Amanda Knox takes fall for US government

Amanda Knox. (photo: AP)

By Marc Ash, Reader Supported News

31 January 14

manda Knox and the international circus that surrounds her actually matter. It's really about something bigger.

If it looks as though the case against Knox and Raffaele Sollecito is superficial at best, there's a reason for that - it is. To say that because a speck of Knox's DNA may have been present - on a knife, or a bra clasp, in the apartment in which she resided - is absurd on its face and constitutes no evidence of anything. In addition, neither prosecutor got anywhere near presenting a viable connection between the man convicted of murdering Meredith Kercher, Rudy Guede, and Knox or Sollecito. The purported collaboration was the stuff of a poorly written work of fiction. In fact there was no evidence of collaboration between Guede and Knox or Sollecito presented to the court at all.

In their totality, the combined theories presented to the three courts by two prosecutors were so illogical and utterly lacking in substantiation that it's the prosecutors, not the defendants, who should have been on trial - for misconduct.

Further, that a second prosecutor could present a second case that all but abandoned the entire premise of the first case, after the first case was thrown out on appeal, is patently malicious, and absolutely does constitute a separate/unique judicial instance and double jeopardy in a very material sense. The whole thing makes a profound mockery of the entire concept of criminal justice. 

But while there is little chance that Amanda Knox is guilty of murdering anyone, she is in fact guilty of two very important things: being an inconveniently pretty young woman and being an American abroad in the Bush era.

By the fall of 2007, Italy was in a significant state of conflict with the US over the Bush administration's policy of extraordinary rendition. Of specific note were Italian kidnapping charges against nearly two dozen CIA agents for the kidnapping of Muslim cleric Abu Omar, resulting in 23 convictions. The New York Times reported, "Judge Oscar Magi handed an eight-year sentence to Robert Seldon Lady, a former C.I.A. base chief in Milan, and five-year sentences to the 22 other Americans, including an Air Force colonel and 21 C.I.A. operatives."

Italy's decision to confront America's cavalier disregard for their borders, laws, and judicial system was in line with objections and threats of prosecution by several nations, including German arrest warrants for CIA agents in the kidnapping and extraordinary rendition case of Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen.

What was at issue for those nations from which citizens and residents were taken was their national sovereignty and the integrity of their judicial process. None of which appeared to matter to the Bush operatives, but mattered greatly to those nations where the crimes occurred - including, significantly, Italy.

In the midst of this international conflict simmering just below the surface of broad public view, a young American woman traveled to Perugia, Italy, to study. Her subsequent arrest and high-profile trial for the murder of roommate and fellow student Meredith Kercher would rivet world attention on the very same Italian judicial system that the US had casually disregarded throughout the Bush years.

Italy never got their CIA agents, but they got a pretty young girl from Seattle, and with her the undivided attention of America and the world to the authority of Italian justice.

It's not clear if Amanda Knox will foot the bill for the 23 convicted CIA agents, but what is clear is that Italy and many other countries view America's policy of rendition as indeed extraordinary, and they have a point to make.

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Marc Ash was formerly the founder and Executive Director of Truthout, and is now founder and Editor of Reader Supported News.

Christie busy making up a new story

January 31, 2014

Posted by Andy Borowitz

TRENTON (The Borowitz Report)—Responding to fresh charges that he knew about the controversial lane closures on the George Washington Bridge last fall, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie today asked for the public’s patience while he makes up a new story.

“Today you have heard some allegations that are shocking and explosive,” he told reporters at a hastily called press conference. “All I ask is that the people of the great state of New Jersey give me sufficient time to invent a new story that explains my way out of this.”

Governor Christie said that he had spent the past few hours in closed-door meetings trying to come up with a new narrative that absolves him of any guilt in the bridge scandal, but while he was definitely denying the allegations, “so far, we don’t have a winner.”

“We’ve been tossing around everything from my not remembering events correctly to my having a bad reaction to medication,” he said. “We even floated the idea of my being under too much pressure and having to ‘blow off steam.’ As I said, we don’t have a winner yet. But I want to reassure the people of New Jersey that I am working very hard on this.”

The Governor said he understood that “things don’t look very good for me right now,” but he urged the public against rushing to judgment, adding, “I will get back to you with a well-crafted and plausible story as soon as possible.”


Photograph by Steve Sands/WireImage/Getty

PS water board election slated for May 20

By Sam Schwalm
Water for Pine Strawberry

On January 16th the Gila County Board of Supervisors (BOS), Tommie Martin, Ed Pastor, and John Marcanti changed hats into Pine Strawberry Water Improvement District board members and held a PSWID board meeting. Approximately 125 members of the public attended the meeting in the Pine Cultural Center.

