the landmark Supreme Court case of McDonald v. City of Chicago. And the amount of that bill? How does $399,950 sound?

“That is the single largest check that has ever come to SAF in the history of the foundation,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb.

Chicago’s legal liability might be partly due to the city’s pattern of, as Gottlieb put it, “jacking SAF around” to run up its legal bills, perhaps to discourage the group from pursuing its litigation. The city is doing it again in another SAF-funded case,

Ezell v. City of Chicago, related to the city’s ban on gun ranges inside city limits, despite a city requirement that people applying for Chicago gun permits must take a training course that includes live-firing at a gun range.

Chicago’s legal strategy appears to include financially draining those who sue, with an endless stream of required depositions and other maneuvers. Perhaps the city has millions of dollars it can devote to paying legal bills when it loses. See, the more you make the other side pay in attorney's fees, the more you could wind up reimbursing when you lose in court. But of course in this instance, it's just taxpayer's money, so who really cares, right?

Money from the McDonald victory will go right back into current litigation, which brings us around to Friday’s setback in the case of Moore v. Madigan, challenging the constitutionality of Illinois state laws that prohibit the carrying of loaded firearms for personal protection.

The federal judge in that case, Sue E. Myerscough, dismissed the complaint last Friday, noting in her 48-page ruling that:

This Court finds that the Illinois “Unlawful Use of Weapons” and “Aggravated Unlawful Use of a Weapon” statutes do not violate Plaintiffs’ Second Amendment rights. The United States Supreme Court and the Seventh Circuit have recognized only a Second Amendment core individual right to bear arms inside the home. Further, even if this Court recognized a Second Amendment right to bear arms outside of the home and an interference with that right, the statutes nonetheless survive constitutional scrutiny.

SAF has already appealed.

Judge Myerscough is an Obama administration appointee who previously served on the Illinois Fourth District Appellate Court, according to a biography on Wikipedia. Her reasoning provides a text book example about the importance of electing people who nominate the right judges. In this case, we are discussing the president, who nominates federal judges, and members of the Senate, who confirm or reject those nominations.

Arizona attorney Sandy Froman, a former president of the National Rifle Association, told this column in an exclusive interview Monday that she has spent years explaining to firearms owners and others the importance of elections, particularly those for president and the Senate.

“When I go around and talk about elections, I always tell people that elections matter, but not always for the reasons you might think. The presidency and the senate are very important because what they do can last long beyond their terms…those judges serve for life, and their decisions have precedential value that carries well beyond their lifetimes.”—Sandra Froman, attorney and former NRA president

When a federal judge – in this case Myerscough – can issue an opinion that a civil right is limited to the confines of one’s residence, that is a red flag warning to anyone who sits back and relaxes while others go to the polls. Quite a few gun owners at one time proudly noted that they voted for Obama. Now, they are not so vocal. But Obama appointed Myerscough, and here’s what she thinks of the Second Amendment:

This Court finds further support for its conclusion in recent decisions of the Illinois Appellate Court, which has also concluded that Heller and McDonald affirm a Second Amendment right to bear arms in the home but not outside of the home…

…Alternatively, assuming, arguendo, that there is a right to bear arms outside of the home, such a right is not a core Second Amendment right as defined by the Heller Court, which defined the core of the right as the right to bear arms in the home for self-defense.

It can be reasonably argued that a right that is limited to its exercise within the confines of one’s home is not a right at all, and to suggest so is to defy common sense.

Do we confine the right of free speech to the home? The mere exchange of opinion would thus be rendered impossible, for the people exchange opinions in public forum every day.

Likewise, do we render the right against self-incrimination applicable only within the confines of one’s residence? If we were to apply the “inside-the-home” standard to the Fourth and Fifth amendments, then it would be permissible, if not routine, for suspects to be taken to police stations where they could be interrogated without counsel until they confessed, and then they could be forced in the courtroom to admit to all manner of criminal activity, whether guilty or not.

Would the American press be able to function if reporting and editorializing were not permitted outside the front door of the journalist’s home?

No other civil right is treated so contemptibly as is the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. SAF’s Gottlieb has vowed to fight this case all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary.

“We look forward to winning this important case on appeal even if it means going back to the United States Supreme Court for a third time. The Second Amendment does not say, the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed except outside your home or that it only applies inside your house. We don’t check our constitutional rights at the front door.”—Alan Gottlieb, Second Amendment Foundation

First Amendment advocates are currently defending the Seattle Library’s decision to allow people to visit pornography sites on library computers, even though others find this offensive. Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat wrote about the controversy here, and actually quoted this writer.