There was a presentation by PSWID District Manager Brad Cole on the general state of the water system. There wasn’t much new information in it other than the fact that they have seven meters left to replace. 

It was announced that the purpose of the meeting was to get a sense of whether the community wanted a May or November election. Arguments for November centered around needing more time to educate people and for people to decide to run. Arguments for May revolved around needing to put control back with the community as soon as possible so progress could begin. Also it was argued that the extra time would not calm things down. 

At the end of the meeting, Martin asked for people to stand up for a May election or a November election. There was about 60% for the May election and 40% for the November election for the people in attendance.

The BOS announced during the meeting that they would be holding a special Gila County BOS meeting the next day to decide whether a May election would be held. At that meeting the BOS, Martin voted in favor of the May election.  "Recording of Special GBOS Meeting"

The election date will be May 20. Packets can be obtained from:

• Eric Mariscal, Director of Elections Gila County, Globe, 928-402-8708
• Tommie Martin Supervisor District 1., Gila County Complex, 610 E. Highway 260, Payson, 928-474-2029
• PSWID office, 6306 W. Hardscrabble Road, Pine, 928-476-4222

An additional note, a gentleman got up and chastised me for the tone of the last email towards Ray Pugel and Tommie Martin. I will take that as a lesson for future emails.

Strong winds could make driving difficult

Strong winds predicted for today could lead to difficult driving conditions along with periods of blowing dust and low visibility on highways across much of the state, according to the Arizona Department of Transportation.

The National Weather Service in Phoenix has issued a blowing dust advisory until 6 p.m. for parts of central Arizona, including from Phoenix to Casa Grande. Areas of blowing dust and limited visibility have already been reported along Interstate 10 near Queen Creek Road.

ADOT warns drivers that breezy conditions could produce dust channels, which are localized areas of blowing dust where visibility can drop to nearly zero. This kind of wind and dust can occur in dust prone areas between Phoenix and Tucson, including I-10, I-8 and State Route 347.

Weather officials have also issued wind advisories for parts of northeast and southeast Arizona. One advisory in place until 7 p.m. includes most of I-40 between Flagstaff and New Mexico, while a second advisory also in place until 7 p.m. includes I-10 between Willcox and New Mexico.

The advisories forecast winds of 20 to 35 mph with gusts to 45 mph. Winds this strong can make driving difficult, especially for high profile vehicles.

Drivers are advised to stay alert and look out in all directions for blowing dust, especially in desert areas. ADOT urges drivers to avoid driving into a dust storm. Motorists play an important role in their own safety when driving during a dust storm. ADOT and the Arizona Department of Public Safety recommend the following driving tips when encountering a low-visibility dust storm:

• Avoid driving into or through a dust storm.
• If you encounter a dust storm, check traffic immediately around your vehicle (front, back and to the side) and begin slowing down.
• Do not wait until poor visibility makes it difficult to safely pull off the roadway — do it as soon as possible. Completely exit the highway if you can, away from where other vehicles may travel.
• Do not stop in a travel lane or in the emergency lane; look for a safe place to pull completely off the paved portion of the roadway.
• Turn off all vehicle lights, including your emergency flashers.
• Set your emergency brake and take your foot off the brake.
• Stay in the vehicle with your seatbelts buckled and wait for the storm to pass.
• Drivers of high-profile vehicles should be especially aware of changing weather conditions and travel at reduced speeds.
• Be aware that any storm can cause power outages to overhead roadway lighting and traffic signals. Drive with caution and treat all intersections without signals as having stop signs in all directions.

For more information and driving tips, please visit PullAsideStayAlive.org.

For the most current information about highway closures and restrictions statewide, visit ADOT’s Travel Information Site at az511.gov or call 5-1-1.

Only real congressmen assault reporters

(photo: M. Scott Mahaskey/Politico)

By William Boardman, Reader Supported News

30 January 14

readersupportednews.org

"Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself." – Mark Twain, circa 1890

"Let me be clear to you, you ever do that to me again I'll throw you off this f**king balcony." – Congressman Michael Grimm, R-NY, January 28, 2014

et's grant that Mark Twain was using hyperbole while committing a verbal insult against a widely despised class of American citizens. But that's not a crime. At least not yet. 

Republican Grimm, by contrast, was using hyperbole (presumably) while committing a verbal assault against a lone, non-threatening American citizen. That is a crime. It's a threat of harm that constitutes simple assault, usually a misdemeanor. Grimm was not arrested, of course, for his illegal, thuggish behavior. As a Congressman, he may even be immune from accountability for such criminal assault as long as he commits it in Congress.