If it is acceptable for people to view pornography on publicly-owned computers in a public library, than there should be no disdain about a citizen’s right to peaceably carry a firearm for personal protection in a public place, even that same public library.

To advocate less smells of hypocrisy, and to believe that the exercise of a constitutionally-protected civil right ends at one’s doorstep is a monument to the social bigotry that is routinely practiced against the Second Amendment.

Froman said something else that gun owners should ponder over the next several months, leading up to the November election. George Bush appointed both John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. Had they not been there, both the

Heller and McDonald rulings could have, and possibly would have, gone the other way. And she added this:

"""""'Some of the commentators are already noting that if Obama is elected for a second term, he could have perhaps three and maybe four more appointments to the Supreme Court, and that scares me." ""

Indeed.

-

http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-seattle/san-francisco-sheriff-s-dilemma-revives-tacoma-memories?cid=PROD-redesign-right-next

the San Francisco Examiner, which reported:

Even though he’s now sheriff, it may surprise some that Ross Mirkarimi owns several guns.

As a longtime member of the progressive bloc on the Board of Supervisors, Mirkarimi was a vocal advocate of gun control.—San Francisco Examiner
But now, because of a law passed during the Clinton administration, people accused of domestic violence – they needn’t be convicted, mind you – cannot possess firearms. Here’s what Murkarimi gave up:

Court records show Mirkarimi surrendered three handguns: A Sig Sauer P229, a Beretta 92G, and a Smith & Wesson Model 19 .357-caliber magnum revolver.—San Francisco Examiner

-
http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2012/01/31/congressional-democrats-fast-furious-is-arizona%E2%80%99s-fault/

Congressional Democrats: Fast & Furious is Arizona’s Fault!

-
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/01/31/in-new-report-two-justice-officials-call-fast-and-furious-criticism-absurd/

In new 'Fast and Furious' report, Democrats clear Justice appointees of wrongdoing

-

http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-seattle/under-the-bus-dem-report-blames-az-officials-only-for-f-f

Under the bus? Dem report blames AZ officials only for F&F

-

http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-seattle/friday-f-f-document-dump-could-mean-more-trouble-for-holder

Friday F&F document dump could mean more trouble for Holder

-

http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-st-louis/assistant-ag-lanny-breuer-wanted-to-walk-guns-months-after-agent-terry-s-murder

Assistant AG Lanny Breuer wanted to walk guns months AFTER Agent Terry's murder

-

http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-st-louis/the-obama-administration-the-tiahrt-amendment-and-project-gunwalker

The Obama administration, the Tiahrt Amendment, and 'Project Gunwalker'

-

http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/node/8193

Fireworks Expected This Week...But No Celebration in Wake of Fast & Furious Scandal

-

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/01/31/issa-threatens-contempt-charge-against-holder-if-justice-fails-to-comply-with/

Issa threatens contempt proceeding against Holder if Justice fails to comply with Fast and Furious subpoenas

-

Chicago, only place in US where a tikkun olam Reform (Rahm Emanuel) and an Islamist (Amer Ahmad) are on the Same Page:

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/202815.php

June 10, 2010
Ohio Treasurer's Muslim CFO Amer Ahmad hands out no-bid contracts, state jobs to fellow Islamic extremists, attends terror tied Noor mosque

Several articles have appeared in the past week in the Ohio media concerning accusations against the Ohio Treasurer's CFO and deputy treasurer, Amer Ahmad, that he has handed out no-bid contracts and state jobs to Islamic extremist friends

associated with the terror-tied Noor Islamic Cultural Center, where he and his family attend.

The story began with the Dayton Daily news, who reported:

Boston-based State Street Bank won work worth $1.27 million from Ohio Treasurer Kevin Boyce’s office this year after hiring a lobbyist with personal connections to Boyce’s deputy treasurer.

State Street Bank was the low bidder on a subcontract to be the custodial bank for global assets at three of Ohio’s five public pension systems — a job that entails keeping track of more than $23.6 billion in assets.

No laws were broken and Boyce’s office makes a solid business case why State Street got the work. But just two days before proposals were due, the bank hired an immigration attorney with little experience in banking or lobbying to lobby for the contract.

In fact, Noure Alo’s only lobbying contract is with State Street, according to records filed with the Joint Legislative Ethics Commission.

Alo, who lives in Dublin outside Columbus, also appears to have ties to Amer Ahmad, Boyce’s deputy treasurer.

To say that they have ties is an understatement. Noure Alo was the registering attorney for Ahmad's consulting corporation, Five River Partners LLC. Both attend the Noor center mosque, and Alo is actively involved in Ahmad's service organization, Salam Corps.

As both the Dayton Daily News and Cleveland Plain Dealer have reported, State Street won the no-bid contract to manage $23.6 billion in state assets just days after hiring immigration attorney Alo as a lobbyist. State Street is Alo's only lobbying client registered with the state of Ohio. State Street is currently facing a lawsuit filed by the state of California for defrauding it of $56.6 million - a lawsuit that had already been filed before the state of Ohio awarded the no-bid contract to State

Street (who just happened to hire Noure Alo two days before the RFI deadline).

As the late Billy Mays would say, but wait, there's more!

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported on Sunday that Noure Alo's wife, Walaa Waeda, was hired by Ohio Treasurer Kevin Boyce as an assistant for a job that was never posted, only announced at Ahmad and Alo's mosque, and she the only candidate who applied and was interviewed:

Ahmad said his wife belongs to the same professional organization as Alo, and he met him through her. They also have been involved in the same community service activities and attend the same mosque.

In 2008, Alo filed business organization papers with the secretary of state on behalf of Ahmad and his wife. The company, Five Rivers Partners LLC, is related to consulting services Ahmad’s wife performs, he said.

Boyce hired Alo’s wife in late December to fill a sudden opening in his office. Ahmad said the job, which pays $37,500 a year, was not posted. He announced the opening at his mosque and Alo’s wife, Waeda, responded. She was the only job candidate interviewed, Ahmad said.

Ohio state jobs openings only announced at a terror-tied mosque? Not quite sure how that is legal.

We'll have more on the sudden rise of Noure Alo as a financial industry lobbyist in the coming days.

-
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2531840/posts

Ohio Treasurer's Muslim CFO Amer Ahmad hands out contracts, state jobs to fellow Islamic extremists
Jawa Report ^
6-10-2010

-

TOPICS: Government; Politics
KEYWORDS: deputytreasurer; islam; ohio; terrorist
Amer Ahmad

http://crcc.usc.edu/initiatives/amcli/amer-ahmad.html

Noor Islamic Cultural Center

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2009/08/31/attorney-targets-alleged-terror-ties-case-runaway-girl/

Dayton Daily news, who reported:

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/politics/bank-hired-lobbyist-with-boyce-aide-ties-just-days-before-landing-state-contract-722105.html

Noure Alo

http://www.harrisonalo.com/Bio/NoureAlo.asp

registering attorney

http://www2.sos.state.oh.us/reports/rwservlet?imgc&;Din=200828300828

manage $23.6 billion in state assets

http://www.tos.ohio.gov/ForBusiness/Default.aspx?Section=Global%20Custody%20Services

lobbying client

http://www2.jlec-olig.state.oh.us/olac/Reports/ViewAgent.aspx?id=4090

defrauding it of $56.6 million

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/21/business/21street.html?_r=1

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported on Sunday

http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2010/06/ohio_treasurer_picks_bank_faci.html

-
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/24/us/24cncgreising.html?_r=1

In Emanuel’s Team, a Mirror of the Man

-

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/politics/bank-hired-lobbyist-with-boyce-aide-ties-just-days-before-landing-state-contract-722105.html

Bank hired lobbyist with Boyce aide ties just days before landing state contract
Ohio deputy treasurer’s Facebook ‘friend’ works for firm that got $1.27M contract.

COLUMBUS — Boston-based State Street Bank won work worth $1.27 million from Ohio Treasurer Kevin Boyce’s office this year after hiring a lobbyist with personal connections to Boyce’s deputy treasurer.

State Street Bank was the low bidder on a subcontract to be the custodial bank for global assets at three of Ohio’s five public pension systems — a job that entails keeping track of more than $23.6 billion in assets.

No laws were broken and Boyce’s office makes a solid business case why State Street got the work. But just two days before proposals were due, the bank hired an immigration attorney with little experience in banking or lobbying to lobby for the contract.

In fact, Noure Alo’s only lobbying contract is with State Street, according to records filed with the Joint Legislative Ethics Commission.