To be more than fair to Rep. Grimm, who is 44, he made his threat in circumstances in which he himself felt threatened by a question from the younger, smaller man he threatened. As a former Marine and a former FBI agent, he also managed to personify the negative Hollywood stereotype of both.

This was immediately after the State of the Union Address on January 28. Congressman Grimm had come up to the visitors' gallery above the House floor to make a quick-reaction comment on the president's speech to Capitol Hill reporter Michael Scotto, of NY1, a Warner cable news channel. The reaction comment over, reporter Scotto tried to get more, saying, "And just finally before we let you go, because we have you here, we haven't had a chance to kind of talk about some of the - "

Rep. Grimm interrupted: "I'm not speaking to you off-topic, this is only about the president." Then he turned and walked away, out of the picture, as the reporter asked, "But what about the - ?" 

So the reporter had to close out the segment.

With Rep. Grimm gone, Scotto stepped into the empty frame and said: "All right. So Congressman Michael Grimm does not want to talk about some of the allegations concerning his campaign finances. We wanted to get him on camera on that, but he, as you saw, he refused to talk about that. Back to you. "

Then, with the intensity of the shark from "Jaws," Rep. Grimm sailed back into view, confronting the startled Scotto and backing the reporter across the screen and out of sight as the camera rolled. Scotto had explained to the Congressman that the spot would be shot in one take, to "air it as live."

Ignoring the live camera, which showed only his back, Rep. Grimm ripped into Scotto with quiet intensity, first threatening to throw him off the balcony to the House floor. The exchange was brief, less than a minute, and only partly comprehensible. It ended with something inaudible from Scotto that elicited another threat by the Congressman: "No, no, you're not man enough, you're not man enough. I'll break you in half. Like a boy."

With that, Grimm left for good. Later that night he issued a self-exculpatory statement:

"I was extremely annoyed because I was doing NY1 a favor by rushing to do their interview first in lieu of several other requests. The reporter knew that I was in a hurry and was only there to comment on the State of the Union, but insisted on taking a disrespectful and cheap shot at the end of the interview, because I did not have time to speak off-topic. I verbally took the reporter to task and told him off, because I expect a certain level of professionalism and respect, especially when I go out of my way to do that reporter a favor. I doubt that I am the first member of Congress to tell off a reporter, and I am sure I won't be the last."

Not surprisingly, since this was an assault on a reporter, just about everyone in the media had something to say about it, online and in print. 

When the media pile on for one of their own, they pile on hard. 

And a lot of what they said gave a lot more coverage to various allegations against Grimm than they ever would have gotten if he'd just given a typical non-answer answer to Michael Scotto's pro forma question, instead of losing it.

"This month, the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Diana K. Durand, a fund-raiser for Mr. Grimm, on charges that she illegally funneled more than $10,000 into his campaign. Mr. Grimm has also faced an ongoing federal investigation into accusations that he or his campaign illegally solicited money from foreign donors," reported The New York Times. "In a separate matter, the FBI is also probing whether Ofer Biton, an associate of a charismatic Orthodox rabbi, collected questionable money for Grimm's campaign from the rabbi's congregation. Many of the rabbi's followers are Israeli citizens. Foreign donations are barred from US campaigns," added the Christian Science Monitor.

"Rep. Michael Grimm's bizarre and scary rant against our Michael Scotto last night is not an isolated incident; it's part of a pattern in which the congressman has tried to avoid questions from NY1 about an ongoing probe into his campaign finances – and then become enraged when we've dared to ask him about a legitimate story," NY1 Political director Bob Hardt wrote and demanded an apology.

"I also asked Grimm about a 1999 night-club incident in which Grimm, who was an agent at the time, was accused by an off-duty N.Y.P.D. officer of threatening a fellow-patron ("I'll f**kin' make him disappear where nobody will find him," Grimm is alleged to have said), waving a gun at the officer ("I'm gonna f**kin' kill him"), and using racially charged language in the aftermath of the fracas ("All the white people get out of here")," recalled The New Yorker, in a piece titled "Is Michael Grimm Man Enough to Serve?"

"His resume sounded to good to be true. Grimm is a U.S. Marine who served in the first Gulf War, turned FBI agent (colleagues nicknamed him "Mikey Suits" for his sharp outfits) who went undercover to bring down a Mafia ring, turned small businessman. He is Catholic, but raised a boatload of money from people associated with a mystical rabbi who advised LeBron James and spent most of his time in Israel," chimed in the Daily Beast, while noting that Grimm has denied all wrongdoing.