Alo, who lives in Dublin outside Columbus, also appears to have ties to Amer Ahmad, Boyce’s deputy treasurer. They are Facebook “friends” and follow one another on Twitter. Their wives, too, are Facebook friends, and their children are pictured together on the social networking site. Alo and Ahmad’s wife attended Ohio State University law school together.

State documents also show that Alo acted as statutory agent for Five Rivers Partners LLC, a business in which Ahmad owns an interest. Alo contributed $500 to Boyce’s campaign last summer and attended a Boyce fund-raiser in January at the

NFL Hall of Fame in Canton.

Ahmad, however, said in an email: “Our competitive and transparent RFP process was designed to take politics, personalities and people out of the decision-making. No relationships influenced the process because it was based on competitive bidding. As a result, the State Treasury saved Ohioans over $19.7 million.”

Alo declined to answer questions about why State Street hired him, other than this email: “My relationship with Deputy Treasurer Ahmad is the same as any other lobbyist in the state of Ohio. It’s professional.”

State Street Bank declined to comment on why it picked Alo as its lobbyist.

Ahmad pointed out that State Street Bank had done some of the same work for the state treasury between 1998 and 2004.

Still, Boyce’s political opponent is questioning the deal.

“It appears that Boyce and Ahmad are steering lucrative contracts and taxpayer dollars to a suspect out-of-state bank that just happened to hire the personal attorney, business associate and fellow Mosque member of Amer Ahmad as its lobbyist,” said Joe Aquilino, spokesman for the campaign of Republican Josh Mandel. “The deeper you dig, the worse this looks.”

By law, custodial bank contracts must be bid out every two years but the custodial subcontracts for international assets may be awarded at the treasurer’s discretion. Boyce is the first Ohio treasurer to bid out both parts, a move that is expected to save Ohio taxpayers $19.7 million over two years, Ahmad said.

In May 2008, Ahmad, 35, left an investment banking career in Chicago to work for then state treasurer Richard Cordray. Boyce kept him on staff when he was appointed treasurer in 2009. Ahmad’s credentials are top-drawer: a bachelor’s from

Columbia University; a masters in business administration from Harvard University; a Rhodes Scholar semi-finalist; and a decade in investment banking.

The state of California is currently suing State Street Bank, alleging that the bank cheated two of California’s largest pension systems by overcharging for foreign exchange trades.

Ahmad noted that many large banks are in litigation with public pension systems. If pending litigation disqualified a bank from bidding on treasury work, few would be left to be considered, he said. State Street is among the four largest custodial banks in the world, he said.

-

Amer Ahmad's mosque:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2009/08/31/attorney-targets-alleged-terror-ties-case-runaway-girl/

Attorney Targets Alleged Terror Ties in Case of Runaway Girl

"the Noor Islamic Cultural Center near Columbus, Ohio."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
sharia islamists must deceive, lie, much like Democrats, to further their hateful message ("defending religious freedom" dot org-islamists hijacking the Christian concern of banning any "religion" could have a boomerang domino effect to include Christianity):


"a billboard seen by one of our members in the Kansas City area:


The billboard is sponsored by the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), a Muslim Brotherhood connected organization. Note the strategy—that opposition to sharia law is supposedly an infringement on the first amendment protection of religious freedom.

This is, of course, disingenuous. Is ICNA arguing that the following provisions of sharia law be protected by the first amendment?

A Muslim man beating his wife for disobedience.
Punishment, up to capital punishment, of “apostates”—those who leave Islam.
Polygamy. (In 1879, the Supreme Court ruled that Mormon polygamy was not protected under the first amendment.)
Jihad.
Suppression of criticism of Islam or Muhammad. (This is particularly obnoxious, since the first amendment also protects freedom of speech.)
Punishment for the practice of homosexuality.

We highly doubt anyone who calls ICNA will be told these facts about sharia law!

ACT! for America does not argue that Muslims do not have a first amendment right to practice the peaceful, spiritual tenets of their faith. What we oppose is the imposition of a supremacist political ideology and its legal code (sharia) where its provisions and doctrines threaten the security, freedom, and the Constitution of our nation.

ICNA is wrapping sharia in the first amendment in the hope that Americans won’t look closely at what sharia really includes. Every time someone signs up for our email alerts, makes a donation, attends one of our Citizens in Action conferences, or starts or joins a local chapter, we are that much stronger and effective in pushing back against this deception. "


--------

"In a July 2010 email entitled “Call it Pornistan,” we included a Fox News story that said, “So here's the irony: Google ranks Pakistan No. 1 in the world in searches for pornographic terms, outranking every other country in the world in searches per person for certain sex-related content.”

As we noted then, “It’s common to find Muslim leaders decrying the “debauchery” and “depravity” of the West, and how this “immorality” is “invading” the Muslim world.” What’s more, these allegations are frequently used as an excuse for the rise in Islamic terrorism against the West.

America is far from perfect, and it’s true that many of the world’s porn sites originate in America and western Europe. It’s also true that no one is forced to access them.

Now we have the Examiner article below (highlights added) entitled “Afghan Pedophilia: A Way of Life.” No one could argue this is a result of “Western debauchery” invading Afghanistan, which has been a hotbed of jihadism for years."

-

http://www.examiner.com/law-enforcement-in-national/afghan-pedophilia-a-way-of-life-say-u-s-soldiers-and-journalists?CID=examiner_alerts_article

Afghan Pedophilia: A way of life, say U.S. soldiers and journalists

Jim Kouri

Law Enforcement Examiner

Apologists say that Bacha Bazi or 'Boy Play' is a very old cultural practice in Afghanistan and part of that nation's mainstream.

Citing the Afghanistan strategy review, Vice President Joe Biden reported "great progress" in the counterterrorism effort that has significantly degraded al-Qaeda and the Taliban, particularly their leadership. Lagging behind, he said, is progress on the counterinsurgency front – eliminating terrorist safe havens in Pakistan and building a stable Afghan government.

However, not once did Biden – nor Defense Secretary Leon Panetta -- mention Afghanistan's dirty secret – a large number of pedophiles and pederasts among the Afghan male population.

Pedophilia is a widely-accepted practice in southern Afghanistan, where "boys are given to older men for the sexual gratification of the elder and the sexual education of the child," say many returning U.S. troops.

Afghans say pedophilia is most prevalent among Pashtun men in the south who comprise Afghanistan's most important tribe.

Apologists say that Bacha Bazi or 'Boy Play' is a very old cultural practice in Afghanistan and part of that nation's mainstream.

When U.S. officials such as President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta discuss the war in Afghanistan and make claims of success in that fledgling democracy, one issue that's avoided is the widespread sexual intercourse between Afghan men and young boys. In non- diplomatic terms, Afghanistan is a haven for child rape, according to several American military officers just returning from the frontlines of the Global War on Terrorism.

In a country that is considered overly repressive due to its adherence to the precepts contained in the Muslim religion's Koran, it's difficult for American service members and diplomats to understand the fact that a large portion of the Afghan male population are pedophiles (adults who enjoy sexual contact with prepubescent children) or pederasts (adults who enjoy sexual relations with pubescent or post-pubescent children).

While Muslims in Iraq have on several occasions stoned homosexuals for their sexual activities, not all Muslims believe pedophilia is a violation of Sharia law. Those who believe in the sacredness and infallibility of the Koran adhere to the teaching that women are sub-human and quasi-slaves, and therefore Muslim men will look for relationships -- even sexual relationships -- with others of their own gender.

According to Reuters, there is a lot of homosexuality going on in Afghanistan, but those engaging in it don't think of themselves as gay, so that makes it okay since Islam officially disapproves of the gay and lesbian lifestyle.

"They regard themselves as non-gay because they don’t “love” the sex object so Allah is happy. These are the men who avoid their wives as unclean. Apparently there is very little love of any kind in Afghanistan, which explains a lot," according to Reuters.

“Having a boy has become a custom for us,” Ena Yatullah, a 42-year-old in Baghlan province, told a Reuters reporter. “Whoever wants to show off should have a boy.” [. . .]

Sociologists and anthropologists say the problem results from a perverse interpretation of Islamic law. Women are simply unapproachable. Afghans cannot talk to an unrelated woman until after proposing marriage. Before then, they can't even look at a woman, except perhaps her feet. Otherwise she is covered, head to ankle, according to columnist Joel Brinkley, a professor of journalism at Stanford University, and a former Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent for the New York Times.

In Kandahar, a city with a population of about 500,000, and other towns, dance parties are a popular -- often weekly -- pastime. Young boys dress up as females, wearing makeup and bells on their feet, and dance for a dozen or more leering middle-aged men who throw money at them and then take them home.

A recent State Department report called “dancing boys” a “widespread, culturally sanctioned form of male rape.” If women dressed and behaved in such a way, they would surely be punished by Muslim men.