And so it went all day for Rep. Grimm, who plans to seek his third term in Congress this year. Reportedly, Democrats believe his is most likely one of the Republican House seats they can win.

Less than 24 hours after his on-camera shark attack, Rep. Grimm started paddling in the other direction. He called Michael Scotto to apologize (Scotto accepted the apology) and he told other reporters that he hadn't been drinking (actually he said, "That's silly.").

The organization CREW, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, in 2013 listed Rep. Grimm among its thirteen Most Corrupt members of Congress. Rep. Grimm made the bipartisan list last year, too, and in 2011, his first year in Congress.

Before the apology, fellow Republican Rep. Peter King of New York (who is not on the 2013 Most Corrupt list), tried to minimize the incident, telling reporters: "I've fought with reporters myself; it's a contact sport. If you can't take it, get out…. It's different in New York… I think it's hurt him if he backs down."

---

William M. Boardman has over 40 years experience in theatre, radio, TV, print journalism, and non-fiction, including 20 years in the Vermont judiciary. He has received honors from Writers Guild of America, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Vermont Life magazine, and an Emmy Award nomination from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

5 from AZ join First Lady at SOU address

TOP: Cristian Avila, 23, met the Obamas last fall when he was fasting in Washington to try to force action on immigration reform. Avila, who was back this week to watch the State of the Union with the first lady, said the Obamas seemed “genuinely concerned” for the hunger strikers. (Cronkite News Service photo by Pei Li)
BOTTOM: Joe Hudy of Anthem, shown here at age 14, is a “maker” who first met President Obama in 2012 when he brought his Extreme Marshmallow Cannon to the White House for a science fair. Now 16, he has been invited back to watch the State of the Union with the first lady. (Photo courtesy Gregory Hayes)

By COLTON GAVIN Cronkite News Service

WASHINGTON – When she got a call Friday inviting her to come to the White House and meet with first lady Michelle Obama, Gilbert resident Amanda Shelley “thought I was being pranked by my friends.” 

But the call was for real and Shelley was one of five Arizona residents scheduled to sit with the first lady in the Capitol Tuesday evening to watch President Barack Obama deliver his sixth State of the Union address.

The five Arizonans made up a disproportionate share of the 24 Americans invited to join Mrs. Obama because they “exemplify the themes and ideals laid out in the State of the Union,” according to the White House announcement of the guest list.

The Arizona residents included a wounded soldier and his dad from Phoenix, an inventive high school student from Anthem, a Phoenix resident who went on a hunger strike to push for immigration reform and Shelley, a physician’s assistant who was able to get health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.

They were joined by a group that ranged from business executives to elected officials, teachers to firefighters, survivors of the Boston Marathon bombing to one of the first openly gay players in the National Basketball Association.

Inviting special guests to the State of the Union is a tradition going back to the administration of President Ronald Reagan, said Towson University political science professor Richard Vatz in an emailed statement.

“It is invariably to make a political point and to make certain issues and perspectives salient to the viewing audience,” Vatz said.

While it’s traditional for first ladies to invite such issue-related guests, it it not typical to see “five different families or five different individuals from one state being invited,” said Dave Wakeman, principal of the Wakeman Consulting Group.
He agreed that guests are in the gallery to “put real names and faces” to issues that will be highlighted.

“Since there are five Arizonans invited, that leads me to believe that President Obama is going to … push one of two issues: comprehensive immigration reform and/or the successes that the Affordable Care Act has begun having on Arizona families,” Wakeman said in an email.

Those topics are important to at least two of the Arizona guests.

Cristian Avila, for example, was on a hunger strike on the National Mall with a group of immigration reform advocates when they were visited by the Obamas in November.
“The first lady and the president were genuinely concerned for us,” Avila said Tuesday in Washington. “It was like they weren’t just our president and first lady, it was like they were our father and mother.”

The Phoenix resident, who ended his fast after three weeks, said he’s still getting over a cold he caught during the fast. But he was “honored to be one piece of something much greater” and said he looked forward to Obama giving the issue of immigration reform “more of a face from his speech.”

Shelley is a success story about the Affordable Care Act, which didn’t have many successes in its early going last year. She said a pre-existing medical condition had made it difficult for her to get health insurance but, after some struggles with the healthcare marketplace website, she was finally able to enroll and get coverage on Jan. 1.

Within days, that coverage was put to the test.

“I started having stomach pains on the third” of January, said Shelley, who usually avoided medical treatment because she lacked coverage. Worried that her health care enrollment might not have been successful, she called “just to make sure I was covered” and was assured that she was.