Even after marriage, many men keep their boy-lovers, according to former U.S. military personnel who served in Afghanistan. That helps explain why women are compelled to wear clothing that hides their faces and bodies and if they "sin" they are stoned to death in accordance with Islamic law. That same law also forbids homosexuality, but the pedophiles explain that it's not homosexuality since they aren’t in love with their boys only fulfilling a bodily need.

Paradoxically, the Taliban frown on sexual relations between men and boys and enforce Sharia law to the letter. Are the followers of Islam, who adopt a more "liberal" approach to practicing their religion, perhaps responsible for the widespread rape of male children in Afghanistan?

So, why are American military forces fighting and dying to protect pedophiles and pederasts in a country considered by many to be the pedophilia capital of Asia?

Why is there hesitation on the part of Obama, Clinton, Panetta and others to discuss the widespread sexual assault of male children in Afghanistan? Could it be that it is politically incorrect to discuss any immoral and unlawful behavior on the part of

Muslims? It's quite evident that U.S. politicians may bash Christians without fear of adverse effects on their political careers. But these same leaders will behave as if they are walking on egg shells to avoid even the hint of criticizing Muslims.

In addition, there is always a hesitation to discuss man-on-boy sexual relationship for fear of mentioning the obvious: such a relationship is homosexual in nature.

------------------------------
"We find it ironic that the author of the column below that recently appeared in the Washington Post is also the author of “Holy Ignorance.”

How else to explain how someone can be so blind to what is happening in countries like Egypt? Has he not read the polls taken in Egypt over the past few years, showing strong support for sharia law?

Does he really believe that the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafist political parties, which won over 2/3 of the seats in Egypt’s parliamentary elections, were elected simply because they promised a better economy?

Does he really believe the Muslim Brotherhood would support the right of Muslims to convert to Christianity?

There are those who see what they want to see, in spite of all evidence to the contrary. Many of them are in our government, in the media, in academia. We, too, would be delighted to see a reformed Muslim Brotherhood, one that, according to the

author below, is “middle class bourgeois.” One that has given up its aspirations for worldwide Islamist rule.

But we can’t afford to engage in such flights of fancy."

==================================================

A new generation of political Islamists steps forward

By Olivier Roy, Published: January 20

Olivier Roy is a professor at the European University Institute in Florence and the author of “Holy Ignorance.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/muslim-brotherhood-other-islamists-have-changed-their-worldview/2012/01/10/gIQAZgjoEQ_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines


Everywhere, the Muslim Brotherhood is benefiting from a democratization it did not trigger. There is a political vacuum because the liberal vanguard that initiated the Arab Spring did not try, and did not want, to take power. This was a revolution

without revolutionaries. Yet the Muslim Brothers are the only organized political force. They are rooted in society, and decades of opposition against authoritarian regimes gave them experience, legitimacy and respect. Their conservative agenda fits a conservative society, which may welcome democracy but did not turn liberal.

Under these circumstances, the ghost of a totalitarian Islamic state is raised, with the specter of imposing sharia and closing the short democratic parenthesis. But such an outcome is unlikely.

The Islamists have, in fact, changed: They are more middle-class “bourgeois,” and they benefited from the liberalization of local economies during the last decades of the 20th century, especially in countries with no oil rent. The Islamists have also drawn lessons from the failure of ideological regimes and from the success of Turkey’s AKP party. They are no longer advocating jihad and understand geostrategic constraints, such as the need to maintain peace, even a cold one, with Israel.

Realism is the starting point of political wisdom.

The Islamists have been elected with a clear agenda: stability, good governance and a better economy. If they have been able to reach a larger constituency than the hard-core supporters of sharia, it is precisely because they can combine such a reformist agenda while talking about religion, values, identity and tradition. The Nahda party won the majority of the votes cast at the Tunisian consulate of San Francisco, although Tunisian expatriates in Silicon Valley are not known for their Islamic fundamentalism.

This mix of technocratic modernism and conservative values is their brand, and to turn their back on multipartism and legalism would alienate a large portion of their constituency, at a time when they have no means to confiscate power. They have neither military forces nor oil wealth to bypass the people: They have to negotiate and deliver. Their electorate wants stability and peace, not revolution.

They are stepping into a new political landscape: a democracy, although a fledgling and fragile one. The only way to maintain their legitimacy is through elections. Even if their pristine political culture is not democratic, they are formatted by the democratic landscape, much as the Roman Catholic Church ended up accepting democratic institutions. But it will take time.

Another important change, if we refer to the “revolutionary” period of the 1970s and 1980s, is that the Muslim Brothers do not monopolize Islam in the public sphere. In fact, the religious revival that has engulfed Arab societies led to a diversification and an individualization of the religious field. Religious state institutions such as Al Azhar, so recently discredited, are regaining autonomy after so recently being discredited. Al Azhar’s dean, Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayyeb, openly spoke in favor of democracy and of separating religious institutions from the state. A new phenomenon is the decision of the Salafis, an ultraconservative Sunni sect, to establish political parties. On the one hand they will push for a more Islamic agenda, trying to outbid the Muslim Brothers on Islam, but this will force the Brotherhood to clarify its own position and to find a way to distance itself from the call for sharia.

To do that, the Muslim Brothers have to turn purely Islamic norms into more universal conservative values — such as limiting the sale and consumption of alcohol in a way that is closer to Utah’s rules than to Saudi laws and promoting “family values” instead of imposing sharia norms on women.

In the coming months the hot issue in Egypt, beyond the status of women, will be religious freedom. Not in the sense that Coptic Christians will have less freedom to practice — there were a lot of limitations under the so-called secular dictatorship of

Hosni Mubarak — but in defining religious freedom as not merely a minority right but an individual human right, implying the right to convert from Islam to Christianity.

The issue is institutionalizing democracy, not promoting liberal policies. Democracy could take hold only if it is based in well-established values. Liberalism does not precede democracy; America’s Founding Fathers were not liberal. But once democracy is rooted in institutions and political culture, then the debate on freedom, censorship, social norms and individual rights could be managed through freedom of expression and changes of majorities in parliament. However, there will be no institutionalization of democracy without the Muslim Brothers.
-
Sharia Law: Muslim "honor
killing" of 3 North American teen girls

"Our friends at OneNewsNow.com broke a shocking story of how Muslim Sharia Law is privately enforced in North America with "honor killings" of children. This give us yet another reason to petition Congress to ban Sharia law in American courts, excerpts follow:

KINGSTON, Ontario - A jury on Sunday found an Afghan father, his wife and their son guilty of killing three teenage sisters and a co-wife in what the judge described as "cold-blooded, shameful murders" resulting from a "twisted concept of honor."

The jury took 15 hours to find Mohammad Shafia, 58; his wife Tooba Yahya, 42; and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in a case that shocked and riveted Canadians from coast to coast. First-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.

After the verdict was read, the three defendants again declared their innocence in the killings of sisters Zainab, 19, Sahar 17, and Geeti, 13, as well as Rona Amir Mohammad, 52, Shafia's childless first wife in a polygamous marriage.

Their bodies were found June 30, 2009, in a car submerged in a canal in Kingston, Ontario, where the family had stopped for the night on their way home to Montreal from Niagara Falls, Ontario.

Prosecutors said the defendants allegedly killed the three teenage sisters because they dishonored the family by defying its disciplinarian rules on dress, dating, socializing and going online. Shafia's first wife was living with him and his second wife.

The polygamous relationship, if revealed, could have resulted in their deportation...

Judge Robert Maranger was unmoved, saying the evidence clearly supported their conviction for "the planned and deliberate murder of four members of your family."

"It is difficult to conceive of a more despicable, more heinous crime ... the apparent reason behind these cold-blooded, shameful murders was that the four completely innocent victims offended your completely twisted concept of honor ... that has absolutely no place in any civilized society."...

The family had left Afghanistan in 1992 and lived in Pakistan, Australia and Dubai before settling in Canada in 2007. Shafia, a wealthy businessman, married Yahya because his first wife could not have children...

The prosecution said her parents found condoms in Sahar's room as well as photos of her wearing short skirts and hugging her Christian boyfriend, a relationship she had kept secret. Geeti was becoming almost impossible to control: skipping school, failing classes, being sent home for wearing revealing clothes and stealing, while declaring to authority figures that she wanted to be placed in foster care, according to the prosecution...

The prosecution presented wire taps and cell phone records from the Shafia family in court to support their honor killing theory. The wiretaps, which capture Shafia spewing vitriol about his dead daughters, calling them treacherous and whores and invoking the devil to defecate on their graves, were a focal point of the trial.

"There can be no betrayal, no treachery, no violation more than this," Shafia said on one recording. "Even if they hoist me up onto the gallows ... nothing is more dear to me than my honor."...