Shelley wound up in the emergency room the next day and was undergoing surgery two days after that. When National Public Radio did a brief interview with her, it got the attention of the White House, which called her Friday.

She was invited to tour the White House, attend a reception with Mrs. Obama and, finally, sit in the first lady’s box for the president’s speech to Congress Tuesday, when Shelley said she hopes to the rollout of the Affordable Care Act will continue to be trumpeted.

“I was frustrated in the beginning. But I was patient and tried again,” Shelley said of her experience. “Everyone who had a hard time needs to try it again. It’s worth it.”

The first lady requests the honor…

Five Arizona residents were among 24 Americans who were invited to sit in first lady Michelle Obama’s box for the State of the Union address. The White House identifed them as:

- Joey Hudy, Anthem, high school inventor and self-described “maker”
- Cristian Avila, Phoenix, immigration advocate and voter engagement coordinator
- Amanda Shelley, Gilbert, physician assistant and Obamacare enrollee
- Cory Remsburg, an Army Ranger who was wounded in Afghanistan, and his father and caretaker, Craig Remsburg, a businessman, both of Phoenix

In Defense of Pete Seeger, American Communist

Pete Seeger sings with fellow activists at a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) rally in Greenwood, Mississippi, 1963. (photo: Adger Cowans/Getty Images)

By Bhaskar Sunkara, Al Jazeera America

29 January 14
readersupportednews.org

Like his party associates, Seeger was

consistently on the right side of history

hen the legendary folk singer Pete Seeger died Monday at the age of 94, remembrances of him, unsurprisingly, focused less on his music than on his social activism. All the better - Seeger, the epitome of tireless commitment to "the cause," would have liked it that way.

Some comments were laudatory, praising every aspect of his advocacy. But most of them struck the balanced tone of The Washington Post's Dylan Matthews, who tweeted: "I love and will miss Pete Seeger but let's not gloss over that fact that he was an actual Stalinist."

Such attempts at balance miss the mark. It's not that Seeger did a lot of good despite his longtime ties to the Communist Party; he did a lot of good because he was a Communist.

This point is not to apologize for the moral and social catastrophe that was state socialism in the 20th century, but rather to draw a distinction between the role of Communists when in power and when in opposition. A young worker in the Bronx passing out copies of the Daily Worker in 1938 shouldn't be conflated with the nomenklatura that oversaw labor camps an ocean away.

As counterintuitive as it may sound, time after time American Communists such as Seeger were on the right side of history - and through their leadership, they encouraged others to join them there.

Communists ran brutal police states in the Eastern bloc, but in Asia and Africa they found themselves at the helm of anti-colonial struggles, and in the United States radicals represented the earliest and more fervent supporters of civil rights and other fights for social emancipation. In the 1930s, Communist Party members led a militant anti-racist movement among Alabama sharecroppers that called for voting rights, equal wages for women and land for landless farmers. Prominent and unabashedly Stalinist figures such as Mike Gold, Richard Wright and Granville Hicks pushed Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal to be more inclusive and led the mass unionization drives of the era. These individuals, bound together by membership in an organization most ordinary Americans came to fear and despise, played an outsize and largely positive role in American politics and culture. Seeger was one of the last surviving links to this great legacy.

"Stateside Communists were the underdogs, fighting the establishment for justice - the victims of censorship and police repression, not its perpetrators."

American communism was different during those years. It wasn't gray, bureaucratic and rigid, as it was in the U.S.S.R., but creative and dynamic. Irving Howe thought it was a put-on, a "brilliant masquerade" that fought for the right causes but in a deceptive, opportunistic way. But there was an undeniable charm to the Communist Party - an organization that hosted youth dances and socials, as well as militant rallies - that first attracted Seeger. One need only reread the old transcripts from his 1955 run-in with the House Un-American Activities Committee to see the difference between the stodginess of the interrogators and the crackling wit of the young firebrand.

Stateside Communists were the underdogs, fighting the establishment for justice - the victims of censorship and police repression, not its perpetrators.

Seeger, like other party members, came to regret the illusions he held about the Soviet Union. He apologized for thinking that "Stalin was simply a 'hard-driver' and not a supremely cruel misleader." But he never abandoned his commitment to organized radical politics. Along with Angela Davis and other prominent former Communist Party members, he helped form the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism, a democratic socialist group, in 1991.

Remarking on Seeger, Bruce Springsteen once said that "he'd be a living archive of America's music and conscience, a testament to the power of song and culture to nudge history along, to push American events towards more humane and justified ends."

In stark contrast to the role played by state socialists abroad, that's a good way to describe the legacy of the Communist Party at home, a legacy Seeger never recanted.