[CHAPS COMMENT: Murder, honor killings, polygamy, child abuse, this is how the Koran teaches families to behave under Sharia law, which is secretly enforced by Muslim communities through their mosques all over North America. We must demand Congress act now, to stop Sharia law from being enforced in any American courts.]

Please select here to sign urgent petition, and we will fax all 535 Congressmen and Senators (saving you time!) to Stop Activist Judges from enforcing Sharia or Foreign Law in American courts. Ask Congress to pass H.R. 973 today!

Congresswoman: Stop judges who promote Sharia and Foreign Law over Constitution.

Conservative Congresswoman Sandy Adams (R-FL) has taken a stand for liberty and to defend the U.S. Constitution and US law, by sponsoring a bill that stops liberal activist judges from enforcing Muslim Sharia law, or foreign laws, in American Courts.

Adams wrote an op-ed article explaining her bill, saying in part:

"Imagine waking up one Sunday morning and reading the headline in your local newspaper: 'Supreme Court rules that the press can't question the president,' and imagine that their ruling cited international case law from nations like China or Cuba, where it is illegal to question the word of the executive branch. While this idea may seem far-fetched, it is a daunting possibility.

"Foreign law poses a very real threat to the American judicial system...Our Constitution laid the foundation for our nation's judicial system, and referencing or using foreign law in American courts will lead to its erosion...

"That is why I have introduced legislation to protect our Constitution and federal court systems from this type of practice. My two-page bill, H.R. 973, simply states that 'in any court created by or under Article III of the Constitution of the United

States, no justice, judge, or other judicial official shall decide any issue in a case before that court in whole or in part on the authority of foreign law, except to the extent the Constitution or an Act of Congress requires the consideration of that foreign law.'

"Not only is using international precedent a transparent disregard for the Constitution, but it could be used to advance a judge's personal political agenda over the best interests of the nation. Judges have a responsibility to interpret the laws of the land, not legislate from the bench, and the practice of referring to foreign law puts their underlying motives into question. There are three particular Supreme Court cases where judges have cited foreign and international precedent: Lawrence v. Texas, where the court overturned state anti-sod omy statutes; Atkins v. Virginia, where the court held against the execution of mentally retarded capital defendants; and Roper v. Simmons, where the court outlawed application of the death penalty to offenders who were under 18 when their crimes were committed. International and foreign laws were cited in all three cases by our Supreme Court justices in reaching their decisions, setting precedent for future rulings..."

Adams continued: "Currently there are over a dozen states that have introduced legislation banning foreign law on the state level - including the state I represent, Florida...[it has] become a fixture of the confirmation process for Supreme Court

justices. In her 2010 confirmation hearing, Elena Kagan was questioned by Senator Charles E. Grassley, an Iowa Republican, who asked if she thought international law should factor into a federal court's decision-making process. She confirmed that she did, stating: 'I think it depends. There are some cases in which the citation of foreign law, or international law, might be appropriate.'

"This kind of practice begs the question: Are we going to allow our court systems to dictate our policymaking process based off of foreign sources or are we going to go through the proper channels prescribed by our Constitution? We must remember that we have an American judicial system in place for a reason; it is based off of our country's rich history and it is intentionally unique to our great nation. As we move forward as a country, we must work to protect it."

--Rep. Sandy Adams represents Florida's 24th Congressional District.

[Chaps comment: Let's stand with Congresswoman Sandy Adams, and petition all 535 Congressmen and Senators to co-sponsor and pass her bill to stop Sharia in US courts.]

God Bless you, in Jesus' name,

Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt

-
who needs enemies with tikkun olam reform friends like these. at least Scalia sold our model, not advocate against like Ginsbug....the South African Rand was worth twice the British Pound during the Apartheid era, now look at them...

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/02/06/ginsburg-to-egyptians-wouldnt-use-us-constitution-as-model/

Ginsburg to Egyptians: I wouldn't use U.S. Constitution as a model"I would not look to the U.S. Constitution, if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012," Ginsburg said in an interview on Al Hayat television last Wednesday. "I might look at the constitution of South Africa.
That was a deliberate attempt to have a fundamental instrument of
government that embraced basic human rights, have an independent
judiciary. It really is, I think, a great piece of work that was done."
-
http://oversight.house.gov/images/stories/Letters/2012-01-18_DEI_to_Cunningham_re_Committee_hearing.pdf